The Adventure Zone: Graduation Episode 1 "Orientation"

Synopsis
''It’s the first day of school! There are new friends to be made and plenty to explore! The teachers and staff are here to help with any problem that may arise! Just be sure to steer clear of Groundsy’s hut…''

Prologue
We are introduced to a world that has many names across her many lands, but is henceforth simply referred to as "Nua." We pass by the village of Hope—known to the locals as Last Hope, as it's the last city between the Unknown Forest and the Godscar Chasm—but before we stumble into either of these deadly locations, we reach Hieronymous Wiggenstaff's School for Heroism and Villainy, the preeminent learning establishment in Nua. We approach not through the main entrance, but through the wrought iron gate leading to the Sidekick and Henchperson Annex, an awkward building that sits in the tower's shadow.

We reach an annex dorm room, housing three simple beds and a difficult-to-perceive cat. This is where three new students will reside for the next five years, and as the first of them arrives, the cat vanishes.

Dungeons and Dragons is back!
After some friendly out-of-character ribbing and rolling for Room Initiative, we meet the boys' new characters as they arrive in their dorm:

Sir Fitzroy Maplecourt (played by Griffin) is the first to enter the room. He is a half-elf, and looks very good, sexual, and handsome in his half-robe and fake glasses, but is wildly confused and disappointed by the Wiggenstaff campus—especially the Annex dorm room.

The second to arrive is Argo Keene (played by Clint), a water genasi who is also very handsome and sexual, sporting a handlebar mustache, dark blue ponytail, and jodhpurs. Argo is far more enthused about the room-sharing situation than Fitzroy is, who insists it must be a mistake.

The final roommate to arrive is a Firbolg (played by Justin), who announces in a deep, accented voice that he will sleep on the floor. He wears a fabric made of layered leaves with rocks and pebbles sewn in, and concerns Fitzroy with his answer to a seemingly simple question:Fitzroy decides to dub the Firbolg "Bud." The Firbolg is indifferent to the nickname.

A small stone gargoyle in the corner of the room animates, introducing himself as Gary, and starts reading off a list of announcements for new Sidekicks and Henchpeople. Most importantly, he warns new students not to urinate or defecate on the floor, because it doesn't magically disappear—but alas, Fitzroy has already done so. The Firbolg intuits that Gary the Gargoyle is a hivemind comprised of many distinct Garys with their own personalities, but the ability to share information. Fitzroy puts a piece of tape over his Gary’s eyes, to which Gary replies that he’ll just take the tape off later.

Barn To Be Wild
Intending to check out the perimeter of the Unknown Forest, the Firbolg leaves the dorms, and encounters the second whimsically named NPC of the episode—Groundsy the Groundskeeper, a large man with a big beard and big hair. He tells the boys about two places on campus they are forbidden from entering: the Unknown Forest, and Groundsy’s own hut, which he claims are equally dangerous but in different ways.

The Firbolg makes his way to the barn and meets Hernandez, the beautiful centaur animal handling professor. Hernandez explains how the baby pegasus in the barn was found wandering outside the Unknown Forest, seemingly orphaned, and now she refuses to eat. The Firbolg casts Speak With Animals, and the pegasus explains how she and her parents were attacked, but the Firbolg comforts her. He explains that he has also been separated from his clan, but is still big and strong, and the pegasus can grow big and strong like him, but only if she eats.Meanwhile, Fitzroy and Argo visit the school battlegrounds, where a Goliath woman, a dark-skinned man, and a silver dragonborn are demonstrating battle techniques. The man, Jimson, is the battlegrounds trainer for sidekicks and henchpeople (as well as a famous arena champion and the husband of the silver dragonborn, Crush), and he expresses excitement to work with Fitzroy while Fitzroy continues to express his soul-crushing disappointment over being placed in the sidekick program.

The trio reconvenes and relays their experiences, and encounter the extremely hungover Rolandus Fontaine, who is Fitzroy’s equal match in the fancy name competition. Rolandus is accompanied by the villain sorcerer Zana and hero ranger Rhodes, and initially mistakes Fitzroy for a hero before learning that he shares a dorm with two sidekicks, and therefore is a sidekick himself and not worth Rolandus’s time. At this point, Rolandus’s series of dick moves is interrupted by Buckminster Eden and Rainer, who reveal that Rolandus is the son of a deposed king.

Buckminster introduces himself, a self-described charming piece of shit and the son of the Iron Lord, then introduces his soft-spoken sidekick Leon, and his friend Rainer. Rainer is an upbeat necromancer who sits in a floating chair due to her chronic illness, and Fitzroy considers her the first cool person he’s met at this school, though he’s still not used to attending classes with villains.

Exposition and worldbuilding galore
The gang enters the school dining hall for orientation, where the human guidance counselor Tomas introduces Hieronymous Wiggenstaff, the legendary elf hero who founded the school. Hieronymous introduces his younger brother and lifelong sidekick, Higglemas Wiggenstaff, before realizing that Higglemas’s chair is empty. Instead, Higglemas—who looks significantly older than his older brother—appears in illusory form.Lunch is served, and Leon invites the boys to come sit with him, Buckminster, and Rainer. Fitzroy attempts to sit with the teachers, and instead ends up having the first of many conversations about credit hour transference before taking Leon up on his offer. Fitzroy explains how his magic manifested unexpectedly late, causing his ejection from knight school, and receives much “good-natured” ribbing for his limited repertoire of spells. The students discuss character classes—Buckminster and Argo are rogues, Leon is a fighter, and the Firbolg is a druid. Rainer demonstrates her mastery of necromancy by reanimating squirrel skeletons and making them dance, which is somewhat cute, but mostly troubling.

Buckminster offers to take the boys on a tour of the school, but before they can depart from the dining hall, Rolandus appears to apologize (with a questionable degree of sincerity) for his behavior while hungover, and invites the boys to a “dangerous and terrifying” rite of passage ceremony, which Buckminster downplays the danger of. The boys agree, and Rolandus tells them to meet him at nine-o-clock at the edge of the Unknown Forest.

The fifth floor of the school is Hieronymous’s office, so Buckminster’s tour begins at the fourth floor of the tower and slowly descends, starting with the survival, persuasion, accounting, and sneakery classrooms—with sneakery taught by the kenku Jackle, in the only classroom in the school with a balcony. Accounting is taught by Bartholomeus, an owl that Griffin seems to think Tumblr is horny for, but is also famous in-universe because accounting is such a prized skill in Nua. On the third floor are the research, healing, potions, strategy, and magic classrooms, while the second floor houses administrative offices like Placement, which coordinates real-world assignments. The entry hall, dining hall, and research library are found on the first floor.

Skeletons in the Closet Basement
The Test Tavern is found on the first level of the basement, and the drinking (officially: Social Graces) class is taught within, where students practice social skills like info gathering—but they can also earn money working there as bartenders or actors. Next door is the Test Dungeon staffed by the Skeleton Crew, who introduce themselves as Skully, Bonesy, and Rattles—but that’s just a joke, and their real names are Germaine, Victoria, and… Rattles. They engage in a round of practice combat with the new students:

Fitzroy attacks Germaine with Shocking Grasp and crits, blasting Germaine apart, but his bones bounce back together. Germaine crits right back and deals 5 damage to Fitzroy (a magical barbarian), but Fitzroy is instantly healed back to full health. The Firbolg casts Shillelagh on his staff and hits Germaine for 9 damage, then the next up is Argo. After the first of many debates about Sneak Attack mechanics, Argo makes a rapier attack—and delivers yet another crit! But Germaine is magic as hell, so he’s fine, and doesn’t feel any pain.

The tour of the main tower concludes on the second level of the basement, which houses the blacksmithing and artificing rooms. Both rooms are extremely hot, and keep the tower warm all year.

Just a well-trained dog!
Buckminster leads the tour into the Annex, which looks rickety, but has stood for almost 250 years. The first floor contains classrooms for cooking, blame taking, watch keeping, and the support arts, while the classrooms of the second floor are unused.

The third floor is Higglemas’s office, which he never leaves. Much to everyone’s surprise, he actually answers the door when Fitzroy knocks, and invites the three new students inside so that the Firbolg can check if there’s anything wrong with his dog. The Firbolg rolls an animal handling check, and finds with a 19 total that there’s nothing unusual or wrong with the collie dog in question—but that doesn’t make the exchange any less sketchy.Fitzroy inquires about his quest for credit hours, and Higglemas sarcastically replies that it’s his top priority. When the students fail to leave, Higglemas tells his dog to open the door for them, and Fitzroy prestidigitates an odd odor on his way out—which Higglemas thinks is funny as shit.

Into the Unknown
That night, the boys sneak out of their dorms, and meet Rolandus, Zana, Rhodes, Rainer, Buckminster, and Leon about 20 feet away from the edge of the Unknown Forest—which stretches across the horizon, and is somehow even darker than the night itself. Rolandus points to the closest tree at the edge of the forest, and tells the boys to carve their names into it, as countless students before them have visibly done. Rainer offers the Firbolg a piece of charcoal, so he doesn’t have to damage the bark of the tree as he writes.

Upon reaching the tree by mostly mundane means (except for the Firbolg’s Jump spell), the boys all make a wisdom saving throw, on which only the Firbolg succeeds. Argo and Fitzroy involuntarily scramble backwards as they hear a telepathic voice boom “you should not be here,” but to the Firbolg, the voice sounds like someone only pretending to be ominous and intimidating, and a perception check of 22 lets the Firbolg spy a pair of red eyes deep within the forest.Buckminster and the others laugh as the boys return from the forest, but are surprised to hear that the Firbolg saw something in the forest, which is completely unheard of. Moments later, they’re caught by Groundsy the Groundskeeper (or according to Argo, Truey the Truant Officer) who sends them back to their dorms.

We see several closing scenes play out across the nighttime campus—Groundsy returning to his hut, a younger brother scribbling notes in old tomes, an older brother staring into a fire, a battle-scarred couple quieting each other’s nightmares… and another unnamed, but unsettling presence.

Featured NPCs

 * Bartholomeus
 * Buckminster Eden
 * Crush
 * Gary
 * Groundsy
 * Jackal
 * Jimson
 * Hernandez
 * Leon
 * Rainer
 * Ramos
 * Rhodes
 * Rolandus Fontaine
 * The Skeleton Crew
 * Tomas
 * Hieronymous Wiggenstaff
 * Higglemas Wiggenstaff
 * Stewart LaBoeuf
 * Zana

Featured Music

 * The Adventure Zone: Graduation Theme
 * Walking the Campus

Featured Locations

 * Hieronymous Wiggenstaff's School for Heroism and Villainy
 * The Unknown Forest