Stone Age WIP

Nero
Crystal Pony Male
Warlord [Paladin/Bard]
Talent: +1 Social rolls
HW: 10/7

Skills:
-Legendary Strength; passive: +4 Actions/+3 Allied Actions, all actions autocrit, all weapons count as Masterwork
-Blast: Anything [Recharge 1]
-Divine Defenses: Immunity to Compulsions/Disease/Poison/Climate

Magic Items:
-Nero's Khopesh; Masterwork/Single, An enemy hit on a crit/autocrit takes -2 to all rolls next turn

-Nero's Shield: recharge 3 automatic instant allows you to take all damage for another party member for the round, only incurs one wound if combined attacks cause helplessness while doing so.

-Gem of Bamman:
--Absolute Defense: Recharge 4; Instant/Auto, Negate one attack, counterattack, or other source of damage. Dual-Attacks count as seperate attacks. This effect can be activated while Helpless.
--Resist Death: passive; Nero cannot die on a turn he begins with more then 0/1 HP. If he begins a turn with more then 0/1 HP, any combination of damage brings him to 0/1.
-Masterwork, +2 Hits/+1 Wound. Cannot benefit from Shield tag while using.

-Golden Emblem: Summons two spectral griffons to pull chariot, +3 movement/dodging rolls. It can also boost the speed of other vehicles.

Weapons:
-Nero's Ice Bow: [Ranged/Can Cleave]
-Nero's Anunoth Spear: [Dual]
-Garfield's Saber: [Single]
-Gaven's Shield: [+1 Hit]

Clothes:
-Normal Outfit: [Purple Cape, Tan Tunic, Sandals]
-Egyptianesque Skirt: [Tan Skirt, Blue Sash, Sandals from Normal]
-Two Long Robes: [Appearance Undefined]
-Bedclothes: [Longsleeved soft tan robe]
-Black Business Suit: [Black Jacket, White Dress Shirt, Black Pants]
-Black Hoodie: [Black Hoodie, White Shirt, Black Pants]
-Maroon Jacket: [Maroon Jacket, Grey Shirt, Black Pants]
-Luke Outfit: [Black Track Jacket, White Shirt, Black Pants]
-Blue Jeans: [Blue Jeans, White Shirt from Hoodie]
-Golden Jewelry [Ear Rings, Necklace, Arm Bands, Bracelets, Legguards, etc]
-Three Other Modern Outfits [Appearance Undefined]

Books:
-Expansion Era Books: [The Canterlot Tales, Chivalry, Poetry, Philosophy/Ethics, Astronomy, Taxonomy, Etc]
-Modern Era Books: [History, Technology, All Natural Sciences, Breezie Culture, Breezie Language, Changlings, Celestia's OoE Notes, Etc] At Least 20 Books Total
-Future Era Books: [Technology esp. Dome]
-Map of Pre-Hearth Era Kingdoms

Supplies:
-Nero's Wrist Computer [Possesses radio/can remotely activate time machine]
-Flying Chariot
-Storage Crystals
-10 Short-Range Radios [Split Among Party]
-2 Cameras
-Money: [Inexact high amount in Expansion Era coinage]
-Misc: [Food Rations, Water Canteens, bedrolls, tents, rope, several bottles of wine/glasses/cutlery, several jars of honey, tobacco, batteries, photos of Freedom Ring's Cell, Etc]


The Stone Age:
The Stone Age is the prehistory of Equestria, occuring about seven thousand years before the dawn of the Crystal Empire [and by extension, civilization]. The primordial landscape is hot and wet, covered in jungles and wide open plains. The climate is chaotic, as the four seasons have not yet emerged. Thunderstorms can last for weeks, and blizzards can roar in on tempests in the middle of July. The earth quakes, and volcanos dot the land, pouring out rivers of liquid lava that criss-cross the land. Great pits of tar emerge and act like killing quicksand to those unfortunate enough to fall into the molten pitch.

The land is filled with monsters, great beasts cover it. Dinosaurs feed on the jungles and the flesh of men, and the first dragons [much smaller in number] compete with them for territory and resources. Pestilence and disease are common and varied, with insects the size of arms filling the skies with their number.

Lamashtu lives under the mountain of Canterlot [which is not a volcano] in a vast cave. She is a draconequus, and the mother of monsters who gave rise to dragonkind as well as the dinosaurs and many other creatures. She is feared by the tribes as 'Big Snake Lady', a kind of demon or boogieman. She is worshipped in turn by the red ape men in the form of snake icons but she herself is indifferent to them.

There are numerous [at most twenty] primordial gods born of anuthrite in the Stone Age, the lore of which has been extensively discussed elsewhere.

Technology is practically non-existent by this point in time. Ponies build what structures they possess out of sticks, stones, plants, and hides. They are capable of skinning and tanning to create simple clothing, and carving stone and wood to fashion spears and clubs, as well as create slings to chuck rocks at their foes. They have a relative grasp over harvesting and foraging for food, but have not mastered the ability to plan crops or use calendars of any sort.

Their religion is a vague veneration of the natural forces that surround them, particularly large and ferocious dinosaurs, and the early gods who inhabit their era.

Equinekind is scattered among three subspecies that live seperately, the Earth Ponies who dwell in the western plains, the Pegasi who live in the mountains and treetops, and the Unicorns who live in caves in the south. Their abilities are functionally identical to their descendants, with the exception that pegasi cannot control the weather, and Unicorn magic is wild and unpredictable.

Cavepony Magic:
Vigilance: -Cave Unicorn mooks have no special mechanics, they can use telekinesis but fluffwise its more inconstant then modern, more heavy handed. It isn't very useful for fine manipulation, only heavy pushes, shoves, thrusts, crushing.
-Cavepony Shamans all have Siegfried's Talent. All of them. They only know spells like Elementalist, Animal Mastery, and other 'primitive' magic.
-The gods alone practice 'sorcery' and even they have an air of not entirely knowing what they're doing.
-Ape Shamans work the same way.
-Possibly called Juju [or Mojo]?

Dinosaur Statblocks:
-Raptors should have 15 HP, and be statted as lesser units [small bonus to attacking, natural weapon tag or 1-2 SP]
-Most other dinosaurs should be statted likewise except 25-35 HP.
-T Rexes and other large dinosaurs can be fully statted 40 HP monstrocities. I will want the T-Rexes stats determined or known before one shows up.

Notes:
-The Caveponies might mistake the party for 'gods' given the only 'modern' ponies they see are gods.
-It has not been decided who controls the sun in this era, it is probably either Lamashtu or noone.'



Notes:
-Nero would tell them His plan reasoning that the Order likely already knows about it from previous Cycles, and that Sight knowing about it won't actually let him stop Him from carrying it out. Even if they are just now learning it, they won't have time to mount a large defensive before Nero heads to Stone.
-Nero would tell the party about the Cycle, reasoning that Honey and Luke are likely to resist any damage to morale and that not telling them risks causing distrust at a crucial moment.

Plan:
-With the defeat of the Order's assassins, Nero declares the continuation of the offday. The king showers, changes back into His modern attire and leaves with Luna to go get burgers. While there Nero explains what happened with Steel, and explains how the Order intended to weaponize Nau and how it caused Nero to become wrathful. They would then go do one or two other activities to be decided later [possibly driving].
-Afterwards they head back to Twilight's and Nero attends to a few matters.
--He calls Isha and Nau and tells them of the attacks, as well as His plans and the general proceedings.
--He has her put Cadence or Armor on, and Nero informs them to call the spa and inform Onyxia and her family to be on the lookout for 'suspicious characters', since they had encountered both Changlings serving Metamorphia and members of the Order of Eon earlier in Ponyville.
--Nero determines the past actions and whereabouts of the party mostly notably
---Honey destroying that building intentionally
---Luke ramming his car through a club, causing a party on Twilight's front lawn, and attempting to steal Twilight's underwear. I don't think He could figure out anything about Lavender from His sources.
--Nero would not be angry at all at Honey bringing the building down, given He destroyed two yards and [indirectly] someone's wall, as well as several streetlights while defeating Rubianca and killing Xapodra. It may get a pass as necessary collaterial damage, not that Nero would use those terms. Luke's damages might get brought up later however along with the other oddities surrounding Luke, though for now they can wait.
--Nero talks to Z about his request to meet with the Old Mare, learning about the method of arriving to the End of Time, why he didn't want to leave while Steel was here, and arranging for a meeting [and nothing more, no promises of alliance. Possibly as part of a meeting with Sight/Banquet of Kings] at some point after Stone.
-He would leave the time machine at Twilight's along with all remaining allies, Twilight Sparkle, and Spike, and have set up/will set up a means to 'call in' a time portal at the set location using His wrist-computer. He would be aware of the possibilities of getting a timewatch like Duke or otherwise shrinking the time machine but wouldn't have the time to set that up.
-In the morning Nero along with His allies Honey, Luke, Celestia, Luna, Twilight, Boo, Screech, Plasm, Bossa, and everyone else present gather around Twilight's round table wherein Nero will give a speech explaining Eon, dreamstone, the Order's plan, His plan, the Cycle, and other relevant concerns before embarking to Stone to fight the Order. Z is not here, having returned to the Old Mare.
-Nero might ask Honey why she has power armor instead of a Crumple Zone.

Nero's Speech:
-Introduce Eon, its powers, its origin, and the Sunfall.
-Explain anuthrite/dreamstone, its origin, its act as origin of gods and divine relics, its refined/unrefined states.
-Explain the Order of Eon's plan to defeat Eon by collecting dreamstone, using the Staves to return it to its unrefined state to create the Bell of Black Omens to drain Eon's memories then dropping the Moon on it.
-Explain love energy to the extent Nero understands it, the crystal heart, and then the goal of creating the Keystone through Sombra to cut Eon off from the source of its power and kill it.
-Explain the Cycle.

Nero's Plan:
-Obtain anuthrite
-Obtain Sombra
-Have Sombra create the Keystone
-Use Keystone to weaken Eon
-Kill Eon

-The Keystone acts as an amplifier of the Crystal Heart, vastly increasing its influence over the entire world in all eras.
-The love energy gained from this would be used to power a spell that would seperate Eon from its anuthrite 'core', keeping it from accessing the source of its power.
-Without its power source, it will still remember all its abilities, but lack the ability to fuel them, limiting it to its least intensive abilities. It will also physically cripple it, forcing it into a weakened starving state.

Stone Age Plan:
-The Order's potential assets remaining are Sight, Wing, Steel, Mammon the Mighty, and possibly Caduceus, Zill Zadam, and Rubianca. Mammon the Mighty has built a mountain fortress of some kind in Stone to protect himself while he looks for anuthrite. The Order aims to acquire enough to finish the Bell of Black Omen, so by locating sufficient anuthrite first they can stop their plan while fulfilling our own. Its likely the Keystone requires far less unrefined anuthrite then the Order needs for the Bell [though there's no telling how much the Order still needs for the Bell].
-Nero will bring all His strongest assets and His strongest assets alone, seeking to avoid exposing weak warriors to combat. He would seek to bring a force that could match whatever the Order throws at them.
-His force would be small, to make it easier to manuever, communicate, and if necessary retreat. His computer is equipped with a function to reopen the time machine at their entry-point.
-The moment they announce their plans and arrive in Stone, Nero will know the Order will redouble their efforts, seeking to finish their plan before Nero can finish His.
-In short, the plan is to gather Nero's strongest warriors to go into the Stone Age and obtain the necessary anuthrite before the Order of Eon can, knowing the Order will attack them in full and in truth to stop it.
-Nero would not be overly concerned about temporal distortions for two reasons
--Firstly, the timeline tends to resist minor changes, and given the sheer remote location of Stone versus the closest era [Empire, over nine thousand years away] He would imagine that only a gigantic change such as destroying Canterlot Mountain, killing Lamashtu or one of the alicorn's ancestors, or a similiar feat could alter it.
--Secondly, He would imagine it would be somehow possible to use the time-archive to undo any changes they did accidentally make.
-Nero intends to talk to Luke about the numerous strange things surrounding him lately, such as his Super Luke transformation, Jean's unusual power, Luke's ability to influence Eonts, the other Lukes and the Cycle, and possibly reprimand him for his actions in Breezie City and Ponyville]

Order of Eon:  Sight, Wing, Steel, Mammon, Zill, Rubianca, Caduceus*
Timeventurers: Nero, Honey, Luke, Celestia, Luna

Secondary Assets: The Order has Eonspawn, dinosaurs, and red apes. The party has Luke's allies.

Stave Locations:
-Eo Naxx Sight [Possessed]
-Eo Naxx Wing  [Possessed]
-Eo Naxx Steel [Possessed]
-Eo Naxx Fang  [Reclaimed for the Order by Caduceus, does Nero know this?]
-Eo Naxx Claw  [Southern Point]
-Eo Naxx Bone  [Held by a servant of the Old Mare]

Others Timeskips:
-Lukewarm leaves Lavender's house with Pothead and the two of them head to Luke's parents house. Luke's parents are out of town so they watch the Adventures of DukeLukem on blu-ray. They find a bunch of Lukes and Ugs doing Rad-Croc wrestling in the basement. In the morning he heads to Twilight's.
-His upgrade is probably Mob Mentality, which grants him an extra action fluffed as a large number of extra Lukes.

-Honey sleeps with Spike [disgusting], before returning to the arcade and winning that toy dinosaur. She turns to the castle and begins working on a suit of power armor from the toy, before experiencing a spike in energy that increases her power immensely. Its likely she won't be able to fully control or contain this power in a stable state, so she will probably become a god at some point in Stone.

-Onyxia sleeps at her parent's house, waking up in the morning.
-Her upgrade will be biological transmutation/fusion, the mechanics of which will be discussed later.
-She intends to explore the Post-Modern Empire soon, so those notes must be reviewed also.

-Southern gets chocolates for Plasm/Bossa/Copper, and creates a Masterwork Tie for Plasm to wear. She intends to sit out the fight with the Order to instead go on a double date with Onyxia, with no IC plans to rendevous. She does intend to get involved later OOC though. Her next upgrade is probably allowing her strings to use the abilities of those they capture. The timesyncing between her and Onyxia needs to be determined, but either way she will not start at the castle.