Mission: The Will to Fight

[voidtreckermods]

On the morning of Day 6 of the month of Kazoo (ooc: 11th March) the train symbol on everyone’s Safety Control Apparatus will shimmer in many colours, almost like the void itself. A moment later a holo-screen will pop up with the following information:

Destination: System #86525656412355.

Erda is a non-void active, pre-industrial world, connected to a corresponding demonic realm through ancient means.

Strife between the two realms has lasted for centuries. However recently the scales have shifted in the demons' favour. Although the humans have been pushed back to one last stronghold, the Shining City, they were withstanding the attacks until a few days ago, when all fighting ceased.

A large number of demon gates have opened around the realm, and sizable forces are marching through towards the final city. Without help, the city will fall, and the last of the world's people with it.

Purple Team

Defend the city. There are demons already inside the walls, and a larger force is approaching from the surrounding areas. Keep the city safe and hold off the demons.

Orange Team

The city's four ward-towers are manned by guardian monks who channel their energies into wards to protect the city. Enter the towers and investigate what has happened to the guardians. Beware any defences.

Red Team

The demon realm is connected to the human world by gates, each powered by a keystone. Residual protective wards are preventing large gates from opening within the city. Travel to the larger gates outside the city, and through them to destroy their keystones. The gates collapse thirty seconds after keystone destruction. They will be guarded.

Blue Team

Enter the Shining City to find out the reason for their lack of resistance. If fighting is impossible, locate the entrances to the catacombs that run under the city and escort the people out before there are further casualties.

Additional Information

All the information you will need for writing the mission is below. Remember that the only information characters know about IC before the mission is the blockquote section above, though they may learn the rest through play.

Lay of the Land

The Shining City

For those that disembark within the walls, it is a large, sprawling city with simple wood-and-plaster houses around the outskirts and more sturdy stonework buildings towards the centre. It is a bustling hive of activity, with more people than perhaps usual living there.

The city is surrounded by walls with large gates that are kept open throughout the day and closed at night. At the four corners stand ward-towers, with large doors leading into them from the inside of the city. Outside the city walls are fields and pastures; the ones nearby are manned, though it is rare to see anyone going further than a couple of fields away from the walls.

The people are in fine spirits, though a few might mention strange occurrences: farmers going missing, uneasy dreams, some even claim to have seen animals attacking townspeople. Cows, dogs, even cats and chickens. Such talk is largely dismissed as nonsense.

If asked about the demons they will rejoice: the demons were beaten back. The humans are victorious. The war has been won.

Voidtreckers who are resistant to mind-controlling magic will not see the Shining City as described above, please refer below to 'Outside the City' for what they will see instead.

Outside the City

For those that disembark outside the city they will see the truth of the world. The landscape is ravaged, destroyed. Small homesteads lie in rubble, fields lay barren and rotting. The earth is scorched. The destruction is vast and comprehensive, but it seems to be fairly recent: stubborn plants grow beside rubble or sheltered by walls; half-wrecked buildings still hold food supplies that have not yet spoiled.

Looking towards the city they will see a dilapidated, war-torn sight. The towers have large cracks running through their walls, and many of the buildings are held together with makeshift wooden scaffolding. Most of the remaining structures are more tent-like, blankets, carpets or hides over wooden frames.

Demon Realm

For those jumping through the gates they will find the demon realm looks almost like a grey-scale version of the human world, except somehow even more barren. Each gate has a keystone, which looks like a smooth black obelisk about a foot high, usually stood on a plinth or set above the gate location as a centrepiece. It needs to be destroyed to close the gate. Each is guarded: smaller gates might only have two or three guards, but larger gates have groups of demons to protect the keystone numbering in the dozens. Any attack able to damage stone can destroy the keys.

The SCA allows the Voidtreckers to survive in the demon realm, a world otherwise entirely hostile to non-demonic life, but they will become fatigued easily and weakened if they try to remain there for long periods of time. Keeping their energy up through meals and regular rest - or the equivalent for non-humans - will be necessary.

Routes

Purple

The train will drop them outside the city so they will see reality (see: Outside the City). However, if they enter the city or get too close to the walls they will see the Shining City. It's hard to shake off the illusion once they see it, but moving away from the city and remaining outside for a while will allow it to fade.

The area that needs to be covered is large, and there are demons approaching from every direction. Many of the demons arrive on foot but some small portals are open both in the ruined countryside and inside the city itself, through which more may arrive.

Orange

The train will drop them inside of the city. Each of the four towers has a door that opens easily. Once inside they will find a staircase that leads them upwards through different levels until they reach the top. The staircase takes them onto each level and the next staircase begins at the opposite side of the floor. Each level of the tower is full of wards that, without their custodians to deactivate them, must be navigated through.

We will put up a page with puzzle and trap ideas to play with when the start post goes up! During the start section of the mission they will be able to move up the towers but will not reach the final floor until 'ongoing'.

Red

The train will drop them outside of the city. Their SCA's will pinpoint the demon gates that need to be closed. The gates are all over the place and demons move in and out of them to get around; it seems they can move faster on their own plane than in the human world.

Once the Voidtreckers destroy the keystone they will have roughly thirty seconds to leave before the gate collapses. If they don't make it they will be able to travel to another gate through the demon world since the geography is similar enough for the SCA to still lead them to the gates. They will emerge fatigued for it, however, as the very matter of the realm is inimical to life.

Blue

The train will drop them inside the city. Their SCA will pinpoint the entrances to the catacombs. There are roughly ten entrances around the city and, having been heavily sanctified, they are places that demons cannot easily enter.

The catacombs are cold and dark and morale will be low; the townspeople will be resistant to leave their perfectly safe and comfortable city. The map on their SCA will show a route through the tunnels, though the way will be difficult. Some of the tunnels are partially collapsed and will need to be worked around; sometimes requiring the group to squeeze through small gaps or clamber over rubble.

Creatures

Demons

The regular demons are large humanoid creatures, scaled in dark jewel tones. While they can stand and fight on two feet, they drop to all fours to run for greater speed and distance; their hind legs are two-jointed. They have large claws on both their hands and feet, and several layers of fangs running along their jaws, and are more than happy to use both in a fight. They are capable of withering plant life with a touch, though it is not a passive effect, and takes their attention.

There are larger demons, towering above the others. These are slower, unable to run in the same quadrupedal way as their lesser cousins, but wield toxic whips with skill and unnerving accuracy to make them as dangerous at mid-range as they are up close. They are luckily rarer than the regular demons and are more likely to come through the larger portals away from the city.

Even rarer are demons smaller than any of the others, waifish and sharp-featured. They carry short, ornate daggers and wield the same withering magic as their larger cohorts with far greater skill and power. They can throw spheres of anti-life - bodies grow fatigued, injuries worsen, mundane materials age and decay. Their preferred style is to bind their foes with shadowy chains and drain them slowly. The other demons defer to them in all matters.

For those under the illusions of the Shining City these demons look like ordinary farm and domestic creatures though it will soon become apparent that they are now- once they attack.

They can be fought and killed by ordinary means, though magic that is life affirming is the most effective against them. Necromancy and 'anti-life' magic does not have much effect at all.

Humans

The humans of the city are a mixture of people, as would be expected of the vestiges of humanity safe within its last stronghold. For the most part they are good-natured and friendly, welcoming the Voidtreckers though they may make comments about not having many visitors lately.

As well as universally being under the illusions of the Shining City, they also all seem to share a sense of false history, one where the demon threat has been eliminated and peace has returned to the realm. It will be difficult to persuade them otherwise, and may take a day or so to get them to leave through the catacombs, though the people aren't particularly stubborn as a whole. If they hear enough arguments about needing to evacuate, public opinion will change, and they will begin to move.

Once the boundaries of the city have been cleared and they are far enough through the tunnels, they will begin to come back to themselves (towards the third). They will be frightened and furious that they were tricked. Some, especially the youths, will want to return to avenge their fallen home, but the older members of the city will be more keen to regroup and come up with a plan first.

Other Information

The dressing carriage will open to provide tents and basic camping equipment. There is food in the city though supplies are running low- as many of the fields have been destroyed and much of the livestock killed. The demons themselves are not edible- decaying almost instantly on death.

For the illusions of the shining city- Characters who are immune to mind influencing will not see the illusions at all. Characters who have strong mental defences or incredibly strong will power will be able to force themselves to see past the illusions once they know that they are illusions. Characters who have low will power or who are susceptible to mind control will have a much harder time shaking the illusions off once they have seen them. On average for the voidtreckers, once they have seen the illusions it will take a whole day of being away from the city boundaries before they begin to see reality again.

Though it is a work-in-progress it may be worth looking here for ‘background’ mission preparation. Other initiatives are listed here and here is the list of community supplies that you can assume characters have access to.

This mission will run from the 11th to the 25th March. A post will go up on the 11th March (K6) and will cover the Voidtreckers' arrival to the city. An ongoing post will happen on the 17th March (K9).. A final challenge for all teams on the 21st March (K11).

Rewards.

Taking part in a mission in any way will earn you five team points. You claim those by submitting a link during AC.

Also threads of 10 comments or more where mission goals are being worked towards will also earn you 10 team points. To claim those please fill in the form below and reply to the rewards header.

<b>Characters:</b> <b>Mission goal colour:</b> <b>Link:</b>

Please feel free to use this as a plotting post. Remember there is nothing forcing your character to do the task assigned to their group so if you wish to do a different one, feel free! If your character decides to not do any of the tasks at all that’s fine too, just let me know! Please reply under the colour you decide to go with once you decide for definite!

Have fun plotting!

Comments

BASE CAMP ORGANIZATION AND PLOTTING (and Dev I guess)

[subcircuits]

So you know how Devero made camp every night for blue team on the last mission? Yeah, he's here for that again this time around. He thinks Reno and Roland both have great ideas and he is 100% onboard with this.

What I'm thinking I would like to have Dev do is jump right into capturing a gate close to the city immediately (/points at eyes points at Koumyou) and then establishing a base camp there, as long as enough people will commit to guarding that specific gate again demons retaking it. Red team will have a secure way in and out of the demon realm, and we'll be able to reduce the number of cross-world teleports as well. He'll want Purple and Red to know they are to fall back here to rest, recover, get healed, eat, etc, and they can use it as a place to pull Orange and Blue out of the city as necessary as well. Healers and quartermasters will be encouraged to consolidate here and spread their services out as needed. Maybe Spooder portals can be of use connecting all the elements of the mission to the camp?

Once the camp is established, Devero himself will alternate between defending it from demons in both realms and acting as an evac unit for wounded warriors. He'll be taking a white band, so if you comm that you need help, he'll be there to cover your rear and pull you out.

And then you best be ready to be sarge-voice bullied into recovering before you go out again, soldier.

OOCly I'm happy to set up the Purple Base Camp and have Dev do the IC coordination and announcement on it. LEAVE THIS TO ME AND MY GIANT SOLDIER-DAD GUY /rubs hands together

[blitzcheer]

This is the idea that's been going around so far - have somewhere close to the city so also that Blues/Oranges can be able to access quicker, an access to Red Team too so they can come back (as well as tracking farther out gates if Red-goers need pick up that way). Have a space for resting and healers esp, and also make sure it's protected.

Though they may want some distance from the demon gate, where it's within distance but not putting the healers/resting base too close, if that makes sense. Since even with people watching it, that's a bit dangerous. But still they can be within the vicinity!

[subcircuits]

Yep! I'm volunteering explicitly to be the coordinator for it, IC and OOC.

He'll definitely take criticism on building the camp actually at the site of the gate. It'll probably depend on how many people commit to guarding it. If there's enough that a constant rotating guard can be posted on the gate itself, he'll argue for camping right there, for convenience's sake, but if it's looking like that won't be an option, then the camp probably should be set up at a remove.

[theturksway]

That's closer to what I was thinking anyway. Honestly, it's just supposed to be a small gate that's easy to hold with a few rotating people and nearby (not in the middle of) a campsite established by Purple for their defenses. And it was just meant to be an emergency evac if Reds get stuck on the inside and can't get to another gate without fighting too much to get back out plus Purple will be able to back them up.

And none of that even needs to happen it's just the idea of if it had, this would have been available so as not to drain teleporters since teleporting between realms is harder than basic teleportation.

(Like, it's not supposed to be a large gate where a fucking HORDE of demons can come rushing out and take them by surprise.)

Re: BASE CAMP ORGANIZATION AND PLOTTING (and Dev I guess)

[magicurls]

Mami will stay at the healers' tent and help to guard it!

[subcircuits]

Attagirl!

[adregem]

All this team cross-functional collabs are just /chefs kiss

Questions though! Would we want the main HQ to be near a demon's gate? I feel like we should probably explore a prior suggestion to find a safer, more neutral zone away from the bulk of the fighting since there's still an oncoming hoard of monsters for certain, and putting people anywhere near sources of demons might cripple the team somewhere down the line. Moreso if we place healers there and people who are injured and need to rest...Let me throw this here for exploration, feel free to share if it's something that can be done or whatnot, but what if we map out via:

1. Main HQ - which is the farthest and safest from the Demons/Gates, a little closer to the city to establish the defensive line;
2. Other bases around the Purple/Red map - some a couple hundred yards away from the Gates being closed which could create that system you proposed between Red and Purple - Devero could be here leading the charge, alongside other members who may want to lend aid in this layer of defense/offense!

LMK your thoughts, of course this is just me offering up a suggestion!! :)

[subcircuits]

OOCly I'm mostly suggesting the base camp being at the demon's gate just for convenience, i.e. to make play easier and cut down on IC transportation coordination.

ICly, yeah, it actually does make a lot more sense for those two things to. not. be in the same place, especially if the base camp is going to be full of healers and other non-combatants.

Logistically, I don't think we'd want to set up TOO many other established bases lest it decentralize play OOC and spread characters too thin IC. But maybe a good compromise would be setting up the main HQ and then taking just a couple of the demon gates around the map/city and holding them as evac/triage points? Station some fighters and combat-capable medics there to be able to pull people out of the fighting in both realms and get them to the HQ camp? We cold have teams doing that in the city too, actually, so Blue and Orange can take advantage as well.

Ultimately, whatever's going to serve the needs of the players/result in the most fun is what we should go with so definitely suggestions and improvements are welcome!

[enthunder]

Since there are multiple large gates further out, Light will be a proponent for a base camp close to the city (since the wards seem to be preventing large incursions, it'll be less stressful for those resting) and then setting up temporary campsites further out closer to the large gates for a day or so (i.e. a campsite in the north, then the west, then south etc) and return to HQ inbetween for rest and restock.

That way there's still a central hub that encourages interactions etc, but also room for smaller groups.

[theturksway]

I mean, I was thinking of one of the smaller gates and setting up near one not right on top of one. Like, don't put it in the middle of the camp, but it's off to the side a ways and rotating people go guard it outside while periodically people go inside to make a sweep, make sure it's still clear for them. But it'd be better to have the main camp with a safe perimeter and the (small) demon gate nearby to use as theirs.

[subcircuits]

That's a great suggestion. Close enough to be convenient 'permanent' access but removed enough for a layer of defense between it and the camp.

[its_dad_sanzo]

/point at eyes points at Dev

he got you

[subcircuits]

who has the best murder boyfriend? it's devero. devero has the best murder boyfriend.

[its_dad_sanzo]

murder is like the one thing Koumyou knows he's good at

👍

[bodyoftheseus]

If Dev asked him to V would be more than happy to lend himself over to helping. He's not a healer but he could stabilize the wounded while waiting for healers to come around (if they have a high volume of wounded), and he could help with guard duty. Might not be as useful as the magic users but he's a pretty tough guy.

Pending how large the camp is/how far patrols range, system ranges, and Dev's system, V would be willing to open up a port for a direct (encrypted) basically phone call to keep comms between them. Allow for information to propagate quickly through camp or phone back home to base across train team lines.

I admit I just don't like the idea of having two characters go on the same mission and V makes less sense on blue since his charisma is like negative 3 and his intimidation is like plus 5

[subcircuits]

V, you will fit right in at camp, come help Dev keep this operation safe and running. He could use a man of your talents and also a cool private comm line between them.

[helborn]

Casper will be sticking with purple, and if we're going with the whole 'main camp + mobile away camp' Casper can probably jog most of those distances easily - he can run ~23 miles per hour without getting too winded and then like... quadruple his speed if he really has to. He can act as a supply runner and make sure everyone has food and drink - he can only manage a few gallons a day in terms of making it himself, but he can purify water.

He can also help with clearing areas, as he can be absolutely terrifying on the battlefield, so that could be an interesting thread as well.

[subcircuits]

Sounds like his talents will be super useful with purple, whether he's running supplies or running defense! Most of purple's going to still be doing a lot of fighting I think so you'll have plenty of opportunity to show that off.

[light_of_willpower]

Trunks is black squad, but will be staying with Purple mostly this time. I talked with Roland-mun about him possibly leading one of the charges to clear an area of demons, and then hold it so a camp could be set-up. He's fine doing that for both base camp and smaller bivouacs. (He has an ARMS band and his capsules, so he can take supplies for the bivouac easily.)

Dev's finally gonna get to see what Trunks can really do.

[subcircuits]

Aww yeah time for Dev to see his buddy cut loose.

Re: BASE CAMP ORGANIZATION AND PLOTTING (and Dev I guess)

[controlsthedie]

Than is Red and can teleport. He might be of use whenever he's not trying to keep Zag from killing himself.

There's also a good chance Than's going to work himself to some form of exhaustion because of the above and also being more resistant to the Demon Realm (and thus feeling like he should do more). His powers of death do nothing here, so he'll have to be more physical with his actions.

... And given what some of the enemies are capable of, if his trauma is poked at, he may need a place to recoup/get pulled out of shock... Chains and being restrained... Not fair.

[subcircuits]

So what I'm hearing is there may be another opportunity for Dev to be like "hey soldier, get your feet on the ground" y/n?

[controlsthedie]

I'm not saying there is a 100% chance of that happening, but I'm not saying there is a 0% chance of that happening either. I might wait to see what goes on later in the mission before I make the full decision to send him towards mental break number 6 lol

Than really hates these missions.

[securityconsultant]

Murderbot will absolutely be willing to focus on securing the gate, as well as planning how to secure the camp in general. As well as helping with evac.

LOOK AT MURDERBOT, GAINING A RESPECT FOR DEVERO'S PRIORITIES.

[subcircuits]

It's almost like Dev would fit right in with the Preservation Alliance ;D

BUT HE'LL BE HAPPY FOR YOUR ASSIST, BUDDY