The Sun Sets

"I'll just stay outside, these doors are more trouble than they're worth."
Kanen steps back outside trying to nurse his irritated eye. He occasionally looks out checking his vision.

Perception:

Kanen catches the tail end of the commotion outside, and sees Gearick speak to Koli. "I suppose. I don't see what the sudden interest in these houses is. Finding the missing pegasus was soooo unimportant a few minutes ago." She flaps over and magnetizes to the top of Kanen's head. Kanen also sees that whatever was moving about in the alleyways is still there, but still can't make out what it is.

SE, D:
Other than the flipped table and the chalkboard, there isn't much to look at in the dining room. Two doors, one on the left wall and one on the right, are the only other features, thought there is a large crack in the ceiling on the left side of the room. Storm looks over the chalkboard, but the hoofwriting is fairly illegible. What you can decipher seems to refer to an experiment involving the table, the picture frame, and something called the "void window" (big letters, underlined). The symbols and equations are obviously notes and instructions for performing the experiments. Storm can pretty much follow the instructions, if a magic user was present to perform the necessary spells.

Gearick: As you approach the door, you hear a few locks clicking into place, followed by muffled bangs as something is pushed up against it. When you knock, everything goes quiet for a moment, before a barely audible "Please leave, no visitors! If you're not one of them, then get out of here and find somewhere safe!" Behind you you hear a slow shuffling of hooves, and turning to look, a unicorn stallion with a glazed look and a dopey smile is slowly ambling towards you.

---

We'll continue with you three for now, as both Deonte and Raven are very limited in posting right now.

Storm pulls out a notepad and takes some notes on the instructions, in case its important later.

Nodding to Dodger, and talking while his pencil in his mouth and eyeing the instructions. "What was in the other room?"*

*Rough translation from speaking with a pencil in your mouth.

"Twelve chests," said Dodger. "I didn't think it would be polite to open them."

"Yeah, like them! They're... sick, or something. Don't let the face foll you, they'll tear you apart, and tear down anything in their way! Now go away, before they realize I'm in here!" The pony outside continues grinning, still moving towards Gearick, and before he can react, another comes out of an alley to the right, a Pegasus mare. As if in turn, two more appear behind the first, both Earth Pony Stallions.

Koli catches on to the situation, grabbing Kanen's attention, and flying over. She doesn't say anything to Gearick.
(Waiting for confirmation from Deonte if he thinks he can keep up with posting right now, and how he wants to play it).

Kanen eyes were still bothering him when he saw the ponies approaching Gearick.
'I could just sit back and watch this take place maybe he'll even get roughed up a bit.....' Kanen mind briefly trailed off.
"Oy, Gearmick, geardrick, whatever was your name, these friends of yours." He called out while simultaneously reaching for his bow.

Emerald looks at the crack, but does not dwell on it. A spiderweb crack pattern meant something strongly impacted that location. They were looking for the old pony because the deer had a plan of some sort requiring him, not requiring a slingshot bullet and a hole in the wall, though whomever fired it must have either been prodigiously strong or otherwise used magic to propel it. Likely the latter. It kept her mind busy, but her eyes and ears were instead more alert towards any unusual noise from outside, or inside, movement where there shouldn't be any, ambushes, that sort of thing. She simply watches as the others compare notes. Her worries were too many to do looting and ransacking at the moment, that was all. Elk-boy's plan better be a good one.

Storm looks up through the crack in the ceiling.  "Can you see if one those two doors open?"

OOC:Perception Check for the ceiling.
Roll(1d20)+7:
12,+7
Total:19

"On it," said Dodger, heading back to the closed doors on the right.

Opening doors didn't seem like it would be that difficult. Even if they were locked, there were... ways around. Dodger tried opening the two doors, and if any proved to be locked, set about trying to pick said locks. Then, suddenly, he felt... a strange urge. Maybe what was in those chests... wouldn't be missed so much. Besides, Storm only told him to open the doors. He said nothing about going to see what was behind them. After he was done with these, he headed back into the room with the chests and tried opening one - just one right now (say, one on the leftmost wall) - to see what would happen.

---

Mechanics to open doors (if locked): 1d20 (14) + 11 = 25
Mechanics to open chest (if locked): 1d20 (18) + 11 = 29

Storm:
The Crack is a stress fracture, you can't see through it. Judging by the powder and dust on the floor under it, it is very recent, and there may have been something dripping through it earlier.

Dodger:
The two doors, both locked, are both easy to open. One is an office, a few bookshelves and cabinets around it, and a simple desk toward the middle. There is a single lit lamp on the desk. The other room looks to be a pantry or storage room.

Back in the room with the chests, you find that the first one you go to is open. In it is a simple key and a piece of paper on it. The paper says "Follow". The key seems to be the right size to fit one of the locks of the other chests.

The Chests from Left to Right, for reference:

Emerald:
You see Dodger come back out of the dining room and poke around at the two locked doors, before returning to the chest room. You can hear him open a chest, but can't see into the room from where you are.

Kanen, Gearick:
The Ponies come together in front of the house, and push forward. It's still unclear if they even recognize that Gearick is standing there, but they're coming through regardless. Koli flies up out of reach, and you hear her telepathic voice "You should probably get out of the way..."

"Follow"? A curious clue indeed. Dodger's first guess as to where the key would go was the chest on his immediate right (H).

Storms going to try to opening the two doors in the dining room.

Storm:
The door to the left leads to a small kitchen room, replete with brick oven and pantry. It looks like it hasn't been used in weeks. A door on the opposite wall opens to the other hallway. Going back, the door on the right is locked, but has no visible means of unlocking.

Dodger:
The key slots into the lock, but does not turn. Two miniscule holes on either side of the lock spew gas, just for a moment, but enough for it to affect you (roll Endurance). After it does, though, the lock clicks open.

Bronymous wrote:Storm:
The door to the left leads to a small kitchen room, replete with brick oven and pantry. It looks like it hasn't been used in weeks. A door on the opposite wall opens to the other hallway. Going back, the door on the right is locked, but has no visible means of unlocking.

"Town's going to pot, and beggers can't be choosers." Storm looks through the fridge for non-perishable items, checking for stuff that can be reasonably assured not to be tampered with.

Emerald taps a hoof against the floor. "If he's not here we should probably continue our plan and just use a tree or whatever... I don't think he'd hide a forwarding address inside anything."

Her gaze moves back and forth through the hallway. Really long halls like this one usually had windows, that this one didn't seemed odd. The pony owner must have really liked the darkness.

Dodger holds his breath as best he can and backs away from the chest for a few seconds before going back, opening the chest, and seeing what's in it.

---

I am a derp and forgot this at first!
Endurance: 1d20 (13) + 6 = 19

Storm:
The kitchen is well stocked for a single pony, but some of the contents of the fridge seem to be experiments, rather than food. There are a few jars with no labels, each containing a different color liquid. Other than that, there are chilled vegetables and cheeses, condiments, etc. The pantry holds all the canned food, pretty much anything you could ask for, and there are some fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs on the counter.

Dodger:
You try to hold your breath against the sudden gas attack, but you're too slow. Your vision fogs up slightly, and you feel a burning in your lungs, and when you cough, a racking pain spreads through your whole body, briefly. The pain goes away, but you can't shake the slight blurriness in your vision. It does not stop you from opening the next chest though, which holds another note: "Be." Next to it is a small round icon on a chain. It looks like a backwards E and an arrow pointing right over a figure 8.

---

Gas:

Storm starts putting some of the canned goods into his saddlebags and returns to the hallway.  "There's food in the pantry..."  He notices Dodger hacking and wheezing.  "Pony!  What happened?"

Hearing another pony's voice, Dodger looks up to see Storm. He then looks back at the two chests he'd already opened, then back to Storm... who he had told earlier that he didn't want to open the chests.

"This looks bad," said Dodger. "And I admit that the explanation is equally bad. But I was trying to get some of these chests open and... well, gas shot out of one of them and it's somewhat difficult to see right now."

Brony 7 of 9 wrote:Hearing another pony's voice, Dodger looks up to see Storm. He then looks back at the two chests he'd already opened, then back to Storm... who he had told earlier that he didn't want to open the chests.

"This looks bad," said Dodger. "And I admit that the explanation is equally bad. But I was trying to get some of these chests open and... well, gas shot out of one of them and it's somewhat difficult to see right now."

Storm raises an eyebrow. "I thought you weren't going to open the chests." and then he looks over the chests and the note. "A puzzle, huh."

OOC:Can we have a picture of the note?

"Well, I changed my mind," said Dodger. "And if Figure Head isn't here he won't miss whatever's in these chests. If there is indeed anything of value. Now, can you make heads or tails of that note?"

"Hey maybe you should move or something, these ponies dont seem right."