middleofsomewhere | Final: Blue and Purple

Blue: A Call to Arms

On the sixth night (G10) since arriving in the Gry coves the fighting is the heaviest than it has been all week. What’s more anyone who tries to sleep that day or night will find their dreams are the clearest yet. Darkness, downward tunnels, fear yes but a clear calling. A draw. A call for help. A cry to arms.

The caverns are a flurry of activity but by the morning (G11) the elders address the cove. It is clear. The Burrower wishes them to descend. Furthermore if the aliens have been having dreams as well then it is clear that they are invited.

Not all can go of course, the caverns still need defending. But any who wish to may. The morning is spent preparing for the descent, or rather making sure that there are still defenders of the caverns and that everything is in order for them to descend.

Purple: A Plan for Aid

The fighting is still thick and fast but the morning of the seventh day (G11) brings another flurry of activity. The teenagers who had been growing restless all week can be found gathering in groups.

If approached by anyone who isn’t a Terran adult they will let them in on the secret. The Gry were going down to the dweller. The Gry dream forums have been full of Gry teens talking about this, worried their god is in danger. Worried they are in danger and going down there will mean certain death.

So of course the Terran want to help and their adults have not been listening. They have found one of the entrances that they believe will go down into the dwellers domain. They plan to strike out by noon and won’t say no to any one who wants to go with them.

It’s a steep entrance, going almost vertically down into the darkness below. They are pretty certain it leads to the dweller.

Meanwhile the monsters are still attacking the city with increasing numbers and almost every Terran is engaged in some level of fighting.

The Descent (Please specify team colour.)

The tunnels down from both the Gry coves and the Terran tunnels are steep. Even the Gry and Terran themselves struggle with the descent and voidtreckers will definitely need to use climbing equipment. It takes most of the day and into the evening to climb down. The air is dry and thin the further down they get but their SCA keeps them going.

The Terran and Gry have no such technology but they are better acclimatised. It’s a long climb down through the darkness.

Meanwhile... (Please specify team colour.)

For those that don’t descend there is still plenty to do. Monsters are still attacking, though as night falls they dwindle, as they begin to rush down to the cavern below. Still there are pockets of monsters around that need dealing with.

Parts of both tunnel systems are in need of repair. Down in the Terran tunnels the areas that had been collapsed still need a lot of work, though all the citizens have been rescued. The Gry systems are less structurally damaged but they are a mess and the clean up operation will take a while.

Deep Dweller

Finally the dark downward descent leads into a huge cavern. In the centre of the cavern there is a large, grey creature easily filling the space. It looks almost like a grub, if a huge one. It is hard to ascertain if it has eyes or a mouth even but it moves, slowly up and down as if it is breathing.

The elder Gry make respectful gestures towards it, the younger ones follow suit, a little more hesitantly. The Terran teenagers mostly seem some mixture of horrified and amazed.

There are four large entrances to the cavern, the two that the two groups came down and two other large ones from elsewhere. There are also numerous small ones, high and low in the walls. The two groups arrive at roughly the same time and it is not long before they have company…

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Plan for Aid:

Glorfindel listens to the younger Terrans and is torn as to what he should do, defend the city or try to find the source of the dreams...until the descent tunnel is found.

"That is exactly the tunnel I saw in my vision, before the mission," he said. "In it I felt that I was supposed to go." He smiles and holds up his bag. "It is the reason I brought the climbing equipment with me, in fact. Who all is going with me?"

The Descent (Purple):

With the climbing equipment he brought from the Train, Glorfindel carefully plans the descent and makes it easy for anyone who wants to follow along. With him along, it does mean that the Void Trekkers will be able to see where they are going, at least. Each length of rope is tied securely in place, rather than to the previous piece of rope, for safer travel.

"Still no sign of the bottom," Glorfindel said, taking a moment to look down as he carefully hammered more supports into the rock.

Of all the times her training Piccolo had come in handy over the past few days, this was by far the most useful it had been for this whole mission. She'd been helping place footholds for those who needed them. But she didn't need them herself - at least not anymore.

Cassie passes Glorfindel carefully, floating in midair beneath him.

"Want me to scout ahead and give you an estimate?"

"Sounds like a plan!" He was grateful she had taken so well to Piccolo's training. His was going slower, as was he, descending via rope.

"Please don't get too far ahead, though?"

"At some point we'll need to know what's down there," Cassie says.

She follows his suggestion, though. A soldier doesn't override her C.O. without good reason, and as far as she's concerned Glorfindel is close enough.

A voice echoes from further down: "Looks like you're not quite halfway there yet."

Almost halfway...it was a stretch, but he could support her from here if he needed to.

"Okay, go ahead and scout all the way, then." If he let himself rappel doen, rather than climb, that would be faster, but not everyone above him knew how to do that.

He came to the bottom of that length of rope, fastened it off and pulled another from where he had it over his shoulder. Attaching the top to the rock wall, he let the rest drop, transferred to the new line and continued downward.

Cassie lands softly on the floor below. She draws her tonfas and steps forward, scouting her immediate surroundings. After a short while, she returns to hover close beside him.

"The landing seems clean and quiet for now. There's an opening to a large passage up ahead. I'd bet that's where the Dweller's gonna be."

"Excellent," Glorfindel said as he tapped in yet more hand and footholds. "How do they look up above," he asked with an upward nod at the others climbing down.

Cassie darts up to look at the line of climbers above them.

"Steady as she goes."

He watched her jaunting up and down the shaft and grinned. "I have got to learn to do that."

Not that he could now anyway, someone needed to fasten the ropes and the holds. Of course, he wasn't the only one, others could and were helping put in additional holds, but he had the benefit of not tiring, between his normal elven physiology and the gifts Manwe had given him. So he kept going, making sure as he could that his friends and team mates could make it down safely, while their guardian angel flew alongside keeping her eye on them.

"How much can you carry, if someone starts to fall?" he asked her.

"As much as I could standing up," Cassie says. "I could hold the rope if it snaps, as long as there aren't too many people on the other side of it."

She's reasonably confident this is the case. Her flight ability is new, but she's only been gaining more control over it as this mission has gone on.

"I'm sure you could pick up the flying thing pretty quick."

"I've been trying to see if I can heal more than just myself," he said honestly as he continued ever downward. "Faster, like I can myself, that is, rather than just augmenting another's healing ability." Back home, Elrond was such a Master Healer and there were so many other things demanding Glorfindel's attention, it had not been a priority. But if he could figure out a way to change that...that could do some actual good.

"But trust me, flying is on my to do list," he said with a grin. He'd seen her fight on the last mission, she'd practically been at the cusp of flying then, so it was no wonder she took to it so fast.

He looked at the ropes the Train had supplied. "They aren't elven, but, they seem pretty sturdy. And they aren't taking all of our weight at once, as long as we don't start to bunch up. So hopefully they won't snap."

"The important thing, if someone slips or a rope does break, is a nice controlled landing so they aren't badly hurt." He knew he could count on her, so he didn't ask. She wasn't the type, in his opinion, to not help if she could. It was one of her many admirable qualities. "But you already know that." He laughed at himself.

Cassie nods, bringing her hand up to her forehead in a loose salute.

"Sure do."

She remains hovering, standing by with her hands at the ready.

"I'll stay close for whatever comes up."

Glorfindel laughed. "No offense, I hope you get bored!"

"None taken," Cassie says. "Boring is good."

Final: Blue and Purple

Glorfindel | Purple | OTA

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Good thread! Wrap? Or have something happen?

Seems a good wrap point.