A Ritual Goes Awry

After Alice (with Sophronia along for the ride) rescued Victor they brought him back to the Kerberos club where they met up with Gregory who had just finished being Huntley at some newspapers to convince them to print a warning to keep horses confined to avoid the rampaging problem. They quickly brought Victor around and started bringing him up to speed, but Gregory is a suspicious soul and a born liar and thought something was off. Alice poked at his mind, and as they realized that it was Emile's mind in Victor's body Emile-as-Victor bolted. Course, he didn't know his way around the club, and Sophronia illusioned the exits away, and Alice crushed his mind... Gregory didn't even have to track him down. The party engaged in some tender and loving emotional beat-down on Emile, pointing out that his mother is a terrible person and he can't escape his sins into fantasy perfect marriage land so easily. Leaving Emile-as-Victor in the loving care of Matthew Doyle and Neville, the party planned a simple and straightforward assault to interrupt Augusta's ritual. Gregory would pretend to be Emile-as-Victor and get let in. Sophronia and Alice would, via Sophronia's illusions, appear to be an assault force of Huntley, the Priestess, and the zombies of Strength and Moon. The ritual took the form of a stylized party, centered around Augusta and Victor-as-Emile. At the appropriate point, when the ritual could be diverted, Gregory-as-Emile-as-Victor leapt up and knocked the mad scientists (who were providing zombies and half-monkey-half-machine monstrosities to play the part of the partygoers) unconscious, as well as beating the Duke of Leeds to within an inch of his life (Gregory can fake Victor-speed pretty well, it turns out). Huntley and company showed up, and in the confusion most of the Tarot members not already unconscious escaped. Augusta had to continue performing the ritual. Cassian-as-Huntley took advantage of the melee to spirit Dr. Butler away to safety. Victor-as-Emile was drugged back into his 8 year old memories, but Alice realized this and returned his mind to him. Victor-as-Emile took advantage of his position in the center of the ritual to turn it back on his mother, and change the memories of the past so that everyone recalled that she was a murderer (instead of merely an adulteress). This was, of course, exactly according to plan. Really. Augusta escaped (teleportation sucks), but with her organization in shambles and her social status even worse than when she embarked upon this mad quest, she's no longer an immediate concern.