Season Eight
https://wikiawoo.queer.me.uk/index.php?title=Season_Seven&action=edit Summary of Events. Also Todo List
2022-12-05
Jules and Lydia begin with a yelling match, Ariane is sent to visit Dr. Thomas Roberts (the local spooky doc) who doesn't apply silver to her (but she does get some very intense scars from the lightning), the wounded are sent to hospital so Ariane, Sunny, and Lydia, whereas Jules, Carlie, and Holly are all fine. (ooc: We gain +20XP, top up gnosis, WP, and rage)
There is about 3 weeks of downtime (making it now late November 2020) and Holly has been investigating The Director, Ariane hanging James sword on the wall of the living room as a trophy and has mysteriously broken a couple of phones and an alarm clock during her recovery, they just stop working... Jules meanwhile talks about arranging a howl but the Dagenham Deadbeats do one praising us in part (ooc: +1 Glory).
Sunday morning 11am, there's a door knock, Jules is out on Patrol, most people are working/studying around the house, Carlie answers it and finds an MiB who introduces himself as Agent John Smith and wants to come in and talk of a "recent incident". Carlie shuts him out, consults the other. He knocks again and gets Lydia who tries to talk to him about Jesus, he gives his full name this time and says he's from MagiPol, tells her he normally goes to a local evangelical church in Minnesota, but is on business here and hasn't found a church, she invites him to evensong at Southwark and largely invites him in.
He shows us a picture of Dale Williams suspected of being an illegal demon contractor (he is the one who accompanied James), Ariane attempts to clarify that he did illegal things - and is told he often missed the dismissal clauses and other sloppy behaviour. Ariane then calls in Inspector Watford and texts Jules. Lydia says that Dale is probably in hell and is promptly sent upstairs. Carlie suggests that if Smith had wanted an under the table deal about things he should have sign-posted it first. Derek Watford arrives and it turns out that Smith has not cleared his visit...
Jules arrives at the house to see Smith being given the come along nicely armlock by Watford out the front door and calling him a "furry freak" at the same time. Inside Lydia is getting gently lambasted for admitting culpability. There is however cinnamon buns from Sunny and Jules smells gently of aerosol paint. We catch her up and she updates the Pack House Map in the kitchen with the location of our boundary tagging on (it should be noted that Sunny also updates the map with scents).
Jules heads upstairs, gets called by Watford on route, who tells us this is a useless member of MPD, who has come unofficially, and that Minnesota branch think we're Mythics for some reason, Watford has not told them we're not. Also "Smith" snuck a gun through security so is being sent back on the next flight, but was very interested in the demon and the necklace used to summon it, so someone wants the demon/its binding necklace... also that the Immortal James was probably based in Minnesota definitely not a London local (although all the Immortals largely don't cooperate so they tend to decry knowledge of everything).
Also tells us the third guy (the mythic who can do mind control) is a London local and The Guild is running his trial.
He also tells Jules to tell Lydia that he is the only policeman she should talk too... Jules fills in the rest of the pack on the Magipol and gun stuff, Sunny apologises for not smelling the gun. We talk about if the demon was actually killed in the fight or just sent back to hell (probably) - also how do you kill a demon? Talk of Howls as a method of leaking information, talk of John Hadrian the other MagiPol agent we've met. Jules suggests a buddy system except when it comes to Carlie and Lydia's jobs, and we talk about being aware of whats coming from Minnesota.
Jules starts to research and prep some anti-scrying arcana, decides to create some tokens/items instead of locations, they have to be made from 32k gold so buys up some rings, files the faces, and inscribes the sigils. Each will take 2 weeks to charge, ponders heading out to the warehouse to run 2-3 arrays at once charging them, but decides she'd rather just charge 1 at the house and keep an eye on it in the basement.
Lydia sticks a note under the Angel Islington's door at the tube station re: intensive care gig and her sword, is called the next morning by Eddie who says he's her roady and invites her to the gig at Bubbles in Islington for after her set ends at 1am, she invites the rest of the pack and we agree to get Sunny clubwear.
2022-12-12
(The pack finds out about a play called "First Tongue" that may be linked to The Director, investigates The Bunker Theatre, finds a spirit there (the Spirit of the Bunker aka Miss Skippy) eventually discover a portal through to the Umbral realm of Stage, then go to a lockup to find the removed theatre lighting which have silver in them)
The pack is off to Bubbles tonight, however before then Holly comes across a series of flyers for a play called "First Tongue" occurring at at The Bunker Theatre in Southwark. It's billed as "exciting new play from a new author and director!" along with lines like "Come and see the avant-garde, discover mankinds first language!" and has the written glyphs for First Tongue written in first tongue (the language).
She pings it to the group chat, Ariane squees about the pack going to the theatre and Carlie informs her that they already have movies at home. The play runs 2 nights (Friday and Saturday) and we moot the idea its a garou or a kinfolk having a strange time of things. Research the theatre - it's built into a refurbed underground carpark and is a small 200 seat performing arts space. We split the pack into 3 teams: Going in the front to get information and distract people, going in the back to look around, and going in the Umbra to look for weird stuff.
Team Umbra (Lydia and Holly): they peer through the mirrors inside the performance space, there's nothing obviously bad there, a simple stage that is basically at the bottom and and amphitheatre of 4 tiers of seating looking down towards it, full lighting rig. A few changing rooms, and basically no backstage. There's a few weaver spirits hanging around the electronics doing their thing ("sparkies"). After a while they spot a small Wyld spirit that's dancing or possibly reenacting a play, this is quite unusual in the city. Holly chats with the Weaver spirits and they're fearful of the garou, claim the Wyld spirit shows up about a year ago and refer to it as Miss Skippy. They go talk to her and she is about 2 foot tall, green, feminine shaped, has a papery look with what looks like words, a body made out of scripts and other theatrical paperwork. She freezes when she sees them, tells them she's the Spirit of the Bunker is very flustered and refers to Holly as "Your Majesty" amongst other things, it doesn't know a lot about the play but is exited by it, and makes a dramatic exit by just having the floor open up and dropping through it.
Team Front (Sunny and Ariane): Chat to the person in the information booth, try and volunteer but its full up, their last performance was in 2020 and was Little Miss Burden (a play that dramatises the intersections of race, gender and disability). Sunny asks nicely for more information on the theatre and finds it was open since 2016, was fringe theatre of the year before the pandemic and hosts small avante-garde pieces commonly from new directors and with fresh actors, generally pieces written since 2010. We hear that "First Tongue" was written by an indigenous American about the interconnections of native tongues and the English language. They're practising elsewhere and want it to be a complete surprise. Did make some strange requests about removing silver from some of the theatre lighting and paid for that. Ariane buys 6 tickets for Friday (doors at 7, play at 8, something like 90m runtime). The director is a mystery, just known as "The Director"
Team Back (Carlie and Jules): Carlie starts out by going invisible, picks the side/storage area/stage door then spots the burglar alarm, disarms it. Inside there's a motion detector (which upon careful examination turns out to be a fake), and some boxes and bar supplies. Looks around and finds two changing rooms (A and B) and a route to Stage Left (there is only a stage left here). Inside the changing rooms are some hats and stuff, and a half unrolled theatre flat of a London Underground station and a train. The stage is an empty space, and there are 2-3 doors into the performance space, its eerily empty, no backdrops, no props, no marks on the floor. She explores further in, finds 2 loos, a bar area with CCTV, and can hear Ariane talking to the front desk through another door.
The Pack meets up and swaps information on things, the place has creepy vibes you'd expect of an empty theatre but no ghosts or bad things, the Wyld spirit comes up, and we talk about how The Director is keeping things under cover if they're bad or something else is going on.
We take a trip to the spirit realm and the docks to check the warehouse we originally fought The Director in, the docks have tall ships and grumpy spiders, a faint scent of Wyrm but no doorway into the space, its just gone. The Pack talks through the history of Ben Valis/The Director and clears that up in their brains, then talks through the idea of staking out the Bunker Theatre, Carlie realises we should check for deeper portals to other places from the Penumbra.
We head back to the Bunker to check and Carlie finds one on the main stage area, leading... somewhere.
We enter and pass through heavy old curtains, finding ourselves on a stage, the lights are down, there's the small dancing figure of The Spirit of the Bunker, hints of an audience behind the lights and a round of applause as Carlie is announced, followed by everyone else who goes through. Music from a wurlitzer starts up and Ariane gives Puck's speech, followed by Jules also quoting Shakespere. Miss Skippy asks if we want to do a play (and keeps calling Holly "Your Highness") she tells us she hasn't seen the director, has no script yet, only some lights setup. Carlie muses this is all a shell game, layers within layers to keep us looking in the wrong places. Jules ask where the lights are and is told a lockup in Peckham. She also welcomes us to the Umbral realm of Stage where all the worlds stages connect.
We're lead from there to Peckham by the spirit, Holly gifts her with gnosis and is heralded as a Patron of the Arts.
The lockup has no mirrors inside, so Sunny uses her gift to drop herself inside without one, there are 2 large photography cases and lots of old props. She finds the spot lights and kicks the lock to open it from the inside. We check them and find they have silver filiment or something inside, one feels a little nicer than the other - Ariane feels it like when the spirit of her glaive is being more active. We talk of how its possibly a link to The Spirit of the Bunker, Holly peers into the spirit and can see some general London spirits, some weaver stuff, and a faint vibe in the light. There's also a Wyrm spirit over the road in a shop. The pack rolls across the road into a betting shop and stomps a small tempting Wyrm spirit.