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: "
- 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).
- The queen has no memory of her former life; at all. I think Edward has changed plans. He has christened her 'Elizabeth Stuart'.
- I have not had to feed her since last night. Can we assume she is now being fed the other blood?
- 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. |
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 |
"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.
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