Part the Second

Mananuan’s progeny were as gifted as they were cursed. Siobhan possessed a mystical might incomparable even by the strongest of druids, but also had a dread fear of ever setting foot outside the environs of the Brugh. Saoirse was fleet and strong and could wield any weapon given her with accuracy; however, she was cursed with a wonderlust that prevented her from ever settling down in one place for any length of time. And Suibhne, childlike Suibhne, was wise beyond his decades and could bend nature herself to his whim, but in his youth was aloof and erratic, a condition that slowly became madness as he grew old.

The family curse continued on a generation, although it was through Saoirse’s children that it was made most manifest. Mananuan angered a minor demon named Agog, who sought his vengeance through the grandchildren. Saiorse’s children were the easiest, for they possessed very little of the second sight found throughout the family.

First was Dubhglas, who died on the field of battle, in part due to a demon named Agog’s machinations. The demon trapped the man’s soul as it departed his body, and he held onto it.

Then was Arwen, who did not even yet know her parentage. At the Crannog, Arwen met Ladee the Bard, a woman who had been stolen from her parents and raised by “barbarians”, and they fostered a kinship as a result of their mutual search for their parents. With the belief they had the blessings of the gods, they set forth to the Port of Galway, where they encountered the Morrigan, the crow-woman of the Tuathla de Danaan, the triple goddesses of fertility. Agog had led the Morrigan to believe the pair deserved punishment for some perceived crime, and the crow-woman goddess, already a petty woman, cast the two apart and befuddled their minds. Arwen came straggling back to the Crannog, not knowing who she was or from whence she came. Ladee was believed to be dead.

Arwen was partly restored, and at the Crannog, she chance met her mother and brother, but only moments after the event, Brandubh succumbed to Agog’s spell, through his brother’s spirit, and fell into a deep trance-like state. The healer, Moss, could do nothing for him, and by the clan druid, Eldrich’s determination, the only help that could be found was to return to the House of Mannanuan. The entire group was joined by Siobhan’s daughter, Mai and Suibhne’s daughter, Siofra, a farmer, Pol, the warrior, Feargus, and a lesser druid, Jacas.