Infernal Conflict is the thirteenth episode of Fantasy High: Junior Year.
Intro[]
"Last we left off, a wonderful nat one roll on a d4. True king shit. Got us all the way out of the spectral Mordred Manor in the heart of The Ball's briefcase. Yes, on a winter trip for the Moonar Yulenear in Fallinel, where the whole fam and a bunch of the gang got teleported to Fallinel, you visited Tracker's Wolfsong encampment, where you found an ancient circle of standing stones with the original marriage contract written in stone between the gods Cassandra and Ankarna, with their witnesses and honor attendants of Galicaea and Ruvina, officiated by Sol. You saw multiple divine interventions occurring at once as the name was discovered and read aloud for the first time in an age of Spyre, and with some quick thinking, some counterspelling, and a dive inside of a briefcase, you found yourself face to face with Baron of the Baronies."
"There was some rooting around, exploring a nightmarish version of Mordred Manor where you fought spectral foes in the guise of mentors and loved ones and close, dear friends, and eventually all got the hell out of there with six items manifesting the broken curse of Gilear Faeth. You have gotten to the graveyard and erupt back out of The Ball's briefcase, all following a trail of screaming yellow light as the curse is broken, regathered, and you have formed all of this energy."
Synopsis[]
The Bottomless Pit[]
The Bad Kids travel through the interdimensional wormhole out of Riz's briefcase, surrounded by the twilight shards of Cassandra. Analyzing the curse energy as they go, Adaine is puzzled to detect that it seems to originate from the Armor of Pride, even though Gilear's life was bad long before he put on that armor. Looking to investigate this disparity, Adaine stores the curse energy in the Sword of Sight for later and casts plane shift to teleport the group to the Bottomless Pit.
In the recording studio that Hell has been turned into, a spine devil named Rip introduces himself to the group, offers them a piping hot seltzer, and shows them the infernal jam band. Wretchrot appears and tells Fig he's thrown out all the books, and the party rushes down to save them from getting picked up by a dump truck. To Fabian's glee, his father's ship (Kalvaxus) arrives and destroys the dump truck. Alistair Ash and Bill Seacaster greet the group as they land.
Meanwhile, Kristen dives into the dumpster of books to research the curse and discovers that all the Armors of Sin were created by different infernal deities and collected by Gorthalax; they were each created to punish a mortal for the sin associated with the armor, and the original target of the Armor of Pride was an elf of Fallinel named Athenriel. The armor passed through the family line for generations until they gave it away, but the curse remained with the patrilineal family line down to Gilear Faeth, who received the curse when his father died. Fig realizes that when Gilear put the armor back on, it compromised the rules of the curse and made her vulnerable to make the pact that brought the curse onto her.
Bill Seacaster asks about how things are going in the world above. When told about the presidential race, he advises Kristen to kill Kipperlilly Copperkettle. Adaine asks him about the Cloud Rider, but he doesn't know anything specific about it; he says he just had his banker buy up as many magic engines as possible. He also advises them on how to intimidate men by holding them by the scrotum, and offers them all guns to enable this intimidation. Bill advises Fig on how to set up a warlock patronage pyramid scheme, and he charges 40 gold to write her a fake agreement to turn in for her school assignment. Asking about Fabian's nemeses, Bill praises him as a "maximum legend" for getting Kristen's "girlfriend" on the list. He compliments Fabian's "maximum legend" neck tattoo and goes over it with his own tattoo gun to make it from solid, real gold, making it a magical tattoo that makes Fabian immune to gold-related curses.
While Fabian and Gorgug stay behind with Bill, Fig, Adaine, Kristen, and Riz head to the Hall of Sin to investigate the other armors. The walls are decorated with Baby's albums, which mostly consist of Baby saying his own name. While talking about them, Baby confesses loneliness, so Fig creates another blood imp called Baby Baby. While investigating the armors, the group finds the same non-rune rune that was on the sternums of Yolanda and Lucy is on the Armor of Pride, which reveals itself under Riz's detect good and evil as the name Ankarna, who made the armor for Athenriel.
Pok Gukgak calls to check in with Riz, having detected the invocation of Ankarna, a name they haven't pinged in a thousand years. Riz explains the situation, and Pok researches Athenriel, who it turns out was not a follower of Ankarna and his soul is not on the Upper Planes. Athenriel was a druid predating the Court of Stars who made many menhirs and standing stones in Fallinel, perhaps including the marriage contract. The group also asks Pok about Kalina and the spy's tongue curse and her mention of Ragh, which he says may be the closest thing outside the curse that she can mention to point toward the protected secret. Pok looks up Ankarna's divine realms, which are listed as within The Nine Hells, but none active, but multiple overall, and the file is corrupted. Pok says it's possible Sol may be behind Ankarna's death, since gods who share a domain tend not to get along with each other.
The party reunites with Fabian, Gorgug, and Bill, the latter two of whom are competing in a buttered-versus-unbuttered ramp contest. Before signing off, Pok tells them saying the name Ankarna should be fine as long as they don't start worshipping her. Adaine asks whether she can take a four-hour nap to get her plane shift spell slot back, to which Kristen remarks that she has plane shift too, and immediately teleports them back to their parents in Fallinel.
Fallinel[]
Back in Kei Lumennura, Fig tells Gilear they've broken the curse, but when testing it, Gilear accidentally blinds himself with several mishaps, and he expresses thanks that he has his bad luck back. Lydia says Bakur had made one of his strongest attacks ever to try to get out, and that he was stronger than before. Adaine offers to use the massive curse energy to fuel communication with Bakur, and Lydia says not now but soon. Tracker and Nara visit, and Tracker explains that Galicaea's energy had thrown her out of the circle because there was something dangerous to her there. The Bad Kids explain the situation with Ankarna and the Armor of Pride.
Gorthalax points out that because they said the name, he is no longer restrained by Obliviati Mori and can explain that Ankarna had originally been a celestial but fell to become infernal, and in addition to being a goddess of rage and fire, her domain was also conquest. He explains Bakur was not originally a celestial, but he's not sure what Bakur's exact origins were. Like how Cassandra as the Nightmare King had performed the four transubstantiations, Ankarna had once had a set of scales that she changed into a warhammer. Fig speculates that she was originally a goddess of justice that turned into one of conquest, and Gorthalax mentions her studying conquest as part of her changing to match her worshipers' view of her.
The Bad Kids take the night to rest in Kei Lumennura. Kristen asks Tracker to ask Galicaea about Ankarna's original domain. Tracker warns, though, that now that the name is out there, they must be careful who they tell, at risk of someone beginning to believe in and worship Ankarna and revive her. So that Kristen and Tracker can speak privately, Adaine distracts Nara by asking her about the Court of Stars, and they go to visit along with Aelwyn in disguise as "Roma Childa". Adaine tells the Court of Stars she is on strike from her Elven Oracle duties because she's too busy working to try to fund her studies, and the Court of Stars offers to negotiate a labor contract with her in one month, or else have a dance competition. Adaine nominates Fabian as her dance champion.
The next morning, Lydia and the Bad Kids prepare to communicate with Bakur with the spell contact other plane. With her allotted number of questions, Adaine gets Bakur to confirm that he was once Athenriel in life, and that Ankarna was originally a goddess of summer, sun, justice and righteousness. Adaine asks whether Sol corrupted Ankarna, but Bakur turns the question back on her: Sol the god or his mortal followers? Bakur uses this question to try to wrest his way out, and Adaine must close the connection and Lydia only barely keeps him contained.
Adaine uses the remaining curse energy stored in the sword to seal away Bakur, whose elven face as Athenriel is briefly seen as he is engulfed in the curse's golden energy. After a mishap from Fabian trying to surgically remove the gem from Lydia's chest, Kristen heals her and allows the gem to be removed. Ragh tearfully thanks the Bad Kids for saving his mom. Adaine decides to use Nystul's magic aura every day to magically conceal the soul gem as an empty palimpsest.
Downtime back in Solace[]
As the next semester begins, Fabian successfully rolls on popularity to keep building up his name. He gets an A+ in bard class, absolutely schooling the immortal elven dancer representing the Court of Stars; this secures a paid stipend for the Elven Oracle and earns Fabian the title of Oracle of Dance, another paid position. Adaine gives Basrar her two weeks' notice. In further rolls, Fabian excels on the Owlbears and gets an A+ in fighter class, and he and Fig go to KVX Bank headquarters in Bastion City and threaten his banker to get a 200-gold advance from his trust.
Adaine gets an A+ in wizard class, allowing her to learn four new strong spells. On the mystery track, she looks into Kipperlilly's network and leads on where she and the Rat Grinders do their business. Finally, she rolls on relaxation and removes two stress tokens by visiting Fabian's nurse day. Now with more leeway on her plate, she has a moment to bond with Jawbone.
Kristen walks into cleric classes and meets Bobby Dawn, high priest of Sol and the new cleric teacher, who remarks on "the beginning of a bright new day".
Locations[]
Characters[]
The Bad Kids[]
New[]
- Rip
- Baby Baby
- Bobby Dawn
Returning[]
- Wretchrot
- Alistair Ash
- Kalvaxus
- Bill Seacaster
- Pok Gukgak
- Ragh Barkrock
- Wilma and Digby Thistlespring
- Gilear Faeth
- Hallariel Seacaster
- Sklonda Gukgak
- Lydia Barkrock
- Tracker O'Shaughnessey
- Princess Naradriel
- Telemaine Lomenelda
- Gorthalax the Insatiable
- Aelwyn Abernant
- Mazey Phaedra
- Basrar
- Alston Hughes
- Jawbone O'Shaughnessey
- Bakur
Mentioned[]
- Gertie Bladeshield
- Kipperlilly Copperkettle
- Ankarna
- Boggy the Froggy
- Kalina
- Zayn Darkshadow
- Cassandra
- Terpsichore Skullcleaver