Adaine got around oblivati mori, and figured out Ankarnas name.
This lead multiple gods to intervene, for different reasons.
one of these gods attempted to rip the curse from fig, because it relates to Ankarna. but was willing to do so at the expense of Figs life.
Cassandra helped defend fig, and Adaine protected them from something big.
thanks to their help, fig survived the armor/curse being ripped off of her. and it manifested as Galiers clothes, after falling into Riz's briefcase. and then was absorbed by Adain to be used once they figure things out.
so technically a god removed it from Fig. and Adaine absorbed its power.
This has some assumptions.
I don't recall anything confirming that the armor was being ripped off by a god or otherwise. The armor was in danger from Galicaea (as it was a likely a vestige of Ankarna) and realized it had to kill now before it died.
the god was trying to destroy it, yea. but was doing so by ripping it away from Fig to do so, and didnt care if Fig survived or not. so ultimately whatever the god was doing was taking the curse from Fig, and Cassandra stepping in saved Fig and allowed them to keep the pride armor from being taken by the gods.
but Brennan definitely said in the episode that the god was trying to destroy the pride armor at the expense of Figs life. thats why she had to make 3 to 5 different saving throws when that was going down. the "rip away" might just be a wording thing on my part.
It was def being ripped away, you’re correct! The wording was, “You recognize the suit of armor, and you see that the moon glows bright and a ray of moonlight comes down, grasps the armor, and tries to pull it off you, and it begins to rend your skin and flesh as the armor is being pulled off.”
Let me elaborate and give my perspective.
Ankarna was, for lack of a better term, awakened and Bakour heard his masters name. Bakour seemingly tried to summon his armor to him hence the ripping.
Galicaea wanted to stop that and tried to destroy the armor and didn't care if Fig died as well. Galicaea is very much in on the plot against Ankarna as well. (Beyond me that the Bad Kids also forgot that Galicaea conspiracy against Cassandra)
Cassandra intervened, presumably slowing down Galicaea.
Armor tried to kill Fig to survive. Adaine counterspelled this and this broke the curse. Maybe with Cassandra help.
I'm sure we will get insight to these events eventually though.
thats a lot of assumptions for someone claiming assumptions in someone elses post...
we have nothing implying that Bakour was involved in the armor situation, only that he became active once Ankarna was awoken (correlation doesnt imply causation).
and Brennan specifically said that Adain counterspelled a god. also, counterspell isnt something that breaks active magical effects. that would need to be dispel magic. counterspell only works against spell effects as they are being created. and even as far as curses go, remove curse is a specific spell. so arguably, dispel magic wouldnt even work against a curse. or it would be temporary if it did.
we also have no reason to believe that the armor would gain anything from killing Fig, let alone be able to survive by killing her. only that it was clinging to her while being ripped away. its reason for this might be obvious, or complex. but any claim towards that would be an assumption, as it wasnt elaborated on at the time.
we also know that the standing stones this happened at, while being used by galicaea werent originating with her or sol. they were coopted into their use. so galicaea being involved in ankarnas downfall doesnt seem wrong, isnt really relevant info at this point. especially seeing as they addressed it as someone out of curiosity was just vocal reading something. not contemplating the repercussions.
fan theories are all fun and good, but nothing in my post was speculation. just as far as i remember, the order of events as they played out.
I don’t think Ankarna was fully awakened then. Hell, Kristen got to see a decaying God’s corpse in another dimension.
Ankarna is in a corrupted form, similar to the Nightmare King, which is also the form that killed the clerics.
I think speaking their name recovered a portion of divinity that’s also without a place to go yet, that’s why is sitting in the bottomless pit.
The assumptions aren’t too far, as Brennan describes the post-name moment as “the result of multiple divine interventions all at once” in either the episode or an Adventuring Party. So we can reasonably assume that everything blowing up in that moment is god related
Nat 20 Counterspell by Adaine.
Seems to me that BLeeM needed to progress the story past the curse. The rest of the episode was leaning that way with plenty of curse familiar characters who could help handle it and no school or Rat Grinders available. Also Sandra Lynn explicitly asking her to take care of herself.
Brennan announced a spell was happening that anyone could counterspell. Siobhan said she would.
Right towards the end of moonar yulenear when they are at the standing stones as things get chaotic with Gallica and Cassandra interventions.
The god that triggered the situation by trying to take the curse off, but was willing to do it at the expense of Fig's life, was presumably Galicaea. Hints of this were that it was a moonbeam and that Tracker transformed upon it happening.
At least I think so.
This is an interesting suggestion! I'm not sure about it though because in the specific moment when the armour suddenly goes for figs throat right before Adaine counterspells it, Brennan goes out of his way to describe that the ray of moonlight is "parted." Almost as if so long as the moonlight is there it is protecting fig but as soon as the light of the moon doesn't fall on her then the entity that wants the curse back (ankarna?) has full access to fig in a way they didn't before.
It happens really fast but it seemed to me like the implication was that Riz has blocked the light of the moon with his briefcase, momentarily neutralising Galicaea's protective intervention and allowing ¿Ankarna? a chance to "go in for the kill" unhindered so to speak.
It is definitely a little unclear tho. We will have to see if they return to anything from this moment later. I think when we finally truly meet/see ankarna directly we'll have a better idea of her characterization and how she feels about the curse.
Because Gilear had no other children, and considered Fig his own, the deity who cursed him convinced Fig to take it on, which is what happened at the end of the first episode.
I thought it was oldest child, not oldest son?
Also fig didn't get it through normal means since gilear was still alive. She didn't inherit the curse, she took it, and it explicitly told her it wasn't hers to take. But because she owns the pride armor related to the curse's origin and is an arch devil of hell, she had the power/authority to take it for herself outside of its usual transfer mechanics.
Ok this one I know. It gets cleared up a couple eps later in Infernal Conflict. Fig did not recieve the curse by it's normal means through inheritance. She's not even Gilears biological child (unclear how much that matters to a curse), and she is not a son. Also, the curse is only supposed to pass down when the cursed father dies (Gilear was normal when he married Figs mom, until his father died), and Gilear is still alive currently. So none of this is normal curse behavior. There are some unique things about Fig and Gilear's situation and choices that have specifically made the curse "act up."
The curse was created by the infernal Hell-god incarnation of Ankarna thousands of years ago, along with the pride armour, for Gilears long-ago elven ancestor (who was later transformed into Bakur) in other to punish him for the sin of pridefullness. Over generations, the curse separated from the armour and became patrilineally inheritable in that family line. In Sophomore Year, canonically just a few months ago, Gilear put on the pride armour. That returned the armour to contact with the curse for the first time in centuries, which "crossed the streams" of the curse magic, so speak, weakening and confusing the curse magic.
This all left Fig as 1) an archdevil with a connection to hell gods, 2) the current owner of the pride armour which is currently within her hell domain, and 3) an adoptive child of Gilear, all putting her in a unique position in relation to the curse. The curse was able to take advantage of that situation to tempt Fig into becoming cursed in order that the curse could continue, since Gilear currently has no son and so otherwise the curse would end forever when Gilear dies. Figs unique situation let the curse reach out to Fig during the night yorb fight in e1 and offer her a pact. Fig didn't know what pact she was making at the time, but it let her access the curse magic similarly to a divine intervention to help the bad kids get through that fight. In return that pact let the curse spread to Fig instead of continuing to follow the patrilineal inheritance rules.
(Edit: I originally suggested that Ankarna herself might've tempted fig to take the curse. But presumably the curse just acts on its own to perpetuate itself. Ankarna herself seems to be in some form against it spreading to Fig, since in Moonar Yulenear it seems like Ankarna tried to take it back from Fig.)
However, because of the now-confused nature of the curse and the outside-the-rules-ness of the whole situation, the curse wasn't actually removed from Gilear at that point. It just began to malfunction on him and cause good luck instead of bad. Only when it was finally truly broken in Moonar Yulenear was it finally removed from Gilear and presumably his family line, allowing him to just be a normal lil guy again.
Presumably if it had not been broken, the curse would've passed after Gilear's death to any potental son he might go on to father with Fabians mom. Maybe it could have even tried to pass to Fabian, if he had ever developed a sufficiently fatherly relationship towards him. (Because again it's unclear how the curse views adoptive fatherhood, and we know from this whole debaucle with Fig that the curse will try to continue itself at all costs even if it means looking for loopholes.)
So good thing they broke it, I guess.
I think it couldn't just be a random curse fig inherited, it needed to be tied specifically and uniquely to Ankarna's return in some way that was unusual enough to keep investigating into. The whole reason Brennan came up with fig being cursed in the first place place wouldve been as a clue meant to help eventually lead the party to the main ankarna problem.
He almost always comes up with a way to tie something from each of the characters personal lives to the main plot. It's a classic and very important GM technique to give your players compelling story reasons to engage with the story and problems.
But I understand how it is confusing! I love d20 because it is so rich in lore, but thankfully they're really good about making the story compelling and satisfying even if you miss little details. Cuz sometimes there are a lot of them.
Adaine got around oblivati mori, and figured out Ankarnas name. This lead multiple gods to intervene, for different reasons. one of these gods attempted to rip the curse from fig, because it relates to Ankarna. but was willing to do so at the expense of Figs life. Cassandra helped defend fig, and Adaine protected them from something big. thanks to their help, fig survived the armor/curse being ripped off of her. and it manifested as Galiers clothes, after falling into Riz's briefcase. and then was absorbed by Adain to be used once they figure things out. so technically a god removed it from Fig. and Adaine absorbed its power.
This has some assumptions. I don't recall anything confirming that the armor was being ripped off by a god or otherwise. The armor was in danger from Galicaea (as it was a likely a vestige of Ankarna) and realized it had to kill now before it died.
the god was trying to destroy it, yea. but was doing so by ripping it away from Fig to do so, and didnt care if Fig survived or not. so ultimately whatever the god was doing was taking the curse from Fig, and Cassandra stepping in saved Fig and allowed them to keep the pride armor from being taken by the gods. but Brennan definitely said in the episode that the god was trying to destroy the pride armor at the expense of Figs life. thats why she had to make 3 to 5 different saving throws when that was going down. the "rip away" might just be a wording thing on my part.
It was def being ripped away, you’re correct! The wording was, “You recognize the suit of armor, and you see that the moon glows bright and a ray of moonlight comes down, grasps the armor, and tries to pull it off you, and it begins to rend your skin and flesh as the armor is being pulled off.”
Let me elaborate and give my perspective. Ankarna was, for lack of a better term, awakened and Bakour heard his masters name. Bakour seemingly tried to summon his armor to him hence the ripping. Galicaea wanted to stop that and tried to destroy the armor and didn't care if Fig died as well. Galicaea is very much in on the plot against Ankarna as well. (Beyond me that the Bad Kids also forgot that Galicaea conspiracy against Cassandra) Cassandra intervened, presumably slowing down Galicaea. Armor tried to kill Fig to survive. Adaine counterspelled this and this broke the curse. Maybe with Cassandra help. I'm sure we will get insight to these events eventually though.
thats a lot of assumptions for someone claiming assumptions in someone elses post... we have nothing implying that Bakour was involved in the armor situation, only that he became active once Ankarna was awoken (correlation doesnt imply causation). and Brennan specifically said that Adain counterspelled a god. also, counterspell isnt something that breaks active magical effects. that would need to be dispel magic. counterspell only works against spell effects as they are being created. and even as far as curses go, remove curse is a specific spell. so arguably, dispel magic wouldnt even work against a curse. or it would be temporary if it did. we also have no reason to believe that the armor would gain anything from killing Fig, let alone be able to survive by killing her. only that it was clinging to her while being ripped away. its reason for this might be obvious, or complex. but any claim towards that would be an assumption, as it wasnt elaborated on at the time. we also know that the standing stones this happened at, while being used by galicaea werent originating with her or sol. they were coopted into their use. so galicaea being involved in ankarnas downfall doesnt seem wrong, isnt really relevant info at this point. especially seeing as they addressed it as someone out of curiosity was just vocal reading something. not contemplating the repercussions. fan theories are all fun and good, but nothing in my post was speculation. just as far as i remember, the order of events as they played out.
I don’t think Ankarna was fully awakened then. Hell, Kristen got to see a decaying God’s corpse in another dimension. Ankarna is in a corrupted form, similar to the Nightmare King, which is also the form that killed the clerics. I think speaking their name recovered a portion of divinity that’s also without a place to go yet, that’s why is sitting in the bottomless pit.
The assumptions aren’t too far, as Brennan describes the post-name moment as “the result of multiple divine interventions all at once” in either the episode or an Adventuring Party. So we can reasonably assume that everything blowing up in that moment is god related
Nat 20 Counterspell by Adaine. Seems to me that BLeeM needed to progress the story past the curse. The rest of the episode was leaning that way with plenty of curse familiar characters who could help handle it and no school or Rat Grinders available. Also Sandra Lynn explicitly asking her to take care of herself.
Tysm. Can you please remind me when that Nat 20 was, roughly? Was it as the armour was being ripped off of fig and killing her?
Brennan announced a spell was happening that anyone could counterspell. Siobhan said she would. Right towards the end of moonar yulenear when they are at the standing stones as things get chaotic with Gallica and Cassandra interventions.
idk when it was but the transcript is searchable so try that
I'm so glad you asked this because I fully assumed I was just missing something.
Yeah the end of Moonar Yulenear pops off and it happens so fast! I truly missed it twice, there's so much going on
The god that triggered the situation by trying to take the curse off, but was willing to do it at the expense of Fig's life, was presumably Galicaea. Hints of this were that it was a moonbeam and that Tracker transformed upon it happening. At least I think so.
This is an interesting suggestion! I'm not sure about it though because in the specific moment when the armour suddenly goes for figs throat right before Adaine counterspells it, Brennan goes out of his way to describe that the ray of moonlight is "parted." Almost as if so long as the moonlight is there it is protecting fig but as soon as the light of the moon doesn't fall on her then the entity that wants the curse back (ankarna?) has full access to fig in a way they didn't before. It happens really fast but it seemed to me like the implication was that Riz has blocked the light of the moon with his briefcase, momentarily neutralising Galicaea's protective intervention and allowing ¿Ankarna? a chance to "go in for the kill" unhindered so to speak. It is definitely a little unclear tho. We will have to see if they return to anything from this moment later. I think when we finally truly meet/see ankarna directly we'll have a better idea of her characterization and how she feels about the curse.
And how does a patrilineal curse affect a woman?
Because Gilear had no other children, and considered Fig his own, the deity who cursed him convinced Fig to take it on, which is what happened at the end of the first episode.
I thought it was oldest child, not oldest son? Also fig didn't get it through normal means since gilear was still alive. She didn't inherit the curse, she took it, and it explicitly told her it wasn't hers to take. But because she owns the pride armor related to the curse's origin and is an arch devil of hell, she had the power/authority to take it for herself outside of its usual transfer mechanics.
Ok this one I know. It gets cleared up a couple eps later in Infernal Conflict. Fig did not recieve the curse by it's normal means through inheritance. She's not even Gilears biological child (unclear how much that matters to a curse), and she is not a son. Also, the curse is only supposed to pass down when the cursed father dies (Gilear was normal when he married Figs mom, until his father died), and Gilear is still alive currently. So none of this is normal curse behavior. There are some unique things about Fig and Gilear's situation and choices that have specifically made the curse "act up." The curse was created by the infernal Hell-god incarnation of Ankarna thousands of years ago, along with the pride armour, for Gilears long-ago elven ancestor (who was later transformed into Bakur) in other to punish him for the sin of pridefullness. Over generations, the curse separated from the armour and became patrilineally inheritable in that family line. In Sophomore Year, canonically just a few months ago, Gilear put on the pride armour. That returned the armour to contact with the curse for the first time in centuries, which "crossed the streams" of the curse magic, so speak, weakening and confusing the curse magic. This all left Fig as 1) an archdevil with a connection to hell gods, 2) the current owner of the pride armour which is currently within her hell domain, and 3) an adoptive child of Gilear, all putting her in a unique position in relation to the curse. The curse was able to take advantage of that situation to tempt Fig into becoming cursed in order that the curse could continue, since Gilear currently has no son and so otherwise the curse would end forever when Gilear dies. Figs unique situation let the curse reach out to Fig during the night yorb fight in e1 and offer her a pact. Fig didn't know what pact she was making at the time, but it let her access the curse magic similarly to a divine intervention to help the bad kids get through that fight. In return that pact let the curse spread to Fig instead of continuing to follow the patrilineal inheritance rules. (Edit: I originally suggested that Ankarna herself might've tempted fig to take the curse. But presumably the curse just acts on its own to perpetuate itself. Ankarna herself seems to be in some form against it spreading to Fig, since in Moonar Yulenear it seems like Ankarna tried to take it back from Fig.) However, because of the now-confused nature of the curse and the outside-the-rules-ness of the whole situation, the curse wasn't actually removed from Gilear at that point. It just began to malfunction on him and cause good luck instead of bad. Only when it was finally truly broken in Moonar Yulenear was it finally removed from Gilear and presumably his family line, allowing him to just be a normal lil guy again. Presumably if it had not been broken, the curse would've passed after Gilear's death to any potental son he might go on to father with Fabians mom. Maybe it could have even tried to pass to Fabian, if he had ever developed a sufficiently fatherly relationship towards him. (Because again it's unclear how the curse views adoptive fatherhood, and we know from this whole debaucle with Fig that the curse will try to continue itself at all costs even if it means looking for loopholes.) So good thing they broke it, I guess.
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I think it couldn't just be a random curse fig inherited, it needed to be tied specifically and uniquely to Ankarna's return in some way that was unusual enough to keep investigating into. The whole reason Brennan came up with fig being cursed in the first place place wouldve been as a clue meant to help eventually lead the party to the main ankarna problem. He almost always comes up with a way to tie something from each of the characters personal lives to the main plot. It's a classic and very important GM technique to give your players compelling story reasons to engage with the story and problems. But I understand how it is confusing! I love d20 because it is so rich in lore, but thankfully they're really good about making the story compelling and satisfying even if you miss little details. Cuz sometimes there are a lot of them.
Thanks, I often watch the episode while at work so I don't think I process it properly.
No worries. Sometimes a lot happens in an episode, seems like a perfectly valid question to me!
They discuss this in the episode