The Master of Ravens had sent Maggie into the world of Men to learn what Faery could not teach her. Under another name, Maylee Fox, she had entered the wilderness of human affairs, carrying the memory of a compact with the Ravenqueen and the suspicion that the world was coming apart at its seams.
She had not expected Gotham, a grand experiment in bankruptcy, corruption, and human endurance. Maylee survived among its homeless children until Sister Bridget of Our Lady delivered her to Homestead, that improbable refuge on the border. There, among bread ovens, broken machines, and lessons in acrobatics, she learned the useful art of appearing ordinary.
But Maylee was no ordinary girl. The lighthouse signals were intended for a watcher who served a power older than the machinery he commanded. The body was merely a disguise; its destruction had interrupted a transfer from somewhere beyond the ordinary world. The black-clad figure found hanging in the woods had been another messenger, carrying in its head fragments of a map—and a name that refused to remain written.
Herr Claus had been searching for that same name. Beneath Gotham’s North Tower, Lady Blackbird examined a brass cylinder recovered by her shadowrunners. Its delicate inscriptions resembled neither engineering notation nor any known language, yet one symbol showed a fox enclosed within a circle of ravens.
“Maylee Fox,” said AoQi, the boy in blue.
Lady Blackbird raised an eyebrow. “An associate of yours?”
“An associate of circumstances. She once interrupted a machine that was trying to enter our world. Unfortunately, it remembered the interruption.”
The shadowrunners exchanged glances. They had encountered machines with grudges before, although rarely machines powered by supernatural resentment.
The boy explained that the dragon’s heart and the Clockwork Golem beneath Gotham were responding to the same signal that had animated Maylee’s mechanical pursuers. The Mirror of Unnaming was the instrument through which their hidden master sought to erase the boundaries between worlds.
Lady Blackbird understood at last why her commission had been so carefully worded.
Far below, two hearts beat in unison.
And somewhere in the dark, the Fox heard the call of the Ravenqueen.
A week ago, a strong reality storm passed Gotham , and afterwards the sky stayed both gloomy and stormy…
The beacon of the lighthouse went out!
After af few days, four scouts rowed to the lighthouse to investigate, but they never returned….
Now another team was sent on a mission of investigation and rescue!
Jeffrey and Rudolph were reunited recently thanks to the intervention of Gatekeeper Maggie , this time they joined the rescue team together…
Rowing to the lighthouse during the strange weather was very challenging, just in sight of the lighthouse the boat hit a rock!
The scouts barely succeeded to swim to the lighthouse…
At the beach they were met by the crew who quickly took them inside:
Old William the senior keeper of the lighthouse and two junior keepers, Mandy and Thomas…
The keepers seemed very gloomy, unwilling to say very much:
‘a week ago, when we expected the supply boat to come, the weather was very strange, both gloomy and stormy; we heard a loud crashing and screaming but did not dare to go outside till now’
Amanda arranged some dry clothing, warm food and lodging for the scouts.
She was in a foul mood, grumbling all the time: ‘those useless men never do any housekeeping….I should have stayed at the mainland in stead of following the pipe-dream of that bastard’
Jeffrey noticed that Mandy’s right eye was bruised…
Apparently she recently had a violent row with Thomas!
When Rudolph approached Thomas, another drama was discovered:
‘She cheated on me! That dirty old man will pay for this!’
Speaking with William uncovered some more details:
‘After mourning for Elaine for such a long time it became very lonely here till the juniors came here. Mandy is not happy with her friend, so we comforted each others for a while’
While the scouts were investigating the lighthouse, they discovered that the lighting did not work properly.
Every time when they tried to fire up the lights in the engine room, it went down again while the room became freezing cold!
Thomas, the person who was responsible for the upkeep of the machinery, confirmed this phenomenon: ‘we have some gremlins active here’
One of the scouts heard a female voice screaming as a banshee:
‘Go away! He is mine! I will get my revenge’
It was not clear where this voice came from!
….
Investigating the beach, they found a body, apparently drowned a week ago after the crash…badly battered by the tides after laying a week at the stony beach…but wait…some bite marks at the neck, as if this person was bitten by something with very long and sharp teeth!
Returning to the lighthouse, the scouts heard Mandy screaming…the moment they arrived at her room the body was already laying on the floor with bite-marks in the neck!
Checking on Willam’s room resulted in the same gruesome sight…he was also killed in the same way….
The scouts decided to confront shifty-eyed Thomas….his alibi had many holes in it….: ‘I was alone at work in the engine-room and heard some screaming’
Somewhere in the worst part of the no-go area the Sisters of Our Lady kept a shelter for the homeless where they provided soup & bread for the hungry.
One by one the kids met Sister Bridget who picked them up from their hiding-holes (under the bridge, in the abandoned house, in the park). She delivered them at the safe haven of Homestead, in the middle of nowhere at the border between America and Canada.
Ely, Jeffrey and Zeke had met before, and now they met some other newcomers like Chase and Randy….
The food and lodging at Homestead was very basic and healthy, surprisingly there was much opportunity to learn and practice new skills at the school, the kids became very interested in the following:
Performance: Storytelling, music, drama, dance, sleight of hand. Physical education; baseball, climbing, dodgeball, jumping, runnning. Tinkering: working with all kind of small machinery like computers, they even saw a presentation of the 1984!
During lunchbreak Jeffrey saw his long lost brother Rudolf talking with Hilde, the village baker who delivered bread weekly at Homestead. After observing his brother, Jeffrey approached Rudolf as soon as Hilde left. It seemed Rudolf had decided to stay at Homestead, learning baking magic instead of returning to their dysfunctional parental home!
Jeffrey became worried, maybe his brother was involved with a witchcult?
When Rudolf went to the village, the kids followed him to investigate his trail.
Rudolf went to bakery at the central square….
After Rudolf entered the bakery, two people went outside: Hilde having a loud discussion with a man: ‘begone!’ She made a strange sign, pointing at him…
The man left immediately!
Ely, Jeffrey and Zeke experienced a deja vue…this man looked like their nemesis, Herr Claus!
While the kids were discussing whether to follow-up their investigation, they saw another lost kid they knew, Maggie!
When the kids saw her sneaking away, they followed her trail to the beach… At the beach she took two small flags out of her backpack, and started signalling towards the lighthouse island on the other side, while somebody on the opposite side was answering with light signals with a mirror!
As soon as Maggie was leaving the beach, the kids tried to catch up with her.
One of the kids, a good sprinter, was able to overtake the running girl At the moment he jumped in front of her, she crashed with great force into him! The other kids also came running to hold her, a scuffle ensued. While they wrestled her to the ground, her body felt armoured, it was a robot! Trying to dismantle the robot, a self-destruct sequence started counting…
Just in time the kids threw the body in the water before it exploded!
While they were recovering, they discovered somebody was watching them at a distance. The person disappeared into the woods nearby. Following the trail, the kids heard the sound of a hunting horn and hunting dogs in the distance… Somebody screamed! Arriving at a clearing in the woods, they saw a black clad person hanging on the limb of a sturdy tree… Immediately they took the person down from the tree!
Investigating the body, they discovered this was another robot. This time they succeeded in dismantling the thing, taking away the head for further research later on…
Returning to the beach, the kids saw somebody rowing to the lighthouse. Immediately they decided to follow the trail to investigate. To avoid detection they rowed to the far end of the island where they entered the wooded part. Apparently they were seen from afar, a small patrol left the lighthouse into the woods.
Luckily the kids had developed enough scouting skills to divert the patrol by using a false trail. They entered the lighthouse and invaded the upper floor. The two clumsy guardians were dispatched after a short fight!
Investigating the upper floor, the kids discovered a enormous screen in the wall, and a large control panel nearby.
A communication hologram appeared….to avoid detection the kids hacked the control panel to disable the transfer of data.
In the meantime the returning patrol was just entering the front door, but with some lucky punches they were put down in no time!
Continuing their investigation, the kids went down the basement, where they found a portal in the process of transferring a large robot!
Another hacking attempt disrupted the transfer, but unlocked the self-destruct countdown!
Running for their life, the kids escaped the lighthouse just before it detonated!
Exhausted, the kids decided to call it a day and to return to the orphanage.
The Master of Ravens said: I can teach you nothing new at this moment…take up your visionquest into the world of Men… Remember our compact with Ravenqueen! And so, Foxy Lady went out of Faery into the world of Men… ….
Remembering the last temple of Earthshaking Sealord,
high up the Great Mountain… The faithfull, who fled the wrath of the Sorcerer-King,
made their last stand. Lightning smote their ranks, but still they stood firm…
Unable to stand the strain of eldritch energies,
the Land broke apart, t
he Sea invaded,
all were scattered to the corners of the Earth…
great mother abyss devouring myriad bodies vortex well of soul
The Master of Ravens said:
I can teach you nothing new at this moment…
take up your visionquest into the world of Men…
Remember our compact with Ravenqueen!
And so, Foxy Lady went out of Faery into the world of Men…
Remembering the last temple of Earthshaking Sealord, high up the Great Mountain…
The faithfull, who fled the wrath of the Sorcerer-King, made their last stand.
Lightning smote their ranks, but still they stood firm…
Unable to stand the strain of eldritch energies,
the Land broke apart,
the Sea invaded,
all were scattered to the corners of the Earth…
Downwards into the Deep
Skyclad, unarmed, alone
Unto a lonely barren path
Voices of lost souls
Visions of forgotten realms
Passing away in the Void
Clad in in Night and Shadows
The Dark Lady awaits
On her Opal Throne
Remembering the last temple of Earthshaking Sealord,
high up the Great Mountain…
The faithfull, who fled the wrath of the Sorcerer-King,
made their last stand.
Lightning smote their ranks,
but still they stood firm…
Unable to stand the strain of eldritch energies,
the Land broke apart,
the Sea invaded,
all were scattered to the corners of the Earth…
The Master of Ravens said:
I can teach you nothing new at this moment…take up your visionquest into the world of Men…
Remember our compact with Ravenqueen!
And so, Foxy Lady went out of Faery into the world of Men…
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