voidtreckermods: (voidtrain)
VoidTrecker Express Mods ([personal profile] voidtreckermods) wrote in [community profile] middleofsomewhere2021-03-11 06:00 am

The Will to Fight: Start

"Good Morning Passengers, today is day six of the month of Kazoo." The voice echoes through the train as passengers wake up in their beds. Not long afterwards their SCA’s glow with the colour of the void and a holographic image will appear.

Preparation

They have an hour or two to prepare. Enough time to read their briefs, make decisions, meet in their teams and gather anything they may need. The dressing carriage is open with tents and other basic camping equipment.

"Shortly arriving in system #86525656412355. Drop order is Orange and Blue followed by Red and Purple. Orange and Blue to doors, arriving in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one."

The train lurches as it exits through the void, before descending smoothly to the world below.

Blue and Orange

Arrival

If anyone peeks through the windows as the train lands they will see a glimpse of cracked and crumbling walls, a city on its last legs. As they exit the train, however, any passengers who aren't immune to magics influencing the mind will find themselves looking at grand, sturdy walls, flags with a blue field and golden tower fluttering from the ramparts.

They aren't too far from a gate, depending on where on the train they exited, and the gates are opened and unmanned. Inside, people are going about their business, selling their wares, while children run around playing among dogs and chickens.

The newcomers don't get too much attention, even though their hoodies and combat trousers seem very out of place in this city.

The Towers

The towers stand in each corner of the city. They are solid stone, no windows all the way up. The ground floor is the largest, grand doors leading into a functional yet beautiful foyer, and from there into smaller chambers. Wide, curving stairs lead up into the tower proper.

As they climb the towers they will come to the different levels which are all trapped, to dissuade intruders and train their disciples. They will be able to descend the towers and exit and enter again as many times as they like as they work their way up to the top.

The City

It will soon become apparent that persuading these people to fight isn't going to happen. The war has already been won, the demons were defeated. The world is safe once more. Welcome, travellers, to the Shining City.

Their SCA's show them the locations of the entrances to the catacombs. There are a handful, scattered around the city, clearly designed for quick evacuation should the city defences ever be breached.

Persuading people that the city needs to be evacuated might take a good while.

The Catacombs

The catacombs are cold and dark, lamps having gone unlit for months. Those that are sensitive or can sense magic in any way will be able to tell that at least here the wards hold: no demons will be able to enter.

The tunnels are narrow, able to fit two people side by side at their widest points, but more often than not they must move single file to avoid collapsed walls or leaning pillars. Or, sometimes, piles of bones spilled from the tombs set into the walls. Side tunnels extend out into the darkness, signposts or symbols marking old, unused storerooms, bunkers for temporary shelter, or private tombs and crypts.

At points the tunnels widen out into large chambers, rooms or galleries that have been used as cemeteries for centuries. At other points the tunnels have collapsed or become almost impassable. People will need to wriggle through the gaps or find ways to stabilise the tunnels in order to pass through.

Purple and Red

Arrival

"Red and Purple to doors." The train flies back into the air after dropping Orange and Blue at the city gates. It doesn't go very far; it's less than a minute later that they're landing again. The doors open and they can step out into the destroyed countryside.

They don't get much time to get their bearings as the train flies off again, because coming over a nearby hill is a band of demons, a gate crackling behind them. The band is mostly footsoldiers, with several of the larger breed interspersed.

It's hard to say which side is more taken by surprise, but the Voidtreckers will only have moments to ready themselves before the demons rush in.

Defending the City

It's a wide area to cover, surrounding the city, and there is plenty of work to be done. Bands of demons roam around, most headed towards the city. They run, claws digging into the ground, leaving a trail of destruction behind them. Sometimes they will have a larger demon or even two with them, armed with toxic whips that they use with dangerous accuracy.

Other times there will be smaller demons, carrying ornate daggers, whispering foul spells to drain and bind their enemies. These demons become more regular as the days progress as it becomes obvious that taking the city will not be as easy as they first thought.

Closing the Demon Gates

The gates nearer the city are smaller, and easy enough to find, but the SCA's of the red team pinpoint more and more gates as they open in the areas further out. Triangular markings on their SCA maps indicate distance and direction.

The gates must be closed from the other side, so the first thing is to enter them. Entering the gates feels strange, uncomfortable, as if something were tugging and clawing at their very being, trying to pull them out of their own skin.

That feeling lasts for a moment, albeit one that feels stretched, and then they are in the demon realm: a monochrome world devoid of life, where every step taken tires the body, where even existing is exhausting.

The gates are guarded, so adjusting will need to be done in combat. Smaller gates have fewer guards than the larger, but all will fight savagely to protect the keystone.

The keystones are smooth black obelisks about a foot high, usually stood on a plinth or set above the gate location as a centrepiece. Each can be destroyed by blunt force or any other ability able to shatter stone, and once it is they will have a short amount of time to leave before the gate closes. Their SCA will helpfully start a timer indicating this.
hashtagparkerluck: (casual spider)

[personal profile] hashtagparkerluck 2021-03-14 05:21 am (UTC)(link)
That's okay, he's not great at thermoregulation so he won't notice at first. But don't worry too much about that. It's fine. He'll be fine. He pulls the webbed demons back and into another group of demons.

"Sorry dudes, but I'm kinda on a time crunch. Places to go, people to see-you know how it is." He webs them all into a neat little pile.

"Thanks for the assist!" He calls out to the kid."
seacub: (AND NOW A PIPE TOO??)

[personal profile] seacub 2021-03-15 12:03 pm (UTC)(link)
"No problem..! I'm not really sure how well I can help here though..!"

As he says that, he's forced to pull a rather risky dodge using a gust of wind. Thanks to Peter's webbing though, they have a bit of time to breathe. "Phew... ...Weather can control Weather, but that only goes so far when it comes to fighting stuff like this...I could probably make a storm big enough to carry these things off, but it'd just pull everyone else in..."
hashtagparkerluck: (disgruntled spider)

[personal profile] hashtagparkerluck 2021-03-28 02:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Peter hops back down to ground level, landing his his familiar spider-like crouch before getting up again. Not sure how much he can help? Should he be encouraging this? Or should he be trying to bench his kid?

"Uh.. I mean, I don't want to overstep my bounds here or anything. But is it safe for you to be out here? I don't want anyone getting hurt." Except himself and even then, he doesn't want that-he'd just prefer he got hurt to anyone else.
seacub: ('boy i sure hope nothin bad happens')

[personal profile] seacub 2021-03-28 02:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Really? Really, is that what's going to happen here?

Emporio pauses from where he's considering a wall of rain, or hail to keep them safe. He's so confused it ends up being a spotlight of sunlight...which, rather ironically, does keep the demons at bay, the lot of them sneering and hissing at the sight.

"Huh? ...Isn't that something that could happen to anyone..? We're all going to be in danger- I just went with this team because I knew I could do more with Weather Report here. And I brought potions!" he adds, patting his- possibly smaller than potion bottles- ghost pouch. "So it'll be alright. If anything really does happen, I know to make sure to evacuate too."
hashtagparkerluck: (253)

[personal profile] hashtagparkerluck 2021-03-28 03:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Peter's still not sure about this, and the sun also hurts his eyes though he does notice the demons dislike it more. Honestly, he feels like maybe he should have seen this coming. He considers the other boy carefully, still unsure of what the morally correct thing to do here is. Is this how Mr Stark felt? He's pretty sure he owes him an apology.

"Yeah, okay. You have a point. Safety's relative." He finally decides. "Just uh... try not to get into a position where you need those potions, okay?"
seacub: (AnxietyBoy prevails)

[personal profile] seacub 2021-03-28 03:11 pm (UTC)(link)
There's a weak laugh, but he nods. "I'll definitely try..! If it helps, I've definitely been in fights before..."

Ah, he blinks. "...Er...that probably doesn't help at all huh... ...honestly I'm still figuring Weather out- I used him to change the structure of the air before, but working on a larger scale, with more general concepts, has been a little weird..."

Looking out at the demons, and up at the sun as he shields his eyes, he frowns. "...I didn't actually want to make it sunny- I was considering a wall of hail...I guess somehow I knew sun would work better?"
hashtagparkerluck: (pFYSYPD)

[personal profile] hashtagparkerluck 2021-03-28 03:36 pm (UTC)(link)
No, it really doesn't. But Peter's only sixteen so what right does he have to judge. He knows better than anyone what happens when you don't help someone when you know you could have.

"Cool." he glances back at the demons, struggling with the sudden sunlight. "Well, I think it's a thing-demons don't like the light of day or something. There's a thing in fantasia about it-sorta. Not that, that was based on a true story or anything."
seacub: (AND NOW A PIPE TOO??)

[personal profile] seacub 2021-03-28 03:39 pm (UTC)(link)
"I didn't really see too many books about demons back home..." Aha. "But...I guess it makes sense?"

Wait.

"...Fantasia?" Oh! "Oh- That's um...it's something from Disney right? I didn't get to see a lot of those, they didn't want to watch..." He trails off. This is not the best time to awkwardly explain the limitations of his media options.