Re: FoE: Meadow's Ford

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

wait when the hell is Christmas EVE? Tuesday right, why on earth would anyone think that is a good idea? I'll meet when I can but I think I may be busy the night before christmas because girlfriend, the desolation of smaug, family events, this is what monday was for! arrrght!

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

Okay just a reminder, it ha been put on the steam event notices, we meet at 6:30 on TS or SKYpe tonight, just open both at 18:30 US Central Standard Time (GMT -8:00) or 6:30 pm Central for those of you who don't know how to subtract.

[Cptadder]

Note I'll be online at 2000 EST standard ready to go, the rest depends on you louts.

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

sooo that was an interesting session,

[Cptadder]

sooo that was an interesting session,

Oh it was, and I'll have a write up this afternoon/evening/morning depending on work.

[OneMoreDaySK]

*sighs*
fml. This is going to happen again during Su-Thu ~10:00. So sorry.
*facedesk*

[Moodyman90]

If the others haven't told you what happened SK I'm more than happy to relate to you the events of last night to the best of my memory.

[OneMoreDaySK]

I don't see anyone awake atm. *mutters incoherently*

[Cptadder]

The Players
Aonee as Akapesh (Zebra Alchemist)
AdmiralStoicRum as Back Draft (Dashite Pegasus)
OneMoreDaySK as Alouette (Mute Unicorn Musician)
Obs as Flashpoint (Anti-social Earth Pony Mercenary)
Stone as Draz (Zebra Shaman)
Tylertoon as Lucky Towel  Smooth Tongue (Unicorn Merchant)

Session 3  (Part 1)
We delayed the session from this weekend due to RL concerns but we were back yesterday and ready to go.
When we last left off our heroes Back draft and Flash point had decided to spend the night in town.  Back draft was looking for information and some company, Flash point just found the first safe looking alley to sleep in.  Flash point failed to wake up when somepony or some ponies decided to use a marker to draw over his sleeping form.  Back draft got info and that company he was after and spent a restful night on a rooftop in town.

Meanwhile the two Zebra's Akapesh and Draz decided to head into the hills to look for the raider group the Bloodwings which the Buffalo insisted were dead.  Smooth Tongue and Alouette were tagging along for lack of any other idea.  They spent the night in the wilds just short of a abandon looking hilltop fortification of some kind.  Alouette spent the evening sleeping after coming out of the memory orb she picked up the other day.

Morning found Flash point getting directions towards where the rest of the group had gone.  He asked few questions and got fewer answers but did get a good idea of general landmarks in the area. Back draft by contrast not only a made a griffin friend named Maty, she also provided a good deal of helpful information about what the griffins mercs had been up to and how they found things when they got back to the town and found it abandon.  With her help he was able to save a great deal of time investigating the houses the griffins themselves had thought were the oddest.  He begun his investigations into the missing ponys of the town as Flash point headed out towards the last known location of the rest of the group.

At the hilltop ruins the Zebra's began looking through the ruins.  Akapesh key eyes noted not only the heavly burned state of the ground but also the fact that some of the ruins had been scavenged for materials.  Draz investigating the burns eventually found the rough path of the burns looked to be moving from east, going around the ruins before climbing to the top of the hill and the small squat lookout tower there. Inside lay half a pony and half a shadow, as in the front half of a dead raider was on the stone floor which had partially melted. The back half of the pony visible in the shadow burned into the floor. Looking around more Draz managed to find two more shadows burned into the side of the cliff, at the base of the shadows were melted weapons of some kind and enough lose rounds to fill a magazine which Draz looted.

After putting their heads together and looking over everything they had the group sat down to talk things over.
Meanwhile Flashpoint drew closer to the hilltop and his fiery fate.
While back in town Back draft was on the verge of a rather important discovery.

To be continued in part 2

[Cptadder]

Session 3  (Part 2)

Maty told Back Draft that the griffons had been out handling negotiations between Stable 39 and Meadow's Ford when the town's folk up and vanished.  When they got back every pony, griffon, buffalo and Doc Bones was gone.  They searched the town themselves and found little of interest only two houses were of any interest.  When Back draft went to investigate the two houses he came across startling and surprising things of great interest!

Somewhere in the wasteland Flash point drew closer to the hill ruins

On the hill the rest of the group began debating about going back to town or going on.

Back draft knowing where to look found the first odd house easy enough.  If they had done a house to house search it could have taken hours.  Knowing where it was it's odd nature was apparent as the door frame and side walls next to the door were viotly pushed in, the door was intact driven into the roof of the first floor.  Inside aside from the derbies nothing much was out of place.  No blood or signs of a fight aside from the broken in front.  Back draft saw what the griffons missed, the shadow of a pony on the back wall.  As a former Enclave he knew what high powered magical energy weapons could do and it was consist with the main gun of a heavy Enclave transport or warship.  But if one of those weapons had been used it would have destroyed the house itself not just burned some poor pony out of existence and not even blistered the wood walls.  

The second house was much more normal in that a wall was blown out, there was blood but no bodies inside the house, the signs of fight were obvious and a great change from the rest of the town which was untouched.  Again Back draft found something the Griffons had missed, a stem of a grenade with the pin intact was in the derbies of the blown in wall.  Being Enclave he knew that having grenades cook of could happen if there was nearby explosions or a lucky hit from a magical energy weapon.  With these two clues found he returned to Cross the leader of the griffon band and gave her the news.

One house clearly smashed into with something strong enough to knock down walls and an unusal magical energy weapon used strong enough to burn ponies shadows into the wall  not just dust them and yet able to do so without destroying everything else around it.  The second house the obvious gunfight but he had discovered the gunfight had happened before the wall was smashed down, the fight starting an ending with a grenade being cooked off by something.  

After getting payed (200 caps) for finding this out, Back draft went to question the Buffalo sleeping in the street.

And on a distant hilltop Flash point reunited with the rest of the group and instantly things started going south.

[Cptadder]

Part 3 once I get settle in here for Xmas eve

[Cptadder]

Session 3  (Part 3)
As we rejoin our heroes Flash point has arrived on the hill.  Smooth Tongue urges the rest to take off now since he hates Flash point.  Alouette still riding Akapesh follows after Draz as they start heading out.  Only for Flash point to show his winning personality and yells at Smooth Tongue to hold on and don't ignore him.  Unfortunately for Smooth Tongue he makes two mistakes first being slower than Flash point and second stopping to turn around and yell at Flash point to leave him alone... just in time for Flash point to catch up and bum rush roll him.

While they were sorting out there differences trying to beat each other up, Back Draft was questioning the Buffalo in the street.  Cutting the Buffalo's many long stories short (He has many stories all long few end) his name is Strong in Hoof, he has two children.  The Buffalo tribe has an agreement to keep one of their tribe in the town, no one wanted the job which is why he got it.  He would have been in town the day it vanished but for his son who took that day so his father could go for a swim.  He's unconcerned about the town vanishing as Buffalo often leave their camps behind to roam. Back draft does his best to explain that pony's don't do this but Strong in Hoof remains unconcerned about the town pony's or his son. "He'll turn up sooner or later, every one who wanders does"

In the wastes Draz has separated Flash point and Smooth Tongue by the simple method of picking both of them up and pushing them apart. More words are exchanged before Flash point finds out what happened to him back at the village. Specifically some pony or griffon, possibly buffalo had taken the time to rather extensively mark him up with various lewd images and other insulting graffiti. Needless to say he does not take this well. His scream of rage and frustration could be understandable, but this is the wasteland. And in the wasteland sometimes things hear you... and answer back.

And that is how Flashpoint drew the attention of one of the worst dangers of the wasteland, and how he ended the session burned, battered and almost dead on the other side of the river from one of the most dangerous creatures in the Equestrian wasteland.

[Cptadder]

Note Back draft advance a level last session, totally forgot about that.

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

yay i advanced a level!

i took the wasteland surgeon perk

You can restore crippled limbs (without needing or consuming a Doctor's Bag). For purposes of healing limb damage, you may may divide healing between the limbs of your choice.  You gain a +2% Critical Chance bonus on non-deformed creatures.

on a side note, we will naturally be having our usual time on saturday night, we will meet at about 630 pm central (gmt-8) on skype. Game will commence at 700pm central. have your sheets up and ready.

good news is I will actually make it to this session too!

[Aonee]

Hey guys, can we move this week's game up to Friday or Thursday? I've got something going on Saturday that will most likely make me unable to play.

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

Backdraft backdraft...

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqA6gWldPJ0IdGNFZTNyRWJqSTZTTFI1aWlqcnJ6Ymc#gid=0

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

Hey guys, can we move this week's game up to Friday or Thursday? I've got something going on Saturday that will most likely make me unable to play.

i can get behind this I believe I will be free the evening of friday if needed.

[Moodyman90]

Might cause some problems with SK if it's moved to Thursday so Friday may be better. Even than, with how his dad's been shutting the internet off at 10 PM lately it may not matter anyways.

[OneMoreDaySK]

I has a theory that as long as I'm connected to a host prior to the shutoff I'll still stay in the call, so long as the host doesn't drop. And yeah, the shutdown happens weeklong now, so any day doesn't really matter anymore. *grumbles*

[StoneSlinger88]

Anytime works for me. And get that replay up Adder!  

[Cptadder]

Anytime works for me. And get that replay up Adder!  

Can't hear you drinking

[StoneSlinger88]

Anytime works for me. And get that replay up Adder!  

Can't hear you drinking

That's because you're not on Teamspeak.  

[Cptadder]

First a note to my players:Why do we keep moving the day?  No offense but constant day moves make DM unhappy.  I've not heard back are we good for Friday this week with everyone?

The Players
Aonee as Akapesh (Zebra Alchemist)
AdmiralStoicRum as Back Draft (Dashite Pegasus)
OneMoreDaySK as Alouette (Mute Unicorn Musician)
Obs as Flashpoint (Anti-social Earth Pony Mercenary)
Stone as Draz (Zebra Shaman)
Tylertoon as Demolition Tongue  Smooth Tongue (Unicorn Merchant)

It's been another week and my recap is out three days late, want to know why?  Blame Canada... no seriously blame Canada since my Sunday went to crap from Canadian weather.  Lets rejoin our story... already in progress.

Session 3 Interlude/Session 4 Part 1
Last time on FoE:Meadow's Ford, a smart pony acted dumb, a pony got it on with a griffon, plot details were dangled and a mystery was solved. Oh... and a certain earth pony decided that holding a screaming match in the middle of the wasteland with something he knew not what was a good idea.

Last session ended with Flashpoint attracting the attention of an abomination.  A mare in form trailing green flame who raced to find the sound of that scream of frustration that Flashpoint let out.  Had he asked information he might have been warned about what was racing towards him.  Had he thought to break off the screaming match when dozens of bloat sprites fled of terror before it raced past him he might have had a chance.  But he drew her in, called out to her in the language of pain and frustration that the Burning Mare could still understand.  That at least it understood when all else had been burned away in the brightness of balefire those many years ago.  

While the shouting match was going on Akapesh and Alouette had taken cover.  Smooth Tongue was cowering in terror and Draz was looking for someplace to fight from.  The first view they had of Flashpoint was of him running away from the hill top crying like a foal.  He had seen what he had not excepted to in the eyes of that Mare... Hate, anger and worst of all recognition.  She knew him now and wanted him to die.  Having at last run into something he could not out think or simply kill he was terrified.  

The son of caravan ponies who had died in ambush, he was raised by a Gryphon was of the guards on that caravan.  Falling in with a gryphon band the clever little pony had fared poorly.  As an earth pony he was only fit in his adopted family he was only fit to carry and serve.  But while he was earth pony tough he was weak.  Starved of interaction with anyone other that gryphons who punished him for every slight real or imaginary he was emotionally stunted.  Fearing the worst from everyone and able to easily offend everyone he had ever dealt with who was not a gryphon.  

He had fallen in with this group more or less on accident.  While the others had decided to work together for lack of any other idea he had gone his own way twice now.  Flashpoint had by this point threaten to kill everyone in the group besides Smooth Tongue at least twice.  The only reason he had not threaten Smooth Tongue was not out of kinship or friendship but simply he had not gotten around to it yet.  And this showed when he ran past the group they ran with him only long enough to determine the Burning Mare was chasing him and him alone.  Then they scattered and watched him run on, none lifting a hoof to help him.

Flashpoint would have died there in the wastes if not for two bits of luck.  The first is that he had accidentally run to the river running to Meadow's Ford half on accident half on blind luck and a bit of intervention by Draz which went some what to plan.  The second was Back Draft.  On his way back to the group to relay his findings and see what they had found out he saw the burning green light and flew closer to see the chase in progress.  

Lacking anything better to do he swooped down to try and pull Flashpoint to safety.  This went to plan right up until the Burning Mare tried to burn them both out of the sky and ended up sending both of them into the river instead.  Getting clear of the water they found the Burning Mare watching them from the other bank and screaming her frustration.

Flashpoint felt safe enough to thank his savor by offering to shoot him if he tried touching him again.  Back Draft understandable put of by the fact that this pony he had saved was thanking him by offering to shoot him tried reason...   Flashpoint tried to shoot him... and discovered that water+home made shotgun shells do not mix, nor do wet battle saddles do well while still waterlogged.    They might have fought longer but at that point the Burning Mare decided that... yeah it could totally jump the river from that ridge over there.

Back Draft seeing the green glow of the balefire pony vanish behind a ridge line took to the sky just in time to try and shoot at the Burning Mare as she made her jump across the river.  And lucky for them did not get anywhere near to clearing the jump.  The resulting steam cloud hid everything and both of them took off towards Meadow's Ford.

[Aonee]

We keep moving because things keep happening. I dunno, I guess things happen Saturday Nights.

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

as long as we keep the notices with time in advance, and someone speaks up when the scheduling does not work then it should be good right?

[StoneSlinger88]

I probably won't be able to make it Friday, my squad leader just called and we're being activated for the snowstorm. Not sure how long I'll be at the armory for, but I might make it back in time and I might not. You can go ahead with the RP if you want, Adder can take control of Draz for the time being.

[tylertoon2]

Hey guys I found Draz a more appropriate avatar 

[Cptadder]

Session 4 Part 2
While Back Draft and Flash Point ran for their lives (again), across the fields Draz, Smooth met up joined by Akapesh who still had Alouette on his back.  They had gathered together to go investigate the last known location of the Raider groups known as the Bloodwings had been seen.  This same raider group the Buffalo insisted were all dead but would not explain how they knew or how they died.  After the interruption of Flashpoint and the subsequent run from the Burning Mare they decided to continue on.    As Flashpoint made it to the safety of the river they worked their way up the path leading to a side valley which had a small cave entrance hidden within.

What lay beyond was unfamiliar to all but Alouette as the mute filly was the only one with any experience with stables which the large door seem to open into the classic stable entrance.  Except... as Alouette looked around there were many things wrong.  The entry gallery was missing for one, second several hallways lead directly off the entrance.  The blood stains and dead bodes could be seen as normal for some stables but not the one she has spent time in.  As this Smooth Tongue wanted to leave, to many stable horror stories told by his parents in Ten Pony Tower growing up had given him a phobia of the places which the stink of blood and the pitch black entrance was not helping.  With the filly Alouette directing Akapesh they begin to explore the "stable" if that what it was.

They had been there but a few minutes talking and examining the body to find out a few things.  First the blood stains were recent, second all of the bodies but one were dead ghouls.  Third the dead pony who was not a ghoul had stable barding with "Stable 39" on the collar.  The pony was still armed with a pistol and except for having his throat torn out and being dead looked in good shape.  The ghouls looked like the normal run of the mill walking corpse ponies you found in the wasteland, mindlessly hostile and only dangerous to the unprepared.

A little investigation uncovered more rooms with some doors working and some note.  Some with controls built in some opening only on hit a control button nearby.  A little wandering also found a handful of still active and still hostile ghouls which were trapped in rooms with doors they could not open or had been locked on them.  After finding the security office Akapesh hacked the terminal with ease spotting the login details nearby that Smooth Tongue failed to see.  The security terminal revealed lots of information about the interpersonal relationships of one Security Chief Stone Flower and her constant jealously to every other mare in "the instillation".  Specific information about what this place was could not be found in the quick search they did and after an accident triggering of the turret command they decided to leave the console alone but not before finding a number of pre-programed scenarios built into the computer but unlabeled except as "Contingency M, or Contingency A".  An attempt to cancel the security lock down ended in failure because as far as the security terminal was concerned, the situation in the "stable" was condition normal.

Proceeding further into the stable the went down a set of stairs only for Smooth Tongue to open a set of doors which widen slowly to reveal the entire fixings of a large birthday party, two bodies and half a dozen ghouls who charged the visible pony.  Before running away Smooth Tongue a glimpse of a large red hawk design splashed across one of the pillars in the room, shortly before he noticed the ghouls teeth and heard their growls.  His effort to shut the door on the room failed for the simple fact that the door was not fully open before he ran away.

A fight ensued with Draz getting surrounded by nearly all the ghouls, Akapesh and Alouette dusting two ghouls between them and Smooth Tongue once he recovered himself managing to burn the other four up with fire bombs and explosives.  Having used a good deal of ammo and wandering into two rooms packed with ghouls (The second room the ghouls were much more alive than the first) they decided to leave for now to return to town as night was coming in an hour or two and they did not want to camp in the stable.

Meanwhile....

[Cptadder]

Session 4 Part 3
As Draz, Smooth Tongue and Akapesh/Alouette headed back to down Flash point and Back Draft thought themselves out of danger again a few miles away from they had seen the Burning Mare fall into the river.  Thinking it safe to stop at last, Flashpoint broke out his gear and looked to see what was destroy, damaged and in need of repair.  Aside from losing his hat he found little else destroyed but his battle saddle was so water logged as to be utterly useless until it was fully dry.  The reloading arms for the shotguns still had water sloshing around in the mechanism making reloading tricky at best.  Worse each and every shotgun shell was waterlogged, the ones he had tried to use earlier had snapped off primers after they failed to fire and were useless.  The remaining ammo should be fine with a bit of luck and time to dry.  But his trail ratios were fine if damp, his water was unspoiled and his small repair and reloading toolkit had taken no damage.  

After his second brush with death he even unbent enough to let Back Draft bandage his several wounds and burn marks.  Feeling much better and satisfied he should be able to start threatening to kill people after a few more hours he reverted to form with Back Draft and once again fell to threatening him.  Back Draft knowing he was pretty much unarmed got tired of this quickly and began mocking the other pony mercilessly.  This might have continued for some time  except.... (For a critical luck roll)

Flashpoint got a feeling up his spine, a feeling of sudden and utter terror and between one sentence and the next fell silent.  Back Draft alarmed at this utterly atypical behavior at one began looking around for the sniper in hiding or the unicorn with a silence spell or some other reason for Flash point to leave off threatening... only for him to see not a hundred yards away a familiar looking pale white Mare, her mane a dull green mess of wavering flames, her left eye missing and within the imperfection a low flame burning within the empty side of the skull.

Back Draft and Flashpoint quietly did their best to sneak away, both headed towards the city following the river.  Back Draft decided to race ahead for help and took off towards Meadow's Ford.  But soon a bend in the river at the wrong time brought the Burning Mare close enough to see Flash Point, as the dull ember of her flame burst into a bright green bonfire of anger the chase started for the third time.  

Returning to the city Back Draft had just enough time to begin his story to find Strong in Hoof and Cross both had heard of the Burning Mare before.  Without hesitation Strong in Hoof tore off in the wrong direction for a dozen paces before doubling back to find out which direction they were coming from, without another word and far more serious than he had seem before he took off.   Cross fed in the details as best she knew, this Mare was known to the towns folk and time to time she would find some poor fool who she thought was challenging her or worse trying to hurt her and chase them across the Wasteland until she caught up and burned them out of existence.  Large magical energy weapons was the only sure fire way to hurt her or some zebra weapons but otherwise almost nothing pony portable would do anything.  Cross had a anti Raptor magical energy canon they had used in the past to scare the Burning Mare off but it took forever to set up and the accuracy against a single pony was nothing to cheer for.  The problem came from the fact that there were over eighty ponies outside the town, mercs, tribal, scavengers all eager to loot the town.  To which Cross had two dozen Gryphons on hand to protect it.  Only the disorganized nature of the various ponies arriving had prevented them from being attacked before.  With the Burning Mare running into the middle of that power keg who knew what could happen and where the violence would end up.

Across the darkening plain Flash point had just enough time to see the large lump of fur and hooves before it crashed into him as Strong in Hoof snatched him up like as easily as a foal and charged towards the mountains.  Back Draft at this point had left to see what he could do to delay the Burning Mare and caught up just in time to see Flash point be tossed onto the Buffalos back and he charge into the foothills with the Burning Mare right behind.  

Flash point was being taken to a place of safety, oh good something was going right for Flashpoint, where was this place of safety?  Why a crater full of magical energy radiation oh joy.  Despite his sanity being questioned the Buffalo knew exactly what he was talking about, at the craters edge the Burning Mare stopped dead as she had stopped at the river.  Unlike the River however now she seems hesitant and fearful.  Strong in Hoof left Flash point there in the crater explaining that as long as he stayed there he was safe and try not to die from the radiation

At this point Back Draft stepped in to fly Flash point out of the crater and back to town under cover of the radiation.
As far as they know the Burning Mare still thinks Flash Point is down in the crater, a crater into which she will not go.
As far as they know...

Thus ended our latest session with all sides headed back towards the town, a half explored "stable", a abomination which may or may not have been given the slip for real this time and night coming on with a band of Gryphon mercenaries trying to protect a town from four times their number of looters, scavengers and opportunists.

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

actually Back Draft took off in a direction away from town and doubled back out of sight of the Burning mare. Carrying Flashpoint

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