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.
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>>81740"Well, we've already influenced the curriculum of the public schools so that they accurately reflect history. Religious educational institutions retain their autonomy, but we are trying to reduce instances of false doctrines that are disruptive of civil obedience. The local government already supplies hospitals and medical care for the sick. As for mines and foundries, well, we're working on it. Manehattan is receiving a plurality of the industrial development as it is the de facto capital. We are developing mines for minerals down in the south, as well as rubber plantations, which both supply critical resources, and give economic benefits to the colonists and natives there. But there is only so much money to go around."
>>81769>we are trying to reduce instances of false doctrines that are disruptive of civil obedienceSister Ash turns her head with a frown at this for a moment, but does not cease her prayer.
>>81770She folds her ears back and gives Ash her smile in that universal language of girl-code that says "and fuck you too bitch"
>>81772>>81771"Anyways." Iron steps in the staring, not wanting a mare-fight. "The whole 'assassination' part was an overexaggeration on my part. We are looking into peaceful paths about that issue. It was something to test Star's will for this mission. I do want him and the others to be serious about this."
>>81773"Who precisely is this politician, how did he get these foals, and what is he doing with them?"
>>81774Iron thinks for a bit. "I think it is Larry Berry, a 'social democrat: hero of the poor' stallion, manipulating the poor's wishes to increase his status as a politician. Not sure if I am missing anything else, but buying a kidnapped foal from a gang seems strange, unless he is infertile or something."
>>81774Sister Ash keeps murmuring a prayer for a few more lines as she finishes a verse, before she speaks up in the conversation.
"... From what I have understood, he bought them, like common goods." She says, still in her monotone voice
>>81775She snaps at this
"Foals cannot be bought by any means." She growls
"I'm not sure of what his motivations we're, but I do not trust him in the least bit."
>>81776Iron strokes Ash's mane. "I know that. Children are concieved, not bought."
>>81776>>81775"The politician
purchased them? Are you sure it was not an adoption fee?"
>>81777"Oh, you don't need to birth a child to raise one"
>>81778"An adoption fee wouldn't surpass a foal's weight in gold." She hisses
"By the fact that the low-lives he dealt with still had foals on their hooves, I have little faith that what he payed was a noble ransome. He wanted to
buy a foal, and he wanted it done silently."
>>81779"Then it sounds like this guy had something to hide. Let us bring that secret to the sunlight and see how well it fares."
>>81778"For your first statement. Yes. The gangsters holding the unsold foals say that much. The foals could testify for this too, but I do not know if they know the purchase themselves." Iron thinks for a bit. "Your other statement, while true, is something ponies should avoid. It usually causes a lot of problems trying to raise a foal who is not linked to you by blood, but we can talk about it later when the job is done."
>>81780"Are you sure he does not have any influence that protects him if the secret got out?" Iron is skeptical.
>>81781"He payed what looked like more than the price of a small house. I'm sure he took
great lengths to keep his dealings secret."
>>81769"then i would expel the non ponies from baltimare,increasing social trust in the ponies"
>>81782"It is weird that the gangsters know that it was Barry who bought them if that is the case. It is possible that he has the whole gang under his hoof if I am thinking right about the implications of this." Iron scratches his side.
>>81781"He is clearly protected by wealth, influence, and power. That is probably how he is and has been getting away with it. None of that can do much to protect him from
us. If he has friends in power, we use the secret against them. If he has corrupted police officers, use it against them. If he has corrupted blackhooves agents, use it against them. If he has corrupted local media, use it against them. There can be benefits to having more than one governmental master"
>>81783"All the same, the ponies voted for Social Democrats"
>>81782Alright, for the 90th time, we are
not going for that bizarre hyper-inflation in whatever book. A house costs more than a foal, and a foal costs more than a cow, and stop trying to pervert it
>>81785"Ah, your skills shine through." Iron smiles. "Well, seeming you know what you are doing, what should be the course of action to leak that secret out? I am pretty sure our word are not as valid as a 'trusted' politician if we are to spread a rumor around, nevermind the fact that we become a target to be disposed of if he finds out we are the ponies who are spreading his secret."
>>81785"they didnt know what they were really signing up for."
>>81786"There are many ways it could be done. Perhaps the simplest is to break into his house - and that itself could be done any number of ways - and collect evidence of wrong doing. After that, the evidence is given over secretly to a judge who signs a warrant, and the police raid. Naturally all of this is best done without the target knowing. But once the police find the secret... Well, my superiors have their way of making sure it will promulgated to the masses."
>>81788"So tell me. Are
all non-ponies bad?"
>>81789Iron looks at himself, wearing a wolf-helmet fullplate armor and a police-like tower shield. "I do not think I am cut out for something like that, but it sounds the most reasonable by far. Before I suggest anything, you seem interested in this job now. I suppose you will take that chance to place one of your own ponies to replace Barry? It should increase power for your faction in terms of influence if it is possible for you to do so."
>>81790>full plate armor"Not necessarily. You could be the bodyguard of a visiting important figure. You could be there to apply for a job as one of his guards. You could be police accompanying a routine inspection for dangerous gas leaks. You could even be the gardener, with your armor in a bag"
>Barry"Now this is extremely important. Are you
absolutely certain that the politician in question was Larry Berry,
The mayor, and not someponyelse?"
>>81791"But you are aware that the Blackhooves must and do recruit griffins and minotaurs, correct?"
>>81793"Do you think the ponies can be convinced to take up their place in history?"
>>81785Okay, forgive me for metagaming, but I'd really appreciate knowing how much things are going to cost:
I get that livestock don't really factor into price, but how much does a simple house really cost in this post-medieval setting?The house Sister Ash is referring to was the Simple House described under the Urban Environments section: a one-to-three room structure with wooden walls and a thatched roof. Basically, one of the tiny cottages in Ponyville (pick semi-related, but not as fancy). It normally costs one thousand gold pieces (20 pounds of gold), which is a sum that a character lvl 1 character with 4 ranks in Profession or Craft job would have to save for almost 3 years to save that much (without murdering anyone). A level 1 NPC owns assets totally in 900 pieces, a level 2 NPC owns 2000. If two lvl 1 commoners got married and had one child (no wealth for him), they'd collectively possess 1800 pieces worth of wealth, which covers the house and 800 pieces worth of belongings.When Sister Ash gave those guys their ransome money, I thought at the time that she'd given them more gold than she'd ever seen (including the sum of assets that her entire temple donated to the orphanage, which was 9000 pieces).
I get that foals would be expensive, because they're illegal to sell (same reason drugs are expensive), so only rich bastards would by them, and they'd pay through the nose because they [i]can.
How much is 1000 gold pieces worth in this setting, relatively?
>>81792Iron nods understandingly. "I see you have done this before." Iron makes sure to remember the name that was said by the gangsters back at the cannery Ash and Iron went yesterday and tells it to Skies.
Mainly because I don't remember it OOC. >>81795And for the record, when she said "house" by her standards she meant a medieval house, because the houses in the Kirin village were much less modern than what Equestrians live in.
>>81794"it might be a bit idealistic but yes i do."
>>81795If this crook payed about 1500 gold pieces for the foal, and the foal weighed 30 pounds, he would have payed exactly the foal's weight in gold by normal standards. That was a price I considered to be disturbingly ominous, so I included it in the dialogue.Sister Ash doesn't understand Equestrian economics or currency, but she payed in gold, so her statement was a rough estimate that was "About one sixth of the amount of the maximum amount of gold that me and my dog combined could physically carry here".
I g2g
Sorry for asking stupid questions...
>>81795I don't want to set out a large set of numbers right here because of how that could affect balance in the future, but I think I will have mundane non-combat items more expensive, and most everything else the same
>>81796She gives him her smile
"Indeed. Many times, actually."
>>81798"And if that happens, what shall be the fate of the Griffins, the Changelings, the Zebra, the Minotaurs, and the Diamond Dogs?"
>>81799No. That is definitely not true. Stahp. We are not using those weights. If we used 1942 gold prices and one bit as 1 1942 USD, then each brick weighed 8.2 pounds
>>81801"Mass Deportation.except for the changelings. and if any resist well.. it wouldn't be good for them."
>>81802"I take it you have something different in mind for the Changelings? And mass deportation to where exactly? The Blackhooves already control a substantial amount of Griffin, Minotaur, and Zebra territory as colonies"
>>81803"Yes i do. Perhaps, they could be deported to a specific Provence."
>>81804She laughs malignly
"There are
many such suitable provinces. But first, I would like to return to the concept of the good Griffin. Surely you've seen Jacques, the white feathered griffin at headquarters? His family was a part of a set of nobles murdered by Revolutionaries and Iconoclasts in Pridea. He was given political Asylum, even as resettlement for non-ponies tends to steer away from Metropolitan New Mareland. He is now a loyal agent of the Order Police. I can assure you of that, because he is among the creatures I have spied on to test their loyalty. Tell me, should he and those other creatures like him - like the Minotaur Felipe Polemistís who you can often see in the main lobby - be rewarded specially for their service?"
>>81801Wait, shit. It's actually Comte Burgher, not Larry Berry. Never fucking mind.Iron suddenly realizes that it was not Larry Berry but someone named Comte Burgher. He relays this information to Skies.
>>81805"As Long as they are 100% Dedicated to the cause. and so long as they know that being here is a privilege. i dont see anything terribly wrong with them staying."
>>81806"I see. I had figured taking down the mayor himself was too good to be true. No matter. A city councilmember is a high prize. This will hurt not only him, but all those around him"
>>81807"Interesting. Now, what about the Changeling Question?"
>>81808"Sorry about that. You can add it up to the 'punch Iron in the face' debt if you would like." Iron takes off his helmet and places it on the floor. "Anyways, are you up for a bit of political disruption?" Iron extends his hoof, expecting a hoofbump or shake.
>>81811"
Always"
She takes the hoof
>>81810"You see no room for any kind of coexistence?"
>>81813"they are giving me no choice on the matter."
>>81801Alright.
As far as her point goes though, 1500 gp is still a fuckton of money. It's radsome-tier money. It's not the kind of person that an average person would be able to make in a short amount if time, unless they'd just murdered someone for it.
And for the sake of in-character continuity in why she would have said something like that, just consider that Sister Ash just believes that a small house shouldn't cost that much by her standards. She comes from a rural jungle community that lived in mostly medieval, wood-thatch cottages; a community who lived just a few dozen klicks away from an active Dragons' Lair and only lived peacefully right next to them because they were polite and had hardly anything worth plundering. That, and she considered even that meager level of wealth to be too fancy for holiness; and she opted for the life of a homeless hermit because she considers wealth as a concept to be little more than a distraction from faith and intimacy with the natural world.
When she thinks of a "house" she thinks of four walls, a thatched roof, a medocre floor, and the effort it takes to slash and burn the surrounding brush. She's clueless to the concept of real estate inflation because she doesn't really believe that land is something that can be idealistically owned.Anyway, I'm back now.
Back to the conversation then..
*Backreads*
>>81811>political disruption*Ears twitch*
".. That could be quite interesting." She
>>81813Iron smiles. "Then it is settled. You, Star, Silver and Spark now are in this foal rescuing business, at least on the Comte Burgher side of the mission." Iron then puts his helmet back on, being sure not to get any dust inside the helmet.
Should I add Onyx to this list later on? >>81814"I guess that statement is indeed true of Chrysalis's Imperialism"
>>81817Hopefully, probably on weekends only though>>81816"You've done it before"