open Occult in the Swamps

[Hive King 2,001]

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"Data not found, creature unidentified" Skuldaf said dryly. This was concerning, his data consisted of nearly every bit of fauna and flora from everywhere. "Suggested course of action, running" Skuldaf grunted, reverting to his military training

[The Elusive Cinder 1,328]

"Forget that!" Grinned the mare uneasily: this was what she came out to the swamp for after all, wasn't it? Adventure and monsters and the like? This was nothing! She could handle it, she was sure! "Come on you dirty great... fish... thing!" She blustered, taking a few tentative steps towards the creature without any real kind of plan on what to do... kick it, she supposed.
 
If only her brother was here - he'd know how to see these things off in a heartbeat!

As the water started to bubble again though, her bravado reached its limit: she looked around apprehensively. Could she handle three... four... however many of them there were? She wasn't about to run away - not from the first real adventure she had found but...

'... there are an awful lot of them...'
 
Backtracking along the few steps forward that she had just taken - Wish glanced around with a stern face that she hoped would hide her barely suppressed terror... foolishly bravely standing her ground. "I'm not scared of you!"

[Hive King 2,001]

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"You are very scared" Skuldaf grunted, launching into a list of fear signs that she was showing. This one was going to get herself killed, trying to act macho....well, she was a mare but the term still applied well enough for the situatation. Come to think of it, Skuldaf might have been a mare

[Mickey Taker 347]

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Golbez didn't need to be told twice to get out of the cellar when the fish monsters started to show up but after only reaching half-way up the stairs he looked back and noticed both Wish and and the somewhat outspoken colt still lingering in the water, on the verge of being surrounded, "She cannot be serious...Oh for the love of...".

 

Spreading his wings Golbez leaps from the stairs and hovers above the two ponies before landing with a splash between them, rearing up on his hind legs the magician raises his clenched talons above his head as he took a deep breath, inhaling in as much air as possible as his chest visibly expanded.

He clamps his beak shut, holding his breath for only a moment as he simultaneously slams his talons back into the water and letting loose an almighty and terrifying roar.

Being a magician, Golbez was well aware about when it was necessary to take risks, and from his perspective what these two were taking a very foolish and unnecessary risk which consequently annoyed him greatly, and it showed.

 

"FOOLISH PONY!!", Golbez abruptly turned towards Wish, looking sternly into her eye's, "Get your blasted flank up there before I HURL you out!!", instinctively he points one claw up the stairs whilst he continues to glare right at Wish's face.

He was going to pay for this dearly, he knew this the moment he leapt from the stairs but he just HAD to get these two out of there, even if meant scaring them witless.

"..and YOU!", now turning towards Skuldaf, his tone still stern but only slightly calmer,"You want to blast something? Blast THEM!!", Golbez points a talon directly at the fish monsters, his mind was racing to much to notice if his roar had any affect on them.

He couldn't deny the unicorns abrupt yet powerful bursts of magic would prove useful and common sense would show this was as a good as time as any to make use of it, at least to him anyway.

Edited January 7, 2014 by Sparx

[Hive King 2,001]

@, 

"Sorry, I'm a pacifist" Skuldaf drawled, shaking his head. "I can ward them off if you want, but I'm not hurting them" Skuldaf hissed, his horn lighting up red and black. He fired an energy shot into the water, creating a gouge in between them and the creatures. Still, it hadn't hurt any of the creatures

[Umbreon 569]

Sabellah

 

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Sabel was ashamed of herself - at the sight of the strange monsters, she'd actually found herself frozen...  Normally she wasn't one to be shaken so easily, but having a damaged wing and being unable to fly put a bit of a check on the griffoness' usual over confidence.  

 

She was shaken out of her trance-like state when Golbez yelled, shaking her head and jumping forward to help.  She leans close to the other griffon as she gets near the others to quietly whisper "Thanks,"  then turns to grab one of Wish's hooves and start tugging for the door.  "C'mon Wish, he's serious.  We've got to go!  Everypony, run!"

 

 

??????????? 

 

The creatures paused as the burst of energy hit the water between them, tilting their heads in confusion.  One looked to the other, and then back to the third creature behind them.  The water was starting to bubble again, a sign of their fourth coming to the surface.  It croaked in confusion, then turned back to watch the ponies.

 

The creatures didn't pursue right away - the ponies hadn't been supposed to resist.  The masked one hadn't said anything about that.  How to address this?  While it wouldn't appear so yet, their numbers were limited...  It wouldn't do to lose against the smaller creatures, especially not so quickly.

 

The monster that seemed to be leading the others lets out another low croaking sound, and the fish creatures shuffle backwards a few steps.  They continue to watch the ponies closely, but they wouldn't move to strike...  Not yet, anyways.  

[The Elusive Cinder 1,328]

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Wish leaned backwards, wincing under the verbal onslaught from the griffon: stumbling on the staircase as she staggered several steps backwards: eyes wide with an expression that she wasn't sure was fear or indignation.

 

Who did he this he was, calling her that? Before she could respond she felt herself being led away: resisting halfheartedly.

 

"They've got that pony!" The young mare exclaimed in a panicked yet decidedly angry voice as she looked back at the chaos behind her. "We can't just go, it's not right!"

 

Even so, she felt her hooves moving beneath her - scrambling up the staircase before the words had even left her mouth. This wasn't how it was supposed to be: she wasn't supposed to be scared... she wasn't supposed to be running away!

 

Shame filled her - her vision blurred as tears welled up with shock, and at the thought of how helpless she was. Everything she had thought of herself was turned upside down in that brief moment, and she fled.

[SilverHeart 741]

(OOC: I'm assuming Mirror only heard the last two thirds of Savona's speech. If in wrong let me know and I'll adjust my post. Also posting from phone.)

 

A voice broke Mirror's focus on her book. She could hardly understand what it had said...the accent was too weird and thick. It sounded kind of silly, she may have even laughed at it if she wasn't afraid to hurt the speaker's feelings. She looked around, trying to find the source of the voice...but there was nopony left in the garden. At least not that she could see. Maybe this was a prank? If it was it wasn't a very good one. Mirror stood up, placing her book back in her bag. A few seconds after the funny voice had stopped speaking another, more familiar voice rang out. Chances were that it was Wish, few ponies could be so excitable and energetic....or as loud. Smiling, Mirror started off in the direction her voice had come from.

[Umbreon 569]

Sabellah

 

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As they get to the top of the stairs, Sabel quickly pulls the door shut behind the last of them.  It was doubtful that the thin wooden door would do much to deter whatever those things were, but it seemed better than leaving it open.  She turned to the staff ponies that had made it out before them, to find out what they should do, but the words died in her beak.

 

It seemed that without Silver there to hold them together, the employees had quickly fallen into "every pony for themself" mode and scattered.  The griffoness sighed and looked back at her friends.  "Looks like we're on our own...  First things first, there are other guests here and I'm going to guess that none of those other idiots are going to go warn them.  We need to find as many as we can and rescue them, right?" 

 

She lets her gaze linger on Wish - she'd heard the mare's final comment as they were leaving, and could tell that she didn't like having to run so much...  Hopefully the prospect of trying to save, or at least meet up with, the other guests would help distract her.

[SilverHeart 741]

Mirror walked in the direction that Wish's shout had come from. As she walked through the gardens she kept her head low, so that her hood covered her face. The sound of ponies rapidly running past her caused her to look up. A stallion, a staff member if she remembered right, made eye contact with her as he galloped by. For a brief moment Mirror was scared that he had seen her face, but he didn't show any sign that he had. He didn't laugh or look disgusted...or even look like he pitied her....he just looked scared. He was followed by a few other ponies, all of them had similar expressions of fear. Nor did they slow down when they saw her, they were gone before Mirror could work up the nerve to ask what they were running from. Something tugged at her, telling her to run after the staff. Following them would probably be safer for her...but if they were running away from the danger, where was Wish? Was she still back facing whatever Even though Mirror had only known Wish for a day, she knew the young mare well enough to know that she couldn't be trusted to keep herself safe....but if Wish was as tough as she said she was then maybe she was alright.... Wish was tough, she had to be! After all, she had stood up to the bully who was way bigger than her...a normal pony wouldn't do that, right? But still...what kind of friend would she be if she didn't at least check in on her. Especially after the incident with the bully....

 

Mirror looked back and forth between where Wish might be and where the other ponies had run off to. She couldn't just leave Wish to deal with whatever had caused the staff to turn tail and run. With a whimper, Mirror continued her shuffle towards the cellar.

[The Elusive Cinder 1,328]

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Wish nodded somberly - she wiped her eyes with a foreleg and pulled on the straps of her saddlebags to check that it was secure.

"I guess..." She mumbled. "...we might as well try."
 
She had to do something... it should have been her that didn't make it out. There had to be something she could do to justify herself: to justify them saving her. What had she done so far after all? Argued and boasted and put them all in danger...

 

Speaking of putting ponies in danger, wasn't there somepony important that she was missing? Mirror looked like an adventurer - a real adventurer - she could help... and Wish could at least save a friend. Sure she had only known the unicorn for a little while but...

"Lets work our way upstairs, I guess that ponies on the top floor might not have heard and we can find my friend on the way!"

[Mickey Taker 347]

@, @, @, @@SilverHeart, @@SwigglySwiggly, @

 

Golbez sighed as he looked at Wish from a distance, his leaning against the front desk, as he had predicted he felt quite bad about having to yell at the young small pony, his heart sank as he watched Wish dry her eye's from tears.

In truth Golbez always had a soft-spot for kids adventurers and he was keen to make it up to her somehow, unfortunetly right now just wasn't the time.

 

After listening To Sabel's plan Golbez instinctively glances over at the front desk, and a thought popped into his head, "Didn't everypony have to sign their name in somewhere when they came in?", Bobbing his head down, he began to search through the shelves under the desk for the register, seeing as the staff "understandably" were more occupied with trying to get out of the hotel as quickly as possible it didn't look as if the rules of the hotel were no longer of any importance.

 

Finally, Golbez sits up holding up the guest log book in his talons, flicking through the pages vigorously before stopping and sliding a single talon down a page, he glances at each of the others in turn before glancing down back at the page as he mutters to himself under his breath as he matched up those present in the room to those missing in the book.

He hoped that this would prove useful, by knowing how many other guests to look for they could potentially save time...or at least that was the idea.

 

"Sabel, we need to find three other guests still wandering about the hotel grounds, a Miss Mirror Image, a Mr Storm Wing and a Mr Swiggly..-" Golbez paused a moment, his eyebrow raised as he looked at the last name, "-...Swiggly, hmm..."

Golbez scratched his lower beak with a  claw, and somewhat hesitantly looked over at Wish, "Erm, miss Wish, weren't you sharing a room with Miss Mirror? Perhaps if you and Sabel looked for her upstairs starting with your room whilst the rest of us look for these other two, their rooms are on the ground floor, sound like a plan?", closing the log book in one talon, he looks in turn at the others.

[Stormbringer 346]

Storm had no idea where he was at. He was sure he passed the same sign that said "Kitchen" in fancy gold print about twenty times now. He said nothing, though, out of the fear that the owner of the echoing voice he had heard earlier would hear him and come find him. Storm really wasn't interested in that. He hummed a tune, trying to get back to his room at this point. "Where am I...?" Stormwing thought to himself.

[Umbreon 569]

Sabellah

 

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@@SilverHeart,

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Sabel nods at Golbez, glad that at least one of them seemed to be thinking...  She was still trying not to look too shaken up by whatever had just happened.  "Right...  Wish and I will go find Mirror, you two look for the others...  Just...  Be careful, alright?"

 

She turns and looks at Wish, flexing her hurt wing a little as they start to step away from the others.  "You know Mirror better than I do, so I'll follow your lead...  Any idea where she'd be?  I can't imagine anypony staying in their room all day, I don't know if your room will be the best place for us to check."

 

She was trying to keep calm, at least in appearances.  And she felt like she was doing a fairly good job - Sabel had a knack for acting, it came from getting in trouble a lot when she was little and pretending like she had learned her lesson.  But what that freak in the mask had said, then those monsters rising up out of the water, it wasn't the kind of trip she'd expected when she came out to this swamp...  But, there would be time to freak out over what was happening later, hopefully when they weren't in danger. 

[SwigglySwiggly 358]

Swiggly sat on the steps of the front porch and stared off into the distance, the swamp's atmosphere made it hard to see far but at least Swiggly could see the river from here "this place is verrrry sus" Swiggly looked around picking up on his surroundings

 

"There's a docking station for the ferry... which I didn't take, There's a nice patch of garden in front of the hotel... and that is pretty much it"

Swiggly's boredom took the better of him, he trotted to the docking station and sat on the peer. "at least here, I wont have to put up with that smell"

Swiggly sat on the peer and watched the river flow beneath him.

[Stormbringer 346]

Stormwing still had no sense of direction. He finally got out of that circle of hallway, though. He was now in a long, straight stretch of hall. Storm perked his ears, thinking he heard voiced. "O-oh, no! What if it's that scary pony?" His curiosity still got the better of him, seeing as he decided to very slowly trot down the halls. He was as silent as could be, making sure nopony could hear his hoofsteps.

[The Elusive Cinder 1,328]

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Wish looked sullenly at the griffon who had stopped her from rescuing Mr. Silver without answering for several seconds... just staring with an expression that could have been anywhere between anger and misery before looking away from him: not wanting to make a foal of herself again.

 

"She was in the room next to mine I think... she might still be there, I don't know..." Shrugged the mare, looking towards the staircase. "Maybe the gardens? That's where I would have been if I hadn't been with you."

 

She followed dutifully behind her other friend - why was she suggesting places? They were probably wrong anyway... It wasn't like she really had any clue what she was doing, not even reading all the books she could find about heroes and adventure. Sabel would know better than her: she should just stay quiet - let the real adventurer deal with things.

 

Her thoughts continued to churn in this way while they walked for... Seconds? Minutes? It felt like days before she spoke up again.

 

"I'm sorry. I should have done something back there. I just... I didn't know what. We left him behind Sabel! We just left him and... and..." She stalled - lost for words at the situation. "... and that's just not right! I'm not going to leave Mirror behind as well!"

[Umbreon 569]

Sabellah

 

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Sabel paused near the entryway to the gardens, turning to look at Wish.  She felt bad for her new friend - she hadn't liked watching the stallion get drug down like that either, but Sabel had assumed he was gone as soon as it happened...  Meanwhile Wish's first reaction was to try and rescue him.  

 

"Listen..."  Sabel reaches to place a talon on the mare's shoulder, doing her best to put on her usual confident grin.  "I don't like what's going on any more than you do...  But, we have to look out for each other now.  There wasn't anything any of us could have done for the stallion.  So, we have to make sure it doesn't happen to anypony else.  We don't know what these things are, or how we're supposed to fight 'em, but whatever happens we'll deal with it together."

 

After a short moment's consideration, the griffoness reaches to the knife hanging around her neck and pulls it over her head, sheathe and all, before holding it out for Wish to take.  "Here.  If something happens again, this will at least work better than...  I don't know, kicking them, or whatever you were going to do.  I'm not suggesting you run head first into those things, but if worse comes to worse, you'll be able to better protect your friends with a weapon."  

 

Part of the griffoness was telling her that it was a bad idea letting go of, as far as she knew, the group's only weapon...  But she wanted to show Wish that she still had confidence in the mare.  Not to mention this didn't exactly make her defenseless...  She still had sharp talons and a sharp beak, after all.  "Now what do you say we go make sure Mirror is safe?"  

 

 

 

The Fish Monster...  Things...  That still need a name.  Okay, I'm referring to them as Murlocs from here out

 

The door hadn't been a barrier to them - rather than open it, they simply tore it from its hinges.  The ponies (and griffons) were gone though...  They were running.  There was fear heavy in the air - they could smell it.  The creature in the lead turned and croaked to its siblings.  The 'youngest' didn't understand the orders as quickly as the others - he would need watching.

 

The ponies were separating, panicking.  Now was their time to strike.  The masked one hadn't told them they were hunting on land, it was a terrible hunting ground for them...  They would need to move quickly to get as many of the panicked stragglers as they could.  The ponies would try to flee - one would go to the ferry dock, to meet them as they ran to the dead end...  The rest would hunt the halls.

[SilverHeart 741]

Mirror Image wandered towards where she believed Wish's shout had come from. She hadn't seen anypony since the staff had ran past her, Mirror wasn't sure whether she should be thankful for that or not. On one hoof it was nice that she hadn't had to hide from anypony while trying to search for Wish...on the other hoof, without seeing...or hearing anypony else she couldn't help but feel that something was terribly wrong. The young mare began to look around, Wish's voice had come from around this area...maybe. In all honesty, for all she knew Wish could have been on the complete other side of the hotel or maybe even inside the hotel. Not wanting to draw attention to herself Mirror whispered loudly "Wish.... Are you around here? It's Mir-ror..." Mirror's voice trailed off as it became apparent that Wish wasn't over here...maybe she was wrong about where the voice had come from...after all, Wish would probably be exploring the swamps all day, today. Mirror looked behind her as she rounded a corner, taking one last look for Wish before she went back to her room. As she turned her head back something hard hit her muzzle, with a loud squeak Mirror fell backwards. Rubbing her nose with a hoof she looked up, half expecting to see the bully trying to take her Father's cloak away from her again. Instead of running into the bully she had walked muzzle first into a wall...

[The Elusive Cinder 1,328]

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(@@SilverHeart,)

 

In her current state, Wish was more than a little tense - nodding nervously as she took the knife and slung it over her neck, where it hung awkwardly. An hour or so ago this might have been her proudest moment - far from feeling empowered now though, she felt weak and... well, pathetic. Still - Sabel was there and she hadn't sent her away yet, that was a start, right?

 

"I've got some more things that might be useful up in..."

 

The sudden thud almost scared the mare witless: she had a split second to react and adrenalin was already racing through her body.

 

Her instincts failed to differentiate between fight and flight as she stalled in place: eyes locked on the ceiling.

 

"There's got to be somepony up there!" Hissed the adventurer, peering around at the griffon with mixed feelings. "It might be Mirror! Or... y'know... A monster. What do you want to do? Should we go see?"

Edited January 7, 2014 by Cinderscribe

[SilverHeart 741]

Mirror looked around quickly, praying to the stars that nopony had seen her. Thankfully, it seemed like she was still alone, despite this the mare could feel herself blushing with embarrassment. That's it, I'm done. My muzzle hurts, I walked into a wall, My only friend isn't here. That's probably for the best anyway, I'd only slow her down. She wouldn't have much fun playing with me anyway. I thought vacations were supposed to be fun...this is terrible. Mirror stood up and brushed some grass off of the cloak. Rubbing her bruised nose, she took one final look at the wall that had assaulted her before turning around to head back to her room. The fur on her foreleg was stained a light red. Sighing, Mirror began to walk back to the hotel. As she retraced her steps through the garden she kept her head low, hoping to avoid running into any strangers. The last thing she had needed was for somepony to see her bloodied nose and try to "help" her.

 

After several minutes of nothing but grass, flowers and the odd rock or dirt patch the flora gave way to the pony-made floor of the Hotel. Several more minutes of walking through hallways lead her to her room number. Only occasionally did she look up from the floor to check what room number was nearby. She stopped in front of the door and began to fish through her saddle bags for her room key. After several seconds with no success she pulled them off with her magic and set the bags in front of her. She brought up her left hoof to search through the bags but stopped. Instead she rubbed her nose again. Her leg was once again stained crimson. However it seemed that the bleeding had stopped. No doubt she had just smeared the blood over her face.... She pulled her hood further over her face, hoping to hide the tip of her muzzle too. She stuck her hoof into the bags, hoping to find quickly find the key so that she could wash her face before anyone saw.

[Umbreon 569]

Sabellah

 

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Sabel nods quietly, bringing a talon to her beak in a 'shh' motion.  "We'll check it out - if it is a pony, we need to find them before those things do...  But if it's one of those things, we shouldn't even let it know we're there."  She looks at Wish and grins before she starts to lead the way towards where the sound had come from.

 

It was slow going, trying to stay quiet...  But Sabel really didn't want to run into one of those fish things, so slow and quiet was the best option.  Well, until they reached where she thought the sound must have come from...  "Hey,"  the griffoness points at a spot on one of the walls.  "...Is that blood?"  Glancing around she sees what seems to be a trail of it - not an obvious one, but as though a few drops fell every few steps.  "It's heading towards the guest rooms, whatever it is...  C'mon."

[Hive King 2,001]

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"I'll check" Skuldaf drawled, licking the blood off the wall and briefly rolling it in his mouth. "It's a similar consistency, it is probably blood" Skuldaf reported. "I reccomend a retreat....not that you want to do that" Skuldaf muttered. Everywhere he went, trouble followed. Great, it chases the pacifist

[Umbreon 569]

Sabellah

 

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Sabel stayed where she stood, staring at Skuldaf.  She was suddenly glad she'd given Wish her knife, because at the moment it was probably a good thing she didn't have it handy...  She clenches a talon as all thoughts of quiet are suddenly gone from her head.  "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?"

 

She points back the direction where she and Wish had come from, apparently with this strange pony following them without them noticing.  "Those things are roaming the halls, and you left Golbez ALONE!?  There was a reason we were going to search for the others in PAIRS!  He could need somepony's help right now, and you followed us and left him by himself!"

 

She unclenches her talon, though her claws start to dig into the floor.  The more this pony followed them, the less she was seeming to like him...  "My friend had better not be in trouble because you left him by himself...  Go find him, before one of those creatures does!"

[Hive King 2,001]

 

Sabellah

 

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Sabel stayed where she stood, staring at Skuldaf.  She was suddenly glad she'd given Wish her knife, because at the moment it was probably a good thing she didn't have it handy...  She clenches a talon as all thoughts of quiet are suddenly gone from her head.  "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?"

 

She points back the direction where she and Wish had come from, apparently with this strange pony following them without them noticing.  "Those things are roaming the halls, and you left Golbez ALONE!?  There was a reason we were going to search for the others in PAIRS!  He could need somepony's help right now, and you followed us and left him by himself!"

 

She unclenches her talon, though her claws start to dig into the floor.  The more this pony followed them, the less she was seeming to like him...  "My friend had better not be in trouble because you left him by himself...  Go find him, before one of those creatures does!"

 

"No" Skuldaf said bluntly. "While my studies have shown that female gryphons can be reasoned with, male gryphons are just as bad as King Sombra" Skuldaf grunted. "I don't dislike him, it is not in my nature, but I will not care if he goes" Skuldaf finished. "He may be your friend, but I've seen what gryphon claw and beak can do, the eviscerated bodies" Sjuldaf shuddered. He truly did feel conflicted. On one hand, the female was his friend. On the other hand, the gryphon was male and thus sure to e evil