Pass The Bottle

“Ain’t gettin’ near no weird drinks” Alex huffed.
Jacky turned his head and looked at him, with a weird glint in his eye. “Alex in Wonderland…”
Al shook his head. “Uh uh, I’ve seen the film…”
At the curious glances he explained “… with my kiddywinks.” Both ending the rhyme, and giving the others something less to snigger about.

“Let me have a look at it.” Jade inspected the bottle, popped out the little cork and took a sniff. “Hmm, doesn’t smell like anything I recognise.” She snuffled again. “Although, there might be a hint of lavender…”

Jay put Artie gently down. “Give it ‘ere.” He took the bottle off the small doc. “If it’s supposed to get us through this level I’ll drink it.”
She snatched it back off him. “Oh no you will not.” They grappled with it, much to everyone else’s nervousness. “We only just brought you back to the world of the living, what if something-”

“Yoink.” Jamie had grabbed it before they could drop it.
Jay double-took. “Oi!”

“Hmm.” He’d re-corked it and was inspecting the label. “In small print here, it says ‘may cause extreme dwarfism and/or gigantism’…”

Plisken rolled his eyes and snatched it from Jamie. “Och for goodness’ sake, I’m sure it won’t have much effect, we are in one of these game things after all.”
At everyone’s worried stare he said “What!? Even if it does affect us outside, I’ve probably had worse potions for breakfast in my time.”

“Well, I’m pretty big already” pointed out Jaxx. “But I’d be willing to take it, if it helps the mission.”
“It might make you smaller, though, Jaxx.” Said Evelina. “What if you shrink to nothing? No. I’ll take it.” She gently removed it from Plisken’s seductive hand.

From his perch atop a small section of steps, Artemis grabbed the bottle off Eve. “I think, as someone who has experimented on themselves quite frequently over the years, I am best qualified for this venture.”

With a grumpy and resigned sigh, Alex changed his mind and – after a comedic and grunted grapple - prised it from Spaghetti Legs’s iron grasp. He didn’t like the thought of any of them having to take it. And it’s not like he’d not taken enough drugs, or drunk enough weird stuff in his time. It probably wouldn’t even have any effect on him. “For smeggin’ ‘ell’s sake. I think I will take-”

Fortunately for his rhyme, someone else snatched it off him.

The Dwarfers erupted into an almighty rabbly ruckus, all arguing over who should and shouldn’t take the potion, and why.
From a side door ‘high’ in the room, ‘Tregard’ watched, and laughed. The Lords would be pleased that the Dwarfers were stalled, their own ridiculousness keeping them from completing the task – as they'd predicted.
The Dungeon Master’s form flitted and glitched between a small, wide, Paul-Danielsesque red-robed character as he’d been initially introduced, and that of a taller, dark-clad, bearded gentleman.

--

It was confusing trying to wrestle a bunch of people while trying to save a smashable bottle, trying to contend with bizarre pockets of alternative gravity and, in Alex’s case, having to rhyme if you shouted anything. People were flopping and shrieking and wrassling and falling all over the place.

If Katrina was watching, she was most likely rolling her eyes.

The rabble rose to a roar. People grumping and humping (not like that!) and shoving and bellowing and - though it sounded like the opposite - trying to help, and in most cases trying to save the others harm. The intensity was a bit like the echoey sounds of excitement you sometimes hear bouncing around a swimming pool - a sheet of NOISE.

Finally someone’s voice pierced the air, somehow cutting through the rest.

“I WILL TAKE IT!"
Everyone shut up.
"I will take the ring to Mordor!”

“What?” Someone asked, punctuating the sudden quiet.
“I mean… I will drink the potion.”

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<TAG All. Who drinks it? And what happens? How does it help us navigate this bizarre confusing room to enter the chamber proper?
NB. The Lords must be what Tregard calls/how he interprets the controlling virus.>