Avalon Academy IC

[Dodgeson]

It was an unusually quiet day at Britain's premier school for metahumans with none of the usual hustle, bustle and explosions one would expect from an establishment with a high concentration of superpowered youth. This wasn't to be unexpected however as it was the day before the start of a new term and so most of the school was empty save for a skeleton support staff and those students who for one reason or another had no home to go to.

Of course whilst the main portion of the campus was quite just a stones throw away on one of the academy's well tended athletic fields a crowd of new potential students all buzzed with excitement. Whilst most of them were wearing street clothes (and a few were even presumptuous enough to already be wearing the schools uniform), there were enough costumes of varying quality amongst the crowd to convince those who might be having second thoughts that they were in the right place. To say nothing of the occasional set gossamer wings, technicolour skin tone or burning hair.

In front of the crowd a small wooden stage had been erected but as of yet there had been no sign of anyone trying to approach it. Some way in the distance the academy's chapel bell tolled a quarter past the hour (a sharp eye would spot several members of the crowd flinch at the sound), the letter you'd all received had said to be here by noon, surely someone would show up soon right...?

((The festivities will start shortly, so what are you doing?))

[Quellian-dyrae]

WHOOSH!

A streamer of rainbow-colored light went zipping through the athletics field. It raced up towards the stage and kinda zipped around it, shot off about halfway for the main campus before briefly stuttering and immediately reversing direction, made two or three (dozen? At the speed it was going it was hard to say for sure) passes around the rough perimeter of the crowd, before plunging into it in a chaotic zig-zagging path, never actually hitting anyone but slipping through spaces between individuals and groups, and finally coming to a halt nearish the center-front portion. The rainbow light faded gradually as it moved, but even so, it went fast enough that for a portion of a second, the entire path it had taken was more-or-less clearly visible.

Once it had slowed down (or to anyone with fast enough vision to make out the movement, either way) the source of the light was revealed as a slim, five-foot-and-change girl whose big brown eyes were wide with energetic excitement and looking around at the crowd with a level of eager randomness that seemed more-or-less identical to that which had guided her trail of movement. Her shoulder-length hair, normally pale blond, was at the moment dyed in red, white, and blue. It was meant to be a sign of respect for the country of the school...but since the U.S. flag used the same colors and my understanding is that the U.S. is, if not uniquely flag-happy, then at least a fair bit more-so than the average country, it probably just made her come off as even more obviously American but whatever it's the thought that counts!

While Kelly did have a costume, she wasn't currently wearing it, for a couple reasons. First, because it was kinda associated with her (limited) past crime-fighting along with her family so it wasn't really what she wanted to be wearing for her first impression. Second, while she had not gone to St. Ambrose herself, her siblings all had so she knew enough about how it worked to know that the general assumption was that students would design their costumes during the school year (there was a class for it and everything) and she wasn't sure if Avalon Academy followed the same protocol. Seeing some of the other kids in the crowd wearing costumes answered that, but whatever. Instead, she was wearing a loose pair of jeans that had several precise cuts in them (partly for fashion, partly to improve mobility) and an Adrien Zhay T-shirt (she didn't have any idea he would be attending, she just knew he was from here and she was a fan of his music, so it was just a horrible and/or hilarious coincidence).

"Hi!" she said brightly, with a cheery little wave of her hand, to whichever potential student she had ended up both near and facing (unless they were already talking with someone, she wouldn't interrupt a conversation, that would be rude). "I'm Kelly," she introduced herself.

[Llyarden]

Adrien was in an unusual situation - he wasn't standing out.

Granted, this was at least partially because he was (somewhat reluctantly) restraining himself from any particularly flashy displays of his powers - at least until he'd learned whatever ground rules there might have been about using powers on school grounds - but not having the most unusual appearance in the crowd probably helped. Indeed, compared to the costumes - so cool! - and inhuman physiologies - also so cool! - on display, his spiky blue hair looked positively tame. In fact, he'd so far gotten more attention for the guitar case slung over his back than his appearance.

Whatever the reason, though, the whole 'mob of people wanting autographs/selfies/etc' thing that tended to happen around him, especially in a group of teens his own age, just kinda...hadn't happened. It was a surprisingly refreshing experience.

Needless to say, he hadn't gone completely unnoticed, and there were definitely a few more copies of his signature floating around the fields than there had been when he'd arrived. But as a whole, the newly-arrived students seemed unaware of his presence, and for now Adrien was keeping a low profile, looking around at the assembled soon-to-be-students with an awestruck expression.

So cool!

Of course, all it would take to change that was someone to point him out loudly enough...

[Dorni]

Anthony was one of those students presumptuous enough to wear the school uniform. Although in his case, it wasn't so much presumption. He'd been dropped off at the academy little more than a week ago and told it was going to be his new home. Gagmagog had explained Anthony's... situation with the headmaster, who had also made clear Anthony wasn't to leave the school grounds alone before the year started. And while the school's staff had been very helpful over the past week, with the start of the school year fast approaching they didn't have time to take him on a shopping trip. That suited Anthony just fine, but it meant that his wardrobe consisted mainly of his school-issued uniforms. The rest was mainly gifts and stuff he'd taken from the lost-and-found, and the uniform seemed the more appropriate choice for orientation anyway. It didn't look bad on him either - at not-quite-6ft with plenty of sculpted muscle and a strong jawline, he looked good in uniform. If only none of the staff had thought joking about him having great genes was clever.

Living on campus had also given him an excellent reason to be early to the orientation. He'd wandered around a bit and right now found himself nearish the front of the stage without having been absorbed by any of the forming student groups. So it was to his surprise when a bright rainbow came streaking around the field and through the crowd before abruptly stopping in front of him and revealing itself to be a bright rainbow of a girl.

"Um. Hi. I'm Anthony," He introduced himself after only a beat. Ok, beat-and-a-half. "I don't suppose you have any idea what's going on?" he asked, nodding toward the stage.

[OutOfThyme]

Colin had spent quite a bit of time at the academy fields by the time that a certain rainbow streak had sped through the crowd gathered there. He'd dropped off his stuff at the dormitory a little earlier (mostly because his grandfather had explicitly forbidden him from wearing his costume) and was here mostly to socialize with the other students.

Colin couldn't help himself, really. He'd spent a little over a year training under his grandfather, without too much in the way of interacting with other teenagers with superpowers. This was exciting for him. Instead of seeing superheroes on television or online, or looking through his grandfather's old case files, he was actually talking to people who were here for the same reasons he was.

He was glad that he'd decided to stick to dressing in the school's uniform for the entrance ceremony (although he kept the tie a little loose) instead of sticking to his costume. It would have been flashy and he'd probably have given a stronger first impression instead of being an Irish teen in the Avalon Academy uniform.

As he made his way through the crowd, trying to get closer to the front - as the bell had just rang - he caught the eye of someone with a guitar case and blue hair.

Eh, he seems normal enough. Maybe some kind of music power? That'd be pretty cool.

As he was about to make his way over to strike up some small talk, he was interrupted by a prismatic blur moving through the crowd - some kind of speedster, most likely. Taking a brief moment to ensure that he wouldn't bump into the speedster making their way back into the crowd.

"Hey," Colin said, as he moved beside the blue-haired musician(?) "You've probably heard this a billion times by now, but do you use the guitar with your powers?"

[zzzzzzzz414]

"Claire" looked down at the letter in their hands for the fifth time in two minutes. This...was the right place, wasn't it? I mean, it certainly looked like the place, and they'd double and triple-checked the time, address and location, but maybe they'd somehow gotten something confused, or there'd been a typo on theirs, or this was a different event entirely or something? Maybe they should go to the front, see if there was a staff member near the stage or something who could explain what was happening.

They gently and slowly began to work their way through towards the front of the crowd, mumbling a steady stream of "excuse me"s and "sorry"s and "oh hello"s as they went. They tugged nervously on the collar of their hoodie, sweat beading on their forehead. They could feel their heart pounding as though it were about to burst out of their chest, and every muscle in their body was tensed as a maelstrom of emotions swirled around in their head.

On the one hand, this was incredible! So many new people to maybe meet, so many different powers, so many different things happening and about to happen everywhere they looked! That one girl's hair was made of fire! Amazing! How did that even work!? Claire's mind was absolutely brimming with burning questions, and the more they looked the more of them built up, the more they absolutely needed to find out.

On the other hand, every new hero and power they saw only hammered it home that much further that they totally, definitely, absolutely did not belong here. Their hands had started shaking the moment they saw the gates, and they hadn't stopped since. There was an underlying dread that threatened to rise up like bile, screaming at them to run, to hide, that that one boy with the third eye who looked at them funny was probably a psychic who knew everything and was mentally contacting the school authorities, and they really didn't want to check in case he had some sort of mind-reading detection ability. Half of Claire wanted to run up and start a conversation with everyone here, and the other half wanted to go find a bench to lie down under for a few hours, so they'd sort of averaged out into a general ball of nerves sitting in their chest, feeling like it was going to explode any moment.

They felt hyper-aware of everything about themselves as they worked their way towards the stage. Did their hair look weird? Were they walking correctly? What should their hands be doing? Were the purple-rimmed glasses too ostentatious-looking? Should they have a costume, the letter hadn't said they needed one but a lot of people seemed to have really cool ones? Was their outfit normal? They'd picked what they hoped were unobtrusive-looking street clothes: a brown hoodie with a design on the front composed of six hexagons (each a different color, with a different terrain pattern on them) over a plain white tanktop, and a knee-length jean skirt. But now that they were here the hoodie was sort of hot and uncomfortable in this weather and nobody else seemed to be wearing one and they probably looked stupid and were drawing attention to themselves, maybe they could find their luggage and a bathroom and change? But then they might miss the event, which would be even worse; maybe if they flew they'd be fast enough? Could they do that? Nobody else seemed to be flying, but there hadn't been a rule against it or anything mentioned, but what if it was like a general taboo, or maybe flight was actually a really rare power in real life and they'd draw a bunch of attention and suspicion, maybe they could ask someone if OOF

Claire had been so wrapped up in their reverie that they had completely failed to notice the boy who'd suddenly moved in front of them, and had walked directly into his back, knocking their glasses to the ground. They quickly knelt to the ground and began to feel around for their lost eyewear in the grass, looking up at the blurry figure above them as they did so.

"O-oh, I'm sososorry, wasn't, um, paying attention, I didn't mean to-"

krnch

Claire looked back down at the fuzzy, but still all-too-identifiable purple-rimmed object crushed under their sneaker.

"Oh jeez."

[Thokk_Smash]

Okay, this is fine, this is okay, just keep it cool, focus on the Shieldus spell, you can get through thi--

~"Yowza, did you see the legs on Lady Rainbow over there? God bless America!"~

Marcus grinds his teeth so hard his jaw hurts at the intrusive thought that was most certainly not his own. ~"Barty, I swear on Merlin's stupid beard, I will lock you in with the memory of massaging my grandma's feet again if you don't shut up,"~ he thinks, not says, to the other voice in his head.

The voice in his head (no, for reals, he's not insane; well, at least not from that) replies in a sing-song tone, ~"If you could do that, you'd've already done it, Boss. Gotta focus on that mental shield spell you made, or else everyone's cell phone goes kablooie, right?"~

Deep breaths, in through the nose, out through the mouth. Instead of rising to the bait, Marcus just tunes out Barty, the spirit of intellect inside his own mind, as the lecherous spirit continues to comment on pretty much every female in eyeshot. Marcus supposes it's a better white noise than the otherwise-constant whispers of the Blackstaff, which is fastened securely in its specially-made holster attached to his belt. Catcalls that no one but him can hear are better than being told over and over how the world is a terrible place, how Marcus could have the power to change it if he only gave himself up to the Blackstaff--

And Marcus throws up his mental walls with ease of practice, tuning out both Barty and the Blackstaff at the cost of being able to notice pretty much anything. It isn't exactly hard for him to move through the crowds: at six feet, odd inches, simply moving forward is usually enough to get past someone. Except for the two staves of wood he carries--one pitch black, at his belt, and the other a rich brown in his hand--he's fairly nondescript: black hair, blue eyes, with an AC/DC t-shirt and jeans on his lanky form. Well, he supposes that the leather duster on top of all of that is kinda notable. Someone's gotta have style around here, after all.

Keeping up the mental shield and bulling through the mental noise of Barty had been, at least, distracting him from his own nerves. He doesn't exactly like being among such a large crowd of people. What if someone recognizes the Blackstaff, and makes a scene? Ah, he wishes Gabriel were here, but his friend-slash-housemate had disappeared to find his girlfriend. Lucky sunova.

The crunching of glass breaks him out of his reverie, and he quickly looks around. Okay, so he wasn't the one that had broken something this time--good, that's good. To his left, he sees a girl kneeling on the ground, regarding what looks like a broken pair of glasses. Ah, man, that sucks. Acting on autopilot as he had been, Marcus finds himself beside the girl and the boy she had bumped into before he can stop himself.

Focusing for a moment to gather the power within his mental shield spell, he nudges the broken glasses with the butt of his brown stave and whispers, "Reparum." Assuming the glasses weren't shattered to small pieces, his minor cantrip should be able to mend them enough to still be used.

He waits for a moment, checking to see if the glasses had been repaired sufficiently. Then, with a vague noise in the back of his throat, he makes a motion as if to continue walking past.

Zees or Thyme, feel free to stop Marcus from heading off. He's not much of a socializer by choice, is all ^_^;

[Llyarden]

"A few times," Adrien admitted, with an amused grin, turning to face the brown-haired boy that had asked the question. "But nah, it's basically just a hobby." Before he could say anything else they were joined - for a given definition of the word - by a girl in a hoodie. It took him a moment to figure out what she was doing as she patted around the ground. "Oh, they're by your -"

krnch

A moment was, unfortunately, at least half a moment too long.

"...foot."

Then they were joined by another boy, who promptly repaired the glasses with magic. "Cool!" he murmured, somewhat unconsciously. He knew magic existed, of course, and he'd seen it performed occasionally when he'd been doing errands for Cobalt, but this was the first time he'd seen anyone use magic close-up. Though if he was honest he'd...kind of expected more sparkly stars and special effects.

He returned his attention to the girl in the hoodie, crouching down slightly (mostly to make sure she didn't tread on her own glasses again.) "You okay?"

[OutOfThyme]

"That's cool," Colin noted, before Adrien turned around. Colin hadn't noticed the girl who'd just bumped into the apparent hobby-musician until just before the fateful crunch of glass-under-foot. Colin awkwardly stood there for a moment, when a towering student (wearing a duster, of all things) fixed the glasses with a quick magic spell.

Colin was very tempted to turn on his magical senses - the part of him that used Fragarach's powers naturally was curious about this person's magical powers. Were they powers inherent to him, or did they have a source, like Colin did with Fragarach? Were they limited to repairing things, or could he do mo-

Focus. You can figure all that out later. For all you know, he's in your class.

"Hey, thanks for that," Colin nodded to the towering magician, as the latter was about to leave. Mr. Blue Dye (Colin didn't know his name, and he wasn't sure if the hair was natural) had started talking to the girl in the hoodie.

"You didn't drop anything else, did you?" Colin asked the girl as he made a quick scan of the grass around their feet.

[zzzzzzzz414]

"O-oh!" Claire gingerly moved their foot off the suddenly repaired glasses and put them back on, using just a tiny bit of telekinetic power to make sure they stayed on this time. They smiled at the (vaguely familiar-looking?) blue-haired boy they suddenly found before them.

"Uhm, I'm fine, I think. Thanks! Sorry about that, haha." They stood up, brushing off their skirt and looking over to the brown-haired boy who'd just spoken. "And I think that was all I dropped, thanks!" They looked back to the blue-haired boy, noticing the guitar case slung over his back. "Oh, are you a musician? That's so cool! Do you use music with your pow-hey, wait!"

Out of the corner of their eye, they noticed the tall boy (wow, they really needed to ask some names) who'd fixed their glasses preparing to step back into the crowd and turned to face them. "Uh, wait, don't go! Hi! Thank you soso much, that was amazing, how did you do that?" They continued on breathlessly, not even waiting for a response. "Like, was that actual magic, or just a power that looks like magic, or what? How does it work? Is it a magical light construct thing, or some sort of time-rewinding, or does it just sort of reshape and reform whatever's there? How does it know what the thing looked like before, or do you need to already know that for it to work, and is there a limit on the size? Oh, does it work on people? What else can you do with it? Oh uhm wow I'm talking too much I'm sorry I do that and I think it makes people uncomfortable but it's so hard to not, uh, "geek out" over all this stuff you know? Uh my name is Claire by the way, what's yours? Sorry."

They start to offer a fist bump, then quickly change it to a handshake, change it back to a fist bump, and finally settle on a small, awkward wave.

[Thokk_Smash]

The thanks from the boy in the school uniform prompted a wave-salute of Marcus' free hand, but doesn't slow his attempted retreat. The exuberant string of words from the girl, however, freeze him in his tracks quite visibly. Sheer confusion is written all over his face as he regards the girl who seems likely to run out of breath before she runs out of words. Marcus' face being an open book, one can actually easily see that his confusion is at being asked to stay rather than the fast pace of her talking. Someone wanting Marcus to stick around, purely for his company, who isn't Gabriel or Gabe's father? Inconceivable.

"Um." Ah, yes, Marcus. So witty you are. He holds out a hand for her to slow down (which, coincidentally, may be construed by someone unfamiliar with social niceties as offering a high-five, apropos of nothing). "It was nothing, really." Yeah, that was even better, make yourself sound like a pompous arse. "I-I mean, you're welcome. It was just a little bit of Thaumaturgy, didn't even need a circle for it or anything. The glasses knew what they looked like before, and it had hardly been any time at all for that memory to fade. Like-to-like, and all that, I just gave a bit of energy and will and snap, it goes back to how it used to be. If the glass had been ground to dust or scattered too far, I probably wouldn't have been able to do it so easily, and no way could I have done it with something much bigger than those glasses. The size limitation kinda precludes using it on people, and messing around with others' bodies like that kinda nauseates me anyway."

Marcus realizes he's giving the girl a run for her money in the talking-too-much scene, so he shuts his mouth with an audible click of his teeth. Faint pink graces his cheeks as Barty's laughter echoes in his head. "Er, the name's Marcus," he finishes lamely, mirroring her wave. He nods in acknowledgement to the blue-haired boy and the boy who had thanked him earlier. "Uh, just fair warning, if you guys have cell phones, you may wanna turn 'em off while I'm around. Technology and me don't tend to get along, and if I lose focus on reigning in my energy then bad things happen to complex electronics."

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Nice to meet you, Anthony!" Kelly replied, before following the direction of his nod. "Mmmmmmmmm...no specific idea! I mean, I imagine they're probably going to be making an announcement or something? Maybe, like, assigning us dorms or something? Ooh, or maybe assigning us teams! That would be fun!" According to her siblings, that was more-or-less how it worked at St. Ambrose. Except they didn't have a stage for it, they just had upper-grade students do it.

...Also something about handing out literature to raccoons? That didn't sound right. Maybe her siblings' descriptions of St. Ambrose shouldn't be used to guide her assumptions...

"Oh! But there's supposed to be some like...test, right? Or entrance exam thingy? Maybe they'll be announcing how that works," she further speculated. She wasn't particularly concerned about the lack of, well, anyone around the stage. She knew as well as anyone just how quickly someone with the right powers could reach a designated location, and honestly she'd probably be a little disappointed if the Avalon Academy staff didn't take the opportunity to make a flashy entrance.

"Soooo...what's your superpower?" She asked curiously, although only a bare instant later she added, "Wait! Let me guess!" with a bubbly breath of laughter. The dancing cheer briefly left her features as she studied the tall boy before her with a squinty, serious expression.

He was big and built, sure, but judging a book by its cover where superpowers were concerned was silly. However, he was wearing the school uniform already. Far as she figured, that could mean one of two things: he was extremely confident that he would get in, or he knew he was going to get in. The first one didn't offer much evidence other than perhaps being indicative of a particularly strong power, so she went with the second one. Obviously, some sort of foresight was the logical conclusion, but she didn't want to just go with plain old precognition because that was too easy. "Personal Destiny Manipulation!" she decided with a big grin and a confident nod.

(Kelly does not have the Sherlock Scan Benefit, oh no she does not.)

[Llyarden]

Adrien tried not to grin at Claire and Marcus as they jabbered at each other in turn. He tried. Whether he succeeded was...debatable. (Most of the actual content of their conversation went totally over his head.)

"I keep mine off most of the time, but thanks for the warning," he said to Marcus. "Long as you don't blow up guitars as well, we're good. Though, uh..." He paused for a moment as he considered something. "Isn't that going to make it hard for you to keep in contact with people when you go doing hero stuff, if you blow up everyone's phones?" The tone of his voice made it sound like this was more of a minor inconvenience than a potential tactical liability.

"Oh, I'm Adrien, by the way," he added, holding out a hand to...well, any of the other three who felt like shaking hands instead of waving. (And yes, actually introducing himself was kinda an alien concept.) "Nice to meet you guys."

[OutOfThyme]

Unlike Adrien, Colin couldn't help but grin at Claire and Marcus. He was a little glad that there were people who were just as curious about powers as he was. Well, at least Claire was - Colin wasn't sure if Marcus or Adrien were like this. Marcus' comment about messing with technology was interesting, because Colin never had any such problems with Fragarach.

Maybe it had something to do with Tuatha magic. Who even knew how these things worked?

"I'm Colin. Nice to meet you all," Colin said, shaking Adrien's hand. Colin glanced at the stage for a moment, hoping that something - anything, really - had happened by now. It was kind of weird, though, since this event was supposed to start at noon.

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire briefly put their hand up in preparation to return the high-five before realizing that that wasn't what it was at all, and sheepishly putting it back down. They hung on to Marcus's every word though, eyes gleaming, occasionally nodding or interjecting a little "Oh!" So, some magic did require circles? What kinds? What did the circles look like, how did you make them, is there a pattern or like a language or something? How long did it take for an object's "memory" to fade? Was he making them alive, sorta? Ok he couldn't use it on people, but would it work with something small and alive, like a hermit crab or a bug or something? Would it even remember being crushed?

Claire nearly unloaded another flurry of questions on Marcus, but he was already looking sort of confused and awkward, which was (in their admittedly limited experience) usually a good sign to let up a little for now. Weirdly enough, he seemed more confused about being asked to stay than anything else. Had that...not been the correct thing? Like, was that not usually something people asked of strangers? Still, he didn't seem to be leaving, at least.

"Oh, right, I'llll do that then!" they piped when Marcus mentioned the electronics thing, pulling out their lavender-cased phone. The battery was near-dead, anyway, they'd probably not have been using it much.

"It's good to meet you too!" they said as Colin and Adrien introduced themselves. "Uhhh, so, what are you guys' powers?" They turned to Adrien. "I didn't mean to be rude before, sorry, so you play guitar? Are your powers music-based? Or like, sonic or vibration based or something?"

[Dorni]

"Hahaha!" Anthony couldn't help it, the girl's smile was infectious. "Yep, I can change Destiny. But only for myself," he added conspiratorially. I hope.

"I'm also really strong. They tell me I'm nearly Indestructible." From most teenage boys it would have been a boast, but Anthony and his perfect white smile made it a statement of fact.

The girl's powers on the other hand on the other hand were quite obvious. An american with super speed and a rainbow light show. Something sounded familiar about that, but he couldn't quite place it. "I don't recall hearing about an entrance exam, but I suppose they might have a test lined up. Or maybe them being late is a character test? See how we react to no one showing up?"

Then it clicked. Super speed, rainbow lights, female, teenage, big brown eyes, dimples. The list of traits came to mind just like they'd been written in an online hero profile, complete with a mental image attached. He never met the girl before; the knowledge and image had to be one more thing his maker had shoved into his head.

"...You said your name was Kelly. Albion?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Cool!" Kelly said as he 'confirmed' her guess, and went on to explain his 'other' powers. "So like, powerhouse, right?" she asked, although evidently rhetorically, as she didn't wait for an answer. "My big brother has that type of power. Hey! That would probably mean we'd actually make a pretty good team, right? 'Cause, like, super-speed and super-strength. Cover our bases, and stuff!"

"Yeah I don't know exactly, but the letter I got didn't actually say like 'Congratulations! You Are Accepted!' or anything like that. It just said to be here at noon, so I figure there might be some sort of test or something. Or I dunno, maybe they just want to announce it in person because it's more dramatic that way?"

It only lasted for the briefest of instants - it might not have even been noticeable if it were not for the fact that Kelly's face was very expressive - but when Anthony took his guess at her last name there was a flicker of...hesitance. Not quite concern, even, just a flash of uncertainty that came with a brief play of rainbow light over her skin, an almost mother-of-pearl-like glow as her super-speed allowed her to put several minutes of thought into her answer to that question in an instant.

And then it was gone and she was as cheerily exuberant as ever. "That's me!" she said, and there was pride in her voice. The last thing Kelly wanted was to live in her family's shadow, but that didn't mean she at all resented her connection to them. Quite the opposite. More than anything, she wanted to live up to their reputation. She didn't mind being recognized as an Albion...what concerned her was being recognized as the newbie baby sister of the Albion family. That wasn't the first impression she wanted to make.

[Llyarden]

"It's fine," Adrien smiled at Claire. "I play, but the guitar's not anything to do with my powers. I just didn't want to leave it with the rest of my stuff." He had, once before, left a guitar out in the open while he went to get a cup of tea. When next he saw it it was being sold on eBay for a thousand dollars.

"As for my powers...uh, technically I think I'm a psychic? But I don't really do the typical 'psychic' stuff like reading minds or whatever. Am I the only one that thinks that's super creepy? Uh, anyway, my powers are more..."

Anyone paying particularly close attention to him would notice his eyes (he wasn't wearing his normal sunglasses) shimmer with light, and from behind him (even though it hadn't been there at all a second ago) stepped...a cartoony, anthropomorphic tiger, about four-and-a-half feet tall. Which was wearing a bright red hotel porter's outfit. Because that made sense.

The tiger waved a paw and made a growly sound that sounded vaguely like a 'Hello!' (Or possibly 'Uh-oh!'. It was kinda hard to tell.)

"...playful," Adrien concluded.

[OutOfThyme]

"Huh. That's actually kinda cool. I wish I could do something like that," Colin said, looking at the porter-tiger-thing.

It's a bit unorthodox, but I can see why a power like that would be useful.

"As far as my powers go, I'm actually Empowered. I've got a magical sword." Colin motioned for the others to give him a little bit of space (at least, as much as could be reasonably expected in this crowd), and extended his right hand. Fragarach snapped into view, blade pointing down towards the grass.

"I've picked up some magic from using it, but it's definitely more limited than anything Marcus can do." Colin let go of Fragarach, and it snapped back to its native extradimensional space. "What about you, Claire?"

[Dorni]

"Yeah, your speed and my strength should make a pretty solid combination. Why don't we stick together?" As a bonus, the girl - Kelly - he told himself, probably had plenty of practice fighting alongside someone with similar powers to his own. He probably didn't need to worry about her being in the wrong place and accidentally crushing her, and she probably knew a few good combo moves too. Anthony knew that being in this academy meant he'd have to fight at some point. While his makers had imprinted plenty of fighting knowledge into him, even that knowledge told him it wasn't the same as actual experience.

But, he reflected, more important than any of that was that Kelly already seemed like she'd be fun to be around. Her cheer really was infectious.

"I don't know about that. Aren't other academies starting too? I think it would suck to get a letter and show up to this school just to be told on the first day you didn't actually make it in. Wouldn't those kids need to scramble to find another school? Even then they'd be starting a few days late."

Anthony paused when Kelly broke out into rainbows. Being an Albion seemed like a sore spot for her. Come to think of it, the Albions were supposed to be active on the US' west coast. There had to be some reason driving her to go to a school thousands of miles away and across an ocean. Maybe she was distant with her family? There might be some family friction. Or maybe she felt trapped? He... he knew what that was like.

The thoughts played out on his face as a sympathetic look, followed by a nod. He wouldn't ask her about a sensitive subject in the middle of this crowd. Later, though.

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire's smile wavered for a moment when Adrien said "psychic". An ice-cold jolt of panic ran through their system before the rest of Adrien's sentence (sorta) halted it. Still, when he said "didn't", did he mean "couldn't" or just "wouldn't"? There was a very, very crucial distinction.

The sudden appearance of the cute cartoon tiger was sufficient to temporarily distract them from that line of concern, though. "Oh, wow! Incredible! Jeez, is he...really here, a tangible physical thing, or is it just a mental image?" Claire bounced forwards, reaching out to touch it. "I mean forming a telekinetic bubble of force like this in such a shape, with the light and sound too, I don't even know how-"

They cut themselves off. They'd nearly gotten carried away, exposed a bit more than they should have known. Stupid. Needed to calm down, try to swallow the excitement. Claire stepped back, withdrawing her hand. "Uhm, anyway, that's really neat!" Their grin remained as bright as always, but someone paying very close attention might have noticed that it was a tiny bit forced, that their breathing had quickened just a bit. A psychic.

I mean, he said he didn't read minds, right? He just said he found it creepy, even. I mean is there really any reason to doubt, to assume he was lying about his powers? The irony of what they were thinking suddenly struck them. Should they...should they check? No. Adrien was a psychic (of sorts), even if he couldn't read minds he'd surely know better than most if others were reading his. "Claire" quietly focused their power instead, preparing to strike at even the slightest psychic prodding.

They'd been so busy staring at the ground focused on their thoughts for the last few moments that they nearly missed Colin's display. A magic sword! Ooh, and he was empowered! What kind of magic did it do? Where had it gone when it vanished, was he just teleporting it or was it going to some sort of sword dimension or what? Where had he found it? Was the empowerme-

They had been about to unleash a flurry of questions on Colin, but their breath caught in their throat when Colin asked the one they'd been dreading.

Steady now. You knew this was coming. It's fine. Everything's fine!

"Flight, superstrength, increased durability, and some enhanced senses," they recited, closing their eyes and lifting themselves a few inches off the ground for a few seconds as demonstration. "Not much to talk about really, I guess I'm...pretty standard, as far as superheroes go, anyway, haha. Not at all as cool as you guys' stuff, really. You guys are amazing!" They giggled, just the barest hint of nervousness creeping its way in.

"So uhm anyway," they said, changing the subject just a tad too quickly, "do any of you know anything about this...event, that's supposed to happen? The letter I got said be here at noon, but, uh, it's getting to be quite past that now..." They pulled out the folded and crumpled paper from their pocket. "I was actually headed up there," they said, pointing up towards the still-empty wooden stage, "when I bumped into you. I was sort of hoping there'd be like a staff member or something to explain what's happening, but I don't know if there's anyone up there. Do you think something's gone wrong?"

Bluff roll for the description of their powers: [roll0]

Also, they're turning on their Immunity (Mental descriptor) power ("Exceptionally Clear Minded")

[Thokk_Smash]

Marcus eyes both Adrien and Colin's obvious (to him) grins with wariness and trepidation. They hadn't seemed like the types to bully others, but looks can be deceiving. He's relieved when the anticipated barbs don't come, but honestly, that just brings with it more confusion. Three whole people who don't mind talking to him? All at the same time? The universe is never this benevolent, or even neutral, toward Marcus. Marcus glances up at the sky--is something gonna come out of the sky and smack into him? It wouldn't be the first time something had fallen and nearly killed him; there was that time with the frozen turkey from the sky...

He shakes himself briefly and realizes Adrien had asked him a question. "If I were a hazard to guitars, I think I'd lock myself in an asylum voluntarily for music's sake," he says with deadpan severity, marred only by the slight twitch of his lips that might be a smirk. "And, I mean, you're not wrong. I figure I can eventually figure out a telepathy spell if and when I need to, although I'd probably have to somehow shield electronics as well? I love my magic, but it doesn't always love me. I'm the only magic-user I've heard of that this happens to, to boot."

He shakes Adrien's offered hand, and watches with open fascination at his display. "Nice," he says under his breath, unintentionally mirroring Adrien's own prior declarations. He opens his mouth to ask more about the boy's powers, when--

~"BOSS!"~

Marcus can barely hold back a flinch at the volume of Barty's voice in his head. ~"Barty, if this is about another girl's assets I will stick my mental foot straight up your--"~

~"How can you think of that at a time like this, boss?"~ Okay, that had far too little sarcasm, which meant that something was definitely going to come out of the sky any second now...

Marcus turns and sees Colin had pulled a sword out of nowhere. Marcus almost asks Barty what the big deal is when a trickle of memory comes in, one of those nights Marcus had spent curled in a ball from the headache of processing even a fraction of Barty's knowledge.

"Fragarach..." Marcus says in a whisper, his voice a mixture of surprise, awe, and slight confusion. I mean, sure, Marcus has Merlin's staff (and right on time, the incessant whispers start to ratchet up from the black hole of evil), but an even more legendary artifact being wielded by another kid his age? "Damn, man, that's awesome."

~"Boss, you gotta make friends with this guy yesterday,"~ Barty chimed in, and Marcus had only heard this level of excitement in the spirit's mental voice when talking about the internet. ~"The last time I saw Fragarach was on the other side of a battlefield a few millennia ago, if I could just get a chance to see it up close..."~

Welp, that's interesting. Marcus files that little tidbit away and proceeds to ignore everything else Barty says afterward. He listens to Claire's explanation of her powers and nods along. He dismisses her slight tics as her being Claire, what with everything else she had done or said in the past few minutes, but gives her a small but genuine smile. "Don't sell yourself short, now. Magic or no, a clean shot to the head'll hurt me just as much as the next guy. There's something to be said for the classics."

Marcus does have to nod in agreement at the others' comments on the time. Just what is Avalon Academy planning? Whatever it is, it'll probably be funny for the staff and a nightmare for the kids. Marcus is an optimist like that.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly nodded, "Sounds good!" she agreed brightly. Yay for making friends!

She wasn't exactly the most perceptive person on the planet, so she was quite thoroughly unaware of Anthony's assessment. (Also? Of the adorable cartoon tiger being shown off not-too-terribly-far away. Seriously, the only reason she hadn't rainbowed over there and probably tried to pet the thing was that she just plum hadn't spotted it. The time would come.) She considered his point though, kinda pursing her lips and tilting her head a bit to the side, one brow inching upwards as her eyes rose up towards the sky a bit. It would have seemed like an almost exaggerated display of "thinking about it", but she wasn't putting on a show or anything. Again, her face and body language was just very expressive. "That would kinda suck," she admitted, with a light shrug and a little breath of laughter.

Of course, it did kinda beg the question of what was going on. And where the teachers were. A dramatic arrival didn't preclude punctuality, after all, and they were already more than fifteen minutes late. Kelly was a speedster; patience wasn't exactly her strongest suit. Even in the midst of conversation, she was starting to jitter a bit, alternately bouncing a little bit on the balls of her feet. "You think we should, like, check what's going on? I could run through the school real quick and see what's up..."

It was probably a good thing she had met Anthony; if she had been just standing around by herself she probably would have just whoosh done it. But at least this way just arbitrarily running off would have been rude, so she actually ran her immediate impulse by another person rather than just converting it into instant action. Bethany would be proud of her. Or, well, pleasantly surprised, at least.

[Llyarden]

"Oh, he's tangible," Adrien explained to Claire. "He's a 'manifestation of unconscious will given form by psionic power,'" he recited. "Whatever that means. But thanks!" The tiger seemed pleased by the compliment as well, because it gave a little bow to Claire.

Adrien watched the suddenly-appearing sword with curiosity, but (unlike Marcus) he didn't know any of the Arthurian lore behind it, and while it was definitely cool, he seemed more interested in Claire's powers. Not because he suspected her of being anything other than what she claimed - just the opposite, in fact.

Although pretty much any metahuman power you could think of existed in the world, and from a logical perspective there was nothing setting any of them above each other...the stereotypical 'paragon' powerset was classic for a reason. The only reason he didn't immediately start quizzing her about how powerful she was was that he had noticed that she seemed to be somewhat nervous around them, and interrogating her probably wouldn't help. (And besides, it wasn't like he wouldn't have the opportunity to see how strong she was once they actually got into the school.)

"Hey, that set of powers sounds amazing to me," he replied to Claire. "And to be honest, my powers are flashy, but not great at actual...power." The tiger, still standing by his legs, looked down at the ground and made a sad little mewing sound. "Sometimes the straightforward powers are the best."

Claire's next comment made him pause. "I guess it is getting on a bit," he remarked, rather pointlessly. "But I'm pretty sure that if something had gone wrong, there'd be a much bigger sign of it than an empty stage. He offered a friendly smile, seemingly unconcerned by the delay.

[Dodgeson]

Whilst the crowd talked amongst themselves there was finally some movement on the stage as a door appeared out of thin air and a dark haired man with a goatee in blue suit casually stepped out of it, tapping two fingers to his throat he opened his mouth and his voice was magically projected across the field.

"If I could have everybody's attention please! I am Merlin, yes that one." He paused for a moment as a murmur of excitement ran through the crowd, he liked to think it was because of him but many of the students were just excited that something was finally happening "Now normally the headmistress would do this part, but she's busy today, and we drew straws at the last staff meeting so here I am. You are here today because you believe that you have what it takes to be a great hero, or your parents paid us a lot of money. Either way I'm here to answer any questions you might have regarding what faces you today, first of all, yes the rumours you have heard are true, yes we have a dungeon, no we don't know how it got there. Still, when life gives you lemons you make lemonade!"

Grinning, he theatrically threw one hand up along with a few choice arcane words and the area around the stage began to shake before it slowly began to sink in to the earth as if somebody had pushed a button on an enormous lift, if his name didn't awe the newbies then this would, where would be the fun in being a mage if you couldn't show it

Once the shaking stopped the ceiling above them sealed up as if nothing had ever happened, leaving the students in a large stone room lit by torches, behind the stage was an enormous wooden door bared with an equally big plank.

"Once I unseal this door it will be your job to venture forth in to the dungeon and bring back an item of your choosing, the deeper you go the more points the item is worth, though I wouldn't recommend straying much further than the fourth floor, things start to get...hungry after that. At the end of the day the 50 highest scoring students will be admitted." He might have enjoyed the sounds of panic running through the crowd just a little bit too much.

"Now then, are there any questions before we begin?"

[Llyarden]

Adrien couldn't help but be amused at Merlin's nonchalance even as he watched wide-eyed as they descended into the ground (so hey at least Merlin had impressed someone). His amusement faded when he learned that this would be the 'entrance exam.' Kind of harsh to bring people here and then not let them in, especially if they've already paid the fees. Though I guess the letter never actually said we'd been accepted.

When Merlin asked for questions, Adrien raised his voice to call over the general noise. "Yeah, I have one."

He clicked his fingers and what appeared to be a trapeze formed of shining yellow energy swooped down from the ceiling. Adrien stepped onto it as it arced past with a practiced ease and let it whisk him back up, so he was floating slightly above the general mass of potential students, to allow Merlin to actually see who he was talking to instead of carrying on a conversation with an anonymous voice in a mob. (I mean okay Merlin was a wizard so chances are he could find out who was talking to him easily enough, but still.)

"What happens if we work in a team to bring back an item?" The possibility of the reverse happening - of potential students backstabbing and ambushing each other to steal items - briefly occurred to him and was swiftly dismissed. This was an academy for future heroes, after all.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Ooh!" Kelly blurted excitedly when the blue-suited man stepped out of the invisible door. She was still kinda bouncing on the balls of her feet, but now instead of an antsy foot-to-foot bouncing it was an excited both-feet-at-the-same-time bouncing.

And then he started speaking, and a wide-eyed, hugely-yet-somewhat-dumbfoundedly-grinning Kelly grasped Anthony's sleeve with both hands, tiptoeing up closer to his ear and saying in what was more a quiet squeal than a whisper, "He's Merlin!?"

She drew back with a quiet "Sorry," although the word was spoken with self-deprecating amusement rather than awkward embarrassment, and listened quietly and attentively to what Merlin(!!!) was saying for...a solid half a paragraph, before demonstrating that apparently she wasn't too sorry because then she did the exact same thing again only this time it was "We have a dungeon!?"

Then Merlin cast a spell, and the whole area began to sink into the earth.

"Woah!" Kelly did not react on instinct. Kelly was a speedster; instinct was far too slow. Kelly reacted on impulse, racing out of the affected area, although this time rather than trailing along behind her like a banner, the rainbow streamer kinda came out beneath her feet like a sort of road, spilling out under Anthony's feet as well and (unless he pulled away, stepped off, anchored himself, whatever) pulling him along like one of those airport automatic walkways, only if someone had gotten its motor mixed up with one of the airport's jet engines somehow. However, a mere fraction of a second after she cleared the spell's area, Kelly realized it wasn't like a sinkhole or collapse or anything, it was basically an elevator. And zip she (or they) were right back in their prior position. The ground had only gone maybe six inches down in the entire time it took.

It wouldn't likely go easily noticed among the crowd of eager students, but standing right beside her Anthony might have heard a soft, shaky gasp as the ceiling closed up over them. Kelly was very claustrophobic and being sealed in underground briefly set her heart beating like it had rainbows coming out of it. But it was only for a moment; she calmed down quickly once it was obvious that there was still plenty of room to move.

Merlin explained the task before them, and Kelly's grin was back, a slender, impish little smile, amusement dancing in her eyes. "Oh, man..." she said with laughter in her voice. "I wish I had a beer so- Well, I wish I was old enough to drink, so I could have a beer, so I could ask you to hold it for me." The laughter escaped the confines of her voice, bubbling up in a little giggle as she faced the door, rainbow light already dancing lightly over her skin as she awaited the door being unsealed.

She had no questions.

[Dorni]

Anthony tossed Kelly a quick little grin when the teacher appeared in perfect time to Kelly's complaint. The fact that they were finally getting underway also helped.

He kept the grin as Merlin cast his spell and the ground shook and whisked them away on a rainbow. It took him a startled second to realize that A) it wasn't all the students being transported, just him and Kelly and B) that the rainbows were Kelly's, not Merlin's. He took the first step in his instinctive dash, but by the time his first foot hit the ground Kelly had already whisked them back where they'd started, leading to an awkward stumble as he tried to stop the dash he'd just started. He managed to keep his feet but only just.

He shot Kelly a glare in time to catch her wide-eyed gasp as the ceiling closed in. Of course, he thought, expression softening. Her power was speed. She couldn't run freely in a confined space, much less if she was trapped underground. He wasn't sure what to say to comfort her, but before he could try the moment passed and her cheer was back and he found himself returning her grin. If anything, exploring a dungeon sounded like it was going to be fun. He had nothing to fear from traps and monsters. "Heh. It'll be a long time before I can drink." he joked.

In contrast to the showboat on the glowing trapeze, Anthony just raised his hand and his voice. "Question! Do you want us to bring back just anything we find, or are there designated items?"

[OutOfThyme]

Colin tilted his head ever-so-slightly to the right at Claire's explanation about her powers. She seemed a little bit nervous about describing her powers, but Colin couldn't pick up on exactly why. Was there some aspect about her powers that she would prefer to keep secret?

Either way, it wasn't really his place to judge her. She seemed nice enough, so if there was something to hide, Colin was sure she had a good enough reason for it.

What was more interesting, however, was Marcus' gaze at Fragarach. Colin could have sworn Marcus said something, but with the sounds of other students talking around them - some looking at Adrien's tiger and his sword - he couldn't quite figure out what he said. Did he recognize Fragarach on sight, by some chance?

And if so... how?

Colin had questions about that. He'd found Fragarach in a clearing that he'd never been able to return to after that day, despite his and his brother's best efforts, but maybe Marcus could shed some light on it.

Unfortunately, Colin's train of thought was interrupted by the appearance of Merlin(!?), and the start of the entrance exam. Colin was expecting an entrance exam, but being lowered into a dungeon was definitely unexpected. As the ceiling closed up above them, Fragarach snapped back into Colin's hand.

As Adrien lifted himself above the crowd, and he and another - rather tall - student asked their respective questions, Colin lowered Fragarach and gestured for Claire and Marcus to get closer. "I really think the four of us should stick together. Claire - you and I can probably handle any threats up close, while Marcus and Adrien are better at a distance. What do you guys think?"

Since Marcus whispered, and we're in a crowd, I'm just going to have Colin not actually notice that he said anything.

[Dodgeson]

The eyes of the crowd were inevitable drawn to Adrien as he rose in to the air above them. "Is that...?" A girl mumbled, tugging on her friend's sleeve and pointing towards him.

"Adrien Zhay!" A boy in the crowd swooned, and he certainly wasn't the only one.

Ignoring the commotion, he wasn't exactly in Adrien's target demo after all, Merlin simply answered the questions at hand "Then all members of the team will be given points, teamwork is a virtue after all."

Then Anthony's hand went up "There are no designated items, once you hand in your trophy a simple divination will tell us what floor you obtained it from and points will be assigned."

If there were no more questions the wizard would simply wave a nonchalant hand towards the door causing the plank baring the door to slowly float in to the air and the enormous doors to creak open, revealing a wide set of stairs that descended in to the darkness....

[Dorni]

"Here we go!" Anthony drove his foot into the ground and took off. Unlike many who could be described as 'powerhouses' who were all about punches, Anthony's physical enhancements were all over. Sure, Kelly was far faster than him. Speed was her thing. That and rainbows and cheer. But Anthony didn't want to start off by being so much dead weight. Still, the main question in his mind was how many steps he'd make before Kelly Wooshed him away.

For what its worth, Anthony will routine Athletics to boost his speed to rank 5.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly grinned in response to Anthony's answering joke (although she kinda doubted she had fans).

Her attention had been focused on Merlin and the door, but when someone called out Adrien Zhay's name, she rubbernecked around. "What?" she asked, before spotting him hanging from a trapeze above the crowd (Classic!) with a delighted gasp. He was going here? She liked his music! She'd have to talk with him once this whole test was done. ...Maybe ask for his autograph.

But there was no time for that now! ...Well, okay, there was absolutely time for her to go up and say something and ask for his autograph. But there wasn't enough time to await a response, so whatever!

"Here we go!"

"I'll be right back," Kelly answered.

The door opened.

In some ways, Kelly's brain was operating at super-speed all the time. Even when she wasn't actively using her powers, information and calculation was zipping through her brain at superhuman speeds - too fast for her conscious mind to analyze and examine. If she were thinking about it, her train of logic might have gone something like this:

1) Frankly, there was no guarantee she'd just auto-solve the test in any case. Super-speed wasn't exactly the most uncommon power on the planet, so chances were the academy had some sort of defense up to prevent it from being an auto-win (her bet was that each floor had numerous sealed, projection-blocked rooms, with the objects inside past some guardian or challenge, or possibly in a second sealed room that the challenge had to be overcome to access, Zelda-style, so you couldn't just cheat your way through it with powers). In all probability, this was going to just be a scouting action, not a full trial run.

2) It was certainly possible that the defenses were more aggressive. If so, she'd be putting Anthony at risk if she brought him along on a blind run. Nearly indestructible or not, that'd be uncool.

3) Teamwork was encouraged, but if there weren't any anti-speedster defenses and she really could just auto-win this thing in comfortably under six seconds...essentially completely solving the challenge for another student would be A) lame and B) kinda cheaty. And then it was like, what, is she allowed to just personally decide who gets in by whooshing whatever students she wants to through? That wouldn't be right.

4) Also if she could complete her test in mere moments she'd be bored the rest of the time unless she was helping Anthony with his!

However, she wasn't currently using her super-speed to analyze and process all that information and calculation. She was just going with what felt like the best course of action most fun thing to do in the moment. So her actual thought process was actually more like.

1) On your mark...

2) Get set...

WHOOSH!

Just for fun, Initiative against any other speedsters trying the same thing: [roll0].

Free: Set Speed Attacks to Max Speed and Streaming to Flight 16 (Platform, Quirk), Quickness 9.

Move: Literally as deep into the dungeon as she possibly can on half speed or less!!!!! So, you know, no more than 125 miles in :smallamused: (hey it may be infinite, we don't know!) Well, maybe more like 120 miles to give her some leeway. She'll stop progressing if A) She encounters an obstacle, guardian, or hazard that she cannot simply circumvent, B) She is successfully targeted by a trap, hazard, attack, readied action, or other threat, C) The route back appears to be sealing off behind her, or D) Merlin politely asks her to stop.

When she stops progressing, unless the route back is closing off and she needs to withdraw immediately to get back, she'll zip around searching the current floor to whatever degree she appears to be able to safely.

IF she is at least six floors down, and there are any objects that she can easily access:

Standard: Pick up the shiniest object she can find!!!!! (Which weighs less than 50 pounds, whatever.)

OTHERWISE:

Standard: Let's say Defend?

Either way:

Move-by Action: Back to Anthony if possible. She'll follow the trail of rainbow light back if the route is complex. It's like breadcrumbs! Only more brightly colored, and gone in somewhere under six seconds.

Current Status: Well we'll totally see now won't we?

[Llyarden]

Well, kinda saw that one coming, Adrien reflected, as he noticed he was beginning to draw attention. Now, under normal circumstances, Adrien didn't mind being recognised and hanging out with people. It came with the territory. However, when those people were technically his competitors, and - perhaps more importantly - when, if they were distracted by him, they were putting themselves at a disadvantage in comparison to the people focused on the task at hand...yeah, he was a little more reluctant to get involved with his fans.

He'd asked about the teamwork thing for a reason, and flying off on his own would rather defeat the point. But since it was probably a given - especially since now attention had been drawn to his presence - that anyone who he teamed up with would subsequently get mobbed by his fans and interrogated about their experience, it wasn't particularly fair to the other three to subject them to that without their permission.

His response to this conundrum was exactly the same as his response to at least 75% of the problems he was faced with: flamboyant trickery.

For a moment, to those close to him, it would appear as though Adrien shimmered. And then, in a bright burst of very attention-drawing sparks, the trapeze swung off, taking Adrien through the great door and down the stairs, vanishing shortly thereafter. (Somehow, without anyone noticing, the cartoon tiger seemed to have disappeared as unobtrusively as it appeared while Adrien had been speaking.)

With any luck, most of the people who'd focused on him would have been watching the trapeze - and therefore completely missed the real Adrien dropping unobtrusively back to ground level, landing in a neat crouch back by Colin, Marcus and Claire.

"I'm good with sticking together," he agreed. "If we only need one item between us, I bet we can get deeper into the dungeon than if we were all working alone."

An amused, almost mischievous grin crossed his face for a moment. "Anyone want a lift?" he asked, offering a hand, almost formally, to the others, as his trapeze manifested itself again and came swinging back down towards him, whisking him, and any of the others who'd jumped on, over the crowd and into the dungeon for real this time - and hopefully without giving too many people the opportunity to identify his new teammates.

Free: Set All The World's A Stage to Illusion [All Visual] 2, Flight 10 [Platform, Features 2], Enhanced Strength 4 [While flying only].
Standard: Create an illusion of Adrien and his trapeze. DC12 Insight to recognise it as an illusion if anyone suspects it's unusual / not the same Adrien they saw a moment ago. He'll have the illusion swoop in through the big door, lose the fake 'Adrien,' and then swoop back around towards him. (According to Google, a person has a volume of about 2 cubic feet, so Illusion 2 can cover Adrien himself and...like, a tiny part of the trapeze. With any luck it won't be visible for long enough for anyone to notice the oddity, though I guess it might warrant a circumstance bonus to the Insight check.)
Free: Cease sustaining Flight (thus getting rid of the real trapeze while the fake one flies off) and drop back to ground level. Trapeze Artist negates the Rank -2 fall.
Free: Reactivate Flight.
Free: 'Pick up' any of Claire, Marcus or Colin who want to be picked up.
Move: Fly down into the dungeon, travelling a 'mere' 4 miles. (Though, including investigating side paths and so on, presumably covering significantly less ground.) Ideally getting to Floor 3 before stopping, but if there are defences or whatever in the way - or, like, Adrien's Flight gets suppressed by him getting smacked in the face by something - then he might end up stopping before that.

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire grinned sheepishly at Adrien and Marcus's comments. That grin twitched uneasily at Colin's (quizzical? disbelieving?) response, but if he suspected anything, he wasn't saying anything about it. The relief at having successfully lied to them quickly tied itself into a knot of guilt, which they tried to ignore. Thankfully, they were helped along by the sudden start of whatever this event was.

They weren't sure what the blue-suited man meant by "that one" (Was Merlin a common name? Someone they should know? Ugh, should've done more research...), but their eyes widened and they clasped their hands together at the prospect of a real-life dungeon. An underground adventure full of traps and treasure and ancient stuff probably, and it sounded like they didn't even know where theirs had even come from? Who knew what kind of cool stuff might be down there?!

Claire gasped in surprise as the ground itself began to lower and the ceiling resealed at Merlin's command, but they were almost more thrown off by his next statement; that this was apparently an entrance test, and only the highest-scoring students would be attending. A way out. It wouldn't even look suspicious.

For a moment, they seriously considered taking it; they weren't here by choice, really, and every moment spent here increased their chances of being found out (and also, there was just a general feeling of doom and unease about this place that they couldn't seem to shake.) They could intentionally fail, go home. But...as little as they wanted to admit it, this school was also their best chance of fixing Claire's mind. Nowhere else would they find such a varied collection of powers and knowledge. That was part of it, anyway.

The other part was that exploring an ancient mystic dungeon sounded really super amazing.

They nodded in vigorous agreement with the others' statements about teaming up, and grabbed Adrien (who was...really popular, apparently?) by the hand almost as soon as he presented it, while refocusing their mental energies on sweeping outwards, searching for whatever might be waiting for them in the depths. "Let's do this!!!"


Switching Totally Not Psychic Shenanigans to Senses 6 (Detect Minds, Ranged, Acute, Accurate, Extended 1). Will just be generally following along with the others, Claire'll warn them that they "hear" something if they sense what appears to be the mind of a powerful being/guardian up ahead.

Also gonna throw in a Perception check in case it's relevant, because they're definitely going to be looking around at everything as they go trying to absorb every possible detail: [roll0]

[OutOfThyme]

Colin was a little surprised at the crowd's reaction to Adrien. He wasn't super familiar with what a lot of the trends were these days, but apparently Adrien was popular enough to get recognized?

Wait, is he actually a musician?

Well, there really wasn't any time to dwell on this. The rainbow speedster had already gone ahead, and other speedsters (it wasn't a rare power set, after all) would be sure to follow. Colin grabbed Adrien's extended hand after Claire, taking him up on the offer of flight. "I appreciate it. If you're navigating us through this place, I can keep an eye out for anything magical," Colin said, as silver glyphs began to cover his right arm. In the dim light of the dungeon, the others could see silver specks in his pupils. He wasn't entirely sure how the Tuatha's magic worked quite yet, but Colin was 99% sure that picking up on magic in an old, magical dungeon, would be very useful.

Free Action: Switching Airgetlam, the Silver Arm to Sense Magic.

Here's a pre-emptive Perception check for the future while they go through the dungeon.
Perception:[roll0]

[Thokk_Smash]

Marcus barely hears Merlin's explanation, and barely feels the sinking of the ground beneath him. He's too busy fighting back the sudden SWELL of emotions in his body. Most of the emotions are his: anger, frustration, sheer rage at the root cause of the albatross around his neck being so close. The Blackstaff was Merlin's originally, right? So why hasn't the bloody bastard come to take it back? Yet, Marcus still has the presence of mind to realize that the Blackstaff is crooning in delight in his mind, and he doesn't know why. So, y'know, creepy.

Visually, Marcus' jaw is clenching painfully, and the hand gripping his brown staff is white with the strength of his grip. He takes a deep, noisy breath, then lets it back out. Later. He can deal with it later.

"Oooohh, that's who he is," Marcus thinks to himself as Adrien gets pseudo-outed. And that is the extent of his feelings on the subject. What? Radios break down after awhile in his presence, and Marcus has forgotten how many mp3 players he's broken (~"Lucky number seven,"~ Barty chimes in with amusement), so he doesn't exactly get a lot of chances to listen to pop music.

"Sure, teamwork makes the dream work and yadda-yadda," he says out loud, his deadpan voice undercut by the smile on his face. He steps onto the trapeze(?) ("So cool.") and allows himself to be whisked away. Away from the solid ground, he feels the stolid strength of the earth leave him. In its place, he allows the agility and speed of the wind around him to sharpen his sight. His eyes flit around a mile a minute, keeping a lookout for any signs of trouble that are just waiting to pounce.

Free action: Switch to Knight Aeris, Vision becomes Extended and Rapid. Perception check, w/x10 perception speed for sight: [roll0]

[Dodgeson]

With the gate open the hopeful students surged forward, some on foot (three of them even managed to get the drop on Kelly, blurring past her before the door was open more than a crack), some in the air and some simply vanishing in to thin air or stepping through suddenly appearing portals. Regardless the great throng of bodies quickly began to thin out as the passageway erratically forked off in all kinds of directions, in fact if you didn't stick together (or the person you were following didn't leave a rainbow trail behind them) it would be incredibly easy to get lost down here...

Kelly & Anthony

They might have been quicker on the draw than her but Kelly would be happy to know that none of them could match her for pure speed and she quickly pulled ahead of the pack and left them in her brightly coloured dust. The dungeon's winding corridors finally terminated in a cavernous room with ledges either side connected by a narrow stone walkway hanging over a seemingly bottomless black abyss, which wouldn't be a problem in and of itself if not for the enormous stone hammers swinging over it every few seconds...

The hamers aren't the only thing for you to worry about, there's masses of little somethings clinging and crawling to the underside of the walkway
Roll a DC20 Dodge Save then a DC20/15 Strength/Dodge Check or be knocked off the walkway!

Adrien & the Zhays

To Colin's eyes the whole dungeon positively thrummed with magical energy, the torches that lit the way, the walls, the floors, the ceiling, everything was drenched in it, until they came to a perfectly normaly wooden door. Inside was a room lit not by torches but by a glass chandelier filled with crackling energy underneath which sat a highback chair in front of a lit woodburner. On the opposite side of the room was another closed door whilst the rest of the room was given over to row upon row of bookshelves, crammed with books.

The chandelier, chair, woodburner and several books all carry on air of magic about them.

[Llyarden]

Adrien let the trapeze swing to a halt - somehow the two glowing ropes that supported it seemed to keep moving along the roof of the dungeon whenever no-one was looking, so the journey had been rather like one extremely extended arc - roughly in the middle of the library, close enough that anyone who wanted to hop off could do so as easily as stepping off a bus. "Hope no-one ever needs to read these books," he remarked, an amused grin on his face. "It must be a real pain getting down here. So I guess we can carry on, but...all the best libraries have secret passages. Anyone else feeling like a magic fantasy dungeon underneath a school for heroes is going to have a lot of those?"

And, unless one of the others stopped him, he closed his eyes for a moment in concentration. From underneath the chair, a large, pink snake wearing a top hat and a bow tie (how was it staying on? Who knows) slithered up to the four teenagers, doffed its hat to them, and then slithered over to the nearest bookcase and pulled a random book off the shelf with its tail. You never know.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly had been about to do the obvious thing (running across the open air off to the side of the walkway and below the height of the hammers to get to the other side and continue on her run without so much as slowing down) but then she realized that this wasn't an obstacle, it was an opportunity! She waited for a second or two for Anthony to catch up (if he wasn't there by the she'd run back and get him), and once they were both there she pointed at the massive, deep chasm with a huge grin and said, "Look! I found a shortcut!" before grabbing Anthony's arm and letting rainbow light stream out beneath her feet.

Now, granted, using a giant bottomless pit as a shortcut might not have been entirely wise, so if Anthony, you know, held his ground or something, she'd stop too. But if he was down, yeah, pretty much she just started running them down the chasm on a trail of rainbows. Because of course she did. She figured the odds were pretty good they'd find an entry to deeper floors of the dungeon down there somewhere. I mean, if you have a giant endless chasm on the top floor of your underground dungeon, you may as well make use of it multiple times, right?

[Dorni]

Anthony followed the rainbow trail through the branching passages and came to a halt when he saw the speedster herself waiting for him next to an enormous pit. His look was quizzical - the hammers smashing into the narrow walkway didn't seem like much threat to him, and he figured she could zip past them without much trouble.

When she explained her plan though, Anthony glanced between her and the pit, then shrugged. "Alright, let's do this." She had more experience Hero'ing than he did. Granted, two weeks ago he was asleep in his pod, but all the more reason to trust her instincts. He stepped onto the rainbow carpet and didn't resist when she took his arm, content to let her guide the carpet while he watched for any dangers that might jump out at them.

[OutOfThyme]

Colin was somewhat nauseated by the experience of seeing so much magic at once. He'd spent most of his training with Fragarach as the only magical object for miles, so seeing an entire dungeon that was made of magic - along with Marcus - in his magical sight was a bit difficult. Trying to spot anything that stood out in the hallways would be about as difficult as finding a hare in a snow-covered field.

Naturally, he was a little relieved to be past the normal wooden door. This was more like what he was expecting - a fairly ordinary room (well, for a dungeon) - with some objects with magical auras. As Adrien summoned the dapper snake, Colin began scanning the bookshelves at a distance.

"Well, if there is a secret passage, the book that triggers it is probably also magical. Here, try taking these ones out," Colin said, indicating the books with a magical aura to the others. "There might also be some kind of clue for going further down."

As he went to take his own share of books from the shelves, Colin kept an eye out for anything interesting, such as books on the Tuatha.

Perception roll to see if there's any books that would catch Colin's interest.

[roll0]

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire didn't detect any other minds down here once they'd pulled away from the crowd of bobbing mental lights above, at least not anywhere nearby. On the one hand, that was a good thing, right? On the other, they couldn't imagine that a magical fantasy dungeon would be completely devoid of any sort of guardians or defenses; which meant that whatever was down here was either shielded from their abilities or didn't have any sort of mind to manipulate. Neither boded well.

Once they'd arrived at the library, Claire wasted no time at all diving in; taking Colin's suggestions, they grabbed a couple of the books he'd indicated as well as a few other interesting/potentially useful-looking tomes, and (assuming nobody stopped them or they didn't set off some magical booby traps/secret passages or something), plopped themselves down in the high-backed chair and began to skim through the books, looking for anything resembling a hint as to what to do next or more information about the dungeon.

She doesn't have Investigation, and I'm unsure if substituting Perception with a circumstance penalty is possible here. Still, just in case it's relevant, a Perception check to locate any books related to psionic power and minds: [roll0]

Don't know what to roll for attempting to skim the books for clues/pertinent info, or if it'll be necessary.

[Thokk_Smash]

Interestingly enough, Marcus' magical signature is less bright than Colin might have expected. It's like a thin film is overlaid against his skin, vaguely dimming the otherwise opalescent light. On the other side of the spectrum, if Colin were to look at the pitch black staff on Marcus' belt, any sense of nausea would be simultaneously enhanced and diminished--a strange sense of wrongness that nonetheless holds an almost narcotic effect. It's more than a little disconcerting to most.

When the trapeze stops, Marcus wastes no time in hopping off. He's like a kid in a candy store, looking at all of these books. He whips through the room on a wind stream of his own, eyes scanning the titles of the tomes at breakneck speed. He'll grab any book that catches his eye--man, he should've asked whether they'd be able to keep what they took from the dungeon.

Marcus has Flight 3 and Rapid Vision 1, so he should be able to scan a goodly amount of books. Investigation check: [roll0]

[Dodgeson]

Kelly & Anthony

Streaking down in to the abyss the room was quickly filled with the buzz of a thousand tiny wings as the creatures that clung to the underside of the bridge to flight to pursue the young heroes in to the blackness. The pair needn't have worried though, as despite their determination, the imps simply couldn't match Kelly's speed and eventually even their frantic otherworldly calls simply faded away.

Despite its appearance the pit was not in fact bottomless and eventually they would find themselves at the bottom of the cavern, the only light coming from glowing purple arachnids that scuttled across the thick network of webs that were draped between the stalagmites that dotted the floor. Carved in to one of the cavern walls was a roughly person sized hole with perfectly smooth that dipped steeply downwards further in to the dungeon.

Adrien, Colin, Claire & Marcus

While over half the room was given over to overstuffed bookshelves, the actual contents of these shelves was at best a mixed bag, whilst the sharp eyed amongst them would spot some worthwhile titles such as 'The Four Treasures' (a term Colin would recognise as belonging to Tuatha artifacts), 'The Third Eye & the Astral' and more than a few books of arcane lore, most of them appeared to be either written in another language or simply gibberish all together.

The question of what sort of library would gather fake books like that would have to wait as the surrounding shelves practically exploded, the books taking to the air with a creaking of hardbacks and a furious fluttering of pages whilst the groaning of metal accompanied the woodburner stepping out from its spot in the fireplace, a long slobbering tongue slipping out from the cushions of the highback chair and the chandelier above began rocking angrily side to side!

Animated Objects Initiative [roll0]

Colin Initiative [roll1]
Adrien Initiative [roll2]
Claire Initiative [roll3]
Marcus Initiative [roll4]


Heroes are on turn!

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly turned her head and stuck her tongue out at the bugs as they outpaced them. She gave Anthony a big ol' grin as they reached the bottom. "I wonder what floor we're on..." she said brightly, looking eagerly around. She looked at the spiders and...there was kinda some indecision on her face. On the one hand ew spiders creepy-crawly gross! On the other hand they had the awesome Real Glowing Purple Action! What can I say, Kelly had a soft spot for things that glowed colorfully.

She headed for the passageway, staying on her rainbow trail in an effort to avoid disturbing the webs, walking along a few feet above them. She was no longer pushing her full speed. Kelly wasn't fearlessly overconfident to the point of complete stupidity, she was just impatient. She took Merlin's warning more to mean that the good stuff was all fifth floor and lower, so of course she wanted to just zip right past the "boring stuff".

But now they were on an unknown level deep in the dungeon. It was just the two of them, and in all likelihood if any of the other students came down here at all, it wouldn't be for a while yet. Now was the time to stop rushing blindly ahead and start taking things seriously.

Speaking of which... "I guess it...might make sense for us to go through doorways one at a time, in case of traps? Unless you can find traps, I guess," she suggested, halting her progress a bit outside the passage. "Question is, do we bet on Trap Sense or Damage Reduction...?" Expertise (Gamer), yo! She hung out with Dove.

If Anthony wants to take the doorway first (or search or something) Kelly's happy to let him, but she's perfectly fine going first and playing it dodgy if there are any traps, so consider this a declaration of her doing so if Anthony wouldn't rather lead. If he goes first she'll wait a second or two and then follow unless something happens. If she goes first she'll take a Defend action as she does.

[Llyarden]

"Aww," Adrien complained, when removing a book from the shelf didn't cause a secret passage to spring open. (I mean granted there were probably a thousand books in here so the chance of picking the right one - if there was a secret passage at all - was miniscule, but still.)

Then the library sprang to life. Adrien blinked for a moment or two, stunned.

And then he started laughing.

"THIS SCHOOL IS AWESOME!"

His conjured snake didn't think so, though - its hat had been knocked off by the flurry of books, and it was rattling its tail for all it was worth (which wasn't much, because it wasn't a rattlesnake) at the nearest books before hooking its hat with the tip of its tail and putting it back on. "Aw, don't be like that!" Adrien scolded it. "C'mon, it's like we're in the Sorcerer's Apprentice!" The snake gave him a look. "Eh, spoilsport."

Since it looked like the chandelier was about to drop out of the ceiling on him, Adrien swung across the room on the trapeze and then jumped off, performing an elegant backflip - and catching the top hat that came skimming across the room towards him as the snake flicked it at him before vanishing amidst the swirling tomes - before landing neatly before the swarm of books.

"Ladies, gentlemen, books, stoves, chandeliers and chairs!" he declared, setting the top hat down upside-down on the floor with a dramatic flourish and taking a step back. "I think the lighting in here could do with a bit more...pizazz. Don't you?"

This question was apparently rhetorical, because he clicked his fingers - and a barrage of fireworks came flying out of the top hat, wheeling chaotically around the room and exploding in bright flashes of sparkles...and possibly hitting some of the flying swarm of books through sheer abundance of targets and projectiles.

Move: Fly into close range of the Book Swarm at ground level, ideally not adjacent to any angry furniture.
Free: Switch to Centre Stage.
Standard: Attack the Book Swarm with Firework Display: [roll0]. On a hit, DC23+Multiattack Toughness vs [Fire] Damage and DC18+Multiattack Will vs Impaired/Disabled/Unaware.

[OutOfThyme]

Colin had been keeping Marcus in his peripheral vision - he'd caught that staff of his, and keeping it out of sight was probably for the best. He'd have to ask him about the staff at some point in time. Between whatever Claire was hiding, Adrien's apparent fame, and Marcus' staff, he'd definitely picked an interesting crowd.

That being said, when the books and everything else in the room started animating - Huh, so that's why they had a magical aura - Colin dropped into his combat stance out of sheer instinct. Michael's training had definitely paid off, after all.

As soon as Adrien set off his blast of sparks, Colin had leaped towards the woodburner.

"Oh no you don't!" said Colin, as he launched into a series of quick slashes with Fragarach.

Free Action: Switch Airgetlam, the Silver Arm into Tuatha Grace
Free Action: Switch Fragarach, the Answerer into Gale Flurry

Move Action: Move to the woodburner
Standard Action: Attack with Gale Flurry: [roll0]; On a hit, DC 23+Multiattack Toughness vs. [Wind]/[Slashing] Damage

[Dorni]

Anthony chuckled at the imps as Kelly left them in the dust and then quickly left even that dust behind in their mad dash to the bottom of this pit.

"If you've got a Trap Sense, why don't you lead the way," Anthony replied after a moment's consideration. He was less concerned for the traps ahead than he was for the spiders. The purple glow was definitely unnatural, and who knew if they had some kind of venom? He doubted their tiny fangs could harm him in the slightest, but the same couldn't be said if one of them managed to sneak up on Kelly while she was waiting for him to get ahead of her. "If anything happens I'll be right behind you."

Anthony will stick with Kelly but let her go through the hole first. He'll Ready an action - if the spiders try to leap at them, he'll use Sonic Clap to blow them away. Cone Area Dodge DC 18 for half, DC 23/19 Toughness vs Damage & Linked DC 18/14 Str vs Move Object.

[Thokk_Smash]

~"Look, all I'm sayin' is, I can help you put the moves on Claire over there."~

Marcus chooses to blame his wandering attention on Barty's continued, incessant chatter in his brain. It doesn't, however, keep his paranoid brain from hearing the telltale signs of impending danger: shifting of glass from above, a strange creaking of the chair. A split second before the bookcases explode into a swarm of books, he drops his mental shield and readies himself for the fight. To those who could sense magic, in that moment his aura blazes exponentially brighter as he gathers his will.

"Oh, no, no, no," he mutters, sounding genuinely distraught. "How dare they turn literature against me? It's my only reliable source of entertainment! I can't watch!"

Having said that (mostly intentionally-dramatic) declaration, he flies up to the chandelier above. The temperature around him drops noticeably, and frost gathers on his outstretched hand as he gestures at the chandelier. "Infriga!" he shouts, and from nowhere ice erupts in the air, stagnating the chandelier's very essence as the chill invades its core. Marcus then drops back down to the ground, brown staff held in a defensive posture.

The Blackstaff on his belt fairly pulses with a sick excitement that Marcus can feel on the inside of his head. It wants to be used, wants him to wield it to crush his enemies, and he pushes its promises of power back. Marcus will use it when he chooses to, not a moment sooner.

Free action: Swap Evocation Wizardry to Infriga.

Move action: Fly into Close range of the Chandelier

Standard action: Attack with Infriga, All-Out Attack/Power Attack for 2, [roll0] vs DC 25 Damage, DC 20 Fort vs Impaired/Disabled/Paralyzed

Move-by Action: Fly back down to ground level.

[zzzzzzzz414]

"I wonder if they'll let us keep theAH-!"

Claire had barely even sat down when the room around them suddenly burst into activity, the books they'd picked up exploding out of their grip in a flurry of pages as the seat below them suddenly lurched and revealed a long, disgusting tongue.

Claire immediately dropped the few non-monstrous books they'd been holding and stumbled back away from the center of the room, wide-eyed. Part of them shared in Colin's excitement; living objects! What even were they, was this a spell, or were they living creatures of some kind, or were they being, like, possessed somehow? The rest of them was consumed with another, rather pressing concern, though: whatever these things were, Claire couldn't sense any sort of mind, even a primitive one. Considering their abilities, and the abilities they'd *claimed* to have, that made this a...potentially very bad situation.

Claire lifted themselves in the air and backed up a bit as Colin and Adrien leapt into action, taking in the situation. Couldn't hit these things mentally if there were no minds to hit. So...

They looked up at the chandelier Marcus had just frozen, dangling ominously above Colin...and the high-backed chair. An idea began to take form. Not a good one, probably, but an idea. Maybe something else could do the hitting for them?

They zipped past Marcus as he retreated, up past the chandelier and to the space between it and the ceiling.

"I think this decor..." they said, pulling back their fist, "needs some REARRANGEMENT!" They punched the top of the chandelier (well, pretended to punch; there was no real force behind it) and shoved it downwards with their power, aiming for the high-backed chair below.

Free Action: set Very Real Superhero Moves to "Strong Punch, huh?"

Move Action: use Flight to move up to the ceiling above the chandelier.

Standard Action: Use "Strong Punch, huh?" on the chandelier, shoving the chandelier into the high-backed chair. DC23 Will vs [Psychic]/[Eldritch] Damage, DC 16 Strength to resist being pushed. I don't know if hitting the chair accurately with Perception-Range Move Object requires a roll.

[Dodgeson]

Kelly & Anthony

WHOOSH!

The slide sent the pair tumbling down deeper in to the darkness, heck it might have even been fun if the whole thing hadn't been as choked with cobwebs as the pit they had just came from. Much like the last room this one was bathed in an eerie purple glow, though this time the light was coming not from many small spiders but from a single enormous spider hanging above the room at the centre of a massive web where a girl with turquoise skin struggled to free herself from an ensnaring cocoon.

Frankly though you weren't sure why she was fighting it, that web looks so inviting...

Both of you make a DC21 Dodge Save and if that fails a DC21 Will vs Entranced/Compelled/Controlled (Limited:Only to make subjects entangle themselves in the web, Entranced can be ignored any turn the target entangles themself in the web)

And here's initiative because we all know which way this is going

Anthony [roll0]
Kelly [roll1]

Spider [roll2]
Spider is on turn...I guess?

Adrien, Colin, Claire & Marcus

Whilst the books surrounding Adrien didn't seem to have any eyes that could be distracted by his sparkly display they certainly seemed flammable enough, recoiling in pain as several volumes ignited and dropped to the ground, before redoubled their efforts and surrounding him, battering unrelentingly against him in an angry swarm.

Fragarach clanged off the outside of the iron woodburner, the enchanted lade protecting him from the searing hot surface of the animated object. In retaliation its front hatch swung noisily open on its hinges and fire vomited forth over the young swordsman.

Up above the melee the Chandelier was covered in a thick layer of frost by Marcus' magic which was almost immediately knocked off again by Claire's blow that rocked it from side to side but didn't quite unhinge it from its mooring on the ceiling. The crackling energy dancing inside of it coalesced at the tip of a single limb before finally lancing out towards the young mage in a single bolt whilst the chair's tongue reached out towards Claire trying to pull the flying girl back down to earth.

Books
Standard: Attack Adrien with Buffet [roll3] DC23 Toughness & DC18 Will vs Cumulative Impaired&Vulnerable/Disabled&Defenceless if that hits Miss
Move: Nah

Chandelier
Standard: Attack Marcus with Taser Bolt [roll4] DC23 Toughness & DC18 Fortitude vs Vulnerable/Stunned if that hits Hits
Move:Dazed

Woodburner
Standard: Attack Colin with Flamebreath [roll5] DC23 Toughness Save vs Damage with Secondary Effect if that hits Miss
Move:Nope

Chair
Standard: Attack Claire with Lash [roll6] DC23+Multiattack Toughness & DC18+Multiattack Dodge/Strength or be Grabbed if that hits. Hits +2 Multiattack
Move:Why Move when you have elongation?

Heroes are on turn!

[Thokk_Smash]

The chandelier's taser hits Marcus hard, but he rolls and manages to take the full force on his quite-fashionable duster. The electricity that courses through him from the hit is a bit harder to ignore. He manages to throw it off, but he has to take a split second to gather himself.

And in that fraction of time, he sees the chair has fully gripped Claire in its monstrous tongue.

Marcus' dad raised him right. He may have left far too soon, but he did everything he could to instill the proper tenets of chivalry into Marcus. Marcus may have left behind many of those lessons, but one lesson stuck--girls are the fairer sex, and should be treated as such. Marcus knows, intellectually, that as a fellow AvAcad hopeful, Clare is more than capable of taking care of herself against enemies of this level. Hell, for all he knows, she'd be insulted that he would try to keep her safe.

Emotionally, it's a whole 'nother story. Claire was the first of their group to reach out to him, personally; Colin had thanked him, but Claire had wanted him to stay. She had geeked out with him about magic, his own magic that Marcus sometimes considers a curse in his weaker moments. Emotionally, seeing Claire in greater danger sparks a fire that rages hot and fast.

Before he knows it, the Blackstaff is in his hand. Once-invisible runes burn with a blue-white light, and flames curl around the top. Marcus does his best to push back the flood of blackness, the rising tide of ugly thoughts and honeyed words from the dark artifact as he flies back down to the ground, right beside the high-backed chair. "Let go of her! Pyrofuego!"

From the Blackstaff, powered by Marcus' rage, erupts a waterfall of white-hot flames. They leap and dance, as if excited to be free, and converge on each of the animated objects in turn. Greenish-brown runes appear on Marcus' duster, connecting him to the strength of the earth and filling him with renewed strength.

Free action: Swap to Flamma.

Move action: To the ground, in Close with the chair.

Standard action: Use Pyrofuego, Selectively targeting all four animated objects, AoA/PA for 2.
Chair: [roll0] Probable Miss
Chandelier: [roll1] Probable Miss
Woodburner: [roll2] Probable Hit, assuming something with the word burner in its name is at all affected by the [Fire] descriptor
Books: [roll3] Probable Hit

Will DC 18 vs Weaken Will for Side Effect: [roll4] Resists

Free action: Swap to Knight Terra, assuming that the floor counts as solid ground, gaining Enhanced Strength 8

Status: Fine, Pending Will save
HP: 1
Luck: 1/2

[OutOfThyme]

As his hand rang with the force of Fragarach bouncing off the woodburner, Colin's eyes widened as the front grate of the burner swung open. Instinct - honed through training in Michael's own gauntlet of traps - kicked in, and Colin pivoted to the side, dodging the searing flames. He noticed out of the corner of his eye, that Claire had been attacked by the chair. Which had a tongue.

These creatures were strange, but he needed to focus on the burner directly in front of him. Marcus' flames looked like they might help Claire out of her tight spot, but he needed to focus on the burner now. He wasn't exactly sure how effective Marcus' flames would be against the burner, so Colin redoubled his efforts, bringing Fragarach for an upward strike, folllowed by a series of quick thrusts with the blade.

Move Action: None
Standard Action: Attack with Gale Flurry: [roll0]. On a hit, DC 23+Multiattack Toughness vs. [Wind]/[Slashing] Damage

[Llyarden]

"Oh, hey, books don't like fire, guys!" Adrien called to the others, as he watched a couple of the books drop out of the sky. "Which sounds far more unnecessary to say than it seemed in my head, but you know what I mean."

Then the books retaliated. "Whoa, hey, watch the guitar!" Adrien ducked and weaved around the torrent of angry books with a surprising elegance, albeit also with somewhat more extravagant moves than were strictly necessary. A brief glance around told him that not everyone had escaped the attacks as well as him - especially Claire, who had been wrapped up in the chair's tongue. "Eww!" he complained, watching the chair reel her in.

He frowned slightly, and clicked his fingers again, and once again from the top hat erupted a shower of fireworks that rained down on the books - but this time they exploded in a more controlled pattern, forming a wall of sparks that would hopefully defeat whatever senses the books were using (and, y'know, also set a few more books on fire.)

As the bright flash faded, the cartoon tiger reappeared, cartwheeling through the air until it landed on the back of the chair, holding a pair of almost comically oversized boxing gloves, which it presented to Claire with a 'Ta-da!' and quickly slipped onto her hands.

"C'mon, Claire!" Adrien called to her, settling into what might have been charitably called a combat stance...if one took their definitions of combat stances from cartoons and over-the-top movies - though he seemed to be paying attention as much to her as to the books swarming angrily around him. With another click of his fingers, a trio of spotlights shone down upon her and the chair. "Beat the stuffing out of it!"

To most people, it would probably look like he was just trying to cheer her up or something. But if Claire moved her newly-gloved hands a little, she would notice it moving surprisingly easily, even considering her tied-up state, Adrien's telekinetic powers lending her blows a more potent impact that would potentially leave significant damage to the clingy furniture. Hopefully the school had insurance.

Move: Feint the books at -5, but +5 from Centre Stage: [roll0].
Free: Reconfigure All The World's A Stage to Extra Limb 1 [Limited Projection], Elongation 3 [Quirk x2, Feature], Environment 1 [Selective], Illusion 5.
Standard: Attack the books with another Firework Display. If the feint worked I'll power attack for 2: [roll1] (possibly -2). DC28 or 30 Toughness after weakness vs [Fire] Damage and DC18 or 20 Will vs Visually Impaired/Visually Disabled/Visually Unaware. This is no longer a [Mental] effect, although they may well still be immune to it by dint of, y'know, not having eyes.
Free: Elongate over to Claire.
Free: Switch to Shine the Spotlight.
Extra Effort: Use Shine the Spotlight on Claire. DC15 Insight to notice that it's an illusion, and anyone who succeeds and who also has Detect Psionic can tell that Adrien's doing more than just silly tricks. Also Claire has a literal spotlight now.
- 8 points to change Alternate Resistance to Toughness on Strong Punch, Huh?.
- 3 points to increase the rank of Move Object up to 8.
- 4 points to add Linked Weaken Toughness 8 [Toughness] (Increased Range 2, Limited: Melee, Limited: Non-cumulative, Limited: Only against own attacks) to Strong Punch, Huh? as a variation on the Damage.
- And as per the discussion on Discord, changing [Psychic] descriptor to [Telekinetic].

Status: Fatigued next round.

[zzzzzzzz414]

...well, now Claire felt a bit dumb. that attack had done barely anything it seemed, and after they'd shouted that kind of cheesy one-liner and everyth-"ERP!"

They suddenly had the wind knocked out of them as they were struck in the stomach (and then very quickly wrapped up from the waist down) by a massive, drool-coated pink thing. They looked back down at the chair below almost incredulously. How long *was* that tongue? Where was it kept, was it rolled up, or...?

Ugh. Focus.

There was a flutter of joy in Claire's chest as they heard Marcus cry out and attack the monster binding her with some sort of fire (!), and heard Adrien call out words of encouragement. Their friends! Cared! About them! Probably! And they'd only known each other for like less than an hour! In spite of the monstrous piece of furniture shaking them around like a chew toy, a wide grin spread across their face.

That grin did drop a little in confusion as spotlights suddenly shined in their face from nowhere, and the little tiger from earlier cartwheeled up to the chandelier, offering them a pair of, massive, red, shiny...gloves...?

They seemed to fit on Claire's hands well enough, anyway, and as they slipped on, they felt...something, some power, easing their movements slightly in spite of the tongue wrapped tightly around their legs.

Fight and kick as they might, they couldn't squirm their way out of the tongue's coil; even slick with saliva, the chair's grip was astonishingly strong. Claire struggled to the best position she could and, with an exaggerated, almost comical windup (the gloves seemed to be moving with a slight mind of their own), punched downwards once again, a massive burst of cartoonish purple-and-white stars erupting outwards from the chandelier as they did.

Move Action: attempt to escape grab. (Roll is here.) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23667700&postcount=28)

Standard Action: Use "Strong punch, huh?" on the chandelier, using Move Object to shove the chandelier into the high-backed chair. DC23 Toughness vs.[Telekinetic] Damage, DC18 Dodge/Strength to avoid being pushed, DC18 Toughness vs Weaken Toughness.

[Dodgeson]

Kelly & Anthony

From its perch up on the web the monstrous creature was momentarily distracted from its captured prey, its many faceted eyes draw to glowing light that accompanied the newest arrivals to its lair. In fact if you didn't know any better you'd think that it was sizing you up...

Standard:Ready an Action

Kelly & Anthony are on turn!

[Quellian-dyrae]

With no traps pestering them on entry, Kelly headed down the slide on her rainbow platform. When they got to the bottom, she swept a quick look about the room. For a moment the webs looked awfully inviting...and the very thought set Kelly's heart pounding with the fear of being trapped in them. The conflicting emotions were momentarily confusing, but Kelly quickly recognized the signs of a mental attack. She knew the feeling well enough from training - her sister Dove was a skilled telepath, and once she had developed her powers, their father had made it a point to include detection and resistance training into their usual regimens. Kelly quickly averted her gaze to avoid the hypnotic attack.

Even so, she was a speedster; she could take a lot in at a glance. Including the woman...trapped in the webs? On the one hand, that was weird. She had quickly outpaced even the other speedsters, even after giving them a head-start (why yes, Kelly was a Mythbusters fan, thanks for asking). No way another student could have gotten here before them, so how did she get here?

Kelly didn't know, but the fact was, it didn't matter. The young woman needed help!

The spider was big though. Darn big. Kelly was fast, but she wasn't exactly a powerhouse of massive damage. Fortunately, she had a powerhouse standing beside her! She could play this just like she would fighting alongside her big brother.

Out came Kelly's whips. She connected the enchanted rods front-to-back, producing a long, flexible beam of bright orange light. That, she lashed up at the spider, more aiming to distract it than anything, keep it off-balance and give Anthony an opening while ready to quickly shield them from any return attack!

I'm assuming the spider's within 60', but let me know if not and I'll edit.

Move: Meh.

Free: Swap to Rainbow Rage.

Standard: Defensive Strike, using the attack part as an Aid for Anthony at [roll0]. Kelly is Deflected at 1d10+22, Anthony at 1d10+16, after accounting for tradeoffs. Anthony gets +5 to his next Close attack against the spider.

Current Status: Deflected (1d10+22).

[Dorni]

Anthony rode the rainbow down the slide, alert for any danger that might jump out and threaten his ally. When they hit the bottom, at first he saw nothing but then the eerie light and and the sounds of struggle drew his attention upward, first to the giant spider and then to the girl trapped in the webs. But why was she struggling? The cocoon she was half covered in seemed so inviting. So comfortable and relaxing... not unlike the pod he'd come from.

Anthony shuddered at the unwelcome thought, glancing down and closing his eyes, unknowingly breaking the enchantment. He just knew he didn't want to go back in that pod. And that there was a monster to fight and a girl to save.

He tensed and lept upward, rocketing directly at the Spider. He grinned at the orange beam lashing past him - of course Kelly would have a brightly colored weapon and roughly the same idea as him. He drew back his fist and punched with all his might as he slammed into the spider from below, hoping to hit it hard enough to lift it off the web so he could grab it slam it on its back.

"Grab the girl, I got the spider!"

Move: Leap at the Spider!
Standard: Attack Spider with Mighty Blow, Accurate Attack 2, All-Out-Attack 2. [roll0]. Crit. On Hit, DC 25 30 Toughness vs Damage, Worse of Acrobatics or Athletics [roll1] 24 vs Trip, and Str or Dodge DC 24 29 vs Grab. (I assume the Crit affects Fast Grab? :smallconfused:)

Status: -2 Defense, Deflected at 1d10+14 (or +16 if AoA doesn't apply)

[Dodgeson]

Kelly & Anthony

With Kelly's distraction, Anthony smashed in to the oversized arachnid hard but failed to make a dent in its glowing purple carapace, with the beast staying firmly with all eight legs on its sticky (and oh so enticing) web. That isn't to say that he hadn't caught its attention as it reared up in front of him and hissed, its mandibles dripping with venom.

Meanwhile the girl had stopped struggling and simply watching the scene in front of her play out with a certain air of resignation.

Start of Turn:Kelly & Anthony make a DC21 Defence Save and if that fails make a DC21 Will Save vs Entranced/Compelled/Controlled (Limited:Only to make subjects entangle themselves in the web, Entranced can be ignored any turn the target entangles themself in the web) and I believe Anthony is on the web now so that's a DC21 Defence Save vs (Dazed&Vulnerable/Stunned&Defenceless/Paralysed, Resisted by Defence/Overcome by Defence/Damage)(Cumulative, Extra Condition, Reaction:Being Touched)(Limited:First Track is Physical Actions Only, Second Track is Limited Degree)

Spider
Standard: Attack Anthony with Venomous Bite [roll0] DC26 Toughness Save & DC21 Fortitude Save vs Progressive Weaken Stamina if that hits Miss?
Move: Dazed
Heroes are on turn!

Adrien, Colin, Claire & Marcus

Marcus' flames tore through the room, artfully moving their way between targets and leaving his new allies unharmed, unfortunately while it had reduced a number of books to ashes it didn't seem to have much effect on their ability to continue fighting and the other objects seem more or less unharmed. The same couldn't be said for Adrien's fireworks which, although they couldn't do much in the way of blinding the eyeless books, tore through them like a wildfire burning several books to cinders, those that were left buffeting him with renewed fury to avenge their fallen brethren.

Once again Colin's magic sword clanged off the heavy iron wood burner and was rewarded for his efforts by another gout of flame shooting from within in his direction whilst up above the energy inside the glass chandelier that was still moored to the ceiling spread out within it before shooting out from each tip in crackling bolts that arced from target to target.

With Claire still in its slimy grip the chair began to reel the young hero towards it, tightening its grasp all the while.

Books
Standard: Attack Adrien with Buffet [roll1] DC23 Toughness & DC18 Will vs Cumulative Impaired&Vulnerable/Disabled&Defenceless if that hits. Hits
Move: Staggered

Woodburner
Standard: Attack Colin with Flamebreath [roll2] DC23 Toughness Save vs Damage with Secondary Effect if that hits. Miss
Move: Nope

Chandelier
Standard: Attack with Chain Lighting, Adrien, Colin, Marcus & Claire make a DC18 Defence Save & a DC23/19 Toughness Save vs Damage
Move: Nope

Chair
Move: Pull Claire in to Close Range DC18 Strength to resist
Standard: Inflict Strength Damage to Claire, DC23 Toughness Save
Heroes are on turn!

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly avoided looking at the web any more than she had to; as fast as she could perceive the world, that wasn't long enough for whatever weird hypnotic power the spider had to affect her.

It was, nonetheless, long enough for her to see the spider's fangs coming dangerously close to Anthony. Mere inches away, her whip lashed up, its light suddenly shifting from orange to purple, to slap against the spider's cheek. The blow wouldn't do any damage, but the kinetic force turned its head aside, knocking it away from Anthony. "And what we've learned today is that eight legs still makes you slower than seven colors!" she quipped with a bright smile.

Despite their solid opening though, the trapped young woman seemed kinda resigned as she watched the battle. "Don't worry, we'll get you out of this! Just as soon as Leggy McWebskitter up here stops moving around so much!" she called in cheery encouragement, assuming the woman just didn't expect they'd win or something.

Mom and Dad's rules for effective superheroics #5: It's not enough to keep people safe. You have to make them feel safe.

Speaking of keeping people safe, Kelly's whip continued snapping up at the spider in a glowing blur, using the kinetic force of the purple whip not so much to cause harm, but to unbalance the spider, limit its options, and protect her and Anthony.

Move: Sure she'll zip around a bit, she's a speedster, standing in one place for too long is against Union bylaws.

Standard: Second verse same as the first. Aid Anthony's next attack at [roll0]. Deflect for both of us (Anthony at 1d10+16, Kelly at 1d10+22). Anthony gets +5 on his next Close attack.

Free: Avert gaze, taking -2 on attack rolls for +10 on the Defense save against Perception Range/Sense Dependent effects targeting vision.

Current Status: Deflected (1d10+22).

[Dorni]

Anthony braced himself to catch the Spider's oncoming fangs when Kelly's whip slapped the spider's head sideways, which slammed into Anthony and pushed him back to the wall. He bounced off harmlessly, reaching out automatically and grabbing a strand of web before he fell to the ground. He pulled himself up and while the sticky webbing tried to hold him, he had no difficulty ripping his hand free. Even as he did, he could feel the growing urge to just take hold of the webbing and wrap it around himself...

And shook his head to try and clear his mind as he finally realized that the webbing itself was hypnotic. He glared at the spider. His first real chance to cut loose since he'd been handed over to this school wasn't some challenge for him that would maybe help figure out limits of his strength, it was an over-sized bug trying to hypnotize him. This was starting to get annoying.

"Which should be in no time!" he confidently added to Kelly's encouragement. His confident smile was replaced with a scowl as his brain caught up and he realized he'd formed the words without any thought, as if heroic encouragement was a programmed reflex. Of course it was. It was something his 'father' would say.

Anthony gathered and launched himself at the spider again, his shoes tearing off the webbing with more force than was really necessary. It didn't matter. He grabbed for the spider, trying for a handhold and pulling himself close enough that the spider's bulk blocked his view of the webs. Then he drew back his other fist and punched. This time though, he wasn't punching the spider. He was punching through the spider.

Move: -
Standard: Attack Spider with Powerful Blow, AoA 3. [roll0] Crit. On hit, DC 27 32 Toughness vs Damage & Weaken [Toughness], Str or Dodge DC 26 31 vs Grab
Free: Avert gaze, taking -2 on attack rolls for +10 on the Defense save against Perception Range/Sense Dependent effects targeting vision.
Status: -3 Defense

[Thokk_Smash]

"Stupid f*cking glass automatons, stupid f*cking books being too quick, stupid f*cking thrice-damned FURNACES."

Marcus is not having a fun time at this moment. Bad enough that his fireworks were barely more useful than actual fireworks, but the chandelier managed to tag him with some lightning. The stupid thing charred one of his favorite shirts! And Claire is still in the chair's grasp.

~"Don't worry, boss, happens to the best of us. It's your first real fight, everyone gets performance anxiety from time to time."~

And, of course, Barty has to get his two cents in.

"If they're gonna go through the trouble of animating objects, they could at least preprogram some phrases for them to spout," Marcus grumbles loudly in an attempt to distract himself from Barty and his own emotions. "Villains won't be this stone-cold sober, right?"

He grips the Blackstaff so tight that his knuckles go white, a stark contrast from the sable staff. "I said, Pyrofuego!" he shouts, and once more enormous gouts of flame streak from the staff's head to strike the various objects. "Now, I swear on Merlin's stupid goatee, go down! Forzare Rex!" he continues, and a shimmering lance of pure magical energy streaks from his hand to slam against another of the animated objects.

Standard action: Pyrofuego again, AoA/PA for 2. On a hit, DC 25 Toughness vs Secondary Effect [Fire] Damage
Chair: [roll0]
Chandelier: [roll1]
Woodburner: [roll2]
Books: [roll3] Crit! Becomes DC 35 after crit and Weakness

Will DC 18 vs Side Effect: [roll4] Marcus' mind is impregnable

Free action: Swap to Forzare, Knight Aqua

Move action: Startle the Chair (or the Chandelier, if by some miracle the Chair goes down), -2 thanks to Wise Cracker: [roll5] Lawl

Extra Effort: Forzare Rex on the Chair (or the Chandelier, if by some miracle the Chair goes down), AoA/PA 2, crits on a 16+: rolled in OOC here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?578077-Avalon-Academy-OOC&p=23679998#post23679998) DC 25 Toughness vs [Physical] Damage, DC 20 Strength vs Move Object. If it fails, it'll be launched at the Chandelier at [roll6]

Will DC 18 vs Side Effect (pending result of previous Side Effect): [roll7] Suck it, Blackstaff

End of turn: Regen 5, 5/10 for recovering a Bruise.

Status: Bruised, Pending Fatigue
HP: 1
Luck: 1/2 -> 0/2

[Llyarden]

Despite the success of his own attack, Adrien looked kinda dismayed as he surveyed the scene. Even augmented by his telekinetic power, Claire's blow hadn't had nearly the effect he'd been hoping for, and their companions hadn't had much luck either. As the books recovered from their scorching and dove at him, a barrier of shimmering energy sprung up around him, shielding him from the impacts. It was the first demonstration of his psionic power that hadn't been hidden behind cartoony illusions - though it would have been more impressive if the taser-bolt from the chandelier hadn't smacked into him from behind, leaving cracks in the barrier and forcing Adrien to his knees from the psionic feedback. "Ngh..."

Up above him, he saw the chair's tongue constricting even tighter onto Claire despite the paragon's attempts to tug herself free. How strong is that thing?

And then a plume of fire and magical force ripped through the room. As the hail of angry literature turned into a light sprinkling of ash, Adrien regained his footing with a grin. "NICE!" he called over to Marcus.

Then he turned his attention to the remaining two pieces of aggressive furniture, focusing on the one at ground level and making a dramatic sweep with one hand. The tiger gave Claire a little wave goodbye and then pounced away - the boxing gloves fading away into nonthingness - to land on Colin's shoulder instead...suddenly and inexplicably holding what, a moment later, became apparent was a glitter-filled water balloon, which, as the conjured spotlight swung around to focus on Colin and the woodburner, was promptly tossed into the gaping maw of the furnace.

Move: Dazed.
Free: Switch to Firework Display. Claire's augment drops.
Free: Reconfigure All the World's a Stage to Extra Limb 1 [Limited Projection], Elongation 3 [Quirk x2, Feature], Flight 10 [Platform, Feature x2], Environment 1 [Selective]. The illusory boxing gloves vanish.
Free: Elongate over to the Woodburner, taking the spotlight with the extra limb.
Standard: Firework Display on the Woodburner, with Variable Descriptor set to [Water], Team Attacking with Colin if he's willing: [roll0]. DC23+Team Attack Toughness vs damage, and I figure it's either going to be weak to water or resistant to it but either way SCIENCE! I assume it's similarly immune to the visual stuff because of the whole 'no eyes' thing.

Status: 2 Bruises, Fatigued.

[OutOfThyme]

Colin's blade clangs off the woodburner a second time. Unfortunately, as Fragarach was flung back, Colin was met with a sudden arc of lightning crashing into his blade, and down his arm. As the smell of singed flesh and cloth rises to his nose, Colin drops Fragarach. As Fragarach hit the ground, it snapped out of view, and back into Colin's hand.

"I can't let the rest of you guys show me up!" Colin drew a deep breath in, pushing the pain of his arm into the back of his mind. Instead of focusing Fragarach's power around the blade, Colin focused it onto the tip of the blade instead, hoping to break past the woodburner's defense. With Adrien's help, Colin drove Fragarach towards the woodburner with a dramatic thrust.

Free Action: Switch to Shieldbreaker Strike
Standard Action: Attack with Shieldbreaker Strike. [roll0] to hit; On Hit: DC 23 Damage vs. Toughness

Status: Bruised, Dazed

[zzzzzzzz414]

This wasn't turning out nearly as fun or awesome as the comics and shows had made it seem.

Claire'd barely had time to register that even with the super-special souped up telekinetic boxing glove, their attack had done barely anything (again! real great superhero they were turning out to be so far, very convincing) before they were violently dragged to the ground by the massive tongue, the tightening vicegrip making it hard to breathe and making them feel suddenly light-headed.

After that, there was a loud crackling noise, a jolt of white-hot pain (oh wow this whole pain thing really kind of sucked, actually), and things became a little...difficult to keep track of. There was some more yelling, they were pretty sure, and a wave of heat accompanied by the sound of splintering wood as they felt the fleshy coils around them suddenly fall slack.

They were still trying to blink the spots out of their eyes and catch their breath, but the scene before them stopped spinning and splitting into three long enough to put together that the chair had been reduced to charred scrap; but the chandelier, chipped and battered though it was, was still intact. Claire stumbled to their feet and into a rough approximation of what they thought a fighting pose looked like, acting before they really even had time to process it. Couldn't really fight it, but needed to do something...

"Don't, uh, think that I'm-" *wheeze* "-d-done with you yet!" Claire sputtered in the chandelier's general direction, making a quick movement as though preparing to fly up and strike it again as they did. They felt a bit dumb even as the words came out of their mouth; would this even work? Did a living magic chandelier creature even have the, uh, presence of mind to be tricked?


Standard Action: Using Feint on the Chandelier: [roll0] Opposed by better of Insight or Deception. If successful, will use Set-Up to transfer the benefit to Marcus.

Status: Bruise x2, Dazed
HP: 1

[Dodgeson]

Kelly & Anthony

It was worth noting that, at least in terms of pure strength, Lionheart was widely considered to be one of the strongest superhumans in Europe (there was a telekinetic little girl in North America and an Oni in Japan that stopped that from being worldwide) and although Anthony wasn't quite at that level yet it was a largely academic distinction as his fist ruptured the monster's chitinous exoskeleton giving him ample leverage to haul it in to the air.

This show of strength even seemed to draw a reaction from the blue skinned girl, a genuine look of amazement puncturing through her resigned stare as the spider struggled to escape Anthony's grip.

Start of Turn
Kelly & Anthony make a DC21 Defence Save and a DC21 Will Save vs Entranced/Compelled/Controlled (Limited:Only to make subjects entangle themselves in the web, Entranced can be ignored any turn the target entangles themself in the web)
Anthony make a DC21 Defence Save vs (Dazed&Vulnerable/Stunned&Defenceless/Paralysed, Resisted by Defence/Overcome by Defence/Damage)(Cumulative, Extra Condition, Reaction:Being Touched)(Limited:First Track is Physical Actions Only, Second Track is Limited Degree)

Spider
Move: Staggered
Standard: Attempt to escape the Grab [roll0] Nope
End of Turn: Regain a point of Toughness
Heroes are on Turn!

Adrien, Colin, Claire & Marcus

In an instant the angry flapping of the books was silenced and the tongue wrapped around Claire went slack as Marcus despatched both enemies in an impressive display of arcane force, meanwhile, far above them and a third of a dimension away Merlin leaned back in his office chair and started to think up a plausible sounding to reason to give Marcus detention.

Adrien's water balloon splattered inside the woodburner causing the flames to start to gutter and allowed Colin to strike a strong blow against the object, his magic blade leaving a deep gash in the metal. On its last legs it was all it could do to vomit another gout of flame towards the swordsman in an attempt to put him down.

Meanwhile up above the chandelier shook angrily on its chain, lighting arcing once again through the room as it tried to avoid Claire's false attack, leaving it wide open for a follow up from one of her teamates.

Wood Burner
Move:Staggered
Standard:Attack Colin with Flamebreath [roll1] DC23 Toughness Save vs Damage with Secondary Effect if that hits. Miss

Chandelier
Move: Nope
Standard: Attack with Chain Lighting, Adrien, Colin, Marcus & Claire make a DC18 Defence Save & a DC23/19 Toughness Save vs Damage

Heroes are on turn!

[Llyarden]

It seemed electricity interacted oddly with Adrien's psionic barrier, because once again the taser-bolt of the chandelier crackled across his psionic barrier, leaving it crackling and fizzing, dissipating entirely in places. "Enough with the lightning already!" he complained. Not that the chandelier was likely to listen, but, y'know. "Seriously, change up your routine a bit. Like this!"

Despite his weakened barrier, he didn't back away from the fray. The cartoon tiger clinging weightlessly to Colin's back pounced up in the air, another water balloon in its hand - but it didn't go towards the woodburner. Instead, it leapt towards Adrien, who swept himself back up into the air on his conjured trapeze, flying straight towards the woodburner. As the two crossed paths, the tiger tossed its balloon to Adrien, who caught it, balancing precariously, and then jumped off the trapeze a moment before it seemed likely to smash him into the woodburner. The trapeze vanished into motes of light and Adrien himself flew just a few inches over the woodburner - and dropped the water balloon into the furnace's open grille as he passed - before landing neatly just in front of the fireplace with a flourish.

For all his flamboyance, though, it was perhaps noticeable that even in the few brief seconds he'd not been devoting his full attention to his barrier, it had cracked and faded even more...

Move: Staggered.
Free: Reconfigure All The World's A Stage to Flight 10 [Platform, Feature x2], Environment 1 [Selective], Enhanced Strength 2 [Limited: Flying].
Free: Activate Flight.
Standard: Charge the Woodburner with Firework Display, all-out and power attacking for 2, -2 for Charge: [roll0]. DC30 Toughness after weakness vs damage.

Status: Fatigued, 3 Bruises, Staggered, -2 defence.

[Quellian-dyrae]

With the bonus from averting her gaze Kelly can't fail the Defense save.

Kelly wore a bright grin of energetic excitement as Anthony landed a crushing blow and straight-up hefted the massive spider! "Hot dang," she said under her breath, before adding more loudly, "Alright! Let's squash this bug!" Kelly lashed out with her whip again, timing her attack so its beam of purple light would hammer the spider along with Anthony's next move.

And then pulling back and striking again, the whip snapping back to make another devastating strike perfectly in time with Anthony's next move.

She twirled like a dancer, colorful light whirling around her, and snapped the whip back up a third time, once more perfectly in time with Anthony's next move.

And finally, to complete the devastating combo, she dismissed the whip's beam, and then launched it forward straight as an arrow. Twice! Each attack once again perfectly timed to coincide with Anthony's next move.

"And all while barely even looking! Man I'm good," Kelly cheerily encouraged herself.

Standard: Attack the spider with Flurry of Katas as a Team Attack with Anthony, All Out Attacking for 5, Power Attacking for 5, -2 for partial concealment, Routining the attack for 16, or 21 for purposes of contributing to the Team Attack thanks to Teamwork. If Anthony attacks the spider and hits, he gets +5 to the DC of Toughness-resisted Damage and a combat maneuver. If Anthony doesn't attack the spider or misses it, or if he doesn't inflict either of the relevant effects, Toughness DC 30 (after Multiattack) vs. Damage, Strength or Dodge I believe DC 25 or be launched at the web at [roll0] for Toughness DC 28 vs. Damage (alternately, if this happens and Anthony also does something to launch the spider at the web, consider this a Team Attack with him as well, with +5 to the attack roll for that purpose thanks to Teamwork).

If the web is destroyed, she'll then use a free action to swap to Rainbow Road and a move action to fly up to catch the blue-skinned girl on the platform so she doesn't fall.

Current Status: Normal.

[Dorni]

"You got it!" Anthony called back. Time to squash this thing. With his grip on what remained of the spider's exoskeleton, the powerhouse effortlessly brought the spider down to lay on its back on the webbing and pried his shoes off the webbing to hop on the massive spider's exposed underside. Which was now its top-side. From his perch on the spider's underbelly, with one hand still locked on the monster's chitin, he raised one fist high in the air.

"Look out below!"

And he hammered his fist down.

Move: meh
Free: Stop averting gaze
Standard: Finishing Attack Spider with Mighty Blow, AoA 5. [roll0]. On hit, Crits for DC 37 Toughness vs Damage and DC 32 vs Move Object.
If moved by Move Object, Spider is thrown downward at the web as a Finishing Attack at [roll1]. On hit, DC 32 + Team Attack 37 Toughness vs Damage.
Anthony will maintain the grab and ride the Spider to the ground.

[Thokk_Smash]

High on adrenaline, Marcus squares up against the next bolt of lightning and takes it full on in the chest. He gets another charred circle on his duster and shirt, but he pounds his fist on his chest. The smell of charred fabric and flesh is acrid in his nostrils, yet he still grins fiercely. "That the best you got?" he shouts, despite the fact it (still) cannot respond or even register his words. The tempting words of the Blackstaff are so much white noise in his mind, and even Barty's snarky commentary had fallen silent at the sheer devastation Marcus had wrought.

"First come, first serve, Colin!" he shouts, and levels the Blackstaff at the chandelier once more. Around the head of the staff, a shimmering veil of resonating sound waves coalesces. Exerting the whole of his will upon the Blackstaff, he thunders, Forzare Rex!" A bolt of pure sound rockets at the glass construct, in perfect timing with Claire's distraction.

Move action: ...eh, nothing, really.

Standard: Forzare Rex, AoA/PA for 2, [roll0] vs DC 25 Damage (using Variable 2 Extra to set Descriptor to Sound/Magic, in case glass may be especially weak to high-frequency sound waves), DC 20 Move Object.

DC 18 Will vs Side Effect: [roll1] Flipping crushed it

End of turn: Regenerate 1 Bruise, at 0/10 for next Bruise

Status: Bruised 1, Fatigued
HP: 1
Luck: 0/2

[OutOfThyme]

Not after Colin had managed to injure the woodburner - carving a sizeable chunk out of its cast iron frame - Adrien's conjuration had managed to extinguish it entirely.

"You sure about that, Marcus?" Colin shouted back to Marcus, as he spun around. Colin flipped Fragarach in his grip, holding the longsword much like a javelin. Colin breathed in, and felt the wind swirl around Fragarach. As Colin felt the swirling wind around him reach its apex, he launched Fragarach, aiming right for the chandelier.

Free Action: Extra Effort (in conjunction with a Hero Point) to Power Stunt with Fragarach: Truth-Seeking Spear: Ranged Damage 8, Accurate 4, Incurable

Standard Action: Truth-Seeking Spear: [roll0] vs. Defense. If it hits, DC 23 Toughness vs. Damage.

[zzzzzzzz414]

Spots filled Claire's eyes again as they took another bolt of electricity right in the stomach. It wasn't as bad as last time, the invisibly rippling psychic field around them disrupting some of the bolt, but they weren't sure how much more of this they - or their friends - could take. Jeez, was *all* furniture built this sturdy?

Claire watched Colin's sword sail *just* beneath the angry chandelier and then leapt into action, hoping to finally finish this awful fight. Lifting themselves up off the ground, they rocketed upwards with both arms outstretched and, just as they hit the chandelier, shoved upwards with every bit of psychic force they could muster, trying to crush it against the ceiling above as well as crumple it inwards like a used soda can.


Move Action: Fly to right underneath the chandelier.

Free Action: Use Extra Effort+1 Hero Point to Power Stunt off of "Strong Punch, Huh?": Crush: Perception Damage 8 (Limited to targets within melee range) linked to Perception Move Object 6 (Limited to movement away from user, Limited to targets within melee range) [Telekinetic]

Standard Action: Use Crush on the chandelier. DC23 Toughness vs. Damage, DC16 Dodge/Strength to avoid being moved upwards into the ceiling.

Status: Bruise x3

HP: 1 0

[Dodgeson]

Kelly & Anthony

SPLAT!

Anthony's blow sent the spider tearing through its own web and hurtling towards the floor of the cavern where the sheer impact reduced the monsters to a messy smear dotted with exoskeleton and pieces of torn web upon hitting the ground. With an enormous hole torn in the centre of it the web lost any semblance of structure that it once had and drooped miserably against the cavern walls.

Luckily for our heroes and their rescue in progress the blue skinned girl remained resolutely attached to the remnants of the web instead of plummeting to her doom, watching the pair of them expectantly now that the immediate danger had passed.

Adrien, Colin, Claire & Marcus

Adrien's balloon hit its mark, bursting inside the heart of the woodburner, extinguishing its flames and bringing it to a stiff and groaning halt as it deanimated. Up above the chandelier jangled angrily, still stubbornly refusing to be dislodged even in the face of sonic blasts that sent a web of cracks running through its glass shell and Claire's powerful blow that almost sent it smashing in to the ceiling.

Regardless it didn't seem one to take Adrien's advice and once more sent bolts of electricity arcing through the room from one of its young assailants to the other, flooding the room with crackling light and the smell of ozone.

Chandelier
Move: Dazed
Standard: Attack with Chain Lighting, Adrien, Colin, Marcus & Claire make a DC18 Defence Save & a DC23/19 Toughness Save vs Damage

[Quellian-dyrae]

"YEAH!" Kelly cheered as the spider went splat, jumping up and punching one fist high into the air. She zipped over to give Anthony a double-high-five, and then raced along a trail of rainbows up to where the girl was hanging and kinda tilted her head to the left, and then to the right, as she examined the bonds of webbing.

"Hm. Don't worry miss, we'll get you out of there in a jiffy!" she told her, zipping back down to Anthony. "Little help?" she asked, and if he stepped onto the platform, she'd bring them back up, extend her platform to under her, and basically start yanking web off of her faster than it could stick to her hands.

Setting Streaming to Flight 4 (Platform), Power Lifting 4 (Limited to Platform Carrying Capacity), Feature 2 (Free Pick Up, Easy Hold), Enhanced Speed Attacks Array 4.

Using Flurry of Katas with the partial Rainbow Rage points going to just raising the base Damage by 4.

Then will attempt to Counter the web bindings at [roll0]. If Anthony helps, she'll provide a Team Check to his Counter attempt instead, adding +5 to determine the bonus thanks to Teamwork. Well it's +2 if Anthony does a Counter anyway

[Dorni]

Anthony stood amid the ruined remains of the spider looking down at himself with his hands held before him, groaning. Note to self. Next time when fighting a giant monster, make sure to beat it in a way that didn't leave him splattered from head to toe in spider guts.

He looked up at Kelly's cheer, glancing between the speedster and her offered high five. "Yeah, great teamwork!" Anthony smiled a big stupid smile and enthusiastically clapped her hands and shared the spider remains.

While she zipped away to examine the other girl, Anthony took the opportunity to try and shake the worst of it off of himself. He doubted he'd saving this uniform though. Spider guts were gross. He ended up taking off the uniform coat, turning it inside out and using it like a rag before tossing it aside, leaving him in his mostly clean button-down.

"Sure, no problem." He offered, joining Kelly on her rainbow platform and helping tear the webs off of the trapped girl. "Sorry about the mess. Anyway, I'm Anthony. Who are you?"

Countering the webbing with Strength + assist from Kelly at [roll0]

[Llyarden]

The chandelier's electricity arced once again towards Adrien, even before he'd turned around...and he just held up one hand, almost casually, and his barrier stopped it cold without so much as a crackle. "Nope!" he grinned.

He took a moment to catch his breath as he turned around, looking around the others. Marcus and Colin seemed to be egging each other one plenty, but there was never a time when one could have too much encouragement. "C'mon, guys! Just one crazy piece of furniture left!" He wasn't just settling for encouraging words, though. "So, you don't like sound, huh?" he called up at the chandelier. "That's really unfortunate for you. What are you guys feeling like for music?" he asked, glancing around the others. As the chandelier jangled back into its normal position, there was suddenly a small cartoon elephant standing on top of it, holding a trumpet. "How about a nice bit of brass? I always like a nice bit of brass to get me energised."

Adrien clicked his fingers, and the elephant...well, trumpeted.

Move: Staggered.
Free: Reconfigure All the World's A Stage to Extra Limb 1 [Limited Projection], Elongation 2 [Feature, Quirk x2], Flight 7 [Platform, Feature x2], Environment 1 [Selective], Enhanced Strength 2 [Limited: Flying].
Standard: Firework Display on the Chandelier, with Variable Descriptor set to [Sonic]. And hey maybe it's also weak to puns, who knows. All-out attacking and power attacking for 2, since it worked last time: [roll0]. DC30 Toughness after Weakness vs damage.

Status: Fatigued, 3 Bruises, Staggered, -2 defence.

[Thokk_Smash]

With a harrumph of frustration, Marcus kinda just crosses his arms and stares crossly at the incoming bolt of lightning. Bah, just more lightning, he can take it.

ZZZZAAPPP

...

~"Well, in fairness, Boss, you've...probably done stupider stuff in the past?"~ Barty comments, and even the irreverent spirit's voice is tinged with some sympathy for the state that Marcus is left in: hair standing on end, shirt essentially fused to his chest from the electricity, and his extremities spasming in rigors of pain every second. The soothing currents of his thaumaturgy work their hardest to salve the pain, but it's a slow process.

"Enough," Marcus growls, infusing the single word with so much of his will that it's almost a spell unto itself. And all of that will, every dram of that ire and frustration and hate, is directed solely at the chandelier. Even a mindless automaton may shy away from such a concentration of sheer willpower, leaving itself open to an attack.

And Marcus gathers the rest of his anger, rage, and every other emotion, and channels it through the Blackstaff. With his entire will, he raises the stave to the chandelier and bellows, "FORZARE REX!" And a lance of pure sound streaks from the staff to strike the chandelier.

Move action: Startle, -2 for Move action: [roll0]

Standard action: Forzare Rex, descriptor set to [Magic], AoA/PA for 2, [roll1] vs DC 30 Damage, DC 20 Move Object or have it come crashing down to the ground. This crits on a 16+ re-rolled here: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?578077-Avalon-Academy-OOC&p=23721217#post23721217, critted so DC 35 Damage, DC 25 Move Object

Side Effect DC 18: [roll2]

End of turn: Regen 5/10 for a Bruise

Status: Highly frustrated, Bruised 2, Staggered
HP: [s]1 0
Luck: 0/2

[Dodgeson]

Kelly & Anthony

In the end the web was no match for the combined efforts of the two heroes and the blue-skinned girl was quickly freed from the sticky mass that entrapped her. Getting back to her feet, a pair of delicate insectile wings unfurled behind her and she daintily brushed a piece of errant webbing from the insignia on her AA blazer, as she did there was a slight shimmer in the air around her and any other remanent of the webbing simply slid off of her, leaving her uniform immaculate.

"I am Princess Zephyr of the Summer Court, you have my gratitude, it would seem the rules of Faerie have followed me slightly further than I would like." She explained regally.

Adrien, Colin, Claire & Marcus

Yet more cracks spread across the surface of the chandelier as Adrien's elephant blasted it full force with its trumpet but it still managed to jangle defiantly back at its attack, lightning sparking from each of its glass limbs as it threatened yet more pain and electrocution. No matter how malevolent the light fitting was it couldn't help be cowed by the sheer vitriol that Marcus projected towards it and with a final mighty blast of sonics the whole thing was launched free of its moorings and shattered against the wall.

With that everything finally went silent, if this place had ever truly been a library then it certainly wasn't any more, the books were little more than a thin coating of ash on the floor and without its major light source the room was cast in an eerie half darkness illuminated only by a faint light coming from the spot in the fireplace where the woodburner had once stood.

((Combat is over and all four of you get a hero point! You've earned it :smallbiggrin:))

[Llyarden]

"WHOO!"

The eerie silence was broken by Adrien's cheer. So was the darkness, as a warm, steady light blossomed into existence where the chandelier had been but a moment ago. The elephant appeared to have vanished.

"Go team! Are we a team? Go...gang?! No. Go...us? Whatever, go everyone! With the sword throwing and the flying and the magic staff blasting...so awesome!"

Adrien was evidently rather excited by his first victory.

But even his perpetual cheer could give way to fatigue, and he gave a long sigh, pushing his hair out of his eyes as his crackling barrier dissipated entirely. "So, anyone feeling like a five minute break? Because I'm feeling like a five minute break." He glanced around briefly, taking in the devastation. "Aw, nuts, we broke the chair."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly's eyes got kinda wide and she started biting her lip as the young woman they rescued introduced herself.

No.

Kelly. No.

You will not. You will not say it young lady!

Don't you dare! Don't you dare say it! I absolutely forbid you to-

"You're a FAIRY PRINCESS!!!!!?" If Kelly had been an anime character her eyes would have turned into stars and she might have gone chibi.

Let's see what some unholy combo of Expertise (Gaming, Heroes/Villains, and Popular Culture) turns up about the Summer Court: [roll0].

[Dorni]

Strangely enough, Anthony's quizzical glance was directed at Kelly rather than the blue butterfly. The uniform pretty much explained why she was here. But Kelly's reaction? Was she a fan?

"I... see... so that spider was a fairy?"

Lets see how Anthony fares vis-a-vis the Summer Court. Routine Expertise [History, Pop-Culture, or Politics]: 20

[zzzzzzzz414]

It took a moment for Claire to process what had just happened, but after a moment the ringing in their ears finally stopped and they blinked away the burning afterimage of that last attack, finally seeing the chandelier in pieces against the wall.

They'd...won?

They'd won!

"That was..." *cough* *hack* "...SO AMAZING!!" they cheered between shaky, sputtering breaths. A wide, beaming smile crossed their soot-covered face as they lowered themselves to the ground, wiping the ash off their glasses and pulling off their smoking, saliva-coated hoodie. "You guys were sososo incredible i mean with all those illusions and the fireworks and all those brilliant sword moves and the way those books and that chair just EXPLODED when Marcus did the-" *cough* *pant* *sputter* "-the fire thing and then there were the big red gloves i don't even know what those were but WOW that punch definitely felt way stronger and then there were all the stars that came out and what even was that big spell that finished the, uh, chandelier like was that latin or a magic language or what and you guys are so good at coming up with cool lines to say and oh wow jeez i think i need to, sit down, for a minute"

Claire landed with an ungraceful stumble and backed into one of the ruined bookcases before sliding down to the ground, the accumulated aches of the last few minutes hitting them all at once.

[OutOfThyme]

Colin extended a hand, and called back Fragarach. As Claire slumped to the ground by the bookcase, Colin felt that the floor would be a lot more comfortable, even if for a small amount of time.

"That sounds nice. Let's take a breather for a minute, and then move on."

Taking a seat by the smoldering remains of the woodburner, Colin glanced at the cool blade of his sword. His performance in that fight was... lackluster, according to his standards. He'd been trained by one of the original Worthies, and that definitely wasn't Colin's best.

He'd have to do better in the next fight.

[Thokk_Smash]

"Woo! Suck on that, stupid chandelier! Beware of wizards, for we are strong as sh*t!"

Marcus caps his tirade with a swing of his fist at the shattered remains of the chandelier. Of course, between his fatigue and the remaining, all-consuming pain of the electricity still running through him, that tips him off-balance and forces him to windmill his arms to keep on his feet. The weight of the Blackstaff in his right hand tips him further to that side, and he regards the length of pitch-black wood with wary eyes.

It had never been that easy to wield the Blackstaff in the past. Never. In the melee that just ended, he can barely remember hearing its taunting, seductive whispers when he tapped into its power. He's terribly tempted to think that means he has become immune to it. But he knows there's no way it could be that easy. With a sigh, he trades it out for the normal brown staff from the belt-loop at his waist. He holds the normal staff in his left hand and rubs his right palm on the wall, as if there were a greasy film covering it he wants off.

"We can't sit around for too long," he says. "We can't be further than the second level, and we're on the clock."

The runes on his duster continue to glow a soft blue-green as he meanders around the room. He pokes his staff into the ash of the bookshelves and the various shattered remains of the animated objects. They were supposed to be looking for artifacts of some sort, and if the RPGs he had played had told him anything, enemy monsters dropped items.

After a minute, he gestures to the group at large. "Ready to go, mates? he asks.

Routining a 26 Investigation in the minute that we spend resting to see if there's any artifact-y things lying around.

With his Regen 5, he should be all good with damage within 30 seconds or so.

[Llyarden]

In the absence of any remaining furniture, Adrien had conjured his glowing trapeze again to rest on, sitting on it like it was a swing, pulling his guitar case off his back and opening it to check the guitar had survived being shaken around. Once he'd reassured himself it was fine, he absently started plucking a simple tune, based on the melody from one of his songs but much slower and gentler. "Hey, you were pretty awesome too, Claire," he told her.

"Oh, and the gloves were me. Sorry about that. I, uh...probably should've explained that beforehand," he realised, with a rather sheepish expression. "I can use my powers to...help people, I guess? Like, you were punching the chandelier with super-strength, so I augmented your punch with telekinesis. So you were punching with super-super-strength." Evidently he hadn't noticed that Claire's 'punches' had no real physical force behind them. "The powers like that are under your control, though. It's, uh...'compartmentalised telepathic distribution,' apparently. So if any of you don't want me getting in the way, you can just kinda wish my powers away."

He glanced over to Marcus. "The deadline's the end of the day," he pointed out. "If this was any indication, we don't want to get into whatever the next challenge is if we aren't at full strength. But if everyone's ready..?"

[Thokk_Smash]

Marcus blinks, then sighs and seems to deflate slightly. “Right, right,” he says with a sheepish grin. His arm brushes the Blackstaff, and he sort of flinches away from the contact slightly. The socially adept of the group may be able to tell that he’s a bit more unsettled than one would think after having such a good showing of himself.

He perks up as he thinks of something. “You said you can augment abilities?” he asks Adrien. He gestures to the runes on his duster. “My coat’s enchanted with minor rejuvenation properties. I had to focus the power really finely to strike a balance between efficiency and power, so as it is it only really works on me. Would you be able to augment it to work on others? Then we could make super sure we’re all firing on all cylinders.”

((Posting from my phone, pls forgive the lack of formatting ^_^; )

[Llyarden]

"Uh, I could try, sure." Adrien - who evidently hadn't noticed Marcus's discomfort - stopped strumming and set the guitar to one side, leaving it resting against his trapeze-turned-swing. "I need to get better at keeping them going anyway." He gestured towards Marcus and clicked his fingers.

From the ceiling, suspended on another glowing rope of light, what appeared to be a large disco ball descended, another of Adrien's little cartoony creatures clinging onto it - this time a polar bear with the typical medical red plus symbol on its chest. The disco ball halted just above Marcus, and the polar bear looked to and fro, seemingly measuring something, before giving a satisfied little growl and hopping off, setting the disco ball spinning as it went. "Try it now?" Adrien suggested to Marcus.

When Marcus did, the turquoise-bluish glow of the runes would start to trickle up towards the disco ball as though the light were a vapour, where it would be reflected to bathe everyone in the room in the soothing power of the healing magic.

Augmenting the Healing part of Knight Aqua into Burst Area Healing 6. It'll last for 8 rounds (or until Marcus rolls badly and the power turns off for a minute I guess.)

[Dodgeson]

Anthony & Kelly

"In the flesh." The princess replied to Kelly with a smirk, whilst this sort of reaction might not have been literal food and drink to her like it was for some of her fellows, she still revelled in it. Leaving the speedster to squee she next turned her attention to Anthony and offered him a regal smile.

"This disgusting thing? Hardly." She dismissed his question, gesturing to the shards of broken carapace and splattered viscera that remained of the monstrous spider. "Now if you'll excuse me I need to go and find my worthless handmaiden and make sure that she understands the repercussions for deserting me."

With that the wings on her back hummed in to life and she rose in to the air, quickly vanishing in to a one of the holes that dotted the cave's ceiling if she wasn't stopped.

Adrien, Claire, Colin, & Marcus

It seemed that at least for now the library was safe, giving the young heroes enough time to rest up, though every second they weren't on the move their competition was exploring deeper and deeper in to the dungeon. However there was still something to be said for taking your time and Marcus' sweep of the room turned up a few items of note. One of the few books not to animate was in fact hollow, containing a silver flask filled with some clear liquid and hanging from a hook inside the fireplace was a heavy iron key dangling above a metal grate.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"That's SO COOL! So do you want to- ...oh. Okay, um, bye. I guess..." Kelly said as the fairy princess flew off. She was going to ask if she wanted to team up with them, but apparently she had other things to do? Kelly looked to Anthony with a little shrug.

"Soooo...keep moving, I guess?" she asked cheerily. Unless Anthony had any better ideas, if there was a path leading further through the dungeon, she'd head down that. If there were multiple possible paths, again unless Anthony had any better ideas or they were distinctly different in some way that might offer assistance in the decision-making process, she'd just pick one basically at random and head through it. If there weren't any routes deeper in, she'd backtrack.

[OutOfThyme]

In the first minute of their rest, the others could probably catch that Colin's flesh seemed to be healing entirely on its own, no doubt a part of being Empowered. Colin hopped back up as soon as he felt back to full strength,

"I'm a little curious to see if it would work with my sword," said Colin, dismissing Fragarach from his hand for the time being. "Since it's not really my own power, that'd be interesting to see."

As the search across the room came to an end, they had a vial and a key. Colin raiseed an eyebrow, a little surprised at how mundane their minor haul was.

"So, I don't think that turning in a vial and a key will get us much. I wonder if that key opens anything else down here, though."

[Dorni]

"You had a friend with you? When were you separat- oh. Well, ok then, bye Zephyr. Nice meeting you." Anthony frowned. He doubted the challenges were going to get any easier as they went deeper, and the fairy had all but given up against the spider when the two of them arrived. But Zephyr was acting like she knew what she was doing so he answered Kelly's shrug with one of his own while the fairy disappeared.

"Yeah, lets keep moving," he answered, falling in alongside the speedster and trusting her lead for the most part as they made their way forward.

"So if you don't mind me asking, what brought you across the pond?" Avalon was a long way from California, and his 'memories' told him that St. Ambrose had every bit the reputation as a school as Avalon did.

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire immediately started to feel better as soon as the disco ball began to twinkle; they could see the angry welts of the repeated lightning strikes fading, and feel the aching pain in their head and torso diminishing.

"Oh, so that's what that was. Awesome!" they say as Adrien gives his explanation. Their smile fades a bit, their gaze turning towards the charred floor. "But...I didn't really do much compared to you guys, even with your help, haha. I mean I spent most of the fight getting strangled by a tongue. I read a lot of comics but I've never really done this sort of thing. Didn't expect to get into big fights like this before even getting accepted! Was sort of hoping there would be a class or something, haha."

Marcus seemed distressed - something to do with that weird black staff he'd been using...? - but Claire was quickly distracted by something even more intriguing, something they'd only just now really noticed now that their head wasn't pounding quite so much. There in Marcus's head, so close to his own mind that it was practically overlapping, there was...another...person?

Claire shifted and sat up straighter, eyes widening. A second mind! Inside his head! Did he have two minds? Had his mind split in two somehow? Or was it something else entirely, a companion or a parasite or a stowaway or a mind-meldy partner?

Was it...was it anything like they were?

...

They had to know.

Going to attempt to mind-read Barty.

Roll for initial contact: [roll0]

Questions Claire will try to find an answer (or a memory pertaining to), in order:

-Who/what are you?
-How did you get inside Marcus' head?
-Where are you from?
-What do you do/do you have any sort of powers?
-What do you want/do you want to hurt us or Marcus?
-What's the deal with that weird black staff that Marcus seems uncomfortable with?

DC21 to block initial contact/first question, DC18 to block at every question after that.

If they only get surface-thoughts level contact, Claire will simply listen in for as long as possible until blocked, if they are blocked from contact completely Claire will just drop it for the time being.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"It's...kinda hard to explain," Kelly answered, hedging a bit. "It's like...my family's pretty famous back in the States. And kinda as my siblings were developing their powers, this whole big prison break happened and this bad guy that my Mom and Dad had put away started working for this villain called the Black Mask and...just, making a mess in our town. He even came after us once, and after he did, my brothers and sisters started helping Mom and Dad dealing with them."

"So, they all went to St. Ambrose, but by the time they got in, they had...you know, cred and stuff. Reputations. Experience. People knew them and they had proven themselves and stuff. But by the time I got my powers, the bad guys were pretty much beaten. It's like, they managed to get away, but their power base was pretty much shattered. I haven't had...much experience at all really. You know, a couple like, 'stop the robbery, thwart the mugging' kinda things. Popcorn heroics, my brother calls them."

"So yeah, I totally could have gone to St. Ambrose, but I didn't want to have to deal with...with...you know, all the baggage! If I went to St. Ambrose, it would have been like, everything I did would be compared to what my siblings had done. It's like...landing a perfect triple-flurry, or acing a class, or helping the school win a cheer competition is great for most students, but it doesn't really measure up to shattering the Black Mask's telekinetic forcefield, or getting healing lessons from Headmistress Magdalene herself, or helping defend the school from an alien invasion!"

"I mean, don't get me wrong. I love my family to death, growing up with them was super-cool and fun and awesome. And the things they've done...they give me something to strive for, you know? To aspire to. But that doesn't mean I want everything I do being constantly compared to them, either! I just figured, at least here, I'll be judged on my own merits. I'll have a chance to make my own name and earn my own experience without...I dunno. Living in their shadows, I guess." Over the course of her explanation-turned-rant, her voice had grown steadily more serious, even a bit frustrated, her expressive features growing more still, her gesticulations getting a bit sharper. She hadn't...quite intended to go that far, but as was often the case with Kelly, once she started on something, well, it was hard for even her brain to catch up with her before she finished. She blinked twice, and pretty much immediately relaxed, venting the tension that had come to her with a little giggle. "Uh, sorry. Overshare, huh?"

[Dorni]

"Its ok. I... I think I get what you mean about living in your family's shadow. Its like... everyone says my dad's a great Hero. So when they meet me, its all smiles and encouragement about how I'll be great like him. But then the tests come, and most of them won't say it but it's always about how I compare to him, but don't worry they know I'll be just as much a Hero. Doesn't matter that I haven't even done any 'popcorn heroics' yet." His reply started slow but started to move from sympathy to letting out a frustration of his own.

"That's kinda why I'm here. Dad and his friends told me all about how Avalon was the best school and it'll teach me all about being a hero. And I get it, they're busy. They don't think I'm ready. And Avalon's been great so far. But like... it sometimes feels like they just wanted to dump me here so they wouldn't need to keep an eye on me."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly blinked, a bit surprised that Anthony's experience had paralleled her own. "Ugh!" she replied with commiseratory sympathy at "don't worry they know he'll be just as much a Hero," her head lolling back and shaking side to side as she stared up at the ceiling. "Yeah. I've gotten that one a couple times. It's just condescending, right? I mean I know they mean well but sheesh!"

Anthony went on to talk about how he felt like he had been kinda dumped here. Kelly made a face like she had bitten into a chocolate expecting a cherry and it had turned out to be licorice. "That sucks," she said simply. She wasn't really so much for consolation. She was very much a "look on the bright side" sort of person, but actually teling people that was, itself, kinda condescending. To that extent, she preferred to lead by example.

Her curiosity, though, was irrepressible. So it didn't take too many more steps before she asked, "Sooo...who's your dad then? Anyone I might have heard of?"

[Dorni]

"I'd... rather not say," Anthony replied, shifting his gaze to the ceiling. He was already brushing up against his promise to keep his circumstances quiet. What he'd said so far couldn't hurt, but he probably shouldn't give away too much more. "He really is a good hero, and I don't mean to drag you into anything."

"Besides, I can't really be complaining about his shadow if I bring him up to everyone. How about this. If you don't go spreading the stuff about my dad, I'll keep quiet about you being an Albion. And if you ever want to vent about it I'll be around. Fair?"

"I mean, assuming we both pass this entry exam. How deep do you think this place goes?"

[Thokk_Smash]

Marcus can't help but give a hearty chuckle at Adrien's method of augmenting his healing. He can't say it isn't damned effective, though, and he wastes no time in using it to heal up him and Claire. In his shared mind space, Barty is trying to distract him from the disconcerted feeling of having used the Blackstaff in real combat. It's mostly effective.

"Now, just gimme a mo to check these two out, and I'll be ready to go," he says as he examines the vial of liquid and the key. Focusing his energies, he holds both items in his left hand, the side that takes in energy. He sorta, well, 'tastes' the vial and key in his magical sense, and tries to determine what, if any, magical powers they have.

Added a "Detect (Magic)" Sense to Marcus' sheet. Since it's not Ranged, it's limited to Touch range.

Expertise (Magic) rolls to analyze the magic, if any, of the thingies:
Vial: [roll0]
Key: [roll1]

[Dodgeson]

Anthony & Kelly

Deeper and deeper the pair went through the cave complex, passing strange sparkling rivers that oozed lazily along before vanishing (deeper?) underground and more empty chambers lit only by the gently glow of more luminous insects whether they be tiny scuttling spiders or fluttering moths drawn to Kelly's bright light, what they didn't come across was any more hopeful students.

Eventually their conversation would be interrupted as they finally reached a dead end in front of a large lumpen rock formation but before they had time to turn around a voice called out in the gloom.

"Who goes there?" The deep voice yawned, the rocks in front of them rumbling with each word.

Adrien, Colin, Claire & Marcus

The key is exactly what it appears to be, an entirely mundane if slightly large method of opening a lock. As far as you can tell about the flask it's ordinary water that has been blessed.

The next door opened without putting up any kind of resistance in to a long corridor lined with portraits of men and women in nobles finery which in itself wouldn't be that odd except the artist didn't seem to be too familiar with how faces worked, with bizarre combinations of features haphazardly thrown seemingly at random on to the otherwise immaculate works of art and if that wasn't strange enough the further the corridor went the smaller and narrower it became to the point that our young heroes would have to crawl single file before they reached a door barely big enough for them to squeeze through.

((Okay now I'm working on the assumption that you're going to go through the door to keep things moving and avoid waiting on another round of posts that just say 'We go through the door' but if that isn't the case and you've got something else in mind simply do not click the spoiler below!))

After enduring the increasingly claustrophobic corridor and the stares of never exactly the right amount of eyes the four young heroes were confronted with an almost absurdly spacious room, in fact the only way they could tell that they hadn't suddenly been transported outside was the fact that the door they had just come through was imbedded in a wall that stretched off in to the distance on either side.

In front of them was what appeared to be a bustling market place filled with ramshackle stalls where odd looking creatures noisily hawked their goods.

"Get them while they're fresh!" A portly red-skinned figure called out, only just keeping their balance on top of a crate that was angrily rocking from side to side.

"Genuine relics!" A hunched spindly figure in a hood enthused to a small crowd that had gathered before him "Merlin's staff! I couldn't make it up!"

"Memories and secrets bought and sold!" A woman who was trying way too hard to look human hissed, an array of small glass bottles laid out on a blanket in front of her.

[Llyarden]

"I feel like these are either junk or priceless works of art," Adrien remarked, as they swept along the corridor of paintings. It was always rather hard to tell the difference with art.

The narrowing corridor presented an issue - not so much because Adrien was averse to crawling, but simply because he also had his guitar to worry about. Eventually he ended up putting it behind him, where a cartoony mole popped out of the ground and dragged it along after him down the tunnel.

"Anyone - ugh - else get the impression - ow - that Merlin is going to be laughing away at us up there somewhere?" he grumbled, almost crawling into the door headfirst before he noticed it. "This better not get any...smaller?"

He trailed off slightly as he emerged from the cramped tunnel.

"This was not what I was expecting." He was distracted from gazing at the massive marketplace by a slightly irritable squeak from the mole, which was struggling to hand him his guitar (which was about ten times the size of the illusory creature). "Oops, my bad." He reached down and slung his guitar back over his back again as he waited for the others to emerge from the tunnel, and the mole gave a satisfied nod and vanished back underground.

"Oh, wait, I think I remember Co - uh, I remember hearing about this," he corrected himself hastily and not quite smoothly enough to allow his misstep. "It's a...faerie market, or something. No, goblin market, that was it. Didn't tell me there was one here, though."

He glanced around, trying to avoid making eye contact with any of the fae creatures in case they started trying to sell him something. "Uh, anyone see another way out?"

[OutOfThyme]

"I think I read about these things once," said Colin, as the corridoor shrank. He felt a little bad for Adrien and Marcus, but at least this was where being average was a perk. "You use forced perspective to give the illusion of a corridor, but it's really just a lot smaller than that, like... this."

As Colin squeezed through into the market, he looked around. He didn't expect a market, of all things. Based on the errant conversations he could hear, there were some odd items for sale. Colin couldn't help but wonder if that staff was real or not, for instance.

Ah, right, my magic sight. I should probably use that here, Colin thought to himself. The silver glow from his arms disappeared, and his pupils took on a slight grey hue as he shifted his magic to his own sight.

Hopefully, that would tell him more about their surroundings.

Perception roll to spot magic thingies: [roll0]

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly eyed Anthony a moment, a little surprised that he had suddenly hedged. Didn't want to drag her into anything...?

Man! That just made her even more curious!

Buuuut she didn't want to push him if he wasn't comfortable talking about it, so she just said kinda jokingly, "So he's someone really cool, then," with a bit of an impish grin.

"Oh, yeah, I wouldn't tell anyone. Not my secret to share," she said, with a firm nod. "I mean...my family's not like a big secret or anything. It's like, sure, I'd just as soon it not get spread all around the school or whatever. But I'm not gonna stress myself out about hiding it either, you know?" The whole point was not stressing about her family's reputation, after all!

"Yeah. Assuming," she answered with a smirk. Yeah, she was fairly confident. "I have no idea, honestly. I guess we'll see!" she added brightly. Look, she wasn't necessarily going to say they were definitely going all the way to the bottom...buuuut she wasn't gonna just rule it out either!

When they reached the dead end Kelly frowned, but then the rocks spoke to them and her face lit right back up. Cool! "We're students of Avalon," she answered. "Or, well, we're testing to be, anyway. I'm Kelly. What's your name?" Yeah, no question, Kelly would totally just be immediately arbitrarily friendly with a bunch of talking rocks. Wasn't even a stretch.

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire blinked as the line of thoughts from Marcus's brain-buddy suddenly faded and cut off after only a few seconds. Well, that certainly wasn't what they had been expecting. But still, he (whoever he was) didn't seem too bad! Despite that, um, last line there. And he probably wasn't a weird psychic dungeon parasite, so that was good.

The few bits of info they'd gotten left them eager for more (Who's Jordan? Was "Blackstaff" the name of Marcus's staff? They still didn't even know who this weird brain-partner was!) , but it was about time to move deeper into the dungeon, and it wasn't like they could ask. "Hey Marcus, tell me more about your snarky brain-friend that I just tried to mind-read!" Still, they resolved to try and find out more later.

Claire picked up her ruined jacket, absentmindedly plucked one of the few undestroyed books from where it lay in the splintered ruins of the chair, and followed the others out of the room.

"Well, they certainly look interesting," they said as they passed the bizarre paintings, "I guess they're, um, what is it called, abstract? Or, surreal, maybe? I wonder if there's like a puzzle to them or if it has something to do with the hallway getting smaller, or-"

Wherever that train of thought had been going, it abruptly derailed as Claire emerged into the wide-open market. Their mouth dropped open and their eyes visibly widened, head snapping back and forth trying to take in the sheer volume of utterly alien sights and sensations.

Were this a cartoon, the others might've looked to the right and seen a Claire-shaped puff of smoke where they'd just been. They wasted absolutely no time at all diving in, weaving through the crowd, bouncing from stall to stall gawking at the wares and their sellers alike, finally coming to a stop in front of the strange-looking woman with the selection of bottles.

"Hello! Who are you? You said you were selling, um, "secrets and memories", right? That's very incredible! Whose are they? Yours? Other people's? How do you get them into these bottles? Uhm wait that is what the bottles are right? How much are they, and uh what sort of money do you take? Do you happen to live down here, by the way? Oh! And would you know of any passages that go further down from here and also where they are?"

Claire got down on their knees and inspected one of the bottles more closely, trying to see if it registered at all with their mental senses.

[Dorni]

Anthony gave a weak laugh at Kelly's teasing. So what if her joke was spot on, he needed to work on his poker face. He needed to get off this topic.

"Yeah, we'll see. We've got all day to find out," he added, doing a poor job at hiding his relief at the change of topic.

When they reached the dead end, Anthony scowled. Even the freaking rocks want to know his identity? What was this ridiculous maze? "I'm Anthony. I'm also applying to Avalon."

[Thokk_Smash]

"I swear, if this is Merlin changing things around as payback for that goatee crack..." Marcus grumbles under his breath as he resorts to literally crawling through the ever-shrinking hallway. Both of his staves had long since become too high to keep upright, and so he has to bring up the rear to avoid smacking anyone with them as he carries them under his arm.

~"It probably wouldn't be out of character, Boss,"~ Barty remarks with a bright tone.

Marcus continues to mumble under his breath until they emerge into the goblin market. He stiffens up slightly as he goes over what he can think of off the top of his head about goblins, and other members of the Fey. "Try not to draw attention to yourselves," he says to the others, and huddles into himself as if to make his large form smaller. "These guys'll probably try to hawk anything on us, and they'll take any payment they think they can get away with."

~"Uh, Boss?"~

~"What, Barty?"~

~"It looks like Claire's already gone, Boss.~"

Whipping around, Marcus is dismayed to see Claire has already disappeared. He stretches back to his full height and catches sight of her. "Ack!" He lets out a strangled noise of concern before he begins to push through the crowd with supernatural strength. He doesn't activate his own Sight; he can assume that most of these items are, indeed, magical in nature. Doesn't mean that he wants to have the image of whatever they are burned into his mind.

"Claire, we're not here on a shopping trip," he says, voice equal parts rough and worried. He shoots the 'human' woman a seething glare, towering over her in his dark duster and slightly-glowing staff. "Whatever they've got here, it won't be worth the price they'll take. A sale is a deal, and you don't make deals with the Fey unless you know who you're dealing with."

Thaumaturgy Array is set on Knight Terra, so Marcus has Strength 8 as long as he's standing on solid ground.

Intimidation on the Faerie woman: [roll0]
Expertise (Supernatural Beings) on Fey creatures in general: [roll1], +5 for Barty's Eidetic Memory as well

[Dodgeson]

Kelly & Anthony

"Name?" The formation in front of the pair pondered drowsily "I think I used to have one of those...can't remember where I put it." It continued only to fall silent for several minutes where the sharp eyed of the two young heroes might begin to be able to pick out rough humanoid features from the mass in front of them, something that would be confirmed when it spoke up again, opening a single rocky eye.

"I suppose you'll be wanting passed me? I really shouldn't move until you've proved yourself...it's the rules you know. Only I'm really not one for riddles these days...tell me, what is passage worth...?"

Adrien, Colin, Claire & Marcus

Much like the rest of the dungeon the place is awash with magic, though luckily for your eyes due to the sheer size of the room you're in it's much more spread out. Most of the creatures before you have at least some magic on their person (if they're not outright magical themselves) and that's before going in to the wares themselves. One thing that doesn't ping on your senses is literally everything on the stall claiming to be selling 'genuine artifacts'.

Inside each tiny vial glimmers of light swirled around in a miniature whirpool like a dozen little never ending snow globes, all of them pinging on Claire's mental senses as mental fragments split off from other minds.

"I am merely a humble peddler, I simply help people preserve that which people hold dearest or forget that which they can no longer bare." The woman answered Claire's first couple of questions with a grin that was far more shark than friendly neighbourhood merchant. "I'm afraid everything else is a trade secret, though I'm sure we could come to some arrangement. Your first kiss perhaps? Or hearts desire? Maybe a secret never to be told?"

Then Marcus' shadow fell over her stall and she gave him a dull look, it seemed every party needed a pooper. "Now now I'm sure we can find something that suits the young sir too."

[Quellian-dyrae]

"...Well, I mean, it'll save us some time, and all. So, you know, that would be nice," Kelly said. It wasn't like they couldn't backtrack and take another route or something, it was just...lame.

But she didn't want to just force the nice talking pile of rocks out of their way! That would be rude!

"I don't want to ask you to break the rules or anything. But at the same time, if we're supposed to get a chance to prove ourselves, it'd be kinda unfair to not give us one, right? Maybe there's some other test we could do to prove ourselves? I've never...actually been clear on how riddle challenges prove someone's worth, myself. Prove their cleverness, I suppose, but even that's kinda iffy, since a lot of times you can come up with a valid solution to a riddle even though it isn't the solution, you know? I mean, I guess maybe the theory is that to solve the riddle you have to kinda think like the person who designed it? But even that seems like a stretch. And what if they've heard that riddle before! That would mess the whole thing up! Oh! What if we asked you a riddle? Here, I've got one! But you have to tell me if you've heard it before! Okay..."

Kelly cleared her throat and kinda drew herself up a bit. "You only notice me when you notice nothing else. I will adapt to any weapon wielded against me too often. To the living I taste of death, but the dead do not know me. What am I?"

I tried. I tried so hard to resist, but come on like I could pass that opportunity up. I'm a bottomless pit of self-reference. (And a slightly-less-bottomless pit of OoTS reference, I guess? This one might have kinda gotten away from me.)

More importantly, Persuasion to convince the Friendly Talking Rock Formation to let us through on the basis of being, just, super-friendly and how can it say no? [roll0]. I assume Attractive doesn't apply to sentient entities of geological strata, but hey I'm not saying I'd pass up the +5.

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire's eyes widened as they realized what the contents of the jars really were, and what they meant. This woman could separate out parts of someone's mind and remove them...

Did that mean she could maybe also...?

They honestly only barely registered that Marcus had arrived or what he was saying. Claire straightened up and looked the strange (Fairy, apparently? Wow!) woman in the eyes, matching her hungry-looking grin with a wide, bright smile of their own.

"So you can sort of...remove memories and parts of people's minds? That's amazing! It seems like that would be really difficult to do, I mean how do you even learn something like that?

As they spoke, they sharpened their mental senses, and dove in.

Using Deception to try and get the peddler to think about where/how she learned her techniques in her surface thoughts: [roll0], opposed by Insight.

Attempting to mind-read peddler, rolling for initial level of contact: [roll1], opposed by Will.

Searching for answers/memories pertaining to the following questions, in order. (DC18 Will save to block at every question past the first.) If they only get surface thoughts, they'll just listen in as long as possible.

-Where/how did you learn to separate out mind fragments?
-Can a non-fae learn how to use your technique?
-How dangerous is it for the one having the fragment taken from them?
-Is there a book or some other source one can learn the technique from?
-Are the fragments still "alive"/conscious?

[Dorni]

Anthony just kinda frowned at the rock face. "I don't know who laid down that rule, but I wouldn't mind if you let us pass. We didn't mean to disturb your slumber and we don't really have much reason to want to fight you. If you let us pass we'll go on our way and you can go back to sleep."

He nodded along with Kelly. When she offered her riddle, he furrowed his brow but couldn't come up with an answer. He'd probably ought to offer up his own riddle. "Uh..."

What's a good riddle? "パンはパンでも食べられないパンは、なぁに?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly blinked and looked at Anthony with a bright grin of delighted surprise. "You can speak-...! ...! ...- ...?"

After a few moments of her mouth moving and no sounds coming out she asked a bit sheepishly, "...What, uh, language was that, anyway?"

[Dorni]

"Its Japanese," he answered, taken aback. "Why? Is that unusual? I thought they teach foreign language in american schools?"

Had he just made a blunder? He was pretty sure foreign language was a graduation requirement in american schools.

Also, forgot to Aid Kelly in my last post to convince the rocks to let us pass. Routine Persuasion 10; Kelly gets +2 to her result.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"I mean, it's not like weird or anything. Just, you know, cool," she replied. "Uh...yeah they...teach it, I guess. Um. Let's just say that passing a foreign language class and learning to speak another language are two extremely different things. Like...I took Spanish pretty much all throughout school. I can introduce myself and ask someone how their day was with the best of them! And I can conjugate verbs!" she puffed up a bit with faux pride. "I mean, you know, regular ones, anyway," she added with a self-deprecating laugh.

Oh, U.S. education system. You're just adorable.

[OutOfThyme]

Colin raised an eyebrow at the "relic" vendor's stand as he passed over it with his magical vision. Turning it off once again (mostly so he didn't get a migraine from it), he nudged Adrien - who was the only other person who hadn't run off at this point. "The person selling relic doesn't even have a single magical item there," Colin whispered. "Think we should do something about that, or should we just join Marcus and Claire?"

[Dodgeson]

Anthony & Kelly

The stony creature let out a deep chuckle as a long and spindly arm uncurled itself from around the pile of rocks and lazily scratched the top of the pile "I'm afraid you're going to have to do better than that...I'm no stranger to boredom down here."

But hey, on the plus side Kelly's cheery demeanour had won the creature over somewhat so at least it didn't move straight to trying to eat her now that she had failed to meet the arbitrary standards of its challenge. Then Anthony spoke up in a language that was just as much of a mystery to it as it apparently was to Kelly.

"Now that seems a cheat for a game wits young man..." It chided, reaching out and prodding the powerhouse in the chest with one large hand and rocky hand.

Adrien, Colin, Claire & Marcus

"Mother dearest was quite the witch." The merchant happily explained to Claire, completely unaware that her potential customer was currently pillaging her thoughts "And of course when it was time for me to follow in her footsteps it was only natural that she would lend me her expertise." As she spoke a forked tongue shot in out of her mouth, piercing her carefully constructed guise, but she didn't seem to notice, a small look of nostalgia playing across her face.

"Of course I don't trouble myself with a past that isn't in a bottle." She continued, gesturing to her wares "So how may I help you?"

Whilst this was going on the rest of the newcomers to the market hadn't exactly gone either and pretty soon a trio of small winged humanoids were excited buzzing around Colin & Marcus on tiny insectile wings.

"Hi there! Are you lost? You look lost. We can give you a tour! We're super good guides!" The first one squeaked cheerily as it spun around Adrien's head.

"Ooo what's this?" Another said, pulling at the young musician's guitar case.

"Forget that! This one is...is...is I don't know!" The last of the trio worked herself up in to a frenzy, wildly gesturing at Colin, though she couldn't put her finger on its exact source the scent of Fragarach's magic was practically intoxicating to the tiny creature's sense.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly smiled and clapped at the answer. When the rocks said Anthony's question was a cheat, she said, "Ehh...that's kinda debatable. I mean, maybe it goes against the spirit of the game, but in terms of overcoming a test of wit, coming up with a question you cannot answer by speaking it in a language you don't know is an example of lateral thinking to answer the challenge, which is more-or-less what a riddle challenge is testing.
And I mean, at least he didn't ask you what he had in his pocket. It's like..."

Kelly got a little smile on her face, and evidently shifting gears entirely she said, "Okay! Try this one! A bride was late to her wedding. Her car had broken down and she was rushing to get to the chapel. On the way, she passed a man begging for money on the street, but she didn't have time to stop to give him any. Then she nearly crashed into a brother and sister as they were coming out of a restaurant, but she managed to get around them without having to slow down. Finally with the chapel in sight a nun sees her approaching and hastens to open the door for her, and she arrives just in time for the music to start so she can walk down the aisle. What does the bride have in common with all of the people she encountered on her way to the chapel?"

[Dorni]

"Its not a cheat," he shot back. He didn't move at the rock creature's prodding. At all. "You never set any rules in the first place - just that we needed to prove ourselves. You can't go crying foul just because you don't know the answer. Besides, that riddle doesn't even work after its translated."

He paused with an apologetic look to Kelly. "The riddle basically translates as 'What kind of bread can't be eaten'? Answer: 'a frying pan'. So it doesn't work in English, but the Japanese words for 'bread' and 'pan' are homonyms."

"So will that lesson count as a test of learning? Or do you want to keep going with riddles?"

[Thokk_Smash]

Marcus narrows his eyes and tugs on Claire's arm. "Claire, I mean it, whatever you think you're after won't be worth the price she'll want," he says urgently. Using his egregious height, he tries to scan the distance for any kind of sign of an exit.

~"Hey, now, boss, don't be so quick to dismiss it,"~ Barty chimes in. ~"Who knows, maybe she has a memory about the Blackstaff. And, hell, maybe she'd have a memory about your ma."~

Marcus stiffens into stillness so total he appears as a giant statue. The familiar emptiness rears its ugly head in his heart. "It wouldn't be worth it," he mutters, although he sounds less confident than before.

Perception to try and spot an exit: [roll0]

[Llyarden]

"Unless you actually wanted to buy a 'genuine Merlin's staff,' I think we'll file that under 'someone else's problem,'" Adrien replied to Colin. "From what I've heard about goblin markets, the less we talk to anyone here the better. Uh, now where did Marcus and Claire..."

He trailed off as he and Colin were ambushed by a trio of pixies.

"...um, hi? That's a guitar, and it's mine," he added. It was bad enough when ordinary people tried to steal his guitar, much less magical faeries. Still, if they had to interact with some denizens of the goblin market, better the pixies than the merchants.

"I'm sure you are very good tour guides," he agreed, smiling at the first pixie. "I bet you even know a way down deeper into the dungeon."

Persuasion for flattery! [roll0] Maybe he doesn't think they're very good tour guides...

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire blinked as the connection to the woman(?)'s mind was suddenly severed. Their mind raced with questions, possibilities. If this magic really could be used and learned by non-fae, maybe they didn't have to find someone else to fix their...situation for them after all...

Marcus's insistent tugging jolted them back to reality. They turned, and for a moment dejection and cowed acceptance flashed across their face at Marcus's rather forceful suggestion. But something apparently overwhelmed those feelings, because a moment later they flashed him a wide smile. "Oh, hello Marcus! I'm so sorry, I was busy talking with Miss, uhm," they quickly turned back to the memory peddler, "oh I'm sososorry I never even asked your name!"

After waiting a moment (during which the memory peddler may or may not have given her name) Claire turned back to Marcus. "Uhm anyway it's all fine we were just talking for right now, I mean magic is so interesting and I haven't seen much of it before or really any of it before today! I mean look how cool these are!"

Claire bent down lower and inspected the vials of swirling sparkly particles for a moment before turning back to Marcus once more, but this time their expression was a bit different. "Don't worry, I wouldn't buy anything I can't afford." they said with a meaningful look that they could only hope carried the message. It wasn't like they could just sell off Claire's memories and secrets, especially if it probably meant permanently losing them! Those weren't...well, "theirs" to give away. And, well, as nice and interesting as this fairy woman was, they certainly weren't going to give the secret of their true nature to someone whose whole business was SELLING secrets.

But they weren't about to give up a chance at information like this, either, not when every moment they weren't looking for a way out of this mess was another moment they might be discovered. Claire kept smiling, but it wouldn't be incredibly hard for Marcus to notice something else written in her expression: Desperation.

Claire turned back to the memory peddler with a thoughtful look on their face. "So, um, I think I do want to know what sorts of memories and things you have, these could be really cool, or useful! But, uhm, first, I need to ask again, would you happen to know if there is an exit going further down anywhere, or where it might be? I mean, we do want to stay and maybe spend or trade some of what we found down here! But also we are sort of in a hurry, and this place is really big, so..."

They looked (maybe a bit exaggeratedly) over their shoulder, back to the entrance they'd come from. "...if the exit's going to be hard to find, we had better go start looking for it instead, or maybe go back and find a different route...or maybe, oh!" Claire clasped their hands together, expression brightening. "Do you have a memory from, uh, a past explorer of the dungeon? Or someone who built it, maybe?"

As they gave their long-ish talk, they refocused their senses, and dove into the woman's mind for the second time.

Going to try to use Innuendo to convey the following message to Marcus: "I will not be giving her any memories or secrets." (It's fairly simple so I'm assuming DC10...?) Will be taking the Routine check result of 24 [10+14].


If necessary, Persuasion roll to try and convince the memory peddler to tell us where the path(s) leading further downward is(/are). [roll0] (She skipped over he question the first time so I don't know if she's holding that info back, doesn't know or just ignored it. Giving the roll just in case.)


Going to attempt to mind-read the peddler again. Initial contact roll: [roll1]
Questions Claire's looking for answers to/memories related to, in order. DC18 Will save to block at each question past the first. If they get surface thoughts they'll just listen in.

-What branch or branches of magic do her fragment separating/isolating techniques involve?
-Is there a book/books or other source one can learn the branch of magic from?
-Are the fragments still "alive"/conscious?


Also, one more thing: have written post assuming the peddler doesn't give her name, will rewrite parts of it if she does.

[OutOfThyme]

Colin almost froze as the third pixie pointed him out. Was she identifying the traces of magic that tied him to Fragarach? That... wasn't exactly good. Colin had made a point of not identifying what his sword was, mostly because he didn't want any kind of special treatment for having a sword that belonged to a king of the Tuatha.

But that didn't really matter. Adrien was right, they needed to get further into the dungeon, and find wherever Claire and Marcus had gone to. That was their top priority, after all.

Taking a breath to try and compose himself, Colin finally spoke up. "Or, have you seen our friends? One of them's really tall, with a duster."

[Dodgeson]

Anthony & Kelly

The rocky creature stayed silent as they listened to Anthony and Kelly's argument, on the one hand it was pretty sure that the boy wasn't playing by the rules (that it made up) but on the other hand Kelly made a compelling argument, and he really wasn't much for riddles any more...

When he finally spoke up again it was with a long drawn out yawn, uncurling its other arm and interlacing its rocky fingers together to crack its knuckles "I suppose I can let it slide this once..." it said as it finally stood up, its head brushing against the top of the cavern and the way forward now clearly visible between its grey legs.

"...be careful now, there's plenty down here than old stones." It said with another yawn before it began to sleepily lumber off.

If the two heroes followed the new path downwards the rough stone of the cavern would give way to a staircase spiralling down to an enormous black door barred with a thick wooden bar and heavy metal chains.

Adrien, Colin, Claire & Marcus

"What seller doesn't know their wares?" The seller replied, scooping three of the vials up in to her hands "This one is heartbreak, this one laughter and this one deepest terror." She said casually, like she was reading off a wine list. "Sadly none of these have the memory you seek, most people who delve too deep don't tend to come back but for the right price I might know of an associate who has a friend who can help but of course then we're back to the matter of payment."

As much as she felt that the situation was playing to her advantage what the peddler didn't know was that as she was angling for payment Claire was ransacking the deepest recesses of her brain, even the alien mind of a fae being no match for her otherworldy powers.

"Yeah we do!" The pixie said brightly, luckily for Adrien whilst Attractive might not apply to sleepy piles of rocks it certainly applied to pixies (in fact they might remind him of some of his more squealing fangirls) "We know a secret and everything!"

"Shhhhh! We've got to keep that to ourselves!" The second one fluttered in to view to admonish her companion "Unless you want to pay us." She finished off, spinning back round to face the young musician.

"Guys! Guys! GUYS!" The final of the trio didn't seem to be paying attention to much else besides continue to invade Colin's personal space, excitedly tugging at his clothes and trying to locate the source of whatever it was that was driving her wild.

"Sorry about her..." The first apologised.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly beamed at the, uh, let's go with elemental as it moved aside, cheering their success with a little "Yay!" and heading further down the tunnel, calling "Bye!" over her shoulder.

When she reached the heavily-fortified door, Kelly regarded it with a bemused smirk for a moment, and then just casually stepped out of the way.

[Dorni]

Anthony just kinda nodded at the giant's retreating back. "Thanks, enjoy your nap."

As for the door... Anthony just looked disappointed more than anything. A barred door. Right. That would stop them. He traded glances with Kelly as she stepped aside. He took a deep, apologetic breath as he drew back his fist and put his whole body behind a tremendous blow!

Pulverize the door with Mighty Blow! PA 5, Finishing Attack. DC 37 Toughness vs Damage and DC 32 vs Move Object

[Llyarden]

"A secret, huh?" Adrien repeated. Probably not the kind of thing we can take back to Merlin, but might be useful all the same. Then an idea came to him, inspired mostly by the slightly fangirl-y behaviour of the pixie that he'd been talking to. "Tell you what. If you guys tell me the secret you know, and show me and my friends where a way deeper into the dungeon is, then I'll play you a special song, written just for the three of you. How does that sound?"

He fully expected them to haggle him down to either the secret or the way down (it was a market, after all), but there was no sense in not trying for both.

Persuasion for bargaining, this time with Attractive added in: [roll0]

[Thokk_Smash]

Marcus opens his mouth to reply to Claire, but stops. There's something in her demeanor, her eyes, her voice...she's obviously desperate. For whatever reason, Marcus doesn't know. But he knows he doesn't like to see a friend looking like that, and a female friend even less so.

"Oh, don't give us that 'I know a guy who knows a guy' spiel," Marcus says with a dismissive wave of the hand. He gets closer to the peddler, coming up to his full height. "Although, I do think I have info to trade. When we were coming through the crowd, we heard all sorts of shouts for all kinds of wares. I know for a fact that one of your fellow peddlers is a dirty liar, and that is a good faith tidbit of information for you. If you want to know who said it, and what it is they lied about, well, that'll cost you whatever the little lady beside me wants to know. Do we have a deal, Miss Lethe?"

In his head, Barty chimes in, ~"Making deals with a Fae for Claire, eh, Boss? Figures stepping in for a pretty face would make you deal when finding your mom wouldn't."~ Marcus gives that comment the gravity it deserves by ignoring it.

[OutOfThyme]

Colin couldn't help but get increasingly annoyed at the pixie tugging at his clothing. He could use Fragarach to finally sate the pixie's curiosity - but it would give away his sword's identity, and probably attract more unnecessary attention to himself.

"Could you please stop?" Colin asked, hoping that diplomacy might work. After all, he didn't really want to draw a magical sword - that some of the Fae here may or may not recognize - in a magic marketplace.

Persusasion untrained, ho!

[roll0]

[Dodgeson]

Anthony & Kelly

BAM!

Whatever the door was made of it and its chains were no match for Anthony's formidable metahuman strength and his blow sent it noisily clattering down the stairs that it was guarding. At the bottom of the stairs the pair would find not only the dented remains of the previous lying on the floor but a series of six statues lining the room, each one was a stone knight in identical heavy armour holding a different weapon, a sword, spear, axe, bow, lance and staff and above each one of them was a hole in the wall leading steeply upwards into darkness.

At the far end of the room was yet another heavy black metal door, though instead of heavy chains or thick wooden planks this one had a strange looking contraption of mechanisms and gears with three empty sockets where a lock would be.


Adrien, Colin, Claire & Marcus

Luckily for Colin it seemed that even a pixie's rabid curiosity could be quelled by Adrien's musical talent as the three pixie's were utterly enthralled by his song. Unluckily for the sword wielder it wasn't just pixies that were attracted to his song and the pair quickly drew themselves a not insignificant audience.

"Deal!" One of the pixie's squealed, clapping her hands with glee and tugging on Adrien's sleeve to try to lead him through the crowd and between stalls and down the winding paths and ginnels of the goblin market. If he let himself be led the pixies would finally come to a halt hovering over what looked like a dark metal manhole cover in the ground.

"Ta-da!" They said in unison, pointing to the disc proudly "This goes way deep deep in to the dungeon!"

Back at the memory peddler's stall Miss Lethe cracked a smile that was just a little bit too wide for the face that she had chosen to wear as Marcus made his proposal, there were few things more valuable to the fey than knowledge and knowledge that they could use to best a rival was more valuable still. As she reached out a hand to the young mage he might just notice that the tips of her fingers looked far more like painted claws than fingernails.

"A bargain is a bargain."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly regarded Anthony's handiwork for a couple microseconds, and then headed on in. Beholding the room beyond, she cheerily asked, "So. Puzzle room, statues will animate and attack us, monsters or some manner of hazardous liquid will drop from the holes, or all of the above?"

Her suspicions didn't seem to in any way slow her down, though, as should be no surprise to anyone at this point. Trailing rainbow light with every movement, she went zipping through the room, searching around to see if she could find any clues as to how the puzzle might work or so on.

Swapping to max speed, maxing Rainbow Race and Rainbow Rush, and basically spending eight subjective hours searching the place, including the holes in the wall if I can fit through them. Investigation: [roll0].

[Dorni]

Anthony followed after Kelly, shaking his head as she zoomed around the room. "You seem rather excited for that last one."

Kelly would probably find anything worth finding, but he might as well try. Anthony rapped twice with his knuckle on the spear-wielding statue, testing if it was hollow, then gave it a light push to see if it was anchored to the ground, and tugged on the spear to test if it was locked into the statue's grasp.

That done, he strolled over to the barred door, examining the empty sockets. If this was a puzzle room, it almost certainly tied back to matching something to those sockets.

[Thokk_Smash]

Marcus hesitates just a moment at the incongruous sight of the peddler's too-stretched smile. Then he takes her hand in his and gives it a firm shake.

"And so it is," he says with a nod. Taking his hand back, he gestures vaguely in the direction of the magic trinket peddler. "So, there's a guy over there hawking 'genuine artifacts'. He even mentioned Merlin's staff! Now, I don't know about the rest of it, but I know for a fact that he does not have Merlin's staff. And if he's lying about that, what's to say he isn't lying about all of them, eh?"

With that, he nudges Claire and gestures for her to speak up.

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire was disappointed to find that Ms. Lethe apparently didn't know much more than that. And there might not be a book or anything to learn this magic from either! They had a place to start, at least ("echomancy"?), but-

They jumped a bit in surprise as Marcus began to speak with the Fae woman, bargaining on her behalf. And he'd been so suspicious of her just a moment ago! Did he...really care that much? Maybe they were already friends! That would be amazing, they'd been a bit worried they wouldn't make any but they might already have one before they'd even gotten in!

For...a short time. Of course. Possibly even shorter of a time than they thought if they found out more about this echomancy thing.

Claire was jolted back to reality by Marcus' tap on the shoulder. "Oh, uh, um, right!" They'd...already sort of found out most of the really important things the woman seemed to know, at least about mind magic... "Ummm, hm, well I think the most important thing we really NEED right now is probably, um, information about the layout or a map of the dungeon, or some way to navigate it, or just the way down from here? Or if there was some really super rare secret treasure down here that you know about, or know someone who knows someone who knows about, that would be incredibly good also!"

They paused and looked down for a moment, brow furrowed in thought, then looked up again, eyes gleaming with inspiration. "Oh! Oh oh oh! And just one other thing, if it's not a lot of trouble! Your mum that you mentioned earlier, what is her name? Or um is there a place we could find her or something? She seemed interesting, I would like to meet her!"

If Marcus was paying close attention, he'd likely notice that the desperation he'd noticed a moment earlier was suddenly, strangely, gone, even before Claire had started asking their questions.

If it's necessary, Persuasion Roll to try and get "Ms. Lethe" to answer the questions through earnest and charming bubbliness, on top of Marcus' information deal. If not necesssary, disregard.
[roll0]

[Dodgeson]

Kelly & Anthony

Anthony's careful deliberation and Kelly's hyperspeed search of the room would come to more or less the same conclusion, the statues were solid and anchored to their bases, however the weapons they held would slip out of their grasp with little effort. It didn't take a genius to work out that they could act as keys to the three sockets if only the right combination could be divined...

The combination is sword, lance, bow

Adrien, Colin, Claire & Marcus

"Alas" Ms Lethe said with a sigh as she retracted her hand "My mother passed away many years ago, very tragic." Claire had poked around in the faerie's head enough by now to know that 'passed away' in this instance meant 'I killed her'. "Still I suppose I should favour you with a little something after your friend was so generous..." As she spoke she trailed a hand lazily over her wares, causing the glasses to clink together as she looked for one in particular.

"Ah here we go, this little thing might have been a pest, but they do have a habit of getting in to places that they shouldn't." She said, scooping up the vial and holding it out for Claire "Remove the cork and breathe deep."

You're a fluttering tiny thing, buzzing through the market with a gang of your sisters and having a lark of time, you just found an old dusty door that lead as deep as you'd ever seen! You weren't sure what you were going to do with that information but you were bursting with excitement just thinking about it!

Ooo hey what was that? A sparkle caught your eye and you veered away from your sisters, you just had to get closer, you just had to touch it.

Then there was darkness.

[Dorni]

Anthony ended his examination of the sockets with a smirk and walked back to the statues. He siezed the sword, lance, and bow from their caretakers and returned to the door, inserting them into the sockets one at a time.

Placing the final weapon, he did his best to keep a straight face and hide his smirk at his companion who had been zooming around the room, spending what must have felt like hours scouring the room for the slightest clue. His best wasn't very good.

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire's disappointment at learning that the only other probable source of knowledge about this "echomancy" thing was gone was quickly washed away by horror as she realized the implication in the fae woman's words and tone.

Oh.

Their smile dropped and their face went a bit pale. "O-oh, uhm, I-I'm sorry, I had n-no idea." They had a nasty feeling that they were probably more upset than Ms. Lethe was, though. Claire was suddenly struck with a desire to leave.

Still, they couldn't help but perk up with excitement when the peddler brought out the memory bottle. They were getting an actual clue! Once the memory ended a few moments later, they immediately turned to Marcus, trying to hold every detail in their head as best as they could.

"Ok so um parts of it were sort of fuzzy but I am quite sure it was a memory of a fairy or uhm something like one? She found, uh, one of those, um, the metal circles on the ground that usually go down into sewers I think? I think it will lead further down from here and also there was a glint of something shiny and maybe treasure-like through there!" Claire clenched both fists in front of her chest and bounced on the balls of her feet, eyes gleaming. "So uh I think if we can find it in here we'll be able to move on and maybe find some sort of cool rare thing worth a lot of points! We should get Adrien and Colin and then go look for it!"

Scanning the area near the entrance, Claire spotted the two of them being led into another part of the market by, uh, fairies? Not wanting to lose them (and also more than a bit eager to find out what was going on!), they took off towards the two, pushing through the crowd as politely as they could and trying to call out to them. "HEY, - oof, sorry - HEY GUYS - oh, oops, excuse me - HEY, WAIT UP, WE - oh goodness i'm so sorry - WE FOUND OUT SOMETHING AMAZING!"

[Quellian-dyrae]

Likewise Routining with Expertise (Gaming).

It was a fairly standard slot-puzzle at it went. A bit trickier than you'd see in your average video game maybe (where the slots would be kinda obviously in the shapes of specific weapons, or maybe just different sizes so only certain ones would fit). Still, it was like, come on. The lance, King Arthur. The sword, the Three Musketeers. The bow, Robin Hood. All classic European heroes, and also pretty much the poster children for the Lawful, Neutral, and Chaotic Good alignments respectively (the Three Musketeers got less press for that, but seriously, you don't get a much better Neutral Good tagline than "All For One and One For All!") It seemed obvious enough to her.

Anthony seemed to come to more-or-less the same conclusion, so while he inserted the appropriate weapons, she took the spear out and started playing with it, twirling it around and making mock stabs and stuff. Kelly kinda got distracted easily, but fortunately she was also easily entertained. None of the statues had any whips though, more's the pity. "I wonder if these things are magical?" she speculated.

[Llyarden]

"You guys are awesome!" Adrien beamed at the three pixies, once they had led him and Colin to the...manhole? (He gave it a puzzled look for a moment before shrugging. Fae were weird.) "But I think you still owed me a secret?"

Having been somewhat distracted playing little riffs on his guitar, he'd...kinda forgotten that he had no idea where Marcus and Claire had gone. But then he heard Claire calling something out over the bustle of the crowd. "Oh, hey!" he greeted her with a smile, when she finally caught up to him. "What did you find out?"

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire barely stopped themselves short of crashing right into Adrien. "Hello! Oh, ooh-" Taking notice of the three tittering, sort of insecty-looking humanoids floating near them, Claire sidled up, inspecting the floating trio closely. "Um, hi! Who are you, wow are you actual fairies? Or um pixies or sprites, I'm so sorry, I don't know the proper name, ooh are you flying with magic or-"

No! Bad! Focus!

Claire turned back to Adrien and Colin. "Oh, I'm soso sorry! I, we, um, uh-" They took a moment and re-gathered their thoughts, adjusting their glasses. "Um, we found a way down! Or we will. Kind of. We negotiated with one of the fae here, well really it was mostly Marcus haha but anyway we got a memory in a bottle that belonged to I think a fairy and it showed her finding this uh, one of those metal disc things over a tunnel leading further down and also a gleam of something that was maybe treasure! So uh if we can just find that same place around-"

Claire suddenly stopped and blinked. Taking in their surroundings for just a moment, they were overcome with a sense of deja vu. If this was...then...

Claire scanned the ground behind the pair of them, and, upon seeing the odd metal disc in the ground behind them, their eyes lit up. They rushed around them and pointed to it, practically bouncing with excitement. "Oh! Oh oh oh! That! Is it! The um! The metal sewer circle!" They spun around to face Colin and Adrein again, hands clasped. "How did you find it?!"

[OutOfThyme]

Colin was more than relieved that he wasn't being harrassed by a pixie. On top of that, Adrien's charm had managed to convince the pixies to lead them further down. That was good - they'd at least get... somewhere. Part of him had almost forgotten that this was all just the entrance exam.

Just how much was under Avalon Academy?

As Colin listened to Claire's recollection, he nodded along. "Wow, sounds like the two of you had quite an adventure. Hopefully this... manhole has something."

[Dodgeson]

Anthony & Kelly

With the correct weapons inserted in to the machine its gears and mechanisms began to grind and unlock as the heavy black door swung open leading in to pitch darkness...

(Unfortunately for Kelly she didn't really have any way to discern whether the spear was magical or mundane)

It was slow going down the stairs (or maybe it wasn't) for the two young heroes, as even Kelly's own illumination seemed to not dare venture even slightly forward to light their path. Eventually they would reach the bottom and their foot steps would start to clang against some kind of metal floor.

And then suddenly they could see. There was no sudden flash of light or illumination (though they could now see glowing blue orbs lodged in the rooms curving walls) instead the darkness rushed away from them like water down a plug hole, vanishing between the gaps of the grate that made up the entirety of the floor. All around them the walls were covered in symbols and phrases, some of them were even in languages that Anthony could understand.

Abandon Hope read a smattering of Sanskrit daubed on to the wall.

Beware the Laughing Pitch, a sign driven in to the wall with iron nails warned in German

Run! A message carved directly in to the wall advised in Latin.

"What's this?" A laughing voice echoed up from somewhere deep below them as a black tendril sluiced up over the grate, an eye the size of a watermelon bursting in to existence to regard the pair.

"What little things have come to my larder?" Another tendril spoke, appearing next to the first with a row of toothy dagger-teeth.

Adrien, Colin, Claire & Marcus

"That is the secret!" One of the pixie's squeaked as she gestured emphatically down at the metal disc in the floor "It goes way way down! You can't go that far without bumping in to really scary stuff normally and nobody else even knows that this is here!"

Unfortunately for the diminutive fae her claim secrecy was somewhat undercut by Claire's sudden appearance and she quickly got up in the girls face to make her displeasure known.

"Who are you!? What are you doing here?! Who told you!?" She barked (which sounded a lot like her squeak).

"Yeah!" The two other pixies chorused, flanking their sister.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly took out her whips for at least a bit of illumination in the oddly-darkened corridor, but even they didn't seem to reveal much. With a shrug, she pressed on anyway. Kelly wasn't afraid of the dark.

When they got to the bottom, the lights suddenly returned...and they were greeted by a creature of pure, utter darkness, a tentacled horror that may or may not have existed beyond time and space, apparently manifesting tentacles, eyes, and toothy mouths at will. It was the iconic image of an Eldritch Horror. To the uninitiated, the mere appearance of such things could be a sanity-eroding shock. To one with a modest amount of nerd-cred, it still bespoke peril and horror every bit as effectively as the warning messages scrawled over its domain (or prison?) In every piece of fiction that mentioned them, creatures like this were utterly alien in their thoughts, purely destructive in their goals. You couldn't call them evil, because they were as far beyond it as ultraviolet light was beyond the visible spectrum. They existed entirely at odds with the very idea of life, the very notion of an orderly reality. They also tended to be unspeakably powerful.

Faced with such a thing, there could only be one reaction.

"Hi! I'm Kelly. What's your name?"

...Evidently Kelly would not judge any book by its cover. Not even the Necronomicon.

[Llyarden]

"Hey, easy, guys." Adrien shifted position so he was standing next to Claire, still smiling amiably. "Claire, this is Dixie, Paula and Joan." He indicated each pixie in turn. "Guys, this is my friend Claire. We're all on the same team, so I'd have shown Claire - and Marcus, wherever he went - this place anyway. There's no need for you guys to be upset."

He was curious (and slightly worried) what Claire and Marcus had traded for the memory of this place, but that was a question that could be asked once they were away from inquisitive pixies.

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire visibly quailed under the pixies' admonishment, shrinking backwards from the angry-looking creatures and looking at the ground. They had done it now, they'd probably broken some sort of fairy code or secrets pact or maybe buying memories was actually really illegal or something and now they'd be-

They let out a little gasp at Adrien's words. He'd called them "friend"! They were friends! It was official, the first one! This was a wholly new experience for them. There...had been other ones, people like Michelle and a few other acquaintances who had visited them in the hospital. And they had all seemed very nice! But they weren't...their friends, truly. Those people were Claire's friends, that they, "Claire", Ix, had...mooched off of. Stolen.

But now they officially had a friend! That they had made themselves! Um, mostly, sort of. Using Claire's appearance. But...still!

Claire gathered their thoughts and faced the trio again, voice and body still quivering a bit. "Uh, uhm, h-hello! It's v-very very good to meet you all! U-um, I am very very very sorry, I did not know that this was a big se-secret of some kind that I was not supposed to f-find out! Um, I can try very hard to forget about it afterwards, if that would be helpful! Or, um, I could talk to the memory seller again and have her remove it perhaps, um she called herself Ms. Lethe and is the one who traded Marcus and I the memory showing us this place, so maybe she could just-"

Claire stopped for a moment and squinted closely at the three pixies before her. "Uhm! Wait! I-I recognize you, I think! Uh, you were in the memory I saw, all three of you! Uh, do you happen to have another friend, that may have sold some memories to a secret peddler woman?"

[Thokk_Smash]

Marcus pulls up the rear after Claire, silently (but obviously) stewing in irritation. That's what Claire ended up asking, when she had seemed so desperate for information before? And it looks like Adrien and Colin had already found the same thing through another means. So what even was the point of him making that deal with 'Miss Lethe'?

He comes up to the party just as the pixies make their demands, and silently glowers at them. He doesn't put as much bite into it as he could, and he's slouching so he's not necessarily as tall as he could be. But he still cuts an imposing figure to an inches-tall pixie. He begins to say something, but is cut off by Claire, so he bites his tongue with a small glare at Claire.

[Dorni]

Anthony took a wary step forward. He wasn't exactly putting himself directly between Kelly and the rising tentacles, but he was still in a prime position to intercept anything the thing tried. The writing was on the wall - this thing was bad news, made all the more apparent by the ridiculously overdecorated door they'd unlocked to get here. He split his attention, keeping one eye on the monster while while glancing around the room for other exits.

"Anthony. And you are?"

[Dodgeson]

Kelly & Anthony

This calm or in Kelly's case, downright enthusiastic, reaction from the two young heroes was not exactly what the creature in the pit was expecting and suddenly a bevy of extra eyes burst out from underneath the inky black surface of the tendrils to regard the pair as they swirled around them.

"You do not fear me? I am the Laughing Dark and the Endless Flame! WhY dO yOu NOt FeAR ME?! The thing replied in a cackling chorus of voices, the eyes bursting at random intervals like overripe fruits to be replaced by more grinning toothy maws.

Adrien, Colin, Claire & Marcus

"The secret peddler?!" One of the fairies squeaked, the indignation quickly vanishing from the trio's faces to be replaced by fear as they darted behind Adrien, peering nervously out from behind him as if they expected Ms Lethe to appear at any second.

"She took Georgie!" One of them squealed from behind Adrien's ear "Caught her and pinned her up and took her memories all for herself!"

[OutOfThyme]

"Huh. I knew that there was that one fake vendor, but this is..." Colin said, glancing to Adrien and the pixies behind him. "This is wrong. It might take us longer to head down, but I think we should get those memories and their friend back."

"What do you guys think?"

[Llyarden]

"This is a goblin market," Adrien replied, quietly. He didn't exactly sound surprised by the pixies' revelation, but he did give a kinda disappointed look at Marcus. Claire obviously had no idea what the goblin market was really like, but Marcus did - heck, he'd tried to warn the others about it. And while, from a logical standpoint, the fourth pixie had met her fate before the four of them had even arrived in the market...that didn't mean that he was okay with the idea that the group had helped this 'secret peddler' continue her trade. "You can't just charge in sword first. So," he continued, "if we're going to help, that means we need something to trade, because I don't think the random scraps from the library will cut it. So I guess we need to find two things from down there now." He gestured to the manhole.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Now look, I'm not saying there wasn't a momentary gut-level "you are facing a dangerous predator please select fight/flight" reaction at L-DEF's sudden anger. Buuuuuut she's also calling it L-DEF in her head now, so it kinda cancelled out.

But Kelly had been raised to be a hero. Now, this didn't mean she didn't get scared. It was entirely possible for her to feel fear. But if someone was trying to scare her, if someone wanted to make her afraid? She wasn't going to just cower before them. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction.

They got quips.

"I mean, are we supposed to be scared?" she asked, as chipper as ever. "I've never actually, you know, heard of you. Honestly you sound kinda more fun than scary. "Laughing Dark" and all. Did you get named that because of your sense of humor? Ooh, are you a comedian? Can you tell us a joke?"

"Actually, though, isn't it a bit weird to be called the Laughing Dark and the Endless Flame? I mean, aren't flames kinda, you know, bright? It'd make more sense if you could turn it off I guess, but it's like, endless, and all. Kinda says it right there in the name."

Note to self: pick up Fascinate eventually so Kelly can completely dumbfound people with her cheerful irreverence.

[zzzzzzzz414]

"S-she what?!" Claire's trepidation immediately turned to concern. "That is awful, how could anyone do something like that? W-we have to help right?" they said, turning to the others. "Um...it wouldn't be very good to just, attack her, here, but there has to be SOMETHING we can do, right? If this place is like a maze, then I am not sure if we would even be able to find our way back here once we go deeper...if only we knew for sure if, um, Georgie was alright..."

Claire closed her eyes, sweeping through the crowd of minds in search of the peddler, hoping to find answers, but opened them again a scant few seconds later. They hadn't gotten so much as a foothold! Ugh, and right when they really needed it. But...that was odd. She wasn't at her stand, she was...moving. Was she going to use the bathroom or something? Did fae use the bathroom? Was there even a bathroom here? Or was she going to act on that information Marcus had given her, maybe...?

"Um, uh, I don't know if this changes anything, but uhm I was listening for her just now, and I think Ms. Lethe may have left her stand? I don't know where she's going, but we could maybe follow her or, um, investigate the stand while she's gone? We might find out something, or at least find the rest of Georgie's memories. Or maybe it's a waste of time and we should hurry up and go down, I don't know..." Claire said to the others, looking to them for some hint at what they should do.

Deception check for the "listening" part: [roll0]

As for Claire's next action, they're going to just go along with whatever the others decide.

[Dodgeson]

Anthony & Kelly

The thing from beneath the grate didn't seem to take the utter lack of gibbering fear in Kelly's reaction particularly well and black steam began to rise from the pair of tendrils as the gloopy black liquid that composed them began to boil.

"Such insolence! Those names are for your convenience!" Endlessly spawning and vanishing maws chorused as the tentacles whirled around the pair of young heroes "If you were to attempt to conceive even a single syllable of my true name you would unravel! You have crossed my threshold of your own free will and now you will be SLAUGHTERED!"

Kelly Initiative [roll0]
Anthony Initiative [roll1]

Tentacles Initiative [roll2]
Kelly is on turn!

Adrien, Colin, Claire & Marcus

The metal cover of the manhole moved with only a little bit of effort, revealing a steep drop down in to the dark, all having wings the fairies obviously didn't see this as much of an issue, but luckily for our heroes each one of them wasn't exactly a slouch in that department either. If they dared descend in to the dark they would eventually come out in a room lined by six statues of knights in armour, 3 were holding weapons whilst the rest were empty-handed.

At the other end of the room a large black door was already open, leading down some stairs in to yet more darkness, the four of them arriving just in time to hear "SLAUGHTERED!" echo out from somewhere beyond the door in a cacophony of mad cackling.

Familiar cackling...

[Quellian-dyrae]

"and now you will be SL-"

Haha. Nope. Nope nope nope. Noping so hard! Rainbow light flared up around Kelly, and her whips came out, right hand a steady, vibrant orange, left a shimmering pink. She wasn't entirely sure what this guy's capabilities were, buuuuut she figured light and magic were a solid starting move. It worked for Disney, anyway!

"-AU-"

Off she went, zipping around the area, multicolored light streaming behind her. She came up at the first tentacle, right whip flashing across in a wide horizontal arc, left snapping forward in a serpent-like strike. The whips moved weirdly. There wasn't really a delay for her to pull them back into a ready position after striking. The pliable beams of light were just suddenly there as she brought her hands up, and down again, two hard overhand swings then flowing into a sweeping crossing strike.

"-GH-"

And she was gone! Coming up against the tentacle on the opposite side of the room and from the opposite direction. Back and forth, back and forth, her whips criss-crossed all up and down their lengths, blow after hasted blow discharging light and magic into them with every hit, leaving tiger-stripe-like after-images in the eyes of anyone looking directly at the attack.

"-TE-"

Her blurring speed carried her back to the first, bringing her whips around in a graceful twirl to - no! In a surprise twist, the whips lashed out across the way, striking for the second tentacle again in quick snapping moves!

"-RE-"

The next blows came from above, as Kelly sprang in a rainbow-trailing arc over the first tentacle, her body corkscrewing in midair to create a twirling banner of multicolored light, with orange and pink beams extending outward around and beneath her, for more blurring strikes against the top of the first tentacle. She came down, dropping head-first...

"-D!"

...And landing to handspring forward, kick off the wall, and come back around to center. Her whips changed color then, crackling yellow and twinkling blue, as she hurled herself into a tremendous spinning attack, arms waving up and down, the whips undulating around Anthony as she struck, creating the appearance of a wobbling spinning green dish as she hammered on the two tentacles with a barrage so fast her whips seemed a single, solid disk.

"Bring it, L-DEF!" she challenged in response. She hadn't stopped moving though. The rainbow light she had left as a trail showing her path of movement was fading, but she was still going, falling into a beautiful combat rhythm, a deadly dervish dance!

Free: Configure Streaming to Flight 5 (Platform, Quirk), Enhanced Speed Attacks Array 8. Swap to Dervish Dance, activating two applications of the Enhanced Area with the Rainbow Rage points.

Move: Move throughout the area.

Standard: Dervish Dance covering a Selective 60' radius, should fill the room. Variable Descriptors [Light] and [Magic], Power Attacking for 2. On a hit, Toughness DC 21+Multiattack vs. Damage. As long as she keeps moving, the Cloud Area will repeat next round (and it'll also attack any other tentacles that may enter in the intervening time), and one round after the targets leave the cloud or it expires, as long as she keeps moving and ends up in reach of the target at some point during the round, a Secondary Effect will trigger.
Tentacle 1: [roll0].
Tentacle 2: [roll1].

Extra Effort - Additional Standard Action: DO IT AGAIN! This time Variable Descriptors are [Electricity] and [Cold] and I'll Power Attack for an additional 2, for DC 23+Multiattack.
Tentacle 1: [roll2].
Tentacle 2: [roll3].

Move-by Action: And yet, she ends up in the exact position where she started. Speedsters lol.

Current Status: Fatigued as of next turn.

[Dodgeson]

Kelly's whips cut through the laughing tendrils like they were nothing, slicing clean through one side and out the other, sending the black liquid splattering against the walls where it dripped down to the grate with an acrid hiss before sluicing back down in to the darkness. Unfortunately despite this the creature didn't seem to be all that bothered, every eye that dotted one of the tendrils focusing its attention on the young speedster "Such vigor in this one! So much to prove!" A suddenly newly emerged mouth laughed as Kelly felt cold and otherworldly pressure begin to press down on her mind.

"I see you little lost things! I see in to you very hearts! And I will pluck them out!" The other tendril picked up, lashing out at Anthony and trying to wrap its roiling mass around him.

Tentacle 1
Move:Dazed
Standard: Attack Kelly with Evil Eye, DC 25 Will Save vs Damage
End of Turn: Regeneration removes a bruise

Tentacle 2
Move: Who needs movement when you have Elongation?
Standard: Attack Anthony with Tentacle Crush [roll0] DC25/20 Toughness Save vs Damage/Weaken Toughness & DC20 Strength/Dodge vs Grab. Both the damage and weaken are Progressive if the grab is maintained. Hits
Heroes are on turn!

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly might not have had much experience yet, but she had plenty of training, and that included mental self-defense courtesy of her big sister. The monster's will was powerful, and Kelly had to devote some effort to fending it off, but while her will was battered, it was far from broken.

Regardless, she wasn't going to show any distress outwardly. "Nice. Now this time, do it in the Shang Tsung voice from the Mortal Kombat movie!" Kelly made her voice deeper and breathier, and poured on the melodrama. "I can see into your soul! You! Will! DIE!"

And then she just laughed and laughed as she kept dancing and darting around the room, whips flying around her. She had a rhythm going now, and with her speed, once she had a rhythm going, there was no way to dodge. She landed blow after blow, each one a minor inconvenience at best to a creature this powerful. But their cumulative effect would add up.

Move: Dazed.

Standard: Move around the room some more!

End of Turn: Cloud Area triggers. Both tentacles get another dose of DC 23 Damage.

Current Status: 1 Bruise, Fatigued.

[Llyarden]

If the Laughing Darkness and Endless Flame had been annoyed at Kelly's enthusiasm, its day probably wasn't going to get any better. Adrien arrived zooming along...what kinda looked like a surfboard made of light, floating just a few centimetres off the ground. When he saw what was going on, he let out another delighted laugh. "Magic libraries, goblin markets, eldritch entities imprisoned underground -" which, admittedly, was a bit of an assumption (he hadn't exactly stopped to read all the signs), but when you were dealing with masses of tentacles with far more eyes than anyone needed, 'eldritch entity' was a good bet "- this school has everything!"

He paused for a moment. "Oh, I should probably do something, huh. My bad!" His attention was naturally drawn to the rainbow blur of motion zipping around the room. His 'surfboard' wasn't even close to fast enough to keep up with the speedster, but when there was a certain pattern to her movements, all he really had to do was be in the right place at the right time.

He held out his hand as Kelly came close - not in a way that could have interfered with her movement (mostly because...well, it wasn't like she couldn't have just walked around him), but more in the manner of someone offering a high-five. "Hi there!" he said brightly.

And if Kelly accepted the offered high-five, she would find that as she continued onwards in a blur of light, she was surrounded by a swirling nimbus of rainbows - which didn't particularly seem to interfere with her vision, or the movements of her equally-rainbow-y whips. But from the outside looking in, it would probably be quite difficult to pick Kelly out from within the tornado of rainbow light (assuming all the eyes weren't just for show and the creature was actually using them to see, that was.)

Free: Reconfigure All the World's A Stage to Selective Environment 1 [Intense Light], Platform Flight 10, Flight-only Strength 7.
Move: Arrive, and move next to Kelly.
Standard: Magic Box on Kelly, who is Deflected at 1d10+18 and has Total Visual Concealment.

Status: Fatigued.

[Dorni]

Anthony didn't even try to avoid the tentacle lashing out at him. Clearly he was terrified of the creature and frozen in fear and going to be crus- Ah, who am I kidding? He just reached out and caught the tendril in a vice-grip. "So you use nicknames so that hearing your true name won't destroy us, but you'll try to slaughter us as soon as we introduce ourselves? Aren't you kinda sending a mixed message there?"

Anthony's grip tightened and he yanked forward even as he reached for another hold with his other hand and slammed the tendril down to the grate, trying to get a firm grip on the writhing limb. "Like, are you really the Laughing Dark and the enemy of all that lives, or are you some edgelord trying for fear and attention?"

Move: Nah
Standard: Attack Tentacle 2 with Mighty Blow, AA 4: [roll0]. On hit, DC 23 Toughness vs Damage, Worse of Athletics/Acrobatics vs [roll1] Trip, and DC 22 Str or Dodge vs Grab.

[OutOfThyme]

"That makes sense," says Colin, a little disappointed that they couldn't take action right away. At least, they might find something down below in the manhole, so this issue could get resolved.

Unfortunately, the cackling of... something meant that Colin didn't have too much time to adjust to his new surroundings. As Adrien dropped off the group near the entrance to the room, Colin called Fragarach to him. This time would be a little different - he was going to keep his cool, and remember everything that his grandfather had taught hi-

Wait, was that the rainbow speedster from earlier? Huh.

Shaking the distraction aside, Colin charged in, going right for one of the tentacles that wasn't currently attacking the other visible student in the room.

Move Action: Get off Adrien's floaty platform, and head straight for Tentacle 1
Free Action: Set Fragarach to Dreams of Iron
Free Action: Set Airgetlam to Tuatha Grace
Free Action: Assessment against the Laughing Dark. Also, maybe Expertise: Magic against it to see if Colin knows anything about something like this? [roll0]
Standard Action: Attack with Dreams of Iron against Tentacle 1. [roll1]; if it hits, that's DC 23 vs. Damage if it hits, along an opposed Nullify vs. Will/effect check: [roll2]

Current Swordsmanship Chain: [Starter]
[Starter]: Dreams of Iron (0 turns ago)
[Combo]:
[Finisher]:

Current Status: -

[Thokk_Smash]

~"Ooh, lookit that look Adrien gave you, Boss. Wanna look at it again? Let's see it in slow-mo--~"

~"Welp, Barty, have fun watching my memory of scrubbing Gramma's feet."~

~"Nononowait--!"~

The sound of a door slamming echoes in Marcus' mind, leaving in its wake blessed silence in which Marcus can fume internally. He had thought Claire needed something from the peddler; something desperately important! Then she chose, for whatever reason, to ask for something they could have (and their other prospective students did) found independently. Guess that'll teach him to read into Claire's expressions in the future.

He can feel the Blackstaff smoldering in the back of his mind as he fumes, and he has to force himself to care. He's a teen, dammit, he can't be a paragon of emotional stability all the time. He can barely hold his emotions together for a consecutive hour! So as they descend he fumes, and stews, and only perks up when he hears a (rather cliche) raging voice in the distance.

Without a word he steps onto Adrien's surfboard(?), gathering his focus onto the Blackstaff. It seems they'll take a moment to get to whatever fight is happening, so he takes the time to steel himself for the use of the focus of malevolent energy. His duster is coated in a dark green glow, and he feels the power of the earth flow through him as he is deposited onto the ground near, as Barty would probably say, the hot American chick from before. He eschews any banter for now (he has to get a feel for the crowd, after all), but the Blackstaff glows with an ironic, radiant energy as he hefts it toward one of the black tentacles.

He unleashes a concentration of magical pressure before bellowing, "Forzare Rex!". A blast of pure radiant energy flies right at the tentacle, threatening to launch it at the other for further damage! However, as the light launches, it seems to take on a more malevolent vibe, and Marcus grits his teeth against the Blackstaff's encroaching power.

If able, spending the previous round (where we heard the start of combat but could not participate) to focus on resisting the Blackstaff's SE, reducing the DC from 18 to 17 (-1 for one full round of concentration)

Move action: Attempt to Demoralize, -2 for Move action: [roll0]

Standard action: Attack Tentacle 1 with Forzare Rex, AoA/PA for 2, Crits on a 16+ [roll1] vs DC 25 [Radiant, Magic] Damage, DC 25 Strength vs Move Object or be launched at Tentacle 2 at [roll2]
Will vs SE DC 17: [roll3]

Status: Fine, Defense at 16, -2 Will (Begin recovery in first round he doesn't use the Blackstaff)
HP: 1

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire couldn't help but notice the sudden souring of Marcus's mood as they descended down the shaft with the pixies. They fideted uncomfortably in their seat on Adrien's trapeze, ugly possibilities racing through their head. Had they upset him? They had never actually thanked Marcus for helping them out with Ms. Lethe, that had probably been quite rude. And that information they got was already found by Adrien and Colin anyway, so maybe he was aggravated that they'd run off and basically just wasted time? Or maybe he'd found out that they'd tried to read the mind of his strange brain-friend earlier somehow?

Before Claire could think of a good way to ask, though, they were quite abruptly thrown off track by a quite malicious and villain-y sounding voice issuing from the chamber beyond the stairway they'd just entered.

"Oh, goodness, what on earth is..."

As the peals of inhuman laughter rang down the passage, something in them ran ice-cold.

"...that..."

That

voice.

A chord was struck deep within them, a familiar feeling they couldn't describe in human words bubbling up in the depths of their consciousness like a fragment of a waking dream. They...knew that voice. But...why? When? Who? How was that even possible? Their head suddenly felt numb, their thoughts sluggish, enraptured.

The book and ruined hoodie thay'd been carrying falling to the stone floor with a soft thump, they walked wordlessly into the chamber in what almost seemed to be a trancelike state as the others sprung into action, eyes fixated on the shifting, incomprehensible monstrosity of void and eyes and teeth cackling beneath the chamber's grate flooring.

Almost instinctually, Ix reached out to it.

Move: Head into the chamber, stopping right in front of the entrance.

Free: Set Totally Not Psychic Shenanigans to "Really Good at Reading People"

Standard: Attempt to use Mind Reading on the Laughing Dark. Initial contact roll: [roll0]

Questions, in order (DC 14 to block at first question, DC18 for each one after. If they only get surface thoughts, they'll just listen in as long as they can.)

-Who/what are you?
-Have we met before?
-Where did you come from originally?
-What do you want?

[Dodgeson]

Kelly's whip's found their target yet again as the young speedster danced around her target, scattering more of the inky black mass of the creature across the chamber, but it didn't seem to mind, more fluid flooding up from beneath the grate to replace what had been lost. Whilst the other tendril simply slipped through Anthony's grasp as if he was trying to grab hold of a waterfall.

Then four new would be students arrived on to the scene! Sword in hand one of the new comers sliced in to a tentacle, bursting its eyes like overripe fruit, only for them to be replaced by another grinning toothy mouth."Yes! More! The Answerer! The Staff of Merlin!" It cackled, a blast of magic shooting passed it and dissapaiting against the wall behind it "Come little heroes of England and I will Ģ͇̠̜̙̖̯̙̩͇̟̤̫̭O̸͏̵̝̬͎̣̠̦͕̼̻͓̩̗̱̟̲́B̷̸̧͓̤͚̬̝̳̹̀͠B̵ ͚̳̺̺̞͔̝̺̰̘̜̳͉̘̙͕͖L̀͞҉̙̣͈̳͖͇͈̫̖̗͚͉̘̻̣̯͝E̜̮͙͙̥͈̻͉͕̕͠ ̥̹͈͍̞̦͓ ̢̀͏̖̫̫̠͖̠̳̪̱͖͕̹̭͉̜̜̙̟̭͢͠Y̶̶̸͉̠̝̥̘̩̤̝͚͉͢Ờ̧̧̲̝̰͕̞͠ ̜̺Ṷ̶̸̻̫̫̺͈̪͎ ̵̨͡҉̝̞̪̗̣̯̺̖͔̲͇̲̯̯̻̻̟̫Ṵ̵̟͎̘̘̰͇̰̩̹̦̙̞͍̰̟͜͟͡͡P̶͞͏̥̕ ͔̻̼̼̫̹̲̟͎͖̗!"

"Now!" A third tendril boomed, pushing its way up between the slats of the grate "Let us see if your will is as strong as your body, insolent little lamb!" All of its eyes focusing on to Anthony and pushing its alien mind against his.

Even with its seemingly nonchalant attitude towards Airgetlam it couldn't afford to take him and Fragarach lightly, one of the tendrils whirling around him and trying to ensnare him in its grasp.

Which just left the other object of its ire, the speedster still darting around the room, unfortunately for it (fortunately for her?) she was currently lost amidst a swirling maelstrom of bright lights, which just left the next best thing, the boy that was creating that maelstrom...

Whilst all this was happening Claire stood at the threshold of the room and even though she had failed to breach the creatures mind that didn't mean that all her questions went unanswered.

So whilst the you didn't manage to read the thing's mind you do already know the answer to one of those questions. Have we met before?

Once upon a time, in a world almost but not quite like this one, the creature (along with the Worthy) defeated the thing that would become Ix and shattered its consciousness across the void.

On the plus side that does mean that the creatures Immunity to Mental effects doesn't work on Claire due to them being more or less on the same 'wave length', so I guess that's something
Tentacle 1
Move:Nah
Standard: Attack Colin with Tentacle Crush [roll0] DC25/20 Toughness Save vs Damage/Weaken Toughness & DC20 Strength/Dodge vs Grab. Both the damage and weaken are Progressive if the grab is maintained. Miss

Tentacle 2
Move: Nope
Standard: Attack Adrien with Tentacle Barrage [roll1] DC25+Multiattack Toughness & DC20+Multiattack Fortitude vs Daze/Stunned if that hits. Hit +5 Multiattack

Tentacle 3
Move: Emerge from the depths!
Standard: Attack Anthony with Evil Eye, DC25 Will Save vs Damage
Heroes are on turn!

[Quellian-dyrae]

Of course Kelly returned the high-five! And she beamed as Adrien's light mixed with her own, rendering her only a vague, but brightly colored, blur. And hey, look, he even brought friends!

"Hey it's a party!" she extolled with a huge grin. "In, like, both senses of the term! Hiya all! Welcome to the Can. This is our host, the Laughing Dark and Endless Flame, also affectionately known as L-DEF! He wants more than anything to be scary, but we're trying to teach him to set his sights on more achievable goals. Oh! Have you ever considered banzai? I heard it's great stress relief!"

Kelly's mouth just didn't stop moving, and neither did her feet. Or her whips, the shining strands of magical energy whipping through the room like lights at a rave. Not only did Kelly keep smacking around the first two tendrils, maintaining her graceful battle-dance, but her whips also worked through a rapid defensive pattern that left the image of a sort of dome-like grid around the team, to shield them from direct attacks by the tentacles. And she managed to kinda tie one up to leave an opening for Anthony. The glories of super-speed.

Move: Keep moving! Ideally to a place where all party members (or at least as many as possible) are within 30'.

Free: Swap to Rainbow Rage and Defensive Strike.

Standard: Defensive Strike, using the attack to Aid Anthony at [roll0] after Teamwork. Kelly is Deflected at 1d10+22. All allies in 30' are Deflected at 1d10+18, -1 per point their Toughness exceeds 8, and receive Evasion 2 and Instant Up this round. +5 to Anthony's next close attack roll.

End of Turn: Secondary Effects trigger. Tentacles 1 and 2 take Toughness DC 23 vs. Damage.

Current Status: 1 Bruise, Fatigued, Deflected (1d10+22).

[Dorni]

So the Endless Dark's chamber was turning into a light show. Sure, why not? If his pod memories were true, both parties and monster fighting was always better with company.

Apparently the creature disagreed and Anthony threw himself in the way of a barrage of tentacles meant for the surfer boy. They slammed into him but the powerhouse simply absorbed the impact with a grunt. Even as he did, he reached out to sieze the tentacles himself and pin them to the grate. "L-DEF? If we combine the names we can call him ED!"

Standard: Attack Tentacle 2 with Mighty Blow, AoA 5, PA 2: [roll0] 28 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=23859556&postcount=95). On hit, DC 29 Toughness vs Damage, Worse of Athletics/Acrobatics vs [roll1] Trip, and DC 28 Str or Dodge vs Grab.
Move: Dazed

Deflected at 1d10+16, Evasion 2, -5 Defenses, Regenerate 1 Bruise

[Llyarden]

"Oh, nuts," Adrien muttered, when he saw the tentacle hurtling towards him. He crouched, preparing to spring backwards off his 'surfboard' to mitigate the worst of the blow...when the guy who'd been wrestling with one of the tentacles leapt up and took the blow in his stead. And barely even flinched. "Whoa. Thanks!"

Then he turned his attention to the rainbow speedster, giving her (or, well, vaguely where she might have been for a nanosecond or two) a grateful nod as he watched the prismatic contrails whirl around the room. "Cool!" he beamed in response to her potted summary of events thus far.

The tentacles seemed to be annoyingly good at healing themselves...except for where Colin had sliced his one. Adrien clicked his fingers, and a little cartoony wolf, dressed in the armour of a medieval knight, popped into existence, scampering across the room towards Colin, where it produced a comically oversized whetstone from its non-existent pocket and made a little leap to bring the whetstone over Fragarach. Where the stone touched the enchanted blade, it began to shine with light, almost seeming to leave a trail of phantom images in mid-air for a few moments as it moved.

Then he continued on his path of annoyance, turning towards the tentacle that had all the eyes still on it in the absence of an actual face to look at. "Yeah, I'll be honest, L-DEF -" because of course he was immediately going to seize upon the aggravating nickname, having apparently learned nothing from his near-miss just a few seconds prior "- the whole spooky speech thing doesn't really work for you. It just kinda makes you sound like you're talking through a bad Skype connection."

Free: Reconfigure All the World's A Stage to Illusion 2, Selective Environment [Intense Light, Visibility], Extra Limb 1, Limited Projection, Elongation 5, Platform Flight 2, Flight-only Strength 3
Move: Feint Tentacle 1: [roll0]. In the unlikely event that it succeeds, I'll give the benefits to Anthony Marcus and Colin.
Standard: Shine the Spotlight on Colin. Colin gains two new alternate effects in his Fragarach array:
- Tuatha Tornado Strike - Selective Multiattack Targeted Burst Area Damage 6, Accurate 5, Affects Insubstantial 2, Incurable, Dimensional 2 (Mythic Dimensions); Limit: [Combo]
- Ultimate Flurry - Incurable Multiattack Damage, Resisted by Defense 6 Linked Broad Multiattack Weaken Defenses (Resisted by Fortitude) 6, Accurate 5 ; Limit: [Finisher]
- 1 point to duplicate Tuatha Whirlwind Strike as a new alternate of Fragarach.
- 0 points to convert the Burst into a Targeted Burst.
- 8 points to add Multiattack to the alternate.
- -6 points to remove 2 ranks from the Damage.
- 5 points to add 5 points of Accurate.
- 1 point to duplicate Ultimate Rebuke as another alternate.
- -4 points to remove 2 ranks from the Damage.
- -3 points (due to the cap) to remove 2 ranks from the Weaken.
- 1 point to add another point of Accurate to the new Ultimate Rebuke as well.
- 6 points to add Multiattack to the damage.
- 6 points to add Multiattack to the Weaken.

Status: Fatigued, Deflected at 1d10+16, Evasion 2, Instant Up.

[zzzzzzzz414]

Ix could practically feel the reverberations in their mind as they slammed against what seemed to be and iron-hard wall of mental defenses, but it almost didn't seem to matter. The mere sight of the thing was causing memories to bubble up from the blackness of their subconscious, old images and ideas they barely understood. Another world, the Worthy, this laughing creature that had...killed them...broken them...?

They didn't really have the time to process or have a breakdown over these newly-unlocked memories, because something else seemed to be bubbling up along with them: anger, hot and raw and ugly, sweeping away their jumbled thoughts for the moment, mixing with the fear and adrenaline into a surprising -almost scary, to them- amount of aggression.

"...m-"

Claire opened their eyes and lifted themselves off the ground before rocketing towards one of the tentacles at top speed. "MR. ELDEFF THIS IS INCREDIBLY RUDE AND IT WOULD BE VERY NICE IF YOU WOULD STOP!" They whipped around the tentacle and drove their fist into the amorphous black mass. Anyone with actual hand-to-hand combat experience would recognize it as mediocre: clumsy, misaimed, no real follow-through. But that didn't really matter, as the real work was being done invisibly, as Claire telekinetically shoved the tentacle in the direction of its fellow in the center of the room (hoping to tear it free of the grate floor) and poured every ounce of psychic pain she could muster into the disgusting, horrid being attached to it.

Free: Switch Totally Not Psychic Shenanigans to "Flight Genes"
Free: Switch Very Real Superhero Moves to "Strong Punch, Huh?"

Move: Fly over near Tentacle 1 so that it's between Claire and Tentacle 3

Standard: Use Strong Punch, Huh? on Tentacle 1. DC23 Will vs. Damage, DC15 Dodge to avoid being moved into Tentacle 3.

[Thokk_Smash]

Marcus recoils at the backlash of the Blackstaff, and feels its icy tendrils seep into his mind. For a moment, he thinks about letting go, but the moment passes quickly and he mentally slaps the influence away. ~"Piss right the bloody hell off,"~ he thinks to the semi-sentient staff.

He sprints up to the tentacle that the bloody bruiser (Anthony, he thinks?) had somehow gotten on the ground. Golden light gathers around the head of the brown stave, now in his hands in place of the Blackstaff. "Forezare!" he shouts, wielding his stave like an oversized golf club and smacking the tentacle with all the magical power he can muster.

Move action: I'm assuming Tentacle 2 is within 30ft (speed rank 0) of Marcus; otherwise I'll swap to Knight Aeris for enough movement speed to get into Close range of Tentacle 2.

Standard action: Attack with Forzare, PA for 2, +5 from it being Prone from being Tripped, [roll0] vs DC 25 Damage, DC 20 Strength vs Move Object or be teed into Tentacle 1 at [roll1]

End of turn: Recover 1 Will

Status: Fine, -1 Will
HP: 1
Luck: 0/2

[OutOfThyme]

As Fragarach glowed with Adrien's own enchantment, Colin felt the power in Fragarach shift ever-so-slightly. It was different - Adrien's enchantment acted like a prism and lens - refracting and refocusing his power into something he wouldn't ever have used.

He could do this. It wouldn't be like fighting against the Fomorian - Colin had backup, and support that he could actually rely upon. Despite what the Laughing Dark and Endless Flame was claiming, they still had strength in numbers.

"That's a lot of talk for an eldritch small fry, L-DEF!" Colin calls out, as he gathers every ounce of will and lashes out with Fragarach. The wind in the cavern suddenly picked up, striking the tentacles in the area - while leaving the rest of the would-be heroes in their own vortices - like the eyes of mini-hurricanes. Colin wasn't using Adrien's enchantments just yet - he'd save that for his next assault.

Move Action: None
Free Action: Set Fragarach to Tuatha Whirlwind Strike
Standard Action: Attack with Tuatha Whirlwind Strike; DC 18 vs. Toughness for Half Effect; DC 23/19 Damage - Affects Insubstantial 2, Incurable, Dimensional 2 (Mythic Dimensions)

Current Swordsmanship Chain: [Combo]
[Starter]: Dreams of Iron (1 turn ago)
[Combo]: Tuatha Whirlwind Strike
[Finisher]:

Current Status: -

[Dodgeson]

Anthony grappled with one of the slick black tendrils, slamming it against the grate even as it started to lose consistency and flow through his fingers whilst Colin's whirling blade sent more of its mass splattering against the walls of its chamber where it stubbornly refused to crawl back down the grate and began fizzing away in to nothing.

To say it wasn't have a fun time was something of an understatement, especially considering the attitude of the children that buzzed around it "The least of my kind could decimate your world!" The tendril that was now pulling itself off the floor screeched whilst the other two split straight down the middle to reveal yet more slavering maws that issued forth an otherworldly cacophony that made the room twitch and reality begin spasm around them as the jagged splintering sound clashed with the world around it and assaulted the young heroes.

Tentacle 1 & 3
Standard: Team Attack with Eldritch Howl everybody make a DC22 Defence Check & a DC22 Will Save vs Impaired&Vulnerable/Stunned&Disabled/Incapacitated. This effect is Progressive as long as one of the takes a Standard Action to maintain it.
End of turn: Tentacle 1 heals a Bruise

Tentacle 2
Free Action: Instant Up
Standard Action: Recover
End of turn: Regeneration heals a Bruise
Heroes are on turn!

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly dodged the howl. Not, like, she plugged her ears before it could affect her, or anything. She dodged it. Kelly moved way faster than the speed of sound, it wasn't even a thing.

"Wow, they can? Really!?" Kelly replied, with the bright-eyed cheer of someone feigning happy interest. A beat later, though, she asked, "But soooo...what does that make you?"

She kept on whirling and dancing through the room, her whips lashing out at the first two tentacles to ding them every time they moved or shifted like literally at all. "Because, like, if the least of your kind can decimate our world, but you can't even take on a bunch of teenagers with attitude...?"

She sent her whips lashing at the first tentacle, her arms vibrating fast enough to "crack" the whips basically dozens of times a second, the energy whips aiming to practically drill into the tendril. "I mean, it kinda doesn't math out unless you like realllyy suck!"

Move: Be a speedster.

Standard: Attack Tentacle 1 with Hummingbird Touch, Power Attack for 4, at [roll0]. On a hit, Toughness DC 23+Multiattack vs. Damage, Defense DC 18+Multiattack vs. Weaken All Defenses.

End of Turn: Secondary Effect triggers. Tentacles 1 and 2 take Toughness DC 23 vs. Damage.

Current Status: 1 Bruise, Fatigued.

[Llyarden]

Adrien didn't dodge the psychic shrieking. He just kinda...floated there on his 'surfboard,' apparently unconcerned. Then he clicked his fingers and an oversized pair of pink earmuffs appeared on his head, blocking out the sound. One of the perks of being a musician, though, was that you got good at knowing what you sounded like even when you couldn't hear yourself singing - or in this case, speaking. "Sorry, Eddy -" because why stick to one annoying nickname when you could have two? "- but you...you just don't scare me."

Having finished polishing Fragarach, the cartoon wolf went zipping across the room to arrive by Claire - Adrien was watching her with a little worry. He didn't...quite understand why she'd suddenly charged at L-DEF and started screaming at it, but she hadn't acted at all like that in their last fight. Maybe it was some lingering guilt about the memory peddler.

His concern aside, there was an eldritch abomination to punch in the...something. Whatever eldritch abomintions had that was eminently punchable. Once more, a giant boxing glove appeared on Claire's hand - though this time, it was visibly connected to a set of strings that stretched up into the ceiling, where a whole collection of little cartoony animals were working the strings, running back and forth along unseen stage supports to add even more momentum to her punches, rather like a battering ram.

Start of Turn: Colin's Augment-tied Illusion drops to rank 1.
Move: Feint Tentacle 1: [roll0] If I manage to roll well I'll pass the benefits to Colin and Anthony.
Standard: Shine the Spotlight on Claire, to give her a new Alternate Effect of Very Real Superhero Moves:
Definitely A Sonic Clap - Damage 8 [Resisted by Will, Increased Range 2 (Perception), Area (Cone), Selective, Incurable, Reversible, Limited (must originate from user)] Linked Affliction 8 (Dazed+Vulnerable/Stunned+Defenseless; Will) [Extra Condition, Increased Range 2, Limited Degree, Limited (targets within melee range)]
1 point to duplicate Strong Punch, Huh?
-10 points to remove the Move Object entirely.
16 points to add Area [Cone] and Selective to the Damage.
0 points to change 'Limited to targets within melee range' to 'Must originate from user.'
8 points to add Linked Affliction 8 (Dazed+Vulnerable/Stunned+Defenseless; Will) [Extra Condition, Increased Range 2, Limited Degree, Limited to targets within melee range]
(Note: Perception-range area attacks do not allow Dodge saves to half the effect.)
Free: Begin blocking sense of hearing.

Status: Fatigued, Hearing Blocked.

[OutOfThyme]

"Sparkles over there has a point," Colin called out, as the gusts of wind calmed down. "You're not doing too well, for a horror from beyond the veil."

Colin raised his blade, and the runes on Fragarach glowed with a crimson light. Colin brought the blade down, using the last of Adrien's modifications to smite the nameless horror before him.

"Take that!"

Move Action: None
Free Action: Set Fragarach to Ultimate Flurry
Standard Action: Attack with Ultimate Flurry; [roll0] to hit; DC 21 + Multiattack Damage vs. Defense; DC 16 Fortitude vs. Weaken Defenses

Current Swordsmanship Chain: [Finisher]
[Starter]: Dreams of Iron (2 turns ago)
[Combo]: Tuatha Whirlwind Strike (1 turn ago)
[Finisher]: Ultimate Flurry

Current Status: -

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire managed to clap their hands over their ears just before the wave of distorted noise hit, the effects rattling them but ultimately doing no harm. When they looked up again, it was with a quite uncharacteristic snarl on their face. Everything this creature did, the way it moved, the way it talked, it all filled them with overwhelming anger, to the point where they could barely see straight.

When Adrien's cartoon wolf appeared with another one of those odd-looking gloves, the snarl twisted into an almost manic-looking grin. Claire pulled back, and, with a yell of exertion, slammed their fist into the tentacle twice more, pouring their psychic energy through the glove.

A flurry of cartoony stars and sparkles exploded from the impact, along with two waves of distorted energy not unlike the one that had torn through the room moments earlier, dancing and flowing around their friends but slamming into the other two tentacles full force.

Free Action: Switch Array to "Totally a Sonic Clap"

Free Action: Switch Array to "Exceptionally Clear-Minded"

Move Action:Land

Standard Action: Using "Totally a Sonic Clap" on all 3 tentacles.

T1 has to make a Will save vs DC23 Damage and DC18 Affliction (Dazed+Vulnerable, Stunned+Defenseless)

T2 and T3 have to make a Will save vs Damage.

Extra Effort: using "Totally a Sonic Clap" again, repeat of Standard Action

Status: Fatigued
HP: 1

[Dorni]

Being right next to the tentacles meant Anthony got the full dose from the screaming tentacles, and he recoiled with his hands on his ears. When the scream ended Anthony was woozy on his feet with his ears still ringing from the horrible horribleness. But it wasn't just that. Anthony was indestructible, knew he was all but invulnerable. He hadn't been out of the pod long, but he'd been subjected to all manner of tests first by the Worthies then by the academy staff, and he knew that he was far tougher than any test they'd throw at the students. Even the spider they'd run into earlier hadn't really been able to hurt him.

This abomination's scream pierced right through that since of invincibility. Moments ago Anthony had regarded this monster as just another ugly, quaint little guard dog. Something to be wary of, sure, but not to be worried about. Anthony wasn't recoiling purely from the horrible wail. It was the psychic pain and the realization that this abomination could threaten him.

Then the moment of mortality gave way to another conviction.

Lionheart wouldn't let this stop him.

Anthony let go of his ears and drove forward, charging the screaming tentacle and swung one open hand at the tentacle like a karate chop. True, calling it a karate chop would have probably offended anyone with real knowledge of martial arts, but the raw power of the all-out charge backing it up more than made up for the lack of technique. "You think we're scared of where you came from? This world is our home field!"

Move: Close with Tentacle 1 (If needed)
Standard: Attack Tentacle 1 with Powerful Blow, AoA 5. [roll0]. On hit, DC 27/22 32/27 Crit Toughness vs Damage/Weaken [Toughness]

End of turn: Regenerate a Bruise. Will DC 22 [roll1] Crit vs Progressive Affliction [Impaired&Vulnerable/Stunned&Disabled/Incapacitated] Recovered

Status: Impaired & Vulnerable, Bruised x0, -5 Defenses

[Thokk_Smash]

It was pure luck that Marcus was able to block his ears before the wail could truly take effect on his mind. He grimaces, thinking desperately on what to do. He can almost feel Jordan's Death Curse squeezing in around him, seeming to choke him and drive his mind blank. And the remnants of the Blackstaff's whispers continue to assault his mind in a dizzying susurrus.

But everyone else isn't backing down. There's no way he can get scared now.

"I've heard better singing from alleycats, you bloody pissant!" he shouts, as much to hype himself up as anything else. He backs up a few steps, and the Blackstaff appears in his hand as if by magic--distressingly quickly, to Marcus, as if it had been teleported there, but there is nothing for it. He raises the Blackstaff, gathering power in the form of a radiant sphere of light at the head of the staff. "Forzare Rex!" he shouts, aiming for the most weakened tentacle and seeking to pinball it into the one that hadn't already shaken off its damage.

Then, with a little magical twist of his mind, he deadens the air inside his ears. It's a bit painful, but now he can't hear anything, including any further wailings from the monsters.

Move action: Move out of Close range of the tentacles.

Standard: Forzare Rex on Tentacle 1, AoA/PA for 2, critting on a 16+, [roll0] vs DC 25 Damage, DC 20 Strength vs Move Object or be launched at Tentacle 3 at [roll1] Would be a Crit on Tentacle 3 if the Move Object is failed

Will vs Side Effect DC 18, -1 for Weaken: [roll2] -3 Will, and Marcus' attack gains the [Dark/Evil] descriptor due to failing to resist

Free action: Begin to block Hearing

Status: Fine, -4 Will Hearing Blocked, -2 Defenses
HP: 0
Luck: 1/2

[Dodgeson]

Reality began to settle back to normal as the maddening cackle finally ceased, Claire's rolling wave of energy knocking the writhing black appendages off balance enough that Anthony's heavy blow cut straight through the tentacle like he was swing through particularly thick custard and sending enough of its mass flying across the room that it noticeable shrunk in size.

It had hardly had a moment to recover before Marcus' shout echoed across the room and a sphere of arcane slammed in to it with enough force to send it whipping across the room and crashing in to another of the appendages, it couldn't have been less dignified if somebody had yelled 'Stop hitting yourself!'

Still whilst two of the limbs had begun to wither as they tried to pull themselves back together there was still fight left in one of them and it spun around like a whirlwind, lashing out at the heroes who had hurt it the most.

Tentacle 1
Standard Recover
End of turn Regeneration removes a bruise

Tentacle 2
Standard Multiattack Anthony, Claire and Marcus with Tentacle Barrage, DC25 Toughness & DC20 Fortitude vs Dazed/Stunned if that hits
Anthony [roll]1d20+7[roll] Miss (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=23891384&postcount=114)
Claire [roll0] Miss
Marcus [roll1] Miss
Move Staggered
End of turn Regeneration removes a bruise

Tentacle 3
Standard Recover
End of turn Regeneration removes a bruise
Heroes are on turn!

[Llyarden]

For the first time since he'd arrived in the room, Adrien took off on his 'surfboard' again, gliding over to join the rest of the group. "Oh, right, we haven't introduced ourselves!" he realised, aloud. "We should probably do that. I'm Adrien. Nice to meet you two!"

"And now, on with the show! Ladies, gentlemen, eldritch abominations of all ages!" he announced, cheerful as ever, stepping from his surfboard onto the tentacle that Marcus had just flung across the room, using it as a sort of impromptu podium. "My next trick may well be one you've seen before - but can you tell how it's done? I present - the magic boxes!"

With another click of his fingers and dramatic flourish, red velvet curtains swirled around the group, momentarily cutting sight of them all off from each other. Then the curtains raised again...and all of the heroes that had been in the area now found themselves staring at a series of human-sized purple boxes, emblazoned with silver stars. Each box had three 'doors,' which opened and closed as needed to allow the heroes to reach out and attack. And while, logically, it was obvious that all the heroes had been shielded by the magic boxes, each of the heroes' own boxes, to them, was all but imperceptible.

...and then, over the rustling of fabric as the curtains retracted back into whatever illusory ceiling they'd come from, and the general sound of the melee going on, Adrien quietly turned to Claire. His concerned look grew a little deeper when he saw her expression as she was punching at the beleaguered tentacle. "Hey, are you okay?"

Start of Turn: Colin's Augment-tied Illusion drops to rank 0 and vanishes. Claire's Augment-tied Illusion drops to rank 1.
Move: Fly kinda into the middle of everyone clustered around Tentacle 1.
Free: Switch to Centre Stage. Claire's Augment drops.
Standard: Magic Box on...probably everyone, except maybe Marcus depending on where he went, Selectively excluding the tentacles for obvious reasons. Anyone targeted is Deflected at 1d10+18, -1 per point of Toughness above 8, and has Total Visual Concealment which doesn't conceal their positions.

Status: Fatigued, Deflected (1d10+16), Total Visual Concealment

[Quellian-dyrae]

For a moment, Kelly had the odd urge to start miming when the boxes appeared. But then she remembered that the typical color scheme of mimes was black and white and decided there was no way she could get away with it.

"Oh, yeah, I'm Kelly! Great to meet you! Big fan!" Kelly answered cheerily, as she threw herself back into her dervish dance, changing her own rhythm so her strikes couldn't become predictable. The magic boxes made it pretty wild, the doors opened and closed one after another, rapid-fire, a strand of brilliant energy lashing out and vanishing as the door closed. But as fast as the doors opened and closed, she was in a different position each time, rainbow light strobing over the battlefield in flickering flashes.

Free: Reconfigure Streaming to 8 points Rainbow Rage, 3 points Rainbow Relay: Teleport 1 (Reaction, Limited), 1 point Rainbow Race: Flight 2 (Platform, Quirk).

Reaction: Rainbow Relay teleport.

Move: Movement.

Reaction: Rainbow Relay teleport.

Standard: Attack with Dervish Dance, All Out Attack for 5, Power Attack for 5. On a hit, Toughness DC 24+Multiattack vs. Secondary Effect, Cloud Area Damage.
Tentacle 1: [roll0]. Hit with +2 Multiattack due to Recover bonus.
Tentacle 2: [roll1]. Hit
Tentacle 3: [roll2]. Hit

Reaction: Rainbow Relay teleport.

Current Status: 1 Bruise, Fatigued, -5 Defense this turn, Deflected (1d10+18), Total Visual Concealment.

[Dorni]

"And I'm Anthony - thanks for the help. I don't suppose the giant stopped you guys on the way in?" Anthony replied, shaking some of the black ooze off his hand as he charged the remaining tentacles and delivered another chop.

Move: to Tentacle 2
Standard: Attack Tentacle 2 with Powerful Blow, AoA 5. [roll0]. On hit, DC 27/22 Toughness vs Damage / Weaken [Toughness]

End of turn: Regenerate 1 bruise
Status: -5 Defenses, Deflected (1d10+16), Total Visual Concealment

[zzzzzzzz414]

"I'm...fine..." Claire mumbled between heavy breaths, eyes not leaving the slimy mass in front of them. As soon as the rainbow-y girl (Kelly? They were having trouble focusing on much of anything but L-DEF at the moment) dispatched it, Claire sprinted away towards the other one without another word, hammering the creature with another psychic assault before their fist even made contact.

Move: to Tentacle 2

Free: Switch array to Disorienting "Strike"

Standard: Use Disorienting "Strike" on T2. DC19 Will vs Damage, DC18 Will vs Affliction (Dazed/Vulnerable, Stunned/Defenseless)

Status: Fatigued, Total Visual Concealment, Deflected (1d10+17)
HP: 1

[OutOfThyme]

Colin was about to slice downward with Fragarach, when both Kelly and Adrien interrupted with dropping the tentacle that he was engaged with, and putting up a bunch of boxes around the room.

Was this some kind of protective trick from Adrien? It was weird, and reminded Colin of some kind of corny game show. Something like "Are You Smarter Than An Eldritch Horror?"

"The name's Colin," he said, watching as Claire and Anthony moved to attack one of the other tentacles. "I'll get the other one!"

Colin charged for the third tentacle, trying to carve out more of the eldritch essence with sweeping cuts.

Move Action: Move to engage Tentacle 3
Free Action: Set Fragarach to Dreams of Iron
Standard Action: Attack with Dreams of Iron. [roll0]. If it hits, that's a DC 23 vs. Damage, and an opposed Nullify vs. Will/effect check: [roll1]

Current Swordsmanship Chain: [Starter]
[Starter]: Dreams of Iron
[Combo]: Tuatha Whirlwind Strike (2 turns ago)
[Finisher]: Ultimate Flurry (1 turn ago)

Current Status: -

[Thokk_Smash]

This time the Blackstaff took a much larger bite from Marcus' reserves, and the boy feels his body becoming sluggish. Rather, not his body, but his mind is muddied from trying to channel so much dark energy so quickly. The Blackstaff is in his mind, pounding it with seemingly-good reasons to give himself over to the staff.

Breathing heavily, grimacing in discomfort, Marcus stows the Blackstaff once more and takes up his trusty brown stave. He reacts with a flinch at the magic boxes, and his simple walk to the least-damaged tentacle is quite banal, unlike Kelly(?)'s spectacular display. "Marcus, present," he says in a tired voice, as if replying to a role call in class. It's kinda hard to hear even himself with his ears blocked, but he thinks he can tell what everyone else is going for.

Arctic cold coalesces around the head of his staff, and Marcus gestures at the tentacle with a vicious stab. "Infriga!" he invokes. "And Infriga again, you soon-to-be calamari!"

Free action: Swap to Infriga

Move: Into close range of Tentacle 3.

Standard action: Attack with Infriga, AoA/PA for 2, [roll0] vs DC 25 Damage, DC 20 Fort vs Impaired/Disabled/Paralyzed.

Extra Effort: Do it again! [roll1] vs DC 25 Toughness Damage, DC 20 Fort vs Impaired/Disabled/Paralyzed

Seeing as Marcus was just ten feet or so from Tentacle 1, he should most likely be within range for the Magic Box.

Status: Fine, Fatigued next turn, -2 Defenses, Deflected at 1d10+16, Total Visual Concealment, still Blocking Hearing
HP: 0
Luck: 1/2

[Dodgeson]

With each strike of Kelly's brilliant whips the black tendril spasmed, its myriad eyes bursting only to be replaced with howling maws, getting smaller and smaller with each hit as the sheer force of her blows simply dissolved more and more of the black ooze that made up its body until it fizzed away in to nothingness.

As Claire hammered away at one of the remaining limbs and the other was hit hard by the powerful magic of the Blackstaff it was starting to look like the writing was on the wall for the eldritch monstrosity but the creature wasn't about to let itself be beaten so easily. The brightly coloured boxes that currently made a mockery of the chambers otherwise grim decor were proving to be bothersome but there was certainly a way around that, letting out another garbled screech that singed the ears of those that heard it the remaining limbs rounded on Adrien's shelter and hammered away at it to reach the prey inside.

Tentacle 2
Standard: Attack Adrien [roll0] with Tentacle Barrage DC25+Multiattack Toughness and DC20+Multiattack Fortitude vs Cumulative Dazed/Stunned if that hits Not even with the +2
Move: Staggered
End of Turn: Regeneration removes a Bruise

Tentacle 3
Standard: Aid Tentacle 2 [roll1] +2
Move: Nah
End of Turn: Regeneration removes a Bruise. Fortitude to Recover from Disabled (DC20) [roll2] No dice
Heroes are on turn!

[Quellian-dyrae]

"One down, two to go!" Kelly cheered. "When this is over they're gonna have to change your name to Crying Darkness and Endless Flame!" she quipped.

With two tentacles left, she could pretty much just dedicate a whip to each one. That would have been a solid play. Except, you know, super-speed and all. She was still keeping up her dervish dance, her blows coming faster and faster as she built up her combat rhythm. So sure, weaving and spinning through the battlefield, she dedicated one whip to each tentacle.

But the thing about super-speed dancing was, you needed something to occupy yourself between the beats. Considering the various options available, she decided on attacking the tentacles. She went with what worked. For those attacks, she swapped which whip went for each tentacle. To people who didn't occupy a privileged view of her headspace, it basically looked like she was just zipping about the room attacking both tentacles with both whips many many times. But I think it's important to clarify the subtle distinction between this technique and actually just attacking both tentacles with both whips many many times. The devil (or ancient eldritch horror, whatever) is in the details.

"Ooh! Or maybe Laughing Stock And Endless Joke?"

Free: Swap to Rainbow Race.

Move: Around.

Standard: Attack Tentacles 2 and 3 with Barrage, not applying Cumulative. Power Attack for 2, Multiattack for 2. On a hit, Toughness DC 21 vs. Damage, Will DC 16 vs. Cumulative, Secondary Effect Dazed+Vulnerable/Stunned+Defenseless/Incapacitated+Transformed Affliction.
Tentacle 2: [roll0].
Tentacle 3: [roll1].

End of Turn: Cloud Area triggers. Tentacles 2 and 3 get Toughness DC 24 vs. Damage.

Current Status: 1 Bruise, Fatigued.

[OutOfThyme]

"If we're going to mock L-DEF, what about Laughing Dork and Endless Fails?" Colin said, raising his blade up to twist the wind in the room into swirling vortices to strike each of the two tentacles.

"It's a little childish for me, though."

Move Action: None
Free Action: Set Fragarach to Tuatha Whirlwind Strike
Standard Action: Attack with Tuatha Whirlwind Strike; C 18 vs. Toughness for Half Effect; DC 23/19 Damage - Affects Insubstantial 2, Incurable, Dimensional 2 (Mythic Dimensions)

Current Swordsmanship Chain: [Combo]
[Starter]: Dreams of Iron (1 turn ago)
[Combo]: Tuatha Whirlwind Strike
[Finisher]: Ultimate Flurry (2 turns ago)

Current Status: -

[Dorni]

"If we're doing this, how about 恥ずかしい?" Anthony offered, sounding out 'hazu•ka•shī', a word for 'embarrassment'. The meaning was reasonably appropriate, but the bigger insult was that the word would sound cutsy to english ears and the strong 'shī' syllable was nearly impossible to pronounce without a smile. He wasn't sure there was anything that could spite an eldrich abomination more than having a name bringing smiles to anyone who repeated it.

The powerhouse delivered another chop to the tentacle with a rueful glance toward the preceding room. "I'm kinda regretting not bringing that axe with me. It would have made this so much easier."

Move: Really need to find a use for these things.
Standard: Attack Tentacle 3 with Powerful Blow, AoA 5. [roll0]. On hit, DC 27/22 Toughness vs Damage / Weaken [Toughness].

If Tentacle 3 is knocked out by Kelly, attack Tentacle 2 instead. Use move to move to Close range with Tentacle 3 if required.

[Llyarden]

You don't seem fine. Adrien didn't press the issue with Claire, though, instead focusing on the oncoming tentacle, which smashed through the box he'd been hiding in and went sweeping away with the disintegrating wood...leaving him completely untouched on the grate.

"Nice try!" he called over to the tentacles. "But for my next trick..."

With another dramatic flourish he clicked his fingers - and vanished. But another dozen boxes popped into existence, skittering around the room, making it even harder for L-DEF to figure out where any of the heroes were. And since L-DEF obviously didn't like the decor of the last ones, the new set of boxes were even more brightly-coloured and glittery.

And then he...basically completely ignored L-DEF, as if the eldritch monstrosity wasn't even worth his time to pay any more attention to. "No giants for us," he told Anthony. "We met a rather unpleasant fae, though. We need to find something to give her..." he mused, directing the boxes with one hand like an absent-minded conductor.

Reaction (start of turn): Teleport over to tentacles 2 & 3.
Standard: Use Magic Boxes again. This time everyone has actual Concealment so their positions are hidden too.
Move: Taunt Tentacle 2, because let's be honest I've been doing that the entire time anyway and I might as well try to get some mechanical use out of it (-5 for move action, +5 for Centre Stage): [roll0]

Status: Fatigued, Deflected at 1d10+16, Total Visual Concealment.

[Dodgeson]

If things were looking bad before for the monster imprisoned beneath the grate before they were looking downright disastrous now, all that flailing at Adrien's boxes had done was leave it wide open for yet more lashes from Kelly's brilliant whips, the brightly glowing whips reducing the boiling darkness of one the tendrils to nothing once more.

For a brief instant the final appendage's howling was drowned out by Fragarach's razor wind before it was silenced forever by a final mighty blow, sending one eye flying against the far wall whilst the rest of its mass simply lost shape and dropped back through the grate like water emptied from a bucket.

For the moment everything was still and calm again, the battle was over and the young heroes had been victorious.

[Quellian-dyrae]

The streamer of rainbow light that had been racing around the room, tying itself in knots in elaborate patterns, finally slowed down and resolved back into the shape of Kelly. "Rock on team! So, let's see, I think we're probably about as deep in the dungeon as we can get, and as it happens there are six weapon-keys in the prior room. I bet we'll get tons of points if we bring those up! ...Also I mean just as a matter of practical security it's probably not super-safe to leave the keys to the room where you're sealing an Eldritch Horror right outside the door. Gonna be honest, not entirely sure what Merlin was-"

Kelly's mouth may have moved faster than her brain, but to be fair, her brain did still move pretty fast, "Oh wait! What if...I mean, it wasn't like super hard to get down here if you found the shortcuts. You've got to figure in every new crop of students, there's probably going to be at least a few who do it.
I wonder if this is, like, L-DEF's punishment or something. Every year a few untrained super-kids come down here and he acts all big and bad and then they beat him up! And because he's an Eldritch Horror he probably doesn't experience time's passage linearly so he doesn't even learn from his experience so every year he does it again thinking he can win and then stuff like this happens! ...I almost feel bad for making fun of him now. Note to self: do not get detention from Merlin!"

[Llyarden]

"Awesome!" Adrien beamed, as the colourful boxes turned into celebratory fireworks that sparkled and glittered in the roof of the room. "This fight went so much better! And...I mean, Merlin had that whole 'the things deep in the dungeon get hungry' speech, sure, but I don't think they'd let us anywhere seriously dangerous. Not when we aren't even students yet. I bet this is more of a test of, like, are you brave enough to stand up to a terrifying...ish...okay, moderately unpleasant...eldritch abomination."

He gave a small shrug when Kelly brought up the topic of the 'looting the dungeon' requirement. "Well, Merlin said we only needed one thing for the whole team, remember? I don't think we can hand in more than one." He glanced over to Colin and Marcus. "Do you guys think we could take some shavings from the grate or something to prove we were in here, rather than just, like, outside? Without letting our buddy down there out, I mean." He tapped on the floor with one foot - and then happened to notice the stray eye. "Uh, did you mean to leave this up here, L-DEF, or did you want your eye back?" he called down into the grate. "I know you have a lot of them, but I feel like eyes are kinda useful, even for an eldritch abomination." L-DEF had certainly seemed to have issues when it couldn't see where they all were.

[zzzzzzzz414]

For just a moment, they weren't satisfied, they wanted to break through the grating, to keep going, to make it pay. But with the tentacles gone, those thoughts and the sudden flood of anger seemed to ebb along with the adrenaline of the fight, leaving Claire tired sore, and more than a bit confused and afraid at what had just happened.

That...hadn't felt right.

"Uhm," they said, taking notice of the conversation, "well, it is true that we probably don't need the keys if we have the, um, eye. Or maybe just a piece of stone or something, taking someone's eye seems a bit rude even if they are very terrible. But, um, they still could be very valuable I think if they came from this far down! So, if we could find our way back to the goblin market maybe we could find some way to trade them for information about Miss Georgie? Or her memories, at least. Um, if we can find the other three that is, I thought they had maybe come down behind us..."

They turned to Kelly and Anthony. "Um, would either of you happened to have seen three pixies and maybe also possibly a fourth pixie that has amnesia? It is very impor-wait."

They finally got a good look at Kelly's face, and several pieces suddenly snapped together. Their eyes widened, and a grin began to spread across their face.

"Wait. Wait! Waitwaitwaitwaitwait! Um! I! Think I recognize you! You're, um, um, you're one of the ALBIONS! Uhm, Kelly, right?!"

Without waiting for an answer, they displayed a profound lack of understanding of the concept of personal space and bounced over to Kelly, practically vibrating with excitement. "Oh wow this is SO COOL I didn't think I would meet one of the Albions here um since you live in America I think and you're so amazing with how you do the rainbow thing and the speed and the whips and I'm not sure how it took me until now to put it together! This is very cool! Uh um do you have like a maximum speed and what is it? How do your whips work are they magic um I know your family has a lot of magic inventions and things! What is the rest of your family like? What is America like and um is California a different thing from that or are they two different names for the same thing? Is a "deep-fried hamburger" real and can you make one? Do you know how to do that thing where um you go around the earth so fast that the rotation reverses and you go back in time? Or um is that not how time travel works im very sorry there was a lot of conflicting information. Can you time travel? What are all of your powers? What kind of superhero things have you done? Do you-"

Claire took a breath.

"-travel a lot, well um I guess you have because you are here and not in America but uhm i was thinking more of like what other places you have gone because I think I read somewhere that you do that sometimes and WOW that must be incredibly interesting! Oh um uh jeez I hope you are actually Kelly Albion because otherwise this is very awkward but um there are not a lot of other people with rainbow and speed powers that I can think of so this feels like a very safe assumption, um I am Claire by the way I'm very sorry I probably should have started with that or maybe done it earlier when everyone else was also introducing themselves but uh I am doing it now and it would be very good if we could be friends maybe?!"

They offered Kelly a high-five.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Most people would have been befuddled. Most people would have tried to disengage.

But this was Kelly Albion, and she had two advantages that most people lacked.

One, she was a speedster. It gave her time to process.

And two, well...

"It's like watching my life, but from the outside..." Hey, may she who wasn't literally wearing an Adrien Zhay t-shirt right this moment cast the first stone.

As before (albeit kinda faster this time, since you know she had already thought about it at this point), Kelly decided there was no point in trying to hide who she was. She was kinda surprised that her family's reputation evidently extended this far, and a little worried about it, but she wasn't going to stress. Even if people knew their reputation, it wasn't the same thing as being in a school where like every teacher knew all of your siblings, and the upper-classmen had all been like a year or two below you brother, and stuff like that. It was actually kinda nice, being looked at as one of the Albions, rather than just as the Albions kid sister or something. That was the distinction that made all the difference.

Besides, how could she not respond to Claire's enthusiasm?

"Ahem! Um, yeah, that's me. So far I've managed to hit about a hundred-twenty-five-thousand mi- err, I mean, around two-hundred thousand kilometers per hour. But I think I can do better, I just have to practice more! My whips are magic, yeah, they produce energy beams that basically only listen to the laws of physics when it's helpful for them to do so, with the different colors each being a different energy type. My Mom's an artificer, she makes all our gear and stuff. My family's super-cool, I could tell you stories. America is a country...well wait actually America is a contin- well technically it's like two continents and then the United States of America is a country in North America but then we usually just use America for short, and California is one of the states." Now look I'm not saying there wasn't a part of Kelly that wasn't asking "How do you not know what America is we're kinda big?" but you know whatever she may have known tons about geography because she loved to travel but it was like ask an average American how many countries they could name. She wasn't gonna judge.

"I haven't personally experienced the existence of a deep-fried hamburger, but it sounds like something we'd do. I could probably guess how to make one though. That's not how time travel works but I think I heard somewhere that the closer you get to moving at the speed of light the slower time gets and if you go past it it might go backwards so in theory if you can fly faster than light in a vacuum and go fly around the planet to hit that speed I suppose it's possible time might go backwards maybe? But I don't know if it would actually work. I've never time travelled before and time travel gets like super complicated so it's not really something I plan to try any time soon. Besides I think Anthony would probably have a better chance than I would at that, since he's a Personal Destiny Manipulator and time travel seems like a good thematic fit for that power set."

"My only power is 'Streaming', or that's what I call it. It's kind of a light-based super-speed I guess? So you'd think I would be able to go at least as fast as light, but I can't yet at least. I mean, I guess maybe it's possible that I could in a vacuum, but I haven't tried because I can't actually survive in space so yeah. I can sometimes manipulate the light a bit to do some cool things, like make a sort of "bridge" that I can run on and carry people on, that's the one I'm best at. But yeah other than that it's all just being really fast. What about you? You're like some kind of paragon or powerhouse or something right? I wasn't like super paying attention to what everyone was doing during the fight but I thought I saw you punching? I...haven't really done much superhero stuff myself yet. Just some little things. Popcorn heroics, my brother calls them."

"Yeah I love travelling, that is like the best part of my power! I can just WHOOSH go wherever I want, it's great! I haven't had it for too long, this is actually my first trip that's both overseas and to another country. But I've been to all fifty states, and all over Canada and Mexico. But there's like a thousand places still on my list!"

"It's great to meet you Claire. Yeah I'd love to be friends!" And Kelly returned the high-five, just fast enough that some rainbow light shot out when she did.

[OutOfThyme]

As Kelly and Claire were apparently catching up, Colin approached the eye that flew from one of the tentacles. "I think that we can probably take it," Colin got on one knee, and gently prodded the eye with the base of Fragarach's pommel, trying to see if the eye did anything.

"I'm down with taking the keys, too. We should probably cover up the eye, just in case, too."

[zzzzzzzz414]

Oh! A high-five! She had given them a real high five! And she wanted to be friends! This was quickly shaping up to be the best day of their life.

After they had exchanged the high-five, Claire continued breathlessly, "Oh! Um! Thank you so much! This is incredible! I would very much like to hear all of the stories yes, that sounds like it would be very amazing! And also all about Mexico and Canada and all of the states as well! Um, once we are in a place that is not the bottom of a magic dungeon maybe, after we finish the competition and get in to the school, uhm if we get in that is? If this is really the very absolute lowest part of the dungeon then uh I think it is probably mathematically impossible for us to NOT get in, if we are not attacked by some other sort of monster as we are going back up?"

"And um yes paragon things are the sort of thing I can do. Flight, super-strength, increased durability and some enhanced senses. It's um not really all that impressive, haha. Your powers are so amazing and they look so cool! Um what other sort of things can you make with the light besides the bridge? Um not that it is NOT okay if it is just the bridge, that sounds incredible and very helpful and I would maybe like to try riding it sometime if that would not be a large inconvenience for you!"

Once Kelly had finished talking, Claire let out a little gasp, said "Oh! Um, and one more thing, sorry!" and turned (or yelled over to, depending on his current location) to Anthony. "Um, hello, your name is Anthony right? Um I am very sorry for not introducing myself to you earlier, I did not intend to be rude and it is very nice to meet you! I had no idea that you could also manipulate personal destinies in addition to punching and chopping things very well! Um, what does manipulating a destiny mean and what sort of things does it include? Is it related to the strength and punching that you did during the fight or um are they two separate things? Can you time travel? What was that other language you spoke at the end of the fight, I thought that was very cool even though I did not understand what you said! I only know the one language so being able to speak another one seems very impressive, um if it IS only one, I have no idea how many you speak actually, how many do you speak?"

Rolling to Bluff Kelly about their powers: [roll0]

[Dorni]

Anthony scratched the back of his head as he walked back to the group. "Oh, that was Japanese." Avalon was a gathering place for students with exceptional abilities - was speaking multiple languages really that impressive? Anthony wasn't sure, but it seemed like a good idea to downplay it until he knew more. "And yeah, I speak a couple languages. Its not that impressive though, I had an excellent teacher."

"But I think Kelly might be giving you the wrong idea. I can't actually control anyone's destiny or do super-chopping. At least, not due to an ability of mine. My power is a pure physical enhancement - I'm super-super strong and nearly indestructible. But you're the first person I've met here who called themselves a paragon."

As he continued, he widened out his stance and put one hand forward, somewhere between offering a hand and preparing to shove something. "If its alright with you, would you mind a test?" The words carried curiosity and anticipation, but no ill-will.

[zzzzzzzz414]

"Oh!" Claire said, not letting their mild disappointment show in their voice. Manipulating a destiny sounded so cool! "Um, sorry. But super strength and being invulnerable are still really amazing to have! You, um, really haven't met anyone else with my sort of powers though? I had thought they were pretty common..." Their smile dropped just a hair at that idea. They had hoped to not attract too much attention. Had they made a mistake? Were the "powers" they'd gone with actually fairly rare? Were they going to attract attention or suspicion or-

Before they had a chance to spiral too much, Anthony suddenly caught them off guard. "A-a test?" Claire hesitated for a moment. They...did not have half of the actual abilities they claimed to any degree, and someone somehow discovering that would lead to many, many problems and probably death. On the other hand...well, there wasn't any actual practical application of strength or durability that could not be imitated with psychic power, right?

It seemed rude to refuse, anyway. And he was taking a POSE! I mean he'd said his powers were just super-strength and near invulnerability but maybe he was about to show off some super-secret ability!?

"Uh, um. S-sure! What sort of test will it be?"

[Dorni]

"Its nothing elaborate - just push me. I'd like to see how my strength compares to someone scouted by Avalon."

"I'm sure there are others, but I didn't get much chance to talk to the other early arrivals. They kinda kept us on a bit of a short leash since we hadn't officially enrolled yet." Which was technically true; there had been a few others like him who'd been allowed into the school before the entrance exam, but he hadn't gotten a chance to meet them yet.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Yeah I mean, I'm pretty sure we'll get in after this. ...Honestly, I don't think it'd matter overmuch if we got attacked by more monsters on the way back up!" She was going by what she's seen so far. "Hey don't sell yourself short! Paragon powers are a classic for a reason! Ooh, what kind of super-senses? Like can you see really far? Or hear super-precisely? Or see through walls?"

She considered the other question. "I made a...kinda wall once. But it took a lot of energy to keep it up, kinda wore me out. The bridge thing is the most reliable one. It still takes effort, I can't use it and go full-speed, but it's not nearly as hard as the wall was. I think I could probably like shoot it as a beam sort of thing, but I haven't actually tried since my whips kinda have that covered."

When Anthony corrected her, she said, "Oh! Sorry, I thought... Uh, never mind." And then she stepped back with a kinda eager look on her face to watch as he proposed a test.

[zzzzzzzz414]

"Oh, you arrived early? So, um, wait, have you already been here and seen the campus and things? Cool! What is it like? Um, what are the buildings like? How many are there? Is there-"

Claire managed to stop themselves before they launched into another tangent. "Oh, uhm, sorry. Um. Pushing! Yes. I can do that. Um, get ready, I guess!"

For a moment, they briefly considered that pushing Anthony at full strength was maybe not a good idea? Getting someone more hurt than they already were from the fight seemed bad, especially at the bottom of this dungeon. On the other hand, he was another superpowered individual, and from what they had seen of him in the fight he WAS very strong, so it was probably ok to go all-out?

Claire took a breath, stepped forward, and gave him a solid push, simultaneously attempting to shove him backwards with a burst of telekinesis.

If Anthony was paying particularly close attention, he'd notice that the push felt...off. It was stronger than it seemed like it should have been, considering Claire's rather amateurish stance and follow-through; and, oddly, the vast majority of the force wasn't focused through their hands and into his chest, but rather distributed evenly across his torso; more like an extraordinarily strong, focused wind rather than a normal shove.

Her Strength with "Super-Strength" on is 10.

[Dorni]

At Claire's push, Anthony wore a kinda quizzical look. While it might look so on the outside, it wasn't how much strength he'd expected from Claire. It was that he could tell right away something was off. The paragon's push wasn't just her hands, it was like she was pushing on him with a giant hand that covered his entire upper body. The mismatch took him aback for a second - was Claire hiding another ability?

What he didn't do was budge. He just held that look for a second or two, standing steady under her force. Then took Claire by the shoulder and pushed, taking one step forward then another and another, steadily moving the paragon back. He stopped after the third step, clearly the victor.

Rather than look satisfied, he looked kinda unsure for a moment. On one hand, he'd quite handily won the contest. On the other, something about Claire just seemed off. Maybe what he'd felt had just been his imagination. Or maybe not. But if so, she probably had a reason to keep whatever that ability was a secret. The clone could respect that.

A grin split his face as he dropped his hands and disengaged. "Thanks for the match! I'll take that as a win unless you want to go again."

"But yeah, I've been here for a bit. They let me spend the last few days in a guest room while waiting for the entrance exam. They didn't let me see the whole school what with me not actually being a student yet, so there's really only so much for me to tell. Am I the only early arrival here?"

Anthony is on Full Power for this contest; he has STR 12 and effective lifting capacity of rank 16. He's plenty able to overpower Claire.

[zzzzzzzz414]

"Oh no, I'm, um, good, thanks!" Claire was mostly just glad that it hadn't been "chop this wood plank in half like a kung-fu master" or something like that. It wasn't like you could PUSH a wood plank in half. Not that Anthony had a plank, or appeared to have any wood-based powers? Look, you never know.

"Um, well I didn't arrive early, I didn't actually know that that was a thing you could do but uhm there is a lot I do not really know abut this school hahaha. I, um, do not actually know about anyone else...?" Claire turned to look around at the others, noticing as Adrien and Colin observed the creature's discarded eye. "Oh, right, um, that. And! Um! Oh! That other stuff!"

They turned back to Anthony, hands clasped and with a worried expression on their face. "Um, so, I suppose you did not see a pixie on the way down here? We do not know how long ago it was, but she had her memories stolen by a very terrible fae memory saleswoman in this big market a few floors up, and it is very possible that something terrible has happened to her. That is, um, why I suggested we take the stone weapon things Kelly mentioned, since they might be helpful in trading for some information about her."

[Dorni]

"Sorry, we didn't meet a pixie, but we did rescue a fairy princess. Could you be mistaking the two?"

[Llyarden]

In the absence of a reply from L-DEF, Adrien had turned around to watch the little contest between Claire and Anthony with a kinda eager expression. The eagerness only dropped minutely when he remembered that superhuman strength didn't come with sparkles and flashy lights and they basically just looked like they were shoving each other.

His happy smile dropped a bit when Claire brought up the topic of the pixies. "Unfortunately, I doubt it," he answered Anthony. "Pixies are pretty much at the bottom of the fae totem pole. Not the kind of people that introduce themselves as faerie princesses." He clicked his fingers and a semitransparent copy of the three pixies from the goblin market popped into existence for a few moments, as a rather simpler way of confirming whether the 'fairy princess' that Anthony and Kelly had rescued was one of their kind. "And, uh...well, I never met this 'Ms Lethe' woman, but from what I've heard about her I'm not sure she's someone we want to have the keys that were...sealing?" - he kinda trailed off for a moment, not entirely sure what keys Kelly had been talking about or how they'd been sealing L-DEF within its prison (his own journey through the room of statues had been kinda interrupted by L-DEF's shouting echoing down the corridor) - "...an eldritch horror somewhere. Even if it is a basically harmless, magically neutralised eldritch horror."

[Dodgeson]

The only reply that Adrien received for his trouble was a deep rumbling from down below the grate, enough to make the ground shake noticeably for a brief moment before it went still again, if it was at all concerned with the loss of one of its many eyes the creature certainly didn't show. While the others were talking the eye that the monster had left behind twitched when Colin nudged at it with Fragarach, shifting its position to get a better look at him as it blinked several times in quick succession.

[zzzzzzzz414]

"Um. Hm. Yes that does not seem as though it would be a very great idea." Claire said as Adrien voiced his concerns about giving up the stone key things.

They stared at the ground for a few moments, deep in thought, before looking up again, a look of realization spreading across their face as a plan began to take form. "Uhm. Maybe...we could give her something else from the bottom of the dungeon? Uh, Marcus," they said, turing in his direction "um, do you still have that bottle we got from the furniture? She does not know that we have it, I don't think, so um, maybe it would be possible to convince her that it came from further down than it really did?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Are you certain she stole the memories, and didn't just...I dunno, trade for them, I guess? Because I mean full disclosure I'm not exactly an expert on magical dungeon markets or anything, but it seems to me that a market implies some sort of regulatory rules, and presumably an authority to enforce them. If this woman is stealing memories, we can probably bring it to them. Or, you know, kindly and generously inform her that we won't have to do so if she helps us find the fairy and returns her memories. One of those two for sure!" Kelly chimed in with a cheery grin.

[Thokk_Smash]

"Yeah, I've still got it," Marcus says, fishing the bottle of water from a pocket. "It's blessed water, so it has that going for it. If we're gonna sell that it came from further down, I probably shouldn't be the one to pitch it, though. A poker face, mine is not."

He thinks of something, then sighs in resignation. "If worst comes to worst, there's something I could barter with for the info," he says, and he unconsciously moves his free hand to grip the Blackstaff in his belt loop. "Keep in mind that she accepts information as currency, too. But it's something I'd rather Miss Lethe not know, given my druthers. I'm also fairly certain whatever 'laws' govern a goblin market are not concerned with fairness, at least as we think of it."

He shakes off his sudden melancholy (literally) and nods in turn to Anthony and Kelly. "Said it before, but a pleasure to meet you both," he says, and his brain kicks back in and reminds him what Kelly was saying. "Oh, could I, uh, look at your whips?" he asks, and he seems to be trying to make himself smaller as he asks--perhaps as a way of diminishing the full foot difference in their respective heights. Definitely not because of his social awkwardness. Totally not both of those things at the same time.

Marcus hears snickering in the back of his mind. He slams the door shut once more on Barty for the moment. There is magic he can examine! "I'm a, ah, wizard, mage, whatever so, y'know...magic is cool," he mumbles and trails off.

[zzzzzzzz414]

"Oh, good! Um, I think I could probably convince her, if that would not be a problem. We have already met and talked, so she may be more likely to trust what I am saying."

If there is one thing I am good at after all, it is probably lying. Claire thought ruefully.

Claire tilted their head slightly at Marcus' "something to barter with", and his sudden gripping of the staff did not escape their attention. Something to do with his magic? Or the Black Staff itself? (Marcus' brain friend had implied it was...hard to use, or something?) Whatever it was, though, it seemed like he wasn't going to tell them right now, at least. If it was a secret big enough for Ms. Lethe to be interested, well, Claire could appreciate wanting to keep it quiet.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"You're a wizard? Sweet!" Kelly said, taking out her whips and passing them over with what was if I'm honest a rather casual attitude when you're talking about handing powerful magic weapons over to a more-or-less complete stranger.

[OutOfThyme]

Colin flinches as the eye blinks and swivels to look at him. He wasn't exactly sure why - that was the kind of thing that eyes are supposed to do, but having it happen with a lone eye was just weird. Still, this was some proof of what they'd done. Gingerly, Colin picked it up, holding it with just his index finger and thumb.

"Does anyone have something we can keep this eye in?" Colin asked, returning to join the group. "I'm not sure if we want it all squashed by the time we get back up there."

[Llyarden]

"Yeah, if we need to I have a 'secret' I can barter with too," Adrien added. Behind him, apparently without any conscious direction on his part, the familiar cartoon tiger popped into existence, kinda hiding behind his legs, and raised its forepaws to its mouth in an exaggerated expression of surprise. "But first we should probably ask Ms Lethe how much she wants us to pay to get Georgie back. Because I mean she might just go 'oh yeah I don't actually want her at all you can have it for your most recent memory of an apple' or something."

At Colin's question he started to shake his head, but then paused and pulled his guitar case off his back. "This is pretty snug, but we might be able to fit it in here." If he was creeped out by the idea of keeping the eye of an eldritch entity in his guitar case he didn't show it.

[Dodgeson]

With Kelly's amazing speed (and perhaps a little help from Adrien) it would take our heroes almost no time at all to leave LDEF's prison and hurry back through the giant's cave in to the spider's lair, back up the almost bottomless pit and around the bridge and its ponderous swinging traps to leave them exactly back where they started in front of the heavy doors of the dungeon.

The waiting area that had been bustling with eager students the last time they saw it seemed to be almost deserted, they were certainly the only students there, waiting patiently at a desk in front of a set of stairs (that certainly hadn't been there before) was a brown haired man in a shirt and tie who was watching them with a dull expression.

"Please deposit you relic on the table and make your way up the stairs to the waiting area. Your score will be determined once all able applicants have returned." He explained, seemingly not at all phased by the six applicants, sudden and rainbow-y arrival.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly had picked up the sword-key-thing on the way out, kinda just in case the eldritch abomination eye didn't quite count as a relic (also because the sword was shiny and the eye was kinda gross). She went over and placed it on the table. "Um...I mean, I imagine it's probably the sort of thing where like the door is literally the least important part of the whole thing, but on the off chance it's not Dean Merlin may want to consider upgrading his Eldritch Abomination security system. It's kinda easy to penetrate from the outside as it stands." She managed to say it all with a straight face, give-or-take a friendly smile.

"Actually, is it okay if we go back into the dungeon for a bit instead of to the waiting area?
There was something else we wanted to check out. We won't interfere with or assist any of the other applicants. ...I mean, like, unless it looks like someone's really in danger or something, I guess. But not, you know, test-wise."

Persuasion: [roll0]. +5 if Attractive applies.

[Llyarden]

Considering that Kelly's rainbow road was several orders of magnitude faster than Adrien could move at his fastest, he got used to the superspeed travel very quickly, and by the time they were travelling back up the not-quite-bottomless pit he'd started to get a little more flamboyant, hopping and sliding around the group on momentarily-appearing light constructs of his own - though making sure to not get too far away from Kelly, figuring that she was probably at the centre of the effect.

He'd already opened his guitar case to retrieve L-DEF's eye when his brain caught up with the second part of the man's sentence, and he paused. While he was fairly confident about their chances of being accepted given that they seemed to have found the bottom of the dungeon, and presumably the goblin market wasn't only there for the application 'event' so they'd able able to come back and help the pixies later, the idea of abandoning them - especially after promising to help - didn't sit well with him.

Kelly - as perhaps might be expected of a speedster - got to asking the man whether they could go back down before Adrien could do the same. "We had until the end of the day, didn't we?" he added - but after a moment, a slightly more important question occurred to him. "Uh, actually, how much time is left?" His phone was still off, so it wasn't like he could check the time on it.

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire hung on for dear life as they rocketed through some weird tunnels and back towards the surface. They'd never gone this fast before, and while it was amazing, it was also terrifying. But fun! But gut-clenching. But exhilarating! But also they felt like they were going to empty the contents of their stomach onto the stone floor.

"Yes!" they chimed in as Kelly began trying to convince the tie man to let them go back down. "It involves a pixie who is almost certainly in a large amount of trouble, and her friends that we promised to help! And, um, as superheroes I think we have a responsibility to do that!"

Aiding Kelly's Persuasion check, if applicable: [roll0]

[Dodgeson]

The man behind the desk took Kelly's sword and stowed it in a box behind him whilst the colourful girl made her case (what the heck was a dean?) and her two friends chipped in.

"Three hours remain before the end of the testing period." He replied to Adrien, taking his phone out of his pocket to double check the time "However once an applicant or applicants have deposited their item they are to make their way to the waiting area." He continued, reading off the instruction sheet he had out in front of him. "If I let you bend the rules here then he will found out, he's like clairvoyant or something, and if he finds out then the Headmistress will find out, and I am not getting on her bad side. So if you would please proceed up the stairs in to the waiting area, I believe there will be refreshments."

Unfortunately for our heroes this piddly little PL1 desk jockey just so happens to have "Jaded Administrator" Immunity 5 (Interaction Effects)(Limited:Only within a work context)

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly blinked twice. She considered the rationale here. There were three hours to go, and this would probably not take them long. She had already promised not to interfere with the other students. They could have just gone and done this in the first place rather than coming back up here. She considered that hypothetical world and didn't really see how it was meaningfully worse-off than this one.

She could understand where the bureaucrat was coming from. He had been given a simple task, and lacked both the elaboration or imagination to consider alternatives in unexpected contexts. He was doing his job and didn't want to get in trouble for doing it wrong. That was entirely fair.

It didn't make him any less wrong though. And when you took considerations of Authority out of the equation and looked solely at the information provided...he hadn't really given her any actual reason why they couldn't go back into the dungeon.

"You know...my Mom and Dad have some Rules for effective superheroics," Kelly told him. "Rule #27 is that disobeying authority figures is not an intrinsic part of a Hero's job..."

And then with a flicker of a smirk, she turned back to the rest of the group and extended a hand, the rainbow light one more shining over her skin, spreading out along the ground beneath her feet in the rippling beginnings of another Rainbow Road. "...But sometimes it's a necessary one."

If you guys want to head back down anyway, Kelly is totally down to whoosh us off. Otherwise whatever we can head up to the waiting area and get refreshments, I'm pretty much cool either way. :smallamused:

[Llyarden]

Adrien paused to consider briefly. "Well, our item is here." He proffered the still-blinking eye of L-DEF at the man. "But...well, it's still here. We haven't deposited it yet. That -" he nodded to the cupboard where the key-sword had been deposited "- was just kinda a bonus because...well, like we said, it doesn't sound very secure to have the key to an Eldritch Entity that wants to slaughter everyone it meets just chilling outside the room."

"So, it doesn't sound to me like we'd be bending the rules - or disobeying any authority figures -" he added, with a glance to Kelly "- at all. I mean, if Merlin wanted us to not be able to go back in the dungeons once we left, he could have just said that."

He didn't immediately move to stand with Kelly again, though.

[Dodgeson]

He wanted to sigh but he didn't, it would be unprofessional to do that in front of potential students, casting his gaze between the key and the eye that was still twitching away in Adrien's hand. All he wanted to do was get this shift over with without any complications or ideally without having to leave the desk, but they just had to have questions didn't they?

"You should have asked the member of staff in charge before you went in to the dungeon." He replied after once again checking his sheet, he couldn't get in trouble as long as he followed it to the letter.

"I'm sorry but I'm just following the rules."

[Llyarden]

Adrien had dealt with jobsworth types before. It was a consequence of tending to prioritise the comfort and enjoyment of his audiences over ticking every box and filling out every form that his venues demanded. And while he couldn't very well fall back on the gravitas of fame (and profit) here, there was no reason he couldn't deal with this situation in exactly the same way.

"By that logic we could be arbitrarily penalised for...I don't know, sneezing too many times or something," he pointed out. "No-one asked about that either. But, anyway." Adrien looked away from the eye and back to the administrator. "So, since you're just following the rules, what you're telling us is that it's the official position of the faculty of Avalon Academy - an academy that is supposed to train heroes - that they don't actually want their students, or potential students, to help people when it might possibly be mildly inconvenient for them." There might have been just the faintest uplift in his voice that could have suggested it was a question, but it sounded much more like a statement. There was no malice in his voice, though. It sounded rather more like he was trying to solve a tricky maths problem aloud.

"Who was it that gave you this list of rules, exactly?"

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire looked back and forth between Kelly, Adrien, and the man behind the desk, biting their lip. On the one hand, they definitely needed to help that poor pixie as soon as possible; on the other hand, breaking the rules here would very definitely get them in trouble with the very people they very definitely most did not want to be in trouble with! After all if Mr. Merlin or Ms. Headmistress started to get suspicious of Claire, things could go quite badly quite quickly. Maybe there was another way...?

Struck with a sudden idea, Claire rushed up in front of the desk, blurting out "Um! Wait! Excuse me! Um, we-we never actually said we were all in the same group!"

They continued on, seemingly figuring out what they were saying as they were saying it. "Um, Mr. Merlin said that a group can work together and bring back one artifact. But, uh, even though we did happen to come up together, we never actually officially told you that we were all in one group. And Kelly is the only one who actually turned in an artifact."

"So, um, if there were people NOT in a group with the person who turned in an artifact," they said, turning to glance at the others for a moment, "then, uh, those people going back down into the dungeon wouldn't ACTUALLY be against the rules. Right?"

[Dorni]

Anthony raised an eyebrow as the exchange escalated. "Um, I'm not exactly sure that's fair. I would think the position of Avalon Academy is that they expect students to follow the rules. Avalon trains Heros. Isn't ignoring any rule you don't like more like how Villains act?"

[OutOfThyme]

"I'm with Anthony," said Colin. "No point in coming here if we can't follow the rules for the exams." He pauses for a second, trying to think up an alternative.

"We could always try to petition Merlin or whoever else is in charge of the dungeon. Maybe we'll be able to go down in a few days or something."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly kinda deflated a little, the rainbow light fading, when it turned out the group was actually not down to just ignore the bureaucrat and go. There was some momentary surprise at that, but only momentary. On consideration, if it had been say her siblings, while sure she'd have definitely expected Percy to agree with her, Dove and Beth probably would have agreed with Anthony and Colin (on the merits of being leery of making such a decision unilaterally and it being irresponsible, respectively), while Gerard probably would have responded more like Adrien and Claire, trying to game the rules rather than breaking them.

That understanding didn't keep her from making a face at Anthony's point, as if she had just eaten a piece of candy that unexpectedly turned out to be licorice. "Um, no. For two reasons. First, villains can follow the rules and still do great evil, and sometimes following an intrinsically corrupt or even just brokenly designed rule can be the wrong thing to do. Second, nobody is talking about ignoring rules because we don't like them. Rules are meant to serve a purpose, but no system of rules can account for every possibility when you're talking about regulating real-world behavior. It seems unlikely, given that the intended scope of this rule is to direct students upon completion of the exam, that it was devised with the expectation that it might encounter a situation where students had returned and deposited an item but have credible reason to believe someone back in the dungeon is in trouble and be inclined to investigate that."

"So what we have here is a situation where a reasonable authority might be consulted to adjudicate the applicability of the rule and determine whether we have in fact encountered a valid exception. Unfortunately, we don't have a reasonable authority present. Our buddy here is only able to tell us what the rules are, not to actually exercise his own judgment on whether they are applicable in this particular circumstance."

"And as if that didn't muddle the situation enough, we actually don't conclusively know whether this is in fact a rule or an instruction. Is he actually intended to prevent us from returning to the dungeon, or to guide us to where we are supposed to go next? If his instructions were, like, 'Tell the students after they deposit their artifacts they are to go to the waiting area' that could carry either intent, which means he himself may misinterpret what he's actually expected to do. We're here to become heroes. That means people in trouble will be counting on us to make the right decisions. If we ignore a person in trouble because we think there's a rule against helping them, when in fact we're just being given a general instruction, that's a fail."

She looked to the rest of the group. "I wasn't there. I don't know what actually happened with the memory trader and the pixie and such. If you guys don't think there's any actual risk of another person's situation getting meaningfully worse if we don't intervene immediately, then that's fine. If you think this pixie needs help right now, my own judgment is that this instruction is too vague for us to weight it more heavily than that need."

She looked up at the ceiling, "And, um, Professor Merlin if you are like clairvoyant and watching this or something and would like to clarify the issue and/or like...moderate the magic market that has evidently sprung up in your School Training Dungeon that would also work!"

[Thokk_Smash]

"I'm not against some good ole rule breaking as a generality," Marcus begins, leaning on the Blackstaff casually. "But going off of Kelly's assessment, and as one of the two who actually interacted with the memory peddler: I don't think this pixie is in immediate danger. Well, I suppose it's more accurate to say that the worst that the peddler has done is probably already past. Considering the peddler had the memory, she had the pixie captive for a decent amount of time. And as creepy and immoral as she seemed, she didn't seem the type to tarry on a single creature when there was peddling to be done...or other creatures from which to extract memories."

Marcus shrugs, seeming displeased with the conclusion he had drawn himself but presenting it anyway. "Odds are, the pixie's situation won't get worse by us waiting. And with a little time, and maybe a boost from Adrien, I could probably teleport us straight to the market even if it changes its physical location or the dungeon is closed after the test. And hell, if we wait then we can even ask Merlin or a faculty member for advice on what to expect or how we can get the peddler to give us info without having to trade much."

[Llyarden]

Adrien took his gaze off the unfortunate bureaucrat to look over at Anthony. "I agree we should follow the rules where we can," he nodded. "The whole 'doing the wrong thing for the right reasons' thing never seems to work out very well. But I also don't think that blindly obeying a rule that we were never even told about is necessarily the right thing."

He paused, looking back at the eye of L-DEF again for a few moments. "Think of it another way. Imagine that this wasn't Avalon Academy. Imagine it was just some random...I don't know, an office or something, and the goblin market was there. Same rule: once you left, you aren't allowed to go back in - at least not immediately. No particular explanation for why that's the case. We have no confidence that the market will still be there even if we got to go back in a few days later. From what I've heard of goblin markets they very rarely stay still."

"So, I'd like to hope that no-one here would decide that a rule that's completely out of place for the situation takes priority over helping someone." He didn't wait to allow anyone to argue with that assumption. "We're obeying this particular rule because we trust the judgement of the faculty at Avalon Academy, based purely on the Academy's reputation or assurances from people we trust. And if they have an explanation - like, maybe we were all magicked by Merlin so the most dangerous bits of the dungeon were off-limits to us and the spell wore off the minute we left - then that's fine."

"But we do deserve an explanation." He looked back to the bureaucrat. "Which is why I was asking Mr...uh, I'm sorry, I don't know your name," he realised, with a slightly embarrassed look. "Which is why I was trying to find out who wrote the rules," he corrected himself. "Because then we can get an explanation for this rule and make an informed judgement on it. Until then we're just playing guessing games."

[Dorni]

Anthony gave a little grimace. On the one hand, he wasn't entirely sure the pixie the other group had mentioned was really in trouble - Marcus' assertion didn't help that case. On the other, if she was in trouble he understood why Kelly would want to help someone in need. Sure, Anthony wondered if the american's drive to graduate from 'popcorn heroics' might not also be a factor in why she was leaping at this chance and maybe inflating the actual danger in her head, but he could tell the desire came from the right place. He... appreciated seeing that in her.

On the other, other hand, rocking the boat was a bad idea right now. It hadn't even been two weeks since the Worthies had released him from his pod. He could still remember overhearing Pendragon arguing that he be kept in stasis until they were sure who made him and why. Anthony had no idea how long that could take and had been relieved when the suggestion had been voted down for now, but the Merlin and at least some of the Avalon staff knew about Anthony's... condition. Deliberately breaking the rules before he'd even finished his entrance test seemed like something that might make the others reconsider, and Anthony had no desire to be locked up.

"That seems shaky to me, Kelly. It sounds like you're raising an objection to a rule, and because there is no one who wrote that rule around to explain its intent, we can use our judgement to determine if we can ignore the rule. But that creates a situation where the rules only have force when an authority is around. When they're not around anyone can raise an objection and use their own judgement to decide if the rule has an exception. Which kinda seems to undermine the point of there being rules in place in the first place. I think Marcus' has the right idea, especially if the pixie isn't in immediate danger."

"To be fair to the rule, it isn't like its coming out of nowhere. Remember that direction earlier that we only had until the end of the day to complete the test? The rule that students need to wait out here after finishing seems consistent to me. I mean, Avalon is one big nexus, right? I'm not entirely sure that the giant maze we went through is a big cave complex under the school. If Merlin told us he wanted everyone out of... wherever that was by nightfall, maybe he's got a reason for it."

Anthony listened to Adrien finish with more than a little skepticism. The whole idea that the rule must be baseless, that he 'deserved' an explanation, calling the staff-member a no-name, the implication that he was the one to make a judgement and Avalon was in the position of needing to make an explanation... the pop idol's whole attitude reeked of entitlement.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Not...really? I'm raising an objection to a rule because I find myself in a circumstance where the rule is preventing me from helping a person in peril, and unless a rule has a really really good reason for doing that yeah I'm gonna pretty much straight-up ignore it. If I don't know the reason then maybe I'll get it wrong and that sucks, but I'd rather risk violating a rule that may or may not have a good enough reason to justify leaving someone in danger than risk leaving the person in danger. Basically, the rule 'If someone is in peril, help them you're a superhero!' probably supersedes most other rules in most cases."

"But yeah, that's assuming imminent danger. If the pixie probably isn't in immediate trouble...then I believe snacks were mentioned?"

[Dodgeson]

The bureaucrat watched the applicants talk amongst themselves, hoping that maybe they'd just sort it out amongst themselves, unfortunately they did ask questions, and he was professionally obligated to answer them.

"It's just procedure, it's been like since before I started working here." He explained to Adrien before he turned his attention to Claire "If you're saying that she isn't part of your group, and she can confirm this then I don't have anything here that says that rest of you couldn't go back in to the dungeon. I'm going to be honest with you, this has never come up before."

Up in his office Merlin saw Kelly call out for some help, he would certainly be able to resolve the bureaucratic trouble she seemed to be having, and he started to feel like maybe he should do something, taking a sip of coffee from is "#1 Magus" mug and looking at the unfinished game of solitaire arrayed in front of him on his desk. The moment soon passed.

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire's expression brightened as the bureaucrat basically gave them permission to go back down. "Oh! Ok! Um, thank you very much Mr, um, Sir! I am very sorry, what is your name?"

After receiving his answer (or professional lack thereof), they turned back to the others, who were still arguing about the issue. "So! Um, it seems like we can just go back down without breaking the rules after all! Um, uh, most of us, that is." They gave Kelly a quick apologetic look. "As for if we should...well, um. I think Marcus was probably right that Ms. Lethe would not really want to bother with keeping a pixie that she had already gotten all of the memories from. But, um. I am not sure if the part about, uhm, her situation not getting any worse is correct."

"Georgie might-" Claire thought for a moment of how easily and casually Ms. Lethe had mentioned her mother's "untimely death" after the fae woman had stolen her secrets. "-she might just be, um, dead. It would be very hard for it to be worse than that. But if she is not, she might have been just abandoned somewhere in that dungeon, or, um, sold to someone else, both of which are situations that might get worse very quickly. And, uh, if getting more memories is something she has to do very regularly, then it seems likely that there are other people that Ms. Lethe has maybe taken, which seems like a position of trouble that is quite immediate. I suppose we do not really know, but, uhm. That is the part that is very troubling to me; we do not KNOW if the situation needs immediate help or not. And um, I do not know if I want to leave and go back to the school for many hours while there is such a situation. Unless, uh, you all think it would be better to maybe get help from Mr. Merlin or the, um. Worthies."

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Only one I went into the dungeon with was Anthony," Kelly said with a nod to the powerhouse. "We met everyone else once we were already down there, so I don't think we're actually the same group. I just played taxi."

Kelly wasn't sure whether Claire or Marcus had a more accurate grasp on the situation, but Claire's concerns did make her think it was at least worth checking out. She wasn't going to do anything that got in the way of that. Unfortunately, she also couldn't really justify breaking the rules (procedures? She'd be honest she still wasn't entirely certain about the practical or ethical weight of this rule, but whatever) just to be personally involved. What mattered was that it was handled, not who handled it.

That said, anyone with a decent sense of people would notice a certain stiffness in her voice when she said it. Truth was she was feeling kinda put out to be not allowed to help. It reminded her a bit too much of how she always had to stay home when her parents and siblings were out being heroes, because she was too young and hadn't developed her powers yet and such. She forced the feelings down, because helping people who needed it was what mattered, but that didn't keep her from feeling them.

[Llyarden]

Adrien...kinda frowned a little when the bureaucrat revealed that Claire's loophole would work. Like Claire, even if the pixie wasn't in imminent physical danger, Adrien didn't like the idea of just abandoning Georgie - especially since they'd promised to help. On the other hand, if the price of going back down was distancing themselves from Kelly and Anthony...he wasn't at all worried that the two of them would need the extra 'points' from handing in L-DEF's eye (especially since the key-sword had come from literally the next room over), but the six of them were a team, even if it had been just for a short time. He didn't like leaving people behind.

Then his expression brightened as an idea hit him. "Wait, Marcus, you said if I boosted you you could teleport straight back down there, right? Why can't we do that now? I mean, you said Ms Lethe left her stand just as we were leaving the market, right, Claire? For all we know she might have already left the market, at which point all this discussion is kinda pointless. But if you can teleport straight down there, Marcus - you and Claire, maybe, since you guys were the ones that spoke to her last time - we can find out if she's still there, and if she is talk to her and see if she's willing to trade for information about Georgie. It's not like we all need to be there just to look around."

[Thokk_Smash]

"I said I could probably teleport us there, with a little time," Marcus replies, curling in on himself slightly with traces of defensiveness. "In theory, I can create a resonant link between myself and the energies of the goblin market itself--which, theoretically, should allow me to teleport there even if it becomes disconnected from the school itself. But my magic, well..."

He shrugs, and feels a spike of magic threaten to burst from the mental shield he had put up. "I can't use my magic without frying nearby electronics. Doing something more complex than throwing fire or ice or force around is a process, requiring foci and research in order to actually make them work. Hopefully, in ten years I'll be able to snap my fingers and teleport, but that's sorta why I'm applying to Avalon Academy in the first place."

He realizes he's ranting and sighs in embarrassment. "Sorry, tired. Long story short: I need time to work out a spell to teleport there. Can't do it now."

[Dodgeson]

"John." The administrator replied to Claire, breathing a sigh of relief as the troublesome applicants ascended the steps behind him and headed to the waiting area, with any luck nobody else would ask any more difficult questions and in a few hours he could clock out and go home.

Back up on the surface it was easy enough for the six of them to find the waiting room by following a few helpful signs with large arrow, not that it was much to talk about, only a large empty room with some chairs and a table towards the back containing several large plates of sandwiches and a couple of metal casks filled with different flavours of juice along with stacks of flimsy plastic cups. The six of them would have the room to themselves for about an hour before other students began to wander in in dribs and drabs, some of them were looking a little worse for wear (Marcus would spot Gabriel coming in with a girl nursing a broken arm who was stubbornly refusing his offer of healing) but they were all in high spirits.

Eventually when the room was almost full to bursting with potential applicants a woman in glasses walked in to the room with a large folded sheet of paper clutched in one hand, the lanyard around her neck marked her out as another of the schools administrative staff.

"If I could have your attention please, the test period has now concluded and your scores have been calculated." She began, students already jockeying to get closer to her as she unfolded the paper and began to affix it to the wall. "Please read this document carefully to find your score and position, to those of you in the top 50 please make your way to the common area and wait to be collected and assigned a dormitory, to those of you below the cut off, thank you for applying."

With that she left and all hell broke loose as teleports and speedsters all tried to get closer at once whilst those capable of flight took to the air and surged forward above their heads and countless lights and auras sparked in to life across the room as those with extra senses decided to take the easier route. Many of them were disappointed (far more than weren't, for obvious reasons) and right at the top of the page were six names...

Albion, Kelly 250
Hughes, Colin 250
Stevens, Anthony 250
Thomas, Claire 250
Zhey, Adrien 250
Dorn, Marcus 245

[Quellian-dyrae]

When they got up to the waiting area, Kelly pretty much immediately zipped over to grab some of more-or-less the sweetest snacks she could identify, before taking a seat. She chatted - or maybe it would be more precise to say chattered - with the others pretty much incessantly while they waited.

Once the scores were posted, she raced over in a blur of rainbow light to review them. She pumped one fist straight into the air, and then zipped back over to the team, a huge grin on her face and her eyes dancing with barely-contained excitement. So, you know, her usual look, pretty much. Only more-so. "We're in! Top points at 250! Well except Marcus had a five point penalty for some reason I guess. But whatever!" Even as she was saying it, her fingers were flying over her phone, sending a text with a frankly kinda disturbing letters:exclamation points:emojis ratio.

[zzzzzzzz414]

"Oh, we did? That's incredibly great!" Claire said, an equally wide (though somewhat nervous to someone paying enough attention) smile spreading across their face. They supposed it wasn't actually all that surprising; their item had come from what seemed like the lowest part that it was actually possible to get to? Still, it was nice to know that they hadn't been disqualified for, they didn't know, arguing with Mr. John or teasing the Eldeff or something.

Still, this also meant that there was really, truly, no backing out, now. (Not without looking really super suspicious, anyway). And it sounded like they would probably be meeting with the staff soon, which made the sour knot of anxiety in their gut that had been there ever since they arrived at the school lurch sickeningly. Claire bit their lip and unconsciously toyed with one of the curls in their hair as they stood up, picking up their hoodie as they did. "So, um, I guess that means that we head over to the...common area, now? Although I'm, um, not sure where that is yet."

[Llyarden]

Once the group had found some seats, Adrien spent a little while removing his guitar from its case and retuning it (and, y'know, generally checking that it hadn't somehow become an Eldritch Guitar of Evil after sharing its case with L-DEF's eye) before setting the case aside and...just leaning back in his chair a little bit. He seemed relatively calm, but he was nervous enough about the results that he didn't pay much attention to the refreshments, instead just kinda letting Kelly's stream-of-consciousness conversation wash over him, occasionally contributing with one or two words.

He didn't make any immediate move to join the clump of people crowding around the results - he wanted to know how he'd done, but not so desperately that it was worth getting crushed. Kelly zipping over there kinda solved the problem for him, and he met her grin with one of his own. "Awesome!" he beamed. "Well except the random penalty for Marcus I guess." He was speaking quite calmly and quietly so as to avoid any obnoxious celebrations in amidst all the people who didn't have anything to celebrate, but like Kelly, his happiness showed plainly in his expression. "Yep," he nodded to Claire. "I...think I saw a sign for it somewhere around here. Or just follow anyone else who looks like they got in I guess?"

He kinda...hesitated a moment before actually heading out, though - and not just because he couldn't actually see the signs pointing to the common area in amidst the crowd - instead glancing around briefly to check that no-one looked too broken up about not being accepted. (Granted, words of comfort coming from one of the six five top scorers on the whole list might ring a little hollow, but that wouldn't stop him trying anyway.)

[OutOfThyme]

As the group sat down, Colin was somewhat surprised that they were the first individuals. He'd expected others to have finished earlier, considering how far the group had went.

But this meant one thing - their group had first dibs on sandwiches. Colin would return with a small plate of sandwiches, passing them around if the others wanted any. He was a little disappointed that he couldn't mix any of the juice, but he didn't want to complain.

Once he was done, Colin pulled out his phone, and sent quick texts to both his family and his grandfather, letting them know that he'd finished the entrance exam, and was waiting on the results.

As Kelly gave them the news about their scores, Colin's eyes were wide open. He'd expected to do well, but to score a top score? Gramps would need to know, so Colin shot him a text almost immediately.

"I think I know the way. I dropped off some of my stuff earlier," Colin said, getting up, and doing his best to recall which way the common room was. Surely, he'd passed it by on his way to the exam.

[Dorni]

He'd expected to get in. He'd half wondered what would have happened if he'd done badly on the test - would the school have bumped up his score to take him anyway thanks to the Worthies? He hadn't expected getting the top score though. How wondered how to feel about that.

Anthony wore a self-satisfied smile. It felt good. A confirmation that he belonged here and maybe he did belong in the Hero life. Maybe it would get dad's attention? Probably not, but magog would care. He pulled out his phone and sent a quiet text.

That done, he slipped his phone back into his pocket and his grin turned wry at the sight of his somewhat confused companions. "The common room is this way," he announced, starting to walk and turning to wave at the others to follow him. He'd been not-quite-but-not-exactly-not-locked-up here for a week. Of course he knew where the common room was. "Follow me."

[Dodgeson]

With an already familiar guide the group would have no problems reaching the common room, divided roughly in to two areas by a set of book cases half stocked with old dog eared paperbacks. A pool table dominated the section closest to the door whilst the other half sported a large television and several sofas behind which were a large set of windows looking out on to the school grounds.

They would have a little bit more time to kill here whilst the other successful applicants trickled in a few at a time, giving Kelly and Colin an opportunity to reply to the exicited messages of congratulation that were currently flooding in to their phone, but eventually two new figures stood in the doorway a redhaired girl and a bespectacled boy of Indian descent, both of them were wearing the Avalon Academy uniform (though the girl had chosen to supliment this with what could only be called a utility belt around her waist and a wrap around visor covering one eye) with a prefect's badge pinned to their blazers.

"Hi guys, first off, congrats on making it through the dungeon." The girl began, the device on her eye pinging several times "I'm sure you're all eager to unpack before class starts tomorrow so we're going to show you around the dorms and make sure that you all get settled in properly."

"So guys, you're with me and girls if you can just follow Mollie." The boy added before the pair turned and began to walk towards the large staircase at the front of the building before the split off, the boy going left up another flight of stairs and the girl going right.

Colin, Adrien, Anthony, Marcus

Pushing through the double doors you were lead in to a long corridor lined with doors, on the floor was a small stack of black books that their guide picked up and began to pass out.

"Take one of these and pass it back, this is your school handbook, the front's the school calender and the back's got the rules in it. I'm Sahib, one of the prefects, that means if you're having any problems and I'm around I'll see what I can do to help. This is your floor" He gestured down the hallway "Bathroom's the red door at the end and the stairs behind me lead up to the dorms for the older years, there's nothing technically stopping you going up there but some of them can get pretty terriorial. Other than that, lights out is at 9 and wake up's at 7 and whatever you don't go in to the girls dorms, the staff will come down on you HARD. I think that pretty much covers all the important stuff there's sheets on the doors with your names on, your bags should already be inside."

It would come as no surprise to Anthony what room had his name on it, he'd already been here for a week after all, but joining him would be Colin, Adrien and Marcus, their bags waiting for them on top of the three other previously empty beds. The rooms weren't exactly luxury but along with a bed each of them had their own desk and there was a enough cupboards and draws between them that storage shouldn't be a problem.

There's something in the walls, the floor and ceiling too, something magic
Kelly & Claire

"Okay, like Sahib said, I'm Mollie, one of the prefects. If you're ever having any trouble just come and find me, my rooms on the top floor, first door on your left. Don't be a stranger." The girl started once all her charges were through the doors, another set of bleeps coming from her visor "Lets get the boring stuff out of the way first." She snapped her fingers and a small black book appeared in the air in front of each of the new students, some of them even managed to catch it before gravity took its course.

"Those are the school handbook, it's got all your holidays and exams in the front and the school rules in the back, its pretty obvious stuff but you should probably give it a read some time. Anyway bathroom's just down the hall with the red door and if you don't know what room you've been assigned already it should be on a notice on the door, your bags'll be waiting for you inside. Once you're all unpacked I'll pick you guys back up and we'll head down to the dinning hall for something to eat. So does anyone have any questions?"

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire spent most of their spare time in the common room curiously picking through the selection of paperbacks lining the bookshelves, skimming through the first few pages or just staring at the cracked and faded (but still incredibly interesting!) cover art. They didn't even notice that the prefects had arrived until Mollie began talking, prompting Claire to hurriedly re-shelve the trashy sci-fi novel they were holding and start paying attention.

Claire let out a tiny gasp as the handbook suddenly popped into existence before them, grinning widely as they bent down to pick up the fallen book. "Teleporting powers!!" Claire whispered to themselves excitedly. Or some kind of mystical book-creation powers? Or maybe the books themselves had some sort of special property that let you summon them by snapping? Who knows! Despite their nervousness and misgivings this was all sort of exciting!

Many students probably would have found the introductory guff to be rather tedious, but Claire actually felt their nerves calm a little as Mollie talked. For the last several months they had been in a near-constant state of "not knowing what was going on at all but expected to know anyway", piecing together the information they were supposed to have basically on the spot. So to actually be expected to not know what was going on, in a room full of other people who also did not know what was going on, was...comforting, almost. For once they did not have to worry about feigning understanding. And the rules that they were supposed to be following were all neatly written down in this book instead of having to be pieced together from the internet and unfortunate trial-and-error, which would make not being yelled at and not attracting a bunch of attention much easier.

When Mollie asked if there were any questions, Claire immediately thrust their hand in the air in what they hoped was a good display of academic manners, eager to pursue the question that had been gnawing at them ever since Mollie showed up. "Oh! Um! Yes! Excuse me!" they blurted, then continued without waiting for a response, "Um that visor you are wearing is very cool and if it is not too personal I was wondering what it does and why it is bleeping and if it maybe had anything to do with-" Claire looked around at the other students and slowly, sheepishly lowered their hand. "-uh, that, teleporty thing you did earlier, uhm maybe this is not actually the most relevant question im sorry nevermind"

Once Claire had received Mollie's answer and the other questions (if any) had been asked, then, assuming no interruptions, Claire proceeded down the hallway with the others, searching for their room.

[Quellian-dyrae]

A shimmer of rainbow light flickered over Kelly as she caught the book from the air. Speedsters cheat at literally everything it's great. She took the prefect's advice to read it some time in the pause between sentences immediately following the giving of that advice. Seriously they just cheat so hard.

At the request for questions, she thought for a moment instant and raised her hand. Once called she asked, "Are there any particular rules regarding power use on campus, beyond like obvious don't use powers on people unless they're okay with it type stuff? ...Uh, and what's the school policy on running in the hallways?" she asked with a bit of an impish grin.

--

Once she had found her room, Kelly...well, she was about to just unpack all her stuff in a blur of rainbows and then go exploring, buuuut she held off for at least a moment until all her roommates were there so they could like figure out who went where and stuff. Would be rude to just "speedster dibs" things, after all.

[Llyarden]

Once the stack of handbooks had passed him and carried on down the line of students, Adrien promptly opened the book and skimmed through the rules - he might not have been a speedster, but with perfect recall all he had to do was glance at each page to imprint it in his memory to be mulled over at a later date. "So, uh, what do we do now?" he asked Sahib. "I mean, after finding our rooms and stuff."

---

Once they'd found their room, Adrien carefully set his guitar down on his bed before looking back to the other three. "Huh. Guess we're sticking together for a while." He...wasn't quite sure what to think about that. On the one hand, the four of them (and Kelly and Claire) had worked well together down in the dungeons. On the other, surely it would be more beneficial for them to all be grouped up separately so they didn't just end up as a small clique for the whole year.

[Dorni]

Anthony plopped down on his not-occupied-by-a-bag bed and rolled onto his side, relaxing with one arm supporting his head. "Seems like," he answered his roommate. He wasn't quite sure how to feel about that either. He'd supposed that his roommates would be assigned randomly rather than whomever he happened to have met in the dungeon. He supposed they'd been fairly agreeable during the exam. Although he supposed fighting a lovecraftian monster like LDEF probably did wonders at bringing people together. It made him briefly wonder if human history would be much different if humanity had demons and monsters to fight instead of each other.

"So what now? Do you guys need time to unpack? Do we want to celebrate?"

[OutOfThyme]

Colin was a little surprised at being assigned a room with the others - he'd been expecting to room with someone else. There were forty-four others admitted to the Academy, so did the administration just decide to group entrance exam teams together?

Colin carried both of his bags into the room. One was a steel case that contained his gear, while the other was a hard-shelled suitcase with whatever he thought he'd need for staying in the dorm. He slid the steel case under his bed, and propped the suitcase up on the bed.

"If we unpack now, and make it quick, we won't really have to worry about it later," Colin says. "Besides, I'm sure that they'll probably drag us out for some kind of orientation something-or-other in a bit."

[Thokk_Smash]

Marcus' smile was brittle and forced, as anyone could tell, when the scores were initially shown. Internally, he fumed and ranted and raged and ~yelled far too much at innocent knowledge spirits~ which were then summarily thrown into another horrendous memory. Still, eventually he accepted the realization that he had actually, really been accepted into Avalon Academy. After his anger subsided, he had also made sure to check if Gabriel had been accepted.

Now, inside the(ir) room, the reality is sinking in. He'll have to keep his magic under even tighter control now, being in close quarters with near-total strangers. Suddenly he feels the extent of the change in his life. It's a tad daunting. He flips through the handbook from front to back--in his mind, having been released from his personal hell, Barty reads along and stores the knowledge for future reference.

"Unpacking sounds like a good idea," he says out loud, going to his own bag. Mr Anderson, Gabriel's father, had done a good job in instilling a basic work ethic in the short amount of time Marcus had been living with the Andersons. His nostrils flare in psychosomatic reflex, and he casts his senses around the room.

If it's okay, shuffled things around to upgrade Marcus' Detect Magic. Now it's a Ranged, Acute Detect Magic, so he can at least feel it at a distance. Expertise (Magic) to determine what kind of magic is in the walls/floor/ceiling: [roll0]

[Dodgeson]

Girls Dorm

"I mean I kinda meant about like lights out and stuff but whatever." Mollie took Claire's unexpected question in her stride as she launched in to her explanation "Okay so time to get a little 'secret origin' here but when my metagene kicked in I kinda hit the jackpot, I can copy the powers of any other metahuman as long as I have something that belonged to them that I can use as a focus.

"This." She held up her hand to reveal a strip of fabric wrapped round her palm, before tucking it back in to one of the pouches on her belt "Belongs to a guy in Year 12, he can mark things and then 'port them to him later. This little gizmo." She continued, tapping the device "Just gives me a heads up if anyone's got something fun I don't have yet, by the way I'm totally looking for a power-enhanced that's willing to play ball. Anyone?"

There was some murmuring amongst the crowd but nobody spoke up, undaunted she turned her attention to Kelly, her visor giving off another ping as it created a readout on her super-speed "I think there's something in the back of the handbook about that but if you're not breaking anything and you don't run in to anybody most people are pretty cool about it."

Mollie fielded a few more questions about bed times and dorm swaps but slowly the students began to dissipate as they all drifted off to find their new rooms and begin unpacking.

Kelly might have been first to the room but she would soon be joined not only by Claire but also by a glamorous looking girl already wearing the school uniform and a girl with a bright green pixie cut.

"So we armwrestling for first dibs or what?" The green haired girl asked with a grin.

Boys Dorms

"Just get your stuff unpacked and I'll do a call round for dinner, then you're free to do what you want until lights out." Sahib answered with a shrug "That's a one time thing by the way, you're expected to make sure you don't miss any meals yourself." The prefect fielded a couple more questions before heading up the stairs back to his own floor once the new students went off to go discover their new rooms.

Their wards specifically designed to interact with your magic, within the dorm at least you won't have to worry about accidentally ruining anybody's tech.
The First Day of School!

Everything started bright and early for everybody, prefects arriving to deliver a wakeup call just before seven and from there they were ushered downstairs for morning announcements, this largely consisted of being introduced to the matrons (a team of (mostly) woman who handled the domestic side of things) and the new students being told which form room they were expected to report to. It was during this little meeting that Anthony's phone would buzz.

<I knew you could do it kiddo! Sorry this took so long, caught me at a bad time last night, new gang trying to make a push in to London. I'm coming up in a few weeks want me to bring anything?>
As proof a grinning selfie was attached of him and Britannia standing in front of a pile of unconscious helmeted thugs
After that it was on to breakfast and the enormous dining hall with its long wooden tables where students eagerly devoured seemingly endless amounts of sausage, eggs, bacon and beans accompanied by loaves upon loaves of toast and enormous vats of cereal. Somewhere off in the corner a bowl of fruit sat lonely and neglected.

Now the form room you'd all been assigned was Room F, asking around would reveal that this was the big building down by the sports fields, what people neglected to mention however that calling Room F a classroom might have been just a tad generous. Sure there were just about enough desks to fit everybody in and a well-used looking white board up at the front but what there also was was sports equipment. Nets, sticks and balls for every kind of game imaginable fort for space along with cones and weights and boxes of whistles, timers and other sports gear.

"Somebody sit on it!" Not that this was bringing anybody down of course, the blonde girl that Kelly and Claire would recognise from their dorm had wasted no time in piling as many of the weights as she could find on to the table and was now lifting it high in to the air whilst a trio of boys watched on with interest (though it might not just have been at her feat of strength). Whilst at another desk a boy and girl were currently engaged in a game of chess (which the boy was playing without touching the pieces) and a pair of girls kept snatching glances at Adrien trying to work out if that was really who they thought it was...

[zzzzzzzz414]

Claire arrived at the form room with their head buried in the student handbook, rereading it once again to make sure they had the rules well memorized. If they were going to avoid calling attention to themselves or attracting any trouble from the teachers, they needed to know these things front to back! Breaking rules meant getting in trouble meant close scrutiny meant their real nature being maybe discovered meant Very Very Bad Things.

They stowed the book in their bag once they'd arrived in the assigned room, double and triple checking to make sure that it WAS in fact the right room before heading inside. They were honestly a bit anxious about this whole procedure; they were still not sure what the function of a "form room"...was, precisely? But the way the staff had been talking about it made it clear that it would look incredibly weird and silly indeed to ask.

Claire greeted their friends from the previous day who'd already arrived with a cheerful wave and grin (if there were any) and stopped to give a "Wow!" and a thumbs up to Tansy a she lifted the table before looking around for a good, non-obtrusive place to sit; it seemed that whatever official things were going to happen here ("role call"?) were not happening yet, but they still wanted to be prepared. However, they caught sight of the chess game in progress on the other side of the room and drifted over, eyes lighting up as they took in the layout of the pieces with keen interest. Claire took a seat at a desk near the pair, craning their neck to get a better look at the board. "Um, hello! Do not mind me, I just wanted to watch if that would be ok? I am a big fan of chess!"

[Llyarden]

For a pop star, Adrien was - perhaps surprisingly, considering how much of a showoff he was when it came to hero-ing - just a normal boy when it came to mundane stuff. He unpacked and tidied his stuff away neatly (and did so without using his powers), and though his response to the wakeup call was a sleepy grumble, once he'd woken up a little more he was polite enough, and he made it down to breakfast with plenty of time to spare. Perhaps the most unusual thing he did was venturing over to the fruit bowl and collecting an apple to go along with the rest of his breakfast.

"...huh." His first reaction to 'Room F' was a rather muted one. "What happens when they need all this stuff?" he wondered aloud. "Are people just going to pop into our lessons?" Still, considering the 'entrance exam,' he suspected that occasional interruptions to their lessons were probably going to be the least weird thing they'd have to deal with.

When he noticed Claire waving at him, he waved back and ambled over towards her in the absence of any particular destination, watching the blonde girl showing off for a moment with something of an amused expression. "Heya," he greeted Claire with a friendly smile, speaking relatively quietly in the hopes of not distracting the two chess players she was watching. "Looks like our group's going to be sticking together a while longer."

He noticed the two girls watching him, but didn't pay them too much attention. Their suspicions would be confirmed soon enough when the register was taken anyway.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Kelly rose with the sun. The boundless energy within her didn't abide sleeping late. ...Also she was eight hours ahead of where she was used to so her body couldn't have stayed asleep much longer if she had wanted to. She had fallen asleep rather early despite her best efforts at staying up chatting with her new roommates. Speedsters had a pretty robust set of Required Secondary Powers, letting them not burst into flames from friction, or blow holes in their bodies with every mote of dust they impacted, or navigate efficiently at top speed, or not shatter the ground with every step, etc. Tragically, immunity to jet lag was not among them. Or not among hers, at any rate.

She absolutely devoured breakfast. Speedster's metabolism. She wasn't...entirely sure what to make of beans on the breakfast menu, cultural differences lol, but yeah she piled her plate high with everything else, made up the difference with extra bacon 'cause her country had a reputation to uphold or something, and went back for at least a couple of refills. She had several bowls of the most sugary cereal on offer. (She also got some of the fruit, but it had nothing to do with it being healthy and everything to do with it being sweet).

In the classroom, she waved back to Claire, tossed some upnods to people she recognized, and pretty much just took a seat when she arrived. Her hair was no longer red white and blue. For the first day of classes she had left it her normal pale blonde. She was...kinda fidgeting uncomfortably in her seat. Mandatory uniforms, ugh! The tie, in particular, could go die in a fire. She wished they could at least substitute costumes. It was a hero school, substituting costumes would make sense, right? Right?

Both at class and at breakfast, she had basically just picked a random seat, rather than specifically seeking out people she already knew. She wouldn't be able to make more friends if she just sat with the ones she had already made, after all ('course, she wouldn't object if any of them picked seats near her either). She chatt(er)ed with whoever ended up nearby, at least until a teacher arrived, though her attention was constantly jumping about as she seemingly tried to keep tabs on the entire room at once. The gentle glow of rainbow light playing over her skin indicated that she was using her powers to help her do so, hastening her perceptions so she could pay attention to everything.

[Dorni]

Anthony arrived at the room excited. He'd been cooped on campus with not nearly enough to do for way too long by this point; he was excited for class to start to give him something to focus on more than anything. That, and for the message he'd received. He hadn't been frustrated by the delayed response - in fact, he wasn't sure yet how much he could really expect from them at all and he could understand why they might be busy.

So when he walked in and saw one of his classmates goofing around with weights piled on a table, he grimaced. Sure, he was virtually indestructible - a few thousand kilograms meant little to him, but most of his classmates were probably far more fragile. So he approached the girl. "Miss, you've proven how strong you are. Maybe now is a good time to put it down before you break the table?"

[OutOfThyme]

Colin had basically been the first person out of the dorm. He'd tried to be as quiet about it as possible, but he wasn't sure if any of them heard him getting ready for the day. He was wearing the normal uniform, but had opted to wear a simple, red-and-orange enamel pin of a sword (a gift from his mother) on his collar.

Much like Kelly, Colin's plate was piled high, with mostly eggs and meat, along with a bowl of fiber-rich cereal. Colin wouldn't have eaten like this a year ago, but with Gramps always made sure that he ate well during his time training. He was glad to see this kind of variety, though.

In the class, Colin's gaze settled on the chess game, trying to identify who was the better of the two. He might give that a shot later, if they had any remaining time before class.

[Thokk_Smash]

For an hour or so after unpacking, Marcus just stares at the walls intently. Occasionally he scribbles notes in a notebook, with symbols and sigils and mutterings under his breath talking to himself. There are wards that can be created to counter his magic's anti-technology aura? He must inspect!

The early wakeup call is met with grumbling and malcontent. He puts on the uniform without complaint, although he does attempt to bring his duster slung over his shoulder. "I spent hours each night for literal weeks enchanting this, I'm bloody well gonna at least bring it to my superhero school classes," he'll say to any prefect who might tell him he can't bring his duster to class. And thin as he is, he's still six-foot with a mean glare when he wants to really get his glare on.

So he brings his duster (if he can) and uses it to save his seat as he loads his plate with stacks on stacks on mounds on piles of every kind of breakfast meat and a genuine loaf of bread. He obviously doesn't hold a candle to a speedster like Kelly, but he puts away a damn respectable amount of food by the time they all go to form room. He does his best to find Gabriel to check how the other boy is settling in, although Marcus admits that the current wielder of Caliburn has most likely had far more success than himself.

Now, in the form room, Marcus' natural awkwardness has its time to shine. He nods to everyone from the Test of DOOM (as Barty kept referring to the entrance exam as, which has unfortunately stuck in his brain). Even though no one has a visible bit of technology, Marcus still keeps his mind shield firmly up to head off any stray bits of magic that his nervousness causes to flare out. His nerves get to him such that he actually puts his leather duster on while they wait for the professor to arrive, assuming no one in the dorm had stopped him from taking it. The familiar weight and smell help to calm him down and he is relieved to feel his tension begin to drain.

[Dodgeson]

Luckily for Marcus the school rules treated his duster just like any other coat and outside of lessons he was free to wear it as much as he liked, even if he would get a few odd looks here and there from other students. Out at breakfast whilst everybody was eating their fill and Kelly was on the hunt for new friends he wouldn't have much problem locating Gabriel, just as he expected he seemed to have settled in just fine, who was sitting with his girlfriend (still nursing a broken arm) and two of his new dorm mates. He happily exchanged pleasantries with his friend and introduced him to the table before having to head off to Room E wherever that was.

"Hi Claire!" Tansy waved back to her friend with enough enthusiasm to jostle the desk she was holding and send one of the weights tumbling off her stack, slamming in to her head before it hit the floor with a heavy CLANG. Of course being a paragon this didn't so much as muss up her hair but it did embarrass her enough that Anthony admonished her she set the table back down on the ground

"Yeah, maybe you're right..." She said with a nervous chuckle, rubbing the back of her head "...kinda getting off on the wrong foot here, I'm Tansy. I don't normally do that kind of thing, I'm not a show off or anything, it's just this school you know?"

"Sure." The boy playing chess responded to Claire, his pieces moving across the board even as her turned his attention away from the game and to her "You can play winner if you want. Checkmate."

As far as Colin could tell the game definitely the boy, it's not that his opponent was bad, in fact the moves she was making were indicative of a high level understanding of the game, it was just unfortunate for her that he seemed to be able to anticipate every single one of them.

Having had enough of stealing glances and whispering to each other the pair of girls that had been focusing on Adrien finally bottled up their courage and decided to approach him "Hi, I bet you get this all the time but are you Adrien Zhey?" the first girl asked, her silver eyed friend waiting eagerly over her shoulder.