Butters

It all worked out in the end my character had a very sore throat but the other Player character was able to hack the attacker to bits so all good now I just have to worry about this contact poison I just touched.

I think I got a chance to dodge but failed so the grapple was a success he then inflicted pain and afterwards I had a few options I tried to break free. I rolled a 17 with an unarmed skill of 43 so a pass whilst the attacker rolled a 10 or 11 out of 35? so neither of us got a critical but I thought I had managed to break free. The others seemed to say that as written all it said was if the attacker succeeds then the grapple remains in place and he had succeeded so I remained grappled. Which i didn't understand as why was I even rolling?

Cheers man, I think the confusion is coming from how the grapple section is written to be honest, It then gives the two options of Grapple fails or succeeds so its unclear to me why there is even a roll off at this point and its also unclear how its similar to a normal opposed roll. This then effects the Break free action as its written as an opposed grapple roll instead of just an opposed roll so looking at the first section it looks to be just a straight pass or fail on the attackers part and what the defender rolls seems to make no difference. The other Players said that since the attacker didn't fail his roll the grapple remains in place even though I had also passed, I'm guessing because the description didn't mention that as an option. So reading it as is I would like to know, 1. The first section on grappling, similar to an opposed roll how? because at the moment it seems nothing like an opposed roll at all. 2, Break free should this be treated as a normal opposed roll and so all normal opposed rules apply? I think Grapple is the only time where an opposed roll gets the Similar qualifier and this seems to be the source of confusion at least on my part. Again thanks for the reply I was starting to think I was missing something obvious.

Grappling came up during a recent session and I had a rules question as I was a little fuzzy on the whole procedure, As far as I remember my character was going to be grappled by a N.PC the N.P.C made the attack and succeeded he then choose to inflict pain then we both rolled an opposed Unarmed Combat roll to see if I could break free I passed but so did the attacker now this is where the fuzzy comes in I thought it was an opposed roll so whoever rolls highest under their skill wins which was me so I thought my character had broken free but the others said that as the attacker had passed even though it was with a lower roll the grapple remained. Now I admit I was a little miffed as I thought I had broken free but the main cause for my momentary gruffness was more to do with the fact that I thought I had understood the rule and it appears that I hadn't which always bothers me. So hopefully someone can explain and clear up my fuzziness so I will know what to do in the future.

Hang on he's Italian, so is there even such a thing as an excess of alcohol consumption as far as he's concerned?

Stories of the whisperedThe Doctor leaving the others behind in his efforts to at least keep the wagon in sight soon finds himself alone and breathing hard he can see the wagon taking a turn which will soon leave it out of sight, he looks around seeing that none of the other CL.U.Bers are near and is faced with a difficult decision should he wait for them and loose sight of Martyn or carry on following and hope they can pick up his trail. Just as he's about to head back to find the others he hears a voice he hasn't heard for in a long time it comes from a bulky figure jogging up George street with a glowing lantern suspended from his belt " Come on Doctor he's getting away man" the Doctor smiles and takes a deep steadying breath "Hang on Saul I'm right behind you old friend" and he starts to run to catch up with Saul.The now calmed Ralph follows the German down a number of alley ways in search of the Italian and whatever caused that loud bang they find the still shocked Guilio standing somewhat dumbstruck over the cooling body of Annelise Anholt. Seeing the terrible wounds on the body the Witch hunter crouches down and picks up the wrecked remains of a pistol turning it over and sniffing the shattered barrel he looks up and grins at Guilio "You are watched over it seems my friend, it seems that in her panic she double loaded her gun....nasty business" he drops the pistol next to Annelise's ruined face brushing off the worst of the mud from his knees he turns to Ralph "So what now?"What now indeed the Doctor and the wagon had disappeared and with the ringing of watchman's bells in the distance this fight had finally come to the attention of the Land, Sea Co-operative's militia so time was running out. Ralph looked around and quickly spying what looked like an abandoned tenement building grabbed Annelise and started to carry her towards it as he moved he told the others that they needed time and that they needed to avoid any official entanglements so the plan was to hole up in this building wait for the coast to clear and then try to make it back to the N.M.A compound. Jonah was sent off to intercept the reinforcements from Zeal whilst the others would wait and hide, Jonah thought that they might just get away with it because the dead thugs outside would soon be quickly identified as highwayman and thugs for hire so the Co-Operative would more than likely put it down to inter gang fighting over turf or loot.So that was the hope anyway as the Yarmouth Party hid the body and tried to make themselves comfortable in one of the tenements rooms they prepared to wait until the hue and cry had died down and the blackness of night could cover their escape.Their hope of remaining undiscovered was a short lived one as this militia patrol seemed to be slightly more professional than the usual run of the mill watch and the soon picked up a trail following it back to the pool of blood soaked mud and snow caused by the unfortunate passing of Annelise and began a building to building search. Soon the front door of the tenement was being banged upon and a militiaman was demanding entry. The Party looked at each other and realised that they all looked damned suspicious, Ralph's clothes were shredded and stiff with dried blood and well to be honest he looked like a crazed murder at the best of times, Guilio was bruised and battered and he still had a dented buckler strapped to his stump even Wilhelm looked suspicious and not only because he was German but because he had received a nasty gut shot earlier in the fight. There was a tense moment the banging continued and the Party looked at each other in the darkness "Ach Damnation and hell-fire I better see this fool" seeing the expressions of the others he laughs "The Doctor was kind enough to patch me up before he left and my black clothing hides the blood so best be me then" he walks to the buildings front door and opening it up greets the militiaman with "Yes what is all this a cursed knocking it's cold and late and I am tired" the young man barely out of his teens staggers back at this verbal assault, the others listen in on the muted conversation their hands resting upon readied weapons. Finally the door closes shut again and Wilhelm swaggers in dusting off his hands "Easy Ja, you English are so trusting " the others look on somewhat shocked and with just a little awe "How did you manage that you don't even sound English" asked Ralph Wilhelm just does a little bow and doffs his hat "Never you mind my English friend" he suddenly stops and cocks his head to the side "I thought we searched this building but I swear I can hear....singing?" the other to listen and sure enough there seems to be faint singing coming from below them. "Feck there must be a hidden room somewhere, we had better find them in case they are more of these bleedin cultists, Zeal won't be happy with us anyway with Martyn getting away and with only the slight hope that my daft cousin can get back to us with information let alone us missing a whole damned flock of them" So they quickly begin searching again and using a few tricks told to them by Wilhelm soon find a hidden door which leads them to a candlelit chamber where a small group of ragged people are taking mass, they are heretics but off the other sort it appears that they are Catholics.This led to some awkwardness as normally the Party would have rounded them up and taken them in for questioning but they were not meant to be here in this section of town as it was still under the control of the Land Sea Co-Operative and as Zeal kept telling them the peace treaty needed time to settle in and for areas of responsibility to be sorted out. So they were on the horns of a dilemma. They went into a huddle in front of the somewhat scared and now bemused Catholics and after a quick discussion that involved the phrase no we can't just kill them all being repeated several times to the Witch Hunter they decided to make a deal which basically boiled down to we didn't see you so you couldn't have seen us right? the congregation must have thought that the CL.U.Bers were smugglers or some such and readily agreed to the terms. By now it was fully dark and the militia had moved on after their door to door search they had also removed the bodies of Lucy and the highwayman. It seems that they had spent some time in the Old Yar table after they had spoken to a certain Ms Ripley the Inn now stood in darkness and locked up tight. The Party decide to play it safe and leave the body hidden in the tenement and after one last quick look around they finally make their way back to the Listing sausage Inn.They manage to get over the barricades and get back to the sausage without too much difficulty and head off to find Zeal. They find him still up and somewhat haggard looking surrounded by maps, charts and dockets even at this late hour messengers are coming and going bringing in the latest news of the reconstruction and demands from Norwich for updates on when the fishing fleet can go back out. It seems that the situation was reaching a crisis point as between the bad harvest, the blight and the flooding the food situation was dire. There had already been unconfirmed reports of cannibalism in some of the towns. Zeal seeing the CL.U.Bers waves off Wolcraft Smith and the Alderman doesn't seem to happy about it but Zeal is clearly in charge here so he has to keep his anger under control but this doesn't stop him sneering at the ragged band and slamming the door as he leaves. "My lord that man tries my patience" he indicates a few stools piled up against the Inns wall "Grab a seat before you fall down now I've already heard something of what you have been up to and before you start don't worry about the Doctor I sent someone to keep him out of trouble and they should hopefully be able to track Martyn and let you know where he is, but I need all the details you can give me things are moving forward but we are not out of the woods yet far from it." there follows a long briefing the messengers are sent to other captains and orderlies as the CL.U.Bers relate the results of their latest mission. Afterwards Zeal looks pensive but tells them to get some rest and prepare themselves to go back out in search of Martyn Arnholt tomorrow he also tells them not to worry about the body of Analisse as he will arrange for it to be collected. He also arranges for the Catholics to be dealt with as it seems the CL.U.bers felt that promises to heretics were only promises of convenience. Zeal sends them away to get some sleep and he is immediately swamped by people demanding supplies, help, and support.Later that day the CL.U.Bers heave their battered and bruised bodies into action again and with much groaning and moaning they get their kit packed and head down to see Zeal. He is still sitting in the same seat surrounded by even more paperwork and ringed by orderlies. Again he waves them away if only briefly he hands them a sealed envelope with their instructions and several million pounds in gold and gives them their final briefing the mission is still the same stop Martyn and stop the cult he tells them that some information came in during the night that should point them in the right direction and wishes them luck. The Party move back out into the weak winter sunlight and read the letter it mainly repeats Zeal's instructions but has several reports attached to it which reveal that Martyn was seen handing out food and asking for people to follow him out into the broads beyond the town and that he would lead them to a better place, a place fit for honest people and safe from corruption and war, it seems that only a few people took him up though as the reports only mention seeing two other men with him the same report It also mentions that two men seemed to be following the wagon from a distance but when approached they quickly avoided the Watch. So with a rough heading the Party went out to finish off the Dutch menace once and for all.They pass through the towns wall and after following the main road for a while but soon turn off and start to follow a rutted track that led off into the marshes, it seems that Wilhelm had picked up the scent and he soon picks up signs that a group of people had travelled this way recently, Ralph seems somewhat unsure and as he scans the flat grey of the marsh ahead asks "How can you be so sure my Teutonic friend? it all looks the same to me, just reeds and mud going endlessly off till it meets the horizon" Wilhelm grins and points out the faint impressions of cart wheels and boot prints that could be faintly seen in the mud of the track. Following the Germans pointing finger he too finally spots the tracks"Oh well, if you're going to get all cocky about it" he says in a huff "Well come on then times a wastin and who knows what trouble my fool of a cousin has gotten himself into"So they continue to follow the tracks and passed the time telling each other about themselves and how they had ended up being dragged into the darkness of the CL.U.Ber organisation. It made for some interesting tales but they had to return soon to the task at hand as they had to cross the river Yare and the bridge wasn't an option. They looked around the bleak landscape and Guilio spotted what seemed to be a house in the distance so with nothing better presenting itself they headed over. The man of the house was absent but its lady greeted them warmly enough and after hearing their somewhat edited tale of woe clapped her hands and told them not to worry for she had access to a raft that would take them across but she distraughtly told them that she would have to ask for a few shillings in payment as these were hard times and food prices were going up and up. The Party agreed and she arranged for a local man to punt them across. The man was a good natured sort but he was some what surprised to be called upon again so soon after taking the last lot across as he told the Party that not many people apart from the odd peat digger headed out this way especially this time of year. The Party shared their rations with him and asked him a few questions about the other groups implying that they were all friends but that they had drunk to much in Yarmouth and had missed the early start. It seems they were on the right track the first group matched Martyn and his small group of followers which only seemed to number handful of men and the second lot was definitely the Doctor and someone else, a dark brooding figure armed with a long wicked looking blade, his description of the second man gave Guilio and Ralph pause could it be that Saul had returned from whatever mission the bureaus Inner circle had sent him on all those weeks past? if so it was good news indeed as they needed his strong arm and wise council more than ever as the tide of darkness seemed to be rising higher and higher, Mallebench was still on the lose and now old and ancient gods were rising from the depths to tempt the weak in these troubled times. After making it across and thanking the man for his efforts and information they continue to follow the track which slowly becomes nothing but hunting trail at best. The flat and marshy landscape had a strange melancholy beauty the expanse of grey sky above them almost seemed to be pressing down on them at times but on they tramped through the pools of water and boggy ground trying to see anything past the reed beds looking for any signs of life. As the afternoon wore on and the CL.U.Bers blood sacrifice to the midges finally seemed enough they spotted a few thatched roofs in the near distance there seemed to be a hamlet ahead and as it was starting to get dark and the weather was getting colder it seemed an ideal place to seek shelter for the night.The hamlet if it could be called that consisted of a few rough buildings that squatted some how brooding in the soft waterlogged earth, they gave off an unwholesome air of decay and hidden secrets there was an Inn of sorts but that seemed oddly bricked up the only light that could be seen was leaking through the badly shuttered windows of the only substantial building in the hamlet so with a shrug the Party head towards it but more than one of them checked to see that their sword was loose in its scabbard. The building appeared to have once been a blacksmiths or maybe a small foundry but it now had an Inns sign swaying above it's solid looking door the sign of a black rooster. Wilhelm spits to the side "Ze Rooster Schwarz is an ill omen" Ralph shoves past "I don't care at this moment if Old Nick himself is in there, Its cold I'm soaked and we need shelter and some hot grub so in we go" and with that he pushes the door open its rusted hinges groaning in protest.The pub goes silent as is the won't of small local pubs the world over and every eye is turned towards these interlopers. Taking in the armour and the many weapons of the newcomers the patrons quickly turn back to their jacks of beer and quiet conversation. Guilio smiles immediately at home in any Inn and heads towards the upturned barrels at the far end which seemed to be serving as the bar, Wilhelm found a table in the corner and sitting down facing the door did his best to merge with the shadows whilst studying the locals whilst Ralph looks with hunger at the rabbits roasting over the pubs fire pit. Guilio pulls out a shilling and starts flicking it across the knuckles of his remaining hand and his smile becomes even larger when he see the greed light up in the barman's eyes. "Hello my good man, my friends an I require your finest ale and shelter for the night" he is interrupted by Ralph bellowing RABBITS! smoothly the Italian continues as if never interrupted "Oh and something to eat as well maybe something involving roast rabbit maybe?" After the locals had gotten over their initial shock and distrust they either ignored the Party or as in the case of one incredibly old and weather beaten man who called himself Uncle Ivan sidle up to them in the hope of getting a few free beers out of these newcomers. Now Ivan apart from smelling like a sheep, a sheep that had messed itself very badly before then dying in shame liked to tell a tale in the belief that in doing so people would give him beer and so he began telling the Party all about the hamlet and more importantly the Witch Angry Jane who stalked the marshes hereabouts in search of unwary travellers to ensnare for use in her evil rituals. This made Wilhelm perk up and stop rubbing his blistered feet "A Witch you say.....are you sure she is a witch and not just some crazy old lady? its easy to make that mistake you know." Uncle Ivan smiled, his one remaining tooth which was oddly pointy gleamed in the candlelight "Arrr she be a witch for sure I could tells you more, I know things see but my throat is terribly dry see" he then looks at his empty jack and slowly winks one rheumy eye and taps his nose. Ralph and Guilio having moved away from Wilhelm and Ivan's smell are tucking into roast rabbit served with winter cabbage there was also some hard cheese and bread for afters. Ralph leaned over towards Guilio spraying the unfortunate Italian in flecks of cheese "Pssst I don't know about you but these locals seem a queer bunch, sure the barman and Ivan seem friendly enough but most of the others seem to be looking at as most oddly" Guilio brushing off the cheese from his face "Si its very odd the men who leave I swear one of them was licking his lips when he was looking at me" They finish off their meal and are about to speak to the barman about staying the night when one of the locals guessing their intent calls out with beery breath "Ah see I tells ye city folk can't hold their drink, even the piss that Harold sells us" the rest of the locals laugh and much beer is spilt from upheld jacks. Harold seemingly used to his beer being compared to piss yells out "Well these folk look pretty tough to me and I can't see them taking that kind of insult to their honour laying down so you better be wary Jeff Mullins" Jack laughs "Well there's only one way the can prove me false......A drinking contest" again the bar erupts in noise forcing Jeff to raise his voice even higher "Last man standing wins the money and the beer, so city boy's will you match me?" and with that he throws down and handful of copper pennies. Ralph and Guilio are surrounded by the laughing and half cut patrons of the Black Rooster pause then smile and Guilio slams down his handful of pennies "Your'e on" The curtains draw in and we forced to leave our merry band wondering if they will ever breath fresh air again and if a stranger licking his lips whilst sneaking a look at you is a quaint local custom or something more sinister. The Doctor was not involved in these high jinks so this is what he wrote down in his diary after speaking to Guilio over a few shared drinks later on.

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men Often Go Awry Having sent Jonah off to pick up some extra men Ralph and the Doctor decided to find a seat at Bezzle's Alehouse which was located in the back alley behind the Old Yare and provided a good sightline onto the Inns back gates. The two men ordered a couple of jacks of what Bailey laughingly called beer and sat down to watch and wait but as time passed they discussed a number of plans, should they nail the gates shut, slip back over the Inns wall and sabotage that wagon maybe or get some carts themselves and use them to block the alley or dig a hole to block one of the exits? Jonah soon returns with four men, two are men such as himself whilst the other are CL.U.Bers the Italian Guilio and a new recruit, a German Witch Hunter who goes by the name of Wilhelm Teufel. Ralph waves them over and fills in Jonah and the others. The Doctor meanwhile after exchanging brief hello's wonders off and asks Bailey if he had a shovel that he could borrow and after haggling over the rental price the Doctor heads out to start digging, he almost trips over the unconscious form of one of Baileys regular customers and the Doctor taking note of the cold weather decides to kick the man awake and give him a few pennies to help him dig. As he is kicking the man awake the gates of the Inn creak open and the cart is led out by one of the Thompson gang (Jonah had identified them earlier as a gang who mainly committed acts of highway robbery) The Doctor looks around and seeing that the group are still talking he grabs the half conscious man drags him into Baileys drops him onto the floor and yells "Gentleman the gates" the CL.U.Bers look up, grab weapons and rush out. They are in time to see a couple of men jump onto the wagon as the gates are closed and secured the men are well wrapped up so its hard to make out if any of them are female, the thick clothing making them all seem oddly sexless. Wilhelm cries out trying to get them to stop two of the wrapped figures turn and look at him blankly a strange emptiness in their stares sends a shiver down even his toughened spine. Distracted by the men he fails to notice the young lady in the back who has just appeared from under the tarpaulin, more importantly he also misses her pointing a musket at him. A crack rents the cold air swiftly followed by two more luckily it seems that a bumpy wagon makes for a bad gun platform and the shots go wide ploughing holes into the alley walls and shattering the window of the nearby hat shop. The Doctor drops a few pennies onto the drunk and looking around sees Jonah still sitting down at the table sensing the Doctors stare he looks up and says "Well get on with it sounds like they are getting away" The Doctor looks slightly shocked at this remark and grabs his pistol and tries to hand it to Jonah "Here take this, together we might be able to stop them" Jonah looks somewhat disdainfully at the pistol and just looks up again "Whats this I don't need no pistol that's not what I do, I has a bum leg you understand" the Doctor shakes his head grabs his pistol back and heads out. A brisk gun battle is now taking place between those on the wagon, its guards and the Cl.u.bers but no serious damage seems to have been caused yet to either side but then one of the guards fire's his musket at the rapidly approaching Witch hunter there is a loud bang a puff of foul smelling smoke and a cry of shocked pain as Wilhelm doubles over a horrified look upon his face as he slowly falls over as blood quickly soaks the bottom of his shirt and drips onto the muddy floor. Ralph runs past him picking up speed as he cuts the distance between himself and the cart his grim and determinned look gives his face a demonic aspect. The Doctor and Guilio head back out into the alleyway to see Ralph disapearing around the corner and Wilhelm on his knees slowly dragging his pistols out and firing it at the waggon. The Doctor jogs up to Wilhelm and sees the pool of blood he's sitting in and calls on Guilio for help. They manage to carry him back to the alehouse and begin to bandage him up, just then another musket shot can be heard and Guilio paused "Whats up?" the Doctor asks, Guilio shakes his head "I thought I heard Ralph cry out...but no it's nothing lets get this crazy German patched up first eh?" Ralph meanwhile had charged around the corner and into a further group of guards engaging them in close combat he strikes out with his hatchets cutting and hacking into them but one of them is able to block the blow and is able to jam the barrel of his musket into Ralph's back and pulls the trigger blowing a large chunk of Ralph's bulk over a nearby wall. This only makes Ralph mad and shaking himself like a soggy bear he swings his hatchet down and to the side cutting the guards leg clean off. Seeing Ralph in action causes the guards to focus onto him and another shot blasts out but luckily it whizzes past his head and unfortunately into a nearby cat that was trying to warm itself in the weak winters sun. Guilio leaving the Doctor to patch up Wilhelm has ran after the wagon and seeing Ralph locked into combat with the three guards smiles flicks out his hand and makes his glaive sing. The battle goes back and forth no one seems to be getting the killing blow although the blood does flow from all the nicks and almost hits the fight goes on long enough for the Doctor and the still wounded Wilhem to turn up and add their pistol fire to the fight and another guard falls his leg exploding in a welter of blood and gore as its struck by a pistol ball. Ralph manages finally to barrel through and past the guards and starts again to chase the wagon. The Doctor is jumped by a knife wielding guard and is unable to stop it but he's not worried as he trusts in his new curiass. The knife just pings against it and Wilhelm stabs up at the guard from the flank. Ralph gaining on the wagon again faces the musket fire of the lovely Lucy Smith but again the bumping wagon throws of her aim and Ralph thunders on. The Knife man again tries to attack the Doctor but again the blade is turned aside his return swing does catch the Doctors hand leaving a thin cut. "Ahh you bastard" yells the Doctor and tries to hammer his pistol butt into the mans face but the man who is now foaming from his mouth ducks the blow and just starts yelling "Die! you have hunted us across galaxies but no more" the Doctor looks around and says "What are you going on about you complete nutter" Guilio pulls out his last remaining pistol and fires at the escaping wagon and he seems to catch Lucy a glancing blow as she drops her musket with a yelp and drops back down beneath the tarp. Wilhelm seeing that the wagon is the prize also disengages and starts to run after Ralph and the wagon he catches up with them as the wagon slows down to negotiate a tight bend in the road. Turning to grin at each other they both leap towards the back of the wagon. Ralph manages to grab the back and struggles up whilst Wilhelm slips on some fresh dog dirt and just misses the wagon but luckily does not fall he staggers a little but is still in the chase. The Doctor finally beats his crazed attacker down after raining numerous blows upon his head and side. The Doctor leans over and takes numerous deep breaths, Guilio though gets into the swing of things and chops the other attacker down but it seems he is still missing his clockwork arm as his attacks lack the grace they once had. Ralph meanwhile has dragged himself onto the wagon and is immediately attacked by Mrs Smith who lunges towards him blade in hand but Ralph twists to the side and narrowly avoids the blade and with a mighty backhand blow he knocks her off the wagon and she falls back with a scream as she hits the icy road with a crump. He barely has chance to catch his breath before he is attacked by the other passengers who leap upon him with hate filled eyes and sharp daggers one of which slices a deep wound across Ralph's leg. Ralph grunts in pain and for a moment he looks at the road but with a sigh he turns back and pushes forward trying to get to the driver but the passengers block his way slapping and punching him back into the wagon. Wilhelm has caught up with the wagon and is running alongside he makes one last attempt to get on board but again is unable to get enough strength to make the jump, his wound starts to ooze blood again as the stitches start to rip free. Guilio clears up the last of the guards and watches as the Doctor run off towards the fallen Lucy and the wagon. Ralph continues his epic fight on board the increasingly speeding wagon, the passengers begin to foam at the mouth and scream at him stabbing their blades into him over and over again cutting and slicing numerous shallow cuts into him causing little damage but he begins to bleed and bleed a lot. Wilhelm now having fallen back gives up on the wagon and instead stalks towards the fallen and stunned Lucy. She sees him coming and pulls out a rapier from under her dress and avoiding the Witch-finders thrust gives him one in return causing him to twist in desperation barely avoiding the rapiers kiss. Ralph has had enough and lumbers forward grabs the lady in front of him and ignoring the cuts from her blade he twists and with a mighty bellow he simply throws her off the wagon and onto the road. She hits the ground with a crack but staggers up and looks around and begins to half walk half run towards a nearby alley. The Doctor runs past Wilhelm and calls out "We need one alive" before running past trying to keep the wagon in view. Wilhelm though is full of hate and righteous anger and shoulder barges the slight figure of Lucy down and with both hands he thrusts down his sword puncturing her lungs so with a final sigh she collapses and dies "Suffer not the witch to live" and wiping his blade clean of the blood he stalks off in search of more corrupted females. Guilio jogs up to him and reaches out to grab him by the shoulder "Hey remember we need one alive" Wilhelm a crazed gleam in his eyes smiles oddly and just replies "Ja" and looking around spies Lucy's musket on the ground next to him and he swiftly grabs it. He jogs forward drops to his knee and takes aim at the wagon and muttering in German he pulls the trigger, the musket barks and the wagon driver drops onto the floor beneath the wagon his head turned into red mist by the German marksman. The wagon gives a sickening crunch and bounce as its wheel crunch over the body. Guilio hands over his musket to the German "Good shot lets see if you can do it again" and he then runs off after the second fleeing woman. Switching muskets the German takes aim and just before the wagon turns a corner he snaps off another shot hitting the co driver in the left arm and blowing out of his back, dropping him to the road with a cry and a splat. The wagon continues swerving all over the road the horses crazed by all the gunfire and now leaderless. Ralph is left fighting the last man on-board again taking numerous cuts from his blade but always he advances his meaty paws grasping trying to get a grip on this young and strangely looking man. The two of them struggling to stay up on this jolting, bucking wagon for a moment it looks like Ralph has him but with a shimmer and a twist the man somehow throws off Ralph's grip and instead knocks him off the back. Ralph stumbles back and with a cry hits the floor but luckily he lands on a bundle of rags which turn out to be a small child and his starving mother their bodies softening his landing but the wind is still well and truly knocked out of him and for the moment he lies there looking up from the gutter into the gathering darkness above, blood freely flowing out of him from his numerous wounds causing him to look pale and tired.The Doctor runs past trying to keep at least one eye on the wagon and Wilhelm calls out "I vill look after ze big fellow" and jogs up to the near to death Ralph when he reaches the man mountain he tries to staunch the wounds but Ralph opens his eyes and tells him to feck off and he begins to struggle up and shakes off the Witch Finders ministrations. "I still got killing to do" and begins to stagger towards George Street the bemused Wilhelm following in his wake. It was all in vain as the Doctor and the wagon had disappeared somewhere down George Street and he could no longer see either of them. The Italian meanwhile was chasing down the second lady, he follows her down one dark stinking alleyway and then another following the trail of blood until he finally catches up with her in a dead end it looks like she was trying to climb over a barricade but lacked the strength to make it over. She faces her pursuer a strange glow coming from her eyes as she stands in the shadows her whole posture one of attack and leaps at Guilio as soon as he rounds the corner her pistol aimed squarely at his head she pulls the trigger before the Italian can react but with a hiss and a huge cloud of smoke the pistol explodes in her hand, ripping it clean off in a spray of bone and blood. The explosion also shreds the left side of her face living a red nightmare behind instead of the beauty that was once there, she gives a gurgling scream spewing up black blood onto the white snow beneath her. Wilhelm had caught up to Ralph and had managed to convince him to stop raging and that he was no use until he got his get his wounds treated or at least cauterised they paused when they heard the loud bang and hoped that the Italian was alright but they had more immediate worries to deal with as Ralph was about to bleed to death and the co driver though in a very bad way yet somehow seemed to be clinging onto life so he would have to be dealt with and questioned before the militia turned up

No as I refer you to my previous comments about memory and stunned guppy fish.

After resting up for a couple of days for some much needed healing the Party finally meets back up with Zeal in the taproom of the Listing sausage as they enjoy a hearty breakfast of stewed tea and pottage the Doctor is approached by a man going by the name of Quinton Lambert, he claims to be a merchant and is interested in buying some Muskets for the Dawn Legion. The Doctor politely explains that he is a medical practitioner and so unfortunately is not involved in that part of the family business but he would be more than happy to provide an introduction to Zeal but Mr Lambert becomes a little cagey and says he would prefer not to deal with middlemen so he makes his apologises and leaves heading back to a corner booth where two other men await him. After breakfast Zeal introduces the Party to a rather taciturn gentleman by the name of Jonah and explains what he wants the Party to do. It basically boils down to finding and rooting out any more members of this Xaxus cult. Zeal informs the Party that Jonah has checked out the Smith and Barber stone carvers compound and that he has found out some rather interesting things and that he also thinks that some of the people described sound like members of a Dutch trading embassy made up of the Arnolt family who are based in Yarmouth. They are well respected locally as merchants and it seems that they had a daughter and son, the daughter sounds to match the lady who was at the stone carvers. The Party ruminate on this information and the Doctor takes the opportunity to inform Zeal about the merchants who were trying to purchase the wheel locks, Zeal thanks the Doctor and has a hushed conversation with Jonah the phrase black marketer is briefly heard. Zeal finishes his conversation with Jonah and returns to the Xaxus issue it seems that Jonah also found Mr Smiths body in one of the upstairs room, his wife Lucy has yet to be found whilst Mr Barber apparently left sometime before the storm hit Yarmouth. Zeal explains that they must tread softly as the peace process has only just begun and he has instructions that they must be completed as the county if not the whole south east needs the herring fleets back out and working. Ralph and the Doctor have a wide ranging conversation about religion, isolationism, the benefits of a high fibre diet and why dead people can't say no but its finally agreed that they should head back out and cross the land sea cooperatives lines and check out the stone carvers themselves. Jonah leads them back out into the blasted ice bound streets of Yarmouth past the long ragged lines of frostbitten and half starved people queuing up for alms. The journey took a long time as between the foul weather and their constant checking to see if they were being followed they made slow going but they eventually made it to the Smith and Barber compound safely if somewhat chilly. The Party were led into an area which seemed to be a workshop a large object stood centre stage it was about eight feet tall and even from the doorway they could see that the unholy carvings that partially covered one side which bore a striking resemblance to the monolith from the island. The Doctor turned to Jonah shock across his face "Gadzooks! why is this still here it must be destroyed at once" Jonah took a step back from the Doctors sudden rage and rushed to explain "We will but Zeal for the Lord wants it done quiet like, things are tense at the moment he doesn't want to upset the apple cart...Don't worry we are covering it up and securing it and when all is settled it will be broken up" The Doctor is not mollified but after a bit more ranting he eventually calms down. Jonah then slightly unhappily guides the Party down into the basement where the earthen floor has been tilled and some unholy cabbage vines can be seen growing up. The Doctor goes into a rage attempting to rip up the plants and is only stopped after some effort by Ralph and Jonah and the promise that the plants will be burnt and the soil salted. After the Doctor stops frothing at the mouth and quoting scripture Jonah reminds them what they are here to do and Ralph asks to be taken to the office where the unfortunate Mr Smith was found with his head bashed in. The body had been removed but the bloodstained desk and floor was still evident. The horribly stained mallet was examined and its heft was taken in an attempt to figure out how strong the attacker must have been to commit such a foul crime. Questions were asked about Smith and Barber and if they had any business connections with the Dutch. Jonah took out some bits of paper and after a bit of a shuffling around he found the scraps he was looking for. Straightening up he read from his notes "Well we couldn't find any connections with the Dutch but it does seem as Mrs Smith was politically active and Lucy was also believed to have been a keen Leveller and possibly part of the congregation of Coster, this was probably how she became corrupted. The Doctor whilst listening to Jonahs report had started to flick through the bloody ledger that remained on the desk and saw that the tidy sum of two hundred shillings had been taken out of the business account for 'Travelling expenses' After checking around and asking a few more questions it seemed that Mr Smith had been struck from behind by the mallet his head cracking like an egg under the forceful blow and one of the few people still unaccounted for was his own wife Lucy! Ralph lumbered off to examine the back door that was used by the Dutch lady to escape him during the rescue but after checking the alley way that it lead into he came up empty. After they had finished their examination of the building and the records of Smith and Barber they headed back out into the rain and onto the home of the unfortunate Mr Smith in search of more information and maybe the now twice damned wife Lucy. The house was fairly close just down a few alleyways but the Parties hopes were crushed as the house had not survived the storm and was in a pretty bad way with half the building reduced to rumble. The few people around were questioned and one remembered that the Smiths had taken rooms at the Great Yar Table which appeared to be a local Inn. They followed the old ladies instructions and went down a few more alleyways and streets before coming across a large solid building with Great Yar table written on the creaking sign above the door. The Doctor approached the closed door but was intercepted by a burly thug who had been taking shelter in the doorway. The Thug held out one meaty hand "The Inns closed mate a private function you understand so you better move on" The Doctor smiled and tried to duck past but the Thug wasn't having any nonsense and swung one fist at the Doctors gut, he misjudged things though and slipped on the ice a little causing the blow to miss. The Doctor held up his hands and started to make his apologies. He had only backed away a few paces when two other men rounded the side of the building to back up the thug one was armed with a Matchlock which he aimed towards the Doctor. The thug pointed at the Doctor and called out "When I say the Inns closed its fucking closed understand?" the Doctor continued backing away and making conciliatory noises until he made it back around the corner and out of sight. Ralph and Jonah were stood there with grins across their faces "Went well I see Cousin now see how it should be done" he counted "One, two lots and slipped around the corner keeping to the shadows and doorways. The Doctor watched Ralph sneak down to the rear of the Inn for a moment or two he then called Ralph a cocky bastard and then turned to Jonah "I've got a bad feeling about this It feels like Xaxus may have found a new Church, we need more men to force our way in" Jonah looked thoughtful then said "Agreed we need to find that girl but Zeal's not going to like this he wanted it dealt with quiet like. Look you keep an eye on things and find out what you can and I will go back to the Sausage and convince Zeal to give us some backup" He pats the Doctor on the back and with that he disappeared back down the street. The Doctor left alone looked around to see if he could find somewhere out of the way and sheltered to keep watch from most of the buildings were either badly damaged or locked up tight he was just about to give up and just wait where he was when he noticed a lamp flickering above one doorway so with nothing better to do he headed over. The building was in a pretty run down but looked to be whole at least and wiping away some frost and dirt from a wooden plaque he discovered that the building was a Mermaids supply shop stamping his feet the Doctor smiled a somewhat wistful smile "Well well it looks like me luck has changed" and he opened the door into a room of faded grandeur and as he closed the door behind him he heard a husky female voice ask if there was anything she could help him with. Quickly turning around the Doctor was confronted by a vision of beauty who introduced herself as Edith the Madame of the house .Before we fade to black to protect the younger readers among us the Doctor did ask a few questions before falling for her ample charms. Meanwhile Ralph had asked the brew house clientele some questions but had been unable to get much out of the poor wretches and the hatters seemed to be locked up tight so finding nothing else to distract him he sidled up to the rear courtyard of the Old Yar and after taking a deep breath he scrambled up and over the wall. Landing quietly in the yard near a parked cart he quickly scanned the yard and dashed behind a tool shed, just in time it seems as the rear door opened banged open and a swarthy fellow came out a wall of heat gusting out behind him as he headed towards the cart to check the crates secured on it, he seemed happy as after checking the straps he looked around before heading back into the Inn. Ralph counted and crept across the yard and with a bit of effort he managed to lift the lid on one of the crates and managed to see what was contained within. He was a little dismayed to find that the crate contained not the heathen idols he was expecting but instead found nothing but warm clothing and food stuffs. Replacing the lid he sighed "Well that's disappointing not even a bloody pistol let alone any idols oh well better get the feck out'' and with that he scrambled up the wall again and dropped back down into the filthy alley beyond almost landing on the prone body of a beggar who bawled out something to Ralph's rapidly retreating back as he headed back to the main street in search of his cousin. As he turned the corner he bumped into Jonah who slightly breathless had made it back from the Sausage with a few men there followed a brief conversation between them as they caught each other up on each others news and then they split up to find the Doctor. Jonah was the unlucky one as he tracked the Doctor down to Madame Edith's boudoir and after some effort managed to rescue the Doctor and dragged him down to the Brew house. Taking a barrel at the back and ordering some jacks of beer they began to discuss plans.

Hello, I just wondered if you had seen the Heidelberg horror campaign book? Its for the Clockwork and Chivalry setting but has lots of extra ideas, factions etc for gaming in this period (Its set in 1610 so a little early) but its based on the continent and has some extra background information as well. So it might offer you some options/iddas to smooth things out in your campaign. Also the sanity mechanics from Renaissance deluxe offer a nice way for the horrors of war to take their toll on the characters. And if your players want to play as something different (Not all soldiers) the Factions side of things make it fairly easy to make a dirty dozen style group of expertise brought together to serve a particular goal. The castle needs to be infiltrated so the Captain is given a captured serving girl who worked there but she fled because she was Protestant/Catholic she helps them and just sticks around afterwards.

The previous post doesn't do the session justice as the character of Ralph once again demonstrated the power of the great attack and he was able to wreak untold damage onto the poorly armed and trained cultists. The Player behind Ralph knows its a gamble but so far he has been able to kill or gravely wound the poor N.P.C facing him before taking too much damage in return. His health is being slowly chipped away though and the chances of Ralph suffering a game changing grave wound is becoming more and more likely. The Doctor is very thankful that Ralph is such a berserk murder beast as it has saved him on more than one occasion and so is keeping his fingers crossed that he has enough plasters and salves to keep Ralph in the fight for a little while longer.

Quick recap,The Party make their way back to the N.M.A lines with the signed peace treaty but as they walk down a street they are attacked by mysterious assailants the ambush fails but some civilians are killed and many hurt in the resulting crossfire. The Doctor hands Ralph the sealed tube with the treaty and tells him to carry on back to Zeal as he wants to see what he can do to help the wounded. Ralph heads off but hears the sound of gunfire resuming from behind him but after a pause carries on the Doctor made his decision. The Doctor tries to flee but is shot in the stomach and is soon captured by the mysterious group he is then badly beaten and tied up. Ralph meanwhile soon suspects that he is being followed and so sets up a ambush of his own involving an alleyway and a suspiciously open grate. Ralph swiftly deals with the men following him and after the smoke has cleared quickly continues onwards. The Doctor ends up still tied up in a corner of a large room and watches as a group gather which seem to be lead by a beautiful woman who talks with a strange accent the Doctor horrified realizes its another Xaxus cult. Ralph makes it back to the Listing sausage and hands over the treaty he explains what has happened, Zeal takes some convincing that it's not just some Digger plot but gives Ralph four men to attempt to rescue the Doctor. Ralph searches around the site of the ambush and speaks to a few locals and after awhile is able to stitch together enough information to get a direction and he finally tracks the cult down to a building owned by some stone carvers which consists of a single double story building within a walled yard.Ralph and the soldiers sneak closer and when they get close enough Ralph gives the signal and they rampage through the cultists, a couple of soldiers die in a variety of unpleasant ways but Ralph starts swinging with his new double handed axe and soon ploughs a red path through the cultists, none are able to stand before his mighty rage. The Lady seeing the gore streaked Ralph hacking his way towards her decides to spend the lives of her followers to save herself and she legs it out the back. Ralph and the remaining soldiers make short work of the remaining disheartened cultists who seem to be armed with only a few Matchlocks and clubs. They rescue the Doctor it seems the cult is still active and dangerous even after it lost its grip on Coster.Returning to Zeal he listens and decides on two plans Operation Bloater (Returning to the Island and clearing away the Crystal kids from the stench pools) and Operation Kaaskop a search and destroy mission against the agents of Xaxus.

Part two (Finally) of Peace in our time. There followed a very nervous pause as the party awaited a reply from behind the barricades they could hear sounds of a heated discussion but were unable to make out what was being said so there they waited in no mans land caught between two armed and potentially hostile forces. Eventually a voice called out from behind the barricade "My name is Nicholas Beckwith, elected Captain of this section. We see your flags of parley and will respect them so now is the time to state your case"Guilio steps forward and his Italian ancestry adds passion to his reply"We have come on a mission of mercy we have amongst our number the good Doctor Norton as requested and you know his reputation. We have also brought the hope of ending this conflict as asked and we request a meeting with your leaders" several moments past and then with a sound of tortured metal a crude gate is opened revealing a ragged group of emaciated townsfolk and whilst they looked half dead from frostbite, hunger and worry they were also the Party couldn't help but noticing also heavily armed with muskets, fowling pieces and a random selection of melee weapons. From out of this group an elderly man stepped forward and with a grin bowed low and welcomed the Party to Free Yarmouth.The elderly man introduced himself as Nicholas Beckwith but insisted that we call him Old Nick as it appears everyone else did. The Party were checked for weapons and generally poked and prodded non to gently before Old Nick told them to pack it in "Sorry about that but you must understand that things are...different now we have suffered much and it almost looked like God had turned his back on us. Many blame Parliament for the disasters they may not have liked the King but believe killing him was a step too far and an insult to the Almighty" he trailed off casting a sorrowful glance around him and the frozen devastation of his town. The Doctor looked around and said "God has not abandoned you but the Devil is abroad in this county and working his mischief trying to tempt the goodly away from the one true path , you know this to be true for have you have not heard the tales of monsters and demons stalking the dark of this county and of men such as the brave Mathew Hopkins who are working desperately to fight back. We are here to bring peace in the Lords name, he wants you safe and warm but we must all work together to make Yarmouth safe and whole again after all it is to the Devils benefit if we continue to fight amongst ourselves." There is muttering from the Diggers and a few embarrassed claps before Old Nick coughs and says "Well enough of that lets be getting onto the Fornicating Duck and you can do your speechifying at Twat it Thompson and see what happens" he leads the Party through the frozen streets, past houses hastily repaired with the salvaged remains of houses to far gone to be useful. Here and there they could see work gangs engaged it the mournful task of clearing away the ice and the bodies trapped within. Old Nick looked around with a kind of sad pride "See we are not traitors or misguided fools the flood and the storm destroyed almost everything and we looked to Parliament for help but none came, we looked to the Alderman for leadership" he paused to spit onto the ground before continuing "And help but they just hired that mercenary scum and barricaded themselves away and refused to help they then started to steal any food supplies that still remained in this damned town claiming it was necessary but we starved and they stayed fat. The only two people who were doing anything to help us were Thompson and Costner it was they who organised the work gangs, they who set up the food stores, they who got people working together to help each other....we owe them everything so you better be on your best behaviour they may not be Lords or Gentry but they deserve your respect" he stopped "Well here we are your on your own from now on and I for one hope you are on the level so good luck" he then pointed down a narrow alleyway towards a ramshackle two story building which seemed to slump at the alleys end it had a faded sign of two ducks hugging? which creaked above its misfitting door. The Party shrug say their thanks to Old Nick and leaving their escort head into the Inn.The Inn is dark and gloomy shadows pooling in the corners of the room, most of the furniture has been pushed to the sides leaving only one bench table in front of the spluttering fire. Sat upon a crudely fashioned chair sits a bear of a man a huge greying beard battling for space on his weather-beaten face against a set of huge bushy eyebrows, both are shot heavily with grey. His hands show signs of heavy labour covered as they are in numerous nicks and scars these huge hands rest lightly upon a huge mallet which seems to have a lot of suspiciously rusty red staining across its head. He smiles a broken toothed smile as the Party enter which seems oddly enough to be a genuine one he stands as they approach his bulk briefly blocking out the light from the fire plunging the room into darkness apart from a faint glow which flickers around his large form a startled cry escapes from the Doctors mouth. A great booming laugh erupts from the man "Oh sorry about that didn't mean to scare you" he quickly sits back down and the darkness is chased away "We don't have much coal to burn at the moment, there's plenty of wood but its all damp and smokes like the devil itself" he gestures to the sides of the room "Well grab a chair we have a lot to talk about and the weathers not getting any warmer" The Party grabs some stools and drag them towards the table introductions are made and soon they are in deep discussion tankards of beer appear as if by magic along with a couple of plates of bread and grilled herring. It seems that the infamous Digger leader who went by the name of Twat it Thompson was a hearty fellow who had been the owner of a couple of fishing ships before what was now locally referred to as Gods judgement and had been one of the few to place his personal grief behind him and instead decided to stay and organise in an effort to save what he could. He started out helping out the families of his crews but before long it was the neighbourhood and then anyone who needed help. They gathered food and supplies, dug out people buried under ice and the ruins of their homes, formed work gangs to unblock what streets they could and got a central soup kitchen going offering basic hot food and shelter, If it wasn't for him and his crews many more would have died in those first chaotic days after the storm and flood.After several hours of debate with Thompson reading the treaty several times an agreement is reached Thompson just wanted to help his friends and fellow townsfolk he had only taken up arms against the Alderman and their mercenaries as a last resort after suffering under their incompetence and corruption but he was no fool whilst they might have had a chance against them he knew that they had no chance against the N.M.A especially if they were supported by elements of Cromwell's own clockwork regiment. So he was more than happy to sign the treaty and its surprisingly generous terms but there was a catch. It seemed that the other leader Coster of the more militant Leveller faction had recently re-found religion in a big way and had split off from the Diggers and indeed the bulk of the Levellers and instead had founded a new religion which seemed to be Christian in nature but with a strong emphasis on the sacrifice of individuality for the security of the many. Thompson wasn't that impressed with the whole thing and in fact seemed to bitterly annoyed with Coster and the fact that he had split the people just when they ironically needed to present a united front. Thompson looked up at the Party somewhat sourly and said "I would be more than happy to sign this right now but even though he's no longer active in the committees you will still need Costers signature as well as mine on the treaty otherwise most of the Levellers will continue fighting, some will agree with me but like I say he was elected to lead them and he still does even though he seems to think otherwise' he takes a deep pull on his tankard "So I need you Doctor to examine him and declare him unfit to remain as leader that along with my support should be just enough to convince most of the Levellers to follow my Diggers and surrender." The Doctor was worried but agreed to have a look he was uncomfortable with declaring someone mad just on the basis of their faith as he thought that might lead to a very slippery slope. Thompson called out to someone in the darkness for his coat and standing up turned to the Party "Well lets get this done I will take you to the Church of Coster" and with that he picked up his mallet grabbed a thick coat from off one of his men and headed towards the door swiftly followed by the slightly bemused Party.It was getting dark by this time and the streets were fairly empty those who remained heading swiftly back to what ever shelter they could find before the night got too cold. Thompson headed further into the maze of alleyways that lead towards the destroyed docks the Party were soon completely lost but Thompson kept ploughing forward and after around fifteen minutes of sometimes heavy going they came into a small square, boarded on three sides by shops most of which were now little more than piles of rubble but the fourth side was taken up by a still solid looking stone church from which light and laughter spilled out from its open doors along with the smell of roasting meat which was undercut with something less definable. "Well here we are prepare yourselves for a glimpse of a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah, you ready Doctor? hopefully this won't take long. Thompson and the Party enter the church and are greeted with a wall of people dancing, singing and offering up praises to their new messiah and saviour Coster. Forcing their way through this crowd in an attempt to find Coster they soon find themselves headed towards a raised area at the back where an altar would normally be. Thompson was none to happy to see piles of food heaped upon the stage some of it at the bottom seemed to be rotting. "What the fuck? the bastard has gone to far, come here Doctor you've seen what straits we are in, you know how little food we have on both sides of the lines and yet look at this surely this is a sign of madness" he scoops out a hunk green and mouldy meat and throws it into the congregation. He then grabs the nearest person "Tell me where is Coster?" the still smiling man looks up into Thompson's angry beard "The blessed one is upstairs he is communing with us for we are one and one is all" Thompson shoves the man back "He's upstairs apparently" Ralph fighting off the advances of a rather busty convert spots a ladder in the far corner that appears to lead up towards an open trapdoor "Get off you daft cow, ere there's a ladder over there that's got to be it ain't it" Seeing no other way the group push and shove their way across the room towards the ladder. Oddly enough none of the congregation seems to mind the rough treatment instead they just smile and sing Craigh is the first to notice that they are all singing in time no one seemed a little quicker or slower everyone was keeping exact time when he points this out the Party has a collective shudder and Guilio remarks "These people are creepy no?" They reach the ladder without further incident and after giving the nearest rung a speculative test Ralph lumbers upwards followed by the others.The ladder leads into a large attic space the far end is dominated by a huge pile of cushions and rugs as the Party clamber into the room Craigh spots two men standing alongside either wall they appear to be stripped to the waist and don't seem to react to their presence they just continue to stare unblinking at the pile of rugs.Thompson shouts out "Where are you Coster?" The pile of rugs and cushions moves and after a brief avalanche of cushions a beautiful naked woman crawls out swiftly followed by two other stunning women and finally a naked man is revealed still laying down amongst the furs. He smiles languidly and stretches out his arms then with a quick movement he flips himself up. He takes a step forward and the women wrap a long piece of white cloth around his waist sparing the Party at least from any more awkwardness. The tall elegant man finally speaks 'Ah Thompson our old friend it is good to see you again and in such splendid company"Thompson seems slightly shocked upon seeing his friend and at a loss for words. The Doctor steps forward "Ah hello sir my name is Doctor Thomas Norton and I along with my companions represent the Parliamentary forces currently arrayed outside against you. We have brought peace terms, generous ones I believe and we hope that you can be persuaded to sign them and end these hostilities before its too late" Coster strides forward and suddenly with a look of pure hatred across his countenance leans forwards his face mere inches away from the Doctors and suddenly kisses him lustily on the lips pulling back he hisses "We know your taste already Doctor" and under the strange chalk landscapes which cover the attics walls all hell brakes loose.The two serving men pull out wickedly sharp knives from their waist bands and hurl themselves at the Party, the women meanwhile move to the other side and with bloody mouths begin to grin coquettishly at the Party as they slowly advance upon them. Craigh grabs a nearby stool and with a grin tries to smash it into one of the men "Thes takes me back tae Friday nights back haem at th' Pig an' Whistle Inn" unfortunately the stool misses the mark and just clips the man barely slowing him down. Meanwhile Ralph lumbers up rolls up his sleeves and start punching the living hell out of the man attacking him one meaty blow after another lands on him a hit to the stomach causes an audible crack which is heard across the room and as the man bends over in pain Ralph lands a devastating upper cut knocking him out. Thompson is startled into action and rushes forward in an attempt to grapple his old friend but the near naked Coster evades him easily and just laughs at Thompson's pleas to give up. The Doctor facing the murderous women is about to pile into them but he hears sounds of movement behind him as more of Costers followers start to climb the ladder, the Doctor rushes back knowing that they can't hope to defeat a whole church full of people. One man is just about to climb off the ladder and into the attic as the Doctor charges up and without pause lands a solid punch into his face, causing him to stagger back but unfortunately not down the ladder. The Doctor cries out for help and is swiftly joined by Craigh and his stool who starts to swing it wildly around in an attempt to drive the followers back down. The melee is brutal and painful Ralph takes a lot of punishment but returns it threefold, the combination of his strength and weight making his punches land with terrible and bone crushing force. It looks pretty dark for the Party as even with Ralph there was just too many and it looked like it couldn't get any worse but then of course it did as Thompson who was still grappling with his old friend suddenly lets out a cry of pain and he staggers back clutching his now blood stained stomach.The Doctor pats the Scotchman on the back and with a crazy grin tells him "You've got this" and runs back towards the women and the pile of rugs behind them. "Ye dobber we dornt hae time fur 'at kin' ay hin' curses the Scot but has other things to worry about as he finally manages to get the trapdoor closed on the murderous horde below, but already the frame is shaking under the impact of those below the bolt bouncing in its frame. The Doctor manages to evade the women and his plan becomes clear as he starts to knock candles into the rugs causing them to smoke and burn. In passing he notices that a portion of the wall is oddly melted and has the phrase 'Gaze not' written in chalk above it. The Doctors throws a pillow at the hole but it just bounces back so with a shrug he grabs the bell rope and begins tolling away shouting at the top of his lungs "FIRE, FIRE!" in an attempt to get some Digger reinforcements. Craigh holds the trapdoor, the Doctor keeps ringing the bell and Ralph just punches the hell out of anyone near him he takes care of the men, throws the women across the room and into unconsciousness and then moves his bruised and bloody bulk towards Coster. Things looked a little brighter for the Party but the trapdoor was starting to break apart, Craigh kicks a follower in the forks and with a final spiteful kick as the follower slowly collapses calls out "Ah cannae hauld thes much longer onie ideas?" the Doctor gets an evil gleam in his one good eye and stopped ring the bell and instead grabbed the burning straw mattress and started to politely drag it across to the trapdoor.Craigh seeing the Doctor approaching guesses his crazy plan and goes to the back of the trapdoor and at the right moment pulls the bolt back and wrenches up the door as the Doctor throws the now blazing mattress down the ladder this is swiftly followed by screaming and a lot of swear words. Ralph reaches Coster who is not paying as much attention as he should be instead he is licking the blade of his bloody Dirk and laughing at the bleeding Thompson "You fool worshipper of a corpse god who cares not for you, I gave you the chance to become more to become greater but you spat the offer back into my face.....but now whose laughing?" it was at this point that Ralph tapped him on the shoulder and as Coster turned around to curse him for the interruption he landed a hay maker punch straight into Costers pale and sweaty face shattering teeth and knocking Coster out "Well that was easy enough, I wonder if there is any food around here I've worked up quite an appetite" and with a final look at the devastation he had caused ambles off to see what then others were doing. The immediate fight was over but there was still a church full of angry followers below who were baying for blood. Ralph nudged the Doctor and told him that Thompson needed looking at and the Doctor quickly went over to see what help he could give tearing strips off his shirt to act as crude bandages. Craigh and Ralph were left looking down at the horde and their feelings were summed up with one word "Bugger" but they did see some new arrivals pushing through from outside and their spirits were lifted a little when they could make out phrases like "Bucket chain" and "Get the engine" but things still looked dicey so Thompson was brought forward and spoke to the crowd especially the new arrivals "Let us pass there has been an argument but its over now so let us pass friends we don't want any more disagreements" there is some cries from the newcomers "Move aside you fools can't you see it Thompson" whilst the followers push back and shout up that they want their Messiah released first. Just then Coster regains conciseness and finding himself bound cries out "I will not be captured, I will not surrender, Xaxus is me and I'm Xaxus we are one and one is all." Ralph applies a medical slap and it seems to jolt Coster back and his eyes seem to dim and in a more normal voice which sounds shocked and horrified at the same time asks what is going on and why is he tied up and as the glow leaves his eyes the followers below seem to wake as from a dream and Their is a moment of uncertainty and embarrassment before they remember that they are in a burning building and some panic and run away whilst others join the newcomers in trying to put out the fire.The Party quickly gather up Costers notes and now that their way is clear they head towards the exit leaving the attic ablaze and to the sounds of collapsing beams. The treaty is finally cosigned by Coster with somewhat bad grace and the Party leave Thompson explaining to a slightly unbelieving Coster what he had been up to these last few days and head back to the church to make sure that all the heretical paintings and chalked writings had been destroyed. Craigh was especially interested in the strange melted hole and wanted to know why it had the phrase gaze not over it after all it was just a small hole in a wall. As the rest of the Party took down notes before hacking away any of the remaining glyphs Craigh went up to the still smouldering attic and carefully made his way across the blackened beams to the hole and then he lent down and peeked through it calling out "That's bludy odd there's jist blackness beyond" and then he disappears seemingly into the hole. The Doctor cries out "Ralph!" and he crosses over to the soot stained wall and looks around somewhat stupidly not knowing what to do. Ralph comes up and very carefully crosses over to the Doctor "Whats up Doc?" the Doctor explains what happened in a panicky voice and Ralph looks at first disbelievingly at the Doctor but seeing that he was earnest and in shock grabbed his hatchets and started to smash into the wall but to no avail the wall was smashed apart to reveal ice bound Yarmouth beyond but no sign of the Scotchman could be found. And the Party was left despairing slowly surrounded by a widening circle of celebrating Diggers and Levellers who had heard the news of the peace treaty.

The Doctor always thought he looked a bit too fancy pants to trust fully. Also I seem to have spelt his name wrong...will I go back and correct it? hell no I'm claiming it was spelt in Olde worlde English.

Post script to the last session. Its a little more crowded at the N.M.A compound now as the reinforcements that were requested by Zeal for the lord Harrison have finally turned up. A company of foot supported by elements of the Clockwork regiment, the Leviathan Charity fresh from Norton ironworks her repairs and upgrades finally completed at long last. And a somewhat diminished Troop of Ironhorse cavalry. These were much needed as Yarmouth was still a disaster area with much of the towns infrastructure destroyed or still locked behind walls of ice. Maybe even more importantly they had also brought much needed supplies in which could help with the Digger problem as well as easing townsfolks suffering. The Party were amazed at how much was brought in as the whole county was close to famine even before being afflicted by the double hit of Blight and flood, it seems that even whilst ill Ireton could work miracles. One of the knock on effects of all the extra soldiers was that the Party have to move out of the warm and comfortable Listing Sausage Inn and relocate to the slightly less salubrious Hangman's Daughter coaching Inn.

Up and down and back again The children attack suddenly catching the Party somewhat by surprise as they slowly recover from the shock of losing all their weapons. The children leap at the Party clawing and biting for all that they are worth the crystals making it difficult for the Party to grapple them. The fight is intense but slowly the children are battered by the Parties pistol butts and in Ralph's case his short clubs but they take some nasty injuries in return. As the last child is eventually battered to the ground in a broken heap the Party look around and quickly decide that moving away from the large pile of bleeding and broken children as quickly as possible would be a very good thing. The Party quickly get back to exploring the numerous tunnels that led away from the recessed button. As the Party explore they notice that the temperature slowly rises and a strong humming sound can be now heard the Party pause to try and get a bearing but the noise seems to be coming from all around so the Party is back to guessing which direction to head in and passageways are picked almost at random. Then suddenly there is a taste of ozone and lightning crackles down the tunnels and the Party get zapped by it luckily it only seems to make them short of breath and so casting worried glances at each other they quickly pick a westerly tunnel and hurry down it. The tunnel ends at a large pool of steaming blue goo, the room is spanned by a slender stone bridge which is partially obscured by the thick steam clouds which fill the room. Condensation from the roof also drips down hissing as it hits the boiling goo and making the bridge even trickier to cross. The Doctor removes his boots and socks and then begins to cross the bridge slowly making his way across panting all the way as he still struggled with the after effects of the lightning, worryingly he had also soaked his socks with water from his canteen and was wearing them as some sort of slightly whiffy bandanna. Criagh is next up and with a criminals grace he quickly scoots across the bridge and safely makes it across. Ralph stomps up and giving the bridge a worried look decides to run across the bridge he almost makes it across but a large bubble appears in the boiling blue goo it expands and then pops showering Ralph in boiling goo which causes him to lose his footing and with a mighty splash he falls into the goo. Luckily Ralph quickly pops up, screams and with his skin blistering he quickly doggy paddles across and is pulled up by the others.This just leaves Giulio to cross and he shrugs his shoulders and takes a few steps back then just runs across making it look easy. The Doctor calls for a rest as with a sigh he puts down his medical chest and gets out the jars of containing the greases of bears, hen and capon, oil of lilies and egg yolks he also gets out his big scrapper and Mr Bitey his favourite set of Fleam blades. After their brief pause they got ready to move out again back into the twisting labyrinth but just then they hear the sound of feet running down the right hand side tunnel "Fuckin heel its mair naked kids " cries out the very worried sounding Scot but the horde just runs past them splitting aside like a wave past the group and continue into the goo room where they charge across the bridge one or two falling into the boiling goo beneath never to be seen again. The Party move quickly away and soon leave the goo room behind them after travelling for awhile encountering nothing of note they find themselves back in the second chamber it appears that they have gone around in a huge circle. The Party feel a little annoyed that they are no closer to getting out but after sealing the door behind them to stop any more children getting into the section of tunnels that they were now in the Party retrace their steps and at the first junction take another direction. More time passes as the by now completely lost Party walk up and down and possibly under numerous tunnels, past numerous dead ends and stairwells until they get to a strobing tunnel which causes them to pause as they try to figure out what the hell it is. They decide that it looks a bit dangerous so the try to back up and pick another tunnel but things seem to be changing behind them so they turn back to the strobing corridor. Craigh looks around and finds a button which might be the same button that Giulio pressed but with the tunnels being all sneaky it was hard to tell. The Party starts to mark their passage a little late maybe but better late then never. They carry on and around twenty minutes of more walking down increasingly sneaky tunnels they finally come out in a chamber which holds a bizarre sight, a large bottle containing the most exquisite model of a Spanish galleon rests upon a wooden stand a plaque is pinned to the stand which reads "Data bank express log consoles rethink" this causes a lot of confused looks amongst the party. The ship seems to have a tiny crew modelled and looking closely they can make out the ships name which is the San Phillipe, again this means nothing to the Party. The Doctor picks up the bottle and shakes it around a bit causing the modelled crew to splat against the glass oddly leaving tiny bloody smears, shrugging the Doctor returns it to the wooden stand with a shrug. Craigh walks over and picks up the bottle and with a brief look stuffs it into one of his bags "Awright it micht be worth a shilling or twa" Guilio gives the room one final look around and seeing nothing he calls out that its time to leave and heads towards the door in the south, the rest of the Party hitch up their gear and follow him out. The thrumming feeling continues and Craigh pushes forward to scout the way ahead through this twisting , thrumming labyrinth the corridors soon lead to familiar looking areas. They do eventually spy four Crystal children heading down a corridor in the distance and they decide to follow them in the hope that they know the way out and so following them down a series of corridors until they finally reach a T section and then head eastwards. This corridor opens up into a vast chamber which has a huge blue coloured crystal hanging down from the ceiling. The children stop and arrange themselves in cardinal points around this crystal which upon closer inspection seems to have various coloured crystals embedded within it. The Party move closer, the Doctor pulls out his disc whilst the others keep a watchful eye on the crystal children who still show no signs of even knowing that the Party is even with them. The Party come up with a complicated plan and crouching down low with both discs on the correctly coloured crystals (Clear and Purple) they join hands and on the count of three the two crystals are pulled and then there is a snap, blackness and a feeling of falling and the Party find themselves back on the causeway next to the unconscious bodies of Zeal and the soldier and the barrier seems to be gone. When they shake of their shock they are whole but the crystals are gone and on the body of Zeal they find a leather tube which contains a scroll. The Scroll is from Claymon and congratulates us for a job well done and that he had to rush off to finish something else and that he is sorry that he had to knock out Zeal and the soldier as they were becoming a little to militant And oh he cant guarantee the structural integrity of the palace and the surrounding area. There is a strange postscript about the Paladins of the Fall something about them being good guys if a little odd. The writing fades as soon as it is read which the Doctor finds slightly annoying as it would help explain things to Zeal when he wakes up, which he does after a few slaps. There is an awkward conversation as Zeal asks questions whilst the rest of the Party quickly move off the causeway. The bubbling pools around the palace begin to clear exposing numerous bodies of crystal children floating within the depths. Finally Zeal gets his act together and gesturing to his bodyguard he hurries after the rest of the Party. The Party retrace their steps back across the causeway and into the jungle and are almost at the raft when from out of the jungle the Paladin rides out and hails them. The Paladin seems confused over why Claymon is not with them and when the Party explains what happened inside the palace the Paladin still seems a little annoyed over Claymons actions but hopeful that the plan seems to have worked and that the Paladins long watch is finally over. He wishes the Party a safe journey and spurs his strange riding beast onwards to check out the palace himself. The Party reach the the raft without any further incident and row across the now non-glowing lagoon and finally meet up with the other survivors at pinnacle base. It was a bittersweet reunion as the worthy Sergeant May had succumbed to his wounds and had died the previous night. Zeal was distraught and for awhile just held Mays body and left the others without orders and in a slightly embarrassed silence. After an hour or so he recovered enough to start giving orders, the plan was to gather up the bare necessities, May and Bartlett and head out across the ice and back towards Yarmouth. The Party head out and make slow going across the ice and are soon fatigued and barely making any progress and Zeal looking at his map decides that we should head towards the trapped ship and rest up there for the night and try again in the morning. They reach the trapped ship and get some fires started for much needed warmth. Ralph feeling less tired quickly scouts around and noticing that some things seem to have been moved around since their last visit decides to have a closer look at the ground around the ship and finds some disturbing tracks which seem to head towards Yarmouth, it seems they were not the only ones to escape from the damned Island. A thoughtful Ralph pulls his coat tighter around himself and heads back inside to tell the others. After a hasty breakfast of cold porridge the Party gear up and head back towards home. The weather also seems to be changing rapidly the strange clouds seem to be almost gone and the sun seems warmer on their backs, which whilst a welcome relief and potentially life saving is also a little worrying especially to say anyone crossing a frozen sea. Luckily the Party eventually make it back to Yarmouth with the increasingly large noise of Ice cracking underfoot providing a much needed spur to their speed. Reaching the docks they quickly head towards the N.M.A compound which is centred on the Listing Sausage Inn where they were greeted with some disbelief but allowed back in. Zeal quickly gives some orders and heads off to get debriefed, the Party find bunks, arrange for hot food and supplies, write up their reports and finally get some much needed R&R. Well that is apart from Craigh who sadly finding that the N.M.A stores don't have crossbows in there inventory as standard decides to head out into the ice blasted ruins of Yarmouth in search of an open shop. He finds a large but ragged tent with a sign hanging forlornly outside that somewhat unbelievably claims that its in fact a Hunting goods store so with a shrug Craigh heads in. Inside the tent he finds the tent full of boxes and crates and a man behind a makeshift counter who is warming his hands by a brazier. There is a discussion where the shop owner shows Craigh a variety of crossbows but Craigh is shocked at the prices and then after a unsuccessful haggling attempt he decides to fall back on old habits and does a more successful robbery. As he legs it from the shop with his hot crossbow he feels that he is being watched and after ducking and diving down various alleyways he quickly jumps behind a gong pile and waits. A cloaked figure which seems oddly feminine soon appears at the mouth of the alleyway and seeing nothing but a huge pile of semi frozen gong quickly hurries past. The wily Scot counts to ten and lets out a breath " That wis feckin odd, bit then again a'm a guid keekin jimmy 'n' a hero tae boot" with a leer the Scot heads back to the N.M.A compound but a little slower now and with a lot of odd pauses.

Part two,Really important questions are asked and yet no one mentions swallows.We return to the surprisingly gory adventure as the bloody body of Roger Keely previously of the New Model Army staggers and finally flops to the floor.As the body hits the floor the crystal child who was shadowing him looks at it for a moment and then silently heads into the slime wall, slowly eaten away by it until nothing of him remains. This only adds to the sense of shocked horror that now pervades the room the silence lasted a few more heartbeats until complete pandemonium breaks out, everyone starts shouting at once and some crazy accusations also ring out, There followed several tense moments until things settled down and people recovered from their initial shock, Ralph explained his actions and the Doctor came up with a slightly less scary explanation for the dissolving child it was very technical but basically boiled down to the old reverse bread and fishes routine. The Party had a heart to heart discussion with Jan Southforth the last remaining N.M.A soldier who had jumped with them and eventually the consensus is that Rodger was a git and was asking for it and so we will never mention it again........understand?The Party had solved the mystery of where the Crystal children were coming from but after a lot of poking and prodding they were unable to stop them appearing. The Party finally decide that there is nothing further they can do or learn so head back into the corridors. After picking a westerly course and exploring a few more bare dusty corridors some of which have small slithers of crystal sticking out from the floors and walls these crystals provide an unsettling half light that causes strange shadows to flicker in and out of view but eventually the unnerved Party come across another strange chamber, this one is hexagon in shape and is dominated by a large stand upon which rests a strange musical instrument it looks like an eight sided triangle and from a crystal hook a small brass beater hangs. Three further corridors lead out from this chamber, one has a clear light coming from it, the other has a purple glow and the final corridor has a slightly sinister red glow emanating from it much like the glow that came from the birthing corridor. Giulio sneaks ahead and scouts out the other tunnels he quickly returns and tells the Party that the strange light seems to be coming from large crystals (7 feet high and roughly 4 feet wide) which grow out of the floor. the Doctor heads towards the clear crystal eager to see if it is the crystal they need to remove as he gets closer he is shocked to see what looks to be a man trapped within its depths and images of war behind him that he seems to interact with. The Doctor seems a little lost and unsure of himself but after a moments thought he pulls out his disc and sees if it reacts to the crystal, unfortunately it doesn't so he gives the crystal a spiteful kick but it fails to even rock the crystal he turns away from the ghostly figure and heads back to the chamber explaining to the others that it didn't seem to be the right crystal after all. Ralph meanwhile had been checking out the strange triangle and with a shrug he tries to hand it off to one of the crystal children, in fact he tries to hand it off to the child he had previously marked with a triangle but the child remains still and the triangle merely falls to the floor. Ralph sighs "I thought I had figured this out, never mind if you want a job done right you have to do it yourself" he then strikes the strange instrument with the beater, it now rings out clear and strong the note echoing weirdly within the confines of the chamber. Then the opposite wall lifts up suddenly revealing a sheet of clear crystal upon which a distorted ladies face forms."oh bludy heel noo whit?" asks the melancholy Scot as the strange lady begins to talk but apparently its via some form of magic as the voice is only heard within the Parties minds. "Sacrifice will be demanded Trans-Arcana penetration has started, state your case why the universe will benefit from your continued existence. I will consider your answers and delete the least worthy of you." Ralph shrugs wipes his hands down the side of his trousers and steps forward "Er wobbly lady my name is Ralph and I am willing to sacrifice my own life to make things better if needed, I have spoken to Zeal for the lord Harrison and through him I have made my peace with the Almighty" The face distorts even more for a moment and the voice replies "Your answer has been received, who will go next?"The Doctor walks past Ralph giving him a slightly awe struck look and then lays prostrate before the face and then he launches into a long winded speech about the various benefits that mankind has and that their journey to be worthy of the Almighty is a worthwhile one as we become better and better with each step creating more wondrous art and discovering the wonders of the world and each new artistic endeavour, each new scientific discovery brings us towards true understanding. The face again distorts "Answer has been received"Giulio takes a deep breath and puffing out his chest he loudly declares "Hey whatta youse mean? We no beg before a wobbly face, we are conquers, we are gods. Maybe small ones at the moment but gods nevertheless" The face seems to smile or was it a smirk then it repeats its mantra of answer received. "I need one more answer before judgement" with that Jan cries out " Hey feck you its an easy answer we are men of Norfolk and so we are the best there is" the face shudders and in a somewhat disturbingly sexy voice "Answers recorded sacrifice will be taken Trans-Arcana penetration will continue" and with that a beam of light blazes out from her eyes and sears Jan to ash. The face fades away and with a head splitting pop the voice also falls silent within the Parties heads. Cue screaming and panicking most of the Party quickly moves away from the pile of smoking ash and quickly heads off towards the west casting fearful glances behind them. A lot of "What the feck was that?" and "Can we nae gie th' heel it ay haur?" could also be heard coming from various Party members.The Doctor however remained in the chamber nowvweeping openly, he seemed to be trying to ring the strange hex angle triangle thing again and could be heard calling out "Please come back we can do better....how about best out of three?" but nothing reappears and Giulio has to call back to him to get him moving.The others had been stopped by one of the few doors that occasionally appeared seemingly at random within the palace by the time the Doctor finally bustles up behind them Giulio looking at the Doctor said "finally" and he pulls open the door. The room beyond was small and had more passages leading off from it the room itself had a fog or mist inside which hung low to the ground but weirdly didn't seem to flow out or even move when the door was opened. The Party turned to the crystal children and almost as one they grabbed the nearest and threw him in and watched to see what would happen. He staggered a little but seemed unaffected by the mist not even coughing he just turned and looked at the Party blankly. So looking like it was clear the others entered the mist. It just seemed to be just an odd mist so they quickly pick the south passage and continue onwards. Looking back Craigh sees that the room they had just left has disappeared leaving only a blank wall behind them "Weel that's buggered things up Ah reckon och weel forwards it is 'en." he then breaks out into a wee jog to catch up with the others.After travelling for awhile going up and down a variety of corridors the party come across another small room where a head sized twelve sided object seems to float five feet off the floor within a column of calming bluish light, the Doctor calls out "Hey its a calming blue light, I think its safe to rest here for a moment, you know so I can check on the bandages and reapply some more goose and horse ointment.So the Doctor gets his medical chest open but as the others enter the glow quickly changes to an angry pulsing red and the calm feeling is quickly replaced with a feeling of rage and anger.A figure then slowly forms in front of the Party, somehow forming itself out of the red pulsing light as it becomes more solid it looks to be similar to the mythical Greek Minotaur but instead of a bulls head it has the head of a mighty stag. It bellows and lashes out with its cloven hooves and with great swishes of its antlered head roaring out a challenging bellow. Most of the Party manages to avoid its blows but Ralph being a bit on the large side gets clipped by one cloven hoof and staggers back in pain. Giulio though reacts with commendable speed and quickly has his musket up and aimed he fires into the beast the shot striking it cleanly in its chest which unfortunately just seems to annoy it even more.Ralph still staggering a little swipes at the beast with his hatchets but fails to hit the madly swaying beast but fortunately does force it into the sights of the Doctors Donderbus which with a loud bang fires a cloud of shot and burnt gunpowder. The Beast roars and collapses with a final terrible squeal its now missing a very large and important part of its head. The Doctors looks at the smoking Donderbus then at the Beast and with a huge stupid smile plastered over his face starts to yell "Yeeeees I new I could do it, in your face devil monster" the others ignore his fist pumping as they are more interested in the object which goes back to a calming blue but soon hints of red appear again so the party hurry past it and into the corridors beyond.When at a safe distance they take a quick break to grab more food and water, reload their weapons and for the Doctor to try to reseal their numerous wounds...again. After the break the bruised and battered Party get up and decide to take the North passageway which soon twists away to the west, this passageway ends at a wall which has a silver button recessed into it. The Party look around to see if their are any signs of what the button may do and seeing nothing odd Giulio presses the button which apart from changing colour doesn't seem to do anything. Giulio looks around shrugs and pushes it again "Hey maybe itsa stuck" the button then changes to the colour of steel and again nothing seems to happen he shrugs again the rest of the Party though start to worriedly approach Giulio with their hands outstretched but Giulio hits the button again which unfortunately does do something this time as most of the metal on the Players suddenly turns to rust which falls away leaving a reddish trail behind them. The Party seeing this erupts in horror as most of their weapons are now useless and Ralph stops looks at Giulio with murderous intent and says "My feckin hatchets...... MY FECKIN HATCHETS!!!" but luckily for Giulio the crystal children decide that this is the perfect time to launch an attack.

It would be great to have Arthur the Ball breaker back. P.S Damn it I've just finished building the Cake signal as well, those searchlights are the very devil to get on Ebay you know.

Are you sure we can't persuade you to add ladies in sexy red dresses?

Did the Doctor miss the bit with the sexy lady in red? And more importantly why is she not dancing with me now damn it.

In the Pale Ladies kingdom the children of the crystal gather. Warning there is a lot of clone(ish) children meeting a variety of unpleasant endings in this write up. With a sizzle and a loud snap the barrier closes behind the CL.U.Bers cutting them off from the swamp, Zeal, Claymon Morrow and indeed England as they knew it. The CL.U.Bers were not entirely on their own though as two soldiers had been ordered to make the jump with them but the CL.U.Bers were not entirely sure if the soldiers were there to aid them or just to keep an eye on them. The Party could now see the palace of the Pale lady clearly now as it was now unimpeded by the distortion of the barrier and what a palace it was, a huge grey monolithic tower dripping with condensation and which leaned menacingly over the Party soon casting them into deep shadow. After adjusting their weapons and the rest of their equipment they moved towards the palaces single dark opening which lay ahead of them as they reached the empty opening they stopped and hearing nothing opened their packs and pulled out a variety of lanterns and candles there was an awkward moment when the flints struggled to spark but after some fiddling around a spark was brought forth and the lanterns were finally lit. So now with no excuse to further delay they entered the forbidding entrance and almost immediately were hit by the sudden jump in temperature the air became moist and damp the Parties clothing quickly becoming sodden. The walls were formed of large stone blocks which appeared unmarked by anything neither tool mark or decoration could be seen discerned and so they only added to the feeling of gloom that the Party were starting to feel pretty strongly. After a fairly short walk a faint purple glow could be seen coming from somewhere ahead and pulling out pistols and grabbing sword hilts the party edged forwards. They end up in a room which has three corridors leading off from it but the thing that grabs the attention of the Party is the huge and faintly glowing crystal which seems bizarrely embedded into the bottom of a small crater, bizarrely because the vaulted roof above is intact and showed no signs of damage or repair so how did the crystal get there? The Party nervously search the area before swinging back to the elephant in the room that was the crystal, could it be this easy a short walk and the crystal was there just sitting in the first room? of course it wasn't the crystal was on closer inspection more blueish in hue than purple and seemed to be solidly buried into the floor. The Doctor even got out his disc and tried to stick it onto the crystal but it wouldn't attach nor did it change so it seemed that the party wouldn't be that lucky after all. Ralph decided to attempt a more brute force approach to the problem and slammed his hatchets into the crystal but apart from a few sparks, nothing not even a sliver of crystal fell away. The Party somewhat disheartened looked back towards the entrance and though they could see a small square of grey daylight the barrier hid anything beyond so left with little choice they decide to head forwards taking the corridor leading northwards as the other two corridors gave off a hellish red glow and though nothing was said the Party as one decided to give them a wide berth for now. No tracks disturbed the damp filthy floor not even those of animals and still the Palace was as silent as a tomb the Parties strangely echoing footsteps the only sound to be heard. The short corridor led into another chamber which was somewhat similar to the first but this one had a crystal that was on a plinth and was more like a honeycomb as it had numerous holes bored through its surface, all different in shape, size and angle. Some of these holes had crystal rods inserted into them and it all together they gave off a most disturbing glow the colours swirling and ever changing. The Doctor approaches the plinth rubbing his head at the temples absently and reaches out for one of the crystal rods and carefully pulls it out....nothing seems to change the plinth still pulses with colours and everything else seems the same that is until Giulio opens his mouth to speak and instead of the heavily accented English everyone had grown to if not love then at least to tolerate he instead lets out a burbled mish mash of hell speak "Mitä olet tehnyt nyt olet Daft sod... roikkua, että ei kuulosta oikealta?" or Finnish as its otherwise known as. This was not the full extent of the horror as both Ralph and the Doctor also found themselves now unable to speak the holiest and most beautiful of languages and instead jabbered away in foreign there then followed several minutes of desperate action as numerous crystal rods were pulled out and shoved back into the plinth the Doctor was by now openly in tears as he realised that for several moments he had been speaking FRENCH crying out "Non, s'il vous plaît Dieu rien que cela" almost at the point of collapse the Doctor twisted a slender slightly grey rod back into the plinth and thankfully the next words heard was an earthy, homely and more importantly English profanity. Unfortunately Giulio was........well still Italian so he still spoke with a heavy accent so it wasn't a total win. And after the silence that followed the joyous celebrations of the return of English the sound of tiny feet slapping against soggy flooring could be heard coming from behind the Party from the direction of the first chamber Ralph swung his lantern across and in its flickering light a pale small figure of a naked child could be barely seen. Ralph took a few steps forward as the child seemed to be injured, its movements oddly stiff and ungainly but with those few steps more Ralph could make out more details and as he got closer he was horrified because as the child turned his head to stare up at him an explosion of purple lights shone back from its face as the crystals embedded within reflected the lantern light back at him. The strange child was deathly quiet and when it got around three feet away from Ralph it stopped suddenly and just stared at him never saying a word or muttering a sound. Quickly calling over the rest of the Party Ralph simply pointed at the child and quietly asked "What the feck is that?" the child could not be made to speak even after the Doctor performed a little Panto involving gently talking to the child and showing it various things from his pack and seeing if they got a reaction but the child just kept staring at Ralph and ignored the Bible, the various Parliamentarian tracts and even the emergency wheel of Cheshire cheese which was a little on the smelly side by this point. Ralph started to poke the child and with each poke murmured "Quit it" the child rocked back a little but remained silent and just stared at Ralph "Very odd it must be a feral child of some sort who has been changed by the Pale lady remember she had children farming flowers at that last place". The Doctor warming to the theme continued "And since he's feral it follows that he doesn't know how to communicate with normal folk" he also added that he had heard that in the Americas there were whole tribes of such people who had been lost in that countries vast wilderness and so over time had lost all semblance of Godly civilisation. Then just as they were giving up on the strange child and just ignore him the pitter patter of more feet could be heard and suddenly more children appeared each one bearing the crystal stigmata. Giulio looked around as five more of the silent children now stood in the room each one standing in front of one of the Party. "What the hell is going on, why won't they speak?" asked the now worried Giulio Ralph a thoughtful look crossing his face as he slowly started to walk away heading back towards the first chamber and after a brief pause the child who had attached himself to Ralph swiftly followed. The others were still trying to make sense of what they had found so far and arguing about the best course of action concerning the children and their quest and so failed to really notice Ralph slip away. Ralph walked back down the corridor and hearing the sound of naked feet behind him smiled and he headed behind the large crystal embedded in the floor, the child followed its crystals reflecting back the larger ones strange glow giving the child's features a demonic cast. Ralph quickly checked to see that the child was alone and that the large crystal blocked the view if the others enacted his plan with barely a pause, he smashed his hatchet into the child's chest cracking through meat and bone breaking ribs and splitting organs the child said nothing it barely reacted to the mortal blow but as Ralph twisted the hatchet out creating a huge bloody hole in the child's torso the child finally spoke and in dry dull tone it cried out "The Void, the void I can see the void" Ralph panicked and tried to stop the child's scary monotone before he got caught and had to answer some awkward questions but as he placed one meaty paw across the child's blood splattered face the child let out one last sigh and collapsed onto Ralph and then slowly slid down onto the floor leaving a trail of gore down Ralph's front "Bugger, there goes that plan" Wiping off the worst of the gore he heads back to the others who were just realising that he had disappeared they were horrified to see him walk out of the corridor covered in blood especially when they figured out what he had done. The mood wasn't helped by the other remaining children who just turned and stared silently at Ralph but displayed no emotion. In the awkward silence that followed the pitter-patter of bare feet could be heard again coming from the tunnel behind and soon another identical crystal child appeared, it walked up towards Ralph and again stopped in front of him and starred blankly up and into Ralph's increasingly annoyed looking face. "Feck that's it that's the last bleeding straw" Ralph pulled a length of twine off his belt with one hand whilst smacking the child hard across the face with the other causing it to stagger and fall. Ralph quickly hogged tied the child who bizarrely made no protest at this rough treatment not even a whimper, "Lets see you follow me around now you creepy little fart" he then stomped away heading towards one of the other tunnels. The others still looking slightly shocked watched him go and then as one turned to look at the bound child who with no expression on its face started to wiggle and twist and slowly oh so slowly start to crawl after Ralph who hearing something also looked back and seeing the child wiggling after him went absolutely berserk "No way you feckin git" and he pulled out one of his bloody hatchets and started to stride towards the crawling child. The Doctor leaps forward throwing out a protective arm "Run children, Uncle Ralph is very upset" but the crystal children just silently watched as Ralph shoved the Doctor aside and brought down his hatchet with blistering speed straight into crawlies head and stopping him dead, Giulio speaking quickly in Italian stepped up and managed to drag Ralph off before he entered full berserk mode. The Doctor quickly got over his shock at this turn of events and scuttled towards the dead child his crystal companion close behind "Well it can't be said I won't look a gift horse in the mouth" and he quickly set down his medical case and started to pull out blade and saw "Lets see what you are made of shall we" and with his crystal child looking on the Doctor got to work.The others stood away and even Ralph decided that this was too gruesome to watch and shaking off Giulio he stomped over to a corner to grab a hasty meal of hardtack and brackish water. Sighing Giulio gave a shrug and walked back to the crystal altar and began examining it from every angle the Italian engineer trying to figure out how it could possibly work he could occasionally be heard muttering something in Italian all the while watched by his crystal child. The Doctor was soon finished with Crawlie and went to work on the other corpse and when done with that one he thoughtfully washed the blood off his hands dried them and quickly jotted down his findings in his little black book and when everything was neatly back in his case he headed off to find the others. "Amazing truly amazing those children are unnatural of course, the fact that they are identical in appearance inside and out proves this. The strange crystal seems to infest much of their bodies growing out of their very bones and then piercing through their flesh why I even found signs of crystal growth within their hearts. I think these are some sort of Golem but why make them children I can not for the life of me fathom" The Doctors monologue was interrupted by Giulio who asked "That's all very well and good Doctor and on the plus side I suppose it means Ralph here won't be going to hell after all but does it tell us where we need to go? does it help us in any real way? The Doctor looked a bit crestfallen and replied that no it didn't but it was jolly interesting nonetheless . He then moved to one of the doors leading out from the chamber calling back to the Italian "If a direction is needed why not this one?" his crystal child suddenly darted ahead of him and stood in front of the door he then reaches past the silent child and tries to pull the door open "A little help here gentleman please this door appears slightly....." he doesn't finish as the door suddenly slams open throwing him to one side and sprawling onto the floor from out of the now open doorway a gust of foul smelling air escapes, smelling of death, corruption and human waste. The others head towards the doorway coughing and spluttering in the suddenly befouled air. Ralph who had headed over slightly earlier to help the Doctor open the doors and so was slightly in front was the first to see the figure stagger out of the now revealed corridor behind the doors. It was another child but this one was much more unnatural in its appearance. The crystals that covered this child were jagged and broken and they glowed with a sickly green light and more worryingly for the Doctor who was staring up at it from the floor the child's hands appeared to have changed into crystal spikes. "Ahhh bloody hell" went the Doctor "Die" shouted Ralph as he charged the child the others just sighed and readied their weapons. The child looked at the Doctor then turned and with amazing speed leaps at Ralph's charging bulk, its leap carried it over Ralph and his initial hatchet swing and in return those crystal spikes open up a red ruin on Ralph's back as they easily sliced through his Buff coat and into the pale wobbly flesh beneath. Giulio swings his clockwork arm up and fires off his saw blade which strikes the child solidly in the chest knocking it off Ralph's back in a welter of reddish sparkling blood. The child quickly rolls back onto its feet and leaps back into the fray the saw blade still embedded deeply amongst the crystal growths on its chest. Both Ralph and the Doctor struggle to engage the swiftly moving child and barely avoid its crystal spikes in return. The two soldiers their muskets already raised fire but oddly they manage to completely miss the child but barely miss Ralph. Hearing the shot whistle past his head Ralph turns and the soldiers wave back and smiling mouth sorry to him this causes a now worried Ralph to rethink some of his previous actions, especially the one where he snitched on those two soldiers in particular about their looting but before he can act another misshapen monstrosity staggers out this one covered in mucus like slime and shuffles over to join in the fight. The other crystal children again do nothing neither hindering nor helping they just continue silently watch the fight unfolding before them. The mucus covered child turns and looks at the approaching Italian who now holds a pistol in his hand mucus boy starts to snort and gurgle and with a hacking sound launches a mass of oily snot at Giulio luckily he sees it in time and with a horrified look upon his face desperately twists aside as the scarily hissing ball of mucus and bile flies past and lands with a splat behind him. The Doctor hears more movement from behind him but he is unable to see anything so he decides to aim his Donderbus at Mucus boy and fires, the Donderbus belches out a great gout of flame but the shot misses its intended target. The Doctor does buy time for Giulio to re-aim his pistol and drawing a bead on Mucus boy he fires but the child seems blessed as again the shot goes wide. Mucus swings away from the prone Doctor and swipes at Giulio whose desperate parry fails to deflect the terrible blow and so he takes several nasty cuts to his upper chest his armour absorbing some of the terrible force behind the blow. The other child re-launches his attack on the now hard pressed Ralph who barely manages to block several blows with the haft of his hatchet. Ralph then weirdly drops the hatchet which is blocking the child's attack causing the child to misjudge its next swing and with bulk defying precision Ralph twists and turns ending up inside the child's reach he grabs the child in a tight bear hug the crystals scrapping down his armour before he twisting to one side and launching the child with terrible force into the nearby wall, there is a loud crack and a wet splat noise as the child's head splits open upon the corner of the wall and the child falls to the floor unconscious if not indeed dead. Ralph wipes his hands with a satisfied grunt. The source of the sounds heard earlier by the Doctor is finally revealed as one last horror child staggers out of the foul smelling corridor and glares around him its eyes showing the madness within this child is covered with sharp bone like blades and his fingers terminate in long jagged claws as well. The Doctor sees the child girds his loins and jumping up pulls out his sword with a flourish and charges towards the child but apart from his impressive war cry its all a bit disappointing really as he somehow misses the child and instead charges past it. The slightly confused child swings out at the passing Doctor the blow catching him in the leg causing him to stagger and fall again onto the floor. Giulio meanwhile continues to hack away at Mucus boy having dropped his spent pistol now wields his mighty telescopic one handed Glaive,TM his powerful blows causing Mucus boy to give ground. Ralph moves to the still form of spiky and grabbing a handful of bloodied hair he violently slams the child's head into the stone floor several times until he is basically holding a ball of bloodied meat in his hands with one last kick into the child's stomach just to make sure Ralph lumbers off to save his cousin the Doctor. Ralph pulls out both hatchets and with the child's back to him he buries both of them deeply into the child but the child refuses to drop instead it spins around and lashes out at Ralph catching him a glancing blow with a bony backhand which causes several cuts to open up. Ralph is now bleeding quite heavily from the numerous small cuts and his breathing has also become increasingly laboured its not looking too good for these two. Giulio thrusts his Glaive forward with a sharp twist and the glaive bites deeply into the child's chest splintering past the ribcage. Mucus boy gurgles and tries to hawk up one last blob of snotty acid but instead he ends up in a coughing fit he then slides stickily off the glove and onto the floor and with a last popping noise dies as he bleeds out. Ralph and the Doctor are rescued by the two soldiers who after giving up on reloading their muskets charge into combat with their cheap but still sharp swords and with their help the last monster child is finally brought down. Everyone looks around checking if any more horrors are about to stagger out and seeing no further movement a collective breath is let out. "Gadzooks that was damned close" says the Doctor nodding his thanks to the soldiers and looking at Ralph bloodied form sighs "It looks like I'm going to have to use the all the big bandages and most of the ointment up on you cousin" Ralph shuffles a bit and gruffly replies "Well maybe next time I won't help you and maybe then you will learn to hit what you aim at" he pauses and in a lower tone asks if he could have the bandages with the little blue ducks on them as he tells the Doctor he likes them as they are fluffy and taste nice. Everyone agrees that a rest is needed before they go exploring any further so the Doctor gets busy with his bandages and sewing needles whilst the others clear away the bodies before collapsing onto the floor and grabbing some much needed food and water. After an hour or so a well bandaged Ralph staggers to his feet and with a shrewd look in his eyes heads towards his crystal kid and with a meaty finger jabs the child in the chest "I want to know where you came from me old mucker" again the child remains silent just watching him and the rest of the party "Right, have it your own way don't say I didn't warn you" and with that he slices open the child's throat and before the child has even hit the floor Ralph's moving back the way we came. The rest of the party swearing gather up their equipment and mutter that maybe Ralph is mad and who should get the job of putting him down. Ralph's voice echo's back from the darkness "Ah ha I thought so" there is a sound of meat meeting metal and a thud. The Party follows Ralph and the childish cries of "The void the void I can see the void " Ralph seems to be making his own trail by killing a child then moving forward a little until meeting its replacement killing that and repeating the whole cycle over again but always moving forwards hopefully getting a little closer to the source of the crystal children with each death. As crazy bloodthirsty plans went it wasn't half bad and after several crystal children had met their end by bumping into Uncle Ralph and his shiny hatchets the Party ends up going past the first chamber and down one of the initially ignored side corridors where they come across a weird sight. The corridor ends in a wall which seemed to be covered in a thick redly glowing slime of some sort and it was from behind this slime that the children seemed to be coming and when needed they slithered out when needed. This was demonstrated by Ralph as he filled the Party in with what he had found and then hacked a child down to join the one already on the floor. "See look into the slime you can already see another child forming" The Party looked deeply within the slime and in the hellish red glow a hideous sight could be seen in the slime depths. It started with an outline of a small figure which slowly filled up veins, bones, organs and finally the flesh. it seems the Doctor was right as crystals could be clearly seen growing along with the bones and organs. For the Doctor this was a wondrous experience seeing a human body forming in front of his very eyes he just wished it was a little slower and he had time to take some sketches. Craigh a look of horror on his dirty face suddenly backs away and cries out "Its ungodly! thes is th' devils wark only th' laird can create life thes is naethin' but an unholy abomination" this breaks the spell and the Party react with commendable puritan passion and pulling out swords, hatchets and pistols they attempt to destroy the slime. Unfortunately nothing seems to damage it enough to stop the process even fire has little effect. Ralph getting bored starts staring at the soldiers who naturally take offence at the look that Ralph is giving them and brusquely demand to know what he is thinking to which Ralph replies rather mysteriously "I don't think" which really seems to upset Rodger "Yeah its that lack of thinking that made you rat us out to Zeal I reckon, we lost over a months pay handing back those shields and what gewgaws. In fact I think I will take my payment now" and he draws his sword. The Doctor tries to persuade him that he's making a foolish mistake but Rodgers dander is up and he wont change his mind. He pushes the Doctor aside with a snarl points at Ralph and growls out "Hey big man you're claimed" before launching himself at the still unmoving Ralph. As Rodger charged towards Ralph he may have wondered if he may have made a mistake as Ralph just seemed to stand there as still and seemingly uncaring as a statue with one meaty paw resting on the head of his woodsman's axe. Only when it looked like Rodger was going to gut him did Ralph move and when he moved he moved fast, moving side on to Rodger and with one smooth action the axe was pulled out of his belt and swiftly back down again with terrible precision removing Rodgers head in one clean blow. As Rodgers body continued past for a few more steps as his head splattered onto the floor Ralph turned to the other soldier and asked very casual like if there was still a problem, the soldier very wisely and quietly said "Nope" Part two later and yay we made it to page four at last.

I'm getting old and the nurse has hidden my typewriter again.

Sorry for the delay but this after action report kind of got away from me a little. Interesting people and their throbbing purple helmets The adventure continues................. Craigh the self claimed Scottish freedom fighter his pistol still wreathed in gun smoke stands over the naked body of a strangely muscled man, he looks around his eyes taking in the rest of the scouting party and the room before finally resting on their new prisoner. This prisoner was also showing signs of deformed musculature but it wasn't nearly as pronounced as that of the dead mans but he was still unnaturally well developed. He also seemed strangely unaffected by his comrades recent brutal death in fact he seemed more upset that Craigh had just shot the man instead of taking them up on their fairly offered test of strength."Ah haud yer wheelsht Jimmy cannae ye see a'm trying tae think 'ere" Craigh then turns to the soldiers that make up the rest of the scouting party, "Ye twa men tae him up we need tae git movin afore anymair o thae boaby swingers caw up."The two soldiers exchange confused looks with each other and then shrug their shoulders. "Whit dinnae tell me ye dinnae ken th' kings Sassenach? tae him up ye ken wi ' rope, Jesus mist ah dae everything?" helped along by Craigh's somewhat vulgar hand gestures and pantomiming skills the two soldiers slowly realise what the crazed Scot wants and begin to pull out twists of rope which they use to tie up the naked man.The naked man offers no protest at this state of affairs he just continues to moan about Craigh's unmanly attack and if he had just waited they could have all stripped down got oiled up and wrestled together for the glory of Mantaka. Craigh pokes the naked man with his....finger leaving a strange smear in the mans thickly applied chest oil."Clam up ye mad eejit ah telt ye afore I dinnae git mah wullie oot for na Jimmy ye ken?"Just then the door on the opposite wall bursts open and more naked men swing into the room their oiled bodies seemingly glowing in the torch light. They pause upon seeing Craigh in his tattered kilt and the quickly levelled muskets of the soldiers but the spell is broken when another strangely muscled man cries out from behind the first two "What are you waiting for get the interlopers in the name of Mantaka charge!" There then follows a lot of moaning and groaning as a N.S.F.W fight breaks out which boils down to a lot of heavily muscled, naked, fully aroused and oily men leaping into hand to hand combat with the reinforced scouting party their tackle swinging dangerously close to the faces of the startled and completely horrified Puritans the oil on their bodies strangely causing many a soldiers otherwise telling blow to slide off before doing any real harm and as the echo of gunfire finally ceased the scouting party realised that they were at a slight disadvantage as even though they were armed with swords and pistols they were simply horrified at the thought of what they might end up grabbing as the melee gets close and dirty. Eventually the naked men were no match for the scouting parties superior firepower and armour they had caused a lot of damage but whilst their blows might break a bone or two the scouts blows would cut through flesh and sever limbs so the result was inevitable. So after a lot of oiled up and naked men were beaten off the party drops to the floor exhausted and blown and only then do they check to see what price their victory had cost them. Sergeant May was bleeding heavily from a nasty hickey on his neck and looked to be in a bad way and Zeal was beaten black and blue a trickle of blood escaping from his now somewhat flatter nose. Pointing to a soldier he instructs him to go fetch the Doctor as his services were needed. The Doctor by now somewhat used to his companions behaviour asked no questions upon seeing a room stacked full of dead naked men he just assumes that his comrades had starting looting earlier than normal. Zeal directed him to Sergeant May and ordered that he be treated immediately so the Doctor quickly got to work cleaning the numerous deep bite marks with copious amounts of vinegar and he then stitched up the wounds with his finest catgut he finally applies bandages and a soothing poultice of shredded potato mixed with witch hazel. May looking very pale staggers back up swaying ever so slightly. Even after treatment his buff coat was soaked with his own blood all down the one side giving him a ghoulish appearance. After the Doctor has finished Zeal quickly bustles over and begins fussing over the wounded sergeant asking him if he could go on etc. The Doctor got on with treating the various wounds whilst the others began questioning the few prisoners. The prisoners were soon persuaded to talk and they revealed that they were survivors of a shipwreck, it seems they were sailing along the coast when they were caught out by the sudden storm which accompanied the rising of the island and when they finally made it to the shore they found themselves near a temple of some sort they heard a faint voice calling to them promising them safety and physical perfection if only they would worship the voice of course a few of the sailors resisted and refused to blaspheme but many others succumbed to the honeyed words that they heard and soon cold, wet and hungry they turned on their comrades and the voice did indeed bless them. The Doctor overhearing the sordid tale was heard to mutter something about finding himself in a room full of salty seaman...again. Zeal and Ralph decide to investigate the Temple beyond the door, Ralph remembering how the Mantaka worshippers preferred to fight without weapons handed over to the Doctor his many axes for safe keeping which the Doctor who was already humping around a heavy medical chest was not exactly over joyed about but Ralph wouldn't be dissuaded . The slightly miffed Doctor took out his frustrations by poisoning the more heavily wounded prisoner claiming it was an act of mercy but as the man went into a seizure it was noticed that he was also watching the man very intently and taking copious notes. The original prisoner meanwhile was judged by Zeal to have forsaken the one true God and as such had forfeited his life. Two soldiers were called over and they strangled the poor wretch, he struggled for awhile but he was tightly bound hand and foot and after five minutes or so he finally succumbed to the soldiers garrotte. Zeal and Ralph crossed into the Temple and found out it was a vaulted stone chamber and it seemed that at one side the wall had collapsed outwards revealing the jungle beyond. The floor seemed to be hard packed clay covered with a scattering of that strange black sand. In the centre of the room upon an altar of jade and bone stood a grotesque statue of an over developed human like figure. Ralph goes over to examine the altar and its strange idol but as he approaches he stops suddenly and hears a whispered voice saying that if he strips down naked and has a hearty meal he would be rewarded. Ralph turns and sees Zeal behind him "My lord maybe we should topple this hell spawned statue?" Zeal oddly shakes his head but agrees and together they manage push the surprisingly heavy statue over. "Ahhh my head" cries Zeal suddenly "Get out you demon for I am one with the one true God and beyond temptation" shouts Zeal. Ralph suddenly wishes he had his axes back but Zeal looks at Ralph a weak smile plastered across his pale sweaty face "Don't worry noble Ralph it has passed as I touched the statue I was assailed by visions of violence but I am strong in my faith and remain uncorrupted" Ralph lumbers over to him and after a brief but awkward pause pats Zeal on the back "Not to worry sir its all over now, I guess we should check the rest of the chamber" Casting a last slightly worried look at the toppled statue they head towards another door in the corner of the room, opening the door releases a cloud of steam and as it clears several pools of water are revealed beyond some are bubbling gently and have steam rolling out of them whilst other seem to have a thin crust of ice over them. The walls are also covered in oddly shaped niches each one containing various oils and shaving implements. Ralph suggests that the party could do with a hot bath so Zeal asks the Doctors opinion which turns out that a bathing is notoriously dangerous and would be a waste of time as it removes the protective sheen of dirt that covers most healthy people. Zeal turns around to tell Ralph the bad news but is shocked to see that the somewhat hefty Ralph already disrobing behind him. Ralph looks up and somewhat sheepishly says "Oh sorry sir I think I may have pulled a muscle toppling that statue and me dear old Dad always swore by a hot bath when he pulled something" Zeal looks somewhat confused but confronted by Ralphs huge naked form in such a confined area he decides that he can be generous this one time and agrees with Ralphs request but tells him to hurry up and wash the blood of himself and then he must re-join the rest of the party at the pinnacle. He then awkwardly squeezes past and pops back into the statue room. The rest of the party had grown somewhat bored and uncomfortable standing around amongst all the dead seaman and had decided to follow Zeal into the temple and being a curious bunch they had gone off to investigate the last unexplored room. This room seemed to contain a lot of shiny things, Torcs, huge bronze shields and a strange crown but before they could be liberated Zeal had turned up and chased them out of the room warning them about touching such ungodly items. The Doctor backed him up and flings a chunk of meat onto the floor "I was wondering what these men had been eating and decided to check out the bowls, they were eating human flesh these had been honest God fearing sailors only a few days ago but see how quickly they became monsters, cannibals even and the corruption could only have come from these idolatrous items" There was a lot of unhappy muttering but Zeal managed to restore order and get the party back in order. The new plan was that we would return to the pinnacle via the tunnels, pick up the wounded soldier and his guard along the way and using the height of the pinnacle plot a new course of exploration as Zeal was still determined to reach the other side of the lagoon. So off they went leaving Ralph and two soldiers behind at the temple Ralph to finish his bath and the soldiers to check the area one last time to make sure we weren't leaving any enemies behind us. Ralph finding himself alone in the bathroom decided to gorge himself on food eating several days worth of rations in one go, stuffing himself like some kind of demented hamster and all the time thinking of Mantaka. repeating the name over and over again in his head. Ralph swiftly munched his way through all the food and managed not to choke himself to death which must have pleased Mantaka as Ralph started to feel a warmth deep within him which spread up and to his arms and since he hadn't peed in the water he guessed it must be because he had done as Mantaka had asked. Looking at himself he quickly realised that his arms seemed bigger and when he got dressed his shirt was a little tighter. Quickly he finishes getting dressed and he gives his clothes a quick sponge down and then goes out to find the soldiers. The soldiers were coming out of the room across the temple, the one that had all those strange shiny objects in and when the soldiers see Ralph they quickly end their conversation and looked somewhat guilty but now was not the time to cause any trouble so Ralph just waved a meaty paw at them and told them it was time to head back to the pinnacle. The rest of the Party had by now reached the pinnacle and had made their way back up to the top chambers dragging the heavily wounded Bartlett behind with them. A make shift camp was quickly set up in the chamber below the strange monolith and soon enough armour was being removed with tired sighs and the more superficial injuries beneath were getting looked at by the Doctor. A fire was prepared and bedrolls set out as Zeal went up to the topmost room he looked out across the jungle towards the lagoon and the mist shrouded shore beyond he turned to the few party members who had joined him and explained his plans "We need to investigate the other side of the island before we can claim mission accomplished gentleman so I plan to cross that body of water tomorrow at first light. I thereby suggest that you get a group together now and using what little of the day remains gather some wood and any other supplies you deem necessary to make us a raft" he then dismisses the party who exchange some worried looks but at least with Craighs and Guilios clockwork arms it should be easy job and so off they go discussing half remembered carpentry lessons and the best way to lash a vine. They bump into the increasingly hulking form of Ralph on the stairway and catch him up on Operation Sinking feeling. Luckily the area around the pinnacle provides everything they needed to make an awesome raft, Craighs drill attachment proving especially handy. The Doctor though wondered off as after pulling out yet another splinter from his hands he had decided that carpentry really wasn't his thing and instead he gathered up some of the nearby cabbage like plants and after detailing them in his notebook gave them a thoughtful look and then added several to his bag. And just as the last of the light was fading the H.M.S Chum was dragged to the lagoons shore, secured and left ready for tomorrows voyage and with the light fading a faint purplish glow could now be seen coming from the beneath the lagoon's water. The adventurers returned to base camp and busied themselves with small chores, the Doctor for example went over and unusually for him got the great soot blackened cooking pot out and started to gather rations together to make a stew for everyone Ralph meanwhile sought out Zeal and asked if he could have a quiet word with him. Craigh wondered up to the top of the tower and looked out across the landscape trying to make out where they would end up tomorrow he noticed that there was another glow further inland and this glow was strong enough to light up the low hanging clouds giving them an eerie cast. The light seemed to pulse a little but seemed to come from a large stationary object and after making a rough map and some calculations he returns to the chamber below to discuss he findings. Ralph leads Zeal back out onto the stairwell and when safely out of earshot of the others Ralph leans into Zeal and whispers "My Lord I hate to do this but I think you need to know" there is a dramatic pause then he continues "I believe that Mathew and Roger the two soldiers that stayed with me at the temple may have weakened and taken some of the items from that foul place maybe in an attempt to profit from them" Zeal looks thoughtful and then standing on tiptoe pats Ralph on the back " You were right to tell me this Ralph those profane items could very well have corrupted us all. he smiles and continues "I now know that I have made the right decision" he adds mysteriously and again thanking Ralph he leads him back to the others. Upon his return he briefly speaks to Cobb (another soldier) and then he calls over the two soldiers named by Ralph he is pleasant asks them some general questions and then roughly demands that they turn out their pockets and packs, Mathew and Roger complain and begin to protest but when they see Cobb step forward with his musket at the ready they realise that Zeal means business and they do as he asks revealing a small treasure trove of bronze and gold trinkets. Zeal unfortunately feels that this is a good time for a rousing speech in which he berates the guilty soldiers and telling them that these baubles are not worth the price of their immortal souls but he forgives them as he knows that not everybody has the strength of faith that he is blessed with and so weaker than him they can fall into temptation. Everybody looks slightly uncomfortable during Zeal's sermon and Mathew and Roger stare daggers at Ralph who happily waves back at them from behind Zeal. The speech is thankfully a short one and the Doctor breaks the awkward silence that follows with a hearty cry of "Grubs up" and he begins to serve up his possibly soon to be famous trail ration and tiny cabbage thing stew. As everyone goes to get a warm meal Zeal gathers up the trinkets and heads towards one of the openings in the pinnacles side he pauses looking at the trinkets in his hands a strange look crosses his face, he shakes his head as if to clear it and then throws the trinkets out of the opening and down into the still eerily quiet jungle below. Zeal then turns back into the room and grabs his mess kit and heads to the gaggle of men who are tucking into the Doctors stew with gusto. The hot meal and camp fire work their magic and soon everyone is relaxing, chatting and laughing about the weirdness they have so far encountered on this accursed island and mugs are raised in toast to their fallen. Some time later the room is full of the sounds of snoring and the hushed conversations of the few men unable to sleep yet. Zeal speaks to the gravely injured May and then after their own hushed conversation ends he quickly seeks out the Doctor who is trying to restock his collection of spider webs. Zeal places a hand on the Doctors shoulder and spins him round to face him the Doctor is somewhat shocked especially when he see that Zeal is almost in tears his eyes almost brimming over with water he tells the Doctor in a harsh whisper "May! you must not lose him Doctor he must live you understand me he must live" The Doctor somewhat taken aback can only nod at first though he finally manages to let out a slightly strangled "I'll try not to" luckily this seems to be enough and Zeal releases his iron grip and with a last "May can't die" he stalks back over to his bedroll. The Doctor decides that grabbing some sleep now before anyone else wants a word with him would be a very good thing indeed and quickly heads over to his bedroll quickly covering his face with his blanket. This only leaves Ralph seemingly awake his stomach still grumbling even after eating several meals he sits quietly in a corner sharpening his hatchets then there is a groan and looking across the room he sees May struggle up into a sitting position. May looks around the room and seeing only Ralph still awake spits up some blood and creakily calls him over intrigued Ralph lumbers up and very quietly especially for such a big man crosses over to May, gently stepping over the sleeping soldiers "Hello Sergeant you feeling any better? can I get you some water or something?" May shakes his head and croaks out "Ralph I'm guessing I wont be you for the next part of this insanity and I reckon you will need all the help you can get" he then fumbles around in his trousers much to Ralph's horror the fight with the cultists of Mantaka still very fresh in his mind. Luckily though May just pulls out a small sack and drops it into Ralph's hands "Shims Ralph, shims you understand man? add these to the men's sights and they will find aiming their muskets a lot easier" Ralph looked somewhat dumbfounded at this news and was going to ask May what the hell he was on about but May had fallen asleep again no doubt one of the Doctors tonics was at work Ralph made May comfortable and taking the shims went back to his corner and finally fell asleep a small wooden goat clutched tightly in one meaty paw. Morning arrives with its all to soon suddenness and the men grumble and curse as cold water is splashed into red rimmed eyes and a lukewarm porridge is eaten for breakfast the Doctor checks up on his various patients and spends a long time checking over the mornings stool samples and oddly asking if people enjoyed last nights meal. The others sharpen weapons, check powder and shot and start to put on their various padded jackets and pieces of plate so its around nine o'clock before everyone is ready to head back out and to the raft. Zeal arranges for the wounded to stay at the pinnacle as its by far the most defensible position they have found so far and assigns one of the soldiers as a guard/carer to the injured he then gathers the men together and calls Ralph forward "Men as you know Sergeant May is gravely wounded and as such he will remain here with Bartlett to recover his strength and in the unlikely event that we do not return he will lead whatever survivors back to Yarmouth and then onto Norwich to inform Lord Ireton of what has happened here, and so I name Ralph Norton as acting sergeant he will be my strong right hand and as such you will obey him as you would me is that understood." most of the party agree one or two even slapping Ralph on the back in congratulations but Mathew and Roger are conspicuous by their quick departure they really don't seem very happy to hear about this change of command and they refuse to go anywhere near their newly minted sergeant. So after the celebrations the men get to gathering up all their equipment and saying their final goodbyes to those men remaining. The party sets out into the jungle, Zeal stays behind for a moment to hand over a dispatch case to Sergeant May he then exchanges a few final words and then he to leaves. The brief trek through the still silent jungle passes without too much incident but just to the side of one of the trails previously made by the raft work team a deep crevasse is discovered and pausing to look down the party see the faint outlines of huge yellowing bones littering the mist shrouded depths The party soon reaches the lagoons shore and luckily find the raft where they left it after piling on their kit Ralph grabs a couple of the loose vines and with a loud grunt drags the raft into the lagoon this impressive feat of strength is almost ruined when he then jumps onto the raft almost causing it to roll over. Most of the party just curse him out in a friendly manner but Mathew and Roger seem to have very thoughtful looks upon their faces after some jostling and shoving everybody finally gets on without too much trouble and then there is an awkward pause when everyone wonders who actually can steer this thing. Then Craigh stands up and shuffles over to the rear of the raft "Och fur gods sake, shift ower ye boggin' bunch o' idiots luckily ah hae punted ower th' mighty loch ness. Christ ye wid be lost wi'oot me" he then grabs a long branch and pushes the raft out and into the lagoon muttering curse words under his breath the whole time. Luckily apart from a couple of cases of mild sea sickness the crossing passes without incident, well apart from about halfway across and a couple of the soldiers point out that there seems to be something vast and slightly luminous directly beneath the raft but everyone decides that it would be best just to ignore it and continue onto the other shore. With a huge sigh of relief the raft finally grounds itself on the dark gritty shore and you have never seen people get off a boat so fast in your life Ralph and Guilio were just throwing packs off and onto the shore going for speed rather than accuracy so the packs, boxes and tubs ended up all over the place Mathew Peddler was very suspicious when he was forced to duck several times as various packs flew towards his head. The raft was tied up the equipment collected from the various trees and bushed they had ended up in and when everyone was settled and ready Zeal got them moving into the jungle. After half an hour or so a trail of sorts was found and caused a moments panic as muskets were levelled and the surrounding jungle was peered at through numerous shaky sights. The panic was only momentary though and Ralph got everyone back into line "No need to panic its just an animal trail see" he points down to a few water filled hoof prints "See its just a deer or something" and just as everyone was feeling a little foolish and lowering their weapons a strange flat furry face broke through the foliage, the beasts large brown seeming eyes surveying the party and somehow it managed to give the impression that it wasn't all that impressed with what it saw. It briefly stopped chewing and instead spat a stream of foul smelling fluid towards the party most of whom easily manage to avoid the noxious fluid but Cuthbert moved the wrong way and so took a large globule of it right in the face he immediately started screaming and staggers back desperately trying to wipe his face clean, the Doctor helpfully threw some water at him. Just then the strange animal moved further onto the trail revealing a strange furry horse like body that was squat and powerful looking it had a long neck which supported a large intelligent looking flat face. Its eyes were a deep brown and then suddenly a vibrant blue depending on how the light hit them and its teeth were blunt broad and yellowish. Somewhat disturbingly it also seemed to be snickering at Cuthberts antics. The party didn't know what to do some were rushing to Cuthberts aid whilst others pulled back the locks on their muskets and aimed them at the strange animal then there was a horrid squealing noise and a crackle and a tall grayish man stepped out of the jungle he was wearing an outlandish helmet of some sort made up of some dark metal and covered in tubing(?) which covered his face entirely and in a deep monotone voice said "Oh I'm terribly sorry has Layko been misbehaving again? Naughty Layko no more treats for you he means no harm he's just a little high spirited that's all" there then followed a loud pop and another one of those strange pig like squeals and the stranger smacked the side of his helmet. "Sorry, sorry the etheric vanes are playing up again I wont be a moment" he then bangs the side of the helmet again and fiddles with something on his belt. "There that's better have you come far? oh and by then way the visitor is waiting for you at the causeway it seems that you have just arrived in the nick of time" Now dear reader you would have thought that this man and his animal would have gone down in a blaze of musket fire as soon as they had appeared but between Cuthberts screaming about slimy spit and whatever terrible flashbacks it seemed to be giving him, the giggling fluffy horse and the mans bizarrely polite behaviour it hadn't even crossed the parties collective mind to actually fire, they were simply too stunned to do anything. Zeal is the first to recover and checking to see that his new strong right hand is close by he approaches the man "Stranger I am Zeal for the lord Harrison of the Parliamentarian army of the most blessed British isles and in whose name I demand that you tell us your name and what your business is" The figure turns his helmeted head towards him and with a snap and a pop answers "Oh hello Mr Zeal for the lord Harrison its a pleasure to finally meet you I've heard so much about you and the others, funny weather we've been having for this time of year don't you think? and my handle, ident or name is the Paladin of the fall he steps forward and with a very elaborate bow continues "Time is short and my vigil has been long and the visitor requests the pleasure of your companies err....company, please be all thanking and follow me/us" the helmet makes a sad popping noise. Everyone looks somewhat nonplussed even Layko tilts his flat face to one side and lets out a snort of derision.There then follows an intense inter-party debate which every so often was interrupted by further questions being asked of the Paladin there was even one brief attempt to ask Layko's help in clearing things up which just ended up with Guilio covered in spit the Paladin meanwhile busied himself with trying to answer the numerous questions, offering Cuthbert a hanky and another rather formal apology for Laykos behaviour and at one stage worryingly going over to Layko and pulling out from a sheath behind the saddle a strange polearm which had blades mounted at either end but seeing the parties reaction he wisely puts it quickly back the gist of all this is that the party finally agrees to follow the Paladin to this apparently well respected and oddly well informed visitor if only in the vain hope that he could explain what the hell was going on. Cuthbert is finally wiped down, slapped a couple of times and shoved back into the line and the party moves on with the Paladin leading the way riding atop the suddenly flatulent Layko, the fact that it kept looking back and snickering really didn't help the mood. The jungle slowly peters out and becomes wetlands the trees giving way to various small rough bushes and great swathes of thorny vines the ground becomes more and more water logged and somewhat squelchy underfoot making the going harder and harder, and so some of the men get to complaining but Ralph keeps them in line making his way down the column from Layko and the Paladin to the rear to crack some heads whenever the muttering becomes too loud. The Paladin stops at the start of a crystal causeway which crosses the increasingly wide streams and bubbling pools he points towards a distant purple glow and says "Gigg'jdfe ifjbjbjuuu?" he shakes his head pauses turns a dial and then tries again "...ugger this, the blasted damp gets everywhere, Oh is it working again?" he coughs then points again to the distant light "Behold the Palace of the Pale lady enemy of the Paladins of the fall the cause of our lonely vigil.....oh and the visitor is there as well which is jolly handy, come on then we should make it before lunch" and with that Layko scrambles up onto the crystal causeway and only slightly befuddled the party climbs up and follows him across towards the light" And as the party has come to expect things were not all plain sailing and the previously faint odour of sewage that had been growing since they had started to cross the wetlands became stronger and stronger forcing many to wear handkerchiefs across their faces the journey whilst unpleasant passes without further incident and soon they can make out shimmering buildings built with weird angles beyond the strange purple glow the small figure of a leather clad man could just be seen working on what appeared to be some strange looking boxes and after fifteen more minutes of travel the party find themselves standing in front of the throbbing purple light and the odd looking buildings which were barely visible behind it. The Paladin dismounts and heads towards the leather clad man who was also wearing an interesting helmet, Layko terrorises Cuthbert until he gets the message and feeds him an apple from his pack and the rest of the party wait nervously. The Paladin pats the visitor on the back and we hear the crackle of his talking box then visitor turns around to look at the party and the party learns two things one the name of the Paladin is Kyriakos and the visitor is none other than Claymon Morrow the Bedouin looking chap some of them had met at the Pale ladies rabbit kingdom. "Bugger" goes the Doctor "Its that funny fellow who wanted us to kill someone for him isn't it didn't we tell him he could shove it, oh well this could be somewhat awkward" but weirdly it wasn't instead Morrow pulled up his goggles and after a quick readjustment of his padded leather outfit warmly greets the party "Ah excellent I knew old Kyriakos here could find you" he then pulls out a strange device looks at it and then looks at Zeal "Yes its turned out alright in the end though I had expected you a little earlier it appears that you have drifted a little from the schedule. Oh well never mind that can't be helped" he then rushes over to one of the strange boxes and makes some small adjustments to a bank of coloured lantern things which cover one side all the while giving the party a running commentary on what was going on and what their part in it all was. He was also going on about something called a Trans arcana penetration as initiated by the Pale lady and that such a thing would be very, very bad for everyone else he needed someone namely the party to get into the Pale ladies castle and remove a few purple or were they clear crystals? he wasn't totally one hundred percent which but never mind removing them would do something and then everything would be super. The apocalypse would be safely diverted for a century or two and the trans arcana energies would be safely earthed again but to be honest nobody in the party had a bloody clue what he was on about but it certainly sounded jolly important. Sensing that he was perhaps losing his audience Claymon hands Guilio and the Doctor each a small disc made of some sort of metal "Look just be good chaps and take these locator beacons with you, don't lose them mind as they will be the only way for me to know that you have succeeded and for me to then suck you out" again the party does a collective "You what?" and numerous heated small discussion's break out the phrases "Did you get any of that?, Is he French?, Okay lets just kill them all and leg it back to Norwich" and oddly enough "Get your thieving snout out of my pack you furry bastard" are briefly heard on the air. Zeal finally tells Ralph to sort things out as he tries to make sense of things so while he heads over to Claymon to discuss things Ralph gets to work slapping some order back into the ranks. There is a brief standoff though when he gets to Craigh and the sound of clockwork gears spinning up to speed is suddenly very noticeable but before there is a bad case of unfortunate bloodshed Layko trots over and blows a raspberry at Craigh and then licks his face "Och ye wee furry bastard if your'e oan wee Ralphs side wha am ah tae argie?" and the sound of clockwork powered blades fades away. The rest of the soldiers complain a bit but none dare go against Zeal yet and oddly the Doctor and Guilio seem fairly calm about things as they seem to be discussing the theory that they have already died and this is some weird limbo before one of the twelve gates of heaven they just seemed to be arguing about which particular gate. Several moments pass before a sombre looking Zeal returns from his chat with Claymon he pulls himself straight and calls the party together "Okay we have all seen some strange and terrible things recently the beasts under the ruined church, that Satanic temple, the frozen landscape we crossed to get here containing the bodies of the good people of Yarmouth. Some of you have even lost loved ones to those accursed flesh beasts that now freely roam the land" he pauses and then in a quieter tone continues "You were all hand picked for this mission you are the best of a proud and noble brotherhood and as such even though these things that are demanded of you seem wrong on oh so many levels you know deep down that they must be done, WE! do not matter what we do and the people we save does so no more arguments, no more discussions we have a mission laid out before us , a holy mission and we will fulfil our oaths to protect and serve the people of this great land we go forward and will do as Mr Morrow asks for he had convinced me that this is the only way to save our homes, our loved ones and indeed the republic so this is the plan gentleman, the members of the Clockwork bureau accompanied by several soldiers will breech with the help of Mr Morrow this strangely throbbing and purplish barrier they will then search the castle for these crystals and THEY WILL DO WHAT IS NECESSARY TO SAVE US ALL! is this UNDERSTOOD?" Morrow then cries out his strange boxes flashing madly and huge sparks of crackling energy start to leap from the metal studs along their sides "They must go now Zeal I can only hold the barrier open for a few moments!" there is a pop of displaced air and a split appears in the purple barrier" "GO GO GO!" screams Zeal and the CL.UBbers do. This was a fantastic return to the crazy world created by Jay and I haven't laughed so hard in ages though I must apologise to the others as it may have become a little too much as I basically broke down in tears at the end and probably could only be understood by dogs.

The Yarmouth Chronicles Feed me, Seymour, Feed me all night long Cause if you feed me, Seymour I can grow up big and strong. Whilst the rest of the Party are still recovering from the revelations of Theseus Craigh and the Doctor get things done. Craigh rallies up the rest of the Party and after checking the nearby area they begin to explore the rest of the floor. The floor soon was fully searched a couple of those strange globes were removed and packed away into Craighs satchel the contents of the blowgun crate were also stashed away. Craigh briefly checks out the external staircase again noticing how quiet the island seemed. When he reached the pinnacles top he found a cave like room which contained a 12 foot high greenish obelisk which was covered in the now familiar looking glyphs unable to make out what they said he walks around quickly once and finding nothing else heads back down to the rest of the Party. The Doctor meanwhile manages to stabilise James "Unlucky" Bartlett but he has to remove his shattered leg below the knee, the operation is very tense and he almost loses Bartlett a couple of times but eventually manages to remove the leg and tie off all the veins etc. (Had to spend two hero points) Sergeant May really, really didn't want to lose any more men and kept leaning over the Doctor and generally getting in the way. Craigh returns and suggests to Zeal that they need to explore the rest of the pinnacle below, Zeal agrees so a crude stretcher is made for Bartlett and the much reduced Party prepares to move out. Craigh also reports to Zeal about what he found in the room above and as soon as the obelisk is mentioned a fevered light seems to enter Zeals eyes "It must be destroyed at once this blasphemy can not be allowed to stand" he explains with a slightly frothy mouth. Using Zeals rant to cover his actions the Doctor wiping blood of his hands goes over and checks out the two cooling bodies of the heretics. He finds some Dutch coins on the man and a locket on the lady he also confirms that they were indeed human and are thankfully still dead. He also tries to identify the glowing liquid found in the chest and whilst unable to name it he is pretty sure it is a paralysing agent of some sort. Zeals ranting subsides and its decided that destroying the obelisk would be sadly impractical as it would take most of the parties gunpowder to do so. So with a slightly annoyed Zeal leading the Party head downwards in search of somewhere better sheltered and offering a more defensible position. We head downwards lanterns held high, the first room below seems to have been recently occupied as some attempts to make it livable can be seen, a window grill repaired with twine and the floors hastily swept. The corridor beyond has more of those strange carvings along the wall of cabbage vines and swaying tree like things there is also carved amongst them strange armoured figures mounted on dog like creatures which seem to be jousting bizarrely. The corridor ends in a single doorway leading into more darkened rooms beyond. Craigh scouts the rooms beyond finding that one of them looks like it had been used as a sleeping area a brazier stands in the middle surrounded with rough sleeping pallets made up of torn rags and tapestries there is also a staircase heading downwards in one darkened corner. The group move up into this room and take a breather, Bartlett is made comfortable on one of the pallets and the brazier is lit providing much needed light and warmth. After a quick bite to eat and a cuppa Craigh again heads out and downwards scouting out the floors below. He encounters a couple of odd looking skeletons which seem to have been somehow merged into the very walls themselves he also notices that the humidity has risen quiet significantly as he starts to sweat and condensation can be now seen flowing down the walls and dripping off the ceiling. The source of this strangeness is found squatting in the room just beyond the skeletons, a large plant has taken root growing out of a large crack in the pinnacles floor, its surrounded by writhing tendrils which end in star shaped rings of serrated leaves their is also a large throbbing teat which constantly drips a sweet smelling sap giving off a strange sweet spicy yet oddly milky scent. Craigh taking all this foulness in bravely runs back upstairs barely holding in his recent meal. After reporting back a quick plan of action is decided upon and the old reliable Operation Burn everything in sight is enacted. Anything that could be used/spared as fuel is dragged down and hurled as near as possible towards the plant a few of the final tapestries and rags are sprinkled with gunpowder just to make sure that they light up quickly, a flaming torch is then tossed onto the pile. The fire is slow to get going at first then with a loud whoosh it fully ignites causing the plant to thrash around and soon a foul smelling smoke starts to fill the lower rooms and drives the party back up to the higher levels. So with the fire burning below its time for lunch, Bartlett is fussed over by the Doctor and several of his mates and apart from muttering in his sleep seems to be doing well enough given the circumstances. After about an hour with the smoke clearing and with no sign of coughing monsters charging up we prepare to head downwards again. The plant is still and blackened the teat no longer dripping its tempting sap so the Party carefully creep past and into the rooms beyond. Again these rooms looked to have been roughly tided up and made almost livable one has benches and tables in it all of which are strewn with piles of stone tablets which again are covered in those almost understandable glyphs. Craigh looking around discovers a strange machine on one of the tables a strange box like thing with a metal tube attached to one end which ends with a strange contraption made out of very thin wires. There are also several glass like objects strewn around the machine. Craigh picks one up and looks through it and it turns out to be a convex lens of some sort laughing he then adds the coloured one to it and looks around the room like some kind of crazy monocled Prussian. There is also somewhat oddly a small house plant in a cracked pot on the same table just behind the machine. The Doctor comes in after examining the monster plant and Craigh asks him if he can figure out the machines purpose he has a look at the machine and begins muttering to himself but its all gobbledegook in an attempt to impress the Party as he really has no idea what the hell the machine is for. Craigh growing bored wonders off instead to check out the last room which contains a shallow well and stairs to a basement? He wonders back whistling and after letting Zeal know what else is around rejoins the confused Doctor in playing around with the machine. After much arguing the two finally open up the box to find that the inside is hollow and covered in thin grey metal like substance they also find out that the wire cradle at the end of the tube seems to be designed to hold one of the lenses which can be manipulated slightly whilst attached. They eventually stick a lantern into the box and attach one of the crystals and wait, there is a loud bang as the lantern inside expands to twice its original size smashing its way out of the box, destroying the machine in the process but on the other hand we now have a very big lantern with a lot of whale oil so it could have been worse. During this period the Doctor also discovers he has a nickname given to him by the soldiers but they are oddly reticent when asked about it. So after all that science based fun Zeal demands that the room is searched again from top to bottom s the machine seems to have interested him greatly and whilst the others gather up the tablets and crystals Craigh manages to find a secret door in one of the walls which disappointingly just leads to the outside. Looking quickly around the rain swept and darkening jungle he wisely decides to close the door and instead check out the hopefully drier basement. The stairs lead into a small basement which has a tunnel leading off from one corner and more importantly away from the pinnacles checking the baring again he then rushes back up and excitedly tells Zeal that he thinks he has found a way to bypass the silently creepy jungle. After some discussion and a lot of drawing various speculative maps into the dust its decided to head on down as no one really wanted to go back into the creepy jungle anyway. The going is easy at first the tunnel proving to be of a good height and mostly dry so after walking for some time a sense of relaxed ease falls onto the Party as after having seeing so much weirdness in the pinnacles the tunnels provide a numbing and welcome boredom well they did until we reach a semi collapsed section. The Party halt and get comfy as Craigh and a couple of the more eager soldiers move forward into the semi collapsed section, this section was damn weird as it wasn't so much as collapsed but full of criss-crossing stone projections which only provided access beyond after a lot of bending and twisting on someone's part the floor was also covered with those strangely long bones and rags and a couple of the stone projections also seemed to be covered in mummified flesh this particular discovery made the Scot very unhappy. He was even more unhappy when he reported back to Zeal who decided that he should continue forward with the two soldiers and to try to find another route past the semi collapsed room as he said he would not leave a man behind and Bartlett could not be dragged through all those stone projections and besides the kettle was on so off the unhappy Scot went accompanied by the equally unhappy soldiers. After dragging themselves twister like past the blockages again they reach the doorway and with a bit of brute force manage to pull it open and look beyond. Behind the door was a room which seemed to be full of crates. Craigh looks shiftily around and opens up the nearest crate which contains more of those blow guns , some copper wire, some vials and finally some larger tube like containers. The other boxes are quickly opened by the others, one seemed to have contained food once but it now just contained a bad smelling sludge and some weevils whilst the other contained a shipment of coal. They decide to leave the stuff in the crates and head onwards into another room which was empty apart for a metal tube like thing which went around the side which they decided to block off with a few lumps of coal stuffed into its open end and then they headed out of the end doorway and out into a corridor. There is some more exploration until finally they hear some voices and the sounds of scuffling from behind a door. Arming themselves they slowly open up the door to be confronted by two large, hairy men wrestling, one of which is very weirdly muscled and they are both stark bollock naked! This is somewhat unexpected to say the least and Criagh reacts badly he just points his pistol and fires, the bullet ploughing through the back off the heavily muscled mans head killing him instantly. The other man grunts as the now headless man falls onto him and after some unfortunate wiggling out from under his erstwhile opponent the other man reacts somewhat oddly to this turn of events. "Mmm that hardly seems fair you know, all you had to do was challenge him if you wanted a fight but I guess its an acceptable offering to Mantaka all the same" He finally manages to stand up and his body gleaming in the lantern light looks straight at Craigh "Now disrobe stranger we will have a test of strength" Craigh backs away a look of horror on his face as he tries to look anywhere but there. The man follows him still demanding that Craigh takes off all his clothes and prepares to wrestle him. Sergeant May and the soldiers on hearing the shot leave the crate room and rush towards Craigh to offer help and between then they club the man down who oddly keeps protesting that this is unfair and that they only need to get naked to challenge him. As he finally succumbs to the beating and the group try to get their breath back a door on the far side of the room opens up to reveal more hairy and very naked men one of which takes one look at the scene and cries out somewhat confusingly "What are you doing? the ceremony doesn't begin till nightfall" they also seem to be really pissed off that the Party is still clothed then another man shoves past the group of naked men this newcomer is also naked but like the first man encountered is also weirdly muscled. He pushes past into the centre of the room and shouts out loudly "Who blasphemes in the Temple of Mantaka?" he then turns to the other three men and with a gesture yells "Get them you fools" And with greased up naked men heading towards the worried kilt wearing Scot we finally fade to black. 

The Yarmouth chronicles Stranger in a strange land, a land of ice and snow.. The Party headed to the southern portion of the island as it seemed to have a more gently slopping shore scrambling over the last if the ice the Party finally made it onto the island. The beach seemed to be mostly made out of a black gravel but here and there larger blocks of rock gleamed darkly like whales rising out of the ocean depths the skies also seemed different somehow heavy, with dark clouds especially near the islands centre where ominous purple coloured lightning flashed silently. As the light was failing Zeal orders that a hasty camp be made whilst the light still held the soldiers set up a camp fire using some of the wood salvaged from the carrick and a hasty meal was prepared and eaten. The Party then mostly retired to their tents and fell into a troubled sleep those on guard duty nervously scanned the silent darkness. In the mornings pale cold light Zeal ordered the camp struck but there was some unquiet as they found that instead of making camp on the beach as first thought they found ourselves further inland and instead of gravel they were surrounded instead by large ferns and just ahead of the camp large tree like plants swayed in the gentle moist breeze. "By my mothers beard how did we miss all this greenery? I swear there was nought but gravel here when we set up the tents" questioned one of the soldiers "We just didn't notice them in the dark obviously it was a hard slog getting here and everyone was dog tired" replied Ralph hoisting his equipment onto his back. Zeal had been in conference with Sergeant May and a couple of the CL.u.bers and it had been decided to head towards the nearest obvious landmark which was two large pinnacles that seemed to dominate the near horizon. Occasionally dirty white clouds could be seen hissing out of the ground here and there adding to the increasing humidity. It was judged that the pinnacles were a mile or so away through this new jungle. The Doctor was meanwhile studying the ferns and the tree like plants muttering "How is this possible there should be nothing growing here, surely the ground would still be too salty" Zeal's voice called out "Enough chatter there, we move towards those mountains." With one last worried look behind him the Doctor scurried after the column. As they made their way through the odd forest the air became closer and more humid which caused some muttering and then the order to remove the heavy winter clothing was finally given as some of the men were in danger of fainting. Other than the oppressive heat the going was fairly easy, the foliage easily breaking apart and away under our marching feet. So it was a shorter journey to the pinnacles than we had first surmised. As the party approached a rope bridge could be seen swaying high above seemingly linking the glossy glass like pinnacles together. This caused much excitement amongst the Party as this was surely a sign of intelligent life, a sign that we may not be alone. Just then one of the men cried out and pointed out a large grey shape which soared high above chasing the purple flashes which still occasionally flashed across the dark clouds. The nearest pinnacle proved to be broad and high and was of the same black stone that was a feature of this island it also seemed to have a blasted look about it in certain areas, giving it a strange melted look. There was an opening fairly close to the ground and further smaller ones dotted around at different heights a series of worn stone steps also circled the pinnacle. The Party paused to unlimber their weapons and keeping one eye on the skies above scrambled into the seemingly hollow pinnacle. The smell of fishy guano was almost overpowering in the first room it looked to have been carved from the living rock, the floor slightly uneven was covered with seaweed and other flotsam and jetsam. The lanterns were unpacked and lit and in the oddly reflected light a doorway could be seen leading into another room beyond which when entered was filled with crude stone statues. Upon examination the statues remained mysterious, the crude carvings were worn away by the passing of time and the effects of water so all that could be made out was there faintly humanoid appearance. Another empty doorway led out into another stone room this one filled with more rubbish, mostly piles of evil smelling seaweed which fought for space with decaying roots and vines. Ralph cleared away some of the filth with a hatchet and reeled back as he uncovered yellowed bones the Doctor was called over and after a brief examination he looked up and worriedly said "These are not human, close maybe but they are too big" The bones were quickly covered back up apart from one which Ralph kept and the Party continued on through the pinnacles chambers, the next room contained some steps and a rusty iron door which was heavily dented and buckled. Ralph and Guilio looked around and seeing a low black stone wall which crossed the room which seemed almost glass like in its thinness going over to it they decided to break off some pieces, the flakes proving to be deadly sharp. The room also contained some signs of faded grandeur, scraps of rag turned out to made out of fine cloth, the driftwood examined turned out to be the remains of carved furniture and even the walls were carved with a strange fresco of creatures which seemed to warn against the sin of decadence When some soldiers approached the iron door a frenzied scrabbling could be heard just before a heavy thump came from the door as something heavy hit it. Guiluo called over more of the soldiers and getting a ragged firing line ready he then pointed to one of them and told him to get to the side and on his order to pull open the door. There was another loud thump shaking the door in it frame and then Guilio called out "Pull" the soldier lifted the bar and dragged the door open. As soon as a gap appeared the door burst open as an avian like head shot through, the birds beak clacked shut barely missing the startled soldier "Fire. fire you bastards" cried out Guilio firing his own musket into the creature. A ragged volley broke out and the bird like creature screamed out in pain as multiple shots slammed into it one braver soldier thrust his musket forward into the creatures head before puling his trigger and blowing a large hole into the beast. It staggered back with half its head blown away it gave out a strange cry and with a final judder collapsed leaking a sticky black blood. "Phew that was close" said Guilio wiping sweat from his face he shouldered his musket and stepping forward pulled out his telescoping glaive and sliced downwards severing the creatures neck. The room was quickly searched and a crude nest of sorts was found by another door. The Party moved through and found some steps leading upwards as the Doctor headed to the nest and discovering that it contained eggs began to smash them with the butt of his Donderbus and an evil smelling Yolk like substance began to flow out of them. The rest if the Party made their way past and seeing that the steps were worn and somewhat crumbling they decided to send Ralph up first, better one fall than many and if Ralph with his immense bulk could make it up safely then they figured the rest of them would make it up easily. So up Ralph went up and he entered a strange room curved with niches evenly spaced along the wall each niche was backed with a mirror and had the remains of large wax candles placed in front. In the center of the room a stone plinth stood which also had its own mirror which pointed upwards to a hole in the ceiling a tablet was attached to the plinth which had strange glyphs carved into it. A door led into a room which was open to the elements and had been scoured clean by the elements only the faint echo's of complex glass work and metal parts could be seen in the corners and alongside the back wall was a series of stone benches and a set of panels also covered in glyphs were along the other wall, these panels were held in place by a complex wire frame which enabled them to be moved. Ralph lumbered up and moved one and as it pivoted upwards it swung away revealing a small staircase leading up. The party looked around but it looked like this was all designed for whatever was up above. So up we went and entered what turned up to be the final room of this strange pinnacle. This final room had iron shutters along one wall, the rooms ceiling was high above and painted a startling white, an archway led to the rope bridge we saw from below then there was a second plinth in the middle this one had a huge crystal mounted on its top. After some discussion it was decided to send across the bridge some of the soldiers to secure the other side before we attempted anything with the strange device. The soldiers picked began to cross the strange bridge which was suspended not by ropes as first thought but by a strange grey metal though the boards thus suspended were unfortunately still of wooden construction and so rotten and occasionally missing. Whilst the soldiers began their careful crossing some of the CL.u.ber's went back to the candle room and began lighting the candle stumps causing a bright light to fill the room, the mirrors directing it upwards and to the crystal above. There came a terrorizing screech and one of the hideous bird like creatures swooped down and landed on the bridge behind the soldiers snapping at them with its terrible beak. The Doctor who was closest to the bridge immediately yelled out a warning and fired his Donderbus at the birds back but even though he hit most of the shot had spread out too widely so that the bird was only wounded. The men in their panic lost their balance and one slipped through a broken section, the others tried to grab him before he plunged to his death and for a moment it looked like they would all go over but at the last moment they steadied themselves but Cox slipped again and fell back and over and plunging to the jungles floor. A horrified silence descended but soon it was all noise again as the Party called the other soldiers back across whilst aiming their muskets up scanning the skies above trying to provide cover for the now fleeing soldiers. When the men were safely back Zeal organized a party to go back down the pinnacle and see if Cox was alive whilst instructing the CL.u.bers to work on the device. The Doctor volunteered to go with the rescue party as he felt his talents would be more useful there. Guilo returned to the top floor and with light now streaming up from below he moved the gem around and was rewarded with an image appearing on the ceiling, a wondrous night sky with a purple nebula now lit up the room it wasn't a sky that anyone recognized but it was beautiful nonetheless he then moved the gem again the night sky disappeared to be replaced with a scene of an strange jungle with more of those vines and strange tree like things which seemed to almost writhe in a gentle unseen breeze. With one more twist of the now warm gem a series of glyphs appeared on the ceiling and even though they were as alien as the others Guilio thought that given time he could work them out. And time he had as it took awhile for the rescue party to reach Cox, Poor Cox was eventually found his battered body somehow still supporting life but only just and he was thankfully unconscious sparing him from the awful pain. Ribs and bones crushed and in some cases ripping through his flesh, his head was also cracked and leaking a strange grey watery pulp. The Doctor looked at him and with a sad shake of his head informed Zeal that the man would only live for an hour or so more at most and it might be more christian to put him out of his misery. Zeal nods saying that there was no way they could tarry and carrying Cox would be too much of a problem especially if he was going to die anyway so he asked the Doctor to give Cox something to ease his pain and turning back headed back into the pinnacle with a sigh. Meanwhile Guilio deep in thought stood staring at the glowing glyphs and after twenty or so minutes he started somehow to discern a meaning the glyphs started to make sense and he slowly muttered out a phrase bit by bit I am (great idea?) the eternal, the endless, the infinite, the unbounded. I am the thought, I am the idea I live if I am the thought to live I die if I am forgotten my body is divided my mind is distributed but myself is one. I am (great idea?) the eternal, the endless, the infinite, the unbound. As he finished the phrase a slack look entered his face his mouth hanging open a thin line of drool fell from his now slack mouth, his eyes became unfocused but the moment quickly passed and with a slurp and a shake of his head he regained his normal look his eyes once again becoming focused. The others returned and update each other on what they had found and the fate of cox some suspicious glances were shot towards Guilios but a plan is made it seems we need to cross that bridge again but this time in a bounding manoeuvre half covering the other as they cross. The Doctor steps forward looks up to the sky and with his pistol and shield in hand sprints across the bridge screaming out "No guts no glory" just before he slips and stumbles but quickly recovering he manages to make it across. The Doctor staggers into a room on the other side and looking up is somewhat surprised to see a man and a woman standing there dressed in the latest fashions. Ralph stomps across behind him wheezing ever so slightly and seeing the couple gives them a cheery hello noting that the man held a strange grey sphere whilst the lady held an intricately carved tube. "Greetings friends my names is Ralph Norton and you will be?" the strangers smile but say nothing at first merely indicating that they are waiting for everyone to cross. As the rest of the Party made it across a strange conversation took place between the CL.u.bers and the two strange people. It seems that they were very friendly spoke English with a slight accent and appeared to be very vague on certain things but were really keen to discuss Theseus (sp?) who they claimed to be and that they wanted us to listen to his/their word and so come to understand Theseus/them and by understanding him/us become part of him/us. The room meanwhile seemed fairly empty apart from the two strangers and a set of small long wooden chests. The one that was open seemed to contain more of the strange tubes a number of darts and a glowing bottle containing some sort of liquid. The strange man blocked Ralph from looking into the other chest and smiling said it was not to be opened. Continuing their tale It seemed that Theseus had been lured to this place many years ago by the Pale Lady who then using trickery and deceit managed to trap him and only now was he free to influence things again and expand his body but he was somehow still shackled to the island and wanted us to join with him and help him free himself from the last of the Pale ladies chains so that we/him could spread his message. After listening to this blasphemy and heresy for as long as they could and with Zeal becoming more and more confused over the references of Theseus and the Pale Lady the Party finally react with commendable force, Ralph asked the man to quote John 316 to prove that he was holy and the stranger smiled and said For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.and then the Doctor shot him in the chest, the rest of the Party opened fire at the lady and after several shots the strangers both collapsed riddled with lead but unfortunately the strange man had managed to throw the globe which shattered on the stone floor a black gloppy liquid flowed out from the shattered globe and splashed against two of the Troopers it seemed to soak in through their hands before quickly erupting again out of their limbs like some horrid branches. The Strangers dead and confusion reigning as the two infected Troopers panicked and friend turned musket onto friend unsure as to what was happening. The Doctor charged the infected screaming as he went trying to push them back over the edge. May was screaming "What are you doing the are my men , stand down, stand down" but those nearer could clearly see the tendrils writhing out of the men and swung their muskets onto the infected giving fire unfortunately one shot ricocheted of the stone wall and the almost spent ball ended up shattering the leg of James "Unlucky" Bartlett who collapsed with a scream. The infected started to try to flee with the Doctor still trying to knock the nearest one off over the edge he was helped greatly in this task when a bullet smacked into the infected causing him to stagger the Doctor taking full advantage smacked his shield into him finally knocking him over the edge and to the jungle far below. The other infected was now halfway across the bridge and more and more of the strange vines were sprouting out from him but just as it looked like he might make it a final musket barked out and the shot hit hard and knocking him clean over the bridge and joining the other infected smashed onto the ground below. Panting Thomas de Fronsac turned to the others and as he lowered his smoking musket a lopsided smile appeared upon his face "Well that was interesting oui?, I wonder what other adventures these pinnacles hold?" And Ralph wandered over to the closed chest wondering if it contained anything to eat.