[Event] NOTHING BESIDE REMAINS: A CITY CONSUMED

[khuimods]

Characters: Any signed up for the scouting mission here
Date: August 25-September 13
Location: The triple-tower shunt
Situation: It's a Shunt! Grab what you can and get out.
Warnings/Rating: In individual threads - please remember to warn!



The shunt, when it appears, is immediately obvious. There are silver towers, reaching skyward and glinting brightly in the sun – where the rays can reach them, through the thick twining cover of green vines and branches. Closer it is evident there are three, all interconnected, and a smattering of smaller buildings spreading out beside – some few of these have been bisected in their arrival.

To certain Dreamfolk, it will be very obvious that these are skyscrapers, not simply any tower. But overgrown ones; these have clearly not seen the touch of people, or pruners, in tens of years at least.

A scouting mission is immediately arranged to track the bounds of the shunt, and assess the potential. Shortly after, word goes out for volunteers for a recovery mission…

Running the volunteer show is a relatively short Muin man with a kind smile but a brisk voice. He doesn't have a lot of time to spare – once people come to him he points them at a tower. "Go with a buddy, grab easy to carry things that aren't nailed down and look likely. If you're not sure, a shine or a glow or anything with joints is a good bet."

There's a bustle of people around the bases of the towers. Some are trying to deal with various door problems; more have spread out to canvass the environs, scouting through the smaller and less likely buildings for anything that sticks out. Largely, they return disappointed. There are abandoned vehicles overgrown with vines, now rusted out and useless, which get largely ignored except for seating value. Samples of plants are taken, from leaves to root segments, and secured for transport into a foreign environment. One enterprising crew is scaling the outside of the southernmost tower with ropes and grappling hooks, two strong-armed friends singing some old shanty below as they belay.

Motion is constant all around, hurried but not rushed. Most notably at the moment, everyone at the base of the towers seems comfortable, not alarmed. There's been no sign of dangerous wildlife, which means – at least for now – that it's free salvage, and all anyone has to do is get to it before the shunt fades.


---

OOC Notes:

Mods will begin threads with descriptive headers to present the situation, obstacle, and some suggestion on easily visible courses of action.

After that, it's your country. However, we'll be keeping an eye on things, of course! Expect some intermittent input on low-risk threads, and more regular input on high-risk threads. Remember you may back out at any time if you find it necessary.

Below, you will find headers for the entrances to all three towers. Please split up accordingly. In the case of Tower 3, please keep to separate threads per group, despite the similar starting locale.

Once you have progressed far enough – four comments per character – even if you are not finished, you may tag into the Plans header with your group's determined course of action. You will receive a confirmation of your choices, as well as an assessment of the level of risk present as your group presses on, and the next stage will be provided for you. You do not need to stop tagging the old one; it is simply to keep things moving.

If you have questions, please direct them here and we will be happy to clarify as we can.

Comments

GROUP A

[khuimods]

There are offices with boxes and boxes, each a uniform size; but those boxes which haven't been overgrown have nothing left in them, only shreds of paper and an oozing organic sludge that might once have been important paperwork. Where there are computers they don't usually turn on. One or two actually will respond, surprisingly, but sluggishly. If someone pauses to look through the files available, they will find a networked server that the computer can't access any longer, and a number of files with dense, dense text. It's either philosophy or law, at that density.

In one office there are what look like intact books, thick and imposing along a set of shelves. If touched, however, the toucher's hand will sink into them. In truth they have long since rotted.

This is the way of things as the group progresses, rot and rotting and the only thing healthy the thick greenery, the only sound a low soft rustle that is -- probably -- wind in the leaves. Until: all of the available paths, to stairs or other offices, are thickly overgrown. Light can be seen through -- the paths still exist -- but in their current state they are impassable. Some method of dealing with them must be found. Ideally, a safe one.

[necrocabbage]

Trahearne is a little on edge here, approaching most of the plant life warily and startling easily at sudden sounds in the otherwise quiet tower. His last experience with overgrowth like this wasn't a pleasant one, but he eventually starts to relax. This plant life wasn't as hostile a place as the jungle he had died in. It was all quiet and still, full of the new life overtaking the aged building. It reminded him of flowers growing in a graveyard.

He doesn't bother to try touching the computers, not even recognizing them for what they are, but Trahearne is absolutely the first to get his hand covered in the rotting gunk of a former book. He's surprisingly calm about finding a leaf to wipe his hand off on. It wasn't the worst thing he's ever touched.

"I'm starting to wonder if there's anything of worth left here at all," he commented as he stopped to look more closely at one of the overgrown doorways. "I'm sure we can cut our way through this, though the going will be slow."

[bestofthevein]

"I'm sure we can cut our way through this, though the going will be slow."

"Yeah," Kit says from beside Trahearne, already reaching for one of the axes he wears sheathed across his back. He removes the intimidating piece of dwarven weaponry and hefts it once in his hands, before looking to the overgrowth again. "I think that's the only way forward for us, anyway."

He'd noticed Trahearne's ill-ease upon their arrival, however, and so glances towards him now with a slight furrow between his eyebrows. "You doing all right, though?"

[upshore]

Miles can't help it; he's a little bit on edge. He's not armed, per se - not with anything other than his camcorder - and he's hoping that he doesn't have to break out his weapon of last resort.

"Nothing for it but to go forward, huh?" he says with an uneasy grin, his curiosity overcoming his caution. (As usual.) "Let's do some urban exploration."

[necrocabbage]

Trahearne turns away from looking over the vines to give Kit a small smile. "Yes. I'll be fine. I think we can all agree that the less time we have to spend here, the better." This wasn't a good place to stop and explain the treacherous jungle he spent his last moments in, and besides, the human with them seemed a bit perturbed as well.

Speaking of... "I can summon a minion to help, but," and then he mildly concerned look back at Miles, "You might want to brace yourself."

After that brief warning, Trahearne stepped aside to give himself some room before gesturing with his hands and opening a dark portal in the floor, from which a flesh golem promptly climbed out of. The hulking monstrosity of bone and bare muscle trudged over to the doorway, using the claws embedded in its arms to start tearing away at the plant life. Trahearne wasn't intending on letting it crowd Kit too much, if he could help it.

[bestofthevein]

Kit is in the process of mumbling as an aside to Miles, "hopefully this one is prettier than the last one," when Trahearne summons a flesh golem that is sure to disappoint them both tremendously in the looks department. Well, so much for that, then.

Still, the golem is good for its designated purpose, that being ripping into and destroying things, and so with only the briefest wary look towards its bladed arms, Kit hoists up his axe and sets to work beside it, trying to hack a hole in the overgrowth so that they might all pass through.

[upshore]

Miles doesn't even have time to question Kit about what that means before the golem pops up, and much to his embarrassment, he jumps. God, he doesn't like that, he doesn't like that, it looks too inhuman to be a Variant but the stretched-out flesh, alternately unnaturally smooth and scabrous, combined with its sheer size, makes him think of Walker.

Little pig.

He prides himself on keeping a steady hand with his camcorder, and this is no exception aside from his initial jump, but the Walrider is prickling under his skin and behind his eyes and he has to force it down because despite the primal fear he's not in danger.

He has to keep telling himself that.

[necrocabbage]

"Did you say something?" Trahearne asked, his distraction evident in his tone. Not only had he not heard enough to guess what was said, he's starting to look mildly zoned out thanks to the mental control required to command his golem. He hangs back while the work of clearing the growth is done, casting another look over at Miles. He hadn't missed seeing the man jump like that. "It's not truly living. It has no free will," he offered by way of explanation. Of course, Trahearne had no idea if that would make matters better or worse.

The flesh golem truly isn't as effective as Kit's axe is. Its claws weren't sharp enough, more designed for ripping into foes than making wide cuts. It leaves the golem alternatively pushing aside vines and awkwardly tearing away at everything else in front of it, given that it has no fingers to grasp onto the foliage. It's not elegant in the slightest, but it's the best Trahearne can do for this particular problem.

[khuimods]

Some of the greenery gives easily. Where it does, sap spatters thick and oozing. Trahearne may notice that where it touches his golem, there is a faint hissing, as of burning or sizzling. Congratulations, it's acid sap!

Acid sap which is irritating the remaining vines. About half of what's left starts puffing up; the other half is growing deep red pustules where the sap lands.

The golem has at least made it possible to see through to the passages available, and as Kit cuts -- if he opts to bear the acid for very long -- more will be revealed. There are stairs up, which look like they run along the outside of the building, and so have been more significantly overgrown; from here, it looks like there may be some stairs which have entirely been replaced with vines. One of the other passages leads to what might be a bank of elevators, though whether or not they'll work is anyone's guess; and the last is dim and mostly impossible to see.

[bestofthevein]

The first splash of acid that lands on Kit's forearm causes him to grunt and recoil a fraction, but aside from grunting a warning of, "Watch out, this shit'll burn you," over his shoulder to the others, he gives no indication of being that bothered by the stuff. (It'll definitely leave a mark, but for a Legionnaire, what's one more scar?) He keeps hacking his way through the vines, though taking care to make his cuts in such a way that the majority of the sizzling sap doesn't splatter onto his skin anymore.

As the vines are cleared away and more of what lies ahead of them is revealed, Kit lowers his axe and squints into the darkness. His vision is better than a human's, but it's still difficult for him to make out any details. Instead he points at the stairs. "Looks like a treacherous trip up," he remarks, "but I'm willing to bet those elevators don't work anymore."

[upshore]

Worse, Trahearne. Definitely worse.

Oh, great, and now there's acid. Miles hadn't dealt with that particular problem during the worst night of his life, but it still wasn't good.

Miles gets closer and turns on the night vision on his camera to get a better look at what's inside. "I vote stairs," he says almost as soon as he sees the state of the elevators. "I do not trust those elevators as far as I can throw them." He's had some bad experiences with elevators. He doesn't want to add another to the list.

[necrocabbage]

The flesh golem pauses thanks to Kit's warning, but soon proceeds forward with a little more care for the others, not for itself. The golem feels no pain, and has no need to shy away from the oozing vines. It's the puffed-up vines that concern Trahearne the most, and he tries to avoid stepping on those, worried that the damage could trigger an unpleasant defense mechanism.

"Stairs it is, then," Trahearne agrees. He can't see anything down the dark passage whatsoever, though he does briefly look in that direction before turning to regard what little they can see of the stairs. "Let's be cautious. I don't know if this overgrowth has damaged the structure of the building, but we'd best not find out the hard way." With a wave of his hand, the flesh golem droops forward, like a mannequin with its strings cut, a moment before rapidly dissolving into a pile of dust.

[bestofthevein]

The golem dissolves into dust at Kit's side. He grimaces.

"I'm never going to get used to that," he mumbles to himself, then sets off towards the stairs with only the briefest of glances towards the darker passageway. Perhaps if they have time, assuming this adventure doesn't do them both in first, he could detour back and take a closer look.

Reaching the vine-covered stairs, he tests one out carefully with one shoe, before making to climb the rest of the way upwards.

[upshore]

If the summoning and existence of the golem had been bad, the casual dismissal of its existence was potentially even worse. Miles grits his teeth and moves forward. It's magic, he thought, it's not the same, but his mind went back to Wernicke's callous disregard for the patients under his 'care'.

He follows Kit up the stairs, looking around with his camera. Nothing seems off in his night vision - not more than it does in here already, anyway.