Dear reader! Whether you are new here, archive-reading and whatnot, or you are already someone who has been with us for quite a while, I would like to say a few words that I believe are best kept close to mind.
-This is an MLP quest. And more importantly, none of us are gratuitously cruel. So good things will happen on this quest, and I hope that enough good things have already happened to prove that.
-This is also a horror quest, so bad things will happen. Bad things might happen to good characters if you are not able to protect them, and you most certainly will not be able to intervene if you lack the tools to do so.
-And finally, this is a quest in which you jostle with powers greater than yourself, with all that it entails.
Please, do keep those things in mind as you go forward. But ultimately, this is also a quest in which it is hoped we all have fun! So if any of the above points is not exactly your cup of tea, or somehow make the experience as a whole "not worth it", then this quest might not be for you. Which is fine! Individual tastes are a thing, so don't think any more about it if you don't want to read anymore. And regardless, I hope you have a lovely day!
Readers should take their own mental health into consideration when voting and not subject themselves to triggering narrative elements like rape or constant mental torture of a friend just for the Greatest Good of a world that doesn't exist.
If those are fine for you or Regrettable is even more triggering, then GREAT! More power to you. But you aren't a bad or selfish person for picking the option that keeps the characters you've emotionally connected with safe. [REDACTED for spoiler warning]
This is a high intensity quest that doesn't hold back when it comes to horror and negative consequences. Take care of yourself.
"Not at all miss Velvet!" the mare quickly interrupts you, causing you to raise an eyebrow, "I have no problems at all taking care of the young miss. Not. At. All!"
And you smile in return. You are sure that quite a few red flags passed you by just now, and that you just heard a few things that if anypony else had told you it would have resulted in quite a few glares, harsh words and other consequences.
But you just can't get mad at your daughter. Not when she's showing so much potential!
"And everypony was really impressed!" Silky went on, "especially Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara. Oh, they are two girls I've been talking to, and then-"
You feel good about this. All of this. Walking with your daughter on a sunny day, hearing her talk about her studies, and making friends in school, and all the other little things you know that makes all the difference. You know very well what a gilded cage feels like, and you will make sure that your daughter is as free as a bird.
You are especially glad about hearing of those two fillies. Their names were Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, right? They surely sound like good little girls, with whom you absolutely would like your daughter to be friends with.
"-so miss Cheerilee said we will all be working together for that next assignment!" your daughter finishes, practically prancing at this point, her little wings threatening to swoop her up and away.
We need to talk to Miss Cheerilee. And her nursemaid.
Spirit is fine, but I don't want her to grow up to be a school bully, or whatever. Spooky rich cultist ladies with school bully daughters are villains by default, even when they're ponies.
"Oh!" until his eyes finally lighten up, "you mean the secret underground room where she carved the sigils for us to do our occult rituals? Of course, how could I forget!" he says with a brilliant smile, making your hair go on edge and your eyes jump to the entrance door. "Why, we needed to dig out a whole new room down there. But earth ponies sure can be industrious when they set their hoofs to it."
Thinking about it rationally, you can't help but think how weird this is. Here you are, a grown mare who already has a daughter, in a dug underground room underneath an ice cream parlor, setting about candles and mirrors for a "magic ritual" that doesn't involve even the slightest glow of your horn. By all logic you shouldn't be there, and by all other arguments this so called ritual shouldn't even work.
You are sure that a crueler pony would have smirked at that. But to be honest, this whole thing is actually making you worry a bit.
Soft Sweeps is practically teary-eyed before you. She has the hoof trembling of somepony who had just been released from some terrible fate, and you think that the mare would have broken down and hugged you if not for some personal resilience from her.
"It was with the other fillies in school! They dared me that I am too young to do any upside-down flying, so I went up the school roof during recess and showed them I can!" she says, all smiles.
And you smile in return. You are sure that quite a few red flags passed you by just now, and that you just heard a few things that if anypony else had told you it would have resulted in quite a few glares, harsh words and other consequences.
But you just can't get mad at your daughter. Not when she's showing so much potential!
"And everypony was really impressed!" Silky went on, "especially Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara. Oh, they are two girls I've been talking to, and then-"
You are especially glad about hearing of those two fillies. Their names were Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, right? They surely sound like good little girls, with whom you absolutely would like your daughter to be friends with.
You see her eyes light up at the colorful (and aptly named) building, but you give her another satisfied nod when she doesn't simply flash ahead to explore it. You're not so sure, though, if she would have the same willpower if you took her to that strange cake-shaped bakery.
"Oh darling, I told you it's the least I can do! Besides, Pinkie already told you she throws a party for every new pony in town, right? What's wrong with me taking a few measurements of one of my best friends?"
Also Pinkie Pie is definitely a Master of Heart. I wonder what score she would have. Definitely above 3. Maybe 5? I think 9 is the maximum in cultist simulator, though I only barely tried it...
Also KNOCK actually. she DOES sort-of-teleport around a lot...
"That's right, we met during the preparations for the Summer Sun Festival, and it's… a bit of a long story," she says with a bit of an awkward smile. Of course, you know that "long story" very well, "but before that I was too busy studying in Canterlot at the School of Magic so…"
so is the whole "element of Harmony" thing kept mostly under wraps? I mean, there IS a stained glass windows about them in Canterlot, so it's not exactly meant to be secret, but it's also not exactly on the first page of every newspaper...
"The School of Magic? You mean Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns?" you ask, your tone going high to the surprised side, causing her to blush slightly for a moment.
..you know, I'd LOVE to say that the school being only for unicorns is a bit racist, but when earth pony magic is mostly instinctive/passive, and the best pegasus magic users are basically the wonderbolts, a sort-of military organization...
The fact that unicorn magic is by far the most complex of all racial magic shown in the show, and maybe the only one that really benefits from being taught in a scholastic setting (except maybe zebra's alchemy/potioncraft)...
Well, you do know that she is Princess Celestia's pupil, but that sort of thing is like a distant title like "being a noble" or something like that. As much as it seems obvious in hindsight, knowing that she went to that school strikes much closer to home on how incredibly talented she must be.
It strikes particularly close to home, in fact, since your parents forced you to attempt (and fail) the admission test multiple times, up until you were too old for the maximum age requirement.
and just think Velvet, there's another graduate from the school in town! Of course Twilight basically forgot about Lyra as she did with every old friend...
..Uh. Maybe we could help her remember them by asking about any old friend she left in Canterlot from her school days. Moondancer was too close to the depiction of a depressed, maybe even suicide risk, for comfort. Gratitude from Twilight for helping her rekindling an old friendship could very well bring us closer!
Also is NOBODY ever gonna ask where Celestia got Spike's egg from? I think there might have been a comic chapter about it, but still!
The two of you look at Twilight as she keeps excitedly talking about the merits of "the pursuit of higher education", as she said, and you can't help to think that deep down that part of her is quite endearing.
...you know, we could probably ask her for a few lessons in (unicorn) magic.
I'd like to teach her some unconventional magic too, but the risk of it ending up in her friendship reports to Celestia is a bit too high for comfort right now. Maybe in the future if our situation changes.
I gotta say, I'm surprised at the dice's interest in advancing both of those niches of friendship. Bumping into an Element bearer is a not a high chance on the list, yet you met Rarity on your first try back then. And now re-meeting Twilight herself on this second roll, which had a good chance of being "Rarity is alone" since it's a social action aimed at her (and Sweetie Belle) specifically, is…
Rarity is now a good friend of yours! You two go along well, and you have shared a personal secret with her, the bond between the two of you growing deeper.
Although you were not focused on it, you have spent enough time with Rarity to notice she would have affinity with GRAIL, as well as some other Lore...
Your bonds with Rarity will not grow any more with simple interactions. The final step of your friendship must be taken by sharing a real experience. [Taking Rarity on an expedition, or perhaps something else, might be enough. But whatever the path you attempt, beware of its dangers.]
You are no longer acquaintances with Twilight Sparkle, you are now friends! You think you are getting a better read on the young mare, with all things academic apparently sparking her interest.
I can't even be annoyed Sweetie was not there. This went great!
Also I have a good idea about how strenghtening our friendship with Rarity: we could bring her with us to some kind of noble gala, and introduce her as the one who made our dress for it.
Sure, it's not the Grand Galloping Gala (do we actually get a ticket for that one by the way? Because if we do we DEFINITELY want to have her make our dress for it as well!), but it's a first step into the upper class, and could get her contacts and contracts.
She obviously is not the type to ask for it, as she never asked Twilight for help in that way or tried to use the princess to get free advertisement, but if it's freely offered...
The only possible way this encounter might have gone better was if, instead of Twilight, we found Rarity with Rainbow Dash. And the only reason I might have preferred her was because, other than being ANOTHER element met and befriended, we might have gotten her to teach a few flying tricks to our daughter.
mh...ehi, I'm now wondering another thing: Our Heartifact is supposed to help healing. Might that help Scootaloo and her sort-of-unmentioned problem of not being able to fly?
I suppose we'll get to know that after our research. Maybe we'll be lucky. That would also be strong evidence of how our kind of magic can be used for good, which might very well help in convincing Luna on coming to our side, or show our value as a potential ally/underling if we ever left our cult for the princesses'/elements' side
mh...ehi, I'm now wondering another thing: Our Heartifact is supposed to help healing. Might that help Scootaloo and her sort-of-unmentioned problem of not being able to fly?
It helps with sickness specifically. The Heartifact might help with healing more generally, but I'd guess that it'd mostly be in the realm of letting us learn more about that sort of Lore.
About that, i try to be attentive to properly putting "hoofs" and "manes" and "every/anypony" (i even cut out a part where Twilight "scratched her head" because hoofs), but this part got me thinking for a short while.
I thought of it as just a normal "pony sitting on hindquarters" then crossing her arms, and i think it was done in the show a few times. But would "crossing her hoofs" read better?
She obviously is not the type to ask for it, as she never asked Twilight for help in that way or tried to use the princess to get free advertisement, but if it's freely offered...
Cue the very first episodes where everypony went crazy over the two tickets Twilight got for the Gala.
But aye, that was overblown for comedic reasons.
And you're right, what about the Grand Galloping Gala as a whole? Well, for starters you are a minor noble, so your strata is not high enough to get a ticket without concerned effort.
Also you don't know/overheard that they have a ticket. Yet(?)
when's the first teach parent conference at school? I feel a few red flags have come up and would like to look in on them when a chance arises. Other then that it seems our social life is doing just fine so at the very least it does seem like we won't be going crazy anytime soon... baring some more extreme circumstance from our cult life anyways.
Cue the very first episodes where everypony went crazy over the two tickets Twilight got for the Gala.
But aye, that was overblown for comedic reasons.
And you're right, what about the Grand Galloping Gala as a whole? Well, for starters you are a minor noble, so your strata is not high enough to get a ticket without concerned effort.
Also you don't know/overheard that they have a ticket. Yet(?)
Also sure, we might not get a ticket for the gala, but that can't be the only important soirée. We could always introduce her to other minor nobles, she'd probably do better with gradually building up to the TRULY high society anyway. And if she ever revealed to such a meeting that she has a ticket, well, that would certainly gain her some more attention (and clients)
when's the first teach parent conference at school? I feel a few red flags have come up and would like to look in on them when a chance arises. Other then that it seems our social life is doing just fine so at the very least it does seem like we won't be going crazy anytime soon... baring some more extreme circumstance from our cult life anyways.
It is certainly interesting that the element of generosity is inclined towards grail. I wonder if there is a connection there? Perhaps some kind of specific tendency to favor an aspect that subverts the element somehow
I thought of it as just a normal "pony sitting on hindquarters" then crossing her arms, and i think it was done in the show a few times. But would "crossing her hoofs" read better?
It'd be less likely to make me go 'wait, what?' at the least. Or 'crossing her forelimbs' as was suggested. Though technically what she's doing is crossing her cannons if I've got my mental imagery correct.
It'd be less likely to make me go 'wait, what?' at the least. Or 'crossing her forelimbs' as was suggested. Though technically what she's doing is crossing her cannons if I've got my mental imagery correct.
[x] Plan Social and Research
-[x] Before this month starts, you will perform a ritual to draw the attention of [LANTERN] [THIS IS A FREE ACTION]
-[X] On what must be done (searching for instructions to the Ritual that allows for two aspects of Lore)
--[X] You have your vague instructions, but the most straightforward is that the Mansus itself, somehow, keeps those instructions within itself. You have never reached the structure itself, deep within and beyond the Woods, but it looks like the time has come.
-[X] On furthering the cause
--[x] There are books that could be of use. You should start looking for them. (may involve random expenditure of bits). All sub-choices not suspicious.
---[x] In Ponyville, and its… great assortments of libraries? (no extra cost)
----[x]servant action.
-[X] There is too much you do not yet know. You must further your knowledge.
--[X] There is something about this… thing, and you must learn what it is (pick a single artifact to learn from its Lore, and check it for hidden abilities).
---[x] HEART Level 3 – A heavy rug, or a blanket, that might have healing properties. (Expected CD: 50 + 0 = 50, for level 0 scraps of Lore)
--[X] It doesn't have to be just during a leisure evening weekend, you can fit a few minutes of reading even when walking between rooms if you really get into it! (Pick two books to attempt to learn a scrap of Lore. Consumes books).
---[x] KNOCK Level 1 – "A handbook that tells the tale of a thief" (Expected CD: 50 + 10 = 60, for level 1 scraps of Lore)
---[x] FORGE Level 1 = "A cooking manual, with a surprisingly in-depth chapter on how to repair broken kitchen utensils" (Expected CD: 50 + 0 = 50, for level 0 scraps of Lore) -[x] Your personal life, or at least the non cult-y part
--[x] Much to your own satisfaction, you now have a personal life outside of your maids, immediate family and business related meetings. You could choose to spend some time with… (SPECIFY if it will be "a social call", "a step forward to converting said pony" and if "you are willing to spend bits on this")
---[x] Rarity, who bears the Element of Generosity
----[x]bring your daughter with you, and buy matching outfits. Let Rarity choose the details of the clothes. Hopefully Sweetie Belle will be there so that your daughter might make a friend.
- - -
You like to think of yourself as an efficient mare.
You have already studied a lot in your life, and as time passed you learned how to read even when you're not really interested in the subject. But this time, this is not the case. Well, you might be a bit uninterested in the "frontal" subjects of these books, but your focus isn't on the content of the books themselves. Not their superficial content, at least. Instead, you're facing them as you would face a puzzle. What small realizations can you have from them, you wonder? What secrets does a common writer know, even if he doesn't realize it, and put into paper almost subconsciously?
The more you look for those kinds of things, the more you begin to notice them, and it is being no different while reading these books. To the point where you have to admit that the slight fears of being paranoid, or downright hallucinating, would be creeping up your spine.
The story about the young thief was somewhat pleasant. Not the best you've ever read, but not the worst either, and the viewpoint of a pony who makes an art about entering places is a bit intriguing. intriguing enough for you to take some notes, that is.
Not of his methods, those were too fantastic. Instead, it was his personal philosophy that made you raise an eyebrow once or twice.
Now, the book about repairing utensils…
"There's no way to sugarcoat it", you say to yourself, "this thing is totally useless!".
The "book" is literally a catalog for sales, to the point where you wonder what made you think it was a manual of anything to begin with. Well, to your slight merit at least the word "manual" is written on the cover.
But…
"Manual for Useful Unicorn Utensils…" you bring the book closer to your inspection, noticing a thin line of text on its side that you hadn't noticed before, "something something… by the Flim & Flam book press…?"
A quick flash of annoyance goes through your head, and the book finds its way to a trash bin shortly after.
Gained one KNOCK scrap of Lore.
The FORGE book, however, was just a waste of bits.
- - -
And now, to find out what this curio is about, that is, if there really are any secrets to it and you didn't just waste a great deal of bits on nothing.
You have your servants bring the rug into your office and spread it open on the floor. The large and mysteriously furred thing raises some eyebrows, but nothing more. Just a small eccentricity by their otherwise perfectly reasonable lady. Your official statement is that you just want to see how it will go with your room, and if you will be able to work with the slightly distracting thing there.
But after your servants excuse themselves, their task done, you make sure to lock the door behind them. You do intent to get some work done, but not paperwork.
Now, how do you get about studying this thing?
First of all, you don't know the first thing about Heart. You know of Heart, of course, that it exists as a principle, but when it comes to its influence and promises you only have educated guesses, not facts.
But you have not come unprepared.
It is still morning, the sun still moving towards the topmost part of the skies. Light is abundant and you can see clearly. But not as clearly as you think you will need to.
You open the windows wide, you even fold the blinders over themselves so they will make as little shadows as possible, you readjust every single reflective surface in the room so they will guide the light of the sun your way, even the small metal beak of your writing pen. When you are satisfied, you sit on the floor, in front of the carpet, and close your eyes.
And you whisper a few words. The same words you whispered before the mirrors and candles a few days ago.
First of all, it is incredibly soft, but that isn't something you notice with your eyes.
What you do notice, while you are walking over it, is that the furs on its surface seem to move slightly as your hoofs go over them. You think it's something akin to static, at first, until you realize that the furs are moving slightly away from your hoof just before you touch the carpet, instead of moving towards you.
If they were extremely thin, perhaps, then maybe you could believe that it was the minute air pressure that your hoofsteps were making, just before impacting against the carpet. But the hairs of the unknown beast are too thick for that, so you quickly discard the idea.
You walk in circles, observing the curious movements of the carpet in relation to your body. Minute details to a regular pony's eyes, but jarringly clear to your Lantern-blessed sight.
Until you stop, realizing that the "openings" of the fur in the rug are appearing before your hoofs even leave their previous place now. You crouch down and observe the unprompted reaction from the supposedly (although you now have serious doubts) inanimate object. It's obvious that the thing is magic, as much as it is obvious that it is old. But maybe it also has a will of its own?
And if it does, maybe you should take its suggestion?
You quit your idle strolling over the soft rug, instead stepping specifically where the openings appear. You notice that the hoof-shaped apertures are a perfect fit for your own, as well as the fact that another opening formed a bit ahead as soon as you stepped on this one, and you soon find yourself going about an elaborate path that gets more and more complex.
Five steps forward, reach a hoof back, a short prance to reach that one, a quick jump to the middle of the carpet.
It takes you a good few minutes to finally realize three things: that you are smiling, that you are dancing, and that your hindleg has not protested at all despite the considerable amount of jumping that you have been doing for a while now.
In fact, you don't even feel tired at all. You feel reinvigorated, if anything, and that causes you to snap back to yourself in a moment of clarity.
"You had me for a while just now, didn't you?", you say to the carpet, half expecting it to answer with some sort of fur-opening writing on its surface.
But no answer comes, a bit to your disappointment.
Still, this will be particularly useful. The thing itself seems to be safe, although you will make sure to have it stored. You don't exactly want to get to your office and realize Ponpon had been dancing in it for hours when she was supposed to be cleaning the place. That, and you will have to test if you can actually sleep on the thing, without any weird sleepwalking-dancing happening.
But for now, it seems you found yourself a neat way to recuperate yourself, if that ever becomes needed.
Gained 2 HEART scraps of Lore.
HEART Lore is now level one!
Artifact property discovered: +30 on tests to recuperate health or cure lasting debuffs, if the artifact is available for use.
- - -
Later that day, you receive word from one of your servants, he leaves a short list on your table and excuses himself.
[Book Hunting – Servant roll]
[Roll: 5 + 12 (Learning) = 17]
[ ] A small book that covers a particular kind of elegant dancing, HEART Level 1 – costs 7 bits
- - -
- - -
- - -
You can't help but to feel a little bit excited. Not in a giddy and happy way, but in a sort of adrenalized way, a sharp way. Like when you know that you are about to try something dangerous, that you have never tried before, but that you want to do. Something that you need to do.
The crossroads stretch themselves before you, their maddening paths appearing to go on forever, it is a sight you know well now.
You stride with purpose through them, as you always have, choosing the paths that seem to snake around themselves, and the paths that at first glance appear to take you the wrong way, and the connection between parallel paths that you know will disappear if you so much as blink before you step on them. By now you can already make those choices almost by instinct, for you know that the way that leads to the Woods must be as confusing as the forest itself.
And soon enough, the blue-stoned bricks give way to root and leaf and darkness.
And now comes the time for you to do something you never did before.
The Mansus itself appears to be far away, the floating structure looming over the Woods although you do not recall ever finding yourself under its shadow. And worst of all, you also don't recall ever seeing any stairs that lead to it either. Those stairs must surely be within the Woods, if they exist at all, but at first glance the task of finding them seems to be the equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack.
But you also remember your first time on the crossroads, and how the paths made no sense back then, and how you woke up again and again and again after fruitless nights of walking on an eternal path that led nowhere. But once you learned the laws of the crossroads its paths became less confusing, to the point that today they take you where you wish to go, as a straight path might lead an experienced traveler.
What happened, you realize now, is not that you have mastered the crossroads, but that you merely came to understand them.
So likewise, you conclude, you need not master the Woods, you merely need to understand it as well. Although trying to understand the Woods is a contradiction, as the place is prone to its own whims, and chaos seems to be in its very nature.
But perhaps that's the secret to it, you think. Maybe, and just maybe, that particular contradiction is all you need if what you are aiming for is the correct way out of the Woods.
[The path through the Woods is understanding nothing at all, CD 70]
"The Mansus exists", you recall the tidbits of whispers you once heard from your cult's Master, "and the Woods grow around and under it". But you doubt that the way into the Mansus lies at the center of the Woods, if there even is a center to this place.
Still, if your Master is to be believed, countless other adepts and secret-keepers have already made their way into the Mansus, some of them even scaling high into it. All of them trying to reach for the Glory, that incandescent beacon of magnificence that lies at its summit. But how did they do it? What guided their hoofs through the tortuous branches that surround you?
What else, if not that which they desired?
You look around you, faded moonlight struggling to reach your eyes as it battles its way through branches and leaves and winged things, barely enough for you to be able to see the next tree ahead of you, and you notice for the first time the distinct absence of another light?
Where is the Glory?
Its bright light can be seen even from the horizon, on the crossroads, and its entrancing luminosity can charm you even on the edge of the Woods, if you look at it too intently before daring the darkness before you. But why can't you see it here, when you should be closer to it than even before?
Because the Woods engulf it, you realize. Perhaps it does so in order to protect it, perhaps it lusts for its light, perhaps the Woods feed on it as normal trees might feed from the sun, or perhaps there is no real answer. But the Woods are a part of the Mansus as well, and the whole of this place revolves around the glory. So the path you must take, you realize, surely is the one where the trees grow thicker, where the darkened barks of wood become larger and less inviting, and where the branches grow long enough to almost block your passage, for much like yourself the Woods reach out for the Glory. You will have to force your way through the unyielding hoofs of the Woods itself if you are to make your way to the place where it cannot reach.
With this newfound resolve in your mind, you force your way through the Woods. You walk over and under the large roots of large trees, and blindly grope your way through utter darkness, and forge your way through the deafening buzzing of wings.
Until your hoofs finally touch solid ground again, the sensation almost alien when compared to the jagged and uneven root-covered dirt that you have grown so used to. This new sensation, you realize, is the same that you feel when on the crossroads.
You recognize it even in the total darkness in which you are right now. You are stepping on that dark-blue stone. On Mansus-stone.
You follow it until you nearly trip at a higher block, which you carefully trace with your hoof, and a smile crosses your lips as you realize it.
These are stairs.
You make your way upwards, one careful step at a time, forcing your body through the branches at the high parts of the trees, even as they feel like they are scratching at you, jealously trying to stop you from reaching where they cannot. But soon you are free even from that, and for the first time in a long while you can see again, and you see the Woods as an endless sea of treetops, all around you, the lonely stairs on which you stand spearing upwards and away from it.
You take a deep breath of the cold air, feeling the permanent buzzing inside your head recede as you ascend farther and farther away from the Woods. You know that you are sufficiently far from it when you finally remember that this is all still a dream, and that it is not air that you are breathing.
And before long, at a height where you can still distinguish the individual treetops below you, you reach the end of the stairs.
A grand vista opens itself before you, as what was an endless ceiling of Mansus-stone far above your head becomes the ground where you now stand. You have never been so close to the Mansus before, and now you can see its complex magnificence more clearly. Stairs, hundreds, thousands, countless, form haphazard paths between entire floors that appear to be floating, most of which you can see only the underside of. You can have no sense of space or size, not from the low level where you are standing, but for some reason your mind insists that some of the floating floors are as large as the horizon, while others appear to be as small as simple rooms, at the same time that all of them puzzlingly fit within your eyesight and within the boundaries of the Mansus.
You can see the Glory, high up at its very top, in a place where all the paths converge, illuminating all of the rooms and floors and stairs and corners, and you turn your gaze away, having learned not to stare at it directly.
And before you, you see a sight that is intriguing on its own. A grand plain stretches before your eyes, and but a few steps in front of you the Mansus-stone of the floor gives way instead to cold grass, wet from some recent rain.
You see, far in the distance, stairs that appear to connect that plain to some higher level, as well as paths that appear to lead to other places, but all of them are out of your reach.
After all, right in front of you at the end of the stairs, stands a Door.
And although there might be other paths into the Mansus, you know that this is the only one that is available to you.
It is not a door on itself, it looks more like a portal. An open arch of Mansus-stone that divides the end of the stairs and the grassed plains beyond it. You think you can see the slightest hint of a mist, but you probably don't.
And yet, for all of its lack of a physical door underneath the arch, you know it is a threshold, you know that crossing it is the first real step into the House of the Sun, where the Glory resides and shines down its light.
You can see that the air itself beyond it is different, old and rich with knowledge and secrets, you can spy circles of grass and bushes that naturally sprout on its plains, and you know that you will learn what you came here for if only you inspect them from a little closer, patterns of rituals and Mansus-laws flourishing as naturally in here as flowers might sprout in the Wake.
But apart from that, you know nothing else of this Door.
[ ] Cross the Blank Door
[ ] Do not
Crossing the Blank Door will fulfill your mission, not crossing it will maintain the mission-options for the next turn, and although you will not have to find your way through the Woods again you will still have to re-try to understand the Blank Door.
It takes you a good few minutes to finally realize three things: that you are smiling, that you are dancing, and that your hindleg has not protested at all despite the considerable amount of jumping that you have been doing for a while now.
In fact, you don't even feel tired at all. You feel reinvigorated, if anything, and that causes you to snap back to yourself in a moment of clarity.
Gained 2 HEART scraps of Lore.
HEART Lore is now level one!
Artifact property discovered: +30 on tests to recuperate health or cure lasting debuffs, if the artifact is available for use.
Lasting debuffs would be "a wound", "dread", "fascination" or any other things that will not last longer than a turn, or that every turn you automatically roll to make it go away. We haven't come upon any of those yet, but i'm sure we eventually will.
Your leg is on the level of a "skill", the sort of thing you can get when you roll a 100 and a good "reward list" roll, or a bad 1 and a poor "malus list" roll, something that defines your character.
It is literally one whole life point.
So the heart-ifact (you really hit jackpot when you said this term) most definitely wont help on it. But your character has it as a good personal indicator of effectiveness since it always hurts.
EDIT: and on other news, Character Sheet has been updated and moved to the "informational" threadmark, since it feels like it will be more easily accessed from there.
Lasting debuffs would be "a wound", "dread", "fascination" or any other things that will not last longer than a turn, or that every turn you automatically roll to make it go away. We haven't come upon any of those yet, but i'm sure we eventually will.
You leg is on the level of a "skill", the sort of thing you can get when you roll a 100 and a good "reward list" roll, or a bad 1 and a poor "malus list" roll, something that defines your character.
It is literally one whole life point.
So the heart-ifact (you really hit jackpot when you said this term) most definitely wont help on it. But your character has it as a good personal indicator of effectiveness since it always hurts.
Ah, okay. I thought it wouldn't be Turn One easy, but wanted to make sure.
Either our leg isn't really all that big a deal once we've gotten into the swing of things, or this game is hyper lethal, though. We've rolled a one two turns in a row, and if just living our life chances permanent health loss we're not going to be playing very long.
It looks like the Forged book was a... FORGERY!!HAA HA HA Wheeeze...
Before I see myself out I'm in favor of opening the door, if only because it'll be interesting.
We're definitely missing something but at the same time one of the best ways to learn is to just do it and see what happens. So I'm all for opening the door, just hope it's like trying to learn how to cook where everything short of a major failure will be fine instead of learning how to fly a plane where even the slightest mistake can be deadly.
"Manual for Useful Unicorn Utensils…" you bring the book closer to your inspection, noticing a thin line of text on its side that you hadn't noticed before, "something something… by the Flim & Flam book press…?"
well, not as good as I hoped for, but good enough. We might even use it to help our friends heal if they ever get hurt, though it would require either them knowing of this kind of magic (to not ask question), or for us to manage to pass it off as a more "natural" form of magic.
I wonder what Twilight would manage to find out if she studied it. Would it even react to her investigation methods?
Also just realized, but this could probably work against the Poison Joke. I'd say also against Discord's trick where he turns you into your own opposite, but that would require taking the "changed" pony and forcing him to rest on the Heartifact, and THAT seems pretty hard to do.
