Loom and Lucidity Incident

Overview

In the Spring of 1813, Marina Garrick and Georgiana Dillwyn investigated a string of impossible events in Brighton during the Loom & Lucidity adventure (from the Host & Hostility sourcebook, Chaosium). It was Marina’s first encounter with the supernatural, and the campaign’s first session — solo play, with Elizabeth playing Georgiana in her only appearance.

What Happened

• Marina and Georgiana, hosted by Mr. and Mrs. Hampton on Marine Parade, moved through Brighton’s fashionable season: the Assembly Rooms, the shops, and Captain King’s drawing room.
• Marina witnessed Lord Cosgrove’s head burst apart in the Pavilion Gardens.
• The investigation led to Captain King and a soirée at King’s London house. Gideon Crow passed Marina a note warning her to leave.
• Marina explored upstairs and followed Mlle Dumain while the Air Loom drove the guests below to violence: the Glossop twins attacked each other, and Lady Bagtonbury snapped her own dog’s neck.
• Marina and Georgiana descended to the basement, found Crow’s body, and helped King and Dumain attempt to regain control of the machine.
• Both women were pulled bodily into the Loom’s psychic interior. They fought through corridors of trapped victims, reached the mirrored centre, and destroyed it.
• The Hamptons survived the night and took the girls home.

Outcome & Consequences

The immediate crisis ended with the machine’s destruction. Whether The Middleman was destroyed outright, severed from Crow’s body, or persists elsewhere is not recorded. King and Dumain’s fates after the soirée are likewise unrecorded — Captain King’s file lists them as alive.

For Marina, Brighton was the crack in the door. The investigation left her changed and set the pattern that Osney Grange would break open entirely: curiosity outpacing caution, and the supernatural answering.

Campaign Significance

This was the first session of the campaign and the origin of Marina’s arc — from Surrey gentlewoman to Order of St Aelfric operative. It also established the campaign’s early cast of Brighton society figures and the Hamptons as Marina’s anchor in respectable life.