The Lady in Red
ACT 3 What the F**K do we do now?
IN the previous post, we ended with our heroes arriving back in Donegal, but encountering a burnt-out farmstead and the murder of an entire family. Our knights were tired of the constant slaughter and also a little over-whelmed with choices.
Returning to Argo’s manor they expected to be immediately bombarded with questions about their mission to London-Derry. But instead, the Elven Mage sent them to the bathhouse and then to bed. The entirety of the next day was also spent in relaxing pursuits and the mage remained elusive.
DAY 102 (post invasion)
Our knights find themselves sitting in Argo’s study. The room is comfortable with book shelves covering the bulk of the walls and with deeply comfortable, leather clad chairs. Tables with decanters of various high-end whiskeys are open to all, and Ragnall is on his fourth drink before Argo arrives. The walls, where not covered by shelves, are covered in wood paneling and artwork/ relics.
Davey is standing over a glass case, looking down on what to him appears to be an ancient Roman Gladius. But the blade is keen and looks like it has never been used. He has a whiskey in his hand as well, but is only on his second drink.
Argo enters the room, in his normal finery and with his curled locks bouncing on his shoulders. It is hard not to think of him as a soft man, as little more than dandy in bespoke clothes and a hint of makeup. But the look in his eyes as he sits behind his desk is hard. HE is worn out by the horrors as the knights.
Knights Report:
Argo accepts a drink from Davey, who then moves to sit between Ragnall and Ash, and without any further preamble, the trio tell their story.
Running through the travel toward London-Derry. Sleeping next to an ancient grave by mistake, fighting the wraiths, and then discovering a massive corpse eating beast down below the earth. These words spark little interest in Argo, he merely makes notes in a ledger.
Trading the narrative, Ragnall then talks about encountering the Wight and Lurk cult, and finding the great Tree of Woe. Here Argo finally shows sign of animation, but he forgoes making comment until they are finished. He merely nods as Ragnall runs through his theories about what the tree was about.
Ash then picks up the most important part of the story. The actual information about the troop and ship disposition in London-Derry. Argo appears dismayed at the numbers and then brightens as Ash rushes to tell the story of the destruction of the new stele. Ash then rushes through the return trip, merely mentioning that they’ve been scryed on the entire way and hounded by raiders and dire wolves.
The room lapses into a moment of silence and all take a drink.
Argo’s Retort:
Argo is shocked by the destruction of the stele. If it weren’t for all the other horrors he would want to celebrate. As is, he does raise a glass to their success. With the quick celebration over he then begins to tell them of the stories coming in from the other “Houses.”
Which pauses things. As the Knights were not aware of other Houses at all. He quickly explains that these lands that Davey calls Ireland, have been cut into six sections, each section controlled by a house named after the city in which it resides. So the six houses are Sligo, Donegal, Bangor, Dublin, Limerick, and Cork. For days now all of the houses have been communicating that strange things have been happening. A massive resurgence in fae sightings and strange creatures has been happening.
He wonders if the destruction of the stele was the cause, but thinking further it seems to predate that event by a full day. Which brings the talk back to the Tree.
Ragnall starts talking about the tree more and Argo retrieves a book from his shelves and comes around the desk to show the trio a wood cutting within the pages. It looks like the tree they had faced, only the face is kinder, gentler.
Memory Issues and Transition between Realities.
Looking over the book and discussing the Tree further. Argo reveals that such things were used as prisons to lock away greater evils that couldn’t be destroyed. Elder evils. They theorize about what might have escaped when they destroyed the tree. Those screaming spirits had to be something.
The theorizing then becomes complex as Argo admits that the transition between Earth and Aysle is proving to be problematic. He uses Davey as an example, Dave grew up in England and he knows legends of the Sidhe, the fae folks, and he also has real history about a Roman Empire that invaded England. Argo knows that there was no Rome in Aysle… and yet he has stories of foreign legions in these lands.
He walks across the room and points at the sword in the case. “I know that this sword was once an Elven long sword, and now it is [Roman] sword.”
[Aside: so it really does get complex and weird in game because I talk using shorthand language… calling this a roman sword, but there is no Rome in Aysle so when I put Rome, or any word, in brackets that means that the brackets are my shorthand to the players but the character is using his WORD for whatever.]
Ash is deeply disturbed by the implications of his memory being altered. “How are you sure that your memories are being changed?”
Explanation:
Argo launches into a very long speech about how when realities collide, they start off mixed, like the road signs and the cars that are still around even as horses and carriages start to take over. Over time the Earth stuff will disappear, starting with the landscape, then the houses, inanimate objects and then finally the people take the longest. Now the goal is for Earth to completely disappear and only Aysle to remain. But what Argo is learning is that parts of Earth are very resistant to change, and interestingly, they are changing Aysle back. Rome didn’t exist in Aysle well now [Rome] (at the table I joking say Remus, the other twin survived the fight) does exist as part of the cosm.
Worse, it appears that ancient earth had its own viable magic and now old earth magic is often counteracting Aysle magic.
As of right now, Argo is in transition, but given a couple of weeks he believes that he will fully accept the new memories and forget this entire conversation. That’s why he’s been sending reports back to Delphi as often as possible and also shipping his personal journals to Sligo. Sligo is famous right now as half the city is in Aysle and the other half is in core Earth.
It’s a sobering moment and the four men stare around the room, wondering how the books have been changed and the very walls themselves.
Back on other Topics:
After the moment of silence, Ragnall jokes about ignoring THIS moment of existential and going back to the Tree that just unleashed evil all over the land.
Argo: Well that ties into the tree. The massive surge of old magic and creatures into the world could be an Earth legend and not an Aysle legend. We basically have no idea what affect your destruction of the tree will have on these lands. As such let’s move on to more pressing matters.
Ash: Like sinkholes and lurks boiling up all over the place?
Argo: Yes, the lurks are a problem. But also, all of the Sidhe sightings are a problem. Many of the fae are just a nuisance, but many of them love to hunt and even eat humans. Besides that, we have a string of slaughtered families from here toward Sligo. Over by Dublin, the castle on Tara Hill keeps appearing and disappearing. And it doesn’t always seem to be the same castle. The lurks are a big issue, but I’m more concerned with it seems they are fleeing TO the surface and the attacks are just to get people out of their way.
Ash: That might be the redcaps.
Argo: Redcaps?
Ash: You didn’t find the redcaps we killed by the farmstead?
Argo: NO… I mean what is a redcap?
Ragnall: Oh shit, his memories. I mean I know what redcaps are and you don’t… shit. Let’s not digress again.
Ash: And the fleet at London-Derry….?
Argo: Of course, I’ll send message to Sligo forthwith so that they can use the… satphone… to call the council.
Interruption:
One of Argo’s servants bursts into the room, startling everyone. He looks slightly apologetic as he steps to Argo and hisses out in aloud whisper, “There has been another one, the Castle requests you come immediately.”
Argo sighs, “The dead can wait.”
Butler: There is a living witness.
Argo stands, signaling that the meeting is at an end, but the knights stop him from leaving. They refuse to be kept in the dark, and their full day of rest has been more than enough to recharge them.
Ash: What is going on?
Argo: I’ll tell you on the way.
The Family Taker:
Argo fills them in as they travel into the heart of Donegal. A member of the guard leads them toward a new horror.
Over the last week, families have been slaughtered and taken. Bodies are found in their bed, wrapped in their sheets like a shroud, and desiccated like mummies. The deaths started on the eastern edge of town and have steadily moved closer to the center. The weird thing is, each family is missing members. Hence the killed or taken.
Scene 2 Arrival at the Crime:
[Ok aside time… this game was going well but this next scene has a break in the narrative and a bit of out-of-game arguing and fighting. As such I am going to gloss over this at very high speed so that we can get back on track with the “fun” part of the story.]
The Captain of the Guard is a stormknight. Other than himself the rest of his men are highly inept, don’t seem to care very much about solving the case, and none of the local people will talk to the “coppers.” Even if it means protecting themselves or doing the right thing. The Knights are not given adequate information or access to the witness, who is a young boy.
[Yes I am skipping a lot].
Talking Spirits:
Ragnall has learned a new a new spell and he uses it here for the first time. He can speak to the spirits in an area, and as luck would have it the victim is lingering around the scene. Ragnall speaks to the man, but the spirit is locked in a replay of his last moments of life. He was in a state of extreme euphoria and bewitched. In the scene, the man and his wife had invited a strange woman home with them and were in the middle of an orgy of sex. The man dies, but doesn’t even realize he is dead, the images repeat. The wife is missing from the scene.
In the vision the strange woman wears a slinky red dress, she is tall, curvy, with dark hair and green eyes. Only here eyes and cleavage are clear in his memories, everything else is a blur. Ragnall doesn’t know if the man was drugged or enchanted, both are likely.
Following these meager leads, the trio of knights then get introduced to prostitution in Donegal and that many women wear red dresses. Usually women on the take. They make several underworld contacts including a man who was once an Abbot. They get together enough information that they begin to think that the Woman in Red is not human. That she might be the head of a cult that worships spiders and that she uses drugs and magic to seduce couples. She kills the families and then takes either the wife or husband back to her lair.
The more information they learn the more they start to dislike the idea of the woman and what awaits them in her lair. More and more it looks like she be in the sewers. Finally, they decide that there are too many other things going on to be fixated on something that is making them feel OFF.
Leave Off:
They take all of their findings and give it to the Captain of the guard and then they wash their hands of the lady in red. They are more interested in the resurgence of Fae creatures and also this castle that keeps appearing on Tara Hill. They wonder if the old man on the road is part of the mystery of the castle.
They call it night and next day they will reconvene in the Study.
Making their own choices:
The trio raid the study, looking for any and all books on the fae, Ragnall pauses for a second to point out that there is a human skull on the wall with fangs. No one cares.
After they gather all of the books on Fae lore they then sit down and bounce parts of them off on Davey, to try and see what seems Earth and what seems Aysle. But Dave’s knowledge of fairies is mostly only Grimm’s Fairy Tales and Disney movies. He also insists on pronouncing all of the sidhe names wrong.
After an hour of this they have only learned that Fae do fall into two courts, Seelie and Unseelie. Those terms are not absolute markers of “good” and “evil.” They also learn that there are Titles that are “mantles of power” and that these mantles must always be filled. One such mantle is the Lord of the Hunt. The mantle is a form of immortality and power.
After the hour-long research session, Ash is the first to give up on studying the fae. He starts to look up named swords to see if he can find out anything about the black blade that he took from the barrow wights. When called out by Davey, he merely shrugs and says it’s what interests him.
Poking around:
Davey is sitting at Argo’s desk and leans back in the mage’s chair and notices a box in a half open drawer. Thinking it might be cigars he eases the box and reveals an Aylish Wheellock and several bullets. This makes him look at the modern firearm on his own hip. Modern things wouldn’t be working forever in Aysle. Davey makes a note to get rid of his modern gear and replace it with Aylish.
Poking around the desk he moves aside the book with the picture of the Tree of Woe within it and finds a ledger. Looking through the pages he is confronted with a list of atrocities rendered down to numbers.
- Giants and ghosts spotted in several cities
- The number and size of sinkholes around the city and the number of people and lurks killed around them.
- A mercenary company moving on Castle Berg, a mere few days away from Donegal.
- A dragon spotted in the Faroe Islands (Ulthorion Ally?)
Davey squirms under all of the numbers of deaths in the columns.
Spymaster
The door to the study bursts opens and a stranger walks into the room. All parties freeze in their actions. Davey is half out of Argo’s chair before he realizes that the stranger is not the master of the house.
The man is fresh off the road, his boots covered in dust and well worn, his face flushed from activity and sunburn. A scruffy beard covers his cheeks in at least a week’s growth. His cloak is thrown back over his shoulders and the badge of Donegal Castle is on his chest.
Jeremiah: I take it that Argo is running about? I’m Jeremiah.
Ragnall and Ash close the drawers and cabinets they were rifling through. “No Argo is at the Castle.”
Jeremiah: That is my next stop. I like to give Argo the chance to buy information first.
Trade:
Davey: Buy?
J: Argo likes to be informed of things before other people, and I happen to often get information and I enjoy offering it to him. For a fee.
Davey eyes the badge on the man’s shoulder, and Jeremiah twitches his cloak to cover it up.
D: A spymaster who is fickle about his loyalty.
Jeremiah bridles under the words, he runs his hand through his long mustaches, and then grins.
D: So is it good news or bad news?
J: Well, to the people involved it was bad… but as to a buyer, if it would be bad or good for them. Only coin will tell.
Information:
Ragnall pays the spymaster and learns that Argo was looking into tracking two men, supposedly brothers. These brothers were wanted for murder. Jeremiah then relates the story of a bar brawl turned into a massacre. 20 people dead far to the south, torn apart and an entire bar smashed to pieces.
Two men matching the description of the men Argo is looking for were seen leaving the wreckage of the bar. They booked passage aboard a ship and they crossed the bay. The next largest city across the Bay would be Sligo. He concludes with saying that Argo will be keenly interested in the information.
He then pours himself a brandy and as he drinks, Ragnall has more questions. Asks if more information is available for sale. The priest asks pointed questions about the lady in red, specifically about dark haired women with tattoos. Davey goes off on his theory that the woman in red is actually a spider in a dress.
They then talk about the sinkholes and what information he has about the lurks. And Jeremiah has information about the lurks are being herded by creatures and war down below. This turns into long moments of talking about various legends and filling the underdark with lava.
Jeremiah leaves after finishing his brandy.
Argo’s return:
Argo returns and the trio fill him in on Jeremiah’s intel.
Argo reveals that he believes the brothers are shapeshifters who enter into a warp-spasm and kill people in the throes of passion. If they are heading south then he will inform Alex in Sligo to be ready for them. In a way it is a relief that they went south. With the red lady murders on his plate he was being pulled in two directions with the brothers.
The trio ask what they can do to help. They don’t actually want to help with the red lady. They have unearthed enough information that they feel that the Captain can handle the execution of the creature. The brother’s have moved into the aegis of Sligo House… So what can they do?
Argo argues they should just stay in the manor. After destroying the stele they were marked by Ulthorion. While he can sense the magic on them, he can’t figure out how to get rid of it. The house is warded against prying eyes so as long as they stay in the manor Ulthorion can’t find them.
But if they run around the city, he will have to send forces to Donegal.
Ash doesn’t like this
Ash is highly uncomfortable with the fact that his mere presence might bring danger to the city and he is doubly angered with just sitting in the house.
Argo agrees, which is why he tells them he wants them to leave.
The words hit the room like a brick. Now, Ash is pissed that he is not welcome. They have just accomplished a huge victory over Ulthorion and should be showered with accolades and not dismissed as dangerous.
Argo agrees and his words manage to mollify Ash and Ragnall. Argo is willing to give them anything they need, and to help in anyway he can and he is NOT telling them to leave right this minute. But they can’t just stay in the manor forever and they can’t wander around the city without causing problems.
Choices:
After calming themselves down, the trio start to put their options on the table. Ragnall is really interested in Tara Hill and the disappearing castle, but the 300+ miles of travel have the other two daunted.
Ash and Davey counter with closer issues. Ash mentions going after the brothers, and using the Earth side of Sligo to cut themselves off from magic. Davey however pushes them to head over to this Castle Berg and check out these mercenaries and to see if they are a threat to Donegal. The chance to fight mercs has Ash change his mind, and as its 2 to 1 Ragnall bows out.
Before they leave Davey asks for the pistol in Argo’s drawer and he trades his .45 for a single shot wheelock. The trio then rest the night before they leave in the morning.
Stopping Point:
Ok there is only 1 scene left in this playing session, in Act 3… this is the first time that ever managed to fit almost an entire gaming session into a single post. BUT this also the longest post I’ve made for a TORG game.
Next week I’ll post scene 5 which happens to have a battle with a legion of Ghost Romans. After that, we have the Fae storyline and the first steps toward going to Dublin.
That’s right the game is going to move from Donegal to Dublin and stay there until the end.
