“I felt like lying by the side of the trail and remembering it all. I felt like sleeping and dreaming in the grass.”
The road is marked with signs and sigils; the tributaries of the road are the veins of life.
Inspiration
1. The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem: The West’s Awake (The First Hurrah!)
I created this scene because one of the characters in our group—Alvin—had in an earlier adventure, been searching for his grandfather—Seamus Clanricarde—and the Stone of Clanricarde, but that adventure ended when our guest adventure guide started a new job and didn’t have the time to continue. I wanted to tie up this story. They heard about Clanricarde’s grave from an Irish band at the Moulin Rouge in Vegas during Helter Skelter. At the time I had no idea how it would turn out, because I hadn’t yet created the tablets.
If you choose to use this, you’ll need to tie it to your player characters in some way. The grave doesn’t have to be a player character grave, but it should be a close relative or friend. Somehow, you’ve got to connect a player character to a grave. All the names must change, and the stories as well.
The temptation of Ardrahan
A sign points to a side road. It reads “Ardrahan” (north) and “Occasus” (south). Ardrahan means “The High Fort”, and it leads to a great tree and a castle of ghosts. Seamus Clanricarde came here via the paths of the Weaving Wood, and he wrote the words “Ardrahan” as a riddle to his grandson. He died on the Phoenix Highway to safeguard the tablet of war—the stone of Clanricarde. If they keep the tablet, in Highland it is an obelisk.
The stone of Clanricarde
One mile north of the road, on a small hill, behind the grass-covered stone walls is a small cemetery with only two graves. They are in the shade of three trees. It has their name on it:
“O Tyrant, To These Warriors Glorious, Surrender”
Seamus of Highland Alvin of Highland
Clanricarde
All men carry their doom
“The West’s Asleep”
The skeleton in the coffin under Seamus Clanricarde’s grave is Alvin’s grandfather. The tombstone is a riddle. Not much a riddle, and so it’s weak, but it’s enough to keep the tablet quiet for a little while. The “answer” to the riddle is to open the coffin of the person who is still alive. The coffin of Alvin contains the stone of Clanricarde, the tablet of war, in the form of an obelisk. What do we know about the stone of Clanricarde?
Fingol, after prodding Alvin Clanricarde about his name, told us of the Stone of Clanricarde, a tale very much like our snipe-hunts. Don Kith prophesized that the stone would vanish, to reappear when needed. The stone vanished from Dungarvin, and will be found between the plough of Benbulben and the triple wells of Bridget (healing wells).
The plough of Benbulben is a day’s travel west of the eastern mountains. To find it, go to Sneem, then follow the road north to Dungarvin. From Dungarvin there is a road that leads east around the Burren to Benbulben just above the Unicorn Pass.
Which means that “between the plough of Benbulben and the Springs of Bridget” is the same as saying “in the Celtic lands”. Probably in the Burren; remember that all of the ancient temples were connected and there is a temple underground in the Burren.
To whoever digs up my grandson’s grave:
I apologize. I know it wasn’t much of a riddle, but I didn’t have the resources for anything more elaborate.
A long time ago there was a war, and no one knew why. A hooded figure led the night trolls against the human cities of the north, and the north was losing. Had lost, despite heroic efforts by leaders such the Abbot of the Illustrators and Colonel Courlander and their alliances among the Celts and the Long Lakes. They succeeded in this battle or that against overwhelming odds, but the odds never lessened, while their own numbers did.
Will Deerborn, myself, and two friends of mine from the Celtic lands searched for why. Why was the hooded one here? With Will’s scrying and Don Kith’s lore, we discovered the dark one’s goal: the stone I call the stone of Clanricarde, for it has crossed my family’s path before. Lost for centuries, but the invader wanted it. We resolved to find it first.
We found the stone in the temple in the center of the croomfrith; myself, and the big Celt, and Don, and old Will, and the armies of the hooded one were close behind. We had no knowledge of the Road then, so we took the stone to the most desolate place we could find, and the ancient temple there. And we cast enchantments upon it—old Will and Don—that it disappear from scrying, and placed it behind a riddle, that it would assist in its own seclusion. And when war indeed receded, we erased it from our minds; but old Will was young Will then, and forgetfulness did not last the full length of my years.
If you’re familiar with the events of Highland (and you probably are if you knew to dig here, though it is of course possible that you simply enjoy digging up graves) you may be wondering how I was old enough to be in that war. Perhaps the war is slipping backwards; or perhaps my own life is elongated from contact with the stone; or perhaps the stone induces delusion to get its way. I don’t know. But there was war, and we hid the stone, and there was no more war.
More recently (and how recently I, of course, can no longer tell you) I discovered that the hooded one discovered our ruse, and was returned to our land to find the stone. Thus I went to its hiding place, and carved my name, and took the stone back to the croomfrith. And was set on the path to the City by the Tree, it knowing, I ken, that I would not make the City.
The seer also told me this, though I understood it not: whenever you read this, there is war now in Highland. Our land is caught between the broken shell and hidden passage, between despair and darkness. Restore the Stone to the City, and there will still be war, but you shall also find assistance, from unlikely sources.
If I speak in riddles, forgive me; you are hearing prophecy second-hand and muddled by time. As for me, let me sleep here, by the side of the Road, and rest in the shade of the Tree.
SEAMUSK
They will later meet the younger Seamus, after they leave the road, as a Robin Hood-type in a Highland under the thumb of Eliazu.
Nearby town
The folk of Ocassus helped him dig the grave; he placed the stone in Alvin’s tomb on his own, but when he died they placed him in his own tomb. He was 83 years old when he arrived. He lived in Ocassus for eight years.
“He was pretty good shape for his age, but he was old. Had trouble walking, especially after the first couple of years.”
“He was always making up stories about this grandson of his—I don’t remember the name, but I’d guess it was the man he buried when he arrived. Crazy adventures, like finding lost castles and saving damsels in high mountains from evil spiders. He was very proud of him.”
“His woman left him right off, to join the circus when it came through. Yeah, that was nine years ago.”
“Buried him last year.”
