Fools rush in where angels fear to tread
The team heading for the garden wall sneaks round effectively, Boriel singing the Ethereal Song of Form as he goes. The wall turns out to be quite high, but Boriel can see over when given a boost up by the others. There appears to be a sizeable bonfire with something like a hundred people partying around it in the garden. The conversation at this distance is indistinct, and doesn't tell Boriel anything useful. The party appears to have been going for some while, though, to the extent that some of the more exhausted-looking guests are actually lying down on the well-trodden snow.
At this point the angels abort their plan to sneak in unobserved; it will clearly be impossible with this level of activity in the garden. They return to the van to wait for the others.
Meanwhile, blissfully aware that they are becoming a one-armed pincer movement, Atoziel and Magariel ring the front doorbell. They greet to the mildly surprised young man who has evidently just broken off from a conversation to open the door, and Atoziel shakes him warmly by the hand, reading his true name as Xilander. Xilander's puzzlement turns into a grin as the angels mention that they're from Raposo. He invites them in loudly, saying that they need to get somewhere quieter to sort out the pizza order. Magariel apprehensively pings his resonance on Atoziel, and fails. Assuming that the lack of twitching from his Cherubic companion means that all is safe, Atoziel happily bounces in.
Suddenly, as the angels cross the threshold, they become aware of a serious continuing Disturbance, including human deaths, with a rumbling undertone similar to that at the crash site. Simultaneously, their radio links back to the van cut off. The appearance of the party also changes character, not so much because the angels are closer as a subtle change in what they get to see. The dark wine that some of the party-goers are enjoying in the lobby hallway looks more like blood now, and some of the finger nibbles are, er, fingers. As Xilander guides them through the building, upstairs and generally round about, dipping into and through conversations, the angels slowly come to the conclusion that the entire party is populated with demons. Or at least mostly.
Eventually they get to a study that no one is using, and get to talking. Magariel looks on in bemusement as Atoziel and Xilander talk fluent cryptic to each other. Unfortunately they are talking different dialects, so come to two completely different mutually acceptable deals. It is not clear that Xilander has tagged the pair as angels, but from his behaviour he clear reckons them to be outsiders.
The following facts emerge:
The group decide to try to find Langridge, or at least a good fake thereof. They move back among the party, with Xilander pumping groups for information with remarkable skill. Magariel suspects that he is a Balseraph. Twenty minutes later they have still not found Langridge, and Atoziel pleads having to get back to Raposo. The angels leave. Xilander shows them out, commenting quietly as they step out of the door that it has been fun showing angels around. Disconcerted, they head back to the van by a circuitous route. The constant rumbling Disturbance as they leave is fading slowly over time, and the party seems to be thinning out as well.
The information is reported back to base, and Boriel makes sure that Atoziel and Magariel are free of bugs. Given the size of the problem, the angels call in the army, and a major strike force is requested from the Tower of London which will take some time to assemble. More planning is done, which is interrupted by the arrival of Kadris. He had got the message about Raposo's interrogation, and the idea of busting open a Tether of Secrets really appealed to him. There is then a further orgy of planning, at the end of which Atoziel and Boriel go out to buy some cheap video cameras and hard hats to mount them on. Quite why is unclear; it must be a Lightning thing.
It is around 7pm by the time that Atoziel and Boriel return, and the party has died down considerably as far as the watchers can tell. More planning is done while Boriel tapes the cameras to the hard hats; the group decide to assault the Tether and "defuse" it with the Dagger's revelatory powers.
All this planning is thrown into complete confusion when the group's scouts report that John Strang and the CI5 men have turned up, and are making for Langridge House. It is decided (rapidly for once) to intercept them and discuss things. Those with important roles to protect (i.e. Boriel) make themselves scarce while Atoziel intercepts the humans.
It seems that Strang knows something about Langridge; apparently he has a reputation as a sorceror. Atoziel manages to say enough to make it clear that they need to talk, so Strang and company go back to the van rather than stand out in the open rather obviously. Atoziel and Strang appear to get on well, to the bafflement of all others present. Apparently they speak the same dialect of cryptic. At any rate, they transfer information between themselves. The most that the others gather is that Strang knows some things about Raposo, and strongly disapproves of angels meddling in human affairs. The CI5 men are frankly incredulous — demons and sorcerors, oh my — and get moderately upset when everyone else takes the talk completely seriously.
Meanwhile Langridge House goes quiet; apparently the party is over. After a quick check of the Daggers' location — and another argument about who gets it afterwards — it is decided to send a sneak team round the back while the heavies go in the front. The army has been assembled and is on its way, but will take some time to arrive.