Session 21

Week of Monday, December 19, 2022

Flashing back to the afternoon of Monday the 19th, we all go to Animal Control to talk to some folks about snakes
A guard, Trevor, greets Agnes by name
- He thought the snakes went to her rescue
- He sends her back to speak to Ms. Marsha, who runs things
She is insistent that the snakes went to a rescue group and the paperwork was all in order
- Aoife helps push past whatever was done to rewrite her memories
  - Agnes figures out someone used Chicanery (Dream Logic) on her
Agnes talks to Trevor to see if he can access the surveillance footage, and after some doing gets him to show her the footage from around a week ago when the people came in
- The images of the people are indistinct and fuzzy, similar to what we saw at the dog shelter
- The adult male gestures at the camera and it goes completely dark

Over the course of Monday evening and Tuesday we check multiple libraries and find the altered copies of How the Grinch Stole Christmas like the one Agnes originally found
She uses Chronos to see the past of one of the copies to discern how it was made
- She sees a large industrial laser printer and book binding machine making 30-40, maybe more (definitely more books than we've found)
- She sees a man asking someone else if it's in the public domain and if it's okay to print these, and remarking on the fact that they're creepy and then boxing them up for shipping to an address in Norcross, though we don't catch the street

We all attend the Yule gathering at court on Wednesday the 21st
- I bring Bran
We talk to Heart about the thallain, snakes, puppies, and books
We do some politicking and make progress on raising influence with another motley via the satyrs

Aoife contacts her brother Cillian to see if she can arrange for her partner Will to get a job with the family firm
- He's currently in Egypt with her other brother working on a deal
- He says he'll see if he can get their dad or mom to find a position for him
He's heard of Merit and Ashmore
- Makes a comment about them getting a friend of their father off a charge
- The friend is a guy who only takes meetings at night and always shows up with a different hot blonde
He tells her about a crazy story about someone flying in on a magic carpet and blowing up an oil refinery
- Someone told him "yeah, sometimes the Taftani just come in from the desert and do stuff like that" but has no idea what that means

Moira gets a call at the studio from Marina Blue
- She has had various people tell her she should check out the studio, so Moira makes arrangements for her to come by tomorrow on the 23rd
Marina Blue shows up the next day, driven by a big, imposing looking guy who stays with the car when she comes in
- Talks about not wanting her presence to make parents pull their kids out of the space, and not wanting to destroy what she's built in that regard
She wants to give Moira over the holidays to think about it and talk with her studio goers and parents potentially
Moira gets a good enough read that she's certain she's a normal human Dreamer and not aware of anything with the supernatural
- She also figures that her being part of the studio would bring a lot more attention to it, and that probably half her studio folks may be distracted or ruffled by her presence

I get a call from Jane Hazlet about a piece that made it in with the lot that Paddy bought
- I tell her I'm not at home and would need to check the present since I haven't opened it when I'm back home
I agonize over it for hours but after finding out that she seems to be who she says she is and that the family isn't wealthy, I agree to give it back
I set up to meet with her and her kids at Agnes' office the next day for lunch
- I give them the Jobs' signature and she gives me a set of handwritten lyrics to Bohemian Rhapsody
- I ask for her and the kids to give me their autographs too
- The youngest child gives me a hug and says "thank you mister leprechaun"

With Heart's help we do find the location of the thallain and go to confront them
We go into a warehouse and hear the barking of puppies and find the thallain and a terrifying chimerical Grinch monster they've been powering up with the books
They had been planning on injecting the puppies with rabies, were making Barbie doll sized stone statues, and had crafter a physical knife with a chimerical handle sized for the Grinch (so it could attack mortals)
We defeat them, rescue the animals, and douse the statues with Blaze's jug