Act 9 Day Mission
The Day Mission:
After the hectic morning, the Irish Knights are arriving on the docks of Dublin. They have just come away from stopping in on the Hoodies and sending them out as spies. A few handfuls of silver lighter the knights pull up to the Yardie held docks and total bedlam.
The Deep Ones:
They have arrived in the middle of a battle, a dozen of the Yardies, dressed in chainmail and surcoats, armed with tulwars, and looking like the Moorish Knights of the later Crusades. They are standing against more than double their number in 7-foot tall fishmen, and not standing very well. The fishmen are scaly nightmares, a cross between the Gillman and HPL’s Deep Ones. More scales, horns, and claws than batrachian slime monster.
Behind the mass of fishmen stands their leader, a 9-foot-tall monster wearing a golden helmet and carrying a trident over its head. Looking over the battle site, a number of yardies have fallen in battle and crawled back where Mamie, the White Witch, is overseeing a makeshift Triage site.
Ragnall: “Lot of wounded and she shouldn’t be this close to the action, should I heal or fight…?”
Ash: “The sooner we kill these creatures the sooner you can heal… kill first. I got the big guy!” And without further discussion, Ash opens a portal and blinks away, reappearing 50 meters away beside the trident wielding deep one.
Dave: “Let’s finish this fight.”
To Battle:
Ash leaps from his portal and into the side of the surprised leader. His black blade rips open the fishman’s ribs, ichor smoking on the wind and from his sword. Ash follows up with a second cut, but the creature is falling back and he merely opens a scratch across one scaly arm. The first cut was more than enough, the creature is mortally wounded.
From his vantage, David can’t see the leader staggering back from Ashes onslaught, he merely lowers his head and charges into a space between wounded yardies. Dave’s vanquisher blade slaps aside the weapons of three of the deep ones, and they are startled by his sudden appearance. This creates an opening that allows the yardies to get their attacks in and three of the deep ones are quickly dispatched.
Ragnall curses under his breath, annoyed that he didn’t get to dictate the plan of attack. He might be “in charge” in the house but out in the field he is usually ignored. He steps over a Yardie trying to crawl to the triage and kneels down to heal him.
Round 2: Counterattack
The Leader, the Princeps, attacks back at Ash, lunging forward with the trident, but the lithe elf just twists aside, and nearly steps into the blade of a smaller deep one who has been sneaking up on him. Ash laughs, two enemies are nothing to him, he could handle scores. His laugh is cut off as four deep ones turn from the mass pushing against the yardie wall and hurl javelins his way.
Dave is pleased for all of 5 seconds as three of the deep ones are dispatched by his yardie allies, but three more deep ones press into the gap and a number of spears and blades come his way. Dave is pushed back with a few minor cuts and a tear in his favorite shirt.
As the fight surges back in favor of the deep ones, the water at docks surges and coming up the long concrete ramp is a trio of new deep ones. Two massive warriors flank a slimmer figure wearing a shimmering opalescent robe and massive gold headdress, despite the asexuality of the creatures, this one still registers as a Priestess. A golden nimbus surrounds the three newcomers and the priestest shouts out and slams her staff on the ground.
Shifting Tides:
The Irish Knights and the Yardies find themselves slowed, almost pushed down by a weight from above. The Deep ones seem to have no such issues and move with lightning quickness, attacking in a redoubled effort.
The princeps and the small deep one attack Ash in tandem, and the slowed Elf barely manages to turn away from one blade, only to be forked by the trident. Ash tastes blood in his mouth as he staggers back from the deep wound from stomach to chest.
Back behind the mass of Deep Ones, David’s allies get dropped by chopping blades and three deep ones slam into him. Only by pure luck does his armor hold out as the three larger creatures batter his body. But he’ll take bruises over gashes any day.
Ragnall snarls, spits on the ground and seems completely unaffected by the weird pressure pushing down on every one else. He pushes up his sleeves and then casts his newer favorite spell, Fireball.
Ragnall: “I love a good fish fry!” the fireball engulfs the trio of new comers.
Ebb and Flow
The guardians beside the priestess die instantly in the fiery inferno, but the priestess survives, untouched by the fire. The pressure pushing down on everyone disappears.
Davey throws himself back into the attacks and throws all three deep ones back. They are battered but not wounded, it is an even exchange.
Ash, quick thinking and deadly as ever, more so as he’s wounded, slyly opens a small portal BEHIND the Princeps. He then lunges into the heavily wounded princeps, killing him with a quick slash… the lunge was not meant to hit the princeps at all, but was really a killing thrust sent through the portal… a portal whose other end was located behind the priestess. Ash is standing over the dead princeps, but his sword and hand are emerging from a portal, another 50 meters away, the sword thrust through the priestess.
The princeps and priestess are both dead within a single second. All of the deep ones freeze. With their leadership gone the creatures quickly step back toward the water and start to flee.
Final push:
As the deep ones waver and start to fall back the Yardies surge forward in a decisive attack. Dozens of the deep ones are wounded and they total break. Running for the water with no regard for their safety, only looking to escape. They jumble together and end up in a clumsy knot and Ragnall shakes his head, it doesn’t stop him from unleashing a second fireball into the mass of retreating deep ones. Many die, others are further wounded, less then ten are still staggering for the water.
Ash: “No survivors.”
He charges into the side of the broken mob, killing four of them in a lightening swift move that would have been lovely if there wasn’t so much death and blood in the air. Davey loses himself in the moment and charges into the back of the deep ones and batters a number of them. Yardies follow him and Ash makes a second pass and within seconds not a single deep one has survived to reach the water.
General looting and cleaning up follows and Ragnall switches from “kill mode” and to “heal mode.” David wrestles with his own bloodlust for a few minutes and goes off to sit on the hood of a rusted out and broken car. As he thinks about the last few minutes his thoughts wander, somewhere on this dock is a hardpoint, or the docks themselves are a hardpoint. He is certain that he is currently sitting in Core Earth and not Aysle… but before he can take the thought any further, Ragnall has a plan.
Ragnall loves Ghosts
Triage done, Mamie guided back home, and yardies clearing the dead. Ragnall declares that he will commune with the spirits on the dock and try to find out how, why the deep ones were here.
He opens his sight to the nether and looks for the spirits of the world, and is surprised to find that almost nothing exists in the immediate area, save for a single lone sailor from centuries past who is sitting on a stump and carving a piece of whale bone.
Ragnall approaches the old sailor, he doesn’t recognize the dress and style of the man, as he is a spirit of Core Earth, but he greets him anyway. The sailor nods back and continues to carve.
Three Questions:
Ragnall: Do you know of these Fishmen?
Sailor: Creatures of the deep that I ne’re seen nor heard of, though sailors do talk of such things. Mermaids and sirens and other things, but no ne’er seen the like in me days. The old Black Pool be calling them in I think, e’en I can feel that in my current state.
Ragnall is interested that the man knows he’s dead, a spirit lost to his own time, but he doesn’t want to use up his questions for that purpose. His spell has a finite limit on time and uses. Ragnall turns back to his living companions to get their ideas for how to use his next questions.
Ragnall: “What should I ask? What is the Black Pool? Or something else?”
Davey: “I can answer the Black Pool, so definitely something else.”
His companions look at him for a few seconds before he realizes they want the actual answer. “In my Cosm, Dublin was originally called Dubh Linn, or Black Lake. This was a Viking fortress and then township first.”
Ash nods, interest lost: “Ask him about the Fog, natural or not, fishmen?”
Sailor: that’s old magic, I can feel it deep in my soul. Spirit is out there not fog. And it is more connected to man than to any fish.
Ragnall: “Why would the fish be attacking here?”
The sailor laughs and gives a shrug; “Depends on what they need. If they jus’ raiding for supplies is one t’ing, but if they are being called, tis another. I feel a call so I says the later, but I’m jus’ an old ghost who refuses to leave.”
But with those final words the sailor does indeed fade away, and Ragnall merely thanks the stump, now a fire hydrant, that the man was sitting on.
Option 2:
Ragnall swears softly: “Ok, the only thing left is to talk to the dead directly. I’m really hating this though. It leaves a taste in my mouth that is altogether foul.”
Davey: “With all the whisky you drink I didn’t think you could taste anything any more.”
Ragnall glares at him and then turns back to the battle scene. Most of the dead have been curled back into the sea, but the priestess remains. Ragnall yells at some of the yardies to bring the body back to Mamie’s. If he’s going to talk to the dead better to do it in a place that is protected against spirits and with a powerful spiritualist as back up.
They find Mamie in her garden in the center of her home, she has a table cleared. Its almost as if she knew they’d be bringing a body back with them. The usual exchange of pleasantries is had, but this time the fact that the knights showed up, and defended the area without being asked, has earned a massive amount of respect and gratitude.
They lie the priestess on the table and Ragnall prepares himself to speak with the corpse. The prep and strain of this art is even more arduous than the spirit sight. Mamie does make an offer of different herbs to help him with the transition but the old man declines.
Questioning the Dead:
Ragnall raids the dead creature’s mind and puts forth his questions. Why?
Deep One: We raid for resources, though it has been long since we last came to the surface for such. No, now we are called, we are summoned. Beyond this city of men is something that wants us. These mortals are merely blocking our path. The great canal of water has walls that block us.
Ragnall, turning to Mamie: “The Liffe is blocked?”
Mamie; “When the cosm invaded some of the ships were sunk and a lot of the jetties were man made, the concrete and steel became broken watch towers, fallen bridges and other structures. The opening of the Liffe is a mess, and surely no boats could easily navigate, but these things live in the water.”
Ragnall mulls this over, “So they are summoned to land, and ignore the river… perhaps I’m reading too much into this? Tell me about the Fog?”
Deep One: We know nothing of this fog, it is magic apart from us, old like us for sure but not at our direction. It is a barrier, a wall around this island that protects it from everything outside. It is growing and soon the island will be alone in the world.
The Old World that Was:
Ragnall pauses, this is the second time he’s heard of a protective barrier around Ireland. But he also knows that there is no “Ireland” in Aysle, that this land is merely being matched to a part of Aysle that roughly corresponds to it. He pushes back into the dead creature; “What ancient magic of Aysle is this?”
Deep One: Magic so old it predates my race… it is magic from the dawn of mankind; it has nothing to do with this Aysle. It is the ancient magic of this world, of this Earth. Awakened again because of your invasion from your Aysle. The land is remembering what it once was and is fighting back. The Henges are coming alive.
Ragnall raids her memories for more information about her species and their cities. He is glad to find that they only have a small city off the coast of Ireland, but many thousands live in a great city down by the Iberian Peninsula. (with the wall coming up they have been cut off the Cyberpapacy can deal with fishmen off the coast of Spain).
The Wrap Up
After finishing with the body, Yardies cart it away. The Irish Knights spend some time talking with Mamie about the alliance with the Irish in the north and how McIntyre is talking about a kingdom of Dublin and putting things back into a sense of order. They also mention that they are heading out tonight to deal with a monster in the Zoo to garner favor in Baron D’s territory. The Baron has been lax in protecting his peoples and the PR gained from the Knights and McIntyre protecting them instead of the Baron should allow for a strike against the Baron himself.
Mamie agrees, and again with anyone telling her, she remarks that she is glad no one was hurt when the Baron invaded their home. She then offers them more goofer dust to help protect the house.
The trio took a bag of goofer dust from her after their first meeting, and yet they never used it for anything. Ragnall racks his brain and then remembers, the dust stops spirits from entering a warded area. They can’t cross or affect the dust in anyway.
Ragnall: “We haven’t had issues with spirits but I guess it couldn’t hurt to have more.”
Mamie: “Child, that Baron done ghosted through your walls and nearly kilt your friend. Put this around the whole of your house and that Baron can never enter again.”
When they had fought the baron, he had in fact turned insubstantial and fled from them. He could turn ghost for a few minutes of time.
They proceed to curse at each other and then leave the Yardies. They still have the night mission and they might need to clean up and maybe have a nap. This has been one of the busier days in Dublin.
Next Week:
We have the Night Mission, wherein the Knights will take on a flesh eating monster and perhaps even the Baron in a round 2 fight.
