Castlederg Massacre

The Days Fled:

The knights have just finished the Low Hunt with the Sidhe and been brought back to a point within 1 mile of Castlederg. It is already past nightfall and the Knights decide to settle in and camp, leaving Castlederg for the morning.

While laid out in their bedrolls and staring at the sky the trio feel rather restless, the huge amount of walking in the fae realm and battles of the “Day” have taken their toll, but for some reason they feel all out of sync with the time.

Ragnall lays back, staring at the stars, before he notices why he feels so out of sync.

“Holy $#!T balls! The stars… they moved… we’ve been with the sidhe for three weeks!”

The realization of lost time and the fact that they haven’t slept in all that time, nor eaten anything. They have also realized that anything happening at Castlederg might long be over… daunted by these realizations the trio succumb to sleep.

Loss of Enthusiasm

The morning dawns with the trio eating the bulk of their food, as they find themselves suddenly ravenous. The excitement to investigate the “Mercenaries” that took over the Castle is now gone, as they believe the mercs themselves to be.

There is no morning cooking smoke rising from the keep nor any sign of movement among the walls or the gates. But the trio are stubborn enough that they still want to accomplish the goal and discover what happened at the Castle. They move on.

Into the Ruins:

Castlederg proves to be a real shithole… It should be noted that in core earth Castlederg was merely a small village on the River Derg, with no real castle near it, but Aysle brought a castle with it as it over wrote the local reality. The bulk of the castle is in ruins, the front gates are non-existent and even if they were there, the walls have holes large enough to drive a van through. Steeping into the courtyard through one of these holes the main building, keep, is merely a large ivy-covered cube. With a single glance only about 20% of the building looks like it might be usable, and even protected from the elements. The entire back of the keep has decayed and fallen into the river. The stables in the courtyard have oil-cloth tarps pulled over the holes in the roof, and the building is only standing because it is leaning against the outer wall.

The hay is mouldering and hasn’t been cleaned out and many horses have been in there recently. At least within the past month.

The fact that anyone had moved into the castle, the Baron of the Derg… and then that someone would arrive to take the castle from them, defies reason. The knights discuss this as they stand around the courtyard working up the nerve to enter the building.

Into the Decaying Keep:

They finally talk it out among themselves, there is so little of the building that is livable that they realize that the search will not take long at all. Ragnall approaches the doors to the keep first. They are still made of stout iron-banded wood, but someone has battered and broken the locks and handles. The clear marks of a battering ram mar the surface. But the hinges on the doors are new and oiled. They still open and close with ease.

Ragnall cups his hands around his mouth and bellows into the dark entrance: “Hello the Keep, we’re guests coming in the door.”

The echo of his voice is the only sound that returns. The trio pauses for another few seconds. With a shrug Ragnall enters and the others follow. Ash pauses and lights torches for the humans in the group. As the torches flare into life the walls are revealed, painted in the rusty streaks of splattered blood. Blood was everywhere. Streaking along the walls, pooled and dragged along the floors, even as high as the ceiling.

The Great Hall:

They follow the carnage into the great hall, surprisingly the room is almost entirely intact and massive. One set of windows have been shattered out, but tarps and tapestries have been placed across them, the second set of windows is still filled with leaded glass in magnificent scenes of knights fighting a dragon.

The room is dominated by a massive table and an equally massive fireplace. The fireplace is long cold but filled with ashes, pots, and discarded bones of numerous meals. Empty kegs and barrels are strewn about the room and the table is filthy with moldering trenchers and broken tankards. It is like the aftermath of the worse frat party ever.

Taking in the amount of food, the tankards, and other key details they trio quickly realize that whatever happened here happened more than 3 weeks ago and involved at least 50 people. Even if the knights had not gone on the hunt with the Sidhe they might have missed the party. They still haven’t found any bodies, which is worrisome to say the least.

The Castlederg massacre:

The trio sperate and check the adjoining rooms. After a few minutes they identify enough places that have been cleared enough to house makeshift beds. Counting these they find that it was definitely 50 people camping in the place. After a few more minutes Ash and Ragnall meet next to a massive double door cabinet beside the kitchen. The air here is particularly foul.

Opening the door, they discover nearly a dozen bodies stacked into the closet. Most dressed in fine clothing, but one stands out in extremely well-made boots. They conclude that they have discovered the resting place of the Baron and his retainers.

Ragnall uses his gifts to commune with spirits and discovers that the Baron is still lingering near his corpse. The lord proves to be very petulant and whiny, complaining that he wants his body moved and that he was a noble and should have been treated better.

Ragnall overrides his constant string of complaints and asks him to explain what happened:

Army of the Demon King:

A man claiming to be the Demon King of Eire strode into the castle with a band of men at his back. These men were lost core earthers and vagabonds that followed the Demon’s words completely.

The Demon King asked the Baron to bend the knee and swear fealty. He was traveling across his kingdom and wanted all of his lords to pledge their allegiance as he marched back home and secured his crown. The Baron refused to kneel to anyone. His entire household was torn asunder in minutes.

After telling this story the spirit started complaining again and Ragnall dismissed the spirit with a wave of his hand. He then spoke rites over the cabinet and closed the doors.

Ash: You going to bury them?

Ragnall: I’ll just burn the cabinet when we leave, should do.

Ash and Davie: So, what is a Demon King?

The Demon Kings:

Ragnall thinks back through all of his lore and historical knowledge. “Well… there were four kings in legend… technically three of them were great evils while the fourth was supposedly a hero. Annwyn was the Master of Spirits, a wizard of extreme power who defied death and controlled nature and ghosts. Arawn was the Master of the Dead, a necromancer of power who commanded an army of undead. Balor was the Master of the Flesh, a man whose form was that of a Demon and who claimed rulership over all of the lands. The fourth demon King was Nautha, generally he is considered a great hero who fought against the other three, but in order to do so he became a demon like them. It is generally considered a fable about fighting darkness with darkness and becoming what you hate.”

Ash: Which one do you think we got?

Ragnall shrugs: They’re all myth… if we’re lucky it’s Nautha.

Davie: What if Balor is the old man Bal we met on the road. [chilling prophetic words from Davey’s player]

Ragnall: No… maybe… no, the Baron described a man younger and with more vigor. Anyway, there is nothing else here.

Dave: You know I saw a chair outside, I thought it was merely garbage in the courtyard but now I think it might be a throne. I searched out there while you guys looked around the ruins… there were a bunch of bloody rags and bandages around it.

Ragnall stares at David for a few minutes and then turns and limps back outside.

The Chair and Uneasy thoughts:

The trio stand in silence looking at the chair and the rags and bandages on the ground around it. What if the old man on the road that they had helped was not old… and not a man? The silence stretches to an uneasy length of time.

Ash: You know it looks more like a palanquin than a throne. Like maybe a bunch of men carried it here.

Ragnall: Fuck. (long growling grumble that turns into him clearing his throat and spitting on the ground). Don’t care. Let’s go back to Donegal. The curse is lifted, everyone is dead here, and we have no real leads. Also we are three weeks out of date with what’s been happening.

Without waiting for an answer, the old priest limps away from the courtyard and out into the fields. The other two follow, everyone is thinking the same thoughts. Did they free one of the demon kings with the destruction of the Tree of Woe? Had they met this Demon King on the road, and helped him?

Scene 2 Back to Donegal:

The return trip is slower, as they no longer have the horses they left Donegal with. The people in the Hamlets and Thorps seem much nicer this time as well. With people waving and saying hello, whereas before when they road through they were ignored.

They cross the fields where they fought the Ghost Legion and no mists rise and no ancient ghosts accost them. Things are looking up and on day 127 [of the Invasion of the Cosm] they arrive back in Donegal.

It is here that they become uneasy. All of the farms and houses outside of the walls of the city have been destroyed, burned to the ground. The castle over the river is damages, one tower is missing its top and the walls are covered in soot and ash.

The knights hustle through the city. The streets are packed with people who have moved in from the countryside, and the going is slowed. They finally reach the bridge over the river that leads to Argo’s house in the north-end of the town. The park land that surrounds his manor is now filled with tents housing people. And the manor itself is showing signs of fire and lightning damages.

Argo, Changes:

Guards at the door bar their path for a moment before the butler notices them and allows them entry. Davey pauses and asks the guards what happened?

Ulthorion in his anger sent a massive force onto Donegal. Raiders came by land and sea. Then they were attacked from the sky, ravagons swarming like bats. Argo emerged as a great hero, standing on the ramparts of the castle he cast a massive spell that opened a reality maelstrom above Donegal and tore apart the Ravagons. Lightning bolts shattered the ships of the raiders and the army had to retreat. The city is on edge and has been free of fighting for only the last few days, after Argo blew up the tower with his magics.

The butler frees them from the guards, “Masters! You have returned. This is great. Please, Argo will want to see you all right away.”

The Man in the Study:

The study is still the same only now it is a mess. Books cover every surface, all open to various passages. A tray of barely eaten food is aging poorly and walls are covered in maps and notes.

The man behind the desk is Argo, but a vastly changed Argo… the ageless beauty of the elf has been muted, his eyes and forehead lined. His eyes are lost in dark hollows and he has dropped twenty or more pounds. He is still dressed in the finest of bespoke clothing, but it looks like he has been wearing the same clothes for days, and his ringlet curls are lusterless and flat.

The largest change is the rolled up and pinned sleeve where he has lost his right arm.

Davey: Three F’n weeks… three! What the hell has been happening?

At the sound of Davey’s voice, Argo’s head swivels up from the book he has been staring through and his eyes lock on the trio. His whole-body shudders and he sinks into the chair, tension easing out of him. A single tear rolls down his cheek.

What the hell happened!?

The trio make their greetings, not allowing the worn-out mage to stand from his chair. They demand fresh food and drinks and the butler snaps to. Removing the try of old food and sweeping out of the room. He returns later and at the urging of the knights, they force Argo to take bites of food between reporting back to them.

Argo. We thought you lost, dead. The last few weeks have been over the top…”

He quickly launches into the Ups and Downs. Up they managed to find the creature enslaving and eating families. Up the Delphi Council responded to the Knight’s call to attack Londonderry, only they went above and beyond. Launching an airstrike over the whole of the city.

Ulthorion’s navy was destroyed, as was the beginning of his fortresses. Most of the fire was contained to the bay itself and not the city, but there was a large swath of civilian casualties. What is left of the UN then grew angered and yelled at the Delphi Council for using bombs on a place that had so many civilians. Further down, the destruction and fire drew the attention of a Dragon, the creature then flew to Londonderry, incinerated half of the remaining city and took up residence.

More Ups and Downs:

The dragon is both an up and a down… it is killing Ulthorion’s men as well as anyone else. Though current rumor has it that the forces in Londonderry were trying to make an alliance with the Dragon. Down, Baron Ironfist survived both the airstrike and the Dragon attack and has rallied the remnants of the raiders.

After Argo invented a new spell that mistakenly created a maelstrom, Baron Ironfist is now marching his troops to the east, there is a basic truce between Donegal and the Baron. Londonderry is now dragon neutral lands, everything to the east is Ulthorion’s and everything to the west is Donegals. Luckily the Baron doesn’t realize that the spell Argo cast was actually miscast and that he can’t actually create those storms at will.

What about the Arm?

After talking about the town and the battles with the raiders for nearly an hour the knights finally, after four attempts, steer the conversation back to Argo’s personal issues.

Without the knights around. Argo took most things on himself. Having killed the red widow (the creature eating families), driven off the Baron and then made a truce, he finally decided to handle the ghost legions. He figured out the secret that Maximus could only be killed by the use of his sword. Argo had the sword in his display case, so he went out to meet the Ghost face to face.

Argo jammed the gladius through Maximus and the general grabbed on to the blade and Argo. Locked together, Maximus lamented that he would not be able to march his army to fight in the coming battle, that the “great war” would be lost without him. Startled by this, Argo lost concentration and Maximus managed to wrestle him to the ground, and sever his right arm, before finally succumbing to the gut thrust and dying.

Thoughts:

Looking into this “great war” Argo discovered that the mercenaries of Castlederg went south to fight someone. The legions were marching southeast as well. Everything seems to be heading to the south east coast. But he had no one to look into it and with the blood loss, he has been out of the fighting/ intelligence gathering for days.

Argo eases back into his chair. He has managed to eat a fair amount of food, and telling his whole story has relieves a lot of the tension in his body.

Davey: What about those warpwolf brothers that went south to Sligo?

Ash and Ragnall glare at him, but Davey is oblivious to their looks.

Argo: they managed to arrive in Sligo but Fairuza and Alex dealt with them.

Argo pauses and then starts to go into further detail—but Ragnall cuts him off.

Ragnall: Enough talk. You’ve eaten, take a good drink of this whiskey and then we’re putting you in bed. You’ll sleep and we’ll watch over the city now.

Argo attempts to protest, but even Ragnall is stronger than the elf now. They put Argo into his bed and then return to the study to think.

The real news:

After taking a couple sips of whiskey the trio look around the study, at all of the mess. Ragnall sits behind the desk and starts to go through the paperwork and letters.

Ash: What are you doing?

Ragnall: Getting all of the details that Argo glossed over or was too tired to think of. I think there is a lot more going on and I think that our host has been feverish and drugged these past few days. As he should be with such a wound. I’m going to read all of his mail and figure out what is truly happening.

NEXT WEEK:

Sorry to stop at the point in the middle of the search… but next week we’ll fill you all in on the details of what has been happening and then we’ll get started on the main story for the Irish Knights.