Act 6 Final

Gangs of Dublin Part 2

Last week the Irish Knights sent out their newest recruit to get news and find more local storm knights, while the trio went to check out the Maximus’s Grave. Now they are back in the House and with their curiosity sated they are ready to concentrate on just what they stepped into.

Dante:

Just after dinner and the trio of knights are sitting on one side of the long conference table and on the other side is Roland and his BFF Dante. Dante is a human, covered in tattoos, leather and denim. His hair is bleached white and he is trying to hard to give a Billy Idol vibe.

Roland and Dante were bandmates before the invasion, and both of them went storm knight during the cosm drop. Despite Roland turning into an Elf from Aysle, Dante managed to remind his friend enough about his original life on Earth, hence why Roland is still in core earth clothing.

Dante is mid-30s and lifestyle and clothing aside his eyes and demeanor are of someone who has been through the shit and come out tougher. He’s a realm runner, carrying a mix of gear and unphased by moving between cosms.

The Gangs of Dublin (Finally)

Dante informs them that the city could be cut into four main factions… ignoring the House and the regular people. There are no police anymore, most of the Guarda either went to The Irish or were part of Dublin House, the rest are barricaded in their homes like normal people. There is no law except that which the various gangs bring to their neighborhoods.

The four factions are the Yardies, the Irish, the Hoodies, and the new comer, Baron Dee. The yardies are mostly Jamaicans, dock workers, and locals on the east end of Dublin. While many of them are still core earthers they are led by a old wise woman called the White Witch and some of the men have turned into knights. They have a thriving trade in botanical based drugs, magic potions, and they control the bulk of the docks into the city.

The Irish are old school Mafia, a crime family in the north end of the town. They control 70% of everything north of the river and have a mix of guarda with machine guns and mounted knights under their command. They are the most systematic in their control.

Then the Hoodies are a bunch of kids, without a single member above forty. They started as five different gangs that ran various estate housing, but they have combined into a massive horde after the invasion. They have the numbers, but they seem the most dispersed and chaotic. Most of them still are nothing more than petty muggers and drug pushers, but they have numbers on their side. They have a presence both north and south of the river, but most of the ones north of the river have been pushed south by the Irish and Baron Dee.

Baron Dee is a newcomer, he came in a month ago, carved out 5 blocks of the north, and controls it with an iron fist. There is no crime, no incursions, and no bullshit on his streets.

Spurs?

The trio mulls over all of the information on the gangs and then Davey asks; “And what about a man who likes to wear spurs?”

Dante: “Wow, been here a few days and already pissed off Spurs?”

Spurs was once a Hoodie, but he hit the magic age of 30 and moved on from petty vandalism and drug-dealing to become a gun for hire. He is a freelancer who goes to the best payer. He used to do work for the Irish, and he currently is found around the north, but who he is currently employed by is unknown. Either the Irish or Baron Dee is the street gossip, though some say he might be trying to go into business for himself.

He has a habit of hanging out at the raves and parties, despite not being a “kid” anymore, he seems to still enjoy selling drugs to kids and picking up young women. Most people just treat him with respect, he’s dangerous on his own and you never know if he is representing someone worse. The only people who hate him openly are the other Hoodies.

Dante: “Way I see it you have 3 leads… Baron Dee, the Irish, or Spurs working on his own.”

The Rave (Peace Grounds?)

Ash: “What is this Rave thing you speak of?”

Dante explains to the elf that a rave is a massive party, lots of loud music, drugs, lights, and usually sex. The massive cathedral in the north of the city turned into an equally grand castle when Aysle dropped their Stelae. Over the last month the rave has become a neutral ground where all of the gangs are allowed to meet and talk. The drug trade is completely open and fair there.

Absolutely no fighting is allowed to occur on the grounds, under pain of death from the various factions, but also supposedly through strong curse magic. It has been a huge shift in the power dynamic of the city. A month ago, the hoodies were constantly shooting anyone on the streets in their neighborhood. Now they have open talks with the Irish and the Yardies, and the city is being sectioned out. Borders are being discussed instead of fought over.

I Feel Like Dancing

Davey utters the words. Less than an hour later the knights are led to the rave by Dante in the north end of the city. They take one of the minivans and drive over the Liffe for the first time. There is a slight amount of apprehension, after all the body did tell them to stay south of the river.  

The castle grounds are still core earth, an asphalt rode leading to a curtain wall without gates, ands to be honest most of the “wall” is just a handful of stones that rings a paved parking lot. People are stepping over the wall instead of going through the gate. But the Irish Knights pull through the gate and park in a spot near to the wall. A large truck generator is powering spotlights and pulsing music. Even in the parking lot the music is loud enough to hear.

Walking up to the main, and really only, building half of the rave is outside in the lot. Beer trucks are dispensing drinks and people are mixing outside. The trio follow Dante into the building, young people eyeing them. Most looking at Ragnall (Who brought the geezer to the party?) or Ash, who is armed and scowling at everyone.

Inside the Party

The main room in the castle is all flashing lights and music. Men and women are gyrating to the music. Dante leads them past the dancing in the hall and into a room beyond, that was once the throne room of the keep. This room is deeper in the castle, quieter and with no windows to the outside. A full bar runs the length of the left side of the room and there are couches, chairs, and small seating areas all over the room.

Roland and Dante pause the Trio, they the then point out the more interesting people in the room. A trio of men with long dreadlocks sitting at table, Yardies. The five sullen brats at the bar with hoods up, hoodies, but Roland points out details that they used to belong to two different groups of hoodies. Turtle necks and peacoats, those are Irish, enforcers for a man in a suit who sits in a chair observing the room, the seats before him are empty but he looks like he’s awaiting company.

No one knows what the Baron’s men look like, they don’t wear uniforms. Scanning the room, Spurs doesn’t appear to be here either. Most people in the room seem to be concentrating on Ash, as he is armed in a room where few people are armed.

Force a meeting

Ragnall nods at all the information and then turns and stumps toward the bar, he makes a gesture to Ash (follow along). As understands his role and moves as if he is the body guard for Ragnall. The priest walks to the bar and grunts at the dwarf running the taps, the dwarf grunts back. Two men in chain mail shirts watch Ragnall approach the bar, but when Ash moves to his side, they put all of their attention on him.

The armored men move to flank Ash, but still remain a respectful distance away. There body language clearly marks them as either military or cops, and their movements are those of someone readying to stop trouble, not start it. Ash relaxes a little, but then tenses again… he had not noticed the armored men when he first entered the room. Where had they come from. HE murmurs his thoughts to Ragnall, and David overhears.

David: “They were in the shadows behind the men in the peacoats. They should be Irish, probably ex-gaurda.”

Ash: “You think they are a threat?”

David: “No I think THEY think YOU are the threat.”

Turning the Table:

Davie turns and steps up to the guards, shocking both of the men.

“Hi guys. We’re new to the place and just wondering, how did this place become neutral ground?”

The guards blink and one of them answers, “It just seemed a natural thing to do. Everyone was already coming here and it was a good idea. Yeah, once we got the kids and [racial slur] in line things have gotten a lot better around here.”

Davie blinks at the language but keeps a smile on his face; “A few more questions.”

Guard B, (elbowing guard A to silence) “Hey, we ain’t fookin guides. We’re just here to keep the peace. You don’t start no shit and we don’t have to end no shit. You keep you pet killer calm and we’ll leave you be.” The guard gestures to Ash as he says “killer” and they both move to leave.

Davie: “One last thing, we can we talk to the boss?” Davie points at the man in the suit sitting in the chair at the end of the room.

Guard: “Yeah, this is a public place, he has empty chairs, you want to talk you go and talk.”

Donovan (SUB) Boss

Dave and Ragnall approach the man in the chair, led by one of the guards. He is a good-looking guy, in an expensive suit, but they can observe that he is trying to look “bigger” than he is. His shoes have subtle heels to them, his shoulders are padded, and everything is polished to look expensive and well made.

The men in the peacoats are obvious ex-boxers. Broken noses, cauliflower ears, and large hands. Dave eyes them both and then makes his introduction.

Guard: “This is Davie and the Geezer. They got business.” Ragnall, says his name when the guard calls him a geezer, and Donovan gestures for them to sit in the chairs.

Davie: “Hi, we’re here on a bit of a… fact finding mission…”

Donovan: “Fact finding… and who are youse… to be fact finding?”

Ragnall: “Someone left us a message without a return address… when someone leaves a body nailed to your front door you kind of have to look into it.”

Donovan looks genuinely shocked, “Look, I’m going to be 100% honest with youse two… I have no fookin idea who either of you are, and I don’t send bodies to strangers! And I don’t know anyone who would want to attack you house.”

Davie: “For perspective we are Dublin house and we are watching over the castle.”

Donovan, completely blank look on his face.

Getting to know each other:

They explain that they are here about the castle that keeps appearing and Donovan gets that. He thinks they are academics and that they are being harassed and that maybe they need some protection. But Davie steers the conversation around that they really just wanted to be polite and meet with people and that they wanted an audience with the real boss of the Irish.

They didn’t know the etiquette of the situation but were pretty sure that the Irish didn’t want them just walking up and knocking on the front door. Donovan gets this and tells them that he can set up a meeting. They stroke his ego and he starts to like them.

They then turn the conversation to Baron Dee.

More fun Donovan convo:

Davie: “What can you tell us about the Baron?”

Donovan: “I can tell you the scum bag is a techy (touchy) one… very territorial. He carved his land and called it his demesne, his barony. I guess that is how things are going nowadays. One of these days I’ll fall asleep and maybe I’ll wake up a pointy eared elf.”

Davie: “I don’t think it works that way. I doubt you’ll become an elf.”

Donovan: “Half my family became elves… except for one nephew, he turned dwarf. Don’t know what the fuck happened there. Personally, I think his mom has been fucking around, you know what I mean?”

Davie wrestles the talk back on topic. “Again, do you know anyone who would nail a body to a wall?”

Donovan: “Well, the Baron is a bastard, if you crossed him, he would probably flail you alive, but the thing is… no one knows you and unless you are living on HIS doorstep, I doubt he’d give a fuck about you. But could he do it? Yes. Here’s a thought for you… what if it’s the House and not YOU that the message was for? Like maybe ‘previous resident.’”

Davie: “I have another name for you, Spurs?”

Donovan: “That scumbag… yeah he’d do it… he’ll do anything for money. He don’t work for me no more, if you see him you can tell him that. Or better, you see him you let me know and I’ll tell him that.”

Across the Room:

During all of this Ash has been standing by a pillar looking menacing and scary. Most of the guards and many of the other gang members in the room have been staring at him. Wondering if he is crazy enough to shed blood on what they are calling scared/ holy ground.

Roland and Dante are standing near him, they punks slightly lessening his menace with their gape mouthed staring as Ragnal and Dave continue to sit and have a conversation with Donovan.

Roland: “I can’t believe it… they’re just sitting there talking with him.”

Ash: “What? Why?”

Roland: “Talking to Donovan.”

Ash: “Why is this a thing?”

Roland: “He’s a made man… he’s a… a… boss. Do you know how many men he has killed, or had killed?”

Ash blinks, and then he bursts out laughing. Long rolling laughter that he can barely contain. All eyes in the general area are looking at him. Ash wipes tears from his eyes and then straightens up.

Ash: “Killed in one fight? Or one sword stroke? I’m still working on a new high for single stroke…”

Roland: “They say he killed his own brother for the position….” The teen trails off, not fully realizing just how lethal the men he’s taken up are. He pouts a bit and then wanders off into the crowd.

Back to the other convo:

Donovan offers a reward if they bring him Spurs and then goes on to say that the man is a tough fighter who has a habit of getting away from situations. He is quick and pretty stealthy for a guy who wears actual spurs.

Donovan then hands them a card with name and address on it. It is a café in the north end of town. He tells them they can come a calling any day, as long as it is just after noon. They take the card and ask again about the reward on Spurs, then they stand, shake hands and leave.

Ragnall to Davie, “You mean to take Spurs alive?”

Davie, “No. but I wanted to seem reasonable.”

They move back to Ash, and share data. Donovan is an Ord, not a storm knight, he barely rates as a threat on their radar, but for a thuggish oaf, his organization seems strong and secure. They have hopes that the real man in charge is far better and easier to work with. They then decide to wander around the place and get a feel for the various groups and maybe luck out and walk into Spurs.

The assessment is pretty quick. Dante had the right of it. There are four main powers in the city and a handful of independent thugs and small gangs that have migrated to the city trying to hide from the change of the Cosm.

Ragnall and the Ghosts.

Ragnall leads the group off to a side hallway into a ruined section of the keep. He wants to dabble in some magic and see what he can glean from the place. The rest agree and watch over him as he intones his prayers and then opens his eyes to look into the spirit world.

Three ghosts appear, willing to talk with Ragnall. One is a small child with black eyes, wearing old style homespun clothes. The second is a Broken Man, broken on a rack or a wheel, but wearing modern clothes. The last is a young punk girl, dressed in rave clothes with multi-colored hair. Her throat has been slit and she seems the “newest” of ghosts. Ragnall picks her.

Ragnall: “What do you know about Baron D?”

The ghost’s eyes widen, and she points at her slit throat. And then in a flash Ragnall reels as he sees a vision of a man standing behind the girl. They are making out, he is kissing her neck and touching her all over when a second man enters the room. The kisser quickly slits her throat as she is shocked by the appearance of the new man, and the new man lunges forward and drinks the blood gushing from her throat.

Ragnall staggers back and drops his spell. The man who had wielded the blade was Spurs, and Ragnall assumes that the blood drinker was Baron D. Ragnall’s anger raises and he turns on the others. He wants to find and kill Spurs, right NOW!

On the Hunt:

The Irish Knights move among the party goers hunting for any sign of Spurs. They start to notice that small groups of feral eyed men seem to have an interest in Ash, but they notice Ragnall noticing them… so they walk away. These guys are not partying, they aren’t drinking, aren’t dancing.

Ash walks up to one of the guys and outright asks him a question, “What do you know about Spurs?”

“Lots, who wants to know…” The guy pauses in his reply and looks Ash up and down. He clearly changes his mind on the rest of his reply.

Ash: “Where is he?”

Guy: “Probably fucking someone, he never arrives here before midnight.”

Ash returns back to the crew. “Ok, we wait until midnight.”

After Midnight:

They wait the half hour to get to midnight and then become impatient. Wandering around the halls for another twenty minutes they still don’t find Spurs. Ash walks back to find the guy he talked to before, Rob finds the guy… talking to a man with side burns and a leather jacket, and spurs.

The guy points back toward Ash. Spurs looks back, meets Ash’s eyes for a minute, and then shrugs and walks away. Ash hurries after the man as he leisurely walks out into the parking lot and toward the road.

The rest of the Irish knights follow after, but they were further away. Ash catches up to Spurs right before the man can cross the wall into the street. Spurs stops and turns as Ash calls out that they need to talk. Spurs lights a cigarette and waits.

Aggravating Non-Chalance

Spurs: “I don’t think I know you.” Spurs stands in the road and takes a pull on his cigarette.

Ash: “No you don’t, but you left a message for the people I work for.”

Spurs: “Did I?”

Ash: “Yes, a drained body.”

Spurs: “Doesn’t sound like something I would do.”

Ash: “Alright how about a woman you killed, slit her throat.”

Spurs: “You’d have to be more specific than that…”

And so it goes for a while, Spurs denying or deflecting each accusation from Ash as the rest of the Irish knights finally arrive at Ash’s back. Spurs looks down at the street he is standing in and realizes he is outside of the safety of the Rave grounds, but the knights are still in the parking lot.

Ash finally accuses him of being nothing more than a messenger boy for the Baron.

Escalation, almost de-escalation, Death:

Ragnall reads the man’s body language and tries to see if he is lying. Spurs seems more amused, but underneath he is angry about the confrontation. Spurs isn’t reality rated but does carry possibility energy. Ash is losing his self-control, yelling insults and outright accusing Spurs of leaving the body on the door and killing people for the baron.

Four men come up behind the Knights, they are the feral eyed men who weren’t partying in the rave, but seemed to be everywhere. One of them is the man who told them when Spurs would be here.

Spurs makes a final effort to dismiss the knights. Ignoring the spitting anger coming off Ash, Spurs denies all charges, claims he is tired and just wants to go home, and promises that he won’t kill anyone tonight if they just fuck off and leave him be. It is implied that he’ll hurt them if they keep pushing.

Ash hesitates for a moment, trying to let his rage go.

Spurs repeats, “I promise, I won’t kill anyone, cross my heart.”

Ragnall says Fuck You:

The situation does start to defuse a little… but Ash can let go of the rage. Spurs turns it around saying that hanging out in shitty places with shitty people means that the Knights will always encounter shitty people. The situation stops. Spurs calls the men away from the Knight’s back, they come around the group and form up beside Spurs. Spurs says thank you and good night, he flicks his cigarette into the street and turns to walk away. Spurs leads his men across the street…

Ragnall strikes out. The knights [really the players] are annoyed with Spurs at this point and the old priest unleashes Holy Lightning. For a full 10 seconds Ragnall screams shit at the men as they walk away, doubling their pace.

Ragnall unleashes a massive bolt from the heavens and smashes Spurs to the ground, it is the most powerful bolt the priest has ever summoned, more powerful than the one that cracked the stela in half.

Spurs gets back up. Shocking everyone.

FIGHT!!

Spurs bounces back up from the strike, smoking, and draws a knife from his belt and charges into Ragnall. Davie leaps in front of the attack, taking the knife strike low in his belly. Two of the men jump Ash and they miss as the elf twists away from their attacks.

The other two men close on Ragnall and Davie, the guy on Davie misses, but the one on Ragnall tears the priest open from neck to waist. Ragnall is very badly wounded. At this point, everyone realizes these men are attacking with their hands, with razor sharp talons sprouting from their fingers.

Ash whirlwinds on his two men and does nothing to them. Ragnall ignores his own wounds and heals Davie. Davie then whirlwinds with his Vanquisher blade. Spurs gets knocked back and seems afraid of the vanquisher blade and one of the men is cut deeply.

Spurs retreats from the blade but takes a back-hand slash at Davie, it opens a new wound across Dave’s arm. The two men backing Spur’s up split their attacks, one going for Ragnall and the other going for Roland, who doesn’t even have a weapon. Davie is torn to protect both of them, and takes the attack meant for Roland, losing even more blood and hitting the ground unconscious.

Ragnall takes a claw strike and drops to his knees, the amount of blood on the streets is obscene and these bodyguards seem more inhuman than Spurs.

Only 10 seconds:

In ten seconds, Ragnall is nearly dead and Davie has been stabbed more than three times and might actually be dead. Ash is having little to no effect on the men he is facing and they have torn him open with their last attacks. This is the worse fight the knights have been in in weeks.

Spurs stops his men from attack, yelling, “Have you had enough? I’ll give you your lives this night.”

Ash screams and attacks both men on him again and is satisfied when they drop. With two of the attackers dead, the knights feel a surge of hope. Ragnall drops a fireball on Spurs and his two remaining men. They go up like wax candles and they freak out. Spurs dies in the fire and the one of the men beside him as well. Only one attacker is left.

Roland wrangles a pistol out of his bag and takes a shot at the last man, the bullet is actually deflected from the man’s thick skull. He turns and runs.

Ash opens a portal, gets ahead of the man and decapitates him as he runs across the street.

Aftermath:

By sheer luck they have survived a fight that never needed to happen. Roland pulls out a healing potion and uses it on Davie and Ragnall prays to heal himself.

After a full minute of trying to catch their breaths and release all of the adrenaline, Davie finally speaks; “Maybe Dublin House is really cursed. Cause this was stupid… very stupid. We’ve been here for two days and nearly all died. Maybe our predecessors weren’t all idiots?”

The others have no response to that. They limp over to the minivan and set out for home. At the least they know that Spurs put the body up, and they know that he worked for the Baron, and they know that the baron’s men are deadly.

Despite the potion being used to heal him, Davie is suffering from a permanent injury. His system is too shocked from all the blood loss and the pure amount of trauma from repeated stabbings.

ACT 6 ends with them limping home and hoping that they haven’t started something they can’t finish.