Elrick [Ian] and Ester, in the new dory christened "The Witches", arrived back at a secluded beach to the west of South Kinsale and met up with the rest of the group (Art [Jeff], the Deacon [Shane], Ab Siddy [Darryl], Roma [Chris], Baron [Deacon], Mrs Siddy, and Tess). They pulled the boat up the beach, and camped the night.
Thu 8-May
It was a quiet night. Just before light, they boarded the dory, and headed out to sea to take the harbour route to Corke. It was overcast and the west wind was strong. There was quite a swell on the sea.
The day passed uneventfully. The weather grew progressively worse and it started to rain. They stopped around dark, near Barry Island, and pulled the dory up on a deserted beach to sleep.
Fri 9-May
It was a peaceful, but wet, night.
They started early. The weather was worse now.
About noon, they rounded a headland, and saw three tall ships, off in the distance, at the entrance to Corke harbour. They suspected the English navy, but didn't really think the authorities would dedicate warships just to catch some runaway witches. Nevertheless, rather than risk sending everyone in the boat past, they decided to drop off half the group to make a land trip over the peninsular [see red line on map], even though it would add a day or two. So Ab, Mrs Siddy, Roma and the Deacon were volunteered. The plan was to meet up with the dory further up Corke harbour, at the first major inlet. They split up Tess and the Deacon, so that would give some useful communication, via the Familiar link, between the two groups.
The rain was heavy now. The land group travelled all day and were forced to enter a large forest which blocked their path. On the plus side, this gave them some shelter from the storm. Ab's shamrock (gift from the leprechauns) was quiet the whole time. After all day of trudging, they made camp and settled for the night, in the pouring rain.
Meanwhile, those on the dory (Elrick, Tess, Art, Esther and Baron) were being tossed, blown and soaked by the storm. They arrived at the three-kilometre-wide entrance to Cork harbour, and sailed slowly past the three tall ships. These turned out to be English man-o-wars, as predicted: two frigates and a brig. (Using the new naval vernacular, these would be called "6th rate" ships. A year of two before this, they'd be called "small ships".) The warships made no attempt to signal the dory, let alone stop them.
They entered the huge Cork harbour, and got some respite from the storm. A few hours later, they docked in the first inlet on the left at a small village called Terryhaven. It was basically just a few houses and a stone church. They paid some villagers and took up digs in the a barn. The rain was really heavy now, but they were snug and dry. The farmers brought them some bread and stew, and then they settled for the night.
Sat 10-May
Meanwhile, back in the forest, the night had been quiet (but wet!) so far. But during Second Watch, as fate would have it, there were torches seen in the woods. Roma (with Night Vision) went out to check, and reported back: four satyrs! Ab put on his Camouflage and went to check in detail. They had a barely-clad girl tied to a tree. Human? Or was she a nymph?
After conversing with the others, Ab and Roma decided to make an attempt at a rescue. The Deacon stayed back in camp to guard Mrs Siddy - planning to use his Magic Ward in case any sidhe creatures approached.First Roma used his ventriloquism ability and managed to divert the satyrs enough so that Ab could cut the ropes holding the girl. She bolted. But Satyrs noticed immediately, and rushed off after her. Ab shot an arrow into one, but that didn't prevent them recapturing her. The satyrs obviously decided their camp wasn't safe, so they dragged her off, leashed. Roma was out of his depth, so returned to camp, but Ab put on another Camouflage and followed them. His shamrock was buzzing the whole time, so this was a sidhe area. Ab followed them, surreptitiously as he could, for about 30 minutes. They took her into a cave, still in the forest. Ab wasn't game to enter, so headed back to camp.
In the morning, the rain was just drizzle. Ab took the land group back to the cave, but no-one was brave enough to enter, so they gave up. The Deacon had a chat with Tess (through the familiar link) to update everything, and so they headed for Terryhaven, which would be a long walk in the rain.
The boat group just spent the day fishing in Terryhaven harbour.
The land group arrived in Terryhaven about midnight.
Sun 11-May, New Moon
In the morning, Ab tried convince the rest of the group to return to the satyr cave, but there were no takers. So they headed for Corke, back on the dory.
This trip took almost the whole day. En route there were a couple more navy ships, a brig and a frigate. Entering the tidal Lee river, they passed Blackrock castle on the south bank, then arrived at Corke an hour before dark. Esther had been there before, so she briefed them on the city.
Corke (1603 pop was 4200) was built on several large islands in the middle of the river Lee. It had been entirely walled for hundreds of years. But the walls were beginning to show their age, and what was once superb protection from raiders, now could not stand up to contemporary military technology of cannon fire and mortar bombs. This was made worse by hills on the north and south banks of the Lee which overlooked the city giving any raiders a perfect position to place their guns. Corke had a gate on the north and south walls, and a marine gate on the east. The marine gate was large enough to take full-size ships, and thus the Corke docks were inside the walls.
But the group wasn't brave enough to take the dory in through the marine gate, so they pulled the boat up on the north bank of the Lee. Ab stayed guarding the boat, plus, with his obvious looks, was too scared to enter the city.
Everyone else went into the city, through the north gate. There were guards a-plenty and the Deacon and Tess, and then Roma were questioned, but it appeared like a run-of-the-mill interrogation rather than awkward Baltimore questions.
Mrs Siddy was safely delivered to her sister's residence; that was one less thing to worry about.
They got rooms in Ye Docks Lookout inn, but had to squash everyone into only two rooms, since it was quite full. There were a lot of troops in town. Rumour had it that there was a Spanish attack imminent, and Corke, being the largest city in southern Ireland, was a viable place to attack. There was a new fort (called "New Fort") just to the south of the city, where most soldiers were garrisoned, but there were still a lot of soldiers domiciled and billeted in the city proper. Hence accommodation was tight.
Scoping out the docks revealed another navy frigate HMS Barnstable Actual, two merchantmen Swollen Murphy and Rugged Cross, a pilgrim ship Sunflower destined for the New World, and their old friend the Golden Hind.
Esther had no trouble getting a job at the inn, because business was brisk and the inn was down on its diversity quota of buxom wenches. Thus Esther became a valuable source of information for the group as she plied the busy tables and made light conversation with the many guests.
The group maintained a table of their own the whole evening, so Esther could wander over to relay comms.
Someone (Art) did remember to take some food out to poor Ab who was camped in the mud, under the dory, in the drizzling rain, with the Lee mud crabs to keep him company.
 |
| Lookout ale |
Tess neglected to watch Deacon Father, just for a moment; and the deed was done. He had one pint too many (yeah, one) of Lookout ale, and got spectacularly off his face [-4]. The rest of the group pretended not the know the drunken priest who was staggering about; either shouting streams of invective and blasphemies, or sitting at random tables and hugging or groping random patrons "yer me mate, yer me fuckin mate". It was only when the vomiting started that Tess and Esther stepped in and hauled him outside. Here they begin the messy task of cleaning the vomit off his cassock and out of his hair, changing his urine-soaked robes and scraping up the diarrhoea, which was all up his back and down his legs (using diarrhoea strigils).
Later on in the evening, a group of sailors arrived whom several of the party recognized as from the Golden Hind. They were very drunk, so the party was pretty sure that the sailors wouldn't have noticed them. Esther went over and questioned them. The Golden Hind had been in Corke for two weeks now and was undergoing a refit. The sailors didn't know exactly what was being refitted, but it was in the vicinity of Edward's cabin. Esther was warned not to ask any probing questions about Elizabeth Stuart. Though, they did mention a noble lady and two hand-maidens; obviously one was the Spanish Lucia, but who was the other?
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