The Curse Continues

ACT 4: On the Road Again.

The morning after facing the ghost legion, the sun rises and the heroes feel like something is different, but everything looks the same. They almost feel as if the last few days haven’t happened at all, like the ghosts and the problems that forced them to leave Donegal were only a dream.

Continuing on toward Castle Berg the trio notices that the highway is once again core Earth, with guard rails and mile markers. Dave finds the throwback to core earth comforting but the others merely state it will all be gone soon enough. Dave is quiet as they pass through a couple sleepy thorps and then decide to cut across some farmland to save a few miles.

As they cross the field the silence is finally interrupted. The loud THWACK of a door slamming in the wind keeps coming. Ahead of them a farmhouse with a full front porch faces them. Smoke drifts from the chimney and the front door swings on the wind, slamming into the frame and popping back open.

The trio finally notice that it’s strange that no one has been about. Both thorps were still sleeping, no people in the streets. But this is a farm, and since when does a farmer not get up with the dawn? No one is in the fields.

Investigating the House.

They head toward the house, stopping before they reach the porch. The dirt before the house is churned up, but it is also dry, so not a bloody mess like every other house they have approached for the last few days. Davie steps up on the porch and looks at the door. The knob is completely smashed, as is the door frame and the stucco beside the door. Looking closer he can see that a massive boot print with nails in the sole, kicked the door so hard it smashed the wall.

Ragnall steps up to the porch and Dave holds up a hand and goes in alone. Within two feet of entering the house Dave finds two bodies on the floor. There is nothing that the trio can do here unless the killers are still about. He turns back to Ragnall, and the old priest stops him from speaking.

Ragnall: “Something evil is drawing near. I can feel it. We’re being scryed again!”

Before he can move a shape dives out of the clouds, half-man, half-pterodactyl:

A RAVAGON!

The creature swoops toward them, Dave runs out of the house, drawing his wheellock he takes a shot at the creature and completely misses. They soon realize it is not just one of the creatures but several!

Ash sights in on two of the creatures, opens a portal and drops down on the diving creatures from above. He slashes his sword into the wings of two of them. He’s certain that he rips one of the wings, but reality warps and the wound disappears. His attack was a beautiful thing to watch, but it’s had little effect to the creatures. Ash drops to the ground and rolls.

Each of the ravagons turns in their dive and heads toward a different knight. The swoop down and flair their wings at the last second, slowing down and kicking out with toe claws. Ash and Dave manage to dodge away with only slight cuts, but Ragnall takes a massive cut across his chest. The priest drops to the ground and crawls around the stairs. Why does everything kick his ass?

BWOOM THOOOM!

A portal opens twenty meters across the road in front of the house, eight armored raiders step out and unlimber swords. Ulthorion is not skimping on his murder parties. The eight raiders let out a war cry and run across the street, they will be on the trio in seconds.

Ash looks up at the creatures in the air and then at the men charging across the road, he decides that he prefers a ground based offensive. He gets up off the ground and charges into the raiders, slashing his sword into three of the armored men. Blood and gore flies in the air, the three men are mortally wounded, but their eyes are crazed. They are in the middle of a battle madness or a drug fueled craze. The three men, who should be dead, foam at the mouth as they attack the elven swordsman back. Ash takes a number of shallow cuts and flatters under the onslaught.

Dave’s Rescue Attempt:

Dave rushes in and swings his huge hammer in a wide arch. It thunders, doing little damage but throwing all of the raiders back a few meters. As Dave exalts, one of the raiders sneaks in from the side and jams three feet of steel through Dave. Dave turns to look back at Ash, and then his guts unfurl and spill to the ground. The massive man drops to his knees and then falls unconscious. Ash leaps over his fallen friend and swings is sword in a full circle. It hits no one but the raiders lean back.

Ragnall, still wounded himself, gets to his feet and pulls out his holy symbol and shouts a word of power. A nimbus surrounds him, bolstering his defenses against the enemy he then runs to the fallen knight, bringing his nimbus of defense to both Dave and Ash.

Praying the old man places his hands on Dave, and shoves his guts back into his rent belly. His hands glow and smoke as the wound closes. Dave’s eyes snap open and the man surges back to his feet, he charges back into the enemy.

Ragnall: NO! you dumbass I just put your guts back in, stop it.

Looking Grim:

Dave stumbles into the trio that Ash horribly maimed. He drops two of them with his hammer and knocks the other aside. The one he knocked aside turns around and stabs Dave again. The wound is not as horrific as the previous but the large man is bleeding again.

Ragnall: All my work ruined in less than 10 seconds! Idiot!

The ravagons are still circling above, staying out of the combat for the moment. They laugh and yell derision at both sides of the ground conflict. At this point a massive volley of arrows come from a third, unseen source, filling the raiders with arrows. Two more of the raiders drop. Half of them continue forward into the knights while the rest hold back and draw their own bows, searching for the newcomers.

Sidhe Rangers:

A band of tall men step from the tree line with bows in hand. These men are wearing camouflage cloaks that shift their colors to match the plants around them.

Ragnall gives a shout as the arrows slam into the raiders. He calls a new blessing down on Ash and Dave, enhancing their agility. The duo wade back into battle. Ash heads into the three raiders closing in, but one of the ravagons swoops in on him. The elf doesn’t even break stride as he sweeps out with his blade, striking at the ravagon and all three of the raiders. Apparently Ragnall’s blessing was mighty indeed. The three raiders drop with their guts or throats slit and the ravagon rears back deeply wounded. Ash is all business, watching his companion nearly die in front of him has awakened a burning anger deep within.

David holds back from wading into further close combat, reloads his wheellock and takes a shot at one of the ravagons. It seems to have little effect, and once again Dave wonders why he traded his modern firearm for this junk.

Turning Point:

The raiders with the bows call on the ravagons to stop the enraged elf from closing in on them as they turn their attention to the rangers coming out of the trees. But for some reason the ravagons decide that they don’t want to fight anymore and the trio fly up higher from the fighting.

Archers scream curses as their shots miss the rangers and their allies abandon them. The rangers return fire and 1 of the raiders is killed. Ragnall finally takes and offensive action in this fight and fires his own crossbow back at the raiders, wounding one of them. Ash then uses a portal to appear behind the archers and in a truly vicious attack [massive high roll over 60 to hit equals over 40 damage to each guy] kills both raiders.

[Ragnall’s player drops a GLORY card and everyone gets happy!]

The ravagons decide to flee, but Davie takes one more shot at them. He wings the one he’s shot twice before, and to his delight the creature crashes to the ground. Felled by blood loss from the numerous small wounds.

New Friends?

The Sidhe rangers quickly cover the distance from the trees to the trio of knights and stop a respectful distance away. They are tall and beautiful, bordering on the inhuman.

Dave: “Jesus. They look like photoshopped GQ models.”

He doesn’t explain what any of those words mean to his companions but they understand the context.

END SCENE 1

Scene 2: Making Friends:

Sidhe: Hail and well met friends.

Ragnall sniffs loudly, he turns to Ash; “These are your people you do the conversing.”

Ash: “It’s a myth that elves and sidhe are related….” He trails off as Ragnall begins looting the bodies of the fallen. To his credit, Ragnall is dragging the corpses into a pile and administering last rites over them as he does so, but he’s still pocketing money and magical items as he does so.

Sidhe (ignoring the interplay and looting): We are on a penance quest to destroy some redcaps. Have you seen such creatures recently in this area?

Ash points a thumb over his shoulder at the broken door of the farmhouse. “Metal shod boots kicked in that door, so probably.”

Ragnall: Oh boots of nimbleness! This will improve my pace and Dave look, a Vanquisher Blade.”

All try to ignore the priest. But Dave is mightily interested in a magic sword after the problems with his machetes.

Get Serious!

Ash gets disgusted at the antics. Ragnall finishes his looting and comes over to join in the discussion. It only takes a few minutes for him to get the gist of what is happening and he holds up a hand to silence the sidhe.

He will answer all of their question.

Ragnall communes with the spirits in the area and discovers that some of those murdered in the house are still lingering. Within minutes he has eased the spirits disposition and talked it into going into the afterlife peacefully.

He has learned that a party of redcaps, some large and some small invaded the house in the early morning just before dawn. The creatures killed all the sheep in the pens and four humans in the house. They wore iron clad boots and it seemed almost like the larger creatures were directing the smaller. Almost like training. When the large ones (still shorter than an average human) walked their boots seemed to shake the earth.

Redcap Lore:

The sidhe explain that in the old days, sites of massive slaughter would sometimes create gates that would allow redcaps to leave the Fae world and run amok among humans. But the redcaps are only able to stay in the real world as long as they keep their caps and weapons coated in blood and continue the mayhem. The larger ones are elder fae while the smaller redcaps are just juveniles that are still growing.

In a moment of candor, the rangers admit that they were Guardians at a prison in the Fae Realm and that there was a deal between the courts, exchange hostages to renew the Accords. The prisoner exchange did not go well, many were murdered. The unseelie claim it was not they who instigated the escape, since it was other parties that were freed to cover the escape, many of whom were of neither court. The guardians are tasked with hunting the redcaps while others look for other escapees.

Dave butts in to ask if the prison was a tree.

The rangers exchange glances and say that no, it was a frozen ice fortress in a zone between the winter and summer courts. But they are very much interested to know what Dave knows about prison trees.

Ash steers the conversation away from the Tree of Woe incident.

Hunting with the Fae

The Rangers ask if the trio would like to join them on this hunt. To find the redcaps and eliminate them before they harm more innocent people. Since the group is only hunting a rumor about Castle Berg being invaded by mercenaries, they are leaning toward saying yes.

The rangers sweeten the pot. They can feel the curse on the characters that keep drawing the attention of Ulthorion. They offer to break the curse and also state that while they travel with the sidhe it will most definitely mess with Ulthorion’s scrying. Might even drive some of his wizards mad.

Not saying that the Irish Knights are petty, but the idea of sticking it to a Highlord does please them. Afterall it was what drove them to shatter his stela in the first place and it is what drives them to accept now. They leave with the sidhe to hunt the redcaps.

Ending Here:

We’re technically partially into scene three which is traveling with the Fae. But next week we will travel in-between the worlds and fight a bunch of redcaps. We will also discover that the red caps have broken into groups and that the tracking is both faster and longer than expected.