[ We find Our Heroes once again facing off against the Pensword hall on Ye Olde Campus Double Dare. Istvan, Kenji, and Will just fell out of the television camera, where they'd been trapped during the commercial break. ] [ For some reason, there's seven on each side, now; Seylin showed up during the commercial break. ] [ Session Start! ] * Patrick waves. "Hey Sey, where were you?" * Red is conferring with Maggie and grinning conspiratorily. This can't be good. Um... I had to go powder my nose? * Marguerite is looking marginally amused. You didn't use enough powder. * Alcinoe watches the other two red-heads warily. Margie was in her old residence hall, so she knows that can't be good. * Ariake awaits the next trial! * Seylin blinks. "It doesn't look good?" * Alcinoe snaps out of it to look at Kenji. "Ya don't hafta insult the gal." * Seylin has a very cute nose, by the way. It figures. ;p * Istvan shoots a glance at the dragon, to make sure he isn't in a sneezing mood. "Always with the trans-dimensional sneezes..." * Patrick is waiting. Well, is your nose powdered then? * HKenji blinks in confusion. Why would my nose be powdered? * Patrick was talking to Seylin. * Seylin nods. "It's all good now! So, are we still on the show?" We're not off the show. ^_^ * Will nods. "I believe so." At least until the next commercial. * Will shudders. "Don't mention that Isty. Once is enough." Eh, wasn't really so bad. Just... odd. Very odd. You know every 30 minute show has at least two commercial breaks, right? Yep! Yuck... * Istvan blinks, pulls a hanky out of a pocket, and offers it to the mascot/dragon. "In case you need to sneeze again." Are we going to continue? Yes, we are. * Seylin points at the co-hosts. "I think they're still planning... oh? Well, I'm ready!" * Patrick nods and smiles. It is time now for the second round of questions! Questions will be harder, and the cash value for a correct answer doubles. * Marguerite pulls back her sleeve and pokes at her watch. Remember, you will be timed; you only have five minutes to answer each question, although the timer starts over when you dare the other team. Here we go! * Alcinoe straightens. Question time! * Red grins. "First question; what is the alignment of a typical Desmodu?" * HKenji sighs a bit. Oh! And since you're in the lead, it's the Flying Couches with the first opportunity to answer. * Istvan turns to the others. "Was some kinda Good, I remember..." * Alcinoe looks at the others and shrugs helplessly. * Ariake nods. "I would bet on Lawful or Neutral." * Seylin bites her lip. "I think I was sick that day, and the ones we met underground aren't really typical..." * Patrick hmmms... "I'd think neutralish." * Will shakes his head and grins weakly. "Something good yes. But don't remember exactly..." Kenji? You're the expert... Uh, Neutral Good, then? I am afraid I have no idea whatsoever. * Ariake shrugs. "I'll vote for Neutral Good." Are the ones we met typical? * Patrick nods. "Sounds fair. Neutral good?" * Red puts on a serious face. "Is that your final answer?" * HKenji leaves it to his companions this time. Since we all agree it's something close to that... yes. Alright. Correct! The Flying Couches get 1000 gold. Very good. Next question! * Istvan nods. Yup, that's him celebrating. Biggest dwarf ever. Let's hear the next one. ^_^ * Alcinoe snickers. What is the elemental breath weapon of a Dread Linnorm? You have five minutes. * Istvan tilts his head, and looks back at the others. "A Dread whowha?" * Patrick scratches his head. "Dread Linnorm, Dread Linnorm..." Linnorm? I say we dare. * Ariake nods. Yeah. At the very least, give me time to ponder. * Seylin nodnods. The name seems familiar. * Will nods too. * HKenji kneels on the stage, closes his eyes, and begins heavy duty pondering. * HKenji opens his eyes. "Dare!" Very well! Pensword team, the Flying Couches dare you to answer the question! [ The bards of Pensword look at each other, discuss, and then say "Double-Dare!" ] * HKenji smiles as Pensword falls into his trap. * HKenji stands up, raises his voice, and says, "The Dread Linnorm, being the largest of the Linnorms, possesses two heads, and two distinct breath weapons, one of fire, and one of cold, that it can use simultaneously." ... yeesh. * Ariake raises an eyebrow. "Impressive!" * Patrick whistles. "Nice stuff." * Will raises an eyebrow at Kenji, "Is that in the textbook too?" Wow! Yow. Good goin', Kenji. It's in an esoteric tome that was lent to me by a professor once. I certainly didn't expect it to be part of this... challenge. * Patrick smirks. Do you read everything you can get your hands on? Yes. * Alcinoe snickers. "Didja hafta ask?" I mean, I like books, but... still. Wow. * Patrick chuckles. Whew. I was beginning to think that I've been reading the wrong textbook. As Akodo said, if you know the enemy and know yourself, you will not be defeated in a thousand battles. What about the thousand 'n' first? Then you're just lucky. That is correct! 4000 gold to the Flying Couches! [ The Pensword Bards weep openly. ] Yay! The next question goes to Pensword. Hah! Next question: What size dress would a Great Red Wyrm wear? You have five minutes. * Patrick pauses. ... huh. ... * Ariake does some mental arithmetic. ...whatever size she likes. She can become whatever shape she prefers. Do Great Red Wyrms even *wear* dresses? Great Red Wyrm wears dresses? [ The Pensword Bards give this one some serious thought, oddly enough. ] I don't think a Great Red Wyrm would want to wear a dress, but then again, if one wanted to, who's going to stop it? * Patrick eyes Kenji. "It's their turn." * HKenji is whispering, by the by. [ One of the Bards asks, "In its natural form?" Red nods in response. ] ... Kenji's got a point the- or not. I am afraid your arcane clothing measures are out of my expertise. [ One of the Bards says "Dare". ] * Alcinoe boggles. "They're outta mine, an' Ah actually wear dresses." Alright. Flying Couches, your question, five minutes. Okay, what are the measurements of your average Great Red Wyrm? * Istvan looks at the others. "... dunno. Never fitted one for armor." * Seylin shakes her head. "I know my dress size, but that's about it." The tomes are silent on the matter, unfortunately. Hold on... If it's a red dragon, and someone's making a dress for her... ... making armor for a great wyrm dragon would take a long time. Be kinda redundant too. Wouldn't it be whatever size the Red dragon said it was? Because, let's be honest. Nobody's going to argue. But it's about the dragon wearin' it. ... Ah guess that could work. Hmm... I doubt that will be accepted, but it is certainly worth a try. I wouldn't think that a great red wyrm dragon would be sensitive about that kind of thing, but, maybe. Patrick, let's go with your answer. Wanna double-dare it back? Knowing them? I bet they have an answer already. No, it is better to lose the money. * Marguerite eyes her watch. If yer gonna do it, do it now. * Will nods. * Alcinoe nudges Patrick. Go for it, Patrick. * Patrick turns to Red. "It's whatever size the Great Red Wyrm says it is!" * Red turns to Felgolos, who shakes his head. "Sorry, that's not an acceptable answer. One thousand gold docked from the Flying Couches." * Ariake snaps her fingers. Awww. Well, it was still a good try! * Patrick shrugs. What was the correct answer, then? ~_^ The correct answer was; one thousand, three hundered and twenty- eight. And now! It's time for a commercial break, and then we'll be back for the messiest minute on television! One thousand and wha? Nobody was gonna get that one. * Istvan eyes the dragon warily. [ Nobody gets sucked into a television, this time. ] ... That is one large dress! * HKenji blinks a little and files away the answer for future reference. Hmm, that's good to know. That'd require a lot of fabric... Yup. And thread. And it'd be a hard pattern to design, too, what with the wings and talons and all. And if you messed up, it'd prolly eat you. Lotta pressure. But the dressmakers in the mall are really good. I'll bet if anyone could make a dress for a great wyrm red dragon, they could! * Alcinoe laughs. * Patrick grins. I will remember this. I have my doubts about both its accuracy and its usefulness, but I will remember anyway. Well, it could come in handy if... well... okay, it'll never come in handy. [ A producer says, "Alright. And we're back on in five, four, three, two..." ] If you're trapped by a bronze who asks you that particular question. * Seylin smiles for the camera! * Patrick grins. * Ariake grins. And we're back! It's time for the obstacle course, the messiest minute on television! Flying Couches, you will be running it while the Penswords do their best to demoralize you with jeering and such! Maggie, tell them what they have to put up with to win. ... * Patrick laughs. * Alcinoe shakes her hands. "Ah'm demoralized. Really." Yeah. I don't know what I'll do. We're really sad! * Istvan growls over at the Penswordians. Ya'll go runnin' from the obstacle course in fear, 'at's what. Hey, now. They have high Charisma, so they must be good at it, in theory. * Patrick snerks. * Marguerite stands up, stretches, then kicks the stool off the stage, draws her absolutely immense sword, and swoops it around! A curtain falls, revealing .... the course! In theory. What, precisely, are we winning? [ The Fourth Wall, which was just recovering from the last attack made on it, falls over again. ] Right. * Seylin just smiles cutely. High Charisma, eh? ^_^ Obstacle course is composed of eight challenges, all which of which contain a single red flag. * Marguerite holds one up, then tosses it over her shoulder. It's small, and flaglike! Each flag's got a prize that goes with it. Whatever flags you end up with, that's what prizes ya get... But you gotta finish the obstacle course in time to get any of 'em at all. * Ariake hmms. * Marguerite points to the first obstacle. With her sword. "The Spud Splat. 's fifty pounds of the school cafeteria's mashed potatoes. Inside it? Red flag." Prize for Spud Splat is some Bracers of Archery! * Alcinoe raises an eyebrow and looks at Patrick. "Don'tcha got some 'a those?" * Marguerite points to the second obstacle. "Ant Farm. You gotta work your way through the huge ant farm, gettin' the flag on the way. They wouldn't let me include the ants, so this one's easy." Well, yeah. The prize for Ant Farm is some Bracers of Armor +2! Of course I'd have some. They're very nice. ^_^ * Marguerite points to the third obstacle. "Pop A Mole. There's a bunch of moles in those holes. You gotta press the buttons to make 'em come out - one of them has the flag." Prize for Pop A Mole... an Eversmoking Bottle. * Marguerite swoops to the fourth! "Syrup Canal. Slime your way down the channel filled with school syrup, gettin' the flag on the way. Prize is a Brand New Wand of Knock." * Marguerite points to the fifth! "My favorite. Toe Jam. Reach 'tween them toes and work out the flag. Prize is a Bag of Holding." * Marguerite points to the sixth! "Down the Hatch. Slip between the huge teeth, work your way around that pool of slime for the flag. Prize is a Periapt of Proof Against Poison." * Marguerite points to the seventh! "Sundae Slide. Head down the twisty slide into the sundae - made of actual ice cream - at the bottom, and find the flag. Prize is a Dagger +1." ... s'too bad Tia's missing that one. Mmm. She'd love it. * Marguerite grins. "We saved the best for last. Burrito Surprise. That tunnel what looks like a burrito's full of some nasty stuff, and inside it's a flag, with a prize of 10k gold." Niiice. Glad to see they took my invention and are putting it to good use, though. ^_^ * Alcinoe snickers. "Yeah." Right! Elect a member of the team to run the course, we don't got all day. Don't we pass the flags? Who's the fastest one here? * Istvan shakes his head. "I'm big'n slow." * Patrick shrugs. "I'm pretty fast, and I can keep pretty decent balance." Probably you Sey. Patrick. But Sey can fly. I'm fairly quick, but I think you or Patrick are faster. [Um, assume I explained it the RIGHT way, where you each take a station and pass flags.] I will take the... "whack a mole"? * Alcinoe snickers. In that case, I'll take the Burrito of Death. ... okay. I prolly shouldn't do any of the ones that involve squeezing through small spaces. Not small. Ya'll hafta do the first one too, then, Ariake. Hmm, I guess I could... * Alcinoe points out the spud splat. Mashed potatoes 'n' burritos. There ya go. I got the toes. I can dig. * Ariake nods. "Okay!" * Patrick scratches his head. Ya got it worked out? * Will looks around at the courses. "I'll take whatevers left over I guess..." I'm just gonna pick one. Do we each pick a course and run through it? * Alcinoe eyes. "Yeah. Ah guess Ah can do the syrup one." Ah think it's done in order. First person, then pass the flag to the second person, 'n' so forth. So, which one are you doing Sey? I'll do the ice cream one! * Patrick grins. "Alright. I'll go down the hatch, then." * Alcinoe rolls her eyes. "Yeah. Will, yer doin' ant farm. Congrats." * Ariake nods. "I'm first and last, then? Okay." Um Sure. * Marguerite points her sword at Ariake. "You're up." * Ariake nods, and casts Haste on the party! Com'on guys, get in position! * Patrick gets into position after the hasteness! * Ariake runs for the potatoes. * Istvan makes for... THE TOES! * HKenji walks over to wait behind the second obstacle for the flag. * Will goes to the antfarm. * Seylin heads for the ice cream. * Ariake practically dives into the potato, searching very quickly and as efficiently as possible with this goo. * Alcinoe stands at the end of the syrup! [The timer starts!] * Patrick blinks, then walks over to Will after looking at the Ant Farm. "You take care of going down the hatch. I think I'm better off at this one." He pushes Will to the hatch. * Alcinoe calls after Patrick, "Ya just don't wanna get slimed!" * Ariake searches! * Patrick laughs. "I'll get slimed after this!" * Will looks at the hatch. "I'm going to sqeeze down this thing?" [The "hatch" is a big pair of foam rubber jaws.] Yep, and then you'll hand the flag off to me! * Will nods. "Roger." * Ariake comes out of the potato in no time at all, and hands off the flag! [Ariake comes up with the flag in fairly short order! AND FALLS OFF THE WORLD ] * Marguerite swings her sword over to Pat! [ 57 seconds left. ] * Patrick dashes into the ant farm after taking the flag and... * HKenji waits patiently for Patrick. * Patrick finds the flag in short order after some quick jumps, handing it off to Kenji! * HKenji runs to the whack-a-mole and starts hitting buttons with both hands, in quick succession. [ 54 seconds left. ] [ Meanwhile, the Bards are in full swing, shouting at Kenji things that suggest he won't do well at this particular endeavor. ] * HKenji hits a good ten buttons before the eleventh finally pops the flag. His left hand darts out and grabs it in a flash and he tosses it to Alcinoe! [ 42 seconds left! ] * Alcinoe snatches it from the air and runs, more or less diving into the syrup canal. * Alcinoe scrambles through, nearly falling over a couple times, but makes good time as she snatches the flag at the end. She forgets to slow down, though, and slides right by Istvan, barely slapping the flag into his hand. [ 36 seconds left! ] * Istvan grabs the flag from the slip-slidin' Alic, then digs into the toes with both hands, as if he's trying to dig out from a mine collapse. [ The toes have toe jam betwixt them. Ewww. ] * Istvan is digging through, but finds nothing. "Screw it! More important to finish in time!" [ 30 seconds left! ] * Will takes the flag from Isty and jumps into the hatch! He manages to land on his feet and grabs the flag with no problem. [ 27 seconds left! Will is agile without his two-inch plate on. ] * Will climbs up and hands it off to Sey. "Go for it Seylin!" * Seylin snatches the flag from Will and heads for the ice cream! Com'on, go! * Seylin slides down the giant sundae, finds the flag, and hands it to Ariake! * Ariake runs to the burrito! * Alcinoe cheers! * Ariake runs out with a flag, in short order. "Done!" [ Burrito is full of some seriously nasty Green Stuff, Ariake. It smells like Bad Things. ] Uggh... [ You finish with 21 seconds left! The Pensword Bards are sad and go home. ] * Alcinoe claps, getting syrup all over. "Good job, Ariake!" Thanks - well done, everyone! * Alcinoe looks down at her hands, which stuck together. "Ugh." Yeah! Good job, everybody! ^^ And, um. Anyone have a towel? Or many towels? Yes. Towels would be good. * HKenji stands well away from Alcinoe, Seylin, and Ariake. * Alcinoe manages to unstick them to feel at her hair. Her reasonably long, curly, thick hair. Horror crosses her face. * Marguerite smiles, mostly. "Congratulations, you got everything but the Bag of Holding! You'd have fared much worse if they'd let more of my designs through, but they said nothing pointed." Back to you, Red. * Patrick snerks. "I suppose we should be happy then." [ Yes, Alcinoe, you're gonna have a hell of a time washing that out of your hair. ] * HKenji looks over at the Pensword hall and suppresses the urge to say "haha pwned!" * Seylin drips whipped cream and chocolate sauce. "Maybe I should've worn my really old clothes for this..." * Will casts create water over Alci. * Istvan gathers up some towels and hands them out. * Alcinoe gets splahsed with water and sputters. "Hey! Who did that!" Ugh...hey, Will, could I get that too? Er Sorry. Was trying to wash it out. I'm certain Will will be more than happy to help you clean up, Alcinoe. * Alcinoe eyes Will, then gestures, saying a quick prayer. Water gets dumped on his head. * Patrick walks over to Seylin. "Hey, nice job!" He whispers to her. * Will jumps as water splashes all over him. "Sorry! Sorry!" * Istvan returns... WITH TOWELS! * Seylin giggles at the two clerics, then is whispered to. Towels for one, towels for all. Thanks, Istvan. * Patrick laughs. * Ariake removes horrible-smelling mashed potato. Ari, did you want some water dumped on you too? Thank you, Maggie. Yes, that'd help. * Seylin whispers back. * Alcinoe sticks her tongue out at Will. "Serves ya right." * Alcinoe blinks, then touches her cheek and pops her finger into her mouth. "Huh. Maple." * Will summons the water! Ariake gets drenched. * Ariake then towels off again! "Ah, *much* better." If anyone really wants, I could go get my pick and burn the goop off. *whistles* I need a bath. And I didn't even get dirty. Just being around all this... stuff makes me feel unclean. * Seylin looks at Istvan. "Towel, please!" That's all for Double Dare! Until next time, I'm your host, Red Seifer! Good afternoon, everybody! * Patrick walks near Kenji and 'accidentally' nudges him into something messy. * Alcinoe walks over to Kenji and grins, giving him a friendly pat on the back. * HKenji falls into the syrup. ...I'll get you for this, Patrick. Oh, dear. * Patrick grins. "Me? I didn't do anything!" * Seylin was accepting a towel from Istvan and didn't see that. * Istvan hands Sey a coupla towels. "The ice cream look suits you. Don't get too near Tia, though... she might eat you before looking." * Seylin giggles. "Thanks! And yes, that would be scary!" Say, where is Tia anyways? * Seylin wipes off. "I think she saw some butterflies." * HKenji struggles back to his feet. * Alcinoe takes one of those towels now and summons more water, trying to clean herself off. Unfortunately, syrup's *really* hard to fix. Especially when it's in your hair. ;_; [ The camera guy announces you're off the air now, and the crew starts wrapping up the show. ] * Will grabs some towel from Isty and dries himself off. * Istvan hands out towels. At least nobody sneezed on us. * Alcinoe waits for Will to be almost dry, then gestures again, getting him *and* his towel with water. * Ariake grins. * Patrick laughs. * Alcinoe whistles, wandering off with syrup-in-hair. * Will stands frozen in place with water dripping down his hair. He looks a bit forlorn. * Istvan tosses Will a coupla more towels, then goes to help Kenji up. [ Session End! ]