Hades 💀 Plot 1 - Execution Phase

[blessmefather]

Who: Open to all Corsair characters
What: Evacuating a village and prepping for a landslide. Then the landslide.
Where: A small hidden village in the forest at the foot of a mountain
When: Backdated to the 4th of March


Surveying the Area

Those who have influence over the elements, or know how to calculate a way to divert some of the impending landslide will want to explore the village layout and the area around it. The village is a humble circle of stone and wood buildings surrounded on all sides by old, towering trees, with a few trees in between some buildings. The ground of the village has been leveled, but upon reaching the edge of the village on the mountain side, the ground makes a steep incline. An old stone wall a little taller than the nearest hut was assembled on this side of the village to divert falling rock or water, but there's no saying something only so tall and worn with age will stand up to the kind of disaster Matt has been warning of.

Evacuating the Residents

Matt has visited this village before during his travels and has good relationship with the elders. It will take some pleading, but the elders will eventually agree to evacuate on the off chance the disaster really comes. Most of the villagers follow their leaders' words, and start packing some supplies and cherished belongings. While it's a small village, some people unintentionally slow the process. Some have pets or livestock to wrangle, others have mobility issues, and there are those who just can't decide what to bring and are having trouble thinking clearly due to panic.

Convincing the Stubborn

A few intentional stragglers insist on staying in their homes. Their neighbors plead with them to come, but they insist that the village wall will hold. One or two might even believe the Imperial propaganda that that Corsairs are up to no good. Do the Corsairs trust their plans to protect the village will protect the stubborn, or do they try to convince them? Or do they take different measures to get them out?

The Landslide

Matt warns all the Corsairs of the time arriving. Within the next ten minutes, there's an unmistakable crash of rocks up the mountain, and the avalanche begins. Any last evacuations must be completed and those using magic or tools to protect the village must hurry to wherever they deem most fitting for their part. Sure enough, a massive wave of rock and dirt tosses up dust as a frightening chunk of the mountain gives way above.

Note: Due to the scale of the challenge, this is being treated like an event, and players may tag each other and post top levels instead of just interacting with Matt's top levels.

Comments

[spacetogrow]

Surveying the Village
Ilphyl is regarding the incline. "That's definitely too steep for trees to help stabilize the ground. Some kind of ground cover might work. Or stone walls." It doesn't have to hold for long, but buying time to do a better evacuation means the villagers can take more supplies and precious possessions with them.

Evacuating the Residents
Ilphyl's ability to talk to animals (or, failing that, to charm them) means they are helping with pets and livestock. You might see them having a seemingly one-sided conversation with a cow or a rooster about why they need to follow Ilphyl and the humanoid residents of the village to somewhere unfamiliar.

Landslide
Ilphyl has cast a levitation spell -- they don't have true flight, but they can at least get to a few spots marked to set up some breaks designed to redirect the earth. They don't have enough magic to do more than a few -- so had to wait to confirm which spots would be best -- but they will be working until there's nothing to be done.

Evacuating

[redprayer]

Well Rezo doesn't exactly see Ilphyl having a one-sided conversation with a cow, but he does overhear it.

He's immediately a little concerned about Ilphyl being involved in this, even though he knows Ilphyl isn't exactly injured. They're still Rezo's sort-of patient, however, and healer-y habits die hard.

So he'll be detouring Ilphyl's way just to check in.

"Ilphyl? Is everything alright here?"

Re: Evacuating

[spacetogrow]

"Just trying to reassure the cows so they'll get on the airship, even though it's a new experience for them." Ilphyl paused, considering what they just said. "I have magic to be understood and to understand them better. "

[redprayer]

New magic, different from his own? That certainly piques Rezo's interest!

"How does that work?"

He takes a cautious step over towards the cows. A very cautious one, because he's not really used to dealing with livestock.

[spacetogrow]

Ilphyl extends a hand to touch the nearest cow, and says something. It still sounds like Ilphyl is speaking normally, albeit not in the local language, but the cow goes back to chewing on its cud.

They offer an apologetic smile to Rezo. "Cows aren't as easily spooked by horses, but these ones are nervous because they've noticed the activity. Right now, though, the cows can understand me, and I can 'hear' their reactions as words in my head. They're still cows, though, so I can't ask them anything complicated, and they'll be better-behaved for the people they know."

[redprayer]

It all sounds very puzzling to Rezo, who really isn't much of an animal person for all that he's interested in biology. He knows most animals have some degree of emotion, can feel pain and fear or trust and attachment, but beyond that he lacks much insight into animal psychology.

"Is it 'saying' anything right now?"

[spacetogrow]

"They're a bit concerned. You are very tall for a human, and your staff makes noise," Ilphyl said. "Most prey animals don't like strange things, in case they turn out to be predators. Horses are worse, though. Cattle are pretty sure they can defend the herd if they can't run."

[redprayer]

"I'm afraid that's not very surprising," Rezo admits. "This particular kind of staff was originally used by the priests of the Kataart Mountains partly to deter wild animals." Since that's a factoid that rarely has much relevance to Rezo's own usage of it, it's easy for him to forget, and there's a sheepish edge to his smile.

[spacetogrow]

"I'd wondered. It's pretty distinctive-sounding. It means if you have it, I can hear you coming." Not a bad trait for someone who has been doing a lot of healing magic. And if all else fails, a staff is a pretty good weapon in melee, even for someone relying on their hearing to strike a blow.

[redprayer]

"It serves various purposes, but I find the sound helpful," Rezo says. He hesitates, wondering if Ilphyl will understand the explanation, but forges on anyway. "I can get a better sense of the space around me from the quality of the sounds."

[spacetogrow]

Between experience as a druid and in living underground -- even drow darkvision can't see across large unlit caverns -- Ilphyl nods. "I really notice that in caves. Ones that are mostly empty have sounds feel different than ones that have stalagmites or something." Especially important when that emptiness was due to a drop.

Most of the time on the surface, Ilphyl was getting too much information from their vision to pay close attention to sound. Unless they were missing their eye protection and dealing with sun-blindness, in which case, it was useful.