Scene #7841: Dungeons of Doom

Owner	Pose
Hiromi	PREVIOUSLY: The land, Atnas Zurc. Cursed. They know the curse's pins. But, can't pull them. Wished-to-be-heroes, none returned. A labyrinth. Doors that open only once. At the bottom, an amulet. Its name, Yendor. These things, I've seen. Would you face death, only for challenge? Or, only for thanks? I wonder this. You can refuse. Oh, you better believe I'd do it for the challenge. Good. I'll not help you, then. You'll be guided, only, to where it begins. As Hiromi had said she would, she provides directions to the entrance. This valley was populated, once, but only ruins of villages remain, and the water has long since dried. Hardly anything grows here, and the wind is full of choking dust. The closest inhabited area is, if one were only able to walk, a full week away. With any kind of transportation that can traverse mountainous terrain, the distance is much shorter, while still establishing this place as 'remote.' NOW: Some wish to be tested. A place exists. A labyrinth. Below it, the source, of a curse. So it is said. I'll tell you where. You'll be guided. Accept the challenge. Face death. Or, don't. Alright then. Accepted. The land and entrance are the same. Hiromi had implied she wouldn't be here, herself, in offering a guide. That's so. She hadn't mentioned who else would be here, but one might intuit, from how everyone appears to have been equally expected by said guide, that this is intentional. She hadn't said whether to compete or to cooperate. One could ask her representative, possibly, or one could take that missing information as part of the test. One could do any of many things, few having been forbidden. Said guide will be familiar to some. She's closer to five feet in height (than Hiromi's eight), brown-haired (rather than black) with a ponytail (rather than wildly loose), less tanned, less overtly muscled (if still a match for any farmer's child), and dressed in the white and red outfit of a miko (rather than 'barely'). In short, she looks nothing at all like Hiromi, which makes it all the more noticeable that she has just a sliver of the same supernatural presence that Hiromi possesses. That is, from close-up, more remarkable than the one other similarity -- the wolf-like ears and tail. Upon being greeted, or upon everyone being gathered, she bows just slightly (back straight, fist to opposite palm in salute), and introduces herself. "Good day. I hope you have been well. I have been informed of new challengers. I am Hisako, and you may direct any questions to me." There is one new feature about her, but it's just a matter of equipment. She has small, rolled-up pieces of paper in a case, slung together with her quiver. "You may enter the labyrinth in whichever manner you wish." She does not explain, though someone else might, about the teleportation room previously found.
Ishirou	There was danger here, or at least that's what he was told. I4 has decided to come with the combat suit, and his arrival is marked by something dramatically slowing down before hitting the area everyone else is at. With a flip, the flight mode of the suit changes into a humanoid mode and sets down. I4 himself does not get out right away, instead part of the suit opens to reveal the top half of I4. The suit changes slightly, flight pieces are taken into his storage, and instead replaced with a tighter profile than before. However, two drills are noted on the armor, and it sits much taller than I4 is normally. I4 greets Hisako with a wave of his hand, "Nice to meet you," he says with a wave. Questions...hmm..? "So the 'curse' happened here, do we know what the source of the curse is? What does the curse do? Are there long-term effects for us, or is it just a 'cursed land'? What dangers are there besides the 'curse'?"
Kale Hearthward	Kale's had... some difficulties recently. They're the sort that would get worse if he was to just lie in bed feeling sorry for himself, though. Hiromi's challenge comes at practically exactly the right time, and the area being somewhat inaccessible due to rough terrain is typically not a challenge for someone with Really Good flight. "Yeah, new challenger, I suppose?" calls Kale, waving to her. "Hey." "So - an amulet, right? At the bottom of the labyrinth, just need to find it and return it? What's the curse? And what sort of obstacles are between us and it?" "... And... what's your involvement in all of this?" he adds. "Are you just our guide? Or...?"
Darren	Darren returns the gesture to Hisako. "What's good, blood?" he greets in return. There are indeed new challengers, both of which Darren's met. Being slightly more familiar with I4, he gets the first handshake offer. "I4, Kale." "I've got a hypothesis that the curse is a nocebo effect," says Darren. "Or a didactic device. That it ain't strictly a literal curse, and the labyrinth exists as some sort of test." Darren pulls up his blog on his smartphone, and shares with I4. "See that?" he says. "Teleporter room. And this. Control room--tracks shifting parts of the labyrinth in real time, labels and everything. There's a lot going on here. Lot more than what we're intended to see, feel me?" He puts the phone away, unless Kale wants to see, too. "Basically, we're gonna try and get at that amulet--but the labyrinth's constantly gonna be moving. Me, Lotus, Ahn and Rita been through once before and we had a pretty good system worked out."
Hiromi	"The land itself is cursed, and is why few can live here." With a nod to Kale, "The means to break the curse is the Amulet of Yendor, within the labyrinth... or so it has been said, for as long as those living here can remember." Hisako answers with a great deal more polish in her polite manner of speech than someone who's listened to Hiromi might expect. Though this might appear to contradict Darren's theory, the 'so it has been said' applies to the whole. It could be only an unconfirmed legend. "The labyrinth itself holds many dangers." She does not explain what they are. "I will observe your progress." She does have sharp eyes. Or, maybe, it's her tendency to stare. "Are you ready to depart?" There are, in fact, two ways in, but the first floor entrance has already been explored, and Darren can easily find the secret way to the entrance-level Transportation Room again, to skip several levels down. Though the controls should allow one to go further, anything lower than that is marked INACTIVE, with no way to remotely change it. Both rooms look pretty close to identical, with a raised platform, a bank of controls consisting mostly of levers, glass screens that light up with information, and a lot of mysteriously significant circles and writing. The lower room has no obvious door, but instead a broken wall, on the other side of which is the hallway that's part of the labyrinth proper, and from which the team had broken their way in. The interior of the labyrinth if completely dark, and should be expected to remain that way, outside of noted exceptions and any light that the challengers bring in with them. Someone paying attention to Hisako, who only follows the others in from behind, may realize, from the way she looks around, that the darkness doesn't bother her at all. The nearest Control Room to the lower Transportation Room is on the other side of the Fire Ant Tunnels. That's a fairly short run, so long as someone doesn't make any wrong turns, and has been done before, but the Fire Ants weren't wiped out last time, and are still a danger for anyone who wants to quickly make it over there.
Vantablitz Remnants	Also returning challengers: Ahn and Lotus. The latter looks exactly the same. The former gave up on 'found' military gear and a massive backpack, and halved her equipment load to a cotton shirt, fatigue pants, a jacket, satchel, and still definitely 'found' military boots. Ahn in particular has also upgraded from 'clinging nervously to Darren's vicinity' to 'looking around awkwardly for people she recognizes'. This immediately results in running over to I4 and placing her nearly six foot tall girl self behind his five foot soft boy bod as if it'll protect her, only to break from that to run over with ""Hisakoooo!"" excitedly on her lips, hitting her with a mildly inappropriate hug then backing off to a slightly embarrassed bow. ""A-ah, good to see you again! I worried you might not be here this time, but . . . If you're here then everything will be okay!" "Didn't she say she isn't going to help? Like, both times?" "You wouldn't understand." "Are you going to say 'moral support'?" "You're still playing that RPG right? Think of her like the dancer!" "I think you're more like a 'simp'." "Gods I knew I shouldn't have let you see those stream archives." "Didactic?" "I'll explain later. For now though, everyone, please don't split up! This place can be really, really awful! Like, a whole room where some freak made all the furniture spit on you and try to eat you!" "Hehehe I don't think that was spit~" "Shut." "Well, actually, perhaps it'd make sense for you to stay in a control room and do your thing? I'd be better suited to taking care of these guys." "Nuh uh. Treat this place like 'Hell'. We go together." To make short work of the fire ants, Lotus struts out first to make use of something she'd gotten here the first time. Her 'mask' cracks open with an ominous hiss of dry ice-style fog, revealing unwhole, slick, jagged-fanged blackness behind, but which is used instead to emphatically Breath Weapon the hallway with a horrific spray of Cyan liquid, almost, but not quite, reduced to a mist. Where it lands, it clumps into sticky jelly, which would be like napalm, except it does the opposite; lethally supercooling anything warm, and stealing its heat to get even colder. Ants that are literally made of fire are about as type weak as can possibly be to this.
Ishirou	I4 is used as protection by Ahn, which causes him to scratch the side of his head. He flips up the armor's protections and shifts back into the more powerful armor-like stance. The suit gives Ahn a wave though, "Like the new gear?" he asks her, which you can tell he's smiling about. Though he hears the news about the control room and just makes disgusted sounds for like, five minutes. With the Ants, I4 uses DRILL ARMS to try and drill ants that get near to death. Piercing shots that fire out, and sometimes a blast of ice to try and freeze them away. Once in the control room, I4 pops out of his power armor and leaves it there, and starts trying to learn how the control room works, because he can't just HACK IT. Ugh, stupid primitives! On the other hand, I4 does not seem bothered by the light or lack of it.
Hiromi	Ahn discovers that Hisako squeaks when squeezed. After that, she smooths over any awkwardness with her normal, calm tone, which she can manage even when hugged by much taller women. "Hello again, Ms. Ahn, Ms. Lotus. I'll support you if you decide to give up." That appears to be about as much of a concession to being useful, apart from offering an occasional opinion, as she'll allow herself.
Kale Hearthward	Kale takes a bit to have everything explained to him. "... So - what if we dress up as a giant fire ant?" he asks. He does have enough raw material in his Animal Crossing inventory, and the skill to quickly throw something together - he's envisioning a pantomime giant ant, with pairs of people working the legs and antennae. Oh, wait, they use phermones. How's he supposed to know?! His world doesn't have insects! With that plan shot down, he comes up with another simpler one: "I can just go scouting for the way down to the next floor." This gets some protests. "No - I'll be fine! I'm fast." And with that, he sets out - flashlight in hand, scouring the corridors for the way down to the next level. He's fast, and can take sharp turns - it shouldn't take too long at all, right?
Darren	Why is everything archaic? "You get used to it, fam," says the conspiracy crank, patting I4 on the shoulder. "I still think you could be mad useful in one of them control rooms, for what it's worth," he says. "You got, like, mad info-processing skills, don't you? You oughta at least check one out," he adds with a shrug. "We gonna have to get past the fire ants, anyway." As it turns out, that's exactly what I4 heads for. Darren proceeds past the control room--I4, yo. One of the basic functions is delaying how fast a room switches. Pretty useful for setting up challenges suited to each of us. What fire ants remain in his path, Darren slams with telekinesis, while a friend-shaped plesiosaur blasts them with surges of water. He's trying to get to the next room.
Hiromi	Lotus's Blue Jelly attack is an area-sticking constant damage effect, making it very effective for keeping a path clear, though the cold hurts anyone else who gets too close, too. The Fire Ants are, naturally, have no resistance to cold. I4 finds they also have no resistance to drills, and blasts of water are likewise effective, with their short stature making for serious drowning risks. I4 and Darren, should be careful of the cold, but can otherwise make it through without issue. I4 finds that it takes some work to figure out the controls, but he has the analytical ability to get there quickly. Bringing up the mapping function reveals which tunnels go down, which go back up, and have descriptive names for what's in the lower chambers. A lot of the controls appear to be contextual, making it less than clear, immediately, just how many ways he has to manipulate the labyrinth from here. By way of example, one of the previously cleared rooms, on a level closer to the entrance, has pieces of the room shift around each other, but the order of shifts can be changed from here. Another has lava flows piped through a maze of passages, which change via some pattern that can be modified from here. Some of the lower rooms have indicators for being able to activate different defenses, though if his goal is to get through easily, there isn't an obvious reason why he'd want to do that. Those traveling down find a three-way split. As per usual, there's no indication of what's down each hall. It's only from the map that someone could read what's to the right, center, or left, or what chamber would replace the left path if they waited.
Kale Hearthward	Kale continues on - looking around and waving his flashlight around at the various tunnels and doors as he goes. So far, so good - no giant monsters popping up to ambush him. He's taking this seriously - or at least, he tells himself he's taking it seriously - but if something comes up he can just fall back... right? He's gotta be faster and nimbler than anything in here. When there's a split, he decides to just pick the center path.
Ishirou	"Alright, alright...I'll figure this out," I4 says towards Darren and takes his time going over the control room and figuring things out. It won't take him TOO much time, as he has a sense of deciphering this kind of thing out, even if he's disgusted by the archaic controls. There are basic functions that let him delay room switches..? Mmm! He looks at the map function, as Kale seems to be coming up to a crossroads, and I4 tries to figure out what's in each room ahead.
Darren	Darren presses forwards. At the intersection, he describes what he's seeing to I4, through the telepathic link he's established. As with last time, Hisako is included. Aight I4, I'm tryna get down, shortest path. Which way, and what's there? He'll follow what recommendation I4 gives based on the feed in the control room, and proceed without hesitation. Asking what's in it isn't so that he can pass it up, it's so that he can adjust. In this case--by way of a thick fog conjured by Nessie, meant to obstruct lines of sight to the two of them.
Hiromi	I4 can't see where everyone else is on the map. There are indicators for things like opened doors, but not for the presence of intruders, otherwise. The others will have to fill him in on where they are for him to fit it together. The RIGHT path is marked Medusa - D. The display shows the contours of a dozen irregular masses, on one of which are the right angles of a building with marked doors. There are controls for disabling a moat and fountains. The LEFT path is marked Medusa - 1. This shows a smaller structure on a circular platform(?). There are controls for dart traps. It's otherwise similar. The CENTER path leads to a complex, three-dimensional mesh marked Beehive - Invasion Inactive. The Invasion can be toggled active. If one WAITS, the left path will be replaced by a Statue Hall - Poison Cycle Active. It has a lot of statues, individually marked with names like Bugbear and Wood Nymph. The Poison Cycle can't be deactivated entirely, but it can be delayed and manipulated which of the poison traps are active when.
Hiromi	Unlike the previous time, Hisako decides to stick close to Ahn, this time. No reason is given why. If Ahn isn't especially paying attention or calling out to her, the miko is hard to notice, hanging back just enough to make it easy to forget she's there. The others, including any who split off, and including I4 in the control room, are instead accompanied by vaguely human-cutout-shaped pieces of paper that flit through the air, and stick to walls or ceilings when the one they're following isn't moving. These are moderately stealthy, though magical senses pick them quiclky. Hisako puts the remaining rolled papers back away while she thinks no one is watching. For the current level, given the number of room shifts occurring at lower levels, I4 isn't able to find one path that's faster than the others, out of the four mentioned.
Hiromi	BEEHIVE: Kale goes straight ahead. His flashlight catches the massive beehive ahead. Rather, the stone walls are replaced with hive walls, and the only path forward is through. There isn't much space to fly, though just enough that careful maneuvering would let him proceed forward without having to touch the floor or ceiling, assuming he moved slowly enough to not run into any walls. It swiftly gets complex, without access to a map, any delays being more dangerous for the truly massive number of Killer Bees. They're not actually that much bigger than ordinary Earth bees, but their stings are poisonous, and they can sting repeatedly. They're very fast, very much at home in maneuvering around their hive, and highly, aggressively territorial. Once he does find the exit, he'll have to wait for the big stone doors to slowly open up. The process is automatic, but only starts after he taps them. They'll close again after him, just as slowly. MEDUSA - D This place is full of water. Not totally full, but it's a set of tiny islands with water in-between them. There's some big stone building on the farthest island, and a big mess of dangers in-between Darren's starting position and there. Eels, pythons, deadly jellyfish, and huge snakes with the heads of humans are in the water. You'd think their human lips aren't really the optimal shape for spitting acid, but they're good at it. None of these are immediately aware of the presence of intruders. Inside the stone building are several fountains, and several rooms. Some of these are duds, containing only lifelike statues that do not present any danger. One has water inside the room, and a huge, many-tentacled sea beast chilling in it, waiting for edibles to come its way. One has a sleeping dragon sitting on some eggs. The goal, a staircase down to a lower level with the door out, is in the room with the snake-haired lady who turns people to stone by locking eyes with them. Attempting to divert lava flows into this room will hit the water first, then the outer rooms of the stone building, which is very effective for getting rid of the pythons and nagas, and will wake up the sleeping dragon.
Vantablitz Remnants	Ahn, true to her word about not splitting the party yet again, heads to the Medusa route with Darren. Lotus, who dug her heels in and pushed her luck last time by refusing to go with Ahn (and was kind of in the right at the time) has also learned her lesson, at minimum about individual weaknesses, and also closely follows. Ahn's singsong attitude to having Hisako with them is infectiously cheery for how unbelievably unhappy she was with this place before. "Hey hey, Hisako, why are-- . . . actually, just thank you for coming~ Don't worry, I'll protect you no matter what happens!" With I4's information, Lotus makes a vibrating quasi-electric 'hmmmm', and then motions to Darren to start a little group huddle. "So, this room sucks. And it's huge." "Tell me about it." "So let's optimize a route through it first!" "Your lingo is getting worse, Lotus." "None of us would have all that much trouble getting across the water, right? If you mark a safe route, I'll freeze a course around us to prevent the water monsters from surfacing. I don't think Darren can move as fast as us though, so I want him to come up with something for blocking the acid attacks." "Yeah, it'll be hard for me to cover everyone at once from that number of enemies. But the Medusa . . . I know that one. Let's skip the fountains for now and minimize our risk level." "Once we've blocked off the water monsters, let's blitz to the opposite end, and when we arrive at the gorgon?" "I can bend the light field around us, and between us and her. Messing with line of sight, seeing where we aren't looking, and making her look where she isn't; that kind of thing is kid stuff for me!" "Mmm, you never really explained that ability to Darren before, but I can at least assure him that it'll work~" "Just get the door ASAP, and don't look back, got it?"
Kale Hearthward	Careful maneuvering is a go. Kale had been expecting giant bees, given that the ants were giant earlier, and had been mentally prepping for a sort of dramatic stinger-vs-swordfight - so if anything, the bees being closer to normal size throws him off further. Kale falls back after the first encounter, casting a few defensive wind spells around himself - giving himself a bit of a buffer zone in case any of them get too close too quickly. And then he proceeds, cautiously. He's being very good, he tells himself. He's not being too cocky, he's being cautious, he's going to be alright. He manages to get to the end without being stung, and hopefully without stirring up the hive too much. "Not a problem," he says, reaching out to open the door. And the door starts opening - very slowly. While he's still trapped in a tight space with many increasingly agitated bees. "... Oh," he says. At this point, he throws caution to the wind - literally. He breathes out, and spins the breath into a storm - at least, as much of a storm as he can get going in this tight space, trying to make the entire environment hard to fly in here. Likely that'll agitate the bees even further - but all he has to do is wait for the doors to open, and he'll be out of here, no problem! --- Kale slips through, panting. He's made it. Now just to seal it shut so the bees can't chase him... The doors to the bee room start closing - very slowly. "Oh, come on..."
Ishirou	I4 looks at the situation, he can't do much for Kale, because he decided to go his own way for some reason. Actually, he does know...Lilian IDed the issue before. Being a boy. Not that he understands it, he's sure he doesn't do this sort of thing? Maybe you had to be born a guy? Back in the other room, Lotus has a plan, and with Daryn and Ahn he can figure things out. So he activates the lava mechanism to start flooding that room. He'll also spend time looking at the next area, trying to figure out what the next rooms would have for them. He'll put anything he knows away, trying to see if he can ID a pattern or some sort of way to figure things out. Or if it was truly random somehow?
Darren	Darren climbs onto Nessie's shell, hands finding purchase on the protrusions which dot its surface. The pokemon's passive, serene smile remains in place as she fins over to Ahn and Lotus. Astride the sea creature, Darren nods. "I got just the thing," he says. As Nessie crosses over into the water, a chill fog creeps over its surface, making it harder to strike the four of them accurately. It even begins to permeate the air, too, so that when I4 turns on the lava, and the dragon awakens, it'll have a harder time finding everyone. Just to keep from the danger of particularly skilled acid-spitters tracking them underwater and blitzing above the surface to take pot shots, the speedy Saucer is called out. Looking like a little humanoid ladybug with an EWACS array for a thorax, the diminutive pokemon throws up protective screens in response to any attacks that pierce the fog. That just leaves the building itself. Ahn can handle the medusa--Darren's yeti friend, Harry, will swap with Nessie to oppress the dragon with icy gales, in an effort to either freeze it solid or at least use its presumably cold-blooded physiology against it.
Vantablitz Remnants	As already discussed, Ahn/Lotus' role here is to go maximum water/lava/rock skip blitz speed, spew blue jelly into the water where it will freeze over and kill little gribbly monsters that approach, and upon arriving at the end, have Ahn bend all sightlines in the area into another wibbly wobbly optical hellworld marble like she did to scout the labyrinth before, specifically to not let the Medusa see them, and also to allow them to see around the Medusa without being able to look into her eyes at all. Lotus also attempts to pounce on it from behind, if not to chomp on it, at least to take a bite and run.
Hiromi	Kale's wind powers are pretty useful here. Normally, there wouldn't be any way strong winds would turn up underground, in these tight tunnels, with only stone doors above and below. There isn't much room for a storm, but keeping up a strong gust throws the merely-large bees off course, and forces them to land or hide. That keeps him safe, though only so long as he keeps doing it, as it also heightens the hive's agitation. There's a long corridor on the other side of the door, though if he just runs down that without closing the door, he might be followed. Still, that'd be better than dealing with the hive, where there were routes of attack on all sides of him at all times. A mostly-featureless corridor is easy enough to cover, and the bees aren't too individually tough.
Hiromi	From behind the pair, "You don't have to worry about me, Ms. Ahn." After a bit, Hisako adds, "But thank you, anyway." This type of attention is at least less confusing for her than when Rita had called her 'Miss Hisako.' With her follolwing pace, she's not really keeping that close, though it's easy enough to find her by backtracking, or by looking back to when she's poking her head around the corner. The wolf-miko keeps stopping in place and holding a hand up to cup around ear, though there's no way to tell what she's listening to. It's harder to keep track of her once Ahn, Lotus, Darren and his team start tackling the room, and the lava is diverted to begin flowing in. Freezing and fogging the area is effective at keeping the aquatic enemies off, with those that get close enough--the naga and pythons--to get onto the ice being easier for Lotus to dispatch, and the farther ones unable to easily find their targets. Everyone is in luck once they hit the building, because I4's map hadn't indicated which room had what until they got there, and they make it straight for Medusa. Having already been woken by the sounds of steam and cooling, molten rock outside, she turns straight for them, but Ahn's manipulation of sight lines prevents her from actually telling where they are. It's not enough to just see them, either. The petrification curse only occurs if someone else can see her. This does make things a little trickier in that Ahn has to prevent herself from seeing her own target, but maybe she's used to that. The dragon has been woken and angered, and the thing is easily the biggest creature anyone has found down here, over 10 yards long. Fortunately, Harry can slow it down, and it's starting after them from a further point. They've got time to get down the stairs, just as long as they can get past Medusa. Lotus is successful in her pounce, though this turns out to be an enemy that doesn't go down in a single hit. She takes a chomp, and it's enough to push her out of the way, and let everyone go down. The chomp grants Lotus the opportunity to assimilate some extremely strong poison resistance. It also has the same effect as looking straight into Medusa's face would have, as it starts turning her to stone, while the door to the next floor opens.
Kale Hearthward	"No, no, damn it..." Kale looks back at the bees, then at the straight-ahead corridor... "... Think, think, some way to keep them from following me..." "... Ah." Kale reaches into his vest and quickly pulls out a ziplock bag full of pebbles, fumbling it open while still trying to deal with the bees. "C'mon - can't worry about placing them just right, just block off enough of the entrance-" He tosses them out in front of the door, on his side. As each of the pebbles lands and settles, they POMF into full-size boulders, rapidly stacking up. It's not perfect, and certainly not airtight, but it should afford enough bee-blockage for Kale to wait out the door closing and then deal with the bees that did get through before he continues on.
Darren	"Aight, HUSTLE!" As soon as his feet hit solid ground, Darren is remarkably fast. He hadn't focused overmuch on the medusa. At the earliest moment it's safe to do so, Nessie and Harry alike are recalled, neither of them being among the fastest on Darren's team, and both being rather large for the stairwell. With the dragon hampered, the Medusa blinded and chomped, there's no reason to stay on this floor. On the other side, Darren takes a moment to catch his breath and check for any acid burns that might have gotten through Saucer's earlier barriers. "Lotus, you good? I don't got anything for that and neither does my team," he says, nodding towards the effects of that chomp she'd indulged.
Ishirou	I4 focuses on looking at what's ahead, instead of what's going on in the rooms. It looks like they can handle what's there, though he doesn't know Lotus is about to die of Ligma. If he gets some time, he starts looking into how the rooms move and the control mechanism itself. He wonders if he can have greater control, or if what he can mess with is truly random. Either way, he'll at least grow his knowledge. "Hmmm...this place is weird, why would it give me control of these things..? Or is this room meant to be to be used by some sort of test runner?"
Vantablitz Remnants	Ahn's solution for not being able to see the Medusa is preemptive (knowing the original legend and all) and relatively simple; since she's establishing a domain of celestially warped light and vector, she can designate 'the area around Medusa's head' and make it impossible to look at if she tries, by bending the sightlines around it off into an angle none of the group will actually go to. Success! Lotus being a cheeky bitch has bit off more than she can chew. It seems she wants to go for the full miniboss battle tussle, but Ahn yells about the dragon and pulls Lotus away so they're not getting locked into the optional boss instead. With the downtime beyond the door, there's now enough time to diagnose the problem. A short argument follows. With Darren confirming his lack of magic stone cures, the two quickly seem to know What They Need To Do (actually, really quickly, like, they barely communicate it). Lotus uncomfortably shuffles around her innards, turning the black surface of her left arm under the white carapace back to ferrofluid-like liquid and pulling back the hard exterior like an opening flower, allowing the gradually spreading stone to surface and be pushed into one clump. Ahn takes a couple of deep breaths, readies a knife-handed high stance, and subtly twists her arm with a loud and metallic click. Something bright and hot streaks with the blink-fast slice of her hand, and severs the cursed portion of Lotus' body in one sizzling chop. Lotus makes a rather displeased, crackling hiss, and acts as if she's re-inserting a dislocated shoulder to get back 'an arm above the elbow'. This feels like an emergency surgical procedure they've done once or twice before. "Yes, I'll be fine. That hurt, but I can grow it back pretty soon once we meet some 'raw materials'." "Please don't worry about it Darren. Lotus doesn't experience body trauma or injury dysmorphia like we do. And now maybe she'll have learned--" "Nope, nothing." "Guh!"
Hiromi	I4 starts finding, as they get further down, a lot of LOCKED messages on things that are nevertheless still moving around as the labyrinth rearranges itself. It looks like they have unopenable doors. There isn't a means of unlocking them from here, even though the controls in those areas still otherwise work fine. Before reaching those levels, at least, there are a lot of options. Some things will happen if he just waits for them, as passages realign -- which isn't helpful to everyone actually out there, unless they know just how long to wait to get to where they're going. There are a number of rooms that could be taken, with odd names like Couatl, Jabberwock, and Olog-hai on their contents. There are several rooms that just look like giant traps, though those he could disable from here, and allow for easier passage. But the one unique area is marked PORTAL ROOM. That's different from the TRANSPORTATION ROOM not far off from it. There's a lot of branching paths ahead of both Kale's position and the others, but also a point where they connect. They'd just need to know to go right, right, left, straight, left, right, straight three times, left or, from where Darren should be, left, left, straight, right, up, three lefts, down, straight, and left, and they'd be on the main hallway that passes by Transportation, and branches to the Portal Room one way and the Giant Graveyard the other.
Hiromi	Kale manages to get the door closed, and mostly blocked, and only has a few killer bees slip through at a time to try sting him. Success! It will terribly difficult for anyone else to get through there, probably. Including I4. But maybe he can use the transporter near him to catch up, if they find another such room. Now he just has a long corridor to go down, which leads into a mess of back and forth turns and the occasional pressure-plate trap, with no clue what's down any of the passages involved.
Hiromi	Lotus and Ahn take the only reasonable solution. Normally, someone would just become an instant statue, but Lotus isn't very normal, and she gets away with some lost mass. Curiously, the petrification process isn't the result of a 'poison.' If she kept the sample Medusa-flesh she took, she'll find that it's now safe, and contains no analyzable indication of how it could be used to turn someone to stone. Hisako turns out to have leapt down after them, shortly after the door began to open, and is already here, having stepped around everything that happened above. She looks on in wide-eyed interest(?) during the emergency surgery, but doesn't say anything. The passages ahead are part of the same complex Kale is finding himself in, with few monsters, but a lot of dead-ends, traps that look like they could have been placed at random, and evidence that someone went through here with holes in their pockets. There are coins and knicknacks haphazardly scattered over some sections of floor, far from each other, including little strips of cloth, an amulet, a ring, and a book. There haven't been that many pick-up-able items in one place since that one room Ahn went through.
Hiromi	Darren got through without a lot of acid problems. All told, it was a neatly executed plan, apart from maybe one misplay at the end. This route, too, may be difficult for I4 to follow them down, especially if the lava flow doesn't get shut off, and the entrance to the stairs is buried.
Kale Hearthward	Oh boy, pressure plates. That sounds like it'd be a challenge for someone who's not able to constantly stay airborne for hours on end. Anyway, though. Time to go exploring! ANd get hopelessly lost! After a bit of getting lost, Kale pulls out some thread and starts unwinding it as he flies along, trying to use it to keep track of where he's already been.
Ishirou	I4 looks around, it seems there isn't much for him to get into here. Catching up is going to be awful unless they can activate the transportation room. He tries to look around at other things... let's see... "Alright, I see three big rooms. Another transportation room not too far out and a PORTAL ROOM, which looks important. There is also a GIANT Graveyard that breaks off a different path from the Portal room. Darren you and your group will need to go...left, left, straight, right up, three left down straight, and left. That'd let me catch up with you there...and then the portal or graveyard at the end of that. Kale, you'll need to go right, right, left, straight, left, right, straight three times, and then left." "I can't follow either way you guys went. The bees are angry as crap, and that room is now flooding with lava. I wonder if there is another control room over there? Though if that is a portal room that could lead anywhere, even outside of this labyrinth?" I4 also activates the trap rooms instead of the NAMED rooms and just switches the traps off so that they won't cause problems for anyone. "Seeing some named room names such as Cauatl, Jabberwock, and Olog-hai."
Darren	There is definite interest in watching how Lotus handles the spreading stone curse, and a fair degree more concern. That is, until the offending portion is severed. The explanation and reassurance after the fact pretty much banishes any lingering notes of concern. "Gotcha," Darren then says with a nod. Smiling, he adds, "Glad to hear it." Ay, I4. We just made it past the medusa. Lava came in clutch. We're 'bout to be at the bottom of the stairs. What you got for us, fam? With upcoming points of interest presumably explained by I4, Darren will elect for the 'Portal Room.' This does mean that he'll have to unbury the stairs. This, he does by calling out his sarcophagus friend, Ramesses. With a toothy grin, Ramesses extends all four ghostly arms, clutching four separate corners of the room. We'll get the lava shut off, don't worry. As Ramesses begins stretching backwards like a slingshot, angling himself 'feet' first towards the lava flow, Nessie comes out too. A stream of water is constantly blasted towards the lava by the Lapras, cooling it until it's essentially rock. At this point, Ramesses slingshots himself towards the buried stairs, using that momentum and his own tough bulk to core through the rock and open a path downstairs.
Hiromi	Darren gets the way back cleared, so it should be safe -- or rather, it should be possible for someone to follow the same way in. There are still monsters up there, but stealth and blitzing are both valid tactics for making it down a known route. Kale passes by a lot of things that don't affect flying or levitating explorers, like low trip wires, bear traps, pressure plates, disguised pits, and what he may not notice was a land mine. He might have more trouble with the mid-height wires, thin but at an easier-to-notice height. There's one that sprays a target with a watery solution that causes rapid rusting of metal, and another that triggers sleeping gas. Neither of these are deadly on their own, at least. Finding 'a way' out won't be hard for Kale. Finding the route that would take him to join up with the others, on the other hand, is a difficult one. The turns of the maze are unique enough to be described to someone with a map, or he could just avoid all of the doors that lead to other chambers until he reaches the same part of the maze as someone else, thanks to his thread marking the way.
Kale Hearthward	> right, right, left, straight, left, right, straight three times, and then left. Kale tries following that path, next. Of course by the time I4 spoke up he'd already left the starting point - and couldn't find it again. Really at this point he's just going to cover the entirety of this floor in thread until he finds the exit or someone finds his path. He can do it. He has lots of thread, and he's too ~~stupid~~ focused to switch tactics or ask for help.
Vantablitz Remnants	"That's so weird." "Ah, that'd have to be 'magic' right?" "That's different from 'esoteric principles' is it?" "Kind of. I guess it must be. But I'll take this back for analysis later." "Gross." "You're one to talk." A very stupid discussion about Kale being twerked on by giant bees follows. Upon seeing the coins, Ahn physically recoils, and scrambles to pull out from her hiking bag what is definitely a roughly jury rigged flamethrower for burning invasive jungle growth. She judiciously torches the fuck out of the first few things she sees. "Please don't touch anything until I can be sure it's not another one of those!" "Ahn . . . Even if it was, what's a tiny ring going to do but nibble on you?" "Gods only know! Probably filled with poison that makes you explode or something!" "I-- . . . Hmm." Other than that, she's mostly just focused on following Darren as closely and safely as possible, timing the traps with I4's intervention. At this point, she can't 'suit up' with Lotus injured, so she's being double cautious. Only if the first few items don't react to being The Thing'd, she tries to pick up the jewellery, and read the discarded book. "It'd be too easy if this was the Amulet of Yendor right?" "Maybe someone else got it, but died on the way out?"
Ishirou	Kale had moved before he had time to confirm his location. Alright...great, let's see. If he took his directions, where would Kale be? Let's see if he can cut off his path and direct him a different way.
Hiromi	With many of the traps disabled, the trip isn't that bad. Kale even finds that he has, at some point, completely explored this area. There are only closed doors that do not (as I4 disables them) open, and one route that leads out toward the Portal Room. Now, most everyone is reunited--though in I4's case, he'll need to run through the (mostly depleted) Fire Ant Tunnel, into the transportation room, and get to the one near their new location. And someone will have to get in to activate it, first. Which means they'll have to break down another wall. Ahn doesn't find any mimics--unless they were just instantly killed. The strips of cloth wouldn't have survived well, either way. The coins are better able to survive flames in some fashion, and do prove to not be made of flesh. When she finally does pick up the amulet, she finds that it does read YENDOR. She also finds that it is made of fairly cheap plastic. The book is fairly thin, and getting through the whole thing would be easy, were it not for the very precise diagrams. It purports to teach some way to focus internal energy into an external ray that, upon striking an opponent, will cause them to fall asleep. The intended audience, if one had to guess, are Shaolin monks.
Hiromi	The door to the Portal Room, as indicated on the map, proves to be, itself, a portal. This is only obvious on stepping through it, as there's a moment of vertigo, and the dimensions of the door behind them don't match. In fact, nothing matches at all. This entirely lacks the feeling of the labyrinth. The floor is partially carpeted in a pattern of greens, with finished wood elsewhere. The walls are a faded white. Warm yellow lights center on a table, at one side, and a desk, at another, sized about half again as large as a human-sized person would expect. Papers cover part of it, a typewriter is to one size, and wooden, compartmented containers hold glass marbles streaked with various colors. The figure rising behind the desk, to a full nine feet of height, is most probably a man. Though visibly aged, it's hard to say whether it would be better to call him handsome or eerily beautiful. He's dressed in a brown pinstripe suit, missing a tie -- which turns out to instead be neatly folded on the desk. The smooth, metal shield leaning on the wall behind him, and the sword next to it, ping hard on all relevant senses as powerfully magical. "What? No, this must be wrong," he's saying. "Not one of you was in an expected role?" He frowns. "Well, you won't be able to open the gate without finding the bell. We'll just have to see what can you do. I'll do my best to accomodate your preferences." He adopts the expression of the put-upon and overworked, which is still, somehow, inhumanly majestic.
Kale Hearthward	Kale reunites with the rest of the group. He doesn't look inclined to strike out on his own again, after all of that. And he's reunited just in time to find... this... person. "I'm- sorry, what expected roles?" He's skipping over the obvious question of 'why are you here in this dungeon' and also 'why are you so tall'. "And what gate, and what bell?"
Ishirou	I4 hears the signal to come back around. So he hops back into the power armor and rushes for the transporter room again. Any ants that remain that hinder his path get either drill armed or laser blasted, but he goes for speed over finishing the job. I4's willing to let fire ants remain fire ants if they don't try and hurt him. He gets into the transporter room to take it down to their level, which causes him to catch up. "Hey guys, alright let's go!" Which puts him into the room with the executive. Nowhere on his bingo card did he find an overworked salary man. He pauses, looks around again, notices the sword is VERY magical, and then back towards Kale. "Well uh...I guess we're both wrong?"
Darren	Darren, on the other side of the portal, places his hand on his chin. Ramesses stops crawling in his tracks, sense of balance momentarily readjusting, pausing in that same way some cats do before casually continuing in his tracks. "Damn. Two different forms of teleportation," Darren notes, as Ramesses sloooowly stands vertically behind him, looming over his shoulder... to get a better look at the figure behind the desk. He chatters his teeth happily, eyes flashing red. "Well, my otherworldly G, that depends on what your definition of that word is, in this context. But I'm guessing you're in some way affiliated with the entities who built this place, if not one of 'em directly." Aliens? Angels? Fairies? Precursors? Darren's beaming with excitement. He claps, once. "I tell you what--to know now would invalidate that experiment you're runnin', and I respect that. How's this for 'preferences?' We beat this trial without 'expected roles,' and you tell me about why you're runnin' it." "I--hah." He says, to no one in particular. "You right." Glancing back at the overworked, ethereally beautiful bureaucrat, "Sorry. Darren Spears, enlightened scientist."
Vantablitz Remnants	"No way." "Yeah no way." Ahn and Lotus catch up to Darren speciically to try and show him the shitty plastic amulet and get his take on it, and saying something about how the book is obviously a sleep spell 'like out of an RPG'. When they actually get to the room though, Ahn regains her original habit of 'hiding behind people she knows', though in this case the stranger is at least 'actually intimidating'. "E-expected role? Did Hiromi mess something up? Were we supposed to act? Like, do we need a wizard and a warrior and a--" "Shhh, you're doing it again." Ahn gets the 'bright' idea of presenting the amulet to him next. "Um, is this yours? It kind of seems like a prop, now that I look at it, so . . ."
Hiromi	"The Bell of Opening," the giant says, easily pronouncing the significant capital letters, "is necessary to open the Sanctum. Normally, your path to your bell would be determined by your role, but it seems that there was some oversight. I'll provide you each with an appropriate role, so that you don't become stuck. That would be quite unfair to you. Once you're squared away, the portal will know the correct destination." He shakes his head to Darren. "Thank you for your understanding, but not having any role is what you resulted in the portal taking you here." He pauses, then, picks up a pen, and idly taps it on a pad of paper on the desk, lips pursed. "However, I suppose that would be an imposition on you, as well. Well, then, how about this? I'll record something, purely for paperwork purposes, and that'll be the end of it. Just that much should avoid you becoming stuck. I'm very sorry for the inconvenience, and I'll be sure to let the higher-ups know." He seems sincerely regretful about whatever this means, though that could just be another aspect of 'overworked.' "Oh, pardon me. I am the Archon." He puts his hand over his heart, and gives a small bow. He examines Ahn's amulet, then shakes his head. "No, ma'am, that is not mine. If you found it in the Mazes, you may keep it, of course. If not, you may leave it outside. A regular shift will tidy things up, at some point." Sitting back down, the Archon looks over his mess of papers, shifts some of them into neater piles, and then turns to each person in turn. To Ahn, "An archeologist, maybe?" To Kale, "A knight? Not a samurai, I suppose." To Lotus, "Really, I couldn't guess. Valkyries are quite popular, however." To Darren, "I'd rather I had advice for you, but this is just a workaround, regardless. Do cavemen, barbarians, or rogues strike your fancy, by any chance?" To I4, "I expect you'd take the wizard, under other circumstances." To Hisako, who has quietly been here since around the same point as Ahn, "Oh, a monk, or... no, a priestess? Healer?" Possessing a point of insight regarding something, Hisako shakes her head. "No, sir, I am only a follower." "A tourist?" "No, sir, a follower." "Oh, well, if you insist. You know you won't be able to continue without someone else fulfilling the prerequisites." She nods.