Combinatorics Nightmare

Combinatorics Nightmare is the sixteenth episode of the fourth RIS Bouteina season.

Tagline

The Party Quest continues and they are facing a difficult choice. Because they know that they must "promote" to advance through the Party Quest, they must choose accordingly. Meanwhile, what is lurking beyond the promotion would cause nightmares to them.

Summary

Act One

After defeating the King Slime, the away team is given their choices for the outcomes of the holographic program. When their choices are confirmed, their clothing is changed accordingly and the producer tells them that the actual prize is a Hydran marquis. Also, the players no longer recognize themselves upon promotion. When they enter the dungeon's main entrance, they are asked to slay all the rats in the stage. Neleras was unlucky with his disruptor fire and forced Annika to help him rather than to fight rats herself. They eventually get all 25 coupons and the away team enters the second stage, whacking boxes.

Act Two

Back on the ship, though, Ulduar organizes a craps tournament, only to realize that some people do not have the mathematical background to effectively compete. Zetra suggests that they rather play World of Warcraft in the holodeck instead, prompting Ulduar to cancel the craps tournament. Ilyana gets to play a counter-terrorism unit in order to fight Wretched bandits. After receiving their quest from the city guards in Silvermoon, they get into Commons Hall to attempt a stakeout, with their commanding officer as their bait in order to lead a mana-crazed criminal outside of his hideout.

Act Three

The third stage of the Party Quest has the away team fight Blocktopuses. Brianna Reiss having missed her last spell, she watches the enemy close in on her, forced to use the disruptor in her gunblade­, but to no avail. However, in the fourth stage of the party quest, they have to fight monsters in the dark, with Annika having the room with two monsters, and leaving Relm at the bottom, while the passes are fed into the gate. In the fifth stage, they are to whack boxes for coupons once again. Also, in the sixth stage, they have fifteen levers that they needed to activate in order or else they would have to restart the stage.

Act Four

The seventh stage has the monsters being activated when the box breaks. After defeating the army of monsters pouring out of the box, they begin the infamous eighth stage of the Party Quest. Annika Hansen calls out the combinations as they are to try them. Combinatorics tell them that they have 126 combinations to try. With Relm on #1, Vaebn Mairex on #2, they start the problems and they start to complain as their first combinations, 1-2-3-4-5 and 1-2-3-4-6, fail. They all express their anger at combinatorics as long as they keep failing combinations, until they fall on 2-4-6-7-9, after 16 minutes of trying just about everything.

Act Five

The final stage, in the Crack in the Wall, began when the away team geared up and buffed up, until Neleras started to fight before they could signal readiness. When Alishar attacked, M'Rex is blinded and the spellcasters were "sealed", leaving the other three players vulnerable. Upon recovering, Annika started "spam-healing" while the other members of the away team hacked away at Alishar. After Alishar is slain, the away team cuts the chains of the Hydran marquis, who shows them his gratitude by giving them their new clothes. The away mission is brought to a close with some mead to drink, as well as new clothes to wear.

External link

• Combinatorics Nightmare on the RIS Bouteina boards