Year two! There’s John Waltrip on art. And here’s E-Merl and Scipio, who were new faces at this point in the series, aligned against the older athletes, Frigg and Byron. In some ways, Rachel would be a more natural volleyball player than E-Merl, but she was still purely worshipping Frigg at this stage, not yet ready to compete with her. Besides, Rachel in a swimsuit seemed like a contradiction in terms.

We also shift to a more subtle kind of sex appeal, which will be the norm for Adventurers Illustrated until its final year. It may not be an accident that the article title “Chainmail Bikinis: Sexist or Sexy?” appears next to Frigg, who we very deliberately put in plate armor when we created her. Bikini top and boy shorts do seem to be the right ensemble for her. We’ve got another Cosmo parody with “Techniques to Drive Him Wild,” but the other two articles actually seem like they might be substantial.

I hope the crab was okay after the game.