Season Nine

https://wikiawoo.queer.me.uk/index.php?title=Season_Nine&action=edit Summary of Events. Also Todo List

2023-03-27

(We gave the Wyrm Tainted Cinema Projector to The Weaver of Laws and Rituals, reunited Holly's Parents, Sunny scored a minor victory with The Chef at the Deli, talked to Old Crone Fleet who confirmed The Director was dead, Sunny attended Helen Mirren's funeral, Ariane gave a howl!, talked to The Guild and were told about a Dark Druid on the run to The Spire, found out that Liz was headed there too, Sam Aston gave us the file on the target, and started to make plans for how to deal with being in the Umbra so long)

Ariane and Jules head to Parliament to hand in the Wyrm Tainted Cinema Projector to The Weaver of Laws and Rituals, interestingly we note the Projector can move between the physical and the Umbra like a dedicated/spirit imbued item... We seem expected when we get there and The Weaver herself meets us in the Lobby and asks if we have "The Object", there's a lot of chittering noises, we are asked to put it on a specific floor spot and assure it The Director is either dead or out of commission.

Carlie and Holly take Holly's Dad home, on the way he's super fixated on her appearing in Crinos form and keeps asking her about it, she reassures him it feels very strong and powerful, and just about in control and he compares this to The Incredible Hulk. Holly's mother yells at everyone then invites them inside, Carlie bails to "do a few things" and Holly chats and plays up that her parents are now "in on it" as it were, she notes her mothers been stress tidying, her father breaks out the bourbon and she worries about the hit down the road on them psychologically and makes a note to keep more in touch.

Sunny meanwhile heads back to the Pack house to resume cooking, engaging her understanding of the charm of the dish (Rabbit A L'Orange) and takes the resultant meal to The Chef at the Deli. He says its at least not fit for the bin, can taste its full of her passion and love and the flavours are put together delicately so they sing in the mouth, not too intellectual, this dish has style! Then follows this up by saying if you can't taste the passion and style of a dish you're not fit to be a chef (and he only gives recipes to chefs!), she gets a pastrami and rye and feels she's made progress but he's rubbing it in, as she leaves she finds a recipe for pastrami in the bag, possibly he is laying down a challenge for her to make her own.

We get some hi-viz jackets and go to find Old Crone Fleet to chat about The Director, Jules initially pitches that he's at worst trapped in his realm, Ariane tells her about the Projector. Fleet confirms that he's very dead (Holly "Heh heh. Good") and she tells us we can ask 3 boons of her of the kind of scale of help we've given them (we moot ideas about paying our rent/maintaining the house/territory while we're away or possibly trying to protect us from deep umbral time shift)

Sunny attends Helen Mirren's funeral with the Boatmen in the Umbra. Its full of boatmen, true londoners, and a lot of other spirits, all with lanterns. Helen is escorted onto the boat waving proudly, its adorned with ribbons, lanterns, and pictures of her most famous roles and moments. She waves as she floats down the river and slowly fades out as the boat merges with the darkness, the lamps wink out one by one. It feels both celebratory and also solemn. Sunny heads back to the Pack House and tells people and Ariane of course takes notes.

Ariane gives a howl about: Defending our packmate legally! Investigating The Director and the death of Helen Mirren the Fae, slaying him and removing the source of corruption. Trading favours for fresh weapons and gifts to meet this challenge. And Ariane's appointment as Deputy Sheriff of London. (ooc: 3 successes, +1 glory all around)

Ariane makes contact with The Guild about the Quest to Spire and assures them we're on it and a week later she's contacted by Sir Robert Laffrey who has a proposal for us - the new Sheriff of London John Northbridge has a problem in that a Dark Druid who has evaded his "Vampiric claws" has headed into the Umbra, where of course he cannot chase, Sir Robert thinks he's headed to Spire and since we have the contract to go we may as well get two birds with one stone because there's a price on his head.

The target is Aiden "Morton" Jones, who has bonded with a spirit called Morton so is sometimes just called that. We learn he's formed a Pact with a dark and malevolent spirit of corruption and disease and was arrested 2 years ago for spreading chorea and typhoid, the Grandees of London arranged to extradite him to the US because MPD were preparing a case against him. He is probably going to Spire to form a pact with a larger spirit for the power to get revenge on Derek Watford and all Garou and that a courier will bring his file over and he wants him brought back to be extradited.

She goes downstairs, texts the pack telling them that there is peril and a long trip coming up, and we start to talk about potential issues like Sunny's Youtube Channel, Ariane and Jules University courses and Jules work for Giannis Valatos, and Carlie's job (possibly pitch it as "going travelling?"). We ask if this is a good idea now? Suspect having The Guild backing us will make it easier.

Jules gets phoned by Liz who squees at him that she'll be away and was just told that she's going to have to vanish to go on a long trip to Spire. We largely eyeroll at the potential cute and Jules mouths to tell us to get fucked.

There's a weird sharp crack! noise in the hallway and Sam Aston teleports in with a file, she notes that she's totally fine with us bringing the target back alive or dead and has no interest in Sir Robert playing power games with John Northbridge. She tells us she's been to Spire but won't tell us anything about it, we try and suggest as garou we may damage it, and she says "If we manage to destroy the place it deserved it, and bigger werewolves have tried", then with a click of her fingers she vanishes again.

We finish on a discussion of if Jules can make an anti-teleportation array (she can but it would have to literally contain the whole house) and with Holly asking her about leaving one of her Umbral pictures with them (and eventually making a custom one for them) of the inside of the Umbra.

2023-04-03

(There's a bit of a time skip, we plan a route (Earth → Apollo → Tranquility → Rising Stones → The Tower / Spire), Sirius comes back with Lydia, we gather up the last of our supplies and head to the Natural History Museum to find a piece of moon rock to portal to Apollo, we cross the moon, portal to Tranquillity which hits Liz hard and is a bit spooky, we quickly get from there to Rising Stones where we make camp, see a good sunrise and butterflies, hike to a second island, avoid the woods, and see an air ship)

There has been a 3-4 week time skip while we frantically arrange our cover stories and methods of getting out of town for a long Umbral deep dive. The Guild's financial arm has subcontracted Carlie for a long term deep cover op on a banking investigation, Jules and Ariane arrange intercalation, Lottie does a lot of collaborations with Sunny and helps manage her channel and release some stuff (along with cued up content from Sunny to be released later). Jules also now has 2 Anti Scrying Rings.

We make a plan that the best route is: Earth → Apollo → Tranquility → Rising Stones → Edge of Time → The Tower / Spire

However the only route we know of to Apollo is in the Smithsonian museum, we talk about moon bridges over the the US caerns, issues with getting back, maybe using Morton as a bargaining chip with MPD to buy our way back safely to the UK. We check in with alternative routes including:

• River of Stars - the entry is extensive, summary: a realm of always night and the major stars of its "milky way" are portals to various places. It's beautiful and theirs no danger, but you have to know what the constellations there mean and what each major star is a gateway too so its easy to get lost.
• Song of the Spheres - Ethereal and harmonic realm, all guidance is done by sound, he felt he could get trapped there listening, there is no light, nothing to see, just audio.

We get a knock on the door and Sirius (one of the Children of Gaia who took Lydia away) is there, Carlie brings him in, he beckons to Lydia to collect her stuff but we don't notice in the busyness of shoving a map under his nose and asking his advice. He tells us any piece of moon rock is a gateway to Apollo, and that there's a chunk in the National History Museum. Lydia then appears and tries to ask us carefully if we'll accept her back, everyone is happy to see her but also cautious of things going wrong in the future, explain we didn't know when she'd be back but that we're about to disappear on a deep Umbral mission. Around 1 month has passed for us, but a lot more months for her. When we tell her about Morton she is immediately in favour of killing the spirit instead of bringing it back, although Ariane points out she may be under some kind of compulsion with regards her magical contract/geas to try and bring him back alive for Sir Robert.

She catches up and hears there's been nothing from her family, Derek Watford has essentially disappeared, and a get well soon card from her colleagues in the NHS.

Lydia packs up James Sword to bring with her after consulting with the Bishop of Southwark about borrowing the Angels Sword and he hmms and ponders.

So the pack reunited heads to the Natural History Museum via the Umbra and in the Earth Hall Carlie finds the item with the portal attached, opens it and we head through arriving on the surface of Apollo!

We can breath, there's no scent, can see a luna lander module and a rover and the earth, Carlie suggests rider the rover but Sunny points out if this is the moon too many people on earth watch it closely so we may leave tracks. Carlie collects up a pocketful of sharp moon dust for later, Ariane appreciates the view of the earth, Holly talks about how the initial landing was the Sea of Tranquility, Ariane remembers that that was Apollo 11 and its south east of where we are (we're at Apollo 17 because of the rover). Here in the Umbral-moon of Apollo we see that Yangshi appears as a sort of Jellyfish/Manta Ray type creature more than a Dragon. Carlie and Jules go Hispo to ping off, with Liz riding on Jules back/shoulders, we ping and boing across the surface of the moon.

At the Apollo 11 site there's no US flag, no rover, a smaller lander and a camera on a tripod pointing at where the lander took off. Holly finds the flag blown down as it was positioned too close. We also find a plate inscribed with [Statio Tranquillitatis] (The state of Tranquillity, also the names of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins), the plate is the gate and we step through.

In Tranquillity Jules almost gets hit by a wave of Umbral Travelling Sickness and feels tired and weird, we later notice Liz seems hit by this effect as well. Physically the place is a flat gray plane, we are on a small island surrounded by a silvery sea that is lapping at the shore silently. There are millions of stars above us in the night sky and it is absolutely dead silent. The only thing we can see is 6 stone arches, we have just stepped out of one inscribed with "Tranquillity". Ariane looks to Carlie and Holly and they look for the Rising Stones gateway, go to stand near it but the gate is already open and running, we form and orderly queue and Sunny who's bringing up the rear notices Liz isn't looking at the portal just staring out over the sea acting weird and gently shepherds her through the gate.

At Rising Stones we all get hit by fatigue, Lydia checks in on Liz who tells her that the last place was wonderful and she could sit on the beach all day and thinks about retiring there, Lydia does her best to talk her out of this idea.

We find ourselves on a rocky island, the sky above is inky, black, and full of stars and gently diffused lights. There's a rope bridge running up and to the right to another island and a tattered bridge heading down somewhere else. Looking off the edge reveals an eternal drop into the void and Ariane nopes, calls for a time out and some rest and sleep, then cooks us a few marshmallows over a tea light. Jules does first watch, Carlie second, Ariane does third and gets to see the sunrise - which is a band of light at a point of the horizon that explodes up and down as well as outwards in a rolling boiling essence that coalesces into a rising star/and sun, this is then followed by a second sun that burns a darker red, which turns the bright fire of the first sun into a warmer orange, it also rises upwards. Looking down over the side of the island now reveals a drop that goes off into clouds and fog with distance but less awful dark void. A flock of blue and purple butterflies comes down chasing the dawn from a higher rock to drink the dew from our camping gear and skin, then all of a sudden lift off to chase it to another island. Needless to say Ariane is useless as a watch during this whole sequence but luckily nothing kills us.

We make tea, grab some snack bars for breakfast and all feel better, Liz seems more normal and speculates on what the butterflies wanted, she says she tried to talk to them as spirits but they didn't talk back, seemed like normal physical butterflies almost, comments that whereas Apollo and Tranquillity didn't seem grounded and physically real this place feels more solid and coherent, Jules comments that we've never been here so is unsure if this is normal.

We harness ourselves together and put Jules and Carlie up front and head up the rope bridge towards Rock 2: This one is a dense jungle/forest, at least a few miles diameter, we talk about how we need some kind of symbolic exit so maybe we need to find the summit of this place as we're headed for The Tower (via Edge of Time). Jules chooses to lead us clockwise around the island (with the power of fate) and there's bird and animal noises coming out of the woods.

Ariane and Sunny see something and get binoculars out of their bags to take a look, and going between two islands we see an airship! A large balloon with a gondolier type body underneth it, with flapping wings at the sides. WE can't see anywhere its headed or a dock, but we count around 40 islands in our view so it could be anywhere.

2023-04-10

(The Pack boarded the AS Sarkaze, met a number of the crew, learnt about the Air Empire and Cerulean Ore and travelled to Port Royale where we chartered Captain McCallen to take us to the Great Eastern Pyramid Islands which we think is probably the route to Spire)

We watch the airship going by, can't identify a port and talk about are the islands still? Do they move? Talk about if we should ask the locals and how we find them. Sunny has brought her dog sled with a lot of gear and has 2 emergency flares, we use one and Jules waves down the airship, they start flicking a light to give us morse code and spell out something like AS SARKAZE SEE YOUR FLARE ON WAY, it takes a couple of hours before the AS Sarkaze floats up with about 8-10 crew visible, about the size of a large lake ferry, the gas bag has a rigid external frame and the material isn't patched but made of something largely one piece. Parks up broadside to the island and Captain Ashahe Hiramoto calls out "What ho Ladies!" and enquires if we're in distress, invites us aboard for tea and cake. We're introduced to Lt. Haru Mahakaze the first officier and serves us a tea on the poop deck that tastes a little like an Indian white tea, no milk but lemon (ooc: this is important worldbuilding and worth recording fite me) the tea is delicious and the lemon helps.

Turns out we're in the Wild East Windward Mountains and when Jules talks about heading deeper he suggests there are places called Jamaica and Cathay, we mention coming in from Tranquillity and he mentions that we're not from these parts and talks about how he's heard tales of where "the Earth is solid beneath your feet" and feels its a fantasy. He talks about fishing from clouds to help the population eat and Ariane latches onto this fascinating fantasy detail method of food production and goes to watch the crew doing it.

Everyone else hears that the AS Sarkaze came from Port Royale and is patrolling to ensure its peaceful, we're the most exciting thing they've seen, they look for sky pirates (very rare these days) and villages without water, or people stuck on islands mainly. The peace of the Air Empire makes all these things less common, but if needed they are "fleet of wing and will render assistance!" The small talk continues and Carlie asks about The Spire/The Tower and things like it nearby, is told that this sort of thing has been mentioned by the Union of Stargazers who have travelled here before. Sunny mentions she's heard of them, and the Captain says the Islands are surely plenty enough for anyone and having his feet on permanently solid ground would give him the wiggens. He calls his navigator and they talk suggesting the highest peak on the Great Eastern Pyramid Islands (GEPI) may be where they're looking for, the highest islands on his maps. It's technically inside imperial borders because its basically unclaimed, there's little there, just weird people and weird things, there is a govenor for the sector but he lives in Kyoto. Captain Hiramoto says he can take us as far as Port Royale then advises us to go to Kyoto and seek passage from there. Holly estimates the maps are 100km x 100km or so and the GEPI are off this map, 6 days to Port Royale, so a long trip ahead. Jules offers to help but told since we are travellers from afar its a free trip, except for the captain taking afternoon tea with us and swapping tales of the Earth!

Ariane meanwhile finds a lot of trailing lines out the windows at the back, watches a line go taught and people helping the crew member reeling in a fish with large wing/fins, but also gills, its longer than her arm. She notices the hooks have glowing bait and asks and finds its called Cerulean Ore wrapped in a small translucent package and each one will glow for 50-60 years, she chats about it and is introduced to the "Chief Stoker" Lt. Haruto who has glowing dust on their uniform, says that the ore is refined to a gas/liquid depending on temperature, generally stored in tanks as gas but comes out as liquid releasing a lot of energy, which they use to boil water, creating steam power. Capture the spent liquid and reprocess/recycle it back into gas, says the engine room is dangerous while afloot otherwise she could see it.

The First Officer shows us to a passengers cabin, says we'll get our meals delivered by the boatswain, its silver cloud fish with a bed of rice. We spend time catching up Lydia on recent events of London, play cards, sketch, Ariane attempts to learn to catch fish (they deflect her for 3 days before teaching her, its harder when moving). Sunny hits up the cook, learns a number of fish and sauce recipes, they're cooking with fish oil as well so she introduces them to deep frying battered fish. Carlie keeps an eye on Lydia's stress levels, Jules is mostly watching Liz and Lydia. Holly keeps herself fit and digests the Styles Journal keeping it private, the first officer tries to subtly spy on her and she insists she's just studying an old notebook from a relative, he tells her he's a 5th generation airship officer, years of history, she turns it around to mine him for information about his family and training (it starts young), then uses Jules as a get out of jail free card ("Oh I think I hear the alpha!").

Carlie and Ariane are the first to spot more inhabited islands, glittering paddy fields and people and animals pulling ploughs and carts, some smaller personal airships, and more rope bridges. We get the binoculars out and Jules spots a small town on and island with the biggest airship we've seen so far docked there (long, barrel shaped, 8 banks of oars, still no gun ports), this must be Port Royale. Carlie wonders how we'll pay for stuff, Holly says she has a few foreign coins, Ariane talks about teaching them to make black powder if we had a chemist and everyone smacks her down for talking about teaching weapon making to an empire. We think about it and we've seen no weapons, only kitchen knives.

We dock at Port Royale its an island with around 2000 people, boat to Kyoto leaves in around a week. It feels like a mix of Jamaica and Japan, wooden buildings, some cement, a lot of small scale fish processing industry, busy docks, smaller ships coming and going. We're at the Imperial dock and ask for directions, head to the North Dock looking for the dock master to enquire about directions/ships. We pass by the gate guard and... also no weapons.

At the North Docks we meet the Port Warden, ask about the Great Eastern Pyramid Islands, told there is nothing direct, we'd need to go via Kyoto and the AS Batou will dock in a week then its 2-3 weeks to Kyoto then another trip from there, we could maybe go via Port Alexander, or we could charter a fast picket messenger ship, which will take 3-4 weeks of rather rough clouds. Ariane pitches its outside the empire (kinda) so adventure! Research! And that she's heard of the great training of the Empires academies! Told there's a couple of fast pickets, one is heading on a medical mercy mission, the other is in repairs until tomorrow, we also hear that the Red Monks refuse to travel by airship. He doesn't seem to get the idea of trade and just says the Empire will loan us ships and teach us information about them (there is an implied trade for stories).

We get directed to Captain McCallen from the Caledonian Islands at number 21 dock. There we find an arrow shaped vessel, a guy laying on the top deck head in a hatch gently hammering something, light blue patina on the deck, clearly being painted/refreshed. Ariane spins a story about being on a research trip from a University and needing to do it in a rush or her Uncle will lose the family farm! He says we'd have to pitch in because we fill the boat. Carlie volunteers as stoker, learns about the regulator, how to fix the engine, and a number of procedures for safety. Sunny volunteers to cook and finds a hot plate attached to the engine and a store cupboard of fish, rice, apples, etc. She'll also be quarter master and needs to fill in requisition forms before dark. He tells us the ship is fast and it can make the something run in 5 days.

We get directed to the Airshipman's Woes a pub as it has the best drinks and stories. Its nice, warm, snug, and smells of sake. There's no coin, no barter anywhere to be seen inside Port Royale and the pub is no different. We get a room, drink sake, and tell stories in the evening.

We find out that food and drink is free here to members of the Empire (and its honoured guests), easy to do things because they have the free/abundant energy from Cerulean Ore so they just hand it out.

The pack wakes early when its still dark. Carlie heads out, sees a few other stokers on the streets with Cerulean dust on them gently glowing as she heads to the docks.

2023-04-17

Carlie walks with the other stokers prepping our airship the Two Drams ready for adventure from dock 21, Captain McCallen is ready and waiting still fixing things. Together they get the engine up to steam, with the wings out the side starting to shift and the fans at the back going, even some rudimentary electric cabling and lights.

At the 8th bell the rest of the pack gets a knock on the door, asked if we need the room and told we can take a tin of breakfast from downstairs with us, Ariane signs the visitor book enthusiastically (they thrive on reputation) and we head to the dock.

A trolly of goods is brought to the dock and Carlie is getting started when the rest of the pack arrive, we schlep it all on the boat and Sunny organises it as needed, as its loaded the ship settles fractionally down into the cloud its on. McCallen goes to get the post (2 sacks of mail to deliver on route) and we learn we have one main stop off on route.

We set off that day and in the evenings we travel at a slow pace with people on watch overnight for rough clouds, we're told big birds aren't an issue, sometimes the fish hop/jump onto the deck and you can keep them or throw them back. We're bunking on hammocks except the captain who has small quarters. Ariane talks about Moby Dick and there is talk of sky-whales, we wonder if our thoughts and talk can shape this place or if its physically consistently real. Chat about the notebook and if Holly is making her own and she says she's keeping everything in her head for now.

Carlie chats to Lydia about how she feels about being back with the pack, she still doesn't think we should have saved her, but admits she has nothing else to do. Carlie talks of how her original plans in life are turned upside down, saying its not what you're looking for but things often present themselves. Lydia talks about how she thought there was a point to everything and Ariane tries to reassure her that maybe her god exists beyond things, Lydia isn't consoled because she sees Gaia's story as ending badly in all the myths of the Garou. Carlie mentions that everyone sins and Lydia suggests yes but Jesus was the ultimate get out of jail free card. Holly talks about making your own point and values in life and Sunny mourns that there seems little point in a dog becoming a were-human. Ariane tries to suggest that we have a point as Gaia's chosen and is largely ignored. Carlie suggests that if shes not garou shes just an angry woman from an angry violent family, but there are things she can do to make life better. Lydia insists that its not making enough difference and Carlie talks of all the people we've saved fighting demons and wyrm creatures but Lydia says she could save as many at work, Carlie tries to reassure her that our work has knock on effects that goes out to peoples families and connections (although remarks that if her dad died she'd go out and party). Lydia talks about a mission to personally save all 7 billion people and Carlie suggest she can still try. Lydia points out her family, church, and now work are all gone away and Carlie says her family, degree, career, and whole direction in life are gone too, but when you find out you're wrong you can find out what matters to you, like happy families mattered to her mother and she's looking for her own now and what matters to her. Lydia bemoans the lack of purpose as she's always known exactly what shes doing next and Holly asks if this is what she should be doing or what she personally wants to do. She claims its what she wants to do (but she did turn down that offer of marriage) and when pressed if she still wants she just says theres no point as her family won't ever accept her. Ariane worries for her own family and talks of her parents continuing to take on big challenges as they get older and eventually being killed by something. Carlie asks Lydia if the Children of Gaia had any useful ideas and Lydia says they mostly talked about looking after people to which everyone replies that she and us have kept a lot of people alive. Ariane points out that the Wyrm is also coming for this place, not just earth and not just humans its a wider thing, although Lydia asserts its not for anything as everything will die. Carlie ends with saying that until then we can keep people safe and fuck up the wyrm because all her instincts tell her it must be exterminated, reminds Lydia her questions are not new, says she can inherit and answer or try a bunch of things until she finds one. Sunny hears in the conversation that she'll live many dog lifespans and finds the idea horrifying and is almost glad she doesn't know many dogs that closely as a family.

Carlie vents the engine, we contemplatively watch an amazing sunset, its a moment of peace and calm. Lydia stays up on the night shift and Sunny stays up late with her being petted, Ariane stays up a little in her hammock counting the stars, Holly can hear a splishing noise from below the ship and watches fish jumping from clouds up alongside the ship then back on deck - they smell physical and fishy to Sunny.

Just as the sun's coming up an airship is spotted on the horizon by Lydia. Its not getting closer, just running parallel, she notes a description including that its flying Imperial Cloud Navy colours. Ariane is put on signal duty and sends flags up on a rope telling them we're coming from Port Royale and going to Port Jackson.

The islands thin, the captain looks nervous and comes to tell us that we're coming up to the Central Gulf, we won't see any islands because of the mist (although there may be some there) and if we keep our bearings its 2 days and 2 nights and we'll see the Lantern Islands on our second night and use it to get out, those are lighthouses that blink every minute. The weather inside the Gulf will be rough and windy, advising Sunny to premake the food to avoid dangerous cooking and eating while we work, and Carlie to keep the boiler higher, says the crossing is risky but cuts around a month off our trip.

We pass a lighthouse on our way in, then the wind starts to whip up almost waves of cold and damp mist, the captain takes the boat up a little which helps at first but then the mist gets there too, we can just about see the lighthouse behind us and lose the stars above.

As we travel Holly sees a lamp with a yellowish glow that's flickering, possibly a signal lamp doing ---...---, works out its SOS and points Carlie to it, she wakes McCallen and then everyone else. We draw carefully closer, see a blueish glow off to the right which looks like an engine fire of Cerulean Ore and McCallen wonders why they haven't vented the excess to stop fire. No ones visible on board, Holly preps for peril, Ariane signals and whistles. They're flying a very similar flag to the Imperial Navy but we notice its sort of a bad copy...

Around 10 people then pop up with hooks, ropes, and swords, hoisting a black flag. Carlie shouts intimidatingly at them, then Ariane gives a speech basically telling them if they come here they will die (persuasion [P:7]) they get a little cowed from all this but their captain is having none of this and with a mighty leap (that's probably too far for a regular person) jumps across to the Two Drams dramatically introducing herself as the dread captain Sylvia of the Gulf!

A fight ensues! Highlights include: Sunny turning lupus and trying to hold onto the dread captains arm! Carlie stabbing her but feeling its almost deflected by the wind, Ariane punching at her, and Holly grabbing up one of the grappling hooks before glaring at the other pirates to make them keep back and they start to move the ship away in fear. She dislodges Sunny with a feeling like winds hitting her and punches Carlie stronger than human, some people start to shift up to Glabro, Lydia almost gets hit off the ship but is grabbed by Carlie, Sunny goes back in, Ariane pops her arm blade and attempts to disarm the captain but is parried. Holly hits her with the gift of the spinneret but she's quite human (or not spirity according to the rules of the shard realm) and she just rips them off and kicks Ariane to the back of the ship with her wind assisted blows. Lydia attempts to scent her true form and notes that the wind/storm around her is a part of her. Sunny gets her down to her knee, Carlie stabs her with the black blade this time, cutting through her wind armour, Ariane gets a bit of a stab in. Holly attempts to restrain her with the rope and hook but throws it and the wind takes it almost dragging her off the side towards her doom - and is saved by Lydia at the last minute. Sunny and Carlie keep wrestling and stabbing her and Ariane disarms her, asking if she yields - she says "Never imperial scum!" and shakes herself free, leaping for her ship ... except its moved and she falls and falls screaming for a very long time in the mist.

McCallen has eyes like saucers and says that that was the greatest thing he's witnessed since he last had a bottle of 30 year old and since no one stops her Ariane launches into the tale of Gaia and how we are her protectors.

2023-04-24

(We learn that they don't like killing weapons here, preferring to detain/deter pirates by other means, although the Imperial Navy are skilled martial artists. Also everyone in this culture has an "Inner Talent" they discover as they grow up, the Emperor can tell what someones talent is. Our Garou nature is seen as an "inner beast", Sylvia of the Gulf had an "inner wind" and Captain McCullen has an "inner navigation" sense. We talk of novels and cooking. On our second day in the Gulf we ride through a ferocious lightning storm, with Holly and Lydia succumbing to hypothermia and Ariane invoking her ancestors to steer, while the captain navigated, Sunny looked after everyone, and Carlie kept the engines running and eventually shot us through once we were at the eye to the other side, where we started to emerge from the Central Gulf)

At The Central Gulf where Ariane is telling the tales of the Garou history in short form. The captain refers to our nature as our "Inner Beast", then notices the sword on the floor and insists we must get it off the ship, Ariane picks it up, weighs it in her hand to get a feel for it, then chucks it into the gulf. Lydia asks him why and he tells us that weapons on a ship is a sin against all that is right and good, and asks why we should carry tools to kill - as tools should be there to create, do art, be useful, etc. Lydia asks about how they stop people boarding ships and Captain McCallen just tells us he'd have nodded and paid the pirates dues then told the Imperial Navy, who don't carry weapons but use their "inner skills" as well as martial arts training to disarm people, they aren't weapons but peace keepers and would investigate and stop the people behind the piracy. Sunny says she could get used to this. McCallen then confirms that sometimes "accidents happen" but that life here in the clouds is sacrosanct so every accident is investigated and fresh processes are put in place to stop them happening again. He tells us he, and her crew, will mourn the loss of Sylvia of the Gulf and her distinctiveness.

Lydia checks she was human and he tells her he was as human as her or him, but she had in inner wind the same way we have inner beasts and he has inner navigation, he knows the winds and courses to take. This is a normal part of life here, one of the rites of passage is to discover what inner skill manifests as you age, if its subtle it can take time. Holly tells him our gift is subtle so best kept to us because that gives us the element of surprise. He says its our tale to tell, but that telling that he met people like us is his tale to tell, so he'll tell it but not name us. Ariane suggests keeping some of the secrets to make more stories come to life later. Lydia talks about nearly getting executed when she realised her inner power and McCallen asks why her Emperor didn't bless her abilities, she tells him its different where we come from and he reveals that those who have the ability to tell someone elses ability are the ones who become emperor here.

We get the boat back on track, he goes to bed, we make tea and talk of how this place may lack delirium, we eat Sunny's homemade Jammy Dodgers and watch the stars a little until the mist of the gulf rolls back in, the adrenaline wears off and we return to our bunks. At Dawn there is a little more light to the mist, the wind comes to rock and vibrate the boat, Holly is on watch with Sunny sleeping at her feet, she feels a little sea sick from the motion, the captain awakes, nibbles a biscuit and tells us the east wind will hit worse and we'll have a rough night. Lydia breaks out the travel meds for people and Sunny makes ginger tea and biscuits to help. Carlie dumps out the excess Cerulean gas from the engines (there won't be time later) and the blue glow in the air behind us shows the pace - we're moving fast in the wind. Ariane re-reads her shifter romance and starts making additions in the margins to help fix the plot, Holly meanwhile stays in her hammock which helps reduce the motion sickness, but notes from down in the hold the whole boat is groaning, swaying, and creaking. Carlie and Ariane spend some time bitching about airship shifter romances (Ariane insists the mist and air humidity would wreck most lighter dresses, although concedes that would lead to more heroines dressed as pirates faster, and heroines dressed as pirates does help the romance along) until Sunny convinces Ariane to just write her own. Sunny and Lydia talk about jammy dodgers and if they're better with real jam vs. sugar paste, make a plan to make some with raspberry and whipped cream with Lydia volunteering to test Sunny's recipes.

It reaches sunset, Ariane, Holly, and Sunny are on deck. There's a weird yellowy glow off to one side and everything feels unsettled, like something is wrong in the air and it gets brighter and flickers more as the night goes on with the wind picking up. Ariane wonders if its a volcano island at the centre of the gulf but it turns out its lightning between layers of cloud that is sometimes shooting upwards, sometimes downwards, like two layers of storm interacting. She wakes the captain who tells her we're going through it, then he sends her to wake Carlie and prepare the engines for the storm. The Captain warns us to stow all metal and has Carlie run a copper wire from the engine systems dragging out the back of the ship as a lightning rod. The wind picks up, there's less mist now, just vertical water sheets and small sparks of static trying to ground on everything. Lydia starts to get her sea legs, others aren't feeling so steady but no ones wiped out yet. The captain starts to steer us through the storm...

There are glowing points before us a few seconds before the lightening strikes so the captain is sat at the front using his eyes and navigation ability to dodge getting hit and shouting directions back to Holly at the back of the ship steering, this works until Holly starts to get cold, wet, and shivery. Lydia layers a wool blanket on her and feeds her a hot drink but realises its the start of hypothermia, has Holly teach her to steer when sends her below to her bunk. Lydia's steering is however not so good, steers the wrong way at one point and gets us hit by lightning (which actually makes her swear making this probably the first time we've seen her say "oh fuck"), which earths itself down through the lightning rod drag cable making Carlie have to jump out of the way at the last minute. Ariane invokes her ancestors finding one of them was a ships captain, gets Lydia off the wheel as she also starts to shiver with hypothermia and takes over steering, Lydia hugs Holly for warmth and Ariane glabro's up for strength.

Around 30 minutes later we see a column of pure blackness, the Captain directs us away from it, it tries to drag us in but Ariane wrestles it around and gets us clear, this brings us through to the eye of the storm, getting us a short break. Ariane puts on more layers of fresh clothing and dries off, checks with Sunny and Lydia. The Captain talks to Carlie about his plan that once we reach the other edge of the eye she should dump the fuel pressure out and basically try and shoot us through the other side of the storm in a straight line. Sunny makes food and hands out teas for everyone and checks in to make sure people are okay.

Then we reach the other side of the eye, the captain uses his abilities to line us up, then shouts to Carlie, who kicks the engine power causing a small leak as it goes (her hand is now warm and glowy, I'm sure its fine) and all the metal on the ship warms from static as we rocket through the lightening storm and out the other side and once we're clear of it we can see a regular pulsing yellow glow of the Lantern Islands on the other side of the gulf!

Everyone is wrecked, Ariane is semi-hysterically building a damp alter to offer food and drink to her ancestor until Lydia takes her below and shoves her in a bunk. There is dawn, the mist finally starts the break as we emerge from the Central Gulf and see the Great Eastern Pyramid Islands before us, a collection of islands each capped by a pyramid, and floating right at the top one with a tall pointed needle.

During this Holly wonders if you can make up stories here, but realises she's not seen anyone lie at all, they make embellishments to stories but seem to just not make up random facts to put in.

2023-05-01

(The Two Drams docks at Port Jackson where Sunny and Ariane get more supplies and tell the Sheriff of Sylvia of the Gulf's tragic death and hear Morton is probably on his way here and can fly somehow also that mind eating monsters come out of the Pyramids sometimes, Lydia and Holly shop for hats and experiment with lying in stories and get tricorns. Carlie, Jules, and Liz chill out in The Stokers Blues and tell stories, informing the locals of Sylvia's death and causing and impromptu wake while Carlie gets a lot of respect for flying literally through a thunderstorm. The Pack reunites and has a catch up. The next day Lydia starts to train on the Engines and we're formed into an armed posse by the Sheriff to hunt down Morton and dispense "The Emperors Justice", although the locals want to bring him into the Emperor for that)

Jules has spent much of our adventure on watch in the Crows Nest as well as helping in the rigging, but also sketching up there and has some excellent starts to pieces of the place. She checks in with Liz about Spire and finds that she has no information about the place, and Yangshi also doesn't know, or won't say anything (but also was picked up in the Penumbra so probably hasn't been out this far)

Captain McCallen pulls us alongside Port Jackson to dock, we're there to drop off the mail, resupply, refuel, and rest up before we press onto Spire Island in a couple of days.

Port Jackson is the first fortification we've seen, it has old, slightly dilapidated high stone walls that look a little patchy and has grown outside those inner walls quite a way and the ports and docks are on the edge of the island. There's a lot of bridges running off North and South to other islands, nothing going West into the Pyramid Isles. Once we dock the place feels very Frontier Town, almost like a Western crossed with some kind of Medieval thing, mostly wooden buildings, everything a little shabby and dusty, people are busy and bustling, the Imperial flag flies over it.

Jules and Carlie head to The Stokers Blues, a local watering hole featuring music, fun, drink, cards, and a lot of slightly glowing people.

Sunny and Ariane put in the requisition form for supplies and Ariane talks about our quest to the Great Eastern Pyramid Islands and how we rode through the storm of the Central Gulf and faced pirates, this seems to buy Sunny more supplies and we get a few strawberries, some local cardamom spiced flatbread that goes well with rice. We agree with the Harbour Master to come back this way if possible and tell him what we find at the Spire and directs us to the local sheriff to talk about our run in with the pirates.

Lydia mostly sits quietly in a corner unsure what to chat to people about if not Jesus, Holly plans to head off the ship to stretch her legs and chats to Lydia about the stories thing, is it all stories, certain kinds, can they be lies? She decides to go get some food and stuff to test this theory out. They head to The Greatest Hat Shop This Side of the Central Gulf looking for something to keep her head warm in future storms, finds its mostly stetsons, sun hats, bowlers, top hats, etc. Holly tells of adventures featuring 2 people who are split off from their group to destroy a piece of magical jewellery (riffing off LOTR) at the direction of their "teacher" but says she cannot show the item because it may attract the horrible shadow creatures from outside the Empire who are hunting it (when challenged because there's no theft here). The shop owner feels this isn't really believable and at first compares it to the tales that children would tell but over time as Holly persists she gets drawn into the idea of saving the Empire from foreign shadows and because its an adventure gets them dashing tricorn hats (a blue feather for Holly and a red one for Lydia) and promises to keep the story secret and safe.

She leaves giggling and feels that this kind of worked, kind of didn't, the people here seem to have some kind of innate sense about bullshit and challenge it when it comes up.

Meanwhile at the Sheriff's office, Sunny and Ariane meet Sheriff Hokar who has a 6 pointed star and tan uniform, looks busy, there's also a deputy at the back. Ariane tells him of the story of Sylvia of the Gulf and how we fought her and she jumped to her death, at this news he and his deputy are broken up, he draws a line through her face on the wanted poster and is sad he won't bring her in (and then deal with her inevitable escape!) and tells us she provided many a tale for the locals, says she would never reform because she had the ambition to be the greatest pirate in the whole of the Empire and had a competition going with Redbeard and her loss will cause sorrow in the Pirate League, she had skill with her blade and never killed anyone in her life. Sunny gets it, Ariane is a little confused about a tale in which neerdowells being brought to justice doesn't signal a happy ending.

The Sheriff and his Deputy pass on a warning of an outsider to the Empire (Morton) who has "Inner Wings" and has been making for Spire leaving a trail of destruction , was last seen in Hunshy a week before (where illness has also been reported), he's not made it here yet but will be on route. Tells us the Imperial Navy is so strongly stationed here because weird beings come out of the Islands periodically, and sometimes take over airships and the people on them, and adventurers go out there sometimes looking for treasures from "the time of the Cataclysm". He describes the creatures as not men, shambling, and not serving a god, they can eat a whole island and essentially eat the minds of those they encounter robbing them of their stories and names eventually. "There are tales worth telling, and those you don't want to be in".

Meanwhile at The Stokers Blues people are telling tales for booze and food, and tell the tales of the Dread Pirate Sylvia, which changes the mood of the bar from party to wake as everyone starts to tell their favourite tales of this local legend, complimenting her as a polite hostage taker who paid in tales and supplies, one person even has a "You were a good victim" card from her. Jules reskins some of the tales of the Pack and talks of a band of young heroes who talk to spirits, she also notices the innate sense of bullshit they have here and keeps having to bring the stories back towards truth.

Carlie is having a good time in the "Blue Corner" chatting to the other stokers, they have tales of overpressurised valves and engine faults, she gets a fine dinner by telling the tale of how she rode through the middle of a lightning storm crossing the Central Gulf (most of them have never touched the emergency copper cables on their boats) and engages with the shop talk about where you put valves by the interchange.

The Pack reunites at the bar, Ariane briefs people about Pirate stories and how the world doesn't quite make sense to her, the Pack ends up bickering about if this place has chickens (Holly, Jules, and Carlie have never really encountered chickens but both Ariane and Lydia grew up around them and talk about them flying and resting and how you could keep them on the islands or airships). Lydia offers to check out Carlie's minor burn marks from the engine but shes feeling fine, and also it should be noted rocking tank tops.

We make plans to cross train Lydia into running the engine as a backup to Carlie (and tell tales of Jules breaking a noted good toaster). We set a policy of not telling murder stories and try and stick to those we display cunning and keep our shape shifting a little quiet.

The next morning! Lydia and Carlie head to the Two Drams early and onboard a couple of barrels of Cerulean Ore gas, piping it into the fuel tanks. The rest of the pack awake to a hue and cry! The Sheriff is calling to all adventurers because Morton has been spotted a few hours south coming up the chain of islands (presumably they have been signalling by flag, beacon, or mirror, its never made clear) the plan is to bring him to the Emperor himself to face "The Emperors Justice", which is the ending of his story at the Emperors own hand (something very rarely done, like not for a couple of generations), however there will be no investigation if he dies during the apprehension. Lydia tells the others that this means we're just going to kill him before he can spread more disease.

Jules goes to tell Captain McCallen who says this would be quite a tale to tell, so the whole Pack forms up to join the posse, which turns out to be the Sheriff, his Deputy, and one guy. We're sworn in and deputised to uphold the Emperors Peace, deal justly, gather true tales, and render timely reports to the Sheriff, and when necessary take on the burden of Imperial justice. Lydia mutters about how it seems she can lie now, the Sheriff overhears and she explains this is the first time she's been able to do it, he's taking this very seriously and asks her is she is an antagonist but she doesn't really get what he's implying.

The Sheriff then gets out two rather fine six shooters and loads them up with Cerulean ore tipped bullets, offers the second around after he takes one and Holly tries to talk up her ability to handle it but he warns her the bullets will cut through airships and manifolds and only those with the right certifications can use them, so doesn't hand it over because she lacks the paperwork.

The Posse gears up and heads out over the bridges towards Look Out Island, where we're meeting an Imperial Cutter which has a few people a long arm, and the hunt is on!

2023-05-08

(The Pack fights with Morton, defeating him and some crow spirits (?) at the cost of an Imperial Cutter and 6/8 of its crew. Sunny picks up a fur-scar from the fight, we get photographed with the body then arrange for it to be burnt and pushed over the edge. Captain McCallen flies us to the highest point of the Pyramid Isles where we find an abandoned camp and a London A-Z just before Liz is due to enter into Spire)

The Pack is at Lookout Island, we meet an Imperial Cutter which includes one person with a long arm and 2 cerulean pistols. Morton is spotted coming in and the tales are true, he has large night black wings that look bird or corvid like, and a strong aura of evil, people brace for the start of combat, the Captain of the Cutter lines up his shot and misses - the rifle produces almost a blue beam like shot. Holly looks at him with her spirit vision and sees the spirit he has made a deal with overlaid over him, Lydia breaths in scent of the true form and determines the wings are biological rather than mechanical.

He comes swooping in, casting 3 strange black feathered objects towards the Pack, as they come towards the ground they unfurl their wings into sort of waist high carrion crow like beings that stink of the Wyrm. Jules howls inspiration for us and pops her razor claws as we engage, Sunny and Lydia get a little battered, Sunny claims the first kill by biting one to death, Holly spinnerets one and Lydia wrings its neck, Carlie and Ariane knife the last one.

As we drop the last one the Cutter's gas envelope explodes into a fireball, the boat starts to wobble and has a crew of eight, Jules and Ariane head to the side of the Island and Ariane shouts for them to throw a rope up which she grabs, she has to get Jules help and flip to crinos but she spends much of the fight saving the 2 crew members of the Cutter who managed to get to the rope.

Sunny meanwhile howls defiantly at Morton as he lands and Carlie, Lydia, Holly, and her surround him. Sunny draws first blood tearing at his ankles, Holly is tripped before Lydia and Carlie punch and stab him hard getting a scream from him and his spirit rider at the same time. He lets out a blast of pure corrupting blackness which burns a dark fur pattern into one of Sunny's forelegs. Jules then dives into the fight with her claws, Sunny resumes bighting, Holly spinnerets him (unclear how effective it is), Lydia chucks a rock at him making him stumble into Carlie's knife and she hisses "The Guild send their regard" as he collapses to the floor - however at that point they hear him shouting "No!" and he starts to physically sprout feathers as the spirit takes over his body. Jules flips up into Crinos form and just claws the spirit into pieces, it hits the floor with its intestines falling out and collapses inward on itself, leaving a human form behind, she howls in victory as the Sheriff takes his shot (and misses) and her and Ariane work to bring their possible frenzy under control.

On the body with find 2 blood covered silver bracelets/wristbands on each arm, Jules determines they are Arcana invested objects of some kind, we take them off.

After the fight the surviving crew members are shocked they're not dead, the Sheriff is jubilant about achieving a victory over such a being. Jules and Lydia check Sunny over and find she seems like she'll recover except the fur on her leg seems a strange black colour now. We arrange to go back to town for a bath and to recover but first the Sheriff starts talking about a casket for the body and bringing it back until Ariane talks him into burning it. We wait about an hour for members of the local press to show up and they take a picture of us with the body, they take our names and brief statements, we arrange for copies of the photos and articles, then we arrange for the corpse to be burnt and the ashes pushed over the edge (ooc: pyre with cerulean flame. very incinerator. much toast)

The pack heads back to town with Sunny limping on 3 legs, Jules gives a very dramatic summary to Captain McCallen, the bar is rowdy with people listening to the Sheriffs tale, we skip it and get an early night because we're on the clock.

Liz asks what it was like fighting the druid and Jules says a little like fighting a spirit, it tried to transform, it could summon other spirits. She tells him that if you make a deal with a spirit and it overcomes you its life ending and says that if she's ever tempted that Jules should knock some sense into her, and if she is ever taken over, kill her.

The next morning Carlie and Lydia are up early with the Captain getting the boat underway, we head to the Pyramids and beyond! Rising up into the clouds, wrapped up warm against the chill and damp as we enter the Pyramid Islands. By this point the darkness of Sunny's leg fur has faded a little but still there (ooc: it may become a permanent battle scar). Carlie and Lydia are busy with the engines, and Holly has a chat to Liz asking her about what the plan is, what the challenges are, and what she needs us to do? She says that once we get her to Spire then our job is done and she'll be on her own, we can literally push her through the door and when she comes back out she'll have extra tattoos of spirit pacts (she is aiming to contact a spirit that will let her see and make deals with into the Penumbra from the physical). She tells Holly that in the worst case she'll come back possessed at which point she wants us to kill her and throw her body off the edge of the islands as the two are impossible to separate (Ariane of course disagrees but is essentially told to shush).

As we reach the highest island on the Spire there's ice on the deck, its gently snowing, and McCallen says he'll come back every few days for a month before calling it quits on us. We step off onto the island, there is a mountainous pyramid before us with an obvious entrance, before it is the tattered remains of a camp whipped around by the wind, in which there is the remains of a book with most of its pages torn out, a London A-Z... (!)

2023-05-22

The Pack is at the tattered camp in the Pyramid Islands before the cave like hole into Spire. Lydia gets Sunny to sniff the A-Z, it smells mostly of damp but shares some of the scent of The Styles Map which also has some of Peter's family scent. Its copyright is in the 90s, we talk a little about the history of Harold Styles (he was part of the post war pack, Holly knows from family stories he "went down at sea" sometime around 2000ish but doesn't know where or what boat). She checks the A-Z and finds pencil notes in the margin, changes to the map and diary expanding the entries, we carefully preserve it in a sterile ziplock. We talk about going in and essentially everyone wants to go in.

Inside the Spire we all see exactly what we expect, surrounded by a strange spacial disturbance, like being inside a gem, but all alone with a void behind us of the exit. When we experience memories its almost like watching a film of them happening.

Holly: Sees a weird glass infinitely tall almost modern/fantastical building, influenced by seeing the mythics of London at work, like a fantastical shard. A glass spider emerges and looks quizzically at her, and she relieves a memory: of the first Umbral quest where we lost some memories/emotions and she lost her regret for the death of the Unknown USMC Mercenary, followed by her worst memory of the pack: the night where Lydia burnt the magic book, but also all the arguing and shouting we've done blended together. The spirit holds out two spheres of the memories and she knows she must lose one to enter, she discovers she can't let go of what she's been through for good or ill, but can't care for the murders that happened as part of that so gives up that memory.

Sunny: Sees an angled tower and meets an Obsidian black spider, her memories are the most important thing she's done as a pack: For her the hunting grounds and visiting Father Wolf, and her worst moments are all the disagreements and arguments, the book burning, and realising that Jules magical experiments in the basement had killed people. She realises her memories are who and what she is, and she can't give them up, decides this is a bad deal and exits the Spire, finding herself back at camp.

Ariane: An infinitely tall wizard tower/castle thing that is similar to the one at her parents estate. She meets a lightning blue magical spirit, her memories are of the most important thing she's done as a garou: The first successful hunt the pack did at the Primrose-Morton Estate when we hunted and caught a deer together working as a group. The worst for her being the death of the Unknown USMC Mercenary who she killed in a smokey fight and it was not glorious. She refuses the deal because for her these two stories are far more important and core than answering the mystery of what's inside Spire, exits and finds herself back at the camp.

Carlie: Sees essentially Bruegel's Babel but more slender. An ashy/smokey spirit gives her her most important memory of being in the pack: taking down Ben Valis the Director's first mythic incarnation. Her worst memory is: seeing the rest of the pack succeed at things where she has failed like University and realising that she can't just blame being angry and garou. When offered the choice she tells the spirit: "I've just listened to someone beg me to kill them if a spirit gets inside them, now Spire seems to be trying to do that. If this is a test move out of the way, if not get to fuck, I'm not getting geased again" and leaves.

Lydia: Its a very churchy tower, her home church, and the spirit is her old vicar from childhood with a gentle if vacant smile. Her memory is of being the most part of the pack: which was getting out of prison and realising everyone saved her life. The first moment since becoming a werewolf was getting kicked out by her family. When offered the choice she asks the spirit why its asking, it just replies "The price" she asks about the benefit and it repeats itself. She goes for it viciously and sees 2 marbles rolling away as she punches it and the world goes black. She wakes up in the camp.

Jules: At a white stone tower, blue topped, linked to the The Tower. A blood red spider gives her a gaze and asks her "What does the Pack mean to you?" she tells it it means everything, the sisters she never grew up with. Her worst memory is: When she thought the whole thing would fall apart and she would have failed as Alpha to hold the pack together. The best memory is when shes fighting and its very clear that she's in the right and attacking the bad guys, its freeing, specifically taking down Ben Valis. She is offered 3 choices: her two memories of her connection to the pack. She says she can't give up anything because her recall of things is important, the spirit talks of "The Price" and she asks if there is another way to pay, it tells her these are her options and when she asks why it just repeats "The Price" at her. As she's about to turn and leave she feels something underfoot go crunch and she relieves Lydia's memory of being rejected by her family powerfully.

Meanwhile: Holly and Lydia are in a hollowed out and infinitely tall spire, there are people and spirits going in and out, a gentle background of noise and motion, they see Liz smile at them then turn and move and blur into the crowd. Lydia fills Holly in on punching the spirit and embracing her werewolf side, Holly doesn't know what she lost - she gathers from Lydia it was a memory but shes unsure what it was and doesn't know where the others are. Lydia suggests they should go back out then the whole pack should storm the Spire by force but Holly talks her out of it and says they may be prepared and says they should instead quickly find and protect Liz.

She phases back out of the crowd and shows them one tattoo and tells them how easy it is to make deals here, she takes their hands and blurs them through to a beautiful meadow which feels like a perfect summer day, introduces them to a shining spirit who taught her how to talk to everyone and they feel very good there, Holly waves hello awkwardly and the spirit offers her a drink, which she declines. They talk about maybe going and the spirit seems to read Holly's mind and offers her a nice cream tea, she tells Lydia about this who suggests punching the spirit, Holly suggests getting Liz first as she may have been baited by this thing. There is a blur/move and they find themselves phasing through receptions, icebergs, and a whole jumble of places. When they find Liz she has 2 more tattoos (for a total of 3) and Lydia tells her that things here are able to read your mind and offer things, she tries to say its good because its easy to find cool things here and Holly talks her into finding Jules to talk about the cool things shes found. Liz tries to say she hasn't given anything up here but Holly reminds her that she said if she gave away too much she wanted us to kill her and she doesn't want to have to do that and her death would make Jules sad, the exit appears before them and Holly just shoves Liz through first and follows up. As they leave they get the choice of losing all their memories of what they've experienced or just their ability to express them and both chose the second option.

Meanwhile: Sunny, Ariane, Carlie, and Jules come back out the cave, their memories fading like a dream. The Two Drams is gone, they setup camp and talk of towers, prices, and the sky. The sun begins to set (Ariane loves it, Carlie wants to go home), and Ariane talks people into setting a watch because monsters exist here. Jules goes first. From this highest island we can see vastly into the distance, further than possible on earth, and there are twinkling lights of Port Jackson, and a big glow of another settlement in the distance, many small fires, even stars, some passing airship engines. However the other way from all this life is nothing and darkness, except for some weird green flames at one of the pyramid islands, dancing and illuminating its pyramid. The next day Jules paces and sketches, Ariane and Carlie plot a book, Sunny sniffs around the dusty cold island. That night there are 3 green flames on different islands, one seems to approach. On the next day we see the island itself has drawn closer. There is talk of the adventure of this place from Ariane but both Jules and Carlie are just sick of it. Some of us spend time curled up as dogs around the fire in a blanket nest to keep warm. That third night the glows get closer, an object detaches from the island with 2 small glows on it, a boat is coming closer with a robed man aboard with 2 red baleful eyes. The boat floats to dock at our island, Carlie calls out to warm him off but he jumps up onto the island talking of "Thoughts..." and "Energy..." so we kick off.

It's a robed figured wrapped in mummy style bandages, inside it is just sand and dust more than anything else, we fruitlessly attack it and it strikes Jules (ooc: sucks 1 gnosis and causes 1 aggravated damage). Sunny tries to tear off a bandage and goes running, wrapping it around the Spire, Ariane crinos punches it with claws and does nothing on a big hit, Carlie tries both her knives for no effect. Jules howls to cause it to fear us and it cowers - just as Holly, Lydia, and Liz pop out of the tunnel. Ariane and Lydia get flaming sticks from the fire and advance on it, setting it on fire, as soon as the flame touches it the whole thing is consumed, flame even running up the apparently infinite bandage that Sunny has been spinning out and it crumbles to dust and blows away off the edge.

2023-05-29

Everyone checks in with each other post Spire and mummy fight. Liz is happy with their pacts, Lydia checks her over and asks Sunny to sniff her just in case - it's all clear!

Jules asks what Spire was like. Holly and Lydia realise that they cannot describe their experience of the realm, and Liz gets frustrated that people wouldn't accept that it was "indescribable".

The Two Drams shows up, and the pack make their way back to Port Jackson. On the way Carlie told the story about the pack fighting the mummy - Captain McAlister agrees that fire is the way to kill undead beings like them (although he didn't expect to see any up near the pyramid that leads to Spire).

We then journey back to Port Royal on the Two Drams (McAlister agrees to take us back there but no further) - over the two week journey, there are no big adventures or dangers.

Over the journey to Port Royal, Liz has been getting more distant with Jules, and is avoiding talking about it - as if she's annoyed she's angry about something. Jules doesn't pick up on it though.

From Port Royal, we make our way to the island that leads to Tranquillity - Jules first, Carlie last. Everyone's resolve going through into Tranquillity is fine.

On Tranquillity's beach, there is someone in an old-school orange parka jacket sat on the shore. Holly makes a beeline for Apollo with Liz, while Sunny goes to sniff the stranger on the beach (and Jules, Lydia and Carlie go with her).

Sunny's nose tells her that he smells human, though he doesn't notice her. She nearly speaks to the stranger, but manages to catch herself. The stranger smiles and gives her a pet, while Sunny tries to encourage him to the gate.

Carlie instead grabs him and drags him towards the gate, to which the stranger yelps in surprise and then immediately passes out. She picks up on an extremely tense feeling in the air, and everyone gets herded out to Apollo by Jules. Everyone gets a bit of umbral sickness from the quick travelling, but it eventually passes for everyone.

The stranger wakes up shortly after the pack passes through into Apollo. He complains that he keeps going to Tranquillity when he "gets maudlin". He thinks it's March 1997 - Carlie gleefully explains that it's 2020. He introduces himself as Stewie and is clearly a werewolf from near Manchester (who had a bit of a rough day back in '97 and decided while drunk to go to Tranquillity for some peace).

We have a bit of an argument about where we should go to get out of Apollo (including a bit of semantics about landing sites and places in the real-real).

Stewie reveals that he's "umbra-born": his mother (Garou) gave birth to him on an adventure in the Umbra with his father (Mage), which apparently guarantees that the child will be a werewolf.

Heading through Apollo into the Umbra of London, Sunny and Stewie pass out from umbral sickness. The pack makes plans to let Stewie crash with us for a bit while we try to make contact with his past life in Manchester - Carlie asks us to make sure he doesn't know she offered any care for this guy.

The pack makes their way back to the pack house - no nasty surprises, but a lot of junk mail and council letters. The date is 12th July 2021. Ariane goes to bed because she's knackered from the journey. Everyone agrees to get an order of Lee Ho Fuk's chow main.

Carlie texts Diamond Annie to let her know we're back in town and if she's knows anyone in Manchester (to ask around about Stewie). D.A. offers to put his photo around in Manchester.

Holly gets in touch with Sanjeev to let him know she's back and when the next Bone Gnawer night is so she can get some curry and tell some stories.

The pack checks the news - and realises they all need to get their first COVID vaccine because it's just about the time that they as twentysomethings would be getting called for it.

Lydia looks for any post from her family and finds a letter from Watford in the pile of post - he's been keeping an eye on her adoptive parents, and wants her to get in touch when she's back. Lydia goes up to her room and some banging noises can be heard.

Jules sends out a few texts to folks, including her patron.

Holly calls her parents to let them know she's fine - the conversation goes on for about an hour and a half as she catches up with them.

Jules gets a text from Steven Thompson that "we need to talk soon". When he calls shortly afterwards, he reveals that he's a Glass Walker and knows that the pack was on business for the Grandees.

He also reveals that while we were away Sir Robert Laffrey died a couple of weeks ago (early July 2021) and that the Sheriff of London (the vampire prick) is the prime suspect in his murder; in addition, Thompson is the new werewolf grandee. He asks Jules to let Ariane know to come to the Tower of London the next day (for Deputy Sheriff business), which Jules gets moved to a couple of days later.

When she catches up with the conversation, Holly reveals that she knew about Steven Thompson as a semi-regular at The Guild (the place) - seemed to be on good terms with Sir Robert. Bit of an investment banker asshole, but polite about it.

On the way back from seeing Bell (who is fine and dandy), Jules and Holly see a weird billboard in our territory similar looking to other religious that is displaying the text: "Come Worship His Eminence Pope Hope III" - the pope of the Deep Umbral Realm we visited a while back. The billboard has a QR code that links to a website for The Eternal Church - "a new form of Catholicism", containing many images of only African-descended people.

Diamond Annie gets back to Carlie the next afternoon to let her know that she's found Stewie's pack (or what's left of it). They'll pick him up from Manchester Oxford Road - Carlie plans to drive him to the local rail station, Sunny plans to travel with him to Oxford Road.