1240, Winter

We head north to the hamlet of Keoldale, where the inhabitants have all fallen into a slumber. Myself, Maedbh and Greysen go on this quest, along with two of our grogs Knox and Malcolm. Maedbh changes us all into birds, so that we can fly there within a day.

We arrive at the small hamlet, which just has a handful of family dwellings. It looks a bit the worse for wear, and light seems to be coming from two of the buildings. The other two buildings are dark, as are the out buildings.

There are some people here, moving around outside. We land, and we all change back to human form out of sight of the villagers. There is a bit of a faerie aura here, and there is a nice refreshing breeze and crisp snow on the ground. The sea looks like it would be refreshing to take a swim in, but I’m not sure of the currents, and the locals might get suspicious.

We head into the village, deciding that Maedbh is a lady on a pilgrimage and the rest of us are her support. 

Malcolm goes to knock on a door. An older man opens the door, asking what we want. Malcolm suitably describes us as the servants of the Lady, who has heard that there are people here who have fallen sick with some form of sleeping sickness. We are seeking a place for the night.

The man looks favourably on our request, given that we are here to help. He offers one of the empty cottages, and says there is food we can help ourselves to. Malcolm offers to pay anyway. The man calls his wife, who starts fussing over us and invites us in.

I declare that I will go an make one of the cottages ready, in order not to upset the mundanes with my presence. Knox comes with me. Meanwhile, Maedbh talks to the two locals about what happened.

After the new year celebrations, the folk here did not awaken. The couple here were neighbours who found out about the issue from a traveller. So they’ve come over to stay to look after them. They put all the people into two buildings. One of the children is very unwell.

Feeding all of them is difficult – there are about 30 of them. They sometimes talk in their sleep, not always nice things. They have mentioned “the eyes”, and “the one who waits”. Maedbh spins a story from the Arthurian legends.

Meanwhile, I take a look around and notice that in the empty houses they weren’t cleaned up after the new year celebrations. There are three week old food stuffs left out. There is a jug with an aroma which reminds me of the wine in Aberfeldy. The villagers there had been put under the control of the faeries there. The dregs in the jug seem to glow slightly with my second sight.

They are clay jugs, with writing on them, which seems to be a verse declaring “to the lord and lady, may they sustain us during the darkness”. 

The wife, Stella, comes over to help with arranging the cottage for habitation. I ask whether she has seen the jugs elsewhere. She did find some when clearing up the other cottages, and washed them up. She tries to peer into my hood, but I stay in the shadows so she can’t see my tattooed face.

When Maedbh arrives at the cottage, I point out the very probably fey magic on the wine in the jug. 

I get out my map of Scotland, and Maedbh casts The Inexorable Search using the wine as an arcane connection. Last time we encountered the wine, it had been made from the blood of the faerie King and Queen. Assuming this is the same, we trace the source to be within a few miles.

Maedbh heads out to the sleeping men, and I follow m’lady. The people are slowly wasting away, but aren’t going to die soon. Maedbh puts wards against faeries upon the buildings. I force open one of their eyes, and use Posing the Silent Question on them.

• Where did you get the jugs of wine from?
  • Outside
• Who left them outside?
  • The wee folk <surprise>
• Do the wee folk normally leave things for you?
  • Every year
• Were the fey upset this year?
  • Don’t think so.
• Where do you leave your offerings for the fae?
  • We leave them outside on a dark night with a gift.
  • Normally they give water, this year it was wine.
• Has there been any change in the behaviour of the wee folk over the last year?
  • No.

We are interrupted by the sound of crashing at the other cottage. Maedbh heads back, and find that Malcolm has fallen over. He seems to have drunk the dregs of the wine. He now refuses to wake. So Maedbh orders people to take him outside, and gets Knox to undress him. She then casts a spell upon him to “expel the foulness”. It seems to do the trick of removing the poison from his system.

The person I was questioning grabs my arm, and starts to wake up. They are shocked waking up to my tattooed face, and start making a lot of noise. The rest of them begin to wake, and begin to freak out. 

Eventually we calm them down. Malcolm recovers, and mentions that he was having dreams about giant spiders. Stella comes over to see what all the fuss is, and is overjoyed to see that everyone is waking up. She seems a bit less overjoyed at what was done to Malcolm, and is shaken by my tattooed looks.

The following morning, Greysen and Knox have a look for tracks outside. Knox notices some tracks with really good footwear. Probably a woman with small stature. It looks like they went to the jugs about three weeks ago, and have also been going up to the cottages since then, looking in the windows near where the jugs were.