| 2 |
| WIS |
| 19 |
[Searching] You roll a 19 (required 10). Success!
You decide to take Lotus Twirl's advice, and promptly resume your search. With a shared bow, you thank her for taking the time to chat with you, then bid her farewell.
Lotus Twirl: "You're welcome. See you again!"
Now confident in your ability to carry Honourshine across the sky, your party takes flight once more. You travel southward, scanning the eastern fields for any foreigners among the dozens of workers.
After a few minutes, you finally spot him: a tan-coated pegasus with light yellow hair by the field's edge. You glide down and land gently on the dirt road before entering the flooded field on hoof.
By the time you get close enough to get a good look at the stallion, you realize that you have seen his face before — plastered on countless billboards and posters all over Fillydelphia. And his cutie mark, a star-framed microphone, dispels any doubt from your mind about his identity.
You greet Dirt Flaxen as you approach, drawing his attention. He finishes uprooting some weeds, and tosses them into a nearby bucket, before turning to your party. Then, he tilts his head, looking at you, your horn, and your wings.
Dirt Flaxen: "Alright. How much trouble am I in?"
You offer the pop star a friendly grin, and assure him that he is in no trouble at all — or at least, none with you.
Dirt Flaxen: "Yeah, I figured they'd send someone eventually. A prince, though?"
You shake your head, and tell him that despite your appearance, you are no prince. On that note, you take a moment to introduce yourself and your friends to him, and show him your sealwhistle's badge.
Dirt Flaxen: "So you're contractors? That makes sense. You wouldn't be here if it weren't for me. Guess you're not getting paid unless I come with you, right?"
You shrug at that, and tell Dirt Flaxen that you mostly took the contract to make sure that he was safe. Whether or not he returns to Equestria is up to him.
Dirt Flaxen: "Really. Not in it for the money, then? Alright, I respect that. And yeah — as you can see, I'm doing just fine. Just taking a bit of a vacation, y'know? Thanks for checking up on me, though."
Enter a comment
As for loved ones… we don't actually know anything about his family. But that's a valid heartstring we can tug on. I imagine he didn't have a means to tell his family and friends that he'll be disappearing without alerting his handlers.
In general I just want to figure out his reason for disappearing. Maybe he's in trouble or had a breakdown? In that case we may be able to help him. I'm not going to drag him back to the boat against his will, but maybe solving his issues may encourage him to return to Equestria. Unless the stress of being a famous musician gave him a burnout. In that case it probably would be for the best if he stays in the Empire for a while.
Edit: If this was a Pen and Paper game this would be the point where I ask for a Sense Motive roll. But I'm not sure if something like that is possible in this game.
And there's only one Dirt Flaxen — if his music is really that good (or sells that well), what can his employer do but hang on for the ride?
His attitude may be simply him trying to pretend that everything is alright. It can be hard to admit that you're in trouble and need help. Especially towards a stranger.
(A bit selfishly, it doesn't matter what problem he's running away from as long as he gets back on the boat at the appointed time. Though we should help him if we're able to.)
If he won't promise to come back with us, gently turn the screws a bit. He is breaking his contract and burning his manager, who he seems to have a good relationship with; his loved ones are worried about him; and a number of ponies had to come all this way prepared to rescue him if necessary. Or maybe he spills the beans on what he's running from.
Also, I love how ponies just assume an unfamiliar alicorn they meet is just royalty they've never heard of before. Twilight Sparkle may have blazed that trail for us!
We could actually probably convince Dirt to travel with us, but I don't know if it's worth it unless we really want songs to be written about us and our exploits. We need to know we can rely on all our companions in the potential dangers we'll face ahead, and he did ditch his employer. Not to mention having to excuse putting him in harm's way when we could've just escorted him straight to the ship.
For example: 2023-10-16, 2023-11-06, 2024-01-22, 2024-06-24
We can't really claim we have a position (of authority) in the government, but I would advocate for letting ponies call us a prince if they feel like it without getting too caught up on the distinction that we aren't part of the royal family of Equestria specifically. We are a "hero" in the sense that we are a pony who takes advantage of their agency more than others — and it's ok to let ponies be inspired by us (and know that we're here for good).
I was tempted to go off on him,
but we're getting paid. Oh wait.Regardless, I think we should definitely try to convince him to come back with us. Presumably he'll push back that he's not quite done relaxing yet, so we'll "compromise" by agreeing to wait a week or so. We can then make good use of the time by following up on our other lead on Lexicon Anathema. If the delay is gonna be really bad and we actually have enough time to navigate the portal network, we could even go see The Emperor, since he's a primordial being that we can talk to to progress the Elven Research quest. I'd hope fast passage of time would kick in again during travel, of course.