Recap / CrafD&D: The Champion's Challenge E11: The Dark Magician of Fraygle Coast

CrafD&D: The Champion's Challenge Recap Index
Story Arc:
Forrnest | Volkhanom | Lordpact | Elemix | Conjuria | Hemoarloch | Undercove
Episode:
E8: Silent Night, Deadly Knife | E9: Precarious Politics | E10: Pact or No Pact | E11: The Dark Magician of Fraygle Coast

Air Date: 6/10/2022

Passione finishes up their business in Lordpact while they catch up with each other on various pressing matters and deal with one of Fergus' tricks. The next stop is Elemix, which is quite a distance away, so the team decides to rest in Cera's old home, where they meet her shifty but hospitable father figure, Karloff.

Tropes Found in This Episode:

• Cliffhanger: In the last few minutes of the episode, Calum and Ash hear a strange creature's cries while they spar in a dark chamber within Fraygle Coast. But when they gather the party and search for the source of the noise, they don't seem to find anything. Without much to go off of, they decide to head to bed... and not long after, a recap segment shows them being suddenly awakened by Karloff. Cera is now conspicuously absent, but Karloff is more concerned about taking the remaining party deeper into his home, where he locks himself with them in another dark chamber. Suddenly, the episode ends with the party being confronted by many more dark creatures like what Calum and Ash almost encountered.
• Forced Transformation: As payback for Passione insulting his bovine-like qualities, Fergus uses his trickery magic to forcibly polymorphs most of the party into cows the next morning. Unable to properly communicate nor properly move, everyone that was transformed opts to rampage around the Lordpact hotel they were staying in, with Ash—one of the few unaffected by the curse—putting the damages on Fergus' tab. After the curse is lifted, Ophelia ends up stumbling upon a note written by Fergus for her party, and he had the audacity to write them a pun:
  "Hope you're MOO-ving right along!"
• Internal Reveal: Up until this point, Osra hasn't told her partymates about the circumstances behind her Tiefling curse. On the first day of this session, she discovers that her condition has worsened, which also means that her father is suffering harder for it. She decides to fill her party in on what's going on, establishing her plan to kill Don Matriarchy to undo the curse along with the complications behind how her friends could possibly help her.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Fergus keeps bringing misfortune upon himself in this episode, all because he deigns to antagonize his rivals.
  • Early on, he makes a snarky comment about Calum's grammar, to which Calum, Cera, and Ophelia verbally dog-pile him with various insults about his cow-like qualities. He's utterly flabbergasted by their retorts and doesn't come up with a good one in return.
    [Passione and the Renegade Rangers meet up at a Lordpact bar.]
    Calum: [To Asole] Ah, it seems you're getting a bit sauced early today!
    Asole: Eh, what can I say? We're celebrating! We got the challenge done today!
    Calum: Hm! So... How did it went?
    Cera: 'How did it went?'
    [Calum shushes Cera; Fergus turns his attention to him with a snarky remark at the ready. Out of universe, the other players chuckle.]
    Calum: [resignedly] ... How did it go.
    Fergus: Absolutely splendid use of grammar there, young man.
    Ophelia: Excuse me. I don't think that we asked you.
    Cera: Fergus, for your own sake, just assume that we're never talking to you, and keep your trap shut.
    Calum: No no no, it's fine! Asole let him have his balls for the day! It's fine!
    Ash: I can address a cow directly if I wanna address a cow directly; I just don't feel like I need cream in my coffee right now.
    Calum: I don't think it's a cow at the end of the day; I think it's a giant pile of bullshit. But that's just me.
    [Ash busts out laughing.]
    Osra: I'm so proud of my friends~!!
    [Calum joins in with a guffaw.]
    Fergus: [seething] First off, not all firbolgs are cows, thank you very much!
    Ash: Just you.
    Fergus: That's racist!
    Ophelia: See, here's the thing: we don't need to hear anything about your family history, considering...
    Cera: Not all Firbolgs are giant assholes, too, yet you're still the exception.
    Calum: Which leads me to the next response, um: we didn't care.
  • As payback for their insults, Fergus turns much of the party into cows the next morning. But unbeknownst to him, he's only set himself up for more failure. The transformed Passione members get the idea to rampage about the Lordpact bar they're staying in, and Ash arranges for Fergus to pay for the damages with the bartender.
• Rags to Riches: Ophelia learns of the present-day whereabouts of her old partner from her first Champion's Challenge party, Congiorno. She once knew him as a sober, horrifically down-on-his-luck tinkerer who played a part in starting and ending Grandure's Civil War. Today, however, he has drastically turned his life around for the better, becoming an exuberant key figure in both Grandure's forging and entertainment industries. His Artifisney Land theme park is a culmination of his efforts in both fields, and it has defined much of Osra and Calum's childhoods, among many others. Ophelia decides to withhold some of what she knows of him so she doesn't shatter the image her party members have of him.
• Shout-Out: Fraygle Coast is an explicit nod to Fraggle Rock's title and main setting; the main settlement in the area mostly consists of a network of underground tunnels housing all sorts of creatures, many of them small. It is all cared for by Karloff, who uses the practical benefits of his living situation for his benefit throughout his studies, especially in regards to the Underdark.

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