The party was on-board John Dee's merchant ship the Golden Hind.
"We should be at Long Island by noon," said Bishop John Dee. "But in the mean time, Deacon, will you join me for Terce? We have a consecrated chapel on board. Consecrated by none other than ... the Pope himself! Clement the Eighth."
The Deacon couldn't say no. So he and Tess [ Tess played by Grace this week ] accompanied the Bishop below decks to the chapel. A peaceful room amidships, below decks, with a stained glass window on its ceiling.
During the Terce service, Tess could swear she heard singing; a heavenly choir, women's voices. The Deacon did too. But they couldn't identify the source. It seemed to come from everywhere, and only when the Bishop was performing the service. He claimed he heard nothing. Though, he had claimed the other day that "he could commune with angels".
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| Spanish gender-reassigned prisoner |
They got to Long Island about noon. After performing the Sext service (again, with the heavenly choir), Bishop Dee asked the party to accompany the Spanish girl, Edward Kelley and three men-at-arms to the shore. He told the Spanish girl that she wouldn't be kept in irons if she behaved herself.
Art took them to the site of the battle, and to the spot where the Spanish sailor had had his gender re-assignment.
Edward Kelley wandered about. He was carrying a strange device, like a two sycamore seeds joined together on a stick. He called it his "orphic dowser". He would pause in different spots, and spin the device. It would float to the ground and he would check at this exact spot.
The "melted" body of the Spaniard was where the party had left it on Tuesday. It had started to rot in the warm spring sun and was already fly-blown. Edward knelt next to it, and used a paring knife to take little flesh samples, which he placed into glass ampules. His orphic dowser, when done near the body, would land on corpse's mouth every time. So he took some samples from there too.
When Edward was done, he suggested the corpse be given a burial, so he ordered the men-at-arms to dig a grave, and the Deacon performed a commitment ceremony.
Back on board, the ship made for Lamb Island; where the party had been on Sunday night. During this trip, Bishop Dee performed the None service for the Deacon and Tess.
At Lamb Island, they went ashore and the group showed Edward all the spots they remembered of this place, the woods where the nymph was seen by Roma, and the spot where Todd had his gender re-assignment into Tess. Edward's orphic dowser got a few good detections all over the place.
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| Lamb Island sidhe cairn |
Roma, Elrick and Art were brave enough to cross over the mushroom-line boundary and into the circle. There was no ill effect. The stone cairn was built in the shape of an arch; no-one was brave enough to crawl through it.
Edward did an extensive set of tests with his orphic dowser while they were playing. He scratched his head and did some calculations, then announced to no-one in particular: "This place is perfect. I think we have the power."
As it was approaching dark, they all returned to the Golden Hind; no-one was brave enough to chance staying the night ashore. Captain Owens pulled the ship back a bit further from the shore. This was probably a good idea, because during the night they saw eerie lights in the vicinity of the cairn, and shadowy figures in the woods.
The Bishop took the Deacon and Tess for Vespers, then, at different stages during the night, for Compline, Matins and Lauds.
Sat 19-Apr
After breakfast (and Prime), Bishop Dee and Edward assembled the men-at-arms, the ship's crew, and the party. Then he burst into beautiful plain-song:
"Procedamus in pace
In nomine Christi, Amen
Cum angelis et meretricibus dantur mercedes
niamur, triumphatori mortis:
'Hosanna in excelsis'
Levate portae capita vestra, non canino:
Et elevamini portae aeternales:
et introibit rex gloriae.
Quis est iste rex gloriae?
I commune with angels. I've done it all my life.
What I am about to say; it may engender strife.
The good Lord has commanded me, to follow His decree.
To help the world and England, as loyal as I can be.
So what I have below this deck, I'm sure you will support,
A golden casket. much bejeweled, as like something wrought,
Within the casket, to be sure, is something good and blessed,
Lies the body, in her state, of our great Queen Elizabeth."
Jaws dropped all round.
"Queen Elizabeth?!"
Elrick whispered to Roma: "How long's she actually been dead?
"Um.. three or four weeks."
The locked doors down in the hold were opened, and the men-at-arms carried a gold coffin onto the deck.
The two jolly boats were loaded with equipment from Edward Kelley's work-room: strange wires, pipes, bellows, tubes and blown-glass vessels. And large brass hoops and balls. This equipment and the casket was ferried to the shore, and transported to the sidhe circle where Edward set it all up. The casket was brought forth and placed on a trestle table right next to the cairn. This took several hours, and it was well past noon when they finished.
The entire ship's company had been used in this undertaking, and there was a skeleton crew (and the Spanish girl) left on board the Golden Hind.
The party stationed themselves outside the circle. Ab and Roma even further back by the woods.
Then Edward activated his gear and got it humming. Mechanical force was supplied by the men-at-arms cranking handles and turning wheels, and there was a small wood brazier to provide distillation heat and to burn incense. Edward gave a nod to Bishop Dee, and he began the service.
Deacon O'Reilly recognized it as a funeral mass in Latin, but half-way through, the Bishop started to read the Latin words backwards. The instant this began, in the woods where Roma and Ab were sheltering, the trees started to rustle, even though there was no wind.
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| Queen Elizabeth |
The corpse stirred, gave a raspy sigh, then it sat up, stiffly. Queen Elizabeth had been embalmed, but, even so, the body had desiccated considerably. Also, she was seventy, was completely bald, and wore a wig and ornamental head-gear. Finally, her face had been heavily made up, in corpus status, so was painted white. So, when this corpse thing sat up, there were quite a few gasps of concern.
The Bishop paused mass, Edward approached the dried corpse, forced open its mouth, and placed a piece of paper inside. The Bishop composed himself and managed to complete the rest of the "funeral" mass.
The corpse turned to the side and stiffly climbed out of the casket, and stood there, unmoving.
Edward was delighted, he all but capered around the corpse. Its dead eyes were on him all the time; so much so, that when he capered behind it, the head spun right around.
By now, all the grass in the sidhe circle had died, and was already turning brown.
Bishop Dee, the party, and men-at-arms, didn't look very pleased.
"This isn't natural," said Tess to the Deacon in a hoarse whisper.
"You think..?!" Deacon was never very good at not using sarcasm.
"She lives! She lives!" said Edward.
Well aware of the time, the Bishop ordered everything packed up again. Even more so than last night, they did not want to be on the island after dark now.
All the equipment was reboxed and ferried back to the boat again. Edward escorted the lumbering corpse queen back to the boat, and stiffly walked her into his room.
He kept his door locked. Later that evening, Roma did make an attempt to get in, but the lock was more complex than he was used to.
After dark, there was less activity on the island than the previous night.
Sun 20-Apr
In the morning, after Prime, the Deacon called a breakfast meeting, including the party, Bishop Dee, Edward, Captain Owens and the Sergeant at arms: Sergeant Evans
"This is a blasphemy in the sight of the Lord," said the Deacon. "An abomination..."
"Yet the Lord instructed the good Bishop to do this," interrupted Edward. "Nay, 'demanded'."
Bishop Dee nodded wanly.
"It is unnatural," said Sergeant Evans. "It should be destroyed."
"Burn it," said Captain Owens.
"'SHE'", said Edward. "Not 'it'."
They argued on and on. Noone wanted this thing in their midst, except for Edward, and Bishop Dee. On Edward's side, apparently angels did regularly commune with the Bishop and told him that God wanted him to resurrect Queen Elizabeth, to 'make England great again.' So the Bishop was still giving Edward tacit support, even though he was getting more and more horrified each hour at what they had made.
"Well, why can't we get her to speak then?" asked the Deacon. "She doesn't seem very alive."
Roma thought she was a vampire. His Romany origin was near the kingdom of Wallachia, so that theory made perfect sense to him. Though, he seemed to remember that sunlight burned vampires, and this one seemed unfazed.
"Yes," admitted Edward. "More work must be done to fix that. But we have exhausted the power of Lamb Island. Do you know of other areas of the Little People?"
The party didn't, but Tess had heard of one when she (as Todd) lived in Cork: Bosun island [ +4 on her Knowledge roll ]. About another half-day's travel away.
"We will head for there," said Edward.
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