Grade Inflation, Part Two

Grade Inflation, Part Two is the ninth episode of the third RIS Bouteina season.

Tagline

The beta test of the holographic program continues. Also, Annika Hansen and her cronies interview student after student in a primary school run by locals. However, over the course of the beta testing, the players complain about a whole lot of things.

Summary

Act One

As agreed, the away team start interviewing students at a primary school, with three students randomly chosen by their professors in each class, with all three questions being the same for everyone. Annika gets the first and the second grade students, with the first-grader being a complete pedagogical nihilist. Vaebn Mairex is assigned the third and fourth-graders, and has to face a reluctant student. However, his answers are more elaborate than those of the first-grader and Taev had more elaborated answers coaxed from his test subject. However, Annika's second test subject answered differently regarding parental role.

Act Two

As the beta test continues in the holodeck, Relm has the difficulty level of the game raised. However, Putal asked to test something other than the Chaos Shrine. As they got outside Cornelia, they are waylaid by Goblin Guards as they approach the newly-rebuilt bridge. Once on the bridge, a cutscene appears, greatly angering Putal, fighting an ogre soon afterwards. They find the fight too easy and Relm switched the game to turn-based mode as a result. The next fight is a lot more challenging and they get badly hurt. They prolong the fight for a couple of turns to heal before fighting a crazy horse and entering the town of Pravoka.

Act Three

As they enter Pravoka, the party purchase better weapons and armor. However, they must put off the purchase of new spells and heavy armor for the warriors because they are short on cash. To "farm" the needed gil, they needed to fight various monsters outside of town before finally engaging the pirates that terrorized the port town. The fight is even easier than the last round of farming, prompting Putal to ask Relm to readjust the fight against the pirates with stronger pirates after they clinched victory. She ends the program so it could be readjusted to make the fight much more challenging.

Act Four

Once the holodeck is reactivated, the pirates cause a lot more trouble to the players still in play. They succeed in killing the first two pirates on their first run. However, while doing so, Relm gets badly hit and, in the next turn of play, they all get at a critical state of health level. Meanwhile, Rovas calls Damar to the kitchen in order to cook stewed gagh for him. After the lengthy battle against the pirates, they turn the holodeck off. Rovas asks for litvok gagh, which Damar gets to cook after the battle ends. He wanted stewed gagh because it was the first time he ate gagh, even with gagh veterans around him.

Act Five

While his temporary commanding officer is away eating gagh, Neleras asks M'Rex to beam down at the place where the real riov has beamed down for her away mission. However, he doesn't know that Taev Radaik and Vaebn are entrenched in a house as couch surfers. Its occupants don't open the door because they fear that the Tal Shiar has come to them. They even debate the rationale for the away mission, doubting that grade inflation would even be an issue. However, all of this is moot when Neleras goes in the laundry room with Annika in tow, sleeping in that humid, murky room.

External link

• Grade Inflation, Part 2 on the RIS Bouteina boards