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, fifth, and sixth episodes!
Returning to the Aguefort Adventuring Academy, the interim principal calls for a surprise assembly, revealing stricter rules and going on the offensive against students who scan positive for illicit substances. Luckily, none of our heroes partook, but in the chaos, it becomes clear this was another pointed attack from the Rat Grinders. Ivy had tried to pressure Fabian into using snuff, and she had supplied those who did use the drugs which were at the party. Between that and Kipperlilly buying everyone lunch with multiple food trucks displaying her candidacy, everything comes under further suspicion.
Nobody seems to have put together Henry Hopclap, artificer professor, is likely related to Ruben, the Rat Grinder’s bard, and that the overbearing warforged interim principal might just have a connection. Supposedly, he was created by Arthur Aguefort, but who maintains him? Frankly, it all seems a bit fishy to me.
This is the first episode with the multiple-phase dice roll session. For both Fig and Kristen, they risk expulsion if they ever get five or more below the academic role. Riz speed runs academics, doing excellently while Adaine prioritizes getting a job, but while she manages to use her divination roll and bardic to increase her gains though it doesn’t guarantee her the ease in academic she needed. Luckily, she lands a job at Basrar’s Soda Fountain.
Fabian gains advantage on the first charisma checks when meeting somebody new. His popularity skyrockets. Seacaster Manor and his study nights become the local hang spot, especially among the freshmen.
Hitting it out of the park for his first academic roll, Gorgug then takes a stress token for his second only to gain a Nat 1; however, risking the second and last stress token he can take this session, Gorgug springs to the opposite direction with a Nat 20 which gives him advantage and another Nat 20 in his third roll as he faces three years of Artificer classes alongside junior year Barbarian. In the end, he soars in Artificer, but he ends up with a C in his original course. Either way, he passes.
Kristen consults with her cleric teacher, trying to bring back Cassandra. She must do theological essays and needs to perform a miracle to help manifest her goddess, proving whether or not Cassandra remains. Taking time in a cleric room, Kristen takes her first check, managing a middling roll and results in her taking a stress token to re-roll as she calls out for her deity and manages to channel some divine energy.
Overwhelmed, Fig goes to her warlock professor, trying to determine how to balance all of her desperate ideas. She even has a spur of a moment suggestion that she could become a paladin of Cassandra. Throughout the series, she has vacillated between the person she believed she should’ve been in light of her heritage first as an elf and then as a tiefling, so it’s fantastic to see her have a role model more in line with what she wants for herself without the weight of parental expectations. The Barbarian professor, Porter, signs off on her doubling with warlock, even offering to claim that she was never a Bard and had always been Barbarian track.
As the craziness of these rolls comes toward an end, Riz makes a fantastic discovery. Lucy Frostblade put in paperwork to change her god; however, she also put in paper to cancel that change, but the god’s name is redacted as the god is dead. With the reaction of the cleric professor to the news of the paperwork (but not the unnamed god), the mystery of Lucy’s death only deepens.
Highlights
One day Gorgug will go into a rage on Porter, finally revealing the depths of his frustration with the Barbarian professor, and it is going to be the most emotionally uplifting moment for Porter. Of course, the man has always been supportive of Fig, helping her in this episode to realize her paladin potential as well as working around the system to clean her slate of bard, but the electric animosity between Gorgug and Porter promises one of the most epic Brennan Lee Mulligan speeches, and it will be wonderfully undercut with a Zac Oyama one-liner. Honestly, I can’t wait.
Final Score (5 out of 5 Stars)
The dynamic mass rolling honestly helped clear up the slog, intensifying and condensing the multiple plates that every player has in the air. Brennan’s enthusiasm for the tokens, as well as Emily’s even though Fig only received one, sold the duality of them as a physical symbol of our Intrepid Heroes’ mounting stress.
Even better, this new format allowed for the Bad Kids to focus on specific moments, honing in the highs and lows without the drag in between. As many answers as they discovered, the mysteries only deepened.
Do you have a guess about the unnamed god on Lucy Frostblade’s paperwork? Have any thoughts on this new stress token, dynamic roll phase? 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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