by Emily Maesar, Associate TV Editor

Fantasy High: Junior Year
Episode 11 “A Very Merry Moonar Yulenear”
With Brennan Lee Mulligan, Emily Axford, Zac Oyama, Siobhan Thompson, Lou Wilson, Ally Beardsley, and Brian Murphy
Streaming now on Dropout.tv

“I have so much love to give… exclusively to cats.” - Aelwyn Abernant (Brennan Lee Mulligan)

As we begin, Fig (Emily Axford) and Riz (Brian Murphy) team up to send an email trying to get Ruben to be fake interviewed for the podcast about Lucy Frostblade to see if he does anything suspicious (like try to kill the host). Then they go to Loam Farm (where the Frostyfaire was supposed to be) with Riz’s mom to investigate. While nobody lives at the farm anymore, the party is trying to sneak around. So, Riz casts Invisibility on his mom, Fig uses Disguise Self to pretend to be a (humanoid) animal, and Riz simply relies on his great sneaking ability.

As they investigate there’s powerful infernal and magic energy around the back of the Loam farmhouse. It reminds them of the murder scene in the forest, with the energies coming from the soil in the same way. Riz takes a sample of the soil and can immediately see that the rage shards are broken up into the ground. Fig ends up making a shard into a full, but small, rage star—except it takes on Fig’s emotional state. Molman, the president of the Soil Club, texts Riz at this point to let him know what he found in the soil sample from the crime scene in the forest. It has an anomaly that has only been identified at Rag’s old house!

Fig calls an emergency meeting of the Bad Kids at the ice cream parlor (since Adaine (Siobhan Thompson) is working, so they can discuss what they discovered at the Loam Farm, including the notion that the crystals seem like diamondized blood and that the rage might eventually kill anyone it infects (likely what happened to the Loams). They try to figure out if the shard Fig has and the shards Kristen (Ally Beardsley) has are actually the same, or if there’s something different about them. Fig’s whip out of her hand and they try to combine. As Adaine casts Identify, the spell doesn’t know what to do, and the shards from the farm try to attack her. Kristen Banishes them and rolls a natural 20 on a Perception check to figure out where the plane the shards are from, and therefore where she’s sending them.

She sees before her a plane that is made of a dead and rotting god. Fire and blood and lava. Everywhere that is not covered in liquid pain is creating the crystals. Kristen calls for Cassandra and a bolt of purple light shoots around, extinguishing fire where it passes. She hears a gasp at her god’s name just before the Banishment portal closes. (My bet is that this is the plane the party will go onto that Adaine and Fig saw in their visions, the one where Fig is in the pride armor.)

Before winter break, and their vacation to Fallinel, the Bad Kids try to tie up some loose ends. Kristen attempts to see if she can get the crystals to react to her anger (something she doesn’t actually feel too greatly), Adaine goes to visit her sister to see if there’s any new word on Kipperlilly, and Fig Disguises herself as Kipperlilly and invades Ruben’s dream and shape the location to be the crime scene.

They also get their school semester wrapped up. Riz basically becomes a staff member at the school because his commitment to every single club at school seems to be the only thing really holding it together. Kristen talks to Mazey about Bobby Dawn potentially becoming the cleric professor and also gets a copy of the original bylaws of the school, as well as the updated ones. Adaine decides on her wizard research project for her final, which will be on curses. Gorgug (Zac Oyama) has an academic breakthrough on combining his two classes. He also realizes that the artificer professor is Ruben’s uncle.

As the Bad Kids, and their miscellaneous companions (mostly parents), get to Fallinel, they are greeted by Fabian (Lou Wilson)’s grandfather, Telemaine. The bit of him not being able to say Gorgug’s name (perhaps one of the funniest on-going things from Sophomore Year) is in full swing. Gilear, Fig’s father, meets up with them and he’s… remarkably put together. No longer the mess he’s been since the very first episode, living in a world after Fig’s horns came in. Clearly, and Fig tells him as much, he is no longer cursed. She’s taken up that mantle.

The party talks to Telemaine about if anything weird has been going on, but also asks about Tracker and her new girlfriend. They get a little derailed (unsurprisingly) as they try to work out their plan for when they catch up with the elven princess that Kristen’s ex is with now, including Fig and Kristen having a side plan that, should things go poorly, Kristen will go invisible, and Fig (disguised as Kristen) will do a cool backflip.

Fig talks to her mom about the curse and how she feels deeply out of sorts. It’s because of the curse she took from Gilear, yes, but it’s also because, like many teenagers, Fig doesn’t actually know who she is or what she wants. Since she’s finally focusing on school and not just on her friends, she’s been asked by many people about those things that stress out many teenagers, TTRPG characters or not. The idea of knowing yourself and not only being perceived by others, but by yourself, is so scary and overwhelming. It’s very touching to see Emily and Brennan play through this, especially when there aren’t really answers.

Adaine asks Zayn, who they brought with them by way of bringing his gravestone, and her sister about curses, since they want to work on trying to get Fig’s off of her, as well as for her wizard paper. Aelwyn brings up one that she worked on for Kalina that involved Spy’s Tongue, which makes it so you cannot name co-conspirators. They mention the devil’s nectar, which they knew Kipperlilly was obtaining, and can have the ability to make the user (if they take a lot of it) believe a lie they tell themselves. They speculate that, perhaps, the Rat Grinders have been using it—potentially on themselves.

As the Bad Kids head out to visit Tracker at the church, Kristen grabs a random person on their way in and rolls a natural 20 on Insight to see if they really believe it, or if they’re just hanging out for social reasons. Deeply unserious and perfect, as this is basically a Burning Man vibe. However, it’s also clear to Kristen that there is money here.

Like… bringing snow into the area kind of money. Fig and Fabian go off and join in a snowball fight while Kristen finally sets eyes on Tracker. Her new girlfriend, Princess Nara, gets introduced to the group. Kristen and Tracker get into a passive-aggressive conversation (read: argument for them) about how Tracker’s church rose to power and if she’s sold out because of how much money Nara has poured into Wolfsong. After a little while, they give it up and apologize to each other, having said (more so implied) some mean things to each other, and Nara is visibility wounded by them connecting again as Tracker leans on Kristen’s shoulder.

As the party chills out, they do their Moonar Yulenear gift exchanges with each other. Adaine got Fabian in the exchange and gives him the Pipe of the Sewers, which allows him to control rats (one of his great fears). Fabian got Adaine, closing the loop with each other, and he got her an Ear Worm, a worm that goes into your ear and allows her to cast Detect Thoughts and Dissonant Whispers a certain number of times every day. Fig got Kristen and her an Immovable Rod to act as a pullup bar. Kristen got Riz the Bracers of Defense, which gives him a +2 to his Armor Class while he wears them. Riz got Gorgug and he got him a Potion of Fire Giant Strength, which will allow him to have a strength of 25 whenever he drinks it. And, finally, Gorgug got Fig and he got her a Mask of Beasts, which allows her to cast Animal Friendship.

Nara comes to talk to Kristen, hoping that the two of them can be friends. As they keep talking, Kristen realizes that Nara is just like Kristen, as a person, if she had money. Impulsive and without a lot of follow through, but succeeds when she’s supported. That’s the Kristen way! There are ancient stones near the church and while the party sees that they are not simply a monument for Galicaea, because the markings are for gods older than her, Nara is insistent that they are only for her goddess. They don’t think she’s being nefarious about it, but Fig says they should be careful around them—in Message, of course.

The Bad Kids ask Nara for a tour of the ruins. Zayn and Aelwyn set up a warning system for them, in case anything happens. As they approach, Murph crits on Investigation (a 32 for him) with Siobhan getting a 28 on hers. Nara tells them about the stones, which leads them to understand that the stones can be a portal to other planes. Riz sees ruins at the base of one and digs through the snow, seeing a thousand-year-old scorched markings. He is able to deduce that the ruins are actually the marriage contract between Cassandra and her partner, the god whose name is forgotten. The name of the other god is buried under the earth. Fig puts on her mask and tells the rats that followed them to the ruins to start digging.

As the stone is uncovered by the rats, Adaine (with a very high Arcana check) reads the name of the forgotten god aloud, without thinking about the repercussions.

“Ankarna."

The second she says it, the circle glows red. Fiendish energy fills the air and the party hides in the circle, which is protected by Hallow. Ragh, Aewyln, and Zayn try to jump into the circle—Zayn is repelled, though, as a spirit. Ragh tells them that something happened to the gem in his mom’s chest. Everybody needs to roll Initiative, to begin a combat encounter.

Tracker, inside the circle, is affected by the light of the moon and the power of Galicaea. She starts to turn into her werewolf form and is expelled from the circle along with Nara, who she was grabbed when the moon hit her. Fig has to make a Constitution and Wisdom saves, as she is nearly tossed from the circle. The Pride Armor appears around Fig, and the light of the moon shines and pulses as it attempts to take it off of her. Fig takes 19 damage. Riz can tell that Fig, herself, is not being targeted, but that the curse is being targeted.

Adaine has a vision of mirrors, while the shards that Kristen has are shining so bright, they might as well be blinding. Riz opens his briefcase, which is their version of a Bag of Holding, and tries to push it over Fig and stuff her inside to protect her. He shatters one of the mirrors, which are also trying to protect Fig. With no understanding of the spells in play, Brennan allows Siobhan the option to cast Counterspell. She takes it and casts it at 6th level and crits to succeed. With this action she stops the curse on the armor from killing Fig, shattering the armor and fully stopping the spell. It follows her into the void of the briefcase and Riz decides to follow her in, as well.

The files in Riz’s briefcase had turned into a whirl in the void and as he also falls through the space, a hand jolts out from one and grabs him. It’s Baron from the Baronies, a creature created from Riz’s lies about having a significant other during Sophomore Year. Fabian doesn’t think they can get Tracker back and creates a thick, black smoke around the ruins to try and stop the moonbeams. Gorgug also jumps into the briefcase, seeing no other way out of their situation. He casts Warding Bond on Fig as he falls. Adaine and Fabian also jump in, with the understanding that Aelwyn can teleport her and Ragh back and if everybody else is in the briefcase then it’s easy to get them all out. Kristen remembers that Cassandra used mirrors as the Nightmare King and feels her with them in the ruins, protecting them. She rolls for divine intervention as she also jumps into the briefcase, attempting to touch the mirrors to reach out to Cassandra. As she falls, Kristen casts Death Ward on Aelwyn, absolutely saving her life—if the look on Brennan’s face is anything to go by.

The briefcase closes, though the Bad Kids don’t know how, and they are plunged into darkness, with only Cassandra’s shards to light the way down into the void. Before Baron disappears into the pages of the briefcase, he says something haunting to Kristen, as a taunt.

“The Nightmare King very angry, once again in the arms of his loving partner. I think you should be very afraid, Kristen Applebees…”

The armor is still targeting Fig and she casts Mislead on herself and Duplicates herself to has it run forward with the curse following it into the void. The curse catches up to it and attaches itself to the illusion of Fig, turning it into Gilear before smashing to the ground. Kristen uses her gift, which doesn’t need to be against anything material to lock into place, to stop them all from falling. Ally rolls a natural 20 on the save and absolutely saves the entire party from hitting ground and impaling themselves. The armor shatters into six pieces and flies off. The party finds themselves in Fig’s room at Mordred Manor and roll Initiative.