⇨ The Tourist Trap: WEEK 1

[ringleaders]

Who: Anyone, anywhere in Portland.
When: October 1st - 7th, 2017
Where: Portland area, in the new reality.
What: Memories begin returning to the displaced as the fall gets chillier. How the hell did we end up here, again? Also, apparently, the fair is in town.
Warnings: Individually marked!

PORTLAND BY NIGHT↴ Memory regains will come into effect at the beginning of October, to whatever degree you've decided upon, and may be regained at whatever pace you desire from then on. For those with their full carnival memories, it will be like waking up in the body of someone else - for those with half and half, it will be like rapidly recalling sets of memories from a totally different life. Those with full amnesia will simply feel as if this is how it's always been. Unfortunately for you, memories aren't the only thing you have to deal with. The supernatural community of Portland is bustling all of a sudden - could your presence and these events somehow be related? ► THE OUTER CIRCLE: As of the start of the month, the Portland Circle of Enlightenment will find itself starting to get swarmed with members from other chapters. Most notably, it would seem that a small cabal of top mages from the North American Enlightenment Council will be making their home in Portland's HQ. For anyone but the highest of ranks, the purpose behind their visit will be unclear, but it seems like something is definitely up on a metaphysical level. The Circle will be buzzing with rumours of unique planar activity and threatening omens. It seems that it all started with an unusual flare of activity in the planetary ley-lines, starting approximately a week ago. However, even if you would usually be the type to keep tabs on such things, you will find that you oddly have no memory of observing this phenomenon yourself. ► THE ANIMAL FAIR: Good news, the fair is in town! Or, at least, it would be good news... if this was a regular fair. Instead, what's being observed is a bunch of nearly identical flyers, spread all around Portland - each of which bears only the words "THE ANIMAL FAIR", a seemingly bloody paw-print of unknown origin, and the directions to a vague forested location outside of the city. It's dated for October 7th, and all instances of its posting having been discovered with a scattering of rose petals, crow feathers, and pre-burnt matches laying on the ground around them. Most are taking this to be some kind of bizarre viral marketing campaign, but others may know better. ► THE EARTH SPIRIT: If you have connections to The Pack or any of its many variations, you'll probably hear whispers of something very odd that occurred last week - according to the elders, it sounds as if the Earth Spirit, the magical and spiritual center of the planet, has suddenly taken a wound. It's not clear why or how, but there is a fair bit of concern among spiritual types, as it is werebeast belief and nebulous magical fact that the magical forces within the earth are the source of all magic here, as well as the source of life. While many werebeasts claim to have felt the Spirit succumb, you strangely have no memory of such an event occurring. Though things do feel strange, if you know how to tap into the Spirit yourself. ► THE WAR CRY: Though Anath's rain of terror across North America lasted for the first fifteen years or so of the Severing, most independent demons have had enough time to start taking the arch-demon's relative inactivity for granted. For that first while, the warrior queen had seemed determine to rebuild an army on earth by forcing her scattered brethren into service - only for her to gradually settle down in a fortress somewhere in Texas and dig in her heels. Of course, this was too good to last - it sounds as if she and her demonic legion have begun tearing their way up the west coast, their goals remaining a mystery. Their destination, however, is almost certainly Portland.

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► SANCTUARY RESIDENTS (OCTOBER 3RD)

[ringleaders]

On October 3rd, the residents of the Portland Sanctuary building will find that the main doors have been overgrown with vines that have seemed to crop up overnight, blooming with pure black roses. They won't be that hard to remove with a little elbow grease, but they are obviously magical, and... well. Probably not a good sign, considering the city's local fae.

[anti_nonsense]

As an on-again off-again beneficiary of the Sanctuary, Rita will be in the neighbourhood and will lend her power in helping to get rid of the vines, using fire magic to burn them away.

She'll also try using a magic detection spell to attempt to identify the magic nature of the vines, the results of which could be as vague as "yep, shit's magic" or something more specific about what they are, or who or what conjured them.

[ringleaders]

The vines will burn eventually, but it's actually very difficult to do so - they don't catch easily, and seem particularly flame resistant for something organic. This is probably valuable information in of itself.

She'll recognize their nature as magic - in specific, fae magic. Black roses don't exist on their own, after all.

[thevictoriandetective]

Sherlock is going to ask his ghost contacts if they've seen anything similar pop up across town. He will hang around Crossroads and ask any demon or Fae (and Fae-relations) if they know anything about it.

Experimentation: He will also take samples and see if he can make it grow, by placing it in water and in dirt, and do this both in regular sunlight and indoors under a UV light. He will also examine the petals and leaves under a microscope. He will then take his findings to the Internet to see if he can search if anything similar has happened elsewhere.

[ringleaders]

A ghost that lives in the city rose gardens will tell him that some of the roses there have suddenly changed hue to black, and will show him where they are. In Dignity Village, an old resident who has passed on and still haunts the place will say that black roses have started popping up around the area, and that they get a weird feeling about them. They'll ask Sherlock to get rid of them, if he can, because ghosts like to ask people for stuff. Overall, it sounds like black roses have appeared a few different place in the city, including the YMCA and various homeless shelters.

After they are planted, Sherlock will come back to find that whatever area he left the trimmings to grow will be over-grown with the same black roses. He might want to do something about that.

[thevictoriandetective]

Thanks, ghosts. He sulkily cleans them up so he can get more favors later.

Sherlock travels to the YMCA and the homeless shelters, and saves some of what he cleaned up at Dignity village as well as a small sample from the Rose Garden and examines all the samples to see if they're the same kind of plant or if there is any differences between them.

More cleaning?! Ugh. Sherlock is starting to hate these weeds.

[ringleaders]

They all seem to be the same kind of rose, and are all just as hard to cut/burn/destroy. Does Sherlock clear out the roses he was growing or is he keeping them for observation?

[thevictoriandetective]

He clears them all save for one in a pot in the lab, which he will continue to monitor and constantly cut back.

In the right place, finally.

[empty_vessel]

Lacking a body, there's not as much Jimmy can do about removing the roses, but he can take one and drift around the Sanctuary with it, asking the local Sanctuary witches about any sort of bad omens or spells associated with black roses. He's not going to risk asking the fae yet.

Unless he feels any sort of disruption or harmful energy coming from the roses, since he's mostly a sentient mass of ectoplasm at this point, he'll be directly exposed to any sort of energies coming off the rose. Then he'll bring it to the leadership's attention. If they are less than helpful, Jimmy will risk approaching the local fae directly.

[ringleaders]

The roses feel innately uncomfortable to him, as a ghost. It's almost like they are faintly (only faintly) disruptive to his presence, due to how magical they are. The witches will say that black roses are usually a sign of death or loss, but it's not clear how exactly those are intended at the moment. Suffice to say, a lot of people have been keeping clippings of the flowers to examine.

You'd have to ask Helen's player how helpful the leadership is.

[empty_vessel]

Since leadership will have his back (Helen takes care of her people), Jimmy willcarefully go talk to the local fae. He'll be on his best behavior, and properly respectful but black roses are bad omens all around and finding out the intent behind the roses is the fast track to fixing it.

[ringleaders]

Which fae does he try to find? The major fae dominions in the area at The Rose Queen, the Lord of Conflagration, and the Count of Crows.

[empty_vessel]

Jimmy will try to find (or if he's desperate) The Rose Queen. The roses are kind of an obvious tell, and if she's angry about something he might be able to notice any unusual activity among her staff.

[promnibusanctis]

a. Helen will take a clipsping of one bloom and search the library for information on fae and flower colour meanings in an effort to determine the message being given and the severity of it. Obviously, it isn't good, but there are varying levels of ill will.

b. Helen will attempt to alchemically distill several petals into a potion or tonic, and discern if there is an effect on several mice via; vapour, drinking, or ingesting the rose petals.

[ringleaders]

The library is vague about these things, because faeries don't have super precise meanings behind things like flowers, or so it seems. Portland is a hotbed for fae flower imagery, of course, due to the Rose Queen's presence. Black roses, at least in human culture, usually represent death, mourning, or loss - which means that if the colours are intentional, it could be representing the death or loss of something. Of course, it could also be considered a serious threat, if you perceive this similar to the act of providing someone an engraved tombstone in advance of a fight with them.

All forms of the distilled rose petals will kill the mice, either quickly or slowly depending on how high the dosage is. The petals are almost certainly poisonous, which could conceivably provide more evidence to the notion that this is, in fact, a threat.

[promnibusanctis]

a. With this knowledge in mind, Helen will reach out to the Changeling Network to see if anyone's spotted any more black roses across the city and she will also reach out to her London contacts for any knowledge about past events containing black roses.

b. At the first sign of poisoning, Helen attempts to heal the mice in an effort to figure out if her own magic is enough to combat its effects and will also distill the scent of the rose into a perfume in an attempt to see if it has any effect on her mice or herself, for that matter.

[ringleaders]

Black roses have apparently popped up in several places in the city, including The Rose Gardens, Dignity Village, and a number of other locations that feature homeless shelters or soup kitchens. According to London, there's been some ominous fae magic done with roses before, especially unnaturally coloured ones, but nothing specific enough to map to this exact occurrence. Most changelings are wanting to give the flowers a wide birth on account of them being possibly fae related, which is difficult considering they are targeting homeless shelters, and changelings very often end up homeless.

There's no recovering the mice who have directly consumed the petals - they are just straight up dead. Ones that have been given lesser doses and have only fallen into a coma can be woken up again, but they will not return to health, and risk going comatose again without consistent care.

The perfume will instantly put the mice into a deep sleep, and will risk putting Helen into a sleep as well, if she leaves herself exposed to the smell for too long. This is despite the fact that angels don't usually need to sleep at all.

Rude roses...now with correct journal, dammit

[promnibusanctis]

a. Helen will be assisting the destruction of black roses on impacted sites and will be checking in on anyone who might have been exposed to the scent for any period of time. She will also extend a warning through the Changeling Network to not linger near any black roses.

b. Helen will attempt to rouse the affected mice with smelling salts and various other humane means. Once she saw the mice fall asleep she will wear a filter over her nose and mouth in an attempt to negate the scent while she works with alchemical means to counter the sleeping 'illness' affecting the mice. Her notes are copious and left for Sherlock and Will in case anything happens to her.

[ringleaders]

Noted! The vines are very tough and hard to get rid of, but most of them can be culled away with time and effort. The Changeling Network appreciates the heads up.

As long as she cuts herself off from scent exposure in time, she'll be safe from passing out herself. About half of the mice will eventually recover from the sleeping illness, but the other half will pass away. The heavier doses were far more likely to die.

[squeedlyspooch]

A. Before the vines get completely destroyed Zim is stealing a sample of the vines and roses and will try to see if he can detect any kind of unique magical signature that he can record, in particular any codes or sigils using his magitech.

B. He will also be hacking into any CCTV/security cameras/traffic cams in proximity to Sanctuary to see if there are any signs of who left the vines.

Helen told him to do all this, so he'll be reporting (read: ranting) whatever results he gets to Helen and/or Will.

[ringleaders]

The vine samples are obviously fae magic, and are very difficult to cut or burn, though it's doable with effort. It's too hard to translate fae magic to magitech, unfortunately.

The cameras will show that the vines just grew in overnight, with no one ostensibly showing up to cast a spell. It was probably done at range, then, though from what distance isn't clear.

[squeedlyspooch]

A. Zim is going to be persistent as fuck and start imbuing lawn and garden equipment with magic to see what they do to the vines. This includes weed trimmers, chainsaws and wood chippers.

B. As per above he'll be hacking other CCTV around the city, and looking on the internet including the deep web for any other signs of this happening.