Prince Thaddeus was about to return to 'his' throne, but when the new arrival is displayed the man immediately readies himself for more action. "That's the Floor Eight Guardian! Be ready, there's no telling what it could transform into!"

Linda curses as she sets up a barrier spell. "The floor guardians can come to us!? What sort of arena is..." She trails off as she eyes the still-numerous courtiers, bards, and nobles filling the royal chamber. "Hells, any or all of these monsters could turn on us the moment the fight begins!"

Seeing that the throne's been left unattended Mx. Mixmux claims it for themselves, sitting sideways and letting their thin legs dangle off the armrest. "That they could, that they could. Or perhaps the turning of your blades on them would do the turning! Maybe one should wait for their cue before entering the stage, hrmm?"

While the party isn't entirely sold on trusting the black-and-white harlequin, they do hang back and prepare their defenses as the silvery orb upon the cart begins to shift and ripple. Appendages begin to form, and when the legs are firm enough the guardian hops off of the cart and onto the red carpet leading towards the throne. It continues to grow into the form of a man, one in royal-looking armor, and for a moment several of those in the party think it's about to turn into a copy of Prince Thaddeus himself.

That changes when the guardian's face finally becomes clear. Superficially, he does bear a few similarities. His skin is pale, his hair is black. But the man before them is older, decades older. A goatee covers his chin, and both that and the shoulder-length hair above are streaked with gray. Wrinkles have begun to trace his face, not enough to take it over, but enough to indicate that he's in perhaps his late forties or fifties. He gives them a smirk, and several members of the party curse at once.

Thaddeus is not one of those, given that he has no idea who he's looking at. "Linda? Hylii? What's wrong, who is this man?"

The dark elf answers first. "Haven't seen him in person, of course. But I've seen the portraits. And a statue or two. This, my lord...is Prince Xenon Darkstar."

The prince in question gives a mocking bow towards the group, even as he keeps one hand on the hilt of his sword. "I'm not surprised I was able to take this role. I was half expecting Hero Xenon Worthy to be a top contender, but this one suits as well. As one prince to another, I welcome you to the Fallen Tower."

The younger prince doesn't seem to be in a mood to be welcomed. "I'm growing tired of all this talk of 'roles' and 'stages'. Are we to fight or not, 'Prince' Darkstar?"

"We are, we are, most likely at least. But first I intend to make you feel really bad about yourself."

The guardian smirks and Tizzy groans. "Can I please just blast him, prince?"

Thaddeus has to really think about it, but ends up sighing. "Remember, Tizzy, our goal today is to convince Xenia of our cause. Every opportunity to talk is another chance to make our argument. Although I'm not clear on exactly what form this debate is going to take..."

Prince Darkstar confidently walks forward, eyes locked on Thaddeus, and the other adventurers cautiously step aside as he approaches. "You. Are a bad prince." He narrows his eyes and leans forward slightly, coming even with his slight advantage in height. Despite his serious look, Thaddeus can't help but release a giggle.

"...I'm sorry, is that it? You borrow a dead man's face and tell me I'm terrible? What is that supposed to accomplish?"

"I was merely establishing my thesis. Now, for my evidence. You've led your loyal followers into a slaughter - "

Thaddeus quickly interjects. "I've always done my best to defend my people! And each of them knew the risks from the moment we embarked!"

"You think that makes it better? Your 'best' got what, eighty percent of your companions killed? More? And all for, as my second point - all of this is based on the fact that you can't solve your own damned problems. You run all this way looking for someone else's skirts to hide behind, when instead you could - "

The other prince shakes his head and interrupts again. "Okay, sorry, I've changed my mind. I'm not doing this. This is ridiculous! You think that you can dress up as a 'more successful prince' and spew slander at me? I believe I would like to skip right to the fight now, if you don't mind."

As he raises his sword and shield, Darkstar blinks and tilts his head so that he can look at the jester. "Did I mess up my lines?"

The jester groans, covering their masked face with their hands. "Don't break character now! We're almost through the performance! Didn't you get 'Prince Darkstar' confidence or something?"

At this point the adventurers are largely as blank-faced as the rest of the audience, watching in more than a little confusion as the two lead monsters suddenly get into an argument. "Well sorry Del, not all of us got to grow up watching fancy performances and hearing scripted dialogue! I fought bears for a living!"

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"It's Mx. Mixmux! Don't - ah, you've ruined it!" The jester sighs before looking across the gathered crowd and waving a hand. "Fine, whatever. Have your fight and we'll talk performance afterwards, I suppose."

"Finally!" The words are shouted simultaneously by Prince Darkstar and Tizzy, although to the scout's surprise the larger man is easily able to duck under her opening arcane blast. His sword is in his hand not a moment later, and he and Thaddeus are engaged in a clash of arms before she can prepare another spell.

Not that she would have had much of a chance to fire it regardless. Across the room half of the waiting monsters suddenly transform into abominations of flesh, their limbs turning into whip-like tentacles and their heads or chests opening up to reveal misshapen jaws. The other half remain in their current forms but begin to acquire weapons from across the chamber - some from displays, some from hidden caches, while the bards simply begin wielding their instruments in a threatening manner. For the most part it's not an immediate threat thanks to Linda's barriers, but even if the enemies are individually on the weaker side being surrounded by so many at once is a genuine threat.

With that in mind, Linda decides it's time to even things out a little. "Tizzy! I believe it's time!"

"Time? Oh, yeah - this seems about as good as any!" While the two duck away from the dueling princes they begin to cast their practiced combined spell, with the barrier weakening as they change their focus. In places where it begins to fail the other members of the party step forward to engage mimics blade-to-tendril, buying the mages time to prepare their own performance. The time spent practicing pays off though, and it's not long before they both appear to vanish from sight - only to reappear a moment later, surrounded by three more princes. After hastily popping open and downing a mana potion, Tizzy begins issuing orders to the new reinforcements.

"One of you helps with the perimeter, two of you - get Darkstar!"

Darkstar grins as two more Thaddeuses charge at him, having rather been enjoying his fight so far. Unlike Thaddeus he carries no shield, relying instead on his reflexes to avoid every thrust of his opponent's sword. While he doesn't gain the knowledge of the true Xenon Darkstar in this form the muscle memory he acquired still has its impact, and he finds himself fighting with a grace and agility far beyond what he's used to. He doesn't, however, use that to dodge the attacks coming from behind him. "Please, do you think I'm some Initiate? I'm not going to panic because some illusion - agh!"

His tone changes quite a bit as one of the newcomer's blades stabs him in the side, although it's more out of surprise than actual pain. The magical barriers making up the bodies of the false princes have limits as to how 'sharp' they can be, but the impact is still quite solid, risking serious injury to the floor guardian if he continues to ignore them. "Alright! You got one freebie, but now I'm getting serious!"

As he makes his declaration Linda's defenses begin to shatter in earnest from the assaults they're fending off, and the throne room turns into a complete brawl. Every swing of a sword or magical blast seems to turn one of the rampaging courtiers into a splash of blood and gore, but even with a reinforcing prince there's only so much that can be done against an entire floor's worth of monsters all at once. Nalain repeatedly finds herself bogged down by grappling tentacles to the point where Norlash has to make it a full-time effort to keep her clear and mobile. Reed's precise strikes manage to slay the more mundane monsters quite readily, but against the revealed mimics he finds himself far less effective unless Hylii can shout out the locations of vital organs he can strike at.

Even the three-on-one fight of Thaddeuses versus Darkstar doesn't seem to be going as smoothly as the adventurers might hope. After judging just how serious a threat the illusions truly are, Darkstar is quick to adjust to their presence. He allows them to make minor, glancing blows which have little impact on his armor while parrying or dodging the more threatening strikes. All the while he charges up his magic within own blade, finally unleashing it with a full-body spin and swing in the direction of the original prince. Thaddeus raises his magically-crafted shield-arm to block it - only to discover that there's limits to how much abuse a barrier can absorb.

The magical limb does at least spare Thaddeus from the enhanced blow itself, surely saving his life, but the catastrophic failure of the barrier strapped to his shoulder launches the man backwards. The landing isn't quite as hard as he might expect, but the reason for that is explained when he looks up and finds himself practically sitting in Mixmux's lap.

"Ugh! Rowdy boys! No claiming the throne until after the fight is done, yes?"

Thaddeus is slightly surprised to be in the literal hands of a dungeon monster without any indication that they're about to harm him, but he still returns to his feet as quickly as possible. "I'm not after a throne, but I will see this battle through!" He raises his sword once again - only to collapse to one knee as a spike of pain passes through him, the delayed effect of the magical blow to his already-serious wound finally catching up to him. "I...just need a moment..."

"Sorry - don't think I can oblige!" Darkstar shoves off the pair of illusions who were doing their best to get in his way, and lifts his sword for a killing blow. As it swings down Thaddeus finds himself saved once more by a sacrifice, but this time it's one of a more serious sort than his already-missing limb. Norlash now stands between the two, his heavy axe raised to intercept the blow...for all the good it did, considering the Headsman's enhanced swing cut right through the haft of it and several inches into his left shoulder. It doesn't quite reach the half-orc's heart, but Mixmux still sits up in a panic.

"Parker! Norlash is on the good list!"

"Well then he shouldn't have jumped in front of my sword, now should he!?"

Norlash groans, spitting a bit of blood before adding his own input. "Somewhat regretting that choice myself right now. Does...anyone have a potion?"

Although Tizzy and Hylii both turn from their own fights to search through their bags, the gathered combatants are collectively surprised when Mixmux leaps into the center of the group and begins looking at Norlash's wound themselves.

"This is beyond a potion - his lungs will be filled with blood in half a minute! I can..." They trail off as if listening to an inaudible voice, then respond to it somewhat angrily. "You want me to play games with...? ...Fine. Fine!"

As if a command had been ordered every mimic and monster still standing suddenly backs off on their assaults, with even Darkstar pulling back to doing the minimum to fend off the illusions still intent on battling him. As things begin to quiet down a little, Mixmux's masked face turns towards Prince Thaddeus. "Forget the performances, prince. It's time for a true judge of character..."

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