Antelope Canyon High School

Image source from Lonely Planet [1].

**Antelope Canyon High School** was a one-shot campaign run in You Awaken in a Strange Place, GM'd by Tulip. The Genre, Adjective, Location, and (house-rule for the 4th player) Objective, decided by the players as per the game's rules, were "Highschool Slice of Life," "Vertical," "Antelope Canyon," and "Skeleton Key."

## Lore

ACHS is a high school carved into the walls of Antelope Canyon. All the school faculty are normal-sized non-anthropomorphic talking animals, while the students could be any variety of magical or non-magical races.

Everybody in this world has a personal 10ft ladder within an easily accessible private hammer space.

The student council has control over some class curriculum. All members of the council have a different weapon, and the only way to join the council is to defeat one of the existing members in combat. If one is defeated, they must give up their weapon to the victor, and switch dorm rooms with them (since the council dorm is for members only).

There is a rumor amongst students that there's a mysterious skeleton key hidden somewhere on the campus, which can "unlock" people's "skeletons;" it is considered a romantic gesture due to the fact that they're revealing their heart, or opening up to the world.

## Player Characters & Skills

* **Tim Cannon:** Cyborg archery jock (he/him)
	+ ***Amazing at*:** Archery
	+ ***Good at*:** Gloating
	+ ***Bad at*:** Directions
	+ ***Horrible at*:** Homework

* **Statbourne Masters:** Glasses Flash Nerd (he/him)
	+ ***Amazing at*:** Hacking
	+ ***Good at*:** Using Heelys
	+ ***Bad at*:** Social Interaction
	+ ***Horrible at*:** First Impressions

* **Evenn Extinguish:** Flame elemental foreign exchange student (he/him)
	+ ***Amazing at*:** Swimming
	+ ***Good at*:** Being Approachable
	+ ***Bad at*:** Self Restraint
	+ ***Horrible at*:** Starting Fires

* **Can-Nyan!:** The school mascot catboy who's never seen outside of his costume (he/him)
	+ ***Amazing at*:** Parkour
	+ ***Good at*:** Cheerleading
	+ ***Bad at*:** Reading
	+ ***Horrible at*:** Combat

## NPCs

(Description of NPCs *after* the plot takes place)

* **Janeth Delaruso:** Competitive demon girl, Tim's rival in Archery and in general. Resembles Lucifer Helltaker's goat form.
* **Lan Del Acrossio:** Popular rich girl who hates coming in second on grades. She's a great fairy, and the former student council president (replaced by Tim). Her weapon was a shotgun. She was the first ever member of the student council when it formed ~10 years ago, and had kept attending high school just so she could keep that position.
* **Angel Bosko:** Delinquent shark girl. Constantly wears leather jacket and spiked boots. She has a resting bitch face. Former member of the student council (replaced by Evenn).
* **Terrace Flips:** Antelope dude. The one student council member who thinks the mascot should be something else, but nobody else really cares. He wielded nunchucks before he was beaten by Angel and removed from the council.
* **Principal Sluggo:** ACHS's principal, a slug (Secretly he's actually a snail, but he removed his shell in order to create the skeleton key).
* **Ms. Blanda:** The gym professor, a kangaroo.
* **Silence:** Robot boy with a 90s computer monitor for a head. As his name states, he doesn't talk much. Instead, he can display text on his screen. He has a disc port but no USB port.
* **Sugar Ranger:** Humanoid with a horse head and member of the student council. Her weapon is boxing gloves.
* **Mr. Morning Ranger:** A horse, Sugar's dad, and the history professor.
* **unnamed panda:** the math professor.
* **unnamed hawk:** undetermined faculty member.
* **Sal:** Human with ghost-themed powers a la Danny Phantom, and a member of the student council. His weapon is a katana.
* **Lamar:** A guy made of rocks, like Marvel's The Thing, but a teenager. His weapon is a big hammer, like Amy Rose's. Tim's date to prom.
* **gorilla guards:** gorilla guards.
* **Nurse Nemo:** The school nurse, an alligator.
* **unnamed tree-ent(?) magical girl:** Janeth's date to prom.

## Plot

Monday morning on their second week of school, Tim, Statbourne, Evenn, and Can-Nyan! awoke in their shared dorm room at ACHS. Lan, the student council president, sent a message over the loudspeaker denying the rumors that the student council has the skeleton key, or that it even exists.

During breakfast, Evenn approached Angel Bokso and Terrace Flips, and got both their phone numbers. Terrace hoped to collude with Evenn to cause an "accident" to Can-Nyan!'s mascot costume, which he hated. Since Terrace was a student council member, Statbourne wanted to get his number so he could try to hack into his phone, but Evenn denied him that information.

During gym class, they met Sugar, another student council member, and Silence, a robot computer boy. In two-on-two basketball, Tim and his rival Janeth fiercely competed, acting as if basketball was archery. After gym, Angel approached Terrace and challenged him for his student council seat after school that day (hoping to learn the secret of the skeleton key).

In their history class next period, Professor Ranger taught about the history of skeleton keys. Sometimes these keys are actually made from skeletons, though none has had the exact magical properties the school's key was rumored to have. Despite this, he believes the rumors and hopes to make history by confirming its existence.

After school, Angel easily defeated Terrace in their duel (even though Terrace had cheated by applying thunder magic stickers to his nunchuks). After that, no one saw Terrace again until a week later, at which point he was acting much more honestly.

During their next gym class, it had been raining in the canyon, causing the canals to flood with water. Which meant it was time for swimming lessons! Evenn was particularly talented at swimming, as was Angel Bosko (since she's a shark). Tim, however, was weighed down by his robotic components, and was much too heavy to swim. At one point he sank to the bottom, and while diving down to save him, Evenn noticed something odd on the canyon floor, which he recorded with his camera. Back on the safety of land, Tim reviewed the footage and determined that the odd thing in the video was something resembling an archery target.

While they waited for the rainwater to evaporate, Statbourne successfully hacked into the student council's group chat. He learned of the remaining two members, Sal and Lamar. Judging from this chat, the council seemed to genuinely know nothing about the skeleton key. He also learned that Lan had a private chat with Principal Sluggo, which he couldn't access.

Another week later, the canyon was dry once more. After school that day they headed back to the target's location, and Tim shot an arrow to its center. This opened a secret doorway, and a secret staircase leading down to it rose from the bottom of the canyon. They descended into a dark, torch-lit underground room, containing a framed portrait of Principal Sluggo and a locked chest. After solving the chest's puzzle, they found a key which seemed to be made from a snail's shell. By holding the key up to the portrait from the right angle and distance, it could be determined that it used to be his snail's shell.

Exiting the cave, the party was confronted by the student council. Lan was the only one who knew about the key, but the rest were loyal enough to follow her orders, and apprehend the boys taking it from its chest. The fight was long and difficult, and during it Lan summoned a rain cloud (using the same thunder magic stickers she confiscated from Terrace earlier), which began to flood the canyon. Enemies became reluctant allies as they worked together to escape the flooding canal.

By the time everyone reached the top, Lan was the only one left with malicious intentions. She tried to use the key to erase everyone's memory, but she didn't have enough strength left. Eventually after a lot of convincing from her peers, she gave up. But only if she was defeated and her position as president was ceded to someone else. So Tim knocked her down and picked up her shotgun, officially making him student council president. Angel had also fallen unconscious during the battle, so when Evenn picked up her nunchucks, he took her place on the council.

Tim's first act as president was to declare that prom was tomorrow. So one was quickly thrown together, and a good time was had by all, even including those who were still recovering from their injuries. Statbourne and Lan talked, and decided they should end their hatred and rivalry for grade superiority, for now. If they study together, their grades could be equal.

## Gallery

Antelope Canyon High School worldEmoji: Old Key (Microsoft) [2]