Challenger Campaign

041104           Volume V, Episode 2: Investigations

Dramatis personae:

Synopsis:
Three baby girls have gone missing in London on the same night. Scotland Yard was most concerned about the as-yet un-named daughter of Lord and Lady Ava who was spirited from her own crib in an upstairs room of their elegant townhouse. Her father was found nearby on the floor in a coma and clutching a flower whose stem had been twisted into a complicated knot. Sherman found a similar flower near the McGillicutty abduction site; Couch found one (and a dead cat) near the Smith abduction site. Meriweather has given a Clue from Oberon, Lord of the Seelie Court, who claims that the fey did not break The Contract.

“I am the breath of wind on the sky.
I am the crest of the cloud.
I am the murmur of the billows.
I am the Ox of seven combats.
I am the vulture upon the rocks.
I am the beam of the sun.
I am the fairest of plants.
I am the wild boar in the valout.
I am the salmon in the water.
I am the river in the plain.
I am the word of science.
I am the point of the lance of battle.
I am the one who creates in the fires.
Who is it who throws light in to the meeting on the mountain?
Who announces the ages of the moon if not I?
Who teaches the place where couches the sun if not I?”

But the fey vanished from Anglia 100 years ago, so said Brother Oak.

London, Anglia. April 1890.
. Our Adventurers reviewed the poem Meriweather had given them.
Sherman: “What makes us think this will be useful?” To the alleged pixie, “I’m impressed you could remember all that.”
Meri: “When the king speaks, you remember.”
Maddy: “Was he saying that HE is all these things?”
Steele to Sherman: “It’s information.”
Voronika: “What was Bride’s reaction to this?”
Meri: “Bride put her hand out and all went blurry and I was in the pond, wet.”
Steele: “Do we know he made up this poem?”
Penrington: “Does he usually recite poetry?”
Meri: “People recite poetry to him.”
Steele: “He may be suggesting that the originator of the poem is responsible.”
Sherman: “Is he the poetic sort?”
Meri: “He says ‘off with your head.’ But he likes poetry. He’s had fairies flogged for leaving out a bit.”
Maddy: “Who was he talking to?”
Meri: “All he said to ME was ‘drape yourself in your human form and go’; SHE [Bride] was the biggest thing around and he WASN’T talking to me, so he MUST have been talking to her.”
Penrington: “Research on this poem might be relevant.”
Voronika: “I can research at the museum.”
Sherman: “My grandmother remembered the fey.”
Penrington: “Can we speak to her?”
Sherman: “She died 45 years ago.”
Steele: “McGregor knew about fairies.”
MeGregor: “My mother used to leave the milk. I always thought the neighbor’s cat got it.”
Sherman, looking at Meri: “I have heard of druids that can change shape.”
Couch: “Do you think she’s a very disturbed druid?”

The group considered the commonalities of the abductions. All were girls. Brigid and McGillicutty were both Scottish names. Lady Ava could affirm that the Blackwoods had an estate in Scotland, a country house.
Sherman: “Have you considered that three were taken?”
Penrington: “Three is a very significant number in old tales.”
Sherman. “The visions showed different fairies. One to take one; one to take another; and mini versions taking the last.”
Meri: “That’s very, very weird. Fairies don’t shrink.”

Sherman: “I’ve never been stumped so early in an investigation.

Penrington: “Where would you go to talk to Puck?”
Meri: “I don’t want to. Very dangerous. He’s a member of the Unseelie court.”
Penrington: “Would unseelie fairies look like you?”
Meri: “No pixie looks like me but me.”
Penrington: “I’m looking for a visual distinction between unseelie and seelie.”
Meri: “Horns and pointy teeth and tail aren’t common in the seelie court.”
Penrington: “Sounds like solid information against the unseelie court. Why don’t we take this to Bride?”
Maddy: “Bride is Scotland.”
Voronika: “Coincidentally, WE’re going to Scotland.”

Sherman: “How is Meri involved?”
Meri, muttering: “Maybe I did something wrong? I played the harp wrong.”
Sherman: “She doesn’t seem well-equipped to be here.”
Maddy to Meri: “Tell us again what Bride said.
Meri, quoting: “I will not have war, not here, not now!”

The discussion about the alleged Contract noted:

• What did the pact require of both sides
• Who made it? Was it between all fairies and all humans?
• Would Bride have known if a human broke the pact?
• Why is Bride enforcing the pact?

McGregor then had to continue shopping for Challenger. Voronika and Maddy went to the museum where they discovered lots of Anglish, Scottish, and Irish poetry referencing fairies. Folk tales gave some references to Red Cap. At the end of the day, they did find a poem very close to that Meri had recited, “The Mystery of Amhairghin”, in a collection by Dr. Douglas Hyde of Edinborough.

The Museum librarian said that Amhairghin had something to do with the conquering of Ireland. “A bard or something.”

Mrs. McGillicutty thanked Sherman for his concern and gave her visitors weak tea. Sherman tried to comfort her by saying that the multiple losses meant that her baby would be easier to find.

The McGillicuttys came originally from western Scotland, the area separated from Ireland by only a few miles of abyssal plain. A railroad to Ulster now bridges that gap.

Eventually, in the Hall of Oddities, he saw tiny arrowheads that were listed as found in Scotland. There was a sketch of a rock near their place of origin; it showed vague curlicues reminiscent of the knots in the asphodel stems. Penrington tried to draw a copy of the sketch. Griswold allowed him to check out one of the tiny arrowheads.

About the Old Ones of Anglia:

• There had been a rumbling for the last 14 years indicative of the discomfort of the Old Ones of Anglia.
• Old Ones are omniscient in all ways and all respects
• Old Ones have peculiarly limited views, completely lacking in human curiosity.

• Don’t trust a fairy.
• A day in Fairy can be a year of mortal time.
• Fairies can’t abide iron.

• “If there is a compact, I have seen no record of it.”