Hunt 27: Prologue [The VerbenaVerse]

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~~META:
title = Hunt 27: Prologue
~~
====== Hunt 27: Webs - Prologue ======
//Game was 3/15/19, over a year since we last played as we took a break and played [[wod:mage:start]]. Anne Marie joined us as a possible player. We focused on the downtime of six months from a story perspective only.//

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Six months have passed since the destruction of the Northampton asylum.  The official cover story is that there was an ‘incident’ at the asylum that rendered it structurally compromised, and the NPD oversaw the unreported controlled demolition of the main Kirkbride building. The site is now an empty pit surrounded by a chain-linked fence, but many Northampton residents are questioning the official story.  The [[wod:characters:groups:troycell|cell]] has spent much of the intervening time resting and regrouping, although they have hunted and exorcised many ghosts and demons in the interim. However, they have noted with alarm that the numbers of such entities seems to be increasing.((Thanks to the brief intrusion of the Abyss.))  

For interim chief of police [[wod:hunter84:pcs:vandernoot|Alicia Vandernoot]], the past six months have been excruciating as the city drags its heels on finding a replacement. The NPD suffered that dark day, and Vandernoot has done her best to keep things together, but she really wants to retire again. Detective [[wod:hunter84:pcs:Macleod|Richard MacLeod]] put in for a temporary transfer to the Northampton barracks of the State Police and stuck around to help Vandernoot’s initial recovery, and then pitched in to help as she accepted the role of interim chief. As spring gives way to summer and then fall, MacLeod is still in Northampton, helping Vandernoot as much as she’ll allow. 

[[wod:hunter:pcs:william]] has rebuilt his relationship with his best friend and former partner [[wod:hunter84:pcs:sam|Sam Sheppard]] after Sam saw the supernatural at the asylum. William doesn’t go into any detail, but an unspoken understanding has developed between the two men. Sam’s wife [[wod:characters:gladys|Gladys]] remains convinced that William’s de-aging is a miracle of angels, which is technically true; William doesn’t bother to correct her. William still owns and drives his beloved 1986 Buick Skylark, and ignores the occasional fleck of glitter. Sadly, in many ways his life has otherwise stagnated, as the strange looks he got at his regular haunts drove him to seek out new places in Northampton, with mixed results. Although not a recluse, William gets out less than he used to. 

[[wod:hunter:pcs:josh|Josh Troy]] is now in the fall semester of his junior year at UMass Amherst and has quit Best Buy to focus his time on his academic work; he continues with his double major of Journalism and Political Science. Although scholarships and grants mostly pay for school, he did pick up a student worker job at the Political Science office, doing basic clerical errands and acting as a gofer. He arranged his schedule so that he has classes all day on Tuesdays and Thursdays with some office work in the late afternoons, and he comes in Wednesday mornings for his job as well. Although he misses the Best Buy job for the good money and connection to the mundane world, his relationship with his girlfriend [[wod:characters:abby|Abby Henderson]] has improved as he supports her quest for greater understanding into the Sin-Eater condition. He still lives at home with his grandfather. 

[[wod:hunter:pcs:leta]] has spent the past six months quietly taking prep classes for her GED at Northampton High School. Her housemate Abby Henderson and Detective [[wod:characters:polly]] are the only two members of her cell aware of her goal, and both women do their best to help. She still works at Dunkin' Donuts on Main Street, but breezes in and out at her convenience despite drawing a full paycheck. [[wod:characters:veltis]], her demon-familiar, has adjusted to shapeshifting and is making a concerted effort on not being as much of a dick as he has been, but has had no success in reopening the portal to his demonic pocket-realm. 

For Sin-Eater [[wod:hunter:pcs:anita]], the past six months have been about finding a new balance between her business, her family, and her two sets of supernatural gringos. The Montoya Botanica is doing fairly well, with the summer slump giving way to the fall surge for the Day of the Dead, although her accountant [[wod:characters:randall|Randall Crowe]] is worried about the upcoming IRS audit once they get wind at tax time of the $16,000 she ‘borrowed’ from a flagged Swiss bank account back in February. She splits her free time between the [[wod:characters:groups:xkrewe|X-Krewe]] and the Troy cell, going into the Underworld on Friday nights and attending Sunday dinner in Northampton. With Abby joining the X-Krewe unofficially, relations between the hunters and the Sin-Eaters are rock-solid, which is a big help. They’ve started using the Avernian Gate at the First Church of Springfield, avoiding Forest Park. They’ve also discovered a ghostly train that can take them to different parts of the Upper Reaches, with a terminal just off of the ‘pipe room.’ Sadly, Sin-Eater [[wod:geist:pcs:erika]] is still missing after a year, and [[wod:geist:pcs:david]] got her vacant job at Central High School.

Things are a little less solid with her family, however. She has had a few veiled conversations with [[wod:characters:abuela|Abuela]] about her supernatural gringos, but has not had a full reveal of her death and return thanks to her Bargain with [[wod:characters:witch|The Witch]]. Abuela is slowly dealing with it all, and she has grudgingly accepted the new technology in the Botanica. To Anita’s amusement, Josh is slowly wearing her down – not that either woman would admit it. Things with her younger sister [[wod:characters:adela|Del]] have also improved, after a harsh conversation about Del selling herself. Del has avoided the streets and still awaits her trial date – and still nurses a full-blown crush on Josh, who works Saturday mornings at the Botanica. The challenge for the Montoya family is the release of Anita’s older brother [[wod:characters:carlos|Carlos]] on parole. Carlos is a few years older than Anita so the two weren’t particularly close, but Carlos has come by a few times to beg for money or a job. He’s couch surfing for now, as he can’t live at home with Del, and Abuela refused to even consider it. She’s not ready to write him off yet, but she’s pretty close.

Detective [[wod:characters:polly|Polly Wagner]] has fully recovered from the gut shot last Thanksgiving, although that assault and the death of [[wod:hunter:pcs:serena]] is still an open investigation – just not a priority. Interim Chief Vandernoot has kept an eye on Polly and covertly protected her. Polly is still on light desk duty cleaning things up, and hasn’t been assigned a partner. However, her romantic relationship with [[wod:characters:hope|Hope ‘Opal’ Maloney]] of the [[wod:characters:groups:smithsdaughters|Smith’s Daughters]] pack has grown and deepened considerably. 

Abby Henderson has returned to UMass Amherst and often carpools with Josh. Their relationship has improved greatly as she explores the Sin-Eater condition and semi-formally joins the X-Krewe as well. Although her eyes remain purple, she suffers no further deaths and covertly helps Leta with her GED prep and has settled into Leta’s apartment. 

Officer [[wod:characters:mick|Michael ‘Mick’ McManus]]’s "federal connections" with [[wod:characters:groups:valkyrie|Task Force:VALKYRIE]] are put on hold slightly with the agency’s blessings, as he puts in a lot of overtime as the NPD recovers from the asylum. He manages to come to terms with his sister [[wod:characters:aislin_mcmanus|Aislin]] being a sorcerer and living at Abby’s house, although there is some unresolved tension. He also actively hunts for any trace of his girlfriend [[wod:hunter:pcs:rhiannon|Rhiannon Davies]], but has come up dry. 

The changeling [[wod:characters:ranjip|Dr. Amar Ranjip]] continues to work with the cell when his schedule allows, but a lot of his personal time is lost with trips out east. He finally admits to the cell that the Bostonian [[wod:characters:groups:molassescourt|Molasses Court]] has been dealing with the sudden reappearance of the [[wod:characters:groups:mistscourt|Court of the Mists]] in Provincetown. Fourteen changelings remerged from 1898 on [[:wod:mage:start|Christmas Day 2009]],((Thanks to [[wod:mage:pcs:start|a group of pesky PC mages]]…)) and after a few months of trying to adjust to the 21st century, they reached out to the Boston changelings for help. As a doctor who was born in the late 1800s, Dr. Ranjip has been crucial in bringing the time-lost changelings up to speed, although he does tell the cell that some hunters were involved in their initial disappearance back in 1898. 

The cell lets Mick take the lead on the hunt for Rhiannon, although Josh helps with multiple online searches while William remains ready to pitch in at a moment’s notice. The hunters realize the mage [[wod:characters:solomon|Solomon]] is a genuine threat, but William has heard nothing from the body-hopping mage since that phone call from Rhiannon. Somehow, the silence is even more disturbing that Solomon’s usual taunts, so they speak extensively with Aislin about the ‘nope-box’ and the Abyss. Although much of what she says goes over their heads, the cell realizes opening a portal to the Abyss will have grave repercussions for years to come. Josh suggests Mick appeal to Task Force: VALKYRIE to have the asylum declared a federal Superfund site. 

As time passes, the cell focuses on their deepening alliances with the Smith’s Daughters pack of werewolves and the Sin-Eaters of the X-Krewe. They also maintain contact with the [[wod:characters:groups:shieldandcrescent|Shield and Crescent]] cabal and Anita keeps a line open with Merat-Su’s [[wod:characters:groups:cult_of_meratsu|Cult]] of sex workers. They do nurture ties with Aislin and [[wod:characters:gothi|Gothi]], who more or less lives with Aislin – much to Anita’s annoyance. They have had no conversations with the [[wod:characters:groups:longnight|Long Night]] cell out in Goshen, and they are content to let those ties fray. The cell has a running ‘XXX days since the last apocalypse’ sign at the Troys. The Smith’s Daughters’ pack [[wod:characters:totem|totem]] checks in with them semi-frequently, as every member of the cell glimpses her out of the corner of their eyes at least once a week. She seems most pleased to see them reading and/or learning, and is happiest with Josh, Leta, and Abby. She deliberately manifested directly behind Abuela twice so far, much to Anita’s dismay. 

However, one niggling detail about the battle at the asylum remains unresolved: after the destruction of the asylum a group of four or five people, one of them a seemingly feral preteen girl, drove away in a battered VW bug with cheerful waves. Although everyone remembers them fighting alongside the alliance against the dead, everyone also assumed they belonged to someone else’s "tribe" and no one knows who they are or where they came from.

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<WRAP rightalign>
[[{}wod:hunter:recap:27_chapter_1|Chapter 1 =>]]
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