A Confluence of Problems
Act 9 Crossroads…
RECAP: Last we saw, our Irish Knights had neutralized the sidhe rangers going around cutting off people’s fingers, they took in a locksmith and his apprentice, invited more people to move into to their house and the lands surrounding, and the Keymaster had arrived on their door. Not to be forgotten, Barry the Troll saved Ryan the EMT from becoming a snack for Baron D.
Once again, the Irish Knights find themselves beset with numerous problems and a lack of priorities. To clarify… a lack of agreeing on what takes priority.
Scene 1 Too Many Ideas…
We begin with the Knights once again sitting at their council table, joined by Dante and Roland, Nigel (Capt. Of the House Garda), Doc MacReady (Ryan is resting in after his ordeal with the Baron last night)… and the strange yellow-eyed Keymaster. No one is currently talking; everyone is avoiding the topics on the table by eating or slowly sipping either coffee or tea.
Cheryl enters the room with the SatPhone in hand… Despite his inability to use the phone or the computer, Ragnall has somehow become the man in charge of the house, mostly as Davey has allowed this to happen. Cheryl starts to hand the phone to Ragnall, but with a slight shake of her head she bypasses him and hands it to Davey. Cheryl has kept her anger with Davey in check, as he was her choice to take charge of the house.
Davey places the phone next to his ear and before he can even say hello; “Oi! It’s Liam, Bangor House calling!”
Davey covers the mouthpiece of the phone and swears. Bangor house is managed by two men… both of which barely have a working brain between them. Somehow the two have survived events which killed off the more able members of the house, and since then they haven’t been reinforced.
Hook #1:
Davey: “Hi Liam, how you boys holding out?” The false cheer in his voice and the name mentioned causes Ragnall to snort and Ash to roll his eyes.
Liam: “Oh you know, its normal for here… so weird as hell. Got two little things that might be a problem, might be nothin’. Just wanted to pass them by you guys?”
Silence stretches for a few seconds, before Davey realizes that the last was a question. He pushes Liam to continue.
Liam: “Right… two things. So, this big ole wall of fog rolled in a few days back and its only getting thicker and worse. It’s like a wall out on the water. Ain’t seen a boat in over three days. How’s the weather down there? Fog everywhere or am I being targeted?”
Davey: “Well no fog here, at least by the house, the harbor is a 20-minute drive away. We could take a trip and check that out, get back to you later on that.”
Liam coughs loudly, hawks something up from his throat and spits. The noise is loud enough that when Davey pulls the phone away from his ear, Ragnall throws down his fork and pushes away his unfinished breakfast.
Liam: “K’ that would be nice to find its merely weather. The other thing… well I said no ships have been comin’ in but that ain’t quite true. No fishin or sails, buta trio of raider longboats got driven in out of the fog and shattered on our shore, a few miles north. It was bizarre, it was almost like the ships were launched by a cannon. The explosions were so loud they were heard all the way in Bangor. Most of the raiders seem to have been killed, I’m about to head out there and check over the wreckage. I wanted to let you guys know ‘cause those boats usually hold 50 raiders each. The two of us can’t handle that many if they decide to make Bangor home.”
Davey sighs and tells Liam they will record his issues and see what they can do about sending help his way. But its many miles away, and help would be days at the best.
More news (Hook 2)
Davey places the phone on the table and goes back to his breakfast, filling the rest of the table in on the other side of the phone conversation. Ragnall is rolling around the words “Wall of Fog out across the sea” and thinking about what the spirit of the dead sidhe ranger told him last night. That Eire was growing strong, but also cutting itself off from the rest of Aysle. He keeps these thoughts to himself for now, though really, he was about to mention them when the phone rang again.
Cheryl seems more startled than anyone else, the phone is rarely used, and twice in one morning is a momentous occasion. (But the fact that Cheryl didn’t foresee a second call is most disturbing to her, after all she always seems to be one step ahead of any event in the house).
Davey snatches up the phone and thumbs on the accept call button; “Hello…?”
“Hey Dublin! This is Limerick calling, Malcolm.”
Davey: “And this is Davey, good to hear your voice Limerick.” All eyes at the table are on Davey.
Limerick News:
Malcolm: “We have a basic good news/ bad news scenario happening here and I just wanted to give you guys a head up.”
Davey: “Better start with the bad….”
Malcolm: “OK. So, the bad then… about 1000 Celts showed up outside our city. Almost all warriors in the old regalia. Never seen the like other than in history books. They moved over to a hill out past the city and have started building a large camp. I sent some people out to talk with them, they haven’t come back yet but there is no signs of fighting or violence. That said, they are building walls and forming a makeshift fort. Its almost Roman… I should have asked first, but Core Earther?”
Davey: “Yes, I’m the only one who understands what a phone is… old school Celts acting like Romans. Got it.”
Malcolm: “Right. Just incase this is a full-blown invasion I wanted to make the calls. Let you know why we’ve gone quiet if it happens.”
Davey: “Wow, you and Bangor in the same day…”
Malcolm: “Bangor? Something happening there? I didn’t bother to call them… what would be the point with those two?”
Good News?
Davey nods, despite the fact that the man on the phone can’t see the gesture, and then he prods: “You mentioned there was good news?”
Malcolm: “Right. We had a massive reality surge here this morning. Most of Limerick was clinging to Core Earth, but the surge was so powerful that I’d say only our hardpoint is left. Everything has gone Aysle here. And we have thirty new stormknights out of it. Probably more we don’t know about it. Limerick House has become quite full, nearly fifty of us now that we have all these new recruits.”
Davey: “Thirty new stormknights!” The quiet conversations around the council table come to a complete standstill and Ragnall nearly drops his tea cup.
Malcolm: “Right. 50 total knights, and a few thousand militia in the town, plus tons of people who will fight for their homes, I think we have a good chance of standing against a thousand hardened Celto-Roman troops. IF thigs work out for the better we might be sending some of our more senior knights out to Bangor and Dublin and Cork. But that will probably be days if not weeks down the road.”
Hook 3
Davey wraps up the phone call with Malcolm. While he was finishing up a garda entered the room with one of the foot soldiers from The Irish. They wait in silence until Davey hangs up the phone and then the garda makes a polite cough. Nigel gestures for the man to speak.
The foot soldier steps up and salutes the table and then intones a long-winded, overly-formal greeting from Gabriel of House McIntyre… To Wit, Gabriel has been inspired by their meeting two days past and has set to work changing the north into an image that all can be proud of. His knights have been deployed as protectors of the north and the streets have been cleaned of conmen, grifters, and general unsavory peoples.
All of this work building a better and stronger Dublin has made him realize that letting darkness dwell in hidden corners only leads to rot. He wants to take action against the Baron and would like to make it a joint effort. He is inviting the House to partake in a coordinated attack. To that end, he does NOT want to alienate the people living under the power of the Baron. As Evil as Daedalus is, he still keeps his streets clean and safe and the people under his rule actually seem to like him.
Dark Opportunity
But fate has given them an opportunity. Something dark is stirring in the zoo near Phoenix hill, a number of people have gone missing or been outright slaughtered in their homes. Some of those people are in the Baron’s territory. He has failed to protect some of his people, who were murdered last night.
This has created some faith issues amongst his people. Gabriel would like to go into the zoo tonight, find the evil therein and destroy it. Thus showing the people that the Baron is not the only protector in the north. With his people then losing more faith in him, a second assault could then be made on the Baron himself.
With Dublin House coming up from south of the Liffe it also shows solidarity amongst all of Dublin, not just territories.
The Rabble (Hook 4)
Killing murderous monsters is the Irish Knights’ favorite thing. Much clearer cut than different factions of sidhe battling over control of a mystical castle. They agree to help Gabriel and quickly make a message for the soldier to bring back. The trio of knights then walk the man back to the door.
Outside they are greeted by two large rabbles of people arguing in the streets. Ash looks around but doesn’t see another corpse nailed to a wall, so at least that is a plus. Davey yells for silence, and then lets Gabriel’s soldier leave. He looks over the crowd on his doorstep.
To his right is about 20 people, looking like four generations of family and at their head is Old Man Sam, the guy who mouthed off to the sidhe and lost some fingers. To the left of the door is about 30 more people, perhaps 7 or 8 different family units that all look shell-shocked and dirty. Both groups are dragging along all of their worldly possessions in a number of travois and carts.
Ragnall Takes Charge
Ragnall steps up, as he speaks fluent “old man” he gestures to Sam to step up to the porch and then over to the other group he points at another old man. This second man is named Richard.
Ragnall: “Ok, everyone shut up for a few minutes while I sort this out. Sam… you’re here about the farming offer I assume?” The old man nods. Ragnall looks back into the main hall and points at one of the garda and crooks a finger. “You, take these people around the side of the building and show them the quad after they get their carts settled bring them into the building and show them the showers, rooms for now, and get them fed.” Turning back to Sam, “This man will show you the land we have and will get you settled for tonight, we’ll work on finding where you’ll stay permanently later we have a lot of space we’re not using and a few buildings we haven’t even explored.”
Richard’s Story:
Ragnall then turns to the other old man, as Sam and his family are lead back down the street and through the alley between the buildings into the large quad in the square.
Richard and the families in his entourage have lost their homes. They are from the south of Dublin, technically living in the wilds and not the city proper, but a band of soldiers has claimed their farms and territory. They fled into the city, but many of the people living in the south end of the town are defending against these same raiders constantly. So, Richard and the other elders decided that they would push further north. As they came up, they heard stories of a house that protects people and with no other options they came here.
Ragnall nods and after a few minutes of thinking he makes up his mind without even consulting his companions. “Alright, that man that was just led away is Sam. He is the farm foreman. We only have so much land for farming, but we have plenty of rooms for people. You can follow that group around to the rear. You report to Sam, if you have people with other trades and skills, we’ll figure that out later. Food, baths, beds, and a future.
Roland’s Redemption:
Roland and Dante came up on the conversation. As Richard leads his people away and Ragnall turns around to talk to his “partners” (whom he didn’t bother to consult)…. Roland leans in and preempts the conversation.
Roland: “I have to redeem myself after the issue with the sidhe and bad… reporting… you should send me and Dante down south to look into these raiders forming their own ‘barony.’”
Ragnall pauses and looks at Davey and Ash.
Ash: “Don’t bother to look for opinion, NOW. Go right ahead and take charge old man.”
Ragnall smiles, a rare and ugly sight indeed, “Right. Easier this way. No Roland. We’re not sending out knights right now. We don’t want to weaken our forces. I happen to have a number of Hoodies on retainer. We’ll dispatch them to go south and spy on these raiders. After all, tonight we’ll be going into the zoo with Gabriel to hunt down a monster.”
Ragnall pushes past everyone and on into the building. Davey glares at Ash, “You might have enabled a monster right here.” Ash merely shrugs a single shoulder and then follows the old man back into the House.
The next bit:
Ragnall assigns Roland and Dante to fully debrief and record the Keymasters full story. He then states that the trio will travel out to visit the White Witch. Along the way they will pay off the hoodies to run the spy mission and then when they arrive at the harbor, they will be able to see if the wall of fog exists down here as well, or if it is merely a problem for Bangor.
And here we pause…
Nest week we’ll do the “Day Mission” A lot is going on along the coast, not just the wall of fog but also creatures from the deep! Deep Ones are invading Yardie territory.
After that we’ll have the “Night Mission”; What is living in the Zoo and eating people and why are so many monsters drawn to the Hill?
