Warning: The following explanation of The Adventure Zone: Steeplechase’s finale contains spoilers for the McElroy family’s TTRPG podcast.
Steeplechase, one of The Adventure Zone’s longest-running tabletop role-playing narratives since the podcast’s inaugural Balance campaign, just concluded its final heist. Here’s how the theme park con men wrapped their Blades in the Dark adventure.
How the Adventure Zone: Steeplechase Ended
Steeplechase, a Disney-esque immersive theme park run by the Denton family, served as the setting for Justin McElroy’s first full-fledged campaign as Game Master for The Adventure Zone, and the park’s future was determined by players in the show’s final installment. The episodes leading up to the finale saw Poppy’s Place arcade employees Montrose Pretty, Emerich Dreadway, and Beef Punchley journey across the ruins of Kidadelphia, a forgotten layer of the park where they were dumped by Kenchal Denton. In their attempt to discover a way out of Old Kidadelphia, the party met the hardlight recreation of Dentonic founder Carmine Denton, who planned on launching a rocket named Bob Davis into the theme park.
Each member of the show’s central heist crew employed their specific strength to resolve this complex situation. Clint McElroy’s godfather of hardlight – an element of Steeplechase‘s worldbuilding that blended elements of magic and artificial intelligence – Emmerich Dreadway utilized his hardlight clone Emeril to tap into Nanofather Carmine Denton’s grid and lead a computational revolution. Montrose Pretty, a masked con artist played by Griffin McElroy, finally revealed his true face and maximized the moment’s impact by manipulating Kenchal Denton into believing he was his long-lost father. And, naturally, Travis McElroy’s Beef Punchley proved true to his name by fighting his way through the armies of Old Kidadelphia with help from allies like the metimals.
The metimals were far from the only allies who aided the Ustaben coworkers in their final con against Steeplechase’s Denton family. Nearly every nonplayer character showed up for The Adventure Zone’s final face-off including Deep Dark, Darla Davis and Shoebox (the Shitbird formerly known as Schlabethany). After Montrose, Emerich, Beef and their friends successfully distracted both Kenchal and Carmine Denton from their competing endeavors, room was left in the Dentonic power vacuum for the trio to regain some control of the park and begin enacting long desired changes.
Chrystal with a K’s Final Steepie Watch Wrapped a Narrative Bow on the Show
The meta-commentary of Steepie Watch served as a central part of Steeplechase‘s unique charm and worldbuilding. However, the Autumn Seavey Hicks voiced influencer fell derelict in her recap duties as the show entered its final arc, as she too began to suffer from the underlying greed and control of Dentonic. Thanks to the efforts of the Poppy’s Place employees to thwart the Dentons, Chrystal was able to return to Steepie Watch just in time to wrap up the campaign’s finale threads.
In her closing narration, Chrystal discussed some of the changes at Steeplechase including Evelyn Denton’s ousting as the CEO of Dentonic, the restoration of The Future is You, and the clearing of Old Kidadelphia to create a layer called Prismatica, where the newly freed hardlight constructs can experience to park as guests. Chrystal herself dropped a bit of her put-upon cheery demeanor in lieu of a more honest approach to hosting Steepie Watch, even revealing her name’s actually spelled with a “Ch” despite her moniker.
If you’re looking for more, check out our explanation of every Worlds Beyond Number player character.
