Session 11.2

(3:18:15 PM) ApricotCordial: == Session #11 ==
(3:18:23 PM) You are now known as AC[GM]
(3:19:44 PM) AC[GM]: Shown the door by a large, well-armed band of tribals, the group has found themselves on the road north once again.  Unfortunately said road is covered in snow.  As is everything else as far as the eye can see.  This may make navigating a bit difficult, considering that the only indication of road in many places is that of a slight dip in the ground.
(3:22:45 PM) ***Nessa has been too busy looking at her PipBuck and its Divination/Sonar readings of the surrounding area to gives Arcadia much of an "I told you so".
(3:24:36 PM) ***Arcadia grouses, magic spiraling around her horn as she summons a cloud to tow along with her.
(3:25:04 PM) ***Green glances at the rest of the group. "Soo. Big superduper awesome place way deep into the northern wastes? You have some kind of map right and a tent for when you gotta retire into when the snow gets unbearable?"
(3:25:20 PM) ***Nessa taps her PipBuck.
(3:25:25 PM) Nessa: "Map."
(3:25:31 PM) Nessa: "And we've all got tents."
(3:26:13 PM) ***Green glances at the pipbuck. "That's great. I was not looking forward to dig myself another snowcave."
(3:26:53 PM) Shimmer: "Snow...is actually a fairly decent insulator." Shimmer says absent mindedly
(3:27:57 PM) ***Nessa is trying to lead the group fairly directly to the WXC. Don't want to get caught by anything nasty again...
(3:28:51 PM) AC[GM]: 'Directly' involves going straight into the snow covered pine woods surrounding them.
(3:29:03 PM) Arcadia: "I also have a cloud, and the endurance needed to keep moving if I feel cold." She mutters. "Fuck the cold..."
(3:29:43 PM) Green: "keeps out the riffraff."
(3:30:10 PM) Arcadia: "That'd be two fifths of me."
(3:30:25 PM) Nessa: "So. Green, was it?" Nessa says, looking up from her PipBuck as she contemplates alternatives to heading through the forest.
(3:30:56 PM) Nessa: "Why are you still following us?" the purple earthmare with the curly mane asks.
(3:31:21 PM) Nessa: dull pink earthmare*
(3:31:37 PM) AC[GM]: The road keeps going north up the river.
(3:31:38 PM) ***Green glances at Nessa before looking ahead. "Because you ruined my treasure hunt. I figured I might make your's succeed."
(3:32:01 PM) ***Arcadia mumbles a little, deciding to fly up and wrap her legs around her cloud, flying along just above the group. "Legs hurt..."
(3:32:26 PM) Nessa: "Is that profit-motivated, or are you just curious?"
(3:32:39 PM) ***Nessa starts walking again, heading down the road.
(3:33:24 PM) ***Nessa looks pretty cozy, wrapped-up in some thickly insulated, reinforced, homespun wastelander clothing.
(3:36:48 PM) ***Green bounces forward with a grin on her face. Her large frame making patterns in the snow. "You think visiting the holy places looking for treasure is how I earn my living? I do this as a matter of survival."
(3:38:00 PM) Nessa: "You literally just called our mission a 'treasure hunt'," Nessa remarks back.
(3:38:06 PM) Shimmer: "A significant number of ponies do in this region."
(3:38:08 PM) Arcadia: 
ACTION murmurs a little, rubbing over her temple with a hoof. "So we're just following the road here?" She asks, peeking down at the rest of the group. After only a moment, her eyes grow a bit unfocused as she speaks in a low monotone. "In the night, I am kept awake by the endless chatter of my inner self. I hear it speak softly of old hurts and fondly of past loves, while its demands and anxieties resound throughout me in multitudes. I could be calm and c
(3:39:31 PM) Green: "Well yea. That's what you southerners always do when you go this far north. Treasure hunt for oldworld stuff so you can trade it for strange metal things back where you came from."
(3:41:19 PM) Nessa: "'Strange metal things'," Nessa scoffs. "Don't play dumb. It's unbecoming. You can't seriously tell me you don't understand barter, or the concept of owing other people favors," Nessa says.
(3:41:52 PM) AC[GM]: The road winds north, or at least the path does, through drifts of snow barrel-deep for the party's more mortally sized equines.  Finding themselves headed into the blasted rubble of another town, Nessa finds the directional needle start to swing at a road junction with a sort-of intact gas station catty-cornered to a fire gutted business block.
(3:42:05 PM) ***Green sticks out her tongue in Nessa's direction. "Aaw. You caught me. Though I have to say most of you usually die before you get to this point. I take the fact that the herd liked you enough to let you move on as a good sign."
(3:42:40 PM) Arcadia: "I'm still confused by the whole angel thing..."
(3:43:23 PM) Green: "It's all just mumbo jumbo to me."
(3:44:36 PM) Nessa: "You look like the Princesses did," Nessa says. "Pretty common occurrence for stable dwellers to deify the Royal Sisters. This is probably just an extension of that."
(3:45:16 PM) Green: "Facts are my community needs a steady supply of shells for our artillery, and if this place of yours is real. I can just go home and tell the rest of my folks."
(3:45:25 PM) ***Nessa gives everyone a heads-up as the path leads her towards a Pre-War pit-stop.
(3:45:47 PM) Nessa: "Artillery, huh?"
(3:46:21 PM) AC[GM]: It's actually going the opposite way at the four-way intersection.  The party is turning right, north northeast by the compass.
(3:47:07 PM) ***Nessa hms.
(3:47:28 PM) ***Green nods with vigour. it's kind of obvious she's trying to make her situation sound cooler than it is.
(3:48:48 PM) ***Nessa trusts her instrumentation. For now, anyway.
(3:49:30 PM) ***Nessa doesn't see any reason to stop unless something really interesting or foreboding gets in their way.
(3:50:21 PM) AC[GM]: The quadrio leave the blasted remains of Little Falls almost as quickly as they entered it, with little to see other then snow and swirling flakes.
(3:51:03 PM) Nessa left the room (quit: Quit: http://www.mibbit.com ajax IRC Client).
(3:51:14 PM) ***Arcadia flicks her ears. "Well... This is boring." She mutters.
(3:53:29 PM) Damnfool [Mibbit@Pony-g70pjj.dsl.coastside.net] entered the room.
(3:53:32 PM) Damnfool is now known as Nessa
(3:53:39 PM) AC[GM]: *Brainherd
(3:53:50 PM) Green: "You make it sound as if you'd prefer being chased by a herd of ghouls?"
(3:57:07 PM) ***Nessa thinks they're making pretty good time, considering the conditions...
(3:59:01 PM) AC[GM]: Even though it's only early afternoon, the sun is already beginning to sink low in the sky.
(3:59:41 PM) ***Nessa advises everyone to stick closer together as it gets darker out.
(4:01:32 PM) AC[GM]: The clouds haven't broken all day, hanging low and gloomy, in fact, hiding all but the vague glowing ball of the sun as the darkness deepends.
(4:01:35 PM) AC[GM]: *deepens.
(4:02:18 PM) Arcadia: "At least things would've been happening. All I have are you three and the voices in my head."
(4:03:51 PM) Nessa: "By virtue of complaining about it, you should be less bored already," Nessa says to Arcadia.
(4:04:18 PM) Arcadia: "Eh, it's a marginal relief..." She says with a wave of her hoof.
(4:04:45 PM) AC[GM]: Wind blows hard against the little ponies, the pines thinning around them a little.
(4:05:17 PM) ***Shimmer shivers tugging her cloak closer. "co...colder than a nightmare's teats."
(4:05:38 PM) ***Green huddles into her tribal garb and tries to fade into the shadows.
(4:05:52 PM) AC[GM]: Shimmer feels chilled to the bone, her leather cloak not quite cutting it against the fiercely driven northern winds.
(4:06:06 PM) ***Arcadia snorts, blowing steam from her nostrils. "I can feel my pinions starting to frost..."
(4:06:51 PM) ***Nessa just pulls her little fur-lined hood close, so only her muzzle is really exposed.
(4:07:55 PM) AC[GM]: Nessa can see the names of towns dotted along her map, but no sign of any dwelling places seem to remain above the grounds here.  Even the 'city' of Crosby seemed to be little more then a few hollowed-out stone lumps of rubble.
(4:08:51 PM) ***Nessa curses this blasted land under her breath...
(4:08:54 PM) AC[GM]: It's hard to tell how much further the WXC is in travel time; the Pip-Buck screen is frosted over and doesn't exactly give time estimates.
(4:09:48 PM) ***Nessa thinks they risk getting terribly lost if they try to travel through the night.
(4:10:17 PM) Nessa: "Hey!" she calls to the others. "We should think about camping until first light!"
(4:11:04 PM) AC[GM]: The icy wind feels almost like it's trying to suffocate her as soon as her muzzle opens.
(4:12:19 PM) ***Nessa urghs...
(4:12:23 PM) AC[GM]: Shadows loom around them as the group bucks through a large drift and into the lee of what must have been downtown Aching.
(4:12:44 PM) AC[GM]: The sound of howling wind is still surrounding them, but the effects aren't quite as severe.
(4:13:11 PM) ***Green looks at the group and nods. "Oh? Sure. I can help setup your camp. If you let me into one of those cozy tents of yours."
(4:14:01 PM) Arcadia: "We only have one tent!"
(4:14:40 PM) Nessa: "We've been acting as if there's only one tent, you mean," Nessa says.
(4:15:02 PM) Green: "Then it'd better be the multiple deluxe pavilion to fit a big princess, a big pony, and some littler ones."
(4:15:12 PM) Arcadia: "... I only have one tent!"
(4:16:42 PM) Nessa: "We make do," Nessa says, looking around for a good place to pitch her tent...
(4:18:52 PM) AC[GM]: Green knows that the forceful praire gales can shred an exposed tent in minutes; not only can snow help insulate a shelter, it can also help keep it safe from destruction by the wind.  That being said, old world structures often have good thick walls that make the best shelter from the weather.
(4:18:56 PM) AC[GM]: If they don't collapse.
(4:19:09 PM) Shimmer: "err I have a tent."
(4:19:22 PM) Shimmer: "before we only had the one because we set them up togeather."
(4:20:04 PM) Green: "It would just blow away if we placed it badly. I'll have to dig a bit or we'd have to go back to that gas station and make use of their walls."
(4:20:16 PM) AC[GM]: Snow starts to fall in earnest again.
(4:20:52 PM) ***Green nods at Nessa. "If we spend an hour or so, I can dig us a nice cozy outline and we can put the tent to rest in shelter of the wind."
(4:20:59 PM) AC[GM]: The quartet is currently standing in the protection of several four story buildings together, about a block long on either side, in what ammounts almost to a small canyon in the snow.
(4:21:19 PM) Green: "Or we can just use one of these buildings."
(4:21:46 PM) AC[GM]: Nessa's Pip-Buck would identify the location as Aching, Whinnysota.  Just a little south and west of their last turn towards the north and the Whinnysota Xperimental City.
(4:23:28 PM) Nessa: "Doesn't seem like the worst plan," Nessa says to Green.
(4:24:15 PM) AC[GM]: It's fully dark now.
(4:24:30 PM) ***Arcadia sneezes. "I vote for whichever option gets us out of the wind sooner... In fact..." Flash goes her horn, and a shield wraps around herself completely, cutting out the blowing of the wind at the cost of some strain. "Muuuuch better!"
(4:27:03 PM) AC[GM]: With little to no light as the sun fades away, the group finds them swiftly sliding towards full darkness.
(4:27:04 PM) ***Green walks up to one of the buildings besides them that looks whole and begins checking for a way to gain entry.
(4:27:32 PM) AC[GM]: Time's running out to set up shelter for the night as they can feel the temperatures dropping, even if they're all dressed well enough that it doesn't drop any of them.
(4:28:31 PM) AC[GM]: Green, and everyone else for that matter, would notice that none of the buildings have intact windows or standing doors.  Green finds at least drifted snow in most of them, although the first several are revealed to have collapsed backs that are funneling wind down against them.
(4:29:56 PM) AC[GM]: Finally she finds one with an intact rear wall.  The first-floor is still, the tile floor rotted and crumbling, but still whole.  It's freezing cold in here but no wind blows through other then an ocassional whistle along the empty front window sills.  A good place to set up for the night.
(4:30:33 PM) ***Green waves at the group to reveal the location she's deigned suitable for setting up their tent in.
(4:31:12 PM) ***Arcadia bolts over as fast as she could, tugging along her little static cloud. "Cold, cold, cold!!"
(4:31:54 PM) Shimmer is now known as Shimmer_inTransit
(4:32:03 PM) ***Nessa immediately starts setting-up her tent and laying out her bedroll...
(4:33:42 PM) ***Green lets Nessa set up her tent as she checks their impromptu home for a basement entrance.
(4:36:10 PM) AC[GM]: Arcadia smashes headlong into the door frame.
(4:36:36 PM) AC[GM]: She sees stars and staggers in the air, her head throbbing.
(4:36:54 PM) AC[GM]: Green finds a door going down.
(4:37:01 PM) ***Arcadia bounces off in a comical manner. "I'm okay!" She shouts, lifting a hoof... Before falling over with a thud into a snowbank.
(4:37:03 PM) ***Nessa wonders why she even decided to stay here. She's not sure which is worse: the thought of trying to pass through Enclave and raider-infested territory, or the prospect of enduring this... nigh-supernatural cold for another week.
(4:37:06 PM) AC[GM]: That's about all there is.  The stairs are totally gone.
(4:38:23 PM) AC[GM]: Nessa would note that ER169 goes straight south from here back to Whinnyapolis.
(4:39:19 PM) AC[GM]: It's time for everyone to get something to eat and get somewhere with some shelter and warmth before the temperature drops much lower.
(4:39:55 PM) ***Nessa crawls into her tent and into her bedroll, where she eats some of her winter pears.
(4:40:15 PM) ***Green looks at the door leading down to the basement, curious as if old world doors could sideline as firewood.
(4:41:39 PM) ***Arcadia crawls inside with a decent goose egg on her noggin, grumbling to herself as she works on setting her own tent up... She'd barely fit inside it by herself!"
(4:42:04 PM) AC[GM]: Green is critically aware that the rotted, decaying door would be extremely difficult to light and cause more smoke then heat.
(4:44:25 PM) ***Green shrugs while gingerly imagining herself smashing a door to pieces. She returns to Nessa and the others, and lights a torch to help provide some light and miniscule warmth. "Better pack yourselves in tight."
(4:45:17 PM) AC[GM]: Nessa is going to have company, unless Shimmer and Green want to freeze to death.
(4:45:37 PM) ***Arcadia sneezes again. "There's not much more room in here, I packed my cloud in here as much as possible." She says, muffled by the stormcloud she'd stuffed into the tent before climbing inside.
(4:45:46 PM) ***Green wraps herself in a blanket and jumps on top of Nessa. "Cuddle!"
(4:46:04 PM) ***Nessa winces as the huge mare flops atop her.
(4:46:42 PM) ***Nessa has a mouthful of pear, so she can't yell at Green, but the withering look the sciencemare gives Green communicates more than any words she could say.
(4:48:06 PM) AC[GM]: Shimmer also joins them, because Godna's not here.
(4:48:17 PM) ***Arcadia goes munch and crunch on a hoofful of trail mix, digging out a plate of armor to examine in the relative calm
(4:48:30 PM) AC[GM]: The time is approximately seven in the evening.
(4:48:58 PM) AC[GM]: Sleep comes quickly to the exhausted group.
(4:49:17 PM) ***Nessa wiggles down and disappears into her bedroll. Sweet, sweet warmth...
(4:50:07 PM) AC[GM]: The temperature keeps dropping over night....
(4:51:12 PM) AC[GM]: Everyone wakes up the next morning to find thin, frost-like coats of ice over basically everything inside their tents, including themselves.
(4:51:44 PM) AC[GM]: While the party didn't die, no one wakes up presciscely /warm/, just not /frozen/.
(4:52:19 PM) ***Nessa makes miserable marepon sounds...
(4:52:51 PM) ***Arcadia squirms her way out of her tent, teeth chattering and wings frozen to her side from the frost. "I-i-i hate l-l-life..."
(4:53:01 PM) ***Green rolls off Nessa and shakes herself warm. "You should have brought a stove."
(4:54:26 PM) Green: "A barrel of fuel would have worked too."
(4:54:29 PM) Green: "Hmm. There was that gas station."
(4:54:50 PM) ***Nessa siiiiiiiiiighs. She doesn't want to get out of bed, but she haaaaaaaas toooooooooo...
(4:54:59 PM) AC[GM]: Her Pip-Buck indicates the temperature is a balmy twenty-five below zero.
(4:55:49 PM) ***Arcadia pulls her tent apart and releases her ice-laden cloud, sighing. "Goddess fuck me..."
(4:57:17 PM) Nessa: "Fuck this weather. Fucking pegasi playing at... fucking world-fucking-domination instead of something actually /useful/ like keeping this unbelievably /shitty/ lunar-damned /winter/ in check..." Nessa mutters under her breath as she gets her hot plate out and sets it to heat-up.
(4:57:36 PM) Nessa: "Alright. Food time. Who's got some? Let's get it cooked-up."
(4:58:02 PM) Green: "I have some potatoes."
(4:58:34 PM) AC[GM]: It already seems to be what passes for daybreak outside, the sky a lighter gray then it is in total dark.
(4:59:05 PM) Arcadia: "I-i-i have trail mix... It's f-frozen..."
(5:00:10 PM) ***Nessa heads-up food and melts ice into water that they can drink. Or boil things in.
(5:00:29 PM) Shimmer_inTransit: "I...have some...peaches...and the syrup they keep it in...is enough sugar they don't freeze right..."
(5:00:32 PM) Shimmer_inTransit is now known as Shimmer
(5:01:27 PM) Nessa: "Uuuuuuuurgh..." Nessa moans as she warms her hooves by the hot plate. "Alright. What are our options..."
(5:01:34 PM) ***Green produces some potatoes from her bag a waits for boiling water to make boiled potato.
(5:01:45 PM) Nessa: "According to the map, we take a little turn here and it's a straight shot to WXC."
(5:02:03 PM) Nessa: "Well, a straight enough shot..."
(5:02:31 PM) ***Arcadia shakes some frost off of her. "I can't fly in this... It's too cold, my wings would freeze if I try..."
(5:02:48 PM) Nessa: "I think we just have to... not freeze-to-fucking-death long enough to make it," Nessa says.
(5:02:59 PM) Green: "all in a day's journey, or do you think we'll have another one of these nights? Because I think we might want to head back to that gas station then and see if we can't siphon some."
(5:04:00 PM) Nessa: "I don't know. You know this terrain and the weather better than me," Nessa says to Green. "Here. Look at the map and tell me how long you think it'll take."
(5:04:22 PM) Arcadia: "I-I can at least block out the wind with a shield..." The half-frozen alicorn mentions
(5:04:25 PM) ***Green looks at the pipbuck map. "What it doesn't say how long it'll take? useless map"
(5:05:46 PM) Nessa: "It has a scale, but the algorithms aren't /nearly/ complex enough to-- you know what, never mind."
(5:06:26 PM) ***Nessa looks to see if Red Alert needs her joints thawed before they move-out.
(5:06:55 PM) AC[GM]: Green can still tell, judging by where they seem to be, versus where their destination seems to be, that they can make it there today.
(5:07:04 PM) AC[GM]: Red Alert seems to be off.
(5:07:37 PM) ***Green frowns and taps the Pipbuck with her hoof. "Well. We could probably make it today."
(5:08:12 PM) AC[GM]: She can also tell that it's a one night, two day trip back to Whinnyapolis from their end goal.  If they really hoof-it.
(5:08:50 PM) Nessa: "Welcome news..." Nessa says as she opens up her remote diagnostics program for Red Alert. What's going on with her?
(5:08:57 PM) Green: "Let's hope wherever this place is. It's going to be worth it."
(5:09:15 PM) Green: "Because I don't relish going back this way with no fuel for a proper fire."
(5:10:39 PM) AC[GM]: Nessa gets a diagnostic report; all of Red Alert's hydraulics have frozen up.  Robofriend doesn't have any sort of internal heating, so when her systems went into stand-by last night everything froze.
(5:10:47 PM) AC[GM]: *up, amongst other things.
(5:10:59 PM) Nessa: "... well shit."
(5:11:16 PM) Nessa: "Red Alert froze overnight."
(5:11:35 PM) Green: "Who?"
(5:11:39 PM) ***Shimmer shivers. "umm...it is increasingly sounding like we need a fire or something for warmth..."
(5:12:24 PM) AC[GM]: Green may not have noticed the pony sized, mare shaped combat robot with several machine guns attached to her that's been stomping around after then all the previous day.  What with the glowing red eyes and loud servos.
(5:12:28 PM) Nessa: "That was... a bit of an oversight on my part," Nessa mutters as she walks over to her Assaultron.
(5:12:46 PM) Green: "Yea. It's a good thing this trip wasn't several days long, or you'd be screwed."
(5:13:38 PM) ***Shimmer is really really glad she was well fed before departing on this...She feels maybe she can manage another three days before she'd need to feed...
(5:13:56 PM) ***Green glances at Nessa. "That thing has a name?"
(5:14:22 PM) Arcadia: "Should I carry it? I can either do that, or block the wind..."
(5:14:38 PM) Nessa: "Well it'd be inconvenient to just call her 'robot'. I plan to get more," Nessa says.
(5:15:13 PM) ***Green pats the assaultron frame and lifts it testily. "Hmm."
(5:16:30 PM) AC[GM]: Green finds it extremly heavy, not to mention awkward.
(5:17:07 PM) Nessa: "... but I think she's stuck here until we either get a bonfire going, or I acquire or design an internal heating system for her," Nessa says.
(5:17:33 PM) ***Green puts the robot back down. "Eyup."
(5:17:39 PM) ***Nessa is impressed as Green can lift her robot...
(5:18:06 PM) Nessa: "Which is a damn shame."
(5:18:17 PM) ***Arcadia grumbles to herself and goes back to trying to de-ice her cloud
(5:19:33 PM) Nessa: "Unless you're willing to carry her all the way to MXC, I guess I'll just have to come back for her later...
(5:19:43 PM) Green: "Well. At least you know where it'll be when you get back."
(5:19:57 PM) Green: "unless a herd comes by and picks her apart."
(5:20:02 PM) Shimmer: "You know...wtih how strong you are...mahybe we should just build a house on your back..." She mumbles a bit curling. "I don't think leaving her would be a good idea."
(5:20:29 PM) Nessa: "Good idea or not, our options are limited..."
(5:21:00 PM) Arcadia: "Like I said, I could carry it..." Shrew mutters
(5:21:04 PM) Shimmer: "Machines that have been frozen completely detoriate by at least twenty percent of their value...I don't know how that relates to their functionality...but it doesn't typically bode well."
(5:21:41 PM) Green: "Well. We ought to head out. We'll reach this place and maybe there'd be something warm nearby."
(5:23:14 PM) ***Green glances back at Arcadia. "If you can carry this thing then lets do that."
(5:23:48 PM) Green: "I'd really want a cart or something to drag along rather than a house on top of me. The house would be a tad impractical."
(5:23:51 PM) Nessa: "She's not going to take any lasting damage, but she is too frozen to work," Nessa says.
(5:24:18 PM) ***Arcadia rolls her eyes, her magic flashing and wrapping around the robot. With a soft grunt, she lifts the metal pony with her telekinesis, levitating it above the ground. "I was going to grab this thing if you wouldn't stop discussing it."
(5:24:36 PM) Nessa: "Oh. Right, Magic," Nessa says.
(5:25:09 PM) Arcadia: "Yes, magic. Now shut your yap-hole and lets move before I freeze here like the robot."
(5:25:15 PM) ***Nessa goes and gathers-up her things, ready to head out in a few minutes.
(5:25:58 PM) ***Green chuckles and bounces off in the direction the map said they had to go.
(5:27:14 PM) ***Shimmer whines softly standing slowly and wrapping the blankets she had back up.
(5:27:47 PM) Nessa: "You could've just picked her up to begin with," Nessa says to Arcadia.
(5:28:59 PM) ***Arcadia closes her eyes, straining her magic again to grab her heavy cloud. "Yes, but I'd like to be listened to every now and then. I'm not just comedy relief."
(5:29:53 PM) Nessa: "... right," Nessa says, not sure where the concept of Arcadia being comedic relief came from.
(5:30:11 PM) Shimmer: "I'm seldom listened to." Shimmer says stuffing the blankets into her armor and enjoying the added insulation.
(5:30:36 PM) ***Arcadia shrugs, not really sure either. "Eh, I'm just grumpy and cold... Don't mind me."
(5:30:54 PM) AC[GM]: == Session #11 End ==