Set six years after season 6, Occupied Equestria presents an alternative history where the Changelings have conquered half of Equestria, while a former Equestrian colony - soured to Princess Twilight's notion of harmony with all creatures because of their encounters with griffins - Invaded and took the other half. In Baltimare and the Equestrian Southeast, the magic of friendship has weakened, as Communists, Changeling infiltrators, Fascists, gangs, and corrupt creepy politicians threaten the city. 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.
For those on the train. The train goes along at high speeds through the darkness past farmland, trees, and other trains... until it starts to slow down, and comes to a halt.
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>>98045Iron nods.
"Alright. I shall take point."
He points at Cauldron.
"Watch the rear."
Finally, he turns to Pear.
"No time to waste. We are moving out."
With that formation of Iron first, Pear at the middle and Cauldron at the back, he proceeds to walk towards the site, which he presumes is not too far ahead.
Keep in mind Iron's not saying Cauldron's name just in case. >>98043"Yea, im sho glad i found you. these other mares werent helpful at all."
He seems like he's really drunk at this point.
>>98048"I was wondering where you...had...gone...wait, did you drink even more?"
>>98049"Yesh, i didnt go anywhere. you did. i was waiting for blue to come back but she never did."
Dark Star looks saddend by this/
>>98048“... What?”
>>98047They walk further, through brush and under growth up a hill, going over it. On the other side is a clearing. Well, mostly clear, there are some trees growing there. But it does appear to house ruins. Some of the ground is terraced with stone. Other parts look like the remnants of stone houses.
>>98050"Well...we are here now?" Silver is confused as to how he's had this much to drink and
not suffered kidney failure.
>>98051Dark Star looks confused by this
"the mares."
>>98052"Good."
Earth horez endurance [1d20 = 2]>>98051Iron is a bit nervous at the sight, thinking like a god-fearing native would.
"It seems it is a ruined tribe of sorts. I wonder what caused Xolotl to bring ruin to it."
He takes his time, carefully travelling in order to give Cauldron time to find some of the special breed of flowers she told him it grew on ruins.
Meanwhile, he looks around for any sort of obvious tell that bandits have set camp, as well as anything shiny that can be considered loot.
>>98053“Are you okay?”
>>98054Going around the site there does not seem to be any loot of any kind. The ruins consist mostly of low walls and floors, with rocky remains of collapsed walls. Most are rectangular, a couple are circular. He does not see a bandit camp
>>98055"I Guess?"
Dark Star looks even more confused by this question
>>98056
Iron huffs in slight frustration at the lack of shininess but a little relieved that no camp has been set. He turns to Pear.
"Any particular places in these ruins that caught your eye?"
>>98058“This is the ruins of a larger native village. Probably Hippauhtl. I suspect it was abandoned after the Cocoliztli killed off most of its inhabitants centuries ago.”
>>98057“Do you have anything to say to me?” She asks
>>98060"Yea, i was waiting to say that i'm sorry for what i called you."
Dark Star looks regretful
[1d20 = 6]>>98059Iron nods as she tells her hypothesis.
"What makes you say that? All I see is destroyed houses and walls."
He looks around again to get an idea of what she's talking about while keeping an eye out for Cauldron's flower plucking and maybe some other loot.
"Why would bandits come here to ransack it, anyways? There does not seem like there is much value in here."
>>98063“What makes me say what? And what do the bandits have to do with this location?”
>>98064Ignoring the second question, he simply shurgs.
"I do not know how do you guess what happened here. Is it some sort of scribble on some wall somewhere here?
Wait, aren't we at the archeological site? >>98065>>98065“Oh, no. It’s an obviously ruined old town. That’s my best guess at the moment.”
>>98062"Yea, i shouldn't have said that. it was wrong."
>>98066Iron nods, getting the gist of it.
(Seems like this is not the site that was attacked. She should know something more concrete than just a guess. Still, it is important that the previous town was ransacked and exterminated. Probably disrespected Xolotl and the other tribe, in order to amend their misdeed, exterminated the town.)
Thus, Iron keeps travelling forwards the direction the bandit told him the site was, keeping an eye out for any temples the ruined town may have and Cauldron's flower picking, as well as any bandit presence.
>>98067“Do you understand that all the things you said hurt me?”
>>98068Cauldron seems to have gathered flowers from a vine
>>98069Taking this downtime of nothing much happening, he strikes another conversation with Pear.
"So, what exactly was the site that you fled like? Was it one of those big pyramid temples?"
>>98070“It was a temple, certainly, but not a pyramid. Lower to the ground and made of large black stone slabs
>>98071Iron nods.
"What was its exact purpose? To worship Xototl or a tomb of sorts? I believe some tribes store their leaders' bodies that in admittedly complex buildings sometimes, if I recall what the elders taught me."
>>98069"I do now, that I've had time to think about it. I'm Sorry From the bottom of my heart,Blue. I never wanted to Hurt You. You Mean the World to me, i hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me."
>>98072“That’s what we are there for. To discover its exact purpose. But it seemed like a temple of sorts for the Hippautl. So I wanted to investigate. Our team leader, Idol Chaser, was looking for any special artifacts we could bring back. Especially missing gold and silver treasure. That was what the department head back at the university wanted most, really, was either money or glory out of this. Humph!” She swats her tail and rolls her eyes in clear annoyance.
>>98073“Maybe...”
She comes closer to him
>>98074He Steps forward slightly
"There are no Excuses fo calling you that. I'm a bad pony."
>>98074Iron nods yet again.
(It seems that was the reason the bandits attacked. They might have overheard and got into some plundering from that.)
He smirks lightly at that last comment, completely in line with the university's apparent motives.
(An interesting business proposition.)
"I wonder if the Cocoliztil attacked the Hippauhtl because they hoarded so much gold and silver to themselves."
>>98075She places a hoof in his mane and starts ruffling it
“But you’re my bad pony, Dark Star”
>>98076“No no, you don’t understand. The Cocoliztli is a plague.”
>>98079“Oh yes, a disease. It causes fever and severe internal bleeding. Bleeding out of the eyes, blood diarrhea, body noses, bleeding if of the vagina, and so forth. It causes death in less than a week. Some populations had 80% death rate or more. Some towns were almost entirely wiped out.”
>>98077Dark star Smiles
"And you're my favorite,Pony."
>>98082“D’aww. Should we go back to my room?”
>>98080While Iron didn't understand half of the admittedly basic medical jargon, the things he did understand horrified him. His mouth is slightly open and his eyes narrowed as she told him Cocolztil's effects.
"Oh... I never heard of it. So you think the Hippauhtl mostly died from that disease in particular? Why?"
(I should try to avoid their fate.)
>>98083"uh."
Dark Star looks worried at the mention of her room.
>>98084“Actually, it affected many of the highlands native ponies in this region. Not really just the Hippauhtl. As for why I think this tian was one of them... well, do you see any ponies living here now? It’s about old enough to date back to the epidemic. So the best guess is 95% of the ponies died and the few left moved elsewhere. Of course, there may be other explainations. Come to think of it the river is just a little far away. Maybe the water source dried up at around that time so it was abandoned. Or maybe a lack of water and close conditions were the perfect environment for the disease to spread.”
>>98085“What is it?”
>>98086"There's no good way to say this. so i'm just going to say it.i threw up on your sheets."
Dark Star looks down in shame and fear of ruining the moment
>>98086Iron nods.
"I would not know, but what you say makes sense. It is strange. If the Hippauhtl worshipped Xotolt, why would he leave them to die? Something else must have happened. Something that could anger the god of death itself."
So... Silver is kill?
>>98087Pic
>>98088“Oh, don’t trouble yourself with superstitions. Those are just myths. And Xolotl only ferries the souls of dead and deals divjnd retribution. Not look after the living”
>>98089Think so. Imma make this last post and then I'll head off into slumberland. I have to be alert when the temple rears its head-Iron is not fully convinced about it being superstition but nods at the possibility of overextending the god's power and mislabeling his role.
"My mistake."
He sneaks a peek to Cauldron to gauge her current mood. She might get excited at the prospect of finding gold.
>>98094Punished Silver: The Pony who Cuddled the World.