Bob learns Heightened Senses. Cole spends some time learning about aboriginal paintings in Victoria, with an eye to replacing the lost paintings in the new caern. Leaps-in-the-Light notices his efforts, and speaks with Cole about them for a while. After Cole has explained what he wants to do, and how he was thinking of going about it, Leaps-in-the-Light agrees, but cautions him not to do anything without checking with the new Sept Elders. Cole is told he can ask for help from any of the Fianna with this task if he needs it. Researching aboriginal artwork in Victoria proves to be a fairly frustrating task as the settlement in Melbourne spread so quickly that much of the existing cultural information was obliterated.
Abby finishes learning Spirit Summoning, but is cautioned to perhaps learn more about spirits before using it to any great degree. The pack wave goodbye to their Fianna friends and head back to Melbourne, promising to think about a name for the new Sept. Passing through the caern, they catch up on local news - Rainbow Inc has a new Managing Director, Steven Marshall. Rudolph Chambers has quit, bought a motorcycle and is driving around Australia. The evidence that was collected from Tony Staley's body - including the very coarse black hair - has been tampered with, and not by the Sept, replacing it with normal-looking hair. The Scryers and Hidden Green are dealing with an attempt to take over the State Government, which might be mage related.
Abby gets home to find that her bungalow has been broken into and some cds have been stolen. She tells Aubrey and Colleen, the kinfolk whose house she lives out the back off, and they are all sympathetic and apologetic. Abby has an idea and says that she'll be back soon. She goes back to the bungalow and changes form to lupus, and starts trailing the scent. It seems that whoever did it leapt over the back fence and then kept going down the alley out the back of their place. The trail leads to the back of another house, not far away, rather unkempt and with all the curtains shut. Abby shrugs and jumps the fence. She tries to leap through a window, but only manages to bruise her nose, making her cross. It does attract some attention and someone opens the back door. Abby runs past, knocking them down and snapping and snarling. She leaps into a large living room, from where the strains of her Cranberries cd are emanating. Much panic from the 3 or 4 people inside this room as the large reddish dog ...yes...dog.... leaps into the room and snarls at them all. The dog then proceeds to make it clear that its here for the cds and a scared skanky human tips all the cds that are there into a bag. The dog stops the Cranberries cd and makes a lot of head movements that indicate that they should put that one in the bag too. Abby then picks up the bag and saunters home, about 100 cds richer than when she started. She goes and lets Colleen and Aubrey know that she got her stuff back and they won't be broken into again, and they look a bit wide eyed. However, Abby isn't spattered in blood or anything, so they let it slide. Colleen says they are going on holiday tomorrow, would Abby mind staying in their house while they're away? Abby agrees, Colleen says they will be back next Thursday.
Cole returns to the placid calm (*BOOM*) of his (*BUDDABUDDABUDDA*) apartment (*KABOOM*). Freya is passing through the caern when she is approached by Marcus Finlay. It seems Marcus is doing a comedy gig at the Espy in St Kilda, and would appreciate having a lot of friendly faces in the crowd (which can get a bit abusive, apparently). Freya says she'll pass the message on to people when she sees them. Corey and Abby spend some time getting ready for Uni, which starts on Monday morning.
The pack head off to Marcus' gig a bit early, hoping to get a good spot there. The room that the comedy is in isn't actually open yet, so they settle into the public bar and just generally socialise. Marion Perry and Georgina Quittner (both members of Hand of Lore) are both there already and wave. Its a fairly busy night, its been pleasant weather all day, and there are a lot of people out for a night on the town, so both of the public bars are reasonably full. One room seems to have a heavy metal group playing, and someone spots Scott Rosen slamdancing, with other members of Steel Hunters looking on. The pack pretends not to see them. More general socialising and chitchat. Other Garou drop past, including most of Get of Pennington, Marcus' pack. Most of them are friendly, but Kirsty ignores all of Claws of Wisdom.
The comedy room opens and people move in, looking for good seats. Georgina and Marion join the Claws of Wisdom and room is made for them. Krieg gets up to buy a round for everyone, and runs into Peter, his new student, at the bar. They chat for a bit, and Peter asks if Krieg would mind if Peter joined him, as the people he was here with piked at the last moment, and he feels a bit stupid in there alone. Krieg says sure and Peter squeezes in between him and Marion, and is introduced to everyone. The mood is up, and everyone is having a good time. The comedy gig starts up, the first guy is fairly nervous, Marcus is on second and is pretty good. Everyone applauds at the end of that bracket and there is a lot of movement around the place as people get up for new drinks. Krieg suddenly feels a heavy hand slam down on his shoulder and Scott Rosen proclaims "Ooo, the babies are out on their own". Abby responds, basically saying "sod off", and Claude, who has snuck around the other side says "Oo, does your babysitter know where you are tonight?" Marion hustles Peter off to get some drinks for everyone as people almost slip out various touchy phrases like "pack" and "glory". Abby, Freya, Scott and Claude snipe at each other for a bit. Abby points out that they've been too busy lately saving important things to hear what Steel Hunters has been up to, if anything. Claude swipes her drink, saying "You're too young to be drinking little girl... ew, wine cooler!" He makes choking noises. There is some more verbal sniping back and forth and then Scott and Claude leave as the second bracket begins.
The mood has been made a bit edgy by this encounter, and so the next two commedians aren't received as well as they might have been by the tables of weirdos up the back, but the feeling is eventually restored. The comedy finishes with a large round of applause and the house lights come up and music on. No one shows signs of heading off quickly. Marcus buzzes past to tell people that he appreciates them coming along, and that he's having an afterparty kind of thing back at his flat in an hour or two, they're all welcome. They get the details down. Peter and Marion are deep in conversation, Georgina bids people a good night and goes out via the bar. Tanya Mueller sits down and says "Was Scott giving you shit?" Abby says "yes, but -" and Tanya gets up and disappears into the crowd. She comes back with Scott in tow, and demands that he apologises. Tanya says that this nitpicking between two packs weakens the Garou as a whole, and that it needs to stop. Scott is fairly bluff about out the whole thing, and tells Tanya that Abby and all know that its all in good fun. He asks people to come dancing to prove there's no hard feeling, and Corey and Bob agree. Scott didn't mention that it was slam dancing, but its the thought that counts.
The event starts to move off to Marcus' flat, and people organise lifts to get there. Krieg looks around for Peter, but he has caught a lift with Marion. Marcus' flatmates are looking a little stunned at all the people who arrive, but get into the swing of it. People are standing around smoking and drinking, and generally having a good time. Various members of Claws of Wisdom head off as the night gets on. Krieg looks around for Peter before he goes, but can't find him. Or Marion. Oh well. Its not like she's an ahroun and will accidentally eat him... no.. wait...
Sweet, blessed rest.
Abby is running late for her first class at Melbourne Uni and heads out the door in a rush, and nearly killing herself on something that was left on her doorstep, plunging down the stairs and scattering her books everywhere. Restraining the urge to give in to her rage and kill everything, she picks up her stuff and glances back at what the hell it was she nearly died on. Apparently its a baby.
Abby does a doubletake and reassures herself that there is actually a baby in a sort of portable crib at her front door (Well, her landlord's front door, but the essence is the same). She picks the crib thing up and heads inside. There is a note attached to the blanket, which says "In bocco di lupo. M". Abby knows that it is literally translated as "In the mouth of the wolf", but that it is also idiomatic Italian for "Good luck". She rings Freya and panics a bit onto a messange bank. Abby changes form outside of the child's sight and sniffs the crib. The child is the strongest smell, but there is a floral scent as well, and that of an older woman, as well as a dirty/oily/plasticy smell. Abby takes the baby out of the crib and checks her out for distinguishing marks. The child is dark eyed and dark haired, maybe 6 months old, vaguely olivish skin, with a slight discoloured birthmark on her shoulder (not in the shape of anything mystical). Oh yes, and the crib also contains many small bundles of $10, $20 and $50 notes, crinkled and not well organised. Abby does a quick check and finds that there is about $20,000 dollars here.
Carmel is sitting in her cafe having a quiet morning when her phone rings and Abby babbles something about a baby, $20,000 and needing some help here. She sighs and heads off to Abbagail's house, taking Flynn, her son, along. Abby runs off to classes, having missed the first half of her lecture, and then runs straight back home. Between them, Carmel and Abby manage to sort out the girl (who is named Sarah for convenience). Abby rings Graeme and explains what has happened, and does he know any kinfolk who might have dropped a girl off. He doesn't but promises to ask around. Abby also asks him to let any of her pack know to come and visit. Bob and Krieg drop around in the early afternoon, and followup the scent. Well, Bob does, Krieg masks it. The old woman scent leads back from Abby's door to the curbside a few houses up, and there is the scent of an expensive car, leather seats sort of thing, faintly at that spot. Abby goes to Safeway and buys some stuff for Sarah with the unmarked, hard to trace notes. While she is there, she noticess the same floral scent as was marked on the crib. After being trapped by the wearer of the scent for some time ("Oh yes, my daughter Marjorie gave it to me for Christmas. She's a loverly girl, but I don't get to see her often..."), she flees back home and lets Carmel get back to the cafe. Freya reads her message and comes over after spending the day teaching. She flicks through the newspapers looking for something relevant, but doesn't find anything in particular. She does get a strange sense that something is happening - people missing, a couple of odd reports, nothing concrete. She cuts them out anyway.
Krieg jogs off to make his teaching commitments for the afternoon, but is stopped by two guys in suits who ask him some strange questions about people who might have moved out recently. They are from Foster First National Real Estate, and when Krieg says he doesn't live around here they apologise for wasting his time and head off to the next house on the street. Krieg lurks about tying a shoelace and hears them ask the same thing from the woman who answers the door. He calls back to Abby's place and lets them know about these strange, strange people before jogging back to the martial arts school. Bob heads out in lupus form and finds them, following them along. They seem to ask questions about whether people might have moved out recently from any of the nearby houses, and note down the responses, or if no one asnwers the door. They hand out a card to people, and Bob manages to score one. Although the ink runs in his mouth, he can sort of read it - Foster First National, a name and a mobile phone number. The two suits get into a Ford where a third guy is sitting and chat for a bit before driving off. Bob remembers that several people on this street told them about some people who had left recently in a house across the road, so he goes and sleeps there, hoping something will happen.
Abby gets some videos and tries to encourage her packmates to come around and keep her company. She rings Colleen and Aubrey on their holiday and explains what has happened. They are fairly baffled, and offer to come home if Abby needs them too. She seems to have things under control and tells them to enjoy their holiday. Abby also rings her parents, makes enquiries with her dad about Fianna kinfolk who might have lost a baby, and with her mum about anything she needs to do to make sure Sarah is ok. At some point in the evening, Graeme gets to see Sarah and says that she's not kinfolk (or potential Garou), but just human).
About 11pm, Bob hears a couple of sharp noises, like glass smashing. He runs around the back of the house and it seems that someone has broken into this house and looked around for something, or taken something particular. He follows the scents back to a somewhat familiar Ford, and two men with the light on. They start up the car and drive off. Bob goes and gets Krieg, Corey and Cole and they rush around the neighbourhood. They happen to see the car parked and rush along to see what is happening. Krieg is the ghost in the night, blending from shadow to shadow. Bob is the dog that barked in the night, crashing into bins. The two men the lupus garou are following through rocks at Bob who slinks off. The men sneak up to the back door of the house, and subtly breakin. Krieg can vaguely hear them moving around from room to room, and after 2 minutes they come out again, heading back to the car. Krieg runs ahead of them to the car and manages to warn Corey and Cole, who were ransacking the car, and who leap across the road and behind parked cars on the other side. Bob goes into the house they just looked at, and finds that stuff has been moved about, but not as if it has been burgled. The men seem to have gone to the teledex and through a photo album and looked around a lot, but that's it. Krieg leaps into the Umbra and then out again in the boot of the car. Someone overhears the guys arguing and then they drive off. Cole and Corey tell Bob that there was a briefcase in the car with a loaded gun in it. They can't keep up with the car, and it heads off, so they go back to Abby's.
Meanwhile, Krieg is getting an exciting trip in the back of a car which is driving away. He can't hear anything due to the road noise, and can't step out because he'd crash along in the Umbra at 60kms/hr. He suddenly realises that when the car stops, he won't be able to see, because the lights will go off. The car does stop, but the engine keeps going. Krieg hears the car door slam and then it takes off again, so he figures one of the guys go out. When the car stops again he quickly steps before the car lights go out.
In the meantime, Bob and the others are curious as to where Krieg has got to, so they do a Questing Stone ritual for him. He's way north of where they expect, so Cole, Corey and Bob take off after him. Freya remains at the house while Abby goes into the Umbra to talk to a spirit about hiding Sarah. She summons a duck spirit and chatters to it for a while, trying not to laugh. Eventually, in return for digging a pond for birds out the back of the house, duck will agree to be bound into the porta-crib and hide it for a while. This Abby does, and it goes off without a hitch.
In one of those amazing coincidences, Krieg decides to get in contact with the rest of his pack before doing anything else, and is running back to a nearby phonebox in the Realm when he meets up with his pack members which are looking for him. They head back to the house and look about. It sort of appears in the Umbra, but only the basic structure and some wiring, so Krieg wanders about peeking while the others watch over him. They discover that the guy's name is Claudio Ramano, and that he seems to live alone. He also seems to fairly asleep, so they opt to try sneaking around the house in the Realm instead of in the Umbra. Bob, Krieg and Corey step through and creep about the place. They find Claudio's briefcase, and it has the sports section of the sun, with some horses circled, a big pile of Foster First National cards with Claudio's mobile phone number on them (they find the bill) and a rather large and shiny automatic. All these items are replaced and Claudio's house is scoured a bit more. He apparently works for Tyrus Wholesalers, whose office address is near Essendon Airport. They probe about a bit more, and resist the urge to jump Claudio and rough him up. Back home, scattering to their own sleeping places
The pack get on with their normal lives during the day, planning on going and finding the two guys during the night when they start turning houses over again. Checking back at the caern during the day finds that it looks like a bomb site - apparently the Scryers and The Alternative from Hidden Green were following up an attempt to possibly gain control of the state government by mages (it's guessed). They had traced some of the activity to a warehouse in Braybrook and had fought off a collection of demons and banes. They were investigating around when Chases-the-Car suddenly chased everyone out and then the building exploded. It made the news, suprisingly enough. So the caern is dealing with possessed humans in parliament and injured garou and the remnants of evidence. In short, they aren't really interested in the baby at the moment. Individual members of the pack help out for periods of time by healing and cleansing people and things.
About mid-afternoon, Krieg grabs Bob and heads off to Airport West, to see what Tyrus Wholesale does, if anything. The office address is a small concrete wall-floor-ceiling office with a reception area, an office and a kitchenette, leading out into a loading bay type of area. The only inhabitant is a receptionist whose name is apparently Cathy. She is not doing very much - painting her nails and answering the phone is about it. Nothing much seems to be happening, so they head back again.
After grabbing some take away for people from Lygon St and having a sort of picnic in the caern, the pack is heading back to Abby's before heading out to find Claudio for the evening when Freya and Abby spot what seems to be a giant limo out the front of Abby's house. A strong burst of paranoia erupts and the pack back off and head around the back way. It doesn't seem that anyone is inside Abby's house, nor is there any scent of someone who might have been there. Krieg and Freya walk past the limo and idly look at it, but the windows are all tinted, making it hard to see inside. Freya and Corey go into the Umbra to peek inside and find that there is a driver still in the car, reading and listening to the radio, and occasionally looking up, apparently at Abby's door.
After some discussion, its decided that Cole will lurk out the back of the house with Sarah, and Abby and Krieg will walk up to the door while the others lurk, ready to spring. As Abby gets near to her house, the guy in the limo gets out and calls out to her that her limo is ready. The chaffeur is apparently called Charles Stewart, and he is here to take her and her five friends to his employers house, in Toorak. Further, respondant say not. More discussion, and Abby says that she'll be back out in a minute. She runs in calls the caern, and talks to them about doing something with Sarah. Graeme gets Nadine Holloway to contact Abby, and organise for someone to babysit. While Cole tears off to the zoo and then runs to Brunswick Road to meet the others, Abby tells Charles that he'll have to get the sixth on of her friends from somewhere north of the zoo. They all get together in the end and Charles drives off. There is an intercom between the front and back compartments and a lot of luxury bits and pieces in the back, but the pack mostly leave it alone.
The limo pulls up out the front of a mansion in Toorak, bright with lights and with music faintly drifting out of the open windows. There are many rather flash cars parked neatly along the driveway. The car stops and Charles opens the door, letting the pack out. He escorts them inside where they are met by an honest-to-god butler. He leads them away from the noise to a drawing room where there is food and drink waiting, and informs them that he will let the master know they are here. A few minutes pass, and the pack leaves the food well alone. The door opens again and a vaguely eastern european looking man enters, dressed impeccably in a tuxedo. He is fairly terse and to the point and demands to know what their interest in the baby is. Abby asks him the same question and also asks who the hell he is. The man introduces himself as Ion Apostolova, Master of the Challenge at Hidden Green and rank 3 Shadowlord Ahroun, and then repeats his question. The pack try to tell him the truth ("We have no fucking idea what is going on") and he scoffs and makes some vague threats ("I don't think you would like me as an opponent"). Eventually they convince him at least a bit that they really don't know what is going on and its all confusing. Abby makes it clear that she's only interested in the welfare of the baby herself. Ion drops a few hints that he might be involved with some shady characters and that they might be involved with the baby. He drops the name Tutti Pantoliano, and then sends them on their way, returning to his party.
The pack make various cursing noises, and then go back in the limo to Abby's, retrieve Sarah from Nadine with thanks and sit down to plan their next step. They opt to prowl the night, looking for the Claudio and friends. After a short hunt around the area, they find them while peeking from the Umbra, but all is not well in mysterious thug land. Claudio and Jimmy seem less than impressed to be breaking into houses. However, Joseph, who was the third suit the day before insists that they should continue. Jimmy makes some comments about "that stupid bitch is crazy, Tutti is going to catch us" and Joseph smacks him in the head. Jimmy lets loose a burst of angry non-english and there is a small scuffle. In the end, Jimmy and Claudio sullenly continue. The next house, Jimmy tells Joseph "you can do it your fucking self, I'm staying here" and won't move regardless "You're the one sucking up to that bitch, you do it. I'm not getting nailed by Tutti for your arse." Claudio is also not happy, but goes with Joseph. They break in rather unsubtlely and hunt around the house. Weirdly, they don't take anything expensive, but grab a telephone directory and look through the bin and at photos. Returning to the car, Claudio says something like "the baby is not going to be here, this is nuts." and the argument breaks out again. Joseph bullies the other two into continuing, but they make him go with one of them to a few more houses. The pack decide to try and follow Joseph home as he seems to be in charge. They ring Abby, who is at home and tell her to hide the evidence of baby stuff, as they seem to be looking for it. There is some speculation about maybe tricking them into breaking into Abby's place, but she's not too impressed with the idea.
Eventually the three entrepreneurs give it a rest and drive home. Freya goes home, having to work in the morning, but Krieg, Bob and Corey follow along, and stop at Joseph's house. he lives on the third floor of an apartment block, which doesn't really have much of a presence in the Umbra. They decide to climb some of the structural bits that do exist and see what they can see. Krieg peeks and is looking into a rather nice apartment, mostly dark as Joseph heads to bed. They talk about what to do for a bit, and Krieg decides to try and step into the apartment to let the others in by the door. He swings up and into the space the apartment occupies and then steps. Or rather, doesn't. Krieg smashes into the ground a speed, breaking his wrist and crushing his fob watch. He lies there thinking "ouch" as it all heals back together. Well, not the watch, obviously. Back up the weaver web and lets try that again. Bob and Corey consider selling tickets, but this time it comes off without a hitch. Krieg opens the front door, and the others jog up the stairs. They creep about and look for some information. There doesn't seem to be much new, so Corey decides to go with plan B - they'll bail the guy up and demand the information from him.
Joseph's light is still on in the bedroom, so they wait until it goes out. And then 10 minutes more. Krieg and Corey change to glabro, slip inside and shuffle over to the bed, one at the end, one on the side, while Bob waits in homid near the light switch. As Bob hits the switch, it occurs to Krieg that he didn't actually check that Joseph lived alone. Oh well, too late now. Corey and Krieg totally wrap Joseph up in the blanket before he even gets a chance to sneeze and pin him to the bed. Once he stops squiggling, they ask him some questions. Corey demonstrates his mixedmorph ability and makes a claw on one hand, tickling Joseph's kidneys with it, so Joseph becomes awfully cooperative. Apparently the baby's name is Maria, and she's Antony's child. Antony is Tutti's son. Tutti is looking for the baby. Joseph got a tip off from Irena Sliviak that the baby was in Carlton somewhere, and he was told to go and look for the child and give her back to Tutti. Why not Antony, ask the pack, and Joseph is a little recalcitrant, but implies that there is some bad blood there, and that Tutti might want to use the child as surety.
Having sucked Joseph's brains dry (not literally), they scoop him up in the blanket and shove him in the cupboard, slamming the door, then run for it. They all head back to Abby's house to share this information and figure out what the hell to do now.
Abby and Freya have been looking on the net for information on Tutti Pantoliano. They don't find a lot, but what they do find seems to indicate that he is associated with an organised group of people involved in some illicit dealings, but that he has never been arrested for anything significant. The information isn't detailed, and mostly seems to be bit out of newspaper articles. When the others show up, they swap information. Given that its reasonably late by this point, they run off to bed.
Everyone gets on with their mundane lives during the day. Abby gives her parents a ring and asks whether she could drop Maria there, as Abby needs to get back on with uni, and she's a little leery about leaving her unprotected, just in case. Eventually her parents agree, and she and Freya head up to Ballaraat after getting Cole to take a few polaroid photos of Maria. They meet Abby's dad and give him the baby.
Krieg goes to see Marion, finding her busking on the street. The conversation gets around to Peter, with Krieg using his vast knowledge of human behaviour and etiquette to approach the subject obliquely. Marion is apparently enjoying the relationship, although she points out that they've known each other for 5 days now, so that might be overexaggerating their situation. Apparently Peter had some problems with her main source of income (busking), but he's dealing. Krieg tries to think of a way of saying "don't break him", but fails fairly comprehensively.
At dusk, people reassembled (*shhhhlurp*) and consider their options. They have a number of names - Tutti Pantoliano, Antony Pantoliano, Maria Pantoliano, Irena Sliviak - and someone remembers that Bob knows Questing Stone. Bob performs the Rite on the name "Irena Sliviak" and gets a strong pull towards South Yarra. The pack piles into two cars and heads that way. Bob does the ritual again, and it points to a particular couch. Everyone jumps into the Umbra and scours the place for clues. Krieg and Freya peek while the others walk around the umbral reflection, keeping an eye out for spiders (given the weaverness of the area). There are two people in the house, watching television, one male, one female. The house seems to be a single-person house, with a vaguely masculine overtone, although there are two toothbrushes in the bathroom. Krieg does a sense unnatural on the two people and starts making "ga" noises as the woman stretches and then says in a rather loud voice "I think I'll just go out the back for a moment". Krieg says that she senses of Garou.
The pack take the broad hint and head out the back, stepping back into the Realm. Irena is fairly terse ("Did you want something?") right up to the point where the baby is mentioned, where she gets more alert, but less verbal. The conversation is turning a bit sharp and antagonistic when Corey lets slip that they actually have the baby, at which point Irena become sweetness and light. She suggests that they get together at a cafe in St Kilda - she'll meet them there in 20 minutes. Some of the pack run there in the Umbra, others drive in the Realm and Cole trails Irena to make sure she doesn't make any unexpected detours. She does use the phone on the way there, but he has no idea who she's talking to.
At the cafe, Cole remains in his car, parked and watching the cafe. Krieg and Freya are in the Umbra, peeking. Corey, Bob and Abby are in the actual cafe, talking to Irena, who explains that she is very interested in knowing the location of the baby, and she would be interested in coming to some arrangement. Abby is a bit upset that Irena thinks the baby is a commodity, so Irena tries to negotiate with Corey instead. Abby storms out. Freya steps into the Realm and finds a phone box, calling the sept. She chats to Emma a bit about Irena and finds that she is from the Hidden Green sept and that she is ambitious, wanting to oust Ion from his position as Master of the Challenge. Emma isn't surprised to find that Irena is involved in the baby thing, but doesn't go into detail about how it would help in a Garou/Garou matter. Corey is asking Irena for more information on what sort of arrangement she wants to come to - Irena favours giving the baby to Tutti to ensure that she'll be safe, as returning her to Antony will unavoidably put her in danger. When Corey looks not to sure about this option, Irena mentions the possibility of leaving the child with someone trustworthy, and out of the entire situation, and as long as she was sure where the child was, this would suit her almost as well. Corey says that they'll think about it and Irena says that he should give her a call tomorrow. She drops some money on the table for the coffees and leaves.
The pack go back to the caern. Abby is still fairly incensed, and the others are fairly confused about how the Pantoliano feud will help Irena in a challenge to be Master of the Challenge. Bob gets bored and wanders off to sleep. The others talk for a while, and try to think where to go from now. They eventually decide to find Antony, which involves waking up the slightly cranky Bob. Questing Stone reveals that Antony is down south of Mentone somewhere. Everyone piles into the cars and drives that way again. Bob quests once more for Antony and gets a huge number of sucesses. Antony is in a two storey house in Carrum. The house has very little Umbral presence - in fact, the whole Umbra is one big muddy swamp, full of mud, ti tree and bugs. Bob opts to stay in the car. The others spy into Antony's house. Antony is upstairs in bed, reading, with a woman who is asleep (presumably his wife). Downstairs are two gentlemen in suits, with gun holsters, one watching television, the other asleep in a back room. There is not much in the way of ornamentation through the house.
Much spying is done trying to understand the situation. In the end, Cole decides to prompt things along. He gets one of the polaroids that he took earlier of Maria and writes on the back "This is not a threat. We are friends. Just want to talk. Please call on 04 55 555 555 if the phone is safe". He then dedicates the photo and runs back through the Umbra with it. Krieg lifts him up to the level of the balcony out the bedroom window. Unfortunately in the time it takes him to step sideways, Antony has closed his book, shut the window and gone to bed, but its not fastened very well, so Cole opens it quietly. He pins the photo to the curtains with one of Freya's hairpins and steps away again. Then back into the Realm (only a matter of time until he's stuck) and piffs a clod of earth at the window. This does make Antony react - he gets up and heads downstairs without turning on the light and talks to the man in front of the television. That man mutes the tv, turns on the light in one of the front rooms and then peers out the curtains in a different room. Nothing seems to materialise, so they shrug and Antony goes back to bed. The man sits at a different chair and doesn't turn the tv back on. Antony briefly flicks the light on in the main bedroom, and goes to switch it off, but sees the photo. He unpins it and glances at the back before running downstairs in a fair hurry, waving it at the other man. They see the message and burst into action.
The sleeping man is woken, and Antony runs upstairs and wakes the woman. They start throwing clothes together, while the first unknown man makes a few phone calls that seem to indicate that he might just be a federal policeman, and that he is asking other federal policemen to make certain enquiries about a mobile phone number. Cole has this information passed onto him and sprints for his car and phone. He clears the messagebank and then turns the phone off. The presumed safe house continues its preparations to leave while the Garou watch from the Umba
Given the amount of evidence that Cole has provided, the pack decide to do something rather quickly. The photo, with the damning fingerprints, phone number and handwriting sample, is on the bench in the kitchen, overlooked by one of the policemen on the phone. The other policeman is on the ground, with Antony and Mia, who are trying to get him to let them call the number. The discussion eventually attracts the attention of the 1st policeman and he asks them to wait until they can get some tracing equipment in place here, apparently in about 30 minutes. The Garou eep, now having a firm timelimit. 24 minutes of arguing later, they opt for plan a-2. That is, Cole and Abby will make a distraction and Krieg will step into the laundry and peek arond the corner, using Create Element to burn the photo.
Everyone is in position, with Freya watching the Realm so she can see Cole throw his rock through a window and then be able to signal Krieg. Cole winds up and lets loose, and Freya says "go". As Kreig plunges through the Gauntlet, Freya watches as Cole's rock flies well above the house and out into the street. Krieg appears instantly, and opens the door a little. One of the policemen looks his way and then there is a smash as the second rock is thrown through the window quite hard. "That's not right" thinks Krieg. Nonetheless, he lets loose with his Gift and produces many cubic feet of flame, suddenly bursting across the bench out of nowhere and lighting up the room and surprising the occupants. Krieg steps out again. Those watching see the confused police try to put them burning photo out and figure out what the hell just happened. They yell a lot down the phone and in the next couple of minutes another two fairly unnoticeable cars non-chalantly cruise up and into the garage. The Garou feel that they can probably leave, and Cole definately wants to be home when they come a knocking. After checking that the window sill won't have prints, they run to Cole's car and yoik it into the Umbra until the police have gone, then jog it over to the freeway through the Umbral swamp. Cole burls home as fast as possible, Krieg drives the others around.
About 7am, Cole's front buzzer is buzzed repeatedly. He eventually answers it and is told that a Detective Faithful would like to come up and talk to him. Cole is more or less expecting this, so he lets them in. While shooing the statues into the room where they can stand and look inconspicuous (except Quiney), Gina makes some fairly violent suggestions about throwing them out a window, like the last two. Cole demands to know what last two, and Gina goes quiet and hides in the room. A knock at the door distracts Cole, and there turn out to be two men, a Detective Patrick Faithful and a Detective Nick Gronow. Cole acts as innocent and confused as he can as Det. Faithful politely asks him questions and Det. Gronow wanders through his apartment without saying anything. Det. Faithful asks Cole if he can describe what he did yesterday and if he has his phone with him. Having thrown it in the Umbral swamp, Cole looks around for it, and then out to the car to see if its there. He looks up to find Gina mimicing pushing someone out a window at him and there is a moment or two of frantic handwaving between them. Cole returns to say he seems to have lost it.
Det. Faithful also asks if he lives alone, and when Cole says yes, he is asked who Winston is. Er, a friend, and no, I don't have contact details, bluffs Cole. Det. Faithful also asks him where he was February 20-25. Cole thinks for a few minutes and then realises he was in the Atrocity Realm - not a good alabi. He makes up a story about driving around Victoria looking for info on koori paints and artwork, and pulls out a coffee table book as evidence of his interest in the subject. Eventually he seems to satisfy the two detectives and they leave.
Freya and Krieg spend the day teaching, Bob sleeping and Cole twitching. Abby decides to find out more about the whole Ion and Irena feud and gets in contact with Tanya Mueller. They get together for coffee and Abby tries to subtly approach the subject. Tanya is having nothing of this and is blunt and to the point. Basically Irena wants to be Master of the Challenge, and to do so, she has to beat Ion. Part of Ion's power comes from his influence over criminal elements in Melbourne, so Irena is trying to build her own up as well. Tanya doesn't know anything about the baby, but is happy to drink Abby's coffee.
The pack get together and chat about what to do with Maria (marry her off to an Austrian Baron, according to the movies). They feel that they need to know more, and decide to bug Ion. He agrees to meet them in the plaza near Hidden Green, and even buys them coffee. They ask him for some information, and he wants to know what they know. They are fairly forthcoming (except about the photo bits) and then ask for some information about what is going on and what his interest in the eventual outcome is. Ion makes it clear that he doesn't care whether the baby is returned to her parents or to Tutti, as long as Irena doesn't get the credit for returning her. Abby makes a non-commital sort of "ok" and Ion tells them a little more - basically that Tutti and Antony had a falling out and that Antony wants to go clean (some sort of epiphany after his daughter's birth, apparently) and turn his father in or something. Tutti doesn't want this to happen as Antony knows a lot of detail about the family business (extortion, fraud, the odd murder), and would prefer to see Antony return to the fold. Ion also tells them that he believes that Tutti is fond of his granddaughter and wouldn't mistreat her - but that she would be surety of Antony's 'good' behaviour and might suffer for that.
The pack thank him and hum and har about what to do now. They decide to look for a Maria Pantoliano that isn't the child (ie: the one who dropped the child off). After some Questing Stoneness, it becomes clear that she is in a small house in Clifton Hill. After dicking with the security system, Abby goes up to the front door and knocks. She makes it clear that she (Abby) knows about the baby (Maria) and would like to talk to her (Maria senior). Given that Abby speaks Italian and also the same dialect that Maria snr speaks and is being all big-eyed and 17 and innocent, she gets let inside. After speaking with Maria for a while, it becomes clear that she's not entirely in posession of her marbles. Maria snr is apparently Tutti's mother, not wife, and Georgio helped her give the baby to a friend of Antony's. Maria seems to move back and forward in time a bit, but Abby gets the information she's after. She escapes with some fruit cake as Maria returns to her scratchy opera records.
The general feeling is that Maria (jnr) should be returned to her parents. So, out to Ballaraat to get her back from Abby's parents, then Questing Stone (wake up Bob!) to find Antony, who is, apparently, in a farmhouse near Cranbourne. He is also much better guarded than the previous house, which makes it hard to approach. In the end, Freya, in lupus, takes the bassinet with Duck bound into it and with most of the money still inside along through the sneakiest parts of the property that she can. She is almost at the house when a man with a gun and a torch comes out and shines it her way. She drops the crip thing and Abby frees Duck from the binding in the Umbra. The light follows her for a bit then shifts to the crib. After approaching it carefully, the rather confused federal police rush the child inside and then rush around the place like a disturbed hornets nest. A job well done, say the Garou, and nick off for some uninterrupted sleep.
Abby and Freya learn Questing Stone. Cole practices the athletic side of his physique. Bob mooches. Corey goes to the pub a lot. Krieg keeps up his teaching.
On the morning of the Foundation Moot, one of the packs from the new Sept comes out to meet Claws of Wisdom. Corey is extremely hungover and not well, mostly due to the efforts of Cole. They are Green-Choking-Grey, led by Ursula Noble. They Moonbridge to Rippling Waters and start preparations for the evening Moot (ritual cleansing, gagging Cole, etc). All the Garou trundle out to the site and as dusk falls, the Moot rites begin.
Catherine Lie-Thrower is the Master of the Howl for this Moot, and she begins with a faint, ethereal sound, reverberating through the caverns as if it was seeking something. The howl is joined by other voices, and merges into a sound which fits itself to the cavern rather than filling it. When the singes stop, the sound doesn't so much dissapate as slip under the surroundings.
Marches-the-High-Road takes up the refrain, singing a summoning to all friendly spirits as part of Inner Sky. When he finishes, Jirrawan steps away from the wall and walks to the edge of the lake. Marchs-the-High-Road asks (in gaelic) if he will bless this Sept, to be called Scars Atoned, and in return will Jirrawan allow them to be the guardians of this holy place. Jirrawan agrees. Marches-the-High-Road moves to the other spirits in the cave. Most of the pack totems are there, although some are hard to make out. Merlin appears on Corey's arm and Marches-the-High-Road thanks him for his part in bringing the Sept to the Fianna.
As the Sept Leader has not been decided, Jane Redfeather, the new Master of the Challenge, oversees the three challengers in their challenge for leadership. The three contenders are Cairbre Heart-of-Fire (Lu, Fi, Ah, 3), David Thewlis (Ho, Fi, Ph, 4) and Morwenna Elvenheart Firth (Ho, Fi, Ra, 3). The three challenges are a challenge of combat, which is won by Cairbre, a challenge of song, won by David who recites a long epic poem in the correct form, and a challenge of riddles, also won by David. Cairbre looks a little narked, but then takes it in good cheer. Morwenna changes to glabro and there is a moment's panic as she lunges at David. But she hoiks him up into the air and spins him around and around in celebration. Jirrawan recognises David as Sept Leader, and the Moot moves to Cracking the Bone, with David overseeing the mundane business of the Sept. Green-Choking-Grey is recognised, with Ursula as their leader, and the Wild Rovers, with Nick Kanallakos as their leader is also. David also acknowledges the debt the Sept bears to Claws of Wisdom and reiterates that they are full members of the new Sept. Abby takes this moment to challenge Corey for packleadership. Corey opts to step down with arguing (player no show up, and not going to for 2 months) and Abby looks disappointed. The pack's deeds are recognised and as there's not much more business, the Moot becomes more of a gathering.
Llewellan Laughter-of-the-Stream, a senior Fianna from Newcastle is the talesinger for the night, and he begins with a story about Keally O'Shannesey, the Fianna Righ during the War of Tears. There is some murmuring amongst the Sept about the appropriateness of the story, but it quietens down. Llewellan uses his gifts to draw random members of the sept into his story and tells not of the War of Tears, but of the time shortly after that, when Keally drew all the Fianna in Australia together, and they swore an oath that they would never again participate in such an atrocity, and that they would do anything within their power to make amends. The story is not told in a righteous fashion, but with a depth of sadness and grief that affect all the Garou. The story ends with noting that from that point onward, Keally was known as Keally Oathtaker.
From this rather somber note, the stories move on to bittersweet tales of the Fianna, to raucous tales to energetic and martial stories. The last story is told by Jane Redfeather, an amerind Uktena, who tells of the hunt for the Wyrm into the bright lands of North America. She leads the Garou through the caverns as the story unfolds, mimicing the journey of the Three Brothers (Wendigo, Uktena and Croatan) across the Bering landbridge and down into the continent. The story ends as the tribes spread out to hunt and destroy and bind the Wyrm and as the Garou leave the caves and Revel across the countryside, renewing their connection with Gaia and crushing the Wyrm.
Claws of Wisdom are wandering around to the north of the caern when Cole is bombarded with gumnuts and sticks from the trees above. They look up and spot some small (4') aboriginal looking men with long grey beards and bright eyes. These spirits piff more stuff at Cole and then take off, stopping and looking back. The pack follow until they are led to a clearing, where the spirits disappear off. Abby peeks and sees more dark-skinned men, except in the Realm, not the Umbra. These figures have no face, and are very dark brown. They sense of Wyrm, and are digging in the ground. The pack leap out of the Umbra and dispatch all three of them very quickly. The bodies collapse to charcoal, and Freya suggests a connection with the mages and their demons. Sensing reveals some wyrm under the ground where they were digging, so a Rite of Cleansing is done. The taint is gone when they finish, so Abby pokes about in the ground to see what they were looking for. She quickly finds a rather fresh corpse and says "ewwww!" and reburies it. The pack head back, intending to drink Fianna brew - er, I mean tell them about this strange incident.
The pack all dream the same dream after the Moot. They are deep within the earth, in caves moist and echoing. A pool of the purest water lies in front of them, and a skull rises up from the depths, dripping water darkly back into the pool. These drips seem to congeal in the air and form a body, bones, flesh and fur. The being in front of them is unmistakably a thylacine garou in crinos form. Just before it is complete, a clawed hand comes from the darkness and tears open its throat. The bunyip stumbles back, blood gushing from the wound, and a rock falls from above and crushes it into the water. The waters rise up and become fouled, and as they clear the pack is flying above a corrupted and perverted landscape, banes writhing, smoke and foul air pourng from the soil, twisted trees, people being tortured, and a corrupt sense in the air. The pack fly down lower and lower, towards a black gothic cathedral. As they approach, the doors open and there is only utter darkness within. The pack head closer and close, and as they leave the light, they awaken.
A little hungover and shaken by their dreams, Claws of Wisdom discuss what they dreamt of. The second part of the dream was the same as they have had before at Moots. The first part was knew, and seemed to indicate the rebirth of the bunyip, or an attempt at rebirthing the bunyip stopped by someone. They find Marches-the-High-Road, who is more than a little hungover, and speak to him for a while. He listens to their dreams and agrees with their interpretation, but can't add much more to it. He suggests asking Jirrawan and they pack head to the caern centre. Jirrawan is summoned and Marches-the-High-Road asks him if he can tell them anything about the dreams. Jirrawan says "No." and returns to his wall, leaving the Garou a little baffled by this behaviour. Marches-the-High-Road suggests leaving it for the moment, and Abby tells him about the wyrm things they saw on the Revel the night before. Marches-the-High-Road asks them to check it out and find out who it was.
Returning to the corpse, the pack quickly excavate it. It seems to have been a man, judging by the height (freakishly tall female players aside), but there are no identifying features as the skin is black and bloated. His clothes reveal camoflague pants and a beret, which might have been blue once. It also becomes clear as to the cause of death - a bullet hole in the skull. The Garou scratch their head and try to remember how many fomori they killed and how many were here, when Freya remembers that originally there was a radio signal from downstairs saying "There are signs here", and that no one came up and out through the buildings (at least not before it exploded). They check his boots and find some of the white sand inside, which kind of backs up that hypothesis. More head scratching as they try and think about a) how he got here, b) who killed him and c)why did they bury him. Freya and Krieg decided to find out what sort of bullet he was killed by and break open the skull, digging around in the soft goopiness within to find the bullet. It is a small calibre bullet from a handgun or something, and not the type of ammunition you'd get with the automatic rifles the fomor were carrying, or the rifles the security guards were carrying. They return and report to David and Marches-the-High-Road and they thank the pack for their help. A moonbridge is opened up for them, and while Cole and Bob drive back to Melbourne, the others bamf through to the cemetary.
Abby and the others sit and catch up with Graeme and Cossack, chatting about the Moot at Jirrawan's sept. Abby mentions that she is now pack leader, which causes a slight eyebrow raising from the two Sept Elders. Graeme asks them if they have some time free this afternoon, because it looks like whoever killed Tony Staley has struck again. This time an Arnold and Irma Fergusson were the victims of the the killer, both of whom are reported to have been killed with "strange knives". Graeme passes them the Sunday paper which has the details - Arnold and Irma's bodies were discovered in the Yarra by early morning joggers at 5.30am, although the estimated time of death is about 12.30am. Their house in Abbotsford caught fire under suspicious circumstances about 3.30am. Abby decides to wait for Cole and Bob before looking at it, so everyone goes home and freshens up a little.
When Cole and Bob do arrive, Cole notices a bright red colour on the window in Gina's apartment. Fearing the worst, he rushes upstairs to find that his apartment has been redecorated by paint pellet gun. He gets a hold of Winston, who is holding a scrubbing brush and paint stripper and is who is also rainbow coloured. Cole gets the gorey details: it seems that Gina was playing her playstation when there was a slight power glitch and her game was lost. She took this event poorly and paint gunned the house and the other statues. She wasn't able to get to Cole's main studio though. Apparently she ordered the gun a while ago on Cole's credit card and was waiting for the appropriate moment to use it. Cole knocks on Gina's door and calls out, but gets only a muffled response. He tentatively opens the door to find Gina taped to the wall and apparently bombarded with paint pellets, which have hardened and further glued her to the wall. Removing the gag in her mouth, Gina proceeds to claim that she's been set up and it was Quiney. Cole points out that the brother don't got no hands, but Gina continues to protest her innocence. Cole leaves the statues to clean up and heads off to meet his pack.
The pack head for Abbotsford and check out the residence of the Fergussons from the Umbra. It actually has quite a strong impression, with many little kniknaks and such around, the couple having lived here for fourty years or so. However, it is also smothered in weaverwebs, probably in reaction to the fire. In the realm, however, all there is is a smouldering pile of ash. There is a scent in the Umbra, the male scent that they also detected around the site of Tony Staley's murder. Theories are put forward that it might in fact be a Red Talen coming into the city and killing homids. Sensing Wyrm reveals a taint, almost a metallic scent of blood.
The pack consult what the paper says about the murders again. There's not a lot of detail, especially given it only happened 12 hours ago. It does however, tell them where the bodies washed up, so they go and check that out. Apparently both bodies got stuck on a boatramp in Studley park. Tracing back upstream on both sides of the river eventually (through fairly stunning dice rolls) finds the spot where the bodies were cast into the river. They can scent both the Fergussons and some blood and also two other scents, also male, but different to the one at the charcoaled house. Following these scents backwards leads to an odd fading out, much quicker than would be expected if they had just disappated naturally. Having exhausted their leads here, the pack head off to the police station to see what they can see.
A remote, unused terminal is awakened and questioned roughly about the electrodes. The police file is still a bit scanty, as most of the serious forensicness depends on labs that aren't open on weekends. However, there is some information here. The Fergussons were not just shredded with "odd knives" (with a case reference to Tony Staley), but also appear to have been crushed across the legs and hips with something heavy. Samples of plasterboard were found pushed into some of the wounds. There are some vague notes about the possibility that they were not killed in their house, but hit by a car into a wall. Seriously speculative. The files also lists their bloodtypes and other personal details like next of Kin (Rosa, a daughter).
While the pack is here, they decide to look up the Joe Ridgeway case as well. There's not much here - it was originally lodged as a missing person case, but has been now marked as a probably homicide. The last Ridgeway was seen was at his house on the night of the 16th of February, when he had some friends over for a poker game and beer. He didn't turn up to work the next day, and when the police broke in a couple of days later, there were signs of a struggle, weird chemical burns on the carpet and a small amount of blood which turned out to be Ridgeways. There were also weird puncture marks in the walls, made by unknown means. The police haven't exactly closed the case, but its definately on the "no idea" pile.
Out they go to the site to see what they can see. The place actually has a for sale sign out the front, which is a bit odd, given he's only been missing for a month. Hunting around the house reveals that the furniture is all gone, and everything has been cleaned, so there's no scents inside. Plaster appears to have been put over the holes in the corridor, but Freya pries some of it out and the wood filler that has been put into the beam behind it. It reveals a mold of a similar length to a Garou claw, but without the flat bit at the bottom. Almost like a pick of some variety rather than a claw. They are at vaguely regular intervals up the hallway, starting from about 1.5 metres in the front door and going right up to the kitchen (where the blood sample was found). The pack sneak around outside as well - Cole establishes that there is nothing within the compost heap while Freya and Abby crawl around under the house. Freya spots a point under the corridor which seems a bit corroded, and sensing unnatural reveals a very faint trace of wyrm taint, the first spark of supernatural anything at the house. Kreige is called to use his Sense Wyrm gift and he says that its a very organicy, sharp and chemical-like type of wyrm. He has a quick think and says that it is a lot like Mr Baggy - but they beat Mr Baggy down to nearly death less than two weeks before Ridgeway disappeared, and he would have taken a lot longer to regenerate.
They decide to figure out why the house is being sold. Following leads from the real estate agent sign out the front leads them to Morrison and Associates, who are solicitors for Ridgeway Inc. Apparently Ridgeway Inc is suffering from a slight lack of funds, and has sold the property that Joe lived in. A Mary Ridgeway, presumed to be a sister, and a codirector of Ridgeway Inc has authorised the sale. There are a lot of legal documents here, and it comes across that Mary is the more organised (anal) of the two directors, but the less involved in the business. They suspect that she doesn't think much of Joe as a businessman. Joe's details are here too, as Arthur Morrison is his personal solictor too. They look through everything, but nothing particularily bizarre turns up, or at least anything that might explain Joe's disppearance. As its 3am, they decide to call it a night.
The pack get on with their mundane lives. Abby goes to Uni, Cole gets on with sculpting, Freya spends the day teaching, Bob lurks about and Kriege has his normal lesson schedule including a lesson with Peter (Marion, Marion, Marion). Abby goes to her classes and then spends the day in the Uni library, trying to match what she knows about the mages up to some of the books on known occultistic practices. Its a little frustating as they don't really know how the gargoyles and other critters are produced, and none of the books have sections about moving carved stone creatures.
Cole has a new piece that he is working on, and it gradually forms up during the day. It seems to be similar to Quiney, only not as stocky. It is still embedded in the marble when Winston knocks on the door and reminds him that he has a dinner this evening. His clothes are laid out on the bed with the details. Cole doesn't remember booking a dinner, but Winston is firm that Cole asked him to make the booking at the resteraunt in Lygon St. Cole shrugs and assumes he just forgot, gets ready and goes. He's a few minutes early, so he has a drink and waits. The table he's been led to is for two, but he still doesn't remember organising to meet anyone for dinner. Fifteen minutes later, the head waiter is moving towards his table, and behind him is Siobhan, Cole's neighbour. She is a bit tentative, and says that she was actually expecting Winston. Cole blinks for a moment and then recovers quickly, saying that Winston has taken on all sick today, with a headcold of some variety, and that to pass along his apologies. Siobhan asks why he didn't ring and Cole babbles on about sort of it being a last minute thing and Winston not wanting to disappoint her exactly, and would she like a drink.
The night is a bit awkward - Siobhan asks a fair old number of questions about Winston, and Cole says that he's an old friend who works for him, sort of as a butler, although he doesn't really know a lot about him, he goes home at night, might have a wife and two kids for all Cole knows. Siobhan says that Winston is there a lot and Cole replies that Winston housesits for him when he has to travel for gallery nights and all. The topic moves on to art - Siobhan is fairly interested in what sort of art Cole is engaged in, and tells him that she used to be a Fine Art student. As Cole is more of the natural-art-cut-the-marble-and-see-what-happens style of artist, there's a bit of a gap between the two to bridge, but all in all, the night goes well. Cole covers the bill and drives Siobhan home (given that she's in the next apartment) and says good night at her door. Inside his apartment, all is quiet, so he decides to find out what the hell was happening tomorrow.
Tuesday passes fairly uneventfully for the pack, their normal lives. On Wednesday Cole sits back and takes a good look at the figure that he is creating and starts to get a rather disturbing sensation that it is a bunyip (thylacine) in crinos form. He works on the stone for a while longer, making small changes and refinements until he is sure. Cole is also suffering a growing sensation that the statue is watching him. He decides to call the rest of the pack over. People rock up to the apartment and are shown the statue. Sense unnatural definately picks up something weird about it, much like the other statues, but its hard to pin down exactly what it is.
It looks like people are settling in to Cole's for a while, so Kreige is sent out to buy some junk food. He is getting back into his car when 4 banes, similar to the ones that attacked them in the Museum, materialise in the Realm and leap to the attack. Carefully putting down his overpriced junk food, Kreige defends himself, dreading the sweep of car headlights across him at any moment. The little banes latch onto him and start biting and scratching. He kicks one out the air and manages to disincarnate the others after some fairly ineffectual body slamming and then peeks to see if they are still around. Oh. There's more of them in the Umbra. Kriege leaps into the car and speeds back to Cole's apartment. A few more banes materialise and are hit by the car on the way. Kriege pulls into the car park and leaps out, running up to Cole's apartment, bursts in and explains, as the others look at his shredded and bloodied clothing. They talk about it for a moment or two and a bane materialises in Cole's lounge. Someone changes to crinos and destroys it, spraying black goo everywhere. A quick peek reveals a flock of similar banes beating against the outside of the weaverness that is Cole's apartment block, and some banes chewing holes in the webbing to get "inside".
With Cole advocating a bit of caution ("Abandon apartment!") and Kriege and Freya wanting to take them all, Abby agrees to take the offensive. The pack steps and starts taking the banes as they mill around fairly ineffectually. People take some hurts from bites and scratches, but overall things are going the Garou's way. The remaining banes start to escape, and a half dozen or so get away, circling in the Umbra and then all flying off in the same direction. Kreige, Abby and Freya follow them in lupus, while Bob and Cole go back into the Realm to tidy up first.
Much running later and the banes are starting to descend. The pack puts on a burst of speed to catch up with them, but then desperately brake as the banes, now at about 5' off the ground, suddenly hit something and gouts of colourless flame flare up all over the place, incinerating the banes. The pack approach cautiously. As far as they can tell, when the banes reached a certain spot, about here - colourless flame bursts up in a line and Kriege holds his now smouldering nose. What if we poke it with a stick - woosh, ow. How about throwing rocks. Woosh, no ow. Aha think Kriege and Freya, and spend a couple of minutes throwing rocks at empty space. Each time that the rock reaches a point, flame and sparkles. The space they mark out is fairly much a rectangle, with a curving bit at the top. Kriege peeks and finds that their rectangle pretty much matches the boundaries of a house in the Realm.
Abby goes back to ring the others and get them to come out after finding out the address (Westmeadows). Kriege and Freya examine the house. It is standing on a grassy block which looks like it hasn't been mowed for a while. The outside of the house is lit up on every side by bright halogen lamps, and their are aluminium shutters over every window. The doors have security grill screen doors, front and back. In short, it looks like the house of a paranoid. Abby checks the letterbox and finds a lot of junk mail and letters, but leaves them there. Eventually Bob and Cole show up, and Bob heals Kriege's many wounds again ("I'm not doing this again, stop being stupid"). Cole decides to investigate in the Realm for a while and goes out and gets some pizzas, comes back and rings the doorbell. Colourless fire in the Umbra and Cole jumping up and down in the Realm. He goes back to the car and eats the pizza while thinking. Freya and Kreige try and get a better idea of what they are dealing with. The space inside the house seems to be just like the rest of the local Umbra - light, open woodlands, but nothing seems to be able to go through it. Kriege throws another rock at the spot and watches the rock - it seems to hit something and drop, not sail on through, which might mean there is an actual object in the Umbra.
Cole looks left and right up the street and raids the letterbox, taking all the mail (addressed to T andor M Smith). He decides he needs to make it a bit darker in the Realm, so he gets a big heavy stick and tries to take out a light. Bob sighs and steps into the Realm and brings Cole around after he is knocked out by the warding. They step sideways and have a quick chat with the others. The possibility of summoning spirits to ask questions is raised and it is pointed out that Merlin knows about magical stuff. Abby summons Merlin and he shows up, perching on a nearby branch. They ask him about the house and he says it is indeed magic, but not of a sort that he is familiar with (ie: not Garou or Fae magic). It is a magic of shadows and lines, and tainted with evil. Putting on their Fighting Evil hats, the pack decide to stop pissing about. Cole goes to read the mail he collected and finds that it didn't step with him. He sighs and gets it from the lawn where he passed out and goes back to the car to read it. Most of the mail is bills, to a Terence and Margaret Smith, and a lot of them are overdue. As he is reading, a police car cruises past him and stops outside the house with the shutters. The police step out and have a quick look about, shrug and get back in their car, and slowly drive off.
Cole drives back to his house and gets some equipment while the others poke about some more. Kriege discovers the roof space is warded too, so he refrains from jumping up and onto the roof. Cole returns with a lot of the stuff he uses for metal sculpture and proceeds to drive his car up to the house. He stands up on it and cuts the power cord away from the house (not being able to get to the fusebox because of the various wardings). There is a bright flash as the cord parts and power arcs across the gap and then a tingly feeling through Cole's feet. All the lights go out, but the warding remains active in the Umbra, apparently not dependant on electricty. Cole now goes around the back of the house and starts cutting through the screen door with his oxytorch. It takes a lot longer than he expects, and he has to send someone back for fuel at one point. Kriege, in the Umbra, makes a big stone rock and tries to throw it through the Umbral door, presuming the house corresponds to a house in the Umbra. It doesn't seem to do anything.
Cole finishes cutting the screen door open and throws stuff at it until it swings open so he can get to the inner door. Once the door is open, it doesn't seem to be part of the nasty hurty defenses, so they prop it open, and Cole starts on the inner door. Unfortunately, its made out of wood, so Cole spends a fair amount of time trying not to set the door itself on fire. Freya goes next door to get a hose after some brief confusion as to where the tap is located on the mage house. Cole reaches a point as the eastern sky is getting serious light where he can't cut through any more of the door with the torch without setting it seriously on fire. Kreige steps into the Realm, bringing his rock. The two of them change to Glabro and lob it at the door and it crunches heavily into the wood, deforming the door inwards. They are picking the rock up for another shot when a voice calls from behind them, demanding to know what the hell they are doing. Kriege looks at the guy (while still in glabro form) and says "Debt collectors." The guy, who has obviously just been woken up says "Well, keep it down a bit will you. Some of us have honest jobs" and disappears.
Kriege and Cole shrug and throw the rock again. The inner door bursts open and a wave of malevolence and general foul air poors out, both in the Realm and the Umbra, where a door-sized hole has appeared. The inside of the house is too dark to make out from outside but dawn will soon make them a bit too obvious to the surrounding neighbours, so the pack jump back to the Umbra and cautiously start to creep in.
Creeping through the broken door and lighting the place up with faerie lights reveals that the Umbral house looks like it is unoccupied. There is no furniture, but there is carpet and curtains. More importantly, there are also weird patterns seemingly under the paint, in a variety of colours. The patterns seem to posess a sort of fractal nature - the closer the pack look, the more detail they can see. The occult markings are only on the external walls, and the pack theorise that they might be what causes the colourless fire. They vote to keep well away. Peeking into the material realm reveals a house that appears to have been abandoned suddenly - there is food rotting on plates, furniture ajar, draws still open, and a thin layer of dust over everything. The smell is repulsive and some of the mould has crawled off the plates it started life on.
They start to move about the house scanning about. There's not much in the Umbra, but the same sudden-abandonment theme prevails throughout the Realm. Bob calls out and the rest of the pack realise that he isn't with them. Bob is standing above an opened trapdoor which was hidden under carpet squares in the lounge. It leads down into darkness, so Freya sends the faerie lights down there. They don't provide a lot of illumination, but the pack can see the ladder leading downwards, and a possibly concrete floor at the bottom. Bob heads down, seeming a little distracted. When they all arrive in the cellar (as it seems to be), they can see a large concrete room with more of the fractal patterns leading down from the top and seeming to all come together to form a incredibly detailed circle. No one is too keen to step into it, but Bob leads the way around the circle, stepping over all lines to a door in the far side. The rest of Claws of Wisdom start asking Bob where he thinks he's going, but he seems a little intent on something else. They start to look a little concerned.
The next room is just plain concrete in the Umbra, no sign of anything particularily unusual. In the Realm its too dark to see, but the Garou can smell dust and paper and glass and metal. And concrete. Bob says that they should go through and eventually bullies the pack into doing so. Freya lights up the Realm with more lights and they can see they are in some sort of storage room, full of boxes (like moving boxes). Bob starts ransacking them, pulling out books and jars and other odd stuff. Kreige does the same and pulls out a metal mask, which he suddenly throws away, rubbing his hands on his clothes. He warns the others not to touch it as it is awake and severely wyrm tainted. Bob finally says "ahh!" and pulls out a rock, covered with carvings and paint. It looks vaguely aboriginal. Bob pats his new nice rock and finally bothers to tell his pack that it was calling him mentally to come and get it. He says its a fetish and attunes to it before anyone can stop him. The rock is the Cracking Stone, and it was created to open wards - specifically Wyrm wards. Abby makes rude noises about not telling people if there are voices in your head.
There still are two doors, side by side, leading from this room. Seeing as how they are in the Realm, people figure they may as well stay there, and open one of the doors. There is a big pile of bodies. The other door? A big pile of bodies, which have been obviously stabbed. Abby checks out the not stabbed bodies and is about to say that they are dead when she hears a heartbeat. Apparently they are not dead, just in a sort of suspended animation. Sense Unnatural says that they are strongly magic tainted. The dead people are really dead, having apparently been stabbed in the eyes, throat and heart (stabbed, not clawed). They lay the live people out and try to decide what to do. Its decided to call the Sept and ask them for ideas.
Krieg goes off with Cole and they make a phone call to the Sept, trying to couch the situation in understandable, but sutool ways. Cole decides to head back to the Sept to give more details and bring cars. Abby goes back out through the Realm into the lounge. She is moving stuff out the way and trying to think how she can get all the bodies up here when something appears behind her out of nowhere. It is a roughly humanoid figure, cowled and grey, but floating with no legs. It does have nasty pointy claws though, and some off special abilities. Freya and Bob run to the rescue as it starts crunching its way through Abby. The three of them together are more than too much for it, and it is splattered. Sensing reveals a strong Demonic sense, medium Magic sense and an uncomfortable amount of Wyrm. As they wander about, another appears and attacks, and they decide "sod this" and hide in the Umbra. Krieg returns and is filled in, and speculation is made about an alternative umbra where these things can step out of.
Cole turns up with the Scryers from Sleeping Lore as well as Emma. They look about the place and try to work out what to do. More cowled demon things leap out, but the assembled Garou finish them off. Emma points out that getting all the people and stuff out from downstairs will be awkward during the day, especially with these demons manifesting, so all the Garou flee to the Umbra, leaving people in 2 pairs to keep watch.
About 10pm that night, the Garou return. Between the 11 werewolves, they manage to get all the alive-but-asleep people out of the house and into cars, and all the stuff in boxes into cars as well. They drive off somewhere out of town, an old country house belonging to the Sept. All the people are unloaded and brought inside, and the two packs lurk about as Emma tries to check out the magic that is holding them asleep. Kreige, Abby, Freya and Bob are in the front room of the house when they hear the sound of Cole's icecream truck song starting up and then going off (it being the vehicle used to transport a lot of the boxes). Someone sticks their head out the window and sees shadowy figures moving around the cars, and another car that doesn't belong to the Garou there. The four of them rush out, intending to show these intrepid car thieves what a big mistake they have made. The Garou begin to reconsider when the people lurking about the cars look up at the rushing werewolves and jesture fairly nonchalantly. Abby and Kriege go flying backwards way up in the air and come crashing down, breaking limbs and tearing holes in themselves. Freya explodes into flames and Bob is also sent flying. A revision in plans is suggested. Abby yells for help, augmenting it with Call of the Wyld as Kreige frenzies and runs towards the erstwhile car thieves.
A bit more ready for the unexpected, the pack charge at what could just possibly some of the mysterious mages. As they sprint in, sounds of other approaching Garou emanate from the house. Abby yells "prisoners!", but Kriege is not listening and explodes one of the mages while being set on fire. Freya is trying to get close enough to Kriege to use her Calm fetish, but doesn't want to get splattered. Two of the mages throw sort of golden globes at the ground, and when they smash, gargoyles like the ones that attacked the pack on the SouthEastern freeway form up from he smoke that emanates from them. The battle progresses, and the Garou's ability to use their Rage seems to be the deciding factor. Freya brings Kreige out of frenzy and they pin one of the mages. Abby leaps across a car and grabs the legs of one of the mages as he tries to fly away. She sees the other guy is pinned and decides this one is too much trouble, biting his spine out from the front. Bob is being hard pressed by a gargoyle, so Abby leaps on it and causes it to loose interest and also coherent form. As the other garou arrive at a sprint, the mage that Freya has grabbed starts to rise up off the ground, with her clinging. Kriege grabs her dangling legs and Freya headbutts him, knocking him out. They hit the ground hard. The sole surviving mage is brought inside.
Cossack is called, and the mage is kept unconscious until he arrives. The rest of the Garou try and clean up the carnage, especially off themselves. Abby is drenched in blood and it takes ages to get it all out of her fur. Cossack arrives with Nadine and they speak to Emma in private. It is decided that only the Elders will be present when they interrogate the mage, and that Claws of Wisdom will be given the honour of guarding the Elders from outside the room - if they hear anything strange, they are to come in, but not otherwise. The Scryers take the other material to another site, as the mages seemed to know where this house is.
Emma firsts wards the room, then brings the mage around. An hour or so passes, and the pack can head unpleasant sounds from within the room. Suddenly there is a disturbing whining vibration sound and a fair amount of yelling. They burst in and find that the mage appears to have sort of melted - his bones have in some cases deformed, and in others sprung out like knives through the skin. Cossack, Emma and Nadine all look startled, but ok. Sensing Unnatural reveals a much stronger demonic sense to the body. It is theorised that perhaps a demon broke through Emma's wards and ... well, basically came and ate his soul while it was still in him. Cole subtlely expresses a slight concern that the demons could do that to the Garou. Emma looks at him and says that she thinks that it would require a channel from the Shadowlands, but she's not sure, so be on your guard.
Emma performs another warding rite around the body, and they give serious thought to burning it down, but decide not to. The Garou all head back to the Caern. On the way, Cossack tells Claws of Wisdom that the mage was extremely resistant to, er, persuasion but they go two things from him. One was his name, Benedict, and the other was the location of the mages hideout. It is apparently hidden in an industrial estate in Bayswater. They intend to send Claws of Wisdom - Cole starts to beg off, because um... he has to wash his cat - as well as The Scryers to check it out from a distance. Cole is still not happy, but Abby belts him one in the arm. The two packs are only to go and confirm the location, not to rush in and attack. When they arrive back at the Caern, Cossack says that he wants them to leave in an hour at most, so they should run and prepare. The pack seperate and grab up their things, including weapons (noreallyitsjustincasecoswe'reonlygoingtolooknottouch).
The two packs park some distance away from the address they've been given and try to think of ways to scout past. Its decided that some of Claws of Wisdom will drive past the mouth of the court that the offending building is in along a mainish road and see what they can see. This they do. Although its dark and they were moving fairly fast (cos Cole was driving and he wasn't stoppin' for nobody), Abby could see that the site looked burnt out. This causes some confusion, and the packs entertain the idea that its an illusion. They return to meet the Scyers and talk about how to scout it from the Umbra. Cole suggests sending Merlin along to see what he can see ("Yeah, make the bird do summin' for a change!") and although the rest of the pack reflexive thump him, they also do summon Merlin, and ask him to fly over the site and see what he can see. Merlin reports back that he can sense magic of the shadows and numbers sort, but not as much as he would expect. Chases-the-Car volunteers to run through the site in the Umbra at high speed, and Kreige and Bob agree to go with her. They take off in lupus and sprint along towards the site. As they move closer, through the scads of weaver-junk, they can see flickering light, like a fire. The three Garou slow down when they notice that and eventually stop. In the Umbral site, there are the remains of badly scorched weaver material as well as at least three fire elementals leaping about. Kriege sense them and says that they are Wyrm tainted. As they watch, the elementals start to fight and then bang into a wall. It collapses like so much powder. The Garou decide to get the rest of their packs.
Everyone is retrieved (yes, even Cole) and brought to about 20 metres from the site. The elementals are 'playing' up the other end, burning in an unusual yellow/orange colour and with ugly oily smoke drifting up from them. The shell of the site that the Garou are concerned with seems to have been scorched many times, but they can still see patterns similar to the ones they found in the Westmeadows house all along the walls. Occasionally bits falls off, revealing that the apparently solid pseudo concrete is totally wrecked - at the slightest touch it becomes a black, gritty powder. The Garou are fairly certain that the mages aren't here, and that the burnt out site isn't an illusion. This information is rung back to the Sept. It is suggested that the only real avenue they have is to try and talk to the elementals, but that is not going to be an ideal thing to do while they are still weaver-tainted. Claws of Wisdom and Scryers come up with a plan - they get a half-barrell and build a small fire, trying to tempt the smallest elemental into it. Eventually it does leap into their new fire source, and Abby leaps up and binds the sucker. Freya then cleanses the elemental which goes back to being a cheery red/blue colour, without the smoke. Its fairly happy about being cleansed, and tells them how it got to be there. Apparently they were hanging about somewhere fiery and then sensed a big fire starting, and decided to play there. But as they burnt things up, bad smoke all came up into them and made them bad and smokey. It doesn't seem like they were summoned - they just came in response to an existing Material fire. The best guess on a 'when' is about 2 weeks ago, but the spirit's grasp of time is a bit tenuous. This smaller elemental would like them to fix his friends/brothers too, so Claws of Wisdom settle down to a night of spiritual cleansing and such, while the Scryers go back to the caern and report.
The three elementals are finally cleansed and let go to find somewhere to roam happily ("40000 hectares of housing burnt to the ground"... no, not really) while the pack trundle home for some sleep.
Some basic research is done on the timing of various events in the last few weeks that might have something to with Mages and the pack come up with the following timeline:
As to what it all means, that doesn't seem to be something discernable from the limited information that they have.
Returning to their more mundane lives, the pack decide to not go out to Scars Atoned today, because Cole is going to be busy in the afternoon. Krieg has a lesson with Peter as well as his other teaching commitments. Abby has classes, and Cole is getting ready for another exhibition. About 4 in the afternoon there is a tentative knock at Cole's apartment door and he opens it to find Siobhan. She explains that after they chatted for a while on Monday, she's been thinking about renewing her interest in art, and was wondering if he had a book on sculpture she remembered. Cole blinks a lot and waits for the scuttling behind him to cease, indicating that the statues have all hidden, and then says that he doesn't have many books, but she's welcome to come in and browse through what he does have. He and Siobhan chat for a while and Cole says that he'll pick her up at 7 to go to the Gallery tonight. Once Siobhan is gone, Cole corners Winston and asks him some rather pointed questions about Siobhan and the date he was set up for. Winston folds like soggy toilet paper and admits that he thinks that set the dinner up, because it is time for the Master to find himself a wife. Cole twitches a bit while Winston points out that its his duty as a man of his family to ensure that his line does not end with himself and that... Cole looks a little speechless and wanders off.
Krieg and Peter are chatting before the lesson and Peter mentions that he and Greg and Allison (Greg's girlfriend) and Marion are going out tonight - did Krieg want to come along? Krieg says "sure" and Peter says he's welcome to bring someone. They get on with their lesson, and its fairly clear that Peter has been practicing, because he's starting to get the basics down pat. At one point there is some yelling from downstairs, where Greg holds classes, but Krieg is forced to hang onto his curiosity because he's in the middle of teaching. Once he and Peter have finished up and got changed, they go and find Greg, who is actually downstairs with one of his mid-teen students and his worried parents. Greg is telling the lad how to treat the winner of a black eye that he has, and reassuring parents. When they've gone, Greg says that some of his students did it when the younger kid got in a few good hits, and that he threw them out and told them not to come back. He seems inclined to say more, but changes his mind. Peter mentions inviting Krieg out and they agree to meet about 8pm at an address in Brunswick St. Krieg gives Abby a call and asks whether she wants to come along, and she agrees.
Cole is at Siobhan's door a few minutes before 7 and knocks. She's dressed up a bit, but Cole is looking fine. They head to the galley in Cole's car and start wandering around. He and Siobhan find that they have pretty similar tastes in art (in this case watercolours) or at least in what makes art good, and end up talking fairly animatedly about the whole show. Its not until the curators are making fairly obvious throatclearingnoises that they realise that everyone else is long gone. Cole suggests coffee and Siobhan gives him an address to check out.
Freya and Brad are having their first night together for a while, and decide to make a bit of a night of it, heading into the city to see a movie with Jordan. They trundle in the Russell St cinemas, eat popcorn and do the normal family thing. Its almost like Freya isn't a 9' tall killing machine in her spare time. The movie finishes and Brad carries the sleeping Jordan out. He suggests that rather than transferring her around or carrying her there, Freya could go and get the car and come back. This seems like a fair idea, so off Freya goes. As she's tromping up towards Queensbury, she hears her name called out and a 30odd year old man comes running across the road. Freya looks a it concerned, but he introduces himself as Mandras Starwatcher (after checking there aren't any nearby curious humans). Freya knows of Mandras - he's the Gatekeeper of Reconciliation - and so chats to him politely for a bit. Mandras says that he happened to be here in Melbourne and saw her, but he's been hoping to catch up with Claws of Wisdom to congratulate them on finding the Bunyip caern at Scars Atoned. Freya is suitably chuffed at being congratulated by an elder but Mandras points out that this doesn't happen everyday. He asks if she's got a few minutes to describe some of the new caern - in the interest of reconciliation. Freya is fairly happy to do so, and they chat while she walks back to her car. Mandras thanks her, and says that the pack is welcome to drop in and let the Sept know more about the whole affair, and heads off. Freya collects Brad and they all go home.
Meanwhile, Krieg and Abby have been doing the dinner thing with Greg, Allison, Marion and Peter. The dinner location turns out to be a pseudovege place that Marion picked, full of freaks and weirdos (apart from the 3 garou), and not exactly everyone's cup of tea. However, the night is fairly congenial. Allison is obviously trying to work out the what the relationship is between Abby (who she thinks is underage (she is) until Abby talks about Uni) and Krieg. They don't have the normal couply touchyfeely thing going, but they are fairly synched in their movements (its a pack thing). Eventually she gives up and just asks Krieg and Marion how they met. There is a brief moment of "errr" and Marion says that Krieg and she used to hang out at the same 24-hour gym keeping odd hours. The subject of gyms goes around a little, and then Greg asks Marion if she'd seen much steroid use at the gyms around Melbourne. She shrugs and says sometimes - its not something she needs so she's seen it, but not looked into. Greg looks at her speculatively and then says to Peter "You didn't hear this" before explaining that he thinks that some of his students have been using them, because they suddenly beefed up a lot and have become more and more uncontrolled and violent. One of them, Rob Summers, beat up on another student today and nearly started a brawl. He through them out and told them to not come back, which sucks because they were some of his best students. Peter pipes up and says a lot of the steroids aren't actually illegal, its just how you get a hold of them - only a couple are S3 and none are S2. Greg makes an effort to change the topic of conversation, because it obviously depresses him. Dinner finishes up, and people go their own way. Abby and Krieg go out and grab a coffee, Greg and Allison go home, Marion and Peter go for a walk.
Cole and Siobhan start yawning simultaneously and decide to call it a night. Cole calls ahead and Winston puts out some drinks before hiding away. Siobhan comes in for a while, but says that she'd prefer tea. They chat for a while, and then Siobhan says its bed time for her. Cole walks her to the door and kisses her cheek. He wanders back into the apartment trying to interpret her intentions. She was friendly and animated, but didn't make any personally intimate comments, jestures or whatever. Cole is a bit confused and wanders back to his apartment.
Abby and Kreig have some coffee and stroll back to Abby's place. Just as they are going in the door, Abby hears someone hiss loudly "Let me in!". Its Marion. She's covered head to foot in gore, as is Peter, who she is dragging along with her because he is seriously unconscious. Marion appears to be in shock (or is at least seriously not making sense) but she manages to convey that her and Peter were walking around a couple of blocks away and 5 guys jumped them. Peter tried to be a hero and leapt in front, and she kind of frenzied. Peter's fine (apart from an amazingly big lump on his head) , but he probably saw her in crinos. Oh yeah, and there are half a dozen bodies scattered around the place. Er, help?
While Krieg rings the other pack members to see if they can help out and checks Peter over for other signs of shock, Abby changes to lupus and runs back following the trail of bloodied bits to see where the events occured. She finds that Marion's little faux pas happened in an alley near her place next to a loud party (probably covered the screaming and such). There is blood everywhere and chunks of bodies spread out in clumps. Abby managed to push the worst offending bits of people out of sight, and then runs back to her house, where Freya, looking a bit dishevled, and Cole, looking a bit squiffed, have shown up to help out. The situation is explained and Freya goes to find Marion to ask her some more questions. She finds Marion in the shower, where Marion had apparently zoned out. Marion is asked a few more questions, but doesn't make a lot of sense. She goes out into the other room and Claws of Wisdom decide to leave her here to take care of Peter while they take care of the bodies.
Cole drives (weaves) himself and Krieg to one end of the alley while Freya and Abby go to the closer end, so as to block both ends with cars. There are a lot of cars in the street, and as they approach, Abby can see that there is a couple standing out the front of their alley. She sneaks up closer and can hear "Braaaad, I want to go hoooome" from the girl at the alley mouth while Brad says that he just wants to check something. Abby is nearly there when Brad says "There's blood everywhere... and bits of a corpse." Abby and Brad (who has also been drinking) have a brief conversation wherein Abby manages to convince Brad that the gobbets everywhere are part of a practical joke, "just like Stanley did last year. Sheesh!". Brad storms off up the street dragging the unnam'ed woman. Freya watches carefully as they leave, and sees them meet another couple coming down the hill towards the party, jesticulating wildly. It is supposed that it won't take very long for word of the gobbety practical joke to spread into the party and from there for people to come out and see it, so the pack go into overdrive, tossing bits of bodies into double strength plastic bags and then mostly into Freya's station wagon. Krieg uses Create Elemental to wash down as much of the alley as he can, and Cole tries to stop dead bodies being put into his car, but mostly just gets himself all messed up because he's too uncoordinated.
The pack are about to win the all world championship for cleaning up 5 bodies in the shortest time when it becomes clear that they are missing a head. Looking around the place eventually finds it in a guttering about 18' above the ground. The pack sigh, and decided to head off now before people get curious, leaving Krieg to jump up and get the head out, whack it in a bag and follow. Zoom, off they go. Boing goes Krieg. Not quite high enough. He sets up to the bouncing off walls climbing sort of acrobatics and launches himself up. The world goes slow motion and as he reaches a point where he can grab the head, the light comes on in the room below it, which is apparently a toilet. Krieg and the man who just came in meet eyes for a good 5th of a second and then Krieg responds to the siren call of gravity, expecting a hue and cry. The sounds of trickling water emanate from above, and then the light goes out. No hue and cry. Krieg runs off to catch his pack.
The pack reassemble at Abby's place and ring the Sept to ask if they can help out with hiding 5 bodies. They get Ian on the phone who says "sure" and Freya, Abby and Krieg (who has caught up) head off there, drop the bodies and then find a 24 hour car wash. Its a bit dodgy and Freya makes a bit of a mess of her car while trying to clean it. Eventually at about 3am they all get back to Abby's to find Marion and Peter asleep in the lounge room and Cole asleep in Abby's bed, still covered in gore. Abby boots Cole outside to sleep in the lawn after spraying him down with the house. They wake Marion up and chat to her about the other problem, that being Peter's memory. Freya remembers something about Epiphlings, spirits of more abstract concepts, like Death and Courage. She thinks that Ends-the-Quiet said something about Memory Epiphlings as well. Abby's willing to give it a go, and the two of them step into the Umbra.
A couple of hours of summoning later and a spirit manifests in front of Abby. It seems to not be corporeal, but a collection of not-quite realised sensory impressions. Abby speaks to it of their problem and the spirit agrees to take Peter's memory from the point where he leaves the cafe until now in exchange for Abby writing an explicit and accurate diary for the next month. Being a little bit concerned that it might fall into the wrong hands, Abby asks if she could write it in a nearly forgotten language, and the spirit agrees that that would be appropriate. The spirit moves over to where Peter is in the Realm and then is sucked into him. A few moments pass and then it re-emerges and heads off into the Umbra. Freya and Abby step back into the Realm, wake people up and let them know it worked fine. Krieg and Freya go home, Marion and Peter will stay here until tomorrow.
Marion and Peter wake up early in the morning, and Peter is fairly out of it. He has it explained that he hit his head shortly after leaving the cafe and that Marion brought him here in case Krieg was here (knowing about his medical training and all) because it was closeby. Seems plausible, and later in the day, the two of them head off. The pack get on with their normal lives for the day.
The pack decide to get back to what they were doing last Wednesday before being so rudely interrupted by the mages - taking the crinos thylacine out to Scars Atoned. They call by Cole's place, and although he's busy, he agrees that they can take the piece. They decide to make a bit of a day of it, and Freya brings Brad and Jordan. They all drive out to the Sept and meet with the kinfolk who now live nearby, mingle and socialise. The Garou eventually tear themselves away and head towards the caern, taking the statue. When they get there, they are greeted by Marches-the-High-Road who is fascinated by the statue. His interest draws Jane Redfeather over and the two of them are intrigued by the marble figure, as well as the stories about the other figurines that Cole retains at his house, although there is a bit of a fright when the two caern elders realise that Cole also painted some of the caern pictures back after the damage Edridge did to them. The pack ask if they could talk to Jirrawan and Marches-the-High-Road agrees, although he cautions them that Jirrawan says little about Bunyip matters. Marches-the-High-Road performs the summoning, and Jirrawan detaches from the far wall and walks across the water to the shoreline. Abby explains about the statue and Cole and how it feels like its watching you and how that Jirrawan might know something and so if he did, he could tell them? Jirrawan's silence seems to need filling, and Abby stops herself babbling. When she has finished, Jirrawan simply says "I am not your guide on this path" and returns to his normal position. Marches-the-High-Road didn't really expect anything different but is still curious about the statue. They put it in the water of the caern, but nothing happens.
While they are playing with it, Jane asks them about news from Melbourne and their sept. They fill her in on the mage situation and on a couple of small things that have happened. Freya mentions her chat with Mandras on Friday, who was curious about the Sept. Jane and Marches-the-High-Road exchange glances and Jane asks what Mandras was asking about and what Freya said in return. After sort of filling them in, the pack ask why and Jane says that Mandras was here two weeks ago, and would have known some of the questions that he was asking. The two caern elders suggest a short Moon Bridge to Reconciliation. This is organised and the pack and the two elders go through. At Reconciliation, they are face-to-face with Mandras and with Phillip Bates, the Master of the Rite. Freya explains what happened and Mandras looks more disturbed. He was indeed in Melbourne last Friday visiting friends, but he's never met Freya before in his life. Freya says she sensed him (because it was unusual) and the person she spoke to was definately a garou and a strongly wyld one. She offers to sense Mandras now, and gets a different sense again - still Garou, but less Wyld. They discuss whether something took control of Mandras (who claims he remembers the whole night) or whether someone is masquerading as Mandras. Someone speculates that it might have been the same Garou pretending to be Mandras as has been responsible for the death of Tony Staley and the Fergussons. Jane says that she'll talk to the pack back at Scars Atoned about that, because she had an idea they might want to think about. The conversation starts to go around in circles a bit, so Marches-the-High-Road says that they should all perhaps be a bit wary of what they say and to who. Abby suggests if they are approached unusually, it might be an idea to ask them to come back somewhere where they can be checked out in detail, which seems like a plan. Woosh, people head back to Scars Atoned.
Claws of Wisdom pester Jane to tell them what she was thinking to help them out. She asks if they know about the Atrocity Realm, and they noncommitally grunt a bit and guess its a place in the Umbra where atrocities leave a mark. Jane explains that they are close, and the atrocities actually play out again and again and again in their full horror. Not every terrible thing that happens can be found there, but the stronger the spirituality of those involved in the event, the more likely it is that it will leave a scene in the Realm. She has been there at least once, and would be happy to guide them to it. They look thoughtful and Jane suggests that they think about it for a while, and then let her know. Abby agrees that they will - she wants to talk about it with their caern elders first.
The pack rock back into Melbourne at about 8pm. Brad and Jordan head on home while Freya stays with her pack, and they let the Sept elders know about the possibility of a doppleganger lurking around. This impresses Ian and Graeme no end, and they promise to spread the word. Krieg says that he would like to check out the kid that Greg threw out of the dojo tonight if he can, while no one is about, so the three of them head off through the Uni down to the academy. They are walking along and just chatting when there is a smash of glass above. Abby and Krieg look left and see the glass come tumbling down from a lit window. Freya looks right because of the confusiong echo and gets hit in the back of the head with a glass beaker, driving her to her knees. There is a weird screaming coming from the window, so its into the shadows to change into their superhero costumes, or at least into glabro. The door to this building is... was locked, and the screaming sound is coming from upstairs in this building. The Garou creep closer and then Freya sticks her head around the corner quickly. There is someone slumped on a desk on the far side, and something cat-sized leaping about in the shelves above him.
The Garou leap into the room and are attacked by what turns out to be a small, rabid monkey. Freya fumbles about trying to either kill it or calm it down and gets bitten a lot for her troubles. Krieg checks out the guy in the room and finds that his face is a mess of scratches and there is blood all over the desk and down onto the floor. The guy is seriously dead. The Garou eventually get the minkey into a cage and away from their hands. A Sense Wyrm reveals that not only is the monkey tainted (although the green foam coming out its mouth was a bit of a give-away) but so are some of the chemicals on the shelves. They opt to grab the lot and hike it for the colleges, where there is a spot that they can use in private to cleanse the monkey. This they do and then take the little fella back to the caern. Freya chats to it for a while and it says that it was trying to let out the pain in its head, that's why it wouldn't stop screaming and it attacked the man. They ask it questions about strange tasting food and whether it had any unusual visitors, and it had strange tasting food a bit earlier today, like the strange food in the bad place. What bad place, ask the pack. The white place full of bad food and screaming animals. Ah, say the pack. More questions are asked about its keeper (which they determine is not the man it killed) and the dead guys give some fairly limited answers (its a monkey). Much frowning and scratching of heads.
Someone trundles off to ring Aquinas and ask him about some of the chemicals they found, and Cole and Bob show up and are filled in. Nadine at the zoo is also rung and asked if she can find a home for a monkey. Some kinfolk turn up and take the monkey from the garou, assuring them that it will be in quarantine for a time. The pack try and work out where they could find out where the monkey came from. Aquinas turns up and takes the chemicals from them, and says that it will probably be in the University computer system. The pack is still bereft of Corey, so Abby volunteers to go and awaken and bind the computers to get that info. The rest of the pack decide to try and follow up the special students that Grey threw out of the dojo (again) so they head down to Russell St. The three students in question are William (Bill) Keys, Ed Grueberman and Rob Summers. Rob lives closest, so they decide to go and see him.
Rob lives in a share house in Collingwood. He's not a big guy, but he is extremely bulked out. The pack observe a certain amount of tension between Rob and his two housemates, although there's nothing obvious. Rob senses of Wyrm taint, but they can't distinguish exactly how strong or what sort (pesky high gauntlet). His bedroom is messy to the max and reeks of sweat. A number of certificates and trophies have been torn off the wall and dropped in the bin - Krieg says they are mostly from his academy. The pack try and observe from the Umbra and figure out if he's on steroids. They find a small bag with some leafy product within, but feel that that's probably not the cause of Rob's sudden muscle gain (beefcake!). Rob is also interested in the small bag, and looks a bit narked when he sees its empty. He grabs his wallet and heads off, locking his bedroom door and saying "Back in a bit" to the other two leasees. They wait until the door is slammed, and then mutter to each other, basically suggesting that they should break the lease to get away from Rob.
Krieg leaps into the realm and follows Rob along in lupus form. He scents of sweat and other human scents, and of Wyrm taint to a very high and concerning level. Cole and Freya are following along in the Umbra and watch as Rob goes up to another house just a few blocks away. While Krieg stays outside, they follow in the Umbra and see Rob chat to another guy, who pulls out a bigger baggie. This second guy measures out a certain amount and then tells Rob a figure in cash, which causes Rob to nearly punch his lights out. The discussion is a bit lively, but ends with Rob paying about 80% of the original price in return for the dealer keeping his health. Rob heads back after muttering a few choice oaths about the sexuality of the dealer.
The pack return to the Umbra around Rob's place, asking Bob what he found in the room while they were gone. Bob looks at them blankly, and they sigh. Rob grabs a bong and proceed to get fairly wasted in the backyard, so Krieg and Cole take the chance to ransack the place. Through a combination of mundane and supernatural methods they eventually find a small plastic bag with three gel-like capsules within that is severely Wyrm-tainted. They consider the amazingly funny concept of stealing them, but then decide that they don't want Rob's housemates' deaths on their hands. Back into the Umbra. Freya decides to do a Rite of Cleansing on Rob while he holds still while Cole goes to the nearby Safeway to see if he can find a near-exact copy of the capsules. The cleansing finishes and Rob finally exhales a cloud of THC ridden smoke, falling into a coughing fit. Deciding from the heavy headspin that he's had enough, he stumbles inside and falls into bed.
Deciding that they've seen enough here, they move on to the next on the list, Ed Grueberman. Ed lives in North Melbourne in a set of flats, but doesn't appear to be home. "Aha", think the pack, and leap into the room from the Umbra. Its a small, 2 bedroom place with a kitchen/lounge/bedroom and a bathroom. Ed isn't as big a slob as Rob appears to be (can't afford to, maybe). They hunt for Ed's stash and find that he has them hidden in an old blender in the kitchen. 5 capsules this time. Cole replaces them with guarana/ginger capsules, which look more or less the same. Going through Ed's bills and other financial documents (all in a letter tray), it seems that he is receiving some sort of government benefit, but has gradually been losing money. He has a cheap mobile phone, so the pack record all the numbers of the bill for later reference.
The pack opt to try contestant number 3, Bill Keys. On the way, they call past Abby, who says that all the animals and a lot of the chemicals seem to all have been supplied by Pearce Biomedical Supplies. Cole talks to her about an idea he has to tag money with a spirit that can return to them. They chat about it for a while and Abby agrees, but she only wants to do one. While she's doing that, the rest trot to Bill's, a bungalow out the back of some houses in Abbotsford. Bill appears to live in the same situation as the other two - a batchelor about town, man of the party, etc. He's also not home, and checking out his little house reveals that the drugs are stashed in the fridge, taped to the bottom of the vege crisper. These too, are replaced with guarana/ginger capsules. Freya thinks for a bit, and asks whether its just a coincidence that two of these heavy built, somewhat grouchy drug abusers live in the same neighbourhoods that Tony Staley and the Fergussons live in. Some of the pack have got their scents and say that neither of them were the people at either site, but....
Cole goes through Bill's teledex and writes down phone numbers and names, then heads to Rob's and tries to do the same from the Umbra (although Rob apparently uses old takeaway menus as his social diary, making it a bit hard). The pack decide that its enough for the night, and head home, planning to get a good day's worth of creeping and sneaking done on the next day.
Peter rings and cancels his lesson with Krieg (still feeling out of it) so the pack get back on with their lives. Corey shows up early in the morning and lets people know he's back. He says that he met some strange people on an umbral quest(Corey only), but the rest of the pack don't really pay much attention, so he shrugs and gets rid of the rotting food from his room. Freya picks up a paper during the day and notices the article about a researcher killed at Melbourne Uni, and a missing monkey.
About 5 in the afternoon, they all get together in the sept and sort of go over the things they have to do, and loose ends. My, there are a lot, aren't there? One of the major topics is whether or not they should take Jane up on the option to go to the Atrocity realm. The general feeling is that they should wait two weeks until the Moon Paths are safe again. Cole is none too pleased about this decision to go at all and chats to his grandfather ("Goddamn boy! Does it sound like a good place to go! I was tricked when I went there, them and their 'easy in and easy out'. Easy out my ass, which was chewed into dogmeat...") and expresses his own opinion. The pack also compare notes on the mystery fake Mandras, the killers in North Melbourne and Abbortsford and the other loose threads.
Abby contacts Aquinas, but he doesn't have a handle on the drugs yet. The chemicals that were wyrmtainted were normal biochemical reagents, like you'd expect to find around a lab - only they'd been improperly stored, so they were all contaminated (as well as being tainted), a mistake only first years would make accidentally. He doesn't know what they might do, and doesn't want to experiment. He hopes to have a handle on the drugs sometime tomorrow.
Unsure about where to start in their big list of Things to Do, Krieg and Cole duck over to Rob Summers' house. He's not in, so they steal his drugs too and swap them over. They find he's taken one since last night. They also drop the tagged $50. Back to the Sept, and the pack decide that they have nowhere to go with the drugs, so they should check out Pearce Biomedical Supplies in Essendon. Woosh, off they go in their ice cream truck. They stop nearby, step and peek back and investigate. Pearce have a big facility with a large loading area, a large storage area for chemicals, a well lit and clean animal storage area and offices that look like they were remodelled in the 1950s. There's only one guard, and he's reading the paper. Nothing is startlingly wyrm tainted (things like benzene having some level of wyrmness) from the Umbra, but the gauntlet is quite strong, so its a bit hard to be sure. While people are peeking, Corey and Cole step into the office and start ransacking through computer records. They find that Pearce does regular deliveries to Melbourne Uni of once a month, as well as to a range of other places that typically have "Technologies" or "Research" in their names. The next one is this Wednesday, and is being packed now (well, the animals aren't being packed now, but the chemicals are). The guard starts to do a round so Cole hides in the stationary cupboard. Corey hides under the desk, but kicks a chair as the guard walks past, so he leaps into the Umbra. The guard makes a note in a notebook and moves on.
In the meantime, Krieg decides to step out into the chemical storage area, after checking that it has no cameras. He moves from place to place, sensing for Wyrm taint, but finds surprisingly little. He steps back into the... gauntlet.
The rest of the pack regroup and think about what to do next. They eventually realise that Krieg has been stuck and Freya rescues him. Claws of Wisdom check and find that some of the loading bay has no cameras watching it, and is being used to pack the UniMelb delivery. Krieg and Cole step out and try to determine which chemicals were the same ones they found in the lab, and whether they are tainted or contaminated now. They grab some bottles, dedicate them, and step back into the Umbra. Corey decides its time for a beer.
The chemicals are taken to Aquinas' house, where he answers the door looking a bit mussed and bemused. The pack drop the chemicals off in his laundry and wave hello to Sings-for-the-Spirit, who is sitting in homid and watching them bemusedly too. He agrees to look at them tomorrow.
Corey is hanging at Uni during the next day when he sees what seems to be a full scale riot happening near the biology faculty. Looking a bit closer, it actually seems to be about 100 protestors and a whole lot of police and observers. The majority of the protest seems to be regarding animal experimentation. Protestors are throwing stuff (sponges??) and screaming a lot. With a certain amount of inevitability, Corey takes a look at some of the ring leaders. Yep, there's Kirsty Surfs-the-Train in the middle of it all. Oh, and its philodox waning, when she's worst, how exciting. Corey grabs some food and settles down to watch to make sure things don't get out of hand. After a couple of hours the crowd breaks up and moves off without any arrests or sudden fires or inspirations of the Delerium.
Freya is reading the newspaper at lunch in the school staff room and notices that there is bit more detail on the murder at the University. The researcher who died (John Bonner) is believed to have been disturbed after his death, and material is rumoured to have been taken from the area after the death. Police refuse to confirm or deny whether the events were connected with a disturbance at the University Colleges at about the same time.
Corey calls in to Aquinas' lab after his classes and they go somewhere a bit private. Aquinas says that the chemicals they brought the night before are what they say they are on the bottles, nothing strange there. The drugs on the other hand are wyrm tainted steroids of some variety. They are very very pure, and require a high tech lab to make them that cleanly (as opposed to in someone's bathtub). He can't say much more about the drugs without further analysis, which would require involving other people and then trying to explain where he got them. As for the lab notes, they are notes on "Chemarchitecture aspects of the development of the hippocampus of rhesus monkeys" - ie: nothing like "what happens if I inject this monkey with wyrm tainted chemicals, moohahahahhaa'. Aquinas hands back most of the items.
The pack get together for tea and chat about stuff they need to do. It is decided to check out the other two steroid takers and see how tainted they are (having realised that the pack has never even seen them). They check up on Ed first. They go to his house, in case he's there, but it looks pretty much as it did on Sunday night, except there's a capsule missing. They Questing Stone for Ed and find that he's actually quite nearby, and in fact is at his local. As Kreig is the only one who knows (vaguely) what Ed looks like, they look in from outside and try and spot Ed. Conveniently Ed is sitting at a table next to the window, with another heavily built guy. The pack split up, some of the peeking through the heavy gauntlet and Corey and Cole heading into the pub to get an idea of what's happening (not just to get drunk, no no). Freya peeks well and can hear what is being said from next to them.
Ed and Del (as would appear to be his name) are sitting and talking about women they've had recently, mutilating syntax, talking about footy ("stupid summer season") and cricket, burning themselves with lighters in pain games and generally being testosterone soaked. Both of them are seriously wyrmtainted, almost to the same point that Rob was. Neither of them say anything about drugs or whatever, although Ed is still a bit bitter about being thrown out of Greg's Martial Arts Academy, and Del is trying to get him to forget it. One of the pack looks up and down the road looking for an appropriate vehicle that Del or Ed might own. Eventually the bar closes and all heaad out. The pack decide to follow the newcomer, on the grounds that they know where to find Ed if they need him. Ed and Del stop and chat for a bit outside the pub and then Ed heads off home on foot and Del goes to the nearby tram stop. The Umbral pack members pick Freya up and prepare to chase along in the Umbra after the trams. Cole and Corey go to the stop too and Cole starts to crap on about not being able to build up any muscle despite spending ages in the gym. Del is interested, but doesn't contribute. Cole continues and eventually Del sticks his $.02 in to the conversation.
They get involved in a conversation about the relative merits of gyms, how much muscle they should have built up in 6 months of being in a gym and such. (Del is a real bloke, poofs this, fucking-a that). Del is a bit disparaging of the pooncy Prahran gym that Cole claims to be a member of, and suggests they go to one in South Melbourne (to which he has a tattered card). Cole makes up a story from whole cloth about wanting to join the Richmond football club and that they were interested, but that he had to build up some mass. Del is a bit doubtful about the manliness of American football and cautions Cole that he might be being dicked about because as far as Del knows they have enough heavy men, and really need some light runners (insert 20 minute conversation on Richmond). Del gets off the tram at Elizabeth St and re-exhorts Cole to go to the gym. Corey peeks briefly and is a bit startled by the sight of Krieg and Abby in crinos, running along with Freya in homid, peeking, chasing after Del.
In fact, the egg-and-spoon race part of the pack has been keeping up with the tram since Nth Melbourne, and follow Del onto another tram which heads for Sth Melbourne beach. He gets off and heads to a ground floor flat. While he potters around, Freya peers in on him the spiritual reality. Del (Del Cartright) seems to live with another guy (Artur Buch), and the two of them are neatish. Looking around finds Del's drugs in a rice jar - there are 5 of them. Cole and Corey catch up (having gone for another pint at a pub in the CBD), and they discuss what to do. Corey wants to do a cleansing on Del cos he thinks Del's an ok bloke, but Abby wants more information. Corey backs down in the end, with the promise that they'll cleanse him asap. They decide to run off to the gym in case that's where the source of eternal evil is.
Once there, they peek from the Umbra. Cole spots thousands of cameras and refuses to let anyone go into the Realm, so they scope the place out from the Umbra. There's a limited amount of very faint taint in the cleaning cupboard and on some of the hardly-used equipment, but given that Del did say that he came in early and cleaned up, its probably from him. Corey and Cole decide to take up Del's offer and spend a while (after Abby awakens the computer) editing things so it looks like they used to be members a while ago but haven't been for a while. Anything rather than pay. Abby organises for people to sit and watch the Pearce site to see if anything weird happens while the material is being delivered to Melbourne Uni. Cole suggests making another traceable $50 note, so everyone else goes home and he and Abby go to the caern.
Krieg and Abby are up and at Pearce early in the morning. Well, at 8am anyway. It seems that there is some confusion at Pearce. The computerised records for their delivery to Melbourne Uni appears to have been lost or deleted or scrambled, and chaos reigns. They have the requisate information on paper, but its all in the wrong formats to be used to properly check the cargo. Suspicious of this odd turn of events, the two Garou poke about the site. Abby is peeking, but cannot smell the presence of anyone who should not be there (she can still smell Corey from the other night). Krieg sniffs in the Umbra, and notices the same. They contact Corey who reassures them that he just printed material out, not deleted it or anything. They check out the pre-packed material and it doesn't appear to have been tampered with (apart from the ones they tampered with. Odd. They settle down to watch. In the end, one of the managers spends the day reconstructing the computer records from paper after ringing Melbourne Uni and letting them know about a day long delay.
Cole and Corey show up to Del's gym and chat to the woman on the desk about their almost lapsed membership. She sorts them out and they go and get changed. They spot Del as they do their circuit and when they notice that he's drifting over start deliberately using the equipment wrong (not that either of them have ever really been in a gym - like most of the people they know, their built up muscles come from learning to tear monsters in two). Cole continues with his "must increase by 10pound of muscle by June" schpiel, but Del doesn't seem to leap up and offer him drugs. Del gives them some more pointers, but then gets in trouble from his boss. There's a very tense moment, and then Del stamps off.
As they finish up, Del manages to get Cole aside in the corridor to the locker room. He basically asks Cole how serious he is about bulking up quickly, and when Cole reiterates how serious he is, Del says he might be able to help; he's not certain, but he'll check some stuff out and let Cole know as soon as he can. Cole manages to not go "woohoo!" and instead be all grateful for the help. Del says that he'd better go before he gets in trouble again.
The pack get together at lunchtime and swap information. Abby says that she thinks watching at Pearce is rather pointless, as the place is clean of Wyrm taint, so people should watch tomorrow morning at UniMelb instead, so that they are there to watch the delivery being made. Cole and Corey keep an eye on the Uni until everyone goes home. Corey drinks all the beer from the ice cream truck and Cole works on correlating the teledex info he swiped from Bill's, Rob's and Ed's. Abby and Krieg decide to follow Del around some more, just in case he makes his calls today. They swap with Bob and Freya around tea, and they watch Del and his housemates into the evening until they both go to bed, and then head off themselves.
Abby and Kriege get to Del's before he wakes up, to see if he takes a steroid before he goes anywhere. In fact, Del is woken by the phone ringing (judging by his sudden awakening and leaping to the phone - the Garou can't hear what is being said). Del leaps into some clothes and out the door and onto a tram. Abby and Krieg decide to follow in the Realm, so step out and get on the same tram. Del heads into the city, changes trams at Flinders St and gets off at Fitzroy Gardens. The two Garou follow, surreptiously as they can. Abby heads for the toilet block so she can change to lupus and just be a dog in the park, but Del is already on his way there, so she just follows along and ducks into the female toilets on the other side of the block. Krieg grabs a seat somewhere where he can watch. Abby tries to hear whether Del is talking to anyone on the other side of the wall, but all she can hear is running water. She changes to lupus and heads out of the toilets. Del is leaving, whistling to himself, so she ducks into the male toilets. The only thing she can smell is toilets, but there is definately no one in here that Del might have bought drugs off. She runs out the toilets and towards Krieg, who senses Del as he walks past. There are a large number of the wyrm steroids in Del's jacket which weren't there before.
Abby and Kreig consult quickly, because they don't want to loose Del. They both head back to the loos, Abby to change to homid, Krieg to lupus and sense and sniff. Krieg finds a distinct echo of a wyrm taint behind a pipe in the toilets, and definately no recent scent other than Del. They both head back to the tram in homid and manage to just get Del's tram. Del suddenly leaps off the tram, and Krieg thinks he has been spotted. Abby leaps off too and follows Del around. Del wanders aimlessly through the city, looking behind him a lot nervously and changing directions when he sees police. Krieg goes back to the Academy to see if Abby will ring him.
In the meantime, Bob and Corey are lurking about in the Umbra at UniMelb, waiting for Pearce trucks. About 8.30, two trucks roll up and start unloading pallets of chemicals. Some of them seem to be trundled into storage, others are picked up by lab staff from the various departments in the Faculty. Bob and Corey are hardpressed to keep track of everything. Sensing Unnatural reveals nothing for a time, but then a couple of random samples are revealed to be Wyrm tainted, things like bottles of ethanol. Most of the tainted material is being taken to the biological sciences area, making it a bit easier to follow. However, the material has turned up at UniMelb tainted, which means that it must be happening either at Pearce or on the way between Pearce and UniMelb.
Cole volunteered to take notes in one of Corey's classes while he was instead watcing for Pearce, but after spending 20 minutes not understanding what he was saying, Cole decided instead to run away and go and see stuff at the Gallery at Melbourne Uni.
Corey drops out of the Umbra and gives Cole a ring, letting him know all the details of where they are and what they're doing. Cole says he can't make it just yet, has Corey got his keys? Corey says no, Cole yells "dammit" and hangs up. Corey shrugs and goes back to join Bob. After watching all the materials get delivered, they decide they need a sample of some of the wyrm tainted items. The plan is developed that Bob will step out in a closet and hit the evacuation alarm. Corey will wait until all the confusion has ended and then go out and hide one of the bottles of ethanol so they can pick it up later. Bob steps and disappears. Corey waits for a while...then a while longer... and finally realises that Bob is stuck in the Gauntlet. Dancing around and cursing, Corey (still peeking) notices that there are, however, people fleeing the building. Thinking that maybe he just missed Bob after all, he opts to step into the closet. Peering through the door reveals a couple of what seem to be bomb squad members prowling the place. Corey grabs a labcoat from the closet he's in and waits until they've gone downstairs and then runs for the lab. He hides the ethanol and then goes back to the closet and steps out. Feeling that perhaps his skills aren't exactly up to rescuing Bob, he opts to call the others.
Abby is watching Del, who is lurking in Bourke St. He gets up after watching (for pursuers) for a while and makes a phone call from a public booth. He's making lots of sharp kind of comments and the occasional hand jesture too. He hangs up and makes a couple more calls while Abby watches from nearby and then heads back towards Flinders St. Abby calls via Krieg's place and picks him up, and then they watch Del as he heads back home. Del hides the drugs in the usual place and then slobs around the house nervously. The two of them opt to head back and see how the Pearce observation is getting on.
Corey is in the phone box again trying to get a hold of Cole. He gets through and tells Cole about Bob, but Cole seems more interested in knowing where his spare keys are, or if Corey knows his credit card number. As Corey's conversation gets more and more surreal, he looks up and spots Cole watching all the hubhub around the biochemistry building. He finishes his call and then wanders over to talk to Cole. There is some fundamentally confused conversation and Cole realises that Gina must have swapped phones with him. He didn't realise she could copy his voice so accurately though. He makes a mental note to call the police and claim it has been stolen. They slip away and into the Umbra, meeting up with Abby and Krieg too. Bob is rescued by Abby (after a conversation with Freya), who yoinks him into the Umbra, and caught up on the days' events.
Cole points out that having correlated the telephone information on from the steroid abusers, he has come up with two common phone numbers that seem out of place, one in South Yarra (Len), one in Armadale (Stu). Cole rings Len's number and gets an answering machine. "Hi, you've called the Hartman's..." Aha, says Cole and gets Freya to do a Questing Stone on Len Hartman, which she does. It turns out that Len is in the CBD somewhere, so Cole wants to - Krieg suddenly bolts off in lupus form, and Abby, Corey and Freya follow behind. Cole looks at Bob who shrugs and comes along with Cole.
Cole and Bob home in on Len Hartman and find that he's in a cinema. As the show has only a couple of minutes left to go, they wait out the front until the crowd comes out. And indeed, after about 20 minutes, everyone pours out of the cinema, and Sensing Unnatural reveals that the two very large and muscled gentlemen are somewhat wyrm tainted.
Four lupus garou belt through the Umbra, dodging weaver spiders and avoiding the hazards of the spiritual CBD. Krieg leads them all the way down to Del's house, and peeks before stepping into the Realm. He goes to the phone and dials the magic to find out what number rang the phone last. Its a phone number in Moorabin or near to it. He goes back to the rest of the pack and finally explains. They find a payphone and ring the nummber... "Telezone Direct Marketing, can I help you?" Kreig asks some questions, but decides that they are just a marketing company. He looks deflated and the others all biff him and then head back to find Cole.
Cole and Bob have followed the two beefy men (about 20, well dressed, lots less scruffy than Ed, or even Del) who are in McDonalds (they are of the wyrm!). The rest of the pack catch up with them and Krieg surreptiously does a Sense Wyrm. The taint that is on them is the same sort as on the others, and on the drugs, but it is less than the large amounts on Rob or Ed.
The pack lurk about with the other gangs of thugs on Bourke St and follow the two young men when they leave. They head for the tram and catch a tram to Melbourne University. It appears they are students there, for they eat lunch in the Union. Much surreptious creeping about observing. Eventually they go to lecturers and such. It is decided to follow the one whose name they don't know when the two of them split up. This bright looking blonde guy is followed to lectures, both 1st year and 2nd year (ie: he failed some of 1st year, not is doing 2nd year at the same time) and then home on PT. He apparently lives in Armadale, and his name is Stu.Peeking around Stu's house scares the pack. Everything is neat and tidy. The fridge has labels inside for food. The cutlery is all nested together. Every painting is straight. Krieg, who is peeking, shudders and wanders about the place. Its a largish house, 4 people inside (Stu, presumably his parents, and a younger sibling). Stu's drugs are hard to find, and eventually turn out to be behind a draw in his room. He has 5 left. Stu doesn't seem to be up to much more, so the pack leave him to his life for the night.
About 10pm, Abby and co are sitting around when the rat spirit that she bound to the $50 they gave Rob comes back and says it was spent, and it will take them to the place. Aha, think everyone and leap into action, ready to fight bad guys. Unfortunately Rob appears to have taken the mystery $50 and his priapism from the steroids and sort out some negotiable affection on Smith St. They sigh and give up for the night.
Cole gets up early and goes to meet Del at the gym in South Melbourne. Del says that its a goer - all Del needs to do is give the people Cole's phone number and name and some details and they'll contact him. Cole hums and hars a little but then gives a mobile number, weight (a little less than he actually weighs), nationality and age. Del says that They will contact him soon, and that it should be cool. Del refuses to take any money off Cole, saying that They'll organise someting.
Given how often Del's phone seems to be being used for transmitting important information, Abby suggests bugging it. None of them have the faintest idea how to do it in the Realm, so Bob rolls his eyes and they summon a weaver spirit to record it all from the Umbra. It is bound to Del's phone and instructed to record everything that happens on the line until they come back and get it.
In the early afternoon, the pack get a call from Cole, asking them if they've been to his house today. They all answer no, and he asks them to come over. When they get there, Cole is pacing backwards and forwards a bit nervously and points at the Thylacine statue in the middle of his loungeroom. They check out the site in depth - the statue smells faintly of mineralated water and the carpet is a bit damp. There are no strange Garou or other smells in the loungeroom or the Umbral reflection of Cole's apartment. They ring Scars Atoned and speak to some of the Kinfolk there, passing a message on, and then ring Sleeping Lore and tell them that something weird is happening. Scars Atoned ring back with a message basically consisting of "hey, its gone!" and claiming they didn't do it. The statue still has that distinct sense of watching you. Much shaking of heads.
That evening, people break in again to Pearce and try to figure out when they will next be making a decent sized delivery. There are two shipments next week, one of animals, one of chemicals. The pack makes a note of the dates and will return next week.