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dnd oakley street > Oakley Street Part Eight
Oxford
The party are at Jordan College, Oxford, where they have been offered temporary lodgings by the dean. They sit at one of the college’s many dining tables, resting and talking after their whirlwind gyrocopter journey across the flooded city of Oxford. It is lunchtime, and the kitchen staff at the college, knowing that the party have the ear of Lord Asriel, have found time to prepare a modest but delicious meal.
Unhappy at remaining idle, and eager to check on Marchestra, Cassandra leads the party towards the river. The party pass Oxford’s covered market, though not without looking in at the devastation that has been caused by the flood. Stallholders are freaking out, many of their wares strewn across the wet floor of the market. Traders are stacking boxes and packages higher and higher to keep them from being damaged by the water.
Dahlia finds herself unable to walk past, and stops to help the tailors rearrange their fabrics. Ethel climbs up on top of two tables, stacked one atop the other, and directs the tidy up operation. Cassandra, with no connection to the market traders, is keen to continue on to the river and Marchestra. She begrudingly waits a short while, and when it becomes apparent that Dahlia and Ethel are not following her, she continues on towards the river.
Before she reaches the river, Cassandra encounters another obstacle. The high street, which normally accommodates a steady flow of road vehicles of all types, is instead accommodating a fearsome torrent of water. A small number of people on the opposite side are attempting to cross, to escape the flood that is emanating from the river. Even the strongest find the current near the middle of the street to be too much, and turn back.
Cassandra borrows a length of rope from John’s pack, promising to return it once she has retrieved a replacement from Marchestra. “Hey,” she shouts, to get the attention of anyone on the opposite bank. “Catch this!” She throws the rope across the street. One of the onlookers catches it. Cassandra ties her end to a nearby lamppost. The onlooker, on the other side of the street, does the same. A taught line now exists between the two sides of the high street, allowing people to cross with an acceptable level of safety.
First to use the line to cross the river is Cassandra. She wades into the high street, holding the line as she makes her way across, without incident, to the other side. Dahlia and Ethel, having finished helping traders at the covered market, follow closely behind. Dahlia loses her balance and is almost swept away by the water, but the line prevents this. On the other side of the high street, people are queuing up to use the line to get away from the floodwater. There are murmurs of confusion from the onlookers as they see the party head, not away from the floodwater with everyone else, but towards the source of it. Cassandra leaves the line in place across the high street, to help people escape the flood water.
The river is a scene of devastation. Along the river are poorer neighbourhoods, housing those least equipped to deal with the damage caused by the magical storm. Nearer the junction with the canal, small groups of people are speaking gyptian. Cassandra catches words from their conversation. She recognises one group of gyptians as the group that she met at the party before the airship journey to Paris, and thus she is able to greet them like old friends.
“I’m looking for my boat, Marchestra,” says Cassandra.
“Oh, I recognise the name,” replies one of the group. “She’s moored just up the river from here. How remiss of you, though, to have misplaced your boat?”
Cassandra explains the sequence of events which led to the party being parted from Marchestra. “Our friend, Lord Asriel, promised to return Marchestra safely to Oxford.”
“Indeed, Lord Asriel is a friend to all gyptians.”
The party thank the group of gyptians again for their directions, and walk upriver. After five minutes, they find Marchestra, moored as safely as possible, given the floodwater, on the bank of the river. She has been recently polished, which Cassandra assumes must have been Lord Asriel’s doing. Climbing aboard, the first thing that Cassandra notices is a photogram on her table.
She recognises straight away that is it of the Northern Lights. Although she has never seen the Northern Lights, or even a photogram of them, before, she has heard descriptions passed on from gyptian to gyptian about this natural wonder. Cassandra explains this to the rest of the party, who are not so familiar with the natural world.
Dahlia is quick to ask, “Does this mean we’re going to the Arctic?”
Cassandra, not taking Dahlia’s question seriously, replies, “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
“Now that we’re here, we should help the gyptians,” offers Dahlia, looking at Cassandra. “Cass…”
“I’ll ask them,” says Cassandra, knowing that Dahlia is too shy to ask them herself.
Cassandra leads Dahlia back to where the gyptians were conversing. “Good evening, gentlemen,” she begins. “My colleague here suggests that, during our remaining time in Oxford, we should offer whatever assistance we can.”
The gyptians eye up Dahlia carefully. A rough-looking Gyptian replies, “We could use your help, then. This flooding is so bad that our narrowboats can’t navigate the river. We need speedboats, like the Majesterium’s.”
“Shall we steal them from the Majesterium?” asks Dahlia, constructively.
“If we did it at night, when noone’s looking,” ponders Cassandra. Dusk begins at around seven in the evening.
Before the party are able to begin planning their speedboat theft, they hear commotion coming from the main street of the town. Although it is still flooded, the current has abated, and people are now standing comfortably comfortably with water not past their knees. The party move closer to the commotion to determine the cause. Some gyptians follow.
As they get closer, the party can see something glowing in the water. Cassandra knows instinctively that this is not good. Although she and the other gyptians have never seen the phenomenon before, they recognise it, some under the name ‘will-o-the-wyke’, some under the name ‘marsh light’, some under the name ‘jackie lantern’. Cassandra recognises it by its most proper name, ‘the secret commonwealth’. The gyptians and Cassandra, but nobody else, realise that it is only luminous because it is feeling threatened.
“Kill it!” shouts one of the men causing commotion on the high street. “It’s causing the flood!”
A voice from behind Cassandra stops her from rushing in and arguing with the man. “They have no respect for these natural wonders,” says the older gyptian man. “Our goal here is not to teach them, there is no time for that. We must lead the secret commonwealth away from here, and fast.” Giorgio Brabant, rough-looking gyptian, about fifty years of age, is the only person here to have seen the secret commonwealth before with his own eyes.
Cassandra and the gyptians push into the circle around the marsh light to get a better view of it. Then they split, opening up the circle, giving the marsh light a route to escape towards the canal. It does so, and the luminescence begins to calm ever so slightly. Once it is out of sight of the crowded on the high street, who do not follow it, and into the darker area around the canal, it begins to dance. It sprays water up into the air in elaborate shapes, and in doing so, provides the medium with which to lift itself out of the water and put on a beautiful light show for the gyptians present. It then dives back down, deep into the water, and goes dark again as it heads upstream, out of the city.
The gyptians, having witnessed a beautiful scene of nature that is unlikely to be seen here again, begin singing an old song to wish it well on its journey. All of the gyptians join in straight away, except for Cassandra. She has been away from the tight knit gyptian community for too long and has started to forget the customs. However, when she realises what is happening, she also begins to sing, nervously at first, growing in confidence until her voice is as loud as any other on the riverbank. Dahlia wants to join in too, however, not knowing the words to the song, she hums the tune instead.
Once the commotion in the town centre has abated, the party reconvene to discuss their next moves. Cassandra reluctantly offers accommodation on board Marchestra.
“Let’s go to the college and see if Hannah has returned,” suggests Dahlia, eagerly.
“Indeed,” adds Cassandra, “The alethiometer is back in Oxford, and this will be a pull for her.” Cassandra, loyal to the Gyptians, looks towards Giorgio Brabant.
“Yes, gal?” he asks.
“Before, your friend asked about the possibility of us liberating some speedboats, for you to better navigate through the floods.”
“Ah, yes,” replies Giorgio. “Of course, that would be quite an ambitious scheme. Promise me this, gal; if you do this, you will make sure that you do not impact the Gyptian community? Lord Asriel can only do so much to protect us.”
Dahlia steps in and holds out her hand. “I pinky promise.”
Giorgio accepts Dahlia’s sincere promise, and Tom begins looking up his contacts in the town. Giorgio points the party in the direction of a Majesterium checkpoint, a five minutes walk away on the towpath from their current location.
Tom’s contact, the owner of a marine chop shop, is on the way to their destination. The party start walking, and just a few minutes later arrive at the site. The scene before them is one of chaos. Parts of boats lie out in the open by the canal, piled up on top of each other. Dinghies are stacked one inside the other, with the same arrangement of dinghies upside down above them, like a set of Russian dolls. None of them look like they have seen the water for a long time. None of this phases Tom, who walks up to the site office and knocks loudly on the door.
“Whatever it is, I don’t need to be involved,” he says.
Tom explains to the chop shop owner what is required of him, and offers that the party will work through the night, under his direction, to acheive it.
The owner asks, “When can I expect the boats to arrive?”
“Around midnight,” suggests Cassandra, eliciting a groan from the man who has already had an extended day protecting his shop from the flood. Cassandra does not mention her thought that a little flood damage might, in fact, improve it.
Another short walk along the canal takes the party to just short of the Majesterium checkpoint. There are few people about. Of interest are three Majesterium guards; two of them clearly young and enthusiastic, one of them older and less keen. A maintenance engineer is on shift and making running repairs to the speedboats moored at the checkpoint.
Ethel comes up with a plan. She wraps her scimitar in cloth, so that in the dim light, it is indistinguishable from a walking stick. Acting as a frail, old lady, she walks to where the engineer and the older of the guards are standing, next to one of the speedboats. “Oh, thank goodness,” she begins, “Two young men to help me. My boat is being burgled.”
The two men, flattered by Ethel’s comment about their age, follow her until the three of them are out of view of the checkpoint and the two younger guards. Ethel turns and quickly draws her scimitar on them. Dahlia appears from the shadows, draws her rapier, and pushes the tip up against the guard’s neck.
Dahlia and Ethel work together to tie the guard and the engineer to one of the speedboats. They start the speedboat, the noise immediately attracting attention from the two younger guards, and set the speeboat off into the canal at full speed with nobody at the controls. The two younger guards run along the bank after it, one on each side, trying desparately to retrieve their incapacitated colleagues.
With the Majesterium checkpoint standing unguarded, Cassandra, John and Tom run towards it first and start untying the remaining Majesterium speedboats. Dahlia and Ethel catch up, and the five of them take a speedboat each away from the checkpoint and towards Tom’s friend’s workshop.
“That was quick,” announces the chop shop owner, as the party arrive back before midnight. The five party members place orders with the chop shop owner, then work under his command to implement their wishes. Even though the boats are destined for the Gyptians, each of the party are proud to have put their mark on the boats.
Morning reaches the workshop, and with work on the speedboats winding down, Cassandra can sense in the air that something bad is going to happen; perhaps a second storm is about to hit Oxford. She recommeds to the party that the speedboats are delivered to the Gyptians quickly, before the storm makes it any more difficult to navigate the river, and so that the Gyptians can begin using the boats immediately to help the citizenry of Oxford.
Moving quickly, the party take their five speedboats to Giorgio, who meets them at a wharf moments after sunrise. He has felt the same disturbance as Cassandra, and advises the party to get to safety, quickly. The party do so. They return to Marchestra, snatch a few hours’ sleep, then rise for a late breakfast of egg and tea.
It is noted that, in this campaign, the party only ever stop for breakfast. The reply, in unison from Cassandra, Dahlia, and Ethel, is that “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!”
With the overnight diversion complete and the party finally well rested, it is decided to continue to Jordan college. The watchman on duty at Jordan greets the party as though they are expected, and informs them that Hannah is already here. Confused, but pleased to know that their search for Hannah is much shorter than expected, the party follow the watchman’s directions through Jordan college towards the master’s office.
Dahlia knocks, and the party are invited in. They find the master sat at his table. Occupying the other chairs at the table are several familiar faces; Malcolm and Alice, Doctor Hannah, and, in a basket on the table, baby Lyra.
Ethel speaks first. “Doctor Hannah, what a lovely surprise. We were on our way to find you at St. Sophia’s.”
“Well, now you have found me!” replies Hannah, with a smile. “It is good to see you too.”
“I wonder if you can help us,” starts Ethel. “Would you ask the alethiometer where our skills would be best used?”
Hannah’s smile fades a little. “Sorry, Ethel, that’s not something the alethiometer can answer.”
The master interjects. “But maybe I can make a suggestion. There is something about the connection between human and daemon that the Majesterium does not want us to know.” Several of the daemons shudder at this remark, and move closer to their humans; as though the master simply suggesting this might put them in danger. “Of course, the college enjoys scholastic sanctuary, but that only goes so far. Even with the protection we have, to ask such questions would be blasphemous. You must have heard of poor Hugo?”
The party nod. They are all familiar with the scientist, whose murderer they were able to rapidly quickly and expertly identify on the airship crossing to France.
“Whoever investigates this connection must not do so while connected to Jordan, or any other, college,” concludes the master.
As their next steps begin to take shape in their minds, the party recount to the master and Hannah their story of finding Malcolm and Alice.
After meeting with the master and Doctor Hannah, the party put together a plan. They begin by asking Hannah, at her next opportunity, to ask the alethiometer a question; “Why is the infighting in the Majesterium?”
Hannah memorises the question, and begins thinking about how to ask it to the instrument which understands only questions posed to it in symbols and a thought held in mind. To write down the question would be too risky; if it were discovered in her possession, she and her contacts would be questioned. It will take a day or so for Hannah to access the alethiometer and pose the question.
The party have decided to head once more to France, to investigate the flat of Hugo, the academic who was murdered on board the airship on their last journey to France. They catch the train from Oxford direct to London. Stepping out of the railway station onto the London street, they seek cover from the rain. The raindrops dance off of the pavements, as if they have no connection to the storm that is coming. It is a twenty minute walk from the railway station to the airship station. The group arrive in time to buy tickets and be seated for the one hour crossing to France, which is mercifully uneventful.
Once in Paris, it is a short and new familiar walk from the airship station to the university where Hugo worked. The party begin their search methodically, starting in Hugo’s office, which they succeed in entering unnoticed. Many of Hugo’s books and papers have already been moved out. The party recognise, amongst the remaining items, a paper by Hugo on the topic of Dust. John, the party’s only French speaker, is only able to make out vague details. Not wanting to spend too long in the office, the party decide to take the paper to study in detail later.
With nothing more to gain from Hugo’s office, the party file into the lab that Hugo had used. The presence of a large piece of steel on the bench in the lab gives Ethel’s daemon, Sir William, reason to bolt straight out of the room, tugging on his connection to Ethel. Ethel follows as fast as she is able, which is not very fast, and the moment she catches up to Sir William, she and he sit down to rest. The rest of the party soon follow, having been unable to find any useful information in Hugo’s lab.
Sitting in a secluded office, they begin to examine the item found in Hugo’s office. The paper appears to focus on the connection between human and daemon. It contains details on the supposed strength of the bond, and the energy released when the connection is severed.
The party leave the university to search for Hugo’s flat in Paris, the address of which they have from a personal letter to him.