Episode 4 - "Boiling Point"
Previously on:
After finding Pelham in the Rose Leaf, the crew met the Tea King of Donlon, Mr. Percy Greenwood Tips. As they drink his tea, they became very compliant. Maureen refuses to drink. Mr. Tips pressures her by shooting Rover. The effects of the Tea: Cheeky, Carlos and Maureen are incapacitated and Pete back to factory settings. Luckily, John Nipples comes to their rescue. Before Pete could attack his friends, Carlos was able to use the magic of the Flow to override Mr. Tips’ control over Pete. Carlos uses more of his magic to detect where the Tea is: Sinkenton Park Palace. They hide in the servants' quarters of Sinkenton Park Palace, where Percy's auction of the Black Tea is taking place the following evening.
Summary:
Magpie arrives through the sewer window, singed and furious. Mr. Tips burned down the Thorough Market, including his caravan. The crew lay out a plan: steal the Tea before the auction begins, set the gathered factions against each other in the confusion, and use the chaos to destroy Mr. Tips and get Maureen in front of the Krag Twins.
They split for the night. Maureen takes a carriage to the West End. Carlos goes to the Mudlarks. Pete goes looking for weapons. Cheeky stays behind and leaves Pete a note for when he wakes: 'Betrayal tonight. Prepare to fight.’
Maureen reaches the Queenly Court. A vast underground circus space beneath the West End. She pleads her case to the Mercury, but she is unable to persuade him to join their cause. He throws her out. Before she leaves, Bronwyn and Caerdwen tell her: If she needs them, they will be there. For Chlorine.
Carlos meets Vulpin in the Cistern Chapel and receives the Cillite Bombarda, a holy relic that purifies everything within five feet and destroys what it touches. It will destroy the Black Tea.
Pete, sent to find weapons, tries to break into a police armoury and is chased through the streets. He ends up in a 24-hour corner shop, buys two healing potions and some armour. returns to find everyone asleep. He folds into a cube and recharges.
Cheeky wakes before the others and decides to steal the tea himself. In broad daylight, he climbs the outside of Sinkenton Palace floor by floor, using John Nipples as a grappling hook, talking his way past curious workers, and barely avoiding detection when his hat blows through Mr. Tips open window. He reaches the glass roof of the auction hall, finds an unlocked hatch, and descends on a rope.
Mr. Tips walks in. He looks up at Cheeky spinning slowly on the rope and says: 'Wow. Brazen attempt.' He fires at the rope rather than at Cheeky. The rope ignites, snaps, and Cheeky hits the floor. He is captured again. John Nipples slips away.
Magpie returns from The Rose Leaf with Percy's research notes: the Black Tea will either kill whoever drinks it outright, or grant them a measure of godhood, depending on their strength of will. Imagine the Krags with this. It cannot be allowed to fall into anyone's hands. The crew regroups and hides in the sewers through the day.
That evening, Sinkenton Palace fills with all the gangs of Donlon. Street Genies, the Twilight Twins, Bigwhigs, and the Mobgoblins, and at the heart of the Mobgoblin group, the Krag Twins: one body, two heads, one crimson suit.
Pete pretends to be still under Mr. Tips’ spell and works the door and lets the crew in. Maureen sits next to Gordon. She excuses herself to the bathroom. Gordon follows. She starts her attempts to kill him there.
In the chaos of the bathroom commotion, Carlos throws the Cillite Bombarda at the tea cabinet. He misses. It hits Pete instead. Pete catches it and holds it to his face. The detonation burns away every controlling spell in his mind at once. His right arm becomes pure pulsating Flow-water. The cabinet shatters in the shockwave and the tea rolls out across the floor. Pete opens his face, puts the tea inside, and closes it. The room disappears.
In the void, the tea begins its test. Pete passes through it, almost. But in the end, he fails. The tea is too strong. He has 18 seconds left to live.
The room comes to a boiling point with everyone fighting the crew. Leaving Cheeky and Maureen deadly wounded.
Pete's body fails. The vortex tears open at his centre. Mr. Tips, standing directly in front of it, is instantly destroyed. Magpie tries to hide, but is pulled in. The Krag Twins plant their axe in the floor and drag themselves clear. Cheeky fires one last shot that knocks the weapon from their hands. The Krags disappear into the vortex. Cheeky and Maureen fall into the vortex together. She says she did it, Chlorine. She did it for her. Carlos runs for the exit, but the vortex is stronger.
The vortex swallows Sinkenton Palace. A storm breaks over Donlon. The war of Donlon begins.
Click here for the transcript