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 blood, whose wings aren't quite big enough to fly meaningful distances is leading Fig and Riz down the ramps of the Bottomless Pit. Riz asks the Hangman if he would be safer in Hell since it is the dominion of Devils and she might not be able to access him here. Gilear apologises for being useless in the tribunal and he is actively looking for more opportunities to be useful. Wretchrot suggests that Gilear must have lots of useful blood. Fig now calling Wretchrot "Baby" tells him the blood is off limits in this party. Fig proposes to Riz that if she took over Gorthalax's dominion she might be able to revoke the permission Arianwen was granted to enter the realm of the Nightmare King but he thinks that's unlikely as they have already entered the forest. She then wonders if her ruling the realm would mean she would gain a high enough rank to open the wall and the party could enter. Wretchrot says that not all devils are powerful enough to claim a throne and that he wouldn't be. The Hangman agrees. Wretchrot leads them to Gorthalax's Study of Darkness. Riz starts looking through the books for information on the unnamed god and any precedents for Fig taking over. They find nothing about the shadow cat. 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 slew of encyclopedias on how to conduct a legal coup within the Nine Hells. Wretchrot suggests they go to the hot tubs and look at other treasures. They see seven sets of armour and weaponry in the Hall of Sin, one for each of the deadly sins. Fig is disturbed by the villainy of where they are particularly the product of her blood. Wretchrot suggests that they should touch the armour to absorb its power, gleeful that this would destroy them through the victory the armor would provide them. They encounter infernal masquerade masks of the previous usurpers that sought to take the throne and are forced to watch the results of their failure for eternity . When they pass a mirror hung in a hallway they see the imp as a drop of blood and there is also reflection of Kalina following Riz. She then appears outside of the mirror and talks to Riz. She walks down the hallway and suggests he join her. The motorcycle's reflection is a hairless soot-covered hellhound with burning eyes. Their books and coins appear reflected normally, Riz holds up the the photo to the mirror and doesn't see Kalina, even though he can when he looks at it normally. Kalina whispers in Riz's ear "Do you wanna see your dad again?" and tells Riz his dad is here and she can show him to Riz. He says he's going to get more things to show to the illusion revealing mirror and walks off in the direction of Kalina.
The next morning in Arborly, Adaine tell the group what Fig and Ayda were at "Smooch Central" when they disappeared the other night during the party and the group celebrates. Gorgug exchanges some texts with Zelda then calls Arthur Aguefort for Adaine. She struggles to him know that one of the coins from Kalvaxus may have a rune hiding a spell book so Fabian takes over the call while the rest of the infected party members leave the room. They ask 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 likens it to Theseus' Paradox. The magical effect might have been transferred to the concept of the hoard in general. He informs them that dragon madness can creep up on you and insists that he probably mentioned it before. He also says that dragon madness is a very difficult curse to detect as its effect is slow and that makes it nearly impossible to dispel and there could be another curse hiding under it. They realise the money they have been spending is probably cursed. Gorgug suggests they give away their money to avoid the curse. The group argues about giving away their newfound wealth as some people don't have rich parents. Gorgug says he might give away his money as an experiment to see what effect this could have.
In Hell, Riz finds a shard of illusion revealing 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. He ties a rope around himself in case Kalina tries to knock him in to the pit. At the end of a black hallway he sees a bright fluorescent light, as he cranes around to look, a bit of the rock wall crumbles and Kalina startles him. As she tries to tempt him into going further, he writes a note to Fig saying what he's doing and then starts walking. As he walks, he senses things watching him and hears chittering in the darkness. At the end of the hall he finds a lamp hanging over a table, a chair, and a gagged and dazed Pok Gukgak. Riz runs towards him but gets pulled back by his rope tether. Something gets splashed on his dad which corrodes his skin. Riz draws his gun briefly to shoot the hanging light but hears a voice in his head suggesting he shoot his dad as the "kind thing" to do. He then holsters it and unties himself from his tether. 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 reflected in it. He retreats to the ledge at the sound of his fathers interrogators. When Riz asks why she is doing this, Kalina tells him that she has known him his whole life, as he was born infected with her, and this is an act of good faith. She suggests that if he doesn't stop the Abernats from completing the ritual that someone might be able to come back and they would be able to free his dad from hell. After taunting him about how his dad, like other spies, wasn't really a good person she disappears and he heads back to Fig.
Riz lets Fig and Gilear know what happened with Kalina and that his dad is in hell. Riz discusses the possibility that Pok might have had an affair with Kalina and whether it means anything that he was born infected. Fig suggests they try to get Bill Seacaster to rescue Riz's dad. The Hangman mentions he previously tried to get a message to Bill on behalf of Fabian but he is unsure if he received it as he is being pursued by the armies of the Nine Hells. Wretchrot suggests Fig light a beacon for Bill to be able to find them. While they wait for help, 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 by putting Gorthalax into the gem.
The Arborly group discuss their situation in the Hangvan. They discuss why Arianwen bought all of the same ingredients of a tincture that can rid Kalina from an infected person. Gorgug raises the possibility that Adaine's mother is just appearing to be in charge and help Kalina because she's being spied on by Kalina and might not really have these motives. From Arianwen's notes, it looks like she had too many big leaps in her research and that suggests she had help from the shadow cat. They discuss the witch goddess and the curses that she placed for the trans-substantiations as well as Pok having previously requisitioned the same research when he was alive. 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 as it has less syllables. The Compass Points Library is now closed and Ayda has taken the most powerful books and spells with her. She shares her research with the group and begins to cry due to being so stressed and tired. They give her an ice cream sandwich and comfort her. Ayda wants to rescue Fig immediately and destroy all the devils as they don't know the horrible vengeance they have enacted by taking the paramour of a wizard. Adaine reassures her that Fig wasn't taken by the devils. They send a message to Fig telling her that Ayda is in Arborly wanting to invade hell and asks her to find out about dragon madness from Kalvaxus. Fig responds that she's king now, looking for Bill Seacaster and trying to save Riz's dead dad, she invites them to come to hell. Adya says that the best way might be to contact her father in order to get him there to steal his time-augmenting watch which could give them additional research time. Gorgug thinks it would be easier to call him and he sneaks out to do so on his crystal. He tells Arthur that he thinks Ayda would benefit from a relationship with him as he knows it's a tough thing to be looking for your parents and that she has had to raise herself over and over again. He also quickly asks if they could please borrow his watch. Arthur says that trying to steal the watch would have been unwise for the wrath they would have incurred and that 300 years ago Ayda told him to never contact her again, though he assumes she has reconstituted herself many times since then. Arthur lends Gorgug the watch since it seems like Ayda would like to have it. He magics it into Gorgug's pocket pre-set to freeze time for seven days (after which it will automatically return to him) and asks him to mention what was said in their conversation to Ayda and says he is open to speaking with her if her feelings have changed. When Gorgug does this, Ayda sadly says that she didn't know she was that old and that she wishes Fig was there. Her personal notes for her future selves only go back for three previous lifetimes, about 150 years. The earliest note included an apology from herself saying that she destroyed all her previous notes and she wanted to start over but later regretted it and started keeping notes again. Ayda says that she hates that past self so much. She doesn't know anything about her life before she told her dad never to contact her or why she told him that. They trigger the seven day time freeze and begin to study the Plane Shift spell, investigate the Shrine of Thorns, and do additional research.
Meanwhile 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 the Mean begrudgingly and mockingly swears her in an archdevil and Lady of the Bottomless Pit with a quick kiss on the lips, which burst into flame and a flaming pentagram appears on her forehead though they then fade from sight. 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 return to the hell it was originally from, which is not Gorthalax's. A devil emerges from the back of the courtroom, he says "Good evening, we be filing an injunction" and hands Vraz a scroll. As Vraz unrolls it to read that it simply says "The Law of the Blade" she is stabbed by Bill Seacaster as he drops his devil disguise. The roof of the court breaks open and they are all hoisted up into his waiting red dragon 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 in life. Bill notices that Fig is now an archdevil though she expresses conflict with now being in charge of a pit that punishes murderers and thieves. They fly off to rescue Pok Gukgak. Alistair is there as a crew member and though he will kill Fabian on site if he ever sees him again, he is thrilled to be paying just 50 gold a month to be on Bill's crew.
With time frozen in Arborly, at the shrine Kristen starts sketching the mural on the wall into her drawing pad and her spirit guardian philosophy grad students start to appear. She speaks with them about how this is probably the only image of this god. They respond back to her that academically it's interesting but it's just another image of a god and it's fake and doesn't matter. Kristen shares she finds this gods tenets interesting as well as its relation to Galicaea and Tracker's beliefs. Kristen realizes that it might be time to let the grad students go as she says that she thinks she's moving on and needs something real instead of constantly thinking about how everything is made up. She returns to the group with the drawing. Tracker is able to look at this drawing even though she can't approach the original. and feels Kristen drawing the mural is important and becomes emotional looking at it. With the influence of the studious atmosphere being around Adaine 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 party is suddenly transported to the deck of the Goldenrod as it sails upside down in the fiery sky. Alistair attacks Fabian and a host of devils including Vraz the Mean pour out of the Bottomless Pit to pursue the ship. In response, Ayda opens a nautical portal to flood hell with sea water. 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