Curseborne Occult Lawfare

In the legal defense system, there are two important roles. The first is the ability to defend clients in a trial, and consulting others in legal matters outside of a trial so that it never comes to that. However, when the occult is involved, and reality warps in ways that mundane law can comprehend, only one company steps up to help its clients regardless or race, creed, or dimensional origin. These are the case files of Smith, Michaels, and Morrison, the Curse Attorneys.

Curseborne: Occult Lawfare

OOC: [[1]]

IC: [[2]]

Players

(With thanks to Kittlefish)

Kittlefish - Lydia Maples, esq.: Flashy Vampire lawyer, wants to be the public face of the branch and is the fiery courtroom orator.

Daxian - Zenith "Zen" Meridan [[3]]

Jeremy Kopczynski - Lola Umbra [[4]]

[strike]Donan - Lisa Jenkins Delver into records, seeker of secrets. Also a Sphinx Primal and good at sneaking.[/strike]

mysstic101 - Earl Grey, alien technologist hiding as SM&M's IT Manager

History of Smith, Michaels, and Morrison Consulting Limited

We at SM&M pride ourselves on our four virtues: our willingness to hire and defend anyone regardless of origin or creed, our honesty and dedication to our clients, our sincere dedication to legal ethics, and our ability to strategically apply the correct persuasion to get judges to accept that supernatural evidence is valid. (Please refer to the employee contract 4-C-200 for the reminder that supernatural evidence itself must be valid for it to be considered valid for massaging). Founded in 1938 in Los Angeles in the wake of the Varney case wherein it became clear that the local dock labor union needed legal representation of a more particular kind in order to evade the fact that the notoriously abusive work conditions were partly caused by a mindbending vampiress and her crew and evidence needed to be found and properly presented, and later that a prominent leader needed to be protected from a psionically empowered frame job for murder, our Senior Partners realized that a true legal aide required a certain amount of...specialized talent. Also recognizing that many in law enforcement were Accursed with special needs, they saw a perfect solution to both.

As a professional associated with our firm, you will not just be defending our clients in court, but investigating the occult cases that nobody else can solve, and giving them the best possible legal aide in both trial and civic areas. Justice may be blind, but with SM&M, it doesn't need eyes to see!

Welcome To Sunny(?) Norwich

The World of Curses is much like our own, but...weirder. Such as here, where you were hired by a months-old branch office in a city that, were it not for magic and divination, probably would not exist.

"The Misty City", "Boston's Oddball Sister", and sometimes "Miami of the Snow", due having a similar climate to its southern neighbor, and having the uh, eccentricity of Florida at times, Norwich is sometimes also called "Salem, but urban and with gargoyles." It has a pretty good art scene, but it's well-known it was founded because of ecstatic visions more than anything about the north of Boston having useful material, and then, infamously, was the Greely Trial, which would have been the Norwich Witch Trials, except the second trial was of Patience Warren, wife of the extremely popular Elder Malcolm Warren, who flatly refused to believe the allegations against his spouse. What happened next turned the inherently tragedy of a witch hunt into an absolute farce as witnesses recanted their accounts, several tests were openly deemed heretical by religious authorities, a missing child was found alive and well (because he was a notorious runaway), and eventually, it came out that the primary source of the accusations, Luke Greely, was an adulterer, thief and scammer, who had accused the first woman largely to cover up an affair, as revealed by his own wife. While the fallout was not nearly as clean as the sanitized version of history where the Puritans realized how silly there were being and ran him out of town (in fact, a good quarter tried to counter-riot upon the declaration that he needed to leave), it did set the mood of the town, and later entire city going forward - Salem and Norwich seem to embrace witches as mascots, with Norwich being the place where "the place the Devil won his day in court."

This has led to it also being a place that also got permanently magnetized for curses - it's an open secret among Accursed it only exists due to magic influencing people, but the occult symbolism of the Greely Trial of "the holy managing to get its lawsuit tossed out for malicious prosecution" permanently made it a magnet for the Outside...which is good for the tourism board. Lots of news of the weird to put on the brochures.

Also, ever since the Snake Room "opened", it's been a magnet for Outsider refugees. And the social tensions that come with any refugees. So, uh, no pressure.

Locations

New Grave

New Grave is a neighborhood in Norwich with its own distinct character. Originally an independent township, it was later fully absorbed into Norwich upon the latter's expansion to its current size. During Dutch rule over "New Netherland" in the 1600's, New Grave was the third largest population center of Dutch colonists, after the 2,500 people living in New Amsterdam (now New York), and the 1,000 residents of Fort Orange (now near Albany).

The settlement's original name was "Des Nieuwe Gravenhaege" (The New Hague, basically). However, a shift toward more English pronunciation and spelling during British rule eventually had residents calling it "New Grave 'n Hag". This was eventually just shortened to "New Grave", which it remains today.

At first, New Grave was both literally and figuratively a swamp. Literally, being founded upon boggy marsh not far from Norwich Harbor, but figuratively for being a stronghold of Dutch Vodnici immigrants who made it into a Family-held "Swamp" in Accursed terms. As time passed, the marsh was eventually drained to make room for more agriculture and housing, but some measure of its original character still remains: canals.

Lots and lots of little canals. New Grave is riddled with them, an extensive network running parallel to most of the surface streets and sidewalks, with the water coming right up to the buildings' facades in some cases. This gives any Vodnici living there unparalleled freedom to move about unseen, most anywhere in the neighborhood, spying or striking from the shadows as needed. In addition to the tiny waterways, a much larger commercial canal connects Norwich Harbor to New Grave's local docks and warehouse district, giving the neighborhood a decent economic interest into the world of ship-borne commerce (and smuggling).

In pursuit of tourist dollars, New Grave also enthusiastically participates in Norwich's overall "witch-y" atmosphere with its own particular flair. All the surface water in the neighborhood causes fog to be a common sight, both mornings and evenings. Great for skulking! (If one is so inclined). And great for creating a spooky atmosphere, too, which draws in visitors for ghost tours or to see the centuries-old gothic Dutch architecture firsthand. The Centrum, formerly the town square, is a popular gathering point for such excursions, and many of the district's oldest and most picturesque buildings nestle around it.

There are rumors that underwater passages lead to and from some of the buildings, or even out to sea . . . but what purpose would that serve? Nah. Surely just an urban legend.

Bell Hill

Originally part of the mill town of Carston, Bell Hill used to house the mansions of the wealthy owners. Long after the mills closed and Norwich crept out to absorb the town, the manors remain, but not the money. Heirs cling to hair-thin investment portfolios and ancestral properties in a plot that would be ripe for redevelopment - or at least renovation to pass into the hands of newer money - were it not for the desperate pacts made to cling to the last vestiges of past glory.

You'd think the Addams Family would be right at home here, but they'd be worth more than the whole neighborhood combined and vastly more friendly.

Except for Dr. Waite

is definitely not the first appelation this wizened Ascetic has gone by. It's unlikely he actually bears any relation to the Waite line that built the mansion he resides in. Conflicting accounts say that he is the registrar for the pacts and curses binding Bell Hill into its state of not-quite-collapse, or the only one capable of keeping what lurks within from spilling out. Perhaps both are true.

For the 'hermit of Bell Hill' - so-called because he puts on affectations of being withdrawn and reclusive, despite a social calendar that sees him lurking at high-society events more nights than not - knows things. He knows many things. Often, things that might be best forgotten. Things that people want forgotten. But often very useful things.

If he doesn't know some piece of esoterica, he probably knows where to go or who to kill to find or learn it. Conveniently, that is also often the price he asks for remembering things.

The Stakehouse

The Stakehouse is regarded as a tourist trap by uninformed locals, a honey trap by uninformed venators, a carefully curated hunting ground for local Hungry (and some Dead and other compatible families), and a fucking embarassment by more old-school and stick-in-the-mud members of the Lineage.

The establishment consists of an expensive and touristy gothy nightclub and bar on the main level, a much less publicized S&M club in the basement, and VIP areas that cater to the tastes of the guests there. Not the tastes of the Hungry, the guests. Enterprising Bathorite Lilith Desjardins (who just happens to be Lydia's progenitor*) founded it in the late 80s as vampire fiction and fandom went on the upswing and she noticed that of course would-be vampire groupies were visiting Norwich and poking around.

The majority of patrons just go for the atmosphere, spend a little too much money and mill about in fits from Hot Topic or whatever the mall-goths establishment du jour is. 'Get bit here' isn't advertised openly, mostly seeded through networks of the people who are already fantasizing about the allure of the creatures of the night. A special waiver, an NDA, a red velvet wristband, and an extra cover charge are the bare minimum for that kind of tourist.

Most of the Hungry who hunt its shadows are on the payroll in some fashion, with access to their necessary nightly sip being one of the perks. But they are service providers, and the ones getting bitten are the clients. VIPs pay for a guaranteed bite and more involved experiences like being pursued in a mock-hunt or getting bled in an elaborate and probably fake dark ritual. Lilith is up front about the arrangement being functionally (or outright) sex work. There are some less expected staff roles, too; Raven, an Ascetic, is a licensed therapist who helps bite addicts and people who've been abused and enthralled by less scrupulous Hungry return to normal lives.

Anyone else allowed to 'hunt' here serves the club or community in some fashion. Lydia, for example, is on retainer as The Stakehouse's legal representative and has also helped forcibly remove uninvited monsters.

"Drink responsibly" is the staff motto and this is enforced viciously. Any sort of lasting or undesired harm hurts not just the client but the business. For obvious reasons, most Hungry's Damnations are right out; they just get to keep the edge off. Getting fired and trespassed is getting off lightly. In all the Stakehouse's years of operation, there has been one death of a client; Lilith keeps the ashes of the perpetrator in an urn prominently on her desk to remind staff of the consequence. She holds herself to this standard too, of course; if she's bathed in anyone's blood in the last four decades, it hasn't been on-premises.

• Say 'sire' and at least one of them will stab you; say 'maker' and they'll roll their eyes; try to be cute and say 'dam' and they'll roll their eyes and then stab you.

The Snake Room (and the Uhrmann Gallery)

To understand the Snake Room, and why it's located where it is, one has to understand three people - Franklin Uhrmann, Gordon Stark, and Leopold Wilcox. The latter two much more, because they made it - and may or may not have killed each other over it. Hard to tell. But long story short, Stark was the head of Arcana Amusements, a toy company that became well-known for its action figures, its multimedia properties, and shameless ruthlessness in the 50s and 60s, largely due to Stark. Man was one of the last great robber barons, who had to be at least respected for their genuine work ethic even if for nothing else. Also quite the adventurer, which is why he hired Wilcox to paint his study during an extended Safari with a mistress (he famously said that marriage was for more honest and older men than he once). Think is, Wilcox was very much someone who does crop up around "bohemian" art communities - which is to say, a bit of a druggie. Made his art really unique, but, well, he could be quite the flake, which Stark accepted...he didn't realize that Wilcox would have a particular trip that would cause him to go way too into it.

It didn't help that it was also during the Killer Sun of 64, one of the most notorious disasters in Norwich history due to bad emergency services during a bizarre localized heatwave that was almost certainly partly the result of an attempted Archon aggression from the Outside. And also, Wilcox had gained some very distinct and unique species of weed that drove him to have visions, and become convinced that the jungle mural he was hired to paint was speaking to him, and it was demanding to have more snakes added to combat the sun. And more. And more. Until when Stark got back, the entire room was covered in very detailed, very surreal images of myriad ophidians, wall to wall, ceiling to floor - even the furniture that was nailed down. He was quite upset with this, and chased Wilcox into the room, ignoring the angry mob enforcers seeking payment for the truly massive debt Wilcox had acquired to get material to commune with the snakes. Both vanished that day, assumedly killed by the mob and vanished to avoid prosecution, but people say the largest two anacondas grew fatter - and the heat wave broke in the rain.

Curiously, nobody who interacted with the Snake Room wanted to tear it down - despite the fact that people feel very small within it, like early man lost in a very deep heart of the jungle, and strange disappearances and sightings of chimeric beasts linked to it - plus a noted increase in the level of Outside portals that let in creatures from planes that generate refugees for whatever reason, both the refugees and the reasons they are fleeing. People who do so suddenly feel dread like cobras showing their hoods to them, and those who persist have strange accidents related to animal attacks or being poisoned. Uhrmann was an exception to damaging it - because Uhrmann, a noted eccentric and art historian who has some...interesting opinions on the inherent intersection of fear and desire (short and tactful answer as possible: he is sometimes known as the Patron Saint of Teratophiles) went into the room, spent three full days soaking it in, and came out with a plan to make it the center of his magnum opus. The study was literally torn out of the Stark mansion and merged into a new art museum dedicated to his philosophy.

The Uhrmann Gallery is known for its sinister reputation and the oddity of its patrons, and likes it that way. You don't get founded by someone like that and don't learn to be chill with people whose tastes involve the phrase "now hear me out". Of course, the Snake Room is almost certainly a Shattered Space, but it also seems to be a rather tame one - because it seems the snakes are extremely vain, and they are a centerpiece no matter the current exhibition of the museum. They enjoy being admired more than eating people, it seems, and at worst just spook people who probably were looking forward to that anyway and deliberately went into it at night. But the more chaotic the world outside grows, the more active they get - because the snakes also seem to despise disorder and especially nihilistic violence. If the world does not resolve itself, they will - and their method needs them to be well-fed, and their method is a bit...blunt anyway. As in, spontaneous neurotoxin in people's veins blunt or randomly opening portals to make a worse problem to team up against, blunt.