Mansion on Haunted Hill [Closed]

Ale let out a breath when the creature vanished. "Well that's one problem dealt with." He said as he reloaded the .45, opting to keep the gun fully loaded whenever possible. "Now where the buck is lightning and cuppa?" He asked aloud. As the question left his lips he would hear the knocking against one of the nearby bookshelves. "Well that's either our two missing ponies or another thing wanting to eat us." The unicorn though. Lucky he knew a trick to finding out which it was. His horn lit up again as he focused on casting one of the few spellls he actually knew. Hopefully it would aid in the exact pinpointing of everypony.

(Casting detect weapon spell to locate lighting and cuppa via their personalized .45s)

Cuppa nodded and looked at that book with a frown. "We're gon' take it with us anyway, in case Sooth Sight knows anythin' 'bout it. Now stick close, ah dunno how close ya have t' be t' let me transport the both o' us." She scooped up the book with her magic and held it in that field as she stepped next to Flash.

"Ready? Ah've not transported anypony aside from muhself wi' this spell, so we might have a few problems t' start. But ah'll get us back wi' the others, they're jus' on the other side o' the cases, ah think." Now, amplifying the light of her horn, Cuppa would follow the steps again, attempting to catch Flash in the spell so she could teleport the pair to where Cuppa had been stood not too long ago.

...All this teleportation was going to get tiring if she did it too much.

(Magic 66, teleporting to previous location near Sooth Sight with Flash and book in tow.)

Their foe vanquished, Kestrel de-cocked his pistol and began to speak; his tone gravelly and cold as ever. "That, was similar to the things that I fought in the green house." Moving up Kestrel attempted to locate something he could use to prove it, namely that little 'gem' the creatures seemed to drop.

Assuming he found it, he'd hold it up for the others to see, alongside pulling out the others he had on him. "Now, Mr. Sight, what do you know about these?"

Trails, not being one to for subtelty or mixing words, strode to the corpse of the...shadow...thing and put one last bullet into it's...direction. After this he calmly reloaded his pistol and began rummaging in his suit jacket. After a few seconds he produced a flask from an inside pocket, from which he took a healthy draw before presenting it to Dash.

"Black broth," he explained, "it'll set you right, just don't think about the taste."

Dash took the flask giving Trails a bit of an odd look, "Uh... Okay." he said. Dash looked at the flask for a few moments before a good drink from it. The Pegasus pony buck brought the flask down from his muzzle and immediately began coughing and sputtering. He brought his hoof up to his muzzle and suppressed the last of his coughs before holding the flask out with a hoof to give back to Trails. True to the Earth pony stallion's word, the large scratches on Dash's side no longer hurt quite as much as they did previously, "Thanks..." Dash wheezed, suppressing one last cough.

[Library Group]

As Ginger powered up his detect weapon spell. He immediately spotted, beyond the wall, the signal from 3 .45 auto pistols. However, there was something odd about two of them. There appeared to be some sort of magical presence in the grips of the guns. Ale was not able to begin to figure out what it was before he suddenly lost them. Little more than a blink of an eye later, Lightning and Cuppa appeared in a burst of reddish light.

Once again, the trip through magical subspace had been smooth sailing for the barely noticeable instant that it lasted. There was no telling what sort of perils teleporting held, but it seemed like Cuppa was a natural at it. For Lightning it was a little odd.

The Black Broth that Dash drank certainly helped give the Pegasus pony a second wind. Although his injury still looked rather bad, the Pegasus buck felt, for the most part like he was back near 100%. Although anything that touched the injury would send jabs of pain here and there.

Sooth sight saw the two appear and smiled cheerfully, "Ah, Lady Cuppa Beans! You returned! Ah, and Sir Lightning Flash as well! Wonderful, simply wonderful!" He looked over to the others then back at Cuppa and Lightning, "I must say that it is good to see you. We had quite a scare out here. Something is most definitely amiss here."

Meanwhile, Kestrel managed to locate the gem that this creature had left behind. This one was longer and darker than the ones dropped by the plant demons. Sort of like a shiv made from dark crystal. When Kestrel asked Sooth Sight if he recognized the artifacts, the unicorn trotted over to take a closer look, slipping his Casull revolver back into his suit pocket, "Let's see here..." he said quietly, "Hmm... I've seen some mention of crystals such as these... I believe it was said that such crystals were used to enchant inanimate objects to act autonomously. There are some... Darker texts which give the impression that these crystals could potentially hold dark entities of sorts."

(Dash's HP: 260/265)

[Rad Boom and Deus Crux]

After the two entered the hall of guest rooms, they noticed the group consisting of Galactic Dash, Happy Trails, Ginger Ale, and Kestrel quickly move into another part of the house. Some of them seeming a little distressed and Kestrel even looked a little injured. They didn't have time to catch up with them before the entire hallway suddenly went dark. The ambiance of the hallway then changed somehow. It now smelled more like a musty basement than a hallway in the mansion proper. Slowly, lights began to flicker back on. They were no longer where they had been.

The buzz of old electric lamps came to life as the light from them revealed that they were now in what appeared to be the cellar floor of the mansion. There were crates in grid formations across a wide area, labelled as carrying different preservable food items, such as Sugar Bombs, dried beans, canned foods. This was likely a storage area for food which Sooth Sight's family had been living off of for generations.

Kestrel nodded silently, looking around the now relit library. Interesting. So these crystals were used in unicorn magic then? It made sense in a way, those fancy energy weapon things used the same tech after all.

Bit of a different application however.

"So a Unicorn could summon up these things?" Kestrel asked quietly "Someone like you?" he continued, turning to face the unicorn in full.

"And where would a 'text' like this be. This is the third one of these thing's I've had to kill tonight, I'd like to limit any further run in's."

Cuppa simply gave a tired nod of recognition to Sooth Sight as he declared their return, the focus of discussion swiftly moving to a strange crystal. Whilst others fussed over that, Cuppa's attention was on the book she'd brought with them on the trip out of that isolated place. Thankfully the lights were back on now, so if it was possible, reading could be done.

During her time of observing the book, Cuppa heard Sooth and Kestrel's conversation as it drifted towards "dark texts".

Perhaps there was a link there...

Bringing this new book with her, Cuppa interjected. "If yer talkin' 'bout darker texts, maybe this fits the bill? Flash found it... Wherever he was an' Ah thought it might help t' bring it wi' us. He said that there was jus' summint wrong 'bout it." As the coffee-bean flanked mare spoke, she set the large book down on the nearest desk. "Care t' take a look, anypony? If ya'll don't, ah'll look."

Deus looked at the others with disdain, for no particular reason. When the lights started going out, moving the pair about the mansion, she simply appeared curious. The supplies were met with a grin, "I doubt the golden ponies have such grandiose security for their beans," She said to the one who was apparently her companion this night. She had been expecting to simply go to the bedroom and wait out the night like she usually did, but it would appear that perhaps she would be pulling that heist after all, if the mansion itself was going to be forcing her to explore.

The purple glow with a slight tinge of gray filled the immediate area as she cast her Heart Detection spell, whispering, "Heeere, little spirit of hatred and sadness. Come out to play with fun little unicorn..." She called out to whatever spirits or wraiths were out there, hoping to finally talk to something that could commune with her masters again. It had been so long since her cult leaders were killed, and she missed the voices of the Others...

Rad had been about to call out to the other group when the lights started flickering, first the pegasus assumed that like most places in the wastes, the power this lace got was sketchy at best. That was until he noticed they were in a different room entirely. "How did... Wait... Does that say Sugar Bombs?" Rad trotted over to the box. "Hey it is Sugar Bombs! Do ya think they'll mind if we have some?" He asked nowhere in particular. His attention was still on the crate, looking for a way to open it without smashing it apart.

Ale looked around until he spotted three little pistol shaped auras beyond the bookshelves. "Wait, three did somepony else smuggle a gun in?" As the thought crossed his mind he also noticed something amiss about two of the auras specifically in the pistol grips. Then cuppa teleported the two of them back.

Ale for the most part missed the rest of the conversations within the group. Something was up and he was going to try and find out what it was. He raised his own .45 up to his gaze and cast the spell again. Looking to see if his own pistol held a similar magical presence. He would also glance around to the other's pistols. If his own gun had something wonky about it he would give it a thorough inspection to determen the source of the interference.

(PER-7 Inspecting everypony's .45 with detect weapon spell to see if the effect is universal. If I detect something then dismantle grip on my pistol to find source, Repair-60)

Lightning blinked as Cuppa explained her new-found teleportation skill. "Wait? This is your firs-" FLASH! Too late. They were teleported already. The pegasus was not used to teleportation and appearing from one place to another was certainly different for him. He had a moment of confusion as he looked around before he realized he was on the other side of the shelves. The blue stallion quickly checked himself to make sure his limbs were all there before letting out a sigh of relief.

Lightning smiled a little at Sooth Sight and the others, so happy to finally be reunited with them again. "Thank you, sir. There is something extremely strange around here." At the talk about strange, dark text and with Cuppa Beans bringing it up, he quickly jumped into the conversation. "I didn't exactly find it. Behind those shelves, I just had to fight off a small horde of books which decided that I was too tasty to let go. Afterwards, all the books I killed melted and it formed into that. I took a look at the book but when I did, I felt...a strange tugging and there was whispering. I felt as if I was losing myself so I slammed the book close." Glancing toward Sooth Sight, Lightning asked politely, "Did you have any books in your library that was suppose to do that? It looks like some kind of magic book for unicorns by the symbol I saw inside."

[Library Group]

Sooth Sight looked to Kestrel as it seemed like the Griffon was putting him up as a suspect in the appearances of these creatures. He shook his head, "Somepony like me, Sir Kestrel? I do make it a point with myself to become well-versed in magic. But I highly doubt anypony in this day and age would be able to perform such magic... If I were given the necessary time, I could perhaps get such a crystal to enchant a broom to sweep a hallway on a regular schedule. No pony that I could think of in this day and age could get these constructs to act as soldiers... My only guess is that these are left over from ages past, kept dormant by something."

He remembered that Kestrel asked if there were any such books in his collection, he was about to answer when Cuppa and Lightning brought up the book they had just arrived with. The middle-aged Unicorn stallion frowned when Lightning described what the book had, or tried, to do to him. The mention that the the book had active enchantments on it clearly raising some alarms within him, "Hmm... Curious. Very curious. I do not recognize this book." When Cuppa offered to take a look at the book, he then appeared worried, "Lady Cuppa Beans, I... I wouldn't want that book to harm you. Perhaps I should be the one to read it."

When Ale once again used the spell. He detected that the same sort of anomaly was present on everypony's .45 auto's. It was also present on Sooth Sight's Casull. To Ale's likely dismay, he found that whatever it was had been infused into some vital components of the weapon. There wasn't really a way to disassemble the weapon and isolate whatever it was creating the anomaly.

[Deus Crux and Rad Boom]

Rad Boom, ignoring the fact that they had been forcibly teleported into some unknown part of the Mansion in favor of getting himself some Sugar Bombs, found that the crate containing them didn't have the lid nailed on. Inside the wooden crate was an unopened commercial-sized stock unit full of Sugar Bombs packages. Probably meant for being delivered to stores to keep their stocks up with their pre-war popularity, there had to be at least around 300 packages of Sugar Bombs in the crate.

Deus Crux, meanwhile attempted to get in on the more mystical side of whatever was going on. She called out for angry and mournful spirits to play with her, the echoes of her voice cascading around the storage crates. Suddenly a small dark object lanced out from around one of the crates, missing Deus' face by inches. It fluttered up to the nearest lamp fixture and clung to it before coming to a rest, hanging upside down. The large bat that it had been looked down at the two ponies who had invaded the room it had been in. Narrow red eyes beholding them with a slight glow.

Kestrel frowned as Sooth explained himself. He didn't quite trust the buck at that...but matters of magic had never been Kestrel's forte either. War, hunting, surviving yes. But Not magic, that was something for the unicorns and unicorns alone.

The mention of the book however did get Kestrels attention. Carefully he moved a bit closer to the object in question, and attempted to look it over. Perhaps he could find a reason NOT to shoot Sooth Sight for lying to him if he looked the thing over.

Ale frowned when his inspection hit a wall. "Shit, looks like whatever it is it's integrated into the feed ramp." Ale wasn't about to try and take that apart unless he had a workbench and a full array of tools. "Hey sooth? Does this house have a workstation or mechanics shed or something like that?" He asked the unicorn host.

At Sooth's insistence that she shouldn't read it so she would not be harmed in any way, Cuppa gave a curious look before responding. "It'd be hardly kind o' any o' us here t' let our host take a look into what could be dangerous." She noted, then looking to the others. "An' ah seem t' be one of the more versed o' our group wi' magic. So it's only common sense fer me t' take a peek an' see if ah can figure anythin' from it."

Then she paused before giving a little smile to reassure the worried Sooth. "Ah'm a tough mare, dun worry yerself." She then added before she'd make sure there was space to move away from the book in case something did happen, and that the others weren't too close. Then, and only then, she'd grasp the cover of the book with her magic and open it.

(Opening the book after clearing room to run the hell away in case of bad-times.)

Rad, upon seeing the contents of the crate, grabbed one of the boxes and ripped it open, happily chewing on the sugary food inside, and probably would have carried on this way had he not heard the sound of something moving, winged moving to be precise, and he was relatively sure that Deus, being a unicorn. Didn't have wings. So the pegasus looked up from his discovery, still crunching some sugar bombs and saw the large bat hanging from a lamp and staring at them.

"Uhh... Hi there?" Rad simply looked at the bat for a moment, anypony might think he was even being cautious, until. "Want some?" He asked, holding out the box of sugar bombs. "They're good!"

From what his friend said about the book, Dash immediately regarded the tome with suspicion and a bit of fear. He didn't know all that much about matters of magic at all. However, he had overheard his mother speaking to Leafrun a few times to be careful of what magic could do. The world was definitely not just a physical place. At any moment from the piles of the remains of the technologically-dominated society that had fell, ancient artifacts could arise with terrible power.

Admittedly, the days of when magic was prominent enough that such power was commonplace were long over. Dash's connection with his Enclave father, and his Stable Pony mother, both groups having strong knowledge of the old world, often gave him insights into such things. Dash, however, felt himself wanting to better understand this.

Dash also made his way over to the desk to watch the opening of the book.

[Library Group]

Sooth Sight sighed heavily, defeated in his attempt to chivalrously take on whatever burdens the book would bestow on whoever read it as Lightning Flash had described. He nodded to Cuppa, then looked over to Ginger, "Ah, Sir Ginger Ale, there is such a facility in the basement level of the Mansion. If all goes well, I shall direct you there if you wish." Sooth then stood with the group as they all looked on as Cuppa opened the book. He, too, seemed adamant to get to the bottom of why these creatures were appearing in his mansion.

Cuppa opened the book, this time to the first page. Several of the pages had stuck together when Lightning had opened it, unluckily directing him directly to the mind-warping magical circles and runes.

All who gazed upon the book immediately noticed the same sets of mysterious foreign runes. Kestrel and Dash had the advantage of having parents who had spoken to, and showed them things about older times. The text was from a pony colony that had splintered from Equestria shortly after its founding. They had been regarded as sinful and deviant. It, however, wasn't possible for the pegasus or gryphon to translate the ancient script for themselves.

Cuppa found that she was able to discern some, but most of the book remained shrouded in time. However, what she read made no more sense. The text spoke that it was a guide to bringing about a great change. A change in which the natural forces and magics of the world would no longer be held down by ponies nor the Sisters. Freedom would reign and no single force in the world would ever hold ultimate sway. However, it warned that such a transition would not be easy. In able for this new age to begin, sacrifices needed to be made. Terrible, dark sacrifices. On the next few pages were instructions on how to summon beings from other dimensions, ranging in complexity depending on the power of the creature being summoned. The most complex one involved a spell that would potentially take hundreds of years to prepare, but could open a remote gateway to Tartarus itself.

"I don't need to be a professor in fucked-upness to know that thing has got some seriously bad juju going." Trails said while taking a nip from his flask and emptying it. "Somethin' tells me that if anypony can read the damn thing it'll point us in the direction of just what in the hell's going down here, and if we're lucky how to fix it." Unconsciously the big earth pony tabbed out a cigarette from his pack and lit it, taking a long drag before speaking again. "Maybe even how we can use those crystals against our mutual enemy."

Trying to read the script on the pages proved impossible for Kestrel, though he did vaguely remember some old tales about crazy pony cultists that this somewhat sounded like.

The connection was practically non existent however, and Kes wasn't going to stick with that until he had some more evidence to back it.

"Don't think any of us can summon up whatever the hell those things were. I can't read it anyway." Kes started, pulling out the gems he had collected and looking them over while addressing Trails. "This does look like a spell matrix though, maybe these activate it?"

The griffon held the crystals up towards the book, turning and flipping them to see if it was maybe some kind of puzzle or some such. The diagram in the book looked similar to the arcane circle of a Megaspell. Kes knew little of the things but he remembered the only one he'd ever been around having precicely placed crystals on it.

Ale nodded and made a mental note to get to the basement once this whole book ordeal was done with. Hopefully whatever was in the guns will stay dormant until ale could decipher what it was. "Alright, when ya'll are done with your little book club of evil, I say we try and find the rest of the missing guest. We could start in the basement and work our way up. They couldn't have left the house." The white unicorn said as he waited something to happen or preferable not happen.

(All AP to dodge should some demonic hell beast pop out of the book.)

Lightning simply sighed and started to pace a little bit, despite one of his hooves were bandaged. He knew how the book affected him so naturally, he was worried the book would affect his friends. He simply waited to see if something were to happen and if something did, he would tackle Cuppa away from the book.

(If something bad happens, tackle Cuppa and separate her from the book.)

Deus was excited for a small moment seeing movement, but then her hopes dropped when the bat revealed itself. She sighed, then went over to inspect whatever the little pegasus was doing. A crate full of sugar bombs? They weren't as sweet as some of the things she preferred to eat, but she hardly ever found food. These would have to do.

She walked over to the crate and calmly climbed into it, grabbing the nearest box and tearing it open with her teeth. She wasn't paying much attention to the bat anymore as she started devouring sugar bombs, eating them by the box.

Carefully reading the book, Cuppa seemed to frown with worry as she gathered as much information as she could from the arcane texts. Occasionally she'd end up looking towards the others before returning to the book.

"'Kay...." She suddenly begun, looking back to the rest of the group. "Whoever wrote this book didn't have good plans fer equestria, ah can tell ya that's certain. But what ah'm readin' 'ere? It's instructions fer summonin' an' creatin' nasty creatures, maybe like the ones ya'll have dealt with." Pausing a moment to let it sink in, Cuppa would continue explaining and get to the darker detail.

"But what worries me most? There's a horrible ritual later on, an' it tells ya how t' open up a portal t' Tartarus itself through centuries o' sacrificin'..." Again, she allowed the fact to sink in. "Sooth, do ya know anythin' 'bout what yer predecessors studied at all? Cause ah'm not likin' what ah'm seein' in 'ere." Directing the discussion towards Sooth so he could give an explanation, Cuppa would start reading further into the book, keeping an ear free to listen to the buck's answer.