Hall of Heroes

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* Synopsis

## Hall of Heroes

* YouTube
* Dropout

Kugrash rights an old wrong. Ricky meets his heroes. Pete flexes his strength.

Kugrash rights an old wrong. Ricky meets his heroes. Pete flexes his strength.

### Overall

3
15
40

### Air date

15 Oct 2019 (Dropout)11 Dec 2020 (YouTube)

### Runtime

1:58:40

TRANSCRIPT

## Credits

### Executive Producers

**Sam Reich**David Cyr Kearns

Brennan Lee Mulligan

Melissa Balan (Co-)

Micheal Schaubach (Co-)

## Episode Guide

### Next

Showdown at the
Stock Exchange
Times
Squaremageddon

**Hall of Heroes** is the fifteenth episode of season 3, The Unsleeping City.

## Recap

"*Welcome, one and all, to another exciting episode of The Unsleeping City. Last we left off our intrepid heroes, we're on the floor of the New York City Stock Exchange, many of them having been gravely injuredby the foul, necromantic powers of vampires, and the lich Robert Moses. Some of our heroes have indeed had their hit point maximum drastically reduced, they are battered, bloody, bruised, and beaten, having spent many spells and much blood and some treasure, including the Holy Grail Detergent, fighting the forces of evil in the New York Stock Exchange. Robert Moses was destroyed, but his spirit fled out of the New York Stock Exchange across the city, Pete summoned Alejandro, who looks frightened and scared and desperate, and you guys are now on the dais, having looked up in The Big Book of Bits and Bobbins, all that has to do with the time stone, you also have Santa's List here.*

After a lot of musing about who is on which parts of Santa's List, Ricky and Kugrash do a round of healing. It is nine o'clock and Bob Moses' plan happens at midnight. Ominous thunder rolls. Ricky wants to go to Yankee Stadium to follow up on a vision he had recently; Rowan wants to recruit all their friends to help them; while Sofia suggests they spend the next few hours recovering in a nice hotel room. At this point, Pete gets a vision of the Sixth Borough in turmoil, and a visit from Nod who tells him that villainy is still being enacted - at the Gramercy Occult Society, and on one of Kugrash's sons. Snapping out of the vision, Pete tells the group, who ask Alejandro to scry which son. He sees that David Kugrich's front door has been kicked in. Sofia tries to phone Jackson Wei for help, which goes unanswered, but they realise that his phone is *at* the Gramercy Occult Society. The group splits, with Kugrich going to David, Rowan taking a cab to Grand Central Station going to recruit the fairies, Pete electing to track down Robert Moses' lair, and everyone else racing to the Gramercy Occult Society in Ricky's new Maserati.

Stormclouds gather over Grand Central Station, as Rowan's cab arrives and she rushes to the Whispering Corridor to commands the Clock Gnomes to assemble the fae of the city for a war council. It looks as though she will fail to convince them to mingle with the tourists in Times Square, but then another vision shows that Robert Moses' vampires are massing in the Financial District to march on Times Square and support their master. At the prospect of killing vampires, the fairies rally, charging out of the train station and marching south. Before they go, Rowan receives a silver brick - the smelted but unformed crown of the Fairy Realm of New York.

Stormclouds gather over the New York Library as the heroes arrive. Dead monks and deader vampires litter the steps, along with the remains of Rovias, the stone lion. Ricky hugs the grieving Orlando, who tells them there was an attack, that most of the fighting happened here, but that some vampires in mist form snuck past. Frightened, the heroes run in, to be told by monks that the vampires went for the Umbral Engine. In the Chamber of the Umbral Engine, the group finds Esther soothing an unconscious Jackson. Ricky and Kingston try to heal them, while Alejandro takes stock. Jackson will recover, but will be unable to fight tonight. The vampires did something to the Umbral Engine, meaning that for tonight, magic can be visible in New York. Ricky and Esther leave for Yankee stadium to check the vision, while Sofia fills Jackson in - how Bob Moses' spell created a lock in Nod to open the Golden Door, how he will use a time stone to harness the power of the New Years Ball Drop, fuel to open the Golden Door, to summon the American Dream, to make it a thing he can control. To remake Manhattan into his arcane stronghold. Jackson sighs, saying Dale predicted all this. How he researched the scrolls, and said that the monks should work with the dream world, not hold it out. But, that in the hour of greatest need, a chosen one would go to the pinnacle and receive the insight to hold back the dream realm. Sofia asks where the pinnacle is, and Jackson tells her - the Empire State Building. Musing, Sofia heads out, promising to buy smoothies for the gang, but immediately diverts to the Empire State Building.

Stormclouds gather over the the Financial District, where Pete uses the business card to find Bob Moses' firm, and casts an illusion to make the vampire guards buzz him in. The door of the office has a magical ward. While Pete settles in to study it, the view switches to Kugrash, who is rushing to Forest Hills as a very filthy eagle. Seeing his family outside, Kugrash flies into the house past the cops, to see David unconscious in a chair, with vampire bites on his neck... and to see the work computer, on which David was sending an email to Kugrash when he was attacked. The email is data on Bob Moses... including photos of the opening of the office, of a group of men sharing a private joke about the word "rosebud". Musing at this, Kugrash takes some of David hair (in case he needs to do a ritual to resurrect his son in a few days) and a box of letters, and then leaves the house. Getting Wally's attention outside, he convinces Wally to take David's wife and children to Denny's, to be in a public space and maybe have some happiness. He gives him some Spanish doubloons he found in a trashcan. He then goes back to David, healing him, and then sneaking in to talk more in the bathroom. Kugrash realises that David is a neophyte vampire, and David says that he researched Bob Moses... and Kugrash. He found the stories of the mystery rat-man who feeds the homeless. And while he may never forgive his father, his father is trying to do good, and that is worth respect.

At this, the two men start crying, and Kugrash is forced to explain that David is turning into a vampire. Offhand, David mentions that "Citizen Kane" was big the year Bob Moses opened his office, which makes Kugrash text Pete the word "rosebud". Pete applies that word to the arcane lock and gets in. At a loss in this office, Pete finds a fancy box which until recently, contained the rune-marked phylactery of Bob Moses. Pete sends photos of rune imprints to the group and to Alejandro, who promises to research the runes, to find the incantation that can destroy the phylactery. In between bites of waffle, Alejandro tells Kingston that the Vox Populi advocates for the people of New York City, but the one person Kingston has never advocated for is himself. Stung by this, Kingston leaves to go see Liz Herrera.

Stormclouds gather over Yankee Stadium, as Ricky & Esther arrive to find the doors mysteriously open, and the ghost of Babe Ruth comes out to greet them, holding a Questing Blade in the shape of a baseball bat. Asking Esther to remain in the car, Babe takes Ricky into the stadium, and explains to him that alongside the power of dreams and magic, there is power in action done from decency, and that while New York has a reputation as a rude city, so too had Camelot and Ur before it, defended by earnest folks with Questing Blades, and that when they fell, the world was less. At a signal from Babe Ruth, other Questing Blade holders, some living, some dead, emerge from the mist, and they play a game of catch which blesses Ricky's Questing Blade for the fight ahead. Feeling humbled by this, Ricky salutes them, and goes back to the car to drive with Esther back to the Gramercy Occult Society.

As Pete tries to reduce the crowd at Times Square by advertising fake parties in other parts of the city, Sofia arrives at the Empire State Building and climbs the outside of the building, to the Observation Deck. Here, to the silence and the gathering stormclouds, she give an impassioned speech, that she needs the power of the chosen, just for tonight. But no choosers emerge. This makes Sofia go further, to the very top of the antenna spire of the building, and speak again. The resulting silence makes her stubbornness set like concrete, and she meditates at the top of the antenna. About the people who come to New York to work for a hope, and yet spend years in dreary struggle, waiting to be picked. And about what her late husband Dale fought his way out of Heaven to tell her, that there *is* someone at the top of the tower. In a sudden flash of insight, Sofia realises that at this high place, in the middle of this city where hopes survive harsh realities through ego and exerted will, that *she* is at the top of the tower, and that she can choose *herself*. Something unlocks in the mind of Sofia Lee, and she decides to run to Times Square to be ready for the battle.

Stormclouds gather over St Owens Hospital, as Kingston Brown arrives to visit Liz Herrera. Emiko Matsui, the on-duty doctor, leads him to the door and gives him the room. Kingston brings Liz up to speed, and as he talks, and Liz talks, he realises that Liz loved him because Kingston would have moved Heaven and Earth for her... and she left because she realised Kingston would have done that for anyone. Knowing that Kingston was a hero made his works for her less special, and she left rather than hate him for it. The two unfold their regrets, and Kingston vows that, if he is alive tomorrow, he will dedicate the rest of his life to building a love with Liz Herrera. Leaving the hospital, he pauses in his neighborhood to kiss his parents goodbye, to get a cup of instant coffee from the corner shop, and to catch the bus to Time Square.

As Rowan takes a train to Times Square, she texts every famous actor who Misty Moore knew, asking them to assemble in Times Square to defend the city. Across the city, the various heroes are sending similar messages, to friends and family and allies. Kingston and Kugrash reassemble at the Gramercy Occult Society, to walk with Ricky, Alejandro, and Esther. As Esther is checking the Maserati for potential magical power, Kugrash, on a whim, asks her to check his magic crown. Esther does... and discovers that that it has powerful curse-breaking potential. Esther asks to use it and the Maserati for a personal mission, and she and Kugrash drive at full speed to Tompkins Square Park. On the drive over, the fullness of the story comes out over group text and conversation - how the women of Esther's family are the center of a curse, how Kugrash betrayed Esther's mother back in the 80s, how she cursed him with his rat form and thus succumbed to her family's own curse, how this scarred Esther's life...

As the Maserati arrives in Tompkins Square Park and Esther's cursed mother looms out of the shadows and Esther herself is so overcome by emotion that she begins to succumb to the curse herself, Kugrash makes a rash decision, and uses the crown to erase the curse on the family, burning out that function of the crown in the process. As this family of women revert to normalcy, and gather to help Esther fully process her emotions, they tell Kugrash that they will help from here with the final battle, but that for now, he must return to the fray alone.

Stormclouds have gathered over Times Square, as Pete summons flyers; as Rowan emerges from the subway station; as Sofia somersaults off a nearby roof; as Kingston, Ricky and Alejandro walk in; as Kugrash pulls up in the Maserati. As the band plays "Auld Lang Syne".

As the countdown reaches zero.

As the Time Stone breaks.

As a fractal space engulfs Times Square, holding the heroes and the Golden Door in a moment that will damn or save the world...

## Locations

* Yankee Stadium
* Empire State Building

## Featured Characters

### The Dream Team

* Kingston Brown
* Kugrash
* Misty Moore
* Pete the Plug
* Ricky Matsui
* Sofia Bicicleta

### Returning

* Nod
* Alejandro Ortiz
* Bilbry
* Priapus
* Aquamarine
* Bobby Goodfellow
* Orlando and Rovias
* Esther Sinclair
* David Kugrich
* Wally Kugrich
* Emiko Matsui
* Liz Herrera
* Victoria Brown
* Winston Brown
* Cosmo
* Patricia and Gabriela Sinclair

### Mentioned

* Robert Moses
* Santa Claus
* Em
* Mario Bicicleta
* Anthony Bicicleta
* Ana and Amelia Ortiz
* Dale Lee
* The Johns
* La Gran Gata
* Stephen Sondheim
* Don Confetti
* Willy
* Lowell Masters
* Anderson Cooper (canonically fey)
* Bernadette Peters
* Audra McDonald
* Kathy Griffin
* Jackie Evancho