The young man in the cafe's Savannah Georgia setting writeup

[The young man in the cafe]

taking this from the Forsaken and Ainu thread to avoid derailing...

Well, my full write up is trapped on my old craptop (crappy laptop) with the busted battery, but since you asked, here is a brief bullet points summary to hold you guys over until I can rewrite it.

• TFV and VASCU agree that the supernatural is needed for Savannah to thrive, what they know that the other hunter groups don't is that real reason Sherman didn't burn Savannah is that the city is a major junction point for the flow of occult energies across America and burning it would have had nasty effects across the country, thus why TFV paid the local magi to magically fireproof the historic districts where most the energy flows through. For some reason, supernatural abilities in Savannah often manifest younger than usual, perhaps due to the excess of occult energies in the city, so the government compacts include an education department group that manages Georgia's most unique charter schools through a front company funded by local monsters. One of the rules that TFV has that the local monsters must follow is that Pinke Masters' Bar (a frequent stip for presidential campaigns in Georgia is off limits during election years.
• The Georgia Historic Society has a secret division dedicated to learning the real occult history of Georgia, this compact is one of the major forces in the "push the limits of the masquerade to drive up tourism" plan, along with the 6th Sense Savannah ghost tour company, which researches local ghost stories to add to their tours, and sometimes works with the local sin eaters make sure the ghosts will not be a threat to their customers. The Historic society also interviews older supernaturals that witnessed important events in Georgia's history and really only kills monsters if they become a threat to the city at large.
• The fallout from the downfall of former police chief Willie Lovett has ended the Carthian regime in Savannah, since it had strong ties to the local African American political machine that had many of it's members thrown out of office due to public fury over Lovett's blatant corruption. The deposed Carthains that were most connected to Lovett are being swamped in the legal system by the famous local lawyer/ hunter Jamie Casino. Casino is a lay member of the Malleus Maleficarum who fights with a literal hammer when his lawyer skills don't work, but is really only a hunter so he can avenge his brother's death, which Lovett attempted to sweep under the rug at the request the Carthain prefect who had him killed. He is not sure if he wants to keep up the vigil after he gets that revenge. Many other supernatural and hunter groups have interests in the Lovett scandal one way or another.
• The old yellow fever tunnels beneath the city have become something of a supernatural neutral zone/market/hangout. The Nosferatu Lance archbishop who took over after the Carthians fell makes his home here. One of his rules for the local kindred is that the girl scouts are absolutely off limits, which the local werewolves also enforce.
• The Lady Chablis and her friends at club one come down hard on anyone in Savannah's supernaturally aware community that abuses the local LGBT community. Those in Savannah who know of the astral realm suspect she may have truly merged with (as opposed to being possessed by) her astral symbol of herself, which would help explain why she manages to look so young at her age. Some of the drag queens she employees at club one are themselves supernatural, so it isn't impossible that she has some way of keeping herself young without being a ghoul.
• The Les Mystères used to meet in colonial park cemetery for their rites, but the media freakout resulting from the discovery of the remains of sacrificed animals by a local jogger prompted the historic society and TFV to lock up the cemetery at night.
• The jagged crescent is the main ascending ones presence in Savannah, selling drugs to the SCAD students makes a good deal of money for them. But they and the night watch took a beating when the ties of their gangs to Lovett (they were amoung the gangs that helped the corrupt anti-drug taskforce deal drugs out of the evidence lockers and several of their leaders were jailed as a result of the officers cutting peal deals).
• The Loyalists of Thule and the Aegis Kun Doru were kicked out of Savannah on their sliced up asses after they attempted to steal various documents and historic relics from the Historic society.
• The younger Ashwood Abbey and Network zero members in Savannah are surprising cozy with each other, which probably has to do with most of them being SCAD students, with the zeroes being mostly film students.
• The fact that Savannah's economy is mostly based on, tourism, manufacturing, the military and shipping means the Union, TFV and the local compacts mentioned above are over represented among the local hunter, with Null Mysteriis and the Cheiron group underrepresented. The Long night and MM are also over represented, but the long night in the town is divided along racial lines (and this has only gotten worse since the Lovett scandal) and the MM was forced to go along with the historic society's plans in the aftermath of the local catholic sex abuse scandal following the Boston scandal.

That's it for now. The werewolves, changelings, beasts and magi will come later. as will the Lucifuge:.

I suppose the trick is being one of the attractions and so be considered useful to have a nice life as a supernatural in Savannah.

Indeed, the sin eaters in particular live a very comfortable live, compared to their usual low class origins.One sin eater working in the local tourist sector, who officially works as the janitor at the famous 17Hundred90 inn, earned quite a fat pay raise when he got the inns resident ghost Anna, who is well known for harassing female guests, to mess with Miley Cryus's boots and clothing while she was staying there. When Miley tweeted about her ghost story, it brought even more guests to the haunted inn.

Of course, the werewolves make decent money too, since most mortals wouldn't be able to tell the works of a spirit apart from those of a ghost. But they make their real money off their control of the moon river brewing company, held in common by the protectorate, The building the brewery is housed in is a locus home to many spirits of violence due to the building's past as a seedy bar/hotel in the 1800s. The historic society and TFV pay them to keep the spirits in the building and away from the streets where they might inflame the crime caused by Lovett's corruption.

The changelings, for their part, hold their freehold meetings at the pirate house (which used to be the site of many kidnappings by both the British navy and the True Fae in the early days of the city) and even have a court system where each court, (called a crew in tow) is themed after a famous pirate from history or fiction.

[Thorbes]

Wow. Very nice. I would love to play in that setting.

[The young man in the cafe]

The hunter groups in Savannah are more or less divided along whether they support the so-called 6 item agenda (as the plan to push the masquerade to drive up tourist revenue is called).

The name refers to the fact that only 6 goals can be on the agenda for increasing tourism at a time. Adding a new item to a full agenda requires either abandoning a minor item or completeing an item on the agenda. Minor items are generally proposed to the Supernatural Tourism promotion council (as the semi-formal meetings of the pro and neutral groups have come to be known) by a individual cell, compact or conspiracy or even a monster faction and are defined by the council's rules as being an goal or short series of goals that could realistically be completed either quickly or inexpensively by the council's members, they can be abandoned by a simple majority vote and only require the approval of the current speaker of th council to be put into action. Major items are more long term and expensive and require a majority of council members to vote to approve them. They can not be abandoned once agreed upon without an least 3/4s vote by the council members, which generally only happens in extreme circumstances.

The pro-6 item groups are: TFV, VASCU, The Georgia Historic Society Secret History Division, The 6th Sense Savannah Ghost Tour Company, The Lucifuge, Network zero, the Ashwood Abbey and The illuminated Brotherhood (which has a strong presence among the students at SCAD)

The neutral groups (meaning those groups that either don't care about the agenda, find that they both benefit and suffer from the agenda, or otherwise don't directly support or oppose the agenda) are: The Union (Neutral since they both benefit from the tourist income the monsters bring but also sometimes suffer because of them, though a change in Savannah's property tax code (which currently locks the tax rates at the gentrification initiative rate for families living in homes since before the plan began) could push them into the opposed camp as they fight to avoid being taxed out of their homes) The Barret Commission (they don't like that Savannah is so dependent on it's monsters for it's success, but they have no idea what the better option would be), Les Mystères (the tourists love their voodoo, but the toleration the forsaken get drives them up a wall (though they like the local pure werewolves as much as a mostly African American religion can like a group led by a very old high primal urge ivory claw former plantation owner (though truth be told, if it weren't for said Ivory Claw's more progressive heir moderating him, that relationship might be much worse.), the Malleus Maleficarum (neutral partly because of the aforementioned blackmail, but also because as much as they hate to admit it, the money the monsters bring is paying for the various efforts to help the local poor... that and Pope Francis himself ordered them to go along with the 6-item agenda.) and the Promethean brotherhood (whose members loves to ambush vistiing magi and steal their powers, even though the council is starting to realize that the brotherhood is targeting magi that weren't marked for death by them.)

The anti-6item groups are the night watch and Ascending ones (who realize that the 6-item agenda's recurring anti-gang goals will eventually drive them from the city if they succeed and have been stepping up their activities to scare off the tourists since 2015 ), The Long Night (who don't approve of working with "satan's minions" to make money at all and would probably be a major threat to the 6-item agenda if not for the racial tension between the compact's white and African American members and the large scale infiltration of the wealthy Presbyterian branch of the compact by the Ashwood abbey after one of the younger members of the church leadership came to some interesting conclusions about the ramifications of Calvinism) the Cainite heresy (because they tolerate working with vampires even less than the long night) and the Keepers of the source (who came here among the various environmentalists protecting the Eco-systems of the barrier islands and wetlands. They see Savannah's effect on the lay lines as harming Gaia).

The Cherion Group, Null Mysterius (who aren't so much absent as having too small a presence to really matter), Talbot Group, Knights of Saint George, Maiden's blood sister hood, Bear lodge, Division six, Utopia Now, Habibta Ma, and Faithful of Shulpae either never had a real presence in the city or left/were wiped out (the bizarre circumstances under which the Cheiron Group left Savannah in the 70s are the focus of lurid urban legend among the hunters and monsters of Savannah to this day).

The knights of saint Adrian have only just established themselves in the city and haven't quite formed an opinion on the 6-item agenda yet

Edit: up next, more on the vampire situation in Savannah

[The young man in the cafe]

For most of Savannah's post war history, the Carthian's were the dominant power in local kindred politics, with many of the antebellum era Invictus rulers having been dusted by a covenant of Kindred Vodoun practitioners, unconnected with the circle of the crone and largely populated by vampires embraced from the Gullah African America ethic group, during reconstruction. The Carthians were early supporters of the 6-item plan and were given perhaps more than their fair share of credit for it's success during their golden age in the 1990s.

During this golden age, the Carthians were mostly recruited from student activists at the local colleges and from members of the African American community unconnected with the gullah, and thus became increasingly tied into the political causes of the local African American community and it's political machine, which was a powerful force in city politics for decades... until police chief Wille Lovett went down for various corruption charges, some of which, like his protection of an illegal gambling operation run by a man named "Red" Roach seemed to shocked locals like they came out of an episode of The Wire (a partial timeline of the Lovett drama is here, but it doesn't include more recent developments like the pension issue and the drug dealing) . After it came to light that city officials knew of Lovett's issues before they appointed him chief, those officials were forced out in the next election and the Carthians had lost most of their people in the city government, leaving them vulnerable. With the help of a mixed cell of Network Zero and MM hunters led by attorney Jamie Casnio (who had gained viral internet fame for his over the top local Superbowl ad calling out Lovett) the other covenants forced the carthains out and the Lance wound up in charge due to a mix of Bishop Paul Loren's connections to the historic society, having been a member himself when living, who supported his bid for leadership, and his concession of the area south of Forsyth to the invictus.

Paul Loren is a rather liberal neo-reformist who is infamous for being more interested in the academic side of the covenant than the actual religion, at one point even claiming that the Testament is "A good set of rules for the Requiem if nothing else". He focuses his "holy monster" type activities on the residents of the infamous Jefferson Street, hunting and terrorizing the various pimps, johns and gang leaders who have taken over the street he grew up on. He declared the girl scouts off limits for several reasons, chief among them that his now adult daughter and granddaughter are both employees of the organization. Less well known among the cities hunters (though something of an open secret among the kindred) is his tendency to take the overprotective dad trope to extremes regarding his teenage great grand daughter, if she only knew how many of her boyfriends he has drained when they tried to take it to he next level, she might understand why the boys at her school think she is a jinx.

The Ordo mostly keeps to itself, researching the various Wyrm's Nests in Savannah, though having to go through the council to do so is a pain to them. The Ventrue Kogaion, Maxine Strum, is notoriously private and paranoid, usually speaking with her followers over modulated phone calls and giving orders through dead drops. Some argue the Kogaion isn't real or has been replaced by some else, usually the Strix are the favored imposter, but the most bizarre theory has her ghoul, Palmer (who hasn't been properly seen himself since the 90s) having taken her place as the covenant's leader.

The Circle is mostly made up of college neo-pagans and members of kindred takes on mesoamerican religion recruited from the Hispanic community. The two groups like to hold their own "Fuck Saint Patrick Day" party in the yellow fever tunnels during the parade above ground. The leader of the mesoamerican faction, the educated Gangrel Enrique Martin (also known as Eyes of the Bloody Eagle) is very friendly with the Ordo, believing that if vampires are a natural part of the world, then the ordo's scientific methods can indeed work and often works with them on research projects combining Cruac with the Coils. The neo-pagan faction is made up of former members of the Maiden's Blood Sisterhood chapter at Armstrong Atlantic, who were embraced en mass following a botched attempt to assassinate the Invictus leader Clark Kruger, a German immigrant embraced during the 1840s who mostly concerns himself and the Invictus with working to gentrify the area south of Forsyth Park.

The Kindred Vodoun covenant protects the Gullah community while helping the werewolves keep the nastier spirits in check, though outsiders don't really understand the highly ritualized relationship between the two. The High Mambo Nikeisha Louis is a Gullah by marriage rather than blood, but her skill at calming down the loa when they get too mad for the wolves to handle has made her a critical asset to the 6-item agenda, which she feels benefits the Gullah greatly.

Next time: the werewolves of Savannah.

[espritdecalmar]

Is anyone doing anything about the bomb in Wassaw Sound?

[The young man in the cafe]

Is anyone doing anything about the bomb in Wassaw Sound?

I'm glad you brought that up. there is a Promethean that originated from that. The bomb didn't detonate, but the casing cracked and the radiation from the bomb and the Monazite sand that naturally occurs there created a Zeke from the corpse of a drowned man. The Zeke was eventually chased out of Savannah by TFV but he stayed in Georgia long enough to write an extensive ramble that was later put in the Georgia Historic Society Secret History Division's special collection. Any Promethean who wants to read it can, in exchange for a small favor, though the small favors have a habit of growing much bigger than expected.

[ZealousChristian24]

Neat setting! Not sure how badly this clashes with your thoughts on local supernaturals, but I imagine the Scarecrow Ministry might be interested in the Agenda; while the area isn't a Seasonal Freehold, I believe the group's 1e writeup mentioned that they don't just set up fake scares to keep people away from actually dangerous spots, they fake supernatural occurrences in order to lure people away from danger, and the Agenda seems to mesh with that aspect of the group quite well.

Likewise, I could see the Lodge of the Hook Hand taking an interest in the ability to control the local legends, though their purposes might be seen as far less savory...

[The young man in the cafe]

Savannah's Uratha:

Savannah's forsaken make up the longest running protectorate in America, in part because the council requires them to have a protectorate with a designated leader for the hunters to work with. The protectorate's structure is based on an elected alpha who serves for a five year term, with a half century term limit, (though most alphas only hold the position for a decade at most before being voted out). and an elected congress with two representatives from each pack, one (uratha and one wolf-blooded each) as well as a cabinet of special representatives (also known as the betas, as in Beta of education or Beta of defense) (one each for Justice(usually a storm lord), defense (almost always a Blood Talon, rarely an Iron master), education (always either an Iron Master or a Bone shadow), diplomacy with other supernaturals (More or less random, but many past reps have been Ghost Wolves or Hunters in Darkness) appointed by the alpha, (who can fire them at will but usually only does so if they fuck up really badly or they ask to resign). The special reps not only help the alpha carry out the polices the congress votes on but also act as the tiebreaker vote for proposals falling in their purview.

The beta of education, a former teacher himself, who also is the leader of the Cat Herders pack near Forsyth Park is in charge of dealing with the Education department compact that runs the Jim Williams Charter School network where children who manifest supernatural abilities early due to Savannah's high energy levels (including children who go through the first change early) to make sure the young pups get a decent education and also runs the forsaken werewolf/wolfblooded only fraternity and sorority that operates in the local colleges (these Greek societies are critical because not only do people manifest supernatural abilities younger in Savannah, but Savannah actually seems to draw young people with supernatural potential to the city, so many uratha got though their first change after moving to Savannah for college and many wolfbloods manifest their first tell in college here too.

The defense beta, Charisse Maron, commanding officer of a pack of ex-military blood talons in the outer city, mostly concerns herself with keeping the pure confederacy of Savannah from causing too much trouble, keeping supernatural fugitives from Europe from sneaking in via the port and helping the Hunters in Darkness keep Savannah's constant Host problem under control, the recent name change of Savannah's minor league baseball team seems to have greatly weakened the Sand Gnat hosts, though the vampires are complaining that the new name is causing cases of malkavia somehow. A new threat could spur her into a more active role though.

The justice beta, a lodge of the shield member and beta of the "K-11 squad" pack named Eric Cracks-the-Case is in charge of enforcing the laws of the forsaken. He is currently bogged down with a feud with a lodge of werewolf attorneys called "the Defenders of the Damned" who accuse him of involvement with Lovett's corruption, claiming that he received bribes to not look into allegations of graft surrounding the recent port expansion. This is unfortunate, since he needs all the time he can get to investigate the claims that a pack of Bale Hounds have moved into the infamous Gribble house and have teamed up with a covey of Belial's brood vampires who were already staying there.


The diplomacy beta known only as Nick Knack is busy with negotiations with a motley of changelings who claim they have invented a pesticide that works on the shartha. As a Hunter in Darkness, he is definitely interested but has realized that the local freehold seems to be going though a political shitstorm of some sort that is interfering with the negotiations in ways he doesn't quite understand.


I will add the pure later.

[The young man in the cafe]

Neat setting! Not sure how badly this clashes with your thoughts on local supernaturals, but I imagine the Scarecrow Ministry might be interested in the Agenda; while the area isn't a Seasonal Freehold, I believe the group's 1e writeup mentioned that they don't just set up fake scares to keep people away from actually dangerous spots, they fake supernatural occurrences in order to lure people away from danger, and the Agenda seems to mesh with that aspect of the group quite well.

Likewise, I could see the Lodge of the Hook Hand taking an interest in the ability to control the local legends, though their purposes might be seen as far less savory...

the lodge of the hook hand definitively has a presence in the area, though it is mostly concentrated on the sensitive ecological sites around Savannah though they do sometimes manipulate the local legends to protect an important building that isn't in the historic districts and thus isn't legally protected from demolition (one such building in the city outskirts was the former site of a normally low class chain eatery that was very unique architecturally this building is now where the protectorate meets in the private dining room of what is now a high class steakhouse.

The scarecrow ministry would work if Savannah wee a seasonal court freehold, the Agenda does mesh with that aspect well, they probably have an equivalent among the pirate courts.

[The young man in the cafe]

The Pure of Savannah:

The pure of Savannah are currently going through a civil war started when the younger members of a fire touched bloodline were put under house arrest by their elders following what could be best be described as a theological caveman vs astronauts argument over whether Rabid Wolf would approve of members of the tribe playing board or card games in which deception and lying were expected of the players. The younger members argued that it isn't really lying if the person you're lying to expects you to lie. The younger members escaped the house arrest, brought more young fire-touched to their cause and then started a rebellion against their elders that has resulted in them taking half of their elders' territory.

The result is that the fire-touched have spent more time fighting each other than the forsaken.

The Ivory claws for their part are dominated by The Bryant Family pack that came down from the smokey mountains after the civil war.and set up shop running various local restaurants, which they stocked with fine wine grown on their ancestral plantation in Tennessee. The patriarch of the family, William Andrew Jackson Bryant is the same one that came down to Georgia after emancipation forced him to diversify his assets, having reached a level of primal urge where he no longer ages. Oddly enough, he is not quite as racist as you would expect a former slave owner to be, to him it was just business. He admits that individual people of color can be smarter, more talented or more creative than individual white people, he will even go so far as admiring certain individual people of color are more gifted than the majority of white people, but he still believes that white people are better on average... so still racist. His much more progressive heir/13th great grandson,, who recently went through the first change after moving to Savannah does his best to moderate him, but he can only do so much. Said heir has developed connections with the local free council, whom he and his young pure friends meet with every Saturday night at a nerd/gaming pub called the Chromatic Dragon. There they get a discount in exchange for some free wine from his family vineyard in Tennessee and get drunk off their asses while discussing supernatural politics over a board game, RPG or smash brothers marathon. Said heir, George Boyce is not only trying to keep his great grand father's failure to understand the younger generations from tanking their family investments in the media and food service industries any more than it has already, but also working with the magi to try and learn more about the Omphalos Stones, which the free council told him about during one of their drunken munchkin games, and whether it really is possible to resurrect father wolf. This recently led to a break in by the young Ivory Claws, with the help of the free council, a few Mekhet contractors and some wolf blooded wheelmen, at a warehouse by the docks owned by a PMC owned by the south's main Praetorian Tetrarch.

During the break in, they managed to boost, along with a literal van load and boat load of fetishes, magical artifacts, coke, guns, cursed artwork, cash and gold a server containing the locations of dig sites, museums and other such houses of relics where the Seers are looking for omphalos stones, and what may be father wolf's stone is currently featured in a traveling exhibit on the Vinca people that is heading to Savannah soon....

But before George can even begin to plan that heist, he needs to get the fire touched to stop fighting, he thinks the best way would be to side with his contemporaries and declare a sacred hunt on the fire touched elders, after all they are holding their young back over a stupid argument where the younger generation is clearly right and thus dishonoring their lineage.

The problem being that William thinks the young fire touched are dishonoring their lineage by defying their elders who know their tribe's traditions better and are clearly right.

And nobody has heard from the Predator Kings since they up and moved to Ossabaw island back in the 90s. And of course, the Praetorians aren't going to let George and his buddies get away with that break in...

This outta be good.

Next up: Savannah's magi.

[The young man in the cafe]

Savannah's Consilium, which dated back to the founding of the city and the Oglethorpe Plan that established out the city's grid street layout, and it's effect on the ley lines, merged with the free council assembly in the mid 80s, due to a belief that the Enlightenment ideals that the city and the consilium were built on were reflected well in the democracy of the assembly

The result is either a republican Assembly built on representative rather than direct democracy or a Consilium where the Hierarch and Councilors are elected to decade long terms, with the caucuses acting as political parties and pressure groups. In addition to the normal five Councilors, there is also a special Councilors whose sole job is act as a representative to the Supernatural tourism promotion council to make sure the needs of the Awakened are considered in the 6-item agenda.

The Arrow caucus of the Coast (which covers not only Savannah, but it's headquarters of Beaufort South Carolina and Jacksonville Florida as well) is mostly concerned with countering Savannah's Praetorian Pylons that act as parasites upon the military community in the City.
The Arrows are well aware of the break in at the Praetorian PMC warehouse that the Libertines and Ivory Claws pulled off and are working on a plan to use it to lure the Praetorians into a trap.

Historically Paternoster, for their part, have had a hard time infiltrating the churches here, either they are too liberal for the servants of the father to take control of, or they are already under the control of the Fire Touched werewolves or the Long Night, but the recent factional disputes in the two groups have created an opening for the Paternoster seers, one which the arrows are working with the Libertines to plug with the help of the sleepwalker Reverend Hester of the Asbury Memorial United Methodist church. In addition to fighting the lie by promoting a leftist non-literal reading of the bible, the good reverend also does his best to encourage the young members of his congregation to develop their creative talents though various art and theater programs. An attempt by the Seers to kill the reverend by making his motorcycle crash was foiled by the Arrows, though the reverend refuses to back down against the minions of the Father, who he equates with the false prophet from revelations.

Paternoster is also working on infiltrating the Jewish community of Savannah, the third oldest in America. Their main opposition is the current Rabbi of the largest reform congregation, who seems to have some moral vendetta against the leader of one of their pylons dating back to his volunteer work in Kenya as a young man. He is supported by a nameless order of Kabbalistic magi, though as a sleeper, the rabbi doesn't realize how much danger his quest to “Bring that sick bastard before the world court.” is putting him and his congregation in.

The Mystagogues' caucus (based out of Atlanta and including most of Alabama and Mississippi as well) often works with the Savannah historic society secret history division, helping them catalog the artifacts. They also study the mysteries surrounding the city's occult layout, including the young manifestations of supernatural power (which they have yet to explain), the fact that deaths in the city are much more likely to create ghosts and the disproportionate number of moros awakenings in the city, which they suspect is due to the demolition of Elbert, Liberty and Ellis squares in the 50s, which then changed the flow of supernal energies to a flow dominated by the Death Arcanum. The recent restoration of Ellis square increased the number of Thyrsus awakenings but didn't slow the flow of ghosts and moros, which has led some mystagogues to theorize that rather than increasing the flow of Death energy in the city, the demolition of the three lost squares actually messed with the flow of the other arcana somehow.

The silver ladder have never really been that big a deal in Savannah as a result of the cities democratic history. though general Oglethorpe was a silver ladder member, his philosophies were closer to the Free council which didn't exist in his life time. Recently however, a cabal formed to gain control of the growing presence of the film industry in Georgia so that the ladder could use movies to guide humanity toward enlightenment en mass. This cabal, the Celluloid Sages, are currently pursuing the members of a Mammon pylon that scammed neighboring Effingham county out of a large amount of money with fake promises to build a massive movie studio that would create thousands of jobs, only for the studio to never be built. For the most part however, the local Ladder concerns itself with maintaining it's Cryptopolies in the city and with making sure the Jim Williams charter school network gives young magi a decent education in their abilities.

The guardians of the veil caucus co-headquartered in Atlanta and Orlando use the supernatural claims of the tourist industry to lure the undeserving away from true magic and keep them distracted with flashy cheap tricks. They fully support the 6-item agenda as a means of confusing the sleepers and funding their own operations.



Panopticon managed to score a major victory when they got police surveillance cameras installed in the downtown nightlife district, but wound up with a bit of egg on their face when news reports surfaced that the camera were often not working, the result of sabotage by iron master contractors hired by the arrow.

I have midterms this week due the class being a mini semester, but next time comes the changelings of Savannah and their pirate freehold, Yarr!

[The young man in the cafe]

While I prepare for my midterms (I already filled out a quarter of the study guide), Here is a quick summary of the the Beasts in Savannah to hold you guys over.

The Apex of the hive is an incarnate Makara collector known as the Savannah River Serpent to beasts and known by humans by many different names, since his human family followed the Gullah naming tradition of an official name, a basket name used by the family, a community name and a secret spirit name. believed to be one of the many spawn of the legendary beast, the Altamaha-ha that hunts the Altamaha river in coastal Georgia. Aiden Dubois, as his offical name goes

Sea serpents have been a part of the folklore of coastal Georgia since precolumbian times and the original Altamaha-ha is said to have sired many children, who for reasons unknown but often debated, are said to have been born devoured. These junior serpents are said to have made their myths as the resident river monsters of the rest of the coast, becoming incarnates themselves and establishing their ancient father as being the kind of eternal monster that many beasts claim the incarnate seek to become, one whose myth can't be destabilized by normal means. The lairs of the elder serpent's spawn across Georgia are linked, thus forming the various local hives into one grand coastal empire in the primordial dream.

The apex trait in Savannah, and the rest of the hives linked by the spawn of Altamaha-ha is Flooded, taking the form of the never ending brackish swamps and rivers that cover the lairs in the hive. Buildings in the lairs of the hive always seem run down and partially claimed by the swamps and the rivers flow between the lairs, giving the spawn of Altamaha-ha free access over their father's kingdom.

Aiden for his part, sees himself as a robin hood figure, stealing from the companies that try to take and develop Gullah land, investing it and then donates some of the profit to the Gullah/Geechee nation. The elected queen of the Gullah, Queen Quet AKA Marquetta L Goodwine, is aware of the supernatural nature of Aiden, whom she calls a Sweetmout’ Talkin cootuh (translated into English from Gullah it roughly means "philandering turtle who talks kind to women to seduce them") and indeed he does collect lovers as much as treasure. (Quet is also aware of the kindred nature of Nikeisha Louis as well, in game terms Quet has 3 dots of occult with specialties in Gullah folklore creatures and gullah religion and folk magic).

As for the claims that Aiden and his half siblings were born already devoured, Aiden confirms them, but his stories for how that happened change regularly and he often tailors the tale to both terrify and amuse the listener as much as possible (he's particularly fond of telling white listeners of a nerdy bend tales that lampoon the more racist aspects of Lovecraft's work in a way that seems more fearsome than silly until the listener takes the time to actually think about it later.)

On the hero end, while heroes of the usual monster slayer variety have always been less common in Savannah than in most areas, perhaps to the the Altamaha-ha's influence, Savannah's recently seen a spike the number of heroes of the monster tamer variety. This may have something to do with Savannah being hit particularly hard by the recent Pokemon Go craze as a result of local businesses and the historical society jumping on the bandwagon early to attract more customers for the businesses and visitors to the museums and historic sites for the historical society.

Obviously, the begotten of Savannah generally don't like being kept as battle pets by wannabe Pokemon masters, but in a similarity to the games, Beasts who have been "caught" by the tamers have found they gain power faster, at the cost of giving up some of their free will, and some think that's an acceptable trade-off depending on the tamer in question, the more self aware (meaning high integrity) tamers more or less let their "pets" do what they want while only asking for an occasional service, the less self-aware (Low integrity) are said to run Begotten fighting leagues whose brutality would be make Micheal Vick puke in disgust.

The begotten more or less see the 6-item agenda as a great way to feed, since the Historic society helps deal with the slayer type heroes that threaten their "attractions" though they have yet to take much action on the tamers, though tamers that try to catch young Begotten students at the Jim Williams charter schools are punished harshly. However, many ravagers find the the supernatural protection the historic districts are under to be stifling, though the Secret History Division isn't above the use of the I need a hero tactic to summon a slayer to put down any ravager that threatens the historic buildings, though they then take whatever action is needed to keep the hero away from the more profitable beasts in the city.

NOTES:

• the Gullah multiple names tradition does affect the use of true name related magic, the secret spirit name would be the one a changeling, deceived mummy or mage would want, but the Gullah don't use that name publicly, let alone on written documents that an investigator might dig up.
• Aiden is investing in various niche businesses relating to Gullah Culture
• Goodwine doesn't really like the Kindred or Uratha, but she knows they are the only things capable of routinely fighting and defeating the Boo Hags, a race of vampiric breath drinking skin thieves that have terrorized the Gullah for centuries. Some ordo members familiar with the uratha think Boo hags originated with a strix that performed Synthesis on a wolf blood with the skinner tell.

[The young man in the cafe]

Alright, I took my midterm today and got a 92, so let's celebrate with the Pirate freehold of Savannah's changelings. Here is the bare bones of the changeling write up. Today was pretty stressful for me due to getting horribly lost on my new bike earlier. So while getting that 92 is awesome, I still need to rest a bit. so I will post the "meat" (by which I mean the current politics, story hooks and a quick summary of the hedge and the main true fae around Savannah) of the changeling write-up later.

The pirate courts Savannah are, as mentioned previously, all themed after famous pirates from history and fiction, though the freehold's definition of pirate can be very broad (in addition to the crews of Blackbeard (emotionally tied to Fear), Calico Jack (Love and/or Lust), L'Olonnais (wrath) Long John Silver (Greed), Henry Morgan (Joy), the Barbarossa brothers (zeal, usually religious but any will do) and Madame Cheng (grief, since she is a widow, best I can do with her), there is also a crew themed around digital copyright pirates, (Envy) and some want to create a Somali pirate themed crew with the emotion of desperation.

The court's story involves reenacting famous events from the life of the pirate the crew is themed after in which the captain of each crew (as the court monarchs are known) assuming the role the pirate themselves and faking their death, pardoning, arrest or retirement as needed for their crew's segment of the freehold's story, with the end of the pirate's career serving to throw the huntsmen off the trail by tricking them into thinking the crew is dead or otherwise no longer a threat. The crews reigns cycle in the chronological order of each pirate's career, beginning with the crew of Barbarossa and ending with the copyright pirates before starting all over again.

The approaches of the crews require the huntsmen to try and attack them the ways fitting with the captain's assumed role (for example the approaches of the crew of calico jack include trying to damsel the crews' lovers (who are always more competent than the huntsmen expect) attacking the crew while all the members of one gender are hungover (at which point the other members counter attack in force and such methods inspired by the tales of Jack Rackham and his two female companion)

The trappings of nobility for each court include the various flags, logos and distinctive outfits of the pirates involved (using the Blackbeard crew as an example again, bleeding hearts, dead kings and smoking side burns are all symbols associated with the court).

The rituals of the crews all involved aspects of pirate folklore, burying treasure with a killed prisoner as a means of hiding valuables while luring those who wish to steal them into a trap is one shared personal tradition among the crews and the "pleading of the belly", in which any crew member who overcomes the usual changeling infertility is pardoned for any crimes they committed, at the end of the Calico Jack Crew's reign is one of the crew's most respected traditions).

The titles of the courts are model after pirate crew, including the copyright pirates, though they often adapt them to a computer/internet rather than nautical context. The exact titles change depending on the crew, but one shared titled is the "Johnson" or crew historian, name after the biographer Captain Charles Johnson whose writings form much of what we know about pirates.

Again, I will post the meat of the changeling write-up next time.

[The young man in the cafe]

As promised, here is the politics, story hooks and hedge in part 2 of the changeling write up

Politics and story hooks:

• The crew of the copyright pirates is a minor multi-front war with the Celluloid sages cabal of the silver ladder, the Bryannt family pack (who own a large amount of Warner Bros stock), The supernatural tourist promotion board (who fear the pirates will cost Savannah local film industry investment), Aiden Dubois (who, along with Queen Quet, consults for films set in the coast and thus makes good money from the film industry), TFV and the SCAD film students in network zero. Though their many enemies has yet to knock their torrent site off the net since the server farm is located in an highly secure underwater hollow in the hedge, it could easily fall if the various foes put their resources together. The crew of Henry Morgan is also trying to shut them down at the behest of their friends in the rum company named after their model, who had a expensive promotion backfire due to trolling by the copyright pirates.
• a motley made up of members of the Henry Morgan and Long John Silver crews accidentally created a pesticide that works on most hosts while trying to brew alcohol from a goblin fruit seaweed they found. They are trying to sell it to the forsaken, who appear to be very interested in it, but the ongoing drama surrounding the attempt to create a Somali crew, along with the Copyright pirate crew recently pissing off so many other factions, has forced them to constantly change the price they will accept, which to most of the forsaken looks like the fairies are jerking them around.
• The Lost who want to establish a Somali crew are unpopular with most of the freehold, who feel the modern African pirates aren't romantic enough to fit with the story, even the copyright pirates have a sort of anti-corporate "fight the power" image among some people, which is apparently considered enough by the wyrd. The freehold worries that adding the Somalis would break the freehold's story and leave them vulnerable to Duppy Jonah and his fearsome crew of huntsmen. However, the Somalis are supported by many in the Barbarossa and Cheng crews, who feel the folklore around the Somali pirates is robin hood enough to fit and that the freehold's story is too eurocentric anyway. The anti-Somalis respond to the eurocentric charge with the argument that most of the African American Lost in Savannah are visitors from the Gullah folklore inspired animal court freehold in Charleston or leave Savannah to join them soon after escaping from Arcadia, so why does that matter?
• The Blackbeard crew have an order called the Burning Beards similar to the scarecrow ministry of the Autumn court that fakes supernatural activity to draw tourists into fake attractions away from danger. They also protect nearby Blackbeard island from illegal treasure hunters with sometimes deadly force. Their critics claim that it's because they found the treasure their parent crew's namesake buried there and don't want to share it, though some members of the Blackbeard crew claim that while the burning beards did find the treasure, they keep treasure hunters away because Blackbeard buried something else with the treasure as well, something that can't be allowed to leave the island at any cost.

the Hedge in Savannah:

The locals often call the hedge around the coast the 8th Sea, since it looks more like a ocean filled with a maze of razor sharp coral inter-spaced with desert islands linked by rickety bridges and narrow passages for the ships (floating movable hollows) and half submerged shipwrecks (possibly the ruins of fallen hollow ships) than a tangle of thorns, with the unique goblin fruits in the area taking the form of undersea plants like seaweed and the fruits that grow on the desert islands.

The non-ship hollows take the form of hidden coves and island forts, though most motleys only use them as a base for their hollow ship as they sail the lost sea.

The main True fae in the section of Arcadia closest to the 8th Sea is, of course, Duppy Jonah, who has been kidnapping sailors from his underwater kingdom since Savannah was first founded. the pirates house restaurant used to be one of his favorite hunting grounds, until a motley from Jamaica familiar with Jonah sealed off the hedge gate in the tunnels below the building in the 70s.

The Lost who serve their durance with Jonah mostly tend toward aquatic kiths, though the ships and ports in his domain need all kinds of servants.

Jonah's current favorite huntsman takes the form of a living hurricane in the shape of a woman garbed in a navy uniform, and tries to overwhelm her prey with extreme force whenever possible. some lost believe that the reason Georgia is so rarely hit by hurricanes is because Duppy Jonah steals their power to fuel the huntsman.

Next time, Savannah's main Sin eater crews and a quick overview of the local underworld.

[The young man in the cafe]

The Sin eater write up is going to be a couple days late, today I focused on my school work and tomorrow I have an important meeting early in the morning and then have to pick up my brother from his college immediately after that, it's probably going to take up all of tomorrow, so I will try to write up the Sin-Eaters on Saturday or Sunday.