/q/ - Quest

Somewhere, in a distant time and place, a young sailor hurries back to his room.

The going has been hard. The storms have not been kind, for they are headed into waters that have remained uncharted for a good reason. Not even the stormtamer mages that the captain hired from the Shaka mage's guild have been able to quell these winds, and they have had little choice these past few days but to let themselves be tossed at the sky's mercy. The rations have been thin and tasteless, for they know not how long they must endure this wait. The colt's sole comfort has been that most curious logbook…

He crawls into bed, where the book awaits him. Flipping to his bookmark, he genuflects, making the Mark of Virtue, tracing a diamond shape over his head and heart. It's a good enough prayer for now, he reassures himself. He would make a more formal one once he reached the end of this Act. Just as Act 1 had ended with an excerpt of what happened to the villainous Bee Queens, so too must this Act reveal what happened to the dreadful Auntzi, and he had been eager to find out, all throughout the day.

He reaches his bookmark, and flips past the blank page to the epilogue…

But there are no words upon the page.

At least, none that can be read.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O9XxaU0JCM

On the contrary, the page is full of words, or so it seems. The edges of words can be seen near the corners of the page, but the main body of the paper is completely covered by some kind of… doors. An otherworldly, lifelike illumination of a colossal pair of marble doors; an almighty Vault. Its face is embossed with seemingly endless, intricate designs of monsters and mortal races, and it awaits at the end of a long, crystalline path, guarded by ten thousand stone soldiers, but it all pales in comparison to the doors of the Vault.
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Last time on HolyQuest…

Amy and Shei finished their discussion with the soul of the Bodhidharma. It was indeed possible to turn an angel or a demon back into a mortal, for both angels and demons are, in the end, naught but ascended souls with a new physical body. However, such an act was not mere transformation, but transubstantiation – the true conversion of one thing into another thing, not the simple adjustment of its shape or properties. To accomplish it, they would require the soul of a god, and the Ember of Jalandhara was the only such soul around. The fact that the soul was only an ember at this point would likely mean that using it for the purpose of soul transubstantiation would drain it of its remaining power, unless it could be somehow recharged.

Pryce and Cloak purchased a few weapons and upgrades from Meister's Metallurgy, and paid the near-deaf smith back by helping her train for the day. Cloak earned more than a few stinging bruises for his trouble. Pryce, meanwhile, did a bit of boxing practice with Spitshine, to Sugar's unspoken delight. Before leaving, River and Zjetya placed in a secret order, one that would take Meister until about sundown to complete.

Flaming finished her brief tabletop campaign with Box, LJ and Regina, and the trio showered their QM with praise for their adventure. In a change of pace for their date, they elected to leave the Library of the Sacrosanct behind and go out for a run to clear their heads and get some fresh air. The Public Gardens to the south held a most wondrous overgrowth of plantlife, and was thus a suitable location.

Seeking refuge, the party have fled the Sands, staying hidden in the elusive town of Last Hearth. While they are safe from Lysander for now, they have found that Last Hearth comes with its own slew of problems. The borough is entirely controlled by a party of elites known as the Parliament, keeping hegemony over all its residents in the form of imposing constructs.

While exploring, the party have discovered several things:

The Keepers, mechanical sentinels that watch over Last Hearth, are in fact composed of the corpses of captured criminals.

Several areas of Last Hearth are marked as "Condemned" - though what this means and why is unclear.

The Parliament are a reclusive cabal, operating in and around a building known as the Parliament House.

An event known as the Night of the Hunt has been organized, due to happen in two weeks. This involves the mass slaughter of slaves purchased from the nefarious Chanticleers, and the subsequent reclaiming of their corpses to a place called Morrilcole, though to what end is unclear.

Perhaps most importantly for the party, Silver and Aegis have met a waif called Lilura. Afflicted with a disease that renders her vulnerable to fractures, Lilura has been pining to escape Last Hearth for a long time. She has offered to trade her entire supply of stockpiled goods in exchange for being smuggled out.

Ive got a quest for you guys come on out for the greatest party of your entire life every single pony is welcome

Last time on PirateQuest…

The party met up in the manor's dining hall, trying to make sense of all that had transpired so far. Thessaly, Cloud and Alder could only remember vague snippets of the events of the past few hours, but even then, their memories did not match up with Cerulean's and Cutlasses. Thessaly, Cloud and Alder remembered battles lost, battles ending in death against the Immolatioknight, but Cerulean and Cloud remembered only winning.

Without more clues to go on, their discussion could only go so far. So, following the maps and the instructions of the mysterious notes that Alder had found on his person, they went upstairs, passing through an unused children's room into the master bedroom. In the bedroom's walk-in closet was a door with a most unusual mechanical lock, requiring a special medallion depicting a bear cub and a deer fawn playing together. Thessaly and Cloud dimly recalled picking up such a medallion earlier, and indeed, it was in Thessaly's purse without any explanation as to why.

When they inserted the medallion, the door gave way, revealing a ladder to the attic. The attic was cramped, made worse by the plethora of boxes and barrels stored up there over the years, and choked with interminable dust. Upon heading a little south, they came across a sprawling play-city, made out of toys, scraps of cloth and junked machinery, overturned cabinets and tables and book, and no small shortage of imagination. The "city" was so immense that they could not proceed without either knocking it all over or shrinking themselves down with Cloud's magic, and so they chose the latter.

To their surprise, when they shrunk down, the toys came to life, milling about with city business as if they were all real. Taking a moment to visit the inhabitants, they came across two key objects. The first, which Cloud and Cerulean "bought" from an imaginary shop, was the tone arm of a record player. The second, which Cutlass obtained from a barkeep who thought it was a rag, was another of the notes written in invisible ink. The message was short but partly garbled, due to one of the verses being used for its encryption being marred by water damage. The most likely renderings were either "can't dodge," "shouldn't dodge," or "don't dodge."

With all that gathered, the party left the toy city down the western road, regrouping at a small crawl-space door just outside its borders. There, peering through the ajar doPost too long. Click here to view the full text.

>Fun fact, I've been numbering these wrong so we're actually up to 11 mlpg threads now!

Last time on HolyQuest…

The Saviors wrapped up the last of their business for the night before retiring to bed. It had been a very long and very eventful day, and needless to say, their exhaustion gave them a good night's rest.

Amy Thest and Flaming Shorthorns met with Fairy Castle in the Observatory. There, Fairy Castle explained what it meant to be a Witch, and what one's Craft represented. Put simply, to be a Witch was to be free. Though Witchlings are cursed from birth by the Mark of the Crone to lives of misery and misfortune, adult Witches have the power to rebel against that fate. The point of choosing one's Craft was not just to gain power, but to exercise a strengthened Will, to go down a path not because they are forced to by fate or destiny or any other external pressure, but because that is what they desire. Thus, the highest virtue for any Witch was to be free. Regina lost against the Saviors because she attempted to take their freedom, and because she created Replicas and Replicants, and tried to take their freedom for the sake of defeating Mudi. Mudi, Vizsla and Azawakh were also guilty of stealing others' freedom; in this way, they sinned against what it meant to be a Witch.

Fairy Castle concluded with a formal ceremony, in which she, as Shekinah of Wacachan, gave Amy the Arc of the Moon, a special talisman designed to inspire Amy, helping her develop her own spells relating to her Craft. She also gave Amy a title – well, Amy basically chose it herself: She was dubbed "Amy the Inescapable Revelrous Friendmaking Heartthief Hugger." Perhaps an abbreviation would be in order.

Shei spoke with Gadriel and Buiwong, accidentally spilling his plans. Some days prior, Shei had consulted a group of Umbrals via the Augur Grail, the relic of Tartarus recovered from the Tower of Traitors. During this time, he learned about the power of the Sacrifice: It was a special property of Tartarus. Those who entered Tartarus from the Overworld, the land of the living, could sacrifice their lives for another's sake. They would be given tremendous power in exchange, but their deaths would be all but assured. In addition, a life that is sacrificed to the God of Tartarus would be claimed by that God, with no hope of escaping Its jaws. Shei hoped to sacrifice himself in the Post too long. Click here to view the full text.

Welcome players!

NPC list: https://pastebin.com/AhPF3hUg

Please post sheets in your first reply.

>>Last time….

>>723608
Celestia, dragging the gray by the hindleg bumping over the rocky terrain, tries to grok the room with his gooey sensibilities. Vision cannot cut through the inky blackness; the sound of bubbling water is faintly audible. As he concentrates, however, the eldritch goo-pony becomes aware of life in the chamber. The three changelings with him are bright/loud obstructions to more distant signals, but he realizes there are more beings in the darkness. Perhaps three or four distant shapes curl around each other at the far edge of what Celestia realizes is the edge of the cavern.

>>723611
It's really, really dark. Em feels like they can sense the presence of Celestia and their captive, as well as the former prisoner. Beyond that, all she can tell is that there is a big dark cavern with water flowing maybe, somewhere in the distance.

>>723609
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The party's expedition into the Shifting Sands has been successful, though it did not come without great change.

Upon returning to the initial spot they found the Egg, they found only Discord, freed from his stony prison and weakened by his long slumber. The first thing he did upon meeting them was to drain the seer Mercutio, absorbing the power he had granted him and effectively removing the Mad Oracle from existence. All that remains now is Purdue, wiped of his memories of his centuries-long ordeal, slowly adjusting to his newfound consciousness.

Upon reaching the Hive, where the Egg was being hoarded by the guardians of the Sands, they did not find the Egg themselves; instead, they found their old adversary Clawson, acting as transport for Lysander in the form of a flock of cuckoos, along with several other prominent adversaries of the party. These include:

Cecile Grosvenor, the Lady of Braildorn, Lysander's closest confidante. Aegis has promised to kill her in the name of the demon Ragalaseab.

Elaina, Grosvenor's personal assassin, who can effortlessly phase between the astral and physical plane.

Reck, a largely unknown figure to the party. He appears to be a member of the Bloody Mummers.

Kairon Irse, the deposed Queen of Equestria, unwittingly freed by Norv. While she accompanied the party for a long time, she eventually abandoned them in favor of Lysander, finding him more to her liking.

Through spying, they learned that Lysander had cut ties with the Oneiromancer completely, renouncing his scheme to erase the Echoes in favor of using the Egg as a bargaining tool to gain greater power in the realm. After a long and brutal skirmish, the party managed to steal the Egg from under their very noses, fleeing the scene and heading south, vowing to hide the Egg in a place it can never be found again.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuMh2GXTZuo

In a time long past, before the coming of the Two, was a time of gods, heroes and monsters. A world as yet unexplored, an age of high adventure.

And in this age, eons ago, four wayward wanderers did find themselves crossing paths. Perhaps it was chance, or perhaps ordained by fate. I alone can elucidate the adventures of these four.

Hearken now to the Tales from the Age of Steel!

Last time on PirateQuest…

Thessaly's (unintentional) summoning of Seravelum, and the demon's obvious control over blood and curses, was more than enough proof for the Kalphite King and Queen to relent, and agree to the party's terms. They released the ostriches and chickens that they'd taken captive from the town of Gecko, and Kalphite guards saw the party to the cave's exit. Seravelum was quite disappointed that they didn't get to whip up a blood curse, and so Thessaly had to appease them by agreeing to sacrifice the first thing she killed to them.

With that resolved, the party passed by Obstinance's tent, which had been left empty and apparently unguarded. This offered them an opportunity to investigate the enigmatic exorcist, but Thessaly and Alder wisely warned against it, figuring (correctly) that the tent was trapped. Now, while the rest of the party continued on their way back to Gecko, Cerulean went off in search of Obstinance, finding him sprinkling salt mixed with wine and incense on the ground in a vast, circular perimeter around Gecko. The two talked a little about demons, and Obstinance seemed capable of detecting the demonic power that Stone Cold Classic had given to Cerulean after her wish for power. In a very strange move for a demon hunter and exorcist, Obstinance offered to help Cerulean bring out that demonic power, and gave her a small, wheel-shaped medallion, the Yana of the Moon and Stars. The medallion was enchanted, and would draw oddities unto itself. How exactly this would help Cerulean was not explicit, but he assured her that it would be made clear in time.

Meanwhile, Captain Cutlass was finally reunited with the rest of the party after a long train ride from Xallan, the major port town on Agyl's northwestern point. She had much to tell them about her battle with Shiro and Kuro, and needed to figure out how that all fit in with the unexplained conch call between Phillip the Gentlecolt and Thessaly on the night that Cutlass had disappeared. Phillip had apparently known about the so-called "mutiny" of Cutlass's crew and the resultant battle, despite Shiro and Kuro having every reason to keep it a secret, and despite them actively taking measures to keep it a secret. This gave credence to the possibility of an informant's involvement in all this. And to make matters worse, there was their bounties to deal with – particularly that photo of Thessaly with the Liber Animarum, apparently taken on Post too long. Click here to view the full text.