Occupied Equestria: set six years after season 6, it presents an alternative history where Chrysalis chose a different approach to her second attack on Equestria. The Changelings have conquered half of Equestria, while an Equestrian splinter colony - soured to Princesses notion of harmony with all creatures thank to their dealing with griffins - Invaded and took the other half. In Baltimare and the Equestruan Southlands, the magic of friendship has weakened, as Communists, Changeling infiltrators, Fascists, gangs, and even ancient necormancers and dark gods threaten the city and the surrounding regions. This role play is based in large part upon the Equestria at War mod for Hearts of Iron 4, and uses D&d 3.5e mechanics.
In this latest episode, the crew has united once again, and returned in full to the catacombs under the Curwhinny farm. What old secrets they will unearth, whether they will survive without being turned into undead monsters... whether Silver will ever get paid... will be determined in this thread.
1800 replies and 49 files omitted.
>>82825"Want to head back to the room?"
Dark Star Smiles mischievously
>>82828"Or that." Iron scratches his side.
>>82826"I do not believe this should be possible for somepony not in touch with the spirit of Harmony, no. It probably didn't work for her, but there wasn't much reason not to try"
>>82828"No, they would have done something different. A more direct, more magical approach. When you combine the chemical and the divine, it is easier. Like how removing dirt is easier with water"
>>82829And she smiles mischievously back
"Sure"
>>82828Tl;Dr: she's trying to figure out if there's some way non-casters can manage to reproduce the effects of divine spells through certain incantations.
As an individual who trained for years learning how to use divine magick, what she saw last night absolutely baffled her, so she want to know more about anything that might be similar.
>>82831Dark Star pays glimmering glass,then Stands up and leads her back to the room
>>82831"Ah, optional material components can alter or empower the effects of certain spells. The Arcanists in the circle carried several rare components with them for their casting, although I never really took up the practice because most of such materials are rather expensive.." she says
>>82831Iron is a bit uncomfortable. "Well, it is important to know still." More scratching of his side. "I guess." Magic is strange.
>>82834"So are you able to replicate some spells through simple ingridients instead of wishing for them?" Iron is really trying to understand here.
>>82834He raises an eyebrow at her
"
It's not the same spell. That's why I spent an hour on the phone as an Archivist went through old archives rather than call in a Bishop from Fillydephia"
>>82833The pretty pegasus pony follows
She is... not terribly impressed with the room
"Well, it has walls and a bed"
>>82836"well,you know its... cozy."
>>82837"I guess that is so"
She closes the door
"What did you have in mind for the afternoon?"
>>82837>>82836>>82838OH YEAH, THIS IS THE SHIT. KILL ME, NOW!>>82836"Oh, nevermind then." Iron is stumped with all this magic talk.
>>82839What's wrong? You don't enjoy reading about two ponies in love?
Okay, I have no idea what's up, but I'll have her stop asking questions
Sister Ash is visibly confused, but decides that what she witnessed was not at all similar to the drastic effect she witnessed last night.
".. I thank you for your excellent assistance in this matter." She says, with a bow of her head
>>82841>>82840I am finding this more awkward than other sex scenes so far. Sorry for the outburst.
>>82842"No need to thank me. It is what I must do"
>>82842>>82844Iron just goes along with it, not wanting to scramble his head anymore than he needs to. He is ready to follow.
Okay, I'm going to go to sleep now.
Goodnight Anons
>>82846I'll go with the flow since I have no idea where Ash will go next, so night everyone.
>>82843More awkward than them doing it outside while watching the party fight? Kek.
>>82838Dark Star picks her up and sits her on the edge of the bed
>>82846Good Night
>>82849At least that was a smooth sail, unlike this. I can feel the complaints about the room coming up during the scene. 'Ugh, the bed is made out of boulders or something?' and the like.
>>82850And now, she gives him a strange look
"Dark Star, is something up?"
>>82851Oh well. Not all the encounters can be top tier material. Sorry it isn't to your liking.
[1d20+9 = 22]>>82853She pushes back for just a moment.
Sense motive
>>82854Let us see what happens, then I'll judge the scene. It's just assumptions that I'm thinking right now from the room comment alone.
So, just thought of a question: which member of the party do you guys consider to be the party leader, if anyone's the leader? I'm thinking Spark's the closest to being leader.
>>82858Eh, Dark Star sounds more like the charming leader rather than Spark, but I wouldn't know. It's not clear cut yet. Ash is Iron's focus at the moment though.
>>82859So you're the danger. The one who knocks.
>>82855Dark Star is buzzed and wants some fuck
>>82862Dark Star hears the word no Stallion
ever wants their mare to tell them. Ever.
"Dark Star, why don't you open up to me about your feelings? Something is off"
>>82856Looks like you won't have to worry about a sex scene after all.
>>82866>>82867What are the dice trying to tell us?
>>82871I'm'a say Skies wins this one, just 'cause
"Star, what is going on?"
>>82873"But I know you are uneasy about me"
>>82874"its just, i see the way you look when i mention foals. Do you not like me?"
>>82875"What? No. I mean, I do. I do like you. It's just that we've known each other for 3 days, and I wasn't expecting to settle down in a family"
>>82876"i guess.when you put it like that it does sound a little Weird."
>>82877She chuckles
"You needed a 'first love,' didn't you?"
>>82878Dark Star looks embarrassed
>>82879She smiles at him
"You silly Earth Pony. I am a few years older than you. That's alright."
>>82881"you are actually my first marefriend."
>>82883"Hehe. So. What makes
me the one you want to stay with besides being willing to sleep with you?"
>>82884"Theres too many things to list. but your smile is beautiful. and the way you Kill Communists. are only a couple of things i love about you."
>>82885In her eyes that range from the blue of the sky to the rich jungles underneath, he can see a special hatred make its way up to the surface
"Oh I have
many ways of killing social reformers and Communists. I haven't been able to use it very often, but I cherish every ounce of pain I can give back to them. It's a passion, shall I say"
>>82887*pegasus cooing*
she nuzzles him
"I will say that you've been an astonishing success thus far, either through direct action or your team. Killing two special forces advisers and more than a dozen communists besides destroying 1500 rifles. And those books found... Do you know what we could do with those? Interrogation of even the dead. Re-purposing life unworthy of life as attack ghouls. The Duke could live a thousand years and truly replace Celestia." Her eyes are bright "But all of that is speculation, we can't know for a very long while. What I mean is, nice job"
>>82888Dark Star looks very happy
"well, i couldnt have done any of that without you."
When She mentions what they could do with the books Dark Stars visage turns serious
"Thats all well and good,but some of that stuff could be really dangerous. especially the old ones."
it was the "old ones" that were mentioned in that book right? >>82889Within the text of the book they were referred to as "outer ones" in reference to their origin on planes beyond the terrestrial in a more or less Greek-styled heliocentric model of the universeShe rolls her eyes
"Pfft, they are already dealing with things that are very dangerous. I can't say I fully trust those boneheads, but it's in their hooves now"
>>82890"i know but the Outer ones could wipe all of us out in the blink of an eye."
>>82891"Outer Ones? Come again?"
>>82892"oh right, that book i was reading earlier today. it recounted a story About a group of unicorns to the north that Found the existence of beings from beyond the moon."
>>82893"Typical unicorns. Bothering with things to far away too have any meaning while expecting everypony else to farm or fight for them"
\r
>>82894Dark Star laughs
"yea those eggheads cant even resist reading while they make us earth ponies farm."
>>82895She laughs lightly
"Did you say you grew up on a farm?"
>>82897"yea, its just outside the city." Dark Star gets a sad expression on his face. "larry had it seized. i think a "family" of ziggers live on it now."
>>82899"Aww. Fucking socialists, I've seen collectivization. You'll get it back. You'll get it back..."
>>82900"i hope theres something left to get back."
>>82901She just looks at him with sadness in her turquoise eyes
"But at least you can go back"
>>82902Dark Star hugs her tightly
>>82903She feels soft, and she rubs her head against his neck
*pegasus cooing*
>>82904Roll a d20
>>82905"first the changelings then nimbusia."
>>82906Hmmm
>>82907"I guess... I guess I may as well make my life here"
>>82906 >>82908Dark Stars eyes are shining with an intensity that blue hasnt seen before
"Blue. i promise you, before i leave this planet i will retake Nimbusia."
>>82911I'm pretty sure it's an average dream of sorts, or a nightmare by your character's standards.
I wonder how love feeding works. I'll prod the thread for any activity. Anyone have any guesses on the consequences of giving love to changelings?
>>82917I'm pretty sure we will. How long we'll play may be the issue here.
>>82916Sheesh. I hope changelings are not like that. The prospect of dying from just kissing a changeling itself is pretty daunting, since Iron doesn't know that and will try to get into a relationship with a changeling if given the chance. But there is hope since the GM did not place any debuffs to Iron when kissing the dream changeling queen, like suddenly getting weak and falling to the ground or something, but the dream did end when a changeling kissed Star on his dream. OOC I'm spooked. Well, I'm fairly certain Silver is ded. Or in a position where he'd rather be ded than where he is currently, so thoughts for my next character if I make a new one: I'm thinking Cleric since we don't have a dedicated healer.
>>82920You aren't dead. Do you hate your character? I actually liked him.
>>82920Wait, I'm confused, what happened to him?
>>82923I thought it was that he got captured by changelings in the dream. I'll read over it again.
>>82920Oh, stop being so dramatic. Changelings don't just kill off ponies for the sake of it. At worst case scenario, you will wake up being transported somewhere, all tied up or something. At best, it's just dreams of bad things again, maybe your wife turns into one mid-dream. There's no way he'd die just because you rolled a joke.
>>82922He said jokingly 'Hey, was I captured by changelings or something?', which in reply the GM said 'Roll a d20'. He rolled 14, GM goes 'Hmm' and then in spoilers said RIP in pasta when Silver goes sucidial mode again.
>>82921I like him too.
Also, he has great stats; don't give that up. The rest of us rolled below-average stats (I wish I could have just used point-buy). His stats are good enough to give him the freedom to multiclass as a Fighter/War-Cleric too.>>82923Don't go killing him off now. I doubt he would have been attacked when he was at only 5 hp and resting for the next encounter, because 'reasons'. Even if he were captured, Changelings have an incentive to keep him alive; even if that means another sidequest.
It's probably just a nightmare. Everypony has had bad dreams so far, which is probably a testament to Luna being imprisoned.
>>82927Given that you live in the one place the party can agree to team up at, we will know you aren't there. That's if you really are gone at all.
>>82927Trust me. GM would never do such a thing without proper foreshadowing of it happening. Specially for a joke.
>>82916I really don’t understand where you are getting this idea that FiM Changelings are harmless
Whether or not love is a zero sum game, Changelings are definitely creatures that see it that way, which is kind of the whole point of race in the show. They are not simply given love, they
take it. When we see Shining Armor in a Canterlot Wedding, he is extremely tired and has severe headaches. He is unable to cast spells. Eventually, he is left unable to do much of anything. He stares forward with a thousand yard stare, he does not seem to notice his wife or sister talking to him, all while he is clearly awake. Of course, this seems to be caused by a mind control spell as well as the feeding, so we can’t say that this is purely the result of feeding, but I cannot see how he is better off than if he had been energy drained. He looks to me like he can neither think nor feel.
In the first comic to feature Changelings, we see them eat and basically destroy a civilization of loving kittens. I’m not sure how this could possibly be interpreted other than deadly. In a later comic, we see more feeding on ponies. They seem to be able to do it voyeuristicly, able to feed off of love that is expressed at something other than the Changeling itself. The feeding has a green energy go from the pony into the Changeling’s mouth, or maybe horn where applicable. It causes the host pony to collapse to the ground. We also see Chrysalis disguise herself as the fiancé of a Pegasus named Orion. When he expresses love towards her, he feeds on his love to the point that it “reduces him to a husk.” He is visibly weakened after this, appearing emaciated and physically aged. Rainbow dash said that he thereafter “flew so high that he became star light.” Both Twilight and Chrysalis say “that isn’t what happened to him,” but the latter says she likes Rainbow Dash’s telling of the story more than the historical fact.
We know from the show that feeding a Changeling can be a asymptomatic. Shining Armor and Cadance openly let a starving drone feed from the love that emanates from their child (this scene kind of bothers me. I can image exposing your neck to a vampire, but
offering your child just seems like a risk a parent would not take). The feeding itself is off screen and very loud, I think for comedic effects (a fan comic showing bone-crunching sounds felt appropriate), and does not harm the child in any way at all, not even dampening her mood. We learn after the fact that the experience was more filling for the Changeling than normal feeding, presumably because of the altruism of Cadance and Shining Armor. This implies that the more voluntarily love is expressed towards the Changeling, the more nutritive value it has.
>>82920Now who would have thought taking a nap could be so dangerous?
>>82930I'm liking this exposition, GM. Very useful if anyone wants to go for a changeling character, but are you going to use show logic or resort to D&D look-a-likes?
Anyways, I think I'm gonna play some vidya. Y'all can go ahead and play, as I likely won't get a chance to play today.
>>82933Won't get a chance because you are busy? Because I am dying to see you get out of this. Because I know you will. Please don't leave because you think it is hopeless.
>>82934Well, I mean there's not much Silver can do while captured. I'm just looking for something to do to alleviate my boredom.
>>82933Now what are you talking about?
Of course you'll get a chance to play today
>>82933I agree with
>>82934If I didn't leave when Iron was pretended to be raped, you won't leave for such a small thing like being captured by some changelings, which I reiterate was caused by a joking remark on your part, and not even a snide or hurtful one at that.
>>82935IF you are really captured, there is a lot of lore you could learn, potential plans the changelings have, and a way to escape. Because the GM isn't going to lock you away and refuse to let you play.
>>82930If it's as it was portrayed in the comics, it could just as easily be fluffed as energy-drain then. I condidered mentioning those comics too, but my post was getting long.
Pretty scary though, that's gotta raise their CR quite a bit.
Also, Flurry Heart is a demigod by any other name: she's immune to Energy Drain.>>82932If Changelings have anything close to energy-drain, they would have to have a level adjustment of like 4 to 6 points. They already have telekinesis, flight, and disguising abilities. The level adjustment from all of those would make it difficult for them to advance as normal PCs, and most NPCs would be of really low level because they'd count as level 5 or 6 characters at level 1.
>>82930Also, is that comic worth reading? I haven't actually read very many of the comics. I've only seen some pieces of them.
>>82935Goddamn it, no one except for you has said that Silver is captured. Like how is that even possible? How do you meaningfully capture someone in a dream? Stop making things up, you are not GM
>>82939I'm not giving regular characters or NPCs freaking Succubus kiss. Changeling feeding would be limited to quasi-voluntary interactions to nerf the power>>82940I don't know. I've never read it
\r
>>82942Oh thank god. Good thing you're here to save the day, GM.
Welp, I'll take a smol nap. Iron will follow Ash anywhere she goes while I'm unresponsive.
>>82930>Of course, this seems to be caused by a mind control spell as well as the feeding, so we can’t say that this is purely the result of feeding, but I cannot see how he is better off than if he had been energy drained. He looks to me like he can neither think nor feel.Imo, when I saw him in the show, I thought it was thematically meant to be the symptoms of his subconscious constantly struggling to resist being married off to the Queen of Bitches instead of his true love. It's clear that Chrysalis was taking something from him though, in one way or another.
As for being unable to cast spells, that's a symptom of Nausea. Arcane casters also need 8 hours of uninterrupted beauty sleep to recover spells for the day too, and he was definitely not sleeping well. A creature with negative levels would have still been able to cast spells of its lowest level.
>>82912Dark Star may be kill, but i'll have her respond neverthelessShe seems to almost resist this
"Dark Star... It's not that simple. I left because of personal reasons, before the Reformists took over"
>>82947Sister Ash decides she still has some time to squeeze-in a few more hours of community service today, so she returns to the orphanage.
>>82948Some blocks further to the west of the Cathedral, it is so
>>82949Okay.
Assuming that takes about 15 minutes, she goes there directly. Iron said he'd follow, so I guess he does.
*knocks on door*
>>82951Sister Ash bows apologetically
"I beg your pardon for disappearing unnannounced." She says
".. I've also manafed to lose my clothes.."
>>82952She raises an eyebrow
"I shall not ask how a young mare such as yourself managed to do
that"
>>82953She raises a hoof, sheathed in blue flame
"There was a fire..." she says, a bit nervous
Sister Ash spends the next few minutes explaining how she was called to clear the cellar of u dead, and the time she spent at the Cathedral reposing the jars.
Also, Sister Ash is an adult. Druids start at complex age, which means she's at least 18.
>>82954>>82953Nice AND legalCan't seem to have naps these past few weeksIron chuckles. "What a fire it was. Thankfully, no one got hurt."
>>82954These are nuns circa 1940 we are talking about. Not libertarians who think that anything two+ consenting adults/animals do is acceptable. Not sexual positivist social liberals. Prudish as hell celibate nuns from yesteryear who think that sex out of wedlock is immoral. They don't care if she is 'of legal age,' they care that she is not married. If you want NPCs who won't judge you for extra-marital sex with random guys, join the Social Democrats. Conservative factions have conservative values on sex and liberal factions have liberal values on sex. Shocking I knowThis leaves her... stunned, to say the least
"Undead. Right. All in a day's work"
>>82958I really would rather not reach middle age until level 12: when I get Timeless Body. Her stats are already below average as is.
>>82959She's not supposed to be that old at all. Just saying that she's at an adult age. Definitely less than 30; 24ish works.
>>82960But on that note, she's probably beyond Simple Age, so she can't multiclass into Sorcerer even if I wanted her to.
>>82946"They will be disposed, trust me."
>>82935you arent captured dude.
>>82963She looks down on the ground, sad
>>82964Dark Star hugs her tighter
>>82965I see.Iron leans near Ash and whispers to her. "What are we doing back here again? Any unfinished business here?"
>>82967"you dont have to thank me."
>>82969"I haven't really had a home or a family for a while now..."
I'm too hungry to continue stm. Give me a minute to eat.
>>82970"its been the same for me. i feel like a stranger when i go into baltimare."
>>82974"Because of all the faces i pass on the street. most of them arent ponies. almost everyone i knew before the war is... Gone. i was thinking about...ending it before i applied at the hotel."
>>82975*concerned cooing*
"Is it that bad for you? You feel you've lost your home?"
>>82976"not just my home, everything my family has ever worked for was seized. and theyre gone too. its very hard at times to keep going." Dark Stars expression changes from sadness to melancholic "we have eachother now, and that makes me happy."
>>82942Okay then, let me ask a second time: Has Silver been captured by changelings?
>>82978No. It was all a dream, dummy. GM confirmed it.
>>82979I know it's a dream. I'm asking if it's a dream induced by being captured and stuck into a changeling pod?
>>82980No. you are probably still in the hotel room.
>>82980It's like you want Silver dead or something. Jeez. You are asleep in that tavern room still, maybe having dreams of changelings kidnapping you and maybe your wife or something.
>>82977She looks sad, but looks up at him with more warmth. She smiles again, with that smile that is something of her signature. A smile that says “I have something evil planned.”
“Then it sounds like we are united in purpose. Pay unto the ‘reformers’ and ‘progressives’ every ounce of pain they have delivered unto us. With interest. In the meantime, try to make a little home of our own in the Autonomous Zone.“
>>82978No
>>82980Jesus Christ, like how would that even be possible?
>>82984he thinks it was because of the roll>>82984Dark Star Smiles happily
"I Couldnt have put it better myself. When's the next election?"
>>82984I don't know, I rolled a 4, then you described him viewing a good memory from the third person in weird black and white with sepia tone, and then I never heard anything back after I replied. I figured he feel asleep, some changelings that were tailing him for something or other captured him, took him somewhere for feeding, and stuck him in a changeling pod to siphon off the love he feels from memories of him and Storm Warning together. It didn't help that after I asked the first time you made me roll. I figured if he wasn't you wouldn't have had me do so.
>>82986But that is the point. The dream is supposed to be an uncomfortable one. Painful memories were probably going to happen when you rolled the second time. GM probably didn't get around to continuing the dream though.
>>82985“Less than a year, assuming there isn’t a forced election before then, and assuming it still pleases the Duke to allow elections”
>>82986Alright, so let me see if I am understanding this correctly. You believe that Changelings have been watching and take a special interest in this old guy, and they followed him to a bar in the middle of a city. They then decided to move on when he was taking an afternoon nap, invade his room, knock him unconscious, drag him out of the room, drag him outside of the tavern - all in broad daylight - and then transport this unconscious pony all the way to where ever they apparently have long term storage. They do all of this when the closest Changeling controlled land is at least 400 miles away by air or land and 600 miles by sea, and the Changelings have 30 million pony and 10 million reindeer subjects they could eat instead. They decide to Shanghai a guy that way rather than having a disguised Changeling ask younger stallions with more vitality to sign up for a ship’s crew, or send out a Changeling disguised as a mare who charms a young and not-68 year old stallion into coming back with her to a bar that is secretly owned by changelings, drugs him, and then asks him to come to a “back room.” Indeed, they choose to take silver
During the daytime when if they wanted him specifically they could wait until night, so they would have cover of darkness, and dragging an unconscious stallion through the streets would look like just helping a passed out drunk friend.
Am I understand you correctly?
>>82988Well, I don't have anything else to go by considering I didn't hear a peep from you after I replied. Yes, I get it, it sounds fucking ridiculous. But I have nothing else, because I'm not the GM and I have absolutely no idea what your plans were or what you were going to do.
>>82989First off, if you replied I must have either missed it in the stream of posts or put a pin in it thinking I would get back to it when whatever problem I had with my thought process was resolved, and then forgot about it. I did have something planned for Silver, but it would have been a set of images tailored to Silver’s particular concerns, interests, and fears, rather than a simple “YOU’RE FUCKING MINE NOW.” It would have had changelings as minor features in the background. It would not have focused on them, nor would Changeling involvement have been anywhere near as extensive or as intimate as it was with either Dark Star or Iron’s dream. They would not have been the centerpiece.
Let’s skip it, and say that Silver wakes up more or less refreshed
>>82990Sounds good enough for me.With a groan, Silver rolls out of bed. One of his eyes pops open as he checks what time it is.
>>82968>>82971>Said a minute.>Took two hoursSorry...
"Last thing I remember after I was sweeping the porch, I was being loaded into one of those infernal smog machines." Sister Ash replies
"I wanted to come back to show them I hadn't died, since I left without a word."
She once again ties back her mane into a bun.
"We won't be meeting the other until the evening. In the meantime, I would like to get some work done around here, and get s better description of the foals still missing." She continues
"I'm not even sure what exactly they look like; I think it would be helpful if I brought back a picture." she says.
>>82980Come on, m8.
I'm not saying you should assume your character will never die, but you've been acting like you expect the worst at every moment.
I think you can trust the GM to accurrately describe/foreshadow any given event that's has a high chance of killing/capturing/incapacitating your character: If he's actually fucked, it will be a lot more clear than this.
>>82993Of course I expect the worst at every moment. I'm not good at this like all of you guys are.
Anyways, it's all done and over with, so let's just move on.
>>82994You are in the same boat as me. Don't worry. Everything they said went right over my head when I first tried to play
and most still does but it will be fine. Any situation is not made so you lose it in on roll anyway. The GM wants you to have fun even in desperate situations.
>Dark Star when he agreed to box Iron
>>82992She hands over images of the foals, mostly colts, who include a red earth pony and a black unicorn
“These are photographs of the foals we took upon their arrival at the orphanage. They may varry from how they look now...”
>>82991Silver could invest in a watch or clock