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, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth episodes!

With the weight of academia lifted off their shoulders, the Bad Kids return this week with their enemies gone to ground and a mysterious giant figure with a clear connection to Ankarna.

Gorgug jumps into the mystery. As he researches the loose ends left throughout the season thus far, Fig works to reshape Ankarna’s story. Emily shines bright as ever, poetically acknowledging Ankarna’s moral compass became a weathervane due to her loyalty to her followers. Her attempts to fight against the retelling of the goddess’s purpose and cleansing of the corruption give us our first glimpse of the goddess herself, awakening and calling for their spouse.

Attempting Atonement, Fig stuns the goddess, joking she cannot burn because her girlfriend is a phoenix. Fig and Ankarna speak. In the face of Fig’s empathy and loyalty, Ankarna softens and expresses how lost they feel. With a last promise that Ankarna would be reunited with Cassandra, the two part, but with now two powerful singles ready for release, Fig sets her work on the world, watching as they fly to the top of the charts. Hopefully, the popularity will harm what the Rat Grinders have planned.

Kristen reveals all to Jawbone. Reading him into the full situation, she lets him know about Yolanda and Jace. The two plot out the points of deaths. Her suspicions on a twenty-four point star brings into question whether Kalina tried to attack Lydia or whether it was actually the beginning of this situation. Unfortunately, as brilliant as that interaction is, Kristen fumbles with Bobby but manages to avoid saying Ankarna’s name.

The queen of recovery, Kristen has a heart-to-heart with her brother, Bucky. She offers to discuss Cassandra with him. He wants to ask, but he is nervous and unable to actually manage it. Two out of three counts as a win in our books.

Cassandra reveals to Kristen that Ankarna has a champion. While my mind immediately jumped to Fig after the connection there, the Bad Kids lean toward Lydia or her clone being brought back. Either way, the Nightmare King will likely return to protect Ankarna even knowing the cost.

When the Bad Kids reached the Temple of the Fallen Sun in the Mountains of Chaos, Brennan outright states that Fig easily attunes as this is a place of her god. If Ankarna made the deal with Fig back in the beginning against the Night Yorb, then the player versus player possibility seems a reasonable end; however, fighting against her friends willingly is the antithesis of Fig, so there has to be another twist. That being said, Dimension 20 has shown they won’t shy away from forced player versus player in the Baron episode.

As Adaine casts Legend Lore and Riz investigates, Fig wanders through the temple with Kristen. They discover this is where Cassandra and Ankarna divorced. However, the forced corruption of Ankarna by her priests murdering the followers of her original realm put Ankarna at odds with Cassandra, resulting in Ankarna’s priests killing Cassandra’s. All this harkens to Sunstone, the imperial clan of giants.

Adaine’s Legend Lore reveals the human clerics of Sol pushed the splitting of the realm with the leaders of the Sunstone Clan. This led to massacres. Eventually, Clan Frostblade rose anew, working with Ankarna’s sister against this imperialism. Everything leads back to Ragh, who gained the curse from Porter’s healings.

Porter Cliffbreaker hails from the House of Sunstone. His surname is a reference to their fall from power. All the connections draw together, and Fig’s distrust of him from the first season failed to stop her from listening to him when he suggested she might not be Cassandra’s paladin, pushing her toward Ankarna. Porter and Jace were in on it the whole time.

Reaching out to provide Atonement once more, Fig reveals a last bit of ancient horror. The Temple of the Fallen Sun was built upon the bones of an even older sacred place to Ankarna.

Legend Lore also reveals Bakur wanted Ankarna back in her uncorrupted form. They speak with him, confirming that he wanted her to be free in her original form. Additionally, Bakur confirms that they merely need a place where any god was born, not particularly the god being resurrected, and Kristen’s Yes! was born in the gym at Aguefort where graduation will be.

Returning to Elmville, Fig continues her winning streak for the episode, tricking Porter by giving him the wrong name for Ankarna. Unfortunately, Porter stuns Fig as well as Gorgug and Adaine, who were hiding. To their luck, Porter doesn’t realize the trick, helping Fig out of the stun. He can’t touch Riz though.

Riz does what he does best. Diving into Porter’s office, he discovers letters connecting Porter with Bobby, confirming that the cleric of Sol as looking for the goddess’s name, and he also leans that Porter has been drinking ambrosia. All points lead to Porter wanting to summon Ankarna perhaps to take her place. This is confirmed when the Bad Kids break into Ruben’s house, discovering all the evidence of the Rat Grinders’ plans as well as what they need for their ritual. Additionally, the players catch up to what felt a bit obvious from the beginning – Fig is Ankarna’s champion.

However, even knowing these plans does not stop what’s already in motion. At Fabian’s birthday party, Seacaster Manor lifts into the sky. Oisin hid spells in pingpong balls. Rat Grinders’ Plan A can’t happen, but they clearly aways had a Plan B, and votes can’t count if they don’t get in by midnight.

Highlights

Emily Axford is an incredible player, and while she often leans into the joke more on Dimension 20 than she sometimes does on other role-playing shows, this episode was a masterclass in optimizing your strategy without meta gaming. Despite revealing a lot of her character’s thinking, Emily plays surprisingly close to the vest, slamming down epic metaphors and transforming jokes into long-term genius set-ups.

Though the Wanda’s scene was for Ruben’s benefit, it was a brilliantly acted, brilliantly planned unfolding of the whole Wanda Chillda arc. Siobhan helped by suggesting they disguise Gorgug as the mysterious figure to sell it even harder.

Final Score (5 out of 5 Stars)

A plan five years in the making, the true face of Porter Cliffbreaker might’ve been called by Fig early on, but even Emily Axford followed his advice. Over and over, the Bad Kids suspected, but they also listened to Porter just as often.

As plans unfolded and the players responded, compiling multiple seasons’ worth of clues, this episode was Dimension 20‘s Intrepid Heroes at their best. Plenty of jokes, moments of sheer strategic genius, and teamwork up the wazoo framed a brilliant story. We’re heading into the end stretch. Whatever comes next, it will be exciting to see where these Bad Kids land.

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

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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