Slaving Away (Group A) [Closed] [Finished]

"Why does everypony have to argue?" Ale thought as the slaver objected to the job he assigned him. "Look family buck, you had the key, so that means you know how to deactivate and remove those collars better than any of us. That means your their best bet at getting out of here alive." Ale leaned around the corner to take a peek outside and check on the others. All he saw was flames come shooting down the stairs. "Not going out there anytime soon." the buck thought before readdressing the slaver POW. "I'll make sure none of the former slaves hurt you. Just get those celestia damned things off."

Ale then looked back to the slaves and spoke in a loud enough tone to get their attention, and hopefully quite enough to go unnoticed by the slavers in the building. "Alright everypony. One thing we have to do before we leave, Everypony with a bit of explosive jewelry line up. Those without just sit tight on the far side of the room until were ready."

Ale turned to sanura. "Sweetheart, can you throw a shield over the door to keep out any unwanted guest while I help with the collars." he asked as he trotted next to the slaver to offer a hoof if needed.

"What's your name by the way?" ale asked the POW as he examined the collar of the first slave. Motioning the slaves to move to the far side once the metal neck brace was removed.

(PER-7 examining explosive collars for safest means of removal. Repair-60 helping slaver with collars if need be.)

Sanura heaved a sigh of relief as she caught the slave's forehooves and restrained, then convinced him to at least hold off.. she intended fully on stopping him later on but she needed things to go her way for right now. When Ginger spoke to her she looked out over the slaves and then to the sounds of gunfire and thumps and brilliant flame... she swallowed. "Y-yeah, I can do that." she felt like she should be out there trying to help but chances were she'd just end up getting in the way at the moment, maybe if they brought him down the stairs she could do something. In the mean time though, she made a quick gallop to the door frame and tried to position herself just inside it so that the shield would risk popping on the walls or shattering the support possibly, she didn't know if it could or not but she didn't want it to. Her ears flattening as she grunted, feeling rather strained from all her casting so recently as she threw up a translucent pink bubble around herself and blocking most, if not all of the doorway as she could.

[20 AP on shield for the encounter]

Marcus blinked and shook himself out of the stupor that had seemed to overcome him during the fight. Looking around, he could see that his allies had done a number on the Slavers inside the building. He could also see a wall of flames coming from the stairs and hear the sounds of a heavy fight going on. Narrowing his eyes, Marcus began his charge up towards the stairs to find several of his allies covered in flames and a large Minotaur firing away at them. This must've been the "Grace" that Hopscotch was talking about. He was definitely a fearsome opponent. He was also killing his allies.

That would not work.

Marcus let out a shout and completed his run to deliver his blows to the large Minotaur, aiming at his legs in an attempt to bring him down.

(Using all available AP to run the distance and attack Grace. AGI 5, Unarmed 60.

(OOC Sorry about the long hiatus, guys. I should be back in business from this point on.)

Xeshir dropped and extinguished the flames after some frantic scooting about on the ground. Standing up, she prepared herself to dodge any further attack from Grace.

Sanctity took a long moment to sight in, the coming down from the dash making everything feel that much more difficult. He fired once. (Sanctity guns: 54+25 = 79) The round struck Grace adding to the flow of blood that was currently streaming down the minotaur’s chest.

Despite the flames singing his coat, Viktor moved forwards to attack again, trying to cripple the minotaur’s leg. (Viktor melee: 100+35 = 135 – crit!, 15+35 = 50, 95+35 = 130 – crit!) After a slash across his side, one more strike to each leg brought Grace to one knee. He grunted in pain, but the cold light in his eyes refused to relent.

Mek spotted his opportunity and lunged forward, (Mek unarmed: 12+27 = 39) grabbing the minotaur’s horns in each hand. He was close enough to feel his breath on his face. (Secret roll!) “The generous would call you bold. I’ll spare you the obvious joke, at least.” Grace lifted his head, and Mek felt his body lift with tremendous speed; the numb sensation of the ground beneath his feet fled like a flock of birds as he was heaved bodily over the minotaur’s head, over the side of the stairs, and onto his back on the floor.

Now that there was only one diamond dog standing between him and Grace, Marcus had enough space to dash up the stairs and join the fight. (Marcus unarmed: 84+30 = 114, 56+30 = 86, 63+30 = 93) He was able to strike true three times, sending Grace reeling.

Standing with no weight on one of his legs, Grace swung his huge shield, (Secret rolls!) smashing it into Viktor, (Secret rolls!) but Marcus was quick enough to duck out of the way and the shield merely pushed at empty air. The minotaur staggered a bit; he appeared to be struggling.




Ginger seemed to be having trouble. Many of the slaves didn’t seem to really obey his directions, apparently more concerned with just getting free; they milled around him, each clamoring to be freed.

The safest way to remove the collars was with an appropriate key. Otherwise, they didn’t seem overly complex. Anypony skilled with explosives would be able to get the collars off.

The slaver gave Grace a glance, and with a nervous gulp, started unlocking collars. Each time one was removed, he flinched away, as though expecting the slave to attack him. So far, though, most were just overjoyed; a couple even hugged Ginger once their collars had been removed.

“My name is Spark Plug,” he said quietly, sounding like he wanted to disappear.

Sanura had to push past some of the slaves, but fortunately, none were milling too close to the door at the moment. Presumably, they could hear the sounds of fighting and wisely stayed away for now. She put the shield up, effectively sealing the doorway.


Viktor: 149/253 (on fire! x)
Mek: 183/295 (very on fire! x)
Xeshir: 172/214
Grace Under Fire: Near death

(Good to have you back, Marcus!)

Diesel grinned with pride when he saw his slashs cut cleanly across Grace. Putting his sholder into it he started to push Grace back up now that he had lost his footing, glancing to his side he grunted at Marcus to join him pushing, "Help me get him off the stairs!" As his feet pushed against the stair he prayed this time he would be met with success against this wall of meat.

(Pushing Grace up again; Unarmed 60, Str 11)

The world was a blur as Mek stood back up behind grace. The familiar smell of blood on his snout was prevalent, but this time he made no effort to wipe it off or control himself. This time, he wanted to lose his damned mind. The world went a hellish shade of red and his vision narrowed in on Grace's back. He was frothing at the mouth, and for all intents and purposes, he had gone rabid. He launched himself at the minotaur, teeth bared and foaming at the mouth, yelling "THiS IS TrEnCH WARFARE!!!".

---using three unarmed atacks to take a bite out of Grace's neck. If he dies, then i'll just continue to feast on him.

Sanctity groaned as he looked around the corner, looking at the frantic melee that was taking place in front of him. He could barely comprehend the flurry of strikes and mass of combatants. He lowered the rifle, not wanting to hit any of the ponies on his side, which would be a definite possibility if he tried to shoot him now. He decided not to go and join in the fight with the butt of his rifle or his teeth, knowing he'd be of little use there. Instead, he slowly brought himself back to his hooves, using the rifle as a crutch as he did so. He looked back to the door where he'd come from, but noted the soft glow that indicated a magical shield was blocking it. He groaned and looked back at the melee, noting the fire that was raging on a few of the fighters. Maybe there'd be something around here to help put them out?

[No AP used, 38 remaining. Looking for anything that could stop the place burning down, PER 6 (Survival 45)]

Xeshir took a few moments to calm herself after the fire was extinguished. She had never been hit with a flamethrower before...And she never wanted to experience that again as long as she lived. Mek´s rabid battlecry returned her focus to the battle, making her launch several other strikes at the minotaur´s legs, attemping to cripple him once and for all.

( Attacking Grace's goat legs. 4 queued attacks with Iron Hooves. 7 AP remaining. (One dodge) )

Marcus felt his heart race as the group continued their attacks on Grace, doing noticeable damage to him. He heard Viktor shouting for help in pushing down Grace and gave a nod, pushing ahead to add his own strength to Viktor's. His smaller stature wouldn't account for much against the wall that was Grace, but he would still help in his own way.

Marcus charged forward once again to deliver his blows against Grace, focusing on injuring the last good leg that Grace had. Should he cripple the leg, he would focus on pushing down the large Minotaur with Viktor.

(2 Unarmed attacks on Grace's good leg. If it is crippled, aiding Viktor in pushing Grace down Unarmed 60, STR 4. 16 AP Used. 14 remains for dodging or pushing Grace down.

Ale had started to pile up the removed collars, planing on stripping them down for parts later. Things where going well, not perfect but they might be able to get everypony out of here alive. "Hey sparky." He said as he turned to spark plug. "Try not to sound so down, your doing a good thing here. Think about how proud your daughter will be when she hears that you helped liberate grace's slaves."

With a click the last slave collar fell to the floor. "Alright that's all of them." ale said, levitating the metal rings into his saddlebags. "Sweetheart you can drop the shield now." He said to sanura before addressing the slaves. "Alright everypony, stay together, keep your heads down and fallow us." the unicorn turned and drew his revolvers, before making a dash for the tunnel outside.

(Leading freed slaves to viktors tunnel. If a slaver tries to stop us then fire two shots (one from each revolver)-60 guns. leaving enough AP for one dodge.

(Sanctity perception: 49+30 = 79) Sanctity found some crumbling tiles and gravel that he could probably use to try putting out the flames. He also noticed that a few tongues of fire had caught on the floorboards near the stairs, and were slowly creeping outward.

Try as he might, Mek couldn’t reach Grace from the floor below the stairs, however the fall had helped extinguish the flames that were still sizzling his long dead flesh. Standing, he ran up the stairs as far as he could, but couldn’t find a way around Viktor and Marcus.

The flames upon Viktor’s pelt finally snuffed out, and he started pushing Grace, the massive minotaur putting up a fair amount of resistance, or at least he was until Marcus and Xeshir leant assistance. Xeshir dove at Grace’s good leg, (Xeshir unarmed: 73+31 = 104, 26+31 = 57, 26+31 = 57, 7+31 = 38) but only managed to get one good blow in. (Marcus unarmed: 83+30 = 113, 60+30 = 90) Marcus had better luck, striking twice and causing the minotaur to begin to topple over.

This was Viktor’s opportunity. With a singular shove, Grace staggered back, tripped on the step behind him, then fell sideways, crashing through the ancient wooden railing like they were cobwebs. The room shook minutely as he hit the floor with a heavy thump. The flamer fell from his enfeebled grasp and clunked to the floor beside him. He groaned weakly, but didn’t rise.




Spark didn’t give Ginger much more than a solemn glance, but after a moment, his brow furrowed, and he slowly turned to look him in the eye. “Where do you get off killing my friends and taking away my livelihood, and then telling me to keep my bucking chin up? How am I supposed to feed my daughter now? Fuzzy feelings don’t matter a damn when you go days at a time without food, forced to do whatever it takes just to see the next day.” The feeble anger in his eyes wavered, and he turned away, returning his attention to unlocking slave collars. “You can’t eat sunshine and rainbows, you know.”

The slaves were difficult to corral, and the sound of fighting coming from the direction that Ginger was trying to take them in did nothing to help. Eventually, he managed to get them moving, and what was once a trickle of ponies quickly grew until all the slaves were following behind him.

Soon enough, he was outside, only a few metres from the entrance to Viktor’s tunnel. It would take a few moments for the slaves to catch up.

Viktor: 139/253
Mek: 163/295
Xeshir: 172/214

All he could see was the backs of the people in front of him (which he had deemed friendly in this state of altered consciousness), and grace topple over the staircase and onto the ground floor. Perfect. He walked down the stairs, the foam in his mouth relenting slightly, but still coming out in worrying amounts. He wanted to make Grace suffer, and that one year he spent in a Raider Gang might finally pay off for something. Catching sight of Grace's legs, he grinned with malicious intent. Walking slowly over him, he turned his head to the others. "Leave 'im ta me....let me show 'im what Slavers get....we'z gonna have some fun, me and Gracey..."

---using all of my AP to break Grace's right leg with my pneumatic one, with intent to torture, not kill (nonlethal damage, m'kay?)

Diesel grinned as he saw Grace topple over, after he saw Mek start pushing onto his leg he shook his head. Standing up he jumped down onto the floor from his spot and grabbed his machete and flipped it back into a normal hold. Stradling over Graces stomach he frowned looking at the pain he was in from Mek, pushing his blade into his neck he sliced threw his flesh and threw his neck. Checking to be sure Diesel made sure that Grace had actually died.

(Killing Grace with a strike to his neck; Melee 70. Checking if dead; Per 5)

Xeshir looked down as she saw Grace slumped on the floor. The once mighty minotaur defeated. She almost sighted as she saw Mek and Viktor going after him with the clear intention of finishing off. The only thing she said was "Dibs on the flamethrower."

Xeshir walked down and turned to Sanctity. "Come on, lets search the barracks" She said as she trotted towards the room, still wincing slightly from the burns.

Marcus looked on as both of the Diamond Dogs converged on Grace and dealt with him. At this point, he was content with letting them finish him off, though he was concerned with how the Ghoul had gone for the legs instead of dealing a killing blow. It would be something he would address with the Ghoul later.

He took note of the burns on the others and grew concerned. He almost spoke out to offer them his bandage and potion, but quickly thought against it. They would need to make sure that Grace was good and dead and that the group was far away from the burning building before they could stop and address their wounds.

For now, he was content on getting off the stairs and away from the fire. Turning his attention back to Viktor, he decided to follow his lead and jump down as well, taking care to stay away from the spreading flames.

(Jumping down after Viktor and moving away from the flames.)

Ale skidded to a stop at the lip of the tunnel. "C'mon eveypony, down the hole." he said as he stood guard, watching for any retaliation. "Your almost home free." As he looked he noticed flames in the interior of the building. "Shit that place isn't going to be around for much lounger." the unicorn thought. When the last slave dropped down the hole he held up a hoof to stop sanura, "go see if the others need help, they might be injured." He asked her before dropping down into the tunnel himself, his horn lighting up to illuminate the darkened passageway and guided the ponies to safety.

Sanura had followed them out, trying to make a point to stay within a decent distance of the pony that'd turned violent when they were all set free and then as they came to the hole she was stopped, "Okay, just... you know, keep an eye on things okay?" she asked and cast her glance in the direction of the one she'd been watching before turning to gallop back toward the building and galloping off toward the entrance, where she'd let her shield fall to follow the others.

If she was fast enough to dash back and through the place they'd just come from, her first point of interest would be Viktor and his recently - oh, it seemed to be over... "Err." she blinked and paused, "IS he dead?" she asked as she made her way to Viktor and set about to trying to bandage him up with another of those pink glows from her horn, if time permitted she'd cast the healing spell on each of them once before alternating back and forth between the two diamond dogs to bring them back up to snuff.

Sanctity groaned as he saw the fire moving it's way along the wooden floor of the building. He moved sluggishly towards it and picked up some gravel from the floor and spread it over it, hoping to smother the flames before they got started to really spread. If the place burnt down, it wouldn't be exactly bad, but it'd destroy valuable loot that they could use in the future, or sell, or even help keep the slaves safe. Hell, the slaves could probably use the building too. Most of them probably had no hope of getting home, 'specially if they were caravanners.

He turned back to Xeshy as he continued levitating gravel onto the flames. "Go without me, I'll be there in a moment." he called.

Xeshir simply nodded at Sanctity's words and slowly opened the door to the barracks. Her body tensed to dodge any incoming blows. After the defeat of Grace she expected the remaining slavers to give up, or at least run away. She didn't want to kill more ponies today if she could help it.

(Entering Barracks. All AP to dodge if someone attacks.)

When Mek went to break Grace’s leg, the minotaur didn’t seem to respond much, gurgling through a throat full of blood. Grace only spasmed as Mek shattered his bones. Then, Viktor dove atop the minotaur and swiped his blade across the minotaur’s throat, a spray of blood splashing his face. With a wide-mouthed, silent scream, Grace died.

Viktor put a finger to the minotaur’s bifurcated throat. No pulse, no breathing.




The slaves didn’t seem sure about going into the tunnel, and instead just grouped around Ginger and the hole.

“Are you sure it’s safe?” one of them asked, a frown on her face.

“Where does it take us?” another piped up towards the back.

“Aren’t we free now? Why is there a hole?” a concerned buck asked looking down into the hole.

“It’s not a trap to trick us, or get rid of us, is it?” another mare asked.




Sanura was uninterrupted in attempting to heal Viktor, quickly getting him fighting fit. As she moved to heal Mek, Xeshir made her way over to the doorway to the barracks. Passing through cautiously, from the side suddenly a shotgun was unloaded on her. (Secret rolls!) A custard-coloured buck cowering on the other side had attacked her. Xeshir tried to roll out of the way. (Xeshir dodge: 32+24 = 56) However the shot still sent searing pellets into her flesh.



She cautiously stepped through the door, (Xeshir perception: 10+25 = 35) but was caught off guard by a gunshot that ripped through the armour on her side. Through the electrifying pain, she saw a mustard buck with a shotgun – the buck from the photo. He looked angry, or scared, or both.




The building was pretty well on fire now; the flames were well established, starting to consume the stairwell. The gravel was slow in smothering the flames, and Sanctity’s efforts were starting to be outpaced by the conflagration’s voracious spread. The walls were painted with an orange haze.


Viktor: 253/253
Mek: 295/295
Xeshir: 95/214

Coming off of the blood rage, Mek glared at Viktor, then his machete, and then at Grace's slashed throat. Needless to say, he wasn't happy, but he gave a resigned sigh. "Ah wasn' gonna get much outta 'im anyways. Like beatin' a corpse." he said, stepping over and sliding the helmet off of Grace's head. He smiled, it seemed the helmet was universally sized for gargantuan wearers, and he slipped it on. He also took his knife and sawed off Grace's horns, pretty sure that whoever hired these ponies is going to need proof of completion. He could always bolt the horns to the helmet later, to make himself look like a hellhound. The ringing of a shotgun in the room and the sound of zebra flesh tearing up. Slipping the horns onto his belt. He made his way over there as fast as he could, stepping over Grace.

---removing Xeshir from the line of fire, and disarming Mustard Buck and lifting him up by the throat. (Unarmed 55, Str 12)

Viktor looked at Mek as he reached for Graces horns, glaring at him he shoved him aside before he could get the horns. "Don't touch his horns Mek." After he was sure that Mek wasn't going to try for the horns he swiftly lopped off the minotaurs head with his machete. "His head is my loot, I will not allow some rabid mut to take his horns from me. You can keep the helmet, you did that much work I guess." Grabbing Graces head he walked over to one of the armors off the dead slavers and used it as a makeshift bag for the minotaurs head. Before doing that he walk over to the fire and used it to heat his blade up, after he got it glowing red he took it to the head and tried to cauterize the neck so it wouldn't bleed everywhere. Once he was happy it wouldn't get any better he slung the bag over his shoulder and walked out of the burning building. What ever the commotion inside was the rest of the group could handle whoever was inside it.

(Taking Graces head, horns and all and cauterizing it)

Sanura had just finished up healing Mek when she heard the BLAM before immediately turning to gallop after Mek and put her much overworked horn to use as she almost collided (assuming Xeshir didn't try to fight Mek's forced change of position) to bring her back up, "I thought y'all were done!" she gasped out, breathing rather heavily now as she tried to focus on the recently applied shotgun blast in the other's side, surely most of the pellets would get pushed out rather than stick in her skin, at least she hoped anyways.

[MOAR HEALING! 50 HP to Xeshir]

Sanctity threw another lump of gravel at the fire as he started to realize fighting the fire was an exercise in futility. Even if everyone was helping, rather than cutting up Grace's body, or checking the barracks, they probably still couldn't have really stopped it. He trotted back to the body of Grace -now sans a head- and looked at Viktor.

"Vik', we got problems." He said, gesturing to the growing blaze behind him. "Finish looting and back up the slaves, we don't want a stampede in that tunnel, the thing might come down on 'em"

He then took off on his own path through the building, looking for what passed as a sick bay in the facility. He needed to fill up his stockpile of chems, and besides, there might be some ill pony trapped there, and didn't want anypony burning to death here.

Xeshir slowly opened the creaking door into the barracks, expecting a covering slavers on the corner, a nice cache of weapons or maybe even armory.

What she got instead was a shell of lead to the chest.

Xeshir screamed in pain and quickly tried to backpedal away from the door, only to be picked up by two muscular arms. She barely noticed it was Mek as she fumbled with her saddlebags, pulling out a weak healing potion and quickly gulping it down as she felt Sanura's magic aid with the mending of her body.

After a few deep breaths, and begin unceremoniously dumped on the floor by the ghoul, she stood up and took cover next to the door, finally noticing the flames. "Give up!" She yelled as she stared with fear at the advancing flames. "Grace is death! The slaves are free! And your sister needs you back!" It wasn't one of her most convincing phrases, but the flames didn't make it easy.


(Gulping down Weak Healing Potion. +50 HP (+10 due to 21 medicine skill) Attempting to convince mustard buck to give up. 65 Speech.)