The Sun Sets

Bells gives Snuggles a funny look. So you are still in the void, but you can see me as well. Can you see the others who came through the portal? They might be our key to getting out, and I can't see them. I see... trees. Lots and lots of trees, and I'm bleeding because the deer we came here to save shoved me back while I was trying to talk.

Bronymous wrote:Dodger:
The figure continues away from you as you continue away from the others. It gently flaps is smoky wings, to no real effect, as it floats by. As you approach it, it begins to take on a familiar shape- wings, head and talons of an eagle, back legs of a lion. Despite its smoky form, you somehow know it as the same Gryphon that kidnapped Star, so long ago... how long ago was it, anyway? Weeks? Years?

A day, maybe less, he was sure... wait, no, that was a lie. He wasn't too sure of anything right now. Hell, he didn't even remember the last time he saw Emerald. The only certainty Dodger knew to be... certain... was the fact that the Gryphon before him kidnapped Star and tried to do unspeakable things to Emerald. Once Dodger was helpless to intervene. The other time he refused due to his sense of pacifism.

He doubted his comrades had that same sense of pacifism.

"Sir!" shouted Dodger at the Gryphon. "Get back here this instant, or I shall be forced to take extreme measures!

"Shyza, I need to find my way back to that mare...."
Kanen stopped in his tracks to examine his surroundings.
"Now I know this isnt real but maybe I can still backtrack to where I was before."

Perception:

"Gearick, is there any type of spell you could cast that would show us the true nature of where the walls lie?"

Storm does his best impression of a mime trapped in an invisible box.

Kanen (smileybomb):
Your surroundings are exactly the same as they have been, a smokey forest of death. But you notice that you've traveled this same linear path three times now, with the only deviation being when you ran into the mare. So the way back to her should be right behind you- juuust past the red guy.

Bells:
"I don't know what catnip you're on, but let me have some. Those other ponies and the toy are right there, aaaand there." Snuggles looks to his left, indicating two different locations immediately nearby.

Dodger:
The smokey griffon looks at you, is eyes fixed as it continues moving. A faint, distant voice reaches you from its wispy beak. "Killed me... murderer..."

Bells focuses on the locations Snuggles implied, scanning them closely with her magic.

Murderer? No, no no no, that wasn't right, Dodger never murdered anypony. Not even when he was a young colt and he...
why did you steal from the other children
you've taken food from the mouths of babies
why can't you just accept your share

Now was most certainly NOT a good time for Dodger to think about his childhood, so if that were to kindly GO AWAY so he could concentrate...

Ahem. Much better.

"You're mistaken, sir," said Dodger. "I never killed anypony."

Your magical scanning brings back a mess of mixed messages. In the confusion, you can determine that the physical beings are indeed there- even though you can't see them, hear them, or really detect them at all in any other way. But their presences- auras, consciousnesses, etc.- are absent from those locations, but echo around you. Theirs, and about a million others, whose presence crashes around your psyche, causing a very real pain and disorientation.

Dodger:
"Smoke and fire... and promises. Enslaved and murdered. .." despite its words, the smoke griffon does not appear hostile to you.

Bells winces and slowly lies down, discovering how truly bad that idea was. Maybe she could send a message to the others, the same way that she sends messages to her family back up north. Pulling a piece of bark from a nearby tree, she takes a sharp stone and starts using it to write with in the bark. "I have found the deer, though he is pursued by a male red alicorn and is unaware of your presence. He speaks of some Nightmare, and I have lost him to the woods all around us. Speak to Snuggles if you wish to speak to me. ~Silver Bells" When she finishes, she gives the piece of bark to Snuggles so that he may give it to one of the others, such as, say, Storm.

Using this:

It's right about now that Dodger realizes the smoky griffon might not know who he is. Or has forgotten. Or has bigger issues than a single earth pony to deal with.

"Do you... know who I am?" asked Dodger.

Bronymous wrote:Scales:
With all the time in the world, you go back to the front door. It is still slightly ajar from when you came in. Inspecting it reveals evidence of force- cracks in the wood, and a single tine from an antler embedded in the door. However, the lock and latch look entirely undamaged, suggesting the door was unlocked, not broken in.

"Somepony tried to break this door down, and the tine suggests it was that deer who tried it with his conk. So, they did come in through the front gate, but not bash it down. That means Figure let them in, or Slither Bells. Or..."

Brony 7 of 9 wrote:"Stand back," said Dodger, moving up to the door.

Yet as he tried to pick the lock...

"Gah, how did I not pick up on that? Sweet Celestia, why am I such a bunny? My father would have note that earlier!" Scales uses a hoof to hide her expression of anger and self-disappointment. It soon faded away to a calm emotion. "Well, I shall keep it in my own noodle for now." The detective begins to move away from the door, letting out a quiet "Wait."

Copper Rose wrote:"What are you looking for?" Silver Bells shuts the door and puts it back to the way she found it (because I don't know if it was locked or not).

Scales steps back in surprise. "There's another number in the house? Zombies? This ain't good." Silver flies over to the door and closes it, and turns around. "I gotta get that deer out of here. He can't spill what's going on if he's dead." With that, Silver heads to where the deer was...

Copper Rose wrote:Bells winces and slowly lies down, discovering how truly bad that idea was. Maybe she could send a message to the others, the same way that she sends messages to her family back up north. Pulling a piece of bark from a nearby tree, she takes a sharp stone and starts using it to write with in the bark. "I have found the deer, though he is pursued by a male red alicorn and is unaware of your presence. He speaks of some Nightmare, and I have lost him to the woods all around us. Speak to Snuggles if you wish to speak to me. ~Silver Bells" When she finishes, she gives the piece of bark to Snuggles so that he may give it to one of the others, such as, say, Storm.

Using this:

OOC:Assuming this is being sent to Storm, since he's the only one mentioned by named.

Storm reads the note from the cat that has appeared before him. "Okay, Snuggles, can you tell Silver this? I've found Gearick. I can see him, but I can't reach him. Dodger seems to have to wandered off. If you can send him a message, tell him to stay put if its not dangerous to do so. If you've got any ideas to make this place more navigable, let me know."

Bells:
Snuggles takes the note, walking a few places away, and then sits, looking at some imaginary pony.

After a few moments, the cat returns to you with the following message: "The Doggy one wandered away and needs you to tell him to stay where he is, and they found the Gary one but can't reach him. He also wants to know if you know how to navidad this place."

Scales:
The house is eerily silent as you make your way back up to the tower. Kanens body lay where you all left it. If Thera something else in the house, it hasn't made its way here yet.

Dodger:
"You abandoned her, fled... you are a thief... and a coward... and a murderer. "

It takes Bells a moment to figure out who Snuggles means by "Gary" and "Doggy." When she does, she moves up to a sitting position and sighs. Well, looks like I have to use the long-distance spell for these two, if they are not withing reasonable distance for you. She pulls off two more pieces of bark and starts writing again. To Dodger, she writes "Storm tells me that you have wandered off from the others. He seems to want you to get back to them, he seems very worried, from what Snuggles relayed back to me. You should try to get back as quickly as is possible. ~Silver Bells" She sends this off in a burst of silver magic, then gets to writing the one to Gearick. Not sure what to say, she eventually just decides to write another one to Storm. "I am not sure how to help you with reaching Gearick, though I can tell you that the grey place is very magical, and wherever I am seems to be connected. If you can maybe think of yourself as swimming, and magic is water, that might work. ~Silver Bells"

Another use or two of this:

After Bells sends off the second message, she starts preparing the spell she learned that can be used to teleport other ponies to oneself. She gets comfortable, at least as comfortable as she can, and starts gently warping the magic around her to bring the deer to her. It may not prove the fastest method, but it should be effective, and it just may throw off the red alicorn long enough to get out of here. Thinking of that, she starts preparing another spell, this one even more carefully, to get everypony back to the room they found the deer being eaten in, in the tower, where his body still lies.

"It would be foolish of me to deny your first two charges," said Dodger. "But I have told you before I am not a murderer!"

Kanen attempts to walk past the red alicorn.
"Look I'm clearly not dead nor am I going to die. While it your little thing dose hurt me I do grow tired of this. I have bette rthings to worry about than so you so you can go off somewhere else and be some other pony's problem."

Bells:
"Uh, OK. They're both right here though."

Gearick:
You are suddenly aware of the cat standing right next to you. It lightly paws your leg, the turns and begins walking away. It disappears just as suddenly.

Dodger:
"It is not up to you to decide..." the malevolence in the smoke griffons voice takes a sharp upturn, and it fully turns toward you, advancing like a wraith. You are momentarily distracted, though, when a piece of bark with writing on it flashes into existence in front of you. At the same time, the cat also appears from nowhere, giving your tail a playful swat. It then notices the Griffon, and jumps away with a hiss. It is suddenly nowhere to be seen. Meanwhile, the griffon has closed the distance, and looks angry.

Storm:
You receive the return message from Bells, as helpful as it is.

Kanen:
You'd have hoped the defiant attitude would have given you some advantage here. It did, in that what happened next doesn't immediately kill you. A lightning charged Alicorn slams into you horn first, causing very real feeling pain- enough to almost make you black out. You tumble to the dirt, and the last thing you see is the Alcorn standing over you triumphantly, ready to deliver the final blow.

Scales:
After a moment in the room you realize there is one difference from when you left. There is an acrid stench of ammonia coming from the deer's body. Then, as you are observing it, the body twitches violently, sending a small spray of blood from his mouth into the air like a fountain.

Bells:
It seems you've gotten the hang of casting your magic in this place, as in a flash Kanen is teleported to you. He lies on the ground in a defeated heap, bleeding from a hole in his side and twitching slightly. His arrival in this condition causes you to break your concentration on the next spell, forcing you to wait longer before it can be cast.

---

Dodger, roll Initiative. YAY.

Bronymous wrote:Gearick can do another perception check, with an accompanying Reality Check (D20+x skill-knowledge score).

Still need that to continue.

Bells, your second roll is still being used, you just have to wait until the next "round", sts, for the spell to activate. I'd recommend not doing anything else, or risk delaying it further.

Dodger got into a fighting stance, trying to get the cat out of his mind. In all likelihood it was some hallucination.

He was a pacifist by nature, to be sure, but he was more than capable of defending himself.

Combat:

Bells looks surprisingly at the heavily wounded deer laying in front of her. Her first spell seemed to work faster than she'd expected, so that left her with more time to concentrate on her next one, and hopefully get that one done sooner as well. Good, especially with the deer in this condition. Snuggles, if you want to get out of here, let me concentrate, okay?

COMBAT START
Griffon Disconsciousness
Init: 17

Dodger's turn.
A thing to keep in mind:

Trait: Smoke
When this creature is targeted by a Utility, roll a d6. On a 5 or 6, the effects of that Utility are negated.

As the griffon got in Dodger's face, Dodger smacked him away - not very hard, mind, but it's still irritating.

"Oh, I'm sorry," said Dodger. "Did I just murder you?"

Combat:

As Dodger hits the Griffon, a wave of smoke styles around them, the Smoky enemy indistinguishable from the rest.

---

Dodger is blinded until the end of his next turn.

Dodger's turn.

Dodger closed his eyes, blocked out the smoke. Sight should never be the only thing a thief relies on. He needs that certain extra sense...

There. He had a feeling he knew where the griffon was. And so he lashed out with a swift kick...

Combat:

The kick strikes home- or at least you think it does, add your hoof hits something slightly more solid than the rest of the smoke. Despite this, the Smokescreen only thickens around you, still making it impossible to see.

---

Dodger is Blinded again.

Dodger's turn.

Dodger once more tries to strike into the smoke... only to whiff and kick nothing.

Combat: