LogLondon Fog-Jason-5

Game log for the 2017/07/30 session of London Fog, as taken by Jason

• Malachi has heard that Brother Martin is trying to convert other ghosts.

• Oscar has heard, from a Major whose soul he kindly hasn't collected yet, that a faction in the British Army is lobbying for martial law in London.

• Judith has heard that at noon, an unidentified man was burned alive off London Bridge, and vampires have claimed responsibility.

• Cleo has heard that there's some kind of new vampire nest/HQ/place of power near London Bridge.

• Galinar knows that the dead vampire, Von Klebner, was trapped near Whitehall by the vamps who strung him up. The ones who strung him up had made a deal with the Dawn Court to ensure a particularly brilliant sunrise, to make sure their buddy VK burned nice and bright.

Malachi's in an opium haze when the Rakshasas come for him. He's so out of it, he barely notices. They want him to See for them, in exchange for all the opium he's used. As an alternative, they'll chain him up and let him go through opium withdrawl. He tries to extend his senses to help them out, but he just can't manage it while he's on so much dream gun, so he BSes them instead. Luckily they only want to know what's causing all the chaos in the city, and he already knows that! It's a demon. If they move against it, there will be pain and suffering, probably for the rakshasa.

Oscar goes looking for victims to feed to Tulok, when he sees a paddy wagon with Cleo in it and two Constables in front, probably with more police inside the building. He tries to turn into his demon self, and there's a brief hiccup during which nothing happens. The officers walk over to see what his deal is, and then the change kicks in. Oscar takes a hit from a billy club but crushes the officer's skull. The other cop begins blowing his whistle, so Oscar ignores him and smashes the door of the paddy wagon. Cleo begins screaming about demons and running. The cops assume Oscar is responsible for all the carnage and chase him, and he runs for it. He tries to unleash his power on them to gain some time, but the power just isn't with him today, and another group of cops shows up. He uses the power of Invocation to appear in Malachi's presence instead. Malachi's unconscious and a Rakshasa is punching him in the face.

Galinar decides to improve the security of his living arrangements. He hits the streets to find either protection or better lodgings, asking amongst the Fae. Severin has been in the human lands for so long that he no longer remembers his original court, but he'll help Galinar in exchange for protection from the Jigsaw Man. If Galinar causes him any trouble, the deal's up. The Faerie Prince then invites Ned Borthwick to tea at the Hotel Avalon the next day, under the guise of some sort of wonderful rugby opportunity.

Judith's been waiting for Galinar to bring her some Quakers, as if the Fae were ever prompt. She's got her kids keeping an eye on things. One of them comes back to tell her that Tulok has started lying low and eating in the sewers. She gets bored and decides to haunt Malachi.

The Rakshasa who had been beating on Malachi decides to fight Oscar, who barely puts him down before two more run in, one of them yelling, "It's him! The demon!" Just then, Judith arrives, and decides to invade Malachi's dreams. He's having a nightmare about all the people he knows ending up dead. Since she joined the dream, he sees her as living, so he grabs her and yells at her to run before it kills us all. She tells him that he'll die for real if he doesn't wake up, but he just runs away more. She Lets It Out to appear in his dream the way she looked as a living being (she couldn't always change her appearance in other peoples' dreams, but now she can) and tells him to wake the hell up. Oscar's not having much luck today and those Rakshasa are all over him. He fights clear without hurting any more of them, using Judith's distraction to his advantage, and then drops his demon form to try to convince them it's all chill. One of the Rakshasas inspects Oscar and says, "He speaks the truth." Then they eat the one Oscar KO'd. They ask why Oscar's here, he says it's to look in on Malachi. They tell Oscar to leave and take Malachi with him, which Oscar does. "This is a tough town for an honest working man." The three of them (Oscar, Malachi, and Judith) exchange updates on recent events. Oscar and Judith turn Malachi loose to go home.

Oscar goes to find more victims, so they aren't returning to Tulok empty-handed. Once again he proves to be terrible at hunting on the demon's behalf and has to run from the law. Once again, only Judith's help enables him to find an opening, down into the sewer. At one point, Oscar has to ambush the cops and kills one by beating him senseless with a sap. As expected, Tulok is not happy not to be brought food. Judith and Oscar convince him to be patient until he can attack the Temple and get plump. Judith goes to find a way through the sewers to the Temple.

Cleo starts trying to figure out her plight. She's in debt to a lot of people, and thrown a lot of people under the bus. She figures she needs to either pay off all the debts, or find someone more powerful and transfer all the debts to them. She find a bookshelf well away from her usual haunts, and Judith finds her there. Cleo can find her the path she needs through the sewers, in order to clear a debt. With the help of Henstridge Slathery-Whitcomb, they find a route that goes through the sewers all the way into the Temple itself. Surprise! However, Cleo decides that she's not going to tell Judith the way, she will only act as a guide.

They return to the sewer and introduce Cleo to Tulok. She proves to be surprisingly knowledgeable about Tulok's kind. Tulok says, "Approach to receive your boon." That makes poor Cleo a touch nervous. When she approaches, he runs his thumb across her forehead. Judith and Oscar see a brief glow there. Once he's blessed her, Tulok looks up at the ceiling and makes a hungry noise. He decides he needs to feed before he attacks the Masons. Oscar volunteers to go bring back some food. As expected, he runs into cops, who he leads right back to his new demon friend. Carnage ensues! Tulok kills six or eight of them before the rest escape.

Judith goes looking for Galinar.

Galinar went and found some Quakers. He persuades Brother Silas that the Fae are not demons and that they have no quarrel with him. He tells them to look for demons in Bedlam. That's about when Judith shows up. She asks what's up, and Gal answers her out loud. Questioned by Silas, he explains that the London air is full of helpful spirits. Judith tells Gal to tell the Quakers to go to the Masonic Temple. The Fae passes that on, but Brother Martin immediately tells Silas that the "ghost strumpet" told Galinar to say so. Judith attempts to garotte Martin, who begins choking her in response. She holds tight, thinking she can get rid of him before she loses her grip. There's a blinding flash of light as Martin disappears forever.

In the sewers, a freshly fed Tulok turns into a pillar of smoke and ascends into the Temple.

Galinar leads the Quakers to the Masonic Temple, with Judith following. They arrive in time to see a partially disassembled corpse wearing Masonic robes fly out the window. The Quakers decide to engage.

Oscar's fleeing the scene when Huzg appears and commands him not to abandon Tulok. He tries to sneak around and investigate the place of power, but he walks right into Masonic wizard Simon Sibley-Moore. Oscar tries to smack him with the sap but the Mason finishes his invocation too quickly and freezes Oscar in place. He's completely trapped.

Judith has no trouble getting into the party, and finds Simon focused entirely on Oscar. She putrifies his flesh, but Oscar remains stuck in a ward. He suggests that Judith might find some ward-breaking apparatus on the body, but her search doesn't turn up anything really obvious. She decides to go look for Galinar.

Galinar's searching the place while the Masons, the Quakers, and Tulok tussle. The Masons want to bring back the Age of Magick, so they're building magical structures in places of power, amplifying ley lines, and generally trying to make everything that extra little bit more interesting. There's disagreement within the Masons about their agenda. Officially they're acting in the public good, but some have become elitist and think the little people don't deserve magic. He bumps into Judith, who points him toward where Oscar's pinned down. The Fae summons an elemental to try to blow down the ward, and it does. There's a brief raging storm and then the ward collapses. Skaboosh!

Oscar makes sure that things are going OK for Tulok. As he searches, he sees Lord Throckmorton's messenger shade leaving with the book. He rushes into the fight with Tulok, slices many people to ribbons, and frees up Tulok to go after the book. That leaves Oscar alone with the enemy, so he runs for it, though he takes a cold iron blessed crossbow blot. That makes him really angry and he fights with exceptional savagery, then flies out a window and gets the hell gone.

Cleo calculates that the place to be tonight is elsewhere. She's making her way out of the sewers when a shade passes her carrying a book. She knows that holy symbols and holy water work to damage shades. Destroying the remains of their mortal body will also work. This is a very corrupt spirit, a former ghost that has completely forsaken all shreds of its humanity. They can make bargains, and they can be bound. She swings a holy symbol at it and bats the book loose, though it claws her and inflicts some injury in exchange. Their fight begins to go against her. She calls out for Oscar. His sudden appearance causes the shade to flee, but Tulok appears almost immediately. She offers the book to Oscar, since he'd asked her to find it, and he immediatly says, "For the love of Huzg, give it to him!" Tulok gives her his blessing, then turns and says something into the darkness, apparently to some sort of ghost child, who then runs to get Judith. When she arrives, Tulok gives her the book. It's nice that we're all entities of our word. Judith goes to Malachi.

He's nursing a hangover and drinking tea. He examines the book and finds it's a work by a Cistercian nun, and had been thought lost in a fire. It resurfaced recently and came into the possession of the Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Tarnished Plowshare, who didn't understand it. Sir Reginald Bromley borrowed it from them to transcribe and translate it, and then he lost it, because the Masons stole it from him. The book contains instructions on how to cross the Veil between life and death. Bringing someone back requires a living host. The Masons' search for it suggests that they want to bring someone specific back.