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utilitycaster · 5 years ago

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fav npcs of all time?

I’ll do one from each actual play I watch/listen to (until I say otherwise, assume I haven’t listened to enough Rusty Quill Gaming to start answering questions)

TAZ: Balance - Lucretia. She’s got these messy, dubious choices at the core of her character, which I find fascinating, and she changes so much and she’s lost so much and in general is interesting and complicated and tragic and yet manages to get off some killer one-liners.

TAZ: Amnesty - Barclay. I will always defend Amnesty to anyone who wrote it off simply because it wasn’t D&D, because I think Griffin’s storytelling was top-notch and the worldbuilding, while in some ways much more contained, was intricate and delightful. Anyway, I chose Barclay because he’s kind of an enigma. We eventually learn why Mama is who she is but why did Barclay join her instead of chill with the rest of amnesty lodge (did we learn that? I could have forgotten). Also he is bigfoot and he ends up dating the FBI agent who was sent to investigate him which is the biggest power move I can imagine.

TAZ: Graduation - it’s early on but so far I really love Rainier, who is so kind and creative and I think will be cool to follow, because due to her powers she’s assigned to the villain category in this weird bread and circuses world despite being probably one of the nicest NPCs so far.

Critical Role Campaign 1 - much as it pains me to not say Allura (and I am not cheating and including her as a campaign 2 NPC even though she has made an appearance), I think I have to go with Gilmore. He just has such an exuberant personality and gets so many excellent scenes, particularly with Vax. I think the post-dragon fight scene, the post-rakshasa fight scene, and (if you count it) the post-Vecna fight scene are what clinched it. Seeing him give everything to try to save the Tal’Dorei family, destroy some assassins and then help the man he still harbors feelings for with no rancor, and then put aside his mourning to help people after a tragedy...this was a guy who left his home and hasn’t been able to go back (or possibly hasn’t wanted to, despite loving his parents very much), who developed a whole persona, probably changed his accent, and set up shop and just never stopped being a wonderful person who would give it all up if he had to if it made the world a better place.

Critical Role Campaign 2 - this is very difficult because there are far fewer clear “this is your awesome ally Allura or Gilmore or Kima” characters. I think I have to say Dairon. They manage to be very formal and prickly and yet after Xhorhas she starts to change her mind and rethink their positions on the drow, which is impressive. And she is probably the closest anyone in the Mighty Nein has to an unambiguously good mentor (unless I suppose you count Caduceus mentoring Fjord). I love that Dairon saw Beau and didn’t write her off as pointlessly rebellious, and that despite telling Beau not to get attached, also is clearly pretty attached to Beau as a mentor (sidebar: if Beau ever gets killed and resurrected, if her reunion with Dairon isn’t “I am so sorry, I broke my promise and died but like, I got better” I will be disappointed.)

Relics and Rarities is hard because they don’t have that many recurring NPCs and there’s just not enough screentime for those they have. I mean Professor Roundland seems very cool but we don’t know enough.

Fantasy High: Fantasy High’s strength is in the NPCs and everyone in the Bad Kids’ retinue on their sophomore mission is an excellent NPC (also Aguefort, who is actually what the head of a school of magic should be because he doesn’t lie to himself unlike some Dumbledores I could mention; also Jawbone, the Thistlesprings, Sklonda, and too many other students and villains to list - I mean, Fantasy High Live managed to make me desperately want to help Aelwyn), but I think Gilear, as a much needed representative of all the NPCs who truly are just innocent bystanders, he of the endless string of terrible luck, is my favorite.

Escape from the Bloodkeep: It does pain me not to say John Feathers but I think I have to pick one non-ally NPC on this list, and that is, of course, Avanash. Anyone not worried about spoilers please watch this to understand Avanash, a man who just has some concerns about his bones.

The Unsleeping City: I do love me some Alejandro the old and wise vape wizard. Big Gandalf energy indeed.

#d&d #dungeons & dragons #the adventure zone #taz balance #taz amnesty #taz graduation #Critical Role #Fantasy High #escape from the bloodkeep #the unsleeping city #dimension 20 #Anonymous

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jq37 · 5 years ago

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The Report Card – Fantasy High Sophomore Year Ep 16

Into the Woods

We rejoin our Bad Kids (minus Riz, who we’ll get to in a bit) who are still on the Goldenrod while chaos happens around them. Fig adds to the chaos by successfully (with a 30!) pretending to be one of Goldenhoard’s minions to no real plot significant effect. I just feel the need to mention every time Fig rolls a 30+. The kids get Gilear out of his hiding place--a sarcophagus--right before it’s launched out as ammo. His safety proves short-lived however because, when Ayda pings that Riz is no longer on the same plane as them, Fabian recklessly sails the Goldenrod directly into Riz’s last known location, instantly killing both himself and Gilear. So he’s for sure back to his old self.

Kristen brings them back up and passes some heals out generally while she’s at it. Meanwhile, with a Nat 20, Adaine fully Oracles out and knows exactly where Riz was being held. There, they find a smear of blood (which they taste???? even though they know the disease is communicable by blood???) and Riz’s briefcase, but no body. Plus Tracker smells Celestial energy and Ayda senses conjuration magic. But all that subtle sleuthing is made pointless by Kristen getting a Nat 20 (of course) to just stumble into the next room and find a room full of footage of exactly what happened. Wild.

Bill can’t get them to where Riz is. The best he can do is get them to the Astral Plane. Fig remembers to check on the stuff she stole from Vraz. Baby just got a to-do list but Fig conveniently grabbed a scroll which will create a portal back to Arborly. Then, they cast Zone of Truth on Goldenhoard who gives them this information before they get to the Astral Plane:

Arianwyn was never working with him.

He repeats what we already knew about the NK giving him a coin as part of them working together in the past. He adds that his money being spent would mean it would come back to him 5 fold and also increase the spread of the NK’s power.

He thinks the NK is a creep and says he never talks and only appears in weird dreams. At Fig’s prompting, he says he does look a lot like the skeletal figure in Adaine’s Scry on the Shadowcat. He also says he never dealt directly with the Shadowcat and can’t see her in the photo. However, the Shadowcat did put him in touch with Aelwen.

The NK had more followers in Elmville but Goldenhoard doesn’t know who else was because he refused to join the Shadowcat network, which was a requirement. (I wonder if they include whoever the couple in Sandra-Lnn’s past was)

He let the NK have Sylvere when he was taking over the world because he didn’t care about it.

Meanwhile, our little Angel Riz is en route to heaven with his dad who is happy-shocked to see him. Pok calls in that he’s coming in with a “good aligned, possible CI,” and it’s immediately clear based on the reaction of the person on the other side of the call that Pok talks about Riz all the time in glowing terms. They arrive in heaven and Riz sees that he has a little chair set up at a copy of his grave so he can sit and listen when Riz and Sklonda come and talk to him. Ally is almost crying. Lou is almost crying. I’m almost crying.

Heaven--or at least this version of heaven--is set up like an office but outside. I’m picturing the classic Window’s XP background. We learn that Pok is a part of a special force called the Lower Planar Recon Task Force. Basically, it’s full of traditionally evil aligned races (like goblins and gnolls) who are perfect for infiltrating places like Hell. We also see that Pok has a plaque for getting his death avenged by his son.

Anyway, we see where Riz gets his attitude from when Pok kicks puts his gameface on (“Clues first, friends later.”) and has an extended puzzle solving scene with Riz (sprinkled with some father/son stuff). Highlights:

Heaven actually didn’t know about the Kalina=Disease thing. Riz and the gang cracked that for them. Kalina doesn’t ping a Detect Good/Evil but Pok thinks she would ping a Detect Poison/Disease.

He started seeing Kalina about 22 years ago after a mission with the Third Ring (see below). No, he didn’t cheat on Sklonda. If it happened via sexual contact, it would have been pre-meeting her.

Kalina can’t pick things up but she can create the sensation of weight and substance by hijacking your nervous system. So, to his knowledge at the time, Pok had touched her.

He was introduced to Kalina by someone he already knew and trusted from the Third Ring (Falinel government agency).

Kalina doesn’t have godly intelligence or omniscience. The way she blew her cover was accidentally mentioning seeing something firsthand she would have had no way of seeing (a river being in a certain place). He didn’t call her out then but he clocked it and started looking into her extra-governmentally.

Kalina got Sklonda her job in Elmville--which directly put Pok in the path of Goldenhoard, who ate him. He also strongly suspects that he got Pok’s citizenship revoked--an action that allowed Goldenhoard to harm him.

Pok thinks that, despite the Bad Kids’ focus on the sex aspect of the Shadowcat plague, it’s a lot more general than that (see eg: the life transference spell moving it from Sandra-Lynn to Tracker).

Father/Son Interlude #1: Riz mentions that all of his friends are super horny all the time and he’s not about that. Pok says that he was a super late bloomer so it’s fine if he’s not into that now or if he’s not into it period--though he selfishly does want grandkids.

Father/Son Interlude #2: Pok also shares a story about his own relationship with his superficially distant but actually loving 1st gen immigrant dad the twin theses of which are “People show love in different ways,” and “Work is an act of love,” a sentiment that workaholic Riz appreciates.

Most demons can see Kalina.

Pok was in hell undercover to try and figure out how devils had been successful in keeping Kalina at bay. He showed up in the Bottomless Pit but he was trapped there for a while--presumably because Gorthalax was in a gem at that time (also Riz mentions for the first time that Sklonda is dating him which he takes OK).

Pok has a new body so Kalina can’t tap into it. Kalina must have learned where Pok was because Sklonda infected Gorthalax once they started dating and she got the info from him. And since Kalina spurred him to come rescue Pok than she probably wanted him to blow his cover.

Kalina avoided having her picture taken. Once it was taken, she wasn’t able to do certain things she was able to before.

Pok says that Riz probably won’t be able to visit him again without pretty powerful magic, but Riz isn’t too concerned because he has some pretty powerful friends. And, with that, Pok offers to hire Riz as a consultant for heaven which, you can imagine, he is very here for. He takes his son to get suited up.

Back with the other Bad Kids, they look at the assorted things Bill has looted and find some Holy Water, which they pocket, and a birthday present for Fig, which she is pretty easily convinced to open early. It’s a sick new bass which doubles as a literal axe (OK, not an axe, it has serrated edges, I just like the idea of an axe-axe) and can shatter rubies. They then say bye to Bill and get back to Arborly (with the Hangman who is still knocked out, but not destroyed like before).

The group collectively decides to leave Gilear in Arborly for both his safety and the safety of Kristen’s high level spell slots. Adaine takes some of his blood so she can Scry on him if necessary. Sandra-Lynn and Gilear exercise their parental rights to make their daughter feel awkward about her love interest. Speaking of said love interest, we learn what Ayda was working on in secret: a spell for Adaine! It’s called Adaine’s Furious Fists and it essentially lets her magic punch people. Adaine can punch people now! I mean, she’s been doing it since S1 but now she can do it effectually! Love that for her!

Back to Riz. He’s in with an angel called Isosceles (think quasi-eldritch horror Biblical angel, not Halloween costume angel) who is like the Q of the squad. Riz gets hooked up with some new gear:

Trick bullets (like how Green Arrow has trick arrows)

A grappling gun attachment for his gun

Arcadian Watch: Equipped w/ a saw, laser (1d4 radiant dmg) and lockpick

Seraphim Vest: Basically a wingsuit (temp fly speed of 40 but only laterally and down, not up)

Gregorian Tie: Equipped with a spy camera

Once he’s suited up, Pok calls up a door that will get Riz back to the moment in time it was called. But, since they’re in no rush now, he asks Riz to take a walk with him and fill him in on some of the boring, mundane, unimportant stuff he missed from RIz’s childhood. It’s very sweet.

Afterwards, Riz pops back up in Arborly and everyone is super happy to see him. Riz almost blurts out what he learned about his dad but wisely moves the conversation to the Van where he tells them everything except the personal family stuff. Based on the info from Riz, Adaine thinks that Kalina was probably introduced into eleven society a couple hundred years ago by Landrynn Lear (fake cleric spreading the Kalina virus they learned about a few eps ago) so it’s not super weird Aelwen and Arianwyn would have been working with her. It’s less weird than Pok working than them.

Kristen latches onto the part about the picture being taken of her taking away some of her power and they all do checks to puzzle that out. Adaine (with Arcana) realizes that Kalina has to maintain herself in all these people all the time and, if a picture is taken of her--has to make it so that she can be seen by all of those people at all times which is a permanent spell effect which is-as we learned earlier this season--very hard to pull off. Her not being able to do certain things once the pic was taken was probably just her losing power from the strain of this extra magical effect (my takeaway: don’t let her destroy that photo--or, use it as a bargaining chip). Kristen (with Religion) thinks the 4 transubstantiations (familiar to plague and spellbook to curse and so on) are curses which overlap and create synergy (my takeaway: take them out one by one and watch them exponentially drop off in effectiveness). Gorgug (with a Tinkerer’s check) surmises that the way to take the most pics of Kalina and weaken her would be to take a video of her and broadcast it to as many people as possible.

Gorgug also has another thought: He wants to know if them having and spending their cursed money is actively endangering him. At the prospect, he decides to give all of his money away to the Tinkerer’s Hall (without telling them it’s dragon money, which means the curse won’t get passed on). Kristen, Fig, and Riz follow suit, much to Fabian’s shock and horror. Adaine opts to keep her money since she has no caring family to fall back on.

They also--I’m just gonna bluntly say this insane thing that Ally conceived of--have another shrimp party which they livestream in hopes that it will go viral, gain a following, and then when they have video of Kalina, they can get lots of people to watch it. And you know what the craziest part is? It’s not a bad plan. It’s c r a z y, but not illogical. To quote Mr. Lee Mulligan, “The charity shrimp party goes super viral.” Amazing.

The next day, Adaine brings back Boggy (who poofed in the last fight) as an owl so he’ll be a little safer while in Sylvere. Don’t worry, he’s still spherical as ever. The Hangman (now healed) stays behind, as does the Van--but they do take it actual gem out and take it with them. Baby is there and does come with them. Ayda and GaF also come at Fig’s request.

Fig is able to open a passage into Sylvere and they can instantly feel the ambient badness. They decide to start looking for the three things they need to make the Kalina Vaccine: Starmoth chrysalis, Herrowgray nectar, and Lundgreen pollen. The jocks and Boggy go for the chrysalis, Sandra-Lynn, Fig, Adaine, and Ayda go for the nectar, while Kristen, Riz, and Tracker look for the pollen.

The boys don’t find anything but, suddenly, there’s an image of a super creepy witch’s cottage in the gem, and Zathriel (the Celestial inside) bugs out before the gem goes dark. And Ragh is suddenly gone.

In her group, Sandra-Lynn flies off on Baxter in search of the nectar but the flapping noises that should be happening suddenly stop. Ayda offers to fly after her but then also becomes distressed, asking why they’re in a house (the others can’t see it) before also vanishing.

Kristen, Riz, and Tracker are looking around stagnant water for the pollen and they see Kalina’s reflection in the water. Kristen starts to film her on her crystal. Kalina (who they can all see at the same time for once) says that in Sylvere, nightmares are real, something demonstrated when Tracker fully wolfs out without the presence of an actual full moon. Kristen tries to Dimension Door out but they're too far in. They try to subdue her but Trcker vanishes into moths (?). Kalina says that Tracker is chasing down what she thinks is Kristen to kill her (which would make sense as being her nightmare). She says that she said she’d kill them if they got into the forest and here they are. She does a little damage to Riz to underline the statement and Riz starts recording her secretly. Kalina is doing small bits of damage (like 1-4 I think) but it’s enough that it will kill them before they have the chance to make tinctures.

The jocks find the chrysalis and then look for the others. Fig tries to use Ada’s feather to find her but, like the sapphire, it’s dead. Through Boggy, Adaine can see the jocks are flipping out and find the nectar and go find them.

Kristen casts Greater Restoration of Riz and tells him to find Tracker. The attacks stop on Riz and double on Kristen. She’ll be dead before she can employ any kind of healing mojo than can help significantly and the other healer is MIA. Everyone is running to find each other and then they suddenly hear, emanating from every corner of the forest creepy laughter and they all see a crowned skull. Concerning!

Detention

Fabian for Crashing the Goldenrod

This was almost like the ribbon dancing sequence except Kristen had something to potentially gain from that and this was an absolutely insane course of action for no particular reason.

Honor Roll

Kristen for Using Her One Greater Restoration on Riz

What a quintessential healer move. Having one heal and giving it away to your party member. Listen, she may have rejected Helio, but he picked her for a reason. Girl is a BAMF.

Random Thoughts

“You can't make these things up. You can. We did.”

Actual Crazy Person Bill Seacaseter: I had to kill Gilear as a matter of course but I love Gilear!

Bill tells Gilear to kill any man who looks askance at Hilariel. Fig (mirroring a comment to Bill from last season) questions what he should do if any woman looks at her. An enthusiastic, “Dealer’s choice!” is the answer.

"If you die in hell do you die in real life?"

Is the message of this season just “Vaccinate your kids”?

Fabian offers to threaten someone who’s bullying Gilear. You know what that is? Growth.

Bill brought the Bad Kids to the Astral Plane but they wanted to get back to Arborly ASAP. I wonder if there was something Brennan expected them to do there and they didn’t.

Fig ripping the scroll was wild but, honestly, I might have thought that was how it worked too. It’s for sure a thing sometimes. But, in a similar vein, very concerned Fig is going to accidentally shatter Gorthalax’s gem prematurely with that bass. Feel like she’s not 100% clear on how that works.

“I don’t have a crush one anyone. I just want to be rich.”

Riz took over from Adaine this episode in unpacking my high school experiences, lemme tell you.

Wondering where Baron fits into all this. It seems like the kind of effect that Sylvere would be able to produce but he wasn’t in Sylvere when that happened and I feel like that wouldn’t be Riz’s nightmare (unless it represented anxiety about his not dating or s/t like that). What was that about? Who exactly caused it and with what ability? Is that just a standard demon power?

Not important but last week when Brennan said a halo formed around Pok he distinctly motioned around his head and not over his head so I felt happy to have interpreted that correctly when he said this ep that the halo was one of those you see in old pics of like the Madonna and Child and not a modern-traditional angel halo.

The idea of a lower plane task force is extremely dope from a world building perspective. Like, that makes total sense.

“Don’t even talk to me until my death’s avenged.” I knew that was going to be a real mug as soon as it was said.

The stuff with Pok and Riz was so unbelievably sweet. Him having a chair set up to listen to his family talk at his grave? Him clearly being the proudest dad and talking about Riz all the time? Him wanting to just talk about unimportant stuff with Riz because it’s his important stuff. Ugh, my entire heart. And Riz immediately reverting to full, “My dad could beat up your dad,” mode. I love them so much.

I feel like Siobhan took coming up with a spell for Ayda as an actual out of game homework assignment which she should because Brennan *will* let her do it and then Ayda will save the party with it. That’s how D&D works baby I don’t make the rules. Hit me up with your best ideas.

Adaine actually asked Gilear for some of his hair in order to Scry on him and he’s the one who offered blood instead because he couldn’t spare any more hair. Feel like there’s gotta be a spell for that

Siobhan just casually says the phrase, “Mycelium web,” once again just being Adaine.

Couldn’t Kalina just say, “Screw it,” and stop showing up in pictures if the strain gets too much? Like, if your cover is blown, it’s blown. Or is it set up in such a way that it’s gonna screw her before she has the chance to turn it off?

It’s funny that Zac is playing such a low Int character because he’s actually figured out a lot of stuff this season and he’s the one who remembered that dragon madness won’t get passed on if the person who gets the money has no knowledge that it’s dragon money. I wonder if we’ll get to see him play a non-Himbo next season.

Adaine, predictably, has no social media presence. Speaking of social media, I love the naming convention of just sticking the word “fantasy” in front of things like Twitter and Google--as in, “You guys are all over Fantasy Twitter.” Like, why even complicate things? You know what this is.

Goodbye card for Gilear: Outside--Gilear I need you/Inside--to get me a cortado.

I had a stray thought that Riz could possibly use the door to come back after having done angel training for like a month but (1) that’s a little meta-gamey and (2) they were making an exception for him to be there that short time as it was. Anything else probably would have been pushing it.

Is Pok’s heaven affiliated with any deity or is it just where all the good workaholic secret agents go? To me, it seems like it liaises with all the other heavens more than being it’s own main heaven, you know?

Oh man. Ayda disappearing and Fig clutching her powerful feather, begging her to come back after indirectly putting her the situation she’s currently in? Heartbreaking dude.

I wonder why the people who disappeared disappeared beyond just getting rid of the NPCs.

Edit: Forgot to mention the part where Kristen rolled a -1 with her trash Dex so Ayda had to give her a portent roll to not instantly blow everything.

The Bad Kids are in a very precarious position right now. If I trusted Kalina to be someone of her word, I might try to bargain with her--destroy the picture in return for letting us leave. From a DM standpoint, I think it’s probably a good time for an Abernant Ex-Machina. They’re in the forest too as far as we know and they gotta come back into the story somehow. This could be the time.

Everyone going off about how Riz is a little angel and he could have told them if he was a Celestial and how much he loves Gilear while he’s not in the scene and can’t say anything is peak D&D.

Bill Seacaster saying a bunch of insane nonsense and then Adaine being like, “Nice seeing you Mr. Seacaster,” is also peak D&D.

This episode, Adaine, Fig*, Kristen and Brennan (as Sandra-Lynn) each rolled a Nat 20. Adaine and FIg each rolled one Nat 1 that was canceled by disadvantage and Riz rolled one Nat 1 that stuck.

*I actually am not 100% Fig rolled at Nat 20. Kristen did for sure but I don’t have a Tally for her so I might have flipped those by accident. If you happen to know for some weird reason, lemme know.

#fantasy high #fantasy high live #fantasy high spoilers #dimension 20 #dimension 20 spoilers

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dimension20fanfiction · 6 years ago

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Fantasy College

Written by AO3 Author outofthedormroom

Summary:

I love Dimension 20 so much. I wasn't done with the characters and wanted to write some fic. So this is the bad kids headed to college.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/17365514/chapters/40862489

Chapter 1: Is it lunch time yet?

Chapter Text

Adaine clicked the locks on her suitcase into place. She looked around the small apartment she’d called home for the past two years. Since moving out of Jawbones’ place after her 16th birthday she’d made the apartment above the deli her home. Adaine was excited to go to Aguefort University of Violence; the university was only a year old. At the start of her senior year Professor Aguefort announced that since he had died, came back to life, and took back control of the Adventuring Academy he was bored and wanted to be a dean of a fancy university. Since none would take him he started his own university. Only 6 people died during the first school year so it felt like a safe choice. As Adaine finished taking her last look around Zadye floated into the room.

“God dammit Zadye, just because it is my last day here doesn’t mean you can break the not announce yourself rule.” Adaine said annoyed.

“Now that you’re leaving I need to prep this place for one hell of a haunting.” Zadye said very pleased. “What is scarier this…” The room became icey cold and sets of eyes seemed to fill every shadow “or this?” Blood starts to drip down the wall and the smell of death takes over the room.

“Still not over being kicked out of the theatre department?”

“It was a bullshit call from Ms. Jones!” Zadye took a pause. “Hey Adaine, this shithole will be my main haunt but would it be cool with you if I haunted your dorm room from time to time?”

“If you can follow the announcing yourself rule then yes. If my roommate is terrible then you only need to follow that rule if I’m home.” Adaine offered. She was going to miss Zadye not his mellow drama goth kid stuff but the person, while ghost, under that front.

“I will scare that bitch to death if she doesn’t meet your cleaning standards.” and puff Zadye was vanished.

“Zayde, just because you don’t want to confront your feelings doesn’t mean you leave the conversation.” Adaine yelled and a bloody middle finger appeared on the door. She rolled her eyes and left the first place that ever felt like her home.

As she closed the door a text came in from Fig.

---

“Fig, you haven’t packed anything! We have to move you in tomorrow!” Sandra Lynn yelled from stairs to the attic.

“Ugh Mom get off my case!” Fig yelled continuing to play her bass behind a closed door.

“Now Fig, I know I’m not your parent and it’s not my place to tell you how to live your life but it is my job to help get you college ready. And as a guidance counselor I can tell you, you have to pack your stuff before moving into your dorm room.” Jawbone offered. Fig could tell that he was standing by her mom.

“I have until 8am. I’m working on a sick song called I’m in College for a Great Time.” Little did her mom know that she wasn’t technically in college. Arthur was just letting her move into a dorm in exchange for her playing at the on campus coffee shop.

“I’m calling your father!” Fig hit a cord.

“Which one?” Sandra-Lynn didn’t answer but Fig could hear her calling someone. The crystal ran when a voicemail picked up. It was muffled but Fig’s keen ears could make it out.

“Hello you have reached Principal Gilear Faeth, I can’t come to the phone right now but….Ragh stop it! I’m not the lunch lad anymore, no need for the BBQ sauce. BEEP” Gilear had had that voicemail for nearly a year and he couldn’t figure out how to change it.

“One down, one to go! Either way, I’m not starting for a while.” Fig called out. She knew she pushed her mom too far when one of her arrows hit the door lock breaking it. Her mom pushed the door open with Jawbone behind her.

“Fig, it is 6pm the day before you start at AUV. Get it together. You don’t want to forget anything. You need to get started, I don’t know what you need.” Sandra Lynn looked ready to start a mom rant.

“Ugh, I have a plan!” Fig put her bass down and picked up her crystal. She send Adaine a text asking her to cast unseen servant to pack her bags. “I just texted Adaine to help!” A moment later Fig’s items start sort, fold, and pack themselves.

“Well you’re not always going to have a wizard around to help.” Sandra Lynn said, rolling her eyes. After they left, Jawbone and Sandra Lynn shared a laugh.

---

“I am Fabian Seacaster, Son of Hallariel Seacaster, and I am here to get my room assignment.” Fabian declared at what looked to be the weakling incharge of check in.

“Does Seacaster start with a C or an S?” The man asked. Fabian narrowed his eyes.

“Are you mocking me?” He flipped over the table and lifted the man in the air. “I can tell you right now you do not want too…” The man vanished from his hands. “Where the hell?”

“I found it by your first name, you’re the only Fabian of your class. You are living in The Hall of Our Fathers’ floor 2. And lucky you; a single!” The man had blinked a few feet away.

“Fabian, try not to kill the RAs.” Hallariel said coming up from behind. “Now my baby needs your finest suite.”

“Well, we have dorms not suite. Fabian has been asided our average-ist single.” The RA said. “I am Swaine Smyth and I will be you RA. Now I’m not going to write you up for grabbing me cause I’m cool like that but consider this an informal warning.”

“While Swaine consider yourself warn!” Fabian whipped around, paused for a moment and turned back. “Now how do I get to my dorm?” Swaine gave him direction. Fabian and his mother headed off for the dorms followed by pirates carrying all of his things.

Once they reached room D20 they were surprised to see Gilear. Hallariel greet him with a kiss. Fabian considered killing for the millionth time.

“Fig’s fake father what are you doing here?” Fabian said as he opened the door.

“Oh...well Fig and Gorthalax are running late. I think they went to hell to get some decoration for her dorm. I thought I’d said hello to you, your mother, and our future child.” Gilear said touching his mother’s stomach.

“I cannot believe you will be the father to my future awesome brother. He will have so much to overcome being half you.”

“Hurtful...well I will go see if I can find Fig. I believe she is in room D6.” Gilear left. As he turn Fabian noticed a single bean on the backside of his pants.

---

“Thank you so much for helping me move in. My parents are at a church fundraising and won’t be coming till later.” Kristen said to Tracker as she hopped onto her freshly made bed.

“No problem,” Tracker said joining Kristen on the bed “I can’t believe you got a single.”

“Perks of knowing the dean and founding a new region that is extremely popular among young people so I can afford a little upgrade.” Kristen said looking at her pride flag with YES! Printed over it.

“Hey, makes it easier to come and visit.” Tracker said as she snuggled closer. “Plus it makes it nice that you won’t freak out any roommate trying to convert them.”

“YES! Doesn’t want me to convert per say just ask people to care more.” A knock at the door or room D4. “Here come my folks, let’s be extra gay.” Kristen said getting up to greet her parents Mac and Donna as well as her brothers Bricker, Buckey, and Cork.

“Kristen; you missed a great corn cake breakfast. We raised 400 gold pieces for Sole!” Donna said excitedly.

“Mom, we both know that Sole doesn’t need money. He runs the most profitably chain of self tanning places ever. It’s the Fantasy McDonalds of sun tanning. The best thing that ever happened to him was falling from the heavens.”

“Kristen, don’t be like that Sole needs to to make sure Helio’s beer pong x-sports league gets off the ground...I see she is here.” Mac said looking at Tracker.

“Yes Dad, my girlfriend of 3 years is here to help me move in since you were raising money for beer pong sports.” Her brothers had gathered around Tracker.

“Tracker! Do the trick for us!” Cork begged. “Please!” Added Buckey.

“Okay but you guys need to make me mad.” Tracker said. The three boys started make funny faces. In response, Tracker turned her face into that of her wolf form. “Howl, howl, howl” chanted the boys. Tracker started making wolf noises to entertain them.

“I don’t love the boys playing with people like...while you know.” Her dad trailed off carefully watching Tracker.

“Gay people? Like me? I don’t know why I invited you. We can either go and have a nice meal at the family move in lunch or you can leave and keep being a homophobe.”

“Don’t call us that, we love all people but we don’t trust all people” Her mom shot back.

“Homophobes it is; hey guys” Kristen turns to her brothers who were still being entertained by Tracker. “Because mom and dad are bigots you have to leave and stop playing with Tracker.”

“Mom and Dad being bigots ruin everything!” Bickery declared as Kristen family left.

---

Riz hung up his PI license on the wall of room D8. It was truly the most beautiful thing he’d ever see.

“Ok Riz, you are unpacked. Sorry I can’t stay long but my case is taking up so much time. Here is a Baston Market gift card in case you get hungry. Gorthalax and Fig are stuck in hellish traffic but they should be here by lunch and he can help you with anything. Is there anything else I can do before I had back to HQ.” Sklonda asked.

“I get it mom. In four years I will have the same problem.” Riz said. “Plus I can text the other bad kids and see if they are free to do things on the green and other such college student fun.”

“I’m so proud of you sweetie and I know your dad would be too.”

“Thanks mom.”

---

Gorgug drove the car as his parents cried in the back seat.

“Gorgug, buddy we are so so gd proud of you! It seems like yesterday you died for the first time and now you are starting college. Before you know it Wilma” his dad started crying harder. “Wilma we will be grandparents.”

“Now Gorgug, while we are sad you are leaving the tree we are mainly proud of you for going to college and being an all around great kid.” Wilma said choking back tears.

“I know, you’ve been proudly crying all day. We missed check in.”

“Oh gosh darn it did we keep you from having an important college experience.” Digby added. His parents cried harder. Gorgug stepped on the gas. They were going to get to campus just in time for the move in family lunch.

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jq37 · 6 years ago

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any predictions for next episode? any more thoughts on what happened this episode? everyone says this every episode but it sure was wild

I’ve been sitting on this ask for 5 whole-ass days just trying to gather my thoughts because, yeah, I do say it every week but this ep was especially wild.

I think that before I can talk about what I think is going to happen, I have to talk about what I thought was supposed to happen.

Now, before I watched the ep, I thought this fight was gonna go something like the graduation scene from Buffy because those kids came strapped and they weren’t even adventurers. They just happened to live by a hellmouth. But everyone basically dipped immediately. Now, in fairness, the bad kids are probably overleveled compared to even the seniors considering they keep going on side adventures, but man that was some weak sauce. I really wanted whoever had the highest charisma stat (Fabian or Fig I’m guessing) to give a speech, roll something crazy, and get some backup.

Like I said in a previous ask, I went into the last ep curious about what form it would take because a battle ep alone wouldn’t be enough to wrap everything up, surely. I thought they it might have been planned as a battle length ep with an extra hour or so tacked on for story and epilogueing.

I also don’t think Brennan wanted a TPK. Like, who is that fun for? Not the players who have gotten super attached to their characters by this point. Not the people paying for Dropout subscriptions. But he also made the fight pretty freaking hard. Penelope and Dayne were pretty strong mini bosses (even though they got Dayne super fast), they came into the fight at half strength, the first part of the fight had a keep away element, Goldenhoard was strong before her turned into a dragon, and then he turned into a freaking dragon. I think having Ragh there to recruit and the roll for police mechanic were meant to alleviate the sheer difficulty of the fight, but you can only rely on the luck of the die so much (something Brennan must have re-learned when he let Ally roll for a potentially story breaking action). The deck was really stacked against them. So I feel like he had a plan for a party wipe. I mean, he’s had two players die before. It’s very possible his plan was that they would all wipe, meet up in heaven, chat with Aguefort, and then come back and finish the fight, maybe after some kind of sacrifice. I think Brennan would end the series with one, maybe two significant deaths, or a full party wipe IF they specifically were making a choice to make a Big Damn Hero sacrifice. It wouldn’t be narratively satisfying if everyone just died, you know? And he knows there’s an audience element to what he’s doing.

I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s extremely wild that no one has been super concerned about Adaine’s jacket to this point. Like, I would have asked someone about it. Done some investigation. At the very least, used it more. But Adaine was basically like: Dope Jacket. +5 to Self Esteem. There’s potentially a whole plot alley we’re missing because no one’s asked the right (or any) questions.

Also wild that Gorgug can’t even look Zelda in the eye when he talks to her but he full on kissed Ragh on the lips to get him to stop beating him up. lol Imagine if he’d tried that when Fabian punched him in ep 1.

I wonder if the cast is gonna be in formal wear again next ep.

OK, I’ve gotten off topic. Back to how things were supposed to go/predictions.

I think the parents have to come into play somehow. Obvious Sklonda should be on her way and Gorthalax has shown up but Fig’s mom went off to presumably where the girls are and we need to find out how that goes. Less obviously, I think Adaine’s mom and Fabian’s are going to end up on the board. I dunno what Fabian’s mom is good for but her last appearance was her picking up a sword as Fabian rushed out which felt foreshadow-y. Anyway, if she can’t fight, she’s still rich. She can do something. And she’s a high elf so maybe she can help out smoothing things over with Falinel. Speaking of, there’s still a war on which Adaine’s family played a part in starting. If Adaine’s mom wants to follow up on her one hint that she’s not a total garbage person, now would be the time.

Adaine is the elven oracle. I feel like that has to be relevant to the fight somehow. Like, it would be weird it the only thing that played into was that she could pick up the book, right? (Unless there was gonna be a S2 where that would be explored. Sidenote, I am starting to feel like next season might be different characters, same setting. That’s still not my main theory, but we’re leaving a lot of story on the table potentially. Although I did see they might be doing a comic? Idk). Of all the knocked out people (minus Kristen who is about to avenging angel rise from the dead) Adaine is probably in the best position because she’s with Fabian who is the only conscious party member. So that’s good I guess.

I just took a look at the prophecy and it has two parts. The first part says the things that need to happen before Kalvaxus can be released (K beholds his treasure, 7 maidens chained, war befalls the realm, king and queen crowned). All that happened. Kalvaxus was released. They can’t stop it at this point (barring time travel, which, to be fair, was mentioned earlier). The second part of the prophecy is the consequences: Kalvaxus will be released, his destruction will know no bounds, the sun shall fall from the Heavens, and the world as we know it shall perish forever.

Two parts of that strike me as especially significant. There’s the sun falling from the Heavens part. That implies Sol, right? Especially with the capitalized “Heavens”. So that doesn’t sound good.

And the second part is “the world as we know it shall perish forever”. That doesn’t mean the world is going to end, necessarily. That means the world is going to CHANGE. Which makes me wonder if THAT is/was the planned endgame for the season. The bad kids fail to prevent the prophecy and things change in a drastic way which is why the setting for next season is super different.

And, back to the party wipe, Brennan didn’t seem very fazed as the entire party was dropping like flies, but he was *shook* when Ally rolled that 20 at the end. Like, compare that to the ep where Siobhan said they jossed his plans or Lou’s awesome nat 20 to beat a nat 20. In the first case, he didn’t react at all. In the second case, he celebrated with everyone else. When Ally did it, he was sitting there slack jawed. The healer rezzing should be a best case scenario, right? It gives the rest of the party a fighting chance. And, clearly, it wasn’t what he was expected and he wasn’t excited. It makes me feel like he wanted a party wipe for some reason.

Anyway, I’m sure I’m forgetting something but that’s what I got for now.

#fantasy high #asks #farahblack #sorry this took so long!#oh also tracker has to show up again #assuming kristen doesn't die for real #which she won't

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