Season Eleven

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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.

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