At first light, the party (Art [Jeff], Baron [Deacon], the Deacon [Shane], Elrick [Ian], Roma [Chris], and Tess) quietly upped-sticks, said their good-byes to Esther, and left Corke via the North Gate. They picked up Ab Siddy [Darryl], who was guarding the dory, and headed down river and into the great Corke harbour, with Elrick on the tiller. The drizzle had stopped during the night, and it would be a nice day.
They arrived back in Terryhaven (where they had stayed two nights ago) about an hour before dark. They went to the same barn as last time, and the farmers were quite happy to let them; after all, the group paid well. Nourishing stew all around.
When asked about the thick woods to the south, the farmer recited:
"Up the airy mountain,
Down the rushy glen,
We daren’t go a-hunting
For fear of little men."
"You don't want to go in there. The wee folk'll get you."
Tue 13-May
Nevertheless, that was exactly where the party was headed. They wanted to go back to the satyr's cave, and explore it. And possibly find that poor girl sacrifice.
They spent the entire day tramping through the wood, and camped in a spot two hours from the cave. This remarkable feat of navigation and dead-reckoning was achieved through the help of Elrick's Never Gets Lost direction sense.
It was a peaceful night.
Wed 14-May
They found the cave. Ab's shamrock was buzzing like mad. Ab's El Gato did not want to enter, so he would be guard. Tess and the Deacon also stayed outside to guard with him [Shane was absent].
"Tis the lair of the devil!" he spluttered indignantly.
The group entered the cave. They had some flaming torches on sticks, plus Elrick had bought a bona fide oil-fuelled lantern when in Corke for eight shillings, which was as bright as a 40 W bulb. They went down a short passage and emerged into a room which had an old brass ship's bell in the centre, mounted on a stone plinth. It had Spanish writing on it "Esta pobre campana será violada por criaturas irlandesas." Roma guessed the bell came off the wreck of one of the Spanish Armada ships. They were worried that it would ring. So, Ab wrapped it in bits of his cloak. This act made it buck and jump, so Art encircled the bell with rope and tied the clapper to stop it moving. The chamber had two exits (plus the way they entered).
They went down one tunnel and came what looked like a meat larder. Various disemboweled carcasses, neatly skinned, were hanging from the ceiling; several humanoid carcasses, but were they human? One had wings; obviously not. One new exit.
The rough passage opened into a large room with the roof open to the sky, in a shaft five storeys deep. In the centre of this large room was a sidhe cairn. Like other cairns of the past, this one had a stone archway, big enough for a stooping man to traverse. Of course, no-one dared to go through there. There was one new exit.
The passage went to a small room. The floor was covered with coins, calf-deep. Mainly copper, but there were a lot of silver coins, and a few gold ones. They didn't dare touch anything. No new exits.
They went back to the Bell room and then to the other exit. This passage opened into a chamber with a rack of 12 bronze scimitars and six iron spears; the "Weapons Room". One exit.
Down this tunnel, in the next room was a St Andrew's cross, a primitive wooden rack, and a little spiked cage, made of thorns. Plus boxes of bronze chains and manacles and collars - enough to secure an entire platoon. There was one new exit.
Heading down this passage, Point heard noises and motioned everyone to stop: Loud snores and wheezing. So, the group steeled themselves, weapons all drawn, and rushed into the room, torches ablazing and lantern held high, expecting to fight satyrs. But there were none. Just a bunch of chained prisoners, secured to the walls by bronze collars on a chain. Two of the prisoners, a human man and human woman woke up immediately. The others kept sleeping despite the racket. One was the girl that Ab & Roma had almost rescued four nights ago, plus there were two leprechauns in small wooden cages, and finally a bat-winged humanoid thing, with fangs.
"Vampire!" Roma gasped, pointing at the fanged thing.
The man and woman were a farmer and his wife from a farm near the southern edge of this forest, kidnapped by the satyrs.
The party tried to wake the other creatures, but nothing would rouse them; maybe this was the sidhe penchant for only operating at night. This did prove that the captive girl (of four nights ago), was not human, though she did look it. Roma and Baron checked her several times, especially her breasts and butt, just to make double sure.
All the captives' collars were attached to the wall chain with bronze padlocks of unusual design. Roma managed to pick two of them, but the others were too fiddly for this big thumbs and greasy gypsy hair. So, Baren took to hacking at the chain with his steel sword; it could cut the bronze. And eventually got everyone free.
Roma was worried the whole time that the vampire would wake up. So he went back to the Weapons room, grabbed one of the spears, cut off its iron head, then sharpened the stake to a point. With this, he placed it on the chest of the vampire thing, and hammered it home using the party mallet. Despite all this, the creature never stirred, but just stopped breathing as a large pool of blood formed under it. And it didn't explode nor turn to dust.
While this was going on, Elrick and Art grabbed an armful of the bronze scimitars from the Weapons room, and took them outside. But no sooner than they had crossed the threshold to the entrance, then the scimitars vanished from their arms, and reappeared back in the armoury. This turned out to be the same with the coins. They filled a bag with coins and lugged it outside; sure enough, the contents vanished.
"Bloody sidhe magic," muttered Art.
The farmer and his wife were happy to walk outside. The two leprechauns, the fae lady, and the body of the vampire thing were all carried outside. None of them vanished. Roma made sure the vampire was put into direct sunlight, expecting it to combust in a ball of flame, but nothing happened. It was just a dead grey winged fanged thing, now in sunlight.
Where were all the satyrs? The theory was that they had passed through that stone archway in the cairn room, and into the sidhe world. And that they'd probably stay through there until nightfall.
The party took all the ex-prisoners (sans the dead one, which was left under some leaves) two hours' clear of the cave system, and tied the collars of the girl and the leprechaun to trees. And then waited until dark.
The instant the sun set, the creatures woke up. The fae lady opened her eyes and then stretched, as if she was awaking in an expensive boudoir. But not so the leprechauns. They sprung out madly, eyes glazed with hysteria, and bounced madly about, like a leopard held by its tail, like a hyena on a leash, smashing into trees, the ground and each other. They didn't react to pain, nor voice, nor anything. Worried that they'd hurt themselves, the party eventually gave up and cut the ropes. The leprechauns vanished into the forest in a mad dash.
The fae girl seemed amused.
"They'll not be back," she said. "I'm Caoilainn [KAY lin], by the way, and I won't run."
The party freed her and got talking, as they kept walking. She was a nymph, but that wasn't the Irish term. She preferred "leanan sidhe": "The satyrs are called 'glaistig' [glarsh tig], by the way."
Grateful to being rescued, Caoilainn told the group a lot about sidhe culture. This act was normally frowned upon, fae folk were supposed to keep it to themselves, but she was grateful and appreciative.
"Just how appreciative?" asked Baron.
"It is unwise for mortals to ... do it with a leanan sidhe, and you will die," Caoilainn smiled. Then added: "That said, a very happy man; 'very' in capitals and in bold font."
The group didn't mention what Roma had done with the winged thing, but when questioned about that, she said it was a boggan or puca (PEW kuh).
Worried about the satyrs, they walked north as they talked.
Art asked about the cairns and the stone archways.
Caoilainn just smiled and said: "That is an entrance into the world of the Sidhe. Ruled over by the Seelie Court and the Unseelie Court. You'd need to be a brave man indeed to go there."
A bit further on, Caoilainn pointed out some things nearby:
"The pucas haunt this area, a stone's throw to the left."
"And coming up on our right is the area of the leprechauns. The ó Dochartaigh clan ..."
Ab Siddy went to the edge and called out to them, hoping for a reward for freeing the leprechauns.
"Hello noble leprechauns!" he shouted "We freed yer two mates from the glaistig."
"Don't..." cried out Caoilainn.
But it was too late. A large gob of faeces, still warm, landed, smack, in Ab's face. The diet of leprechauns is not very wholesome, so what comes out the other end is not particularly sweet-smelling.
"O'Shaughnessy bastards!" came a cry from the darkness. "O'Shaughnessy brown-nosing bastards" "Who's got a brown nose now?!"
Then there was a whole lot of hooting and baying, and a host more projectiles, most unclean.
"Piss off you O'Shaughnessy-loving pieces of cac. Aiteann. Gabh suas ort féin! Gabh transna ort fhéin, aiteann. Ráicleach!"
Caoilainn directed the retreat. When they were clear of the trouble, she said: "The leprechauns are very territorial and hate other clans. Those leprechauns prisoners in the caves were Ó Seachnasaigh. Their area is off to the west."
Thu 15-May
They did not want to stop, for fear of being overtaken by the satyrs, so they marched most of the night, and arrived back in Terryhaven about four hours before dawn.
"I'll be back at sunset," said Caoilainn. "With a gift for your group."
With that, she re-entered the forest.
It was time for Second Watch, and sure enough something happened. A bunch of wolves entered town. The party did not go out to encounter them, so stayed safely tucked in the barn. The wolves wandered the village a little, then vanished back into the forest.
The day passes uneventfully. The party did some fishing in the bay from their dory.
Just after sunset, as predicted, Caoilainn arrived back. She had a sidhe gift for the group; a small stone, a blue agate, the size of a grape.
"This is called a 'cloch caint' ["loch" with K on front, and "kint" rhymes with "pint"]. Whoever swallows it will be able to converse with non-sidhe animals," she began. "The gift will last until the stone is ... uh ... passed. Then it can be cleaned and re-swallowed. The same person need not be the host each time."
"Is it ... new?" asked Art.
"No," said Caoilainn. "It has been passed down, as it were, for generations."
"Ewww," said Elrick. "Bags not me then."
They thanked Caoilainn for her help, and she said her good-byes, and then she paused on the way out.
"If you intend to revisit the glaistig," continued Caoilainn. "In three more nights [18th] the moon will be first quarter. That is an auspicious time. The glaistig will be out for another ritual."
And she added wryly: "And I'll try to make sure I'm not under the knife."
Tue 13-May
Nevertheless, that was exactly where the party was headed. They wanted to go back to the satyr's cave, and explore it. And possibly find that poor girl sacrifice.
They spent the entire day tramping through the wood, and camped in a spot two hours from the cave. This remarkable feat of navigation and dead-reckoning was achieved through the help of Elrick's Never Gets Lost direction sense.
It was a peaceful night.
Wed 14-May
They found the cave. Ab's shamrock was buzzing like mad. Ab's El Gato did not want to enter, so he would be guard. Tess and the Deacon also stayed outside to guard with him [Shane was absent].
"Tis the lair of the devil!" he spluttered indignantly.
The group entered the cave. They had some flaming torches on sticks, plus Elrick had bought a bona fide oil-fuelled lantern when in Corke for eight shillings, which was as bright as a 40 W bulb. They went down a short passage and emerged into a room which had an old brass ship's bell in the centre, mounted on a stone plinth. It had Spanish writing on it "Esta pobre campana será violada por criaturas irlandesas." Roma guessed the bell came off the wreck of one of the Spanish Armada ships. They were worried that it would ring. So, Ab wrapped it in bits of his cloak. This act made it buck and jump, so Art encircled the bell with rope and tied the clapper to stop it moving. The chamber had two exits (plus the way they entered).They went down one tunnel and came what looked like a meat larder. Various disemboweled carcasses, neatly skinned, were hanging from the ceiling; several humanoid carcasses, but were they human? One had wings; obviously not. One new exit.
The rough passage opened into a large room with the roof open to the sky, in a shaft five storeys deep. In the centre of this large room was a sidhe cairn. Like other cairns of the past, this one had a stone archway, big enough for a stooping man to traverse. Of course, no-one dared to go through there. There was one new exit.
The passage went to a small room. The floor was covered with coins, calf-deep. Mainly copper, but there were a lot of silver coins, and a few gold ones. They didn't dare touch anything. No new exits.
They went back to the Bell room and then to the other exit. This passage opened into a chamber with a rack of 12 bronze scimitars and six iron spears; the "Weapons Room". One exit.
 |
| St Andrew cross |
Down this tunnel, in the next room was a St Andrew's cross, a primitive wooden rack, and a little spiked cage, made of thorns. Plus boxes of bronze chains and manacles and collars - enough to secure an entire platoon. There was one new exit.
Heading down this passage, Point heard noises and motioned everyone to stop: Loud snores and wheezing. So, the group steeled themselves, weapons all drawn, and rushed into the room, torches ablazing and lantern held high, expecting to fight satyrs. But there were none. Just a bunch of chained prisoners, secured to the walls by bronze collars on a chain. Two of the prisoners, a human man and human woman woke up immediately. The others kept sleeping despite the racket. One was the girl that Ab & Roma had almost rescued four nights ago, plus there were two leprechauns in small wooden cages, and finally a bat-winged humanoid thing, with fangs.
"Vampire!" Roma gasped, pointing at the fanged thing.
The man and woman were a farmer and his wife from a farm near the southern edge of this forest, kidnapped by the satyrs.
The party tried to wake the other creatures, but nothing would rouse them; maybe this was the sidhe penchant for only operating at night. This did prove that the captive girl (of four nights ago), was not human, though she did look it. Roma and Baron checked her several times, especially her breasts and butt, just to make double sure.
All the captives' collars were attached to the wall chain with bronze padlocks of unusual design. Roma managed to pick two of them, but the others were too fiddly for this big thumbs and greasy gypsy hair. So, Baren took to hacking at the chain with his steel sword; it could cut the bronze. And eventually got everyone free.
 |
| the "vampire" |
Roma was worried the whole time that the vampire would wake up. So he went back to the Weapons room, grabbed one of the spears, cut off its iron head, then sharpened the stake to a point. With this, he placed it on the chest of the vampire thing, and hammered it home using the party mallet. Despite all this, the creature never stirred, but just stopped breathing as a large pool of blood formed under it. And it didn't explode nor turn to dust.
While this was going on, Elrick and Art grabbed an armful of the bronze scimitars from the Weapons room, and took them outside. But no sooner than they had crossed the threshold to the entrance, then the scimitars vanished from their arms, and reappeared back in the armoury. This turned out to be the same with the coins. They filled a bag with coins and lugged it outside; sure enough, the contents vanished.
"Bloody sidhe magic," muttered Art.
The farmer and his wife were happy to walk outside. The two leprechauns, the fae lady, and the body of the vampire thing were all carried outside. None of them vanished. Roma made sure the vampire was put into direct sunlight, expecting it to combust in a ball of flame, but nothing happened. It was just a dead grey winged fanged thing, now in sunlight.
Where were all the satyrs? The theory was that they had passed through that stone archway in the cairn room, and into the sidhe world. And that they'd probably stay through there until nightfall.
The party took all the ex-prisoners (sans the dead one, which was left under some leaves) two hours' clear of the cave system, and tied the collars of the girl and the leprechaun to trees. And then waited until dark.
The instant the sun set, the creatures woke up. The fae lady opened her eyes and then stretched, as if she was awaking in an expensive boudoir. But not so the leprechauns. They sprung out madly, eyes glazed with hysteria, and bounced madly about, like a leopard held by its tail, like a hyena on a leash, smashing into trees, the ground and each other. They didn't react to pain, nor voice, nor anything. Worried that they'd hurt themselves, the party eventually gave up and cut the ropes. The leprechauns vanished into the forest in a mad dash.
The fae girl seemed amused.
"They'll not be back," she said. "I'm Caoilainn [KAY lin], by the way, and I won't run."
The party freed her and got talking, as they kept walking. She was a nymph, but that wasn't the Irish term. She preferred "leanan sidhe": "The satyrs are called 'glaistig' [glarsh tig], by the way."
Grateful to being rescued, Caoilainn told the group a lot about sidhe culture. This act was normally frowned upon, fae folk were supposed to keep it to themselves, but she was grateful and appreciative.
"Just how appreciative?" asked Baron.
"It is unwise for mortals to ... do it with a leanan sidhe, and you will die," Caoilainn smiled. Then added: "That said, a very happy man; 'very' in capitals and in bold font."
The group didn't mention what Roma had done with the winged thing, but when questioned about that, she said it was a boggan or puca (PEW kuh).
Worried about the satyrs, they walked north as they talked.
Art asked about the cairns and the stone archways.
Caoilainn just smiled and said: "That is an entrance into the world of the Sidhe. Ruled over by the Seelie Court and the Unseelie Court. You'd need to be a brave man indeed to go there."
A bit further on, Caoilainn pointed out some things nearby:
"The pucas haunt this area, a stone's throw to the left."
"And coming up on our right is the area of the leprechauns. The ó Dochartaigh clan ..."
Ab Siddy went to the edge and called out to them, hoping for a reward for freeing the leprechauns.
"Hello noble leprechauns!" he shouted "We freed yer two mates from the glaistig."
"Don't..." cried out Caoilainn.
But it was too late. A large gob of faeces, still warm, landed, smack, in Ab's face. The diet of leprechauns is not very wholesome, so what comes out the other end is not particularly sweet-smelling.
"O'Shaughnessy bastards!" came a cry from the darkness. "O'Shaughnessy brown-nosing bastards" "Who's got a brown nose now?!"
Then there was a whole lot of hooting and baying, and a host more projectiles, most unclean.
"Piss off you O'Shaughnessy-loving pieces of cac. Aiteann. Gabh suas ort féin! Gabh transna ort fhéin, aiteann. Ráicleach!"
Caoilainn directed the retreat. When they were clear of the trouble, she said: "The leprechauns are very territorial and hate other clans. Those leprechauns prisoners in the caves were Ó Seachnasaigh. Their area is off to the west."
Thu 15-May
They did not want to stop, for fear of being overtaken by the satyrs, so they marched most of the night, and arrived back in Terryhaven about four hours before dawn.
"I'll be back at sunset," said Caoilainn. "With a gift for your group."
With that, she re-entered the forest.
It was time for Second Watch, and sure enough something happened. A bunch of wolves entered town. The party did not go out to encounter them, so stayed safely tucked in the barn. The wolves wandered the village a little, then vanished back into the forest.
The day passes uneventfully. The party did some fishing in the bay from their dory.
 |
| cloch caint |
"This is called a 'cloch caint' ["loch" with K on front, and "kint" rhymes with "pint"]. Whoever swallows it will be able to converse with non-sidhe animals," she began. "The gift will last until the stone is ... uh ... passed. Then it can be cleaned and re-swallowed. The same person need not be the host each time."
"Is it ... new?" asked Art.
"No," said Caoilainn. "It has been passed down, as it were, for generations."
"Ewww," said Elrick. "Bags not me then."
They thanked Caoilainn for her help, and she said her good-byes, and then she paused on the way out.
"If you intend to revisit the glaistig," continued Caoilainn. "In three more nights [18th] the moon will be first quarter. That is an auspicious time. The glaistig will be out for another ritual."
And she added wryly: "And I'll try to make sure I'm not under the knife."
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