Dawn of Justice is the fourteenth episode of Fantasy High: Junior Year.
Intro[]
"Last we left off, the gang was back at the Aguefort Adventuring Academy heading into the spring! ... We had just wrapped up in Fallinel for the Moonar Yulenear with all the family around. Our gang had gone to Hell. They went to the recording studio in the Bottomless Pit. Baby had another imp made, which was Baby Baby. We met Bill Seacaster. We met Pok Gukgak. We met Rip the sound engineer, who's a spine devil."
"And we got a lot of info about Bakur, Athenriel, the fact that Athenriel was made into Bakur. We learned about some of the timeline of Ankarna, who had been the sister of Ruvina, these twin giant deities of winter and summer together, who had married one of the Sylvan gods, Cassandra, none other than Kristen Applebees' goddess. How wild."
"In downtime, we had a quick stop off at the Court of Stars, where Adaine finally got paid after Fabian won a dance contest. ... And we learned about who Ankarna was prior to becoming this fiendish version of herself. Her fiendish domain, of course, was fire, rage, conquest. But in an earlier iteration, she had been a goddess of summer, of the sun, of clarity, certainty, judgment, discernment, justice, and retribution. Which you kind of see how you get from A to B there, but those are not strictly speaking the same thing. And there was a conversation that Bakur had had with Gorthalax way back in the day, that Gorthalax was able to share because by finding the name, you had bypassed Obliviati Mori and creatures were able to speak to you of that deity that had gone away. That distinction there being that it was almost as though Ankarna had incentive to become the way that she was, due to something to do with her mortal followers. That you gotta play the hits, to a certain degree. And you gotta give the people what they want."
"End of last week's episode, Adaine with the new gig and giving her two weeks at Basrar's. Fabian running down Owlbears, and I believe also, Fabian, once again acing your various exams. Fig and Fabian also chased down and assaulted Fabian's banker, Alston Hughes. However, we ended last week's episode on Kristen walking right into cleric class and meeting face to face with the priest of Sol himself, Mr. Bobby Dawn."
Synopsis[]
Downtime, continued[]
Bobby Dawn begins teaching Kristen Applebees' cleric class, promising not to proselytize for Sol and instead to provide teaching for followers of all deities. Nevertheless, Kristen recognizes the structure of a Solar sermon in his teaching. On her downtime rolls, Kristen earns an A+ in cleric class. Flirting with Gertie Bladeshield, Kristen learns that she's only provided Kipperlilly Copperkettle a handful of bottles of devil's honey, but that she ordered more than normal the most recent time, right after holiday break, that she's presumably using it in the food trucks, and that she'd been ordering it even before Lucy Frostblade died. Gertie also calls herself and Kristen "star-crossed" due to Gertie being Fabian's nemesis.
Kristen also goes to meet with her parents, Mac and Donna, and her younger siblings at Krom's Diner. Bucky greets her with a hug and complains that the rest of his party refuses to convert to Helio. Mac and Donna offer to take Kristen back home but also upset her by speaking poorly of Yolanda Badgood, not realizing she had been murdered rather than fired. Kristen brings up the godly wedding contract she saw on Fallinel and asks how the Applebees see Galicaea, which is poorly. Kristen asks to go with them to church just once, to see what Bobby Dawn's services are like. The Applebees eagerly welcome this, mentioning that there was an exodus from the church during the long night of the Night Yorb, and calling it fitting that Kristen, as Helio's chosen, brought the daytime back. As Kristen wraps up the conversation, Bucky takes note of Cassandra's twilight shards, but Mac rushes him out before he can act on his interest.
Finally, on a natural 20 on her presidential campaign, Kristen's following grows to firmly exceed Kipperlilly's. When Kipperlilly confronts her, Kristen brings up the devil's honey, and Kipperlilly angrily tells her to go fuck herself. The other Bad Kids and Rat Grinders square up, but Kristen offers Mary Ann a squishmallow to defuse the situation. Oisin apologizes to Adaine via message.
Gorgug gets an A+ in barbarian class, angrily picturing Mary Ann as the punching bag, and another A+ in artificer class, unlocking his barbificer subclass, allowing him to rage and hold concentration at the same time. After class, Gorgug secretly pokes into Henry Hopclap's notes and finds he's putting off fixing Grix until Arthur Aguefort gets back to do it instead. In the process, Gorgug also overhears Henry and Jace Stardiamond speaking opaquely about Henry's nephew Ruben, that the administration is "monitoring everything and it's all fine". Henry asks to talk in more depth, but Jace aggressively insists on waiting until the end of the year and Arthur's return before talking more about the issue.
Gorgug fails his downtime roll for the Owlbears, which he lets go without taking a rage token. He admits to Fabian that he doesn't really care about the Owlbears and was just doing it because he was good at it. A disappointed Gorthalax allows Gorgug to quit the team and promotes The Ball to replace him. Gorgug and Kristen both attempt relaxation to alleviate their stress tokens, but both fail.
On his A+ academics roll, Riz locates the name of the rogue teacher Eugenia Shadow, and information about when she died. He succeeds in his extracurriculars with flying colors. Riz also looks into the Rat Grinders and devil's honey, and finds that it affects even merely the thinking of a lie, not just speaking it -- and that the original use of it was to lie in prayer.
Jawbone mentions to Riz that the rogue teacher found Kipperlilly at 8:01 a.m. on the first day of school, the very first moment it was allowable. Jawbone also mentions that the morgue is having trouble with the runes preventing Lucy and Yolanda from being raised and that the clock is ticking before it will no longer be possible. Riz uses mage hand to sneak Kipperlilly's file out of Jawbone's office. He finds that she's been coming to the guidance counselor since freshman year for anger issues, targeted at Riz even as far back as freshman year.
The Bad Kids all attend Riz's first Owlbears game and pitch in help via bardic inspiration and portent to help him just barely survive.
Fig returns to her recording studio in the Bottomless Pit to write an incredibly good metal song called "Dawn of Justice", after which a bright light with a gust of shattered red anger crystals appears in the depths of the Pit. On consultation with Kristen, it seems this indicates Ankarna's vacant domain has been reserved in the Pit so other deities cannot claim it. Fig also casts create greater steed to summon a fiery, sunlight-emitting stallion of the kind Ankarna may have once ridden.
Fig gets an A+ in paladin class. She asks Porter about the Mountains of Chaos, which he mentions are a routine adventure location for freshmen and sophomores, including The Seven and the Rat Grinders in the past. Next, Fig uses her dream spell to visit Lola Embers' dream, where she finds Lola remembering an email conversation with Ruben about the podcast "Wanda" had sent him to, with Jace's school email address also looped into the conversation. Fig tries to get information about god-summoning, but Lola is confused, and mentions only that Jace is the reason Ruben has quit touring and insisted on the Thistlespring Tree as the location for the Frostyfaire Folk Festival.
Fig sends a note to Zara Sool to explain why she's not attending class, but earns an A+ anyway. Fig also fails a relaxation roll.
After downtime[]
Early to mid April arrives. Combing further into Kipperlilly's file, Riz finds mention of going to a cemetery in Ashgrove, and realizes the connection with the rogue professor, who is a ghost. Meanwhile, midterm report cards come in just before spring break, and Kristen's shows that she is failing cleric class and is being expelled, instantly inflicting Riz with a stress token. The Bad Kids go to Jawbone, who looks up her record and finds that Bobby Dawn has rescinded the special allowance Yolanda Badgood had given for pursuit of the cleric track without a living divinity.
Kristen goes to Bobby Dawn, feigning tears and telling him Cassandra's twilight shards have turned to "dusty sand". She pretends she wants to switch deities back to Helio, but even so, he is not willing to reverse her expulsion. Jawbone mentions to the rest of the party that their grades are so good, they can take the Last Standard exam. This endurance test, overseen by Proctor Gavin Pundle, replicates the conditions of a desperate last stand, posing academic questions during a grueling fight against monsters, with clerics on the sidelines for when the students are inevitably killed.
The next day, Jawbone shows the Bad Kids to the principal's office, where he uses a different doorknob to open the way to a coliseum arena setting filled with illusory copies of Arthur Aguefort cheering for (and against) the kids. In the center of the arena, at the top of a raised platform, Gavin Pundle stands. On the outskirts of the arena, Buddy Dawn -- not Bobby -- is on volunteer duty to raise the Bad Kids after the test. Around the field, six desks are stationed with two academic questions apiece, which the Bad Kids must each solve.
Before the battle begins, Kristen casts death ward on Gavin Pundle and bless on the party, as well as circle of power. Adaine casts Mordenkainen's faithful hound to summon Moggy the Doggy to guard Gavin Pundle, summons four dust mephits around the arena, and sets up Rary's telepathic bond connecting the party, and mirror image on herself. Riz casts haste on himself and hides. Fig is riding the fiery steed of Ankarna, is disguised as the proctor, has armor of Ayda on herself and her steed, and has spirit guardians in the form of the red crystals. Fabian is riding the Hangman and, with the pipes of the sewer, summons three swarms of rats under his command. Gorgug puts a warding bond on Kristen and casts jump and bull's strength on himself.
When they find out the test will go on until they are all killed regardless of how well they do on the questions, the Bad Kids raise an objection to Buddy Dawn's role given the Rat Grinders' rivalry against them. Gavin Pundle assures them that Buddy has sworn a magical oath that he will lose his divine connection to his deity if he does not raise them. An illusory Aguefort points out that technically they may survive, since the amount of monsters is technically limited. Meanwhile, Gorgug's academic excellence earlier in the year allows the group two free passes they can apply to any two of the twelve academic questions.
The Bad Kids ready a wide series of attacks as the first wave of monsters sweeps in.
Round One[]
An otyugh, a gorgon, a hydra and a mob of skeletons charge in through the four gates on the four cardinal directions of the arena. Fabian's groups of rats successfully attack the hydra's body and the skeletons, but not the gorgon. Adaine's mephits cast sleep spells that successfully affect three skeletons, but not any of the other monsters.
The Bad Kids all take their readied actions. Riz pops out with a sneak attack shot against the otyugh, at which point three late ochre jellies emerge behind it, one of which is split into two smaller ones by an attack of opportunity by a mephit. Fabian shoots the hydra with his crossbow with the help of Kristen's help action. Fig tries and fails to hit the gorgon with booming blade. Gorgug throws his axe and cleaves off one of the hydra's heads. Adaine follows this up with a fiery chromatic orb to cauterize the wound and prevent regrowth of more heads.
As initiative begins, Riz opens up the "investigation" folder on his desk. The question is: "Bony Girth", which he anagrams out to "Night Yorb," getting the question correct. Riz then uses misty step to get in range to attack the otyugh with his sword, then disengages and runs back to his desk.
Fabian stops blowing his pipes and goes to his desk, which is a mimic with two folders deep in its vicious throat that attacks him as he approaches. Fabian reaches in to grab the "athletics" folder. The question is: "What rival Bloodrush team do our beloved Owlbears most often compete against?" He correctly answers the Hellions, then dismounts from the Hangman and asks it to turn into its hellhound form to attack the hydra with him. In a flurry of attacks, he lops off all four remaining heads and the Hangman releases a breath of fire that destroys the last of its remains. Finally, Fabian gives a bardic inspiration to Adaine.
Gavin Pundle makes a note in his notebook on his turn. The mimic attempts to attack Adaine but destroys one of her mirror image duplicates instead.
Fig casts a fifth-level fireball on the otyugh and ochre jellies, destroying the otyugh and the two smaller jellies (as well as the mephit in the area). The remaining two jellies are vastly diminished but do not split. Fig also hexblade's curses the gorgon. Gorgug then makes three attacks, two of which are crits, to throw his axe at the gorgon, badly bloodying it and knocking it prone. Kristen takes out Cassandra's shards and makes a prayer to her, then casts turn undead against the skeletons, obliterating all eight of them with a question-mark-shaped hook of shining purple shimmering light.
Locations[]
Characters[]
The Bad Kids[]
New[]
Returning[]
- Bobby Dawn
- Gertie Bladeshield
- Mac and Donna Applebees
- Bucky Applebees
- Kipperlilly Copperkettle
- Oisin Hakinvar
- Mary Ann Skuttle
- Buddy Dawn
- Henry Hopclap
- Porter Cliffbreaker
- Jace Stardiamond
- Tiberia Runestaff
- Gorthalax the Insatiable
- Jawbone O'Shaughnessey
- Wretchrot
- Lola Embers
- Rip
- The Hangman
- Moggy the Doggy
Mentioned[]
- Helio
- Yolanda Badgood
- Galicaea
- Conor Counterspell
- Arthur Aguefort
- Eugenia Shadow
- Ankarna
- Cassandra
- Zara Sool
- Lucy Frostblade
- The Night Yorb