EVENT: Siege

[glencolans]

EVENT: SIEGE

Characters at and around the airfield in tile IX may have noticed some signs that they've been attracting visitors. Some of them are subtle: A few hoofprints in the dirt near the jungle, a few missing provisions from the communal storage, some discarded fruit pits scattered beneath some trees. The run-ins with large boars have been significantly less so. Most of these encounters have been brief and marked with a distinct wariness of the airfield residents, but approaching Day 042, the atmosphere of tension has shifted. Something big is stalking the jungle in tile IX. Something angry.

As night falls on Day 042, that something - and its followers - makes its presence known. Anyone unlucky enough to be in or near the border of the jungle in tile IX is likely to be driven away by roving groups of huge, strange-looking boars, often traveling in pairs or triplets and each almost as tall as a human. They have the expected bristle-brown fur and build of wild boars, but with longer manes of fur and fat around their necks and partially covering their eyes, and their lower jaws split into two mandible-like sections around two sets of tusks. They charge at anyone either trying to leave or approach the airfield towards it or away, respectively, eventually leading to a barrier of screaming pigs in the forest.

A couple of hours in, a public message is sent over the transceivers.

EI033N

TRAITORS
INTERLOPERS
SLAUGHTERERS OF EKIS KIN
WE TAKE BACK WHAT WAS STOLEN
BLOOD PAID IN BLOOD
AS MANY TIMES AS IT TAKES

EVENT FAQ

How long is this event running?

The event begins on Night 042 (OOC 11/11), and will last for at least one IC day, but the end date will depend on character actions. It could end quickly on Night 043 or it could continue through the end of November - that all depends on you.

Can we opt out?

Certainly - anyone not in tiles IX or X at the start of Night 042 can choose to stay out of this event entirely. Additionally, anyone traveling through ocean or mountain terrain in those areas can pass through safely.

What exactly is happening?

Following the public announcement, the boars in tile IX will circle the airfield, bungalows, and similar constructions and form a wall of angry pigs until they are made to leave. Groups of them will periodically storm in to scatter resources or attempt to destroy stationary defenses during this time. They will also, obviously, attack anyone that tries to get in or leave. Any of these actions could cause critical injuries, although it doesn't seem like the boars are interested in outright killing anyone (yet).

What is the exact range of the pig picket line?

Tile IX (the blue border):


Note that this outline is not set in stone; developments will be added here as they come up.

Why did you mention Tile X when it's not part of the siege?

It's possible for this tile to become part of the plot, but not required; I've mentioned it in case anyone wants to opt out entirely and doesn't want to be caught out unawares.

Can we respond to EI033N's message?

Absolutely! A NPC network post will go up on 11/11, corresponding to the IC date of event start. The post will be open to anyone, even if they've opted out of the physical part of the event.

How do we get the boars to go away?

That will be up to the players to decide. Please propose your ideas in the below comment. These do not necessarily have to line up with anyone else's ideas; if Character A would charge headlong into boars on Night 043 while Character B would try to talk them down the same night, both can be proposed and endorsed by other characters (give a "+1" with your character and a description of how they would be helping, or you can coordinate ahead of time and include their contribution in the original idea). I would highly recommend planning with your fellow players beforehand, though, so that characters do not trip over each other's plans (unless that's what you want to happen, I won't stop you).

Results of these ideas will be posted as a response to each thread, at the latest, on the first OOC date when it would have taken place. So if Character A's plan to charge the boars happens on Night 043, a mod response with the outcome will be posted by 11/17. If an idea results in the end of the event, it will be noted in the response, at which point all ideas that happen after that IC resolution will not be considered game canon. An event wrap-up post will go up as soon as possible when this happens.

Can we submit ideas ahead of time?

I encourage it! Try not to plan anything too far ahead of where the rest of the ideas are, though - as mentioned earlier, if your idea happens after the event is resolved, I cannot break continuity to still implement it. Check back frequently to see what the current situation is and we can go from there. Anything up to Night 043 is fair game for everyone, though.

Can we submit multiple ideas for the same character? Multiple ideas for multiple characters?

Sure! Just don't submit an idea before your previous one is resolved, or you may have to retcon it if your first idea results in a serious injury or something else debilitating (same goes for chiming into someone else's idea - your character cannot be in two places at once).

I have other questions/comments/concerns!

Please post them here so that I don't miss them. Feel free to use the rest of the post for plotting or working out the details of ideas before submitting them!

NAVIGATION

Comments

Event Resolution Ideas

[glencolans]

[solitarysoul]

I have a cunning two-part plan

1. Levi's just gonna apologize for taking that boar 'idol' on the post but since its unlikely that'll help he'll immediately move on to

2. setting up barricades/walls around the village, at least the buildings. if they somehow get one row of them up he'll advocate for at least one more. Beach is not good for trenches, but walls are close and he's (sadly) an expert in that sort of warfare.

[glencolans]

Levi successfully leaves behind his boar statue on a well-worn stump in the forest of tile X on Day 040, but if there is any immediate effect to this - or even if the boars found it - he doesn't know.

The physical barriers go up without issue around the airfield (squares IX.T.9 and IX.U.9), the ruins (square IX.W.12), and the bungalows (square IX.X.11). However, right as Levi puts the finishing touches on the bungalow barriers, he hears a commotion towards the airfield - and will discover, on coming back, that his defenses have been trashed at the western end. It takes him all of Night 042 to complete this construction.

[solitarysoul]

ah, i had meant just around the airfield and the village there, but if that'd change anything too much it fine. sorry

[glencolans]

Not at all! Mostly just the timing changes; Levi builds up one section of wall, then as he circles around the hangars, he'll hear boars charging in to harass the walls he's already set up. Does he try to do anything to stop them?

[solitarysoul]

he'll let them go for a minute or two before throwing rocks/spears at them. he'll keep at least one spear with him in case he has to fight up close.

he'll also call for help, we cannot fight off boar army alone

[meadqueen]

There are a lot of ifs still in this plan lol but I wanted to list it so that you/everyone else can decide how they would react:

Randvi is going to question Eki on their post and if their only (or primary) grievance is that people at the airfield killed boars she will offer her own blood as a sacrifice to break the siege. She's pretty sure she's the only person there to have successfully killed a boar lol.

[somethingintangible]

Maddy would support finding out why he's mad first but she would be very against Randvi sacrificing herself! She would try to talk Randvi down but since I'm assuming that wouldn't work lol if she has to take more drastic measures, she'll try to. I don't actually know what the "drastic measures" would be yet though lol.

[meadqueen]

If she's the only one who committed the crime she’s the only one that should have to pay for it, that's civilized!!

[obeir]

/uses my evil wizard icon just because

Unsure just yet if K will be at the airfield or on the plane date with Harley on day 42, but either way he'd be against Randvi sacrificing herself too. Since he injured a boar (and has been cooking the ones Randvi killed) he could be "guilty" too, so it might not be just her they want.

As mentioned in your plurk (repeating it here for everyone's benefit), the boars have been the aggressors — chasing, treeing, attacking, and injuring player characters first, encroaching on airfield food stores, etc. Randvi and K only attempted to hunt them AFTER all of that, and as you said, so far only Randvi has successfully killed any.

NPCs all seem to assume PCs know a lot more than they actually do about the island and why they're there and the esoteric "rules" they're expected to follow. Like you suggested, seems best to first try talking with the head piggie and try to figure out what's even going on. Like, how are they "traitors"? They're also not the first NPC to mention traitors, I think just the first to call PCs that.

Think I posted this in the wrong column, oops

[meadqueen]

Yeah, a lot is going to depend on how the conversation actually goes but I want to make sure people are aware/ready.

(also evil wizard icon lmao)

[somethingintangible]

BUT RANDVI IS HER GIRL! She can't give up her girl to some punk ass boar.

[glencolans]

While it does seem like Eki is distraught over the loss (and consumption) of his kin, he's also clearly blaming the people at the airfield for other weird things - the "razing of his bounty" is likely to be mentioned a few times as a key instigator. Would Randvi still offer herself up, knowing this?

[meadqueen]

The biggest factor now will be when/if Squalo goes ham (and if he survives it lol) because if she's not the only one who’s killed any it probably won't work.

[glencolans]

As noted in his comment, Squalo has definitely killed some boars early within the siege, and is still alive around mid-Night 042. He is also quite loud about it. What is Randvi's plan after this?

[meadqueen]

Ah, Squalo. She's going to try and play it that Squalo responded to an issued challenge so that's different than her murders.

[timaeus]

Since Eki is being so kind as to make this post during the siege, Dirk would likely try to use the walkie upgrade he found to try to locate them IRL, either narrowing in on the location while other people talk to them or trying to keep them responding himself. It may require swimming around the picket line or finding some other way past them, assuming Eki isn't right out on the front lines. And whether this leads to an in-person diplomatic chat or a fight to the death really depends on Eki ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[glencolans]

Remind me again which transceiver upgrades Dirk has, and which one(s) he's using for this purpose? The information he gets will depend a lot on what equipment he's leveraging.

[timaeus]

Dirk got the upgrade that shows the distance other callsigns are from him at the time of the message, so it won't be very useful if Eki chooses not to respond to anyone, but if there are any conversations taking place then he can play hot-or-cold to figure out the direction and zero in on them.

[glencolans]

Thankfully Eki is very talkative on his post, giving Dirk plenty of opportunities to try and triangulate his position. By jumping between the airfield, the bungalows, and the nearby ruins, he's able to determine that the messages are coming from roughly 32 units southeast of the airfield.

[timaeus]

If he heads in that direction, does it seem like Eki is near the picket line or more like southeast across the bay?

[sharktrash]

Assuming he makes it back in time from however the sea adventure concludes:

Squalo will be charging headlong into the pig picket line, armed with everything sharp he can scrounge up (wooden spears, that dueling cane he found, possibly get the hatchet back from Randvi), and attempt to indiscriminately slaughter as many of them as he can until either they run or he's taken down (surprise third/x-th options possible).

Before resorting to that, however, he will try to challenge Eki personally on their network post. If they agree to a one on one battle and actually show up, he won't go after the other boars.

[glencolans]

Eki seems disinterested in dueling Squalo personally on the network. This does not stop the patrolling boars from fighting back when Squalo charges them; they put up a good fight, but it does seem like they weren't expecting a one-man army to just roll up on them like this, nor does it seem like they're prepared to deliver any killing blows. In this first bout of battle, Squalo dispatches three boars and only suffers minor injuries as a result. He has also created a temporary opening in the boar front, in a location of your choice, for the remainder of Night 042.

[sharktrash]

Rude. Well, Eki will only have himself to blame! Let's say the opening is in IX.S.7.

If there are no other boars nearby, Squalo will quickly examine the slain ones, seeing how different they look from normal boars, and open one up to check the inside, too.

If the coast is still clear by then, he'll lug one of them (or, if they're really big, he'll just cut a few large pieces of bacon from it and just take that) to whatever spot serves as kitchen in the airfield.

Then he'll return to the same spot and try to get a bonfire started. If he's still not attacked at this point, he'll likely try to contact Eki again, most likely in bad faith to ask if he'll be sending any more of his buddies or if he's ready to make an appearance himself... probably add something about them tasting great at this hour oops.

CW: animal dissection, weird anatomy

[glencolans]

Squalo has a few minutes of reprieve to do his impromptu boar dissection. They're large beasts, each one nearly as tall as Squalo himself, with big tufts of fur and loose skin around their necks and odd, double jaws split around their tusks. Each of the three has different exaggerations of these features than their peers; one has three sets of tusks instead of just one, another's mane is luxuriously thick, the other's build is especially muscular. He only has time to open one of the boars up to do a cursory glance at its internals, but that's still enough to tell him that this creature is not a normal boar by any stretch. Its bones and musculature are similar, but wrong - like a boar-alien hybrid that had the component parts of each jumbled in unpredictable ways. It's a miracle this thing was alive long enough to fight.

He doesn't have time to look into it further. Suddenly two groups of boars are swarming in on the offensive, and it should be clear to Squalo that they are approaching him with the intent to kill. What does he do?