Season Seven

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

2022-10-03

(Jules finishes a painting, Holly and Ariane talk about Sword and performing seances, Jules is angry/sad, Liz arrives, Holly has a chill shift at The Guild and brings a letter from the Lady of Kowloon back to Jules. Carlie gets followed home from the gym by corvids and meets Raven of the Tower of London getting Tower of London Corvid's Shilling Coin. The Pack finds out The Tower itself wants us to patrol/define the borders of London, the letter from the Lady of Kowloon offers us a choice of defend the Tower or beat the bounds. There's a discussion of logistics and if this will anger Dagenham, we verify the coin and hence the raven, and make plans)

Jules finishes the final piece of art that was commissioned by Giannis Valatos and it turns out well.

Holly digs into the journal entry about sword: When the casual observer assesses Sword they find it similar to Redcar, Smoke stacks and forges billow smoke into the sky. The best for industrial landscapes except perhaps Shield, but better than Gary, almost festival like. If you travel up the main boulovard you'll see the Avenue Of 2 Great Titans which are not only people but companies. Sword is always trying to make the Unstoppable Force and Shield is trying to make the Immovable Object, one great titan is seen trying to push a spike through the others shield, and as they make better weapons better shields are made in response. I had to scarper because I pissed off a local, by making a request without due compensation. Also wood is forbidden here (asked for a repair to a walking stick). There are more details in the entry on Shield (Harold Styles on Sword)

Holly and Ariane talk about what would be useful compensation to offer, Lydia suggests the gospel (the most valuable thing), Carlie rolls her eyes so hard she leaves, walks ferociously, then hits the gym. The rest of us talk of the origin of The Primrose-Morton Sword, Ariane says she has many stories about it, but nothing concrete, we talk about if asking ancestors is a good idea and Ariane suggests a grand séance and Holly suggests asking Bell as a good starting point to locate a place suitable in London. We discuss if we should tell Lydia that its definitely possession and necromancy.

The Stargazers text Sunny, want to compare notes on latest trip, its just Sebastian freshly returned from the quest to find the origins of Covid (Laurent is notably not there as usual) they arrange to meet in the same cafe, so Sunny starts to cook for the owner. She attempts to recreat the rabbit a l'orange (Season_Four#2021-06-21) she learnt at the Primrose-Morton's but can't quite get it to go well, so whips up a quick batch of brownies as cover.

Jules breaks things angrily.

Holly heads to a shift, but as she's leaving the pack house Liz arrives. She says its okay because one day Holly will cover shifts for her in similar magical situations. Holly warns her that Jules is "a bit raw" and she cautiously directs her upstairs, Liz has chocolate which she uses to help break the ice on bartering entry to Jules room - where she has been obviously crying her eyes out. There's a bunch of emotional care with Liz's perspective being that people died because of many interlocking factors that brought them into the same place as things Jules did, many steps which put everything in the same place. She also suggests teaching from The Guild may help avoid future mistakes.

Meanwhile at The Guild: No one bats an eye at Holly. They seem to have an unspoken "spooky shit happens" agreement. During her shift the Lady of Kowloon approaches, leaves an ornate envelope with Jules full name and honourifics (Ahroun of Gaia, Alpha of the Southwark Bells, etc) then drifts away, and Holly carefully pockets it then transfers it to her locker.

At the cafe meeting: Sunny hands the brownies over and sits down with Sebastian, they have a discussion about whats been happening and Sunny tells him everything about The Realm of Creeping Soot, his eyebrows shoot up, there's talk of the hospital, and detailed information about the realm and fight (but she leaves Jules experiments out of it). Sebastian says this is better than any test he could dream up, welcomes her to the Stargazers and leads her to the bathroom to take her through the mirror for an initiation rite. On the way the cook tells her that her brownies were "pedestrian!" and that his Grandmother made better brownies, these were lacking zoom! Sunny vows to try again.

On the way back from her gym Carlie gets a takeaway coffee and realises she's being tailed by corvids, texts the pack, heads for the warehouse/wasteground where the Alpha Games took place, ducks inside and waits until a corvid comes in. It drops at a safe distance and they play yes/no hopping to answer questions. It tells her that its following her for someone, who wants to talk, and it can't really bring them here as they're a spirit world native. She hops through to the Umbral version of the warehouse, spots a big corvid spirit that introduces itself as a Raven of the Tower of London, says its not been waiting long, confirms she's a Ragabash who talks her pack into/out of things, and tells her London wants her pack to do an important job for it, wants her to talk the Alpha into accepting "an important role in defining London" in the form of a job of travelling the edges of London, like a patrol but all of London, and that the Alpha will get offered two jobs and London wants them to do this one. It will owe Carlie and the Pack a boon if she pulls it off. When asked how soon this will be it shrugs and drops a shiny coin. She pops back out, gets check-ins from Lydia and Jules while most people are asleep.

Next day: Holly updates everyone that The Guild didn't ask questions, Carlie just opens by talking about a spirit of the Tower of London and Ariane speculates on beef eaters or princes, Carlie ignores her and tells Jules she'll be offered two roles and London wants her to the boundary walking. We talk potential issues like: Will this be patroling into others territories? Carlie's main point is that every time a big spirit asks us for help it looks like the right thing to do. Jules wonders if this is linked to her talking to spirits ages ago as part of the Alpha Games where she asked for help protecting her pack. A general plan is formed to deal with this after Jules delivers her piece of artwork and looks after Liz.

Sunny almost tells the pack she joined the Stargazers but Jules jokes about butt sniffing so she doesn't.

Holly then sneaks Jules the note from the Lady of Kowloon as she heads back upstairs.

Carlie and Holly examine the coin, Holly can tell it came from the Umbra but its now a physical thing, Holly checks it was given freely and confirms its probably a gift. We discuss if its a token?, A magical link to the tower?, Proof of the job?, Something to take on patrol? It's a shilling coin whos faces change a little based on what angle you view them at, seem to have names and faces of various Lord Mayors of London throughout history. Ariane tells a long dry story about Mongolian spirit coin tokens (ooc: she botches her knowledge roll and bores people). We also find out that Lydia doesn't know what a muppet is so show her some Seseme Street.

Jules meanwhile opens the letter upstairs, its in very flowery language but offers her and the pack a role in the Annual Celebration of Mythic London, a grand ritual that keeps the city safe, prosperous, and growing. There are 2 options: Defend/Patrol the tower of London while others do their thing (this is a role the Previous Southwark Pack apparently did every year) as sometimes neer do wells and undesireable elements attempt to sneak into it and disrupt people or patrol the borders and beat the bounds of London, a race like the first to visit every Underground station, where the member of the Pack who got the most stations would perform a rite to visit "Every part of London worth mentioning" and list them all by name. This is normally done by the Dagenham Deadbeats (however their light on members this year...). The letter is signed by the Grandese of London.

Back in the Kitchen when the letters contents are discussed there is talk of who is undesireable, plans, which jobs to do, we find out Lydia doesn't know about the Wombles, and making ties to the Raven and Tower. We talk to expansive definitions of London, not wanting to step on others territories, or intrude into the territories of external-to-London packs, Carlie wonders if this is The Guild kicking Dagenham and using us to do it, we wonder what happens if they refuse and say they still want to do it, suggest this is a matter for the Spirits judgement. Ariane suggests checking if this Raven is good spirit linked to the Tower, Sunny texts the Stargazers and they confirm the detail that if the coin shifts in the light its a legit marker from The Tower of London itself.

There's a general plan:

• Holly and Ariane: Talk to Bell about a séance for Sword
• Also ask Bell (and investigate) what happened to the Previous Southwark Pack
• Jules to try and talk to Raven of the Tower of London
• Talk to the Dagenham Deadbeats and confirm that this is okay, its our choice, but we'd like to know how they do it, where they draw the boundaries.

The pack ends in bickering, Jules heads upstairs texting the Deadbeats to arrange a meeting.

2022-10-10

(Lydia is busy with work meetings, Jules breaks the news of the Beating the Bounds to Sanjeev of the Dagenham Deadbeats, and finds out more details of how they do the challenge and information about how The Grandese and The Tower interact. Ariane and Holly visit Bell and learn about good places for a seance with Ariane probably deciding on The London Necropolis Railway, we also find out more about old packs and how the last one disbanded after dealing with a Nazi Dimension Attached to the O2 Arena and we learn that Angel Islington is probably a real Angel. Carlie finds her new job involves Sir Robert Laffrey in some taped meetings. Sunny improves her cooking. The pack meets and discusses things, Ariane finds an entrance to Southwark Abandoned Tube Station, some of the Pack explore and find a previous pack used it as a base of operations)

Lydia goes for a meeting with the NHS for occupational health and other such return to work meeting, which largely keeps her busy during this session (when Ceri is busy with work).

Jules arranges a meeting with the Dagenham Deadbeats and arranges to meet Sanjeev for a pint in a pub. Jules breaks it as an opener that we got an invite for the Annual Celebration of Mythic London, his face falls as Dagenham haven't had theirs yet. They discuss that the richer packs may be nudging Southwark to step up, and she doesn't want to see the Deadbeats removed by Southwark without warning. Sanjeev admits that they did screw it up last year, they insisted on using the tube but for closure reasons the visits had some "unpopular holes", says you can't drive it (because you can loop the M25 but you miss a lot), you need to use the tube for the inside, confirms there are about 5 Deadbeats left (as they just got a new person) and Bill is in legal trouble so he isn't around that much. He suggests Kyle and Sanjeev could hit everything on the tube but isn't sure they can hit everywhere (the rule is that one member of you pack has to visit all the places and then name them).

Jules lets him know that Raven of the Tower of London visited us and the spirits want us to do it. Sanjeev says that last year The Immortals protected the Tower of London but were lazy, there is discussion of the politics between The Grandese (political reps of the various mythic communities of London) and The Tower itself (the embodiment of London's spirits?) and its always very confusing. Sanjeev presents The Grandese as a power force in opposition to London as London itself doesn't always want what the ruling people want. Jules says she sees The Pack as something not quite in line with what the big people want.

Sanjeev just wants Jules to be sure that The Deadbeats get an invite to do something, Jules invites them to walk with the Pack if nothing else and Sanjeev confirms it won't count as it has to be one person from the named Pack and the places that just that one person visits.

He says this just brings home how much his pack is in decline, feels like he's being called out. Jules tells him they're down but not out and they always have friends in The Southwark Belles. He ends by sending Jules back with compliments for Sunny as a good sous chef.

Meanwhile: Ariane and Holly go to visit The Bell of Southwark, Ariane explains her situation and is recommended to talk to The Bell of All Souls Cemetery at Kensal Green (which has 4 chapels sooo?) or look into The London Necropolis Railway ("The Dead Underground"). We ask about older packs operating in Southwark and are told there's been several, all ending in different ways - dispersing, dying glorious deaths, etc.

Our predecessors closed a Nazi Dimension Attached to the O2 Arena (Holly checks in her book... nothing), we're told that Harold Styles was from about 4 packs ago during WW2 and helped during the war - apparently it was a terrible time as the Nazi's had the Waffen Wolves and Black Spiral Dancers working for them, Style's pack was involved in a ritual to basically capture a spiritual invasion that was sent over, putting it in a bubble in an unused part of Southwark (where they could live in a fictional reality where they thought they'd won) that then got the O2 Arena built on top of it, the building broke down the spells. Some of the pack survived going in there, but they were never the same and went their separate ways. Even the Vampires lost interest in the Arena after that. Ariane speculates a little about lengths of pack at about 25 years average (Styles was the 4th pack, war ended in 1945, so 3 packs since, but assume some gaps).

There's talk of our role in the Annual Celebration of Mythic London and we're told that protecting the Tower is mostly hanging around in hi-viz jackets stopping tourists getting to close. Ariane bitches about Vampires a little. Bell tells us a story of an Angel (The Angel Islington), a Vampire (Eddie) and an old Southwark Pack who went to Cannon Street to destroy something that a group of Vampires had made, a bad spirit hiding at a BDSM club and occupying the minds and souls of sadistic humans - they coordinated an attack from the physical and Umbral worlds to destroy it. Bell confirms that Angel Islington is a real Angel, as far as she knows. Ariane suggests getting her to pass on a message about the sword for Lydia before remembering she's banned from heaven.

Meanwhile: Carlie has a new job at work, going through a huge pile of tapes, these are of an unknown board room of a finance firm talking about trading strategies. 4 hours in she recognises the voice of Sir Robert Laffrey, he's mostly silent, occasionally talking of long term strategy and investments in Hong Kong and the Chinese Government (evoking links to The Lady of Kowloon). She digs more and finds that things are weird/wild, she can't get through the mass of financial/shell corporations involved but can tell that something is afoot.

Meanwhile: Sunny contemplates her cooking peril of last session, suspects she rushed the sauce and comes up with ideas to improve the seasoning so gets to cooking as the others get back.

During all of the above is a lengthy 2022-10-10 Pack Text Discussion (broadly the pack jokes about giving head to The Grandese to get things sorted out)

At the Pack House: Ariane skims a book about the Necropolis Railway, Holly looks into Westminster Bridge Road for a possible tube station down to the abandoned parts, Ariane has a text conversation with her father about doing seances, he says her mother has been possessed a few times in the family crypt, there is back and forth before her mother gets her to send in a picture of the sword, complains its damaged, and is very cagey about history of it (its not worth digging into its story, her job is to further its story), and Ariane is told to bring it back in 4 days. She immediately decides that shes going to do a seance and then travel to Sword instead. Jules arrives back to confirm that the Pack is Beating the Bounds during the annual ritual, Holly goes to her shift.

Ariane gets a coffee and goes to scout locations. She finds some scratching in First Tongue saying "Southwark Pack are here, hands off" and a nondescript metal door marked "If you've got an appointment poke this then knock" with the image of a spanner. She texts the group chat and everyone except Holly and Lydia (so: Jules, Sunny, and Carlie) arrive at about 23:00. Ariane pokes the spanner and there's a spiritual shift and a rusty clunk, the door is open enough for the Pack to head inside, Ariane starts recording on her phone.

In the Southwark Abandoned Tube Station there's stairs down, part way is a large mirror before the stairs become uncrossable, we pass through into the Umbra (the Gauntlet seems very very thin here) and down the Umbral stairs while bickering about the Necropolis Railway, downstairs are a few rooms, with a large chamber, and several mirrors. There are 6 caskets in one of the rooms in the Umbra with a script that unreadable to us. We pass back to the physical through the mirrors. Find an old generator, 3 flood lamps, sofa, TV, empty gun case, a few posters (2014 Millwall FC labelled "Sucks" and 2014 Spurs FC labelled "Greatest", hand drawn poster of a big eye used as a darts bullsye labelled "Mother"), there's an English to Russian translation book, a Ham radio guide, and some Hayes car manuals. Jules pokes around, finds some overalls marked with a local garage name/logo. The place looks cleaned out in an orderly way, people packed up before they left. There's noise and faint breeze from passing underground trains and Ariane looks around, finding an old track bed with no rails on it. Sunny sniffs and finds there is a strongly scented bottle of Russian perfume near one of hte lockers, Carlie picks the lock and inside we find a stylish but out of date dress from about 8 years ago.

There's talk of using this as a place to cross over to/from the Umbra, and optionally as a base of operations. Ariane suggests leaving something for the next pack, Carlie and Jules argue that we don't need a creepy secret base. Ariane says that even if we just leave a piece of paper with a list of ongoing current problems we haven't solved yet it'll be better than we got. She pings the videos she took to the group chat once they leave and get to the surface.

2022-10-24

Lydia did a lot of box ticking exercises for a safe return to work, still has some E-learning to do, tries to protest "But god doesn't want me to do any e-learning!" only to be told "But sister does and you know who outranks God on the ward..." so now has to spend a couple of days sitting at an NHS PC with tea and more training. She returns to the Pack House and finds they all went to Westminster bridge station, is tired but makes a sweet tea and goes after them in case they need her unique brand of medicine and spiritual kindness.

As she arrives everyone else is leaving, there's a general catch up, Ariane pushes for the idea of keeping a list of weird shit for future packs (like things not to pick a fight with) and Carlie argues against giving future packs a leg up. Talk about where to store it (with the Bishop? At Bells Tower? Sunny suggests hiding it and giving Bell a riddle towards its location as a challenge for them, which even Carlie agrees with. There is some talk of Ariane's weird preparedness to die and Carlie wish's the Garou kept a how to manual of their religion.

The next day basically the whole pack (sans Jules) heads down to the depths of the old Southwark Abandoned Tube Station, poke around with vibes looking for signs of the Necropolis railway, Holly finds that the track in the tunnel is intact in the Umbra, and there are no umbral spirits here. We determine a good enough spot, Ariane is bad at hunting for spots but relies on Holly for this, but she aces the magic circle setup. They agree a list of questions including asking about variations on the family motto ("Semper in Fronte Simul, Ducens Populum") and using first tongue as a test. Ariane has her feet chained together and tells others to banish and/or beat her up if things go wrong.

Holly feels that whatever we're doing as we start is drawing in the dead/gone spirits, just a huge crowd of them, but they're less tangible than Umbral spirits, feels like we're connecting to a whole spirit world that is just waiting for something to happen. She calls out for an ancestor of this Garou that is present, most turn away but one comes closer, Ariane feels a presense and asks it to join her in her body, feels an old woman settling into the back of her head Agatha Morton, who turns out to have spent her life as a washer woman with 3 kids. She died of old age and was put on the railwhy by her Son, knows nothing of Gaia or the Mother Earth. Ariane promises to try and leave her flowers and pray at her grave.

On attempt 2: We call out for someone who has wielded the blade, get nothing at first then puffs of warm air that snuff out the candles and leave us in the dark (except that Holly can see the green spirit flames). A light appears at the end of the tunnel getting closer, Carlie knows its a train, Lydia waves a bible at it before realising its not working, Holly unbolts Ariane and everyone makes a run for the platform except Carlie who looks for a portal and steps into one. Holly gets disoriented because of the physical/spiritual split and feels like shes pushing through non-existant people, Ariane flips to Crinos in order to toss Holly up onto the platform as she hesitates.

A train arrives at the platform, its partially translucent, a gentleman in a black almost but not quite Undertakers suit gets off the train, we ask him about ancestors who may know about the sword, he sas he'll open a coffin on the train for some gnosis, we accept and as he's getting the box we realise that Carlie is missing. This time a green spirit flame jumps forward into Holly, riding her like a voice in the back of her head. Tells us he's Master Smith McLachlan of the Hollow Sword Trading Company, estimates the sword was forged in the 1760s, a special commission, when handling it (via Holly's senses and hands) he revises his estimate, probably 1690s at Shotley Bridge Forge in Durham when it was still the Hollowed Sword Blade Company, we ask him about Mythics and he says his boss knew of them, and that silver or partially silvered swords were bought by aristocrats or Mythics, he's never heard of the Garou however.

Meanwhile: Carlie arrives outside the tunnel, into a huge graveyard (aka Necropolis) stretching as far as the eye can see. No sign of the train, and no signs of graves for the Primroses, Mortons, or Primrose-Mortons. This graveyard starts around 1590 and gets later as it goes on. She calls out to ask if anyone is around and gets a tap on the shoulder from a strange humanoid with spindly arms, about half her height that calls itself The Index, and says it knows everyone here and that this is the graveyard of "everywhere in the burying world". They chat about Ariane's family and The Index thinks they have 6 in the 20th century, her Grandparents, but then it gets more vague from there on out, also its a 4 day walk from the 1590s to the 20th century. She asks the way out and is pointed towards the tunnel being told to mind the train - as she walks out she pops back into the Penumbra of the tunnel, and walks to the back of the train, walking back into the rest of the Pack as they start hunting more intently for her. We're told that by The Conductor that the train stops there once a week.

Ariane talks about the idea that maybe there are multiple "Primrose-Morton Swords" an that maybe their myths merge. The team leaves the station and goes to find good coffee and food, Ariane starts digging online, finds that the Hollow Sword Blade Company eventually for part of the basis for HSBC (the bank), but their manufacturing arm was sold to The Wilkinson Sword Company, they were involved in making very light and nimble swords but invested badly in the East Indies and were part of a setup that almost collapsed the UK economy. She's a bit pissed off, finds that Wilkinson Sword have a museum, talks about how she'll have to lean on The Major for contacts if they don't reply, Carlie suggests doing an Antique Roadshow scam on them (family hierloom!) however Wilkinson Sword do reply, telling her that most of their paperwork and articles on old swords are in the Royal Museums Greenwich or with Tools Swords. The Pack bickers about legality of various actions, and Ariane eventually hits on the idea of getting Sunny to text Professor Rodriguez to try and arrange contact and a meeting.

2022-10-31

(ooc: The GM promises that if we somewhere write a handover document he'll include it for the next Pack if he runs a game after this one)

(Talk to Professor Rodrieguez and arrange to take The Primrose-Morton Sword to the Greenwich Museum for assessment tomorrow. Jules visits Giannis Valatos who likes the painting and commissions another of The Tower of London. Pack starts to plan for ritual definition of London, after discussion and talk with Sanjeev, Sir Robert Laffrey, and Sebastian a plan is made to visit every London Borough, The City of London, and stand in the Themes)

Professor Rodrieguez texts Sunny back, says swords aren't his thing and there are no mythical beings working at the Greenwich Museum, however he can recommend the Head of Armouries at the Royal Armory (as a mortal) and also visiting Thebes Antiques. Ariane suggests talking to Greenwich museum, because the sword is unlikely to be from Sword if we have a physical maker, we contact them and they're happy to look tomorrow.

Jules goes to visit Giannis Valatos with the painting and he's very pleased, says it reminds him of things he cannot see anymore because there are places he can't access, Jules notes he definitely smells of ozone. He then commissions her to do a piece of The Tower of London something more spiritual, from The Umbra, Jules is like "Oh we're dropping all the pretence now" and he admits he can't go to the Umbra himself, but knows some features and sight-lines persist there that are no longer in the physical world. Says he doesn't want to change her unique style wants to commission her one piece at a time, talks about how he once nearly got married in a church like the one in Jules picture.

Back at the Pack House: We talk about the rules of the job, at least one person must visit the places between midnight and midnight, only one person can enter the tower and recite the list, the places on that persons list are then considered inside London. The Pack picks up an A-Z, overland, and tube maps, and some detailed London maps and starts to plan.

Ariane suggests the Pack should cooperate to move a running around, Sunny suggests rubber stamping the locations to mark them, Lydia suggests having 2 people do the visitation so we have a backup in case someone gets interrupted. Sunny also reveals that she has a gift now meaning she can step sideways without needing a mirror. Ariane wonders what happens if we leave out an area on purpose and wonders if this can be used to cut off the dockland Vampires from support of "being in London".

We get Jules to ask the Deadbeats what route they took last time, gets a list from Sanjeev and gets a list, they left off the DLR and just used the tube, this means they missed whole chunks of East/South East London. We talk about what counts as an area (physical council boundaries? Conceptual areas? Something else? Boroughs? Tube stations?), debate various plans involving light aircraft, balloons, using multiple cars and Umbral shortcuts to shove people between them.

Carlie suggests talking to someone who knows what the plan is, eventually we settle on asking Holly to talk to The Guild, she talks to Mr. Benson who gets her a talk with Sir Robert Laffrey in his office. He says he doesn't like talking bad about packs but also we're taking on the Deadbeats job. Says its been done a lot of ways in the past, originally by Parish (knocking on church doors), then wards, etc. Was done by Horse and Carriage to the "village centres", done by Tube Station and Train. Says its important to visit the centre, or you get a weird donut effect, you can't just loop it. Says last year the DLR was missed and this impacted the trade/commerce of a number of areas and their prosperity, suggested we definitely get Wembly, Wimbledon, City of London, Docklands, and Southwark.

Sunny talks to Sebastian who's happy to hear the Pack is "coming up in the world" with this job, talks about definition of place as what people identify as a place, what the people use as landmarks and how they see the barriers of a place. Talk of how borough council, postcode block, mayoral district, tube station - the things people talk about and use mentally. Discussion of talking to Lydia about healthcare districts but questions of do people actually know the boundaries. Talk of asking those in the Umbra as well to see what the spirits use, also chat about why so much of the Umbra is old fashioned, the idea that the modern times and our concrete, steel, and glass buildings lack soul, and Sunny confirms she prefers a good tree herself. She wonders about asking humans and posing it as sociological research and posts a summary to the chat.

The Pack makes a plan to go by all the London Boroughs, The City of London, and also stand in the Themes just to catch that too.

2022-11-07

(A trip to the Greenwich Museum happens, the sword is identified as being bought by John Primrose by Dr. Ron Bexley, its valued and repair costs and teams suggested. Jules works on the route for the ritual and the Pack helps out, a formal acceptance letter is written for the Lady of Kowloon who takes it off Holly spookily and gives back a reply the same way. Ariane, Sunny, and Lydia go to the Primrose-Morton Estate, Ariane is given homework and suggested to take the sword to Sword, Sunny hangs with Alice, and Lydia goes to a lake and meets a big wolf spirit called Blood Talon who talks of how it once tried to arrange for the Garou to wipe out humanity but was thwarted, they talk of theology and history and the nature of God).

Ariane, Holly, Sunny, and Lydia head off to the Greenwich Museum (while Jules hits the maps). There Dr. Ron Bexley (a 50 year old whose glasses keep slipping down his nose) the curator welcomes people, into the back room (its pretty typically academic, except his desk which is spotless and has a big locked case of historical firearms behind it). He ruffles Sunny's fur, she sniffs him and he smells of human and gun oil. He IDs the sword as HSBC work, says the silver inlay is unusual but they've done it before, does some digging and turns up Mr. John Primrose who ordered it untempered (so that was done later, but we don't know where), they have the original design sketches and send those over to Ariane. The handles been redone, and the blades been reground at least once and more silver added but clearly the same sword. Will send Ariane a list of Sword restoration specialists, gives an estimated valuation of £800k - £1 million to fully recreate, and estimates 10-15% cost to repair (so 80-150k).

Meanwhile: Jules is working on the route - the North of the river is easy on the underground, South will use the overground, but there's a lot of in/out because the routes are radial, she starts out trying to plan it like a ritual then moves onto being more methodical and taking a structured approach. The rest of the Pack arrives for a planning session, people add their tweaks but the basic plan seems sound.

Jules writes a very polite and flowery letter to the Lady of Kowloon asking for confirmation of the details of the ritual so that we can incorperate that into the plan, sends the letter with Holly who attempts to subtly deliver it but instead finds that The Lady just disappears it directly from her hand without apparent movement, she later drifts through the bar and Holly finds she has a letter on her person addressed to Jules (Alpha of the Southwark Belles, etc.etc.etc.) she is a bit spooked.

The ritual plan means whoever is doing it needs to be at The Tower at 11:50pm exactly (not 1 minute before/after) on October 31st.

We make plans for using cars as backups in case trains are late, start to plan who's running and who's doing company, food, and drink deliveries. We have 1 week to Halloween.

Ariane goes to visit her folks with Sunny and Lydia and Carlie gives her the suggestion to think over of asking them "What happened last time it broke" and making it an assumption rather than a question.

At the Primrose Morton Estate

Ariane is called through to the Drawing room, Mr. Robinson is away at a regimental thing so Lydia goes for a walk, Alice is in the kitchen so Sunny goes to hang out with her.

Ariane tells her mother the story of the swords history, with John Primrose, the untempering, the HSBC, and that she's been told in an Umbral realm its from Sword. There's a suggestion it was partially finished there. She's told to take it there for repair (and write to her father about the trip), and also to write up the story of its creation for the family archives. Janice also implies the Guild won't be happy because the Grandese had information that a Rogue Immortal may try and disrupt the ritual at The Tower so they wanted a "virile pack" like the Southern Belles on protection duty. She says she'll suggest to Sir Robert he should get some extra protection duty, but The Tower must know of the threat and still chose to nudge us to do the bounds beating, apparently "asking the Tower of London to explain itself is like asking an alien to explain biscuits".

Lydia meanwhile goes for a walk, finds the pond mirror smooth and feels strangely spiritual so she looks within. Inside is a huge wolf spirit watching her. They chat about their days, it ssays it finds the lake peaceful and it sometimes comes here for good company, it leaves deep in the spirit but sometimes comes to visit the Primrose-Morton's as its related to them and "you all" (all garou kind). Lydia offers it the greatest story every told, but it says it was around when the bible was written, its many political diatribes drawn together and that Genesis and Numbers are unreliable, that the Jesus movement was a challenge to ancient Rome that lead to humans building bigger cities and fighting and killing each other more. They both agree humans are fallen. The Wolf wishes that revelation was true and happening soon and Lydia says it will be. It tells her there was a covocation of Garou during the time that Numbers was written (sometime before 520BC) about if humans were the greatest thing on earth or a threat to it, there was a debate to wipe out humans, but it was overruled by the idea it would lead to the extinction (or over wolfification?) of the garou, the big wolf spirit regrets the choice not to wipe out humanity to this day.

Lydia asks it why its telling this story and it says because she may understand because she believes in a second coming where humans are sorted into good and bad, and what if the Garou had been used as Gods tool then to make it happen, and what if they could now bring it along. It asks her what she'd do if God asked her to choose to trigger the second coming or not and she tells it it has misunderstood the nature of God. Lydia says shes met God (in prayer perhaps), but Wolf says its met God (in the Umbra?) and has no reason to lie. Lydia asserts God wouldn't let the Garou wipe out humanity as humans are the purpose of creation and God wouldn't use us as a tool. The wolf suggests maybe God saved humanity by changing the outcome of the meeting to stop them being killed. Lydia asserts that God is more powerful than the Wolf, it suggests she should go meet him and names her Lydia God-Botherer. They talk of the Werewolf end times as being full of despair but Lydia asserts the Bible brings hope and it works because of free will. The wolf asks why can't non-humans experience free will and Lydia tells it because humans are unique in the image of god. It tells her this is interesting arrogance and conceit and hope she gets to bother God in person one day. Before leaving it identifies itself as "Blood Talon".

2022-11-14

(Things wrap at the Primrose-Morton Estate with Lydia chatting to Janice about Blood Talon and learning it has given her a "deed name". Everyone prepares for the ritual. We encounter a number of obstacles including possible rogue immortal James but both teams of runners arrive at the Tower of London with time to spare)

At the Primrose-Morton Estate, Ariane spends her time drafting and redrafting stories, being essentially punished by constant criticism, she checks for John Primrose's skull but its not in the crypt. Meanwhile Sunny spends her weekend in the kitchen, learning/experiencing more cooking, she takes a dusk trip up to the ritual circle in the ruins and finds its accruing energy for something, probably next midsummer, she then hunts for deer across the estate.

Lydia goes to talk to Janice (and finds her reading a Russian newspaper "to keep up with her colleagues") about her encounter with Blood Talon, told its a totem of an old and venerable tribe of garou, it knows all werewolves, Janice regards it naming her as "Lydia God-Botherer" as a good thing, says its a Deed Name, which is either it commemorating what she has done or giving her something to aspire to in her life (bothering gods?). They talk about how he knows the Bible stories but doesn't benefit, and how seeds don't grow in fallow soil.

They talk of how Totems give Garou some of their gifts via their Tribes, that Blood Talon is of an "old" and "venerable" tribe, i.e. one who is not really an influence on modern garou population. THey agree an anthropocide is a terrible idea. Janice suggests going to try and find the Heaven realms in the Umbra and Lydia says shes not impressed by the ones shes seen, that this world holds more than enough opportunities, and they agree much of the rest of the pack disagree. Talk of her life, Family and Church both now cut off, work is busy but full of paperwork, and about the dust incident.

Minor interludes:

• Carlie gets her car serviced and fuelled in prep for the ritual
• Sunny notices a twitter storm about the most recent episode of Prime Suspect, the main character was murdered at the end of the episode, possibly by a colleague, its unclear who'll take over, unclear which direction plot is going, unclear if its the episodes main murderer covering his tracks.
• Jules calls Sanjeev and lets him know about the possibility of a rogue mythic attacking the tower.

The Halloween Ritual!

Sunny and Jules are the runners. Holly and Carlie are supporting Jules. Lydia and Ariane are supporting Sunny. The runners ask Bell for a blessing to start off with, they hear a strange bell in the Umbra, in the physical we hear an odd tinkling noise.

Various events occur!

• Jules meets a down and out homeless guy waiting for a bus at 3am who's looking for cash for a ticket, Jules tries to pay for his ticket but he clocks her as a wolf (how?) and starts shouting about it until the driver calls for security and an ambulance to remove him, Jules uses a gift to cow him into submission and he makes a run for it, his bag is thrown off the bus.
• Sunny is moving from busses to the Underground and can smell amzing bacon, spends somet time browsing around for it and finds it in the staff room, is tempted to beg for it but currently shaped like a human so leaves.
• Ariane hears about roadworks on a bus route and plans a driving route around for Sunny (losing 15m)
• Carlie uses her gifts to break open locks to make her route around the roadworks (losing 0 time)
• Lydia is faced with a busker who's very good, gathering a crowd which will get in the way of Sunny's transfer between platforms, tries to talk him into a church gig, then moves to using her NHS ID and shouting about how things are very important, which works a little, she moves to hustling Sunny while shouting about "medical emergencies!" and they get through the crowd well to only lose 5m
• Holly delivering lunch and meets someone who smells of ozone, he sits next to her, introduces himself as James (a mid 30s well dressed asian guy) claims to be new to London and asks for food recommendations and she pitches the places, she claims to be called "Ellen" and refuses to shake his head because covid. The weather turns and starts to rain heavily, she spots an Umbra spirit crow who has a stormy quality, she bribes it with lunch leftovers which it claims is "a better deal than the other guy" (Jules loses 2m due to weather)
• Sunny keeps herself awake and unbored by making up recipies and planning meal lists.
• Jules keeps going by playing and reading on her phone but also is clearly being mired in depression.
• Ariane gets a high end "thanks giving" style melt roll for Sunny, then as she's waiting to deliver it she meets James, she politely shakes his hand and gets shocked, this makes her angry and she leans in and threatens to eat his intestines if he does it again, he runs off.
• Carlie is face with a 45-50m traffic jam, warns Jules of the adjustment in the plan and takes shortcuts down back alleys and all sorts, Jules only down to 1:43m extra time.
• Lydia runs into a crowd of drunk and entitled bankers outside St. Paul's filling all the walking space and getting in the way. She finds some members of the church to perform an impromptu procession and they escort Sunny through the crowd.
• Holly at a busy complex station with all staff missing and the announcements broken. She finds a friendly weaver spider spirit, offers it a bribe of gnosis it gives her the long computer-code ID of the platform she needs and with google she works out the right one, running Jules through the station smoothly.
• Jules arrives at Covent Garden station (Perhaps) and the lifts are broken, she uses city running and rages up the stairs moving rapidly around people
• Sunny is approaching the City of London, passes a divine smelling restaurant and ignores her dog brains urges until later, determined to push on. She meets James who offers his hand, she's been pre-warned of him, so gives him a "Nice to meet you" brush off and won't shake his head, he tries to grab her and she shift dodges.

With time lost its pretty close: Sunny on 1:40 free, Jules on 1:43 free.

2022-11-21

(We hung out in a pub, a mist rolled in, we heard rumours of some strange people, saw some of the local high society arrive at the Tower, chatted to the Deadbeats, tried to protect The Tower, tangled with James and 2 mages he had with him (they're both out of commission, he's doing okay, we're a bit roughed up) and a demon one of them summoned is now charging the Deadbeats)

We send Jules into the ritual (3m faster and alpha), we have about an hour to kill so sit in the Liberty Bounds pub which overlooks the tower, get some spooky cocktails and chillout. Holly spots some Gargoyles guarding the tower in human form, Lydia hands out first aid kits. We chat about James and Holly talks about spotting his lightening aura/sword vibes, we look up local churches in case we need to hide on holy ground and find The Tower has a consecrated chapel.

We see a limo rolling up to the tower and depositing Sir Robert Laffrey and The Lady of Kowloon, Ariane starts to notice mist/fog coming in, Lydia goes for a walk to check in on local homeless people and spots a guy who tells her all the regulars left (including Pandhandler Tom) and that he saw 3 people heading into an alleyway before weird blue sparks came out, they were coercing one of them and they vanished (this is what prompted a lot of the regulars to leave their spots).

Sanjeev comes into the pub and orders some coffees, chats to Holly who warns him about James as a potential problem and we're sort of asked to stick around. Given the advice to fight immortals at range, if possible take off the head, some of them can regenerate faster than garou, Sanjeev fought one once and lost.

Ariane and Carlie go looking for projectiles and steal some bricks and scaffold poles from a nearby building site stashing them near the Tower. We also see Professor Rodriguez arrive as we setup a guard around the Tower with Lydia watching the chapel entrance, Holly the Umbra, Carlie nose up high, Ariane at the pier, and Sunny nose near the front gate. Sunny picks up the scent of ozone coming and howls a warning, we start to converge on the three people approaching out of the fog. One of them mind-controls? Creates an illusion? for Ariane and Sunny to make them think they are the Sheriff and her faithful dog protecting a wild west town from outlaws (with fingerguns included), this renders them largely ineffectual at first. Everyone else closes in.

There's a fight! Exciting things include:

• Lydia jams all local phones with a gift
• James draws a huge claymore sword
• Carlie beans one of the mages with a brick, breaking the illusion on Ariane and Sunny
• The other mage touches his neck and smokes starts to form as he summons a Demon, Lydia flips to crinos
• Ariane and Holly bean the Demon contractor mage with bricks (with Holly probably killing him)
• Ariane goes to fetch a couple of scaffold poles to hit James at a distance and flunks her shift role so is stuck in homid
• Lydia calls on people to repent and throws a persuasion gift which hits the mind-control mythic
• James stabs Carlie a bit and dances in and out of range superhumanly quickly.
• The Dagenham Deadbeats arrive! The Demon rips the (probably dead?) contractor in half for funsies.
• Sunny bites James and gets electrocuted (3 agg)
• Carlie manages to get another brief stab in on James but he's already healed the first
• Holly bricks James a bit without much effect
• James finishes this chunk of fight by shoving his sword into the ground and electric bursting which hits Lydia and Ariane (4 agg)
• The Demon charges off to attack the deadbeats.

2022-11-28

(Jules attended a ritual, we met all the Grandese of London, they summoned a Boudica like figure (maybe London itself) and made deals with it. Jules and Inspector Watford then went to join the fight. James the rogue immortal was put down with Ariane hitting the floor in the process. She didn't die, the demon also didn't escape and got killed. The session ended in a little bit of bickering)

Jules goes to a marvellous ritual

Meanwhile - Jules has been in a ritual! On the way in she meets two shady looking people, who don't breath, smell of anything, and their movement is still, like facsimiles of humans (they are the Gargoyles). Inside she bumps into Derek Watford and jokes about handcuffs with him. There is a ring of inner seats and a ring of outer seats, she picks on on the outer layer at Watford's direction. The Lady of Kowloon and Sir Robert Laffrey arrive and brief her on the ritual (that they'll call her by name) and give her a card with her script on. A walking statue (the Gargoyle Three) arrives with Professor Rodrieguez.

Jules circulates pre-ritual, thanks the Lady of Kowloon (who is dressed as a fine aristocrat) and they talk a little about her artwork. She generally keeps an eye on people, and makes small talk. There is a loud cracking sound and everyone turns to look at a punk girl in DMs who's just arrived, Jules says hello and meets Sam Aston who is a Mythic Spaceomancer who can control space and teleport things around. She's sad that Sanjeev isn't here because he tends to bring her snacks to stop her getting cranky. Tells Jules that the Gargoyles are known as One, Two, and Three. She also invites Jules to the after party as she goes to smooth things over with Laffrey.

The Angel Islington is there and she and the Lady of Kowloon are staring daggers at each other periodically. Jules chats to her about how her sets are good for covid suppression and she looks forward to doing more even if Harold and Robert Laffrey will be against it. A little old lady (Crone Fleet, a fae) talks about the puppies they tried to contract and how the True Londoners have lost a few. Jules talks to her about how her gigs work, she says she takes in love/energy/euphoria/joy/wishes/prayers and converts them then radiates them out as a cleansing aura and confirms that even regular humans have a little gnosis/Essence/magical energy to them, also that people just don't care what she says as a DJ so she can out werewolves and people don't notice. She's also doing the music at the afterparty and introduces Jules to Crone Fleet the little old lady.

Crone Fleet talks of The Director as a "new one" is abroad hunting the Fae, with the new episode filmed. She says they'll endure and will pass on any hints about his location to us.

Finally the Vampires arrive, people grumble about them, and the ritual begins with the Grandese of London taking their seats.

• Harold (The Vampires)
• Crone Fleet (The True Londoner / True Fae / Fairies)
• The Angel Islington (presumably actual literal angels and other divine beings?)
• Sir Robert Laffrey (The Garou / Werewolves)
• The Lady of Kowloon (Ghosts apparently)
• Sam (Mythics / Mages)
• Three (Gargoyles and all things intelligently mechanical)
• Professor Rodriegez (The Immortals)

Jules does her best to keep her head down throughout the ritual and keep it smooth, there's lots of talk of London, The Lady of Kowloon phases out of existence and instead a sort of Boudica like figure (probably a representation of London itself?) manifests, the Grandese hand over their tithes (Robert a bag, Three a ruby, Harold a bag, Sam a crystal ball of essence, Professor Rodrigez and Crone Fleet hand over papers, The Angel hands over 1 white feather). They talk of the deal, what they offer, and what London offers back. During this Laffrey talks of describing London and has Jules step up. Jules names the districts she went too and the places within those districts. The Boudica-Figure thanks them for the gifts and expanded boundaries that will bring more people and prosperity under its control.

Eventually the ritual finishes, the Boudica-London spirit fades and as it goes The Lady of Kowloon manifests again, stumbling and looking tired. Derek Watford thanks the people and swears and oath to continue his role as the Sheriff of London to keep the peace equally. The Grandese continue their discussion in "closed session" and boot everyone else out. As she's leaving with Watford they both see lightning flashes and hear the sound of the Pack fighting and head into it!

Panic! At the Dog Pile

Sunny steps sideways into the Penumbra looks at James, there's no sword there but there is a big sphere of lightning which looks a little dim. Can also see the Liberty Bounds pub on the border of the Tower bubble, she grabs up a cobblestone and chucks it through the lightning ball.

Out in the physical: Carlie turns invisible, Holly grabs two bricks, flips to Crinos and claps them on James who goes down like a sack of spuds, Ariane grabs up James sword, flips it around and decapitates her - which releases his Quickening up the blade and burns her from the inside out dropping her to the floor. She has visions from James life, of being in a motorbike accident in the 80s, memories of Hong Kong, a guy explaining that he's now immortal, parts of China. The lightning/Quickening gathers around the body, and zaps out hitting others, Jules gets a fond memory of dancing with a woman.

Lydia notices Ariane is down and patches her up with first aid and determines she's not going to immediately die but she's got a high pulse and ragged breath, definitely touch and go. Sunny can see a reflection of Ariane's damaged spirit in the Umbra and push gnosis into her by licking her which helps a little.

Jules sees that the immortal is dead but the Demon remains, lets out an inspirational howl (ooc: gift: +1 WP for everyone) and runs towards the demon. Carlie tells people to dump the body in the river then she, Holly, Inspector Watford, and the Deadbeats dogpile the body - leaving Lydia thumping the floor in frustration until Sunny pops back into the physical to help her, Lydia fetches water.

The Demon is clawed by people and Holly grapples it to hold it still and it becomes very very dead as a large group of Garou dog pile it into the floor, with everyone claiming they got the final killing blow. They return, Carlie and people throw the body and the head into the river in very separate places and we end on Lydia slapping Jules in the face for leaving a pack mate, Jules retorts that Lydia had her under her care and there was a demon, and they bicker about who left who (Lydia wanted help, Jules wanted to kill the demon before it escaped or killed the Deadbeats).

And we move onto Season Eight