John Nienart - GM

Michael - Kid Charlemagne, the Lantern Jack
Eric - Jack O'Riley, the Interloper
Mickey - Regelda Zephirine, the Winding Rose
Jack - Blackwell, the Nightmare Horse
Me - Mary Marrow, the Crooked Wand (Regelda bunks with me)

( Under the cut to protect your flist. )

ACNW session 3

Michael as Veracity Jones
Aaron as Sam Leison
Penny as Charlotte "Charlie" Manning
Kris F as Brooke Dunlevy, tech person
Todd as Tiernan Malloy
Me as Claire Sexey

[Unknown site tag]A spectral castle has appeared over the Thames by Tower Bridge
Harlech 1350-1480
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlech_Castle
https://www.historyhit.com/locations/harlech-castle/
https://cadw.gov.wales/visit/places-to-visit/castell-harlech
https://www.castlewales.com/harlech.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/castles/comments/1jbg4ei/harlech_castle_wales_now_almost_a_mile_from_the/
https://www.visitharlech.wales/history/harlechcastle

First sighted around sunset
Someone threw a life preserver and yanked it off but it didn't fall off
Now it's blocked off underneath

The castle has vestigia

Leison and Manning go off to check on the hospital
They go up the elevator to the floors parallel to the castle & it looks as expected.
14th floor - vestigia, also a door which Leison opens into a cleaning closet, not a normal door. He closes the door and opens it from inside, it's still in the same place. Every time the door opens and closes they get a wave of vestigia
The door across the way, a kid with an IV drip unconscious
Manning goes in, child age 13-14
Nurse checks on her, watches her for 5 minutes then faffs off
Kid has the Mabinogion & postcard of Harlech castle dated from the summer
postcard is from mum on a family visit which he missed

We're going to put a police drone to see how high the steps go before they're solid - it's about 8 feet off the water

Leison checks his pulse monitor, pulse is 51, eyes are taped shut to keep them from drying out

Distraction, fireworks through Dunlevy. Also cameras.
Sexey and Jones and Malloy are going up the stairway

It's not spectral once they go up the stairway, grey. It's full here where it was 2/3 in London. Everything is in black and white.

Dunlevy & Manning catch each other up

The view is of grey around us, we come up into the bailey
inside void of furniture, like no one has ever lived here
stone is somewhat weathered but not 700 years
Molloy looks at the metal, it's workmanlike

Leison is being watched by something black and shadowy in the cupboard, found by Manning through watching in mirrored compact

Dunlevy's friends are very excited, could be lots of fun
The possibilities, it's a different possibility

Manning was messing around with the lights (stopped the light flickering) and turned off the castle, putting the three in the castle back on the boat, which also made the kid crash (turning the power off to the ventilator)

The Thames is quiescent, which is unusual

Who is visiting the kid? Every day between 2 and 4:30 and Monday during the day.
Elizabeth and Matthew Williams

Does the mother bring in the books? The Mabinogion is always there and Mum reads it on the weekends. The book used to be a library book from Reading.

Footage of the corridor shows pixellation when the critter in the closet shows up.

We visit where the demimonde tells us we can often find Fleet
pub near Smithfield Market and it turns into the 1980s to talk to the Fleet

Leison finds the vampires playing poker

We interview Fleet

A rough sleeper in Charing Cross said he stole the river and needs to be arrested

We give Fleet Sexey's number and Sexey gets a public number of Fleet

20 minute walk to Charing Cross

Owen Lestrange is drunk. He's been sleeping rough, weird shoes with no real laces. Period is late 14th early 15th century. Vestigia. His eyes remind Leison of the critter in the closet and stares at Leison.

Manning looks at him in the mirror and he appears to have a crown and cleaned up.

Leison gets the evidence bag. There's some liquid in a bag. Wallet with very old driver's license, and a signet ring and a wax seal. (The course of the Thames.)

When he is Welsh he is sober, when he is English he is drunk.

Why is he powering whatever he's doing with the life of a child?
It's the tool to hand
What if it were your kin?
What makes you think it isn't?
The child is one of his many descendants

Glendower falls unconscious after Molloy questions him in English
This also affects the hospital life

Glendower is taken to UCL away from the boy
over the next 4-6 hours his vitals collapse
and he dies

We want to talk to Fleet again.
We get down to the disco again, there's a lockin, we call in.
The seal is a locking mechanism
If we melt the seal we break the lock on the Thames
it's his signet, the same as the one in Paris

Leison unlocks the seal
The Thames is starting to return
We call Fleet to advise her of our actions

And book in for a day in London

The boy woke up two minutes after sunset
He recognizes Welsh, but doesn't speak it, per Manning and Sexey's visit
Mum gets Sexey's card
They live in Reading

Friday night, no castle, the Thames is low

Because Spouse was out of town, I asked a friend to come to Rye with me instead of cancelling our reservation. It was a great dinner.

I photographed our meal, though I still have not managed to get my flash to work, so only like a tourist, not like a professional influencer. My favorites were the blackened redfish rillette, the scallop, and the quail. Also, surprisingly the bread and butter: homemade rye, homemade butter, salted before presentation. Very simple but great ingredients.

We were asked if we wanted a kitchen tour (hell yes) and got to hear the inside scoop on their tiny little kitchen. They are closing Rye, despite it having the Michelin recommondation, and expanding Apothecary next door into the space. One kitchen has been serving both bars/restaurants so they'll only have to be doing bar snacks instead of snacks, the kitchen menu for Rye, and the Rye tasting menu. Rye will reopen ASAP, though P will be a while, in a new location. The new location may be in Knox-Henderson but apparently a lot of folks won't come down to lower Greenville and want to be west of 75. Until they reopen they will be doing pop-ups and I guess the supper club (which they send home with you).

I'm going to miss Rye but I do expect them to come back (as opposed to Boulevardier, which I'm still salty with tears about).

Books
The Tower by Flora Carr. Litfic historical novel about Mary Queen of Scots and the near-year she spent imprisoned with some of her ladies in Lochleven after her marriage to Bothwell. A solid debut; while it was a little more literary in form than I generally like, I found it worthwhile.
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, by Charles Duhigg. Pop neuroscience only somewhat aimed at business, despite the title. There's a really useful guide to changing habits in the appendices that I'm going to need to pay some attention to, moving forward.

Short Stories
Bullet Time at the Kink Party, by Miriam. All the content warnings, but a powerful meditation on kink, violence, and our current moment.
Bootcut, by Allison Pottern. A pair of perfect vintage jeans with a price. Feminist horror.
The Definition of a Second, by Carrie Vaughn. Paywalled. Hard to explain but it starts with a gunshot and goes from there. It's a good one.