Re: FoE: Meadow's Ford

[Cptadder]

Session 14 Part 2

Quick backtrack as I left out something chronologically before Smooth Tongue took off when Cross was asking about the meeting with Alicorns and the Mansion in the hills they ran across.

Smooth Tongue ventured a guess that maybe Bright Eyes had been the same ghoul they had seen in the memory orb. Cross asked what memory orb to which Smooth Tongue explained about the memory orb found inside the skull of a dead ghoul found in the wine cellar. In it Smooth Tongue had watched the last moments of some unknown ghoul who had woken tied up and facing enemies who asked him to sell out his wife. When he refused he had been killed. The pony doing most of the talking in the memory orb had been some pony (Not a unicorn) in an environmental suit wearing a cloaking patched repaired half a hundred times. He also carried a side arm which had been a small pistol of exceptional quality and having several gems built directly into the weapon itself which could mean ostentation self importance or... zebra manufacture. Either way when Smooth Tongue had suggested this was Bright Eyes, Cross had thought it unlikely and when Smooth Tongue suggested tracking down the pony who had done the shutting Cross drew Smooth Tongue aside.

Cross told Smooth Tongue quietly and fiercely that if he was involved it was best to not pry in his business. Cross said that "every single gryphon here would back him and most of the Talons besides, if he did it... then it was for a good reason." Her tone and fierceness were very much at odds with her earlier behavior. Smooth Tongue went along with what Cross told him if nothing else than to avoid setting of any sort of angry explosion from the gryphon. Cross walked him back to Draz and they resumed their conversation.

Meanwhile back at a dead tree
Flashpoint had finish declaring that it was good the weak exist so the strong have someone to rule over when the Tribal who's name he never bothered asking for starting asking questions in turn. When she found out he was landless she experienced sorrow for him. "The land belongs to us and we belong to the land, you can not take one from other" "If you have no land and no land will have you then you are a lost". What she meant became clear as another member of the tribe began toying with Flashpoint. As he turned to leave a great hole was behind him deep but narrow which Flashpoint stepped across. He made mock and continued on only to find a prickle plant in his path where none had been before. Another step and the land was loose sand making for slowing going. The further he traveled away from the wild land and closer to the city the less these impediments appeared in his path. Two messages were gotten across, first that they could have done worse with their magic. And second they had not tried to hurt him just shame him, but his agile nature had let him dodge every snap and jump every pitfall. They had learned a measure of respect for this pony and he had learned a little of them and saw their strength was not contained in guns and flashy lasers. Shortly afterwords Smooth Tongue managed to make a few deals with Outside Bet for some of the items he needed and gryphon came to Flashpoint to let him know there were caps to be made for a quick job.

In a little hollow about a hundred meters from the edge of town Flashpoint met the two zebra's standing with Cross besides a table. They had planned everything out for him, they just wanted him to mix up a potion real quick. Only a pony could mix it and it was a two hundred cap job so Flashpoint was happy to help. The mixing and poring went well and before long a few gryphons were watching as Flashpoint mixed in the last ingredient.... Only to have the potion exploded in his face like mentos in diet coke. Before any of those present could react a swirl of pink expanded into a dense pink cloud thirty meters across.

To Draz who grew up within a day's walk of Canterlot the sight of the pink could was enough to bring back all of his lessons and his fears growing up. He turned to flee but noticed he felt no pain or tiredness. No strain or sense he was being frozen and boiled alive. While the cloud looked like the real product it did not feel the same. The pain and torment was missing. Gryphons came from the town at the shouts but returned once Cross stuck her head out at the border and there was a sharp defined border to the cloud. It roiled and swirled and ignore wind nor the sun in moving not an inch.

They had their answer of sorts, this potion made something that looked exactly like pink cloud but was utterly harmless. Alouette tried having Back Draft shape some of it for her to keep but once draw away from the mass it evaporated from one second to the next. At the fifteen minute mark the cloud boiled away in a few short seconds vanishing like mist.

Confused, unsure what to do with this information the party decided to not wait until morning decided to travel during the night. During this time Flashpoint had met Gold Dust a South Filly traveling caravan scout who was investigating the town. From him they learned of several other points of interest beyond the borders of Equestria. Deciding on their route Alouette got all of this into her pipbuck memory.

They left Meadow's Ford right after dark headed south to the passes leading through the mountains. They made good time except when taking Flashpoint shortcuts. And with the moon high in the sky they came across a hill with a radio tower hat Flashpoint lead them up to orientate themselves from. Deciding here was far enough for the night they were going to settle in before Smooth Tongue urged them to scout around first. Less than forty meters away were several carts laying on an old path each carrying an intact robopony which Alouette studied but found harmless. When she called Akapesh over to disarm them however they activated when detecting the incoming "Stripe.

What followed was an odd fight as the elements had not been kind to these machines. Two in the crates were both mostly intact while the other three by a nearby watch tower were all but rusted solid. They could still shoot and opened with a barrage of plasma bolts against Draz the closets to them. They called out to the non Zebra's to stay back because of stripes only for them to switch targeting from the Zebra's to "known traitor ponies" once Flashpoint and Back Draft engaged them.

Several times ponies got close to going down but in the end they had a semi-secure camping site, several robotic corpses to check and a watch tower with an intact box in it.
They settled down for the evening talking over the leads they had and what they were going to do next.

-fin-

[Cptadder]

XP and Loot List
Level 6 is 15,000 xp
Akapesh (Zebra Alchemist)=   11,750 xp
Robopony (5x) 850xp
Made a discovery 100xp
Contributed to Science! 300xp
RP  300xp


Back Draft (Dashite Pegasus) = 11,650xp
Robopony (5x) 850xp
Survived Obs playing him 200xp


Alouette (Mute Unicorn Musician)= 11,660xp
Robopony (5x) 850xp
Story time with Uncle Strong in the Hoof 5xp
Had a plan succeed (2x) 200xp
Go for the eyes Boo! 40xp
RP  300xp

Flashpoint (Anti-social Earth Pony Mercenary) = 12,085xp
Robopony (5x) 850xp
Had a plan fail 5xp
Cleric of Rand 500xp
Talks with rocks 100xp
Contributed to science 100xp
RP 200xp
Gained a level

Draz (Zebra Shaman)= 10,950xp
Robopony (5x) 850xp
Talked with power 100xp
Healing Radio 50xp
RP  200xp
Gained a level

Smooth Tongue (Unicorn Merchant)= 11,750xp
Robopony (5x) 850xp
Talked with power 200xp
Trading with friends 25xp
Brush with the past 100xp
RP 300xp

Loot
From the robo-ponies each can be harvested for a sparkle core (100 MFC + gem core) in addition to a random amount of scrap metal and electronics per robot.

The old box on the tower contained a battered park ranger hat (+1 per) and a destroyed rifle.  
The barrel is snapped but the extended magazines and rifle optic mod can both be scavenged from the gun.

Smooth Tongue had access to Outside Bet for close to half an hour.  Any item you wish to sell to Outside Bet can be sold for 1/5 it's stated value.  Any general/food/medical item 20 caps or less can be purchased from Outside Bet.  He does not have more than two of anything except ammunition which can be purchased at twice it's listed value up to 50 rounds total.

[Cptadder]

Last note of clarification, anyone not just Tyler can take advantage of Outside Bet's merchant status.  Ammo is more expensive at the moment due to the possibility of conflict but again anything on the PNP page anyone wants to buy 20 caps or less you can no more that two of any item.  And that goes for everyone, he does not restock magical bandages between visits.  If someone wants to buy two powder charges then Bet only has two to sell between the entire group.  Feel free to use the thread for your buying/selling needs.

OAN: Bet won't buy the wine for 1/5th it's state value, to hard to handle he says.
*Edit 1
He does not sell weapon mods.
*Edit 2
Special ammo types are not for sale basic ammo only

[tylertoon2]

Last note of clarification, anyone not just Tyler can take advantage of Outside Bet's merchant status.  Ammo is more expensive at the moment due to the possibility of conflict but again anything on the PNP page anyone wants to buy 20 caps or less you can no more that two of any item.  And that goes for everyone, he does not restock magical bandages between visits.  If someone wants to buy two powder charges then Bet only has two to sell between the entire group.  Feel free to use the thread for your buying/selling needs.

OAN: Bet won't buy the wine for 1/5th it's state value, to hard to handle he says.
*Edit 1
He does not sell weapon mods.
*Edit 2
Special ammo types are not for sale basic ammo only

I sell my police pistol for 40 and as many cigarettes as he will take (2 caps per. I have 36.) If he has it, I buy 10 empty bottles (10 caps) and 5 bottles of hard alcohol or fuel of any kind (50 Caps).

I plan to craft some Molotovs using this and some of the cloths of the prewar outfits Alouette is carrying around while at the camp. If that is allowed.

Also I plan to repair some of the prewar suits we recovered at the manor. Just stitching them up and such. I'm guessing that these just add +5 speech?

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

Lets see I want all the batteries and Might as well take all the powercores, OBS could use it on Flashpoint's turret, not that it would do him much good there as it is battle saddle mounted energy weapon
might interface with power armor really nicely
Trade, oh dear, my weapon is practically broken, but I have an energy pistol,
21 spark cell charges well I will need to buy 50 Spark Cells for 100 caps.

please tell me someone grabbed the scope and ex. magazines... they are going to be useful. if not I grab them just so they are in inventory I mean alouette would make the best use out of them

also i need to know what was in the doctor's bag that was picked up,or was it a doctors kit?

[OneMoreDaySK]

Examined the dead roboponies before dismantling. x1 Doctor's Bag Kit to Backdraft.

Dibs on the Hat and Rifle parts. Not sure if Flashpoint is needed for adding the parts to rifle or if it's easily modified.

Debating on stuff obtained from Mr. Bet: .308 Ammo, Possible 1 saddlebag for Draz to experiment on. Requesting Foodstuffs to restock everyone's supplies.

Discussing breaking off robolimbs to see if they can function manually, i.e. Wolverine Draz. Also possibly robopony head for helmet as well.

[Cptadder]

I sell my police pistol for 40 and as many cigarettes as he will take (2 caps per. I have 36.) If he has it, I buy 10 empty bottles (10 caps) and 5 bottles of hard alcohol or fuel of any kind (50 Caps).

Noted, but remember my limit 2 so limit 2 empty bottles. However you can improve molotovs from flamer fuel so your limit is bottles not fuel.

I plan to craft some Molotovs using this and some of the cloths of the prewar outfits Alouette is carrying around while at the camp. If that is allowed.

It is

Also I plan to repair some of the prewar suits we recovered at the manor. Just stitching them up and such. I'm guessing that these just add +5 speech?

The prewar suits are already in good condition.

Lets see I want all the batteries and Might as well take all the powercores, OBS could use it on Flashpoint's turret, not that it would do him much good there as it is battle saddle mounted energy weapon
might interface with power armor really nicely
Trade, oh dear, my weapon is practically broken, but I have an energy pistol,
21 spark cell charges well I will need to buy 50 Spark Cells for 100 caps.

please tell me someone grabbed the scope and ex. magazines... they are going to be useful. if not I grab them just so they are in inventory I mean alouette would make the best use out of them

also i need to know what was in the doctor's bag that was picked up,or was it a doctors kit?

Fine
SK gabbed the rifle mods atm. Ammo is fine but I believe Obs wanted to buy some energy ammo.

Examined the dead roboponies before dismantling. x1 Doctor's Bag Kit to Backdraft.

Dibs on the Hat and Rifle parts. Not sure if Flashpoint is needed for adding the parts to rifle or if it's easily modified.

Debating on stuff obtained from Mr. Bet: .308 Ammo, Possible 1 saddlebag for Draz to experiment on. Requesting  Foodstuffs to restock everyone's supplies.

Discussing breaking off robolimbs to see if they can function manually, i.e. Wolverine Draz. Also possibly robopony head for helmet as well.

The parts are not modifiable but flexible. Can be used on Varmint rifle, crossbows and service rifles. The ammo however is limited to the varmint rifle.

[Cptadder]

Here's a summary of plot threads to date.
Meadow's Ford
The town is help by the Gryphon mercenary band lead by Cross.  In a few more days her contract with the town expires freeing her up to either abandon the town, sell shares to the looters or loot the place herself.  Either that or the party pays her the three thousand caps to defend the town for another month.  

As for the town itself the entire population minus the gryphons who either on patrol, at stable 39 (The bulk were at stable 39) meeting the Overmare.  The town itself was empty when they returned with all the residents gone and only two houses showing signs of a fight.  One house containing a Zebra alchemy lab owned by a pony named Golden Carrot had it's front door smashed in and the shadow of a pony burned into the stone chimney.  Such a shadow is caused by very high energetic energy weapons but they tend to burn them into the ground not structures as such weaponry is high powered enough to level the entire house.  Aside from the smashed in door and the pony shadow on the wall the house was untouched, papers and bottles unbroken.  The second home meanwhile showed signs of forced entry as one wall had been blown in and several grenade fragments were used along with the bullet holes of fight were obvious.  

Aside from these two bizarre data points the town was untouched, it's population gone as if into mist.

Recently the party discovered that Carrot had been experimenting with Pink cloud for purposes unknown.


Stable Depot/Bloodwings hideout
The party found a pseudo stable.  Designed for testing equipment to be used in eventual stables by what they found on the terminals they were experiments by Stable-Tech not in psychology but pure hardware.  They were used to testing everything from construction methods to in stable repair practices to large pieces of stable equipment like generators and fabricators.  Not designed to hold ponies and built well before the war, there are unknown number of them.  Also unknown how may depots became stables in there own right in time.

Inside this depot they found several machines, the parts of several other machines and told everyone about them.  They also found a horde of ghouls.  Among the ghouls they found one Pegasus and two unicorns ghouls who seemed to use tatics and cunning rather than charge the nearest meal.  They also found the notes of a doctor Bright Eyes a ghoul who was experimenting on mindless ghouls for some reason.

Later they found out from Loy a Bloodwing that the ghouls had been used by the raiders lead by as cannon fodder on raids.  Something went south and the feral ghouls went out of control and the ghouls who had been controlling them attacked the raiders.  Most died, some escaped inculding Bloodwing himself.

Bloodwing and Bright Eyes are both  unaccounted for, and it's unknown if they are alive or dead.  And unknown number of Bloodwings raiders might be alive as well but it's unknown how many but the number is believed to be very few.


The Slavers
The party found a camp of slavers hidden out north of Meadow's Ford.  By the lack of defenses and limited numbers it looked to be a staging area not their main base.  After dispatching the guards they found an unknown earth pony already dead in the slave holding room.  Later that day they took on most of the rest of the slavers.  Their leader Red escaped however and where the main slaver base or how many slavers are left.  According to the stable ponies they rescued there were fifteen in the group. They killed twelve for sure.

According to the prisoner they took the leader of the slavers was named Red (Possibly Big Red or Red Sand) and they were hired by Red Eye to round up extra slaves for Fillydephia.  It's unknown if they were lying or Red Eye's desire for workers made him go that far away from the city for more ponies for his factories.  

And unknown number of slavers, the slaver base and their leader remain unaccounted for.

Stable 39
The stable was located high in the mountains and of above average size.  Few stables seem "right" to normal ponies considering their nature.  Stable 39 is odder than most because of it's mixture of normality and odd touches.  It's guard force is organized on militaristic lines and are armed well enough for service in the Equestrian army.  Yet that force is seemingly small.  It's ponies unused to fighting and cautious of outsiders.  Yet it's Overmare looks every inch the scarred battle harden fighter.  But the rest of security seems like a small town police force where everyone knows you and the stable drunk has his favorite cell to sleep it off in.

Something is off about this stable, but aside from the unusual security force and the fact the interior outside the meeting hall looks very different to traditional stable barely hidden pipes design it could be any control stable out there.

The Goddess
The Goddess is interested in Stable 39, she says she's looking for more children yet lets a potential new convert to Unity leave after she has them helpless.  She also has an unusual number of Alicorns in the area.   Considering one is normal, three rare but there are six near Meadow's Ford for reasons unknown.

Tollway
A pony from Tollway, the encampment near the old river bridge was freed from slavery by the party.  

Gold Dust
A caravan scout from south Fillydephia, he has filled the group in on several locations like Mesa Cabra where the scavanger outpost of Chalk sits hard against the Mesa.  The old battlefields of the Sand Flats and Hamada pass which became impassable after the war ended and Balefire bomb fell short.

The lands south of Equestria
Footprints were seen near Endpoint the pass leading out of equestria indicating a large number of ponies had been through the area at some point in the past.  The pass is little used aside from Chalk to the south the Dunes go on for mile on mile without water or shelter.  Only the Buffalo take the pass with any frequency and every group taking it were returning to Equestria not leaving it.


There's a rough summary to date of much of what they ran across including the plot holes I left in or they created for themselves.  There's a big one I've prompted them for a dozen times now and they have yet to see.  Maybe it's because they never did the thing with the pushpins and the giant chart.

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

I should roll to talk to ponies(alicorns) watching our group
it wouldn't be unusual at this point if they weren't watching us.

and obvious excursion to the south, tell me, are the hoofprints within the time frame for the towns ponies to have left and if they are the towns ponies who would catch up to the larger group, I don't know where Fillydelphia is compared to the map.

if mass exodus south would not make sense. unless something south was there... spotting settlements and abandoned zones are more of a high rise and perception check away

then thers binoculars and the scope

that would help on the details bit

[OneMoreDaySK]

@Rum
Alicorns pretty much ignored everyone 'cept Smooth. Flashpoint interrupting ended up with him unconscious. They left after ripping memories straight from Smooth.

On what happened with the town Stone and I were discussing over TS. We have some possible theories. Nothing definite. But need to keep moving because we're on a timetable.

Telescope/binoculars is now in Alouette's possession, as is the scope.

[Moodyman90]

Well, the alicorns did appreciate Back Draft being polite as he dragged Flashpoints unconscious self away from them the first time, and the second time, but that was probably because they was more focused on Smooth Tongue.

[OneMoreDaySK]

Yeah, Alouette may have known an alicorn in her backstory, but that one warned of the ones still attached to Trixie. Up on the list of things to avoid, top currently being Burning Mare.

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

nah i was referring to how it seems that our group is being watched. Also all this pointing by adder and his references to our group missing something very important is starting to get on my nerves because I think I should have caught on to it for a while now.

[Cptadder]

Yep you guys have missed something.  There's already enough facts to ask the right people the right questions.  The how, why, what and with have all been demonstrated out already.  Everything Loy told you could have learned five sessions ago.  I made sure to have back up plans for myself.  No "the secret is only revealed one day out of the year every ten thousand years" because on that day the party will be breaking out of jail for accidentally using an ambassador as dragon bait.

There was a path where you would end up solving the mystery almost on accident. 
There was a path were you would have a mistaken idea about what was going on before setting up the dramatic twist
And there is a third path for putting enough clues together to have an idea about exactly what is going on.

Here's a few plot lines to send you off on wild tangents that seem to have been dropped from memory.

1. After securing the Stable Depot you disable CB-2 the cake making robot.  You spent the night in the stable and in the morning CB-2 power supply was gone.  There were fresh hoof prints indicating somepony had been there in the night.

2. There was a corpse in the old jail of a fourth pony dead before the stable ponies had been jailed there.  No one knows who he was.

3. Bright Eyes had three ghouls helping him manage the small heard of mindless ghouls.  All three went feral within a short time frame, why?

4. What are the Black Tails doing here?

5. What's the Burning Mare's story?  Why does she ignore Buffalo like she ignores rocks?

6. What happened to the first and second caravans that went to visit Meadow's Ford?  Three caravans visited meadow's ford.  A small one which might still be in Chalk, a large one which vanished with the town... and the third which was attacked in force by raiders but some escaped to spread the story of the missing town.


¶. The Goddess watches you

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

I didn't tell this to everyone but I am scheduled to work friday saturday and sunday night

like last week I am available until 3pm central standard time saturday and sunday for role play.

yeah in hindsight, following those hoofprints would have been useful, shame we were preoccupied by the ambush and a side trip to cross... totally forgot to follow those damned things

given there is an ambush we were known to be in there, and all that crap. Now I say this, set out some of the gem bits from the robots, since they are collecting the parts, then wait for them to be retrieved, after that follow the hoofprints or roll perception to notice them coming and going. then initiate capture, that is what I want to do. set up tin can traps, or mines or sensor modules to create a notice or just plain finding them, shouldn't be hard to fake slumber. hell they love to draw on flashpoint.

[tylertoon2]

FYI Me, SK and Stone want everyone to join us in a "Campfire Session" tomorrow which will be a little rp on what goes on in the night that we spend in camp. This will also give us a chance to plan out our next session and ensure everything is A.O.K to go.

Current time worked out is 7pm est tommorrow.

[OneMoreDaySK]

Dropped x1 Wagon wheel at Meadow's Ford
Sold:
x8 Chains & Shackles (40 caps)
x3 Shovels (33 caps)
x3 Batons (30 caps)
x2 Leather Armor (40 caps)
Bought:
x12 Shotgun Shells (24 caps)
x30 .308 Ammo (60 caps)
x1 Box of Materials (12 caps)
x10 Bobby Pins (5 caps)
x?(How much food Adder?) Food to stock in adventurer's kit (? caps)

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

FYI Me, SK and Stone want everyone to join us in a "Campfire Session" tomorrow which will be a little rp on what goes on in the night that we spend in camp. This will also give us a chance to plan out our next session and ensure everything is A.O.K to go.

Current time worked out is 7pm est tommorrow.

okay I'll have the skype up and running for tomorrow night thursday pm central time

[Aonee]

Oh yea guys, I just remembered that tonight I'll have to leave by 6:30ish central and probably won't be back for an hour or two.

[Moodyman90]

Be in to watch when I can. Have a dinner tonight, fish fry and thats good free food right there.

[Cptadder]

So my players have put together a giant chart with lines and arrows and boxes.
I'm so happy

[StoneSlinger88]

It has made thinking of theories easier.

And I've finally got around to updating Draz's backstory a bit.

[Moodyman90]

When is the next actual session? I'm going to guess tonight so I can start figuring out which group of friends to disappoint.

[Cptadder]

When is the next actual session? I'm going to guess tonight so I can start figuring out which group of friends to disappoint.

As far as I know we are set for Sunday evening again but hey maybe it's set two hours ago or Monday at 2am EST.

maybe we've switched to a German language only RP!

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

..weird there was a PM sent regarding the session

Hello all, the day and time for Session 15 is set for tomorrow, Saturday March 22 @ 6:30 U.S. Central time.

I am still waiting on Weekly Availability schedules from everyone reading this including spectators and the GM. I currently have the schedules for: Moodyman90, Ironmonger, Admiral Stoic Rum, tylertoon2, and StoneSlinger88. I am currently missing schedules from: Cptadder, OneMoreDaySK, swicked, and Aonee. All I need is a PM detailing what days and times during the week you would be willing to attend a Session. This is so that I can create the "Backup Schedule" so that Rum might participate to the fullest extent I can provide, to the same extent I would attempt to provide any of you.

After this next session I begin doggedly pursuing individuals morning, day, evening, and night. Do not underestimate how little of a life I have.

[Cptadder]

I don't read the things handed to me

[Cptadder]

Okay this goes out to all my players. I can host and it can be tonight at 7pm central 8pm est. I'll see what numbers look like tonight and decide

[Moodyman90]

SK went out to eat with his family roughly 30 minutes ago, no telling when he'll be back.

[Cptadder]

Delay of game with only four players, we are holding off until tomorrow

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

yeah, sunday become habit

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