Ponyville Daring Delvers - Adventure! Excitement! GLORY!

[RarityDash]

Rarity gave a sigh as Twilight explained that all was not going to go to plan. "Aw, and it was such a inventive and fun idea you had to turn its own power against it, Rainbow dear. It truly is a pity that it is not going to work as we would intend," she said, offering a pout Dash's way.

 

"Rules are rules, though, I suppose," she said, shaking her head. "Though knowing what I know now, I do wonder if it was worth it to attack. I can't see my knives doing much against this beast's stony hide."

 

Already set in her course, Rarity grabbed the dice and gave a quick roll for the will test. She glanced down at the dice with some apprehension about her and noticed their total added up to just barely what she needed to pass. She breathed a sigh of relief. "Looks like Lily's will is strong. She managed to endure its gaze, if barely." she said, with laugh and then grabbed the dice again. "Now for the attack..."

 

Rarity again found herself in luck as this time dice roll turned up remarkably high, reading 39. She giggled at the sight of it, quite pleased with herself. "Haha! Perhaps I might be able to do some damage yet!"

​

 

Cobra Lily's knives hit the ground as suddenly she could feel the basilisk's gaze, though it was split, land upon her. The power of it was overwhelming and she could instantly feel its power start to take hold, cover her body, starting with the hooves with stone. She was sure she was lost until right at the last moment, a new burst of resolve hit her. "I don't think so!" she shouted as she shook off the stone prison before it could fully form and quickly collected her knives once more.

 

"Take this, vile beast!" she shouted as suddenly her knives fired off with remarkable force, a magic force enveloping them as they reached peak velocity and then collided with the basilisk's core. The beast would not be felled from this attack alone, but Lily was sure some damage had been done.

​

[brianblackberry]

Carrot Fields was understandably disappointed, each member of his party had an interesting and inventive way to attack the monster, but it didn’t work out as well as everypony hoped.   Weren’t the first monsters supposed to be the easy ones?  That sounded logical but the gray stallion was new to these fantasy roleplay games and in all likelihood the rules were different here.  At least they didn’t actually fail, it just required extra effort, and another turn.

 

“Roll? Och.. um, alrecht.”  Carrot looked at his sheet, calculating what bonuses he could add to the number once he did.  Dash changed a lot about the character and although he trusted her, it still meant that he would have a -4 for the willpower roll due to her moving the points around.  “Weel, haur goes naethin'!” He scooped up the dice in his forehoof and tossed them, “Ah got a 36, er, weel 32 coz Ah hud tae tak' four aff, sae Ah hope Ah am still guid. och reit, Ah still hae two mair tae dae...”

 

Agility was more helpful as he had a +2 for nimbleness and a +2 for flight skill, he originally had more, but Dash wanted to add to his weather abilities, so he hoped it was enough as he rolled again,  this time it was a 26, which ultimately made it a 30, which was close to his last roll, so good or ill, at least he was consistent.

 

Finally came the good part, the attack!  Or as Twilight called it, the action roll.  With his +4 weather powers bonus this should be easy.  Weather control was the second thing he found most fascinating about pegasai after being able to fly; how he would love to control the weather as a farmer, as he swore it rained on him too often while outside working, drenching his mane and soaking his coat.  This time though he would be making it rain!  Well.. storm at least.  “Alrecht! 34!”  He sat up proud and excited for the first time, “ain wi' mah +4 in weaither handlin', 'at is a 38!  Sooo… in addition tae plantin' th' clood aroond it’s heed, Ah gie th' clood a real guid kick fur extra lightenin' damage!! Zap!! Mebbe blaw his heed reit aff his neck?”  Carrot looked around excitedly hoping the others would approve of his impromptu idea, after all it sounded cool, right?

 

Well good provided his other rolls were high enough.

[Corsair]

Fluttershy blushed at Twilight's explanation.  This was a made up world they were playing in, why couldn't it have made up creatures?  Why had she asked such a silly question?  "Sorry Twilight..." she murmured, her ears drooping.  She was also a little bothered that Rainbow and Carrot were talking about taking the creature's head off.  It seemed very morbid to her...  But, then again, this was a pretend monster in a pretend game.  She took a deep breath, reminding herself not to take this too seriously.

 

She perked up, though, when Twilight explained the results of their first 'moves' in the fight.  She'd done it right!  Somehow, Crusher was the only one that had not been hit by the monster's gaze, and had gotten a bonus!  But now, she had to roll the dice.  Rainbow had tried to explain the dice;  Rolls of the dice determined everything in the game, from how hard you hit a monster, to how well your character got along with 'NPC' characters.  There were so many rules about the dice she didn't understand. "Um, I'm sorry,  I don't mean to interrupt, but why did Carrot have to roll three times?" she asked trying to get a better understanding.

 

She then looked down at the two odd dice.  She'd played foal's games with regular six-sided dice, but she'd never see a twenty-sided die until now.  She picked them up in her hoof, then closed her eyes before throwing.  She timidly opened one eye, then the other, to see the results.  The two dice showed a 18 and a 20.  Plus the two she'd had added to her attack, that was 40, right?  She looked up at the other ponies and asked, "I-is that good?"

​

[SteelEagle]

 

 

The heroes were doing an admirably smashing job of rolling so well as to negate the inherent advantages that the construct was in, a factor which would frustrate more easily annoyed game masters to no certain end. Luckily, Twilight was more than happy to see them adapt as best they could to the situation and worked together in a limited capacity to counter some of her advantages. She had done her part, of course, by rolling so ineffectively behind her reflective screen. It would be frustrating if she was the type of GM who cared about winning, but she wasn't. Rain Runner weakened the stone of the construct of his move- as magical as it was, Drogba was not a crafts pony of any sort and lacked the skill to make a more solidly resistant construct. This allowed Lilly's strike to crit against the foe, when normally it would have suffered -5 on the dice and likely ended up not doing much. The prince...well, he'd find out what happened next time he gazed into that pretty little mirror of his. Crusher's attack would do devastating damage to her construct as well- Twilight rolled on a crit table- it was blinded itself? Geez. She couldn't get anything to work right.

But before she got to the entertaining portion of her day, Twilight ad to double back and explain a bit to Fluttershy. No doubt this was all very confusing to a first time player, especially to someone new to RPGs and gaming in general. She had once been that way- wait, no, that was a lie. She had a love of systems too much. She had never been like Fluttershy, but she had known ponies who were. “Rain Runner was struck by the Basilisk's stare, so he had to pass a Will Test. He did, so he could continue doing what Carrot wanted him to. Carrot rolled for that. Then he rolled for the cloud being pulled down. He also rolled very well, so...” Twilight laughed a little...then a lot...then her visage vanished as the room momentarily grew even darker. Time for the show!

Drogba felt a sharp pain crash through the barrier of her horn as aetheral feedback cracked against her, the backshock of her creature's failings hurting her. Each little piece of them that was harmed came back on her in a more emotional manner, the feedback feeding her hate for the trespassers. The workings of her enemies had brought her creature low, the weak basilisk crashing against the earth because of their attacks and breaking. Uggh, these heroes were vexing! Whatever celebration they may have been having was short lived however, as the dark magic inside of the construct coalesced above its body and formed a face whose eyes glowed every color of the anti-rainbow! “You fools! You enter...DROGBA'S DOMAIN!”

The world lit for a second. “Please make a fear check,” Twilight said, her eyes glowing green and black as dark magic flowed around her. Just as quickly as the world lit it was consumed by darkness once more, the sound of dice behind her GM screen followed by the lilting laughter of a playfully mischievous mare in the dark adding to the scary ambience of the coalesced dark magic face in the middle of the table, seemingly staring at every player at once.  

[Bramble Rose]

Rainbow Dash caught Fluttershy staring at her with a look of slight horror on her face and reviewed the past conversation in her mind.  Oh!  "Don't worry, it's just a statue and doesn't have feelings, Drogba could have made it look like anything she wanted," Dash reassured Fluttershy.  "Like the Flim Flam machine.  We can't hurt it.  We can just break it!  That's why Crusher has such good bonuses against it - it's made of stone, and Diamond Dogs are miners."

She grinned as everypony else got in their hits, making snarky comment as she cracked open a bag of cheesy hay crisps and munched away as the last rolls were being finished.

​

"Not bad," Dawn Prince said to Cobra Lily.  "I see your reputation is well-deserved - you're more than just a pretty flank."

​

 

Dash eeped and blushed.  "Er ... I mean ..."

​

 

"-a pretty face."  He was still seething over the 'dress-up mirror' crack, but he honestly had nothing to complain about in return.  He'd get her back soon, though.

​

And at Carrot's turn, she nudged Carrot in the side.  "Not bad for a farmer," she teased, "We'll make a weather pony of you yet."  She grinned at Fluttershy's roll, giving her oldest friend a nod as she took the statue apart.

But as Twilight revealed that was all there was to the battle, Rainbow Dash groaned.  "Aw, horsefeathers.  The first monster's already done and I didn't get one hit in... and I have special bonuses if I can get the last blow.  Well, guess it won't be the last monster."

She jumped along with everyone else at Twilight's theatrical display, and gave a confident smirk.  A fear check?  Ha!  She took Fluttershy's dice and passed them under the table - she had no doubt that Crusher could make his fear check, but Fluttershy sure wasn't going to.  Then she took up her own dice.  Uck.  only an 8 - what a horrible roll.  Luckily, against fear effects, she didn't *need* a good roll.  "No problem - made it easy.  Total of 39, after bonuses."  She pulled out a long list of flaws, then, and checked through them.  "In rage at how the statue attacked her team, then ... I mean, his team ... Dawn Prince attacks the pile of rubble..."

​

Caught up in the adreneline rush, Dawn Prince abandoned his mirror to leap forward onto the basilisk even as it was falling to rubble, his hooves smashing at the fallen enemy uselessly - even weakened and defeated, he couldn't crush rocks with his bare hooves.  "TEACH!  YOU!  TO!  HURT!  MY!  FRIENDS!"  He couldn't even see for a moment, just red rage clouding his vision, before it finally cleared a few seconds later.  He glanced around at everypony staring at him, and rubbed at the back of his neck.  "Could we just pretend that didn't happen?"

​

Dash grinned, having just managed a quote from Dawn Prince out of the actual books.  It felt a bit awkward here - but she had to follow her flaws or else she'd lose her awesome bonuses!

​
 

[RarityDash]

Rarity was delighted to see that the monster had been defeated. it was just a silly game, but there was a definite satisfaction in the triumph for her. "Hehe, Drogba is going to have to call upon more frightful foes yet if she's going to have a chance of standing in the way of this party!" Rarity declared, smiling Twilight's way. Perhaps it was unbecoming of her to boast for their victory, but Twilight she knew to be a good sport.

 

At the comment Rainbow had Dawn Prince speak, Rarity herself blushed a little as the words subconsciously affected her. She said nothing as herself, however, and focused only on coming up with her in character response.

 

Basking in the satisfaction that came in seeing her knives punch a hole clean through the stone beast, Cobra Lily's smile turned to a smirk as Dawn Prince spoke to her.

 

"Oh, my. Just where has his royal highness' eyes been wandering?" she said in a voice that was at once suggestive and dangerous as she turned from the beast allowing the others to score the finishing blows. "I'm not a girl who objects to a little flattery now and again, mind you, but I wouldn't let yourself get any crazy ideas unless you want to see what else these knives of mine can do..." She concluded her lines with a mischevious giggle as she returned her sharpened blades to their place in her cloak.

​

 

Rarity giggled as well. Lily truly was just delightful. She was having fun exploring her character.

 

When Twilight requested the fear check, she nodded politely and took the dice. Due to her jaded personality and tendency to find herself regularly in dangerous situations, Lily was not a character to fear easily, and Rarity had built the character in a way to reflect that. As it turned out, she rolled high on the dice once more anyway. The fear check was easily passed.

 

As Drogba's magic came from out of the the broken stone beast, Lily's eyes went from the handsome prince to the face that formed in the air like some horrible glowing spectre.

 

"Pfft, is this supposed to scare us?" Lily questioned brusquely, stepping toward the spectral image, unimpeded. "it'll take for more than a stone guardian and some smoke and mirrors to get Cobra Lily to turn tail and run, Drogba!"

 

"We dare indeed!" she added curtly, before stepping right past the frightful image.

​

​

[brianblackberry]

Carrot Fields was feeling pretty darn good right now, in fact he was more relieved than anything.  He had managed to not only survive his first fight in the game, but did remarkably well all things considered.  After all his character, Rain Runner, had brought down the lightening that slew the monster.  He looked around at the other players with a huge, beaming grin, as if beating the first monster one fought was a big deal.  Well, to a newbie like Carrot, it was!

 

Carrot blushed and smiled as he awkwardly rubbed the back of his long ruddy mane in response to Dash’s compliments.  Sure, being a weather pony wasn’t a glorious job or anything, but how cool would it be to be able to actually fly in the sky like his character could?  To make lightening shoot from clouds instead of just avoiding it on the ground.  “Weel, Ah jist, weel, Ah wanted tae make a character 'at coods fly an' aw, as Ah can’t, an' it diz seem bonnie cool an' everythin', heh.  Since he is a pegasus, Ah figure he coods dae weaither stuff tay an' be an expert at it! Ah um, used those stories ye woods teel me abit yer job an' coworkers an' stuff tae create his backstory an' skills”.  Carrot really hoped that didn’t sound too dorky!

 

What may have been even dorkier was how he was intrigued by Dash and Rarity’s characters flirting.  Of course his young stallion mind was listening to their banter through the lens of Dash and Rarity flirting themselves, and their mutual blushing over this was, of course, sweetening the deal.  So he really was startled out of his own thoughts when the face of Drogba was suddenly floating over the table, making his mane and tail stand straight up.

 

“Fear! Fear check, reit!”  He fumbled for his d20’s and picked out two of them, giving them a toss on the table.  Five and two!  Wait, what?  “Seven!?  Plus fower.  Eleven.  Awwwwwww.”  His shoulders slumped.  “But Ah beat th' monster! an' now mah pegasus is gonnae look bad…”  And in front of Dash, too!

 

Stat info to help me keep up:

Rain Runner

 

+2 Brawn and Nimbleness

-4 Concentration Checks

+2 Flight Skills

+4 Weather Handling

-2 Knowledge

+4 Street Smarts

 

Also rolled two actual D20 die to get a random number and RPed from that; feels more genuine.

[Corsair]

Despite Rainbow's doubts, when Twilight did her illusion magic, Fluttershy didn't dive under the table. She was proud of that, even though it did take her a moment to stop the shaking...  She then surprised herself by joking, "Um, I th-think I already failed my fear check, b-but I'll roll anyway!"  She was confused for a moment when she couldn't find her dice, but then found Rainbow Dash's hoof reaching for hers.  She smiled at the other pegasus, showing a little pride in her bravery, but a faith blush tinted her cheeks as well.

Remembering that something in Crusher's stats made this an easy check, Fluttershy rolled the dice.  Seeing the result was decently high, she cleared her throat, sniffed loudly and said:

​
"This Drogba is amateur.  She think scary voice and weak statue frighten us off?  I worked for Ahuizotl!  He was twice as scary!"  

 

Fluttershy gasped in realization at what she had said.  "N-nothing against you, Twilight!" she babbled out.  "I-I thought that was plenty scary! B-But Crusher... he's not me..  I mean he's me, but he's not me, and..."  She sputtered to a stop before stammering, "S-sorry..."  Fluttershy took a deep breath to calm her nerves, and decided to continue on.

​

Crusher eyed Dawn Prince with one eyebrow raised as the unicorn pounded the lifeless stone that had been the golem.  "I think Prince Pony has anger issues.  Maybe you should take up gardening?  Very relaxing." 

[SteelEagle]

OOC-  (I apologize for this delay! I was informed not too long ago it was my turn. I never received the notification for this, oddly enough.)

 

 The fear check hadn't gone entirely the way she had wanted it. Of course, they were playing somewhat high level characters and they weren't dealing with any of Twilight's alpha level events so it wasn't surprising, but she had wanted to get at least some high level fear results going. As it was, only one had failed. But that was okay, because Twilight passed with absurdly high rolls. While that didn't mean much to the characters who had passed, for Rain Runner this would be bad. Very, very bad. If more had failed than the level of malevolence that would sneak into his game now would have been distributed more evenly across his allies. Oh well. Some things were just bound to happen poorly for some players some of the time and others all the time.

Twilight had to put her mind back on the others. Good roleplaying from Rarity and Rainbow Dash, really getting into their juicy roles. Even from Fluttershy, who was surprising with her quality. A good showing from almost all of them, even if Carrot needed to pick up the pace a little! Rainbow was able to guarantee herself the continued bonuses, and Rarity was blushing a little- good roleplaying some more! It must have been hard for them to play like that, considering how little compatibility they shared. No matter. They were playing well now and it was time for Twilight to return the favor, nodding and smiling towards Fluttershy to reassure her a moment before she laid it out.

“Only one failure? Good job. Carrot, you're going to roll one less dice whenever you try to resist one of Drogba's mind-altering spells. And Fluttershy, you're doing fine. Don't worry about it. Being in character is a good thing. Speaking of...” Twilight said before the room darkened again and she seemingly vanished....

“Hahahaha, be as arrogant and prideful as you wish, beautiful nincompoops. I welcome your descent into what is so rightfully mine! All it takes is for one of you to fail, and you most certainly will. HAHAHAHAHHA!” Drogba laughed maniacally before she vanished, her former basilisk turning to dust. The path cleared ahead- both in story and in the real life board, where the group could now clearly see the two paths to the main ruins. One was shorter but more dangerous, leading to a raised area. The other was far simpler and easier to reach, but was also longer and went into the normal ground portion of the ruin. Twilight sat silently, offering no advice.  

[Bramble Rose]

Rainbow Dash blushed fiercely at Rarity's teasing, squirming in her seat.

"Aw, comon, Rares," she mumbled.  "You know that just slipped out.  Mnngh.  But I suppose that means it happened, so ... "

​

Dawn Prince cleared his throat, his face flaming.  How the hay did that slip out of his mouth?  He hadn't made a mistake like that since he'd been adventuring with Daring Do.  It must be this mare's straightforward attitude... reminded him of his lost love.

​

Dash was surprised when Fluttershy wasn't under the table, and gave her an encouraging grin and an approving nod.

But then Twilight revealed the results.

"Hold on, not quite, Twi!" Dash stated, flipping through her character sheets.  Unlike everyone else, who had a one-page sheet, she seemed to have a dozen.  "If you'll look at page 8 of the flaws and bonus abilities section of the packet I gave you, that's my royal bonus abilities, and the flaws I used to buy them with.  For the flaws 'Never Leave a Pony Behind' and 'Lost Responsibility' - the first one's self explanatory but the second one's that I have certain responsibilities that I keep only because I'm alive - even though his kingdom is lost, he's still loyal to its ideals and will do anything to find justice against the Changelings who took it and support any members of his kingdom that he can find.  It's all part of his backstory.  Anyway, with those two flaws, and since I have the royal kit pack as a prerequisite - the thing that gave me that stupid mirror spell - I was able to take the 'Leader of Ponies' bonus ability, which lets me give bonuses to others when I give them orders - and then the 'Fearless Leader' bonus ability.  What that means is that when I make a save against fear, if I exceeded the target number, I can take all that extra numbers ... stuff ... and give it to ponies I've given orders to, as long as I'm in the forefront of the battle, or whatever's causing the fear save.  Since I met all those requisites, I can bump up Carrot's roll so that Rain Runner doesn't fail his save!  I dunno the math exactly, but I know my roll was good enough that it's GOTTA be enough to get him up there!"

She lounged back with a proud grin on her face.  "Y'had to know I wouldn't leave my team hangin'!" she said, giving a lil' punch to Carrot's upper foreleg.  "Comon, this's a race, ponies.  Let's take that short path and get there faster!"

​

With a toss of his mane, Dawn Prince dismissed the illusion of Drogba as unimportant.  "As if she could scare us after we defeated her beast so easily," he said, bolstering the will of his allies.  "Between Crusher's sheer power, our lovely snake's quick knives, and especially Rain's ability with lightning, it seems we've got more than enough to take care of anything she throws at us!"  He smirked brightly at Cobra Lily, finally regaining his composure.  "And your knives seem almost superfluous as a threat, just a sour word from you can cut deeper than any blade.  Now, let's take that dangerous route there - we've got the ponypower for it!"

​

[RarityDash]

Rarity giggled at Rainbow's comments. "Don't worry, dear. It's all part of the fun of it!" She said cheerfully. "Besides, I'm sure Lily is more flattered by our charming prince than she might let on!"

 

She turned her attention to the others, smiling as Fluttershy pulled through the fear check with a supporting hoof from Rainbow. It was surprising some times how the cyan pegasus could be so remarkably in tune with all her friends. Rarity almost felt bad that she herself had been having too much fun to recall that Fluttershy might be feeling intimidated. The relief on her face as she passed the check was rewarding.

 

Ultimately, none of them failed the check save for Carrot, but because of more words seeping out of Rainbow's mouth than Rarity had seen since the last time Rarity had asked the mare to tell her about the newest Daring Do story, apparently this would not be taking hold either. At this revelation, Rarity glanced toward Twilight, feeling somewhat guilty. Twilight was definitely one to become invested in things and to be thwarted as such was likely to be quite frustrating to her. While Rarity was far too competitive to regret anything and not about to give it any less effort on her part, it was easy for her to put herself in Twilight's position and see how she might be somewhat bothered.

 

"Don't fret, Twilight dear. I'm positive that you have something prepared for us which is bound to trip us up, at least a little," she said congenially. "It's only a matter of time!"

 

She nodded and then thought out her in character response to the latest dilemma...

 

Cobra Lily giggled at the prince's word. "It seems you're learning. I like that," she said in a dangerous voice as she walked right up to the royal stallion and grinned.

 

"I'm with our oh so dashing leader on this one. There's no reason to drag this out. With the notable exceptions of romance and revenge, I find the quickest cut that can be made is the best choice in all things." She giggled mischievously and glanced  at Dawn again.

 

"Besides. We none of us are afraid here, are we?" she asked, turning suddenly toward Rain Runner, who she noticed had flinched at Drogba's illusion, before Dawn had went and given his little rousing speech.

​

​

[brianblackberry]

Carrot was really worried by the results of failing his fear check - he didn't want to put the whole group in danger if he was turned against them!  Just because of one bad roll making him more vulnerable.  And how would that make him look?  He hadn't prepared enough, he wasn't good enough - he was such a newb.  Then Dash revealed the surprising level of preparation that she had gone through for this game.  Was that normal?  Suited her, though - she wanted to be the best, and she was loyal to her team.  And she did love Daring Do.  Eight sheets.  Daaaaaang.  She was so cute when she was being an egghead - not that he'd call her that in front of her friends.  He wanted to give her a nice nuzzle right there, but nono, she insisted on no labels, no PDA, no being all sappy in public.  Besides, he didn't want to break up the flow of the flirting between her character and Rarity's character.  It was kinda hot.  "Waw, thanks, Dash!  Good tae know ye've got me back!"

"Dinnae encourage her!" he protested as Rarity encouraged Twilight.  "This's jes th' first challenge!  She's gotta have all sorts of horrible things in there!  We dinnae want her t'make them stronger!"

Everyone seemed to get so into being in-character ... what could he say, in character?  How would Rain Runner react?  He wasn't comfortable with that, but Twilight said being in character was good, and he wanted to make sure the princess had fun, and not disappoint royalty!

"Um... let's see... "

 

Rain Runner was scared as th' statue crumbled, but Drogba dinnae seem upset - she was laughing.  Was it wot she'd wanted?  But Dawn Prince's rallying speech reassured him.  "Roit!  She cannae stop us!  Oi vote fer th' dangerous path, too!"  He wos tempted fer th' safe path, but 'e needed tae prove 'imself ... nae jes' to 'is team, but tae himself as well.  He ran one blue hoof through 'is grey-an-white striped mane, an' looked forward wif narrowed eyes.

​

[Corsair]

Fluttershy was starting to feel more comfortable with this whole game now.  She did wish that Twilight would be a little... less... into her role as the evil sorceress, but Fluttershy barely jumped this time when the alicorn made the room go dark!  That was progress, right?  Besides, it wasn't like the danger was real or anything.  Kind of like Nightmare Night; she didn't participate because she didn't like being scared, but there was no real danger. 

 

Back to the game though:  Their first opponent had been defeated easily, and the party was mostly unscathed.  Only Carrot's character had been affected at all, and he would just be more vulnerable to some of the spells the bad mare could use.  She smiled at Twilight's complement to her 'role-playing."  She was starting to understand this!

 

But, just when she thought she was getting a handle on things, Rainbow Dash produced her character sheet. Through some combination of abilities that bewildered her, Rainbow had found some way to negate the effects on Rain Runner.  And now Fluttershy was lost again.  She was also rather surprised at the depth that Rainbow Dash had put into this.  To use Rainbow's own terms, this seemed pretty 'egg-headed.'  "Wow, Rainbow," Fluttershy said to her friend.  "You almost sounded like Twilight just now!"

 

Stepping back into character, she tried to think how Crusher would respond:

​

Crusher eyed the path the others had chosen.  While he was not one to run into danger, he had to agree with the choice.  The longer, open path seemed... too easy somehow.  Years as a henchdog told him the easier route probably just contained more cleverly hidden traps.  Crusher moved past Dawn Prince as the stallion was giving what the dog  assumed was supposed to be some kind of motivational speech.  "Ponies talk too much."  he grumbled.  "We need to move before witch pony tries something else."

[SteelEagle]

 

Rainbow Dash might have counted herself among one of Equestria's most ardent fans of Daring Do, and a pony who took her games seriously. And there was no doubt this was the case, as she launched herself full bore into an excited defense of Carrot's failing. Or more accurately, how Carrot didn't fail because of the Prince's Fearless Leader bonus ability helped stave off a most unworthy outcome for Rain Runner. Fearless Leader was a very powerful ability, especially against magic users that attacked mentally. It neutered one of the most powerful effects in the game, and having it certainly gave the Prince am effective bulwark against the sort of tactics and strategies that Drogba relied upon. Rainbow knew how to weave the abilities into the story, and it all worked out well.

But there was a hitch. A problem. Well, for them. Twilight had rolled absurdly high. In fact, one could say that she couldn't have rolled better- and they'd be right. Twilight followed Rainbow's explanation with a nod and a smile. “Oh, you would normally be correct. But Drogba's Innate Fear 3 Skill has been amplified by her unique ability, Alone in the Dark. Not only does she roll three d20s on such rolls-” Twilight levitated her glowing dice, showcasing the results of 20, 18, and 19, “and when she passes her check with a crit, Alone in the Dark allows me to activate one of her many effects,” Twilight levitated a sheet, showcasing a sheet that had lists of spells and pages. A page number lit up, a rulebook popped out, and it levitated above as she spoke, “and in this case, Isolation- global boosts, assists, abilities, are neutralized for three game turns. You'll have to get up pretty early in the morning to beat Drogba! Speaking of-” Twilight said. Darkness, cackling, back to roleplaying.

 

These...heroes...made their way down the harsher path, one that curved up a foot for a foot. Ruins penned them in. Vines snapped at them, snarled at them. Little sparks of magic seemed to dance on the edge of their sight, tossing rocks and boulders at them, The ground bubbled- sucking hooves it, sometimes heating up and casing a burst of flame to burst out. Angry clouds seemingly buzzed around, dropping- was that slightly acidic rain, or a lot acidic? Difficult to tell. All of these things at once...one of them wasn't a threat. But together, with the pace of these attacks increasing the closer they got? Yikes!

The board revealed itself. The distance was short enough for the fastest characters to move to the entrance in one turn if they moved at their fastest speed. Of course, doing that would mean suffering some negatives to their rolls!

“You may make defensssive or dodge rolls againssst threatsss in any order, but you must make rolls againssst all four threatsss every turn you are in the path. The difficulties are sssimple, easssy, medium, and hard. This represssentsss...that each and every obstacle by itssself isssn't dangerousss on itsss own, but asss you are dealing with one another one might just come up and bite you in the rear. Literally,” Twilight said, her face hidden under a cloak and a dark, sickly green escaping from her horn and eyes. Her words were layered with the trilling of a snake, her tongue forked and slippery in the gloom that shrouded her side of the table.

[Bramble Rose]

Rainbow Dash gaped at Twilight, her eyes wide, her jaw dropped.  "Wha... wha... "  She swallowed.  "Drogba has an ability that neutralizes teamwork and friendship?!" she cries.  "How is that even supposed to WORK?!  What, she can stop us from working together!?"  Rainbow Dash stared down at the revealed map, her mind sputtering over her character sheet.  Well, Dawn could make it to the other end of the path in half a turn, but the others were going to be taking several turns... how could she speed things up?  She could use her speed spell on one of the others, but ... no, because Drogba's ability wouldn't let her cast a spell on somepony else.  She could try an assist skill check ... no, that's blocked, too.  She couldn't even grab them by the hoof and pull them along.  Her 'Move as a Team' ability ... her 'Inspiring Energy' ability ... her 'Gift of Might' ability ... all of them were completely useless here!

​

 

"Burn you, Drogba," growled Dawn Prince, the fierce pride of his prideful fierceness burning in his eyes.  "Fire of Friendship burrrrrrn you!" He shook his forehooves in the air angrily as the dark tendrils of her eeeevil magic wrapped around, obscuring the rest of the team from his eyes, muffling their voices from his ears, seeming to even dim the light around them, leaving them alone in the dark.  All he could see was a narrow tunnel ahead of him... countless threats and dangers that they had to thread ... he had chosen this path.  His voice had guided the others.  For him, this wouldn't be a problem - he knew he could take it.  The Scion of the Lost Kingdom knew he could get through that in no time flat.  But none of them had his speed, and they'd be stuck fighting through this for many turns - possibly slowing things down more than the slow path had done!  And it wasn't just them - if they failed, Drogba would continue on unstopped.  He could not even see them to help them, the foul and mystic magical darkness leaving him so very alone in the ebon black mysticness.

There was only one thing for it.  It would take all his effort and leave him vulnerable, but there was only one other way to help his team.  He had been pretty useless during the battle against the rock monster of stone, but he wouldn't let that hold him back.  His horn glowed brightly as he prepared his most powerful spell...

​

"OK.  I'm casting 'Speed of Light'.  It's a higher-level version of my super-speed spell, and it provides a shield made of sunlight ahead of me, but only if I run at full speed.  Normally he wouldn't be high enough level to cast it, but he took the 'Never Leave a Pony Behind' penalty - which Drogba's little 'Alone in the Dark' curse pretty much activates, so I have no choice but to use the 'Moment of Glory' ability which I purchased from that penalty.  That lets me cast a higher-level spell by sacrificing some of his health, which cannot be healed except through rest."  She took two six-sided dice and rolled them, then winced as they came up at 11.  "A lot of health, apparently.  But that's OK.  Speed of Light gives me a +2 and a +8 vs traps and triples my move rate - and between that and my 'Racer' bonus ability, I don't have any full-movement penalties.  If the +2 means I make the save, I don't take any damage from the trap.  If I am between +2 and +8 to the save, the trap's effect is 'boosted' against me.  either way, though, as long as I roll within that +8, the trap is destroyed from the sunlight shield.  And then I'm going to 'exert' when casting it so that its effect is magnified, and I'm going to use that to increase the size of the sunlight shield, just like I increased the size of that stupid mirror, so it can hit the traps on both sides of the path!"  She stood up and clopped her forehoof on the table, smirking at Twilight in challenge.  "I might not be able to do any of those assist thingies, but that doesn't mean my team stands alone!"

Then came the rolling.  And there was a LOT of it.  She had major bonuses to her rolls against traps... but all the boosting and moment of glorying and everything had a lot of penalties associated with it.  "Hard difficulty first!  And... YES!  Made it!  That trap's destroyed!  Then the medium, and ... that trap's destroyed, too, but, uh ... I take double-damage from the boulder.  Then the easy one ... and ... ouch, these penalties are adding up ... I got ... uh ... made that one, and destroyed the trap, but ... boosted acid does what?  Oh, right, penalties for three turns.  And then, finally, the simple trap, and I ... OH NO!"  Dash dropped her head onto the table.  "They still have to contend with the vines."  She looked up at everypony at the table.  "Sorry, everypony.  I let you down... "  She made one last roll.  "Oh, horseapples.  That's not good...  Unable to move next turn due to fatigue."

​

The perfect sky-blue mane of the Scion of the Lost Kingdom was mangled, burnt, and wisped.  Patches of acid sizzled on his ivory coat.  He stood at the far end of the path, the sunlight steaming away from him, the magic fading from his horn ... and behind him, small explosions of sunlight exploded along the path - the threats to his team destroyed.  And then he fell to one foreknee, unable to stay standing.  He hoped they would stop Drogba, because he was left alone in the dark, now, and his mystical magic strength had failed him at the end.  "The path ..." he whispered, though they could not hear him, "Is as clear as it can be... I leave the rest ... to you ... "  And the vines raised up behind him to attack, now that he was injured and helpless, binding around his hind legs and pulling him back into their viney green clutches ...

​
 

[RarityDash]

 ((ooc:  Reviving this thread because I kept getting asked.  Sorry for stalling it so long.Thinking why I didn't post in the first place was me kind of losing the plot a bit in the back and forth about the game stuff.))

 

Rarity had read the game rules and done well to take them to heart, but once Twilight and Rainbow really hit their stride and got into it about all their various situational abilities she just found her head spinning, much the same as it did whenever she heard the two discuss Daring Do. She appreciated the room for creativity in the game, though she had to admit it would probably be more fun if it was a little clearer cut what was actually happening. Almost immediately once Rainbow laid out the situation, Twilight evidently had changed it, apparently invalidating the scene they were already playing out in favor of something else. Then before Rarity had acted, Rainbow had pushed ahead with a plan to destroy all the traps on her own.

 

"You don't have another ability that can make it so that Rainbow can't actually do that, do you Twilight?" Rarity asked as a joke, even as a part of her wondered if it wasn't a possibility. She shook her head.

 

As Dawn Prince rushed ahead, Lily followed though found she could not keep up with his speed. As she watched him rush each trap, she felt a deep frustration. for all his bluster about teamwork the little prince certainly seemed one quick to save most of the burden for himself.

 

"You idiot!" Cobra Lily called out, stopping in her tracks watching as the vines brought an end to the prince's reckless charge. "Why are you taking on all the risk yourself? You do know, If you wanted to experience some pain for my sake, there are other possible options," she spoke under her breath.

 

She clicked her tongue and continued, "Besides, you know, being the master thief I am, I have a knack for disarming traps... and without so much grief involved."

 

She turned then toward the others. "Come, we're not going ahead without this fool!" she shouted and rushed toward the vines. Once there, she used her disarming spell to make them still and limp.

 

 

[brianblackberry]

Carrot was a little bewildered.  All those numbers, all that rolling, and Dash and Twilight both listing all those abilities ... did he still have some sort of penalty for being intimidated by Drogba?  

 

Oh, he didn't know.  He'd rely on Twilight to tell him when that came into play.  Still.  What could he even do?  Some creepy magic darkness swallowing them up so they couldn't help each other... and after Dash went through all the trouble of helping him increase his abilities with storm clouds and the like.  He sucked morosely on the ... amazingly delicious rainbow smoothie that Dash had brought the group.

 

Wait... If she can come up with stuff, I can come up with stuff, too!  He now had all these bonuses in manipulating weather - especially bad weather!  And it was such a pegasus solution!  Dash was gonna be so proud of him!

 

"Aye, then.  So ... as th' darkness hie up 'round us, an' we cannae e'en see each other..."

 

Rain Runner looked 'round nervously as th' dark magic sealed them so they could nae see each other.  The earlier fright just increased, leaving him on his own, despite what Dawn Prince had just said about working as a team.  What could they do?  He heard a far-off voice that sounded something like Cobra Lily's, but he could nae hear it through th' magical darkness.

 

Ach aye!  'course!  He crouched low, gathered himself, and popped off back tae the fight earlier, where he'd left th' storm cloud.  He grabbed it an' pushed it down the path.  Once he was over the first of the traps, he started battering the cloud

 

Here, Carrot demonstrated with his forehooves, making quick little strikes at mid-air kind of like his little sister kneading dough.

 

making tiny lightning bolts crackle over its surface.  "Aye, take this, Drogba!  Lightning lights up e'en th' darkest night!"

 

Carrot grinned broadly at Dash.  "Pegasus ponies have magic too, aye?  Unicorn magic dinnae beat pegasus magic!"