Early Morning, Day Four

Agatha grumbles, "I hoped you guys might have explored more of this level. No matter. To get into up through the dungeon and into the house, you need to pass through a door with six keys."

She twirls around the metal triangle she cut out of the Mak Candelario. "Not exactly your standard keys, are they?" she quips.

Continuing, she says, "There are seven chambers around here; I'm guessing six of them have keys, the seventh being that one with the rotating floor. As for the mural, I didn't see any mural, but my party split up.

"I'm guessing you haven't seen any of them... that's not too surprising. We were very unlucky. I just lost my last two associates in the arena. Our magician turned out to be a spy, and started transforming us. Half our party lost their minds or ran off, so it was just the three of us."

After one too many yawns, Agatha replies, "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to rest now. We'll be alright from wandering monsters here, they're all too busy in there." She gestures towards the arena.

Leaning up against the wall and grasping her weapon, Agatha settles down for the night.

[I will assume the party does as well and continue with the update; if anyone wants something different, just let me know.]

When the party wakes up the next morning, Agatha is still snoring quietly. During the morning's rustlings, she snaps awake, holding her weapon aloft.

"Sorry," she apologizes a few moments later, "sleeping with a bunch of men tends to make a girl edgy, especially when you don't know if they're going to go feral and try eating you at a moment's notice."

She takes a quick peek at your map:



"I've explored a bit more than this, but I wasn't the cartographer so I don't have a map. Anyway, each of these rooms. To the west is another one of these 'key rooms', and this one called 'The Kaleidoscope' is one as well. There's a fountain to the northeast, and a few other 'rooms' to the northeast and northwest. From what I can see, the rest of this level is a twisting maze. The locked door is roughly west of here.

"I suggest we get the keys first, before we do anything else. But then my advice hasn't worked out well so far, so I'll probably just go along with whatever you guys want."

[The Archivist renews his Command over Grrarghgrllfrg]

Near Midnight, Day Three - Part 2

[Sorry not updating earlier, I'm back on the normal update schedule now.]

As the wererats clear away the bodies, a new round of combat starts in the arena.

Meanwhile, despite Sarah's attempts at clearing the slime away from her friends, they and the women they joined in battle begin to undergo transformations:

[William]
William feels a twitching in his ears, which grow up into two round loops, as a spectrum of brown fur begins to sprout over his head. His jaw stretches forwards as his head reshapes into that of a rabbit: a pair of large, dark eyes on the side of his fuzzy head; two nostrils squashing into angled slits; two front teeth stretching down for rapid rabid rabbit chomping.

[Reginald]
Reginald's shoes burst open as two large kangaroo feet come into view, quickly furring over with a covering of tan hairs. The thighs change too, and a large thick tail bursts out of the back of his pants. Eventually, from the waist down, Reginald is a kangaroo.

[Mysterious Woman]
The leather around the woman's legs buckles and snaps, as from her waist another pair of legs begins to push out. Both sets of legs quickly become covered with dark brown hair as the legs begin to stretch apart as she starts gaining a new torso.

After cursing at her transformed shape, the warrior woman answers Reginald's questions, "The name is Agatha. I assume you're here because of Vladimir. I think we can help each other out. I don't care about him, so much as an item he's got hidden somewhere in his house. I'll help you out, but I get first choice when it comes to the treasure-grab. Now, how many keys do you have so far?"

Near Midnight, Day Three

[Leremy casts Probe at a cost of 1 MP]

Everything is as it appears, aside from the standard magic force-field and vaguely magical readings coming from the expected monsters, there's nothing peculiar about this place.

William and Reginald enter into the ring; meanwhile a half-transformed werepanther flexing his long, limber muscles, a giant smelly minotaur and a truly terrifying abomination that can only be described as a glowing quivering mass of what looks like a pile of spam with oozing pustulant tentacles and an insidious "voice" that babbles "Hello........................................" into the minds of everyone in the ring.

"Watch out for that Mak Candelario, its very touch can cause a transformation," the warrior woman, who still hasn't identified herself, proclaims. "Hopefully you'll last a bit longer than my previous 'allies'. If we manage to kill it... well, it will prove beneficial to the both of us."

The wererats scramble all over William and Reginald, tying red bands around their arms, and blue around the arms of the werepanther and minotaur. A whole bunch of them stare at the Mak, babbling and shrugging their shoulders until their "boss" whacks them over the head. One wererat is pushed out towards it, gripping the final blue armband in his paw. One tentacle darts out, grabbing the wererat, who squeals and slowly shrinks, eventually becoming a rat which squeaks and dashes about on the arena's floor.

Now that everyone has their "armbands", the boss rat squeaks into the black orb, and the black box blares out "Let the battle commence!"

Round 1

William suffers 0 HP damage from Mak Candelario. William is Slimed!
Reginald suffers 12 HP damage from Minotaur.
Mysterious Woman suffers 0 HP damage from Werepanther.

Werepanther suffers 22 HP damage from Mysterious Woman.
Werepanther suffers 3 HP damage from William.
Werepanther is killed by party!
Mak Candelario suffers 1 HP damage from Reginald.

Round 2

William suffers 2 HP damage from Minotaur.
Reginald suffers 0 HP damage from Mak Candelario. Reginald is Slimed!

Minotaur suffers 24 HP damage from Mysterious Woman.
Mak Candelario suffers 8 HP damage from William.
Mak Candelario suffers 1 HP damage from Reginald.

Round 3

William suffers 2 HP damage from Minotaur.
Mysterious Woman suffers 0 HP damage from Mak Candelario. Mysterious Woman is Slimed!

Minotaur suffers 4 HP damage from William.
Mak Candelario suffers 1 HP damage from Reginald.
Mak Candelario suffers 32 HP damage from Mysterious Woman.
Mak Candelario is killed by anti-spam... err... party!

Round 4

William suffers 2 HP damage from Minotaur.

Minotaur suffers 4 HP damage from William.
Minotaur suffers 24 HP damage from Mysterious Woman.
Minotaur is killed by party!

600 XP earned for William, Reginald and Mysterious Woman.
Reginald goes up to Level 2! Reginald gains 4 Level Points!

[Speaking of which, during the last IM RP Mephis (1), William (5), Kit (3), Leremy (5), Musashidan (7) and James (3) all went up to level 2 and earned Level Points which, if I'm remembering correctly, have not been spent. For them and for Reginald, let me know how you wish to spend them, and if you want to use a Reroll Point to possibly gain more. (you gain 1-7 level points for going up a level).]

The unnamed woman quickly dashes over to the dead Mak Candelario, slicing into its spammy body and cutting out a strange seemingly magnetic metallic triangle.

The force-field flickers, and the woman promptly leaves the arena. You can now see how tired she is; the party, too, is feeling quite tired from its last day of adventuring and could use some sleep.

[Transformations to follow in the next update!]

Hey, it's not dead!

I'm just going to let you guys know I'm finally home and can start writing updates for this again. I'll do so later today (I got home yesterday and I've got a lot of chores to get done first), so hopefully you come back and we can finish this.

Thank you for your patience.