nosdacariad: (pic#3743153)
Mark Sandazhard ([personal profile] nosdacariad) wrote in [community profile] knightsoflegend2014-12-22 11:09 am

andres ♔ but life is for living



♬ everything's not lost - coldplay

WHO || Everyone
WHAT || With Andres Isle reclaimed, the Knights deal with the aftermath of their battle to save its people
WHERE || Andres Isle, and various
WHEN || September 20th, 2014 - October 20th, 2014 [backdated]
HOW || Actionspam


When the sun rises on Andres Isle the next morning, and the smoke and rubble clears, it is impossible to call the battle anything less than a victory, in terms of freeing the people from Sarandis' hateful regime.  

But all victories come with their costs.

Sir Zatara's team easily accomplished their goal, shutting down the power station that allowed Sir Trinall's team to wrest control of Isle communications, although Emma Swan was grievously injured in the process and Faye Chamberlain found herself facing an unexpected temptation when she got her hands on Jordan Reeves' genie bottle.  Sir Wellington and Carpenter led an assault on the prison base, that succeeded in freeing all of the captured Shadowkind and putting a halt to the hideous experimentation going on there - at the cost of Sir Maxwell Briggard's life.   (And Nathan Young's... but he got better.  Twice.)
   Even Myrilandel's familiar, Amaranth, was found, but when Lan turned violent on a bank of computers in a fit of hatred for the machines and all they represented, a targeting system was activated that released all the mind-controlled Shadowkind hybrids from the facility, on a dread path of destruction for the castle, ready to kill anything in their path.
Meanwhile, Sir O'Rourke's team had managed to locate the love potion that Dimitris Sarandis was using to control Kat Samcelot's behavior, and made it impossible for the next dose to be administered on time.  Sir Hathaway's team likewise made it into the castle, after following a set of clues that indicated Sir Elena Gilbert and the doppelganger Kyp had killed a guard and stolen their identity, heading into the palace proper.  Eavesdropping within its walls, they learned that the Prime Minister had been shot, and that the woman responsible was being held in a tower.  This, however, proved to be a cruel trick of Dimitris' ally, the powerful psion known as the Mind Master.  Forcing Elena to shapeshift into Dimitris, she mentally dominated Elena, and made her sit outside the empty tower cell, where Rose, Will, and Dean found her.  Having been approached by Kyp, who had been separated from Elena and feared for her life, a grudging alliance was formed, and the doppelganger approached "Dimitris" alone.  Despite her attempt to drop hints to her real identity, the situation escalated - until the Mind Master made Elena wrest Kyp's gun from him, and shoot him right between the eyes.   

In the meantime, Sir Yassin's team had blown an entrance for Prince Marcus Andres to lead his group into the castle through the tunnels below it.  Dimitris had, however, expected something like this, and filled the tunnels with all manner of monster and creation designed to stop them.   With exceptional teamwork, they bypassed all threats and made it within, where they were shocked to discover the real Chad Becksworth was in fact a prisoner here, and that Draken Crombe, leader of the Church of the Lord's Humanity had been impersonating him with the aid of the Mind Master, for access to NOVA Records' resources, for years.  They also discovered the bones of former Dragon's Claw Sir Ellison, Tia's father, and helped lay his spirit to final rest.

Knights around the Island struggled to halt the hybrid creatures from charging into the palace and ruining the internal team's chance to save Kat and Thomas and stop Dimitris.  Wynn led his own team to hold the line between the forest and the castle, but the brutal creatures they faced were overwhelming, and even with back-up arriving, creatures broke through.  Wynn sent Sir La Krail and Francesca, whose team had secured the guardhouse, to stop several driders who had passed, while he chased down a chemical golem that crashed right through the palace doors.

Dimitris had already sprung his trap, however, sealing Marcus and friends in a room below the palace pumped with poisonous gas, while he asked Kat Samcelot for her hand in marriage on a screen for them to watch.  At that moment, however, the love potion wore off, and she stabbed him in the dick, and helped free the others below.  Myri teleported several of the Knights up to the main floor to save Kat, who faced the guards alone and weaponless, but the arrival of the chemical golem provided enough of a distraction for Dimitris to make a break for the throne room.

Elsewhere on the Isle, Sir Koraith's team had been gathering allies among the Shadow Village, to face an attack that  they had been warned about, by soldiers seeking the location of Rocket, who had escaped the Shadow prison after attempting to assassinate the Prime Minister.  Koraith led those who could not fight towards the boats, while the others remained to hold the line and take out not only the soldiers, but also the clockwork creations called nimblewrights, robots whose construction Failboat had learned was based on some kind of demonic creature held in Dimitris' basement.   The battle was brutal, and Sir Riddick fell to the clockwork soldiers' assault.  The fate of Sir Jaina Solo and a Shadowkind villager named Indra Crestrage remains unknown, as they were also grievously injured in the assault.

Sir Edain's team had secured various boats to transport villagers off the Isle, but also discovered a sinister shack where body parts were created up for export to Japan.  In the battle that followed to hold the docks, Hook lost his entire arm, but managed to hold onto his life.

Back in the palace, several Knights joined Wynn in taking down the chemical golem, as Marcus and company moved to confront Dimitris and the Mind Master in the throne room.  The Prime Minister was unrepentant for his crimes, and revealed that after capturing Kat, he had had the Dragon's Claw Thomas Bancroft killed, dumping his body off a balcony for them to see.  Enraged, Kat ran to attack Dimitris, and was nearly killed by his bodyguard, Asha, but Fred Jr. intervened, sacrificing himself to save her.  Des murdered Asha instantly, while the Mind Master teleported herself and Dimitris away, leaving the guards willing to surrender, and the Knights frustrated by the hollow victory.

A search of the Isle revealed no trace of where the two had gone, but it also meant that Andres was free of Sarandis' influence.  Sir Banks' team had managed to gather all the wealthy human elite of the Island together inside a country club under the guise of a gas leak, and when Emma Frost appealed to the humanity of Sergeant Alastair Stone, a local police officer, he assisted them in routing out potential supporters of Dimitris, and separating them from the others, so that they might be shown the truth about what had been happening on the Island, right underneath their noses, in the form of a video of the prison laboratory provided by Logan and Nathan.
 
Most of the natives were shocked by what they saw, but had already been distrustful of Sarandis' true motives.  Hearing that the true heir to the throne had returned has given the people of Andres a real sense of hope that things can change, but the road will not be an easy one.

Rather than pull out and head home the next day, Wynn has asked as many Knights as possible to remain and help with reconstruction.  There are families to reunite, injured to tend to, homes to rebuild, a palace to remodel, and much more.  This post is for things following directly in the aftermath of the Battle for Andres, especially for things happening on the Island itself.  More posts will go up in the near future to backdate less immediate events.  Characters are free to go back and forth to the castle as they please, but also have accommodations provided in the city or palace on Andres Isle.


uncurse: (☇ he always ends up sorta smelly)

[personal profile] uncurse 2014-12-23 03:36 am (UTC)(link)
[ No news is good news, or so they say.

When Belle's name doesn't come on the list of the deceased, Emma takes relief in that, and spends more time waiting to get around to finding her as a result. After they've taken the time to dig into the rebuilding effort, Emma comes across her in the Shadow Village.
]

Hey. [ An awkward smile starts on Emma's face, and the Savior keeps her hands in her back pockets, looking not unlike a scolded child that's afraid her mother's still mad. ] Heard you were delivering the bad news. Or … just news. I guess some of them are probably relieved just to finally know what happened, huh?
untethered: (you leave me here burning)

[personal profile] untethered 2014-12-28 11:30 am (UTC)(link)
It's not the most pleasant job, but they deserve to have some peace of mind, finally. They've all waited long enough - they shouldn't have to any longer. [ she worries her hands together a bit, looking out across the village, preoccupied. ] You were leading your team, weren't you? How did it go?
uncurse: (☇ or the way he covers up)

[personal profile] uncurse 2014-12-28 05:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Mission accomplished. We held down the comms tower without a hitch. No guard deaths. I took one in the stomach, but as long as it was me and not my team, I'm calling it a win.

[ Her hand tugs at the bloody hole left in her shirt from the wound. Cleric magic might have sealed the actual injury up the rest of the way, but the evidence remains. For a moment, she'd really believed herself a goner. ]
untethered: (in the longest of stares)

[personal profile] untethered 2014-12-30 12:11 am (UTC)(link)
In the-- [ oh dear. her stomach knots up as she looks over at emma, trying to imagine what she went through. ] That... must have been terrifying.
uncurse: 5.01 (☇ the type who doesn't miss a trick.)

[personal profile] uncurse 2014-12-30 03:31 am (UTC)(link)
Relax. [ She holds up a pacifying hand. ] I'm fine. [ (She's not fine.) ] How about you? Everything turn out okay on your end?
untethered: (so i crawl back into your open arms)

[personal profile] untethered 2014-12-30 04:12 am (UTC)(link)
One of the Knights... didn't make it. And two others were badly injured.
uncurse: 1.09 (☇ think tall)

[personal profile] uncurse 2014-12-30 04:32 am (UTC)(link)
[ Ouch. Emma's shoulders slump a little, and she takes on the impression of a sheepish child. ]

Who? [ Not that it matters: it's a tragedy either way. ]
untethered: (where all of this is coming from)

[personal profile] untethered 2014-12-30 05:10 am (UTC)(link)
Sir Riddick fell... We thought Jaina might be lost as well, and one of the villagers who stayed to help fight.
uncurse: 3.12 (☇ yet it dominates the things i see.)

[personal profile] uncurse 2014-12-30 05:38 am (UTC)(link)
Ah, geez.

[ Emma doesn't know either one personally, but it's still hard to hear. She reaches out, clapping a hand on Belle's arm and giving her a nod. ]

I'm glad you made it out okay. Can they do anything for Riddick?
untethered: (but you're the only one i see)

[personal profile] untethered 2014-12-30 06:28 am (UTC)(link)
Sir O'Keefe is hoping to resurrect him, I believe. But one never knows.
uncurse: 1.10 (☇ it's not the long walk home.)

[personal profile] uncurse 2014-12-30 09:33 am (UTC)(link)
Makes sense.

[ Magic's always turbulent. ]

That kind of magic's kind of out of my wheelhouse.
untethered: (there's a bottomless cry)

[personal profile] untethered 2014-12-31 12:57 am (UTC)(link)
I've heard of it before, and I know it's worked for... some of the other Knights. It's still difficult to imagine any magic could be so... powerful.

[ are we still talking about rezzing people???? no. ]
uncurse: (☇ you look so young)

[personal profile] uncurse 2014-12-31 06:29 am (UTC)(link)
[ sense motive 40. :| gurl. ]

Plenty of powerful magic going around that night. I doubt resurrection can hold a candle to what some of the Dragon's Fire was doing during the battle.

[ do dee dooooo. ]
untethered: (where all of this is coming from)

[personal profile] untethered 2014-12-31 06:58 am (UTC)(link)
You're looking at it. [ the response is quiet, full of a sense of dread, as she looks down at the charred, hideous leftovers of gold's hellfire. ]
uncurse: (☇ swimming in the grotto.)

[personal profile] uncurse 2015-01-02 10:11 am (UTC)(link)
This …

[ Her gaze skirts down over the charred remains of the area, eyes widening. ]

This wasn't ... [ Whipping her head around, she looks back to Belle. ] Gold?
untethered: (so i crawl back into your open arms)

[personal profile] untethered 2015-01-03 03:59 am (UTC)(link)
Things got... bad, quickly. We lost a Knight almost right away, and nearly another of the villagers.
uncurse: (☇ what's the issue dear?)

[personal profile] uncurse 2015-01-03 07:49 am (UTC)(link)
And his response was to raze half the damn town? [ An exaggeration, to be sure, but not THAT BIG OF ONE TBH. ]
untethered: (speaking of fabulous places)

[personal profile] untethered 2015-01-04 09:44 pm (UTC)(link)
He didn't know. Where it came from. He said he'd never done a spell like that before. It surprised him as much as anyone.
uncurse: (☇ but i'm lost inside this forest.)

[personal profile] uncurse 2015-01-05 03:18 am (UTC)(link)
Is that what he told you?

[ It's pretty fuckin obvious Emma doesn't quite believe that. ]

Belle, I know you don't wanna hear it, but ...