A Very Merry Moonar Yulenear is the eleventh episode of Fantasy High: Junior Year.
Intro[]
"Last we left off, our heroes were getting ready to construct a ritual to speak to the devil Bakur sealed in a gem in the chest of one Lydia Barkrock, as well as having disguised ourselves as Wanda Childa to get some information from Ruben Hopclap of the Rat Grinders and forwarding some podcast information to get him on this podcast, stat. Our friends Fig and Riz made plans to head over to Loam Farm at the edge of town ... as well as learning about Mazey, Mazey Phaedra, become sort of acting principal as student body president. There's some tense interactions with Fabian and Mazey in the last episode."
"We had a bunch of other bits of history unfold. Adaine learning more about the history of the giants, as Riz was able to map the magical sequence of sort of arcane DNA within not only Bakur but the celestial or infernal force that had created Bakur. With that, we jump right back into our episode."
Synopsis[]
Loam Farm investigation[]
It's early December, and after school, Fig and Riz head off with Sklonda Gukgak to Loam Farm -- after sending a decoy email to Ruben Hopclap inviting him to appear on a podcast. Ruben's agent, Lola Embers, replies saying his availability is open after the new year. Along the way to Loam Farm, Riz asks Sklonda whether she's heard of a spy's tongue curse, but she hasn't, so he texts Adaine to look it up.
The trip to Loam Farm takes about two hours, and night falls as they approach. For discretion as they investigate, they opt not to use flashlights, Riz casts invisibility on Sklonda, and Fig uses disguise self to look like an orangutan. Fig's divine sense and Riz's detect magic both detect powerful infernal magical energy behind the farmhouse, where they find the site of the murders of Alonso and Hespia Loam. The crime scene looks much like the site where Lucy Frostblade and Yolanda Badgood died, with wreckage and craters as though made by giants, and the soil contaminated by red glass or crystal that could be from rage-stars. With prestidigitation, Fig imposes the image of a 24-pointed star onto a fragment of crystal, which seems to awaken it. It expresses confusion, darting back and forth, then stabs Fig's hand as she holds it. Riz hypothesizes that the magic is not inherently rage-based, but that it is being manipulated toward rage. He and Fig hypothesize that the fragments pervading the soil may suggest someone is farming them and a crop will grow in the spring, perhaps something that could bring a dead god back.
Riz asks Sklonda if they can see the bodies. She leaves to make a call, and meanwhile, Molman Holden texts Riz to describe the "interesting soil profile" of the sample he was given, including an extraplanar mineral sediment matching the soil found only at one address: 1223 Ash Grove Boulevard, Ragh Barkrock's old house that was attacked during sophomore year. Sklonda returns, saying her connection confirmed the bodies seemed to have been killed by force damage so strong as to carbonize their veins into red diamonds matching those in the soil. Riz hypothesizes that rather than being killed by force, the rage-mage transformation they saw in the Synod Mall makes you so angry it kills you. Sklonda backs this up, pointing out Alonso and Hespia's bodies had no sign of self-defense wounds.
Riz and Fig call an emergency Bad Kids meeting, which Adaine requests happen at Basrar's Soda Fountain while she works. Kristen takes out Cassandra's shards and wonders if they are Cassandra's blood. Fig takes out some of the pulverized crystal sand from the farm, and they produce a magical reaction with Cassandra's shards as they levitate and the sand tries to blend together into the shards, which form together tightly to resist it. Adaine's identify spell expresses confusion, and the sand immediately attacks Adaine, but Kristen banishes it to its home plane, which she senses as a place of dead gods, in the interior of a vast body that rots with death but cannot die. Kristen shouts "Cassandra" into the plane, causing a reaction that extinguishes part of the plane's raging fire and causes a gasp in the distance just as the banishment spell ends.
The Bad Kids trade hypotheses about this plane, with Gorgug suggesting it may be the body of Cassandra's spouse that the party has been chasing clues about. Riz suggests someone is rebuilding the dead god in Spyre by taking bit by bit of it from its home plane. Riz also draws a connection to Cassandra's time as the Nightmare King and suggests the dead god may have transformed into some kind of fiend when they were unable to be alive as a god any longer, perhaps a day-themed counterpart to the Nightmare King. Kristen also expresses suspicion about the soon-to-be cleric teacher, Bobby Dawn, and how Sol or Helio may be involved with the mystery, which she wants to consult with Tracker about.
Closing the semester[]
In their last week of school before heading to Fallinel, late at night, the Bad Kids check out Ragh's old house, which is now a vacant lot. Riz's filed-away crime scene photos from before the lot was cleared bear an eerily close resemblance to the state of the damage at Loam Farm. Adaine's detect magic finds a faint residue of the shatter-star sand spread out the lot more organically than at the other two crime scenes, and she suggests it may be a remnant of Lydia traveling with her crystal around the house on a day-to-day basis. Kristen picks up a scoop of sand and thinks to herself of how mad the prospect of Bobby Dawn as a teacher makes her, and the sand forms into the shape of a glass spear, which jabs at her when she drops her anger, then melts back into sand when Gorgug grabs it. As the Bad Kids discuss rage, they point out what a short fuse NPCs like Quincy and Gertie have displayed in interactions with Fabian, and wonder if that's being intentionally cultivated.
In the middle of the night, Adaine heads over to see Aelwyn, who introduces her sister to all of her cats, which she got from asking animal shelters for the cats that had been there the longest. As they talk, they bond over an episode of a mean reality show. Adaine probes her sister about how she's doing and detects that Aelwyn doesn't have any friends, so she invites her to one of Fabian's parties. Adaine also asks her about Kipperlilly Copperkettle, whom Aelwyn says told her they wouldn't meet again until the new year. Aelwyn also mentions she got a job offer to work at the Compass Points Library in Leviathan.
That night, Fig disguises herself as Kipperlilly and infiltrates Ruben's dreams, shaping the environment to look like Lucy's death crime scene and telling Ruben to take the fall for it. He reacts with what appears to be shock as he bleeds from his mouth.
The next day, Kristen starts looking into devil's nectar and ambrosia (which Kipperlilly had been seeking from Aelwyn), and learns from Gertie that devil's nectar is used by apiarists to get bees to make a special honey that allows the eater to lie to beings that can't normally be lied to, but with a side effect that you can convince yourself and alter your own memories with the lie. Gertie mentions she's made it for some local food trucks recently. As Kristen expresses interest in this information, Gertie misreads it and kisses her, admitting she's had a crush on Kristen for a while.
The end of the fall semester arrives, and the Bad Kids put the finishing touches on their academics:
- Riz gets an honorary intrim staff position and a commendation and a small stipend from Vice Principal Jace Stardiamond for his heavy extracurricular involvement.
- Mazey pulls aside Kristen to consult about Bobby Dawn's job application, which Kristen begrudgingly approves of in lieu of letting the cleric class revert to pass/fail. Kristen also asks Mazey to send her the school bylaws, which were updated in the summer, as well as the previous version of the bylaws.
- Corsica Jones and Terpsichore Skullcleaver check in with Fabian about his flagging grades. Terpsichore reassures him that pooping himself in class was perfectly natural.
- Tiberia Runestaff tells Adaine she should have a research project for the rest of the year, and Adaine suggests curses. Tiberia suggests extra credit for researching the harnessing of power released when a curse is broken.
- In the artificer labs, Gorgug approaches a breakthrough. He offhandedly asks Henry Hopclap about his last name and discovers Ruben is his nephew. He also asks about Grix and finds out Henry had consulted a bit to help Arthur Aguefort build him, and is secretly hanging onto one of Grix's motherboards.
- Fig meets with Zara Sool and tells her she doesn't have the agreement she was assigned but is still working on it. She asks Zara for reading material on ancient deities.
Visiting Fallinel[]
Jawbone wakes at the crack of dawn, saying the group must get to the teleportation pad 90 minutes early. Sandra Lynn, Lydia, Ragh, Aelwyn, Gorthalax and Zayn show up to join the trip. In Bastion City, they arrive at the airport-like terminal for teleportation, with Gorgug and his parents arriving separately since they're traveling business class. Jawbone and Sandra Lynn make a video call with Gulsom the realtor, who is watching Mordred Manor in their absence; Adaine asks him about Kipperlilly's dad and he describes him as polite and eager, but a tryhard.
Upon arrival in Kei Lumennura, the group is welcomed by Telemaine Lomenelda, who has a little voice recorder to pronounce Gorgug's name correctly for him. Hallariel wishes everyone a happy Moonar Yulenear and takes them inside, where Gilear appears alarmed and haunted by his good luck. Fig explains her theory about taking on his bad-luck curse, and he expresses desperation to get to the bottom of it and get rid of his good luck. Fabian brags about his maximum legend status, which Hallariel approves of until she gets suspicious that he is throwing parties against her orders.
Hallariel mentions it's winter in Kei Lumennura for the first time in eons, which Telemaine blames on Tracker and Wolfsong Revival. The group discusses Tracker and Princess Naradriel and ultimately decides to go visit them to get information. Meanwhile, Sandra Lynn speaks to Fig about the bad-luck curse and urges her to seek a way to break the curse. While discussing her classes, Fig admits that being introspective is distressing to her and that being Wanda Childa is an escape for her. Sandra Lynn suggests looking to her friends and using community as a tool to find herself.
The Bad Kids, Aelwyn, Ragh, Zayn and Baxter head off to Wolfsong Revival. Along the way, Adaine, Zayn, and Aelwyn discuss curses, including one Aelwyn cast for Kalina for her conspirators at the Hotel Cavalier: spy's tongue, which prevents people from naming co-conspirators. Kalina had needed it modified to work on non-humanoids, and Aelwyn mentions Kalina seemed angry that she needed the curse. Aelwyn also explains the details of devil's honey as Gertie had explained before, and the Bad Kids speculate the Rat Grinders are taking it to intentionally rewrite their own memories. The Bad Kids also discuss dead gods and naming with Aelwyn, who mentions Fallinel is a good place to research these things since the elves at the Court of Stars keep amazing records.
At Wolfsong Revival, they find a snow-covered campground filled with singing and Moonar Yulenear cheer, tended to by high elves and with apparently extensive wealth backing it. They run into Tracker, who introduces Nara. Tracker explains that the winter is a miracle she created to disprove the elves' argument that Galicaea is unchanging. Adaine uses a pretext to learn that Nara is able to say Kalina's name, so must not be under the spy's tongue curse with her. Nara offers the group a place to stay overnight. Privately, Tracker admits to Kristen that Nara's family money is what's funding the lavish operation, but is offended when Kristen implies she sold out and the revival is getting away from a personal relationship with Galicaea. Tracker insists she doesn't know of a way to save Galicaea without the success of the movement turning into something like this, and Tracker and Kristen reconcile.
Riz uses detect magic and mostly finds nothing of note, but does find the hallow spell in a set of standing stones away from all the well-funded areas of the campground. Fig's divine sense detects that Galicaea's presence is there, but the standing stones are not devoted to Galicaea. Some of the runes derive from ancient runes related to Galicaea and to giants. Fig detects that the site was holy before even the gods got there.
In their guest room, the Bad Kids have their Secret Sylvan gift exchange for the Moonar Yulenear:
- Adaine gives Fabian the pipes of the sewers, which allow him to interact with rats. When he plays it to summon some rats, Fig makes them all sexy.
- Fabian gives Adaine an ear worm, which burrows into her ear to let her cast detect thoughts and dissonant whispers with a certain number of daily charges.
- Fig gives Kristen an immovable rod for her Crossfit.
- Kristen gives Riz the bracers of defense, which are styled like The Riddler and give +2 to AC.
- Riz gives Gorgug a potion of fire giant strength, which can raise his strength to 25 for one hour.
- Gorgug gives Fig a mask of beasts, which lets her cast animal friendship, which she immediately uses to convince Fabian's sexy rats to show hole.
Passing by as Kristen tries out her immovable rod, Nara pulls her aside and thanks her for making up with Tracker. In their conversation, Kristen realizes Nara struggles with some of the same problems with impulsivity and commitment that Kristen does (but from a much more wealthy, privileged perspective). Speaking about the standing stones, Nara seems unaware of any connection to anything but Galicaea. The Bad Kids privately wonder whether Nara is a patsy unaware she's being used to undermine Wolfsong Revival's credibility.
An uncovered name[]
Nara shows the Bad Kids to the standing stones, explaining them as a place where realms can be traversed between more easily. While investigating a stone, Riz finds writing beneath the snow line, where it looks like the stone had sunk over time. The writing appears to be an ancient, divine wedding contract. Sol is listed in the center as the officiant, Galicaea is the matron of honor with Ruvina as her counterpart on the opposite side, and Cassandra is the bride. With Fig's encouragement, the rats who show hole assist Riz in digging, and uncover the name of Cassandra's spouse below the soil line. Adaine is the only Bad Kid who can read the runes, and she speaks it aloud: "Ankarna."
Upon the speaking of the name, the stone circle begins to glow red and fills with fiendish energy. Everyone jumps within the protection of the circle, including Ragh and Aelwyn, but the circle's magic repels Zayn as a ghost. Ragh gets a call that something is happening with the gem in his mom's chest. As the fiendish energy spreads, Tracker confronts the group, but she and Nara are flung out of the circle. The moon turns to full and begins to transform her into wolfen form. The hallow spell on the stone circle partially materializes the ethereal yellow Armor of Pride around Fig, and a moonbeam tries to pull it off her, rending her skin and flesh in the process. Kristen's shards of Cassandra glow blindingly bright, throwing mirror reflections everywhere, including to try to protect Fig.
Riz deduces that the danger is effectively multiple divine interventions happening simultaneously and in conflict with one another. He uses his briefcase's portal to a pocket dimension to hold Fig in a space away from the moon's reach. Adaine uses a critical counterspell roll to shatter the Armor of Pride, breaking the curse on Fig although the curse follows her in pieces into the extradimensional space. Riz hops into the briefcase, and inside, Baron from the Baronies reaches out with a pale white hand to grab onto Riz.
Fabian uses his battle sheet's pyrotechnics to summon smoke to conceal the party from the moonbeams. Gorgug jumps into the briefcase as well and casts warding bond to help protect Fig. Adaine consults with Aelwyn, who offers to teleport everyone away with Zayn once enough people are in the briefcase to allow her to cast the spell, so Adaine and Fabian both jump in. Kristen sees Cassandra's mirrors also going into the briefcase, and she jumps in to follow, casting death ward on Aelwyn as she goes. With all the Bad Kids in, Aelwyn picks up the briefcase, and after a flash of bright moonlight, there is a burst of flame and the briefcase closes.
Falling through the whirlpool of files in the briefcase, Baron taunts Kristen, telling her the Nightmare King is "very angry, once again in the arms of his loving partner" before disappearing. Riz concludes both Cassandra and her spouse have been corrupted again. Fig casts mislead on herself to create an illusory red herring for the curse to chase down. The curse attaches to the illusion, which becomes Gilear, and the pieces of the curse transform into Gilear-esque accessories like a spoon, a yogurt cup, a tropical shirt, and sandals. Suddenly, the illusion hits the ground and is impaled, the six fragments of armor scattering. With Kristen's immovable rod and everyone grabbing on, they stop just short of being impaled as well.
The whirlpool of files comes to an end, and in the eerie quiet, the Bad Kids find themselves in silence in Fig's bedroom in Mordred Manor.
Locations[]
Characters[]
The Bad Kids[]
New[]
Returning[]
- Sklonda Gukgak
- Aelwyn Abernant
- Gertie Bladeshield
- Ruben Hopclap
- Mazey Phaedra
- Corsica Jones
- Terpsichore Skullcleaver
- Tiberia Runestaff
- Henry Hopclap
- Zara Sool
- Jawbone O'Shaughnessey
- Gorthalax the Insatiable
- Zayn Darkshadow
- Gulsom
- Telemaine Lomenelda
- Hallariel Seacaster
- Gilear Faeth
- Tracker O'Shaughnessey
- Wilma and Digby Thistlespring
- Sandra Lynn Faeth
- Ragh Barkrock
- Baron from the Baronies
Mentioned[]
- Cassandra
- Kalina
- Lola Embers
- Molman Holden
- Bakur
- Kipperlilly Copperkettle
- Lydia Barkrock
- Jace Stardiamond
- Buddy Dawn
- Bobby Dawn
- Galicaea
- Logran Soulforger
- Craig
- Ayda Aguefort
- Arthur Aguefort
- Principal Arcturus Grix
- Maugly Dimweather
Clips[]
