This dungeon has not sent out any monsters, and a look through the portal shows a large hall with several doorways, lit by scattered spotlights. The black walls are covered in posters in an Art Deco-ish style, with stylized human shapes in front of dramatic but vague backgrounds, and captions like “▣◑◠◓”, “▃▆▄▜” and “▨▨▤▥”.
Well, that's honestly a little funny. More than a little funny, although Tim should keep it to himself while he has a traumatized dungeon victim nearby. Let's try that on the second mannequin? "Cover your ears again, Alison." Caaaareful aim and:
B A N G
Well, you can't win them all. Sweep the legs, stamp the legs, stamp the arm. Follow the paint! If his rescuee were feeling better, he might suggest she get a souvenir, but she...doesn't seem all there right now.
She’s still following him, at least, but flinching when he has to fight things.
Perhaps surprisingly given the prior presence of an audience, they are unopposed making their not-very-stealthy way through the curtained passage to the black double doors. However, despite having handles on this side, they won’t open.
Killing everything capable of looking at you is a form of stealth.
This door, despite being incapable of looking at him, will also die. Note to self: don't bother opening doors anymore. Hey, wait a sec. I just realized these doors are self-closing. Huh. "Aumento here. The doors close and lock themselves. Be prepared to smash them. Over."
Total backlash used in the dungeon: About a minute and thirty seconds. Tim can keep doing this all day!
The door does not put up more of a fight than any other door or mannequin.
From here, he can see his old spray paint, but more importantly, he can see out to the main hall with the edge of the dungeon portal. And in front of it people and equipment are being brought in through the portal. A DRT operative on guard hand-signals “no present threats” to him.
There are no mannequins in sight.
"See? Told you we'd get you out of here. Halloo the portal! Aumento here!" Let's get Alison out of here, hand off the mannequin arm to a lootin' DRT member, and report.
Alison can get a once-over by a medic, and then coaxed out the portal, while Tim gets asked questions. How tough were these mannequins, exactly? What did they react to? How big were each of the rooms? Did he spot any other possible hidden doors? Were there any things that looked like they could be traps that didn’t trigger? Did he see anything that might be magical besides the mannequins?
In order:
Tougher than you'd expect, but not heavy, and that sample can be destructively analyzed if they like. They are also vulnerable to a brisk powerwalk.
They reacted to sound, he thinks, and to disturbing the victims, but not otherwise. It's pretty creepy.
The rooms were about yea big, Tim sketches out approximate dimensions.
No other hidden doors that he saw(lol), but he'd recommend smashing every wall with a sledge on general principles.
Negative to traps.
Again, nothing overtly magical but the auditorium rooms might have magical sounds.
Tim will actually stick around long enough to grab an intact puppet, just in case such a puppet becomes useful. After that, yeah, this doesn't need an esper. Bummer, this was going to be my first solo clear. Just a bad fit for me.
Later on, Tim sets himself up in his office. In between deadlift sets, he notes down what happened on his enormous touchscreen monitor. I've come a long way from post-its on a whiteboard. It's nice to be able to save these.
What went well?
Conservation of strength. Barely had to break a sweat, really.
Experimentation re: kicking.
Kicking in general.
Marking the way.
Admitting I was a bad fit for this dungeon.
Hostage rescue, such as it was. Didn't let her run off.
What went badly?
Bad powers mismatch. Nothing to be done there.
Could have brought more water. Hard to say if this could be improved?
Honestly, I think that was it?
What can I do better next time?
Get a dungeon that isn't a maze?
Consider more water?
Have my gun out while I kick things?
You know what, this went really well. I can't wait to tell Carol about it. She might be a little sad she doesn't get to guide me, though.