107 - Please Adjust your Tracking
Spike punched the bed he was seated upon, "We should go get our money back! I mean, we earned it..."
Twilight shrugged softly, "I didn't learn any spells that would help us track them down. If I had known you two were going to get almost killed, I would have kept it in mind."
Rainbow flapped her remaining wing with a soft growl, "We could look around the area? Maybe somepony saw something?"
Applejack shook her head, "Now I ain't the brightest when it comes to city slickers, but ah don't think they'd be too keen to talk about it."
Soft Mane sighed lightly, "Hi, have you seen dangerous thugs? No? Thanks."
Sonata tried for a new topic, "You said something about ponies in trouble?"
Lex snorted softly, "You mean besides her?" he gestured at Rainbow Dash, "There may or may not be some ponies in peril in what is obviously a trap."
Sonata tilted her blue head, "So we'll have to be smarter than the trap! What kind is it? Bear trap?"
Applejack looked at Sonata a moment before looking towards Twilight, "Twi, she's adorable, but who is she? She seemed ta know you."
Sonata approached Twilight with a smile, "Me and Twi are besties! She saved me when things were looking totally icky."
Twilight perked an ear, "This is Sonata. She's one of three sirens I ran into in the human world. She was a bad pony, but she came over to our side."
Sonata bobbed her head, "The good pony side has cookies, and a lot less people making fun of you. So when are we going?"
Rainbow snorted loudly, "Maybe I should stay here... Can you send me home, Twilight?"
Twilight raised a brow, "That's not the Rainbow I know."
Rainbow shook herself out, "The Rainbow you know has two wings! The Rainbow you know isn't left for dead in dirty alleys." She crashed heavily to the ground, "I hate this world. I'm done with it. I want to go home."
Applejack moved over to Rainbow's side and nuzzled an ear, "Now ah won't hear that. If you go home, we can't fix your wing there. Is that what you want? Where's that Rainbow Dash can-do spirit?"
Rainbow lowered her head, curling a little, "Lying on the floor, like my wing. What use am I? I couldn't even handle three punks."
Spike floated over to Rainbow and landed on her back. She began to buck and squirm, but he held on gently, "Rainbow, you're still the best. This is, you know, a little setback. I still wouldn't want anyone else fighting back to back with me."
Rainbow went still a moment, then pushed up to her hooves, Spike still on her back. "Alright, fine. So where do we need to go?"
Twilight slapped down a map of Everglow and pointed, "Here! The easiest way would be to take the train to Yi Sheng and start looking around there."
Soft Mane nodded her head, "I've been that way once. Mom was selling to the alchemists." A sudden thought struck her, "Can we stop in Turves!? I haven't said hi to Mom in ages."
Twilight looked hesitant, but Soft Mane's hopeful expression melted her ice, "I suppose there's no harm in that. A one-day layover in Turves won't delay us much."
Applejack raised a brow, "Forgive for fergettin' but your mom's a pony or a human?"
Soft Mane pointed at Applejack, "She's a lot like you. She works the land. She's hard-working and honest."
Applejack nodded, "That sounds right nice enough, but doesn't answer th' question?"
Soft Mane shrugged, "Does it matter? But she's a green pony." She gestured to her legs, "Like these."
Lex raised a brow, "It hardly seems prudent to take time off to enjoy yourselves when you think that others might be in danger," his voice was thick with disdain. "Especially to visit some mare perverted enough to make love to a human."
Soft Mane went red with shock and fury, "You did not just say that! My parents were deeply in love!" She threw her hands on her hips, "Take it back."
Sonata blinked owlishly, "That was way harsh. Who can blame a guy for finding this attractive?" She shook her swimming suit clad bottom lightly.
Lex sneered. "Humans are savages that can only pretend to have a culture of their own. It's not surprising they'd be debauched enough to find a pony attractive. But one of our own that reciprocates those feelings is clearly mentally ill." He turned his gaze to Soft Mane, "Especially if they're irresponsible enough to breed with one of them."
Applejack moved up on Lex, blocking his view of Soft Mane, "Now see here. Y'all better cut that right out. Soft Mane's a terrific filly, and ah won't stand t'hear her parents being slandered. If'n ya want to travel with us, y'all better be respectful. Soft Mane didn't do nothing to deserve that kind of talk."
Lex eyed Applejack coldly, one brow raising, "I'm merely stating a fact. That level of xenophilia is clearly a form of insanity." His gaze wandered past the orange earth pony to the pony satyr behind her, and this time the disgust in his eyes was unmistakable. "Especially if they knew their union would result in their offspring being a freak, and did it anyway."
Twilight brought down a hoof with a clop, "Fortunately, no freaks happened. Now let's focus on the job ahead of us." She straightened her mane lightly, "All this squabbling isn't helping anypony."
Lex cast a sour look at Twilight, and seemed ready to argue the point. Opening his mouth, he caught himself suddenly, ears folding back as he glanced at his shadow - currently stretching oddly across the room, despite the soft light - before returning his gaze to the others, who were all looking at him with expressions ranging from discomfort to outrage. "Fine," he muttered, turning away from them.
Twilight slipped to her hooves and moved for the door, "No time like the present. We're not getting anything done in this room." She led the procession out past the slumbering innkeeper, who suddenly woke up.
"Little Spirit," she said with a smile, "You made it back from the great divide. You must have extraordinary friends and a powerful destiny. Where do you run to with your new flesh?"
Twilight paused and turned to face Drowsy End, "We're leaving the city for a while. There are ponies that need us."
Drowsy tilted her head, "The mistress smile on you in your journey. You follow your destined path true and fast. Do you remember her?"
Twilight blinked softly, "Remember who?"
Drowsy frowned slightly, "I had hoped, since you were a spirit, you might remember her. The guardian of the dead, grandmother of us all, Soft Whisper?"
Twilight shuddered softly. The name sent chills down her spine, "I... remember something. An old mare? She..." She frowned in thought, "She was chasing me."
Drowsy nodded, "As is her job. You were a lost soul, and she is the shepherd of souls. Forgive her, for hers is a job with little thanks."
Twilight nodded slowly, "I... saw her twice?" She squinted, trying to pry the memory free from the fog around it, "There was a place, a wonderful place. Why can't I remember it?"
Drowsy shrugged and let her head sink to the countertop, "The veil of death is not meant to be pierced. Your soul was taken by another goddess and held to her bosom. Surely you are favored. Best of luck in your journeys, at least you know it will have a happy ending." Just like that, she was out like a light, sleeping with her head on her counter.
Rainbow moved beside Twilight, "That was kinda creepy."
Applejack nodded her head, "Can't disagree. She seemed nice enough. Let's go."
They made their way quickly through the afternoon city. The train station was busy with a crowd of mostly ponies, but not exclusively. Applejack and Rainbow were captivated, looking at the other exotic species. "That there cat has wings," noted Applejack.
Rainbow pointed, "That dog's on fire, I think that beats it."
Applejack swept the crowd and blinked, "Well, what about a metal pony?" She pointed at what looked to be a pony made entirely of clockwork. His? Her? movement was precise. The way her clockwork worked to move her was a thing of enchanting craftsponyship. She noticed them staring at her and threw up her mechanical muzzle.
Rainbow snorted through a half-chuckle, "I guess we were being kind of rude."
They arrived at the ticket station and Twilight set a few coins on the countertop, "We're going to Turves."
The pony in the booth, a pegasus stallion, smiled, "Alrighty. Odd time of year to head that way. It'll be months before the festival and you don't look like farmers."
Soft Mane tapped the counter, "My mom's there."
The pony nodded, "Well that makes sense. I hope she's doing all right." He produced a handful of tickets and offered them to Twilight, "Enjoy your ride! It'll take about two days. The ticket comes with one meal in the dining car." He paused, "Ah, I should offer. For one more gold a ticket you can upgrade to the luxury pass. Complimentary drinks and three meals a day."
Twilight glanced back at the others.
Lex snorted with a slow roll of his eyes, "We have no need for comforts. We should conserve our money for more important matters."
Rainbow shook her head, "Don't know about anypony else? But I could use some cider right about now."
Spike shrugged, "We can afford a few extra gold, right?"
Twilight took out a platinum piece and got a few gold in return. The tickets were taken back and replaced with gold painted tickets. "Here ya are! Have a fine trip and thanks for riding the Lightning Rail. The next northbound train departs in fifteen minutes."
Sonata nudged Twilight. Twilight looked up to see Sonata holding a several gold coins in her mouth. She gently took them with her magic from Sonata, "What is this for?"
Sonata smiled, "I'm being paid for my work. I can cover my ticket and a few others. It's only fair, you guys saved me from a totally uncool fate."
Twilight tucked the coins away, "That's very nice of you, Sonata. So how's the city been treating you? We haven't seen you in a while."
"I know!" said Sonata, throwing a leg over Twilight's wither, "I missed you. That nice Queen went away, and the ponies she left in charge don't seem to like me at all. I'm way happier being with you guys. Can I stay with you?"
Twilight raised a brow, "I'd love to have you along, but aren't you still serving a sentence?"
Sonata pouted a little, "They don't care about me. If I vanished, I doubt they'd even look. Heck, you could say I was gobbled up by a monster."
Applejack snorted softly, "What's all this?"
Twilight shook her head, "Sonata... We'll talk to them when we get back, but we are coming back."
Sonata pouted softly, but didn't argue further. Applejack's curiosity swelled, "Yer under arrest? What fer?"
Sonata wobbled a hoof, "I mighta kinda been involved in taking over the castle." Applejack's eyes went wide, "I totally made up for it though! The Queen said I had to do community service for a year and then I'm free as a bird." She frowned a little, "I wonder if she meant a wild bird or a caged bird? Caged birds aren't that free."
Spike snickered softly, "Sorry Pinkie isn't here. She'd love to catch up with you, Sonata."
Sonata bobbed her head, "I know! Where is she? She's OK, right?"
Spike nodded quickly, "Oh she's fine, but she's back in Equestria."
Sonata moved over to Spike and looked him in the eyes, "You guys know how to get back and forth? Can I go with you? I can totes hang out with Pinkie! That girl knows how to party."
The group moved into the station proper and found the terminal where the northbound train would depart from. The train arrived five minutes later. Ponies filed off the train, filled with light-hearted conversation and excited voices. A conductor, a dwarf, called out, "Northbound train! Leaving in eight minutes! Board if yer boarding."
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Lex has some balls, talking smack about the chosen herald and oracle of a Goddess of Love.
I think he might have to spring for an Atonement spell if he ever wants to get laid again.
Poor Dash. This just isn't the party for tracking down miscreants. Still, they should be able to get the funds together for a casting or a scroll in fairly short order. Of course, in the meantime, it's going to suck harder than open vacuum.
After the crack against satyrs, I'd either abandon Lex or tell him that if he can't keep his mouth shut, he's never getting home. The party already has arcane casters, thank you. You are surplus to requirement and do not meet this organization's core values.
Instead, his own shadow seems to have chastised him somehow. Because that's not at all ominous...
A happy, nice Sonata is a very good Sonata. A responsible Sonata even more so. I find myself wanting to hug her, which is always a good sign.
One point of order: The party pony's name is generally spelled "Pinkie."
5717036 Sonata has grown as a pony for her time spent serving the public, not to say she wouldn't totally bail on her punishment if any opportunity popped up. Traveling with Twilight and her friends is way more fun!
Typo fixed, Lex is still creepy, and my heart goes out to Rainbow Dash, who has learned Everglow is not the land of unlimited awesome.
I would huge Sonata and RD together at the same time! I might get punched for that. It would be worth it.
You have an enchantress girls. Makes asking questions very easy. Questions like where could one find those sleeping darts if you wanted to buy one or has anyone come up with 10,000 gold recently?
I agree with Lex in that helping the other ponies should come first, not a trip to see some relatives. What's gonna happen to the ponies while Soft has dinner with her mom?
5717049 Even if forced to comply, what DID a random pony see? 'Some ponies looked like they were trouble. I stayed away from them.' They weren't going with their faces or brand of destiny exposed, cutting down on the identifiable traits. If Twilight had learned scrying, she could try to scry the backpack, but she would have tossed that away as soon as they got the money out of it.
5717049
Does it in this case? Without using her magic, Sonata isn't uncommonly ingratiating or intimidating, and has virtually no investigatory practice or skill. Nor is her magic particularly apt for investigation or interrogation. About the only spells she has on point are triggered suggestion and hypnotism, which most of the time will get the subjects to answer your questions gladly and truthfully but, as Mr. Silver points out supra, won't point you in the direction of subjects likely to know something.
5717044
Will we be getting Lex's character sheet and portrait (and Spike's and Long Road's portraits for that matter) any time soon?
5717251 As Lex is my OC, I should probably be the one to answer the question about his statistics and picture. That said, I need to make a bit of a lead-in here.
In the last few years, I've become rather critical of the class-level system for making/advancing characters in mainstream D&D/Pathfinder. Specifically, I find it limiting, as it constrains choices regarding what sorts of characters you can make; even with websites like d20PFSRD.com, it's labor-intensive to track down all of the various alternate racial abilities, traits, feats, class archetypes, spells, etc. in order to make the sort of character you want. Moreover, those often come in packages that end up giving you other things that dilute your original character concept even further.
True, with a wide enough net of resources - and plenty of reskinning - you can make almost any character concept. But that doesn't mean that concept will be particularly effective, something everyone who ever wanted to play a high-level character that doesn't use magic items has found out the hard way.
Despite this, I have no particular desire to give up on the d20 System itself. I've used it for well over a decade, and I like it quite a bit - I don't want to throw it away, so much as I want to open it up to allow for greater freedom in character design.
The end result of this was that - after looking through several third-party products that allowed for point-buy d20 character generation - I finally found a sourcebook that solved this problem. It allowed for much, much more freedom of character design, all within the scope of a single book (along with its sister book for designing spells and magic items).
Lex's stats were designed with this point-buy system, rather than "straight" Pathfinder. While the resulting character is 100% compatible with Pathfinder (in that it can be used in a Pathfinder game without any rules translation) the stat block looks very different, due to the organization and labeling used for a point-buy character. While I did my best to convert this to a "straight" Pathfinder stat block when I sent it to David, any experienced Pathfinder player would likely find the character sheet to be "lopsided" in terms of what abilities Lex has.
Having said all of that, you can find stats for Lex at level 4 over on my blog. This is an earlier version of Lex (who is level 8 in this story), as he hasn't yet grafted Sombra's horn to his head, though it is in his possession. You can also find his picture in a later post (set several months in the future; though the history described with this picture is non-canon for this story). Clearly, the picture is the avatar I'm using here.
I hope that clears things up. If there's sufficient demand, I can repost the level 8 version of Lex there as well.
almost killed (I think)
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The name sent chills down her spine. "I... (It's not a said tag, so it should be a period instead of a comma)
exclusively
or
5717313 Using aspects of a character's established personality as weaknesses is kind of cheating since you would normally just role-play those attributes. In particular, trying to claim his alignment as a weakness is pretty sneaky. That's like giving Applejack honesty as a flaw. Taking extra penalties to skills you plan to never use in exchange for more points to spend on combat options can easily make a broken character.
5717446
Insofar as taking a personality-based drawback goes, it's not "cheating" if you role-play it to the point where it honestly impinges on your character's effectiveness; it's supposed to make your character's life more difficult, and that should come up. If it doesn't - if you take that and then simply ignore the issue - then it could be called cheating, which is what the GM is there for. (It also helps that, if you're referencing the system used in Lex's build, those points gained are worth far less than the amount of trouble that's gained in exchange. They represent an increase of just under 2% of a character's total at 20th level - and that's not taking level-based feats into account - for problems that dog you for the entire life of the character).
Or, to paraphrase the co-author of that system, "role-playing disadvantages have teeth."
I presume that you're referring to his Compulsive disadvantage with regards to his obsessiveness regarding contracts, codes, promises, etc.? If so, then that's not the same as his alignment. Lawful Neutral "means you are reliable and honorable without being a zealot." That's different from being obsessive about the letter of contracts (something we haven't had a chance to see Lex really get into yet, beyond his hinting that he considers his current arrangement with Twilight's band to be such an agreement).
Applejack's honesty, by contrast, isn't nearly as restrictive as it would be if she were to have a similar flaw. We've seen her lie, obfuscate, and try to otherwise conceal the truth, whether with regards to the crystal ponies wanting to see the Crystal Heart, trying to trick Spike into thinking he's saved her life so that he'll stop pestering her, or (reluctantly) backing Flim and Flam's sham get-well tonic. In short, her honesty isn't making her life notably harder, and she's willing to bend it when the spirit of the situation requires her to - hence, it's not a flaw.
The bonuses received in exchange for those are less than two feat's worth, so I think it's fine there (that's leaving aside the major discussion over what constitutes "broken"). That said, the idea of having skills you "never plan to use" comes back to bite you when you need to rely on them - there's a reason why Lex is so unpleasant, and it's because his Diplomacy (and similar) skills are in the negatives. The idea of receiving a small reward for sticking to your strengths at the cost of ignoring your weaker areas isn't something Pathfinder eschews either - that's what favored class bonuses are.
5717401 All fixed!
5717006
Just means theres more for the Spikeoranovar.
Lex might be almost as abrasive as I am, though thats accidental in my case. The numbers act weird when I play.
Diplomacy is an aincint reptile toy store.
5718130 Why isn't there more love for the Lex?
5717064
I agree that you can't just ask random people if they saw some thugs. You use the what you know already about the situation. The muggers used sleeping darts. If they go back and find them, they can try and find their origin and if they are sold by somebody, that's when you can narrow suspects by seeing records on who buys them.
Admittedly, the time to take to do all this would be time other ponies in need of help could get hurt, if the letter is true.
5717251
Yeah she doesn't seem like she would know how to really ask the right questions through someone else could always help her out.
One thing they could still do is ask advice from the ones who trained them in the first place via Spike's spell. About getting Rainbow her wing back and the ponies being enslaved.
5719829 They didn't go to a shop and buy sleeping poison laced crossbow bolts. They had their own bolts, and their own poison, and combined the two into a delightful ambush package. Who knows how long they had the sleeping poison before the opportunity came up to put it to optimal use.
No author's note?
Meanwhile, I just realized something. Two days to get to Turves? With supplementary information from the Ponyfinder Patreon, that means it's about 532 miles from Viljatown to Turves. Taking a look at the map of Everglow in the Ponyfinder book, that's a fraction of the total distance that Everglow spans. With some extrapolation, we can thus surmise that Everglow is slightly smaller in size than the continental United States.
...How long did it take for Dawn, Twilight, and Spike to get from Ebonsilk to Turves, again?
5723959 This is why I provided no scale to the map. Darn people and their maths!
I think Lex is probably under some Sombra related curse (especially if that horn acts anything like a certain lich God's hand and eye) but he's approaching levels of jerk that would make even a Good party tempted to push him off the first cliff they passed. In any case, the quicker he leaves the better imo.
I have to ask, how is everyone not freaking out when they see a (I can only assume) barely healed wing stump on a pegasus? No one commented on it that I noticed. Also why didn't they go to the Guild and get it fixed up? Surely the Guild has healers on hand who can regenerate lost appendages and would be willing to help out the Seekers of Dawn. Where did Twilight get money?
How could she drop... ( don't actually know how much the original train tickets cost but I would assume no more than 1 gold each, though most likely a silver or two) at a maximum 14 gold on train fare when she was robbed blind?
Again why aren't they "phoning home"? Twilight is literally royalty. She could pull enough money from the treasury to make sure that rainbow isn't crippled for life! Any bureaucrat who tries to turn her down is A) pants on head retarded for refusing money to an Element bearer and B) going to be tossed into a cave with gnolls by an angry Twi.
6211328 In a land of adventure, awesome scars are not something people stop lines for, usually.
I guess the Ponyfinder Campaign Setting is one of the few books Twilight hasn't read. (Yisheng is one word in that book.)
Lex is obviously evil and they shouldn't trust him at all. He's a racist bigot and he's got Sombras horn on his head. It takes a lot of pettyness to call Soft Mane a freak when he's a freak himself because I don't know what a freak is if a pony with Sombra's hron glued to his head isn't a freak I don't know what is. King Sombra's undead spirit is probably inside the horn and controlling Lex. This wouldn't be the first fic where he somehow survived being blown up.
7713893 Is it opinions or appearance that make somepony evil? Or is it what they do? Lex, at this point, is quite clearly very unpleasant, but I wonder if that alone is enough to condemn him. Certainly, having Sombra's horn is suspicious, but by itself it doesn't necessarily mean that there's a malign intelligence at work.
7714859 In addition, I truly think our Unicorn friend stops being a bigot.
At least if screwing a glorified fish turned mudpony is any indication for it. :P
7838704 Well, that doesn't mean that he necessarily thinks any better of non-ponies...and certainly not half-pony hybrids! Sonata may not have been born a pony, but she's 100% one now, after all.