Season Five
Summary of Events. Also Todo List
2021-09-27
(Lydia talks to the lawyer about the death of her birth parents, Ariane confronts her mother about her treatment of Elise. Sunny keeps on learning to cook from Alice. Holly, Carlie, and Jules all chat to Tarquin about mystic rites, arcana and the umbra, navigating the umbra, Holly's Map, religion, and the ritual castle, Carlie and Tarquin take a brief road trip to the Summerland and meet a grass sprite, also everyone gets their post full of plot threads: Islington covid, Stargazer stuff, Lupus stuff, and Lottie stuff)
First a session of wrapping up loose ends. So Penny has departed from the Primrose-Morton Estate, The Major is a happy drunk, Alice is happy for Penn but also sad she's gone, Lottie mostly passes out, feels rough, and departs the following day, seeming more grumpy, putting on less of a front and not posting on social media (The Pack is doing a hecking variable size concern).
Lydia starts by talking to the lawyer from the Matrix Chambers at the party, confirms her name and that she was adopted about age 7, she's trying to confirm the events in Papua New Guinea which caused the Death of Lydia's Birth Parents, they turned out to be working for SIS/MI6 and her Mother was a Garou and member of The Guild, they were on the way to East Timor for some sort of intelligence gathering job. There are photos of them with her at the helicopters, a letter from her birth father wishing her well if something goes wrong, and a £100k financial trust fund. She was rescued from the wrecked by Colonel Redacted and sent back to the UK via the Swiss Embassy. The lawyer says he'll make enquiries about more distant family, he's also not sure how her parents were selected, the forign and commonwealth office made the choice and placed her with them before the Matrix Chambers knew she was in the country, they decided not to disturb her, and no member of the Smith family is a known Garou. She was told if she wasn't a werewolf she wouldn't have gotten to see the secret file, just gotten the letter and her legacy on her 25th birthday. Also her parents won't get any mention of the werewolves or intelligence services in their letters. The lawyer also "accidentally" forgets and drops the Photo of Lydia's Birth Parents.
A few days later Ariane finds Janice Primrose-Morton in a break from her hiest planning and has a whole debate about her treatment of Elise, suggesting she was trying to get her killed, Janice suggests she was just trying to scare her off and away from John, Ariane suggests that she was trying and that the Primrose-Morton's should have worked to help fix her so she could fit in the way she wanted and that she had the potential to be as she used to be a lynch pin of her community. Janice suggested she would have tried and failed forever and she's disappointed that Ariane wants to change people as she wants to inspire them to be better versions of themselves ("We inspire and lead them, we don't make others great") and that The Major will never let her be happy or fit in. Ariane makes the suggestion that they should persuade John to dump her, not the other way around and Janice suggests that he'll never do that because he's not interested in her except as a trophy, he's more interested in promotion, Janice thinks he'll never get to Colonel because he's far too useful where he is and will only get the symbolic promotion on his retirement. Ariane concludes by telling her mother to keep an eye on Lottie, and Janice replies by suggesting she tell Tarquin instead. Eventually Ariane goes to "hunt deer" i.e. got to the woods and smash things up in frustration.
Holly asks around for someone who knows the Rite of Fetish, Tarquin says he can direct her to a spirit to learn it, Jules is looking into the idea of interacting with the Umbra using Arcana magic and look for blood lines in the library, Carlie goes to the woods to poke the edge of the ritual space. Sunny keeps on learning cooking skills with Alice. Penny texts Sunny, Alice, and Carlie to invite them to hang in Durham post pandemic.
So Jules, Carlie, and Holly are approached by Tarquin for discussion of magic - he talks to Jules about the use of Arcana arrays suggesting she use her gifts, but she suggests its useful to enchant whole spaces or buildings at once, Tarquin says that you can use arrays to get to the deeper realms but not The Shadow. Say's he'd like access to Holly's Map and will offer something in trade and wanted to talk to her Alpha first, Jules suggests she can't order Holly and that Tarquin should have chatted to her first. They also talk about Carlie hunting the Unknown Ahroun around the tower.
So a few days later Tarquin talks to Holly about the map, offering an invested item that will help her to hop between realms in exchange for making a copy, she asks for 2 copies so one can be taken with us and says she feels her Uncle would be happier if the knowledge was put to use and preserved. Tarquin says he's headed for The Tower also called The Spire on the map before he becomes too much older and unable to make the trip.
Carlie meanwhile is trying to grok the ritual space and how it works, tries and fails to meditate there and get results, when she checks the umbra the place feels odd, connected to nicer realms, she manages to peer through and get glimpses of the places - The Umbral Church (with a lone woman in the pews), and the Summerland (sunny upland hills, pure nature and bounty). Tarquin approaches her, they chat and he say's he's been too busy to do much travelling recently (the house, his wifes business, raising Ariane), but felt her poking the place (he's connected to the ritual space). Carlie talks about her strange experience fetching Sunny and how she's been trying to get a sense of how Gaia worship works, been shouting about stuff with Lydia but wants to know if the Garou way has anything as it matches experience. Tarquin talks about how Janice once contacted a deep nature realm here, talks about how the Garou have the Gauntlet dividing them from The Shadow, whereas Mythics see this world as just one realm connected to all the others with none of them more "real" or "physical" than the others, but some realms more magically active, so in some the gods and spirits are more directly there. He also reveals other Mythics don't trust him much because they're stuck up and he associates with werewolves. He says he has a philosophy more than a religion: to do the right thing for the world and his family, he knows the gods are out there but their influence is limited these days to the messengers who can hear them, his goal is to respect all things and say yes to what he can. He changes the subject and tells Carlie that on any deep Umbral quest you need someone who can open gateways to shift you between realms - Holly in this case, but you'll need a navigator with a sense of where those realms are and suggests Carlie.
He hands her a Joker playing card as a "get back" magic tool, then the pair of them hop through into the Summerland, a wild nature realm, pollen lifting from the grass, full of life and bouyed up spirits. They meet a Grass Sprite, a winged figure made of pollen, Carlie offers it a little Gnosis and it grows, laughs and is happy and chats - telling them where they are, giving her the gnosis back and telling her that Gaia always welcomes her guardians here, one of her realms that some of them go to when their fighting days are done, she will always welcome her children back here. Carlie communes with the place and gets a feeling of connection to her past, to a tree from far away and one literally grows beside her, she thanks Tarquin (who is apparently seeking to establish a connection her for later return), thanks the spirit, and heads back to the physical world. It is now nighttime and hours have passed in the 30 subjective minutes, Tarquin tells her it'll take a month to recharge the return card.
Things wrap up with The Mail (pay your local red cap):
- Lydia gets stuff from environmental health, no one in Islington is getting covid since the first few weeks of pandemic, PHE are investigating food/water/air and the media haven't picked it up yet
- Jules:
- Message from Diamond Annie suggesting the heat is dying down and asking if we're coming back, she sends a rough estimate back
- Message from Sun Wang-Li who's being promoted, may be part of a strange road trip, will be serving drinks at the wolves on the heath for the Stargazer event and owes us champagne
- Sunny:
- Gets a message from Kyle Waters who got her number from Derek Watford, asks if she wants to hang out with fellow Lupus and she is enthusiastic.
- Gets a message from Lottie saying she needs to talk and Sunny should get in touch when she's back in London, she confirms she will.
Next weeks plan: 2-3 weeks after Midsummer, a couple of days before the Stargazer Deep Umbra Covid Quest
2021-10-04
(Car shopping, Holly trading a copy of the map for Realm Gate Bangle, back to London, arguing, Sunny telling Watford we're back, sending out a big howl, ordering Beef Chow Mein and meeting Maneki-neko again, Jules and Lydia got to New Scotland Yard to see Derek Watford, he still wants the body, realises Lydia is the child of one of his deceased pack mates, and promises to fix the allegations against her)
The Pack starts by car shopping which of course leads to several major and long running arguments, we eventually settle on the modified landrover that can cope with high water.
Holly goes to talk to Tarquin to get the deal with the map sorted, gets a device that allowed travel between proximate umbral realms once every 48 hours, infinite charges, Liz advises Jules that such a thing is worth a huge sum of money (£60k or so). Holly ponders that the map should be accurate for about 30-40 years ago, and maybe drift and changes may happen but the knowledge may be priceless, Ariane suggests exchanging trip reports for a certain time period as part of the negotiation. The deal is struck for the Realm Gate Bangle, which opens portals with the keyword "Ori Primus" followed by stating the target realm and fixing it in your mind, a good description will work if you've not seen it. The portals last around 2-3 minutes. Can be used to follow the hops on the map there is no way to directly jump deep.
As everyone's packing up they explore Ariane's room a little, mocking her gently for pictures of horses, weird stuff, and teen diaries. We load the car and the drive home is glorious in the Summer sunshine and fresh air.
Back at the house we find the doors intact and a note from Diamond Annie saying Dear Southwark Belles, I fitted some new front and back doors, but don't ask where they're from with a nice p.s. saying it was boring with out us :) We soon get embroiled in arguing back and forth about telling Derek Watford we're back vs. just sending out a howl, eventually Sunny just texts Watch to say that he smells bad and she's back, he responds telling her to keep her nose clean and not to make him send her out of town again. Eventually the argument leads to Carlie and Jules stalking out, Lydia talks about wanting to speak to Watford and The Guild about her birth parents. Jules calls Liz and she says she owes us a drink, wants to tell us stuff, Jules invites her over.
We put together a list of our major hits (David Vasiry (murderer), Carl Rodrigos (criminal), hired mercs, helped a werewolf discover herself (Penny), survived a silver bullet attack to save a comrade (Jules/Liz), saved a life from a silver bullet attack (Lydia), Visiting the Heart of Gaia (Carlie, Summerland), helped our kinfolk (Alice, Elise, etc), hunted a deer and offered its heart to spirits, Lydia continued her quest to witness to everyone in every realm, and deflected a spirit that possess people (Unknown Ahroun). Ariane howls well (7 successes) and howls herself a little horse, it's picked up and carried across London and further afield as The Tale of the Belles vs. David Vasiry a tale of sacrifice, pack cohesian, saving poeople, hunting and offering to the spirits to heal and recover our vital wyld nature.
The Pack orders Beef Chow Mein to celebrate, Mr Lee delivers it personally, accompanied by Maneki-neko, who gets a growl from Lydia, she says the foods on the house and we're welcome home, and sits watching us, Lydia tries to shoo it, Sunny tries to lick it, we fill in Carlie on who it is and our history, Holly tries to be nice and asks it what it wants and it just runs and bamfs through the cooker into the Umbra.
After food Lydia says she wants to talk with Watford and Jules says she'll go with her to supervise. So the next morning she calls up Watford and arranges to meeting Watford at New Scotland Yard, his office, she makes coffee and takes Jules with her. At reception she tries to witness to the receptionist who's already part of the Christian Police Association, she gets taken to the visitor suites, Jules gets side tracked into interrogation suite 2, where Watford comes in for a chat, says thanks for delivering Lydia, teases about Sunny being Alpha, but also wants the body back so that the US Embassy get off his arse and threatens to hassle Jules every chance he gets. Jules honestly says there's nothing she can do about it, the body is gone but does tell him that Mr. Jones was involved as the cleaner.
Over in the visitor suite Lydia has coffee and cake for everyone, Watford tells her that NCIS are looking for a body and if she knows where the Marine is, Lydia just says it depends if she got to know Christ before she died because then she'd be in heaven. Watford heroically contains himself. She then shows him the photo of her parents and he goes white, he did know them, but was very young at the time, and that her birth mother was a packmate of his, and that Lydia was going to be called "Caroline" by her, says he wants to talk to her away from the cameras, tells her to meet at a bar called The Guild on Canada Wharf, and its okay to bring the whole pack, and that the older members will have better tales. Tells her her mother wasn't a cop, but her and her father put "bad things away", The Guild also looked for her and he thinks she was in Glouchester from a Civil Service fuck up, he claims the Matrix Chambers linked arms with social services and shut down all enquires, and that he didn't know she was garou so had no reason to think she'd change. She reminds him her Church think she murdered someone as the police told them that, Watford looks like a kicked dog and says that an enquiry was made and "an officer may have made a statement connecting her to something", intense use of wheedling passive voice. Jules tells him to fix it as a means a lot to Lydia.
2021-10-11
(There's a pack meeting with bacon where we catch up on news and plan the evening. At the house (Jules, Holly, Carlie) Liz catches up and says shes's getting to learn more magic and is going on a spirit quest for a few months to try and find The Spire, also they work out The Guild is an overlap of mythics/garou. Meanwhile other people (Lydia, Sunny, Ariane) go to meet The Guild to learn more about Lydia's birth parents (Alan and Mary Watford) and she finds that Derek Watford is her cousin, and knew where she was, but never contacted her. She reacts badly and attacks him, he survives, everyone get's K.O'd by magic, barred and told to leave. They get picked up by Carlie and taken home)
Jules and Lydia returned around lunchtime whereupon Jules calls a Pack Meeting (Carlie fries the peace bacon) and talks of Liz coming to visit that evening and that Lydia's parents were linked to the Guild and she's going to The Guild bar this evening to get information. Ariane thinks this is super important, Lydia seems a bit off and Carlie tries to poke her blank "I'm fine" statements. Lydia also tells us about how The Angel Islington is messing with Islington's caserates, Ariane speculates about what cost the True Londoners will eventually extract, talk about if the effect/rave can be directed elsewhere and if we can stop the police breaking it up and arresting the innocent people (as we figure the fae will be fine).
So that evening at the Pack House: Jules, Holly, and Carlie are in the house. Jules caught Sun Wang-Li up on how things had gone (super healing but bullets still hurt, Lydia's birth parents are linked with The Guild, went to visit Ariane's family, etc), Liz has the booze they get glasses from Sunny's Room and find she keeps the freezer stocked with ice. Jules gets Carlie out of her room (she thought this was a date between Jules and Liz), Holly notices that Liz has a green pattern tattoo up her right arm 0 she reveals this is Yangshi who seems to live there and can now manifest, coming off her arm as smoke. Liz catches them up on her summer - got the finders fee, sold on the magic knuckle dusters (Ori Amlifico Devices) and made a sweet 20-30k but most importantly has proved to The Guild that she's trustworthy, and Derek Watford gave her shit but she ignored him and played up the silly Spiritalis mages are all hippies stereotype, but he took the drugs from her housemate which irritated her. Jules and Carlie tell her about Ariane's family (well meaning rich people, well rich ex-garou-aristocrats), and Liz talks about how her [[Grandmother talked of the old days in Hong Kong. Liz says The Guild have started to teach her The Real Power and taking her more into the Spirit World and she knows they have more secrets/magic higher up, took her first trip to the Spirit recently and is now being sent on a long well paying (60-70k) jaunt looking for The Spire and trying to map a route, is nervous she'll die as she's not a big strong garou and is planning on using the Stargazer Ritual to help portal her deep as a starting point. Holly suggests she make them a pitch and go as a ride along (having a Mage would help) and asks how she'd get out, Liz says she could retrace her steps and that may work but there aren't many other Spiritalis mages to ask. She tells Holly that The Spire is "where the original Mythics came from". Carlie suggests she's looking for a bodyguard and looks to Jules who says she can't take a week off, Liz reveals that Umbral time works in reverse inception - the deeper you go in the umbra the more time dilation happens and hence you loose less real wall clock time but she's been told to prepare to be out there for 2-3 months. Holly knows the route is 4 hops, which would require 12 days (6 hops ignoring the starting/ending point of earth-realm, each taking 48h) and she moots the idea of working as an Umbral guide if her job falls through. Carlie then leaves to pick up the others and Jules and Liz work out the Guild is actually a garou pack/mythic guild overlap, explaining their secrets and magic.
Meanwhile at The Guild bar: Lydia, Sunny, and Ariane arrive, ring the bell, chat to the door staff, hand in their coats, staff are in blue ties, second basement is reserved for "rowdy behaviour" (i.e. fighting). Ariane has her notepad to take notes for Lydia who is nervous, they look iffy at Sunny but let her in after she makes Ariane joke about her keeping her coat on. Inside we enter a quiet lounge and meet Derek Watford, Sir Robert Laffrey (suited man, wolfshead cane), and The Lady of Kowloon (well dressed, refined chinese lady (not garou). Sir Robert remarks the pack is making a mark and he heard our howl, talk of the nice summer we had, Watford is sent to get clothes for Sunny and tea. Lydia says that no ones even told her her birth parents names, we learn they were Alan and Mary Watford, Mary was the garou and also Derek Watford's step-aunt making Lydia and him cousins. Laffrey tells her her parents weren't Christian and her adoption was rushed/off the books. Watford reveals that he knew where she was but didn't want to reveal the nature of her parents or their relationship because she had a good life away from weird magic stuff, justifying it as a very slim chance she was garou, kept meaning to contact her and never did. She flips to crinos form and goes for his throat, doesn't kill him but cuts him badly with her claws, Ariane tries to distract her with a chair and fails, Sunny tries to tackle her and fails, she takes a solid hit (3 points aggravated) from Sir Laffrey's cane and manages to get a second slash in on Watford's arm before Ariane tackles her sideways in crinos, Sunny sits on Watford to keep him down as he shifts, and then all 3 crinos garou pass out. Sir Robert talks to Sunny and she confirms she'll keep the violence done. Two staff members carry Watford to the lower floors and people are woken up, the Lady of Kowloon is apparently reading our thoughts and knows we're telling the truth - Ariane and Laffrey are angry with Lydia, she curls into a ball and we are told we're barred (and that Watford will live with some new scars). The Lady of Kowloon tells Lydia not to apologise as Watford deserved it, then leaves suspiciously smoothly (probably not actually floating). We're given prisoner jumpsuits to wear after our form shifting, Ariane helps Lydia into one, we've given our coats (dressing Sunny in one as she's helping carry Lydia), Ariane tips the doors staff, and we call up the house people once we're outside. Carlie picks us up, taking a picture of us because of the outfits, sending to the rest of the pack. Sunny is grumpy, Lydia is broken.