http://pastebin.com/mWrxJJPr
>>25468896
Flow – M. Goo Pony Dark Knight – 4/5 (10/5)
>Trapper -- M. Goo Pony -- 2/1 (5/1)
>Vice -- M. Goo Pony -- 3/1 (5/1)
Amy Thest – F. Crystal Pony Druid – 4/4 (7/6)
Flaming Shorthorns – F. Buffalo Wildguard – 8/6 (8/6)
Shei-Sher – M. Goat Spellwright – 5/4 (5/7)
>Pheo – F. Phoenix – 4/4
>Gigginox -- 4/4
Sir Pryce Etac – M. Unicorn Battlemage – 9/5 (9/5)
Prince Novelus -- M. Sheep Trickster -- 6/6 (6/6)
Observer -- M. Voidling Spellwright -- 4/6 (7/6)
>Golem -- 5/5 (5/5)
>Temporary Ecclesian Minion Chart
Amy - A (Yellow Crystal Stallion) -- 6/6
Dania - B (Orange Unicorn Stallion) -- ???/???
Flow - C (Red Pegasus Mare) -- 6/4
Observer - D (Zebra Mare with ponytail) -- ???/???
Pryce - E (Hunchback Goat with janky teeth) -- 6/6
Flaming - F (Teal Unicorn Stallion with a bushy mane and beard) -- 6/6
Shei-Sher - G (Blue Crystal Mare) -- 6/6
https://desustorage.org/mlp/thread/25402386/#25404795
Getting these out of the way. Post sheets!
>>25469062
I'M HERE!
>>25469062
http://pastebin.com/6dTx6i08
>>25469062
http://pastebin.com/R0AXr1UU
>>25469062
http://pastebin.com/p1dtY3qj
>>25469062
http://pastebin.com/RaZG8KLM
>>25469062
http://pastebin.com/YJFusUgn
Last time on HolyQuest...
Pryce, Amy, and Flaming continued to negotiate with Banana Splitz for the release of the captive JOY addicts, saying they'd trade some of the addiction cure- Splitz's demanded rate was two vials per captive. With Amy sitting chained up as collateral, Pryce and Flaming ran back to the cloud factory to get the cure, only to find that Volkama had gotten out, clobbered River, and made off with two of the three boxes of antidote. Onion remarked it was like he intentionally left them, that he was incoherently rambling about the blood moon, archmages, and someone named Deriva.
Shei spent some time checking out the observatory after making his shield from angel armor metal. He found some documents about how the ponies of the Starcart Plains relied heavily on constellation maps for navigation across the countryside. Additionally, the positions of stars were thought to determine what dreams the ring of Archmages that advised the royal court would have, which, combined with the Archmages' system of dream-and-constellation-based divination, greatly influenced political matters great and small.
Novelus learned from 'Auntie Vizsla' that the amalgamous demon on the fourth floor was the hatchling sister of Nightseed, an apprentice griffon snow-witch. Vizsla apparently built Nightseed a phylactery, a relic which could contain Nightseed's soul, ensuring her immortality.
Flow had been looking for said phylactery, but found only Wishful, and an old crystal pony maid. Meanwhile, Vice and Trapper tried to fight off Nightseed. Renee's staticy core granted Vice apparent immunity against Nightseed's snowy attacks.
(1/3)
>>25469089
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvllzQ39fdw
Observer is awoken by the sound of his own voice. As his hazy mind clears, he finds himself in a cramped room with plush, curved walls, lit mold-colored by an ornate lantern jammed into the floor. Ecclesians B and D, as well as a demon which looks like a hybrid of a butterfly and a griffon. B and D are clawing helplessly at the front wall, which is barely translucent and shows the world from Dania's perspective. On the other end is a small circular door.
With an aching jaw and parchment mouth he realizes he's been speaking constantly for indeterminate time. Gradually it halts; he is left with a feeling that secrets have forcably been yanked out of his stomach.
>>25469078
>>25469143
https://youtu.be/dFVAELI4JxE
After Amy's outburst, Splitz's raiders stand at the ready, eyeing her with dim fright. Splitz is unperturbed.
The cold fades for Amy as delightful warmth bathes her. She (and only she) sees the sun quickly rise to noon height, making everything so bright and so warm and so bouncy. Elation swells and pounds at her chest. A hot rattle of itchiness spikes up and down her spine. Muscles tense and relax involuntarily, ready to spring and snap at a moment's notice.
Pryce feels a light headache, reminiscent of the one he felt when the Devas commanded him to kill Gabriele and Punish six months prior. He sees fur prickling along Amy's body in patches as it elongates grotesquely into wolf form, halting midway through, with limbs misshapen and jutting awkwardly.
The raiders back slowly away, looking to the stoic Splitz for support. He slowly smiles. "Well well... I didn't know ponies could do that."
(2/3)
>Dania
The pounding in your head spikes in volume and moves into your right eye. You feel it jut out an inch, but an instant later the feeling subsides, as though it never happened.
"Yes... our little secret." Vizsla says. "Now go along and let him believe that the phylactery is nowhere to be found, won't you, my sweet little sheep? So soft." she hugs you once again.
>>25469146
You, having been naturally hidden behind a very big reclining chair and an overturned desk, have heard the above exchange, everything Vizsla said after encountering Flow.
https://desustorage.org/mlp/thread/25402386/#25404055
>>25469094
>>25469097
Flaming and Flow rush in the direction of the graveyard, going north through the residential district, around the crash site of the JOY missile. Flow leads her up to the hill where Nightseed, Vice, and Trapper fight. Flaming notices the lack of Renee and the puddle of staticy goo on the ground.
Vice and Trapper currently have two of the three JOY addicts that were in the graveyard, with one still in the ice block behind Nightseed. She picks up Vice by the tail and examines Renee's staticy core. "So I guess I didn't kill that one... maybe." she muses to herself. "Can I borrow that...?"
>>25469231
Pryce doesn't notice Amy's condition as he flies off, too focused on scanning the city for any signs of Volkama.
He holds a hoof to his head as the headache pounds, the reminiscent memory only making his mood worse and the hunt for Volkama more urgent.
He levitates his bow around, pointing down to the ground as his horns glows bright to make a sort of spot light to help search for any signs or trails.
>Search for Volkama [1d10]
>>25469231
Observer takes a moment to look around the room, then to each of it's residents. His frown clear that he is displeased with the feeling of being forced to speak things he did not wish to share. "Assistant." He says to Ecclasian D, meanwhile inspecting the circular door.
>Engineering
[1d10+2]
>>25469231
Amy stares at the sky with an expression that is a combination of confusion and amazement. Then, she wriggles around as her back itches. She flips onto her back and rolls around to make it stop.
>>25469173
>>25469094
Flaming's face flares with red and her growling intensifies as she follows behind the slightly frozen Flow, her hooves angrily stomping around her as she looks in every direction for any sign of Volkama before finally arriving at the graveyard.
"Darn it, Sir Flow, what is it you need help with?! I HAVE to find Volkama and get the JOY cure he stole, I have to do it for River and for us and... grrr.... I just need to go, now!"
Upon arriving, she stares at the icy-griffoness attacking the other goos, before snarling at her and scraping her hooves against the dirt. "YOU! You let him down right now, I am in no mood to see MORE of my friends get hurt!"
[1d10+5] Charge, All or Nothing as Shorthorns charges full steam ahead at her and rams into her body to break her.
>>25469244
Vice scoffs.
>"You? Let you take Renee's core? I'd rather die a hundred times than give her to cowardly scum like you!"
He slices at Nightseed with Renee's wakizashi.
[1d10]
>>"Yeah! You scared of death or something, pussy?!"
He lunges at Nightseed with the twinblade.
[1d10]
[1d10]
Flow shivers from the cold as he notices the staticy goo.
"R-Renee?"
Flow grits his teeth and runs at Nightseed, Snek Sword drawn.
>Suppress
[1d10+3]
>>25469412
"Renee....?!"
Flaming shouts back, "What about Renee, where is she?"
>>25469432
"...considering she's not pink...I assume that pile of goo is her. Why it's staticy, I don't know..."
>>25469451
"She's... what?" She turns to look at the staticy goo pile, her eyes shrinking.
"R-Renee... THAT'S Renee?! She's not... she isn't..."
>>25469244
Shei-sher stays hidden watching the exchange between Vizsla and Novelus. His legs quiver as remembers the rumors he's heard of the witch. With the approaching blood moon he contemplates how he might pacify her for the moment.
Shei-Sher peeks Pupil out for the desk to Appraise if she is susceptible to any of his controlling spells.
>[1d10+1] appraise
>[1d10+1] stay hidden
>>25469514
"She's not dead, her goo would be pink...looks like Nightseed's interested in Vice, so Vice probably has her core inside of him. Good idea."
>>25469274
In the clearing fog ahead, you see the faint green contrail of magic, a meter in length. The trail zigs and zags through the air without rhyme or reason, and you hear it whisper incoherently in Volkama's voice. You get the uncanny feeling that it would be possible to command this contrail of magic if you focused on it with your own.
>>25469283
The door slides open at your touch, exiting into a small hallway as wide and tall as a pony, shaped like an esophagus. It curves downward, and at the far end you see a surface of standing water.
"Oh! You're awake, thank the gods. Thought you'd been fused with something, you were blabbering so long. Was that even Equish? It was so hard to tell!"
>>25469386
"Is it a heck-wolf?" one of them asks.
"A heck-wolf? Don't be ridiculous, they're called ask-wolves!" another replies.
"Wolves that ask questions? Impossible. She's a pony, besides!"
"Someone just stab her before she eats us!"
"None of that." Splitz commands. He inches towards you, hoof extended non-threateningly. "Get me a collar."
>>25469389
>>25469412
"Oh nooo, I am deeeeaaaad." Nightseed drones as she falls to snowy pieces. "Good job. You win."
Part of her arm reaches towards the staticy pile of goop and starts to scoop it up. "Please ignore the tragically dead griffon."
Flow gets some snow stuck onto him. It begins to harden unnaturally. he'll have to roll to get it off.
>>25469527
Pupil's analysis returns an incomprehensible mess of gibberish. It twitches and turns away from her as if repulsed by the thought of having to analyze her. She seems immune to all control spells, but an aura similar to that of the Witching Lantern hangs around her. She continues to hug Dania, chit-chatting idly about fur.
>>25469546
Amy stops wriggling on the ground and looks up at Splitz's upside down (from her angle) image with a combination of angry and interested eyes.
"A what?" she asks seriously.
>>25469537
She lets out a sigh of relief as she charges, "Thank the spirits... but, even if she's not dead, I AM TIRED OF SEEING MY FRIENDS BE HURT TODAY!"
>>25469546
Flaming Shorthorns comes out the other side after Nightseed collapses, huffing and puffing as she turns about and smacks her head down HARD on the arm reaching for the staticy goo pile, "You're LYING! You're not really dead at all, are you? You think you can fool me with your tricks, but you cannot!"
"And you don't get to touch Renee!"
[1d10+3] All or Nothing, defending Renee's remains.
>>25469546
"I should thank whatever force made me do that had made me speak in my native tongue. Come, we must find out where we are and how we can return to the rest of the group." He says, making his way down the strange hallway.
He turns to look at the other Ecclasian as well as the Butterfly Gryphon. "I would suggest you follow, there is no other exit here."
>>25469546
>>>"Piss off!" they all shout.
The trio of goos all slice at the arm reaching for Renee's goo.
>Trapper: [1d10] [1d10]
>Vice: [1d10]
>Flow: Weapon Flurry: [1d10+2] [1d10+2]
Flow simply brushes the ice off.
>Escape Artist :)
>>25469596
As she moves her head down, she shouts at her Ecclesian ally that was ordered to follow her, "What are you doing?! Stop her, don't let her get Renee!"
[1d10] Stomping on that arm
>>25469546
Pryce hovers down to the contrail, following it as it zips about.
"So, you're linked to Volkama then. You're going to tell me where that coward is."
>Command [1d10]
>>25469725
"...cause she's missing a leg!"
>>25469742
>forget about this post, I read too fast
>>25469546
Shei-Sher sticks his tongue out in mild disgust at his sputtering Pupil. "Thats never happened before." He whispers.
Shei-sher peeks his head out to see Vizsla hugging Dania, he becomes equally repulsed "eeugh.. I see what you mean." he tells Pupil before pocketing it.
The little goat reconciles that Vizsla may not be aggressive. Then questions what she might think of him eaves-dropping, but then he answers himself that she may have answers for where the displaced organs are. Swallowing his guts he steps out from his hiding place. "P-Pardon? You are the great witch Vizsla, of Gehenna.. correct? I see you've gotten to know my colleague Novelus. Is this your manor?"
>>25469595
The raiders recoil again. "It IS sapient!" one cries. One comes up behind Splitz for a moment, who reaches out to pet you.
"Ignore 'em. They're just jumpin' at the old mare's tales again. Always findin' somethin' new to get their panties in a twist over. But enough about them. What about you? How you like your coffee? Have you always been half-wolf? Got a favorite color?"
Ecclesian A whimpers nervously as the outnumbering raiders glare at you.
>>25469596
Your hooves are pulled into snow by a force from below, and you faceplant.
Flaming 5/6
You feel a force from below chilling your hooves. "Very un-smart to try to fight me here. I've been entertaining these three for a while but I don't think they get it." a snowy claw points at Vice, Trapper, and Flow.
>>25469668
>>25469725
The snowy arm falls apart with the attacks. "See? They keep trying the same things..."
The snowy arm does not re-form, unlike before. "Uh... hold on. Time out. Gimme a sec."
Nothing happens. "Gimme another sec."
>>25469737
The contrail twitches and whisks its way east to the Hypnagogium. As you head there, the headache intensifies. On the horizon you spy the smallest pink edge of the blood moon creeping into the sky.
The Hypnagogium is a three-tower castle made of brass and mushroom, with a big, circular set of double front doors. With the doors ajar, you enter a cold, dusty castle, a bucket and a mop leaned against the wall. A set of stairs spirals up the wall at the far end of the central tower. The contrail twitches and heads left, passing through the door closest to the front door.
(1/2)
>>25469769
Dania remains stiff as a statue as Vizsla peels herself away. Her elderly crystal face has cracks where there should be wrinkles. "How did I not notice..." she begins in irritation, "such a sweet young thing?"
She trots up to you, appearing much taller now. "Oh, aren't you adorable? I'm just the housekeeper, sweetie. Hungry, dear? Why'nt Auntie fix you a something or other? It's too cold for a kid like you to be out! Not with the streets as troubled as they are these days..."
>>25469626
Reluctantly, the three follow your lead. Gravity bends as the hallway curves downward. As you pass through the water surface, your lungs forcibly fill with a thick liquid, but after a bit of choking you realize that you no longer need to breathe; you simply never feel the need to. The griffon demon starts to gasp and claw at his throat, but after a few seconds stops. "F-false alarm, hehe."
Ecclesian B slaps him with his gun.
The tunnel constricts, forcing you to stoop. At the end of the tunnel flashes a light, but along the walls and floor, dozens upon dozens of slits open. From the slits protrude mouths, gritty and brown with filthy teeth. Some blabber, others scold, but the majority gnash and bite uncontrollably.
>>25469814
When Observer begins to notice his sudden change in need to breathe, it was almost like it was more normal for him this way. "It feels as if I've returned to the Void..."
Observer stares at the strange mouths that cover the walls and floor, attempting to scan them to figure out what these things are.
>Biological Scan
[1d10+1]
>>25469802
"I told you already," Amy says, slightly annoyed as she sits up and lets herself be stroked. "I don't take things I don't need."
She pauses for a moment. "And I DEFINITELY don't need coffee. It makes me all hyper and stuff. Well, MORE hyper than usual. It gives me the jitters and makes my skin crawl. Well, I guess my skin is crawling right now, anyway," Amy says as she shudders again from the Blood Moon. "My favorite color is Purple, by the way. Light purple. Like my coat. It's just such a pretty color. So serene, so peaceful. At least, I think it is."
She shakes her head and looks more seriously at Splitz. "Do you know what I am?" she asks almost desperately. "I've been this way as long as I can remember."
>>25469802
Flow runs up to the goo and absorbs it into himself as Vice and Trapper pick up Phase.
"We're leaving, now. Shorthorns, get those hostages and let's go. It's dangerous to fight her on her home turf."
>>25469802
Pryce lands at the doorway to the Hypnagogium, levitating his bow to face forward. He stops for just a second, glancing at the rising moon on the horizon.
[Not much time, I'll have barely enough time to get those ponies treated before those demons get crazed.]
Pryce steps into the castle, following the contrail to the left.
As he follows, his horn flares as he conjures embers to ready himself for Volkama, forming a cluster of burning crescents to surround himself.
>Homing Magic [Fire] [Crescent blades] [1d10]
>>25469802
"GRAAH!" She shouts with surprise as her hooves is grabbed by the snow, causing her to faceplant as she gives a pained yelp at the impact.
She grumbles as she tries to pull herself up, Ecclesian F helping her to stand as she growls. "I am NOT unsmart, I am unSTOPPABLE. I don't care where you want to fight, I'll beat you any place."
As Ecclesian F and Flow tear apart her arms, Shorthorns shouts, "Get her away from here!" to her Ecclesian as she pounds her head down again, "And you got BOTH your secs, time is up!"
[1d10+3] All or Nothing on Nightbreed's remains
[1d10] Ecclesian F relocating Renee's staticy body
>Meanwhile Shorthorn's body begins to glow an eery white as she focuses her efforts on helping her friend.
[1d10] Prayer for Salvation: Automatic; Recharge 2; The target's next recovery from Helplessness will be an Automatic Instant action, and the target will get +1 to all future attempts to get up until the end of combat.
>On Renee
>>25469898
"Shorthorns, don't be idiodic! She has complete control over the snow, we have to get out of here!"
Vice and Trapper book it while carrying Phase, and Flow continues to absorb Renee's goo.
>>25469958
She stares daggers back at Flow, her eyes boiling over with anger, "I am NOT idiotic! I don't run, Climbing-Fire isn't supposed to back down from a fight like a bunch of cowards!"
>>25469972
Flow shakes his head.
"No matter if you run or not, she's a bigger coward than you could ever be, Shorty. She can't be killed because she has a phylactery. If you want to kill her, find it, and destroy it. I'm begging you, Shorthorns, I don't want to see you killed due to your pride!"
>>25469814
It dawns on Shei-sher the uncorrectable mistake he had just made. Horror washes over him once he sees Dania's frozen state.
Shei-sher feels like a measley babe in her presence, he tries to speak "...I- I- I'm famished!" He plays along "In fact! I-I've the hankering for something gutty, plump, and exotically creophagus. I understand the Hypnagogium has come into possession a collection of organs?"
>>25469993
She grunts as she attacks, "What's a full-lact-tur-ee? If I keep stomping her I'll hit it eventually, won't I?"
>>25470029
"No, you won't hit it! Whatever it is, it's not here, and we gotta find it if we want to kill her, damnit! I'm telling you, hitting her now won't to /anything/!"
>>25469843
There doesn't seem to be anything special about them, no creature attached on the other end. They're pure hunger. Occasionally one will bark and scream about how NO KING BOWS TO A SUBJECT or THIS NATION WILL NOT SUCCUMB TO WARMONGERS and DAMN IT, NOVELUS, SAY IT CORRECTLY THIS TIME!
The Ecclesians' ears fold back at the screaming.
>>25469854
"I know exactly what you are. You're unique. Valuable. Misunderstood- chased out of a few towns, some run-ins with meathead bounty hunters. I can see it in your eyes. Hey hey, I've been there, done that. WE'VE been there." he gestures at the raiders. "It don't get any easier. Ponies like you and me don't belong nowhere. Especially in your case- you've got a second mind in that body of yours, another half- one that wants to get out. And if it don't, it'll swallow you up til you nothin' but bloodlust and hunger."
He scratches behind your ear. "Care to join the crew? Slaving not necessary."
>>25469884
>>25469898
>"No." Renee's small voice says, now gravelly as it dislocates from Flow.
From the staticy goop seeps a claw. It latches onto Nightseed's severed arm. The snow gradually melts, seeping into the staticy goo. The arm turns from snow back into a regular griffon's arm. Now cleanly severed, it starts to bleed profusely. Nightseed shrieks. "M-m-m-my hand!" she cries, "You're not supposed... to..."
Her face and torso melts into the snow, fleeing. The static blob continues to lap up the melting snow, leaving the severed griffon's claw untouched.
(1/2)
>>25469895
Ecclesian E catches up. "Not so fast, young'n. My knees need oil!"
You pass through a decrepit dining hall, coated in dust, save for one clean plate with a half-eaten log of chocolate. Beyond that, past the very long table, you see another door leading into a kitchen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo65v1kTRZA
The kitchen is stuffed to the brim with five to seven dozen frozen ponies. Many of them are frozen in poses- many of them are piled on top of one another, the ones at the top trying to get the windows open. Many lay trampled underhoof, faces twisted in pain.
At the center of the room lies Volkama. His black sinewy muscles puff in odd places. Each limb has grown another joint. He lays splayed out across the floor. In his front hooves he clutches an intact statue of a mare in an archmage's robe. She's leaning forward, front hooves extended, like she was trying to hold the door shut.
>>25470018
"Well, in dear sweet Nightseed's defense, it's not like they needed those organs any more." Vizsla says dotingly. "It was just such a perfect solution."
She leans down and pets your head. "You don't have to be so anxious my dear. I can feel it-- just relax. I haven't eaten anyone recently!" she cackles lightly, pinching your cheek.
She looks down at the floor. "Hrmph. Rats got in again. Three? Four. Oh, tut-tut-tut. Would you play upstairs for me, dearie?"
>>25470043
Amy enjoys the ear scratching as she listens. "I can't leave Shortyhorns. She needs me. I have important things to do with them."
"But, what AM I?" she asks more pleadingly. "What do you mean I have a second mind? Where did it come from? Are you like me?"
>>25470043
"Theory: The source of these creatures come from Novelus. Wherever we are, he must be close." He states, trying to shift his form back into his Voidling form so he can try to hover over the mouths.
>Moving around the mouths
[1d10]
>>25470043
Flow stares from the goo to Nightseed.
"Oh my damn..."
Flow puts on the Glove of the Cloudsmith and takes Schlangenshwert.
>Glove of the Cloudsmith: lightning
[1d10]
"Vice, come back with Renee's core! Trapper, make sure Phase is safe!"
Vice returns while Trapper props up Phase against a tree, and draws out the twinblade.
>>25470041
She growls, turning towards Nightseed as she is about to slam into its arm.
"...I... grr, fine! Fine, we'll find her stupid phylactery, if that's the only way to win. I'll retreat!"
>>25470043
She gasps as the regular griffon's arm forms from the snow and begins bleeding, looking at Renee's gooey blob that clawed her and rendered her talon tangible.
"Renee?! Are you alright? Can you hear me?"
She approaches the pile of goo, pleading with it to listen to her as she looks at the retreating Nightseed, her anger replaced with worry as she lets her leave. She pokes her nose at the staticy goo, trying to get a reaction.
>>25470102
"H-her core? What core?"
>>25470110
Flow shows off his own core, a small dark purple ball inside of his chest.
"Basically what we need to live."
He takes Renee's core from Vice, and makes sure it's nowhere near his.
"A-and...our reproductive system..."
>>25470048
Shei-Sher scowls
He recoils "Return their organs!" no longer being able to tolerate the belittling gestures "Why would you even require so many? Even a single organ is questionable! And for the record we can cure their joy sickness. I've all the medications within my cabin."
>>25470048
"You don't need to come with, you'd be better off gong back to the ship with the others. No telling what he can do if he escaped already..."
Pryce's eyes glance over the uneasy sight of the frozen bodies, no thought of any passing respects as he narrows on Volkama. Pryce's bow shoots up dead center in front of him, firing off a bolt of flame at the aberration of a pony.
>Fire [Single, Ranged, Fire] [1d10+1]
"WHERE ARE THE CRATES!"
Pryce shouts down at Volkama as he lets loose the arrow.
>>25470085
"Well don't call me an expert, 'cause I ain't- but there's gonna be so very few of you that- well, don't get your hopes up of finding another. What you got is a mind hitching along for the ride. Dunno how it got in there, but it's along for the ride. A parasite, if you will. A little buddy." he smiles.
>>25470102
The glove fails to pass along the charge. Phase is unconscious, growing paler by the moment.
>>25470110
The blob forms into a normal pony's body, but everything from the shoulders up, including the right arm, coils up like a climbing vine on a metal frame, thin and delicate. Uncountable minuscule eyes open along the coiling half of her body. It begins to drink more of the snow, the coiling half standing elegantly still as the eyes dart around.
>>25470139
Vizsla holds up her hooves defeatedly, leaning and falling back into a chair. "Well, the organs weren't my decision, sweetie. Out of my hooves. Really, the only reason I agreed to help Nightseed feed her poor baby sister was that I had nothing better to do. I'm waiting for my sister, and one day Nightseed, this sobbing little bird, comes to my doorstep, blabbering on and on! Well, I thought it might be a nice diversion. Stupid Azawakh couldn't find her way out of a cardboard box, much less across a country."
She pulls out a long pipe and lights it. "Mmm. What's this JOY I been hearing so much about anyway?"
>>25470153
The bolt fizzles against Volkama's jacket. His lengthy neck cranes towards you, his eyes red. "It's okay! She didn't take their fragile little hearts. Not their tiny faces. I can help them peasant-king Deriva, sputtering cold, real cold. I can help them! Really, I can help them, they're just so cold, but they still have some organs! Help me make them soup, Usegat!"
(1/2)
>>25470089
The others follow suit. [1d10] [1d10] [1d10]
The mouths reprimand you on your unprincely demeanor as you pass through. They bite and tear at you, until you fall over at the other end of the tunnel.
Observer 2/6
At the end of the tunnel sits a statue of an ancient black sheep with a stern, chiseled face, wearing a towel across his waist. He sits in a throne, a gold laurel on his head, strength and dignity rippling in his muscular form. Behind him is a door stretched-over with flesh. You note that the statue is growing mushrooms and mold, and decaying as well.
>>25470137
Shorthorn's eyes shift to the dark purple ball, leaning in on it. "Oh! Your... your spirit is all kept in just that little tiny ball? Your whole soul?"
She looks as he keeps the cores separate, her eyes bulging out. "Um... oh. That's... that's yucky. Why keep your spirits in that?"
>>25470270
Pryce marches over to Volkama after the failed shot, glaring back at the red eyes.
Pryce reaches and grabs him by the collar, his pleading words falling deaf against the pressing matter of the sick.
"I won't ask you again. Where. Are. The. Crates?"
He spits out slowly and sternly.
>Intimidate [1d10]
>>25470270
Flow cuts off a piece of his raincoat and wraps up Phase's severed leg. He hoists her on his back as he walks up to the JOY addicts who were frozen. He tries breaking the third one free.
[1d10+2]
Vice hoists the two addicts on his back.
"I doubt that Nightseed's gonna show up due to Renee's goo and core."
>>25470290
"You say it like we have a choice," Flow chuckles.
>>25470270
Amy wags her tail. "Well, I do like buddies. When you put it that way, it's kinda nice."
She shakes her head suddenly. "But, no. That side of me has done too much bad. And, even if it is another mind, it's still a part of me now. I have to take responsibility for it. I have to do good things. Thank you for the information, but I have friends to help."
Amy turns and starts to look around for wherever her friends have gone.
>>25470283
Observer makes his way over to the door, staring at the statue as he looks at every bit of detail. Although he does wish to figure out what it may be.
>Appraise: Memorizing.
[1d10+4]
>>25470357
She blushes, looking down at the goo pile. "It's still kinda gross... what if you dropped those right now and they touched?"
>>25470357
>>25470270
She gasp and jumps back from the malformed Renee's long, coiled upper half sticks out and begins drinking the snow, the multitude of eyes giving Shorthorns no shortage of unease as she backs off considerably.
"Re-renee! What's happening to you, your body is... it's so weird! Flow, is this normal?! Why is she drinking all the snow?"
http://pastebin.com/5VUcBRQx
>>25470400
Flow's cheeks lose their blue color. All of it.
"W-we'd...have...y'know..."
He looks at the unusually formed thing made from Renee's goo.
"That's definately not normal...as for the eyes...oh my lord."
He remembers that Shei revived her.
"We need to get her to Shei. There's no doubt in my mind that he'll know what to do. Speaking of Shei, what's been going on? Have you found the hostages? I'm gonna need a full update."
>>25470451
She flattens her ears. "Ew. Ew ew ew ew ew. Ew."
She panics as he admits this is not normal of a goo pony. "Then let's get her out of here, immediately! I haven't seen Shei since we arrived, but we found some of our own, slaves who need the cure that we can't 'buy'," she spits at the word, "free, but we can at least distribute the cure..."
She growls, "IF VOLKAMA didn't steal almost ALL of it!"
>>25470353
"Usegat, we can help them! We can really, really help them! It's okay, we can help them!" he points down at the archmage in his hooves. "Deriva! Deriva, mad crazy dame crazy... crazy pony..." his bottom lip starts to quiver. "She'll be okay, Pejev! Deriva will be okay, right? She'll be okay! We just--" he starts to shuffle around the room.
"Where did I put them...?"
>>25470366
The raiders tense as you hop off the landripper. "Hey! Get her! Someone-"
Splitz raises his hoof for silence.
"Boss, we're not using the leash?"
"Nah, nah... we're all good buddies here, like she said."
You follow Flaming's trail to the graveyard, easy to do with your wolf-nose, past the residential district, into the graveyard, up a hill. There you see Flow, Flaming, three JOY addicts, Ecclesian C, who is missing a back leg, and a staticy goo pony with an upper half that resembles vertical climbing vines, coated in eyes. (see below)
>>25470357
>>25470400
Flow breaks the third one free. Renee looks towards the eastern sky, then recoils at the sight of the rising blood moon. "Agh! Rasdfanm-- rmphgh! That whiny fuck! Yeah, little crybaby bitch gonna snap off an arm! Poison me with that crazy upside-down blood! Gonna getcha- gonna getcha getcha! Katana! Katana, where is it?"
She starts to run around, evidently looking for the wakizashi. "Gonna carve her up for my head! Gonna get my head back! Shit shit!"
(1/2)
>>25470440
You come to, after an extended period of daze. The pain in your head (mentioned first post) has subsided, but you're aware of a sound, within your own mind, in the way you're aware of the sound of your chewing. Observer's voice, and that of your Ecclesian. You notice Shei and Vizsla talking casually (below).
>>25470469
"...Lantern? OH! Oh, ohoohoh!" she leans back in her chair, kicking her knobby back hooves. "Kid, I don't think you can bribe me with somethin' I made for the Banana Splitz colts. Eheheh..."
"Hmm. Elation and dependency. Almost sounds like a demon's doin'. Mortals just like killin' each other outright, pretty stupid. But a demon plays the long game. Could be interestin' to see play out, take notes, experiment while Nightseed ain't lookin'." She looks around. "Dang that Nightseed, where she gone now? I coulda sworn she'd come back by now. She was out in the graveyard playin' around with them souls I let her use, but..."
"Oh, that damn purple slimepony! Bet he's got somethin' to do with that!"
>>25470380
An image comes to mind of the founding days of Zha Arlakane. The very first king, progenitor of an endless era of peace for the sheep lands.
The door shrivels up. Behind it sits a cross-legged minotaur figure with Shei's head. The head is greatly inflated, with eight eyes and a mouth with an upper jaw that serrates into multiple segments. His eyes are closed as he continually kicks around a young prince Novelus, in a small dress.
[made some corrections]
>>25470270
The fear melts away and a rebellious irritation replaces it "I-I cannot believe my ears. You were feeding.. an infant.. organs!?"He tries to digest that information "JOY is a nasty, contemptuous soma. It stupifies its user into complacent elation while amplifying their dependancy for it. My companions and I have been sent across the country to treat addicts, and your strange hobby as greatly encumbered that effort! I swear! The odd past-times witches get up to..." Shei-sher pinches his forehead and sighs "I've naught the clue who this Nightseed is, but I sense the inclination she is trivial to the both of us. Would you have the sympathy in your heart, or hearts? To assist me in returning those organs." Shei-sher clasps both hooves before her in a sort of begging manner. "And for your generosity of course there'll be compensation. as a show of thanks I will impart you a few souls from my witching lantern."
>>25470589
Observer begins to shift back into his usual form that he is seen in. Upon entering the next room, he stares in a mix of confusion and intrigue as Novelus is being kicked around.
After watching for a short while, he attempts to pull Novelus away by his dress.
>TK Grab
[1d10]
>>25470579
"Are you even listening to what I'm saying?! Where is the JOY antidote you stole!"
He glances down at the pony in Volkama's hooves.
"There are still living ponies out there that need help. If you wanted to help these ponies you should have stayed instead of bombing everypony in sight in the wild lands. You're too late for them, see?"
Pryce's horn glows white as his magic drapes over the frozen archmage.
>Mantra of Purity [1d10]
As Volkama starts to shuffle about, Pryce sighs and stomps his hoof.
"Crazied idiot, how could he lose them if he needed ot steal them in the first place."
Pryce looks around the kitchen, horn glowing for light as he tries to see if the medicine is in the kitchen.
>Search [1d10]
>>25470540
Flow shakes his head.
"Volkama...I knew we should've killed him the first chance we got."
>>25470579
Flow walks up to Renee and puts her core back into her.
"Katana? What katana?"
Vice bumps Flow and hands him the wakisashi. He recoils in surprise when he's presented with it.
"H-hey this is like the one that old mare had!"
He takes it and hands it to Renee.
"Wh-where'd you get it?!"
>>25470589
Novelus holds his forehead in his hoof, groaning as the voices continue to disturb him. He even forgets for a moment what he was doing... Viszla... Se-seed... Nightseed!
His eyes widen in realization as the memory flooded back
"Flow... "
He get off whenever he was and rushed after where he saw Flow going. Shei can handle Viszla better than he could himself, and he couldn't afford stopping to deal with the voices now, so he makes a mental note to deal with that later as he runs/gallops/hops at full speed
>>25470579
Shorthorns takes hold of her fear, reaching out to poke Renee with her hoof, "Renee! Are you alright? What do you mean 'get your head back', she took your head?!" She asks, absolutely horrified as she searches about for the katana Flow passes back
"Are... are you sure you're okay, Renee?"
>>25470690
She growls, "I know... we should have listened to you. We gave him mercy and he spit in our face, he hurt River, and he stole our cure. There is no mercy the next time I'll see him."
>>25470690
>>25470706
>>25470579
Amy just looks around with a blank expression on her face, her own body still randomly convulsing and shifting.
"What?" is all she manages to say.
>>25470589
Shei feels a shy embarassed about his offer "I-I I thought you might like some souls..." he looks crestfallen.
>Almost sounds like a demon's doin'
Shei perks up and answers "Infact it was a demon! A Heretic class by the title 'Master' but his mortal name was Orcus. Here I made a entry of him in my compendium" Shei-sher eagerly takes a large new looking tome with many blank pages. Upon the cover is scrawled Shei-sher's Demon Compendium. He turns to the page detailing Orcus which has an illustration Shei made. Stepping to Vizsla's side so they an both read.
>http://pastebin.com/rtcdUAmp
>that damn purple slimepony!
Shei-sher giggles childishly "You must mean Flow, I gather he is up to more of his shenanigans. Say, if you're bored, perhaps I could interest you in joining my party in absolving Huólì of JOY? We travel by airship, it provides a godly view of the lands and you would have your own cabin. I'd certainly enjoy getting to know a powerful Witch of Gehenna."
>>25470700
Shei-Sher looks up from his tome, noticing Novelus had left. He shrugs and continues pleasantries with Vizsla.
>>25470720
Flaming turns around from Renee's monstrous form, is suddenly greeted with another as she turns her eyes towards Amy, seeing her in her half-wolf form with the random convulsing as she jumps into the air
"AAAAAH!" She backs off a few feet, terrified expression on her face as she pauses, registering the wolf-pony's voice.
"Wait... A-Amy? Is that you?!" She leans forward, "What... what happened? You look like you tried to transform but got stuck..."
>>25470640
The soft skin of the walls is peeled back to reveal similarly-bizarrely distorted versions of the party, Easy, and many sheep, sitting in coliseum chairs, watching Novelus get kicked around. The goat-taur pins Novelus with his hoof, and you succeed only in tearing at the dress. "Silly! So silly and frilly and weak!" they laugh in sync. Mold begins to spread into this room as well.
>>25470700
You rush down out of the Hypnagogium. Remembering Flow's words, you rush towards the graveyard, and hear the voices of Amy, Flow and Flaming. You head into the graveyard and up a hill, where you see the below happen. Amy appears stuck halfway between wolf and pony form, and Renee is gone, replaced with a goo pony made of static, with a head and neck shaped like climbing vines, covered in hundreds of small eyes.
>>25470690
>>25470706
>>25470720
Renee snatches the wakizashi with her left hoof, only to fall flat with no front hooves to support her. Drinking more snow, she tosses the weapon away and stands up. The core has no reaction as it enters her again.
"Never never better ever! Yeah, Nightseed got my head real good! Slice and dice and shmice nice real nice! Heaha!"
She runs around the hill in a circle. "Yeah, c'mon! Help me kill that witch dead so I can get my head back! Kill 'em cut 'er up! Hehaheh! Before-- before that moon! Ugh! Blood moon, it's... it's so ugly! Ugly ugly blood moon!"
"What Ichimonji said, it's true! The moon's already taken this one's mind." Ecclesian F says.
(1/2)
>>25470688
"YOU'RE not listening, Ritter, you mad deadly underwater-upside-down bad-thinker excuse for an archmage! Living! The are living and joyful joyful! I can smell it! Alive alive! There, in there!"
Volkama points out the two stolen JOY antidote boxes, laying haphazardly against the frozen ponies on the far wall.
>>25470763
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_E_y1AWAfc
Vizsla looks genuinely confused for a few moments. "Very... beautiful. Good. Good job. Why, y-you ought to be quite proud of your work. Really." she gingerly touches your shoulder, and you feel a genuine warmth, none of the dripping honey of before. Pupil seems less afraid now.
>UNSCRAMBLING...
>15/1
>SOUL ELSEWHERE
>SPACIAL MASTERY(?)
"I'm sorry, but I'd just have to decline. My sisters and I've got our duties to a good friend of ours in Tartarus. I've made a promise to those two to stay put right here until they get here themselves. Lazy lazies, those two."
>For Everyone
Somehow, it feels a little less cold now
>>25470838
>>25470813
>>25470720
He approaches the scene panting like a poor fool
"F-flam... Amy... F-flo... Ugh... Nightseed... P-phylan... Viszla...have... It... Phew... Gimme.. Gimme a moment... "
>>25470838
Observer watches the mold creep throughout the room, his heart starting to beat faster as he begins to feel that he's not in a safe place. His horn glows as he tries to let out a magical Spell Breaker pulse through the room.
>Spellbreaker
[1d10]
>>25470838
When Flow hears the Ecclesian's words, his expression darkens.
"So her mind has been clouded by madness."
He looks to Renee as she runs around.
"Is there a way to alleviate her?"
>>25470881
He notices Novelus and turns to him, offering a piece of himself.
"Take a drink, and explain what you need, Lady Dania."
>>25470917
He looks at Flow with a slightly repulsed expression "Erm... Thank you Flow but I'll be... I'll be fine..." he exhales
"Viszla... She knows about Nightseed phylactery, I think she has it, somewhere in the hipnagogium... "
"... What... What happened to Renne?"
>>25470838
Flaming flattens her ears, looking at Renee with an extremely uneasy expression. "Renee... you're not talking like you. We'll kill her, of course, but..."
She turns towards Ecclesian F, her mouth agape, "B-But Renee... it can't take her mind, it just can't! We have to get her out of here, I feel fine, I can get her head back on my own. Can you have someone take her away from here, I don't want her to lose herself."
She notices the cold lightening up, staring up ahead at the Blood Moon.
"We need to hurry." She reaches over for Nightseed's disembodied talon, and takes it into her bag.
>>25470881
As yet another familiar face appears, she turns in shock to Novelus, "Novelus! There you are." She approaches him, prodding his head with hers, "I'm sorry but there is no time for rest, we have much to do and very little time to do it left in! Volkama stole our cure! Did you find any of the addicted?"
>>25470813
"Doesn't matter," Amy says a little irritably. "What's happening here?"
>>25470838
>>25470951
Amy looks more serious, her black fur starting to remain more solid. Her body still continues to change shape back and forth though.
"So, we need to kill a witch?" Amy says, as if she's sized up the scene. "I'm on it, Renee!"
Amy follows Renee as if she's leading the way. Hopefully, she is...
>>25470859
Pryce has a sigh of relief as the crates are pointed out, finally he can this JOY ordeal done with. His horn glows as he grabs the boxes in his telekinesis, turning to leave.
"I'll be back for you after I deliver these."
He says flatly as he walks.
>>25470951
He gently bumps his head to hers
I'll be fine... Just not used to running so much... I need to get in shape... ANYWAYS the phylactery of Nightseed, I think I know where it is. With a witch named viszla... Oh wait... Shei... Shei was there with her as well!"
>>25470859
>>25470859
Shei-sher looks down "Oh.." he says with all his disappointment, like a child who was told his parents couldn't make it to his baseball game. He suddenly becomes embarrassed for having even offered. Heat crawls through his skin, Shei becomes flustered "T-thats fine. We each have our own duties afterall hehe. Boy is it hot in here??" he flaps the collar of his cloak "Pheo release me!" Pheo appears out from his cloak in wisps of flame. Shei disrobes and slings it over his shoulder to cool off.
"I need to go now. My friends need me, and I need to find those ponies' entrails." Shei speaks in a hurry "It's been pleasant Auntie Vizsla. Farewell!" He's about to leave through the door but before he closes it he stops to ask "Vizsla.. Do you know Buiwong? Personally I mean."
>>25470969
Flaming perks her ears up, getting closer, "I think it does matter... but, I agree, time is running short. Expect me to ask later, though."
She looks at Renee, "She had her head taken by some kind of ice creature, who fled because she could not kill us. But we could not kill her either, we have to find something called a phylactery. We need to slay her, retrieve Renee's head, find the cure, take any remaining victims from here, all before the blood moon takes us."
>>25470999
>>25470969
"It is okay. With all that wool it must be very heavy to run."
"You do?!" She looks on with glee to Novelus, "And this witch that has the phylactery, Shei is with her as well? Take us, we can sort out many problems all at once if we play our hooves right, lead the way!"
>>25470893
The Ecclesians stand back to back, making a triangle with you as they draw their guns. You note that the walls are starting to shrink, from the sheer mass of the mold starting to grow on them. "This can't be how it ends, there's got to be another way out! What are we, in a dream or something? How do we get out of here?" Ecc. D asks.
The griffon demon runs around the room screaming. The mold and mushrooms start to form chains, latching themselves onto Novelus' limbs, yanking him across the room. Mouths start to open along the moldy walls. You reason that these must be the voices of former rulers of ZA, as they all start to yell at Novelus, addressing him as an unworthy successor to the throne.
"Are there any other exits? Ones we can't see?" Ecc. B offers.
>>25470917
>>25470881
>>25470951
>>25470969
Ecc. F shrugs. "Ehh, get her indoors, underground perhaps? What exactly caused her to transform like this? If it was that griffon-witch, maybe the goo is onto something about killing her. But that is not our mission. The moon is rising; we need to get out of this city, with or without stragglers."
Renee stands still, her countless eyes buggering around. "The dream-castle! Hypnagogiag! There! I can taste her, little bitch is there!"
At Flaming's advice to take Renee away, Ecc. F tries to approach Renee, who jumps and kicks at him. "Wa-tah!"
[1d10]
[1d10+1]
>>25470990
"Head-bone deadly liar-knight! Sir Zeddakov! No! Low deadly crazy!" Volkama growls in frustration. "Sir Volkama is going to wipe every blade of grass clean of demon crazy blood and witch heathen magic! With or without you! His duty as royal knight of archangel archmage king Doppler, servant to the crown!"
You look down, and find that he has hoofcuffed himself to you, with your cuffs.
1/2
>>25471017
Before you scamper away, she puts her hoof on your shoulder, looking just as disappointed. "Had I not promised by baby sisters, I'd be on my way with you in a flash, young'n."
At the mention of Buiwong, her old coolness comes back. "Ah! Ah, ah. That old D-list celebrity from southeast. Hmm! Oh I've heard of him. Everyone with an ear and eye in the arcane knows of him now. The would-be heaven-splitter. Feh! Made my job a lot easier, I suppose. He was the only one with the real ambition to try to split the Firmament, and now what's become of him? Not even close to getting back that old godhood, I hear. Things are a lot different up above these days... Oh, that poor old spider is in trouble. Had tea with his minotaur friend, Ba'drel, not three days prior! Put on weight, that one has."
From below you can hear Volkama and Pryce arguing. Vizsla's eyes narrow. "...You should go. A kid like you could get caught in a crossfire very easily. Please. Some dangerous folk on their way."
>>25471076
Ecc. F cowers before Renee's attack can connect with his head.
>>25471076
"Then I shall use a new spell." He says, his horn now peeling apart into two and forming what looks like a third eye on his head. The eye is made entirely of pure void energies as it tries to view the world in another way.
>Fourth Eye
[1d10]
>>25471072
"Yes, let's move... This moon has already claimed Renne and it is starting to affect Amy as well... And I am not feeling so well either... " he shakes his head, lip quivering at the feeling in his stomach" Nothing a good meal won't fix once we return to the ship. Let's go"
>>25471076
"We will leave this place in one piece, don't worry. Now follow me."
"And Renne, Please behave" the Sheep scolds her as he runs back to where he came from
>>25471076
"I don't care what you're going to do, but this medicine is needed elsewhere!"
Pryce stops as he feels the tug of the cuff on his hoof. He looks down at it, feeling his body ready to give in at all of these obstacles that keep getting in the way. He levitates the two crates over to Ecclesian E.
"Take these. Get out of here and find the others ASAP so those slaves can be cured."
Pryce looks back at Volkama.
"We should have left you in the fields where the ship fell instead of taking you back here."
He seethes, horn glowing bright as he tries to break apart the cuff chain through heating the metal.
>Telekinesis [Fire] [1d10]
>>25471076
>>25471140
"I don't care who's being affected by what!" Amy says angrily. "Renee needs help! She's our friend. We help our friends!"
Her body morphs repeatedly as she talks, making her voice fluctuation between a growl and her normal high tone.
>>25471088
Shei nods and closes the door behind him. He hadn't thought Buiwong would be having trouble, and wonder's how he is doing. He makes a mental note to ask next time he gives an offering.
Wait! I forget to get her to tell me where to find the organs. Shei-sher thinks, feeling awful dumb in his way. He thinks to maybe go back in the room and ask but decides he'd feel too embarrassed.
"Maybe I'll find them in the kitchen. Perhaps that'll be the one normal thing about the residents here and I can go on my merry way, yes the kitchen. Onward."
Shei runs about the Hypnagogium trying to locate the kitchen. [1d10+1] rolling if needed
>>25471191
"Amy, Amy... Calm down, we will help Renne and leave before things get worse" he speaks clearly while running "But you need to compose yourself or else you might end up losing yourself due to this moon."
>>25471076
"I-I don't know, she was just reforming and... then this happened! But I can't just leave her like this."
She grumbles as F is attacked by Renee in retaliation, then turns to F, "What was that? Nevermind, just... let's get her in doors, quick, Novelus can lead us to her hideout, she should be safe there. We'll be out quickly!"
"Renee, follow us, we're going to go kill the Nightbreed, stick close." She tries to coax the goo pony.
>>25471140
>>25471191
"Yes, wonderful, let's go Novelus, take your breath but make as much haste as you can."
She turns towards the constantly fluctuating Amy, her eyes at first filled with concern and apprehension. But then, to determination.
"We will, Amy... but you're our friend too. We're going to help you too. We need to get you indoors with her."
>>25471204
>>25471213
"What about Renee's head?"
>>25471234
"When we kill the ice-griffon, we'll get it back to her from her corpse. That sounds simple enough, doesn't it?"
>>25471234
"As Flow said, Shei can help with that. And he is at the hipnagogium, so heading there will solve many of our problems "
>>25471123
The cacophony of voices and scent and sight of mold disappear entirely from your sight. Behind where the goat-taur stood sits a coral-like opening. Beside the gateway, not guarding it, is an older Prince Novelus, a glittering crown upon his head, and luxuriant purple robe. Disappointed, he watches the Novelus-in-a-dress thrash about. Ecc. B and D continue to panic, evidently not sharing your clairvoyance.
>>25471202
As you head down the stairs, you hear Volkama and Pryce arguing. They emerge from the leftmost door on the ground floor. Amy, Flow, Renee, and Flaming enter through the front door after that.
>>25471213
>>25471191
>>25471204
Novelus leads the party back to the Hypnagogium, with Splitz giving them a nice wave as they pass the landripper.
You reach the Hypnagogium (a set of three brass-and-mushroom towers for anyone who dont know).
As you enter to the ground floor, you see Volkama and Pryce, arguing, hoof-cufffed together. Shei is at the top of the staircase at the far end of the room.
>>25471170
"LISTEN you horn-headed silly billy princely alicorn! You can't see them? Them there in the room! They're cold! Cold and this will warm them! I feel them, I feel them, there's a Dark within them just as there is a Life within you and all these demons! They can be saved and you just aren't LISTENING!"
He takes the cuff off himself. "Geh! Hrmph! I'll cure these mad deadly cursed hungry addicts before this timer runs up! Round them, round your sorry asses up in a safe place! Here once I kill these witches! Slavetrader somewhere! Him, blood on his breath...!"
Volkama shakes his head multiple times. "Moon... ugh!"
As you leave the kitchen, you sense Shei standing at the top of the staircase. A vile blue aura, reeking of witch's magic, surrounds him. "Witch... a witch? Nearby... witch of space! of Dark!" Volkama mutters, looking around. "Vizsla! Where..."
You see the others come in through the front door as well.
>>25471258
"Follow" He speaks, his voice sounding a slight more distorted, much like how it sounds when he speaks in his voidling form. He begins to escort the Ecclasians over to the door.
When he approaches, he looks at the older Novelus as he heads to the gateway.
>>25471253
>>25471252
"But, like, will she still be okay OUT of the blood moon without a head?"
>>25471258
>>25471170
As Amy enters the building and sees Pryce and Volkama hoofcuffed, she can't help but snicker. "You two look funny together."
>>25471258
He glares at Volkama, slightly amused by his crazy blabbering, but listening carefully as he goes on... Oddly not sounding completely crazy
"Pryce, Shei... Finally we're all back together... " he smiles, but soon enough the smile turns into a frown
" Where is Auntie-I mean Viszla? "
>>25471258
"Fine, fine. Just stay back and worry about the ponies you left behind here."
Pryce walks away from Volkama with the crates in tow as he's uncuffed.
>>25471291
>>25471253
>>25471252
>>25471202
Pryce looks between Shei above and the others ahead as he enters the front room.
"You all came here? Good to see everypony is still in one piece, but we need to hurry back to the ships. I found the cure, we still have time."
>>25471258
As the party enters the Hypnagogium, the goo trio kick back and sit near the front entrance, with Vice feeding her very small bits of himself for nourishment as they all chill. Trapper chills with the three JOY addicts they brought along as well.
"Call me when the violence starts, ya?" he asks Flaming and Novelus.
Flow takes the time to admire and inspect the wakizashi and its scabbard that he managed to retrieve.
>admiring
[1d10]
>>25471291
"Of That I have no clue Amy. Sorry"
>>25471308
"Excellent. Good job sir Pryce.
I'm afraid that's not our only problem however... Where is Observer? Has anyone seen him?"
>>25471291
She flattens her ears and looks down at the ground, "That I... don't know. It's all I've been told we can do, we can't leave without it so we just have to hope it is."
>>25471258
>>25471308
Shorthorns doesn't wave back at Splitz, in fact secretly sticking her tongue out at him after they pass out of sight.
Reaching the front of the Hypnagogium, she looks on as she enters seeing Volkama and Pryce hoof-cuffed together. She glares at Volkama, her blood boiling as she rushes immediately towards him and Pryce, staring down the crooked pony in the eyes as she bares her teeth.
"You found it? That's good. Now all that's left is to end this piece of slime that stole it in the first place!" She smashes her head into Volkama, seeking to hurt not kill
[1d10+2] (Not applying crit damage of All or Nothing, just Charge basic attack)
"Do you know what you almost did?! To River, to the addicts?! After we let you go, when you nearly killed all of us!?"
>>25471258
Shei-sher looks on at the scene, absolutely befuddled. He'd chuckled at the thought of Pryce being hoof cuffed to this lunatic if Volkama wasn't being so volatile at the moment. At the mention of the moon he thinks it must of rose already and that might explain Volkama's behavior.
He gets an idea "Calm yourself Volkama, everyone will be cured soon." Shei-sher walks down the stairs and continues through the room outside into the courtyard.
Shei looks up to gander at the bloody moon. Basking in that envigorating light for a moment. He holds his staff out and tries to figure out the weather settings.
>Staff of the Cloudsmith: Roll to change the weather in the local area to rainy, cloudy, stormy, or clear. Can store one weather pattern that is not on this list in its orb for future use
[1d10+1] obscure the moon with cloudy weather.
>>25471319
"I haven't seen any of you since we separated until now."
>>25471334
"Ignore him for now Flaming, he's been raving since I found him. We can deal with everything he's done after we rush this cure over to make up for the time he stole."
>>25471258
"I'm going to head back to Splitz, hopefully it is't too late."
Pryce runs out of the Hypnagogium, carrying the two crates in his telekinesis. As he passes out the doorway to outside he takes flight to head back to Splitz's ship ASAP.
>Flight [1d10]
>>25471275
Gulping but won over by your mysticism, the three put their hooves/claws onto your flank, shutting their eyes as they follow your lead. As you head to the coral-like gateway, you see the older prince Novelus sigh and extend his hoof to the thrashing younger one, who cannot see him.
>>25471291
You too, can see the blue witch's aura aura around Shei, very faintly. "Fusion? Fusion! Demon fusion? Another one around here-- here, there? Where?" Volkama asks, head twitching. You can also see the aura around Novelus as well.
>>25471309
>>25471291
Renee frantically begins to dance and laugh, unamused, as they enter. "Yeah, yeah yeah... moon's here. Ugly moon! Witch, witches... so good. So cold gotta carve and dance, cut cut cut! Fuck shit bitch!"
>>25471308
"Deriva is going to be okay, right?" Volkama insists. His bottom lip warbles again. "Not behind! Not left behind! Certainly she's going to be okay!"
You can also see the blue shroud of witch's magic around Novelus as well, but thicker than on Shei.
>>25471307
"YOU! You know her, don't you? Ah! Oh, oh, you're on a good first-name basis to call Witch Vizsla Kind an Auntie relative, eh? Where? Point out the vile un-doer to me now! Find her! Find her, find her!"
>>25471334
He simply steps above you with his double-jointed legs, causing you to burn out on the carpet. "Fixing problem! Fixing problem you dilly-dally on! Dilly-dally! Look! Look in there!" he points at the kitchen. "Deriva archmage is going to be okay! Her, but especially her!"
>>25471350
With a shake of the staff, water vapor swirls in the air, gathering between the palace and the horizon, making it no longer visible.
Renee and Volkama begin to calm down.
>>25471358
"Bastard! Wait! Deadly fool, you think a blood-breath of lies like him will trade you fair! You go to the death of the addicts!" Volkama shouts.
You head towards the landripper, where Splitz waits. You have a feeling he's watching you with a very wide smile.
>Paused
>>25471358
She growls, "So he's mad? Let's just put him out of his misery then, you'll fly out of here faster with his arm smashed out of his cuff restraining you."
>>25471308
"Hi Sir Etac, enjoying the moon with your friend I see. Sorry but I've been absorbed in my own mission. Somewhere in here is a cache of stolen organs and I need to find them. You should all go on without me, I'll return on my Gigginox" the Goat says before leaving outside.
>>25471307
"It's good to see you too Novelus. It's good to see everypony here. Auntie Vizsla remains in the room you left her."
>>25471370
