Yet Another Human in Equestria Story
By: Bardic Knowledge
Chapter 32: May 13, Test of Metal
I had arrived at Twilight's an hour early to finalize her character. She had it almost entirely complete, including an extensive backstory (certainly more thorough than anyone else), which meant I had the final step to complete of figuring out what its mana colours were.
Also, I always preferred to arrive early to everything.
Her character was, only somewhat surprisingly, a stereotypical wizard: old man with long beard, robe, staff and pointy hat. His name was initially going to be a play off Starswirl (Night Spiral or something like that), but I asked her to try and make it a more human name, giving a list of examples of famous Earth wizards (that conversation took all of an afternoon). Had I remembered enough of the various languages I know smatterings of, I would have suggested just translating her original intention to German or something. Best I could do was Al Bhed, though, and “Cdyncfenm” doesn't flow very well.
Eventually, we settled on Emrys Springfield, borrowing names from The Lost Years of Merlin and Mahou Sensei Negima.
Considering her backstory and set-up, this character was very definitely Blue, with little room for other colours. Which vaguely surprised me, as I thought Twilight would have included some White mana as well, considering her almost fanatical devotion to Princess Celestia (must not make Monty Python joke).
Our conversation on names actually revealed some interesting information to me: I had brought up the process of pasteurization, which had been named after Louis Pasteur on Earth, and basically asked which came first: the pony or the process.
She then told me that pasteurization on their world had not been invented by a pony (but the process actually came first in most instances). Instead they actually have a France, and the inventor was still named Pasteur. The natives of this world's France (still known as France), curiously, were a variety of amphibious dragons called gargoyles, which were ruled over by Les Gargouilles, a sea dragon who guided the ocean currents in much the same way that Celestia and Luna guided the sun and moon.
I had already known that griffins were the equivalent to Germany, and zebras were from Zebafrica but it was interesting to find out that there were other similarities out there. There wasn't a “Bitaly,” but rather the sea serpent nation of Itl'nty. Saddle Arabia was more a generalized middle east, rather than a straight-up Saudi Arabia expy, and dragons were a sort of fusion between Russian and Romani culture, from what little was known about their culture. Minotaurs and centaurs shared a homeland in Mesánychta, which was pretty heavily Grecian. Their current ruler was apparently a strange minotuar, but very little was known about him.
Anyways, I'm getting vaguely off-topic here. We set up for the game (Spike providing snacks), adjourning to a side wing of the library, as normal.
“Alright, when we left off, Jace had left you guys behind on a Plane called 'The Realm of Light,' with the task of finding him within that Plane. Looking around you, there seems to be nothing but grasslands as far as the eye can see, with a dirt path stretching from below you in two directions.”
“So we just have to find him?” asked Spike. I nodded. “Did he leave any clues?”
“None that you can see.”
Trixie raised a hoof. “I'll spend a Blue effort to scan the area for his mana signature.”
“You find that the area seems almost perfectly balanced between all the colours of mana, but the area he was standing in has a slightly higher concentration of Blue mana than the surroundings.”
Pinkie said, “'He did say that this plane was like a smaller version of the multiverse. Maybe we have to Planeswalk to find him?'”
“'I'll give it a try,'” volunteered Trixie. She glanced at her notes and did some mumbled math. “I'll spend five mana effort into my novice Planeswalking skill for a total of six.”
I grabbed the rulebook to check what the rules said about overdoing a skill (she only needed three effort to 'Walk through the Realm of Light). The rules said to give additional effects based on the amount of overkill. Hmm. I could work with this. “As you feel yourself sliding out of the world, you catch a brief glimpse of a starry expanse before you find yourself being buffeted by the chaos of the Blind Eternities.”
Trixie blinked in surprise. “Wait, what?”
“You put so much effort into Planeswalking that you've 'Walked right out of the Realm of Light.” Trixie facehoofed.
“I guess I'll try to go back, then.”
“You find yourself in a different location than you left, the edge of a small island suspended in nothing, covered in hedges with a single tall, orange-and-yellow tower at the other end. The area is heavy in White, Blue, and Black mana. You also take a fatigue damage from over-exerting yourself.
“As for the rest of you,” I add, turning to the other party members. “You just saw Dawn vanish in a burst of blue that felt much deeper than what Jace did moments before. All you know is that she said she was going to try and find Jace by Planeswalking.”
“Great,” said Dash. “We split the party. Didn't you say never split the party at some point?”
“Possibly.”
“Well, the best we can do is try and follow, too,” said Pinkie. “And since I don't have as much mana as Dawn did, Peregrin's attempt at Planeswalking should go much better. So I put two mana into Planeswalking.”
“And with your skill rank of Novice you get a free effort, which means that you find yourself in a starry expanse. Three of the stars are actually quite close, and another one is behind you. Looking closely at them allows you to see that they're not quite stars, exactly, but shining worlds with distinguishing features that you can see even from there.”
“What kind of distinguishing features?” asked Spike.
“You don't know, as you aren't there.” Spike just rolled his eyes in response. “As you float in the strange space, you notice that there's a current of some form, not as wild or dangerous as the Blind Eternities, but still subtly pushing you towards the star behind you.”
“I guess I'll follow it back,” said Pinkie, “and show the others what I've learned.”
“While you do that, I'll return to Trixie's adventure.”
Trixie nodded, “I'll approach the tower.”
“The tower is even more awash in Blue mana than the rest of the area. Whoever lives here is more than likely a powerful spellcaster with a great deal of knowledge. One of the two large doors on the front is ajar.”
“I guess I should take that as an invitation. I'll go inside.”
“The entrance has a spiral staircase, a glowing green circle on the floor, and an elderly gentleman in blue. He carries a staff and both it and his clothes, including the pointed hat, are festooned with bells. He carries a similar feeling of similarity as your teammates.”
“'Oh, hello,'” said Twilight, trying to emulate an elderly male voice (and barely failing). “'Are you here to see Master Yen Sid as well?'”
“'Who?'” asked Trixie.
“'Are you lost, then?'”
“'Somewhat. I'm looking for my allies and our teacher. My name is Dawn Starre, by the way.'”
“'Emrys Springfield. Now, I wonder what's taking so long. I've been waiting here for half an hour.'”
Trixie steeled herself. “'I'm going to go up now. If you want to keep waiting, it's up to you.' And with that, I'll start up the stairs.”
Twilight nodded, “Emrys will follow her.”
“After a single revolution around the tower, you come upon a door bearing a glowing moon. When you open it, you enter a small room with another moon-bearing door on the other side. After Emrys enters the room, the door you just came through slams shut and a glowing purple field covers both of them. And then, in a burst of grey, several strange figures rise from the ground. They look like people distorted by a fun house mirror and turned grey. Instead of faces, they have a zipper and a strange barbed symbol.”
“Do they seem to be hostile?”
“You can't tell at a first glance.”
“I'll do a quick scan with an effort,” said Trixie.
“While they do have a mana signature, you can't detect a colour from them.” Trixie paled slightly. I'd said near the start of things how everything is supposed to have a mana colour, with very few exceptions. I had been rather tight-lipped on the exceptions, which she took to mean that it was important to the campaign. “Also, immediately after you cast your detection spell, the four things start moving towards you. One wiggles through the air, another takes exaggeratedly large steps, another follows suit, but upside-down, and the last turns around before it approaches with similar steps.”
Twilight grabbed a pencil and did some writing. “I think I'll spend two Blue mana to try and slow them down.”
Trixie followed suit with, “I'll use two Red mana to burn them up.”
“After your simultaneous castings, the creatures come out of the smoke cloud moving at a quarter of their original pace and covered in burn marks.” I paused, then glanced over my notes. “You know, too much combat kinda caused my first GMing experience to fall through. I'm absolutely certain that you guys can take out every enemy that would come up in the tower, even with Trixie being the only offensive force you have right now. Is that alright, or would you rather slog on?”
Trixie and Twilight glanced at each other then looked at the other players, who were looking somewhat bored. Rainbow Dash was even nodding off. Twilight answered, “We can skip it.”
“Okay. Something of note while you were climbing the tower: between the rooms with the battles in, you find yourselves on a staircase floating in the air with a door at the other end. None of the doors are in walls. After passing through the last door, you enter a room with a desk in the centre, a man similar in appearance to Emrys seated in the large wooden chair behind it, but where Emrys' cloak and hat are festooned with bells, his are covered in stars and moons. 'Greetings,' he says. 'I have been expecting you. I apologize for the unwelcome guests.'”
“'Master Yen Sid, my name is Emrys Springfield. I'd heard of you some time ago and came seeking to learn from you.'” Twilight said.
“Yen Sid nods, then turns to Dawn.”
“I'm Dawn Starre. I was separated from some friends of mine and I don't know where to find them.”
“'I regret to inform you, Mr. Springfield, that I am not seeking to take a new apprentice at this time. Your problem, however, Miss Starre, I may be able to help with. Where did you last see your friends?'”
“'It was a place covered in grasslands and a long dirt path.'”
“'Ah, I know exactly of where you speak. It was once known as the Land of Departure.' With a gesture, a glowing sphere appears to the left of you. 'This should take you there. I would join you, but I am expecting more company soon. Mr. Springfield. If you truly wish to learn something new, I would recommend leaving with her. You might be surprised.'” Twilight nodded and I turned back to the others. “As you decide...” I trailed off on seeing that Rainbow Dash had actually fallen asleep, and Spike was leaning against her in a similarly drowsy state. I sighed.
“Wake up, Spike, Dashie! It's our turn again!” said Pinkie.
Spike snapped awake, but Dash remained sleeping.
I sighed again. “You know what? I'm sorry, but this just isn't turning out the way I hoped it would. I guess I'm just not a very good GM.”
“What do you mean?” asked Trixie.
“I'm sorry to do this after you've just joined, Twi, but... I don't think we'll be doing this again.”
Twilight rubbed the back of her head (another habit she picked up from me), “It's okay. I was interested mostly because you were meeting here.”
“So, where was this going to go?” asked Spike. “What were you planning?”'
“Well, you guys would find Jace on a desert world covered in strange blades. He'd be discussing something with someone you wouldn't see about how something called the Eldrazi had been released and that it was partially his fault. The reason being that there's a corpse of an Eldrazi in the wasteland and it, like that world itself, would be completely drained of mana, which he would blame on an artifact called the Warlock's Wheel. That would have turned out to be a modified version controlled by a monstrous dragon named Nicol Bolas, who seeks to become a full-fledged god by draining the mana out of the Eldrazi, which crush things with their presence. After you guys beat him, hopefully, you would have caused a Mending-level event, making Planeswalkers back into the almost-gods they were before the Mending. The reason you guys felt not-like-Planeswalkers to the ones you met aside from each other was because you were on the cusp of that power yourselves.”
“Huh.”
“Honestly, the main reason I came up with this campaign in the first place was all the references I put in that I knew my friends back on Earth would get, like Spira or Gilgamesh, which are both from the Final Fantasy series.” I rolled up my game notes scroll. “Sorry to waste your guys' time.”
“It wasn't a waste of time,” said Pinkie. “We had fun while it lasted, and that's what matters.”
“Thanks, Pinks.”
The air in the room quickly started feeling awkward, which wasn't helped by Dash's light snores.