The Name is the seventeenth episode of Fantasy High: Junior Year.
Intro[]
"Last we left off, the Bad Kids got back to Elmville on the train, having seen some horrifying unfoldings in the aftermath of the Last Standard Examination. Buddy Dawn, brought back with the power of a shatter-star by a giant figure, looming, cloaked, with red light pouring forth. We met Eugenia Shadow, the rogue teacher, who talked all about how Kipperlilly Copperkettle got a backhoe to defile her grave, and that's how she found the rogue teacher at the top of the year."
"But those Rat Grinders are nowhere to be found, Kipperlilly's presidential campaign for student body president almost defunct, as Mazey, on a date with Fabian, how cute, manages to share that, hey, you wanna throw the rager of all ragers at Seacaster Manor for your birthday, you could probably set up a polling booth and get the job done there. ..."
"We made a clone of Kristen. We had an ice cream party. We filled out some teacher evaluations. We found out that the Thistlespring Tree is a root warden. ... And Sandra Lynn told us about some trouble in the Mountains of Chaos, where she works as a Solesian ranger. ..."
"Also, my god, at the end of the last episode, we saw Jace Stardiamond with a shatter-star scar in his chest! We also saw a little geocache location sent to Adaine from Ayda Aguefort in the distant past."
Synopsis[]
Downtime, continued[]
Adaine phones in her job as the Elven Oracle and then tries but fails a relaxation check.
Riz does an incredible job in his array of extracurriculars and helps bring home an Owlbears victory against the Hellions. With Sklonda busy, Fig disguises herself as her to cheer for Riz. On a highly successful mystery check, Riz probes into the cloaked figure from the tape who revived Buddy Dawn, which we'll come back to.
Gorgug works with his parents Wilma and Digby on the Hangvan, where the Bad Kids had sealed the Night Yorb. His teachers Henry and Porter also stop by to compliment him on his academic achievement in bridging his barbarian and artificer classes. On a mystery roll, Gorgug looks into Cassandra and Ankarna but finds no evidence that they had a child.
Working on the van, Gorgug's mind also drifts back to the broken Cloud Rider engine in the basement at Seacaster Manor. Gorgug calls in Sprak LeFevre to help him examine it. Sprak explains that a Cloud Rider engine is what enables ships, like the manor, to fly in the sky. Gorgug attempts a relaxation roll but fails as well.
Fig goes down to the Nine Hells and writes a song named "Righteous Rebel" evoking the idea of Ankarna. After writing it, in a dream, Fig sees a vision of the Astral Realm, where the enormous burning body of Ankarna calls out to Cassandra. Fig reaches out with a ceremony of atonement, and Ankarna reveals herself as the one who sent the corpse of YES! back into the world, angry about her loneliness in Cassandra's absence. Fig bonds with her about their "girlfriends [being] out of town", and Ankarna calls Fig "her hero" before she awakens.
Despite a preference for high-concept albums, Fig recognizes that's not the way the world works anymore and releases both "Dawn of Justice" and "Righteous Rebel" as singles on her independent record label. They are big hits, and Lola Embers tries to reach out but Fig rebuffs her. Fig goes into Ruben's dream in disguise as Wanda Childa, but is abjured from interacting directly with him. Still, she observes that he is at home in Elmville rather than the Mountains of Chaos, that he is filled with both rage and fear toward the other Rat Grinders, and that there is a memory of his past self in a glade in the Far Haven Woods from before the rage.
Fig asks the other Bad Kids for an accomplice to shoot her with a crossbow for a plan, and Kristen volunteers her simulacrum, "British Kristen" or K2, with Fabian as support. In disguise as Wanda, Fig knocks on Ruben's door and, not getting a response but seeing someone watching from the window, feigns death from being shot, with the image of Ankarna's anti-revivification seal on her chest. Adaine casts enlarge to disguise Gorgug as the cloaked figure from the tape, and he picks up Fig's body and leaves.
Finally, Fig texts Eugenia Shadow to design a ghost step tattoo for Fabian for his birthday. Fig pitches a clock with wildflowers around it based on Fabian's idea for his next tattoo, but Eugenia pitches a Pac-Man ghost with big, hairy human feet, which Fig turns down. Eugenia promises to secretly tattoo it on Fabian's forearm when he least expects it. From this relationship track advancement, Fig alleviates herself of her two remaining stress tokens.
Kristen talks with Jawbone about promoting resources for anger issues at the Aguefort Adventuring Academy. Kristen also explains to Jawbone all about the Rat Grinders' and Jace Stardiamond's apparent rage corruption, and how Yolanda Badgood is unrevivable because she rejected the rage. Kristen urges Jawbone not to confront Jace, and she and British Kristen help him clean up his office. Jawbone says he can't share any student files with Kristen, but he will collate the information himself and see whether, as Kristen suspects, the corrupted people's homes form the shape of a 24-pointed star. When the corrupted soil at Lydia Barkrock's home is mentioned, Jawbone raises the question of who Kalina had delegated to destroy the house back in sophomore year.
Jawbone tells Kristen that Bobby Dawn is "losing it" at Buddy's death. Kristen goes to Bobby's office, which is full of Church of Sol staff as Bobby directs a search for his grandson's soul, which is missing from the afterlife. Kristen tells them Buddy chose to renounce Sol in order to be revived. Bobby insists Buddy was devout, but Kristen says Buddy may have been forcefully corrupted. Kristen tells him the god in question is Cassandra's dead ex-wife, and Bobby takes it as a practical joke on him. Kristen convinces him she's being honest, and while they remain at odds about how to proceed, Bobby begrudgingly offers Kristen help in whatever efforts may bring Buddy back.
As Kristen confers later with the rest of the Bad Kids, Riz is suspicious that Bobby may have been intentionally trying to get Kristen to say the name "Ankarna" in order to co-opt her power. Riz is also suspicious that Bobby or his paladin wife Pamela Dawn may have been the cloaked figure. Continuing to theorize, the Bad Kids talk about their suspicions that the Rat Grinders' rage corruption happened not at the Mountains of Chaos but instead at Lake Shimmerstone, which gets its name from gem filaments deposited from the mountains, and that this is related to Lucy Frostblade's death after she considered changing gods but opted against it.
Next, Kristen looks into the changes in the school bylaws and finds that this year, the inaugural period was eliminated, meaning whoever wins becomes president as soon as the votes are counted. This was enacted by Mazey on an anonymous faculty request.
Next, Kristen reaches out to her brother Bucky, who is sad that he had gotten mad and lashed out at his adventuring party for not converting to Helio. Bucky expresses crisis about finding out that people outside the church are not how he was raised to think, and Kristen encourages him to look at things his own way and not just how their parents say he should. Cassandra's twilight shards respond as Kristen offers this support, which she detects he truly wants but won't admit to.
After Bucky leaves, the shards show visions of what Bucky's possible futures could be. Comforted by the good possibilities, Kristen loses all her stress tokens. Cassandra's voice reaches out, saying she is trapped and warning that "the king will come again to Spyre" because she cannot shield Ankarna from the coming destruction when in her own form. Cassandra tells Kristen, her champion, that Ankarna has a champion as well, and Kristen knows her already. Finally, Cassandra urges Kristen to dig back into Kalina's mention of Ragh.
Adaine and Fig follow Ayda Aguefort's geocache, which is a cavern full of all the spell components the party could ever want and a wide swath of musical instruments, from which Fig takes a sick bass.
Finally, we return to Riz's mystery track efforts. He looks into Bobby Dawn and cannot rule out his involvement with the Ankarna plot. He looks into Lydia's former party members, Cormyr and Rana, whose papers mention an exact location in the Mountains of Chaos called the Temple of the Fallen Sun. He determines that some incredible form of the stunned condition was both mentioned in Cormyr and Rana's papers and involved in the murders at Lake Shimmerstone. The papers also mention that Ruvina's festival was called the Festival of Frost, and that there was a "War of Shattered Stones" around the time of the change in Ankarna.
As spring break continues and Fabian's birthday approaches, the party goes to the glade in the Far Haven Woods near Lake Shimmerstone to track down Rat Grinders clues. From tracks, Riz finds evidence that a massive giant slaughtered deadly monsters here. Fabian summons some rats with his pipes, who explain that before Lucy's death and the others' corruption, the giant would bring high-level monsters down to death's door and give the Rat Grinders the killing blow to farm experience. Fabian and Adaine ask about Rat World, and the rats mention that they use rat dollars at the rat mall, then immediately leave.
The night before the party plans to head out to the Mountains of Chaos, Riz gathers up all his files on Ragh to follow that thread. Zara Sool meets with Fig that night, encouraging her about her bright future and asking what she hopes for. Fig confides that she plans to resurrect and un-corrupt a dead god, and a meteor shower in the sky spells out romantic words from Ayda. Fig sits down to write a letter to Ayda for when she gets back.
The Temple of the Fallen Sun[]
The next morning, Sandra Lynn has secured seven griffins as Lydia sees everyone off with breakfast. The Bad Kids text good luck to Ragh, who is in Bastion City for tryouts for the Buccaneers. Along with the party, the Hangman (in hellhound form) rides Fig's daymare. They fly all through the day, and as the sun sets, they arrive at the Temple of the Fallen Sun. The infernal temple is filled with broken stairways leading to chasms of bones, and it is surrounded by green flame beacons of warning to stay away. Sandra Lynn says there should not be monsters here because the people of the region keep them away from this cursed location.
Fig begins to divine sense, which she finds effortless with the realization that it is a temple to her god, Ankarna. With true sight, Adaine sees signs that Ankarna's name was erased from the temple and someone who didn't know her name tried to place the nameless god glyph on the temple. Fig, with true sight from Kristen, sees visions of ritual sacrifice and imperial conquest in the temple's past and realize it was built while Ankarna's domain was beginning to change, for the purpose of enacting the change. Text in the temple refers to the "House of Sunstone", a royal giantkin clan.
The group arrives at an enormous interior execution chamber designed for execution by burning one's face in hot coals. Along the walls are a series of images explaining the events of the War of Shattered Stones. Cassandra's shards glow brightly, and Kristen and Fig realizes this is where Cassandra and Ankarna were divorced. As the rest of the party investigates the temple, Riz sits down with his papers on Ragh, and Adaine casts legend lore.
The spell explains that the ancient Royal House of Sunstone conquered the other clans of giantkin: Thunderfist, Hornspear, Moonpeak, and Frostblade. Long before this, Cassandra's and Ankarna's wedding had marked a time of harmony. Sol officiated this wedding in order to bring together the gods of the pantheon. But later, the Church of Sol leaders sought to claim power over Sol's domain by encouraging the giants of House Sunstone to split Ankarna off and conquer the other clans. Ruvina led House Frostblade to rise back up against Sunstone in the War of Shattered Stone, and at the sundering of the Cliffs of Colcath, House Sunstone was brought down and forced into obscurity.
Meanwhile, Riz questions how Ragh became infected with Kalina's curse in the first place, back in sophomore year. He remembers Ragh mentioning that, on the night of Prompocalypse, after the fight with Kalvaxus, Jace and Porter took him aside and Porter "did some barbarian healing stuff" with him. The Bad Kids realize Porter is a descendant of House Sunstone and is the giant whom they've been chasing after all year, and that Porter and Jace have been in sinister cahoots since the first day of freshman year.
The legend lore spell concludes that the Frostblades destroyed the name "Ankarna" in order to free the goddess from her state of corruption. It says until recently, Bakur was working with the descendants of the mortal followers of Ankarna, but recently was betrayed by them because Bakur wished for her to return in her original form, not her corrupted one. The Bad Kids consider releasing him, but Riz deduces that Bakur works on the same rules as Kalina, i.e., since his boss is bad right now, he's bad right now.
Sandra Lynn asks what the Bad Kids think the plotters still need before they can pull off their plot, and they conclude it's the election in four days. She says everyone had better get back to Elmville. Before leaving, Fig approaches a representational image of Ankarna in the temple and casts atonement by playing "Righteous Rebel" for her. The masonry crumbles and reveals, behind it, the beautiful image of the previous Ankarna -- that this corrupt temple was built on an older holy place to her. Fig chips away more masonry and finds the image of Cassandra hand-in-hand with Ankarna.
On their way out of the temple, Adaine is suspicious about having been overheard and investigates. The Bad Kids see very recent footprints, within the last couple of days, from Porter, Buddy and Jace, who had teleported here. Kristen warns Jawbone via sending that Porter is in cahoots with Jace. Digging into what Porter's alliance's plan is, the Bad Kids look into Bakur's gem to ask about what ritual he was trying to use to bring Ankarna back. Bakur explains that Ankarna, even in her corrupted form, refused to grant spells when her followers were plotting to harm Cassandra or Ruvina; when Bakur was betrayed by his mortal allies, it was because they did not want to bring her back, but just her armor, her weaponry, her domain. Since a god can be remade anyplace that a god has been born(e), Porter's alliance will be able to perform their ritual in the Aguefort gymnasium where YES! had been born, where graduation will be held.
Back in Elmville[]
Fig and Adaine counterfeit a false version of Ankarna's name with the intent to trick Porter into thinking it's "Bacharat". Meanwhile, the Bad Kids debate whether Mazey is good or bad and whether to trust her suggestion to have election night polling places at Seacaster Manor.
Fig goes to Porter's office as Adaine, Riz and Gorgug hide out nearby, invisible and stealthy, recording the interaction and with detect thoughts up. Fig pretends she has found the name but cannot understand Giant to read it. With the help of Adaine's portent, she successfully tricks him, and he takes the paper, thinking, "Got it." As he is about to leave, he suddenly turns back, and when Fig suggests a play spar, he makes a strong area-of-effect stomping attack that stuns and knocks prone everyone but Riz.
The last thought Adaine gets before the attack is that someone telepathically told him something, and Porter thought, "Did I lock the office?". As everything rattles from Porter's attack, Riz notices the indicator of something else invisible crouching up on top of the lockers near him, which moves toward Fig and Porter. Porter picks Fig up and brushes her off, and she comes out of stun after the equivalent of a couple of rounds. She realizes the attack was a legendary action as he leaves.
Riz misty steps into Porter's office as Fig starts making distractions outside, smoking and drumming on lockers. With an impossibly high investigation roll, Riz combs through the room in less than two minutes to discover everything. Riz discovers: Correspondence that Porter was intimidating the paladin teacher Halo St. Croix to let him teach multiclass paladins. Porter had signed MCATs for both Lucy and Buddy to multiclass paladin. Correspondence with Bobby Dawn in which Bobby recommends devil's honey for Porter's plan and indicating that the two are in cahoots to create a god of war, not a solar deity. A leather cord used in the spy's tongue ritual. Traces of protein shakes full of ambrosia, the food of the gods. Communications with the Rat Grinders, whose HQ is Ruben's house and who are in cahoots with him.
Meanwhile, Adaine realizes that in the last split-second of her detect thoughts, she had detected the presence of Kipperlilly Copperkettle. She joins Fig and casts sickening radiance to both enhance Fig's distraction and create a zone that will light up an invisible figure if one tries to enter it.
Adaine recalls that mortals are not supposed to ingest ambrosia. Kristen recalls that mortals who do eat it die via bodily ascending to the afterlife. The Bad Kids theorize that, since Porter has been eating it, he's using it as "god supplements" to prepare himself to steal Ankarna's godhood and ascend as a god of war in her place.
Infiltrating the Rat Grinders' HQ[]
The day before the election arrives and the Bad Kids plan to go to Ruben's house to confront the Rat Grinders. Gorgug sets up a mass email timebomb that will share all their research and information if the Rat Grinders kill or trap them. Adaine texts Aelwyn to cast guards and wards on Seacaster Manor to protect it. Adaine also casts Rary's telepathic bond on the party and true seeing on Riz, while Kristen casts invisibility on herself so only Kristen 2 is visible.
In the middle of the day, the Bad Kids approach and Riz peels off ahead to sneak in first. With his Arcadian watch, he unlocks the door to let himself in. He carefully detects a bevy of abjurative spells throughout the house, and realizing no one is home, the Bad Kids systematically dispel all of the protections so they can investigate the house thoroughly.
Adaine finds Oisin's wizard sanctum, which is full of conjuration research. It also has a family photo of Oisin's many-times-great grandmother hanging out with Kalvaxus. He also has notes about Cloud Riders and about stealing summons from other casters. In the sound studio, there's a note from Porter critiquing the composition of Ruben's song, "Get Mad", that he performed at Frostyfaire. Oisin also has research on telekinetically writing on the inside of a sphere.
Gorgug cracks the Rat Grinders' private server and accesses their communications. This reveals that they refuse to use the name Cassandra and instead use NMK. It says Porter wanted to go after her as soon as she exposed herself at the Synod Mall, which makes the Bad Kids suspicious of Kalina. Old texts from last year indicate Porter's been grooming them for some time and wanted Lucy to be a "champion". Texts with Buddy show he was helping them with the ritual, which requires one of them to be president in order to disband the Aguefort Adventuring Academy, nullifying its protections and wards, especially that Elmville may not be moved to another plane. Riz realizes this is connected to the corrupted soil and the tampering with the root warden. The communications also indicate the Rat Grinders were lying to Buddy about a divine domain that doesn't exist. Another thread shows the Rat Grinders realized Lucy was a "candidate" because Ruvina was connected to Ankarna, and Buddy may also be a candidate because Sol is connected, too. Texts from Jace's burner account indicate the Rat Grinders were eager to antagonize the Bad Kids and he was reining them in until the plan was ready.
The last components of the plan, the communications reveal, are Porter's physical body, to ascend; the protective shrouding storm of the Nightmare King; Ankarna's original name; and the name of the new god inscribed by the champion of the old goddess -- which the Bad Kids realize was accomplished via Fig's teacher evaluation and/or MCAT multiclassing form.
Election Day[]
The next day comes. Zara confirms to Fig that Porter never passed along her teacher evaluation to school officials. Mazey sets up the voting booths at Seacaster Manor, and the Bad Kids take note that Kipperlilly is not making a last-minute electioneering push and is in fact a no-show to her own speech; her plan must already be ready. Kristen sends her double to make her speech at Aguefort, while the real Kristen remains invisible. Adaine casts intellect fortress on Kristen Two to protect her from mind control.
That night, Seacaster Manor holds the election night party. Jawbone attends in a pro-voting hat, but says he can't vote because he's not a student. Kristen is shocked that all the steelworkers can't vote. Fig attends as Wanda Childa. Jawbone sets up the ballot box, which must get back to the school before midnight to be valid. Adaine hangs around the voting booths, continually casting detect magic to prevent funny business. Ragh arrives, announcing he made the Buccaneers.
Fabian's popularity draws absolutely everybody to the party. Riz and Gorgug realize suddenly that something suspicious must be going on, and just then, it begins to rain and a sending spell arrives to Adaine taunting her about her oracular abilities not foreseeing this. Throughout the house, pingpong balls emerge, seeded by Oisin at the first party, with spells written on the inside that begin erupting. Fabian looks out as the neighborhood of downtown Elmville moves down as Seacaster Manor is lifted into the sky.
Locations[]
- Spyre
- Solace
- The Mountains of Chaos
- The Temple of the Fallen Sun
Characters[]
The Bad Kids[]
New[]
- Ankarna
- Pamela Dawn
Returning[]
- Wilma and Digby Thistlespring
- Bobby Dawn
- Porter Cliffbreaker
- Henry Hopclap
- Ruben Hopclap
- Sprak LeFevre
- K2
- Eugenia Shadow
- Jawbone O'Shaughnessey
- Bucky Applebees
- Sklonda Gukgak
- Sandra Lynn Faeth
- Zara Sool
- Lydia Barkrock
- Ragh Barkrock
- The Hangman
- Bakur
Mentioned[]
- Kipperlilly Copperkettle
- Ruben Hopclap
- Oisin Hakinvar
- Ivy Embra
- Mary Ann Skuttle
- Lucy Frostblade
- Buddy Dawn
- Jace Stardiamond
- The Night Yorb
- Lola Embers
- Yolanda Badgood
- Molman Holden
- Kalina
- Principal Arcturus Grix
- Mazey Phaedra
- Cassandra
- Ruvina
- Ayda Aguefort
- Arthur Aguefort
- Sol
- Kalvaxus
- Alston Hughes