Call of Colthulhu: Team One's Adventures

Torque was confused. "...Sundown!? But...we can't have been down there for that long, it must have been a few hours at most. Unless there was some weird time dilation going on down in those tunnels (or worse, our memories of what transpired were messed with), that doesn't make sense."

"As for the violence, we didn't actually SEE anything. Deep Secret had sent one of her Diamond Dogs to retrieve the soulstone that Mirrored Clear was stored in. It was taking longer than expected, and Deep Secret was about to go look for him when we got your telepathic message about the Aspiration following us down and detecting the combat-oriented psychic energy, which was our cue to try and...leave..." Torque paused. "That...was you that sent the message, right?"

"...Message?" Moon Gazer looks at him blankly.

"...You or your associates didn't warn us to leave?" Aurora looked confused, tilting her head. "...Hmm. I must have drastically underestimated somepony's insofar as manipulation and trickery. Whoever it was was able to convincingly pass themselves off as...Hmm...Did they worm in after my charm expired?"

The Mask continues to sit quietly on Torque's face and say nothing...

Flashpoint takes a deep breath as his nerves rattle once again, and he glances between the supposedly-friendly cultist and the mask. "....So help me, I will bring the Princess herself down here to sort this mess out if someone doesn't start making sense right this second."

---

Persuasion- TELL THE TRUTH, JERKS: 15+8=23

"...We got played. We got played good and hard." Torque took a deep breath, then got out his notebook and started writing. "Alright, we need to establish parameters. 1. The imposter must be capable of communicating telepathically (obviously). 2. They must have heard Moon Gazer's voice at some point in order to properly simulate it. 3. They need to have known that the Aspiration had followed us in. 4. From all understanding, they did NOT inform Deep Secret about our connection with Moon Gazer, even though they could have."

"The first suspect is Sanctuary. I'm going to assume that her motivation was to get us out of the caves as soon as possible. We're already aware of her mind messer capabilities, and the eye-door may have detected the Aspiration passing through. But I don't understand why she wouldn't have told Deep Secret, or when she would have heard Moon Gazer's voice (of course, if she's able to simply read our minds like Deep Secret wished to do, the gig may have been up the moment we entered the cavern)."

"The second suspect is Mirrored Clear. Her motivation would be that she didn't wish to be disturbed. The main trick is that we don't know what capabilities she has while she's in a soul-stone. We know that she was at least aware of the Aspiration, since she copied its cloak. But again, if telepathic communication is possible, why lie to us instead of telling Deep Secret the truth?"

"...The third suspect is someone who has a reputation for mind manipulation, an actual reason not to communicate with Deep Secret, and a very clear motivation for us to leave. Darling, you've been awful quiet, care to share your thoughts on the matter?" he asked with a bit of suspicion.

"You are suggesting," Darling said in a measured tone, "that I, a mere porcelain mask, would forge a message by a pony I have never met, and send it to a collective I was, at the time, only vaguely aware of, in order to manipulate you into doing something you had already agreed to do for me?"

"...You have a point. Granted, I certainly wouldn't describe you as a "mere" mask, and after Deep Secret was suspicious of us after the message, you did seem to push for us to leave. But I don't think you can read minds, or project your "voice" to anyone not wearing you; you probably would have used those skills earlier if that was the case. So, you wouldn't know about our association with Moon Gazer and the Aspiration, let alone be able to copy her voice."

Torque thought a moment. "What if we heard the Aspriation's version of events? It may have been able to pick on things we didn't, and it might be able to help explain the time discrepency."

The Aspiration speaks up, having been observing the discussion silently so far. "We cannot definitively discern the source of the time discrepancy. This host has been in contact with our other hosts for the duration of the mission, and..." The Aspiration stops for a moment, "none of them report this host being disconnected from the Host. In is most likely that the discrepancy occurred only to your party, given we attempted infiltration a couple of hours after the beginning of your mission, and from our perspective, the duration of our mission is roughly equivalent to yours."

"As for the psychic intervention - this host did not detect anything overtly out of the ordinary." The Aspiration says. "Potentially they masked their psionic presence behind the ambient psychic energy of this Sanctuary entity. Our hosts will be watching the compound for anomalous activity. It is noteworthy that no external influences have been detected, however."

"So in conclusion," Moon Gazer seems to deflate slightly, looking tired. "We have no concrete idea as to both of the answers, beyond that something within the cavern made it happen. I suppose it's too much to hope for a simple mission..."

"That's certainly disconcerting...A little exciting though. If you don't know what it is, and we don't know what it is...Hmm. What about that one running the bar? Her drinks drew on our perceptions to create their taste, right? But then, if she wanted to manipulate us, or let us be manipulated, she wouldn't have given us those drinks in the first place. And, if Sanctuary was acting up...Is it possible we walked in on somepony else attempting a raid on them? I'm sure your organization and theirs aren't the only games in town as far as cults go, right?" Aurora tilted her head, thinking aloud. "I doubt it matters too much immediately, but it would be interesting to note that they've made another enemy."

"That's assuming there even *was* another attacker down below, and that it wasn't just the deceiver giving us a reason to leave. ...Although, it would be interesting if they were actually trying to help us avoid danger, but relaying the message in a voice we could trust." Torque shook his head. "Blast, too many unknown variables. And I'm not sure why Eloquence's note mentioned something about waiting for "things to stop blowing up". Did she just expect we'd eventually resort to violence, or did she see someone more dangerous come through the bar?"

"Aspiration, about what point did you end up catching up with us? If the time delay only happened before you saw us, we might be able to eliminate some possibilities for what caused it."

"Well all I know is that someone was fighting down there. But considering I didn't hear the fake voice in my head until after I drank that vial..." He scowls. "Maybe avoiding that drink wasn't such a bad idea. You guys have no idea what kind of magic manure we might have swimming around our bodies now."

The Aspiration considers Torque's question for a moment. "It was.... a little before you started being escorted by the swarm of vermin."

"The vial..." Moon Gazer bites her lip, before looking up suddenly, realization dawning on her. "The vial! Flashpoint, that's it! The time discrepancy - it was between you leaving and the Aspiration meeting you, and you spent most of that time in Eloquence's bar, no? Could that be the cause?"

Torque thought for a moment. "...The bar, yes; the drinks, no. Eloquence mentioned that part of her powers involved messing with the perception of ponies. It's quite possible that she "paused" us or something for several hours either right before or right after our initial conversation with her. But I was the only one who actually drank her potion at the bar; the other two didn't drink it until after the Aspiration caught up with us."

"Which raises further questions. Why would she do that? If she was our enemy, why would she let us pass at all? I mean, if she's really able to just pause us like that, we could have just as easily woken up in chains deep underground. I do believe that the drink was designed to stop Deep Secret's siren song, but what if Flashpoint's right and it allowed her a way to get into our heads to relay the fake message?" He sighed. "And she seemed so nice, too."

"Maybe she just wanted to play for time. Send a warning, perhaps. Though...Nothing adds up. If she wanted to send a warning, we would have been swarmed when we entered...If she's on our side, then we're back to square one, with no answers. ...As much as I'd love to sit here and dissect this turn of events, I have to believe that at the moment, we simply don't have enough information to figure out her motives, or who sent the false message..." Aurora wasn't happy about that, but she supposed it was a set of questions they could come back to later.

"Well, for starters I should like to have a different host," Darling stated. "Torque here has done well enough, but I can't imagine he really wants to carry me about the rest of his life."

"I believe we could contact some of the groups more ambivalent to our presence. If we could negotiate to see if they are aware of any going ons in the city, we could at least eliminate possible suspects if not find the ones responsible for what is happening. Additionally, as Miss Aurora has stated, we do not have enough information. We also have several unknowns here that we need answers to."

Moon Gazer starts pacing around.

"Like this Apocrypha book. It could very well contain an important clue, and if I'm understanding this correctly, it was purchased at an auction. If something potentially dangerous like that is circulating in official auctions, then we need to investigate who provided it... though that is most likely a task for our own agents, not you.

Then there's Streaker. We have narrowed the possible suspects down to a few, but we still need a while to identify who exactly Streaker is. Another few hours of scrying and I should have an answer for you.

I'm cautious about this Eloquence as well. This merits further investigation, but perhaps it's for another time, since I presume Deep Secret's compound will be on high alert for our agents."

Moon Gazer sighs. "But it's almost sun down, and dark things lurk in the night. I'm not sure if continuing external investigations while the sun is down is a good idea or not. I'm not going to stop you if you wish to continue, but I would recommend staying indoors, even if it's to prepare for further updates. As I had mentioned before, we can have quarters here prepared quickly, or if you so wish I could find a teleport circle near where your place of stay is in the city. That is, if you decide to call it for the night"

"As for you," Moon Gazer turns to look at the mask. "I don't trust you. Not one bit. But if you're willing to cooperate and aid us, we will provide you with a suitable host."

The Aspiration stands slightly straighter as Moon Gazer continues. "A host of the Aspiration is ideal for an entity such as yourself. It cannot leave Baltimare, but within Baltimare it functions just fine. So if you're willing to help us..."

The host body suddenly falls to the ground like a puppet with cut strings, lying there limply. The normal blurred features fade away, and the cloak evaporates into thin air, leaving only an average looking earth pony stallion on the ground.

"Hmm..." Torque stepped forward, allowing the mask to examine the earth pony. "It's not quite what I hoped for... I have much to teach to a willing host, after all. But better than I expected," he said.

Torque sat down, and his hooves came to his face. The mask was carefully taken off, and placed on the earth pony's face.

For a few moments nothing seems to happen - but then the earth pony slowly stands up, and Torque feels their previous connection sever. The earth pony wriggles a little, shifting from side to side before taking a few steps.

"...Yes. This will do," Darling decided.

"However! While I am quite willing to assist your endeavors, I also expect to be allowed my own ventures as well. I have not seen the outer world in countless ages, haven't had a decent drink, a hearty meal, or the warmth of a mare beside me, and I expect to be able to enjoy such things once again."

Torque shook his head as the connection to Darling was severed. "Well, that was...an experience. Anyways, Darling, if you're planning to go off by yourself, be careful. I imagine lots of things have changed since you've been below ground, and a pony wearing a mask like yours will probably stand out in a crowd. And...be careful with that body." Torque...wasn't quite sure about the exact ethics of body possession, but he felt it would be bad form to leave it in a worse shape than when it was..."acquired."

"At any rate, I'm willing to call it a night if the rest of you are. I don't think we currently have any leads significant enough to warrant the risk of going into unfamiliar territory after dark. At any rate, if it's possible, I'd like to grab some things from my hotel room and then come back here for the night (I imagine the rent will be cheaper). Oh, before I forget," Torque turned to Aurora. "Aurora, before we left on the mission, you grabbed that Intro to the Elder Gods book that Moon Gazer provided. Will you be looking into it tonight, or can I read it tonight?"

Flashpoint studies the face of the stallion once its unblurred, before the mask gets settled on it. "I should probably check with Skyline, let him know what kind of crazy magic cult stuff is going down around the school."

"I had actually hoped to study it. I've never actually seen such a book before. You may look over it tomorrow, assuming you don't want to make a study session out of it? At least one of us needs to be well-rested, ha, ha...!" Aurora smiled, excited to have a chance to study the book's contents for herself! Though, she nodded to Flashpoint. "You're probably right. I don't think we really got a chance after dealing with the Giver, did we? He would like to know what's happening, I think."

"If you're going to this... Hotel, you say? Perhaps I shall come along with you," Darling suggested to Torque. "That way you can educate me a little on modern etiquette and culture along the way, yes?"

"That might not be a bad idea, Darling. I can try to give you a primer while I go to pick up my stuff." Torque looked over to Flashpoint. "Flashpoint, I would be cautious about what you relay to Skyline. Telling him that we're alive and still investigating is one thing, but the whole "working with an illegal group of cultists to stop worse cultists from bringing about terrible things" bit might need some...discretion."

Alt-script time!
Donkey: Howdy folks, I'm your bartender for the evening. What can I get you?
Darling: ...Torque...the donkey is speaking to us like he think's he's "people." What is the appropriate way to admonish him?
Torque: Um...