by Emily Maesar, Associate TV Editor

Fantasy High: Junior Year
Episode 13 “Infernal Conflict”
With Brennan Lee Mulligan, Emily Axford, Zac Oyama, Siobhan Thompson, Lou Wilson, Ally Beardsley, and Brian Murphy
Streaming now on Dropout.tv

“This dance off constitutes a binding contract.” - Elven Representative from the Court of Stars (Brennan Lee Mulligan)

The Bad Kids, still not quite out of the dimension they spent the last episode in, are trying to figure out what their next moves are. Adaine (Siobhan Thompson) still has the sword with all the infernal magic contained within it. She attempts to figure out where it might have originated from (other than the very basic answer of “hell”) using Arcana. On a 14 Arcana check, though, she doesn’t really know much beyond the fact that the curse was attached to the Pride Armor that Gilear put on during Sophomore Year. Though it’s quite odd because it appears to them, at least as far as they know, that Gilear’s life seemed cursed long before he actually put it on. She thinks they should head to the library of the Bottomless Pit, the area of hell that Fig (Emily Axford) took over from her father when she became an archdevil.

Adaine casts Plane Shift to get them to the Bottomless Pit, as Riz (Brian Murphy) shoots off a message to their parents (who they can kind of hear from the edge of the briefcase), that they’re good and they’re gonna head out to hell. Once there, the souls that Fig commanded to rock are doing just that. It seems like the recording studio she had Baby set up is going well! They have an exchange with a Spine Devil named Rip about seltzer water, but there’s no refrigeration in hell so it’s all piping hot.

Baby finally shows up and they ask him about the books, which he lies about destroying (if only because he thinks that Fig would have wanted that). Luckily, they get to the books with a save from Bill Seacaster, who stops a dump truck from taking them because Baby put them in the dumpster and it’s trash day! Fabian (Lou Wilson) is overjoyed to see his father again—as are we all! Kristen (Ally Beardsley) searches through the books and finds a scroll that has information on the Armors of Sins (the collection that the Armor of Pride belongs to). They were all created by different people, but for the same purpose: to punish a mortal for the sin stated by the armor.

Riz also looks at the scrolls as well, noting that the Armor of Pride has been passed down through elves. It helped them win battles but also destroyed their families. When the final family was able to give the armor away to Gorthalax, the curse moved from the armor to their whole family line. A family that currently ends with Gilear, since he’s not actually Fig’s father and he has no sons (since it’s passed patrilineal). The party tries to figure out why Fig got the curse, but realizes that it was likely Gilear putting on the armor during their last big adventure that confused the curse, since it would have tried to return to the armor, and the curse was fighting to survive when it came for Fig.

The party does a goof around with Bill Seacaster, everybody getting flintlock pistols, before splitting up to do a bunch of different things. Fig brought up investigating the armors before Bill invited everybody onto his ship for drinks and partying. She talks to Bill about warlock business, in part because she wants to know but also in part because she still needs to do her homework while they’re out and about. Fabian gets a touchup of his “Maximum Legend” neck tattoo from his father, in gold, which is magical and gives him immunity to curses from gold (including Dragon Madness, something that’s not a huge issue this year, but would have been very helpful during Sophomore Year). Afterwards, Bill Seacaster writes up a fake contract for Fig for her homework.

Eventually, everybody goes to investigate the armor while Fabian tells his father about the very cool adventures that they’ve had this year. Including asking about the stuff in the basement of Seacaster Manor, since Kipperlilly and company were trying to do something sketchy down there during the party. Gorgug (Zac Oyama) stays up on the ship with Fabian and agrees to do some weird buttery ramp showcase with Bill Seacaster after he lets it slip that he helped clean up after the party.

Fig, Kristen, Adaine, and Riz (Brian Murphy) all go back down to investigate the armors. As they make their way there, Fig discovers that Baby has been recording music and it’s apparently very popular despite being deeply weird and wonderful in the improv joke kind of way. Baby mentions wanting a partner and Fig decides to say fuck it and makes another imp, which they accidentally name Baby Baby. It’s very Frankenstein and it’s incredibly fun. After Baby and Baby Baby leave, the remaining split of the party finally gets to the armor. As they investigate closer, they realize that the infernal god who made the Pride Armor was Ankarna—the forgotten god that they’ve been investigating. Riz’s dad, Pok, calls him as his magical necktie registers a name that hasn’t been noted in about a thousand years. Riz gives his dad a rundown of everything that’s been happening since we last saw him.

Pok does some research for the party, since they discovered the name fair and square, and the mortal elf Athenriel (who Ankarna made the armor for) predates the elven government. He’s also a far-off ancestor of Gilear, which tracks! Also, I just want to say that this is the kind of retconning in stories that I find both really satisfying, but also deeply interesting. It’s clear that this was never Brennan’s intention back in 2019 when Fantasy High started—that Gilear’s misfortune was just kind of a comedy point, but as time has moved on and Dimension 20 has become a really strong place for storytelling in TTRPG actual plays, Brennan (and all other GMs that have run campaigns) really rides on loose ends, jokes, and random mentions to fuel some of the most interesting and engaging twists and turns.

Riz also mentions to his dad that Kalina is the one who said Ragh’s name, and they still aren’t totally sure why. With Spy’s Tongue in play, Pok says it’s possible that Ragh was the closest thread that Kalina could give them that would fall outside of whatever deals she’d made prior. Ally points out that it’s possible Ragh just hadn’t been born yet, or maybe whoever made the deal didn’t know about him, whenever Spy’s Tongue entered the story with Kalina for whatever she was trying to tell them about. Pok does some research and tells the party that gods that share domains tend to not like each other, with the suggestion that perhaps Sol might be responsible for Ankarna’s death.

Kristen uses Plane Shift, since Adaine has basically no more spell slots. The Bad Kids return to Fallinel where all their parents are waiting for them. Gilear is appropriately cursed again per his lineage. Fig makes sure that Hallariel is still into her dad—which she is. The party talks to Lydia, who seems to be okay despite the Bakur of it all and makes a plan (somewhat patchworked together) about doing a ritual so they could talk to Bakur while keeping Lydia safe. They also ask after Tracker and Nara, who they talk to on the phone. Everybody seems to be fine, ultimately.

Kristen tells Tracker everything they’ve discovered since they went into the briefcase, and even a bit before. Gorthalax reveals that since they party spoke the name back into existence… none of the gods and devils must adhere to Obliviati Mori anymore and he can tell them all he knows about Ankarna. He’d met her after she fell and became Infernal, and that Bakur was her right-hand man. She also turned a set of scales she had into a warhammer and studied conquest as a domain, an odd thing for a god to do, because it was what the people who remained her followers wanted her to add to her domains. As they finish talking to Fig’s dad, everybody takes a long rest and ties up some loose ends before they start off on the next part of the adventure.

As Kristen and Tracker go off to talk, Adaine distracts Nara by asking about the elven Court of Stars, which they go to visit (which includes Nara’s father). She basically wants to talk to them about being the Elven Oracle and how… yeah, it’s not really working for her right now. She threatens to go on strike, since she can’t keep up with being Oracle (a thing she truly doesn’t want anyway) while keeping a job. The Court of Stars offers to negotiate a contract with her in a month. She needs to get a lawyer to represent her in the negotiations or she can participate in a dance competition. She nominates Fabian to be her champion because of course she does!

The next morning, after their rest, it’s time for the party to make their attempt to talk to Bakur (among other things). Adaine casts Contact Other Planes, which allows them to ask five yes or no questions and the whole thing very much turns into the silly, goofy, and always hilarious graveyard sequence from Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Honestly, these kinds of bits are funny forever, so it’s great to see one crop up in Fantasy High.

With the questions, the Bad Kids do actually get answers, and Adaine gets the knowledge that Bakur was once Athenriel. Bakur also tells them that Ankarna’s original domains were summer, sun, justice, and righteousness. However, he’s a being trying to escape, and he uses the final question to try and break out of the gem in Lydia’s chest. Adaine severs the connections and Lydia fights to keep him in check.

Adaine uses the cursed sword to seal him away for good, which would allow Lydia to remove the gem normally. Fabian does some impromptu surgery, since he’s immune to curses related to gold, and the gem has sealed itself with a gold situation. Lou rolls two natural 1s on his medicine check which is… not great! Siobhan gives him a 13 by using one of her portent rolls, though, stopping him from killing Lydia. Kristen takes over with Ally rolling a natural 20. Fabian catches the crystal as it falls out of Lydia, and she can finally rest. Ragh is so happy he’s absolutely sobbing with happiness.

The party, having made large steps forward in the larger adventure at hand, head back to Elmville after their winter vacation comes to a close. Which means, of course, that it’s time for DOWNTIME! Rolls on rolls, baby! Fabian absolutely wins the dance off for Adaine to get paid as Elven Oracle, which he did as a bard class roll. Adaine also makes Fabian her champion for all future dance offs, making him the Oracle of Dance. He also gets paid for his Oracle work, which seems like a very cool deal.

As the party goes back to classes, Kristen walks into her cleric class and Brennan reveals that Bobby Dawn has, indeed, taken over as the professor.