breaking into Gardner's office. Wolf kills the prefects in Gardner's office but is shot to death by Sonny, who then bleeds to death from his wounds. Jack comforts the dying Wolf before moving on. Jack finds Morgan Sloat's son Richard at a boarding school in Illinois. Jack attempts to persuade Richard of his adventures and Morgan's plan but is unsuccessful. After the school is transformed into a grotesque version of itself and the students turn into werewolves and attempt to goad Richard into throwing out Jack, the two escape and flip into the Territories. There they meet a man named Anders who is sending a shipment of weapons to Morgan's soldiers for a final stand against Jack. Richard, now believing he has a tumor and is hallucinating, is actually suffering from a sickness given to him by Morgan. Jack decided to take the shipment himself and plan an ambush. They travel via train through the Blasted Lands, a hellish landscape full of fireballs, mutated creatures, and smugglers. Jack and a sickly Richard bombard the army base, destroying most of Morgan's armada and killing Elroy and Osmond's son. Jack flips into California, where Richard finally admits to the Territories' existence. They arrive at Point Venuti and sneak into the Agincourt Hotel (the twinner of the Alhambra Inn) undetected by the remaining werewolves. They meet Speedy Parker on the beachfront, who is weak and dying. Inside the Black Castle, Jack battles stone suits of armor defending the Talisman and takes it, triggering an earthquake and disbanding the rest of the werewolves who allied with Morgan Sloat. Jack realizes there are multiple worlds beside the two he is familiar with and the Talisman is the axis of all of them. He heals Richard with the Talisman, kills Gardner on the castle steps and faces off with Morgan on the beach. Eventually he manages to kill Sloat, heals Speedy and returns to New Hampshire in a limousine. Jack reunites with Lily and uses the Talisman a final time to save his mother and the Queen. Publication history The idea of writing The Talisman first took form when Stephen King moved with his family to London in early 1977. It was there he met Peter and Susan Straub, and their children. The two writers became friends, both being fans of each other's work. King and his family left London three months later to return to