Play@YSDC

The Tube platform is busy with holiday makers, mostly backpackers and packagae holiday makers taking the cheapest form of transport back into London. An already busy tube train sits at the platform and Liz walks along it until she finds an empty seat which she flops into. Moments later the doors slide shut and the train pulls out of the station...

Liz is trapped, every door in the house is locked, every window barred, there's no way to climb onto the roof. The house is large and well furnished, but there is no way out for her. She runs from room to room, searching, but each door she pulls open only a featureless brick wall behind it. Eventually she come to the front door, and as she reachs for the handle, it unlocks, a bright light moves across the glass. As the heavy, iron-studded oak door opens towards her, a nameless dread flows through her veins...

Liz awakens drenched in sweat. A middle aged woman, leans over her with a concerned look on her face. "Are you alright? You were tossing and turning and you went really pale. I was worried you were having some kind of fit."

Liz collects herself, trying to calm down and return her pulse to normal. "Ta," she says to the woman, forcing a smile. "I nodded off for a bit there and had a bit of a nightmare, but I think I'm okay now." I'll have to email Dr. Hammer to tell him about these symptoms, she thinks, and to see if he or any of the others have experienced them.

Liz gets home without any further incident and is recieved by a slightly worried mother and father concerned there little girl was passing through Heathrow where they have heard there was a terrorist incident.

Liz hugs her parents. "I'm all right," she says. "What happened was there was this girl who managed to get herself aboard a plane somehow. The police detained a bunch of us who had seen the girl. I went to answer their questions and help with their investigation, but they were under the mistaken impression that I'd already been arrested. When I corrected them, they went and arrested me, saying it was just a formality. The girl had nicked my passport, and I didn't even know it was gone until they showed it to me. After that I asked for a solicitor, and he was able to get me released without charges right quick."

When she gets a chance to get online, Liz sends an email to Greg and copies Jacob and Clayton on it, describing what had happened to her on the train and asking if they experienced anything similar. She also updates her status and posts pictures from her trip to Paris and does some searching for information on incidents of missing time similar to her own, particularly those involving dehydration. She takes a break at dinnertime to eat with her parents. While she had gotten used to French food, it's good to have home cooking again after being away.

By the time her mother calls her for the evening meal Liz hasn't found any incidents of missing time similar to her own snd none which involve dehydration.

Liz washes her hands and eagerly comes to the table, already hungry. "Thanks, mum!" she says. "The food smells wonderful."

As she sits down to eat Liz's laptop pings, its Greg responding to her e-mail he has had an almost identical dream and wants to know wether the others have reported the same thing.

OOC:,Unless Liz has something else specific she wants to do before bed, I suggest moving onto meeting the others [url=http://www.callofcthulhu.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=192&t=2721]at speakers corner[/url] as Jacob arranged.

Before Liz goes to bed, she continues her Internet search.

OOC,Should I roll Library Use?

OOC:,No all Library Use rolls are hidden.

By the time Liz is ready for bed she still hasn't found any connections between missing time and dehydration, nor any stories which bear any real similarity to her own.

Returning home from her fruitless searches in Southwark, Liz grabs some food then heads to her bedroom to do some more online research after a while however she gives up in frustration and heads to bed, hopeful that refreshed she'll see a new angle.

...Liz wakes in a girl's bedroom, full of stuffed animals and toys, the light is off, it's nightime, but light streams in from outside. Pulling the window curtain aside, just a little bit, Liz sees an old man standing underneath a street lamp. He wears a long dark coat with a thick fur collar turned up, his hair is long and unkempt. Even from this distance Liz can tell he is looking up at her and his eyes are full of fire. He kneels and touches the ground, a bale fire burns on the street in front of him, rushing forward it splits apart, coming back together to form a sigil, a living, burning brand on the tarmac. The flickering light illuminates Liz's arm, the same one she pushed the curtain open with, the same sigil has been cut into her forearm.

Liz awakens to find the same symbol on her arm, it feels like sunburn but is quickly fading.

Liz hurriedly grabs her digital camera to snap a picture of the mark on her arm before it fades completely.

Liz takes a picture of the symbol on her arm, but it doesn't come out as well as she'd hoped.

OOC,Invisible Castle is still down, so I used another dice roller. I got a 61, and my skill is 40.

Out of focus and a bit blurry it is still better than the two sketches Greg and Clay both send to her phone a little while later. Greg's accompanying text describes a dream identical in every facet to her own.

OOC: SAN LOSS,0/D2 for realising you had a shared dream

Though she is a little freaked out and at a loss to explain what has happened, Liz manages to keep her cool. She has always embraced the weird, and she is more intrigued than disturbed. She boots up her computer and uploads the picture she has just taken from her camera via her USB connector. Then she attaches it to an email that she sends to Greg, Jacob, and Clay: "I had the same exact dream Greg did and woke up with this symbol on my arm. It started to fade quickly, but I was able to snap this piccy. It's a bit rubbish, but there wasn't enough time to get a proper shot."

Liz is at Claire's flat warming party; there are people around laughing at some joke. Liz starts to feel hot, sweat breaks out all over her body. The woman in front of her steps back looking surprised, heat pours from Liz's body, and as she collapses to the floor, her body is illuminated from within, her chest and stomach begin to swell, veins and organs become visible as though illuminated by some intense light from within. her stomach swells as if pregnant, and she can see something, alight and inhuman silhouetted against the stretched skin of her abdomen.

Liz awakens to the incessant chatter of her clock radion

"A house fire claimed the lives of two Albanian Immigrants in a North London suburb today, the fire service responded to a midnight emergency call but arrived too late to save Edward and Rose Tolka, second generation Albanian Immigrants. Police are currently investigating the whereabouts of the young girl who was only recently placed in their care by social services as a result of events at Heathrow earlier this week"

"Oh, no," mutters Liz, checking the time on the clock. The first thing she does is boot up her laptop and go online. She sends an email describing her nightmare to Greg, Jacob, and Clayton, and also tells them what she knows about the fire in North London, looking up news stories about the fire for more information.

Almost as she's writing Liz recieves a text from Clayton describing both the news and essentially the same vivid dream, although this time with some different details.

A short while later Jacob rings suggestig her come around and pick Liz and the others up so they can go and investigate the site of the house fire.

OOC:,news check the news thread for additional details.

"Yeah, good idea," says Liz. She gives her address. "Let me know when you're a few minutes away, and I'll come outside and meet you."

Liz returns home and spends much of the evening on the Internet, looking for any information she can find on the Verbetoi and their deity, Verbti.

When Liz gets down to it there does seem to be quite a bit about the Verbetoi floating around.

From the high mountain valleys of the Tropoje region of the Northern Albania Alps, they are one of Europe’s last remaining indigenous people and have been recognised as such by the European Union and given indigenous people status (they get funding for schools and programs which encourage the Verbetoi culture)

Albanian government records indicate an estimated current population size anywhere in the range of 2,000 to 7,000 mainly concentrated around lake Ligeni Komanit. Estimating the Verbti population is complicated both by the remote location of many villages, as well as the Verbtis’ secretive nature and distrust of the Albanian authorities. With the aid of EU cultural grants ([1]) the Albanian government has instituted several programs to encourage the Verbti to abandon their traditional lifestyle, but they continue to cling to their age-old customs and beliefs.

While made painfully difficult by the Verbti's distrust of the outside world the study of Verbtism the religion remains a topic of interest to some theologians, philosophers, and those engaged in comparative religion mainly because they are monotheistic Europe's last true polytheistic religion. The study of the Verbti people largely appeals to anthropologists because their largely self imposed isolation from modern society makes their way of life, diet and cultural practices worthy of study.

Liz will need to be a bit more specific about the areas of study or she could spend forever studying.

For example - Verbetoi ancient history, verbetoi modern history, language, culture, religion etc

Liz starts by focusing on modern Verbetoi history, hoping to find out where they are now amd what they are doing. She is particularly interested in any presence they may have in the UK, especially in the London area, and any crminal activity in which they might be involved.

Liz compiles the following from a variety of reports

Liz's Research: The last ten or so years has seen a drastic change in the Verbti, mirroring changes already apparent in Albania’s organised crime. Both Albanian and Verbti organized crime has its roots in traditional family-based clans. But after the collapse of communism in the late 1980s, and the events in the Balkans through the nineties and early twenty-first century both are showing a level of sophistication previously unheard of.

The Verbti’s attitude to the rest of societies morals and laws has always placed them on the wrong side of the authorities; they were little more than bandit gangs who robbed the locals mercilessly. Built around the family unit or ‘fis’ the clans is patriarchal in nature and built upon a tradition of machismo and family loyalty.

The breakdown of Albanian central government in the late 90's, left swathes of north-eastern and southern Albania only nominally under government control, became virtual strongholds for organised crime.

While the Verbti had been heavily involved in smuggling under the communist regime. After the collapse of communism in the late 1980s, the Verbti essentially found their business evaporating over night as border controls were relaxed and otherwise restricted items flooded over the border.

Initially the Verbti turned to the smuggling of Heroin. Traditionally Turkish heroin entered Western Europe via Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia, however as a result of the Kosovo war this route was effectively closed. The Verbti, with their existing smuggling routes and infrastructure found themselves ih the ideal position to guarantee safe routes through the war zone.
As the war progressed however the Verbti found a more lucrative and less risky trade, along with heroin and weapons they started to transport ethnic Albanians out of Kosovo. Over time this element of their business continued to expand such that people trafficking now makes up the vast majoirity of Verbti smuggling activities.
Smuggling

The Verbti like the other Albanian gangs, started to develop into a more sophisticated organisation, in some cases coming to resemble legitimate businesses, in other cases political organisations, the Verbti developed along lines similar to a terrorist organisation with terrorist-style cells or 'crews', each one based around a family group; they also moved out of their traditional brigandage and moved into more lucrative criminal endeavours.

The collapse of Yugoslavia and the struggle of ethnic Albanian 'Kosovars' for independence for the Serbian-controlled Kosovo region initially Albanian gangs the Verbti among them established a lucrative trade running guns to the Kosovo Liberation Army.

The Verbti operation grew in both size and influence as they developed and ran two major smuggling routes into Kosovo while essentially taxing the rest. As the Verbti smuggling operation developed, it attracted the attention of more sophisticated organisations. The collapse of Yugoslavia meant the Turkish drug gangs needed to look for new routes to move their heroin into Europe, the Verbti among others were happy to provide the Turks with both couriers and distributors, in return they learnt tradecraft from the more established Turks.

The influx of money had a profound impact on the Verbti the former bandit operation began to transform into something considerably more sophisticated, with its own heroin processing facilities, in house money laundering and a well-developed distribution system.

The Verbti’s departure from the heroin trade was as rapid as its arrival, while the majority of Verbti bosses remained hidden to the law, the verbti’s participation in the heroin trade was attracting uncalled for attention, the Verbti elders decision to leave the drug trade behind them was almost unanimous.

While fraught with risk smuggling arms and drugs had proved a profitable venture for the Verbti, the desire to make money was still strong they simply had to look for a cargo, which involved less risk; they found it in Kosovo where the violence continued unabated. People increasingly desperate to leave were willing to pay the Verbti to get them out. Using the same network, they had developed for moving drugs, as well as links built with certain Italian gangs the Verbti ran an extremely profitable trade in smuggling refugees across the Adriatic into Italy and Europe.

The end of the conflict in Kosovo saw thousands of Kosovar Albanians returning to their homes, the verbti’s smuggling trade dried up almost overnight. The Verbti’s own skewed outlook on humanity now led them down a darker path. High levels of unemployment and severe rural poverty in Romania and Albania coupled with the traditionally low status of women in the Balkans contributed to an explosion in the trafficking of girls and women from Albania, Rumania and elsewhere in the Balkans through Albania, Bosnia and Italy, to countries such as Belgium, France, Greece, Italy and the UK.

The Verbti’s real arrival in London can be traced back to late 2001, Albanian criminal groups which included several Verbti Fis struck a deal with the Maltese gangsters, who at the time ran the Soho sex industry in London, the deal allowed the Albanians to provide their girls to the existing brothels.

The National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) who had always expected that after the collapse of the Soviet Union the Russian Mafia would make a bid to move into the British sex industry. The arrival of the Albanians watched with a great deal of interest expecting a violent struggle between Russians and Albanians.

But the Russian invasion never came. The Albanians had already admirably demonstrated they were just as ruthless and heavily armed as their Russian counterparts, the dons of the Russian Mafia might be hardened ex-cons from the Russian gulag but they are also extremely practical, fighting for part of London’s sex-tourism £12 million a year turnover simply
wasn’t worth the effort.

This is not to say the arrival of the Albanian gangs has not resulted in violence, blood feuds, which started in Albania, are continued in London. The Verbti however remain aloof from the petty squabbles of the other Albanian gangs, of course when the turf is full then the situation is likely to change especially if as seems likely the Albanians decide to cut out the Maltese and set up their own places.

Whatever happens it is likely the Verbti will remain the toughest of nuts for the British police to crack while the other Albanian gangs have similar rigid internal rules and rigorous punishments for betrayal, the Verbti unlike the other gangs refuse to bring in people from outside the fis even if it means they are slower to expand subsequently they are almost impossible for the police to penetrate. The Fis provide cash to rent or buy flats in Soho, and the profits are returned to Albania.

If Liz has time, she next delves into the Verbetoi's ancient history to discover their origins.

Its rather late at this point and Liz's initial research seems to raise a number of conflicting oppinions and a dearth of hard detail. It looks as though she will need to move to a well equipped library to continue.

Liz calls it a night and prepares herself for another bizarre dream experience. She keeps her camera ready on the nightstand next to her bed in case she needs to snap another picture quickly. After the meeting at the church tomorrow there will be time to do further research in a proper library.

Moving now to St Agatas the next day.