Oh man, just realized... we wont be overseeing "how do you do fellow pirates?" through overtime because of how its set up, even though that could have been a possibility..
RIP dreams of pirate garrick.
... unless plan maker decides to stealth switch two of em. Just sayin.
Huh... depends on if this quest would still wind up with the events that start the beginning of the series or not. If it does, then meeting him when he's still a merchant going around buying drinks for everyone at a bar and generally being pretty care-free would be pretty hilarious.
"That's Garrick golden-feather."
"Yup."
"That drunk guy halfway passed out and talking to that chair like he's trying to pick up a girl. That's garrick golden-feather."
"Uhuh."
"The guy who was called the greatest emperor to ever live. The very model of ruler-ship cited in hundreds of textbooks. The Griffon responsible for beating sombra the first time. The griffon who defined the very concept of freedom for generations. The guy who advanced science in decades that normally would have taken centuries. The original patron to the arts. That Garrick Golden-Feather."
"Right on the money."
"...How?!"
But really, any time would probably be a good one. Pre kingship would be comedic. The unification war would probably wind up with them trying to find a peaceful solution. Winter war would result in them dealing with the populace instead of garrick himself. Post war would probably be on the lighter front, but maybe they have knowledge of an event they want to stop/change. Anything would be great.
But if the timelines are different, they could see about spotting the differences between their own timeline and this current one.
@Questor would you mind throwing my +10 on the "You stop that!" action? I know it's sitting at 60, but I'd like to hedge our bets there, see how much damage we can do to them.
I originally wanted to put it on "Bringing people together" but I saw we were already throwing the Overtime on that so I think that's covered.
@Questor would you mind throwing my +10 on the "You stop that!" action? I know it's sitting at 60, but I'd like to hedge our bets there, see how much damage we can do to them.
I originally wanted to put it on "Bringing people together" but I saw we were already throwing the Overtime on that so I think that's covered.
Over time just means we take that action, doesn't add extra points onto it. So you could put it there if you wish. But, what you chose currently has the lowest chance of happening, so if you want, you can keep it there. but if you think a failure for people together would be worse than pirates, you can put it on the together option.
Over time just means we take that action, doesn't add extra points onto it. So you could put it there if you wish. But, what you chose currently has the lowest chance of happening, so if you want, you can keep it there. but if you think a failure for people together would be worse than pirates, you can put it on the together option.
Yeah but you stop that is our lowest chance so far so might as well. Honestly I'm waiting for us taking an action to get our people back before I encourage more people to use their omakes.
A/N: …Fuckit I wrote an omake in four hours! Also I'm… Not sure if I've gotten Maretonia right, but I'm kinda imagining it like a combination of some Roman Empire historical books and the setting of 'The Golden Goblet' book (by Eloise Jarvis McGraw; but it's set in Egypt, which might be super different, so I'm gonna get vague)?
@Questor? Also if I get anything for this omake, please apply it to, 'You Stop That!' or 'Bringing People Together', whichever has either a failing roll or lower roll, thanks! <333
Omake: Becoming the Mask
Steady Pace gets up early for work, dons their armor cheaply-made, and trudges past a dusty kitchenette; and tries not to remember shared delectables over a table a whole world away, or how the air had been softly aglow and sweet.
'Gonna miss you, Merryfeather,' then raucous laughter.
The combination of dried fish, preserved fruit, and stale oats do little to curb the lingering ache, suffusing their bones and tingling with an emptiness they'd almost forgotten until they'd come to this place.
'You've made me go soft, Hopper.'
Steady Pace slips on the light saddlebags, and chooses to walk to work today.
Shakes the weariness from their limbs and then a stretch of wings before the gentle takeoff, followed by the gentle lope of paws close behind as the hellish, frostbitten wind bites menacingly at the landscape.
It's warm today, and the market is a veritable soup of eye-wateringly bright hair and feathers. The city's guardhouse isn't much different from the way it is in all these cities so far, Steady Pace arrives early and clocks in.
"Early again, guardspony Pace," the harried slave-mare, she runs the guardhouses' paperwork, speaks, "you've got all the G routes today, and you'll need to cover routes R3 and E2, lots of guards are out with Wing Rot."
"So I've heard," Pace intones with a sigh, then remembers, "and how are you today, Bright Poppy?"
"Could be better, could be worse," the aforementioned Bright Poppy responds quietly, and a tone of nervous finality that keeps Pace from pressing further, out of politeness, it's taken him months to even get her to be comfortable enough to even admit as much as she just did, after all.
"Ah, time to patrol I suppose," Pace backs off, before finishing lamely, "hope things work out."
Hopper was always much better that this kind of thing, perhaps Pace would bring the mare some fruit from the market or something to brighten her day.
From there it's hours of single-hoofedly breaking up drunken tavern fights, taking reports of missing property, ineffectively hunting for vandals, and intimidating other citizens because… That's the job of a city guard, Pace supposes.
Pace delivers some letters on the way, the extra pay was a bonus, and Steady Pace was nothing if not middlingly efficient.
Hours later there is another noble hemming and hawing about stolen property, slaves again, and Pace pretends to listen while fantasizing about murder. Imagines this lazing sod of a getting what was coming to them, and drinking in their horrified faces.
Pace never thought he could be this angry, it's never been his place to be angry until now.
It's another long day before he comes back to his dingy and windowless, one-room apartment, and nearly collapses into bed. Pace was dusty and tired, and the couple next door were prone to fight, their hushed anger and dull, resigned hurt making Steady Pace want to wince.
Pace is organizing the papers into his saddlebags for tomorrow when a rough, harried knock sounds at his door.
"Guardsman Steady Pace, this is the Royal Guard!" A nasally voice pitches from behind, a stallion they think, "you're under arrest!"
A dull blue pegasi known as Steady Pace opens the door with a swing, feathers fluffed with indignation, a sticky sensation building in the back of their throat, "on what grounds?!"
Two other guards, a pegasi and a unicorn, move to restrain Pace while the third of their number barks a haughty reply.
"For conspiracy to commit treason and collusion with those working against will of the crown."
"Windy!" Steady Pace knows the pegasi, a coworker at the guardhouse, her name is Windy Bloom, "you can't possibly think I'd do this?!"
"I don't know what to think 'Stead," she looks away before body checking the blue pegasi.
Pace spits hatefully at one of her back hooves, and suddenly it's encased in green slime, hardening quickly in the open air of the hallway.
Then a flash of green fills the cramped, musty hall, and the three assailants look away.
!!!
Then a choked cry, as needle-sharp teeth tear into the buttersoft flesh of the unicorn's throat and their horn sputters with an aborted spell.
For Hopper.
The guardspony, Windy Bloom looks back upon where the blue pegasi, Steady Pace had once stood, and in the would-be stallion's place stands a Monster. Blue pelt replaced by craggy, chitonous plates, a bony mockery of a unicorn horn and its wings are a ragged-sharp gossamer.
There never was any Steady Pace, only Carapace, or Cariadoc Merryfeather, as he was known to his friend a whole country away who'd never even seen their true face. Not that Carapace ever put Hopper's affection to that particular test.
Carapace had grown too afraid, too invested, to do so.
Needly teeth and an unhinging jaw are the last thing she or her compatriots ever see.
…
Less than a week later the corpses of three city guards are found in the vacated room after a complaint about the smell, pegasi called Bright Nimbus and Windy Bloom, and also a unicorn known as Deep Glow, who were sent to arrest one of their fellow guardsponies under suspicion of treason.
Later on, there are witness reports of one guardspony Windy Bloom leaving the city limits in a great hurry, but those are dismissed as the product of the murderer adopting a cheap glamor, leading the investigators to put out a bounty on the pegasi Steady Pace and an unknown unicorn accomplice both.
It's tragically obvious, and is deemed barely worth a footnote in the grapevine it passes through, even.
OOOOO
Weeks later, a tiny packet of sticky, bedraggled papers wrapped in brown paper and string finds its way onto the very doorstep of one Lord Ravenburg's office.
A ballsy move, and perhaps a very stupid one in hindsight.
A plain Griffon flees back to the temporary haven of his room in a nearby inn, and then the disguised Changeling sits on the empty bed, and sips absently at the warm feelings of thirdhoofed affection emanating from two rooms over.
And so Carapace waits, and stews bitterly in their failure.
Hopper would forgive the Changeling, they think, but Carapace would not.
Unsure if this is any good, but uh, I hope it's not terrible, so here. I've made a Changeling OC has been in Gryffus since like… The end of Discord's last spurt of Chaos magic whatever, and hasn't seen another changeling in nearly two decades and has basically gone native and went to Maretonia to find Hopper, a Diamond Dog who Carapace has basically fallen stupidly in love with, who'd gotten snatched by slavers. But Carapace being pretty out of practice and not entirely too well-versed in the more political and bureaucratic aspects of intrigue and information-gathering wasn't as effective as they'd hoped while also falling into helping out the Abolitionist movement a bit before almost being arrested by a honeypot target (otherwise they would've starved, magic-empathy drain-wise whatever). Carapace flows between he/him and genderless pronouns, but is mostly used to being referred to by his cover name that they've been using the longest, Cariadoc Merryfeather.
The reason they come back is that combing each city for one diamond dog slave is a lot harder than it sounds, and the empathy-emotional eating is harder when on the move and with no hive and semi-regular magic usage.
TLDR: I couldn't stop myself from making a Lone Changeling OC who was stranded in the future Empire at the beginning of the quest and has now gone total Gryphus Empire native.
Also: I despise the nu!Changeling's redesign and I refuse them in their entirety, redemption and allyship? Fine, but the redesign is ugly and loud.
The guardspony, Windy Bloom looks back upon where the blue pegasi, Steady Pace had once stood, and in the would-be stallion's place stands a Monster. Blue pelt replaced by craggy, chitonous plates, a bony mockery of a unicorn horn and its wings are a ragged-sharp gossamer.
Huh, now that I think about it, I've never thought of their outer layer as tough chitin before, despite them being obviously bugs!
Love it! The sudden betrayal is so swift and horrific!
That artwork is dope!
A/N: …Fuckit I wrote an omake in four hours! Also I'm… Not sure if I've gotten Maretonia right, but I'm kinda imagining it like a combination of some Roman Empire historical books and the setting of 'The Golden Goblet' book (by Eloise Jarvis McGraw; but it's set in Egypt, which might be super different, so I'm gonna get vague)?
@Questor? Also if I get anything for this omake, please apply it to, 'You Stop That!' or 'Bringing People Together', whichever has either a failing roll or lower roll, thanks! <333
Omake: Becoming the Mask
Steady Pace gets up early for work, dons their armor cheaply-made, and trudges past a dusty kitchenette; and tries not to remember shared delectables over a table a whole world away, or how the air had been softly aglow and sweet.
'Gonna miss you, Merryfeather,' then raucous laughter.
The combination of dried fish, preserved fruit, and stale oats do little to curb the lingering ache, suffusing their bones and tingling with an emptiness they'd almost forgotten until they'd come to this place.
'You've made me go soft, Hopper.'
Steady Pace slips on the light saddlebags, and chooses to walk to work today.
Shakes the weariness from their limbs and then a stretch of wings before the gentle takeoff, followed by the gentle lope of paws close behind as the hellish, frostbitten wind bites menacingly at the landscape.
It's warm today, and the market is a veritable soup of eye-wateringly bright hair and feathers. The city's guardhouse isn't much different from the way it is in all these cities so far, Steady Pace arrives early and clocks in.
"Early again, guardspony Pace," the harried slave-mare, she runs the guardhouses' paperwork, speaks, "you've got all the G routes today, and you'll need to cover routes R3 and E2, lots of guards are out with Wing Rot."
"So I've heard," Pace intones with a sigh, then remembers, "and how are you today, Bright Poppy?"
"Could be better, could be worse," the aforementioned Bright Poppy responds quietly, and a tone of nervous finality that keeps Pace from pressing further, out of politeness, it's taken him months to even get her to be comfortable enough to even admit as much as she just did, after all.
"Ah, time to patrol I suppose," Pace backs off, before finishing lamely, "hope things work out."
Hopper was always much better that this kind of thing, perhaps Pace would bring the mare some fruit from the market or something to brighten her day.
From there it's hours of single-hoofedly breaking up drunken tavern fights, taking reports of missing property, ineffectively hunting for vandals, and intimidating other citizens because… That's the job of a city guard, Pace supposes.
Pace delivers some letters on the way, the extra pay was a bonus, and Steady Pace was nothing if not middlingly efficient.
Hours later there is another noble hemming and hawing about stolen property, slaves again, and Pace pretends to listen while fantasizing about murder. Imagines this lazing sod of a getting what was coming to them, and drinking in their horrified faces.
Pace never thought he could be this angry, it's never been his place to be angry until now.
It's another long day before he comes back to his dingy and windowless, one-room apartment, and nearly collapses into bed. Pace was dusty and tired, and the couple next door were prone to fight, their hushed anger and dull, resigned hurt making Steady Pace want to wince.
Pace is organizing the papers into his saddlebags for tomorrow when a rough, harried knock sounds at his door.
"Guardsman Steady Pace, this is the Royal Guard!" A nasally voice pitches from behind, a stallion they think, "you're under arrest!"
A dull blue pegasi known as Steady Pace opens the door with a swing, feathers fluffed with indignation, a sticky sensation building in the back of their throat, "on what grounds?!"
Two other guards, a pegasi and a unicorn, move to restrain Pace while the third of their number barks a haughty reply.
"For conspiracy to commit treason and collusion with those working against will of the crown."
"Windy!" Steady Pace knows the pegasi, a coworker at the guardhouse, her name is Windy Bloom, "you can't possibly think I'd do this?!"
"I don't know what to think 'Stead," she looks away before body checking the blue pegasi.
Pace spits hatefully at one of her back hooves, and suddenly it's encased in green slime, hardening quickly in the open air of the hallway.
Then a flash of green fills the cramped, musty hall, and the three assailants look away.
!!!
Then a choked cry, as needle-sharp teeth tear into the buttersoft flesh of the unicorn's throat and their horn sputters with an aborted spell.
For Hopper.
The guardspony, Windy Bloom looks back upon where the blue pegasi, Steady Pace had once stood, and in the would-be stallion's place stands a Monster. Blue pelt replaced by craggy, chitonous plates, a bony mockery of a unicorn horn and its wings are a ragged-sharp gossamer.
There never was any Steady Pace, only Carapace, or Cariadoc Merryfeather, as he was known to his friend a whole country away who'd never even seen their true face. Not that Carapace ever put Hopper's affection to that particular test.
Carapace had grown too afraid, too invested, to do so.
Needly teeth and an unhinging jaw are the last thing she or her compatriots ever see.
…
Less than a week later the corpses of three city guards are found in the vacated room after a complaint about the smell, pegasi called Bright Nimbus and Windy Bloom, and also a unicorn known as Deep Glow, who were sent to arrest one of their fellow guardsponies under suspicion of treason.
Later on, there are witness reports of one guardspony Windy Bloom leaving the city limits in a great hurry, but those are dismissed as the product of the murderer adopting a cheap glamor, leading the investigators to put out a bounty on the pegasi Steady Pace and an unknown unicorn accomplice both.
It's tragically obvious, and is deemed barely worth a footnote in the grapevine it passes through, even.
OOOOO
Weeks later, a tiny packet of sticky, bedraggled papers wrapped with paper and string finds its way onto the very doorstep of one Lord Ravenburg's office.
A ballsy move, and perhaps a very stupid one in hindsight.
A plain Griffon flees back to the temporary haven of his room in a nearby inn, and then the disguised Changeling sits on the empty bed, and sips absently at the warm feelings of thirdhoofed affection emanating from two rooms over.
And so Carapace waits, and stews bitterly in their failure.
Hopper would forgive the Changeling, they think, but Carapace would not.
Unsure if this is any good, but uh, I hope it's not terrible, so here. I've made a Changeling OC has been in Gryffus since like… The end of Discord's last spurt of Chaos magic whatever, and hasn't seen another changeling in nearly two decades and has basically gone native and went to Maretonia to find Hopper, a Diamond Dog who Carapace has basically fallen stupidly in love with, who'd gotten snatched by slavers. But Carapace being pretty out of practice and not entirely too well-versed in the more political and bureaucratic aspects of intrigue and information-gathering wasn't as effective as they'd hoped while also falling into helping out the Abolitionist movement a bit before almost being arrested by a honeypot target (otherwise they would've starved, magic-empathy drain-wise whatever). Carapace flows between he/him and genderless pronouns, but is mostly used to being referred to by his cover name that they've been using the longest, Cariadoc Merryfeather.
The reason they come back is that combing each city for one diamond dog slave is a lot harder than it sounds, and the empathy-emotional eating is harder when on the move and with no hive and semi-regular magic usage.
TLDR: I couldn't stop myself from making a Lone Changeling OC who was stranded in the future Empire at the beginning of the quest and has now gone total Gryphus Empire native.
Also: I despise the nu!Changeling's redesign and I refuse them in their entirety, redemption and allyship? Fine, but the redesign is ugly and loud.
—[ ] South West: Neither the Yaks nor the Crystal Ponies know anything about the territory between them, save a few frustratingly vague prophecies from the Yak Shamans about a "land of lakes". Only one way to see if the seers are accurate.
Oh man, just realized... we wont be overseeing "how do you do fellow pirates?" through overtime because of how its set up, even though that could have been a possibility..
RIP dreams of pirate garrick.
... unless plan maker decides to stealth switch two of em. Just sayin.
Let's not send our son to infiltrate pirates , if I am understanding you right.
Though ever since he got groups of friends, I now am imagining a cute, but contrived as they often are, kids movie where Gawain goes and rescues a friend kidnapped by pirates.
It feels like a movie future gryphon movie makers would make, like how our media has done to historical characters in kids shows.
Let's not send our son to infiltrate pirates , if I am understanding you right.
Though ever since he got groups of friends, I now am imagining a cute, but contrived as they often are, kids movie where Gawain goes and rescues a friend kidnapped by pirates.
It feels like a movie future gryphon movie makers would make, like how our media has done to historical characters in kids shows.
[ ] You Stop That!: Libertalia is, by all accounts, a den of scum and villainy, a haven for every outlaw, pirate and smuggler this side of the Ocean. Some of it's inhabitants have already raided your trade routes, kidnapped your people and sold them into slavery. You'd be well within your rights to raze the entire island to ashes. But such an endeavor would be as expensive as it would be dangerous. Pirates may be vicious, but they aren't stupid. They know they can't stand against a large, organized navy. Perhaps they can be...persuaded...to stop raiding your ships? Cost: 400. Time: One Year. Reward: Libertalia momentarily pacified, Additional Options Unlocked. Chance of Success: 60%.
Just to be clear, this is an action where we essentially threaten Libertalia to stop raiding our ships or we blow them up with our new cannon ships with extreme prejudice right?
But aren't we planning to blow them up anyway? Maybe let our Japanese friends take the island for colonization when we are done cleaning house or something? It is a hive a scum and villainy with no legitimate country claiming it as their own. Considering we have causa belli to blow them to kingdom come for kidnapping and selling our (and neighpons) citizens to slavery in the first place, what is stopping us from doing just that? Other than the fact that we are still building up our Navy to actually blow them to Kingdom come that is.
