Round 3
"Well that's not good," Oster says with surprise as the room suddenly gets smaller. These ogres need to be dealt with quickly so he can get the locks picked before they're all squished. Given the grease under the one next to him and the fact that the others would have an easier time getting to it than the one behind him, Oster turns to deal with the one he'd just stepped away from. Stepping back close to it, he studies for the same weak point and carefully thrusts for it as though his life depends on it, which it probably does.
A surge of lightning and a carefully-placed stab, and a third ogre falls, leaving only one left, carefully trying to balance in the grease.
Ko runs forward at the ogre, trying to dodge through the ogre's reach. Once he reaches the ogre, he slashes at it with his temple sword.
Although Ko is able to get up next to the ogre, the flips and tumbles required to get into position for the strike mean that the kasathan warrior cannot attack cleanly, and the blow is almost comically far afield.
With Okian having placed himself right in the remaining ogre's path, the giant sees little reason not to try to punish the paladin for his arrogance. The blow sends the paladin reeling, although it is certainly not going to slow the holy warrior for long.
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Round 4
Oster carefully steps a little farther away from the remaining ogre. He winces a little at the blow Okian takes, knowing quite well how that feels, but he's nonetheless glad that his over-eager, reckeless behavior didn't cost him his life in the first room of his Crawling career.
Suspecting Okian and Ko have the remaining Ogre locked down, but not ready to leave himself completely vulnerable by getting down with his picks, he decides to prepare for this room's end game while he has a moment to breathe. He inspects the padlock closest to him for traps, then turns to the closest of the princesses and tries to read her mind to determine, once and for all, whether these are holograms or physical beings.
Mira positions herself next to Ko, making some distracting feints with her dagger in order to provide him an advantage over the last ogre.
Okian's massive blade falls like Iomedae's own judgment on the last ogre, and when he is done the giant has joined its fellows on the floor of the huge room. The crowd roars its approval at the bloodshed and spectacle. Faintly, and probably deliberately distorted, you hear the speakers overhead tell the crowd something, which almost immediately goes silent; looking around, you see a massive scoreboard floating almost directly overhead, indicating that you have currently earned 7 points.
With the ogres down, Otto scans the room waiting to blast anything that moves.
With the ogres down, Otto scans the room waiting to blast anything that moves.
Well, the walls do creep closer in by another 5 feet or so...
...and the princesses are still dancing. That's definitely movement!
Clarification: generally standing guard over Oster.
"Whelp, I'm not totally surprised, but I'm not sensing any thoughts coming from those princesses," Oster reports as he drops concentration on his spell. "You guys'll have to come up with another means of telling the fake one from the real ones. I'm going to get to work on these locks before the room makes us all lose a lot of weight."
Having not spotted a booby trap, he'll pull out his masterwork tools and get down to business.
With the combat over Mira claps her hands together and smiles. "Wonderfully done, men; now, I believe we can leave the matter of the locks to Oster. Perhaps we should turn our attention to identifying the correct princesses."
She moves to the nearest princess and addresses the hologram with a polite bow. "Hello, your majesty. I was wondering if you are in fact the beautiful young maiden you appear to be, or are instead a wretched demon conspiring for our failure in this crawl?" It is impossible to tell if she actually expects this to work or not.
Otto raises an eyebrow at Oster's discovery. "That one's a hologram? Should I blast it?" A crooked grin spreads across his face again as he points to the indicated princess.
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Okian stepped up to Otto and shook his head slowly, putting away his sword as he did so. "I would advise against it. Perhaps I might try something?"
Okian moves to each princess, looking at each of them for a moment each, channeling energy into his sight to allow him to see if he can sense any evil auras emanating from the princesses.
Oster works quickly on the lock, and in a handful of moment the lock is opened... but as he loosens the final pin, he feels a click and suddenly all the walls burst into flame. The princesses jump forward, staying 5 feet away from the walls and the fire that crawls over it.
Okian stepped up to Otto and shook his head slowly, putting away his sword as he did so. "I would advise against it. Perhaps I might try something?"
Okian moves to each princess, looking at each of them for a moment each, channeling energy into his sight to allow him to see if he can sense any evil auras emanating from the princesses.
Ko looks at the princesses, trying to discern any details that suggest to a non-human nature, whether it be holographic or demonic.
Although Mira is polite as can be in her inquiry, the princess/dancer merely smiles back at her in a pretty but rather vague manner.
Though they are all individuals, with their own appearances and outfits, none seems to stand out to Ko's observations.
"That's..." Oster starts, but finds himself at a loss for words when the walls now burst into flame. He stops trying to think about his surroundings and focus on the task at hand. Perhaps when all three are picked the room will go back to normal. If that happens then he can take his time examining the princesses, too, but right now that aspect of their challenge is an unhelpful distraction.
Again, the lock is a simple matter of a few seconds' work with his picks, and the lock pops open - and again, just as the lock begins to turn, Oster feels an unexpected twinge in the pillar.
This time, though, the spears that pop out from the pillar are more than just slight annoyances.
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The former cop is able to twist with the spear as it stabs into his left bicep, keeping what could have been a serious injury limited to merely an unpleasant poke.
Again, Okian detects no aura.
The spears continue to pop in and out of the pillar, and Oster knows that any further attempts to pick the locks will expose him to further attacks from the trap.
"Gah," Oster grits his teeth as he receives a minor stabbing. That's something he doesn't want to repeat, if possible, so he looks to see if he can first disable to spear-punching mechanism before getting to work on the final lock. These locks have been going to quickly, so once that's done he'll actually take the time to check the final padlock for more surprises before actually attempting to pick it.
Oster confirms that there is another trap on the final lock as well.
Oster has little choice but to risk the spears while first disabling the third, as yet unknown trap, before attempting to pick the final lock. He braces himself for some double potential hurt, but since each one of these has gotten worse, he doesn't want to find out what might have happened the hard way.
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Wary and prepared, Oster dodges the next spear attack as he feverishly works to unlock the final lock. His picks work their magic... but there is a sudden rush of gas around the pillar, and it rolls over Oster mercilessly.
The walls stop their movement, the flames on them go out, and the Exit door buzzes loudly. All around the room's edges, the princesses continue to dance.
As Oster dodges the spears and gets the final lock opened, he starts to feel like things are getting back under control. Then he gets a face-full of some sort of gas, and starts coughing and feeling his joints lock up.
As soon as he starts to feel the gas affecting his system, he takes one of his vials of antitoxin and chugs it as he puts as much distance between himself and the pillar as possible.
Once clear of the pillar, and still sweating from the concentration on expelling the poison from his system, he pulls out one of the scrolls of lesser restoration he has with him and asks the others if any of them can use it to help get his system back on track. His nimble fingers and good reflexes are necessary for his continued effectiveness in this Crawl, and the need to get them fixed has pushed aside any thoughts about analyzing the princesses for the time being.
Above the group, you can all see that you now have 19 points.
"Wonderfully done, Oster." Mira pulls out her cure light wounds wand and begins tapping the injured.
With that done, she turns to the princesses with a quizzical look on her face. "These ladies represent quite the conundrum, don't they? They do not have thoughts, do not detect as an alignment, and do not seem to respond to questioning. It would appear they are nothing more than they look - holograms playing out a simplistic script."
Mira studies the projections, wondering if she can find some trick to them that would hint to which ones represent success and which ones failure.
"WOO!" Otto cheers, slapping Oster on the back as he staggers away from the pillar. "That was awesome!" He pumps an open palm into the air a few times and shouts a few more times. After a few moments, Mira's assessment of their situation brings him back to reality somewhat. He juggles his gaze between the princesses. "Oh, huh." He seems to not hear Mira's offer of magical healing as he stares at the dancing princesses.
Ko taps a message on his holographic projector, "Well done Oster, and the rest of you as well. Our teamwork is advantageous." He taps on his wristband a few more times, projecting an image of a grinning gnome jumping up and down, with a small message under it, "Heh, I never tire of these."
As Otto and Mira study the dancers, they become increasingly unsure of their conclusion that the princesses are holograms. There is no sign of any projector, they bear no visible scan lines even at close range, and in contrast to Mira's initial assessment, they do seem to react specifically to the team's actions, including flinching away slightly when you lean in too close to examine them.
"Well, we can look at them all we want, but in the end the odds are on our side for this," he says after taking a few moments to recover. "If five of 'em are good and one is bad, and we can't tell one from the other, then I say we just start picking."
He moves up to the one he'd tried detecting the thoughts of before, and looks to the others to see if they agree. If they don't have any objections he'll reach out and gently lay a hand on her shoulder.
Scratching his beard, Otto speaks up, addressing no one in particular. "Well, they look real. The announcer -announcess? I don't know- said one of 'em was a monster in disguise, no? And if we touch that one, the rest go 'poof.'" The mage simulates an explosion with his hands. "Neither Oster nor Okian could get a read on anything, though. Sounds like there's some form of illusory magic at play."
Otto will concentrate on the princesses magical aura's (if any) now that he's confident they aren't holograms.
"Okay... This is weird. I'm not getting any magical signatures either." Otto shrugs, then crosses his arms. "I'm fresh out of ideas, guys."
"I agree with Otto; as far as I can tell they are normal people just like you all are." She pauses, rubbing her chin deep in thought. "I hate to leave things up to chance but we may have exhausted all other options. Unless..."
"No, I've got nothing. Carry on, Oster," she says with a sigh.
Oster walks up to one of the princesses and places a hand on her shoulder. She grins more broadly as he approaches, even going so far as to blow him a kiss and give a quick wink just before his hand touches her. Any doubts about her physicality are banished as he feels solid skin and muscle beneath his hand, just before she vanishes.
In her place, a large placard on a stand appears, showing a beautiful beach, white sands, a lovely pale green sky, and rich jungle. The words TIKANA BEACH RESORT AND CASINO are printed across it, and you hear Vodali Vixonia's voice suddenly ring out through the stadium, informing both you and your cheering fans that Pentakill has won a week-long stay at the luxurious Tikana Beach Resort and Casino on Castrovel, where the system's richest and most fabulous go to see and be seen, playing all day and playing even harder all night! A 3750 credit value!
That's great, Oster thinks. That's just what I need right now, a vacation. He allows himself a wry smile.
"Our odds are still good," he says as he takes a deep breath of relief. "They're real people, they must just be warded against information-gathering magic or something. But an eighty percent chance is nothing to sneeze at. Anyone else feeling lucky?"
He gives another member of the group a chance to pick a princess. In the mean time he scans the room they're in. With the stress of immediate battle suspended, he remembers that they're supposed to be keeping an eye out for four hidden scepters, and there's no reason why he shouldn't start looking this early. He even checks the ceiling in the interests of thoroughness.
While he waits for the others to make the next princess picks, he moves back toward the pillar and the crack he sees outlining a hidden panel. After making sure the gas has dissipated first, he uses his tools to try popping that sucker open to see what might be hidden inside. He's feeling pretty good about having remembered to check for these sorts of things, but not so good that he doesn't remember the gas from the third lock. He squints and tries to hold his breath as he goes about the panel, in case there's still some left.
There is neither a lock nor a trap on the panel, which contains a crystalline scepter, roughly a foot long and topped with the PECA logo.