middleofsomewhere | A City Falls: Start

A City Falls: Start

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!

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He lets his eyes wander a bit, making it very obvious that he was doing so. "You look it, darling. Being ready for anything, that is." He winks at her, making it known how much he was simply teasing her here.

"That's.. I hope will be useful?" He isn't sure. It was a stick. Weren't there better weapons for her than that? "Since you and Dread are sure going to be the ones in charge of the purple team, I need you to set an alarm on both your watches for a bit before the train is to come for us. You have a general idea where all the other teams are supposed to be?"

"It's what I use for healing, so I should think so!" She had her bow as well--for all the good the oak cane should do as a focus for her conjury, Failnaught was a better option as a weapon. Though conjury wasn't without its offensive spells as well...

"How long before? A bell?" An hour, is what she was asking. "I do. Blue at the wizards' tower. Orange at the city to be evacuated. Your team is at the battlefront, such as it is. Do you have an idea as to where we might want to rendezvous, or do you think the train will just pick us all up?" Sarai wasn't certain about the latter. "Considering my team is taking on an ambush, I'm not certain we want to leave our position unguarded after we get the children to safety."

"Oh, I see." He obviously hadn't realized it's value. "So like a magical, healing lightning rod?" Did they have those where she was from?

"I'm not sure, I believe half a bell." He smirks. "Would that be a chime?" He nods along with the review. Yes, everything sounded correct.

"If we get the kids out of there then there shouldn't be a reason to protect that area. I'd rather you all stick together than leave some behind to protect it. From the description it sounds like we're going to be congregating in two spots at the end of this. Some will be in the next city and some will be still in this one. So you team up with Orange and find a spot in the other city. I'll make sure red and blue meet at the tower."

"No, not a lightning rod, but it's the channel I use to call healing energy. Black mages use lightning. White mages use air and water and earth energies." It was pretty well delineated--though red mages cheerfully turned that on their ear. But that was neither here nor there, so Tony didn't need that distraction now.

"All right. I'll see how well I can get all the proverbial felines herded into one area," Sarai said cheerfully. She was pretty sure she could. It was for the safety of all, right? "And I'll tell Dread what time he has to put in on his watch!"

He didn't see how that was different than what he'd said- channel, lightning rod, something that focused the power- but he wasn't going to keep asking. Oh! She was thinking he literally meant lightning. No, that was the miscommunication. Okay, moving on.

"Good. You'll be missing on purple member though. I snagged Peter and put him on Buttercup duty. He doesn't have his web fluid anyway, so he's going to do better as being her protector anyway." He hoped. This could be the beginning of a real disaster, but Tony had to keep trying.

Clearly, Sarai's thoughts mirrored Tony's. Her eyes went wide, brows arching as she looked up at him. "Are you certain that's wise? I mean--it might have been better to put Buttercup with us. She'd be with other children, and Peter could still watch her..."

But it was really too late to switch things up now, and Sarai shook her head in resignation. "At least my conjury works best on-planet. I only pray to the Twelve that neither of them will need much of it."

And if they did? Well, Sarai wouldn't chastise Tony. She knew he was doing his best.

"I would very much have preferred that, Sarai, but she seemed.. quite excited about the idea of taking on the goblins. I've also promised not to interfere as much. So.. I'm hoping this will be a decent compromise. I know he can be an idiot, but he will do anything in his powers to keep her safe."

He seemed to get that and since it was her and not someone else, he leans in and gives her a quick hug. "It'll be alright, I promise. Just make sure you get Dread back in one piece. I know everyone is worried about his safety the most." He almost manages to say that with a straight face.

"We'll just have to trust they'll be fine..."

Sarai was happy to hug Tony back, but then he said what he did about Dread, and she just about choked on her laughter. Rubbing her eyes with her knuckles, she shakes her head. "I'll do my best, but you know how he likes to get right into the middle of the fray! I'm the one who provides cover fire." Which was true, all things considered.

"I could wish we had linkpearls, though. I don't like the idea of being out of contact with the others during something like this."

He laughs too, glad she enjoyed his joke. "He is very lucky to have you watching out for him."

The humored expression shifts to more curious. "What are linkpearls?" A communication device they could contact each other through would be very helpful. He wondered how he might design something like that.

"They're a communication device from my world--though they use magic and absorb ambient aether. I've no examples on me, I fear--and I'm not certain they'd work in the Void, even if I did." Sarai frowned at that. "We've got no spells to create messages, either. I was hoping you had something from your technology!" She laughed a bit at that, weakly.

"Well, perhaps next time. We'll simply have to do our best!" As if Sarai ever did anything else!

"Yeah, perhaps. If Peter had his suit, there'd be a communication device between mine and his. I could also make it work if there were other transmitters in the area." He was mulling over their options, almost forgetting what he'd come to talk to Sarai about in the first place.

"It'd have to be independent of radio towers or satelitte since we wouldn't know if either of those would be available in the next world. It's possible if we had some kind of magic to function in its place, but obviously I don't have access to magic like that. I wonder if I could tap into.." He went quiet as his gaze shifted to his watch. It was the one item all of them had. Was there a battery inside or some other mechanism? There was some kind of receptor since they got messages on here from the train. It would be relatively easy to just change the frequency so they could use it for their own means, it'd just be a matter of the source.

Forgive him, he's completely lost in thought now.

Sarai just listened quietly for a moment, brows going up. It was like listening to Stefanivien at the Machinist's guild go on about his guns. A little over Sarai's head, but fascinating all the same.

She let him ramble on a little bit more before reaching up to pat his cheek. "Come back to us, Tony. I know the call of creation is tantalizing, but we do have more pressing matters at the moment, you know?"

Sarai can't blame him, however. She'd probably be as bad with a cord of wood and the freedom to do whatever she liked with it...

It took that pat on his cheek to have his gaze back on her and the present. It was eerily similar to what Pepper would've done but it was sweet nonetheless. "Right, of course." His tone was slight embarrassment, but this was Sarai and he had no reason to be ashamed of the fact he was brilliant and an inventor. He appreciated that she knew and respected that. In turn, it made him respect her all the more and believe her to be positively brilliant in her own right.

"Good luck, my dear." He watched over as the purple team jumped, racing off to their mission. He could only hope everyone was going to make it back in one piece.

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A City Falls: Start

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