= Ponecia Campaign Log: =

''See also: [[CategoryPonecia|Ponecia Campaign]]''

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'''Session 1:'''

The party gets an e-mail from Priestess Twilight Skies requesting their help in freeing a number of prostitutes from the local brothel run by camel mobsters. The party accepts the job.

The party stops at a supply store and buys equipment for the coming mission. Back at their base, the party forms a plan for preliminiary scouting of the brothel for more information about its security.

The party takes public transportation to the brothel site and performs their initial scouting, then returns to their base. They make a plan for more detailed interior recon.

'''Session 2:'''

Sheep Clothing, a changeling from the hive of queen Supra Cerebra, wants the party to assassinate:
 * Straight Lace, priest of the Sisterhood of the Moon.
 * Heavy Load, union boss of the Zebra Ville storage workers union.
 * Terra Cotta, Cybernetic Consciousness ceramics engineer.
 * a Magisterium teacher called Spellcraft.
This job is declined. Bright Eyes, feeling insulted, kills and eats Sheep Clothing.

The party returns to the brothel. Bright Eyes infiltrates, posing as a customer. The prostitutes are smuggled out through a window, and taken to the temple.

'''Session 3:'''

The group returns to the brothel to eliminate the camels inside. The attack goes well, quickly killing all the occupant camels. The group swiftly loots the brothel, starts a structure fire to destroy the building, and escapes.

The party, back at HQ, receives D-mail from somepony named Isithunywa ("Messenger"). The party arranges to meet him in a diner. Target: Fire Proof. His operation goes under the name of Fire & Theft Home Insurance Co. 4 guards. Weapons confiscated at the door. Organized crime ties. Said to have approximately $25,000 cash on the premises available as loot. The loanshark himself is a unicorn. He has a donkey for a doorman. There may be a camel or a pegasus, but those are all that could be confirmed.

The party receives a useful d-mail from ACME corporation listing all their various products available for purchase and delivery.

'''Session 4:'''

The party signs up with the Varangian Protections Services. They head out to a museum to discuss a job offer with the curator. The group accepts the job of guarding some paintings for one night, for the price of $2000 / person (and a free poster).

The party returns to HQ to wait for the night. Candy goes to visit her family. Bright Eyes and Marshmallow go shopping for uniforms and equipment. Unity and Mistral repair Unity's damaged workstation, then take naps.

'''Session 5:'''

The party guards the museum exhibit. Zebras break in. The party attempts to talk them down, and one of them attacks and stabs another who wants to leave peacefully. The attacker is subdued and the injured zebra is stabilized and taken away my emergency medical services.

In the morning, Display Case tells us that Brunhilde wishes to see us in the Eyrie building. Marshmallow and Bright Eyes go on a double breakfast date with Purple Phone and his roommate, Burning Cash.

'''Session 6:'''

The party members wake up / return to HQ. An e-mail arrives from Brunhilde, to arrange a personal meeting. A second e-mail arrives from the assistant mage to Magisterium Archon Raven Mad, seeking to hire security to relieve a shift at a cemetry on the western outskirts of Equinopolis. The cemetery custodian is Raven Mad's nephew, Living Ashes.

At the meeting with Brunhilde, she reveals that she's looking for art thieves, more or less, to help her acquire certain pieces for her collection.

Immediately after the meeting, Unity gets a call from Living Ashes asking for an in-person meeting to discuss the details of the his job offer. It involves containing zombies and pays $3000 per person for the night's work. The party accepts the job, with a $1000 per person advance, and begins preparing by ordering some steel plate delivered to the graveyard while returning to headquarters to gather up their equipment.

'''Session 7:'''

The party gets some rest at HQ, heads back to the cemetery, and builds their wall. Ocelli scouts the cemetery while everyone else waits at the walled-up entrance.

A mist rolls in, necromancy is detected, and zombies attack. Ocelli manages to capture the necromancer, Soft Soil, ending the attack.

'''Session 8:'''

Ash returns at dawn. The party leaves the graveyard. On the way back, they encounter a severely wounded pegasus mare surrounded by a crowd who have attacked her, mistaking her for a changeling. The party calls paramedics and save her. Raven Mad pays the party. Ocelli takes Soft Soil to a spa.

Mistral and Unity take apart the captured brothel computers: "The drives contain some boring ledgers, purchases, expenditures, customer data. But the d-mails contain some lurid gems. It seems the operators were thinking of drugging the prostitutes to make them docile and dependant. They'd get the drugs from another racket the camels run, a sisha bar named Hashishin's Garden. There are also some exchanges with a local slaughterhouse the provides meat to the city's carnivores. It seems the mares who have to retire from the flesh trade end up going there."

The party decides that they will take it on themselves to destroy the slaughterhouse and the bar to end the atrocities being committed by the camel gangsters.

Bright Eyes and rest of the party discuss the situation of Soft Soil and how to deal with it.

'''Session 9:'''

The party scouts out the slaughterhouse. They fake a chemical spill at a neighboring steel mill, causing the slaughterhouse to evacuate. The party enters the empty slaughterhouse, starts various fires, and sets the boiler to explode, destroying the building. Two mares are rescued and turned over to the Sisters of the Moon. Two camels are captured, one of which is also released to the Sisters of the Moon. The other camel, an underboss for the organized crime syndicate, is retained as a prisoner for interrogation and probably eventual execution.

'''Session 10:'''

Interrogation reveals: the camel underboss's name is Zarya the Small Hump. She is married to Tamir of the Wastes and is the daughter-in-law of the organization's boss, Sharif of the Wastes. Sharif operates from a mansion in the hills in the gated neighborhood of Hinnywood. After extracting various pieces of information, Ocelli kills Zarya.

The party receives an e-mail from Night Vision, who they go to meet near the sisha bar / drug den. They find out that Tamir of the Wastes runs the bar. It is a hub of organized crime logistical movement, including trafficking ponies. Tamir's mistress is Sultry Smile, an earth pony who runs a brothel somewhere in Oasis. They plan to contact Twilight Skies to arrange payment terms for eliminating Tamir and Sultry.

'''Session 11:'''

The party has an argument about ethics, instigated by Marshmallow's insistence that they should have none and Mistral and Unity insisting that they should. Unity nearly moves her stuff out of HQ, but is persuaded to stay by most of the party agreeing that they don't mind taking on the risks that Marshmallow perceives in doing charity work.

Candy and Mistral work out, while Ocelli, Marshmallow, and Soft Soil go to a movie night.

In the morning, the party plans. A d-mail from Twilight Skies arrives with intel from the rescued pimp, advising us that Markhal the Cactus Bloom is one of the other pimps currently recruiting new prostitutes to replace those lost, and might be a good target for infiltrating the organization.

Ocelli is chosen to volunteer as a prostitute and meet Markhal the Cactus Bloom to be recruited, while carrying a concealed suppressed pistol.

Ocelli assassinates Sultry Smile and escapes the Hanging Gardens brothel.

'''Session 12:'''

The party regroups back at HQ. A new d-mail arrives in which Twilight Skies informs the party that she's gotten them an audience with her high priestess, Eclipse.

Ocelli goes out to get some jewelery and a knife looted from Sultry Smiles appraised in the hours before the audience.

The party goes to their audience with High Priestess Eclipse. They learn that the drug den Tamir runs has been used lately to fence stolen consumer electronics and has a large basement.

Shortly after stopping in to a sushi restaurant in Dragon Town, four camels attack with automatic weapons.

'''Session 13:'''

The party defeats the camel attack, and discovers that they were only there coincidentally and were not the target. Intimidating the restaurant owner was the actual goal.

A zebra messenger is waiting for the party at HQ when they get back, and formally hires them on behalf of the zebra Emperor deal with the loanshark.

The party receives a d-mail from someone named Bonechiller (the Magisterium's expert on necromancy), wanting to talk about the cemetary job.

'''Session 14:'''

Soft Soil gets a pardon for necromancy in exchange for going to work for Bonechiller.

'''Session 15:'''

Candy gets hired by the loan shark as a guard. She is told she can bring one of her friends in for a job as well, starting tomorrow. Ocelli turns a pegasus guard into dust to take his place.

'''Session 16:'''

Unity gets a promotion at work and will henceforth be absent most of the time. Before she goes, she creates incindiary devices for the party to use in the loanshark and a larger bomb for use in destroying the shisha bar.

Candy, Marshmallow, and Ocelli report to the loan shark to begin work, while Mistral remains outside to conduct surveillance. A zebra comes in to the loan shark's office and pulls a derringer. His shot misses and he is subdued. Jamal the camel is sent out to dispose of the zebra, but Mistral and one of Ocelli's drones ambush him. Mistral is injured and Jamal escapes, but the zebra is freed.

Candy subdues and kills the zebra guard in the staff room. The party eliminates the remaining guards and captures Shakedown (the loan shark), then coerces a safe code out of him. The code doesn't work at first, but a different arrangement of the numbers provided successfully opens the safe. When interrogated under mesmerization, Shakedown reveals that some of his 'benefactors' are the "Camel mob, dragontown OC, Pegasopolis Revival Front, some lesser affiliates." Ocelli also obtains the address, keys, and security code to Shakedown's home.

The party sets fire to the building and leaves.

'''Session 17:'''

Having completed the loan shark job successfully, the party is invited to meet with the zebra Emperor.

A d-mail comes in from Brunhilde asking us to attempt to buy a highly collectable sword called Wrath from a dragon, and if buying fails, to steal it. Over d-skype, Brunhilde tells the party that retrieving the sword will pay $8000 bits, the dragon is named Longclaw and has a reputation as a questionable art dealer, and he lives in the upscale Hinnywood area in a mansion that should be soundproofed. Display Case is a friend of Longclaw, and Purple Phone used to work for him. A briefcase of money will be provided for the party at the Eyrie Building to make a final purchase offer to Longclaw.

Mistral goes out to shop for a car with the profits from the loan shark job, while the rest of the party skypes with Purple Phone. They learn that an art critic that criticized Longclaw's collection never made it home afterwards. His security consists of about six patrolling guards, but not very effective electronic security measures. Security cameras are recorded on a centralized server in a data room, noted as a weakness. This room also contains the alarm systems that are triggered if glass cases are broken or disturbed. All alarm systems are internal and not connected up to notify outside security, such as police.

Mistral returns to HQ.

'''Session 18:'''

The party drives to Shakedown's house to take whatever valuables can be found within. They discover Shakedown's significant other inside. Ocelli impersonates Shakedown, but after she mentions attempting to have a foal, everyone else feels guilty and backs out without robbing the apartment.

The party goes out to dinner and then sleeps.

In the morning, the party goes to their meeting with the zebra emperor. He asks the party to take on the task of delivering weapons to the zebra faction, and explains the origins of changelings in Ponecia.

'''Session 19:'''

The party picks up the payment briefcase for the sword from Brunhilde, who also gives them a day pass card into Hinnywood where Longclaw lives. The party diverts briefly to buy good-looking business clothing to help in their efforts to purchase the sword, then drives to Longclaw's mansion. Longclaw refuses to sell, and after talking him down from trying to steal the payment, the party returns to Eyerie building to return the payment briefcase to Brunhilde.

The party receives a d-mail from Bonechiller asking for their help in recreating the night of the zombie incident in which Soft Soil was found. Soft Soil agrees.

The next morning, the party helps Soft Soil move into her new home. Afterwards, Ocelli and Marshmallow go to their dates and Candy and Mistral go to the gym. It is learned that Longclaw has all the security and camera surveillance located in one server room, and not connected to outside entities such as police. Marshmallow also manages to acquire some (possibly old, but seemingly still accurate) maps of the layout of Longclaw's facilities.

'''Session 20:'''

The next morning is a rainy day. The party receives a D-mail from someone named Mending Hide, a lead engineer for the Cybernetic Consciousness, asking if the party is willing to help him acquire research for a project. Mistral e-mails him back and receives instructions for getting into contact.

Mistral develops a plan to place sedative gas in the ventilation to Longclaw's mansion security room. The supplier quotes a price of $600 for a suitable canister offering a half hour of time to work in, and $250 for suitable gas masks. Mistral drives to the Eyrie building to pick up these items.

The party plans to split up, with Mistral, Candy, and one of Ocelli's drones going to meet Mending Hide (taking Mistral's car), and Marshmallow and Ocelli staking out and abducting one of Longclaw's guards. Ocelli mentions that more of the party needs nonlethal options, and some consideration is given to buying tasers.

Ocelli and Marshmallow get a new day pass from Brunhilde's secretary.

Mistral and Candy reach Mending Hide. He explains that he is working on a new alloy he plans to call bio-steel. He plans to use changeling bio-magic in it, but needs more data on changeling biology. The Center for Changeling Studies has this data. He gives us the location of the Center for Changeling Studies, and offers $12,000 bits for the job. Mending mentions that he "managed to penetrate into their computer network only once, and was locked out quickly." The structure is build like a tower, possibly with departments separated floor by floor, but this is not certain.

Mending: "I hope you're good at hacking. Or better than I am. It's probably easier from inside the building, having access to the physical computers and networks."

Ocelli, upon hearing the location of the Center for Changeling Studies, abandons the job to abduct a guard and tries to drive Mistral's car there. Marshmallow texts Mistral to tell her what's happening, and Mistral remotely locks the car to drive back to HQ instead. Marshmallow and Ocelli exit the car and approach the Center for Changeling Studies on foot, while the car returns.

'''Session 21:'''

Candy goes to meet Marshmallow and Ocelli. Outside the Center for Changeling Studies, they rescue a drone from Cerebra's hive, then go to a diner. After a meal, the drone explains that Cerebra had hoped to defeat the Center for Changeling Studies through the slower legal route of gaining more rights for changelings.

Candy, Marshmallow, and Ocelli return to Hinnywood and manage to capture one of Longclaw's guards, and bring him and his car back to the warehouse.

Emerald cameos, waking up and poking her head out of a fruitcart in the corner while remaining unnoticed. She soon goes back to sleep. Adorably.

The party interrogates the guard using Ocelli's hypnosis. The guard is disposed of afterward. The party discusses their scheduling and next courses of action.

'''Session 22:'''

Candy orders pizza and her and Mistral eat dinner. A d-mail arrives from Bonechiller reminding the party of their appointment at the graveyard. Raven Mad's assistant will be there with voting records that Ocelli asked for.

Ocelli goes to find and interrogate a scientist, Micro Wave, from the Center for Changeling Studies. The scientist's coltfriend interrupts Ocelli's attempt to interrogate her, and mistakes Micro's appearance to indicate that he had another stallion over. He attacks her. Ocelli intercedes, possibly saving Micro's life by mesmerizing the coltfriend and getting him to leave. Ocelli talks to Micro and learns some of the ways in which their agents spot and capture changelings, along with her schedule information, what she works on, and other information. Ocelli and Micro reach and agreement whereby Micro will be kept in Ocelli's hive until the Center for Changeling Studies is destroyed.

The party goes to the graveyard for the reinactment of events. They encounter Shakedown's wife in the distance, attending a funeral at the graveyard, and Marshmallow accidentally waves her over. Things get awkward.

Raven Mad's assistant gives Ocelli information about voting records on measures regarding changelings.

'''Session 23:'''

The party discovers a scrap of fabric from a necromancer's cloak similar to Soft Soil's stuck on a fence. Tracks lead to the tomb of Lunar Tides. When the tomb is opened, it is empty. Lunar Tides' body was apparently routinely exhumed and carefully preserved in accordance with her wishes. Bonechiller detects that advanced magic has been used. Further tracks lead to the tomb of Moon Walker, the first pony to walk on the moon. Her crypt has been opened, and her body is still there but with the medallion she was buried with, made from a moon rock, missing. Continuing through the cemetery, a statue of a pegasus has blood on it, along with some leftover fragments of bones (probably) from a zombie. Soft Soil detects that there was additional necromantic energy used in the graveyard, of the same type she used to raise zombies.

An alarm on Ocelli's phone indicates that it's time to leave for the attack on Longclaw's mansion. On the way Mistral buys a taser. As the car approaches the mansion, most of the party gets out and finds someplace to hide out and wait while Ocelli proceeds to park and go in disguised as Peepers. 'Peepers' touches a female guard (Maglight) inappropriately on the way to the security room, then offends Gerdie, a female griffon guard. Maglight leaves. Ocelli tries to mesmerize Gerdie but fails, so Ocelli love-drains Gerdie to dust and takes on her appearance, with a black eye and a gash on her head. Longclaw comes to the security room and finds 'Gerdie' pretending to be injured. Peepers, now nowhere to be found, is blamed for attacking 'Gerdie.' Maglight gets out a first aid kit from a locker, revealing where the gas masks are in the security room. 'Gerdie' is left alone in the security room and destroys the gas masks.

Outside, Mistral tases and knocks out the only external guard, then places the sedative gas cylinder in the air duct. Ocelli accidentally traps herself in the security room. Mistral and Marshmallow don't find the sword on the first floor, so they move to the second. Candy breaks open the security room wall, freeing Ocelli, and the two of them rejoin the rest of the party. Mistral finds the sword on the second floor, breaks open its display case, and takes it. She also smashes open several other displays and takes other artifacts. Most of the party loads back into Peeper's car, while Ocelli steals Gerdie's car. Everyone leaves Hinnywood.

The party goes to the Eyerie building to deliver the sword to Brunhilde. Brunhilde is pleased with the party's performance and asks if they need anything from her. Ocelli asks for the assistance of her cyber security team in dealing with the Center for Changeling Studies. Mistral asks for intel on when the important camels usually gather at the Hashashim Garden in Oasis. Brunhilde mentions that Tamir, the son of the big boss, is often seen at the Hanging Gardens brothel. His father, the big boss (Sharif), has not been seen in Hinnywood lately and has instead checked into a hotel in Uptown (the Statesmare Hotel) where where a whole floor's been locked down by camel mobsters. Brunhilde suggests that something happening to Tamir would almost certainly force Sharif to take action, which may be exploitable.

Brunhilde also supplies the address of a mechanic shop that can 'legalize' the two cars the party stole. Ocelli takes Gerdie's car there and Candy takes Peeper's car.

'''Session 24:'''

The party draws graffiti on some walls that Marshmallow is about to cover up with reinforcing materials, then receives d-mails. One d-mail is from Varangian Protection Services intel department. They will help with the CoCS infiltration, and have a program ready to lift data from their computers if the party is able to put it on them. The d-mail also warns that the program is in fact a virus, so they're not including it. The party will have to come pick it up when ready. The second d-mail is from Supra Cerebra. Since the party rescued her drone, she is willing to have a meeting about the CoCS and offer assistance. Marshmallow arranges with Supra to meet in a club called "Pickles".

The party meets with Supra Cerebra. She offers the use of Grendel, the rescued changeling drone, to draw from her hive's love reserves to infuse captured drones already inside the CoCS so they will have the strength to fight and distract the facility's security. Ocelli can get the rest of the party inside by posing as the scientist, Micro Wave, and calling a supervisor to arrange visitor passes.

Supra Cerebra offers Ocelli a type of metamorphosis to gain more knowledge and abilities. Supra suggests that it take place later, but Ocelli accepts the risks of accelerating the process and moving up the timeframe to take place immediately, inside the champagne room at the club. The process takes several hours and leaves Ocelli very love-hungry.

The party proceeds to the Eyrie building to meet with the security staff of Varangian Protection Services and get the virus. They meet Sam, who gives the party two fetlocksticks with the virus (one for Ocelli, one for Mistral). He advises them to try to hit the most relevant targets, and without too much delay, since there may be adapative security in place: "Skip the assistant researchers, and go straight to the department heads. They would have the most juicy data. Of course, a maneframe would be even better, if you can reach it."

The party makes arrangements for the data extracted to be automatically mirrored to individual encrypted cloud storage accounts for every party member. Mistral also asks Sam to contact the individual owners of the accounts before making any changes to the arrangement to send the data to that account.

The party heads to City Sushi, having heard it's been repaired and reopened since the camel mafia shootup the last time they were there.

A d-mail is waiting when the party returns to the warehouse after dinner. It's from a shaman living in Zebra Town, Isikhulumi, claiming to be acquainted with both Grendel and the Emperor. The shaman claims to have been told by the spirits about a group of changeling friends who would be given a job by the emperor, and offers offers to give his spiritual aid to them.

Ocelli impersonates Micro Wave and calls the CoCS, obtaining three visitor passes. Grendel will need to hide to enter, so it is planned that he will take the form of the container the team uses to smuggle in their weapons and equipment. There will be two teams, one of Candy and Mistral and one of Ocelli and Marshmallow. Grendel will switch off between them until at least one other Cerebra drone is found and reinvigorated with love, at which point each team will have at least one drone. Ocelli will initiate the operation by pulling a fire alarm or otherwise creating a chaotic distraction.

'''Session 25:'''

Grendel shows up at the warehouse not long after the party returns from City Sushi, wanting to show the party the place where he got abducted and introduce them to the zebra he talked to, which turns out to be Isikhulumi. Grendel, Mistral, Candy, and one of Ocelli's drones drive to his shop.

A zebra mare at the shop named Speaker greets the group. She offers Mistral a private "measuring" to Mistral, during which she performs a small ceremony. She says she can create a talisman that "gives good mojo", but will need certain ingredients: the feather of a bird of a feather, another pony's treasure, rubber of a wheel of time, and sand from the hourglass of timed travel. She explains that, "It is a talisman of winds. It often is associated with weather magic and flight. Basically, it is perfect for pegasi." She also warns Mistral not to reveal the ingredients to anyone else.

Grendel stays at HQ in Ocelli's hive overnight.

In the morning, the party plans for the impending attack on the CoCS. Mistral orders 20 blank fetlocksticks and clones the virus onto them.

The party drives to the CoCS building. Ocelli poses as Micro Wave and enters. The party poses as 'potential customers' brought in by Micro Wave to get entry badges. A mare named Oculus Prim escorts them into the building. A directory indicates the floors of the building: Stasis Scan, Love Energy, Hivemind, Transformation, Regeneration, Secretions, Mesmerization, Carapace, Consumption, Classified 1-3, and Management.

Ocelli goes to Micro Wave's office on the 6th floor and infects two computers.

Mistral requests to go the the 7th floor, Carapace research. While riding the elevator, Mistral tases Prim, and ties her up. Grendel impersonates her. The party stashes her on top of the elevator with their gear that is no longer concealed inside Grendel. Mistral leaves a virus stick in the server on floor 7. The party proceeds to floor 4.

Ocelli finds and kills another scientist, Trance Gender, and impersonates him. She uses his keys to unlock the floor 6 data room and plant a virus on its server. Ocelli then goes to floor 4 to meet back up with the rest of the party. She picks the lock to the floor 4 data center.

Ocelli splits off again and goes to floor 2, Hivemind research. She finds changeling pods. The rest of the party goes to floor 2 to join her. Ocelli goes off alone again to find the floor 2 data room. She finds it, picks the lock, plants a virus, and is spotted by Tattle Tale, a junior researcher. Ocelli pushes her down and proceeds to floor 3 (Transformation). Ocelli pulls a fire alarm to create a distraction. She is accidentally hit by the opening door to the head researcher's office.

On floor 2, the party hides in an empty office to avoid security escorting everyone out. After the guards leave, they free the changelings in the pods. The party then gets their gear back from on top of the elevator and proceeds to the top floor, Management. They infect two computers there. Ocelli moves to floor 5. The rest of the team moves to floor 11 and infects a random computer. Ocelli starts a fire on floor 5 after infecting the server there. The team moves to floor 10 and finds four pods and a strange device. Ocelli moves to floor 8. She finds two pods and unlocks the data room. After infecting the server on floor 8, she joins the party on floor 10.

Marshmallow finds a more portable device on floor 9 and takes it. She also infects a computer there. Mistral finds two more pods on floor 1. Ocelli unlocks and infects the floor 1 server. The ground floor has no data center, but has four more pods.

The party puts their suits back on and walks out of the building to join the evacuated crowd. They get in the car and drive away as a wave of changeling drones bursts from the building and scares the crowd.

'''Session 26:'''

The CoCS data becomes available. Mistral makes a copy of the small amount that Mending Hide needs and arranges a time to deliver it. Candy goes to her parents' house to drop off the party's smoky clothes for cleaning. Ocelli tests the captured prototype CoCS stun device down in her hive.

The party drives to the foundry to deliver the data to Mending Hide, including the information that Terra Cotta was paying off the CoCS to block his access to information. Mending Hide offers Marshmallow some heavier servos to upgrade her strength.

Mistral gets a d-mail advertising a race track, and goes to visit it. Ocelli and Candy go to the Magisterium to investigate Spellcraft's sister, Lovecraft.

Mistral goes on a tour of a racing facilities and manages to gather some materials that might be useful in making her talisman. Ocelli and Candy try to see Lovecraft and are denied by a security guard, but end up meeting Soft Soil instead. Soft Soil gets them into the private residence area to see Lovecraft. Mistral meets one of the race car drivers, Hot Rod, a pegasus who is currently too injured to race.

Mistral exchanges contact information with Hot Rod, to possibly do some investigating on Hot Rod's attackers who she thinks were sent by one of her competitors who wanted her eliminated.

Ocelli learns from Lovecraft that Spellcraft wants to discredit love based magic in all its forms. He may have worked with CoCS to develop their mesmerization weapon. Lovecraft says that "he is the black sheep of the family. Arguing for further restrictions on a viable field of magic study." There is a long-running feud of character assassination ongoing between Lovecraft and Spellcraft. Ocelli wants to try to reconcile them somehow in order to defuse Spellcraft's condemnation of love magic and its impact on changeling interests.

Lovecraft tries to seduce Ocelli, and Candy leaves to give them privacy. As soon as they're alone, Ocelli mesmerizes Lovecraft before performing erotic activities with her and feeding extensively on her love.

Candy helps Marshmallow work in fortifying the walls of the warehouse.

Mistral flies to Isikhulumi's magic shop. Speaker takes the talisman components into the back, and there is a slight chill while Mistral waits. Speaker returns with a necklace made of the feather, rubber and titanium part strung together along with some other feathers and beads. Mistral "can practically feel a surge coursing through her wings. As if magic has become ever so slightly more tangible just by wearing the talisman."

The party receives a d-mail from Hot Rod asking for their help in investigating the attack against her. She offers a 4000 bit reward for proof of who attacked her. Hot Rod suspects one of the top contenders of the race circuit may stand to benefit from her injury, but doesn't know any well enough to say who's suspicious. The party finishes up arrangements with her, saying they'd like to finish a couple other jobs first but will get to her soon. Mistral and Candy eat dinner and go to bed.

'''Session 27:'''

In the morning, Marshmallow and Purple arrange a date for later that night. Candy starts building a trophy wall. A d-mail arrives from Night Vision, the Sisterhood of the Moon spy: The pony prostitute the camels recaptured was sighted in the brothel Sultry Smiles used to run. She also confirms that the underboss has relocated there recently. Mistral d-mails Eclipse asking for an offer on Tamir's father, and Eclipse responds that his elimination would be worth the same $10,000 bits as Tamir.

Mistral proposes the general outline of a plan for dealing with the camels to completion: Capture Tamir, use Tamir to lure out and kill his father, then pack Tamir into a container with the bomb that Unity provided the party with and blow up the camel's drug den and Tamir at the same time.

Mistral asks Candy if she knows anyone who might be a contact with the dragon mafia, to see if they're willing to pay anything for the elimination of Tamir and his father. Candy knows of a dragon named Sharktooth who frequents a seafood restaurant called Ocean Pearls. The party goes to look for Sharktooth, with Marshmallow staying behind in the car looking at something on her phone. Although they arrive in the morning while the restaurant is still closed, they find Sharktooth at a small grocery store. Candy introduces the party.

Sharktooth and the party go speak in private in a hotel room. Mistral explains that there is a plan formed to get rid of the camel mafia. Sharktooth goes to make a phone call in private, then returns. The dragon mafia will discreetly offer a payment of $500 bits if something happens to the camel mafia in the next few days.

The party drives to the car sanitizing shop. Ocelli and Candy pick up their 'new' cars and drive them back to HQ. Candy goes to pick up the party's clothes from her mom, who has finished washing the smoke out of them.

The party plans for their operation to abduct Tamir and another camel:
"<Ocelli> So, the plan: We approach the whorehouse. We taser and interrogate a guard to learn where Tamir goes if the place is attacked. We keep the guard as a messenger to use later. Probably need to get an extended knockout drug for that. Anyway, I infiltrate as a Sultry Smiles look-alike and try to get Tamir to a room with a window. I knock him out, we leave via window. If plan A fails, Candy attacks and I retreat. Mistral and Marsh stand by to 
<Ocelli> intercept Tamir while I and Candy move to back you up."

Mistral buys a supply of several sedative injection pens from a local clinic, to be picked up on the way to the job. Ocelli readies a drone. The party drives to the Hanging Gardens brothel, in Mistral and Candy's cars, and is ready to begin the infiltration.

'''Session 28:'''

Mistral and Marshmallow create a distraction by throwing stuff at a brothel window to lure out a camel guard, then tase and capture him. Ocelli mesmerizes him. Interrogation reveals: His name is Cyrus. The brothel has four other guards and two pimps. There's a camera above the entrance and possibly others for the office or upstairs in the VIP section. Tamir will probably be upstairs, since he never leaves the second floor for his own security. The window on the second floor all the way right is said to be his living room. Tamir's plan in case of attack is to call in help from outside, but it's unlikely any would come now. Tamir might try to leave, probably for the Hashashin's Garden.

Ocelli shapeshifts to imitate Cyrus. The party refactors their plan to be to knock out all the guards with sedatives (or other means) and free all the prostitutes while capturing Tamir. Ocelli will pretend to capture Marshmallow and bring her in, while a minute or so later Mistral will enter as a customer. They will systematically attempt to incapacitate the guards while stashing the bodies out the way.

Ocelli takes Marshmallow in. Ocelli is directed by a pimp to lock up Marshmallow in a lower floor office. Ocelli tranquilizes a guard and stashes him in the office. Ocelli and Marshmallow stage a fight to attract the attention of a pimp, and tranquilize the pimp.

Mistral enters as a customer, is led to a mare by a pimp, and tranquilizes the pimp. She stashes him in the room with the mare. Ocelli goes around explaining to the customers that a strain of flu is going around and convinces the customers to leave.

Marshmallow surprises a guard watching the stairs with a headbutt, struggles with him, and gets him tranquilized.

Ocelli imitates the stair guard, and manages to lure over and tranquilize one of the upstairs guards. Disguised as the upstairs patrol guard, she tranquilizes the upstairs door guard. Candy goes outside to guard the living room window in case Tamir tries to escape via that route. The party enters Tamir's quarters and finds him having sex with a unicorn mare. Mistral stuns and tranquilizes him. They explain the situation and the camel mafia's misdeeds to the mare, who leaves. Ocelli finds office (and other) keys on Tamir. She goes to his office and loots for any valuables, as well as deleting security camera recordings.

Mistral and Ocelli remove the unconscious guards from the building. Candy and Marshmallow find a wall safe in the lower floor office. The party stashes Tamir in the trunk of a car, then prepares the brothel for burning and sets it aflame.

The party returns to HQ with the prisoners and stolen safe. They are stuck waiting for about eight hours until the prisoners regain consciousness.

'''Session 29:'''

A d-mail arrives from Night Vision saying that the raid on the brothel has been noticed and offering a place to keep Tamir. The party discusses the plan for how best to send Tamir's father a message.

The party drives their captives, and the stolen safe, to the basement Night Vision has offered, meeting her there. Night Vision is able to open the safe, revealing $480 bits and some papers. The papers have records of business operations (rackets, payments, names of operators and enforcers).

The party develops a plan to lure out Shariff and assassinate him en route to wherever they instruct him to go by hitting his limo with a bomb.

The party disguises themselves. Night Vision departs to do some preliminary scouting after calling in a unicorn with some basic healing magic ability. The party viciously beats Tamir while the messenger camel watches, including tearing off one of his ears, then Mistral sedates the messenger again.

Night Vision and the unicorn healer return. The party leaves Tamir in the basement with her, and takes the messenger with them while they return to HQ. They do some searching around online to try to develop their plan of attack against Shariff's limousine.

'''Session 30:'''

The party receives a d-mail from Night Vision. She reports she found a place to meet with Shariff that fits the needed criteria, except that a nearby auto factory is active at night, making it somewhat likely the workers might notice something or become caught up if things take a turn for the worse. The workers are apparently disgruntled by the evening hours they have to put in without prior notice. The Autoworkers Union is subservient to some ponies Night Vision thinks might be working for Shariff. Ocelli lays out the groundwork to cause a strike at the appropriate time to ensure the factory is mostly empty. The factory sits in the middle of an industrial zone, with one road granting access. There is a ponyhole on this stretch of road, that Night Vision has marked. The access points are for the factory.

Mistral creates a video showing the beating of Tamir and the incriminating document evidence captured, along with a letter instructing him of the time and place to meet and the amount of ransom to deliver. Mistral also orders sets of work clothes (hardhats, waders, and boots) suitable for a sewer utility worker for herself and Marshmallow.

Mistral and Marshmallow release the camel in a random park with instructions to deliver their message to Shariff.

The next morning Ocelli continues working on agitating a strike, while a package arrives containing the bomb from Unity.

A d-mail arrives from Night Vision. She says someone from the Sisterhood reports there seems to be discontent at the factory, and ponies might leave soon. She also offers to have the sisterhood watch for when the camels arrive.

Mistral, Candy, and Marshmallow go to an abandoned warehouse that has the sewer access point they need to use. Candy stands lookout while Mistral and Marshmallow enter the sewer. They successfully plant the bomb, then return to HQ.

'''Session 31:'''

The party takes two different cars out to the auto plant meeting site. Mistral and Candy park their cars somewhere off the side of road near the ponyhole cover with the bomb, disguised to look like junk. Candy watches from a nearby rooftop. Mistral and Ocelli hide on a cloud over the road. Marshmallow waits in one of the cars. One of Ocelli's drones imitates Tamir and lies down on the road just past the ponyhole cover.

A car with room for two people begins approaching the auto plant. Ocelli removes her drone and lets it pass. The car stops in the factory parking lot and two camels get out and look around, entering the catwalk area. Candy keeps watch on them.

A limo starts approaching the auto plant. Just as the limo drives over the ponyhole cover, a shot is fired from the catwalk. Ocelli is hit, but heals the wound quickly. The limo passes over the ponyhole. The bomb is triggered and limo is completely destroyed.

Candy sneaks close to the two camel's car. Mistral creates a screen of cloud material and blinding lightning that obscures their view. Candy slashes the tires of their car while they're distracted. Mistral and Ocelli make a break from the cloud to the party's cars while the camels are distracted. Candy sneaks back to her car. Mistral and Candy start driving down a dirt path concealed from the camels' view.

Mistral flies to the roof of HQ to be alone for a while. The rest of the party returns to find a d-mail from Night Vision wishing them luck.

Candy writes to Night Vision informing her that we destroyed a limo, but couldn't confirm that Shariff was in it. Mistral goes back inside. Night Vision asks what to do with Tamir and Mistral responds that he should be killed as soon as it can be confirmed that Shariff is dead.

Another d-mail arrives, this time from High Priestess Eclipse. She wants to meet with the party. The party drives to the Cathedral of Night in Riverside. They are shown in to meet the High Priestess, who wants the party to solve the mystery of who desecrated Lunar Tides and Moon Walker's graves. Eclipse offers <$20,000> bits, plus a powerfully enchanted draconic artifact for Candy.

'''Session 32:'''

Mistral wakes up crying in the early morning, having disturbing dreams relating to her emotional state concerning ongoing hostility with the camels. D-mails arrive from Bonechiller and Night Vision.

Night Vision says that Shariff is still alive at the Statesmare Hotel. Bonechiller says he's been in contact with High Priestess Eclipse about the corpse theft and wants to meet. Mistral shops around online for drones for one possible idea about how to perform another hit on Shariff. Small drones cost about <$100> bits each.

The party goes to meet Bonechiller. Soft Soil is there. Bonechiller wants the party to find out more about the group Soft Soil was working with, offerin <$8,000> bits for bringing back information. Soft Soil leads the party to the location she used to receive drops from them at. They enter the house by picking the lock on the back door, then find a hidden passage in a stone wall in the basement. Soft Soil suggests updating Solar Eclipse. Over the phone, Solar Eclipse explains that the tunnels they's found are probably old catacombs of a convent of the Sisterhood. Lunar Tides was a member of that old convent. It is where she was initially interred.

The party enters the tunnel and explores the catacombs. In one room they find two empty sarcophaguses. In another they find murals depicting war, pestilence, famine, and death, as well as an image of Nightmare Moon defeating Celestia. The murals all have stone objects under them that serve as hidden buttons when pushed. By pushing all the buttons at once, the party opens another tunnel.

'''Session 33:'''

The party fights and captures a necromancer named Dead Hooves in the hidden tunnel. They interrogate him, learning that he works for a "Dark Lord" who sends instructions anonymously through messengers or scrolls. Soft Soils searches through his items and finds a book about the convent that used to be above the tunnels. Dead Hooves seems interested when it's mentioned that Lunar Tides was raised from the dead, and says it makes sense. Soft Soil thinks that one of the recovered items is a phylactory. Mistral photographs the necromancer's items and sends the pictures to Bonechiller and High Priestess Eclipse. Eclipse calls back. The party arranges to turn over Dead Hooves and all his items to Eclipse, and drives to the temple.

The party turns over Dead Hooves and his items to Eclipse. Eclipse identifies the phylactory as belonging to Lunar Tides with 90% certainty. Eclipse is also sure that becoming a lich was not in accordance with what Lunar Tides wanted: "During the Magister Wars, we found her the unwilling slave of a pony called Dark Mark, who did manage the transformation into a lich. Dark Mark was sealed away in the Aurora Lunar Tides had created. We hoped that we'd find his phylactery and destroy him for good, and make the Aurora safe to use. Unfortunately, I had to entrust the Aurora to my superior, Colonel Truth. And the way in which it was sealed away is unknownst to us." Colonel Truth is dead, having kept the Aurora's secrets from Eclipse, but she knows of a pegasus named Arcane Winds who might know something. Tristan, Brunhilde's father, may also have had relevant knowledge, but he is dead and it may be difficult to get Brunhilde to talk about him. Arcane Winds is therefore probably the main focus.

Eclipse gives Candy the fire ruby promised to her as a reward (+1 charisma boosting item). It contains both dragon and unicorn magic.

The party drives to the Magisterium to take Soft Soil home and give Dead Hooves' captured stuff to Bonechiller. They tell Bonechiller what Eclipse told them about Lunar Tides and Dark Mark.

'''Session 34:'''

The party returns to HQ.

Candy goes to eat at City Sushi and ends up going on a date with Fang.

Ocelli goes out to hunt down ponies to siphon love from, then goes to the Sisterhood of the Moon's library to read about their history with changelings. She encounters Straight Lace in the library.

Candy returns to HQ.

Ocelli goes with Straight Lace to her apartment and manages to read Straight Lace's diary and a storage device that was left unguarded. Straight Lace turns out to be a changeling fetishist. They discuss how it could be determined whether or not changelings are truly apostates from the Temple of the Moon. Ocelli reveals to Straight Lace that she is a changeling. Straight Lace breaks her vows of celebacy with Ocelli.

'''Session 35:'''

In the morning, Marshmallow goes to get upgrades installed.

Unity calls and invites Mistral out to visit her in the rural area where she now lives and works.

A drone from Queen Lascivia's hive comes to visit Ocelli at HQ, telling her that Lascivia used to be a member of the Sisterhood of the Moon: "She had experimented with love magic, and how to replenish her energy through love, and was disgraced for being an 'oathbreaker'. She had made some insignificant vow to be chaste, and her experiments were deemed to clash with it, so she was dismissed from her place among the White Sisters." A long conversation takes place, the jist of which boils down to that some sort of reliable testimony about currently extant Ponecian changelings not being descended from Chrysalis and therefore not apostates against Luna might help to considerably change the Sisterhood of the Moon's anti-changeling stance.

'''Session 36:'''

Mistral returns to HQ. She d-mails out copies of the captured financial documents to a wide variety of recipients, hoping to cause significant impact to Shariff's finances and force him out of his secure hotel. She also fills out an employment application for the General Energetics facility where Unity works.

The next morning d-mails start coming in about the information that has been leaked. A financial services pony states that they are investigating but it might take some time to completely close Shariff's financial channels.

Night Vision calls. She has information about the Statesmare staff: "bellhops and maids departing around six in the evening, and arriving eight in the morning. With a skeleton crew arriving to take their place inbetween." Ocelli asks how much it would cost to get a room in the hotel.

The party goes to consult with Hot Rod at the track. A mechanic named Grease Monkey describes two ponies he saw the night Hot Rod was injured: "One was brown, the other grey with a white mane. Both earth ponies, I think. Dudes." He suggests asking the gate guard, and mentions that there is a bookie ("Safe Bet. Or Betty, as I call her. Light green coat, yellow mane. Unicorn. She's usually got a visor cap on."). The party speaks to Safe Bet. Several names are listed as close to hers on a betting chart: Short Cut, Wild Turn, Big Ring and Bolt. Short Cut is the 'safest' bet on the chart. The others are comparable to Hot Rod. The party speaks to Short Cut and seems to be getting a run-around.

'''Session 37:'''

The party speaks to the gate guard, who is equally clueless.

They then speak to the chief of security, who lets them see security footage. The camera shows two ponies matching the description of Hot Rod's attackers entering through the service building by swiping a keycard. The keycard reader log shows that Grease Monkey's keycard was used, and Grease Monkey has not reported it stolen or lost. The security chief gives the party a temporary passcard to unlock doors. Footage of Grease Monkey leaving after the two attackers shows that he was at the track when the attack happened.

The party uses their keycard to enter Safe Bet's office while she's out to lunch. Betting records show Grease Monkey has been placing numerous bets. Her diary mentions a lover, but doesn't implicate her.

The party leaves the office. Ocelli goes back in to change shape to imitate Safe Bet, while Marshmallow goes over to the cafeteria to talk to and distract Safe Bet.

While talking with Marshmallow, Safe Bet says that Short Cut told her he may propose if he wins his final race next week.

Ocelli finds from talking to Grease Monkey that he and Safe Bet were definitely working together. He let the two ponies borrow his keycard. He doesn't know who they are, and doesn't expect to ever see them again. They have been making a lot of money and plan to all retire in a week.

The party presents this evidence to Hot Rod, who takes it to the security chief. He has Grease Monkey arrested while he goes to arrest Safe Bet himself. The party assists in capturing her and taking her back to the security building. The security chief's assistant takes statements from the party while the chief interrogates Grease Monnkey and Safe Bet. The chief informs the party that Safe Bet admitted that she helped rig races after Short Cut made vague hints that he'd marry her. She manipulated Grease Monkey, whom she knew has a crush on her, to grant access to some thugs so Hot Rod would be taken out of commission.

Hot Rod pays the party for their work, and the party returns to HQ.

'''Session 38:'''

Night Vision has information on hotel employees: "One is a yellow mare in maid outfit, another is a camel woman, and finally a male donkey. The mare is called Room Service, the donkey is called Sancho, and the camel is Aisha. The information on the mare indicates she's a unicorn who's adress is known to Night Vision, and might work on the floor the camels occupy. The donkey works in the laundry department. The camel's address is also known, but there is no information on if she works on the floor with the camel mobsters. Aisha seems to be another maid at the hotel. The Statesmare pays quite well, but these are not exactly prestigious posts, it's manual labour. I kept tabs on the mare because she's the one I suspect has regular contact with the camels, and the donkey because the laundry room can be accessed from the outside as well as the garage, and has elevator access to the various guest floors. I know the mare works from six to three. Mornings. The donkey has a graveyard shift. The camel works regular eight to five shifts."

'''Session 39:'''

The party goes to get information about the Aurora and an ancient griffin artifact (the Horn of Revival), and obtains Arcane Winds' address from Brunhilde.

The party goes to see Arcane Winds. They receive information about the Aurora: "we found she [Lunar Rites] had created the Aurora as part of her plot on behalf of Nightmare Moon worshippers. It supposedly would give light and warmth instead of the sun, allowing Equus to be plunged into Eternal Night without everypony dying. She had made him [Dark Mark] into a lich, who we defeated, and imprisoned in the Aurora so it couldn't escape us. We were supposed to track down his soul jar, but we never succeeded. Colonel Truth decided that if we couldn't destroy the phylactery, Dark Mark would have to remain imprisoned forever in the Aurora. And because we could not allow the Aurora to fall into the wrong hands, especially not with Lunar Rites' questionable reformation, he decided to seal it away."

'''Session 40:'''

The party has a party.

'''Session 41:'''

The party goes to interrogate Room Service, the maid mare they received information about from Night Flight. Room Service: "Well, the more obvious activities involve drugs, prostitution, gambling, the usual things. Some of them pay the hotel staff attending their floor to bring in contraband, or look the other way while they let in some mares. Then there is the typical rough behaviour. Getting a little too physical with staff. Both in sensual and violent ways. Lewd talk, swearing. They don't pay much mind to me when I see money changing hands, conspiratorial talk, members called into the boss' office for Celestia knows what. I don't believe any of the slaves come into the hotel. They must realize that it's too obvious trafficking through there. But there are plenty of pimps going into the office where their boss holds court. He doesn't seem to go about the hotel floor with less than four bodyguards. He has them guarding his suite to. They normally change shift after he leaves his office, late afternoon. The underlings all have their own visitors from time to time to. The mobsters patrolling the floor tend to question arrivals."

The party goes to interrogate Aisha. Markhal the Cactus Bloom has been replaced by another, less discreet pimp, who nonetheless has useful access to Shariff.

The party develops another plan similar to the sword job. Mistral orders another cylinder of sedative gas and picks it up at VPS. Ocelli has two of her drones meet her with her car at VPS.

'''Session 42:'''

Mistral orders a suit to disguise herself with. Ocelli places a service call with the HVAC company for the Statesmare Hotel, then intercepts the technician sent out. She mesmerizes him, gets the  ventilation plans for the hotel, and sends in drones to block up the 13th floor vents.

The party goes to the Statesmare Hotel and meets Ocelli. Candy and Marshmallow wait in the stairwell outside floor 13 with one drone, while Mistral and Ocelli, disguised as pimp and prostitute, take the elevator to floor 13 with a drone disguised as an HVAC worker and carrying the sedative gas canister.

After brief combat, Shariff is captured and taken to the Cathedral of Night. Mistral recommends to Night Vision to liquidate Tamir since he is no longer needed.

'''Session 43:'''

The party arrives at the Cathedral of Night and turns Shariff over to the order. Candy and Ocelli are present during Shariff's interrogation. He offers to reveal everything he knows in exchange for the assurance that his son will be released. Eclipse makes this offer, although secretly assuring the party that Shariff and Tamir will be executed anyway.

The party returns to the warehouse. Mistral packs and then goes to sleep. In the morning, she loads her car, eats breakfast, and says her goodbyes and leaves.

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''Notes:''

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CategoryPonecia