Rock the Boat is the eighteenth episode of Fantasy High: Junior Year.
Intro[]
"Folks, last we left off, our Intrepid Heroes were aboard Seacaster Manor for the end-of-year Fabian Aramais Seacaster birthday bash and Kristen Applebees campaign extravaganza. Jawbone is at the polling station with a straw hat. The drinks are flowing with the guidance counselor present. There is another member of the faculty here with a spectral tattoo gun, Eugenia Shadow, ready to get to work. When's it gonna happen? You'll never know. ..."
"Last week, a trip to the Mountains of Chaos had us legend lore an ancient carving of the imperial House of Sunstone, a house of giantkin that had taken over the Mountains of Chaos in ages past and eventually become the Cliffbreakers, those mortals who worked with and eventually betrayed Bakur, who had taken their goddess of summer and the dawn and shaped her over centuries of conquest into a goddess of war, wrath, and fire."
"We came back to Elmville and did some snooping in Ruben Hopclap's manor overlooking Lake Shimmerstone, as well as Porter's office. We saw an unbelievable -- Porter's immense power, slicing the obelisk in the barbarian classroom, stomping the ground and stunning all of our heroes. And we've learned everything they needed for the ritual. What did they need for the ritual? They needed the true name of the goddess, which they do not have. They instead have the name Bakarath. ... They needed a change in the bylaws, which only the principal can do, but of course there is no principal right now. So instead, the student body president can do it, who will be elected as of midnight tonight, when the votes will be counted. But of course, the only votes that count are the ones that make it to the school. Ay-yi-yi."
"We also discovered a lot of other things they needed, they already have. Soil suffused with the energy of the shatter-stars, a population within Elmville made wrathful and angry by Ruben's performance at Frostyfaire, a protective shroud provided by The Nightmare King as storms encircle Elmville. And indeed, the plan to take all of Elmville and rip it from the Material Plane to form a new divine domain, not for Ankarna, but for her new incarnation, Porter Cliffbreaker."
Synopsis[]
As the episode begins, the Bad Kids' preparations include: Adaine has see invisibility and comprehend languages; Fig is in disguise as Wanda Childa, with her daymare in disguise as Gerard Neigh; both Fig and Gerard Neigh have armor of Ayda and spirit guardians, and Fig has eaten the Feather of the Vulture King and is wearing her orangutan mask; Riz has mage hand; Fabian has attached the Talon of the Vulture King to Fandrangor and has consumed the Liver of the Vulture King; Gorgug has eaten the Heart of the Vulture King; and Kristen has see invisibility, true seeing on Gorgug, freedom of movement on Riz, spirit guardians, circle of power, and a bless from K2.
The party-slash-electioneering is in full swing as Oisin's ping-pong balls create a homing beacon for the Nightmare King and Seacaster Manor is lifted into the sky. The unsuspecting crowd cheers, unaware that the situation wasn't planned. The kinetic motion of the storm pulls the manor away from Elmville into the distance.
Round One[]
As Jawbone expresses concern about the flight, Adaine's portent helps Fabian convince the party nothing's wrong. Jawbone is not fooled, and the party asks him to help. Sprak LeFevre tells the party that if they can get the Cloud Rider repaired, the boat can be flown.
Riz jumps up to a cannon to prepare to shoot, helped by Kristen and K2 loading it. Adaine gives Boggy the Froggy to Riz to give him advantage every turn. Fabian encourages the crowd of students to vote, convincing 130 of the 500 kids to submit their ballots right away. However, he then feels a sharp pain in his forearm as an invisible Eugenia Shadow gives him a ghost step tattoo that is classy at first but then reveals a ghost with hairy feet within it.
Gorgug and Sprak head to the basement and quickly fix the cloud rider engine, energizing the boat with the ability to fly. Adaine gives Fig the help action as she tells the crowd they're filming a music video for "Fight Me in the Sky", with all of Fig's summoned vultures are equipped with GoPros to film as they fly around.
At the end of the round, the storm launches the manor like a baseball far outside Elmville. Gorgug jumps up to the helm to steer the ship, assisted by Sprak in the rigging and Jawbone with rope rescue lines in case Gorgug is thrown off. Gorgug is able to reorient the ship toward Elmville, where the party sees a shock of red lightning attempt to strike but fizzle. Miles away, they hear a roar of anger as Porter Cliffbreaker apparently realizes he has the wrong name.
The ping-pong balls around the manor flash various colors with different runes, finally becoming lightning blue. In the distance, they hear Oisin calling out in draconic, and a flight of three dragons strafe through the clouds toward the ship. Riz uses his readied action to shoot the cannon blasts the smallest dragon out of the sky. The remaining two dragons blast the ship and Gorgug with acid.
Round Two[]
Riz casts haste on himself and prepares to fire the cannon again once Kristen reloads it. After his turn, more dragons zoom toward the ship: a blue one and a white one. They both fire their breath weapons at Gorgug and the ship, tearing through the protective wards Aelwyn had cast on the ship. Kristen and K2 reload the cannon, Riz strikes and badly injures a dragon, and Kristen leaves to go join Gorgug. Another small dragon lands on the house and breathes a cone of cold onto Gorgug, Kristen and the ship.
Fabian convinces another 70 kids to vote, then gets on the Hangman to attack the landed dragon twice, slaying it. Another blue dragon flies up next to Riz, and his evasion allows him to evade its lightning breath. Gorgug gasses the ship and rams the largest dragon, knocking it prone into a freefall. Adaine's silvery barbs prevents an opportunity attack as the ship moves away from the remaining dragons. Gorgug also lands a reckless crit with his returning ax that kills the falling white dragon. Another dragon appears and breathes a heavy plume of poison at Riz, and he narrowly makes his concentration check on haste.
Adaine directs Ragh and Mazey to help load the cannons. Jawbone also runs down to help K2 load cannons, so Adaine and Riz can both be shooting every round. Adaine lands a cannonball hit on the green dragon, then casts a lightning chromatic orb on the same dragon. At the end of her turn, the largest dragon, the grandma, arrives and breathes an incredibly powerful lightning bolt that damages Gorgug and the ship.
Fig keeps the party going, continuing to convince everyone the dragons are merely part of the music video. She also sends Eugenia to man another cannon. Fig then jumps on her steed and, with the help action from a vulture, uses green-flame blade and smite in an avenging blow against the grandma dragon, which responds with a wing attack that triggers counter damage from armor of Ayda. Fig also responds with hellish rebuke, but the wing attack knocks her and her steed both prone, and they begin to fall. After her turn, a two-headed red dragon appears in front of the ship, breathing two streams of fire that would knock down Gorgug but for his relentless endurance, which keeps him up at 1 HP.
The storms shift as the ship flies toward Elmville, forming the massive, yawning face of the partially-manifested Nightmare King, shrouded over Elmville to protect it, with Cassandra's form warped halfway into the Nightmare King's despite her remaining followers in Spyre keeping her belief alive. The Nightmare King nearly strikes the ship with a massive fist, but Gorgug is narrowly able to dodge it. Kristen casts mass cure wounds as the trailing dragons chase down the ship to catch up with it.
Round Three[]
Riz launches a cannonball at a green dragon, then uses his hasted action to help Eugenia launch another cannonball that fells it, then dives downstairs to get full cover. The largest dragon recharges its breath weapon and fires at Gorgug, Kristen and the ship, knocking out Gorgug, which causes the ship to begin to list.
Kristen casts a strong heal to return Gorgug to high hit points, then, heavily injured, retreats from the helm and is healed by K2. Kristen holds the twilight shards and prays to Cassandra. Fabian persuades another 105 students to vote, securing an incontrovertible majority of the roughly 500 votes in the student body if the votes at Seacaster are counted. He then goes to join the cannonade and lands a hit on a dragon, and finally gives bardic inspiration to Gorgug. Another dragon lands on the ship, recharges its breath weapon, and fires a lightning bolt at Gorgug.
Gorgug gasses and rams the red dragon, knocking it, too, prone out of the air and bloodying it with his thrown ax. The gassed ship flies nearly into the half-formed Nightmare King's maw. Adaine strikes the red dragon with another cannonball, then runs onto the deck and casts Adaine's furious fist to punch the blue dragon there, killing it as she launches its body flying into the distance.
The large grandma dragon approaches the ship, and with their true seeing and see invisibility, Gorgug and Adaine see Kipperlilly, Oisin, and Jace leap off her back and onto the ship. Oisin and Jace both attempt to cast something on Gorgug, then Kipperlilly uses a rune of recall to teleport all three of them away. The dragon herself uses her frightful presence, which Adaine is able to resist, then bites Gorgug and misses a claw attack on Adaine thanks to portent.
Prone and falling through the storm, Fig is rescued by Gerard Neigh, and she also sees a lone Baxter -- without Sandra Lynn -- fly into the fray. Fig throws up the shocker and flashes the party through the windows to keep the partygoers engaged and not panicking. She then attacks the grandma dragon with green-flame blade, badly bloodying her, and finally gives Gorgug a bardic inspiration. The grandma dragon swipes at Fig with her tail. One of the red dragon's heads recharges and breathes fire on Gorgug, Adaine and the ship. The remaining small dragons pester the ship and are harried by Fig's spirit guardians.
Round Four[]
Riz kills the grandma dragon by blasting a hole in her wing with a cannonball, then goes to help Eugenia, who narrowly strikes the red dragon with the help of Gorgug's flash of genius, decapitating both heads. With all the major dragons dead, the remaining smaller dragons retreat.
Kristen and K2 together run up on deck, look up at the Cassandra/Nightmare King, and cast divine intervention. Kristen's fails, but British Kristen says "blimey" and succeeds, allowing herself to be dissolved by a lightning bolt from the Nightmare King to give the ship an opening to enter its open mouth and fly down into town. As they pass through, the light of Ankarna fills the mouth, and the half-formed Nightmare King returns, for a moment, to the visage of Cassandra, who expresses that she still has hope as the Bad Kids touch down in Elmville.
Locations[]
Characters[]
The Bad Kids[]
Returning[]
- Eugenia Shadow
- Ragh Barkrock
- Mazey Phaedra
- Jawbone O'Shaughnessey
- K2
- Sprak LeFevre
- Gerard Neigh
- Oisin Hakinvar
- Kipperlilly Copperkettle
- Jace Stardiamond
- Baxter
- Cassandra/The Nightmare King