/vx/ - Videogames and Paranormal

>>195887
Silver uses his magic to wipe away any tears or snot coming from the poor crying mare. "We will stop Traveler, and we will save whoever else we can. I promise."

Kira boops the possessed pony. "Okay, so you're fully possessed. But don't worry, we'll help you!"

>>195888
*much lower
>>195887
Posey arrives severely damaged, but thankfully obscured by her glammer spell.

She addresses the herd on shaky legs
"H-h-he got away... There are hostiles in the corridor ahead. A monster too, but I barely managed to defeat it." she says

She takes a couple minutes using her Charnel Touch to address her wounds

"The e are also hostile flinging Molotov cocktails... I want a bath..." Posey whines

>>195890
Blackheel:
"You made it back."

>>195889
sniffles

The white pony snorts, and tries to flick his tail.

>>195891
Starfire
"You look fine to me"

Stained Sand:
"There is very little you can do about it. Some soaps and detergents may help, but that stuff is not coming off in water."

>>195890
>>195891
Kira looks over at Posey, a pony in her grasp. "Aren't cocktails drinks? What's so bad about drinks?"

Silver looks over at Posey, a zebra in his grasp. "They are firebombs made using alcohol or gasoline filled glass bottles."

Kira grimaces in response. "Oh...so we need to get this oil off of us. Dang, that Traveler is cunning, summoning an oil monster and then arming his puppets with fire!"

>>195892
>"There is very little you can do about it. Some soaps and detergents may help, but that stuff is not coming off in water."
Posey pouts with her lower lip trembling, like she wants to cry

>>195894
Blackheel comes closer to Posey, and extends a hoof, evidently wanting to hug or pet her. He does not actually make contact.

>>195893
Silver is noticeably making Zara's jacket oilier

>>195895
Oi, Blackheel is a Wizard right, he knows Prestidigitation, right?
Rolling Diplomacy to see if he will take pitty on me and use his magic to remove this oil.
[1d20+10 = (12+10) = 22]

>>195895
>>195894
Silver releases the zebra mare before he completely soils her jacket, going up to Black Heel and Posey. "What do you remember of their positions and ambush spots? Can we potentially go around them, or take them out without being attacked?"

>>195897
"They attacked from all around. Somehow they could shoot me but I was not able to see them. They might be invisible."

>>195898
>>195895
Kira waves at her from her hanging perch. "If you guys can make sure this pony is safe and secure, I can try to get all sneaky-beaky like and check out what's going on."

>>195896
I'm genuinely torn on this one. On the one hoof, a modified 22 is pretty good and Posey's last interactions with Blackheel before she ran off were positive. On the other hoof, she has kind of gone out of her way to piss him off the entire adventure.

>>195899
Stained Sand moves up, ready to aid as necessary

>>195900
Kira leans down, and hands off the white pony like a baby to Stained Sand. She then crawls down and goes up to Black Heel to also beg him, "Could you also do me? You know, just in case they try to throw one of those molly tov things?"

>>195900
Then I guess there's only one question left to ask: is Blackheel a gentlecolt?

Cavaliere is the one with the hoofcuffs and rope, right?

>>195902
Blackheel stares into her eyes.

Sense Motive on Posey. Not for if there is lying or manipulation or anything, just for a single question.

When it's all over, when Light Water and the Traveler are defeated, and in that night before the two depart ways forever - what are the odds she'd fuck him?

[1d20+5 = (9+5) = 14]

>>195903
Well, fucking him was on her bucket list

Bluff (not for lying, but for seduction)
[1d20+14 = (19+14) = 33]

>>195904
"Very well, dear Ring, but understand that just as your illusion magic may hide the oil, I may comb it out - but a thin layer will remain and blanket your fur. It will not come out easily."

Using his magic and also a comb, Blackheel begins the process of trying to clean Posey.

Starfire walks up towards Silver

"Uh, do you, do you want me to clean you too?"
His smile shows quite a few fairly clean teeth.

>>195906
Silver smiles back, though his mouth is closed. He nods gratefully at the hygienic pony. "That would be much appreciated. That oil monster got me very good."

>>195905
Posey takes 10 on spellcraft recognize Prestidigitation, potent 'universal' magic that her cruel masters forbade her from learning.

She feels the oil being vanished from her fur and mane, leaving it magically clean.
She glows, once again clean. Her glammered body looking radiant. Her mane rosey and fabulous. Her coat snowy and spotless. Her morale recovered. Her smile and optimism restored.
Her eyes turn into glowing golden hearts
"Bl-Blackheel...! I.. I could kiss you right now..."

>>195908
It is impossible to overstate just how dire Posey's situation was with that oil covering her. How nasty of a substance it is.

Blackheel has a smug smile on his face, his horn still lit up in a blood red, radiant glow

"You are a pretty mare." He admits. He leans over, and kisses her on the lips

>>195907
Silver can feel what is like a brushing motion, acting on his fur

>>195909
Posey also kisses.
Posey is a very good kisser. It's not just grace or experience. There's something almost hungry about how deeply she leans into it.
But the moment passes nevertheless

She whispers puts her , very, very very subtly
"If you keep acting like such a terrific gentlecolt like that, I might just have to make you mine, forever..."
She then gives him an eyelash-fluttering wink, and she turns to give him some space to cast on Silver, swishing her tail seductively as she steps away.

.

I sleep now.

>>195847
Cavaliere looks after where she ran, and shakes his head dismissively.
>>195892
Cavaliere stares at her. "So that's what made the mighty Miss Glow retreat when you were eager to fight Light Water alone a minute ago. Not any minions, spells, or monsters from beyond this world, but the most basic of partisan weapons." He bursts out in mocking laughter. "I thought you incapable of any survival instinct."

>>195887
All the same, Cavaliere approaches Zara. "It wasn't my intention to put you in harm's way. When I saw griffons up there, my first thought was that they may have been the boarding party from the boat. They weren't, and yet I'm sure we could have talked down that general if it weren't for a millstone strapped to our paw. I would offer you a smoke, but it would be best to wait until we're out of here and not covered in flammable substances."

He will find whoever has rope and secure those enemies that are still alive.
>>195903
Hoofcuffs intended for Light Water, but we used the last of the rope I think. Somepony else has some.
>>195903
She already gave him a BTI (booping-transmitted-infection), what more do you want?

I'm going to write a long post in OOC about what I think.

>>195903
Posey has a pair of manacles that I forgot why I even put on her sheet. May as well take them.
>>195911
>Miss Glow
"-That is not my name. I am Rosey Ring." she interrupts
>"I thought you incapable of any survival instinct."
Posey gives a huff
"My mane is not just a symbol of my heritage, my pride as a mare, and a testament to my boundless beauty, it is also a valuable esoteric implement for my sorcery and spiritual practice as an exorcist and and warmagus, an extension of my powers. I defend my mane with the same tenacity as I do my life, sometimes even moreso. I would rather be buried with an intact mane than go shambling about without one. Of course, I would not expect a griffon to understand..." she retorts
She produces and ivory comb and begins to brush her mane
"Besides, when the monster got between me and the griffon, he was already as good as gone. I had no reason to pursue him further, as much as it frustrates me to have let my enemy escape, so I turned back. We can deal with him once our current crisis is resolved."

Posey pauses
"This does give me an idea though..."
>>195909
Could Posey use the empty potion flasks and part of this big pile of oil to improvise some flammable splash weapons?
"If we can set Light Water on fire, that could interfere with his spellcasting concentration." Posey ponders
"Fire magic is not my specialty, but in my line of work you learn to improvise." she continues
She stops a good distance from the oil and frowns, not wanting to get dirty again. She directs her Unseen Servant to get to work for her.

>>195910
Blackheel puts a bit of effort into it as well. Posey is the one to break away. When she does, she can see that Blackheel is smiling and his eyes are half lidded. He stands there for several seconds without moving. It is only after a delay that his ears perk up and he says "huh?" He turns her head to look back at her, before focusing on other tasks.

>>195911
Well, the white petrushka pony is being dumped onto Silver, or else he should give it back to Posey.

Zara sits down, her head lowered and not sitting straight up but lowered. She is visibly trembling, ears back and eyes large, with her tail wrapped around her. "Oh uh, okay" she manages to say

>>195915
Or Posey can handle the white petrushka

Blackheel offers,

"Don't worry, we'll kill him together."

>potion flasks
Yes, I suppose.

>>195926
>handle the white petrushka
I am slightly confused, what would you like me to do with him (I have ideas)?

>>195929
Restrain him so that he can be properly kept prisoner. Tying him up with rope or something similar is most preferred, but hoofcuffs are also good.

>>195926
Cavaliere pats Zara's back reassuringly. "I understand why you're worried. We'll make it through this."

>>195929
>>195930
Cavaliere has been tying up the prisoners since rope is more versatile than twenty hoofcuffs. He has +9 bonus to the use rope skill and can take ten.

>>195930
Oh, I thought you wanted me to finish him, lol.

Posey levitates her fluffy, pink shackles over.

>>195931
Zara is pat. She looks upwards towards Cavaliere as he does so

>>195931
>>195932
Between Cavaliere and his hopefully sufficient quantity of rope, and Posey's pink hoofcuffs, the white petrushka has, hopefully, been secured

>>195922 →
Posey explains her plan to draw fire while the rest of the herd runs through the corridor.

>>195934
"The enemy was firing at close range from multiple directions in the corridor. I was not able to see them directly until the end despite my Darkvision spell, so it seems as though they had cover to hide behind. No form of mind control allows thralls to see in the dark, so I suspect that they were relying on the light from that fire breathing monster that I felled and shooting at me between its gouts of flame; they should be more limited in their attacks now that the beast was destroyed."
"Combatants for the strike team should assemble immediately, while technicians, wounded and other noncombatants stay in the boiler vault. I have the advantage of darkvision, so I may be able to draw their attention while the rest of the herd moves through. Once the enemies are distracted, the herd can gallop through the corridor at full speed. If you cannot see them, they cannot see you, so just keep running forwards. Once the corridor is cleared, combatants can regroup and proceed towards the bridge, and I will rejoin you once I shake-off the shooters."

Posey puffs her chest out and tosses her mane

"Are we ready?"

I think you're taking some details way too seriously. I had not prepared the upper levels yet. I was not looking in reference to some kind of map, I was not thinking carefully about lighting conditions and which electric lights would be on and which would not, and what sources of light would be provided by the enemies. I was trying to emphasize "You can be attacked from behind. You can be attacked from the left. You can be attacked from the right. You can be attacked from the front. You can be attacked from above. There are literally a dozen different rooms that enemies can hide in or come from. You have placed yourself in an extremely bad position, and that mistake will become a fatal mistake should you chose to keep making it." And then when you moved upstairs, it's the same but more so, as Posey could accomplish being surrounded in three-dimensional space. She could literally be surrounded from both above and below, as she almost certainly bypassed an unknown number of enemies on the crew deck that could now come up the stairs behind her. If her teammates wanted to, they could not intervene and rescue her. They did not want to. The petrushkas shooting from darkness were not a complete and serious encounter. They were a reminder that she was in an unfamiliar, hostile terrain where she does not know what she is facing, and she has every reason to believe that she will be facing something, and it is hostile. Like, you know the various kinds of warnings video games will give you when you go out of bounds on the map that say basically "Get back on the map in the next 10 seconds or you will die"? That's what that was. It was my way of saying "Are you certain whatever you're doing is worth it?" If I were actually describing the area in question some of the electric lights would have been on and some would have been off. That was unnecessary to describe to Posey as she has darkvision, so it was not. The "25-35 feet" was in reference to fear effects and was a way of saying "You are in such a large, unexplored, hostile area that you are not necessarily within short range of every hostile." It is not a statement of actual differences. If I were preparing encounters in that area, I would refer to actual dimensions on a map and be more specific. I forgot that Darkvision has a span of 60 feet, in the exact same way I forgot that the fire damage of the hellhound may well have sparked the multiple pounds of tar sticking to Posey, which maybe should have lit fire and delivered at least 1d6 fire damage every single turn until it either burned out after about 50 turns, or Posey jumped into the ocean.

Like, if you came home at night and saw that the front door open, you wouldn't just barge your way in and go up the stairs. You'd look through every single room looking for an intruder, because you don't want to be attacked from behind.

I typed twice as much, but the point is that what Posey encountered was not a deliberate, planned encounter and location with well thought out details that are accurate to what is there (it's actually much more dangerous), but me telling you "If she goes up one more flight of stairs, she will die, and no one can or will save her."

>>195936
Oh. I guess I was overthinking it. Sorry.

Posey still relays this plan, as a means for others to avoid damage when going upstairs.

>>195909
Silver's snoot wriggles from aide to aide, and he lets out a satisfied snort as the very pleasant feeling of having his fur brushed and cleaned out washes over him. Starfire finds that the thick fur and the oil don't play very well, but it's well worth seeing his glorious floof return.

>>195937
Kira speaks up. "I could also be all sneaky-beaky like, slither around looking for their positions as well as secret pathways to sneak up on them like ambush predators. I imagine a boat like this has to have some way to vent air around, otherwise it would all go stale, so maybe we could use that to our advantage?"

>>195938
Posey nods
"Very well, slither ahead if you please. The rest of us will follow."

>>195936
Posey asks Blackheel how he wants to approach.

>>195942
Hide: Kira attempts to blend into the surroundings of the ship corridors using her snek skills. For added sneakiness, she gives a brief tongue flick.

[1d20+14 = (6+14) = 20]

>>195951
It's probably easier to take 10 in this circumstance. The non-monster enemies do not have Darkvision (but you have scent, so you can detect them approaching), and you are not in combat (yet) so there's no reason not to take 10 when you would probably succeed on a 10.
Probably also want to do Move Silently to sneak across the hall unheard once you are hidden.
Note that in areas of darkness or shadowy illumination you can Hide without cover.

Maybe Posey should also proceed with stealth, although taking 10 she only gets 17 on stealth (if she takes off her armor). Then again, the advantage of darkness could help.

Do we have anything left to do before we change scenes?

>>195956
"Would you prefer to just wait here and rot until another monster breaks in?"

>>195957
"Our enemy is waiting on us to make the next move, and any mistake will be seized upon. Let's weigh our options first," Cavaliere responds.

He also checks to see if there is an access point from the boiler room to the bow cargo holds.

>>195958
"There is no strategic way to approach when monsters are being conjured out of thin air at unlimited range. Every few seconds spent waiting is only giving the enemy more opportunities to harass us: every few seconds is another preventable casualty. The only winning move to is to slay the enemy swiftly and immediately with the strongest forces available."

He nods. "That's what I would like to do. The best move will be to destroy the one entity conjuring these entities. Once we do that with our full strength, we can worry about getting off this island."

DM, can I roll an Arcane check to see if I can know anything about how the Intruder can be destroyed, or if it can be destroyed at all?

Or make a check that would otherwise reveal the logical order to finish this quest in?

>>195947
“Well, we have the boiler on. Soon, there will be enough steam to run the engine. It works best if we have the bridge, but with a throttle here and the rudder room we may be able to move her forward and to starboard, and send her out to deep water. Both tubes with the patrol boat will commit her to deep water, or even just turning a few valves. Then we can concoct a story, abd cross the border back into Stalliongrad from the Nova Griffonian side.”

>>195962
>cross the border back into Stalliongrad
o_O

"........................ Very well. Sounds like the bridge should be our next priority then."

>>195963
He flips an ear and looks off to the side.

“Although… if that snake-thing really can release the puppets from the Entity’s control… I think we should. If we can.”

>>195964
"I am an experienced exorcist, and I have heard of no such power, secular or spiritual, that could expel evil so conveniently." Posey says

Or has she?

Rolling Religion to know wtf Kira is doing
[1d20+11 = (20+11) = 31]
And Arcana
[1d20+11 = (12+11) = 23]

>>195966
Posey has been studying exorcisms, far realm entities, esoteric spiritualism, and mind control magic for nearly a century. She is an expert in this field.
What does she know?

>>195965
>>195967
To the lamias, the Ouroboros isn't just a symbol; He is their God. The Cycle Given Form, The Eternal Hunger, The Beginning and The End. According to Lamia religious beliefs, the sun is actually an egg containing the current iteration of Him, and that at the end times, when the world has grown corrupt with entropy and decay, the sun will hatch, and out from it their God will be born anew, filled with a gnawing hunger that must be sated. He will eat the shell shards of His egg, then the stars in the sky, the moon, and then finally the very world itself. When nothing else remains in the Universe, and His hunger remains not yet sated, He will then eat Himself, starting at the end of his tail and working His way further and further up His body, until He can take no more and His body bursts, spilling out from His corpse a new Universe. His scales shall become the stars, the largest remnants of His body becoming the planet and the moon, and left behind will be another sun, another egg, containing the next iteration of Ouroboros. However, the lamias don't believe this otherwise cataclysmic event is negative, far from it in fact. They believe that the act of Ouroboros consuming the world and the entire Universe will be an act of renewal, rebirthing a doomed and decaying Universe into something new, something pure. They also believe that when they are consumed by Him, their souls will become a part of Him, and thus they will become part of the new universe that comes from Him. They believe that all living beings, not just lamias, are a part of Him, and that He is a part of them, that they are all in a way the children of Ouroboros. The lamias just simply believe that they are the closest to being in His image. And while He has not hatched yet, the lamias are still able to feel His presence and to call upon Him, to request blessings and give service in exchange, and they claim that this is the source of their magics.

Kira is a firm believer in Ouroboros, and she believes that by using herself as a conduit for His presence, His power, she can call upon Him to banish the Traveler's influence from their minds, returning His lost children to sanity.

>>195968
But what are you actually doing mechanically? Does this emulate a spell? Is this just a prayer requesting divine intervention (Gate/Miracle/Wish)?
Posey has done something similar before, in the swamp, although she needed a sapient sacrifice to make it work. I would be thrilled to discover a means to do it without one.

Also, pic related

>>195966
Mechanic details aside, does Posey's nat 20 tell her if this plead for divine intervention has any chance of actually working?

Can I know the official results of those checks so that I can go back to dialogue?

Fuck it
>>195964
Posey pauses, then cups her hooves together and politely bows and politely smiles.
"Religion is very important! Of course we will make time for Kira to practice her faith. Who knows, we might all just learn something."

. . . . . . .

Posey takes Blackheel aside and speaks in a hushed tone, taking 10 on Bluff for innuendo (24) to prevent the message from being understood by any other entity.
"I have my doubts that divine intervention can be relied upon. Ponies of my profession know that our gods cannot always be relied upon to deliver us from evil in insurmountable odds even when we are more than faithful, because we live in a world of personal strife. Wild champions like Kira possess rudimentary magic of the priestly variety, but what she describes is nothing short of a Miracle: an equivalent to casting Dispel Evil on hundreds of targets at extreme range. I can count on one hoof priests I have heard of who were capable of calling on such power..."
She continues
"Still, the chance of success is not zero. The Intruder is an Invader from beyond the firmament. It has reshaped the morphic elements of this world, built up a flock of believers, summoned otherworldly monsters, and even named a number of 'priests': if it is as powerful as it claimed to be, its presence threatens to provoke the wrath of the sovereigns of which it has entered their territory. Local spirits and folk deities rarely act directly unless to counteract a divine Intruder, and this may very well be such a scenario. I am familiar with the ʊərəˈbɒrəs, through my studies of death and alchemy. It is a primal spirit that encompasses the cycle of death, and this Intruder has openly threatened to break the cycle, putting it under the eye of the serpent through its portfolio sense. It I assist Kira by drawing a chalk sigil to emulate a rudimentary temple, we may yet invoke its attention. Intervention however is another discussion."
Her expression grows more serious
"But I am not betting on thoughts and prayers to save us. Regardless of the success of Kira's prayers, we may be able to use this situation to our advantage...." she says
"All this time, we have been fighting on the terms of this mad mage and his monster, fighting through waves of seemingly-endless summons and suffering losses while it suffers nothing and watches our movements from afar. Even now, all we have accomplished is repairing its mode of transportation. No matter how we approach, to assassinate Light Water or destroy the Intruder itself, it could simply determine how many monsters it can fit into a room at once and wait to ambush us with overwhelming odds. It is a frustrating, demeaning and hopeless strategic position to be in where every move means playing on the terms of the enemy. Instead of being forced to fight it on its own terms, I suggest we make it fight on our own terms, with a little bait and some bluffed mantras." she says
"It stands for certain that the Intruder will invariably try to interfere with Kira's prayers if they have been a ghost of a chance of success, because doing so not only threatens to foil its plot but also counter its incursion with divine presence. By default it would just summon a monster to our location, but what if perhaps we could make it do something more drastic, such as appear before us or even send Light Water himself to Dispel the ritual. We can do this by combining it that the situation is so dire that its direct and immediate intervention is necessary. Kira's little prayer need not be so bombastic; with my occult skills, I can 'dress up' her recitation to bluff the Intruder into desperation and convince it or Light Water to come to our location, and we can destroy it as it arrives." Posey says
She puts her chin up
"I have interacted with Light Water enough to determine that he is in fact not smarter than us. He can be fooled. Earlier, I successfully taunted him into summoning another flying monster to our location immediately after a fight, just so that I could confirm that he was capable of doing so. If he is an expert in the arcane, he will recognize my mantras and sigils and with no time to read further he will resort to drastic measures to intervene. A demiurge like this will stop at nothing to drive a rival out of its territory."
She gestures to the bound white unicorn
"It will be rather simple. We pick a location through which we want to fight the Intruder: I suggest somewhere on the upper decks, within view of the bridge. I assist Kira with her mantra, and draw a sigil to her deity on the deck to guarantee mental presence of the Oroborous through its portfolio sense, and I will assist her in her esoterica to make the ritual look more formidable and powerful at a glance. Right before her prayer is finished, I will take the blinds off of that unicorn and show Light Water the ritual through his eyes, and I will begin to chant a fatal verse mantra into his ear to bluff the enemy to panic. With only a few seconds to process the information, we can force him to play on our terms and arrive before us, and then we can hit him with everything we have. If Kira's prayer works in the end, that will be icing on the cake."

Thoughout this process, Posey takes 10 on innuendo (modified 24) to deliver this message secretly.

>>195973
Blackheel’s ear swivels
“You want to provoke some kind of cosmic deific entity into attacking by inviting a different quasi deific entity into this space? I have my skepticisms, but I am intrigued. What do you think you can make it commit to any such battle, and how do you plan to win it?”

>>195974
"No matter the circumstance, we will have to fight it, so I say we fight it on our own terms. If I can draw sigils and mum that suggest a far more-powerful, cataclysmic spell that involves intervention of another demiurge, I could deceive it into taking drastic measures, like a soldier in a trench scrambling to throw back a grenade. The Intruder, through its summons, has demonstrated capabilities of demensional travel, and I suspect that Light Water himself knows at least some limited teleportation magic. A universal rule for summoning magic is that summons take excessive effort (full-round actions) to cast, which means putting them out in rapid succession is impossible. If the Intruder is successfully bluffed into thinking that it's immediate intervention is necessary, it will resort to using the most powerful forces at its disposal: itself and its champion Light Water. This would mean that it would arrive alone, without any monsters defending it, and any action it spends summoning more monsters would be actions it or Light Water do not spend summoning additional monsters. This poses an opportunity to defeat one or both the Intruder and Light Water without summons to defend them, which puts us at an advantage. It is certainly more favorable than walking into its traps and letting it stack the deck against us." she says
"As for how to destroy them... Bullets, perhaps. All of our combatants can ready their guns to shoot anything that arrives. I will assist with my spellcasting, and if we do it above deck my Monstro will be a formidable grappler. We would fight them in the same ways that we would otherwise, except on our own terms and without dozens of summoned monsters in our way. In the unlikely event that Kira's prayers actually does work, severing its connection with its flock should also severely weaken it, allowing them to be destroyed."

Basically just draw some sigils on the ground, say some fancy prayers, and make some Bluff checks and assume that Light Water has zero ranks in Sense Motive because it's not a class skill for most spellcasters.

>>195975
He moves his head to one side, then to the other. Then he starts shaking his head in a smoothed fashion.

“No. No more entities. No more demons and extra dimensional whatevers. No more space aliens. No beasts from the deep. No more totems and fetishes. No more bringing in monsters and hoping they will kill each other before they will kill us. We will defeat the Entity, or it will defeat us. I have no interest in some snake god thing eating us, nor some abyssal thing doing whatever it is those things do, here on the deck of what is supposed to be my ship.

The official policy of the Communist Party of Stalliongrad is that religion is, at best, a tool of social control and manipulation. Something that lulls the populace into a stupor, and allows the abuses of the few to go unchecked. My experiences with cults over these past few days has only confirmed it. At best, something like the alicorn worship of Equestria leads to weakness, because the populace relies on the help of a strong few. Or worse, the religion is the lies of a few designed to keep the few in power, and in all cases the priest is above the common folk. But that’s not what you’re interested in. You’re interested in the demons, aliens, devils, djinn, or whatever it is that sometimes, just sometimes, these alleged priests actually do get in contact with. But here’s the thing. I know what they have to offer. And I know it is nothing good. And I want none of that. Not here, not on this boat. Not tonight. Not anywhere.”

>>195976
Posey shrugs
"Then I guess you should tell Kira that her little prayer circle is cancelled. I only wanted to use it as bait."

>>195976
>>195977
Kira's snoot scrunches. "It's not just bait, and it's not a cult. At the very least our religion is nothing like whatever Light Water and that General is trying to do." Looking over at Black Heel, she pleads her case. "Sir, I don't know much about your culture, or this 'communism' you follow, but Ouroboros is very important to me and my culture, and whether you believe in Him or not, He is very real and He cares for all of His children, no matter their form. He wants to purify this realm of the corruption of the Traveler and his influence, and...and I worry that we won't have the ability to stop the Traveler without His help. There's just only so much He can do from within His egg. But by serving as a conduit for His power...maybe we can actually stand a chance."

>>195978
Oi, I wasn't talking to you

>>195978
Posey was using innuendo to prevent overhearing

>>195976
Perhaps I did not communicate the message correctly. Posey is not suggesting actually summoning anything. She is only suggesting making the Intruder and Light Water believe that we are summoning a peer threat, so that it will come out to fight us itself instead of just spamming more summons.

Rolling Diplomacy to convince
[1d20+10 = (4+10) = 14]

>>195981
Ugh

I did jump the gun by posting my idea before the check results, but if I could get the results of that Religion + Arcana check to know what Kira is trying to do, maybe I could reassure Blackheel that nothing bad is going to happen.

Posey takes 10 on innuendo to communicate her plan to the party.

>>195994
Silver nods along. "I will admit, it is good plan to draw one of them out."

>>195995
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE don't say it's a trap out loud!
Why do you think I used innuendo?

>>195994
He only nods in response.

>>195996
Silver purses his lips together, and remains quiet.

Rosey Ring takes out the fake rosary beads she found earlier and levitates them above her horn. The tip of her horn glows and she uses her Charnel Touch is o accelerate the decay of the wood at the fine point above her horn, using it to drag burned markings across the wood that make the beads appear antique and ancient; she then proceeds to inscribe markings on it, mostly snakelike bands that encompass each bead. She is dressing up the rosary beads with divine iconography to make them seem more like the powerful Prayer Beads that priests wield (if it fooled me, it can fool Light Water). She pays extra attention to one particular bead, and carves sigils into it that mimick those of a Bead Of Summons.
She takes 10 on her craft check to do this, for a total of 15 (enough for a high-quality item).

"Let us go above deck at once. My powers grow stronger when I can see the night sky." Posey says

>>195965
Kira thinks, in short, that she can exorcise the Traveler's presence in a pony the same way you can (try to) exorcise a demon.

The way in which a "petrushka" functions isn't perfectly clear. The entity seems to "take over" the will and mind of a pony, sort of like a standard possession. Ponies under the control of the entity seem to suffer a degredation of their physical bodies. It is not clear if this is caused solely by the entity neglecting to take care of physical needs - dehydration in particular seems common - of if these are physical manifestations of parasitism of magical energy, or of the soul itself. The entity seems to be able to do this at a distance, over time, and with the strongest effects being closest to it. These traits, combined with the fact that metal and especially cages of metal seem to reduce the power of the control, imply that the possession may actually be by a magical/material influence that works more or less the same way that radio waves, or electromagnetism work. For all anyone knows, it may actually be radio waves. It is assumed, but not actually confirmed, that the possession is in some way parasitic on the host, sapping away magic and or life essence in a manner akin to a changeling. The entity may or may not be able to change its level of influence on its own. The process may be involuntary on the entity's part. The entity probably does not have the ability to completely strip a creature's soul from its body and consume it at a distance, given that it has not yet been observed doing that. It may still be inadvisable to stare into its eyes.

So how do you remove it? Well, Posey does know that a strong will can keep at least some of the influence out, as she herself shut it from invading her mind, though she can't be sure that if it had gotten its "foot in the door," so to speak, that she would have faired as well. The entity seems to use the host's own desires and offers temptations in order to reduce resistance. Only one creature thus far seems to have allowed the creature into its mind and resisted it successfully, that being Light Water, who seems to have not only retained his personality, but has actually rewritten the intentions of the entity. But that may only be because Light Water is aligned with the entity's original intentions well enough that it is unnecessary for it to try to control him. Light Water may also be under full control without showing signs. It is hard to say, and the same for the griffin Schattenwechsel.

It does make sense to posit that some spiritual power can force it out, either by direct action, or by reinforcing the will of the host as a self-defense mechanism. To that end, attempting an exorcism is sensible. Still, it would be unlikely to be deployable en masse at least under normal circumstances, and also advisable to weaken the influence of the Traveler by other means.

>>195994
Is the only NPC that she communicates the plan to Blackheel? Who exactly does she communicate the plan to?

>>195999
>fake
wat

>>195999
>My powers grow when I can see the night sky
"Good luck with that" Stained Sand says

>>195999
If Posey asks, Kira can also instruct her on specific symbols, runes, or bands associated with the lamia religion's interpretation of Ouroboros, in order to both enhance the "bluff" as well as lend some additional aid towards her "mass exorcism" attempt. After all, a genuine attempt would not only be more believable, but it would make the attempt more likely to be successful.

Kira smiles at Posey. "I can also show you what you'd need to mark down on the ground for the ritual. You've definitely done your homework about our religion, but a first-hoof source would be a huge help, right?" She looks back towards the way they came. "Being in the open sky might help with establishing a connection to Ouroboros, though weakening the Traveler's connection might also be a good idea. That's why the survivors were sleeping in the furthest cargo hold, right, where the Traveler's influence was weakest? They also said that chromium can dampen the connection, too. Maybe we should try that?"

>>196002
>description
Thank you.
Posey is highly skeptical that this exorcism would work, since it would be a feat even for a lvl 20 Cleric, but she sees it as excellent bait for her plan to lure the enemy into her trap.
>NPC
Posey will communicate it to Stained Sand as well, since she considers him a relatively strong-willed individual in the group.
She avoids telling too many creatures
>fake
>wat
The rosary beads we found on the gray griffon. I thought that they were a magic item, but they weren't.
Posey is carving the rosaries to look more like a magic item. She will then use Nystul's Aura to make the Rosary give off the signature of a powerful Greater Strand of Prayer Beads, as a prop to lure the enemy into her trap.
>"Good luck with that" Stained Sand says
"What do you mean?" Posey says
>>196003
Posey is already familiar with the Oroborous. Every self-respecting necromancers is

"Just pray the way you normally woul, Kira. Will handle the rest."

>>196004
Stained Sand

"It's winter. It's raining outside. There is no night sky, there is no moon, there is no starlight. There is only clouds and rain.

Do you really think that thing is going to be impressed by a few prayers? I am not impressed by prayers. That griffin you got those beads off of prayed and look at all the good it did him. Do you really think that of all of those griffins it took out, not a single one prayed to their boreas or their arturus or whatever? Do you think it's never heard a prayer before? Do you think that none of the Severyanans prayed to their tree, or whatever their holy symbol is."

Blackheel:
"We are State Atheists. We have no gods."

Stained Sand:
"Sure you are. I'm sure that's why one of your crew members had a statue to Celestia in his locker. As an offer to Atheos. Or maybe he's just wanking to it. Anyways, my point is that these god things you pray to? What difference do they make? Celestia, for all her faults, you payed taxes to her. She was real. And that purple one, Starry Night Sprinkle or whatever. I'm not real fond of her, but let me tell you, she's a real powerful mage. I'd be more afraid of her than some far away snake thing. Certainly I would if I were that.. that thing, that whatever you call it. I'm more afraid of that even as a pony."

>>196005
"They prayer itself does not have to work. Enemy only needs to believe that it is working, so that they scramble to interfere."
She raises the rosary
"A strand of beads like these, when properly sanctified, has the destructive potential of a hundred battleships. If I glamor them and show them to Light Water for only a few seconds, he should respond with the same panic that he would if I were about to light the fuse to fifty tons of dynamite."

>raining
I wanted to cast Rain Of Terror to make it rain steaming hot blood and thousands of snakes, so rain is fine.

She shrugs
"Or we could just go walk over there to kill him ourselves now. I am not picky."

>>196005
Kira tilts her head and flicks her tongue in confusion at the strange ponies. "I mean...I don't know about gods plural but Ouroboros does exist. We're all a part of Him, and He's a part of all of us. Even if you say that there are no gods, He's still with you, just like He's with all of his children. As for others, I mean it's possible that there are other gods out there somehow outside of Ouroboros' sphere, or perhaps they're spirits from a previous incarnation of the Universe that persisted through the cycles, or really there could be any explanation for them. I don't know much about Celestia, but from what I've heard she sounds nice. She might be a goddess. Hasn't she lived for over a thousand years? That's at least demigod level, right there. All I know for certain is that Ouroboros is real, and the Traveler is definitely a lot closer to some kind of demon than a god. And the Traveler should definitely be afraid of Him, because He will not stand for the Traveler's perversions."

She crosses her forelegs to emphasize that last point.

>>196007
Oi, Kira was not included in the conversation about the trap for a reason: whatever she's doing would only work if she had no ulterior motives.

Wherever we end up going, we have to leave the boiler room first. Some of us might die walking down this hallway, so let's do that and then figure out the details.

>>196005
Cavaliere scratches his chin with his talon. "If you had heard about the thing aboard this ship before you ended up on this island, you would scarcely have believed it, either. There are evidently things no creature can explain on his own, and religion can help to fill in the gaps. Considering where we are, we need all the help we can get."

>>196015
If we just want to leave to get on top of the deck, we could go back the way we came which would be safer. Taking the stairs through the crew deck would expose us to attacks before we can realize the next stage of our plan. Also, you should be careful how many creatures you let in on the deception.

Posey reiterates her earlier question and asks Blackheel to reveal what he knew about Light Water's magic, person to what skills he demonstrated to get his job.

>>196017
"I didn't select him. My superiors did, and he came recommended to them by the International. I can tell you that he was presumably selected in part because of his immense knowledge of the arcane and physics, probably more so than his personal abilities. This was to be a knowledge collecting and research mission, not a magic show, so it was more important that he understood how a spell works rather than being able to use it. He was surely also selected because of his personal associations with Posada, who holds great sway within the dissident left of Aris. The International wanted multiple nations to be represented, after all. I also suspect that his personal charm helped him secure the appointment.

I did read his file, and I can tell you that he is mostly an academic, and was educated in the Rijeka during his exile in the time of the Occupation. As you guessed, he was a participant and later leader of a student socialist group. He is a follower of that strange permutation of socialism we call Posadism. I will withhold giving my thoughts on that. He does have great knowledge of the Arcane, Chemistry, and Physics, with reasonable knowledge besides, and likely would have qualified for a position as a professor. Like any good leftist he is an Atheist if not necessarily in the proper sense, but he would be familiar with the worship of the Tiamat and the like. I can tell you that he is indeed capable of personal magic, channeled through the claws similar to how we use our horns. I am not perfectly certain how, but I have seen him do it."

>Posada
Hey, I used to know the guy who owns that OC. He was in the leftypone discord server back in the day (idk what it's called now). Several other EaW devs were there (this game fandom is indeed full of commies, but whatever).
>Posadism
That brings up another question: do nuclear weapons exist in this setting? Or some other fictitious WMD-equivalent, even in theory? Posadism kind of revolves around nuking everyone, or otherwise causing apocalyptic events.
Posey is from an archaic society, but the topic of WMDs,b world domination, and doomsday-cultists is her area of interest, so she may have read about this in her studies.
Rolling History (untrained):
[1d20+3 = (18+3) = 21]
And "Religion" (in case I can count Posadism as a "cult"; if not just ignore the roll):
[1d20+11 = (20+11) = 31]
>>196036
Posey ponders
"Interesting. So he is indeed proficient in spellcraft and knowledge of the arcane. Stalliongrad is rather egalitarian in its selection processes. In Equestria and Farbrook the hornless are hardly even considered for magical tutelage among the intelligentsia, preferring 'gifted unicorns' chosen for their innate talents and little regard for their mental stability, a practice that enforced Equestrian social stratification and rigid mageocracy for centuries." she comments
"This information is helpful. I can now reliably suspect that Light Water is trained in Wizardry, and that he is an academic who should be able to recognize fundamental magical effects. I had to ask, because the Hornless are prone to cultivate magical power from the most bizarre and obscure sources, so that can be rather unpredictable..."

>>196037
>WMDs
Short answer, they don't exist

However

Posey is vary familiar with destruction magic that causes either damage in a concentrated area, or projects fire and conflagration magic over an area. With very powerful mages, these can become very destructive, and the stories of these being used, confirmed or alleged, are numerous. But while the amount of damage done in a concentrated area is immense, and the size of the area effected is rather large, it still isn't going to destroy a whole town or larger area in a single attack.

Posey does know of massed attacks of either spells or mundane chemical-based explosive weapons being used to level entire cities. The Changelings used massed attacks of dozens of planes to bomb the city of Vanhoover early in their invasion. More famously and significantly, the Storm King used magical and mundane attacks from his fleet of airships to ravage the city of Panthera during his taking of Abyssinia. Of course, both of these are just a continuation of that old tradition of torching a taken city.

Posey has heard of accidents causing great devastation, and leveling portions of cities. A few years ago, a ship in New Manehattan harbor carrying ammunition bound for that country's war effort in Siacmeon was collided into by another freighter, caught fire, and exploded with the force of three thousand tons of explosives. 2,000 civilians died, much of the harbor was leveled, with significant damage to the adjacent industrial districts. In Yale a year or so ago, a massive magical explosion in the middle of the day originated from a building in one of the universities. It took out much of the university and adjacent shops and residential areas, killing unknown thousands including important researchers and professors. The actual cause has never been announced, though presumably either an experiment went wrong or something was done with an artifact that should not have been.

But what about actual, intentional weapons that can level cities? There are three suggestions:

One, what could be called a "Balefire spell." This is a theoretical amplification spell that magnifies the effect of a spell by several orders of magnitude. Attached to an incendiary or destructive spell it could destroy a city, theoretically.

Another is more mundane yet somehow more fantastical: a nuclear device. By igniting a chain reaction of the destruction of atoms, an immense amount of power could be released. While this has been done on a small scale, it has never been harnessed as a weapon

Thirdly, enhanced telekinesis magic to bring celestial objects to earth as a form of orbital bombardment. The hypothesis of griffin astronomers that the spheres near the earth are not clear, but are in fact littered with debris, seems supported by the evidence. A powerful spell - perhaps needing the above-mentioned magnification spells - might be able to pull such a piece of cosmic debris to be used as a weapon against a specific target.

All of these, are of course, theoretical. It has been stated in old accounts that the unicorns of pre-equestria, and even the alicorns, used the sun as a weapon to try to scorch enemies, though this has never been attempted in anything resembling modern times. There was a definite attempt by Equestrian forces during the changeling invasion to force rain and storms onto the invading forces to neutralize their vehicles with mud. This was countered by the Changeling air forces. All the same it is likely that the Equestrians used weather manipulation to greatly slow down the changeling advance, and this may have given them an extra year or so.

Oh cool. GM us back in America.
>>196039
>lore dump
Very informative.
>"Balefire spell." This is a theoretical amplification spell that magnifies the effect of a spell by several orders of magnitude. Attached to an incendiary or destructive spell it could destroy a city, theoretically.
~Oooh! FoE magic. Could it possible to learn this power?
Arcana
[1d20+11 = (11+11) = 22]
>enhanced telekinesis magic to bring celestial objects to earth as a form of orbital bombardment
Also interesting.
>Another is more mundane yet somehow more fantastical: a nuclear device.
Perhaps Posey would have read about the concept in a Horse Wells novel written a couple decades ago.
>The hypothesis of griffin astronomers that the spheres near the earth are not clear, but are in fact littered with debris, seems supported by the evidence.
Well, we are fighting an alien from beyond the firmament that landed in the form of a meteor. Maybe if I bring back a sample confirming extraterrestrial nature the University will reward me for proving the hypothesis. Posey is a Cerebrant and amateur alienist, so she could profit from stealing Light Water's notes after killing, like all great scientists.
>the unicorns of pre-equestria, and even the alicorns, used the sun as a weapon to try to scorch enemies, though this has never been attempted in anything resembling modern times.
This is certainly a rumor that Posey would be aware of, as it is one of the things that vampires fear and part of what keeps them cowering in the dark instead of attempting to take over the world. Confirming or disproving this theory could be pivotal in the Coven Of Blood's politics in Magehold.

...

That aside, Posey's History/Religion check confirms that she knows what Posadists are, right? She knows that they're Communists who want to blow up the world with WMDs, "destroy the capitalist world to create room for communism", escape underwater, domesticate dolphins, and contact the "space comrades" to create fully-automated AI gay space communism, right?
Just confirming I know this in character before I continue dialogue.

>>196036
He considers Blackheel's remarks.

"Intelligence is very often paired with eccentricity. It seems his knowledge is a great asset. Even without the entity, no doubt Stalliongrad will want him back no matter the cost. Accounting for the danger of the entity, he might be even more valuable than it itself."

>>196037
Posey's education in Magehold did make mention of the new political ideologies of Griffonia that fill the function of religions. It did not cover Posadism specifically.

However

It was brought up in a discussion at the university, and Posey learned about it there.

Posadism more or less fits into vanguardist, industrialist, Equalism, but with a few important differences of opinion that generally place it to the left of Stalliongradian Marksist Lemonism.

One, while all of the brands of Equalism believe that inequality may only be eliminated by force, Posadism believes in aggressive military action and violent confrontation to eliminate oppressive and disharmonic institutions and regimes, even where the costs would be enormous. Stalliongrad, by contrast, has focused on securing its military and economic position, and supports revolution by means of volunteer forces, aid, covert support, rather than overt military confrontation. If anything, Stalliongrad prefers detente with its neighbors, which Posadism criticizes.

Second, while all equalist philosophies are universalist, which is to say that every creature has moral concern and obligations towards every other creature and that there are no meaningful moral differences between creatures, Posadism takes this a bit further, suggesting that there may possibly be more creatures out there (such as perhaps in other dimensions), and that living things dismissed as simply animals may in fact be closer to a sapient level than appreciated.

Thirdly, while all of the permutations of Equalism that are a part of the International believe in forced industrialization and that technology and industry are essential to the development of civilization, Posadism takes this a bit further, suggesting that future technological or magical developments may revolutionize life to a greater degree than the industrial revolution.

Posada herself favors the "Seaquestria" or seapony side of the Aris split, she is suspected to have PTSD from her time in captivity during the war, and her statements concerning dolphins have been widely reported.

>>196037
Blackheel:
"Heh, no wonder your country has fallen behind if it only draws from the talent of a third of its population." He opens his eyes after shaking his head, seemingly having recognized that that statement was somewhat rude, and then adds

"He wasn't brought aboard to do magic tricks, he was brought aboard so that when he sees magic, he can recognize it and call it what it is."

>>196042
Blackheel
"He doesn't belong to Stalliongrad. He has no ties to Stalliongrad. He is an Aris national. He belongs to the International and to the expatriate Aris left, and for both of those he is a liability and an embarrassment. He has committed mutiny and murder and has made himself a pirate. He has destroyed a research expedition of the International. Stalliongrad has no use for him save to kill him so as to save face for its participation in the International, let alone this venture. Unless you are suggesting that his knowledge of the entity would let anyone who has him recreate some of its powers, and that's not a happy scenario."

>>196040
>Could it possible to learn this power?
Hopefully not
>Horse Wells
Cute
>that landed in the form of a meteor
Technically there's supposed to be at least a chance that ackshually it came into this dimension from another with a great bang, appearing a mile or up in the sky. But nevermind that
>This is certainly a rumor that Posey would be aware of
Of course, Posey should also be aware of a rumor that the sisters never actually controlled the sun and moon at all
>Communists
Yes
>want to blow up the world with WMDs
WMDs don't exist yet
>destroy the capitalist world to create room for communism
kinda
>escape underwater
Yes
>domesticate dolphins
Maybe?
>and contact the "space comrades" to create fully-automated AI gay space communism, right?
Okay, so first of all this is still a 1940sish setting, so their version of Fully Automated Luxury Space Communism does not have AI. It may not even be that gay. Second, they think they can obtain Fully Automated Luxury Space Communism without the space comrades, and would work towards it anyways. They would also work towards contacting the space comrades anyways. But then again, if the space comrades happened to show up and brought Fully Automated Luxury Space Communism, which is also gay and has AI, they'd accept that. At least until AI stole their ability to charge for NSFW art commissions.

Sorry for the delayed reply. I was distracted.
Then again, I kind of forgot what Posey was going to say in response to if she knew what Posadism is... She was going to make some political commentary, but then again, who gives a buck what the dead horse had to say about nuckear alien communists?
>>196036
The gears in Posey's head turn as she recognizes 'Posadism'. She scrunches in indignation, possibly offended that the communist doomsday cultist ideology is so similar but so different from her own supremacist doomsday cultists worldview.
"... Suddenly all this nonsense makes sense. The hippogriff was a lunatic even before the monster contacted him. All of the aimless chaos and wasteful violence that has occurred so far is consistent with his ludicrous vision."
>>196045
>"Heh, no wonder your country has fallen behind if it only draws from the talent of a third of its population."
Posey snorts
"The Equestrian school of magic certainly has much to be desired, but nevertheless it was the most powerful and prestigious institution in the world. I travelled all the way from Farbrook to study magic in Equestria and probe my talents, but the war disrupted those plans, and here I am in this line of work now." Posey replies
As she takes a step towards room three, she pauses, and then says
"The Equestrian school of magic is derivative of ancient unicorn tradition. As much as magical academies value discipline and study, a hard fact of the matter is that magic power is fundamentally derivative of the personal potential within a mage, be it derivative of tradition, bloodline, talent or simply being born under the right star. As wasteful as it seems to only draw talent from a portion of the population, out of the thousand of young unicorns deemed gifted by the universities, a scathing few ever show any true potential for Wizardry with even the cheapest, and even fewer can ever become archmages. If bending reality only required proper instruction, we would all be archmages. As cynical as it sounds, part of the role of arcane education was the powerful few from the among the many..." She slowly turns her head back, her expression genuinely grim, and rather awkward, as if remembering something unsettling
"You went through it too, did you not? Do you remember the day when you succeeded at your first proper spell in the academy, when your instructor applauded you, and then you looked around the room at your peers who were still struggling to perform even the cheapest tricks? Those looks of wonder, awe and even jealous contempt. Did you feel proud in succeeding where others had failed, or did you feel lonely as your success slowly alienated you from your comrades? Perhaps like many others you swore to use your newfound powers for your country and uplift your peers, but like it or not in that moment you became one of the elite..."
Posey does not wait for a response, but keeps walking

"Anyways, we have a hippogriff to kill. Proceed towards Cargo Hold 3."
>>196046
>Hopefully not
So maybe? :D
>Okay, so first of all this is still a 1940sish setting, so their version of Fully Automated Luxury Space Communism does not have AI. It may not even be that gay. Second, they think they can obtain Fully Automated Luxury Space Communism without the space comrades, and would work towards it anyways. They would also work towards contacting the space comrades anyways. But then again, if the space comrades happened to show up and brought Fully Automated Luxury Space Communism, which is also gay and has AI, they'd accept that. At least until AI stole their ability to charge for NSFW art commissions.
EaW timeline gets sillier the more you look into it.

>>196045
"Who is to say if anything about this entity can be recreated without the entity itself? It is unlike any other phenomenon, physical or magical, that has been encountered, and that seems to be the opinion of the one creature that has built a substantial understanding of it." He mulls this over. "I suppose it doesn't matter which court of law he is sent to, or whether it prescribes the death penalty or puts him in a cell to force him to divulge his foolish secrets. As far as I see it, his bounty is worth far more alive than dead, no matter who pays it."
>>196046
>At least until AI stole their ability to charge for NSFW art commissions.
The horror!

>>196046
>>196047
Silver: "It sounds like key component to resisting Traveler's control is to have lost your mind already."

>>196049
>Comforting Madness
>Deformity (Madness)
>Cerebrosis
>Lunatic Insight
>Zagyg's Favor
>Madness Domain
"As a senior expert on the occult, I cannot rule out the possibility. Still, that information does little to help us in these circumstances, because it is imperative that the Intruder is destroyed by the end of the night, and I would rather not delay that end to test theories."

Posey proceeds down the path towards cargo hold 3.

>>196047
This seems like it's not intended to have a response...

>>196048
Blackheel:
"We won't have to worry about him divulging secrets. He won't get that far."

>>196049
"It seems so... Still, that hippogriff is smart. Don't underestimate him."

>>196051
>This seems like it's not intended to have a response...
You can respond if you want to, or if you think it is appropriate.I was just trying to sound aloof, edgy and mysterious.

I would like to move towards Cargo Hold 3 though.

>>196051
Silver: "Oh, it is not underestimation. Someone who has lost their mind becomes unpredictable, lacks inhibition, and lacks empathy. They can do whatever, whenever, to whoever. They are very dangerous."

>>196053
"I could also just read his entrails later. Now come, there is no time to lose."

>>196056
>>196052
There is a flight of steep, narrow stairs up towards a closed, steel door. This is the entrance to Cargo Hold 3

>>196059
Posey leads the way with her superior vision, stepping carefully and making sure that the coast is clear before ushering the rest of the herd through.

>>196061
Are they passing through or nearby to the area with all of the raw chromium?

>>196064
I picked up a brick. Just take it if you want it.

>>196059
>>196061
Cavaliere follows, using his flashlight to help illuminate the passage.

>>196064
They are not. That would be in Cargo Hold 5, in the opposite direction.

>>196061
Blackheel opens his mouth
"Well it's not-" But Posey has moved ahead

In front of her is a closed door. While it is firmly closed, it is not locked

>>196067
The door in front of them is closed, but not locked

>>196068
"What awaits on the other side?" he muses.

>>196069
Blackheel:

"The hold was empty the last time I saw it."

>>196068
Hmmmm...Kira hopes she'll be able to do this. She braces against the floor with her snake tail as she gives the door a firm shove open.

>>196068
Pardon, I fell asleep right after saying I led the way.
Posey opens the door with her unseen servant, her horn ready to draw her weapon in the event of combat.

>>196071
>>196072
The door is in the center, next to a landing made of steel grate. Pull down to unbolt the door. With a strong pull, the lever comes down. The door opens inwards. But it doesn't open.

Blackheel:
"Pull harder. The door may be damaged and stuck in it's threshold."

Perhaps it's Kira who finally pulls hard enough to open the door. All the same, it opens. The door opens above the level of the floor, and one has to pull their hooves up to clear the threshold.

Looking inside, Cavaliere sees.... nothing. It's a completely dark room. Unlike Cargo hold 5, Cargo Hold 4, or the engine room, there are no lights on.

Posey looks into the room to see that it is completely empty. By "empty" I do not mean "empty" in the way that Cargo Hold 5 was. Cargo Hold five held stacks of barrels, some empty, some with residual fuel oil. There were piles of chromium ore, and bricks of refined substance. This room is not like that. There is a floor made of wood, steel walls on every side, and a set of wood in the center that presumably marks the opening to the lower level, and a ceiling of wood with a closed hatch. And that is all. There are no barrels, no corpses of dead ponies, no waiting petrushkas or hell hounds, no piles of ore, no ammunition, no make shift hammocks, no lanterns, no equipment. There is nothing. Genuinely nothing.

Cargo Hold 3 is unique among the cargo holds in that the length of the cargo hold is short. Maybe 40 feet long, it is by far the shortest of the cargo holds. Every other cargo hold is the same length, and this one is maybe 60% or so of that length. It is wider than it is long. It is the smallest of the cargo holds by area and by volume.

>>196073
Kira whistles, which makes a strong echo in the completely empty room. "Wow, this is really empty. Even the poorest lamia has at least something in every room of their burrow. Come on, let's get the possessed creatures inside."

Silver nods in response, and gets to work herding the possessed into the room, pulling those that cooperate and pushing those that resist.

>>196073
Hmmm, sounds a lot like a boss arena.

Posey enters the room, checks one more time for monsters in the dark, before ushering the herd through.
"Clear." she says
"Let us get this over with..." she says

Posey enters the room.

She levitates a piece of chalk from her spell components pouch and then she floats a piece to her Unseen Servant, which immediately begins to draw a large circular sigil. Posey personally fills in details of the sigil, various runes featuring serpent iconography in Celestial, Draconic and Infernal.

Posey draws the fake prayer beads she looted and carved earlier from the same pouch she kept her cursed tiara in, and as she does so she casts Nystul's Magical Aura on the beads as a Spell-Like-Ability (no components, therefore not obvious that she is using an illusion), changing the trinkets magical aura to that of a powerful kingdom-ending Greater Strand Of Prayer Beads, paying particular attention to the Bead Of Summons. A false aura detectable through several clairesentience and scrying sensors, but also requiring direct contact to disbelieve...

She speaks out loud.
"It was rather lucky that we found these beads in that sunken chest. It is a shame to use them now, we could have sold them for a fortune, but the Gate function might be the only way to solve this." She says, out loud,
Bluff, to convince eavesdroppers that they am holding a powerful magic item and attempting to call a rival demigod into the Intruder's territory.
[1d20+16 = (10+16) = 26]
(Luckily, Wizards don't have sense motive as a class skill)
As the sigil continues to draw itself, she turns to Kira.
>>196074
"Kira, I want you to hold these beads and stand right there in the middle of the circle and pray just like you remember the shaman of your tribe doing. If what you are attempting to do actually works, distance should not matter."
She turns to the group
"Everypony else watch from the corner of the room. I only need one to make this work." she gestures to the unconscious white unicorn on her floating disk

She places a red candle down in the middle of the circle and lights it, a candle that looks ominously similar to a Candle Of Invocation.

She looks at the rest of the herd. Drawing her flashlight
"Everypony else keep your weapons readied and watch. In case hostiles appear, be ready to engage."

The room is completely dark. Every creature who is not Posey should see only what little slivers of the floor and surrounding creatures are illuminated by the candle, an area around the door to the engine room that is illuminated by that room's lights, and nothing else. Only Posey would have any ability to know if monsters were entering the room, and she would not know because she must focus her attention on other matters.

I don't recall if any of the NPC allies were or were not let in on the plan

I believe the party has one, lonely, captured Petrushka with them - a white pony captured after the last fight

>>196076
Did we leave them somewhere?

>>196077
We only need one. If things go well this will be resolved within the next hour anyway.

>>196073
>>196075
Cavaliere dutifully checks the corners of the room.

"It's a relief to finally have an open room without any obstacles or distractions to disturb us. In better contexts it might be a good place to meditate."

Posey takes out her flashlight and levitates it out to her unseen servant.

>>196078
>>196075
>>196076
Silver nods, and gets his sword at the ready, it glowing faintly in the darkness. Kira seems...uncertain, but she relents. She swallows nervously, taking in a shaky breath and letting it out in a sigh, trying to let go of the nerves now that she's actually going to go through with this. "Okay...wish I had some incense on me, but maybe burning it in here wouldn't be a good idea, you know with it being a confined space and the risk of stale air. Anyways..."

Kira lays her tail along the inside of the chalk sigil, with her pony half and the tip of her snake tail meeting to complete a circle. She has the unconscious unicorn brought within the circle, between her and the red candle. She closes her eyes, and spreads her forelegs to the sky, and begins chanting in her people's native tongue, at first quietly, then gradually increasing in volume. She recalls the words spoken by the shamans, seeking to grow connected with Ouroboros. She opens herself up to Him, feeling Him in the world around her: the air, the metal of the ship, the ocean it floats on, all a part of Him, just like her, just like the unfortunate soul in front of her. At the peak of the intensity of the chanting, Kira switches to Ponish, placing a hoof on the leopard pendant around her neck, and placing the other on the pony's forehead just below the horn.

"Ouroboros, we beseech You, in our hour of greatest need, to render unto us Your aid. This entity, this 'Traveler', has profaned against You and Your realm, plunging Your children into an endless dream and creating a waking nightmare. It seeks to control them, to spread its influence far beyond and infect even more creatures. Please, Ouroboros, Your children need help! Hear me, work through me, and cast this insanity back into the darkness from whence it came, free the minds of these plagued creatures, and return them to Your shining, guiding light!"

>>196081
I was going to go into more detail for my trap later. Let me get off of work and I will make my checks.

Posey reaches into her satchel and pulls out her med pack, extracting the smelling salts. She levitates the white unicorn on her floating disk.
"To succeed, the ceremony should take some time. We want the thrall to gain consciousness right at the end of it. I want him to open his eyes and see the sigil."

Posey puts herself to work etching her chalkline with increasing complexity. As she etches, she speaks
"There are many names for the Sibilant Beast, Ⲙⲉϩⲉⲛ, ʊərəˈbɒrəs, Jǫrmungandr, Miðgarðsormr, Ahmon-Ilbor, Merrshaulk, Shekinester, Ssharstrune, and names that no occultist who values their life would dare say out loud. An idol of both death and fertility, the serpent represents the perpetual locked cycle of death and birth that all must serve in this world. The Sibilant Beast encircles the firmament of heaven, and it's role is to prevent anything from getting in or out that would subvert the cycle. Good and evil, chaos and order, death and birth, nature and civilization: all must serve the cycle, or so it was decreed by the Demiurge. The Sibilant Beast possesses as many aspects as it has names, for none could ever conceive its true enormity as one of the primordials. To some, it is a campfire myth of a monster that might take you in the night, to some it is an oppressive demon who enforces the suffering wrought by the demiurge, certain monstrous and aberrant tribes like the Nagas even worship it. Alchemists study its sigils to evade the eye of the beast, for the cycle of death and birth is something all alchemists seek to subvert, but since we are dealing with an alien incursion we will be doing the opposite. Tonight, we will be appealing to its aspect I suspect is most likely to reply. Kira will assume the position appealing to the mouth of the serpent, and I will apply my expertise appealing to the tail."
Posey gives a bit of a deranged grin and shudders, all of her fur standing on end, the piece of chalk trembling erratically in the air as she stops just short of dotting the eye of the dragon.
"This is going to be ~fun!

>Theosophical shitpost

>>196084
Pic unrelated, btw

>>196081
Posey turns to Kira
"Very nice Kira. Now, I want you to repeat any part of that prayer as a mantra. Choose whatever phrase fits your faith the most, just do not stop until I tell you to."
She etches a semicircle on one side of the inner serpent.
"Slither here and repeat the mantra while I apply the invocations." she says, moving to her own semicircle on the opposite side of the etching, murmuring an some occult jargon under her breath in an indescribable language.

"Everypony else light your torches and be ready for what happens next. Once the Intruder discovers what is happening, it is guaranteed to interfere." she says before going back to her unintelligible murmur.

I will wait for GM's participation before I do my ritual/trap, but it will involve a Forgery check, a Bluff Check, an Intimidate check, and the highest level spell I have available.

Okay, so there is one petrushka, that petrushka is unconscious, and the NPCs were informed? Were not informed?

>>196089
Posey informed Blackheel and Stained Sand with innuendo of her plan to trap the Intruder by baiting it using Kira's prayers. She did not inform any other NPCs because she wants to minimize the chance of telepathic interference. The NPCs being creeped out aids her performance.

The hold has no special smell. After the oil and diesel of the previous blessings, the damp wood and chipping paint are blessings. Cargo Hold 3 is not as silent as the previous chambers. Not any more. The knocking sound of hooves on wood has not subsided, not with Rustling Pine, Blackheel, Mala and Stained Sand moving about. The sound of steam running through pipes, and the vibration of reverberating steam pistons has likewise increased, as has the buzzing sound of electrical appliances, even as none are visible. Yet through the noise, that droning noise - that noise of interference - is still audible. It too, has grown in strength, even as all the sounds of the industrial world have returned.

>>196087
Torches what now?

>>196079
There is "nothing in that dark room that was not there when you turned off the lights."

>>196077
Well yeah, on the boat, You can't take a whole train of hostiles with you everywhere.

>>196091
>Torches what now?
Flashlights, lanterns, any equipment they have to let them see.

Posey waits for Kira to begin her mantra before she intensifies her own.

Posey makes a Forgery check to fake an authentic runic summoning circle, the kind that calls higher beings.

This check is made secretly. Posey rolls with a +13 modifier.

To any viewer, it is opposed by Forgery, but notably it would take several minutes of scrutiny to recognize the inscription as fake.

Are we all ready to do the ceremony? I'm about to start casting.

Oh wait, it's 2:00 AM in the UK. Nevermind.

>>196084
Cavaliere raises an eyebrow at Posey's description. He keeps his flashlight on and pans it around the hold, making sure none of the shadows have time to "coalesce."
>>196095
I'll be ready this weekend, without a doubt.

>>196086
Kira does so, repeating, "Ouroboros render unto us!" Over and over again. She's thankful for her large lamia lungs, as she'd probably get out of breath pretty quickly from all of this chanting. She thinks she feels a tingle along her spine, hoping that it's a sign that it's working.

>>196091
Awwww. I mean, fair enough, but awww.

Zara, Starfire, and Partial View remain in the boiler room. They do not like being left alone, but neither are they thrilled to enter a dark room.

Stained Sand, Mala, and Rustling Pine do not wish to stand on the edge of the room, but neither are they fond of... whatever it is that Posey is doing.

As they stand under the light of a flashlight, there is a moment wherein all four can be seen to have their mouths closed, and it is at this point that the sound of hushed talking and whispers becomes more disturbing.

Eventually, they are persuaded to go to corners of the room, though they seem oddly insecure. Blackheel seems to want to keep an eye on Posey and Kira, but he too goes to a corner with Rustling Pine.

The room is fairly warm. Not properly so, but more than most. It must still retain the heat of the daytime and the boiler. No air circulates down from above, and only a small amount of water trickles in in droplets from the wooden ceiling.

Watch me waste spell slots on this retarded plan to trap a creature that may not even be physically capable of getting to this room.
>>196099
>>196098
Posey begins her mantra, chanting in draconic in praise to the all-consuming awe of the Sibilant Beast.

Posey mantra increases to a crescendo, her voice distorting magically. Her horn sparkles and her eyes roll back as she burns two lvl 2 spell slots with Versatile Spellcaster to perform a feat of arcane might, the most powerful spell she has cast yet. As she chants she mixes in the verbal components for Rain Of Terror. The sounds of thunder should be intensifying outside right now.
She takes 10 on Concentration to create two effects.

Rain Of Terror is a Necromancy spell that distorts all forces of nature to bend to Posey's nightmare. Above the Kostroma, the clouds erupt with red lightning before a heavy rain of steaming-hot blood, actual, real blood, not illusionary. In addition to the blood, hundreds of not thousands of tiny live snakes begin to fall from the sky. 50% of the snakes fall to their deaths and splatter on the deck of the ship; the others slither off to find their own destiny as Posey has no control over them (animals created by this spell are considered to be summons, but since this is not a summoning spell they do not disappear when slain).
>That's it? For a lvl 3 spell? Isn't this spell worthless?
Aura farming. More importantly, it telegraphs an incoming snake-based catastrophe in a way that is glaringly obvious to the telepathic hive mind that is the Intruder's flock.

.

From the party's perspective, they are shielded from the heavy rain (depends how DM interpret "100 ft radius centered on you"), as much as I wanted to get showered in blood and snakes. However, the trickle of water from the wooden ceiling should be replaced with fresh hot blood.

As dying snakes hiss above the deck and blood trickles down onto her face, Posey's mantra stops
"Proof of our devotion." she says flatly

Posey then immediately draws the smellingsalts from her medicine pack and takes 10 to administer first aid to the unconscious bound pretrushka, restoring 1d4 HP to the unicorn.
She makes sure to orient the unicorn on the floating disk so that he can see the (fake) magical beads glammered with false aura, on Kira's tail, the forged magical sigils written on the floor, red candle, and can hear Kira's mantra soon as he wakes up.

"It is coming." Posey says, looking at the ceiling
"Little could stop it now."
Bluff

she takes 10 on Bluff for this (I will roll my actual checks after seeing the unicorn's response)

>>196099
Since the others are occupied, Cavaliere takes up position close enough to the door that he can keep an eye on the boiler room. It's bad form to let any party members out of one's sight, especially if they can't handle themselves in combat. He isn't particularly uneasy here even with Posey's performance; it certainly isn't any more dangerous than the other rooms they have been through and this ritual is a welcome break from battle.

>>196102
HP gained by the unicorn
[1d4 = 2]

>>196104
That should be enough to gain consciousness (I hope)

>>196102
Posey believes that she has caused snakes to rain from the sky. She "believes" it, because she can see no sign nor confirmation within the dark cargo hold. No creature witness to her casting knows what has happened, or is alleged to have happened. If anyone did witness snakes fall from the sky, they have no way of knowing it was caused by Posey.

The Unicorn opens its eyes, which dart about, and it attempts to stand up. It looks at anything illuminated by the light within the room - very little - and then to the presumably open door, the only other thing its eyes can see besides darkness.

>>196106
I lit the candle for a reason, so that he can see the ritual. Does it give any impression that Light Water is responding to my bluff?

>>196107
No, it looks like when you wake up an animal or a person and they are confused and perhaps frightened as to what is going on.

>>196108
Oh, ffs, I thought Light Water could see through his eyes...

Gonna roll my checks anyway. It's do or die. Maybe

"Oh, he woke up." Posey says, her voice dull, dejected, and vaguely sardonic
"Nevermind, it is almost done. None of your writhing beasts can stop its calling. The serpent will take us both to oblivion."
Bluff
[1d20+16 = (13+16) = 29]

"Goodbye, Light Water. You know, fate brought us here as foes are not so different. I, too, shared my soul with a godling from beyond the firmament, my soul sister, and through our contract I promised to conquer and remake this world, to end this cruel and unfair cycle of life and death. I dabbled with monstrosities from beyond the void to give myself the power to control others and summon monstrosities. Perhaps it was because we were so similar that I was so bellicose with you, but in another world perhaps we could have been friends. My sister is a jealous god though, and she would sooner face than let an invader take her dream from her; as per our pact, it is a mandate that I must honor, for she gave me the strength to claw my way back up from the Sheol again when we had both been rejected by our mothers. I have come to terms with this; I should have faced the serpent years ago." As she speaks, the cyst in her chest squirms and the black veins become visible, as the failed godling within laments within its rotten cradle
(not a lie)
"... And to you, 'Traveller', my sister sends her regards." she says, patting her chest
(Not a lie)
Intimidate:
[1d20+25 = (13+25) = 38]

>>196108
Kira wonders if it's working but doesn't want to break her concentration to check. Wait, is she breaking concentration by thinking this? Ah, whatever, she'll keep going. Wow, how do the shamans keep this up?

>>196109
The unicorn pulls back its lips to expose well-kept teeth, and hisses

>>196110
You're doing great, it's me who fucked up.
>>196111
Well, that was disappointing. I typed all that dialogue thinking Light Water would hear it...

Posey winces in humiliation, seeing that her plan failed.

Time for plan B

"Ouroboros, guardian of the great cycle, good and evil, in the name of death I offer you this life so that you shall hear the prayers of that pious serpent."
Posey then immediately draws her sword and decapitates the white unicorn
Sacrifice check
[1d20+20 = (13+20) = 33]
Posey is not praying for any specific reward this time and is therefore not aiming for any specific DC, only making the offering so that Kira's prayers will be heard. The DC for Planar Ally should be 30 though.

>>196110
A ranger, no matter how minor, is still a priest, and you are standing directly on a sigil carved of your deity, which means your deity can see you directly. You are standing on the symbol that represents its good half. A sacrifice has been offered to its evil half.

The attention of your God is all but guaranteed. The Sibilant Beast will decide if it cares enough to answer.

It's now or never.

Make a wish.

>>196112
What Kira was trying to do was to remove the influence of the Traveler from the prisoner. But the prisoner is dead. So....

Stained Sand
"What the fuck? The fuck is this shit?!"

Rustling Pine:
"Что происходит? Она убила одного из наших, и с какой целью? Что эта ведьма творит?"

Blackheel:
"Я знала, что она хитрая. Я знала, что она против нас. У неё всё это время был какой-то другой план. Змея выдала себя!"

Mala:
"Light Water isn't listening. Call him over the radio. He loves to chat over that thing. I think he sits beside it. Like he is waiting for an important call."

>>196115
What Kira wanted was to break the Traveller's influence on ALL of the thralls by appealing for divine intervention.
Does my Sacrifice check help her with that?

Gonna wait for the other players to be around before I try to do anything else.....

>midnight in UK
Oh...

>>196112
Maybe killing the possessed pony isn't the best call in the current moment.

>>196120
I could not accept that this ritual thing didn't do anything productive after we spent three irl weeks preparing for it (also we have to go back to arguing whether to kill Light Water or the Intruder first if this doesn't work), so I figured more drastic measures had to be taken to appeal to this higher power. I even spent two of my highest level spell slots just to make it look cool.

I think I fucked up... Am sorry.

>>196122
In that case, Silver would definitely step in to stop her. "Why is killing always your solution to things?"

>>196124
I'm going to wait until the entire party and GM is present before I do it say anything.

I look away two hours....

>>196121
>To make it look cool
You chose the single most boring, lamest concieveable room on the entire ship for the battle. How is blood rain going to be visible inside of an empty cargo hold? It obviously would not. If they had been on the deck, you could see rain, you could see blood rain, you could see snakes, there would be cranes and lights and the front of the ship and it would have actually been a cool location to do cool things.

>>196128
I wanted to do it on the deck, but the NPCs says they didn't want to go there because it was raining...

Idk. I'm an idiot. I don't know what I'm doing.

Anyways, you'll get a boss battle when I get back home from Brony Scot.

>>196131
No, they just told Posey that she could not see the moon because of clouds. She can't see the moon from Cargo Hold 3 anyways

>>196131
It's not even real rain. It's that tepid light rain you get in Ireland and Britain where you don't mind going outside

>>196128
I thought the cargo hold where the survivors had been sleeping would have been the most likely spot where Kira would actually succeed in calling upon Ouroboros.

>>195999
>>196132
>>196006
>>196133
Then I guess this was a major miscalculation and a waste of spell slots on my part. I wanted to do it above deck specifically to get him to fly down from his perch to us.

Ugh, idk why I didn't just teleport into his room to kill him myself. I'm so stupid.

>>196134
Well, it evidently isn't coming. I thought the sacrifice would increase the chance of it actually doing something, but alas.

>>196131
We could have gone onto the deck. Nopony knew what you're going to do. As is, to the party it looks like nothing has happened at all except for some spooky chanting, which is all well and good. But then you woke up a prisoner and promptly killed him, which nopony was onboard with, least of all Kira. I really should have assumed the worst when you said "sacrifice."

I'm not going to react until we get this sorted out because, well, it's completely indefensible. Not the wasting of spell slots, the illusion doing nothing, etc. I mean killing a pony and forcing Kira to be a part of it. Poor girl.

>>196136
I only killed the prisoner because I believed that it would make Kira's plan work. I believed it because I have done it twice before. It was my last resort in case the plan failed.

>>196136
>Nopony knew what you're going to do.
I know I did add the sacrifice thing at the end, but did I not spell out my plan before this?

>>196134
Technically the one further back would have been a bit better, as what you are looking for is more bulkheads between the Traveler and the petrushka, and also ignots of chromium.

Also the "free the petrushkas" thing was only maybe possible one at a time, maybe batches if you have all of them right there, and not all of them all at once from a distance.

I will say that any of the other cargo holds besides 3 would have 1. been more interesting, 2. provided more cover for a more interesting battle, and 3 would have been far more likely for Light Water to have come to because he could send petrushkas or at the very least, use cover within the cargo hold and not just instantly be gunned down

>>196140
Why didn't you tell us any of that before? We all together (you and us) could have come up with an amazing scene and set piece.

>>196140
Legit, the way you described Cargo Hold 3 made me believe that the room was specifically meant to be an encounter arena. It's the exact size and shape as 90% of dungeon rooms were you fight one giant monster.
>Also the "free the petrushkas" thing was only maybe possible one at a time, maybe batches if you have all of them right there, and not all of them all at once from a distance.
Then I guess we shouldn't have been tried. It was orating for a miracle anyway. I thought the sacrifice would increase chances of that, but alas.

.

All that aside, what do we do now?

>>196142
GM's aren't supposed to tell the party what to do. They are supposed to play out what the party choses. There were four choices. One of them was my plan, one of them wasn't my plan but frankly was better than my plan, one was serviceable, and then there was the one you chose

>>196143
Technically speaking it was. It was where the final battle was supposed to take place where forces would be waiting for the party. This was supposed to be after Light Water. It is not competent to be a replacement for using the rest of the ship.

My intention was to have the party fight two giant monsters, then let you all figure out what to do after that

>>196144
D&D is also an example of collaborative storytelling. You have an image in your mind of how the story is going to go, and we can't see what it is without being told. We don't need to know every detail, that's where the suspense comes from and is where we get to express how our characters act and react to what's going on in the story, but if we can communicate about what we want to see out of the story we're making we can work together to make it the best story we can. Like, I don't know which choice is which that you mentioned. I'd like to know what they are, because I'd love to work with you to make something better than we've got right now. I'd especially like to know now because I was honestly banking a lot on character development for Kira from this plan at least somewhat working, and I'd love to work with you to make something great together rather than throw everything out.

>>196144
>GM's aren't supposed to tell the party what to do.
I mean, that is true, but here we are discussing how the plan was bad after the fact anyway. Nobody's immersion would be threatened if we had some transparent plot hooks. Maybe NPCs could speak up about what they want to do.

...Then again, you did that already, didn't you? You laid plot hooks, hints and dialogue to suggest that we should go above deck and kill Light Water first, but Cavalier's player insisted we go kill the Intruder first, and after arguing about that for two weeks Kira said she wanted to pray for divine intervention (which she seemed to believe would work without any element of human sacrifice, even though she is not a Cleric and has no means to make miracles happen) so we came to Cargo Hold 3 as a """"compromise"""" midway between the two locations and ultimately accomplished nothing.
I guess it's our communication failure then.
>This was supposed to be after Light Water.
This reaffirms my belief that we should have just gone to kill Light Water first.

.

.

.

You know, I don't normally ask for this kind of thing, but could we please just pretend we never came to this empty room? We retconned the Paladin and Cleric out of existence already, can we do it for this too? Please?

A big issue is that we had no idea what Posey was trying to do since being unaware was part of the ruse working. How could we have known that the spell would be seen only above decks, or that Posey was going to kill a prisoner?
>>196144
>Technically speaking it was. It was where the final battle was supposed to take place where forces would be waiting for the party. This was supposed to be after Light Water. It is not competent to be a replacement for using the rest of the ship.
You can't hype up Light Water as this extremely dangerous boss fight hiding behind ambush corridors, then give us an unlocked door on the other side. Of course we're going to take the path of least resistance.

>>196146
>here we are discussing how the plan was bad after the fact anyway
Well that's true, but what I was going to do and should have actually done was to have two hopefully pretty cool summons battle the party, and eventually the party would have gotten the message that either the Traveler was listening but did not share every detail with Light Water, or Light Water believed Posey when she said "It's too late to stop it now" and decided to not 1 v 8 in the party in a room with no cover, and instead decided to wait with his army of petrushkas in a defensive position for whatever may come.

There are villain characters that are true warriors, who do not fear death, who love to fight, love to risk their lives, and who will risk their own lives just as surely as they will risk the lives of their subordinates. Light Water is not that. When Light Water plays chess, so long as he has pawns in play, he will send out his pawns to take enemy pieces before he will attack with his king. That's just how he does things. He does not want to 1 v 4/1 v 8 the party. That is not what he wants to do.

I will admit that Posey's plan to bring him out was probably one of the best ways to attempt to bait him into a 1 v 8, but it's still a very difficult task because he does not want to 1 v 8 the party.

You have a radio. You can use the radio to talk to Light Water. You know, like Die Hard? You've seen that movie, right? Where John Mclane talks to Alan Rickman over a Walkie Talkie periodically throughout the movie? You can do that. You can also yell at a Petrushka until it eventually becomes clear that Light Water is in fact listening. And you can also just, you know, do the thing right in full view of Light Water. There are alternatives to doing a thing in private, then letting it be seen by a petrushka after the fact, and then when there is no reason to believe that Light Water has understood what has happened within the first 10 seconds, kill the petrushka

Okay, we need the other possessed ponies we've captured with us to be able to cleanse them. What would be your preferred location for the ritual, GM pone? Would you like it done on the deck? Is there a room with a good layout for a battle you'd prefer it to be done in instead?

>>196150
Haven't I explained this? For Kira's procedure to have a chance to work, it needs to happen under circumstances where the Traveler's influence is at its weakest. This means as much metal as possible between the Traveler and the Petrushka. That means Cargo Hold 5 and chromium ingots, and also doing it one at a time. And that's absolutely not what was attempted here

>>196151
I would like to do that, yes.

>>196147
Only Light Water and the Intruder needed to see the effects of the spell anyway, and they could see it from their perspective (the intruder by proxy through its thralls) because it is pouring down on the entire ship.
>or that Posey was going to kill a prisoner?
Well, I got desperate after my plan failed and doubled down on assisting Kira, but with no miracle manifesting I concluded that the Serpent must have demanded bloodshed because neutral death gods don't give out miracles for free.
>You can't hype up Light Water as this extremely dangerous boss fight hiding behind ambush corridors, then give us an unlocked door on the other side.
Tbh, I only came up with this plan because I heard the "I'll see how many summoned monsters I can fit in the room" comment (now deleted). It made me paranoid that Light Water can just summon more monsters every round as we approach him, and we could be screwed before we even get into attacking range; that's what I would do if I had infinite summons and telepathic awareness. It's why I figured that the best way to defeat him would have been to convince him to teleport himself into a firing squad, so that he would have no summons on the surprise round.
>Of course we're going to take the path of least resistance.
I wouldn't call this that. This was us walking around in circles because nobody knows what we're doing.
>what I was going to do and should have actually done was to have two hopefully pretty cool summons battle the party
GM, I really do appreciate these fun and challenging encounters, but tactically we don't really make any progress fighting summons when from our perspective it seems as though the Intruder can make infinite more of them.
If we got even a hint that the Intruder had a finite amount of summons per day it would feel a lot more rewarding after we defeat them.
>or Light Water believed Posey when she said "It's too late to stop it now"
That's not what she said:
>"Nevermind, it is almost done. None of your writhing beasts can stop its calling. The serpent will take us both to oblivion."
She was implying that summoned monsters would be insufficient to stop it, encouraging the Intruder and/or Light Water (mages who can counterspell) to come and stop it themselves in person.

.

.

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I am going to reiterate my request to retcon coming here, but if that won't be granted at least be aware that I could not coup de grace and draw a weapon in the same turn, and both actions provoked attacks of opportunity, so maybe let me withdraw decapitating the prisoner.
>>196149
>probably one of the best ways to attempt to bait him into a 1 v 8, but it's still a very difficult task because he does not want to 1 v 8 the party.
That's why I set up all these illusions and spells and bluff checks and intimidate decks to make him panic.
>You have a radio. You can use the radio to talk to Light Water. You know, like Die Hard? You've seen that movie, right? Where John Mclane talks to Alan Rickman over a Walkie Talkie periodically throughout the movie? You can do that. You can also yell at a Petrushka until it eventually becomes clear that Light Water is in fact listening. And you can also just, you know, do the thing right in full view of Light Water. There are alternatives to doing a thing in private, then letting it be seen by a petrushka after the fact, and then when there is no reason to believe that Light Water has understood what has happened within the first 10 seconds, kill the petrushka
Well, the point was to bluff Light Water into believing that he had only witnessed the ritual incidentally when the Petrushka woke up, which was my poetic way of using the enemy's Telepathic omniscience against them. I just didn't understand that Light Water and the Intruder didn't share the same information all of the time.
>>196150
I think we can give up on the ritual. Praying for a few minutes does not give you a free casting of Break Enchantment without a high DC Religion check and a sacrifice, and even then it's only 1/day at most. You are not a Cleric.
And even if it worked, what use do we have for unconscious soldier at 1-4 HP? That's treating a symptom, not the cause.

Let's just go kill the bosses.

>>196151
>For Kira's procedure to have a chance to work, it needs to happen under circumstances where the Traveler's influence is at its weakest.
Was there any mechanical basis to this in the first place?
I added the sacrifice check at the end because there are rules for that.

>>196153
My mother used to take sodas that I was drinking and did not finish and would put them - open - into the refrigerator. What would happen is that they would quickly go flat and taste absolutely disgusting, much worse than if they had just been allowed to be room temperature. The Cargo Hold 3 plan is basically the plan version of that. There is not a single, solitary detail of the plan that is not outright inferior to the same plan being conducted on the deck of the ship.

The entire plan hinged on assuming that Light Water has god levels of knowledge and is omniscient. If it were done on deck, you wouldn't need to assume that, he could see it with his own eyes.

The entire plan assumed that Light Water had dimension door. Admittedly this is a fair assumption but still, on deck he can just fly down.

The plan assumes that he wants to walk into a firing squad. On deck he could use his petrushkas

The plan mentions blood rain but you can't see that inside

The plan just makes so many assumptions about its enemy, and not a single one of those assumptions would have been necessary if only it took place on the deck of the ship.

And then all of this is besides the fact that I want to make use of the ship and killing Light Water is a way to sidestep going through the ship. I could be okay with that if it were on the deck because that's a location that obviously makes use of the fact that this is a ship. It has the bridge, cranes, a wooden deck, and more. And then I could actually bring the petrushkas into battle instead of... I don't know, having them all ambush the party in the next room at the next battler? What was I supposed to do with them if they physically cannot enter the room? How was that supposed to work?

Okay sure, there are reasons that maybe, maybe Cargo Hold 3 might have, I don't know, merited a dice roll and it would have worked with a roll of 14 or higher? All I could think about was "This is worse than on deck. This is worse than my original plan. This is worse than doing Kira's plan. This is no one's plan and it's the worst possible thing you could have done."

>Teleport to go kill Light Water
Do it. Fucking go do it. Do it. Fucking do it. I've told you 50 fucking times that Light Water will not, is not, and will never 1 v 1 you ever, so long as he can borrow summons and throw four plus petrushkas between you and him, and your attempts to 1 v 1 him will end in your character dying, If you do not believe me, then go do it. Do it and see what happens. I'm tired of explaining this. I'm tired of explaining this every single month.

>>196153
>Well, I got desperate after my plan failed and doubled down on assisting Kira, but with no miracle manifesting I concluded that the Serpent must have demanded bloodshed because neutral death gods don't give out miracles for free.
You did this without asking any of us, including the creature who actually worships the Serpent.
>I wouldn't call this that. This was us walking around in circles because nobody knows what we're doing.
This. I feel that we've been compromising for everyone and nobody is happy at the end of the day.

>>196155
My plan sucks. This location sucks. The execution sucked. I suck. I get it.

Where do we go from here?

>>196155
Well, my original original plan before all of this was to explore the rest of the ship, so we could collect the rest of the petrushkas (and also see what cool stuff you had planned) and then have Kira try to cleanse them in cargo hold 5 with the help of the chromium...

>>196159
By "collect" do you mean risk our lives fighting every single one of the hundreds of sailors on this ship, knock them unconscious without using any of our lethal tactics, and then somehow carry all of them with us?
> then have Kira try to cleanse them in cargo hold 5 with the help of the chromium
Whatever made you think this would work?

We should just go kill Light Water.

>>196160
Well, fighting Light Water would mean fighting every petrushka on the ship all at once. I don't think there's hundreds but it would still be more than enough to overwhelm us. This way, not only do we avoid having to kill so many innocent ponies (I know, Posey's not so worried about that part), but it makes the fight against Light Water easier since he'll be outmatched.

>>196159
>>196160
GM Pony pretty much stated that even under optimal conditions we could cleanse them only one at a time. It would take hours of in-game time. I don't want to kill Light Water but even that is preferable.
>>196161
It would be easier to fight the Traveler right away, probably.

>>196161
>Well, fighting Light Water would mean fighting every petrushka on the ship all at once.
The room has finite size.
The encounter level has a finite difficulty.
>don't think there's hundreds but it would still be more than enough to overwhelm us.
It's a Soviet Battleship: it's crewed by 1,449 sailors.
>This way, not only do we avoid having to kill so many innocent ponies
You cannot expect us to knock out over a thousand individual ponies for you to do your voodoo nonsense on them.
>>196162
Did GM not just say right now that the intended plot was for us to go kill Light Water first?
We only got in this situation because you didn't want to do that even though every plot hook pointed us in that direction.

I am going to bed now before I fuck anything else up.

GM should go to bed too. It's late where you are. Take care of your health and stay safe on your travels. We shouldn't be running while you're out of the country anyway.

>>196163
>We only got in this situation because you didn't want to do that even though every plot hook pointed us in that direction.
I don't want to do that because it's clear that Posey will not cooperate with any plan to capture Light Water alive, which would be a far better option and achievement compared to killing him. Posey is a loose cannon and we've had no option but to metaphorically tie her down every time the party is together.
Goodnight.

>>196165
>I don't want to do that because it's clear that Posey will not cooperate with any plan to capture Light Water alive, which would be a far better option and achievement compared to killing him.
The order in which we fight the bosses will have no bearing on that outcome.

I think we're all in agreement that we should go back a step, and do something else. I still want to clear the ship because I know GM pone still has some stuff he'd like to show, and I'd like to see it, but I'm only one person here so I don't know what everyone else wants to do.

Cavaliere whispers to Silver, "She's going to be a problem. We need to restrain her when we've weakened the doctor enough. You do want to capture him alive, yes?"