The Mysterious Detour of Mystery

We landed in the swamp and the mayor met us and pointed us in the direction of the train station. In the swamp we found a trail that led us between the channels of water. We crossed a quaint little footbridge and that's when we all saw orcas swimming in the swamp.

We needed to get on the train but the train couldn't leave until the puppy was moved off the tracks. Also to get on the train we had to tell a joke or something. Was it a riddle? Do you guys remember? No! It was a word! Each ticket was a word of a certain length.

By this time the lands around us were surrounded in a field of grain that seemed to roll like an open sea. At some points it wasn't just metaphorical and there was actual water flooding the fields. eventually the water around the train was deep enough that the orcas we'd spotted before were coming up alongside the train. I'm not sure if we saw it earlier, but I know that we saw the beluga at this point. The white whale had a clock face on its side.
Also we met a pirate who took a shining to Nick. His name was Smee and it was a one of the first signs of things to come. I know Nick got his book bite before anyone else. I think he got bit back when we were at the bus.

The orcas attacked the train and we had a fight with them to keep the train from being knocked off the rails. While Ryan and Will were punching and kicking them away, Gwen put my mp3 player and headphones in a ziploc then cranked the volume and submerged it. Dethklok's MURMAIDER messed up their SONAR and they weren't able to coordinate their ramming as much. After the fight we moved up to the town car.
Do you guys remember if the orcas had any sorts of markings?

So we made it off of the passenger car and onto what was labeled the Shipping car. Once inside the shipping car we found ourselves on the deck of a ship surrounded by sailors. They were in the middle of stacking some cargo up on the deck. After a short time a pirate ship pulled up alongside us and they cheerfully attacked the sailors. Nobody really got hurt. The pirates moved all the cargo onto their ship and we joined them as they sailed onward.
After a while we left that ship through a door in the forecastle.

The door led us to Towncar, where everything really made a change for the weird.
We made our way through Towncar slowly until we found the door out the other side. We decided that we had time to look around so we put some of our luggage by the exit. Well, I think actually I went over and checked the exit while some others went straight into the library. The library was dimly lit and the floor was thick with bookdust. Just after I came in the door a group of books swooped out of the shadows and attacked the group. I'm not sure about what everyone did on the inside but I ran.
I made it outside but the book that hunted me leapt up to the loft door and then flapped into the street after me. I grabbed my briefcase and bag and opened the door out of Towncar. I got outside, still dodging successfully, but then had to begin blocking with my briefcase. I tried to open the door to the sleeping car to escape but it didn't open until it was too late. The book sank its pages deep into my throat and then I fell backwards into the sleeping car and froze in time.
After surviving the attack and setting the library on fire (Ryan) the group found me and snuck me to a doctor. I woke up in the doctor's office with a huge bandage. We sat around there for the night and kept watch. In the morning we snuck out and left Towncar at the final stop?

Actually, I think at some point we had to climb over the top of a car.... I think we climbed over the sleeping car and we had tea with the March Hare and the Hatter on the roof. I just don't remember it clearly enough. After we climbed down there was one more passenger car to sit in until the station?
This is where I kind of hoped that the others would be able to help me with the details but nobody ever replies. It's like they don't think it's worth the bother and would rather just forget about it.
*sigh*

The last stop was at a small station on the side of a huge chasm.It was deeper than the Grand Canyon and we had no way of telling how wide. There at the cliff's edge was a dock, just yards away from the station. On that dock there was an airship that many of us recognized as the Ophelia, but really it was the Nautilus.
We boarded the ship and as the sun set that day, we began our flight over the chasm. About an hour into the voyage the crew prepare the ship for Captain Nemo's steam organ performance. It was wonderful organ music but the steam clouds began to totally surround the ship, to the point where there was no visibility at all. As a Silent Hill fan, this made me a little too nervouse so I went below deck to see if the portholes or the observation deck were outside the cloud. While I was down there, winged monkeys came out of nowhere and attacked us. It was a pretty brutal fight up on deck, but all I had to face was one trying to smash his way through the porthole at me. It's not like I was ripping their wings off and pitching them overboard like some people.

The airship landed at the docks on the island and we disembarked. The locals advised us to go to the castle by way of the clearly labeled gate. The gate that lead to the Queen's garden. NO THANK YOU TO THAT! So instead we struck out into the woods.
Deep in the Queen's forest we met the Rome Maths and got their clue. The Rome Maths love puns so naturally I was very popular with them. I ended up with a set of furry pants made completely of the little guys.
After we left the forest, we heard and then saw the caterpillar. As you can see by my drawing it was massive and burrowed through the earth in a sea-serpenty kind of way. Ryan and a couple others broke their way in and got smoked out by the little guy when they tried to hijack him.

After that we snuck around the island and took over the ferry. We tried to just sneak on but the Queen's men were far to official to go along with the story. I tried my best to keep the crew in line with some BS about us being ambassadors from the Oregon Territory with special diplomatic dispensation. It didn't help much but the free booze kept the passengers in line.

When the ferry got to the shore I got seperated from the group because we were attacked and I gave in to my dark passenger. The Queen's cavalry attacked us, I hid up a tree for the night. The cavalry were gorillas with baby heads riding flamingos. Everyone on the beach took the shape of their passengers as well and used them in battle. Ryan as Hyde actually chomped a few heads.

Later the group met up with me and we continued on towards the source of the flood, which until now had also lain near the path to the exit. We came to a river of tears and sat down to decide what to do. We agreed that before we left we should try and stop the flood. I'm a bit fuzzy on what happened after that bit. I know that we ended up back on the south shore of the lake to try and save the white whale, but I can't recall HOW. I think that while we were deciding Captain Nemo and the March Hare came and told us the whale was in trouble.

We dropped down into the stream where a dam had been built. The group started tearing apart the dam while I went down to take care of the whale. I think someone else was down there with me. Anyway, while they tore apart the dam they were attacked by the Tweedles.
Below is one of the Tweedles at rest.

If I can find scans of the other art from this event I'd like to link them to you, but you know how it is...
The drawings get made, shown at game, then placed in the secret vault of the artist where they are forever hidden from anyone else's eyes.

So after the fight I had pulled the vorpal sword from the clock face on the whale. I had not understood the puzzle when I started on it, the rest of the group had to yell the answers at me. That I take blame for, I get by on cleverness rather than intelligence. Sure I am smarter than average, but that's like a six. We've got 8s and 9s in the group. I think faster than I think hard. Anyway, I'm digressing on introspection.
That happens a lot when I think about this experience.

The ride back was rough, we had to meet the Queen. Against my will.

So when we finally got to where we were going. We entered the cave and followed the river of tears to its source. In a deep grotto beneath the hills, we found the room of a little girl at the bootom of a pond. In the room was a bed, and in the bed was THE ALICE. Crying the river of tears that was flooding Wunderland.

Since I had fought the hold of my passenger off the most I was labeled the Beamish Boy and was the only one able to wield the Vorpal Sword. However I went into the pond to rescue THE ALICE because I didn't have to breathe, since I was a vampire. We got her out of the water and met the mayor, then the jabberwock was called.

Here things can be a little open to interpretation.

We decided to take Alice away. The Mayor, revealed to truly be the Cheshire cat, finally went to far by whispering to the jabberwock when we had almost talked everyone down. If he had just kept his fangs together we wouldn't have had to fight them.
Despite being the Beamish Boy I couldn't do well in a fight without....giving in. I instead swept up THE ALICE and started running down the trail out of Wunderland.

Here is a map that is an over view of the crater, or at least the parts we travelled through. It's not precise because we don't know how far the train went. The measure of time inside of Towncar kept us from being able to judge the distance of the trip on the train. I'm sure eventually I'll do actual calculations based on the speed of steam trains, but right now the best I know is that Doc Brown couldn't get his train to go 88mph without super science.

P>

Still working on transcripts of the letters I've been sending/getting letters. However she's given me a bunch of information.

Here's a portion of one of our letters;
"We went to church when we
could, but it bit east in Beaver and after the car broked down, we
just couldn't get there as ofen cuz we didn't want to be caught in a
storm. Daddy'd read us the Bible by the coal lantern at night, though.
He said that it was a "good use of money," burning that coal. Lotsa
times we made do with candles Mama made. I liked the church, though.
It was nearly 50 years old, and tiny. I could hear the bell ringgin'
sometimes ifen it was real quiet."

I messed up on the church. I really failed bad, like I rolled a one when I first checked. Click the link below to see the chuch.
THE OLD CHURCH

As you can see by the signage, it matches up perfectly with it being 50 years old when she got there. Wikipedia Article is not very informative but it reinforces the information.
So after that I was able to finally locate the Six Mile Creek she wrote about earlier.
I liked laying out there, listing to the wind blow and sometimes the kiotes. Was a great pack of them that lived out near Six Mile creek. Sometimes you'd hear them hunting all night, a yapyappawwwwooooin' and such. Daddy said they was dangerous cuz they was hungry, but I never even saw one. They did get into the chickn house once, made a terrble mess of the chickns, but all they left behind were pawprints.

If you look at the Googlemap sattelite view you can tell that the creek actually does stretch further back, maybe not six miles but further than shown in terrain view. The really creepy thing to me is that all the roads around there are labeled "Hollow". As in, the New World of Darkness Changeling background. I mean that's a level of disturbing I was not expecting. I try not to read to much into the world but after an experience like this, how can you NOT?

So she's also been writing about the cat, which makes me think that Marion didn't just randomly fall into Wunderland. I think she was groomed for it. Curiouser and curiouser.
Now if I only could only remember to write her back about it.

Recently, child went missing in the area. Here is what I found.