Beginning of the End
Beginning of the End:
The final moments for the Irish Knights, while this is not the actual end of their story, we are coming to the place where it paused. The Irish Knights have gone further into a Sim-City/ Kingdom building game, and Ireland is on track to remove itself from the Aysle Cosm. The action is getting turned down to a mere simmer as our knights stretch their political muscles.
Sorry for the lack of a post last week, work and life interfered. I’m also quickly approaching the Thesis stage of my Masters degree. Meaning that these Torg posts might go on hold for a while, but my other posts on writing and about my Fantasy World should come back. We’ll see how the schedule shakes out, and it’s more than three months away anyway.
Day 143
ON the table this morning is a meeting with the so-called council of Wizards, the people who live on the other side of the square and inhabit the rest of the buildings of the Poly-Technical college. Today the Irish Knights are looking to turn Dublin House into Dublin Square.
They leave the House through a back door in the chapel/library attached to the rear corner of their building, Ragnall’s house, and enter the Quad. The farmer families have turned this section of the quad into crop lands and the families have finished settling into the Dean’s House/Offices on the northeast corner of the square.
On the western side of the quad is a large assortment of building. A massive brick building that was the main labs and record halls for the college, a long low dorm complex, a green house, and a second lecture/lab building.
Crossing the Quad
The fact that the trio of Knights have ignored this wide green expanse behind their home for the last few weeks could be excused with all of the battles they have endured. They cross the quad and have to skirt around a game of ultimate frisbee. The are by the greenhouse seems to be dominated by so new-age/hippy types (or more accurately their Irish equivalent). Besides the crops that are growing in the green houses and in small gardens outside of them, there is a certain pungent odor in the air and everyone is very laid back in greeting the knights.
Moving through the friendly crowds, many of which are still core earthers, Davey is struck by the interesting mixture of misfits, gamers, ren faire peeps, tattooed hipsters, black smiths, car guys, and throwback hippies. Entering the admin building he is further surprised to see that the council of wizards have deeply adopted their name.
The Council
The youngest member of the council is 30 but the average seems to be closer to 50, and almost all of the “wizards” are wearing robes. Most of them are very nice robes, but one of the wizards ruins that by wearing a bathrobe and bunny slippers. Two of the wizards are wearing tweed jackets and an inordinate number of them of them have pipes hanging from their mouths, even the women.
The room might once have been a faculty lounge, and everyone present practically screams academic/ teacher. The change over to Aysle has made the room look more akin to the old Diogenes Club, wood paneling, brandy in decanters, leather bound books everywhere. Odd trophies on the walls, pistols next to animal skulls, next to obsidian daggers, next to a pygmy mummy.
Grand Magus Nathan lives up to the title in his most excellent robes and with his long grey beard and hair. He’d be right at home on the cover of any fantasy novel or gaming book. He also has the skills of a life time lecturer as he stands and grandly introduces himself and begins to introduce the others… though he only uses titles… the drama is quickly ended when he introduces one of the tweed jacketed men as “The Professor.”
The Professor: “Fuck you Nate, my name is Samuel, and I am a professor of applied Physics. Pleasure to meet you three.”
Crestfallen, Nathan sits down, “Right.”
Long Talks:
We then devolve into a bit of long talks where both sides try to establish their credentials for how awesome their communities are. The wizard’s council has watched the House for a while and seen it diminish and grow again. Once the farmers started tilling up the quad that was when they felt the need to make their presence known.
The Irish Knights explain their mission from the Delphi and even delve into the local politics. About how they have united some of the “gangs” to form a united army and how Gabriel in the North has talked about establishing a unified government for Dublin again. They clearly outline their goals with Dublin House and their policy of helping fight the Dark and Ulthorion. What does the Council have to offer to this goal?
Nathan outlines the usefulness of the various practitioners of magic on the council. Pointing out that two of his members have druidic powers and have tripled the yield of the greenhouses. If applied to the whole of the quad that could make a decent amount of food production in the middle of the city. More so than the normal ground could yield and they can keep the land fertile. Besides that, they have the labs building turned into artisan workshops, wherein they have carpenters, mechanics, blacksmiths, and various other technical people. They also have several hundred students living in the dorms. And then there are libraries, both core earth still and Aysle, medicine, and chem labs.
A strong union:
Everything sounds great in practice. The council of wizards has more resources, people, and the bulk of the square already under their domain. It’s very clear that Nathan is more interested in making the knights join HIM, and bend the knee. The Knights have some other ideas.
Ash: “Theoretically if someone came in here with ill intent to take your property how well could you do to defend it. Your students, and crafts people.”
Nathan takes it as an implied threat, but Davey smooths it over by saying that they are champions who fight the dark. The school is not made up of many warriors. Their drugs, food, and craftspeople are all very valuable. But the Irish Knights are Stormknights, capable of bending reality to their needs and ready to put their lives on the line. They are also a link to Gabriel in the north and Yardies in the East.
Ragnall, surprisingly, comes in the final smooth over. No one will bend the knee, but instead everyone will be embraced as equals. The house has a hard point within it, there fore those who wish to reman core earth can come over to the house. So, Professor Samuels and some of the mechanics can live in the house. Nathan will run the west side of the campus and Ragnall will run the East side of the campus. The farmers can meet the druids and the bulk of the quad can be tilled for food.
All benefit, and the Stormknights amongst the wizards could join the Delphi if they so wished.
Lulls, and one more Need.
They hammer out the details of a full alliance between the two factions. Everyone leaves the table feeling happy and we now have a Dublin Square. As the trio of knights walk back to their home with a few new members moving in with them, Ragnall pauses. They have one more thing they need to complete the Square.
They need the Sage.
They go to the north in one of the minivans, and as they cross the river it becomes apparent that none of core earth is left north of the Liffe. The Sage’s tower is still the towering, rickety monstrosity it always was. He lets them in with little grumbling this time, though he doesn’t actually take the long stairwell down. He merely shouts from a window.
Sage Advice:
They sit down and have tea with the old curmudgeon and Davey starts them off topic by talking about the events where they hunted down the Barghast and then killed a cult feeding a hole in a hillside. Davey believes a fire breathing dragon lives under the mountain. But the Sage merely shakes his head and laughs. It is no Dragon under that mount he is sure, but it is something evil and luckily it is something that is going back to sleep now that the cult is gone.
Disappointed, Davey lapses into silence and Ragnall takes over the conversation. He mentions moving the Sage out of his tower and back down to Dublin House.
The Sage laughs, his Lordship Gabriel just sent a man the other day making the same offer. But what the hell, the knights were the first people to take an interest in his well-being and to make the offer. Davey says they can pack up a bunch of his stuff now and that he can call a van to come up with a few guys to get the rest.
It is agreed and after a few trips to the minivan they have packed enough stuff to appease the Sage, and Ragnall has a new roommate living in his rectory. They wait for the second van to arrive, instruct the men within on what stuff needs to be packed away and what stuff can be left and they go back home.
End of the Day
Overall not a bad day for the knights. Next week we’ll go over day 144… wherein about a dozen plots around all of Ireland are discussed, Gabriel’s plans come to light, and we wrap up the pause point for this story.
After that we take a jaunt back to the Manhattan Knights and find out what’s been happening in the living lands after they launched an attack on Baruk’s War Council!
