Daddies & Demons is the fourteenth episode of Fantasy High: Sophomore Year.
Recap[]
"Last week on Dimension 20, our party was split! Fig, Riz, Gilear, and the Hangman were deposited on one side of hellish portal for a tribunal to discuss the absence of Gorthalax the Insatiable by several devilish potentates, and a recess was called because amazingly Fig, in an ongoing streak of Fig telling the truth very persuasively told them that Gorthalax the Insatiable was trapped in a gem."
"So there was a recess called and the four of them are under house arrest, while the rest of our Bad Kids are still in Arborly, the wood elf and gnomish community at the edge of the Forest of the Nightmare King on their quest to retrieve the Nightmare King's Crown. You see deep in the Bottomless Pit that our four companions: the Hangman, Riz, Fig, and Gilear, sort of have the run of the place to themselves as the tribunal is taking care of some business and doing some research in interim."
Synopsis[]
Wretchrot, a scorpion tailed imp made of Fig's own blood, whose wings aren't quite big enough to fly decent distances is leading Fig and Riz through the ramps of the bottomless pit. Gilear apologises for being useless in the tribunal. Wretchrot says that Gilear must have lots of useful blood. Fig proposes to Riz that if she took over Gorthalax's she might be able to revoke the permission Arianwen had granted to enter the realm of the nightmare king but he thinks that's unlikely as he just opened the wall. She then wonders if her ruling the realm would mean she would gain enough rank to open the wall. Wretchrot says that not all devils are powerful enough to claim a throne and that he wouldn't be. He leads them to Gorthalax's study. Riz starts looking through the books for information on the unnamed god and precedents for Fig taking over. They find nothing about the shadow cat in Gorthalax's small personal library. Fig finds a in instruction book for succubi that she thinks might contain relationship advice, but finds it instead contains vile instructions for capturing souls through sexual acts. There is a whole slew of information on how to conduct a legal coup within the 9 Hells. Wretchrot suggests they go to the hot tubs for more useful stuff. They see sets of armour in the hall of sin, one for each of the seven deadly sins. Fig is disturbed by the villainy in the product of her blood. Wretchrot suggests that they should touch the armour to absorb its power, gleeful that this would destroy them. They encounter the masks of the previous usurpers forced to watch the results of their failure for eternity. When they pass the mirrors they see the imp as a drop of blood and there is a reflection of Kalina who then appears outside of the mirror talks to Riz. The motorcycle's reflection is a hairless hellhound. Their books and coins appear re reflected normally, Riz can't see the Kalina in the reflection of the photo even though he can when he looks at it normally. Kalina whispers a threat in Riz's ear. He says he's going to get more things to show to the illusion revealing mirror.
Back in Arborly, Adaine tell them what Fig and Ayda were up to when they disappeared the other night. Gorgug exchanges some texts with Zelda then calls Arthur Aguefort, Adaine takes over and says that one of the coins from Kalvaxus may have a rune hiding a spellbook. She asks if the money they have is directly from his hoard. Arthur says that this is complicated by the fact that Kalvaxus's hoard was a bit of a vague concept and that the magical effect might have been transferred to the concept of the hoard in general. He also mentions that that dragon madness can creep up on you and that he definitely mentioned it before. He also says that it's a very difficult curse to detect as its effect is slow and that makes it nearly impossible to dispel. They realise the money they have been spending is probably cursed.
In Hell Riz finds a bit of broken mirror and walks out to find Kalina, they walk towards the pit to find his father. She mentions that Kristen's trick with the van is a great bit of magic, which gets him very paranoid. She reaches into the wall of the pit and opens a doorway "to another level", at the end of a black hallway he sees a bright light, as he cranes to look, a bit of the wall crumbles and Kalina startles him. She tries to temp him into walking down the hall, he writes a note to Fig saying what he's doing and then enters the hall. Trailing a rope he walks down the hall and feels things watching him and chittering in the darkness. He finds a lamp over a table and chair and a Gagged and bound Pok Guggak just beyond the edge of what his rope will let him reach. He sees something splashed on his dad which corrodes his skin. He draws his gun briefly, then holsters it and unties himself. Kalina warns him that if he leaves his rope behind to enter the light he will be in the Iron City of Dis surrounded by devils in a completely different hell to the ones his friends are in. He pulls out the mirror and sees his father in it. He retreats to the ledge to the sounds of his fathers interrogators. She suggests that if he doesn't stop the Abernats from completing the ritual that "someone" might be able to come back. After taunting him about how his dad, like other spies, wasn't really a good person she disappears and he retreats back to Fig.
Fig and Riz decide to try to get Bill Seacaster to rescue Riz'z dad. They light the beacon. Riz finds a clause in the laws of hell that means that a coup doesn't have to be fatal, it just has to defeat the leader. Fig might have already accomplished this.
The Arborly group discuss the situation in the Hangvan. They raise the possibility that Adaine's mother is just appearing to be mean and help Kalina because she's being spied on and might not really have those motives. From Arianwen's notes it looks like she had too many big leaps that suggest she had big help. Ayda contacts Adaine and then arrives via teleport with her new familiar, a tropical fish in a floating sphere of water, Garthy and Adaine the Fish. Adaine suggests they shorten that to GAF most of the time. Ayda wants to rescue Fig immediately. The Compass Pont library is now closed and Ayda has the most powerful books with her. She wants to destroy all the devils. They send a message to Fig telling her that Ayda is there wanting to invade hell and to find out about Kalvaxus, she relies that she's king now and looking for Riz's dad and Seacaster and invites them. Adya says that the best way might be to contact her father in order to steal his watch for additional research time. Gorgug thinks it would be easier to call him as he sneaks out to do so on is crystal. He tells Arthur that he thinks Ayda would benefit from a relationship with him and could they please borrow his watch. Arthur says that trying to steal the watch would be been unwise and said that Ayda had previously told him to never contact her. Arthurs lends Gorgug the watch, pre-set to 7 days (after which it will automatically return) and asks him to relay some information to Ayda. When Gorgug does this Ayda says that her notes only go back 150 years and so doesn't know anything about the first 150 years after she told her dad never to contact her or why she told him that. They trigger the 7 day time freeze.
Simultaneously in hell the tribunal is called back into session. Fig and Riz argue that as she is Gorthalax's daughter and was the one who trapped him in the Gem that she is now lawful ruler of his domain. Vraz swears her in as arch-devil with a kiss on the lips, which burst into flame and a flaming pentagram on her forehead. Both of these fade. Fig's position as archdevil grants her full immunity to fire damage and resistance to poison. Riz and Gilear are declared free to go, but the Hangman has to go to the hell it was originally from, which is not Gorthalax's. A devil emerges from the back of the courtroom, he says they are filing an injunction and hands Vraz a scroll. When Vraz unrolls it to read that it simply says the law of the blade she is stabbed by Bill Seacaster as he drops his disguise. The roof of the court breaks and they are all hoisted up into his waiting ship.
As they fly away Bill tells them that the ship made form the still conscious Kalvaxus has been rechristened Goldrenrod as that's the name that he hated most. They fly off to rescue Pok Gukgak. Alistair is there as crew and though he would definitely kill Fabian on site he is thrilled to be paying just 50 gold a month to be on Bill's crew.
At the shrine Kristen starts drawing the mural and her ghostly philosophy postgrads start to appear. She lets them go as she says that she thinks she's moving on with her life. She returns to the others with the drawing. Tracker can look at this drawing even though she can't approach the original. With the influences of the studious atmosphere near Adain and Ayda Gorgug gets slightly smarter. Adaine notices that Ayda has a side project that she is keeping quiet.
After the seven days are up Ayda casts plane shift and the whole part is suddenly transported to the deck of the Goldenrod as it sails upside down on the fiery sky. Alistair attacks Fabian and a host of devils pour out of the bottomless pit to pursue the ship. In response, Ayda opens a nautical portal to flood hell. Bill summons his fleet of ships made from the corpses of flying creatures to join the fight.
Locations[]
Featured Characters[]
The Bad Kids[]
New[]
Returning[]
Mentioned[]
Quotes[]
"When you're here, you're family. It's called ‘Being Gay.’" ― Kristen to Ayda
"These devils don't likely know that Fig is a wizard's paramour. They don't know the horrible mistake they've made. They don't know of the terrible vengeance that will be brought down on their head… If I had thought ahead I would have sent missives to all the planes of the great wheel that the wizard Ayda Aguefort had come into the contact of a paramour and that none should harm her lest they face the wrath of a wizard… I don't hold a personal vendetta against the devils. I don't want to torture them or to teach them a lesson, I'm just going to unravel them. I'm just going to take them apart into their component ideas and discard them at the edge of time and space." ― Ayda
"Look it's simple, there are lots of magic that devils just won't be expecting. You know you can use their true name and again, I just want them, I don't just want them gone from reality, I want the space they occupied in reality to be gone as well." ― Ayda
"I’m going to flood hell! This is the top and it only goes down from here." ― Ayda