GRAND ADVENTURES

These are the current Storyline Adventures.

GORE GAUNTLET
The Great Hunt for a beast of great power has come, it is time to prove yourselves, young Gibliteers and find the strongest, most dangerous machines and beasts to bring them down as proof of your might!
This would be all well and good if it wasn't for the fact the Gibliteers had selected the red-headed Deadmare Deadringer as their deadliest catch! Every robot, beast, and threat to the Gibliteer are threatened by the hunters, seeking glory and renown by bringing in the biggest and most deadly trophies to earn title.

SL Name of Host: Niles Cournoyer
Adventure Summary:
The Gibliteers have enacted a traditional hunt, destroying any robots or killing any great beast as trophies. Deadringer is an intended target of this great cull, as are the Singularity Cogs. Rescue them!
Suggested items: T2 Purified Water
Characters Participating: Any levels
Goal:
Reach Hayburger Heaven and speak to Deadringer.
Additional: Recover the scattered Cog remains (5)
Reward:
Common loot Node(s), Grand Loot Node, 1000 Caps
Level of Danger:
High

Time: 6 PM SLT in Rock Bottom

UPDATE
Part I has been completed.
After meeting with Cog-12 outside Rock Bottom, the party was given an additional mission; Rescue or recover any Cogs that may be in danger within Rock Bottom! At the entrance of Rock Bottom they encounter Somber, the overseer of the Gore Gauntlet. After being invited to participate, the party came under attack. Fighting through a horde of the weaker riff raff, the party comes across a Gibliteer begging for his life. While interrogating the Gibliteer they discover a way to get around much of the fighting. A small hovel grants respite from the party, and all members recover +2 AP from a receptacle of dirty water.

The party has recovered 1/5 Cogs. There are 4 more Cogs in the city needing rescue.
1 Common Node has been awarded.

Part II
Time: 6 PM SLT in Rock Bottom.

UPDATE
PART II COMPLETE!

The party defeated the Gibliteer hopefuls and sent most of them packing! Upon arrival to the Diner, they encountered a hellish nightmare. The desiccated remains of many ponies and beasts lay strewn around the restaurant. The new gaudy paint-job almost got another coat as the battle-drunk Deadmare Deadringer failed to recognize his friends. On Pup's birthdays of all days, Deadringer struck hard and fast, breaking Finley's leg and beating Twelve soundly with their own arm. It wasn't until Mister Twelve and Tick-Tock managed to pin and hack him did the hellish encounter finally come to an end.

It was then that Deadringer returned to Tumbleweed, revealing that he knew the Gore Gauntlet was coming, and knew he was a target--Thus he stayed inside the city to keep the gibliteers from laying siege to Tumbleweed. Wisp recovered a data drive with Deadringer's personal journal on it, revealing it to Mr. Twelve. Mr. Twelve has yet to analyze it and Deadringer had already erased his memory of the device.

The party rescued 4/5 Cogs.

DAY ONE:
The trip to the city of Detrot was a long and rough road. The group of ponies managed to cash in a favor with Long Haul, the local caravaneer, and secured safe passage to the gates of the city, complete with the gnarled old oak tree holding the bones of Silver Lining. Their welcome to the city was a surprise attack by a pack of glowing ghouls, which were dispatched without too much effort on anyone’s part.
As the massive gates opened, the group was meet by a battalion of Steel Rangers. In particular, this chapter’s elder Stay-Strong, and a rather...familiar looking Deadmare impala by the name of Saw’mae. The elder recognized Deadringer almost immediately, and after a brief conversation, the group was told their trip was in vain. The Rangers would not allow them access to Tartarus Tower, for fear of bringing about...something. Something bad. Instead, the Wastelanders were escorted to an empty apartment building and placed under guard of Saw’mae and a Steel Ranger Paladin by the name of Pumpkin Spice.

Of course they weren’t ones to take no for an answer, ever, and decided to press the boundaries of what they were allowed to do. The group split into two to take a trip around the city, still under guard. During the confusion, the pegasus filly Sun Light managed to slip away unnoticed, vanishing into the dark alleys and twisting passages of the city. She had a strange encounter with a stallion named Rebel Riot, who swindled her of 200 caps before revealing he was actually a spirit trapped inside the city. She promised to help, and he vanished.

The group led by the Paladin ran into one of the city’s more...unsavory denizens. A Strider, a horrific deadmare creation that was more knives and steel than pony. The Paladin succeeded in sending the creature away, and proceeded with the tour, giving the Wastelanders valuable information as to the location of the Ranger headquarters, their munition storage, the former distillery, and the ShadowBolt Memorial Museum. It was there the group first set their eyes on a pre-war relic like no other, the gleaming, polished hull of a nimble airship known as the Flickerjack. She had been restored by those that owned the museum, and sat ready to go to war. It was there, the beginnings of a plan were hatched.

At the same time, the group lead by Saw’mae didn’t fare nearly as well. The Strider sent away by Paladin Spice made a beeline for them, given he’d ordered it to “go suck on a ghoul.” Luckless was a ghoul, and it attacked without heed for its own safety, throwing itself at the few ponies gathered. After some effort it was dispatched, and they carried on, traveling the other way around the city before meeting back up with the rest of the group at the Rangers’ munitions warehouse. They did some bartering with Proctor Ingot, the rangers’ Mr. Handy warehouse manager, then returned to the apartment complex for the night.

There, Dominus noticed a monitor on the wall, and after many failed attempts by pretty much everyone else in the building, Doc Redford succeeded in accessing the computer system, which brought them the ability to speak with a charming old mare named Auntie Julip. She informed them NecroNet was, at least when she was alive, a system to help old folks remember their past and connect with one another. Clearly that wasn’t the case any longer.

In the darkness a plan was hatched slowly and surely, and the next day the group took a visit to the ShadowBolt Museum. There, they met one of the museum staff, a Dashite by the name of Charlie Foxtrot. He showed them around, and after a massive misunderstanding as to identity, he realized Deadringer was Toughluck Jack, the former captain of the Flickerjack. He produced the keys to the airship and handed them over, then revealed the ship itself wasn’t quite as ready for war as previously imagined. She was out of fuel and didn’t have a single shell for any of the weapons, though they were in working order.

That night, back at the apartment complex, Cinnamon Text put a crazy plan into action. The group overpowered Saw’mae and he pulled the...personality adjustment chip out of the impala’s head, freeing him from the life of over-the-top happiness he’d been forced into. Of course, Saw’mae promptly returned to his usual angry self, and was now out for revenge by way of spilling the black blood of the city’s Deadmares.

---

DAY TWO
The next day, the group split into three to satisfy the three needs for getting the Flickerjack airworthy. Grain alcohol from the distillery, munitions from the Ranger warehouse...and soul cores from the rampant hostile deadmares prowling the outer edges of the city. Deadringer and Charlie stayed behind at the museum, preparing the ship to fuel and load for combat.

The first group arrived at the distillery, finding one of the tanks leaking alcohol everywhere. Behind the building, a group of deadmare Sweepers, clones of Toughluck Jack, were fighting a Black Spot. In this case, a hulking cyborg minotaur, rampaging around in a pit of toxic sludge. Blast Path and Sun Light decided the best course of action was to taunt the beast into attacking the building to knock the tank loose. And...Luckless decided he would assist by drinking the rocket-grade alcohol, then rolled off the roof and fell in a dumpster. A fight of epic proportions broke out, Sun Light broke her hip, and Blast Path used his advanced Explodomancy to hurl a single grenade in just such a way that it blew the Black Spot’s head clean off, knocked the tank over backwards, and filled up the dumpster Luckless had already fallen into.

The second group, Empyrean and Wisp the changeling, in disguise, traveled to the Ranger warehouse in a bid to secure munitions for the airship. They succeeded in convincing Paladin Spice to let them in, and made off with enough crates of ammo and black powder to level a city block. The two groups met back up in the center of town, where they came across the third deadly denizen of Detrot, the DeadEyes.

Horrific cyber-enhanced clones, the DeadEyes sported massive cybernetic eyes, and each one controlled their own personal army of guns, held over their heads in stark-white magic. This matching pair, Ebony and Ivory, attacked the group and the now-rogue Deadmare Saw’mae. The Paladin arrived late but was able to assist, and only one fell to the barrage of bullets, Lunar Symphony. The fallen deadmares and their guns yielded enough soul cores to complete the fuel mix for the Flickerjack, and the group returned to the museum for final preparations.

It was there Paladin Spice arrived once more, and brought with him grave news. He completed the puzzle for everyone present. Returning Deadringer to Tartarus Tower would re-awaken NecroNet, or so the legend said, and bring about the second apocalypse upon this already ravaged world. This information didn’t dissuade the group, if anything it only bolstered their resolve to not let it happen, and the Paladin departed once more.

---

THE FINAL DAY
The next day, the Wastelanders awoke to the dull thrumming of engines, as Charlie made final preparations for launch. A traveling merchant by the name of Hush stopped by the museum for last-minute gear purchases, and as an army of Steel Rangers bore down on the museum to stop them, the Flickerjack leapt from her moorings and crashed through the roof, bearing the motley crew towards the Exclusion Zone, and Tartarus Tower at its heart. Blast Path took great pleasure in using the massive gatling gun to tear swathes through the Sweepers, the Striders, and the massive Anti-Air cannons mounted on the wall separating the city from the tower.

The ship began to take hits from the automated defenses, and in a last-ditch effort, Deadringer ordered Charlie to cut the balloon loose. He did, but was tangled in the cords and vanished into the sky as the Flickerjack dropped like a rock, striking the side of Tartarus Tower with enough force to smash clean through the side...and kill everyone on board all at the same time.

A few hours later the group of Wastelanders awoke inside the building...not dead anymore. Breaching the wall of Tartarus Tower had flung them headlong into the heart of its strange machinations, and the Paradox Drive that powered the facility. The rules of reality need not apply inside a Paradox Drive, meaning that which lives outside, cannot die inside. The same applies in reverse, any Deadmares within the walls went down and did not get up, as they were soon to learn. In order to drive this point home, Dominus decided it would be a good idea to shoot himself in the head to test if they actually could die. He got up again a few minutes later with one hell of a headache.

It only got stranger from there, as the tower’s computer system recognized their group by name and face, then proceeded to interact with them through...an avatar of Shadow Bolt. An older Shadow Bolt, who referred to the current Shadow Bolt as the system administrator. The Interface informed the group that Shadow Bolt had been flung back in time through some strange circumstance, and had been waiting here for 200 years for them to arrive. They didn’t know it yet, but they were caught inside a time loop, and that loop was getting sick of this happening over and over again.

They proceeded up into the tower, and were met by their first challenge, the Narrator and the Clone. The Narrator, another DeadEye that spoke solely in the third person, and a Clone that looked eerily similar to a certain short unicorn named Corentin. Deadringer attempted to talk past them, and was perforated by the Deadmare’s many...many guns. He hit the ground, hard, and didn’t get up. This of course, kicked off a massive fight, and in the end the DeadEye and the Clone fell to what the Narrator referred to as...Legends. Deadringer staggered to his hooves, and the group proceeded up even higher. They had a job to do.

At the top of the tower they were met by an awe-inspiring sight. Above the clouds and in the center of the room stood a massive, gnarled tree. Glowing with blue leaves, the wind that whistled around its branches sounding more like singing than the howling of a breeze. Of course, standing between them and this tree was a veritable army of Sweepers. The Tower didn’t want them reaching the tree, and it was doing everything it could to stop their progress.

Derp, the party’s bard was present at the time, and he would sing songs of the battle that ensued until he grew old and grey. These Legends attacked without heed for their own safety, carving a path through the army of Sweepers. Blood, bullets and an RPG or two flew through the air, and the Sweepers began to fall to the overwhelming determination of these warriors. And as the last Sweeper hit the tiled floor, they remained, as conquerors.

But the story had to continue. History had to reach a certain point before it could be altered, and this was a fact Deadringer was all too-aware of. Underneath the tree sat a throne, and in that throne sat...Deadringer again. It was time to end the cycle. Time to break the loop. He said his goodbyes, pulled the soul core from his forehead, and as the light faded from his eyes, jammed it into the body underneath the leaves of the tree.

The wind kicked up, the singing grew into a heavy wail, and the tree began to speak to the gathered Legends. Its name was Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life, and it wanted to grant them a single wish. Doc Redford completed the promise he’d made all those months ago, in the dead of winter, under the fresh-fallen snow of the Canyon’s graveyard. He laid Silver’s sun-bleached bones under the leaves of the tree, and wished for it to return him to life. Return the stallion with a heart of gold to them, so they could set the world right once more. The leaves rustled, the wind sang again, and a massive fruit fell from the twisted boughs. It split open on the ground, revealing the spindly pegasus that had given his life to save a town of his friends.

However, their quest was far from done. Deadringer gave himself to give them the chance to restore their friend. The Paradox Drive can only give what it takes away, a life for another life, and it brought with it a horrible consequence. The Soul Core carried by Deadringer contained the code necessary to revive NecroNet, and the tower shook and groaned as the corrupt system at its core began to awaken. Arms erupted from the floor, grabbing every pony present, and dragging them down into the depths of Tartarus Tower. They still had one more evil to face. The dragon had awoken...and it was not happy.

---

THE FINAL HOUR
For the second time that day, the group of Legends died and awoke once more. Blast Path’s neck snapped on impact into the room, and he was out cold for a while longer than everyone else. They were in a cavernous room, filled with glowing crystals, with a massive one located at the center. It was guarded by...a tiny cat in an angel costume, that barely reached up to their knees. It greeted them cheerfully, introduced itself as the Avatar of NecroNet, and offered them eternal happiness inside the system’s collective...if they were willing to die and submit to processing.

The group spoke to the Avatar at length, attempting to find out more information. Where was Deadringer, what exactly was NecroNet’s offer of eternal happiness...and what was processing. The smallest among them, Sun Light, saw through the Avatar’s attempted lies, and used the tried and true solution taught to her by Uncle Doc. Shoot first, ask questions later. And she fired at the Avatar without a second thought.

Doc was the fastest gun this side of Equestria, and his reflexes were unmatched by even robots and Holographic Cat Avatars. He shot to the side and struck one of the smaller crystals, shattering it into pieces, and sparking a battle the likes of which hadn’t been seen with such color-coding since the end of Mass Effect 3. As the battle raged on, Tick Tock attempted to betray the group in favor of accepting NecroNet’s offer, casting clouds of dust and smoke across the room. But these Legends were not so easily stopped, even as Cinnamon Text was the first to fall to the system’s processing. The reaching arms impaled him through the forehead, and his body crumpled to the floor lifeless as the final crystal exploded into a shower of shrapnel.

The Avatar screamed, the crystal in the center of the room screamed, and the tower shook as the Paradox Drive at its core began to destabilize. The cat distorted and stretched into a horrifying, distorted figure, and it screeched and shouted at the gathered group in a terrifying, digitized wail. The massive crystal in the center of the room was knocked off-kilter, and the group of ponies opened fire with everything they had, intent on smashing it to pieces to put an end to NecroNet once and for all. But as the final bullet whizzed towards the crystal, time stopped. NecroNet had awoken, and they were trapped inside its domain. The hands erupted from the floor, grabbing every single one of the ponies in the room, and for the third time that day, their consciousness died as they were dragged, screaming, into the void.

The dark heart of NecroNet could see all. An infinite and finite expanse at the same time, the Legends were beset on all sides by the system’s unblinking eyes. Before them was the massive true Avatar of NecroNet, two gigantic hands that moved freely in the void, and a colossal mask with a singular, glowing eye. This was the eternal happiness it had attempted to trick them into, corrupted by the fallen souls of thousands, who died screaming and in pain. The amalgamation of all their fear, pain, and burning hatred had warped and distorted what was once a tool for good.

They had endured trials that would have broken most ponies. As they came to realize, this was the final end to the loop that existed inside the tower. They had all been here an infinite number of times, and had died an infinite number of ways before ever reaching the Tree of Life. Deadringer would break his soul core, causing the Tower’s Paradox Drive to explode, and rewind time inside Tartarus Tower to let them try again. Repeating this loop for infinity, until the variables lined up that finally led them here. This was their last go around the track, this was the end of the line. Next stop...saving the world.

The Avatar was broken and corrupt, and had weak spots revealed it couldn’t protect forever. They capitalized on this, firing at the crystals the hands seeked to cover before attacking the glowing eye seated in the mask. Every time this pattern succeeded, the Avatar screamed, and more eyes appeared to watch them, crossing the void with their gaze. Lunar Symphony and Patch Frost were caught in their sight, and burned to a crisp inside the simulation.

NecroNet seeked to break them before they could succeed in breaking it, and the massive hands snatched up one of their own, Empyrean Ether, slowly crushing him in their grasp. It wanted to hear Redford cry out, give in to his fear, and break. But their resolve was stronger than any machination, and they did not stop the assault, freeing Empyrean from its grip before striking the eye again.

Before the final blow could be struck, however, NecroNet changed the rules. It was not going to lose inside its own domain, and it flung all of them across the void. They landed hard, and the lasers bore down on them to end this loop once and for all. They were going to die here inside a simulation, they had failed. The group said their final goodbyes, and Redford decided it was a good time to ask Empyrean to marry him, to which the unicorn said yes. And there they lay, waiting for the end.

That is, however, until Toughluck Jack fell through a hole in the void like a redheaded, sarcastic comet, landing in front of the group to block NecroNet’s final attack. For if the system could change the rules, then the one that powered its core could too. The hole he tore in the void let down a beam of light into the darkness, and the group slowly managed to stagger upright again. The strain of the ordeal proved too much for the filly Sun Light, and in a moment that shocked everyone gathered, the tiny pegasus vanished in a burst of green flames, replaced by a slightly larger green changeling. This...explained a whole lot, actually, but it didn’t seem to particularly shake anyone. Doc and Empyrean still cared for her all the same. But there was a dragon that needed to be slain, and this was no time to rest.

Jack led them across the void, deflecting the Avatar’s attacks effortlessly as it tore the simulation apart in an attempt to kill them all. Even as he stopped blocking, the lasers did nothing. The dark reality inside NecroNet was crumbling, and its power was unraveling like the very fabric of this world it existed inside. The group of Legends., opened fire on the Avatar once more, and it was Cinnamon Text who struck the final blow, sending the mask screaming into the void. NecroNet slept once more.

The void began to fall to pieces, and the group made a mad dash for the beacon of light. All except for Cinnamon Text. He had been the only one to truly submit to processing, the system hadn’t merely transferred his consciousness. His body was dead. There was nothing for him to return to. He stayed behind inside the crumbling simulation, intent on keeping watch over the domain of NecroNet, in case it were to awaken again.

The group awoke on the roof of the tower, gathered around Yggdrasil once more. The wind did not sing, the leaves did not shimmer. The Tree of Life had died, giving itself up as the final sacrifice...to make one final wish. It had decided not to sit back and let the world end once again, and gave itself to change the course of history. One last fruit fell from the tree and split against the tile, revealing Cinnamon Text, though he was no longer fully what he was. The shaky, stuttering stallion had been reborn as a Kirin, complete with shining scales and a majestic pair of horns. Doc Redford cut a small snippet from one of the branches that still glowed and pocketed it.

The beautiful moment of reunion between the group was cut short by the roar of engines. The Flickerjack crested the top of the tower with Charlie at the helm, and he pulled alongside the building to ferry them home. Toughluck Jack and Mud Slinger shared one final kiss before crossing the threshhold of the tower, reverting back to Deadringer and Luckless once more as the ship pulled away into the sky. Their avatars remained behind, the holograms of their past locked in a never ending cycle with the tower itself.

For there will always be a tree. There will always be a white stallion, there will always be a sacrifice...because there always has to be an End.

Another Chapter is complete--More pages are added as another book is opened.

Adventure Awaits