After the Afterlife, also known as Rise of the Dead Teens,[1] is the third episode of season 1, Fantasy High.
After dealing with the aftermath of their battle against Doreen and the Corn Monsters, The Bad Kids make friends with the A.V. Club, learn more about the missing Aguefort girls, and investigate Johnny Spells.
Recap[]
"Last we left off, our intrepid adventurers, uh, were in a real spot. But, you know what? We're gonna take a little dip away from Elmville for a second."
Synopsis[]
Kristen, newly dead, finds herself at the gates of heaven with Principal Aguefort. Aguefort crawls into Kristen's backpack and tells her to smuggle him into heaven, which she does. As she enters the golden gates, she meets Helio, who appears to her in the image of a frat boy. While greeting Helio, Aguefort climbs out of her backpack and sprints off into Heaven. Helio tells Kristen that it is not her time to die and that she has more work to do. Just before he sends her to the mortal plane, she asks him why bad things happen to good people; he ignores the question and sends her back with a curt "Later!" This disappointing interaction leaves Kristen seriously questioning her faith.
Gorgug wakes up in a dim forest with razor-sharp leaves. After a moment, he sees Mr. Gibbons. The teacher's eyes start to glow red as he recalls what happened to him and expresses that he has some "unfinished business". He moves to attack Gorgug, but Gorgug wakes up in the cafeteria before he can.
Kristen, Gorgug, and a newly revived Fig learn that Adaine accidentally killed Doreen. Fig, in honor of Doreen, makes a fishnet stocking out of Doreen's hairnet. They also learn that Principal Aguefort killed Mr. Gibbons and then himself to save Kristen and Gorgug through the power of the phoenix egg. They find that the Corn Ooze originally came from the barrel that Kristen's bible was thrown into earlier that day. The party realizes that some of the faculty and staff might have created the magic that controlled Doreen and the Corn Monsters.
They fight over whether they should talk to a teacher, call the cops, or get help from someone not associated with the school. Riz proposes that they contact his mom because she's a police officer. But, after a heated argument, he gets outvoted by Kristen, Fabian, Adaine, and Fig, who all vote to talk to Vice Principal Goldenhoard.
Fabian brings Goldenhoard to the cafeteria. He decides to call the police and brings in two faculty members to watch the cafeteria until the police arrive: sorcery teacher Jace Stardiamond and barbarian teacher Porter Cliffbreaker. Goldenhoard leads everyone in the party away from the cafeteria except for Riz, who decides to stay behind and hide. Just before she leaves, Fig looks at Porter and sees that he is not surprised by these events.
In a small classroom, Goldenhoard tries to calm the students down. He reveals that, as an adventurer, he himself has died and been brought back to life. He offers the party the opportunity to transfer to another school; however, they all decide to stay at Aguefort. Goldenhoard calls everyone's parents and the party showers in the locker rooms. Gorgug meets Coach Daybreak and thinks that, against all logic, he might be his dad. Coach Daybreak quickly shuts down this possibility.
In the cafeteria, Riz hides while the teachers survey the scene of the battle. Jace determines that a demonic entity was in the cafeteria before the fight and questions why the magical wards on the school didn't stop it from entering the campus. The teachers leave and the police arrive, led by Sklonda Gukgak. Dusty, an arcane detective, examines the scene and identifies it as "divine magic summoning an antithesis".
In the cafeteria, Riz gets his mom's attention while staying hidden from the other police officers and meets her outside. The party agrees to meet the next morning in the parking lot and each student goes home with their parents. Gorgug's parents try to comfort him about the fact that he died. Kristen tells her parents that her meeting with Helio has given her a lot of questions about religion. Riz tells his mom about the potential of faculty being involved. Fabian asks his father about the first time he saw someone die and Bill tells him the story of killing his own father.
The next day, the party wakes up to find that Kristen has added them all to "Prayer Chain", a Helioic messaging service that they can use to chat privately. At Aguefort, Goldenhoard leads an outdoor assembly to mourn the three lost faculty members. He also makes three announcements: the tradition of electing a Prom King and Queen has been reinstated, there are open faculty positions for both a guidance counselor and a lunch lady, and the school will be installing a new security system. Biz Glitterdew, head of the A.V. Club, introduces the new dream crystal CCTV system and asks for volunteers to join the club. Adaine begins to ask detailed questions about the system, but the party stops her, deciding to privately question him later.
After the assembly, Fig tries to cover up some of the cameras with clothing from the lost-and-found but is stopped by Goldenhoard. The fighting teacher, Mrs. Jones, sends her to class. Once again skipping her bard classes, Fig goes to Porter's barbarian class with Gorgug to follow up on her suspicions of him. Ultimately, she ends up impressing Porter with her eloquent thoughts on rage.
Riz goes to the A.V. room to find Biz. He meets the rest of A.V. club, which is two other students named Skrank and Shellford. Biz reveals that they don't really have a faculty advisor but that they often work with Coach Daybreak to record bloodrush games. He also says that the police and Goldenhoard came up with the idea to put the CCTV system in the school. Riz reluctantly joins the club and agrees to come back the next day for orientation. Through the security system, he sees a worried Penelope Everpetal outside the school and leaves to investigate.
The party meets up and shares the information they've learned. Adaine and Kristen go to the library to research the faculty, religion, and the Elven Oracle. The librarian gives them three books: "The Eons of Solace", "A People's History of Fallinel", and Arthur Aguefort's autobiography, "Abracadabra, Look at Me Now: My Life in Magic".
Fig, Fabian, Riz, and Gorgug go to the parking lot to check on Penelope. Gorgug watches the interaction from a distance, Fabian and Fig approach Penelope, and Riz hides in Fabian's backpack. Fig offers Penelope a drink from her flask and Penelope accepts, not realizing that Fig has cast Friends on it. Gorgug perceives from a distance that Penelope is very worried. She tells Fig and Fabian that she's waiting for her best friend, Sam Nightingale, who hasn't shown up for school that day. She also says that Sam has been acting strangely since she started dating Johnny Spells, who hangs out at the gas station near the highway with sketchy people.
When Penelope mentions Penny Luckstone, Riz immediately throws up inside Fabian's backpack. Fabian takes off the bag and chucks it across the parking lot; it hits a car and gives Riz 6 damage. Gorgug draws attention to himself as he grabs the backpack off the ground and runs around the corner to hide. Penelope reveals that, despite what the Bad Kids assumed, Johnny Spells does not fuck. The Friends spell wears off, alerting Penelope that it was cast on her. Penelope is angry at Fig and Fabian, but Fig convinces her that it was Gorgug who cast it and Penelope swears to ruin his social standing.
Ostentatia Wallace's note
The party reconvenes and shares what they've learned, agreeing to go the diner near the gas station after school to spy on Johnny. Riz tries to find Ostentatia Wallace so that she can tell him what she heard Penelope and Sam discussing in the locker room the day before. He finds her in the nurse's office, barely comatose and seriously affected by a powerful poison. Gorgug gives his metal flower to Ostentatia. Her father gives Riz a crumpled piece of paper, telling him that Ostentatia had said his name and written something down as she succumbed to the poison. Adaine is able to translate the note. It reads, in poorly spelled Dwarvish:
PENY JHNY CRISTAL PALYMPSIS
They leave the nurse's office and start to discuss the note but remember that they are being watched by the CCTV. Adaine and Kristen go back to the library to research, learning that a palimpsest - what "palympsis" was interpreted to mean - refers to a grave without a body or a piece of paper that has been wiped clean to rerecord over. In more general terms, a palimpsest is a thing that was once full but has been made empty. Fabian talks to Jace and asks if he can keep him updated on the investigation of the previous day's events.
Fig and Gorgug quickly talk to Porter. Porter invites Fig to visit barbarian class anytime. Fig tries to talk up Gorgug before she and Gorgug leave. Trying to avoid being recorded by the CCTV, Riz writes out a note and suggests that they go to the A.V. club and try to destroy any footage of their investigations from that day. The group considers it but ultimately decides against it because they wouldn't know how to do it. Fabian orders a car and they head over to Krom's Diner.
At the diner, the group orders milkshakes and watches Johnny Spells and his tiefling friends outside the garage across the road. Fig suggests that, as a tiefling, she can distract the other tieflings while the others sneak in. The tieflings enter the garage, revealing that it is actually a dance studio. Yandi, the group's waitress, tells them that the tieflings are a gang who do a "dangerous dance" before they "rumble".
After casting Thaumaturgy with her guitar, Fig hears a voice say, through the strings of her bass, "Save me". Kristen gives the group an inspiring speech that is filled with a lot of rambling about her religious uncertainty. Fig heals Riz for the damage he took when Fabian threw him in the parking lot. The group leaves the diner and crosses the street to get to the garage.
Riz and Adaine sneak around the garage, trying to see through the windows. They both spot a crystal that appears to have been cracked by magic. Adaine sees a female figure made of arcane energy trapped within the crystal. Riz sees a set of car keys and a crate of tea leaves next to Johnny's car. They realize that Ostentatia must have been poisoned when she drank the stolen tea from Aguefort's office, which means that someone was poisoning Aguefort. They also conclude that the cracked crystal in the garage must be the crystal referenced in Ostentatia's note and that the palimpsest could be either the crystal or the paper that summoned the Corn Ooze.
They hear the dance rehearsal coming to an end. Adaine uses Mage Hand to get the cracked crystal and the car keys. Riz steals a letter addressed to Johnny Spells. The Bad Kids jump into Johnny Spells's car and drive off, closely followed by Johnny and his tiefling gang.
Locations[]
Featured Characters[]
The Bad Kids[]
New[]
Returning[]
Mentioned[]
Trivia[]
- This is the first episode to feature the Gorgug asking "Are You My Dad?" to an NPC after a failed check.