Season Three

Summary of Events

2021-03-15

Payment was made, the pack made £14285 each. It's now Late July 2020. We all donate letters to Sunny to form a name and she calls herself Sunny Enpeem-Kaj and Ariane helps arranged forged documents for her. Brexit has happened early (July 1st is now Independance Day), we cleaned up the Wyrm Spirit Factory that Big Ben told us about offscreen. Watched an open air production of A Midsummer Nights Dream at the Hotel, they're now working on The Merchent of Venice. Sunny learnt some humaning, the rest of the Pack learnt some wolfing. Ariane got her sword repaired and paid for extra quiet.

At 10am on a summer morning we get a note saying "I know what you did last March, I am watching from the shadows, naughty puppies", all typed up on a typewriter (Maybe Ben Valis's friend David Vasiry?), we get fingerprints from the door and track it to a delivery van. There is first aid and self defence training. Holly goes to the local Bone Gnawers' moot/curry and social evening at Abdul's, run by Sanjeev, also present Abed and Clark (police clerk, doesn't like Watford), Alan Garren (a bonegnawer courier reveals someone is ordering silver and mercury). They engage in the Worship of the Rat Ritual which involves offerings to rats. We hear the Stargazers are arranging a Deep Umbra moon bridge ritual to try and hunt for the source of covid in a month (worth watching for impressive magic possibly failing).

Also Sunny makes a quiche from a recipie to practice both cooking and reading. Lydia meets Margareeth / the Old Lady again (who knows the True Londoners, lives with Jim under Westminster Bridge) who says that Jesus and the Seraphim appear once a month or so at services at Islington Tube Station at 9pm Sunday.

Jules and Ariane stakeout the Pack House in the Umbra to watch for spirits, we see weird skittering spiders watching us from the distance, feels like the ones seen at parliament? We go to bed to tell the others in the morning.

2021-03-22

The Pack shares information about Margareeth, the Spider. There are two stations The Angel (Underground) and Islington Station (Overground). Carlie and Ariane (as lupus) sniff around churches near The Angel and find nothing suspicious. Jules & Sunny goes tagging, Sunny gets takeout, Jules gets chased by police. Holly sees the spider-spirit. The Pack has a picnic on the roof to spot for it, Holly gets Sunny to chase it towards her, she gets an idea of it (Weaver Spirit - Rage 0, Gnosis 2, Willpower 7) before it vanishes into the concrete leaving a very cold hole, Ariane pokes a paw in and Jules sticks her whole head in - icy cold, lights and spiders riding a web. Goes to draw it.

Sunday we head to the stations, split up, Margareeth arrives at The Angel and we gather, she gives a knock code (3-2) takes us through a service door with a hidden bouncer, down 5 flights of metal stairs, downstairs is a hidden rave and we're greeted by Emily who smells inhuman like Margareeth. The Vicar is "the sound of music and the beat that gets us to god". Inside is a Barrel Vaulted Rave Church with some pews, a DJ setup on the altar. Lydia is unhappy with the dancing and drinking, its too loud for Sunny but she bounces from the Umbra (gauntlet 5). Half the room is inhuman. The DJ welcomes everyone (including the Garou) and bigs up DJ Sera very not human, Sunny licks her (taste of sunshine and joy, has white wings with flaming feathers) and goes human, dancing naked. Lydia resists that before being hit with a direct mind whammy and seeing the figures wings, Jules and Ariane manage to hussle people out after we get drained of gnosis. Everyone a bit unhappy with the situation and we leave before anything else happens (Lydia "It's wrong!" re: free will)

2021-03-29

Everyone heads back to the pack house for sleep. The next day woke up late, Jules made coffee, Carlie made a fry up. Lydia is unhappy and grumpy. We talked of clothes for Sunny, talked of the night club - possession? Drugs? Good spirit feeding? Bad spirit feeding? How did they know we were Garou?

Holly realises she's late for work so Jules gets her a sandwich and she heads out at speed! The rest of us bicker about religion (mostly Ariane and Lydia). Jules phones Jimmy The Drug Dealer to score some acid/cartoons, they also chat about finding Ben Valis's head in a river.

Lydia calls David Chetstow (Bishop of Southwark) asks about the underground church, directed towards the Church of Our Lord the Saviour aka Grace Life who do a lot of music/church outreach. So Ariane and Lydia head out to church, meet a blonde woman with a bob who answers the door, inside there's offices + a church and its very corporate/US republican. Meet Elder Pastor Tom Drion who doesn't know about that specific underground church and recommends his own with patriarchial leaflets. Head back via The Angel tubestation, the door smells non-human but is locked. We spot the woman with the bob is tailing us but leaves once Lydia says hello politely.

Back at the pack house Jules is painting, can see into the Umbra a little, sees a large Weaver spirit below through the floor, leans in to see it and gets the face coldness, also sees tiny golden sparkling spiders in the electrical cabling. Also becomes fixated on large purple elephants as the key to everything.

Holly arranges a meeting with her parents for Next Thursday to talk about spirit rituals and maybe the Angel Islington.

The evening at the Pack house a house goes up from the Dagenham Deadbeats (they killed a wyrm spirit in a factory, also some masked men immune to the delerium shot at them), Jules appears - tries to explain her work, takes us to see it, the elephant one isn't useful, the spiderweb one really is. Ariane checks for cabling where she saw the Weaver spirit, Holly checks the Umbra for anything that could be parsed as an elephant, nothing. Ariane suggests putting Jules in a hot air balloon. Pack debates plans - talking to the spider? leaving note for the note-leaver? sending spirit email? Holly talks to The Bell of Southwark who explains to talk to Weaver need a messenger spirit (small Spiderling) who live near tech boxes, or Glasswalkers have specific gifts. Pack plans a message ("meet us on the rooftops late in the evening") and agrees to at least for now go by the pack name of The Southwark Belles and Holly sends that with a spiderling.

2021-04-05

The pack prepped for Packnic II: (This time it has Tesco's Finest) by sending Holly to the shops with her staff discount in the hope that whatever shows up will be friendly and they can make friends with it. Then in the Umbra about 23:55 there is almost an earthquake, the building shakes and Jules can see flicking in the road below, with an effect like tearing a seam of fabric a huge Spider spirit emerges head first (the road healing up behind it) - The Weaver of Laws and Rituals aka The Mother of All Parliaments. Ariane tries to consult her ancestors for advice and gets a general "use caution" for weaver spirits, Holly meanwhile just talks to the spirit, introducing the pack formally and acting as a go between. The conversation includes these key points:

It's here to get to know us because we got a boon from its Bell pledging ourselves to defence of the realm and it wants to know what we can do that isn't just killing Wyrm influence (which is what Garou are normally good for). It notes we discussing things more than other packs and asks if we are a democracy (it likes those). It notes we got read of Ben Valis (a non Wyrm threat to the country) but wonders if we will finish the job of persuing David Vasiry ("The Alchemist") and if we will kill him or deliver him to it's "Agents of Enforcement" (The Met). It wants us to follow the right "processes rites and rituals" to have a judgement passed on David Vasiry (Ben Valis already had a judgement passed by MagiPol). If we do just kill him outright then it will judge us for how and why we do it (i.e. we need to get the Grandese to sign off on his death or have a very good excuse and be willing to stand trial). Also it approves of the New Testament that Lydia offers it because it is a "higher power for the people that helps them find moral fortitude". It tells us that in the future instead of sending a Spiderling to it we should seek it out at the Palace of Westminster.

Ariane tries to explain to Sunny why the English don't eat horse meat (Jules brings it up in conversation) and comes down on horse cults and dislike of the French then has to try and explain countries. Sunny is baffled by human sillyness. The discussion is that memory loss and possibility of having eaten demon-horse is worse. Sunny discusses how she doesn't recall the first time she turned human well either (shape shifting can be traumatic in general probably) and Ariane suggests the pack can come hunt deer on her families land in the summer once Covid has died down (and Lydia talks about preaching the good word).

So on a Thursday in June there's does a Research Montage (Jules, Sunny, Ariane, and Lydia): Ben Valis and David Vasiry met in Washington D.C. and before Valis was preparing for death, but Vasiry did something that gave him hope, they joined several people in doing something before it went wrong (MagiPol worked out they were murdering people for immortality?) and they had to flee the country. There is a gap of a few years before David joins Ben in London at which point the diaries get more vague. We discover that David has a reliance on quinine.

Carlie hits the net and discovers that David Vasiry has been posing as a prep school chemistry teacher and "retiring" every 30 years since the 60s, working for very rich schools that include things like research trips to Israel and Egypt. She tracks down its the same man in the photos each time.

Holly meanwhile goes to see her Parents, they talk about how it feels to be Garou, and its revealed her Great Uncle went by the name of Harold Styles as a Stargazer. He told them tales of meeting a great bear spirit, transformed in front of family members to save them in the war. Holly talks to them about Bell and the other spirits shes met, they talk about their pagan religion being around feeling the spirits but they know they can't directly contact them. Thave have heard of the Barrel Vaulted Rave Church, a DJ (DJ Sera?) shows up there 1-2 times a month and everyone at the events is cured of Covid and protected from it, this was witnessed by Angela's Kids who took Angela there and her cough went away. An old lady (Margareeth?) managed to get into a Zoom call they were in on where a Reverand was giving a service and talked about the DJ, she then said that sometimes Jesus appears there and was kicked from the call. They pass on a scroll from her Great Uncle and ask for a translation. Holly then goes to the Bone Gnawers meeting, where Alan Garren gives her the address for David Vasiry who is the one who has been ordering mercury and silver (Holly owes him a favour now). She also learns the Stargazers are going from Hampstead Heath. They have heard of The Angel Islington as a figure who shows up, does magical things then vanishes. She once interuppted a brewing fight between Vampire clans by making them all perform singing in the rain.

The pack reunites at the Pack House and makes plans to stalk and hunt David Vasiry.

2021-04-12

The Pack formed various ideas to track David Vasiry: Umbra scope out the house, physical scope out the house, check the teachers register, see if we can feel silver at any possible property. Decide to start with an Umbra stalk of the house (about an hour away). David Vasiry's House is a detached 1930s place in a line of semis, 2 bed, kitchen out back, garden, bay windows, no magical aura. Discussion about how art vs. science magic is with Jules asserting its quite precise chemistry, not just following a recipe. We talk to an Elm Tree Spirit out back that's been there since the 1930s, Ariane tries a florid introduction without effect but Sunny scent marks it and it starts to talk in groaning tree language and Holly plays interpreter for the pack. It's called "Tree", says no one has climbed its branches for 15 years and it misses it. It can't really help us, senses only extend to bark and branches. Jules respectfully climbs the tree to get it back in touch with how that feels and it likes it. From there the inside of the house seems illdefined to her, hears that the young man who used to climb it did for 10 years or so 15 years ago, the last time he climbed it he spent some time up there enjoying it (probably the kid of the last family to live here before Vasiry bought it?). Sunny sniffs the garden, smells of weird fertilizer and plants, very natural.

Carlie and Jules go into the back of the house. Inside they met a strange silver wyrm dragon serpent thing? Had wings, no scales, a button nose, wrapped around the bannister watching them, it blinks in response to conversation but nods in response to being asked if it spoke English, when asked if it minded their presence it trilled and watched. They took a small mirror to peer into the front room, involved looking through a hard to pierce Arcana Array, the front room was redone a few years ago, generic (TV, DVDs, gaming console, etc). They moved to the back room and the silver spirit creature trilled, looped in the aira and faded out. Back downstairs room they saw a woman exercising on a bike, talking to Carl Rodrigos who takes her place, there's no romantic tension, but a professional edge. Upstairs they fail to see in the front bedroom, back bedroom is military cots and the woman (Unknown USMC Mercenary) is seen servicing a glock pistol with silver bullets.

The Pack bails on the area, Holly moots the idea these may be the headhunters who are immune to delerium. We put out a howl with the address and details in, back at the Pack House we get communications from Derek Watford, the Dagenham Deadbeats, and Diamond Annie and arrange a meeting at 10pm at The British Museum. Before we go in we see a Rodriguez (a mediterranean guy in a suit) who Watford is scared of (by scent). Sanjeev is there as the rep for Dagenham Deadbeats and Annie for the Forty Elephants, Watford for The Guild but also Grandese of London. Jules holds the chair position for the meeting - fill them in on killing Valis and how Vasiry and Carl Rodrigos are known accomplices. Sanjeev says Dagenham want them killed because 2 of their pack are laid up with silver injuries, wants Watford to assure us that the Grandese will authorise us killing these mythics in retribution. Watford reveals the garou on the Grandese coucil is Sir Robert Laffrey, alpha of The Guild. Lydia reminds everyone The Mother of Parliaments wants us to bring people in for due process and Ariane concurs. Sunny sneaks out during the bickering which ends in Dagenham telling us we have a week to construct a plan (they'll help) before they just roll in the front door and kill everyone. Everyone agrees to go for Chinese and Annie takes a leaflet from Lydia to mess with Jules who bet a dinner on it.

Sunny meanwhile snuck out into the wider museum, tracking Watford's scent to an office, smells the ozone/burnt electronics smell of the person we met in Lee Ho Fooks in Season_Two#2020-12-14 and meets Rodrieguez (who looks totally different), listens to him moving around in his office through a crack in the door, then gets chatting and introduces herself. He says he works here, refers to her as a "talking dog" (the person we met in Lee Ho Fooks knew we were garou), and invites her into the main museum building to smell an old wooden box (scent of rosemary) which helps him determine its use. He offers to bring her back for future smelling of interesting objects and she licks his hand before leaving (taste of leather, steel, and a tiny electric shock).

2021-04-19

The Pack was relaxing at Lee Ho Fooks with Diamond Annie (who it turns out is friendly with Maneki Neko). Ariane tries to convince people that wimbledon and cricket are glorious English rituals, and also about the Prophecy of the Phoenix and is largely ignored, there is talk of souls and who has them and if Ben Valis was putting them at risk with demon work. Diamond Annie reveals she has been trying to get the secret of the Beef Chow Mein recipe and its effects for years and will pay handsomely if someone can provide it.

Two of the Dagenham Deadbeats arrive: Bill Stone and Kyle Waters, Sanjeev fills them in on events and they are very angry and rage filled, Jules makes it clear that they can come along if/when we go into the property. Diamond Annie checks her phone and says one of her people watching the house has spotted another watcher, asks if its ours (its not), shows us a photo of a chinese woman in a car watching the house. Plan is to go check it out, Kyle (another Lupus) shifts into something much like a red setter and Carlie drives him and Sunny to go on a scouting mission. Diamond Annie also leaves and hands Lydia a note saying "If you can teach me something I'll teach you something" and a time/location for a week ahead.

On the scouting mission: the two dogs split up and head along the street, Sunny notices the car smells of liquor, beer, jasmine, and gun oil - barks a warning. The woman starts to look out, spots them and realises something is afoot, she tries to chat to them but Kyle plays dumb, they notice she has ammo clips and something weird and silver on her belt (almost a ball) and has a glowing tattoo on her wrist. Sunny goes to lick the tattoo and the woman steps back very quickly (in a weird way) and is wary, she goes for her jacket, ignores distractions and starts trying to interrogate the two garou. The strange silver wyrm dragon serpent thing uncoils from her belt and trills. Carlie moves the car up, honks the horn to signal to the wolves their escape route is available, the woman spooks, makes a dash persued by Kyle, she turns and shoots him with an airsoft gun and he falls unconscious, yellow paint on her muzzle. Carlie talks her down and says the dogs are with her, they agree to talk things out and use Carlie's car (they load the unconscious Kyle in the back).

The team reconvines at the warehouse we did the Alpha Games at, we learn she's Sun Wang-Li (aka Liz) a mythic specialising in Spiritalis who's a guild member. The strange silver wyrm dragon serpent thing is Yangshi her spirit companion, it knows we're garou and is capable of sometimes manifesting the in physical world, it chats to Holly who butters it up a little. She tells us her guild was gearing up to take down Ben Valis but was beaten to it, currently has a £5000 contract for Carl Rodrigos (alive) for theft of arcane objects/artifacts (some silver bangles) that are "ori amlifico" (?) devices, each amplifies a physical blow (bare hand or with tool), he ordered them then stole them when he couldn't pay. Her job is to bring him in to a police station where she'll give a specific case number and Derek Watford will come and collect him. She doesn't know who the woman in the house is, and is in general feeling out her depth, has thought about attempting to just knock on the door and stun them with her gun but realises she may die. Reveals the yellow paint stuff is a contact sleeping potion that works for about a day on mythics.

Holly calls Sanjeev and asks what to do about Kyle and he agrees to come pick him up in the Abduls restaurant van. Lydia tries smelling salts and similar but he opens his eyes a fraction then goes back under, so Lydia washes it off carefully and wakes him up, he's groggy and we fill him on events before he's loaded carefully into the van with Sanjeev. About 2:30am The Pack returns home, with talk of possibly teasing Kyle in a friendly way, Lydia reveals she has a brother called Adam possibly in conversation.

The next day Diamond Annie texts Jules with "Nice take down not subtle", Lydia gets a delivery card with payment due, so goes to fetch it with Sunny, its a bunch of her leaflets that Diamond Annie stole and posted back with extra rocks in and insufficient postage ("Thought you might like these back, sorry for the cost"). Jules does some research into wards as we want to see if we can set one up to find out how hard they are to break but its 10s of hours to get even a small one going. Lydia and Ariane go of to watch the house from the Umbra, and Jules plans to Contact Liz.

2021-04-26

For reference its a Fridayish kind of day.

We start with Jules calling Sun Wang-Li to check she's doing okay, she says in conversation if we can get her part of the array, or the whole thing, her guild can assess it for weakness/work out what its for, they talk magical theory and she says that Yangshi may also be staking the place out.

Meanwhile Lydia and Ariane are staking out David Vasiry's house, we see the post arrive, then 30 minutes later the woman (in an authentic looking USMC top) goes for a 90 min run, with no sign of Carl. They bicker about apocalypses, Ariane talks about sea level rises like a biblical flood (which God said he wouldn't do again) and Lydia suggests that garou fixation on ecological apocalypse/The Wyrm is despair whereas her religion gives her hope.

Back at the pack house Jules builds a small Rapucio (sp?) array to bounce people from touching it, Carlie helps test it by hitting it with a pillow, bible (both of which hit like hitting a wall), Carlie shoulder barges it (like hitting sponge not rock) and it crackles and does the burnt electronics/ozone smell and collapses. Jules moots the idea of making a spirit-gateway portable into the house so we don't need a mirror, they talk about methods of getting in/out and if those work inside another existing array. They use Ariane's bedroom mirror and go to David Vasiry's safehouse to look at the array through the Umbra and make a copy of it.

At the local Tesco's Holly is at work, spots the strange magical type we met at Lee Ho Fooks, who's one till over. He seems to stumble over coins (a little like some dementia patients do) but is otherwise solid, he even doffs his flat cap as he goes (a guy in his 50s dressing like a guy in his 90s). Afterwards the manager is going over footage in the backroom - turns out all the cameras glitched instead of picking this guy up and someone stole some whisky, Holly gives a few suggested people, talks about getting some surge protectors for the cameras, is offered more shifts but turns them down and returns to the Pack House. There she works on decoding the scroll - it turns out to be a conceptual map of the Umbra mostly written in First Tongue, showing the Earth, the Shadow/Penumbra, and various Realms coming off that (including The Net, The Place of Stones, The Temple of Winds, and domains of the Weaver, Wyld, and Wyrm, as well as Luna and Sol's realms. There are lines connecting the realms with glyphs on, duplicate symbols often exist on connecting lines but it resists statical analysis so its not a cipher of English/First Tongue.

The Pack meets in the evening and Holly recognises the glyphs from Jules drawing of the array at Vasiry's, she goes to get the scroll and the Pack bickers as they cook (Ariane left red wine in the fridge, this is dishonour upon a cow, Ariane implies Jules has never seen a cow, Lydia discusses growing up around them, Jules refers to bitches, Sunny gets offended, the bickering turns to religion and everyone eats the Spagbol that just got made). After the meal Holly shows them the scroll/map and everyone works on decoding the arcane symbols (its not astrology) and Jules & Holly realise its linked to the symbols in the 4 cardinal directions of the array, so those are some sort of directions of the spirit perhaps? We talk about if the map reveals anything about disease realms that may help the Stargazer quest to the deep Umbra and find a couple of suggestably named ones near the Wyrm realm (Malfese, The Abyss). Lydia also notices that there are realms called Realm of Heaven, Realm of Angels, Realm of The Saints all about 10-11 hops deep across the map and her and Ariane talk about a summer walking holiday in the Umbra.

Jules calls Liz to arrange a handover of the array diagram, shes at work (references to someone called Twiggy) and arranges a meet in Canary Wharf. The Pack gathers there, its probably The Guild territory. We buzz the intercom and get the noise of clinking glasses, music, laughter (a bar?) and she smells of beer and peanuts and is wearing bartender gear - she denies all knowledge of what's going on in the building but references "No one keeps Sir Robert waiting", she takes the diagram and heads back to work (financial company private bar?)

The Pack returns home talking of Ao3 and Veggie Tales (Ariane and Lydia both making suggestions for Sunny). Ariane calls her mother Janice Primrose-Morton to ask about any stories involving Angels etc. and the Umbra, is asked why she wants to get her paws dirty in the Deep Umbra (it's what the Children of Gaia and Stargazers are for apparently), suggests the pack visit for Midsummer rituals, be in the Umbra, meet a Luna spirit and says that'll help bring Lydia around (Ariane has doubts). Says she spoke to Mr. Newman and he said it was fine for essential travel (like the pack returning for Midsummer to Hunt), hope's we'ves invested our money wisely, and is currently trying to keep a Wyrm affiliated US firm from taking of a number of factories in Swindon.

The next day (Saturday) Liz calls Jules to talk about the array - its designed to combat Spiritalis mythics, to cut off the connection from the spirit realm and talks of the methods of countering arrays and says her Guild doesn't have a counter spell for this one.

2021-05-03

So the Pack makes a plan to start working through the rest of David Vasiry's addresses while Jules is busy with life. Ariane, Carlie, and Sunny go to check 2 nearby ones

• The first is not far away, a 3rd floor flat in a converted building. The shadow version is very boring/nondescript, Carlie peered through via a mirror and saw a student flat, Man U posters and bed spraed, laptops, books. There is a big mirror in the bathroom that could be used for entry/exit in a messy way (climbing over the sink).
• The scond is a freestanding building, Southwest towards Heathrow, some grounds around it. It has personality in the Umbra, wardrobes, umbrellas, etc. There are 20ish emptier rooms, and 3 large ones with high backed comfortable chairs, some local spirits leave as we arrive. Peer through and see 5-6 old people watching TV, its a retirement home. We pop out, hide in some tree's and observe in case Vasiry is "retiring" his persona here before starting again. Eventually a mid 40s black woman comes out, gives Sunny some meat and ruffles her ears and chats to us thinking we're there to see a relative, Ariane spin a story about a "James Smith" but no one there is by that name so we get walked out.

Meanwhile Holly and Lydia go to an address in Dagenham (getting an okay from the Deadbeats via text first). They hike over in the Umbra passing a number of landmarks (Tower of London, British Museum) and notice that in a number of bits of London there are houses missing, green fields instead, like 2 jigsaws intersperced, Holly thinks its not the blitz but pre-war London echoes still remaining. Dagenham's factories have left a strong impression on the Shadow. They pop out behind a post office, grab an A-Z and use it to help navigate. The house is very similar to the safe-house, detached one in a row, bay windows, early 20th century. Garden green and lucious, furniture 80s/90s, feels more like a lived in home. The rear reception room as a series of photos on the wall that are distinct in the Umbra (when checked in the physical they are of various groups of teenage (15-17 yo) schoolgirls on various historical places - Parthanon, Giza Pyramids, an archaeology dig). Upstairs they note the back bedroom has strange jagged patterns, some sort of magical disturbance perhaps. There is a Ford B Max (family car) parked in front.

The pack reunites at the house, share information, speculate on Vasiry's marriage, if he has family.

• Talk more about being garou, Lydia talks about the pressure of wanting to tell her church accountability partner, we try and persuade her not to come out as a werewolf, Ariane tries to persuade her to frame it as spiritual warfare, she is sad she can't tell her family.
• Janice Primrose-Morton calls to check in with Ariane, will send a car for the pack for the midsummer ritual. References to meeting Angels in the family archives, one was probably a Weaver spirit, the others misidentified Lunes. Asks if Sunny wants to diversify her portfolio away from Burton's Biscuits and Ariane confirms yes into rewilding wolves (and checks in with Sunny later). Janice is looking forward to meeting Sunny and the rest of the Pack.
• Ariane has a panic about the pack meeting her family so we steal wine from Jules.
• Lydia gets a text from Celeste to come to a Children of Gaia meeting on Monday.
• The pack debates the moon, spirits, how the moon is just a rock (but also not a rock) and if Lydia getting martyred by the Silver Fangs for preaching to them would be a good outcome (Lydia thinks so, no one else does)

All this is interrupted by two people knocking on the door with robes and staves, Sebastian and Laurent, Stargazers who are part of the voyage into the Umbra, want to get our permission to talk to The Bell of Southwark about having some gnosis to power the trip (Bell will have less gnosis available to us + herself for a couple of months) and offer knowledge & wisdom in exchange, Ariane asks for stories from the survivors, the Deadbeats gave food/metals?, Guild cleared the Heath, Heathrow are helping with finance. They offer to explain how the moon is not a rock to Lydia. Holly brings them the map, they know it as The Styles Map, it has gateway keys and is missing some things from the Wyld and some Summerland connections, say it has some very useful Wyrm details and ask to copy it.

• Jules asks about the Mother of Parliaments: The great weaver spirit of London, an Incarna, old, powerful, a guardian fo the city who mostly works via the Glass Walkers
• Carlie asks Sebastian if he's a ragabash, but he reveals he's a galliard who spends most of his time in the penumbra.
• Lydia asks if there are other Christian garou, (missing note: told the Children of Gaia) look at human religions more, Sebastian turns down her invite to bible study (he sees his soul in the mirror everyday).
• Ask about mythics: some are in the Umbra, have a spirit companion riding with them, some work with the True Londoners, bring spirits into themselves.
• Ask about the True Londoners: Faeries - i.e. wild spirits who take on stories, specifically of London. 3 types:
  • Spirits of London: those who shuffle the shadow city, strong ones come to the real and embody the city itself. London & Shadow-London are both living, the spirits are its blood cells
  • Pearly King or Queen - no real person dresses like that
  • Those who are the embodyment of some kind of pure Londonness (example: Man who comes into a pub and plays blitz songs on the piano and everyone joins in, also at least one actor on Eastenders).

Sebastian asks if we want to see Luna, marks 4 sigils in the air and with a feeling of gnosis the floor drops out, we have the sensation of a huge long fall, and then suddenly we're on the moon looking at Earth.

2021-05-10

So the Pack is on the moon, Ariane, Jules, and Holly get the sense that they're still somehow in the kitchen as well. Everyone can breath and Sunny goes sniffing and digging around in the moon dust. Lydia gets upset about this terrible magic or illusion caused by Satan. Sebastian (the Stargazer) reveals that this is a sort of spiritual vision projected through his connection to the realm of Luna (he visited here as part of his tribe acceptance ritual). Sunny and Carlie get a sense that something is manifesting behind us, a bright white light, Sebastian says its one of the Luna incarna, Lydia growls at it - Galliard, the incarnate Gibbous Moon (a woman almost fully lit in light with a dark sliver, appears slightly differently to everyone, 9 foot tall, ethereal, long limbs, no scent). Sebastian greets her and she sings us a song (recharging gnosis, willpower, and rage) and as we hear it we feel a strong mental connection to our ancestors and auspices (see Galliard's Vision)

Then everyones back in the kitchen of the Pack house, Lydia starts shouting "get thee behind me Satan", Laurent growls at her and Jules literally picks her up and carries her upstairs. Sebastian suggests they should go home, they offer to take Holly with them on the trip, but she is just overwhelmed with emotions and crying, they leave and Ariane and Holly hug her (she is happy to know her family are a long line of Stargazers, her kinfolk didn't know, her Uncle very quiet about things). While the upstairs discussion goes on downstairs the garous talk of their visions and experiences, Carlie feels a little disconnected from what she saw, Ariane is happy, Holly feels a great family connection, Sunny talks about how she is the best dog. There's talk of werewolves as rage & drive united, Carlie tells us she was kicked out of Uni 2-3 weeks before first change for anger issues (and trying to exposure some of her lecturers as hypocrites). Ariane checks the noise upstairs to determine they're not fighting and Carlie goes to offer them tea.

Meanwhile upstairs: Jules and Lydia have a set too, Lydia tries to shift up and punch Jules and fails then breaks down crying. Both talk about how they're just trying to protect the pack, Lydia talks about just wanting to show people truth, that universalist bullshit is dangerous, that spirits keep trying to mind control us, and that the Wyrm is a misunderstanding of Satan. Jules counters her points and notes that other things can be the truth, she doesn't experience a connect with god so its just us, and some things are scary but that's okay. They have a lot of back and forth without really reaching a resolution.

Monday morning: We decide to come up with a plan, the general mood is that both locations need surveillance because we need to probably hit both places at the same time. Holly updates Sanjeev on Vasiry's other house. Jules gets the details of observation from Diamond Annie (they rarely leave the house, the woman runs the same 90m route every day and exercises in the back garden, Carl keeps inside, 2 days ago (Saturday) a courier delivered a styrofoam box, they have occasional take out)

Lydia goes to meet the other Children of Gaia for tea (its a 2 level flat about a shop for yoghurt weavers) - meets Celeste (male garou, offers tea and biscuits) and Adara (woman, vice like grip, a strong sense of rage and strength). They discuss what Lydia does for the pack (argue with them because they are easily lead astray). Celeste says that she believes in the goodness of humankind and their souls and that their job is to guide them to goodness, a unity with all things and that sheparding garou is harder ("but by Luna and the gods will we try!"). They talk of original sin, the capacity for evil, Celeste doesn't like papists but is broadly okay with trinitarianism of all kinds, she also asserts that mankind and the garou are distinct and we are Nephilim. Lydia takes this as expected.

2021-05-17

At Children of Gaia coffee shop HQ Celeste drops The Werewolf Bible ("The true edition of the bible!") passed down through garou/kinfolk families who worship "The true god" (some creator spirit that exists above the Triat and Celestines) from documents in First Tongue and apparently supports the Garou are Nephilim hypothesis. Lydia reacts badly, reminds Celeste that all are fallen short and need to repent, which is agreed with enthusiastically. Celeste asserts that the Garou are closer to god with more in their souls (their spiritual connection to the Umbra), Lydia asserts that garou are more like Christ with a fully human/fully werewolf dual nature, Celeste suggests fully human and fully watcher (the angels who sired the Nephilim), there is a discussion about how surely all humans must be kinfolk (Adam & Eve's bloodline) and Celeste suggests many have drifted away from that, they both sort of dismiss the Prophecy of the Phoenix and Celeste quotes a bunch of scripture to support her view (Genesis 6:4, some Ezekiel and Numbers). They talk about the Stargazer Deep Umbra Covid Quest and Lydia's concerns, Celeste feels they are misguided and forget their earthly duties leading to sin and "sullying the heavens with their journey" and suggests not condeming them because that sets off their Rage but instead getting them onside with strongly worded letters and pamphlets, which the Bishop of Southwark will let them print (Lydia despairs that he is too deep in things). They talk of how The Southwark Belles are easily lead astray and Celeste suggests prayer, possibly to an intermediary entity to intercede, which Lydia replies is idolatry and there is no different between worship and prayer. Lydia asks about the shop and why it has other religious books in and apparently Celeste part owns it with her sister who insists on a broader range of stock which Lydia disagrees with as a compromise. The two of them work together on the pamphlet, with Lydia continuously removing nephilim references, eventually Adara smashes her tea cup in frustration at the two of them and goes for a walk. Celeste finally tries to show Lydia that the Garou are more than human by showing her a mirror and talking about how they can see spirits through it and enter through it physically. Lydia is unsure of the reality of the Umbra and wants to talk to her Church about it, which Celeste suggests is pointless because they won't understand that the Garou are better/more than them. Lydia gets sick of all of this and punches the mirror but gets pulled through into the space beyond - The Umbral Church (a shard realm essence of "church"), Lydia suggests a physical church is better than "werewolf nonsense" and this is hubris and self deception (despite it removing feelings of anger and giving a general feeling of the numinous) she asserts this is just another umbral thing trying to mind control her and leaves the doors and the flat.

Meanwhile - the David Vasiry Stakeout Team (Ariane, Jules, and Sunny) head off talking of Sunny as best dog and the differences between a noble sacrifice and martyring (spoilers: probably less than Ariane thinks exists), getting Holly to prewarn Dagenham we're on route, they reply "Wouldn't bother, not much left" and she calls the team to let them know before they arrive. Once there there are 2 police vehicles, a fire engine, a cordon, and a bunch of people watching, car door is missing, front door kicked in, house on fire.

• Team heads to the Umbra, the fire spirits are having a party and reshaping the Umbra as they go, we can see some remains of the weirdness from the back bedroom, there appears to be no Umbral boundary here, the spirits give us nothing useful. Sunny heads back while Ariane and Jules peer through (place largely tossed, fire damage mostly in kitchen/back of the house) then chat to some Water spirits who are gathering up before scaring off the Fire.
• Back in the physical Sunny sniffs around: no bodies or ambulances, but Derek Watford arrives, she tells him it wasn't the Belles who did it and he arranges to meet her at a nearby Burger King to exchange info.
• At the Burger King there's a discussion - no ambulances, no bodies, Ariane explains how The Weaver of Laws and Rituals wants Vasiry for a trial via Watford and MagiPol (Watford isn't that interested). He says he'll try and keep any magical stuff away from the police but may let them arrest Bill Stone who he suspects, we're unsure if Sanjeev knew.

Holly is at her Parents having tea and rock cakes, her mother fetches her father from "his shed" (where he smokes weed quietly) they talk of news of of The Styles Map and how the family has a strong Stargazer lineage and that this scroll is Harold Styles's life work and history of his journeys passed down. Holly's mother reveals he would sometimes tell her stories of mountains of fire (not volcanos) and Camelot with knights and spires in the sky when she was a kid, would love to see the spirit world with her own eyes, or failing that a photo or painting of some of it. They warn Holly not to get lost out there, Holly reassures them she only really travels around the London shadow and her mother suggests she not rush going deeper (they can always put the map in the attic for future generations - did Harold Styles get lost in there?).

Most people reunite at the Pack House, Carlie has been in and stewing much of the day, Lydia is very sad and despondent. Ariane fills everyone in on the Fera, the War of Rage and the Impergium. We talk of the dangers of starting a fight with Dagenham and how garou feuds can be long lived. Lydia asks if there is a way she can not be a werewolf any more. Holly arrives home at the line "Maybe a flying wereshark did it"), Jules basically wants to know why the attack on Vasiry happened and wants Holly to Sanjeev and find out, we talk about if it was a MagiPol raid. Eventually Sanjeev comes over, everyone is tense and miserable, he reminds us that Dagenham Deadbeats said they would wait until Friday to hit the delivery-house, not the living-house and the place had Wyrm taint so they didn't want to leave it festering. He tells us that David Vasiry wasn't there, we warn him that Watford may let Bill get arrested for this and he arranges for him to go away into hiding with some relatives (he's apparently a Union rep at the Ford Car plant and has had to go into hiding before for hitting someone). He shares food with the pack and we attempt to repair the tension.

2021-05-24

Diamond Annie texts Jules who's asleep, texts Lydia asking if she still wants to come over and trade knowledge, also a picture of David Vasiry entering the delivery-house and asks to wake up Jules (Sunny, Lydia, and Carlie are up) and Lydia does so with a coffee, Sunny cooks the bacon(!). we call Liz, Sanjeev (the Deadbeats), and Annie to arrange the raid, tool up, get in Holly's car, head to the delivery house.

Annie wishes us luck and hands over from observation to the raid. Jules, Lydia, Sunny, and Liz in the front door. Holly Ariane, Carlie, and Kyle (Deadbeats) in the back. The front team kick the door in, Marine Woman in the back dons a gas mask, sets off teargas and opens fire with silver bullets. Jules takes one for Liz saving her life. Lydia and Sunny head upstairs to wreck David Vasiry and Carl Rodrigos - Lydia crinoses, punches through a wall, disables their grenade with a gift, then wigs the humans, and Sunny grabs the CS gas grenade off them. The back team: Ariane kicks the door in and slots the Marine Woman then shoves her nose in the sink. Holly smashes the wall near the back window and Carlie rips the back window open to release the gas and everyone piles in, Kyle shoots up the stairs and grabs Vasiry (who's passed out). Jules rages on the stairs and gift-heals to keep going. Carlie realises things are going angry and derages people with a Ragabash gift, Jules passes out, Lydia feels pity for the unrepentant humans (and shifts back to homid), and Ariane finds everything hilarious, and shifts back to homid, Sunny feels the need to play fetch and is last seen bounding out the back with the CS gas.

2021-05-31

The session starts as a CS gas cannister goes off in the back yard harmlessly, Carlie restrained Carl Rodrigos, Lydia yells and slams a bible on the floor next to him, Kyle Waters is grabbing David Vasiry and talking about killing him but is talked down from more than a bit of a beating by Holly, Liz then paintguns them both. Everyone upstairs tosses the back bedroom for weird artefacts then starts hauling the bodies away. Ariane wigs out a bit about stabbing someone, Lydia performs surgery on Jules getting most of the silver out with a kitchen knife while the others hold her down. Someone with a mobile phone starts filing the house through the open door, Carlie grabs her phone off her and talks her into the idea its a film happening, curtains are twitching, Ariane grabs some furniture polish and spills a bottle of bleach over the pool of Jules blood to try and hide it, the bodies and everyone goes out the back as Sirens are heard near the front, Ariane tries ineffectually to set fire to the curtains upstairs then follows everyone out the back. Sunny loiters at the crimescene and watching, some smoke but not much (arson failed) theres a crowd and police sweeping the place, firearms brought out, and a bomb squad show up to look at some things throwing tents over stuff. A lot of witness statements are taken. She watches until early evening then heads home via takeouts.

Lydia calls Derek Watford and lets him know only one person died, and only one person shot. Watford despairs as his afternoon is vanishing to paperwork and asks how many crimescenes he needs to cover up (someone stabbed, Jules shot, bodies gone, maybe arson, maybe teargas). The car drops Vasiry outside Brixton police station, and keeps rolling, advised to take Jules to St. Barts Hospital to see Dr. Thomas Roberts who is known to Lydia as a strange ER doctor. Lydia accompanies Jules in there, she is persuaded by dint of Carlie teasing her about being able to take the trip to hospital and Lydia threatening to treat her with prayer instead. While there Dr. Roberts straight up asks Jules if she's garou, talks about the bullet as a Werewolf Special (silver filled with mercury) which will need treatment/antidote, they bring her into surgery with Lydia helping/taking notes including about how the healing kicks in part way through. 2 police officers watch Jules and Lydia pulls as much "medically necessary" as she can to stay there, she stays long enough that Jules awakens feeling rough and then is kicked out to the staff room. Derek Watford then arrives to question Jules, who says they seized the opportunity because they may not get another, Watford suggests there may be murder charges for one of the pack and that the woman was a US marine (he has her dog tags) and the US Embassy may be interested. He tells Jules the Pack should have involved him from the start in our plans complaining that we were working with Diamond Annie and the Deadbeats who are essentially leading us astray. Jules says she's been in surgery and doesn't know where the body is, Watford calls Carlie who denies knowledge of who killed her. Watford leaves and eventually Lydia returns, Jules tells her about Watford's visit and gives her the remit of making sure everyone's okay and telling the rest of the pack they did good work.

The group (Holly, Carlie, and Ariane) who left the house rapidly meet D.I. Watford already outside The Pack House in the afternoon when they return - Ariane pleads the case that people involved were murderers and mercenaries, one of whom shot the Deadbeats and were being supplied with guns and military gear by Vasiry and Ariane pins the timing of the raid on the Deadbeats a little, they were going to just go and we were cleaning up the mess and stopping it being total murder - Watford accepts this and calls him in as a terrorist/neonazi wanting 48 hours before he's charged and tells the Pack they have 48 hours to hand over case evidence to Watford against Vasiry. Holly calls it in to the US Embassy and gets MagiPol on the line, they have a cold case against David Vasiry and report his age as 102, Watford and Ariane's contact details are passed on. Ariane calls Janice Primrose-Morton, arranging for Carlie's car to take a trip to The Deep Woods at the family estate (where they bury horses), to her surprise a fixer is summoned, she tells Carlie to empty the car of evidence. Sunny arrives home to fill everyone in on the events at the house after we left. The Pack is debating destroying the body or not when an Austin Martin pulls up outside driven by Mr. Jones (who Ariane recognises as occasional hired help from her childhood), he chats to Carlie about the car and if there's anything he needs to know, we swap keys and he tells us to look after his car and that Janice is looking forward to meeting us. Sunny sniffs him, he smells of were-something but its unclear, he can speak first tongue and chats to her but won't tell her what he is, she licks him and tastes whisky, tobacco, and bacon. He leaves with the car, Ariane freaks out about her family and why they got her into law school and Carlie tells her they're basically the mob.

Watford calls Carlie about the location of "an American package" and she hands the phone to Ariane who insists she doesn't know anything and lawyers up telling him she doesn't want a feud between their packs but wants a mediator or a lawyer or something present. He hangs up in a sulk. Clark calls Holly up and warns us The Met are gearing up to raid the house, we grab the illegal things, weapons, kill trophies, and evidence into bags before getting out the back of the house.

2021-06-07

We start by covering what is being scooped up from the House (diaries, magic books, knives, the sword, sharpy, probably a few other things), the Pack then thinks about heading to appeal to The Mother of Parliaments but on the way Derek Watford calls Holly and during the call Lydia tells him we're on our way there, so the plan changes and next up we're headed to the Primrose-Morton estate. Ariane starts making plans to hand herself in, backed by Sunny probably.

<There is a point here where your humble scribes connection was shit, so fill in what I missed>

Watford then goes to hassle Jules and try to pressure her to call the Belles back to town for arrest, he wants the body back to wrap things up but will take Jules if no one else will come. Jules calls Ariane, she polls the pack about handing ourselves in, Ariane confirms the body is gone but may be recoverable. Ariane then calls home and wakes up Mr. Robinson the butler (other options included Alice the maid). Robinson wakes up Janice Primrose-Morton and says that he doesn't have a number for Mr. Jones and we should go to the house. Carlie steps on it, Jules is called back to arrange a new time for if the body can be found, Ariane briefs the pack on nearby places with badly secured Landrovers in case Lydia needs to be evacuated before she gets executed.

The Pack arrives at the Primrose-Morton Estate around 3:30am, meet Robinson, who announces us formally to Janice Primrose-Morton, tells us that Mr. Jones took the body and car to the deep woods on another estate, both are gone, tells us no one should hand themselves in instead gets us to call the Matrix Chambers and get transferred to Lord Brennan's secretary Janice Telon who then wakes up Brennan, he passes regards to the family and assures us he'll sort it and will see us at the Midsummer ritual. He calls Watfords boss, then calls back to say we should stay out of town and he'll arrange for Jules to be transported tomorrow, there is a discussion of payment, family bonds, and social debts that hold society together (and that Ariane probably owes Lord Brennan a favour). Janice suggests we spend the summer here, country living will do us good, perhaps take a spiritual trip through the Umbra. Holly gives Ariane deathglares because this could cost her her job, we discuss if its possible to get transferred between stores, Lydia talks about having a lot of saved up holiday, but also may have to do some commuting. Janice then sweeps out of the room to talk to her Tokyo contacts about stealing a whole boat or something.

Back in Jules hospital room Watford picks up the phone, gets very angry, talks about breaches of the queens peace perhaps, acknowledges that a missing American body is a problem for the US embassy, and says he'll be in for a 7am meeting. Tells Jules to stay out of town for a month and the she won't get her drugs back then stomps out of the room, shouting at the copper on guard and swearing his way down the hall before getting into a shouting match with the head nurse. One of the nurses then comes in to check that Jules wasn't injurted by Watford and confirms he's getting barred from the ward at St. Barts. In the morning Dr. Thomas discharges her with painkillers and a chauffeur is awaiting her. She returns to the Pack House, finding metal grid work over the doors, but gets in via the kitchen window, calls up to Holly (the sensible one) and arranges to grab a lot of clothes for people before heading up to the estate.