Day 196 : Start of the "Sickness Inside" plot

[bastionpc]

Who: Nathaniel (NPC) and everyone else who wants to be involved
Open: Open
When: Day 196
Where: Near the monument --> Out on the Skyway
What: Nathaniel needs a radio tower. He's enlisting the help of others to get said radio tower
Format: any
Warnings: Dead body discovery in the radio tower threads. Mentions of throw-up when Zulf joins the Okumura group.

This is the post for everything related to Day 196 of this particular event. The starter is in the comments, and important threads will be linked here as they are made.

Important threads:

START: by the monument

At the radio tower and the surrounding area

Regrouping

Meanwhile, at the Bastion...

Comments

START: by the monument

[bastionpc]

[Early on Day 196, Nathaniel will call for everyone to meet by the monument, as he has something important to discuss. He also happens to have a bag with him, in which are some very important things.]

Alright. Remember when we went to the observatory, and we found some blueprints for a beacon? Well, I've spent the last few weeks working on some prototypes, and this is what I have.

[Out of the bag he pulls out a few small, wrist-watch looking devices, which appear to have a compass of sorts for the face.]

They're not working yet, but they can be set up to receive radio waves, and will point in the direction of any tower sending out a signal that this thing is set to receive. With this, we should seriously cut down on the number of people getting lost on the Skyway.

The only problem is that we need a radio tower to make these work. The small ones I've been experimenting with just don't output a strong enough signal for these things to pick up at a distance. It would take a core to build a brand new tower, and we haven't come across any cores in a while. We could wait until we find another one, but there's no telling how long that could take.

However, I have another plan.

[That's when he pulls a large red sensor out of the bag he has, and offers it up for everyone to see.]

These sensors are set to resonate with the Bastion. If the senors are activated and someone uses shards to get the Bastion to do the "retrieve land" function, it'll pull in whatever the sensor is attached to. Each one only does a small amount- one could maybe bring back a small box. But, if we use a lot of them at once, we could get something much larger. Like a whole radio tower.

So the idea is that we go out on the Skyway, attach all these sensors to a radio tower, and then ride the tower back to the Bastion. Then I can finish setting up these compasses, and the Skyway will become that much easier to navigate.

What do you guys think?

[fuckthemancers]

It's a good idea as any.

[Look at that, polite words and everything. Maybe this can be another trip where Nathaniel and Zulf manage not to kill each other?]

How many people are you going to need?

[aprettyred]

[ Very good question, Zulf. Anna is standing not too far away, watching all of this. She seems a little uneasy, or maybe a little more distant to day. Its hard to tell, other than she's not really standing close enough like she's going to offer herself to go on the skyway.

She might look like she's counting whoever shows up, though. Don't mind her and her firebug. ]

[yinyangfox]

[ Finding a certain degree of serenity in his life after visiting the floating remains of Izumo Village had put the onmyoji in a rare active mood. The trips to both the old music room and the village had highlighted his recent sedentary behavior and if life was to keep moving forward, he needed to be more proactive. At least from time to time. When Nathaniel mentioned a means of making venturing onto the Skyway safer for those going out by reducing the risk of confusion, it seemed only reasonable that he offer his services for completing the task. ]

No one has ventured to this particular area yet? [ He asked, pulling on a set of cloth cuffs that wrapped around his fingers and covered his palms. Since retrieving the sword from Izumo he had returned to using the weapon. It certainly didn't mean he wanted rough hands and blisters. ]

What can we expect to encounter?

[bastionpc]

It's a place we've walked by several times, but nobody's really gone and explored yet. Out past Jawson's Bog, there's a bit of floating Skyway that was separate from the rest. Out there, there's this building and a large radio tower. It always looked out-of-place to me, but now I think I understand why: it's part of another world entirely.

I've scouted it out a couple times, and it looks like we'll only have to worry about flying monsters, like Peckers. Anything else can't seem to get over there, though things might change when we bring up pieces of the Skyway to connect to it.

If we take the long way around the bog- [Which they will be, Nathaniel doubts anyone is willing to risk a repeat of the last time they went in there.] -it should take five-ish hours to get out to where the radio tower is. Then it'll take another hour or two to attach all the sensors, and once the Bastion has pulled the radio tower back, it'll be another five hours to get back. It's a bit of a hike, but we could do it all in one day if we're quick about it.

For people, I think I'll need around eight or so to get the sensors set up in a reasonable amount of time, and at least a couple need to be comfortable with climbing up big metal structures. More are welcome to come, of course, but this shouldn't be a particularly dangerous trip. We've been in that direction dozens of times, so most monsters have started to avoid the area.

[freedom_engineer]

You're also probably going to need someone here to make sure that things go off without a hitch, I'm guessing. I'll do that, it'll give me a chance to keep up on my projects while I wait for it to arrive.

Once it's here, I'll make sure it's all in one piece and functioning properly.

[earthandpine]

"I'll go along, though I'd prefer to leave the climbing to someone else if possible." She can just picture the fit Tris would throw if Rosethorn fell and injured herself. If the tower were covered in vines, that would be a different story. The plants wouldn't let her fall. It seems a good plan, though, and Rosethorn doesn't want anyone else lost to the Skyway.

"I can also help serve as defense on the ground if any other creatures join us there." She has several balls of thorn seeds in a pouch at her side, as well as the rose ring on her finger.

[notduchess]

"I can help with peckers - or just add a bit to defense on the ground." The knight seemed to deter the birds a little, after all. "Oversized, aggressive birds are a bit like home." Only these aren't made of fans or leaves.

"Climbing wouldn't be that much of a bother either, I think. Depends on how well it compares to a cliff face."

[hellpyre]

"I'll go," Rin spoke up, raising her hand in the air as she said it. The last time she had dealt with a group of Peckers she'd gotten pretty beat up by their swarms, but with help they weren't completely awful to deal with.

[yinyangfox]

"Yata-chan might be of some service in regards to the Peckers. He is not precisely grown enough to fight them, but I imagine he's capable of warning them off. Or something similarly useful. I do try not to disrupt the lives of the native creatures too much where possible," Seimei offered, flexing his fingers and adjusting the ties holding his long sleeves back.

"Regardless, it shouldn't be a difficult trip."

[bastionpc]

[It's a good start, and he's assuming they can grab more people while they get ready to go.]

Great. Think you guys can be ready to go within a half-hour? I'd like to get started as early as possible, so that we don't have to spend the night out on the Skyway.

[Like Seimei said, disturbing the fauna of the Skyway is something Nathaniel wants to avoid doing. Sleeping out there won't help with that plan.

And then to Colin specifically, Nathaniel adds a bit more.]

Actually, I'd rather you came along with us? Because you're pretty tech-savvy, and you might know what can be salvaged from the small building near the radio tower. I'm sure it goes along with the tower, so we might be able to get some of the equipment right there, rather than having to make it all.

Zahi said he'd stay behind and push the button at the right time, so that the sensors would pull the tower here. I told him to give us seven hours, so we'd get about two hours for scouting the area and setting up the sensors.

[aprettyred]

... I can watch for Zahi, so it is definitely at the right time.

[ Anna finally speaks up, looking between all of them. ]

... Be careful.

[ And now she'll wander off. ]

[fuckthemancers]

He did?

[Zulf's been thinking on something for a bit now since Nathaniel first answered, but he stirs now with a bit more interest.]

...Well, I'll go along as well. If it's not a particularly dangerous mission, than I won't get in the way at all. If nothing else, I can help carry some of the supplies. It won't take me long to be ready.

[Yep you're stuck with this asshole again, Nate.]

[freedom_engineer]

[Colin makes a thoughtful expression, and he nods finally.]

All right, I'm in. May as well make sure our machinery is up to snuff.

[yinyangfox]

Marvelous. I will let the Hitachiins know as well before we head out. It will not be long. A few minutes at most. [ The onmyoji insisted, bowing his head lightly and turning to head away.

No doubt by now the residents of the Bastion were well aware of the permissions Seimei had to extract for outings. Short and simple or not, a mission was a mission and people had a habit of getting hurt. Best to let his young lords know he was off to trouble again instead of dealing with getting an earful later. ]

[notduchess]

... It won't take long then.

[ The knight sort of half lives in armor anyway. Just time to put the rest on, and pick up a sword. ]

[hellpyre]

I'll get ready, too. I should let Ryuuji and Yukio I'm headin' out everyone.

We gonna meet at the exit?