Title: Fantasy High: Junior Year
GM: Brennan Lee Mulligan
Players: Emily Axford (she/her) as Fig Faeth (she/her). Zac Oyama (he/him) as Gorgug Thistlespring (he/him). Siobhan Thompson (she/her) as Adaine Abernant (she/her). Lou Wilson (he/him) as Fabian Seacaster (he/him). Ally Beardsley (they/them) as Kristen Applebees (she/her). Brian Murphy (he/him) as Riz Gukgak (he/him).
Streaming Service: Dropout

If you missed it, catch our review of the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth episodes!

We return to the raging party at Seacaster Manor in this episode, diving right back into the chaos. While the majority of Aguefort Academy, and perhaps even the bulk of the teenagers of Elmville, enjoy the festivities, Kristen maintains great invisibility, dealing with the agony of losing her deity for the second time. With an additional debt from the destruction of the mall, Adaine joins her friend, sharing a drink as they face the heavy reality of their unfortunate circumstances. However, the Rat Grinders remain on our players’ minds, and sure enough, they find the new cleric of Helio and member of the Rat Grinders, Buddy Dawn, in the thick of it.

As the Bad Kids get to know Buddy, it becomes clearer and clearer that he isn’t as invested in whatever the Rat Grinders intend, especially as they requested him when he transferred over the summer.

Hanging around the beer pong table, Buddy isn’t entirely alone. While it isn’t confirmed until later, two other members of the Rat Grinders are close by, and Adaine meets the first when she notices a fellow wizard, Oisin.

Unable to face how hot and kind he is, Adaine ends up running away when he offers to help her acquire her wizard supplies without ever knowing his position in the Rat Grinders. The fact that Oisin ends up thrown off his game afterward makes their interaction all the more adorable.

Adding to the hilarity, Fabian does the same when Ivy, Oisin’s friend and fellow Rat Grinder, yells out to complain about the supposedly lopsided table. Interestingly, as Fabian and Adaine gather themselves, the young master Seacaster makes an offhanded comment about Adaine’s wealth, leaving it unclear whether he realizes that she doesn’t have access to her family’s money. If not, that would explain why he hasn’t offered to help, but if the Bad Kids are hiding more secrets from each other, then we’re in for an even further fall.

Riz and Gorgug talk with Ragh, sharing what happened and trying to figure out why Kalina said Ragh’s name. As they plan to figure the red rage spheres out with Ragh and his mom tomorrow, Fig and Kristen find the yearbook, discovering the original name of the Rat Grinders was the High Five Heroes. In addition to the Kipperlilly and Ruben, the group includes Oisin, Ivy, and their cleric, Lucy Frostblade, who died at the end of their sophomore year. However, some of the players question if the death was faked.

The day after the party, the group meets up for lunch with Ragh’s mom, Lydia Barkrock, speaking about the crystal and what happened to Cassandra. Caught in her chest is a pit fiend, and he intended to bring his master back from the dead, which makes Lydia all the more worried by Cassandra mentioning they thought someone was dead in the midst of the attack.

Highlights

Kristen and Fig working to trick Buddy was hilarious, but based on Brennan’s previous villains, there’s likely more to the cleric of Helio than the naive altar boy persona which he presented. It wouldn’t surprise me to discover later on that while he played the fool, Buddy recognized the wool being pulled over his eyes, and perhaps even caught on to the trick. Even if he didn’t and is as blindly believing as he appeared, Kipperlilly isn’t, and while the Church of Helio might want to have a more easily controlled youth as the beacon of their future in light of what happened with Kristen, Kipperlilly clearly has her own plans for him.

Fabian earns himself another enemy. After insulting Gertie’s honey, she becomes the second person added to his nemesis list. However, it felt like the harsher truths came between Kristen and Tracker, who clearly wanted more enthusiastic support than Kristen was emotionally prepared to give her. Kristen twice tries to offer it, suggesting she wants to be comfortable and enthusiastic but unable to emotionally provide the level that she believes Tracker deserves, but the way she said it was a train wreck.

Final Score (4 out of 5 Stars)

If nothing else, Kristen finds a solid platform. Adventures should count more, or frankly, they should be independent study credit and count at all as it sounds like everything that they had done, including saving the world three times, hasn’t been considered.

Brennan’s collection of mounting rolls, which he discussed at the end of the episode, definitely adds an interesting mechanic and adding stress tokens ties in some of the more interesting mechanics. We’ve seen these tokens before in prior seasons like Mentopolis. They’re a fantastic addition as players can build success from their failures adds a bit of optimism to even the worst rolls, so it will be interesting to see how our Intrepid Heroes use these.

Can our heroes save Cassandra? Is Fig’s unluckiness tied to Lydia’s crystal? And if so, was Gilear’s? Let us know what you think in the comments below or go over to our Discord channel to join the conversation.

Featured Image: Dimension 20

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The Boss Rush Podcast – The Boss Rush Podcast is the flagship podcast of Boss Rush Media and the Boss Rush Network. Each week, Corey, Stephanie, LeRon, and their friends from around the internet come together with other creators, developers, and industry veterans to talk about games they’ve been playing, discuss video game and entertainment based topics, and answer questions solicited on social media and the community Discord. 

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