Prologue to Dublin House
Recap:
Before we start the path to Dublin House…
Last week the Irish Knights returned to Donegal. A Donegal changed by raiders and magical attacks. Argo, the Delphi Head of House Donegal and their “boss,” had been much changed by the violence. He lost an arm and hasn’t slept in days. The trio of knights make him eat, get him to relax a little, and finally as nervous exhaustion takes over, they gently placed him in his bed.
The three weeks they spent hunting with the Sidhe has left them on the back foot. Too many things have changed. {Hunt part ONE and TWO}
With Argo asleep the trio have no qualms about searching through his desk and journals to see what they can learn about everything they missed. While Argo did give them a summary of events, they know that there is more he didn’t say.
Reading Argo’s Mail:
The first letter they find is from Alex in Sligo, it simply recounts the story of hunting down the Warpwolf Brothers and trying to arrest them. It quickly turned into a fight and a new knight was lost, but the brothers were vanquished. Nothing more.
Another scrap of paper reveals that a fomori giant was seen walking across the land. He was spotted by multiple farmers between towns in the north. He was headed east, and interestingly, he stopped outside of several villages and offered to read fortunes/ sooth the future for food. Myths of the creatures swear that they were terrible man-eating beasts. This one appears not to be.
Ash pulls out Argo’s personal journal… rather close to the fireplace in the corner of the room. Some of the pages have been torn out and he assumes they are now ashes at the bottom of the grate. But what remains ends shortly after dealing with Woman in Red. The story is far more complicated than Argo led on.
Massive Failure:
Argo led a force of guardsmen and volunteers into the sewers below Donegal, and they found a lair filled with missing townsfolk. All of the missing were held in thrall to the Lady in Red, and ancient creature called a Red-Widow. Part Fae, Part Spider she used her venom to keep the people as her slaves. Seeing missing relatives, many of the volunteers ran in to help. It became a massacre.
The red-widow was eventually slain, but the cost in lives was massive.
Ragnall: “That makes sense. Argo personally led these men to their deaths… I’m sure he’s used to working thru knights like ourselves and not actually getting dirt on his hands. But with us missing… After the massive loss of life in the sewers, he took it upon himself to defend the town to the best of his ability. To erase those deaths. Hence dabbling in dark magic and then trying to take on Maximus by himself.”
Ash nods, dropping the book back onto a table near the fireplace.
Ragnall: “There are more problems, this pile is the stuff he told us about… but I just found a stack of things he hasn’t even bothered to research yet.”
Davie: “The man is exhausted.”
Ragnall: “I wasn’t judging him.”
New Problems:
Besides the fomori, which was misfiled they now realize, there are many other alarming issues. The fact that giant has been trading for food has him marked as peaceful, but the fact that he’s bee-lining directly towards Bangor, uneasy.
There is an entire file labeled “Dublin House”. It lists several issues, but the most dominate one is broken down in short, shaky notes… written by Argo after losing his arm. A ghostly castle keeps appearing on Tara Hill, just 26 miles down the road from Dublin, it is troublesome. Especially as the castle solidifies and becomes real for periods of time. There is a chart, that day by day shows the time the castle appears and the duration in which it is real. With just a quick glance it can be seen that castle is appearing more and more often and staying solid for longer and longer durations.
Ragnall is reading all of these details form the desk, as the other two pick about the room. Davie finds a bunch of envelopes on a try with old food, several of them are labeled Dublin.
Davie: “I think he wasn’t up to date on his mail.” Davie hands the letters over to Ragnall and the old priest quickly works through them.
Ragnall: “One of these is from this morning… this isn’t good.”
Letters from Dublin:
The news is out of order and they are missing pieces. The desk is such a mess that they don’t know where all the letters are kept. But the castle is the dominate feature of the letters, and the fact that a man was seen arriving at the castle and walking through the doors. As soon as he crossed the threshold, the castle stayed solid… for days. This letter references that there was an earlier visitor that also caused the castle to become real.
The group searches for that previous letter but has no luck finding it. They do find a note in the Dublin File saying that a bunch of knights were killed while investigating the castle that corresponds to the date of the first visitor. The note is attached to a letter from Dublin house denoting the losses in detail, someone has stabbed the letter multiple times with a dagger and scrawled IDIOTS across it.
Ragnall pushes the clutter away in disgust and opens the letter that arrived today:
The End of Dublin House:
[Quick Note, all of my dates are done in Days since invasion, I know I have made reference to the Day # in many of the posts without much explanation]
On day 120 a man arrived at the castle on Tara Hill with a small army. The army dispersed into the fields but the man went up to the castle. The castle became real and stayed that way for two days. This letter than references the last time someone moved into the castle, it also mentions the dark creatures that came out of the castle and the number of people murdered in the wake of these creatures as they walked through Dublin and then left on a “ghost ship.”
The trio of course can not find this letter, frustrated they read on…
The lone survivor of the last team sent into the Castle, driven insane by his experiences, begins to have seizures and freak out when the new stranger moves into the Castle. The master of the House, has made the decision to go into the castle with the last of his storm knights.
This letter is not written by the master, but has been written by someone in the House. They are invoking Omega Protocol—All Storm Knights dead or lost, the house is without leadership or adequate defense. The stranger has left the castle, it has disappeared again, and none of the knights have returned.
Omega Protocol:
The House either has to be abandoned or instantly reinforced. Considering it is the anchor point for the Eastern shore, it is vital that it stays intact.
The Trio sit in thought for a while, drinking Argo’s brandy. Their absence from Donegal for three weeks had nearly destroyed the city. Going by the days on the letter, Dublin has been without Storm Knights for five days.
Ragnall: “It’s a 150 or so miles away. Over a week of walking… but I think—”
Davie: “Whoa… You’re thinking we should rush there? We left here and it fell apart, we leave here again and Argo can’t do the job.”
The trio settle back in silence again. After a few minutes of sipping brandy, Ash breaks the silence.
“Why don’t we just give it another day. Wait for Argo to wake up and then see what the Master of the house thinks. I’m sure that there are other houses closer to Dublin who can step in instead of us. Or if we do go, maybe Alex can send some people up from Sligo to fill in.”
Day 128
The trio gather in the study again, this time a well-rested Argo meets them from the other side of his cluttered desk. He has made an effort to organize his notes and fix the problems. The final letter from Dublin rests before him. Before Ragnall can broach the subject, Argo gestures to a silver tray with a hot tea pot.
Argo: “Drink, eat, and then we’ll talk.”
A few minutes of tense silence stretch as the knights make their tea and sit around the room.
Argo: “I’m glad you took it upon yourselves to get up to date on things. I’m also glad that you managed to get me to sleep. This letter is troubling in the extreme. I believe I told you about the 6 houses of Ireland? The Delphi holds limited resources, but the network is vital if we are going to take this island back from Ulthorion.”
Six Houses:
The Six houses are: Donegal, Sligo, Limerick—all equally as far from Dublin and holing western Ireland.
Cork—only a day less travel than us, and the southernmost house, Bangor—they are very close to Dublin, but have their own issues, and the fewest knights. And, finally, Dublin House.
Argo: “The best thing might be to send a single knight from each of the furthest houses and hope that they all arrive on time… There might be another option…,” Argo looks slightly pained, and before he can continue, Ragnall interrupts.
Ragnall: “We want to go to Dublin. There have been too many signs that we might have been involved in some of this already. Maximus said a war was coming and his men wanted to go East… We met a… man who said he wanted to return to Tara Hill, and the men who destroyed Castlederg marched to the East, that might be the army that arrived in Tara a week ago.”
Argo laughs, “You should have let me finish. I was going to say it would be best to send a team that already knows how to work together. I thought you were all dead. I called in reinforcements a week ago. They should be arriving soon. I don’t really know. The delphi gave me this communication magic but I don’t trust it. I have been sending messages to Sligo and then having them relay them to Greenland. Argo pulls out a Sat-Phone, holding it between two fingers like he’s scared of it.
Calling it in:
Davie takes the phone from Argo and calls into the Delphi base. The person on the other end of the line is surprised and delighted to hear directly from Donegal. Davie is informed that the pictures and destruction of the fleet in Londonderry paved the way for a treaty with Iceland. The Greenland base is being dismantled and moved to Reykjavik. Davie is given new numbers for the base, various delphi personnel, and the numbers to the other five houses in Ireland, as well as five more houses in England (Wales, Scotland, London, and 2 still to be decided).
Davie informs them that he and the other two knights from Donegal are going to take over Dublin as soon as the reinforcements arrive. He then asks the ETA on said reinforcements. He is informed that they should be landing in Sligo today, and then arrive in Donegal in another 2-3 days.
Things just seem to be falling together. Davie writes down all of the information and then the rep on the phone reminds him of all his secondary mission objectives:
Keep eyes open for relics and old lore, specifically of the original Irish legends not the Aysle version.
Possible return of the Lord of Death in Wales, a man with a black cauldron and spectral knights have taken a huge swath of Wales. Dublin is only right across the sea so keep a watch for ships.
Lugh’s mighty spear was found by a team of knights, but then lost again. If the relic is spotted it must be recovered.
Also there are three separate “Stones of Scoon,” Delphi is trying to test all three of them, the Irish one has disappeared and the one in London is not a relic.
Delphi base then cuts the call and Davie relays the information to the others in the room.
Calling Bangor:
Davie: “Since Bangor is the closest House, I will give them a call and see what is happening, and let them know that they will have neighbors back in Dublin in less than 2 weeks. Also, why the hell were we the first to call in? Bangor should have known days before us.”
Ragnall: “Well they did have a giant who can read the future heading their way, maybe they were caught up in that?” The others just wave him on while they look over the list of relics and make plans for the actual cross-country journey.
On making the call to Bangor, Davie quickly realizes the problems with the house. A very loud and very paranoid voice answers the phone, demanding the password.
Davie: “I’m Donegal. Who the hell else is going to have this number? Ulthorion doesn’t even know what a phone is! Did you get the note that Dublin fell?”
Bangor: “Um… Yeah, but—”
Davie, annoyed, cuts in; “What’s up with the fucking giant?” Ragnall smirks in the background as Davie starts to lose it on the phone [I recorded this gaming session and the interaction between Davie’s player and the weirdos in Bangor became a running theme after this point].
Bangor: “He’s sitting on the dock and begging for a ride to the Isle of Mann. The fishermen are avoiding him.”
Davie: “Has he said why? Is he violent?”
Bangor: “Umm… he’s scary as hell but peaceful. I haven’t spoken with him, but he says he wants to go home. He’s civil but he’s ugly as hell.”
Dave keeps interrupting with similar questions, sometimes answering them himself or asking a second one before the guy can even answer.
Bangor: “Look man, there are only two of us here. Its hard ok! The whole damn coast line is just us now. The giant ain’t doing nothing we’re gonna leave him be.”
Davie: “Two… two what? Are there only two storm knights in all of Bangor?”
Escalation:
The phone call devolves into Davie yelling into the phone and telling the man on the other end that they need to hold out and that the Trio are coming to Dublin to take care of things.
Davie calms himself, tells the guy to try and make contact with the giant, get the information and try to keep it together.
Ragnall laughs and shakes his head as Davie hangs up the sat-phone.
“And that is why we must go to Dublin.”
Davie: “I didn’t even get that guys name. But I have a headache and I want to get moving now. Perhaps I should look around and see if there is a car around that hasn’t changed over to this Cosm. We could be in Dublin in hours.”
The game session ended here, but this ACT is still in progress.
Next week is the Road to Dublin and the beginning of a lengthy story line where the group rebuilds the Dublin House, deals with ancient evils, a magical castle, gods, and Deep Ones. Good times are coming.
