Main Plot Summary
In the aftermath of the Cataclysm, two covens face off over what to do to the host of Nyrah the Ravager - Princess Nadine. Gideon Cross the leader of the Hollow Tap, a South Side coven slash gang with monopoly over most of the lower district, wants her dead. On the other side are the Keepers of the Grove, who protect a magical Grove nestled in the mountains over Cloverfield near the town Raven’s Rest, who lost all of their Elders in the battle. Their new leaders Elara Wren and Bryn Woods argue to keep her alive with Nyrah sealed in her body, as killing her will only unleash it again. Eventually, Gideon agreed to let her live - as it’s punishment enough to live stuck with Nyrah inside her. He leaves, allowing the new leaders of the Grove to gather their dead to return home and rebuild.
A year and a half later, on Sunday the 23rd of November in Raven’s Rest, a man called Bill prepares to close his tattoo shop. What appears to be a last minute customer turns out to be his exact doppelganger, lacking only his tattoos and wearing an inhuman smile. While Bill tries to shoot it, then hits it with a magical bat, he’s killed by the doppelganger. It then takes his place, and calls in emergency services as if it were Bill.
The next morning, the Keepers of the Grove meet in the church in Raven’s Rest. One of the members reports that someone tried to kill Bill last night. Elara and Bryn agree to check on him after the meeting. Pastor John, the town’s Pastor and member of the Paranormal Pastors of the Mountain, shows that there’s been various paranormal attacks to the west of the town for the last two weeks. There’s a looming Paranormal threat that Raven’s Rest, then Cloverfield, are faced with. Seren, the final Grove leader, agrees to talk to the Hollow and Bryn contacts Twin-Hill Coven.
Bryn and Elara go to Bill’s Tattoo Shop and meet Varnan Ingram, who’s visiting Bill to talk about the Paranormal happenings. Bill appears, but Elara realises it's not him because he has no tattoos. Varnan and Elara ask where the real Bill is, but Bryn just attacks. Bill transforms into a horrific monster, flinging Elara out the window. Varnan freezes it allowing the three to regroup outside. They manage to hold it off until Grove reinforcements come even though the creature slowly adjusts to their magic. They kill it, before the Grove group returns to the Grove itself.
In the Downtown of Cloverfield North Side, Freya Collins opens her bakery, Cozy Bakery, for the day. Elena Castellano goes to the bakery to meet a witness to the possible supernatural happenings of the city. The man tells her he’s being followed by a shadow, whispering to him, that no one else can see. But there’s no evidence for Elena to pursue it. Meanwhile, Loni Rodriguez enters with her daughter, Luciana, who runs over to Elena. The two talk, before a regular of Freya’s, James, scares Luciana. Loni confronts him, and Freya tells him to leave. But instead he changes, revealing himself to be some kind of monster, disappearing into the shadows and taunting them all. ‘James’ reappears to attack another customer, Elijah Tower. Elijah dodges and uncaps a pen which turns into the Spear of the Hunter. Loni gives Luciana to Elena, so she can run into the back to find salt to form a protective circle. Elena takes Luciana, putting distance between them and the Doppelganger to keep her safe.
After a meeting with a new client, Quill St. Sebastien enters Cozy Bakery from the back door to find it in chaos. In response to her entrance, the Doppelganger mind controls the Blinds in the cafe. Two attack Quill, another two attack Elijah and one goes for Elena. The Doppelganger goes for Loni, tearing through her shoulder and making her drop the salt. In desperation, she forms an anti-Apparition circle around her, shouting for Elena to get in. She manages to smash a mug across the head of the Blind attacking her, getting into the protective salt circle. Quill manages to fight off the two women attacking her too, knocking them both out. Elijah avoids the Blinds attacking him, and manages to spear the Doppelganger in the arm after it horrifically swaps where its head was. The two fight, with Elena going to get sugar for Loni’s wound while Loni uses the rest of her energy to magically weaken the Doppelganger. This allows Elijah to get in front of Elena before it gets her, killing the Doppelganger with a spear to the chest even as it utters ominous last words. With it dealt with, Quill says she’ll stay and sort out the Bakery while Elena and Elijah take Loni to a hospital.
In Lugar Apartado Three, in the subway tunnels under Cloverfield’s Financial District, Moriah “Momo” Mottah tends to one of her Unborn- a child grown using biological magic and fed memories via contributed biological materials. They are the the progeny of Matriarchs like Momo, extremely powerful and barely human Green Adepts, from the great city of Culla in Italy where the Coven of the Whispering Flesh’s eldest and wisest reside. Momo is the leader of the Twin-Hill coven within Cloverfield itself, which only loosely follows Culla’s ways while rejuvenating areas of the city and running various businesses- including the famous Sin Sisters stripclub. After tending to her Unborn, Momo bumps into three well dressed men after returning to the subway platform nearby. One appears injured but as they surround her, Momo senses that they aren’t human. They taunt her, talking about the place she’s protecting. Momo ignores it, and they fight. She drives one between the platform and the coming train, twisting and trapping it. Another, she stabs in the chest. The final one slams into her, sending her flying, before she fights back and caves its head in. She manages to drag the Doppelgangers to a pit across unused lines, stretching them across it to close the circuit and electrocute them to death.
After catching her train and returning to Sin Sisters, Momo is interrupted while changing by Bryn barging into her office. They discuss the Doppelgangers they both fought. Bryn tells Momo about the upcoming threat coming, which Momo dismisses as Father John trying to scare them, only worried they found out about her Lugar Apartado. After Bryn snaps about it, and explains more about where John got his information, Momo relents. They discuss the possibility of breaking the treaty between Twin-Hill and the Grove if they need to to keep them safe. Then they decide to send Elay Motta to look into it.
Later in the afternoon, Elay calls Bryn back. She fills him in on what happened, before they argue over how Momo also blew up his phone and as his paranoia about everyone from the Grove hating him gets the better of him. Eventually, he agrees to help, as long as they meet in the Grove for her to share a recollection of the fight with him on Thanksgiving.
Meanwhile in the South Side of Cloverfield, Vin Rodriguez escorts Gideon to the Hollow Tap Bar. Gideon mentions that David Smith, popular teacher in the Circle district of the South Side, might have an Apparition problem. Vin says they’ll take a look and takes two men, Malik and Caleb, from the Hollow to check. Paloma Gilmour goes to visit David after work, hoping he’ll be a lead for fulfilling her promise to her Apparition, the Samaritan. She arrives as Vin transforms into a sexier Tony the Tiger and kicks down the door, jumping out and asks to have a word with David before Vin presumably throws him in the river mafia style. Vin tells her to leave, sensing the Apparition inside the house. Paloma tries to push in and shouts for David, alerting the Doppelganger inside as it devours the actual David Smith. Vin shoves Paloma to the ground before it manages to spear her, before attacking it. They’re launched through a wall and it turns to attack Paloma. Caleb steps in to protect her, getting his head ripped off, before it goes for Paloma again… And misses. Every hit. Vin jumps back in while Paloma tries to interrogate it, and it tries to beg her to let it go. The two wrestle through multiple rooms and buildings as it tries to convince Paloma to get Vin to back off. Paloma finally goes outside with Malik.
Vin and the Doppelganger fight to the near death, with multiple walls destroyed in the process. The Doppelganger mimics their venomous teeth, knocking Vin onto the floor. The manage to shove all their ribs into it, leaving them both in a bad state. They wrestle, the Doppelganger manages to slam Vin into the ground and tear into their leg. As a last resort, Vin uses the Final Blow, tearing through the Doppelganger with their claws and Black Lux. They lose all their magic, causing them to go through a painful transformation before they can heal any of their wounds. Paloma tries to help normally, but Vin’s injuries are too bad for that, so she uses the Bystander effect on them- freezing them in place so they don’t bleed out. It lets them survive until Gideon and Marco, Hollow doctor both mundane and magic, arrive. Marco reluctantly uses his magic- transforming him and Vin into magical girls- to heal Vin.
Paloma is politely, but forcefully, invited back to the Hollow. They discuss what happened, with Paloma trying to flirt with Marco and failing. They interrogate Paloma about her magic, before letting her go as she doesn’t seem to know anything. She meets Vin outside to tell them about what she was trying to find from David Smith- she was trying to find the David Smith who’d visited a kid in a ward she worked in. She needs to ask him about the girl, and also what the Grove is. Vin agrees to help, reluctantly, before they awkwardly half follow each other home and realise they live in the same building.
No more Doppelganger attacks occur on the leadup to Thanksgiving. But the city is never quiet… Late at night on Wednesday the 23rd, a group called the Underground attacks and wipes out the Adel Coven in the North Side of the city. The fire can be seen all across the North Side of the city, and news of it spreads everywhere, though its effects are yet to be felt in the South Side.
SoL / Side Story Summary
