[center][h3]Winterhold College - Postulant’s Parlor: Escape[/h3]
[color=salmon][b]Ace[/b] - [u]Level[/u]: [b]9[/b] - [u]Total EXP[/u]: 519/90[/color]
Level 7 Heismay (70/70) Sectonia & Blazermate
[b]Word Count:[/b] 2067 (+3)[/center]

[i]“Attention, all Seekers. We have obtained the die and stand ready to activate the Dice Room. I am issuing the evacuation order: make your way to the Dice Room ASAP. I recommend opening doors until you see another door held open by one of Edward’s golems, at which point it and its fellows can direct you to our location. Bring all possible innocents. And if you should find an observatory, do NOT, I repeat NOT, look through the telescope. Copy?”[/i]

The message was received not long after the group of Seekers regrouped in the parlor. They could all breathe a collective sigh of relief knowing for sure that the end really was in sight now. The Postulant's Parlor they found themselves in was still disconnected from the lengthy chain of rooms that led to the Dice Room, but with the Drafting Studio off to one side they wouldn't have to keep opening and closing the same door until they got lucky and opened up a connection. The attic room was too small for all of them to squeeze into, but they only needed one or two to go in and pick out which room to attach.

It was going to take time away from the college to get Ace back to his regular chipper self, but Sandalphon's announcement that escape was close at hand did re-energize him a little. He went ahead into the studio to let faceless Fred know what was going on (as he'd be joining the party per the request to rescue as many as possible), then turned to glance over the drafting table.

Sectonia gave a side eye to Ace, taking such a hideous creature with him to ‘free’ them but it kept quiet and tried to stay out of view of everyone so it at least knew its place. She carried her own ugly creature in the hands of her golden antler, although compared to Faceless Fred he looked more feeble than ugly. Blazermate meanwhile was starting to get as disturbed as Ace and seeing what Sectonia was on about when she saw Faceless Fred. But she was more on Ace’s side on letting him have what would essentially be a peaceful hospice, as long as he stayed peaceful and didn’t bother anyone.

[color=salmon]"Can we connect directly to the Dice Room...?"[/color] Ace wondered, oblivious to the ladies' silent judgement as he swept his eyes over the assortment of options on the table. Maybe they would have to attach the parlor to one of the farther rooms in the larger chain if all the closer doors were already open?

Heismay hopped up onto the chair in front of the blueprint, putting the tips of his long ears roughly level with Ace’s head. The unexpected announcement from the Seekers’ leader had been a very welcome surprise, but Heismay took it in stride. He simply had a new mission, and even better, his crew had the perfect tool for the job. Since he’d already inspected the blueprint, he understood something about the white shapes and lines that the hunter did not.

“I believe these boxes on the outer edges of each room represent doors,” the eugief told Ace. “When I moved the Altar of Horton, its box snapped onto one of the parlor’s. Should be a simple task.” Lowering a clawed finger onto the Postulant’s Parlor, he pulled the Oedon Chapel off, then carefully dragged the parlor itself downward, along with the attached Drafting Studio. That meant moving the very room that he and the others were standing in, although he felt no shifting beneath his feet. After a moment, though, he came to a realization. “Hm. Twould seem that I cannot rotate the tile. The only open door to the Dice Room is on its south side, but the parlor’s northern entrance is locked.” He glanced at Ace. “Tis necessary to engage with that game board after all, it seems.”

The Cadet nodded along, including when Heismay came to the conclusion that they weren't going to leave the parlor without playing its game after all. He was no longer dubious about it; they just had to get it done so that they could scram.

[color=salmon]"Three men's morris, right?"[/color] he said. The explanation of the simple game's rules and how it related to the parlor's locked doors hadn't been that long ago. [color=salmon]"Alright, let's do it."[/color]

They made their way to the table in the center of the room. The statue and its game board was the same as they'd left it. Ace glanced at Heismay and then pulled out the chair across from it. [color=salmon]"So we're thinking moving a piece to the north and it'll unlock the matching door, yeah?"[/color]

Based on the board's current set up it would only take one move. Ace's hand hovered over the ivory piece with a clear shot north, and after no interruptions or second guesses were sent his way he pushed it up. Promptly and simultaneously, the southern gate slid shut to bar the door, while the northern gate slid open. As it did, the chess statues in the room -three pawns, two knights, and a bishop- came to life, alight with demonic energy.

“Ah,” Heismay nodded knowingly as he reached for his sword, remembered it was warped beyond use, and then settled for his scythe. Not an effective weapon against foes of stone, he knew, but he had no choice. “There’s the rub.” 

He entered the north room, and as the pieces began to move toward him by lifting into the air and stamping down, he transformed. As the Assassin, Heismay started the fight with Lurking Nightblade to decrease the statue’s accuracy. Nobody wanted to get squashed by one of those things, but him least of all. At least with Blazermate around, no heroes would stay injured for long.

Sectonia meanwhile was more built to deal with statues like enemies. While her lightning was completely useless and her holy swords only did superfluous damage, her crystal axe and its crystal smashes would be pretty effective against these things. She’d make up the frontline this time it seemed, which also meant much like frontliners often got, she got a lot of Blazermate’s healing. Granted outside of her void globules, reality shatter, and her crystal smashes, her attacks weren’t that effective. Blazermate herself didn’t have many attacks that’d be effective either outside of her healing, although Disseminate didn’t care if they were statues or not and copied the damage dealt to one to the others around it, although at a vastly reduced amount. It wasn’t a whole lot of damage, but it seemed most of the group wasn’t great at dealing with statues.

With all they needed to do with the game board done with, Ace soon jumped into the fray as well. This time the comfortably familiar pieces of the Master Bang found their way to his hands after a brief fumble in his bag. He started by pulling one of the knight statues away from the rest by latching his clutch claw onto it while it rose up for an attack and yanking. He smashed the broad side of his shield into it a moment later, and even the humbee followed up with a slam of its armored head into the statue right after. 

[color=0072bc]”Uuuh…. We’d better hurry… ”[/color] Blazermate said. Sadly there wasn’t a whole lot she could do until her ubercharge filled up, although she could fly about finding the cracks in the room that’d launch exploding ghosts at the statues. She wasn’t sure how much damage that’d do, but time was of the essence and damage is what they needed to clear the path before, well, whatever that voice said happened.

Sectonia was in agreement, although she was already unleashing her most effective attacks on these statues. And as she had her gold antler carrying a ‘package’ as it were and keeping that fragile man safe, she didn’t have a type of antler that could really help against stone. 

From there it was just a matter of team work to get the chess pieces pulverized. One after another, the statues were demolished by the four Seekers, thanks in large part to Ace’s hammer-like strikes and Sectonia’s crystal axe, although Heismay played his part by drawing the pieces’ attention. Their attack patterns turned out to be quite predictable, being based on their moves in a real game of chess, so the damage Blazermate needed to heal afterward was minimal. 

[color=salmon]"That wasn't too bad,"[/color] the Cadet said when they were finished. Compared to everything else that the college had thrown at them so far it was practically a walk in the park. After touching the humbee's pal sphere to the creature to return it to relatively safety, Ace looked back at the game board still laid out on the table. If the statues coming to life were all they had to deal with in playing, then he wondered how easy it might be to win and what they'd get for it. However, escape was a much more tantalizing reward. [color=salmon]"...but less is morris. Let's get going."[/color]

With the path to the door clear, though, Heismay doubled back. “If the time has come to finally be rid of this place, it would not do to leave anyone behind,” he explained as he jogged back toward the Drafting Studio. Once inside, he trotted toward the faceless painter to tug on his sleeve. “Come, friend. If you are the victim you claim to be, we’ll vouchsafe you ‘til that face of yours is back in its rightful place.” The faceless man seemed nervous, but he allowed himself to be led out of his refuge, and picked up the pace along Heismay to exit through the parlor’s northern door and through the southern entrance to the Dice Room. 

The eugief lingered at the threshold for a moment as he took in the ludicrous scene: a huge room filled with Seekers, random people, and cats, all on edge as green-tinged thunderclouds formed in the chamber’s upper reaches and a giant ghostly skull leered from within. Not all of his teammates were here, though, and Heismay couldn’t help but think that once the door behind him shut, the invaluable resource of the Drafting Studio would be lost again.

But if he was going to stay behind for now to coordinate connecting the missing Seekers to the rest of the party, it was a decision he'd have to make on his own. Perhaps the most eager to leave the labyrinth, Ace stepped through into the Dice Room before he even fully understood what he was seeing in it - though once he recognized that the few allies already gathered there were in trouble he wouldn't have hesitated to go in anyway. At the same time, the cackling skull summoned some sort of dark portal, from which the being it named Godhead Fred spilled out. 

[color=salmon]"Sandalphon!"[/color] Ace called out, alerting her and the others to the arrival of reinforcements. His weapon hadn't yet been stowed since the scuffle in the parlor, and it was back in his hands now. [color=salmon]"Tell us what to do to get out of here!"[/color]

The archangel registered the arrival of several allies and offered a succinct explanation. “I must roll the dice to advance across the board. Each roll will collapse a room and probably summon enemies. The Overseer will also summon enemies if he grows impatient. A perilous balancing act.”

With the decision made for him, Heismay jogged over, with the faceless painter trailing far behind. He tossed aside his warped longsaber and drew his newly-acquired scythe. “I’ll lend a hand.”

[color=92278f]”And I suppose what appears we will need to deal with. Very well.”[/color] Sectonia said. Godhead Fred was one of the few things here that didn’t make Sectonia mentally recoil, but he still looked… off. Like a painting that got corrupted but came alive. Regardless, Sectonia summoned a squad of green, blue, and a red Antler to assist her with fighting as it seemed they would be in a long fight. Having charged a lot of her skills already, Blazermate moved to give people overheal and such as she awaited for their opponent to do something.