Four players, four stations, four bodhisattvas. We finished opening all stations, though we didn't do the lengthy end-game part. The game ran until another event meant we had to leave the coffee house, and some great collaborative play went down.

Players: J.C., Alex, Ed and Clint
Bodhisattvas:

• The Cavalier, a tiger-mounted warrior flanked by his hounds of war (Fury the corgi and Grace the…border collie, if memory serves?), wore head-to-toe thorn mail and carried a sword engraved with the eternal laws.
  
• The Rosebearer, a looming bloom-draped grotesque with rose-thorn talons who could see wherever the flowers grew.
  
• The Mourner, a plague doctor who carried a stately dark wood cane and the stench of embalming fluid and whispered to protect others' ears.
  
• The Navigator, a one-handed seafarer who carried the storms of the high seas in a bag and commanded a phantom ship.
  

The stations:

• Einstein Station: The Mourner and the Rosebearer walked the flickering quiet of the corridors, following the path of an abducted child to uncover a tower of stolen voices turned demon. The Mourner found the kidnapped girl, setting the sunflower she carried in the sky as the new sun and singing the stolen voices down the road to the next world. The girl he rescued was awakened as the Songbird.
  
• Los Heroes Station: The Mourner and the Navigator investigated a station where the passengers ate folded-paper lotuses to forget their troubles. The Navigator uncovered the paper-and-ink bonds holding the passengers to the station and called down the storms to wash them away. He raised the ticket-taker to ascendancy as the Lamp Lighter.
  
• Del Sol Station: The Navigator and the Rosebearer explored a station where half the lovers wanted to leave the old world, while the rest aimed to stay. The Rosebearer played matchmaker and sent those who wanted to go on their way together. He raised the last lonely soul present as the new Dancer.
  
• Santa Rosa station: The Navigator and the Cavalier explored a station where passengers gorged themselves on meat from a grotesque vending machine who emerged, thundering, as a dragon of metal and plastic. The Cavalier raised a knight of the old times (found in the station's gift shop) to his post as the Butcher, and helped him defeat the menace.
  

Man, the Ascendants ARE jerks. The Navigator, at least, was totally down with just stopping a guy's heart to prove a point. It's good to be above petty temporal concerns like morality, I guess?

That was my first time playing Metrofinál, and it was definitely an intense experience; some day I'd like to do the full eight stations, eight players, with the end-game send off, but I also think the limited edition was weird enough to satisfy me for a while. Kudos to all involved for dialling up the weirdness consistently.

Other highlights worth mentioning:

• The Cavalier happened to find the giftshop by riding his steed into a guitar case filled with tears which reflected a giftshop which was otherwise inaccessible. Because why wouldn't you do that?
  
• The Mourner and the Rosebearer going back to back to fight off the voice-demons by, of course, singing. Accompanied by a dude on the saxophone and the future Songbird. The music was powerful enough to crush the demons into ooze.
  
• As the Navigator, walking through Los Heroes, accompanied by my crew. Following the string of fate as it took us into a cubicle farm, and just ordering them to destroy everything and commanding the workers to join me for the final confrontation. Hell yes.