Absolutely Theo didn't get all the guards outside. He got half of 'em. One guard and Guard Captain AB left in the derelict office.

Since no one's moving that combat forward, so it goes. Everyone's in stasis. Theo, okay, you drop the Change Self and bust a Mirror Image. Figure out how many more gnomes appear.

"Whoa! Dude looks like a lady!" exclaims one of the guards.

"No man, you got that backwards."

"Uh, no... oh wait. Yeah, you're right. What the fuck happened to the Princess?"

"Maybe she's under a spell or something? Like in that fairy tale about the frog and the well?"

"You mean where like the frog jumps up three feet each day and falls back two? Three feet? I think it's like one of those MENSA brain teasers. You know, you gotta figure out how many days the frog's in the damn well but it's not like the obvious solution."

"I hate those things. Whatever dude, it's like when my math teacher tried to tell us we all needed to learn algebra cause when we have to cut a rug, we need to know how much to cut and solve for x, shit like that."

"Yeah. Heh, 'cut a rug'. You goin' to Slim's this weekend?"

"Get my drink on. 18+ night on Fridays you know."

"Hell yeah. They should call it 'Barely Legal' night."

"For real. Let's do this thing and hit the bar."

"Absolutely."  ¶ 2:58 PM