Pony's Bizarre Adventure - On Set

AleneShazam wrote:She looks specifically at Rapid River when she says, "The doors are probably blocked already... Um, do you mind if I have Mint make an exit for us...?"

"Do it," instructs River, before sighing to himself. "I guess I know what I'm doing over the spring..."

"Sorry..." Violet mutters, before Mint winds back and delivers a flurry of blows to the back wall, preferably temporarily freezing the wall chunks in place then unfreezing them when the wall is completely demolished so the whole wall is blown back simultaneously rather than in parts.

When the wall beatdown concludes, the chunks are punched back and... fall forward into the house in a pile. As the newly-punched hole in the wall begins to show, it reveals why the wall fell like it did: thick ice had formed behind the wall and stopped it from falling outwards. To make matters work, the ice seems interested in growing in the direction of the newly formed hole into the building...

"...oh." Violet squeaks, before backpedalling a little bit. After a moment's hesitation, she narrows her eyes and begins lobbing balls of fire at the ice to soften it up, while Mint forgoes the inanimation and goes for maximum destructive power - if they can't sneak out, they'll break out. While she does this, though, she tries to peer through the ice, trying to figure out the situation outside the house.

"Hmmm... well I'm almost out of ideas. Anyone care to try digging?" Splendor asks. "Or shall I try to take a look around and see who or what is doing this?" Even as he suggests it, his horn lights up, a stream of magic cascading up to the tip and slowly collecting into a translucent ball.

---

No idea if this will even work but:

Between Mint and the flames, the ice blockage appears to be able to smash away, but as it seems close to breaking, it seems to double its efforts and begin to spread faster around that area...

As Violet peers through the ice and sees nothing unusual, Splendor notices something with his orb. Some sort of white figure, embedded in the ice itself as its appearance distorts in the ebbs of the ice. Looking like the upper half of a pony upside down, it lowers itself down to where Mint is focusing its punches. The ice appears to grow even faster once it has...

"Aha, there's something in the ice. Definitely looks like a stand to me." He focuses the eyesphere, watching the mystery ice creature. "Have your stand start busting up the ice away from that thing. I'll tell you when it moves." The view from the orb is projected for all to see, so that Mint can direct her attacks elsewhere.

Violet nods, and immediately goes in the opposite direction, redoubling her efforts of smashing through the ice with fire and Mint's punches as far away from the figure as possible. As she does, though, she asks the others, "Do, um, do you think we should try and go for the stand itself?" She's not too sure if Mint can reach the stand, but maybe the others will have some ideas.

"The user is probably outside, we'll need to go for them if we want to win- or at least figure out who they are and why they're all of a sudden trying to deep freeze us." Splendor keeps watch on the stand itself, tracking it in case it moves.

The image moves to Mint's new punching area, bringing its hooves close to the edge of the ice...

River sends his stand upwards towards an iceless spot on the ceiling, where it puts its upper feet on it and doesn't seem to do much else. "There's ice above us too," River comments, "My stand can't travel through it!" He then turns his head around and steps forward. "The ice is approaching!" A quick glance shows that the ice from the door has now began to spread on the floor...

Clear Optic just looks frustrated and bitter, but it is unsure if it is because we are all going to freeze to death or because everypony else seems to have a more powerful stand than him...

"Okay, um, this is kind of bad." Violet mutters as she looks around at the encroaching ice. They're trapped with nowhere to run.

Flight is no longer an option. Time to fight, or die trying. "Damage to the stand means damage to the user... Mint!"

Mint starts going straight for the ice-stand. If it's close enough to the edge, maybe Mint can get through to it with raw destructive power. At the same time, Violet creates as much fire as she can, hoofing a few seeds out of a pouch at her side and tossing them into the air, which split and expand into ribbons of vines that adhere to the ice. The vines then catch on fire, hopefully staying alight for long enough to have more effect on the ice than just the witchfire alone. As the vines burn away, Violet tosses up more seeds which sprouts into more vines - as long as it keeps the heat up.

((Activating Sap Creepers/Webspinner, and Fire affinity.))

"Oh for- Fine, you all wait here, try and sort that out." Splendor rolls his eyes, and then his horn fires off a spark, which expands and forms around his body, giving him a ghostly appearance. "Back in a moment." He walks toward the wall where the stand isn't and then keeps walking.

---

Phase Step (6) – 2/Day
Preparation Time: 10 Seconds
Target creature gains phasing for the next five minutes (they can pass through solid objects, although magical barriers and magical attacks can still affect them).

Hopefully the ice doesn't count as a magical barrier...

A1C Bronymous wrote:"Oh for- Fine, you all wait here, try and sort that out." Splendor rolls his eyes, and then his horn fires off a spark, which expands and forms around his body, giving him a ghostly appearance. "Back in a moment." He walks toward the wall where the stand isn't and then keeps walking.

You successfully walk past the ice and wall with no problem. The wall opposite to where the stand is the opening hallway, which has beginning to be completely encased within the thick coat of ice. The areas of the lower floor to your right are still growing, and to the left the entrance has been completely coated, as have the staircase and a door opposite you...

Back in the room, Clear Optic comments "Oh, that works?" before performing the spell himself, taking a similar appearence while smirking. "The Scientist turned out to be useful here after all." He follows Splendor's lead and travels through the same wall...

AleneShazam wrote:Mint starts going straight for the ice-stand. If it's close enough to the edge, maybe Mint can get through to it with raw destructive power. At the same time, Violet creates as much fire as she can, hoofing a few seeds out of a pouch at her side and tossing them into the air, which split and expand into ribbons of vines that adhere to the ice. The vines then catch on fire, hopefully staying alight for long enough to have more effect on the ice than just the witchfire alone. As the vines burn away, Violet tosses up more seeds which sprouts into more vines - as long as it keeps the heat up.

The stand is taken back by Mint's assult, and the burning vines do a better job at melting the ice. But, while this all works at first, the stand brings its hooves to the edge of the ice. During Mint's barage, it stretches its hooves out of the ice and grab Mint's hooves mid-punch, holding the stand in place. You feel a cold powerful grip on your own forelegs, unable to move them. The stand then begins to move its head out of its ice. As it begins to reveal itself, you get a clear look at it's upside down head. It is a white pony's head, with a white coronet adorn at the top. No, not adorn, a part of. In the shade of the coronet (which seems to be present no matter where the light shines), two beady light blue eyes shine down at you. "Halt your attempts to escape," booms a voice from the stand, "Obey me and you will come to no harm."

"I was wondering when you'd show up..." Violet stares up at the stand, muttering first under her breath, then once the stand speaks, louder so it can hear her. Or not. Stand-speaking is weird.

"Mister... or, ehm, Miss, stand user." Violet bows politely in the traditional zebrican manner. "If you, uhm, wanted us to do that, you could probably have said so sooner. I, uh, like to think myself the reasonable sort."

Splendor rolls his eyes and keeps walking out the front of the building, looking around for anyone suspiciously watching the house. "Show yourself, coward. At least come make introductions like a civilized pony!"

AleneShazam wrote:"Mister... or, ehm, Miss, stand user." Violet bows politely in the traditional zebrican manner. "If you, uhm, wanted us to do that, you could probably have said so sooner. I, uh, like to think myself the reasonable sort."

The stand just continues to watch in a haughty manner. "Halt your attempts to escape," it repeats...

A1C Bronymous wrote:Splendor rolls his eyes and keeps walking out the front of the building, looking around for anyone suspiciously watching the house. "Show yourself, coward. At least come make introductions like a civilized pony!"

Walking outside shows that the front of the building is covered in ice. There is no response from calling out. At least, no useful one. "What are you doing?" complains Optic, "Are you trying to get their attention? You are aware that we can just leave, yes?"

(As a reminder, your eye is still in the living room, so you can see what's happening in there but not hear...)

"...a remote stand, maybe?" Violet mutters to herself as she looks carefully at the ice stand, not taking any overtly aggressive actions. "Okay, I've halted, um, Ice-stand user. I don't suppose we could settle this like nice, reasonable people?"
Internally, though, she starts to reach out with her spiritual self, seeing if her empathy extends to stands. If stands are representations of the user's will, she reasons, it might be possible for her to pick up on the soul of the stand user through the stand...

((Activating empathetic on the ice stand???))
Perception: 14 (roll) + 10 (skill) +5 (bonus) = 29
Even if she can't sense emotion she'll try to see if she can't figure anything out with regards to the stand's mode of operation.

Empathetic (2) – At Will
Preparation Time: 10 seconds
You can feel the emotions of creatures around you, even when they show no physical signs of their true feelings. Make a perception check with a +5 bonus to sense the emotional state of a target creature you can see.

"Whoever this is tried to trap us inside a house by using a Stand- I didn't know they existed a few days ago, and just now we met two and have been attacked by a third in less than two hours. Walking away isn't going to solve anything." Splendor rolls his eyes and then redirects his magical eye to fly up, through the roof, a few dozen feet above the ground to scan for any nearby ponies who looked like they were talking to nopony, or were just generally suspicious.

A1C Bronymous wrote:"Whoever this is tried to trap us inside a house by using a Stand- I didn't know they existed a few days ago, and just now we met two and have been attacked by a third in less than two hours. Walking away isn't going to solve anything." Splendor rolls his eyes and then redirects his magical eye to fly up, through the roof, a few dozen feet above the ground to scan for any nearby ponies who looked like they were talking to nopony, or were just generally suspicious.

Shooting the eye upwards gives immediate results. On the ice-covered roof of the building, a red earth pony is crouching down on top, looking down at the roof...

"It is obvious that this stand is after Mr. River," Optic retorts, "He even mentioned having been attacked before. We got what we came for, the sooner we distance ourselves from him the better.

AleneShazam wrote:"...a remote stand, maybe?" Violet mutters to herself as she looks carefully at the ice stand, not taking any overtly aggressive actions. "Okay, I've halted, um, Ice-stand user. I don't suppose we could settle this like nice, reasonable people?"
Internally, though, she starts to reach out with her spiritual self, seeing if her empathy extends to stands. If stands are representations of the user's will, she reasons, it might be possible for her to pick up on the soul of the stand user through the stand...

((Activating empathetic on the ice stand???))
Perception: 14 (roll) + 10 (skill) +5 (bonus) = 29
Even if she can't sense emotion she'll try to see if she can't figure anything out with regards to the stand's mode of operation.

Although you can't sense any emotions from the stand (Stands don't count as creatures after all), if you were to assign some feelings to it based on its stance and attitude, words like 'assured', 'commanding' and 'in control' would come to mind. As for the stand itself, the majority of it is still hiding in the ice; only half of its forelegs and its head are peering out of the ice. The rest is still submerged, and thus difficult to make out...

"Do not attempt to escape again," answers the stand, "I am not after you, but impede me, or create routes of escape..." The stand's voice grows menacing, "I will break you."

Splendor doesn't respond, and instead looks for a way onto the roof...

"...hm." Violet nods slowly. Not remote, then. But definitely arrogant. "So, uhm, you're not after me... Uh, if you tell me who you're after, I could help you. Maybe. Uhm. If you don't mind..."

She takes a sidelong look at River.

((Persuasion to play the part of meek surrendering?: 14 (roll) + 7 (bonus) = 21))

A1C Bronymous wrote:Splendor doesn't respond, and instead looks for a way onto the roof...

There doesn't seem to be any easy way up. There's no ladder or anything, and if there were any cracks in the brickwork that one could scale like they were climbing a cliff, they've been frozen over...

AleneShazam wrote:"...hm." Violet nods slowly. Not remote, then. But definitely arrogant. "So, uhm, you're not after me... Uh, if you tell me who you're after, I could help you. Maybe. Uhm. If you don't mind..."

"I do not need assistance, but you should be aware. There is a changeling in this house. It tried to escape me. Once I destroy it, I will leave."

"If you are after a changeling," asks River, his stand hovering at his shoulders, "How do you know it isn't us?"

"You can see me. You are stand users. The changeling is not."

"So, erm, why are you chasing this changeling exactly?" Violet shifts a little uncomfortably - her hooves are getting really numb. "Why would it be in this house?"

Splendor scowls, and then moves his magical eye down to get a good look of the stand user's face, and then lowers back through the roof to see what the situation is. Looking like they other two are talking and decidedly not being encased in ice anymore, he lets out a huff. "Well they aren't fighting anymore. Its rather cold in there, though, we'll stay outside..." He looks back up towards the roof, and the eye returns to survey the user, Space Cowboy slowly whirling above Splendor's shoulder...

AleneShazam wrote:"So, erm, why are you chasing this changeling exactly?" Violet shifts a little uncomfortably - her hooves are getting really numb. "Why would it be in this house?"

The stand gives a confused head tilt. "It is a changeling. It deserves to be destoryed. It tried to escape me by hiding here." It finally releases Mint, and subsequently you, from its grip. "No more talking. Do not attempt to escape again." It retreats into its ice and continues its search...

A1C Bronymous wrote:Splendor scowls, and then moves his magical eye down to get a good look of the stand user's face, and then lowers back through the roof to see what the situation is. Looking like they other two are talking and decidedly not being encased in ice anymore, he lets out a huff. "Well they aren't fighting anymore. Its rather cold in there, though, we'll stay outside..." He looks back up towards the roof, and the eye returns to survey the user, Space Cowboy slowly whirling above Splendor's shoulder...

The pony doesn't have any notable facial features. Soft yellow eyes complement his red coat, and he is chewing on a piece of wheat. His mane is either short or hidden under his stetson, which has more wheat held by the band of the hat. If anything he should be the one with the lasso stand. Regardless, he seems to be focusing on the ice, and doesn't move much outside of chewing his wheat...