Act 12 Shades of Eire
Shades of Eire
Last Week, the Irish Knights completed the castle and then descended down the hill side and around to the great gates cut into the side. Ragnall opened the doors with an act of faith, they trip marched along a spiraling path into the depths of the catacombs, as torches sprang to life ahead of them. Everything was in a reverential hush, Ragnall boldly leading the way while the other two stayed a measured step behind.
The path was soon lined with spectral figures that trailed them and up ahead was a massive chamber with numerous adjoining paths were all of the shades were congregating in their scores. As Ragnall walked forward to make his greeting and duly impress these heroes of ancient Ireland….
Ash noticed a lever in the wall and paused to gently push it into the down position. Immediately, long iron spears shot out of the ceiling and impaled David in mid stride. The massive warrior didn’t even get a chance to scream before he blacked out from blood loss and went limp on the poles that now formed a gate into the chamber.
First Impressions:
Ragnall: (forgetting his greeting in a moment) “For fuck’s sake! What are you doing!?”
Ash (panicked) “Oh damn! I did not expect that.” He throws the lever back into the up position and the iron spears retract into the ceiling, dropping Davey’s body to the ground. The elf immediately checks the body and sensing a pulse, he begins to try and bandage the wounds.
The shades in the room erupt into a babble of many voices. Some are laughing and some are yelling in disgusted anger. Either way it’s a noisy affair and Ragnall does a quick bit of healing to keep David alive.
He then turns back the gathered shades and tries to win back whatever dignity and gravitas has been lost. But the babble drowns out his greetings, until a single voice barks for silence and all of the shades go quiet.
Brian Boru steps from the back of the rabble, the last High King of Ireland.
Shades Speak:
Brian: “Mishaps aside, these men have delivered our castle to ascendancy and have advanced our cause. We recognize them as heroes of Eire and all should give praise to the living that would still honor us.”
The shades assent, all bowing slightly to the trio of knights.
Ignoring the duo at his back, Ragnall bows in turn, giving respect back to the dead. “We are but a trio of storm knights, sent by a mighty council to help protect the lands from the ravages of Ulthorion and his Raiders. We hope to have your help in this.”
Brian: “We are aware of this Ulthorion and his raiders. In my time I repelled the mighty Vikings, removing them from Dublin and making this my seat of power. Ulthorion and his minions are like fleas on our back and we are already shedding him. Soon this place will be rid of such evils.”
Alliance with Delphi:
Ragnall nods at these words and think of his next question. “We seek to use the castle above as our home and to take the battle to all the evils of… Eire. I want us to be friends and have no wish to quarrel with the heroes of this great island. We two,” here he points back at Ash, “are from the lands you seek to push away, from the Aysle, but this is our home now.”
Brian nods; “Those who reside in the keep above, if they serve Eire and the People, then we shall serve them as advisors. Once our champion has finished aligning the holy sites, we will also lend aid with what powers we still may summon. Our goal is to shed the fleas and not all of the citizens of your Aysle. You will join us.”
Ragnall contemplates the various connotations of the last sentence for a while. “Ulthorion is a great evil, part spirit he can jump into any body he desires. What makes you think you can defeat him so easily?”
Brian laughs, “It is simplicity. There are two factors working to our advantage. First is that he is far away from here, in a distant land living with his false Danes. His attention is on other matters and he has not noticed us shedding his soldiers. The second is that he IS a spirit and alien to our world. We will make this island barred to him, and to the various other necromantic powers that are moving through these lands.”
Eire will not be Aysle:
The trio, Davey now somewhat groggily awake, contemplate these words. They knew that Ireland was becoming its own Cosm, using Aysle’s expanded magic to resurrect Core Earth’s original magic axiom. But didn’t think that it would stop Ulthorion from simply coming back in and attacking the place. Wouldn’t dropping a new Stela flip the cosm back to Aylse? Also wouldn’t turning Ireland into its own cosm mean that three would overlapping at the same time, what were the consequences of that?
But this is all a lot to think about at this time. Invariably when three cosms mix, two destroy the third and create a mixed zone of the best aspects of the surviving two, they then slowly meld until only one remains.
Ragnall: “Tell us about your Champion. We believe that we know him, that we may in fact have placed him on the path to coming here in the first place.”
Champion of Eire:
Brian: “You are right and wrong at the same time. He was always coming here, but you did have a hand in changing why he was coming here. That alien crystal castle held the memories of all times and places, of all of the castles, earth’s and aysle’s. Many great evils have used this castle, or been defeated here. There powers and artifacts locked away in hidden vaults. Many of these evils will continue to be drawn here. This is your first warning of what ownership of this castle will mean.
“The first great evil came here and found his soul and his artifacts, we allowed him to leave as he would go on to our sister-land Wales. He is needed to revive their spirit, though he will be a harsh punishment that they will have to bear in order to rase again. That was Arawn. Then came Balor, man who betrayed himself and his people, but through your kindness and millennia trapped in a grave, he had a change of heart. He remembered who he originally wanted to be, and this time he didn’t have all the people, including himself, holding him back.
“Balor knelt before us and offered himself as our living weapon. Even now he brings Eire back into ascendancy.”
Finishing Up:
They talk for a while longer and Ash gets Dave back on his feet. The large man hobbles around the room and gets his strength back slowly. Everything seems to be coming up aces for them.
While the castle is fully locked into the shape they want, the influence of the crystal castle is still fighting back. It will be at least another 12 or more hours before the changes are locked into permanent stasis.
As much as Davie is a warrior and part of him would love to talk to ancient folk/historical heroes, he is kind of getting sick of sitting in the dark around a bunch of corpses and would like to have some light and fresh air on his face.
Davey and Ash walk back up the castle proper leaving Ragnall talking with the other “old folk.” In the courtyard, Davey is pleased to see that the jeep is still a jeep. He tells Ash he’s going to try to radio the House and the elf merely nods and walks into the castle.
Seelie Rangers:
As Davey approaches the jeep a Sidhe ranger materializes out of the shadows beside it. The large man goes for the blades on his hips when the ranger makes a low bow and shows his empty hands. It is one of the rangers he went with on the Hunt so many weeks back.
Ranger: “Relax my friend. I understand the suddenness of my appearance might set you ill at ease. But I needed to make haste. We among the seelie court wish to thank you for your actions here against this wretched castle. Though I must warn you that many in the unseelie courts had their hands in using this place to their own end. To be honest the politics are a mess right now. Many of the unseelie are actually pleased this place is closed, as the flow of magic and freedom to raid these lands was becoming an addiction amongst them. Now that temptation is being removed the old ways are being reinforced.”
Recovering his composure, and barely able to understand the intricacies of Sidhe politics; Davey merely nods; “Thanks. Yeah, we had some assassins try to attack us this morning. I’ll… I’ll let the other guys now we might have more of them coming.”
Ranger: “Once you completely banish the crystal castle it will be harder for the sidhe to pass between the worlds anyway. So you’ll probably be all right. We still owe you for the help with the redcaps and we won’t forget. We’ll try to warn you as best we may.”
Fade Away
And without a good bye the ranger faded into the shadows at the back of the courtyard and left.
Davey shrugged, hoped that he would remember all of that and climbed into the jeep. He flipped on the radio and started calling home.
But that will have to wait until next week. (Sorry for the shorter posts, but school work, art commissions, and a regular job are all demanding hours).
