Sean

Tue 27-May-1603 (17-May) continued ...

The sun had set.

Ab Siddy [Darryl] was with the dory, in the river Lee marshes, just outside the Corke north gate.

Art [Jeff] and Baron [Deacon] were in Ye Docks Lookout.

Elrick [Ian], Roma [Chris] and Thomas [Kevin] were at the North Inn.

Just before midnight, the Deacon [Shane] took Tess, and went to the North Gate. Corke's gates were closed all night, as per standard procedure, and no-one, man nor beast, was allowed to leave or enter.

"I have an emergency Last Rites to attend," exclaimed the Deacon.

An Ecumenical Matter

The guards refused him, but he insisted, and then he offered them three pounds, the remnants of his money. The guards looked at the huge amount of money, looked to each other, and said: "An emergency?"

"Yes," said the Deacon, "Myself and the sister here have been summoned. An ecumenical matter."

The guards took the money: "Well, we can't stand in the way of an ecumenical matter, Father."

They opened the gate and let him and Tess out into the night.

Wed 28-May

Roma took Thomas to see his Romani acquaintance in the North Inn (that he had made contact with the other day). Here, they asked to be sneaked out of the town. It would cost two shillings. They both paid, and were summarily dressed up in women's clothes, wigs, make-up and all. This worked, and the gate guards paid them no heed. They got back to the dory and to Ab. There was no sign of the Deacon and Tess. Ab had not seen hide nor hair of them.

Since Elrick was not there, Thomas offered to get the dory going. No-one else knew how to set up the make-shift mast, nor how to rig up sails.

"How hard can it be?" said Thomas, and he set about trying to rig it.

At noon, Baron & Elrick went to the armourer to pick up their new suits of leather armour. They donned these, and felt very snug and very smug.

Art and those two were now the only party members still left in town, so all three decided to chance their luck to get through the North Gate. Baron managed, but Elrick and Art both failed. They were both grabbed by the guards, and thrown in a cell in the gate tower.

A few hours later, none other than Bishop Dee himself came to see them in the cell. He was looking for the Deacon, and it was urgent. Elrick (in fact none of the party) did not know where he was. The Bishop took Elrick back to the Golden Hind and down into the chapel. Here, the Bishop sat Elrick down in the Chair of Holy Truth and got him to say the words again - that he didn't know where the Deacon was and that he had not seen him for days.

"You are telling the truth, Mister Youngson," said Bishop Dee.

The Bishop wrote a note to give to the gate guards. They accepted this and let Elrick and Art out of the city [ Art was marmalading. ]. The two joined the rest of the party at the dory.

Thomas had had all day to rig up the sails on the dory. He had not been very successful. Elrick soon demolished all his hard work and got the dory ready for sail in good time.

"We won't get far with the mast upside-down," he said. "And why did you put the tiller on the prow?"

As they were about to get underway, they saw the Corke Marine Gate open, and saw the Golden Hind leave the city, down the main river Lee channel.

Then the party left the marshes and headed to the head of Corke harbour themselves, keeping well back from the Hind.

As it was nearing dark, Elrick pulled the boat up on a small deserted-looking island. But the island wasn't actually empty. There was a grumpy chap with dwarfism who camped here. He introduced himself as Sean Gallagher. He had been stranded here a few weeks, and was looking for a way off. But the tidal currents were treacherous around here and he could not swim anyway. And no other boats ever docked. But he did have a supply of apples.

[Shane retired Deacon Father O'Reilly and brought in Sean Gallagher.]

Sean had a cross-bow, sword and shield. He set up an apple to prove to the group how good a shot he was. He also had a printed poster with a caricature of him and some writing. But there was no-one in the group left who could read.

Except ... Thomas (who can't read) exclaimed "I can read!" He grabbed the poster, and said "It is a reward poster for Sean. From the witch-hunter. 100 pounds reward."

Jaws dropped all round.

"Uh, 50 pounds?"

"You can't read, can you?" said Roma.

"Yeah I can."

"Yeah, right."

They settled down for the night.

"Nothing ever happens here over night," said Sean.

Thu 29-May

But, during the night, during Second Watch, ... nothing happened.

In the morning, they all left on the dory, Sean too.

England vs Spain

As they headed down the gigantic Corke harbour, heading for Terryhaven, they heard thunder rolling across the sea. But it wasn't thunder, it was cannon fire; large ship cannons. From the direction of the heads, a way off in the distance, was a cloud of smoke.

Elrick, headed in that direction to see what was happening. As they got closer, they could see three English man-o-wars were in conflict with two Spanish galleons.

It wasn't until some stray shot came bouncing across the water and splashed nearby that Elrick decided discretion was the better part of valour, and he turned the boat around. This decision was confirmed when a cannon ball rocketed overhead, about half mast-height.

As they were heading north again, returning to Terryhaven, they met two more English brigs - the two that were formerly moored at the head of the harbour - heading for the battle. If the Spaniards had any slim hope, it was gone now.

They arrived in Terryhaven a couple of hours later, and went to the barn.

The barn where they stayed was owned by the Terry family. All the other trips here they had dealings with the wife, but this time they met the head of the Terry household; he called himself King Terry. He wandered over. This was the first time he had met Thomas, and he took issue with the "English git". And beat him up.

Caoilainn arrived after dark. She asked about the Deacon and about the Pig Peeker. It was at that point that the party realized that the Pig Peeker had been left in Corke, in Esther's barrel being pickled. Oh, well.

Fri 30-May

The whole party decided to walk to the southern point at the head of Terryhaven bay. From the cliffs there, they would be able to see out to the heads of Corke Harbour, and maybe see some more of the ship battle, safe from land.

Ab decided he didn't want to go with them, and stayed back in the barn to brew some potions.

It took until noon to get to the point. By then, one of the English brigs, damaged, was sailing up the harbour towing a badly fire-damaged galleon. Out at the heads, there were four English ships. And nothing else.

"So the other Spanish boat was sunk or she fled."

They got back to the village an hour or so before sunset.

But Art and Roma noticed some suspicious shapes moving in the forest just to the south. So, the quiet ones, Roma, Baron and Elrick, snuck off to investigate.

O'Neills

There was a large group, twelve or so, dressed in camouflage gear with greens and browns, and armed with bow and sword, headed to the barn. Ab was inside brewing, so he had no idea.

The intruders confronted Ab before Elrick and Roma could shout a warning, but luckily, it didn't turn sour, and Ab wasn't cut into pieces, nor impaled on a spear. The intruders kept their weapons sheathed, and did not bear any ill will. So Baron motioned the rest of the party forward.

This new group were rangers, and they also used the Terry family's barn as a place to stay. Their leader was a lass called Catriona.

When Catriona was satisfied that the party had no allegiance to the English, despite having Thomas (an Englishman) in their midst, she sat them down and had a chat. Her group was joined to the Irish rebel O'Neills ("with two Ls") and that they were the local freedom fighters. They wanted to re-ignite the Nine Years war, and boot the English out of Ireland. They had arranged with the Spanish to deliver arms and ammunition to help with the rebellion. But this recent ship battle had put a spanner in those works.

Catriona said she could read, so Sean showed her the poster of him.

"This is a wanted poster, for you, from the Corke witch-hunter. For five pounds. Alive."

"Like I said," snapped Thomas. Lucky guess.

After dark, Caoilainn arrived, and Elrick introduced Catriona to her. Catriona was impressed at the connections that the party had to the Sidhe.

When Catriona found out that Elrick could sail, she had a job for the party.

A Tricky Offer

Sat 24-May-1603 (14-May) continued, Full Moon ...

The sun had just set. Ab Siddy [Darryl], Art [Jeff], Baron [Deacon], Elrick [Ian], Roma [Chris], Thomas [Kevin], the Deacon [Shane] and Tess were safely ensconced in the barn in Terryhaven. They were discussing how they'd spend their 16 pounds - the windfall from the glaistig escapade.

Some wanted to buy a bigger boat; they only had the little dory.

"We could get a shallop," said Elrick excitedly.

Others wanted a house, or even land, in Terryhaven.

"I want some cassocks," said the Deacon. "With gold trimmings, as befits a cleric of my standing."

Caoilainn

Caoilainn arrived, and made a bee-line to Thomas. She was keen on this marriage. More than him; probably because the marriage would have to take place in the land of the Sidhe. Then he dropped a bombshell.

"I'm married," he said. "To an English girl in London. Who tends goats."

Caoilainn frowned.

"I'm a Lord in England and own vast tracts of land; fertile acreage to run my goats on."

Caoilainn lost all interest in marriage.

Conversation drifted to the Pig Peeker. The Deacon was worried about the thing rotting. Already the skin and flesh of the pig's head was starting to get slimy, and the fat was going rancid. When you held it for any period of time, your hands reeked of sour pork fat afterwards.

He asked Caoilainn if she could contact the puca to ask them if one can preserve the pig's head. That might make it last longer. She would go see and, since they were headed for Corke in the morning, she would write to them c/o Esther in Ye Docks Lookout Inn.

Sun 25-May

Elrick's dory

At first light, they left for Corke on the dory.

During the trip, they all had a go at fishing. The only one who caught any fish was Elrick. The rest hauled on board sea weed, old boots, pine cones and water-logged branches.

Ab gave some firewater to the Deacon. Up to his usual alcohol intolerance, he got horribly drunk and then sick and rectally challenged, and Tess refused to clean him. So Elrick rigged up a rope loop, and they dragged the Deacon behind the dory on a the rope until all the foul vomit and diarrhoea was washed off. Then they tied him to the bow until he sobered up.

They arrived outside Corke an hour or so before sunset, and, as usual, Ab stayed by the dory, while the rest entered the city.

Esther was in fine form, and still working at Ye Docks Lookout Inn. She found them a couple of rooms, and updated on the local goss: The Golden Hind fit-out was finished and it would be leaving in a few days time. The witch-finder was in town. The rumours of a Spanish invasion had subsided.

Roma spotted some other pikeys in the inn. They claimed this was their turf and they would not appreciate him performing his skills on their turf. And the other inns of Corke were also manned by other groups travelling folk as well.

Mon 26-May

This was Thomas's first time in Corke, so he found out from Esther where Spider Stacey, the flageolet virtuoso, lived. Thomas went around to this building and was greeted at the door by Spider's wife. Spider was buried two days ago. So much for that. But Spider did have an older son, Dennis, who had also taken up the flageolet. Thomas offered to tutor this boy. The wife was very interested.

"Come back in a few weeks," she said.

The Deacon went to the local seamstress. And ordered six cassocks. She had cleric apparel in stock, so it would only take some light modification to render them suitable for such a man of God as he. So he could pick them up at the end of the day. It would be a pound for the six.

Roma bought an old cowled robe for sixpence, and took it out to Ab. Ab then fashioned a crutch and bound up a leg, so he entered the town in disguise as a one-legged man. This worked fine and hid his face from onlookers. As he walked down the busy main street of Corke, horses shied, stray cats and dogs scattered, chooks squawked and took to the air, and even the flies, that hung around the open sewers, were absent.

Near dusk, the Deacon returned to the seamstress and picked up his new cassocks, and a fancy gold sash belt too.

When the Deacon got back to the inn, Esther had two letters waiting for him. Both neatly sealed in wax, and both in exquisite copper-plate courier font.

Dear Father,
I consulted the Peter the puca. Yes, you can safely pickle the pig's head. Use brine, whisky and vinegar. You can do the eyes as well, and it will still work. But Peter did warn not to use saltpetre nor use lye. Using lye saponifies the fats which has a side-effect of giving the head sentience. You can also boil it, but not the eyes. He does not know of any other techniques.
Your friend in fae, Caoilainn.

And :

Dear Deacon Father O'Reilly, 

May the blessings of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, and all the glorious company of Heaven be upon you. I hope this letter finds you well. You and your assistant Tess are requested to have luncheon with myself on board the Golden Hind, in Corke docks, at noon tomorrow.

Your eternal servant in God, Bishop John Dee.

Oh dear," said the Deacon. "How'd they know we were in town then?"

"You and your group are rather unique," said Esther philosophically. "And you haven't been going out of your way to remain inconspicuous." She gestured to the cassocks and the golden sash.

The Deacon gave Esther the pig peeker and asked her to pickle it.

Tue 27-May

Elrick returned to the dory worried about it being stolen, because Ab was no longer guarding it. He also had to clean it - there were still stringy bits of the Deacon's vomit and diarrhoea swilling around in the bilge.

Golden Hind

The Deacon left just before noon to the Golden Hind.

It was decided to leave Tess back with the group. That way she could relay important information from the Deacon, via the familiar link.

Art asked Esther see if she could source an eye-glass so that he could watch the Deacon go on board the Golden Hind, but she informed him that small hand-held ones will be another five years before they are invented. She noted, too, that Bishop Dee himself had worked on such devices, but they were big things. So Art had to just peer with his squinty eyes.

The Bishop welcomed the Deacon and immediately took him below to the on-board chapel for the Sext church service. After this, they retired to the Bishop's quarters for a luncheon and a chat. It was a slap-up meal with servants and all - the best the Deacon had eaten in ...well, forever.

The Bishop said straight away, "I know of your link to your assistant. Relay to your group that their attempts to leave the city will be all for nought."

The Deacon sent this to Tess who relayed it to the group. And straight away, the party started discussing how they would leave the city and how they would leave the Deacon to his fate if things went bad. Tess, of course, heard all this; so too did the Deacon (via the familiar link the other way). "Those treacherous ingrates" muttered the Deacon. So, out of spite, he kept the Bishop abreast of the plans the party was making to sneak out of town - every scheming step.

The Bishop wanted the group to join the Hind when it was to leave "in a few days" to help in the mission to restore the rightful monarch on the English throne.

"I will think on your kind offer, your grace," said the Deacon. "And speak with the group."

"Yes, you have until tomorrow," said Bishop Dee. "Now, there is someone I should like you to meet, Deacon."

The Bishop took the Deacon through to the forehead quarters of the ship. These were formerly Edward Kelley's quarters, but over the past few weeks they had be reappointed. And reappointed in style! There was gold leaf all over the show, and marble floors even. The whole place was lit by little lights, far too small for a candle even, that the Deacon did wonder how they worked.

In the gorgeous throne room, on a raised dais, was a large golden throne. Upon which sat the queen: Queen Elizabeth Stuart. Dressed in costly robes of the finest make, she no longer looked like a rotting skeleton, nor an emaciated zombie, but a shining twenty-year old girl. With all her charms, but for her eyes - they bore wisdom and worldliness far in excess of her age. She radiated majesty, grace and power. It almost made the air of the room crackle.

Her handmaidens, kneeling either side in velvets and fine linen, were Luca (the ex Spanish sailor) and another girl named Samantha Smith. (This turned out to be gender-reassigned Private Samuel Smith, the soldier in whose face Roma had thrown a handful of magic sand those weeks ago near Baltimore.)

The queen chatted to the Deacon a little. There was no more stuttering nor broken English of the three-day old corpse of the past; she had her full intellect and Elizabethan loquaciousness back again. She mentioned how she was planning to take back the throne of England off that "varlet usurper" James 1st ("he can have Scotland"). She mentioned three names of her main organizers in England. But the Deacon was so over-awed by her awesome aura that he promptly forgot them when he was shown out.

Unbeknownst that they had been betrayed, the group made plans for a hasty exist from Corke. Thomas hired a horse and cart for one shilling and six pence, and loaded it with straw and manure (and extra manure), then headed to Ye Docks Lookout. Here Art, Ab, Roma, Tess, and Baron snuck into the cart, and hid in the messy straw.

But at the North Gate, the gate soldiers stopped the cart, and they set to the straw with pitchforks galore. Ab Siddy vanished (with his camouflage) and slipped through the gate, to join Elrick at the dory. Everyone else was discovered and ordered to return to the inn.

Art then made a foolhardy solo attempt to leave the city via an alleged hole in the Water Gate. He had recently learned to swim, so he set forth. But his skills were hopeless, and he ended up fished out of the water by some soldiers who manned the Water Gate.

Despite the fracas in the party, Elrick re-entered Corke and went to the North Inn. He wanted to be in town for his (and Baron's) new armour which was due to be finished tomorrow.

The Deacon arrived back to Ye Docks Lookout Inn and told the party of the request.

"No way," was the majority shout.

Return to the Glaistigs

Wed 21-May-1603 (11-May) continued ...

Elrick[Ian], Art[Jeff], Baron[Deacon], Roma[Chris], the Deacon[Shane] and Tess left Corke after picking up their shot, ordering their suits of leather armour, and headed for Terryhaven on the dory.

It was an uneventful trip, and they were greeted by Ab Siddy[Darryl] and Thomas[Kevin] when they arrived just before dark.

Thu 22-May

Caoilainn visited during the night. This was the first time that she had met Thomas, and she loved his beautiful voice [gift]. He got out his flageolet and struck up a haunting tune. Caoilainn was entranced; in fact, the whole group was entranced [great skill roll].

They left Terryhaven for the Satyr caves a couple of hours before light, and travelled the whole day, camping in the forest a good two hours from the caves.

Fri 23-May

During Second Watch, two bat-winged creatures arrived, with fangs, puca. They regarded the Deacon, the "Man of God", as the leader of the group so would only speak to him.

Interestingly, the Deacon felt a wave of cold when he was near the puca.

Puca liked the letter P. One was named Peter, the other Petra. They wanted the body of their mate returned. The Deacon did not mention that Roma had staked it through the heart, but he agreed to give it to them (it had been left to rot in the forest under some leaves near the caves). Peter said that the reward would be "our gratitude".

At sunrise, they headed to the tunnels. Different to last time, there were two coils of thorn bushes blocking the entrance. The group hacked the support-ties and dragged out these barricades.

Inside, it had changed again since the last visit four days ago: The Weapons room was empty, the Torture room's gear was dismantled, and lying on pieces on the floor. The cages too. And the mist covering the floor of the Cairn room had a green tinge.

Again, they were not brave enough to enter the mist. But they did have enough rope to reach the height of the five-storey deep shaft. This allowed brave Elrick to climb down, swing into the side passage, and get to the Coin room.

It was quite depleted and was a shadow of its former self: all the gold coins, most of the silver and a large amount of the copper were missing. Nevertheless, Elrick took a handful of coins and climbed out. The coins did not vanish, even though it was day. This was different to last time, so, he distributed them to the group, and was about to descend again to fill a backpack, when Roma realized that they coins had vanished. The trick was that the coins vanish when you stopped looking at them.

Predicting that there would be plenty of glaistig left, the group spent the whole day positioning themselves for an ambush as soon as it was sunset. Ab and Baron perched at the top of the shaft. Art with matchlock and his loader Roma, and Elrick with bow and axe down at entrance to the Cairn room. And the Deacon and Tess nearby to provide healing support. Thomas stood by with his knife.

The sun set.

Immediately, all the mist in the Cairn room sucked into the cairn arch. And then two ... leprechauns shot out of the arch. Then another two, then two more. In a twinkling, there were ten in the room. The party, unsure, held their fire. More leprechauns arrived, in twos.

"'Ere?" snapped one, eyeing Art and Elrick. "What you doin' in our caves?"

"We are here to kill the evil glaistig," replied Art.

He laughed.

"The powerful ó Dochartaigh [O' Doherty] clan vanquished them," he said. "The caves tremble at our might."

The leprechaun assessed the group, and didn't like the look of the smoking matchlocks.

"You can take your fire sticks and begone. From our caves. The caves what are ours."

"We defeated the evil glaistigs four nights ago," said Elrick.

"And we came to get the coins," said Art.

"Well there are none left. We got them all."

"I saw them earlier today," said Elrick.

The leprechauns chatted among themselves in too-loud whispers: "There's old the dirty copper ones left." "They can have that filth." "Copper copper." "Shut up." "Don't you talk to me like that." "I'll give you copper." "I don't wanna be on the end of a fire stick." "Maybe they'll go away if we do."

One came forward.

"Okay," he said. "You can have the copper."

Elrick and Art and Roma didn't need any prompting. They went into the chamber and filled their backpacks with the piles of coins. There were exactly 3940 copper coins, a bunch of silver shillings and no gold. The leprechauns didn't let them take any of the shillings. 3940 worked out to be 16 pounds, 8 shillings, and 4 pence.

The party regrouped outside, none the wiser as to what had happened to the remaining glaistig. The leprechauns claimed they had bested them all, but this was doubtful. It was well known that leprechauns were lying liars who lied.

Pig Peeker

Outside, it was now dark. Peter and Petra, the pernicious puca, returned and demanded to see the Deacon. The Deacon arranged for Roma to recover the (rotting and staked) body of the puca's fallen mate.

When this was done, Peter the puca seemed happy. In fact, he presented the Deacon with a portent of the puca's gratitude. It was a Pig Peeker.

This was a strange sidhe item. It was a pig's head, with eyes intact. To use it, you first remove the pig's eyes - they come out easily. You then press the cold clammy things to your own eyes, and they magically "meld" together. From that point on, you would only see through the eye sockets of the pig's head - a remote viewing device. If the head was transported elsewhere, you see what it sees. When you were done, you would attempt the painful process of gouging out the melded eyes ("use your thumbs and push hard"), and you would end up with the pig's eyes intact, and your own eyes restored. The head was fresh, but as the weeks went past, the head would rot, and you'd eventually end up with a slimy fly-blown mess. It would work so long as the pig's eyes stayed intact; but they rotted too. Though, they did not rot when they were in your eye sockets. With this in mind, some fashion icons of the Seelie Court would wear the (decorated) pig's skull as a stylish hat, and would just see through it all of the time. Haute Sidhe at its finest. [In sidhe art, you will see creatures wearing skulls on their heads. Now you know why.]

Caoilainn arrived after the puca left ("horrid things," she exclaimed), and she made a bee-line for Thomas. Thomas whipped out his flageolet and attempted a tune. This time he wasn't so accomplished and it sounded like a cat being strangled, with its own intestines.

Despite this, she still made eyes for him. She gave him the same warning that she gave Baron (when he was hitting on her last time) in that any consummation would be utterly fatal, that a mouth-kiss would make him blind, and that groping would cost him his hands. However, there was a way. But it would involve Thomas "crossing over". That meant to embrace the Sidhe, and go to the other side. Marry her.

Sat 24-May

They started for Terryhaven just after midnight. And after an event-free journey, they arrived in the village by day end.

Thomas was considering Caoilainn's offer.

Attack on the Glaistigs

Sun 18-May-1603 (8-May) continued ...

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.

Thomas

Fri 16-May-1603 (6-May)

Roma [Chris] volunteered to swallow the cloch caint. After choking it down, he didn't notice anything unusual.

Elrick [Ian], Art [Jeff], Baron [Deacon], the Deacon [Shane] and Tess went out on a fishing trip on the dory, while Ab Siddy [Darryl] and Roma stayed back in Terryhaven.

Art, Baron and the Deacon caught nothing; not even any bait fish.

But Elrick felt a big bite on his line. He reeled it in. There was something large in the water, and it wasn't moving much - certainly not struggling and thrashing like a fish. He pulled it in; it was a barrel, then ... a hand. Some person, was clinging to it. It was a man. They pulled him on board.

Thomas Lichfield [Kevin]

He introduced himself as Thomas Lichfield [Kevin]. He had an English accent, with a beautiful voice, and said he was from Cambridge. They headed back to the beach.

"What are you doing in the water?" asked Elrick.

"I was on a ship, the Witch of Endor, headed for Corke," said Thomas. "But we were attacked by 25 pirates. I killed most of them, but they sunk the ship and I ended in the water. And I clung to this barrel. For three nights, I drifted."

"What about all the English frigates, brigs, and other fighting ships in Cork harbour?" Art asked.

"Oh, well I didn't notice them."

"Why didn't they help against the pirates?"

"Maybe they didn't see them, because ... well, the pirates came in on giant eagles. Hanging from the eagle legs."

"Eagles? You sure?"

"Yes, pirate eagles. That's right."

"Why were you going to Corke?" said Roma.

Flageolet

"I'm one of the greatest flageolet players in all England. I was headed to Corke city to learn from the best flageolet player in the British Isles, Spider Stacey of Corke."

"What's a flageolet?" asked Ab.

Thomas held up a small wooden recorder: "This."

He put it to his lips and gave them a little melody. It was appalling.

After they had calmed down from the unholy din, Elrick said: "Do you know the witch hunter?"

"I've worked for many witch hunters in my life. We have many witches in England."

"The one in Corke."

"Yeah, I know him."

"What's his name."

"Uh... Corkie McCork-face the witchhunter of Corke. He hunts witches, you know."

"We aren't actually looking for him," said Art. "We don't want him near us."

"Oh, ..uh... well, you will be okay. He doesn't think much of me. In fact, I scare him too much."

"Have you heard of Queen Elizabeth?" asked the Deacon.

"Of course! Good Queen Bess. I know her well; well, knew her well. She died this year, you know. She thought I was a great player. The best in the land."

"Do you know the ship called the Golden Hind?"

"Yes, know it well."

"Well, describe it.":

"Uh, it is golden. Like a hind - that's a kind of fish, you know. And the ship, well, it's got sails and stuff, and sailors, and it floats in the sea."

"Do you know the little people?" asked Ab.

"Goodness, yes, we have many of them in London. They sing and dance in the taverns. Some are tossed. Others are dressed as clowns."

"Not dwarfs," snapped Ab. "Little people; magic ones."

"Oh ... ah.. yes, I know them. They do magic, you know. Irish magic."

"London? You said you were from Cambridge," asked Roma.

"I was born Cambridge. I worked in London. Treading the boards."

"An actor too?"

"Yes, I was with the 'Admiral's men'. A performing troupe. I was the head player - First Flageolet. We accompanied the plays of Shakespeare and Marlowe. And Marlowe's musicals."

"Did Marlowe write musicals?"

"Gosh yes! The Lion King, and The Miserables, and Little Dorrit."

"Can you do anything else besides play the flute?"

"The flageolet. Yes, of course. I can fight."

Thomas had a knife. He and Baron faced each other and sparred a little. Surprisingly, Thomas was  not too bad with the knife.

"Can you fire a musket?" asked Art.

"Goodness yes. I'm a crack marksman."

"Bow too?"

"Oh yes, sure."

He didn't have any other weapons on him.

The rest of the day passed peacefully and they retired to the barn for the evening.


Sat 17-May

Second Watch came around, and the wolves returned. This time, Roma tried out the cloch caint powers and found he could understand the growls and scratchings of the wolves; he could converse with them.

The gist was that the wolves had lost two of their number, and had the group seen any sign? Roma didn't admit to them that they had seen a wolf carcass in the satyr caves. But he assured them that he'd keep an eye out.

As soon as it was light, they headed off towards the satyr sacrifice area (where they had first seen Caoilainn). Tomorrow night would be the moon's First Quarter, but the site ought to be clear this eve, so they thought.

The day trip was uneventful and they got to the site just on dark, and set watch.

Sun 18-May, First Quarter

Sure enough, during Second Watch, the satyrs, the glaistig, arrived. There were three or four of them. There was a short arrow battle in woods where Elrick, Roma, Tess and Art were injured. But the party managed to drive the glaistig off. They did realize that during the dark, the glaistig had a considerable advantage, and it was only through the quick thinking of Roma to try to light up them up with torches, that some arrow hits here achieved. Or maybe it was dumb luck. Nevertheless, this was enough to scare the cowardly creatures away.

After light, they made for the Glaistig caves. Elrick, Thomas, Art, Baron went in. The group was last here four day's ago, and since then there were a few changes:

• The larder was empty of its carcasses. 
• The cairn shaft room had an eerie fog on the floor, so they were too scared to enter it. 
• The weapons room was empty of weapons. 
• The torture room had a long-dead skeleton on the cross. The skull had small horns and sharp teeth.
• The cells were all empty. 

When the group of four entered the cell area, they heard a scratchy noise behind them in the tunnel. The skeleton had animated! Poor Thomas was at the back, so he took the brunt of the initial assault. He hurried into the cell room, and that allowed all four to attack it together. It didn't last long under the onslaught, and collapsed into a pile of bones. But, even defeated, the bones kept trying to rejoin to the skull, moving on their own accord. This effect stopped the moment the skull was taken outside the caves. And it was finally put to rest when the Deacon used his Banish Spirits ability. Elrick kept the skull as a souvenir.

Since the area in front of the caves was a clearing in the forest, the plan was to ambush the glaistig tonight as they left the caves. The weather was to be clear, and it was expected that the half moon should provide enough light to take away the dark-sight advantage of the sidhe creatures. So the group got out all their bows and the two matchlocks, and settled down ready for sunset.

For fear of little men

Mon 12-May-1603 (2-May)

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.

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

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."

Corke ho !

Wed 7-May-1603 (27-Apr) continued ...

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?