The group split up, with half the volunteers heading into town and half remaining on the northern edge. For those heading into town, things were still pretty quiet. The fishermen were heading down to the docks to begin the morning fishing but there wasn't much traffic yet and Melita and Remi were able to begin placing barricades without too much trouble. Remi's reputation preceded him and of the few early risers out and about no one was willing to argue with the Bastion when he set up a barricade. One look at his muscles and scars was enough to send any protesting merchant hurrying back to find another way around, and his barricades slotted into place between the buildings with ease. The first few dozen crabs to begin the trek into town didn't even seem to realize that the alleys he blocked were usually roads.
Melita, despite her striking hair and local reputation of her own, was not so lucky. One early farmer with a large cart loaded with winter produce was trying to cross the main thoroughfare and drove right through one of her barricades. He left it shattered behind him without slowing down, but finally drew his draft horse to a halt as he realized that the other streets leading off the main one were blocked. A few enterprising crabs, confused by the buildings and the shadows of the floating islands overhead, made a break for the opening. They shifted sideways, claws clicking impatiently as they rushed towards the alley. "Hey! What's going on?" the oblivious farmer barked at Melita, scowling fiercely beneath his broad straw hat. "I've got deliveries to make! How am I supposed to get all this to my customers with all this shit in the way?!"
And behind them, the first big wave was beginning to roll down main street, several dozen already peeling off from the main mass to follow their directionally challenged brethren.
Things were going a little better outside of the city. Hadama allowed his arm to be taken and listened with polite interest to the mile-a-minute observations of Safrin's daughter while he gently guided her towards their own stash of barricades. "Mmh," he offered in agreement at one point, but it was rather lost in the flood of words and he was content to let Nova keep up the conversation. He busied himself - and his partner - with placing barricades in the mouths of alleys and minor streets that petered out on the outskirts of town where the jungle encroached right up on the brick cobbles of Haulani. Hadama worked steadily and Nova was surprisingly (or not so surprisingly) swift, and as the first and second waves of the migration scuttled forward beneath the rising sun they followed the edges of the barricades and - more or less - allowed themselves to be funneled in the direction the pair desired.
"They are holding. Good." Hadama surveyed their work and nodded in satisfaction. "People will be waking up soon. We should go and keep them from taking short cuts over the barricades."
Round 2:
The barricades are mostly up, but Mel has run into an entitled farmer who just knocked one down and now some of the crabs are making a break for deeper into the city! His cart is also now stuck on main street and the first wave of crabs is heading towards it at a, er, energetic scuttle!
Hadama and Nova are heading into the city to try and keep anyone else from trying anything similar.
1. Deal with the farmer
2. Find a way to get his cart and horse off main street without killing (too many) crabs
3 and 4: Interact with NPC townsfolk to keep them from trying to cross the barricades into the oncoming crab tide
Melita, despite her striking hair and local reputation of her own, was not so lucky. One early farmer with a large cart loaded with winter produce was trying to cross the main thoroughfare and drove right through one of her barricades. He left it shattered behind him without slowing down, but finally drew his draft horse to a halt as he realized that the other streets leading off the main one were blocked. A few enterprising crabs, confused by the buildings and the shadows of the floating islands overhead, made a break for the opening. They shifted sideways, claws clicking impatiently as they rushed towards the alley. "Hey! What's going on?" the oblivious farmer barked at Melita, scowling fiercely beneath his broad straw hat. "I've got deliveries to make! How am I supposed to get all this to my customers with all this shit in the way?!"
And behind them, the first big wave was beginning to roll down main street, several dozen already peeling off from the main mass to follow their directionally challenged brethren.
Things were going a little better outside of the city. Hadama allowed his arm to be taken and listened with polite interest to the mile-a-minute observations of Safrin's daughter while he gently guided her towards their own stash of barricades. "Mmh," he offered in agreement at one point, but it was rather lost in the flood of words and he was content to let Nova keep up the conversation. He busied himself - and his partner - with placing barricades in the mouths of alleys and minor streets that petered out on the outskirts of town where the jungle encroached right up on the brick cobbles of Haulani. Hadama worked steadily and Nova was surprisingly (or not so surprisingly) swift, and as the first and second waves of the migration scuttled forward beneath the rising sun they followed the edges of the barricades and - more or less - allowed themselves to be funneled in the direction the pair desired.
"They are holding. Good." Hadama surveyed their work and nodded in satisfaction. "People will be waking up soon. We should go and keep them from taking short cuts over the barricades."
Round 2:
The barricades are mostly up, but Mel has run into an entitled farmer who just knocked one down and now some of the crabs are making a break for deeper into the city! His cart is also now stuck on main street and the first wave of crabs is heading towards it at a, er, energetic scuttle!
Hadama and Nova are heading into the city to try and keep anyone else from trying anything similar.
1. Deal with the farmer
2. Find a way to get his cart and horse off main street without killing (too many) crabs
3 and 4: Interact with NPC townsfolk to keep them from trying to cross the barricades into the oncoming crab tide
