Eric: Hello again, young ones. What can I tell you tonight? Oh… Hm. You want this part of the story? Tonight? It’s quite hefty. Ok, ok, ok, I hear you. Let’s start now or dawn will creep in through the windows before the story is done.

For a moment, everything is peaceful in Fidapolis. Until a motorcycle gang, lead by Greg’s best friend Bridge, rides to the front of Kiko Castle with disturbing news. Bridge swears that Chronopolis is messed up - the city used to have perfect weather, but now it’s all over the place. Well, where did that beautiful weather come from? Turns out, they trapped a piece of Ze’ol, god of death and trickery, in a magic item, and now he’s messing around.

The team, with the Speaker in tow, rides back to Chronopolis with the motorcycle gang. On the way, the Book of Things to Come opens up, laying out 7 labors that the party will have to perform that Ze’ol says will fix the weather.

First, the party defeats the terrible Rose Hydra, a monstrous plant focused on mulching our friends. Next, they save the Running with the Cows festival by taking down a terrible hat factory poisoning a river. They Groom Mr. Pickles, which really was a glow up for a werelion named Vince, and also counted as Retrieving the Golden Wool. After that, the party attends the opera, where they defeat a chaotic spirit in an opera house while performing in an actual opera. Then they clean the HORSE Stables, where a dark secret looms beneath a frat house of centaurs. Finally, the party attempts to complete the Labyrinth of Dawnrise - an adventurer’s challenge run by a local magic college. But, as Johnny walks through the final door in the labyrinth, the Undying Light asks him to restore balance in the world by giving up his existence on the mortal plane. Johnny accepts and Tracey and Inara are left alone in Ze’ol’s temple, wondering where the light man went.

But there’s no time to mourn because Ze’ol escapes his magical prison. These labors were just a distraction for the party as Ze'ol drew strength from the Speaker, attempting to switch places with her and condemn her spirit to live inside the Labyrinth Key. At his full power, he escapes leading Tracey and Inara on a chase through space and time, who finally wear the god out in the silent vacuum of space.

Once they defeat Ze'ol, Tracey and Inara persuade him to show both of them one minute of the past or future. Tracey asks to see what actually happened to Johnny and he looks on the conversation between the warlock and his patron. Inara asks to see the centering, and she watches the meeting of the first representatives sealing The Council of Bright away in an astral prison, then splitting the land into the concentric states.

Before Tracey and Inara leave, Ze’ol screens an extra movie: the Speaker’s unicorn attacking Alonzo back at the castle and the second-to-last star going out. Alonzo crackles with an infernal energy and disappears from Kiko Castle by stepping through a portal.

The party retreats to the Kiko Castle to see the damage Alonzo caused. On the beach that night, they gave Johnny a final sendoff.

Tracey and Inara catch up with the Speaker. She confirms their fears about the stars going out and the return of the Council of Bright. Before she can say too much, an explosion rocks the castle. Alonzo, furious and with a strange aura around him, attacks the party with magically tinged arrows and disappears through a portal to... somewhere. Inara and Tracey dive after him, fall through space, and end up in Infropolis, a city on the move!

They run into Kohl, who is in the city promoting a massive wrestling match she’s performing in at the local arena. Also, Kohl is a wrestler. Her nemesis, Gordon Lighthammer, sees Oatcake and declares that if he wins their match, he'll take Oatcake forever. Inara freaks out—the match can't happen. The party heads over to Creative, the people who control the outcome of the wrestling match, but instead of helping, they summon a twenty-foot-tall bulldog who chases them through the city. In the chaos, Kohl gets knocked out, and Inara and Tracey are saved by local bounty hunter Finale.

After a few drinks in the local bounty hunter speakeasy, Finale tells them about the Midnight Man, a shadowy figure with an unmistakable pompadour who appears around the city at midnight, looking for ancient artifacts. The team sets up a stakeout in the basement of a museum which holds artifacts from the Centering. The midnight man, aka Alonzo, appears, steals an ancient battery, and alludes capture.

On the way back to Finale’s apartment, Tracey is kidnapped by Franny, the local hag who is fascinated by the only warforged she’s seen in quite a while. Inara and Finale track down Franny to local electronics store Electro-Shack. Once everyone’s reunited, Franny teaches them about the source of power for electronics, robotics, and such - the undying light! Franny is also worried about the stars going out in the sky, since she knows how bad The Council of Bright used to be, so they strike a deal: Franny will shut down the power to the local arena to cancel the wrestling match if the party steals the Liar’s Mouthpiece, the magical artifact that Kohl had been using as a megaphone in her act.

Tracey and Inara sneak into Jersey Mike’s Arena and get into Kohl’s room. They steal the mouthpiece,but, of course, Kohl catches them and has a lot of questions. They quickly catch her up to speed when they bring her back to Franny’s lair.

Franny secures the Liar’s Mouthpiece and the Boots Aground and explains how powerful the artifacts are - they are the keys to locking away the Council of Bright, an autocrat who wrestled control of the realm a millennium ago. The first representatives sealed him away in an astral prison, and the medallion around Alonzo’s neck is opening it up, one star at a time.

The party lures Alonzo to an abandoned Jersey Mike’s arena with a massive barrel of Undying Light energy as bait. The Council of Bright, who is possessing Alonzo and using his body to move around, brings some enchanted metal titans to try to secure the energy, while Inara shot Alonzo with anti-magic goo. It forms a bubble around Alonzo, and the Council of Bright is forced out of Alonzo’s body, showing up as an energy double next to the prince.

The party rolls the bubble through doov and boosters to the capital city Concentra, where the representatives will vote on whether to get Alonzo out of the anti-magic bubble or have him remain there forever. Rep Kiko - Alonzo’s dad of Fidapolis, Rep Nectaria Greg’s dad (with Greg) of Cronopolis, Rep Brink of Tortipolis, Rep Shields of Antipolis, and Rep Dore of Infropolis vote, but it’s a tie. Rep Brink demands to sleep on the decision, so it ends in a stalemate.

That night, Tracey dreams of a utopia where his friends and warforged live together, and the CoB talks directly into his head.

The next day, the party finds Harriet the archivist and her paperweight which contains a shard of the spirit of the god D’var. The D’var paperweight urges Harriet to help out the party and tell them about an enchanted hammer which could break the medallion for good. They secure the hammer and bust into the final vote for a last chance at swaying the representatives. The votes are cast in favor of popping the bubble, consequences be damned.

As everyone prepares, Tracey hears the CoB in the back of his head. The CoB commands him to tackle Inara and set him free, and Tracey willingly allows himself to be controlled. The plan falls apart as he rushes Inara, but the CoB pulls the last star from the sky, unleashing him from the astral prison. The CoB, in his full form, destroys the capital building and summons an army of warforged to march out of the sky.

Oh, I didn’t realize how late it was. For now, my defenders of the realm, we’ll pause our story here. We’ll see how our party fairs against the rise of ultimate power.