Game was Sunday, 6/9/19. Ann Marie is playing Flo, and we did a tiny snippet for her at the end.

As the hunters sleep, they all dream. Josh and William’s dreams are formless things as their subconscious minds struggle to come to grips on their activities at Cooley Dickinson hospital, while Anita has a merged dream with The Witch, as she’s trying to find Jordan in a burning Puritan village. Leta’s nightmares are of tempter demons constantly whispering, trying to seduce her to use her infernal powers for her own gain. However, around 5:30 in the morning, a figure interrupts their dreams by handing them a plain, high-quality envelope. In Anita’s dream, the figure appears as a well-dressed Puritan minister, while in Leta’s dream the figure resembles Guiseppe, the demon-butler from Milan.

Each of the hunters then realizes they are lucid dreaming, and open the envelopes. Each envelope has the same thing, a piece of thick, cream-colored cardstock with elegant black filigree. Each card reads, “The Academitrix of Classical Studies at Smith College for Women invites you to a meeting. Tap to reply.” William is instantly suspicious, but realizes he can will himself awake at any point. Josh looks for a pop-up menu on the paper, while Anita sighs but accepts. Leta is also wary, but accepts. Eventually, William and Josh also tap the paper.

The hunters are then somewhere on Smith campus, in front of an ornate stone building that does not exist in the real world. William, Josh, Anita, and Leta look around and see Veltis, Abby, Polly, Mick, and Dr. Ranjip next to them. There is a moment of, “Wait, what are you doing in my dream?” until the hunters realize they are having the same shared dream! They are each their idealized selves, so William appears old, Dr. Ranjip is in his fae seeming, and The Witch and Petite are clearly visible next to Anita and Abby respectively. However, the two Sin-Eaters appear healthy and alive. The Troys eye The Witch, but just see a column of fire with an indistinguishable figure inside.

The carved wooden doors of the building open soundlessly, and Josh chirps, “Hello, Academitrix!” to the building. They then see the pack totem emerge from the building and wave them inside. As they move forward, Josh pipes up, “Is that your correct name?” The totem spirit replies, “That is my formal name, yes.” The hunters step back, startled that the totem speaks! She leads them inside, into a classical foyer with fluted columns and artwork, and then leads them down a corridor of bookcases. Books are crammed in everywhere, and the hunters have to push Abby forward to keep her moving. They finally reach a circular space in the middle of the building, and all around them there are aisles of bookcases. Above them is a large balcony with more bookshelves. ¹⁾ High-backed leather chairs form a circle in the clear space, and the totem – the Academitrix – motions for them to take a seat.

As soon as the hunters sit, they become aware of why the totem has invited them here – she wants to offer them a chance to join the Smith's Daughters pack officially. This would entail joining with her, and bearing her gifts and ban. Knowledge would be theirs, but they would have to spend two hours each week acquiring knowledge, as is her ban. ²⁾ Abby and Polly are immediately interested for different reasons, but Josh hesitates and frets about the pack’s reaction. Leta leans in and murmurs to Veltis, “This sounds ideal.” Veltis nods and whispers back, “We’re already associated with this pack. May as well get the benefits, since we already suffer the drawbacks. Besides, they’re less likely to eat us.” Mick and Dr. Ranjip are openly considering it, while William remains unconvinced.

Josh keeps pressing his concern about the pack, and the totem sighs. Then, five wolves appear in the space, looking startled – and then they collectively sigh as they realize what’s happening. The hunters immediately pick out Cain, as she has the pink Mohawk in wolf-form. The massive black wolf is Valerie Rodriguez, who seems happy. The graying wolf is Hope Maloney, who also supports this. They guess the tawny wolf is Heather DeAngelo, and she seems fine with it. The sleek black wolf is Lydia Ison, who raises no objection. Josh jokes about a wedding, but William cuts it, “It’s not a wedding, it’s an adoption.”

Anita considers the proposal – until The Witch starts jabbing her and hissing, “Do it. Do it. Do it,” repeatedly. Josh also agrees, as do Leta and Veltis. This leaves William, Mick, and Dr. Ranjip still considering it. Mick suddenly says, “Screw it, I’m in.” Dr. Ranjip is clearly torn, as he is well aware of what oaths and promises mean, but then he murmurs, “On the other hand, having werewolves around when the True Fae come sniffing about… I’m in!” William considers it – and shakes his head no. Josh looks at him sadly, but the totem accepts his choice without question. She reaches out to touch the heads of everyone who agreed, and their minds suddenly expand with knowledge!

Anita snaps her head back, suddenly aware she’s conversant in German, while Josh gains some fluency in Spanish and Mandarin. Leta learns conversational Italian and Spanish, while Abby gains German and Arabic. Mick gains conversational fluency in Spanish and Gaelic, while Polly gains conversational First Tongue and Portuguese. ³⁾ The shared dream ends as the hunters continue sleeping. Josh wakes up at 7:00 AM and immediately texts Abby, “I assume after last night you’ll be studying and won’t want company tonight?” He gets back, “Yup,” almost immediately, and smiles. He powers through his exhaustion and showers, has breakfast, and starts doing homework. He also realizes what the sign Anita hung behind the counter means, and blushes when he starts translating what some of the older Latina women said to him in Spanish!

At 8:30, Anita wakes up and staggers into the shower, cursing as chemistry theorems keep flitting into her brain. She showers and then heads for the stairs, only to find Abuela staring at her, arms crossed, at the foot of the stairs. Anita demands, “Did you stand there all night?” Abuela snaps, “What do you think?” and Anita concedes, “I think you did, actually.” She heads downstairs and elbows her way past her grandmother for the coffee pot. As she starts pouring coffee, Abuela demands an explanation. Anita replies, “You’re not going to like it,” but rears back when Abuela snaps, “English or Spanish!” Anita realizes she was speaking German, and switches to Spanish.

Abuela demands, “Where did you learn to speak German?” Anita replies, “Those intensive language courses in Northampton are killer.” Abuela is not amused, so Anita explains she suffered burns last night while killing spiders at Cooley-Dick. Abuela snaps, “So now you’re working as a freelance exterminator? Did you get paid?” Anita replies, “I learned German…” Abuela starts cursing Anita’s gringo friends and laments she doesn’t know which group to blame. Anita concedes, “I was with both groups last night.” They go back and forth a bit, and Abuela snaps, “Don’t blaspheme!” when Anita mentions hellfire. Anita shrugs and replies, “I didn’t take the Lord’s name in vain, and there was hellfire. We used it to kill spiders.” Abuela stares at her and sputters, so Anita brightly chirps, “Guten tag!” and runs out of the house! She grabs breakfast on the way and drives to the Botanica. She busies herself with early morning work before unlocking the doors at 10:00.

William sleeps in to 9:00 AM and carefully makes his way downstairs to find Josh hard at work with his studies. He says, “Quite a dream last night, right?” Josh replies – in Mandarin ⁴⁾ – before switching to English and getting William a cup of coffee. They have an awkward breakfast, but William insists he’s fine, and Josh should go to the Botanica as normal. Josh departs around 10:00, and William relocates to the living room. He carefully lowers himself into his recliner and checks the notes Dr. Ranjip left for him. He then grabs the newspaper. He reads for a while, and then gets a text from Dr. Ranjip. The good doctor has a surprise day off, and is available if William needs help.

Josh walks into the Botanica at 10:30 and sighs when he sees the sign. Anita nods in greeting and then heads downstairs to the office basement for inventory and balancing the books; Josh has been a godsend in that Anita can do all the back-end stuff on Saturday and actually enjoy her Sundays off. As she settles in, she hears a boom of thunder and the skies open up with heavy rain. The rain continues all morning, and it’s still pouring when Leta wakes up around 12:10 PM. She staggers out to the living room to find Abby surrounded by books, carefully crosschecking things. She guesses, “Using newfound linguistics to translate?” Abby grunts and admits she is now reading several tomes she ‘borrowed’ from the Loyalists of Thule that are in German.

Veltis suddenly smiles widely and starts dancing around the apartment! Leta eyes him, and he crows, “I already speak more languages than you can count, so the totem gave me something else instead. I got access to my pocket back! Spices, baby!” He continues dancing around the apartment as he gradually makes his way to the kitchen; Leta calls out, “Great! Then you can make breakfast!” Veltis flips her off with both tiny rat hands, but intends to do that anyway. He sends out a mass text to the cell, “Got my pocket back, I’m making dinner tomorrow!” He makes brunch, and starts researching other storage options for his collection, in case he ever loses access to his pocket realm again.

Morning rolls into early afternoon and the rain continues to fall. At 2:00 PM, William hears the sounds of multiple motorcycles, and he looks out the window to see a dozen bikers suddenly roar onto Sovereign Way. His street is a cul-de-sac and the bikers circle the loop before pulling up into William’s driveway! They stare at him through the window, bikes idling, and the closest biker is a foot from his Buick Skylark. William notes that the group is eleven men sporting gang patches for the Seekers of Hell, but the unquestioned leader is a woman with dark hair, a broken nose, and scarring along her right arm. William guesses that she has some Asian ancestry from the shape of her eyes, as she stares at him intensely.

The Seekers glare at William for a full minute before suddenly swinging their bikes around and roaring off. William eyes his car but decides to leave it outside for now. ⁵⁾ He sends Mick a text message about the strange encounter. Mick texts back a few minutes later, “Seekers of Hell are a white supremacist biker gang out of Springfield. Never known to venture this far north before. Led by a woman, Sadie Hawk; also called the Iron Lady.” William frowns but has no clue why this gang would be glaring at him. Mick sends out a group text as a warning. Down in Springfield, Anita picks up her phone, reads the message, and grunts. She’s familiar enough with the gang, although she’s never dealt with them personally. She heads upstairs and asks Josh, “Why are Nazi bikers scoping out your grandfather?” Josh frowns as he grabs his phone, which he keeps silent when he’s working. He reads the message and recalls Hawke, the infernal cultist who died last year. He performs some quick research, but finds no apparent connection between Hawke and Sadie Hawk.

Leta reads the text message, and then hears motorcycles! She looks out the window to see the twelve bikers turn right onto New South Street, pass by her apartment, and then pull a tight U-turn to swing back! They come to a stop right outside her apartment, and stare at her through the window. Leta pops the window open and yells, “You looking for me?” Several bikers tense, but the woman – Sadie Hawk – motions for them to stay calm. As they pull away, she pulls something out and hurls it right at Leta! Leta has enough time to register what the object is and she scrambles back, screaming, “Grenade!” The grenade bounces off the mesh over the window and lands on the ground as Leta backpedals deeper into the apartment, wondering if her downstairs neighbors are about to die!

Seconds pass and nothing happens, so Leta gets to her feet and carefully looks outside. The grenade is sitting there without a pin, but nothing is happening. Leta quickly calls 911 and then texts Mick. A minute later, she hears sirens as the NPD comes screaming into view! Within seconds, they have blockaded New South Street, and Leta spots Mick. The Northampton bomb squad pulls up a second later, and issues an evacuation order via the back stairs. As they wait in the parking lot, Leta hears the cops clear the building, and then the bomb squad clears the device. The NPD lets people back into the building slowly, and asks questions of everyone. Mick manages to ‘interview’ Leta and he hisses, “It was a fake. A very realistic one, though. What did you do?” Leta explains what happened. Mick groans and whispers, “Fuller’s involved now.” Leta curses, but says, “Thank you, officer,” as she heads inside with Abby.

Around 3 o’clock in Springfield, Josh watches as three Springfield Police cars speed by the botanica, ⁶⁾ lights flashing and sirens wailing. Anita hears the hubbub and comes up from the basement as two ambulances also zoom by, followed by two more cop cars! They speed up Hancock Street, so Anita tells Josh to mind the register while she goes to check it out. She grabs an umbrella and sets out in the rain. She walks up the block, figuring if the cop cars are out of sight she will turn back, but when she turns the corner to Greene Street, she spots them surrounding an abandoned building four plots down. ⁷⁾ A crowd has already gathered to rubberneck, and an eleven-year-old girl excitedly tells Anita that a Dominican gang just got whacked.

Anita edges a little closer and then spots over a dozen fresh ghosts, Dominican men repeating their deaths, which appear to be execution-style shootings. As she’s studying the ghosts, Abby calls and asks, “Is my boy ok?” Anita replies, “Last I checked, yeah.” Abby quickly fills her in on their encounter with the Seekers of Hell; Anita grumbles and quietly reveals what she’s seeing. She ends the call and traipses back to the Botanica. Josh asks, “What’s going on?” Anita replies glibly, “There was a Dominican gang a block from here. They’re no longer there.” Josh misses the subtext and asks, “Did they move out?” Anita stares at him and cracks, “Well, they switched planes, at least.” Josh still doesn’t get it, so Anita spells it out for him. Josh pales, but then starts making care packages to distribute free to anyone who needs one. Anita concedes, “That… makes sense.”

As the afternoon wears on, Anita picks up plenty of rumors from her customers. The most common rumors are that the Dominicans had two girls in the house against their will, and whoever whacked the gang freed the girls unharmed. An official statement issued by the SPD partially verifies those rumors, so Josh and Anita build a small shrine in the window and pass out some of the care packages. Around 6 o’clock, Abuela walks into the store, very concerned about the killings. By this point, there is only one customer left, an elderly Latino man browsing the candles. Abuela hisses to Anita, “Current rumor is the new Italian guy killed those Dominican thugs.” Although she’s conversing with her granddaughter in rapid-fire Spanish, Josh follows along without issue.

Josh sends a text to Leta, warning of the potential Belladonna connection, when the door to the Botanica opens, and Anita feels her wards suddenly tremble. ⁸⁾ Four Mafioso-types walk into the shop, all dark suits and grim attitudes. Anita eyes the leader, a broad-shouldered Caucasian man with dark hair, chiseled features, and piercing blue eyes who stands 6’2". She asks, “Can I help you find anything?” The man replies, “Crucifixes, please.” Anita nods and says, “Let me see what we have left,” with a look at her grandmother that conveys the advantages having a computerized inventory brings. Abuela glares at her as Anita checks the computer and says, “We have some left in storage. Let me get them for you.”

Anita heads down to grab the remaining crucifixes as the four men spread out in the store. The elderly Latino eyes them nervously, and rushes to finish his purchase when Anita returns. As the leader examines the remaining stock, Abuela turns to Josh and snaps in Spanish, “I blame this on you entirely.” Josh hands her a plate of cookies, but then uses the movement to use his phone to snap pictures of the four men covertly. The leader picks out two crucifixes, ⁹⁾ which are tagged $20 each. Anita knocks them down to $15, and the leader pays without quibble. He then eyes Anita and Josh strangely, but ignores Abuela. Then he turns and leads the other three Mafioso out of the Botanica. As soon as they leave, the wards pop back into shape and Anita grumbles as she resets them.

Josh texts the pics to Leta while Anita decides the Dominican ghosts are a problem for later. She texts Peter about the situation and asks if he’s on-site, and Peter texts back a few minutes later, “Yes I am. Going to be a while.” Anita texts back, “Understood.” Abuela lingers as Josh quietly shows Anita the pictures he took of the Mafioso and then a note on his phone, “Keep this quiet, we don’t know if they planted anything in the store!” Anita frowns, but can’t discount the possibility. She has Josh forward the pictures to Peter.

A minute later Peter calls Anita! He hisses, “The man with the blue eyes? That’s Silas Black!” Anita curses as Peter ends the call, and wonders why the new head of the Belladonna Syndicate was in her botanica. Josh stays until 7 o’clock, helping the last of the customers, and offers to escort anyone home who would want it. Abuela turns to Josh and growls, “Dinner, 8 o’clock sharp.” Josh nods as he walks out with an elderly Latina, but practically jumps for joy once he’s out of sight of the botanica. He sends a text message to William that he won’t be home for dinner. Anita texts Leta about Silas Black’s presence in her store, and wonders if the Mafioso and the biker gang are connected. Leta texts back, “That’s unexpected.”

Leta decides to call Milan for guidance. She hits the command, and a moment later Giuseppe answers. Leta gives him a general rundown of the past two days, focusing on her wound. Giuseppe waits until she’s finished, and then replies, “I have two questions. The first is when did you learn to speak Italian?” Leta realizes she’d slipped into Italian without realizing it and replies, “Last night?” Giuseppe then asks, “How long did the tempters whisper to you?” Leta admits they came to her in her dreams, until the totem showed up. She adds, “And her dream-messenger that gave me the invitation looked like you.” That startles Giuseppe, but he suggests the events may not be coincidental. He reveals that by calling upon her infernal heritage deeper than she has before, Leta has opened herself up to Hell and the tempters are trying to seduce her to evil.

This is a common result when Lucifuge hunters call upon their Castigation rituals too deeply, and Giuseppe wonders if her torment spurred the totem-spirit on to formally invite them to join the pack. He assures Leta that repeated use of Castigation would eventually inure her to the tempters, and then asks, “Do you require additional support from Milan?” Leta considers the question before replying, “Not right now, but just so you know, when Silas Black entered Anita’s shop, her wards went janky.” Giuseppe takes note of that and promises to pass it along.

Around the same time, a secret operation is taking place at Cooley Dickinson hospital. Sarah and Flo, her protégé in The Cheiron Group, spent all day with Administration discussing the issue of the Troy cell’s incursion last night. Their disappearance from the material world for ten minutes means a lot of paperwork, but Flo is getting used to the corporate jargon. TCG has long had connections down at Baystate Hospital in Springfield, but the events of six months ago that left the Troy cell as the local powerhouse also has had other repercussions. Chief among them, Springfield has always been a haven for vampires, but six months ago, an old vampire woke up after a long time asleep, and promptly moved somewhere in the Northampton/Amherst area. Although TCG no longer truly harvests vampires as they have a surplus of captive assets to work with, the maneuvers of an elder is always a concern. Sarah is teaching Flo to be a recruiter, one of the wheat who commands the chaff – aka the ‘common’ TCG asset.

However, after the meeting, Flo finds herself with arguably the strangest task she’s faced since joining TCG: her new team is ready to go into that doorway to the roof, once she raps on Dr. Chapman’s head. Brett Chapman is alone in his office and seems an empty shell, but at 7 o’clock, Flo raps on his head – and it clangs. Her team, linked by microphones and helmet cameras, immediately sweeps into the door to the roof – and finds themselves in the high-tech hallway! Flo watches her first team as they sweep down the hallway, until they all hear Dr. Chapman’s voice call out, “Intruders detected in the lab. Countermeasures deploying. Have a nice day!” Suddenly, all the cameras go dark amidst screaming, and then the lines go dead. Flo sighs as she realizes what’s next: staff meeting.