FINAL TRIAL

[bathymetric]

Alright, that's enough snooping around for one day. There's a door in the underground tunnels that lets out beyond the vault door, just use that to get to the elevator. One of you has a damn staff keycard now, might as well just have you use it, since apparently I'm down both of my Assistants. The code is 020594.

[ As you head in and punch in the code, the elevator rises up to meet you one last time. And one last time, you take the ride down into the depths, evidence in hand. Something stirs in you - hope? Dread? It's hard to feel nothing at a time like this, don't you think? Even if it's just being really angry at The Professor.

When you reach the bottom, the dome is the same but you find the setup itself changed wildly. There's no sign at all of the original podiums or where they were, just a number of sleek new ones and a box of frosted glass. It stands out in stark contrast to the inky blackness of the sea outside. The lights don't reach out of the dome at all, and within the dome they illuminate the silhouette of a man, sitting at a desk, hands folded in front of him.

The Professor is here. You hope. Do you have any choice but to believe he's here? ]

Take your places, boys and girls. It's not what I think any of us anticipated, but it's time for your final trial. There are several questions I expect you to be able to answer, the largest being, well... tell me where you are and what you're doing here. Though I suspect first you'll want to talk over your... evidence.

[ Welcome to your final trial. ]

Comments

[hardnosed]

... That's another thing. In half the notes, it sounds like he's evaluating the ones who took action.

[nothingcanstop]

Any clue of what he was evaluating them for? Like...what things did he like?

[hardnosed]

Initiative, mostly. And underhandedness. Jason Dean — the one who blew it up — tricked someone else into poisoning someone the week before. He called it clever.

[nothingcanstop]

...Charming. [ Mira's title is sticking more and more. ] That...wouldn't even get the guy out of here. It'd put him in danger, in fact.

[hardnosed]

But it let him evade execution. It let him test the waters. I don't think getting out was the goal at all.

And it sounds like the rest of the group kept him and the other one as captive as they could — not enough, obviously, since he killed three more in the process.

[nothingcanstop]

Even though it left everyone else on-guard... That's the kind of thing the Professor's looking for. People who could...see other angles. Put forth a little risk.

Blowing up a wall's a bit extreme after tricking someone else to use poison. What made him slip?

[hardnosed]

I don't think he did slip. The notes said he was volatile... which is just anything he can't control or predict.

[fivestagegod]

...Hostage motive. Never doing that one again, remember?

[nothingcanstop]

[ ... ]

Oh. Yeah, well. That would do it.