Season Eleven

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

2023-10-23

Everyone is at the Pack House, Ariane has just called Diamond Annie, gotten mocked, but hired an infiltrator to the New Catholic Church.

Lydia suggests talking to Bell, Jules and Ariane to go along, Holly and Carlie to take it easy. Bell is sat around looking miserable, who says she can't hear from one of her daughters, specifically the one they've taken over, Jules tells her its an Umbral church thats been cooperating with Wyrm creatures (Vampires) and has some kind of bubble, we peer and can see the faint flickering of the forcefield. Bell says she's suddenly just cut off, she hears from most of the bells most Sundays and her quiet daughters less frequently, did say something about people coming around to restore and play her every Sunday. She says its happened several times in the past and normally she can see the fire that occurs and its never good when she loses one to fire. Bell says she's never really heard of the Umbral church, she knows there are those out there that claim to belong to a church but knows very little about them. Jules asks if there's anything else we can do in the meantime and Bell just asks her to find out. She offers to play for us to recharge our essence and we reassure her we just like hearing her - and get a melancholy tune. Lydia asks her what our pack is for and told we're for protecting Southwark as we are the Southwark Belles from The Wyrm and things that would destroy, we should "create and thrive, do art, grow strong!". Lydia asks why art? And is told it provides meaning that sways hearts, and hearts shape the Umbra, and that shapes her, and she shapes the Umbra and hearts back - its the only really meaningful thing. What would happen to you if Southwark wasn't here? I'd die. Apparently it'd be bad for her, her daughters and her sisters.

On the way back Lydia asks Jules what she thinks we should do, is told protect the Umbra from the Wyrm and make things safe. Lydia: Do you think you're doing that? Do you think you could do better? Do you think we could do better? Talk of maybe and depends if people are willing to give up their lives, Lydia says she doesn't have any distractions and thinks other people should give up their lives and that careers, partners, art, etc will all be gone in a few years. Lydia asks "do you think you'll have a career in 10 years when the planets burning." Ariane attempts to explain that being a lawyer will help her shape the collapse of the government and its important for Jules to make art to keep inspiring people because fighting for peoples hopes and dreams keeps them from falling to the Wyrm. Lydia argues for a need for a strategic vision to essentially hunt down the billionaires running the world and deal with them and Ariane suggests it would be "werewolf justice" and Jules says we can't just hunt people down and kill them. Ariane suggests Lydia talk to Steven Thompson who she writes off as a useless compromiser.

Lydia calls out Jules as a weak leader with no plan and vision and lays down a challenge - Jules then goes to punch Lydia (and misses!) who then fails to shift up the first time and manages the second time, Jules snarls "How dare you say I have no vision!" and throws a punch thats evaded. Ariane observes! Lydia hits Jules harder than she expects so Jules switches up to Glabro then punches Lydia. Lydia wrestles Jules to the floor, getting the upper hand! Jules fails to escape and Lydia growls "Yield!" at her which gets the response "Bite me!" then shifts Lupus to evade out of the hold! Lydia says "Jules I'm not trying to kill you!" and goes to kick her, Jules dives in and shifts up to Glabro inside her guard and punches her hard. She gets a good hold on Jules to pin her and Jules tries to break out by sheer force of strength and fails, Lydia growls "Fucking quit already I'm not trying to hurt you!" and goes to choke her out. Ariane spots a huge dog-wolf spirit watching, 6-7 foot tall at the shoulder while sitting, keeps half an eye on it and half on the fight. Jules flips up to crinos form and breaks the hold! Then goes to claw Lydia who dodges, then shifts up to crinos, Jules manages to get a solid hit in (5 points of lethal) and the large wolf spirit howls, Jules roars yield and Lydia rolls over and shows throat.

Ariane attempts to hold up Jules arm as a victor and Lydia tells her that she's been putting her neck out and breaking herself for Lydia and there isn't a grand plan there's just her attempting to make sure everyone gets to live their lives and if its not good enough for her she can fuck off. She goes to leave and the huge wolf comes padding over and tells her "Nice speech" in first tongue. Greets Lydia as "God Botherer" (see Season Seven) and says it was here to witness history which Ariane greets it and greets it as friend wolf, says she was because Jules defended her history. The wolf talks about Jules ancestors, a great line of ahroun behind her applauding her punching a nurse. She has a Tells her her name is "Red Talon" or "Call of Blood" and Jules recognises that this thing is probably the patreon of the Red Talons tribe and clocks that Lydia's talking points line up with their philosophy and it says its been watching Lydia a while because she had interesting ideas last they met and her ideas have bloomed like flowers in the spring. Lydia says there isn't a better tribe for her because she was born human, it says it is willing to bend the rules for her and extract a price and she would be the only one in London, the only one south of Birmingham, she says she may end up in Birmingham after her course and it says there's always some humans who need culling and her beautiful flower will bloom into great fruit at some point. She says there's some humans who are nearly there and it says there's some non-humans who need culling, she clarifies she has tried to explain it to some humans and she says no they're mostly Wyrm tainted not doing it for the Wyld itself, it wants her to kill some things that look like humans to get her hand in. It asks Ariane to pass on her regards to her mother and she assures her she will, it asks Jules to look into her background one day.

Jules stalks away, The Red Talon fades out, Lydia has a few claw marks. Ariane offers her an arm to lean on and asks if shes talked to it much but is told just the one time at the pond at her house and that the Children of Gaia retreat wasn't a place it hung out. Ariane suggests that the Red Talons aren't an effective path as its been tried. Lydia says what we've been doing at the minute isn't enough. Jules goes to blow off steam and Lydia and Ariane get back to the Pack House.

Ariane drops Lydia on the sofa and goes to make her a big cup of tea and fetch her first aid kid. Carlie and Holly look on and she tells them it was Jules and she lost because she wasn't trying to kill her. Ariane says it was an accepted challenge, and Holly shouts about how there's an invasion going on, Ariane fills them in on the fight and how Red Talon was there, both Carlie and Holly have heard of it, Ariane attempts to defend this as something to respect cautiously from a distance, Carlie wants to know why its hanging around and paying attention, Lydia tells her about the first time she met it and Carlie says it clearly saw the anger in her. Carlie goes to leave for a walk and is clearly angry. Holly packs up her journal notes (had been working out the route - they're probably coming via Templar which comes direct to earth) while Ariane fills her in on the meeting with Bell. Talk of how they got back, the object they gave us was destroyed, Ariane asks Sunny to talk to the Stargazers about if they brought things back, Holly moots that the geas was brought back but then diffused. Get Lydia to check in with Celeste who says she was in The Umbral Church last night (so not coming in through there), Ariane talks about ways to Templar and Holly's notes say that it connects to The Temple Church in England and various knights of different religions, faiths, philosophy, and background come to test their mettle against each other, putting their faith, beliefs, and lives on the line, its in central London (guarded by Dragons on the perimeters and the territory of Samantha Wallingford's vampire sect).

2023-10-30

written by Gareth, age 28

• Holly agrees to accompany Sunny to her sponsorship meeting with Sarah Hawkins of Tate & Lyle at a local "upmarket" cafe
• Sunny begins to plan making that massive batch of charity cookies for the True Londoner taximen
• The sponsorship meeting: upon first meeting Hawkins, Sunny definitely (and Holly somewhat) pick up that Hawkins is kinfolk
  • Hawkins is very enthusiastic about cakes and other confectioneries
  • Sunny and Hawkins agree to a branding deal: Hawkins' company will supply Sunny with ingredients for the big bake and some cash for her troubles in exchange for some shots of the products in Sunny's videos and some "suggested lines" and materials to promote
  • Hawkins is also trying to make connections to Sunny directly about casually bringing up her "uncle Laurent" (who tells strange stories about remarkable far off places) disappearing - in a way where she's definitely trying to provoke some kind of reaction out of the two of them
    • Laurent is currently back on another adventure with his very good Stargazer friend into the deep umbra to track down "the source of COVID" (again)
  • Sunny also talks the cafe owner to give her the recipe for the key lime pie that everyone had at the meeting
• On the way home, Sunny and Holly chat about various things - where all the Stargazers seem to be, the importance of having hobbies (while directly bringing up Lydia), what to do about the Eternal Church in London, that it's probably a bad idea to try to gather all the Garou into one place to talk about said Church, and that they should go to Robert Laffrey's wake at The Guild (which Holly is already working at and Sunny thinks about bringing key lime pie to)
• Sunny phones Ariane's mother (Janice Primrose-Morton), gets Mr. Robinson the butler - Janice is busy, so Sunny asks him about Stargazers - not much luck, but Alice the maid chats with Sunny about her videos and wants her to make a wedding cake for her (and Penny Primrose??)
• Jules goes on a trip in the near Umbra to take a look at the bubble
  • Has a stealthy investigation nearby
    • The church itself is exactly the same in both umbra and real
    • Big shimmery bubble, slightly distorting what's inside it; no array; couple of spirit guards (Order of Red?) with swords
    • Jules tries messing around with the bubble as a wolf, which causes some sort of flash inside the church itself for a moment then settles back down
    • Jules spends some amount of time messing around with the barrier trying to find a soft spot to potentially break through one way or another
    • Cannot sense the Wyrm beyond the barrier - the barrier seems to block it
  • Jules then decides to turn to a more direct approach - she approaches the front door as a human where there are a couple of the church's monks with swords standing guard
  • Another guard with a different sword eventually comes through the barrier (parting it with their hands) and has a tense chat with Jules
    • The guard offers the "warhounds" (his way to describe wolves) of London to join The Eternal Church
    • As he disappears back behind the barrier, Jules hears the subtle sound of an arcana array activating - she then parkours her way around to find three glowing lights (like fireflies) nearby, the lights appear to try to gently pull Jules through the Gauntlet - she resists, but looks through herself to see…
    • Some of "London's finest" (21st Tactical Reconnaissance Regiment) in a stakeout overlooking the church trying to put out a fire on an array - Jules beats a retreat
• Carlie will be focusing on tracking down the vampire that showed up at the church using Sergeant Limehouse's video tape collection
• Ariane was mostly catching up on homework during this (Tabitha was on holiday)

2023-11-13

Carlie has been going through Robert Laffrey's livejournal looking for hints as to who the missing Vampire may be, finds a possible name of Daniel Webster who's a paralegal to a local east London solicitors (PBK Solicitors), just a small place (injury law, local conveyancing, etc), asks Ariane who knows nothing about them (ooc: an absolute botch so Ariane bluffs that if they were real she'd have heard of them) the pair of them go digging online, Ariane gets suspicious because they don't seem to have filed anything with any magistrates so they could be doing 100% contract law/conveyancing but its unlikely, there's no trace. They talk about doing a gentle survey of the place for how occupied it is but Carlie talks about prepping a break in.

Holly is taking a little time off to recharge in the kitchen, going through The Styles Journal checking into The Temple Church entry is relatively slim, there's a full page pencil drawing of a Greco-Roman building with funky marble columns, he went through on his way to The Eternal Empire and came via here, says it was something else but then it was taken over by The Eternal Church and they turned it into training/barracks for the Order of Red.

• Sunny is making 3 pies with slight variations to work on recipes.
• Ariane goes to visit the Southwark Abandoned Tube Station to look for hints into their time in Hong Kong.
• Lydia visits the local army recruitment office.

Carlie goes to investigate The PBK Solicitors office is between Abdul Kebab and Curry shop (22:00 - 3:00 every night) and Singhs corner store (open all day, possibly 24h). She heads round the back to check out the back yards, nothing interesting, lots of concrete, the 24h corner store has a camera out the back, maybe working. Steps up to a blue door at the back of PBK. She gloves up, activates the invisibility fetish, and hops the fence to pop the lock. Looks at it and suspects its a holding company dead drop, there's nothing here but postal mail boxes for more than 150 businesses and a bored looking clerk in there. She hops back over the fence and heads to the cafe across the road (delicious Arabic style coffee), she settles herself in for a long overnight watch.

Lydia arranges to pop along to the Wednesday evening (tomorrow night) try out session for recruitment, she mentions her parents were involved in 21st Tactical and hence she'd appreciate getting involved.

Ariane's poking around the underground station trying to work out if there links between the Pack who went to Hong Kong with Robert Laffrey and the previous pack. Spends a lot of time trying to determine if there's evidence of the previous-previous pack, finds a notebook (mostly damaged with directions) to a warehouse in Southwark near the Alpha Games warehouse. She heads back to the pack house to recruit people for a look around.

Sunny meanwhile is engaged in delicious cooking on a long endurance based cooking spree, she flags a little over time, but Ariane and Lydia return to cookies and Keylime Pie, we enjoy them and fill out survey forms, afterwards we decant to go look at the warehouse.

It's a warehouse/custom house kind of thing along where the docks used to be, mostly the docks have been turned into housing but theres a few boarded up/metal grids over doors and windows, the padlock looks worn, all the gridwork is rusty. We get Sunny to do a sniff around, gets the aroma of humming warm plasticy electronics, Holly has a peer into the Umbra and the building is an exact replica on the other side, which is odd. She fills us in on how there's been enough omph for the spirit to remember the current, there's talk of Sunny going in for a scout around, we look for observers, there's one guy high on coke. We agree to sent Holly and Sunny through to see if they can break the lock there. Holly shifts to glabro and smashes the door off, in the physical the padlock falls off and door swings open. Ariane thanks invisible Holly and they both head inside. Inside is a large cement floored warehouse, empty, with 3 lights running 2.5 stories up, they come on as we open the door and a knackered old fan starts then "Good evening Mr. Ells" in a computerised voice then a question about "6,047 days since you last returned Mr. Ells is everything ok?" (16.5 years) Ariane claims she was on holiday. Edges closer, there's a 90s beige era computer and CRT which loses its smoke. Lydia keeps looking around the room, sterile empty, no windows, notices the wiring is from the 80s. Ariane tries to ask the computer what we did 6047 days ago, it asks if we want it to play Mr. Ells favourite album, it then plays the X-Files theme tune.

in the Penumbra the lamps come on and the inside is a space shuttle with the flag of the soviet union and cyrellic writing, they peer around and Holly peers into the physical and can see it playing an audio file, has a big button marked "decloak" on it, works out that Ariane and Holly can't see whats going on, they chat about this and Holly pops back into the physical world.

Sunny comes back and tells us about the spaceship/decloak button, we let her hop back before we hit it, it takes a few clicks before the large while space shuttle fades into existence, Ariane explains its must be the craft that can go anywhere and then the Gauntlet breaks down and Holly and and Sunny appear, Holly says its like 2 frames of glass stacked on on top of each other. The Monitor is back working playing the Spice Girls. We talk about finding a manual or something and maybe google-translating them. We have two ways in, cockpit and main cargo area, the doors are around 12 feet up, Lydia shifts to Crinos and lifts Ariane up to get in the doors, she manages to scrabble the latch open and it opens downwards and almost smacks her but she gets in. There is a yellow post it pointing to a button marked "Jimmy this one", she talks about pushing it and peers through a port hole - the cockpit has a lot of space race type tech, bulky chairs, lots of computers, everything labelled in cyrellic and lots of yellow post it notes and stickers with english words on them and post its with "Jimmy 1", "Jimmy 2", "Jimmy 3", then "Jimmy this one but only after 4 goes ping", Ariane finds a rope ladder and tosses it out the door, looks like it was built for it.

Ariane pushes the button and the lights come on to the Airlock, theres some clunks and the inner door becomes loose. We carefully go inside and start taking pictures, all the lights and systems start to come on, decide to not push anything. Find a leather jacket draped over a chair, several 90s era coke cans by a chair, and there's a copy of Anne McCaffrey's Pern, there's also a large wooden case welded in front of one of the other chairs - inside is a gold inlaid basket hild rapier, feels like a glaive, Ariane picks it up and can feel the amount of spirit bound into it, beautifully weighted, can feel its a weapon for killing people with artistry and practically singing. Ariane doesn't want her sword to get jealous so hands it over to Lydia, who's eyes light up. We find a big thick Russian manual with a few extra pages written in English detailing how to control the craft, Ariane spends time hunting for the shutdown procedure - it should automatically shutdown once the button is pushed in the airlock. Meanwhile everyone else: Sunny keeping watching as a wolf in the warehouse, the music is now Take That. Holly asks Sunny if she can see the screen, says there's a "CLOAK" button back on the monitor. Holly then goes into the back cargo section, Scandinavian hotel vibes, wood floor, leather sofas, bar, some small bed/sleeping areas at the back including a dog bed, looks retrofitted. She invites Ariane and Lydia back there to check it out. There's even a TV and video selection. There's food but its ancient snacks mostly and mostly gone off. Talk about cloaking it with a witness to see what happens but Lydia points out it'll be air tight. We leave a receipt from Ariane's pocket and recloak it, and Ariane and Lydia bounce back to the real to see the shuttle shimmering away and the gauntlet reappearing. Holly and Sunny muse about what this means for science and talk about finding Stargazer theorist, Ariane manages to convince the computer to stop playing music and gets on guard while looking up the location of nearby hardware stores, we get some bin bags to wrap the sword up, a new padlock for the door and bolt the place back up.

Later that evening Holly and Ariane notice that some of the symbols from the Styles Map correspond to manual stuff about how to set a location/destination for it. Ariane texts pictures to Carlie with "WE FOUND A GOD DAMN SPACESHIP CARLIE"

Carlie meanwhile has been chilling, drinking coffee, chatting politics with various old men, then spots a guy who she vaguely recognises coming up to the door to pick up his business mail.

2023-11-20

And so, with Carlie watching the postal drop box and the possible arrival of Daniel Webster, she opts to not do violence but instead trail the guy, she texts the pack to let them know its happening, she then uses a mix of city running and invisibility to watching him going into the BRC (Business Registration Centre), he emerges with envelopes and just pockets them. She trails him to an underground station, doesn't risk following him, tries to take a photo but it has a weird corruption issue. She texts Jules to ask if any of her "mage friends" has worked out how to de-fuzz a Vampire photo.

Meanwhile: Jules has been avoiding the house a little since the fight with Lydia, she's been walking the boundaries and marking things up. She's popping in and out of the Umbra doing this and as she pops out she finds group chat has pictures of a spaceship and Carlie's question, she replies not that she knows of (magic is super broad)

Everyone meets back up at the Pack House and Ariane identifies the ship as must be the go-anywhere space plane, Carlie advocates for getting rid of it, Ariane advocates for keeping it. Jules tells us about the ward on the Southwark Church, they can open it from the inside and walk across, so its not like a regular arcane array (which are normally on/off) also tells us that someone (probably 21st Tactical? But similar) has been watching the church. Ariane talks about throwing stuff at the church to see if we can get something through the barrier so we can as a last resort firebomb the place. Lydia tells us she joined the TA "as a hobby" and they don't know she's a werewolf. There's a little grumbling but everyones broadly ok.

Jules declares the spaceship is fine to just leave for a bit because its not going anywhere. Then check's in with Carlie about the Vampire and ideas for tailing him, Ariane suggests a standard tail and hand off, Carlie says she doesn't want to be following him on her own. Ariane suggests mailing him a tracking device, Lydia suggests putting it in a cake. Eventually decision is made for Jules to try and track the Vampire Daniel Webster.

Jules talks about how we're low on ideas about the Eternal Church. Holly moots - "How does London feel about them?" (not Parliament, not the True Londoners, but Spirit of London, because they've set up a ward around an old church, she's not sure London would take kindly. Ariane moots that PBK Solicitors may just be a money laundering/front for a Vampire that's basically given up on law practice. So decision: Jules on the photo and tracking, Holly putting together a team to talk to the Spirit of London.

Liz responds: Ditital picture? Can't really be done, use old style film. So there's a plan for Carlie to get a camera, she cracks a joke about how "the next time I'm tailing someone in the subway I'll bring my daguerreotype!"

So Jules breaks out the gift, writing the name on her hand, she gets a vague direction of him to the west, so we gear up to go breaking broadly into team underground (Jules, Ariane) and team overground (Carlie, Holly, Lydia, Sunny) in Carlie's car. In time we get the sense he's Westish and somewhere on the Elizabeth line, we head towards West Ealing (it's pricey, but not ludicrous, good cars, a number of religious institutions). Jules presses on following her nose, eventually comes to a drive called Sherwood Court. She lets everyone know the location, its a lot of upmarket flats around here. Jules and Ariane moot ducking into the Umbra to wait for the others and Jules cautiously sniffs on and locates him at 49 Dean Court, basement level (google maps). A very unremarkable red brick 1990s - 2010s, building looks occupied, unexciting. Everyone catches up and there's a plan to go into the Umbra with Carlie being asked "I know you can go invisible, do you think you can break into someones house?" and gets a flat stare.

The team Umbras! It's west end slums instead of the modern flats. We find a back yard with an old toilet outhouse where we think it is. We peer through, it looks like it was decorated around 2007-2010ish, not really upgraded since, we find a basement down but its an old style victorian in the Umbra, there's no mirrors, we prod Holly as the seeing eye horse/what do you elf eyes see and she gives us a side eye before she looks. It's got an immersion heater, looks like a storage area rather than a living environment - except there's a bed with a sleeping figure in it, absolutely no windows. It is at night. We talk about if this is the right guy or not, Holly checks more and he's definitely asleep. We talk about if he's the Renfield or if he's somehow spoofing the location to avoid the tracking gift. Jules sniffs and yeah there is Wyrm scent there, coming from the bed - talk of a chat/violence, how we need to be sure to get the right target. Jules asks Sunny "Hey can you drag someone through into the Umbra?" we decide to give it a go with everyone else near an upstairs mirror in case we need to pop into the physical and assist Sunny.

So! Sunny pops into the physical! Wrestles and grabs him, jumps back, finds she's holding into the shirt, but no Vampire. She pops back again! Tries again! Fails again. Calls that she can't grab him, Jules decides to go get him, so we pile through the mirrors and meet him coming up the stairs - there's a standoff with him going "Shit..." Ariane eventually breaks the silence by saying we're here from the Sheriffs office. He complains about Samantha, claims it was all her idea and he had to go along with it. He admits to doing it, says he's very happy to come in and answer questions and talk to the Grandees, says he knew there as a hunt on but refuses to go along and make it easy. Tells us he has to follow her instructions because she made him a Vampire, hence has control. There's some bants amongst The Pack. Ariane asks why he did it - tells us Samantha wanted an item Sir Robert had and he was the one fucking up the club. He then received a phone call from the Sheriff relaying a message from Samantha to lay low. Says he's gone out to get his mail 3-4 times, supplies twice, and is very bored. He can't do anything else until she says something else, Holly asks if he'd turn to dust? Nope he'd just think it was a good idea to stay, if he was forced out then he can't lay low anymore - and since we've found him he doesn't have to lay low anymore. Ariane makes it clear we need him alive in order to undermine the Sheriff. There's talk about how Lydia is in fact very murderous. He offers to get us a cab.

Jules calls Stephen Thompson and tells him we've got the last of the Vampires who murdered Sir Robert Laffrey in custody, he says he's willing to tell things to the Grandees including it was the Sheriff of London who told him to lay low and relayed that message. This perks Thompson up who suggests we take him to Paddington Green for safe keeping, Jules says she doesn't want him to just disappear. Ariane advices Daniel to grab some books and he does so and a change of clothes and we head off. We take him over and load him into a cell.

2023-11-27

The pack has just loaded Daniel Webster into Paddington Green with the hope of using his statement incriminate the current Sheriff John Northbridge. Ariane asks about talking to the Spirit of London. A plan is formed to have Ariane, Sunny, Lydia, and Carlie go to talk to Stephen Thompson to start a coup against Northbridge by rounding up the Grandees, meanwhile Holly and Jules head to talk to the Spirit of London.

So first: The The Spirit of London, they broadly say they're here seeking allies and hope that the Spirit of London slaps them down - there is also a discussion where Jules asks Holly how she is still an optimist, and she talks about her therapist in her youth. They head into the Umbra and arrive at the tower with the large bubble around it, Jules taps it and it wavers and reminds her of the shield she saw at the church, its a similar/same bubble, she deduces there is a portal to the Deep Umbra at the centre being protected by the Tower of London. Holly thinks about where that could be, Jules suggests maybe Tower, Holly isn't sure, nothings springing out. Holly spots a large pair of beady eyes watching them, feels its some kind of avian flavoured spirit, watching them from outside the barrier, Jules can't seem to see it (due to dice roller based vibes), Jules suggests walking in physically and then popping through and Holly suggests she's going to walk in physically then look through. The raven draws closer so they decide to make tracks as if someone wanted to talk to them it would have already. Back in the physical Holly looks and finds the gauntlet at the barrier very very thick, she can't see through.

They start to make a plan B about talking to a Dragon and Jules says there's one sat on top of the British Museum, they notice they're being watched by a large raven sat on the lamp post, it gives them a look, bobs its head and heads towards the Liberty Bounds they spot someone in a tatty but bright red suit who asks "Ladies, may I join you?" and talks about getting off his old feet, they settle him into a chair and the Barman calls him George and asks after his legs, Jules thinks that the bright red suit may mark this out as an off duty Beefeater, she asks George if works/used to at the Tower, he says he spent his last few years guarding it, and occasionally giving tours etc. Says that "The Ravens tell me" that they are seeking an audience, asks about the topic, they settle on "An incursion", talk about a reoccurrence of a tension between church and the crown, but quieter, says the Ravens always talk to the right people and have good advice so wants to ask for advice, they mention its a power outside London and he asks if they're talking about Papists and suggests they've not been a threat since the 16th Century, suggests no serious antipopes, there's one maybe in some Scottish island but none serious. Jules shifts tack talking about how shes not been able to get into the tower to get pictures of the crown jules for her mum, he suggests taking a tour. Holly breaks it down to new church affecting the deep roots of the city with the way its operating, they mention this is a threat from "The Umbra" and he points up and says "Up there... kinda", Holly points in both directions and says "All around from my perspective", he concludes "Where the Tower Ravens really reside". He agrees to go talk to the Ravens and they say they'll get him a pint of bitter, grabs his stick and heads out.

They grumble about having to talk in weird circles with people, he returns 10 minutes later to say The Ravens will give them an audience in 10 minutes time back where they first attracted its attention.

The Raven says "'ello! Two for an audience with the crown then?" and is a wee bit cockney at them, it welcomes them inside and they sort of percieve the feeling of The Tower all around a sense of its history and its connection to London, feels a mix of current time, Arthurian fantasy, a huge weight of history and land connection. Jules feels this feels familiar and remembers the whole thing of The Alpha Games and how this feels a bit like that, really big. They hear the Spirit of London talk as a voice in their head rather than sound, asking "You wish to speak to me?", they introduce themselves as the Southwark Belles garou (it knows) and say they are concerned about an invasion, asks about how to remove them? It says they aren't its subjects and aren't bound by it so wants us to remove them. It says the Eternal Church has tried once before but was beaten back "by tooth, by claw, by sword, by magic, by belief, by faith" and it occurred 2000 years ago. Many citizens died. Says it cannot cross the bounds to help. Jules asks how and it says it can nominate an avatar, since the Eternal Church has arrived again it will begin to hunt for an avatar, tells them to gather many allies, tells them they're garou so be garou, they bow and curtsey, the small Raven makes a squark and they follow its lead to back away, tells them George calls it "Bill" because it has a bit of a bent bill, is very glad they had a good audience.

MEANWHILE: The plan is message Steven Thompson, ask Thompson to contact Harold Westbury (slowly via Email), Thompson says it'll be a formal meeting at the Tower and hence Three will just arrive.

So Carlie to take Angel Islington, Sunny to BM and see Professor Rodriegez, Ariane to try and track down Sam Aston at The Card Trick, Lydia to try and track down Old Crone Fleet.

• Carlie starts at The Angel Islington's old night club (Bubbles?) closed and boarded up, she heads inside, there's wrecked DJ equipment and a residual sense of a portal, she attempts to wedge the portal open, finds a strangely empty area, a suggestion of wings, and something stating "You're back", Carlie attempts to say that there needs to be a meeting of the Grandees, she says she doesn't fancy it because last time someone tried to off her in religious zealotry and got off with it, and nearly had her kill her beloved. Carlie asks if others have reached out and apparently some people have, suggests she owes a little bit of an apology asks if she's running scared because The Eternal Church is in town, then proceeds to give her an earfull because she's just bailed on the job and this has wound up gotten Laffrey killed in part by the Vampire Sheriff put in place by her trial. Carlie suggests when shit went down she stayed in London doing her job despite the fact that she doesn't get paid or rewarded, and suggests that keeping on staying away from London will get more people killed. The Angel responds she never asked to be a Grandee and never got paid or rewarded. Carlie suggests she got her club out of it. The Angel suggests she was sent down to save all kinds of people, cleanse the world, and bring them to the light of god. Carlie keeps attempting to push a "kill me or do it". The Angel complains that shes lurking here and not "further up". Carlie gives her grief, the Angel stonewalls her, and Carlie leaves.
• Sunny at the BM: heads towards Professor Rodriegez's office, he's reading a stack of papers, there's a lot of books and printouts laying around, he's in the middle of work. She say's they're trying to contact the Grandee's about an official meeting in the Tower about Laffrey's murder, and some fresh evidence. He asks if its raining and she says its threatening so he gathers up an umbrella and a jacket, asks what the day is, says he's going to get a bagel and coffee on way and she recommends the Pastrami from The Chef to help fuel him through the meeting, he complains the Grandees will be very boring compared to fresh spectrometry on an Egyptian burial. They have a nice academic chat for the next 90 minutes or so.
• Lydia seeking Old Crone Fleet starting by looking for The Snug Lounge, she can't find it, so takes some of Sunny's biscuits and drops them through the drains/etc above the Fleet, asking through them if she can talk to it. After about 3 a taxi pulls up offering to take her to Old Crone Fleet, she pays the cabbie in biscuits, they arrive at the same cabbie cafe in time to see Rodriegez and Sunny leaving. Fleet asks her whats up? Lydia says we've found the last missing person who was involved in killing Sir Robert Laffrey and invites her along to a meeting suggests that Sunny should donate some cookies for the cabbies to sell to help raise charity funds. Just as they're about to leave the person on the counter gives "Mrs. Fleet" her thermos of tea, and they leave in surprisingly good order.
• Ariane arrives at The Card Trick and makes it 6 steps in before the noise of Sam teleporting into the back room, Ariane starts telling her stuff before she's dragged into the back area. Sam isn't totally interested but Ariane tries to convince her that she could be the casting vote on the matter and she is very interested in this. Ariane reminds her that she has to put her name forward because she'll be disowned if she doesn't put her name forward. Tells Sam that we have him in the cells at Paddington Green and if he's dead then we have bigger problems. She says I've put her in a sticky situation, and Ariane makes a plea that this is entirely not an issue because the murder could have been her, she looks at Ariane and she feels something strange try and press into her head and she stumbles back and a strange flicker hits her square between the eyes.

2023-12-04

Ariane is very against everything going on here, so flips to Crinos form, grabs Sam and headbutts her. probably concussing her, drops to Glabro grabs some packing stuff and attempts to cocoon her, she attempts to kick at Ariane who dodges then teleports out of existence, she attempts to call Umbra, then calls it into Paddington Green to warn them, they say they got an instruction to deliver him to the Tower at 16:00pm, Ariane confirms and says she'll send some people for extra security, then calls Carlie who tells her the Angel was a dead end, says she should blame her for stuff but says she won't, they both head to Paddington Green with Ariane dropping messages in the group chat. Everyone who's heading down there arrives at roughly the same time.

At Paddington Green we find Sargent Deerborn lounging and smoking, we make plans for things, and there's an idea that the road is the most risky place, and one of us should handcuff/hold Daniel Webster, or we should put one of the Anti Scrying Rings on him, then there was talk about talking to Liz, Holly brings up if we can trust her and then Jules realises she needs to go protect Liz just in case she gets leveraged so heads off there. Plan is: cover Webster in wards and send him in a car, put the garou into the back of the transport truck as a decoy. Lydia asks why the mind whammy didn't work and Ariane just replies "I'm not sure, it must be my good breeding."

Carlie rolls her eyes nuclear hard then goes off to call Derek Watford to ask if Sam Aston has always been a complete liability or if its a new thing, he says the scheming with the Vampires is a new thing. "For all Laffrey's multiple multiple flaws as a Grandee he didn't turn a blind eye to certain things and now there's an opportunity". Watford says combats not her thing, violence isn't her thing, slight of hand, visual tricks, and verbal games are more her thing. Violence is not her style. Seems generally surprised, not her style, but could have been recently, the more junior of the Grandees, the one no one would listen too so perhaps making a grab for power and authority. Says that there's a file that he's going to send her, asks Carlie to do him a favour to not let Lydia kill herself on this, she's one of the very few things he has left right now. The file states she can transport herself + anything she touches anywhere she can "imagine being", "the suspicion of potential additional Psychia powers but unknown and disclaimed all knowledge suspect some of the mentalism tricks she once pulled may have had Psychia behind them"

She shows it to Ariane then says she's about to propose a dumb idea, they talk about the rings and Deerborn says the rings sometimes help with stopping psychic powers (this could be another reason Ariane helped bounce things?). So: Carlie carrying the package, Sunny already at the Tower end to catch. Ariane, Lydia, and Holly in the van with Deerborn. Deerborn also calls out the werewolf-response suppressant for their troops, Holly looks gently outraged (this is the first time she's found out about the Anti-Delirium Potion).

Jules arrives to chat to Liz (who's ready awful shifter fic) checks she's still wearing her ring, briefs her on the "Sam Aston has tried to run away and steal a Vampiric witness to a crime" fills her in on things and requests she comes to the Tower of London, Liz isn't sure she's in danger and Jules fills her in on the Sam Aston is working with a pile of vampires, she gets progressively more scared as it goes on, as they're leaving Liz is telling her that Sam is an elemantalis mage with perfect control of space, and she can also possibly swap items, like if she knows the contents of a two boxes she can swap them, or she can swap two sides of a doorway to rejoin them in different ways, she warns the pack about this and if she can change the inside of the truck somewhere else.

Lydia talks about bringing the Grandees to Paddington Green, Ariane moots video call, but we stick with the original.

So Sunny! At the Tower of London! There's Three, Old Crone Fleet, Stephen Thompson, Professor Rodriguez. She eventually sniffs out John Northbridge who says he heard a prisoner was coming to make a statement, Sunny doesn't hand over the identity or the time, wants to know the case and the charges brought so he can help present them, wants Sunny to contact them, she tells him he should call his Deputy himself, he requests privacy to make a phone call or two and Sunny implies he may eat people, she goes a little away but keeps inside her own hearing range. He calls someone and says he doesn't know what he can do, says he's sorry, and agrees with whoever on the end of the line, she's pretty sure its Sam Aston on the phone but isn't 100% sure.

The plan is go! We stuff Daniel Webster in a body bag full of wards, everyone else loads up in the armoured van (the "technical") and start the ride. We get about half way through the trip when there's a cracking noise and the breaks slam on the van, there's cursing from the front and we veer off to the right, we stop, there's a crack noise and the back doors disappear. Stood there floating is Sam Aston, Deerborn brings the rifle up... so there's seats in 2 rows facing inwards, everything is quite armoured, Deerborn was in the jump seat where he could face the back doors. Lydia at the back right, Holly is saw towards the front of the van with the pile of wards on the passenger side. Ariane is on the passenger side as well, in the middle.

We begin with Lydia shifting Glabro and making a 6 foot dive for Sam Aston and grabs her, Holly makes like she's protecting a Vampire - defensive blocking, Ariane puts herself between the door and Holly, sword out to stab. Lydia bites her shoulder hard to try and keep them in contact, its a good bite and she goes to grab her and pull her off, Ariane goes out to try and grab Sam and throw her inside, Holly asks if they can back it up but the person in cab says the wheels fucked, they're calling it in, Deerborn moves to cover the scuffle. Lydia picks her up to shake her but she shifts sideways to escape, Ariane gets a hand on her to slow her up, Holly spider-web shoots, just about misses. Deerborn tosses something to Ariane, Sam curses and manages to teleport out this time with Ariane in tow.

2023-12-11

Ariane manages to hold onto Sam and ends up in an arcana array, they argue and Ariane urges her to come quietly, she refuses and they shift again and Ariane gets a wall slammed into her, she stabs Sam to try and slow her up which seems to do something, she tries to deflect it with magic and fails winding up bleeding, asks us why we had to be so smart, then passes out. Ariane curses, packs the wound with fabric to quench the bleeding, then realises she's in a closed room with no phone service.

Meanwhile: Carlie! Taking a cautious route, passes by a Dragon that's watching her from some rooftops, picking her way carefully across the roof tops, occasionally nudging a TV ariel or roof tile, very happy to use Daniel Webster as a buffer, senses a little disturbance the second time she pulls this trick.

Meanwhile: Lydia is cursing she should have killed her, tells the others she took Ariane with them. Lydia gets back into the van and goes human. Holly calls Jules and fills her in, says Aston stole a wheel from the van, Jules says she'll head over promptly to start tracking. The army? Police? have sirens and vehicles incoming, Holly asks the driver about locking up the CCTV footage and is told its the Sheriff's job.

Meanwhile: Wood panelling, massive inlaid arcana array, cream ceiling, electric candelabra, no furniture, no bookcases, soft glow lighting, very late Victorian era esoterica. None of her gifts are working, finds a cable conduit, breaks a pane, finds some red brick, and some cabelling in a chiselled bit, follows it to the corner and finds the cabling goes to several large electronic batteries. Sam starts to wake up so Ariane goes to hold onto her and doesn't think she's going to die. She refuses to teleport them out, tells Ariane she has no idea what to do. Then talks about her plans to get a little respect, Ariane queries her about her plans, she reveals she has control of Northbridge by manipulating his loyalties, Ariane is confused why she's so concerned about the scheming, surely its standard Grandee behaviour, she talks about scheming over short times (Vampires, Immortals scheme over centuries, Garou can still live a long life) and says every time she uses her power it shortens her life, but she has to keep using it to keep up the pretence of power to make her a Grandee, apparently its not all mythics, just Elementalism. Ariane suggests working with an alchemist to counteract it, says this is why all the elementalists are constantly in the gym, magic comes from strength but it eats away. Why did you attack the van of garou? Plan was to teleport any of us there to this room to cool off then get Webster. Ariane tells her she didn't have to get stabbed, she refuses to port them out, Ariane eventually makes a deal to wait 30m for the pack to get to the Tower, then let her teleport them back and give her a 30m head start.

Meanwhile: 21st Tactical have sent The Met to pick up Deerborn and the rest of the pack. She attempts to find out what's going on and Lydia waves her TA ID badge at her and tells her she's called Lydia, she's PC Williams.

Meanwhile: Carlie is attempting to enter the Tower, a man in a nondescript suit up there, it's Three, she materialises next to him. Sunny is keeping an eye on Northbridge, who calls another number and gets the Three messenger service for Ariane for being out of service, then call's Sam Aston, gets the answer machine, asks her where she is and keeps up the pacing. She then smells: Vampire, Carlie, Sage, and a strange herb she half recognises from Rodrieguez, and a dead body. They chat a little about what's going on, Three then asks them to deposit the Witness in a corner and he'll ensure he remains there, he's happy for Carlie to keep watching him.

A well piloted (rather than driven) police landrover then comes careening around and lands. Holly congratulates PC Williams and tells her she's doing her country proud then gets the hell out of the car. She gets out and gives her a weird salute, Holly attempts her most professional salute in response. Calls it into Carlie who checks in if Three is a problem, Holly confirms that Three mostly wants to stay neutral in everything and asks how soon can Ariane get here. Fills in Carlie on how everyone else is, Lydia says she should have killed Sam so Holly determines she's good, they make a plan to get together ASAP. Jules arrives at that point, they arrange to meet in the main chamber, except Sunny who is watching Northbridge, they say hi first.

So in the main chamber Jules gets Liz to stay safe here and Holly asks Jules to find Ariane - turns out she's not in any cardinal direction. Jules suggests she's not on this plane. Holly "Oh shits", Jules determines she can't get over to the Umbra from here and there's talk about how she has a bolt hole somewhere in the Umbra maybe? Lydia wonders if Liz knows anything about other dimensions? Liz says somewhere in the deep Umbra, says she can go to Spire directly. Jules says she'd bet on Ariane in a fight so she's going to wait 5 minutes and try again. Holly and Lydia talk about how this is an issue because Sam was on CCTV floating and causing an issue. Carlie suggests rich/powerful fucks stick together, Lydia suggests she's on her way down so people will let her get in trouble.

Jules talks to Stephen Thompson and says she's got 4 witnesses who'll say Sam kidnapped Ariane, Thompson says this is an issue because John Northbridge as Sheriff needs to present witnesses for the prosecution, or the deputy in this situation. Jules says she has to wait on Ariane and he suggests "You'd best go and find your pack mate then Alpha" which she gives him a glare for.

Meanwhile: Sam Aston has been complaining and Ariane has been very sympathetic, her daddy left her the money for the Card Trick and made the money by selling info about demons to demonologists. They teleport, they're just outside of Manchester A&E, Ariane bitches at her that she can't stab her and frog marches her inside, complains about how she shouldn't slip and fall on the glass again and how she's going to clean it, then turns and tries to walk out (with a sword on her belt), then finds herself outside of the Tower of London... she stomps in in a very angry way, slamming doors open until she comes in. Ariane confirms her box in the Umbra or the dark side of the moon, and how she had to give her a 30 minute headstart, she also threatens to rip off Northbridge's head and shit down his neck. There is arguing about the witness until Three asks us to be civil. Ariane asks people to take him out of the bag of wards in case it's keeping him still. Holly unzips the bag and he glares and asks if she was the one who stomped on him, Lydia offers to check him over, cracked rib.

Ariane proceeds to talk to him and he confirms he had to follow orders from his sire, who he confirms is Mr. Northbridge, who then glowers at him. Northbridge calls him a fool and tells him to shut up. Three tells him that is not acceptable and he wants to hear the evidence, Northbridge compels him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

The trial continues! Westbury arrives about half way through, there is evidence! There is cross questioning! We're down The Angel, Sam Aston, and The Lady of Kowloon. Westbury attempts to derail it with politics and procedure. Ariane throws Aston under the bus for conspiring with the Vampires, gets a sentence of exile from London from Dawn tomorrow. John Northbridge and Samantha Wallingford, convicted of murdering a Grandee and will executed tomorrow at Dawn we are invited to watch as Justice must be seen to be done. Harold Westbury objects to Wallingford's execution but throws Northbridge under the bus.

Three then involves clause 26C of the Deputy Sheriff's contract and she is then vested with the powers of being Sheriff - she has a feeling of a strange connection, can feel the flow and move of London, small almost ephemeral, illusionary feelings in the back of her head, a sense of power, energy, and authority. Gains the gift Aura of rightful authority (1WP triggers a WP roll off to give a lawful instruction within traditional bounds of city, and in pursuit of duty to a member of the demi-monde 8 for mythical beings, 6 for kinfolk etc, 4 for humans - GM CHECK THIS PLS). She arranges for the CCTV to get scrubbed.

2023-12-18

Everyone is back at the Pack House with a plan to get some Chinese takeout.

The next morning dawns, and those who are going to watch the political execution get up: Jules, Ariane, Lydia, Carlie (reluctantly).

At the Tower of London, Three is waiting for us to see that "Justice is Done", we're taken to an older part of the tower, a stone spiral staircase to an upper room, windows without glass. Samantha Wallingford and John Northbridge are sat in chairs being watched by 21st Tactical Reconnaissance. Lydia glares, Jules and Carlie hang back. Ariane goes to say goodbye and wish him a fortunate rebirth via Gaia, he looks vague and asks if he knows me, the 21st Tac say they're not really all there, they don't know what it is but its something The Guild make, she returns to stand with the others.

Three announces its 08:06 and the execution by dawn will happen. Carlie suggests this is fucked up, Ariane and Lydia argue its traditional and Jules urges everyone to STFU. We then watch the horrifying immolation of two vampires, there's two piles of ash and burnt chairs and Carlie says this answers her question about whats wrong with it.

We make a move for going for breakfast, Carlie talking about reforms of executions, and also the Grandees in general. Ariane asks what we could replace it with. There's talk of bodycount and Ariane suggests more oversight. Carlie talks about how their squabbling lead to a lot of people dying, Ariane counts it up. Carlie talks about how its just all the rich fucks. Ariane suggests that its just Thompson and Westbury who are overly rich and asks about how the Garou grandee is elected, suggests talking to Dagenham and others about how a grandee is elected. Ariane broadly defends the Grandee system as a method of ensuring a cold war rather than a hot one. Lydia and Carlie talk about how the system is fucked.

Jules agrees but says we need to concentrate on The Eternal Church and the advice we got from the Tower of London that we need everyone.

There is talk of keeping them under observation for how much they've spread. Does the Sheriff have any power to observe things? (Ariane to talk to Watford). Lydia talks about an infiltration and there's talk of maybe an invite works.

Plan: Scout them out and gather information. Some of us hit the history books for clues to the previous invasion.

Jules also mentions that a spirit mentioned she came from a line of prodigious garou, and that Red Talon recognised her and she had features of historically renowned wolves. Ariane says she may hit up the Silver Fangs genealogy scrolls, but also advises trying to talk to the Patrons spirit of the Black Furies and says they may have secret meetings in the wild woods or on a mountain or island in the med, Greece, or Turkey and Jules makes a plan to talk to Diamond Annie (she says the Silver Fangs have a castle out in Austria that may be used to commune with their spirits).

So: Umbral scouting: Jules and Ariane. Sunny to liaise between the groups. Physical: Lydia and Carlie.

Meanwhile: Holly has been going off early that morning to call up The Guild to go and talk to Mr. Benson and update him about everything, heads over and finds that The Guild feels like its starting to reach a new equilibrium. Benson is in his (Laffrey's) office, there's a bit of a chat and Holly then gives him an update about all the salient points about who was responsible, who wasn't, who's dead, who's not. She doesn't deliberately blame anyone, Sam doesn't get a great edit, Wallingford picks up vague amounts of blame, Northbridge as well. He tells her that the Mythics will be having a competition to see who is elected to their Grandee.

He also tells her that the werewolves... its a really interesting question... he may have accidentally chosen because by tradition The Guild chooses the next Garou Grandee, and Benson called Stephen and asked him to step in, didn't really mean to choose him but did, was hoping he was just going to step in to give some stability and if he could help find out where Sir Robert was and figured he'd have more ability to do so as Grandee.

Holly tells him about the visit to The Tower and how it sort of has a plan? Thinks that the best course of action is to unite members of the demimonde to deal with the issue. Benson says that Ashley (a psychic mythic) who decided to go to one of the Eternal Church's gatherings, the Monk wigged her out and she made Benson promise to investigate. Benson has been using the brute squad to infiltrate them.

Holly asks about shifts, Benson offers to put her on a Guild retainer, essentially she gets paid to be on call for if shit hits the fan for the Guild to lend her muscle and spirit. Holly says she has to check in with her Pack. Benson says its a £25k retainer and Holly seems enthused to use this to top up her income and says she'll call him.

She calls into the group to update us on what's going on and what she told The Guild. Ariane suggests recruiting her onto the Umbral investigation party.

So! The plan is to see if The Umbra is changing, if they've been forming alliances with other things. We head over, the dome is there, looks like its gotten a little bigger by Jules eyes, about 50% increase from last time. Ariane is pretty fascinated but doesn't see much. Jules meanwhile spots functionally a tent city, estimate at around 100 peoples worth of tents all packed in.

Meanwhile in the physical: Sunny is keeping her distance, Carlie wants to try and work out where the barrier is then to see what it feels like. About half way down the street can sort of feel her hair standing up on end, Sunny can feel her fur standing up. There's talk about what to do, Lydia talks about thinking trying to join is a good plan so just makes a plan to just walk up. As she gets closer she can feel a wind that grows to sort of gale force wind buffeting her as she's heading towards it. She can see regular people just heading in and out about 50m away, but she can't seem to get any closer. She decides to get in touch with them via text to see if they have any of meetings going on.

In the Umbra we see a few people being roused from their tents, gathering up swords, heading around to the front, we follow them and there's sort of a stretch/distortion, like a finger pushing the bubble. We muse on the meaning and Jules borrows a make up mirror from Ariane to do a look across with, she see's Lydia, we curse a bit, we can see three Templar's approaching Lydia and Ariane attempts to distract them by telling them where Jerusalem is. They tell us to go away, Ariane brushes them off, Jules is recognised.

Meanwhile: Lydia is getting a reply that they're meeting at the church this evening, she hopes for house groups but told the church is their own space to conduct their own works, their own house. Says she can't make it, arranges a meeting tomorrow at lunch in a cafe. She can see someone taking a box out of the church and tries following around the zone to see, but there's too much wind. She eventually calls it quits and wanders off.

In the Umbra we see the distortion shifting back and the Templar's sheath their swords. They try to ask what we're doing here and Ariane tells them they're on a sacred mission from the goddess to Patrol, they say they're bringing the enlightenment of the one true church, defend stabbing someone as excising cancer from the body. Ariane asks if they can stab someone in the physical. There's a back and forth and she's told that The Monks go to talk to The Shades of those that have created this city and say its an interesting spiritual experience. They say they're here to find the local gods of the sphere and eliminate them so their cancerous perversions of religion won't taint the locals. Says the gods take on various forms. They tell Jules there's a large creature in a fortification and another with many legs in a building that has many connections, and a slumbering dragon somewhere, they're looking for a temple to the slumbering dragon so they can free us from their shackles.

Ariane suggests that Slumbering Dragon is a Jackie Chan film she's not seen, says we'd love to help but we're locked out because we're werewolves. The Templar says several have come to their side but they have a healthy respect for us. Jules asks if they're just going to keep taking more and more people, they don't understand that they're taking anyone, only willing spirits come to their side. He offers to bring Brother Michael to come explain and engage in a dialogue and understand the one churches divine provenance.

In the physical Carlie is watching, sees Lydia break off from her approach. She also catches a glimpse of Sergeant Deerborn keeping an eye on the church from a flat opposite, from inside the shield, attempts to head over and smacks into the bubble. She calls him up and talk about operating inside warding, he says its set fire to some of their gear, she warns him its mind whammy and he pulls his squad out leaving their mics and cameras running on auto and arranges to meet her.

Sunny meanwhile is keeping a nose on the place.

In the Umbra a monk (Brother Michael) of the Red comes out in scarlet robes, hooded cowl down and a crook on a staff, we exchange names and he invites us inside, Jules says he'd rather have it out here because it looks intimidating in there, he agrees to meet us outside and gets the troops to bring out a table and chairs and some tea, he gestures with the staff to part the shield and get out and leaves the gateway open, they bring table and chairs through it.

Says he's very fascinated by our realm and how its "shattered and sundered, cleaved into twice, separating the real from the physical, not seen that before". Jules suggests he's a long way from home. Ariane asks if his elders have briefed him in his mission, he says he's here to free us from the shackles of other religions, the false version of the church that he's found here, a mockery of the real one with a false pope and even some protestants who don't bow to our church. Jules shortcuts Ariane's bickering to ask him if there's anything that could make him leave, he says he'd never leave because he's on a mission from god. Says he's here to offer everyone a chance to convert, and says The Templar's will only kill those not a threat, those who don't convert can keep living their barbaric ways but free of the influence of their gods. He also breaks out "Good dogs need training" which gets a growl from Jules. Says that one of his spirits called Angela who believes it works as a dog trainer, doing a faxsimilie of work in this strange sundered world.

Ariane asks if he's spoken to any Bells lately? He says he found one in the upper tower of the church, a fascinating entity who calls herself Bell. He says she's safe but under the mistaken belief they're of the wrong church, wishes to see her sisters and once they've finished their conversations she may but she can't seem to move, Ariane tells her their bubble will get in the way, they don't know how to move her outside the bubble, shes bound to the building.

They can't drop the shield with the local gods still powerful, they wish her no harm and will bring messages back and forth, she pines for her Mother church, the Bell of Southwark. "Unfortunately it seems she must be their hostage"

Offers us tea grown in the papal estate and handed to him by Pope Hope III as part of his going way present, pours three cups of tea. Jules takes the cup politely, but Ariane takes the cup and drinks it, this has a lot of subtle smokey flavour (it's one of the finest teas she's ever tasted).

Then asks about "the spirit that lives in the fortification on the river." and says it has a defensive bubble similar to theirs, a most fascinating development because creating the bubbles requires an item touched by the divine hand, a particular item with the protection of the one true god. Ariane covers this up by saying they're not the only people who can make them, Michael claims its an inferior mockery and says that if we loved it there would be no need for defences, he says their wall is because we don't understand them yet. He says "through conversation comes understanding and through understanding comes enlightenment" and Ariane arranges to come back for another conversation in the future.

We let them take the table and chairs through, he goes back through and waves his crosier to shut the gateway.

Meanwhile in the physical: Deerborn talks to Carlie asks about the brainwashing power, she says it may be from where they're from rather than from them. He says they've got the place bugged with mics and cameras. Lydia asks how they keep the garou out, he says all their magical equipment just fails as it crosses a line. There's talk about how they may ask the Sheriff to authorise a drug raid on the church, Lydia warns him they have a few Garou on their side, he says his plan was plant drugs, raid, shut it down. Lydia says shutting them down means we can't observe them. Deerborn says they're not doing anything but talking about injustice and other philosophical things, they've done nothing except this one guy called Brother Michael who just appears they've not seen him get in and out, they assume he's coming from *gestures*. He suggests drugs raid, pick up Michael, shove him in Paddington Green, interrogate him. Tells them Paddington Green is heavily warded, no way in or out spiritually.

Lydia says she's worried what will happen to them if they try and get Michael, also suggests she's joined the TA and wants in on recruitment because doing press ups in the rain on a Tuesday is dull. He says she should learn to love her basic training. She asks if he wants her to save her life or not. She eventually suggests if she doesn't do something useful for him she'll get bored and ripped someones head off. Deerborn threatens to get Lydia to clear out the Paddington Green latrines, Lydia threatens that she's the one who decides who gets stiched up, Carlie suggests Lydia needs to work out how hierarchy works.

Holly has popped back home, someone knocks on the door, there's a man 5' 8" grey beard, grey hair, walking stick. He asks for Ariane, Jules, or Holly - introduces himself as Arthur King of the Britons and is pleased to meet her!

2024-01-08

(Holly chats to Arthur King of the Britons (who just walked here from Avalon) who seems like he's read a guidebook on modern times but knows magic, The Umbra, and the 17th century, and refers to her as Lady Holly of Sussex, the rest of the pack head back, Carlie is named "Lady Suspicious", Lydia offered part of Scotland, we tell him about The Queen and Ireland, Ariane is obviously weak for royalty and gets blessed, Jules is dubbed as a priestess of Gaia, Sunny notices he has very interesting scents on him, we catch him up some more on The Eternal Church, he tells us about fighting the Nazi's with Crowley, and is now waiting for his Merlin, who can apparently travel in time (Liz says The Guild have a 15 year old Merlin and offers to bring him), there's talk of raising a local militia and recruiting all the local magical groups, Ariane suggests getting The Angel Islington for the "by faith" option. Ariane offers her bed to him and everyone else preps recruitment/infiltration missions)

So Holly is greeting Arthur King of the Britons, invites him in, he seems to know about tea and suggests that. She quietly texts the group chat that she may be delayed because "Arthur (you know 👑)" and gets an acknowledgement from the physical-team (Lydia, Carlie, Sunny) she offers him a selection and he chooses some Tetley tea, he doesn't seem to know how he takes his tea so copies her, he's wearing a fishing/boonie type hat, slightly out of date check shirt, just seems a little out of place, describes the tea as a "fascinating flavour". Tells Holly that he's here because he heard she asked for help, here to help the Crown, that he's here to put together the round table of the greatest knights of the realm.

She talks about expanding beyond knights because knighthood has had a bit of change since his day, but he confirms its about service to the realm. He asks about which county she descends from as a noble lady and she says "this one?" and he checks if she's descended from the Duke of Sussex and Holly confirms her mum did one of the geneology things, Arthur queries if she's his daughter or wife. He says that in public she should address him as "Your Majesty" but around this (which serves as our round table) she can call him Arthur. Says he's very familiar with the spirit world, the fae, and is awaiting the arrival of Merlin. She quizzes him on Gaia, he talks of how Sir. Bedivere was a garou and several of his companions have been in the past, she tells him about how this is a pack house and then when asked gives him a background of London and also a brief overview of events since we entered the Deep Umbra. He keeps asks for clarification, but sometimes doesn't because he doesn't want to appear stupid, he seems to not understand modern social things, seems like he read a guide to the modern world (so knew the word "tea") but lacks context or understanding of it. He is totally into strange Umbral stuff however, very grounded, very 13th century vibes (ooc: Tom: So very French).

Meanwhile: The church physical team: Carlie is suggesting its time to go, Lydia is asking if she should rip the throat out of Arthur or not, Carlie suggests that we should wait to see if we need to first. Carlie complains about everything happening at once and Lydia confirms this is a picnic compared to how things are on the wards. They tell Sunny who pops over to tell Ariane and Jules, and gets an update on the tea drinking, god killing, and bubble expanding, she also tells them about King Arthur and Ariane and Jules bicker a little about if this is really Arthur or not (Ariane seems more positive about it), they decide to head back in the spirit, everyone else going back in the physical.

Carlie gets back and says she's suspicious and he asks which county "Lady Suspicious" is from, she gives the country she believes her origin is from. Lydia says she's from Gloucester but isn't going back there and he suggests she should be assigned part of Scotland. He says he's in charge from Kentish coast to Berrick Upon Tweed and everything from Berrick until Wales. Lydia and Carlie tell him about The Queen and Great Britain, so the whole country and part of island ("not all of Ireland, that turned out to be a mistake, colonialism was bad"), Arthur says that Irish soil sounds like trouble. Lydia says that Catholics cause all kinds of problems yes. Holly is trying to keep her shit together.

He says that Lady Holly of Sussex and Ariane and Jules requested his help. Then everyone arrives. Ariane instantly falls to her knees and offers him the hilt of her sword and gets tapped on her shoulders with a blessing as lady of the Kentish lands. Ariane confirms he's here to help with an invasion of trouble from the papists. Carlie asks if there was a way to stop the real catholics from catching this and Ariane and Lydia confirm this is the fake catholics with an anti-pope.

Jules reveals she's not a lady and she borrows Ariane's sword to try and make her a lady, and she replies "I kneel only for the men I choose", Ariane explains that Jules is revered by the people of Gaia and is the leader of our pack, he refers to her as a Priestess instead and apologises for trying to give her secular powers.

Sunny smells him, smoke, wood, leather, oils of some kind, metallic smells, he smells of man but not the city, also a number of missing scents she doesn't know. She gives him a good sniff to try and hunt those down, he gives her scritches.

Ariane catches him up that they've been checking out the church and its warded, we confirm they have knights, all infantry, around five score (100) people and they use just sword and shield. He talks about arranging cavalry and archers, says that he may even talk to the Welsh about getting some longbow man... Jules says that horse are in very short supply.

He say's he walked here from Avalon itself, we talk about how there's not many horses or archers around but we've got 21st Tactical, also no militia but Ariane is serving as local sheriff of the guard. He says he'll sit Ariane at his right hand side and Jules at her left as priestess.

Jules sizes up our forces: a squad of 6 sassy werewolves, one of whom is the sheriff. Also The Guild (Holly catches us up that they can go through the barrier) and Holly talks about how she's happy to keep liaising with them, and suggests that Jules and the rest of us talk to Dagenham and the other packs. We talk about talking to the Immortals and Vampires, Ariane suggests that Sunny and Carlie should speak to them because they've been least angry with the Vamps and we can get them to double cross the others working with them.

Holly talks to him about times he's been called to help save the realm, he says he was involving in fighting the Nazi's with Alistair Crowley imprisoning spirits in a dungeon dimension, but this is his first time going up against The Eternal Church, can't fight them before born. Says Merlin was born long ago, a time travelling wizard who knows the future (because he's been there). Ariane texts Jules to tell Liz to appear because then she can become "his Merlin" and be in a position of power when this shakes out. Arthur tells us he always appears when its most dramatic and Jules quotes LOTR. Liz does then text Jules about if its safe to emerge and she tells her about King Arthur, Liz says that The Guild has a mythic called Merlin who's only 15 and asks if she should bring him along, there is a discussion about being Merlin.

Lydia talks about joining to try and get information, he enquires if she is a Lancelot, and Ariane clears up it was an infiltraiton. There's talk of raising a militia and liaising with the lord of Dagenham and the denizens of the night, and perhaps raising a peasants group, we talk about bringing up the True Londoners. Holly wonders who is "by faith" and Ariane suggests getting The Angel Islington, Carlie fills us in that The Angel is very angry. Ariane suggests taking the sword to her to try and convince her to join us and Holly suggests its a bad plan.

Lydia mentions she was going to go get a coffee with one of the church to plug her for information and Ariane says this is good to work out how many regular humans they may risk.

We have a plan! Ariane offers him her bed (and for her to take the sofa) and then takes a selfie with him to post to her family. He talks about how phones tie them to the government and the specialist livery guilds (companies) who know all our movements.

So we arrange for Ariane to mail the Bishop, Carlie to go to the Guild to try and get Vampires numbers.

2024-01-15

So Liz is coming over from The Guild and when she arrives tell Jules that she couldn't bring the young Merlin because he has school in the morning. Ariane is making her room fit for royalty.

Arthur is introduced to "Lady Elizabeth" and he assume's she is from "The Orient" and she gives him a glare about being from Brixton, she is unimpressed. She apologises for not bringing Merlin and he complains he needs his Merlin, they arrange a meeting for tomorrow. She quietly asks Jules where she finds people like this, also Merlin compliments Yangshi and it appears he can see spirits at the same time as the physical. Liz then drags Jules to one side to grouse about the racism, also says that she occasionally does tutoring to Merlin and he's only 15 and should we introduce him to "this fuckwit", Jules is a bit unsure about if its good idea, Liz gets more and more fucked off as she dithers on the decision on this eventually demands she decide something before 15:30 tomorrow and stomps out (everyone else hears the last bit of voice and shouting).

Holly attempts to mask the stompy leaving by talking loudly, Lydia talks about how this could be a child safe guarding issue, Holly talks about if she knows young Merlin at The Guild, Lydia and Carlie talk about the perils of bringing a teenager into the whole situation.

Lydia then talks about cloning Garou to prepare for the Apocalypse, Carlie brings up the doubt that all the clones are werewolves. Lydia talks about how dog cloning companies exist and asks Sunny if she wants to be cloned, and how its not much tricker than AI in cows ("wait, AI in cows?") and Carlie suggests that this being less natural may create a Weaver or Wyrm wolf. Lydia suggests it'd be like a twin and Sunny says that if she had a twin and it was just a dog it'd be weird. Lydia suggests if its tainted by other parts of the Triad we should just kill it, and Carlie and Sunny point out it'd be 2-3 years old and it'd be their friend. Lydia complains that this isn't weird she was asked to think about long term plans. She attempts to bring Ariane into it but she complains that it may produce a doppelganger, Carlie complains about the fact that the science-magic may interfere with the werewolf-magic.

Holly meanwhile has been arranging a meeting with The Guild members who have been looking at The Eternal Church, Sunny is researching dog cloning and orders herself a genetic testing kit, Ariane is now reading Doppelganger fic on Ao3, Jules is worrying about "should we send a 15 year old to mentor Arthur?" and is basically down to "fuck it just war in the streets is about our plan", she also reads some nihilistic poetry.

So 1am at The Guild its Holly, Carlie, Lydia - there is a meeting of interested parties: AJ (she/her psychica can read and also project emotions), Richard (he/him an arcanist who uses the labs in the basement for long term arrays), and Angelica (unknown party) are the three Guildees. There's some talk about artifacts (and how they're expensive), Richard is apparently not drinking and busy thinking about some complex arcane array. Holly introduces Carlie as a competent professional, Angelica tries to ask about which mythic school she's from and Carlie outs herself as a garou.

They fill the pack in on how Benson was suspicious of the church and how the witches can't get close, only Arcana or Psychica can get close, Demonica, Spiritalis, or Elementalis get hit by the wind. Also being inside the bubble deactivates the mythics magical artifacts. They moot a giant supression field, like the one around the tower of London and say the array that produces it is castle sized (in rumour, they've never seen it). They describe them as well meaning lefty yoghurt weaver types, a new christian form of a lefty alternative to the Catholic church, with some yoga and life pathway stuff. The issue is the Monks, never seen leaving or entering, feel like they're getting into their role and acting out their emotions, surface overacted emotions without anything beneth. Rhetoric is moving towards "letting the spirit warriors within us" which is concerning them as it sounds like mass possession perhaps?

Holly gives Carlie a "how much are we telling them?" look and Carlie considers it before asking them what they know about the Deep Umbra, she briefs them they come from a realm which is informed by peoples ideas about christianity and gets them to think about the word "crusades" and the sort of shit that American mega-pastors talk about, and how they've "come to kill our gods" to free us and The Guild accurately predict that they mean big spirits like London by Gods, Holly moots that maybe they want to possess the people to send them to the Tower. When asked who's doing the possessing Carlie and Holly suggest its the monks from the church to ride them across town.

When asked what do Carlie suggests theres a rumour the Sheriff is looking to bring people up, they suggest that she could call for a "general mobilisation" whereby an "all hands contract" could be written up to recruit them, it'd need to be negociated via Holly and Mr. Benson.

Carlie checks in about talking to Vampires and they say they're not the people to talk to but point out a gentleman across the bar who does occasional trade with Vampires and liases arcana trinkets between The Guild and the Vamps. Carlie heads over.

Holly asks about Merlin and AJ says she knows him but asks "whats that little fucker done now?" confirms he's a kind of stealing apples type. He's apparently called Merlin Robson knows some kind of Temporal magic and uses it to relearn lessons and retake exams (got caught doing it). She mentions Arthurian stuff, and they say that an old version of The Guild had an old Arthur, Guardner, and Crowley and they made a pocket realm to stuff Nazi werewolves in. Holly says she's not 100% sure on whats going on but is concerned about "Big A". They say that Derek Watford arrested him on fraud and he has to work with The Guild on community service. They reveal that Liz is deeply romantic over Jules to the point of day dreaming about her and doodling her on napkins. Holly talks about how he's maybe a spirit and hence he needs the story of "a merlin" or something similar.

Meanwhile Carlie is talking to The Broker of artifacts (used the name John Ashford when she met him at 75th Anniversary of The Guild) she apologises for making his contact list lighter by killing the previous Sheriff. He offers to swap the contact details for one of the good Vampires in exchange for the contact details of Diamond Annie. Agrees to give her the details of Simon McCave who works in independent financial advice selling crypto to rubes. The patriarch of "The Knight Brothers" specialists in crypto, NFTs and similar financial instruments, has been thinking of himself as hip and upcoming since the 1930s. Suggests if they refuse to participate that Carlie have her Grandee talk to theirs and The Broker knows whatever it is they're up to is serious. She gives The Broker Annie's number and texts Annie the message "Blame me later it was necessary".

Holly and Carlie catch up and broadly agree not to put a teeners life on the line here.

SO THE NEXT MORNING.

Ariane to get in touch with the David Chetstow the Bishop of Southwark, he is surprisingly attentive and his secretary even asks if this is something to do with Lydia (its not), Ariane then fills in the Bishop about how Lydia is doing better and they arrange a quick meeting and Ariane leaves immediately and picks up Lydia on route (who agrees to be very polite and not have an argument with him about religion). So they set off! And the doors are opened , as we approach, the housekeeper also tells Lydia they have enough jammy dodgers and don't need any, tea is arranged and the Bishop arrives with a sword and Ariane briefs him on "weird spirit fake pope god murderers invading London", he suspects they come from a realm marked on the Stiles Map. He's visited and got a frosty reception (wrong skin colour). Ariane pitches her plan, he changes the topic for a moment, he says he may have to take up a duty as the previous incumbent has vacated her seat (Grandee) and asks if this is a request from Ariane or the Sheriff, and Ariane clarifies its from herself, there's talk about how this request may impact his role aiming for the election, he doesn't want to the job again, its not something many volunteer for and talks of how The Guild is where the Grandees and MPD intersect and it's a lot of paperwork and bother and essentially anyone voted for it gets it, much like the Speaker of parliament they are dragged to the chair. If he's seen to be handing us the sword it may be seen as him playing a part protecting London and hence be a great Grandee, they can't elect someone who'd cause trouble, but also can't get someone who wants the job. He arranges for us to "steal" the sword to make himself look incompetent, Lydia tries to get him into an argument about god, but he makes to go and whispers something in the housekeepers ear. We book it with the sword with Ariane texting Carlie to ask for a portal in Bubbles to meet The Angel.

Ariane asks Lydia if she wants to come to maybe make one more apology to The Angel and she's very in and Ariane mutters that she "really should have banked on your deathwish"

2024-01-22

At Bubbles the Nightclub, Carlie can feel the portal is still there even from outside... Carlie gives Lydia and Ariane a heads up on how she called The Angel Islington "a fucking prick" and let her charm do the rest and then later realised she could have been murdered. Ariane asks Carlie to not do the talking, and she suggests going in to drink coffee, suggests Ariane go in as the Sheriff because then she has a legal responsibility and suggests Lydia will get on less well with her now. We run through a little RP with Lydia to test she can do a reasonable apology then head in.

Ariane first, Carlie second, Lydia third. And we find ourselves in the wonder blank white space between wherever it is Angels go and wherever it is Humans go. It's empty, still, peaceful. After a few moments there's a sound of wings and The Angel of Islington standing 20 feet (ish? There's no shadows its hard to judge distance). "Now what...", and Lydia says she came to apologise, and explains she wasn't trying to kill her and is sorry it went so wrong. The Angel replies "That's nice, and get out."

The Angel refuses to talk while Lydia is there and Ariane goes into the pitch about The Eternal Church and how she has obtained for her an Angel's sword. The Angel runs a hand through her hair and picks at a wing, Lydia informs her its a pretty good sword. She agrees to talk but not here... clicks her fingers and Carlie feels the portal open? And we find ourselves on a pavement cafe, seated with 4 coffees, croissant, etc. The food and cafe seem real. We can see the Eiffel Tower, a hubbub of people who aren't paying us attention, they are perhaps the faceless Parisian Umbra spirits - they're less grimy and more impressionist and artistic - still very human but more artistic impressions of humans than people themselves, the spirits reputation has changed its shadow much like Victorian London has.

There's talk of the sword and she confirms to Ariane she can perhaps tell us who's it is, there's some talk about who maybe dropped the sword, she informs Lydia that all the Angels swords are linked back to Archangel Michael. She seems like she's hesitant to tell us based on making a deal, if its someone who's fallen. She wants the argument for why she should get involved, she knows London and its people and loves some of them but recently its opened her eyes to how corrupt the place is. We brief her on how its a threat to the spirit of the people, and possibly a risk of possession. She makes a comparison with invading other Umbral realms. Lydia suggests its pointless as London will be underwater, Ariane suggests its worth fighting for, Carlie says she's not fighting for the status quo but instead she's fighting for London and what these people will do will leave us with a diminished London and Londoners. Lydia suggests she's not sure things can get better, she used to belief it could and she used to believe in The Angel - The Angel suggests things can and Lydia talks of how she sees people smacking themselves against a broken system.

Lydia directly asks the Angel who says if she thought she had the backing of the demimonde she'd put all the Grandees in a barrel to float down the Themes then setup a new deal, most of the people want security, a chance to live and be left alone. There's talk of maybe making the Grandees more open. The Angel suggests we should maybe let them kill the Spirit of London because that's a thing that backs The Grandee's. There's talk of how it's a spirit of the people and the history of London, which includes its colonial history, if we kill it or let it die then a new one will be born to reflect a new London. Ariane suggests talking to it to do a Phoenix routine.

The Angel suggests at some point The Spirit will invoke King Arthur (we reveal it has) and it'll want its Merlin who'll be around 15 (so he is the real Merlin). The Angel suggests it'll generate British jingoism and gather people under the hand of the Grandees. Ariane suggests that we use the response to this to help push reform in the Grandees who aren't fit for purpose. The Angel suggests that London reflects its spirits, the spirits reflect London, and hence this is the chance to reset things. The Angel asks us what we would fight and die for. She claims that saving the spirit is saving the status quo, how do we counteract the 2000 years of history (Lydia suggests nukes).

The Angel says she's willing to fight the Eternal church, her brothers and sisters of Wing and Sword won't join her, there's a cold war between their two camps and they won't spark it over Earth (between "Her Heaven" and "The Eternal Churches Heaven" are mutually ignoring each other).

Lydia asserts that The City of London is spreading The Wyrm around the world, The Angel asserts its a Wyrm spirit and assimilation. Carlie suggests its very racist. Ariane suggests it shows all the history of London and the generations of immigrants. She asks Ariane if she backs the people of London, the city of London, or the Spirit of London. The Angel tells us that corruption comes from many forms and not all from one devil. She wants some change, but says that the Eternal Church is not the change wanted. She wants Ariane to go and investigate the heart of the city which is dark and corrupt, devoid of life, choking lungs, filling people with depression and poverty and injustice and make a choice to then fight it. She also warns Carlie to be careful in her words about Vampires she just wants to live her life and love someone.

Ariane agrees that she's been swayed and says that as long as the rest of her pack agree she will help form a coalition to fight The Eternal Church, and then turn around to demand answers and accountability from The Spirit of London.

A Watcher of Raphael, a relatively minor Angel. She shows us her own sword (from nowhere) which has coptic script around it, she flicks her wrist and makes it light up in blue flame.

She suggests we pocket some croissants before she pings us back to London, she drops some francs on the table before she pings us back to Bubbles and she's gone...

MEANWHILE!

Sunny is planning a visit to the British Museum and Holly talks about going along with her, Holly wants to go via the Temple Church to see if its changed much.

So at the BM they head to the side door and then to Professor Rodriegez's office who says he's got a wonderful crate of artefacts to sniff, Sunny introduces Holly (who he's met in passing), there's talk of how he enjoys playing the professors life. Sunny asks him if he keeps up with the Demimonde but he says he mostly takes a few phonecalls from his people and reads a few briefing papers from the other Grandees. She checks in with him about The Eternal Church, he finds it fascinating they've shown up, and that an alliance is forming to keep them at bay and she's looking for contacts from his people to keep them away.

He suggests Lu Chin Way and says most of his people keep themselves to themselves out of professional difficulty, they can meet but its about if they can trust each other to meet, he has contacts and friends from people who want to live a quiet life. She also tells him about King Arthur and the response is just "Oh he's back is he..." apparently he did fight in the 2nd world war and he's met him before and clearly puts speech marks around the kingness. He's the spiritual manifestation of the countries identification behind a mythology. He's "The idea of Britain" and Holly suggests he should surely be based in like Cornwall or something, Rodriegez suggests he's based outside there, and is surprised he's been invoked for this and maybe something more serious about this than first meets the eye. He asks them to wait and talks about his memory, muttering about dates, goes to unlock a cabinet of leatherbound books and hooks out a 1938-1942 diary and spends time scanning it, asking people to sniff a half rotted wooden box while he reads and Sunny steps around a corner to shift shape, Holly meanwhile takes a bit of a sneaky look - there's a lot of aged leatherbound books going back to at least 1640s, a lot of paper, clearly everything gets printed out for him.

The box is some kind of tobacco storage again, Sunny is going through her memory to try and compare/contrast, and she suggests Sunny join in the sniffing - the box has maybe been parched? Underwater? 7"-3"-4" inches, had a sealed lid at one point thats since gone, Holly gets wood, plants, mustiness. Sunny describes the smell in intense detail, Rodriegez interjects to ask questions about comparisons.

Then talks about Arthur in the War, during a weird Mythic operation to put a bunch of Nazi werewolves in a dungeon dimension, but he recalls he had a lad who was about 20-21 years old who went by the name of Merlin who kept mentioning something about how this Nazi feller was no better than Trump and tried to tell people to invest in Google, also knew Hitlers invasion plans for the British isles and what forces were there, and what Himmler was up to with regards occult artefacts. Holly suggests he's going to have to start caring for his studies or getting into history at some point. Suggests speaking to the kid without Arthur around. There's talk of Merlin aging backwards vs. him travelling backwards in time.

Rodriegez suggests they need someone more action oriented than him, also by staying in the BM a lot he's under the protection of two large Gargoyles, he himself is not very good with a sword ("A professional hazard"), he recommends recruiting Ms. J Hillman and gives them a Highbridge address and a phone number.

Sunny finally recalls the scent of something like Jasmine tea, and he starts to open an airtight box, removes a faded note and asks Sunny to sniff it and is very revealed when she reveals it has a similar scent. The Roberta Estate in Carta Henya, he was too drunk to write it down and forgot where he bought it and was then half way across the atlantic on a Spanish treasure ship. A 40 year mystery. He mourns that he can't go back for another, Sunny suggests talking to Merlin to help, Holly gives her a look.

As they're leaving they hear him making a call to Jane about how he doesn't need time on the mass spect because he "found some notes" and will write up a paper and give the University credit.