/vx/ - Videogames and Paranormal

>>191597
Silver goes over to the mulberry pony and uses his hooves to remove the pony's hooves from his face. Silver then puts his own hooves on the side of the mulberry pony's head and turn it towards his. Silver speaks in a calm voice that's halfway between fatherly and like a military officer. "Посмотри на меня, солдат. С нами всё будет хорошо. Обещаю, мы вытащим вас всех отсюда целыми и невредимыми."

>>191600
Posey approaches Kira
"Kira, can you smell if the airponies are nearby?"

>>191600
He slowly looks up towards Silver, raising his ears and moving his hooves down to the ground. His lips are pulled back, showing teeth. After a couple seconds, he nods.

>>191602
Silver releases his hooves from the mulberry pony's head and pats both of his shoulders with a smile. "Молодец парень. Как тебя зовут, солдат?"

>>191601
Kira looks at Posey, looking uncertain, though the reason isn't immediately obvious to the undead mare. "Uh, sure, I can certainly try. We're a lot closer now, so it should be a lot clearer."

Survival: Kira lifts up her head, and flicks her tongue into the air to pick up the scents of nearby ponies.

[1d20+11 = (11+11) = 22]

Posey heals Monstro's fall damage with her Channel Touch, touches up her damaged bones, and proceeds to follow Kira.

>>191603
The pony sits upright, curling his tail around his body, and answers

"Речной туман" - River Mist

Kira smells many ponies

>>191606
"Ну, Речной Туман..." Silver gets up and offers River Mist a hoof with which to stand back up with. "Я сражался в Великой войне против метаморфов, ведя войска в бой. Я сталкивался с их меняющими облик агентами, терпел грохот их пулемётов и артиллерии, слышал грохот приближающихся танков. По сравнению со всем этим: этот остров — почти как отпуск."

Hmm...that's a bit inconvenient. Perhaps she can narrow her search: can she smell *bat pony*?

>>191607
He takes the hoof, and stands up. He says, looking away, and his left ear going down,

"Я... Я присоединился к торговому флоту, потому что не смог поступить в университет, и это казалось единственным способом уйти с фермы. Я хочу вернуться на ферму..."

Unfortunately, yes she can. Along the left shore. There will be GRU soldiers there, and the Traveller's creations as well

>>191608
Silver gives River Mist a comforting smile, and a pat on the shoulder. "Мы все вступаем в ряды по разным причинам. Кто-то из-за трудностей, кто-то потому, что чувствовал, что у него нет другого выбора, а кто-то просто хотел отдать долг своей стране. Но независимо от причины, мы все в конечном итоге разделяем общие обязанности, как братья и товарищи по оружию." Encouraging River Mist to look back at him, he continues. "Мы не умрём сегодня. Этот остров не станет нашей могилой. Я отказываюсь оставлять солдата. Обещаю тебе."

Kira looks over to the group, her ears folded back. "It's bad. Everyone - everything - is there. I think there's a saying that's popular over here: out of the frying pan, into the fire..."

>>191609
He smiles widely, and his tail starts to move back and forth in a wagging fashion

"Мы уходим?"

>>191610
Silver chuckles, and pats River Mist on the top of his head, between his ears. "Мы это сделаем, но сначала нам нужно спасти нескольких солдат, ваших товарищей и других."

>>191611
His tail stops moving and drops down by the center. His smile fades

"Так.... Мы же не отдаляемся от Чернобога и этого проклятого острова?"

>>191612
Silver looks at River Mist with the same expression that a father has when he knows he's about to break his foal's heart by telling them that some mythical holiday mascot isn't actually real, and it's been their parents leaving them money and gifts all along. He breathes in and lets it out as a sigh. "Ну... может быть. А может и нет. Некоторые из этих солдат недостаточно здоровы, чтобы эффективно сражаться. Наши возможности безопасно покинуть остров сейчас... ограничены. Мы должны были вызвать самолёт для эвакуации, но не можем связаться с ним по радио, а даже если бы и смогли, боюсь, этот корабль просто уничтожил бы его в воздухе."

He looks down, then to the side, as if in contemplation before looking back to River Mist. "Мы сделаем всё, что в наших силах. Что бы ни случилось, моё обещание остаётся твёрдым и верным: ты УЖЕ покинешь этот остров целым и невредимым. Но пока мы не вытащим тебя с острова, мне нужно, чтобы ты был сильным. Не только ради себя, но и ради своих товарищей. Вам нужно будет искать друг у друга силы, чтобы сделать то, что необходимо."

>>191613
His ears, along with every other feature, droop down. He nearly barks out:

"Что нам делать? Что нам нужно сделать? Что мне делать?"

>>191614
Silver speaks loudly and suddenly, hoping to snap River Mist out of it. "ОСТАНАВЛИВАТЬСЯ!"

>>191615
His eyes go wide, his ears back, and he sits back down. he stops talking.

>>191616
With River Mist snapped out of it, Silver's voice returns to the authoritative hybrid of sergeant and father. He places his hooves back on either side of River Mist's head. "Мы не поддадимся панике. Страх убивает разум. Страх — это тихий голосок в нашей голове, который ведёт нас к полной гибели. Мы сохраним спокойствие, будем бороться, победим и выживем. Мы сделаем это, потому что должны, потому что мы единственные, кто может, и потому что если мы этого не сделаем... миллионы погибнут."

>>191617
His ears go up, then back down, then up again as his lips remain firmly closed, until he speaks:

"Эм... Как именно мы это делаем?

While Silver is talking to his fellow Severyanans, Cavaliere takes Posey, Kira, and Dust (if he's willing) aside.

"Are there any signs of the missing airship crew we can follow?" he asks Kira. "We will have to make the difficult choice of taking the risk to find them before the GRU have them captured, or to save our limited resources and time to deal with the Fellow Traveler while keeping our entourage safe. I'm concerned there might not be a right answer."

>>191619
"I am more concerned by the possibility that the Traveller has already enthralled them. The night is coming, and without knowledge of the beast's powers they would logically try to conserve their energy with periodic rests. We may have more minutes to save them before it becomes a firefight." Posey replies, kicking at the ground in eagerness

>>191618
Moving his hooves down to River Mist's shoulders, Silver keeps a firm hold of the pony. "С упорством, решимостью и чистой силой воли — тем, чего нет у Странника. С практической точки зрения, у нас есть оружие, взрывчатка и магия. То, что учёные не смогли разрезать его хирургическим инструментом, не означает, что он неуязвим ко всем видам повреждений."

>>191619
>>191620
Kira frowns a she looks to her companions. "It's worse than that. The area is littered with 'gee are you' soldiers and those..." Kira shivers in disgust, "...things the Traveler's made. It's going to be a fight to rescue those Airponies."

>>191621
Sitting again, tail wrapped around himself, he tilts his head, both ears pointed up

"Ты собираешься попробовать взорвать это? Почему бы и нет - почему бы не уйти от этого? Могу ли я уйти от этого?"

>>191621
"How far are the airponies?"

>>191622
Silver repeats himself to River Mist, "Потому что мы должны это сделать. Потому что никто другой этого сделать не может. И потому что, если мы этого не сделаем, миллионы людей умрут."

>>191624
>>191622
Hmmmmm...that's a good question. Can Kira tell how far away they are?

>>191625
"Хорошо..." he says, head tilting down slightly and ears going back

Something along the lines of a third of a mile. Maybe more, maybe less

>>191626
Silver pats River Mist's shoulders and offers him a "Хороший парень" as he helps him to his hooves.

Kira: "It's not far, we just need to keep going."

>>191626
Great. We should be able to hustle that far without exhausting ourselves
"GIDDY UP!" Posey cries, rearing and kicking her legs in the air before taking off in the direction Kira indicated.

No longer riding monstro, she orders it to fly in the rear if the group and guard the bomb (removing it from combat for the time being).

>>191628
Kira giggles at this display before slithering behind her. "You ponies are so cute and silly when you do your kicky hooves thing."

Cavaliere takes up position between Posey and Kira, offset to the right to better keep an eye out. "It's a small island so we're bound to encounter something. At least the enemy has many things to keep track of, and keeping on the move will be to our advantage. They cannot surround us, but we have to maintain surprise if we are to have a chance."

>>191632
Silver has the rest of the group, including the commies, the airponies, and the griffs, follow along. "I see you are learning basics of being soldier."

>>191633
Cavaliere wryly chuckles in response. "It will take more than basics to solve this conundrum. But, I wouldn't be here if I was a novice."

Posey keeps galloping at full speed until she sees any signs of activity ahead, taking advantage of not needing to stop to breath.
Kira and Cavalier have Endurance, so they should be able to keep pace with her in the front.

>>191634
Silver lets out his own, hearty chuckle with a subtle shake of his head. "Heh, I supposed you have me there, fair enough."

>>191634
"The closer the mission brushes with death, the greater our powers will grow when this is all over. Bring it on!" Posey says boastfully, still galloping
The golden glint of her infravision shines in her eyes, scanning ahead for anything lurking in the dark.

A brief kick of the breeze coats a fine mist over the ponies. But this is the last gasp of the retreating fog that rolls over the center hill before traversing the summit of the eastern edges and leaving the field of view.

The view before them is as clear as it has been, with a view deep into the twilight sky, tinged purple and dark grey but still tainted grey by the ubiquitous haze. A single light shines in the night above the horizon. Very possibly it is a star, the north star, perhaps. Perhaps it is the planet Chiron, making its long rotation, and standing out brightly in the night. Or perhaps it is a plane, or some other artifice much closer. It is more than could be seen before.

The party has a good view down the center of the bay, half-circle that it is, with its black sand beaches, long fields of brown-yellow dormant grasses that roll down towards the water, and surrounded on either side by peaking hills that at their summits are crowned in innumerable stones and black-grey basalt. Further off in the distance, partly obscured by the left/western line of the bay, is the island to the north of Mended Horn, smaller but still reasonable in its own right. Its hilly peak, surrounding sea stacks, and sheer vertical black-rock cliffs can be distinguished even at this distance. In the center of the bay and edging in closer is the grey-painted warship, with a smaller boat by its side. It must be an older Equestrian design. A bright yellow flash can be seen from its forward gun. Its projectile can be traced across the sky, leaving a grey trail as it arcs towards the hill on the right. There, smoke still rises from the ruins of the airship. A grey explosion can be seen, then felt as it shakes the ground, and then heard. It's plume continues to rise towards the sky. One, two, three little squads move towards this area of the right side of the bay.

In front of the party, towards the center, is a small camp with several tents and two large mortars set up. They pop and streak, with projectiles going towards unseen enemies. The whistling hum of the mortars can be heard periodically, the rotors winding in the air.

But on the eastern side, where the party is going, the ridge of the hill obstructs the view of the sea beyond. At the far end, perched on what is presumably a cliff from the seaside, is a small-ish painted white lighthouse with a black painted head. It isn't especially tall, but it's perched high enough on the hill such that its light would rise above most of the hill line of the eastern ridges, and would be visible in the eastern ocean, which is indeed the main shipping lane for Equestrian and Severyanan travelers going from the Village Up North or Ravensyoke to Trottingham or out to the open ocean. The eastern hills are not as tall or well defined as in the west, but they are still capped in basalt stones and appear grey or black at the top from a distance, with dull yellow-brown grass dominating the great majority of its surface, here as everywhere on the island. Long, grey lines of antique stone walls that once dividing the land into many padlocks and fields can be seen all along the rind of the bay, more so in the center and east than the west, as can several small, cone-like stone buildings that periodically dot the hillsides.

At least one squad is making its way towards the lighthouse, while a couple more are ascending towards the ridge line. A group of three in the center are moving towards the center of the island, the old medieval village, near where the party is now.

>>191648
>A single light shines in the night above the horizon. Very possibly it is a star, the north star, perhaps. Perhaps it is the planet Chiron, making its long rotation, and standing out brightly in the night. Or perhaps it is a plane, or some other artifice much closer. It is more than could be seen before.
Pic
I have Profession (Astrology) on my character sheet, but I still haven't put any ranks in it.
Going to make an untrained Int check to identify it, because what kind of unicorn mage doesn't value knowledge of the cosmos?
[1d20+3 = (8+3) = 11]
>Warship getting involved
>Airship being shelled
>Mortar fire
>Unseen enemies
"This island is becoming a warzone! The GRU will be shooting at summons until the Traveler makes them turn on eachother. If The Traveller has any limits to how many beasts it can summon at once, this chaos may serve to our advantage. We must find the airponies swiftly!" Posey remarks, still galloping
>Phrase not found
Posey gazes towards that squad
"That would have been my first place to look for sheltering survivors too. It is a good thing Kira was able to track their scent before we went there."

Posey commands Monstro to float low to the ground to avoid detection, still running.

>>191650
>>Phrase not found
Ignore that. I was talking about the lighthouse.

>>191649
>>191650
Kira, being from the southern hemisphere, is completely lost as to the names and positions of these foreign stars. All she knows is that this one, just like the ones that hang above her homeland, are all pieces of Ouroboros, and seeing them even here is at least a small comfort in this trying time.

Silver: "We have to hurry. Those airponies will be cut to shreds by that squad if they get to them first."

>>191650
Now that the fog has cleared, and we're mere minutes from our destination, can we see or hear any activity from where the airponies should be ahead of us? Any rifle flashes or gunshots? Shadows of lumbering monsters? Spells going off?

>>191649
Cavaliere avoids placing himself on the ridgeline. Despite being a griffon he moves quite fast along the ground, keeping up with the others.

>>191652
"May I suggest intercepting that squad and pinning them down while one of us investigates the lighthouse? If we enter the lighthouse first, they will be on us for sure."

>>191654
>splitting the party
>again
"While I am quite curious what the GRU plans to do with the lighthouse, and I would have galloped there first under different circumstances, are you certain you want to be caught in a firefight alone again? You have lost quite a bit of valuable blood." Posey replies

>>191650
After being observed for a few seconds, it doesn't visibly move. That makes it unlike to be an artifice like a plane, although the possibility of an airship, or a plane further away and coming towards them, cannot be ruled out. Posey is not aware of a star both exceptionally bright and in that particular part of the northern sky; it must be Chiron, shining in the night and rotating along its respective sphere.

>low to the ground
The bay is almost like a bowl, cut in half. The bay itself is low, but everything around the water rises upwards in an incline. So long as you are in the north side there is no cover at all save for a few, tiny, scattered constructs. It is impossible for Monstro, or anything so big, to move on the interior portion of the bay and not be noticed. Not in the twilight. Not until the fog returns.

>>191652
The stars are different. It's all different.

>>191653
Posey is quick to notice just how comparatively quiet it is. She can't see any monsters - that may change if she looked more carefully, but it's clearly a comparative lull in the attacks of Our Fellow Traveller. There are some rifle cracks at the far left/east end of the bay. There are several cracks of mortar fire and artillery, but the targets are not obvious.

>>191654
He would essentially have to travel around the ring, out of the line of sight of the bay. This is not impossible, but it does require a minor detour along the eastern and southern slopes

>>191654
>>191656
Silver looks to Black Heel to get his opinion on Cavaliere's suggestion, since it would bring him and the commies into direct conflict against the GRU.

>>191657
"And what, exactly, does it mean to 'pin them down'?"
He looks skeptical, and generally not pleased with the plan.

>>191655
>>191658
"If you want every hoof on the attack, we could do that as well, but we will lose valuable time getting to the remaining survivors. They are definitely scared and possibly injured. We could try to get inside the lighthouse first and use it as cover, but we would risk being trapped. I would prefer it if we scare the enemy squad into halting and set up the machine gun for an enfilade as our main force makes a tactical retreat. Let's avoid a head-on engagement if we can. Your thoughts, Commissar?"

>>191656
Cavaliere directs the rest of the group to make this detour with him. A slight delay is worth the element of surprise.

>>191659
“I can never counsel attacking my countrymen. But even besides that, I would not recommend a pitched battle. They are strong, and more than that, they, and not we, have the potential to be reinforced and strengthened should any battle last too long. That is the far end of the island, away from your demonic allies, but close to their ship and fire support. And further, if we are too delayed, they could cut off the line of retreat without even intending to do so.”

>>191659
>>191660
Silver: "And of course we must worry about them skipping firefight altogether and simply calling in mortar and artillery strikes on us."

As Kira looks on at the ponies discussing what they should do, she takes a deep breath and speaks up. "I'll go. Alone. I'm not a fighter, I'm out of magic, you won't need me for the battle against the Traveler. I'm sneaky, this is what I've done my whole life. Let me take a radio and go try to get those ponies out of there, without bloodshed."

>>191661
Cavaliere looks skeptically at Kira. "Last time you did…well, diplomacy will not work. Flying is not much use out here, but I could get around the lighthouse and get to the top. You may need my help."

>>191662
Kira smiles at Cavaliere. "This time will be different. It has to be. And the more creatures that come along...well, I'm worried that the chance of failure will go up dramatically. There's no time to lose, I have to go."

And before she forgets, Kira takes the potion out that she got from Cavaliere at the airship. She uncorks the vial, looks inside at its contents, and flicks her tongue inside, licking up the potion that's contained.

[2d8+3 = (9+3) = 12]