Untapped Rage is the sixteenth episode of Fantasy High: Junior Year.
Intro[]
"Last we left off, the Bad Kids emerged victorious from the Last Standard Exam, aka the Last Stand. Flawless victory as a prerecorded Arthur Aguefort, with some premonitions of what the Bad Kids might say in response to his prerecorded hologram, congratulated you on being the first students of his adventuring academy to actually freaking get it for once, and know that when someone tells you you have to die, you tell them to go fuck themselves, all right?"
"You slew all the monsters, flawlessly answered all the questions, kept Gavin Pundle alive through round after round of deadly combat, and eventually saved your academic adventuring party. Kristen Applebees is immune from expulsion, as is Figueroth Faeth. All of you received an A+, which means that your downtime for the rest of the year, you don't have to roll academic tracks. Given your earlier grades in the year plus the extra credit earned from the Last Stand, it is impossible for you guys to fail out this year, even if you do not attend a single other class. ..."
"With that being said, you also witnessed in mid-combat, due to an incredibly brilliant, intuitive decision to eat one of the Eyes of the Vulture King ... allowed you to see, hidden under some greater invisibility, Kipperlilly Copperkettle and at least the hand of Oisin Hakinvar, two of the adventuring party members of Buddy Dawn, your student revivification cleric who was overseeing the exam. Kipperlilly saw that she was made and slit Buddy Dawn's throat. You discovered then that both you and Buddy had been pickpocketed during the combat. With a teleportation, Oisin and Kipperlilly vanished as you watched Buddy Dawn fall to the ground. Gavin didn't even have a way for you to get out other than the fact that you had plane shift prepared, and took you to the Council of Chosen."
Synopsis[]
Return to Elmville[]
The Bad Kids arrive back in Elmville via train in the wee hours of the morning, right as spring break is beginning. They briefly talk about how to milk their Last Stand victory to promote Kristen's student presidential campaign, then check back on the livestream of the crime scene that Fig and Gorgug had surreptitiously set up. They see that about 10 minutes after they left, an enormous cloaked figure approaches Buddy Dawn's body and seems to produce some sort of red glow that they recognize as a derivation of Ankarna's light. The figure kneels and with bloody violence, revives Buddy, who says, "Dang, y'all, I worship a nameless god of rage." Both of them then teleport away.
Riz opens up Kipperlilly's counseling file and combs through it. It shows good grades but unimpressive achievements, and notes from Jawbone pointing out her rage and hatred toward the Bad Kids. It notes Kipperlilly was jealous that Kalvaxus killed Riz's dad while her own parents are boring. She expressed fondness for Lucy, and the two of them wanted to keep the name "the High 5 Heroes", whereas Ivy and Oisin had proposed changing it to "the Rat Grinders", and Ruben and Mary Ann backed the new name. More recently, in junior year, Kipperlilly's anger escalates to murderous over the presidential campaign. Jawbone's notes also mention that for their spring break project, the Rat Grinders will be going on their second trip to the Mountains of Chaos, where they had previously gone right before Lucy died, chaperoned by Jace Stardiamond.
Jawbone's notes also point out Kipperlilly being interested in the Prompocalypse, Kalvaxus, and YES!. Riz connects Kipperlilly's interest in Kalvaxus, who was a dragon disguised as a dragonborn, with Oisin's being a dragonborn and Mary Ann's being a kobold. However, studying the cloaked figure in the video, Riz sees its movement is not digitigrade, so dragonborn, kobold, tabaxi, and so on are ruled out. Instead, it looks more like a giant's movement.
Kristen deduces that the red Ankarna markings on Lucy's and Yolanda Badgood's chests blocking their resurrections may have been the result of the figure trying to revive them, but their spirits refusing to be revived as worshipers of rage. Meanwhile, the Bad Kids notice from tagged photos on Ruben's social media profiles that he did not take up his emo persona until after spring break of last year; before that, he played generic soft rock. The Bad Kids speculate that if they can uncorrupt Ankarna, all of these rage-corrupted people will be healed as well.
The next morning[]
The next morning, Sklonda offers her help with the mystery, and Riz asks her to look into Bobby Dawn and Sol. Sklonda mentions that Bobby had been the man whom a young Sandra Lynn Faeth had had an affair with and who had slandered her name and gotten her kicked out of her adventuring party. Riz also asks Sklonda about Eugenia Shadow, and she says Eugenia is a granddaughter of the Society of Shadows, and that Ashgrove is a 90-minute drive out of town.
Meanwhile, Gavin Pundle texts the party that Buddy's body has gone missing; they share the video with him to help his investigation. He also tells them their junior year academic achievements are fully complete, and all they need to do to be able to attend senior year is teacher evaluations and attending graduation.
Wilma and Digby Thistlespring tell Gorgug they've fixed up the Hangvan and return the keys to him. He asks about how the Frostyfaire Folk Festival ended up at the Thistlespring Tree, and they say it was mostly because a member of the talent had insisted on the location. The organizers had some funny questions about the tree and the fact that it is a "root warden", or a tree so magical that it is slightly intelligent and able to be a sentinel for the other trees in the greater county of Elmville. Gorgug examines the tree and doesn't see signs of tampering, but his parents mention the organizers did a tree health test involving eyedroppering something in the soil, which Gorgug fears is rage pollen.
Fabian gets messages from all his parents, including from Gilear asking about baby clothes in storage. In response, Fabian burns all his old baby clothes on the lawn. Mac and Donna Applebees ask Kristen to check that Bucky isn't skipping classes. Aelwyn takes the job at the Compass Points Library in Leviathan and, on Adaine's invitation, moves back into Mordred Manor for the sake of a short commute.
Adaine creates a simulacrum of Kristen. She also casts legend lore, which tells her Kipperlilly is not of legendary importance but Riz is, for being the fifth person to ever summon the Night Yorb into Spyre. She also casts scry to see that Kipperlilly is under the protection of a nondetection spell, indicating that the Rat Grinders have gone completely off the grid.
The group takes a trip on Saturday to Ashgrove, where they hunt down Eugenia Shadow's grave. With his blindsense, Riz detects the hiding ghostly rogue teacher and tags her, revealing her. Eugenia says she "found" Kipperlilly because she had a backhoe rented from Loam Landscaping and was threatening to dig up Eugenia's grave. Eugenia says Kipperlilly must have discovered the location of the grave from Arthur Aguefort's office.
Eugenia also reiterates that the role of vice principal, having been created for Kalvaxus, is extremely limited, and the power is all concentrated in the role of principal instead, making the power structure fragile and potentially endangering the current acting principal, Mazey Phaedra, and the school itself, which is a nexus of magical threads. Finally, Eugenia points out that it is approaching the one-year anniversary of Lucy's death, a cutoff that makes her virtually impossible to resurrect.
Downtime[]
Word gets out that Fabian's birthday is on Election Day on the 31st of this month, and with his popularity maxed out, everyone excitedly asks if he's throwing a party that day. Fabian and Mazey go on their first date to Krom's Diner, where Fabian has paid off some Hudol kids to make him look good. Mazey compliments Fabian on his and the Bad Kids' work making Kristen's campaign a success. Mazey mentions that as long as faculty is present, they can have polling places anywhere, not just at school -- for example, at Seacaster Manor during a party. Later, she gives him a kiss at her front door as he drops her off, concluding a wonderful date.
Fabian next takes the benefit of Adaine's portent in approaching Gertie Bladeshield. He offers to do anything in order to clear the air so Gertie and Kristen can have a clean slate. She challenges him to a one-on-one fight, right here, right now, which he wins. He gives her a hand back up onto her feet, and she rescinds her nemesis declaration. Fabian also maintains his place on the Owlbears.
Adaine researches the dead gods on the Astral Plane and finds an exception for "dead" gods that remanifest in a fey, fiendish or monstrous form, such as the Nightmare King. However, she recalls the voice at the Synod Mall speaking from the realm of astral death, and realizes the dead gods' consciousness still exists there in some form. Attending the wizard class she doesn't need to attend, Adaine speaks with Tiberia Runestaff, who says she's been in chronomantic communication with Arthur Aguefort and that Ayda Aguefort wants to pass along a geocache location to Fig. Adaine also researches spells that can help the party survive in the Astral Plane.
Adaine holds an ice cream party for her friends at Mordred Manor to help everyone relax since they've been so busy. Amid small talk, Sandra Lynn mentions that her ranger work has been heavy at the Mountains of Chaos lately. Adaine asks if it's rage-related, and Sandra Lynn says yes, it's a lot of social animals turning on their own kind, and it's just been happening in the last couple of weeks. Adaine explains the mystery they've been looking into, and Sandra Lynn offers to get everyone griffins and take them to the Mountains of Chaos to investigate.
Adaine and Fig go to find Ayda's geocache, and on the way, they encounter Porter comforting Lucilla, who is emotional over Fig's teacher evaluation, while Porter is baffled at how Fig wrote a joint one for him and Zara. Porter mentions Zara wanted to meet with Fig about Bill Seacaster's flayed, tattooed warlock contract she had handed in for her winter break assignment.
On her last downtime roll, Adaine uses portent to succeed in scrying on Jace. She sees him in his office, looking up podcasts and having subscribed to the Complicated Women podcast. In the heat of the office, he takes off his scarf, and for a moment Adaine sees a deep, ragged scar on his chest, and his eyes flash red for a second.
Locations[]
Characters[]
The Bad Kids[]
New[]
Returning[]
- Sklonda Gukgak
- Wilma and Digby Thistlespring
- Sandra Lynn Faeth
- Aelwyn Abernant
- Max Durden
- Mazey Phaedra
- Gertie Bladeshield
- Terpsichore Skullcleaver
- Tiberia Runestaff
- Porter Cliffbreaker
- Lucilla Lullaby
Mentioned[]
- Buddy Dawn
- Jace Stardiamond
- Ankarna
- Bakur
- Kalina
- Kipperlilly Copperkettle
- Lucy Frostblade
- Ivy Embra
- Oisin Hakinvar
- Mary Ann Skuttle
- Ruben Hopclap
- Molman Holden
- Quincy
- Kalvaxus
- Jawbone O'Shaughnessey
- Bobby Dawn
- Alston Hughes
- Corsica Jones
- Cassandra
- Yolanda Badgood
- Ayda Aguefort
- Arthur Aguefort
- Zara Sool
- Henry Hopclap
- Gavin Pundle
- Gilear Faeth
- Hallariel Seacaster
- The Hangvan
- The Hangman