London 1802: The Last Defense

It was after nightfall on Tuesday, April 13th, 1802 before the group reached London Bridge. They were planning to meet an associate of Sir Barnabas who was to give them a kind of relic that was to help their intended purge of the demonic forces haunting the crypts beneath Southwark Cathedral.

The lamps had been lit, but as they crossed toward south shore they noticed an area near the middle of the bridge where the lamps were out. Beneath a lit lamp on the other side of the darkened area was a figure leaning up against its post. As they approached he moved out to the middle of the bridge, held up his hand, palm out, and told them "Sorry, friends, this end of the bridge is closed tonight."

In truth, the man was stalling as 5 of his buddies attempted to creep up into position behind the group. Unfortunately (for them), they were spotted. When the man saw that the intended sneak attack had failed, he raised a pistol, pointed it at them, and continued with a smirk. "Of course, we'd be willing to let you pass for a toll..."

Gerald took a step or two forward toward the man, checking his watch and saying "There's no toll on the bridge at this hour". The man took a couple steps back and told him to stop and drop his bag. A couple of the others tried to keep a couple of the other thugs distracted. Robert simply stood by, but his size and presence was making the thugs uneasy.

Gerald set his bag down, opened it and began rummaging around in it saying he was looking for money. The man, not buying his reasoning threatened him further to step away and, when he didn't, moved a step forward and kicked Gerald back. When he did so, however, Gerald had managed to grab one of his pistols from the bag and brought it up to point at his assailant. Then he narrowed his eyes and said "Boy, these medical supplies were intended for others' injuries, but if I have to treat you, I will." Despite the Doctor's usual social bumbling, his presence and intimidation were impressive.

The young man began backing away, somewhat frightened. A couple of the thugs tried to grab the ladies' purses, but failed and, between Gerald's pistol and Robert's menacing stance, decided the situation was no longer worth it and ran. The young man who was the lead turned and fled as well.

After recovering their composure from this brief altercation, they continued on to the south shore of the Thames. There they met man in dark clothing wearing a thick blindfold. He didn't look very old, but he was hunched over and his movements were slow and methodical. "You must be the ones Balthazar told me about."

The man handed them a large iron cross. It was about 2 feet long, and a foot and a half across. When Gerald took it, he found that it weighed considerably more even than it looked. With some labor, he handed it over to Robert. After handing it to them, the man simply turned and walked away.

The party continued on to Southwark Cathedral and, after some searching, found a small sub-street-level back door which probably led down to the crypts. As they were examining the door, Robert happened to look up into the bushes where he made eye contact with a startled young boy, who immediately took off running down the street into the dark. The group looked at each other, shrugged, and returned to their task.

Kathrine pulled the key they were given from her purse, put it into the lock and turned it. When she did, the golden key momentarily glowed. It was a dim effect, but it was definitely there. After another moment, she turned it back, removed it, and opened the door.

On the other side of the door the stairway continued downward and, to their surprise, they could see lamplight and could hear voices in quiet conversation.

The group cautiously began making their way down the stairs when a familiar voice called out "Lance? Is that you? What kept you so long?"

Kathrine, believing the small boy they saw might be "Lance", she tried to imitate a young boy's voice, "Yes, It's me." Gerald, who was right behind her, didn't think she sounded convincing. The voices stopped and they heard steps approaching. Gerald decided it was time to act and barreled down the stairs and into the room. Robert immediately followed him.

The crypt below looked anything like but what they could have expected. The most prominent feature of the room was a large, circular table which was surrounded by chairs. Around this, between columns of the arches of the crypt were large bookcases full of books, scrolls, glassware and other eclectic, strange and sometimes unidentifiable objects. In addition, there were several free-standing doors - in frames only, not set into any wall, simply standing between the bookcases.

Standing about 15 feet in front of Gerald was a tall man with long brown hair. Behind him, on the right side of the table was the woman they had seen speaking with Hannington in the Mitre, and across the table from her, now getting to his feet, was Gavin.

The man in front of them spoke, clearly bewildered "What...Who...", but before he was able to say much more, the iron cross Robert was carrying seemed to somehow activate, instantly tripling in weight. In addition, the lower portion of the cross lengthened a few feet, made a sharp, downward point, and jammed it self into the stone floor of the crypt. The man who had approached them took a couple steps back, looking horrified. "Is that... No... It can't be...", but before anyone could react further, blue bolts of electricity burst forth from it, blasting at the three of them as well as the bookcases, the table, and the doors.

The man in front, who had been pushed backward by the blast of lightening, drew a silver sword, and the electricity seemed to arc directly to it. "Gwen!", he shouted, "It's an Axis - get out of here!". He arched his sword forward and a couple of the bolts of electricity redirected from his sword and leapt out toward Gerald and Kathrine, but missed.

"No! I'm not leaving!", the woman shouted back in earnest. She seemed to be somehow "catching" the lightening that was arcing toward her and, with some great effort, was keeping it at bay.

Gavin had drawn a pistol but then was hit with a lightening bolt and stumbled backward off his feet behind the table. The bolt that had been linked to him, tracked downward across one of the large chairs which splintered instantly. Taking this to be a symbol that these were the demons they were supposed to purge, the four moved into the room and opened fire on the three.

Their bullets found their marks and, with the help of the lightening artifact, the fight seemed to be going decidedly in their favor when something unexpected happened. The man with the sword stumbled forward, raised his sword, there was a flash of light and he had turned to stone. The woman began waving her arms and flames erupted around her form, but then burned out in a puff of smoke and she, too, had been turned to stone. Gavin had just managed to get up from behind the table at this point, saw the two statues and, full of rage raised his pistol and pulled the trigger. The sparks from the the power pan turned to stone as they ignited and fell to the ground. The bullet never made it out of the gun, and Gavin made the third statue in the room. The lightening then blasted out at the furnishings in earnest and splintered nearly everything in the room before the electricity stopped, the iron cross itself turned to stone, and then crumbled to the floor. The room was eerily silent.

The party took a look around the room, but found very little. Gerald did find a couple of the strange books that were partially intact and put them in his bag. They were still looking around when they heard another, nervous voice from the top of the stairs. "Who...Who's down there?"

It was a priest, father Garrus, associated with the cathedral, along with the boy who'd run away earlier. The group told him that they found trespassers in the crypt, but they kept their details vague. Father Garrus didn't seem to ask too many questions; he just really seemed to want them to leave. They did arrange to return the next day to talk.

The party then returned to Foley Manor to talk to Barnabas. On their arrival, however, they found the manor completely empty. Well, most of them did. Gerald, Molly and Robert walked in and began looking around bewildered, searching for some clue as to what happened to Barnabas - but Kathrine had stopped in the doorway. She had suddenly been hit with the sensation that there were people present - many people. She couldn't see anyone, but she could hear whispered voices coming from the corners of the room and from behind the walls. Eventually, she was able to make out some of the bit of the conversations:

[male voice, blase]

"The Pawns have returned to the Queen’s Bishop row"

[female voice, blase]

"Yes, but the Bishop is not here, he has moved to his next position."

[2nd female voice, interested]

"Balthazar was more successful than even he had hoped, but it has proved to be his undoing."

[2nd male voice, uncertain]

"Circumstances were fortunate....for some"

[2nd female voice, disdainful]

"Indeed, there are no Heretics left to profane this cursed city"

[2nd male voice, uncertain]

"Sophia... some would say there are darker beings than the Heretics"

[2nd female voice, darkly]

"Yes, Philip - things against which the city now has no remaining defense..."

[2nd female voice, closer / moving past, prophetic]

"The last of the candles have burned out and night approaches"

[separate collective of voices (not previous entities), indistinguishable gender, rises from the underlying babble]

"London will fall to the darkness"

The voices then fell silent.

Kathrine shared this with the others. They didn't really understand what she was talking about, but it didn't sound good.


The following day, the group returned to the Cathedral to speak with Father Garrus. He tells them that Ralph, the boy, claimed to have seen someone entering the crypt some nights before, but no one really believed him because they found no evidence. He had been camping out near the crypt entrance in hopes of catching the trespassers at it again.

They talked with Father Garrus for a while about what might have happened and how they did or did not fit into it. Molly asked if they could take the statues and, since Garrus knew they weren't part of the crypt, he agreed to let them. As they further investigated the aftermath of the previous night in the crypt that night, they noticed something etched into the sword held by the first statue, a single word, "Excalibur".

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