Returning Tess

Fri 25-Apr-1603 (15-Apr), Full Moon

The Golden Hind was well lit up all night, the gang-plank was raised, and it was permanently guarded. The party didn't want to risk anything, so kept well clear.

At first light, the brig HMS Dreadful left Baltimore, headed for Stakes Island.

"... to hunt for the evil child-murderer Ab Siddy," said Lieutenant Matthews, finishing his breakfast.

The group met up near the docks, and through the Deacon [ Shane ], tried to convince Tess (via the Familiar link) to put the magic sidhe sand into the queen's blood barrel.

"I am NOT going to do that," exclaimed Tess to him. [ Adding quietly "I'm an NPC, and the NPC Charter, 1982, clearly states that NPCs shall not take active nor dangerous roles, nor shall they burden any risk, especially while you lot sit on your fat arses, picking black-heads." ]

She did tell them four important things, however: "

1. The queen is still getting younger. My guess is that this seems to be a function of the lightning, rather than the blood. She is quite loquacious and outspoken now, and has toned down her abusive ad-libs (no more feck, whore, arse, bitch, slave slut, feck, quim, zounds, quint, and megaphone). 
2. The queen has no memory of her former life; at all. I think Edward has changed plans. He has christened her 'Elizabeth Stuart'.
3. I have not had to feed her since last night. Can we assume she is now being fed the other blood? 
4. We will be leaving Baltimore for Stakes Island later today after a final load of supplies.

"
The group hurriedly visited the chandler on the docks, and while the rest distracted the chandler's men, Roma [ Chris ] snuck into an apple barrel, and covered himself with apples.

As good luck would have it, this barrel was successfully loaded into the Golden Hind's hold without even being inspected, but as bad luck would have it, they loaded Roma's barrel upside down, and it was propped up by other cargo on either side, so he could not even wobble the barrel over. So he began the arduous task of hacking away at the inside lid with his delicate throwing knife.

Mid morning came around and Roma was still cutting and hacking. The Golden Hind disembarked.

The shallop.

The Deacon had borrowed another fishing boat, a shallop, off another of his parishioners, and the rest of the group (Elrick [ Ian ], Art [ Jeff ], Ab [ Darryl ], and the Deacon) headed off in pursuit; Elrick at the tiller. The irony of this was not lost upon anyone: an elaborate story had been concocted that claimed Ab was on Stakes Island, and here was the party, with Ab himself, headed for the very island that was, right now, being searched by the marines !

Elrick checked the weather with his new ability Weather Sense [ there had been an Experience Round ], and the prediction was clear and calm. And there would be a full moon tonight too.

Roma eventually got free of his barrel after a few hours of hacking. The Deacon had messaged Tess and sent her to the hold to meet Roma. She helped him with the final break-out. Roma was carrying the magic sand.

The rundlet barrel with the blood was no longer in the hold. The queen and her hand-maidens, Tess and Lucia, were now staying in Edward's laboratory (at the bow). Edward had taken another cabin in the stern, so they assumed that the blood rundlet was there.


A few hours later, the Golden Hind (with the shallop in pursuit) pulled into Stakes Island harbour. The HMS Dreadful was anchored out from the wharf. It had too deep a draft to get close, so the jolly boats had been used to get the marines and sailors on shore.

The Golden Hind pulled up nearby and also put out its anchor.

Private Smith

This gave Roma the chance he had been waiting for. He snuck into Edward's cabin, (using his pick-locks skill), while Edward was feeding the queen, and poured three-quarters of his sidhe sand supply into the rundlet, and shook it to mix it up. But on the way out, he was confronted by Private Smith, one of Edward's men-at-arms.

"Halt!" yelled the Private, lunging with his sword.

Roma threw the remaining sand into the Private's face, and then clambered up the steps onto the deck.

The Private yelled.

Roma leapt overboard, forgetting he couldn't swim, and splashed into the water. There was much raucous shouting on deck.

Roma sank like a stone, flailing and struggling.

Tess rushed up onto deck when the shouting began, and with the Deacon's voice ringing in her ears "jump", leapt overboard too.

The party's shallop was not far behind when this happened. Elrick gibed, and sailed over fast as he could, and then, being the best swimmer, dived into the water. He recovered Roma and guided his unconscious body close to the others to be hauled into the boat. Tess was in her Tudor dress, so its bulk kept her floating just like a life-jacket, long enough to be pulled on-board too. Elrick clambered back on board, and got the shallop underway again.

By this time, the men-at-arms on the Golden Hind had got their wheel-locks loaded, and they opened up in a volley of musketry. Most of the shots missed. However, one good one smacked right into the back of poor Roma, who was just coming around after being cured (of water inhaling) by the Deacon. The musket ball smashed through his lung, and the hapless chap dropped, unconscious again.

Elrick broad-reached as fast as he could; full speed. He guessed he had fifteen minutes before the Golden Hind could get underway, and when that happened, they'd be in big trouble. The Hind with full sail was easily twice as fast as the shallop.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang and a splash in the water nearby. This was the swivel cannon at the bow of the Golden Hind - thankfully the big 6 and 12 pounder cannons couldn't be deployed until the ship was underway. Everyone ducked down, and hoped and prayed. The distance was increasing every minute. A few more swivel cannon shots splashed nearby, and then they rounded the northern point of Stakes island.

Elrick hurriedly sailed into the first bay, everyone jumped out, they dropped the mast, and pulled the boat into the trees, which luckily went right down to the beach edge. Then they all hunkered down and waited. The Deacon took this opportunity to cure poor Roma of his musket ball wound.

Twenty minutes later, the Golden Hind sailed around the point too. It failed to spot anything [ a -4 on the lookout's Fudge dice: "oh, look at the funny cloud" ] and merrily headed off into the distance along the Stakes Island southern coast.

The group stayed hidden and immobile for some more time. As luck would have it, this was an uninhabited bay.

Further down the coast, in the direction the Golden Hind had sailed, they noticed glinting of metal on a beach, maybe two Irish miles away. The guess was that these were the marines from the Dreadful, still methodically searching the island for Ab.

The party waited an hour (the marines were thorough and didn't advance very fast), two hours before sunset, then pulled the shallop out, and headed off into the open sea. At this time of the year, the sun set almost at 9pm, and there was a full moon, so they headed back to Baltimore sailing half the night.

Sat 26-Apr

Early in the morning, they arrived back in Baltimore harbour. Ab and Roma melted into the woods and onto Coney Island (very close to Baltimore and walkable at low tide). The Deacon and Tess returned to St Mary's, Elrick to the inn, and Art to the barracks.

Edward had told Tess that the Golden Hind was headed for Cork, so they weren't particularly worried about it returning to Baltimore.

Art figured that he had until the HMS Dreadful arrived back in Baltimore before he would be in trouble, so he reported some creative untruths to Lieutenant Matthews:

• Roma was seen dragged on to the Gold Hind.
• We followed in a fishing boat.
• We got on board the Golden Hind at Stakes Island and rescued Roma.
• Roma claimed he saw a barrel of blood and offal in the Hind.
• We were shot at and chased by the Hind. We took cover on Stakes Island.
• Roma ran off.
• We returned to Baltimore during the night.

Ab's poor mother had been tortured the previous day and had confessed everything. She signed a confession stating that she and Ab Siddy had performed satanic rituals on the bodies of the two boys, which involved draining their blood. As this was a capital crime, she would have to be tried by the Circuit Magistrate who would need to come from Cork. Dispatches had been sent.



Later in the afternoon, the HMS Dreadful arrived back in Baltimore. By this time, Art had made himself scarce. He arranged for one of his barrack mates, Private Paddy O'Driscoll, to give a secret signal to indicate if Art was in trouble.

Sure enough, Paddy gave the signal, and so Art stayed away from the barracks, and joined Ab Siddy and Roma on Coney Island. Failure to turn up would make him AWOL at the very least, so now Art was officially on the run too.

The Deacon and Tess returned to St Mary's. Elrick returned to the Squire's Daughter.

Missing Boys

Tue 22-Apr-1603 (12-Apr) continued ...

No sooner had Ab Siddy left the premises of St Mary's after his confession, then the Deacon arrived.

Father O'Reilly

He sat Father O'Reilly down and began to confess himself. The Deacon basically confirmed all the wild and outlandish tales of Ab.

"So, is all true?" said Father O'Reilly, aghast, his face pale with worry.

The Deacon nodded.

"So, you been consorting wit demons 'n' magic? Breakin' many mortal sins?"

"But the Good Bishop John Dee seems a very pious and good man," said the Deacon. "He has a chapel set up on board, and performs many services each day." He added: "Many many services."

"Neverth'less, my nephew," said Father O'Reilly. "You up to yer pretty necks in evil. I respect the sanctity of confession, Deacon, but think this ... evil ... must be told to the Powers-That-Be. Can I write to the Bishop of Cork. And ... and even to the good Archbishop of Armagh - the Primate himself?"

The Deacon nodded.

Ab decided that he wanted to contact the Little People (the sidhe). So, after dark, Ab and Roma went off into the wilds, around the countryside of Baltimore, looking for them. After most of the night, the only thing to show was one wolf howl [ Irish wolves extinct in 1786 ], so they returned to the town; Ab to his house, Roma to the inn.

Wed 23-Apr

As Roma and Elrick were having breakfast in the Squire's Daughter, the serving wench waiting their table mentioned: "Have yuh heard th' news?"

Blank stares.

"The mayor's son, the O'Driscoll lad, has gone missin'. And the boy of the O'Hallorans, Patrick, also run away. Folks is searchin' now. If you see them, tell the Watch."

She looked up from her tray, and their table was empty, apart from a spinning cup and plate.

Back at St Mary's, the Deacon and Father O'Reilly were having breakfast. The Father showed the Deacon his carefully-crafted letter, ready to send to the bishops. The Father summarized:

• Bishop John Dee and Edward Kelly (from London and Cork) are devil worshippers and witches and alchemists and necromancers.
• Edward performs alchemy and other sorcerous practices on the ship, sometimes even using lightning.
• Bishop Dee performs unholy rituals in reverse Latin.
• They have the dead body of Queen Elizabeth on their ship, The Golden Hind, in Baltimore harbour.
• They have resurrected the Queen using foul magics into some kind of demon creature. And it now drinks blood.
• Edward has a collection of banned and evil books.
• Todd Unctuous, Assistant Deacon, has been turned into a woman, now called Tess, by foul magic.
• Lucia, a Spanish whore, likewise.

"That'll do," said the Deacon.

The Father sealed his letters and left for the barracks. It would presumably be taken to Cork with the next batch of military dispatches

Roma and Elrick, with Ab, arrived at St Mary's and told the Deacon the news. He leapt to the same conclusion: the boys were harvested for their pure blood.

Art Bowman was back in the barracks. He heard through the grapevine about the missing boys. There wasn't much official interest in "a couple of Irish brats who ran away". ('The Watch' was a local militia and didn't involve the barracks soldiers.) But he did find out their ages: 11 and 12.

Lieutenant Matthews, Art's immediate commander, ordered Art to stick with the group.

Hand-maiden Tess

The group met at the docks next to the Golden Hind. Ab sent El Gato Diablo (his cat familiar) surreptitiously on board. It explored the ship's hold, and using its superb sense of smell, located a suspicious rundlet (a small barrel). It could smell traces of blood, and it could tell that this blood was human.

The Deacon was getting the hang of communicating with his familiar, Tess. She was on board, the queen's hand-maiden. So he asked her to join the group on the wharf.

Tess was dressed in a costly Tudor dress when she came elegantly down the gang plank. The first thing Tess asked the Deacon, was to cure her wrist, which he did with his healing magic. She had been solely responsible for feeding the queen, and was feeling rather drained. Tess had not seen Edward feed the queen any other blood. The ship was destined to stay in Baltimore "a few more days". Also, the queen's apparent age now was 55, but her rate of un-aging was slowing.

Hand-maiden Lucia

Ab then explained to Tess exactly where the blood barrel was located in the hold. Tess reboarded and went to the hold, as quietly as she could, and found the barrel. It had a cork in the side, so she dipped her finger in and sure enough: blood. But on the way out of the hold, Private Smith (one of the Golden Hind men-at-arms) spotted her. She quickly made up some cock-and-bull story, then hurriedly returned to Edward's room and the queen, before she could be questioned more.

Lucia was now staying with the queen, and she had been made into a hand-maiden too ("but not a pure one").

Ab was still wanting to contact the Little People. Last night's excursion with Roma had been fruitless, so he wanted to try another one of the uninhabited off-shore islands: Ferkin Island. He had a feeling in the back of his mind that this was a good place to look.

So, the Deacon borrowed a boat from one of the fishermen in St Mary's congregation, and the party (sans Tess) set off with Elrick at the tiller. It was a solid half-day's trip and they would arrive at Ferkin island just after dark, but Elrick wasn't too worried, since the weather was good.

But, as the afternoon dragged on, the wind switched to the West, picked up, and white caps started to form. Then it got dark. No problem: there was still star light, and the moon was almost full. However, after an hour, a large bank of clouds came from the west and blotted out the stars, the moon and the entire sky. And then the storm hit.

They all groaned "Not again!" [ This wasn't Deus ex cussedness. Significant weather had been pre-planned in advance for this night. ]

Again, Roma was at the bow, shouting directions to Elrick on the tiller. And, again, everyone bailing for their very lives, as huge waves broke over the boat.

"Breakers ahead!" screamed Roma, his voice tinged with terror.

Despite Elrick's excellent boat skills, he couldn't hold it, and the boat rolled in the mountainous seas. Luckily, they weren't too far from the Ferkin island beach, and luckily it was sandy. A few of the non-swimming wretches clung to the boat, and others to bits of flotsam. Only Ab was the unfortunate one, and he was tossed in the waves, like a piece of driftwood, and got washed up on the beach unconscious, and half-drowned.

The Deacon crawled over, using touch more than anything, and used his healing magic to cure Ab's drownedness.

They pulled the boat up the beach, right to the tree line, and used it to shelter from the storm, which was well and truly in full fight.

Far off in the stormy distance, six Irish miles away, Baltimore was behind a headland, but they knew roughly where it was. The storm was more violent there, and lightning was arcing down in the vicinity of the town, bolt after bolt. The guess was the Golden Hind's mast ball.

The Deacon concentrated and managed to make contact with Tess. She was huddled, terrified in the corner Edward's room, next to Lucia. Two large pelton wheels were spinning and arcing discharges all over the show. Large brass balls were sending bolts of lighting crashing into each other. The queen was strapped in the stout chair, with the weird helmet on, spasming and jerking, as bolts of power surged through her. Edward was rushing about, hair standing on end, flipping switches and turning cranks, and putting out fires.

Back on the beach edge, Ab put out some flasks of his home-brew whiskey. And spoke to the trees,

sidhe sand basket

hoping this was a sidhe place. Overcast, it was absolutely pitch dark; there was no star light, no light at all. Even the cat vision of Roma and El Gato could make nothing out.

A whispered voice, shouting over the wind and sea noise, spoke to Ab. Ab relayed info about the Golden Hind and how it had drained two sidhe circles. The voice admitted that sidhe magic worked best at night and in a full moon, and that if the ship struck during the day, they could not do much to stop it. But it did place a small basket of sand by Ab: "Put this in their drink."

The rest of the night passed without event.

Thu 24-Apr

The Deacon woke at first light. It was still overcast, but the wind had dropped a bit, though there was still a big surf. But there was something nagging on his mind. Tess? He tried to contact her, and got a broken link, and mental white noise.

Then, faintly: "Ab. Mother. Trouble." But he couldn't get a proper link.

Elrick took one look at the surf. "We can't launch in that," he said.

It wasn't until mid afternoon, before the waves had dropped enough to risk a launch. Even so, the first attempt failed, and they were all washed back on to the beach. But the second attempt was successful, and they sailed out into the choppy sea.

The Deacon tried again and managed to contact Tess this time.

Tess's tale was not good: "The bodies of the two missing boys were found in Ab's woodshed. His mother has been arrested and Ab is now wanted. He will be hanged."

They made landfall around the coast from Baltimore, an hour before sunset, and Ab vanished into the woods. The rest of the group sailed to Baltimore and returned the boat to the Deacon's fisherman acquaintance, then went into town.

Art reported straight to the barracks. Ab's "mammy" was in the barrack's cells in chains, but before Ab could speak with her, he was summoned to Lieutenant Matthews, and immediately questioned about Ab. The party had made up a cock-and-bull story to explain Ab:

1. Went on a fishing trip, with Ab Siddy, to Stakes Island (also a half-day trip). 
2. Ab vanished into the woods there. 
3. The storm arrived; sheltered for the night.
4. Came home.

Art then tried to give Ab a cast-iron alibi.

"I happen to know, sir," volunteered Art. "That Ab Siddy was out almost th' entire murder night, wit Roma. So, he can surely vouch for Ab."

"That filthy pikey from Riga?!" exclaimed Lieutenant Matthews. "So he's involved as well? Consider him under arrest, Private Bowman. Since you are embedded with that group, make sure you grab him, tout de suite."

Art headed out and rendezvoused with the Deacon. Ab's house was not guarded, so Art and the Deacon checked it out. Ab had also made his way there (using back-roads and his Camouflage ability). Both Art and Ab had tracking skills, but soldier boots had stomped all over the ground obliterating any sign of tracks. Though, the farmland adjacent to Ab's land was un-traipsed, so they guessed that whoever planted the bodies, used the road. The house contents and Ab's brewing kitchen were in a shambles with things tipped out and smashed; a real mess, probably a result of the soldiers. There was lots of blood in the woodshed where the boys' bodies were found, and El Gato recognized it as human.