At the same moment, the Royal Guards of Reims continue their hard ride to London....
In French: Take care, men.... We Frenchmen are not looked upon kindly here.... These English pig-dogs are likely to try to waylay or mislead us....
The others nod or reply "Oui, Capitan!"
Good. It is a hard bit to swallow when you realize you've been used as a pawn in a ruse. Your helping us should ease the pain a bit. And it is good to know that Bolingbroke is a witch as well. We will do our best to rid the world of these two scourges. What say you, me boyos? Er...and you also Kiyu. If you could spare one of your....pack, is it? One to show us the way, would be great. Let's be off!
Catrina hops up and down excitedly....
Oh, Grandmother! Please, allow me to guide them to Bolingbroke's house! May I, Grandmother? Please?
Very well, Catrina.... But please, be careful, child! If Bolingbroke or The Witch of Eye discover you aiding their enemies, you're likely to end up as a mouse or a newt!
Not far behind the Royal Guards of Reims, four other riders, clad in black garb, draw nearer to their quarry....
In Nipponese: We must use great caution, my brothers.... Our wayward brother has allied himself with a band of dangerous gaijin.... It may be that we can buy their cooperation with the gold such barbarians so desire.... But it is also possible that they will fight to protect the traitorous Hisao.... We must be cunning!
The other three ninja of the Yellow Reeds clan nod in agreement.
Catrina leads The Lusty Fools through The Warrens to a secret door....
Beyond this door is Mister Bolingbroke's wine cellar....
"You really do have entrance to everywhere, don't you?"
What knowledge do your people have of this house? Any traps or such like? Hisao asks the rat girl as they prepare to infiltrate.
aside -- to the other Lusty Fools:
I still think we should go to you-know-who first and let that person know we've heard of a problem -- get that person on our side and then ambush the Witch of Eye at Bolingbroke's home.
What if we ambush Bolingbroke's home and do not find proof of what The Witch has been planning? What if Bolingbroke and the Witch of Eye have you-know-who with them when we sneak in?
My vote is to make haste and meet with that person, introduce ourselves as the ones who recently eliminated both the Werewolf and Wererat threats and have heard of a vile Witch. Then that person will be on our side, supporting us against this "mysterious" Witch.
.
.
.
to Grandmother:
Thank you for accepting our offer of peace. And yes, please tell us all that you can about Bolingbroke's home as well as what you've seen of his supernatural powers and hers.
If, afterall, we fail in our first attempt and have to retreat and try again -- doubtful as that may be -- you could be in danger of the Witch's retaliation. ...It will be obvious that you sent us there when we emerge from your secret entrance.
Aye, there is a good point in that, I suppose. And if that fails, we could always come back and do it this way.
"You really do have entrance to everywhere, don't you?"
Catrina smiles proudly at Alphonse and nods her head.
What knowledge do your people have of this house? Any traps or such like? Hisao asks the rat girl as they prepare to infiltrate.
Catrina frowns at her feet for a moment as she thinks....
Tlaps? What the bugger are tlaps?.... Oh! He's saying traps!
Traps! Yes! He has a trapdoor guarding the foyer, which can be opened by throwing a lever on the balcony.... It opens into an acid bath! There's a secret door next to the fireplace in the kitchen, but I don't know what's behind it.... Um.... That's it, I think....
aside -- to the other Lusty Fools:
I still think we should go to you-know-who first and let that person know we've heard of a problem -- get that person on our side and then ambush the Witch of Eye at Bolingbroke's home.What if we ambush Bolingbroke's home and do not find proof of what The Witch has been planning? What if Bolingbroke and the Witch of Eye have you-know-who with them when we sneak in?
My vote is to make haste and meet with that person, introduce ourselves as the ones who recently eliminated both the Werewolf and Wererat threats and have heard of a vile Witch. Then that person will be on our side, supporting us against this "mysterious" Witch.
.
.
.
to Grandmother:
Thank you for accepting our offer of peace. And yes, please tell us all that you can about Bolingbroke's home as well as what you've seen of his supernatural powers and hers.If, afterall, we fail in our first attempt and have to retreat and try again -- doubtful as that may be -- you could be in danger of the Witch's retaliation. ...It will be obvious that you sent us there when we emerge from your secret entrance.
Grandmother contemplates for a moment, her eyes closed and whiskers trembling, anxiously wringing her paws....
The Witch is more powerful than Bolingbroke, but he's dangerous, too.... Both can fly.... Both can charm the weak-willed, or lay a sleeping hex on ye.... A wee little devil lives in Bolingbroke's house and advises him in all matters.... The Witch is also served by such a wee devil.... A pair of hounds o' hell guard Bolingbroke's bedchamber.... And a hidden acid bath under his foyer can be opened under the unwary by a switch on the overlooking balcony....
Hmmm....Devils in league with Roger Bolingbroke--
'Wee devils' sounds like Imps -- we must make sure we have the ability to see through their Invisibility and shoot at their flying persons with silvered weapons. ...Hell Hounds should be easy enough, a bit of magical protection against their fires and silvered weapons for them as well.
....What else can help us against Imps & Hell Hounds, I wonder?....
Hmmm....Devils in league with Roger Bolingbroke--
[dice=Inspired Knowledge Planes]1d20 +23 +1d6'Wee devils' sounds like Imps -- we must make sure we have the ability to see through their Invisibility and shoot at their flying persons with silvered weapons. ...Hell Hounds should be easy enough, a bit of magical protection against their fires and silvered weapons for them as well.
....What else can help us against Imps & Hell Hounds, I wonder?....[dice=Inspired Knowledge Planes]1d20 +23 +1d6** spoiler omitted **
In the cosmology of this multiverse, The Abyss is the CE hell, Hades is the NE hell, and The Nine Hells (The Nine Pits of Hells, or Nine Circles of Hell) are the LE hell, and demons, daemons and Devils, while typically hostile toward one another, and all other kinds of outsiders, have been occasionally known to temporarily unite in order to work some greater evil. Ushering in The Apocalypse certainly would qualify as a greater evil demons, daemons and Devils might unite to wreak on the Prime Material Plane. It seems apparent that in this case, a number of evil creatures of different ideologies regarding the Chaos/Law axis are setting aside their methodological differences in order to usher in the ultimate conflict foretold as Armaggedon!
Aside from a few places known as Devil's Jump and a few sets of standing stones associated with various greater devils that can be found scattered throughout the countryside, Tyr can think of no legendary local Devils these imps and hell hounds are likely subject to.... It seems more likely the imps could be famiars assigned to the witches, and the hell hounds might have a similar contract with Bolingbroke.
[dice=Knowledge Nobility]1d20 +24 +1d6
Humphrey Lancaster, 1st Duke of Gloucester, 1st Earl of Pembroke, and current Lord Protector of England, son of Henry V and uncle of young King Henry VI, currently married to his former mistress, Eleanor Cobham, will likely be found in nearby Greenwich, approximately two leagues (6-and-a-half miles) east and south of London, on the southward loop of the River Thames. He has been here often these past two years since inheriting Greenwich Manor, and when his duties at Court or elsewhere do not occupy him, he is usually busy overseeing the enclosure of Greenwhich and the construction of a mighty palace there.
A hero for his valor at Agincourt, where he was wounded and only survived due to the bravery and prowess of his brother, King Henry V (who stood over his prone body and fought off a group of determined French Knights), Duke Humphrey divides his time more or less between acting as Lord Protector of the Realm, crenelating his properties in England, and dallying with mistresses, though he is also known as a studious scholar and outspoken statesman.
Duchess Eleanor, Humphrey's second wife and former mistress, who had been his first wife's lady-in-waiting, is a beautiful, cunning, and ambitious lady, who applies much of her cunning to advancing her husband's status. She is known to have employed The Witch of Eye to help her conceive, though her further dealings with Marjory Jourdemayne are not widely known. Certain courtiers have whispered that Lady Eleanor is involved with witchcraft, but this has never been proven, obviously.
The Lusty Fools return to The Boar's Head Inn to spend the night. The following dawn, on the morning of 14th June, they rise, equip themselves for the journey to Greenwich, eat a hearty breakfast in the common room of the inn, and around 9:00 AM, mount their steeds and ride south across London Bridge to Southwark, then bear east on the road to Greenwich, a road that hugs the south bank of the River Thames....
A light fog from the river limits visibility to about 20 feet during the brief ride, and a light drizzle dampens the company's clothing and armor, but the journey from London to Greenwich only takes about 40 minutes on horse, and soon enough, The Lusty Fools are passing by a mortar wall with crenelations being constructed by a crew of some score of peasant laborers directed by a few freeman master masons and engineers. These workers have erected a temporary shelter of daub-and-wattle in the shadow of the 30-foot-high crenelated wall where they sleep overnight. They pause in their labor to peer curiously at the band of riders that pass eastward toward Greenwich Manor and the great palace underway thereby....
At the moment when the party comes within conversation range (about 30 feet) from the nearest workmen, the rumble of cartwheels on the road ahead becomes audible to those with the keenest ears, and soon after, the shadowy silhouettes of a cart pulled by dray oxen and driven by a lone driver, accompanied by the shadowy shapes of first two flanking riders on horseback, followed not far behind by another flanking pair of riders, become visible through the fog....
As they draw nearer, the travelers heading west along the road toward London become clearly visible: five human men, one driving a cart drawn by a pair of oxen, the other four clad in chainmail and cloaks and mounted on horses. The riders are visibly armed, with longswords in scabbards at their sides and light crossbows slung across their backs, but the cart driver is clad in normal clothing and seems not to be armed beyond a dagger at his hip. The men slow their pace and move to one side of the dirt road to make room for the Lusty Fools to pass them, and cast curious glances at the armed and armored riders as they pass by. The cart is obviously loaded with some kind of cargo covered with a tarp and tied down securely....
The cart and riders ride on....
Seems a bit odd to have that many guards for a simple cart of goods, doesn't it? Paddy says quietly.
Paddy calls out to the "caravan"
Ho there! Carrying quite the load there eh? What are you carrying? Crown jewels? Gold from across the world? Rare liquors? I would be interested if ye had some liquor there...
Seems a bit odd to have that many guards for a simple cart of goods, doesn't it? Paddy says quietly.
Paddy calls out to the "caravan"
Ho there! Carrying quite the load there eh? What are you carrying? Crown jewels? Gold from across the world? Rare liquors? I would be interested if ye had some liquor there...
Sorry, mate! No liquor here.... Godspeed you, sirs!
A few laborers paving mortar together to form the 30-ft-high crenelated wall laugh at the cart-driver's unforthcoming answer....
HEHEHEHEHEEE!!!!
Oh well...what about venison? I could really go for some good meat right now...
Oh well...what about venison? I could really go for some good meat right now...
[dice=sense motive] 1d20+9
Venison you may find in Greenwich, sires! Good day!
The driver is clearly not interested in revealing his cargo....
Oh bugger. What you got mate? I have gold....I can pay top dollar. Unless....you're not....no you can't be....are you smuggling?
Nacht had allowed the beings to speak and while distracted he fades into the crowd coming back around as Paddy-being was clearly interested in what the cart-being had. As if he blended into the background.
He then looked under the tarp.
Oh bugger. What you got mate? I have gold....I can pay top dollar. Unless....you're not....no you can't be....are you smuggling?
Without slowing, the driver shouts back at Paddy: We're bringing some of our late master's possessions to his next of kin in London, if ye must know, though I cannot see how it's any business of your'n!
The riders watch The Lusty Fools warily over their shoulders....
Nacht had allowed the beings to speak and while distracted he fades into the crowd coming back around as Paddy-being was clearly interested in what the cart-being had. As if he blended into the background.
He then looked under the tarp.
Neither the driver nor any of the four riders notice the nigh-invisible Beetle Man peering under a corner of the tarp....
** spoiler omitted **
Placentia, a.k.a. Bella Court, or Greenwich Palace....
Last night at The Boar's Head Inn, William Stryker was visited by a doleful apparition of his father, silently beckoning to him, and leading him to fear that some tragedy may have befallen his house.... He gave a brief explanation for his sudden departure at breakfast on the morning of the 14th, and rode at haste for his house in Nottingham.
Kiyu has decided to remain in Grandmother's parlor as an "ambassador of goodwill" (i.e., a spy) to ensure that the wererats do not go and "rat on" The Lusty Fools to The Witch of Eye or Bolingbroke....
During the Lusty Fools' stay at the Tower of London, at around 4:00 PM, a silver raven arrives with a small message scroll rolled up in its talons....
It also delivers a verbal message in its tiny metallic voice. The combined verbal and written messages come to this:
False Dauphin hunting your party. Foreign strangers hunting "Hamid of Persia". True Dauphin grows restless. Father Renaud wishes you safe travels and success in your righteous quest.