Rick pauses on hearing people calling for him and turns his head slightly and looks down at them.

He mutters,

"Ponyman? Friend Oren?"

Rick stays put for several long seconds before looking to see that the wall and the hole and guards are gone. He visibly relaxes but will try to come down in a way that avoids touching the stage.

Khond will get a greasy, greasy embrace once Rick is down.

Asimi's posture relaxes as she leans back against her halberd, watching the stage intently but standing up while Khond takes the helm. Curious what'll happen to him given what Rick just went through.

Opting to ignore responding to the mask, knowing she'd probably get her time later, she instead speaks to Sylvia, still keeping her eyes ahead, "Don't let it get to you. You and I both know how He works," There was an edge of bitterness to her voice, still somewhat grappling with the seeming backstab from just a day ago.

After some coaxing, Rick comes down from the stage, making sure not to touch it again on the way down. Just in case. The jovial, familiar sounding voice continues.

"I believe the centaur wants to give it a go? Now you, are you like our pixie friend here, or just a descendant of those who didn't want to join toward the promised land?"

Sylvia offers a wry smile to Asimi.

"I'm not even sure what happened to lead you here, so I'm not sure what to think. But at least it's his handiwork. Now I'm just worried every room we saw is."

Khond finds his way up onto the stage, "I'm not sure what you mean, so I will assume to be the latter.  I'm not sure I would go to some promised land regardless, though?  For those with an entertainer's heart, the true utopia is where the people are."

"Ho ho ho, fancies himself an entertainer, but doesn't even know THAT story..? Ah well, it's been a long, long time..."

(Khond)

As Khond steps on the stage, it once again reacts. This time, albeit seemingly made from crude cardboard once again, a tower rises up in the middle of the stage, standing high, before a ladder drops in, from behind, but where the centaur can clearly see it.

Rick works his way towards a corner, away from the stage.

"Careful Friend Khond!"

He calls.

Khond stands stunned for a moment, eyes climbing the tower, then back down.  "Ah-" Pointing a hand toward the back of the tower, the centaur declares to the world at large, "Scoundrel! You shan't best me this day, my nemesis!"

Charging off behind the tower and beyond his companions' sight, the performer pauses to stomp his hooves, making a clattering of footsteps and yelling dramatically, "Have at thee!"  Taking hold of the ladder, he begins scaling the tower one step at a time, each precarious step accompanied by an exaggerated "Hoo!" or "Hah!" until about half way up the ladder the centaur's hooves slip between the rungs, wedging Khond firmly in place, hooves dangling mid-air.

"Unhand me, fiend!"  Gripping the ladder tight, Khond hefts his weight to one sight, aiming to topple the ladder.  The moment it begins to tip, he calls out "Timberrrrrr!" and braces for impact.

(All deliberate, right? Then give me a performance roll.)

Breldo lowers his crossbow so he can free up a hand to rub his forehead and eyes as he sighs.

Performance: 12

Khond starts climbing his arch nemesis, this ladder, but only gets about halfway before he starts to slip in an utmost comical fashion... Even if it's all a part of the show, to the point that after this one is over, one could probably ask if the centaur was sure this wasn't in his skillset. Regardless, legs slip through the rungs, he dangles comically, before coming down in a dramatic, swinging motion... One so practiced by a performer like him the eventuall fall only looks like it hurts.

"Comedy" in turn lets out rapturous, satisfied laughter, before he addresses the performer, even as both ladder and tower seem to disappear into thin air.

"Beautiful, beautiful, better than the original even! You rewrote history but who am I to care if it's so funny?"

"Here is your 'key',

As the voice speaks, something drops out of the hole in the comedy mask's mouth, and rolls down the stage before eventually coming to a halt. Some kind of obsidian stone, thick disk..?

"And here is a little bonus!"

Something else drops from the mouth, a sapphire-set ring dropping to the ground not too far from Khond.

"I only have the one key to give, but if even half of you are as funny as your centaur friend, I'm sure I can find more where that came from!"

Rick looks on, initially confused by whatever it is he is watching (and not in a great headspace) but understanding does grow on his face. He doesn't laugh though, despite the apparent comedy, his expression remaining concerned.

Hit ear twitches as the sound of jewelry hitting the floor though.

"Rewriting history to make it more entertaining is the role of a playwright, after all, and I aspire to that grand stature.  I am honoured that you approved.  That laughter is much a reward as anything else."  Climbing to his hooves, Khond collects the 'key' and ring. "The set just disappearing is rather surprising, but I must say I'm glad for it, or I would have needed the others to extract me from it."

Giving a bow, the centaur descends from the stage, "As our host says, if anybody else believes they can dispense humour, you may be rewarded.  Or maybe others will feel more confident in a different subject?  Fiction may draw on being able to lie, or  tell stories, or reality may draw on history, for example...  If it draws on history known to the masks, though, we would be helpless."

Rick raises his hand hesitantly,

"Rick has been told Rick is good at...fiction."

He will then start edging away to the door, ready to get out of this room of bad memories.

"Rick will go check."

Rick will do exactly that, some eager curiosity returning once out of the room.

Breldo mutters something about mirrors, as if that explains the set vanishing.

Khond picks up his 'key' and ring with much grace and closing credits. Investigating the symbols on the heavy disk he notices one side has more of the strange runes like each of the rooms do; after asking Sylvia for a quick translation, she remarks that the word written down here is apparently "Breath".

The ring meanwhile seems to have some intricate etchings on the inside... Although Khond likely has no idea what they might mean.

As Khond gives his parting spiel, and Rick states that he thinks he'd be much better at "fiction", quickly departing together with his contracted pixie, 'Comedy' seems to chuckle.

"Oh, you lot really have no idea do you? How very, very interesting!"

"I'd almost believe you if you say you met our glorious, prestigious, handsome creator. But are you saying he managed to wake up, and then didn't even come to say hello?"

"...He must been having too much fun!"

Rick arrives at the fiction door, and carefully pushes it open. This time around however they are not met with a stage. Instead, there's a rather narrow corridor, at certain points narrowing to choke points that could only feasibly have one person pass. There seem to be three "sections" like this, and Rick can see a pedestal with another one of those obsidian disks at the very end.

Rick picks the left route, moving carefully and slowly.

(The sections are sequential, not three different ones, but presuming that wouldn't stop you.)

Rick carefully steps in the hallway, Sylvia only cautiously flying behind him. He's but taken one step in when something rapidly seems to pop out of the floor, which he recognizes to be very similar to those "mannequins" he saw before, simple cloth dolls... Even if this one, dressed as a guard, is most definitely blocking the narrow chokehold up ahead, as an familiar voice seems to rise up again. Albeit a familiar voice that seems to be putting on an... Accent, or something.

"Halt ye scoundrel! As a paladin, I shall copy thy every attack thou dareth do!"

Rick stops as the doll pops up, startled. After pondering on what the 'paladin' says Rick gently pokes himself in the chest to see what the doll does.

((Is the doll armed?))