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Old 11-05-2019, 08:26 PM   #451
tshiggins
 
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(...continued)

A.J. popped the little green bird into a big lead box, revved up the engine, left the rickshaw floating in his wake, and pointed the nose of the Paradise in the direction of the portal. A few moments later, the airship slipped through the gateway – into a black, bitterly-cold night sky swirling with heavy snow.

The shock of the bitter cold took everybody’s breath away, and they ran for winter gear. Meanwhile, A.J. checked the barometer, and grinned as he saw the needle of the compass swing around and point to the north.

As soon as the crew geared up, they began to look around to see if they could get oriented.

According to the historical record from their world, Manhattan had a settlement of several thousand people, but nobody saw any light from below them. While the night was cold, misty and snowy, they knew the portals above Manhattan only opened about 3,500 feet above the island, which meant they should be able to see something

That gave A.J. a bad minute. He noted that, while the group had assumed that JoCat’s amulet from her father had come from the 1712 world, they didn’t know for sure. What if they’d come through a portal into a different world, completely?

While disturbed by the blackness beneath them, the crew knew they couldn’t risk being seen in an anachronistic airship. Therefore, A.J. turned the helm to the northeast and headed out over the North Atlantic in the middle of winter, and throttled up.

Soon, A.J. noted the controls getting stiff, and asked Beatrice and Amanda to go take a look. The mechanic and the veteran airship crewwoman soon reported that the control surfaces had started to ice up.

A.J. said the group had to keep the airship from icing up, and all hands took up shovels and scrapers. They set about knocking the ice off for the next several hours when, the Paradise cleared the snow squall and the clouds opened up to reveal stars glittering in a crystal-clear, bitterly cold night sky.

At that point, A.J. turned the helm over to Steven, and climbed up to the top of the airship. Once there, he started his laptop and pulled up the astronomy program he’d installed before he’d left home. Based on the position of the stars, he confirmed the year as 1712, and the time as mid-winter.

Comforted, A.J. went below to the forward cabin and crawled under some blankets and turned in for the rest of the night.

When he got up the next day, the clouds had gathered again, and while the wind stayed reasonably calm, the snow began to fall. The crew took up their tools, again, and began to knock off the ice.

This time, the storm lasted for hour after hour, and the Paradise crew began to wear thin. About eight hours in, Henrietta lost her grip on the ladder, fell, and hurt herself. Doc Bascher bandaged her up, but ordered Henrietta to rest for awhile.

A few hours later, Beatrice fell, also, and Doc Bascher ordered her to bed, as well.

That left the crew entirely too short-handed, and the performance of the airship began to suffer. However, A.J. and Steven climbed for as much altitude as the crew could stand, and managed to keep it together well enough to keep the ship aloft until they rode out the storm.

Steve spelled A.J. at the helm, and when the NASA engineer came back, he noted another gale blowing up out of the southwest, tracking along the Gulf Stream. A.J. took a look at the fuel gauge and throttled up enough to outrun it, and ran into the back of another that night.

This storm had enough wind and snow to blow the Paradise off course, and A.J. and Steve worked hard to stay ahead of it through the night. By morning, the storm had blown itself out, and down through the clouds the crew saw snow-covered land.

A.J. took the airship high, and then the crew spent several hours figuring out their position. Henrietta finally realized they flew high above Normandy, not far from the coast, and A.J. turned the nose toward Ireland.

With the tanks nearly empty, the Paradise found itself high above the west coast of the Emerald Isle by mid-day, and the group discussed their next move.

A.J. said they’d gotten lucky, so far, and managed to stay out of the sight of everyone, but now they to travel to this world’s London – and that meant it had come time to scuttle the airship.

Aurelia objected loudly and strenuously, and said there had to be a way to hide the Paradise so they could pick it up, later. The rest of the group pointed out that the envelope of the airship stood 72 feet high, on top of another eight or nine feet from the keel of the gondola.

That meant the airship stood as tall as an eight-story building, 90 yards long. There was no way to hide it anywhere near the busy seas around Ireland, which their records indicated were lousy with Irish pirates, at this point in their own history.

Eventually, they convinced Aurelia and began to pack up their gear and get ready to abandon ship. By nightfall, they were ready to go, and late in the frigid evening A.J. put the [i}Paradise[/i] down at the tip of the Carraroe peninsula, west of Galway.

The crew quickly dumped the most valuable cargo, their survival gear and trunks of weapons on the snow, and then followed themselves.

Steven had spent some of the previous hours rigging explosive charges and thermite in the envelope and, once the group had offloaded the cargo, A.J. set the helm to send the airship out to sea and put the throttle on low speed. He jumped off the gondola and then stood for awhile and watched the Paradise slowly head out to sea.

About 20 minutes later, Steven triggered the explosives remotely and, miles way, the Paradise shuddered and twisted, flickered briefly into flame, and then fell into the sea.

The group dug in for what remained of the night, and discussed what to do. They decided to send Frank, Aurelia, Doc Bascher and Henrietta into Galway, and the experienced search-and-rescue team fabricated some snowshoes from the equipment they’d offloaded.

At that point, A.J. saw Amanda off in the direction of the beach, standing on a small rise and looking in wonder out across the foaming waves of the iron-gray sea that stretched to the horizon.

He asked if Amanda was okay and would be able to sleep, now that she’d passed through a portal and been faceted as a mage.

The native of the Orbital Realm of Jupiter said she’d slept about as well as any of the other members of the crew, so far, and explained that most of the children of the orbital realm learned the meditation skills while growing up. Most worked hard to earn the opportunity to travel through a portal, Amanda explained, as that meant they had achieved a considerable measure of success.

The “away team” set off for Galway about dawn with the magpie girls fluttering around them, while A.J. stayed behind with Beatrice, Steven, Claudia and Amanda to work on the camp.

Beatrice and the trio of former NASA personnel raised a storage tent to keep the snow off the cargo, and then A.J. got them started on a large igloo for themselves. After a moment, he looked around to find where Amanda had wandered off to, and saw her standing atop a small rise in the direction of the beach,.

Meanwhile, the others slogged across the top of the snow on the 26-mile (42 km) hike to Galway through the gray-white winter day. They reached the outskirts of the sizeable port town by mid-afternoon, and immediately drew some stares – pedestrians with snow-shoes walking out of the snowy fields in the middle of winter didn’t happen that often.

Aurelia, Henrietta, Doc Bascher and Frank paused for a moment to look around, and soon spotted a flag they didn’t recognize, flying above a large building down the avenue – a blue field quartered with a white-bordered red cross, with a shamrock in each field.

Closer by, the spotted a tavern with a small crowd out front. They walked toward the group, and a large red-headed chap greeted them and asked them where they’d come from.

Aurelia immediate chattered out a story about a shipwreck, and some of the ladies made shocked sounds and asked if she and the other ladies were alright. A few other Galwegians wandered out of the tavern with tankards in their hands, and asked what was happening.

The tall red-headed fellow nodded at Aurelia and she’d made up some “entertainin’ shite” about a shipwreck, and invited everybody in for a drink. The four agreed readily enough, and the Irish ladies took Doc Bascher, Henrietta and Aurelia over to the snug, while Frank soon found himself surrounded by friendly, slightly drunk Irishmen.

The tall red-headed fellow introduced himself as Rory, and asked Frank for the real story. Thinking quickly, Frank said the group had been stranded while trying to get home, and acknowledged that Aurelia was a little crazy, and said he just really wanted to get some rest.

However, he couldn’t get any rest until the women were happy, Frank said, and they’d never be happy, “…because they’re women.”

The Irish men gathered around, laughed aloud, slapped him on the back, commiserated with his all-too-familiar predicament, and bought him a pint and a pot of soup to warm him up.

Over on the other side, the ladies tucked into some provender of their own and nattered away with the Irish women and made up stuff to tell them.

(continued...)
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Old 11-05-2019, 08:28 PM   #452
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(...continued)

After a bit, Frank asked if there was a livery stable near, as he needed a wagon. Rory replied one did lay close by, and did have wagons for hire.

Frank looked him the eye, reached into his pocket and pulled out a $20 gold double-eagle from the 1919 world, which they’d defaced with a hammer to remove the date and identifying marks. Frank said he had no interest in hiring a wagon – he wanted to purchase a wagon and team, no questions asked, and nobody in Galway would ever see him again.

Things got very still for a long moment on the men’s side of the pub, and then Rory gave a nod. He said he would take the group over to the livery stable and help make arrangements.

Within the hour, as the gloom began to deepen, a wagon with two old horses left Galway by the western road. By early evening, the wagon arrived at the camp.

The group fed the horses and covered them with blankets, and then loaded the cargo on the wagon. They hid the modern weapons in crates underneath everything else, and pulled out the modern replicas of the Brown Bess muskets and flintlock pistols.

The group then strapped their blades to their belts, harnessed the horses, and then set out in the cold night. Soon after midnight, they’d passed by the outskirts of Galway and made their way eastward along the snow-packed highway for another hour.

The wagon stopped for a few hours before dawn, and the experienced search-and-rescue team got some sleep. The group discussed options, and decided to make for Dublin. While about a week away, the city was large enough for them to disappear into until they could book passage on a ship for London.

This they proceeded to do. The trip proved grueling, and the group actually took better care of the horses than themselves. Several members of the Red Rocks Lodge suffered from minor frostbite, which some Minor Healing spells repaired handily enough.

A couple of days into the trip, Hops About and Twirls Thrice, in magpie form, suddenly took wing and flew rapidly toward a hilltop the group could barely see from the road. As the group looked in the direction of the hill, they noticed an arrangement of snow-covered standing stones near the peak, and the two nunnupi flew out of sight, straight toward them.

They didn’t return.

Eventually, the group saw the sprawling city of Dublin, ahead of them and, after a bit, the wagon drawn by the weary horses began to rattle down streets packed with dark brown snow and frozen manure, while a forest of tall masts bobbed in the harbor.

Pretty quickly, they spotted another sizeable stone building with flags flying from the front. They saw the same flag with shamrocks on the quartered blue field, but this time it flew below a similar flag with a quartered blue field, but this one had fleur-de-lis in the four quarters.

Curiosity overcame the cold long enough for them to check out broadsheet posted on a wooden kiosk. The dampness and dirt had rendered most of the bills unreadable, but they did spot one thing – a New Year’s greeting to the people of Ireland from their fellows in the realms united under the throne of the Angevin Empire.

https://i.imgur.com/4lzXKDT.png

That ended the session.

##

Funny Quotes

Doc Bascher: You know what would make a bunch of money, out here? We should do a dirigible wash.

(Frank blows the spell to open the portal.)
Aurelia: That was anti-climactic.

(Hops About and Twirls Thrice make their offer.)
Aurelia: What’s the price of help, here? Just so I can hear it.
Beatrice: No! No! No! We don’t make deals with faeries!
Aurelia: Sometimes we make deals with faeries….

Frank: That’s half this game. We get stuck in bad places, and have to figure a bad way out.

Aurelia: This the only real options we have.
Beatrice: You don’t know that!
Aurelia: Yes, I do! Your brother is the GM!

(The group takes the deal.)
Aurelia: At least we’re not bored….

(The Paradise makes it through the portal, heads out across the North Atlantic, and begins to ice up as it flies through a heavy snowstorm.)
Frank: Now, everybody wants a flamethrower.
Aurelia: No, Frank. No flamethrowers!

Aurelia: But I love this ship! I worked really hard to steal this ship!

(The group discusses options.)
Frank: I wanna rope down on a sailing ship from above and take it.
Aurelia: I am so there with you. Can anybody drive the ship?
A.J.: Nobody drives one of these ships! They have sails! We need to hire a crew to sail a ship, because none of us knows how.

(Amanda stands staring out at the sea.)
Doc Bascher: She’s getting some Xanax.

Beatrice: I can’t go, because I only have one leg, and they’ll know I’m a pirate!

##
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Old 11-05-2019, 11:59 PM   #453
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Angevian Empire. If they go to London, the Marquis de London and his Special Investigator, Lord Bontriomphe will figure out most of it in no time.
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Old 11-06-2019, 05:03 AM   #454
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tshiggins View Post
A.J. replied that, under those circumstances, he’s shift his vote to taking the deal, rather than risk a journey into the unknown, towards who knows what, to find supplies that might not exist.
Oh, so not worrying at all. Nope not even a litt...

Quote:
Beatrice bitterly objected but, as the only holdout, acknowledged she was outvoted. However, she insisted that she not be held as part of any deal with the faeries – she was to be excluded.
Woo... yeah, that won't in any way come back to bite her during the trip to take the fey to where they want to go... since Bea 'won't be a part of that trip at all'.


Sorry, am I the only one that reads the fey as 1 parts monkey paw, 1 part used car salesman, 1 part snake oil salesman, 1 part lawyer, and 3 parts shady politician?
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Old 11-06-2019, 08:49 AM   #455
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dcarson View Post
Angevian Empire. If they go to London, the Marquis de London and his Special Investigator, Lord Bontriomphe will figure out most of it in no time.
Guilty, albeit provisionally. Lord D'Arcy and Master Sean don't exist, and the underpinnings of magic differ, but I loved those books and wanted to use a version of that sort of Anglo-French Empire, somehow.

Anten, A.J.'s player, picked up on it immediately, and figured out one of points of departure, straight away. The group travelled from Dublin to London, in the most recent session that I need to write up, but they didn't get the data-dump, yet.
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Old 11-06-2019, 01:31 PM   #456
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Originally Posted by evileeyore View Post

(SNIP)

Woo... yeah, that won't in any way come back to bite her during the trip to take the fey to where they want to go... since Bea 'won't be a part of that trip at all'.


Sorry, am I the only one that reads the fey as 1 parts monkey paw, 1 part used car salesman, 1 part snake oil salesman, 1 part lawyer, and 3 parts shady politician?
The nunnupi may (very) superficially resemble Tinkerbell, but they owe a lot more to Jim Butcher than to James Barrie, and nothing at all to Walt Disney.

They're tiny, cute, magical, lethal savages with dark hair, dark eyes and dark wings. They're no fools, and they've watched the group for a long time now.

If Beatrice screws her friends to avoid helping Hops About and Twirls Thrice, then Bad Things (tm) may happen to her. If she remains true to her friends (and true to herself), then the nunnupi get her services, anyway.

That's very much the sort of behavior attributed to fairies in the oldest stories. :)
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Last edited by tshiggins; 11-06-2019 at 01:35 PM.
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Old 11-06-2019, 03:43 PM   #457
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That's very much the sort of behavior attributed to fairies in the oldest stories. :)
We are nun-nu-pi if you ple-ase, we are nun-nu-pi if you don't please...



We are nunnupi if you please,
We are nunnupi if you don't please.
We are former residents of feyland,
There are no finer bird than I am.

Do you smell what I smell with my nose?
Trouble has been gathering around those.
Seeking, coasting in within their wake,
All the excitement here that we can take.

What is it they are seeking across the veil?
We must help them to succeed and to not fail!
If we're patient and wait subtly,
There will be some fun for you and some for me.
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Old 11-08-2019, 12:25 PM   #458
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Well, just interesting there. Hmmm, I find myself in agreement with Beatrice on not taking a deal with the fae, but that comes from having read too much old folktales and Butcher.
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Old 11-29-2019, 02:28 PM   #459
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The latest session of Facets took place not long ago. Jeff couldn’t attend, so he loaned his character, Steven, out to our camping buddy, Ragan, who wanted to check out the game. He brought along his daughter, Kaytlynn, who ran the current guest character, Amanda.

Unfortunately, they had to leave for a prior engagement just as things heated up, but I am reliably informed they had a good time.
##

Characters Present

Dr. Henrietta "Indiana" Johnson -- A personable, age 29-and-holding Anthropologist who specializes in the pre-Columbian indigenous people of the American Desert Southwest. A Native of Apache Junction, AZ, "Indiana" is good with people and has been fascinated by American Indian religion and folklore since she was a child. Henrietta speaks Apache fluently, and not-so-secretly wishes archaeology could be more like Raiders of the Lost Ark and less like digging in a trench with a trowel and a toothbrush -- Played by Debbie S.

Dr. Arthur "A.J." Jamison -- a retired NASA scientist with a home in one of Moab's nicer canyon sub-developments, who volunteers for 4CSAR because he needs to do something to get out of the house. Considers himself responsible for Sunmi Jones, who is enough of a science-geek that the two of them can actually hold a conversation. -- Played by Anten S.

Aurelia R. Lockrin -- A young woman with a shady past who teaches History at Grand County High School (Home of the Red Devils!), and volunteers for 4CSAR because she's a bit of an adrenalin junkie, and likes the companionship. -- played by Bennie Rae P. (Not available this time)

Dr. Belody "Doc" Bascher -- a local veterinarian for both large and small animals, who frequently fixates on her job and uses 4CSAR as her primary social outlet. -- played by Samantha H.

Beatrice "B" Lawrence -- U.S. Army veteran who works for a local air charter service as a helicopter mechanic. She recently lost the lower part of her left leg in a fight with a sorcerer from an opposing lodge, and now wears a high-tech prosthetic. A cynic about men, she is accompanied by "Grunt," the biggest, best-trained pit-bull anybody has ever seen (purchased as an ally, and a totally badass dog, even before it was possessed by what appears to be a benign “foo” spirit) -- played by Bernetta W.

Claudia Abigail Tavulari, member of the NASA Quantum Physics Research Team, and an old friend of Arthur Jamison’s. The team has been helping Arthur research the portal physics, on the sly. – Played by Tisa T.

Stephen Mack, another member of the NASA Quantum Physics Research Team, a former U.S. Marine Corps test pilot, and outdoors enthusiast. – Played by Ragan (on a loaner).

Frank Moses -- A former Marine who quit his job as a trooper with the Utah Highway Patrol (UHP). Moses formerly volunteered with 4CSAR and has an interest in Doc Bascher. Frank has spent the past several months living in the Dark Canyon base camp on the 1918 side of the portal. -played by Mike H.

NPCs Present

Grunt: Beatrice's ally, a large pit-bull possessed by a protective "foo" spirit.

Amanda Gagnier: A professional airship crewmember and native of the Orbital Realm of Jupiter, hired as a guide as the Paradise neared the borders of territory controlled by the Nieuw Haarlem company. -Played by Kaytlynn.

##

After the revelation of the flags and declaration had time to sink in, the members of the Red Rock Lodge decided to see lodgings for the night, and get an early start on a bit of exploration of this world’s version of Dublin.

The group decided to head to the port and look for a good inn in that vicinity. They figured such a place would cater to transient travelers and would, therefore, be a lot more likely to provide good service for good money, but otherwise mind their own business.

They moved through the misty town with its gray cobblestone streets caked with a brown, frozen sludge of snow and old horse manure, while warmly-bundled pedestrians clumped along the boardwalks on either side. After they searched around for awhile, they found a nice inn on the south side of the river, with a winged cauldron on the sign and some fancy glass windows.

The group pulled up in their dirty cargo wagon pulled by knackered horses, as a bundled doorman watched skeptically. Doc Bascher clambered down from the back of the wagon and told the doorman he needed to help them bring in the luggage as she breezed by and went inside.

Once there, she found a clark at the desk and asked how much to rent the entire establishment. The man blinked in astonishment at the request (and her unfamiliar accent), and told her that wasn’t possible, as the inn had a number of other guests.

After going back and forth a bit, Doc Bascher did learn she could rent an entire floor for just her and her “entourage,” and she immediately paid for the rooms with defaced silver coins.

The staff of the Winged Cauldron spent the next several minutes hauling the group’s various bags and trunks up to their rooms, where (to Claudia’s dismay) they found no hot baths, but had to make do with wash basins.

A.J. got his luggage sorted pretty quickly, and made his way down to the desk to make inquiries about booking passage on a ship to London. The desk clark told him that ships crossed the Irish Sea to Wales on every tide, but they could likely find a ship bound for London within a couple of days.

Moreover, the clark said he could make arrangements, if A.J. liked, as that’s a service the inn normally provided. A.J. said to do so, for the next ship that would leave after a couple of days, since they wanted at a least a couple of nights of rest.

Some members of the group wandered down into the common room, periodically, but most stayed in their rooms. However, Doc Bascher went out to the stables to check on the horses, and groom them personally – much to the amazement of the stable-hands.

The stable hands kept trying to get her to let them do the work, but she insisted and soon gained their respect when they saw her obvious skill at the task, as well as her real desire to take care of the animals.

Once she was done, Doc Bascher made inquiries about the best places to buy clothes, and the bemused clark told her Dublin had no shops that sold ready-made garments. In fact, the notion seemed quite alien to the man, who offered to call in some taylors and seamstresses to take measurements, the next morning, and start working on outfits for each of them.

After that, several members of the group walked down to the common room to get some hot food, but most stayed in their rooms. Claudia spent the evening in her dry bed, warming up and enjoying the trilling song of the glowing green hercinia bird, which seemed quite happy with the darkness that came with the fall of night.

(The group did check carefully for fleas and bed-bugs. They didn’t find any, but did note the rooms smelled faintly of sulphur.)

True to his word, the clothiers appeared bright and early the next morning, and began to take everybody’s measurements with knotted strings. They were a bit flabbergasted to learn each member of the group wanted the coats and cloaks made several inches larger in all dimensions, but received no explanations for the bizarre request.

(The group wanted them to fit over the 21st Century inserts, with the ballistic plates inserted.)

The group asked that the clothes be delivered by morning, so they’d be ready for the evening tide.

Having grabbed some food and tea, the group decided to hit the streets. Doc Bascher decided to try to find an apothecary, in an attempt to learn more about this world’s medical technology. Frank wanted to scope out the area in the vicinity of the inn, and Henrietta and A.J. tried to find a book shop.

Eventually, A.J. and Henrietta found a place with a sign that said, “Reads,” and saw some books in the window. They went inside and saw lots of stationery, pen nubs, blotters, writing desks, ink wells and other items for home offices.

The shop did have a fair number of blank books, but only a few dozen printed books – mostly bibles. Curious, A.J. looked them over, and was surprised to see no sign of a King James version.

Instead, the shop had several bibles in Latin, of varying quality, as well as some marked “Vulgate,” with the scriptures in English. They also found a few romances, some hymnals, a prayer book or two, and a couple of histories, the latter of which they promptly purchased for later perusal.

Meanwhile, Doc Bascher found an apothecary, in which she felt distinctly unwelcome. However, given the sheer quantity of snakeoil on the shelves, as well as the equipment for cupping and bleeding, she didn’t really want to stay long, anyway.

The veterinarian returned to the Winged Cauldron fairly soon, and made arrangements to sell the horses and wagon. By then, the rest of the group began to trickle in, so the group decided to go for an early dinner.

(continued...)
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Old 11-29-2019, 02:29 PM   #460
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(...continued)

They went into the common room as a group, and noted it held mostly men, with only a few ladies tucked away in the corners, none of whom had drinks. Beatrice looked around for the snug and soon spotted the door, so she and Claudia decided to eat there, so they could have beer with their meals.

However, Henrietta and Amanda decided to remain in the main room, and took a look at the menu chalked on a slate by the door. It featured a few meat pies and a lot of fish, including some chowder.

Amanda looked a the unfamiliar menu items and asked what she should order. A.J. and Henrietta recommended the fish chowder (A.J. said fish would taste a bit like buzzhopper meat), and said Amanda should definitely try “real bread.”

The native of the Orbital Realm of Jupiter took the recommendation, and soon a basket of bread arrived. Amanda watched with a bit of disgust as A.J. broke off a piece of the delightfully light loaf, and promptly smeared some yellow gunk on it from a covered crock.

Amanda broke off a piece of the wonderful smelling loaf, nibbled a piece, and promptly took a huge bite. Lighter and more flavorful than any of the nut-flower bread she’d ever tasted, Amanda gobbled down half the loaf before her bowl of chowder arrived.

When it did, she saw chunks of unidentifiable substances floating in a thick white broth. She poked at it dubiously, and Henrietta and A.J. pointed out the fish and potatoes.

Amanda took a bite, and the rich dairy fats hit her like a drug. The diet on the Orbital Realm, based as it was on fowl, insect and vegetables, had very little in the way of fats, and most of those came in the form of oily dark meat from the various birds normally hunted or raised.

The native of the orbital realm had never tasted animal fats, much less the concentrated richness of dairy cream, and she couldn’t get enough.

(...continued)

Eventually, Amanda reached the bottom of the bowl, though, and decided to try the jam on the delightful bread. After that, she decided to give the butter a try, as well, and found it equally delightful.

As Amanda had been devouring her meal, several of the men in the room had been watching with growing amusement. Eventually, a brightly-dressed man sauntered over and introduced himself to the group as Fergus O’Neil.

The man said strangers didn’t show up very often in Dublin, in the middle of winter (although it wasn’t unheard of), and this group had made him quite curious.

O’Neil introduced himself as the captain and owner of small sloop, the Lady Courtenay, usually involved in the Triangle Trade, but currently docked in her home port of Dublin.

Capt. O’Neil made inquiries about the group’s origin, and (thinking sort of quickly) and the group acknowledged they’d crossed the Atlantic from the New World recently. O’Neil expressed surprise at that (it apparently wasn’t done that often), and asked from whence they came.

Remembering the darkness below them when they first emerged, Henrietta said they came from a place called Manhattan, and asked if O’Neil had heard of it. The ship captain expressed surprise at the question, and said the successful colony of New Amsterdam, on the southern tip of the island, had 7,000-8,000 people.

Thinking quickly, Henrietta said she and the rest of the group actually came from a settlement up the Noord Rivier (which the British called the Hudson) called New Haarlem, and needed to reach London.

O’Neil didn’t ask them details about their current errand, but did ask the type of work they did. Frank said the group offered its services as “problem-solvers,” and currently had a contract. At that point, O’Neil identified them as a group of condottiere, and apparently successful ones, given the money they’d spent.

He asked them if they meant to cross the Baltic and offer their services to one side or another in the “Swedish war” (which also confused the group), and they told them they did not.

Not really sure what the term “condottiere” meant, Frank bluffed a bit and said the description sounded about right, but they hadn’t planned to go to Sweden. The group chatted with O’Neil a bit longer, and he eventually disclosed that he planned to leave for London the evening tide of the next day, and offered to give them bargain-rate passage.

The group discussed it briefly and then decided to accept the offer, and A.J. spoke to the clark and had them cancel their previous arrangements. With that, the group turned in, knowing the taylors and seamstresses planned to arrive early.

As expected, the clothes-makers did arrive early and make some final measurements, did a bit of snipping and stitching, and the garments were declared as done as they could be, under the circumstances. The group paid for the garments and then puttered around a bit and arranged for a wagon to take themselves and their luggage to the Lady Courtenay.

The group arrived at the dock to see a neat little three-masted schooner, clean and in ship-shape. Feeling reassured (and even more so, when O’Neil greeted them personally), they stowed their belongings in small cabins in the fo'c'sle, and then mostly kept to them so as to stay out of the way of the busy crew.

The first night of the voyage passed peacefully enough, but the next morning the group woke to feel the ship gently rocking instead of the purposeful rise and fall that indicated forward motion.

Perturbed, the team decided to don their ballistic (hidden beneath their outer garments) and unpack their period weapons, Once everybody was ready, they emerged on the deck as a group, to see O’Neil and his officers and men engaged in quiet conversation at the stern.

As the members of the Red Rocks Lodge began to emerge, they saw O’Neil issue some curt orders, and four men with long-arms trotted up the steps to the raised stern deck, and spread out. As they did so, O’Neil and his three officers, with the men trailing a bit behind, approached the group.

A.J. asked what was happening, and O’Neil and his officers stopped at midship and said they’d come to “renegotiate” the payment of their passage. A.J. replied, rather matter-of-factly, that O’Neil really didn’t want to do that, and that the crew of the Lady Courtenay should stick to the terms already agreed upon.

During this brief conversation, Doc Bascher, Aurelia, Henrietta and Steven made their way up to the top deck of the fo’c’sle, and stood ready – Steven with his musket, Doc Bascher with hers, Henrietta with her staff and Aurelia with her longbow.

O’Neil said he must insist, gave a signal, and the four musketmen on the stern deck raised their weapons and pointed them at the group. In response, the members of the Red Rock Lodge, including (to the surprise of O’Neil and crew) the women, raised theirs and aimed at the officers and men closer to them.

The four muskets on the stern barked and, to the surprise of no one forward, didn’t hit anyone at that range. The Red Rocks Lodge returned fire at the officers and sailors and, to the consternation of Capt. O’Neil, proved much more effective.

At that point the officers drew their pistols and fired as the men rushed forward, and the Red Rocks crew did the same. Ballistic plates stopped one ball, but a couple of the pirate officers and a few of their men weren’t so lucky.

After that, the fight moved to swords and knives, and things got personal. The pirates of the Lady Courtenay fought better with their swords and cutlasses, but couldn’t penetrate the body armor worn by the party (which the pirates assumed were regular cuirasses).

In addition to her “cuirass,” Henrietta triggered an “Armor” spell and, staff whirling, she charged past the fighters, jumped up on a hatch cover and proceeded to lay about her. A.J. dropped an officer with his crossbow, pulled out a large knife, and had at.

Frank, delighted at the turn of events, dropped his spent firearms and, reaching behind him, pulled out two katars. He jumped in and, depending on his armor to protect him, went into close combat. For her part, Beatrice pulled out her sword and, to her own surprise, actually did pretty well with it (good rolls).

Aurelia stayed up on the fo’c’sle top deck and plunked arrows into people with good effect (although she did leave one sticking in the back of Beatrice’s armor), but Steven put his Marine Corps background to good use when things got tight.

Frank did get in a spot of trouble when one of the sailors landed a solid right with the knuckle-guard of his cutlass and knocked one of the former Utah State trooper’s teeth out. Frank shook off the blow, though, and returned the favor by grabbing the man by the throat and then breaking two ribs with an elbow strike to the torso.

(continued...)
__________________
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MXLP:9 [JD=1, DK=1, DM-M=1, M(FAW)=1, SS=2, Nym=1 (nose coffee), sj=1 (nose cocoa), Maz=1]
"Some days, I just don't know what to think." -Daryl Dixon.
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