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pechebeche · 3 years

Note

hello peach i'm sorry to bother you i just wanted to say that i loved st judas and am glad that you were able to post even part of it. it has a special place in my heart. it's okay if you don't want to answer, but i'm curious about two things:

1. who killed riz?

and more importantly

2. when they kissed for the first time... who kissed who 😳

anyway. again sorry to bother you and you don't have to respond. i hope you have a good day/evening 💞

you arent a bother at all!! much as i am just not physically capable of actually Writing Out the rest of st judas, i. still love it. and i will eagerly take any opportunity to share what my plans for it were, in hopes that it will at least provide some closure for people. <3

1. so, the big question, and bear with me here: zayne darkshadow killed riz. and also, he didn’t.

st judas, you gotta remember, was originally written to tie up s1′s loose ends. at the end of s1, the god sol was knocked out. the balance of the celestial plane was completely upset. shit kind of went off the wire for a lil bit.

for a couple of interested parties, that provided a pretty strong opportunity.

the core plot of the villains didn’t center around killing riz - it centered around fucking up the afterlife. the characters who had been canonically killed at some point - kristen and gorgug - both, you will notice, started having major issues with their abilities not long before the start of the story (kristen losing her clerical abilities, gorgug’s berserker exhaustion ability catching up to him long-term in the form of a chronic illness). one of the reveals of the next few chapters was going to be that vine, the tiefling who was at the nightclub fight, had, in fact, been dead for 10 years prior to the start of the story.

(side note - this was also why riz didn’t see anything after his death! when pok got revealed as a spy in hell in s2 you may remember me very loudly shouting abt how Now My Ideas Look Stolen Damn You. riz not seeing an afterlife was a protective measure from his dad, who was trying to figure out what was goin on from the afterlife side, and the only reason t hat riz wasnt affected by the Resurrection Curse TM. dammit brennan. it’s also why bill and hallariel were ‘alive’ and kicking.)

the major villain - the Man Behind The Man - had kind of wrestled their way into the afterlife in the brief period where sol was unconscious & aguefort wasnt doing his job for him, and had, over the next decade, slowly expanded control over the undead and recently-resurrected. the first thing they could control was ghosts.

so it was zayne’s hand that did it, but zayne wasn’t in control of his actions. in reality:

penelope everpetal killed riz.

2. riz kissed fabian!! i never wrote out the scene but i had a very strong concept for it in my head.

after fighting with aelwen and turning her to the side of good (because i was stanning aelwen redemption a year before fantasy high even announced s2 and i may not have proof of that anymore because rip my old blog but i still refuse to let it be taken from me), there was going to be a big blow-out where aelwen laid out for fabian why it’s fucked up that he made decision based on what he thought was best for her without asking her.

for aelwen, who was used as a pawn for her entire life, it was an especially sore subject. it was meant, dually, to be an expansion of aelwen’s character from the s1/critique of the heavy comphet themes that went into fabian/aelwen at the end of the season - the idea of aelwen as a Thing That Fabian Needs To Save instead of as a person capable of making her own choices - and as a parallel to the way that fabian had abandoned riz for what he thought was his own good and ended up essentially ruining his life for a good while there.

the idea was that riz would go to fabian to comfort him after he and aelwen had that argument. st judas was always a lot of a story abt fabian overcoming those toxic ideas (another thing s2 ended up taking care of), and i do think he would listen to aelwen - and make the connection to how he had treated riz. and the idea is that he would be fumbling through understanding himself, and learning, and trying to apologize

and by the end of the conversation, riz, who has been (rightfully!) angry for so long, and still distant even now, and has been hurt and scarred by fabian and for fabian and unrelated to fabian - i think, when he sees fabian trying, in earnest, to do better for riz, when fabian says, “i did what i thought you wanted, but i didn’t know. so what do you want?” and what do you want, riz gukgak?

“this,” riz says, and kisses fabian on the mouth.

#asks #twinfantasymp3 #st judas #fabriz #let me know if yall dont want me in this tag i can For Sure fuck off #theres so much here im sorry you just wanted to know what happened but i spent Years with my ~foreshadowing~ and i am unbearable #no one will ever notice all of my cool little hints now!! I Have To Get It Out While I Can #thank u for asking. it still genuinely makes me tear up when i think of how excited people got abt that fic

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cinnamon-dragon · 4 years

Audio

RIZ GUKGAK - PLAYLIST

<< you will dig until your own hands are bleeding because the second you slow down, you will have to deal with the fact that he's not coming home >>

a playlist mainly for Riz, but also Pok and Sklonda; list of songs with quotes under the cut - some of those are subjective or were added more for vibes than their lyrics; a warning - this playlist was probably heavily influenced by my weird mixed taste in music, so watch out :)

[ vienna - billy joel // the seeker - the who // here is the news - electric lights orchestra // secret agent man - johny rivers // gut-shot soldier – sorne // soldier - fleurie // little black submarines - the black keys // one engine - the decemberists // carry on my wayward son – kansas // icarus – bastille // who are you really? - mikky ekko // save this city - zayde wølf // lane boy - twenty one pilots // (she was) a hotel detective - they might be giants // i’ll sleep when i’m dead - bon jovi // extreme ways – moby // run daddy run – miranda lambert // God’s gonna cut you down - johny cash // riders on the storm - the doors // white rabbit - jefferson airplane // by the time you get this – they might be giants ]

1. Vienna - Billy Joel

slow down, you crazy child // you're so ambitious for a juvenile // but then if you're so smart, then tell me // why are you still so afraid? // where's the fire, what's the hurry about? // you'd better cool it off before you burn it out // you've got so much to do // and only so many hours in a day

2. The Seeker - The Who

they call me the seeker // i’ve been searching low and high (…) // i’m a seeker, i'm a really desperate man!

3. Here Is The News - Electric Lights Orchestra

here is the news // another action filled adventure // here is the news // all the worst from the world convention

4. Secret Agent Man - Johny Rivers

there's a man who leads a life of danger // to everyone he meets he stays a stranger // with every move he makes another chance he takes // odds are he won't live to see tomorrow

5. Gut-Shot Soldier - SORNE

in a tattered costume stitched from the remains // of ancient countries // and ancient warriors unknown and unnamed // gut shot soldier // no one hears you when you fall

6. Soldier - Fleurie

soldier keep on marchin' on // head down 'til the work is done (…) // head in the dust, feet in the fire // labour on that midnight wire (…) // careful son, you got dreamer's plans // but it gets hard to stand

7. Little Black Submarines - The Black Keys

told my girl i’ll be back (...) // treasure maps, fallen trees (…) // stolen friends and disease // operator please // pass me back to my mind

8. One Engine - The Decemberists

and the martyr line // it's a bitter pill // and the line of right // it will barely make you feel

9. Carry On My Wayward Son - Kansas

carry on my wayward son // for there'll be peace when you are done // where the lonely ones roam //kill a little time you can sleep when you're dead // cause it isn't over yet, get it outta your head (…) // will you tell me what you found?

10. Icarus - Bastille

look who's digging their own grave // that is what they all say (…) // icarus is flying too close to the sun // and icarus's life, it has only just begun

11. Who Are You Really? - Mikky Ekko

so you're feeling tied up to a sense of control //and make decisions that you think are your own

12. Save This City - Zayde Wølf

we never sleep, we keep the blood pumpin' through our veins // we always meet the fear head-on where the shadows lay // (…) step into the darkness // if we're gonna save this city

13. Lane Boy - Twenty One Pilots

they say, "stay in your lane, boy, lane, boy" //but we go where we want to // they think this thing is a highway, highway // but will they be alive tomorrow?(…) // but i know a thing or two about pain and darkness //(…)but let's backtrack // back to this // who would you live and die for on that list?

14. (she was A) Hotel Detective - They Might Be Giants

she's got her ear to the walls and she's tappin' the calls // if you've got a secret boy, forget about it, 'cause she's a // hotel detective

15. I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead - Bon Jovi

sleep when i’m dead // got no time for catching z's // if they say that that ain't healthy // well then living's a disease(…) // till i'm six feet under // i won't need a bed // gonna live while i'm alive // i’ll sleep when i'm dead

16. Extreme Ways - Moby

extreme ways that help me // that help me out late at night // extreme places i had gone // but never seen any light (…) // i would stand in line for this // there's always room in life for this

17. Run Daddy Run - Miranda Lambert

daddy can you hear the devil drawing near // like a bullet from a gun, run daddy run

18. God’s Gonna Cut You Down - Johny Cash

well you may throw your rock and hide your hand // workin' in the dark against your fellow man (…) // what's down in the dark will be brought to the light

19. Riders on the Storm - The Doors

there's a killer on the road // his brain is squirming like a toad // take a long holiday //let your children play // if you give this man a ride // sweet family will die

20. White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane

when logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead // and the white knight is talking backwards // and the red queen's off with her head // remember what the dormouse said // feed your head, feed your head

21. By The Time You Get This - They Might Be Giants

by the time you get this note // we'll no longer be alive(…) // we can confidently know that you'll enjoy a better world // when the evils that we faced // will at last be laid to rest

#fantasy high #riz gukgak #dimension 20 #pok gukgak #sklonda gukgak #fantasy high live #dimension 20 playlist #dimension 20 live #fantasy high playlist #calina dimension 20 #dnd #dimension 20 fantasy high

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jq37 · 4 years

Text

The Report Card – Fantasy High Sophomore Year Ep 15

Love Wins!

Welcome to an insanely chaotic episode of Fantasy High--even by the very high standards of this show. How chaotic you may ask? Well, the first thing that happens is that Bill Seacaster point blank shoots Gilear to death for being in a relationship with Hilariel. Full dead. He is full dead. Strangely, his plan to bring him back as a janky devil does not do much to comfort Fig. Imagine that.

Bill’s pirates are looting the Bottomless Pit (Gorthalax’s domain in Hell) and Vraz orders Fig to make them stop. When she instead orders Vraz to eat her ass, Vraz nullifies all warlock deals Gorthalax made and brings none other than Johnny Spells (and his greaser pals) to join the fight!

Really, this fight is insane and it’s better served by a highlight real than a play by play so I’m just gonna give you some bullets:

All the PCs rolled super low initiative this fight which really kinda screwed them. Like Fabian was down to 16 HP one point and it was like, “Lol, this is the end of round 1.” YIKES.

A big part of this fight was just surviving long enough to get to the second level of hell and rescue Riz’s dad which I think was probably good for morale because the thought of this fight dragging on for more than a couple of rounds exhausts me.

Fabian rolls off against Johnny right off the bat for the Hangman’s loyalty and Fabian wins with a 25 (and by coming out the gate with the word ENSLAVED which isn’t the word *I* would have used but a 25 is a 25 I guess).

He also has to contend with fighting Allistair who has a massive hole in his head filled with fire from Wicklaw eating his brain. It seems like Chungledown Bim is in hell too based on how Allistair keeps saying he’s gonna get him so he can shit in Fabian’s mouth. Of course, Fabian gets the better of him, but not before he deals out a fair bit of damage.

Adaine uses an Arcane Hand plus her portent roll to just whole-ass throw Johnny off the ship. Like, he gets back up but it’s so funny to instead of fighting an enemy to just throw him off a set piece (see eg: Bloodkeep ep2).

Kristen Revivifies Gilear and Bill, the mercurial sunuvabitch is like, “We love the same woman! I just want her happy!” and gives him a gun. Kristen immediately is like, “Bro, you need to hide,” and Gorgug protects him while he does so (in a sarcophagus that has a 50/50 shot of being launched as ammo).

Penelope shows up to the fight, eyes all black, wearing a shredded prom dress, and with shards of silver embedded in her forehead like a crown. Dayne and Daybreak also join the fight as messed up Harvestmen! It’s a veritable Smash Bros lineup of people the Bad Kids have killed!

Adaine and Fabian are christened the “Posh Squad” which is important to me, not to the fight.

Adaine gets to counterspell a counterspell from Penelope, one of the sexiest things you can do in D&D.

Fabian declares toxic masculinity dead. Shortly afterward, he makes Brennan eat a die when Daybreak tries to Frighten Fabian, a condition he is immune to due to his eyepatch I gather based on the table reaction.

Daybreak’s punishment in hell is a complete lack of self-awareness of why he’s there. He still thinks he should be sipping Mai-Tai’s in corn heaven with Helio while Kristen and Ragh are attacking him with gay spit (their words, not mine). Gay spit and, also, a ton of radiant and thunder damage.

Ragh gets some emotional catharsis by getting to body Dayne before Gorgug decapitates him. Very important step in the stages of grief. Decapitating the source of said grief.

Penelope gets Sparta-kicked off the edge of the boat by Fabian after Ayda dispels her protective globe and Riz shoots Daybreak again for old times sake. Unfortunately, Penelope Misty Steps back up and Daybreak is hurt but not killed. Ayda does a cool Dr. Strange teleportation thing and does a bunch of damage to both of them. Fabian finishes off Penelope with a sheet/sword combo and between Booming Blade and a Psionic Blast (does she have this ability as a Bard or as a Warlock? Relatedly, when she felt something leave her was that her Warlock deal being nullified or was she feeling the deals leave her since she is sort of the temporary Gorthalax?) Fig destroys Daybreak. Johnny just falls off the ship with no PC intervention because he sucks.

Bill also falls off the ship but Fig (with an assist from Gorgug) saves him and steals a scroll from Vraz on the way back up. By the by, earlier in the fight, she also had Baby Invisbly steal a random item from her.

Anyway, as they reach the end of the end of the fight, Bill loads Riz into a canon (!) and shoots him into the city, hopefully towards his dad (to the distress of his party). He crashes through the window in a familiar looking building and, when he finds a hallway that he’s pretty sure leads to his dad, he goes towards it.

He sees a familiar light coming out of a doorway (the interrogation room light) and a doorway next to it that is slightly open with steel thrones in it. There’s a two-way mirror between the two rooms and if he goes into the open one, he can see who is in with his dad. After checking for illusions and finding none, he stealthily walks in and sees, in the other room, his dad with a hulking pit fiend (30 ft tall, winged, almost dragon-y devil).

The pit fiend is questioning Pok about any regrets he had in life and Pok answers very uncharacteristically from the man we saw in the video saying he had nothing but high hopes for baby Riz. He says he had no regrets, his job was just a job, and that he only had a kid because Sklonda wanted one before going into a snarling goblin rage. The pit fiend smiles at that and says that Pok has promise so they won’t create a lemure out of him (a lemure is a weak, blobby devil). Two devils in the room with them whip him unconscious and then leave the room to go send more people to deal with Bill.

Riz Misty Steps into the room and does a self-imposed Wisdom check to steady himself after what he just heard--Nat 20 baby. Then, he opens his Briefcase of Holding, ready to scoop his dad into it when, the two lesser devils open the door and catch him in the act. But Riz persists in the scooping. They try to grapple him and he rolls a Nat 1 to avoid it. He *still* tries to get him dad. But then he notices, his gun is missing.

BLAM. The devils heads are blown clean off. He turns and he sees his dad has taken the gun--his gun originally--and shot the devils. Pok, who is amazed that Riz is there and no longer feigning apathy for the situation asks for an extraction into an earpiece, causing a halo to appear over his head and a beam of holy light to come down like a tractor beam.

“Wait,” says Riz. “You’re an undercover angel?”

“You got it, kid.”

Murph goes feral. The table goes feral. I go feral. What a way to end an episode!

And now for an all-Dad round of superlatives:

Detention

Bill Seacaster for KILLING GILEAR

I feel like I shouldn’t have to explain myself here.

Honor Roll

Pok Gukgak for Officially Joining the Fantasy Fathers of the Year Club

Here either.

I will, however, add a Hell Yeah!

Random Thoughts

If you haven’t seen it yet, the trailer for S5 of Dimension 20 just dropped and I won’t spoil it but, from the looks of it, it is gonna be a doozy.

“Do not metagame with my freaking Dad!” Oh to have the support of an NPC Emily Axford has decided to imprint upon.

Gorgug: It’s been one year. We’re sophomores.

“We support you as a DM and as your friend but also you’re our enemy.”

I think it’s very interesting that with just a little space and time from his dad, Fabian is finally having the proper reactions to his dad doing what I will charitably call shenanigans.

The level of distress and outrage from Emily when Gilear got shot was just *chef’s kiss*. I aspire to create an NPC that provokes that level of reaction from one of my players. Similar energy in a different direction from Ally when Daybreak attacked Tracker.

“Adaine, the jocks are being feisty! Get out of there!”

Vraz calls Fig “the Faithless” as her devil title and she insists on instead being called, “the InFaethable”. I wanna know how long Emily’s been sitting on that one or whether she came up with it on the spot.

Fabian upon seeing Johnny: Fuck off dude. I have too much going on right now.

Brennan being the eternal DM mood: How do I get out of this?

Very wild how little time has passed since Leviathan. Like, Fabian’s had this whole arc and grown so much but, like, OF COURSE Allistair still wants to murder him! It’s been like two days.

“I want to crumple up Gilear like a wrapper.”

A seven is a Murph 10.

The very specific way Brennan does foley for sword fighting (“Clang! Cling! Clang!”) is so funny to me.

Cannot overstate how much of a power move it was for Kristen to go, “I’ve been PRAYING FOR YOU,” at Daybreak and knock him on his ass.

I feel like I bring this up all the time but I love when Brennan is counting dice for a ton of damage and all the PCs are BSing reasons that it’s not a big deal like, “He’s just getting D4s,” or “Well I should get advantage for the reason just made up,” with everyone else fully playing along. ”

Allistair Ash, man. He is fascinating to me. I am so curious about what Brennan had planned for him originally because I feel like we barely scratched the surface before things took a TURN. He had two little moments in this ep that made my heart break for him a little: (1) When he says to Fabian, “If I die, I just come back a little bit worse but, if you die, you’re stuck down here with me.” and (2) when Fabian kills him and Bill grabs his soul and is like, “You know it’s gonna cost you X gold to revive you,” and he sighs and says, “Put it on my tab I suppose.” Like, I know he spent all ep trying to kill Fabian but I can’t help but be like, poor guy. He just has this pathos in his haplessness. I’m surprised Fabian didn’t make more of an effort to connect with him instead of being like, kind of like, “I will throw hands if I must.” Talking is a free action my dude. Anyway, I would love to see Brennan’s DM notes for this guy.

Lou was really doing some expert D&D with all the second winding and bonus actioning and burning spell slots for extra damage he was doing. He was like, “My initiative is trash so I have to do approximately a million damage per turn.”

Lol at Ayda asking if it’s weird to talk about sex stuff in front of friends in a group that involves both Kristen and Adaine.

Fig wishing she could do something cool in front of Ayda as if Ayda didn’t try to flood Hell on her behalf last week. My girl. You’ve already locked that down.

Not really an issue that’s we’ll run across during the run of FH but tieflings live 20-40 years longer than humans according to the official D&D lore. So lets say Fig lives to be 120 years old. And let’s say she sticks with her high school girlfriend and marries her. It’s possible they die at around the same time and then Ayda has to Deal With That in her next life but that’s not what I’m interested in. What happens if you’re a full elderly woman and your partner phoenixes into a child? What are the ethics of that? How do you deal with that? Chronomancy?

The horrified, “Love wins!” from Daybreak.

Is there a reason the viewing room Riz was in had thrones in it or is Hell just very about the ~aesthetic~

Every time a DM asks for a HP total, my entire being clenches in prep for a Power Word Kill.

“I’m gonna need a Dexter--”/”Counterspell.”

“You guys murdered me too but we hashed it out.”

I totally forgot that the Bad Kids lied that Ragh had shat his pants until the moment Adaine was saying it this episode. Freshman Year was WILD.

Also, just wanna take a second to talk about the elevation of Ragh from this side-note bully to a fully fledged, likeable character with depth and and an arc and gay spit. D&D is crazy.

Summoning Boggy via Bloody Mary is such a delightful image.

So, Kalina is the one that led Riz down the path that led to him finding out Pok is an Undercover Angel (!!!), which means one of three things: (1) She knew but miscalculated hard, (2) she didn’t know and made a different but also big miscalculation, (3) she did know and she’s doing some kind of 4-D chess thing we don’t know about yet.

Ayda hitting Fabian with a portent and then swooping in and saving Adaine. So clutch. What a good NPC to befriend.

Speaking of, I think we all kinda figured, but Brennan officially said on Twitter or the Discord (I don’t remember which) that Ayda is autistic. Like, I was pretty sure but I didn’t wanna assume.

Lol at the absolute lack of respect Kalvaxus got in this episode.

Pok as an Undercover Angel is SO GOOD. Like, I didn’t think he was really bad for a second but I never could have guessed he was an UNDERCOVER ANGEL. That’s such a dope combination of words. Undercover Angel (which my computer keeps trying to correct to undercover agent which isn’t wrong to be fair). Man. I love this. I love this for me and I love this for Riz. Riz deserves this. After so much crap in his life and so many mind games from Kalina and all this turmoil, he deserves to know that not only is his dad a good person who loved/loves him, he’s SO good that he’s an ANGEL and he was such a good spy in life he still is a secret agent in death. God, what a reveal. I can’t believe Riz got Spy Kids-ed TWICE by the same parent. Can’t wait to hear what exactly is going on with him.

Wait, what’s goblin heaven like? Which god is sanctioning this? Who is he working for exactly?

This episode, Kristen and Gorgug rolled 1 Nat 20 each, while Riz, Fabian, and Brennan each got 2. On the flipside, Adaine got 2 Nat 1’s, Fig and Fabian each rolled 1 that was cancelled, and Riz rolled 1 (in addition, Murph rolled two more which were lair actions and one of which was cancelled by a luck point so they don’t really count but it was very funny so I wanted to note it).

#fantasy high #fantasy high live #fantasy high spoilers #dimension 20 #dimension 20 spoilers #wow a recap that isn't a million pages for once #turns out I can do it

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jamiebluewind · 4 years

Text

Pok The Nightmare King?

***

@skysfallingbaby proposed an interesting concept. "Maybe Pok Gukgak is the Nightmare King". And while this theory make a lot of things a lot more messed up (like trying to use Riz in a sacrifice), it got my theorist senses a tingling.

So, without futher ado, let's get started.

***

First off, What is Pok exactly? We can assume that the Nightmare King doesn't just look like a goblin as he doesn't actually look like any one race when people have tried to describe him. We could guess some kind of magical effect that alters his appearance, but the Nightmare King was also banished (a spell with no time limit outside homebrew rules, unless the spell is not held for a minute or the creature is banished while already on their own plane) and seeing as Pok lived on the material plane for years, he couldn't be the Nightmare King... technically. The thing is, the Nightmare King doesn't have to be there to be there. Ragh's mom was piloting a clone of herself in real time while her real body was unconscious and housed miles underground (possibly in the molten core of the planet). A goblin suit could be piloted by the Nightmare King using the same principles. Even a direct connection to the Nightmare King is established in game via his corrupting influence constantly leaking from his plane of existence into the material plane (specifically in Silvar).

The next question that comes to mind is Why did Kalvaxus eat Pok if they were allied? and to that I say Do we know for sure that he did? What we do know is this...

Kalvaxus taunted that he ate Pok, but he did it in the middle of a battle to throw off Riz.

Kalvaxus would have eaten Pok while bound. Barring being able to enlarge/reduce Pok (and even then, he would only shrink to about the size of a cat), it would have taken a 6 to 7 foot tall dragonborn a WHILE to eat someone 1/2 his height and 1/5 his weight, bones and all (and dragons and dragonborns don't even have the established voracious appetite goblins do).

Riz and Sklonda were told Pok died at sea until Kalvaxus said otherwise.

Pok and Shadow Cat/Calina worked together

Shadow Cat/Calina was absent at Pok's funeral and never contacted Sklonda or Riz afterward.

Shadow Cat was spotted immediately after the battle with Kalvaxus (making it possible that she was given a heads up about Kalvaxus' plans).

So, using this information it's not that hard to theorize that Pok might not have been eaten or was eaten under the orders of the Nightmare King. Reasons to taunt might have been something The Nightmare King told him to say once free or just something he said to rattle Riz knowing it couldn't be proven. Reasons to ask to be eaten could have been to dispose of a clone he was piloting without risking leaving a magical trace behind (which could have been done regularly for one reason or another, but if Kalvaxus got caught red handed, they would have had an established story set up and a witness to it happening).

There's also a few things that happen during the Shadow Cat/Riz dialogue that take on a whole new meaning. I'll link the dialogue below, but one exchange really stands out. She said "Pok Gukgak. It's a good man" and when Riz asked what went wrong between them, she said "Nothing went... wrong between us" immediately followed by her offering "a little information swap" and to answer a question about his dad in exchange for answering her own. This was despite Riz previously saying "I wanna know where the crown is. I wanna know where Fabian is. I wanna know why people are coming for us in our sleep." and thus already knowing what information Riz would trade for.

Finally, let's look at Riz.

He is the son of Pok and Sklonda Gukgak.

He is an inquisitive rogue and on more than one occasion has been described as being "one with the shadows".

He has always has issues with sleeping, often avoiding it or just not getting enough of it.

He has always been able to see Shadow Cat and has met her at least once.

He was going to be sacrificed on an alter by a Nightmare King controlled Fig to complete some kind of ritual.

He was not attacked in his dreams when he failed his throws, the first time getting Baron while awake and the second time pounced on by Shadow Cat while asleep (while even Ragh was attacked in his sleep and got up while already under dominate person as Adaine watched).

Shadow Cat knew a lot of stuff about Riz, including current stuff ("I know that YOU only do things to kinda distract yourself from how DEEPLY sad you are that your dad is gone, I get that. The maidens and then you find the maidens and then it's on to the next thing and the conspiracy board and you don't sleep and you're digging digging digging- it's like when you were in that palimpsest. You will dig until your own hands are bleeding...").

Shadow Cat's first offer to get his intel was to answer a question about his dad if she got to ask him a question in return (followed by saving Fabian despite that being one of the things he asked for).

Some of these wouldn't hold water alone, but combined they paint a very interesting picture. Shadow Cat being so familiar with Riz makes more sense if she has been keeping an eye on the son of her boss off and on for a long time. It also explains why Shadow Cat immediately offered to give him intell on his dad in exchange for answering a question and clicking her tongue when he turned it down like he did. Riz being the son of the Nightmare King (maybe only a tiny part or an infused thing due to how it happened) would mean he's probably immune to some Nightmare magic and skilled with others (like how half-elves are immune to Sleep, but can't trace), which explains why he has yet to get attacked while dreaming and his natural stealth skills, perceptiveness, and sleep issues. The Nightmare King trying to use Riz in a ritual sacrifice instead of just some guy on the street might mean his son is required for it.

This all leaves me with so many questions.

Considering how strategic the Nightmare King is, why exactly would he pick Sklonda?

Could Pok have fathered Riz specifically to sacrifice later, as a backup for something, or as a cover for being around certain people?

Why did Pok leave and was it planned?

What was Pok really up to during his life as a spy?

Is Riz required somehow to bring back the Nightmare King?

Does the ritual actually require Riz to die and if so, could they revive him without causing the ritual to fail (like if it required a lethal amount of blood from Riz or a mortal wound)?

What will Gorthalax reveal once he's freed (which will most likely happen once Ayda learns Plane Shift and has a slot free to use it)?

Could someone in the party potentially question Kalvaxus (maybe with the help of Gorthalax or a specific spell)?

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Special thanks to @skysfallingbaby for the bardic inspiration for this tinfoil time. I honestly hadn't considered the possibility until you mentioned it, but the moment I did I just HAD to follow the logic to see where it led. It really surprised me how many pieces fell into place the further I went. It really was an absolute delight to research. Thank you ^_^

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Original Post

#fantasy high #dimension 20 #pok gukgak #riz gukgak #calina #shadow cat #fantasy high live #fantasy high spoilers #tinfoil time #theory #d20 theory

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