Griffin O'Callahan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
icastsword) wrote2024-01-05 06:30 pm
icastsword) wrote2024-01-05 06:30 pm
Entry tags:
Session 154: Bishop & Bishop
It’s the same day as breakfast. We head back to New Orleans. We call Kug to pick us up from the Interplanar Gate. He takes us back to the office. We can put on some coffee. Nellie puts on some tea. Jericho collapses and lays face down on the office floor. We make him a little fort on the floor out of the sofa cushions.
Crimeny only swings by the office long enough to pick up the credit card. They take off.
Griffin walks Nellie to the bus stop. They have a chat. They get to talking about Alistair. Griffin posits that Alistair just stole the soul duplicator from someone else. Time for some dice rolls. Griffin rolls a 4!
Is that sandwich place new?
Nellie rolled a 19 History and a 22 Arcana. Alistair has the knowledge to make sense of the RHoM’s work to do what he did with the soul-copying device.
He was originally getting funding from Interplay, but now he might be getting help from somewhere else - someone who has a lot of knowledge of souls.
Nellie tells Griffin Alistair got the research from the RHoM, specifically from his father. But he was able to come up with the applications on his own. He’s not a terrible wizard - in terms of skill, anyway, he’s a decent wizard. But wizards tend to work in teams, and Alistair isn’t a team player. He wants to be the only guy to do the thing.
Wizardry is dying. Alistair could be doing so much more good if he helped other people, helped get other people into it, organize research, but he’s too concerned about being The One To Fix The Problem, and he doesn’t want to share that with anyone else.
Griffin tells Nellie that if she decides she’s done dealing with all the bullshit and takes off like he knows she wants to, please let him know when she’s got to wherever she’s going. He just wants to know she’s safe.
Nellie’s bus comes. She goes in for a side-hug, and Griffin gives her a full hug. He picks her up. They have a nice hug. He sets her down and she gets on the bus. He waits until the bus pulls away, before he heads back to the office. Time to pick Jericho up off the floor.
Jericho is still on the floor when Griffin gets back to the office. The lights are on. Griffin asks if he would like some help upstairs to his apartment? Jericho says no, he’s fine where he is. This is floor time. Griffin sits next to him on the floor. They chat. Griffin tells Jericho that he’ll probably never really understand what Jericho’s been through in the last few days, but even so, if Jericho needs to talk, Griffin is here to listen.
Jericho finally lets Griffin help him up off the floor. Griffin gives him a hug, which becomes a very extended hug, which is fine. There’s a backlog of hugs that Griffin needs to dispense, so this works. Griffin tells Jericho to have a shower, get something to eat, and then have a sleep. Also, please call Griffin if he needs anything. :(
——
Crimeny gets a couple of cases of Poor Man’s Fireball. A couple of jugs. Jars. Barrels. Ant will allow Crimeny to procure two grill-sized tanks of propane.
Next stop is the gas station for a jerry can of gasoline. Ant is apprehensive, but there isn’t really any reason he can come up with to deny this to Crimeny.
Next stop: Target. For trail mix (for everyone else) and hairspray. Also some body wash and baby oils. And a pack of gum, why not. Then Crimeny goes to the self-checkout.
Next stop: Home Depot, to pick up some sawdust.
——
Jericho gets out his phone and he texts Verona.
JERICHO: how common is it for shapeshifters to get stuck in a form that's not their usual shifting form because of outside chaotic influences
VERONA: […]
VERONA: […]
VERONA: [ Extended …]
Verona calls Jericho. He asks what she knows about the Sea of Chaos. She’s familiar.
VERONA: If I FaceTime you right now, will you have like three beaks?
She asks if anyone took any pictures? Jericho polls the team. Shane sends him seven photos, from different angles. Crimeny sends him three.
Verona says this is probably not a conversation that should be had over the phone. She invites him out for breakfast in the morning.
Once they hang up, Jericho just sits there in his fucking apartment, thinking, "I just wish I could have a normal relationship."
The next day, Verona shows up looking beautiful and stylish, and they go out someplace with breakfast mimosas. She asks him what he knows about therianthropes. Honestly not much - you change into something else, usually at the behest of the full moon. He mentions he was stabbed? She asks if he remembers anything about it? He rolls a Disadvantaged History: 12. It was a similar sensation to the Moonbeam spell.
JERICHO: It kinda felt like that, but stabby.
So it was probably a moonstone knife, interesting. Unconventional, but effective. Jericho asks Verona if she knows a guy named Majnab. The name rings a bell, but she doesn’t think she’s had the pleasure.
Okay - we’ve established he was stabbed by a moonstone knife. Does he know anything else about lycanthropy?
Where does Jericho get his powers? He assumes from his daddy? He was a werewolf. And his mother? Siren. Ah. Verona is learning some things.
So he asked yesterday about the ability to spit fire? Yeah. That seems weird. Magical creatures have innate magical energies. When you transform, those energies manifest in different ways. It sounds almost like going through therianthrope puberty - you don’t typically know what you’re gonna get until you have it. Does anyone in Jericho’s family have any magical background, wizard, sorcerer, warlock?
Jericho thinks most of his dad’s side was just werewolves. He never met his granddaddy. His mother’s side gets a little more difficult on account of the fact she never told him a whole lot about it. She’s from the Feywyld.
Verona suggests he might want to find out how magical his mother’s side of the family is, because that could potentially manifest in other dangerous ways.
JERICHO: You’ve probably never had more than one head.
VERONA: Eh, well. Not in the sense that you’re thinking. I don’t want to talk about that.
Jericho admits he experiences changes in his personality as the full moon draws closer. His colleagues refer to it as going goose. He becomes more reckless - more willing to choose violence. The Sea of Chaos transformation felt a little familiar. The knife transformation went further.
It sounds like Jericho was never properly coached on maintaining his sense of self throughout the transformation.
JERICHO: No, I just got locked up in a basement.
VERONA: …Fun!
Verona recommends a jam session - music. Music is core to who Jericho is. So, not sealing up in a basement with an iron door. No. That’s probably the worst possible thing that could have happened.
Cool!
Verona knows the name of a good therapist…Verona is a woman of many skills, but she does not have the skillset to unpack…she gestures at Jericho’s everything.
Whenever Jericho starts to feel the goosening, do something that is core to Jericho - singing, music. Something that reinforces who he is. It’s not going to happen right away - it’s going to take practice. There will be times where the goose will be fighting and honking to try to get out. It is not a foolproof solution. For Verona, her urge to steal things grew as it got close to the full moon, and sometimes those plans were not the most well thought-out.
Normally she takes weeks to plan a job, but there were times when the lunar cycle made it difficult to stick to the plan. That’s usually when she would turn to petty crimes - something to take the edge off. But you should do it with someone you can be safe around. It’s easy to lose sight of yourself when you are alone in a vacuum. That’s why it was so easy to lose yourself to your bestial nature, alone in a locked room. But it’s harder to lose yourself with people around you.
Jericho asks Verona what she’s done with the band she stole from him. She tells him not to worry about it. It’s streamlined her entire operation. Is Jericho ever getting that back? If it ever stops being useful. Jericho feels like he’s paid her in advance for a lot of things. Verona protests - that band wasn’t a payment for anything. She took it, and it’s hers now.
Okay, fine - what is an actionable thing Jericho can do?
Verona recommends he start meditating in the morning, and focusing on Jericho LaCroix. Mindfulness exercise in the morning, mindfulness exercise when you go to sleep. When the full moon gets closer, when the gooseyness emerges, that’s when he needs to do something core to himself - play a song, or something he can do with others that would be the most helpful. She would advise against drinking.
She recommends he enjoy his mimosa NOW, because he should probably just go clean until he gets this under control.
She tells him to work on his mindfulness exercise for now, and to call her when it gets closer to the full moon. She mentions there are ways to knock someone out a transformation, but they’re unpleasant.
She strongly recommends he look up his family history, too.
Jericho has a feeling that if he starts digging into this one, he’s not going to like what he finds. Also he’s going to have to talk to his mother.
Well, there’s some good news - there are people who like him, regardless of what he finds out.
VERONA: I, for one, am one of them.
JERICHO: Why are you being so nice to me?
Jericho asks where Verona got her cool fox powers. Once upon a time, she stole something she probably shouldn’t have. She stole her lycanthropy?? No, she stole an idol, it was the curse attached to the idol that she wasn’t expecting. The first few years were rough, but it turns out fox and drow work very well together. But she’s gained more benefits than drawbacks from her curse. It wasn’t easy, and she was alone for most of it. She wasn’t locked in a basement, but she gets it. Maybe that’s why she’s being so NICE, because it’s not great when you have to balance between two halves of yourself. Like it or not, that other half of you is still half of you.
JERICHO: It can be a real dick sometimes.
VERONA: We’re all multifacited.
JERICHO: A bitch contains multitudes, sure.
The goose is inevitable. Like death, and taxes.
Is there ANYONE In this universe Jericho has not managed to piss off? Uhhhhhhhhhh, yeah, his employee. And his employee’s moms. They make great curry.
They chat a bit more. Verona thanks Jericho for breakfast. He realized he was paying for this. She kisses him goodbye, and lets him keep his wallet.
——
Crimeny needs to try to contact Rolls in Gunpowder. However, they’re in hiding, so they’re going to be canvassing a very wide area of London. They roll a 22 Investigation (3 on the dice).
They don’t know where Rolls in Gunpowder is. They do get some rumors - they found a case of serial arsonists in the paper. This wouldn’t make the Mundie paper, but word around London is that there is a small group of magical folk who are making life difficult for the Interplay offices out there. That’s a good place to start.
Based on the rumors, it almost seems like they’re trying to drive Interplay out of London.
That’s all Scott needed. :)
Meanwhile, does Shane remember to tell his coworkers about who they’ll be meeting? Yeah, he remembers. Does Shane know where Shane-Dad can pop in? The only place he knows is Griffin’s house. So the gang rolls up on Griffin’s house, where Geneva feeds everyone dinner.
Shane explains that is contact is his dad. Nellie asks Shane what happened to his accent. What does she mean?
Nellie wants to thank everyone for being there for her, so she got the office one of those little fountain things that are supposed to be good for stress. They can set it up later.
She also brought an edible fruit arrangement basket. Don’t ask where she was keeping it. Actually, Griffin’s moms helped her hide it. They both "awwww" when she reveals it. Griffin immediately begins noshing on some fruit.
Next she asks where Crimeny is. Crimeny just appears. She will never get used to that. Nellie tells them they did a really smart thing, and they saved a lot of people back there. She’s so grateful they were there to help us. She has no idea what they would like as a gift - they’re REALLY hard to shop for!! She debated getting them the Anarchist’s Cookbook, but she feels like they don’t need it.
Crimeny tells her they have an audiobook copy. It’s narrated by Jack Black. Wait, REALLY? Goddamn - Nellie wants a copy.
She continues. She does a lot of tinkering on magic items and spells and such. "Alright, here. None of these do what you think they do." She produces a jar of mismatched keys. It’s like a pile of keys collected from antique shows and thrift stores.
All of these keys are enchanted. None of them open doors. Also she doesn’t remember which one does which. Have fun!
Crimeny takes the big mason jar of keys. Their expression doesn’t change, but Nellie knows them well enough to see the glint in their eyes that signals they are about to be a problem.
CRIMENY: Thank you. This will be used.
Ominous!
The door to the magic circle under the stairs was open at one point, but it’s been closed since then. The closet is in kind of a narrow hallway so an open door in that space really gets in the way.
A flash of light comes out from underneath the door. And then there is a voice: Am I in a bloody closet!?
Shane Bishop Jr hands out a business card. It says Shane Bishop Jr, Magic Insurance Salesman.
Shane Bishop Jr. looks a lot like his son. He has a receding hairline, a trimmed mustache, a trilby, and a suit under a beat-up long coat. Our boy is probably going to look a lot like this in another 20 or 30 years.
Griffin introduces himself and shakes Mr. Bishop’s hand. Shane and his dad argue a bit.
Everyone rolls Insight. We know Shane. There is so much more going on here. Mr. Bishop MIGHT sell Insurance, but that’s not all he does.
Serra rolled a 28 Insight. "So you’re Interplay, right?" He tries to demure but is forced to admit he is with Interplay.
Griffin kisses his mothers goodbye and takes the edible arrangement with him into the closet. Seven people pile into the closet. Mr. Bishop announces that he’s not familiar with this spell, he’s got to do a ritual casting, it’s going to take 10 minutes.
After about 9 minutes someone mentions that we didn’t need to be in the closet this whole damn time. After 10 excruciating minutes, we are teleported to the inside of a very large warehouse. WELCOME TO LONDON!
We step out of the warehouse on the banks of the River Thames. It’s midnight. We stand around and bullshit for like 20 minutes because Shane and his dad can’t shut up.
Mr. Bishop lives in a very nice borough. We have to take a bus to get there. Mr. Bishop points out a lovely cafe on the corner where he gets breakfast every day. He takes us up to his flat. Before he unlocks the door, he waggles the finger and warns everyone that "Things are not always as they seem!" This is met with resounding silence.
The interior is very large. In fact, much larger on the inside than the building’s exterior suggests.
CRIMENY: You have the TARDIS suite.
The previous tenant altered the space in here permanently. This is the Lair of the Bishop!
Crimeny is now going to steal something from the British Museum out of spite.
This flat isn’t Mr. Bishop’s primary residence, but he often sleeps here because this is where his primary work is. There are 6 rooms, which have been converted to offices, complete with conspiracy boards. Each room has a futon.
The kitchen isn’t dirty but it doesn’t look like it’s used a lot. He offers everyone a drink, and then looks in the fridge and sees that the only thing in there is a carton of milk that expired three months ago.
Now that we’re here, we can talk! Mr. Bishop asks what we’re here for and what he can help us with! Jericho says we’re looking for a guy. A guy named Sigurd.
The crew snoop to see what Mr. Bishop is working on.
Nellie finds a map of London with the Hackney Borough circled. There are a bunch of names written on it, and on a post-it note she sees the words, "Inter-dimensional seam?"
Jericho sees a bunch of dossiers pinned to his Pepe Silvia conspiracy wall. These are London natives, but they also appear to be magic folk. He sees some scribbled shorthand notes about how these people are leaving London quickly. It seems like a lot of magic folk are leaving London. Rent is shit, sure, but Mr. Bishop seems to think there’s something else causing the exodus.
Crimeny sees an outbreak of unusual murders. There are some crime scene photos, and some notes Mr. Bishop has taken. He seems to have a theory, but he wrote it down as, "I really hope this is what I think it is." Instead of writing down his theory.
Shane snoops in one of the biggest rooms. There’s a large conspiracy board, a map of London, and the River Thames highlighted. There are a number of lines sticking off the river.
Weird witch or hag - she’s hunched over, covered in seaweed, she has big bulbous eyes and she’s very gangly. She has shark teeth. The post-it note has written, "JENNY GREENTEETH!!!!"
Jenny Greenteeth has been a pet project of Shane’s father for most of Shane’s life. Jenny Greenteeth is Mr. Bishop’s Bigfoot.
Has Shane spoken to his brother recently? No. How bout his sister? No. Mum? No. Maybe he should reconnect while he’s in town???
Griffin watches the Shane-Shane conversation while snacking on grapes from the edible arrangement like they’re popcorn.
Meanwhile Crimeny is doing something out of spite: They’re cleaning this place up. Once Griffin notices, he parks the edible arrangement in the very empty fridge and starts to help his buddy tidy.
Nellie grills Mr. Bishop - he’s with Interplay, what gives? Why is he helping us? We’re trying to work out of Interplay’s line of sight, and he doesn’t care? No, he doesn’t care. Why would he?
Nellie doesn’t have to worry about him, he is keen and hip. Okay.
Crimeny rolls Insight: 30. Since they’re going around cleaning, they’re getting the picture of a man who is an extreme workaholic. He just works until he collapses. He doesn’t have any beds, just futons. He’s got a futon in every room.
Griffin asks if there’s a gym around here? Mr. Bishop is…sure…there’s one around here…somewhere! Jericho has his phone out and finds one. Griffin asks if Jericho wants to go with him tomorrow. Jericho does. Yeah! After they work out they can get breakfast. :D
Shane is made to do a pushup. He rolls a 7 Athletics. Everyone dumps on Shane. Crimeny comes over and gets out their Immovable Rod. Okay Shane, do a pull-up. He rolls a 10 Athletics to do a single pull-up.
There is SO MUCH Shane & Shane bullshit. Jericho finally has enough. He’s going to go to bed. He wants today to be over.
Nellie asks if Mr. Bishop has any books. Tons! Lots of crime novels, lots of cryptid lore, books on ancient rituals, books on serial killers. There’s a lot of morbid stuff in here. Nellie wants to peep the books about rituals.
Next session we’re going to pick a fun mystery to solve! We can choose between:
Ghoulish Gape of Greenteeth’s Garden
Fearful Flight of Fantasy Folk
Main Street’s Many Morbid Murders
Waning Wall Warping the Worlds
Crimeny only swings by the office long enough to pick up the credit card. They take off.
Griffin walks Nellie to the bus stop. They have a chat. They get to talking about Alistair. Griffin posits that Alistair just stole the soul duplicator from someone else. Time for some dice rolls. Griffin rolls a 4!
Is that sandwich place new?
Nellie rolled a 19 History and a 22 Arcana. Alistair has the knowledge to make sense of the RHoM’s work to do what he did with the soul-copying device.
He was originally getting funding from Interplay, but now he might be getting help from somewhere else - someone who has a lot of knowledge of souls.
Nellie tells Griffin Alistair got the research from the RHoM, specifically from his father. But he was able to come up with the applications on his own. He’s not a terrible wizard - in terms of skill, anyway, he’s a decent wizard. But wizards tend to work in teams, and Alistair isn’t a team player. He wants to be the only guy to do the thing.
Wizardry is dying. Alistair could be doing so much more good if he helped other people, helped get other people into it, organize research, but he’s too concerned about being The One To Fix The Problem, and he doesn’t want to share that with anyone else.
Griffin tells Nellie that if she decides she’s done dealing with all the bullshit and takes off like he knows she wants to, please let him know when she’s got to wherever she’s going. He just wants to know she’s safe.
Nellie’s bus comes. She goes in for a side-hug, and Griffin gives her a full hug. He picks her up. They have a nice hug. He sets her down and she gets on the bus. He waits until the bus pulls away, before he heads back to the office. Time to pick Jericho up off the floor.
Jericho is still on the floor when Griffin gets back to the office. The lights are on. Griffin asks if he would like some help upstairs to his apartment? Jericho says no, he’s fine where he is. This is floor time. Griffin sits next to him on the floor. They chat. Griffin tells Jericho that he’ll probably never really understand what Jericho’s been through in the last few days, but even so, if Jericho needs to talk, Griffin is here to listen.
Jericho finally lets Griffin help him up off the floor. Griffin gives him a hug, which becomes a very extended hug, which is fine. There’s a backlog of hugs that Griffin needs to dispense, so this works. Griffin tells Jericho to have a shower, get something to eat, and then have a sleep. Also, please call Griffin if he needs anything. :(
——
Crimeny gets a couple of cases of Poor Man’s Fireball. A couple of jugs. Jars. Barrels. Ant will allow Crimeny to procure two grill-sized tanks of propane.
Next stop is the gas station for a jerry can of gasoline. Ant is apprehensive, but there isn’t really any reason he can come up with to deny this to Crimeny.
Next stop: Target. For trail mix (for everyone else) and hairspray. Also some body wash and baby oils. And a pack of gum, why not. Then Crimeny goes to the self-checkout.
Next stop: Home Depot, to pick up some sawdust.
——
Jericho gets out his phone and he texts Verona.
JERICHO: how common is it for shapeshifters to get stuck in a form that's not their usual shifting form because of outside chaotic influences
VERONA: […]
VERONA: […]
VERONA: [ Extended …]
Verona calls Jericho. He asks what she knows about the Sea of Chaos. She’s familiar.
VERONA: If I FaceTime you right now, will you have like three beaks?
She asks if anyone took any pictures? Jericho polls the team. Shane sends him seven photos, from different angles. Crimeny sends him three.
Verona says this is probably not a conversation that should be had over the phone. She invites him out for breakfast in the morning.
Once they hang up, Jericho just sits there in his fucking apartment, thinking, "I just wish I could have a normal relationship."
The next day, Verona shows up looking beautiful and stylish, and they go out someplace with breakfast mimosas. She asks him what he knows about therianthropes. Honestly not much - you change into something else, usually at the behest of the full moon. He mentions he was stabbed? She asks if he remembers anything about it? He rolls a Disadvantaged History: 12. It was a similar sensation to the Moonbeam spell.
JERICHO: It kinda felt like that, but stabby.
So it was probably a moonstone knife, interesting. Unconventional, but effective. Jericho asks Verona if she knows a guy named Majnab. The name rings a bell, but she doesn’t think she’s had the pleasure.
Okay - we’ve established he was stabbed by a moonstone knife. Does he know anything else about lycanthropy?
Where does Jericho get his powers? He assumes from his daddy? He was a werewolf. And his mother? Siren. Ah. Verona is learning some things.
So he asked yesterday about the ability to spit fire? Yeah. That seems weird. Magical creatures have innate magical energies. When you transform, those energies manifest in different ways. It sounds almost like going through therianthrope puberty - you don’t typically know what you’re gonna get until you have it. Does anyone in Jericho’s family have any magical background, wizard, sorcerer, warlock?
Jericho thinks most of his dad’s side was just werewolves. He never met his granddaddy. His mother’s side gets a little more difficult on account of the fact she never told him a whole lot about it. She’s from the Feywyld.
Verona suggests he might want to find out how magical his mother’s side of the family is, because that could potentially manifest in other dangerous ways.
JERICHO: You’ve probably never had more than one head.
VERONA: Eh, well. Not in the sense that you’re thinking. I don’t want to talk about that.
Jericho admits he experiences changes in his personality as the full moon draws closer. His colleagues refer to it as going goose. He becomes more reckless - more willing to choose violence. The Sea of Chaos transformation felt a little familiar. The knife transformation went further.
It sounds like Jericho was never properly coached on maintaining his sense of self throughout the transformation.
JERICHO: No, I just got locked up in a basement.
VERONA: …Fun!
Verona recommends a jam session - music. Music is core to who Jericho is. So, not sealing up in a basement with an iron door. No. That’s probably the worst possible thing that could have happened.
Cool!
Verona knows the name of a good therapist…Verona is a woman of many skills, but she does not have the skillset to unpack…she gestures at Jericho’s everything.
Whenever Jericho starts to feel the goosening, do something that is core to Jericho - singing, music. Something that reinforces who he is. It’s not going to happen right away - it’s going to take practice. There will be times where the goose will be fighting and honking to try to get out. It is not a foolproof solution. For Verona, her urge to steal things grew as it got close to the full moon, and sometimes those plans were not the most well thought-out.
Normally she takes weeks to plan a job, but there were times when the lunar cycle made it difficult to stick to the plan. That’s usually when she would turn to petty crimes - something to take the edge off. But you should do it with someone you can be safe around. It’s easy to lose sight of yourself when you are alone in a vacuum. That’s why it was so easy to lose yourself to your bestial nature, alone in a locked room. But it’s harder to lose yourself with people around you.
Jericho asks Verona what she’s done with the band she stole from him. She tells him not to worry about it. It’s streamlined her entire operation. Is Jericho ever getting that back? If it ever stops being useful. Jericho feels like he’s paid her in advance for a lot of things. Verona protests - that band wasn’t a payment for anything. She took it, and it’s hers now.
Okay, fine - what is an actionable thing Jericho can do?
Verona recommends he start meditating in the morning, and focusing on Jericho LaCroix. Mindfulness exercise in the morning, mindfulness exercise when you go to sleep. When the full moon gets closer, when the gooseyness emerges, that’s when he needs to do something core to himself - play a song, or something he can do with others that would be the most helpful. She would advise against drinking.
She recommends he enjoy his mimosa NOW, because he should probably just go clean until he gets this under control.
She tells him to work on his mindfulness exercise for now, and to call her when it gets closer to the full moon. She mentions there are ways to knock someone out a transformation, but they’re unpleasant.
She strongly recommends he look up his family history, too.
Jericho has a feeling that if he starts digging into this one, he’s not going to like what he finds. Also he’s going to have to talk to his mother.
Well, there’s some good news - there are people who like him, regardless of what he finds out.
VERONA: I, for one, am one of them.
JERICHO: Why are you being so nice to me?
Jericho asks where Verona got her cool fox powers. Once upon a time, she stole something she probably shouldn’t have. She stole her lycanthropy?? No, she stole an idol, it was the curse attached to the idol that she wasn’t expecting. The first few years were rough, but it turns out fox and drow work very well together. But she’s gained more benefits than drawbacks from her curse. It wasn’t easy, and she was alone for most of it. She wasn’t locked in a basement, but she gets it. Maybe that’s why she’s being so NICE, because it’s not great when you have to balance between two halves of yourself. Like it or not, that other half of you is still half of you.
JERICHO: It can be a real dick sometimes.
VERONA: We’re all multifacited.
JERICHO: A bitch contains multitudes, sure.
The goose is inevitable. Like death, and taxes.
Is there ANYONE In this universe Jericho has not managed to piss off? Uhhhhhhhhhh, yeah, his employee. And his employee’s moms. They make great curry.
They chat a bit more. Verona thanks Jericho for breakfast. He realized he was paying for this. She kisses him goodbye, and lets him keep his wallet.
——
Crimeny needs to try to contact Rolls in Gunpowder. However, they’re in hiding, so they’re going to be canvassing a very wide area of London. They roll a 22 Investigation (3 on the dice).
They don’t know where Rolls in Gunpowder is. They do get some rumors - they found a case of serial arsonists in the paper. This wouldn’t make the Mundie paper, but word around London is that there is a small group of magical folk who are making life difficult for the Interplay offices out there. That’s a good place to start.
Based on the rumors, it almost seems like they’re trying to drive Interplay out of London.
That’s all Scott needed. :)
Meanwhile, does Shane remember to tell his coworkers about who they’ll be meeting? Yeah, he remembers. Does Shane know where Shane-Dad can pop in? The only place he knows is Griffin’s house. So the gang rolls up on Griffin’s house, where Geneva feeds everyone dinner.
Shane explains that is contact is his dad. Nellie asks Shane what happened to his accent. What does she mean?
Nellie wants to thank everyone for being there for her, so she got the office one of those little fountain things that are supposed to be good for stress. They can set it up later.
She also brought an edible fruit arrangement basket. Don’t ask where she was keeping it. Actually, Griffin’s moms helped her hide it. They both "awwww" when she reveals it. Griffin immediately begins noshing on some fruit.
Next she asks where Crimeny is. Crimeny just appears. She will never get used to that. Nellie tells them they did a really smart thing, and they saved a lot of people back there. She’s so grateful they were there to help us. She has no idea what they would like as a gift - they’re REALLY hard to shop for!! She debated getting them the Anarchist’s Cookbook, but she feels like they don’t need it.
Crimeny tells her they have an audiobook copy. It’s narrated by Jack Black. Wait, REALLY? Goddamn - Nellie wants a copy.
She continues. She does a lot of tinkering on magic items and spells and such. "Alright, here. None of these do what you think they do." She produces a jar of mismatched keys. It’s like a pile of keys collected from antique shows and thrift stores.
All of these keys are enchanted. None of them open doors. Also she doesn’t remember which one does which. Have fun!
Crimeny takes the big mason jar of keys. Their expression doesn’t change, but Nellie knows them well enough to see the glint in their eyes that signals they are about to be a problem.
CRIMENY: Thank you. This will be used.
Ominous!
The door to the magic circle under the stairs was open at one point, but it’s been closed since then. The closet is in kind of a narrow hallway so an open door in that space really gets in the way.
A flash of light comes out from underneath the door. And then there is a voice: Am I in a bloody closet!?
Shane Bishop Jr hands out a business card. It says Shane Bishop Jr, Magic Insurance Salesman.
Shane Bishop Jr. looks a lot like his son. He has a receding hairline, a trimmed mustache, a trilby, and a suit under a beat-up long coat. Our boy is probably going to look a lot like this in another 20 or 30 years.
Griffin introduces himself and shakes Mr. Bishop’s hand. Shane and his dad argue a bit.
Everyone rolls Insight. We know Shane. There is so much more going on here. Mr. Bishop MIGHT sell Insurance, but that’s not all he does.
Serra rolled a 28 Insight. "So you’re Interplay, right?" He tries to demure but is forced to admit he is with Interplay.
Griffin kisses his mothers goodbye and takes the edible arrangement with him into the closet. Seven people pile into the closet. Mr. Bishop announces that he’s not familiar with this spell, he’s got to do a ritual casting, it’s going to take 10 minutes.
After about 9 minutes someone mentions that we didn’t need to be in the closet this whole damn time. After 10 excruciating minutes, we are teleported to the inside of a very large warehouse. WELCOME TO LONDON!
We step out of the warehouse on the banks of the River Thames. It’s midnight. We stand around and bullshit for like 20 minutes because Shane and his dad can’t shut up.
Mr. Bishop lives in a very nice borough. We have to take a bus to get there. Mr. Bishop points out a lovely cafe on the corner where he gets breakfast every day. He takes us up to his flat. Before he unlocks the door, he waggles the finger and warns everyone that "Things are not always as they seem!" This is met with resounding silence.
The interior is very large. In fact, much larger on the inside than the building’s exterior suggests.
CRIMENY: You have the TARDIS suite.
The previous tenant altered the space in here permanently. This is the Lair of the Bishop!
Crimeny is now going to steal something from the British Museum out of spite.
This flat isn’t Mr. Bishop’s primary residence, but he often sleeps here because this is where his primary work is. There are 6 rooms, which have been converted to offices, complete with conspiracy boards. Each room has a futon.
The kitchen isn’t dirty but it doesn’t look like it’s used a lot. He offers everyone a drink, and then looks in the fridge and sees that the only thing in there is a carton of milk that expired three months ago.
Now that we’re here, we can talk! Mr. Bishop asks what we’re here for and what he can help us with! Jericho says we’re looking for a guy. A guy named Sigurd.
The crew snoop to see what Mr. Bishop is working on.
Nellie finds a map of London with the Hackney Borough circled. There are a bunch of names written on it, and on a post-it note she sees the words, "Inter-dimensional seam?"
Jericho sees a bunch of dossiers pinned to his Pepe Silvia conspiracy wall. These are London natives, but they also appear to be magic folk. He sees some scribbled shorthand notes about how these people are leaving London quickly. It seems like a lot of magic folk are leaving London. Rent is shit, sure, but Mr. Bishop seems to think there’s something else causing the exodus.
Crimeny sees an outbreak of unusual murders. There are some crime scene photos, and some notes Mr. Bishop has taken. He seems to have a theory, but he wrote it down as, "I really hope this is what I think it is." Instead of writing down his theory.
Shane snoops in one of the biggest rooms. There’s a large conspiracy board, a map of London, and the River Thames highlighted. There are a number of lines sticking off the river.
Weird witch or hag - she’s hunched over, covered in seaweed, she has big bulbous eyes and she’s very gangly. She has shark teeth. The post-it note has written, "JENNY GREENTEETH!!!!"
Jenny Greenteeth has been a pet project of Shane’s father for most of Shane’s life. Jenny Greenteeth is Mr. Bishop’s Bigfoot.
Has Shane spoken to his brother recently? No. How bout his sister? No. Mum? No. Maybe he should reconnect while he’s in town???
Griffin watches the Shane-Shane conversation while snacking on grapes from the edible arrangement like they’re popcorn.
Meanwhile Crimeny is doing something out of spite: They’re cleaning this place up. Once Griffin notices, he parks the edible arrangement in the very empty fridge and starts to help his buddy tidy.
Nellie grills Mr. Bishop - he’s with Interplay, what gives? Why is he helping us? We’re trying to work out of Interplay’s line of sight, and he doesn’t care? No, he doesn’t care. Why would he?
Nellie doesn’t have to worry about him, he is keen and hip. Okay.
Crimeny rolls Insight: 30. Since they’re going around cleaning, they’re getting the picture of a man who is an extreme workaholic. He just works until he collapses. He doesn’t have any beds, just futons. He’s got a futon in every room.
Griffin asks if there’s a gym around here? Mr. Bishop is…sure…there’s one around here…somewhere! Jericho has his phone out and finds one. Griffin asks if Jericho wants to go with him tomorrow. Jericho does. Yeah! After they work out they can get breakfast. :D
Shane is made to do a pushup. He rolls a 7 Athletics. Everyone dumps on Shane. Crimeny comes over and gets out their Immovable Rod. Okay Shane, do a pull-up. He rolls a 10 Athletics to do a single pull-up.
There is SO MUCH Shane & Shane bullshit. Jericho finally has enough. He’s going to go to bed. He wants today to be over.
Nellie asks if Mr. Bishop has any books. Tons! Lots of crime novels, lots of cryptid lore, books on ancient rituals, books on serial killers. There’s a lot of morbid stuff in here. Nellie wants to peep the books about rituals.
Next session we’re going to pick a fun mystery to solve! We can choose between:
Ghoulish Gape of Greenteeth’s Garden
Fearful Flight of Fantasy Folk
Main Street’s Many Morbid Murders
Waning Wall Warping the Worlds