Season Ten

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

2023-06-05

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2023-06-19

(Jules and Lydia are busy, Sunny and Carlie investigate Paddington Green, get contact with Sargent Deerborn (probably of 21st Tactical Reconnaissance Regiment) and learn about Sergeant Limehouse as a possible contact in The Met. Ariane contacts Derek Watford, finds out about Sargent Limehouse and some leverage, is asked if we'll put up Athens Smith (Lydia's GNC sibling) and queries the legality, she also finds out The Sheriff of London answers to The Spirit of London. Carlie gets Ariane to start thinking about sourcing fake ID. Holly goes to speak to Sanjeev and gets the gossip catch up: Some Vampire/Garou violence is already begun, there is a clock before all out war occurs, soldiers of The Eternal Empire have been seen in the Penumbra and that Pope Hope III personally has been making TV advert appearences)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Carlie meanwhile finds an open door where the air feels like its thick, some kind of magical barrier, she shoves her way through and a bunch of alarms go off. An armoued humvee arrives outside along with a cop car and more people come in, Carlie sneaks her way out and doesn't smell any werewolves amongst them. Outside she barks and runs around trying to draw them away from Sunny. Eventually a cop comes out to sit and smoke, smells human, she leaves and returns human and asks him if he knows Derek Watford, he asks if her colleague is inside, but admits to knowing Watford and doing some interesting jobs for him. Introduces himself as Sergeant Deerborn probably of 21st Tactical Reconnaissance Regiment. Carlie asks him who's doing the real job of Watford i.e. actually making day to day decisions about what to cover up or investigate and how, the guy is hesitant to talk about it but reveals that John Northbridge has vanished and isn't in touch with them, Carlie clarifies she's looking for who was cleaning up and hosing down the blood from the murder of Sir Robert Laffrey and gets a contact for a desk sargent called Sergeant Limehouse who used to work with Watford and is still there. She's told that her canine pest problem can be resolved now but next time they'll shoot first when we come in.

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

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

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

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

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

2023-06-26

It's a Tuesday evening at the Pack House, finally Jules opens her door and floats downstairs, the rest of the pack carefully fill her in on what's been going on and she is very nice and chill about everything. There's a bit of a discussion about if Vampires drink werewolf blood what happens (does the Gaia-ness overwhelm them or do they absorb our powers?). Lydia arrives home very unhappy about work, kicks the wall on her way in then tells everyone shes fine, she also says she wants to flood London to kill all the humans and that she hasn't hit anyone yet, tells us an antivaxxer tried to break into her covid ward and kidnap a patient, she threatened to drop him down a lift shaft but was good about not doing it. Ariane tells her about the call from Derek Watford about Athens Smith maybe needing a place to crash and Lydia alternates between telling us how much she doesn't give a fuck and telling us all the procedural issues and safeguarding stuff that would be deployed to track them down. Ariane mostly talks the pack into making the house a little safer for a possibly visiting human (locking the basement, hiding booze and drugs, moving the trophy and weapons wall), Carlie reminds Lydia about the pattern where she sets absolute red lines and refuses to shift, Lydia then complains that she swapped eternal bliss and paradise for being fuzzy and better at punching people. Holly goes for a walk, Lydia sulks, Ariane orders everyone take out.

On Wednesday Ariane calls Desk Sergeant Limehouse and arranges a drink as friends of Watford, its going to be at The Lamp Over The Themes with a pint of Adams cider at 18:30, he knows its about the British Museum murder and tells Ariane to bring £150 for some debt Watford owes him about a car jack.

Jules explains about, then gives Ariane one of the anti-scrying rings to help the investigation, she tells us the other is with Liz and the one almost ready will go to Carlie. Ariane attempts to make funny about how no one will have made new laws in the time we've been in the Umbra and gets an "Oh sweetie" from Jules, the burn about her ability to be funny is so harsh even Carlie applauds. Jules then starts to safe the house a little.

Carlie, Lydia, Sunny, and Ariane head to The Museum Tavern which is where Sir Robert Laffrey went for drinks after the meeting, and then was attacked outside. It's a lovely sunny day and we grab a quick drink at one of the outside tables. Carlie scans the wifi with a burner phone, Ariane looks partially subtly at crime scene photos to try and piece together what happened and when. As she's doing so Carlie notices someone in a shabby suit watching her, she looks around him and with Sunny sniffing him as a distraction picks his pocket and finds out he's a journalist called Jonathan Price who works primarily for The Sun, and partially for the BBC. She listens to his dictaphone a little and he's talking about a scandal with an actress, and then talks about how he was sure he saw someone getting offed, has been investigating, there's no CCTV, the witness statements are vague, he thinks it was a gang attack but his own memories are vague and blurry, his editors then told him to drop it and apparently the whole situation has been hit with a D-Notice. She texts Ariane that she's being watched, at which point Ariane tries to draw him away, Carlie sends a small kid to give his wallet back (in exchange for a cool book on Egyptian mummified cats) and then Carlie goes to buy the book.

Price then catches up with Ariane, shows his BBC badge, says he knows the envelope she's carrying is from the Met, she pulls a no-comment cagey interaction, he tells her that a rich white guy was murdered by a gang and it should be 10 o'clock news headlines. He saw Sir Robert arguing with a woman in a black suit in the corner of the pub. Ariane trades him a burner number (one of Carlies) for the information that it concerned Hong Kong and he has more information if someone is willing to contact him as an "unnamed source". Carlie tracks down a back alley to the small square where the death happened, notices several flats and other things above Russel Street that should have had a great view, and also 3 privately operated CCTV cameras (one belonging to The Museum Tavern).

Sunny engages her nose, finds the scent of old blood and a faint lingering hint of The Wyrm.

Lydia has tea then waves her work ID and talks to the manager about his covid protections, talks about the QR codes on the tables and implies some people are putting up fakes, manages to get given one and tells him to print a fresh one (she is presumably going to try and use this and her NHS access to work out who checked into what tables on the night). She heads to the kitchen and chats to a kitchen worker who says the cops talked to people a week or so back, and tells her that someone called Jane was locking up and fucked it up somehow (but they didn't get robbed). Jane then claimed the bar was haunted and instantly quit. Lydia claims she investigates unusual happenings and will take her seriously so gets the contact information for Jane. She chats with James (current boss) and hears that he thinks there are sometimes ghosts seen in the upstairs store room late at night.

There's talk between the investigation team about recruiting Price as a resource with Carlie broadly coming down on the side of it would be better for him to not get involved and he's from The Sun and Ariane saying he could be a very useful resource if he was given enough tips to keep him eager. We head back to the Pack House.

Holly meanwhile has been going through the notes recovered from Rising Stones and remembering how much she hates written work since she left education. Think's she found details of several additional spheres and connections from the marginalia however. Also there's some notes from Harold Styles about an encounter with The Eternal Church around 2010 which is far after he was officially dead, they talked to him about David Cameron so they were definitely in contact with Earth around this time. She theorises that he chose to forget what happened in Spire and questions if he even came out the other side.

The Pack reassembles at the house and goes through the dictaphone in detail: Mostly its hints about celebs, then musing about how he doesn't want to work for the Sun but wants to become a respectable journo at the BBC, he isn't sure what he saw, a toff getting mobbed by "youths???" with some question, the woman he argued with in the bar directed it (he alludes to knowing what the argument is about but won't say), but his memories are badly messed up, he saw something, his head feels like its screaming, he saw the attack, then he's missing time and having a drink in another bar somewhere else. The Museum Tavern say they handed their CCTV footage over to The Met, he's talked to other pub people and they all had a weird story about ending up somewhere else and didn't really want to talk about it. Ariane recalls she's seen John Northbridge doing mind control so theorises this is somehow related.

2023-07-03

(Holly and Sunny go to The Guild, talk to Dan and Mr. Benson about the death of Sir Robert Laffrey and find out that The Lady of Kowloon has vanished, there is a strange Jade Statue in her old office that reeks of the Wyrm and has bored a hole through the Penumbra, they get an old Hong Kong Police report to dig through and access to Sir Robert's Laptop. Ariane and Lydia go talk to Sargent Limehouse and find out about his help covering up the footage from the murder and how the investigation has been passed around to MI5 and Royal Naval Reserve Auxiliary Intelligence, he's not heard from John Northbridge since 5am the morning after the murder and we let him think we're some sort of intelligence agents. Watford remains elusive)

Holly is off to the Guild taking Sunny. Ariane and Lydia going to visit Sargent Limehouse. Carlie and Jules are avoiding aaaaaaaalll o' this shit and doing other things.

At The Guild: They meet Suzanne on the front desk who's dressed sombre but trying to be a little chipper for Jules, everyone is acting grim and dressed for mourning, Holly senses they're a mix of sad and angry especially the Mythics. They meet Dan one of the aeromancer goon squad by the bar, he's sober and has a single whisky next to him barely touched (Holly know's he normally drinks beer so this is strange), Holly gives commiserations and tries to work out who may want to talk more. During the conversation she finds out that...

  • Sir Robert Laffrey was often seen as sort of a father figure, he kept the Mythics anchored to the wider politics of London and that the Mythic Grandee Sam Aston is not personable to many Mythics often busy doing her own thing and essentially Sir Robert was doing her job networking and keeping them all together.
  • The Garou in the guild think he went out fighting the Wyrm and hence had a glorious death that happens, the Mythics are taking it harder as a more targetted murder, they're also seeing that other werewolf packs are heading onto a warpath to start a war against the Vampires.
  • The Lady of Kowloon has not been seen anywhere since the death, also the "predictomancers" (this seems to be a slang term) say that she's not in London, she was last seen the night before the incident here in The Guild.
  • Mr. Benson is taking over the running and trying to make sense and take control of all The Guild's finances and money flows.

Holly gives Sunny the nod to indicate she's going to go see Benson, Sunny sniffs Dan and thinks he smells the same but just sad and tired, she manages to pick up a very faint Wyrm scent at the bar next to him and starts to trail it...

At Sir Robert's office, now Mr. Benson's office there are piles of paperwork and files everywhere, Holly sees that he has a file with Ariane's photograph and a biography of her in his hands as she arrives and he shuts it rapidly. He asks her if the Deputy Sheriff is planning on doing anything, he seems guarded and reticent, with possibly anger behind it) and Holly reassures him that the whole pack is looking into this but keeping it quiet, he says everyone's at the Guild is unsure if this is normal (and as he speaks the desk light flickers) and Holly reassures him there isn't normally a deputy the post has been created (as part of a power play between Grandees), she mentions the Lady of Kowloon and all the lights flicker in the room and the shadows seem to grow, Mr. Benson asks if this is off the record and Holly confirms that the record is not good and yes it is, Mr. Benson tells her that the 2 Grandees (Laffrey and The Lady of Kowloon) kept a lot of information to themselves and isolated The Guild somewhat and/or the rest of the Grandees are doing so, so 2 days ago he found out there was a deputy sheriff, now he finds out its unofficial, and The Guild only received the murder investigation report a week ago which was an obvious whitewash and he complains that the murder of his best friend is now being handled by Holly's pack and the official investigation was all about political expediency of closing it up. Holly asks him about Sir Robert's laptop and if that would have useful information on it, he says he knows where it is now but asks why would he give it to her, and she tells him it could well be full of information relevant to the murder. Benson agrees he wants to know how and why his best friend was murdered so tells her its at the Bank of Spain and gives her a safety deposit key and that the password will be on the bottom of it on a post it. He then insists on a drink to their success.

Meanwhile: Sunny is following the trail and it leads to an office near Sir Robert's, the door is shut but she scrabbles it open, inside its dark, the smell of Jasmine joss sticks and some sort of oriental pot-pourri, she follows the trail to one corner that smells massively of the Wyrm in a way that is old, its strong but fading like there was a huge Wyrm presence here but its not being generated any more so is starting to taper off. There is a Jade Statue here on the side table that is the source, the smell is so strong its almost like its baked into the object. Sunny tails Holly's scent to the office and finds the door is missing, the trail goes to an empty wall, she scratches at where the handle should be and the invisible door swings open, inside Holly hears Sunny and calls to her which sounds weirdly distorted then the illusion fades and Sunny is inside the room. She briefs Holly on things and finds out that Mr. Benson speaks a little first tongue (taught by Sir Robert) so she briefs him slowly on the Wyrm scent, office, and Jade statue with Holly clarifying as she goes.

They head back to the other office and turn the lights on, its dressed in a chinese style, and the Jade Statue is revealed as some kind of goddess figure, Mr. Benson clarifies this is The Lady of Kowloon's office and he identifies the statue is a form of Okuninushi (a Japanese god that was syncretised with Daikokuten, who is seen in Buddhism as a form of Mahākāla (aka Shiva) known as "The Great Black One" or "Great Death" in the form of a Deva or possibly a Dakini so the female form and probably Mahakali or /Kali/Kali Mater (The Dark Mother) - except its in Jade which is normally associated with purity so possibly a form of The Queen Mother of the West/Xiwangmu) and tells us its a deva/goddess of destruction. Sunny shifts to human form to make the conversation go smoother which wigs Benson a little (the Delirium) but he gets a handle on it pretty rapidly. Sunny talks to him about the source of the trail being next to Dan, and he says Dan is essentially doing Benson's job (staff organiser) while Benson is doing Laffreys (running the show) and confirms the scent must be new because otherwise Laffrey would have torn the place apart looking for it, he offers to put the statue in the safe but Holly says the Garou way is to nuke it first and ask questions later and he gives her a look. Holly has a peer at the statue with her spirit vision and finds that around it there is essentially zero Gauntlet (so there is a dangerous lack of barrier between the Penumbra and the physical worlds) and the statue seems to exist on both sides, there's the feeling of a dark malevolent shadow of the Wyrm stuff sort of burnt onto the local Umbra, looks and feels like a Manhatten Project nuke going off essentially blasting the local area. (ooc: Tabitha is called on the phone at this point and misses a few details - can someone fill in please?). She tells Mr. Benson who goes white, and says that Sir Robert made his fortune doing business in Hong Kong in the early 90s, left on one of the last flights, he didn't have too and there were always rumours why he got out in such a rush at the last minute, he came back with The Lady of Kowloon and the Jade Statue as one of the few things he brought back and Benson knows that the statue was considered an important possession of both The Lady and also him. He assumed that The Lady was grieving somewhere but now is unsure if something has reached out and killed (?) her. Benson fetches them an old paper file, its from the Hong Kong police department, around 1.5" thick, and Laffrey would read it when melancholy...

Meanwhile! At The Lantern Over The Themes Ariane and Lydia are there with pints of Adams cider and join Sargent Limehouse in a booth at the back talking about their "mutually retired friend", Limehouse says that he just about had time to say goodbye and gets Ariane to pay up the £150 that is owed to settle the debt because apparently Watford ruined a carjack. He got told by the Chief Constable that he was taking over parts of Watford's job and has been given 7 numbers and told that if any of them call he's to treat it with the strength of the Chief Constable telling him to do it, also that Ariane's number is on the list (he doesn't seem to know about Paddington Green or the 21st Tactical Reconnaissance Regiment). We ask about the museum tavern murder and he gets out his laptop, he got a hurried call from someone who just calls himself "The Sheriff" who wanted a removal of tape and shutting down of cameras at 22:15, the murder itself happened at around 22:06, he shows us the footage which is flickery around Samantha Wallingford, we can see the conversation getting heated, then other people come into the square from outside of camera shot but not places with entrances. We see Sir Robert facing off against the 5 vampires, he points, and yells at Wallingford before the other 4 jump him, the camera then whites out to static and there's a few frames suggesting he shifts up to crinos form (are there Weaver spiders watching the cameras to try and stop them picking up weird stuff?), the camera seems to recover on its own in the early hours of the morning. Limehouse tells us that he removed the footage from the system but he didn't do the static stuff, and it effected all the surrounding CCTV regardless of who was running it. Tells us that near the start of lockdown there was a similar incident where cameras whited out, and another time in a nightclub called Bubbles where Watford was all over both incidents and in the second case swearing about someone called Lydia and calling someone called Carlie. Limehouse tells us that The Sheriff called him again early the next morning around 5am to confirm it was done and then he's not heard of him since.

The Met police have a file that was given to Murder Squad who got a background on Sir Robert then passed it to Anti-Terrorism, who have "no active investigation" which means its with MI5. The background on Sir Robert is that he was born in Gibraltar and grew up there, moved to Hong Kong for business, then in 1997 moved back to London and was knighted in 2005 for "services to business and law", he has no legal issues, no speeding tickets (although his chauffeur does), has few known associates. MI5 now have that file and it was requested by Royal Naval Reserve Auxiliary Intelligence 4 days ago. He says he got a follow up inquiry with a guy who works at The Sun (Jonathan Price) and is unsure of if he should nudge him towards this or not but he didn't seem to have anything, he also talked to Jane from the Museum Tavern but she doesn't recall a thing. Lydia asks him about the woman with the strange aura (Wallingford) but he says he thinks an AI from Anti-Terrorism is watching for faces and sometimes interferes with the recordings, but that the Murder Squad never found her.

Ariane is cagey about who she is but tells him he's a good person for his job. He also tells us that Derek Watford's desk is still intact, the Chief Constable has essentially preserved it in case he comes back. Ariane then texts Watford to tell him about paying Limehouse back and that his job may well still exist if he wants it and that he could have his things and his favourite mug posted back to him and asks for a forwarding address and is given her other mothers address.

2023-07-24

Carlie has been busy with cases to numerous and boring to mention, Jules has been tidying the house for the possible arrive of Athens Smith so they have a space and friendly face, also organising all of her notes and drawings from the Umbral Trip.

When everyone's back at the Pack House Ariane mentions that MI5 and Royal Navy Reserve Auxiliary Intelligence (henceforth RNRAI) are maybe involved. Holly talks about the big file she got given by Mr. Benson and Ariane and Carlie agree to paperwork grind it. Holly also mentions the mood at The Guild and how the Mythics are spoiling for a fight, also just how cut off the rank and file are from the rest of The Demimonde because they're big enough to be self contained. We run through the things we've learnt about The Murder of Sir Robert Laffrey:

Open questions we bring up:

  • Is John Northbridge in hiding?
  • Did the Spirit of London compel this behaviour from him even if he didn't want it?
  • Is The Lady of Kowloon a ghost/spirit Sir Robert somehow summoned? An Umbral spirit?
  • If we check the Umbra at the Courtyard where the murder happened will we find anything?

So Holly and Jules head to the Courtyard to check the Umbra, Carlie, Lydia, and Ariane get on the paperwork and at least break it up into components.

The Paperwork turns out to be multiple reports around The Death of Wi Chen Zhou aka Discount Lee and is broadly three different documents:

  1. Royal Hong Kong Police Background on Wi Chen Zhou: Essentially an organised crime/Mafioso type with a number of legal front organisations, who maybe engaged in murder for hire, but no investigation ever got to trial (witnesses went missing/left the area rapidly), was rather rich from crime and offered services to other rich entrepreneurs to offer them a sort of legal protection from knowing what crime happened.
  2. The open (unsolved) file on his murder from the Chinese Hong Kong Police, which includes the note he was buried in a lead/concrete casket 20 feet below ground on an island no one can go to against family objections.
  3. RNRAI file on his body, which was found floating in a yacht drifting towards The Britannia, it was boarded and they found his body beheaded with the head resting in his lap, his head was decapitated from his body with a single blow of a sharp blade. THey took the body for analysis on their escort ship the HMS Richmond, and found it was radioactive, they helicoptered it back to the Chinese Hong Kong Police (the handover had just happened). They analysed a number of blood samples on the Richmond before this.

We have questions about: Did Sir Robert kill him or make him radioactive? Lydia asks the vital question of why you would make someone radioactive. We continue the next day:

Overall we find that Wi Chen Zhou/Discount Lee had a number of notorious and successful criminal enterprises and many associates including Sir Robert Laffrey who was basically the clean business owner who laundered all his money for him, they went through millions of HK pounds and Laffrey was excellent at filing all his taxes and seeming above board with friends in high society. Wi was a British Imperialist who opposed the handover and wrote to the foreign secretary in London arguing that independence was vital, then started to funnel cash to protest groups, then legal cases against the handover, and finally arms trafficking to arm resistance. RNRAI suggest he was dealing with post soviet mafia types importing hardware from Russian (and we talk about the links we know of between the Russian mob and the Wyrm (see Robbery of the 2nd National Syrian Bank and Season Five in general) we wonder if he was donating enough for a suitcase nuke and that's what happened to him so Carlie texts Watford to ask for an estimate.

When the Chinese Hong Kong Police dig into him post death they work out his birth certificate and most of his early history is fake, he essentially appears aged 18 in Hong Kong with a made up background and a successful criminal enterprise. RNRAI find photos (some during the day) of someone who looks like Wi from the 70s and 80s looking essentially the same and being involved in crime, they speculate on a long running crime family however Rear Admiral Armstrong orders them to stop digging. We speculate hat he could be an Immortal or a Mythic of some kind.

The RNRAI blood samples reveal to Lydia that his radiation levels were easily enough to kill any human being, a weird mix of Iodine 131, Striatum, Zirconium which makes it close to a 1980s era soviet nuke, but its not atomised. The radiation didn't cause his death and he was probably alive when he became radioactive, the levels in his lungs and blood indicate he was breathing fallout and just absorbed it and internalised it he received no treatment for this and should have been very dead. The drug tests aren't useful (possibly effected by the rads). The blade that decapitated him was a steel/silver mix, single blow (and Ariane knows that Sir Robert Laffrey's Sword's is part silvered. There are also unusual electrical patterns at the wound - indicating he was definitely an Immortal.

Meanwhile at the Umbral Murder Scene: Holly checks and finds a few Wyld spirits hanging around so Sunny pops through and says hi to a spirit with green eyes looking over a door who introduces itself as It Was A Good Idea At The Time aka Creative Ideas who mostly lives in The Museum Tavern, they chat and it says it gives people inspiration to try new creative things when drunk, and Sunny tells it about her creative videos, it also says it has a brother called Insightful Ideas When Drunk who gives inspiration to researchers mainly, and promises they can get Sunny or other garou drunk.

Jules asks about the murder and it says it was sad because one of its friends died Furry Bob ("who wanted to be called Sir Robert!") they used to give him good ideas and get him drunk here but they didn't on the night he died, he talked to a nasty scheming lady who had "bad nasty thoughts". She wanted a statue from him which had something in it/about it that she and her friends wanted. They want us to tell the story that Furry Bob went down swinging. Holly makes sure to check the description of the lady against Samantha Wallingford and its a match.

Jules asks them if she knows any of their family because she had a number of creative/insightful ideas when drinking in taverns and is told they may have cousins out there but aren't in every pub just the ones with the right type of environment. They get named Furry Jules, Prickly Holly and Doggy Sunny. Jules pays them with gnosis and they say they have inspired many fights amongst Egyptologists.

The next day Holly, Jules, and Sunny head to The Bank of Spain, gets invited in through the big doors, gets an espresso and waits while paperwork is crunched, Jules gives her ID and they're invited into a waiting room and given access to the box that contains Sir Robert Laffrey's Laptop which has the password "Discount Lee".

2023-07-31

(Sir Robert Laffrey's Laptop is investigated by Carlie and Holly, it has a lot of security footage of meetings on it, more is dug out of the police files about the last hours of Wi Chen Zhou and his final encounter with Sir Robert Laffrey and some probable Garou. Sunny is contacted for a possible collab by Tate & Lyle. Lydia and Jules go to dig into New Catholic Church and have a spooky encounter with a Monk)

At the Pack House: Sunny, Jules, and Holly come back with the laptop while the paperwork team is still picking through the evidence.

The laptop is an absolute mess, just piles of unorganised documents and spreadsheets, icons piled upon icons. Carlie digs in and finds a weird folder that gets data from The Guild's CCTV system pushed to it based on meetings occuring? Each clip is around 15-60 minutes long, there is around 2.5 days of footage. Holly gets on the task of just sitting through it end to end. She finds the start of the clips is around 3 years ago and cover both Sir Robert Laffrey's office and also The Lady of Kowloon's office. It seems like he's recording his strategic meetings in The Guild, there's a few people she doesn't know who seem like unknown Mythics, also she learns the Goon Squad had a falling out over a girl and tore the gym up in an argument. The Lady of Kowloon's meetings involve Angela (a psychic) who stands or sits in the office silently, then smiles and leaves. The Lady also meetings another woman who Holly doesn't know who talks of "the cards" and future symbolism, she only gets her half of the conversation not The Lady of Kowloons.

Carlie meanwhile crawls the machine forensically looking for other possible reasons for his death. She finds emails between him and Benson where his email/document commenting etiquette is terrible so starts to work on them. The motivations seem to broadly break down into his long term plans for fucking with The Chinese Government and also the Vampires. Also has been playing Pinball and Solitaire a lot.

Looks like Sir Robert has been involved in a long running feud with Harold Westbury (Vampire Grandee) doing tricks like trying to buy a single property in a block to halt development, or minority interest in companies to cause issues. He even purchased a graveyard where he thinks Westbury has a number of staked vampires hidden and has threatened to disinter the bodies to get answers from them. He was buying the building containing the nightclub as part of this ongoing scheme.

His attempts to mess with the entire Chinese government are a lot more serious, he's been backing pro-democracy groups and any company that supports Western influence and trying to dig scandals and dirt.

Carlie also find's he's worth an estimated 20-30 million in (semi) liquid assets and has a lot more invested elsewhere. She looks but does not find his will...

Ariane keeps on digging into the files: Finds that Wi Chen Zhou (Discount Lee) was buying fire arms, mostly small arms with a few bigger things, there is concern he was buying bigger weapons but its unclear what or from whom. There was a raid on his warehouse in Kowloon which found some AKs, a few pistols, but the report writer implied they were looking for something else they wouldn't name.

His last hours alive he attended a protest in the morning at the Hong Kong/Chinese/Kowloon border, then headed to a temple in Hong Kong itself. There he's met by Robert Laffrey along with a group of 4 white, english speaking, london accented large threatening guys who scare people, these people have not been identified and have no entry/exit paperwork. Wi Chen Zhou enters the temple with Robert Laffrey and the 4 threatening people. Robert left with 3 people carrying the Jade Statue and someone else carrying a large box. Wi Chen Zhou is next seen beheaded on a yacht. No one sees the last threatening Londoner.

Sunny meanwhile gets on morale and snack duty, makes a video as she makes a recipie based on Jammy Dodgers, then her phone rings, someone is checking her ID and its James Little of Tate & Lyle who's interested in sponsoring a video and having Sunny bake with their products, she largely agrees with this.

Lydia asks if we forgot the coming of Pope Hope III, Carlie says that the murder has a little more priority and Holly says she has a plan to talk to Old Crone Fleet about it. Lydia goes to look up when the next of the services are, finds that the New Catholic Church has rented out a sports hall in Blackhall, she digs around message boards, forums, and email lists for gossip on them. There's some objections that seem rooted in racism about black people doing Catholicism (broadly black people are supportive of it, and a lot of white people are not), everyone seems to be awaiting a smackdown from the church of Rome and its not coming. There are even a fringe theory its a cult run by Atheists to make everyone look bad. Everyone is talking about the unusual theology but no one is really given details because they're falling into schisms and bickering. The Coptic Church is talking of an alliance.

She talks Jules into coming along, there is a general talk suggesting that infiltrating may be dangerous but suggesting they should just observe from a distance. So they head out and find the main sports hall is rented out for a meet, greet, and prayer session. Most of the attendees are either from the black or asian communities and there are mostly women in their 20s acting as greets with a few attractive men. They obviously decide to just rock in together.

They're greeted by a pair called Desta and Menelik and say they came because of the posters. Lydia asks for reading material but is told they don't have much literature as they like to spread the word vocally and introduce people to the One Lord and let people choose their path. There's food before the service, Jules eats and enjoys it, Lydia keeps on chatting to people, there is a lot of talk of "Finding which of the 3 paths" people are on, seems to be talk of "have you chosen?" as well as "which and why?" the paths are White (listening and peace), Black (strength and understanding of the One Lord and study of the Bible) and Red (assisting Mother church). She also hears hints of the 4th path: The Silent Watchers/Gray Path, for the most devout only and is chosen by the One Lord. (This is obviously the paths of the Church of the Umbral Popes). Lydia chats to a Path of the White person and hears about peace, meditation, and inner peace along with contemplation, who says they're looking to establish a house-church or maybe buy an old Church of England building, and that Mother Church favours somewhere in Southwark.

Jules meanwhile keeps an ear open to the crowd and does a rough headcount, coming to around 78 people. A glance into the Umbra suggests the penumbra here predates the building.

The service starts and a monk type figure comes out onto the stage who's introduced as a Brother of the White, talks of a trinity that is - the Father, the Spirit, and the Lord on the Eternal Throne. Talks of the 4 paths, says there is a guardian at the end of every path, where they have to present their works on earth and respect for the Throne to be let into heaven. There is notably no use of the word "God" or "Jesus" anywhere, and they only pick the few hymns that don't use the word Jesus. They do all their readings from the KJV Bible and only from the Old Testament, there are no bibles actually out and none of their own literature. At the end of the hymns people are called forward to publicly declare their sins or deviations from their chosen path, the Monk then puts a hand on them and declares their sins are washed away, there's no praying, creed, Lords Prayer, the liturgy seems totally foreign to Lydia. Desta the greeter goes forward to ask for a blessing for her meditation group and the Monk lays a hand on her, Jules spots him using Gnosis/magic like power. Lydia suggests to Jules the people who'll have all the gossip is people helping with washing up and clear up, Jules protests a little so a plan is formed that Jules is going after the Monk and Lydia to get the gossip.

Jules then follows the Monk down a side corridor and gets close enough to sniff and he smells human so she goes to catch him up. She tells him she saw a light when he touched Desta, he says he was merely passing on the blessings of the Eternal Throne, on questioning he says he dedicated his life to the Throne at age 17 so around 2 decades ago (putting him around 37), he asks her if she wishes to follow his example, Jules replies in first tongue saying "Not at the moment" and he replies "Shame, its rare one of Gaia's Hounds convert but they make excellent members of the Red" in fluent first tongue. She checks his reflection in the spirit via a window and he looks the same as his physical form. Jules politely thanks him and disengages and he nods and just disapparates from the physical and Penumbra, seeming able to teleport back into the deep Umbra. This obviously causes Jules to swear profusely.

2023-08-07

Lydia finds out the New Catholic Church meets on a weekly basis, gets the details and is thanked for her help (she judges them disorganised and inefficient at churching), Jules prepares to go after her spooky encounter.

Next morning over breakfast we ask ourselves: What is the plan? Holly is off to see River Fleet about using a boon and takes Sunny, Lydia, and Ariane. Jules is having a nap, and Carlie is digging into the laptop and paperwork angle.

The team looking for Fleet: take their hiviz jackets and start to visit places we've seen her before, we check a few manholes but there's no sign of her. One of the Pearly Queens spots us and beckons us over, tells Holly that Fleet is currently "flowing near her Grandmother Themes" and we get invited to "The Court" and told to dress in our Sunday best and go to a specific fire escape door on Chancery Lane, get given a card with a picture on it as our invite and told that bringing gifts goes down well with the court. Talk about getting some good wine and blessing it via the Wyld spirits at The Museum Tavern and also getting some fancy glass goblets, the group goes shopping then takes them over there and Holly pays the spirits to bless them with some gnosis, we clearly mark them with ribbons so we don't confuse them.

Meanwhile: Carlie has been digging into the financial aspect: He left HK well off, then set up some comms and trade firms between the UK and HK, also likes to fund places like Vietnam and Taiwan which China sees as local rivals. Got lucky in initial deals, not technical but realised that investing in tech was a good plan and got in early, took a hit in the dotcom crash but came out investing in the IPOs of all the big internet companies. Over time she notices that his business phone calls drop and his emails pick up. Dives his old social media and starts digging into his cloud solutions. Theres no auto logins setup, but there are a bunch of files in the copies on the laptops. She unearths a copy of his Will on his google drive, Benson basically becomes The Guild including the Jade Statue, everything else goes to a specific Holding Company to "dispose of them as you see fit" with instructions to email a specific email address.

Carlie tells the group chat to have better security than Laffrey and Lydia's reply about infosec earns her a crash course. Holly confirms that Benson is the Guild number 2 and Laffrey's best friend so this is probably legit.

Jules appears and starts to chat, make coffee, and lunch meanwhile. She chats with Carlie about how this means The Guilds power base is sort of up for grabs and Jules is glad that Sir Robert was prepared.

Carlie then digs into the email address, its linked to an iffy internet cafe in Kowloon, she breaks in and finds its very insecure, but there is basically a dead letter script setup watching the email address - if it gets something specific (as per the Will's instructions) it will send out a bunch of documents including blueprints and air defence technical info about the Chinese Communist Headquarters along with a letter saying that Sir Robert was killed by the communists and the recipients should know what they should do. Carlie contacts Ariane to tell her to talk to her Mum about things, also to get some wine.

Back at the Pack House once people are back Ariane explains his own lawyer will also have a copy of the Will to be executer of it, Carlie deactivates this potential terrorist incident by turning off the dead letter script so nothing will happen. Ariane suggests someone in China must know about the threat to make it effective and that this was possibly an insurance policy to protect his companies, giving examples of dodgy ways that businesses and governments routinely interact in a lot of places. The pack forms an idea that we should interview Samantha Wallingford and if the request comes via Limehouse and hence The Met they may agree. We also talk about if The Lady of Kowloon is dead, disappeared, missing, etc. Since the statue was given to Benson it would make sense that Laffrey thought she'd be around. Ariane moots the idea a Wyrm spirit was trying to kill them both at the same time so sent the Vampires after Sir Robert and came through the statue to get The Lady. Carlie tells her not to get ahead of herself and suggests that Holly should talk to Benson to find out more details and if we can work out if The Lady of Kowloon is dead or not.

Everyone then proceeds to get into the long trail of video files. We all learn a bunch of gossip about The Guild (ooc: Smashed 15/10 successes so we can roll to know about their past victories, defeats, loves, losses, etc.) Jules also does a little digging into what Liz gets up to and finds her original interview, her celebrating making her deal with Yangshi the Dragon, her awkward attempts to flirt with Sir Robert for a favour, Benson telling Laffrey the gossip that Liz has a girlfriend, and she finds that in their conversations she is mostly just referred to as "Liz's Girlfriend" instead of by name or title, although they do say she is the sensible one of the Pack, she also finds a few of the Goon Squad are sad she's gay and unavailable.

3 nights before Sir Robert's death we see 2 figures slip into The Lady of Kowloon's room, one lights the room up with palm of her hand (magically?). They look for and find the Jade Statue, bring a large diamond to it, and say a repeated chant in Cantonese, this summons The Lady of Kowloon who screams silently, the diamond glows like red and yellow fire, they swear, drop it in a bag and leave. One of them causes the cameras to glitch like the attack footage.

  • Man: 5' 8-9" glitches the cameras, brown hair, scar behind right ear, paler, western European. Maybe vamp?
  • Woman: Spiritalis Mythic tattoos, produced the magic light, long brown hair in a bun, Asian.

Jules sends Ariane to find the Grandees including Sam Aston to try and recognise these two and see if we can work out any clues to their identities, locations, where the diamond is etc.

Carlie meanwhile: Digs through a lot of awful shit and eventually finds a patchy diary he left on Livejournal (was an x-files fan). It's written like bad meta fiction and badly anonymised, very florid prose, about his long running struggles with the forces of evil (The CCCP and their Euro-Capitalist Lapdogs! - i.e. Harold Westbury's firms). There are apparently Agents trying to take away his most precious things and this includes entries imported from pre-LJ. Back in 97 she finds him writing about how his best friend (Wi Chen Zhou) has gone off the deep end and bought a nuke and was going to use it to deny the CCCP access to HK, and how Sir Robert paid for The Southwark Dogs as mercenaries via Lee Ho Fooks (who was the middle man) to come and put an end to this. He is very into The Red Menace and Carlie wants someone to talk to Bell about one of the previous packs involvements.

Lydia goes to talk to Bell about things and finds she is pulling energy from nowhere to knit a glowing "object" (it doesn't seem to conform to regular dimensions or knitting shape) using straight chunky needles made of bone. She tells Lydia she is "weaving fate" because she was told that "knitting fate" doesn't sound right, and also tells her fate is more a patch work. Lydia offers to teach her some crocheting. Bell tells her she is currently making an attempt at John Northbridge's fate which is in flux and tattered (but this suggests he is alive), Lydia suggests just unravelling it but Bell says that The Spirit of London (that lives in the Tower) owes him a debt and she worries if she stops he'll fall apart. Lydia tries to talk her around but she refuses to do so. Lydia also notices that Bell sometimes produces a third needle and also tilts the knitting which makes part of it appear and disappear suggesting whatever this magic is it doesn't exist in just 3 dimensions. Lydia explains to Bell that Ariane is his second and this causes Bell to pluck at a thread that she says is Ariane here, then another as a thread representing Lydia. Says that London has asked her to do this because London needs more threads and if the lines run out then people cease to be (presumably referring to her producing/drawing her source of wool from nothingness) she says that The Bells see all across London so they know which threads are free to bring into the pattern.

Lydia asks her about the history of the packs of Southwark and gets a rough history including:

  • The Previous Pack closed the Nazi Dimension Attached to the O2 Arena but were never the same again.
  • The Pack before that largely died at the hands of The Director known as The Steveadore's of the Isle of Dogs (ooc: I was sure this pack was earlier)
  • The Pack before were probably known as who we know were now called The Southwark Dogs and acted as mercenaries - they became globally active, they stole a craft from the Stargazers to travel the world. One of them died in Hong Kong fighting a great evil with Sir Robert who joined the pack briefly before joining The Guild.

Told that The Southwark Dogs was 2 Glasswalkers, 1 Get of Fenris, 1 Blood Talon and were hunters of Wyrm spirits and protectors of London from all darkness and corruption, they helped oust the Tory Party from under The Grayest of Men who ever lived and gained a boon with London for that victory, then faced various vile plots, went to Russia to stop a people smuggling ring, came back in a craft stolen from the Stargazers that can go anywhere on the Earth or the Deep Umbra. It's stored at The Burran off Biggen Hill and is white with 2 wings. They fought a fate unstichable, unenable (presumably Wi Chen Zhou the immortal described by Bell as "A sword person") and contained him. One of them died. Bell describes the Immortals as having cancerous souls that are against the natural order and just keep growing and consuming and never stop.

She tells Lydia the previous packs left no written records because of "evidence" but she knows the tales. Says The Southwark Dogs were best described as thieves. They also visited Gary in Indiana which is a city overrun by Vampires, also Hong Kong, Moscow, Calcutta, The Edge of Time (which made their fates knotty!) just before they went to HK. They stole something they were afraid of but thought it was powerful and Sir Robert kept it a Jade Statue, a last ditch insurance policy. Says that The Lady of Kowloon is not in her bundle of knitting and says she was once, but has to reach deep inside to find the thread. Says that she had an affinity and if all the Bell spirits in the world tolled at once it would call her and her like because they are pure destruction incarnate. Tells Lydia that The Lady of Kowloon was the soul of a nuclear weapon, created in the Kowloon temple, hence the name.

They talk a little of the New Catholic Church and Bell brings in a fresh thread to whatever thing shes making, she tells Lydia they don't have Bells who toll for them yet, and some of the Bells think they never should, but others think they should (after all the Greek and African churches of London have Bells now). Bell says she wants to hear all about them to know if she should let her children toll for them and names a closed down CoE church in Southwark she knows they're interested in. Lydia tells her that they are Deep Umbra weirdos not native to this realm and Bell says she'll try and let her daughter not toll for them (it is implied that they would have a church with a bell but they would not have a Bell if that makes sense).

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