Tillie has a plan. At nighttime, she's going to go out and try and get Brrr to come to her, in an Umbral questy kind of way. She figures that this sort of thing might play on the connection between herself and Brrr in a good way. Tillie tries to think about what Brrr might like, getting an idea from the condensed life images she saw.
During the day, people make some plans. Kasumi is contemplating getting ketamine to put Cherie down. Sinead and Finn find some fox glove from a nursery and awaken it and deal with the spirit - they end up with five small pots of an ungulent they can apply to eyes and ears to help not be affected by faerie magic. (reserving adding some glow stick goo to hers "Why is yours glowing? " "Mine works") ("Foxglove, not cocksglove") ("the entire wild hunt comes through over Will")
The low fae are getting into everything in the caern. There's hundreds of them, and there's no real way to stop them. Half way through the day, the Get of Pennington say "that's it, we're out" and say they'll be back when this is over. ("" "these chips smell like cat urine." "They don't taste like they smell." "... good?" "") Finn's hair is now totally rainbowed, which he's not too sad about. ("only you and Donald Trump can get your hands in there") Anyone spending time in the caern is conscripted into keeping them in the Umbra, or minimising their effects on humans in the Realm.
There's some more discussion about where to get iron instead of saying a steel headed claw hammer. Copperart! What, $30? Kasumi's money is considered, but in the end they decide to use her Taking the Forgotten gift - she walks in, takes 3 of them and leaves. Will dedicates the iron bar, but when he comes back inside, Cherie who is looking through Finn's books. When Will comes within 5 feet or so she puts up a hand and says "fuck off. you stink." "too much iron?" "YOU smell like iron. Go away."
Will goes to have a shower, and when he comes out there's a sense there's no one in the house. Uhoh. He sticks his head outside and can't see Cherie in the street. Meanwhile, in the caern, Tillie spots her sitting on a bench. Tillie tells William off. Cherie is looking at her, so Tillie closes in. She is dressed in her prentding-to-be-huamn get up, and says she came to speak to Tillie. Cherie says that she knows Tillie is not happy she's here. Tillie concedes she's inconvenient. And specifically taking up Will's time. Tillie says that seeing as she's not interested in looking for the Night Queen, and they need to make sure Cherie doesn't give anything away to humans (cos of these geese. "Geas".) , that's proving awkward, yes. Cherie asks what is worth to her. Tillie makes some vague threats - Cherie says she could vanish out into the population. Tillie wants her to do something, what's she offering? Cherie says she'll stop distracting Will for two days but she wants a pile of books with lots of pictures so high. Of course, if they're not interesting, she might get through them faster. And some food. Not what Will eats. Cherie's not really sure about the pictures she wants - just interesting ones. Tillie says sure - she'll go sort that now, but WILL GET HERE NOW and Will will take her home.
Tillie goes opshopping for books, and buys a stack of coffee table books the size of her. Then she goes via Victoria Market and buys fresh vegetables and fried donuts, then drops them at home.
Finn is super keen to go to the gig tonight, and Tillie says fine, but they go hunting for Brrr right after. Cherie is dragged along on the grounds that its a place to find musicians. She has to be convinced to wear shoes though, and it does take a while. The pack head for the Gasometer. They head off about 8, and as they approach the venue, they find that the same vibe of ebulliance and celebration that seemed to be affecting peoople yesterday has taken hold here. The venue is chockers, and people have overflowed into the surrounds. Smith St is blocked except to trams (and even then only after a lot of dinging), annoying people trying to turn into it. Some people have setup a picnic in the middle of Alexandra Parade, others are hanging out in the car park next to the pub. One of the cafes on the other side of Smith St has put out tables and is running food and coffee out to the crowd. The Gasometer has opened the roof and music can be clearly heard outside.
Finn is smsing his friends and finds they are inside, but they don't think Finn can get in. The bouncers are definitely saying that they're at capacity, no one can get in unless anyone comes out. They're welcome to wait her for people to leave, but its not really happening. Will tries to use persuasion and talk his way though as people helping out the band, but the bouncers check the sheet and say no. The bouncer is friendly, and understands what a nice guy Will is, but no.
Tom messages "how well can you hear?" Its not too bad, honestly - the detail is being lost, but they can hear reasonably well. Lost Prophets considers getting Sinead in there through the Umbra, and giving some of the people bees, and waiting for the panic to thin the crowd out. Someone comes out from inside to talk to the bouncers. There's a quiet conversation and some nodding but no one let in.
Will tries Sensing unnatural shows a strong fae influence everywhere, sloshing around the people. Cherie stands out more than the background though, as do the pack. But there's a guy across the road who also is a very weaver/wyld/wyrm sort of active spiritual energy way, a bit like the pack members. Tillie tries to peak, but the high gauntlet is problematic. Sinead subtley senses for wyrm on their observer, but doesn't find much, maybe just the amount of you'd get being in the city without being able to do cleansing for a while.
The bouncer flags Will and has a subtle conversation. He says that they can't come in, but management is going to open the outside windows. Don't go through them, but if they are in front of one of the three windows just there in a minute, they'll basically be inside. They do open up, and some people try to go through, but get biffed by a bouncer.
Meanwhile, the guy on the otherside of the road is still giving them the subtle eye. Tillie says "um, there's two people in the Umbra. " Finn peeks, and gets a better view, and thinks there are definitely two people. Kasumi peeks too and says she can see a couple of aboriginal people. Yes, in the Umbra. One of them has pearly-white eyes... peeking at them while they are peeking at them. They have a mix of simple clothing and a few tools. The pack glance back at the guy in the middle of the road, but he doesn't have a particularly clear ethnic option.
Finn tries to mindspeak the Umbral people and communicate. He formally greets them as Finn McKenzie, Galliard Fostern of the Fianna, and member of the Lost Prophets. He gets no response, but Kasumi hears the woman say "they know we're hear" and the two of them head toward the corner of Smith St, heading off that way. Finn tells someone to help guide him so he can follow. Kasumi tries to sniff (in homid) and thinks that she's recognise it again, but can't get much else about it. Finn keeps talking in through his mental link "have you been spying on us?"
("hey, there is a phone box marked here"). Kasumi runs around the back of things to find somewhere to step. Tillie guides Finn after the folks in the Umbra. Will heads across the road, leaving Cherie with Sinead. ("oh. good.") Finn keeps trying to keep the conversation going, though he finds it getting tenuous as they get further away.
The watching guy clearly knows Will is approaching. When Will gets closer, he can see the guy is a bit shorter than he thought - youngish, wearing clean, new clothes (they don't quite work together). Will sniffs and finds that the guy is garou. Will quietly introduces himself formally, and the guy just says , "I have nothing to say to you. I know who you are" Will keeps asking "What tribe are you? What sept are you?" without saying it loud enough for the humans to hear. The guy starts walking off and Will follows, hassling him a bit as he goes.
Meanwhile, Cherie looks at Sinead, and her ears stand straight up, dropping the hat. "Oh noooo." and she vanishes in front of a small crowd of people. Sinead says "Shit may have got real". Two people say out loud "did that girl just vanish?" Sinead fakes them out "Shhh! she went in the window!"
Kasumi finds a quiet alley and steps into the Umbra. Eventually.
Meanwhile Finn is watching the two in the Umbra moving quickly south along Smith St. He keeps trying to discuss things saying they want to talk, why are they runnings away. The two Umbral folks are discussing something and pointing at windows.
Will senses unnatural and says that stuff has got more intense and there's something down Smith St a bit. Down Smith st Tillie looks behind her back towards Will and sees Brrr right next to her. "Brenna?" "... maybe? Yes" "Will you come with me?" "Where?" "There's some people who would like to meet and help you" "Maybe" "Its safe" ("This'll be one way to get all the low fae out the caern"). Tillie looks around nervously in case someone is about to show up out to get her and summons the pack to her.
Sinead starts heading that way, concedeing her good seat at the window. Will's quarry has made it to the lights and is waiting for them to change, making for the most awkward not conversation when Will shows up and the two garou stand there while humans around them babble on.
Finn stops peeking and senses Brrr - high high high fae, high wyrm, some wyld and some weaver. This is consistent with the story they have for themselves.
Tillie spots two more quite dark skinned aboriginal people heading across the road and the crowds towards them. She senses for wyrm - there is more than she is happy with. Its not a corruption level, but the man is tainted as if he'd been in deep fights with banes recently. The woman isn't tainted, but some of the objects she is carrying have a strong taint of themselves. Tillie tries to block between Brenna and these people.
Will's guy waits for Will to go, and Will does not. "Are your whole mob here?" When it becomes clear Will isn't going first, this guy takes off with a little jog, followed by Will. "What are you doing? What's the plan?" They are not far behind Sinead, heading down toward Tillie and all.
The woman ignores Tillie and speaks to Brenna. "Honoured Elder, we are here to take you somewhere safe." Tillie steps more directly between them. "Hi, I'm Matilda." "I know who you are" "Can I help you?" "yes, you can get out of the way." "No" The woman leans in and says "This is a bunyip matter, and by order the Jindabyne council, you are forbidden to investigate matters of the bunyip." "It is not a bunyip matter" "The fetish was created by the bunyip. We will take over here. You can go" ("We haven't been messing with the bunyip?! there's been no - " "No cave paintings and no stories from the bunyip tribe?" "oh yeah. that")
("Them's fighting pics!") "What's between me and the Jindabyne council is between me and the Jindabyne council. I'm talking about a person." "Maybe you should ask her then?" "Sure. Brrr - do you want to come back to my house and talk to people" "Er. I've been to your house, haven't I? Ok" ("Do you want to go with us, or with these people who smell of wee?" "I don't smell of wee" "you just walk into these things don't you") "Elder, it is dangerous here for you in this city. You need to be away from all of this. We have the knowledge to help you. These people do not. "
"After everything that's happened, I don't think that every stranger that comes up to her has her best interests at heart, but I know I do. If you'd like to discuss this privately, that's fine. But we need to get off this street now."
Tillie mentally tells Sinead to make a call to the caern. She gets Graeme and lets him know that Brenna found them, and so did some unnamed pack and they are going to Tillie's house, and if he wants to send someone along, make sure they don't scare Brr. ("oh yes, we'll get rid of the moderately powerful fae by bringing home the super power fae that she's terrified of because its so dangerous")
Tillie pushes things and demands a name. The woman says she is Red-Sun-Rising, homid adren philodox of the Uktena, and this is her pack Two-Bones, also of the Uktena.
As they go past the pub, the band starts up and its suddenly extremely loud on the street. Finn sends an SMS to his friends as they go past saying he's not getting in, something has come up. "Is it a girl?" "... yes, but not in a good way" Brenna starts to look more distracted and is wincing and holding the side of her head. "What's wrong?" "It hurts. Something inside my head." Brenna puts her hands in her pockets, and her eyes turn to stars. A huge dark figure, filled with stars and with glowing eyes, flows up and out of her body. Brenna is clealy still in the middle of it, as it is partly transparent. Many people are knocked to the ground by a force as the figure expands, including Tillie and Will and one of the Uktena. People start to freak out a bit. Tillie yells "you don't hae to do this, come back" Finn tries to use his persuasion gift and add his voice to the mix. Sinead tries her name the spirit gift and finds its not a spirit, which is nice to have confirmation on. Will uses Jam Technology to foul up people's phones so no one takes video of what's going to happen - on the downside, the music inside gets stuck on the one note.
The figure starts to distort and drift toward the west, as if it was being pushed on a breeze. The figure shrinks back into Brenna's body, and is implodes, another concussion rings out, knocking almost everyone over (Sauron in LoTR sort of style). Finn tries "Are you Brenna or the queen?" but Brenna flies up into the air. Sinead leaps for Brenna's foot to try and grab her, but only gets her stinky shoe. ("Suddenly its a Cinderella story"). ("What's the bloodhound of the sky?" "A flying bloodhound"). One of the Uktena take off after her ("DAMMIT" "I bet they have a proper owl") into the sky as well. Most of the people in the street are too busy trying to get up to notice, but a couple are pointing up and yelling too. ("Can we persue on foot? " "No we cannot pursue on foot straight up")
Will contemplates summons the butterfly spirit he has a deal with by calling its name and asks it to make the illusion of a gas smell in the area but he can't really get to the Umbra and back in any sort of useful time. Kasumi appears in the Umbra and is extremely confused by her packmate's yelling. There are lots of spiritual motes floating about of curiosity and joy and music, nothing really seems wrong. She changes into hispo and gives a "where are you?" sort of howl. She sees someone about 4 stories up flying in the sky in the Umbra, and she gives chase, but she cannot follow properly as they curve east and toward the south.
Jam Technology wears off and suddenly the music crashes to a halt and people's phones start to work again. Will confidently says "what an awesoem light show!" and hears it repeated a few times by people around him.
Tillie strongly suggests that Two-Bones come with them now and speak to their Elders. Sinead sighs and rings Graeme back and says they've lost the Queen of the Night - "She can fly" "We already knew that. Why do you feel the need to mention it?" - plus we'll be there soon with the aforementioned Uktena pack. She suggests Cossack might want to have a word with them. Will asks if the Uktena were just spying on them, or if they have some way to track to Elder Fae?
About half way to the caern, they are met by the other Uktena from the Umbra. Finn tries to talk some more, and she just ignores him. Will sniffs them as best he can in homid ("I'm getting dust and red earth" "rare earth?" ) ("Oh my god, you can't just ask someone if they're lupus!") Its an awkward silent walk back the kilometer or so to the caern.
Cossack is waiting just inside the pedestrian gate they are approaching, and he waves to get their attention. He addresses Tillie first, and does not direct attention to the Uktena for a bit - he asks where Brenna is, and then what triggered the change back to the Elder Fae aspect and other little pertient questions. Eventually he turns to Red-Sun-Rising and says that he is Cossack, Athro Homid Galliard of the Bone Gnawers and Sept Leader of Sleeping Lore. He welcomes them to the city asks why they are here? Red-Sun-Rising does introduce herself and her pack as Two-Bones without more detail on who they are.
Red-Sun-Rising says that they are here to claim the Bunyip fetish; as spiritual heirs to the Bunyip, the Uktena have the duty and the right to take the item into their posession and secure it. Unlike this pack, who have been forbidden to look into matters around the Bunyip. Tillie says this is a fae matter, and - Red-Sun-Rising interrupts that her and says it was a bunyip ritual and a bunyip fetish that imprisoned the Elder Fae. Tillie says they can have it when they've fixed Brenna - how are they going to help with all this? Red-Sun-Rising says that they'll take the fetish and contain it, stopping all the Veil breaking issues. She doesn't care much what they do with the .. vessel. Frankly she doesn't want a bunch of white people sorting out a problem that they've caused in the first place.
Tillie asks more about the fetish, but Red-Sun-Rising doesn't want to cooperate. Cossack says that some cooperation at this point might achieve all their goals and Red-Sun-Rising says she sees no reason. Will says they came into the Sept's territory and caused havoc. Red-Sun-Rising asks if that wyrm tainted stretch is part of the Sept's territory? Cossack says that like many septs, they claim a protectorate outside of their immediate Bawn, and the city is the main stay of that. Given they came within a kilometer of the caern, it would have been polite to introduce themselves.
The final Uktena drops out of the sky and Will has a go at him for breaking the Veil by flying off in a crowded street. ("you're going to lecture us about breaking a command of the Jindabyne council, but you're breaking the _litany_, motherfucker"). Tillie says again she cannot see a reason to not cooperate as their aims are not at odds; Red-Sun-Rising says that she holds them all as complicit in the massacre of the Bunyip and does not feel that she needs to work with them. ("I'm _asian_"). In a brief cause, the flying Uktena says that she headed south east. Mentally the pack think why - toward the cave? Maybe, but there's a lot of things that way. Red-Sun-Rising says that they will handle the Bunyip matter, the Lost Prophets can look after the sundry fae matters. She motions her pack to leave and the pack start to hassle her about exactly what does she want. Red-Sun-Rising says they have a responsibility to the issues the Bunyip have left behind. As they leave Will says if you wont tell us what you are going to do, we're just going to fight you if you get in our way. Red-Sun-Rising stops and says that yes, that's her understanding of how they work. She then turns and leaves.
Kasumi comments on the lack of cooperation and it occurs to folks that the usual state of garou interaction is basically like this - Cossack makes a big deal of trying to keep interactions between the various nearby Septs as cordial and helpful as possible, but its the unusual state and normally the garou fight over territory and responsibilities and rights. In Sydney, the bone gnawers wouldn't even ask the next most local sept for help in taking out a Hive; there just wasn't any basis for that sort of interaction there. There's also the strong implication that if they are claiming the city as territory, and the fianna claim the fae, then the Uktena are claiming the bunyip, and matters related as territory.
The pack talk to Cossack about going to the council now. He thinks that even assuming they do react quickly (they don't usually) and hear the pack out, there's unlikely to be a consensus enough to make a clear decision for some time anyway. In the meantime, there's fae queens wrecking the city. He's fine with sending a message, that's probably a good idea, but don't expect them to be relevant immediately.
Cossack says he's not really surprised at her attitude - she may genuinely be pissed with Europeans and European garou, but the Uktena absolutely have their own agenda. There has been rumours for some time of actions, behaviours and tools that stray dangerously close to trucking with the wyrm. At this stage, he thinks they should ignore Two-Bones and continue trying to resolve the situation. So.. why did she show up when she did? And why did she undo it? Cossack asks if there was anything in the music they were listening to that might have had a traditional base? Oh wait, no, she's not a european fae, for whom that might matter. Sinead does a questing stone given they called her Brenna and she said "yes". No love.
Will says "we didn't mention it, because we were too busy arguing, but we should probably give them a head up about the Dancers". ("We're catholic, they're protestants, but they are actually demons"). Other leads - Cossack asks if they've exhausted whatever help the low fae might be? The pack have mixed opinions - "god yes, not again" to "maybe" Anything they said before?
Why is there a fae in a fetish? Or a fetish in the fae? Fetish's are for spirits and she's not a spirit. Sinead says that that is an absolute. Finn mentions the object falling out of the sky - meteoric iron? They know iron + fae = bad. And it fell out of the sky, which is part of the Elder Fae's domain. But normally you'd make a fetish out of something that a spirit would like, something complementary. Iron is the opposite of that for fae.
So, Brenna was possessed, but only spirits posess people.. or at least its not the sort of fae-behaviour they'd expect. The Uktena think there's a fetish, but fae don't go into fetishes. Did Cherie say anything relevant? Bartholomew? A group of magic men and warriors drove her away. Is Brenna in the fetish? Cossack doesn't know how to capture a living being's spirit in a fetish. He thinks it isn't garou magic, but could the bunyip do that? Is Brenna the fetish? Maybe if she was actually killed by the Dancers, but that again isn't really garou magic. If its not really her then how would she find and recognise Tillie? Will mentions that they promised to heal Brenna, and Cossack seems a bit doubtful. They promised to get the Elder Fae back to Lysander too? Well, no, but he offered to help and Cossack is pro getting her out of the city in some fashion? And getting the Fae out of Brenna. They didn't agree to that, he was just happy to help.
The Uktena called her 'Honoured Elder' - honoured elder what? Bunyip? Maybe it was just an honouriffic? They were treating her venerably when they spoke to her directly. Maybe... maybe there's a bunyip ancestor spirit bound into the fetish that traps the fae? Just how many entities are inside Brenna then? Cossack says that the Uktena crave information - they might just want the Elder Fae for her secrets. She's a creature that's been alive for thousands of years - if they think there's a fetish, they might think that's a point of control? Will says "Maybe that's what the Dancers thought? Did they stumble onto it, someone's thought 'this is a fetish' and its gone badly from there?" Maybe the iron is just used to contain her? That's the word that was used in Tir Na Noght. Maybe there is a prison and someone thought it was a fetish? They know that the bunyip could track significantly powerful wyrm beasts in some fashion - maybe they had a knack for it. Tillie says she really hopes the Uktena are wrong. But then one of them gets it, and ends up posessed by the night queen? Not so good I guess. The pack remember that just before her eyes went starry, Brenna reached into her pocket. Maybe its small enough to be in a pocket? Tille asked last time if she had anything in her pockets and she just had a dead mouse. ("maybe that was the fetish? I could have solved this thing much earlier")
They fundamentally need Brenna to come to them. Tillie talks about her wandering around in the Umbra plan, and Cossack says in the lack of anything else, sure? She might not be able to find Tillie in the caern. And Cossack says crowded human streets are not the best either.
They might have lost Cherie. If she comes back, she will make a good alarm for the presence of Brenna though. They did take another low fae out to help find the queen, (George, a 6 limbed teddie) but he panicked and hid. Tillie is all for putting an iron leash on Cherie until she does what she's told. Will suggests the fae desire for deals might be more helpful - but given how much Cherie has avoided the night queen, it'll be expensive.
They go with the trawling plan, using Tillie as bait. There's no immediate response - possibly as predicted because the queen has taken over for the night. Will spends the evening looking for a replacement questing stone instead.
Sinead is heading for bed when she starts to get that tight, weird feeling that preludes a prophetic dream. Its not quite as intense as the previous times, or perhaps she's sensing the imminence a little earlier. She sets up a bath ("I thought we were just putting her hand in a bucket of water") and tries to sleep while floating. She does receive visions - something moving through the night sky; which transitions into a dark that isn't night, with a hand emerging, making a sort of helping jesture; five garou running along in lupus form, only with a shadow over two of them.
("Dogs and sheep are the same creatures at different stages of their life cycle") Sinead wakes up in a cold, slightly blood stained bath. The bleeding thing seems less pronounced this time. She passes on the dream visions to the rest of the pack. The garou she saw aren't immediately identifyable, but the pack think they were the Uktena - Red-Sun-Rising and one of the other garou were carrying tainted objects, or were tainted themselves. Taht might match the shadows.
Will finds himself being kicked off the bedcouch by a naked Cherie. She's not really interested in him though - she picks up one of the stacks of books that Tillie supplied and starts reading. ("Gods don't pee"). He tries to engage her in conversation but she is just a bit surprised that he's not dead. He tries to snuggle up to her but she hits him with the book. ("Book cock blocked?")
Finn's instantly woken up by a quiet knocking. He checks the windows and sees its Melissa. He calls back to Cherie to put a shirt on, and opens the door. Melissa slips in and asks if he's been to the caern, its mental. There's low fae everywhere. All the werewolves and stuff, no one mentioned that there were also muppets. She's walking backwards and talking to him, then turns around and says "Hey Will - " and spots Cherie. "Oh". Finn tries to keep the conversation running, but she's obviously heavily disconcerted. Melissa tries to disengage and go, but Finn says he wants to see how insane it is. She'll wait outside. SLAM.
Tillie asks why everyone is shouting. They get their shit together and go check it out. ("This seems like the perfect level 0 quest for the cub"), bringing along their picnic basket of goodies. Melissa's out the front but is walking fast ahead with Finn. "What happened to your head?" Finn explains about the colours and the low fae, and Will tries to convince him its going scaley and falling out. ("_She_ drew dicks on your face. Lots of dicks. She drew one dick on his face. This is going to be really confusing on the recording without the pointing"). ("That could be your metis deformity. Like a hyena. Enlarged clitoris").
There are the usual mourners and family in the Realm in the caern for a Sunday, but the Umbra is full of low fae. Melissa is a bit not sure she should have dragged them here, and Tillie explains that they can negotiate with the low fae to get information - usually its useless. But maybe they can get info or help out of one of them - how about you pick one? The Lost Prophets go into the umbra with Melissa and look around a bit while she thinks about it. There are glowing fae, running fae, liquid ones, flying ones, ones breathing fire and some changing shape. At various points they turn around and realise there's a potato there. It appears to just be a potato, but its moves when they don't look. Its madness really.
Melissa tries to get the attention of one of them. After about 10 minutes as she gets more and more inextricably tangled in their antics, everyone but Finn heads off to talk to the Elders. Finn sort of babysits while Melissa runs around, gets her shoe laces tied, etc. ("Don't give them any of your sperm").
Will suggests they should Questing Stone the Uktena pack to let them know that there's Dancers around. No one cares, so he summons his mouse spirit friend and gives it a gnosis in exchange for finding Red-Sun-Rising and warning her about the Dancers.
Cossack and Emma are being cooked breakfast by Graeme. They chat about things while this is going on. Cossack says that they should know that the random beatings seem to have stopped synchronously with the rocks on the freeway incident. Sinead conveys her dreams, and Emma says that while normally these things are symbolic, the last set seem to be also straight forward - multiple levels perhaps. Sinead thinks the helping hand was definitely human and maybe male? Maybe the darkness it came out of is wyrm taint? Help from the Dancers, also trying to get the Elder Fae back in the box. ("one's made of penises, the other is made of... gaps." "Gaps." "Gaps. Really." "Gaps." "Put it in my gap"). (confusion of http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110475/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 and http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089560/?ref_=nv_sr_2 ) ("I asked lydia what she'd get me for my birthday and she says 'a surprise'. 'Oh what's it going to be?' 'I dunno, its a surprise!') ("Wait are we fisting or fixing her?" "Thats'a sweet taco and a terrible donut.")
Graeme gets an odd look on his face and looks at the door just before there is a knocking. He opens it and there's a bulky woman on the other side in a hoodie. Tillie think she's seen them before - one of the Black Furies from Grinding Stone? She recognises Graeme but says she wants to speak in private with Tillie. She seems to be on her own. Tillie says sure and they walk through the cemetery. The woman is missing a couple fingers off one hand. She's a bit beaten up, and a bit smaller than Tillie, and older.
The garou introduces herself formally - her name is Athena Tirebass, rank 3 metis philodox of the Black Furies and pack leader of Gaia's Rage, and Tillie returns the formality. Athena says she has a rough idea of what's going on Melbourne, but Tillie sent a message asking about a Brenna Kennedy to the Furies? She'd like to know why Tillie was asking because there was someone called that, but she was killed by Black Spiral Dancers. Did you have a physical description? I'm curious why you were asking. Tillie says I think she was my sister and Athena blinks a lot. "How about you come at it from the start, because that was not that answer I was expecting"
Tillie gives Athena a pretty thourough rundown - seems to be Tillie's sister, posessed or controlled by fae queen, associated with Dancers in some capacity. Athena blinks a bit and says that Tillie just said she was a Shadow Lord. Tillie says she's just as confused.
Athena says that the limited information she has is that about four years ago, a Brenna Kennedy from a Black Fury sept disappeared fighting the wyrm and then about the same time, a Matilda Kennedy showed up claiming to have been wandering about having left her sept in remote Tasmania. Tillie says people have seen them in the same room. Athena says that it did suspiciously look like maybe someone had decided to leave one tribe and come back as a member of another, but she's willing to trust Tillie on this. The limited information that Athena has been told includes the fact that people were really, really sure that Brenna was dead - but she doens't know how they came by the information. Tillie says that their information doesn't necessarily conflict with her having died, but she's not sure. Athena wants to know why they were being asked if they threw a Dancer in the ocean, so Tillie tells them about the bear. ("The washed up one wasn't another Tillie was it?")
The rest of the pack are mentally being kept up to date. Will suggests maybe Brenna and her Dancer pack found out about the fae queen, led their by spirits or whatever, and that Brenna picked up the prison and got taken over. As soon as her packmate turns her back, slash, splut. Then they wash up on shore a week or two later. "yes, that wild speculation could indeed be what happened."
Tillie wants to know anything that Athena knows about her sister. Athena says that she was at a caern on the north west coast. Tillie asks about her deformity? Athena does not know. She knows that Brenna was a pack leader, and the pack were investigating well away from the Sept, and disappeared, later found killed. The pack were called Kiss the Blade. Tillie says this is weird - how many metis have siblings? Athena concedes not many - more have half siblings. She says people will be interested in hearing about this... if any supporting evidence comes up, they'd be interested. Athena says she accepts the story, but, y'know, people will want some evidence. What's Tillie's plan about what to do with this information? She's really not sure, even though she'd like to know more about Kiss-the-Blade. ("I'm not a former Black Spiral Dancer am i... ARGH Fury! FURY!") She suggests that Tillie won't get a rapid reply, but someone might come and talk to her.
Lost Prophets check their timelines, and they seem to more or less be ok. Tillie went through first change and fucked off, but Brenna stayed around, got renown, went and joined a pack. Just before Tillie decided to go back to garou society, Brenna and her pack were killed by Dancers. Will speculates about summoning a Black Fury ancestor spirit and asking about stories of Kiss-the-Blade, but there's no obvious connection to that tribe from their pack. Except Tillie, presumably, but she's been accepted as a Shadow Lord by Grand Father Thunder, and that connection has probably been severed.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the caern, Melissa has befriended a more sedate low fae who seems to be made out of basalt. She tells Finn his name is Hyrum. Hyrum speaks slowly and oddly. Finn says that they wonder if he could tell them how to find the Elder Fae. Not actually find her, but give him some ideas for finding her? Hyrum says she is big and scary. Finn says she's sharing a body with a friend of his and Hyrum seems puzzled - is she in the hole? Queen is in the hole. Finn asks if he has some way that Finn could find her, not Hyrum. He says he is not going to say. Finn offers some bribes, but not even the pretty 'gems' look good. What would Hyrum like? Hyrum likes daf-o-dils. Finn tells his pack to get some right now, and Kasumi "wallet" Umino goes off to get some. She has to dedicate them, but she's back in about 25 minutes. ("I'm still gunna fight you because I hate you. And I'm taking your money. And your daughter"). ("No, I did not take them off a grave!"). Finn says he wants something that will help him find the queen. Hyrum says he will give advice. "It can't be "don't"" - Hyrum looks sad. Hyrum offers straight forward advice on why he can't find the Queen. Finn concedes ok. Kasumi hands him the daffodils and he looks through them throwing them around, getting crosser. "What are daffodils!" "There?" "NO! Underground bits!" He hurls them at Kasumi, who sighs and goes looking for a garden place. She's back in a another hour with bulbs that have been dedicated and an urge to kill. ("let the record show that becc has left the room in a huff")
Hyrum eats the daffodils ("ENLONG") like they were crunchy apples. "Mmmm Hyrum like daf-o-deels". Finn pushes him and he says "The queen is in somewhere else" and he makes a sort of jesture to try and explain. Is it a pocket realm? Maybe she's in a place like the little spaces the kids were in? ("Will knows about fairy gaps"). So.. not here? No. And not in the Realm? *blank look*. It takes a while to convey the difference between the two, but she's just not here. Is there an entrance? Yes. Can you take me to it? No. Can you tell me where it is? No, its hidden. Hidden from Hyrum. And when she reaches out, its like fire - everything too close turns to fire. Can't find her until you can, and then she ruins the psyche of everyone nearby. The pack think about the effects they've seen near the Elder fae and the cave paintings and the story - she brings chaos and madness, and some sort of supression of self?
(12m of "Round the Twist") The pack decide to go speak to Leaps-in-the-Light, and find him out the front of Carmel's cafe with a couple of empty coffee cups in front of him. ("90 seconds"). They run through Hyrum's "hole" description and wonder if its maybe she's in a pocket realm like the ones that Patricia and Malcolm were in? Leaps-in-the-Light says yeah, why not. If the Bunyip have found a mobile fae realm gate - as opposed to rocks, trees or mushrooms - then yeah, they could have stuffed the Elder Fae in there and then blocked the gate ritually? But many rituals have to be maintained, maybe its being broken down? Does that help them find her? Leaps-in-the-Light says if he knew a way to find her, he'd have said. The uktena think its a fetish, so lets say that its maybe a stone with a hole in it, just as an example. So they could close it with, say, iron wire. Will says "what about an iron meteor?" They explain the cave paintings and Leaps-in-the-Light says sure, that sounds right. Its no help tho. But it does mean that maybe they could get an iron box and shut this thing into it, problem more or less solved? They're pretty sure Brenna reached into her pocket just before she became the queen, so maybe its literally pocket sized. Maybe it'll be easy to get it off her, it'll just be ransacking through her clothes? But it does mean finding her before the Uktena, if its that easy.
Surely an object that powerful has to leave a trace? Its not Leap-in-the-Light's area of expertise, but he does know that part of the containing rituals is to hide the thing that they are containing, otherwise its a bit pointless. Kasumi says that there was part of the story Berabolus told them that said she was hidden or something from other fae. Which is weird given she seems to have been left at the trod? Maybe the bunyip left it on the doorstep, rang the door bell and ran away. Maybe the cave itself is significiant in terms of restraining the Elder Fae? Maybe she was imprisoned elsewhere but the key was at the trod? The gate would have been made out of, say, silver and rowan if the Fianna had made it, but who knows what the Bunyip would have made it out of. If it was made. They did find some scraps of leather there, it could have been part of it. They can't really awaken it - its a scrap of leather. They don't even know what animal its from. Is there a link between particular native animals and fae? Leaps-in-the-Light says Kookaburra? but hard to make leather of. Maybe possum.
Brenna hasn't just been hanging out at the cave the whole time, has she? They haven't been back for a while, but... ok that might be worth a look. ("And their dicks look weird" "All dicks look weird" "If you could bang a guy with one dick or four dicks?" "ONE" "One." "How did we get here?" "No more terrifying dicks from the animal kingdom" "There's a documentary series" "Can you fit a sperm whale dick in a giraffe")
They decide to get an iron box from somewhereebay? Antique shops. Kasumi stares at them and says Officeworks? Oh right. They could get a lock box, it'll be metal and it'll have a lock. Could they bind something to it? Or they could make something without a lid so they just have to crush it shut or something? Everyone could bring their own and they could babushka doll it. They spend the rest of Sunday arvo sorting this out and end up with an antique iron box from gumtree. It even has a latch as well as a lock. ("Maybe we should rust proof it - there another 5000 years out of it")
Could they track Brenna anywhere? Maybe using Tillie? But that sense of a connection has been severed... at least to some level. Finn - a little prophetically perhaps - suggests that summoning an Incarna is a bit of overkill, but Gemini? Castor and Pollux, as twins might be able to help them out? Maybe animals with multiple births? Lots of them do but they're looking to follow a thin connection so maybe the stronger twin association is what they need? Heroic twins? ("caine and abel?"). Romulus and Remus? Suckled by wolves and all that. ("Bloodhounds and helicopters?" "we put it on Bronwyn Bishop's charge card:")
During the afternoon while Lost Prophets are at the Sept, they spot an argument between Georgina and Kirsty about events - Georgina says that they can't just approach the Uktena as Uktena the garou, they also have an indigenous background that needs to be taken into account. So it makes sense they dont trust europeans in general even if some of them are garou. Kirsty's counter-point is "fuck em" - they're fundamentally untrustworthy, its ingrained in the Uktena, its who they are. She points at Lost Prophets and says she told them when they went to the Atrocity Realm with that one from Scars Atoning. Lost Prophets sort of agree but says that Jane has been fine and Malajimbarra has been helpful if not amiable? They argument gets vehement, and Georgina gives up and leaves.
The pack head down to their cave just after dark to check it out. Based on scents no one has been here, though the holes they dug before are gone, suggesting that the water does lap over the rock ridge and into the sandy area. They dig some new holes, looking for .. .anything really. Kasumi finds some stuff that might be seaweed, or might be bits of leather, small fragments about the size of a $0.50c piece. She takes them just in case. Will checks the Umbra side, and it appears to be similarly untouched - nothing appears to have been dug here tho.
They head back to Melbourne through light drizzle. As they go trawling for Brenna in the spirit world, the rain gets slowly heavier, making the whole process a bit unpleasant. They give up, and grab kebabs. Kasumi and Sinead were going to crash, but open the door and see Cherie going through her pile of books and decide to go elsewhere. She tells Will that he still owes her three things and time is passing. Everyone goes to sleep.
Will, Tillie and Finn are woken by a crash of thunder. Maybe. They think. There's heavy rain outside. Will looks at Cherie and asks if she can feel the Elder Fae here? She says no, but she can feel something. ah that feels much better. Something shut off that annoying noise from their place - she didn't realise how annoying it was til it stopped. Will senses for unnatural and finds a strong, pervasive set of senses - Wyld, and ... oh its magic, but its not tangled with deadlands.. .and another sense that feels... full? Round? Its a good sense, maybe a bit akin to the sense from the caern at Ettadunna (the tree, not the nexus crawler). Its not a bunyip sense like he got before tho. Tillie calls the caern and get a busy line so she mentally contacts Kasumi and Sinead. Kasumi mutters something in Japanese and Finn says "did you say 'idiot?'".
Tillie wants to know if it senses weird everywhere or is it just their house and without thinking passes the sense unnatural gift to Kasumi via their mental link. That's not happened before, and is pretty interesting. Kasumi senses there and finds that she also can detect the three senses, strong enough to show up but not overwhelmingly weird. She tries to pin the last sense down too - it feels a bit akin to the wyld, weaver, wyrm senses but .. not ? She looks outside and can't see the sky because its raining - high cloud with big splats of rain.
The pack decide to go to the caern. Will tells Cherie to be careful, she says leave that ritual turned off please. "Keep an ear out?" Cherie raises one. When they cross the boundary from outside the caern into the cemetery, they can sense the sudden lack of those weird senses. It definitely feels like there's a something going on out there. In the Umbra, there are only some low fae, slower moving ones really. They aren't panicking, but there's certainly far fewer here than there were yesterday.
The pack can find Emma and Graeme in the Umbra, where it is also raining. Graeme asks what they did, but not seriously. He says the ritual is still going, but - he points east. There's flashing lights arcing and shimmering along the caern boundary. Apparently all the low fae have gone to the north and west sides - there's something happening on the east and south sides that is pretty significant (but at the same time, Kasumi's house was west and the senses were there). The Scryers are also out and about looking, so the Lost Prophets head south-east on the grounds that's where Brenna went. They bring their iron box with them.
The pack zig zag along through the Umbra looking for what might have causes this. They are walking toward the weaver-structure that matches Bridge Road bridge; as they come up to the cutting the river flows in, they glance down and see an immense blue & green serpent filling the river bed instead of water. There's something you don't see every day. They stare at it sliding north, wondering why its there. Will confirms its the source of all the senses flooding the city. Finn points out that there's a leg coming. Its furred, and like a cat's leg. Finn says "oh. Oh. OH. That's Uktena" ("Ok we can't fight that"). Cat headed, horned serpent. Its sooo huge tho.
Kasumi dives into the toilet block and rings the caern. In the realm the river is normal. She gets Ian on the phone and she tells him where they are while he says "blah blah blah" over the top. She manages to get him to shut up a moment and says "the river has turned into Uktena" "You're shitting me? You actually have a reason to ring for a change? Like a good reason. I'm very impressed. Should we bronze the phone?" He encourages her to investigate further and says that he'll pass the message on and he's sure they'll react accordingly. Mostly like this "AaaaaaARARARARG!!!" [click].
They watch as the giant cat leg comes closer. Its only on one side, it doesn't have a matching limb on the other. The foot goes down and smashes things up a bit and pushes the serpent further up the river. The garou contemplate running up the spirit to find its head and talk to it.
Kasumi's phone rings. Its Cossack, and he gives them some firm instructions - find Two-Bones any way they can, and get the Uktena to pull Uktena back, because that thing in their river is not an avatar, its UKTENA, the Incarna. This sort of shit starts an arms race. Find them, and get them to fuck it off. Right now. Kasumi suggests sending a message to Tjinderi - Cossack says that's a good idea, he will try that too. The pack consider asking Malajimbara for help too. Kasumi calls Michelle of the Silver Fangs and gives her the basic info and they want someone to help rein in Two Bones.
While the foot sails on up the river, Sinead tries to Questing Stone for Red-Sun-Rising. No response in the Umbra, so she joins Kasumi in the Realm and does it again. There's a weird, muted response from the ritual, leading them north east. Ish. Its very odd. Either they are warded or Uktena ate them. The sense leaves the river but it does eventually cross the Yarra near Balwyn, so they head that way in the hope they'll be able to bang back into Uktena somewhere useful.
("I wasn't picturing a female wolf running along with big teats"). As they run along through the umbra, the rain intensifies and the clouds darken. Lightning flashes behind them, and strikes off to the north. As they get to Kew, a small earth tremor rumbles - clearly Uktena's presence is not good for the world.
Lost Prophets crest the ridge on the far side of Kew and the Umbral mists clear, revealing the Yarra valley ahead of them. The rain is still making it difficult to get a perfect view, but they can manage to see an unusually long way. This is probably because about 5km ahead they can see where Uktena rises up out of the river bed and into the sky. Intermittant cat legs push the spirit along as it undulates and coils up into the clouds, leaving more Uktena behind him. ("No, it is not like Shenron").
The pack scan the sky, looking for flying Uktena. They notice that many of the spirits they'd expect to see have left with all speed. Uktena suddenly speeds up and there is another earth tremor. Ahead of the cougar head, Will can see that there is a dark patch of sky moving around with lights in it being chased by the Incarna. Tillie says the only thing she can think to do is attack Uktena - Will wonders if they can't maybe climb the totem? They could maybe grab a furry leg as it goes up into the sky. ("Can I pre-emptively rite of contrition for the disrespect?")
Kasumi ducks into the realm to give the caern an update. The rest of the pack try and think of a spirit that could help them fly ("because obviously the owl can't do it because he's shit" "you lose renown"). Another mild earth tremor rocks the ground, along with more thunder. There's a little bit of bafflement that Brenna is in the Umbra, but given she's a garou, and the fae have difficulty conceiving of the two places as different. ("Take your shitty worm totem"). Kasumi gets Graeme and explains what's going on. Graeme says the plan is still "find them", but he'll send some reinforcements to where they are to help; the Scryers are on the way from the CBD.
Sinead does another Questing stone while Uktena threads the sky, chasing Brenna. ("Why isn't Uktena reverting to animal form?" "Maybe it is, this is what lizard cats do"). Flashes of energy lash out from Brenna to Uktena, she's clearly fighting the totem away, and the path through the sky seems a little bit frantic. Sinead gets another weird response to her ritual - more north than the north east direction they were travelling but still no distance. This time they are in the Umbra.
The storm clouds get darker, and Will senses for unnatural. He finds that the three senses of Uktena are still strong. There is, however, a rising sense of Wyrm he's not happy about, up in the sky. Lightning. Lightning. Rolling lightning between the clouds, backlighting a huge draconic shape descending of the clouds, breathing smokey fire, and lunging at Uktena.
A very large 6 limbed dragon attacks Uktena's coils. The totem breaks off chasing Brenna and attacks the wyrm incarna back. The dragon swoops towards the coils and cops blows from cougar-legs for its trouble, but it breathes fire along Uktean and claws at the totem. Kasumi wonders if there's just enough god energy that the wyrm incarna made its way here, but Finn thinks that the Uktena and Dancers are likely to be fighting in a sort of as above - so below fashion. Will says that summoning an Incarna would take a while, so it speaks of some sort of preparation, on both sides.
The pack head down to the river as the titanic battle dominates the skies. As Uktena is wounded, its blood rains down. The Green Dragon is kicked out of the sky at one point and it crashes down into the ground, and fires start. Almost every other spirit is noping it away as fast as possible.
Lost Prophets cross the dead scar that is the Eastern Freeway and into the marshier land on the other side. Figuring the Uktena will need to be close to the river for their ritual, they a search from here. Sinead performs a questing stone but finds that she is unable to send for Red-Sun-Rising. In the meantime the rest of the pack talk to Boobook over their mental link and he appears shortly. ("Shit's fucked bro!") They ask him if he is able to find the Uktena pack (or the Dancer pack) and he takes off into the rain. He returns shortly after Sinead finishes her ritual and says that they are near but they are hidden. ("More like Cunt-tenna" "Fuktenna"). He says the ritual that called Uktena was sourced nearby. ("we'll just start flinging rocks til we hit someone").
They fall back to the old fashioned way - running around and sniffing. Tillie immediately falls into a billabong, face first through gloopy mud, but despite the rain which has been falling for over 12 hours, Kasumi and Will find traces of the Uktena pack in numerous places in the area in sheltered areas. The scents are sometimes mixed with the river smell. A couple of them are older, like a day or two? Its not trackable directly - there's no line of scent, its broken individual traces. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeJzHSxRq40) The garou spiral around and try to get some sense of the more recent scents.
As they are doubling back upstream again, there's the weird high pitched howling of a dingo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvIdJoiei4k) from behind them a few hundred metres. Kasumi fears that its a distraction because they are getting close, but the others want to go back and look so she's overruled. ("how many garou hands? How many human hands"). The pack look up and try to see if they can spot Brenna, but she seems to have left in the confusion. ("Maybe this is how we get back to Gaia - eaten and pooped out" "is that why its a spiral?" "no one needs to think of the wyrm pooing like chocolate soft serve")
They sigh, shift to crinos and head back to the sound. The area they are running in is clearly part of the golf course. On the othe side of the river is a lot more Wyld - and as they run along the river, they can see a dingo on that side looking their way. It howls again - "hey" - and turns back into the underbrush on the other side. The pack contemplate whether this is a trap, but decide to frogger their way across Uktena. On the otherside is a small not-quite-island formed by the river wobbling along. There are trees and ti-tree and ivy and bracken on this side. As they scramble to the top, some trees shimmer and shift, becoming Two-Bones - not in a fighting stance, but looking a bit sheepish. Red-Sun-Rising looks a bit more poker faced.
Tillie starts diplomatically - "What did you *do*?" Red-Sun-Rising says that the Elder fae was so powerful, she was virtually an Incarna, and only another Incarna would be able to capture her. "What a fantastic fucking idea you've had. Undo it" "We can't" "Fix it" "We can't". "You're telling me you summoned Uktena and now you can't get rid of it?" "We called Uktena but we are no longer able to communicate with him." "We didn't realise that the presence of Uktena would cancel out the other ritual, and that the Elder Fae would be able to act virtually unfettered." "What the fuck did you think would happen? You've summoned a fucking Incarna to the penumbra. What's wrong with you?!" Tillie starts to get that look in her eyes as her rage rises and her speech starts to become more snarpping and snarling. Red-Sun-Rising starts to raise her hackles as well. Tillie takes a step back to let Will talk. He tries to ask for more detail - could they get Uktena to leave? Maybe, but then it would leave the Green Dragon unmatched and able to rampage around.
The Lost Prophets look around and then double-think - there are six of Two Bones, not five. Off to one side is the dingo they followed to get here, and as they watch, it changes form and becomes Malajimbarra. ("We need an adult!"). Finn asks about how they dispel the Incarna. Malajimbarra says that he suggests they summon one of Uktena's brood to communicate with him if he is unwilling to listen to the garou. He is willing to listen to other ideas from Lost Prophets if they have a plan, however. Someone asks if Uktena might win - Malajimbarra says even if one or the other spirit could claim victory, the battle would diminish the winner considerably ("I'm not seeing a downside"). They may be able to persuade Uktena of this. Tillie says is there a possibility of there being somewhere nearby a group of Dancers concentrating very hard on summoning the Dragon? Malajimbarra says he worries this is evidence of their being a Hive somewhere in or around Melbourne; but they need to solve the immediate problem. Will asks if anyone else from Griding Stone is on their way ? No? Ok, the Scryers are probably their backup, and they are on the way.
Malajimbarra asks if any of the Lost Prophets can assist in summoning and Sinead is pushed forward. In the meantime Tillie and Finn go downstream a bit and try to get the attention of the Scyers - Finn's call of the wyld howl echos a fair way and there is a faint reply. ("Fuck this waaay, fuck that waaaay"). Malajimbarra sets up the ritual, and puts Sinead in front of him. Red-Sun-Rising steps up to join in and Malajimbarra stares her down, but points at two of the other Uktena to join the ritual. Its clear she is in the dog house. Sinead performs the ritual in concert with Malajimbarra as if she had been doing it for years. The other members of Two-Bones aren't quite as fast on the uptake. ("i'm so used to being the fuck ups, its so nice not being the ones at fault"). ("We put our butts on things" "...." "So they can smell we've been here").
As the summoning ritual ends, a brightly coloured thing comes down from the clouds, quickly resolving itself into a pink and gold oriental dragon. ("fap fap fap. I'm sorry!" "I'm not saying what she is or isn't doing, but we can't see her hands"). It has a lion-y head and is about 20' long. Malajimbarra greets it formally. ("Oh my. NOPE ") and offers it thanks. ("Eli, it looks like you're about to shove the whole bar in your mouth in one go"). He asks if will convey his words to its master. The spirit agrees and takes off again into the sky. ("Please be our Uktenna Antenna"). When the spirit is near Uktena, Malajimbarra speaks and his voice echos in the sky - he calls upon Uktena to withdraw before the world is damaged irrevocably. Uktena's response is loudly audible in the heads of all present; he says to withdraw now would be to risk destruction at the hands of the dragon. Malajimbarra suggests that if he indicates that Uktenna might withdraw, the Green Dragon might do the same. There is no immediate response, but suddenly Uktena retreats all the way back across the sky until his giant cougar head is resting in the river bank. The dragon circles a few times around before flying northwards and disintergrating into a black deluge from the sky. Uktena's head retreats rapidly back down the river at speed, leaving normal everyday murky Yarra. Another rumble or two of thunder shakes the landscape. Kasumi peeks but can't hear the sound of approaching sirens.
Christine and the Scryers show up as the rain starts to ease off. They say that Uktena's head went flying back the other way. They compare notes and think that the dragon dissolved over somewhere near Prestonish area ([handsigns that get more and more involved and insane]). Christine wants to get Two Bones back to the caern and have a long talk about what they did, and Tillie agrees. They tell the other garou and Malajimbarra agrees it would be a good idea. ("Some sort of rotating dick gun"). They talk about the Dancers and Christine says she missed a memo - there's a hive? They relate the theory and she sort of agrees. ("She's not a doppleganger, she's a twin").
As they walk back to the Sept, the Scryers are in front and Lost Prophets behind with Two Bones in the middle ("totally not prisoner") Malajimbarra is talking quietly with Red-sun-Rising. She is talking but not much. ("You, you're sneaky, listen in. ... You don't have anything to do that, do you?" "Not unless they're on the phone"). About half way back to Sleeping Lore, Malajimbarra stops talking to them, Red-Sun-Rising speaks briefly to her pack. Then Red-Sun-Rising and two other pack members fly up into the air, lifting the other two away with them, straight up, leaving Malajimbarra behind. At the slightly annoyed questioning of the other packs, Malajimbarra says as an Uktena elder, he ordered them to leave the city and never return. He will stand responsible for their actions and any repercussions. Christine and the Scryers look unimpressed. ("if you see the Two Bones pack, spit on them")
The rain dies off while they are walking back to the caern. When they arrive, Cossack, Emma and Nadine are waiting. Cossack's face falls when he sees that Two Bones is not with them. He asks for the short version which they give him, along with a bit of guessing. Malajimbarra waits politely out of earshot and then was waved to come closer. Cossack asks why he sent the other Uktena away - Malajimbarra says that he thinks the other pack were foolish, but there has been no real harm from their mistakes. Cossack says that he'll wait and see what the Get of Pennington say to that when they return from where the Green Dragon disintergrated and Malajimbarra agrees. He says that apart from disrespect for territory, he feels there has been no breach of the litany. Malajimbarra says that he believes they were led to their information by Uktena himself. Kasumi wants to know what they knew - Malajimbarra says he has some answer. Will uses Truth of Gaia on him as he answers questions.
Tillie wants to know anything about the fetish. Malajimbarra says that Two-Bones thought the fetish was made by the Bunyip but they did not know what form it took. The information about it came to them in a dream - they dreamt not of the fetish, but of the night rising from the ocean, in the same way the moon might, and then swelling to cover the city. They also saw a woman they now think was Brenna, Tillie's sister. They believed that Uktena showed them the dream. Kasumi asks what their plans were. He says they wished to capture the Elder Fae and negotiate with her for information, mostly about the Bunyip tribe. Tillie says that she doesn't know anything, and the Elders say that Tillie's probably spoken with Brenna. How did they find Brenna this morning? Uktena did - previously they were following Tillie and her pack. Kasumi asks about the stone circle, but there's no signs that it was Two Bones and not the Elder Fae.
The Elders speak about Dancers - there's almost certainly a Hive, somewhere nearby. Given their association with water, perhaps near the river, though that could be a deception designed to throw them off the scent. Malajimbarra says he cautions against assuming it is in inner Melbourne - the two Septs in the city should have stumbled over something about that if they are. But the sudden appearance of an Incarna suggests that there's a Hive - not just for the resources, but for the spiritual authority that would convince the Incarna to respond to the call. Uktena had shown a direct interest in Two Bones already, but unless the Dancers had the same level of interest in them from the Dragon, whoever did the summoning had some level of authority.
Tillie asks what Two Bones would have done without Malajimbarra and Lost Prophets coming along. He says that they were at a loss, not having expected the response. Red-Sun-Rising was confident that Uktena would have won. She asks why Malajimbarra happeend to be there, and he said that the events were fairly obviously unusual and so he came to observe. He has been here for a couple of days. Will asks if the Uktena pack could have been behind the pretend Mandras and Malajimbarra says he does not believe it was Two Bones. Malajimbarra says that they were not acting under tribal direction.
Cossack says that if Malajimbarra is standing in for Two Bones then he would appreciate if the Uktena would remain ("I was going to stay here and spy on you all anyway, works for me") and Malajimbarra agrees.
In an hour or two the Get of Pennington return. Chris says that in the realm, the dragon rain was acidic, and it fouled some of the landscape, but fortunately it was raining hard still and a lot of it was diluted. It'll end up in the water courses, but there's not a lot they can do. However, in the Umbra, it fell as a black oil and it was more resistent to the water. Its everywhere, like in a huge area around Preston, and its going to take more than a couple of cleansing rituals to clean up. ("It'll be like Knifepoint now, but if everyone's soul got vomited on"). Will wonders about dedicating bulldozers and pushing it together to cleanse? Maybe not one big pit of evil, but some medium pits? Or get weaverspiders, who are all covered in goo, to help out. ("Put them in the penguinator"). There's some concern about the spots where Uktena's blood fell too. On the plus side, the fae-attracting ritual has reestablished itself, so hopefully the Elder fae will be limited once again.
("Summoning an Incarna for no good reason " ... loss of wisdom) Most of the Sept ends up at the caern before long, trying to work out what to do. While this purported Hive is a high priority, right now Lost Prophets are responsible for Brenna, the Get of Pennington are scoping out the dragon rain, and Scryers are mostly on caern duty. Possibilities about where the Hive is are discussed. Kirsty asks at one point about whether they are 100% sure that the Uktena didn't summon both Incarna? The appearance of the Dragon is the real only evidence they have that there's a Hive, and they know that the Uktena were prepared to summon one Incarna. Tillie asks why would they and Kirsty says that she can't think of anything either, but she wanted to make sure they didn't achieve anything. Aquinas says that he appreciates the lack of extra entities, but he can't see what they'd have got out of it. Maybe the Dragon followed Uktena? Its possible, but... were the Uktena tricked into summoning Uktena as an ambush? It seems chancy. Cossack says he's prefer to take the worst possible option - and that would be that there's a Hive somewhere.
Lost Prophets wrack their brain about how to find Brenna or even the connection to her. They have ideas for using the connection between Tillie and Brenna but the vision Tillie saw suggested that its been severed... or at least from Tillie's side, even if Brenna still seems to have some semblence of being able to find her.
Will checks in on Cherie after all the bruhaha. She is surprised to see him, down to two books and a bit bored. She points out that its been 4 days and Will has done nothing about their deal. He tries to argue that they saw musicians on Saturday, but she says that she saw nothing. Also the annoying sound has started up again. He tries to ask her for how she'd fight the Night Queen but she's not keen to have the discussion - either he's going to get murdered and she'd have to find someone else to amuse her, or he'd win and evrything would go back to being crap. She's really bored, and is contemplating seeing if any friends might want to come here. ("home is where you leave your what?"). He says that he'll find something to do, and wanders off to ask Sinead. She's no help, but it occurs to him that he doesn't have to see a band, and there's street stuff all the time.
The pack continue trying to think how to track Brenna, with Will chipping in mentally - something spiritual to try and track her ("Bloodhounds. and they. still. can't. fly"). Something to do with twins that isn't Gemini? Shadow spirits? Brenna is sort of her evil double, maybe getting something to with shadows would work? Blood... spirits? Maybe they could take another tack - something fae to track her? Frankly they can't seem to find the sweet spot between something that has enough nous to do what they want and something that is too scared of her. Fianna ancestor spirits? Possibly, yes, if they can find one that knows a lot about the Fae. Spirits of the night? That would be coming at this a different way, avoiding the fae stuff and tracing her effects? Maybe combining that with the shadow spirit?
Maybe the Uktena weren't quite out of line? Maybe instead of Incarna, some powerful Jagglings might be a good plan? The problem is the cost, and also perhaps the possibility of disrupting plans to contact a powerful animal father to help them. Lunes? They're spirits associated with the night, and werewolves, and Brenna is an ahroun - they might have to wait 2 weeks tho, which is probably a bit long.
They've thought some of these tactics through to try and find the Full Moon Killer, and they've been either ineffectual or turned out to be too costly. But the Full Moon Killer doesn't have a connection to Tillie, so maybe they should rely on that connection... and now they're talking in circles. Maybe an ancestor spirit for both of them? If only they knew anything about their ancestry. Dang. Random Shadowlord spirits? ("We gotta find your dad.") ("Could we get enough blood together and just awaken it" "The spirit of ancestry.com") Maybe Jirrawan? The bunyip that dealt with it might be from there. They might go out there tomorrow.
Figuring they'll have to summon spirits, and feeling a bit depleted, the pack meditate for gnosis. Except Will who get distracted by lewd thoughts and then falls asleep in the sun.
As the sun goes down, Will takes Cherie out through the city while the others contemplate what to give a night spirit, starting with blacking out an entire suburb. ("we should stop this fae bringing the dark to the city by... dang.") Maybe they could take out a small country town instead? Maybe they could buy and name stars? ("nighty mc night face"). They could go out at night, and scare the bejesus out of some people?
Will takes Cherie out through the city. The same upbeat jolly effusiveness that they observed over the weekend is prevalent through the streets. There are more buskers than expected, there's more people in the street out and doing things. He takes her to see a variety of performances as they wander around the street, music and theatre as it comes. Even late at night on a Monday there are still people about. Will and Cherie end up in a bar on Southbank watching a juggler out near the river when he realises there's a guy who has just come into the bar staring at him and grinning. The guy is wearing sunglasses (at half past eleven) and a red hawaiian shirt and a cowboy hat. He goes to the bar, gets a drink and sits down, staring at Will and grinning in a rather demented way. He paranoidedly senses for unnatural senses and comes back with a strong sense of Magic, Demonic and Wyrm. Oh. Oh.
Will makes a mental call to his pack and says he thinks one of the Mages is here and staring at him. The pack leap out of the caern and their house, and head for the murder-van. Will stands there and warns Cherie that they have an probably unwanted guest, but takes no other immediate action. After a couple of minutes of staring and grinning, the guy looks at his watch, stands up, beckons and heads outside with his drink to where smokers clearly stand all the time. Will is keeping up a mental description of what's happening, and Tillie says to go talk to him. Will heads outside and activates his Persuasion gift, just in case. The rest of the pack are in the murder van and are heading south. Will says "wait here, if i run off try and get home" to Cherie who says "try not to get killed" while tasting random drinks randomly off tables.
Will checks for traps, er keeps his eyes and gifts open looking for some sort of ambush to be sprung and heads out. The mage waits for him to come close enough to have a quiet conversation and says "I understand you might be looking for someone." "Ah, yes" "I can tell you where they are. Or rather, will be." "Ok. Where will they be? " "At the Shrine" "When?" "23 minutes." Will sniffs and tries to get a sense of the mage's smell, but doesn't really pick up much personal - too much cologne? "Why are you telling me this?" "I'm a concerned citizen, who would like his time to spent more quietly than the last twenty four hours were. This informaiton is provided on being a good community citizen. What you do with it is up to you." He stands up and starts to walk off. Will calls out "Here's some advice for you. Some of things you associate with leave a spiritual taint. You should be careful" "Ok."
Will watches as he walks along the riverbank and walks between some shops, heading back away from the river. Figuring he's flown off, Will consults with his pack - they figure they really need to check it out just to be sure. Will tells Cherie he's going off to probably encounter and hopefully defeat the Night Queen, so she's welcome to head back to his place. Cherie says he won't be back, so she'll do what she wants. Will says she cannot renege on the deal without knowing he's dead. She says if he's dead, the deal's off. Will wants her to confirm that he's dead with the sept, but she says she'll ask the redhead (Finn).
Tillie is driving the murder van toward the Shrine at a breakneck speed, and Will takes off on foot. ("18:03. boop. 18:02. boop. 18:01. boop, 18:00")
("Atomic vampire children") Kasumi rings the caern and speaks to Graeme. He's concerned its a trick, and its just to pull people away from the caern - so there's no backup for this. He is happy to have them on speaker while its going on tho, so Kasumi doesn't hang up.
Will rocks up first, and skids to a halt, deploying as many of his sensing gifts he can from the nearby treeline. There's not people at the Shrine itself, but there's cars on the nearby roads, and people on St Kilda Rd, and its moderately well lit. ("Not going off totally, just moderately lit"). There's no strong unnatural senses, but the Shrine is very solidly there - given its the focus of two large rituals a year where many hundreds of people come, it might well be that it its very conceptually reinforced. It looks a bit different - there's a shallow pool on the north side that isn't there in the Realm, and the new entrances are not visible. There are spirits walking around on it, vaguely humanoid.
The van pulls over nearby and the pack spill out. 11:50. Finn senses for unnatural but senses nothing out o place. Kasumi peeks much better than Will did and can see the soldier-y spirits moving around the shrine. The pack approach from the south-east to try and get the most cover on their approach. 11:53. Behind the pillars there is a definite 'room' space that they can see from outside. Kasumi glances around and says there's probably cameras in the lights way up high, and there might be more closer up. They cannot tell if there are guards inside from this distance.
They approach cautiously, sensing gifts at the ready. Inside there are no guards, though Kasumi says there are cameras and network gear in there. There are some locked doors leading down into subterranean areas with some obvious computer light. 11:58. Now that they're hidden from the public, they need to knock out the cameras. Kasumi gets Will to boost her up and use Plug n Play to control the cameras. She'd have to knock them out one by one, but she finds that they are networked, and finds the switch, and scrambles its settings instead. That should have knocked out the ability of the cameras to send what they're recording. That'll set off alarms, but they've hopefully got 10 or 15 minutes.
The pack spread out - Will and Tillie watch either entrance, the others hide themselves around the landcape. Peeking in the Umbra, there are spirits of war and rememberence here.
Midnight.
Midnight plus 30s.
Just as Will goes "wait, there's a large fae sense increasing", from the sky, Brenna lands gently on the northern steps, twenty foot in front of Tillie. ("she's well posessed. Wait, that's not the word I meant. Endowed. "). She's found herself a trenchcoat to cover her somewhat shredded and burnt clothes. Tillie looks closely as she approaches and mentally says "we might be proper fucked" because they seem to be full of stars. ("should we roll initiative now?"). Brenna is walking inside when she sees Tillie in the doorway. "What are you doing here?" "Waiting for you" "No. I'm not interested in your presence. You will go" "I really need to talk to you" "I am waiting for my new associates. I'm not interested in you or the others with you" "I take it I am speaking to the night queen, and not to Brenna." "I just wear this flesh". Her mouth moves differently to the sounds Tillie is hearing, like she is speaking different words and something is making it intelligible to the pack. "Get out of my way". "Ok".
Tillie moves out the way and lets Brenna in, while the pack mentally discuss rapidly. Kasumi wants to see the associates, Will says they can't go into the Umbra, the transition will be lock them. Brenna moves to the middle of the room and says "You can go". Tillie thinks that they can fight her, let alone her and half a dozen Dancers - they're better to hide and track them. Will is pro fighting. They do have all their faerie fighting and box putting-in gear. The pack start to move off while thinking this through. Rapid mental conversation suggests this is the first time they've got her in a small enclosed area and it sounds like she's about to make an alliance... no, fuck it, get her. They grab the chains, turn and charge back toward Brenna.
Tillie flows to crinos as she bursts in next to Finn, each holding some of their chain, followed by Sinead and Will with the second chain. ("I'm spending 3 rage, cos I don't expect to be alive three rounds from now"), then Kasumi carrying iron pokers. Tillie sinks into the stone like its water two steps in, and the metal chain that Finn and Tillie are holding heats up hundreds of degrees. Finn hangs into it despite the hissing noise from his flesh and the urge to frenzy, and tries to wrap around Brenna. Tillie tries to drag herself out of the hole, while holding onto the burning chain, but just scrapes flesh away. Finn messes up keeping the tension on the chain, but it drops off Brenna and onto the floor because its not tight enough. ("How did you get melee skill?" "Snitches get stitches".) Will leaps Tillie, and Sinead and him manage to try the same wrapping tactic way more effectively, instinctively knowing who should go high and who should go low, tying Brenna up in iron chains. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jerwm4ctkg) Kasumi comes in and tries to brain Brenna with the poker. ("Do you have any melee?" "Nope." "6"). She hits her square in face but the blow barely leaves a mark. ("Is it odd to hit someone who looks like me straight in the face?" "no, its oddly satisfying" "if he hits Brenna, I'm giving him willpower back").
One of not-Brenna's eyes glows bright red and Kasumi is in crippling agony suddenly. ("Did we have a plan beyond 'wrap her in chains'?") Finn fumbles about trying to chain not-Brenna more. Tillie blows a rage to go straight to glabro, but slips deeper into the weird liquid-not-liquid stone rather than being able to burst out. ("Clearly we don't have the cgi budget/skills to have you fight yourself, so you sink into the ground and there are cuts back and forth"). Will drops the chain for Sinead to pick up and smacks Brenna with a poker - his blow would have hacked a human into two, but Brenna barely flinches. Sinead grabs the chain and keeps the tension up, and tries to use the chains to knock her down, but it just makes her a bit unbalanced ("Are you suggesting we black bag the night queen?"). Kasumi staggers toward not-Brenna and tries to knock her back, but is in too much pain.
Finn decides he's had enough of the red-hot chain and punches Brenna in the back of the head ineffectually. Will smacks Brenna with the poker. not-Brenna snarls at Will and he feels his mind going, Dave, I can feel it.
Tillie tries to work on a theory that if she goes very still, the weird melted stone will let her float out or something. Finn channels his pub brawling skills, picks Brenna up and slams her face down on the stone floor with a horrible crunching sound. Will, reduced to a wolf-intellect, lunges in and savages the prone Brenna, tearing off her left arm at the shoulder. Kasumi checks to make sure that Brenna isn't dead and about to death frenzy and then leaps on Will, approximately. Brenna changes to crinos, as does her arm.
Sinead estimates Brenna is only a bit dead and might get better soon, so she grabs Brenna's arm off Will and jams it back into place, using Mother's touch to force the limb to at least vaguely bond back on. Will wants the arm back, but a packmate is fighting him for it, so he tries to throw them off first, and knocks Kasumi off. ("Like all good adventurers, I'll loot the corpse" "Is not a corpse yet"). Finn searches Brenna's pockets and finds a dead mouse in one, but in the other he finds a dark sphere with stars within it. Its a piece of the sky - it has a tension to it, so he can hold it. ("Shove your phone up him, then Phone Dive").
Kasumi jumps back on Will and gets an incomplete pin. Will spins around and tries to throw her off. Tillie is kicked out of the ground and onto the surface. Will suddenly gets his brain back, and tries to figure out what he's doing. ("I've got a bit of first aid" "you could make sure it was on the right way around").
("I'm gunna laugh really hard if the mouse is the fetish. The night sky thing is just from the National Geographic shop"). Finn suddenly exclaims and says that the thing they thought was falling from the sky wasn't a meteor, it was maybe this. Sinead says that the bone's not healed really well, its off kilter - maybe where Tillie doesn't heal properly on the outside, Brenna doesn't heal on the inside? They jam the chunk of night sky into the metal box and slam it shut and lock it.
Kasumi picks up her phone and gives the 3s precis of what happened. Lost Prophets change to homid, pick up Brenna's corpse, and as Will uses his Jam Technology gift to block the outside cameras badly, and Sinead goes to get the murder van close by. They throw Brenna in the pack and screech off.
There's a brief debate about where to take her - the cave and shove her into Lysander's realm, or bring her back toward the caern. The caern wins, and they tell the Elders to meet them at Finn's house. Finn senses Brenna and says that the Fae energy racing through her is dimished but the levels of Wyrm and such is the same. Sinead says that Brenna is a thing of the wyrm - there's a spiritual dedication to the Wyrm there, like a bane or fomori. Kasumi peeks to make sure they aren't being followed by the 'associates'
They are heading along Russell St back toward home when Sinead and Tillie realise Brenna's heart is beating again. The chains have been re-wrapped around her before they carried her out. Tillie tries to talk to her soothingly - Brenna's eyes spring open and her eyes glow bright green.
(Murder van: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Land_Cruiser_(J40)#/media/File:1980_Toyota_Land_Cruiser_(FJ40)_hardtop_(25439621823).jpg)
The pack argh and wish their car had painted windows or something as they drive up the hill. Tillie leaps onto Brenna and basically kneels on her windpipe and slams her head against the floor repeatedly until she goes back unconscious or dead or something.
The pack call the elders on the way and discuss what they are going to do. Brenna and the fetish should both go to their place. Will suggests that maybe no one person should hold onto it for too long, in case she's able to take them over, and someone else should have the key.
They pull up at home and Emma comes out from the dim shadows of their front porch to see how things are. She gives them an oil to sprinkle over Brenna to help keep her unconscious. Sinead goes to open the door while everyone else helps carry the crinos form covered in a tarp out the murder van and into the house.
Sinead flicks the lights on, and out of the darkness leaps a figure. ("oooooooaw" "don't make that noise"). Cherie smacks into Sinead at chest height who tries to duck. Cherie grabs the box and bounces straight down the hallway to the other end of the house. Sinead yells "fuck!". Finn drops the front shoulder of Brenna and leaps over Sinead. ("i assume she's trying to flush it down the toilet"). Will takes off into the house as Kasumi, Tillie and Emma try and take the weight of Brenna. They drag/push her awkwardly through the door.
Finn and Sinead sort of awkwardly stumble over one another trying to race down the hallway. ("Curse you, quantum time"). There is an enormous crash from the kitchen. Finn trips over Will's shoes and the bag hanging out of his own room. Sinead runs into the backroom and sees Cherie struggling with the back door. She leaps the couch and slams Cherie into the glass windows/door. Will ambles into the room with the girl on girl action and uses his halt the coward's flight gift. ("she can jump *at* us at fuull speed"). Emma, Tillie and Kasumi manage to shove Brenna through the door, flipping her upside down and then dropped onto the floor.
Cherie leaps into the air and kicks at Sinead who is unfazed. Finn runs and tries to gank the box off her. Will clears his couch and Cherie's pile of picture books, and grabs her arms down. ("I'd like to point out this combat has gone 4 times as long as the fight with the night queen"). Sinead pries Cherie's hands away from the handle and Finn pulls the box away.
Tillie comes running in and senses for wyrm. Or not. Sinead does instead and finds nothing. Will senses for unnatural and discovers Cherie smells of garlic. Will demands to know what she's doing, and Cherie says she's trying to get the stupid box away from him so that they're not going to take her away. She tried to tell them they were going to die, and that didn't work, so she was just gunna take the box off them and run.
Ian and Malajimbarra appear out of the Umbra. Ian cocks an eyebrow and says "is this the time?" to Will who is pinning Cherie. He tells her she can't have the box and she can't free the night queen. "If I let you go, are you going to free her?" "Are... you offering I could?" "No." "fine." Will tries to explain about Gaia and them being the chosen warrior as he changes to crinos and looms over her. Cherie sulks on the couch while the garou plan around her and Tillie taps the iron poker on her boot. ("The deal is off with your picture books and your festivels!")
Cossack and Emma stroll in, and plans are laid. Cossack wants the fae the hell out of his city. What about Cherie? Cossack eyes her off and asks if Cherie can stay when it goes back? "Some?". Will admits he still has to finish his deal. Cherie says plenty of her friends might like to come here. Brenna is the next problem. Tillie says she wants to take Brenna to Erebus. There's some significant looking between Cossack and Emma and Tillie demands to know what's up. Kasumi asks if it reeally exists. Yes, it does. Cossack says that Tillie's chiminage to Unicorn is a bit .. awkward. It would be inappropriate to ask them break it. It'd be difficult if they decide to break it. Malajimbarra says that Erebus works by eliminating all the wyrm influence from Garou who are left there. But it often takes all their memories and knowledge of the wyrm with it - they often lose memories of things they have done and seen. And therein lies the rub for someone who might know where the Hive is.
Tillie suggests a pause - they could take the night queen back to Arcadia gateway and in the meantime the Elders could try and extricate some information. In some fashion. Emma says that having agreed to heal Brenna, tortuing her first is probably out of line. Maybe the periods when she was Brenna can be brought on, but it might just have been something caused by the posession - no one knows. But having a Dancer wake up in the caern isn't good, and no one knows where else to keep her that other Dancers couldn't find her eventually. Ian says that Graeme doesn't want her there, but didn't provide an alternative, so oh well.
Tillie says maybe a spirit or fetish or something to get the memories out of her? Malajimbarra and Emma say "ummm, maybe?" They will investigate while the Lost Prophets are off in faerie land. The Elders will worry about getting Brenna to the caern. They should get going as soon as possible - once other people have worked out that Lost Prophets have the .. fetish or whatever it is, they will probably come for them. Everyone looks at Cherie who shrugs and says Will still owes her - unless he wants to renegotiate? No?
The Elders ask if they need anything and the pack review - they have their antifae arsenal and the big boffo bag of negotiating with low fae, there's probably not much else. Will bends a couple of iron pokers around the box to make it extra hard to open it up. They could take some nice jewelery for Lysander ("Want, see, take, have") but... They ask Cherie what he might like. "Limericks." *lie* "Fine."
The Scryers report back while the pack is preparing. They didn't find anyone there, but there was a stagnant water smell in the Umbra - presumably Dancers. But in the Realm there was a spot where the smells were degraded and removed. It wasn't in the Shrine, but in the gardens nearby where you'd get a good view. Will's worried they have a tail and spends an hour cruising around in lupus in the realm and the Umbra - he doesn't find anything, which just proves how powerful the conspiracy is.
Off they drive to Mt Eliza to find somewhere laid back to park while they are away. They are carefully looking around to make sure they're not going to get ambushed, except Kasumi who spends the whole trip emailing her contractors about being called away on a family emergency. They park, grab the box and head into the ocean. (https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071215205417AAlSy4L) Its tricky with the boxes weight ("getting down is fine") but two crinos can manage it.
They come up into the cave - there's no apparent change from the last time they were here a couple of days ago, no extra smells or grafitti. They test that the dedicated box will take the chunk of night sky with it as they step into Arcadia Gateway. They head out the tunnel with Kasumi in the lead - it looks dim or twilighty there.
A small person shrieks in surprised as Kasumi comes out the tunnel - it appears to be a faun or satyr. He seems to think that they have just come out of the side of the hill and the pack brush it off as werewolf magic rather than tell another fae how to get back to the Realm (which lasts about 3 sentances before they tell him). Finn confuses the faun by calling himself a 'Tuatha de', which is missing an important noun. You know, a Fianna? Ahhh.
The faun introduces himself as Camhain and shakes hands all around. What are they doing here? Tillie says they are looking for the court of Lord Lysander - what's he doing? Camhain ums and says if they must know he's collecting star light; he waves a largish jar covered in fileegree. Its a big clear area, with the hill. Camhain seems happy for them to move on - apparently the iron box is a little bit discomforting. Will tries to use Truth of Gaia on Camhain and presses him on why he's here. Apparently he's telling the truth. Will asks if anyone told him to come here and Camhain says no? Will shrugs.
The pack say they should get on and head to the edge of the forst. Its distinctly nighttime now and the stars are showing. Finn spends 10 minutes or so trying to call Stag, but seems to have no luck. They contemplate summoning the spirit, but that mightn't be how it works here. They contemplate a couple of options, but decide instead to go back to Camhain and see if he can help.
Camhain is at the hill holding up a jar, and they ask if they could ask him a small favour. He looks at the jar and gives it a bit of a shake, and asks if they could wait five minutes. They tell him about what that Stag hasn't shown up, and he suggests perhaps its all the iron? Tillie asks if he might take them to the court in return for something. There's some negotiation about what they might have - Camhain says he would accept a future favour, but Sinead says they may never come back this way (with luck). Camhain suggests a meal; they could share a meal to seal the compact and make it all above board. Just a formality, making it official - in return for a meal (makes it seem more formal), he'll take them to where they want to go. Deal.
They wait for Camhain to finish filling his jar and then contemplating it as he wasn't planning to carry it far. In the meantime the pack make a picnic, honey sandwich and skittles. Camhain asks if the skittles are seeds? Berries? Ah, no its a confection. Ahhh, foolish of me. In a short period, and in the full dark, he says "time to go, off to where you want to travel." The pack are internally quite suspicious about how helpful he's being, but needs must when the devil drives.
Camhain leads them around the hill and into the forest, along a stream then back the other side of the stream, around a tree 360 degrees. Its seems insane to the garou, but they do know that there's some hard core faerie magic on the forest. Finn makes dancing lights for them to all see as its quite dark in the forest. Good strong bright coloured lights appear above the pack and bob along with them.
It starts to get misty, thin tendrils off the ground and from under trees. It seems normal enough - its damp, its been warm and now its cold? But after 15m the mists have thickened enough to seriously start to reduce visibility when they pass through a thick bank. They query it with Camhain who says the its often misty at night. The pack hold hands to make sure they don't lose one another. The faerie lights start to make it hard to see far as they reflect back off the fog.
The visibility drops to less than a metre. Kasumi hears giggling, not very far away. Its a bit disturbing because its more like the floating demon children than fae or actual children. Its off to her right. No, left. She says something about it and the others reply with "um, no?" Hmmm. Sinead starts to see things as the fog swirls. Out the corner of her eye she sees a wolf, but she she looks that way, the fog makes it too hard to see. She says she's seeing things and the rest of the pack say they are not. They all sigh and Tillie tells everyone to ignore it, its just fairy bullshit. Camhain's voice from ahead asks if there's a problem and they say the fog is playing tricks with them. Sinead closes her eyes and hangs onto Tillie's and Kasumi's hand.
Something taps Tillie on the shoulder. She looks and waits, but makes sure she doesn't lose her grip. Kasumi leans in and says "nothing". Sinead hears a wolf howl, calling her to run. Tillie hears Brenna's voice yell "Tillie! Tillie! Its a trap! Get out of the fog! Come this way!" Tillie pulls back on Camhain's hand, and finds she is holding onto some sticks. "MOTHERFUCKER". She says 'Everyone into crinos'. "Tillie! Don't go down there!" She says she's lost Camhain and that she can hear Brenna. Sinead says "don't be silly, I'm holding onto... fuck. Sticks". Finn says he's also all on his own. Tillie does still have Kasumi's hand. Kasumi says "where's the box??". Finn says "Will, do you have the box?..... Will? ..... WILL?" Will does not reply. They try the mental pack link. Noooo response. "MOTHERFUCKER". ("You knew this was going to happen, didn't you?" "I stopped talking when we got into the forest").
Finn tries to smell Will. He changes to lupus and says that he can smell him, and he's going to move around and try and find him. Tillie is skeptical that Sinead is really Sinead because they can't see her and no one is connected. She says "I'm me!" mentally and that seems to work. When she talks, they can hear her voice a distance away physically. From the other direction, Sinead says "That's not me!" "No, that's not me!" "Don't believe it!". Kasumi mentally says "talk and think the same things" and they manage to sort out that one of the Sinead's is in fact false sounds. More faerie lights drift past. Finn yells out that he followed one he thought was Tillie's and its the same colour over a tree. Tillie tries to blow the fog away with her gifts and finds that while some of it swirls around, some of it appears immune to the gusts of wind. That's suspicious. She blows it at the sound of Sinead's voice and Sinead says she can just feel it. Tillie and Kasumi creep that way, but something graps Kasumi's feet for a second.
They hear Will's voice to the right. "I can't find anyone. What's going on?" Tillie says "talk the other way" and there is silence. Kasumi and Tillie can see the coloured light that was above Sinead and keep creeping forward. They get close enough and realise that the green light is actually hovering over a pile of rocks. ... or is it? They call out to Sinead, who responds off to the left. They sigh and head that way. After another 10 minutes, they manage to find Sinead. "Ok, let's go home". They mentally ask Finn where he is and don't get a response. Finn calls out, and they can hear him not far away. "The lights are weird, don't trust them". "Why can't you talk the other way?" "I am. What are you talking about?" Finn realises no one has been responding. Suddenly Kasumi and Sinead and Tillie can hear his voice in their heads. ("is this thing still on?" "maybe you should just set the forest on fire?" "I kinda want to" "I'm contemplating it as an option".
Sinead thinks there's something wrong with how Finn's talking to them mentally - it isn't the pack link, its more like how his mindspeak gift works. Its the wrong frequency - Sinead points this out over the pack link, without letting her thoughts reach her mouth, which is extremely difficult. Tillie does a burst of fire, and it doesn't seem to have much effect at clearing the fog as it should... and she can't see it as well. Kasumi looks down to see if she can see the ground and for a second she has goat legs. Tillie says that's not true but it mgiht be awesome. Kasumi changes form to sniff ("To lupus?" "No!" "Damn, I'm just trying to get you to let go of hands again"). She can smell Will and Finn. She has to close her eyes but they are together and off that way. "Lets go the opposite way" Its really, really their scent, which she is very familiar with - lights and weird noises are nice and generic, but faking this scent would be hard. ("Does it smell like delicious cakes that way"). Kasumi thinks "That way" but says "That way". Without a referrant this is not as helpful as she might think. Tillie sniffs as well - she can smell Kasumi and Sinead. Will's scent is lingering a bit. She can smell Finn a different way, less intensely, like its drifting. Mentally, Tillie says this way and goes the opposite way to how Kasumi says. ("Why are you fighting us! Why do you fear our love!"). ("Can i tick stealth?" "No, you can tick negative willpower").
As they walk that way, they can hear someone moving in the forest ahead of them. Tillie mentally says "is that you? Stop moving!" Finn says "um, ok" The rustling stops and Tillie and Sinead and Kasumi head that way - after about 6 steps, Finn appears out of the mist. He says "finally! Where's Will?". Kasumi yells for Will, and the others join in. "CAVAIN YOU GOATY CUNT!" "Hello??" They hear Camhain coming closer and closer and suddenly he emerges from the fog. He says they went different directions suddenly, he wasn't sure what they were doing. Kasumi tells him what happened and he says that that sounds terrible. But they still have an agreement, and he needs to take them to where they want to go. Tillie says he needs to take all of them though and one is missing. "Oh no, I said I would take you to where you wanted to go. So, now, where did *you* want to go. To the road?" "To the court, but we can't go without Will." "But he didn't want to go to the court." "...Where did he want to go?" "I said I would take you to where you wanted to go. We have an agreement. And I intend to fulfil it." "Well, now I want to go to where Will is" "That would be a different agreement. However, it sounds like its been a difficult day, and I will take you to where I took Will. If you sure that's where you want to go?" "Will we be able to leave when we get there?" "That's hardly up to me to say" "Can you tell me where Will went?" "Not once I left him." "Where did he go?" "The road". "And then where?" "i do not know - I came back to fulfil the rest of our agreement. This way! Perhaps one should hold onto hands more tightly this time!"
Finn's mental voice is still weird - its all direct contact and no pack bond. Is it still Finn? Who knows! "I keep an eye on [finger quotes] Finn [finger quotes]" "If it is Finn and not just a big pile of sticks with a red mop on top" "Not again! Why does this keep happening?" "I'd prefer the walk of shame"). He leads them what feels like only 20m or so and out of the misty forest onto the starlit road. The moon glows at one end and the sun at the other, but the stars burn brightly in the black sky above them. Kasumi shouts for Will some more. Tillie asks where Will went from here and Camhain says he is unaware - he merely brought him to here and then went back into the forest.
They sniff about for Will. They find he has been here, and he circled a bit and then headed for the moon. Oh no. They give chase, hoping that he won't be able to go to lupus and carry the box. As they run, Finn's pack link comes back ("Its adapting. Like the Thing" "You give Tillie the jesture for 'just kill the dog'?"). (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fW_otRmxuk). ("Just checking its not another bit of tooth. Oh, yes it is. Fabulous")
They've come out in a very early spring sort of environment. There's green, but its all pale green. As they run, the green fades to buds and the trees become barer. Ahead of them they can see four figures on horseback, and as they approach it becomes clear they are at a crossroad, on the far side of the perpendicular road. They are knights, in dark armor and clearly armed - swords, which they reach for as the garou approach.
Tillie changes to homid and greets them. She says they come seeking their lost friend. "The lands of Princess Marianna are closed to you today". Kasumi asks if they have seen someone of Will's description. "Can I ask why they are closed?" "Princess Marianna has made the decision." "Can we speak to her?" "No." The pack back off a bit, and consider their options.
The pack look about, considering their options. The cobbled road they are on is crossed here by a much more run down trackway, just bare dirt. On their side, the trees have the barest touch of spring on them - on the other side of the trackway, bright summer green is giving way to autumn and along the road they can see yellows and reds amongst the green. The trees come down to the edge of the road, where four knights seem enough to block the road.
The Lost Prophets decide that discretion is the better part of valor and turn to head back to Lysander's lands and to ask for help. They run back from the start of spring, into the green and toward the heart of summer. They are not challenged as they head up the slope toward Tir Na Nog, until they reach the gates. The guards are happy to take them to see Lysander, who is mid-court. The pack are greeted and welcomed, and when Tillie says that she needs an audience urgently, he dismisses the assembled nobles. When they are gone, Tillie says they have had some success in capturing the night queen. Lysander gives his congratulations but says that he would have sensed her if they had brought the Elder with them. Tillie says that Will is also missing - on their trip here, they were led by a goat-man into fog, very confusing wiht lots of strange voices. When they found one another, Will was gone, and following his scent led them to the crossroads, where Marianna's knights informed them they would not be allowed into her realms.
Lysander is concerned; has Will - been taken by the night queen? Maybe, she took other people. Lysander says that it sounds like it has been quite the story. But right now the matter of their packmate is the urgent matter - he shall assemble an escort of knights and they shall ride to the castle. He does so - a group of shiny, penant-snapping, lance weilding knights are organised very quickly. The pack run out in lupus once again down the road, leading the fae knights.
When they reach the crossroads, the dark knights are not there, so they ride on. They ride into winter - it starts as a rich autumn, with the smell of too-ripe fruit and mushrooms. The season progresses, getting more and more toward winter. After a time there is bare trunks against the sky and after not much longer, snow. The terrain is more varied than the Seelie court - away from the road, rolling hills lead up to pinnacles are crowned with snowy towers and castles, and the road itself sometimes passes through swampy land to either side. Low fae are visible in the forest from time to time, watching them.
Tillie tries to sense for unnatural. She can feel fae, very strongly, as they'd expect, and a strong... echo of Wyld. Sometimes a little bit of Weaver and Wyrm, but not lots. Even the wyld stuff is less like sensing off the fae and more like they leave a trail. She cannot sense the Elder Fae floating about and ruining things - they have some familiarity with how she feels, so they'd expect to, if she is free.
Where Lysander's castle is all floating magical castle, white stone, blue pennants, and shining in the sun, the castle that appears as they rise is a solid mass of black granite. It is bitterly cold now, and as they approach they can see the drawbridge is up even though the moat is frozen. Ice turns the walls slippery and shiny, though dark. There are gardens they can see behind the castle - stark, but beautiful. There is some green from pine and other conifer trees, but it is mostly still and bare.
The garou can see figures moving high on the battlements. One of Lysander's knights pulls out a horn and gives a blast. Eventually someone replies to their calls and says Princess Marianna is resting and not to be disturbed. Lysander says fetch her senechal then, so that he may speak for her. After a bit of time, an Unseelie far comes to the wall, and greets Lord Lysander, who greets him back as Lord Umture. Umture asks why they have invaded his Lady's lands. Lysander says they have kidnapped a garou from this pack and are holding an item that they were to bring to him. Umture says that the Elder Fae trapped within has been too long imprisoned, and will not be given to the Seelie Court to be locked up once again. William Jackson remains there as their honoured guest. Kasumi calls she wishes to see him - Umture says he is resting. ("What kind of animal is it *this* time??") ("Get your own omega!" "Who you calling the omega?" "As of now, you are totally the omega") Lysander seems unflapped by this response.
Tillie says she is Matilda Kennedy. William is her pack member, she is the leader. She needs to see him. If he is resting, wake him. Umture says she has no authority here. Tillie says she has authority over William and Umture rather smugly says that is as it may be, but he has chosen to come here. Tillie insists and Umture says he will advise William - when he rouses - that she made this request. She insists they wake him, and Umture reiterates she has no authority. Additionally they are not prepared to entertain the notions of the wolf changers who imprisoned their sister for so long.
Lysander says that unless they return the pack member and the object, he will be forced to take steps. They have until sunset tomorrow. He wheels his horse and the other knights follow. The knights are trotting as they return rather than galloping, so the garou change to glabro so that they may converse. Lysander says that they have confirmed that the packmate and the prison are within Tir Calleach, which eliminates many other options as to what has happened. He could have been taken by any number of powerful Unseelie fae or the queen herself.
The garou are perhaps a little less interested in what happens to the night queen herself, and more interested in Will. Lysander says it depends what they are willing to offer - Marianna does enjoying being owed favours. Tillie asks what happens in the night queen goes free here - she will be unfettered, and grow into all her power. Lysander wants to know the story about what happened back in the Realm, so Finn launches into the whole story from their return to the Realm.
("So make sure you 'wrap' your 'gift' this time." "Let the record show that I just gave someone's penis a chinese burn")
They arrive back in the castle late in the evening. There is much bustle and hustle. The pack are given the same suite as last time, and freshen up while Lysander handles other matters. They reassemble before long and he looks concerned. Lysander says that he believes that Marianna may attempt to take control of the prison and harness the power of the Elder fae. One of two things will happen. She will either fail and be dominated herself, or she will succeed and use the power of the trapped Elder fae to assault Tir Na Nog and take control of the gateway to Arcadia. Neither option appeal. Force is out of the question - she is a powerful sorceress and has many fine knights in her armies. Lysander would win, but it would leave the gateway shamefully unprotected. Kasumi says she worries that the Unseelie are keeping Will to use him as a new host for the Elder fae, which isn't a cheery thought. ("he's encased in carbonite")
Finn asks about other Elder fae? Lysander confirms that the others have gone through the gate. Finn asks if the Night Queen wouldn't be drawn to it? Lysander clarifies that the others chose to go to Arcadia proper. She might also choose to go through, or unopposed she might take over all the extant fae realms.
How did Marianna know? They talk through it - Lysander says that he did not feel the arrival of the Elder queen, but perhaps within the steel and iron cage she was hidden. They talk about whether Camhain led through the fog on purpose, Lysander says that Camhain is not a real name, but an assumed one. That might not indicate he was deceptive, just cautious. The fog and mists are part of the labryinth protecting the gateway. Tillie says there were voices, things spotted out the corner of the eye, other tricks. They couldn't hear the weird voices that other people heard.
So. Back to Marianna and trying to bargain. They will need to offer her something better than having access to the Elder fae. But she will only accept something that will help her get closer to her ultimate goal which is to take Tir na Nog. She might accept a favour from the pack? Tillie is unkeen. Lysander says it is late - tomorrow morning may bring brighter prospects. The pack go back to their rooms. Tillie tries to mental speech to him but gets no response. Its pointed out that Finn had similar issues with the pack link earlier. Much suspicion.
There is a bit of a kerfuffle outside while the pack are waking up. There is an Unseelie looking fellow with a group of dark knights being escorted into the castle. The pack go for a sticky beak. It is apparently Umture, the seneschal they spoke to last night. There are polite protocols to follow as part of negotiating, but when they are done, Umture's points are basically that the issue is around the captive Elder fae - she belongs in the Unseelie court, and the presence and concerns of the garou are supplementary at best and insulting at worst as they are the ones who chainsed and bound their sister in the first place. ("I don't really care what the fae think, i Just want my packmate back."). Umture reinterates that he left word for Will to be informed when he awakened. He did seem quite fatigued though. The pack reiterate that they need to leave - Umture says that if its urgent, and they are willing to repudiate any claim they have on the prison, then perhaps something could be arranged.
The discusson goes further. Umture says that even if the prison was kept in the Seelie fae castle, they would expect to be allowed to examine it regularly to make sure the Elder fae within was not being mistreated. Lysander asks for a moment to talk - when Umture leaves Lysander says that Marianna is probably either delaying, or still intending to find the name of the Elder fae through other research. Tillie asks if she harnesses the power while its here, the object would already be inside much of Tir na Nog's defenses. ? Yes, its a possibility. Tillie says that she really just wants her packmate back, but she doesn't want to abandon Lysander to the situation. Lysander says he has no authority over the Garou and says that he understands their concerns but it would leave him in a difficult position. Tillie says that she will remain then, and asks if they do have some claim on the prison? Lysander says that in theory the object is a thing of the garou - the prison itself was made by the Bunyip. If the Unseelie say they have some responsibility for the object, they have some claim over it. Lysander says that he will suggest a more formal negotiation tomorrow. Tillie is still concerned about time - Lysander will expedite things as fast as he will, but he says that even tomorrow would be a rushed matter amongst the fae. Perhaps they could spend the day thinking of something of value for Marianna.
Umture is brought back in ("and I eat him") and Lysander suggests meeting at the cross roads tomorrow ("where I will eat him") ("I managed to miss the floor with super zooper" "its in your shoe, isn't it"). It is agreed - they will each bring minimum escort and negotiators and interested parties. Tillie says they should bring Will and Umture says he will pass the request along.
They spend the day discussing things. Assault and stealth are probably non-viable ("you say that, but we have a tunnel to the realm which is basically *filled* with iron. Like, *FILLED*" "Are you suggesting you dedicate a tank?"), really leaving bargaining. The pack and the fae discuss what they might give, what they might want. Finn jokes about a tournament, but Lysander says that might actually be an option. The garou asks if the fae could build a second prison around the first prison. Lysander says he would prefer the Elder fae went into Arcadia, but the gate has not opened since the last Elder fae went through. His second option is to leave her within the Bunyip-created trap as it seems quite effective. But Marianna is an accomplished sorceress, and as talented as they were, she would probably find a way to free the far from within. The negotiations are not going to be about convincing them that they are wrong and she should stay in the box, its going to be more "what's worth more than an Elder fae to you". Which is almost nothing. So, "what's worth more to you than totally unfettered access to the Elder fae's prison." There may be some objects that Lysander has that she might want. He seems unkeen to lie - like even border line uncomfortable about other people lying, or being deceptive. ("Winter is coming" "ohhh yeah" "Goddamn Will!")
Could the pack summon a spirit, possibly Stag? Lysander isn't sure it would work well, but there are places where the fae realm touches the spirit world, and doing it there might make it viable.
Maybe they can scare the Unseelie into leaving it alone? Without lying, they could say she seemed very dangerous to everyone around her. So. Don't let her out. Look at these pictograms. This emu is upside down. That, um, kills them. But in seriousness, the bunyip wouldn't casually use this level of magic, its a massive effort to make this sort of thing. They would need a good, dangerous, reason. It might work.
They could try and offer to escort her to the realm for a day a year? Unfortunately, Marianna probably has access to multiple trods that would let her go, but the nature of their world is still inimicable to the fae.
Back to maybe offering a favour; she might ask something to do with their connections to the other Fianna Septs, or something where they end up getting something for her and owing someone else, etc. She's going to want an open-ended offer, not a specific thing.
Shy of thinking of a brilliant concession overnight that they don't care about and that Marianna would love, the only idea that seems to have some legs is the tournament. Assuming Marianna would accept, its the sort of dramatic event that should can use to show and remove favour from her court. Marianna would probably insist on still having access to the fetish, but it would take longer to discover the name of the Elder fae within, and it might give Lysander time to find a more permanent solution. Once they agree to the terms, she and Lysander would be bound to that agreement.
Lysander, and an escort of 10 knights, travel with the pack to the crossroads. When they arrive, a large space has been arranged, with a pavillion set up over the crossroads itself. Marianna is there, with 10 grim knights and Will. ("how's Will looking? " "Rested"). Finn tries to Mindspeak to him. Will responds, apparently normally, even though he doesn't respond to the pack link. He says that the Elder fae will be safest there. He had to do something. Finn relates this and it does sound like Will has been a bit brainwashed. They ask what Marianna wants to get Will back - Will says that as soon as its resolved he can go. Marianna wants to make sure the Elder fae is safe. They sense unnatural on Will, and there's an active fae sense flickering around him, and its not just the smell of Cherie. He's clearly had the whammy on him.
The negotiations are formal and drag out all day. The low fae start to appear early on, and continue their nonsense with increasing crowds as the discussion rambles on. Breaks are taken regularly with refreshments.
Lysander raises the point that the Elder fae is quite chaotic, and her behaviour is dangerous, to which Marianna says that being imprisoned for 5 or 6 hundred years is probably quite stressful. Kasumi raises the point about the bunyip not using such strong magic unless it was necessary, to which Marianna counters by asking if they know of times when the garou have over-reacted to situations before, using excessive force. ("Shaddup").
Marianna clearly feels she is holding all the cards, and feels no need to compromise strongly. During one of the breaks, Lysander says she is clearly playing for time, and understands the garou have an urgent need to go back home. Tillie wonders if they can just take it home again - Finn is really anti, but the others are wondering whether the Uktena would really like it. Or maybe Jirrawan. ("How can they justify taking it?" "They didn't take it, Will brought it to them." "Well, Will's mine, and whatever he has is also mine. Give it back").
At one point, a hawk flies in and lands, transforming into a knight from Lysander's court. He gives a message, and takes one in return, transforming and flying off again. No one really bats an eyelid.
By the end of the day, the only option that has had any traction at all is indeed a contest of champions. Despite the pack believing that a Will vs Tillie fight is inevitable, Marianna doesn't say she will pick Will - she's very non-specific about a champion that each side might choose to represent them. The conditions would include Marianna having visitation rights to the fetish ("its resting"). ("And then I eat Marianna" "We're under a banner of truce." "I'm not gunna lie about it, there's nothing untruthful about it" "... TRUCE" "oh. Fine even if she does deserve it. And would be delicious") ("If only you had some gift to make sure he was telling the truth, or if he was actually a garou").
If the Unseelie win, the Seelie and garou give up any claim on the item or its prisoner. If the Seelie win, they may have custody of the item, but a representative of the Unseelie court will have access to see that the Elder Fae is not being mistreated. The fight is not to the death, its just to defeat - killing the other person is losing the fight. Bare-handed. The fight will be in a contained area, not all over the realms. "Once this is done, we get Will back". "Certainly, once the matter is resolved, he may leave if he chooses to." Will agrees that that suits him.
The float the possibility of no magic. That would eliminate gifts, but does that include shapechanging. They try to specify there's no glamours during the fight, but Marianna says she won't accept that. She says that no gifts or glamours that affect the fight. There's some squabbling about what might affect things one way or another. The pack try to specify that the champions must be within a set height, but it dissolves into arguing about the Seelie trying to limit the Unseelie's choice of champion unfairly. In the end, Tillie says "how about its just a 'fair fight between the champions as picked'" and both sides seem ok with that - the champions being the representative of both sides, and no one will interfere in the outcome once they are picked.
Tomorrow ("ARGH") the site will be prepared and the outcome will be decided.
The pack travel home with Lysander. He thinks that Marianna will probably pick Will at which point he has to pick Tillie. They try and work out anything that be helpful wihtout breaking the terms of the challenge, but it comes down to get a good night's rest.
("Do we get rage?" "no, you're all 'you're not my real mum' with this moon"
Pomp and circumstance! The entire castle seems to be turning out to attend the tournament, or at least see the castle nobles off. Its more a parade, and less of a march, as they all leave. Similiarly at Tir Calleach, there's a lot of commitment to the event, horns and lances and pennants oh my.
Both sides approach the crossroads simultaneously. The forest has moved back considerably, making space for the fighting arena marked out with rope, aand the bleaches and pavillions for the spectators. Low fae have been attracted to the setup or to the parades and are swarming around and irritating people. ("can I order Will to lose? because I feel this is a time of war and refusing is tantamount to a challenge.")
Kasumi is watching Will ride alongside Marianna as the Unseelie court arrives and starts to settle in. She starts to frown and looks more closely, then tells the rest of the pack to look too. They quickly come to the conclusion that despite the appearance, that is not Will. The body language and jestures are not right - all the little touches are someone else. They're about 90% sure, and so Tillie alerts Lysander.
He in turn speaks quietly to one of his court, who holds up their finger and thumb in a circle and looks through it. They confer briefly and Lysander returns asking if they are sure, as it is definitiely one of the garou. They shrug and say they know Will, and that's not Will in any meaningful sense. Lysander points out that this isn't against the rules - if Marianna picks "this person" beside her and it turns out its just an equal mass of spiders inside Will's skin, the choice of champion is still legitimate.
As there are little demonstrations of combat ability or magic between the two courts or between two court members of the same side, the pack get a chance to approach Marianna and 'Will' a bit closer. Kasumi tries to sense for unnatural influences and finds the same sort of wyld, weaver, wyrm energies you'd expect from a garou. There is much less active fae energy running about 'Will' though, which is in direct opposition to the previous day. This is strange - surely it would be more if 'Will' was under more controll? Maybe there's some sort of bait and switch things going on? Kasumi scans Marianna and thinks she has the prison on her too, which is weird.
Before long, the main event rolls around. The master of ceremonies, one of the Seelie fae, calls for each of the Lord and Lady to step forward and name their champion. 'Will's skin goes rocky and grey. Marianna places her hand on 'Will's shoulder and names him to be her champion as 'Will' suddenly shreds her clothes away. As he shreds most of her gown and cloak into tiny pieces, a dark black sphrere is also flicked out and away. Everyone else looks on with a massed "What the *fuck*" expression.
Finn tries to shapeshift to hispo, but his concentration is a little wrecked. Sinead tries to leap into the arena, but gets tangled by the fence and possible enchantments on the arena. Tillie leaps in and sprints across toward the prison. ("On the plus side, if you bail on the wedding, I can marry Elinor"). 'Will' backhands Marianna across the face with the iron poker but gets lightning bolted for his trouble as it hits some sort of magical armor. 'Will', who has spent more rage than god, sprints back and picks up the prison, spinning back toward the summer side. Tillie looks at 'Will', and confirms he doesn't have starry eyes, and shouts "gimme that!". She sniffs and thinks its Will... even though he's 'Will'. 'Will' sprints toward the Seelie court.
All the noble fae knights are drawing swords and heading for the arena. Only seconds have passed, and they are all still bounding to their feet. Kasumi leaps foward and changes to hispo. 'Will' leaps the summer side of the arena and starts to spring up the road, but he doesn't get far before Finn flips to crinos and crash tackles Will into the ground / bleachers.
Sinead graps the prison and tries to wrench it out of 'Will's hands without much luck. The roar of combat intensifies and the sound of metal on metal rings out. The sky above 'Will' and the rest of his pack goes dark and lightning arcs out of the sky, and hits the garou. They are a bit defeaned, but lightly concussed and just shrug it off.
Kasumi crashes on top of 'Will' in hispo form, pinning him to the ground. 'Will' tries to shovel out while yelling "get off me you fools". Finn lunches forward and grabs the Elder fae's prison and jerks it out of Sinead and 'Will''s hands. Tillie runs past Finn yelling "Give me the ball!" and is surprised when he doesn't. Sinead takes off toward Tir Na Nog on the theory that everyone else will be running in a second. ("Fae magic is bullshit!"). 'Will''s trying to get away, Kasumi tries to nail him down better but actually lets him free ("oh yes, dogs dont have fingers"). 'Will' grabs Finn's leg tightly and yells "We need to get it back to Lysander!"
Three of Marianna's knights have made it to the pack and lunge at them with swords. Tillie is injured, but Kasumi is spitted through the abdomen with a sword. Finn tries to jerk away from 'Will', but doesn't break his grip. Sinead, knowing that Kasumi's been hurt, skids to a halt and sprints back. Tillie smashes the knight who stabbed her on the shoulder and sends them careering into the second one ("I know 'pushing' is childish, but..."). ("I don't want to bite him, i wanna kick him in the dick")
'Will' leaps up and grabs the prison, and pulls it out from under Finn's arm - Finn still has a grip too, but 'Will' has the dominant control. 'Will' yells "to the castle!". The standing knight slashes at one of the pack, but misses. Finn snatches it back. Sinead skids in and heals Kasumi.
Knights are in combat and people are shouting. Troops kept behind the bleachers are on horseback and riding in. Tillie sees Marianna and two knights riding toward the pack. She activates chameleon and vanishes from sight. Marianna and her escort leap the near fence and are about to attach the pack.
Kasumi suddenly realises that Finn is not on the mental link. Neither is 'Will', but he is shouting "to the castle to the castle!". She's staring at 'Will', thinking there's something familiar about his body language that she's seen before. Kasumi wonders about 'accent' and then leaps to 'axe' - oh no, ancestor spirits in control of 'Will'? She lunges open mouthed at Finn's arm and crunches down - something lurches in the environment, a weird spark of fae magic as if pending energy discharged. Kasumi bites through all the flesh, muscle and ligaments seperating with a salty splash into her mouth. Her teeth grind along the two bones in Finn's arm, and he passes out, reverting to homid form and hitting the ground with blood gushing out. ("Its like pulled pork"). 'Will' has the prison now.
Invisible Tillie picks up 'Will''s iron poker laying on the ground just there and hurls it at Marianna as hard as she can. She isn't sure it hurts Marianna, but it does cause the fae noble to flinch wildly as she's hit in the face with cast iron. Her horse veers heavily to one side as Marianna loses control of it.
'Will' books it for the castle. The grim knight slashes wildly around where he thinks Tillie is, but is out of luck. Sinead blows to crinos, picks Finn up and books it. Invisible Tillie grabs his feet, making him look like he's floating behind Sinead like a flag.
Our heros run through the stream of bright knights running toward the battle, ducking between horseman and dodging attacks, and building up speed. The grim knights and Marianna are giving chase, but getting slowed down by the Seelie knights. As the pack sprint up the broad cobbled road, the battle sometimes catches or passes them as knights go around them on the side and then try to attack. The garou use all their gifts to keep throwing the pursuit off but there is a rolling battle as the road runs through spring and into summer. The battle stretches out for miles behind them.
The pack see the Boggins and other fae hide as the fight travels through Lysander's lands. They travel through the hedges as the road rises higher and higher. As the pack approach the castle walls proper, they can see that the drawbridge is pulled up and guarded.
The pack consider their options. ("stimulised" "Smented") Coming up behind them, Marianna and a contingent of grim knights are hammering through the last hedge wall. Behind them, there is a rolling battle of knights galloping up the road, trying to help or hinder the pack. The moat is fairly pretty, lillies and fish and all, but its also a 10' drop into the water, then the same climb out the other side and *then* the walls. Its possible that someone could climb the walls in glabro, but if the owners take umbrage with that, the garou would be in a bad place. Could they lob the prison over the walls? There's a worry it might crack or something. Tillie says she could go invisible and take it, and hope for the best.
There's about 15s to go and they decide to throw it. 'Will' still has the prison and he calls out to one of the guards on the wall "catch this for Lysander" and lobs it. ("before you're about to give birth, eat a whole lot of pineapple") 'Will' gets it precisely accurate right at the guy and more than hard enough. The guard is a bit surprised, not 100% he should catch it, and fumbles it sideways a bit as it spins somewhere into the castle grounds. The pack watch, shaking their heads and then spring into action. Tillie lies in wait while Sinead grabs the unconscious Finn and runs to one side, and Kasumi uses her gifts to become difficult to see and do the same on the other side.
Tillie is still mostly invisible, and sprints straight into the legs of horses, in crinos form. She hits the first one and it drops on her, not hurting but sucking away her momentum. "Will" runs up toward the soldiers and uses Staredown on a horse, causing it to rear and veer well away from him. The horsemen behind them start to lose momentum, but Marianna guides her horse around the sudden pile of horseflesh and freaked out horses.
Tillie glances at the felled horse ("how much does a head of a horse weigh?") and grabs it by the back legs, and hurls it and the rider into one of the other horses. It doesn't get a lot of air, but it does frisbee nicely. Kasumi starts to notice that the temperature is climbing, and there is a strong smell of summer in the air. A bright golden light is coming with the bright knights toward the castle. "Will" grabs a knight off a horse.
Marianna jestures at the castle and the drawbridge starts to come down. Tillie tries to shove horses into each other ("pushing - its childish, but it seems to work") but just kind of pats one on the bum. Kasumi uses her control simple machine gift to hold the mechanism in place - the tension between Marianna's magic pulling on the gate and Kasumi locking the mechanism in place is causing some interesting noises from the drawbridge.
'Will' grabs Marianna's collar and hauls her clean off her horse and onto the ground. ("Whole new re-imagining of centaurs"). She appears to be a bit stunned. Grim knights have reached a point where they can attack the garou now, and "Will" gets stabbed pretty hard in the abdomen with a fae sword. ("maybe i've set a bad precedant by letting you throw a horse. I'm willing to let you throw a prone horse, but not a standing one" "Its not the weight, its an awkward shape"). Tillie pulls a knight off a horse and flings him away. The sense of rich summer the pack is used to in Tir Na Nog is increasing to being too bright, and too brittle - the Australian pack members are expecting to smell smoke.
"Will" tries to punch Marianna in the head. He notices that the blow is blocked before it connects, as if there was something before her face. Sinead tries to look for somewhere to stash Finn so she can join in ("just put him in the crinos baby bjorn") ("lob him over the drawbridge"). Tillie is stabbed thoroughly by grim knights. ("Sit on her and then poop" "When else am i going to get a chance to poop on a queen?" "go to west sydney for a night?") Marinanna lightning bolts "Will" and he is slightly singed. (" 'My koi!' "). Tillie tries to throw Marianna into the moat, but can't manage to grab her amidst the shredded clothes.
Summer is coming. It is hard to hold onto metal. Down the hill, Lysander is at the head of a group of knights, holding his sword high and reflecting the sun. 'Will' grabs Marianna by the leg and flings her away from the castle. The drawbridge chain gives up the ghost and the bridge slams down open. Sinead leaps in and attacks a knight trying to stab "Will", clawing his armor wide open and releasing the gooey goodness within.
Tillie and 'Will' are stabbed again, and 'Will' collapses into homid. ("Lysander is coming up our ass every 3 seconds" "like a rail gun!" "it makes 'pew pew pew' sounds"). Two knights make a run for the open drawbridge. Kasumi runs for the fallen drawbridge to try and defend it and sees the portcullis is up for some insane reason.
Tillie lets loose a burst of fire with her gifts and horses panic and run over 'Will' as they leave. Sinead leaps into combat and drags 'Will' out of the path of any more horses ("You should take a speciality in 'carrying unconscious people'") and stacks him up with Finn. ("I'm still trying to get over 'I was in grade 6 when Matrix II came out'") Kasumi slices at horsemen as she runs across the drawbridge between them and ends up in the entry courtyard.
It is about this point that Lysander and his cohort ride in. He bellows the word 'CEASE!' and half the knights drop their weapons. Marianna gets to her feet and is surrounded by bright knights. Waves of heat are boiling off Lysander and his armor shines much brighter that it should. He points at Tillie - "YOU! Where is the item?" Tillie says its inside the castle. "Fetch it! Take your people and find it".
The conscious garou head into the castle and use their gifts and their brains to try and calculate where the arc would have taken the elder fae. Tillie says "this way and runs off" but Kasumi and Sinead compare notes and think she's 90degrees off. They hunt through a castle in disarray and confusion, banging on locked doors and hunting around. They run past a corridor and glance down it ... and see some low fae playing downball with the prison. Kasumi and Sinead have had enough of their shit; Kasumi changes to crinos and growls loudly and Sinead steals it like the school bully stealing a ball. The low fae are pretty unimpressed but also slightly unkeen to mess with angry garou. They mentally tell Tillie they've found it so she stops looking down drain grills. ("Will you give it back to me when I tell you?" "yes" "You're promoted" )
Lysander asks if they want their unconscious pack members taken to the infirmary or morgue, but Tillie just kinds of shrugs and says that they will probably get better. Everyone is led into the castle to another audience room. Lysander is much less shouty, but obviously still extremely angry and also too hot to touch. No one broaches taking the prison off the pack, though Sinead is told to keep it in sight. Lysander says that he would very much like to know what just happened but more pressingly the matter of the contest remains. Marianna says that there has been no formal challenge and matters still remain as they were as they had agreed that the challenge would be the resolution. Tillie says "you picked your champion." Marianna says that Lysander did not pick his champion and the contest did not begin. Tillie glances at the unconscious and smashed up 'Will' against the wall and asks Lysander if he'd like to pick his champion now? Lysander gives her a look.
Behind Lysander there is a grinding sound and the doorway arises up out of the floor. Out of the framework come stone hands and then a large armored, stone figure comes out of the door. Lysander says he has not summoned the guardian, and the stone figure replies that it has been summoned. The wooden door shudders and starts to creak, and swing inward. The fae all look beyond shocked, including Marianna, who does not have a "just as planned" sort of expression, but more "WTF". The doorway opens wide enough to see within; it appears to be on a spur of bare rock high above clouds or mists. The clouds are racing past at an enormous speed, all pink and golden. A figure stands in front of the door - its an aboriginal woman, wearing a loincloth and a fur cloak, with scars and tattoos on her skin.
Tillie asks out of the side of her mouth if she should lob the ball in. The woman jestures to Sinead to give her the prison. Tillie visually checks with Lysander and he seems shocked but nods. Sinead goes to pass the ball through but the guardian stops her and takes it. It then passes its hand through the door way - the assembled can see lichen form and crumble on its stony surface, and even the stone itself visibly ages. The woman on the far side takes the chunk of night sky and the guardian withdraws its hand. The woman says something and her eyes go starry. She twists the chunk of sky and a large figure appears next to her, much like the one the pack saw coming out of Brenna - dark with burning white eyes. They speak briefly in a language unknown to the pack - the woman points away and the Elder Fae flies away.
The woman turns back and makes a jesture and then speaks, and the pack can understand her ("what are you white fuckers doing here"). "I am Ylanylangnoc, Elder Bunyip Theurge. Why are you here? I was not expecting this gate, or you people. But I thank you for bringing Nlaloonjurrie to us." Tillie speaks and says they brought her here for safety. Ylanylangnoc's lips are not moving in sync with the English the pack are hearing. "It is good that you have done this. We returned Nlaloonjurrie to Arcadia - " and it is clear that is not the word she is saying, as her lips move over multiple syllables - " several times but she would always return. We foresaw a time when these realms would be seperated, so made this prison to hold her until that time. " "Thank you for taking her". The woman seems a bit perplexed, but Lost Prophets do not volunteer information. ("What do we ask?" "What's the cracking stone for?" "WHATS WITH THE BOXES"). The other fae are still too shocked to react. Tillie asks if they can contact her again and Ylanylangnoc says that she thinks her time is far from theirs, and the door will close again and not open. As she says this, the doors slowly start to close until they slam shut. The guardian sinks into the frame of the Gateway Veritas.
Marianna stands and whirls, storming out, and her knights follow. Once they are gone, Lysander asks if they could explain what has happened today. Tillie gives him a run down, avoiding the Bunyip and Elder fae name. Lysander suggests that it sounds as if the two unconscious packmates have been affected by glamours, and he would be happy to investigate and remove them. The female part of the pack head off to de-gore while the others have their brains ransacked through.
"Will" regains consciousness with fae wizards investigating him. They give him an amulet to help protect against the glamours for a short time. They heal 'Will' of as much damage as possible, leaving only a wide sword scar to show for all the fun.
Finn dreams.
He is at his 18th birthday party with cousins out in a field - lots of beer, spirits and bonfire. Someone decides it would be fun to have a game of hide and seek and it becomes a drinking competition. The last person to be found gets this $100 bottle of scotch. They have to stay within the bounds of the farm. They pull straws for who starts counting and there is some cursing from Dermot. Everyone runs as he counts to 100.
Finn runs and hides. He tries to find some low bracken and lays down. In the distance is some shouting. After 10 minutes he can hear someone approaching - and then he hears growling. Cautiously he raises his head and can see the biggest dog he has ever seen snarling, and sniffing about, following the path he came in. Finn freezes, holding his breath. The dog lifts its head and howls, which is enough to make Finn break cover. He can see and hear other dogs chasing him into the bush. He drunkenly looks for trees to jump up, but he cannot find any he can climb. He dodges around and just runs. He can hear people crashing and laughing and dogs, they are chasing him.
The forest thickens and heads down into a creek - which is inexplicable because there isn't one this way. He jumps in and tries to run up the watercourse to lose his scent. When he jumps out and looks back, Finn can see a face - roughly human, but too pale and teeth too pointy with long ears. It laughs manically and screeches "RUN!" and laughs again. Finn smashes through the undergrowth just panicking. He falls and slide and dodges and leaps. At one point he bashes through blackberries and gets scratched and torn, but when he looks back at the bush its the same face and figure, holding up a hand coated in blood. As he runs, he gets stabbed in the back and he can feel warm wetness spread down his shirt and into his pants.
Ahead he suddenly can see a light, like a firelight. He sprints toward it as fast as he can. As he get closer he can see its a lantern, held by a white-haired woman about half his height. "Quickly, quickly, come her!" "Help me, they're after me!" "yes, they are chasing your human scent" ("What"). "Drink this" and offers him a flask with a cork in it. He sculls the bottle rapidly - its warm and a bit thick. Its not really super salty ("its semen!" "its red" "ew") and he starts to feel really really warm. His arms stretch and his body twists, aching and tearing as it changes - his hands become claws and he rises well off the ground as he gets bigger.
At the edge of the lantern light two figures run out - the redcaps that were chasing him. Finn writhes as he changes. They are grinning and don't seem panicked. Through the haze he sees the woman next to him has changed from an elderly gnome to a tall, pale skinnged elegant woman. "Mistress! We brought him" "So you did" "You promised us a hunt to the death!" "So I did. Finn? " Finn's head snaps around. "Kill" Finn frenzies. The fae try to run but the frenzying werewolf catches them in steps and starts to bite and claw and eat. As Finn chows down on redcap, he can hear - but not understand - her voice say "by the gifts given to you, you owe me, and must obey my commands. And by the food you have eaten, I take your dreams in recompense". And she fades away.
Finn wakes up in Tir Na Nog, in a white linen bed. He has a full recollection of his first change now, including the fact that it was Marianna. There are two fae here - one appears to be in a trance, and the other tries to reassure him ("please dont freak out"). Finn's memories are reorganising themselves, and he can remember everything that happened and why he did what he did. He has an amulet around his neck that glows faintly.
Lysander informs Tillie that both her packmates had been glamoured subtley, some time ago. He has asked his enchanters to remove the glamours permanently, but it will take another day. In the meantime, a feast! to celebrate your accomplishments. Finn returns to the mental link saying "asdfsdgfsdfhgdfg. BITCH".
'Will' has not returned to the pack mental link, so the garou come and visit him. There's clearly someone else there when they enter the room. "Will" says that he.. she... is Charlotte Heart-of-Iron of the Get of Fenris. Tillie asks why she is in her packmate, and Charlotte says that things were going poorly ("true") and it was necessary for her to take over. Tillie asks when they might have Will back and Charlotte prevaricates slightly and says there are still things to be done. Charlotte is given a run down of things that happened since she was stabbed and run over by horses and seems disappointed that the pack did not take the opportunity to question the bunyip about anything outside of the immediate fae issue, especially around what the bunyip were doing when the european garou showed up.
Tillie asks when Charlotte is from, and she says "Some time ago", but on being pressed, says she was around before the bunyip were wiped out. She says that the other garou were not interested in finding out about them, but just in taking territory. This was not wise. "Why did they kill them all?" "Because they did not listen to me". Kasumi asks about the axe? Tillie says that they saw her in the Atrocity realm. They ask when Will was glamoured and Charlotte says it was while he was in Ireland. There's some speculation about why and how, but no one knows.
("I have many questions, like 'how many times do i have to punch charlotte until Will comes back'" "but you're just punching Will" "I'm ok with that" "[german accent]I am already dead, you achieve nuzzing" "This is a problem for future me. And possibly future-me's Elders")
The three unglamoured pack members get to sit in the middle of another faerie feast. Food, and drink! Less rambuctious than the big party last time (And not just because Will isn't seducing a bunny girl). Its a smaller group of people, mostly knights and noble fae. They are invited to explain what happened since they left and before they arrived (ie: how did you catch the Elder Fae). Without their galliard, the pack thrash around a bit before shoving Sinead forward, and berating Finn over the mental link ("Line?") to help. ("Maybe you could highlight how good we are at catching faeries and chaining them in iron so they leave us alone"). Sinead unfortunately has a bit of stage fright and a couple of glasses of dutch courage, and falls asleep on the table. ("hippity hoppity into Will's pants. [stage whisper]cos that's where his dick is. ... hippity hoppity *giggling*"). Kasumi steps up instead and gives a more than adequate job of filling in the fae in, reading off her notes.
The fae are a bit surprised by things like "Incarna summoning" and "hippity hoppity!". At the end of the story, Lysander presents them with a gift of faerie armor and a faerie sword. The chain armor weighs almost nothing, but it will not shift form with them. The sword will never blunt. They should probably bring them back from time to time to ensure that they do not lose their fae enchantments.
After her story, Kasumi finds herself in conversation with Lord Yanos again. ("Do not give or receive any semen"). ("I met your bitch queen and threw an iron prong at her").
The court wizard is willing to declare the pack clean of faerie glamours that he didn't place there, and so they make preparations to head back to the really real world. Lysander offers an escort to the gate in the hill. He and the knights ride with them to the gate and there are many goodbyes.
The second that they are clear of the ocean, Kasumi turns her phone on and they all cluster around it to find its....
....not long after dawn.
To the tune of beep beep beep boop ding wong blrnngg beep beep beep beep as Kasumi's phone catches up with all her messages, the pack head back to their murder van, jump in and start driving to the caern. They call in and report that they've got rid of the Night Queen and Will. How's things here? Brenna is still out, they have a bit of information, but not much. What was that thing about Will? Tillie says "He's his own grandmother" Graeme says "Lets talk at home".
On the way home, Tillie says "what the actual fuck" and quizzes Finn and Charlotte. Charlotte says as she said it was necessary to save the situation. And she'll leave when its appropriate - she thinks they could do with someone with a bit more experience for a time. Tillie starts to say they quite like Will, but Kasumi thinks they should interview Charlotte first and see who is a better fit for the roll. ("Ve haf bumming in Germany too").
Finn explains about his first change and how Marianna apparently glamoured him then. He remembers everything now - the sudden weird Truths that he knew as he arrived, Camhain giving him powers to fool the pack and having to help someone - Will, obviously, to the road so he could take the Elder fae to Marianna.
Cossack, Emma and Graeme are laying in wait for the pack and want to hear what happened. Lost Prophets give a rundown of their 5 days that were compressed into 40hours. Cossack and Charlotte, after a formal introduction (Charlotte Heart-of-Iron Schaffer, homid philodox adren (3) of the Get of Fenris) have a discussion about how she feels about William's obligations, including loyalty to the Sept. She says she will fulfill them to the best of her ability. He seems concerned, but not alarmed. Cossack formally welcomes her as a guest of the Sept. He suggests that long term, it would not be appropriate for her to stay within Will's body, and Charlotte is non-commital.
Cossack gives them a run down of the last two days at their end. Chris has come up with an idea for making talens from seasponges to absorb some of the black goo, so they can collect it in bulk and destroy it. Some tentative tests suggest its working. Frankly between this and the octopus stick, the Lost Prophets think they should be paying more attention to the sea.
A little bird has told them that the topic of their pack came up at the Jindabyne council on Monday. They wanted the pack summoned but sadly they were out of reality. But the pack will be hearing from them soon. Plus the whole Elder bunyip thing that should probably be mentioned.
Bartholomew Wise-in-the-Ways-of-the-Wyrm rang and said he'd found some more info, but he gathered it'd been functonally resolved, so no rush about getting back in contact with him. And since their leaving, the number of low fae has started to drop.
Tillie asks about Brenna. They tried interrogating her unconscious while she was out, but she woke up and frenzied and they had to put her down again at some risk. The only impression that Emma got from her is the sound of rain - heavy rain drumming on a surface. No word from the Black Furies since the last talk with Athena.
They talk further about the geas Tillie has taken on to heal Brenna. Erebus remains the only option the garou know to rid her of the Wyrm corruption and have her live, which would kind of sum up the 'heal' part of the chiminage. Getting further information from her would probably require physical torture, which Emma says violates the spirit, if not the technicalities, of their deal with Unicorn. Tillie could try talking to her. Graeme is pretty unhappy she's here and thinks every moment she's awake is a chance to escape. So. Erebus.
Cossack gives them a run down - its a place of purification and rebirth. Its not going to be pleasant - the Wyrm is scoured out of people, not magically removed. Its underground, and it is full of silver. They get there by MoonPath - they will know they are getting close when they find the Silver Road. And they should resist temptation.
Cossack broaches a topic - the Sept would like to get Father Possum to help monitor the city for Black Spiral Dancer activity. This would mean that some form of negotiation would need to take place and the Elders had been contemplating getting Lost Prophets to do it just after the next Moot. However, between the lingering chiminage to get Brenna healed (instead of just murdered), the need to get her to Erebus and the Jindabyne Council's desire to speak to the instruction to not look at Bunyip things, Sleeping Lore probably needs to change their plans. Perhaps it can wait a touch longer than the Full Moon, and still involve the Lost Prophets. On any normal day, Cossack would regard interaction with Moodai, the possum father, as just a spirit thing but its probably better to not taunt the happy fun Council. Charlotte asks if they could challenge this council for the right to pursue it which makes everyone a bit thoughtful. Cossack says its an intriguing thought that might be worth following up.
In the meantime, maybe they should get Brenna the hell out of dodge. Tonight? Sounds good. Kasumi says that gives her 9 hours sleep. Good *night*. The topic of Cherie comes up - maybe she's gone already. Haha, send Charlotte to fulfil Will's obligation.
Tillie calls Bartholomew. He's pretty laid back, but he'd love to hear what happened to them, and they are still interested in his information to fill out the whole. He broadened his search for more approximate matches to the information they gave him, and found a few stories that might be relevant. Bartholomew is happy to send them his notes, but the standout story was that there was a woman who lived in a good place, or caused a good place, with lots of animals. Wherever she was, there were lots of animals to hunt. But she got greedy after people gave her too much stuff to come onto her land, and everything went a bit out of balance and eventually some mythic figures came and stuffed her into the sky - in hindsight, perhaps the sky wasn't in the ... umm.. sky. There was another about a woman who only showed up when the Moon wasn't in the sky, and caused chaos in the night. He thinks that these stories were the ones mostly recorded by Europeans - they were trying to grasp the stories across language barriers and without much understanding of the richer cultural background, so you have to look at them with a grain of salt if you're looking for garou truths.
Kasumi goes with Charlotte to Bunnings to buy a pair of hatchets after a discussion about open carry laws in this century and whether she could carry an axe around. But once she's killed someone with the hatchet, she has to put it in the bin. Why? because the mortals have ways of tracing blood. Charlotte asks Sinead to bind a war spirit into the hatchett and she stares at Charlotte and says she wants to ask Tillie. Tillie says its fine as long as she doesn't use it on them or Brenna. On agents of the wyrm? Sure... but not Brenna.
They get home and find Cherie is not there, though smell suggests she has been recently. Maybe she's gone back to Arcadia Gateway now? Maybe she'll come back in 3 months and be all "Will, you broke a promise" ("Here's your gift back" "sorry its not in packets"). ("Nobody needs that many dildos" "Well apparrently you have to throw it away when you kill someone with one...")
They make preparations - they take their fae gifts, and the umbral shotgun from the sept. Lost Prophets make sure to see the Moon before they leave and fill up with rage. They aren't sure how long it'll take to get there - Sinead will lead the way through the penumbra to find a Moon Path. Brenna is being kept unconscious through magic, so they just need to carry her, not fight her all the way. ("Move bitch, get out the way"). They shouldn't wait for her to be cured - it might not work, it might take years.
Lost Prophets head out not long after moonrise. Sinead has a strong sense of where to go and leads them toward North Melbourne - the Moon right behind them lighting the roads in front of them. She heads straight to a church, which makes everyone a bit nervous given their shared Moot dreams. The pack cautiously open the door and find a moonpath inside, with umbral mists bordering the faintly glowing path. They head along, and lug their travois with crinos-Brenna dragging along.
The path leads gently up, through mists and fogs. Its well lit because its a galliard moon, and they make good time. However after a couple of hours or so, Finn says he can hear something - its howling, a really long way away. He can't hear detail, but its a hunting sound. The others can't hear anything, and they are a bit suspicious of Finn, but figure they keep running. After another 30 minutes or so Kasumi can hear it too - she thinks it has a kind of manic, insane sound to it.
They run, but the sound is increasing - the howling isn't constant, but does sound closer each time they hear it. Eventually it sounds like its only a hundred metres back, so they stop and make preparations. ("Can I use take the forgotten on myself?" "No one has ever tried. As far as you know.... wait..."). Something emerges from the mists - its low to the ground and snuffling at their trail. As it comes forward, it looks a bit like someone's taken a dinosaur, smooshed it with a dog and put a turtle shell on it. ("no it is not a bulbasaur!") It looks up and howls the insane howls, and three more come barrelling out of the mists - they are very fast for how heavy they appear. The pack sense unnatural and find they are mostly wyrm, some weaver - probably banes of some sort.
Tillie leaps forward and slams down on one from the sky. Sinead activates her battle mandala gift (https://static.zerochan.net/Tio.Plato.full.870824.jpg). Finn considers his Call of the Wyld gift but chooses to not attract that much attention. Charlotte activates her troll skin gift.
Tillie smashes down on the shell of the first attacker. Her claws skitter off the shell in a way that is unusual for spirits, suggesting they are protected from attacks. ("you're still eating a live animal" "well, hopefully its dead"). Sinead strikes but her claws don't penetrate the shells. Finn grabs the edge of one and lifts one side up off the ground. Tillie is savaged by two spirits but isn't palpably hurt. Finn is bitten by the spirit he is man-handling. Charlotte hatchetts a hole in one of the banes. Kasumi helps Finn as he starts to try and lift it into the sky. The spirits move very quickly and attack the Tillie some more and she nearly loses her cool and frenzies. ("Don't wash semen out of your eye with bleach" "Learn from your mistakes" "That's why we have the emergency eye wash sink" "In the lab" "Why weren't you wearing your goggles!" "make sure you use cold water, because warm water will bake it right on")
Finn tips the bane over onto its back and he and Kasumi wail on it a bit. Tillie claws one of the banes with a fair amount of sucess. Sinead steps up and heals her so she doesn't get murdered too quickly, and then is bitten for her trouble. ("don't weaponise the racist grandmother"). Finn smashes one to raw essence, kill-stealing from Charlotte. Another is torn apart by the mandala, leaving the two Tillie and Sinead are fighting. Finn killsteals again from Tillie. With a final blow, Charlotte smashes the last spirit. In the far distance, more howling....
After the pack have been running sprinting along the moon path for a while it suddenly erupts into another scene. ("There no loading screen"). They are in the middle of a city street, just before a crossroad. Its a modern city, but just a little bit not right. They stop, a bit concerned, and sense - there's hardly any wyrm here, but there is a lot of weaver and a sense very much like the moonpath. Kasumi notices the lights are flickering like crazy - the street lights and the traffic lights and the lights inside the buildings around the crossroads.
Oh wait, crossroads on a moonpath - they've encountered this before when they were heading to the Atrocity realm with Jane Redfeather. Its a point where two paths cross and is guarded by lunes. Maybe they could use this to their advantage, given they are being pursued?
While Sinead goes to speak to the lunes, Charlotte and Tillie go and check out the terrain for ambushes. They find good spots for everyone to be prepared and take the advantage. Sinead speaks to a lune in a street light ("heeeeeyyyyy") and explains their exciting quest about how they are taking Brenna to Erebus. The lune approves of their tale, and they are pretty enthusiastic to help out against agents of the wyrm - "we are kin! We will fight with you!". In return, the pack will tell the whole story to the next Galliard moon once they are home ("in Song form!"). ("Snovel?" "This is just a spade with the word 'sword' written on it" "Its a 'Sword' brand shovel")
The pack wait for a few hours, listening to the approaching howls as they are tracked. Their ambush, with the help of the lunes to get rid of the tracking banes' armor, makes the whole process a bit one-sided. They pretty much end the spirits without anyone getting hurt. The pack thank the lunes for their help, and the lunes offer to untangle the two moonpaths, and hide the track Lost Prophets might take. This seems like a good plan, so the garou take it up and head off.
The howling does not restart, suggesting their efforts to lose their pursuers have been thrown by the efforts at the crossroad. After more hours, the pack become aware of something grey across the path. Maybe like a fence, or a barrier. They approach closer and they can see its dark grey with grey in beween in diamonds, a bit like chain link fence. As they get closer the pack can see the barrier extends as far as they can see up, left and right. It doesn't sense of wyrm, but boy does it sense of weaver. They can't see any spiders, but there's an even chance there's some around. Weirdly when they get close, the path seems to bend away asymptotically away from the webbing. Gravity continues to pull 'down', its just that the moon path starts to fall away too. There's no magical "we can go that way, we just need to believe", the path really is distorted. It smells metallic. Charlotte changes to crinos and touches it - its a neutral temperature, and extremely smooth to touch. Finn tries to peek, but there's no where to peek to - but at the same time, he can sort of sense through the wall, and can see weaver spiders behind it. He can only perceive them as shadows out the corner of his eye. Oh, its pattern web, just raw weaver stuff out in the Umbra.
("Maybe we can just knock?"). Lost Prophets decide to go with plan B and shot gun holes in it as a diverrrrsion while shredding it at the path. ("Spider web, spider web, does web-ever a spiderweb does...") ("Hey Finn I need a tick; run!"). Tillie moves to the edge of the Moonpath and just starts shooting randomly into the wall as far away from the path as possible. In the meantime, the rest of the pack move as close as they can, and start tearing a hole through the mesh. However, Charlotte and Finn pull a big hole, Sinead goes to grab web that isn't there suddenly, over balances and starts to tumble through the hole they've pulled. Kasumi isn't able to react in time and shoves Sinead through the gap. Charlotte and Finn grab her legs before she falls. Sinead can see that there's a small gap, and then another wall. In the infinite space between the two, she can see weaver spiders coming toward them. Tillie says there are spiders coming out of the shotgun holes she's making. Charlotte and Finn tear a whole in the other wall and the pack dive through without falling to their death.
The garou run on. Another change in the mist after a time - this wall is a silvery one. Its not infinitely high - its just about 14' tall, but it does go on as far as they can see left and right. Its silver, but it doesn't reflect well, being too bumpy and pitted. There's no wyrm, but there is a sense that's new to them. Kasumi gets up on Tillie's shoulder and can see the moonpath continues on the other side. Someone should touch it, and Tillie says "Charlotte". Charlotte asks if she's being order to touch it, and Tillie says "sure". She does and then is pulled toward the silver surface. She's laying on the wall, and the gravity is pulling her toward it. She stands up, and her perspective shifts - Charlotte is standing on a silver road. Oh. This is the way to Erebus. Everyone else makes the jump from gravity A to gravity B and now the moonpath is zooming from waaay above them to way below.
Now which way? Ahh. Um. Hmmm. Sinead says she thinks its thataway.
It starts to get darker, and the floor becomes grey. Tillie says it smells of underground, and the scents are becoming... simple. One note scents. It feels like they are heading down - now straight, and down, but curving, or maybe spiralling? The edges of the moon path rise up slowly, so they are walking in a gorge - the stone is like a dark basalt. The walls rise up until they are totally contained, and it is too dark to see without Finn's faerie lights. Ahead is a chamber and they can see some light.
They sense - there's a point source of power ahead of them, and it has a significant wyrm component. They change to crinos and try to sense for unnatural - it has the same sense as the path, and a source inside the room that is equal, and strong, amount of weaver, wyld and wyrm. They pack move forward cautiously.
The cavern is dominated by a huge 3 headed wolf - one head is metallic with rusty marks, one is black with green eyes and green flames coming out its mouth, and one is a pastiche of different sorts of wolves, which changes as they watch. The pack believe this is a wyrm/weaver/wyld mix Cerbereus thing, the source of their unnatural magics. Its aware of them but not attacking, so the pack howl out an announcement and greeting. Finn tries to announce them formally, but is unable to really settle on tone, so he's all over the place with what he wants to say. The heads ignore him, with barely a glance. From this close tho, he can see that there are two giant doors set into the rock behind the spirit.
Tillie pushes him out the way and does the formal greeting and explains why they are there.... but again, the spirit is not looking for them, and doesn't care about them. Its on guard against something else, looking for side to side, and at all the caves that spill into this room. The pack shrug, a little non-plussed, and head for the doors. As they approach, the doors swing open for theme ("I'm waiting for Finn to do a selfie with it")
Behind the door the tunnels continue. The path splits and rejoins repeated, but it all seems to head downish. Its not far down where a trickle of silver comes out of the wall - it glows with an internal bright light, adding some light to the environment. It doesn't feel warm when they put their hand closeby. The trickle comes down out of the wall, and across the wall, then running along the path they are following. Further down drips splash down from the roof, and then join the rivelet. The floor is a sandy material the same colour as the rocks around them, but it does not appear to absorb the silver liquid. The rocks are not smooth, but are jagged and uneven. The trickle becomes a rivelet, becomes a stream, as each individual bit of weeping silver joins it.
The path crosses back across the stream by a bridge made of the same stone that the walls are made of. They start to hear sounds - faint screaming and wailing echoing up the tunnels. The tunnel branches again, and a bit of experimentation suggests that it doesn't rejoin quickly. Silver goes down both, and screaming is coming up both. Its probably irrelevant, so they go left.
Because the light is coming from the silver and the silver is falling and gurgling and splashing, the pack's shadows are also dancing about, an impression not helped by the irregular walls. The shadows don't seem to be the source of the screaming, but the garou aren't exactly sure that they aren't moving independantly of their movements. Sensing gifts suggest that there are indeed spirits moving in their shadows. The silver also burns with a gnosis feeling, and Brenna stands out as the only source of wyrm in the region.
The silver is now at about the size of a creek. The path is a couple of feet above the flow. It comes to a chamber - stairs made of the same cut stone as the bridges lead down the wall, but the silver pours out the wall and drops into a pool. On the shore, a 12' tall black crinos-ish figure, with black skin and no fur stands. It is holding a pole out over the liquid, and at the end of the pole is a cage made of silver with a frantic wolf within. The creature lowers the pole and cage into the silver and the wolf goes wild as the liquid flows around it, screaming until it disappears beneath the surface with a gurgle. As it comes back to the surface, silver pours out of its mouth as it splutters and gurgles.
Tillie attempts to talk to the creature - its eyes are silvery and reflect her back, but smaller. It says simple "continue" in a rumbling voice, and lowers its victim down once more. The cage kicks around as the wolf inside desperately tries to escape, but the pack decide its time to do as they have been told.
Sometimes the tunnels split away, other times a new tunnel will join on, bringing its new silver flow. The pack see more of the big anubis-like creatures. A woman is in the middle of the flow, trying to swim in the thicker-than-water liquid, screaming and thrashing. When she gets close to the edge, the creature spears her, and pushes her back out to the middle of the river. As she kicks sheets of silver into the air, each individual pack member sees flashes of themselves and their lives. Charlotte briefly sees incidents from her past. Finn and Kasumi see times where they have been lazy and not done their entire duty, or contemplated murdering someone to make life easier. Tillie sees images from the time between leaving Tasmania and coming back to the Garou - times when she frenzied, or took money to beat someone up, or made life harder for everyone else to her own benefit. Sinead has the clearest visions - people from before she joined the sept that did the wrong thing and she said nothing, she sees herself selling drugs to people, but then she can see the chain effect, where people sometimes do terrible things to get the money to buy the drugs. When she finally gets control of herself, the guardian creature is staring at her and has taken a half step toward her. While still fixating on Sinead, it stabs the woman in the silver and pushes her out into the water. Sinead says "Its time to go. Right now"
They see other garou being tortured in the silver river as they proceed. Ahead two of the black entities are coming toward Lost Prophets with spears. They stop nearby and regard the pack. "Why are you here?" Tillie says "We have one who is tainted to cleanse". "Why have you brought her, why do you wish her cleansed?" "We think she's worth saving, and we agreed with Unicorn to heal her" "You understand there will be suffering?" "I do". "She is your twin". "Yes." "Is that why you brought her?" "No; not the only reason". ("will you do a sexy twin thing" ".... lose 50 experience"). "We do believe that underneath her corruption, she is worthy." "Why did you make the deal with Unicorn?" Its not clear why the entities are asking. Tillie gives a rundown of what was happening in Melbourne, and they keep asking about the line of decisions and motivations. One of the chains leads to Tillie wanting to keep her only family, which is a bit selfish. Another that she was turned to the Wyrm against her will (with torture) and she deserves to be rescued.
In the end, one of the entities says "We will take her". The other reaches down and grabs Brenna, hurling her into the river (in crinos). Brenna hits the surface and wakes up immediately, starting to scream and thrash. She is unable to make any traction in the surface, and is only able to thrash about, coating herself in silver. ("You were tortured into this mess, we'll torture you out of it").
"What do you wish now?" "Ummm, I wish for her survive." "Is that what you want? There are many secrets here that could be found." Tillie, recalling Cossack's advice, firmly says no, but Charlotte and Finn are curious about things they could learn about the bunyip. "Is that an order?" "Yes". ("Just the burger please." "Are you sure you dont want me to supersize it")
"Lady Charyss wishes to see you." and the entity points down the river. ("I feel like anyone who has a name in this place..."). The pack don't know who that is, but they set off anyway, on the grounds that they don't really have any other plan. The pack travel for more hours, as the river continues to expand. By the end, it is vast and they have seen 20 garou being 'cleansed'. Sometimes they can see what the tortured can see, reflected in the surface.
Lost Prophets arrive at a massive cavern, with an ocean of silver lapping on dark sandy shore. The path ends here, and the pack look for their next option - across the sea comes a barge-like boat, travelling without a sail or oars. It gently touches to the beach. There is no hooded figure or anyone demanding two pennies. They shift down to homid and get aboard. After a moment it takes off again heading out into the lake.
The boat heads towards a giant castle/temple carved out of the rock. It lands and the pack get off. A short stairwell ends with doors with two anubises guarding it. They move aside as the pack approach. They travel along corridors with strange sculptures, formless yet suggesting a purpose (https://www.monash.edu/muma/public-art/contemporary-works/sanne-mestrom-weeping-women), and lots of art work. Finn thinks it looks egyptian/greek, but not exactly.
Their path leads them to a huge audience chamber. At the far end is a throne, occupied by a 25' tall silver version of the realm's servants. One of the servants at the door announces her as the Lady Charys. The Lost Prophets are extremely polite as they greet her formally. She says they have brought Tillie's sister. In time, she may pass beyond the lake. Tillie asks how they'll know - they may not, but the binds that tie them together may pull. The pack toy with some sort of kinfetch ritual but decide its not workable. She may try to find them.
Lady Charyss says "You reside in one of my sister's houses. She has chosen you". There is a moment of confusion before the garou tentatively say "Chimera?" and Lady Charyss nods. "She has chosen you". Frankly this cryptic shit is the most obvious link between her and Chimera. The pack asks if she needs them for anything else, and she says no and jestures at a door that wasn't there before. Tillie asks that if Brenna returns here, could she tell her about the Chimera sept they are part of? Lady Charyss says she can try. The pack politely take their leave and sprint out the door.
("we're here, we're queer, we don't want any more bears") The tunnel they enter is very dark - the walls appear to be made of, well, darkness, sort of solified. The doorway vanishes quickly and Finn brings his faerie lights to bear. ("I wasn't serious about licking them"). ("And also a huge erection" "I was *rollerblading*"). The corridors are maze-like, but don't lend themselves to left-hand-guide. The floor seems seamless, but there's a sense that it dips down slowly in front of them. ("I wanna be a witch!")
They make an effort to try and navigate intuitively as per the Umbra, but Sinead says that she can't get the same feeling. But in their random wandering, they spot a diffuse glow some distance ahead. Some back and forth leads them to a sort of window in a wall which looks out onto an Artic sort of landscape where wind blows snow into strange swirls. Sensing gives back ... nothing. Charlotte sticks her hand out and finds that it is stingingly cold and brings her hand back damp. They decide not to experiment further.
They walk on, and Tillie steps on something extremely sharp. While she dances around on one foot, the others investigate and find that it was a set of keys. Is this the place of lost things? Tillie says no, she went there for a time. It just seems to be a set of normal keys, with some writing on it that isn't in English - maybe eastern European?
More walking, more random objects (pegs, pen lids, socks, etc) and more windows - they find scenes in swamps or wetlands, rainforest, nights and days and assorted seasons. Charlotte does some experimentation - she throws a random sock out a window onto some twigs. She reaches out and grabs it, and brings it back in. Charlotte puts her mirror out the window to see if there's a door into wherever they are. No. Her arm just appears out of somewhere. They opt to not just choose a random window.
After more aimless wandering, they hear something way ahead. The noise gets louder and they can resolve the sound before they see the source. Its a songbird and within a moment or two it comes flittering around the corner in a panic, landing on Finn. Its clearly a song bird spirit rather than a real bird. They can all make out its speech, and its mostly wanting to find its way out. They ask where it came from and it says "the forest". They offer a way out through the windows and it has no idea what they are talking about. The pack backtrack and point out a window. It stares at them, and cannot see what they are talking about. Tillie sticks her hand out the window and it freaks out a bit because her hand is in the wall. She pushes it out through a window and it freaks out a bit before they bring it back in. "It was a horrible place with no trees". They wander about trying to find some where good. ("Where do you wanna go to?" "Somewhere with trees?" "What sort of trees?" "Good ones" "Fuck off").
As they wander with the spirit, looking for a more appropriate window, they can head cheerful whistling (human, not bird) from somewhere within the maze. It grows louder. Finn howls out hello? in Garou tongue, and there is a reply in the same. After a bit of marco polo, eventually the source appears - its a middle-aged, tall, thin and gawky fellow of mixed ancestry, dressed simply. He does not speak English, so they stick to garou tongue. Formal introductions are made while they surreptiously smell him - he smells like a person, some food smells. He says that he is Why-the-Hell-Not, a metis Star Gazer theurge Adren, and they are within the Null Zone, a sort of space behind all the realms. He's here helping spirits that were lost here - it mostly overlaps the Umbra rather than the realm. They ask if he can help them get home - once they manage to give him a description of Melbourne, he says he can probably get them close by. In the mean time he will help their little bird friend.
The Lost Prophets wander and chat. Why-the-Hell-Not comes from roughly central Asia, his parents were mixed tribes, and their parents were mixed ancestry so he's a big mix. He opted to come here and help spirits, it wasn't something he was sent to do. He turns randomly at different corridors as they walk, but then stops and looks at them oddly. Do they have a connection to Chimera, his tribe totem? Yes, she's the Sept Totem. He says that he can probably take them to the Sept - because the Null Zone is changing around them in a strange way. Sometimes it happens, but this feels stronger. It still takes a couple of hours, but he eventually leads them to a window that looks onto the cemetery. He declines the offer to visit because its hard to get back in. They wave at the suspiciously helpful NPC and step through to find its....
...about 10.30pm, so about 5 days since they left.
They burst into Graeme's house and he freaks out. They explain they came out of the Null Zone and he's pretty unhappy there's a gate there. Maybe they could build a building. He can sense people entering, but not just appearing, apparently. He says he'll call Cossack and Emma. He picks up the phone and just says "Cossack!" loudly before chatting with the Sept leader. The pack ask what that was all about and he says Cossack doesn't have a phone.
The Elders all show up and the pack vomit forth their information. ("I can't get past that you are getting upset over something that hasn't happened to your imaginary dog" "I don't think you understand how much I like dogs" "She's invested"). While the pack eat food they brain dump to the Elders and compare about what has happened. Cossack suggest they take tomorrow to catch up and rest, then the Moot is the next day, and then they'll have to help with cleaning up all the goop in the Umbra on Preston. Its going ok, but its time consuming - they've got a map, and they've split it up into sections and each group is cleaning. Most of the surface is done now, but then they have to head underground - some of it has been flowing down into drains and suchforth. There's some discussion about why Two Bones aren't hear helping - Malajimbarra has been quite helpful in helping make sponge talens and cleansing but Tillie thinks they should be dragged back her and made to assist too.
The pack head back to their various houses. Charlotte looks about for Cherie, as she feels she should be fulfilling Will's obligations. She finds that the hare fae has been here, recently, sleeping in this pile of soiled cushions. She's been around in the house in the last weekend. ("I'm the spoof of christmas' past!"). She returns inside and deals with Will's fetid bedding at least to the point where she can sleep on the couch. She finds some musty sheets in the linen cupboard ("They were in there when they moved in") .
Finn finds that his phone has several messages, all from Tom - there's one from Friday saying they have some practice space booked for Sunday. And another from Sunday going "Ah, so are we still doing this?". And several calls from the same number later in the day. Finn texts back saying he left his phone at home and went to the country.
Kasumi is having a shower in preparation for at least going to look in on work when the water starts to feel a little strange. It tastes terrible. And its wyrm tainted. Gross. She gets out and gets a towel, then tests all the taps - only the upstairs taps have taint. She mentally tells the others and they test theirs - its fine. ("Ours isn't wyrm tainted! Its wyld! Its thriving with life, new species that have never been seen before").
Kasumi checks out the Umbra - their unit is one of the more real ones on the block (along with the front left one for some reason). Upstairs has some wyrm taint in the Umbra. She sniffs about. There's something here that smells bad. ("Did Dancers come and pee in my shower?"). With her gifts she manages to narrow it down to a spirit in the wall that has a strong wyrm sense. She opts to go wake up the theurge, complaining about the banes in the wall ("half 10? I've never been up at half 10, what happens?") and explaining to her muzzy packmate about the dodgy shower water. ("Clean the umbra isn't on the chore list!")
They head into the Umbra and try to find the source of this trouble. Kasumi listens carefully to the walls and can hear something sludgey moving around. She punches through in crinos form and tries to grab it blindly and finds its in the pipes. Sinead a bit late senses Wyrm and says that there's something moving about but its not very strong wyrm and its running up the pipes. Kasumi heads up to the shower and turns it on - it makes a terrible noise and murky water pours out before it all stops, with a worrisome groaning sound. Kasumi tears the shower head off and the highly pressurised water explodes down and sprays out in all thwe directions. There's something in the shower head in her hand. Sinead tries to start binding the spirit, but it shucks off her ritual ties and she's a bit distracted by the shower water going everywhere.
The spirit leaps across the room. It seems to have frog in its ancestry, but it also seems to be made partly of soap scum and hair and slime. When it hits a surface it sounds like a wet towel being dropped on the ground. It bounces into the toilet and starts trying to go down the tube. ("I've peed everywhere man, I've peed everywhere"). Kasumi yells "get him!". The spirit squirms down into the S-bend, where they can hear it. ("you're not getting your umbral bond back"). Kasumi leaps over and wrenches the piping apart. Water starts to gush. It turns out that it was in the bit she pulled out - the spirit leaps to the sink and starts trying to shove its head up the tap. Sinead grabs one of its spindly legs and it jams its head up the pipe, then Kasumi grabs it by the body and legs, hauling it out.
They contemplate binding it and trying to interrogate it, but decide that this is probably some incidental bane and not worth the gnosis. Kasumi tries to interrogate it and it gurgles and grunts at her, so she just tears it in two. The umbral bathroom is somewhat flooded, but mission accomplished. ("we'll fix it in post"). Spiders will come fix this, right? Kasumi goes to work, and Sinead cleanses the bathroom of wyrm taint and goes back to bed.
Three hours later Sinead is woken by a weird sound. Its a wet sound. She gets up and investigates - the bathroom seems to have some sort of leak from the back of the toilet which has seeped out into the corridor and is now going down the stairs. Kasumi calls the real estate agent while Sinead goes out for coffee and a walk with Gus.
Charlotte gets up and decides she has to find Cherie. She changes to lupus and tries to track her scent. She finds evidence of it around the neighbourhood.
Finn is woken by a thumping on the front door. He eventually gets to the door and finds a package has been delivered for Tillie. It doesn't smell weird - oh wait, it smells like Bartholomew Wise-in-the-Ways-of-the-Wyrm. ("I don't know what happened, I fell asleep"). He wakes Tillie up and they open it - there's a note from Bartholomew, saying its probably not too useful but here's what he has. Its a big sheaf of handwritten stories. There's a couple more about women with magical power, involving animals, and then things happened getting out of balance, and then they put them into the sky. Most of them are short, and they read like third hand accounts.
Sinead buys Gus a burger ("Its someone pretending to be a burger. I'm sorry I was asleep I've gone stupid") and he is pleased. They are strolling back toward home when she looks up and sees a guy ahead of her leaning against a pole - he has a cowboy hat, a hawaiin shirt, a trenchcoat and sunglasses, shorts and no shoes. He's grinning insanely. Sinead bends down and pats the dog and mentally tells to the pack "mage guy! mage guy!". She senses for wyrm - he's heavily tainted even at this range (a few shops) but not corrupted. (Wyrmy, but not OF the wyrm). Tillie and Finn hit the street on her bike within a minute.
When it becomes clear that Sinead is not moving, the guys starts to walk her way. Kasumi pretends her phone is ringing, pretend answers it and then apologises saying she has to attend to something and will be right back.
The hawaiin shirt saunters up to Sinead and says "Nice day" "Yes" "Feel like having a short chat?" "Potentially". "I don't intend to take up much of your time. So things with the lady - sorted?" "They've been resolved" "Any particular way that we should be aware of? Its permanently resolved?" "No, its sorted." ("ASK HIM ABOUT THE BOXES") "Anything else?" "No, hope we didn't put you to any inconvenience?" "No" "Excellent. She was being all too disruptive. Well, then, I'll leave you to your walk". He goes to turn and Sinead says "While we're swapping information, I'd like to ask something of you" "mmm?" "These full moon murders. Do you know anything about them?" "Not really" "Do you know who might?" "I prefer not to get involved in other people's business. Unless its extremely loud. Sorry, not mine". "This hive of Black spiral dancers?" "Sorry, what?" "Brenna's associates" "Ahh. What about them?" "Do you know where to find them?" "I don't think they want to be found, and I'd rather not get involved." "You're not very good at sharing" "Well, there's community interest and then personal business, and I feel that this sounds like your personal business." "Could I trouble you for your name?" "No, I think I'm done" and he turns and walks away.
Tillie is driving down the street and can see him walking off. He's walking slowly and looking around. Tillie toys with just running him over but drives past and pulls over. The guy turns into a cafe - Sinead follows and then walks past. She can see him talking to the people behind the counter, who point toward the back. Sinead picks up speed with Gus, trying to find a way around the back. Tillie steps through a wooden gate, turns invisible, and then mysteriously a gate opens for no reason. Tillie slips through the cafe, dodging patrons and heading for the back door.
Sinead reaches the end of the easeway behind the shops and wanders up that way casually. She hasn't seen anyone come out of the back when she reaches the cafe. Tillie walks out the back door (weird another magical door) and past the toilets - there's a little courtyard with a trailer in it. ("yeah women's toilets are not like that. There's no trailers" "Don't tell them about the water slides"). They give the toilets the eye - the doors are like house doors (because they're external) and they can't see through them. Tillie casts about and finds that there's a sense of wyrm coming from the boys toilet.
Kasumi shows up near the cafe and peeks. The building full of shops used to be some sort of warehouse store, there's trams out the front so there's weaver crap across the sky. There's no sign of the mage in the spirit world.
Someone comes out of the cafe and tries the male toilet. The door opens but they say "Oops! sorry!" and closes the door. He stands outside, clearly waiting while Tillie is invisibly next to him. They wait and watch. After a few mins he knocks and says "going to be long? .... hello? ..... hellp are you ok?" He opens the door a bit and says "what the hell?" and opens the door a lot. There's some sort of dummy thing on the toilet dressed in a hawaiian shirt and cowboy hat, etc. He heads back into the cafe and Tillie looks in - its like a straw dummy wearing the clothes the guy had. She mentally calls the others to come look at this thing. Sinead comes and looks at it and the two of them use gifts on it.
There is a sense of magic and demonic on top of the wyrm, but its faint. Tillie checks the clothes and finds they're new - they have tags on some of them. The door to the cafe opens and the guy returns with a woman who works here. They give Sinead a weird look who shrugs and says she heard a fuss. The woman clearly has no time for this rubbish and just manhandles it out of the toilet and down to the trailer. Tillie invisibly dodges her. "Toilet's free. I don't care" The guy goes in and she goes back inside.
There's some quick discussion about what to do with the strawman: burning it, leaving it in a house (what if it comes back to life), eating it, walking away or pulling it to pieces to see if there's something in the middle? Charlotte says that straw and harvests have a strong occult - or superstitious - association with peasants. The last harvest was left for the winter queen, etc. German people also have rituals about straw and harvests. And making a reproduction of people and using it for magic is common to a few different cultures. So that's no lead.
Given that the mages have mind control powers, they may never gone anywhere near it so there mightn't be any scents (given the new clothes).
The pack decide that they want to bind a spirit to the straw man to tell them if it gets up and moves around off its own bat. Sinead calls a significant pigeon spirit ("Its the literal version of a strawman argument - its an attempt to mislead by setting forth information that is clearly false") while the others think of some chiminage. ("Tillie will stop eating pigeons"). ("Now I've got fishcock in my head, and that's not it"). They decide to offer to services in the name of Pigeon - they'll run five messages for the sept or other packs. ("Glad to say i've never sucked a penis long enough that its gone wrinkly")
The spirit is not 100% convinced of their arguments, but their offer is reasonably generous in return for only having to stay in the strawman for 2 weeks, so it assents. Sinead expertly binds it and the pack head home, job well done.
Charlotte heads out to find Cherie. She explores in lupus form. While no one thinks she's a wolf, the appearance of a large, aggressive, unowned dog is causing a certain amount of concern from people on the street. However, she's not dawdling, and so she's gone welll before any repercussions.
It seems that Cherie has been wandering around the neighbourhood. Her scent is apparent to Charlotte - she seems to have been casting about for parks or other areas where there's some amount of greenery. Chronologically, she has been doing wandering less as time goes on, and she's been heading straight to parks. Her scent is mixed up with other people - lots of different people - at the parks. Its not just in obvious places, but in strange locations like under some thick bushes.
The newer scents go further. They lead Charlotte to a large park to the south which seem to include some sort of museum. Cherie has been mostly near a lot of foot traffic at the rear. She is not apparent, either visually or olfactorially. A lot of her time has been spent around some sort of play structure for children, but the investigation around this area leads to parents quickly evacuating their offspring from the area and putting Charlotte under heavy observation. She decides that discretion is required and heads away and finds somewhere to change to homid before returning. When she returns there is some sort of city officials talking to parents nearby, confirming that discretion was better. She contemplates her options and figures she might need help. Or advice. Charlotte returns to the house to perform a questing stone ritual but apparently 'Cherie' isn't enough.
Its at this point Finn bursts out of his room. He had spent some time thinking about what he'll say at the moot but in the process of mentally reviewing everything, he has remembered that they said they'd come back and help Patricia a week ago. He reminds the rest of the pack and they sigh. Charlotte argues that she has an obligation to deal with Cherie but the pack argue that this is a higher obligation. She suggests that Cherie, as one of the fae with a specific time based obligation is the higher urgency. The pack hum and har and agree, but get Charlotte to help with plannning.
Maybe they could put a whammy on the parents? Drugs? Threats? Extortion? Some sort of subtle spirit magic? Making some sort of bullying epidemic or otherwise making school obviously terrible. Make them suggestable and tell Patricia to have another go? If they use spirit magic, they have 2 options - commanding them via a spirit of respect, or tricking them by a spirit of cunning. Kasumi says maybe there's a third option - some sort of spirit of communication or empathy, to try and make the whole conversation go smoothly, rather than blowing up in arguments. This is probably the wisest and most honourable thing to do. Some thought suggests Duck or Dove as an option - both members of Unicorn's brood.
Step one - go check her out and make sure she hasn't ratted them out already. ("spaced out there for a second, and you were talking about having margueritas with muishrooms in them, yuck") Finn manages to peek very well, and finds that the house is in a state of cold war. It appears today was Patricia's first day back at school after the... incident... and she's not happy. There might have been shouting earlier, but now its a cold, tense environment. There's some thought about chimiage for Dove - a friendship circle at the Moot? ("if you cut something off a werewolf, and it grows back, what happens to the first one?")
Its likely that they'll need to make this really happen after the Moot - its late enough tonight to be impractical, tomorrow night is the Moot, etc. But they could set up the deal with Dove, then speak to Patricia about their plan? Sounds workable.
Sinead spends a few hours summoning Dove - the spirit is pleased to help them and pleased that they had an appropriate chiminage prepared - the pack will skip the revel at the Moot this moon.
In the meantime, Kasumi steps into Patricia's room once her parents are settled. There is new security on the outside of the building, but nothing internally. Kasumi takes on the least scary demeanour she can manage and taps on Patricia's bed. The girl sits up and stares but clearly remembers Kasumi. They have a whispered conversation where Patricia complains that they said that they'd magic things so she didn't have to go back, and if she wasn't happy, she could go back to fairy - but they didn't and she can't it doesn't work! Kasumi apologises and says they've come up with a solution - they can't just *zap* and fix it. But once they've gathered enough magic, this Wednesday, they'll summon a spirit to make her parents listen and be receptive to everything she says. They'll listen to how Patricia is upset - but she'll need to help by trying to be reasonable and calm too. Kasumi checks that her parents will be home, and it seems to be the case. Kasumi says they'll be watching. Patricia asks if she'll have to do anything, and Kasumi says it might affect her too, make her better at communicating. It sounds a bit haphazard to be honest, but Patricia says ok.... Kasumi tries to see if Patricia still seems ot have any physical weirdnesses from her time in fairy. They wrap up the conversation and Kasumi slides back ward into the closet and then vanishes. Patricia gets up and opens the closet, but the garou is gone.
Meanwhile Charlotte is lurking around at the Exhibition Gardens considering her options. Cherie might be shapeshifting and lurking in bushes? Or just behaving like a rabbit to get power of some sort? (Rolf Harris on the Goodies) ("just look for a bunch of unconscious field mice"). Bereft of any other ideas, Charlotte wanders around calling out for Cherie ("Hullo? where is it that you are?") Shortly after dark, she spots Cherie a distance away across the park. Its not clear where she came from - she was suddenly visible between two trees in the bright moonlight.
Cherie sees Charlotte coming, and clearly contemplates running for it. Charlotte calls out and says she is here to fulfil the oath. Cherie replies that she's not Will, and the deal was with Will. She's very definite about that. If Will isn't available, then he'll have broken the deal. Charlotte considers Cherie - she looks a bit shabby, as if she hasn't been sleeping well or something. Charlotte tries to ask how Cherie has been, since the queen left. Charlotte conveys that the Night queen has been pushed through the Arcadia gate, and Cherie looks surpised and says that she imagines all the Sidhe were flabberghasted. The gate's not meant to open, it must have been triggering geas everywhere.
Cherie says that she's happy to make a seperate deal with.. whoever this is, but otherwise Will will have to face the consequences. ("Bom bom bom bom bom bom bom ... mr sausage....") Charlotte asks if she can return to arcadia. Cherie says she doesn't want to; but there are ways back. Honestly she doesn't think that garou's interest in her wellbeing is very genuine. ("Will might have put his semen into you, but he does that to a lot of things." "Not as many as I might like" "You should see his sock drawer". "Finn's sock drawer" " 'I have a sock drawer??' 'Whats that?' 'I dunno its been glued shut since we moved in' ") Charlotte asks what she wants, and Cherie doesn't want to get stuck with their stupid rules. Charlotte says she'll be blunt - they need to keep the humans ignorant and they will use violence to do that if required. Cherie says they have nothing to say then. Will promised some things, but didn't follow through..
Charlotte tries to negotiate or at least find out what Cherie might want. Cherie says she could bring people across and get a certain amount of kudos and that at certain times - she looks at the full moon - that'd be easier. ("I challenge you for the right to use your stuff as a recepticle for my fluids").
In the end, Charlotte gives up and leave with some warnings.
Early in the morning, Kasumi can suddenly hear Will. Will has a moment of lucidity in his world of lucidity and unconsciousness. He's a bit dazed. He asks if they are still in faerie? Kasumi sasys no, they're back in Melbourne now. Will wants to know how long its been and Kasumi says its been many days and they've been to Erebus and back. Charlotte refuses to let go of his body. Will thrashes about trying to see out his eyes but he's asleep and his eyes are only open a crack. He doesn't know how she's done it, so he doesn't know how to undo it. He tries to force his head into his head and his eyes shoot open and he is gone to unconsciousness again.
Kasumi tells the others when they wake up. She says that he mentioned Ends-the-Quiet as a possibe source of help, so the pack get themselves together and go find the Elder. He is, as they expect, in the Umbra at the caern. ("Festooned with banes"). The stargazer sees them coming and waits patiently. Tillie explains their issue with the ancestor spirit and how they're not happy. She explains that Will wants to come back - they spoke to him by their mental link this morning. Ends-the-Quiet says that under normal circumstances, ancestor spirits do not have the strength to take over. He asks if they have pack rituals (small r rituals as well as big ones) that might give Will strength? ("Masturbating into each other's socks, apparently"). ("Ridgewaying!"). ("Its your favourite burger - its a toastie with two minute noodles in it"). Owl related things? His surfboard? Ends-the-Quiet says that Will's ancestor spirits have been troublesome before, and been able to hide themselves from him. They are strongwilled. Tillie asks about forcing Charlotte out. There may be spiritual ways to do this, but he does not know.
Midday, Tillie gets a call from Graeme who says she should wear her most polite hat. She guesses its someone from the council. She shows up and Graeme says the Black Fury Jindabyne council member, Wungala Rose, is here to see her. Tillie drags Kasumi and Sinead into the Umbra when they find Wungala, who is sitting calmly under a tree. They exchange formal greetings - Wungala is a rank 4 philodox homid.
Wungala says that she's here in response to the talk she had with Athena. She checks that Tillie wants to talk in front of her pack, and when she assents, she says that she'd ask them all to keep what they learn to themselves. Wungala asks if Tillie knows anything about the history of the Black Furies. Tillie has no idea, and so Wungala says that when the Furies came to Australia, they claimed the wyldest areas they could find as territory - Tasmania. However, after the last Bunyip was killed, and before the Jindabyne Council was formally created, the Shadow Lords attacked, taking over caerns, killing and driving off garou and enslaving kinfolk. Its been suggested that the Silver Fangs maybe knew this was going to happen, and did not intercede because it limited the threat to them.
Contemplate, if she will, an Elder who still takes this betrayl to heart. Perhaps, if she was presented with an opportunity of identical twin metis, a plan might come to her that one could be given to the Shadow Lords, and then at a later date replaced with the other as an agent of the Furies. Tillie asks who the Elder was, and Wungala says she was Chessa Cale, also known as Strikes-like-Smoke. Tillie picks up on the 'was' and asks if she's alive, and Wungala says no. So one child was given to an Elder who was known to object to metis, to trade to the Shadow Lords in return for something of value and the other was raised as a Black Fury. Kasumi asks how she knows this and Wungala says she asked. She points out that the Furies are not a particularly heirarchial tribe, and that local Elders are a law unto themselves. Even her position is not one of command, but one where she represents the Tribe. So, one Elder's plan does not have to approved by others - they do not need to seek opinion.
So what happened? Well, the Shadow Lord 'spy' left the Lords and ran away, and the Fury replacement was captured and killed by Black Spiral Dancers. Was Brenna trained? No, the plan fell apart before she even went through first change.
Wungala Rose confirms that they took Brenna to Erebus, and then asks what now? Tilie says she's never had a family, and doesn't know what Brenna will be like, so she really doesn't know. How about for herself? Tillie says she'll be here, and be open to Brenna being here with her? But ideally, she's looking for Brenna to be alive and not hurting. She doesn't know what Brenna is going to be like? She doesn't necessarily want to make her one of them or anything.
Wungala says that going through Erebus has elements of rebirth. Plus having fallen to the Dancers. And Brenna may find it difficult to resume her role back with the Black Furies. Tillie asks about precedent and whether they could give Brenna the choice. Put it bluntly - do they want her back? Wungala reiterates her position is not really one of command more than any other Elder ("the 7 rats; dopey, doc, pestilience, sleepy, famine, etc" "luke warm beer" "people smelling of fish")
Tillie asks if her mother was a Black Fury. Yes. Do you know her name? Yes... long pause. Who was she? Wungala says her name was Catriona Kennedy, also known as Hunts-at-Night, though her pack called her Firefly ("Turns out she lived in East europe! good luck on your travels!" "Guess which greek island she was on!" "lesbos" "oh yeah")
Tillie asks what happened to Brenna, like details. Wungala says that they appeared to have been ambushed, it wasn't a spur of the moment thing.
Tillie asks why Wungala is sharing all this. Wungala says that Tillie and her pack went to some effort to rescue Brenna rather than just killing her to end the threat they faced, or torturing some information out of her once they'd captured her. Plus there could be some argument for there being a debt owed to Tillie from the tribe. Athena Tirebas also put her word in for Tillie being told the truth.
Tillie says that she has one final question - Brenna's deformity. She asks if Brenna did not heal properly internally, like she doesn't on the surface. Wungala says yes, her bones don't heal correctly, and could break again under stress at another point. Another flaw in the plan. Wungala says that she will go now, but she's sure that she will see Tillie soon. ("let the record show that Becc was making farting noises with her hands while making creepy eye contact with Andrew")
MOOT!
Opening howl in the Umbra, and then Thanking the Spirits. Its been a big month - Cossack starts things off by reviewing things that happened and asks each pack to fill in details from the bits they did. Finn gives a technically correct though drab performance of their bits, and Chris fills in what the Get of Pennington have been doing, and Georgina for Scryers. It takes a fair bit of time. In the last week or so the other packs have been scrubbing Preston - they gridded it up and just did it systematially. There's some sign that other spirits have been consuming it, which is disturbing. There's about a quarter of the surface left to go. Was Kasumi's toilet bane related? Maybe, but its a pretty far distance away.
Finn, Sinead and Kasumi challenge for rank 3, as does Ian. The Elders seem unsurprised by any of these challenges, and they agree to set challenges during the Moot. Any other challenges? Charlotte stands up and says "Twice Tillie has given up chances to find out secrets about the Bunyip. This lack of curiosity is the same as that which led to their murder in the first place and is a weakness that cannot be tolerated. I challenge for leadership." Tillie accepts and says that she needs to talk to Ian for a moment. Off to one side she says to Ian that she got voted in. Can she just make the challenge another vote? Ian gives her a look, clearly wanting to watch them punch on, and says he'll talk to the other Elders for a minute. He wanders off and speaks to each of the other Elders and then comes back. Yes, she can, but there has to be campaign speeches - explaining why they should be in charge. Tillie gives him a dirty look, and agrees.
While those things are being sorted out, Cossack addresses what the plan is from now. There's either a Hive or another point of strength for the Dancers around. Its a pretty high imperative to stop them - step one is to get rid of the taint all over Preston but straight after that, the Sept needs to find and remove any Dancers in or near the city. They also were planning to get Father Possum to help them monitor the city, but they are sinking a lot of resources into cleanup, and then there are other complications around Lost Prophets and Bunyip interaction that might make that harder too until they can sort out what the Jindabyne Council says. The Revel tonight is going to head north.
Chris also brings up the places where Uktena's blood hit the ground - they are a bit odd. It was in the Umbra, but its the sort of thing that will leak into the Realm. Charlotte asks if those locations might make caern creation there an option, but the Sept does not have the resouces, and Doncaster isn't exactly a spiritual hotspot.
Ends-the-Quiet approaches Charlotte and says that her behaviour is unseemly. Her time is past - her role is now to advise, not to take over the bodies of the living. Charlotte says that Will willingly gave her control. Ends-the-Quiet says that stepping forward at that time showed wisdom, but the time has past. Charlotte says she'll move aside when her tasks are done. Ends-the-Quiet reiterates that she is behaving badly. Despite the other garou being on edge, no one punches on.
People move on to stories and songs. Ian approches Finn and says his challenge is to find three stories about a garou warrior - specifically Brenna. He hums and hars and says ok. Kasumi has Ian approach her and says that her challenge is to setup her own network of video cameras around the city. But Hidden Green cannot find out. ("You could go as Jasmine and Tiger?")
Ian is clearly going around and making sure everyone knows that Tillie and Charlotte are going to have to make speeches ("This is ridiculous, i have actual butterflies in my actual stomach") and the time eventually rolls around. Charlotte goes first.
"When I came to Australia, the garou warred against the Bunyip. They believed them to be wyrm tainted, but it quickly became clear to me that this was a lie. They often did not fight back. They were too busy doing something else. But no one was interested in knowing that they were doing. They were too busy focussed on their glory and their stupidity. They would not listen and the Bunyip were killed. One hundred years I have watched and waited, to find the truth - what were the bunyip were doing, what we interrupted. It needs to be known. Its clear that this pack, the Lost Prophets, is destined for connecting to the Bunyip - their spirits appear to you, their Umbral spirits speak to you. This pack is destined to unlock the secrets of the Bunyip and under my leadership they will." There is some brief post speech conversation about how the Jindabyne Council doesn't really agree, and Charlotte adds "I would challenge the Council for the right to inverstigate this"
Finn mentally says "wait, 100 years? Remember that conversation the tree had with Will about 100 years?". Wait, the tree was talking to Will, but Will wasn't having the conversation. Deeply suspicious. The Sept seems to be fairly interested in her suggestions and stance. Barry says "I vote for her!" and there's an argument where it turns out Ian was telling the others they could vote. Tillie disagrees. ("you don't even go to this pack!") ("Wait, Charlotte's not even n the pack, why didn't I point that out??" "Perhaps you should ahve had a philodox to advise you").
Tillie's turn -
"We come from an unusual Sept, and we are an unusual pack. We do things not necessarily the way that they've been done previously. But I do think we do things the right way. And I think we've done well for our selves and I've done well for the pack. We've discovered an enormous number of things, we've learnt so much, we've overcome our adversaries with strength. While my heart goes out to the Bunyip and I am honoured to have been chosen for whatever reason to receive gifts from them, my priorities do not lie with them. My priority lies with my pack and with my sept, and keeping them safe, and with making them strong. I've made my decisions based on what I felt we needed and our best interests, rather than the chase of something ephemeral that may not exist. Because if it comes down to it, I'm always going to choose you, and no matter what happens now, I'll always be incredibly proud of how far we've come. "
There's some wooing from the crowd, but less enthusiasm than for Charlotte's crowd pleasing "challenge the council" claims. Everyone stares at the pack. Kasumi says "Tillie", Sinead says "Tillie" and Finn says "I abstain" and Tillie stares daggers at him.
Cossack acts as Wyrmfoe, and slowly raises the tone of the evening into a near frenzy. The Lost Prophets are sitting this one out so move away from the main part of the Moot. The rest of the Sept run out while Lost Prophets walk guard ("What's your plan?" "I abstain") ("I reject your punishment and substitute my own")
Kasumi quizzes Charlotte about the "watching for 100 years" thing. From where? Charlotte says that she has watched from the perspective of other garou, from the homeland where she spent some time and from her own travels in the Umbra. Roughly 100 years, yes. Kasumi explicitly asks about the Ettadunna caern and the tree. Charlotte tries to brush it off as not important but they push. She says she made a promise to a spirit to demonstrate her commitment to the words she spoke. ("You can't sit with us." "On Wednesdays we wear pink") ("That's why I am standing over here away from you maniacs" "yeha, in 'Abstania')
About 530 in the morning, the police scanner picks up some activity near Darebin. There's some noise about a train bridge under Upper Heidelberg Rd just near Darebin station. The pack take off there in the Umbra to see what is what. They get there and find tiny motes of fire and death flitting about all the weaver webbing. Sinead can't peek so Finn gives it a try ("will you tho, or will you just abstain?"). He can see a train stopped before the tunnel, just after the station and a number of policemen about the place. There is significant sign of fire and violence under the bridge. Finn can smell petrol and blood (and train brakes, but mostly on the train.) Sense unnatural reveals Magic, Demonic and Wyrm - its all very centred on the tunnel. He moves the pack around, trying to get a scent for the Full Moon Killer, but no immediate luck.
Under the bridge, there's probably been 3 or 4 people there. There's some billets, but not really a permanent camp - there's not a lot of room between the tracks and the walls though, so you wouldn't want to be spinning about when trains come through. There's houses on one side, then a major road and then some non-residential buildings. Not far away is Darebin Creek and the Yarra, which is something that has come up in the investigations before.
Kasumi tries to think of animal spirits or other spirits associated with the river, or the Yarra ("bunyip?"). The Yarra doesn't have one big spirit (because its dead) though there are other spirits of pieces of the river further upstream. Whipporwhill are associated with swamps? Maybe its the drains, not the streams - there's gifts that let you go down the phone line, maybe they're doing something like that. The one thing people got out of Brenna was the noise of rain or water falling far above? Hmmm.
Maybe they should speak to maintenance workers in the drains or sewers or those urban spelunkers who do illegal caving, and see if they know about places that you just Don't Go?
The pack go back and overlisten - three people were killed messily. The official story is that the driver who does this route does it regularly and knows people camp here, and did this bit of track very slowly. He stopped when he saw smoke, but the victim are badly mauled enough that there's suspicion about whether they were run over by a train? There's no trains that are meant to have gone through tho, and this train hasn't gone over them and backed up or anything. The fire happened about 330am, and none of the neighbours noticed anything out of the ordinary. Can they wake up the tunnel and ask? But unless the tunnel had some previous spiritual relevance its unlikely to be aware. ("If only I had that rank 3 gift" "What, 'speak to tunnels'?" ) Other animals spirits? Its a bit too weavery for much in the way of animals. The tracks?
Charlotte suggests scoping the area between the murder and the river, and just trying to see if the Dancer came or went that way. They take a quick look at a map to see where to go.
The pack cast about - Kasumi roves around counter to how they head, straight to the Yarra and finds the stagnant water scent. Its on the far side of the bridge from the direction the train was coming. She manages to trace it back and finds a spot where he has stood for a time, and then finds he came from the west. His track wiggles all over the place back from there. She gives the rest of the pack a heads up. As she's following it, she finds the point it changes to the scent they know of the Full Moon Killer. This is unusual. Tracing it back further leads to a cliff that is above Darebin creek.
So it looks like he's come out of the creek, wandered about aimlessly, activated a talen or gift to hide his scent, wandered until he reached a spot, stood there near the bridge for a time and then bolted straight to the far side of the bridge, dropped over the edge and killed. Sure, why not. What might he have been doing when he stopped? Staring at the moon (Again)? Talking to mages? Doing something rutualistic? Maybe talking to a spirit?
There's no sign of anything like discarded bits of talens around where the scent changes. There's no sign he went into the Umbra - the scent doesn't come from the other side of the creek, so it shows strong signs of coming up the water.
Maybe the pack could manipulate the mages by manipulating the police reports - there's some sign that the mages are coveriing up the murdering of the Dancer? Its a bit speculative, but maybe. ("I'm just going to be walking through the city, setting things on fire, and if you get in the way, its your own fault").
Graeme calls Kasumi and says there's been an incident in Hampton that looks awfully like what they are looking into now. That's a fair trip away. He gives them the address and the pack finish up their investigation here and head down to the bayside. ("Can ducks fly?") ("I show you nothing but love.... DAMIEN!")
When they arrive, and investigate from the Umbra, its clearly a construction site. There are weaver spiders around but they keep away from the pack. The site is an old large house in the Umbra, but there's signs of fire. In the realm there are many police . Most of the investigation seems to be focussed on a barrel which has a smell of fire, some sort of accellerant and cooked meat. There's no smell of stagnant water in either the Umbra or the realm. The barrel looks like a fire barrell - its steel with holes punched all across it. There is a large variety of human smells here - the construction is an apartment complex and there's been a lot of workers here as its put together and police all over the place right now. ("you've got from maiden to mother and now crone"). There's a sense of wyrm here, but its not the same as at all the other killings. Its not as intense. The Dancer is killing for maybe spiritual reasons - that'd have a big oomf that they'd pick up. And maybe this didn't.
Figuring they'll cheat as usual, they go to VIFM and try to steal the police reports. They try to awaken a terminal in one of the labs with no luck - Sinead finds a less dormant one and manages to kick it awake. In the meantime Kasumi sniffs out the burnt bodies from the Umbra - both sets of bodies are in the same place. There is a name tag associated with the one from Hampton - Jennifer Edwards. ("jenny are you ok, are you ok Jenny").
The awakened pc doesn't really have keys. Sinead sneers at it, then binds it to do what she wants. The pack still have to bully it into being sensible, and when it reads out the reports, its all full of acronyms. The general story they get is that Jennifer works at Safeway at Hampton and she didn't show up to open. Then the construction site had a fire going even tho none of the guys were there that day. And so someone went and looked and found a body stuffed bum first into the barrel. Then a sweep around the area found her car. Mostly the reaction has been "oh. Again". The pack are a bit suspicious that this isn't the Full Moon Killer. Is it a copy cat? did the Full Moon Killer get seen by this person and just kill them?
They trigger the spirits spewing of information about the killing at Darebin. They seemed to be older - 50s and 60s - and habitually sleep under the bridge and something ran over them. And stabbed. The pack, looking at it with the eye of knowing about werewolves, think that maybe someone stood on them in crinos onto the tracks. There's something in the police report about maybe the bodies were stabbed some more after death? The report is still very prelininary. The deaths at Darebin were around 3. Jennifer was probably killed around 6, though a precise time is hard to get with the burning.
Her car was unlocked - perhaps something happened as she pulled up or got out? The pack decide to see what they can see by heading back to the car and sniff about. She's parked some distance away from the main street where she works, but that's probably due to the parking restrictions closer up. There's no scent of anyone else having been in the passenger seat that day. Its being towed as they show up so they only have a bit of a chance to look at it.
There's a lot of foot traffic through the area and a lot of construction sites - many houses being turned into townhouses or apartments. Smells are difficult to track, especiallyt from the Umbra. From her car though, they can pick Jennifer's smell up (this morning). ("hennafur"). She seems to have walked straight along the street to the construction site, through a gate and then was attacked. Why? They can't really be sure, its not a cut through to work or anything. Illicit affair? Cigarette? Friends with the construction guys and didn't realise they weren't on, in the wrong place and wrong time? Stopped to pee? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squirrel). They can't scent the Full moon killer, but....
They go and check out Jennifer's house to try and confirm or deny what might have happened. Its a rental house in Highett with its weird railway roundabouts (https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-37.9447738,145.0396866,3a,75y,265.55h,81.08t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sbZu6pxf0gW3-s91swoJIMA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 ) . The pack check it out from the Umbra. She appeared to live with another woman about the same age (24). Based on scents, the other woman has a boyfriend that stays regularly. The police are here and looking through things systematically without any real rush. The pack spy on them from the Umbra, and they're not turning up things like "meet John at construction site".
The pack give up and head back home. They crash asleep for a few hours - there's no Moot dream though. Because its midday? Because of Charlotte? Because they didn't do the revel? What's the secret?
("I wonder what 1870 german music was" "DU HAST MICH") They show up at the caern early evening and wander over to get their mopping assignment. They spot Melissa sparring with Ian who is defending. She is distracted by Will's presence, and so Ian punches her in the head as hard as he can. Melissa instantly frenzies, exploding into crinos. The parts of the pack that feel that Ian didn't just have this coming explode into action. ("the second you get into the umbra, you're like 'awwwwww' and into crinos. Its like taking your bra off")
Tillie grabs one of Melissa's arms, and Charlotte grabs the other. Kasumi continues to just eat her banana. Ian punches Melissa so hard that her neck snaps back to the sound of bones breaking. She changes back to homid, unconscious or dead. Tillie stares at Melissa and asks if that wasn't perhaps overdoing it, and Ian shrugs. Ian asks if Charlotte wants to do his job while he's away. Where's he going? Its a secret. Charlotte says sure? but looks confused. Sinead says she's not part of the sept. Oh yeah, sorry. "HEY WILL YOU CAN BE MASTER OF THE CHALLENGE... nope, he's dead"
Graeme gives them a run down and a map and some sponges. Tillie says its still irritating that they are doing this and not the Uktena. Graeme says to take Melissa and they explain that Ian got her dead. He says go and get her, and tell Ian not to give the new cub brain damage in the middle of her exams.
Off go the pack to clean up. After about an hour, the enchantment of Garou life is beginning to pale for Melissa. ("I gave up stiudy for this?") She is also avoiding Will/Charlotte. When she gets a chance to ask Sinead on their own, Melissa asks what's going on? Sinead explaisn that he's posessed by one of the spirits of his ancestors. No, it doesn't happen all the time. How are they going to fix it? Sinead isn't sure, but they are working on it.
Sinead spends some of the time cleaning telling Melissa about spirit things. She can see it starting to sink in that the whole werewolf thing is dangerous and disgusting.
Sinead triggers one of the talens, but its not quite as effective as she thinks it should be. The taint has pulled in from the edges of the affected space, but in the centre it seems to be being pulled from under the ground too. Sinead uses her gifts and can sense that there is something under there where the wyrm is concentrating for some reason. She says "ew" and mentally calls everyone else.
Charlotte checks the realm and finds that they are on a ridge of a small rise, but there only appears to be houses on a suburban street or small apartment buildings. In the Umbra the houses appear, but they are often all very similar, and of an older style. Weaver webbing is strong here, but not blocking the streets or anything.
Finn is keen to dig, everyone else thinks it'll be a fight. Tillie says they should first try and use a few sponges together and see if it can't bring whatever it is to the surface. The pack synchronise their use of the talens and activate them all. Sinead can feel that the goo under the ground is flowing around the thing under the ground (maybe 6' or 7' ). She moves back and forth a bit and says that there's two things, one above the other. Finn senses for unnatural and can feel a point source down there (some sort of entity) - its weaver-ish with a bit of wyrm and wyld. It feels... natural? Is it something that has glitched udner the ground? A spirit, definitely. Maybe something of the earth, not something buried. A rock spirit might match their senses.
The pack decide now is the time of digging. They hit rock at about 6' and as they uncover it, its clearly a rough human shape. Its sort of a golem shape. Its not carved, that's just how it is. Sinead thinks its sort of a basalt rock. The spirit is definitely in slumber. Finn peers at the ground and says that he thinks there's another one further under the ground. Maybe they should dig them up and wake them up? Lost Prophets start to dig deeper and another couple of feet further they start to uncover another one ("This is much better than sponging"). The dirt around it though is infused with The dragon muck, making it uncomfortable to clear off. A bit of sponging helps with that. When they uncover it, they find the elemental is a bigger, but a bit tainted as well which is worrying.
The pack decide to cleanse them and wake them to see if they have much to say. Sinead performs the ritually well and both elementals awaken quickly. Fiery glowing eyes open on the faces and they speak to the pack, slowly. Both spirits are pleased at having been rescued, and offer to help the pack deal with some of this terrible taint. The spirits do not know where the taint came from, and so Sinead gives them a rundown of events.
The spirits don't want to touch the tainted soil, but they are able to move the earth around in waves, and can drive all the tainted soil forward. They're not able to affect straight into the ground as much as they can make a wave of tainted soil wash into one spot, making it easier to cleanse.
Charlotte asks one of the elementals if it will trade her its name so she can call upon the spirit to help cleanse. It agrees if she will set aside a bite of every one of her meals for the spirit. Charlotte agrees.
Tillie and Kasumi are cleansing down an umbral alley when they spot a BMX bike. Wait. Tillie sniffs it - there's a smell of a ten year old boy, but not (as feared) the Full Moon Killer. There's no scents around the bike, its just on the seat. Wait, its a material bike - its not a spirit, its like someone dedicated it. Kasumi peeks and can see them in a right-of-way behind some houses. It looks residential? There's no bodies.
Kasumi circles out, trying to find the same scent. A couple of streets over she does pick it up, fresh. At the same time Finn senses the bike - there's nothing super natural about it. Kasumi says that the scent leads to a nearby primary school. Back the other way - it leads to a house about twice as far away from the school as the bike is. There's no people in the house. In the meantime the others are trying to find holes in the gauntlet. Maybe the incarna fight did weird things to the gauntlet?
Well, they have to keep humans out of the Umbra and spirits in the Umbra, but no one has ever said anything about a bmx, and once they've established that the owner wasn't on the bike when it got pulled into the Umbra, Tillie sort of loses interest. ("Its like someone else is masturbating you" "In that its like they can't get a rhythm right and yu can't feel what's going on, and you may as well go to sleep") Kasumi lets the sept know, on the grounds that its a bit weird, but there's nothing obviously terrible.
Lost Prophets head to Patricia's house in the early evening. While Sinead summons Dove to come and fulfil the deal, Kasumi peeks to make sure Patricia and her parents are home and not at, say, McDonalds. When Dove arrives, she is happy immediately act for the garou. Tillie flinches as Dove glows white, and peace and harmony flow out. ("She does not do the 'chicken tonight' dance")
At the appointed time, Patricia raises the topic of school again, tentatively. Dove's influence appears to be having a strong affect on her parents and even on Patricia herself. They discuss the topic in a reasoned fashion and no one goes on a screaming jag. It doesn't exactly go the way that Patricia was hoping for it to go - her parents don't automatically say "oh ok". The conversation goes for some time. Her parents go to some lengths to communicate why they want her to go to a better school and how its not her friends that are the issue. They ask why she wants to go to her friend's school and listen to the answer. In the end, they compromise on making time for - and spending some money on - her interactions with her friends. They'll put an effort in commeasurate to her strong needs. And they'll buy her an ok phone to talk to them too.
Just as everything seemed to be going so well, Patricia's dad asks "What... happened when you disappeared." Noooooooo say the pack. Patricia says she doesn't want to talk about it because they'll think she's crazy, but nothing bad happened. Her parents stare at her and say 'no' and say that she need to look at it from their point of view. She was away for 2 days and she's two inches taller. Finn peeks quickly and uses his Mindspeak gift on Patricia. He says that she shouldn't say anything, it'll be dangerous for them. Patricia jumps and looks around, looking like a crazy person to her parents. ("You're a teenager, just lie! It shouldn't be this hard" "If only someone hadn't just bombed the area with a spirit of open communication and empathy").
Patricia ums and ahs and says she doesn't remember all of it, but she's sure nothing bad happened. She's clearly trying to be reassuing. Her parents are not reassured. She looks down and then says "I want to show you something. Come outside in a minute" and she heads outside. Out loud she says "I'm not going to tell them about you, but I need to tell them something". Finn mentally says "don't show them anything magical" "I have to show them something, they're not going to believe me otherwise" "They won't believe you anyway" "Do you have a better idea?... right, now go away, I'm not going to tell them about you". Charlotte says "Do you want them to learn about fairies, Fianna?"
The pack try to think of something quickly that Finn can say. Kasumi is in favour of just "solving the problem". "Do you want tbe a lab rat? If you should them what you can do, they'll be testing you a lot. It'd be the best if you just deny everything" Patricia says she can't. ("Just tell them you always slouched").
Patricia goes t one of the trees she stepped through, and kicks off her shoes. Her parents come out and she just jumps up - not in a single leap, but she jumps high, uses her hands to send her self up further and lands smoothly on the top of the branch. They stare a bit open-mouthed. Patricia says "this is weird, I know" ("how much gnosis is it for a corpse") "but I can't tell you what else happened, other than nothing else happened, nothing bad, and I can do this now". ("All aboard the murder train?" "We can always murder later"). Her parents are a bit shocked still. Patricia jumps down and says "we should talk inside". She's stopped acting as much a whiny 13 year old, and more like she was in the fae realm - more confident, more together. "I can't tell you any more. All I can tell you is that it was ok". And she won't budge. Her parents don't call for a psych ambulance straight away (partly because of the Dove spirit) but say that they want to talk about it more later. The conversation goes around in a circles a bit and then Patricia says she needs some sleep. She goes to bed, and her parents talk a bit, including some worry about psychosis, but the physical evidence is a little overwhelming. They seem a bit cushioned by Dove and baffled.
Finn wants to use Dreamspeak on her parents - ideally going over the events again and making it less supernatural and more extremely unexpected. Kasumi wants to punch the fae right out of her hair. Finn heads home and settles into a night of dream reaping. He manages to get in the zone and find Patricia's mum's dreams, which are frankly a bit weird. She's clearly stil under the influence of the bird, and its affecting her dreams. Finn can't seem to get a hold on showing her things. He comes out, then tries for her dad instead.
This goes a bit differently. Her dad is already thinking about Patricia and the things she said and did. Stuff that he saw, and Finn's light hand on the controls are there and suddenly he experiences a wash of old memories from his grandmother, from Ireland, about the fair folk. It all comes back in a wash of associative memories that Patricia's dad had forgotten that he knew. Oh. Oh dear - this might be why Patricia took so easily to the fae realm, or indeed was able to cross over. Perhaps she is somehow fae'd in some fashion - there's certainly a torrent of stories in her father's mind. Is he going to think she's a changeling? Is he going to just accept it? Finn decides to stick to the plan and dull out the weirdness of Patricia's jumping still. ("She's been staying with carnys" "Its just a growth spurt")
The others have spent the night watching the parents in case they snap awake and murder Patricia.
Charlotte dreams.... She is back in South Australia after her arrival from the old country. All the nonsense that the Get packs were doing is going on, but without even the senior garou and their spirit knowledge to mediate them a bit. She can't move. She tries to tell them what they are doing is incorrect, but she feels like she's covered in oil, or honey, and its too heavy. She can hold still with only extreme effort of will. The packs start to fight amongst themselves and break up, going their own seperate way. Charlotte now feels submerged, pulled further away and ... undeR?
Its a galliard moon - Kasumi reminds people they have to sing the song of how they took Brenna to Erebus to the moon, as payment for the help from the lune. ("They probably want to know how we keep starting fires" "We didn't start the fire... it was always burning").
They check on Patricia - it seems like she's got up and gone to school and her parents have similarly got on with their mundane lives. ("Why is this ring so heavy?" "Its the weight of 'obligation'") ("Oh god i've lost it" "Mine" "Did you say 'line'?"). This sounds good?
So now, back to sponging.
Tillie and Finn are cleaning when Tillie stands up and finds herself tangled in weaver webbing. Its not like normal webbing though, its all clumped up in weird ways. They manage to get her out from it as its less sticky than actual spider web, and find that its very disordered. Sense unnatural suggests that there's a heavy wyrm taint in it suggesting that the spiders have been exposed to the goo and gone a bit yuck. They mentally tell people about it and the pack comes together to investigate.
They find more as they wander. It starts to increase in density. The sponges clean the taint off the weaver webbing, but doesn't fix it. ("SPONGE MY TAINT") As they try and find the nest/eggs/central source of horror, spiders erupt out of a larger clump in an area that hasn't been cleaned and attack. They are rusty and warped, and aren't moving with the normal clean and precise scuttle the Lost Prophets are used to. ("I think i'd rather have a rusty taint").
Finn grabs one of the spiders and lifts it off the ground and they play a game of chicken to see if Finn can pull it apart before it totally calcifies him. ("its spaffing him with web" " 'its in my racoon wound!'"). Tillie smashes spiders left and right, but the other three find themselves becoming drastically calcified while they fight against the weaver. ("Have a point of 'smug'"). Sinead activates her battle mandala gift to start eating away at the spiders' strength. Kasumi wins yahtzee. Finn finally destroys his opponent and starts throwing himself on the ground to knock the weaver webbing out of himself.
In the end the spiders are broken up and ruined, but Charlotte is totally calcified.
Despite a moment or two's hestitation, Charlotte is also beaten until she is free.
Later in the day, the pack practice their story for tonight's Galliard moon ("Finn's right - we get this out quickly, and we can all go to the pub").("I could imagine a bunch of werewolves at a karoke bar getting up and doing all these songs that are vaguely about the moon or wolves"). After about 30m of practice, Finn is just staring at them and says "maybe I should do this on my own". This seems like a plan to them, so off he goes.
In the meantime the others go and check out Patricia's house and see that she hasn't a) been taken by cultists or b) been admitted to a psych ward. Weirdly, things seem to be ok - Patricia is neither sparkly, nor levitating, but just seems to be reading. The atmosphere is not calm after the storm or silent treatment, but actually kind of relaxed. Too relaxed? No, that's just paranoid. ("yeah you were weirdly french" "I'm sorry it won't happen again")
To the pub! They decide to go to the Winchester ("have a pint, and wait for it all to blow over"). Over the mental link, after a couple of beers, the modern members of the pack decide this is a chance to try and call Will back. They proceed to get Charlotte - and themselves - fairly drunk over a few hours, and then Tillie says "lets go to the beach!". And by 'says', she means 'orders'.
The pack get public transport down to St Kilda beach, and drunkenly hang out on the shore, trying to encourage Will to come to the fore, and scaring away the locals. However, their lack of any real plan, and a lack of much surf at St Kilda beach seem to render the whole enterprise a bit unsuccessful.
Down to the last few segments of the surface to sort out, should be done today. Melisa continues to help, and complain about scrubbing, but not as much as Finn.
Underground. Its a mix of storm water tunnels, sewerage tunnels, natural spaces and imaginary tunnels. They're mostly a reflection of the old storm water tunnels that are not used any more, but sometimes they change from one to the other while moving about. Sometimes they have to go back, out and then down another access. So its less efficient and effective to divide the space up for cleaning. They are full of goop - its been running down whenever it rained.
Lost Prophets break up into pairs, but don't seperate too far apart in case it goes wrong. The earth elementals help them find spaces inside walls that they'd not notice otherwise. The pack has been sludging away for a few hours when Finn notices that there is a pretty large pool in front of him. As he watches, it ripples. He mentally lets everyone know that something is up when it forms up into a dragonet - a green dragon thing with wings instead of forearms. It hisses at him and he smashes it - it is disrupted easily, and the force of the blow sprays goo everywhere. ("ok i might have slightly over reacted"). He quickly sponges the pool. The others show up ("its the monster, get it!"), double check its ok and then go back to work
Kasumi and Charlotte start to find areas where some of the goo has been thinned out. It doesn't look like its been cleaned as its not as thorough as that, but a lot of the goop has been removed from the walls and floor. They try and figure out if there's a pit undernearth or spiders wandering warped, but no, nothing obvious comes leaps out at them.
They find a few of these patches over a few hours, and at one point the two garou come around a corner and find themselves near a man laying face down on the ground in a puddle, in Glabro form. He looks up and Kasumi swears loudly, as it is one of the Dancers she has met before in the alley in the CBD. Finn yells at Melissa to wait there and he joins the sprint toward the action.
("he was dick stipping!") Kasumi leaps on him and grabs an arm as he rolls to one side and half to his feet. The Dancer howls in high pitched and irritating way, and Kasumi is left with a deep uncertainty. Charlotte activates her trollskin gift while moving forward. The others are sprinting forward to catch up with the Dancer. The Dancer flips to crinos and starts to book it. Kasumi spends rage and shakes off the effects of the scary gift, and takes off after him, and catches up swiping at the dancer, and making him stumble a bit.
The Dancer dives through the gauntlet. The pack do the same, and miraculously (due to retcon) all take no time at all. The Dancer is still ahead, and it rips something from out of its jacket and throws it on the ground. A stone gargoyle erupts out of the ground, wings spread and mouth agape. ("ffffff. why does a dancer have the mage magic??") The rest of the pack erupts around a corner and starts heading for the Dancer and its new friend
Charlotte cannot keep up with Kasumi and the Dancer. Kasumi tries to grab him some more and slow him down for the pack to catch up. The Dancer bites at Kasumi but fails to get purchase in flesh.
Charlotte discovers that this materialised bane is actually made of stone. Kasumi is clawed by the gargoyle while she's hanging onto the Dancer and then the Dancer bites at her face more. Charlotte grabs the gargoyle and pivots, moving it away from Kasumi and into the path of the approaching Tillie.
Tillie smashes into the gargoyle. Finn uses his Call of the Wyld gift to inspire his pack and scare the pants off all the humans within 100m. Sinead leaps past Tillie and slams the gargoyle hard up against the wall. Gunfire rings out from further up the tunnell and Kasumi gets shot in the neck. ("Who brought a gun to a knife fight?" "Who'se got bullets in their ear hole?") She falls down, and loses her grip. The Dancer books it again. Charlotte takes off after him at high speed. The Dancer screams some horrifying wyrm word at her and she stumbles. Sinead is shot and shrugs it off. The gargoyle wiggles free slightly. Kasumi is conscious, and healing, but very slowly.
("Dicks and athletics is not a roll"). Finn comes up behind. Sinead is shot again ("OW") but doesn't lose her grip. Charlotte can see where the gunfire is coming from, in the direction that the Dancer is running. She moves to the center of the corridor and runs toward the shooter to try and stop other people getting shot. The gargoyle wiggles further but ends up getting itself pinned.
("Timeshare would work for me - every second week. Like a sad divorce child"). Tillie tells Sinead to stay with pinned gargoyle and everyone runs after the shooter and the dancer. Charlotte gets close enough to see the shooter is in glabro, and is thus also a Dancer. The two of them are at a t-intersection, and they go seperate direcitons. The Lost Prophets give chase - Finn and Kasumi follow the shooter and Charlotte and Tillie follow the one that was drinking goops. ("I think this is the right thing to do, but bear in mind I'm a Get of Fenris - chasing Black Spiral Dancers through dark unknown tunnels is just what I do")
The shooter is faster than the pack and gains on them as they run. The garou can see them in flashes of light filtering down from above - they seem to have patchy fur and lumpy skin. Kasumi tries to get a scent, but is so covered in her blood that its overwhelmed. They skid to a halt, and leap up a ladder, smash a metal cover back and off and head out into the sunlight. The gaians flip to homid - aware of the Veil - and head up the ladder. ("Maybe you should choose a colour that doesn't show stains as much as white" "And my brown trousers")
As Finn's emerges from the manhole, he is shot. He looks around and gets shot again in his elbow, and bits of bone shatter off. He leaps out and into some cover - they are in an alley, probably behind some shops. Kasumi comes out behind him and is shot again, possibly in the same hole, and takes no damage.
Kasumi flips to crinos, hoping that no one is watching the direction of the gunfire, and sprints at the Dancer, slicing him with claws. Finn flips to crinos and nearly frenzies. The Dancer also blows to crinos and power smashes Kasumi with claws. She is badly injured, and blood sprays everywhere. Finn sprints down the alley and slams into the Dancer, knocking it backward and onto the street.
Meanwhile, Charlotte and Tillie are chasing the original Dancer. They are gaining slightly on him as he runs. He reaches a ladder, shifts instantly to glabro and jumps up the it. Charlotte reaches the ladder bottom before he's opened the cover at the top. Charlotte leaps and grabs his foot, but gets a shoe instead, precariously hanging. She leaps up while the Dancer screams in her face. Tillie leaps up and claws across his stomach for being annoying, and blood spatters down. Despite this gaping wound, he stamps on Charlotte's face, and she lets go. Tillie leaps again, and this time entrails spill out and muscle tissue tears away. Despite this serious mauling, the Dancer climbs out the top of the drain access. Tillie thinks that nothing she's injured like that should be moving - he's probably using gifts.
Back at Finn & Kasumi - as the Dancer gets up, there is a screech of brakes from a car that had been travelling along. Finn realises that he, and the Dancer he crashed into are out on a public road. Kasumi tries to hide herself with her Blur of the Milky Eye gift to try and protect the Veil, but she's too injured. Finn evaluates the situation and opts to protect both the Veil and his fallen packmember. He backs off cautiously, trying to indicate he's disengaging to the Dancer. He also howls for help using his Howl of the Unseen gift, calling to the other garou in the Umbra. The Dancer takes him up on this, and heads down the road - screams and screeching brakes indicate his path.
Tillie opts for the non-immediate Veil breech option of glabro and climbs up the ladder - she slips and slides on the various fluids spattered all over it. Charlotte changes down to glabro. There is a whistle from above and the ladder fizzes under Tillie's hands. The metal rusts away in seconds while she's hanging on it. Tillie leaps and grabs one of the supports wedged into the concrete, precariously gripping on. Charlotte toys with running back to a ladder or going to one in the Umbra, but both of those could take some time. Tillie clambours up and manages to get up to her waist. She looks around and sees that she's just outside the Preston Market - some people are pointing at her, but there are more people pointing and yelling at the glabro running away holding his guts in.
Charlotte starts climbing. Tillie changes back to homid, hoping that being face down as she climbs up hides enough of the glabroness. She takes off after the Dancer.
The Dancer is attracting enough attention, with his huge heigh and flapping meat that no one is really looking at Tillie. People are not getting out of his way as much as they might because they freeze in place uncertainly.
Charlotte reaches the top of the access by clinging to the stumps of ladder sticking out of the wall. As she hits the top, she slumps back to homid and pulls herself out.
Finn drags Kasumi back into the access hole and kind of drops her down there. He follows and starts dragging her to Sinead to help with the gargoyle.
Tillie spots another garou coming her way, in hispo form, on an intercept course. Figuring she can't take on two Dancers in homid, she veers away from pursuit and dives behind some bins, activating her Chamelon gift to vanish.
Behind Charlotte she hears the sound of an approaching vehicle - glancing behind she sees a car careering along and striking some pedestrians. She moves rapidly out of the way into the market side, and glances around looking for a way to launch herself onto the car.
Tillie leaps up onto the loading dock next to her and tries to cut through the shop as quietly as possible. The last thing she sees outside is the hispo that was aiming at her stopping and sniffing around where she vanished.
Charlotte is getting ready to start leaping on the car as it goes past when the Dancer driving it fires at her on the way past, and hits her amidships. ("I value this game's education") Despite the gut shut she still manages to do a running leap onto the top of the car, but its not a terribly effective landing, so she's half hanging off while it drives.
Tillie runs along jumping over bins of tracksuit pants and dodging around racks of underpants.
The driving Dancer crashes into the side of the market gear and Charlotte is knocked flying, cushioned from her fall by knockoff minecraft gear and people. The car loses most of its forward momentum, but doesn't come to a grinding halt.
Tillie sees a disturbance behind her and sees the hispo charging forward through the shop. She opts to show some discretion and jumps into the Umbra, stepping through the calm gauntlet.
Charlotte pulls out her tomahawk and runs up to the rear tire, and slams it in. The force of the deflating tire doesn't quite wrench it out of her hands. The Dancer slams the car into reverse and hits Charlotte, but she's just knocked aside ("youre hit with a Honda - take 1"). ("Conundrum, which part of the Litany is more important.") Charlotte lunges into the window and grabs the Dancer around the neck, trying to haul him out of the car.
Tillie bamfs into the Umbra. She tries to look back into the Realm and see what's happening, but isn't really able to center herself.
The Dancer in the car reaches up to the rear vision mirror, and glances into the reflection, then vanishes. Charlotte considers her options and runs for it. She sprints out from the carpark and into the hotel over the road, and barges into the toilets.
Tillie moves around in the Umbra, trying to see if she can spot the hispo coming in, or other dancers or other garou coming to help. There's spirit activity galore but not obvious garou sign.
("stop pooping out your mouth" "What" "Stop saaying 'what'!" "There's no 'what'! There's just a clear cut instruction that makes perfect sense.!" "you're like 'what what, don't tell me what to do! If I want to poop out my mouth I can!'" )
There's no sign of more dancers in the next two minutes, which is about when the Get of Penington show up. Finn finally arrives to help Sinead smash the gargoyle to pieces and then Sinead heals Kasumi.
Over the next hour, the various Gaian garou chase leads. The scents of the Dancers are followed, but they are lost in a variety of ways - one probably gets on a tram, one just disappears, one turns into a stagnant water smell, which then just vanishes on the street. They don't appear in the Umbra shortly after that, so the Dancer's didn't step.
In the mortal realm, police and news people fill the entire area, trying to get a sense of what was going on. This makes the realm hard to trace anything in shortly. Tillie does get a sample of the blood from the injured Dancers before the police head down there.
The pack is sent back eventually to tell Cossack, Graeme and Emma what happened. None of the Elders are displeased by the pack's actions, though they suggest that splitting up wasn't the best plan. Finn is particularly commended for opting to disengage the Dancer rather than continuing the fight in the street. Charlotte is cautioned that she was cutting it fine. Cossack is happy they have some scents, and wonders if they can make anything out of nearby cctv.
It does make the patches that were cleaned a bit exciting - it was probably the Dancers. He says they won't be sending Melissa down there again, and everyone else should not take it casually - stay together a bit more, even though it will be slower.
Tillie says that she doesn't think they'll see them again. Cossack says that it was interesting that they ran for it - they ran out into human areas to try and shake the pack, presumably. Also, why on earth did they have a gargoyle ball? It suggests a more equitable relationship between the dancers and the mages than they had been working with. Or they stole it. Kasumi asks Emma to check that she still has her balls, which she goes off to do, and then confirms on return.
The pack try and work out some of the motivations for the Dancers - working with the mages to destroy the bunyip or uncover megawyrm beasts?
Tillie asks about the Jindabyne Council and more specifically what would happen if the pack gave them a two fingered salute and did what they want. Cossack considers it and says that the Council, as ineffectual as it might seem, provides a framework for some level of stable interaction between septs and tribes. If the Lost Prophets were to disregard it, then Cossack has a choice to either chastise them, or accept that the Council would probably no longer be willing to extend its influence to the Sleeping Lore sept. Additionally, if he let them blow off the council, then Hidden Green, and also the Bone Gnawer council member would need to decide whether they take steps to punish the lack of punishment, or accept it. And then.. it might all come apart. It might be then that another sept would decide that Sleeping Lore's elders weren't taking care of the caern, and that the right thing would be to attack it off them.
So what about Charlotte's suggestion about challenging? Cossack has been considering it and thinks it has potential. Challenging formally isn't the same as "no, fuck *you*" and walking away at all - its staying within the laws and traditions of the Garou, and acknowledging that the Council has the responsibility for the bunyip. Effectively it is saying "well, we will prove we are adults enough to handle this". Ideally,this wouldn't have happened until all the pack members had been recognised as Adren first, but here they are - they are in a position to challenge for rank 3. They are not beginners any more.
Cossack says that if they decide to issue the challenge, they do it politely and respectfully. He doesn't break eye contact with Tillie. He's hoping that if they do it, then although it might depend who has influence at the time, the Council would set an appropriate chalenge - testing the pack's ability to handle these matters in a wise and honourable way. They might get unlucky and hit a time when the Council is more under the sway of those who want to disband the pack. It seems more likely that they would be more firmly, er, leashed.
Charlotte suggests maybe they could word up a sympathetic ear that they were intending this - surely not all the Council hate them? Its not unreasonable - people don't really love challenges as surprises, and they have no reason to catch the Council unaware. Maybe Don Mephisto? Or Wungala Rose, who seemed friendly enough just before the Moot? Darius perhaps. Maybe they could check with the Ngalyod pack - Fujiku came and talked to them post Sydney, maybe she'll be interested in being talked to about this too.
The mortal news that night is avidly watched. It is full of wild speculation about biker gangs on meth! With trained big dogs! Selling meth to dogs! Police are refusing to speculate on what the bikers might want! Drug deal gone wrong [faint question mark]. The gunfire underground and sounds of dogs fighting. Maybe GANGs are using TUNNELs to SHIP DRUGs. There was noise and people emerged from the sewers and there was lots of blood there. Clearly the dogs are being fed meth! Which does suggest now they'll get humans down the realm tunnels as well. At least no one is blaming it on carnyfolk and pet bears. There's no firm descriptions of anyone in the pack. There's a little bit of photo and video evidence from phones, but its just the car, and maybe Tillie running away. And reports of a big black guy like a basketballer.
Most of the pack decide to get their heads down and/or wait for the moon. Finn goes out to the pub, and Charlotte opts to head out with him. While they are drinking, Charlotte brings up the topic of the fae, and how the Bunyip interacted with them. She would like to learn more about the Australian fae. Finn says that the ones he knows mostly have their roots in Ireland, and he's not sure too much about the Australian ones. Bartholomew Wise-in-the-Ways-of-the-Wyrm said that it was hard to distinguish them from spirits in the stories that the garou know about the Bunyip. Charlotte points out that without having some understanding of the nature of Fae creatures, there's no way the Bunyip tribe could have trapped the Elder Fae. She suggests perhaps they could go to Scars Atoning and ask people there? Finn has been there a lot, looking at cataloging the cave paintings - it doesn't seem unreasonable to take some time out there. Charlotte is keen too. ("I had assumed this was a coup")
Finn and Charlotte organise to go out to Scars Atoning early in the day, leaving the other three to mop up some more. Ends-the-Quiet is happy to open a Moonbridge for their goal, and they arrive in short order in the cavern of the Fianna caern.
Marches-the-High-Road greets Finn, and 'Will' but Charlotte does a formal introduction, confusing the Fianna Elder. He asks Finn if he's willing to vouch for Charlotte. Yyyyyes. He explains why they are here - given the Bunyip's skill in imprisoning the Elder Fae, they must have had experience with other Fae. Marches-the-High-Road says that there seems to be the same situation here as in other areas of the world, where the Fae retreated to Arcadia proper, and there are not many left in the mortal world. There are some stories, and some encounters that the garou have had over the last two hundred years that were with fae. That suggests that yes, there were fae here for some time - picking out what, from their limited knowledge of bunyip lore - was fae or spirits or just plain weird is a little hard.
Charlotte asks whether those that have been left, or any of those in Arcadia gateway might know what was going on in Australia prior to the War of Tears. Marches-the-High-Road says probably.. but the ones they have spoken to have mostly been low fae, and either unable or unwilling to convey anything along those lines. There have been others at particular times, but they've mostly been unhelpful, or straight out hostile. Also Arcadia gateway is a specific place - its very much a place that comes from homid Europe. There's other places that might be accessible still outside Arcadia Veritas, but no Fianna have been able to find them yet.
Finn asks if he can tell the whole tale. The Elders agree but suggest that going out to the outside world is a better place. So they go along the tunnels for 30 minutes. Charlotte hasn't seen any of this before - all the paintings along the way. She is examining the walls when she is struck by a sudden vision/memory - she is entering another cave, carrying an oil lantern. Its not basalt like this one, but a light coloured limestone. There is a short entrance way sloping down steeply leading to a chamber. All over the floor, small (1m by 50cm ish) ellipses have been marked out by dirt walls maybe 10cm high. In each of them are large bones marked with ochre. In some of them are other small objects or pieces of objects. Light glints off the walls. Not all the bones are human - a couple are thylacine bones, judging by the skulls. It is hard to tell how old they are, but they don't feel old - the scents are not of ancient bones but they are not fresh. There's no smell of scavengers though, which is odd. This is not the normal disposal of bodies she knows local indigenous people engage in.
Outside of Charlotte's head, Finn hears the weird coughing bark of bunyip somewhere in the caves. They bark twice and stop. Marches-the-High-Road hears it too and holds still trying to hear where from. Finn answers it with his own howl, getting a sour glance from Marches-the-High-Road. The Elder says that that's happened before when something significant has happened. Charlotte comes back to herself right at that point and says she had a vision connected to the bunyip and says she has no context, but here is the vision.
Footsteps ahead resolve into Jane Redfeather, who says she came looking for the bunyip noises (and doesn't look shocked to see members of Lost Prophets here). The Charlotte situation is explained to her as well, and her body language changes. (" ' I'm charlotte and I'm really annoying and i'm from a thousand years ago' " "Not a thousand" "i like that that's the bit you disagree with"). She expresses some concern about the situation, suggesting that this sort of posession can draw attention from other spirits who might try the same thing on. Not all of them are benevolent. Jane suggests Charlotte moves on as quickly as possible - why is she here.
Charlotte says that the garou of her time were foolish. It was clear that the Bunyip were doing something other than fighting back. And no one was interested in finding out why, though they should have been - there was something they were doing that was more important than defending themselves, and the garou need to know what that was. Jane asks what Charlotte does know right now? Marches-the-High-Road wants to have the discussion out of the caves, and suggests Charlotte collects her thoughts on the way.
Outside the caves, there is a space where the Garou clearly gather - some logs have been dragged up to make seats around a fireplace. Green-Choking-Grey are there and greet Finn and Will, and the story is related again. Finn launches into the whole story of Nlaloonjurrie from when she showed up at their door right through the dropping Brenna at Erebus. It takes a few hours, and Finn does a fairly impressive job ("I'll leave out stuff like Tillie being stuck in a hole" "And your treachery"). He doesn't think any of the broad strokes were a surprise to the audience, but some of the details might have been. At the end, Ian van der Leuuw asks if Finn is telling them that Marianna turned him into a garou? Finn says it wasn't really clear, but he feels that she triggered the potential in him. Obviously he's not keen to ask her for details. Ian gives him the eye a bit.
Aaaand thus they are here, to talk about native Fae. And not the Bunyip. At all. Marches-the-High-Road says that the ones he's heard of include the Mimi, who are clearly fae. But there have been other individual entities like Nogomain, who was said to give spirit children to mortal parents with no children. Thinin-malkia who has nets on the end of its feet, captures people and eats them. Yama-ma- .. something. He doesn't remember the exact name. Its a type of lower fae that some Fianna in Victoria dealt with - its a like a large frog thing with a human face. It drops out of trees to attack people, swallows them, then regurgitates them back out except smaller. Repeat. There's some sprite things that live in gumtrees that drip water on people. They seem to collect dew in gumnuts and then drip it on people who walk underneath the tree.
There's one other, which isn't a fae, but is an entity that is often connected to the fae. Its associated with dawn and dusk, and with things like the above. Its Kookaburra, who is the totem of Rippling Waters. He's a bit like Stag in that he's not a fae but he does seem to interact with them a lot. Maybe they could go visit?
Other news is swapped about stuff going on at either Septs. Dancers and their rolling fight against them yesterday. Scars Atoning has had some issues with spreading urbanisation from Ballarat. Eventually Jane re-raises the topic of what Charlotte thinks the Bunyip were doing. ("we'll cracking stone your brain" "You mean hit her in the head with a rock?"). Charlotte says she'd happily exchange information, but the Council has banned the pack from Bunyip investigation - these questions about the fae about as close she feels they can honourably come. Then why is Charlotte lingering if she's unable to achieve her goals? She says they are going to challenge the Council for the right to investigate. The Scars Atoning garou stare for a moment then realise she's serious. Oh.
Charlotte and Finn go through the tunnels and Finn relates stuff about the pictures in the tunnels they've been able to detemine. Some series of pictures are related, others seem stand alone. Some of them definitely involve spirits. There's some about Jirrawan. Some of them are just geometric patterns. The garou have a lack of context that might help unify them all together, but its possible its just the record of the Sept that presumably was here. None of it seems to ring any bells to Charlotte - she gets the feeling that they are pretty old though, like well pre-contact. There's no images of dingos, and many of the animals seem to be megafauna. The landscape is all like it is in the Umbra, or its really old. The two of them spend more time than they intended wandering about and checking out the images, so its actually quite late before they make it back to the centre of the caern and get Moonbridged back.
The other pack members are at home, having given up cleaning for the day. They swap info and dark looks about Finn and Charlotte skipping out on cleaning.
Will is in a strange place. He is having trouble conceptualising it properly. He can't see exactly, but he is getting some sense of distance and space and direction. Its weird, its big and its strange - even to someone who has gone from being a normal person to being able to see and taste spirits and smell like a wolf, this is a strange transition of perception.
He can sense two networks of spaces that lead.. up. They start with many sections of network and decrease as it goes up into a less complicated structure. They are intertwined but not the same. He can move along the network, and as he moves, he can feel that there's someone else. They are on the 'other' network. Both networks converge up toward the top. ("let the record show that Andrew is doing his best sperm impression".) Will starts to head up. He has a sudden experience of the mundane world. He's standing in a creek, looking at an aboriginal guy kneeling down in a destroyed campsite, with blood and gore everywhere. There's a mountain in the background - he recognises it as Wolfang in Queensland where they met the Lightning Man. The aboriginal man is screaming and then lightning hits the mountain and continues to arc down from the sky for some time.
The network reasserts itself. The other person is lower down than he, and moving erratically. Will attemps to move toward the other person slowly to try and figure out who they are. He slows at a spot where the two networks touch and suddenly is whisked away. He is in a swamp, facing an aboriginal man who is injured. He is also injured - and he also appears to be female... Charlotte? In one hand is a familiar axe, so that suggests yes he is indeed in Charlotte's memory. The wounds she has taken are more like spirit wounds - much like the man in front of him. She says "three questions". He nods. It feels like perhaps they have been fighting together, rather than with one another. "Bunyip?" In Garou tongue he says "Not Bunyip. Gumagan." "Totem" "I'wai" She looks blank and he makes a sort of jaws impression that makes him look like a crocodile. "Where are the fallen?" He laughs and says "Alcheringa"
He snaps back. The other person is Charlotte. She is heading upward. Oh dear. Will heads up as fast as he can. He can see that she is trying to dodge into the spots where these memories come from as well. Will remembers that Charlotte has said that her memories are fractured, she might be trying to collect as many as possible. He is going higher than she is, and her behaviour changes to be racing him toward the top of the network. Will finds that he hits his own memories as well, sometimes garou related, soemtimes not. But he seems to spend less time lost in them than Charlotte does. Will tries to collect a couple more while Charlotte is lagging behind him on the race.
At a point where the networks touch, he finds himself in another vision. He is standing at the disputed caern near Lake Eyre, in front of the Umbra centre of the caern, the giant gum tree. The caern spirit is manifest inside the tree. Charlotte offers 100 years of her descendant's garou heritage, just to demonstrate her sincerity to the spirit. There is a strange echo when she talks, and Will is not precisely seeing things from straight on perspective. It reminds him of the sense he had when Charlotte approached him in the Arcadia gateway, and he suspects she is riding another Garou at this point. The spirit accepts her offer, and leans forward out of the tree and touches Charlotte - Charlotte is shattered, and fragments of her memories and awareness are scattered as if someone had thrown safety glass down onto the ground.
Will returns and finds Charlotte is higher than he now. He moves rapidly to gain height while trying to look for nearby memories to experience. He experiences one of two of his own memories and then another of Charlotte's. He is at a campsite, occupied by aboriginal people. It does not seem like a permanent site. She is speaking to them in their own tongue, but Will is able to understand. She asks about the wirrenun, a word that he does not know, but thinks he has heard before. The older man she is speaking to says that no wirrenun have been born for 3 generations - they wait for them to return and rid them of the white fellas.
("There's no such thing as bunyip, they were all fae all the time. That's how they knew how to control the Elder Fae. They were just playing tricks on us" "And it all got out of hand. Maybe we murdered them, or they tricked us into thinking we murdered them. Lots of fae renown for them - tricked a bunch of people into thinking they'd committed genocide. " "You must have felt like idiots!" "How we laughed. ha hahahaha. " "Dicks. Trying to justify their behaviour" "I've collected so much pathos from these idiots. Turns out its easier to make someone think they've done something bad than to actually make them do something bad").
Will finds Charlotte and he appear to be neck and neck. He contemplates trying to collect as many memories as he can but the possibility of Charlotte making it to the top of the network before him - which she seems to be trying to do, and therefore that suggests it would be bad - prompts him to head up as fast as possible instead. He reaches a certain point and the perspective shifts - everything spins around and he is climbing down instead of climbing up, and the network appears to be a tree, leading to the trunk. He is being pulled downward now, where previously he had to put effort into rising. Charlotte is not far behind, and he loses his grip and falls.
Earlier....
While Finn distracts Charlotte, Tillie, Sinead and Kasumi enact their plan to try and get rid of Charlotte. They spoke to their pack totem days earlier, and he told them they needed to bring Charlotte to the edge of his realm - ie death. They considered a few options, and decided in the end to ask a strong Spider Jaggling to bite and poison Will so that his physical body is brought to the point of death. Considering the spider's association with creativity, they offer to Madam Spider that each of the pack will learn a skill in her name - Tillie will cook, Finn will brew, Sinead will learn belly dancing, Kasumi will learn how to make ribbon pictures of spiders on chainlink fence, and Will will learn how to scrimshaw. The spider accepts, and is bound into a hand woven blanket.
To ensure that Charlotte did not wake up and change form, allowing her to throw off the poison, the pack also summon a spirit of deep sleep, and in return for a gift of essence, bind it into a pillow.
That night, once Charlotte is asleep, they activate the sleep talen and then the spider talen. Will's body convulses slightly and gurgles and then is still. They check in a minute or two and find he has no heartbeat and does not appear to be breathing.
Now read on....
("The original plan might have involved some blunt force trauma"). The pack summon Boobook. Their totem says that Charlotte's spirit has been removed, but Will's spirit has not yet returned. The pack wait and see.
At dawn, there is a subtle shift in the corpse. There's still no breathing or heart beat, but something about it changed. ("Ah no, its rigour mortis"). ("how much of a renown loss is killing your packmate? .. I probbly should have asked before doing this"). Figuring it doesn't matter at this point if its Will or Charlotte, Sinead uses her gifts to speed the body's healing.
An hour later than all hear a weird noise. Oh its Will's heart. An hour or two late he starts moving about and then coughing. What's that fucking taste. There's a gurgling sound when he breathes in. Will gets conscious enough to change to glabro and starts to heal much faster, then sits up and coughs out an astonishing amount of goopy, bloody yuck. He feels a surge of rage, but manages to keep it undercontrol. ("What the fuck is scrimshawing! I'M NOT DRAGGING AROUND ONE OF THOSE CARTS!" "That's rickshawing" "you could scrimshaw a rickshaw on the sea shore?"). It definitely seems to be Will, as they can hear him on the pack link too.
Will can recall... much... of what Charlotte did, but the stuff earlier is less vivid, and more like remembering what someone else did while he was in the room and not paying full attention. ("if i'd realised that this was the last session of charlotte, i would have broken out the german accent really hard")
("Moo kids, feed me some hay!") (" ''That word's only for grownups. '' ''Mummy you have to share!'' ") ("I wouldn't have died, you'd have had to breathe for me" "you'd have died")
The day is spent catch Will up, and catching up with Will, and generally recovering. The Sept is informed that Will is Will again. Will meditates at the caern to rejeuvenate his gnosis, and calls upon his mouse spirit ally to take a message to Fujiko.Fujiko of Ngalyod pack, I bring a message from Tillie Kennedy of Sleeping Lore.
At our upcoming audience with the council we intend to challenge for the right to investigate the Bunyip. We respect the council's decision and their reasoning, however we have found it difficult to balance their wishes against our other obligations.
We are telling you first as you have in the past given us useful advice regarding the council. If you have any more of that it would be greatly appreciated.
Finn gets some information about Brenna off Matilda - her mum's name, and that she was in an all-Fury sept.
Finn composes a letter to send to Wungala Rose as the representative of the Black Furies.
About Sundown a moonbridge opens. Shortly afterward, Ends-the-Quiet appears with the Ngalyod pack. Fujiko says that the Council has requested their presence at a special meeting. Both packs head back along Moonbridge to Crackenback. Fujoki says nothing about the message they sent - Will tries to ask obliquely by asking if his messenger arrived and she says yes but does not elucidate further. When they arrive on the mountain, Fujiko says that they must attend the Council, and Lost Prophets will be called upon soon. In the meantime, she introduces one of the waiting garou as Lady Catherine Hope, the Gatekeeper of the Sept. This individual is tall and blond, in homid form and wearing a silvery fur. She rather distantly asks them to follow her and leads them to cabins.
A few hours pass before they hear someone approaching, and then a knock onthe door. Alex Sees-for-Miles says the council is ready for them, and leads the Lost Prophets to the council area. As before, the council sit at a horseshoe table, except for Mamu who appears to have thrown his chair up the hill, and lounges in hispo form. An empty seat remains for the Bunyip. The Council is fully in attendance - Inanna is here as the Children of Gaia member, rather than the new alternative member, Diem. Will tries to get a sense of the lay of the land - he has time to check out Wungala Rose (attentative, neutral, but being held that way), Carla (genuinely neutral) and Darius (having a bad day). Mother Pasta is giving them to stink eye a bit. Inanna and Grek also seem a bit like their day is not going well.
Don Mephisto stands to address the pack, and asks for them to give account of their experience with the Elder Fae - individual councillors have heard some of the tale, but it would be helpful to hear it from their own mouths. Tilly defers to Finn to explain, and he proceeds to smash the presentation out of the park. Some of the council look surprised by some of the details. Fingal looks amused by the whole recount. Tjinderi seems unsurprised.
When the story is finished, Vlad takes the floor. "This account reinforces the council's decision on this matter. Seeing as how the pack cannot be relied upon to not involve themselves in bunyip matters, the Council will appoint an observer of their own choosing to watch over the pack and report." ("fucking really?... out of character"). Tilly waits until their is a pause and then says "we have a counter proposal. While I understand the basis behind the decision, the bunyip find us whether we are searching for them or not. And it is impractical to expect us to stop and allow veil breaches and other people to be put in danger in order to ask permission every time. We propose that we commit to notifing the council whenever bunyip matters come up." Vlad replies "That clearly has not been happening in the current situation. How many days passed between finding the cave and informing us?" "We did make an oversight there. But we are challenging for the right to investigate this"
The pack keep an eye on the council's reaction. Grek, Darius and Tjinderi are not surprised. Inanna, surprised. Fingal, amused. Vlad is a bit taken aback. Don Mephisto is hard to read. Grek stands up and steals focus from Vlad - "exactly what are you challenging for?" "For the right to function as a pack in our own right, and to investigate things as we see fit" Grek glances around and asks if anyone has cause to reject the challenge? Mother Pasta says they are not competant enough to be given the responsibility - Grek calmly suggests that is the point of the challenge, to determine that. Lost Prophets are nearing Adren rank, and it is not inappropriate to be given a task such as this. Grek says that they accept the challenge, but they will need time to determine an appropiate response. Vlad snorts derisively and the pack judge that he thinks there's been a setup. The Lost Prophets will remain here, guests of the Crackenback sept until the Council make sa decision.
("We should go with malicious compliance. [...] Demand to speak to Darius on the order of Darius. ''I just want to know if I can google 'bunyip'''" "Its only tangentially related, but I didn't want to fuck up - can I eat this yowie?" "I've got to go to a friends party but its in Bunyip... is *that* ok?") ("It sounds like a razor - 'lady hope'." "They're always called something stupid, like 'venus'" "Yes, its 600C and 400 atmospheres, that's how it burns the hair away")
Dawn. Fujiko knocks at the door and says the Council has come to a decision and their presence is required. Despite the pack's shared mental image of the process, there's no hidden stash of chinese food under the table.
Grek seems to have the floor again. As the arm of the Council, the Lost Prophets will be opposed by the Ngalyod pack. The challenge will befit the issue at hand; the maturity of their pack. ("oh we're so failed"). And so the challenge will reflect that - its in 4 parts. ("Taaaaint. Oh fuck"). You must show how you hunt like a pack, fight like a pack, live like a pack and die like a pack. Both packs will compete, and the spirits and Council members will judge. A certain amount of competance is expected, so it will be more who does better than who manages to succeed or fail.
The first test is hunt like a pack, and Wungala, Mamu and Fingal take them down the side of the mountain to the river valley below. At the bottom, a few ritemasters are finishing summoning. A large white, almost glowing, stag appears. Fingal says "Will you be our quarry for this hunt?" and the spirit nods. It takes off, but the Elders indicate they should wait. The pack quickly have a planning meeting, and change to lupus and lay out a basic plan. The landscape is steep and rolling, so they opt to spread out and try to get the fastest pack members to drive it back into the arms of the sneakiest pack members.
The pack start in a group. The stag has hit some water not far along, and they cast about trying to find the scent. Kasumi finds the scent where the spirit has not passed across, but come back out the same side and kept going. The pack take off again - they appear to be slightly faster than the spirit and gain slowly. As they get closer, they split up and attempt to be stealthy. Sinead starts going up the hill, but discovers that it slows her down a lot, and so Lost Prophets revise their plan to get someone faster to go up that way. Will goes instead and makes noise, hoping to turn the stag back around up the slope on the far side and slow it down.
The stag's scent veers back up away from Will and back toward the rest of the pack. Finn gets a brief waft of stag scent before large stag comes right at his face. Kasumi blows into crinos and goes to grab the stag as it goes past her, but it dodges and rams all of Finn's major organs.
Kasumi leaps onto the stag but slips off it. The stag leaps... abnormally far, landing 30 feet away and continuing to run. The pack adjust their mental plan. Finn and Kasumi wait until Finn's organs are working again and take off. Finn tries to go past it and force the stag back toward the rest of the pack. Because of how they are spread out, they sort of start spiralling around, forcing the stag into rtighter and tighter turns. Will gets to it first, with most of the rest of the pack behind - he fakes the stag out and it veers the wrong way ("Manipulation and Athletics"). Sinead, Kasumi and Tillie hit the stag right afterward and in short order. Finn howls their pack's victory and then performs his hunting rite in thanks to the fallen stag.
The Elders arrive in short order. Fingal kneels and thanks the spirit, and it stands up renewed, and leaps into the sky. The pack find that their gnosis has been renewed. A distance away, they hear other howling - presumbly the Ngalyod pack. The Elders tell to them to return to the cabins and wait for the next challenge. ("I have this vision of Tillie slowly dropping off and *boom* crinos" "Like one of those mattresses") ("I don't know why she snorted the fly - perhaps she's high")
The pack are summonsed up to another mountain after lunch. At the top of the mountain, above the tree line, Darius, Carla and Vlad are waiting for the pack, as well as a couple of the Silver Fangs summoning. Carla reminds them that the challenge is to shwo how you fight like a pack. Lost Prophets shift to crinos and prepare for a fight. A huge lion spirit materialises. ("Jesus christ its a lion, get in the car") Carla asks if it will help them this day, and it roars assent. The other garou step back and leave things for Lost Prophets.
Will and Tillie sharpen claws, Finn howls a supportive howl for the pack and Sinead uses her spirit snare gift. The lion in return roars loadly, shaking the pack somewhat. The lion leaps at Tillie, but she dodges somewhat, only being lightly pawed. She claws it back in return, but finds that it seems to be protected by a golden glow. Finn runs to a back leg and attempts to grapple. Will tries the other flank. Sinead triggers her battle mandala gift, working against the spirit's gnosis. Kasumi heads around and grabs another back leg. None of the grappling garou have managed a pin against the strong spirit, but they are slowing it down. Lion shakes its limbs hard to try and shake the garou off - it does not lose them entirely, but it does loosen their grip.
Claws and teeth fly. Sinead leaps in to grapple too. Finn and Kasumi try and bite while holding onto limbs. Will and Tillie smash away at the spirit with claws to try and weaken it. The lion throws off its grapplers again and bites at other members of the pack. Sinead suffers from lion claw disease but turns out to be immune.
The pack feel like they are making headway when suddenly the lion disappears. They peek and find that there's now a lion on top of a mountain near Kosicuscko. The pack leap after it and appear as quicky. ("Let the meat shields go first" "Pack leader, meat shield, fine line"). The pack continues with the same grapple and claw plan, while the lion tries to bite them hard. It seems to struggle more in the Realm than in the Umbra, right up to the point where it bites the front of Will's face and upper body off. And then Will frenzies, in a ghastly horror with no muzzle. Tillie says "oh fuck this" and smashes the Lion to pieces, causing it to break up and return to the Umbra. Will uses his pitiful amount of control to not kill the other large targets in his limited field of view, and the rest of the pack leap on him to try and get things under control. After a time Will passes out.
The pack head back to the cabins and flake out for a bit. Will wakes late int he afternoon and people explain what happened. At dusk, Silver Fangs show up with food and light a fire. As the pack are eating, Inanna, Mother Pasta and Don Mephisto arrive. Inanna arrives and asks "What have you done that exemplifies how you live like a pack?" The Lost Prophets aren't exactly sure what she means, and Kasumi tentatively offers that they have to learn a craft. Inanna says that is spirit chiminage - how do they live as a pack, rather than how to they manage their garou obligations. Tillie says that they live together - well, in two households, but its still togetherish. Will asks if she means how they live their lives and Inanna says yes. "We do everything together, more or less". They start to talk about how they help one another, and how they go to things to support one another. Even in doing chiminage, often someone will help just because. Watching the Elders, the pack think that they want to know what things they've done are important to them.
Lost Prophets start talking about the things they remember most easily - banding together to get rid of the dead dancer. The murder children - they could have left that for Kasumi to check out on her own. Tillie says that they did that because they're stronger together. Dealing with the baby - oh yeah, Will bought nappies. The pack tell some of their anecdotes - it kind of dribbles off into in-jokes and reminiscences, which Inanna asks questions about, drawing the pack out to explain. Helping Sinead deal with the ocean. Rescuing Will from his ancestor. Their shared dream at Moot time. Del... ahh Del.
Inanna asks about times that are not Garou related. Tillie talks about the comedy gig with Marcus... they went drinking at the Winchester and then the beach. They have a dog, Gus. They have dinner together sometimes, either at home or out. Hanging out at Carmel's cafe. The first response to almost anything that's happened is to speak to the others. That time they sold raffle tickets for a kinfolk. The gym. Kasumi's japanese cuisine dinner party. Meeting Will's mum ("its an organisation with lots of german names in it" "The illuminati" "Well i was thinking more Hitler youth, but sure"). Taking Kasumi to the penguins. Teaching Tillie lifeskills, like not jaywalking and not throwing food at the waiter when its not good and catching a tram and not eating giraffes. That time Tillie got acid and aspirin confused. ("What do I do with these?" "put them under your tongue" "ok. When will my headache get better?" ".... oh no").
Do they live together because they are a pack? No, Tillie and Finn did before hand. They don't *have* to live together asa pack, they could be living seperately. Inanna asks if they are a pack of convenience - there wasn't anyone else at the sept? Maybe... but now they are invested. "We haven't killed Will yet?" Sinead talks about the ocean and how they didn't haev to help. Tillie talks about Brenna - the pack didn't have come with her to Erebus. Inanna is good at drawing people out, but even Mother Pasta and Don Mephisto are not minimising the chatty vibe even if they aren't contributing.
After a few hours Inanna thanks them and says that they will leave now. The next challenge will come to them soon.
The fire starts to burn down and get lower and colder, and it won't relight. The night feels like it is getting darker and bitterly cold. The pack huddle together, waiting for the Elders. At midnight there is a knock at the door. When they open it, it is Grek, Monash and Tjinderi. Grek in crinos form and painted with pictographs of death and darkness. He speaks to them in garou tongue - "To achieve a greater good, one of the pack members must die. Who would it be, and how would you chose them. You have time to discuss before you give your answer." The Elders leave.
("Should we say Will? he keeps dying and now he seems fine.") Tillie says there's no discussion, its her because the pack is her responsibility. The others suggest that as the strongest member maybe it shoukdn't be her. Sinead says is it a sacrifice or getting rid of the most expendable? Because that would change depending on the circumstances. Tillie says there's no real answer because there's no such thing as the greater good. Kasumi says there's an apocalypse on its way, with a loss of tech, so she won't be as useful. Sinead points out that she's not just a computer poking person, but also is very stealthy, and diplomatic, and that is something the pack needs. There might be tech around anyway, and Kasumi says it might be total war, all the time. Will says that all of them will die for the greater good eventually, they live a dangerous life, so any of them. ("If I do not fall in combat, something is terribly wrong")
The pack consider scenarios. Finn says it could be any of them depending on the circumstances - any one might be prepared to. Sinead says that its what being a warrior of Gaia is about, essentially. Kasumi agrees and says they all have strengths and weaknesses - the weakest at the time? ("You take the fucking honour!"). Sinead says she feels like she's the weakest link, but the rest of the pack point out that she's gone from no rites to megaritemaster in about a year (and the sept has also noticed this; she has been given probably the least complicated challenge for Adren rank) - and she can fight almost as readily as the other garou. And she brings new ideas to problems, not just "LETS HIT IT REALLY FUCKING HARD". ("The Get of Fenris is telling you you are not weak. Listen.")
After a bit more discussion, Tillie sums it up - the person that has to die is the one that clearly needs to; all of them would be prepared to do what needs to be done but there are things that each of them excel at and so there would be an obviously appropriate person. ("Its not like the council will turn up and say 'you said Will, *boom* now you have space in your pack'" "For an observer"). They all agree on this and decide that they may as well get their heads down now. Tillie adds "I still hold that its my job though." ("you're all my babies." "You are _literally_ the youngest". "Watch your smart mouth sir, or there'll be no dessert"). ( "You can sleep in the Tillie fort." "... is that your vag?" "No!" "What are you saying, its a fort? There's a battalion of soldiers in it?" "Defended against all comers! ... wait" "I can't even have children!" "Doesn't mean you don't have one. How would you pee on things?" "Completely impenetrable!" "You approach the gates, someone tips lava on your head" )
At dawn, there is another knock at the door. This time Monash is at the forefront of the three Elders, painted in heiroglyphs of dawn and rebirth. He asks for their answer and Tillie says "Whoever is needed." Monash asks for a bit of clarification and Tillie says whoever needs to answer the call to achieve the goal - they'd all be ready. Monash accepts this and says they will be called.
About midday, a messenger fetches them to stand before the Council once more. Wungala Rose speaks for the Council and she says the challenge is completed. Both packs performed well - no startling insights, but solidly. However, the Ngalyod pack was, in the opinion of the Council and the spirits, the more ideal pack. The Council has discussed matters further, and has decided against appointing an observer at this time. The Lost Prophets are directed to create a method for communicating quickly with herself and to have it available - they should alert her when they find more instances of the Bunyip, or Bunyip-related issues. She will be then responsible for contacting the rest of the Council. (Maybe she knows about Will's mouse?)
They will be observed. The Council understands that several members of the pack have challenged to be recognised as Adren; they should be aware that the rest of the garou will be keeping a close eye on the progress. This matter is not entirely closed, and their decisions may be reviewed again.
The Council is dismissed.
(Columbo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZiv8vkxMac Xena: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er927kdo5k8) The Council ends and the pack are sent back home. When they arrive, the Sept Elders are keen to find why they'd been gone for two days and what was the outcome. Lost Prophets explain the whole "observer" thing and the challenge and the outcomes. Cossack says he's like to know who changed their minds - they walked in about to have a policeman added to follow them, and then walked out getting more freedom. Will says without knowing who opposed them its impossible to say. Who was or wasn't surprised by the challenge? Grek clearly was expecting it. Tjinderi wasn't surprised either, that's interesting. Mother Pasta did say they weren't competant, but she didn't actually bite them. Cossack says it would be nice if she didn't hate them. Its no surprise Vlad is against them - even just opposing Darius. They still don't know who the Ngalyod pack told really... people for them? people against them? Inanna seemed surprised, but then she was pretty personable when they were all talking about the live like a pack challenge - was it just a facade? They are ok with reporting to Wungala Rose - she doesn't seem antagonistic. Cossack says that the Furies have a pretty dynamic system, they should watch that Wungala mightn't be there suddenly.
The pack think about the tests they did better in (they think) and whether that might suggest which council members change their mind. There's a consensus that the Hunt and Live sections went better than Fight, but unsure about Die. Is it likely Mother Pasta was influenced? Mamu?
Tillie says that they really need to get these rank 3 challenges into order - the Council pointed out they would be watching.
At the end of this, Cossack performs the Rite of Recognition for the pack and their renown is recognised. Cossack suggests they take the day to chill, but then get back to scrubbing. No one has found any further Dancers - the other sept members have gone back to it today. There's some clustering of the previously unexplained clear patches, but they're not all caused by the same thing.
Will speaks to the rock elementals about how they had made a deal with Charlotte and now he would like to make a new deal with them. They are frankly confused about whatever he is talking about and think he made the first deal and don't want to change it. Will thinks for a moment and then says "sure, why not". ("You appear to be low on iron. You should eat more meat" "Or iron ore". "I like the idea of a rock spirit who's just obsessed with your mineral content. ''Your salt content is low''" "Your sodium content has dropped. Rectify this at once!")
Kasumi contemplates what Hidden Green did around camera monitoring. She isn't sure about details, but does know that they weren't interested in the little shop cameras, but instead piggy backed on the government/police mandated cameras that were installed around that time. Her loose plans all involve spirits.. which means learning Binding. She makes eyes at Sinead about learning that.
The pack start their scrubbing again. They're a bit more clumped up than they had been previously, just in case of surprise Black Spiral Dancers, and one pack member is on watch while the others scrub. ("You went 'yum my blood'" "Its alright with mayonaise in it" " "''Your sugars are a bit high, which is concerning, but more worrying is that its 2% egg'' "). The elementals are still happy to help them shovel dirt everywhere for them to clean.
Kasumi is onguard and looking a bit ahead when she finds an area of tunnel that has patchy areas that are clear, making it blotchy. The patches are on the floor and walls. She digs at a dirt bit a little, and finds that its not seeped in, its cleaner down there too. Its not a big area, maybe just a house-sized space across a couple of tunnels. She tries to peek to be sure, but its just dark in there. She can sort of sniff but she can only tell its very stagnant in the realm. There's not much supernatural there except for a faint wyrm taint much like everywhere in Preston. It looks like they're in Umbral copies of storm drains since closed and blocked up in the Realm?
Kasumi and Finn decide they need to check it out to be sure, and so they stop through the gauntlet. Tillie peeks to make sure she can see when they arrive. Will peeks as well and tries to smell, but gets a nose full of some sort of fungus, and cannot seem to shake the smell, even though its not like there's anything physical up his nose. Finn and Kasumi find themselves in a very very small and collapsed space, with not more than a bit of room to wiggle. Everytime they do wiggle, more dirt drops down and lands in their faces. Finn can barely see the light from Kasumi's phone through the dirt and past her feet. He fairy lights and can see the ground appears to be made of fill. People peeking say "oh". The two garou come back to the spirit realm.
The pack takes a look around in the Umbra. Kasumi spots a crack in the wall at the bottom, where a bit of the wall has broken out and fallen down. Its about 1 foot high and a handspan or two wide. When she gets her head down, there's actually a slight slop down to this spot... but there's not much good here puddled up. With her head down like that she can hear a trickling sound. Its coming up from the hole - poking at it suggests that there's a space behind that leads down and into the wall a bit, and that's maybe where the sound is coming from. It smells like goop. Sense wyrm suggests that there's goop.
The soil behind is not hard packed, and ew, its sodden with goo. ("We need a dedicated bazooka"). They scrape out goo soaked earth by reaching in with crinos arms and pulling it all out. ("if you die as a raven, do you die in real life"). The pack don't reach the trickling sound but its not 50' away either. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aeum1SeEVNY Not for Eli!) Careful looking with Kasumi's phone suggests it goes for about 20' all up and then maybe opens up? At a shallow downward angle.
Tillie sighs and lays down to use her Raven gift. Her spirit form hops down the fissure and finds that indeed after about 20' there's a space. The soil is soggy with goo all the way along ("High permeability soil. Might be some kind of silty sand. Class four crushable. I don't get to pull out this knowledge very often"), and by 2/3rds along, there's a shallow but distinct flowing current. The trickling gets louder, and just as it opens up, there is a bit of stone lip, and the goo is running off the end of that into a deep bowl-like space. In the faint glow from the wyrm goo she can see that the surface is churning with movement. Indistinct forms surface briefly, slide over each other and then go beneath again. Sensing for wyrm ("yes") suggests that its all of a type - the same sense as off the goo in general - but with moving point sources. She thinks that they are tiny little dragonets, like Finn saw days ago just forming out of a puddle of goop.
Tillie stops doing her raven thing and they step back to make a call and alert the Sept - its not a red alert, but they think other people should be aware of this, and are happy for help and/or suggestions of what to do about it ("an umbral backhoe please"). The Lost Prophets contemplate their options. (https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/eels-start-to-gather-feeding-new-zealand-eco-reserve-waikanai-nga-mana-sanctuary-swarm-eels-102377803.jpg) (https://soundcloud.com/pauline-pantsdown/im-a-back-door-man-1997) Jump in? Fill it with fire? Collapse the space? Fill it with asbestos? Sinead's battle mandala gift? Wait, what was the last one? Sinead's gift will basically attack the spirits and eat them away and if they are limited in strength that might even be enough. If its not, and they are able to come up and get the pack, then leaving the tunnel as it is limits how many of them can come up. What if the dragons dig out through the soil? The pack ask the elementals if they can harden the soil around the chamber and the spirits say it is much like that already, but they will make it stronger still.
("I could go for a blackcurrant flavoured liqueur" "Its just ribena and vodka") Sinead sets off her battle mandala gift. The sigil spreads out and there is an increase in the sound of activity down the pit. It quietens down after a while, but there is still some sound of activity down there. And then there is the sound of something coming up the tunnel.
The dragonet that emerges from the tunnel is maybe 2m long and not very high at the shoulder. It hisses and snaps at the pack. Will claws ineffectually at it. Tillie attemps to show him how its done. Sinead actually shows him how its done. Finn is bitten. ("I pretend to be Finn. Doo doot doo doooo") (Clinkers drinking gameS) Will grabs the dragonet by the neck and hips and lifts it well off the ground, soft underbelly exposed. Sinead smashes it and the whole dragonet melts back into black goo, showering Will. Fire erupts from the hole, burning leg hair and Sinead's skin. The fire is black and smokey.
Will steps back and away into more cover, Tillie and Finn take a step back and knock Kasumi back and onto her bum. Fire comes rolling out of the hole again, highlighting the dragonet head just down the tunnel far enough to be hard to see. Will reaches in and grabs the dragonets' throat. It breathes fire again and he is surrounded by fire. Will nearly frenzies. Tillie summons a flood of water at the mouth of the hole, and the dragon is swept away back down to the pit.
Christine and the rest of the Scyers turn up. "What's going on?" "Look down the hole" "... nooo". Georgina hands over the Umbral shotgun saying it sounds like this might be needed. The next 15 minutes is spent just shooting down the hole whenever the banes show their faces - each of the garou get some practice in. Eventually it goes quiet, and the garou widen the hole, slide down their and soak up all the now quiescent goo.
The pack decide they need to clear off their obligations to Mother Spider. Sinead finds a belly dancing class. Tillie watches a lot of youtube vids about cooking. Will suggests maybe they should work out some sort of work coop for this - maybe they should work out a way to invite other garou together and share skills. Like a maker space for chiminage things. They mention it to Emma, who is a bit keen, but says that they'll hit some resistence because knowledge is valuable amongst the garou. And there are trade secrets - some of which are just ego, and others are genuinely dangerous. ("Get the children of gaia onboard" "They're useless" "That's the other problem"). She suggests approaching different garou from Hidden Green or Reconciliation individually rather than officially. Maybe they could get a spirit of crafts to help support it?
Sinead also spends time teaching Melissa this and that of spirit lore. She's aiming to be able to teach her a gift at the Moot. Will contemplates binding Charlotte to a fetish - tapping her iron hard will would stop him frenzying and leaking wisdom.
The cleaning is going well - people have got it down to an art. The Lost Prophets have been given a new section, and after about an hour they start finding parthways through the goop. They snake along rather than hopping or whatever the dragons did. Other paths join up as they wriggle along. Tillie senses for wyrm, but doesn''t find anything outside of the wyrm sense of the goo. She peeks and it looks like they're in legit stormwater drains - smaller in the realm than the umbra.
The additional branches seem to be coming together rather than branching out. ("its not Scott"). After 20m of looking they find a bloated black wyrm moving through the goo. Its about 6 inches across and 1.5m long. It doesn't take much more than a few claws stuck into it to rupture it and leak black goo everywhere.
They keep following the trails and find that they all come together and lead into a wall underground, perforated with holes. ("The mother Bezoar is behind there"). Tillie has a concern that there's one giant one with teeth on the other side of the wall. The holes aren't straight, but wiggle around and so the garou can't see down them.
In the realm, this now looks older than the storm water drains that they were looking at before. They're not far from the surface, and light filters down into the tunnels. Hmm
The pack call the earth elementals to them to help. It takes a while but there's no immediate pressure, so the pack can take their time. The elementals disappear into the walls near their swiss cheese wall and in a fairly short time (for mobile rocks) return to inform the garou that there is a large amount of not-rock in there, part filled with the wyrm taint. With some work, the pack play guessing games with the elementals about how big the space is, and come to the conclusion that its about 50' across but they can't convey the topography.
Rather than rushing in, ("who are you??") the pack check in with others. They get the Umbral shotgun.
The pack cruise up at the Realm level, but don't get a great peek. The landscape comes up a low rise here, and there's a non-residential building on it. Connected to these newer looking ones. He think that its a hospital of some sort, but not a big one - one building it 2 storeys tall but there's no 4 stories plus and a huge carpark you'd expect in a big hospital. Ah! Its a retirement home or hospital or both. Bits are hospitally, bits are more like flats. There's a lot of people here visiting.
Lost Prophets decide to wander about upstairs and see if anything leaps out at them, figuratively or literally. Sinead can't seem to manage the gauntlet (botch #1), so Kasumi takes it up. They find that they're on an older Melbourne street, but a big chunk on one side has been taken on by this nursing home. It seems to have started as a small private hospital near the corner and spread over time and now it runs half the length of the street.
Many residents have visitors but not all of them. They vary from people bedridden to people who have a room of their own to people just in a flat who have a nurse on call nearby.
Kasumi senses for unnatural. In the middle-road environment (not bedridden, but heavily supported) many of the people have a taint of wyrm that is definitely concerning. Most of the staff seem ok, but its the patients with the taint. Kasumi's fairly sure that the big pool or space behind the wall is below, or almost below this area.
For the pack members not peeking, many of the Umbral buildings do not match up - the original houses, or skeletons of them are in the spirit world and the newer facilities aren't there yet.
Will suggests trying to find a way down to see if there's a connection between the goop and the building. One of the older buildings that connects to the dodg area has a downstairs - its not underground entirely but has windows high up that are at ground height outside. Its basically one long corridor on one side, and rooms leading off. Most of them appear to be bulk service rooms - bulk kitchen, laundry, etc. In the Umbra, they have a patina of ew that the pack don't even need to sense for.
About half way along they find a place where the goop appears to be coming up in a large tube like the worms, and then breaks up into multiple smaller tubes. Each of those appears to lead into a wall in different directions. The whole shebang appears to be pulsing, or maybe pumping. In the realm this is a utility room of some sort - there's a grill in the floor that looks like a drain, and there's cupboards along one side but its not in heavy use. The next room along is a dispensary - not the pharmacy exactly, but the place where they keep all the medical basics. The room sense heavily of wyrm especially on the wall on the same side as the pulsing tube.
The pack follow the other tubes and find they stop at various places that people work or store stuff heavily used - in the Umbra they are spilling out goo that spreads out into a puddle but in the realm there's just a sense of corruption. Its clearly being pumped up.
The garou decide this needs to stop now. In the Umbra, they can fit four crinos into the room - while it won't take crinos to break the tubes the pack is concerned that something horrible will attack them once they do it. Will has the shotgun and says that he could attack from below .. but they're not really sure how to get through that wall still. Actually, maybe its more sensibe to approach this from below just to be sure what's going on.
Ok, the Lost Prophets all troup down into the sewers with shotgun. 5 crinos start to dig with gusto at the wall. Its thick packed dirt, soaked in gunk ("Let the record show players are more interested in sniffing things than roleplaying") - its pretty easy to move. Kasumi is well ahead of the others when she breaks through and falls forward into the goo. She manages to plant a hand down, and finds that its basically crinos-arm deep as it laps at her chin. Finn grabs her legs and drags her backwards, breaking the wall and letting the goo run out of the dark space they've broken into. It runs thickly out the gap they've made. They look at their pack of sponges and the apparently endless reservoir of stuff pouring out and try to think of another option. Finn suggests they get the elementals to make a wall down the umbral tunnels to block it in case it all gets away from them, while Tillie makes a wall of earth at the mouth of things to try and restablish the integrity of the containing space. The elementals cause the floor to rear up a couple of feet to make a berm and Tillie uses her gifts to succesfully block everything that was flow/oozing out.
Finn sends some faerie lights into the space but they wink out before he hits the far side. The glow the goo has suggests that there's something out in the middle, but its a vague shape. Finn powers up his faerie lights so they last longer and he says he thinks its like a pillar, not a moving entity. Oh wait, its moving a bit, maybe pulsing. Oh.
Will shoots at the pillar with the shotgun. He can't really see but he thinks he took some of it out and it didn't explode, which was a genuine fear. Finn's faerie lights come close to it, and there's a big hole in one side, so Will spends some time shooting at the black thing in the dark until he thinks he's burst it. They try and squint into the dark to see what the situation is. The pillar is gone, and the top of it is emptying back into the water. But at the bottom, they can see worms climbing back up toward the flaccid end sticking out of the roof. They're not very effective, but they'll get there eventually, winding around one another and striving upward.
The pool is days of soaking and cleansing. The garou toy with letting it out in managable portions so they can cleanse and destroy - it'll take a few days, but it means not having to wade waist-deep into this wyrm goo. While they wait, another worm comes up the corridor, squirming toward to the pool. *splut* This will complicate matters - it might not behave like a straightforward liquid. Sinead frowns - previous the wyrm goo from the Green Dragon has formed dragon banes. The tube socks are a bit weird, and they appear to be being drawn here. That suggests some sort of outside influence. An object? A being? Maybe there was already something here feeding off evil in an old folks's home? Will peeks and finds that while there's some sort of space, it feels more restricted than the large gap in the Umbra.
Kasumi contemplates any parallels with Sydney, but there's nothing precise enough to say definitely yes.
Suddenly the goo makes a weird noise and the flailing worms animate into an efficient structure for building up a new tube to the surface. There was nothing obvious that caused it down here - they just stopped flailing about and rose up to reconnect to the tube above, then started pulsing. They pack eye that off and then decide to call back in just to make sure the Sept knows what's going on.
Kasumi finds a toilet to step into and makes a call to Graeme. She gives him the summary (evil goo, no dragons, old folks' home) and he says that they are meant to be getting to get more sponges later, he'll make sure a lot of them go to the Lost Prophets. He'll also ask anyone else who calls in to drop by. Generally their opportunistic bane theory seems viable - this is a thing that does happen.
In the meantime, while Will stays downstairs and just shoots the pillar some more, the other four will go up stairs to destroy the deliver mechanism from up there. They head down to their basement again and see that its pumping again. Tillie opts to sever just one from the wall rather than smash the main trunk. When they grab it with claws, it ruptures easily and goo flows backward into the room as the sausage-skin-like tube deflates.
Will starts shooting at the pillar from below. He's really too far away to do this effectively, but through just firing repeatedly, he wears away at the worms that make up the pumping tube. The pack upstairs can hear the shotgun bursts, suggesting Will is just below them. They wreck the rest of the branching tubes now they aren't going to get attacked by something like a hydra. As Will starts making a real hole in the pillar, they can see the main trunk starts to no longer be taut and the tubes that branch off deflate as the flow stops. It doesn't fall out and through down though - its either still wedged from pressure, or its caught on something.
Will can see that the worms are back to flailing around trying to reconnect to the roof again. Sinead tries to activate her Battle Mandala gift but it fizzles out (botch #2). Kasumi and Tillie start easing the main trunk out of the ground - the skin is very fragile so its a slow and involved process. They lift up the grate with it and move it aside to slow down the regeneration of the pipe.
Finn peeks to see what is going on around where the other tubes go. He checks out the next few rooms and finds that the outputting tubes have also deflated, so its not like there's multiple sources. He's not sure what each of the rooms do, so its hard to be sure what effect the outfall of spiritual effluent might have, so he peeks into the realm with great gusto, and looks about while Sinead guides him. This one is used for food prep (yuck) - bulk stuff like pasta and rice but not the finesse.
When they come out of the kitchens to continue looking about, Finn says there's someone standing in the physical doorway, looking into their little store room with the gross pipe. She looks to be a nurse, and of south asian descent. Finn tries to sense unnatural on her but cannot pick anyhing up. (botch #3). The nurse turns toward Finn and walks slowly into the dispensary next door.
Will says this is starting to sound familiar - like something deliberately was doing wyrm things here and maybe they took advantage of the goop rain. Finn follows the nurse into the dispensary. She has a tray of baskets with names and some meds, and has put them down on the workbench below where the goop tube empties out. She touches the splashback and the tubes disgorge what goop is still lingering in them all over the bench in the Umbra, where the medications are sitting. The black muck dissapates rapidly, as if perhaps it was being absorbed somewhere. While Finn watches, she turns toward him and smiles evilly - he notices that her eyes are pearly white, just like theirs are when they peek. Will starts yelling about Struthers and Ridgeway.
She heads off with the tray and down the corridor, glancing back from time to time in a way that suggests she expects Finn and Sinead to follow. The pack swiftly 'plan' through their mental link. Finn tries to glance around and find somewhere to step - the dispensary has cameras, but the little niche the goo was rising out of does not, so he and Sinead head into it, change to homid and step into the Realm.
Finn is now in his best hulk costume, with just shorts and no shirt or shoes (no service). He looks into the laundry next door and finds there's only towels and sheets. Sinead throws a sheet over his head and says she'll pretend he's her senile father. All that experience of guiding blind people around the Umbra comes to the fore and she can fake that well enough - "Come on dad, back to your room, you can be a ghost there" "oooo". They head along in the direction the nurse went, up the stairs and into the occupied halls. They keep a look out for an alarm they could trigger off to try and clear the mundanes out. ("maria hnh sta fra" ".. I'm going to Burkina Faso?" "We didn't start the fire") ("My penis is now anonymous hhahaha")
The nurse isn't waiting at the top of the stairs or anything, so they hunt about using sense wyrm instead. ("There's no 1s in this roll.") Sinead feels like there's a faint feeling she should head left and so her and Casper head into the newer section through that door. She passes a couple of older people that look like residents and they are much more tainted than she would expect. ("I vote we burn the whole place to the ground"). She leads them wandering more or less aimlessly through too-warm identical corridors looking around. Sinead starts to head for resident rooms on the grounds the nurse had meds.
Will starts running from inside the tunnels heading for the battle that is sure to come. Tillie and Kasumi continue to move things out of the drain but are ready to go when they need to.
She spots a short indian nurse with too many awoogas of wyrm comes out of a room holding a tray. She sees Sinead and smiles evilly, and moves to the next door. Knock knock "medication!" and heads into the room. Sinead opts to follow, dragging Finn. The nurse is in the process of trying to convince an old lady in a chair that she's misremembering and the medication hasn't come around yet today. The woman seems a bit surprised by the presence of the two garou, especially when a shirtless Finn rips the sheet off and kicks the door shut.
Sinead grabs the nurse around the arms, pinning her arms to her side ("With luck she's not employed by the hospital at all") and sending the single basket of meds flying. ("Just punch the old lady." "You *will* kill her"). Finn locks the door and drags the bed in front of it a bit. Kasumi and Tillie start sprinting through the Umbra. The nurse doesn't struggle to get away, just says "Hello Sinead". Vivian cries out. Sinead spins around and says "Finn, punch her!" "Hi Finn." Finn tries to punch her, but misses and punches Sinead's arm glancingly. Sinead's just holding her down, nurse says "That's a bit weak". Vivian gets up out of her chair and struggles to reach her bedhead. Finn punches the nurse square in the face, and gives her a fat lip. "Come on, do it properly" Sinead turns and snarls at the old lady to "SIT DOWN" and she falls back into her seat. Finn punches the nurse in the face again, but her head shoots back and smacks Sinead in the face as she turns back. (Botch #4) Both Finn and Sinead feel a massive surge of rage and Finn nearly frenzies. Finn spends a moment making sure he doesn't lose it and kill everyone.
Tillie skids into the Umbral bathroom between Vivian's room and the next room and steps without looking. She appears instantly, finds it was empty ("PS I didn't even think of that before you asked") and bursts into the next room. The nurse is bleeding and laughing at them ("This is just like the first time." "...your first time specifically? because that's a really weird 'first time'").
Tillie punches the nurse ineffectually. "That's more like it. Hi Tillie". Finn is gritting his teeth and trying to stay in homid form. Tillie decides this is getting stupid and grabs the nurse by the throat, ("Stop caressing your dice!") crushing her trachea. ("if you want something done right") ("If his theory is right, you're about to open the door and get stabbed in the face")
The nurse is choking to death and sort of laughing/gurgling. She thrashes about and starts to go grey while Vivian is given PTSD and the garou tap their feet impatiently. Tillie squeezes harder. Sinead senses Vivian for wyrm and finds that she's tainted like many patients but not badly as some. She senses the nurse at the same time - she's not a fomor, its not the right sense. Meanwhile, in the Umbra, Kasumi is heading down the corridor, and Will has entered the building. ("Finn's not here to stop us from just killing people") ("maybe we just steal all the oxycontin in the building and run out shouting 'you'll never catch us, um, pigs!'")
The nurse stops moving, and sags as she dies. In the Umbra, Kasumi opens the door as a spirit erupts into the spirit world. It is a huge sack of veiny flesh, greeny yellow in colour and decorated with nasty sharp chitinous legs/blades - it looks almost exactly like the spirit that had been controlling David Struthers from Rainbow Inc.
Kasumi leaps to one side as legs jab out at her from within the umbral room, and gets lightly stabbed. She keeps heading down the corridor for a bit to try and get the spirit to squeeze out the door and chase her. Will comes into the corridor at the end and waits for the spirit to come out and into range of the Umbral shotgun.
Tillie and Kasumi tell Finn to deal with the dead nurse and the old lady, and head into the bathroom to step sideways. They slide straight through the gauntlet. Unfortunately, that's just as the spirit drags itself through the umbral bathroom, and so a second after they appear, they are knocked down and into the walls as a giant sack of pus fills the entire room nad then is gone. https://youtu.be/ouNAMDfg3zM?t=617
The spirit smashes the wall in the far room, and Will can hear this pretty clearly. He shoots through the door, and is pretty sure he hit the spirit. But the wood of the door he shot through starts to smoke and decay. The spirit turns and lunges out the window toward Will, barely hurting him and barrelling past him back up the corridor he just came down. Will uses his Halt The Coward's Flight gift and the spirit slows down significantly, but makes it around the corner.
Will gives chase. Sinead gives chase. Kasumi gives chase. Will shoots it again, and a spray of pus arcs out and hits the wall, making the weaver stuff smoke and decay. ("The other night mum was saing 'do you need drugs?' ... 'depends, what are you selling? Its not really an MDMA night'" "No, is weed." "have an extra experience point"). Tillie flies along the corridor to catch up to the fight. The spirit, jammed into the corridor seems to roll into place, and its legs swing around the side the pack is about the attacked. It slams all its bladey legsy things into the walls and roof, then pulls, and large amounts of the roof and ceilng come crashing down, some landing on Will, and blocking the corridor.
Cocnerned that the spirit is trying to escape through the roof, Kasumi and Tillie leap up along the rubble and onto the roof. Will fires randomly through the rubble and hopes for the best. He's stabbed about the head and shoulders by chitinous blades coming flying out of the gaps in the rubble, and doesn't frenzy. Just.
Kasumi spots that some of the fallen rubble starts to lose its coherence and takes on a more spider-like aspect. ("Are you just standing there watching me get stabbed?" "I can't just dive it" "can't you?" "oh, sure 'i'm too pretty to dive in thre, but you've only got 1 appearance anyway'") Kasumi and Tillie come to conclusion that the spirit isn't trying to escape this way, so they cannonball out of the sky into the spirit, smashing into it with great gusto. They are rewarded with sprays of acid in the face, but mostly dodge it.
Tillie gets stabbed. Sinead uses her Spirit Snare gift to try and slow the bane down. Kasumi tries to claw it and get a spray of acid for her trouble. Tillie hands out more damage in a giant slash. The two spiders, which the pack had been hoping were just responding to the breakages, corrode and then attack - Kasumi is calcified. ( "not spraying yourself in acid is better than being sprayed in urine") Tillie gets very stabbed. Kasumi hammers the spirit despite her weaver spirit binding. ("you're have a dudeterus. And a brolva") Will blows the spider attacking him away. ("Watch me pull a gall bladdr out of this chick!")
The bane vanishes - the pack peek rapidly to make sure it hasn't just manifested. The pack deal with the spiders quickly, and then with a couple more that show up that aren't corrupted but are here to try and fix the hole.
("daddy's not a mammal because he can't make milk" ) Meanwhile, Finn looks around the room and tries to work out what to do with Vivian. He decides that Delerium is the better part of valour and changes to crinos to try and freak Vivian out. He does this, filling most of the room. Vivian's eyes roll back in her head and she slumps. Finn goes back to homid - he sticks his head in next door and finds that the occupant is not currently here. A quick ransack through cupboards finds a brown knitted jumper and a grey button up shirt. Finn finds a brimmed hat too, and jams it on his head to try and hide his face from cameras.
While Finn is jamming the pants on he hears people walk past Vivian's door. He sort of hops into the bathroom and locks both doors while he gets clothes on. Once he's dressed he takes his ghost sheet and bundles the nurse up more carefully. He wants to give the impression of just laundry, so he can't just fling her over one shoulder - he lifts the nurse a couple times and finds a stance where he could look more casual.
Finn casually drops the nurse-sheets into the laundry shute and starts heading back to the downstairs area. But as he heads down a staff member coming up tells him that's not a public area - Finn fakes needing the toilet and gets directions from the helpful man. He tries the other end but some nurses coming up stop him and send him back. Though Finn toys with triggering off the fire alarm, he decides to call help from the rest of the pack, as the actual combat has finished by this point.
Kasumi and Sinead peel off from smashing out the last of the calcification and head his way. ("even if you just pick a body up and take it, dedicate it somewhere else" "*A* body?" "drat, I've played my hand too soon. ''This isn't our body''" "That's when we find out all the wyrm taint was from improper handling of human corpses") They step from the Umbra and consider their options for stashing a body for 10 minutes. Step 1 is ransacking some nurses scrubs out of the laundry - its only when she's got it on that Kasumi realise hers have a big blood stain. ("that's spiritual pus. This is *actual* pus") The dispensary seems their best option ("Its swipe carded tho" "Does the corpse have a swipe card?" "... yes". "Also, oh no, what will the weaver spawn do with an electronic lock?" "Oh yeah and she's with the woman with a magic everykey") so they try and trundle the whole laundry hamper on wheels all casual like into the dispensary. Sinead tries to not look sketchy and keeps looking at the cameras.
Kasumi stuffs Sinead in a cupboard to ritualise and glances around looking to see if she can find somewhere the cameras don't really cover. No luck there, so she stands underneath one and touches her phone to it, and establishes a spiritual connection. IT seems that the security system has a web interface for admin, and its not well secured, so she spends five minutes erasing the recordings for today all through the hospital. She can't turn it off, but that'll do. Meanwhile Sinead megadedicates the dead nurse corpse.
Meanwhile, Finn decides he doesn't need to be in the building any more, and casually leaves through the main door. As he's going out he hears an old man voice say "Hey! That's my hat! He's got my hat!" Glancing behind, some people that were coming in include an older gentleman pointing at Finn and yelling. Finn books it to the faint sound of "And my jumpeerrrrr!" ("you are near the 86 tram")
The Get of Pennington show up in the Umbra and look pretty startled at the level of wyrm goop and destruction. The two packs settle in to do some more investigation. It seems that people have found Vivian at this point, mostly through the medium of Alfred claiming someone has stolen his hat, and trying to go and talk to Vivian about it. Much to the Lost Prophet's surprise, Vivian isn't dead, but is fairly non-responsive, and so there's a hustle and a bustle from doctors and nurses - by the time someone senior enough asks why the bed was not where it should be, no one is really sure who moved it and when. ("the whole cover up comes undone because of "that's the guy that stole my hat!")
In the Umbra, more weaver spiders turn up to fix the broken parts of the building. In the Realm, the lights stop working around where the pack fought the bane, and in two hours further, the fire alarms start to go off like a smoke alarm with a flat battery.
The garou awaken the hospital computer system to have a chat with it. The know the nurse's name was Rachel Bharj. She had worked there for four and a half years. ("Was she evil for all of them?" "HR did not actually record how tainted she was"). Her file is longer than they expect though - in the last year or so there's complaints from her about senior managers and from senior managers about her (mostly administrative complaints rather than "murdered patients"). She's had issues with two male managers, the Director of Nursing and the Manager of the Assisted Living section. Most of the complaints are written in vague terms, but there's an early mention of racial epithets. There's no further complaints from her from about 3 months ago. There's some complaints about her from patients, but they are all minor and there's a sense that all the nurses get them.
They find her home address which is not far. There's no emergency contact, which is odd. Her qualifications are listed - she has a nursing degree from Bangalore and various qualifying certificates from her time in Australia. (Including dispensing authority, so yes, she should have been giving medication out)
The garou check out the company a little - its not "Hillside Nursing, a subsidiary of Rainbow Inc" but they'd have to do a lot of digging to see if there was a financial link. None of the offices have goop dripping from the ceiling - there's bits of it that are not good, and some of the people are more tainted than the pack like, but nothing more than that. They'll have to come back a few times to be sure - nurses being on shift means there's not a 9-5 time they can scope it.
They try and pull an idea of whether more patients are dying now or less, but it'll take a while to get the data and graph it. Ditto with if there's weird pharmaceuticals being ordered. ("We're talking about laxatives still").
The Lost Prophets talk things over with the Get of Pennington, including their plans to slowly tap off the lake of eeevil. They don't really have a lot to add, most of the bases have been covered, though there is one strange moment talking about Bharj's house, when Chris says "perhaps we could just burn it down" and gives Kirsty an odd look.
The garou talk to Boobook about whether the spirit really reformed somewhere else. The pack sort of consider how much damage they had done to it, and the progress of the fight, and what they sensed when it vanished, and it sounds exactly like a spirit bamfing out to recover elsewhere.
Over the next couple of days of investigation, the garou try and find some leads. No one else at the hospital is a fomori or worse. They confirm her manager-manager is actually a dick.
Her house is a horrible hellhole. Its a small rental not fair from the hospital - in the realm its just a dinky house, but in the Umbra is a horrible shithole. ("they are not getting their umbral bond back"). ("what am i least likely to say " "'You're right, Finn'") Black goo is seeping from every service, and the weaver materials are rotted. The infection is spreading from her house to the neighbourhood. In the Realm, there's a smell, like a fungal smell that catches in the throat. She lived on her own, and all the curtains are pulled across. They check out her food situation - there's not enough food here, and what is here is off. There's some sign that she's been eating rotten meat. ("where's Will least likely to be at?" "Lincraft" "Primary school")
The pack ransack her house for information - she appears to have come here 4 years ago, had a couple of nursing jobs before this one. She seems to send more money than she could afford to send back to Bangalore where she immigrated from - but that stopped about 3 months ago. There are some dead pets under the building too - 4 dogs, 2 cats. ("ambience"). No idea why - maybe they could tell she was some sort of demon controlled evil witch or something.
They find payments for a phone, but not an actual phone. They give it a call but it doesn't connect. They find her car, parked near work, but she doesn't have a GPS that they could info from.
Her expenditure recently has been pretty low - no going out, no credit cards spends at cafes, etc. There's some sign there wasn't a lot of that before she might have been possessed either. Honestly the bane seems to have at least grasped the idea of "bill comes in, pay it" She seems to have been earning more money than usual - more shifts means more poisoning old people?
What to do with her house - cleanse? burn it down? That seems ideal except for the chance that it spreads wyrm taint everywhere.
Bharj's car is not there on the Monday - its probably been towed.
Vivian is still non-responsive, and appears to be in some sort of coma. The hospital do find the medication that had been brought in for Vivian by Bharj and that triggers a bit of an investigation. No one really reacts to Bharj vanishing and not being responsive - it seems a little out of place, but basically there seems to be some annoyance she didn't show up for a shift, but beyond trying to call her mobile, no one has put any more effort into finding out what's happening.
The taint on the old folks is checked out, and people try to get a sense of the outcome. The individual tainted people aren't affected, but the Garou start to a feeling that people that come to visit them regularly often seem to be sick, and smell unwell.
The garou return to the pool under the hospital to check nothing else is moving in. There are no longer slugs of slime slowly creeping into the pool in the Umbra. ("slugs and rice. The new sushi"). Whether the bane was pulling them in, or it was responding to the bane's presence isn't really clear. (Barry is short for either Bairrfhionn or Fionnbharr)
The pack consider booking Bharj tickets to Bangalore or burning her house down, but worry about the attention this will bring. So they decide to burn the house down anyway (not really).
Early afternoon, Will's eye is caught as he walks along Smith St - a handdrawn poster advertising a "night of story telling and adventure" in the Exhibition Gardens. One of the little marginalia drawings is a little rabbit looking girl. Oh. Oh no. Cherie. As he wanders around he can see some more, each of them different and clearly hand-made.
("What do you call a dingo/kelpie cross?" "You call it a dingo/kelpie cross or I hit you in the hand with a hammer" "Is it a dingpie?" "Right where's my hammer")
Will informs the rest of the pack that this is happening. Kasumi is in favour of a variety of different murder plans, including changing to hispo and shaking her around. ("We're gunna make a terducken, but it'll be a rabbit on the inside" "you peed on my bed??" "No, on *our* couch" "Humans are peeing on things? I always knew this day would come! *pee*" "I feel like you're all very unhelpful" )
Finn says that tonight night is Samhain, but its also Beltane, because wires get crossed being in the southern hemisphere. So it might be a good night to shove her back through to Arcadia because things will be a bit easier to travel.. between... worlds. Oh no. Other fae might come through again. Tillie points out that Will broke the deal and now he doesn't have anything Cherie wants, so if he wants to negotiate he will be in a difficult situation. ("Its like a crop!")
Why would Cherie be interacting with kids? Is she going to steal one? Finn says that fae reportedly steal kids for funsies, because they can't have their own kids or for benevolent reasons, to protect someone from something. Also, children *believe* in things, and fae seem to like that. ( Rinse the blood off my toga https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxVWTH4ljEs)
Sinead is at the caern teaching Melissa when she spots Will coming. Melissa breaks off learning and waves him down, and asks if he wants to come to a halloween party tonight? Will says he has werewolf business to deal with, and Melissa asks if it'll go all night. Maybe. Can she help with it? Ummm. He's going to deal with one of the fae still hanging around. Aren't they all gone ? No... she met Cherie briefly, right? Oh. Finn says its just though she doesnt' make off with children. Melissa gives him the eye. He explains what is happening and Melissa asks if they're all going? Is it stuff she needs to know? No. Stay here, says Sinead. Actually I have a party to go to - hey, do you want to come Sinead? She might do, if they can finish things here.
Wll decides to go bug Cossack for advice. He explains their concerns - is she bringing more fae? stealing children? Draining them of their power? Cossack enquiries about what the current relationship with her is ? Strained, but not antagonistic? ("Usually sexual"). Er, yeah, more or less. Whatever she wants to do, "as a surprise" is probably the worst way? Go talk to her. Will says he doesn't know where she is - he had the idea she was hanging around parks and playgrounds... maybe she still is... maybe she's just in the Exhibition gardens? Will talks Finn into coming with him ("not as an attack helper, but more as my attourney" "As your attourney, I recommend you hire a fast car with no top")
So off they go to the playground at the Exhibition Gardens. There's more school aged kids than Will expects to see here. Its a nice day, there's a lot of people here having lunch. They spot more posters as they wander along - each one is different and some of them are on paper with other stuff on it already.
The two Garou wander around looking for Cherie. The first indication they get that she might be around is when she says "Hello Will" right behind them. They spin about and see her there in a hoodie, looking fundamentally terrible - blood shot eyes, pale and a bit twitchy. "I see you're back" Will says he's come back to see how she was and Cherie says its several weeks past when he did not fulfil his deal, and obviously several weeks past when he stopped caring. "What can I do for you *now*". Will asks if she can go back to the fae realm but she refuses to answer. He said he saw the posters and realised she was still around. What's .. the plan? Cherie says she's planning to tell people some stories. Will asks if he could fulfill the deal that they made and she says its a bit late. She's going to tell some stories - get some kids to believe in some things. You know what would make them really believe? If one of the kids vanished while the story is being told. Will and Finn look unimpressed. Other things might make them believe too - what do you think Will? Will says they can't show the kids magic. "Well". They could help her get home to Arcadia gateway if she wishes? No, tonight I'll be just fine where I am. Will tries to suggest she goes home again and he gets stared at. Will says that he understand she's angry, but he didn't know she was still here until he saw the posters. Cheries says if he wants to show her that he's remorseful, he has an opportunity. She sounds a lot like a mum - maybe she's been hanging out with the mums here? He tries to make a few tetative offers, but Cherie says that unless he's willing to help her with this, she'll take matters into her own hands until she's satisfied.
Will says in exchange for not taking any children, or making them disappear, they'll do their best - without actual magic - to inspire some sense of wonder. Cherie says "no one likes a puppet show. It'd need to be convincing. Equally convincing to, say, *that kid* not coming home tonight". Will says yes. "If you do this, successfully, to my satisfaction, we can discuss the other matter" "No taking kids" "I need to be satisfied" ("Right there, she's got a tiny little neck, you have pointy claws!"). Will mentally looks at Finn who says "its a bit open ended to be honest. But I don't have a counter offer". ("Maybe we could make it rain. Heavily. With blood"). ("Watch me pull a rabbit out of this hat? " "Some of a rabbit" "Watch me pull a hat out of this rabbit?")
Will contacts his butterfly spirit friend and negotiates for its assistence for an entire night in return for a significant gift of gnosis. It will be able to help him make optical illusions, though his desire to get it to illuse at a specific audience or in a way that makes it look a special effect to the parents is probably a bit too optimistic.
Will convinces Sinead to come along and help blur the edges of reality by just doing some basic sleight of hand magic. They contemplate getting a spirit to make that look even more fancy and impress kids? Again, hard to do this without a deal - which is why they are in this problem in the first place.
Events are apparently going to kick off at the playground ("Maybe I should persuade some theatre people to come along" "I know how that would end 'as agreed, no children are gone; but we've lost a theatre person'") at the exhibition gardens at dusk - after 730pm at least then.
Will's plan is to hide in the Umbra to help make communication with the spirit easy, and so that he can right up in the business of the kids running around. He convinces Tillie to help guard his butt while he's peeking into the Realm. He peeks in the caern and she guides him out to the Exhibition Gardens.
While Kasumi sits at home and googles recipes for rabbits, the rest of the pack head to the Gardens. They show up about 630pm to get a scope of the land, and find that there's really no crowd around the playground. There's people there - some in costumes for Halloween, others just there. There's a certain amount of foot traffic - its the night before a holiday, so its a bit of a Friday night vibe.
("Next time I'll move the microphone before pouring the chips") About 7, Will, peeking from the Umbra, spots some people setting up tables or something in the park away from the playground and wanders off to see what it is. Sinead notices there's an increasing crowd of parents looking around slightly confused, hearing them approach other parents and ask if they know who is organising this, what's happening, etc. There's a certain amount of standing around awkwardly and looking at watches. Finn tries to sense for a point source of fae - there's a faint aura of fae energy, but nothing specific. Maybe its the day? Maybe its Cherie having been here for weeks?
Will finds that through the park, there's a table of people setting up licorice on trays; some people preparing to do some fire twirling; people bringing lots of what look like various size garden stakes; people lugging some polystyrene rocks about. There's some discussion about setting things up - they seem to be possibly theatre crew kind of people? He notices they're all young - 16 to 18? Did Cherie use her powers to ensorcel people to help her or just bang her way into it? Some of them sense a bit fae, but they can't tell if they're enchanted or just had contact.
Back at the playground, a few teenagers show up with a collapsable table and some decorations. Various parents drift over to them and ask if they're there for the storytime event and they confirm they are, they're just setting up, and hoping to get started before long. Kids are running about, half of them in costumes. Sinead gets started on her magic plan, doing tricks ("no") for small groups of kids. The teenagers with the table seem confused about her presence and looking about before shrugging. She notices that the kids that are here are mostly between 5 and 12, with a couple of older ones. They're pretty chuffed by her tricks and/or showmanship.
More kids & parents are coming in. Will starts his illusions by keeping an eye out for kids who are a bit apart from their parents, or looking elsewhere. He gets the butterfly to create little lights or the quick glimpse of low fae. A couple of times the parents also see this, but they mistake them for birds or possums. He's basically trying to get the people showing up to be in a heightened state - amazing younger kids and scaring or at least confusing older kids. ("you look downand your hands are gone") It seems to be working reasonably well, judging by the reactions.
The setting up teens start wandering around with handfuls of handouts and talking to parents who look interested in. Finn manages to snag one - its like a program for the evening. It has a map, and numbers on it through the park in a loop. IT has a brief description - tonight's story is a mobile story. As parents, you need to follow the kids, but not too closely - give a chance for the kids to hear the parts of the story. It should all take about 90 minutes. Its all very reassuring, except to the garou worried about parents being seperated from their children who are eyeing off the last step in this path being in the garden bed/greenhouse part. Some of the tables being setup match up to this map and its numbers.
About 730pm Cherie shows up behind Finn. "Where's Will?" "He's nearby" "Really, its not another Will deal?" Finn reassures her that he's here and ready to help. ("I'm giving her bunny ears from the Umbra"). She's wearing a hoodie and looks a bit rubbish - Sinead can see her from across the playground and Cherie reminds her of people coming off of an addiction. Cherie says "Let him know, there had better be glamour." She reaches up into the hood and pulls her hand down - behind her hand her face changes to a rabbitish kind of face on one side, as if she was wearing a mask or expensive special effects. She ditches the hoodie, and is wearing a bit more of a faerie-esque dress underneath it. ("I kinda want all of you to be wearing crappy bunny ears, as a kind of 'fuck you'")
Cherie hops, er, walks over to the table and stands up on it. She starts trying to draw attention to herself, partly through talking and partly through leaping up and spinning around. She's going ... more high than she should be able to, but not Veil destroyingly high. Cherie directs kids to come in close and pack in around the table, standing or sitting, leaving the adults in a ring behind.
Cherie begins - "this is a special story, because it was true. And to tell this story, we need to tell it specially. This is a story about a man called Usheen, and how he was a great hunter, but he was unable to catch a special hare. Do you know what a hare is? No? Its a bit like a rabbit, but where a rabbit is quiet and meek, a hare is cunning and tricksy, and definitely not meek. "
"Now, Usheen was the leader of a special group of warriors in Ireland, called the Fianna." Finn chokes. "Some of the Fianna had magic powers - they could command the weather, or make rocks move, or turn into magical hounds, and these were the ones that Usheen had in his group. Tonight, the parents at the back are going to be the Fianna, and be the wolves and the hounds - " Cherie stares intently at Finn - " and we will be the hare. The parents will hunt us, but the hare is much too fast and wily for the hounds. Have all the parents got their instructions? " The teens run about the place making sure everyone has their pamphletts. Will starts to plan how he can mess with the kids once they are ahead of their parents, and Finn says he can do some stuff too.
Cherie starts her story - "Usheen and his friends were hunting on the last day of summer. They capture stags, and boars, and they had a grand celebration, with songs and stories, bragging how they were able to capture any prey. At dusk, a lady rode into their camp and asked to speak to Usheen. She was dressed all in white, and rode a white horse that almost seemed to glow in the fading light. Her skin was pale, but her hair was dark. She asked to speak to Usheen and when he came to see this lady, she said that he and his hunters thought themselves great hunters because they had captured great beasts. But she knew they would be unable to capture a single wily hare. Usheen was full of pride, and he laughed, for he had forgotten that today was the last day of summer and that it was a special day - the Aes Shee, the fairies, could come out of their underground homes today and travel in the world of men. Usheen said that they would hunt this night, and slay the first hare they saw. He would take a mere 6 of his hunters, return victorious before dawn."
"Usheen selected 6 hunters and they set off into the woods."
Cherie leads the kids away, and the parents mill awkwardly waiting for the appointed time to follow. Will rushes ahead in the Umbra and talks t the butterfly spirit, telling it to start with little illusions, like a hare racing ahead of the kids just as Cherie talks about the hare racing ahead. She has some ability to tell stories - some kids are a bit disengaged, but a core group have wide eyes and are saying "wow" a lot. Finn casts faerie lights high into the tree, catching the occasional child's eye before heading to the edge of the museum and using the hard walls to echo his howl out through the park as Cherie talks about the Fianna-hounds following.
Cherie continues the story - Usheen and his hunters find a hare after a time. All of them were prideful and each thought they should be the one to fulfil the challenge, and so each of the hunters attempts to capture the hare. Each spot where a table is set up is a point where a hunter makes their attempt. Will continues to peek, ready to ask the butterfly to make illusions to match Cherie's story.
The first hunter that tries is Conn, who is known for his massive appetite. While trying to escape from his keen senses, the hare uses her magic to make a feast appear, and Conn is unable to resist gobbling the mysterious feast while she escapes. The 'feast' is made up of licorice sticks which Cherie shows some of the children and gets them to try; they are suitably unimpressed and giggly when it becomes clear the parents will have to eat these as they scamper onto the next part of the story. While they are there, Will makes an illusion of a man eating sticks with relish behind some trees where only a couple of them could see it. ("He was big and he was blond and eating a branch!"). Cherie rolls with this unexpected illusion
Its getting dim now, the sun is well below the horizon. The licorice hander-outers indicate parents should give the kids a chance to run ahead again and are strangely insistent on everyone at least taking a stick and pretending to eat it.
The next chapter of the story is about Even. Even was a great hunter like all of Usheen's troupe and Cherie tells how he moved through the forest silently, almost ghost like, with his bow and arrow - Will makes arrows fly past and thock into tress before disappearing - as the hare ran here and the hare ran there. Again the hare used her magic - Even had been born a twin ("was the other one Odd?" "get out") and the hare's magic made it seem like his brother had come from the lands of the dead to visit on this special night, moving through the trees even more quietly than even and leading him away. One of the helpers has a paper mask of a pale face, and is moving around attempting to look ghostly - Will jazzes it up slightly, around the ghost, leaving mists and sparkly trails. The helper heads back to the parents and enjoins them to wait and be distracted while the hares run away.
The third hunter is Liath Lukar - she has many spears and javelins and chased the hare out onto the plains. She gave a great cry and threw many spears and javelins to try and hit the hare. Cherie's black clad helper bring out all the garden stakes Will saw before and start sticking them into the ground behind Cherie as she tells the story, winding between the sitting kids. The hare was too fast and darted back and forth as spears slammed into the ground all around her - so many spears that it became a forest, and Liatha Lukar and the horses and the hunters and the hounds could not follow the hare as she escaped. Will carefully enhances the spears with the suggestions of leaves, and adds more, thickening the thicket.
The fourth hunter was a Slanga, who was a giant - he was part Fomorian, an ancient people who lived in Ireland before even the Aes Shee. He was not fast, but he was stubborn, and he chased the hare as she ran and ran and ran. Some of the helpers pick up their papier mache boulders, form a vaguely human shape and then individually chase Cherie as she runs skips and hops around the kids. Will struggles a bit to think how to enrich this experience, but honestly between his efforts, Cherie's story telling, the helpers though the park and the general amusement at getting away from parents being wolves, the 30 or kids that have't wandered away are really into the whole thing. In the end, Slanga ran for so long that he was exhausted, fell down and slept for 100 years - the helpers pile all the rocks together and Will manages to give the sense that they were moving on their own, shuffling and slumping down, breathing heavily.
Aedis started a fire to flush the hare out - Cherie's helpers run back and forth with tangled red and yellow fabric, entangling all the kids briefly and closing in on Cherie, the hare. Will adds a subtle glow to the fabric, making it flicker more obviously. The hare changed her behaviour - instead of running and fleeing, she waited still until the fire grew near her, then ran and leapt through the thinnest part. Cherie leaps a considerable distance past all the fabric fire.
The wolf parents have been growing closer while this is going on, somewhat attracted by all the action that they can't quite make out, but the kids flee off at speed again. ("This is great, much better than trick or treating").
The second to last hunter is Tarannis. Tarannis is chasing the hair close behind, on horseback, closer and closer. The parents are closer as well. All the hare did was run into a wild field, where neither plough had touched soil nor animals had been fences. And when Tarannis, close behind the hair, jumped off his horse and run out close behind, the clouds above cleared, revealing a wild sky full of stars as bright as they were at the dawn of time. Tarannis is entranced, unable to break his eyes away from the sky, and the hare flees onward.
Cherie has brought the kids into an open space here, and the sky does seem to be ... unusual... for the city, with many more stars than you could normally be seen. As they flee on, the parents come out and look up, and they do seem.. to... be..... the pack members tear their eyes away from the sky, but all the parents that were following along are caught with their necks cricked, and not moving, ocassionally saying 'wow'. Finn gives one a nudge and they say 'wow'. The pack figure they can fix this later - right now they need to make sure Cherie keeps to her part of the deal and doesn't use this point to make off with a child. Will is keeping up with the fae, and takes this chance to make another strong illusion - the hare makes her appearance again, running next to Cherie as she keeps telling the last part of the story.
Now only Usheen was left, continuing to chase the hare. He followed her into thick forests - and Cherie leads the kids into the garden and conservatory area - and around, across creeks (blue cloth, which Will enhances - there's water trickling nearby which helps), under bushes. There should be lights here, but there's nothing, like somene's taken them out. Finn, who has crept up, adds faerie lights to the mix. Cherie leads the children back and forth through to the centre of the garden (no, not in a widdershins direction). The story proceeds that Usheen tracked the hare into the very centre of the wood, and there he saw the white lady again, and no sign of the hare. The story concludes with the lady saying that the warriors that failed or fell were full of pride with no tempering of humility. Usheen sees that he and his Fianna been too boastful, too braggardly; the lady says that if they do not mend their ways, this will happen to all the Fianna and the house of Finn McCool. Usheen is humbled by the hare.
Cherie tells this conclusion at the very heart of the gardens, and its really, really dark. Even Finn's faerie lights do more to highlight that depth of night than to illuminate it. Cherie's story winds down to a whisper. Will briefly considers providing a bright conclusion, but realises that Cherie is winding down rather than making a climax. And then, the lady glowed in the moonlight, and transformed into the hare, and leapt into the forest. Will takes this moment to ask the spirit to hide Cherie, which it does. The kids spend a moment in the dark, obviously waiting for her to come back, with some faint wows. And then it draws out a bit too far, and they start to get a bit paniced. Sinead and Finn, who have snuck right up, say "Ok, kids, lets go back out to your parents". A teenager switches on a torch and gives Sinead a greasy look. As soon as there is artifical light, the spell is broken, and all the kids start to follow the few helpers who had been hiding nearby out to the grass where their parents are waiting.
The arrival of all the children breaks whatever glamour had been put on the adults, and they all suddenly look down, holding sore necks. The garou watch a bit apprehensively, and make sure all the parents get all their spawn back and no one is down one. Its 10 minutes of confusion before they are all totally satisfied and breathe again. ("And no bunny had to get killed for anything")
Will takes this chance to step out into the centre of the garden. He senses unnatural again and finds there's a light sense across the entire park. He spots Cherie a distance away, at one of the tables and talking to some of the teenagers. He heads over, and waits at a distance, conveying "when you're ready". She sees him, but moves onto the other groups too. There's some oddly-familiar touching as she talks to them - its a strange vibe, but he cannot figure out what the situation is. After about 20 or 30 minutes she comes back to Will.
Cherie looks a lot better than she did before. Will says he thinks it went well and she makes a non-commital noise and says his help didn't hurt. She is satisfied. ("She's no longer methadone fresh"). So now what? Will suggests he could make an attempt to re-do his end of their original bargain. ("it is a good jumper. I should get another one so I could wear one. Or Elinor could wear two I guess") She sounds not entirely impressed with the idea. Will points out the rest of his pack were more on the side of "iron chains, drop you in the sea" sort of problem solving, and Cherie says she though they were all about fulfilling promises - surely stopping him from doing so wasn't a good idea. Do they have such massive issues with him going to a party and listening to music? Nooo. Ok, then musicians. Party. There's lots of parties tonight, right?
Will opts to not take Cherie to Melissa's halloween party. ("In character, its a horrible idea. Out of character, it'd be great!"). He reiterates that there's murdering on the cards, ("You are literally telling me you're going to murder her if I don't solve it!") but Cherie doesn't really take it seriously and asks what Will wants. He says he doesn't want to kill her, so she says how about he fulfils his deal rapidly then? Will rolls his eyes and goes to make a call. He knows a guy who is bouncer at a party, and organises to get on the list.
The others, having remembered that Melissa is having a party (or going to a party), decide to go. Sinead rings her and asks if its still happening and Melissa is keen on her coming. There's a long pause before Melissa says "just you " and Sinead says that Finn and Tillie will come too ("Kasumi's not coming because she has a maaad murder boner at the moment." "Honestly, i'm only going to be there in case Melissa freaks out and kills someone"). There's hardly a pause before she says "oh cool". The pack shrug and head down to the party ("I kinda wanna be that douchebag at the party with a guitar"). ("Remember, don't do drugs. Just take the and bring them directly to me")
Melissa's party isn't at her house - its clearly a "my parents are out for the weekend" teenager party. Almost all the people here are 17 or 18 and in year 12. There's a fair amount of cheap champagne and the distinct smell of vomitting already, at least to garou noses. Its all teenager music and teenager drama and Tillie is twitching. Melissa is some drunk and glad to see them, even though these alternative weirdos are very intense and make her friends a bit nervous. Finn is off intensely explaining how to manage the first year of university to people who have a much higher chance than him of finishing their degree. Sinead on the other hand has her finger on the pulse, picking up all the cues and tos and fros ("6 successes"). Sinead can tell that Melissa is trying to impress them slightly - she mostly wants them to have a good time here with her friends. But at the same time, she's slightly disconnected from her school friends. Sinead decides that she wants to help Melissa with her friends and extends forth her social powers ("7 successes this time") - she could choose to be queen of these teenagers and rule them; but she opts instead to make Melissa a princess. She can be the coolest girl at the party ("i heard she killed a man" "I heard she was in the olympics") with her weird cool hair and piercings and tattoos and Melissa is her best friend. ("I'm living vicariously through my character - its become clear now why this was never me"). ("this is your one night - then you go back to sponges and goop and people trying to murder you").
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