Act 1 Scene 3 The Shettland Islands

Scene 3 begins with the party returning to Al Clut to question the Picts. Sualtim allows Liadan and Rashied to cast learn language on themselves from his Grimoire. When they question the Picts they learn that the Picts were acting under a master named Cultha Aldaine. This master gave them all torques that compel obedience. Apparently Cultha Aldaine ordered them to attack the town and kidnap the queen, after the attack, the Pict tribe gets the Queen to sacrifice to their god, Gulka of the moon, Cultha wanted only her amulet. The king Ceritic proclaims that he always wondered about her amulet, but Boddica would never talk about it, and she never took it off, even in bed. When he describes the amulet, Roderick realizes it is very much like the amulet his mother used to wear, that he recently dreamed about, but he decides to keep this knowledge to him self for the time being. The pict is intimidated into sketching a map of the island for them. Over night, the only remaing ship is refitted and the party along with many of Certitic's warriors head out to make the two day journey tot he Shettland Islands hoping to rescue Boddica before she is sacrificed on the full moon, 5 days hence......The party was dropped off at the north end of the island while Fergus and Cenuit took the remaining troops on the south end to distract the Picts. The warriors on the ship began firing foire arrows into the Pict village while the party teleported to the top of the cliffs on the North side. A fight ensued against Brulla the king of the Picts, two shaman, the high priest of the Picts and a few Pict warriors. Hildrmair began weaving a series of magics into her orations granting the party greater combat skill while cursing the enemy with combat missfortune, she then added bardic luck to her oration bending reality to favor the party. Roderick was the victim of a obscuring mist miracle and spent most of the fight running around blinded. Liadan dropped Brulla in a pit, but he somehow used magic boots to teleport out. Rashied dropped fireballs on the picts and set the hut on fire. Casius attacked many picts and finally Liaden used a move earth miracle to drop the alter to Gulka of the moon into the earth, and then intimidated the King Brulla so epicly he committed suicide.The party then rushed into the hut only to find a trap door leading down. They descended and at the bottom after following a short tunnel, they cam upon a cave. In the cave they saw Boddica in a cage suspended over water. There they encountered Cultha Aldaine. Cultha immediately seemed to recognize Liadan and taunted the party. Upon hearing his voice, Rashied and Roderick had the following flashbacks.

**Rodericks**
Flashback

Upon hearing
Cultha’s Laugh you have a flashback. It seems to last a while, but in fact
lasts less then a second. You are cold and wet, its dark and you smell earth,
you are in a tunnel, you remember this place, it’s the tunnel you hid in as a
child while your clan was slaughtered. You hear the muffled voice of your
mother chanting a spell, then a deep laugh, it resonates through your entire
being, it’s the same laugh, you come back to yourself less then a second later
with the cold realization, that you are looking at the man responsible for the
death of your Father and your clan and the death or abduction of your mother.

**Rashied’s**
Flashback

Upon hearing
Cultha’s voice you too have a flashback.
It also seems to last a while, but in fact lasts less then a second. You
are a child and you are peeking through a crack in the door at your Father. You
remember wondering what the steady streams of counselors were coming to talk to
him about. This man was not one of his regular advisors, he has a strange
symbol on his forehead. Listening in you realize, it’s more of a business deal.
The man holds out a book to your Father. You catch only a flash of the cover
and can make out the title on it “Djin true names”. Your Father walks over to
his bookcase and removes a book handing it back, you can’t read the title, but
with a start you realize there is a symbol on it. It looks like a completed
version of the sketch that Ceritic did of the piece of Boddica’s necklace. Your
young self leans forward to hear more and the door creaks. Both men’s heads
snap around to look at you. The visitor speaks “One of your welps is a snoop it
seems” The voice you realize is Cultha’s.
Your father orders you to him and you obediently shuffle to him. He
picks you up by the scruff, anger on his face, he draws a dagger but the
visitor’s hand stays his arm, he speaks again. “Wait, he will be more useful to
you alive.” The man looks at you and waves a hand in front of your face
chanting some words; you feel a fog descend on your mind fogging your memory of
the last few hours. suddenly you are staring up at your Father wondering what you
are going there. Go to bed son your Father speaks obediently you wander back to
bed and think no more of it.

Cultha then made a snide comment about playing with his friends and sunk into the water. At that point a number of Deep ones and a tentacled horror called an other rose out of the deep. a fight ensued and was finally ended when Roderick performed a mighty maneuver causing the deep ones to stab each other and the other to dislodge a stalactite which pierced his brain killing him. The party traveled back to Al Clut where Boddica conveyed the following information.

**Boddica’s**
Story-

I have been
the keeper of the Shard for most of my adult life. It was given to me by my
Mother, who was the keeper before me. Passed down to her from her mother, and
so on. I know only what my Mother told me. It is one of four such shards that
comprised some sort of key. They are made of star metal. The other keepers are
unknown to me, but my Mother said they will always be woman. In time before
memory when it was whole, it was used to lock a portal to a dimension of
horrors. I asked once why not destroy it, but she told me that there was no
known way to do so. All of the keepers are trained in arcane arts to defend the
shards, it is my shame that this creature took me so easily, though his power
is unlike any I have ever seen, he is frightful. He countered my castings and
his Picts simply overwhelmed me. They obey him without question. He was wearing
a Shard himself, so he must have overcome at least one other keeper. I fear
what the world is in for if he obtains the other 2.

= Boddica also knows a sage
named Ponder Deltaine came asking questions about the shard around a month ago,
she was a little put off that he knew about it. He had also asked if she had
ever encountered a Cultha Aldaine, and lots of question if her Mother taught
her anything of sounds or music asscociated with the symbols, but she had never
heard of him and he mother never mentioned sounds. The last she spoke to Ponder,
he was heading to *iubhar or* Eboracum in Roman.
Current day York which is currently ruled by Soemil of Deira =