The Canadian Incursion was the first time Service members dealt directly with the
. It was the most deadly affair in the history of
. It serves as a reminder of the serious nature of dealing with the arcane realms and their inhabitants.
The affair began with reports of the abduction of Indians from remote villages. Edgar Dewdney, the Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Territories, wanted to continue the generally good relations that the government had with the local tribes and ao he had the North-West Mounted Police investigate the disappearances. Their report was strange enough to get wired back to Ottawa, where a portal to Fairweather had recently been installed. The local monitor for the Service became aware of the report and sent it through to his superiors.
Charles Scott and Bella Hooke were dispatched and travelled by train and then coach to the territorial capital of Regina, then under construction. After talking to the natives and investigating the villages, they learned that similar events had happened at roughly twenty year intervals. With a reasonable suspicion of what they were looking for, they were able to identify a portal a few miles away, located on a non-descript patch of prairie.
The portal appeared to be permanent, with no obvious anchor points. Scott and Hooke spent several days observing the portal to see if it was active. On the third day, their patience was rewarded when a humanoid creature that was later identified as a Dâledor came through the portal, along with a large animal that looked like a hound. As they followed the Dâledor, they moved upwind and the hound caught their scent. As it alerted on them, the Dâledor spun around and faced them.
After a moment, the creature set the hound upon them and the investigators were forced to fire their revolvers at the beast in self defense. This action was enough to cause the Dâledor to sprint toward the portal through which it escaped. The hound, though wounded, was able to follow its master. Unwilling to follow and unequiped to close the portal, Scott and Hooke returned to Regina and wired for assistance.
The Assault
Russell Wynter was sent to take charge, arriving by train from Ottawa along Ava Marsh, Ronald Cromwell, and Seamus MacPhearson. In the area of the Cree villages, a medicine man, Izakidishpiming (Fire in the Sky), was able to lead the investigators to the portal location. Unable to dismantle the arcane anchors that the Dâledor hunter had placed to secure the portal, Wynter and the others planned to set an ambush with the intention of killing or capturing the raiders.
Perhaps alerted by some ward placed after the previous encounter, the Dâledor arrived unexpectedly in the middle of the investigator's camp— four of them clad in full armor and heavily armed. Despite their preparations, the investigators were nearly overwhelmed in the initial onslaught. Several of the massive hounds accompanied the Dâledor. Two of these beasts attacked Scott, knocking him to the ground and savaging him. Marsh ran to his assistance, shooting both hounds, but her actions attracted the attention of one of the Dâledor, who moved swiftly toward them. Marsh fired the two remaining rounds from her pistol, but they struck the attacker's shield which stopped them. In return, she was nearly sliced in two by the Dâledor's sword. As the sword was raised to deliver the same fate to Scott, Wynter was able to put two shots from his rifle into a vulnerable spot and the Dâledor fell dead on the spot.
On the other side of the camp, the remaining three hounds raced toward MacPhearson, who was able to draw his claymore and slay two of the attackers. The third had circled and was hurling itself at at MacPhearson's unguarded back when it was struck by a wolf that had been summoned by Izakidishpiming. The wolf and hound appear to have continued fighting until the hound was either killed or driven off, as neither was seen again.
Two Dâledor began to wield arcane energy, with one launching furious blasts of energy at Hooke and Cromwell. Hooke may have scored one or more hits upon the creature, as the blasts stopped for a period. The other Dâledor raised a defensive shield that stopped bullets from both Hooke and Wynter. Cromwell seemed to be stunned by the arcane attack and Hooke pulled him to the ground behind a low boulder.
The other Dâledor took advantage of the distractions of the hounds and the arcane battle and was able to close upon MacPhearson unseen before charging. MacPhearson was able to get his sword up in defense, but the rush pushed him back behind a rise in the ground and Wynter was no longer able to observe their fight. Izakidishpiming did begin to follow them until a blast from one of the other two Dâledor slammed him to the ground.
Wynter, seeing that the guns were having no effect against the Dâledors' shield, ran to the wagon that was carrying the party's supplies. The sound of clashing metal and foul oaths was still audible from MacPhearson's battle. With their defenses apparently invulnerable, the Dâledor began to advance upon Hooke and Cromwell. The former had reloaded and was holding revolvers in each hand, while the latter was involved in an arcane ritual of some sort.
Wynter emerged from the wagon holding a stick of dynamite and shouted to attract Hooke's attention. With no time to prepare a fuse, he hurled the dynamite at the Dâledor and then shouldered his rifle. When the dynamite hit the shield, he fired and the bullet detonated the explosive. The blast collapsed the shield, as expected, and Hooke stood up and emptied both revolvers into the nearest Dâledor. The other Dâledor responded with an arcane blast much like a lightning bolt that shredded Hooke, At almost the same instant a cry of agony came over the rise from MacPhearson.
As Wynter moved to get a clear shot on the Dâledor, Cromwell stood, enveloped in an eerie green glow visible even in the sunlight. The Dâledor saw this and turned to flee. Then Cromwell brought his hands together with a clap and exploded in a ball of green flame. Wynter was caught by the flame and severely injured. Somehow, while the wagon and its contents were charred, the remaining dynamite was not set off.
A group of Cree hunters saw the explosion and came to see what it was. They found Wynter lying in a large circle of charred prairie. Amazingly, when Izakidishpiming had been knocked down, he landed in a shallow depression that had partly protected him from the green blast. Although he still suffered burns, his buckskin pants and coat had moderated the injuries. When the hunters had given him water and basic medical care, he was able to direct them to find and bury the bodies.
The hunters were amazed to discover MacPhearson and his attacker kneeling on the ground, their dead bodies leaning against each other. The Dâledor's sword through MacPhearson's gut and MacPhearson's sword jammed up under the Dâledor's helm and through the top.
The hunters then took Izakidishpiming and Wynter to Regina. Once there, a team from Housekeeping was dispatched to recover the bodies and to determine the state of affairs. They found that the portal had been closed, either by the blast or the death of whomever had created it. No trace of Cromwell was found and only a few charred bones of Hooke or the two Dâledor arcanists were recovered.
