Season Ten

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

2023-06-05

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2023-06-19

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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