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Session 3

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Jul 12th, 2016
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  1. == Session #3 ===
  2. (4:10:21 PM) ApricotCordial: Everyone having made their last preperations for departure from the city, it was time to think about actually taking their leave.
  3. (4:11:31 PM) ***Nessa talks with her companions about meeting this "guide" they were told of.
  4. (4:12:17 PM) Shimmer: "I'm sure we'll be fine." Shimmer perks up
  5. (4:16:08 PM) ApricotCordial: Those who think about it might remember that the wording was something like 'a guide will be furnished' but without further specifics.
  6. (4:16:52 PM) ***Shimmer figured it meant provided. "So...any idea where we need to go?"
  7. (4:17:02 PM) ***Nessa checks her map.
  8. (4:17:44 PM) ***Arcadia shakes her head. "Not exactly. We... weren't really paying attention. "
  9. (4:20:33 PM) Nessa: "So. Do we want to go bother our employer again, or just continue on?" Nessa asks the others.
  10. (4:23:17 PM) Shimmer: "I guess lets go bother them...unless one of you cares to make the journey without a guide."
  11. (4:25:46 PM) ***Shimmer tightes her pack and gets trotting!
  12. (4:26:30 PM) ***Nessa raises an eyebrow to Arcadia.
  13. (4:28:17 PM) Nessa: "Well, majority rules, I guess," as their alicorn companion remains silent.
  14. (4:28:42 PM) ***Nessa starts walking with Shimmer back towards the Grain Exchange.
  15. (4:28:47 PM) ***Arcadia blinks. "What? Oh!" She giggles. "Sorry, we get lost in thought sometimes. "
  16. (4:29:01 PM) Shimmer: "We're heading back to get details on our guide."
  17. (4:29:29 PM) Shimmer: "I'm going to be disappointed if Nessa's pipbuck is the guide."
  18. (4:29:40 PM) ***Arcadia nods and tugs the chains on her pack, before trotting after them. "We would laugh. "
  19. (4:30:49 PM) Nessa: "I wouldn't be surprised," Nessa says as she leads the way.
  20. (4:33:23 PM) ***Shimmer yawns softly. "Did everypony else sleep well?"
  21. (4:33:31 PM) ApricotCordial: It would seem in retrospect that no one /asked/ about how or where to meet their guide and that their employer most likely overlooked telling them. They'll find out shortly of course as they swiftly return to the Corn Exchange building.
  22. (4:34:12 PM) ***Nessa feels like an ass for calling it the Grain Exchange in her head.
  23. (4:34:18 PM) ***Nessa ... but then again, she doesn't live here.
  24. (4:34:26 PM) ***Nessa knocks on the door.
  25. (4:34:55 PM) ***Arcadia shrugs. "We've had better. There was little radiation to bask in..."
  26. (4:35:29 PM) ***Nessa The door to Two Gears' office.
  27. (4:35:50 PM) ApricotCordial: The secretary from the day before once again shouts for them to enter.
  28. (4:36:20 PM) ***Arcadia folds her ears back. <Must she really shout like that?>
  29. (4:36:33 PM) ***Nessa opens the door.
  30. (4:37:30 PM) Nessa: "Miss Wit,' Nessa greets her with a nod as she walks in. "We're here about the guide we were promised."
  31. (4:37:59 PM) ***Shimmer nods taking a seat in one of waiting chairs while she waits for their ticket to be dealt with.
  32. (4:38:26 PM) ApricotCordial: "Guide? Gears didn't say anything to me about a /guide/," she says sourly, looking up from her typing.
  33. (4:38:53 PM) Arcadia: "We didn't know where to meet them, is all..."
  34. (4:40:38 PM) ApricotCordial: Wit shrugs, her hoof flipping open a folder to peruse a sheaf of papers inside, turning them over one after another to read both sides, "I don't think there's anything in here either."
  35. (4:40:56 PM) ***Nessa purses her lips.
  36. (4:40:58 PM) ApricotCordial: "What'd he say to you all yesterday?" she asks gruffly.
  37. (4:41:17 PM) ***Nessa reflects on Two Gears' exact words.
  38. (4:41:46 PM) Nessa: "I recall, 'a guide will be furnished', or something to that effect," Nessa says.
  39. (4:42:53 PM) ApricotCordial: She pulls out what looks like a copy of the contract they signed. Running a hoof down the lines she mumbles the words to herself....
  40. (4:43:25 PM) ApricotCordial: "Yeah, he did agree to provide you all 'directions and a guide'," she says finally about ten seconds later.
  41. (4:43:44 PM) ***Shimmer nods happily. "so...where is this guide?"
  42. (4:44:41 PM) ApricotCordial: "I don't /know/ because he didn't say /anything/ to me about it," Wit snaps, "And Gears isn't here today, so I'm going to have to check his rolodex to see if he's got anyone tabbed."
  43. (4:46:15 PM) Shimmer: "Alright." Shimmer says returning to her seat idly humming.
  44. (4:47:02 PM) ***Arcadia grumbles a little, planting her rear on the ground with a frustrated huff. "How did we forget to ask where to meet this guide anyways? "
  45. (4:48:17 PM) Shimmer: "I discussed the contract long enough to make Nessa impatient." Shimmer giggles
  46. (4:49:20 PM) ***Nessa scuffs a forehoof on the floor once as she gives Shimmer the most studiously neutral expression the disguised bug has probably ever seen.
  47. (4:51:59 PM) ApricotCordial: With some difficulty, the mare gets to her hooves, pushing past Arcadia and Nessa to get at the filing cabinets. Pulling a large metal drum towards her she gives a dial on the side a spin, it whirs like shuffling cards until the letter 'G' pops up on a tab. Popping the top open she flicks through cards swiftly until she pulls one out.
  48. (4:52:00 PM) ***Shimmer just puts on the most innocent look
  49. (4:52:20 PM) ApricotCordial: Holding it up to the light, Wit narrows her eyes and bends it towards the overhead light.
  50. (4:52:33 PM) ApricotCordial: "....okay, he did leave a note here in the file."
  51. (4:54:37 PM) Nessa: "Oh good," Nessa says, turning to look back at Wit.
  52. (4:59:45 PM) ApricotCordial: "They'll meet you south of Mile Lakes, at Eagle Camp," she says, sticking the card back into the file.
  53. (5:00:37 PM) Nessa: "Mark it on my map?" Nessa requests, showing her PipBuck to Wit.
  54. (5:00:41 PM) ApricotCordial: Wit limps back to her desk, "Or you could go like three other ways and get their faster, but you're the ones with a Pip-Buck."
  55. (5:01:06 PM) ApricotCordial: The mare stares at the leg computer device and then scowls as Nessa, "I have no idea how to work that thing."
  56. (5:01:37 PM) Shimmer: "Miles Lake...at Camp Eagle." Shimmer nods. "Any of those places on the map already?"
  57. (5:01:39 PM) Nessa: "Just point, then."
  58. (5:01:47 PM) ***Arcadia facehoofs. "How many ponies actually do? "
  59. (5:02:38 PM) ApricotCordial: "You'll need to scroll up," she directs, "These things usually only have pre-war terrain on them until they update by passing through the area."
  60. (5:03:54 PM) ***Nessa does as Wit directs until she's got the marker set-up.
  61. (5:05:38 PM) ApricotCordial: She taps the screen on a big lake that's nearly directly north of the city on the alicorn-headed EQ-169 highway.
  62. (5:05:52 PM) ApricotCordial: "On the south shore. You'll find it easily enough, or they'll find you."
  63. (5:06:19 PM) ***Nessa nods.
  64. (5:06:25 PM) Nessa: "Thank you," she says.
  65. (5:07:13 PM) ApricotCordial: "Orrrr you could go further west through the Brainerd ruins before turning northeast of the lake, or you could take the 35 towards Ore City then go straight west."
  66. (5:07:25 PM) ApricotCordial: Wit shrugs, "Whatever gets you three going faster."
  67. (5:07:46 PM) ***Arcadia shifts uneasily, glancing around. "Can we leave now? We are feeling... antsy."
  68. (5:08:12 PM) Nessa: "How are the three paths different, if you don't mind me asking?" Nessa asks.
  69. (5:11:24 PM) ApricotCordial: "Well, the 169 is the fastest straight-line path and it's going to keep you away from most hostile settlements. If you're all that excited to make more money on my husband's dime, there's plenty of industrial junk in Brainerd you could loot, plus an old Army camp," she sits down with a huff.
  70. (5:12:11 PM) ApricotCordial: "If the weather was better you could also go up by boat, but it's not, so."
  71. (5:12:42 PM) ***Nessa looks thoughtful...
  72. (5:13:18 PM) ApricotCordial: "The 35'll take you through a lot of settlements, if you're worried about staying fed or want someplace off the plains to sleep for the night but it's going to take you out of the way. For any of them you're gonna want to end up on the 169. It's the only road that runs close where the MXC is."
  73. (5:14:09 PM) Shimmer: "oh...they're married." Shimmer is a bit surprised but not displeased to learn.
  74. (5:14:37 PM) ***Nessa looks back to her companions with a slight shrug, looking a bit hopeful as she hears about that old Army camp.
  75. (5:15:36 PM) Shimmer: "Well...I think...the thirty fifth might be safest...and we are paid by the week..."
  76. (5:16:38 PM) ***Arcadia hums. "I'd like to see the army camp..."
  77. (5:21:05 PM) Nessa: "As would I," Nessa says.
  78. (5:21:34 PM) Nessa: "But we might not be well-armed enough."
  79. (5:21:58 PM) Shimmer: "Well...it would yield superior salvage..." Shimmer nods considering her own issues. "we might need to detour for a settlement...depending on travel time...but okay."
  80. (5:25:01 PM) Arcadia: "We don't have arms though, just hooves and our magic..." She tilts her head thoughtfully. "I wonder what it's like to have arms..."
  81. (5:26:30 PM) Nessa: "The Ministry of Morale called. It wants its joke back," Nessa scoffs at Arcadia.
  82. (5:27:00 PM) ***Arcadia snorts. "We were not joking. "
  83. (5:28:17 PM) Shimmer: "Well...I guess army base it is...worst comes to worst and we prove to require better arms...we can retreat."
  84. (5:28:19 PM) Nessa: "It's short for armaments, Arcadia," Nessa says. "Not those things that... /orangutans/ have coming out their shoulders."
  85. (5:29:19 PM) Nessa: "Anyway, I guess we should be going?" Nessa asks her comrades.
  86. (5:29:26 PM) ***Arcadia blinks and turns to Shimmer. "We are agreed then?" Then back to Nessa. "What's an orangutan?"
  87. (5:29:31 PM) ***Shimmer nods. "We should."
  88. (5:29:46 PM) Nessa: "An ape. They're cousins to monkeys," Nessa says.
  89. (5:29:52 PM) ApricotCordial: Wit taps her hoof on the desk, "Could you get going and out of my office then?"
  90. (5:30:20 PM) Nessa: "Bye. Thanks for the help," Nessa tells Wit as she taps her PipBuck a few times and heads for the door.
  91. (5:31:05 PM) Shimmer: "Lead the way Nessa"
  92. (5:31:32 PM) ApricotCordial: She waves farewell, "Shut the door on your way out!"
  93. (5:31:44 PM) ***Nessa does so! She heads out along the path that'll take the group through Brainerd.
  94. (5:32:34 PM) ***Arcadia nods towards the secretary as she wanders after the group, her attention easily caught by any passing object, but her longer stride letting her keep up
  95. (5:32:52 PM) ApricotCordial: The Pip-Buck directs her to head north out of the city core towards the wall, towards what's marked on her map as 'North Gate'.
  96. (5:33:17 PM) ***Nessa tells Shimmer to get the door, since she's the last out.
  97. (5:34:00 PM) ApricotCordial: *west *West Gate
  98. (5:34:53 PM) ApricotCordial: Back through Downtown and out a way none of them came in.
  99. (5:35:26 PM) ***Nessa unclasps her holsters as they pass out of the city. She also says something about "resume following" into her PipBuck.
  100. (5:36:09 PM) ***Arcadia blinks, pausing to look around for a moment. "This is new to us..."
  101. (5:38:08 PM) ApricotCordial: They pass out through a heavy metal-reinforced gate in a solid looking rubble wall that rings the inner city; a dozen guards are either on watch or clustered around an officer that seems to be giving a lecture. Perhaps most noticeable of all to Nessa is that they appear to have a fully operable field howitzer emplaced in the bastion of the wall.
  102. (5:38:32 PM) ***Nessa is impressed...
  103. (5:40:34 PM) ApricotCordial: Nessa can tell that the local guards, the 135s, are not a force to be triffled with. Much of their equipment looks to be standard Equestrian Army issue gear from before the war.
  104. (5:54:47 PM) ApricotCordial: Unfortunately none of you have ever really been this way before and have little idea about what's in front of you. The pavement seems about standard, mostly gravel made out of crumbling asphalt chunks with ocassional uneroded chunks of it spreading apart like the plates within the earth. It's in a slight ditch and wide enough for a dozen of the abandoned carriages to travel down it abreast at once.
  105. (5:55:32 PM) ApricotCordial: There's little sign of habbitation on this side of the wall, although here and there you can hear the shouts of foals playing or see a ragged salvager or junkie propped up beside their fire in one of the ruined buildings.
  106. (5:56:22 PM) ***Nessa keeps her wits about her as they venture into parts unknown, letting her HUD handle the direction-keeping as she keeps her ears perked and eyes up.
  107. (5:59:03 PM) ApricotCordial: Wind blows cold down the shallow ditch the road rests in, whistling through the ears of the three mar.s
  108. (5:59:12 PM) ***Arcadia had actually closed her eyes and started humming to herself, leaving only the tentative mental sense of the others to lead her.
  109. (6:00:25 PM) ApricotCordial: The group trots on under three sets of highway bridges. Shimmer notes the signs of fighting are evident, bullet holes pock mark the bridge piers, along with burn marks from flamers.
  110. (6:01:13 PM) ApricotCordial: Nessa notices the blast patterns from grenade explosions and the decaying corpses of the dead behind shredded, abandoned barricades that line the bridges above them. Here and there a few sections of fencing remain with empty chains dangling from them.
  111. (6:02:40 PM) ApricotCordial: At the last bridge, the needle on Nessa's Pip-Buck spins right, directing them up the decaying off-ramp towards the carriageway above. The sign by the road has an arrow bellow a shield marked '494'.
  112. (6:02:49 PM) ***Nessa purses her lips as she sees the corpses still with meat on their bones...
  113. (6:04:07 PM) ApricotCordial: A board nailed to the post under all that has an equine skull and 'SPARKLE PARK REBELS' in poorly applied paint.
  114. (6:05:40 PM) Shimmer: "This...place has definitely seen some fighting..." Shimmer notes hivering a bit.
  115. (6:08:25 PM) ApricotCordial: Shimmer knows that the 135s sweep the highways at the beginning of the travelling season every year. It probable that these were bandits trying to blockade the trade routes to the west that felt their wrath.
  116. (6:09:35 PM) Shimmer: "These bandits probably go swept away in one of the 135's sweep...they're REALLY not ponies to mess with." Shimmer nods. She'd been hesitant to feed her for a reason.
  117. (6:10:15 PM) ApricotCordial: Nessa, depending on how she uses her Pip-Buck, can tell she's picking up three or four radio frequencies with active traffic in addition to the one that always follows her.
  118. (6:12:55 PM) Shimmer: "Which...makes me wonder how the military base hasn't been scavenged..."
  119. (6:17:03 PM) ApricotCordial: Shimmer's as surprised as any of them to hear that there's an army base in the area. The only one she's ever heard of is the heavily guarded citadel down where the rivers meet. As far as she knows the biggest attraction to the ruined city is the several old mills.
  120. (6:17:13 PM) ApricotCordial: Nessa and Shimmer can hear a distant mechanical whir-click of a walking robot.
  121. (6:17:20 PM) Nessa: "Robots is the typical answer," Nessa says.
  122. (6:17:26 PM) ***Nessa looks over her shoulder at the sound.
  123. (6:17:49 PM) ***Shimmer tenses immensely at the timng Nessa had AND hearing robots. She is spooked...and not just because her strongest survival tool doesn't work on robots.
  124. (6:18:13 PM) Nessa: "Speaking of which," Nessa says.
  125. (6:20:34 PM) ApricotCordial: A mare-sized robot trots into view around the scattered abandoned personal carriages and large commercial wagons. It's army green, shaped like a mare, and its legs look sturdy, like they were made out of power armor legs.
  126. (6:22:14 PM) Nessa: "That's Red Alert. My bodyguard," Nessa says.
  127. (6:23:46 PM) ***Nessa beckons for the heavily armored automaton to come walk with her.
  128. (6:24:44 PM) Shimmer: "Oh..."She stare a bit. "well...uhh she has nice legs?" Shimmers says hesitantly.
  129. (6:25:14 PM) ApricotCordial: It hasn't stopped moving towards Nessa at a steady pace, eyes glowing faintly read. Unlike most pony-shaped robots her legs seem to be fully articulated at the joints.
  130. (6:27:40 PM) Shimmer: "I guess I'm feeling a little bit safer now." Shimmer smiles. She was just freaking out on the inside.
  131. (6:28:01 PM) Nessa: "She needs weapons," Brass says.
  132. (6:31:24 PM) ApricotCordial: The robot stares back at Shimmer!
  133. (6:31:56 PM) ***Shimmer tenses slowly. "well umm I...guess you'll...get dibs on weapons..."
  134. (6:31:59 PM) Nessa: "But we ran out of money. So I'm hoping we'll find some proper salvage in that Army base," Nessa says.
  135. (6:36:10 PM) Shimmer: "Yeah...uhh...I guess if she is going to be around...that won't come from your share..."
  136. (6:41:29 PM) ***Nessa fiddles with her PipBuck as the group trots (or flaps) along.
  137. (6:44:47 PM) Shimmer: "so...where did you meet her...does she have a name?"
  138. (6:45:16 PM) Nessa: "I found her in a building, and I already mentioned her name. Red Alert," Nessa says.
  139. (6:48:28 PM) Shimmer: "Oh...that's nice. Red is a good name...but she's green..."
  140. (6:49:14 PM) Nessa: "So?" Nessa asks.
  141. (6:50:40 PM) Shimmer: "Nothing...I guess..." She says trotting a bit faster.
  142. (6:51:07 PM) ApricotCordial: The group is moving up the ramp and in their new direction? If so, they're trotting along a much narrower secondary road in a suburban neighborhood. Overgrown lawns hide the scrumbling remains of single family homes, gas stations and business ocassionally breaking the monotony.
  143. (6:51:59 PM) ApricotCordial: Here again they can see the remains of fighting... Smashed baricades, abandoned buildings and houses with palisades that are being reclaimed by the brush. There's no sounds of ponies around them.
  144. (6:52:01 PM) ***Nessa is following the compass marker with occasional cross-reference against the greater Pre-War PipBuck map of the area.
  145. (6:52:05 PM) ***Arcadia flicks her ears up, her humming stop as she opens her eyes. "We were not asleep! Promise!"
  146. (6:52:56 PM) Nessa: "Hm. This is a rather violent region, isn't it..." Nessa remarks.
  147. (6:53:44 PM) Shimmer: "It...is.." Shimmer nod slowly. "Another reason I much prefer the town we came from..."
  148. (6:53:45 PM) ApricotCordial: It doesn't seem to be much of anything any more.
  149. (6:54:59 PM) ApricotCordial: There's a few signs of raider activity.... A fresh corpse dangling from a light post, rotting, and a still burning oil barrel that's been sawn in half....
  150. (6:55:19 PM) ApricotCordial: The Pip-Buck map is pointing Nessa northwest now, towards a high road embankment ahead...
  151. (6:55:48 PM) ApricotCordial: == Session 3 End ===
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