[Auto Exam] Maze of Madness (Olivia)

[chirigami]

THE EXAM: MAZE OF MADNESS (Y2 > Y3)

Quote:

There's no note this time; you wake up in the middle of the night to find yourself standing at the entrance to an enormous maze. Towering hedges stretch on for what seem like forever, and you have no idea where at school you even are, but it seems like every time you try to step backwards, you can't. Your footsteps only carry you forwards, to the maze.

"Greetings," says a voice to your left, and when you turn you can see a pale haired man with sharp teeth smiling genially at you. "My name is Professor Zephron; I'm the Potions Professor here at school, and I'm here to guide you through your exam."

He gestures towards the maze. "It's simple, really - all you have to do is get through the maze. I'll be waiting on the other side with your certificate, so come find me, okay?"

And with a grin, he shifts into a monstrous emerald hellhound and darts away, deep into the maze.

Well. Guess you better get started!

THE EXAM

There are two parts to this exam! You must complete both in order to successfully complete it!


PART 1: COUNTING STEPS

You need to get to 30 steps in order to get to Part 2! At each milestone passed there will be a small status effect, so make sure you're reading them carefully!


• Roll 1d12 with each post to see how many steps you go!
  
• At 5 steps you realize the world has tipped and you are now walking upside down. It doesn't hurt, but it sure feels weird...
  
• At 10 steps you're right side up again, but it's like you're walking through thick mud, though you see none. Your legs feel heavier than normal.
  
• At 15 steps your legs feel okay, but now the maze keeps going in circles around you and it's starting to make you feel kind of sick...
  
• At 20 steps (thankfully) the world has stopped spinning, but you realize that somehow you've shrunk. Or maybe the maze has just gotten bigger.
  
• At 25 steps, you seem to be your normal size again, but it's so cold and so windy it's almost as though you're being pushed backwards.
  
• At 30 steps, you seem to have finally made it through almost the entire maze. In fact, you think you can see the door up ahead, except...
  
  Except....

PART 2: THE FIGHT

As you near the end of the maze, something huge blocks your way - a dark shadow that has been lurking ever since you started walking. It looms in front of you and seems to want to deny you passageway - but you've already come this far, you're not going to let a little shadow get in your way!


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Except as the shadow moves closer, it shifts form - and suddenly you're facing not a shadow, but yourself; except wispy tendrils of black are seen emanating from the fingers and toes, even the eyes upon occassion.

How...weird.


• Your shadow self has 50 HP.
  
• Use standard attack dice to kill it (2d8 - 6)!
  
• It does 2 autodamage for every successful attack. If you miss, you don't take autodamage!
  
• You are allowed to use FEARS!
  
  

Upon dissipation of your shadow self, you finally reach the end of the maze and burst through. An emerald colored hellhound sits beneath a nearby tree, looking as pleased as pie. When you walk nearer, he shifts form and the Professor comes into view again, raking blonde hair out of his eyes. There is a stack of parchments beside him; Certificates of Exam Completion.

"Congrats," he says pleasantly, and bends to pick up one of the parchments. He hands it to you with a smile. "Welcome to Hob level."

 

[chirigami]

This had been long delayed, mostly due to a small absence from school to visit back home as well as the usual air of distractions. But mostly as her first exam had been brought to her attention via an invitation, a second one never arrived to alert her to the possibility of advancement. So Olivia went on as ever, it never crossing her mind that perhaps some school mechanics had been shuffled within the past few months. Simply attending classes and completing her staring quotas (not to mention her little quest to do something about fire, the thing she also forgot about often).

And as usual it came from the whispers throughout the halls of some sort of auto examination that students could undertake. That too took some time for her to finally remember, though it mostly reminded her when she found herself before a large hedge maze one night; having no recollection of how she had gotten there in the first place. Neat.

"The end of the maze." Olivia repeated as the professor shifted in his form to go forth where she was meant to find him. That seemed simple enough. (And fun!)  

[chirigami]

Well obviously she was going to be doing this all alone, as no one else was seeming to arrive or appear as she entered the maze that the professor had probably already navigated through. That was really alright, even if having someone along for the trip would have been a little more enjoyable.
It wasn't like Olivia was completely incapable of doing things on her own (maybe she could add this to a list of things to prove to the others that she totally could handle herself, oh yes!) Now she had two goals and her hands balled into eager fists as she put a little skip on her step to further down the path.

It seemed harmless enough in the beginning, even with the marvel of how high the hedges seemed to go. As much as she could try, her eyes couldn't seem to find any sort of end or top the large bushes without tilting her head back. Which she didn't but a few more steps and it almost felt like she was. Layers of dress and fluff and ruffles began to find their way to her hands, the tails of her bow found their way to her face and the soft curls that usually framed her head were lifted oddly. It was a very odd sensation and when Olivia looked down at her feet she found that they were still very much on the ground but she seemed very much not. Like she was upside down, though when she kept walking it wasn't like she ever had the chance of falling. Neat. Though, somewhat not with how much she had to keep down from being in her face.

The sensation didn't seem to last too long, despite how interesting it proved to be. A few steps later and a small turn around a corner of the hedges did Olivia find her clothing settling back to their original place and her hair bouncing back to normal.

Sort of.

It felt heavy, all of her did. Like she was walking through thick mud or something else - it had probably happened before, though she couldn't recall. Though, through something more tangible as there was nothing really in her way. Oh well.

[steps: 11/30]  

[chirigami]

It felt like it was taking much longer to reach the next junction of the maze, which made sense if Olivia thought about it. There was something heavy all around her, the air maybe or something (not that she could put much more thought into it). Her arms hung lazily at her sides as she continued on, unable to skip as she had been previously.

Urg, this part was so boring and slow. She pouted but pressed on, finally making it to a more open section of the maze. A place to turn whichever way she wanted, or needed to. Olivia gave the path possibilities a quick scan before she made a decision based really on nothing.

Perhaps the sudden spinning as a good sign she had chosen correctly. Or it wasn't. It was hard to tell as she took another step, the hedges around her moving at an incredible rate that her glowing eyes were unable to focus. Her hand shot out, trying to grab onto some of the branches in a vein attempt to halt the movement but all she managed was to grab a few leaves and a few little cuts on her blackened hands.

Oh. Well, it would be something she would have to get through to. If there was another hole in the maze like she had found before. Hopefully there would be.

[steps: 16/30]  

[chirigami]

It was still spinning, it was hard to tell which took longer to get through; this or the invisible thick stuff. At least the previous section didn't hurt her eyes. Nor her hands, in theory anyway, as she tried to grab hold of the moving walls as a sort of brace as she continued on.

A few more steps, maybe, like the last few turns. The leaves, she found, as she stared after a few new grabs, suddenly grew in size. The walls themselves finally halting but getting larger.

Or herself smaller? As before when she couldn't see the top, now it seemed even more impossible to do so. It would have been very tempting to remain their just staring upward, wondering how much farther it went up now that it seemed that she was smaller, but that was not what she was meant to do in this maze. No, she was supposed to find the end of it.

At least she could resume skipping now.

[steps: 20/30]  

[chirigami]

The smallness, like so many of the other effects, only lasted so long. As, once again, her merry path making. The cold that meat her as she resumed normal size didn't bother her as much as the brute force of it.

It felt almost like the sludge, but a little more physical in a way. Something she knew was there even if she too couldn't see it. The hedge, at least, could, as twigs and loose leaves found themselves on her person. They stuck to her hair, in the folds of her skirt and even tore a few little snags; which really wasn't anything too unfamiliar or new.

[steps: 27/30]  

[chirigami]

Arms raised to shield her face from further bits of wind and leaves that attempted to strike her face further than it already had. It didn't hurt per say, but Olivia had no intention of getting too many scrapes and bruises on herself today (tonight?). Her feet planted into the ground as heavily as she could to make for the little wide opening that came into view finally. A few more steps... a few more steps until the end of the maze and a shiny certificate....

[steps: 36/30]  

[chirigami]

Or so she had thought. It was the end of the maze, perhaps, but not the end of the trial apparently.

Something met her on the other side and it was not the professor. It was a shadow, still and smiling at her with white teeth and glimmering eyes. It shuttered for a moment, the blacks and greys of its form swirling about as parts of it shifted and stretched and churned. The vague contour of curls settled on the top as the bottom belled out as if a dress. It still smiled, but this time familiar. Like her own (she imagined).

And it was ready to fight. "Oh, I wonder if Andrew got to do this," there was a gleam in her eyes as she watched the stance it took. Did all her friends get to do this? Another thing to prove to them, more fun!  

[chirigami]

[whoops]  

[chirigami]

There was a gleam in her eye, much like the giddiness when she had first stepped foot into the maze. Finally she was going to be able to fight without worried eyes watching on. A thing she always liked to do but everyone was too doting to allow her to, something she hadn't done in a very long time also.

Olivia took the initiative and launched forward but the shadow, like a mirror returned in kind. Both with raised fists towards the other as curls flayed about and skirts fluttered. They both flipped each other in the shoulder, dodging and striking at the same time.

[Olivia's HP: 38/40
Shadow HP: 46/50]  

[chirigami]

It couldn't be said that Olivia was a very skilled fighter. There had been no one to teach her, no one really willing. All she had learned was from watching others or television or just winging it. This fight was much of the latter, brawl and undisciplined and just strikes wherever she could land them.

There was very little grace from the dainty and frilly Wight ghoul. The same could be said about the shadow as it mimicked the unskilled motions, but the little tendrils of shadow that danced around it form as it struck back gave it a little more flair.

[Olivia's HP: 36/40
Shadow HP: 42/50]  

[chirigami]

It was steady, the punches they both threw at one another despite the intent of picking at openings and trying for different locations.

[Olivia's HP: 36/40
Shadow HP: 42/50]  

[chirigami]

It was not something she had managed to try before on another opponent, given how people were with her and chances to fight, but this proved an awesome chance to try it out.

A small flurry of ice circled down her arm, settling ever so upon her closed fist in a tight knit fashion. It packed itself on, growing dense as she gave a little more concentration on the motion and barely dodged another attack from her shadowed form. Given yet another new opening, Olivia shot out her now ice encased fist as she had done so many times previously with a small hope of different results.

It was about the same as before, just with a little more gusto and after effect as the ice scattered from her hand after impact. This was going to be something she would need to work on.

[Olivia's HP: 34/40
Shadow HP: 38/50]  

[chirigami]

The little show concluded, they fell back into their same rhythm.

[Olivia's HP: 32/40
Shadow HP: 34/50]  

[chirigami]

Until Olivia's foot didn't land as much as she could have hoped for. Perhaps trying to add in kicks wasn't going to be the best option.

[Olivia's HP: 30/40
Shadow HP: 32/50]