Affairs of Darkness

Chris gives Silkie a cross look, "I know I'm irresistible, but this is ridiculous."

Paper Reign holds up a paw to its mouth and mimes a giggle and slowly its color shifts to silver.

---

Because I hate purple.

The rain slowly lightens until it finally stops all together within a few hours, the clouds still grey and covering the sky but spent and slowly beginning to dissipate. A low mist begins to form in the rains place from deep within the forest, rolling out across the grassy fields and covering everything like a blanket.

As the lieutenant had said, the assembled group begins its search, splitting into groups and pressing into the forest. Each team consisting of between 5 and 8 guards, armed and ready, and 2 mages attempting to pinpoint the magical trail.

Your own group only bears the two mages as additions, the lieutenant and another younger stallion, it being decided that a team from the Affairs of Darkness would be more than equal to a small troop of guards at the task of protecting the mages while they searched. The mist swirls around you as you walk and the wet ground squishing beneath your hooves is the only sound you hear as you travel. The forest is deathly silent, as if holding its breath and waiting for something to pass.

Two hours pass during the search with no sign of your objective until finally, one of the mages manages to pick up the trail. The second soon locks onto it as well and they begin to guide you deeper into the forest. The mages begin running faster and faster, calling back that the trail is getting stronger, clearer! They're close! They know it! And with that they leap through the brush and out of sight, and everything goes silent once again. The sound of their running suddenly stops dead shortly after you hear them land on the other side.

A soft giggle from nowhere breaks the silence for a moment, like that of a young mare.

Spoiler:

Scarlet had followed in relative silence, glancing about occasionally to try and keep from being ambushed as they got closer...But...It was too quiet. Something was wrong, at least that was what her gut told her...but other than a giggle after the two disappeared, she wasn't entirely sure if she could see anything, though she was glancing around constantly, looking for the source...

perception:

Chris is jumping through the forest, in its normal form again, then seems to stop with ears perked up "Hey, do any of you ponies see that?"

Spoiler:

(Roll:1d20+9 => 10+9 = 19... Fail)

"No... I didn't see anything... But I think there was something in my eye." The unicorn states and gets out a tissue to wipe his face with.

Chris sighs, "Seriously, I think I found a big clue..." While pointing upward. ((Which is to say pointing at a certain Masked Made that it saw. Isn't sarcasm fun?))

"Wait, what...Above us!?" Scarlet looked up, ready to strike, her eyes narrowing as her wings extended, the dragonnel preparing to pursue the Masked Mare if she tried to run. "There you are...You got a lot of questions to answer, Mask. Come on down and surrender, and I don't have to get rough." Threatening her...Probably wouldn't work, but she didn't figure they'd get called in if it would. But still, best to give them a shot to give up...

STOP RIGHT THERE CRIMINAL SCUM!:

Arcana check to get some kind of info on it: 16+15 = 31

Shock pays close attention to the Masked Mare's Medical and Physiological condition as he questions the thing. "Hello... How do you do?"

heal check:

Silky looks up in surprise, having been distracted by her kitty when the giggle happened. She looks up at the masked mare, and quickly jots down another entry into her logbook, before pinging the Masked Mare with her inborn sonar.

Juniper 15, 0312: Masked Mare spotted in air, attempting to ping mare with sonar.

The masked mare continues to float there simply watching for a moment before she begins to laugh. Her laughter is wild and somewhat shrill as she doubles over and kicks her hooves in the air.

"mweeheehehahaha! Surrender? hehehe! To you? hahaha! Now why would I do what you say? haha... ah. That was a good one! No, I have a better idea! How about we play a little game instead?"

She asks with a giggle as she begins to slowly drift backwards away from you.

"Everypony else I've tried to play with have been so boring! Always trying to leave me alone or being all stuffy and complaining! Hmph! Well who needs them! But what about you? Are you gonna be boring too?"

Scarlet growled at the mockery, eyes narrowing a bit as she watched the mare carefully..."You wanna play a game, huh? Well then..." Rather then finish the thought, she leapt at the Masked Mare, wings extending as she took flight and charged the being full-force, attempting to tackle her to the ground...She was NOT letting their target get away without a fight!

THEN PAY WITH YOUR BLOOD!:

Paper Reign knew it stood little chance of removing the mask but, at the very least it could try to interfere with its power.

---

Arcana to basically make magical interference for the mask: 16 + 14 = 30

As Scarlet leaps for the masked mare, her mask begins to rattle and shake and release waves of magic. Scarlet suddenly feels herself pass through something and then slow in as if she's run into something. The wall seems to bend around her like rubber, diminishing her forward motion until finally the force of the barrier stops her in mid air, a mere foot from the masked mare she feels the strange wall begin to press in on her from all directions. Before it does though, the barrier begins to ripple and shake and pops like a balloon, causing Scarlet to simply drop into the brush. The mask stops its shaking for a moment as she continues floating backwards slowly, giggling all the while.

"You're doing much better than the last two who played with me!"

As she says this the mask gives off another little pulse and another pair of masks floats up from below her, coming to a stop floating just beside her. The two masks look exactly like the faces of the two mages that were with you. Their expressions completely blank and emotionless as they stare into space.

The masked mare floats out into the center of a clearing and stops in midair, folding her legs beneath her as she slowly drifts down to rest on a tall stump.

Chris simply facepaws, then says "If you want us to play a game, you should first tell us the rules. It's only sporting and it would make us more likely to actually want to play."

Spoiler:

"If you liked that, you're going to love this..." Shock snarks and then he tries to quickly use one of his thunderstorm weather cultures to fire off a lightning bolt at the Masked Mare... To test what effect that would do.

weather crafting (with heal):

"What the-...Ooooh...I hate that kind of magic!" Scarlet muttered to herself, scrambling out of the brush and scowling up at the Mare...then looking at the masks and narrowing her eyes. "What...What the hay are those supposed to be...?" She wasn't sure she'd like the answer, but it gave her a chance to keep it talking while one of the others came up with a better plan...

The mare's mask begins to shake and rattle again as the bolt comes towards her. There's a flash as it seems to slam into a dark blue bubble around her and disappear into it. The bubble begins to tremble and crackle with electricity as the bolt begins reforming as a ball of lightning at the very front, pointed right back at Shock. The rest of the team dives out of the way as the bolt slams into Shock with no noticeable effect.

"Boring! Every pony tries something like that! Hehehee. The rules are simple!"

She answers with a giggle as the mask settles down, still sitting as if the attempt to attack her never even happened.

"I'm going to try to cast a really big spell, and you've got to find a way to stop me! If I win, you and everypony else become my playthings! FOREVER! If you win, well, that doesn't happen and you'll have saved everypony and the whole world! yay for you! hahaha!"

The masked mare is silent for a moment as she regards the two masks.

"These two? They wouldn't play with me! They just tried to run away like everypony else! It was so boring! So I made them into masks!"

She floats one of the masks over in front of her own mask and giggles before tossing it aside.

"Now they're at least a little but fun!"

Paper Reign tries to animate the masks to attack her.

---

Arcana: 16 + 16 = 32

Scarlet glanced back at Shock for a moment before her eyes focused back on the mare. She clenched her jaw, snorting a plume of smoke as her temper rose quickly..."Stopping you? Heh, you're in luck, that's what we're here for, and I don't plan on letting you get away. No way, no how...!" She looked around for a moment, grinning a bit...All they needed to do was stall her for a moment...She'd have this mare stumbling around blind...The catch would be doing it without frying everyone...But they were smart enough not to ...While the others tried their things, she'd be building up for a moment..."Here goes...Flash!" She warned the others with that shout, before closing her eyes and spraying a quick plume of fire which, thanks to her magic, quickly erupted into a blinding flash...Hopefully that'd unbalance the masked Mare for a moment at least...Though the others would probably have something to say about the potential forest fire.
__________________________

Yeah, basically, prepping Pyrotechnics, then using my Fireborn racial to set it off, with the 120 ft blinding flash.

On hearing the word 'Flash', and remembering that Scarlet is a living flamethrower, Chris decides it would not be in it's best interests to be flammable right now. As such, it starts focusing on a more appropriate form turning orange and red, with it's tuft of fur becoming reminiscent of a warm fire.
________________________________

Switching out Herd Mentality for Fireborn

The small flame goes up in a massive explosion of light, the grass around the masked mare igniting in seconds. The two masks of the mage ponies begin to shake and their expressions shift to anger as they turn around to face the mare. A small ball of magical light gathering in their open mouths as they silently yell, turning into a ray that further adds to the blaze. Everything is silent except for the crackling of the blaze as it slowly spreads through the clearing to the surrounding trees.

"hmmhmhm! Silly little lizard thing! Why would I run away?"

The masked mare's voice can be heard from inside the inferno, and for a moment you can see her. Still in the same sitting on the same stump, not having moved at all save her mask. It once more shakes on her face, but far more slowly, with a rhythm that seems to slowing down more and more as it goes.

"This is my game! And this is MY world now too! I don't have to be afraid of anything with all my power, not even if I'm alone!"

The mask slows further and further until it finally stops completely and a massive pulse of magic goes out in all directions. Extinguishing the flames and nearly bowling you all off your feet. The ground begins to crack and fall away into an unnaturally deep-looking black pit. The ground falls away underneath you and when it does, you feel a strong weight pulling you down into the darkness. The masked mare peers down the hole from her stump as it floats in the air, its roots waving around like tentacles.

"Heeheehee! Those were some neat tricks you pulled though, I'll have to remember them for next time! Oh well... We'll start our game now, you promised you'd play so no take backs! Do your best! It'll be boring if you don't! hahaha!"

She calls out as you fall further and further into the darkness.

---

You fall for what seems like hours, long ago having passed the point where you can see it all. Falling for so long, you become used to it, no longer able to tell which direction is up and which is down. After a long time in this strange directionless state, you see a small faint light in the distance and it's coming up fast. Roots slowly become visible as you continue heading towards it. The faint light turns into land as your fall begins to inexplicably slow, bringing you down for a soft landing in a small stream.

You find yourself in a small earthen tunnel, with a small stream cutting through it, barely ankle height. (about knee height for Chris I assume) The tunnel is maybe ten feet in width and barely more than a foot past pony-height high. Moss grows all over the small banks like grass. The walls are a reddish stone with moss occasionally growing along it in patches and large roots bursting out in places. You can hear the sound of water dripping from ahead of you. You can see all this thanks to the dim light that the water itself seems to be producing, shimmering lightly with a faint glow that's just barely enough for you to sea wherever it gets disturbed. The spots around your hooves/paws/claws in particular seem to ripple with this light. The stream disappears behind you through a small opening in the stone wall to your back, and continues ahead of you beyond the edge of what you can currently see.

Scarlet swore rather...creatively...As she was pulled into the abyss, struggling as best she could, her wings flapping furiously...But it was no use, she was falling..."Nei! Ég neita að deyja svona!" she shouted, clearly not pleased with this development in the slightest...Though, eventually, when she landed, she looked around, growling. "Is this...Is this Tartarus? Did it kill us...?" The cave was claustrophobicly low for her, but she took a breath, more focused on determining what was going on than panicing over death or a low ceiling..."So...Does anyone happen to know what just happened?" The dragonnel began to walk slowly forward, eyes darting about...

Translation, please?:

Paper Reign, still in vaporeon shape, turns to look at Scarlet and nods in reply to her question. It taps the water with a paw and a bright gold ink-like substance appears in the water and forms into letters saying: We are in a place called The Chasm. It lies between Equestria and Caballend.