Ragenarok (Part 1) is the nineteenth episode of Fantasy High: Junior Year.
Intro[]
"Last we left off, our Intrepid Heroes were racing over the skies of Elmville, storms wracking the Solisian countryside as Cassandra-slash-the Nightmare King had been summoned back as part of a divine ritual to re-Ankarna-te Porter Cliffbreaker as a new god of rage, wrath, war, and ruin. Our wonderful prophet of Cassandra, seeing her goddess brought to bear to conceal this ritual, with some clever divine intervention, not on her part, but on the part of her wizard-made simulacrum made by one Adaine Abernant, whispered "Blimey" into a GoPro strapped to a vulture. ..."
"A ray of lightning shot out of the mouth of this god, after a ruinous combat where dragons were dropping from the sky as Fig Faeth rode across her solar daymare, Gerard Neigh, to smite Grandmama Blue Dragon from the stormy skies, as Fabian ran an election and locked down 300 votes ... for the new student body president. By the way, bear in mind that in addition to all this stopping the apocalypse stuff, Kristen Applebees might be class president in her senior year."
"We got the cloud rider engine back up and running. Riz was running the cannon deck along with Eugenia Shadow. Fabian got a brand new ghost step tattoo. ... And in a proof that the dice firmly are not on my side, as a dungeon master, but are on the players' side, Cassandra intervened and opened wide her stormy mouth, that Seacaster Manor might fly through into skies wracked by rage and ruin, which is where we now return."
Synopsis[]
Return to Elmville[]
The Bad Kids and Seacaster Manor reach in Elmville at 10:20pm, less than two hours until the election concludes at midnight. Gorgug steers the coasting ship to land in a field near the Aguefort Adventuring Academy's gymnasium and Bloodrush Field. Kristen feels the absence of K2 and senses a final chance to reach out for a miracle in the simulacrum's exit.
The ship lands, and students pour out of the ship, with Jawbone, Ragh and Mazey remaining with the Bad Kids. On the way out, Gorgug shares a poignant goodbye with Unit from his artificer classes. The Bad Kids see that chaos is reigning across Elmville, with fires, sirens and gunshots, amid a muggy, humid, 107-degree night lit by slow-moving lightning crawling through the sky.
Jawbone expresses concern about their safety stewarding the votes before they are due to the gymnasium at midnight, so the group takes shelter for a short rest in Kristen's campaign HQ in the woods behind the school. Just as they enter the protection of Leomund's tiny hut, they see hundreds of shatter-stars emit from the gym out into the town. Jawbone and Ragh leave to check on Lydia and the others at Mordred Manor, with the help of Adaine's fly spell.
As they rest, the Bad Kids reapply various buffs across the party, including see invisibility. For the first time, Kristen casts ice feast, a homebrewed spell that applies a level of exhaustion and light cold damage to everyone in exchange for immunity to fire damage and the stun condition, advantage on constitution saves, and a significant boost to maximum hit points. Kristen taps her miracle to reach out and bring back a spectral K2, who with the help of the Staff of Doubt casts several greater restorations to cure everyone's exhaustion.
11:30 arrives, and the Bad Kids end their short rest and rock up to the gym. Riz has see invisibility and mage hand up. Gorgug has haste, drinks his fire giant potion, and goes into a rage. Fig has sacred weapon and spirit guardians, as well as two vultures, and is disguised as Wanda Childa and riding Gerard Neigh. Adaine has mirror image, see invisibility, Rary's telepathic bond, and the fly spell on herself, Fabian and Gorgug. Fabian and Mazey are mounted on the Hangman with the duffle bag of votes, and Fabian has attuned to his ghost step tattoo and uses his pipes to summon all the rats from Rat World. Kristen has twilight sanctuary and steps of night. K2 has greater invisibility and see invisibility. Kristen handcuffs the bag of votes to Mazey for safekeeping. Fig FaceTimes Squeem, who still has her original phone from the beginning of the year and has been wandering for 10 months, having just reached Elmville, so Fig urges him to join them in the gym.
The Bad Kids bust into the gymnasium and find the Rat Grinders, Jace, and Porter waiting for them. Ruben is surprised at Wanda Childa's presence, while Porter notes Fig's "absence", and the Bad Kids tell them that Fig died killing Oisin's grandmother. Buddy threatens to slaughter the Bad Kids in the name of Bacharath, which he still believes is the name despite Porter knowing it had been a trick. Notably, the Bad Kids also realize Kipperlilly is missing, even from their see invisibility.
Porter goes into a rage, glowing with red light and growing to 15 feet tall. His transformation sends a wave of stun energy across the Bad Kids, who are immune thanks to the ice feast. The gymnasium cracks into pieces with a surge of Porter's rage as the incomplete ritual begins to go unstable and the rage dimension that is the carcass of Ankarna begins to bleed into Spyre. At the last moment, Kristen casts bless on the party.
Battle, Round One[]
Riz hides, then targets Porter, Mary Ann, Ruben, and Buddy with a slow spell in a magical ambush, which Ruben is unable to counterspell thanks to Riz being hidden. Porter uses a legendary resistance, while Buddy saves and the other two are slowed. Riz finally runs for cover behind the basketball hoop. Ivy shoots the Hangman's fuel tank, halving its speed.
Fig flies toward Oisin and hits him with green-flame blade and smite, breaking Oisin's concentration and also dealing spillover damage to Ivy nearby. Fig's vultures grapple Oisin and drag him behind the other basketball hoop to disrupt his line of sight with Adaine and the rest of the party. Fig also uses hexblade's curse against Porter.
Fabian directs the Hangman to move as far forward as possible. He then leaps off it, turns into a ghost, and flies further forward to attack Ivy, striking her twice, including with a defensive flourish, which quickly downs her. He also shoots Oisin with his hand crossbow for minor damage, which bloodies the wizard. At the end of Fabian's turn, Porter uses a legendary action to leap between Fig and Fabian and create difficult terrain as the gymnasium floor shatters further.
Kristen casts aura of vitality on herself, then flies down into the void beneath the floorboards and positions herself beneath the crowd of Rats. At the end of her turn, Porter uses a legendary action to swing at Fabian despite his defensive flourish, and Fabian is knocked prone by the force damage of the heavy swing of Porter's maul. Ruben moves toward Buddy, looks toward Wanda Childa, and casts a 9th-level psychic scream targeting everyone except K2, Kristen, Riz and the rats. Everyone takes heavy damage, the Hangman breaks down, the vultures and Boggy the Froggy are destroyed, and Fig loses concentration on her spirit guardians.
Porter angrily orders his allies to "get the name!" and attacks those near him, damaging Fabian, bringing Fig down to 1 HP, and destroying Gerard Neigh. At the last moment, Riz notices Kipperlilly attacking him, so she is unable to deal sneak attack damage as she slashes him. He responds with an opportunity attack that deeply injures her as she jumps back down beneath the floor. Mary Ann slowly dashes to Jace, complaining that she doesn't feel good. Buddy tries to cast dispel magic to remove the slow from Ruben, but "Wanda" counterspells it, revealing herself as Fig and lambasting Ruben and his music.
Adaine, seeing that all of the Rat Grinders, Jace, and Porter are all clustered together, casts synaptic static on all of them. Mary Ann and Oisin succeed. They all take damage, and those who failed suffer muddled thoughts and must subtract a d6 from attack rolls, ability checks, and concentration checks. Ruben loses concentration, while Buddy and Mary Ann make their concentration saves. Jace rolls four concentration saves, failing three of them. Concluding her turn, Adaine flies forward to get in range for future counterspells. Mazey gives bardic inspiration to Fabian and makes unarmed strikes against Porter.
Jace splits into four copies of himself, each of which have their own additional mirror images. The first Jace moves forward and uses detect thoughts to pry Ankarna's name out of Fig's head. He shouts it for everyone to hear, which shatters the gym even further apart. The second Jace drops Fabian to zero with finger of death, while the third Jace drops Fig as well. The fourth Jace restrains Adaine with flesh to stone.
Gorgug, with fly and haste, flies fully across the gym and makes two reckless attacks on Oisin with his returning axe as well as a frenzy attack, which lands a crit that defeats Oisin with a heavy blow to his chest. With his last hasted action, Gorgug jumps onto Porter's back and grapples him, yanking him by the throat into the wall to the side. With a legendary action, Porter slams his maul into Gorgug.
Round Two[]
Riz unsuccessfully attempts to investigate where Kipperlilly is, then hops down into the crevasse below the gym floor and misty steps further forward. He then shoots Porter with his radiant-damage gun. Riz then submerges himself into the lava below thanks to his immunity to fire with ice feast, prompting Kipperlilly to exclaim "What the fuck?", revealing her location. Fig fails a death save, while Fabian succeeds one. Porter takes another swing at Gorgug.
Kristen continues flying beneath the floorboards toward a position that gets her within 30-foot range of all her allies, then casts mass cure wounds to restore health to all the Bad Kids plus Mazey, bringing Fig and Fabian back to consciousness. K2, still invisible, also casts mass cure wounds on the party. Ruben casts dominate person on Mazey to make her want to throw the bag of ballots into the lava. Fig attempts to counterspell with the aid of Gorgug's flash of genius, but is counter-counterspelled by all three of the Jaces.
Porter bellows in a frightening presence that inflicts Fig, Adaine, and Fabian with the fear condition as he shouts his claim to godhood. Porter then makes three reckless attacks on Gorgug, which knock him out despite Adaine's silvery barbs. Porter picks up Gorgug's unconscious body and moves toward his allies. Kipperlilly shoots Adaine and then hides again. Mary Ann, still slowed, moves a single step over to Jace and tugs on him to help her. Buddy uses dispel magic to remove Ruben's slow.
Adaine casts dispel magic to remove the domination on Mazey, as well as a counterspell to counter the last Jace's counterspell. At the end of her turn, Adaine crits on her first of three saves to end the flesh to stone effect on her. Porter misses a swing at Fabian, and Mazey multiattacks Porter with a crit and heals Gorgug with a healing word.
One of the Jaces hits Adaine with a lightning bolt. Another dispels the slow on Mary Ann. The other two Jaces both cast Bigby's hand, one of which attacks Fabian and the other grappling Mazey and the bag of votes. Gorgug loses his turn because he lost haste. At the end of his turn, Porter attacks Gorgug again. Gorgug unsuccessfully uses hologram displacement to try to deflect the attack, and goes down again.
Porter howls, and the gym continues to fragment as Ankarna's rage dimension of a carcass bleeds even further through into reality. The Hangman and the rats slip through the cracks into the lava. Porter calls out for everyone with a Rage Token to turn turncoat and join him -- but none of the Bad Kids have ever taken one. He asks them why they would fight to defend a place that runs them ragged and took away their summer to chase the Night Yorb. Fig calls bullshit on Porter's "morals" while Adaine counters that the Night Yorb was their fault and their responsibility to seal away. Porter is slightly disappointed by this response and asks if anyone wants to debate him over his philosophy. The Bad Kids refuse, however, stating that Porter is just a "juiced up" 40-year-old and decide to sing happy birthday to Fabian instead, much to Porter's annoyance.
Round Three[]
Riz misty steps near Kipperlilly and pretends to hide, positioning himself in a spot where she will not be able to fire on him at range and will have to make a melee attack. He prepares a reaction for when she approaches him.
Fig flees Porter's range and draws an attack of opportunity but barely survives it. The force damage from Porter's hammer is so great that Fig's blood begins to carbonize, revealing that it was Porter who killed Yolanda Badgood. Fig leaps down into the lava and sees a vision of Ankarna, who expresses doubt about what purpose she is being called back into the world to serve. Fig tells her not to listen to Porter's call, to choose her own purpose. Out of the range of counterspells, Fig casts a massive fireball that deals heavy damage to Mary Ann, Buddy, the Jace holding Bigby's hand on Mazey, another Jace, and Ruben. This breaks concentration on the Bigby's hand as well as a spell of Buddy's, and kills Ruben, knocking him into the lava pit. Fig taunts him and sends him to the Bottomless Pit in a polka band with Rip. As Buddy's concentration on banishment breaks, the ballot dropbox returns to the gym.
Locations[]
Characters[]
The Bad Kids[]
New[]
Returning[]
- Porter Cliffbreaker
- Ivy Embra
- Kipperlilly Copperkettle
- Ruben Hopclap
- Mary Ann Skuttle
- Oisin Hakinvar
- Buddy Dawn
- Mazey Phaedra
- Ragh Barkrock
- Jawbone O'Shaughnessey
- Unit
- K2
- Squeem
- Jace Stardiamond
- Gerard Neigh
- The Hangman
- Boggy the Froggy
- Rip
Mentioned[]
Trivia[]
- Gorgug's line "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues," as confirmed in this episode and the following Adventuring Party, Zac said as part of an ongoing bit. The Intrepid Heroes have an ongoing bit that if someone successfully rolls a called shot (typically a nat 20), their requested dare must be completed. Most famously, sending Hunter Biden a switch. Ally's request was Zac had to say the line, and rolled a nat 20 requiring him to do so before cameras rolled. This seems to be the first in-character time where a player has made good on their dare.
- "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" is a reference to the 1976 Tom Robbins novel and subsequent 1993 film. It was directed and written by Gus Van Sant, and stars Uma Thurman. The movie is a notorious flop, and yet consistent with Ally's obscure pop culture references.
- "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" has significant themes of feminism, personal freedom, and LGBTQ+ liberation. Much of the action in the film takes place at a ranch named Rubber Rose. The main character's love interest, Bonanza Jellybean, rejects traditional gender roles and presentations, and holds the sincere belief that everyone should get to be who they want to be. In this sense, Gorgug's use of the line unusually overlaps with Gorgug's story throughout junior year of creating his own class (barbaficier), and romantic interest in Unit regardless of gender.