It was almost sunset. Roma[Chris] and Art[Jeff] positioned themselves up above the Satyr cave entrance. Roma had enough skill to load a matchlock, so this meant Art could spend his time shooting, while Roma did loading. [ Matchlocks fire and then take two rounds to reload. So having two matchlocks and a dedicated loader meant Art could fire two shots in each three rounds. ]
Tess and the Deacon[Shane] hid in the forest, near Elrick[Ian] and Baron[Deacon]. Ab[Darryl] was on the other side. Thomas Lichfield[Kevin, absent] cowered in the woods.
Roma suddenly felt a great urge in his belly - perhaps it was the impending battle. He squatted down by a tree, and noisily voided his bowels. Then promptly turned and examined the stinking mess, poking at it with a stick. Sure enough, the clough caint was there. He poked it out of the mess with a stick, and wrapped it in leaves.
The instant the sun set, while it was still light even, two glaistig, completely unaware of the party in their hidey holes, jogged out of the cave and across the clearing. Art fired his musket, Ab, Elrick and Baron fired their bows. One glaistig dropped immediately, the other one, a moment later. Elrick and Baron hastily dragged the carcasses off to one side in an attempt to hide them, but there had been a musket shot and it was certainly far from quiet.
So, Roma snuck over the hill to the spot in the forest where the shaft from the caves exited (the top of the Cairn room). There were at least eight glaistigs below, milling around, looking nervous.
Four of them then started to climb the walls of the shaft. Luckily, it was five storeys high, so it would take them a while - especially with goat hooves.
Roma returned to the group and told them. So Art, Ab and Roma moved to the shaft. Moonlight flooded the shaft so they had no trouble sighting. Here, they shot down the four hapless climbers. Another four glaistig appeared in the Cairn room during this fire-fight, and fired back with bows. It was a difficult shot for those archers (Ab and Art had cover from the lip of the shaft). Nevertheless, a few shots got through and damaged Ab.
He was healed later by the Deacon.
A few hours passed. Then, suddenly, two glaistig sprinted out of the cave entrance at a gallop. One was dropped immediately (Art's matchlock), but the other was hit by only one arrow, and he got into cover and vanished into the woods.
Mon 19-May
At midnight, the moon set, so that all but eliminated the party's sight, and now they were blind as bats. Sure, movement could be seen faintly in the clearing (it was a clear night with stars), but in the forest proper, no way. Roma had night-sight, Tess too, and El Gato Diablo (Ab's familiar).
An hour after midnight, El Gato, who was up a tree at the spot where the sprinting glaistig had left the clearing, spotted movement. No-one with a missile weapon could see the figure. So the party developed a cunning plan:
Elrick lit the party lantern and hooded the light. Ab then turned on his Camouflage, grabbed the lantern, and el Gato directed him (Ab was all but blind) to stand near the glaistig. Then he suddenly opened the hood and illuminated it. Everyone fired, and it went down.
There were twelve spears and twelve scimitars in the Weapons room when the party was there the other day, so they suspected this many glaistigs. If so, then eight were down, so that left four.
The party dutifully guarded until morning. None of the glaistigs made any attempt to leave, and the group was not brave enough to enter.
The sun rose, and only then did a few of the party bravely enter the cave.
Nothing much had changed in the caves. Again, the Cairn room was full of the mist. Elrick put his hand in it, and it "felt dry". But they weren't brave enough to enter it.
They had exhausted their supply of gunpowder and shot, the reason being a match-lock can only be kept loaded four hours before the (17th century) gunpowder degraded, and since they spent most of the night waiting with two loaded guns, all those shots were wasted. So they needed to get some more gunpowder; this would require a visit to Corke. So, back to Terryhaven they went.
The rest of the day and half the night passed uneventfully, and they arrived in their Terryhaven barn around midnight.
Tue 20-May
The next morning, Ab volunteered to eat the clough caint, despite it being soiled. He rinsed it in the sea, then swallowed it whole.
Then the whole group except Ab, Tess and Thomas left for Corke on the dory.
It was an uneventful day. They noted that there were a couple more English brigs waiting in the huge Corke harbour.
 |
| Esther |
They arrive at Corke, parked the dory on the mud in the same spot as last time, and Roma stayed back to guard it.
The rest went into Corke, and straight to the Docks Lookout; Esther was still on the staff here.
Gunpowder was strictly a military item and highly illegal to sell to (or even be possessed by) civilians. Nevertheless, Esther knew some shady black-marketeers, and could get gunpowder and shot via shady means. It would cost one shilling per shot [one 1603 shilling is about 120 NZ dollars] They began to regret their strategy of leaving the guns loaded.They stayed the night in the tavern.
The Golden Hind was still here.
So was the witch-finder.
Wed 21-May
In the morning, Elrick and Baron went to an armourer, another shady black-market chap, to be measured for some leather armour. It would take a week to get it. And they had to pay in advance. The cost was 11 shillings each [NZ$1320]; one doubloon covered that.
When they got back to the tavern, Esther had the gunpowder and shot. It had cost another two doubloons to get 40 shots.
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