A summary of the July gathering of Newcastle's Kindred.

After the demise of Alexander Gideon last month, this was Pete Yorke's first Court as Sheriff. As both the Prince and the Seneschal were absent, this left him firmly in the driving seat. He performed well as people arrived and the evening started as so many do with the disperse kindred chatting about current affairs. However, soon it became apparent that something strange was happening within the Elysium. Several kindred seemed to catch some kind of supernatural virus that mimicked the effects of standard mortal diseases. To start with there were sneezes and hic ups, and later incidences of short lived derangements were also attributed to this unknown illness. More puzzling was the fact that occasionally these conditions seemed to jump from one kindred to another. Throughout the evening these ailments continued to plague the kindred, but thankfully subsided shortly after the end of the Court Meeting.

The Elysium was also honoured with the presence of two guests as the evening went on. The first was a kindred claiming to be a member of the Brotherhood of Pangu. Alexander Gideon had previously mentioned this group as being dangerous and indeed intended to destroy them. However, as Mr Gideon was absent Xian Po chatted to a few people and then left the building. His visit seemed to cause quite a stir as he had a trigram painted on his forehead and several of the local kindred have been muttering about these for months. He also had a slight altercation with the Sheriff as it seemed he had smuggled a weapon into the Elysium. Pete Yorke encouraged him to leave, which he did and there was no further incident. It is believed that the gentleman will return next month.

Later in the evening a strange looking mortal arrived at the Elysium. He was not allowed to step more than a few paces inside the door, but seemed to attract quite a lot of attention. With no hair and scaly skin, this ugly creature claimed to want to deal with the Prince. As Mr. Black was absent he offered to deal with any kindred who could grant his desire. Claiming to posses an egg that was laid by Peter Jacobs, the infamous Newcastle Dragon, and to be siphoning off its power he half offered and half threatened anyone he could talk to. Offering to keep the egg from hatching by drawing its power he offered the kindred a dragon free future as well as the name of the dragon that Peter Jacobs originally slew. In return he desired the remains of Peter Jacobs heart for his own research purposes. The Ordo Dracul were of course intrigued, as were many others who were present, but he left empty handed as the heart was believed to be in Middlesbrough.

The rest of the evening passed without incident and Court came to an end as usual. With the high number of visitors, the absence of the Prince, and the instability of Court positions many people are still wondering if Newcastle is a city on the edge.