Clockwork & Chivalry - Session 04

29th February 2020

Not only is it Saturday night at Matakishi's, it's the 29th February - and that doesn't happen too often (OK yes - it happens once every 4 years, but still...).

​Regardless of the date, it's time to continue Matakishi's Clockwork & Chivalry campaign.

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Location: Hutingdonshire & Cambridgeshire; Cromwellian country!

We have arrived at Cambridge.
Unfortunately, we have to pay to enter the city. Once inside it is easy to find an inn.

Then we set off to the 'East Association'. We found it without any incident or mishap. Then find the fellow 'Crenshaw' and present him with the letter we were asked to deliver.
When the letter is handed over, a furtive look crossed Crenshaw's face and we were quickly ushered out.

This of course, immediately  made us suspicious! We decided to clandestinely watch the East Association.
Throughout the day, we watched people come and go, but there was no sign of Crenshaw. In the afternoon a note was delivered by a boy, 'Peter the urchin'.

The note read: 'Meet me at 8pm at the garden behind Claire Hall, near the Old Bridge'.

We asked Peter who gave him the note, but Peter said it was a man and that was all he knew.​
We continued watching the East Association.
At five o'clock everyone leaves for church - including Crenshaw.

We followed.

Services concluded at seven-fifteen. Once again we followed. Crenshaw led us to a roomy looking house. Crenshaw's home?

We still had time, so we raced to meet the mysterious author of the note. When we arrived, we found a group of soldiers gathered round a body. It was 'Harry Spikes', a junior clerk from the East Association.

We realised that it was likely that Harry Spikes was being watched and whoever saw him give the note to Peter was responsible to Harry's death.

Then we realised it was likely that we were being followed too. We may have led them straight to Crenshaw's home.
We raced back to Crenshaw's house to find a figure dressed in black scaling the outside of the building!
Ursula uses her magic to blast the climber who crashes down to the ground.

We unmask the figure and identify her as Catherine Perkinson - daughter if Sir Reginald Perkinson.
We learn that Lady Silver can be found at the Sydney Sussex College, she had been working with someone there.

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The next morning we went to the Sydney Sussex College.

When we arrived, we were greeted by a loud and raucous noise. 
There was a confrontation underway between the college students and apprentices who were yelling at one another. There was meant to be a talk between the two conflicting groups - but it looked like matters were about to escalate.

As we were watching this confrontation and considering what action to pursue next; when a 'mech-suit' burst through the walls of the college in a shower of rubble.

Within the mech-suit we could see a dead body hanging limply! As the suit lumbered around, we realised that it had been seriously damaged in some way or another. We could see the suit twisting and turning in a most unnatural way possible. It tore the body within apart in the most horrifying and grisly manner imaginable before grinding to a halt.

We pushed our ways through the now screaming crowds and after some effort we reached the gory remains. We saw that still gripped in one bloody hand, was a book!

Without anyone noticing we took it and then later read it. We learnt it was a journal and within, we discovered the following:

The man in the mech-suit had been 'Richard Mincehold'. He had been working with 'Lady Silver', also known as 'Lady Arebella Blackwood'.

Mincehole had been working on a 'clockwork mole drill'! He was having trouble generating the power required to drive such a contraption. Lady Blackwood had suggesting marrying the power of alchemy with the science of clockwork machinery! Mincehole considered this an aberration.

Finally, the journal talked about Mincehole visiting a secret installation operated by Lady Blackwood. It was located at Wandleburg Ring in the Gogmagoghills. When Mincehole was there, he had seen that they were packing up to leave.

In his last entry, Mincehole talks about how much of a threat that Lady Blackwood was...

Richard Mincehole's last entry had been grimly prescient. We had no doubt that Lady Blackwood was responsible for his demise.

Nevertheless, we now knew where the next part of our hunt for Lady Cecilia would lead us - and we had scant time to spare.

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Our journey to the Gogmagog hills was without incident and after we some searching we found Wandleburg Ring.
It was a snowy clearing surrounded by trees, with an ancient old hill fort at it's centre. There was also a windmill and a warehouse in the clearing. They both seemed in good working condition. No doubt the windmill was used to 'wind-up' clockwork machines and we saw that the warehouse was guarded by two soldiers. This was the facility that Mincehole had written of.

From our hidden vantage point, we decided to wait and see what happened.
At noon, the two soldiers went into the warehouse. No replacement guards or anyone emerged.

We headed to the warehouse, inside we found it entirely empty - except for a lever? We threw the lever and the floor began to descend!

The floor descended to a gloomy  underground cave. There were two here, Ursula used her magic to disable them. Examining our new surroundings, we heard two women arguing close by from one of the tunnels.

We then realised that there were people approaching from that tunnel, it was a woman being marched by two more soldiers. It had to be Lady Cecilia!
We waited for them to enter the cave and took them by surprise. We managed to take the two guards prisoner with no resistance. We had found our quarry - Lady Cecilia.

We were now faced with a decision. Now that we had fulfilled over objective, should we leave with her, or investigate further.
It was decided that we should investigate further and explore the tunnel from which the three had emerged into this cave.

The tunnel led to another cave. As we were arriving we saw Lady Blackwood on the far side. As she hastily fled into yet another tunnel, the ground beneath us split open!

What could only be described as 'mud zombie-things' emerged and menacingly advanced on us.
Between Ursula's magic and the pistols of Abraham and I, we managed to dispatch the ungodly things. (We would later learn that they were resurrected ancient Celtic warriors and this network of caves was a burial site!)

We tried to follow Lady Blackwood, but she had made good her escape. Another time perhaps?

We returned to the mechanical floor and ascended to the surface. Upon exiting the warehouse, we came across Parliamentarian forces advancing on Wandlebury Ring. They were led by Sir Reginald.

We exchanged greetings, Lady Cecilia was returned to her family and we were thanked for our efforts.

It was time for some well earned relaxation. Our task had been completed.