This story is all merely a fantasy created by the “Maker” after witnessing all of the horrors of the real world, and finally, after seeing his best friend gunned down by Nazis, retreats into his own mind.  He loses all contact with the outside, thus in Puppetland, the outside time does not progress at all.  The warring factions within him are the forces of good, the forces of evil (Nazis), the spirits of the dead, and of course God in many forms.  Even though he wants to make it a purely good place, his mind simply cannot shut out all of the evil it has seen.  This leads to Punch and the rest.  As a day progresses and things get worse, his defense mechanisms kick in and night falls, leading to a new day, where things can start fresh again.  Unfortunately, this fails to work as time goes on, thus every day becomes just a miniscule amount dimmer, as he himself is dead in the puppetland as well, having been killed by Punch and unable to do anything about it.

 

1.  Description of city, maker, and time period

A.  Maker’s hobby, joy giving, etc.

B.  Maker’s friend is killed

C.  Maker leaves reality by creating puppetland

2.  Story of Puppetland

A.  Maker transports all puppets to Puppetland where they can never be harmed by humans again

B.  Punch kills the maker

C.  Rise of Punch to power, his boys, and the Nutcrackers

D.  Oppression of puppets, slavery

3.  Explain Respite

A.  Reason for Judy’s leaving

B.  Puppets’ opinion towards Punch

4.  Real story begins

A.  Introduce good characters.  These characters represent the buried part of the Maker’s concience that wants and needs him to return to reality to face the problems at hand rather than hiding from them.  They are fighting to awaken him (to them this means using the tear) rather than actively taking part in the play destruction of Punch and forces.

a.  Old Jack Candle and The Great Rough And Tumble (main characters) are in a tavern

b.  Door bursts open and Nutcrackers throw Little Lucy Prying Eyes inside

c.  Vengance appears and accuses Lucy of spying and treason

i.  Sets her on fire

d.  Characters help little Lucy escape with the aid of Yassif Gold Heart (bear puppet)

i.  Defeat Nutcrackers and evade Vengance

ii.  Vengance allows characters to escape

e.  Lucy explains that Punch is going to send a spy to Respite to find out about the tear, and set up for an attack

B.  Characters decide to travel to Respite to warn, and save the tear from Punch

a.  Yassif leaves them to go back to town

b.  They meet the fisherman

c. He takes them across the lake where they run into the monster of the lake.

i.  Monster asks for a toll, but lets them by when they don’t have it (fisherman’s doing)

d. They ask what the toll is, fisherman can’t remember

i.  Tells them it’s been so long noone remembers

ii.  Assures them that Monster couldn’t chase them anyway, because it’s plugging a hole in the lake with its finger.

C.  Characters arrive in Respite

a.  They are not greeted warmly at first until they explain why they are there.

b.  They meet Billy Gruff Goat, the oldest puppet the maker ever made.

i.  Billy says that even though they have the tear, no one here knows how it works, the stories are just stories

ii.  He tells them that only one puppet might know, but he doesn’t even know if that puppet exists.

c.  They all decide to try and find the hanging puppet (he was last seen hanging on the wall, and Billy has only ever seen just the face since the rest wasn’t built)

d.  Enter the scientist puppets (Maximillian the Great and Arthur Whitecoat), aking just how they intend to get anywhere without help.  They go over the info

i.  Hanging puppet was last seen in the workshop, so they have to try and get there

ii.  No one has ever left Puppetland, so no one knows how to leave

iii.  He has an idea that the stars are not really stars, and shows them the “twinkling” through his telescope (actually caused by the puppets moving around upstairs)

iv.  Right before the lights go out for bed, the puppets realize that the light shining through the floor above them looks just like the stars

e.  They Need to build a hot air balloon to take them up to the “heavens”

i.  The only thing capable of filling the balloon with that much hot air is the monster of the lake

ii.  They build the balloon and get it filled by the monster who is more than willing to finally be of use to someone

D.  They begin the flight, taking the scientists, Lucy, and Billy with them.

a.  Using Jack’s candle, the keep the air inthe balloon hot

b.  They reach the “heavens” (really the basement ceiling) and find that there really are things moving around above the floor

c.  There is no way to cut through the boards

d.  The air current carries them all around the ceiling, to the vent by which the snow and cold air come in

E.  Having no other way to get through, they climb up the vent

a.  They follow a fork which takes them to the outside of the house

i.  Aside from a lot more snow and greater sizes than they’ve ever imagined, they see human beings seemingly frozen in time

ii.  They remember how awful it was when they weren’t in Puppetland

b.  They return to the fork and take the other way which leads into the main part of the house

c.  As they travel through the living area, they see an old man sitting in his chair (a representation of the Maker)

i.  None of the puppets can really name him, but he seems familiar

ii.  No one feels comfortable staying near him

d.  Arthur comes up with the theory that when the maker died, time for the outside world was frozen since that was when the days and seasons stopped inside puppetland

F.  They find the door to the workshop, but it is locked

a.  Lucy sees that the ringer on Billy’s bell is a key

b.  they use the key to open the door (The maker having given the key to Billy, the oldest and favorite puppet)

c.  Inside are the puppets who have been destroyed in Puppetland (These are now undead puppets so to speak.  They have been teleported here after their demise, and since there is no longer a maker to fix them and send them back, they are now stuck here.  However, since the lock on the door has been romoved, there is nothingkeeping the toys from returning to Puppetland.  Their stay is limited as they are still technically broken, and cannot make it through the night without being teleported back to the workshop.  The leader of the undead puppets (Simon the Magnusifent) has a plan to take control of puppetland after he uses his army to defeat Punch and bring back the maker, only then to lock him away to do whatever evil bidding Simon wishes.)

i.  All the broken toys thank the puppets profusely for saving them

ii.  They see Yassif Gold Heart and ask him how he got there.  He explains that he was caught and tortured to death by Punch repeatedly, and now he’s here.  He starts to warn them that something is going on…

iii.  But is interrupted as Simon finds his way to the puppets , thanking them

iv.  He has a plan for the demise of Punch and the re-animation of the maker

v.  With his army, there is no way that Punch cannot be defeated, then if they bring back the makeras a puppet, he will never die of age, and can fix any toy for the rest of time.

vi.  The characters say they’re not sure about that, they’ve just come to find the hanging puppet, but alas, there are no puppets hanging on the wall, and none among the group were

vii.  Simon introduces The Great Disputed (a lion puppet), or Grace for short, who has been in the workshop since th emaker died thus never getting fixed.  It says that the hanging puppet is a woodcutter, and that the maker put him in Puppetland

viii.  Simon says that the characters must be tired, and after some rest perhaps they can figure out a way to get everyone out of the workshop and into Puppetland.

G.  The next morningthe puppets awake in their beds in Respite and begintheir quest to seek out the hanging one.

a.  Story of the woodcutter and lights in the mountains coincide, so they journey there

H.  At the halfway point, they are surrounded by nutcrackers and trapped

a.  The fact that Lucy has been spying and reporting to Stealth every night is revealed to them by Spite, who shows up with Vengance

b.  They tell the puppets that everything they have fought for is now for naught, since Punch has now heard enough

i.  Respite will soon be raided by Haunt and Mayhem

ii.  the woodcutter will be found and disposed of

c.  The group tries to fight back, but don’t stand a chance

i.  Billy’s horns are broken, Rough is crumpled up in a ball, Jack’s cane, candle, and cloak are ripped away, and Arthur and Max are bound and gagged

ii.  They are taken to be burned at the stake

iii.  On the way they notice a rope ladder hanging in the distance (means of entry for the undead puppets)

d.  Punch gives bad guy monologue

I.  Just as the fires are about to be lit, the army of undead rushes in

a.  Great clouds of dust, fur, and paper cover the fray

b.  The puppets are freed by Yassif

c.  Simon rushes up to puppets with his paper axe

i.  Says they know too much and he’s going to kill them

d. Yassif steps in the way, telling the puppets to run

J.  The puppets run toward the mountains to find the woodcutter

a.  they go to where they saw lights and find a small cottage

i.  The woodcutter lives there with his puppets

ii.  They ask him what must be done with the tear, and he tells them that when the maker would create certain puppets, he would cry tears of joy at the happiness they would bring

iii.  When the maker created him, extra tears were put into his hands, giving him the gift to create puppets (he thinks maybe he was originally supposed to be a jack in the box or something

iv.  The last tear must contain the essence of the maker, and with the woodcutter’s life giving hands, they can bring him back

b.  It is decided that they must all go and try to defeat punch

i.  The woodcutter has created five special puppets of his own.  Reconcile, Rapture, Pity…(Jack is the sixth puppet, he just hasn’t realized his potential)

ii.  This is the fighting force that will hold Punch and his boys at bay since the undead army will be taking care of the nutcrackers

iii.  meanwhile the woodcutter can bring back the maker, and since the maker made puppets, he can destroy Punch