PRPG3 GM Plot Outline:

Game begins: 27 Fruits 3645

Backstory notes:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g_2KJZtMCV_WSdm6jTiOIc-QnCEu_TRxRFRSnt1lU_s/edit

Player Character notes:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ORC_zhsE4z7Ntb7y6YZrs4uOTfFzlq606JhFbHM1TTk/edit

Main plot points:

1. The party has been gathered to form an expedition to recover specimens to restore biodiversity after the drought of the Dark Ages
2. Party travels to Hayminnow Islands (Canner Island) to find the last unopened cans of hayminnows for possible cloning to restock the oceans
3. Party travels to Sickle Island
4. The party travels about 30,000 years into the past and collects megaflora
5. Villains destroy the Harmony with an asteroid, escape 7 days into the past, and attempt to kill the party with another asteroid
6. Party ends up on Haven Island
7. Party travels to the Crooked Tower / Cardioid Point
8. Party is asked to retrieve the sunstone
9. Encounter with djinn
10. Travel through wealds
11. Party encounters the main villain group in Sunshine
12. The sunstone is purified
13. Mel-Anhu is confronted

Detailed events:

1. The party has been gathered to form an expedition

1. Start in Docktown

1. Dawn Sparkle meets them here, and issues further instructions

2. Can get to Hayminnow by whatever means they choose

1. Reimbursement for reasonable expenses

2. Party travels to Hayminnow Island

1. Solar disturbances start during this time

1. Villains have traveled to the past and are experimenting

2. Dawn Sparkle stays behind while the party gets the cans of hayminnows

1. Explains the purpose of the expedition’s specimen gathering to them via the coconut example
2. Dawn does not come with because she’s busy with other matters (gamist purpose: frees the party from having to drag her along on their first significant adventure as a group)

3. Party must go through the ruins of the old canneries to find unshipped cases of hayminnows

1. Attack by dire snails / army snails
2. Players find the bones of adolescent ponies / zebras underhoof near the site and will have to decide what to do with these remains

4. Party returns with cans: Dawn will execute a win-win plan of taking the contents of the cans but leaving the cans themselves for the zebras as cultural objects by teleporting the contents out of the cans

1. Cans and any other found items of interest get delivered to the governor’s office

3. Party travels to Sickle Island

1. Dawn reveals that the expedition will not be to somewhere, but to somewhen (in the past)

1. Geas administered

2. Airship from Hayminnow to Sparkle City

1. Solar disturbance along the way - one occurred while the party was in the jungle, but they missed it by being in the shade

1. Monitoring for these disturbances by closely watching the shadows is Dawn’s real reason for hanging out on the beach while the party is on their quest
2. Dawn will write and send a quick message requesting the source of the disturbance be located

2. In Sparkle City, Dawn will drop off the hayminnows at Radiance University

1. Dr. Flora Exotica

3. Railroad from Sparkle City to Neveryshyed

1. Train stops at Gallup for a while to unload and onload some things
2. A pegasus they meet in Gallup initiates a sidetrack into the Forbidding Forest where the party will find a remote ritual magic circle used by “she-of-the-eyes”

1. This pegasus is Clean Whistle, having traveled back in time a week or so with the rest of Twilight Hour’s group and then traveled to Gallup to try to catch them at the train

3. When they get close to the circle, it activates in response to residual magic in a prayer by Star Struck (this is Mel-Anhu getting a good look at the party to better track them / use information against them later)

1. Dream mad-libs start here

1. Some are meaningless psychic noise, some are attempts by Mel-Anhu to influence the party members

4. Boat from Nevershyed to Sickle Island

1. Clean Whistle accompanies the party
2. On the way, a meteorite hits the water not far from the boat and causes a big wave to wash over it

1. Hull cracks; valve lineup puzzle to pump the bilge and keep the boat afloat

5. Party meets Twilight Hour and her time-portal facility staff

1. Need a puzzle to be tossed at the party by the facility staff, probably the equipment operator trio?

6. Private conversation between Dawn and the party re strange occurrences

4. Party travels into the past

1. First trip will be into distant prehistory

1. No dreams from Mel-Anhu during this segment
2. Party will encounter mammoth motile vegetables - probably will fight
3. Time of year they will be sent to will be at the end of growing season and the height of megaflora size - larger megaflora almost ready to die and disperse their seeds are believed to be slower moving and may be easier to catch
4. Location will be near the La Neigha tar pits, with Rock-Hay Mountains to the east
5. Party should also attempt to gather various agriculturally valuable invertebrates, eg. earthworms, that have lost diversity in the drought

1. Attempt to collect some things might disturb a tatzlwurm, starting a fight^[a][b][c]

6. Encounter prehistoric pegasi megaflora hunters at tarpits

1. Dawn will provide the party with chipped-obsidian spearheads for possible trade - making these is a special talent of Dawn’s and drops a hint at Obsidian Hues
2. Prehistoric pony village community is having a harvest/hunt celebration to which they welcome the party - activities include trade, feasting, games, and mating

7. Primal hunting instinct to pursue and devour moving vegetables
8. Dark Spark may earn her cutie mark when she hunts and kills megaflora
9. Communal feasting on felled megaflora is a chance to socialize
10. At the prehistoric village, the party will encounter Moonglow, the unicorn wise-mare who has a sample of very rare carrotdactyl

1. She will be unwilling to trade any of the carrotdactyl for stuff the party has immediately available because of the carrotdactyl’s usefulness. Instead, she wants the flowers and/or leaves of the sunshrub (Similar to Cinchona species), a red and orange bush that grows in mountain territory jealously guarded by a female dragon named Flämme
2. Flämme guards this territory because of its rich gem and rock resources, and is possibly upset that ponies sometimes venture in to gather flint for bladeknapping, which she regards as stealing
3. Showing her the obsidian blades will result in either her getting hungry for the interesting stones, or getting upset about further “theft”
4. Flämme will challenge the party with riddles (hat riddle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5vJSNXPEwA) and a display of magic
5. Flämme will bargain with them, seeing them as potentially useful agents for her own goals: Offers to trade them the bush they’re after in exchange for retrieving her fertilized egg from the care bear(s) she blames for abducting it
6. Care bears have made a habit of abducting and magically enslaving other creatures to work for them. Starglow, Moonglow’s daughter, is among them, as are numerous deer and maybe other sentient creatures

11. Attack by care bears (Arctos noiazoma) and/or sabre-toothed squirrels (Sciurus infernalis)

1. Crystal and angles combat puzzle in care bear fight
2. Commotion may attract a thorny whipvine to fight
3. Dark Spark might get her cutie mark as a fighter of bears or vegetables

12. Encounter En-Mequnan and En-Danunan in the past - surprises them, En-Mequnan comments curiously about how the party was “outside of her sight.”

1. If asked who they are, they will introduce themselves as Megan and her brother Danny.

13. Party returns to present
14. Party mentions Megan, causing Dawn to call a stop to time travel until further guidance

2. Private conversation between Dawn and Spark

1. Spark wants to contact curatrix with Dawn when Dawn elevates report of party encountering Megan
2. Spark tells Dawn that she got her cutie mark

3. Second conversation asking for advice, from Night and Spark, re telling Star that Dawn is an alicorn

1. Dawn's concern is that Star may obey fanatically with a dangerous lack of independent critical thought if she perceives Dawn as a "goddess"

4. Second trip (if it happens) will be a brief EQG segment^[d]

1. To get there, they will travel back in time to when Twilight’s portal to the EQG world was available on-demand, then sneak into the area of the castle it is kept in
2. Characters will probably have currency to just buy domesticated vegetables with
3. These will be considered very desirable, since they’re modern highly productive crop breeds
4. After returning through the portal, Twilight Sparkle may be there to catch the party
5. If the party uses their return beacons, they might accidentally bring Twilight back with them

1. This will require containment actions (freezing speech to limit how much Twilight inadvertently learns about where and when she has ended up) and sending Twilight back to her correct time and place as quickly as possible

5. Villains destroy the Harmony with an asteroid

1. The Harmony is struck by a meteorite on the night of return from the first or second trip, while the party is resting from their adventure

1. Party members are awoken by feeling strong magic, if magically sensate, or by Dawn via telepathy if not.
2. Goat previously brought back meteorite fragment (from Starmetal campaign), providing magic signature for asteroid capture spell - party may find this fragment if they search

2. Immediately after the Harmony is destroyed, Twilight Hour and the entire staff of the laboratory are found using the portal to go somewhere.

1. Locked in the portal room and refuse to open the door, the antagonist party escapes back in time
2. Dawn fears that another meteor might be coming down on them, and long-range teleports the party

1. Destination is player-chosen, with realtime pressure in effect^[e]
2. If time expires without a decisive choice, Dawn will stop waiting for a response and choose a destination at random
3. Warn players about this mechanic early, so it doesn’t blindside them and cause frustration?

3. Clean Whistle unexpectedly appears, confused

1. This is the Clean Whistle who had previously gone back in time
2. Twilight Hour ordered the two Clean Whistles to stay out of contact with each other to minimize contamination of the past with future knowledge, and didn’t tell the current Clean Whistle (the one she took back in time) about the meteorite about to hit the island
3. Killing Clean Whistle is regarded by Dr. Hour as an acceptable sacrifice to serve the dual purposes of hedging her bets against Dawn and the party escaping, and cleaning up potential evidence

4. The Sickle Island facility is destroyed by a meteorite impact, moments after the party teleports out

3. Addendum: Goat’s timeline:

1. First mission into the past was to try to coerce Hydia into draining the sunstone’s magic into a substitute gem for her, which failed due to the intervention of heroes (A Hideous Lament campaign, 146 BE)
2. Second mission was a second attempt to capture the sunstone, undertaken based on historical records pinpointing the time at which Flutter Valley failed due to the sunstone disappearing (1027 AE)

1. Presumption was that the sunstone was stolen, and the goat is working on the premise that a successful theft in the past may have been her - scrying back in time to verify this could not succeed because of the future success of the no-spell
2. Goat almost succeeds; the magic used in the attempted theft causes the sunstone to break in two under thermal stress
3. Goat manages to get the smaller half
4. Larger half remains in the past
5. See for details: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z9ebyAp711d92_Elf0HD8gSw2QhkpOKqcWeFTuNtUE0/edit

3. Third mission was to get a piece of a meteorite, which was successful (Starmetal campaign, 147 BE)

6. Party ends up on Haven Island

1. No available ferries to mainland - will need to call for one
2. Meadow Mist (the Kenningess of Martingales) surprises the party by referring to Dawn as a “Queen” and to her bitypical pony companions as her “nobles.”

7. Party returns to mainland near Shaded Hollow

1. Rumors of a creature said to take domestic animals, although this is ambiguous

1. Speculation that it is some sort of giant spider - no one is really sure

2. If party ventures into the forest, they will encounter Mel-Anhu for the first time

1. Can catch her by surprise because she was unable to see them flee Sickle Island due to Dawn’s blinding geas

8. Party is asked to retrieve the sunstone (by Libby ?)

1. Crystal ball telecommunication with Libby by Emerald, Dawn, and party

1. Denouement:

1. The time travel project was merely instrumental to other ends and never expected to last long-term - it was expected to work short-term, but was theorized that something unforeseeable would cause it to become non-viable before long because of a lack of evidence for extensive time travel into the past
2. Finding the sunstone is what time travel was ultimately leading up to
3. Reveal no-spell plan
4. See Dawn Sparkle entry in backstory notes page for further details

2. Put party on a mission to find and retrieve the sunstone

1. Party is chosen because they’re already exposed to sensitive information that Dr. Hour and her staff might reveal
2. Emerald / Libby / Dawn give the party:

1. A dose of original super-potion
2. Haste amulet
3. Stoneskin bracelet
4. Phoenix feather cloak

9. Party is teleported to just outside Steelshoe

1. Dr. Hour and party was seen:

1. By Flange Wheel buying camping supplies in the general store
2. By Chert Claws sending a letter

2. Moxie Mocha tries to catch Star Struck alone, having been brought to Steelshoe by a letter (sent by Dr. Hour) purporting to be from Star Struck saying that she was in a bad situation and needed help

1. Moxie believes the letter and assumes that Star really is in trouble, and poisons her with an anesthetic to force police involvement that she hopes will reveal something sinister and get Star out of a bad situation
2. A very good toxicologist from Radiance University is dispatched to examine Star. She correctly deduces the cause of the poisoning and determines it to be likely harmless.
3. Moxie confesses to poisoning Star; party is exonerated and Star recovers quickly.

10. En route to Calkin

1. Tatzlwurm attack

1. Attack triggered by a magical thumper teleported in near the party

2. Party is dragged underground and has to explore a network of caves

1. Crystal spider colony

1. Spiders have animal bones wrapped up in silk, both feral and ponies
2. Spider webbing can only be dissolved by a special enzyme in the spider’s spinneret glands
3. Fangs are unable to pierce Spark, due to her stoneskin bracelet, but other characters may be poisoned if bitten

1. Poison can be cured with an alchemical anti-venom, but it leaves nausea and weakness

2. Old ruins / rubble of pre-catastrophic structures collapsed beneath the ground

1. “Spona Values” shop sign

3. One or more party members might get injured in the caves

3. Encounter with djinn

1. Originally from the Dread Dimensions, and resides in a large segment of caves that has has some of the magitrophic life of the Dread Dimension imported
2. Refers to En-Bequ'avar as Fire Mother

1. Hamiltonian path puzzle
2. Reward for solving puzzle is a book containing records of what happened to Iron Horn in Calkin and the fate of his raiding party to Sunshine Abbey

3. Party ended up naming her “Ember”

11. Party finally reaches the surface, near Calkin

1. The party finds the remnants of an expedition that has vanished (equipment left behind, but all logs and books appear to have been burned to fine ash)

1. A few charred bones remain behind
2. If the past is scryed, the party may see Twilight Hour’s party briefly before being interrupted by something blocking further scrying with faint musical magic
3. The excavation’s flappycat has been left behind; the party will probably find it very hungry from not having been fed for a while

1. Silver tabby coat, female

2. If an extraction is called in for Ember (djinn):

1. Dawn informs the party that since the djinn is a sentient being, she has freedom of travel and can’t be unlawfully restrained, so whether or not to go with whatever courier she sends is really up to the djinn
2. Courier is Variscite Hues, a pale green pegasus with an orange mane and tail and copper eyes who is a descendant of Topaz

3. Iron Horn’s hidden stash has not been opened yet by the vanished expedition

1. Two’s Complement puzzle to open this stash
2. Contains a wand of polymorph (to a goose, lasts about an hour) and a book that cannot be deciphered yet

4. Mel-Anhu detects the party once they’re above ground

1. Dreamlib for Gale when she next sleeps

5. The sun dims briefly while the party travels onward to their next destination

12. Party goes to Wickerby:

1. Remote farming town

1. Dr. Hour and her party have not been through Wickerby
2. Most water travel is either down the eastern coast or up the Great Western River - superstitions about the deserted lands to the west, especially the Forgotten Weald, prevent most local ponies from going that direction
3. Local ordinance enforces the proscription against landing along the western coast, since it is designated as a historical ruin and not to be disturbed by unnecessary intrusion without the proper permits
4. Some boats run to Crystal Cliffs, but will refuse to stop along the western Yore mainland coast near Sunshine

13. Crystal Cliffs:

1. Crystal Cliffs ponies also do not go near Sunshine, considering it dangerous and off-limits

14. Travel through wealds:

1. High weald is mostly normal woods, some minor hazards
2. Forgotten weald is a place infused with sadness and isolation, mental challenge to persevere through

1. The Forgotten Weald carries the residual sadness and anger that the last monks and nuns of Sunshine tried to infuse in the hopes that negative emotions would be poisonous to the crystal forest
2. Challenges in the Forgotten Weald:

1. Will-o-the-wisp
2. Hearing voices
3. Bizarre / frightening visions of past experiences

1. Dark Spark: being taunted for being a blank flank, being attacked by an extremist
2. Star: Moxie Mocha being kicked out of school
3. Gale: pegasus supremacism
4. Hazel: family disapproval about the book series he likes to read
5. Burdy: Flaming booze golem, disapproval from an alicorn
6. Night Chime: being taunted that he’s “not a real shadhavar”

3. The party encounters Tune Tome in the Forgotten Weald:

1. He doesn’t believe they’re real at first - caused be visions
2. Was convinced to go along with Dr. Hour by what she revealed to him: the tragedies of Celestia and Luna, their complicitness with changeling infiltration in the Golden Age government and Dread Dimensions colonization, Eldritch Lore’s role in the Catastrophe and the disturbing revelation that Libby is Edritch Lore’s reincarnation, and Dawn being the reincarnation of Obsidian Hues all made him see the new cohort of alicorns as dangerous repetitions of the past
3. Believed at first that Nova (Eldritch) had to be eliminated at any cost, but misgivings about retrodivination goals and Dr. Hour’s ruthlessness (especially in disintegrating the Calkin excavators) made him lose confidence in her as the solution
4. Left her party as they were passing through the Forgotten Weald and they proceeded on without him

4. Tune Tome has left a number of small stone circles (arrangements of stones with eyes carved in them) in the Forgotten Weald to cloud Mel-Anhu and Dr. Hour’s ability to find him

15. Sunshine Abbey:

1. Entry to Sunshine Abbey requires going through the Church of the Sun

1. Solar Cycle puzzle to be allowed into the grounds
2. Map key (map at https://rpg.rrgv.org/wiki/Sunshine%20Abbey):

1. Church of the Sun
2. Brewery / distillery / alchemical stores
3. Amphitheater
4. Shed
5. Cloisters
6. Solarium (greenhouse)
7. Hotel
8. Hotel support area
9. Visiting mage tower
10. High clerical quarters
11. Refectory
12. Kitchen
13. Well
14. Inner Solar Courtyard
15. Chapel of the Moon
16. High clerical quarters
17. Chapel of the Sun
18. Solar Spire
19. Hospital
20. Medical alchemy
21. Solarium (greenhouse)
22. Library
23. Scriptorium
24. School
25. Laundry
26. Stores
27. Shed

2. Six gating challenges:

1. Honesty
2. Kindness
3. Laughter
4. Generosity
5. Loyalty
6. Magic

3. Honesty's Gate: Sunshine Abbey still has the bound souls of the monks and nuns who took a vow that included a geas-like spell to prevent them from leaving until the return of Celestia (whether literal or metaphorical)

1. Meet Primequate

1. In brewery
2. Will need to make potion to speak to the dead - requires maker to be honest about something, satisfying honesty’s gate
3. Exposition: Vow of Remaining

4. Kindness’ Gate: Proceed to cloister

1. Entry requires showing kindness to Whispersoft

1. Party finds her crying outside the cloister
2. She questions if they are real at first, disbelieving that the living would ever return to Sunshine
3. Begs party to stay and speak with her
4. After they speak with her for awhile, Corwin (her crow friend) will arrive

2. This area consists of the domicile blocks the monks lived in
3. Attack by the animated skeletons of the dead

1. After fight with skeletons of the dead, Corwin and friends bring the key needed for entry through the library
2. Other entries are magically barred

5. Fight started by Strawberry Sorbet^[f]

1. In library with squamous horrors
2. She uses explosive devices

6. Proceed to library

1. Many books

1. Exposition: On the History of the Sunstone

2. Attack by squamous horrors

1. Corwin delivers a key to the Scriptorium

7. Laughter’s Gate^[g][h]: Proceed to Scriptorium

1. Face Strawberry Sorbet

1. She is absolutely strapped with explosives
2. Grabs hostage
3. Threatens to suicide bomb the party
4. Can be talked down - humor is her language; she will respond well to it^[i]

8. Chapel of the Sun

1. Always glows with sunlight that lingers on a pony after they pray there

9. Chapel of the Moon

1. Always glows with moonlight that lingers on a pony after they pray there

10. High Clerical Quarters

1. Living space and personal work area of Divine Sign

1. Exposition: Testament of Divine Sign

11. Entry to the Solar Spire

1. Requires mixed light of the sun and the moon to be allowed inside

1. Hint to players: notice that the door has both a sun and a moon over it if they take a long time to figure out how to get in

12. Tower first floor: “Looping tax” puzzle

13. Tower second floor: Qushan fight

1. Will throw a magical numbing potion
2. Throws disintegration flasks if given the opportunity^[j]

14. Tower third floor: Glorious Spiral escapes through a mirror into the EqG universe

1. Trap left behind: Generosity’s Gate: Ritual magic circle on the floor creates a wall of petrification

1. The first character to cross will be turned to stone, but this will break the spell
2. The ritual circle cannot be safely dismantled - will likely discharge explosively if disturbed
3. Dawn can disarm it, if summoned - generosity’s gate will fail if no party member makes the sacrifice, however
4. Petrification can be undone through magic or alchemy, and does not represent permanent character death, though the character in question will likely be unavailable for the remainder of the Spire portion^[k]

15. Tower fourth floor: The roster of Primequates
16. Tower fifth floor: Royal artifact reliquary

1. Torcs of the princesses may be taken and worn, offering excellent armor
2. Crowns of the princesses may be taken and worn, offering +magic bonuses

17. Tower sixth floor: Loyalty’s Gate: Face Twilight Hour - climactic encounter in the Solar Spire

1. Twilight tries to get the party to listen to her side of things

1. Reveals Mel-Anhu
2. Reveals alicorn backstories
3. Compares alicorns to liches

2. Twilight Hour becomes an alicorn!

1. Rips all the magic out of Shining Star, Whinny Wild, and Pepper Vines

1. They lose their abilities as specific pony types

1. One of them may vengefully re-activate Solara, if given a chance

3. Challenging combat encounter
4. Probably easier if Dawn is summoned:

1. Dawn will fight with her long obsidian spear on an everwood shaft

5. Flees into a phylactory if her body is fatally wounded^[l], which leaves the party several options:

1. Destroy phylactory - kills Dr. Hour instantly
2. Allow Dr. Hour to pass into the afterlife with the bound souls

1. Accomplished by simply exposing her phylactory to Dawn’s song

3. Have the Hues keep Dr. Hour imprisoned in the phylactory

1. Accomplished by putting the phylactory in null-magic shielding during Dawn’s song
2. Phylactory will likely be banished to the moon if this is chosen

18. Once the sunstone is recovered, bound souls may be released by Dawn, if she is summoned

1. Akasha makes her appearance
2. Akasha performance, followed by Dawn

19. Magic’s Gate: Purifying the sunstone:

1. Requires putting the missing piece of the sunstone back
2. Curse consists of emotional and memetic imprints left on the stone during Sunsparks Twinkle’s possession of it
3. Emerald and/or Libby can excise this curse, probably with help from the PCs

1. PCs enter the residual psychic impressions left in the Sunstone
2. PVP event (potentially)

1. Divide party into East and West groups
2. Each group encounters a flutterpony who tells them that bad ponies are trying to steal the Sunstone and they have to protect it

1. Each team gets an earth pony, a pegasus, and a unicorn

3. Either after PVP events, or if PVP fizzles:  fight Sunsparks Twinkle

4. Excision of the Sunstone ends in having to fight the unbound soul of Sunsparks Twinkle outside the Sunstone as well

1. Powerful fire-mage pegasus - hope the party is fireproofed

16. Return to the Crooked Tower

1. Sleep for the night

1. Mel-Anhu sends dreams:

1. Spark: death of her son
2. Chime: continual spread of ponies through the Dread Dimensions, subsuming Shadhavar culture
3. Hazel: Star never restored to life from stone
4. Gale: visions of Crystal Cliffs, where pegasi and earth ponies by tradition cross-breed, and similar efforts, lead to disappearance of pegasi as a distinct race.
5. Burdy: always being a failure in the eyes of Hazel
6. Solara: existing alicorn powers prevent Celestia and Luna from being found and returning to Equus

2. Meet with Emerald and En-Mequnan in the morning

1. Explanation of Mel-Anhu’s situation
2. Mandate to pursue her

3. Prepare to go after Mel-Anhu

1. Suggest investigating the magic circle the party encountered when first on the way to Sickle Island as a hook

17. Gallup

1. Magic circle leads party to Mel-Anhu how?

1. Solara abducted

2. Conflict with Mel-Anhu:

1. Find Solara standing in a clearing in the forest
2. Temptations she can offer:

1. Protect PCs from the futures they saw in their dreams
2. Offer them the aleph-spell
3. Threaten to retro-divine their dreams into unavoidable reality

1. Empty threat; she cannot retrodivine

3. Mel-Anhu agreed to speak with Megan

18. Cardioid Point

1. Back to Crooked Tower first, then Cardioid Point from there

1. Bring Nova along(?)
2. Bring Amethyst with

2. Megan makes herself visible to Mel-Anhu
3. Summoning salt laid out in a circle

1. Party asked to tend circle while meeting

4. Megan reverts Mel-Anhu back to a normal shadhavar
5. Mel-Anhu offers to take Night Chime with to the DD

Questions that need resolution:

1. <none pending>

Important NPCs:

Friendly:

Major:

1. Dawn Sparkle: Obsidian Hues reincarnated as an alicorn via genetic engineering and planning with Emerald and Amethyst. Emerald's alicorn-ness, Topaz's features / coloration. 27 years old physically, hundreds of years old soul. Hobbyist telekinetic flintknapper, especially in obsidian, which is her special talent and cutie mark (also retained from previous life as Obsidian).

1. Once the destruction of HAN and the time travel facility occurs, Dawn will reveal her true purposes to the party and ask for their help after emergency teleporting them to Cardioid Point and conferring with Emerald
2. Major fear is that if Twilight Hour gets what she wants, she could use it to look back into the past at how Eldritch Lore retrodivined and relearn the technique - Twilight Hour relearning retrodivination could easily be the end of ponykind after the near-miss of last time
3. No-spell enchantment is believed to be the best available defense against both ponies accidentally destroying themselves, or from aliens and elder powers potentially fixing their fate externally.
4. No-spell enchantment mechanism of operation: induces a special kind of subtle quantum indeterminacy that causes no macroscopic effects, but interferes with retrodivination. Retrodivination spells will appear to work, but in fact end up having no bearing on the actual outcomes of events within the zone affected by the no-sight enchantment. Scrying into the past and present still works because the past and present are fixed (and scrying into the 'present' is usually in at least a trivial sense technically scrying into the past due to miniscule lags in information transmission).
5. Upon acquiring the sunstone, she will free the trapped spirits at Sunshine Monastery, if brought to that location

2. Flämme: Prehistoric dragon. Quest-giver; wants the party to recover her egg from the feral Care Bears.
3. “Ember”: Djinn. Found in caves below the Calkin area. Has the appearance of a female shadhavar. Lonely from long years of isolation.
4. Divine Sign: Last Primequate of Sunshine Abbey, tenure 2379-2501. Currently a bound soul. Unicorn mare, white coat, blue mane, grey eyes. Wears a small, short mitre with the symbol of the sun on it.

Major returning former PCs:

1. Akasha: PRPG2 Akasha. Swicked will (I assume) handle this.
2. Emerald Hues: PRPG2 Emerald Hues. Alicorn, looks like Libby except for cutie mark. Archmage of the Crooked Tower and its satellite campus at Cardioid Point. Still has Cloud Lane as a lover.
3. Shadow Wing: Unsure if she will appear. Adult dragon now, if she does.

Minor:

1. Sea Legs: Captain of the Sprite, the charter boat going from Nevershyed to Sickle Island. Wishes she could have lived in more lawless times and been a pirate. Might be killed on her boat by a tsunami resulting from the asteroid that hits Sickle Island?
2. Moonlight: Prehistoric unicorn.
3. Meadow Mist: Female unicorn. Kenningness for Martingale’s Haven.
4. Square Deal: Earth pony with a white coat and a red mane. Contact agent for Yore’s interactions with Haven Island.
5. Silver Staff: Blue unicorn with a grey and white mane. Custos in Shaded Hollow area.
6. Flange Wheel: Earth pony, female, olive coat with grey mane. Gruff general store manager in Steelshoe.
7. Chert Claws: Dragon, female, light grey scales and pink claws and ridge-scales. Mail dragon for Steelshoe.
8. Moxie Mocha: light brown pegasus, dark brown mane, with a trilby cutie mark. Star Struck’s former boarding school marefriend.
9. Junebug: earth pony mare with a yellow coat and a pale blue mane. Police desk Sgt. in Steelshoe.
10. Hoof Kicks: pink pegasus mare with a yellow mane. Police lieutenant in Steelshoe.
11. Hemlocket: Pink unicorn mare with a green mane and pale green eyes. Toxicologist sent from Radiance University.
12. Whispersoft: Ghost earth pony mare in Sunshine. Petite. Green coat, white mane, grey eyes. Nearly mad from being alone for so long, but with sanity (mostly) preserved by her many generations of crow friends.

Adversarial:

Top-level string-puller:

1. Mel-Anhu: A strange creature originally from the Dread Dimensions. Similar to a shadhavar mare (because she originally was one), and actually very pretty by their standards, but with a horn and body studded with many eyes that see in all directions.

Major adversaries: Twilight Hour’s Party:

All of them are in on the plan to gain control of the sunstone, destroy the alicorns, and enable Twilight Hour to cast her aleph-spell. Most don’t know about Twilight’s aspirations to become an alicorn herself.

1. Twilight Hour: Leader. Unicorn mare. Lavender coat, pale yellow mane, orange eyes. Hourglass cutie mark. Left eye was shot out by Night Chime lasering her in session 23.
2. Glorious Spiral^[m]: Twilight Hour’s right-hoof assistant and henchgoat. Female. Magically skilled.

1. She was the goat from ‘A Hideous Lament’ and ‘Starmetal’
2. Used her extensive access to knowledge of advanced magic to attempt to steal the sunstone twice, and recover a meteorite fragment
3. Enjoys playing the Royal Game of Uuuuuur (spoken with a goat’s bleat).

3. Shining Star: Equipment operator and mage-technician. Unicorn mare. Blue coat, white mane.
4. Whinny Wild: Equipment operator and field technician. Pegasus mare.
5. Pepper Vines: Equipment operator and mechanic. Earth pony mare. White coat, pale pink mane.
6. Tune Tome^[n]: Grad student intern at the portal research facility. Unicorn stallion. Tan coat, yellow mane, green eyes, three stacked books cutie mark. Captured in Forgotten Weald.
7. Strawberry Sorbet^[o]: Culinary specialist for the facility. Earth pony mare. Red coat, white mane. Green eyes. Captured in Scriptorium.
8. Qushan^[p]: Alchemist. Zebra. Stripes are black and white. Green eyes.
9. Clean Whistle^[q]: Janitor. Pegasus mare. White coat, violet mane, violet eyes. Notably pretty. Cutie mark is sparkling floor tiles. Defected to PCs side.

Major adversaries: Other:

1. Feral Care Bears: Prehistoric. Extinct in historical times. These have the standard physical attacks expected of a bear, and mind-controlling magical attacks from their belly marks. An innate social contract among themselves dictates that Care Bears do not attempt to mind control other Care Bears, and breaking this taboo will result in immediate and violent conflict between bears. Beam angle deflection combat puzzle based on this.
2. Tatzlwurm: Boss fight. Has three independent tendril-appendages, a bite attack, a crush, and can spit sticky toxic mucus. Six eyes; can see an attack coming from any direction. Screeching roar has a psychic component that can cause fright paralysis or involuntary fleeing. Feels vibrations in the ground; drawn to small ones but frightened by big ones.

Minor adversaries:

1. Army snails: Like army ants, but… snails. They have a neurotoxic venom they can more or less lick into wounds with their radula.
2. Crystal spiders: spiders with crystalline shards embedded in their exoskeletons. Found in caves.