Who You Gonna Call?

So my turn then?

---

"CASSANDRA"
"HELENUS"
The twins jump at the floating jacket... and unsure of how to proceed, set about tearing it (and hopefully anything inside it) apart with their teeth.

---

Combat:

Brian('s jacket) is torn apart as his core, too, is exposed, pulsing wildly - with fear? Chronos steps out from behind the crates.

"Wow! You got that done in no time!" he exclaimed.

The earth pony steps away from the door, grumbling. He then looks around the room at all the other ponies... and sees the safe, still sealed shut.

"Ah! Sir or madam!" he says, in halting Ponglish. "Door... no open. Key... inside. Can get?"

---

Combat over, if you couldn't guess.

JUST A NOTE! You don't have to trap every spirit. In fact, as you might have guessed, you don't have the traps needed to trap every spirit.

"...Did it work?" Gallows blinks, speaking through shreds of jacket. Hallows spits out the musty cloth with a grimace. "I guess so... I mean of course we did it!" She elbows Gallows in the ribs. "We are professionals, after all." She turns and looks at the foreigner, and then says, "The key might be in that safe over there. Try opening that."

"Is what just said to you!" said the exasperated pony.

---

You're not getting out of a puzzle that easily.

Maverick turned his head to look at the safe. "Sure. Whatever," he said in a tired sort of voice. He pulled out the PKE Sensor from the gear bag and gave it to Rhinestone.

"This thing works kind of the same way as my M.E.D.S.," he explained, showing her how to use it. "Do me a favor and see if you can find some more ghosts. Maybe try some of that tact you mentioned. I'll tale a crack at the safe and catch up," he said. Without waiting for a response he trotted over to the safe...

Mechanics:

The safe is a pretty old model, and looks like it takes four digits, rather than the now-standard three, to open.

The PKE beeps rather quickly, though given that there are two ghostly cores in the room slowly dissolving into ectoplasm that's not exactly a surprise.

Maverick raised an eyebrow. Don't see those too often. Probably a standard tumblers type deal. Judging by the rest of the place, it probably hasn't been oiled recently. Well, let's just find out, shall we? he thought, pressing his ear against the lock and turning the dial experimentally...

Mechanics (Again!):

The twins walk up to the safe, looking at Maverick toy with it. "Try 330." "Or some variation thereof."

---

Assist roll
Mechanics: 11+7=18
If success, that is a +4 to Maverick's roll, total, and if it needs more I will use Ghost of a Chance to make it +7 total.

There are ten thousand possible combinations for the four-digit safe. Randomly experimenting won't help Maverick open it. Trying "3300" and "0330" doesn't have any result either - doesn't seem like either of those is the code.

Chronos, meanwhile, finally notices the injuries on the twins.

"What happened to you?" he asked, surprised and concerned and not making a time pun.

Brony 7 of 9 wrote:There is also the aforementioned sign hanging from the ceiling, detailing that it has been [6][2][0][5] days since the last accident.

Maverick looked back at the sign. He had paid no mind to it before... But maybe...

Can't hurt, he reasoned, shrugging as he turned the dial to 6205...

The safe clicks and creaks open, revealing a spool of golden thread, a tattered notepad written in Serbian, and a small bag of bits inside.

"There! Is key!" exclaimed the earth pony.

Artie raised an eyebrow. He hadn't thought that would actually work...

He glanced back at the foreign pony. "You sure about that? I don't see anything I would call a key."

"Gold's key to a lot of things," White Whisper smiled in a way that didn't quite reach wicked, walking over to the safe as well. "Nightclubs, backstage, ponies' hearts and minds, political elections, you name it. Okay, fine, stupid jokes aside, Ii's probably something symbolic, like how Excalibur's a sword and also the right to rule Albayon."

He, of course, stayed notably and with some extra distance the opposite side of Maverick than the jackal twins.

"I never really understood that. I mean really, of all the metals, minerals, and other miscellania we could've used, why gold? There's just so many things it's better used for. I mean really, it's the third best conductor of magical energies, doesn't corrode, and isn't magnetic. Why must it be so hard to get!" Artie ranted as he felt a small bitterness rising up. "Bah. Doesn't matter. Let me see..." He looked at the spool of thread. Why would somepony lock that in a safe? he wondered. I mean sure it's valuable, but that strikes me as a bit excessive. So maybe that's the key? Not a strictly mechanical one for sure, too easy to forge. Hmm... His horn lit up, bringing the spool up towards his face as he began probing it for magic...

Arcana:

"You guys are dumb." "It's a spool of thread, in a room with a big spooling machine thingy." "I bet that thing opens the door if you put the gold thread on it." The twins helpfully point out again, and then turn to Chronos. "Your dumb factory tried to kill us, like 3 times." "Who builds a room that randomly shifts gravity tot he side like that?" "Also, why are there so many things to fall off of and no safety precautions?" "What a terrible factory, no wonder everyone's dead, except our new buddy." "Cwakon sak a gan!" They wave at him.

---

Im pretty sure its that, so no assist roll this time. If I'm wrong then we'll try again.

Bronymous wrote:"Your dumb factory tried to kill us, like 3 times." "Who builds a room that randomly shifts gravity tot he side like that?" "Also, why are there so many things to fall off of and no safety precautions?" "What a terrible factory, no wonder everyone's dead, except our new buddy." "Cwakon sak a gan!" They wave at him.

---

Im pretty sure its that, so no assist roll this time. If I'm wrong then we'll try again.

"My factory?" questioned Chronos as he begins to clean some of the grit off Hallows. "This isn't mine. I wouldn't have the time to run it, having to spend my days travellin- wait, did you say there's a room that changes gravity?"

Crystalite wrote:His horn lit up, bringing the spool up towards his face as he began probing it for magic...

The spool has no magical properties.

"да!" exclaimed the earth pony. "'Spool' is key!"

As he comes closer to point out exactly HOW the spool is a key, Maverick's M.E.D.S. beeps.

Huh. Weird. In that... Case... "HOLD IT!" Maverick whirled around to point the nozzle at the foreign pony. "Explain yourself. NOW. In case you didn't hear, I have no time for tact today."

Persuasion:

Rhinestone dug herself out of the ground and took the machine Maverick gave her, waving it around in the air, unsure of what else to do.

"He doesn't speak Ponglish well." "Try to communicate in his own language, like this- Habakk dowee eindrowak!"

---

I'll assist that- WITH MAGIC

Spoiler:

Bumped Mavs roll to 35, the Twins are now out of Magic points, but still have one use of Spellchild (Generosity) left.

Brony 7 of 9 wrote:"Eh... par-don. No Ponglish good. Can try help?"

---

"Well where I'm from we called it Ponglish." "And he called it Ponglish." "And Equestria isn't the only country that speaks it." "So...."

Crystalite wrote:Huh. Weird. In that... Case... "HOLD IT!" Maverick whirled around to point the nozzle at the foreign pony.  "Explain yourself. NOW. In case you didn't hear, I have no time for tact today."

The foreign pony stops in his tracks, looking down the nozzle at Maverick, partly confused and partly intimidated.

"Am... Tsar Bomba. Work here," explained the pony, slowly so as to avoid miscommunication. "Rocks... fell. Trying... clear them. When rocks cleared... can go. Door locked. Key... in spool."

The fact that Tsar Bomba didn't mention anything about ghosts indicates he's either avoiding the question or legitimately doesn't know.

"Yeah, got that part. Bomba, you say? Look here," Maverick said, lifting the M.E.D.S. with his telekinesis where Tsar Bomba could see it. "This thing tells me when ghosts are nearby. According to it's incessant beeping, it seems to think you're a ghost yourself. Explain that part, please."

OOC:

"ANOTHER GHOST?" The twins pull away from Cronos and cram in front of Maverick, taking a look at his device. "If you were a ghost you should have told us!" Hallows accuses Bomba. "No way, he was too scared of those grenades to be dead already."

---

Always helping.

Crystalite wrote:"Yeah, got that part. Bomba, you say? Look here," Maverick said, lifting the M.E.D.S. with his telekinesis where Tsar Bomba could see it. "This thing tells me when ghosts are nearby. According to it's incessant beeping, it seems to think you're a ghost yourself. Explain that part, please."

The M.E.D.S. is beeping pretty much exactly where Tsar Bomba is. The first time it registered Bell Mare it was only slightly off from Rhinestone. All signs point to Tsar Bomba being a ghost.

"What this?" asked Tsar Bomba, confused. "Am... Ghost? No... cannot be right! Am still hungry! Am breathing! Cannot be ghost!"

Bronymous wrote:"ANOTHER GHOST?" The twins pull away from Cronos and cram in front of Maverick, taking a look at his device. "If you wee a ghost you should have told us!" Hallows accuses Bomba. "No way, he was too scared of those grenades to be dead already."

"Да!" exclaimed Tsar Bomba, as if this will acquit him. "Were bombs at stairs! Very boom! Were going to explode! Put me in front of door to protect!"