Aaron told the boy that he hadn't asked what the group wanted yet, and said that they wanted to be left alone to return to New York. All this time Cliodhna had been attempting to make the boy sleep, and Jonny had been attempting to befuddle the boy, but their efforts had been in vain. Finally the boy yelled, "whoever is doing that better stop now or else!" Cliodhna bacame visible again and asked the boy who he was. He said his name was Billy. She asked for his last name, and he laughed and said, "like I'd tell you!" Tired of arguing with the troop, the boy ordered a life-raft to be thrown into the Tempest and told the troop to hop in because they were going to destroy the Kennedy. He told them to look for his contact in New York and deliver the Apprentice to him. The troop jumped into the raft-- Cliodhna flying over their heads to give them more room-- and then when she saw the spectres' cannons aimed at the Kennedy, she got behind the life-raft and began flying quickly, propelling the raft forward. They barely got to a safe distance when the Kennedy was sunk.
Cliodhna continued to propell the raft until they could see the Warsaw approaching them through the fog. They were brought on board, and told the captain everything. The captain immediately recognized the discription of the boy and began swearing up and storm. He told them that there were a lot of people who would love to get their hands on that boy! Once they got back on shore, the tired group decided to split up to get some errands done. Aaron and Jonny went to a soulforger to have the spectre made into good weapons for them, Ray went off in search of his necklace, and Cliodhna went to Daniel, Anaceron of the Grim.
Cliodhna reported everything to Daniel, told him of Aaron's bravery in the face of a ship of Blighted Sun spectres, and suggested his name for promotion. Daniel congratulated her on everything they had done and found out, and took Aaron's name into consideration...but Daniel seemed a little...off. He ordered her and her troop to find this spectre-contact and see what they could learn from him...destroy him if necessary. He also told her that Brooklyn was held by the Renegades and there had been a contract signed between Governor Dieter and the Renegades that they could hold Brooklyn, but that there had been a lot of spectre-activity spotted there lately. He told Cliodhna to take her troop into Brooklyn and talk with "Lucky" Luciano-- head of the "Little Italy" Renegades-- and ask him if he was going to be able to take care of the spectre-problem himself, or if he needed Hierarch assistance, and also let him know that if he wasn't able to take care of the problem himself, that the Hierarchy would be coming in to do it for him.
Daniel asked Cliodhna if she had any other questions, and she said yes. She asked why the Amenti were being so hostile and their ships were leaving New York, and Daniel told her because the new governor was making some decisions that weren't very popular with the people from the other kingdoms-- that he wanted the Grim Legion to take control of every aspect of the city. Cliodhna asked him to elaborate further, but he waved at her telling her he was too tired to get into all of it right now. She asked him how the governor felt about the Renegades, and he said the governor wanted to be rid of them and to take over Brooklyn-- basically, to nullify their contract. Cliodhna said that the new governor sounded like he was bringing the city down, and suggested that maybe him taking office was the event that was going to bring on the big war with Markova...that maybe the new governor needed to be removed from office. Daniel jumped up and hissed that she should watch what she said-- that talk like that in front of the wrong people could get her destroyed. Cliodhna saluted Daniel and took her leave, new thoughts and plots swirling in her head.
The next morning began the group's first day off of the week. They met up briefly to discuss the plans for the following day, and Cliodhna relayed their new orders. Ray was looking terrible, so they asked him what happened. Apparently Ray had woken up in Brooklyn the morning before, not knowing how he got there, so he figured his necklace had been lost there. When he went back to get it, he was grabbed by a huge spectre with nails for teeth. The spectre-- one they later found out was named Longtooth-- was wearing Ray's necklace, and held it out and chanted, "Raaaaaaay...come and get it Ray..." Ray was so angry that he went swinging at the spectre, but soon discovered that Longtooth was MUCH more powerful. Ray was able to put Longtooth into confusion for a moment and grab the necklace away, but as Ray tried to ping into one of his fetters, Longtooth grabbed hold of him and shut down the fetter-link. Ray panicked and went invisible, but was so full of fear that he kept stumbling while trying to run away. He was finally able to make a connection to his fetter, but at that moment he went visible again and Longtooth saw him. Just as Ray made it through, Longtooth grabbed his shoulder and sucked 4 levels of health from him. Ray was safe, but had almost gone into a harrowing! Aaron showed surprising generosity when he used a lot of his energy to heal Ray, but Ray was still tired the rest of the day.
Cliodhna spent most of the day completing her training in the 3rd level of Argos and 2nd level of Embody. Finally she could appear to the living! She was so excited to try this out that she went immediately to her fetter in the tunnels where she'd been killed. There, right in front of her, was the young IRA recruit who had been forced to turn traitor! She watched as he let out a yell and was gunned down, only to suddenly be standing before her again. She called to him, but he just stared right past her. She grabbed his arm, and suddenly felt something sucking at her spirit, but she was able to rip her hand off him. Then he suddenly starting moving his hand quickly at her in warning, and British police surrounded her. They fired at her-- the shots going right through her-- then Jamie...yes, that was his name...threw up his hands and the police gunned him down a second time. Then Jamie was back up standing in the doorway looking intently down the tunnel. What was going on here??
The scene began playing out again, and when the policemen surrounded her she threw herself at Jamie to knock him down. This time she couldn't resist the sucking-feeling, and she found herself really standing in the scene, breathing hard with real air, with the soldiers pointing their guns at her. Now she knew they could see her-- this was real. She felt her hand being forced to reach out and snatch one of the officer's guns to shoot him in the head, and as she shot him, someone behind her yelled "what do ye think yer doin' there, centurian?" grabbed her arm, and pulled her out of the scene as all the policemen fired where she was just standing. "Whu...what was that?" Cliodhna asked in confusion. The man was a Hierarchy officer and explained that she had just gotten herself stuck in a scene-drone, and if he hadn't come along just then she could have been stuck there forever! She felt weak and thanked the officer for saving her life. The two of them hurried out of the tunnels and into the square.
Cliodhna asked him if he knew anything about the current IRA-situation in the city, or what had happened to the headquarters, and he got a suspicious look on his face and asked why a Hierarch centurian would be asking about that. She said that she hadn't been in the city for over 20 years and was curious, and he asked, "why? do you know anyone in the IRA?" and she said she probably didn't know anyone anymore. The officer went off on her and told her that the IRA were a bunch of bleeping Renegades, and told her to leave and never come back. She answered that she had fetters here and she'd come back whenever she pleased. The officer glared at her and stomped off.
Cliodhna started scouting around the square for people she recognized, and happened upon someone she'd helped place in the government years and years before. She whispered his name, and he started and turned in all directions. She was finally able to get him to calm down enough to ask him if there was anyone high-up in the IRA in the square that he knew of, and he said-- stammering in fear-- that there was one in jail, and one had just been released. He was able to tell her the second one's name and where he liked to hang out, and she quickly went in search for him. It wasn't long before she found him squatting in a dark doorway smoking a cigarette.
She tried whispering to him first, and he began freaking out worse than the previous guy! After he calmed down a little, she actually appeared to him. This had an unwanted affect-- he began panicking and trying to get away, and actually peed himself! Cliodhna thought that putting on her stern face and ordering him to "stop, soldier, and calm yerself down!" would help, but it didn't, so she finally had to go invisible again and resort to whispering. She got him to sit still-- although he was shaking badly-- and asked if he remembered her and gave him her name. He said that he did, and she said it was her, and he cried out that it couldn't be Cliodhna because Cliodhna was dead, and she said, "exactly. I AM dead," and the guy started panicking and trying to get away again, so she shouted in her loudest whisper to stop where he was, soldier, and be a man. He stopped again, and she promised she would leave if he answered her questions. He told her exactly where the new IRA headquarters was, and she left the blubbering man in peace!
Cliodhna quickly found the headquarters with her knowledge of the city, went inside, and by listening to the conversations was able to verify that it really was the headquarters. She felt something shift in her head, and knew that this was now her fetter instead of the abandoned headquarters. Satisfied that she could return here whenever she wanted, she decided to return to New York. The last thing she wanted to do was scare her grandparents out of their minds on her first attempt to contact them! She finished out her day-off by relaxing and getting some much-needed rest.
The troop went to the Heirarchy/Renegade border and got a pass from the guards to enter. They went up to the restaurant where Lucky Luciano made his headquarters and greeted his men sitting outside. Cliodhna was very respectful to them, showed them the pass, and they agreed to let them see Lucky...making them leave all their weapons outside. They spoke very respectfully to Lucky, and he in turn treated them with respect. He told them that he would respect the treaty made by Governor Dieter if they did, and would allow one troop in at a time to hunt and kill spectres, or to destroy nihils. Cliodhna thanked him for this priveledge, and he said that in return he asked that they hunt a weird 4-headed, 4-armed spectre that had been spotted recently and bring him back the 4 heads. Aaron got really cozy with Lucky and the two of them talked about taking spectre-heads like old friends. In fact, Lucky was so impressed by the group's respect that he had them stay for dinner. His one relic was an oven that could make wraith-food that tasted and smelled exactly like it did in the skin-world, and the group stuffed themselves with the best Italian cooking they'd ever had!
Cliodhna asked him all about their lives as Renegades, and it sounded so much like her life in the IRA that she started wondering if she was fighting on the wrong side...much credit for this given to her Shadow! In fact, the whole group started feeling sympathetic to the Renegades. Aaron said that they could hunt the spectre tomorrow because their new weapons would be ready then, and Lucky said that would be fine. As they were leaving, Lucky told them to go to "Little Ireland" and talk to John Collins, the leader of the Irish Renegades, and see how they felt about a little Hierarchy-intervention with the spectres. The group thanked them, retrieved their weapons, and headed for Little Ireland.
Their reception there was as bad as Lucky's had been good. Even when Cliodhna spoke to them in a thick Irish accent and tried some Gaelic greetings, they still addressed her as "centurian" in a derrogatory tone, and asked what they wanted-- practically spitting at them! She relayed the same message to them that they had relayed to Lucky, but the bosses said that John Collins would not see them. After arguing with them for some time and trying to convince them that they were Renegade-sympathists-- which didn't work because the Irish considered them murderers and slavers for carrying soul-forged items with them-- John Collins, himself, called from a back room that he would see them. They repeated their message, and he told them that the Irish renegades didn't need any Hierarchy help, and it would not be welcome. He said they could take care of their spectre-problem themselves using their own powers. Ray asked respectfully with great interest how they could do this, and John moliated his arm into a sword and back into an arm again, and Ray was very impressed!
The troop took their leave and went back to New York Necropolis to report to Daniel that Lucky was willing to let the Hierarchy in to help under the treaty's conditions and if they brought him the heads of the weird spectre, but John Collins practically threw them out. Daniel said that the new governor wouldn't like that they had bargained with Lucky, so they better hurry and do their end of the bargain before he found out. He also told them that the new governor would likely be invading Brooklyn in the near future, so to keep that in mind. Then Daniel's face contorted for a moment and he spat out, "why don't you go see your friend the Ambassador of the Dark Kingdom of Wire while you're at it!" Then his face relaxed and he looked at each of them as if waiting for questions. Cliodhna asked what he meant by that, and he said he was a very busy man and he needed to get back to his work. The group looked at each other in confusion, and Aaron was able to read him to tell that his Shadow had taken him over for that moment, so the group excused themselves and went their separate ways for the rest of the night.
The next morning the troop re-grouped and went back to Brooklyn. They were greeted in a friendly manner by Lucky's men out in front of the restaurant, and Cliodhna distinctly heard Angelo's voice coming from inside! She peeked in and there he was, so she called to him. He greeted her loudly and enthusiastically and asked what they were doing there, and she told them. She asked what HE was doing there, and he said that Jack and Marie were taking their turn while he came to check on "his people" here in Brooklyn. She asked if he was a Renegade-sympathizer, and he said he only wanted to make sure that his people were being treated fairly. They chatted more about the Italian Renegades, and Cliodhna asked if they'd heard of Markova. Angelo said that they had not, and were not interested in any Hierarch business. From his report on the Italian Renegades, it sounded like they were into taking care of themselves and didn't care about any other Wraiths, let alone saving the world.
Cliodhna relaxed at this-- once again she was back on track. The Renegades may be fighting for the same freedoms as the IRA, but they weren't fighting Markova and weren't trying to make the world a safer place. She would remain in the Hierarchy and work even harder. She told Angelo about their adventures in the Tempest, and asked if he knew the Ambassador of Wire. Angelo said he did, and went off about how little he respected that kingdom and how greedy and ungrateful they were. She asked if this ambassador could also be the spectre-contact, and Angelo said no way. Before they left, Cliodhna whispered the news to Angelo about the new governor's intentions to break the treaty and take over Brooklyn. Angelo's face grew dark, and he said that he better be the one to tell Lucky, and Lucky wasn't going to take this well.
Aaron used his ability to sniff out the wyrm and in no time they had tracked down the weird spectre. They stayed at a distance, and between Jonny, Ray, and Cliodhna, they put one of the heads to sleep and confused the other three! The four Wraiths were able to destroy the spectre in no time at all, and Aaron hacked off the heads and hefted all four while the rest of them chopped the spectre into manageable parts and carried them off, as well. They went back to see Lucky, and Lucky was very pleased to receive the heads. Aaron said that he would be able to do his job better if he had a pair of nice guns, and was wondering if Lucky could help him with that. Lucky said that if Aaron brought him two complete spectres, they would be worth trading for two guns...that he knew a guy who deserved to lose some guns. Aaron asked if the parts from this spectre could count as one, and Lucky called his soulforger over to inspect the body. The soulforger said that the monstrosity had already been soulforged into what they saw before them, so he couldn't be soulforged again.
While Aaron and the soulforger were talking, Cliodhna asked Lucky if Angelo had had a chance to talk to him yet. Lucky said that he had, and for them to tell "that new motherless f***-governor" that if he stepped one foot into Brooklyn to try to take one inch of it, that "he better come heavy." Cliodhna felt her heartstrings pulling-- this seemed so much like the cause she had given her life for in the skinlands! In a moment of pride she leaned in to Lucky and whispered, "keep in mind, I'm half-Italian, myself" and smiled a knowing smile at him. He grinned back and nodded at her in understanding. Lucky offered the group another fine meal, and they stayed, ate, and relaxed.
After leaving Lucky's restaurant, the group made their way back to the necropolis and discussed their next move. They had all been hit pretty hard by their Shadows during the past few days, so they decided to go visit the local castigator as a group before they went in search of the Ambassador of the Dark Kingdom of Wire and the spectre-contact. They paid out a little more than usual-- Cliodhna and Jonny paying 2 obeli each, and Aaron and Ray paying 3 obeli each...Aaron and Ray incurring some damage to their corpuses as a result of the harsh beatings their Shadows took. Still, it was all worth it, and they left feeling much more secure in themselves.
