"EQ Game Quest- Return to the Castle, second coming."
By klimino (https://pastebin.com/u/klimino)

URL: https://pastebin.com/FCLGSeWc
Created on: Saturday 17th of June 2017 09:03:30 PM CDT
Retrieved on: Sunday 25 of October 2020 03:45:34 AM UTC


Players:
Homily-
	Equestrian Guard Helmet Saddlebags Ornate Spear The Lens Two Bandages Flint and Steel 	Thirty Feet of Rope Knife Canteen , holy sword
Tea-
	Saddlebags, a crossbow, chest-mounted holster with 20 bolts, wyvern-fang dagger, crystal 	focus (imbues magic with crystalline effects/minor bonus to piercing with offensive spells), 	Flint and Steel, brown rubber boots, padded tunic, canteen with water, bandages, a blank 	notebook, pencil, journal, Ganos Lal's bangle (+1 Dex) 
Bayou-
	Wearing spectacles Saddlebags containing: Compiled Guide on Antiquated and Extinct 	Langugaes Journal Quill Ink Vial x2 Canteen (filled with green tea) Three Bananas Old 	Pendant 
Ceres-
	ExactoBlade™, Survival Knife, Saddlebags Saddlebags: Two vial with pastes in it, one for 	concentration and one for a sedative respectively Bound Vines, Canteen, 2x empty jars 
Ruin-
	Bitchin' Crystal Hammer Wyvern Fang Dagger Beginner Bundle 

<><><><>
It was a nice, cloudy day, a nice change from the blaring sun that usually assaulted the residents of this fair swamp town, as Griff sat near the northern gate, sipping on a nice lemon drink as he waited for Homily and Tea.

This would be the third trip to the ruins up north, and while they had gotten some nice things last time, he had failed to find the personal and historical answers he had hoped from the place.

Along with Homilys blathering, when an area is host to two deadly monsters, it tends to become a rumor, though Griff was more worried about the recent talk of “Strange activity” in the area from the scouts, he was determined to go back there, hopefully this time getting what he seeked.

[Post inventory with your opening post, please make sure to follow the two rules mentioned before, and keep OOC chat mostly to commentary]

Ceres-Today at 3:03 PM
made her way to the three sitting there, looking fresh and clean for the adventure, wearing only her Saddlebags, ExactoKnife™ and Survival knife and her saddlebags. In them, were two empty jars, her spirit purging vines, a canteen and two vials full of paste. One holding one for concentration and one a sedative for injuries, respectively. The tall Ziggress gave a respectful nod to the two, with... A smile on her face. It's been a while since she went out to scout out some ruins, so it put a smile on her face.
Homily Sermon-Today at 3:03 PM
Homily trots out of his house, and to the north gate. After the "incidents" the last two times he'd been there, he'd decided to go a bit more prepared. With a helmet on his head, and a brand new spear in tow, he was feeling much better about the whole thing. As he arrives at the gate, he calls out to Griff. "Hello! Not too late, am I?"



Ruin is headed to the Embassy to pick up his new shag carpet, when he notices a small crowd beginning to form around a Red earth pony and a griffin. Curious, he trots up to the armed group and asks "Hey, isn't church tomorrow? 

Homily returns the nod to Ceres. "Hello there. How are you doing this morning?"

Bayou trots his way towards the group gathering at the northern gate. He'd only heard a bit of hearsay here and there about the possible journey to some sort of ruin outside of town. He'd been more than enthusiastic. The posibility to see a part of antiquated Equestrian culture! He hoped that his guide on ancient languages might come as of use to whoever else was going along. However, he wasn't nearly as prepared as the rest of them. "Hello everyone! I heard something was going to be happening, some sort of expedition?" The unicorn smiled cheerfully, an inquisitive look in his eyes. 

Griff blinked, looking around at the sudden group, and then at Homily.
“er.no.....not too late.....err.....ah suppose all y'all can come long, but ah gotta warn ya, last two times we went ere we go into real big scuffles.”

Homily Sermon-Today at 3:11 PM
"You'll both have to ask Griff-" Homily pauses as Griff speaks. "Well, there's your answer."
Ceres-Today at 3:11 PM
gives a bit of a giggle to Griff. "Well, y'all got a scout now," she ponited to herself. "so that's a bonus."
Flax-Today at 3:11 PM
Flax walked over to the slowly forming group, having heard about this and remembering her last little exploration out to the sites she was excited and ready for another. Even if it was an old castle ruin rather than a pirate ship. Maybe there'd be something out there...

Bayou-Today at 3:12 PM
Bayou looks over to Griff and bites his lip. He then shakes his head. No, no, you won't get anywhere if you don't take a few risks! "Well, I'll still be willing to risk it. The sake of knowledge, after all."

After many-o-preparations, the brown mare finally ventured out of her quarters, leaving her work uniform and everything else behind. Lightish on the attire and ready to survey the strange ruins that a certain pastor mentioned to her some time ago, the mare was eager to jump into action. She was wearing her brown rubber booties with a beige padded gambeson-of-a-tunic, carrying a set of saddlebags around herself. An old looking crossbow was swinging off her neck, gently tapping the chest mounted holster that was covering her chest-fluff, metal bolts clacking inside with each step. On her side, under one of the tunic's folds, a wyvern-fang dagger sat snuggly in the holsted. Out of other accessories that the mare had were the gem encrusted crystal focus that sat snuggly around the base of her horn, its rim occasionally exposed between the weaving chocolate locks of her mane... and an odd beady bangle that was strapped 'round her tail, hidden under the tunic. Full in spirits 'n ready t'move, the mare'd eventually reach the gathering spot, taking notice of all the faces, some familiar, some not as much, 'huh'ing a bit at the size of the group..... but nevertheless, smiling - safety in numbers, huh?... granted, the sign of certain ponies was making her a lil' bit worried. 

Bayou-Today at 3:16 PM
Bayou looks over himself and then frowns a bit. "True...I wouldn't want to be too much of a burden on the group. I can't say I have much money to purchse anything, though. Sort of like most of the colonists, really." Bayou looks down a bit sheepishly, before glancing up at Ceres. "Think anyone here could lend me something until the end of all this?"
Ruin-Today at 3:16 PM
Notices the lil green bastard is carrying some books and bangles "I got a spare knife."
Ceres-Today at 3:17 PM
"Well uh... Pick and choose I guess, I can give you a knife, but so can Ruin." she gave a bit of a shrug, taking another look at those in the group, giving the approaching Tea Time a smile 'n a nod.
Ruin-Today at 3:17 PM
Shows the spooky looking hoof-whittled fang dagger.
Tea Time-Today at 3:17 PM
"Hey hey h-!!", the mare's voice cuts off as she takes a notice of a couple o' those familiar face, her grin subsiding into a simple, lingering smile, "-- hey. My, 's almost like bein' onna field trip, hee~!"

Ceres-Today at 3:18 PM
just flashes a simple looking survival knife to Bayou ;-;
Bayou-Today at 3:18 PM
Bayou looked over at Ruin and noded. "Sure. Lets hope I won't have to use it at any point, though." He trotted towards Ruin, a voice chiding him in the back of his mind that he would end up getting everyone in trouble and be a weak link to all this and that he should just stay home. Of course, he keeps that voice quiet as he simply bows his head and takes the dagger. "Thank you. I appreciate it."
Homily Sermon-Today at 3:18 PM
Homily turns around face to Tea Time. "Oh, hi Tea! Was wondering if you'd show up."


Griff lets the group talk among themselves, not actually too interested personally in their conversations, his mind more focused on what was ahead.

“Well, if all you ready tah head out, then ah'll lead tha way.” he stated simply.

Ruin-Today at 3:20 PM
"Lead the way, boss!"

Tea Time-Today at 3:20 PM
"Took m'sweet time's fir sure-- earlier's been a lil' stutter at t'mill 'n all.", she stops next to Homily and offers a hoofshake, "All lookin' good with t'preps?"

Homily Sermon-Today at 3:20 PM
Homily turns around again to face Griff. He's going to get dizzy at this rate. "Ready when you are, Griff."
Bayou-Today at 3:21 PM
"O-of course! Onward and upward!"
Ceres-Today at 3:21 PM
gives an affirmative nod to Griff

Homily spins back around to Tea. Yep, he's getting dizzy now. Nonetheless, he give Tea's extended hoof an awkward tap with his own. "More prepared than last time, I'm glad to say. And with way more people too, seems someone else heard about the ruins." 

"Oh... uh, right-right--" the mare coughs up and lowers her head a bit... well, there's gonna be time t'catch up on everythin' that was said on t'journey! 


With a nod, Griff turned and started leading the way, out and north towards the beach.

While the day was young, it still took a good hour or two to reach their destination, but as the Castle ruins appeared up ahead of the beach. Griff suddenly stopped, a deep frown on his face, before turning around to Homily.

“Think we should warn em bout tha runes, or let em learn tha hard way, eh?”

Homily trots to up to where Griff is. "Not warning them would be rather rude, wouldn't it? Plus, if there's another important rune that says 'Don't go in here, there's a trap' we don't want them to just go in there."

"Runes, eh?" she slightly regretted not bringing any writing impliments for recording stuff ;-;. "What'd they look like? Doubt they'd be Anglo-Saxon ah?" 

Ruin appreciates the view of the old stone structure
"Neat."

Bayou, despite his size, seemed tense about the whole ordeal. He hears Homily's words and nods a bit, although the thought of runs has him pulling out his guide on old languages and flipping through it curiously. It seemed to comfort him a bit as he followed them. "Well, I might have a translation here somewhere, if it ever boils down to it."
Tea Time-Today at 3:29 PM
leans her head to the side a bit... 's been first time of her hearing about the runes, per se, but-- "Runes? Glyphs?-- uh, might ya have an example of 'em? We've been kinda--", she casts a side glance at the Doc, "-- dealin' with 'em as of late."


"Same kind that were on the wooden obelisk all that time ago. We have some goggles that auto-translate for us, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem." 

Bayou-Today at 3:32 PM
Bayou perks up slightly at the concept of auto-translating goggles, starting to tuck the thick tome back into his saddlebag. "All the better to have it automatically translated. It would keep us from having to slow down too much for anything of that nature."
Ceres-Today at 3:32 PM
"huh... Convenient. I'll keep an eye out for 'em when I scout."

Tea Time-Today at 3:35 PM
had a particular hunch about it, ever since she conversed with the pastor at the market... Things seemed to be scattered around pretty tightly when it came to ruins touched by the sands of time and ages - who knows if this one wasn't another piece in the puzzle behind the mysterious civilization- however-- she definitely blinks there a couple of times when Homily mentioned the totems, her gaze drifting back to him -- and most importantly, goggles, "Oh-- gosh. Y'found somethin' like that??", she grins momentarily as her horn sparks up 'n pulls a journal out of her saddlebag, "'n ya never mentioned 'bout 'em?! Dohoho! Can ya lend 'em fir a second~!?"
Flax-Today at 3:36 PM
After a moment of listening, then waiting to give tea an odd glance because of her mannerisms. She simply nods, remarking. "Alright."

Flax-Today at 3:36 PM
After a moment of listening, then waiting to give tea an odd glance because of her mannerisms. She simply nods, remarking. "Alright."
Homily Sermon-Today at 3:37 PM
"Certainly." Homily rummages around in his saddlebags for a second, but quickly pulls out a pair of goggles. More or less anyways, they don't have any straps on them. He passes them back to Tea. "Here you go."



Griff nods to Homily, then turns to the rest of the group.

“Right, see, these aint yer every average day ol runes. Some kinda ancient language, embedded in magic. Dont stare at em too hard or long, as they instantly start causing headaches pond looking at em.” He gets a serious look on his face, “Worse, Homily has o pair o goggle lenses that translate tha things ahn makes em not hurt, however readin em outloud while using em causes ya tah speak in tha runic language, and that hurts others even worse then lookin at tha things, so if ya are usin them, keep yer mouth SHUT.” 

He clears his throat, continuing, “Worse, some o em be traps, made tah activate if ya dont open ah door correctly or similar, so dont jus go openin things willy nilly witout checkin first if it be protected. Last thing be, while hopefully it be clear o any baddies still, ya can never to too sure, so be careful ,ahn watch were ya headed.”

“Any questions? Everyone understand?” he asks, leaning on his axe.

Griff also takes a moment to hand Homily a shaped bit of leather. “Made this fer ya, should turn em back inta a proper pair o goggles, if ah got tha measurements right.”

Homily Sermon-Today at 3:39 PM
Homily graciously accepts the leather strap. "Thanks, I'll get them put on once we reach the ruins."
Ceres-Today at 3:39 PM
"One question... What's to be expected on there beyond what you described? Spoops? Skellys? Anything that can threaten our lives?"(edited)
Flax-Today at 3:39 PM
"Google presents, google glasses. With translate..." She mutters


Bayou doens't say anything, simply nodding at Griff. It seems that his book would be of no use out here, if every rune is either a trap or something made to crush the reader's mind in some manner. Ah well. He lets out a sigh and keeps himself alert. Any questions he might have would undoubtedly be asked by the other new folks. 

Griff turns to Ceres, shrugging.
“We fought ah massive deamon lord and ah ancient, evil tar bear out ere, both rquiring ah special weapon Homily has now tah defeat, ahn we ran inta some angry ghosts...but,er, ah would like tah think by now its been cleared out.....probably.”



Ruin-Today at 3:44 PM
"The hell is a tar bear?"
Ceres-Today at 3:44 PM
too a glance to her right leg, which her holstered ExactoBlade™ held. "Hmm," she shrugged a bit. "okay, then, I'm good to go. THat's all I needed to know."

Griff shrugs,looking at Ruin.
“Ah still ask mahself that question, heh.”

Tea Time-Today at 3:48 PM
in the meantime picks up and looks over the googles, listenin' to others trying to see if there were any runes or inscriptions on the goggles themselves-- hearing about the weird effect behind the runes, the mare raises her eyes at Griff with a quirked brow and huh's, wondering if one of her friends was subjected to something like that before, "Demons... I remember t'whole thing at t'gates.", she says and would try to put the goggles while her magic parted her own journal open and started to flip through pages, "-- but at t'same time... I wonder- have ya found anythin' t'indicate t'origins of this... evil? Anythin' or anypony who brought t'thing to these lands?"

Bayou-Today at 3:51 PM
Bayou quirks his brow at the concept of demons and ghosts. Not something he'd encountered here before, but he'd heard talk of them. He was part of a certain issue at the moment that was possibly associated with it, so he took out his journal and began to jot down a few notes into it, scribbling into the pages. He takes time to sketch some of the surroundings while he's at it, listening to the conversations and adding his own notes about them.
Homily Sermon-Today at 3:52 PM
"I have theories, but nothing solid unfortunatly." Homily says, somewhat dejectedly. His mood picks up with his next sentance, however, "I'm hoping to learn more today though. If all goes well, this may be the last time we have to go here."

Ruin-Today at 3:53 PM
Ruin just stares ahead at the castle, eyes clouded with wonder. Just how many folks lived here, and what happened to em?

Flax-Today at 3:54 PM
Flax gives Homily a look, a mischevous look coming across her eyes. "Are you going to banish them priest? Shall I get the holy water?"

Griff nods as Homily talks. 
“Yeah, nothin set in stone, but ah do have.....well, have been doin research tah say tha least, but cant reckon its nuff tah say nothing til we figure out more.”

He shrugs, turning to homily. “Well, any place ya want tah show em first? Or jus head striaght fer tha unexplored bits?”

Tea Time-Today at 3:56 PM
'd stop at one of the pages and try to look over two rows of glyphs that she wrote down before, eyes narrowing down-- only to gasp a bit, "W-Woah-- ho...", the mare's voice subsides into a mumble, eyes jumping between what she was seeing and the actual translation she had underneath the rows of letters, "-- so it works... sorta--". Tea frowns and slowly closes the journal, giving a glance to the pastor, "-- if t'runes ya seen 'r t'same-- there might be more to yer, uh, 'demon' problem than meets the eye."

Homily turns to Griff. "I vote we get that chest out of the way first. Might be something in there to help, too." Homily spins around to Tea. "What do you mean? You know something about this? Also, when you're done I can put a strap on that thing." 

Bayou glances over at Tea and then down at his own journal. Best to wait to bring this up with Homily later on. He flips a few pages through to see some copied down glyphs, but shakes his head and flips back to taking more notes. Nothing much to do beyond record everything he can at this point. Conversations and revelations included. 

Griff nods, giving Homily a smile.
“Isnt greed ah sin oh pastor?” Chuckling, he turns, motioning for the group to start following. 
“Mind tha walls folks, those runes be pretty common in this place, though most long tha walls seem tah be preservation runes tah keep tha place standin.”

Bayou lets out a chuckle and nods over at Homily. "Of course I am. Meticulous field notes help keep accurate records of events. Plus, it'll be something for me to study over and speak to Professor Heart about. I actually spent much of my time doing field research on Earth, so it's what I'm used to."

Tea Time-Today at 4:20 PM
"Well.... 's a long story, really.", the mare scratches the side of her head as she looks up into the sky, levitating the goggles off herself, "The whole incident at the gates, t'totems, t'shouts-- m'sure ya went 'n had a "rad" time out 'ere-- I assume 's the place 'n all.", she sighs, "But.. ever since that incident, there's been this runic bit, a shard that t'totem left behind, ye? See..."

https://pastebin.com/03qKYGg9

"... whatever this civilization is, by that 'assistant's accounts, it existed for a very veeery long time... alas, we didn't discover much to clarify t'confusion.. because...", Tea's words trail off a bit, "-- well... while I stopped havin' my nightmares - Starry is still under t'effects'."



Homily Sermon-Today at 4:26 PM
After the story, Homily has a look of bewilderment, awe, and even a little horror. He doesn't entirely know how to respond to such a tale. "I... you'd mentioned the possession, but I never knew it was that bad..."
Ruin-Today at 4:26 PM
"How do yah know that?"
Ceres-Today at 4:26 PM
made the connections and slightly shrugged. "Yeah, somethin' like that, 'cept Lal's spirit seemed deranged and tried to kill me... Peyote subdued it and I found out where that cave was from speaking some type of latin thingy that Starry was reciting, that's how I found the cave. The images just seemed to... Come to me whilst speaking it."


Griff turned to Ruin, shrugging.
“Both mah research ahn what me an Homily learned from our last visit simply hints at ah much different story, least fer this castle ahn its area.”

Homily Sermon-Today at 4:28 PM
Homily also casts a quick, suspicious glance at Ceres.
Ruin-Today at 4:28 PM
"Alright, that's an easy name to remember."
Tea Time-Today at 4:29 PM
frowns a little, with her gaze switching to zebra which was also there in the tomb, "'s that so, huh-- kill ya..", and glances at the goggles that she kept levitating, "-- perhaps unpluggin' her wasn't t'best of choices, huh?", she thinks for a couple of seconds and passes the goggles back to Homily, "Whatever these things are, they seem t'decipher bits 'n pieces of t'cipher that we worked ta match manually-- 'n whatever those 'Others' are-- well---", she looks at the ruins in the distance, "-- perhaps there's 'nother piece t'find."

Bayou looks between everyone, having been scribbling each word into his journal as fast as magic and shorthand allowed. He seemed a bit confused by all of it, but it all seemed to center around mysterious findings around the colony. He bites his lower lip as he thinks before looking back towards the leader of the party. Griff, he hears. He jots it down for notice before simply scribbling a question on one of the pages. 'DId they nkow about it? If so, why put us here?' He then flips to another, clean page. More questions, less answers, it seems. "Well...if Griff's and Homily's findings hint at something else, it may very well just be coincidence that this is all so close to one another in proximity. Different eras, same places." 

Ceres-Today at 4:30 PM
shoots a quick, and filthyily casual glance over to Homily, then back over to Tea. "I swear, if it weren't for Peyote 'n the vines I got, I'd be knocking on the doors of Valhalla or some shit." maintaining that casual glance, she looked back to Griff. "We good to head out now?"

Griff nods. “If everyones done wit story tellin.”
With that, he lead the group into the old ruins. They would note the walls did indeed have...something, carved into them, but none could make out their shape, and it caused pain to stare too long.
“This way.” Griff said, as they came to large, rotting wooden doors, still open to reveal what was once a throne room, a rotting but still impressive throne sitting up on a high point, dulled gold bits still on it. 

There were hooks up on the walls where banners once were held, and up at the top of the massive pillars holding up the roof were many a much more nicely cared rune, though these again could not be made out for the same reasons as before.

Most errily though, was in the middle of the room before the throne was a mintaurs skeleton, a clean, masterfully crafted sword sticking out of its back and into the stone under it, and a golden crown laying near its head, dulled from age, unlike the sword.

“Dont touch tha blade, Homily think it might be cursed.” Griff says, as he turns to the group, pointing to a side door, the only one in the room. 
“This way, or ya can stay ere ah moment, this part dont concern ya too much ah think?” He says, half asking Homily with the last part.

Homily Sermon-Today at 4:38 PM
"I don't mind looking around here for bit with some fresh eyes. We still ought to check the chest eventually, though."
Ruin-Today at 4:38 PM
Ruin looks at the crown
Ceres-Today at 4:38 PM
takes a note of this sword and might come back later, just to see if there's any spiritual shiz bound to it. "Well just, let me know what needs to be explored. I /am/ a scout after all."
Tea Time-Today at 4:39 PM
kept her attention up, ears and eyes peerin' around, "Cursed, huh. What's cursed 'bout it?", the mare considers the piece from a far.

Bayou looks over the skeleton curiously, as well as the sword and crown. This would be a place ripe for investigation and research. With the newfound powers of psychometry, who knows what secrets he could pull from any of thsoe? Anything here? He shakes his head however. It wasn't his place to do anything outside of what they deemed safe. Just take notes for later. He jumps slighlty at the mention of his name and then looks to Ruin with a smile. "O-oh! Well of course I'd love to, but I won't do anything that might put the group in danger. If they don't know it's safe, I won't be the one to touch it." 

Flax looks around the castle, taking in all of her surroundings and all the shiny bits... She does take a few steps forward, looking around for a stick or something.

Homily Sermon-Today at 4:41 PM
"Nothing good ever comes from stealing from the dead, Tea. I wouldn't take the chance."

Tea Time-Today at 4:43 PM
raises her brow at that... with a little eyeroll, "-- 's not fir t'dead ta dictate t'life o't livin'--", she approaches the sword, tho probably keeping herself a couple of steps away from the scene, "-- more so by that train o'thought, ya can write down t'whole archaeology down t'gutter."

Homily is somewhat taken aback by the nickname, but answers Ruin regardless. "Spirits and demons are nothing to laugh at." 

Griff turns to Tea and the others.
“We met actual ghosts ere folks, one even talked to us ah fair bit, ahn hinted that tha ones down in that catecombs might have ah bite to em....though, supposedly we allowed em tah leave but......”

Griff looks off to the side, frowning. 
“....But ah think we jus made room fer different spirits tah enter instead.....”

Homily Sermon-Today at 4:46 PM
"That sword is the cause of death for the poor king. Even if you don't believe me about taking from the dead, I believe the wielder of the sword may have been associating with demons beforehand. I wouldn't take it."


Ruin-Today at 4:46 PM
"Aw Homily, what's the worst thing that could happen?" Ruin puts a hoof on the sword, wiggling it a bit
Homily Sermon-Today at 4:47 PM
Homily nods at Ceres. "She makes a good suggestion, we could move on to newer areas if we're done sight seeing."

Homily winces at Ruin messing with the weapon. 

Tea involuntarily tenses up at the sight of Ruin touching the thing...... and possibly takes a lil' step back. She was quite familiar with how impulsive t'unicorn could be...

Ceres-Today at 4:49 PM
withdraws her survival knife and carved a circle around her, juuuuuuuuust in case.
Bayou-Today at 4:50 PM
Bayou readies his journal and qulll, keeping them and a fresh page at hoof. However, he maintains a distance, keeping himself by one of the large pillars in the room and peeking out from it.
Flax-Today at 4:51 PM
Flax finds something. A rock. She tosses it at the sword in the back of the dead minotaur


At first, when Ruin touched the blade, nothing happened, and as he tried to wiggle it, he noticed he simply couldn't, as it was embedded in the stone too tightly.

Further pressure to move it however, suddenly made the blade glow, before a shock sent Ruin back HARD into a pillar, nearly knocking him out.

Suddenly, the sword glows like a fucking sun, then is back to normal...with a large, transparent minotaur ghost king floating above it.

The ghost looks around, frowning. 
“He who wishes to wield my familys blade must prove themselves worthy...or die, to be forever tortured to feed its power, like those who it has slain.”


Tea eeks and jumps back at the sudden blast off, her horn sparkling up from the mixture of starlin' fear and-- oh boy! 
Bayou-Today at 4:53 PM
Bayou leans his head out a bit more, his quill practically flying along the pages, swapping between sketching and note taking. Of course, he isn't going to say anything. The others in the adventuring party are the heroes in this situation, they can speak up. He's just here to take notes and observe.(edited)
Ceres-Today at 4:54 PM
was about to spring into action to saving the Ruin, but eh, she's got sedatives, so she'll tend to him later. Upon the spirit event, Ceres looked up to the minotaur spirit with a, mouth open, amazed look. She only heard myths like this, but never seen it like this. "Are you..." she mumbled "...In the sword?" she asked rather bluntly.


Griff jumps back, a terrified look on his face.
“oh fucking SHIT! Ah think ah would rather NOT face death ere AGAIN.” he says spastically.

The king doesn't even turn, but his eyes do slowly look at Ceres.
“I am merely part, a fragment of the first Minotaur Emperor, whos soul was split into twelve, so twelve may save their lands.”

Homily calls out to the spirit, with a tremble in his voice, "Err, I'm sorry, but I think there was a misunderstanding! I'm sure none of us wish to take the sword, we just have a friend who likes to touch things from time to time! Right, guys?" That last sentance sounded a bit like pleading. 


Tea Time-Today at 4:57 PM
Never before did the mare see a-- "A-A g-ghost???", her teeth clench together, eyes - pins, ears - flattened... though... the menacing presence, for what it's worth, reminded her of t'faithful time at the other tomb. The tired mare was scared when the ancient simply 'vanished' into the light... perhaps whatever this was had-- somewhat similar origins? "W-... w-what was y-your-- do... do you remember your name, Mr. Emperor?"

Flax takes a few steps back, the hair on her back raised as she gets low to the ground much like a cat as she slides slowly back away, bumping into a wall.

"Gah!" Ruin hits the pillar HARD "Now that's unexpected" Still laying against the pillar, and showing no sign of getting up Ruin asks "What kind of test?"

Ceres-Today at 4:59 PM
really wants to inquisite further! "Into twelve? What happened? Were you a protector of sorts?" she approached the spirit a bit, stepping out of her protective barrier circle. "What's your story? Is this your place?" she had so many other questions, and her face shown it. It was a face full of excitement and inquisition, but she realized she should stem the questions a bit so the minotaur spirit can catch up.
Tea Time-Today at 4:59 PM
Perhaps not the best choice of words, but the mare wasn't quite thinking straight, too-- for all the staring at the 'ghost', she was also worried about the propelled stallion... hooves stepping back and away from the object that was just a couple of steps away from her.... all the way back to Ruin.
Bayou-Today at 5:00 PM
Bayou keeps himself right where he is. His quill moved and his chest rose and fell as he took notes of the conversation going on. Minotaur Emperor? He'd read a bit about minotaurs in Professor Heart's office, but he'd never actually seen one himself.


The Emperor turns, very slightly, only as much as necessary for his eyes to look at her.
“I am merely called the First, No other name will ever be necessary.”

He looks back at Ceres. “You are not yet worthy, stripped one, but your race was only just beginning in my time, so perhaps a trade of information could occur at a later date, if you have something of equal value to my knowledge.”

He turns to Ruin, his frown deepening. “Nothing you could survive, whelp.”

[NOTE: the trial DOES have a chance of character death and/or major injury]

Tea didn't feel like this Ghost's sentiment was... friendly... Captain Obvious t'the rescue, but... "... your highness-- d'not misunderstand us as we're not here fir your sword--", her voice trails off a bit, "-- we're 'ere t'git t'the bottom of t'truth and... well-- what happened this realm-- what caused all o'this?", she asks with a courteous, but clearly nervous note as she steps closer to ruin, hushing her squeaky voice, "Ruin.. lad-- y'alright? Can-- can y'walk?" 

Ceres-Today at 5:10 PM
feels shut down a bit, with a bit of a frown. Defeated. Though her her mind, she decided to take a bit of a gamble. One last question. "...Does the name Ganos Lal ring a bell to you?" she mumbled.

Ruin-Today at 5:11 PM
"Whelp? WHELP?!" Ruin climbs, with a lot of effort, back on his hooves "Aint no dead guy gonna tell me how to live! If youre so goddamn powerful and impressive why'd you die with a sword in your back, eh?" spits "FUCK YOU, I ACCEPT YOUR CHALLENGE!"
Bayou-Today at 5:11 PM
Bayou furrows his brow and then adds a few small squestions to the journal before moving slowly out from behind the pillar. If it's a ghost, it'll most likely go through it anyway. No sense in hiding behind it. He keeps a record of the conversations as he simply watches the ghost of the First. Interesting looking fellow, to say the least.

Flax stands up, still a bit spooped by the ghost as she rejoings the group proper. "So... These.... Are the ghosts you were talkin' about...?" She asks, glancing at Griff and Homily as Ruin yells at the ghost

Homily Sermon-Today at 5:15 PM
"Y-yes, I would say so." Homily quietly replies to Flax.
Tea Time-Today at 5:15 PM
's ears flatten at the sudden shout-- her heart kicking into overdrive... She knew it. She bloody knew it when she seen 'im at the gates, "Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuin---- ", her brow twitches a bit, "--- c'mooooooon, ya in no condition' t mess around---", the innocent squeakiness was slowly morphing into the tone of menace.



“No.” the King says to Ceres simply, before looking at Ruin sternly and.....reaches down, easily slipping the blade out of the ground, despite being a ghost, the blades edges suddenly glowing bright blue as he points it at Ruin. “Choose your weapon then. No magic, no gimmicks, only you and a simple steel. The battle is to the death, yours most likely. If anyone intervenes the contest is over.”

Griff rushes over, pushing Ruin to the ground.
“Fuck, no, NO! Ghost guy, please, we meant no disrespect, we jus lookin fer answers, no one wants tah fight NO ONE.”

Bayou cringes a bit at the booming voice and then looks between all the people here. Seems that things are getting a little heavy here. He scribbles more into his notebook, taking note of the ability of selective corporealness. Strange. Maybe a poltergeist or something? He takes a few steps towards The First, looking at the sword, then the skeleton, then the crown. No wonder no one had touched any of this. 

Tea Time-Today at 5:22 PM
clears her throat when Griff restrains the guy on the floor... curiously tho, she wondered, how could the ghost king be defeated with simple steal if he was--- "Uh-- pardon me, your highness, but, how.. uh... exactly can you be challenged 'n defeated with a mere still if yer a-- well...", she looks over the ghost, "-- incorporeal?"
"Not that anypony 'ere's with t'-- intent ta lay claim t'yer domain 'n all." 

Ruin-Today at 5:23 PM
"Ugh, but this jackoff called me a whelp!" Ruin rolls his eyes "You know what you see-through... something: I'll be back for you one day when I'm ready, your sneak attack cheapshot shit you pulled with the sword had no honor to it, especcially if you're screaming for no tricky magic gimmicks, and we'll settle this when no one else is around to get hurt."
Ceres-Today at 5:24 PM
takes a note of everything and will most def come back at a later date to trade some of her own stories. "I have some old stories back from... My time. Perhaps in a few days time I can come back and exchange stories with you?" she said, trying to interest the spirit into her and to get himm off the potential >rampage
Homily Sermon-Today at 5:25 PM
Homily has simply been watching the scene play out since Ruin's initial outburst, eyes frantically switching from the Ruin to the minotaur himself.

“Perhaps one should be smart enough to figure out how the ghost exists, if they wish to defeat it.” He grumbles, shoving the sword back into the ground where it was. “And I am merely the swords protector, the lighting is the defense mechanism that summons me, I have but no control over its other functions.”

The king turns back to Ceres. “Hmm...I see no reason to deny this, but I will not promise your stories are of much value. “

Tea hrmss at that, eyes laying at the thrown sword... fighting the thing directly was a suicide, for sure, but-- with the wording like that, it wouldn't take much t'deduce that something in the room, the skeleton, the crown or the sword itself was keeping it 'bound' to this realm? "I... see." That is, if it was faithful to its word and there was a fair way to defeat it, "But your highness... if you were split into bits 'n pieces, this, existence as t'swords defender 'n all... was it a willing sacrifice on your behalf?"
"To be turned int'this.. bound protector?"

Ceres-Today at 5:34 PM
has a few up her repitoir. At least from home and her knowledge of Pagan folklore. "Well I'll be damned to Ragnarok if I don't... ahm..." she looked about to the other poners 'n gryph in this place. "Hope ya don't mind the mapping of these ruins..."
Bayou-Today at 5:34 PM
Bayou looks over the minotaur and then to Ceres. She undoubtedly had many strange things to tell about this world! He looked back to the minotaur, keeping himself silent. He could end up getting himself slapped all to hell like Ruin if he said something. His stomach growls slightly and he looks down at it before sighing and pulling out a banana. The tension seemed to have passed, and no good research is done hungry.

Ruin-Today at 5:35 PM
"Excuses, excuses! 'Oh golly gee misteer poner, I didn't mean to hit you with that zap, it just sort of happened!' My ass, and your Horcrux soul splitting shit doesn't come off as something an honorable, benevolent leader would pull either. Mark my fucking words, I'll definitely be back for your ectoplasmic ass
Homily Sermon-Today at 5:35 PM
Homily sighs in relief, releasing a breath he didn't know he was holding as everythng winds back down. Err, -ish
Ceres-Today at 5:36 PM
snaps a very bitter glare at Ruin for trying to ruin her dialogue with the spirit.

Tea Time-Today at 5:39 PM
wasn't all too steady on her word picking.. still trying to catch her breath and bearing--- oh gosh. Seems like the number of angry mares was growing in the room. As fearful for her hide as she was 'n tryin' to prod, de-escalate, or bullshit her way outta potentially lethal results -- seeing how huge the sword 'n the ghost were--- the mare couldn't help, but feel strings o' nerves snap inside of her at Ruin's words, the small mare's bitch slapping hoof starting to itch... again...(edited


The Emperor looks at Tea fiercely. “I did what I must to protect my people.” He then turns to Ruin, shaking his head. “A sad excuse for a soul like yours will never be worthy to wield any of the twelve blades. You are but a passing fad, a lowlife among what I can tell are a few good souls. Perhaps in time, one among you could be worthy, but that is not for some time. I must leave now, for it is not my job to amuse the masses. This castle still holds many answers you seek, but know this; There is a price for everything, and to learn about the past, you must learn the language of it.”

With that, he simply vanishes.

Homily Sermon-Today at 5:43 PM
Homily glares at Ruin. "Let's not touch swords that stick from the corpses of kings."
Tea Time-Today at 5:43 PM
Tea's lips tighten at the fierce look, with a small shiver passing through her hindlegs, if only for a second-- but as the ghost bemoaned her companion and vanished on a relatively peaceful, if not ominous note... well... The mare couldn't help, but release a sigh relief, her head flopping down.(edited)

Ceres-Today at 5:44 PM
removes the bitter glance and finally moved to attend to the wounded Ruin, feeling a bit of her motherly instincts kicking in. "Chile," she said, letting a tinge of the typical Zecora accent. "Y'arse almost got 'anded ten ways ta the seventh level o'hell." Ceres reached into her Saddlebags 'n withdrew a bottle labelled sedative. "Ya need osme good, youngblood?" she asked, holding the vial firmly.

Ruin is positively fuming "Lowlife? Passing fad?! Oh, I'm gonna come back for him." Ruin turns to Ceres, "Thanks, but no thanks. Can't be stoned stupid in a place like this."
Tea Time-Today at 5:46 PM
"Hoooou-kay--", she takes a deep breath, trying to collect her thoughts, giving a tired glare to Ruin-- and a more weary look to the pastor, "-- in retrospect, this king-soul-shard's not as--- malevolent."
"I think...?"(edited)
Homily Sermon-Today at 5:46 PM
Homily lets out another small sigh, and trots over to Tea. "Hey, you mind putting this on those goggles?" Homily offers up the leather strap he received from Griff.
Bayou-Today at 5:46 PM
Bayou was halfway through his banana as he looks around at everyone. He takes a moment to swallow before speaking. "Well, at least we know what that is. Knowing is half the battle, so they say." He then proceeds to the rest of his fruit, glad to see that at least they weren't dead. He thought they'd all be kiled for a minute there.



Griff let out a loooooonnng breath, then angrily turned and slapped Ruin across the face.
“HOW BOUT YA DONT PISS OF ANCIENT BEINGS LIKE ITS NOTHING, ALRIGHT?!”
He got up ,throwing his hands in the air as he walked off. 
“ALL AH WANT IS ANSWERS, NOT TAH DRAG CORPSES BACK TAH TOWN!”


Ceres-Today at 5:48 PM
sighs a bit, feeling her Zecora-typical accent dissipate a bit. "I got my eye on ya young'un..." she said with a sigh "Just... Don't try to take on spirits with potential head trauma, ah? It can only end badly." with a huff through her nose, she scanned the room, seeing if there were other doors or runes she could glance over.

Tea Time-Today at 5:49 PM
offers a little smile to the pastor as her horn lazily sparks up and levitates the goggles out of his grip, "Sure thin'", carefully draggin' the leather piece over them--- though...

Ruin-Today at 5:50 PM
"Okay, sorry Griff. Dint mean to scare ya." Rubs the slapped cheek, it's not an adventure if I don't get slapped at least once.
Tea Time-Today at 5:51 PM
_The mare stops for a moment, consider what she was doing-- and remembering how translations seemed to 'glow'-- decides to hold off on the whole strap-putting, instead levitating the goggles right in front of her eyes, just to take a look over the room, the skeleton, and the sword -- without touching anything, of course.


Griff turns to Homily as he nears the side door.
“Oi, lets git that chest open ahn head off, ah think its best not to dwell in this room fer much longer...”

Ruin-Today at 5:51 PM
"But that guy. . . Fuckin grates at me. I hate high and mighty assholes like that."
Homily Sermon-Today at 5:53 PM
"Yes, good idea." Homily turns toward the rest of the group. "We're going to head to a chest we found last time we were here. We have the key, but didn't have time to open previously."
Tea Time-Today at 5:53 PM
"Ruin-- fir what's its worth-- ya better be bloody glad yer spine's not wrecked 'nuff t'crawl 'round like a noodle."
Homily Sermon-Today at 5:53 PM
Homily then turns back to Tea. "See anything with those?"

As Tea looks around the room, nothing stands out but the runes up on the pillars, most of which read “Make to stand forever” except....for one on the pillar to the left of the Throne, which reads “Oh, but to see this, and know it is unimportant, must be to see ones hope dwindle and die.”

Ceres-Today at 5:53 PM
"Alright, fuck it, let's do that. I know what I need to know from here on in, everything else is just icing on the cake." she said, trying to force a smile out.

Ruin-Today at 5:54 PM
"Anything neat?" Ruin asks the bespectacled Tea

Homily Sermon-Today at 5:55 PM
Homily cocks his head at Ceres. "Already got what you need here?"

Bayou lets his eyes roam around the room, not resting on the runes for very long. He gives a small shrug, noting that Tea was doing the same with the goggles and pulls out his Journal, ready to write down whatever they might have found or whatever they say. It's what he's here for, after all.

Ceres-Today at 5:56 PM
with the question directed to her, Ceres felt a genuine smile creep over her face. "I've got a genuine spirit to talk to that's interested in trading stories. I'll be able to know more about this place, and if there are other places, and that dudes backstory all at the same time potentially!"
Tea Time-Today at 5:57 PM
blinks as her lips parted up, wanting to say what she just seen-- only to cut herself short. She did remember t'warning she was given about reading these outloud--- instead the mare simply approaches the pillar first-- and then the throne, "Well well--- there's some stuff goin' on about, boys-- tho, I'd recommend ya t'see it fir yerself.", she pulls the goggles off, clenching it between her hooves -- just as her TK'd pull out a journal and write down the words that she read into pages and show it to others"This first set's out there.", she simply points at the sentence and then points at the pillar, "T'second? 's there--", and points at the second pillar next to the throne, holding t'goggles out for anyone who'd want to see it for themselves.(edited)
Homily Sermon-Today at 5:58 PM
"Ah, right. If you learn anything interesting about this place, mind sharing with me? I'm interested in getting the whole story some day." Homily asks Ceres.


Griff stood by the chest in the other room, which was once quite clearly a royal bed room, but now where the bed once lay was caved in, with a solid, well kept chest of black metal before it, another door to the right that Griff and Homily knew lead to a storage room full of only marbles now, and to the left was once a bathroom now overgrowing with plants producing odd berries.

There were also bronze circles embedded in the walls with runes on them, but Homily and Griff had already looked at those too.

Bayou jots down what Tea has written, making sure to keep a copy of it, as well as what sh ementions before and a rough mapping of the area with each associated pillar in question pointed out on it. He gives a small nod of satisfaction, happy that they're all making some headway, at least. 

"Mmmhhhh potentially yeah. After this I'm definitely gonig for a drink, though." she said before getting up onto action 'n putting her sedative into her bag and moving on over to Tea, who seemed to have her sights set on something 'n staring at the floor as she did, heeding the warning of painful runic viewing. Ceres wouldn't though unless it came down to it. 

Homily takes a quick peek through the lenses that Tea holds up. "Oh, right. I don't know what the thing on the throne means yet. Almost forgot about that, thanks." Homily backs away from the goggles and trots after Griff. 
Tea Time-Today at 6:04 PM
Tea simply points out to the zebra what was written in the journal and the pillars, but granted now that she wasn't wearing the goggles for some time, she felt more at easy with speaking, "I wonder if one's made t'keep stuff reinforced 'round 'ere, while t'second one-- not quite sure, but 's somethin' t'keep in mind."
Flax-Today at 6:04 PM
Flax takes a silent backseat after the whole ghost minotaur, not wanting too stir up anything even more deadly than a dead minotaur king who could weild a sword and a mare desperate to fight anyone who looked at her wrong. She stands to the back, behind them all.


Griff turns to Homily, smiling as he motions to the chest.
“Me or ya do that honors?”

Homily pokes his head back into the throne room, and calls out, "Hey, we're opening the chest now if anyone is interested!"

Ceres-Today at 6:08 PM
took a quick peak at the stuff Tea written down. "I'd... Rather not chance a long look at it." she said, quickly averting her eyes. "Though since you've got the goggles on, I trust ya judgement here."


Tea Time-Today at 6:10 PM
Tea considers the pillars for a moment there again, before heading off t'follow everypony else, casting a glance at the crown that was left behind--- she'd definitely want to investigate more, but the specter of a ghost was still leaving her unsettled, "We'lll see 'f there more in t'other rooms then.", she nods to Ceres
Homily Sermon-Today at 6:10 PM
Homily notices the limp. "You good there, Mr... sorry, what's your name again?"
Tea Time-Today at 6:12 PM
smiles to Homily as the aura'd put the goggles back on, her eyesight darting around the corridors, the walls, the ceiling... heck, even the chest when she'd reach it, "Hey Doc.", she says when she notices Bayou, "Ya wanna wrangle this pair 'round too? Stuff's... somethin' a'ight."

Ruin-Today at 6:13 PM
"You can call me Ruin." turns to Bayou "Please don't write that down."

Ruin-Today at 6:14 PM
"And I'm fine, s'just a flesh wound."

Bayou-Today at 6:14 PM
Bayou smiles softly and shakes his head. "Hahaa, oh no. I appreciate the offer, but I'll just take your word for it. I'm trying to refrain from touching anything magical or doing anything that might otherwise disturb the place. I feel like I'd be safe in my assumption that anything in here is designed to kill, maim, or otherwise horribly invoncenience anyone imposing upon it. Part of the test, I'm sure." The stallion gives a small shrug and then nods at Ruin, taking care to not write that down.

Tea Time-Today at 6:19 PM
"M'not sure how wieldin' a pair of these will disturb t'surroundings--- ya think I should take 'em off?", Tea quirks her brow, and considers if she should continue wearing 'em, though adds, "'n fir what it's worth, for all t'maiming speculations, t'place does look like somethin' that was livable at one point o'time. T'whole, Emperor 'n protecting his flock and what not-- m'not sure why'd go through all t'hassle in puttin' in all these traps 'round just fir the vague sake of a trial."
"The gauntlet?"

Bayou chuckles softly. "Perhaps it was livable, but the warning at the start of all this does make one think. Half of these runes could be traps that trigger just by random happenstance for all we know. I don't think whatever royal secret they're hiding is worth blowing ourselves up for." He opens up his journal again and shrugs. "I'm just here to record what's said. No looting, no plundering, no touching, no tinkering. Those kinds of things get you into trouble. In a world full of magic that is completely tangible and, from what one can assume, unstable, caution is the best approach towards anything and everything."

Tea Time-Today at 6:31 PM
"'n that's why y'll live t'tell t'tale-- 'til telepad'll block yer way further with a bunch o' squirrels 'n ropes t'toss through it, huh?", Tea sighs, remembering one of the irresponsible things that she did before.. and continued to do, as if following some distant calling. Perhaps the curse if a pioneer was indeed in her blood, tainting the reason for a gamble -- otherwise, why would she even volunteer to leave t'cozy confines of Baltimare in the first place? "Ya knuw -- those runes back in t'hall. Whatever binds 'n keeps 'em going could be used back in town. Heck if I knuw how it keeps itself goin', but if that's t'case... woulda be a darn nice addition fir smaller things.
Bayou-Today at 6:36 PM
Bayou gives a small shrug, pulling out another banana. "Maybe there is something here that powers and binds the runes. If it's around somewhere and we bring it to town, it oculd be a great benefit. But I know I won't be touching it. I follow behind the people that do things around here, and I just make sure to record and study it all. Someone has to write the hero's biography, right?" Bayou lets out a chuckle and then takes a few steps towards the minotaur skeleton, playing down the banana in front of it gently and bowing his head. "Thank you for taking the time to speak with us, First Emperor. The more we learn, the more we'll grow, and in time we'll perhaps be worthy of your trial." He then pulls away and smiles at Tea, speaking before she asks. "Spirits tend to like some sort of offering, from most tales that I've read. Gotta give thanks and give something, right?"
Ceres-Today at 6:36 PM
is here finally
Griff Mc Beakface-Today at 6:37 PM
Griff looks at Homily, and sighs. "ya didnt answer mah question..."
Homily Sermon-Today at 6:38 PM
Homily looks back at Griff. "Huh? Oh, sorry. Go for it."
Homily sticks his head back into the throne room again. "Chest is opening! Get in here!"
Ceres-Today at 6:40 PM
was last near Tea when the Bayou started the convo. "Well, shit, worse comes to worse if there's a room full of runes that can't be avoided, I've got some sedative I can take before goiung in."
makes her way back to the throne room qucik to observe the opening chest!
Tea Time-Today at 6:43 PM
"Maybe, maybe... fir what it's worth, 'least.", the mare was more skeptical of the offerings-- for the banana peel was bound to rot and feed the bacterium-- while the soul was still 'bound' for who knows how long in a secluded, isolated place like this, "Y'knuw, always wanted t'speak with a ghost 'bout t'whole isolation bit -- fir all t'explosiveness, his highness sure had his wits up 'n runnin' after all this time. No offense.", she smiles a bit and looks at Ceres, following out into the chest room and observing everything through the lenses o' goggles, "Why'cha want ta sedate yerself when-- uh-- we'll need ta think clearly, C?~"
"Remind me~."
Ruin-Today at 6:44 PM
Ruin is watching the grand opening
Ceres-Today at 6:44 PM
"Pain, or in case there's too chaotic a spirit presence." she said, gluing her attention to the chest.
Bayou-Today at 6:45 PM
Bayou shrugs softly and then heads to the room where teh ches topening is taking place, journal out and ready to do his job.


Griff looks at Homily, and sighs. "ya didnt answer mah question..." 

Taking the key, Griff slowly inserts it into the chest, and with a turn, they hear a nice 'click' as it unlocks.

“ere we go...” he says, smiling as he lifts the lid.

Inside, the first thing they see with an old, worn silk covering right at the top, to which Griff slowly sets aside, though the thing nearly dissolves in his claws as it was.

Under it was quite an interesting set of items. 

First, there was a silver rectangle, with a well made etching into it, a tall, proud Minotaur King of an unfamiliar look smiling as he stood next to his wife, two sons to either side of the couple.

Next was a worn bag, and poking it, Griff whistled, slowly lifting it with both hands and setting it infront of Homily. 
“Gems, reckon a good wealthy amount too.” he says with a nod, turning back to the chest.

The last item was what to a Minotaur would be a short sword, but to a pony or griffon was a two handed long sword, clear as it was under the faded silk wrapping as, gingerly, Griff lifted it out and unwrapped it, showing a once great sheath that had rotted mostly away, but under it, both handle ans sword, was still fresh as the day it was made, if not a bit dusty.

“More o that black metal.....” Griff said outloud, taking the blade out of the rotted sheath and showing off the deep black, well preserved single edged blade.


Ruin-Today at 6:47 PM
"Can't hate a guy when you see him with his family." Ruin looks at the etching, calming down a bit.


Ceres-Today at 6:48 PM
makes her way for that silver pendant. "D'ya think this is connected to the spirit in the sword? Because if so, it might help with the dialogue with the minotaur king..." she said, taking a glance back to the spoopy skelly.

Homily Sermon-Today at 6:49 PM
Homily picks up the bag with one hoof, testing the weight. "We can divide these up when we reach town again. Who wants to hold onto them for now?"
Bayou-Today at 6:50 PM
Bayou's quill flies along the pages as he starts to sketch out the objects that they'd pulled out of the chest. He takes care to capture as many details as possible about the items, in case anything should happen that causes them to be damaged or otherwise unavailable.


Ruin-Today at 6:50 PM
"Crazy that it ain't all that tarnished, eh? Think it's magic?"
Tea Time-Today at 6:50 PM
had her own journal following the mare around... and while others were observing the items as they were, she kept her watch up for any glowing glyphs through goggles.
"Reminds me o' t'stuff we found in t'other tomb... fir all t'claimed age, t'metalware in sarcophagus was almost-- uh, pristine?"

Ceres-Today at 6:53 PM
has a brief moment of flashbacks to Lal's tomb from Tea's words 'n does a /good/ scan around for any tomb of sorts from her standing position.
Homily Sermon-Today at 6:53 PM
Homily eyes rest upon the blade in Griff's claws. "So, who's taking that home?"

Bayou-Today at 6:55 PM
Bayou points at the blade with his quill. "Maybe you or Griff should take it home? You all knew about this first. You have first dibs on any of this here."



As Tea looks around with the goggles, she spots the bronze circles, and sees they read:

'Til Death we uphold Honor.' reads the first. 
'You do not belong here. I told you this before.' before suddenly the floating words on the second change to  'We prevail, until we Die.' 
 'Til the last of our blood runs thin, we shall protect these lands.' reads the third.

Griff looks at the others. 
“Lest Hominy wants it this babys mine, ah reckon nearly dying twice ere means ah deserve sumthin...”

Homily Sermon-Today at 6:57 PM
Homily shakes his head. "No, no. I already have a spear that I like. A sword just seems unweildy, unless you have a better way to hold it."(edited)
Tea Time-Today at 7:00 PM
"Oiii, oi, caareful, careful there, lot--", as her pencil starts to scribble down the sentences, "-- we have a couple o' glyphs on t'circles out there.", and points in their direction.
Griff Mc Beakface-Today at 7:00 PM
Ceres spots nothing unusual, save maybe for the shiney, pink berried overgrowing from the bathroom, or the other door that leads to the Storage room she doenst know about.

Tea Time-Today at 7:01 PM
"Aaaaand--", she finishes copying the words down as fast as possible, probably sacrificing the quality of the written script, before she pulls the goggles off and offers the journal for other ponies to see it.(edited)


Tea Time-Today at 7:02 PM
"T'words on t'second circle flipped between these two statements."
Ceres-Today at 7:02 PM
has curiousity peak her and goes to the other door, taking a peek into it, opening the door only a sliver enough for a pair of eyes enough to see it!


Griff shrugs as he looks at Teas writing.
“We read those last time, family quotes ah reckon....ahn Homily said somethin bout changin words too, nothing happened then either.”

Bayou-Today at 7:03 PM
Bayou wrties down what is in Tea's journal as she shows it, making sure he has each word precise before passing it along. He smiles and nods thankfully at her after copying it down, appreciative that she'd pass him the notes.
Tea Time-Today at 7:05 PM
"Ah-- I see.", the worrying mare smiles a lil'-- 'least the thing was peered through t'last time-- though, this whole thing was leavin' a question, "Uuh.. Griff--? Who'd'cha palleys find t'goggles in t'first place? I mean-- heh-", she scratches the back of her neck, "-- stuff's quite convenient fir t'castle-tomb that tries ta keep its secrets hidden, hehe~!"
Griff Mc Beakface-Today at 7:05 PM
The door, already abused by age, crumbles in Ceres grip. Inside she sees a clearly already looted room, many a smashed crat full of dust, and even a smashed chest...except....the floor is covered in thousands of marbles.

Griff points to where Ceres is as he addresses Tea.
“Found em in ah chest in thar. Figure people back in tha day couldnt look at these things none either, makes sense from what ah read, considering their mythology says written language was ah stolen idea from tha afterlife.”

Ceres-Today at 7:07 PM
sits down and scratches her chin, taking a bit of a closer look at the marbles to see if they were collectors marbles or just generic ones like a kid would collect. "Uh... Does this look like a kids room to y'all? she asked.
“It be ah storage room o some sort.” Griff says to Ceres.

Homily looks up at Ceres, and then past her to the marble room. He sets down the bag of gems. "Oh ya, that's right. I ought to collect more marbles while we're here, thanks Ceres." 

Bayou busily sketches out the marble room, taking time between sketch lines to mark down the conversation. He flips through another page, feeling rather pleased with himself that he was able to record what they've done so far in such an accurate manner. 

Ruin-Today at 7:12 PM
Ruin fidgets a bit "So Tea, which pillar was the 'unimportant' one again?"


Ceres-Today at 7:12 PM
takes a look back to Homily and sucks her teeth a bit, taking out one of her jars and filling it it with as many marbled as she could. The lid went back on and into her saddlebags. "Might help out with that minotaur..." she mumbled, leaving X amount of marbles left over. "say... Is that chunk of sivler still mucking about?" she asked the rest of the party. "Might help with communicating with that minotuar dude."

Tea considers the posit as she pulls the goggles back over her eyes "Wonder who's crafted all this then. Fir t'goggles ta be stored, fir t'gauntlet t'be ran-- some poor fella sure left quite a drop.", the mare ponders and peeks inside the storage room, blinking at all the weird marbles. 

Homily Sermon-Today at 7:13 PM
Homily walks into the room with Ceres, and lays his saddlebags on the floor. From there, he starts trying to roll and scoop marbles into his bags.(edited)
Tea Time-Today at 7:13 PM
While doing so, she say, "T'one on t'left by th-Thro--", she catches her words, and quirks her brow, "-- errrrr, why'cher plannin' there, Ruin?"


"Just gonna see if there's anything off about it." Ruin heads back to the throne room to examine the pillar 

Tea sees nothing of interest in the storage room through the goggles, though as she passes Griff she does notice one of his daggers has a rune winch reads 'only when one embraces darkness, can one learn about the light.'

Griff hands the silver to Ceres. “Ah dont got no use fer it.”

Bayou looks between the rest of the group before following Ruin, feeling that there weren't many revelations left in the bedroom. 


Ceres-Today at 7:16 PM
gladly takes the chunk of silver 'n Saddlebags 'em! Would help with her secret investigation agenda, at least. "Any other rooms mucking about, or...?" she asked.
Tea Time-Today at 7:18 PM
blinks at the weird glowing letters, and pulls the goggles off herself, the floating book writing the words down as she spoke, "Only when one embraces darkness, can one learn 'bout t'light. 's what t'dagger says...", Tea repeats what she seen a couple of seconds ago, and glances around the storage room-- frankly, wonderin', how /dark/ was it around here? Were they holding torches? Were there windows?"Almost sounds like t'inscriptions on t'stuff we recovered.." 

Ceres-Today at 7:16 PM
gladly takes the chunk of silver 'n Saddlebags 'em! Would help with her secret investigation agenda, at least. "Any other rooms mucking about, or...?" she asked.

Griff taps his chin.
“Well, theres tha barracks ahn tha armor, tha armory had all srots o good stuff, but tis such an odd collection o magical items in tha back, hard ta understand wat most o it does.”

“Then thar be that cypts, lots o dead people buired wit their precious items but.....well....Homily dont like tha idea o robbin graves, an that where we fought tha tar bear, so ah wouldnt want ta go back fer all tha gold in that fuckin world.”

Looking at the others, Griff continued. “Otherwise only tha room Homily found me in,which was ah dead in an chock full o runes on every inch o space available....an he saw...soemthin like ah gohst touchin me.....otherwise there nother hallway we aint explored at all yet...”

Ceres-Today at 7:21 PM
"Magic, eh...? she scratched her chin with a hoof. "...Let's check there out first! The barracks, I'd say!"

Homily finishes scraping marbles into his bags, and walks back into the room with the chest. "We set to continue?" 

Griff nod to Homily. “Yup, ah reckon ah would like tah checkout tha room ya found me in personally.”

Bayou blinks at the odd nickname, then shakes his head. "Personally, I think that we shouldn't muck about with anything that might invoke the wrath of the First. He did send you flying, after all." 

"I say we boldly go where you haven't yet!" He yells back at Griff, then turns back to Bayou "Ah, but what harm could there be in just lookin'?" 

As Ruin inspects the pillar....nothing of note comes up, seems to just be like all the other pillars.

"Perhaps-- I'd take a look 'round that rune filled hall-- if only from t'distance.", the mare pitches in, "- jus' t'write down's much things as we can before goin' fir somethin' more material, tho-", she scratches her chin, as she looks at Homily, "- what's this 'bout ghost touchings?" 

Bayou chuckles. "There could be plenty of harm in just looking. There are runes that hurt you by just lookin, after all." The unicorn nods and then considers the options of where to go. "I really don't care where we go. I know I'll just be following the heroes along anyway." 

Homily Sermon-Today at 7:28 PM
"Err, well, last time we were here Griff got injured pretty bad. I had to run back to town and call a doctor. When I made it back, Griff was in a room with a ghost over him, unconcious."

Griff taps his chin. "Well, that armory IS on tha way...wouldnt hurt tha give it a look first ah suppose...." 

Ceres-Today at 7:32 PM
"Alright! If everyone else agrees to check it out along the way, then def!"

Tea Time-Today at 7:32 PM
"M'kay then! If armory's closest, might 's well take a look 'round it.

Griff nods, leading the group out of the throne room and down the other hallway. However as they reach the two doors into the walls, Griff freezes, his eyes becoming pinpricks as he stares at the ground.

Homily would also notice what was wrong. That is to say, Griffs blood was no on the ground next to the door to the catacombs, nor leading down the hallway further to the unknown sections. Even more disturbing, was it did not look like someone had cleaned it up, but like it had never been there at all, the dust still being where it should've been disturbed.

Griff simply stares at the ground, shaking as he his mind races.

"What is it, Griff? Oh-" Initially confused at the griffons sudden stop, Homily looks down to the floor and notices the lack of blood as well. "Where'd the blood go?" Homily asks, in a harsh whisper. 



Tea kept the goggle-vision on the look out, stopping behind the griffon 'n the pastor, feeling confused about-- "Uhm, blood?", though, Homily did mention grievous injuries, the thought making her body tense up, "-- y'mean... 's this t'place where ya got-- u-uhh-- attacked?" 

Griff took a looong, deep breath in, as he leaned on the wall.
“Ah.....fuck it......lets git inta tha armory, suddenly ahm feelin up fer armin this lot to tha fuckin teeth...”

"Griff wandered back this way when I left to get a doctor, the blood trail was the only reason I found him." Homily is certainly uneased, there are way too many spirits in this castle for his liking. 


Ceres-Today at 7:44 PM
looks at Homily with an inquisitive glance to Homily then to the ground, because Tea already answered her question. "Ahhh... Keep an eye out for some cheeki breeki shit then... Keep ya minds open, ah?" she said, making her way to the barracks, with only a slight look of concern on bher face, but otherwise looking pretty well put together.
Tea Time-Today at 7:45 PM
sighs, mumbling out with a frown, "Hope we're no dealin' with 'em bloodsuckers."
"Pray t'vamps 'r just a fiction 'round 'ere-- m'had 'nuff of darn mosquitoes 'round swamps." , Tea simply shakes her head while following along, while her vision traced the floor. Ruin had a point 'n she didn't felt quite up to it, contemplating the possibilities after meeting a huge ghost. 


Griff leads the group into the barracks, rows of old, rotted beds on either side of the wall leading down a long bit of room, old lockers at the foot of each of them, though clearly already gone through.

At the end was an open door of that black metal, extremely well kept despite hoe old it must be, as they entered into the armor.

The first part was pretty standard, though a lot of it seemed aged beyond use, some of the stuff might be useful, from short swords to spears and chainmail, even a few sets of rusty-ish plate, though none of it looked made for a pony or griffon.

“Back ere.” Griff said, pointing to a secondary area in the back separated by bar doors that were open.  Inside was all sorts of insane items, from fancy looking weaponry to things no one could even begin to understand. It was such a messy assortment of stuff no one could begin to know where to start looking for things.

[if you wish to look for an item in the back, simply state what it is and roll a d20. You have 3 rolls, but its not guaranteed you will be able to find anything of value at all. You can use all three however you wish.]





Tea,11.20,12
Homily, no rolls
Ruin,2. 20.5
Bayou,7,18,12
Ceres, 16.5.9
Griff,16,7,14


Homily Sermon-Today at 7:53 PM
Homily decides to just wander about, content with what he had already obtained.
Tea Time-Today at 7:54 PM
"How 'bout we won't compare somethin' that potentially licked the darn blood clean outta the dusty floor--- with a bloody video game?", the mare casts an incessant look at Ceres... the existence of ghosts was already pushing it for her... other things? Actual vampires? Pls no--.
Ruin-Today at 7:54 PM
"There was a werewolf I heard, so vampires are probably around too. And a spooky ol' castle seems like the perfect place for em Homeslice." Ruin starts perusing the chainmail.

Bayou takes a glance at the secondary area with a bit of apprehension. "J-just don't touch anything too strange, folks. We don't want to get ourselves hurt by fiddling with things we don't know about." He fidgets a bit after saying this. 
Tea Time-Today at 7:58 PM
stops in the secondary doorway, glancing 'round the assortment-- with her jaw slowly dropping at the view, "Ho-- damn.", Tea's eyes jump between the rows as she runs a hoof through her mane, goofy smiles aside, "-- remind me why w'haven't taken a wagon with 'r selves."


While Ruin isnt able to find anything of note chainmail wise, Ceres eye is caught as she spots an elegant looking helmet with a big, purple gem in its forehead, while clearly of that fine black metal and gold decorations, it was of a Grecian look if she was remembering right, though the plumage on top was old and worn looking.

As Ruin too looks at the back room, his eye catches a very nice looking blade, interestingly enough instead of a handle the finely crafted twin edged thing looks like it was made to mount directly onto a horn.

When Ceres touches the helmet, she sees the purple gem glitter for just a moment, but nothing else happens.

Tea Time-Today at 8:03 PM
carefully steps inside and looks around... for all the items and gear that was lying around, what interested her more than the possibility of turning a profit for the town's benefit, was dating... Her eyes would search for a piece.. something small and light that she could carry back, but at the same time possessing textile, fabric or clothin' bits in it.


Ceres-Today at 8:03 PM
thinks about going full blown science. Ceres looked to tea, the only one she really trusted. "If some freaky deeki shit happens to me, please, feel free to smack my shit around to snap me out of it." The tall Ziggress looked back to the helmet with a slightly anxious look, picked it up and donned the helmet.
Ruin-Today at 8:03 PM
Sticks the hornsword onto his horn "Maybe there's a second one of the set around somewhere, minotaurs have two horns after all."

Tea Time-Today at 8:06 PM
While the mare searched for the bits, she casts a weird look at Ceres, "-- smack ye with wha-- Ceres?"... perhaps in the future, she should ask the ziggeress for some of that sedative.

As Tea looked around, she caught sight of a lighter looking cloak, that seemed to still be in good condition, but also had metal plates of some kind woven into it for protection.

Meanwhile when Ceres dawned the helmet, at first she felt nothing, then suddenly her eyes glow purple for a moment as the gem glows brightly, then both go back to normal. She feels....oddly connected to the helmet now, but otherwise perfectly fine.

When Ruin puts on the Blade, he blinks, the thing feeling like no more then a feather, and suddenly he feels energized, like magic was par for the course for him all of a sudden. But he also felt hungry now.

Sadly Bayou doesn't spot much of interest.

Ruin-Today at 8:12 PM
"Anyone got a snack?" Ruin asks as he goes put the nifty horn blade into his bag.
Tea Time-Today at 8:12 PM
notices the clothing attire, riiiight behind Ceres-- well, or at least she just made a cursory glance, given that the sudden glow'd spook her back with an eep, "W-What t--- C-Ceres, y'a'ight?"

Ceres-Today at 8:14 PM
exhales a bit from a slight weird sensation she felt, her sun-yellow eyes turning purple for a brief moment, giving things that respective hue, then back to normal. Ceres looked about to see if her vision was distorted from the bonding, or any hint side effects were present. The tall Ziggress took a deep breath as she'd practiced many a times, then exhaled, closing her eyes and clearing her mind of the clutter andcluster of the current events, trying to reach out to what ever the fuck was on her noggin, specifically probing for any spiritual shenanigans going on with it. In the current moment, after the breath, she looked perfectly still.
Bayou starts to sift through some of this and that. Nothing really stood out for him, though. He furrows his brow and then looks out towards Ceres. He notices the flash of purple light, shuddering a bit before scribbling something in his journal. 

As Ceres probes at the helmet, she feels an odd sensation, as if she could....will something to happen, if she tried a little harder...

In the meantime, the small mare continued to give the ziggress a weird look. The mare didn't answer her question quite right, ".... Ceres?", as Tea's horn sparks up into an alerted, ready state. Not like she could do much, but... 

Ceres-Today at 8:19 PM
stops right there. That's enough sciencing for now. She'd rather test it when she was in an open space and others were safe and not in an enclosed space, juuuuuuust in case. Ceres broke her probe, letting out another sigh from her controlled breathing and probe, opening up her eyes, slightly shocked at first, but reverting back to the casual glance with a slight smile. "I gotta test this out later..." she mumbled, attempting to take off the helmet and putting it in her bags? No side effects GM?

As she takes it off, her eyes glow again aswell as the gem for a moment, and she feels the connection break, oddly feeling an almost negative emotional reaction to losing the connection, but otherwise is fine.

Tea Time-Today at 8:22 PM
"U-Uh-- what, was that?", Tea queries cautiously as she tries to 'step around' the zebra, to reach 'n inspect the cloak that she seen -- though, keeping her attention alerted and focused on Ceres, "Your eyes changed..?"
"I mean, for a moment there?"
Bayou-Today at 8:23 PM
Bayou cocks his head to the side, keeping his journal up and ready for notes should anything happen. "Seemed a bit strange to me. You doing alright, Ceres?"

In the meantime. Griff looked for some armor for himself.

Ceres-Today at 8:24 PM
feels like shit slightly all of a sudden with the helmet doffed, and her face slightly shown it. She looked to her bags with a kinda frowny expression. "Ah... s'fine..." she said, feeling her stoicism kick in trying to take her mind off of things. "Though I've got something toi try out, once we're out of here..." she said, going back to look for more things.

Bayou nods and gets to searching around a bit more, hoping to at least find something to spark his interest.

Tea raises her brow and casts a slightly worried look at Ba-- but the stallion already went to look around the place, "M'not sure if I feel comfortable with t'reply, Ms.-Zebra-that-is-cryptic-all-of-a-sudden...", the small mare mumbles and carefully inspects and picks the plated cloak up with her aura, gently folding the bit as much as possible.

After casting more worrisome gazes at the commotion around, the brown mare'd continue to search for items that could've contained organic components in them. 


While Ceres doesn't spot anything else to catch her eye, Griff spots a finely made chest piece, even made for a griffon. Whisling hs lifts it up, noting it seemed to be that black metal folded with something silvery, making a pretty and strong looking pattern in the fancy muscle curaiss, but otherwise noting looked off about it.

Teas cloak was more then usable, noting it didn't seem magical but was a nice addition to any armor set, being a cloak going over everything and all.

Bayou though catches sight of a truly interesting thing. Looking down at a small glass case, within it was a necklace ending in a bright green gem, embedded in way where it looked like a alicorn was wrapped around it.

Tea then looked around again, and after a moment spotted something shining...scaly. Looking at it, it appeared to be some sorta lizardy material, but despite being natural was in perfect condition...It took her a moment, but she realized it was probably Dragon sacles.

Ceres-Today at 8:37 PM
frowns a bit with her lack of fidning anything useful. "Say... Ya got any writing impliments, Tea? That I can use?" she asked going through her last scan of the things on display. Tell me when to roll


Bayou-Today at 8:40 PM
Bayou looks over the case curiously, looking for some sort of latch or opening mechanism to get to the necklace. It looked qutie nice, and if it was anything like the pendant he had already, there'd be a lot to learn with his magic on it. He perks his head up, however, hearing Ceres request some writing materials. "I have an extra vial of ink, if you might need that with the writing tools, Ceres."

Tea Time-Today at 8:41 PM
blinks a couple of times at the weird shinies... and slowly approaches the bit- Laminar segments? No... wait-- were those scales? The curious unicorn approaches closed, eyes narrowing at the collection of shining scale segments, "Or y'can take m'pencil?", she replies while leaning in real close to the bit, pulls out a pencil and gently taps the scale's surface with the blunt side of the wood.


Though she doesn't spot anything really interesting, Ceres does spot a plain but serviceable looking sword.

Tea meanwhile is able to deduce It is real, genuine scale. 

Bayou is able to find a little glass latch to open the container.

Ceres-Today at 8:47 PM
takes a look at the sword? Is it able to fit in her saddlebags?

Bayou-Today at 8:48 PM
Bayou chuckles at the pencil comment. "Alright, you have me there. I just like quills." He grins cheerfully and then opens the latch carefully with his magic, hopefully opening the case and then lifting out the necklace with the green gem and the alicorn."How very fascinating..." He hums and looks over it a few, inspective moments, looking for anything strange about it up close.

The mare grins with a glint sparking up in her eyes. Havin' scales from t'place might not have been the most direct way to identify things in the future, unlike an entombed body or-- a skeleton which she really didn't want to touch, not now at least - these however were one of the pieces of the puzzle in her pursuit! Tea stores the collection in her saddlebag, "Seriously, t'place is a klondike fir t'relics.. We could probably turn a nice profit fir ourselves if we'd pass these on t'Equestrians.", the mare said as her eyes went to search for more goodies to date! "Solve t'stuff. Help 'em archaeologists 'n historians,. Help ourselves.. sounds like a win win t'me." 

The sword Ceres is looking at is a standard pony longsword, but has no sheath, but might be able to be slipped into a closed saddlebag, using the lid to hold it in place like a partial sheath.

Bayou can feel the amulet is magical, but without activation can only guess at how. Looking around, he spots a nicely made and fancy set of chainmail, but it otherwise does not seem to be overtly special.

Tea spots a set of Brigandine that still seems intact to a good degree, possbily using that black metal.

Griff searches some more, and spots a well made and intact crossbow, though nothing besides its longevity seems out of the orginary.


Last we Left off, the group had nearly watched Ruin die attempting a duel with a ghost in a sword, before discovering Griffs bloodstains had vanished like they never existed, then looted the armory for goodies.

However as they headed back out and into the hallways, they would notice something was off.

Namely, the door that should be right across from them that lead down into the catacombs was simply gone, and there was a strange, blue glow coming from the hallways to their left....and to the right? It also seemed unfamiliar, despite being where they had come from.

"Well that seems ominous." Ruin examine the glow.

Bayou furrowed his brow, drawing out his journal and contiuing his notes, deciding to leave the necklace and chainmail he'd found on himself for now. "That's...strange." He takes care to keep his distance, although he reaches out a hoof towards Ruin. "Don't get too close, Ruin. You've already been knocked around once. I'd rather us bring back someone wounded than someone dead." 

Ceres remembers last time, being vague about the helmet she found and bothered Tea for some writing impliments, and catching a look at what Tea foind. 

Homily pokes his head out into the hall, and looks both ways at the glows. He appears worried as he ducks back into the room and says, "Eh, I don't like the looks of that." 

Griff nods as he looks around, confusion on his own face.
“Er.....uhh.....somethins goin on...maybe...clase tha door ahn see if it corrects itself?”

Brownie followed everyone with the enchanted goggles strapped over her face, searchin' and ready to point out any weird glyphs that could be 'round... Back in the armory, she gave one of the pencils to Ceres, and at this point was preoccupied with the glow, her body tensing up at the entire thing, "-- r-remember t'bloodless floor?.. b-better keep our guards up." 

As Tea looks around, she spots a single rune on the oddly otherwise clear walls, reading “IF you will not leave, then you will be shown what none are meant to remember.” She notes, oddly, this rune seems to have been carved VERY recently.

"Good thinking Griff, maybe hallway.exe just needs to be rebooted." Ruin says.

Ceres writes down on some assumed piece of paper 'n passes her the note! And she took a mental note of the bloodless floor thing. "Right, well, uh... Where should I poke my head into first?" 

Griff nods, but with most of them already out of the room he cant do much with his thought. 

Bayou glances around and then looks back at the group. "Well, we have either spooky glow to our left and right, or we can head further into the catacombs into what could be a trap laid by whatever malevolence persists here." He sighs and bites his lower lip. "Thoughts, anyone?" 

Tea blinks with the fur on her back rising juuuut a lil' bit, her hoof pushing the goggles up at she looked at others, "G-Guys, I... I t-think something's walkin' or h-hauntin' t'halls, cause-- there's a rune--", she points at the clear wall, "-- and it's n-not like t'others.. Not at all...", she looks at wall, "It says, 'If ye will not leave, then y'w-will be shown what n-none are meant t'remember?""... is... is it toyin' with us??" 

"I vote we at least make sure the way we came is clear. If we get into trouble further down the line and have to run for it, I wouldn't want to be running straight into more danger." Homily says.

Tea takes a look over Ceres's note after saying that with a worried 'huh', and looks at the mare... with.. "W-What?" 

"If it wants to show us something, let's check it out! Isn't unraveling the mysteries of this old castle what we showed up for?"  Ruin suggested.

Griff swerves his head to Tea, clearly worried as fuck.
“Wh-what? Thats sounds ominous as fuck...” Griff turns to Homily. “Er, Homily, I aint seein no runes nor big ol Throne door down tha Right path...ah dont think we HAVE ah way backwards....”

Homily switches his attention to Tea Time as she starts talking, and he tenses up more and more as she goes on. "What does that mean? Is it a threat, a warning, or just a statement?" 


Bayou takes a deep breath and jots down what was mentioned into the journal, adjusting his smudged spectacles a bit. "So no way back...I hate to say it, but maybe we should just go along with what it wants for now." 

Ceres may soon use her helmet, much sooner than expected. "Well just ah, look down and backtrack, ah? Making sure the way back home is clear, like Homily said. .. If we can..." she looked about their ummediate area of operation, doin' a good scan and being careful to not stare at runes for more than a second. "...Or be brave and go forward." she said after her scan and giving Tea a glance and a nod.

"You know, we could always ask whatever did this which way to go." Ruin said.

Griff frowns, but looking down at the glow, shrugs.
“We came ere fer answers.....ahn headin back wont give us any...”

"I-I'll just follow you guys, whichever way you decide to head." Homily pipes up. 

Tea didn't like where this was going, for all the blinks and nods, something felt wrong, "... Ceres, y'sure ya.. feelin' a'ight?", she asks with a worried voice, "Ya never explained what t'whole glowing eyes thing was 'bout..?", the mare was concerned with the whole situation, her gaze wandering down the hallway. 
"Dunno 'bout ya folks, but 'sides conveniently left alone goggles 'n doors vanishin' on 'r flanks -- I ain't f-feelin' up t'it- runes writin' notwithstandin'." 

"Mmh," Cere said with a nod and a light smile as reassurance. "I'm fine. It seemed like a... Bond almost when I put it on." she said, not taking any other quest related action without waiting for GM 

"Well, you can't go wrong by taking the right path, right?" Ruin laughs and gestures to the right hall with his lil hoovsies



Griff tried his best to give tea a reassuring smile. “If ah can survive getting mah chest ripped open last tiem ah was ere, ahm sure we can survive...this.”

Ceres wouldnt notice anything else out of ordinary, simply the two directions, the odd lack of runes on the walls besides the one, and the glow.

Suddenly they hear a 'click', and looking back, they see the armory at the end of the barracks is gone.

Ceres quickly takes her eyes off of the lone rune and shifts her attention to the glow. "Well then, shall we check the glow??"

Bayou coughs a bit and then straightens himself up. "I think, ultimately, we're at the mercy of whatever thing is here anyway. If it wants us to see something, I think the sooner we see it, the sooner we may very well be rid of the place." He takes a few shaky steps forward, aiming towards the left. "Lets just go get it over with, folks. We're all scared, but at least it'll keep us on our toes. M-metaphorically, of course. Lack of toes and all that."


Homily's eyes widen when he turns back to see the armory gone. "O-ok, I think it's time to move, yeah?" 

Griff nods quickly, following after Bayou. “Ah think hes right, glow is best bet...”

Ceres takes a look behind her after the barracks absconded to see... A wall. This concerned her a bit. "Hey guys... Ya ever watched the show up to the season finale where it was Discord, Trixie and that other horse went in and rescued mane six and others from the Changeling hive?" she siad, lowering her voice a bit. "...are we in a cleverly disguised Changeling hive? 'cause the entrances and exits all shifted in that episode as well..."

Ruin falls in line.

Homily follows Bayou into the hall, sneaking one last look at where the armory used to be behind him. 

"Right.. chest r-ripping.", the mare's ears flopped even further down, eyes glued up at the hallway. Though the small poner was somewhat of a coward, the situation wasn't dire enough for her to jet... more so, split away from the group, safety in number in all that, "... n-next time 'round, i-it woulda been n... nice t'know that, heheh-- h-heh." 'd follow the group, trottin' close to the center of everyone.. but trying to keep 'erself slightly behind t'biggest body 'round. 

Ceres feels a little put off by Tea's anxiety, so she falls back a bit to be in front of Tea, trying to offer some reassuring words to the Unitot. "We're good, eh? Plenty of us here to keep eachother safe." 


Griff shrugs, looking between Tea and homily. “No offense Tea, but ahm not tha one who invited ya ahn left that part out.”

As the group went down the glowing hallway, they would come to a curve, and slowly, come to an opening where the light was coming from.

Oddly, despite being VERY bright, the blue light didn't hurt the eyes, or really impair the vision. Tea would note the light was coming from some stands with big orbs on them, the orbs glowing, with runes carved on them saying “provide the light eternal” and “Protect eyes from this” aswell.

Inside the large, spacious rectangle of a room, was a library, though the tables and bookstands looks very old, many books and scrolls clearly rotted aswell as the furniture, though a lot looked intact. There were also a few storage cabinets in places.

In one corner was a staircase leading up the second story that they could see from the bottom floor, due to it really only being walkways along the second story wall, with more bookshelves.

On the far side, was a large set of closed, wooden doors, barred shut.

As the group enters however, energy would shoot from one of the orbs hanging from the ceiling, a rune appearing infront of everyones face, large and taking up a lot of space in the air, hurting everyone but Tea in the usual sense, before it dissipated.

Tea would see it read “You came here for Knowledge. Here it is. When you regret everything, know it was not me who nearly died twice and yet did not take the hint.”

Ruin walks toward a shelf to rummage for more intact books "I bet Rubles would appreciate a souvenir. " 

Homily recoils and shields his eyes with a hoof when the rune blocks his examination of the room. "Agh! My head..."

Bayou grunts and rubs his head, shuddering a bit from the sudden rune to the face. Why? Why did whatever it is insist on things like this? He shakes his head and groans before looking around at the library around them, taking in the remnants of knowledge around them. He starts forward, trying to push the pain out of his mind a bit. "A...A library?" He blinks a few times and starts to look around at the bookshelves curiously, the dull throbbing of the rune still pumping in his brain.

Ceres quickly averted her eyes, wincing, to avoid more pair of her brain. "ergh... so THAT'S what it feels like... hm..." she decided to try a bit of science. The tall Ziggeress took out the helmet from her bags, donned it 'n did the whole purple eye flash glow thing and bond, and chanced a brief look at the runes. 'Maybe that gem would translate...' she thought.

The mare gives a hesitant nod to Ceres, and a bit of sad look at t'pastor pone, sighing to herself. T'way that pony was sellin' goblets -- yet she never inquired more 'bout it.. Perhaps she expected to find much of t'same ruins as in previous travels-- This, however, was more troublesome on their wellbeing. Granted, when they'd walk into the light and see t'carvings, the orbs, "Woah... that's very coo---eeeek!!!", she squeaked at the sudden burst and the new set of runes, "W-... what was t-that?"
looks between others others, some yelping, some voicing their pain-- "... is... everything a'ight?", she asks cautiously .

Homily staggers to the neatest bookshelf on his right on three legs, one hoof still rubbing his sore head. Once he reaches the shelf, he sits himself down on his haunches and pulls a book out at random. 

huh's at Homily's staggered gait, and slowly pulls the set of goggles off herself, "... there's, 'nother warning?", she says, bein' really unsure 'bout the whole thing now-- she didn't feel or sensed anything, but the burst that hit them - and was somewhat preoccupied by the glowing orbs as the entire thing unravelled, "'s either addresin' us, or-- t'was a warning fir others. Uh..", she puts the goggles back on for a second, taking another look, before pulling them out, "Brrrr... it says that we came 'ere fir Knowledge. That here it is... But when we'll regret errythin', knuw it wasn't 'it', 'me', who nearly died twice 'n yet didn't take t'hint."



Griff shakes his head, having barely avoided staring at the Rune. “oof, nope, what that damn thing say anyways?” he asks, walking over ot join the others on the bookshelf.

Ceres notes it didn't do shit to translate, but oddly it seemed to fit much better this time, almost being comfortable to wear..  Ruin and Bayou would note the few books looking still usable still faded too much to read the edges of, and those few letters he could make out not being a recognizable language, some even clearly being the rune language, though so faded and incomplete it didn't hurt to look at.
[everyone looking at books, d20 +knowledge AND perception for book to look over. Homily, -3 for random grabbing]
Ruin-19
Homily-7
Bayou-2
Griff-7
Ceres-15

"Asshole be calling me out,eh? Well sucks to suck Mr Ghost can't even count!" Ruin said.

Tea sighs with a shake of her head and would wander past the rows, "T'asshole or whatevs seems ta knuw how t'enscribe these 'round-- 'f not, t'things look recent."  

Ceres grunts again at her glance at the runes and the pain 'n... Doesn't really feel like taking the helmet off this time. She felt comfy af. "Fine enough... she replied to Tea's initial question. So, she went off to look at some books that weren't crumbling. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained eh?" she said to Tea.

"Glyphs that is.", the mare wanders 'round, seein'-- but... her gaze would be goin' back to the glowing orbs, curious 'bout t'contractions, "Jeez-- m'seriously wanna take one o'these back 'n see what makes it tick.. maybe somepony from t'Embassy can 'xplain it better."



Griff coughed, looking at Homily, knowing it might be talking about them. Shrugging, he opens his book, then quickly closes it, cursing loudly. “Fuck, book full o tha damn Runes!”

Meanwhile Bayou pulls too hard on a book and it rips apart, and in his panic to grab the pages causes more books to fall on him when he bumps the bookshelf, and is now in a pile of books, but fine.

Homily pulls out a half rotted book, but finds whats intact is a form of circular writing he hasnt seen before.

Ceres would pull out a book, and regret it a bit as the cover was written in runes. The same for Ruin.

Tea would notice its literally just like, a glass orb on a stick with those two runes carved into but as she approached one she would blink, seeing something in the slightly open drawer below it....the drawer had more pairs of goggles in them! Further inspection would show them of being both worse quality on creation, and most were cracked or had lenses shattered due to age and were morel ike glasses then goggles.

She figures she could make two pairs of fully intact translation glasses from what she could see so far. 

Ceres winces once again from the runic look. Once the pain subsided she open up the book to random page, and took one last look at it, quickly glancing to see if it was also written in runic also.


Ceres gets only more pain from the runes inside.
Tea wanted to take t'thing off, but stopped at the sight of the drawer and-- with a spark of her horn would levitate a pair outta the pile, looking 'round it... for all the worries, a small smile reappears on her face "Heyyy, c'mere! Think there's 'nuff goodies fir a bunch o' us! Tho--", she squints her eyes at some of the cracks, pulling the goggles of herself and trying them out, staring up at the orb to see if the runes were visible? 

Tea sees the glasses work just as well as the goggles!

Bayou lets out a yelp as the books land around him. The stink of the moldering, rotting pages of half of them was rather unplesant, but at least he wasn't injured. He wades out of the pile of books and shakes himself. Maybe he'd just go and see if there was something else of interest here. Whatever it is wanted them to find out something, and if that was the case, the sooner they found it the better. Maybe it would even let them out if they found it. He perks up as he hears Tea, trotting towards her. "Oh? What did you find, Tea?" 

Homily 'humphs', and stashes the book in his saddle bags. He probably can't read any of these books, but perhaps Bayou would have some idea of what it means once they got out safely. For now, he abandons the shelf and trots over to where Tea Time is calling the group. "What did you find?" 

Ceres got more pain than usualy, so she decided to stop. And probably looking at runes all together, before she she gets more brain damage. "More goggles? Ah sweet! I could use a pair!" she said, putting the book she found in her bags and heading over. Ceres did take a look at the former book pile pone and gave a slight snicker.

Ruin flips the cover upside down to hide the runes from his special eyes, and turns his head in time to see Bayou's brief burial. Still chuckling about that, he heads for Tea.

Griff sets down his book and follows the others.

"Some pairs o'glasses?", Tea calls back to Homes and Bayou, squinting her eyes through dusty lenses.
smiles
"Yeeep! They're workin' a'ight!"

"They work against the runes? That's a great find." Homily says, thankful that they could have some more runic protection. 

Tea looks back over her shoulders, pulling the pair off her eyes 'n looking away from the orb, "Ya've lot said that readi' t'runes while others were't wearin' t'pairs was-- uh-- causin' somethin'? Ya think t'effects 'r shielded if everypony's wearin' these at t'same time?"(edited) 

"Tell me what this says! Please!" Ruin pushes the runic cover within an inch of gogglemare's face.

snrks and puts the pair she was wearing just seconds ago riiiight on Ruin's snout, "Read it yerself~"

Ruin does that.



Bayou perks up at the concept. Sure, it might be a bit odd wearing two sets of glasses at the same time, but if it would help protect them against the headaches induced by the runes, he'd try it. "Well, if there are enough spares to go around, I'd be down to borrow a set. Although if it's limited, I can certainly wait." 

"Just--- just not out-loud!" the mare's eyes go wide for a second as she stammers, her hoof skitterin' to put the bigger goggles back on her eyes!

Homily Sermon-Today at 4:28 PM
"Possibly?" Homily replies to the inquiry about shielding the runic language in sound form. "Still have some here who won't have gloggles though, best not to say it anyways."
Ceres-Today at 4:28 PM
grabs herself a pair of the sweet ass translating glasses 'n... Put's them on appropriately with the arms of the raddy spectacles sliding into her helm so they can rest of her face properly. NOW she takes out that book from her bags 'n gives it a look over, squinting a bit because they're either cracked or shattered.
Granted, consider that Tea was wearin' goggles that belonged to Homily, she'd try to check if there was a decently preserved pair as she planned t'return the find back to the owner. 


Griff smiles. “Good find” and opens up the draw below the one Tea had looted. There is what was once papers and quills, but nothing else. Opening up the third and last though, he whistles, finding three more pairs, though ones missing a lense and another has a cracked one.

Holding his pairs up, he looks at Tea. “Think we can salvage spare parts fer these?”

Ruin would note the cover of his book would read “The First language, its origins and uses.”

Ceres would note hers says “The History of the three races. Of how Minotaurs, Arabians, and Bison joined together.”

Tea would note the one of the ones Griff was holding up was both intact and fancier then the others, and Both Ceres and ruins pair were simple and plain, but intact.

"hm... Interesting." she mumbled, looking at the book with unpained eyes. "Should make for a good read..." Ceres then opened it up and flipped all the way to the middle of the book and looked at the first page. 

Ruin slides the glasses up so the nosepiece rests on his horn "Well, this book would be interesting to a linguist." 

"M'not sure..", she mumbles and looks over the pairs that Griff was holding-- namely the ones that had only one lense, ".. are t'one lensed even work?""Maybe havin' a one eye's jus' 'nuff fir the effects to work?" 

Homily wanders away from the group gathered around the new glasses, to rifle through one of the various storage cabinets. 


Bayou looks at the group working with the glsses. He decides to let them continue working on it, pulling out his journal to make some sketches of the library, keeping an eye out for anything that might look significant as he wanders towards the back. 


Griff shrugs, “me ahn Homily got em ta work wit jus one lense...but ya still gotta squint ta do it, and that aint fun.”
Griff tries out the cracked pair, and smiles. “Words kinda split oddly long that crack, but work perfectly fine if ya can stand havin tah move yer head round ah bit tah get all tha words.”

Meanwhile, Once both Ruin and Ceres find a page they can read, they get cracking.

Ceres would start reading “And thus,..........With the threat now chased away, The three races agreed to form a union, an alliance, incase it ever returned..........Despite this, the alliance held strong, though The Bison would not forget what had happened. IT would be many more years before the Alliance had a reason to call themselves together, when yet once again the barbaric pony tribes of the north began raiding the Bison and Minotaurs northern frontiers.”

Ruin would read “ While Naturally magical, The First language still works as a simple language, though without Dragons glass one cannot look upon......While even the simplest of words can allow anyone to use magic.....thus, it is best if one uses it in moderation, as The body was only made to withstand so much, aswell as the mind.

Furthermore.......While not entirely so complicated as it sounds, One must be aware that combining too many Spells into one might cause mistakes once activated, due to.......”

Homily is able to find another two pairs of cracked lenses in the other cabinet, and a book stuffed into the back of one, that seems to be someones journal!


Ceres-Today at 4:49 PM
thinks back to the first settlers of Murrica and stuffs the book back in her bags with a bit of a sigh. "Wonder if there's anything about Zebra's in there, too, 'cause that ghost said they they were first starting out before his passing or something like that..." she thought aloud whilst looking about. Finally, she shrugged and decided to check go up the stairs to the second level and check out what's there.
Homily Sermon-Today at 4:50 PM
Homily dons one of the pairs of glasses, and opens the journal to the first page.
Ruin-Today at 4:52 PM
glasses return to resting on horn position as the book closes "Hey Bayou, you could probably get more use out of this book than I could. Just... be careful with it, eh? It might just be the most valuable thing I've ever seen."

Tea's smile brightens at that as the lil' pone claps her hooves together, her eyes closing down for a moment, "That's great!! 'means we have one fir all 'n there should be a plenty fir t'library in case somepony'll need 'em!~", she saiys with an excited cheer, and parts one of the eyelids, smirking at griff a bit, "'n squinting's not thaaat bad, no? Y'ain't afraid gettin' sum silly wrinkles are ya, Griffer?~", she playfully pokes her tongue out at him and gently picks up the pair with one lense
"'sides, s'almost like wearin' a monocle~ Classy!"

Bayou looks up from his sketching and starts off towards Ruin, curious as to what he's talking about. He stops a few feet away from Ruin to look at the book. "Really? Did you want me to hang onto it for now, then? It might be better to inspect that in town, if it's valuable and fragile."


Griff chuckles. “Nah, jus like using both eyes ah suppose.”

Ruin-Today at 4:56 PM
"Probably a good idea. It's all about these runes, and it claims anyone can do magic with them. Definitely worth looking into."


Ceres would note there isnt any cabinets on the second floor, just more bookshelves. 

Bayou raises his brows, his eyes going a bit wide. "Oh my! That sounds fascinating!" He then gently levitates the book out of Ruin's grasp, tucking it away in his saddlebag for later inspection, giving Ruin a nod at what is said afterwards.

Tea Time-Today at 4:58 PM
"Both eyes 'r fine, sure-- mm'what if 'er look attit at t'same time. Hm hm hm!", Tea looks at the fancy pair, left 'n right, up and bottom, hrm'ing... before pulling the propper goggles off herself and taking a look up at the glowing orb, both eyes opened with one staring at the orb through the lense.
Ruin-Today at 4:59 PM
wanders back off to find more reading, as answers are what we came for.


Griff smiles, and slips on the cracked pair, before going over to the bookshelf nearest to him.

Tea's head leans left and right, checking the runes inscribed on the glowing orb and considers picking the thing up gently... An infinity-lamp like this could come in handy! 


Homily would read the first page of the journal.
“Day one........So while I DO agree that the practical applications of the First language outweigh its side effects, I do NOT think using it as our primary language going forward.......Sylvenia is a bitch. Thats all I have left to say for today.”

Ceres finds tow books of note/proper condition.
“Why We Should Stop Using The first Language for writing and move one like the Arabians did.” And strangely, one book in a circular language thats not the runic one, but the glasses still work on. 
“Cooking Beetles, yes its a thing.”

Ruin finds three books of note.
“Our History, Why The Minotaurs are the best.”, “The Barbarians of the north, Why they will never be anything more.” and “Proper Legion Running and training, a Military Guide.”

Tea Sees the orb is sitting on a small little bit of metal, easily removable. The runes seem oddly perfect in their etching, the glass under them still smooth and clear, almost like the orb was made with them already there.

Griff finds a single book, but blinks as he reads the title, “The Great Immortal Terror, When will it return?”

He blinks, looking around. “Uhhh...guys? I think I found....something important.....”


Ruin-Today at 5:13 PM
Ruin tucks the training manual into a book, and brings the minotaur history book over to Bayou "Hey, you like cultural anthropology right? Here's minotaur history from a minotaur perspective."
Homily Sermon-Today at 5:13 PM
Homily closes the journal and puts it in in saddlebags. Afterwards, he trots over to Griff. "What did you find?"


Bayou pulls away as he hears Griff, starting towards him and tilting his head to the side curiously. "What did you find, Griff?" He readies his quill and journal, eager to document more of this strang expedition. He was starting to embrace the spirit of all of this, finally. 
Turns his head to look at Ruin, then chuckles as he starts to levitate the book into his bag with the other. He was running out of room at this rate! He manages to put it in snugly before shifting the saddlebags. "I think that's about as many as i can carry with what I brought with me. But I'll certainly have plenty of reading to do, once I get a pair of those glasses for myself, anyway." 

Griff, sure the glasses are off, looks to Bayou and the others.
“'The Great Immortal Terror, When will it return?' Is the title.....and...i dunno, somethin, considering everythin, makes that sound important.....Considerin what we know bout how this place got destroyed....”

Ceres would find a single book herself, reading
“King Grimmar, and his sacrifice; where are the twelve blades now?”

Tea was in the process of carefully lifting the glass orb off the metal bit, her magic parting one of the bags she was carrying, considering using a bandage cloth, wrappin' the thing around the glowing object. Even though they weren't in the safest of places, the mare was curious about the orbs effects - if the etched runes were preventing their eyes from hurting, how would the light affect plants? Temperature? There were many things t'try out, that's for sure... but... she would hear what Griff and others were saying, glancing back over her shoulder at them, "How's the huntin', boys? Ceres? Y--- oh.. A Great Immortal Terror? Sounds like a legend 'r prophecy 'r somethin'."



Bayou grimaces at the thought of some sort of Great Immortal Terror lurking or resting somewhere near Outer Hayven. "That sounds similar to a lot of local myths and legends you'd hear around the world back on Earth. But something tells me this may very well be something real. It would explain the ruins here, at least." He looks at Griff and then nods at the book. "Think you'd be keen on studying a bit more of that once we get out of here, Griff? I'd offer to do it myself, but I'm already pretty loaded down." 

"I... Think I actually struck gold!" she said gleefully, butting her freshly picked book in her bags. "I think I found something that can help me when I talk to that king later on! It's name might be King Grimmar." the tall, slim muscled Ziggress said making her way back down the stairs. "I think I'm good now. Shall we go and check what else there is, or try to seer a way to open those doors?" she said, giving a brief point to the double doors that have been barred. 

Ruin perks up at that "Ceres, please let me know if that book points out any glowing red weak points on him, please?"



Griff nods, “Yeah, ahll give this one ah good long look.” He says slipping it into his bags...and then they all hear a click, and see the door they came in from has disappeared.
“....fuck..”

Ceres took a look of concern to Ruin. "I... Think he'd Shrek you regardless, unless you've got the proper tools to fight a spirit." she hasn't actually moved to the mystery door yet. Because the click and the changing of the doors made her snap her head to where the entrance/exit /was/. "Well..." she ground her teeth a bit, looking for any other door that might have appeared in the library, that isn't the big 'ol barred one. 

Homily Sermon-Today at 5:27 PM
Homily frowns at the spot in the wall where a door stood just previously. "I guess whatever is here wants us to move on now. Wouldn't want to know what happens if we stick around in a room when it disappears..."
Ruin-Today at 5:27 PM
"So, anyone wanna take bets at what we got here?"
Tea stray away from the drawer and looks back at the assortment of books that they were leaving behind... Surely whatver presense have left t'things behind intended for t'library to be picked up... But-- hm-- 's made her think what they were missing out on. If she wasn't stacked on things already, she'd want to pull as many books out of the shelves, regardless of their content.
Griff quickly goes over to the barred door, and starts trying to simply life the bar up and out of the way.
“Fuck this, lets...ooof.....fuck.....this is heavy.....”
[Perception roll]
Ceres-4
Homily-14
Ruin-14
Bayou-14
Tea-13
Griff-7

Everyone but Griff and Ceres, just for a minute, catches sight of what looks like some sorta glowing, blue spirit of a mare poking its head through the wall, trying to use the orbs similarly colored light to hide herself, before she ducked back into the wall and out of sight.

Homily specifically would recognize the spirit.


Ruin-Today at 5:32 PM
"Anyone else see that semen demon?"


Bayou had been moving to help Griff, but the sight of glowing spirit of anything makes him stop. He opens his mouth to say something, then just nods. "Of course. Right, we already established ghosts are a thing. Right." He shook his head, still getting used to this. He then hears the Semen Demon comment and starts going into a sputtering chucklefit. 

Homily's eyes widen as he catches sight of the ghost. He backs up a few steps, and exclaims, "Spirit! Did you guys see that? It was the same one I saw Griff with last time I was here!" 

Ruin-Today at 5:34 PM
"That was a ghost? Hah, so I wasn't hallucinating!"
Homily Sermon-Today at 5:34 PM
Homily sends Ruin a quick look of disgust for his comment.

Ceres-Today at 5:34 PM
"what huh? Sorry," she apologized. "I was thinknig about the sword spirit. What of this one?" she asked with extremely high curiousity.
Tea Time-Today at 5:34 PM
"...!!!", the mare's fur ruffles and stands up, seeing the spectral presense simply 'slip out' of the wall, "W-What t-- a-aahaha--haa, oh boy, oh boy, so, th' these 'r probably t'ones who... who etch t'things 'round? C.. clean t'blood?", Tea nervously stammers out

Griff swerves around. “wha? Spirit? Touching? I never touched anyone I swear!” He says, clearly confused as hell.

Ceres akes a brief look at Tea 'n makes a guess. "...Maiden service, maybe?" she shrugged a bit. "Would make sense if that whole previous blood spilling thing was true." 

Bayou-Today at 5:37 PM
Bayou starts to recover from the chuckling, catching his breath before looking at Tea, trying to get a bit serious about this. "W-well, so at least we have an idea of what might be doing it. It seems familiar with some of our number." He then looks over at the barred door and thinks for a moment. "...I wonder if she'll lift the bar if we ask."
Ruin-Today at 5:37 PM
Ruin giggles "Well, I'd let that maiden give me service."
Homily Sermon-Today at 5:37 PM
"Remember how I told you I saw a spirit over you when I picked you up from here last time, Griff? W-well, it just poked it's head through the door." Homily explains.

Griff deadpans, clearly unsure of how to feel about this.
“Er...well....ah do remember.....seeing something glow ah think fore ah wandered off like ya said ah did......” He turns back to the door. “Er....ah think we should try ahn git this open then....”


Tea coughs a bit... and after mustering herself up, walks closer to the spot where the mare disappeared... well 's was worth a try, "U-Uhm, h-hello?", she wasn't sure what to even say, really.. talking with a bound spirit was one, but this one seemed to linger and lip away, listenin' to Homily - not only once at this point. 

"Maybe we should knock first? Don't want to be rude..." Ruin said.

Homily waits to see if Tea gets a response from the spirit.
Tea Time-Today at 5:42 PM
"Miss Ghost Pony? We've, err-- kinda seen ya there?", the mare talks with a bloody wall... how touching, "You've been followin' 'n watchin' us? T'runes, too?"

Ceres waits as well! She'll try 'n knock after an attempt of dialogue! She kept her eyes on the surroundings, seeing it that ghost pone'll appear again 

Suddenly the ghostly mares head appears infront of Tea and says “Boo.” very casually.

Ruin laughs "Nice play on tropes!"

"Eeeep!!!", Tea's tail fluffs up as she jumps back for a moment. She really didn't expect that the glowing spirit'd reply.

Homily is s p o o k e d ! He takes a few quick, uncoordinated steps backwards that lead to him landing on his haunches. 


Griff jumps, actually squawking a bit as hes suddenly on top of the beam on the door.

Ceres wasn't startled so much by the beep, but the scared noise from Tea made her startled a bit. After her heart settled back into her chest, she took a deep breath 'n took a good look at the spirit. "Who... Are you?" she asked with returned casuality.

Bayou jumps a bit before snickering to himself. Well this was an interesting turn of events. He starts to try and sketch the ghostly mare while she's visible.

"--- y-y--", the startled mare stammers out, but tries t'squeeze out a smile, something that turns into a shaky grimace-of-a-grin, "- cough-- y-ye sure g-got us, huh-- u-uhm, h-hello.. uh-", she twiddles on her hooves, "- we... w-we weren't p-pryin' too much, did we?" 

Ceres was done with being mother like 'n decided to focus on the spirit, because this is what interested her. 

The ghosts body wasnt as transparent as others seen, and glowed blue a bit. Her eyes were solid, with no visible pupils, and he mane was short and bouncy, her tail a bit long....and more importantly, with this closer look, one could tell the shape was more...arabian, then pony.

After listening to the group, the ghost mare tilt her head sideways, smiling.
When she speaks though, everyone is forced to cover their ears, as she speaks in the the runic tongue, which the glasses dont protect from. Luckily she only spoke a few words, before giggling to herself.
[Note hearing the rune language spoken is like 3-5 times worse then seeing it]

Homily drops to the ground and holds his hooves over his head. "Gaaah!"

Bayou drops his journal and quill, covering his ears as he shudders and closes his eyes. Fuck why was his head hurting so badly from hearing that? It's just noise right? But it felt like there was nails being driven into his brain! He shudders and bites his lower lip as he holds onto his head, that dull throbbing from before when he'd seen the rune turning into a piercing, angry apocalypse of pain in his head.

Ceres grimaces completely and covered her ears poking through her equipped helmet. Whenever the pain died died, she reached into her bags, pulled out the small jar of pls-no-more-pain paste, opened it 'n took juuust a bit, should be like an advil. Juuust in case the kebab tried it again. The lid went back on 'n back into her backs the small jar went, cleared her throat 'n... Cleared her throat a bit. "I'm... Ceres." she muttered.

Ruins ears flop down as his left eye twitches. A small flow of tears leaks from his right eye "So much for conversation."


Griff curses, covering his ears and falling off the door beam.
“Fuckin hell that was not nice.”

Homily keeps his hooves over his ears, and braces himself for any future 'conversation'. 

The mare's grimace goes sour, ears folding and hooves grasping hard to them as to keep the thing shut!! "Aaaaahhhhh!! Ow-ow-ow-owwi--eee, j-... a-ahaha-haah-w-we g-get it we-- jus'--", she parts one of her eyes open, looking at the ghost and says 'Shhhh!", pointing one hoof at her ear and holding the other one in front of 'er lips. 

The Ghost giggles, pulling the rest of itself out of the wall and hovering infront of Tea, before pointing with a hoof to the saddlebag with the orb in it, then to the glasses and making a 'wear them' motion with her hooves.


"What's that Lassie? Timmy fall down the well?" Ruin cracks, glasses still on his face. 

"G-Gosh... I... is--is t-this t'same as s-speakin' it w... with t-proper goggles on?", the mare did forget that she had the one-lense'd pair on herself - not the proper goggles, and seeing what the ghostie was pointing at, "U-Uh--?" she looks down at her own saddlebags, puzzled by the gestures for a second, only to-- "Oh-- y'wanna inscribe somethin'?", she asks and gently pulls the glowing orb out, while her spare hoof changed the half-broken pair back to magical goggles... just to be sure 'bout it. puts the spare pair away and presents the orb, holding it with both her hooves in front of the ghostly mare. 

Bayou looks over at them all and then starts to gently pull out his Journal again, going back to sketching the ghostly mare, trying to make sure to catch the finer details. Fuck his head was still pounding. 


Smiling, the ghost flips upside down and starts using her hoof to make patterns on the orb, which Tea could see were leaving a glowing mark as it she was writing on it!

A moment later, the orb glows brighter for a moment, then the writing disappears before the orb shoots a rune back into the middle of the room!

It reads “The bar has to be pulled forward a bit, THEN upwards to open it.”

"Oh... Okay. Can you at least tell us who you are?" Cere asked causally. 

Ruin-Today at 6:05 PM
"Just curious, where does the door go?"
Homily, who had been watching the exchange with confusion, decides it's probably safe to stand back up again. He stays where he is once back on his hooves, and keeps his eyes on the friendly(?) spirit. 


Griff blinks, and with much less effort, pulls the bar forward, then lifts it up and out of the way.
“o-oh....that was easy....” he says, blushing a bit.

Bayou finishes his sketch. It looked as good as he was going to get it, at this point. He tucks his journal back, moving over to Griff and smiling slightly. "Glad at least the door bar is resolved." 

"Well, that's one way to find out." Ruin joins the door group


The brown mare was generally spooked up. The last time she seen something like this was when they've stumbled on Lal's tomb... and while the assisting 'avatar' was presumably just a glowing hologram - both t'mysterious ghost and what she seen before seemed to be able to manipulate things in their own regard. Lal's as physical patterns on the material, and this mare-- glyphs made out of-- what exactly? She was enthralled by the exchange, "T-... thank you, miss.", she offers a genuine smile, "- t'place is.. somethin' 'n we wouldn't want t'break t'things, heehee, but-- uh, m'friends have a point-- who are you?" 


The ghost mare smiles flipping back right side up and....boops Teas nose, before turning flying up and into the ceiling.

Ceres watches the ghostie fly on up outta the place! The Zebra sucked her teeth a bit before looking down to Tea, 'cause that contact with the spirit would've doubtlessly felt fucked up for the first time. "Ya good?" she asked with a look of concern. 

"Man... that ghost had some legs on her, didn't she?” Ruin said.

“Yer fucked up.” Griff calls over his shoulder to Ruin.

Ceres-Today at 6:20 PM
disregards the brain damaged Ruin for now, focusing on Tea.

Homily gives Ruin a bewildered glance.

Tea Time-Today at 6:21 PM
wonders if she could feel the ghost-boop-- but her body sure tensed up there for a sec, eyes squinting from the glow, only t'see the body fly up and 'poof'. Such feats of ethereal acrobatics were surely 'tearin' some templates' in her marbles, the mind weirding out how a figure how a figure could simply 'phase through', "... I'unn-", she blinks as her stupor of wonder dissipates into a loud groan escaping her lips, "Ruuuuuuuuinnnn, for the love of God!!!"

"How else could she just jump through the roof like that! Serious leg muscle action!" Ruin says.

Bayou starts chuckling more at Ruin's comments. It was hard for him to not find crudeness humorous. 

Ceres enjoys crude humor, but now's not the time. "Ya need help with that incident lemme know ah? The first contact is always a fucked up experience. "she said, looking back to the Unitot, trotting towards the barred door. Her noggin turned to the biggun 'n sighed a bit. "Alright, shall we go on before we get any more corpse grindin' comments?" 


As they get the door open, they spot two paths a bit down the line....one glowing green, the other glowing red.....

Griff sighs.
“Well......fuck im at ah loss now....Anyone got ah coin?”

Ruin-Today at 6:26 PM
"Green means go, let's go that way!"

Tea huffs and gently wraps t'bandage 'round the glowing orb, putting the thing back into the bag... spookiness aside, she didn't really wanted to imagine an image of the ghost mare wearing high heels and doing some sort of a pole dance tric---- she groans again, shooting a mean eye at Ruin for a second, blaming him for putting t'mental image into her head! "Ri--ight. We're all set. H... hopefully they're benign.. if we won't muck 'round too much."
stares over her shoulder for a moment at the place where the ghost mare placed the rune -- and would've briefly inspected the spot... just to see if any physical marks manifested at that spot.

Tea finds nothing, the rune writing having disappeared when the orb reacted to it.

Bayou lets out a sigh after his small bit of chuckling, moving with the rest towards Griff. He looks over the twin paths, cocking his head to the side before he looks over at him. "Well...I'm going to say we follow the green path. Whatever is guiding us along our tour of the ruins will, hopefully reasonably, tell us if we're going the wrong way. Right?" He looks between the paths again. He couldn't help but feel a bit apprehensive, but the longer they wait, the more likely he felt that they would simply be locked in this place.

"I hope so." she replied to Bayou. "She didn't seem to have any ill content... At least on the surface." she said, disregarding every lewd comment so far for the purpose of the quest. 

Tea Time-Today at 6:33 PM
Tea looks 'round with a little hum, but after finding nothing sighs and trots back to others, joinin' them at the door, "'s one way out fir what it's worth. Lets go 'ntill we're welcome... Fir her playfulness 'n all, t' glyphs that were leadin' us here didn't seem as friendly. Maybe there's somepony else besides 'er."
Ceres-Today at 6:34 PM
"Right, onwards, eh?" she said, taking her position as a door opener.
Tea Time-Today at 6:34 PM
"She was glowin' blue tho... t'blue glow in t'hallway and all 'till we reached t'library. Hm."
"Ehh... blue orbs...""Nevermind.", the mare shakes her head, feelin' her thoughts stumbling

Ruin starts down the green path
Ceres-Today at 6:35 PM
shrugs and goes through the open doors since no one was answering her OOCly!

Homily silently falls in behind the rest of the group as they go through the door. As he passes the ghost, he gives it a suspicious glare.
Bayou-Today at 6:37 PM
Bayou looks between them all and then starts towards the Green Path with Ruin. Might as well at this rate. "Well everyone, lets get ourselves going. I don't want to be here when the hallway disappears. If I'd even be here at all." He shudders as he ponders this. "Really makes you shudder at the concept of suddenly being nowhere."

Tea follows, passing through the door, resuming her slightly shaken vigil of looking 'round for weird runes -- granted, the green light was puzzling her a bit. The blue orbs, a blue ghost mare-- would there be other orbs around that were glowing with a different color? Maybe a different set of runes to power them? Something-somethig t'find out! 

Griff shrugs and follows Ruin towards the green light. As the group rounds the corner, they feel lucky to be wearing the glasses and goggles, as they come across a room so full of runes along the walls they cant make any of it out, as the hovering words get mixed up and overlap.

On the other side of the rune room is another large, bared door.
[Roll d20+endurance]
Ceres-20
Bayou-11
Ruin-14
Tea-1
Homily-14
Griff-8

As they enter the room though, some start to feel...odd. Besides Ceres that is.

Ruin and Homily feel their mind buzz, not with pain, but something else, before they feel...like if they sit and let the feeling continue, something might happen.

Bayou blinks, his mind suddenly cloudy, feeling his lips smile on their own, as he feels compelled to stop and simply enjoy the room.

Griff stops in his tracks, blinking as he sits and slowly looks up at the runes, other noticing his claws slowly going up to remove the glasses from his face....

And Tea simply removes her goggles against her will, her horn sparking a bit as she stares up at the runes...and then her eyes roll back into her head and she collapses.

Tea would suddenly be assaulted by visions, most she couldn't make out, before her mind settled on a single one.

IT showed some place to the south, with volcanoes behind it, a strange sword, the best blacksmithing she had ever seen, half sunk into the mud, surrounded by dead and dying trees, as some voice laughs, the laughter causing her head pain.

“Oh? A Blacksmith? Hmm....what an interesting town you have....maybe ill visit it, no?” She could feel the voice poking at her mind, the evil seeping through her body.

Meanwhile, everyone else saw her horn start glowing with a familiar, black, green, and purple glow....

"Well this place seems ni- holy shit what happened to smol!" Ruin asked.

Bayou stops as he enters the room, the smile on his face broad as he feels a warmth in his mind. This was nice. The other rooms were bad, but this felt so much better. He looks over at Tea as she collapses, not perturbed by the glow of her horn, nor of the fact that she had passed out at all. He simply snickers a bit and then looks to everyone. "I think she needs a glass of water." 
Ruin attempts to slap Griff's claws down "No! Bad!"
Homily almost does give in and sit down, but Tea's collapsing jolts him out of the trance. He rushes to her side, and... suddenly, Homily realizes he has no idea how to help. He freezes over Tea's body and tries to think of something he could do. He settles for calling someone else. "Ceres! Do you have any idea what to do about this?!" 
Ceres fine as hell! She went on into the room without much problems! Buuuuuuuut immediately, she went to Tea. "Tea? Yo!" she said, goin' back to momma bear mode, disregarding the fucked up horn horn colors. Depending on how this shit goes, she might have to barrier up some shit. "I could try 'n do up a barrier, but it'd be a gamble, seeing her horn's all fucked up!" she called to Homily.

Griff jolts out of it at Ruins slap.
“oi, wha? Dont hit me ya bastar-” He blinks, looking around.
“Shit whats goin on!?”
Something went horribly wrong. Until this moment the mare felt a semblance of control, but it all suddenly vanished into something that kept fosterin' behind that brown furred visage, 'Wait HOLD THE H--- WHA- AAAAAAH!!', Teas thoughts went haywire, losing touch with the reality, going through a barrage of something that she tried to forget.... the experience creeping up memories of her being under the influence of a gem, the beam, the coma, the gem, and this voice spearing through herself, 'W-Wh--wh---w--who are--- wait-- are-- are you one of /them/? The two??' the disjoint thoughts of a screaming mind tried to piece 'n make sense of what was going on.

"Go for it! Anything is better than nothing, at this point!" Homily tries to keep calm under the circumstances, but that dark magic wasn't looking so good to him.

"I almost had to carry your ass back again s'what happened! Keep them glasses on, THIS ROOM IS EVIL!" Ruin said.


Bayou trots over to the group casually, looking between all of them, a look of serenity on his face. This was a great time to be alive, y'know? Even if something weird was happening. They really should chill out a bit "Y'know, and this is just an idea, but maybe we should just get her awake? I mean, I'm not a doctor." He pauses a moment and thinks. "Oh...yeah, I am. Anyway! Maybe just splash some water on her or some smelling salts or somethin'?" I dunno." 
Ceres thinks fug it 'n takes out her simple survival knife from her left leg sheath with her jawls, carves a hasty circle into the ground 'n stops to concentrate on the circle, and the Unitiot, imagining a king of whisp within her vision going around her left hoof as a manifest of her own will. Ceres touched the circle, forcing all of those whisp like things she imagine down onto the circle to seal up the barrier, hopefully stopping any external influence that would be affecting Tea. also takes note of Bayou's demeanor. "...Can someone try a barrier on Bayou? Please?" 
Ruin walks over to Bayou "You feelin' alright? 
Bayou grins at Ruin and nods vigorously. "I'm feelin' great! This room feels great. I mean, yeah, Tea passed out, but I think everything is going pretty well. Spooky ruins considered." He waves a hoof a bit as he says spooky ruins. The vibes were simply too strong here for him. 
Homily gives Bayou a confused sidelong glance, and looks back to watch Ceres and Tea. 
Ruin goes forward to try opening the barred door. Probably not a good idea to stay in here. 

“I...wait.....”Griff seems utterly confused, and takes a moment to collect himself....until he sees Teas horn.
“Ah shit! Yer say this rooms evil? Lets git er ou-”
And suddenly the door they came in from snaps shut and disappears, leaving only the barred door.
Griff quickly rushes over to hit, but he grumbles. “Fuck its tha same design but its like....glued shut?!”
Turning back, he looks at whatever Ceres is trying to do, confused as fuck as he and Ruin try and open the door.
"Yknow what irks me? That we'll never know what was down those other paths."Ruin says.

Bayou looks over at the door, trotting towards it and leaning in to observe it. "Yep. That's a door alright. With a bar too." He starts to try and give a few tugs here and there with his TK on the bar, checking to see if it would move at all. He then looks at the runes around the room and then back to the bar, and digs out the book on the first language given to him by Ruin earlier. 
Bayou looks over at the door, trotting towards it and leaning in to observe it. "Yep. That's a door alright. With a bar too." He starts to try and give a few tugs here and there with his TK on the bar, checking to see if it would move at all. He then looks at the runes around the room and then back to the bar, and digs out the book on the first language given to him by Ruin earlier. 

Ceres scans about the room, biting her lower lip. "...Fuck, something not right,." she stopped the barrier shiz 'n got up 'n mucked about the room, looking for anything abnormal or out of the place, or some chilly force of spirit sheezy that she might be able to pick up on that might be causing troubles for her. 
Ruin tries to pull the bar forward a bit, and liiiiiift! 
"It's not working?" Homily asks, dread creeping into his voice. "Uhh, maybe if we carry her out of the room? Would you be able to get her over my back?" 

Ruin would notice that Griff was right, the bar was glued to the door!
All Ceres could see are the runes, but she might recall Others mentioning they were innately magical. 
Teas horn is now fully encompassed, and they see the veins around it slowly looking...corrupted?

Yea sees another vision in the meantime, a dark, terrible place is around her, a pair of eyes staring at her. 
“Hmm....your not even fit for a meal....” a different voice says in her mind, the other one having faded away. “...interesting....Would you like to ask a question?” It asks her.
giving up on the ol pull and lift, Ruin gets his hammer "IT'S CLOBBERIN' TIME!" goes to town on door with telekinetic-boosted hammer attack!
Ceres-Today at 7:18 PM
gives a completely massive 'fuggit' and walks back over to Tea, giving a good firm slap to her cheek, in hopes of snapping the Unitot outta it.

'The two, from--- so long ago? N-No it wasn't long as an apple's core, realms of noire, the dreams, the dreams! Walking over ducks and spears with mice chasing lice and deers, cats wrestling gators in nice Nice-- no- oh! On-no no, quit-it-quit-it-quit-it!' the pony's scrambled mind was chasing its tail from the residual barrage of confusing imagery, feeling floaty, but then she finds the bearing-- oh the dark, terrible place, the sharp spice 'n the glass of poisoned mead- no, dark spikes? T'was confusing the hell, as she tried to focus at the voice... it said meal... meal... she did had an apple for a meal. And critters chasing others for one-- aaagh! Focus. 'Is... there a price for... asking?' the meal's worth a coin, coin, hence a price._ 

Bayou blinks and looks at the bar and door, then back at the book. "Oh yeah...I don't know how to do that." He frowns a bit and then looks over at Ruin trying to whack his way through the door. "I dunno if that will open it. it seems like everything is magic. I think."

"Well I got the feeling that magic aint a great option in this room. That barrier din't work, and I don't trust these words after they tried to mindfuck us all."



“for you little one? Not this time~!” the voice answers Tea.

Tea feels the vision blur a bit as she is slapped, but its not enough to break her out of it.

Griff nods at Ruin, and goes to work with his axe to help!
[Ruin and Griff, roll d20+strength to hit door! 8+ pass, 15+ success]
Ruin-21-success
Griff-15,success
Homily has a slight wince as Tea is slapped. "Ceres, are you sure that'll work? I really think we need to just get her out of the room." 

'N-Not this time?' as if the thing expected and plotted for more... The mare feels a blur, as if something was dragging her out, and tries to focus more on what she was seeing, the surrounding, the shapes, the everything -- not on her own volition though, as even without keeping the slipping thoughts in check, the scared mare's mind would try to grasp to any scenery that the visions were offering. _'The totems... the stuff... the ooze... the crystal, the map I drew, the two bastards haunting m'head.. You're part of the same things that chanted about sacrifices that day at t'gates? Are ya??'

The voice laughs in Teas head, and stepping out, she can see it is like a giant wolf, but vicious and deformed and demonic.
“Well, that totem and threat wasn't MY idea, but it certainly was of our doing yes...The Knights, the twelve, now eleven, of the round table, own these lands in our own sense. Though, more of house sitting I suppose, for someone else.” it smiles, and reaches out a paw and....Tea can FEEL it brush her cheek.

Outside, everyone around tea and see the odd corruption of her vein suddenly accelerate to cover the entirety of the half of her face that in her vision as touched, and tea squirms a lot suddenly.

“But enough for now, your friends have rescued you. Until we meet again, little one~”

It was then that everyone heard a loud Crack, Griff hitting the bar and splitting it, before Ruin goes full reinhardt on the door, his hammer even getting an after effect as turns the thing into  splinters, freeing them of the room!
"YEAH, FUCK DOORS!" Ruin charges into the next room with his leftover momentum.

The area beyond the door is simply a small hallway that leads to a split, Ruin would recognize one direction as leading back to the catacombs and armory, and further to the throne room, and another, unexplored hallway. The walls out here were covered in runes, but slowly thinned further from the rune room.
Homily turns his head to inspect the boom that came from the door, to see that they were finally able to leave the room. "Ok, now we need to carry her out, right?"

"Hey guys! It's the way out!" Ruin says.

Ceres picks up the Unitot in a hurry and gets her outta the room. "Can someone PLEASE get a good look at those runes before the room goes away?!" she asked hastily, setting Tea down on a presumed soft surface of the next room. The tall Ziggeres grabbed both cheeks of Tea 'n brings her noggin upwards, checking out her half corrupted face 'n giving her noggin a bit of a shake. "Tea?! Tea! Ya good?!" unless the GM wants her to roll for picking Tea up.
Bayou grins "Well whaddya know, it worked!" He then starts to follow Ruin into the hallway, although a few steps out and he slows down to a stop. It was like someone had just wiped the rose tint off of his lenses. His head felt clearer, but he felt a bit sadder as the uplifting feeling of the room left him with the harsh reality that they were still balls deep in danger and horror. "Huh...I guess we made it." Hearing Ceres plea, he turns around to try and discern the runes she was talking about.

With Tea out of the room the corruption slowly fades and her horn stops glowing, slowly giving her back to the world of the sane.

Griff stumbles forward, but waits for the others to clear out before following everyone out and away from the rune room.
“Fuckin hell, Tea? Tea ya alright?!” he asks as she returns to normal.

Homily follows Ceres out of the room, and gives a relieved sigh when he sees the dark magic retracting from her. "Is anyone else injured?" He calls to the others. 

The darkness drowned mare recoils from the brush, scowling at the slipping vision-- on one hoof she felt terrified, but it was all mixing up into a toxic brew of anger, frustration of the likes she didn't felt since the darn cutie pox, or layin' alone in the bed. She wanted to scream out something back at the thing-- but felt a yank, as everything went blank... the propped unconscious mare giving a bit of a twitch. One. Two. And gasping out with a shiver rocking her body, eyelids shooting up to reveal eyes frantically jumping around the scenery and others.

"Tea, you're awake! Are you ok?" Homily asks, as he scans the new area he finds himself in. 

The scared gaze though was but something of a passing reaction, as a scowl'd twitch and controt her features, ". . . t'fokin' mutt's gotta git.", followed by a short growl, "T'fock jus' happened there!?"

"You went all dark magic and passed the fuck out!" Ruin says.

“That room...was....messin wi us, guess all those magic rune were causin some sorta trance?” Griff suggests, shaking his head.

Bayou gives a small nod. "I know I certainly felt odd." He looks over at Tea and flashes her a smile. "Glad to see you're back with us, though." 

Ceres sighs with relief 'n gives one of her other heavily trusted friend a good hug at her comin' 'round. "Oh thank fuck..." she said, from the brief hug. Like, a second after the hug, she gently let the Unitot go. "Ya good? Y'aite? Ya... Feel any damage?" she asked, reaching into her bags for a bit of her advil paste. 

"M'just had a GOD DAMN d-direwolf from HELL play a fuckin' little R-Red Hood over with me!!!... o-over...", the burst of anger'd shift into an involuntary shiver as her ears and voice went flat and quiet, ". . . w-who are t-the bloody Twelve...? the.. t-the damn k-knights o' the round t-table??", she shivers some more with her eyes watering down, something she'd try to immediately brush away with her hoof, "Th'hell of a f-furry A-Arthurian t-tale's this?" 

"The twelve? Oh! Like the swords that dickhead mentioned!" Ruin says

Griff suddenly gets next to Tea, a serious look on his face.
“The knights of the round table?! What about them?!” he looks around, fear clear on his face. “Last time we were here, we had tah face one o em..only ah special sword was able tah seal em away, ahn he warned he was tha weakest, ahn tha others would show up.....”

"Hey, we're outta that now, should get going, eh? Getting outta here would be the best." Ceres suggested to the party 'n Tea. "It'd be the best, just so we don't legitimately kill ourselves in here, eh?" She nodded a head towards Bayou. "What he said. Ya able to walk on your own, Tea?" she asked. 

Bayou looks around worriedly and then casts his eyes down the hall. "Erm...hate to stop the conversation everyone, but how about we talk about this outside the castle while we seem to have an opening?" He looks over at Ceres and nods in agreement.

Griff nods. “Yeah, might be best now tah leave, come back lat'r once we learn more...”


"And we're better trained." Ruin shows off the Military training manual he snagged from the library. "Don't want overdue fees after all."

Tea bites her lip and takes a slow, deep breath, trying to suppress the shivers 'n save herself from the embarrasment. She nods a little at everyone's suggestions and would stumble, but follow them with a shaky gait, still trying to get her wits back t'senses... the mare'd look up at the griffon, telling, "I-- h-honestly dunno... there's been a lot-- many voices.. I... think I've heard two t'most. First one's been... all like, talkin' about visitin' t'town while I.. I've seen these lands way back south, like, flyin' 'ere... behind t'volcanoes. T'sword t'likes I haven't seen b'fore, all stuck in t'midst of a dead meadow 'n mud."
"' the voice so, confusing 'n just---", a chill goes down through her spine, with the mare shrinking in size a bit at the thought, "-- j-just wrong. Tellin'... tellin' that they wanted ta visit t'town... 'n then it all flipped to 'nother dead forest, with a different 'thing'. A wolf... t'damn wolf looked like a horror show 'n was toyin' 'round.", she sniffs



Griff nods slowly, listening to Tea.
“Best to get ot town then, doubt they mean to attack it outright but...” He scratches his chin. “and another sword? Those....might be necessary, glad to know the location of another but....thats a looong journey south....” He shakes his head.

“Ahm sorry....ah think ah already thought all this was soemthin big goin on, now ah mightve dragged all yall int this mess...”

"Hey, Tea. Calm down, it was just a bad dream." Ruin tries to comfort the poor mare, not really believing his comforting words himself.


"hey, hey..." she said, going by Tea to give her support to walk if need be. "Let's just get home for now, eh? Then ya can have a good rest and think about it, eh? Ya bin through a lot of the shit." however, Ceres believed Tea, seeing as she had seen those corruption veins first hand. "...How about a nice minty tea, eh? And a bit of sweets? Just to calm the mind. Or a stiff drink, if that's what ye want."

Bayou pushes ahead, eager to get to the exit before anything else unsettling happens. He twitches his ear as he hears Tea speaking. He frowned deeply as he continued, then let out a cough. "I think a different night would be better for talking about all this, folks. As much as we all would like to know, and as much as I have a million and one questions burning in my head, the sooner we get out, the sooner we might be able to get some strong liquor in us and try to reason with what we've found here when we aren't all nervous wrecks. Maybe we can meet up at the library some other time and discuss all this in a calmer setting." 


The mare's eye twitches, "Jus' a bad dream.... juuuus' a bad drea-", she wanted to shoot a glare, but all that came out were saddened eyes. The mare wasn't in the mood, nor had energy to butt heads about her past experiences.. she sighs and just reclines against the zebra as they walked, "... minty sounds n-nice.", she gives Ruin a blank glance and adds, "With a wee bit o' liquor.. yeah.."

Ruin gives Tea a pat on the back "That's the spirit!"


Griff nods, helping Ceres get tea up and leading from the back. “we can all read up on our shit, ahn discuss it later, right now, its late, ahn ah dont think were up fer more.”

As the group nears the exit however a familiar mare ghost would poke her head out of the wall, waving at them.

Ruin waves back and winks.

"Or my place... Or the MJG. Shit, we might be able to bring some liquor from the MJG to my place where things are a little more comfier. I do kinda wanna know what you saw, Bayou." she said, walking out of the palace, and back at the sword. "I'll be back, Grimmar..." she mumbled behind her, eyeing up that sword where the spirit came out of, assuming they went out the same way they came

What tha hells the MJG?” Griff asks, before jumping at the return of the ghost mare.

"Mare Juice Galore." she chimed in. 

shakes her head a lil' and looks at Bayou, "Library'd be nice.. Sounds like a plan... gotta bring t'glasses back fir keepi-" her voice trails off as she notices the ghostly mare with a saddened gaze... 

Griff doesnt listen to Ceres, simply stopping and eyes the Ghost mare, who tilts her head, seemingly confused by the looks being given.

Bayou jumps slightly at the sight of the mare, then waves back in return. It was nice to at least see someone seeing them off, even if they had caused incredible pain to them before. It made the place feel a bit more welcoming. As welcoming as the Tomb of Horrors can be, anyway. 

Ceres takes a quick sneak peek back at the ghost before continuing. Maybe learning this new Runic would be difficult. 
"Library then! And we can relax and shoot the shit there!" she exclamated with pride. "I'll bring the minty tea and something stiff!" 

"I never caught your name, or your number." Ruin says to the spirit, as he runs a hoof through his mane.

The Spirit giggles at ruin, then leans forward, and whispers something in the runic language directly in his ear, so no one else can hear and only he gets pain.

Tea stumbles away from Ceres for a moment.. and frankly, thinkin' about it - would trot forth to the glowing ghost, this time the cringe from the cheeky unicorn eluding her - blessed be t'apathy and tiredness -- though seeing the stallion cringe from pain was fueling her tiny empty heart, "M'wonder if ya knew 'bout t'trap."

Ruin cringes. Hard. A bit of sweat rolls off his forehead. "Language barrier. Rough."

The Ghost goes to open her mouth, then shuts it, and points to Teas saddlebags again.

Ruin makes pleading eyes at Tea "Please get the projectorball? Please?" 

Ceres halts up 'n back tracks a bit to stay by Tea in case she needed assistance. "Let's just, continue the fuck on outta here, eh?" she said, giving the ghost mare a glance with her glasses 'n her black helm with the purple gem in the middle of it still on. "...Though..." she looked to the bags that the orb was contained in. 


Tea tiredly looks at her bag... then back at the ghost mare, "... sorry, but m'not sure if I want t'know... 's could've been a nice show, huh.", she says melancholically, but then again, who was she to let the lonely being be left without a way of telling things back. "Fine.", with a sigh, she brings the orb out and looks at the ghost mare.

Bayou stops as he looks at the exchange about to occur. He pulls out his journal, wearily ready to take a few more notes about all of this. He'd made as much of a chronicle as he could of their whole trip, enclosed in the pages of his journal along with everything else he'd gathered thus far. 

Tea's horn lazily sparks up and brings the goggles that got roughed off her eyes, back. 


The ghost looks a bit sad, but goes and does her thing with the orb, making a rune appear reading. 

“The problem is it was not a trap, but that you were not prepared to use it, and I did not think such dark forces could connect to it from so far away.”

she quickly writes another. 

“It is a meditation room of sorts, meant to help, like when I used it to save the Griffons life. I could not guess what other forces were watching, or waiting for a weak mind to enter.”
The ghost pulls back, shrugging. 

Griff coughs, looking away, not sure how to feel about that. “Er...if thats true then...thanks....?”

"Shoot, sorry to hear that. But you tried helping, and that's what matters." Ruin tries to give her a sympathetic pat, only for his hoof to pass through. Awkward. 

Tea considers the reply for a couple of seconds, and then frowns."... coulda warned us instead-- y'knuw."


Bayou goes a bit wide-eyed. that explained quite a lot. "Oh...well...that explains a lot of things, then."
"Mm-- but if y'didn't expect it. I s'pose, I s'pose.." 

Ceres takes note of this. "I... If I can find it again, I'll be back. If I can, and meditate there, can I talk to you more?" the Zigger said with piqued curiousity about the spirit.

Bayou glances over at Ceres and then nods. "I'd actually like to go back there too sometime." He gives a small smile at the spirit. 

"I'll leave the wizard stuff to the wizards; I will definitely be back though." Ruin says with a smile.


Tea sighs, ears flattening back as she considers the ghost mare, "Thank you.. fir savin' t'griffon. 'n sorry if we--'re a lil' bit spooked there. M'dunno if it's really offendin' or not, but, ya keep smilin'-", she casts a weak, tired smile, just taking a moment to ramble.(edited)

Ceres has an ally on her side for the freaky deeky shiz it seems! Ceres cast a brief, light smiled glance towards Bayou, waiting for a GM response 

She giggles at Ruin, and pats his back, he notes it it makes frost form on his back.

She then writes another rune.
“Its not my job to babysit strangers in my home, nor answer their questions. “

She then writes another quickly. 
“And use the room if you so desire, but I will not, and cant, protect you.”

Griff seemed distracted, simply looking off and waiting on the others to finish their conversation.

Tea shakes her head with a pout, "'s not a job.. but ya knuw how it goes 'bout bein' a welcomin' hostess, miss. IF that's how it is, sorry if we were causin' t'much of a hassle for ya..." 

Ceres nods. "I'm well aware. I want to talk with Grimmer first before I make my way to you, but I would love to hear your story, eh?" she said to the spirit before looking to the rest of the group. "Shall we get home? Mull on things? With a stiff drink and tea?" she asked.

Ruin follows after Griff "Seriously, you can count on it!" Ruin whispers to mobody in particular "That touch reminds me of home." 

Bayou nods in agreement with Ceres, turning about and heading towards the exit. "I think that would be a very welcome idea. Although I think personally I'll be stuck tackling these books tonight after a drink or two. I have a lot to read up on, after all." 

Ceres wiggles her backend with the heavy books in 'em. "Same. I wanna read up before I talk to those here again." regardless, she stuck to Tea's side, just in case.

Ruin - Today at 8:56 PM
"Yeah, lets get drunk and read books!"
"Best book club ever!"


She shrugs, patting Teas shoulder too after making another rune appear.
“The only Hassle is for you, not me.”

she then waves goodbye and flies off into the castle.

"She's totally into me." Ruin says.

"if ya say so..." Griff mumbles out, still looking off and waiting on the others.

Ruin hits the wall from the unexpected contact "Oof!" 

Ceres sighs greatly 'n continues onwards, leaving Ruin in.... Ruins. :3 

"Who figured Cer was the jealous type?" Ruin mumbles to himself as he catches up to the group. 

Tea feels the slight chill run down her shoulder-- aah, so that's what was the sensation which startled her back in the library! She follows the spectre with her eyes, watching her leave.. thoughts drifting into musings about what will the mysterious spirit do next? Were there others in that place, besides her, or she was t'one who cleaned the blood and removing the debris that both Homily and Griff mentioned before. On a sighing note and distant weight on her heart, the mare turns around and proceeds to leave, pulling the enchanted goggles off herself and returning them back to the owner.