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

[so_dark_a_road]

Oh, what Curufin would not give for a bow! Or for that matter, a rifle or a shotgun.

The goblin dies of its audacity, attacking Fëanor the son of Finwë. All of the Eldar are powerful, but the first generation born in Aman are most powerful of all. And it is an especially bad idea to mess with Fëanor of the fiery spirit.

Curufin glances upwards to gauge the descent of the rest of the wolf-riders. There is time for a question and an answer.

"In this group, there's about fifty. I don't know if there are more still trying to get out. I guess we'll have to clear the path for the people who are here now, and then see if there is anybody else. I'm guessing there are people who were too scared to leave immediately. Want to take turns with the sword?" He hands it back to Fëanor and grasps his two sharp knives.

The next two goblin riders descend, one at each Elf.

[tinkerheart]

The goblins were expecting opposition. They wouldn't be armed and organized otherwise. Still, what they expected were merchants and craftsmen. Surely, fighting for their lives and the lives of their loved ones with all the strength they had, but ordinary folk. Not two of the mightiest warriors that ever lived.

The creatures are hideous but they also cunning. They do learn. So the next pair is more cautious. They saw what happened to the previous one. They trying to circle them, to attack from behind, but their pitiful maneuvers gain them nothing as they join their dead brethren on the ground.

"Fifty?!" To say that Fëanor is shocked is to say almost nothing at all. "If those goblins find them, they'll get plenty of real reasons to be scared." What were those people thinking?

"Gladly," he says taking the sword from his son. Those goblin daggers are not as bad as he thought initially but he still feels better with a sword.

Fifty people. Who knows how many hiding further away. Were he alone here Fëanor might have left them to feel the consequences of their own stupidity. Let them stay and get slaughters if that's what they want! Good riddance! Or he might have taken pity on the poor souls and save them nonetheless. He's not as bad as some like to portray him.

Fortunately, Curufin is here so there's no decision to be made. Fëanor would never leave his son. Not again. Then more goblins appear and time for thinking or discussions end.

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin laughs darkly as the goblin riders fail to outsmart the Fëanorians and die for that failure. They lie in two tangled heaps on the ground, goblin and wolf blood splashed everywhere.

"At least fifty. As soon as we're done with this wave of goblins, we might go and collect the group and get them started on the path, and then we'll see about going back for any others who are still hiding."

Curufin knows his father has generous impulses as well as selfish ones. He's the same. In this post-death life, Curufin focuses on acting on his better nature, and so his first thought is always of what he can do to help. It was almost funny, the way he had developed the habit of flinging himself into harm's way, not for himself but for the sake of others. Finrod would positively roll his eyes, if he were here.

The next set of goblin riders descends, three of them this time. Two of them dive at Fëanor and one at Curufin. Curufin whips out his two sharp knives and slashes the wolf's throat open, and then leaps at the goblin almost before that beastly little creature has time to fall off his dying mount. He slashes its head off and then turns to help his father.

[tinkerheart]

"This is a good plan."

The city is lost but its people still have a chance. At least as long as they are here and can keep the passage open. There's no use in waiting longer. Those that were unable to come out on their own accord before, are not going to come out now when there are goblins everywhere. The only reasonable course of action now is do as Curufin suggested. Use as much of the time between the attacks to escort the group that's already gathered and then worry about the rest.

Fëanor knows at least some that would pass out from the utter and complete shock if only they heard his internal monologue right now. Both of his brothers for sure. They wouldn't believe it's real. That he is so calmly weighing out the options. Thinking before he acts. And most shocking of all: listening to an opinion that is not his own. It's almost funny how unreal this feels.

The goblins try a different tactic but again they make another mistake. This thinking Curufin is less of a threat. The sole goblin rider has no time to realize the error of his ways. The other two of the pack keep Fëanor occupied at least until Curufin comes to his aid.
This group seems to be the last of their wave. If they are to go fetch the people there won't be a better time than now.

"Come, let's find whoever still wants to escape before more of this vermin appears."

[so_dark_a_road]

Alas, their relatives were so used to the Fëanorians being single-mindedly and selfishly intent on the Silmarils that any of them would have a hard time recognizing either Fëanor or Curufin as the persons they are now. And yet it is a real change.

Curufin laughs at the goblin riders' mistake and whirls around to help his father. The two Elves dispatch the last two goblin-and-wolf pairs with ease.

"Yes, let's go and find the people who are hiding. We'd better get them out before the next wave of vermin appear." He grins at his father and turns to go back down the path to look for the people they are trying to save.

A number of these people come cautiously out of hiding and stare at the dead goblins and wolves almost in disbelief. And then they follow the Elves away from the outlying buildings out the city towards the path that leads up and over the cliffs.

[tinkerheart]

Fëanor was more often than not single-mindedly and selfishly intent on anything that he was currently occupied with. The Silmarils were just his last and greatest achievement. Rarely were his hands idle in those days. His mind even less often so. Always devising new things, new ideas, new inventions.

So the forced idleness that the stay in the Halls entailed was bound to make a dent. To leave a mark even on his insatiable spirit. To change him, even if he denied it, in ways that have never occurred to him before. It pushed him to do one thing he never cared about doing. To stop and think about what he has done, and why. He had no other choice there. Being presented with the incessant flood of images, the consequences of his decisions in all their gory detail. It made him reflect on his decisions and choices. To come to the conclusions, on his own accord, that many of those were not his greatest moments.

Fëanor would rather be caught dead than admit it but it was this new habit that he acquired there, without even know that he did, what made him go down the empty streets and into the buildings in search of more people they could escort out.

Killing goblins was easy. Going back for those people was not.

[so_dark_a_road]

The single-mindedness and focused intent were characteristic of both father and son, and though the son had never turned up in the Halls of Mandos as he was supposed to, the time he had spent wandering as an unbodied spirit and then as a self-reembodied Elf had paid off as reflective, contemplative time. He had not the constraints that his father had had, but the results had been similar. He had had to consider the consequences of the decisions he had made in life, and he had come to the conclusion that he might have made better decisions.

And so, in the worlds he had lived in since his death, he had chosen to help others whenever he could.

And here, he was somewhat aware of his father's thought processes, not because he was trying to overhear but because they were so alike that they were attuned to one another in ways that were hard to describe.

He follows his father between the buildings and they locate as many people as they can. Some of those people help with the search.

[tinkerheart]

They search the buildings encouraging more following than he thought was possible. Some of the braver refugees go then further still and bring back their own groups with them.
Fëanor is aware that the time is running out. Another group of goblins can appear any minute and there will be a moment when the attackers realise - dumb as they are, they have already shown they can adapt - that their initial plan to just randomly wreck havoc among hapless civilians stopped working and take more aggresive measures.
The city may look deserted but the sole fact there are people coming of hiding still is a proof it's far from it.

"We may need to go from house to house," he notes to Curufin as they send another group up "as far as we can from the start of the path."

The way up the cliffside is by no mean safe. There are wild animals on the road and a couple of stray goblins may venture there. Yet it's far safer than staying down here and they can't be in two places at once. And the rest of the Orange team is either at the very top directing the refugees further to the fortress or somewhere along the way. So that part of escape route is taken care of.

Yet all this will be in vain if the entrance gets overrun by goblins. They have to keep it open even if that means setting camp for the night here.

[so_dark_a_road]

"I agree," answers Curufin. "I don't want to be afraid later on that we may have left anybody to die."

It is true that the rest of Orange Team is on the path or up at the top of the path to meet people as they climb up, and to take turns escorting the refugees on to the designated safe areas that are beyond. So, Fëanor and Curufin are free to keep protecting the start of the path and going back into the city to search for more survivors.

He gives his father a nod and a smile -- they understand each other well! -- and turns towards the houses again.

Good thing, too, because they do find other people hiding in the buildings or needing rescue of one sort or another.

[tinkerheart]

At least fifty turns into close to a hundred. How populous was this city and why haven't they started the evacuation earlier? The pattern repeats. They get some people out and up the path, new goblins appear so they fight them. Some try new tricks, some just count on their mount's speed and agility. As time passes the prospect of setting a camp starts to look more and more real.

Meanwhile, the people climbing up wouldn't have made themselves a better target have they lit the signaling fires. From a distance, the line the refugees form resembles a fiery snake slithering up the cliff. Perfectly visible for miles even in the setting mist and the creeping darkness. Whoever thought that giving every single person a torch was a good idea failed to take into account they're just making them less safe not more. Every single goblin in the area can now simply ignore two deadly elves down below in favor of a better target higher up.

"This is bad." Fëanor is not at his most eloquent as he says that.

He also not wrong. They need to get those people to relinquish the torches. Very often their sole protection against wild animals and source of light on a steep ascent. This is not going to be easy.

[so_dark_a_road]

They fight goblins, they escort people to the beginning of the path. It gets wearisome, though both Fëanor and Curufn are Valinorean Elves and have prodigious energy and stamina. They can keep doing this as long as they're needed.

But. . . those torches snaking up the cliff path. Curufin is looking where his father is looking, and he agrees the goblins are bound to start targeting the fiery snake.

"It is bad. What if we go and talk to the people and see if they'll extinguish the torches if they have someone to guide them up the path? We only have to get them as far as the point where the rest of my teammates will take over." But it will require a new strategy for dealing with the goblins and wolves, if either father or son, or both, must take over guiding duties.

and then they'll see the goblins started to set city on fire... wrap?

[tinkerheart]

Someone needs to keep the entrance safe so they can't go both. In that, the falling darkness is an unexpected ally. It might make getting people out easier if the wolves and their riders switch to an easier target.

"Lend me your sword and go lead them up. When you get them to your teammates come back. We'll see if we need to continue guarding the entrance."

They've sent a lot of people out already. If the goblins don't see too well in the dark it might be possible for the rest of them to slip out unnoticed under cover of the night.

Wrap! And we can both use this thread for the November challenge. XD

[so_dark_a_road]

"All right, let's do that." Curufin hands the sword over. "Good luck, and don't get killed." He smiles to show this is humor, but he is serious. He wouldn't want to lose his father again.

He beckons the refugees to come with him, turns to go, and then smiles over his shoulder at his father.