Re: FoE: Meadow's Ford

[Cptadder]

Updates will be coming tonight, blame the lateness directly on Payday2 and me getting invites.  Thankfully today I was off, got a new motherboard in and a new solid state drive. 16 gigs full 215 free oh what programs will win the brutal darwinian process to be installed on the solid state and which will be regulated to the dark ghetto of the 750 gig, 1 terabyte and 1.5 terabyte hard drives.

[Cptadder]

Are we on for this evening?

[StoneSlinger88]

I believe so.

[Moodyman90]

If we are I have to sit out. It's been a long bloody day and I'm in no condition to roleplay.

[tylertoon2]

I will play, but it may be a bit difficult without moody considering how low on people we already are.

[Cptadder]

Session has been called off due to lack of attendance we were three day.

[Cptadder]

Summary of Meadow's Ford important ponies and personages.
Meadow's Ford
Current State
The town is help by the Gryphon mercenary band lead by Cross.  The contract for the town expired "today" in story.  It's unknown if she is holding the town or looting it or what's going on in town.  The party has been out of the town for about four days down trapped inside "The Facility" located under the mountains marking Equestria's southern border.

Notable Meadows Ford Gryphon Mercenaries
Crosswind(Female Gryphon) Leader of the Mercenaries, everyone just calls her Cross thanks to her brusque nature and short temper  
Thornton (Male Gryphon) Crosswind's second in command, spends most of his time running her errands and staying out of her sight when possible. Goes by Thorn
Matilda(Matty) (Female Gryphon) Gryphon Mercenary who had a one night stand with Back Draft and has become the party go between Cross and the rest of the Gryphons.  

The city population is currently being used as a labor force by the TC bots running the Royal Experimental Advisory Depot, normally refereed to simply as "The Facility" by the internal arcana-crystal robots who kept it ready for operations.  The city population fled the twin threats of something that looked like similar to the Burning Mare dragging along a mile wide front of Pink Cloud while the Burning Mare herself was chasing some Pony in the town.  Deciding to simply clear out for a day to let both threats pass the town by they had the misfortion of straying to close to the Facility in such numbers the TC robots running the Facility decided to scoop up the whole town to dig tunnel network for some reason.  It's been ten plus day's for them doing back breaking work turning big rocks into smaller rocks.  Only the shear number of roboponies and level of internal defenses has presented escape and had until recently prevented all riots.  Most of the town ponies are scared and working just hoping things will get better for them.  Except for a few of them they have no idea the party has found the town's ponies but is currently just as helpless as them to report things to Cross on the outside.

Notable Meadow's Ford Residents
Spring Tea(Female Unicorn):Mayor of Meadow's Ford and direct descendant of Meadow himself or so Meadow insisted she was his when he was still alive.
Doc Bones(Male Ghoul Unicorn):Meadow's Ford resident Doctor and the town's only Ghoul
Sapphire Pendant (Female Earth Pony):Meadow Ford's touch of high class and possibly shady past.  On first name basis with every single caravan operator within a hundred miles of Meadow's Ford.  One of three traders in Meadow's Ford
Bishop (Male Gryphon):Meadow's Ford resident fixit and repair gryphon, had two assistants who helped him keep the various civic machines such as irrigation and indoor plumping running.  also did a side business in high explosives, One of three traders in Meadow's Ford
Stainless Strut (Male Earth Pony): Building inspector was his official title, foreman was his real title.  Along with keeping Meadow's Ford on firm foundations he handled the town's job board and request jar.  If a hinge needed to be redone or a lonely caravan guard wanted someone to help warm the bed it was Strut who could find somepony to fix the problem.  for  One of three traders in Meadow's Ford
Strong in the Hoof (Male Buffalo): Official representative of the Buffalo tribes of the South River to Meadow's Ford.  In reality he's more of an informal foal sitter and story teller who mind has begun to go.  When the town left Strong in the Hoof was enjoying a day by the river while his son saw to his ambassador duties.  Has stayed with the town reasoning that as the town must return some day, it would look bad if the official ambassador was not there when they did return.


Notable Meadows Ford Scavengers
Outside Bet (Male Earth Pony): Unofficial leader of the scavengers and prospectors who have come to loot Meadow's Ford.  Has done much to keep the piece between the groups he's just to committing to loot the town as any of the rest of them but see's not reason for violence when even seventy ponies will have hard time carting off all the possessions of two hundred plus ponies who used to live in Meadow's Ford.

Dawn Watcher (Female Unicorn Pony):Speaker for the tribes who's land was conquered by the founders of Meadow's Ford.  

Steel Button (Male Earth Pony):Black Tail Mercenary who Smooth Tongue knows, he is the party's friendly face to the Blacktail Mercenary outfit which was based out of Ten Pony Towers.

Tollway
A collection of buildings under and around a highway overpass bridge to the South East of Meadow's Ford.  Currently Backdraft is helping the town recover from an unusual radar attack.  Tollway has less than forty ponies all told not counting temporary residents as Caravan's pass through.  While Tollway is self sufficient in growing it's own food, mending it's own problems and brewing it's own booze it's primary export is a quality place to sleep and relative safety for passing caravans.  Heated baths and clean sheets are expensive but after weeks on the road most will pay for this temporary pleasure.  The other point of interest about Tollway is that it is less than thirty years old.  Holly Bloom settled here setting up her rough Inn opposite Dusty Quartz and Mural's little shacks and grew it with her own hooves and her body as 40% of the town population is directly related to Holly herself either as "mama" or "grandmama"

Notable Tollway Residents
Dusty Quartz (Male Unicorn):Former mayor of Tollway and the only fatality in the recent raider attack.
Mural (Male Donkey):Trader of Tollway and operator of Mural's Fine Finds for anyone who ever wanted to buy rugs, grenade launchers and canned food from the same shack
Bernard (Male Gryphon):Town drunk.  He's been drinking himself in a hole for several years now after something made him settle in Tollway.  It's know he has caps because he almost never take any contract to guard caravans anymore.  But where he keeps the caps or how he came by them no one can say.
Holly Bloom (Female Earth Pony):Town harridan and head of the Holly Clan
Holly Blossom (Female Earth Pony): Bloom's second daughter and current owner and proprietor of the Inn
Holly Frost (Male Earth Pony) Bloom's third son and town repair pony.  Mostly repairs by yelling and swearing until it works
Holly Bean (Male Earth Pony) Bloom's first son and town doctor pony. His doctoring came from books and hooves on experience on ponies who could not wait to see Doc Bones in Meadow's Ford
Mint Holly (Female Earth Pony) Blooom's youngest daughter and Town guard.

Stable 39

Chrome Steel(Female Earth Pony): Overmare of Stable 39, looks like a solider and weathered like campaign soldier despite being Stable 39 Overmare
Spring Steel(Female Earth Pony): Daughter of Chrome and former kidnap victim of slavers.  Sent to negotiate after the head of security (her uncle) and several other ponies sent to Meadow's Ford vanished.
Sky Arrow(Female Earth Pony): Guard Pony for stable 39
Arctic Mocha (Female Earth Pony) Guard Pony for stable 39
Golden Grace (Male Earth Pony): Guard Pony for stable 39
Steam Gate (Male Unicorn Pony): Pipbuck repair tech who worked on Alouette's pipbuck

Chalk

Sheriff Berry: (Male Earth Pony): Unofficial mayor of Chalk and it's head of law enforcement. As the Minotaurs keep the piece and walk the streets his power and authority as a widely regarded joke. The towns ponies put up with him because he only hassles visitors with his "inspections" and the Minotaurs tolerate him because he only seems to give them orders to do things they are already doing. Less a lawpony and more a mascot.

Ernest & Ella (Gryphon brother and sister): Mercenaries for hire based in Chalk

Keller (Male Zebra):Runs the job board, negotiates with the caravans and on other ponies behalf for a price

Chatters (Male Earth Pony):Trader, reputation for getting the better on almost any deal.Also runs a little backyard "Inn" which is nothing more than some tarps and several hammocks, unlike his shop his Inn has a few recommendations because of it's (cheap) price and confront compared to sleeping on the sands.

Malts (Male Minotaur): Part owner of the Chalk open air bar, was a covered bar until the roof blew off and Malts is a fan of his own booze. When not drunk he's bartending. When not bartending he's drunk or sleeping off a drunk, when he's not doing one of those three activities he's drunk bartending. It's best to drink what you served as his bar even if asked for a beer and got hat full of whiskey instead.

The Unaligned

Mr Enterprise (Male Earth Pony):Free trader who walks the roads of Equestria accompanied by his three hellhounds he raised himself from pups. Bloom, Perky and Molly have kept him alive for years now and able to trade with almost anyone.  Know for a rather eccentric shop he always has the basics plus almost anything a scavenger can sell him.

Gold Dust(Male Earth Pony):Caravan scout for the Southern Trading Company, currently investigating the Meadow Ford incident.

Vista (Female Buffalo):Daughter of Strong in the Hoof and shaman in training to the Buffalo tribe living in and around Meadow Ford.  Has promised to help Flashpoint with the Burning Mare if her Brother is found



The Antagonists


The Blood Wings
Leader:Bloodwing, a griffon mercenary turned raider, shared history with Ernest.  Thanks to the party efforts the Bloodwings are down to about half a dozen or less raiders.  Dislikes Alouette with a passion, fond of high explosives and mobile warfare.  Owns a suit of well cared for Gryphon power armor despite he's raiders being exclusively ponies.  

Doctor Bright Eyes
A Ghoul unicorn, experiments on ghouls, attempting to understand the nature of ghoulification.  Used to be/is part of the Bloodwings.  This doctor is very clearly up no good but what was his end game and how is he tied up in the Burning Mare and the Pink cloud Pony that Doc Bones saw the day they evacuated Meadow's Ford?

The Burning Mare
A short slight Balefire Ghoul who has haunted the lands around Meadow Ford since the end of Equestria.  All attempts to put her to rest have ended in disaster yet she ignores both the Buffalo and the Tribals and appears to be somewhat intelligent.  Where has she been as Flashpoint ran all over the wasteland.  Why is she so single minded?  

The Slavers
Along the southern end of Equestria the closet thing to a small encampment is Tollway which even the slavers find handy.  So why are Red Eye's slavers raiding so far south?  Red Sands the leader of the slaver group got away along with two other ponies over a week ago.  Where have they gone?

The Black Tails
Is this mercenary group going to just give up if the town of Meadow's Ford returns?  It has over fifty well armed and equipped ponies in a fortified camp just two miles away from the town.  The Meadow's Ford gryphons can't stop them if they attack.  

The Tribals
Meadow's Ford is built atop land where once sat

Sins of the past
Memory orbs, a dead body in a hole, a ghoul army, a gun of unusual make, a cake making robot in a depot.  A well armed group of gryphons and a single pony in an environmental suit twenty years ago.  What other bits of history will confront the party?

Royal Army Research Facility:Classified
Father created minds in a machine, he wanted to go beyond his self learning machines the maneframes and make thinking minds that could think and act faster than any pony while possessing the wisdom of ancient pony philosophers.  Not only intelligent but wise and exact.  The cold logic of the machine tempered by the needs of ponys to maintain their sanity.  He had a vision and even as the world ended around him he knew more than anything that as the bombs fell and what few maintenance staff and research associates remained in the facility he must perfect his gift for the world that came after.  Society would rebuild, it always would as ponies were like that.  From his mind and his efforts was born Gamma, then Epsilon both failures, then Zeta who was an almost a lethal error.  Theta his first partial success gave him great hope for his next projects.... but Rho and Tau would both never be fully finished before his death.  The facility struggles on not in the full control of any one set of hooves at this time.

Akapesh Zebra:

Backdraft Pegasus:

Alouette Unicorn:

Flashpoint Earth Pony:

Smooth Tongue Unicorn:

Draz Zebra:

[Cptadder]

Once again I've let things get away from me.  Session 25 was August 11th and thanks to my moving no sessions for two weeks but we had one on the 21st where the party argued, traveled around and started taking things from the armory.  A second session on the 27th when they unfucked themselves then re-fucked themselves and we missed this week on the 5th

So I'll be needing to post the recaps for 26 and 27 as well as updating the xp list.  Lets see what transpires.  

XP as of session 25:

[Cptadder]

Session 26:A NEW CAR!
The Players (PC)
Aonee as Akapesh (Zebra Alchemist) - Georgy Grey
Moodyman90 as Gravel Sky (Throwback Pegasus) - Terry Kneiss
OneMoreDaySK as Alouette (Mute Unicorn Musician) -Dennis James
Obs as Flashpoint (Anti-social Earth Pony Mercenary) -Bill Cullen
Stone as Draz (Zebra Shaman) - Rod Roddy
Tylertoon as Smooth Tongue (Unicorn Merchant) -Drew Carey

Four TC bots were left, TC-2, TC-3, TC-6 and TC-7.  They knew TC-6 was in control of the armory and warframe servicing bay.  They knew TC-3 and TC-7 were in the process of sweeping the entire facility starting at the bottom and working their way up.  It was unknown where TC-2 was at present but they guessed it must be watching the prisoners given the recent riot and lack of reports on it's location.

After much debate (Like an hour and a half in real time) and a lot of questions to the DM they got down to scouting the armory level.  After a nice long session they learned little, found less but eventually thanks to promptings from Rum who was playing Obs this week they located the armory and decided to simply have Gravel Sky try and walk in as CEO and senior administrator.  To their complete shock it worked, for some reason the fact that a Stabletech CEO might have high level access and would be able to simply walk past the wall of defenses and demand the two foot thick steel door simply open for him and it would.

What followed took up the rest of the session but we can sum it up as what it was... a shopping montage set to the Price is Right theme as they went through box after box of equipment via Gravel Sky.  The rest of them offed lots of OOC comments as Gravel worked his way around from a general inspection to try and find useful equipment for himself and the rest of the party.  Fighting the TC bots had always been a case of being under equipped for the task at hand not to mention breaking guns left and right.

In the main armory they saw the following
18 Magical Energy Pistols, 10 Magical Rifles, 12 Plasma Rifles, 2 Gauss Rifles, 1 grenade launcher, two boxes (24 each) of standard hand grenades.  What was taken will be reflect on the loot list.

In the secondary armory inside confiscated lockers they saw the following
3 suits of gryphon power armor, 1 custom modded rocket launcher, 3 green/black band rockets, one blue band rocket and 5 band black rockets, a literal bag of buck (30+ doses), three radaway, two rad-x, a single healing potion, a heavily modified brush rifle and several other bits OOC they know belong to Ernest and Ella the two gryphons that Alouette got locked up.

Thanks to a bit of blind luck and simple weight Gravel Sky left with only things he was authorized to take as he limited himself to two weapons from the primary armory while the secondary armory's confiscated area was considered free pickings for senior self such as himself.  With that and more planning out of the way the party now had their goals in place.  They were going to cycle the rest of the party through the armory's to take more stuff them find and jump TC-6 but Akapesh was going to have a quiet chat with Rho first and then figure things out from there.  Goal set we ended the session early before my move.

Loot Session 26
1x Grenade Launcher (Modded) single shot
1x Rocket Launcher (Modded) along with eight rockets, three Hive rounds, five high velocity and one pulse rocket.
1x Unicorn locked box (Must have magic to open) containing a memory orb and an unusual Zebra pattern pistol detailed later.
Bag of buck (35 doses)
Misc healing supplies.
417 caps
Along with whatever Gravel took for his primary weapon which I have forgotten (Think it was a plasma rifle)

[tylertoon2]

Appreciate the updates Adder! Thank you!

[Cptadder]

Session 27:Going Loud
The Players (PC)
Aonee as Akapesh (Zebra Alchemist) - Derek Ray
Moodyman90 as Gravel Sky (Throwback Pegasus) -Simon Kerr
OneMoreDaySK as Alouette (Mute Unicorn Musician) -Pete Gold
Obs as Flashpoint (Anti-social Earth Pony Mercenary) -Ulf Andersson
Stone as Draz (Zebra Shaman) - Damion Poitier
Tylertoon as Smooth Tongue (Unicorn Merchant) -Nathan Steele

This session kicked off with a small talk between Akapesh and Rho while Gravel tried various other non-zebra party members through the armory to see if anyone else had sufficient access rights to take extra weapons out of the armory.  The idea of barding IE armor was totally forgotten by the party at this point... something they would pay for later but that is for the fight to come.

When Rho greeted Akapesh it was still as him pretending to be Theta.  Via their conversation they confirmed what they knew that TC-3 and TC-7 were still clearing the place floor to floor and where still six floors below them.  That TC-2 was in the mines directly over watching the workers.  Thanks to the efforts of the party Rho had gained access to cameras on most every floor even if he still lacked Theta's direct control.  When Akapesh finally confronted Rho on it's lie it tried a simple evasion and then gave up an admitted it.  Rho stated he had lied to simplify things since the party had no way of knowing about the Consistent Leadership Project, no history of development of Maneframes.  No knowledge of why Apple Bloom had consulted with Father to create self aware intelligent learning machines that would be placed over ponies.  There was simply to much history in this situation to waste time on when the main issue was simply to remove the TC bots, to clear away the last traces of Tau.

Elsewhere Flashpoint had been denied access for the simple reason she was obviously crazy with a history of assaulting Facility personnel and until Doctor Flashpoint of the psychiatric facility gave Flashpoint a clean bill of heath no fire arms for her.  Pharmacist Smooth Tongue however was able to arm himself with an additional pistol and sneak some extra ammo out.

His talk finished with Rho and Gravel and co done with the armory they followed Rho's directions to a suite of rooms in the bunker where TC-6 was staying.  The fight such as it was went wrong nearly instantly as the SC bot standing guard on TC-6 door was simply there to give it time to get into fighting readiness made worse by the fact that the initial alpha failed to keep the SC bot down after a few attacks missed.  A few seconds later when Gravel opened the door he took two 15mm rifle rounds along with several laser blasts as the machines inside with readied attacks shot the first thing that opened the door.  The alarm started going off after the first round of combat even if reinforcements seem slow to show up for some odd reason.

Twenty seconds later the combination of drug fueled zebras, high explosives and gunfire had put TC-6 down into the single digits... until a Construction class they had ignored brought it back up into the positives again as a modified Sentry droid came into the fight armed with dual miniguns and along with more 15mm fire knocked half the party on it's backsides.  The Sentry bot's fusillade of bullets was deadly to mostly naked ponies clad only in doctors outfits and suites.  Only Draz with his bone armor and surprising agility managed to weather the storm long enough to get the other ponies back on their hooves and crunch the Sentry bot once it's ammo ran out.  One last grenade from Smooth Tongue put the TC and CC bots both down for good and once the sympathetic detonations of a releasing power core was confirmed they dove onto the nearest elevator and ran for it trusting Theta to take control of the now TC-less floor and went up to the top floor one floor above them.

Now they are less than two hundred meters to the exit which is currently closed opening only to admit returning war frames on patrols or warframes going out.  Worse the TC bot had enough time for once to get off a message to the other TC bots.  Now they are known.  They took out four being so quick and brutal as to let them remain under the radar.  All the TC bots knew is that short, sharp and ultra violent fights were happening inside the facility and TC bots were ending up dead.  But with death of TC-6 they knew now who was the saboteurs.  Subsystems and the networks were reporting the Facility secure even as they could see via cameras the smoking remains of TC-6.  The party was being hunted now and on accident had stuck themselves meters away from the entrance but with their faces know and all rights revoked, the security forces would begin hunting them now.

But had they killed enough TC bots to make a difference?  Rho seemed more aware even if Theta's ability seemed unchanged.  Time will tell how bad of a spot they are in.  And that's where that session ended on a note of cautious optimism/oh shit.

[Cptadder]

XP and loot lists posting separately just because maths

[Cptadder]

XP List Session 26&27
Level 8 is 28,000 xp
Level 9 is 36,000 xp


Akapesh (Zebra Alchemist)= 32,900 xp
Construct Class Frame 1x 100xp
Security Class Frame 2x 800xp
Warfare Class Frame 1x 750xp
Technical Class Frame 1x 850xp
Survived fight 500xp
Talked with Rho, learning of Theta, Gamma, Rho and Tau 200xp
RP 300xp


Gravel Sky (Throwback Pegasus) = 29,000xp
Construct Class Frame 1x 100xp
Security Class Frame 2x 800xp
Warfare Class Frame 1x 750xp
Technical Class Frame 1x 850xp
Visited an Armory 1000xp
Survived fight 500xp
Gained a level

Alouette (Mute Unicorn Musician)= 21,031xp
Trapped in solitary......

Flashpoint (Anti-social Earth Pony Mercenary) = 28,650xp
Construct Class Frame 1x 100xp
Security Class Frame 2x 800xp
Warfare Class Frame 1x 750xp
Technical Class Frame 1x 850xp
Survived fight 500xp
Managed a Catch 22 of Crazy/Has to declare himself not crazy 500xp
Gained a level


Draz (Zebra Shaman)= 36,850xp
Construct Class Frame 1x 100xp
Security Class Frame 2x 800xp
Warfare Class Frame 1x 750xp
Technical Class Frame 1x 850xp
Dominated fight 1000xp


Smooth Tongue (Unicorn Merchant)= 35,630xp
Construct Class Frame 1x 100xp
Security Class Frame 2x 800xp
Warfare Class Frame 1x 750xp
Technical Class Frame 1x 850xp
Survived fight 500xp

Loot Found
1x Grenade Launcher (Modded) single shot
1x Plasma Rifle
1x ????
1x Rocket Launcher (Modded) along with eight rockets, three Hive rounds, five high velocity and one pulse rocket.
1x Unicorn locked box (Must have magic to open) containing a memory orb and an unusual Zebra pattern pistol detailed later.
Bag of buck (35 doses)
Misc healing supplies.
417 caps

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

Flash POint has her Mechanics set to 75 and now has Shotgun Surgeon, she will switch back to her shotgun saddle soon or just strap it on under her or something, not like she has a dick

[Cptadder]

Far as I know everyone is happy and ready to go for another session Sunday.

[Cptadder]

Hmm I wonder when my players will see something like this.

I wonder what this:

[Moodyman90]

Best thing about the Combat Veteran perk. It can be taken up to three times. So at it's best it takes off at least three points of damage and a most thirty. Provided the attack is one directed towards me and deals either normal, magical energy, or stun damage.

Cue nothing but AOE attacks from now on, especially if I level up again and actually go with a second rank in CV.

[tylertoon2]

Best thing about the Combat Veteran perk. It can be taken up to three times. So at it's best it takes off at least three points of damage and a most thirty. Provided the attack is one directed towards me and deals either normal, magical energy, or stun damage.

Cue nothing but AOE attacks from now on, especially if I level up again and actually go with a second rank in CV.

I wonder if Draz could take this. Tanky Zebra Fighter Monk.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Did Last's character die or something? I see he's left the group.

[Guest]

I'm not part of it. Just left the Skype group because I was getting a lot of notices/messages, whatever they call them, and I don't really check it often enough.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Ah, ok. Fair enough.

[Moodyman90]

Combat Veteran requires that you have no SPECIAL skills under 4. And after checking his character sheet, yeah Draz can get it.

[StoneSlinger88]

I went with Finesse-- a +4 equivalent to Luck for critical hits, making anything 10 and below a Crit for Draz.

[Moodyman90]

And you never rolled below an 11 again.

That would be my luck.

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

Well I'm going to do my darndest to be on the session tomorrow, looks like we will only have 2 more to go after that, if that at all.

[Cptadder]

We will be having a session tonight and and a recap before 6pm est.

[Moodyman90]

Daring escapes and a rescue attempt! What lays ahead for our heroes*? Tune in next week and find out!

*Disclaimer: Current party members may or may not be accurately labeled as heroes. Depending on ones definition of what a hero is and explanation of actions taken by party members they may or may not be seen as heroes.

[StoneSlinger88]

Are we all set for Sunday night?

[Moodyman90]

I'm ready and set if everybody else is. Gotta tell the town of Chalk what happen and warn them of what happened, maybe get some help to Flashpoint and Draz since they're still out there, and one never knows, maybe get some help to those still inside.

[Cptadder]

Session is 50/50 at the moment. As a few of you know my headset died. I ordered a new one but it has yet to arrive. If it does arrive session. If it does not, no session. No mic makes it tough for DM.

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