The Lost Files (C:TL/Dresden Files) (CK2-ish)

[The Laurent]

Turn 3-C

According to Harry?

1d100-25 (Werewolves)=43

It was not, it turned out, a good time at all. Apparently he was dealing with quite a few problems, and more than that, he had a larger problem. Or Cora did, and she suspected that it'd be his problem soon enough. There were people in the Duchy of the Phoenix who liked him, even thought they owed him a lot.

And, rather more distressingly from Cora's jaundiced view, seemed to have it in their heads that if they needed help, they just had to call and he'd come to help them. Get involved in their squabbles and troubles, as if that was going to end well for anyone.

They'd told him just enough for him to be dangerous, but they'd kept as much from him as they'd told, had hinted at greater strength than they'd had, and hadn't talked about other Freeholds. Hadn't revealed that they were rather the bottom of the totem pole.

So they were going to drag him into problems and get him killed, probably before the decade was out, and probably much sooner. But that did mean they felt some obligation towards him.

They assumed she had something planned, that her desire for the Accords was the start of some long and complex plot. They distrusted everyone who played on the world stage in such a way because they all had their problems. At the same time, Cora Graves knew she'd done little enough to be beloved by them, even if she'd tried at least to be even-handed.

These problems were werewolves. A lot of werewolves. Not only that, but it seemed these werewolves came in several different varieties, and there was apparently a witch running around trying to help a type of werewolf that was apparently cursed by...a saint?[1] The stories she was getting made very little sense, but it seemed there were four different types of werewolves, and this was a fact that would likely make Lydia Zero very happy.

It was something she could at least go and check out.

Either way, Changelings had gotten involved, and there was a street gang called the Alpha Wolves whose abilities seemed to involve an increase of strength and other abilities around the time of the full moon.

Cora filed this away, and everything else she learned.

1d100-10 (Hrm)-10 (Rushed)=70

What she didn't file away, but instead noted with annoyance was that they had implied that the pressure coming from them with the Accords had come from above. At least they'd not implied they were being threatened for a copy, which could have well happened. At some point in the future she might have a reason to employ Harry Dresden--unlikely enough, but the way one kept their head above the water was to keep every option open--and she'd rather not be on bad terms. Wizards were likely at least somewhat dangerous.

It annoyed her because she was paying them for their help, and reading the Accords would likely do them some good, since no doubt when they'd finally gotten it around to her--for they'd managed to do it, though she suspected that it was rather under the table--they'd have read it. So, she was paying them in money and magical items and wasn't even holding back the information.

What mattered is that now she had the books, and now all that was left was the interpretation.

That, and a suspicion she had…

About the Northside Kings.

[1] Yes, Kim Delaney is still alive. Interesting, huh? Butterflies already.

*******

Roy's Regrets

Roy's Prep?: 1d100+10=74
Cora's Intervention: 1d100=95

Roy wasn't a detective, and he'd never be one. His skills at dowsing and his keen mine were useful tools, but he'd never gotten his license, so that was that. But he knew how to find lost things, and if he phrased it right in the paper it wouldn't matter if he'd never qualified under any state law to handle cases.

It wasn't hard to push things through, pay people for space in the yellow pages, and so there it was. "Roy Taylor, Professional Dowser: Lost items or other objects found, prices affordable and variable."

There were even some hints, or at least he knew how to hold out the possibility that there were other things he'd investigate under the table.

Roy Taylor was all about doing good by doing well, and if his wife had never believed in him, she still loved him.

And now she was gone.

But while he was busy, while he was focusing on his work and finding lost items and everything else, he wasn't thinking as much about his wife and how he'd likely never see her again. He had told Cora a little about one place that would be important, a small park on the south side of town, but other secrets he still held tight in his head.

So she steered a few jobs his way. Including one that wasn't precisely lost-and-found. He had a keen eye and a keener mind, and stolen property was the same as lost in some ways. He was a good enough Dowser and a smart enough man that she suspected she'd find the thieves.

Cora also made sure to begin to prepare the hoops for Roy to jump through, because it wasn't safe for him to go out on cases without at least a stun gun, and it wasn't hard to get a license.

It was a start, and she was pretty sure she hadn't shifted his suicide that much, but at least he wasn't at home, thinking about it.

In Cora's experience, thinking about the past was the worst way to deal with it.

******

Riding the Dreams

1d100+15 (Cora's Skill)=91

Cora had a reasonable amount of faith in the power of dreams. Her mind was always best when it had a dream or three to consider things through, and the prophetic dreams of others were good for more than finding out information. From one piece of information, whole worlds of assumption and logic could stream, and this was a dangerous thing at times. It was easy to make a mistake, to leap ahead of where one should based on where one was.

She'd seen many people make that mistake before. Other people who were not Cora Graves, and lacked her mental acuity and caution. So when she first had the thought, she'd double-checked it, and entered another dream to ask another question, this time about the gang structure of the Northside Kings. Then another dream, another question, this time about the Streetwolves.

The moment she'd heard about them, a part of her had suspected, a part of her had analyzed the data and come to a conclusion that wasn't necessarily justified. That much happened all the time. But, as often as not, she was right.

The Streetwolves were not a very powerful gang. Dangerous, but inconsistent, and outside of the time of the full moon they were not able to seriously upset the balance in Chicago. Now they'd never upset anything at all, because most of them were dead and the few that had survived by pure luck were in jail, and liable to stay that way. Lycanthropes and their powers were impressive on a pure personal scale, but nothing that would help them escape prison, not particularly.

Especially since they had several counts of attempted murder of a peace officer under their belt.

The Northside Kings were lycanthropes. That much was obvious. But there were more of them, and more than that, they were more organized. Instead of a rough 'pack' hierarchy, they seemed to operate the way any normal gang would, top-down but with ranks and responsibilities assigned to each rank. They employed gang members who were not lycanthropes rather than rely merely on a core, and they had access to resources that allowed them to be a threat to any gang--or police for that matter--in the world.

There was little they shared with the Streetwolves who, though they were deadly at a personal level and not a group that Cora would want to meet in a dark alley (though she'd merely escape if that happened, she suspected), were not taking over the city. Not as the Northside Kings were taking over St. Louis.

It explained the power and ferocity, and she not only suspected but knew that when she looked up the data over the past months, when they'd first burst on the scene, it'd reflect what she was seeing. The tide would rise around the full moon and they'd push all of their enemies back and take a lot of territory, and then they'd enter a holding pattern for the next three weeks, managing to hang on against all comers.

Then, the full moon would come around again and they'd expand further outward. The level of discipline was remarkable, at least in comparison to other groups, and it was likely that they had outside funding. In fact, it was all but certain.

Yet the leader of the White Court vampires in this area seemed to have no idea. Which meant that either someone was going behind her back, or there was another player in the area whose plans were as yet unknown.

Either way, she was relatively sure that Lydia Zero would be overjoyed to learn this.

Effect: New information, new options.

******

A little Sage?

1d100=88, huh

"Uh," Persephone said when Cora finally agreed to see her.

"Where were you?" Cora asked.

"...China. I think? I sort of got lost," Persephone admitted. "I was chasing down a lead for something to research, and then there was this...well, this place that people were calling the Nevernever."

Cora did not sigh. Persephone Powers was alive, that's what mattered.

"...Oh, I met these strange vampires. Well, I'm pretty sure they were vampires, though I'm also pretty sure they probably feed on something strange. Some of them looked like corpses, while others looked alive. Then they tried to kill me."

"And then?"

1d100+5 (Beginner's Luck)=60

"I...didn't die. I managed to escape and apparently there was some sort of fight, and some Directional Courtiers took me in."

"So, what do you know about Jade Court Vampires, then?"

1d100=41

"...don't mess with them, but that there are apparently, well…"

She trailed off.

1d100=60[1]

"Like, a legitimate old martial arts master tried to save me like...like," she made gestures and Cora understood what she meant.

That was a little surprising, in some ways. In others, it wasn't surprising at all.

Effect: Persephone Powers is...alive. Who knows what else is going on? Jade Court vampires are weird. Martial artists are a thing.

[1] Not gonna lie, a nat 100 in the right places would have had, "And then this guy with a sword who called himself Shiro showed up."

******

On My Way, Part 2

1d100=16

Eva, meanwhile, was making very minimal progress. She'd reported, however, that she thought she needed to talk to certain people to advance in her search, or rather to advance herself in the search that would lead ultimately less to a place and more inward. When Cora had offered to help speed that process along, Eva had refused, as politely as possible. She'd do it all on her own time.

Well, be that way. Cora would still be watching out for Eva anyways.

******

Arch Comments, Part 2

[X] [Location] Come in from the Hedge-side using a portal if at all possible.
[X] [Time] Morning. [X] [Action] Study and examine the arch itself for any signs of changes.[/i] The whole visit seemed almost to be a waste in some ways. In others not even close to it, for the Gateway arch was a sight to see even though she'd seen it often enough that it no longer interested her all that much. But Cora Graves could see and feel nothing different about the arch until she'd been touring around for quite some time. People came and went, but what she noticed after a while was that a middle-aged man seemed to be eyeing everything with suspicion. That alone wasn't enough to make her think much, except that there were a few facts that stood out to her attention. He was wearing a thick, heavy ring that seemed to be carefully engraved, clashing with the rest of his outfit which was the height of lower-middle class blandness. Similarly, there were tattoos on his arms that looked rather more fanciful than expected, including one whose design was somewhat hidden by the sleeves but seemed to involve a arch. More than that, when he turned she glanced what was undeniably the top of the arch, tattooed on his back. In addition to that, while his hands were thick with work and scars, there were traces of ink on them, as if he had been writing--itself a clue of very little but another sign that seemed to reinforce her suspicion. He had no cell-phone, which was not proof of that much but did seem to be yet another indication, and when she asked about him the answers she got were that the man worked here in some capacity. In some capacity were the words of the staff themselves, which was all she needed to know. Or rather, she had her suspicions that this man was a magic-user and that for one reason or another, this plain, dark, thickset man of middle age was being employed to keep watch over the arch. The fact that he stayed the entire time she was there, and then afterwards, she bet, only told more of the story. She felt as if she was missing something obvious, and yet what she noticed was more than enough to begin looking into it later. She wondered, but would not test, what would happen if she was noticed by this man. Would he object to the Hedge-side use if he knew of it? There was much she did not know of, quite yet. Still, it was useful information nonetheless. [spoiler=Roll-Play] Entrance: 1d100=92 Searching…: 1d100=34 Unseen?: 1d100=90 Do you see?: 1d100=24, nope, two successes mean that it's a reroll: Do you see? Reroll: 1d100=90, success Do you see, Part 2: 1d100+10=89 [/spoiler] ***** A/N: And so here we go, Turn 3 Rumors/Etc will be up next, and then the Turn's over. Thoughts, feelings?[/Time]

 

[The Laurent]

Turn 3--Rumors/Outcomes

The Howl of the Kings (St. Louis)

Almost a dozen people died this week, and the Northside Kings swept through the enemies that had faced them. Changeling interference had only made their enemies weaker, and truly it seemed as if nearly two-fifths of the city's ganglands were now controlled by a single group, with that amount increasing day by day as they waxed to their full and unrelenting power. By this point, it was rather uncertain whether any single gang, or even all of them working together as well (that is to say poorly) as they could would be able to stop them.

And now that Cora knew they were Lycanthropes, it became even more clear that this wasn't something that would go away.

Cora would have to deal with them, one way or another. Whether as friends or as enemies, it remained to be seen.

*****

The Fools On the Moon (Chicago)

It seemed as if every single kind of werewolf that existed in this new world all picked that very week to gang up on one Harry Dresden, Wizard. Loup-Garou--a certain industrialist who had hurried away from the scene in quite a haste--and Lycanthrope and Hexenwolf (which seemed to involve cursed magical items) and yet another group whose identity Cora was not quite sure of.

This Dresden seemed to attract all sorts of danger, if these months were normal.

Four or five near death experiences, saved once by a Changeling, once by his greatest enemy, a mobster, it was interesting to read about, and it wasn't all that hard to find out, plenty of people had witnessed bits and pieces, since Changelings had gotten involved, and it was all a matter of drawing out the stories and then stitching them together.

Interesting in the sense that Cora Graves was pretty sure that Harry Dresden was either a very lucky man or an idiot.

In either case, if he kept this up it'd backfire, sooner or later. People like Cora Graves--or, she'd admit, Asha Ashblood--who defy bad odds time and time again die eventually, almost always far too young.

Those who survive are only the canniest, and even that because they begin to take risks that were more commiserate of their skills. Asha Ashblood had not been notorious for raiding some ancient tomb within the Hedge of fighting a True Fae in almost a decade, and Cora's era of adventure and nightmare (and she still had dark dreams of it even now) was similarly come and gone.

What mattered were the pieces revealed. Meddling in the Duchy of the Phoenix was similarly likely not worth it, but certain names stood out.

The "Alphas." A college group that seemed to have a single trick, or at least that's what Harry Dresden had mentioned off-hand to someone who mentioned it to someone who...the chain of rumors went on some time: they were nonetheless a possible source of information, especially considering the interest Lydia Zero would show in them and others.

Harley Macfinn, whose wealth and power and curse all seemed as if in the right circumstances they could be useful indeed. Untouched wilderness, while hardly Cora Graves' speed, could be very useful for hiding certain things, and people as well. Of course, he was likely not in the need for any allies.

Harry Dresden. He seemed at least willing to target the dangers, and he had done, however indirectly, Cora Graves a service. Likely she'd leave it to Phoenix, but it was something at least to note down just in case.

And there was one more fact that couldn't be denied: the FBI was infiltrated. In some way, shape or form, there were people within the FBI who knew about magic and had been given, found, or made objects that had granted them a form of cursed power.

It might even be that some version of the hunter groups that had existed in the old world within the FBI and other similar organizations existed here.

There was much to consider, in due time.

*****

A River Federation (River)

As the federation of sorts, bound at the moment by promises which would last no longer than the pirates would, began to be formed all along the River, the Pirates increased their activity and, more than that, increased their canny tactics.

One or two powers along the River did not sign onto the deal, most notably Thousand Trods, which was not an official river power, but was close enough that it might have been. These powers were left unharmed, and so were the most powerful groups related to this 'Federation.'

Instead they attacked the smaller entities, and the goblins, keeping well away from anything that could be a direct act of war, and yet drifting ever closer to an attempt at domination of a significant portion of the River.

Mayor Booster was running out of time to unite everyone and the stakes were rising.

*****

Upon a Thousand Silent Paths (Thousand Trods)

Thousand Trods was one of the largest and most powerful Freeholds in the world, and Cora Graves did not know what they were doing. This was not merely frustrating, not merely a matter that threatened to eat up time with worry she did not have, it was terrifying. Thousand Trods and its leaders were ambitious beyond words, and more than that, on more than one occasion they'd been willing to translate this ambition into full-out war.

Asha Ashblood had fought against the world to make Thousand Trods place in it, and this meant that whatever she had planned was no small and slow ambition. There were people who compared the two of them, not recognizing that Cora was far wiser than Asha.

Asha was hasty, Asha hurried in some ways that even Cora would have hesitated. She ran ahead with her desires and with her plans and schemes and didn't know that sometimes one had to let them sit, let them gather strength.

It wasn't helped by the fact that Asha showed no appreciation for the finer art that was Dreamwalking, instead preferring her vulgar, tricky, senseless Talecrafting. It was none of those, but to read the woman's words, her hints and evasions, her obscurities and know that she was merely competent at Oneiromancy...and thought that enough.

...but this wasn't about Asha Ashblood at all.

It was about the couriers going in every direction, the agents who were sent out to check on matters. They were seen in Galway, a threat to Cora's burgeoning plan to perhaps take advantage of the chaos and gain the spear. They were seen in South America, spurring on war. Everywhere, it seemed, Asha was making little nudges to the pieces on the board, and yet if Cora knew anything about the woman, it was that she made no little plans.

Something was coming.

*****

Dig Two Graves (South America)

From the view of an outsider, or one who knew no magic, how strange what was happening in South America would seem. From nowhere, dozens of terrorist groups, gangs, and sudden swells of violence had formed. Cartels were attacked and, of course, fought back. Police died in the street, shot by other officers, and everywhere death seemed to reign.

No sooner did the media of the U.S. cover one attack or bombing, one tragedy or another for the candidates for President to discuss, then another seemed to spring up.

It was chaos, pure and simple. In some cities the surprisingly united front of the strongest Freeholds succeeded in their goal of increasing their power, though in the smallest Freeholds they hid away, aware that vampires outnumbered them by a startling amount. In fact, everywhere they were outnumbered, and so the war they fought was in the shadows and in the glaring light.

It was not a kind war, and Cora was able to glean that there had been losses already. She could only imagine just how the vampires were reacting. It couldn't be pleasant for either side, but for the moment at least, the alliance stayed open.

War raged in South America.

It was only a matter of time before information got out, before a traitor or a failed mission and a talkative Changeling led to their cover being blown, and the war would enter a new, more brutal phase.

Only a matter of time, and yet if Cora was in the same position, would she really be able to accept a world that was apparently all but run by the 'Red Court'?

That wasn't a place where she could have raised a kid, would have felt safe doing so.

*****

Diamonds for Sale (Donegal, Ireland)

After a time shuttered, dealing with whatever internal or external problems it faced, which seemed to be related to pure panic at their new circumstances, they opened their markets again today. Quality hedgespun gear will now leave Diamond Fort Freehold to buyers willing to pay their prices.

Their goods are, to note, primarily military in use, clothing for war.

A reasonably reliable trading partner, Cora appreciates them for this. No doubt Maggie will be even happier to have another source for hedgespun, just in case. Since the situation in the city is certainly trending towards violence.

*****

The Cursed Tool? (Galway, Ireland)

The news from Galway is either good or bad, depending on what is desired. The conflicts over the spear have continued to build, as many fear it was in some way cursed or in some other way would bring down misfortune. The arguments got heated, though they didn't descend into violence, and the whole matter has rather soured things.

Yet from every ditch, a path upward.

For Cora Graves, the more the spear of Galway, as it might be called, becomes a liability, the more likely she would be to have a chance to acquire it.

How useful it would be is highly debateable, but it could be a key piece of making sense of the Fae and the Nevernever that apparently holds them and their kind. The very name, Erlking, implied power, whether it was merely assumed or whether it actually existed.

A potent weapon, and if they decided they didn't want it...then what sort of person would Cora be if she tried to gainsay their folly?

*****

New New Founding? (Szczecin, Poland)

The Freehold of New Founding has all but collapsed. After the Summer Monarch died fighting some manner of monster in the Freehold, two candidates vied for the mantle, and because it was not summer, they settled it with a duel. One died, one lived, and both were ruined. The Fall Monarch was a fool, to say the very least, and he interfered rather badly to get a candidate of his approved, and the matter boiled over into outright cold war as Spring allied with Fall and Winter attempted to patch up the series breeches which threatened the Freehold.

Now was the worst possible time to fight amongst themselves, because it seemed that a small clique of these 'Black Court Vampires' and several other unnamed threats were attempting to do their best to clear the city of this new infestation. It was far from a disaster, at least not yet, and such splits and dissension were common enough, but Cora still shook her head to look at it, even from afar.

*****

In the Lands Holy (Yoknaem, Isreal)

It seemed there wasn't much to worry about, in the Satrapy of the Starter, as the community there called themselves. Upwardly mobile and generally well-off as well as technologically forward-looking, it seemed that whatever supernatural threats existed out there did not have a particularly strong grip on the area, and they had managed to make deals or otherwise find parity with them startlingly quickly.

it was not all going swimmingly, as threats in the Hedge had been pressing against them, but of all of the Freeholds linked to St. Louis by being symbolic sister-cities, it was probably the one that faced the least long-term threats.

It was currently working on starting up one of several interesting business ventures, including offering a service to make dark websites and other such things for Freeholds or Changelings who wished to maintain a certain anonymity.

*****
The Question: What will Cora ask the book when it takes it out for its 'once every two weeks' question? (Choose 1)

[] Do you know if the human flesh used to make the cover of this book came from one person or more than one person?
[] Are the beings that have been mentioned, such as the 'Ever Dancer'', the beings that are being referred to when Wizards of the 'White Court' reference the 'Seventh Law'?
[] Can the beings you have referenced to what a Wizard would regard as 'magic' in the same way that a Wizard does magic?
[] What guards the 'Gates' that you have mentioned before?
[] Do you know whether photographs of your pages can have a mental effect upon those who view it?
[] Write-in.

******
A/N: Second to last update of Turn 3!

 

[The Laurent]

Turn 3--Questions and Patience

[X] Do you know whether photographs of your pages can have a mental effect upon those who view it?

Time was not considered an ally by enough Changelings. They rushed through their lives well aware that they were far less immortal than their Keepers, that the world would forget them if they lay by the wayside too long. Many of them, at least, had been forgotten as she had almost feared she would be.

She'd touched her child's face at two and hoped that even though he'd never really known her that he'd know her.

One of the things that anyone had to know as a leader of Changelings was that they were wounded. Wounds that persisted. And so she had allowed the...sentimental side of her to exist. Kill that, and you couldn't understand people. Whatever anecdotes and popular culture were trotted out, her studies of humanity and its cultures showed that sociopaths and those who could not relate to other people were not effective leaders.

So she knew pain, and she knew impatience.

She also knew that Changelings had longer than they knew, if they could only see it, and that it had been patience that had seen her through the other side, patience that had saved her life a dozen times.

So when the book assaulted her, voice screaming in her head, trying to break her, she didn't flinch. She waited it out, even bored, and then said, "Next question. Same deal as before. Answer or I burn you."

It howled and then paused, and thought at her 'Very well.'

As if it had any control over the process by which she would allow it to extend its time 'alive' by providing her with information.

This question wouldn't answer that much.

"Do you know whether photographs of your pages can have a mental effect upon those who view it?"

'Yes' it thought, smugly, thinking she had been caught in a trap. After all, she'd only asked whether it knew, when she could have asked 'do they have a mental effect upon those who view it?' But there were too many ways to lie even with the Sight of Truth and Lies to sort out the obvious ones. An obvious follow up question would be 'Are there any circumstances in which photographs of your pages have a mental effect on those who view it?' If yes, then ask 'what are the circumstances' and then it's been caught.

That would take weeks of questioning, when done every other week.

Cora Graves had the time.

She also had a certain suspicion, brewing in the back of her head. But nothing more than that, not yet.

It was like hearing the moans of the dead at night where she woke in a cold sweat. You knew they weren't there yet, but they would be one day.

Ideas ambushed her at the strangest times, and so she'd learned to listen to her sense that her thoughts were coming together.

Everything, in fact, was coming together...for better or worse.

*****
A/N: And thus ends week three!

 

[The Laurent]

Turn 4--Planning (October 18th-25th)


Issue #1: Better Dead Than Red?

The revelation about the Northside Kings puts everything into a different light, or does it? Everything that the Freehold does now to attack the Red Court, especially the gangs they hold under their sway with threats, bribes, and their own powers...all of that also strengthens the Northside Kings, who are quickly becoming the most powerful gang out there.

So Cora Graves was left with a decision, whether or not to continue the previously started campaign to break down the Red Gangs one by one. It had been a success so far, by the metrics set of it, and she had no doubt that it would continue to be a success...if those were the metrics and means by which it was measured.

They didn't have to be, and quite possibly weren't if the goal was taking control of the underground. The actual goal was far more nebulous and complicated than that, of course, and it was also a matter of considering the Lycanthropes. Were they a group that could be controlled? What did they demand of those under them, and how big of a threat were they?

Continue attacks/actions against the gangs being controlled/influenced by the Red Court vampires?

[] Yes.
[] No.

What other actions are done?

[] Dig into the Democratic Party structure in St. Louis and try to dig them out of it.
[] Investigate the Northside Kings.
[] Send an 'ambassador' of sorts to the Northside Kings.
[] Attempt to set up monitoring on the Red Court vampires.
[] Have someone infiltrate one of the 'legitimate businesses' or other such things run by the Red Court.
[] Write-in.

******

Issue #2: A Riverine Capstone

Mayor Booster's efforts were hitting a cap, a point at which they had to be either expanded or unleashed. Most of the major river powers, and many of the minor ones in the immediate vicinity were all now signed on, and were tugging at the bit, Mayor Booster admitted, to get out and do something. They saw that he wanted to turn this into something larger, and the example of South America was still enough to inspire them to continue in that direction, but for many of the Freeholds, especially those who were smaller and more fragmented...the more obvious concern was the matter of the pirates.

At the same time, Mayor Booster did have other directions he could take it. Burnt Spire in London and several other such close but not quite on 'The River' Freeholds still hadn't agreed to help, and negotiating with them would be a complex task considering how much it would have to rely on arguments that had little to do with security.

Then there was Thousand Trods, the most notable holdout, or rather they hadn't even been asked and while they were somewhat off on a side path of the River, they were powerful enough to matter quite a bit.

What does He Pursue (Choose 1)

[] Trying to convince London and several other medium-large Freeholds off the beaten path to get involved.
[] Talking to Thousand Trods (Interlude/Diplomacy Turn)
[] Preparing the Freeholds already signed up for a confrontation, a battle, with the pirates next week.

*****

[Interrupt] Issue #3: Forever Free

Abr'm comes to town on a white donkey, an impossibility that suggests that it was a Hedge-Beast of some time. Cora Graves had anticipated that something like this might happen, and Faith Court of course had to have some way to strike back, but the means used was surprisingly vexing, and surprisingly open.

Abr'm was a Faith courtier whose own concern with helping people was great enough that he was something of a maniac on the topic, buying rare things from goblin markets to heal the sick, to bring people back from the edge of death. A faith healer of sort, he was also an activist and when he reached Marble Arch and went to one of their goblin markets, he saw people.

Of course he saw people. Every Goblin Market worth its salt in the Hedge had human beings for sale, it wouldn't be a Goblin Market without them. For rather obvious reasons, Changelings that bought humans were ostracized at best, and some Freeholds had laws against it, rather than the private law that if someone learned what you did, they'd probably tell someone who would go after you.

But in secret, and openly if they were loners or Privateers or Loyalists (who, so enslaved saw little evil in enslaving others), Changelings did own slaves at times. Most slaves of course were goblins, and Changelings tended to be nervous even of that…

But he demanded that the Freehold make a law against it and enforce it, and more than that he was encouraging people to donate in order to buy the freedom of human slaves. What's more, he'd united Faith Court in the issues, and they were using it rather shrewdly to make a moral point.

"You need to step carefully here," King Stoneguts urged her.

"I know," Cora said.

"There are many in this court who have faith in a loving god, and more than that, his influence among black Changelings is considerable, and he has a reputation. He was in the South in the 1950s and 60s. He marched and fought to integrate the Freeholds down there, for there were Freeholds where the blacks weren't allowed to join or were treated as servants."

"I'm aware of this," Cora said.

"Then why did you say he was inconsequential," King Stoneguts challenged. "Cora, you can't let something like this slide...for gods' sake, he's friends with Asha Ashblood, he's a man you can't just treat like you do the Faith Court. You can dismiss all of them as busybodies, but he's someone who has a voice, and he's--"

"His goals will be considered, you know I do not make hasty decisions," Cora retorted.

King Stoneguts settled down, his huge, icy frame and cold Mantle filling the room. "Sorry, it's just. He's met with me, and there was another point. The man isn't stupid. Some of the humans are from before the transition."

Cora nodded, "I suspected so, but confirmation is important."

"It makes it a moral issue, and it raises the possibility that there are...others that have survived transition as slaves."

Sometimes, vampires were sold on Goblin Markets. Sometimes Willworkers had collars on their necks and spirits broken by torture and bound by Pledges. Sometimes there were yet stranger things from a world as dark as the world they had wound up in.

Things that could be alive still.

Does Cora Graves accept Abr'm's suggestion?

[] Yes: By folding on this, the Faith Court gets what it wants and its power increases somewhat, and resources are used to both enact and enforce the law, and also help oversee the matter of buying the human slaves. At the same time, saying 'yes' prevents any Changelings in the Freehold from getting frustrated. Chance if roll is particularly high or low (because it's a bad thing or a good thing and most of all both), that some of the people discovered aren't...well, people at all.
[] No: Hold steady. No spending of currently stretched taut resources, don't give into and give any more power to Faith Court, but left in the dark in the matter of what is found, and the Faith Court is likely to try to continue to do it as a private entity. Bad publicity for having refused to outlaw slavery and help free humans from the Old World.

******

Issue #4: Halloween Approaches

On a lighter matter, Halloween was getting closer, and along with it more concerns about how everything was to be done on two issues. First, whether the Freehold should host the ball on earth, which would be safer and more accessible to humans, but would limit some of the possibility for supernatural displays of magic and frights that might otherwise be involved, whereas being in the Hedge would be grander, but also less easily accessible...which could be good or bad.

Then there is the matter of who else to invite to the Witch's Gathering.

Where should the Masquerade Ball be Held?

[] Earth.
[] Hedge.

Who else should she invite?

[] Some of the more powerful and famous Sorcerers and Sorceresses and other magic-users in the world. While plenty might have other things to do, Cora Graves is a powerful woman, and they would do well to go. [Proud]
[] Some of the up and coming talent, in the hopes of having some sort of connection with them. Always plan for the future. [Patient]
[] Invite plenty of members who are prominent in smaller, less important Freeholds. Second-stringers, admittedly. Perhaps their gratitude will open up the potential for future collaboration. [Ambitious]

******

Issue #5: Sao Luis Bonds

After floundering for a while, the commander in charge of the rump forces still left in Sao Luis had managed to get some success in turning one corporation against the other, in exposing a few Red Court patsies as corrupt (so they'd at least be on 'paid leave' for some time, unable to help the Red Court until they were cleared of all charges), and otherwise doing her job that she'd spent a week hesitating on. Apparently, according to Maggie's snake, who was a reliable source, she had self-esteem and stress issues.

Either way, the question was whether to turn this into a long-term attempt to build trust in Sao Luis, or call this a job well done and leave. Doing the latter would leave Sao Luis grateful, but could lead to them falling into and joining the pan-South-American Changeling organization against vampires that seems to be forming, which could lead to bonds being created that undermine the potential economic ties.

It all depends on so many factors, but the choice is obvious...Marble Arch shall…

Shall?

[] Remain with their current (limited) forces in Sao Luis.
[] Pull out.
[] Write-in.

*****

Issue #6: None So Blind (Panopticon)

At last the world of possibilities seems to have opened up. Now, more than before, there are many possibilities that should be considered, yet the organization itself is still only mostly back on track, though at this point its internal monitoring was getting pretty good.

[] Continue Repair (161/???)
[] Monitor Inside the Freehold for Dissidents...such as this newly arrived individual, Abr'm. And...others. Who might be threats to Cora Graves and her agenda.
[] Begin to stoke problems in Galway involving the spear. The more unattractive it seems, the more likely he might look for someone to take it off his hands. Like Cora Graves.
[] Thousand Trods has something planned, her network could attempt to figure out what that is.
[] Infiltrate the Northside Kings, if possible…perhaps with a figure or two willing to do wetwork.
[] Track and monitor all known magic-users in St. Louis in an attempt to identify their network for future operations with or against them. Whatever is needed for the good of the Freehold as Cora Graves wisely sees it.
[] Write-in. And, yes, these sound a lot more dystopian and cynical and horrible now that Cora Graves is finally getting back the capacity to do what she does best, don't they?

*****

General Orders for Fall (Choose 1)

[] Begin to try to uncode the Unseelie Accords (0/???)
[] Continue Working on the Magic Circle Problem (74/???)
[] Investigate/confront whoever it is that is currently at the Gateway Arch claiming it to some extent.
[] Continue the River Mapping (???/???), it could have political implications now.
[] Research the Magical System.
[] Prepare as hard as they can for Halloween.

*****

King Stoneguts (Asset: Allied) (Choose 1)

[] Act to monitor Lillian and Gabe on his own time.
[] Even if they pull out of Sao Luis, it is possible that a few agents could be sent...or added if they stick in Sao Luis.
[] Investigate into…
-[] Local Red Court.
-[] Local White Court.
-[] The Fiddler.
[] Gather Information on the Pirate Empire.
[] Look into possible links between the White Court and the Northside Kings.
[] Write-in.

*****

The Prophet Circle (Asset: Subordinate Institution) (Choose 2)

Things are certainly better now than they were a few weeks ago, though there was still much to consider and much to do. Cora Graves hopes at least that she's been able to help them, and everyone seems to be mostly in check at this point, rather than spinning off into their own problems as they'd threatened to do before. It was always a little difficult to manage them, but at the moment her primary concerns have to do with taking everyone from 'okay' to 'ready to continue their job of fulfilling their agenda.'

There was also the matter of both Layla and Jason Smiles, both of whom had to be dealt with, yet there was also Eva, the most promising of the Circle.

[] Roy might be willing to share more of the information he gained four weeks ago.
[] Help Layla develop her powers, as you pledged to do.
[] Find a way to secretly help Eva on her Quest.
[] Train with Eva to improve her powers.
[] Try to help Jason Smiles and figure out a way forward, since he's currently staying at her house and all.
[] Ride the Prophet Circle to get increased knowledge on upcoming events as well as the past and future. (Results somewhat random).
[] Have Augusta begin to use her Clairvoyance again to spy on potential enemies of the Freehold.

*****

Lord Sages of the Unknown Reaches (Asset: Allied Institution) (Choose 2)

After more than a little time spent spinning their wheels, all of the Sages now have projects of sorts. Malthus has been looking deeper into these new spirits, and is at the point where he wants to study this 'Nevernever', and thus he has been trying to subtly get Cora to figure out exactly what it is and how to get there. Since Cora Graves has forbidden anyone from getting in contact with Gabe or Lillian just yet. Hiding the size and power of the Freehold was important.

Meanwhile, Lydia Zero has expressed interest in going to Chicago to try to get in contact with the Alphas, or to interview one of the surviving Streetwolves, or even to attempt to make contact with the werewolf MacFinn.

Actions doubled (temporarily) with the sudden critical interest in foreign powers/magic.

[] Try to find out answers for Malthus M. Riddle for the Nevernever.
[] Provide contacts and aid so that Lydia Zero can attempt to talk to MacFinn.
[] Send an escort or two with her while she attempts to interview one of the very, very few surviving Streetwolves, currently in prison and probably on their way to a life sentence.
[] Provide aid for her in tracking down these supposed 'Alphas' for an interview.
[] Anton LeFay has been disturbingly quiet lately. Find out what he's doing.
[] Mad-Cap Manny is still interested in acquiring the Ghoul Necklace before Asha gets word of it in her own city…
[] Study these 'Fae.'
[] Send one of them after the Fiddler.
[] Look into these...Jade Court Vampires.
[] What's going on with the ghosts? What is Lillian afraid of? (Copy of the Personal Action that does the same, basically)

*****
Collegial Views (Asset: Allied) (Choose 1)

Having reconnected with her friends in the colleges, she can now begin to build up that network again, and benefit from it.

[] The Biological Imperative: Talk to Jason "Wrangle", reconnect with him.
[] Bernard Quinn: Ask him about history (opens up options with him.
[] Michael Sharma: Perhaps he can help with a few matters involving the Freehold and an idea Mayor Booster had for a website...perhaps not, who knows?
[] A changed man?: Nathaniel Thorne is different, but why?
[] A few careful moves: A Changeling at a university Cora has contact with, Sullivan, has been having a few problems. She could lean on her contacts to...clear them up.
[] Read her book: Amberly Hanz's books apparently in this version of the world caused problems...but why?
[] A Shadow on the Wall: Start to slowly and carefully inform Amberly Hanz of some of what is going on…
[] Will you be the Master?: Discuss the possibility of higher education and weigh the pros and cons.

*****

Personal Actions (Choose 3)

[] Jonathan has been acting a little strangely lately, perhaps she could talk to him.
[] What's going on with Lillian and the Fiddler's plans?
[] Confront whoever is guarding the Gateway Arch.
[] Begin working on figuring out the Magic Circles yourself?
[] Follow up the rumors of the party-crasher, and the strange water creatures.
[] Look into the matter of the Northside Kings personally.
[] Reel in the monitoring of the White Court sanctuary. It has been three weeks, and so by this point monitoring and examining all of the evidence will be a significant endeavor considering the consequences, and keeping it any longer might not be advisable.
[] Aid in any asset action that involves helping people. (Including the training one)
[] Look into decoding these Accords personally.
[] Meet again with Gabriella.
-[] State purpose and goal of meeting.
[] Get in contact with the Red Court.
[] Visit the Goblin Markets, search around for anything interesting.
[] Write-in.

*****
A/N: Vote by plans.

 

[The Laurent]

Turn 4--A

The Retreat

1d100=54

The claim was simple enough. Mission accomplished. With the world shifting and the forces involved incredibly complex, Marble Arch could not afford to continue to invest in Sao Luis and so all of the remaining agents were withdrawn, but not before providing a decent overview of their findings to the leaders of Sao Luis. Hopefully she and her Faith Court will be able to hold their own, and their gratitude extended to a pick of the local goblin markets for those who stayed, and might well extend to favors in the future, but ultimately they had their own problems to deal with, and so the relations would be strained by that one fact.

Cora Graves, however, was far too busy at the moment, and if the alliances forming in the south wanted to include Sao Luis, that was alright. A sphere of influence of that nature wasn't worth trying to maintain in the presence of both the vampires and the pressure to ally with other regional powers who were similarly facing down the threat of the vampires.

It was possible that something more could have been done, but there were so many irons in the fire. It was better to be patient and to see the way that politics shaked out over the next year, and what institutions would and wouldn't survive before committing resources, especially since there was a battle that might yet be fought soon.

So they withdrew, and Cora Graves could only hope it wasn't a mistake, because there had been push back among some quarters as to the wisdom of this decision. There were those, especially in Summer, who had wanted to present a united front wherever they could.

Hopefully the battle to come next week, if everything went well, would satisfy them.

*****

Very Merry Halloween

1d100+20=51
1d100+30=56
1d100=62

Cora Graves was reminded again why her career wasn't in fact a party planner. Despite her best efforts, the party was running over budget and everyone seemed to be muddying along. Holding it on earth was a wise choice, but it meant there were security concerns involving the vampires, and while no supernatural being from this new world would be invited, that wasn't the same as the idea that they wouldn't discover or even crash the party.

In fact, at this point, Cora was more worried about it being too obvious and the White Court catching on or the Fiddler attempting his brand of madness than the decorations and hiring the caterers, which was probably why she was delegating so much.

She kept track of everyone, of course, and if any of them were so much as embezzling a dollar she would know, but there was only so much she could help the situation, and the enthusiasm of her court was enough to manage the situation for now.

Somewhat more frustrating was the lukewarm response that many Sorcerers gave. Tired and stuck in their own messes, they sent messages asking for help or expressing indignation at this new world. Some politely declined, but others said that they would think about it. Far too many did not respond, and while the numbers were promising in a theoretical sense, she had hoped for a far wider variety than she was getting.

It seemed as if this whole Halloween was destined to be far less impressive than in previous years, and if her position had been in any way in doubt, this might have been a problem.

As it was, failure here could be a problem if it happened on the back of other failures, but for the moment the situation and all of its complexity was being contained.

...what Cora hadn't even begun to think of, though, was a costume. She always overthought these things dreadfully.

*****

A Vast Navy Gathers

1d100+10 (Mayor Booster diplomacy)=74

War comes upon those unprepared like a storm, but one can always prepare for a storm.

Mayor Booster sat in a room and made plans, talked to people, gathered resources, and yet he knew that in the end it was not him who would be leading this expedition, not truly. Ships were gathering, and Changelings were carefully scheduling their days so that they could miss work or skip out on a party. Marble Arch was expected to act as the big power that it was, Mayor Booster thought with a smile as he sipped his wine, thinking about Cora Graves.

Was she going to participate or not? What really mattered was Maggie, she was the one who was the tactical and strategic genius. The Zookeeper could manage the zoo that was the treaty obligations and strategy, but the basic plan was simple enough.

Hit their ports, the places they trade and offload goods, and draw them out. If they weren't willing to face the music on land or by sea, then they'd scourge the Pirates' little 'empire' down to the bedrock and then see how they recovered from that.

Still, the reports were worrying. The various pirate crews seemed skilled and dangerous, and they were linking up with various other groups already on the river or in the area.

If even the outside reports were this troubling, he couldn't imagine what King Stoneguts was seeing…

Effect: +5 to all rolls for the War Turn next time.

*****

Argh, Secrecy!

The stink was in the air, and King Stoneguts looked through the viewscope with a frown, a dour Changeling dressed all in black at his side. He wiped his forehead and said, "And you're sure?"

"Of course I am," the woman said, shrinking a little into her own skin. Her own size changed as often as she felt like it, but most of all when she was feeling stressed or put upon.

He should have realized that, but he'd needed to confirm. "So, where's the crack?"

"Now that...that I don't know," Ysabel said, quietly.

There was a crack in the world. A way, somehow, from the Hedge into earth that the goblins could use. Either that, or, of course, Changelings who were working with them. Loyalists or mercenary Changelings willing to run the gauntlet.

On that ship, moving up the river, eight huddled humans waited. They looked related, and if he had to guess, North African. They were poorly enough dressed, and they looked with fright and awe at the sunless sky and the tangle of thorns that surrounded this part of the river.

Somehow the goblins were finding a way into the world of the humans, and bringing back slaves and goods. The wealth of earth was far greater and far easier to access than the wealth and bounty of the Hedge, and if anything slaves were just the tip of the spear.

"Estimates are that they've taken around sixty or so human slaves since the start of these problems," Ysabel said, shaking her head, "Some going to goblin markets where they've now been freed…"

"Ah," King Stoneguts said, "And some not so much?"

"They're being taken from around the world in small groups," she contended, "It'll be hard to notice their loss at first or think it's anything much, against--"

King Stoneguts sighed.

Against the sheer and rising number of deaths and destruction that constituted the norm for this new world.

Still...this was trouble.

*****

Forever Free?

Ab'rm's bones ached some days. He'd not lived nearly as long as some Changelings, but he'd seen sinners aplenty live and die and knew the way the game was played. Knew in fact that there were people who saw it as a game, the lives of people and Changelings. The people who knew how to play it well were better than the fools, but in his old bones he knew that both would sacrifice a pawn whenever it suited them.

But God delivered those who helped themselves, and if Cora Graves was a woman he suspected of disbelief and sin, whose thoughts he thought were selfish other than her obvious love for her only son, that did not mean she was a fool.

She had agreed, and so now he rode his Donkey up the legs of a vast spider, hunting down yet another Goblin Market, this one not even quite local. On the back of the spider rested hundreds of temporary stalls, and the creature seemed not to mind them, or even attack anyone.

The spider had a predatory nature, yet it was also the weaver, he thought absently.

When he reached the boundaries of the Market, he prayed for his soul, as all men should when faced with the Market. Its color and the webs that hung on the air hid the vile treachery that rested here. People were bought and sold, as his own people had once been. But as Egypt had seen disaster for their slaveholding ways, and just as God had freed his people, so too must he free those humans from the clutches of the goblins and eventually the True Fae.

He would not live to see a world made so much better that it would no longer be necessary to make compromises with those who would see the innocent as mere bargaining chips, but he would try to make it a world that existed.

He would have washed Cora Graves' feet if that is what it had taken for her to agree. There was no dignity that was greater than the good that a man could do for his fellows in the sight of god, and so, riding on a white pony, Father Ab'rm entered the market.

******
Cora Graves counted coins and made tallies. It wasn't thirty pieces of silver, but the cost that Father Ab'rm had exacted was great. Almost a hundred civilians had been freed, people whose knowledge of the old world would hold nothing special, but whose presence proved any number of theories. Their lives were now owed to one man, and if Cora Graves were that man she would be doing a lot more than he seemed to with their lives.

Contacts could have been made, friendships built, spies created or agents for her agenda. Instead, most of them had left to return to their lives, though he was not so much a fool that he hadn't sent people to watch them, hadn't realized that adjusting to the new world wouldn't be easy.

Only a single interesting artifact had been found, one that was reported to seem 'strange' and 'hold something' dangerous. It was currently locked away, but Cora planned on looking into it when she could.

Rather more important was the other bit of news…


*****
Ab'rm looked at the young woman trapped in the supernaturally thick web, blood all down their front and yet without any visible wounds. She was naked, her hair torn, yet she gazed back at him in fury and pride. "This place...are you here to gawk?"

He shook his head, glancing at her thoughtfully. He had a sense of these things, and after a moment he said, "Perhaps God has brought me here for you, or perhaps not, but am I right in assuming you are a werewolf?"

She sighed for a moment and said, "No story spoke of...of a place like this."

Which wasn't an answer.

"Yes," she finally said when he stared at her thoughtfully for another moment, trying to think of how to explain it. "I am. We retreated here, because our…"

She didn't want to tell her secrets to anyone, even here, trapped and ready to be sold for an amount that in context with what she was was a pittance.

"Did you receive warning by the spirits that you converse with?" he asked, "Or some other means?"

"Warning about what?!" she demanded, "My whole pack's out there somewhere, and we were running from something we couldn't even understand."

"If I understood," Ab'rm said, "Then I would tell you."

Her anger and the rage in her eyes only made him more calm, almost, as he considered it. "So you have been enslaved. I shall free you, for no man should be a slave."

The woman shook her head, "Cynthia."

"Ab'rm," he said in response.

"Just what are you?" she asked, "Some sort of spirit-possessed being, or…"

"The scars?" he asked, gesturing to the deep scars, the wounds that were the only real sign of his visit to Arcadia. "They are a mark, but nothing more. I can explain later."

"Buying her, are you?" the goblin asked, leering up, "A good choice. We have a silver collar ready, we suspect she's one of those, and since you know, well...I'm willing to sell you the collar for cheap."

"No," Father Ab'rm said, "That will not be necessary. Cynthia, at least until we are able to leave the Hedge and I am able to tell you what has happened."

"There are others out there whose duty it is for me to find and help," she said, "I cannot stay any longer than it might take to find them. They are my pack."

"I respect that, but the Hedge is a…" he hesitated, "It is a hunting ground where those who make their home on earth are always the prey. I have been told," he said, as the bonds were slowly cut, and he realized that of course should she choose to do so, at this moment despite the thin bonds of the pledge...without the collar she could kill him now. She'd die, for violence done in a Goblin Market was a taboo, but she could do it.

Or she could wait until his back was turned.

He feared not. "I have been told that a hunt goes well if one knows the enemy and the terrain and one's own packmates."

"How do you know so much of us?"

"I have lived so long," Father Ab'rm said simply. "Long enough to see all that there is in this world. Or I had, before it was lost…"

"...Lost?" she asked, and now at last there was a moment of fear, of confusion and terror.

He wished that he had something to reassure her.

******
Cora Graves considered the matter. For the moment, though perhaps no longer than the moment, this Cynthia was living in a cottage in the Hedge owned by the Court of Faith. In the long run, it seemed that somehow she and others had fled into the Hedge, and this meant that somehow it had protected them from being left behind.

But the words, even reported second-hand, troubled her. Were they separated from the old world? Or had they escaped. Because if it was merely a matter of Changelings being torn away, then why would Werewolves, hunters and predators and sensible at least if Lydia Zero was to be believed, run into the nets of the snare that had somehow torn Changelings from their world.

More importantly, she was far too valuable to be left as she was, to chase out into the dark of the Hedge. But what should be done?

What to do?

[] Cora Graves could confront her and attempt to sway her to attempt to stay for the moment. Perhaps her agents and sources could hunt down others of this woman's 'Pack' on their own.
[] Lydia Zero perhaps could talk to her, though there was no way to entirely predict what she might do if that is so. No doubt she'd be able to connect with this werewolf far better than anyone else, but it's just as likely that she'd act as a guide or aid the werewolf as anything else. To be a Sage was, in Lydia's case, to have sympathy for the wolf.
[] Allow her to go her own way with no interference...and then try to send agents to stalk her movements and keep track of her.
[] Write-in.

Spoiler: Roll-Play

Freedom!: 1d100+20 (Father Ab'rm!)+10 (Have Faith!)+5 (A Mighty Fortress is our Freehold!)=90
Spooky Stuff?!: 84
1d5=4
Luck?: 92, wow
Spooky Stuff 2?: 11
Spooky Stuff 3?: 59

A/N: So, this is a bit rough but eh, here you go!

 

[The Laurent]

Turn 4--B

The Zero Hero

[X] Lydia Zero perhaps could talk to her, though there was no way to entirely predict what she might do if that is so. No doubt she'd be able to connect with this werewolf far better than anyone else, but it's just as likely that she'd act as a guide or aid the werewolf as anything else. To be a Sage was, in Lydia's case, to have sympathy for the wolf.

Initial Impression 1d100, with reroll: 55, 77...77 it is.

Lydia Zero knew that these first moments mattered. Werewolves valued many things, there was no one secret to it, and they were like any other person in one sense. What was common was the hunt, was the death. No werewolf was a true wolf if it did not hunt something, or someone. Now, Cynthia was going to hunt for her pack, for those she cared for, lost and scattered.

The Pack mattered, just as the spirits and their own totem mattered.

The women knew that there was a chance this could end very poorly indeed, but she stepped into the room and looked around, already seeing a few signs of Cynthia's presence. The furniture of this small cottage had been rearranged so that there was easy access to a window and a door.

Escape was what Cynthia was thinking of, leaving and going out. Whether because of attack or because of her own desire. But Lydia judged after thinking for a second that it was fear that dominated.

Fear in an unknown place was normal.

Lydia took a breath when she stepped in, and then she was Zero.

"Hail," Lydia barked, and looked Cynthia over. Guesses formed, but they were not always right. One didn't judge a wolf by their outside appearance, at least not the one they held while they were human.

"Who are you?" Cynthia asked.

"Lydia, Lydia Zero."

"And your…"

Lydia Zero was marked. Nothing more than packaged elemental violence, claws and fangs, a body that rippled with power and hands that ended in claws. She didn't have ears as a normal person might, her nose was different, her eyes fierce and mad-yellow even when she was happy, and on her back was a tattoo. A number. She was just a product: bottled rage to be sold from one Keeper to the next.

Or rather she had been.

If a woman was going to be a number, it might as well be zero.

"It is nothing now," Lydia said, "Your pack...were the Bone Shadows?"

Cynthia was staring at her now, "What?"

"It was a guess," Lydia said, and then admitted, "Another guess would be that you are a Cahalith. You mentioned stories to Father Ab'rm, and I have a…"

"Have you hunted before?" Cynthia asked, eyes suddenly keen.

"I have been part of a pack before, along with others who are not a werewolf and yet are allowed to join in the Siskur-Dah."

"Then…" Cynthia said, "Then you understand. I need to get my pack back. I thought this place would be like the Shadow, and I knew the Shadow and I knew the spirits in it, but it's not at all…"

She looked lost, and Lydia understood. She'd been in the Shadow before, and whatever her affinity for Werewolves, that wasn't the same as being 'at home.' Not that anyone was entirely in the Shadow, even less than the Hedge.

But there was the rub, "Hunting on unfamiliar ground is likely to end poorly."

Lydia looked over at Cynthia for a long moment then said, "If you learn the ground and learn the dangers, then it will help. The world, too, has changed. We were ripped from where we once lived, and so…"

Cynthia understood, she'd understood and yet she didn't.

She might be one of the few werewolves of the type Lydia knew, the type Lydia had felt so close to that she knew that if she'd been in a weak, fracturing Freehold she would have slipped away entirely, might even still be living with a Pack, the matters of the Hedge merely one way she could retreat that others couldn't.

"Then teach me," Cynthia demanded, "About this Hedge and the prey and predators which stalk it...but do so while we hunt, because my packmates are in here somewhere, we all are…"

"And anyone else?" Lydia asked.

Cynthia shook her head, "Eight of us, if any are not dead. There might have been others that Amila warned, but…"

Lydia didn't ask how they'd gotten into this place, because she suspected the story would be at least a little likely to divert resources away from helping them, whereas she was going to say anything and everything to Cora Graves to get every possible resource directed this way.

There was a pack to save.

Spoiler: Roll-Play

For Werewolves, Persuasion: 7 dice, rote (it's not rote for anyone else, and not seven dice.)=4 successes

******
Hanz On

1d100=96

Cora Graves read Amberly Hanz's books three times that week, eyes blurring through the words. Good lord, she knew why people were after Hanz. Somehow, Amberly Hanz had stumbled upon information on supernatural cultures and slotted it into folk beliefs. An anthropologist had to pay attention to the culture, and that didn't mean believing in what the culture believed in, of course.

But an anthropologist who snorted and said, "That is just a bunch of superstition" was a fool, because it was the superstitions that all cultures held, their beliefs and desires, that shaped how they lived. In South America, there were small villages that lived with the reality that their sons and daughters would be taken off and die one day. In India there were spirits and stranger beings still, that preyed on people where the light of inquiry somehow flickered and died.

All around the world, she had managed to stumble in and out of several different cases, including actual facts about Jade Vampires, or what Cora Graves presumed to be actual facts, such as a string of code that was often used as grafitti, or…

Cora Graves paused in her readings to consider the matter, and the most likely implication is that the Jade Court had a diffused structure of power designed to make it difficult not only to learn about them but to attack them.

This and other bits of knowledge might be useful in the future.

Effect: +5 to rolls dealing with certain subsets of supernatural beings from foreign countries.

Spoiler: Roll-Play

Politics+Int=3 successes

******

Training Layla

1d100+20=81

Layla was a frustrating person to teach, not only because she had school which was far more important for her at the moment, but because she didn't realize the full potential of what she was doing or what she knew.

So Cora Graves began her with the basics of what her power did. "Layla, your ability to use biokinesis is potent, as is your ability to gain visions of the past. There is potential, at least."

Layla was looking at Cora Graves with distrust, and she shook her head, "I know that." Her words were firm, even angry, the pudgy girl out of her element and exhausted already with her efforts. "Though the dreams I could do without…"

"The past is an interesting country," Cora Graves said. She could not muster sympathy when she dreamed of things far more horrible than mere past events, she dreamed of a place beyond human understanding, and she was talking to a girl who didn't know the first thing about what true power is. "Others have it worse. Now focus…"

"I'm trying," Layla said, "And if you make a Star Wars--"

Cora looked at her blankly, "I am not someone who does such things, and I would prefer if you understood where we stand. I'm helping you, and you're listening to me and doing what I want you to. This world has a whole new past, and wholly new dangers. Now train your body, so you can push it further...and train your mind."

She held out some cards, "I will show you them again. If you do not remember all of them, we will do it again as many times as it takes."

"You're a bitch, you know that...Ma'am?" Layla said, adding that at the last moment.

She ran through the cards and Layla concentrated and got half of them wrong. Just as well, because the cards were a trick, a diversion. There was a secret message on each of the cards flashed by so quickly that the brain almost would struggle to catch it, let alone remember it.

Again. Again. Layla complained of hunger, complained that this strange room in this strange maze she was in was scary, complained complained…

Then finally, finally she saw it, she remembered what she shouldn't have without a memory that was at the peak of human skill…

"There we go," Cora said, and then she added, "Tomorrow I will poison you and you shall recover from it."

Layla looked at her for a long moment, and Cora stared back with her dark, strange, pitiless eyes and crossed her arms, pale and strange and inhuman in the Hedge.

"You...aren't serious, right?"

"Merely food poisoning. You should be able to harden your stomach and your body against the effects," Cora said, smiling slightly at the dismay on her face, "Think of it as the first step to learn how to never have a hangover ever again."

Layla was...somewhat reassured by that.

Effect: Progress made!

*****

Palaces of White...

1d100x4=48, 90, 49, 46

"I still cannot believe that you acted thus," Yvonne Gardiner said to her brother, and he shrugged, standing there stock still.

"You're the one who is thinking of aligning with them," the man who had nearly had the Fiddler kill someone close to Yvonne said, "Mother might be going along with you for now, but she'll…"

"She'll nothing," Yvonne said simply, "She knows something, a little something, of basic strategy and the situation as it stands. Whatever the future brings, for the moment we are best served by watching, observing, and thinking this all through."

Cora listened to hour after hour, and suffered deafness and blindness for it as she heard and watched and took it all in, bending her intelligence to the sometimes limited--for they occasionally moved out of earshot or behind something that served as a barrier to hearing--information she was getting.

It was far more detailed than anything they would expect her to know, and the real trouble was sorting through useless information to get at the heart of what mattered, though of course she could transcribe it or even show it to Jeanne, the images of it in her mind. The ghost was always happy to help, and both her and Jacques had been very antsy as of late, feeling as if something was growing, changing beneath their feet.

Spoiler: Dossier, these are Cora's assumptions/thoughts, and so might not always be accurate

Name: Amelia Gardiner
Position: Matriarch of the Court
Goals: Power; Family Unity; Concern for her two youngest children; Keeping the peace within the White Court.
Allies: Yvonne Gardiner
Enemies: None that would declare themselves...
Feeding Habits: She tends to pick and choose, eating a little bit from several people each day, and she occasionally takes the men back to the house, but seems to prefer not to soil the nest. Implications of some family conversation are that she takes an exception for those whom she decides would make worthy fathers of her children, and enters a relationship which at least holds the basic functions of a romance, though the fact that most children have different fathers makes one suspect that it's not lasting.

Name: Yvonne Gardiner
Position: De-Facto second-in command, seems to have some manner of 'sorcery' under her control which is potent enough to matter.
Goals: Secure the position of the White Court; Resist the pressure to strike against
Allies: Franklin Gardiner, those she takes under her protection, Amelia Gardiner.
Enemies: Jonathan Gardiner, St. Martin
Feeding Habits: She seems to occasionally indulge, but it seems as if she has a single girlfriend at a time, who she enters a relationship that seems both romantic and sexual. The feelings on the side of the other party appear to be fully genuine, and as far as it can be guessed their sexual habits and practices are normal and no more harmful than the feeding itself is--which is to say draining. Prior observation and studies have shown that she doesn't tend to have the same girlfriend for years on end. Speculation: an attempt not to drain any one person to death?
Additional Notes: She knows but is carefully concealing the location of some minor assets of Cora Graves, and likely suspects the existence of Jonathan Graves.

Name: Alicia Gardiner
Position: The Businesswoman of the Group
Goals: Expansion of White Court Power By Any Means Practicable
Allies: Yvonne Gardiner, in theory, her mother Amelia Gardiner
Enemies: She seems unusually hostile to Franklin Gardiner, and thus also in a sense Yvonne...
Feeding Habits: She has argued several times with Yvonne, saying that one needs to be reasonable about these things. She feeds it seems from a large number of men she knows through her work, and forms no emotional attachments. Eat to live, as it were.

Name: Henriette Gardiner
Position: ???
Goals: Enjoy Herself; She has a secondary goal that she hints at but has not stated.
Allies: Friendly with Jonathan Gardiner, likes all of her sisters.
Enemies: Thinks that Yvonne is too serious.
Feeding Habits: Men are disposable but cute to her. She goes through 'boyfriends' rather fast, though she doesn't seem to feed onto death, and gets bored.

Name: Jonathan Gardiner
Position: Schemer?
Goals: Enjoy Himself
Allies: Amelia Gardiner, Alicia tolerates him, Henriette doesn't see any ethical dilemma in his acts, though they are a little unnerving.
Enemies: He's relatively hostile to all of the Gardiner women except his mother, but Yvonne hates him and he hates her back.
Feeding Habits: He's killed at least one woman this week, and he seems to enjoy the pain and fear and suffering of women, and while if Cora Graves was someone who blushed some of what the various Gardiners did would make her blush, including play with 'toys' that were apparently part of 'BDSM play' (she'd looked it up in case there was any significance to the toys), he was the one who seemed most to enjoy causing pain to women.

Name: Franklin Gardiner
Position: ???
Goals: Something Big; ???
Allies: Yvonne Gardiner, Amelia Gardiner?
Enemies: Alicia Gardiner, Jonathan Gardiner, St. Martin
Feeding Habits: Unknown.
Additional Notes: He's...ambitious and smart and closed and guarded. Cora Graves would rank him along with Amelia and Yvonne Gardiner as the three most impressive and overall dangerous members of the White Court, regardless of the implications that St. Martin is a great physical threat.

Name: Laura Gardiner
Position: Kid of the Family
Goals: Get good grades; Figure out just what it is that everyone else knows about; Figure out this 'Wicca' stuff.
Allies: Bobby Gardiner; Yvonne Gardiner; Henriette Gardiner
Enemies: Jerks at School; That creepy bodyguard.
Feeding Habits: N/A
Additional Notes: While she does not know about the White Court, she is aware that her siblings are often having sex with others, but she has been raised to be sex-positive and otherwise unconcerned with such things.

Name: Bobby Gardiner
Position: Young Teenage Boy
Goals: Figure out his sexuality; Become this cool vampire that harmlessly feeds on sexual energy and everyone's told him it doesn't hurt anyone; Get one up on his sister, who is cool...but sometimes slightly annoying!
Allies: Everyone! Mostly!
Enemies: Man, that Martin's a creep. And Jonathan is rude to him.
Feeding Habits: N/A

Name: William Gardiner
Position: Amelia's Brother
Goals: Aggrandizement of himself and his son, it seemed.
Allies: Friendly with Amelia Gardiner
Enemies: Enemies with Amelia Gardiner, Yvonne
Feeding Habits: Unknown, he has only visited thus far, and when there he seems to partake in the hired help, but that could be mere circumstance.

Name: Vladimir
Position: William Gardiner's Teenaged Son
Goals: Obtain power and influence; Don't Screw up
Allies: Henriette Gardiner, William Gardiner, Amelia Gardiner, Alicia Gardiner
Enemies: Jonathan Gardiner, Yvonne Gardiner, thinks Bobby is a jerk.
Feeding Habits: Unknown.
Additional Notes: Afro-Russian. Huh. Cora Graves also notes that he's always very careful around everyone.

Name: St. Martin
Position: The Gardiner's personal body-guard and hit man
Goals: Power; Enjoyment
Allies: Jonathan and Amelia Gardiner, the O'Reilleys
Enemies: Yvonne and Franklin Gardiner. Most others fall between ally and enemy.
Feeding Habits: He feeds on the fear of others, their pain, their sadness and their lust. Unlike most of the rest other than Jonathan, he seems to kill his prey quite often, and Cora Graves has witnessed a murder and heard reference to another, both of which would have to be concealed.
Additional Notes: There seem to be some implications that he was cast out from somewhere, and other implications that he is very deadly and dangerous and unusually powerful, yet there are quite a few who seem to dislike him or at least not respect him.

Name: The Johnsons
Position: Loyal Retainers
Goals: Self-Aggradizement
Allies: Amelia Gardiner, Alice Gardiner
Enemies: Yvonne Gardiner, Jonathan Gardiner
Feeding Habits: 'Average' it seems.
Additional Notes: A family of four, one of them a regular human, they seem to be a prominent vassal looking to rise if only the Gardiners can move upwards.

Name: The O'Reillys
Position: Upstarts
Goals: Power, Power, and More Power
Allies: Jonathan Gardiner
Enemies: Yvonne Gardiner
Feeding Habits: Unusually aggressive.
Additional Notes: They seem to also be negotiating something behind the scenes with Franklin Gardiner, despite being supposed enemies with both him and Yvonne Gardiner, who seems aware of these negotiations.

*****

Beneath the Arch

Cora Graves meant to see this matter done with, and soon. But the question remains, before all else, what approach.

[] Great and Mighty: Stride into the area with her power on show and see what he does. Cower, or run, or...most likely, confront her. And then, if he challenges her she can win, and more likely...they can talk.
[] In the Dark In the Dark the…: Night is a time of shadows and lies, a time where a dagger can be thrust and a world changed. Cora Graves could visit him as he prepared for bed, could show that she was the one who held power...if she could sneak up on him and but demonstrate it. From there, things should
[] Perchance to Dream: Dreams are where Cora Graves is strongest of all. Visit this strange but seemingly human guardian in their dreams and confront them strength against weakness. Prepare the way in the world of dreams.
[] Help?: Cora Graves could go with someone who might provide help, such as Lillian. Perhaps they can be an interpreter...though they might also be a target or a factor that complicates the confrontation.

*****
A/N: Not 100% satisfied, but I'm going to call it good.[/spoiler]

 

[The Laurent]

Beneath the Arch, Part 2

[X] Help

The room was small and cramped, and of course Gabe looked distinctly uncomfortable. The woman was dressed as she usually was, and Cora Graves had to assume that the eclectic mix of bangles and earrings and necklaces were all part of her magic.

This, certainly, was something that Cora understood quite well. Token-mongers could be quite effective, and other types of magic-users needed objects as a prop for their magic. Gabe looked tired, though.

"What is this about...and why here?" she asked.

Here was a rented room of a motel. In the city. One had enhanced senses, one could no doubt smell all sorts of interestingly distasteful things. Plus, it was rented by the hour. Cora's lips twitched only slightly at the amusement this brought her. "Private, and there's a way into the Hedge nearby."

"That man, however, thought I was a...lady of the night," Gabe said, "And I've been busy working on something. God, I hope that…"

"What?"

"There's a potion I have going, and if it bubbles over it's going to ruin the carpet. Again," Gabe admitted, looking surprisingly dejected, "And I don't have the money to fix it. And that guy thinks I'm a prostitute."

That was unusual. Shouldn't Wizards have plenty of ways to make money? It was easy enough if one was powerful, and by the nature of the structure as Cora Graves had discovered so far, by definition Wizards were among the most powerful, or else they were merely one flavor or another or practitioner.

"The opinions of such a man do not matter," Cora said, not betraying the emotions behind those words. "The opinions of those whose opinions are worth nothing shouldn't be heeded."

The dead had called for her, made her their slave in rescuing them, but on the day she decided that she'd rather live, that was when she'd escape.

"I know…" Gabe sighed, "Plus there's everything that...something's coming this Halloween. Is it about that?"

"Not at the moment, no," Cora said carefully. "At the moment it has to do with the Gateway Arch. There is someone there."

"...ah. Yes," Gabe said carefully, even nervously, "Yes there is. He's a practitioner, but a powerful one, and that's before he has used a Sanctum Invocation upon it. He has claimed it as his territory, and he's stronger than a decent number of wizards, in certain areas...within the confines of the territory. They call him Mr. A, and he's been at it for...decades, I think?"

Cora Graves took it all in. Interesting. It meant that the obvious way to act against this man was to lure him off of his home territory and then force concessions or kill him if this was necessary. "Interesting."

"Why do you want to know? What do you gain from interfering in his territory?"

She was...skeptical, to say the least. Which likely meant that if not friendly, he was at least not hostile enough or dangerous enough that Gabe saw a need to antagonize him, and was worried at some ill result from a conflict.

What does Cora say?

[] Refuse to answer but ask for her advice if one was going to meet with him.
[] Explain that it's an important location in the Hedge, and that securing some level of access on both sides is important.
[] Explain that it's a *very* important location, and that in fact...well, a book was once found on the other side of the Hedge that indicates that the location is the center of some form of transport.
[] Write-in.

*****
A/N And, so, here we go! This is so short that I decided to make it a rush-job because waiting days for a 500 word update is pathetic and stupid.

 

[The Laurent]

Beneath the Marble Arch, Part 3

[X] Explain that it's an important location in the Hedge, and that securing some level of access on both sides is important.

Cora Graves knew that information security was important, but she also knew that at the moment Gabriella had not only an advantage of knowledge, but the upper hand in other ways. So, glancing around the really quite distasteful room--even if she was still amused at Gabriella's reaction--she said, "Sometimes the Hedge corresponds to the real world, though there are times when it doesn't to a rather troubling extent. But the gateway arch is an area of importance in the Hedge, both is a doorway and as a position in itself. It is very important that I secure some access on both sides."

Cora paused and tried one of her more genuine smiles as she said, "This does not mean going to war with this practitioner, but if I cannot come and go without a confrontation, that's not acceptable."

"And you're going to throw your weight around to get it," Gabe said, sighing.

"If that is needed," Cora said.

"You're going to fit in well around here. A single independent, powerful, weird entity with mysterious goals and a strange origin," Gabe groused, "By this point that's every other week."

"Hmm," Cora said, not sure how to address her issues in a way that would end well. "It happens." She shrugged, considering the complex dynamics she'd fallen into.

"Maybe it does to you, but I'm not...supposed to be running around trying to make deals and arguing with practitioners a decade or more older than me," Gabe said, shaking her head, "And talking to some...some bizarre half-human being."

Cora sniffed, annoyed, but Gabe held out a hand, "I'm sorry, that came out wrong. It's simply that every time I've met you you've been throwing me for a loop. What are you going to be doing now?"

Cora looked at Gabe and realized that the girl seemed even more tired than she expected, and she found herself annoyed by this hint of weakness. Yet a part of her was just as annoyed by her own first reaction of wanting to tell Gabe that it was okay.

But there were people who one did that to--her son and those who were her dependents--and those one didn't. She would have to deal with her own troubles, it was not as if Cora Graves did not have enough on her plate. Before too long, the Freehold was going to go into battle, and the news there had made her quite aware that it could end badly.

Securing the Marble Arch itself would not solve any immediate problems, though, she supposed it would make a decent escape route and sanctuary if one wanted to use it that way.

But what really mattered, she decided, was the vast structure itself, and the way it seemed as if it could be...as a pure speculation...tied to the transportation of the world in some way. Of course, it could be otherwise, but she had instincts for a reason, and those instincts told her to dig and dig and keep digging.

Her son had lost a friend, and people had lost wives, lovers, jobs to this transfer.

Even if she was unsure whether getting back was possible, understanding what happened would have to begin with the Arch.

"I am sorry if I am not what you would expect," Cora said, "But my interests are genuine."

"Genuine," Gabe said, "And they seem...like, why should I aim to grant you more advantages? I feel sorry for what was done to you, and confused and baffled by any number of things that are going on, but my concern right now is for what is best for the city, not merely any one person, and I don't see…"

Cora Graves considered mentioning the book, but she had a feeling that this would end badly. So she considered it and said, "Are you merely saying you refuse to help me? Or that you'll stand in the way of my plans?"

She didn't threaten, because she didn't need to. It was obvious by now that if someone stood in her way she'd be willing to act, or at least she would like to think that was so. So she waited, as Gabe flushed and said, "Merely that I won't help you."

Cora Graves considered how this meeting had gone thus far, and sighed, feeling an ache in her bones that seemed almost unfamiliar. For a moment she felt old, too old, even though she had a lot longer to live even were she merely a human, let alone a Changeling who would outlive most of the people she had met so far, including the person in front of her.[1]

Sometimes this was a sad fact, sometimes an important fact. And sometimes just a fact. "Not even if I proposed a trade? You have expertise that I do not," Cora said, aware that it was less flattery and more the truth, "You have questions, and more than that, I can help you. I can…"

What does she offer? (Choose 1)

[] Aid on any one problem she faces in the next while.
[] A Token, or magical artifact…
[] Information (Choose two)
-[] Tidbits on what the Hedge is and how it works.
-[] Information about Contracts.
-[] Information about Keeper (singular)
-[] Information on one of the other contacts…
--[] Red Court.
--[] White Court
-[] Drop the bombshell that you're not alone (worth two, and might have a huge impact, who knows)?
-[] Information that Cora Graves has power over dreams…
-[] Information on Glamour…
-[] Write-in.
[] A favor.
[] Nothing, Cora can do this on her own.
[] Write-in.

Whatever happens, how does Cora Graves approach the problem?

[] Attempt to create a pledge or deal that would hold him to relative secrecy over the whole matter, but would certainly be more binding for both policies.
[] Attempt to gain a more informal deal that might lead to him noticing that there's not just one person using it, and makes him inferring more more likely, but is also less restrictive to all parties.
[] Shock, Awe: Attempt to use some display of magic as part of it in order to attempt to make a pledge that is less two-sided and more...one sided.
[] We Beg Your Leave: Attempt to feign humility and ask for permission to use the area, and thus obscure some nature of just how powerful the Freehold is, or at least create the possibility that later on he'd underestimate them...if that's important.
[] Write-in.


[1] Obviously she doesn't know about Wizard biology, and it's not something that can really be inferred logically from a sample size of one.

Spoiler: Roll-Play

Persuasion+Presence=6 dice, 8 again (because Occult-oriented)=2 successes

Empathy: Failure

Persuasion 2: 2 successes

A/N: To note, information in this case isn't 'I'll tell you everything about it' but more 'carefully' (how carefully depends on rolls) chosen tidbits and information that might give a basic impression of the topic or one interesting/important thought. Sorry this is short. Your rolls were alright, but you needed very strong rolls, so it sorta balanced out as 'okay.'

Also, yes, Cora Graves isn't always a 100% reliable narrator. Or entirely within the right, a lot of the time. Especially if you look at it from Gabe's perspective.

 

[The Laurent]

Beneath the Arch, Finale

[X] Information (Choose two)
-[X] Drop the bombshell that you're not alone (worth two, and might have a huge impact, who knows)?
[X] Attempt to create a pledge or deal that would hold him to relative secrecy over the whole matter, but would certainly be more binding for both policies.

The room is bright, that much is clear, but the shadows on the wall, and the way the world seemed to close in disturbed her. Of course it did. The daylight always hurt, always took something away, and at the moment her magic felt weak and thin. She wanted to reach out and grasp it, but she might need it if this decision turned out to be the wrong one.

The symbols raced across her skin, and today it was Old French and Babylonian. She glanced down, and then up again, her expression so blank as to be empty. Gabe was there, and from what Cora could tell, Gabe was an innocent. She seemed uncomfortable with violence, with death.

In the dark, Cora was far more willing to deem that a weakness, but even in the light it was a failing, at least when one allowed it to drive them. So Cora wanted to simply promise aid, and yet looking at Gabe she began to realize that she would likely provide it anyways next week if it was needed.

Ultimately, after all, if Gabe thought that the city was at risk from whatever this danger was, then there was far too great of a chance she'd get involved anyway.

That was the most tempting part of offering to merely 'help' in the future. It was a chip that she suspected Gabriella would cash in before the month was out.

But then again, the information that Changeling wasn't merely a simple phrase added to her and her alone...that would come out before that much longer.

"Tell you something that you would benefit in knowing," Cora said.

"What is it?" Gabe asked.

"You have to promise to provide your aid in this matter," Cora said, leaning back, wishing she had brought her ghosts in. They were waiting outside, impatiently, having a look around, just in case there was any further blackmail material to be had.

"Before you tell me anything?"

"Yes," Cora said, "You could always go back on your word if I fool you, but I have no reason to. I have no such promises with you. My information, once told, could not be easily taken back, whereas your help with the matter of the Gateway Arch would be ongoing, and could be withdrawn."

"Man, you sound like a professor when you talk like that," Gabe said.

"Thank you," Cora said.

"...it was mostly a compliment, I suppose?" Gabe asked, tilting her head. "Well, then, I agree."

"There are more of us," Cora said, "In this city."

"Changelings?" Gabe asked, her expression stiff, as if she expected to be swarmed by an army the moment she turned her head.

"Yes. Which rather explains why I wish to secure the land there, as important as it is," Cora said.

"How many?" Gabe asked.

Cora considered not answering, and then she knew exactly what to say, "More than there are vampires, Gabe."

She saw Gabe making a count of it, or at least estimating. If there were more than there were vampires, then the only possible inference was in the dozens. Three dozen, four dozen, maybe even five-dozen.

It was gratifying to see how even this number brought worries to Gabe's face, even if Cora knew that plenty of those Changelings were no more interested in fighting a war than anyone else was. But let her think that they're all at least powerful enough to be as threatening as she seemed.

"And you're...their leader?"

Cora shrugged very carefully, "Of some. A few, here and there."

Gabe paused and made a surprisingly cunning leap, "I've heard...rumors that you were seen with another man. Is he one of you…?"

"If I do not know which man you are speaking of, I cannot say," Cora said, aware that the odds were that Mayor Booster had been noticed at some point. After all, they'd been seen in public before.

"Ah, well," Gabe said, blushing.

"Either way, there is every reason for us to wish to have at least some influence over the area. Will you help us?"

"I suppose I should, if it is that big of an issue," Gabe admitted.

*****

"You wish for me to what?" Mr. A asked. They were standing in the gift shop, which Cora Graves thought was a rather foolish idea, but she was also not entirely in charge of the meeting, and so she stewed in the fact that she was discussing matters with a wily-haired old man in a gift-shop.

"We can construct a binding pledge that we can both agree on, but either way," Cora said, "If need be I will do what is necessary to obtain limited access to the Gateway Arch. Simply put, this would involve us being allowed to come in and out at any time we want, provided we did not interfere with any business of yours. We shall inform you ahead of time if there is to be a mass movement, and if there are times in which we cannot be here…"

"Are you listening to this?" Mr. A asked, "You really think this is the best thing to do. This is my Gateway, my...power, and they're just asking to waltz through it twenty-four seven?"

"Compensation can be arranged, monetary or otherwise."

"Ten thousand dollars a month. Call it a rental fee."

"We're already promising not to interefere in your matters. Four thousand," Cora said.

"Wait, guys, this is...you should just...work together or," Gabe began.

"Nine thousand, and I can't go any lower than that."

"Guys…" Gabe moaned, and Cora found that she couldn't hold back a smile as she cleared her throat.

"Five thousand."

"Nine thousand."

"Four thousand five hundred."

"It went down," Mr. A noted.

"That it did," Cora said.

"Eight thousand five-hundred…"

"Guys…?" Gabe said.

Poor girl, she'd probably thought that she was going to help make friends, but this was far more important than friendship. This was business.

******

Spoiler: Roll-Play

Persuasion: 6 dice+2 (Oh…)=6 successes. Whelp.

Friendly Intimidation: 6 (Composure)+3 (Persuasion)-4 (Difficulty)=3 successes

Persuasion 2: 1 success

A/N: Okay, that end wasn't that great, but eh. I hope you enjoyed? The rest of the Turn and rolls come next, now that we're done with another mini-turn.

 

[The Laurent]

Turn 4--C

In a dark room, she was greeted first by a woman dressed in rather less appropriate garb. It was as she suspected, and as she feared. She stood there, her eyes cold and dark, pale and annoyed that she had to be here, had to witness what she had merely strongly suspected. The woman's eyes are pale, and there is a far off look. Drugs, of course it would be drugs.

Anton LeFay did as he did, and it was not--some might say--other people's job to judge him for it. The woman looked just out of college, beautiful, with an intelligence only faintly dimmed by the drugs in her system. "Yes? Who is it?"

"I am here to speak with Mr. LeFay."

"He is...busy right now. It's...how did you even get here?" The woman looked up and said, "The door is locked, there is no way in and out of here, except down." She looked terrified. "Are you one of the...things on the other side?"

"Things?" Cora Graves asked, "I am no thing." She allowed her voice to be neutral, because she knew that the lack of emotions was more powerful than any emotion she might have projected.

"N-no, I didn't mean it like that," the woman said, making a simple hand-gesture, a little uncertain and very terrified. She hadn't even been using her Autumnal powers, let alone that fear that curled and devoured those who were unwary. In fact, the glamour coming off of the woman smelled like ashes and dreams, and she hadn't had any glamour today. It was like an itch, after a while.

She needed it, and it was not as if she was even causing any harm, after all. She hadn't even had to scare someone, they'd done it to themselves. So Cora Graves stepped forward and said, "I know you did not. I know Anton LeFay, and I know his ways."

"He is a great and powerful man, who has...I have not learned but one thousandth of his secrets," the woman said.

"Who are you?" Cora asked.

"Is...Isabella, Ma'am."

"Think on this fact," Cora said, reaching a hand out to almost scoop up the invisible clear-dark substance that was glamour. Her whole body tingled with the fear, with the uncertainty and rich, lovely holy awe that had once been so common.

The fear of god himself.

Cults, it always had to be cults.

"At the end of the day, the only person he bends his knee to...is me," Cora said.

The girl paled, and led Cora Graves down where, indeed, there was what looked like a pentagram and more than a little chanting and people robed or dressed scantily, and in the corner, a woman and a man…

Cora flushed and looked away. The man had his hand on the woman's chest, and the woman was groping the man's behind as they--

Huh.

Now, now that was the most disturbing thing she would see today, she decided. It was all uphill from here, she hoped. This was also all show and ritual, most likely. It was the emotions that matter, the glamour produced that he was using in his Sorcerous rituals.

And standing in the middle, fully clothed, hooved feet clopping joyfully as he danced--a joy not shown on his pale, icy face--and the rest swayed.

Cora Graves coughed.

"Ah, yes…" Anton LeFay said, "We have intruders, we always have intruders. In dust and darkness, by hook and crook." His words were grand, his gestures sweeping as he stepped forward and glamour bunched around them.

A simple bit of sorcery, to create a simple bit of privacy.

"What," Anton LeFay said, his voice far more normal and far harsher, "Is it?"

"You are up to your old tricks, is it?" Cora asked. Of course, it wasn't against any law, and even if it was, what would they do? Banish him? Changelings didn't lock other Changelings up, would rather kill a man or exile him than keep him locked up as if they were the Keepers themselves.

So what if he occasionally went too far...his cults didn't go around killing people, and if they tended to end in people's lives ruined, that was his business and his alone.

At least in theory. In practice, one had to keep a tight rein on such people.

"Better than my old tricks. I have found a few people in this city who have some...magical talent. And it seems that magic can be done that's…"

He smiled, "I'm experimenting. I think I might uncover the secrets of this new magical system before you do."

Which sounded like a challenge.

"There are...rules to it. Rules that might be violated," Cora Graves said.

"Oh? You and I both know that we are laws unto ourselves. That is what it is to be a Changeling. To have been changed...so, you're telling me that there are rules to this new magic. Enforced by what?"

"They have a council," Cora Graves said, "Of some kind. And law enforcement as well."

"They would have to catch me. That would not happen."

Cora was of course not worried about Anton LeFay. No, the real worry was that Wizards would come after any mortal followers.

Anton LeFay wouldn't care. But Cora Graves, if she knew about it, would probably have to either force herself not to care or dispose of one of these 'Wardens', depending on the situation.

...and while she was confident in her magical abilities, she had no idea what these Wardens could do, and was well aware of the dynamics of cop-killing, of the way that killing one would only bring down danger upon everyone.

Anton, of course, did not see it that way, and there was in fact no way he was going to be dissuaded from continuing his experiments.

He didn't even care about the sex, just saw it as a useful way to generate both glamour and, apparently, at least according to sources he'd contacted, magical energy.

Still, she told him the rules as she had been told, and hoped he'd at least know to skirt them.

What a day.

*****

On the way home, Cora Graves took stock of the situation.

It was interesting to watch the chaos and carnage, but to be part of it was certainly rather less interesting. The Red Court was struggling to find purchase, knocked back on their asses by the disintegration of the gangs, which were being torn to pieces before their eyes. The difficulty, of course, was that a loss for the Red Court allied gangs was not a total defeat for the vampires, who had plenty of other avenues of control, and it wasn't a victory for Changelings so long as someone else inherited the results.

Still, monitoring of Cartwright had gone well, and all signs pointed to drastic actions coming soon. There was no way, with the violence on the rise and their business interests threatened, that they would lash out.

And yet, Cora thought with amusement as she made her way home, reviewing the files showed that their ability to lash out was rather more limited than expected. It seemed that Red Court power truly was limited if there were only a dozen Red Court vampires in the city.

If only her investigation of another potential rival had gone so well. Literally the only fact that her investigators were able to dig up on Thousand Trods plans is that they had a list of some kind. Just like Cora had, they had figured out just how many vampires there were in the city.

A list existed to be used, for one purpose or another, but, she reflected, that wasn't much of a solution. It didn't tell her anything new, not that she couldn't have guessed. Of course Asha Ashblood was an ambitious person, and had control over any situation she was in. Cora Graves greatly disliked the woman, but one could not deny that she was an effective...whatever position she truly occupied.

This week had been turning into one long, steady mix of disappointments. These 'Fae' who were not related to the True Fae seemed to have a Summer Court, and a Winter Court of their own. This was literally the only fact gleaned thus far, in what was a frustrating exercise of not asking the right questions and not getting the right answers.

But why no Fall court, she mused?

The fall air was cool and crisp as the Queen walked home.

*****

Cora Graves had been planning on going to the grocery store, and then a few other places, but she was in a bad enough mood that maybe she needed to talk to Jonathan, unwind a little. Lie to him some more. Because that's what she did. She felt guilty sometimes, in an odd sort of way. It was the kind of guilt that didn't translate into action, that just existed.

She could no more tell Jonathan all that she did than...she knew what her son would think, and she knew that her son would probably be right in some simple 'moral' sense.

It did feel frustrating, keeping secrets from him when she knew him like an open book.

Cora Graves frowned and wondered what she'd cook for dinner, trying to put herself in that position again. That feeling where she was a mother and everything was normal and fine. She'd come home from ordering assassinations and smiled and within an hour had been fussing--she remembered the memory with a cold fondness, at a distance of a decade--over just why Jonathan wouldn't eat his macaroni and cheese like a big boy.

She opened the door, and paused, stunned.

Jonathan was on the couch. Jason Smiles was on the couch. Jonathan's hand was up Jason's shirt. Jason's arms were around Jonathan's waist, and, rather more pressing than all of these possibly-innocent details was the fact that they were kissing.

And that they saw her.

They sprang apart, and Cora saw the look in Jason's eyes. Terrified, absolutely terrified. He could read minds, and had run away from home when he'd realized he was gay and also realized that his parents had had thoughts about gay people that...well, it was one thing to know that one's parents said, 'Lock 'em up' it was another to know that they meant it, even if--

Thoughts raced through her head, details slipping into place. Cora stared, stunned and a little...it was hard to place the feeling. Not horrified, surely not horrified. Annoyed? Angry? She didn't even know her own emotions, and it felt terrifying and frustrating and Jason Smiles, who had never liked gym class, sprang up, his face red and his eyes filled with mortal terror, and ran for the back door with a speed that quite possibly set some sort of local record.

Jonathan Graves, on the other hand, stood up, smoothing down his shirt and saying, "Gotta go, mom, going to see the...person at the thing. Studying, you know…"

His face was bright red and he gave a nervous laugh as he tried to move past her.

Cora Graves grabbed him and then asked him what that was about and maybe later hugged him.

Well, that was what was supposed to happen.

Instead, he dodged, faster than a person should be, slipping around her as if by magic. As if?

...she hadn't taught him that trick, she thought, as the door closed and Jonathan raced off. She could hear him running.

Of course, she could track down either of them at a whim, and perhaps she would do so.

Cora Graves stepped in and glanced at the couch. They'd taken off their shoes, which lay by the side of the couch. She hoped that Jonathan did not step in any glass when he was out running away from…

From her.

Cora Graves frowned, and then the mask crumbled and she stopped pretending and sighed, flopping down on the couch.

She needed a drink.

Or something.

*****
A/N: So, the rumors section is next, but honestly it might not come until Wednesday or Thursday, if that. But I felt like releasing this early. So, uh. See you on Thursday and then we start Turn 5 just right about where we left off here?

And yeah, Jonathan Graves and Jason Smiles sitting in a tree, K I S S I N G.

If you read back through literally every other update, you can not only see this coming, but you can see some real ironies in Cora Graves' positions.

Especially in regards to, say, Bobby Gardiner.