Changes

== Synopsis ==

This act has a diverging and reconverging storyline, and it is impossible to see all locations in one playthrough, e.g. Shannon either goes to the Rum Colony (off-boat choice) ''or'' watches the VHS tapes (on-boat choice), but not both. Read through the synopsis below linearly, or select your choices from the links at the bottom of sections to navigate through the story mirroring choices present in-game.

=== Sailing down the Echo ===

Will soliloquizes about stories of the Echo and events he's experienced firsthand, from the barn owl migration to the flooding of the train station to seeing the ghost of [[Stephen Bishop]] making moonshine on a raft.

Will narrates the scene:

:''See that small, brick building? It used to be an upholstery shop. Now it's inhabited by a very skilled taxidermist, whose art is greatly in demand. The old shop's name has been lost to time and weather […] and the only trace of it now is the grayed frame of an old sign behind the new lettering.''

[[File:Mucky Mammoth cabin draft.jpg|thumb|right|''CATE: The nice thing about the story cliff is you can start reading anywhere you want. There's no ''beginning'' or ''end'', just a bunch of ''middle''.'']]

=== The Mucky Mammoth ===

:''That gas station isn't anchored to anything; it follows the current. We might run into it anywhere along the river. Cate just starts looking for it when she's low on fuel, and the Echo provides. […] They came back aboard, ''Mammoth'' refueled, and we ambled on toward The Rum Colony.''

=== The Rum Colony ===

=== Sailing down the Echo ===

As the boat weighs anchor, Will narrates stories of places they pass on the river, such as a lot of small houses beneath a sunflower orchard; originally built by two sisters, the residences are now only populated only by moths. He recounts hearing about what happened at the bar, including Conway's drinking, stories of the dark corners of the beach from Ezra, or Junebug feeling at ease about missing her appointment.

[[File:Phone 2.png|thumb|right|''NADIA: Maybe you know him better than I do, but ... I just don't believe anyone would really want to die alone.'']]

The phone rings and Shannon answers. [[James B. Carrington|Carrington]], if encountered in [[Act I]], is [[Wrongle|seen at a payphone]], carrying his signature pair of antlers, as a neon sign reading "Hard Times" illuminates the brick wall behind him. He says that he was trying to call a friend who is a lighting designer in Chicago, but believes the storm is affecting the phone lines. He asks Shannon for her help with his upcoming [[Death of the Hired Man|play]], which will be held at dawn in the location provided in [[Act II]]. Besides the fact the cast and stage crew are all delayed by the bad weather, he needs help on deciding how to show the image of the moon in the performance, as light is a central theme in [[wikipedia:Robert Frost|Frost]]'s original poem on which the play is based. Shannon suggests a solution – either a photo of the moon, an actor in costume, or telling the audience to close their eyes and imagine it – and he thanks her and says he hopes they will be able to make it to the premiere.

=== Sailing down the Echo ===

:''That right there is Ratliff Monuments, if you ever need a headstone carved ... for a loved one, I mean. The "showcase," a mock cemetery out front, was mostly washed away. […] If a few stray stones ended up at the bottom of Lake Lethe, too, we'll never know.''

=== The Radvansky Center ===

:''Everybody thinks they're ''inside'', just because they can't see the sky — but it's a ''microclimate'' down here, and it surely does rain. […] In my life's work as the Echo River's premier anecdotalist, I've always found that a carefully excerpted moment is more powerful than any epic history.

=== A grove ===

:''It's man-made, and the rocks weren't placed according to their size, so what's visible is a more or less uniformly random selection of the overall shape. It looks like it might be a spiral, all told, or maybe some kind of meditative labyrinth. At the head of it is a petrified oak stump. That was moved here from above ground, of course, decades ago.''

=== The Mucky Mammoth ===