A City Falls: Start

[voidtreckermods]

Preparation

Just after light on the seventh day of the month of Bassoon everyone’s SCA glows with the colour of the void before showing a message. A briefing for the mission to come.

Anyone who goes to investigate the dressing carriage will find all the cupboards and drawers open. They may need to battle through spider webs but soon will find an array of clothes. Trousers, skirts, dresses, shirts, robes, cloaks. Everything they will need and plenty of choice. All the clothes have accents of team colours in more muted hues than the normal bold hoodies they wear.

A few hours later there is an announcement over the speakers. "Arrival to Planet #25768 imminent. Prepare for exit from Void. Drop order: Purple, Orange, Red, Blue. All passengers are to wear their Safety Control Apparatus and are reminded that emergency evacuation protocol is three short taps."

The train shudders and jerks. It is time.

Purple

"Purple Team to doors. Drop in two minutes. Purple team to doors."

The train flies down through the air before coming to a stop between two rocky outcrops. The doors hiss open, it’s a bit of a jump down to the ground and anyone who looks back will find the train hard to see. Not invisible but definitely cloaked, shifting to blend in with the rock.

They can hear the sound of many footsteps and the high sound of young voices. It is easy to hear where they need to be.

As they move down the rocky slope they will see the main pass. A large group of children are walking. Spirits are high even if it is clear they are on their guard. Older teens are wearing weapons, swords, the odd axe, a few daggers. Nothing expertly crafted but they all wear them with ease. Slightly younger children carry the very young, toddlers and those too young to walk and keep pace.

There’s a sound from in front of the group. From around the corner a girl, about thirteen years old, runs towards them. Her braids bounce against her shoulders, her eyes are wide with fear and she waves her hands at the others. “Run! Run!”

A shadow looms behind her, a winged wolf, gaining speed towards her. Sat on the wolf is a spear wielding goblin.

From all around them a growling of many more wolves, in the hills, close and ready to pounce.

Orange

Once Purple Team are gone the train flies again. "Orange Team to doors. Drop in two minutes. Orange Team to doors."

The train seems to be still concealed as it hovers at the city walls. There’s a bit of a jump onto the walls but at least they are near one of the staircases down into the city.

Also luckily no one seems to have seen them appearing out of no where though that has more to do with the general chaos rather than anything else!

There is a lot of chaos! People evacuating, animals everywhere, people looking lost and bewildered. Get herding or helping and encourage people up that cliff path!

Red

The train flies onward. "Red team to doors. Drop in two minutes. Red team to doors."

The train makes a slightly bumpy landing on a rocky slope. Scrambling up the slope red team will see a group of fighters, perhaps eighty in total. There are some supplies to the side, not yet allotted. Some horses and weapons. All the fighters are currently focused on a tall woman who is on horseback, facing them from the front.

“… Say those that stand here, as few as we may be were the ones who end the goblin menace on our lands for good. For our children and our families. We fight!”

The end of what was clearly a rousing speech, the fighters cheer. They begin to move over the slope, towards the goblin camp below. If you are joining this battle the time is now!

Blue

The train flies low, skimming over the lake. "Blue Team to doors. Drop in one minute. Blue Team to doors."

Jumping down off the train they will land in the shallows of the lake. It’s not deep enough to go over their boots and now too far to wade to shore. The shore is rocky, loose rocks and pools of water to avoid. The tower stands before them. Three goblins, riding wolves perch on the walls high above them. The sky above crackles with lightning that is not at all natural.

The doorway to the tower is open, there are a lot of stairs to get up. The howls of the wolves fill the air as the wizards fight them off above. Time to climb!

Comments

[deductiongeek]

Conan couldn't say he was surprised. He'd known Kid long enough to expect that kind of showing off.

When Hattori sets him down he immediately examines the area. There was more than enough rubble and debris around for him to kick if necessary.

"We also need to locate a map or at least get an idea of the quickest routes to the evacuation areas."

[stealsyourheart]

Kaito laughs, giddy with adrenaline, but he straightens to watch the area around them.

"It looks like the main roads run in a spoke pattern towards a central area from up here."

[deductionrival]

"It might make sense to start at one end of the city and keep moving a certain directions- like herd the people toward the exit route. It looks like there's a stairwell over there to take us down to the street." He points to where the rest of the orange team is headed.

[deductiongeek]

"That's a place to start." Conan frowns down at what he could see of the city. "We need a better way to spread the word. The three of us won't be able to move fast enough through the city to get enough people moving in the right direction."

There was a reason the entire police force was usually committed when an evacuation was needed.

[stealsyourheart]

"There's more than just us though." Kaito points out. "What about if we just take one section and work from there?"

He wishes now for fireworks.

[deductionrival]

"Right! Let's go." Hattori had had enough of talking this over. There were people down there who needed their help.

As they were leaving the stairwell from the tower, he catches sight of an old man struggling a wagon wheel. "Hey guys!" He called to his friends before hurrying over to help.

[deductiongeek]

Conan considers the situation, and unhappily decides that with only his shoes to rely on, he would be of no use here. This one would be up to the other two.

[stealsyourheart]

Kaito hangs back just a bit.

"Do you want to check if anyone's in the house up ahead while we sort this out?" He asks, rolling up his sleeves to move over to help Heiji.

"I think this is stuck pretty damn good, Hattori-kun. We're probably going to have to either leave it or... maybe if we have a lever?"

[deductionrival]

"My wife, Ennis is in there," says the old man who owns the cart. "She won't come out even though they're telling us to leave."

Heiji frowns and looks at the other two. "Alright, sir, we'll see if we can convince her. You might have to leave the cart though." He rubs the back of his neck unsure of what to do.

[deductiongeek]

"I'll go," Conan informs them. "You can deal with the cart."

[stealsyourheart]

Kaito nods.

"Here, can we borrow a broom, ojisan? We can use it as a lever to help get the wheel out."

[deductionrival]

"A broom?" The old man thinks for a moment to remember where it is. "I think we left it against the back door."

Heiji takes off around the house to get it. It only takes a couple moments before he's back. He looks at Kaito as he passes it to him. "You know, if this doesn't work, we may have to get them to leave the wagon behind."

[stealsyourheart]

Kaito's been eyeing the wheel while he does, using rocks from the garden to try and give a bit of solidity to the ground.

"Yeah, I know." He grimaces. "Still - worth a shot, yeah?" He accepts the broom and wedges it under the wheel. "Do you want to push or pull?"

[deductionrival]

"Definitely, just thinking of worst case scenarios." He got ready to help Kaito with the broom.

"Nah, worse case is if you youngens get trapped under the cart and it impales you," supplied the old man.

Heiji gave Kaito a look. What was with this old guy? "I'll pull, you push. Come on, we can do this... and not get impaled."

[stealsyourheart]

U h.... Kaito exchanges a grimace with Heiji.

"Alright let's do this. On three? One. Two..."

[deductionrival]

"Three!" Heiji pulled on the broom with a grunt and with a lot of effort and a few adjustments the two are able to get the wagon rolling again. It looked wobbly like it might break one of the wheels off if a strong enough breeze hit it, but for now it was working.

He frowned and looked at Kaito. "I guess that's as good as that thing is going to get. Let's see how many of the livestock around here will fit."

"No! This cart is for my stuff and my wife. We got dishes and buckets and blankets and a table and some chairs an-" The old man started to list stuff.

"Are you crazy, old man?! We have to get you out of here!" Heiji glared at him.

[stealsyourheart]

"He's right, mister." Kaito makes soothing gestures.

"You can come back for your stuff later, right? Isn't your wife more important than your things?"

[deductionrival]

The old man looked very affronted at the two whipper-snappers arguing with him. "Well.. I don't know. She's got a real mouth on her." He paused to see if either boy found that funny. Heiji just looked horrified. "Alright, alright. Leave the stuff and get the misses. I'll get o' Dusty rigged up right."

Heiji looked around. "Who's o' Dusty?"

"The cart."

Heiji gave Kaito a look, like what the hell is wrong with this guy?

[stealsyourheart]

Kaito exchanges a speaking shrug with Heiji.

"I reckon she'd still prefer to be alive, oyaji."

Kaito says agreeably. "Why don't I help you with the cart then, so that we can get it done faster."

[deductionrival]

"Who you calling oh-ya-agee!" A cranky woman's voice said behind them. Heiji turned around in time to move, but her cane bopped Kaito in the head. "I ain't going! I don't wanna go."

The old man looked up and winced as that cane was waved around. "You sure I can't leave her?"

[stealsyourheart]

"ow!"

Kaito flinches.

"Your husband, obaasan! And I mean I guess you could stay but then who's going to look after him?"

[deductionrival]

"It just means 'old man' in our language! It's not an insult!" Heiji argued back. Whether it was a really nice way to put things or not, maybe that was questionable, but they didn't deserve to be smacked with a cane over it.

"Alright, alright kids. Come on, woman. Time to go." The old man finally felt bad enough for the two that were desperately trying to help them and steered his wife to the cart. "We don't want nothing bad happen to these boys and they seem the stubborn type."

"We are definitely the stubborn type, right Kaito?"

[stealsyourheart]

"We're just being polite!" Kaito echoes him, and he shoots a thankful gaze at the old man.

"We are. Got lots of people to help right now after all!"

[deductionrival]

The old couple finally got the cart going and despite some extra grumbling, were heading in the general direction as everyone else evacuating.

Heiji wiped his brow and looked at Kaito. "I hope they aren't all like that."

That turned out to be one of their worst cases, but Heiji got butted by an angry goat later so he had a bruise that matched Kaito's from the cane.

[stealsyourheart]

"Ditto." The ever present smile slips and fades and Kaito rolls tired shoulders.

"Well, let's keep going."

He does laugh at the goat though. He'll be making jokes about that later.