Preludes and Story So Far

[Knave]

 

 

• 1906 Sophie born.
• 1940s / 1950s Sophie is Mary's nanny
• 1963: David and Mary marry
• 1965: Mary dies
• 1968: David joins OUMHS
• 1970s David and Branwen become colleagues and friends.
• 1993: Ekram kills his first Ghul (aged 8 )
• 2005; Hal's visions begin.
• 2006 February - Annika arrested
• 2006: tbd KG
• Trinity 2007: the President Eddie is found in a coma, leaving Alice as Acting President. His family put about that he is taking a year off travelling in a remote location, to avoid the risk of disinheritance.
• Trinity 2007: Ekram and Sophie discover and join OUMHS
• Trinity 2007: Gautam and Charlie graduate and leave Oxford and OUMHS, leaving Ekram, Sophie, Alice and David as the only current members.
• Long Vac 2007: Alice has a vision of Annika's magic, and pulls some strings to get Sophie in a position to protect her (and others from her if needed)
• Long Vac 2007: Branwen writes to David to ask him to watch over Hal. David in turn informs Alice.
• Michaelmas 2007, Week 0: Sophie is Annika's college mother. Sophie intervenes when a ritual goes wrong.
• Michaelmas 2007, Week 1: Alice invites 5 powered freshers to join OUMHS. Only Hal and Annika respond. Both are inducted.
• MT 2007 Week 1: Sophie finds that Eddie's soul has been stolen by a powerful magic user. David performs a requiem for a couple who died violently. Ekram and Annika see evidence of police investigation. Hal has a difficult tute.
• MT 2007 Week 2: David, Ekram and Annika investigate a disturbance at St Sepulchre's Cemetery and dig up Mr Andrews, a new barrowwight. Ekram kills him. The corpse is studied at David's house, and its weakness is determined to be iron. Returning to bury it, they find Professor Andrews's corpse is also gone.
• Meanwhile Hal and Sophie investigate a possible possession, of Sigurður, an Icelandic mathematician, who has reported night terrors. The sleep study shows no disturbance but Sophie senses he is under a powerful compulsion. They follow him to the Rad Cam history section. Sigurður observes Sophie's aversion to iron. Sophie retrieves some of his hair from the lab and asks Annika to attempt to magically observe him, but the scrying is reversed and the creature stalks her dreams that night.
• Ekram observes a suspicious figure entering Christchurch Meadow. Following, he is attacked and badly injured by Professor Andrews, who leaves him for dead as she seems to have pressing business at the college. Ekram gathers the other hunters and they find the Lodge in disarray after an attack. Hal tries to heal a greviously wounded porter but merely ends his suffering. Professor Andrews finds what she is looking for and leaves. The hunters follow.
• Professor Andrews meets her barrowwight sire in the spot where she was murdered by it, and delivers something to it which it accepts by reaching up through the ground. The hunters kill Professor Andrews using a holy sword summoned by Hal. Sophie's dreams are invaded again until Annika removes a finger from the barrowwight.
• The hunters pursue inside St John's college and find Sigurður struggling to avoid a compulsion to throw himself off the roof. Hal climbs the tower and rescues the man, and David convinces him to stay and show them the source of the curse.
• Sigurður shows them a recent archaeological dig in the basement which has disturbed a ward against evil (some part of it has been removed). Beneath are dozens of corpses, which David reasons are victims of the pogrom against Vikings, burnt alive in St Friedeswide's church in the St Brice's Day massacre. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14476039.amp
• The wight attacks again, and the stolen object is found to be a key. The hunters realise that the wight wants revenge and hurry back to Christchurch, where a vigil is planned for the slain porter. Christchurch Cathedral is built on the ashes of the massacre site.
• The vigilants are magically sealed within the building as fires are set, but Annika overcomes the curse and sets the victims free. The Wight appears for a final time and is slain. David leads the effort to stop the fire, and only a few paintings are damaged.

Edited 5 hours ago by Knave (see edit history)

[Knave]

Hilary Term 2008

• Alice fails to show up to a meeting of the society, sending a cryptic text instead.
• Looking for her at Merton College, the hunters find no signs of a struggle, but observe a shallow sinkhole in the lawns
• Later doing research at Jesus College, Hal is summoned by a vision to the library, where he reads the original version of the Mabinogi. The hunters are ambushed by guards made of shadows. They easily rout them, but find that Annika has also vanished.
• Sophie is able to take Hal and Ekram through the waters of the sinkhole, - the emerge into a strange version of Oxford
• They are met by a troop of the same card-guards and by a herald who tells them to get Alice and Annika back they must slay a dragon that has been terrorising the red lands. He recognises Sophie as fey and Hal as part of the white court.
• The party battles the dragon but is forced to flee.