The Last Stand is the fifteenth episode of Fantasy High: Junior Year.
Intro[]
"Last we left off, the fiendish cleric teacher Bobby Dawn ... yeah, I guess not fiendish. ... The foul and loathsome Bobby Dawn ... had given Kristen, after an A+ effort, an F. This injustice will not stand. We had Gorgug achieving the grand sort of unison of his artificer and barbarian classes, but leaving the Aguefort Owlbears. We had Riz Gukgak stepping up to join the Owlbears, and discovering the name and, more importantly, life-slash-death status of the rogue teacher, Eugenia Shadow, maybe even tracking down a cemetery location. And we also had the creation of a great working of metal upon the face of the cosmos, "Dawn of Justice", moving the divine yet infernal realm of Ankarna into the bottom of the Bottomless Pit with the summoning of a fearsome daymare."
"Seeing that their grades were in terrible jeopardy, our Bad Kids leapt to action, consulting Jawbone, who got them set up for the Last Standard Examination, aka the Last Stand, a coliseum cage match where an army of cheering Arthur Agueforts hoots and hollers at your upcoming success as your proctor, Gavin Pundle, sits atop this structure in the middle of the coliseum as monsters attempt to kill him and all of you, and the goal here being to last as long as you possibly can against an impossible-to-defeat array of monsters emerging from these gates as Buddy Dawn waits on the sidelines to resurrect you when your Last Stand is concluded. And let us not forget, plenty more academic questions where that came from."
Synopsis[]
Round One, continued[]
The battle picks back up in the middle of Kristen's turn. She runs over to her desk and grabs the "religion" folder from her desk. The question is: "Which rad Dwarven deity holds dominion over the art of Shredding?" She quickly and correctly answers Ollie. At Fig's request, Kristen also grabs the "performance" folder from Fig's desk. The question is: "Please compose a limerick, sonnet or haiku expressing your feelings and emotions relating to the exam you are currently taking." Together, Adaine and Fig compose a limerick about defeating the monsters and earn full credit for the question.
The first monsters get a turn: the ochre jellies, which can only dash 20 feet forward. On her turn, Adaine takes the "Elven" folder from her desk. The question is: "Please translate the following phrase into Common: Pedo Mellon a Minno", with extra credit for identifying the weak form of magic that Mellon is a root word for. Adaine translates it correctly as "Speak friend and enter", and Fabian correctly answers the extra credit portion with "friendship". This extra credit manifests as a spell slot recovery for all of the Bad Kids.
Next, Adaine uses true strike and casts chromatic orb on the mimic, dealing thunder damage. She also directs one of her dust mephits to use blinding breath to blow sand into the gorgon's eyes and blind it, and her other mephits to give Fabian and Riz the help action. She also takes note that the chains in the arena are made of an non-ferrous metal, bronze. The gorgon takes damage from Fig's spirit guardians, gets up from its prone position, and breathes a cloud of petrifying green breath toward Gorgug and Gavin Pundle, who both avoid breathing it in and turning to stone.
Round Two[]
At the top of the next round, Riz takes his "history" folder, which contains the question: "225 immaculate conceptions occurred on the same day in Solace in reaction to the first public performance of which instrument?", with the extra credit question: "Nine months later, the newborns were discovered to have been wearing vests in utero. What material were the vests made out of?" Riz correctly answers "electric lute" but incorrectly writes "leather" for the extra credit ("denim" was correct).
Riz runs up to the edge of a corner of the dais and, hiding behind cover, shoots narrowly past Gorgug's ear to kill the gorgon. Klaxons begin to mark the impending entrance of more monsters, so Riz hides and prepares a shot at one of the doorways.
Fabian holds his initiative count until the emergence of the monsters: a manticore; a shrimp dragon; a roper; an umber hulk, which Riz shoots; and a swarm of stirges. Fabian grabs the "Common" folder from his desk, which contains the question: "Please write a 300-word essay arguing for a proposed improvement at the Aguefort Adventuring Academy." Taking damage from the mimic as he writes on it, Fabian begins an essay about how the school should give more credit for field study than class attendance, then hands it off to Riz to complete. Meanwhile, Fabian and the Hangman, in hellhound form, attack the roper. Seeing that the essay is nowhere near long enough as time runs out, Gorgug hands off one of his academic resource autocompletions to Kristen, who stamps it on the paper, completing the essay with academic work the Bad Kids have done earlier in the year.
The roper attacks Fabian, grappling him but also being stricken by a riposte on one of its three misses. It pulls Fabian up toward its mouth and bites him, then begins sliding back toward the wall to ascend with him.
Fig grabs her second folder, "driver's ed". It contains the question: "What is the proper way to reverse a vehicle's orientation 180 degrees while driving at top speed?" She correctly answers: "Engage the emergency brake." Fig strikes the shrimp dragon with booming blade and her first smite, braining it with her bass as it emits sunlight from the starting chord of "Dawn of Justice". Her daymare also kicks the shrimp dragon with its hooves, and Fig gives Gorgug a bardic inspiration.
Gorgug also attacks the shrimp dragon three times, two of which is critical hits, hurling his axe repeatedly and knocking the monster prone as it takes heavy damage and falls well into bloodied status.
Kristen grabs her second test, a "medicine" folder. Its question is: "What is the most certain way for a wounded adventurer to make a full recovery from even the most grievous injuries?" She correctly answers "Lie down for eight hours" (i.e., take a long rest). She then uses her staff to cast banishment on the manticore, dropping her circle of power concentration to send the beast to the Rat Grinders' woods. She also heals Fabian with a healing word.
After Kristen's turn, the ochre jellies approach the base of the dais. The stirges mistake Fig for the proctor and try to attack her in a swarm, but her spirit guardians zap them all into shreds like a bug zapper. The umber hulk misses Riz with two attacks, then wheels around to bite down on Kristen, but does not break her concentration on bless and banishment. The shrimp dragon is further badly injured by Fig's spirit guardians, but emits a lava-hot acid breath weapon that damages Gorgug (who drops his rage to absorb elements), Fig, her mount, and Gavin Pundle.
Adaine grabs her last folder -- the last folder of anyone's except Gorgug, who has not started either of his questions. The "arcana" exam question is: "What is the most powerful form of magic?", which Adaine immediately correctly answers, "Chronomancy, of course." It also has an extra-credit question: "What is the easiest object in which to magically trap an opponent?" She correctly answers, "a gem", which again restores a spell slot to each of the Bad Kids.
Adaine casts scatter to reorganize the battle map, moving Gavin Pundle and Moggy the Doggy to the top of a distant pillar for safety, Fabian and the Hangman away from the roper toward the umber hulk, and Kristen on top of a wall near Buddy. Adaine casts true strike and directs her mephits to blind the roper and the umber hulk, which succeeds on the former but not the latter. In the process, a mephit warns Adaine about the hypnotic shimmer of the umber hulk's eyes. Fig makes a belated hellish rebuke to destroy the shrimp dragon, leaving a buttery smell behind.
Round Three[]
Alarms signal the impending third wave of monsters as Riz's turn begins. The rogue disengages from the umber hulk and runs to Gorgug's desk, where he pulls out the "math" folder. The question is a complicated calculation about trains from Elmville and Bastion City colliding. At the last moment, he takes his second skip to pass it. Riz then bloodies the roper with one shot and prepares another shot in case it moves again.
More monsters emerge into the coliseum: a wyvern, a crab man, rust monsters, a pentacorn, and a purple worm. Fabian looks into the eyes of the umber hulk and succumbs to its confusion effect. This forces him to attack a random adjacent creature, which ends up being the umber hulk itself, bloodying it. The Hangman closes his eyes and misses a bite attack against the umber hulk.
The mimic tries and fails to bite Adaine. The roper, still blinded, moves to make an attack but triggers Riz's held shot, killing it instantly. The crab man lands a critical hit on Fabian, grappling him.
Fig flies on her steed out of the purple worm's range and toward the wyvern, which she strikes (critically with the help of Adaine's portent) with a smite and acid damage absorbed from the shrimp dragon's attack. The heavy damage from her attack brings the wyvern from full health to death's door. Fig also heals Fabian with a healing word.
Gorgug returns to a rage and throws his axe to strike the purple worm twice, once critically, knocking it prone. The rust monsters approach the dais and repeatedly gang up on one of the dust mephits, which dies and explodes into a blinding spray of dust, blinding two rust monsters and the umber hulk, which loses its confusion effect.
Kristen casts mass healing word to heal Fabian, Gavin Pundle and the remaining party members who are slightly damaged. Kristen then eats her Eye of the Vulture King, which will give her truesight for one minute starting when her next turn begins.
The ochre jellies turn around to begin their long trek toward Gavin Pundle's new whereabouts. The pentacorn tries to banish Fig, but she counterspells it. The purple worm gets up and attacks Gorgug twice, stinging him with its tail and biting him in a failed attempt to swallow him whole. The blinded umber hulk misses Fabian twice and then burrows into the earth.
Adaine directs her remaining two mephits to take attacks of opportunity from the monsters around them, blinding the wyvern with the ensuing explosion. Adaine casts a high-level Bigby's hand and makes a clenched-fist attack against the purple worm with the arcane hand, then casts true strike on herself again and pulls out the last test from Gorgug's desk: a folder marked "biology", upon which their entire academic career rests. The Bad Kids' final question is: "Of the following creatures, which cannot turn its prey into stone?" The group correctly deduces the answer is "manticore", earning light praise from Gavin Pundle.
The blinded wyvern begins its turn within the spirit guardians and starts to move, but takes one last burst of damage from Fig's booming blade and drops as she teasingly kisses it and pushes its body onto the pentacorn, which expends a legendary action to squirm out from under the corpse.
Round Four[]
The klaxons ring for the next wave, but Gavin hits a button on his watch and stops it from coming out since the written portion of the exam has been completed. The Bad Kids only have to kill or be killed by the remaining monsters still on the field.
Riz runs and misty steps up onto the ledge of the coliseum wall for a vantage point and misses a shot against the purple worm, then prepares another shot against the umber hulk if it emerges. From within the crab man's grapple, Fabian attacks it twice, and the Hangman decapitates it with a critical bite attack. After this, the mimic, looking tired, keeps trying and failing to hit Adaine, and the pentacorn moves toward Adaine.
Fig makes another booming blade smite attack against the pentacorn, which nearly strikes Adaine with a horn attack but is thwarted by her shield spell and Fig's cutting words, insisting that the battle is over and "it's all love now."
Gorgug, balanced in the maw of the purple worm, lands three reckless attacks, one of which crits and knocks it prone again while moving the worm into bloodied status. The rust monsters begin to go after Adaine, entering the range of Fig's spirit guardians, which destroys two and heavily damages two more. The rust monsters attempt to rust Adaine's equipment, but she dodges.
At the start of Kristen's turn, the Eye of the Vulture King takes effect and gives her truesight to 30 feet away. Right behind Buddy, she sees an invisible Kipperlilly Copperkettle aiming a crossbow up at Gavin. She sees Kristen notice her, smiles, and slits Buddy's throat, killing him. Behind her, Oisin's hand reaches just into the range of Kristen's sight and teleports Kipperlilly away with what Kristen recognizes as a plane shift spell. Kristen considers revivifying Buddy but realizes the required gems have been stolen out of her pocket. Instead, Kristen attempts a divine intervention to bring Buddy back, but Cassandra in her weakened state cannot revive him.
The ochre jellies continue to slowly move. The pentacorn takes damage from spirit guardians and becomes bloodied. It misses twice on hoof attacks against Fig, but strikes her once with a horn attack. The purple worm gets back up, strikes Gorgug with its tail stinger, and nearly devours him, bringing him down near death's door but not quite downing him. The still-blinded umber hulk emerges near Gavin Pundle, triggering Riz's held shot, which narrowly kills it before it can attack the proctor.
Adaine uses her Bigby's hand to punch the purple worm with heavy damage, then casts an erupting earth spell that destroys two rust monsters and again damages the purple worm. With a legendary action, the pentacorn stabs Adaine with its horn.
Round Five[]
Riz hides with a bonus action and then shoots the purple worm, which is looking brutalized. He prepares a reaction to shoot it again when it makes an attack.
The Hangman recharges its breath weapon, which it uses to destroy two more remaining rust monsters and further damage the mimic. With Gorgug assuring Fabian that he's got the purple worm himself, Fabian goes to attack the pentacorn instead. His two strikes put the pentacorn, too, on death's door, and it responds with a legendary action to critically swing on Fabian. After his turn, the mimic starts its turn getting hit by spirit guardians and takes out one of Adaine's mirror images.
Fig casts green flame blade to attack the pentacorn with another smite, destroying it and dealing fiery splash damage that destroys the mimic as well as she and her steed send off the monsters with a pair of kisses: "it's all love". Finally, she sends Gorgug a bardic inspiration.
"It's all love now," Gorgug repeats to the purple worm, striking it three more times with yet another crit among them. With massive damage, he decapitates it. The last two, blinded rust monsters run into the spirit guardians and are destroyed.
The only monsters left on the field are now the two little ochre jellies, which the Bad Kids jokingly talk about adopting and label as "butter gummies". Kristen checks Buddy's messenger bag and finds his gems for revivify were stolen, too. She jumps down and casts word of radiance with a message of love toward the butter gummies, who give a thumbs up and agree that "it's all love now."
After the battle[]
Gavin Pundle concludes the exam. A prerecorded representative of the illusory Arthur Agueforts tells the Bad Kids that the typical student acceptance of death in the Last Stand is in direct contradiction to his intention, and that the Bad Kids are the first to get what he was going for: that you must defy it when an establishment tells them defeat is inevitable. He proclaims they have all passed junior year with an A+ in all their classes, and that everyone else in the school is stupid for studying instead of just doing the Last Stand.
Gavin goes to examine Buddy, and Kristen tells him what she saw. He gets on his crystal to report the matter, and the Bad Kids' success, to Superintendent Tectonya Karkovnya. Gavin says normally the attending cleric would be responsible for plane shifting everyone out, but with Buddy dead, it falls to the Bad Kids to do so. The Bad Kids are concerned that leaving the body unattended will allow the Rat Grinders to tamper with the crime scene, but Gavin will not allow any of them to remain behind, so Fig and Gorgug surreptitiously set up a camera to record a video feed of the body.
Kristen plane shifts everyone to the Council of Chosen at Bastion City, where Gavin gets a security detail to escort the party to the train back to Elmville.