Exam: Chamber 2 (RP)

There is a creaking and ticking sound from the 'dud' thunderstone as it rolls off the stone pillar, then it detonates with huge explosion. Ari is thrown high up into the air, clothing singed and footwear smoking, and arcs towards the remaining fingers.

Hooligander's position is obscured by clouds of blue smoke, but little granite chips rain down on Alakassandra and Abigail.

"Ooh! That is unfortunate." A judge says. "Don't play with magic you are not ready for, folks." He seems to be trying to turn this into a PSA, but the other judges look visibly rattled by the events.

- Ari -

As you arc down towards the fingers --your Slowish Fall keeping you aloft for a long time, at this height, and giving you time to study things-- you see the hand the fingers are attached to move, the closed fingers snap back out, and you get the distinct impression of a hand about to swat a fly... and you are that 'fly'.

What do you do?

- Ari -

The stone hand darts out but misses you as it swipes at one of your mirage forms. You are still descending in your leisurely arc and have nothing to push off of to divert your direction of travel.

Your current trajectory will put you right on the fingers, but landing there will probably be risky. The ground around the hand --where it was not all torn up when the hand emerged from the soil-- is probably trapped like the rest, but there are stone pillars --these ones taller than your head-- dotted around it, surely some of them should be safe.

What do you do?

Everyone sees Ari blur into many Aris and doge the hand's attack. It appears, though, that they are still heading towards the fingers and may need help diverting to a safer landing spot.

What do you do?

- Ari -

As you prepare to jump from the finger, the hand makes a grab for you. Fortunately the other finger that tries to pinch you is covered with goop and slips off, only knocking the wind from you a little bit (and smearing you clothes with said goop).

You are able to leap to a nearby pillar, still falling slightly slowish but speeding up as that spell wears off. As you pass through what you discover is the illusion of a safe stone and make your ironic comment, you have a split-second to do something before landing on the --probably-trapped-- ground.

What do you do?

Ari's hamster ball Shield carries them to the base of the next safe pillar of stone and clangs against it --confirming it is real-- before dissipating. They are now at the bottom, and the pillar is above their head.

The stone turns over and that hand appears to 'look' at both sides before shaking itself to shed as much of the goop as it can. This buys you all another moment to make a plan and do something to finish this.

What do you do?

- Abigail -

It seemed to be rather lethal to Hooligander, but all you saw was stone dust, so it is possible his explosion was actually a hidden illusion. Ari might have some thoughts on this if you asked them about 'trapdoors'?

While the tests are, surely, not meant do be life threatening, publicly failing them famously has dire consequences. You have never heard from anyone who did fail them... or at least not those who did so through Wild Magic.

If you have any mind-reading abilities you might get uncomfortable-feeling thoughts from the judges as you raise this question.

Abby: You are definitely getting the feeling there is more going on here. The tests have been puzzlingly easy for you, even without proper Wizard abilities. You suspect that, if you were allowed to use your actual abilities properly and openly, the 'tests' would be completely trivial. This is not to say they are not still dangerous, Hooligander got blown to bits, but that was the result of his own devices not the test's design. All this forced control and fear of Wild magic might just be to keep those in power in power. But is this the time to explore such radical ideas?

Ari: From your vantage point near the hand you can see that it is protection something. There is a ruby-red dome that puts you in mind of the force-field from the previous chamber, but you can't see through this one very clearly. It appears like there is a table in there, but there is nothing large or significant visible on that table.

Alaks: You are sure you were on the right track with changing or moving or repositioning the hand. The hand also does not seem to know which way to defend from, now that Ari is on the far side. This distraction might allow someone to get right up to it? The hand seemed strong enough that it did not care much about Ari's weight, and you doubt most people would be able to wrestle it.

What do you do?

- Abigail -

The blood-coloured dome near the base of where the hand extends out of the earth seems to be the key. It feels similar to the one you all had to pass though to end the previous test, but not quite the same. If you could get over there --past the trapped ground and the defending stone hand-- you might be able to penetrate it and discover what lies within.

This force-field is not for temperature, though, so you may need to experiment a bit and get a better feel for its function and quirks before you can deal with it. Maybe the others can buy you the time you need?

How do you get there? What do you do once you do?