1621 replies and 211 files omitted.
>>171117Debride shrugs sitting down, placing both forehooves into the air.
"It was easier to get a spoon down here than to return the vial"
Debride looks over to Posey, then Gloomy, the back to Posey. She takes the top off of the vial, inserts the spoon, and trims extra honey off the top so that it is level with the rim of the spoon. Debride offers the spoon
"Here you go."
I will take this opportunity to state clearly once again that Posey's character is not intended to be a reflection of my personal beliefs, tastes or values.>>171117Gloomy looks at Posey in confusion, then to Diligent, then to Posey again. He seems caught off guard.
"... Yes, momma."
>>171118Posey takes the spoon, and closes her eyes momentarily, flaring her nostrils as if in deep concentration.
She then, to Debride's horror, places the contraband substance right in her own mouth, smearing it all over her tongue.
She then swiftly levitates Gloomy's face to hers, and kisses him, deeply.
>>171119I will note the nasty expression that Posey briefly makes when the stuff touches her tongue. It's not blood.
>>171119>>171120Debride looks on in horror.
The substance be seen beginning to sublimate as it sits in the spoon, with purple vapors slowly rising. It smells like roses. It tastes almost like rotten fruit, with a sweetness to it far beyond sugar.
When it reaches Gloomy’s tounge, he feels a tingle, then an electric charge of pure euphoric happiness, slowly permeating his body.
Posey’s experience is… well we’ll figure out how much damage she has to roll.
A major part of the question is how much remains in Posey’s mouth or is absorbed by her, versus how much goes into Gloomy. Gloomy of course needs more, while I very seriously doubt that good-aligned magic is good for the undead.
>>171121>how much remains in Posey’s mouth or is absorbed by herPosey's vampiric nature makes it difficult for her to swallow anything that isn't blood. It goes into Gloomy.
Finally got an image to attach
>>171122Gloomy will surely giggle with glee, while Posey will recoil
>>171123>>171124Posey keeps kissing him for over 30 seconds, with her eyes shut, before she pops them open and makes aggressive eye contact with Ms. Debride, then she closes them again and keeps kissing for a another minute, even more deeply, like a scene from a French movie.
Gloomy acts like this is completely normal.
"... ~Aaaah... Th-That wasn't too bad, was it sweetie?" Posey says softly, cupping Gloomy's cheeks with her aura.
The tip of her tongue seems to sizzle a bit as the hole in it heals, her impure flesh burned by the substance (I assume).
>>171125And I thought Debride was being creepy…Debride does not intervene.
I lack the reaction images for this scenario, and Debride lacks the proper facial expressions.
>>171126>I thought Debride was being creepy…She was, which is why Posey is asserting dominance for touching her most precious thing. Nopony out-creeps the Dread Necromancer.
Posey pulls a way with a toss of her mane with a scarlet halo of magic.
Gonna Roll intimidate with a +2 Circumstance Bonus (also finally remembering the bonus from the Tattoo'd mystic astrological background)
[1d20+15 = (2+15) = 17]Posey gives a polite bow
"You have my thanks, Ms. Debride. You've been very kind to us today. Gloomy and I will be looking forward to studying with you. I believe we have much to teach eachother." She says, with a deceptively warm smile
>>171121>It smells like roses.Oh, Gloomy's favorite food.
>>171127> Posey is asserting dominanceOkay, that’s what I figured.
>2 on an intimidation rollI think the French kissing a… 8 year old? Is enough to keep Debride away
>>171128“… Right…”
If the substance works as intended, Gloomy would begin running around, like with a sugar high.
Btw, is there a fortitude saves to avoid addiction? Or is it not habit forming?
>>171130It’s a single half-dose, I don’t think addiction is likely to be an issue. Unless Gloomy starts asking gif it all the time.
As Gloomy runs along, Debride says “Alright, come along. You can’t really run around in here.
But I know where you can.”
>>171131Gloomy is a well-trained colt, and does as he's told
Posey follows
Between now and the next quest, I would like for Posey to take a couple weeks of downtime (unless quest opportunities arrive earlier).
For no particular reason, just settling in to the university to blend in as an upstanding citizen. Posey has all the time on the world so long as the Dread League doesn't require her to mobilize, so she can lay low and take things slow. I'll have her roll her profession skill to earn lifestyle expenses (feeding Gloomy) and do some research rolls.
If spell research is an option, I would like Posey to spend her time at the university researching the spells that the university uses in its medicine, and possibly add them to Posey's Dread Necromancer spell list so that she is able to perform such tasks and thereby blend in as a "respectable" Necromancer more easily.
Of course I don't expect mechanics to be written for largely inconsequential effects, although Diligent's description of medical Necromancy reminded me of a couple 0 level cantrips:
Necrosurgery
>Necromancy [Death]
>Grants +2 bonus to resist disease by dealing 1d4 damage.
>Range: Touch
Preserve Organ
>Necromancy
>Protects one detached organ from decay for 24 hours.
>Range: Touch
Both 0 level Necromancy spells that are useful in medicine. Dread Necromancers do not have lvl 0 spells, so if Posey were to research them they would have to be lvl 1 spells for her (like detect magic is).
>>171131>>171132Debride walks the ponies out of the basement, back upstairs, back outside into a day that is still cloudy, but brighter with the movement of a cloud to expose the sun, and onto the sidewalk. They walk a couple blocks past large buildings with blue roofs that Posey can discern must be a part of the campus, and past red brick buildings with white first floors that are presumably residential apartments. Ponies cross the street, disregarding designated crosswalks, in either direction. She looks back, happily to Gloomy, and sometimes with a concerned look towards Posey. She turns to the left, to a small park with a child's play area. This includes a swing, a green-painted roundabout, and a stairs and slide styled as a castle turret. There is a Pegasus foal on the roundabout, a unicorn being pushed on one of the swings, and an earth pony in
its natural environment the sand.
"Here we are. A playground."
>>171135Posey squints at this (it's a sight she's never seen before, growing up in the slave pens of the coven)
Common knowledge check
[1d20+3 = (2+3) = 5] >>171136>>171135Posey once again fails a check she could've taken 10 on.
"... What.. what is this? A training regimen for foals? I hadn't expected such a thing here in Equestria."
Gloomy seems interested, Posey seems concerned and confused
>>171137Debride chuckles.
"
Of a sort, you could say it is. C'mon little pony, you wanna have fun?"
Debride picks up Gloomy, and places him on a swing
Is a grapple check necessary here? >>171138A grapple isn't necessary, although halfway through Posey floats Gloomy with her aura to levitate him into the swing.
"Careful. He bruises easily." She says with caution
Posey makes a peculiar expression, nervous and confused as if it only just suddenly hit her like a pile of bricks how little she actually knows about mundane aspects of this land.
>you wanna have fun?Gloomy gives a start at this suggestion, but as Posey strokes his mane with her aura and gives a worldless gesture of reassurance, he perks up.
>>171140“Alright now, let me just give you a push, and…”
Debride pushes Gloomy on the swing, swinging him a relatively short distance
>>171141Posey looks on cautiously.
Gloomy is swung.
He swings back.
And he swings fourth.
"... Again."
>>171142Debride sits behind Gloomy, slightly off to the left, in case Gloomy swings back too far. “And forward, and forward…” Debride pushes Gloomy forward, then again and again, smiling as she does so.
>>171143Posey watches, her eyes moving with the swing
>>171144Debride lets Gloomy stabilize, and moves over to in front of him. She sits upright, and demonstrates with her forehooves, extending them out or letting them fall limp as necessary
"Now, try to move your hindlegs out, like so, when you are at the top, about to go down, and then in, like this, when you are forward at the maximum extent."
It's perhaps not the best demonstration, but as the unicorn foal is occupying the other swing, it's the best she can do in the moment. Debride has an overly wide smile. "Wanna try?"
>>171135"... What's the security situation like around here?"
>>171145>"Wanna try?""I don't see why... Or why not." Posey replies, approaching the swing.
Gonna roll a Dexterity check to see how well she swings
[1d20+5 = (1+5) = 6] >>171146"Oh, it's safe."
Posey trips and faceplants into the sand. Debride chuckles.
"No no. Gloomy, you try."
>>171148(I thought Gloomy was already trying)
"Be careful, sweetie..." Posey say
Gonna roll a check for Gloomy, with a +2 bonus for having two examples
[1d20+4 = (2+4) = 6] >>171149Posey is quick to catch Gloomy with her aura of he falls
>>171149Unlike Posey, Gloomy got a 2 and not a 1.
Debride frowns.
"Well... You're learning."
Debride goes back to pushing Gloomy with her forehooves, sitting upright. She smiles and pushes him.
A grey unicorn mare with a short cut black mane must be the mother or caregiver of the other foal, and she has come closer to her child, intermittently staring at Posey, Gloomy, and Debride
>>171152Posey eyes the mare cautiously, but realizes that she's been overly paranoid today
"Good afternoon, ma'am." Posey says, kindly
>>171153"Good afternoon..." She replies, also seeming cautious.
"I haven't seen you here before." She says
Debride is still happily swinging Gloomy
>>171154"Oh, I'm a new researcher here. Just taking a moment to see how family friendly this campus is."
>>171155She takes a moment, but then responds
"It's friendly enough, I would say. They are tolerant of motherly needs, and the party scene is not as strong in the graduate school... Which program are you in?"
>>171156"Security, concerning the arcane."
>>171156"What are you here for, may I ask?"
>>171156(What's the name of Posey's actual program?)
>>171159Posey is in the college of Arcane Arts.
“I’m in the Masters Program for Ponish and Equestrian literature.” She answers
“Security? Such as against Changelings? Burglars?”
>>171160"Well, I do have some military background, but my specialty is more focused on.. the macabre. I'm a Necrologist. I study curses, haunts, ghosts, ghoulish things. There's always work for those if my field where there's war." Posey replies, in a bit more of a hushed tone (to avoid the children hearing)
>>171161She moves back into a more reserved stance. I see..." After a pause, "You were in the military?"
>>171162"Well, more of a cleanup manager... Magical battlefields are rather hazardous, even after the battle has long passed, as the soldiers themselves need help passing. Dying curses, swordwraiths, haunts; anything is possible when magic turns violent. I'm from northern griffonia, although Equestrian by blood. I came here to find work in the aftermath of the war, and study Equestrian magic."
She wipes her brow, trying to look away from the sun even in the overcast
"... I'm still getting used to the weather here."
>>171160"Masters in Literature, you say? That's quite the prestigious profession. (She thinks all Lit majors are archwizards) Poetry is a hobby of mine, although, with the demands of the wars and whatnot, I never really got a chance to study it in earnest."
>>171102Amber tilts her head. "Did the station manager not update the schedule like he said he would? I was called this morning to fill in for the conductor from Kronburg, who was not feeling well. I was not their first choice, as I am formally retired, but the other they tried to reach hadn't answered." Amber sighs. "I am sorry for the mix-up, officer. I do not envy the staff in the offices, as they have to deal with gargantuan amounts of paperwork with budget cuts and recent staff layoffs, but this level of incompetence is beneath them. I've suggested a way of simplifying scheduling and staff assignment, but they brushed me off, for, you see, they said the bureaucracy at headquarters would never allow it...."
>>171163The pony takes a half step back, and leans on her legs ever so slightly further away. Momentarily her ears go down, and her eyes widen. She raises her left foreleg and crosses it against her chest. She pauses for a moment before saying,
"Equestrian blood, you say? And where are you from, exactly? My plan... at least originally, was that I would go teach ponish and ponish literature in Griffonia, once I had my masters.
>>171164The griffin pauses, leans back, and opens his beak halfway, a state it remains in for quite some time. He looks over to the griffin to his side, then back to Amber, then back to the griffin to his side.
"Uhhh... What was the name of the station manager who called you?"
He whispers to the griffin next to him, asking "Did they fail to note the change in the paperwork?" and "When did shift change occur?"
>>171166Okay, just out of character
>Equestrian bloodI was under the impression that most ponies in most places felt kinship with Equestrians, because it was sort of a cultural huh for ponies. I guess some of the lore in EaW contradicts that though; then again, international lore consistency isn't EaW's strongsuit.
>And where are you from, exactly?Hahaha... I take it Posey's master's had a plan for her false backstory? That might've slipped my mind.
If there wasn't a pre established one, I'll go with this:
In character:
"Oh, I'm from Farbrook. Our society isn't that unlike Equestria, although a lot more high-strung because we do have to deal with the threat of war from all sides... I say Equestrian by blood because my ancestors moved there centuries ago."
Out of character:
The last part is not a lie. Posey's living ancestors would have been from Farbrook, since it's the nearest peaceful pony society for the vampires of the Coven to abduct and prey on.
In character:
"There's a lot of Equestrian traditionalists in Farbrook. You wouldn't be pressed hard to find demand for Ponish literature there. It depends how the wars go though..."
>>171166Amber gives a grumpy look. "I had been retired for three years, was put back on call recently, then I got an urgent call this morning to get dressed and get on the train immediately. There are multiple managers for the station since they work in shifts from the early morning to the late evening, and there have been a couple of new ones since I retired. I didn't ask for the honorifics of this particular manager, no."
Also I just realized that Amber didn't get on at Katerinburg but at the other town across the river. Darn me and my lack of note-taking since the barn! >>171168The griffin is confused
Hmmm... Maybe roll diplomacy
>>171167>international lore consistency isn't EaW's strongsuitscrunch"I wanted to go to Aquelia. That will be rather difficult now... But I will finish up my masters either way first."