by Emily Maesar, Associate TV Editor

Fantasy High: Junior Year
Episode 2 “Summer Breakdown”
With Brennan Lee Mulligan, Emily Axford, Zac Oyama, Siobhan Thompson, Lou Wilson, Ally Beardsley, and Brian Murphy
Streaming now on Dropout.tv

“We learned how to play the game in these last five and a half years.” - Siobhan Thompson

The name of the game during this opening fight, which has spilled into the second episode of the season, is to capture the Night Yorb. More specifically, to use the lasso on top of the Hangvan to bring it close enough to the sigil that it can be bound. The adventuring party must get the Night Yorb to the bloodied status (aka, doing enough damage that it’s at half health or lower) before they can trap it and beat back the forever night.

As Ally Beardsley’s Kristen slams the Night Yorb with enough damage from a cantrip spell that it’s forced to a bloodied state, there’s a lovely bit of collective player realization. We started this fight, not just this episode, with everybody a little worse for wear. But Kristen has Mass Healing Word and it’s a bonus action. Kristen isn’t the only healer in the party, but she’s certainly the strongest.

However, learning to play the game (although they were all pretty good and fun in previous seasons) doesn’t stop the dice gods from cursing you. Especially if the “you” in question is Lou Wilson. Fabian makes an attempt to jump out of the van and leap to coolness. Again. However, Lou is thwarted by his dice. Again. He rolled a nat 1, followed by deeply low dexterity. He does roll right enough after, though, for the Hangman to save him. Again. This attempt at cool results in Ally absolutely chucking Lou’s dice off the set. A bit they actually do twice in this episode and it’s hilarious both times.

Now, with the brakes out on the Hangvan and very little options after half the team has been downed or knocked prone, Riz makes a hard turn with the van to try and prevent the Night Yorb from entering the portal it’s been flying toward. He makes the choice to let the van flip, hoping it will hit the Night Yorb (since it’s only a few feet away from them) and that the sigil situation on the top of the van will be even closer to the creature. Which is a wise call from Murphy. Fig does the sigil once everything’s in place with famous last words from Brennan to Emily: “Just don’t roll a 1 and this is over.” But this is Emily Axford, one of the greatest Dungeons & Dragons players in the history of actual plays and she rolls a natural 20. Which, as Brennan plays the game, is an automatic success. (It’s a hotly debated thing in many people’s games, but I think it’s more fun and we’re playing a game, after all.) Emily is pure chaos in the aftermath, though, and she makes Gorgug think he did it because he tried and failed, and she loves her friends.

The Night Yorb vanishes, sealed forever in the roof of the Hangvan. As daylight returns to Spyre, all our new characters are officially down (likely dead), and our heroes are ready to return home.

As the gang cleans up what remains of their foes, we’re treated to some great comedy as two more baddies popping out of tactical cover, long after the battle is already won. One of them rolls two natural 1s and shoots himself in the face, killing himself. You know it’s good when at least two of the players cry from laughing so hard.

As they finally roll into their hometown, only hours from the start of their junior year, the Bad Kids stop at the dinner their first chase started at—the one with Johnny Spells from freshman year. It was a time before they knew what was happening with the missing girls, before Fabian acquired the Hangman, and before the Night Yorb burst from Riz’s chest tattoo. A simpler time, which is immediately met with the truest commitment to the bit as Fig lies to Fabian about what happened to Ecaf. She died while he was down, but they tell Fabian she simply left, having seen the Night Yorb defeated. Once Fabian goes home for the night, Gorgug uses mending and Ecaf (alive again) gets put in Adaine’s Coat of Useful Things (a coat with an entire world inside it and that can produce things that cost less than 10 gold).

Once everybody splits apart, we get to re-meet all the NPCs that weren’t in the desert but have filled our story up to this point—mostly parents. We discover that Gilear (one of Fig’s dads) and Hallariel (Fabian’s mother) are now engaged and are setting off for a few months on vacation—which means Seacaster manor is all Fabian’s, large and lonely as it may be.

Sklonda (Riz’s mom), having recently left the detective force to become a public defender, is having money problems since the department is fighting her on her pension. This gives Riz the deeply normal issue (at least in our real world) of potentially having to figure his own way if he wants to go to college after they graduate from the adventuring academy.

At Mordred Manor, Sandra Lynn (Fig’s mom) and Jawbone (their werewolf guidance counselor and Sandra Lynn’s boyfriend) bring out a cake for Adaine and Kristen to celebrate their (very belated) birthdays. Jawbone tells Kristen and Fig that they’re almost failing out of Aguefort, especially since Kristen let her god die during sophomore year and she didn’t change her cleric affiliation. Plus, Fig hasn’t been taking her bard classes… like, at all. I have a feeling Kristen’s “You’re allowed to fail a certain number of classes each semester,” just ain’t gonna cut it.

One of the great joys of Fantasy High is the entire group’s ability to really tap into the deep fears and issues of being a teenager. Not just the family or relationship issues, but the true terrors of the future. Are you doing what you need to be doing for a bright and happy future? Do you, or your family, have enough money to do what you need to do? What if you’re not sure what the future holds? These are all the questions that plague the junior year of American high school and they’ve been folded expertly into Fantasy High.