Season Ten

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

2023-06-05

TL;DR Steven Thompson is the new Garou Grandee who has replaced Sir Robert Laffrey on account of the latter suffering a slight case of death, probably at the hands of John Northbridge current Sheriff of London. Also Pope Hope III has posters up recruiting around town.

So at The Pack House Carlie and Sunny are planning on running Stewie up the M6 to get him back to his pack. Ariane is surfacing from her time with Umbral Travelling Sickness, has breakfast and chats with Lydia and Holly to get caught up on everything: although when asked to guess who has murdered Sir Robert she guesses at Grandmother or The Angel Islington before getting to Northbridge. Is told it happened a couple of weeks back and that Steven Thompson is now in charge, hears about Stewie who is on our sofa and claims it is still 1997 and we're having him on, he also produces a can of stella from inside his jacket while we answer questions about Labour, Blair, Brown, Johnson, Trump, and Oasis.

Ariane proceeds to go upstairs and scream into a pillow about everything then carefully re-reads her magical contract to try and work out if she has any powers of her own, finding that she does not it all derives from the Sheriff, she gets access to Thompsons phone number and gives him a call to explain where she's been and arranges an appointment for 10, he indicates he knows my mother as well.

At the Tower of London: Lydia, Jules, Holly, and Ariane arrive, greet Three dressed as human, its now June, its warm. We meet Steven Thompson dressed in an Italian suit sat in Robert's chair in his study. Also present are River Fleet and the mythic Sam Aston teleports in as well with popcorn because she's watching a movie. Thompson asks for a summary of the Umbra mission and we tell him that Morton is dead and we show him the picture as proof. He reveals he spent a week in Rising Stones when he was younger, we also let him know we got Sun Wang-Li / Liz to Spire.

We talk of the death, he tells us he thinks a definite murder. No police involvement, died attacked by known entities at behest of the sheriff. A cover up is going on, the body is on ice and will go to the Themes. He has no surviving family. They have one of the agents under wraps at Paddington Green, a Toreador called Samantha Wallingford who was caught in the act and refuses to speak. Her Coterie operates out of a wine bar called "The Night" in the City of London. We get a copy of The Sheriffs report and its thin, Thompson says that he, Fleet, and Aston believe it to be a very thin cover up and have evidence of the Sheriffs involvement. The short version is a cotorie of Vampires went to a meeting in the British Museum with him (possibly about Laffrey buying the building that The Night occupies) then to drinks in a pub nearby, after drinks they jumped him, he killed 3, Samantha Wallingford is under arrest, the last attacker is unknown. It should be noted that John Northbridge is Samantha's childe. Just before the attack someone unknown arranged for a quarter million pounds to be transferred to the Cotorie, it was routed from or at least via the People's Republic of China and we know that Laffrey and The Lady of Kowloon have links to PRC.

Westbury feels this has been investigated and closed, that Sir Robert struck first and the Vampires were defending themselves, they need a majority of the Grandees to make Ariane Sheriff and give her the powers thereof. The Pack talks it over with the Grandees there and no one feels like the Vampires here had a good reason to murder Sir Robert over this, it feels pointless considering the stakes and not enough money. Professor Rodriguez and The Angel Islington wouldn't like us just murdering people to solve this. Thompson and Old Crone Fleet keep pushing for his and want us to push the Lady of Kowloon (via Holly) and Rodriguez (via Sunny) to flip enough people to think this is a cover up. Crone Fleet tells Holly she wants us to get to the bottom of things rather than just supporting a Garou/Vampire fight, and says the Fae will help any way they can.

Meanwhile: Up the M6 there is a lot of football talk and catch up on the drive, Stewie reveals that his ability to produce a can of Stella at will is a gift that he learnt from a spirit that manifests in the basement of Jillies Rock Club in Manchester, she teaches it to Garou because she loves getting them intoxicated for reasons. They tell him how phones and the modern internet work and is bemused by the prevalence of satnav. They drop him off at the train station where he's met by Angie and Brian (who look like 40 year old rockers), they come running being keen as they thought he'd been murdered by vampires years ago and Carlie drops him in it that he got stuck in the deep umbra instead, and Sunny clarifies that he got stuck on the beach of Tranquillity. They invite the Manchester pack to come visit us in London but they tell us they rarely leave, in Manchester there's no arrangement like the Grandees giving peace, instead the Garou own the day and the Vampires own the night and dawn and dusk they try and murder each other.

We're told we're owed favours from them if we ever need them.

Back in London Ariane makes a howl! Its very good (ooc: 6 successes, +1 honour, +1 wisdom everyone. Also everyone gets +7 XP to spend on things and we are advised there is a [[Season Ten]], [[Season Eleven]], and [[Season Twelve]] due before the game either wraps or goes on very long haitus)

2023-06-19

(Jules and Lydia are busy, Sunny and Carlie investigate Paddington Green, get contact with Sargent Deerborn (probably of 21st Tactical Reconnaissance Regiment) and learn about Sergeant Limehouse as a possible contact in The Met. Ariane contacts Derek Watford, finds out about Sargent Limehouse and some leverage, is asked if we'll put up Athens Smith (Lydia's GNC sibling) and queries the legality, she also finds out The Sheriff of London answers to The Spirit of London. Carlie gets Ariane to start thinking about sourcing fake ID. Holly goes to speak to Sanjeev and gets the gossip catch up: Some Vampire/Garou violence is already begun, there is a clock before all out war occurs, soldiers of The Eternal Empire have been seen in the Penumbra and that Pope Hope III personally has been making TV advert appearences)

Jules goes to do ART! with some recreational substances, Lydia heads to work and they are both busy the whole session. (ooc: Players were busy)

Sunny and Carlie return from Manchester quite late and tired, in the morning the Pack has a debate about the virtues of performing an open vs. a quiet investigation of the murder and we decide that keeping it relatively low key at least is probably the best move. Carlie makes a plan to sniff out any Garou in The Met because what they know and when they found out and what they covered up will tell us a lot about who may be behind it. There are discussions around the option questions of: What was the meeting in the BM? Why go from the BM to a bar for more conversation?

There is then a long aside about The Demimonde as terminology and then another about Loup-Garou.

We do some digging and find that in times of war the Sheriff of London must carry out the orders of the majority vote of the Grandees of London by magical Geas.

Sunny and Carlie then head to Paddington Green because they suspect if there are Garou on the police, or if there are people who know who/where the garou on the police are they will probably be there. They go in Lupus to give least suspicion. Carlie heads in and attempts to bed something off the armed guard at the desk who is a little suspicious and tries to shoe her out, she makes to urinate which gets him running then she bolts into the building, she clocks the scent of weird ozone-magic and calls Sunny who follows her in.

Sunny is chased through an open plan office and then to a large secure door with an armed guard, the scent of the Wyrm comes from behind the door, the guard points his gun at her and she lies down like playing a game, he orders her to turn Homid if she's garou and she acts like she can't understand, since she's pinned between multiple cops she slips sideways into the Penumbra however here its a single cube room with 2 large grumpy spirits who keep repeating "You're not supposed to be here!" at her, she tries to explain she's looking for police wolves but they don't seem to help and they tell her to go back to the physical world as she can't leave from here, they threaten to make her leave but she rolls over and they just advance and wait around her.

Carlie meanwhile finds an open door where the air feels like its thick, some kind of magical barrier, she shoves her way through and a bunch of alarms go off. An armoued humvee arrives outside along with a cop car and more people come in, Carlie sneaks her way out and doesn't smell any werewolves amongst them. Outside she barks and runs around trying to draw them away from Sunny. Eventually a cop comes out to sit and smoke, smells human, she leaves and returns human and asks him if he knows Derek Watford, he asks if her colleague is inside, but admits to knowing Watford and doing some interesting jobs for him. Introduces himself as Sergeant Deerborn probably of 21st Tactical Reconnaissance Regiment. Carlie asks him who's doing the real job of Watford i.e. actually making day to day decisions about what to cover up or investigate and how, the guy is hesitant to talk about it but reveals that John Northbridge has vanished and isn't in touch with them, Carlie clarifies she's looking for who was cleaning up and hosing down the blood from the murder of Sir Robert Laffrey and gets a contact for a desk sargent called Sergeant Limehouse who used to work with Watford and is still there. She's told that her canine pest problem can be resolved now but next time they'll shoot first when we come in.

Carlie heads in, finds a portal there where Sunny headed through, warns Deerborn about Pope Hope III and he says he'll check it out and warn "The Colonel". Sunny then pops back into the physical and they're both broadly told to fuck off.

Meanwhile Ariane emails Watford to try and ask his advice and catch him up on the news, he calls her back and she explains all about the murder. Watford says if he wasn't retired he maaaaaaaay ask a former desk sgt he dealt with, she is given the contacts of Sergeant Limehouse and told to remind him of the time he got stuck under a ford focus as a piece of leverage/proof she's coming from Watford. She asks about the camera system and told there was no paperwork, he'd get a phone call then basically shut things down by remotely faulting the cameras involved, says that Limehouse may well do it if a Chief Superintendent or similar told him too, he would be able to do it technically. He reveals personally he's enjoying his retirement in the countryside, its beautiful, boring, and rural. There is talk of the Sheriffs contract and while the Sheriff is directed by the Grandee's his actual boss is the Spirit of London as he is a servant of the Royal Family and Crown of the UK. He finishes the call by asking Ariane if they would like to host Athens Smith (Lydia's GNC sibling) who may need to leave home, she clarifies that this person is legally a child and how that may complicate matters, she then asks if he's near/observing Lydia's family and he hangs up abruptly.

Carlie calls Ariane and asks her "Hey how do we set up false ID?" and then clarifies she's okay if its obviously seen to be false, tells her they broke into Paddington Green and got some wyrm scent that was probably Samantha Wallingford.

Holly meanwhile has been going to talk to the other packs to get gossip on the situation, starting with Sanjeev, who reveals that the general news is that Samantha Wallingford is basically in protective custody because the other Packs would have murdered her by now if she was free, says there are rumours a few Vampires have already been killed in some escalating turf wars, Diamond Annie is currently no where to be scene and hasn't made a move yet, The Guild is in disarray because both the Mythics and Garou felt Sir Robert was their leader and friend and are all angry and taking it hard. Has heard that in the Umbra various warrior spirits who look African influenced in gear (of various tech levels including and up to super science) and features have been seen popping into the local Penumbra, looking around, then vanishing away back into their own realm, they can't cross the Gauntlet into the physical yet but they are maybe probing for weak spots. She also learns that Pope Hope III had a TV spot during Coronation Street essentially making a pitch that sounded like it was between a religious revival and a black rights matter speech, which is a strange audience to pick, Holly gives Sanjeev an update on the scale of the Pope and The Eternal Religion and how bad this could be for everyone involved. She is told there is essentially a clock on the investigation because sooner or later Millwall Football Club Supporters will get the other packs together to start a war with the Vampires over this.

Holly returns, briefs the pack about the conversation in general including the TV spots, posters, etc. There is talk of can we counter it somehow and she suggests calling in our marker with the True Londoners to manipulate the media against them. There is talk of spirits and The Spirit of London and The Mother of All Parliaments are separate entities, with The Spirit of London being based out of The Tower of London and sort of representing the whole city where as The Mother of All Parliaments is more a giant Weaver spider who is sort of the the government structure/bureaucracy of the city.

2023-06-26

It's a Tuesday evening at the Pack House, finally Jules opens her door and floats downstairs, the rest of the pack carefully fill her in on what's been going on and she is very nice and chill about everything. There's a bit of a discussion about if Vampires drink werewolf blood what happens (does the Gaia-ness overwhelm them or do they absorb our powers?). Lydia arrives home very unhappy about work, kicks the wall on her way in then tells everyone shes fine, she also says she wants to flood London to kill all the humans and that she hasn't hit anyone yet, tells us an antivaxxer tried to break into her covid ward and kidnap a patient, she threatened to drop him down a lift shaft but was good about not doing it. Ariane tells her about the call from Derek Watford about Athens Smith maybe needing a place to crash and Lydia alternates between telling us how much she doesn't give a fuck and telling us all the procedural issues and safeguarding stuff that would be deployed to track them down. Ariane mostly talks the pack into making the house a little safer for a possibly visiting human (locking the basement, hiding booze and drugs, moving the trophy and weapons wall), Carlie reminds Lydia about the pattern where she sets absolute red lines and refuses to shift, Lydia then complains that she swapped eternal bliss and paradise for being fuzzy and better at punching people. Holly goes for a walk, Lydia sulks, Ariane orders everyone take out.

On Wednesday Ariane calls Desk Sergeant Limehouse and arranges a drink as friends of Watford, its going to be at The Lamp Over The Themes with a pint of Adams cider at 18:30, he knows its about the British Museum murder and tells Ariane to bring £150 for some debt Watford owes him about a car jack.

Jules explains about, then gives Ariane one of the anti-scrying rings to help the investigation, she tells us the other is with Liz and the one almost ready will go to Carlie. Ariane attempts to make funny about how no one will have made new laws in the time we've been in the Umbra and gets an "Oh sweetie" from Jules, the burn about her ability to be funny is so harsh even Carlie applauds. Jules then starts to safe the house a little.

Carlie, Lydia, Sunny, and Ariane head to The Museum Tavern which is where Sir Robert Laffrey went for drinks after the meeting, and then was attacked outside. It's a lovely sunny day and we grab a quick drink at one of the outside tables. Carlie scans the wifi with a burner phone, Ariane looks partially subtly at crime scene photos to try and piece together what happened and when. As she's doing so Carlie notices someone in a shabby suit watching her, she looks around him and with Sunny sniffing him as a distraction picks his pocket and finds out he's a journalist called Jonathan Price who works primarily for The Sun, and partially for the BBC. She listens to his dictaphone a little and he's talking about a scandal with an actress, and then talks about how he was sure he saw someone getting offed, has been investigating, there's no CCTV, the witness statements are vague, he thinks it was a gang attack but his own memories are vague and blurry, his editors then told him to drop it and apparently the whole situation has been hit with a D-Notice. She texts Ariane that she's being watched, at which point Ariane tries to draw him away, Carlie sends a small kid to give his wallet back (in exchange for a cool book on Egyptian mummified cats) and then Carlie goes to buy the book.

Price then catches up with Ariane, shows his BBC badge, says he knows the envelope she's carrying is from the Met, she pulls a no-comment cagey interaction, he tells her that a rich white guy was murdered by a gang and it should be 10 o'clock news headlines. He saw Sir Robert arguing with a woman in a black suit in the corner of the pub. Ariane trades him a burner number (one of Carlies) for the information that it concerned Hong Kong and he has more information if someone is willing to contact him as an "unnamed source". Carlie tracks down a back alley to the small square where the death happened, notices several flats and other things above Russel Street that should have had a great view, and also 3 privately operated CCTV cameras (one belonging to The Museum Tavern).

Sunny engages her nose, finds the scent of old blood and a faint lingering hint of The Wyrm.

Lydia has tea then waves her work ID and talks to the manager about his covid protections, talks about the QR codes on the tables and implies some people are putting up fakes, manages to get given one and tells him to print a fresh one (she is presumably going to try and use this and her NHS access to work out who checked into what tables on the night). She heads to the kitchen and chats to a kitchen worker who says the cops talked to people a week or so back, and tells her that someone called Jane was locking up and fucked it up somehow (but they didn't get robbed). Jane then claimed the bar was haunted and instantly quit. Lydia claims she investigates unusual happenings and will take her seriously so gets the contact information for Jane. She chats with James (current boss) and hears that he thinks there are sometimes ghosts seen in the upstairs store room late at night.

There's talk between the investigation team about recruiting Price as a resource with Carlie broadly coming down on the side of it would be better for him to not get involved and he's from The Sun and Ariane saying he could be a very useful resource if he was given enough tips to keep him eager. We head back to the Pack House.

Holly meanwhile has been going through the notes recovered from Rising Stones and remembering how much she hates written work since she left education. Think's she found details of several additional spheres and connections from the marginalia however. Also there's some notes from Harold Styles about an encounter with The Eternal Church around 2010 which is far after he was officially dead, they talked to him about David Cameron so they were definitely in contact with Earth around this time. She theorises that he chose to forget what happened in Spire and questions if he even came out the other side.

The Pack reassembles at the house and goes through the dictaphone in detail: Mostly its hints about celebs, then musing about how he doesn't want to work for the Sun but wants to become a respectable journo at the BBC, he isn't sure what he saw, a toff getting mobbed by "youths???" with some question, the woman he argued with in the bar directed it (he alludes to knowing what the argument is about but won't say), but his memories are badly messed up, he saw something, his head feels like its screaming, he saw the attack, then he's missing time and having a drink in another bar somewhere else. The Museum Tavern say they handed their CCTV footage over to The Met, he's talked to other pub people and they all had a weird story about ending up somewhere else and didn't really want to talk about it. Ariane recalls she's seen John Northbridge doing mind control so theorises this is somehow related.

2023-07-03

(Holly and Sunny go to The Guild, talk to Dan and Mr. Benson about the death of Sir Robert Laffrey and find out that The Lady of Kowloon has vanished, there is a strange Jade Statue in her old office that reeks of the Wyrm and has bored a hole through the Penumbra, they get an old Hong Kong Police report to dig through and access to Sir Robert's Laptop. Ariane and Lydia go talk to Sargent Limehouse and find out about his help covering up the footage from the murder and how the investigation has been passed around to MI5 and Royal Naval Reserve Auxiliary Intelligence, he's not heard from John Northbridge since 5am the morning after the murder and we let him think we're some sort of intelligence agents. Watford remains elusive)

Holly is off to the Guild taking Sunny. Ariane and Lydia going to visit Sargent Limehouse. Carlie and Jules are avoiding aaaaaaaalll o' this shit and doing other things.

At The Guild: They meet Suzanne on the front desk who's dressed sombre but trying to be a little chipper for Jules, everyone is acting grim and dressed for mourning, Holly senses they're a mix of sad and angry especially the Mythics. They meet Dan one of the aeromancer goon squad by the bar, he's sober and has a single whisky next to him barely touched (Holly know's he normally drinks beer so this is strange), Holly gives commiserations and tries to work out who may want to talk more. During the conversation she finds out that...

• Sir Robert Laffrey was often seen as sort of a father figure, he kept the Mythics anchored to the wider politics of London and that the Mythic Grandee Sam Aston is not personable to many Mythics often busy doing her own thing and essentially Sir Robert was doing her job networking and keeping them all together.
• The Garou in the guild think he went out fighting the Wyrm and hence had a glorious death that happens, the Mythics are taking it harder as a more targetted murder, they're also seeing that other werewolf packs are heading onto a warpath to start a war against the Vampires.
• The Lady of Kowloon has not been seen anywhere since the death, also the "predictomancers" (this seems to be a slang term) say that she's not in London, she was last seen the night before the incident here in The Guild.
• Mr. Benson is taking over the running and trying to make sense and take control of all The Guild's finances and money flows.

Holly gives Sunny the nod to indicate she's going to go see Benson, Sunny sniffs Dan and thinks he smells the same but just sad and tired, she manages to pick up a very faint Wyrm scent at the bar next to him and starts to trail it...

At Sir Robert's office, now Mr. Benson's office there are piles of paperwork and files everywhere, Holly sees that he has a file with Ariane's photograph and a biography of her in his hands as she arrives and he shuts it rapidly. He asks her if the Deputy Sheriff is planning on doing anything, he seems guarded and reticent, with possibly anger behind it) and Holly reassures him that the whole pack is looking into this but keeping it quiet, he says everyone's at the Guild is unsure if this is normal (and as he speaks the desk light flickers) and Holly reassures him there isn't normally a deputy the post has been created (as part of a power play between Grandees), she mentions the Lady of Kowloon and all the lights flicker in the room and the shadows seem to grow, Mr. Benson asks if this is off the record and Holly confirms that the record is not good and yes it is, Mr. Benson tells her that the 2 Grandees (Laffrey and The Lady of Kowloon) kept a lot of information to themselves and isolated The Guild somewhat and/or the rest of the Grandees are doing so, so 2 days ago he found out there was a deputy sheriff, now he finds out its unofficial, and The Guild only received the murder investigation report a week ago which was an obvious whitewash and he complains that the murder of his best friend is now being handled by Holly's pack and the official investigation was all about political expediency of closing it up. Holly asks him about Sir Robert's laptop and if that would have useful information on it, he says he knows where it is now but asks why would he give it to her, and she tells him it could well be full of information relevant to the murder. Benson agrees he wants to know how and why his best friend was murdered so tells her its at the Bank of Spain and gives her a safety deposit key and that the password will be on the bottom of it on a post it. He then insists on a drink to their success.

Meanwhile: Sunny is following the trail and it leads to an office near Sir Robert's, the door is shut but she scrabbles it open, inside its dark, the smell of Jasmine joss sticks and some sort of oriental pot-pourri, she follows the trail to one corner that smells massively of the Wyrm in a way that is old, its strong but fading like there was a huge Wyrm presence here but its not being generated any more so is starting to taper off. There is a Jade Statue here on the side table that is the source, the smell is so strong its almost like its baked into the object. Sunny tails Holly's scent to the office and finds the door is missing, the trail goes to an empty wall, she scratches at where the handle should be and the invisible door swings open, inside Holly hears Sunny and calls to her which sounds weirdly distorted then the illusion fades and Sunny is inside the room. She briefs Holly on things and finds out that Mr. Benson speaks a little first tongue (taught by Sir Robert) so she briefs him slowly on the Wyrm scent, office, and Jade statue with Holly clarifying as she goes.

They head back to the other office and turn the lights on, its dressed in a chinese style, and the Jade Statue is revealed as some kind of goddess figure, Mr. Benson clarifies this is The Lady of Kowloon's office and he identifies the statue is a form of Okuninushi (a Japanese god that was syncretised with Daikokuten, who is seen in Buddhism as a form of Mahākāla (aka Shiva) known as "The Great Black One" or "Great Death" in the form of a Deva or possibly a Dakini so the female form and probably Mahakali or /Kali/Kali Mater (The Dark Mother) - except its in Jade which is normally associated with purity so possibly a form of The Queen Mother of the West/Xiwangmu) and tells us its a deva/goddess of destruction. Sunny shifts to human form to make the conversation go smoother which wigs Benson a little (the Delirium) but he gets a handle on it pretty rapidly. Sunny talks to him about the source of the trail being next to Dan, and he says Dan is essentially doing Benson's job (staff organiser) while Benson is doing Laffreys (running the show) and confirms the scent must be new because otherwise Laffrey would have torn the place apart looking for it, he offers to put the statue in the safe but Holly says the Garou way is to nuke it first and ask questions later and he gives her a look. Holly has a peer at the statue with her spirit vision and finds that around it there is essentially zero Gauntlet (so there is a dangerous lack of barrier between the Penumbra and the physical worlds) and the statue seems to exist on both sides, there's the feeling of a dark malevolent shadow of the Wyrm stuff sort of burnt onto the local Umbra, looks and feels like a Manhatten Project nuke going off essentially blasting the local area. (ooc: Tabitha is called on the phone at this point and misses a few details - can someone fill in please?). She tells Mr. Benson who goes white, and says that Sir Robert made his fortune doing business in Hong Kong in the early 90s, left on one of the last flights, he didn't have too and there were always rumours why he got out in such a rush at the last minute, he came back with The Lady of Kowloon and the Jade Statue as one of the few things he brought back and Benson knows that the statue was considered an important possession of both The Lady and also him. He assumed that The Lady was grieving somewhere but now is unsure if something has reached out and killed (?) her. Benson fetches them an old paper file, its from the Hong Kong police department, around 1.5" thick, and Laffrey would read it when melancholy...

Meanwhile! At The Lantern Over The Themes Ariane and Lydia are there with pints of Adams cider and join Sargent Limehouse in a booth at the back talking about their "mutually retired friend", Limehouse says that he just about had time to say goodbye and gets Ariane to pay up the £150 that is owed to settle the debt because apparently Watford ruined a carjack. He got told by the Chief Constable that he was taking over parts of Watford's job and has been given 7 numbers and told that if any of them call he's to treat it with the strength of the Chief Constable telling him to do it, also that Ariane's number is on the list (he doesn't seem to know about Paddington Green or the 21st Tactical Reconnaissance Regiment). We ask about the museum tavern murder and he gets out his laptop, he got a hurried call from someone who just calls himself "The Sheriff" who wanted a removal of tape and shutting down of cameras at 22:15, the murder itself happened at around 22:06, he shows us the footage which is flickery around Samantha Wallingford, we can see the conversation getting heated, then other people come into the square from outside of camera shot but not places with entrances. We see Sir Robert facing off against the 5 vampires, he points, and yells at Wallingford before the other 4 jump him, the camera then whites out to static and there's a few frames suggesting he shifts up to crinos form (are there Weaver spiders watching the cameras to try and stop them picking up weird stuff?), the camera seems to recover on its own in the early hours of the morning. Limehouse tells us that he removed the footage from the system but he didn't do the static stuff, and it effected all the surrounding CCTV regardless of who was running it. Tells us that near the start of lockdown there was a similar incident where cameras whited out, and another time in a nightclub called Bubbles where Watford was all over both incidents and in the second case swearing about someone called Lydia and calling someone called Carlie. Limehouse tells us that The Sheriff called him again early the next morning around 5am to confirm it was done and then he's not heard of him since.

The Met police have a file that was given to Murder Squad who got a background on Sir Robert then passed it to Anti-Terrorism, who have "no active investigation" which means its with MI5. The background on Sir Robert is that he was born in Gibraltar and grew up there, moved to Hong Kong for business, then in 1997 moved back to London and was knighted in 2005 for "services to business and law", he has no legal issues, no speeding tickets (although his chauffeur does), has few known associates. MI5 now have that file and it was requested by Royal Naval Reserve Auxiliary Intelligence 4 days ago. He says he got a follow up inquiry with a guy who works at The Sun (Jonathan Price) and is unsure of if he should nudge him towards this or not but he didn't seem to have anything, he also talked to Jane from the Museum Tavern but she doesn't recall a thing. Lydia asks him about the woman with the strange aura (Wallingford) but he says he thinks an AI from Anti-Terrorism is watching for faces and sometimes interferes with the recordings, but that the Murder Squad never found her.

Ariane is cagey about who she is but tells him he's a good person for his job. He also tells us that Derek Watford's desk is still intact, the Chief Constable has essentially preserved it in case he comes back. Ariane then texts Watford to tell him about paying Limehouse back and that his job may well still exist if he wants it and that he could have his things and his favourite mug posted back to him and asks for a forwarding address and is given her other mothers address.

2023-07-24

Carlie has been busy with cases to numerous and boring to mention, Jules has been tidying the house for the possible arrive of Athens Smith so they have a space and friendly face, also organising all of her notes and drawings from the Umbral Trip.

When everyone's back at the Pack House Ariane mentions that MI5 and Royal Navy Reserve Auxiliary Intelligence (henceforth RNRAI) are maybe involved. Holly talks about the big file she got given by Mr. Benson and Ariane and Carlie agree to paperwork grind it. Holly also mentions the mood at The Guild and how the Mythics are spoiling for a fight, also just how cut off the rank and file are from the rest of The Demimonde because they're big enough to be self contained. We run through the things we've learnt about The Murder of Sir Robert Laffrey:

• Sir Robert Laffrey met Samantha Wallingford and possibly members of her cotorie at the British Museum for a meeting ostensibly about him purchasing the building they operate The Night (bar) out of.
• Sir Robert Laffrey then went to The Museum Tavern where he had drinks with Samantha Wallingford and was observed arguing with her about Hong Kong by Jonathan Price
• Sir Robert Laffrey went into a courtyard just down an alley from The Museum Tavern to continuing this discussion
• At 22:06 4 other figures appear in the courtyard from locations where there aren't always entrances, they proceed to attack Sir Robert Laffrey who turns crinos and kills 3/5 of them
• John Northbridge calls Sergeant Limehouse at 22:15 to tell him to shut off all the local cameras and delete the footage
• Unknown parties presumably mind control all witnesses? There are reports of ghosts and people waking up with missing time miles away in other pubs
• Unknown parties clean up all physical evidence.
• John Northbridge calls Sergeant Limehouse at 5:00 the morning after the attack to confirm this happened (and hence was still alive)
• At some point Samantha Wallingford is arrested and placed into mostly protective custody at Paddington Green
• John Northbridge and The Lady of Kowloon have both disappeared since.
• A strange Wyrm scent has appeared in The Guild going back to a Jade Statue in The Lady of Kowloon's office that has torn a hole in the Gauntlet and made an impression like an atom bomb on the local Penumbra
• The Jade Statue and The Lady of Kowloon came back from Hong Kong with Sir Robert Laffrey and the statue was described as belonging to both of them.

Open questions we bring up:

• Is John Northbridge in hiding?
• Did the Spirit of London compel this behaviour from him even if he didn't want it?
• Is The Lady of Kowloon a ghost/spirit Sir Robert somehow summoned? An Umbral spirit?
• If we check the Umbra at the Courtyard where the murder happened will we find anything?

So Holly and Jules head to the Courtyard to check the Umbra, Carlie, Lydia, and Ariane get on the paperwork and at least break it up into components.

The Paperwork turns out to be multiple reports around The Death of Wi Chen Zhou aka Discount Lee and is broadly three different documents:

1. Royal Hong Kong Police Background on Wi Chen Zhou: Essentially an organised crime/Mafioso type with a number of legal front organisations, who maybe engaged in murder for hire, but no investigation ever got to trial (witnesses went missing/left the area rapidly), was rather rich from crime and offered services to other rich entrepreneurs to offer them a sort of legal protection from knowing what crime happened.
2. The open (unsolved) file on his murder from the Chinese Hong Kong Police, which includes the note he was buried in a lead/concrete casket 20 feet below ground on an island no one can go to against family objections.
3. RNRAI file on his body, which was found floating in a yacht drifting towards The Britannia, it was boarded and they found his body beheaded with the head resting in his lap, his head was decapitated from his body with a single blow of a sharp blade. THey took the body for analysis on their escort ship the HMS Richmond, and found it was radioactive, they helicoptered it back to the Chinese Hong Kong Police (the handover had just happened). They analysed a number of blood samples on the Richmond before this.

We have questions about: Did Sir Robert kill him or make him radioactive? Lydia asks the vital question of why you would make someone radioactive. We continue the next day:

Overall we find that Wi Chen Zhou/Discount Lee had a number of notorious and successful criminal enterprises and many associates including Sir Robert Laffrey who was basically the clean business owner who laundered all his money for him, they went through millions of HK pounds and Laffrey was excellent at filing all his taxes and seeming above board with friends in high society. Wi was a British Imperialist who opposed the handover and wrote to the foreign secretary in London arguing that independence was vital, then started to funnel cash to protest groups, then legal cases against the handover, and finally arms trafficking to arm resistance. RNRAI suggest he was dealing with post soviet mafia types importing hardware from Russian (and we talk about the links we know of between the Russian mob and the Wyrm (see Robbery of the 2nd National Syrian Bank and Season Five in general) we wonder if he was donating enough for a suitcase nuke and that's what happened to him so Carlie texts Watford to ask for an estimate.

When the Chinese Hong Kong Police dig into him post death they work out his birth certificate and most of his early history is fake, he essentially appears aged 18 in Hong Kong with a made up background and a successful criminal enterprise. RNRAI find photos (some during the day) of someone who looks like Wi from the 70s and 80s looking essentially the same and being involved in crime, they speculate on a long running crime family however Rear Admiral Armstrong orders them to stop digging. We speculate hat he could be an Immortal or a Mythic of some kind.

The RNRAI blood samples reveal to Lydia that his radiation levels were easily enough to kill any human being, a weird mix of Iodine 131, Striatum, Zirconium which makes it close to a 1980s era soviet nuke, but its not atomised. The radiation didn't cause his death and he was probably alive when he became radioactive, the levels in his lungs and blood indicate he was breathing fallout and just absorbed it and internalised it he received no treatment for this and should have been very dead. The drug tests aren't useful (possibly effected by the rads). The blade that decapitated him was a steel/silver mix, single blow (and Ariane knows that Sir Robert Laffrey's Sword's is part silvered. There are also unusual electrical patterns at the wound - indicating he was definitely an Immortal.

Meanwhile at the Umbral Murder Scene: Holly checks and finds a few Wyld spirits hanging around so Sunny pops through and says hi to a spirit with green eyes looking over a door who introduces itself as It Was A Good Idea At The Time aka Creative Ideas who mostly lives in The Museum Tavern, they chat and it says it gives people inspiration to try new creative things when drunk, and Sunny tells it about her creative videos, it also says it has a brother called Insightful Ideas When Drunk who gives inspiration to researchers mainly, and promises they can get Sunny or other garou drunk.

Jules asks about the murder and it says it was sad because one of its friends died Furry Bob ("who wanted to be called Sir Robert!") they used to give him good ideas and get him drunk here but they didn't on the night he died, he talked to a nasty scheming lady who had "bad nasty thoughts". She wanted a statue from him which had something in it/about it that she and her friends wanted. They want us to tell the story that Furry Bob went down swinging. Holly makes sure to check the description of the lady against Samantha Wallingford and its a match.

Jules asks them if she knows any of their family because she had a number of creative/insightful ideas when drinking in taverns and is told they may have cousins out there but aren't in every pub just the ones with the right type of environment. They get named Furry Jules, Prickly Holly and Doggy Sunny. Jules pays them with gnosis and they say they have inspired many fights amongst Egyptologists.

The next day Holly, Jules, and Sunny head to The Bank of Spain, gets invited in through the big doors, gets an espresso and waits while paperwork is crunched, Jules gives her ID and they're invited into a waiting room and given access to the box that contains Sir Robert Laffrey's Laptop which has the password "Discount Lee".

2023-07-31

(Sir Robert Laffrey's Laptop is investigated by Carlie and Holly, it has a lot of security footage of meetings on it, more is dug out of the police files about the last hours of Wi Chen Zhou and his final encounter with Sir Robert Laffrey and some probable Garou. Sunny is contacted for a possible collab by Tate & Lyle. Lydia and Jules go to dig into New Catholic Church and have a spooky encounter with a Monk)

At the Pack House: Sunny, Jules, and Holly come back with the laptop while the paperwork team is still picking through the evidence.

The laptop is an absolute mess, just piles of unorganised documents and spreadsheets, icons piled upon icons. Carlie digs in and finds a weird folder that gets data from The Guild's CCTV system pushed to it based on meetings occuring? Each clip is around 15-60 minutes long, there is around 2.5 days of footage. Holly gets on the task of just sitting through it end to end. She finds the start of the clips is around 3 years ago and cover both Sir Robert Laffrey's office and also The Lady of Kowloon's office. It seems like he's recording his strategic meetings in The Guild, there's a few people she doesn't know who seem like unknown Mythics, also she learns the Goon Squad had a falling out over a girl and tore the gym up in an argument. The Lady of Kowloon's meetings involve Angela (a psychic) who stands or sits in the office silently, then smiles and leaves. The Lady also meetings another woman who Holly doesn't know who talks of "the cards" and future symbolism, she only gets her half of the conversation not The Lady of Kowloons.

Carlie meanwhile crawls the machine forensically looking for other possible reasons for his death. She finds emails between him and Benson where his email/document commenting etiquette is terrible so starts to work on them. The motivations seem to broadly break down into his long term plans for fucking with The Chinese Government and also the Vampires. Also has been playing Pinball and Solitaire a lot.

Looks like Sir Robert has been involved in a long running feud with Harold Westbury (Vampire Grandee) doing tricks like trying to buy a single property in a block to halt development, or minority interest in companies to cause issues. He even purchased a graveyard where he thinks Westbury has a number of staked vampires hidden and has threatened to disinter the bodies to get answers from them. He was buying the building containing the nightclub as part of this ongoing scheme.

His attempts to mess with the entire Chinese government are a lot more serious, he's been backing pro-democracy groups and any company that supports Western influence and trying to dig scandals and dirt.

Carlie also find's he's worth an estimated 20-30 million in (semi) liquid assets and has a lot more invested elsewhere. She looks but does not find his will...

Ariane keeps on digging into the files: Finds that Wi Chen Zhou (Discount Lee) was buying fire arms, mostly small arms with a few bigger things, there is concern he was buying bigger weapons but its unclear what or from whom. There was a raid on his warehouse in Kowloon which found some AKs, a few pistols, but the report writer implied they were looking for something else they wouldn't name.

His last hours alive he attended a protest in the morning at the Hong Kong/Chinese/Kowloon border, then headed to a temple in Hong Kong itself. There he's met by Robert Laffrey along with a group of 4 white, english speaking, london accented large threatening guys who scare people, these people have not been identified and have no entry/exit paperwork. Wi Chen Zhou enters the temple with Robert Laffrey and the 4 threatening people. Robert left with 3 people carrying the Jade Statue and someone else carrying a large box. Wi Chen Zhou is next seen beheaded on a yacht. No one sees the last threatening Londoner.

Sunny meanwhile gets on morale and snack duty, makes a video as she makes a recipie based on Jammy Dodgers, then her phone rings, someone is checking her ID and its James Little of Tate & Lyle who's interested in sponsoring a video and having Sunny bake with their products, she largely agrees with this.

Lydia asks if we forgot the coming of Pope Hope III, Carlie says that the murder has a little more priority and Holly says she has a plan to talk to Old Crone Fleet about it. Lydia goes to look up when the next of the services are, finds that the New Catholic Church has rented out a sports hall in Blackhall, she digs around message boards, forums, and email lists for gossip on them. There's some objections that seem rooted in racism about black people doing Catholicism (broadly black people are supportive of it, and a lot of white people are not), everyone seems to be awaiting a smackdown from the church of Rome and its not coming. There are even a fringe theory its a cult run by Atheists to make everyone look bad. Everyone is talking about the unusual theology but no one is really given details because they're falling into schisms and bickering. The Coptic Church is talking of an alliance.

She talks Jules into coming along, there is a general talk suggesting that infiltrating may be dangerous but suggesting they should just observe from a distance. So they head out and find the main sports hall is rented out for a meet, greet, and prayer session. Most of the attendees are either from the black or asian communities and there are mostly women in their 20s acting as greets with a few attractive men. They obviously decide to just rock in together.

They're greeted by a pair called Desta and Menelik and say they came because of the posters. Lydia asks for reading material but is told they don't have much literature as they like to spread the word vocally and introduce people to the One Lord and let people choose their path. There's food before the service, Jules eats and enjoys it, Lydia keeps on chatting to people, there is a lot of talk of "Finding which of the 3 paths" people are on, seems to be talk of "have you chosen?" as well as "which and why?" the paths are White (listening and peace), Black (strength and understanding of the One Lord and study of the Bible) and Red (assisting Mother church). She also hears hints of the 4th path: The Silent Watchers/Gray Path, for the most devout only and is chosen by the One Lord. (This is obviously the paths of the Church of the Umbral Popes). Lydia chats to a Path of the White person and hears about peace, meditation, and inner peace along with contemplation, who says they're looking to establish a house-church or maybe buy an old Church of England building, and that Mother Church favours somewhere in Southwark.

Jules meanwhile keeps an ear open to the crowd and does a rough headcount, coming to around 78 people. A glance into the Umbra suggests the penumbra here predates the building.

The service starts and a monk type figure comes out onto the stage who's introduced as a Brother of the White, talks of a trinity that is - the Father, the Spirit, and the Lord on the Eternal Throne. Talks of the 4 paths, says there is a guardian at the end of every path, where they have to present their works on earth and respect for the Throne to be let into heaven. There is notably no use of the word "God" or "Jesus" anywhere, and they only pick the few hymns that don't use the word Jesus. They do all their readings from the KJV Bible and only from the Old Testament, there are no bibles actually out and none of their own literature. At the end of the hymns people are called forward to publicly declare their sins or deviations from their chosen path, the Monk then puts a hand on them and declares their sins are washed away, there's no praying, creed, Lords Prayer, the liturgy seems totally foreign to Lydia. Desta the greeter goes forward to ask for a blessing for her meditation group and the Monk lays a hand on her, Jules spots him using Gnosis/magic like power. Lydia suggests to Jules the people who'll have all the gossip is people helping with washing up and clear up, Jules protests a little so a plan is formed that Jules is going after the Monk and Lydia to get the gossip.

Jules then follows the Monk down a side corridor and gets close enough to sniff and he smells human so she goes to catch him up. She tells him she saw a light when he touched Desta, he says he was merely passing on the blessings of the Eternal Throne, on questioning he says he dedicated his life to the Throne at age 17 so around 2 decades ago (putting him around 37), he asks her if she wishes to follow his example, Jules replies in first tongue saying "Not at the moment" and he replies "Shame, its rare one of Gaia's Hounds convert but they make excellent members of the Red" in fluent first tongue. She checks his reflection in the spirit via a window and he looks the same as his physical form. Jules politely thanks him and disengages and he nods and just disapparates from the physical and Penumbra, seeming able to teleport back into the deep Umbra. This obviously causes Jules to swear profusely.

2023-08-07

Lydia finds out the New Catholic Church meets on a weekly basis, gets the details and is thanked for her help (she judges them disorganised and inefficient at churching), Jules prepares to go after her spooky encounter.

Next morning over breakfast we ask ourselves: What is the plan? Holly is off to see River Fleet about using a boon and takes Sunny, Lydia, and Ariane. Jules is having a nap, and Carlie is digging into the laptop and paperwork angle.

The team looking for Fleet: take their hiviz jackets and start to visit places we've seen her before, we check a few manholes but there's no sign of her. One of the Pearly Queens spots us and beckons us over, tells Holly that Fleet is currently "flowing near her Grandmother Themes" and we get invited to "The Court" and told to dress in our Sunday best and go to a specific fire escape door on Chancery Lane, get given a card with a picture on it as our invite and told that bringing gifts goes down well with the court. Talk about getting some good wine and blessing it via the Wyld spirits at The Museum Tavern and also getting some fancy glass goblets, the group goes shopping then takes them over there and Holly pays the spirits to bless them with some gnosis, we clearly mark them with ribbons so we don't confuse them.

Meanwhile: Carlie has been digging into the financial aspect: He left HK well off, then set up some comms and trade firms between the UK and HK, also likes to fund places like Vietnam and Taiwan which China sees as local rivals. Got lucky in initial deals, not technical but realised that investing in tech was a good plan and got in early, took a hit in the dotcom crash but came out investing in the IPOs of all the big internet companies. Over time she notices that his business phone calls drop and his emails pick up. Dives his old social media and starts digging into his cloud solutions. Theres no auto logins setup, but there are a bunch of files in the copies on the laptops. She unearths a copy of his Will on his google drive, Benson basically becomes The Guild including the Jade Statue, everything else goes to a specific Holding Company to "dispose of them as you see fit" with instructions to email a specific email address.

Carlie tells the group chat to have better security than Laffrey and Lydia's reply about infosec earns her a crash course. Holly confirms that Benson is the Guild number 2 and Laffrey's best friend so this is probably legit.

Jules appears and starts to chat, make coffee, and lunch meanwhile. She chats with Carlie about how this means The Guilds power base is sort of up for grabs and Jules is glad that Sir Robert was prepared.

Carlie then digs into the email address, its linked to an iffy internet cafe in Kowloon, she breaks in and finds its very insecure, but there is basically a dead letter script setup watching the email address - if it gets something specific (as per the Will's instructions) it will send out a bunch of documents including blueprints and air defence technical info about the Chinese Communist Headquarters along with a letter saying that Sir Robert was killed by the communists and the recipients should know what they should do. Carlie contacts Ariane to tell her to talk to her Mum about things, also to get some wine.

Back at the Pack House once people are back Ariane explains his own lawyer will also have a copy of the Will to be executer of it, Carlie deactivates this potential terrorist incident by turning off the dead letter script so nothing will happen. Ariane suggests someone in China must know about the threat to make it effective and that this was possibly an insurance policy to protect his companies, giving examples of dodgy ways that businesses and governments routinely interact in a lot of places. The pack forms an idea that we should interview Samantha Wallingford and if the request comes via Limehouse and hence The Met they may agree. We also talk about if The Lady of Kowloon is dead, disappeared, missing, etc. Since the statue was given to Benson it would make sense that Laffrey thought she'd be around. Ariane moots the idea a Wyrm spirit was trying to kill them both at the same time so sent the Vampires after Sir Robert and came through the statue to get The Lady. Carlie tells her not to get ahead of herself and suggests that Holly should talk to Benson to find out more details and if we can work out if The Lady of Kowloon is dead or not.

Everyone then proceeds to get into the long trail of video files. We all learn a bunch of gossip about The Guild (ooc: Smashed 15/10 successes so we can roll to know about their past victories, defeats, loves, losses, etc.) Jules also does a little digging into what Liz gets up to and finds her original interview, her celebrating making her deal with Yangshi the Dragon, her awkward attempts to flirt with Sir Robert for a favour, Benson telling Laffrey the gossip that Liz has a girlfriend, and she finds that in their conversations she is mostly just referred to as "Liz's Girlfriend" instead of by name or title, although they do say she is the sensible one of the Pack, she also finds a few of the Goon Squad are sad she's gay and unavailable.

3 nights before Sir Robert's death we see 2 figures slip into The Lady of Kowloon's room, one lights the room up with palm of her hand (magically?). They look for and find the Jade Statue, bring a large diamond to it, and say a repeated chant in Cantonese, this summons The Lady of Kowloon who screams silently, the diamond glows like red and yellow fire, they swear, drop it in a bag and leave. One of them causes the cameras to glitch like the attack footage.

• Man: 5' 8-9" glitches the cameras, brown hair, scar behind right ear, paler, western European. Maybe vamp?
• Woman: Spiritalis Mythic tattoos, produced the magic light, long brown hair in a bun, Asian.

Jules sends Ariane to find the Grandees including Sam Aston to try and recognise these two and see if we can work out any clues to their identities, locations, where the diamond is etc.

Carlie meanwhile: Digs through a lot of awful shit and eventually finds a patchy diary he left on Livejournal (was an x-files fan). It's written like bad meta fiction and badly anonymised, very florid prose, about his long running struggles with the forces of evil (The CCCP and their Euro-Capitalist Lapdogs! - i.e. Harold Westbury's firms). There are apparently Agents trying to take away his most precious things and this includes entries imported from pre-LJ. Back in 97 she finds him writing about how his best friend (Wi Chen Zhou) has gone off the deep end and bought a nuke and was going to use it to deny the CCCP access to HK, and how Sir Robert paid for The Southwark Dogs as mercenaries via Lee Ho Fooks (who was the middle man) to come and put an end to this. He is very into The Red Menace and Carlie wants someone to talk to Bell about one of the previous packs involvements.

Lydia goes to talk to Bell about things and finds she is pulling energy from nowhere to knit a glowing "object" (it doesn't seem to conform to regular dimensions or knitting shape) using straight chunky needles made of bone. She tells Lydia she is "weaving fate" because she was told that "knitting fate" doesn't sound right, and also tells her fate is more a patch work. Lydia offers to teach her some crocheting. Bell tells her she is currently making an attempt at John Northbridge's fate which is in flux and tattered (but this suggests he is alive), Lydia suggests just unravelling it but Bell says that The Spirit of London (that lives in the Tower) owes him a debt and she worries if she stops he'll fall apart. Lydia tries to talk her around but she refuses to do so. Lydia also notices that Bell sometimes produces a third needle and also tilts the knitting which makes part of it appear and disappear suggesting whatever this magic is it doesn't exist in just 3 dimensions. Lydia explains to Bell that Ariane is his second and this causes Bell to pluck at a thread that she says is Ariane here, then another as a thread representing Lydia. Says that London has asked her to do this because London needs more threads and if the lines run out then people cease to be (presumably referring to her producing/drawing her source of wool from nothingness) she says that The Bells see all across London so they know which threads are free to bring into the pattern.

Lydia asks her about the history of the packs of Southwark and gets a rough history including:

• The Previous Pack closed the Nazi Dimension Attached to the O2 Arena but were never the same again.
• The Pack before that largely died at the hands of The Director known as The Steveadore's of the Isle of Dogs (ooc: I was sure this pack was earlier)
• The Pack before were probably known as who we know were now called The Southwark Dogs and acted as mercenaries - they became globally active, they stole a craft from the Stargazers to travel the world. One of them died in Hong Kong fighting a great evil with Sir Robert who joined the pack briefly before joining The Guild.
• We know that Harold Styles Pack back in WW2 trapped a Nazi magical invasion in the ground where the O2 was later built to try and channel? it.

Told that The Southwark Dogs was 2 Glasswalkers, 1 Get of Fenris, 1 Blood Talon and were hunters of Wyrm spirits and protectors of London from all darkness and corruption, they helped oust the Tory Party from under The Grayest of Men who ever lived and gained a boon with London for that victory, then faced various vile plots, went to Russia to stop a people smuggling ring, came back in a craft stolen from the Stargazers that can go anywhere on the Earth or the Deep Umbra. It's stored at The Burran off Biggen Hill and is white with 2 wings. They fought a fate unstichable, unenable (presumably Wi Chen Zhou the immortal described by Bell as "A sword person") and contained him. One of them died. Bell describes the Immortals as having cancerous souls that are against the natural order and just keep growing and consuming and never stop.

She tells Lydia the previous packs left no written records because of "evidence" but she knows the tales. Says The Southwark Dogs were best described as thieves. They also visited Gary in Indiana which is a city overrun by Vampires, also Hong Kong, Moscow, Calcutta, The Edge of Time (which made their fates knotty!) just before they went to HK. They stole something they were afraid of but thought it was powerful and Sir Robert kept it a Jade Statue, a last ditch insurance policy. Says that The Lady of Kowloon is not in her bundle of knitting and says she was once, but has to reach deep inside to find the thread. Says that she had an affinity and if all the Bell spirits in the world tolled at once it would call her and her like because they are pure destruction incarnate. Tells Lydia that The Lady of Kowloon was the soul of a nuclear weapon, created in the Kowloon temple, hence the name.

They talk a little of the New Catholic Church and Bell brings in a fresh thread to whatever thing shes making, she tells Lydia they don't have Bells who toll for them yet, and some of the Bells think they never should, but others think they should (after all the Greek and African churches of London have Bells now). Bell says she wants to hear all about them to know if she should let her children toll for them and names a closed down CoE church in Southwark she knows they're interested in. Lydia tells her that they are Deep Umbra weirdos not native to this realm and Bell says she'll try and let her daughter not toll for them (it is implied that they would have a church with a bell but they would not have a Bell if that makes sense).

2023-08-21

The Pack went to the meeting of the Fairy Court and are called "Wolves Supporters" and Vamps are "Coffin Dodgers" and Mythics are "Finger Wigglers". They split up and combed the room for info and to make friends/contacts, Holly cashed in the favour with Fleet who will use her influence with TV/film people to try and counteract the New Catholic Church, Sunny offered her services to run a bake sale for charity this was about creating big Jammy Dodgers to raise money via a cabby network to raise money for charity - this created a connection where the leader of the network would feed information back to her and Carlie, and Jules got in with the Kings and Queens and also redirected people to other members of the pack. The gifts went over well. Lydia and Carlie came to an agreement where if she got really angry she would call Carlie over who would try and distract her from her rage and it seemed to work.

Event was in a community room (sort of like the upper floor of the Gregson) and the meeting was focused around charity, collecting money, raising money, and giving it out - mainly to the Children's Hospital but other children's charities. A lot of East End business types, cabbies, and assorted London stereotypes and drinking Porter.

Currently its Pearly Kings and Queens of Tower Hamlets as the rulers, there seems to be some kind of rotation that occurs.

Other rivers of London were met, Beverly Brook and her brother, as well as a few others.

The cabbies handed over 2 pieces of information:

• The Penny Dreadful (the True Londoner newspaper) - Diamond Annie has something for auction that will be auctioned off soon that will be of interest and high value, but has temporarily misplaced it, it was due to be auctioned this evening but instead there's a bounty on two thieves.
• The Sheriff of London went to High Gate cemetery on the night of Laffrey's death just before Dawn. He told the cabbie to wait, and he waited an hour and never came back.

Ariane meanwhile had to quickly go see her mum...

2023-09-04

So Ariane has an urgent meeting with her mother half way at an A road petrol station/late night corner shop. She's waiting around when she arrives, she arrives looking worried and hands me a package of notes, pretty thin and asks me to not ask where I got it, keep it very secure, and file it in Matrix chambers, from but thinks it could be really important, says she has to be going immediately and Derek Watford sends his regards, he's staying in the guest bedroom, Ariane says that the pack will be here for him in his hour of need. Apparently he went to the sea and said it was boring and dull and he managed to get involved in arresting a pick pockets, Dad tried to take him fishing but also boring. He's couch surfing amongst his long term friends. Told to give her regards to the pack.

Everyone arrives back at the Pack house at about the same time. Carlie shares the fact that Northwood went to High Gate cemetery, also talks about Laffrey's Livejournal, there is a discussion about this including British Royalty RPF, Carlie then does a dramatic reading of the LJ, its very overwrought, we talk about how it goes back to the early 00s, Ariane talks about mining it for info for his epic tale.

Talk to people about who wants to go as a wolf tomorrow, its going to be Sunny, Jules, and Ariane. Jules and Ariane talk about collars and leashes.

Ariane opens the letter before bed to do a very quick skim to find out if its terrible - its written in Cyrillic, a photo copy of a typed document from the 1980s, pages through and the second page is an inverse of a blueprint of a nuclear weapon, third page is a photo copy of a photograph of Sir Robert Laffrey and Wi Chen Zhou having a coffee with a suitcase nuke between them and a whole bunch of notes underneath saying the photograph was the delivery of one of a pair of devices, Ariane goes to scream into a sofa cushion before explaining things. Talk about if we have a geiger counter and Lydia says she can borrow one from work, Ariane takes a few swigs of whisky and heads to bed, Jules follows suit.

The next day around 10am Lydia feeds us tea, Jules drinks a big coffee, and Ariane makes plans to go buy a good collar. Holly reminds us if anyones checked what Diamond Annie is up to, and Ariane wonders what if she's selling the nuke? Jules drops her a text implying we may be interested in the sale.

We head to Highgate cemetery, there's a "no dogs" policy so we're going to have to sneak in, we also notice some of The Met lurking around so decide to cross over into the Umbra, when we arrive there is something watching from an Umbral guard house, lurking in the shadows with golden glowing eyes. The place has a dusty clean smell, similar to angelic Umbral realms. As we approach a gentleman with 2 wings steps out, has a sword that gives us a bad vibe. "Good evening Ladies", we say we're hunting Wyrm creatures, told disturb no spirits, no graves, and trespass not upon the Egyptian quarter. Jules tries to peer through and there is a feeling that the Gauntlet is strange, feels magically reinforced but not like Mythic magic. We can see 2 Egyptian obelisks with an arch between them, and a very tall Cedar tree with a circle of tombs around it.

Carlie and Sunny meanwhile poke the physical, joined by Lydia who took one look at the Angel and bounced back. Sunny takes a look at the maps for dog related things then starts to poke around for clues and starts to scent map the place - finds strange scents near the Egyptian arch, smells a little like the British Museum, its a faint weird smell. Carlie checks out some good potential Vampire related crypts, notices that 2 cops are guarding the corner of a cemetery, Lydia suggests going to talk to them and Carlie suggests she should be careful as they'll remember her face, she hands the geiger counter to Carlie to hold. Goes for a chat about if they've had a long day or not, they've apparently been here since this morning, she clocks there's damage to the Mausoleum as if someone used crowbars to remove a coffin perhaps, she waggles ID and talks about "health inspection", finds out someone removed something and did some criminal damage, she claims that sometimes graves and bodies can be dangerous healthwise, and they say they're here for that reason and SOCO haven't been here yet, she introduces herself as Lydia and Dave the copper walks her nearby the grave.

It's a building with a single metallic door, a series of nooks to store stone coffins with remains, also a bunch of carving. One of the stone containers removed and the metallic grill just crowbarred off, she can't get close but it smells musty, the copper tells her there was weird black mould in the back, says SOCO due late this afternoon, this isn't a famous place, part of the Mux-Oxley family here and not really anyone famous so very weird, the Warden is digging up records for them to try and work out who's body was there. Carlie meanwhile turns very very invisible to go have a sneak in, looks for evidence of Vampiric residence? Nothing, anything that would encourage the cops to be here that's unusual, nope, just looks like criminal damage. It's a 3x3 grid of slots with metal grills over the ends. All the other grills look rusty, but the one that was removed looks like its had its screws removed/replaced fairly recently and regularly. She checks and the geiger counter is noisier than usual especially at the sarcophagus that was removed. She notices one of the coppers (PC Carl) looking inside looking a little scared because he must have heard the clicks, she makes a spooky noise and he sprints off pointing backwards shouting about ghosts, she slips out the door.

Meanwhile in the Umbra: Ariane wandering around looking for notable spirits, ends up close to the Circle of Lebanon. A victorian gentleman smoking inside a hut, she checks with Holly and then opens by asking if we're disturbing him, Ariane says we're werewolves trying to find out if a vampire was disturbing a grave, says a few of them can't enter gods graces and they have to linger here and cannot see the physical world, and are reminded of this each dawn by their guardians. Told not to disturb the living and the living not to disturb them. Not worth of gods graces and not sinning enough to go to hell, purgatory is a graveyard in London? Only for a handful buried here and many of them dabbled in the occult - this is Charles <X> 4th Duke of St. Albens, we give our names and chat about the Primrose-Morton's, invited to stay for "The show" there's a theory the Egyptian neighbours may get "unruly" attempting to leave their quarters, he offers us opium so we take a puff, we accept, the world is very funny, fuzzy, and weird around the edges. We see 4 angels appear to surround the Egyptian archway, a large mummy appears, there is a hilarious fight, the obelisks glow and it feels like a portal to a deep Umbral realm.

Jules pads over to where Sunny is in the physical and gets a little Wyrm scent from the obelisk, chats to Sunny about the dusty grave scents which Sunny links to the BM and talks about the big spirits next door who don't want to be disturbed, they chat about Wyrm scent, old Vampires who may be here, and how that may be one but digging one up may be tricky. They talk about if mummies exist and if they're creatures of the wyrm, Sunny moots the idea if they do they're separate. Talk about if Laffrey was a good person, should we dig into his death? Sunny says the what of his death is largely known but the why isn't. At which point Jules phone (that is in Sunny's bag) goes off and its Diamond Annie - Sunny answers and puts the phone on speaker for Jules to chat in barky first tongue, Annie says she won't tell her what it is and we'll have to wait until its auctioned and that Jules may be interested, a small piece of history, a relic of a time just recently passed. Says she's on the lookout for 2 misguided young people, "Your missing thieves?", "Not my missing thieves..." says if she knew where they were she'd go personally, finding them may mean the item doesn't go to auction. Then asks hypothetical of "if you were a Vampire and a Mythic where would you hide?" and Jules suggests Lush. Argues that the two thieves have a gemstone, pretty distinctive and glowing with its own internal light.

2023-09-11

(Ariane and holly came down, left the Umbra, Holly almost got caught leaving the cemetery then found the pack, Ariane got out then fell asleep in a bush until Jules and Carlie dragged her home. Back at the pack house we share clues about something underground, the ghosts, the gauntlet reinforcement, the mummy, the angels, the nuke. Carlie calls Sargent Deerborn and explains the situation. Jules finds out Sam Aston is running a mythics only speakeasy and hunting for Sally Jin (Liz's best friend from not-Hogwarts and Carlos (the vamp), we wonder about how The Lady of Kowloon's truth detector works. Ariane arranges an interview with Samantha Wallingford and moots an exile offer and getting her blood, there's also talk of recruiting Wyld or Weaver spirits to help hunt the missing people)

Team Ghost-Opium (Ariane and Holly) are starting to come down, and its quite rough, there is body ache and a desire to cry (ooc: -1 dice penalty, and always unlucky on dice), they decide to go back and shape shift to see if it shakes off, it doesn't and Ariane fucks up so hard she gets stuck and is so tired she decides to go nap under a bush until Holly threatens to tell everyone she was going to sleep under a bush in a collar, Holly attempts to lead us out, Ariane gets out (and then finds a fresh bush to nap under), Holly manages to get spotted, the park ranger then makes a grab but misses her and she manages to get out.

Everyone else reunites on the underground, Carlie attempts to call Arianes phone (voicemail), Carlie heads back, Jules gets a vague hint of weird drug use from Holly then attempts to pry information out of her and Holly says it was ritualistic culture stuff with one of the ghosts admits its opium and Lydia gets very "oh for goodness sake!" and Jules heads off to search too, they find Ariane tucked in a bush behind a 1990s era BT telephone box surrounded by empty take out cartons. Carlie judges her, flips human, picks her up and makes to leave, Jules opts to stay as a dog and requests no questions, they harangue Ariane to stay awake, tell her she can't take it, and persuade her to look after herself, and tell her she's going to get lectured by Lydia, she eventually volunteers to walk. By the time they get back to the house she feels a bit better. Also Carlie gets a link to a Youtube video from Diamond Annie titled "Londoner takes care of her two huskies" and Carlie has been filmed carrying Ariane, they have a bit of a back and forth with Diamond Annie taunting a little.

Everyone reunites at the Pack House with Carlie telling Lydia about the ghost opium, she goes to get the first aid kit and argues with Ariane about how she should have "brought enough to share" and complains about sex, drugs, and rock and roll (no time and she can't find someone she doesn't want to punch, Ariane didn't bring any, and it hurts her ears), Jules attempts to pry into her sex life which broadly is "do they want to come work in a mission hospital with her", the conversation is cut short by Lydia stabbing Ariane with naloxone - after 10 minutes of pain she comes too naked and human and laying on the couch. Carlie goes to get everyone coffee.

We merge information, there's something weird underground at the archway, there's a few people trapped as ghosts, the gauntlet is reinforced, there's a mummy that fights Angels, also there's a nuclear bomb in a crypt and someone nicked it. There is general discussion about everything and Lydia suggests calling 21st Tactical, Carlie suggests its probably being got by people interested in nuking China (maybe connected). We talk about are the Grandee's involved, are they a risk, is there a risk if we reveal Laffrey brought a nuke in, also could it be a radioactive immortal, Vampire, or The Lady of Kowloon even. We debate if people will take us seriously, if people will count this against all the Garou, etc.

Then Carlie calls up Sargent Deerborn explains there's a broken into mausoleum with a high reading, Deerborn says he'll take a look but maybe radium. Deerborn asks about The Sheriff and Carlie says she doesn't know, when asked about the Deputy Carlie looks away from her and says "Well I can't see her", Carlie then checks in about the madeupness of the Deputy, he confirms its mostly made up but also plays into "The Sheriff" which is a major role and hence may mean something, also Deerborn tells Carlie to thank Sunny for reminding them to up their security procedures.

So Carlie checks in about what nuke stuff the Victorians had access to, Lydia talks about Radium and how it takes a long time to do anything bad. Ariane goes for a nap, Jules runs through the list of: where is Northbridge? Where is The Lady of Kowlooon?

What to do? Carlie votes "just start murdering Vampires" and Lydia backs this up. There is discussion of where do the Mythics go that isn't The Guild, the non-approved ones. Carlie talks about other methods of finding them by more mundane means and there's a suggestion for Jules to talk to Liz for suggestions and maybe try and recruit some hunting spirits to help. Lydia suggests talking to Bell.

So Jules calls Liz, finds that Sam Aston runs a "speakeasy" out of a Club under Cannon Street Station and says that we won't get in because its Mythics only. Apparently Sam has been throwing pictures around looking for someone called Sally Jin (honestly what Paul spell this I missed it I'm tiiiiired) who was Liz's best friend when she was learning magic (apparently it was in a smelly gym in Croyden) and she has been seen hanging around with a Vampire 6 months ago who matches our description, name of Carlos, who she found relaxing because spiritalis mythics get overwhelmed by spirits when they start to learn but found the Vampire relaxing (probably because no spirit? "a void with fangs" - Jules), she fell in with a bad crowd and Liz tried to get Sally a job with The Guild but she refused and dropped off the grid. If we don't get there first then Sam will "disappear" Mythic problems so they don't effect the community.

Also they arrange a Friday date, its currently Wednesday.

Talking to the rest of the pack Holly doesn't recognise the names from around The Guild and they talk about the two of them and if they killed or kidnapped The Lady.

Lydia asks the vital question: Why can The Lady of Kowloon know if people are telling the truth or not? Holly talks about if shes something else as well, partially made of fallout bringing other things in/not always a nuke, talk about the origin of her name and other things and how she was made what went into her and why name her so publicly after the location of the Nuke because that gives away too many hints.

Ariane wakes up from her nap, and Holly is also mostly recovered so a brief catch up occurs. Ariane talks of calling Deerborn to try and get an interview with Samantha Wallingford and maybe try and persuade her with an exile offer (even if it doesn't pan out), also talk of Jules recruiting Wyld hunting spirits, Ariane also suggests that Holly tries to get some Weaver spiders to see if they're disrupting the web.

Jules checks into Facebook and digs up Sally Jin's facebook.

Ariane calls Deerborn, there's sirens in the background and wind noises. She identifies herself and overhears him telling off a police inspector, says that Carlie's clue was credible enough for him to cordoning off half of Highborn. We talk about trading issues and he says he has a problem in his cells, Ariane talks of sending in an interview team and how she hopes he can get it out of his cells in days rather than weeks. Samantha Wallingford has been asking to speak to The Sheriff and is threatening to go catatonic unless we get her to talk to someone soon. Is angry about Northbridge vanishing, Ariane suggests he's still alive somewhere, The Colonel is very angry. Says Carlie knows the way and we'd all be welcome. Ariane talks of perhaps feeding her blood if she tries and/or in general to bribe her into things and there's talk of using squaddies and/or Lydia stealing some from work.

2023-09-18

Team Wolfpack: Jules has a plan to try and find some dog/wolf spirits in the area to recruit them to help her hunt and sniff out Sally Jin and Carlos, Holly and Sunny are happy to help as they know a number of spirits. Team Wallingford: Ariane, Carlie, Lydia

So Team Wolfpack: They make a plan to go to Southwark Park and head to the Bandstand, which exists in the Umbra. They find a nice Georgian/Victorian laid out park, and a lot of spirits mostly whom are Londoners (gray, indistinct, humanish figures who are basically everywhere, background London noise) they can smell dog and fox spirits. Jules does her best whistle to try and call some, Holly keeps her eyes peeled for interesting spirits, spots a gleaming pair of eyes to the right in a bush, some other spirits (2-3) on the left and warns the others. Jules puts down a little gnosis to try and lure out some spirits for trade. It's a full moon and Holly can pick up some 3 distinct locations further in, Jules shifts up to Glabro just in case and keeps her eyes open for whats behind her.

Sunny meanwhile is looking for playmates, sniffing around, as shes going around she can hear the noise of dogs growling near her pack mates, can smell wolfy/doggy creatures from the bushes. Meanwhile Holly spots a fox like tufted nose slowly slinking out of the bush with golden eyes looking at the gnosis. Jules turns to the dog/wolf spirits behind them and tells them to either come out and fight them or stay back in the shadows, they bark and the fox bolts. Sunny recognises this as a "fuck off thats my food" bark suggesting the dogs are hunting the fox, she spots husky-wolf type spirits and tries to lure them to play, they insist on food time, she tries play later but they're insistent on food. Jules shifts to offer them the gnosis and tells them she was looking for them and heard they were hungry, shifts to give them access. Sunny engages one in some rough and tumble play fighting. Jules asks the husky-wolves if they can help her hunt better and will teach her, they tell her she has the wrong nose, she shifts wolf and they look nervy when they smell her, they say she doesn't need the help but she says she's hunting sneaky pray (they ask if she means foxes) and she says they hunt Wyrms and bodies that don't stay still which they don't like, the spirit offers to help Jules learn and they wander off.

Sunny keeps playing. Holly sits back for a snack and a sit down on the bandstand with a snack, as she sits a young 16/18 year old Victorian girl spirit sits near her and chats about the goodness of the afternoon and tells her that the Crown brass band plays here every Saturday so she's here on the wrong day. Holly peers with a spirit gift: this feels like a ghost of some kind (some sort of potent residue left in the Umbra) and they suffered a dark fate. She says her father built the bandstand and its her favourite, because he didn't go for the English style, went for an Imperial motif and Indian style dome, talks of the horticultural society and their involvement, introduces herself as Franchesca Fowke (?) and asks if she's recently off the clipper and Jules gives her a version of the "working on boats" talking about the Umbra and she asks about which of the colonies her garb is from. Sunny comes over and Franchesca asks if she's Holly's who says that she's her own dog but they're good pals and gives her a scritch behind the ears and the ghost fades out. Asks Sunny's friend her name and essentially gets a "woof" as dogs don't seem to get dog-names, in conversation says that work sounds boring and they don't get why humans do it. Holly says its a big lie but many have to live with it, is advised to become a dog because its easier.

Jules is on a long mystical quest to learn the way of the hunter, but also in a bush with her nose in a rabbit hole learning this, and is being taught how to bomp the ground with paws to help scare out rabbits, there's a length chase scene, takes a couple of hours but learns a gift via some kind of trials and osmosis. Comes ambling back looking like she's been dragged through a bush backwards, very exhausted, there is talk of her hunt of the wily fox.

Meanwhile: Team Wallingford: We get Lydia to go fetch us some blood from the hospital, Ariane and Carlie organise the paperwork and dress in suits and Ariane lends one to Lydia and everyone heads over to Paddington Green, who look suspicious but let us in as Deputy Sheriff and associates, they check our ID (Ariane's driving license, Lydia's work ID, and Carlie's expired library card, she refuses anything else) and after threats to call Deerborn we get buzzed in, head to an office with Deerborn and a squaddie cleaning a rifle and just letting the oil soak into the conference table. Talk to Deerborn and find out that Northbridge dropped her here 19 days ago (the night of the murder) at around 2:15am. Ariane tells Deerborn that Northbridge last seen 05:00am, and later on a report was issued. Deerborn says he's not sure when the report was issued, and he never came to interview Wallingford despite there being notes from interview in it. We arrange an interview in a warded room. He sends Jones and Roberts to fetch her and Ariane says we brought a snack for her. He makes us tea and talks about The Colonel who is ex-tank regiment, Lydia has it even sweeter than him, and says they get Yorkshire Teabags and also Lydia talks about joining the TA or something. Chat about how he got here, its a place where you get assigned too if you see something you shouldn't and don't run away terrified, his troops at the wrong place/wrong time, those with investigation worthy of a cat, and those who are the unluckiest bastards, and then The Colonel James McAswith DSO (Distinguished Service Order) "finest officer I've ever served under and you won't hear me say anything" with a meaningful look at the ceiling. We arrange to go in with a panic button, with the guards outside with batons.

Inside Wallingford wants to know where Northbridge is and we reveal he's gone missing, she says he won't even "do his own dirty work" and Carlie asks about this, she thought he'd come in and ask questions. Ariane talks about how she swore and oath to London, Carlie and Lydia play threatening cop. Ariane opens with the question about if she's feeling a little peckish after being trapped in a box. She wonders what it'll cost her and reveals that he has something he shouldn't and she wanted it out of her city. Ariane tries to play it straight, asks if she's referring to The Lady of Kowloon, she seems puzzled and confirms it was the suitcase nuke. We say its gone missing and Northbridge was the last person, she says he'd promise he'd take care of it and Carlie says he's incompetent, she says he's young and incompetent and vicious. Ariane starts to pry into places he could be hiding, the basement beneath her bar could be a place, but other kindred would disturb him there, you can't hide there on his own other kindred would disturb you. If he was hiding on his own she doesn't know all his places but if she wanted to hide especially from garou then there's a burnt out winebar off Cannon street, was once a hideout for her Cotorie until 6 years ago. She says that Sir Robert was a threat to London and Carlie gives her a subtle nod. Ariane asks why not bring this to the Grandees and she lists them as unsuitable including Westbury hiding it, Gargoyles putting it in BM, and the Immortals being maybe but probably would have brought it before the rest of the Grandees, Fleet non-plussed, Lady of Kowloon silent. Says she didn't want it but was going to give it to the Russians and had a contact lined up, there was a plan to ask him for it then get it out. She tried asking politely, then arguing about it, and then moved to getting it out of him by force and he begged for his life at the end before telling them it was in a mausoleum, she knows which one but won't say exactly what. Carlie argues that there shouldn't be an owner for a nuke instead it should get buried under several tons of concrete at the bottom of a mine, can't turn it over to the British because too much investigation, Carlie shouts at her about giving more to the Russians and she says they already have 6000. Carlie says she should put her faith in competent people and she says she put her faith in Northbridge.

Ariane tries to calm everyone down and arranges for her to get her "snack" of blood with Lydia threatening other things from the medical pouch. Ariane looks away while she drains it while Lydia stares. She mentions Carlos and Sally Jin who claimed they knew where the spirit of a nuke was and that was what made her move so quickly. Ariane makes the push for more hiding places, she says the kindred have a rep for people not playing well with each other, he wouldn't even have shared contractors. Ariane puts the picture together, knocks on the door and asks for a secure room for 5 minutes and for them to keep Wallingford in there. Moots the idea that there's 2 nukes in London functionally - the crystal containing The Lady of Kowloon and also Sir Robert's suitcase nuke. So perhaps Diamond Annie has Northbridge and the suitcase nuke and is selling it to keep balance and maybe has Northbridge in a box? How did Sally Jin and Carlos find out about the Lady of Kowloon? Was Lee Ho Fooks in the know because he was fixer who arranged. Plan: Get Wallingford back in her box, then gather the pack to hunt out the hints. We speak to Deerborn who says that she's not human so she doesn't get human rights, Carlie looks a little threatening. Deerborn says that there's the signature of a 1980s Russian Backpack nuke, 1.2 kiloton yield (so would kill probably 2.5 million people in the middle of London) he suggests that Ariane is functionally the Sheriff and if she wants 20ish guys to hit a building or kill someone to let him know, also she says not to let Watford in. Deerborn says he can arrange a specialist to do the diffusing and is going to get them put on standby. Ariane leaves and goes to smash things up in an alleyway.

2023-09-25

So Jules has a shiny new gift for locating people, she has started by targetting John Northbridge and found out that Northbridge is being hidden deep under Cannon Street Station, there is then a long term planning session for how to get into the station after hours.

They start by trying to get into the TFL staff entrance, Carlie tried to "Do you know Inspector Watford" and got nowhere, Lydia then tried "Health and Safety!" and the H&S person on duty came out. They have a noise detection dog in the form of Sunny as part of this blag. They went back to a cafe and Jules and Holly tried to get into the Umbra, and the deeper they go the gauntlet gets thicker and thicker (reinforced?) and there's no spirits down there and the atmosphere is dark and repressive.

Carlie went invisible and popped into the entrance, currently on the West bound platform invisibly.

Jules is pondering setting a fire as a distraction, Ariane suggests asking Liz about the way into Sam Aston's Speakeasy as a way of getting through to the station via a back door maybe? Carlie comes out to meet up with us and we gather near the entrance to The Card Trick night club, they're just starting to warm up. The music hasn't really started, music is soft jazz, decor is techno, current patrons are City of London people drinking before going home, essentially all women, including staff and bouncer. Jule's gaydar goes off. Also we can't really see any currently known Mythics.

We get in some wines and a beer for Carlie and chill briefly, Holly catches us up on the Umbral situation and looks a bit shaken, moot the patrons here or a really big fish, like a fish thats eaten everything in its tank. Jules then points out we're probably in a gay bar and there is some discussion about that. Jules determines that Northbridge is probably 30-40 feet directly under the bar, as she's looking over Sam Aston comes out of a staff door and heads over welcoming us to her happy place of joy. Jules asks her if there's a back route and she says she doesn't have a route down because TFL disapprove of them. She offers us a bottle on the house while we work out our plan and Jules leans in to tell her Northbridge is in the basement and we'd like him back please. She claims this isn't the case and basically the pack picks up subterfuge (rather than outright lying) she may be telling the truth that Northbridge isn't in the basement but certainly something is in there, we manage to talk her around to that he is somewhere down there and maybe her basement has access. She claims she has no access to the underground, verifies that Ariane is the currently highest acting member of the Sheriff's office, then says she can't help.

Sam mutters about us being a bit useless and leads us into the back tells Ariane not to shop her, Ariane says she's not sure where the boundaries of her oath to the City of London is, so she gets left behind and everyone else heads into a nice wooden panelled stairwell to a club beneath the club, looks like a combo of Victorian gentlemans club with a massive silver inlaid Arcana array in the floor - some sort of mixed containment/other things array, does multiple things. Welcomes them to the speakeasy, tells them this is where deals are made, and deals are made over the array which binds everyone to the deal and if you break the deal you die when whatever is behind the array decides you have broken it (no ones ever complained its gotten it wrong). She can get people under here but they have to make a deal.

Jules asks for her opening bid: (1) If you find Northbridge don't kill him if he's still unalive. (2) This lot get left alone and "not bother the denizens". (3) You don't tell the Sheriff about anything you see/hear below.

Carlie thinks there's definitely something portaly under here. Clarifies that Northbridge has to stay alive for a week. Lydia clarifies the details can't be told to Ariane as the deputy.

She thinks a week will be fine because the way things are accelerating the balance of power which has been disturbed then him coming back will help restore it. Carlie determines she's probably lying about something here.

Holly asks about what happens if the denizens bother us first? Gets told defensive only.

Jules clarifies that Northbridge is going to haul him up even if he's stiff and figures he's bound by the same oath that Ariane is and is deserting his duties. Carlie queries his place in the murder of Sir Robert if he's bound by oath and Jules suggests maybe he found out afterwards.

Carlie then checks in with Sam Aston about is this still the deal if there's a rogue nuke running around the city and Sam absolutely flinches at the possibility of this and Carlie basically suggests she get the fuck out of our way, and also asks about Sally Jin and says she has a lot of interest in the nuke, Sam curses out Carlos. Carlie says she'd have brought it up earlier but we aren't sure which Grandee is in on the plan.

New deal: A direct portal down there, you can't eliminate what's down there, you can kill Northbridge or not, but you forever can't kill whatever is down there. Admits there's a spirit and worries that the Garou will see it as a Wyrm spirit and knows what werewolves are like around them. Lydia asks why she's keeping it alive and she says she has her own reasons. Just going down there won't disturb it, the other denizens of down there you can have if they're hiding North Bridge. Carlos and a couple of his friends have a hidey hole down there and if they've got Northbridge we can deal with them. Doesn't exist in the physical but we'll feel it.

So new deal: We'll get told what's down there, Jules will her the bottle of wine in exchange to make it a deal - then armed with this information we'll make a choice to go down there, find Northbridge.

Holly gets sent to grab Ariane and double times it tells her about a big spirit.

Final Deal: (1) Will open a portal for us to go down and come back (2) In return for the rest of our lives we leave the large spirit alone on pain of death for the rest of our lives. (3) Anything else is fair game and can tell anyone we wish. - we absolutely sign up with gritted teeth. We step into the summoning circle and get told that the spirit there is "A god of between worlds", are then offered a teleport to a large industrial space with a lot of passages going off in various ways, but like you'd been told about the tube via stories, and yes it smells of the Wyrm.

2023-10-02

So we're in the fucked up underground tube system thing, industrial lighting, yellow lines, mind the gap signs, a TFL door in a wall marked "STATION", there are 3 exits: Left, forward right, back right. Northbridge is off to the left somewhere, its a little strange for Holly to look through - can't see physical or the gap where the physical should be, it feels a bit like looking through in the deep Umbra - but we didn't get the feeling of going there, has a theory that we're somehow in the Gauntlet itself, somewhere between Penumbra and the physical. She explains this, like a whole realm in between, Ariane suggests gathering up a lot of info but Jules and Holly argue for more caution.

We head left and down a corridor, following a yellow painted pipe in the roof, sometimes has windows showing very bright green goop. We come to a grid staircase going up where the handrail inverts half way, below the stairs is more grid, there is more a void down there like someone forgot to put the floor in. At the top of the stairs is a sign marked "ENTRANCE NO" he feels that way, but we'll have to go down. We head up and and the door at the top has no handle, there's a mechanism behind it thats marked up from something being inserted. Jules gives it a hard shove until it breaks open.

Further in is another industrial space, snooker table, couches, looks lived in, we head in to the next door, the scent of the Wyrm gets stronger. Inside which is a military cook setup (propane tanks, burners, kettle, a lot of super noodles, tea, coffee, gray water bucket, there's washing up left over - looks like someones been here inside 24h). Further in a chemical field toilet and some military camp beds and mostly female clothes with a couple of male suits. They smell human and Sunny picks up the scent of Vampires. Jules points out its probably Sally Jin and Carlos.

We continue down to a huge space, a strange idea of train tracks (three rails, the middle moves around, sleepers, sometimes vertical) and weird black void archways. We see Northbridge with a weird spike, and a bulky metallic suitcase in his hand. Lydia observes this is a trap. Holly looks for traps feels her eye itch a little in the opposite corner to Northbridge as if it doesn't want to see something, Jules starts to move towards Northbridge, Lydia throws a deactivate tech gift, the third rail sparks in a few places, some of the lights flicker - Lydia then throws scent of the true form and sees someone in the corner where Holly couldn't see its Sally Jin they look ill, pointing at her with a shaking clenched fist, they're very scared. Lydia calls to her and she coughs blood before trying to throw magic, Holly prepares to throw web, but gets hit and knocked back by something - looks like some kind of air punch.

We try to talk her down and she asks us to go away and leave her alone. Carlie reminds her that at some point the piper shows up. Ariane tells her we're Garou and can't stop us, we're just here for Northbridge, checks in with Holly who says she's ok, she threatens to torch Northbridge, and Carlie reminds her that'll mean she'll get whacked if she tries then smacks her with a gift to talk her down, she takes off a bangle and throws it down and we get her to come over to Lydia. Ask her about the glowy thing, she says Carlos set it up.

Lydia asks her what day it is and she reveals she's been down here around 9 days, Lydia rapidly determines she's got probably fatal radiation poisoning, she may survive in a specialist unit but probably down to hours to live, Sunny gives her a magical healing lick, burns gnosis to keep her alive temporarily. Jules and Ariane head over to Northbridge, who's lying staked on a table with the suitcase. Debate about pulling the stake out or just moving him and talk about pulling it out. Carlie spots a blood trail going through a side door, so she pulls a white knife and goes through telling us to follow her if she's not back in 5 minutes - goes down a passage and turns right, spots becomes pools of blood, and then finds a suit in a pile of blood and muck, in the pocket is big glowing gemstone. She takes careful pictures, finds it all smells of vampire, then cautiously touches the gemstone and gets visions of death contained there, eyes watching her, The Lady of Kowloon trapped and screaming in a bitter moment, then freedom, love, and life, and when she comes back to paying attention her hand is burnt and she's dropped the stone. Wraps it in the suit to pick it up, which seems to block the effect, its uncomfortably weird to touch somehow - feels a bit like her body is being damaged and regenerating constantly.

Heads back to the room, as she comes back to the room, Sally cries "No!" and starts coughing again. Holly notices its very nope and bad and Lydia gives advice on holding that thing away from herself, she starts to take more damage. We make moves and Lydia tells Ariane to get a Hazardous Area Response Team as soon as we have signal (ooc: we double time it and incur a lethal on route).

The portal reopens as we return and we find ourselves on the Array with Sam Aston who Lydia tells to get back and Carlie asks for something made of lead, she poofs out and the upstairs fire alarm goes off, then poofs back carrying a heavy metal safe, Carlie yeets the rock in. Lydia then gets the Geiger counter on and checks Northbridge - which is not giving off radiation, he's a bit clicky but not a large amount, Carlie's hands seem contaminated. Ariane calls it in and told stuff coming in the next 15 minutes. We make a plan to carry Northbridge (Jules and Ariane) and the safe (Lydia) upstairs then form a queue to break his fingers to get the nuke back. Lydia gets spicy about using the nuke to use the Thames to flood the city so Ariane sends her to the back of the queue, in the end only Jules is very keen, so Jules breaks his fingers open to get the suitcase. She checks we've got everything we need then grabs Northbridges ankle and with a crack disappears. We debate if some of us should go after her and our witness and Deerborn comes in with several heavily armed people, asks for the Nuke. Then references the nuke being genuine and asks if "The Pit" (the core) is outside (its not), we check the safe and thats pretty safe and not the core of this one, both these things going to Porton Down, Ariane tells him that we may need it back and we agree we all serve "The Crown". They load up the radioactive shit in a big van, and then let the paramedics in NBC suits.

The pack get taken to hospital for check outs, get decon showers, and all sorts of funsies, its 5 hours of bloods and so forth, Dr. Thomas Roberts comes to check us out and reassures us we'll probably be fine, although Carlie's burn on her hand seems to have scarred up (ooc: dramatic battle scar!). Sally Jin however doesn't make it.

Once we're out Jules start's her sniffing for Northbridge again, triangulates him to The Tower of London where he remains for a while, and as we're being checked out, suddenly the smell shifts and he moves somewhere else, its an instant flick so obviously Sam teleporting him again. Carlie loses her clothing but gets her items (knives and shaker) back sneakily from Roberts with a note saying "My Compliments Sgt. Deerborn", she stays in overnight as sort of a respect towards Lydia.

We get out at 04:00 and Deerborn calls Ariane, says that Roberts says that we'll be ok. Asks about the two items, Ariane suggests she'll tell him tomorrow and arranges a meeting at 11am at Paddington Green. The Pack returns home via cab and falls asleep hard.

In the morning there's a text for Jules - "Seems like the auctions off, scuttlebutt is the items are off the table - Diamond Annie" and Ariane gets one from Northbridges phone "Am up and about now and ready to resume my duties whenever you wish - Northbridge".

Planning meeting: We need to tell them its a dangerous radioactive and magical threat, talk about plan to tell them it should only be touched on orders from The City of London or The Crown (which owns the City). Talk about how there needs to be a new Grandee (to break ties) but that The Lady of Kowloon wasn't really a ghost so they can't replace her. Jules tells us he went to the Tower of London of London then zapped elsewhere. We moot that whatever he told them must have made them happy (assuming he did send the message) so he's back on the job and can claim he was "recovering the nuke and got caught" or something. Make a plan to speak to River Fleet and Steven Thompson to find out what was happening

2023-10-09

So the plan is to go to Paddington Green to speak to Sargent Deerborn - It's Lydia and Ariane. We arrive at the side entrance, a smoking Lance Corp arranges for tea and we head down to Deerborn's office which is mostly neat and tidy. We start by telling him it could be dangerously radioactive and dangerously magical, he can protect them from radiation and maybe magic if he knows what. Ariane says that some of the decision makers of London may not be trustworthy, explains that Grandee's are decision makers who direct The Sheriff but the Sheriff answers to The City of London. He suggests its a civilian-military interaction in that he answers to his superiors and has standing orders from The Colonel to take instruction from The Sheriff of London (duly appointed by the City under the auspices of The Crown). Ariane checks in with him about if he's been to the spirit, he's not, we suggest it. He's seen Werewolves, Vampires, and people get stabbed and make a cup of tea. He's always assumed there's more. Ariane tries to say that he should see it to know what he's defending, he says he's defending United Kingdom and Northern. After conferring with Lydia Ariane tells him it contains or is a portal to some kind of Death God. Lydia checks that if we needed those things back would we get them? He says as long as the order came from the Sheriff or Deputy and wasn't countermanded he would, but is having to give the suitcase nuke back to the Russians under the terms of the non-proliferation treaty in whatever condition it was found in and HMRC isn't in the mood to break treaties. Lydia is sad we have to give it back and Ariane says we could just rely on 21st Tactical. Then talk of Samantha Wallingford and Ariane suggests the Grandees need to issue a statement and it's either going to be stand down or an escalation, but Ariane suggests holding her until a trial. He wants to chat to us as the only competent people and says he's not looked into our background. Lydia asks how to make herself useful to him and he suggests talking to military recruitment, who'll pass her onto TA and royal medical corp, she asks how to join his lot but he suggests people get assigned to him, he will keep an eye out for her in the system. Ariane asks him for his firstname to stop it being awkward, but he declines, she says she'll text him later. A lance corporeal stage whispers his name is "Tarquin".

Meanwhile Carlie gets a text from Diamond Annie about Sally Jin and Carlos and gives her a call back, says the Vampire is "a smear" and that Sally is either dead or is about to have time of death called. She says it was complex and some people need to keep hold of their precious goods, she's providing a security service, testing people's ability to hold their items safe, reassures her that she wants Carlie to know this and sends all her love to Lydia.

Everyone reassembles at the Pack House and arrange for Jules to called up Steven Thompson who reps some of his interests in Southwark, asks for a meeting for All of the Grandee's at the British Museum because its confirmed neutral ground and this is going to cause problems.

Holly suggests we should go talk to Mr. Benson and catch him up on everything either immediately before or after we meet. Sunny asks for a summary and Ariane gives the long term summary (Wi Chen Zhou works with Sir Robert, obtains the Nukes, is confronted by Robert and The Southwark Dogs one of whom dies. He kills Wi Chen Zhou, flees the country and comes back with The Jade Statue and a suitcase nuke. Later on Samantha Wallingford finds out about the suitcase nuke and knows Carlos and Sally Jin and they tell her they know the location of the spirit of a nuke - so she urgently goes to meet with Sir Robert on the same night as they trap The Lady of Kowloon in a gem and she murders Sir Robert to try and get the suitcase nuke back (its probably Jin and Carlos knew there was 2). John Northbridge covers up the murder and goes to get the suitcase nuke but is ambushed by Sally Jin and Carlos who drag him to the weird Wyrm dimension where they die of radiation poisoning - Ariane leaves Diamond Annie out of all this). There is then talk of the ethics of The Lady of Kowloon and if we can get her back out or if we should? Ariane says its up to the Grandees.

Jules gets a calender invite for 3 hours time at the BM just titled "Gathering".

There is then a debate about going all our and making the London cold war hot with Ariane largely suggesting we're not ready yet, and Lydia muttering angrily and suggesting that we should have nuke the Grandee's.

There is more back and forth and eventually Sunny and Holly head to The Guild to talk to Mr. Benson about what happened, we're not 100% sure what he can do. Sunny does her best to lean on him as a therapy dog and lick him sometimes, Holly gives him the whole story - it's clear he knew something was up but he had no idea about The Nukes, and Holly does her best to fill him in on the details of how we pieced it together. There's times when the light flickers a little. Holly tells him that we're going to give a formal report to the Grandees. Tells Holly to communicate The Guild's desires to the Grandee's which is they want Samantha Wallingford's head on a plate and suggests some kind of polite version is passed around The Guild such as Sir Robert was killed for a precious item he had, and with his death The Lady of Kowloon who he anchored/linked to the world had to go away, suggests a wake in a couple of days when Holly is next in work. Sunny offers to stay as quiet and comfortable company if it'd help which he accepts.

At the British Museum we're in a slightly larger room with the Grandees. The Angel looks pissed off. Harold Westbury is the first to stand up and welcome us and attempts to shut Ariane up by telling her she's not the sheriff and wasn't tasked with investigating this, she says she's happy to do the briefing without him. There is a snicker and Harold Westbury shuts up, he then interrupts the briefing whenever the Sheriff looks bad (but sadly for everyone he does well), Jules growls at him and he gives her a withering look. Three then asks questions - Sir Robert was in possession of a nuke and the spirit of a nuke and retained possession within London and the Sheriff retrieved one of the items and was unfortunately jumped by two thieves Carlos and Sally Jin, who have since died. There is discussion of how they found out about her and talk of long research. Diamond Annie doesn't get thrown under the bus. Westbury asks a last question: Who wrote the report that he has in his hand? Ariane says she cannot answer that. He then looks at Sam and asks where the Sheriff is. She says she last saw him leaving her house after she made sure he was patched up and healthy - Ariane feels that she's lying, there is talk he may appear soon, and Ariane pocket dials him and gets Northbridge who says he's stuck on the Northern Line and will be here in an hour to answer questions but sounded weak. There's arguments for trying Samantha Wallingford for murder, then there's a bunch of back and forth arguments about the "few good werewolves" who solved a problem "created by werewolves". During this Sam Aston slips out of the room, teleports out, and then John Northbridge arrives (without Sam).

Northbridge chats to Ariane and confirms he never wrote no report, they snipe at each other a little, he says that he disturbed Carlos retrieving the nuke and wasn't aware of Sally Jin who got the drop on him. He thanks us for saving him as we could have left him in the Wyrm realm and suggests that he and Ariane could have a professional relationship if nothing else.

2023-10-16

So everything is wrapped up at the BM, the pack reunites at the Pack House. Lydia suggests having a meeting about our priorities as a pack (after dinner on Tuesday), Sunny makes dessert - something rich, a melty rich dish with custard, Lydia makes a delicious stew.

The things people throw out include: Territory, people in it, spirits in it, fucking up the Wyrm, the history of the packs of the area. Lydia pushes for following The Litany specifically combatting The Wyrm. Ariane argues that the head of London's werewolves has declared a colder war is better than a hotter, Holly references submission to those higher in station. Ariane suggests we could work with Thompson to make a plan for flipping the war hot, also we now know there's a weird Wyrm realm under a train station we need to cut off. Carlie makes the point that at the minute if we disturb the peace then the Vampires will ally with the rest of the forces against us - the True Londoners, Mythics, etc. She says she doesn't intend to die doing nothing, and intends to do more killing than dying for Gaia, and she intends to do more hunting other things. She wants to wipe out the Vampires but this is not the opportunity.

Ariane says we've just been avenging the death of a Werewolf, then suddenly realises we're one Vampire short in the attack on Sir Robert.

There's then a discussion about how killing Vampires one by one is too slow, Carlie says no nukes because she doesn't want her grandma to die, Lydia talks about how she became a nurse purely to spread the good word and get people into Heaven and Carlie is very astounded by this. Talk about nuking London and Lydia blames London as an ecological disaster and Carlie attempts to talk about how we can't really blame people who were born here. There's a discussion about past policing of humans, Carlie makes it clear that causing the deaths of civilians is not something she can do and she'll leave if it happens. Holly brings up we've not really been changed Garou long, less than a year (subjective) except for Lydia and asks about the Children of Gaia umbral camp but gets brushed off, there's even talk of why do we have jobs? Ariane defends her plan to go become a human rights lawyer and gets sniped at for the idea that the law will change anything. Holly talks about protecting her kinfolk, Lydia mourns the loss of her family, Holly talks about maybe introducing Lydia to them to talk to.

There's a whole discussion about how Lydia is feeling cut off from everyone and Carlie and others give her a talk about reconnecting with work friends, Derek Watford, etc. Like fuck her church, but there's other people, and other things to talk about and talking to people about non-Wyrm and doom related things is healthy to celebrate you're alive and aren't dead yet (ooc: its a baller speech and I'm sorry I didn't catch it all)

Meanwhile: Sunny goes to run off frustration doing the boundaries of the territory and refresh the scent tags. Notices there's a church with a light on inside and almost familiar african drum beats coming from inside, goes for a sniff, there's a work party of enthusiastic amateurs with power tools taking down the cross not disrespectfully, a familiar scent of incense, and a large wooden crate by the altar end. She hides to watch, and in there is a different form of iconography. Two figures come out, one in a business suit smelling of the Wyrm, the other a Monk of the Black. "Once more Mr. Williams, thank you for your rather sizeable donation, this church will do extremely well in reaching out to the poor and disaffected, your England's churches have not been doing very well for your communities, especially those who have been brought here." the suited man replies with thanks and says he wants to see this church well used, is invited to join and says he's not much of an active church goer. She scents Mr. Williams as a vampire on his way past. She goes to sneak out, and bumps into someone's foot, who gives her a scritch between the ears, she can't help but enjoy it - then suddenly smashed out of the church by some kind of weird force that just pushes her right out the doors bashing her around - a few people scream and shout they clearly notice it and didn't expect it, she stays down so as not to rouse suspicions however one of them yells "Demon dog! By the power of the Eternal Church I smitheth thee!". She bolts, gets around a corner and steps into the Umbra where she spots a dome over the church, centred behind the altar where they were putting up the effigy.

Sunny bolts back.

Everyone is doing various things, Holly and Carlie spots AANC "Artists Against New Catholicism" online, playrights, visual artists, etc. trying to point out the dangers of the new religious movement. Lead by Gary Linekar and Graham Norton. They check into the net and not much useful is going on, there are discussions of racism or not, there is discussions of religion, some people are using the word cult. Sunny returns and tells us about the new church nearby and how she got blasted out the door and called a demon.

Discussion of what to do, mentioning them to special forces not been useful, there's talk of joining them from Lydia until Ariane reminds her they've bubbled it, Sunny also tells us about the Vampire backing. Talk of how we can totally oppose this because its a comic book scale invasion of the earth. Some talk of the MCU. There's talk of what do we do? Ariane suggests we should check in with Bell to find out if one of the bell-spirits is there, Lydia tells us about the conversation where she said she'd stop one of her daughters being there to ring for them, Ariane isn't sure if one is left over. Ariane moots burning the church down but says there's a lot of risks. Talk of is it a cult? Lydia fills us in on church service then coffee, and all old testament and the the multiple paths, talk of exposing their dodgy theology perhaps from Holly. There's some talk about exposing them as a weird spiritual cult and how most people just won't care. Talk of how we may need to go into the Umbra to push them to go back home. Talk about how much of their effective monk-class membership is through from the spirit.

Talk of infiltration and Ariane despairs about not having useful humans, Lydia suggests Carlie's gran and gets told to fuck off. Holly suggests hiring Carlie's workplace and we talk about if we could use Sunny as the front because they don't know her. Holly brings up the links between the churches membership being biased towards black people and Carlie's workplace being mostly white ex-cops and hence they may send her.

Ariane calls up Diamond Annie to make enquiries and is roundly mocked for being a cop but manages to get one of her working thieves recruited and get reports sent in. Ariane tries to pay in cash but is told "oh no you'd have me up on a solicitation charges" and insists on it being a favour and several times baits her to send "All Cops Are...", Carlie reveals that all Black Furies meetings include referring to Ariane as "Junior Cop Lady".