Season Five

Summary of Events. Also Todo List

In season 5: The pack finishes up at the Primrose-Morton Estate, Derek Watford threatens Jules again for the body of the Unknown USMC Mercenary and promises to fix things with Lydia's church, Lydia and co go to meet The Guild to get information about her birth parents, she finds out Watford is her cousin and attacks him, Jules goes to meet Sir Robert Laffrey and smooths over the attack, Sunny meets Professor Rodriguez again for work sniffing tobacco. Lydia's vicar (Reverend John Fenchurch) visits the house with Tabitha and Samantha who try to steal/plant evidence to push Lydia back to the church, she leaves them and we throw them out of the house. We visit the park for a picnic to watch the stargazers leave, then later Yangshi tells us Liz is in trouble (she stowed away with the Stargazers). We gathers supplies and head to Nam via the The Umbral Church, Purgatory, and Pathos to save her, meeting various members of the Church of the Umbral Popes. Rescue her from Nam then go to The Papal Estate and rescue the Stargazers. Meet Pope Hope III, leave with two members of the Order of Black, one of whom dies in Peter and the other is killed by Carlie. Holly has a bad time in Purgatory (worse than Ariane did earlier) and we eventually get the Ford Focus back to the Alpha Games warehouse.

2021-09-27

(Lydia talks to the lawyer about the death of her birth parents, Ariane confronts her mother about her treatment of Elise. Sunny keeps on learning to cook from Alice. Holly, Carlie, and Jules all chat to Tarquin about mystic rites, arcana and the umbra, navigating the umbra, Holly's Map, religion, and the ritual castle, Carlie and Tarquin take a brief road trip to the Summerland and meet a grass sprite, also everyone gets their post full of plot threads: Islington covid, Stargazer stuff, Lupus stuff, and Lottie stuff)

First a session of wrapping up loose ends. So Penny has departed from the Primrose-Morton Estate, The Major is a happy drunk, Alice is happy for Penn but also sad she's gone, Lottie mostly passes out, feels rough, and departs the following day, seeming more grumpy, putting on less of a front and not posting on social media (The Pack is doing a hecking variable size concern).

Lydia starts by talking to the lawyer from the Matrix Chambers at the party, confirms her name and that she was adopted about age 7, she's trying to confirm the events in Papua New Guinea which caused the Death of Lydia's Birth Parents, they turned out to be working for SIS/MI6 and her Mother was a Garou and member of The Guild, they were on the way to East Timor for some sort of intelligence gathering job. There are photos of them with her at the helicopters, a letter from her birth father wishing her well if something goes wrong, and a £100k financial trust fund. She was rescued from the wrecked by Colonel Redacted and sent back to the UK via the Swiss Embassy. The lawyer says he'll make enquiries about more distant family, he's also not sure how her parents were selected, the forign and commonwealth office made the choice and placed her with them before the Matrix Chambers knew she was in the country, they decided not to disturb her, and no member of the Smith family is a known Garou. She was told if she wasn't a werewolf she wouldn't have gotten to see the secret file, just gotten the letter and her legacy on her 25th birthday. Also her parents won't get any mention of the werewolves or intelligence services in their letters. The lawyer also "accidentally" forgets and drops the Photo of Lydia's Birth Parents.

A few days later Ariane finds Janice Primrose-Morton in a break from her hiest planning and has a whole debate about her treatment of Elise, suggesting she was trying to get her killed, Janice suggests she was just trying to scare her off and away from John, Ariane suggests that she was trying and that the Primrose-Morton's should have worked to help fix her so she could fit in the way she wanted and that she had the potential to be as she used to be a lynch pin of her community. Janice suggested she would have tried and failed forever and she's disappointed that Ariane wants to change people as she wants to inspire them to be better versions of themselves ("We inspire and lead them, we don't make others great") and that The Major will never let her be happy or fit in. Ariane makes the suggestion that they should persuade John to dump her, not the other way around and Janice suggests that he'll never do that because he's not interested in her except as a trophy, he's more interested in promotion, Janice thinks he'll never get to Colonel because he's far too useful where he is and will only get the symbolic promotion on his retirement. Ariane concludes by telling her mother to keep an eye on Lottie, and Janice replies by suggesting she tell Tarquin instead. Eventually Ariane goes to "hunt deer" i.e. got to the woods and smash things up in frustration.

Holly asks around for someone who knows the Rite of Fetish, Tarquin says he can direct her to a spirit to learn it, Jules is looking into the idea of interacting with the Umbra using Arcana magic and look for blood lines in the library, Carlie goes to the woods to poke the edge of the ritual space. Sunny keeps on learning cooking skills with Alice. Penny texts Sunny, Alice, and Carlie to invite them to hang in Durham post pandemic.

So Jules, Carlie, and Holly are approached by Tarquin for discussion of magic - he talks to Jules about the use of Arcana arrays suggesting she use her gifts, but she suggests its useful to enchant whole spaces or buildings at once, Tarquin says that you can use arrays to get to the deeper realms but not The Shadow. Say's he'd like access to Holly's Map and will offer something in trade and wanted to talk to her Alpha first, Jules suggests she can't order Holly and that Tarquin should have chatted to her first. They also talk about Carlie hunting the Unknown Ahroun around the tower.

So a few days later Tarquin talks to Holly about the map, offering an invested item that will help her to hop between realms in exchange for making a copy, she asks for 2 copies so one can be taken with us and says she feels her Uncle would be happier if the knowledge was put to use and preserved. Tarquin says he's headed for The Tower also called The Spire on the map before he becomes too much older and unable to make the trip.

Carlie meanwhile is trying to grok the ritual space and how it works, tries and fails to meditate there and get results, when she checks the umbra the place feels odd, connected to nicer realms, she manages to peer through and get glimpses of the places - The Umbral Church (with a lone woman in the pews), and the Summerland (sunny upland hills, pure nature and bounty). Tarquin approaches her, they chat and he say's he's been too busy to do much travelling recently (the house, his wifes business, raising Ariane), but felt her poking the place (he's connected to the ritual space). Carlie talks about her strange experience fetching Sunny and how she's been trying to get a sense of how Gaia worship works, been shouting about stuff with Lydia but wants to know if the Garou way has anything as it matches experience. Tarquin talks about how Janice once contacted a deep nature realm here, talks about how the Garou have the Gauntlet dividing them from The Shadow, whereas Mythics see this world as just one realm connected to all the others with none of them more "real" or "physical" than the others, but some realms more magically active, so in some the gods and spirits are more directly there. He also reveals other Mythics don't trust him much because they're stuck up and he associates with werewolves. He says he has a philosophy more than a religion: to do the right thing for the world and his family, he knows the gods are out there but their influence is limited these days to the messengers who can hear them, his goal is to respect all things and say yes to what he can. He changes the subject and tells Carlie that on any deep Umbral quest you need someone who can open gateways to shift you between realms - Holly in this case, but you'll need a navigator with a sense of where those realms are and suggests Carlie.

He hands her a Joker playing card as a "get back" magic tool, then the pair of them hop through into the Summerland, a wild nature realm, pollen lifting from the grass, full of life and bouyed up spirits. They meet a Grass Sprite, a winged figure made of pollen, Carlie offers it a little Gnosis and it grows, laughs and is happy and chats - telling them where they are, giving her the gnosis back and telling her that Gaia always welcomes her guardians here, one of her realms that some of them go to when their fighting days are done, she will always welcome her children back here. Carlie communes with the place and gets a feeling of connection to her past, to a tree from far away and one literally grows beside her, she thanks Tarquin (who is apparently seeking to establish a connection her for later return), thanks the spirit, and heads back to the physical world. It is now nighttime and hours have passed in the 30 subjective minutes, Tarquin tells her it'll take a month to recharge the return card.

Things wrap up with The Mail (pay your local red cap):

• Lydia gets stuff from environmental health, no one in Islington is getting covid since the first few weeks of pandemic, PHE are investigating food/water/air and the media haven't picked it up yet
• Jules:
  • Message from Diamond Annie suggesting the heat is dying down and asking if we're coming back, she sends a rough estimate back
  • Message from Sun Wang-Li who's being promoted, may be part of a strange road trip, will be serving drinks at the wolves on the heath for the Stargazer event and owes us champagne
• Sunny:
  • Gets a message from Kyle Waters who got her number from Derek Watford, asks if she wants to hang out with fellow Lupus and she is enthusiastic.
  • Gets a message from Lottie saying she needs to talk and Sunny should get in touch when she's back in London, she confirms she will.

Next weeks plan: 2-3 weeks after Midsummer, a couple of days before the Stargazer Deep Umbra Covid Quest

2021-10-04

(Car shopping, Holly trading a copy of the map for Realm Gate Bangle, back to London, arguing, Sunny telling Watford we're back, sending out a big howl, ordering Beef Chow Mein and meeting Maneki-neko again, Jules and Lydia got to New Scotland Yard to see Derek Watford, he still wants the body, realises Lydia is the child of one of his deceased pack mates, and promises to fix the allegations against her)

The Pack starts by car shopping which of course leads to several major and long running arguments, we eventually settle on the modified landrover that can cope with high water.

Holly goes to talk to Tarquin to get the deal with the map sorted, gets a device that allowed travel between proximate umbral realms once every 48 hours, infinite charges, Liz advises Jules that such a thing is worth a huge sum of money (£60k or so). Holly ponders that the map should be accurate for about 30-40 years ago, and maybe drift and changes may happen but the knowledge may be priceless, Ariane suggests exchanging trip reports for a certain time period as part of the negotiation. The deal is struck for the Realm Gate Bangle, which opens portals with the keyword "Ori Primus" followed by stating the target realm and fixing it in your mind, a good description will work if you've not seen it. The portals last around 2-3 minutes. Can be used to follow the hops on the map there is no way to directly jump deep.

As everyone's packing up they explore Ariane's room a little, mocking her gently for pictures of horses, weird stuff, and teen diaries. We load the car and the drive home is glorious in the Summer sunshine and fresh air.

Back at the house we find the doors intact and a note from Diamond Annie saying Dear Southwark Belles, I fitted some new front and back doors, but don't ask where they're from with a nice p.s. saying it was boring with out us :) We soon get embroiled in arguing back and forth about telling Derek Watford we're back vs. just sending out a howl, eventually Sunny just texts Watch to say that he smells bad and she's back, he responds telling her to keep her nose clean and not to make him send her out of town again. Eventually the argument leads to Carlie and Jules stalking out, Lydia talks about wanting to speak to Watford and The Guild about her birth parents. Jules calls Liz and she says she owes us a drink, wants to tell us stuff, Jules invites her over.

We put together a list of our major hits (David Vasiry (murderer), Carl Rodrigos (criminal), hired mercs, helped a werewolf discover herself (Penny), survived a silver bullet attack to save a comrade (Jules/Liz), saved a life from a silver bullet attack (Lydia), Visiting the Heart of Gaia (Carlie, Summerland), helped our kinfolk (Alice, Elise, etc), hunted a deer and offered its heart to spirits, Lydia continued her quest to witness to everyone in every realm, and deflected a spirit that possess people (Unknown Ahroun). Ariane howls well (7 successes) and howls herself a little horse, it's picked up and carried across London and further afield as The Tale of the Belles vs. David Vasiry a tale of sacrifice, pack cohesian, saving poeople, hunting and offering to the spirits to heal and recover our vital wyld nature.

The Pack orders Beef Chow Mein to celebrate, Mr Lee delivers it personally, accompanied by Maneki-neko, who gets a growl from Lydia, she says the foods on the house and we're welcome home, and sits watching us, Lydia tries to shoo it, Sunny tries to lick it, we fill in Carlie on who it is and our history, Holly tries to be nice and asks it what it wants and it just runs and bamfs through the cooker into the Umbra.

After food Lydia says she wants to talk with Watford and Jules says she'll go with her to supervise. So the next morning she calls up Watford and arranges to meeting Watford at New Scotland Yard, his office, she makes coffee and takes Jules with her. At reception she tries to witness to the receptionist who's already part of the Christian Police Association, she gets taken to the visitor suites, Jules gets side tracked into interrogation suite 2, where Watford comes in for a chat, says thanks for delivering Lydia, teases about Sunny being Alpha, but also wants the body back so that the US Embassy get off his arse and threatens to hassle Jules every chance he gets. Jules honestly says there's nothing she can do about it, the body is gone but does tell him that Mr. Jones was involved as the cleaner.

Over in the visitor suite Lydia has coffee and cake for everyone, Watford tells her that NCIS are looking for a body and if she knows where the Marine is, Lydia just says it depends if she got to know Christ before she died because then she'd be in heaven. Watford heroically contains himself. She then shows him the photo of her parents and he goes white, he did know them, but was very young at the time, and that her birth mother was a packmate of his, and that Lydia was going to be called "Caroline" by her, says he wants to talk to her away from the cameras, tells her to meet at a bar called The Guild on Canada Wharf, and its okay to bring the whole pack, and that the older members will have better tales. Tells her her mother wasn't a cop, but her and her father put "bad things away", The Guild also looked for her and he thinks she was in Glouchester from a Civil Service fuck up, he claims the Matrix Chambers linked arms with social services and shut down all enquires, and that he didn't know she was garou so had no reason to think she'd change. She reminds him her Church think she murdered someone as the police told them that, Watford looks like a kicked dog and says that an enquiry was made and "an officer may have made a statement connecting her to something", intense use of wheedling passive voice. Jules tells him to fix it as a means a lot to Lydia.

2021-10-11

(There's a pack meeting with bacon where we catch up on news and plan the evening. At the house (Jules, Holly, Carlie) Liz catches up and says shes's getting to learn more magic and is going on a spirit quest for a few months to try and find The Spire, also they work out The Guild is an overlap of mythics/garou. Meanwhile other people (Lydia, Sunny, Ariane) go to meet The Guild to learn more about Lydia's birth parents (Alan and Mary Watford) and she finds that Derek Watford is her cousin, and knew where she was, but never contacted her. She reacts badly and attacks him, he survives, everyone get's K.O'd by magic, barred and told to leave. They get picked up by Carlie and taken home)

Jules and Lydia returned around lunchtime whereupon Jules calls a Pack Meeting (Carlie fries the peace bacon) and talks of Liz coming to visit that evening and that Lydia's parents were linked to the Guild and she's going to The Guild bar this evening to get information. Ariane thinks this is super important, Lydia seems a bit off and Carlie tries to poke her blank "I'm fine" statements. Lydia also tells us about how The Angel Islington is messing with Islington's caserates, Ariane speculates about what cost the True Londoners will eventually extract, talk about if the effect/rave can be directed elsewhere and if we can stop the police breaking it up and arresting the innocent people (as we figure the fae will be fine).

So that evening at the Pack House: Jules, Holly, and Carlie are in the house. Jules caught Sun Wang-Li up on how things had gone (super healing but bullets still hurt, Lydia's birth parents are linked with The Guild, went to visit Ariane's family, etc), Liz has the booze they get glasses from Sunny's Room and find she keeps the freezer stocked with ice. Jules gets Carlie out of her room (she thought this was a date between Jules and Liz), Holly notices that Liz has a green pattern tattoo up her right arm 0 she reveals this is Yangshi who seems to live there and can now manifest, coming off her arm as smoke. Liz catches them up on her summer - got the finders fee, sold on the magic knuckle dusters (Ori Amlifico Devices) and made a sweet 20-30k but most importantly has proved to The Guild that she's trustworthy, and Derek Watford gave her shit but she ignored him and played up the silly Spiritalis mages are all hippies stereotype, but he took the drugs from her housemate which irritated her. Jules and Carlie tell her about Ariane's family (well meaning rich people, well rich ex-garou-aristocrats), and Liz talks about how her Grandmother talked of the old days in Hong Kong. Liz says The Guild have started to teach her The Real Power and taking her more into the Spirit World and she knows they have more secrets/magic higher up, took her first trip to the Spirit recently and is now being sent on a long well paying (60-70k) jaunt looking for The Spire and trying to map a route, is nervous she'll die as she's not a big strong garou and is planning on using the Stargazer Ritual to help portal her deep as a starting point. Holly suggests she make them a pitch and go as a ride along (having a Mage would help) and asks how she'd get out, Liz says she could retrace her steps and that may work but there aren't many other Spiritalis mages to ask. She tells Holly that The Spire is "where the original Mythics came from". Carlie suggests she's looking for a bodyguard and looks to Jules who says she can't take a week off, Liz reveals that Umbral time works in reverse inception - the deeper you go in the umbra the more time dilation happens and hence you loose less real wall clock time but she's been told to prepare to be out there for 2-3 months. Holly knows the route is 4 hops, which would require 12 days (6 hops ignoring the starting/ending point of earth-realm, each taking 48h) and she moots the idea of working as an Umbral guide if her job falls through. Carlie then leaves to pick up the others and Jules and Liz work out the Guild is actually a garou pack/mythic guild overlap, explaining their secrets and magic.

Meanwhile at The Guild bar: Lydia, Sunny, and Ariane arrive, ring the bell, chat to the door staff, hand in their coats, staff are in blue ties, second basement is reserved for "rowdy behaviour" (i.e. fighting). Ariane has her notepad to take notes for Lydia who is nervous, they look iffy at Sunny but let her in after she makes Ariane joke about her keeping her coat on. Inside we enter a quiet lounge and meet Derek Watford, Sir Robert Laffrey (suited man, wolfshead cane), and The Lady of Kowloon (well dressed, refined chinese lady (not garou). Sir Robert remarks the pack is making a mark and he heard our howl, talk of the nice summer we had, Watford is sent to get clothes for Sunny and tea. Lydia says that no ones even told her her birth parents names, we learn they were Alan and Mary Watford, Mary was the garou and also Derek Watford's step-aunt making Lydia and him cousins. Laffrey tells her her parents weren't Christian and her adoption was rushed/off the books. Watford reveals that he knew where she was but didn't want to reveal the nature of her parents or their relationship because she had a good life away from weird magic stuff, justifying it as a very slim chance she was garou, kept meaning to contact her and never did. She flips to crinos form and goes for his throat, doesn't kill him but cuts him badly with her claws, Ariane tries to distract her with a chair and fails, Sunny tries to tackle her and fails, she takes a solid hit (3 points aggravated) from Sir Laffrey's cane and manages to get a second slash in on Watford's arm before Ariane tackles her sideways in crinos, Sunny sits on Watford to keep him down as he shifts, and then all 3 crinos garou pass out. Sir Robert talks to Sunny and she confirms she'll keep the violence done. Two staff members carry Watford to the lower floors and people are woken up, the Lady of Kowloon is apparently reading our thoughts and knows we're telling the truth - Ariane and Laffrey are angry with Lydia, she curls into a ball and we are told we're barred (and that Watford will live with some new scars). The Lady of Kowloon tells Lydia not to apologise as Watford deserved it, then leaves suspiciously smoothly (probably not actually floating). We're given prisoner jumpsuits to wear after our form shifting, Ariane helps Lydia into one, we've given our coats (dressing Sunny in one as she's helping carry Lydia), Ariane tips the doors staff, and we call up the house people once we're outside. Carlie picks us up, taking a picture of us because of the outfits, sending to the rest of the pack. Sunny is grumpy, Lydia is broken.

2021-10-18

(Ariane catches the pack up on Lydia v. Derek Watford, Liz goes, we find out Lydia is bleeding and watch her sleep in shifts, Jules goes to see Sir Robert Laffrey and they agree it was a family matter and basically its done now. Sunny goes to see Professor Rodriguez and sniffs tobacco for him, he also meets Jules. Ariane and Lydia talk blame, her Vicar (Reverend John Fenchurch) calls and tries to apologise, she says she's going to leave the church, he says he's coming over, so Holly and Ariane tidy up).

So at the Pack House. Jules tries to work out what is going on, Ariane is very angry and makes tea but reveals Lydia tried to murder Watford. Liz drops a glass bottle, leaves and mentions that Mythics basically zap first, ask questions later so if we're alive its a good sign (like garou I guess?), arranges to see Jules at the Stargazer thing tomorrow. Ariane fills in the rest of the pack with details, Lydia growls at people who approach her, we get some pillows with the idea that she needs to sleep down here in the kitchen and we'll watch her in shifts, as we move her we notice blood dripping from her side, also she tries to bite Holly. Eventually she drops into exhausted sleep.

In the morning Carlie checks in with her and she talks about murdering a police officer, Carlie tries to suggest she must have some forgiveness for herself, but she wants to hand herself in and go to prison, she also tries to claim she's not good, Carlie talks to her about her temper and says her's is also bad and has caused trouble. She fetches Ariane who tries to reassure Lydia that Watford isn't dead.

Benson (the doorman for The Guild) calls Jules, arranges a meeting at The British Museum, she tells Ariane and Lydia where she's going and Ariane fills her in on the ways Garou culture deals with these sorts of things (duels, fueds, etc). Sunny also gets a call from Rodriguez asking her to come help distinguish different Jamaican cultivars of tobacco stored in silver boxes.

In the main meeting room Sir Robert Laffrey introduces himself and greets Jules as that, she moves to using Juliana in the formal situation. He thanks her for Sun Wang-Li's survival, Jules says one of her pack mates is catatonic, Sir Laffrey says he had to break up a scuffle with a member of her majesties government and that there should have been more decorum and people should have known better, but admits that Watford should have known better over a longer period of time. Jules says that "Derek made a choice not his to make". Sir Laffrey is mostly concerned if Lydia intends to finish the fight and if the rest of the pack will back her up. Jules says it was out of character for her and she normally respects the police this was an unusual personal reaction. Laffrey suggests it was a "dispute between family members" and that a howl would not be conducive to garou society so no one should. Jules agrees and asks after Watford, told he is sore, grumpy, and in bed for a week before a phased return to work after a "cleaning accident". Sunny and Ariane are welcome back at the Guild, and maybe Lydia once she's had a nice calm tea with Watford. He also says that Jules is a lot more reasonable than he was lead to believe by Watford.

Meanwhile Rodriguez and Sunny are working through the samples, he thanks her for using her nose as this saved him project resource as he can choose which to test at a lab. Sunny suggests he should check for beneficent spirits involved in their growth and he says he can't, but also couldn't publish on it unless he said it was socio-religious influence on the growth. They leave the room to meet Jules, Sunny also spots Laffrey. Professor Rodriguez says hello to Jules and that Sunny has been helping him, also tells Sunny there's some decayed leather for her to work on next time, Jules clocks they're chatting while Sunny is using first tongue and he is replying in English. She notices his scent (strange ozone/static smell), reminded of the Man Cursed By God A Little, he explains he can speak first tongue because he is "far older than he looks". Jules and Sunny make plans for getting a nice breakfast - sends a quick message saying everything is settled, NO HOWLS, Watford is okay just injured.

Meanwhile Lydia is telling Ariane that she had the intention to kill and she is a failure as a Christian and Ariane is not to blame for not stopping her because she's not Christian and hence has a lower bar of judgement. Then Lydia's vicar calls and apologies because he was mistaken, and after a period of reflection has realised he was wrong to judge her, she asks him seriously if he thought she could murder someone ("You couldn't murder a fly!") and she tells him she should leave his Church. He assumes its because she's been mixing with the house mates cult and that he'll be praying for her, she talks about finding a replacement to fill her spots in the Sunday school and soup kitchen, he tries to reassure that Jesus is with him and her and he'll be right over with friends to pray for her immediately. She ends the conversation with "Also I'm a werewolf". Ariane is vastly perplexed and is all "But why!" then get's Holly on hand and explains the vicar is coming and they need to tidy up stat to make the place presentable, we hide most of the illegal stuff under Holly's bed and she puts on Radio 2. Lydia reminds us she told them we were a moon cult so they'll think the werewolf stuff is all tied up with that. Carlie has strong trolling intentions... and we await the inevitable doom.

2021-11-01

(Lydia's vicar Reverend John Fenchurch came to visit and brought thieving twins Tabitha and Samantha, they try and persuade her to come back, she tells them she's a werewolf, they leave, Jules fills everyone in on the plan, we go to see the Stargazers and Liz leave into the Umbra).

At the Pack House, the Reverend John Fenchurch arrives in a Volkswagen with Robin Fenchurch (his wife) and two young blonde women Samantha and Tabitha) who Lydia has a passing familiarity with as members of the church. Ariane answers, walks them inside doing her best polite act, they have Bibles and pamphlets obviously, Tabitha instantly asks to go to the loo and gets direction, everyone else to the kitchen, although Samantha hangs back. Lydia tries to explain she's leaving because she's a werewolf, Ariane tries to pretend this is part of the neopagan cult, also we discover that Carlie and Lydia both read trashy werewolf romance novels, however Lydia keeps denying being a pagan or a moon worshipper but insists on being a werewolf Christian which rather gets in the way of the distraction. Fenchurch does say the Bishop spoke to him and he was unhappy (also the Bishop said she had a "special mission in the church" but we're unclear what this implies). Carlie gets into it with him about his witnessing methods being bad because they annoy people and they argue about the importance of blood family, this gets Lydia to tell him that this was her point - when she needed her church family they abandoned her so she's leaving to form a better church. Fenchurch defends himself by apologises and says he needed the moon-worshippers to show him the error of his ways being too quick to judge.

Meanwhile Holly is in her room with the stash of weird stuff and hears someone trying doors, opens hers with a flourish and sees someone going into Jules room, goes in and finds Tabitha in there rummaging around holding a packet of something, Holly strongly goes off on one about people going through others belongings and invading their space, Carlie heads up to see what the noise is and sees Samantha on the way who was "hanging her coat" and Carlie tells her to think of a better lie. In Jules room Carlie and Holly suggest that Tabitha's line of "wanting to give Lydia a gift" is another bad lie and Holly grabs Tabitha's wrist seeing her trying to push the bag into her pocket, its part of Jules stash, Holly tells her its on her person and accuses her of possibly planting drugs, she tries to talk about this being a house of sin and inequity and Carlie points out that she's engaging in trespass and theft, they frogmarch Tabitha downstairs.

Downstairs Samantha is telling the Vicar that he is "parked funny" as a method of trying to extricate them from the situation, Lydia retorts with Matthew 25:43 that when she was accused he deserted her, meanwhile Carlie and Holly arrive downstairs with Tabitha and tell everyone she was planting and taking stuff. Tabitha tries to claim everything is justified by saving Lydia's soul and Carlie dunks on this hard, Samantha tries to talk about how its weird one of the rooms just has a big dog bed in and we tell her its the dogs room and used for storage. Eventually the vicar despairs of Lydia and everything and leaves with the others in great confusion, Lydia breaks down in tears some more.

At this point Jules and Sunny return and Sunny sniffs out everywhere strange people had been (front room, Sunny's room, Ariane's room, Lydia's room, Holly's doorway, and Jules room) but not Carlie or Holly's. They also find a small wooden cross on Jules bed. Lydia tries to tell everyone she should (again) tell her parents she's a werewolf and we try to tell her its a bad idea (with Ariane reminding them of the myth/events of the Impergium as the reason Garou believe humans react badly to them) and if she shifts in front of them they may attack her, she may kill them, they may run and tell others, or may just rationalise it away. She persists that lying is wrong, suggests if they're good christians they'll accept her and come to terms with it, and Carlie tries to suggest Lydia should pay attention to how they really act and not how she wants them to act and that this may break them permanently. Carlie says she may in fact just never see her father again because he may cause too much rage in her and he wouldn't understand, and that the pack worries for Lydia and doesn't want her hurt or her family hurt and finally suggests she can tell them in heaven and they can understand it there. Lydia tries to talk about how she couldn't leave home without telling them, and we break it to her that their expectations (that she'll essentially return home until she leaves to marry Tobias from down the road who she thinks is "alright") are unrealistic.

Jules reconvenes things to talk about the outcome of the meeting - confirms that Watford is definitely not dead, but no more fights, no howls, there is no victory and if people play nice the Guild may unban us and we can rebuild things.

We make a plan for the evening ritual, Jules fails to confirm he she's going to flirt with/date Liz, Sunny asks why she can't just talk to her directly and there is a discussion of sex ed and 101 material, Carlie asks Ariane for Garou religion/magic 101 and Ariane confirms there's no text with it all in, just like a reading list of myths and her Tribe and spirits to talk to.

The pack *eventually* makes it to Hampstead Heath for the Stargazer Deep Umbra Covid Quest, we meet Bill Stone from the Dagenham Deadbeats who's here with his wife Jessica Stone, tells us they're expecting them to try and use a pile of essence/gnosis on some kind of magical vehicle and set it on fire, this is his 4th visit to such an event. Previous quests have included going to True Luna (they ended up in different places but one claimed to make it), Meeting a Dead Pope (who had knowledge of the Garou, called Leo something - Ariane muses on old Roman wolf cults centred around Garou), and one looking for the Spiral Dancers hidden labyrinth (he thinks one sabotaged it to avoid going to Scotland). Jules gets a text from Liz and heads up to meet her at the bandstand, tells her the rest of the packs with the Deadbeats, Liz is dressed in a lot of combat leathers and Jules is into it, she plans to sneak in and demonstrates the ability to turn invisible with Yangshi's help, something to do with magic tattoos that bond them/give them abilities, they arrange coffee and a catch up for when they get back, and Liz gives her a peck on the cheek, Jules tells her to be careful, and is given a backpack to look after.

We hear the noise of a souped up ford fiesta arriving, covered in sigils, Robed Stargazers get out, explain the quest and that they got their mystical chariot from the Dagenham Deadbeats, Ariane tries to explain the spirit of covid may help give physical world info because the two worlds are mirrors of each other, they fuel the vehicle with gnosis and it glows, some members of the pack spot a mix of runes and Mythic array components on it, blue flames shoot out the back and Carlie and Jules spot the back door opening a fraction as Liz presumably sneaks on board, they floor it, hit 88 miles an hour, and the whole thing disappears leaving a glowing rift that slowly closes.

2021-11-08

(We hang out at the picnic with some Deadbeats, head back to the Pack house to watch Alien, Yangshi alerts us that Liz is in trouble, we check the map and are told its Nam, so plot a route (The Umbral Church, Purgatory, Pathos, then Nam), gather supplies and information including pope statues, and magic knives. Visit Celeste of the CoG, hear they did a trip to Nam in the 60s and it was a bad place, get access to the Church, then hop to Purgatory and it just sucks. We meet a strange man with a lamp on a stick who takes us to his hut)

So Bill and Kyle are cheering, everyone is making Back to the Future references, there is plenty of beer and food. Notably Lydia is not handing out pamphlets, there are fireworks and sparklers, there is chat amongst the pack about films, Alien comes up notably, also stage shows, and Lydia's training body goo vs. theatrical body goo. The Deadbeats head off for a curry, also Kyle and Sunny arrange to meet up in a couple of days.

Back at the Pack House we watch Alien having convinced Lydia to try it, while getting popcorn Jules sees something in the microwave door, gets Carlie to help search, can't see a cat, a noise from upstairs directs them to the bathroom where they see Yangshi in the bathroom mirror trying to push through. Jules tries to help and manages to pull her out and she panics, they fetch Holly who hears that Liz is "stuck", "in pain" and its "difficult", they get a vision of Liz behind a tree that is exploding around her, something smashing up the car, bullets going by, Liz holding a bloody arm. Jules goes through the mirror in a rush and gets the sense of going through an illusion and Yangshi explains its her thoughts/memories. Holly gets the map and Yangshi points to the area known as Nam, we start checking routes and making plans.

• Sunny
  • Back and forths with Kyle who says he's no good at Umbral tracking.
  • Talks to Professor Rodriguez, and as he picks up hears the noise of metal scraping on metal, he says he'll see what can do and arranges for a courier to bring us some Papal Statues
• Lydia talks to the Bishop and gets a generic "may God go with you in all your endeavours", pokes him back with James 2:16 and he offers more useful information, that the Lord's word carries more weight in some parts of the spirit and none in others, also gives her an address of a lock-up.
• Jules
  • Talks to Diamond Annie who tells him for the Umbra always know your exit, take whatever weapons you think might work. When asked why doing the reference Jules says its the right thing to do and Annie calls her a goodie two shoes.
  • Also talks to Benson, who thanks her for the notification and asks if we're posting a reward for help and says that he'll tell the members for free at least.
• Ariane emails all the details to Tarquin Primrose-Morton and hopes he at least knows where she's going.

We make a general plan to go via the The Umbral Church and Lydia makes arrangements with Celeste of the Children of Gaia. Meanwhile Carlie, Lydia, Jules, and Sunny go to the Bishop's Lockup, its got church hall seating, nativity scenes, etc. But also a cabinet of daggers, and a couple of swords that feel weird/wrong and silvery, they take the Eight Blades of the Bishop. Meanwhile at the house a motorcycle courier arrives to deliver 2 small marble statues, Roman style figures in chairs, one of Papa Lumos III and one of Pope Leo XII, Sunny loads them into her dog panniers, as the others return Holly spots that the Bishops daggers have spirits in.

The pack packs up and heads to Celeste's place, she has the mirror out, suspects that Liz stowing away knocked out the calibration of the trip, tells us the Children of Gaia went to nam in the 60s, a place of sin and war, full of devils, and the Wyrm's influence, filled with holes. She also gives a copy of The Werewolf Bible to Carlie, which has a section appended about the trip.

We head through the mirror to The Umbral Church (which is most excellent, also its impossible to spend rage here), there's an altar and an unadorned cross at the end. We ask Lydia about Purgatory and she tells us it's sort of a laundry for souls to be cleaned before heaven, a purification of the elect who are holy enough for heaven but have a few little sins, which in some versions get burn away, also you can pray for souls there to shorten their time. There's a lot of Renaissance art depicting it with people being pulled from the fires of purgatory (which is done in a hell like way) and into heaven. Ariane and Lydia notice a bunch of stained glass windows of these sorts of things, also some of large cathedrals with arched roofs, the last supper, and 2 towers. Carlie gets the portal vibes from them - one goes to the Belles aka Music of the Celestial Realms that we've witnessed via a Bell before, one to an industrial hellscape (Gary), and one to what is functionally a bigger version of this place (Cathedral), one that is full of feasting and raucous drinking ([the Hall of Heroes), and one is quiet, desolate, and empty - we figure this last one is Purgatory, our destination, depicted as metal towered stained glass. She heads through, the rest of the pack follow.

In Purgatory its a weird dusty plane, dust rolling over it in the wind and basically nothing else. The feeling of the colour being sucked from us. Lydia attempts the Lord's Prayer and it just feels dead and empty, it sucks the enthusiasm from it. Ariane also tries praying to Gaia and gets a similar response . We see a swinging light on the horizon and trudge towards it as dust settles upon us pulling the colour from us. We meet a Man with a Light on a Pole, back hunched, watching us, beckoning. Opens with latin "Salve", then moves to modern speech. Jules asks how we get out and is told that "acceptance is the way out, teh way out of the gray, the soul must accept its fate, the past and future", the man asks if we are "Sisters of the White", we tell him we're here to go to Pathos and Nam, he invites us to his hut to find out way to sadness. Refers to Lydia (probably) as a "Sister of the White" and says we are not "Sisters of the Grey", Jules tells him we came from Gaia.

He leads us around some large rocks into a strange wooden hut, there are lamps that smell of cheap whale oil (fishy/marine) and we head inside.

2021-11-15

(Talked to Brother Sigrid about The Eternal Religion, Lydia failed to convert him, Ariane got sad, met a Sister of the Gray, went through a lake, went through the Ciscero door and met Hermes)

In the strangers hut we find the stranger is called Brother Sigrid, keeps referring to Lydia as a "Sister of the White", and says he's here until he dies and the way to get to Pathos is to accept it and let the sadness into our hearts. He talks to Lydia a lot about his church (see the Church of the Umbral Popes aka The Eternal Religion‎) and they spend a lot of time accusing each other of heresy, he won't accept that all he has to do is accept his first pope (He of Nazarus) into his soul on his deathbed, but instead has a lot of other views about life. This makes Lydia quite sad.

Meanwhile everyone else is outside trying to get sad, Jules tries artistic methods, Ariane contemplates environmental collapse and the failure of the garou, Carlie tries to let go of her rage, and Holly just tries to feel out mystical connections. Ariane gets very mopey and lays down in the dirt to cry, then has an urge to go for a walk. Jules sends Carlie and Holly with her and gathers up Sunny and Lydia herself. Ariane mopes along talking about the world ending (Harano time), finds a giant lake which is totally still and unmoving, talks about failure and how beyond rage there is just failure and sadness, how she didn't feel heroic when she killed the mercenary.

Knowledge Keeper of the Order of Grey A woman emerges from the lake wearing Grey, clicks her fingers and lights her lamp on a stick, says she is from the Papel Estate to see Brother Sigrid, tells us the gateway to Pathos is the lake but we may have to give up something to use it that burdens our soul and that Pathos isn't bad its Purgatory that strips the soul. She tells us she's been to Nam it appeared around 60 rotations ago, hived off from The Front Line, is a place of eternal war, strange spells, equipment and miracles, is also known as The Place of Burning Trees, was called Nam by the Brothers of the Black. She's a knowledge keeper for the Order of Grey, she brings supplies to Sigrid who helps those deserving of Purgatories sweet embrace, as it unburdens fear, terror, and sometimes other things. To question Purgatory is to question the Eternal Throne and to do so risk drawing attention of the Order of Black.

Meanwhile Jules gathers up the rest of the pack, Lydia resists and wants to stay and witness because souls need saving and that souls/spirituality is more important. Sigurd says he'll be here for years/decades yet, so she can come back. Sunny gives him a hug before she goes. They pass the woman of the lake and Lydia tries to convert her, she's heard of Pope Jesus of Nazarus.

At the Lake Carlie and Holly start to look in the lake, fleeting images of people trapped in small rooms looking out/at the wall, doing pointless looping tasks (counting arrows wrong, reading looping scrolls, writing in endless books etc) Carlie gets the portal vibe from it and warns the rest of the pack of the potential price, and talks of how to make suicidal tories feel better. Jules tries to console Ariane and Sunny licks her, we head through the lake (rolling Perception + Primal Urge to get in, and a Willpower check to not lose things to it) - Ariane gets temporarily trapped in a small stone room with no doors and one glowing light for what feels like a long time, is stuck with a sense of loneliness.

We emerge in a room with 3 statues marking doorways: Ciscero (Rhetorics/Politics - smells of people), Aristotle (father of logic, Platos teacher - smells of bacon), Diogenes (a cynic who lived in a barrel - smells of nothing), there is a sign above the mirror-portal reading "Not the saddest place, purgatory" and Carlie manages to tell Jules "Yeah I keep forgetting you know stuff" when she talks about the statues. Sunny determines they all smell/taste of marble and purgatory dust, so we shake ourselves clean and the colour starts to come back to us, Sunny sniffs the doorways and we decide to take Ciscero because if there are people we can ask directions to Nam.

That leads us to a Roman style forum, men in togas yelling and debating war with the Eternal Empire (blood on hands vs. cowardice), we find a quiet guy called Hermes who is very very verbose and praises use a lot, when we explain we're on a rescue mission he agrees to help us, and takes us away from those he describes as having "too much word, not enough action".

2021-11-22

We start in Hermes chambers, there is cheap wine, sandals, a bunch of cushions. Several people drink the wine, Hermes tells us he got it from Dionysus. Carlie tells him that Jules girlfriend is trapped in Nam, he says he can help us but we may face some of the Order of Red so we'll need some centurions for protection. He leads us towards the portal, growing taller and more impressive as he bigs himself up, several of us switch up forms.

The Pack finds an Order of Red camp, about 15 people in robes, chainmail, swords, a few pistols, many laying down, 6 up, 2 tending the wounded, tells us that Nam is at the end of the road in the woods and we go to sneak by, Jules slips down a slope and is spotted so we bail, Hermes tails us a little, and tells us he'll be waiting for us to come back out.

We arrive in Nam, its hot, tropical, there is a lot of background rolling artillery sounds Lydia and Ariane stop to pray and find out how things work here, Lydia and Ariane stop to pray in the face of others rushing them, and Lydia feels the connection to God but is too far away to effect the artillery. Everyone else scouts ahead, Carlie spots some soldiers in trees, the Soldiers sends one person forward with a rifle to talk to us, they seem US 1960s military vibe. They're very iffy about us being there, are wary of the brits sending students with dogs. They tell us they heard and saw a car arriving and heading down into the valley was then shot by the Viet Kong. Holly gets Jules to suggest we're here for "high value targets" to imply we're on spook business, Lydia nurses Wally who's a soldier downed with malaria, he mentions being cut off from the church (only occasional catholic chaplain).

The Pack heads down into the valley, find the car, its full of bullet holes and blood, Carlie picks up Liz's scent and the smell of fear, the pack begins tracking, Ariane falls behind in the Jungle and heat, freezes up and tries to contact her ancestors for advice but is panicking too much really. Carlie then picks up wyrm-scent, they find 3 spirits with AK47s, with Liz in a cage, there is a fight, Carlie gets shot a little but the pack shreads the people/spirits and they die in a weirdly overly bloody way, too much blood and mess. Ariane hears the fight and comes to find the pack, almost walking through a trip mine but dodging it at the last minute.

We spring Liz from the cage! She's panicked about Yangshi, says 2 monks in black took the Stargazers to The Throne, the pack smells around, notices the scent of other Garou here and more Wyrm scent, something otherworldly here as well. Holly makes a plan to use the Realm Gate Bangle to get us to the Throne and asks for descriptions to it, Carlie gets a sense of a white marble place, Lydia provides a vague description of ivory and gold throne. We hear the sounds of multiple choppers coming in, see napalm fireballs, Lydia prays hard and causes 2 of the helicopters to just stop working and crash ("My God is an awesome god!") and Holly opens the hole through to the Papal Estate/Throne, Jules carries Liz through.

We arrive on a long road towards a Basilica, lots of White marble buildings, very awesome and glowy.

2021-11-29

( Your humble scribe missed a bit at the start - other people please fill in )

In the Papal Estate everyone suffered from a strange dimensional travelling sickness, got dizzy and the world went spinny and passed out, except Lydia who just feels spinny, she met Dr. John McMaster a physician who learnt from Dr. Williams and helped the pack to his home for treatment with herbal stuff. His house is full of weird books, in an austere Victorian style but somehow odd. She learns this is Umbral Travelling Sickness and gives him Jammi Dodgers. He's heard of Nam which the Brothers in Red say is a dangerous route to The Front Line and he only knows it because the wounded come back from there. and he has to treat them. The Brothers are fighting The Legion who encroach on his Holiness's land, we learn that The Emperor rules over the Legions and His Holiness over the religion and sometimes they fight (Emperor blasphemes, Pope oversteps) and sometimes other Spheres cause trouble.

So later Holly awakens first, meets Sister Mary the nurse, feels rested, hears about Travellers Sickness, selects the fish breakfast (from egg/fish) and told to drink herbal remedy first. Sunny awakens by smell of frying fish, tries to convince Holly to give her the breakfast, Holly convinces Mary to give Sunny some fish. Ariane awakens, is caught up, told Lydia ran herself ragged caring for them, gets the egg and a weird minty tea. Lydia then awakened, told others are awake including "travelling pet", Lydia tries to explain werewolves and hears that Legion have shapeshifting troops, goes to find the pack, also tells everyone she prayed and it worked fine/felt connection to divine. Carlie wakes up, the nurse refers to her as an Exalted One and is surprised a High Born is travelling with Low Born, hears that "one of them" is in her party and asks if the Brothers of the Black should be called , says no. Lydia fills us in on the Papal Estate and fights of Order of Red vs. Legion. There's a discussion of routes to take out (via Peter or Library), discussion of "one of them" and Sunny suggests the "Exalted One" comment was about skin colour. We find out the Stargazers are here with the Brothers of Black and talk about freeing them, of wounded kings and the land, moot a plan to talk about taking the Stargazers back with us as prisoners, then we hear that the Doctor got worried and the Brothers in Black are in the parlour.

Carlie heads out looking in charge, Ariane fronts as her bodyguard semi-convincingly, they want Carlie alone but Sunny stays with. When they pull down their hoods their two black African people. They ask about werewolves in the group, say most serve the legion, Carlie says she found them wild and trained them, Carlie pretends to be decades away from the Papal Estate, finds out she missed Pope Hope III ascend to the throne, these two think the last Pope showed too much tolerance and accepted servants/low born to the Order of Black which is too far. They talk about Nam and how they captured a pair of Legion werewolves and "one of them" (with strange complexion and slanted eyes) they're referring to Liz who Carlie says is a native guide. They're interrogating the werewolves at the Citadel to find the Empires next moves as The Front Line is heating up, we hear the realm of Sword is controlled by godless heathens and makes weapons and the Legion werewolves attacked using swords from there. Carlie talks about being from London and they say she is far from Papal grace. They offer to meet her at the Citadel at the 6th bell for a welcome home meal, reveal they are Mutenga and Mutamway both from the Ethiopian contingent of the Order of Black. After they leave Carlie thumps the wall in frustration then gets medical whisky from Sister Mary.

The Pack gets filled in, the "them" is Liz, Carlie is in the image of God others less so, werewolves usually work for the Empire and the Legion, Stargazers are in the Citadel and we're unsure how many of them we can take, the front is that Liz is a prisoner/native guide, the others are wild free werewolves tamed by Carlie.

2021-12-06

(Jules wakes up, we find out Liz is magically chained to a bed which will keep her asleep, we scout town a little, find its on high alert, get a newspaper, find out the Stargazers are being executed tomorrow at Dawn, Carlie, Sunny, and Ariane head to the The Citadel, Ariane gets to sit in on the servants meal, and Carlie and Sunny tell tales to the guests, they hear the "spies" have broken and talk about London things, Carlie interrupts the Papal Nuncio to announce that she knows Hammersmith)

Jules awakens in Dr. McMasters home from the Umbral Travelling Sickness, Liz is still there asleep. Mary catches him up then asks what its like working with Carlie and when Jules says she can be an arse she's advised not to speak badly of her betters and beware the Brothers in Black. She joins the rest of the Pack and is caught up on everything, we make a plan to Carlie to dinner with Ariane (as bodyguard) and Sunny (as pet). Jules checks on Liz and finds she's been chained to the bed with a magical fine silverish chain with strange symbols on.

Afternoon information gathering:

• Ariane: takes a walk to check culture/threat - little open weaponry, 70% white people, 30% mixed and black folks, obvious differences in status expressed through clothes, lots of black robed figures in ceremonial chain mail, however red robed figures on the intersections are dressed in proper customised military gear and look dangerous, a lot of personal weapons and magical looking trinkets.
• Carlie: Gets dressed and preps for dinner, Mary helps her get a very fine corseted dress on.
• Holly & Sunny: Go looking for portals, one in the main central plaza (we came in on the boulevard that approaches it), the Plaza looks like some kind of [1] like space but scaled up, there's steps up to a throne that feels 150% size, too big to comfortably use. Holly is offered a daily paper for a coin and barters with a UK coin as something from "the sphere of London".
  • The paper's headline is about a breakdown in relations between Eternal Empire/Eternal Throne, a picture of the Pathos debating chamber. The article is about how 2 spies (the Stargazers) are due to the executed tomorrow at dawn unless the Pope mitigates their sentences. The Emperor has denied knowledge of them (which obvs he would as he supports a blathering senate of white men).
  • Sunny loudly exclaims that butt's won't smell any different based on your skin colour and asks Holly why humans are so obsessed. Holly offers to take a crack at explaining everything when they're back at the Pack House.
• Lydia checks on Liz and finds that she's fine, just asleep, but thinks the chain isn't good and asks Jules if silver effects Mythics (probably not). Sister mary later informs her that the chain is for keeping her asleep until Carlie is ready to dispose of her.

So the Pack reunites, we share news, arrange for everyone to be fed, and Carlie and Sunny get in a carriage, Ariane gets on the back and the away team heads to The Citadel. There are two Sisters of Black waiting either side of the door. They tell Carlie that the Papal Nuncio will be visiting and expecting fine tales, Sunny is introduced as a war-hound and gets petted, the food is apparently goat based tonight, they take Ariane's sword and suggests its from the 3rd Era of Sword work and needs repair there. Ariane goes around the side to the servants quarters, where she gets serviceable food (brown bread, tomato brother, some crickets), determines there's 40ish people you could blend 1-2 in without weapons. Everyone seems pretty content and is waiting for second hand tales from upstairs, as the Papal nuncio arrives there is a rush to dress the guests more and they bring a bowl cut chair with no back upstairs in a hurry.

Meanwhile Carlie and Sunny head up the front to the more lavish main chamber, where she's greeted by more Brothers of Black (Mutenga and Mutamway) and people want tales of London and taming wild werewolves. She spins the Mitchell Brothers fight as the taming of the werewolves and describes how there's only 3 of them in her party and that Bell was a local princess (the tale is truly 5 successes epic), she spins Ariane's murder of the Unknown USMC Mercenary into a fight with a ranged attacker in poison gas. The food is delicious. As the Papal nuncio arrives he asks for the news of the day and if the spies broke - they apparently did but know little, there is an idea the Emperor blanked their minds, they talked to Hammersmith (is it in Sword/Shield?) and about a "Ford Focus", an idea they were trying to tunnel straight to the Papal Estate. Carlie stands up and declares loudly "I've met Hammersmith! They're a person!"

2021-12-13

(Carlie tells the tales of Derek Hammersmith, Lydia chats to Dr. John McMaster about herbs and the magical chain, Jules and Holly scout the exists to the city. Then Pope Hope III manifests translated for/to by the Papal Nuncio, he talks to Carlie and wants to send her back with an effigy and blesses everyone. The pack reunites, Carlie free's Liz, we talk to the Stargazers (Laurent and Sebastian) and Sunny asks to join them, then Carlie talks to the Papal Nuncio and enters into a magical geas to take everyone away and get the Hammersmith to melt down the Ford Focus)

And so our hero Carlie begins the tail of the Hammersmith! Beyond The Empire where she's been exploring! She spins a tale about an unknown land to the Empire ruled by unknown rulers, where the people will be surprised at the existence of the Empire and the Throne, the tale includes a description of Derek Watford as "Derek Hammersmith the great inspector of forges" who lives in a "Realm Beyond Gary" (which they are scared of, but Carlie says her werewolves got her through).

• She talks with the nuncio about the purpose for the Ford Focus, it may be for crossing streams, traversing through the realms more than the miracles of the Throne allow (members of the Orders can always return to the Papal Throne).
• She learns that the Stargazers said the Ford Focus was in Nam but there was nothing there but a metal box about the length of a table and width of a fireplace, but thinner than other metal boxes the spirits use in Nam - and everyone knows a focus is a small crystal, bone of some venerable saint, or gem.
• Carlie tells the Nuncio she has experience dealing with werewolves and asks to speak to the prisoners.

Meanwhile the rest of the pack:

• Lydia chats to Dr. John McMaster and arranges to sit in with his patients tomorrow, and also get a look at his herbs
  • Some herbs are semi-miraculous, one cures pox (maybe smallpox), some are hallucinogens, some sedatives (more potent than herbal ones should be), asks about doses for the sleeping drugs and told that chamomile first, then Someness Wort (in tea gives 10-12 hours good sleep, can be counteracted by caffeine after the first 4-5 hours, has a robust flavour, so normally tinctured with honey, said to be similar to peppermint). She also finds out Dr. McMaster wants to trade for some peppermint because they don't have it here.
  • The chain: is used for patients with disturbed minds, comes from a citadel miracle worker, the Order of the Black are permitted to remove/add it, he doesn't know how they do it, presumes Carlie can, Lydia claims she's not allowed to watch Carlie do miracles as a cover
• Jules and Holly go to plan escape routes: a lot of heavily armed guards on every gate in and out, they see some people gathering at the Plaza so Jules scales up to a roof for the view

At the Citadel there is talk of a Pope visit so robes are gathered by the servants who assemble to talk to their lords, Ariane and Carlie share brief words talking of a visit by the Pope, escape routes and chains, they separate and Carlie joins the crowd lead by the Nuncio down to the Plaza.

There in a shaft of light a very tall golden skinned/robed gentleman floats down from above and onto the thrown, literally glowing. This is Pope Hope III, he speaks in the language of spirits and is translated for/to by the Papel Nuncio, but Holly can understand him directly. He opens with something like: "Come, hear me people of the Papal Estate, the faithful and loyal subjects come cast forth favours before your Pope", very florid. He knows there are travellers from afar, wants to hear their tales, Carlie is brought forth and invited to "Tell my tale when you return, of a just and bounteous land!" and that the Pope "brought justice denied back to the people, here they can be free, are free, a just a loyal land". He asks her if he should reclaim his rightful place on the rock of St. Peter? She says the world is less ready now, his beliefs have turned to rules, then been stretched and tweaked to the point they're no longer valid (Holly here clocks the Nuncio is mistranslating this to be something like "The Origin has taken rules, blasphemed, and the place is dangerous, terrifying, and unholy"). The Pope moots idea to send his Red and Black orders with Carlie but decides not too.

Pope Hope III then notices that he can feel someone close by who is descended from the one known as Styles, Carlie says she has one of his descendants as her mapmaker, and The Pope says that Styles visited years ago with stories of "The Origin" and some songs still sometimes sung by members of the Orders. The Pope makes a decree that the Stargazers are clearly a problem from Carlie's realm and hence if she can prove to the Nuncio they're no threat she can take them, but if they're a threat he'll dispose of them, and in return he wants the boon that she will take an effigy with her to The Source so the Order of the Black can then teleport to it and scope out the realm. Carlie says she'll put it in Blackfriers and the Pope thinks this is such a good name he renames the Order of the Black's barracks this. Everyone gets blessed ("in the name of the Father, the Holy Spirit, and the Pope" - mechanically everyone gains +1 WP/Gnosis/Rage). Holly and Jules head back home, Carlie runs back to the citadel for the loo which Sunny guards, she then collects Ariane (and the sword), and mentions the boon to her.

At the Doctors house there is a general catch up, Carlie fills people in on Stargazers, Mitchell's story, 3 werewolves. There is talk of knocking out doctor and nurse with tea if we have to run to make it look better for them and just picking up the bed that Liz is on. Carlie then magically unlocks the chain with a garou gift (the Gauntlet her is 0), and Liz is sleepy and asks for coffee.

So in the Dungeons: Carlie tells the Stargazers Laurent and Sebastian to play along in first tongue, then there's talk of Ford Focus/stow away mythic as problem, Carlie fills them in on the "magic war Jesus" and the Empire being expansionist racists, also how Earth is "The Origin", they tell her they have a rite to mitigate the Umbral Travelling Sickness, and that any army arriving on Earth from this distance will all be hit by travelling sickness, they call us honorary Stargazers, Sunny asks them to become more than an honorary one.

Carlie goes to see the Nuncio, they talk of the focus, he says he'd rather kill them than let them live and risk it falling into the Empire's hands as if no one (Empire/Throne) can get the focus then no ones at an advantage. Carlie persuades him to send the guard outside the room, agrees this is a politics discussion, and if the device doesn't exist it'll be easier to let the Stargazers go and says she'll have the Hammersmith melt it. The Nuncio suggests killing them and us and making everything tidy, but Carlie points out there's too many witnesses to us in town, so they agree that we'll all be gone by sunset and never come back. They shake on it and a magical geas forms - Carlie is to take the Ford Focus to the Hammersmith to melt, take the witnesses (Carlie thinks the Stargazers) and never return.

2021-12-20

(In which the Pack makes a plan to go via Peter (which has large rock cubes and angels), one of the guards is taken by the light there, the other is murdered by Carlie in Purgatory and the body hidden in Peter. Sunny has a good time with the pool-portal, Holly has a bad time (re: Marine/Guard murders). We sneak via Pathos into Nam, tow the car into the warehouse used for the Alpha Games and then everyone passes out)

Carlie heads back towards the dungeons and gets a weird urge to kill the guard with her (he's seen too much!). Meanwhile Ariane, Sunny, Sebastian, and Laurent are chatting. Carlie tells everyone of the exit, time limit, ford focus. We head back to the rest of the pack at the doctors and the guards accompany us. At the doctors we moot ideas and decide to go via Peter, the Stargazers tell us its not bad if you sneak between the gates, don't try and get into Heaven and don't let his eyes settle on you. Sister Mary brings us some rope to help pull the car but thinks its to hang the werewolves/Liz. Told to get to Peter we go via the giant chair in the plaza and its controlled by the Nuncio, Carlie and Ariane go to visit the Nuncio again (making sure to take some subtle daggers). The Nuncio gives us a golden disk we place on the base of the steps, reminds Carlie about the witnesses, on the way back she and Ariane debate the matter of words and deals and if the Nuncio is a fairy and its some kind of magical deal? Everyone gathers at the Steps to the big Throne, as the disk is applied we're bathed in liquid golden light, and either float up or The Papel Estate goes downwards, with one big point of light in the distance.

In Peter: we find ourselves stood on clouds with large cubes of rock, a giant searchlight type light in the distance shining forth, the cubes giving cover/shadow. A big gate to the "North", and another further around, the realm light a giant circle. We dash between shadows, Jules almost trips and Liz sprouts magical wings and grabs her and helps carry her to the next patch. We wait for the light to move and Lydia argues with the Brothers of Black that werewolves are made in gods image, it becomes a heated argument and one produces a large 8 foot long magical weapon, we continue to bicker more quietly until ***something with wings*** lands on a nearby cube, which makes us quieter.

We do another spring and Carlie sees 2 angelic creatures, armed and armoured on a nearby rock. We reach the last rock and can't see them but can hear them so stick close to it and hope they can't see us. Jules finally makes a dash to the portal, is caught in the light which is warm, comfortable, and loving so tries to pause in it until Liz bundles her int othe portal. The "Angels" (?) land above us so we all decide to just run for it with Sunny bringing up the rear to catch people, one of the Brothers in Black stumbles and a golden angel swoops on him, pushes him down and then he walks towards the light.

Back in Purgatory: Ariane attempts to continues the guard to become a member of the Order of Gray and stay here in Purgatory as she picks on up on Carlie's murder plan, however Carlie then stabs the guard in the back, who collapses and bleeds out on the floor. Sunny says he smells like a human. The Stargazers suggest hiding the body in Peter - so Holly, Carlie, and Laurant move him back through the portal. Laurant leads us to the pool, tells us to think of a memory we would not be sad losing. (Sunny does so well passing through that she gains the "Purgatory: No Fee" bonus, so never has to pay to go through). Holly does badly, was thinking of the murder of the Marine and fear and terror of being caught, enters a guilt loop about it but comes to the realisation it was for the best (and will now skim over discussion/evidence of it, and the killing of the Order of the Black member by Carlie, unable to attach emotionally to each).

In Pathos: Sebastian suggests we go via the route of Diogenes, takes us via back chambers to avoid people, out of the garden and we sneak to the Nam portal.

In Nam we have a view across the valley with all the trees burning. We rope up the car, Holly thinks of the warehouse where we finished the Alpha Games, she opens the portal and the Pack pulls/pushes the car through. The Earth seems at a funny angle, we just about get it through the vines and into the warehouse, feel like shit and everyone passes out.