Event #06: ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE MISSION LOG

[vivalamods]

EVENT #06: ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE MISSION LOG

With wind at their backs, the Corsairs fully expect the Imperial resistance. Knowing that they’ve made even the Emperor himself take notice has been heartening, they are well-prepared to go to war. And war finds them soon, with Imperial Strike Forces dispatched to scatter their resistance. With Flotsam under heavy attack, the great fleet has split, hiding in coves around the Eternal Ocean.

As the Corsairs fend off the Imperial Attack, they also look forward to the future. Keeping up their information warfare against the Empire is, of course, vital, as is finding new space to settle refugees and new recruits for the cause. February may prove to be a deadly month for the Corsairs, but if they play their hand well it can be a month of great strides.

These missions are occurring over the course of the month, there are no limitations on the characters who can take part, the size of the logs, or how many logs a character participates in.

MISSIONS

Imperial Warfare: Flights of airships and armors have been dispatched to sink as many Corsair ships as possible. The Corsairs have already split their fleet, but are hoping to catch these roving attack squadrons and quickly overwhelm them, protecting their fleet and, if possible, capturing airships and armors for their own forces.
Conflict: Strike forces will typically consist of two airships holding 4 armors each. These ships can be boarded and disabled, or fought directly depending on the preference of the combatant.
Role: Combatant
Requirements: To participate in this mission, your thread header should read IMPERIAL WARFARE
Extra: You may specify the type of combat as well, such as BOARDING for more on-foot or ARMOR or SHIP for battles in mechs or from the decks of ships.

Investigate Targets: The Larendt labor camps have a lot of low-class and servant labor. With their presence in the Eternal Ocean and their involvement in some of the more menial but sometimes necessary manufacturing, gaining a foothold in these camps could be a huge boon for the Corsairs.
Conflict: These camps are heavily guarded, and while the inhabitants are extremely oppressed, inspiring them to revolt en masse will be a tough sell. Infiltrators will need to sneak in with either stealth or guile and determine who in the camps can be trusted and start into a major subversion effort to bring them to the Corsair side.
Role: Infiltrator, Supplier or Negotiator optional
Requirements: To participate in this mission, your thread header should read INVESTIGATE TARGETS
Extra: You may specify the approach for your infiltration, such as STEALTH or DISGUISE

INFORMATION WARFARE: The Corsairs must keep up the pressure by creating a counternarrative to fight the Emperor’s messaging. This can be done a number of ways, such as hacking radio networks to broadcast messages, distributing subversive literature, or giving flash speeches.
Conflict: Guards are on high alert and will heavily crack down on people seen pushing banned messages or materials. Chances are high they will try to arrest or even kill on sight.
Role: Negotiator, Infiltrator or Combatant optional
Requirements: To participate in this mission, your thread header should read INFORMATION WARFARE
Extra: You may specify the approach for your infiltration, such as HACKING or PAMPHLET DISTRIBUTION

Scout Settlements: The Corsairs need to establish a new settlement in order to house the growing number of refugees. An old ruined city has been identified as a potential site, an underground dwelling with some concealed farmland could easily be built in the area which has remained relatively untouched since the continent fell. Suppliers need to go in and set up a basecamp to begin construction.
Conflict: The ruins themselves will require a great dea of effort to get in order, with repairs to the infrastructure concealed within the ruins. The aqueducts still appear to be mostly capable of function and could be a great boon to the Corsairs if they can find a way to make them work. The ruins themselves have become quite dangerous in the intervening time, there are subterranean monsters such as bullettes and ankhegs that have taken up residence and can be quite dangerous when confronted. Additionally, it seems some Imperial deserters and n’er do wells have taken to using the place as a getaway after making it to Elysium, they will need to be dealt with, or perhaps even recruited if that can be managed.
Role: Supplier, Combatant or Negotiator optional
Requirements: To participate in this mission, your thread header should read SCOUT SETTLEMENT
Extra: You may specify the approach for your infiltration, such as REBUILDING INFRASTRUCTURE or CONVINCING DESERTERS

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SCOUT SETTLEMENTS

[newmemorywhodis]

i. Exploring with Ascend
The ruin makes for a maze of tunnels and structures, all built upon and collapsed on top of each other. It makes mapping the area a challenge, and there's not always a clear way to move from one area to another.

Link's found a rather handy workaround, however. Because he finds himself looking up at a cavern ceiling one day, thinking about when it was so easy to just...swim straight up. And as he thinks that, there's a familiar sensation in his right hand; a sense of remembered power.

So he raises his hand up, as two swirling streaks of green light carry him up into the ceiling - and to the space above.

Which might be a bit of an unexpected shock for anyone who happens to be in the space up top.

ii. Monster clearing
As promising as the ruins were, there was one big problem: the monsters. In particular, the massive insectoid ankhegs. They'd gotten reports of them from some of the other Corsairs in the area, and from the sounds of things the creatures were vicious. And very, very territorial.

As long as they were around, no settlement here would be safe. Somewhere around here was a nest, and they needed to find it.

But so far, there weren't many signs. At least, not until they move into the collapsed remains of what had once been a grand building. Is that something there on the stone floor? Something that might be a trace of an ankheg's acid?

i

[singlemilletgrain]

"Ah..."

Finally. Time for a little alone time after a few hours' hard work with an expedition group. Though she is not shy about using her abilities, it still wouldn't be too appropriate for her to start transforming the ruins into some sort of subterranean Garden of Eden. For one thing, it was gauche. For another, she had never wanted people wholly dependent on her to provide for their sustenance. It wouldn't do, after all, if one day she... ceased.

But if she is alone, she will indulge herself in making a little flower sprout in the corner. A nice pale blue periwinkle shade, which she feeds with a little water and a little clean soil.

"There, there, little one. You'll have friends soon en -- "

Something blonde and horrific erupts from the ground in the middle of her sentence. ... And if Link didn't wear a helmet after he received a fortune directing him to do so, it is his own fault if Shu's boot smashes him straight in the cranium as he Ascends.

"Mole monster!"

[newmemorywhodis]

As it turns out, Link isn't wearing a helmet. But he is wearing his Hylian hood, which has been enchanted several times by the Great Fairy to be extra protective. So when he gets kicked in the head while still half in the rock, he just raises one hand to gingerly touch the spot and give Shu a mournful look. Sure, he's fine, but...did she really have to do that?

Then he wriggles the rest of the way out of the rock, and hops up. Despite the fact that he'd been swimming through it a moment before, the rock seems absolutely solid as Link stands on it now.

[singlemilletgrain]

My flower..........

is Shu's primary thought as she gazes balefully at the fluttering blue petals landing around Link's head. Her cheeks swell up slightly as she matches his mournful expression, once she realizes what exactly has just transpired.

"I see you have recovered your... rock-swimming power."

She should probably sound more pleased.

"I thought you were one of those mole monsters we had been fighting."

She says, by way of explanation. ...She should probably still sound more pleased.

[newmemorywhodis]

Alas, Link did not have the chance to witness the flower. Which was a pity, because he'd have liked to. Flowers were pretty.

But the only evidence now is the blue petal that is briefly stuck in Link's hair, before being dislodged when he nods his head. Yes, he's got the rock-swimming power back.

"Ascend," he says, as he holds his right hand up. It doesn't look any different. But it had, briefly, when he'd called upon the ability. Then he lets it fall back down, and looks at Shu.

"I could be a mole monster," he says. If he just had a mask that looked a bit like one...

[singlemilletgrain]

Shu exhales her puffed breath, sighs slightly, and plucks the petal from the air as it goes fluttering to the ground. ...She could probably make another. Not that it would be the same. With an inhalation for composure, her usual pleasant expression returns soon enough.

"What were you doing so far below ground? I didn't know we had found any more paths that went deeper."

She is going to ignore that comment about the mole monsters, because she has no idea where it was going.

"You should be careful not to venture too far alone."

[newmemorywhodis]

"Searching," he says. For monsters, for hidden treasures, for new and exciting underground mushrooms. Take your pick; he was looking for all of it, and more.

As for the warning not to go alone...Link just shrugs. He's got the Sword that Seals the Darkness. And he's pretty used to running into danger and the unknown at all. He's not particularly worried.

:)

[singlemilletgrain]

"...It's dangerous to go alone."

She gently chides. It is a rule for exploration, after all. The buddy system didn't just work with elementary school children wandering the mall.

At the very least...

"Take this."

She rummages around in the pockets of her work overalls and comes out with what is clearly a rudimentary map she has been working on.

"It can help guide you if you are misled. And you can mark any new passageways you find."

\o/

[newmemorywhodis]

Alas, if Link were an elementary school child, he would definitely be the one that keeps wandering off and ending up where he shouldn't be. He'd be the child his teachers would want to stick a leash on.

But Link's a fully grown Hylian adult, so that approach is a bit difficult to implement now. But the map certainly does catch his interest, and he comes over next to Shu to peer at it. He spends a few moments inspecting it closely, before reaching out to point at one of the areas Shu has not yet marked.

"One’s there," he says. And then roughly draws out with his finger where this particular passway goes. It loops around, twisting back upon itself until it crosses over with another one of the passageways. The very passageway that they're in right now, in fact: it seems that this is the tunnel that goes under their current spot.

ii. Monster clearing

[spacetogrow]

Ilphyl hasn't seen an ankheg up close, or this would be easier. They have spells that let them find the nearest creature, if they can get a good enough mental picture. So the task is to find one ankheg and hope it isn't too much to deal with, and then locate any others in the area.

They at least know the signs. They are studying the same bit of stone Link noticed. "That's not decorative, is it?"

[newmemorywhodis]

Link hasn't seen one either, so right now they're both in the dark. All the others were able to say were things like 'big' and 'insect-like' and 'really really terrifying mandibles'.

Maybe they were really big beetles? Link was hoping for big beetles.

Right now though, he shakes his head in response to Ilphyl - no, it wasn't decorative. And just to make sure, he reaches out to lightly touch the stain with the tip of his pinky.

And then hisses, as it begins to sting.

Yup. Definitely acid.

[spacetogrow]

"Next time, use something besides your hand?" Ilphyl suggested. "If they're hungry, they might decide they can try and eat us. Otherwise, they'll probably stay hidden."

They look around, trying to map out what might work for a giant insect burrow. The acid probably means they can dig their own easily. A lot of insects are ambush predators, so they might wait until Ilphyl or Link gets close to a burrow.

Which isn't the best plan. Ilphyl could try wild-shaping into a giant insect and hope it was close enough to make the ankheg territorial, which wasn't much better. "I'm not having any better ideas than acting as bait. Unless you can spot a burrow?"

[newmemorywhodis]

Link shakes his hand, and shrugs. It's fine; he's had worse.

Gloom was far more painful.

But Ilphyl's off-hand suggestion of bait has Link's countenance turning thoughtful. Really, using bait actually sounds like a pretty good idea to him.

"...Think they eat people?" How much can Link resemble a nice tasty snack?

[spacetogrow]

"If they are big enough, and eat meat," Ilphyl said. "Especially if we're the only big animals around."

Giant humanoid-eating arthropods living underground are normal for Ilphyl.

[newmemorywhodis]

"You change," Link suggests. "I draw them out?"

Because if Ilphyl could transform themselves into some small, unremarkable creature - Link will appear to be alone. And predators, Link knows, like prey that is alone.

And then when Link is inevitably attacked, the creatures won't see Ilphyl coming.

[spacetogrow]

"Just remember, I'll need a bit of time to change back and either use magic or change into something more threatening," Ilphyl said. "Please try not to get eaten."

Look, sometimes someone has to be the one to keep the monster's attention, while everyone else attacks. It's just normally that person is Ilphyl.

[newmemorywhodis]

Link nods, and gives Ilphyl a lazy salute. Don't get eaten. It's a good rule; Link knows that one already.

Then he pauses, and waits for Ilphyl to transform. As usual, there's an intent look on his face as he watches; Link always finds this ability of theirs to transform fascinating.

ii. Monster clearing

[chosenkingoflucis]

As the duo head into the building, Noctis takes to exploring the corners and outer walls figuring that maybe there would be some kind of trace of a nest, kind of like any other insect nest.

He's never actually seen an ankheg though he'd probably be able to liken them to some kind of monster from his world.

"So, I could set the nest on fire?" He suggests. "Maybe they'll all be asleep in the there?"

[newmemorywhodis]

Link has also never seen an ankheg before. But he likes the way Noctis is thinking - and practically everything hates fire.

Or at least, hates being on fire. When things other than you are burning, it's way more fun.

"...I have bomb flowers," Link says, with quiet, intense anticipation.

[chosenkingoflucis]

"Oh yeah?" Noctis pauses, looking intrigued. "What's a bomb flower? I got magic flasks too if you want one?"

Now they just have to find the main nest. He figures, take it out like a wasp nest.

Of course he has no idea how big the ankhegs are. They might be in for a surprise.

[newmemorywhodis]

Immediately, Link pulls one of the flowers out from his pack, and holds it up proudly. The flower is a dark blue, and very round, with a red stem and a ring of little white petals. It is a flower that somehow manages to look like a bomb.

Link does not explain exactly what the flower does. But changes are, Noctis could manage a really good guess.

Link's icon is killing me lol! Need 2 more for AC btw!

[chosenkingoflucis]

"Huh." Is all he says, though indeed he can hazard a really good guess as to how it works, and there's a small light of mischief in his blue eyes.

Next he summons a magic flask from the Armiger. It's filled with fire element that he drew from the land. Holding it up, Link can see the magic swirling within. "I'm guessing they work the same way." He says with a chuckle.

"Alright. Let's find us a nest!"

Sorry, yesterday was Big Work Deadline Day - hopefully can still help with AC!

[newmemorywhodis]

Link's eyes immediately focus on the flash. A bomb elixir?

...He wants one.

Maybe later, he could ask Noctis how to make them. But for now, they still need to find that nest - and it's with renewed vigor and excitement to Blow Things Up that they resume the search.

There's a trail of the acid, leading down deeper into the ruins. It's not the easiest track to follow, as it's only the occasional spot of it here and there. But after they follow it for a while, Link stops - and puts a hand up for Noctis to stop.

He cocks his head to one side, listening - as the sound of skittering comes from up ahead.

Yes! Ty! Lol I love how much of a gremlin Link is!

[chosenkingoflucis]

Oh that can be arranged! In fact, Link could pull one right now, he just has to imagine it in his mind as Noctis did lend him the Power of Kings, which includes access to his magic. These flasks are kept in the Armiger, which Link has access to as well.

Following the acid, Noctis lets Link take the lead, keeping low and stealthy himself.

"Ugh... gross..." he whispers under his breath upon finding one of the bigger pools of acid, stepping around it then pausing as his friend halts him. He hears the skittering and his first instinct is to look up.

He is absolutely a feral gremlin XD

[newmemorywhodis]

And of course, as Noctis looks up...he'll find the source of that pool of acid, as a horrifying creature is hanging from the ceiling, far above them.

Their one saving grace is that the beast hasn't actually noticed them yet; it's facing the other direction, and hasn't spotted them.

But that might change very soon.