No.767676
>>767675Noting that the Beast no longer appears to be on this floor, and Amy's nose starts to lead her down towards the southern stairwell, Shorthorns nods her head in affirmation as she follows closely behind Amy's trusted sense of smell/adventure. "Lead on, Amy, let's find this 'Beast'…"
No.767677
>>767676>>767675"I just want to find that smell…"
No.767678
>>767676https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb24FxVsNdYYou pick your way over the hallway floor, trying to find whatever spaces are clean enough for you to step…
As you reach the great stairwell, it looks rather clear, but it's dark. There are lit lights running down the walls, but even though the lights are on, and seem to have fresh enough bulbs, somehow their light cannot wade through much of the darkness… indeed, the darkness has a weight to it.
At the base of the stairs, there is a junction immediately before you. One path goes to the east, to your left (toward room 4). The other wing goes straight ahead of you, then bends westward, to your right (toward room 11).
Buiwong, having gotten serious, seems to have abandoned the housekeeping cart on the floor above.
No.767679
>>767678Shorthorns takes a look down the right corridor, then down to the left. Thinking for a moment, she nods and starts walking towards Room 4.
"Let's go this way, I have a good feeling… unless you picked up another scent?"
No.767680
>>767679>>767678Amy seems to have lost whatever scent she picked up entirely. "I have no idea where I am," Amy states flatly in response to Flaming.
She elects to follow Flaming into room 4.
No.767681
>>767678Amy's ear twitches as she senses danger.
>GO, GO, GO!Attribute: Buff
Tags: N/A
Effect: For the next 3 turns, you and all Allies gain another Action, or 2 Actions on a natural crit.
Duration: 3 Turns
Recharge: Once per Combat
>[1d10+2]Roll #1 3 + 2 = 5 No.767682
>>767681Shorthorn's hair stands on end as she sudden feels an overwhelming amount of menace and bloodlust fill the air. Normally, buffalo instinct would compel her to stand her ground, to form a tight circle with the rest of her herd and guard against any attacker from any direction.
But now, instead, her instinct was telling her the best option now wasn't to stand their ground, but to flee.
"Run!" She shouts, a white barrier forming around herself…
>Prayer for Salvation: Automatic; Recharge 2; The target's next recovery from Helplessness will be an Automatic Instant action, and the target will get +1 to all future attempts to get up until the end of combat.[1d10+1] Using other action to run/dodge
Roll #1 3 + 1 = 4 No.767684
>>767682>>767681As the other doors have been, the door to room 4 is exceptionally large, built for nothing less than a giant. So, you reach for the much more reasonably-sized servant's door built into it.
You open the servant's door. And, somebody on the other side opens the giant door.
You look up.
https://youtu.be/IQKe-U9XnmU?t=20And by the time that you realize that the Beast is looking back down at you, Buiwong has already snatched you both up in his webs and has yanked you back to the far end of the hall, near the intersection. You see a cloud of dust and evaporated gore, right where you were standing. Both of the Beast's fists are sunk into the floorboards. The Beast… perhaps you'd better spell it as BEAST – for it resembles TIRAC, but the resemblance to GROGAR is quite striking as well. The BEAST is an horrid, mutated atrocity, lumbering on a centipede's worth of mismatched legs, with a hulking, humanoid upper half, no small number of arms and spare organs grafted haphzardly everywhere onto the abdomen. The skin of a hundred faces stretches thin over the bulging form, TIRAC and GROGAR's among them. The swirling Rainbow of Darkness spins loose about him, like a toga and laurel crown, sopping and red by an orgiastic reverie of debaucherous bloodletting.
A strange glint of gold and silver pierces the darkness of the Rainbow, near the base of the neck. It catches your eye, but before you can process it, the BEAST has ripped himself free of the floor, turning to chase you. Buiwong's gotten the lead out as he sprints away, pulling you along with his webbing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWp1R41R46c
>Once per turn, on a Recharge of 5, you can command Buiwong to put down a web wall to block off the path. No.767686
>>767684"AAAAAAAAHHH!"
Shorthorns cries out as she quickly turns tail and runs from room 4, the massive amalgamation of horror pursuing closely behind. "T-that's not TIRAC! That's not even GROGAR, it's like… some kind of abomination!"
She looks back as Buiwong carries them along, looking at the gold/silver glint that pierces the veil of the Rainbow of Darkness. "There's something off about that part though…" she says, concentrating on her Spheres to create pillars of earth erupting from the floor itself to impede its progress
[1d10] Summoning Earth pillars to impede the BEAST
Roll #1 4 = 4 No.767687
[1d10] Also perception to get a better look at the gold/silver
Roll #1 4 = 4
No.767689
>>767684Amy barely responds to being suddenly dragged away. She's way more engaged in the visuals of the thing attacking them.
"What IS that!? HOW is that!?" Amy shrieks in confusion and horror at the bizarre thing.
Amy aims her new power at THE BEAST.
>>BLOODY MURDER "ACCIDENTS"Attribute: Debuff
Tags: Ranged; Spell
Effect: Increase the Target's Critfail range on all actions by 3
Duration: Until Dispelled
>[1d10+2]Amy's eye also glows red as she analyzes THE BEAST.
>Appraise: instant; Determine the number of remaining hits and wounds on an enemy, and possibly weaknesses. More powerful enemies may be harder to Appraise. Out of combat, quickly determine value of objects, study mechanisms and documents, size up other ponies, etc.>[1d10+1]Roll #1 1 + 2 = 3 /
Roll #2 3 + 1 = 4 No.767690
>>767689>>767687>rule of dubsThat metallic glint… it's a sword! A sword has been rammed through the BEAST's neck on the left side, just inside of the carotid artery, the tip of the blade poking out above the collarbone. The severed hand of the sword's last wielder still clings to the handle, on the backside of the neck. Whatever sword it may be, it was mighty enough to pierce the BEAST's mutated Tartarian flesh… and with one final push, it may yet finish the job.
>>767686>>767689Shorthorned raises stone pillars out of the floor, sending wood fragments flying as the earth rises up– but the BEAST punches through each and every one of them, spinning and staggering and lurching so as even to employ the many additional arms jutting every which way out of his abdomen, many of them limp and useless, reduced to bloody slabs as the BEAST rams them through the blockade of earth.
Buiwong flings you at the door of room 11, leaping over you, shadows engulfing his left side. As you tumble and collide with the doorframe, a solid wall of webbing engulfs the pathway, holding the BEAST at bay… but likely not for long.
Rather than bother with dramatic instructions, Buiwong darts back to where he tossed you.
>Buiwong's emergency skill used to negate Amy's critfail No.767692
>>767690Shorthorns exclaims as she sees the sword embedded in the hide of the incomprehensible monstrosity. "I see a sword! Could that be the Storm King's…?!"
She says as they continue to flee from it, but the color leaves from Shorthorn's already pale-white face as she sees it colliding non-stop into her pillars and not even slowing it down. "Well, if it can punch its way through THAT…"
Shorthorns presses her hooves to the floor, during the length of the hallway the BEAST travels into quicksand to swallow it. "Let's see what happens when its own weight is turned against it!"
[1d10] Floor to quicksand
Roll #1 3 = 3 No.767694
>>767690>>767692>>767690"We should just lose him for now," Amy says quickly. "If Moody really is here, she should be able to help."
>Vestigial Sunlight to find Mudi>[1d10+2]"Buiwong, keep carrying us, please," Amy demands, not even bothering with some cutesey name. "Get us out of here."
Roll #1 8 + 2 = 10 No.767696
>>767694>>767692Four additional gigantic spider-legs sprout from Buiwong's back, tragically ripping through the butler costume. He scoops up the both of you, grunting a little as he picks up Shorthorned, yet managing it with his divine strength. You can't see how the BEAST fares with the quicksand through the dense wall of webbing, but you can hear the squelching and tearing of a dozen shorn-off legs, ripped clean of their bony stumps as they're left behind in the floor, the BEAST slowed down not even a little bit.
The χορός in Amy's head advise her that Mudi's on the next Floor below you. They sing a quick litany of directions, which Amy relays to Buiwong, forgetting them the instant she says each one. Propelled by his mighty spider-legs, Buiwong rips through Room 11, 27, then 26 and up into Room 6. As Buiwong sees the myriad doors to choose from, you hear a stomping from the southeast. Amy realizes that the BEAST could get here if it only doubles back!!
No.767698
>>767696>>767692"Okay wait, hang on a sec!" Amy declares as they enter Room 6. Her brain is working faster than even she can comprehend.
"Okay - I," she huffs as she tries to think it all through. "I think I know how to get there, but it's going to bring us back around to near where we lost him."
She holds her head as she thinks fast. "If he turned around, then we're just going to run into him. We need to wait a sec to figure out which way he went."
Amy lets go of her head, and her ears perk up. She listens for the stomps of THE BEAST, trying to figure out which direction they are coming from.
>[1d10] to listenRoll #1 5 = 5 No.767700
>>767696>>767698"Go that way, that way!" Shorthorns shouts to Buiwong as he carries them, letting him do the literal leg work as she pushes him on towards the southeastern door, intent on pushing on towards door 10 and running south (in the southern stairwell at the bottom of the map to get down to Mudi)
As Amy relays her plans, Shorthorns nods. "Okay… okay! I think I have an idea!"
Using spheres of Life and Dark, she constructs three sacrificial stone statues, each one fully mobile and made to look like herself, Buiwong, and Amy - the intent being that these statues will wait for the BEAST, and then run off in the OPPOSITE direction from which they flee, drawing the BEAST away from them as they make their escape.
[1d10] Creating dummies to lead the Beast away
Roll #1 9 = 9 No.767701
>>767698He's in room 23, you can hear it! Your chorus of voices point out two routes for you: through room 10, the shorter way to the stairs, or through room 24, the longer way. There's a false wall in room 15, leading to room 8, which just might be able to cover your tracks if you were pursued through there…
No.767703
>>767701>>767700"He's coming from that door," Amy says quickly, pointing to room 13's door.
She sees the clones that Flaming made, then quickly says, "Have them lead him that way back the way we came. Keep him running in a loop as long as possible." Amy points in the direction of room 26 as she speaks.
"Buiwong, take us that way," Amy points to room 10. "Now, please."
No.767704
>>767698>>767700As Amy barks out which of the many doors Buiwong must take, Shorthorned conjures a small squad of decoys. In but a moment after they're summoned the south door to room 13 explodes from its hinges, scattering the many dummies every which way! Buiwong slips out through the dust and debris, and in the madness behind you, you can hear the BEAST laying into your dummies with a frenzied hunger to rival GLUTTONY's…
Buiwong skitters, taking no luxury from the momentary distraction. He blasts through room 10, down through 5, 25, 16, and at last to the stairwell. It's only once you see the stairs that you slip from Buiwong's grasp, hitting the floor with forward momentum. Buiwong's spider legs dissipate beneath him, and he collapses, his brow covered in sweat. Clutching one side of his head, he limps toward the stairwell. He reaches into his suit's breast pocket, pulling forth a slim, ornate box, and starts futzing with the lock even as he pants and wheezes toward the stairs…
No.767706
>>767704Shorthorns lets out a breath she hadn't known she'd been keeping in after they finally go down the next flight of stairs, her heart beating out of her chest as she looks up at the top of the stairs they hurried down. "Really… REALLY… hope it doesn't come down here…"
She picks herself up, groaning as she does, "Those statues barely bought us any time at all, nothing stops that thing… except that sword that managed to pierce it." She shakes her head, "We need to find more of the others first, hopefully they can-"
She pauses, noting Buiwong's ornate box as he starts to open it. "What's that?"
No.767708
>>767706>>767704Amy lies on her back on the floor. She stares up at the ceiling as her brain catches up with everything that just happened. "Thanks, Bullywong," Amy says quietly, still staring at the ceiling.
>>767706Amy looks to Flaming. "Do you think that was the sword we helped the Storm King find?"
No.767709
>>767708>>767706Buiwong finally manages to unlatch the box, and inside, though Buiwong tries to hide it in his shadow, you see a deep well of… strange treasures. The box is larger inside than without, and contains a diverse myriad of valuables – gemstones, precious metals, ikons and traditional offeratory meats and wines. Each of them is aethetic, translucent, and resplendent with spiritual energy, as you can sense through your divine nature. Buiwong snatches up a handful of the spectral treasures, scarfing them down as if he hadn't eaten anything in a week.
"Faith," Buiwong stammers between bites, though is careful not to drop any crumbs. "Hope. Joy. Take your pick of the virtues. I'm not sharing. Wouldn't be of help to you anyway…"
The aetheric snack seems to quickly revitalize him, and he stuffs the box back into his pocket, leading the way down to the next Floor. A distant quaking rocks this Floor to the north, as the BEAST obliterates the last of your decoys…
The stairs deposit you at a T-intersection, with a door to your left, a southbound hall to your right, and beyond it, an eastbound hall…
No.767710
>>767708"I only got a quick look at it but it sure looked sort of the same. And knowing how powerful that sword was when the Storm King used it earlier, I wouldn't be surprised if it managed to do some damage. It looked really stuck on there!"
She thinks, "If we can just get a hold of that sword and push it in further, or use it some other way, I think we can slay the BEAST."
>>767709At seeing it is merely a snack for the hungry spider-god, Shorthorn's thinks to deride him but, after what he just did, the least he is owed is a bite to eat and recover his strength.
She nods her head, and looks around, trying to gauge where to go next. "You said you felt Mudi down here? Any idea which way?"
No.767728
>>767710"Nope," Amy answers simply. "But, how hard could it be to find a witch?"
>>767709With that Amy goes to open the door on the left.
No.767729
>Both
Room 12, to the left, appears to be a storage room. All sorts of dusty crates and boxes fill the walls, blocking off a small closet to the northwest. Some of the crates are ajar, and inside you see many folders and books and scrolls and other such documents. Some have titles on the covers and spines… and no two seem to be written in the same language.
No.767730
>>767729>>767728Shorthorns rubs her chin as she notes all the crates and boxes blocking off the closet to the northwest. "Hmm… when you found me, *I* was in a small, closed off room with no other way out. Maybe she's in here?"
She says, working to move the crates out of the way and open the closet door.
No.767731
>>767730>>767729"True!" Amy says with a vigorous nod. "They should call you Smartyhorns!"
Amy starts moving boxes with Flaming.
>[1d10] if necessaryRoll #1 8 = 8 No.767732
>>767731"I JUST changed my name recently, I don't think I need to do it again… but that wouldn't be a bad idea either." She says, taking Amy's suggestion a little too literally
No.767733
>Both
Some of the boxes are ridiculously heavy, making even Shorthorned struggle to move them… but when it's done, you finally have access to the blocked-off room. Recalling how the BEAST was hidden behind a door just a Floor above, you take care to inspect it as thoroughly as you can, before opening it…
No BEAST jumps out at you. Instead, you find yet more boxes, stuffed behind the door. It's no small task to inspect and move these as well. But, when it's done… there's no Mudi. Just dust and dead roaches. Just before you can give up on the closet, however, you see a small key laying in the corner, as your one and only prize.
No.767734
>>767733Shorthorns huffs and wheezes as she finishes moving the last of the boxes, rubbing sweat from her brow. "Goodness… what's even IN these boxes that makes them so heavy?" She says, eyeing the key that remains in the closet after they're finished moving them.
She moves to pick up the key, but her curiosity must be sated as she opens up one of the crates to see what's making them so heavy
No.767735
>>767734Books, scrolls, tapestries, folders, documents, binders, flat glowing rectangular things, possessed of a strange magic, circular bits of that alien substrate called plass-tick, and so many other methods of storing information. Those which you can open are replete with words, and all of them are in languages you cannot understand, even with your enhanced intelligence. Those which ARE in languages you can understand… seem to be pure nonsense, an exercise in the random arrangement of letters and digits.
No.767736
>>767735Shorthorns looks over the various folders, scrolls, and weird bits of plassteek that fill the crates, shaking her head as she reads some of the parts she can. "Huh… I don't know about all of it but what I can read here all looks like gibberish, just a bunch of random letters. Like, these aren't actually meant to BE books or scrolls or anything, but just… pretend books, props."
She shakes her head, gripping the key between her cloven hooves. "Well, at least we got SOMETHING. Let's get moving."
>She says as she suggests moving on towards Room 6 to the East No.767737
>>767734>>767735"Looks like the kind of crazy stuff a crazy person would keep in a crazy place like this," Amy nods in satisfaction as if all her questions have been answer.
"At least we got this key," she says as she picks it up. She puts it in her… pocket? Wherever it is, it's safe now squirrelled away in the hammer space of her shapeshifting.
Amy follows Flaming.
No.767738
>Shorthorned
Buiwong glances over some of the texts in the crate. If he, the god of spiders, can make sense of them, he does not indicate so. With a grimace, he moves on, following behind you.
>For both
It's all quiet above you, and the hallway through which you travel, bloodstained and gore-smeared as it is, is also heavy with silence. You enter Room 6, and find that, just like 12, it's a storage area. The crates here are of a make and model identical to the ones in 12… and for some reason, you could swear that some of those boxes have the same patterns and layers of dust that the ones in Room 12 had. They're blocking the only other door to the room, to the southwest.
Some of the boxes are ajar, just as the ones in 12 were. Inside, you see… dirt. Clay. Sand. Mud. In other boxes, various kinds of liquids, remaining where they are without staining the box, even with no interior liner to keep the liquid insulated from the box itself. Still other boxes hold stranger things: Purple atmosphere. Dim flickering light, as from an old and yellowed bulb. A sensation of boredom. A box full of anxiety. There is no telling how you can perceive these things inside what look like plain boxes, but all the same, that's what you experience when you behold the boxes' contents.
No.767739
>>767738Shorthorns gazes into the contents of one of the more bizarre boxes containing outright EMOTION within them, before putting the lid back on and pushing it to the side, deeply disturbed.
"I think this floor must be some sort of storage area, and what they store is… well, it looks like everything! The book props and stuff were one thing, but this room looks like they keep everything they need to put together… I guess some sort of stage or scene? That'd explain why they want something like atmosphere in a box…"
Seeing nothing else of note, she pushes on to room 15
No.767740
>>767739>>767738"These are some handy boxes!" Amy exclaims, impressed by their contents. "I wonder how they hold boredom. It's kinda cool. Does that mean that it's not boredom in the box?"
Amy distracts herself with these nonsensical thoughts as she pushes through the boxes to the exit on the other side.
No.767741
>>767740"…I wonder if these might work on the BEAST." Shorthorns thinks aloud. "Like, if we find a box full of 'calm down and relax', we could throw it at the BEAST and make it at least a little more passive."
No.767742
>>767741"I think it'd take a LOT of calm down boxes to do anything to that big ball of angry," Amy entertains the idea.
No.767743
>For both
You shove aside more boxes to clear the way toward the door, and beyond it is a southbound hall, toward Room 15. About halfway down the hall, the architecture abruptly changes. Behind you it is the ornate, almost baroque architecture you have seen so far in the Castle. Only a step ahead of you, as if taken from another Castle altogether, and grafted on here, is cracked and dank brick. Torch sconces replace the well-kept magitech lighting that came before it. The floor is grimy and has not seen a mop in ages. The door before you is heavy, coarse wood, with a barred window at the top, belonging more in a prison than in the estate of a distinguished lord.
Room 15 is much the same as the hall. Chains and cuffs line the walls. The discarded refuse of broken torture equipment lies mouldering in the corners. The blood here is very old, having turned to black crust and lost its scent. While ominous in other contexts, perhaps it means that neither the BEAST nor his captives have been through here recently…
There are three more doors in Room 15; one to your right, westbound toward Room 2; one to the South, toward Room 3; one eastbound, toward Room 20.
No.767744
>>767742"You're probably right. But, doesn't hurt to think outside the box… or I guess, INSIDE the box in this case." Shorthorns snorts at her own joke.
>>767743Shorthorns turns to look at all the unnerving torture devices of a deceivingly more medieval and disturbing castle, feeling her nerves tense up as she keeps a closer eye around things.
She looks at the options in the current room, surrounded by more scattered implements of torture, and points towards the eastward door to door 20. "This way next. Just following a feeling."
No.767745
>>767743>>767741"Huh…" Amy says as she looks around the torture chamber. "You know, usually I'd say this room is creepy. But, this IS Wrath's castle. You'd think the people here would like it rough. I think… this room might be kinky…"
>>767744"But, you also gotta think about the SIZE of the box. WE don't really know how much boredom that box holds, you know?"
No.767746
>>767745>>767744Amy follows to room 20.
No.767747
>For Both
Rooms 20, 11 and 16 are much the same – staging grounds for whatever prison guards and torturers must have once staffed this dreadful place. There are grates in the walls where prisoners were once stuck, and implements are kept at the ready nearby in the room for their torment. Many of these torture devices are so worn down from repeated use that they are dulled and faded, broken now beyond repair. Only bone dust and faded stains remain where once prisoners were kept…
Finding naught of note, you finally make your way to room 13. At the far end, you see a barred door, locked tight. Beyond the barred door, a hall extends, and turns to the left. No light permeates that darkened space, so you cannot tell what may be back there.
No.767748
>>767747>>767744"Well that's scary…" Amy says as she looks into the darkness beyond the bars.
"Boo-Ong," Amy says to the spider. "Can't you go through and see what's down there?"
No.767749
>>767748"Can't you!?" Buiwong asks. "I left all my cleaning supplies upstairs! I'm sure you got a broom or something somewhere in… wherever you keep your personals."
No.767750
>>767745"'Kinky'…?" Shorthorns asks, mildly perturbed by the insinuation. She only just barely has the grasp of what 'kinky' even means, much less how any of *this* could be considered such. "Seriously?"
>>767747When they come across the locked door, Shorthorns brandishes the key she found earlier, and tries to unlock the door. If it fails to unlock it, she tries to knock the door down by brute force
No.767751
>>767750[1d10] Reaction Speed roll
Roll #1 7 = 7 No.767752
>>767750"You'd be surprised - and probably horrified - of what some of the demons around here are into. To be clear!" she adds quickly and loudly afterwards. "I'm not one of those demons! I mean… not like THIS," she says, gesturing to the torture devices.
"You know, a little bit of playing rough is fun, but this is a little bit… too much blood for me. But, you can get away with a lot when dying isn't permanent. I don't THINK I ever died, but the ones who died a lot get a lot more… reckless. Kinda funny and sad how the best looking demons are also the safest."
>>767749Amy sighs. "Fine…"
Amy is about to shapeshift before Flaming pulls out the key.
>>767750"Oh yeah… I forgot already!"
No.767753
>Both
Shorthorned's ready this time. As she turns the key in the lock, she feels a dread premonition, and leaps back, smothering both Amy and Buiwong with a fluffy buffalo coat in the process. As the key turns in the door, a powerful sealing magic contained in the door erupts, scorching all the brick around it. Nothing remains of the door, and in fact, little remains of the threshold around it. The same may have befallen you had you not dodged in time.
As you recover from the shockwave of the unleashed seal, there's a stirring in the darkness.
Something humanoid leans at the edge of the shadowed hallway's bend.
No.767754
>>767753"Hi, hello!" Amy says happily, waving at the figure in the darkness.
"You're free now, isn't that cool!?"
>[1d10] to coax the figure out of hiding>DC-4Roll #1 1 = 1 No.767755
>>767752The young buffalo shudders a little bit at the implications of what Amy is saying, the concept of creatures 'enjoying' torture and even death to such a degree. "Uggh… kinda feel sorry I asked, that's… that's weird. THEY'RE weird."
>>767753As the door suddenly erupts into a violent flame, scorching and disintegrating everything around it, Shorthorns takes a short gasp, relieved she had been fast enough to dodge that in time. "AGH! I… wasn't expecting that, phew… will need to be careful with any doors we find."
She sees the humanoid shape leaning at the edge of the darkness, and while Amy works to coerce it out, Shorthorns stands ready to fight in case it proves hostile.
No.767756
>Bothhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f9GIKg67bYThe shadows shift. A heavy step echoes off the cold, filthy brick. Then another.
The humanoid slouches forward, head low, arms thick with scars, and tense.
Buiwong begins nudging you two toward the door, making no sudden movements.
The humanoid is tall, and stoops as it reaches the end of the hall. You realize that the prison-hall was built for a captive much smaller than this figure; the humanoid must have been thrown in there for that very reason of cruelty.
As it exits the hall, the humanoid stands up, stretching out but a little. It remains slouched, perhaps from habit… perhaps another reason.
It is some manner of gargoyle, with light tan fur, an elongated head, a shaggy mane of filthy, bug-strewn brown. Muscular, yet emaciated, clad in a tarnished belt of a champion… now broken. A shattered tail hangs limp from his backside.
Scorpan staggers toward the door, disregarding you entirely, not giving you a word, not so much as a glance.
