MISSION #7 - The Flooded Valley

[lucetimods]

Who: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Gai Tsutsugami, Rick Doyle, Arthur Pendragon, Raven, Clove, Rei Hino, Gregor Vorbarra, Minato Arisato, Sabriel, Minako Arisato, Grune, Gold, Masaomi Kida, Fenimore, Silver, Adele LeBlanc, Sion, Raine Sage, Nami, Hamato Leonardo, Viral, Smoker, Precis F. Neumann, Roy, Nara Shikamaru, Hyuuga Neji, Kiba Inuzuka
What: MISSION # 7 - The Flooded Valley
When: June 7th to June 9th
Where: Sirry Craggs
Summary: A dam bursts thanks to the cultists, flooding a small hotel not far from the area. Lucetians have been rushed to assist the area, being the closest enclosure to the incident.


Last night, an urgent message went out to Luceti via the Malnosso Assignment and Reward Center. Twenty-eight volunteers were collected and the following morning, sent out. Hardly any time for preparation at all. There was no waiting time. No explanation of the situation. Merely a relocation Shift. Along with the dam came miserable weather. Harsh winds and rain blanketed the area and the Security Forces chopper that descended to drop off supplies could barely stay airborne. After dropping off the tents, medical supplies, and food they would need, the military officer in charge, Specialist Davis, yelled a few quick orders over the chopper's engines and the howling wind.

"The hotel is located five clicks from here, downhill and through nasty terrain. Those of you who signed up to look," he pointedly glanced at the survivalists, " You'll find most of them on the roof of the building. But there's eighteen unaccounted for. Bring them back here. In three days, we'll be able to pick you up. Watch out for sparties and baskers." Turning back to his pilot, he signaled him to take off. There was still a battle to be fought to the north, where the cultists were still waging battle. From that point on, the Luceti volunteers were on their own.

Among their supplies were the materials to set up lodging, tents, and more insulated shelters. With the rain and wind, it would be hell for the caretakers to put together, but they'd need to have it all set up before the survivors started arriving. In the meantime, the guards would need to stake a perimeter while the doctors prepared any space they could for the injured that would no doubt be arriving. It was utter chaos. And this time the Malnosso hadn't bothered to set someone in charge. They would have to work it out together.

Day 1 - The volunteers will have to set up the camp despite brutal weather and a lack of any powers or technology. Their starting location is in the mountains, above the valley, on a flat and stony surface with mountainous cover to the north and east of them. There is plenty of supplies and room to accommodate the nearly one hundred people that will be present there for the next three days, though the rain and wind means the risk of ruining supplies that may force them to ration some of it.

Most of the hotel staff and guests will be found on the roof of a three floor hotel. The first two floors are already flooded and the building itself threatens to be swept away. Fortunately the survivalists have been provided ample amounts of rope and cables to make their way to the roof from the nearby cliffs and trees. The remaining eighteen guests are lost in the wilderness surrounding. Among them, several will be injured, sick, or unconscious. At least five of them will have already died, three by drowning, one by head injury, and another ripped apart by Shift Hunters. For the duration of the day, the storm doesn't let up.

Day 2 - Around three in the morning, the storm will finally let up. Though it continues to drizzle and the sky is gray, the volunteers will no longer be fighting the elements. There may also still be survivors that need to be found. At this point, it will be up to the caretakers and doctors to care for the survivors and make the best of things. The food will need to be rationed, as several containers of it was spoiled in the downpour or stolen by wild animals over night. Flashes of light in the sky and distant explosions to the northwest will indicate a massive battle ongoing. A few military choppers may pass over during the day, but none of them will be stopping to help. At night, solitary Shift Hunters will be sniffing around the campsite and will need to be dealt with.

Day 3 - In the early morning, a small band of cultists will attack the campsite. A small group of twenty soldiers, they will provide difficulty for the guards, who have nothing but their own skill and steel to fight with, not to mention little sleep or food on their side. Once the cultists are dealt with, the day will proceed as normal, with sunshine breaking through the clouds. At about 5PM, a swarm of cultists will be spotted to the northwest, flying towards their location in a massive swarm. At this time, several transport choppers will be arriving to escort the survivors and volunteers away from the location. The volunteers will be on the last chopper to go and may be forced to fight off some of the cultists in the escape. Fortunately attack choppers will be providing cover fire to aid in the escape. By the end of the hour, the volunteers will be on their way home.

----

The survivors are composed of civilians who may be part of the Malnosso organization, but occupy positions in divisions of the company dedicated towards more mundane tasks, such as taxes or dentistry and so on. However, they do possess some information that Lucetians may not know. They will not be willing to give up much, since they risk heavy fines for revealing information to people in enclosures (which they will state if pressed for information). Volunteers that attempt to press them for more information and interrogate them will be reported and receive a punishment Shift on return to Luceti. This may take the form of a kidnapping-like effect, typically of the more inconvenient or embarrassing nature (such as a loss of a sense, a gender swap, being shrunk, personality adjustment, etc) and not violent. These effects will last up to a full week, depending on how severe the charge is. People that are are unfriendly (or end up disliked in general) may find themselves reported anyway since the survivors might just be in really rotten moods and not terribly grateful.

If you would like to have your character try to interrogate them, use this thread to make your request on questions that will be ask



You can use this post for questions and plotting!

Comments

Any day.

[blessingone]

[Day One

Fenimore is already regretting this decision. Sparties and baskers? She has no idea what those are, but it sounds like there's more danger to this than she'd come to believe when she signed up. Great. The heavy rain isn't doing wonders for her mood, either -- she actually a little rain and her clothes are quite water-resistant, but she believes there's such a thing as too much rain and she's got no particularly positive opinion on wind in general.

She starts out helping with setting up the tents, but it's not going to work out that well for her. Even with a rather full bag on her back that she brought with her, she's still not very heavy, being only 156 cm / about 5'1" tall, and needs to spend half her time not getting blown away when, say, a tarp catches the wind.

She switches over to move supplies later, when there's enough shelter to put it in. That's a bit easier for her.]

[Day Two

Yeah, really regretting this choice now that there's signs of a nearby battle. There's also the low sleep -- she already hadn't slept very well the night before the mission -- and rationed food -- some of it was ruined in the storm and she handed over a majority of the rest to the general store of food (possibly prompted by an accidental guilting from Grune if she saw it, though she kept back a little for possible emergencies since she's not that generous). This all combined is putting her in a bit of a foul mood.

It's not going to stop her from doing what needs to be done, being used to pitching in with what needs doing before Luceti made things so much easier, and she can (usually) summon the patience where necessary, like when dealing with the injured. But, where gentleness is not required, her actions are going to be terse and tense. She's largely keeping her head down, too, though conversation might be a good distraction from time to time.

While she won't be happy if she hears about the Shift Hunters sniffing around, she won't be much more perturbed by it than she already is. Monsters are pretty common in her world and, with the guards around, they are somebody else's problem.]

[Day 3

So if someone could invent a time machine that would allow her to punch her past self in the face for signing her up for this, she would appreciate it, really.

Yeah, regret has reached maximum capacity and, despite being armed and trained in self-defence, she is going to take great pains to avoid broadcasting this in the hopes of being overlooked entirely. She'll be keeping as far from the fighting as she can and cowering amongst the survivors (she's really not going to be happy that the volunteers get the last chopper). At best, she might try to keep noncombattants from doing anything stupid by, well, calling them stupid if they try anything heroic or panicky, but generally she's not going to be a lot of help. She doesn't take "under attack" well.

Though, if the cultists get to the back of the line and someone who can't defend themselves gets attacked, she might briefly do something heroic with the combat fans she's been hiding in her clothes through the whole mission, but her first instinct will be to run where possible. Yeah, really not hero material except when things happen too fast for her to think it through.]

Day 2

[endgames]

[Will she happy to see a dead mountain goat being dragged towards her that night? >>]

Day 2 - my search history looks interesting again. someone at google must think I'm going hunting.

[blessingone]

[She...is divided on that. She does wrinkle her nose in distaste when she sees it, because, man, the past two and a half years of pre-prepared meat from the Luceti stores was so nice. But, on the other hand, she is really hungry, which is another thing she's been glad to largely avoid in Luceti up until this point.

And...oh great, she's just finished washing the dishes and has not found the next thing to do. That means she is well-suited to offer help in getting that thing from carcass to edible. ...She could probably find someone else, but. Ugh.

She approaches, sighing deeply.] Do you even know what to do with that?

[...She's grateful, really. But also cranky.]

1/2

[endgames]

[...This is a woman. Asking him - a man - if he knows what to do with his kill.]

Day 2 - LOL Be sure to share the goat jerky

[endgames]

[Okay, okay. That really should not be the issue here, even if it's the reason for his unimpressed look. That was probably an offer for help. Everyone's cranky right now. Just keep the peace. Smile.]

Enough to know that we could be cooking this in an hour instead of two or three if someone were to lend me a hand.

Day 2

[blessingone]

[If she knew what he was thinking, she probably would say that she asked since she has no way of knowing if he was the sort of guy who handed things over to someone else to cook once the hunting part of the job was done. ...But actually she really was questioning whether he actually knew how to hunt or if he just challenge goats to single combat until he got lucky. Sorry, Shika's man-pride!

...Anyway. She was afraid that would be the answer. But, well, she did sort of offer.]

...I'll get a knife. Do you have any rope? [To hang the deer off...maybe there's a tree nearby.]

Day 2

[endgames]

Plenty from earlier.

[From when they had to get the survivors off the hotel roof, which he begins to pull from an inner pocket in his flak jacket. And yes, he was still carrying that on him.]

I can dress it while you find a tree.

[He would've done that earlier, but not while shift hunters are out there. 8|]

Day 2 ...whoops I called it a deer last comment since that is the dressing guide I'm going off of.

[blessingone]

[Her irritated expression disappears just long enough to look some combination of surprised and a little impressed. Honestly, who carries around enough rope to hang a goat?]

...You really are prepared for anything, aren't you? Survivalist isn't just some empty name. [She turns to go.] I'll be back when I find one.

Day 2 - It's cool, I figured it was just a typo. 8|b

[endgames]

[Survival skills are the first thing you have to develop as a ninja in the field, So he shrugs, but he feels better about working with her now, and gets to working on the goat.]

I'll be here.

Day 2

[blessingone]

[It'll take her a bit to get there and back, but she was pretty sure she had seen a couple of trees when she had taken a moment to go around the camp earlier. The first one didn't really have any sturdy branches, but the second one seemed firm when she tested the branch (though it was rather a struggle to actually reach the branch from her short vantage point).

So he'll probably have had time to finish initial field-dressing by the time she half-jogs back.]

There's a tree behind one of the medical shelters that could support my weight. [She makes a mildly disgusted expression as she gets close enough to note his work on the carcass. Ugh, it's been too long since she's seen the results of anyone hunting to be exactly pleased with seeing that.] Downwind, luckily, so it shouldn't make anyone feel any sicker. [Dead goat isn't exactly fragrant.]

Day 2

[endgames]

[He has indeed, and managed to bag some of the innards too, to barbecue later. The goat hasn't been skinned yet, though, as he knows they'll need to drag it.]

Not too close to the edge of camp, right?

[It's inevitable something will smell the goat - they already got raided last night by predators for food - but let's not show it off.]

Day 2

[blessingone]

[...That didn't occur to her. Why doesn't this place have an illusary barrier the way all Ferines villages do?]

...Not...especially close? There's a couple of tents between there and the edge. [Though there is a small gap.] There's at least one more in the middle, but it didn't really seem that sturdy.

Day 2

[endgames]

[He didn't actually set this place up, so.]

Can you put that in measurements? No offense, but I was taught to judge distance by meters, not tents.

Day 2

[justicereigns]

[Luckily, while Smoker doesn't believe in hunting down K-Rations (whatever the Malnosso wish to call them) he does return with a string of fish and a pheasant he snagged when his devil fruit was actually working. No vegetables, but he's the White Hunter, not the White Forager.]

Fenimore. Good. Here. [Like he didn't talk in grunts enough to begin with it's practically getting worse now.]

Day 2

[blessingone]

[Awesome, now she is done with dead goat -- oh. Again, the conflicted feelings reign as there is an argument between her stomach (empty) and her stomach (...okay, it doesn't quite turn at the animal guts, but she's less used to this after her time in Luceti).

She sighs. She is grateful, really, but she didn't miss this sort of thing when grocery stores became the main source of sustainance.]

...Thanks. [She will hold out her hands to take them.] I guess everyone must have been found if you all are out hunting now.

Day 2 -- sorry so late!

[justicereigns]

[Nods.] They put a lot of trackers in this mission so the only real obstacle was the weather.

[And swimming for him, but others managed it where he couldn't.] Keep on the look out though, there are lot of shift hunters in the area and it's likely to get messy. Too many signs of enemies. [And impossible to hide the camp well enough to do anything.]

Day 2 -- no worries! I've done worse.

[blessingone]

[Fenimore does her best to not look frightened at the assessment that it's going to get messy, but signs that she's at least a little scared of it slip through -- her nose briefly flaring from an unusually quick intake of breath, her lower lip slipping between her teeth to be bitten for a moment, and her body freezing fleetingly in the middle of moving the fish and pheasant, among other small signs to show that she's upset.

Her voice also has a few signs, although she is doing her best to sound calm and almost disinterested.] Shift hunters...they're those galf-like things, aren't they?

[She keeps forgetting that most worlds don't have galfs, which are pretty much fantasy wolves. She also hasn't been in any draft or mission before and she was suffering from a deaging mallynap effect when they were unleashed on Luceti Valley, so she hasn't really needed to know their name before now.]

Day 2 -- no worries! I've done worse.

[justicereigns]

I'm not sure what a galf is, sorry.

[He awaits an explanation though so he can nod either way.]

Day 2

[blessingone]

Uh. [...What is a good way to put it?] Like a big dog? Do you know about those?

[She hopes so, or else the next step is to try to emulate the muzzle of one with her hands and howl. That would be embarrassing.]

Day 2

[justicereigns]

Definitely. Not Moro big though, right? Have you ever met her?

Day 2

[blessingone]

[There's a brief look of recognition. Except it's the sort of recognition of something pretty terrifying. Yeah, she's met Moro. While she's never had any problems with her, she's still aware that could possibly change.]

Y...yeah, I've met her a couple of times. Galfs are definitely not that big.

Day 2

[justicereigns]

[Nods.]

All right. And yes, Shift Hunters look like large emaciated zombie dogs.

Day 2 - 1/2

[blessingone]

And they're around here? [Her expression moves through a large number of emotions, but eventually she settles on annoyed instead of frightened, which is another possibility.] Ugh. I was getting used to not having that many monsters that would attack people.

Day 2

[blessingone]

...They...aren't that close, though...are they?

Day 2

[justicereigns]

[Sidelong. They're closer than he's really comfortable with.]

We'll try to keep them at bay. Stay in the center and let the fighters handle it if you're worried.