ooc [CLOSED] Whisper: The City of Darkness (Exploration, Horror, Action/Adventure)

[Chaton 3,765]

I say a mix of all of those options. Go after Twilight to persuade her to lead the group to Tirek to convince Wilhelm, then actually convince her to return to the throne and give us her notes instead. While we're flying to Ponyville, see if either I) the airship has cannons or II) the airship can have cannons installed and airstrike the alicorn-demons as we're flying past. Load the cannons with a mix of pure silver on an iron base, and douse it with the Equestrian equivalent of holy water before firing the silver/iron shell.

 

Well. That's the entire plot.

I'm confused, what's going on now?

[Once In A Blue Moon 895]

 

 

I say a mix of all of those options. Go after Twilight to persuade her to lead the group to Tirek to convince Wilhelm, then actually convince her to return to the throne and give us her notes instead. While we're flying to Ponyville, see if either I) the airship has cannons or II) the airship can have cannons installed and airstrike the alicorn-demons as we're flying past. Load the cannons with a mix of pure silver on an iron base, and douse it with the Equestrian equivalent of holy water before firing the silver/iron shell.

 

The airship has four cannons, although if you fly too close to the demon horde then there is a severe risk that you will be spotted. Even though the pegasus ponies in the demon horde haven't been seen to fly, if all three alicorns attack at once then things will get very unpleasant very quickly. Magic-dampening cannon balls exist that should be able to resist telekinesis and punch through shields, but hitting an alicorn in flight is a nigh impossible challenge. Magic-dampening bullets do exist, but are much less effective due to their small size (magic-dampening weapons are embedded with counter-spell crystals, so the smaller the mass the fewer the crystals and so the less effective they are.)

 

Your best hope for taking out the alicorns is to draw them away (possibly with sightings of the airship) and then ambush them. A head-on confrontation with one is very risky, facing three would be near suicidal.

 

 

 

Well. That's the entire plot. I'm confused, what's going on now?

 

That's the plan, which is what you want to happen. The plot is what is going to happen, and so hasn't been finished yet.

 

The consensus about what is happening now seems to be to go and find Twilight Sparkle, so that means you're heading to Ponyville by airship. My next post (some time later today) will set the scene for the voyage and throw the first challenge at you. 

[Once In A Blue Moon 895]

 

 

As Cloud Chaser welcome them aboard, a grin slowly crossed her muzzle. "I... love your hat~"

 

'Show don't tell', they say, so I decided to tell everyone about this character by showing you all their hat.

 

 

The next posts will be on Monday, Wednesday and then Friday, or possibly Sunday (TBD). There may a short post this Sunday if Zayoh can persuade the gust of wind to help you.

[Chaton 3,765]

I am genuinely confused by what is currently going on.

 

What's happening and where is Scarlett O_O

[Once In A Blue Moon 895]

 

 

What's happening and where is Scarlett O_O

 

The entire group, Scarlett included, is aboard the airship Scion Temestatis  and on their way to Ponyville. Once there, the plan is to search Twilight Sparkle's lab and archives and then search for the pony herself in the Everfree. 

[Chaton 3,765]

The entire group, Scarlett included, is aboard the airship Scion Temestatis  and on their way to Ponyville. Once there, the plan is to search Twilight Sparkle's lab and archives and then search for the pony herself in the Everfree. 

 

Lovely.

[Blacklight 118]

Just as an odd question here, what exactly does Scion Temestatis mean?

[Chip Circuit 1,842]

sounds latin in origin, could probably punch it into google translate

[Dust and Memories 557]

Going off my knowledge as a random guy who is currently studying Latin, I'll take a stab in the dark and say Storm Child. (Child Storm, technically, but Latin's weird like that.)

[Chip Circuit 1,842]

^^^ sounds about right and would make sense for a ship dubbed that for a campaign where it's possibly going to go head first into a storm

[Once In A Blue Moon 895]

Just as an odd question here, what exactly does Scion Temestatis mean?

 

I understood scion to mean in Latin roughly what it means in English today - a descendant, usually relating to nobility or royalty ('he is a scion of a noble house'.)

 

A tempest is a storm, and I vaguely recalled that it was similar to a Latin word. So I put storm into google translate and lo, tempestatis popped out, along with several other options such as procella, cataegis, etc. so I picked the one I liked the look of the most. I'm quite certain that it lacks the finesse of someone who actually understands Latin, but it works for fancy names (other examples include Caelum Rex, Aurae Custodi, Aquila Nigra... I'm fond of Latin-esque names for ships and suchlike.)

 

 

 

Going off my knowledge as a random guy who is currently studying Latin, I'll take a stab in the dark and say Storm Child. (Child Storm, technically, but Latin's weird like that.)

 

And then someone who does understand it comes along.

Edited March 6, 2016 by Once In A Blue Moon

[Once In A Blue Moon 895]

Sorry, I haven't got around to today's post, so the new schedule is Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. Apologies for this change.

[Dust and Memories 557]

Unicorncob, did you see the reference to Lavender in my last post? I mentioned you...

[Once In A Blue Moon 895]

@@Blacklight,@@Chip Circuit, @@Ethan Sawyer, @@Orion Caelum, @@Unicorncob, @@ForthEorl.

 

 

 

"Wait a moment... Lavender!" Wilhelm said. "Can you do anything with this storm? It's chaos magic, so I thought..." He trailed off. "It'd save us time, and we need as much as we can get."

 

 

Albion did say that when you all work together your powers have more effect, so I would encourage this sort of thinking.

 

 

 

Looking back at earlier parts of the story, I notice that it was only two hours by bus from Ponyville to Canterlot, which means that it should be very quick by airship - I've moved the arrival time to quite a bit earlier as long as you go fairly directly. I will stick with five days for the demon hordes to reach Canterlot though.

[Unicorncob 5,679]

Unicorncob, did you see the reference to Lavender in my last post? I mentioned you...

 

Oh sorry, I'll get on that

[Once In A Blue Moon 895]

And they say that worse things happen at sea. 

 

Oh, and I should probably have specified a few things earlier... actually, I should probably have specified a huge number of things earlier. Ho hum, here are a few:

 

1. There are three levels to the airship; the deck, where the helm is and where the captain, crew and most of the marines are when on duty; the next level down has most facilities (such as they are) on it - captain's cabin, VIP cabin (usually for the king, but surprisingly spartan), a mess with a tiny but well-equipped cooking area, a very small armoury, an area that doubles as both the sleeping area and a common room... the usual stuff for a small ship; the final level has a fairly small cargo space. 

 

2. The airship is not pressurised, so it has a very limited altitude. Flying over the storm wouldn't have worked.

 

3. The balloon is full of helium, so you don't need to worry about hydrogen explosions.

[Dust and Memories 557]

Just wanted to briefly ask for clarification on something:

In Eorl's last post, he mentioned a "carbine," which I am assuming is a carbine rifle.

Given this, I'm wondering if I should keep Wilhelm's normal canon bow, or switch to something like a marksman rifle. Depends on how technologically advanced this world is.

[Once In A Blue Moon 895]

Just wanted to briefly ask for clarification on something: In Eorl's last post, he mentioned a "carbine," which I am assuming is a carbine rifle. Given this, I'm wondering if I should keep Wilhelm's normal canon bow, or switch to something like a marksman rifle. Depends on how technologically advanced this world is.

 

 

It refers to a smooth-bore carbine, as opposed to a rifled carbine. Below is how I described Equestrian firearms, which have only been introduced quite recently (in the king's military modernisation drive) and are not available for civilian use at all (obviously the characters can acquire them by asking for them, given the circumstances.)

 

Note that black-powder weapons are not at all accurate yet - one could achieve much better accuracy with a bow. Pistols tend to be used for their stopping-power at point-blank range, or as status symbols by officers who want to appear to be modern and high-tech. Full-length muskets tend to be used in formations defended by spearponies. Carbines are very rare, and almost always the preserve of unicorns.

 

 

Having gone and had a look at a couple of designs for pony firearms, I've decided that they will work as follows:

 

Pistols are held and fired in a single hoof (never mind how they use a trigger mechanism) or by magic.

 

Carbines are used almost exclusively by unicorns and are held and fired with their magic, or in unusual cases in the same way as a musket by non-unicorns. Very magically taxing.

 

Muskets are held using a harness and a stand. The gun clips to the harness on the right shoulder, and the right leg is bent or straightened to raise or lower the barrel, which is supported by a stand. The left hoof is used to fire or adjust the stand. To say that it is unwieldy is putting it mildly. Unicorns can do without the harness and the stand, although it is less taxing on their magic if they use the stand. 

 

Reloading can be done fairly easily by magic, or as a somewhat fiddly operation with hooves.

Edited March 13, 2016 by Once In A Blue Moon

[Dust and Memories 557]

It refers to a smooth-bore carbine, as opposed to a rifled carbine. Below is how I described Equestrian firearms, which have only been introduced quite recently (in the king's military modernisation drive) and are not available for civilian use at all (obviously the characters can acquire them by asking for them, given the circumstances.)

 

Note that black-powder weapons are not at all accurate yet - one could achieve much better accuracy with a bow. Pistols tend to be used for their stopping-power at point-blank range, or as status symbols by officers who want to appear to be modern and high-tech. Full-length muskets tend to be used in formations defended by spearponies. Carbines are very rare, and almost always the preserve of unicorns.

 

Ah, makes sense. Thanks for the explanation. Wilhelm'll be sticking with the compound bow.

[Once In A Blue Moon 895]

My apologies to all, but I got a bit sidetracked whilst preparing today's (well, yesterday's) post and haven't been able to finish it. On the plus side, there is now a fair bit more lore for Twilight Sparkle's archive about the history of Equestria and the time before Celestia and Luna. Expect me to aggressively hint at it from now on.

 

I should have it done by midday tomorrow (11 hours or so from when this was posted.) 

 

Done.

 

The next posts should be on Wednesday and Friday - I'm going away on Sunday, and won't be back until (Thursday?) so this Friday might be the last post before Easter. I can probably say more closer to the time.

 

I will have internet access, but only from a tablet, so I can answer questions in OOC (albeit without all of my notes to hand) but I can't really give a proper story post. 

 

 

that is if nonsense smells like cheddar.

 

 

Emmental!  Cheddar doesn't have holes in it. The lack of cheese knowledge here is disgraceful - what do they teach people these days?

Edited March 14, 2016 by Once In A Blue Moon

[Chaton 3,765]

Emmental!  Cheddar doesn't have holes in it. The lack of cheese knowledge here is disgraceful - what do they teach people these days?

 

LE HORROR

[Once In A Blue Moon 895]

@@Ethan Sawyer,@@Orion Caelum, @@Unicorncob, @@Chip Circuit, @@Blacklight, @@ForthEorl. 

 

I don't really have much more at the moment - I think there's something going on for each character, so I'm waiting for more posts before I move the story along. Note that my schedule is only for purposes of advising you - you can make multiple posts between each of my posts, should you see fit. 

 

Reminder that Friday's post will be the last I do before Easter.

Edited March 16, 2016 by Once In A Blue Moon

[Chaton 3,765]

 

@@Ethan Sawyer,@@Orion Caelum, @@Unicorncob, @@Chip Circuit, @@Blacklight, @@ForthEorl. 

 

 

The crewpony reared onto their hind legs, unclipped their and Scarlett's harness and grabbed Scarlett with their forelegs and with a push from their hind legs and a flap from their wings the two of them were propelled up towards the engine mounting. At the top of the arc Scarlett was hefted towards a pair of hoof-holds on the side of the engine mounting, whilst the crewpony grabbed onto another pair of hoof-holds on the underside of the balloon. With the help of some of the rope lines, their own re-attached safety line, well-placed hoof-holds and the occasional beat of their wings they scuttled their way over, almost spider-like, to the engine on the other side of the balloon.

 

I'm confused, is Scarlett standing on the balloon still or the engine?

[Once In A Blue Moon 895]

I'm confused, is Scarlett standing on the balloon still or the engine?

 

 

The engine is attached to the side of the rigid balloon by a metal frame. Scarlett is currently holding on to the metal frame, which has several hoof-holds on it to allow access to the engine.

 

 

 

 

 

[Chaton 3,765]

The engine is attached to the side of the rigid balloon by a metal frame. Scarlett is currently holding on to the metal frame, which has several hoof-holds on it to allow access to the engine.

 

 

 

Diagram.png

 

 

 

All righty then.

 

I should draw a diagram on how my engines work. So that the others can understand