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

[bigbad]

[Spike reaches out an arm to grab Soldier 1 (touch attack 26, no attack of opportunity because Spike's got a feat), and brings him close (grapple 23, dmg 32), baring his fangs with a growl.]

[slay]

[ Buffy takes a deep breath, nodding her head to Finnick. A thin smile of gratitude flickers across her face, slightly weary, and she takes his jacket to continue compressing her wound. She leans slightly into Rafael’s touch, looking up at him as she notes, ]

Please tell me that I’m just wacked out from all the being stabbed and that’s not a real robot.

[ How are their lives this fucked /?? ? ]

[romanticidal]

[ spike basically snaps the guy's neck and he dead. s2 widens his eyes, and fires at spike with a roar (atk 21, atk 16), but he's visibly shaken and totally misses.

soldier3 fires at archer as he keeps backing up and somehow still fucking misses (15, 22). wtf. ]

[isisagent]

[Archer frowns at his opponent's disregard for a fair hand to hand battle, and slips a pair of Walther PPK pistols out w/ quick draw.]

FINE asshole. Ruin the moment!

[Archer is going to fire both with two-weapon fighting @ a -2 penalty, and since they're semi-automatic, why not Double Tap both for another -2 so: 19 + 8 (Little less than the shotgun vs armor, as these are hollow-point bullets) - 4 == 23 Atk, for 3D4+1 Damage ( 3 + 4 + 4 + 1 + 3 Penetration + 1 Penetration. == 16 Damage.)]

[Second PPK fires for 15... Action pointing just in case, b/c of this -4 penalty: got an 18! + 8 - 4 == 22 Atk. Again, 3D4+1 Damage (2 + 4 + 3 + 1 + 1 Penetration == 11 Damage)]

There! You happy? Moment ruiner!

[rationalizes]

[ i guess vi's arrow snaps backwards, and gar is leaning out to take a shot and gets struck by it (3 dmg). the gun goes off (atk 14), but comes nowhere near her target. ] Where's Archer?

[graveflowers]

Sorry! [ she fires at soldier two again (atk 24, dmg 6 & rapid shot atk 26, dmg 8), before answering gar's question. ] I think he's over there. [ she cants her head in the direction of the yelling. (listen 31) ]

[65]

[finnick cranes his neck back at raf's unveiling after getting buffy all wound up.] No ... it looks a lot like a real robot. And yet, it's still not the strangest thing we've faced.

[witchwoman]

[Myri's delicate sensibilities are outweighed by the sight of soldiers continuing to fire at her people. She draws her weapon and shoots at soldier 2 with the rest of the gang (attack 25, damage 22 because of sweet sweet penetration. I mean what?)]

[romanticidal]

[ her shot nearly mows down the soldier, who slumps backward, barely holding onto his weapon.

rafael stares at the robot skeptically. ] I've rarely seen something so fast.

[bigbad]

[Wow, that was really easy. He hadn't expected it to be that easy. Spike drops the crumpled corpse, sparing it a glance. That soldier was someone's son, maybe someone's husband. He's human. He had a life past being an evil minion, one Spike knows nothing about.

And honestly? He doesn't care (will 26). Any twinges his soul might be giving off, he easily ignores as he strides forward, up onto the truck and pulls back his fist. He may have had a life, but he also made his own choices. Ones that led to hundreds of Shadowkind including himself and worse, Myri, getting tortured. He doesn't regret killing him, not really, and he won't regret killing his friend. He slams his fist into the guy's rib cage (atk 33, dmg 14), growling.]

This is for all the Shadowkind you bastards thought it was ok to torture.

[slay]

Rarely? Try never.

[ A beat. ]

We should take it with us.

[ IS THAT THE NORMAL REACTION TO BEING STABBED BY A THING. ]

[romanticidal]

[ spike murders the soldier on the truck, fist cracking his rib cage, as he coughs out blood with his last breath, while archer mows down the other soldier. /init ]

[65]

For research purposes or to make into a hat? [his squire is archer, ok. archer.]

[graveflowers]

[ done? done. vi is just gonna... lean here against this shanty town lil' house. yep. that sure is what she's doing. ] I'm so sorry, Gar. I didn't mean... [ her hand flutters like HIT YOU WITH MY ARROW, I'M SORRY PLEASE LOVE ME STILL. and aside from that her voice rises a little. ] Hey Fish, you still alive?

[slay]

What is he, the techno-age equivalent of a furcoat? No way. I don't have anything that'd go with that.

[ She waves Finnick's commentary off. ]

Tackiness aside, I'm just saying, if this thing's circuits are fried, all the more reason to pop him open and look under the hood. Somewhere far, far away from all the dead bodies that we could start a war by being responsible for.

[bigbad]

[Spike looks around, taking stock of everyone. Vi, Gar, and Myri seem to be more or less okay. He doesn't really care about Archer. Buffy, Finnick, and Rafael were apparently having too much fun to come finish the party, which is... worrying.] Buffy? You all right, love?

[If she's dead he's gonna feel really bad about jumping back into the fray.]

[65]

[shrug.] If we can transport him to the airfield, I guess it's worth looking into. [and then ... listen 11??? is that good enough??? sure why not. it's not like everyone isn't just ... yelling at the roof in the middle of the night. he goes over to the ledge to reply] Nothing we couldn't handle.

[graveflowers]

Okay. Please continue not dying. [ that's all she needed to know. she reaches out to heal myri so they can stop bleeding all over each other. (infuse with life +24 hp) ]

[witchwoman]

[Girl you cannot come over here and use that magic when she can tell you still need some of the good touch yourself. So myri will do the thing right back (cure moderate wounds, 17 hp).]

Gar? How are you feeling?

[isisagent]

[Archer moves back up the alley, wondering why only one of the soldiers fell for his ruse.]

Oh douchebags... come out to plaaayeayyyy

[He tumbles out of the alley, weapons drawn, then notices he's pointing at friendly targets (Not unusual for Failboat, actually.) Specifically pointed at Spike. He has a very obvious moment of considering popping a round in him, just for kicks. Probably not appropriate at the moment. Later.]

[He holsters his weapons.] Well well, now it's a party!

[slay]

Better question.

[ Buffy grumbles when she hears Spike's shouting. Seizing the robot by one limb, she drags it across the roof to reach the edge because she's not letting it out of her sight. Then, she holds the robot up for them to see. (Taking 10—so, strength 21.) ]

What do we do with this thing?

[ Her appearance at the edge of the roof answers Spike's question, so she'll just move the conversation forward. ]

[isisagent]

[Archer grins as she presents the body.]

Nice! You guys caught the ninja.

[bigbad]

[Spike gives Archer the most intolerant look as he walks over to where Myri and Vi and Gar are, craning his neck to look up at Buffy.]

...what do you mean, do with it? It's already dead, right?

[And now that he knows everyone's alive, he'll turn towards Myri, who's just... killed some people.]

Nice fighting, pet.

[There's a sympathetic note in his voice, as he knows it can't be easy for her to hurt people. But she'd wanted to help them, and she did. It's certainly... something.]

[slay]

Yeah, about that. I don't think it was ever really alive to begin with.

[ She pulls back the hood! ]

Our ninja was a robot. And his warranty just got voided.

[65]

[ ♬ ]