Episode description
And so the Blackwick Group went its ways: Marn north towards the Telluricists and Duvall to Aldomina; Lyke to a place where he could confront himself fully and Es to aid Dyre Ode and the boy Gasto in destroying the wards of Concentus. Hazard, never officially a member, nevertheless found themself picking up one of the group’s oldest threads, and bloodying the nose of a foe each would be happy to wound.
So what about Pickman? Well. Pickman stayed, of course. There was work to be done. And it would take her quarry leaving town to get her to do the same...
This week on Sangfielle: Six Travelers: Pickman
Contents
Opening
“
Ernestina Pickman, the Shape Knight. Of all the members of the Blackwick Group—yes, including Queen Virtue down Sapodilla way—there is none I wish could have been here in town more when they pulled this huge, uh, what do they call it? antenna out of the mines. “What's that?” she'd say, “Don't trust it.” Something like that. Y'all know how Pickman gets. But give it a few months, and I bet she'd come around. Hell, she might have even found her way into this very booth. That is the hard to understand thing about Pickman. Most people know danger well enough to recognize it. She knows danger well enough to respect it.”
Plot
As Austin and Jack draw their cards to begin the delve, Austin draws a Joker, prompting them to switch to playing A Visit to San Sibilia, a journaling game about visiting an impossible city.
Pickman tracks Maleister Price outside of Blackwick, only to find he has fled up a rope ladder, seemingly connected to nothing. The weight of her armour forces Pickman to remove it before giving chase and finding herself emerging from a well in the fabled city of Zevunzolia. Having lost Price and without any resources, she takes up shelter where she can find it, sleeping rough in the utopian city.
After her first week in Zevunzolia, reality shifts and Pickman wakes up in a house with her roommate Colette. While Pickman does not remember her, Colette has memories of meeting and befriending Pickman, even calling Pickman by her first name, “Ernestina”. She convinces Pickman to attend a queer gallery opening where Pickman interrogates Colette and various partygoers about Price, which Colette scolds her about once they return home. In her journal, Pickman sketches out the party.
Over the next two weeks, Colette and Pickman struggle to get along, but eventually fall into a comfortable routine, with Colette often helping Pickman navigate the particulars of Zevunzolia (like attending jury duty) and inviting Pickman out with her friends to the theatre (to mixed success). When picking up a book for Colette’s friend Jenny Pryce, Pickman crosses paths with Sheriff Price, and the two of them fight. The civil guard arrives, and Pickman spends the night in lockup. Six days later a letter arrives from Price, inviting Pickman to a duel during the Festival of Clasped Hands. She duels Price, and thanks to the Porcelain Heart, is able to kill him, but is badly wounded herself.
When Pickman returns home, Colette gets her a doctor. As Pickman recovers, she is plagued by feverish dreams of Sangfielle. A few days later, a letter arrives from Alekest. Pickman is relieved to hear from him, and he offers to try and help her get home if she can get word to him. Meanwhile, Colette takes her on a trip to the Zevunzolian countryside, where Pickman spots bird species she recognizes from Sangfielle.
Some days later, Pickman dreams of a time when she was young and had angered the train. It trapped her in the coupling of the carriages, filling the adjacent car with Gandies while the other prisoners of the train tried to help her. Three days later, a funicular railway opens in Zevunzolia. Pickman investigates and finds that it’s not a Sangfielle train. Unnerved, Pickman draws The Shape on it and brings it to life.
Pickman finds a telescope with the name of a Sangfielle manufacturer that lets her look down and see her version of Sangfielle. From above she is able to see the broken wall of Concentus, with people streaming in and out of Sangfielle. She can also see the full form of The Shape across all of Sangfielle for the first time, and has a strong reaction to it. A few days later Colette invites Pickman to another gallery show, which this time features the woman from the Carnival of Moted Light, who duplicates members of the audience, and then herself.
After 55 days in Zevunzolia, Pickman meets the Visitor by chance when Colette brings her out to a bar. The Visitor realizes that Pickman is from Sangfielle, and offers to help take her home. Pickman says her goodbyes to Colette and thanks her for her hospitality, promising to write. She follows the Visitor’s instructions and wakes up in Sangfielle, miles away from Blackwick in the middle of a field.
Pickman leaves a letter for Colette in Zevunzolia -- where Austin notes there is now a second funicular, though no one built it. Pickman herself has been changed by her visit, her mind opened to new forms of expression that she had never previously considered.