Whitby
TimBarnes
2012/04/21 11:03

Table of Contents

Back to Yggdrasil
The party heads for the Vienna gate after kafe and kuchen. The Council have returned to Yggdrasil to discuss the ongoing battle.

Latest news
Setheroth’s Realm has sealed itself or fallen under wishcurse (though some of his armies were trapped outside of the barrier and have offered their services to the council).
The enemy have a adopted a standard banner, the Black Sun.
Ki’s Realm is under siege. The Djinn Gate looks as if it will open before the forging. The Hejaz and Yemen regions are in turmoil. Coedarian is commanding Ki’s defenders operating from Sophie’s Realm.
In the mortal realms it is September 1915, notable for the Battle of Loos and the Fall of Baghdad. The Five Rings are not actively hunting heroes but they are increasing in influence and power.
 
Marco, in discussion with Cynan and the party, decides to search for Arthur. Oberon summons the pitkähuilu player, Lyris Korpina (the raven), and suggests that she re-joins the search now that she has become a Guardian of the Hall of the Dead.
 Day trip to Baghdad
 The party head for Astarte’s Realm and for Baghdad to talk to Cador/Hawkwood about the Battle of Camlan. Major General Hawkwood is a little surprised to see them but is happy to assist. 
Hawkwood confirms that the battle was in the North of England on the coast between York and Bamborough. The Saxons called it the White Settlement. The modern name is Whitby and the battle was fought in the shadow of an ancient holy site and the tiny abbey that protected it. Hawkwood also confirms that the Round Table existed and was a segmented Roman design. Hawkwood notes that Lancelot’s castle was at Bamborough.  
 After admiring Baghdad (Carlos recognises the feeling of the place!), the party heads back into Astarte’s Realm and through the Wiltshire gate. Off to Kings Cross to catch the night-train to the North.   
The Night Train 

Lyris searches the carriages and discovers that the party are not the only magic users on the train. Mr Larson & Mr Markus are carrying a selection of mystical objects. Gabriella Volpe is a sidhe but Lyris cannot discern her origin. 
Nell discovers that she has to dress in a sailor girl costume to sit in the First Class dinning car with Lyris as her governess. Larson and Markus claim to be making a movie! Nell steals one of Mr Larson’s fetishes. Lyris hands back his wallet and when he gets back to his cabin it appears that he dropped his fetish when he put his coat on. 

Marco joins a game of cards and fleeces Markus and Larson.Nell & Lyris’s search of the room show that they have a witch compass and a jade sacrificial dagger. Nell decides to steal Markus blade harness for Lyris. 
Marco chats with Gabriella. He realises that she is a western Kitsune. Johann later confirms that Arioch’s pet kitsune was called Sionn and she was his top agent and assassin.
Johann also confirms that Whitby has an unusual history.  In the morning, Sinclair & Marco discuss timing. Gabriella finds Larson & Markus arguing and calls them a pair of idiots!
 
On the site of the Battle of Camlan

The party head up the hill to the Abbey and the country house, attacked by John Paul Jones, raided by Dracula and levelled by the Kriegsmarine in December 1914.  Beyond the Abbey is the house of Sir Josiah Templar the enigmatic retired civil servant who is host to Markus and Larson. The party hear the sounds of battle as they approach the hill and begin to see glimpses of the carnage. As they reach the central melee, on the site of a shattered Neolithic chamber tomb, Nell recognises Arthur and his knights facing Mordred in the final fatal battle than dooms Britain.
She points to each in turn as is horrified to see her friends die one by one . surrounded by the warriors of Arthur’s finest commander. Arthur slays Mordred but is carried from the field to the boat which will transport him to Avalon. The fallen dolmen of the chamber tomb marks the site of a tomb of one of the Princes of the Winter Sidhe. He was overwhelmed and butchered by mortal assassins on his way to prevent the forging (Order 68) and now his anger and hatred prevents the ghosts of the slain heroes from returning.
Nell decides to use Aislinn’s memory to link with Mordred but they must begin the dream again to understand how the disaster unfolds even though this process distresses Nell (watching Hawkwood fall badly wounded again and again is grim).

Once they have witnesses the key elements in the sequence they set up at the dolmen and prepare to summon the Winter Sidhe’s wraith. Johan will shield, Marco will focus while Sinclair uses exorcism to deal with the ghost. Nell and Lyris will use the Hero Song to break the enchantment and convince Mordred to break the curse by shattering the dream narrative the heroes are trapped in. Nell hopes to remind him of his loyalty to Britain. Sinclair’s plan shatters when the exorcism fails to contain the wraith. The goat intended to act as a temporary prison merely detonates (98)!
Marco, Sinclair and Marco are blasted backwards as the Winter Sidhe manifests before them. Johann manages to contain the first blast of lightning but his attempt to transfer the energy through his gyro-penny fails and the wraith gathers more and more power from the surrounding ghosts.
Marco invites the wraith into hsi mind where he holds the creature at bay with dreams of joy while Sinclair staggers into the weave nexus and slays the wraith’s master spell. The entire fabric of the wraith’s magic shatters but the explosion rends a hole in the barrier between the mortal and spiritual realms and Sinclair’s soul joins the wraith’s on the border of the veil. 

Below this epic battle scene, in the centre of the battle, Nell reminds Mordred why he is angry. She reminds him that he only fought because he thought Arthur had lost his way and was no longer capable of being Dux Britanniarum. She tells him that both sides will lose if he fights and tragedy is inevitable. He recognises both Nell and Lyris (but is not sure why) and reluctantly agrees to meet with Arthur. Inspired by Nell’s impassioned speech about the suffering of the peasantry, the heroes fight their desire to fight and Arthur finally realises that he can end the war by recognising Mordred as his successor.
Marco intercepts Lancelot and even the turbulent Breton’s arrival cannot prevent the heroes from escaping. Nell reminds Mordred of the reason for his ambition before he fades. Lyris asks him three questions :
1. Where is the Round Table?  Near the White cliffs.
2. Where is Arthur?  Near the Table.
3. How with the knights gather? Once they are needed, they will gather at the table. 

Sinclair and the Winter Sidhe Prince prepare for their final duel but the veteran templar remembers his oath and decides that the sorcerer/warlord cannot be allowed to join the enemy.
With a cry of “Deus Vult”. he opens a gateway to Hell and drags the horrified creature through the flaming vortex into the Abyss. 
The clouds scatters as the nightmare ends and the party realise that Sinclair is dead. His body glowing briefly before the rain begins to fall.
Nell collapses heartbroken. Her friends are all dead and now Sinclair has joined them. Marco and Johann carry the body down into Whitby and arrange for a good Catholic burial for their friend