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, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth episodes!

We return to Fantasy High: Junior Year where our heroes have escaped the nightmarish version of Mordred Manor and the bizarre Baron. Having successfully broken Gilear’s curse, Adaine holds the power to elect where the energy which resulted will go. If she wanted, she could rebound it upon the caster or someone else.

Living up to her wizard class, Adaine goes straight into research mode. She wants to know who, when, and where. Despite being attached to the armor of pride, the curse appeared to have affected Gilear prior to him ever putting it on, leaving its history all the more mysterious. Due to the infernal nature, the Bad Kids take the chance to plane shift to Fig’s studio in the bottomless pit.

To Fabian’s excitement, his father’s ship appears, joining them there as they come to reclaim texts which Baby had thrown out. Bill Seacaster reunites with his son. After being alone and struggling without parental guidance, the affectionate reunion feels long overdue.

However, the discovery that Gilear’s ancestor was the person the pride armor was made for eclipses this reunion. Passing down the line, the armor provided strength while ruining reputation. Unfortunately, when the familial line finally managed to give the armor away, doing so caused the curse which traveled down the family’s patrilineal line. By putting the armor back on, Gilear confused the curse, allowing Fig to unknowingly pull the curse onto herself for a burst of power. Each sin armor came from a deity, and Ankarna forged the pride armor.

When Riz uses his tie, Ankarna’s name results in a call from his father. Pok mentions Ankarna’s name hasn’t been detected for a thousand years in the mortal plane. He helps them untangle a bit of the goddess’s realm, but he also discovers Ankarna’s file in the Celestial system was corrupted. Riz surmises that perhaps Sol tricked Ankarna and Cassandra into signing a contract which gave him the domain of the sun when officiating their marriage.

The group returns to Fallinel, reuniting with their family. They confirm Gilear’s luck has returned to what it was before, and to Fabian’s horror, Gilear hints at a possible child with Hallariel.

More importantly, Gortholax reveals he knew Ankarna. She pushed her way into the domain of conquest while as an infernal deity at the behest of her followers. The exacts of her fall are unknown to him; however, he does know she responded violently to someone who spoke of her marriage.

Reaching into the stone in Lydia’s chest, the Bad Kids confirm Bakur used to be Athenriel, ancestor of Gilear and original owner of the pride armor. Furthermore, he also shares that Ankarna was the goddess of the dawn, the coming of long days, summer, light, clarity, and justice. Sol’s followers corrupted her.

Adaine uses the cursed energy to bind him, sealing the gem. Fabian removes it from Lydia with Kristen’s help, and when things go south, our chaotic cleric steps in, extracting the crystal and freeing her to Ragh’s weeping relief and joy.

Highlights

Adaine finally demands payment for her work as an elven oracle. The Council of Stars threaten to send lawyers to sort out a contract, but she negotiates a dance battle in one month’s time between Fabian and a dancer of the Council’s choosing. Fabian, of course, crushed it. Doing so, Adaine gains payment, and she bestows Fabian a position as her champion, earning him the title of Oracle of Dance. This feeds wonderfully into her prediction earlier in the season of him becoming the greatest dancer in the world.

Brennan Lee Mulligan is a masterclass of accents, but his Bobby Dawn just hit the right wrong way. He’s the perfect southern gentleman of a villain. Televangelists have nothing on Bobby Dawn. Any hope Kristen might’ve had that he could come in without an agenda was clearly guided because he clearly has no intention of doing anything but growing his own herd and culling whoever gets in his way.

Final Score (4.5 out of 5 Stars)

While the prior episode was combat heavy, spiked with the adrenaline of Baron’s possessions, all those pieces which the Bad Kids kicked loose fit back together. Of course, the interlude in Hell allowed an upbeat discovery. Bill Seacaster is always a win.

With Kristen’s expulsion looming in the sneak peak, the followers of Sol likely still have some memory of their hand in Ankarna’s corruption; however, while that puts a target on Kristen’s back, it adds a new layer to why her worship of Cassandra was such a threat.

How much does Bobby Dawn know? Will the return of Ankarna lead to the fall of Sol and Helio? 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 Flagship Podcast of Boss Rush Media and the Boss Rush Network

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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