/vx/ - Videogames and Paranormal

>>176815
>sucking, and possibly... moaning? Whispers?
If this is actually what Posey hears, she would take the salt with her.
>Posey can hear a mare and a stallion talking to each other.
Posey freezes, not expecting to be disturbed here.
She makes a silent gesture that Gloomy, well trained, understands is meant to tell him to be silent and stay close. She uses her Floating Disk SLA and puts Gloomy on it, because I just remembered I had that.
She moves down the hall, slowly and silently, towards the sound of the speaking, the faint glow of her horn on the sheathe of her sword. Her hooves glide across the floor with supernatural grace.
Move Silently:
[1d20+9 = (7+9) = 16]

>>176821
I agree, but it's not really going to matter very soon. I just like a dramatic entrance.

>>176819
>>176818
"To them it's not their own kind. Most of it is the usual. It's about who gets jobs, housing, who can get in line for a doctor. The kind of reasons ponies always give for why they don't like us here. The ponies don't see the bats as their own kind, apparently."

>>176819
Just move along

>>176820
Posey moves into the hall.

>>176821
You underestimate my power

>>176819
Roll Dexterity

>>176820
Roll Dexterity

>>176823
"Wow...I kinda feel bad for the bats...how did that all start?"

>>176824
Inside the hallway, Posey sees a bright light coming from an electric torch. Behind it is a mare in a jacket vest. In front of her is a large stallion with a grey coat. He wears what Posey should be able to recognize as a flak jacket.

>>176826
Neela shrugs
"I don't know. It was like that when I got here."
She places more corn in her mouth, and starts munching.

>>176827
"Hmm...I guess I'll have to ask some ponies about it next time I get a chance." Kira coils up in the nearby living room, and rests her pony half on top. "So, we have bat ponies, pegasi, unicorns, earth ponies...are there any other kinds of ponies out there? Besides lamias, I'd never heard of so many different varieties of a single species existing."

>>176827
Is the Dexterity check telling me that I move first, or that I see them first?
Posey is suspicious, but doesn't show it with her usual stoic pokerface, continuing to glide closer until she's certain that she is seen.
She does duck to the side at the light though, pulling her hood up over her head as her eyes adjust to the glare.

>>176829
It's basically an initiative roll. It means you react first.

And... Posey is blinded by the flashlight as it moves to her. At least the hood provides some protection

>>176825
Silver sees a figure in full chain mail with a longsword on a belt, a bag, and a black hood. It seems to be a mare with a white coat.

>>176828
"Yeah, they uh, that's it. Wait no. There's also crystal ponies, I think, which are kind of the same with sparkly... or something. And then there's uh, the zebra kind of look like ponies to me. Or the ponies look like zebras."

>>176830
>full chain mail
*Chain shirt barding
>Posey is blinded
Posey is dazzled by light, but that won't stop her from doing this:
Her eyes flash with golden light as she attempts to charm the first pony that makes eye contact.

>>176830
>>176832
The grey unicorn, takes a ready stance, feeling like he's been transported back two centuries at least. What kind of crazy undead knight did he miss on his first passthrough of this place?

"О, Тартар, I missed one! Get back!"

>>176832
>charm
It's an unusual lighting situation in the dungeon. It may work with the flashlight not quite shining on her face, but if it's too bright or too dim... not so much

>>176833
Pear does not need to be told twice. She moves back, unfortunately losing her train of the flashlight on the undead Knight.

>>176832
The creature approaches with a stern glare, it's golden eyes shining with an ominous glow. An overwhelming feeling overtakes you.
DC 19 Will save please

It draws its sword
"Oh, just my luck..." it mutters, in a soft tone
"What's going on, momma?"
"Patience, sweetpea. Momma is working."

>>176833
I should mention that the creature is also levitating a giant floating magical disk thing that has a foal on it.

>>176836
>>176837
If this thing speaking is enough to catch the grey unicorn off guard, the second voice is absolutely enough to completely confuse him, making him pause and not even quite recognize that the first creature has drawn a sword. The sight of the foal on a floating disk is definitely just the tip of the iceberg.

[1d20+5 = (16+5) = 21]

>>176838
Pear moves the flashlight to the foal on the disk, and then to the undead knight.

>>176838
>>176837
>>176836
>>176839
Overpowering is perhaps a bit of an overstatement...as it is, the grey unicorn just blinks and winces as a small headache flares up. Still though, he responds.

"Wait...what are you doing with foal? Who...what are you?"

>>176838
I did not expect +5 Will
Oh well. You pass.

The unicorn points her sword at you.
"State your business."

>>176839
*dazzling intensifies*
"REEEEEE! Watch where you're pointing that!"

>>176840
>what are you doing with foal?
"This is my son, and he's here for his training."
>Who...what are you?
The mare puffs out her chest
"I am Rosey Ring, Blackweave Warmagus and licenced Necrologist. I am here on orders to examine these grounds for dark magic contamination." She states, boldly

The mare's voice is gentle and eloquent, with a vaguely-slavic accent. She speaks the local language well, although it appears to be a slightly different dialect.

>>176841
>>176840
>>176843
Now the grey unicorn notices that this strange creature--a sort-of regular mare, it seems--is brandishing a weapon at him. He makes sure to stand in between Rosey and the mare behind him.

"'State my...' Ma'am, you scared us half to death! We thought there was another undead knight Curwhinny had kept here. Can you put please your weapon away so we can talk like normal adults?" He looks over the the colt who is floating on a magic disk. "Hello there, little one."

>>176843
>>176844
It should be noted that the stallion's voice is rough and grizzled, not helped by a heavy Severyanan accent.

>>176844
>undead knight
"Undead Knight? Where? In this dungeon?" Rosey Ring replies, seemingly interested
>Can you put please your weapon away so we can talk like normal adults
"You don't look like an archaeologist. What are you here for?"
>Hello there, little one."
The white mare steps in front of the colt, glaring defensively

>>176846
The grey unicorn gives an understand look towards the defensive gesture, seemingly knowing where it comes from.

"It was undead, now it is just regular dead. Torn to shreads by Roc after it was lured outside with bait. Look, I am Silver Sword, this mare behind me is Pear Faucet. She is archaeologist, I am pony who cleared this place of undead. Okay, introductions have been made...can you please just sheathe your weapon, for sake of those around us?"

>>176848
The mare sheaves her sword
"I thought I was the only pony tasked with cleansing this dungeon. Do you work for Glass Horizons?"
>She is archaeologist
She squints at her, but says nothing

>>176849
Silver relaxes, now that the threat has been dealt with.

"I was employed by him, yes. I did not think he would send...you said 'necrologist'? I did not think he would send one in after me. Did he send you here or were you sent by somepony else? How did you find out about this place?"

>>176849
The small yellow mare moves back.

>>176797
Stallion: "We need to do something about Vaeltaja."

Father: "Yes, I can't stand him spreading nonsense around here. I keep my family away from him."

Stallion: "No. I mean he's dangerous."

Father: "Nonsense is dangerous."

Stallion: "Heh. So much more than you know."

Father: "We should address this at coun-"

Stallion: "Kultainen brought Makea to me. She was completely out of it. Muttering to herself. And she was frost bitten. She had it bad on her ears and lips. Even her eyes... it's like she hadn't blinked. She was out of it."

Father: "What was wrong with her?"

Stallion: "I don't know. Dehydration, just the cold... maybe some kind of illness? I don't know what's going on."

Father: "Will she be alright?"

Stallion: "I don't know. I gave her water and heated her up, but she was still muttering to herself."

Father: "Well what has any of that got to do with Vaeltaja?"

Stallion: "What she was muttering. She was talking about the coming sun. And spirits. When she wasn't just speaking gibberish. She's one of those ponies who follow him."

Father: "Do you think Vaeltaja gave her mushrooms? Some other kind of poison?"

Stallion: "Maybe. I don't know. She may have just wondered off into the forest looking for spirits, got lost and then dehydrated. I don't think she would have lasted that much longer either way. She wasn't wearing enough heavy clothing."

Father: "Poor Makae Amuu... She's been sad since her mother died. I think that's why she follows him. He promises the spirits will come back and so she hopes to see him. That's why religious delusions can be so dangerous. They prey on our fears and vulnerabilities."

Stallion: "You're missing the point. I know that. We need to do something about it."

Father: "Yes, we need to bring it up at the council."

Stallion: "The council?! Just- ugh! Do you understand? The Inspector is coming here this week. He is supposed to be hear tomorrow."

Father: "Heh, you know that means he won't be here and earlier than Saturday. We can address this with the council on Friday. Or even ask the Inspector for help."

Stallion: "No! You just - ugh! You don't get it. What do you think the Inspector will think when he sees these ponies spouting that religious horse shit?"

Father: "Well he will be very upset, obviously. It's against the Path Forward."

Stallion: "Exactly! So what is he going to think about the council who runs the village where this happens."

Father: "He should want to help us. To help us put down this new religion."

Stallion: "Don't you think he's going to want to know how it got this bad?"

Father: "....."

Stallion: "He's going to blame us. He's going to tell the Central Council that we either couldn't stop it, or didn't want to."

Father: "The villagers could be silent. They have been silent about their religious practices every other time the inspector has come."

Stallion: "No. They have not. We have a write up. And this is a hell of a lot worse than that old mare with her public prayers. These followers of Vaeltaja won't shut up about convergence and seraphs and the sun and whatever. I mean for Akka's sake one of them was so crazed she went outside without enough clothes and forgot to drink water."

Father: "Do you think maybe there is some kind of pathogen at the blast? I believe Vaeltaja has been taking ponies there. We should ask the Inspector to look into the blast and see if maybe the melted permafrost awoke some kind of, some kind of old bacteria."

Stallion: "You are missing the point! The Inspector can't find out!"

Father: "No, that's exactly my point. We can ask the inspector for help. Maybe intercept him at Kaukainen Piste and tell him we need help. That will make it look like we are trying to solve the problem."

Stallion: "Really? Really? You don't think his first question when he hears that a start-up prophet is taking ponies into the woods and giving them drugs or whatever is going to be anything other than 'how long has this been going on?' Do you really think he's going to believe this hasn't been going on for weeks now? Don't you think he'll ask 'when did you first notice?' Is there any answer you can possibly give that won't sound like a blatant lie or make you look horrifically incompetent?"

Father: "I had no idea it was so bad. We saw Kulho Linssejä moving listlessly. He was out of his mind too, but not frostbitten. He was talking about going to be with his dead wife."

Stallion: "Yeah, it's... I know. I didn't know either. I didn't know it would get this bad. You know, when Metsän Vaeltaja started his preaching I actually kind of liked it. He was talking about Akka and the spirits of the ancestors. I was pleased to hear someone talk about the old gods and the old ways. Such a refreshing change from that horrible silence that's been placed over all of us. It was like a pillar of the old world returning. Resisting. Then she started talking about the seraph and the sun coming early and convergence all of this other pure horse shit, and I realized it was something else entirely. Something new. Ugh! But I thought they could keep quite. But they can't!"

Father: "Well, if we explain the situation to the inspector he might-"

Stallion: "No. You don't get it. There is no explanation we could possibly give to the Inspector that will suffice, with mares and stallions walking maddly around on the streets like that. There is no way around it. The Inspector will conclude that we were willfully Non-compliant. And if you tell him we didn't have the power to do anything he'll just ask why we didn't ask for help earlier, and what's the point of us anyways."

Father: "...."

Stallion: "We need to do something."

Father: "Call an emergency meeting of the town council. Gather every pony, explain the situation. Make a show of it."

>>176850
"I was sent here from the university to sweep it for dark magic contamination, and was tasked by Horizons to report on the state of the property and eliminate liabilities. From the looks of it, I still have some work to do."

>>176853
>>176851
Silver looks back to the small yellow mare named Pear Faucet.

"University? Do you know her from yours?"

Returning his attention to Rosey, he resumes talking. "Well, contaminated is right, it was used by supposed lich in experiments to try to bring back his dead family. Ponies here really did good job cleaning this place up, that quarry outside was absolutely littered with remains of his experiments. What do you mean by 'liabilities', though?"

>>176853
>>176854
Pear shakes her head

"Uhn uh."

>>176854
>Do you know her from yours?
>>176851
Do I know her?
>Ponies here really did good job cleaning this place up
"Only on the surface." She replies
"There are still corporeal monsters lurking about."
"Haunting presences. Monsters. Curses. Cursed items. Mana poisoning. Corrupted Earth Nodes. Planar manifest zones. Portals to Tartarus. Jars full of nameless plagues. Malign energies that could attract a whole host of monsters to the area. The list goes on."

>>176856
No That was the dice roll Posey failed

>>176856
>>176855
"Hmmm..." The look on Silver's face suggests he's not fully convinced. "I am not sure about all of that, but...you say you were sent here to sweep for contamination? I presume that means you have means of detecting dark magic?"

>>176858
>I presume that means you have means of detecting dark magic?
"Pfft, I wouldn't be very much of a Necrologist if I couldn't." The mare replies
"I have a sharp eye for the dark arts, and an even sharper horn."

>>176852
>>176797
Stallion: "What are we going to propose? Ban Vaeltaja? Accuse him of Non-Compliance? Many of the village ponies will be against it. Even on the council, Kaukainen Ukkonen will veto it. You know he believes that junk. He follows Vaeltaja. And what's far worse is that Vaeltaja will have a chance to speak."

Father: "It doesn't matter if we fail. What matters is that there will be witnesses to our attempt to shut it down. It will show the Inspector we tried."

Stallion: "No. No it won't. He'll wonder how we got outvoted in our own village."

Father: "So we'll look incompetent, they'll just remove us off of the council and bring in someone from the City. We'll lose some privileges. Be fined..."

Stallion: "You think all they will do is to kick your colt out of school and take you off the council? You are as delusional as Makea..."

Father: "Well it's our best shot."

Stallion: "You already know what they will think. Incompetence is Treason. Except they will never believe it is incompetence. They will think that we have been deliberately allowing Vaeltaja spout his nonsense, in defiance of the ban on religion. They will believe we are intentionally subverting their rules."

Father: "Well... Maybe."

Stallion: "Not 'maybe,' they will. Do you know why they will think that? Do you?"

Father: "Because..."

Stallion: "Because it's true."

Father: "We let this happen. I just thought that so long as it wasn't my family-."

Stallion: "Well it's going to be your family. Do you know what will happen when the Inspector judges we are not in compliance?"

Father: "I didn't think it would get this bad..."

Stallion: "I didn't either. We need to fix this problem."

Father: "Maybe go to Vaeltaja and tell him why he needs to make everyone stay silent?"

Stallion: "Vaeltaja thinks the world is coming to an end in a few weeks. And if he keeps it up, it will. For him and for us. He's not going to feel threatened by the central council."

Father: "Maybe talk to everypony individually?"

Stallion: "All seventy of them? They are too drugged up even to think coherently. No. There is only one thing we can possibly do. One thing and one thing only. Cut the head off of this problem, and hope that we can get everypony under some semblance of compliance by the time the Inspector arrives at the end of the week."

Father: "You can't mean-"

Stallion: "I absolutely do. And we have to act now. It's the only way."

Father: "It can't be..."

Stallion: "Oh yes it can. What do you think is going to happen to you if we don't, when the Inspector gets here and sees all of this. What do you think will happen to your family."

Father: "But it's not right."

Stallion: "Doesn't Tähtien Alla live in the city."

Father: "sigh.... Do you have a plan?"

Stallion: "Kind of. We go out wood cutting. I will need another pony and you've got the most to lose of any sane pony besides me. That's why you're in on this."

Father: "Very well.. Let me take Kultainen home."

Stallion: "Meet at my house."

Father starts to walk away from the stallion, looking solemn.

>>176859
"Heh, if they are even half as sharp as that sword should be, then you are doing well. Give us just one moment to discuss something, do not go anywhere."

>>176855
Silver pulls Pear off to the side, not too far away as to loss track of Rosey but still far enough that they can whisper without being overheard.

"So, hear me out. I know it is oddly convenient that this mare comes out of nowhere, dressing like she just walked out of 4th Century with knowledge about undead creatures, but...if she has ability to detect traces of dark magic, then maybe she can find where our missing sarcophagus is."

>>176830
Kira definitely wasn't forgotten about in the heat of the moment, absolutely not.

"And Bright Dye...maybe I'm being silly, but did he look like a cross between a pony and a zebra to you? Can ponies and zebras reproduce together?"

>>176852
>>176860
Amber freezes in place, eyes wide, when she hears that they intend to "cut the head off of this problem." After her father says he will take her home, she sneaks back into the store to avoid him finding her.

>>176861
>Give us just one moment to discuss something, do not go anywhere
"I'm not one to take orders from strangers..." The mare replies with a suspicious glare
Despite her words, she does not appear to flee, her golden eyes following silver as he retreats down the hallway

>>176862
"Not particularly...but as long as we keep at least one set of eyes on her or on sarcophagus, there is not much she could do about it. She is necrologist, not magician."

>>176865
Silver returns to the armored mare.

"Okay then, we could use your help with something, but you must swear to not tell another soul about it."

>>176863
"Oh, he might be. Hard to tell. I think the stripes will sometimes occur on ponies, but, yes, zebras and ponies can reproduce with each other. He could be part zebra."

>>176864
little pony hides

"Kultainen? Kultainen Hämärä?" He calls, looking for her.

>>176867
Kira is silent for a moment, before tapping her hooves together. "Do...do you think...ponies and lamias could...maybe..."

>>176868
Silver whispers back to her quickly.

"We will handle it, like I know only we could. I promise."

>>176867
"Yes, Papa?" she calls back. Her voice sounds squeaky and trembling. "You were taking a while. Is something wrong? You don't look too pleased…."