andres ♔ but what he told me last night lays on me like lead

[affianced]

♬ dear ophelia - abney park

WHO || Buffy, Myri, Finnick, Spike, Kat, Gar, Archer, Des, Rafael, Fred Jr., Vi, Rocket, Lara, Dimitris  [Closed]
WHAT || A diplomatic mission to Andres Isle goes about as successfully as one would guess
WHERE || Andres Isle
WHEN || August 15th  [backdated]
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread.

Even the briefing for this mission went well, with Wynn walking in on Dragon's Claw Jack Chessing macking on Sir Gar, in direct violation of his vows of, er, abstinence, both romantically and physically.   Following the briefing, and the team's attempts to make Wynn see reason in the face of Jack's resignation, they gathered up a large amount of weapons of all kinds into their private plane and took off for Andres Isle.  

Upon arrival, they found the island did not match up to their expectations.  Instead of fields of torture, they found themselves in a very upscale part of the city, full of affluent manor houses close to the palace.   They spun a cover story upon learning about a party there, using Finnick's celebrity on Andres to get access to the festivities.  

Inside, they met Dimitris Sarandis, Prime Minister of Andres Isle, who invited them to stay for the party, which was being thrown in honor of Countess Lara Tamon, who had helped Jack, Spike and Myri escape from their torment on the Isle.  They took the opportunity to chat up the local aristocracy, picking up the vibe that most of them had either benefited from Dimitris' rise to power, or were too afraid to stand up to him.  Spike talked to the Marquesse de Lyons, and learned that her son, Percy, had been a friend of the late Prince's, and had died shortly after voicing his belief that Sarandis had framed the Andres family in order to seize power.   Archer was shocked to find his manservant Woodhouse employed at the palace, and extra annoyed to learn that he didn't remember him.  For once, Archer found a reason to care about liberating the Andresians... if not purely for selfish reasons.

The party itself was to announce the breaking of the betrothal that had long stood between Lara and the late Prince, even after his death, a blemish on the reputation of the Tamon family that Sarandis sought to rectify by arranging a new betrothal: between Lara and her childhood friend, Lord Michael de Collines (aka Michael Collins).  Neither of them seemed particularly thrilled about the arrangement.  Lara managed to sneak a message to Myri to meet her that night under the bridge.

Following the announcement, the gang went to speak to Sarandis in private and find out his demands for the safe return of Sir Thomas Bancroft.  He wasted no time in making clear his position - he painted the Knight's vigilante attitude towards policing the world as the ultimate evil, and warned that no more Knights would set foot on Andres, lest they be killed.  He also demanded that Wynn himself bring the artifact Excalibur to the island to give to him - so that Dimitris could behead Wynn in exchange for Thomas' life.  The demands were met with outrage by the Knights, and in the face of their fear that Thomas was not even still alive, Sarandis agreed to let one of them stay the night to speak with the Dragon's Claw.   He specified that Kat be the one to stay, and despite protests, she agreed, and convinced Gar to let her stay.  

The other Knights headed back into town, where Gar, Fred Jr., and Vi headed to the nearby hotel to wait to hear from Kat, and be ready in case they should need to reach the palace quickly.  The others headed to the bridge across the river, where they met with Lara and her friend Lord Dana Green, another of her childhood friends.  They explained the situation on the Isle, and how many of the younger generation wished to see things returned to the way they'd been before, but the challenges they faced in doing so seemed almost insurmountable to them.  Lara expressed her fears that toppling Sarandis' rule would only wind up putting Andres in an even worse position.  They also related how Dimitris had created programs and taxes that had basically banished Shadowkind to the other side of the river and left them all but destitute, all while pumping more and more money into the coffers of the rich, particularly those serving on his Parliament.   She secured the Knights' promise to help in every way they could, and Myri asked her to show the way back into the woods where she'd found them before.

Finnick, Archer, and Rafael crossed the bridge into the Shadow village to do some recon, and spoke with a local tavern owner/dwarf who related that people down here were turning up missing more and more often - likely to feed Dimitris' experiments in the woods.  They seemed largely disheartened, but could potentially be talked into fighting if giving the means to do so.

In the woods, the others ran across a strange talking raccoon named Rocket, who was running for his life from a beholder, which the party managed to take down.  They discovered that Rocket had escaped from captivity in Dimitris' labs, and he was none too happy at the prospect of going back, even to show them where it was.  They argued briefly over the best course of action - whether the break out would be the best or worse time to try to make their way into the lab, particularly given that Dimitris had Kat as well now. 

Comments

shadow village ♔ (rafael, finnick, archer.)

[romanticidal]

[ ♬ everybody knows - rufus wainwright

having gathered some intel from the local barkeep, archer, finnick, and raf head out of the tavern into the night, on the less fortunate side of the andresian tracks. spot and listen checks please. ]

Sarandis knows what he is doing, that much is for certain. First, he makes these people all but invisible to the others on the island by displacing them here - and then no one will listen when they start to disappear.

[65]

[spot 20 total; listen 15] Reminds me of home. Not ... my home, but. There were places like this where I came from.

[isisagent]

[Spot 8, Listen 4... Yeah........]

My name's Finnick, and I have memories! Look at me!

[65]

[the most withering stare. :| ] Really?

[isisagent]

Oh come one, you know that was funny. Anyway, isn't it kind of counter-intuitive for him to make them all invincible? [Dat listen check.]

[romanticidal]

[ wow rafael crit failed that listen check so apparently he has wax in his elf ears. or wasn't even listening to you guys either. that causes him to tune in though. ] Invincible? [ his brow furrows as he tries to figure out why dimitris would be making the shadowkind invincible... and why they would be here in shantytown if they were. this is your team, finnick. congrats.

finnick, on the other hand, is a successful human being, who notices a weird shadowy figure moving between some of the buildings... ]

[65]

He's using them to test. Once he achieves the results he's looking for, the finished product would probably be reserved for the other side of the tracks. Or ... well, river, I suppose. [he stops walking.] Did you see that? [apparently not since he's traveling with dumb and dumber :| ]

[romanticidal]

See what? [ rafael stops in place to follow finnick's gaze but the thing is ~gone~ ]

[isisagent]

Yet another unremarkable hovel? No, Finnick, I didn't. They're only everywhere.

[65]

[not even wasting the breath it would take to be exasperated with archer tbh:] I saw something move between the buildings.

[isisagent]

I know, right It's still shocking to me that people can somehow live in this filth.

[romanticidal]

We haven't seen anyone outside since we stepped foot here. Do you think this has something to do with the disappearances? [ PULLING A GUN ]

[65]

Could be. [sure why not let's all be r. kelly. FINNICK ALSO PULLS OUT HIS GUN.]

[isisagent]

[Never one to be out-gunned, Archer pulls his sawed-off shotgun out.]

HEY! [He shouts at the darkness.] Dickless! Come out and play!

[romanticidal]

Very subtle, my friend. [ sigh. #assassinproblems ] Perhaps it went inside that building?

[65]

[yeah ... who invited archer even??? we just don't know.] You think we should check it out? [barging into poor people's houses... what an a+ idea. w/e maybe they'll be heroes if it's a fucking bedroom intruder. here have a song cue.]

[romanticidal]

If the alternative is to let another person be taken? Then si. [ and he moves... towards le door. with a nat 20 move silently check. actual assassin rafael giovanni. (unsure) ]

[65]

[move silently 16. he may not be a ninja ... but he is pretty quiet at least.]

[isisagent]

Tch.

[Move silent of 14. Archer isn't even trying.]

[romanticidal]

[ wow, it didn't even hear you fuckers. they make it inside and rafael leads them slowly down the hall. a door is wide open into the bedroom, where a figure stands over a sleeping elf. it is covered almost entirely in clothing, swathed around its mouth, a rapier in its hand. in its other hand is... a sack. raf lowers his weapon at it, and says (intimidate 19): ]

Don't move.

[ it looks up slowly, its unremarkable eyes staring at them through the darkness, but it doesn't make a move. ]

[65]

[can't we just kill it? finnick would rather just kill it. too much time on the failboat.]

Drop your weapon. [intimidate 16 ... somehow. i guess if you were being arrested(??) by justin timberlake you probably wouldn't find him very threatening, either. he feels his phone vibrate in his pants from someone texting him, but ignores it. sorry vi.]

[romanticidal]

[ yeah no it doesn't move to drop anything. and then rafael's phone goes off. it's a generic boring ring tone what do you want from him. he freezes, looking down at this pocket, and that's when the thing... bolts for the window. ROLL FOR INIT.

wow ok then.

it makes it

out the window.

but rafael is not having that so he'll use his whole move to spot another window and crash through it like a man. a man who recklessly destroys the property of poor people. i guess.

actually i guess he'll probably shoot it out. like a slightly unbalanced man. CRASH. and then start climbing through that shit.

that sure wakes up the elf who starts screaming. good times. ]

[isisagent]

Wow. Nice ringtone, assassino. Real professional.

[Archer follows suit in climbing out the window, drawing his shotgun as he goes. I'm assuming that getting outside is a full round action - so he'll use Heroic Surge to fire off a double tap with his Sawed-Off Remington Spartan.]

[So.. Math... First: Does he even see him? Spot Check 18. If he sees the guy, Attack of 19 (20 if he's wearing armor - Armor-piercing rounds) That's including the -2 Atk penalty for Double Tap. Also the shotgun's range increment is 10 feet, so -2 to that for every 10 feet beyond that the target is, IDK how far off he got with his turn.]

[If that manages to hit, it'll deal 3+5+8+2 Pen-1 == 17 Damage]

Pump your brakes Usain Bolt, or I'll blow your damned head off! [I'm sure he'll stop - he's only being shot at a little bit.]

[65]

[SINCE THEY ARE OPENING FIRE finnick decides to aim from the window instead of chasing their new not-friend down. like a sniper assassin or some shit. he got a spot 15, so idek if he sees him. maybe he's just shooting the darkness. (ranged atk 21; 6 dmg if it hits) HE WAS ONLY AIMING FOR KNEECAPS. or other non-lethal areas.]

[romanticidal]

[ archer does, in fact, see the thing fleeing through the alley, but his shot completely misses, taking a chunk out of a building instead wooo. even finnick's shot misses :(

the thing moves to try to start scaling the building next door, but wow it bombed that climb check. maybe because a large military looking vehicle is driving past on the road at the mouth of the alley, and is shining a huge spotlight down the alleys as it goes. soldiers wielding large weapons look this way and that from their perch on the back of the vehicle and they're obviously searching for something.

rafael ducks back against the wall (hide 18) as quickly as he can. ]