Infinite Paths Chronology

March 1998

Sunday 1

They move back into the kitchen. Slowly. Carefully. There is no sudden manifestation of demons. Mathias peeks and can smell stale air and old, rotting food. Yummy. He hopes it is food. Dominique is ignited to provide light in the Umbral house. They do a circuit, searching the house. Dom starts looking for the keystone for the whole ritual pattern, but can't find it. The patterns also go up into the ceiling, along the insulation. The house has carpet and curtains in the Umbra, but no furniture. Nothing exciting happens. Mathias peeks and the four of them move around the house, looking for weird shit. Mathias peeks into the dark mundane house and can smell middle aged couple, incense and wool. Dominique can still hear the voices in her head saying 'let me free, free me'. To this vocal theme of "I can still hear the voices" they wander around the house.

Mathias is being led around the main bedroom by Moonflower and Angus is keeping an eye on things when he realises that they have lost Dominique, and the light level is dropping sharply. He taps Moonflower and runs back into the lounge. Dominique has lifted up the carpet and has found a trap door, which she is descending into. She hits the ground down below and is standing in a large, empty concrete room, well below the surface. Dominique says that she is hunting for the one that wants to be free. The others quickly join her and look around. The designs flow down even into this room, and cover all surfaces except for one big circle in the middle of the room. This would be the keystone then. All opt not to step into it. In the Realm, this room also exists, and is pitch black. On the far side of the room is a big steel door. Dominique reiterates her desire to free it, and all eyes are drawn to the steel door. Some discussion is had and then the steel door is wrenched open, revealing.... nothing. Well, a small alcove/room, yes. Dominique realises that her friend is in the real world and wants everyone to step.

Moonflower peeks and manages to apply her nasal cavities to a large amount of stale blood. Mathias peeks some more and is led around the room. He can smell damp, more wool and incense, a number of homid smells, and wood. More discussions are occuring when suddenly there is a bright light from up the ladder. Everyone panics and runs up the ladder and into the kitchen, but despite their worst fears, there is still a hole in the forcefield. They head outside and suddenly can hear swearing. Around the corner come The Alternative, a pack from Hidden Green with Ion Apostolova. Tony Cho Mi is holding his somewhat scorched hand - he went up and rang the doorbell. The Alternative is brought up to speed while Ion leans on his klaive and regards the proceedings with amusement. Moonflower aims some choice remarks in his directions, but he ignores them and just smiles more. The Scryers turn up also and catch up with what is happening.

It is decided that the Scryers and Infinite Paths will step into the real world while The Alternative stays in the Umbra. Ion looks around and says he guesses he is not needed after all and heads off. The decision is made to step from in the cellar. Dominique and Angus step through instantly and are almost as instantly set upon by a cowled demon. Angus grabs its arms and nuts it, and it disappates. The Realm-basement proves to be very similiar to the Umbral one, including the ritual patterns all over the place, but it also has some furnishings, mostly boxes and shelving, covered in weird stuff. Dominique starts hunting through the boxes for the voice that is calling her. The others pop through and start looking too. Dominique finds her friend - it is a palmsized flat stone with squiggly lines on it, and it is still talking to her. It is a fetish, and it is called the Cracking Stone. Somewhere far away, a young woman inhales an entire mouthful of coke. Dominique attunes to the fetish and empathically learns that it is used for opening wards and containers, specifically wyrm-wards, although it will work on any warding or seal. Aquinas finds a wyrm-tainted mask that he carefully puts aside. Moonflower finds a small vial which she identifies as probably being a Nightshade talen.

Angus and Mathias open the steel door in the realm. Behind it are two piles of bodies - one alive, one not alive. Aquinas checks out the alive pile and says that they have been put to sleep with magic. The not alive pile have been stabbed three times each, in a ritual fashion. They also look drained of their vital fluids, leaving a corpse somewhat like the cowled demons that are attacking people. All present shudder. Angus tries to go up the ladder into the house, and Aquinas cautions against it - he would like to be able to use the house as bait to try and capture one of the mages. Instead, everyone goes back into the Umbra and fills in The Alternative. Then they step back out into the kitchen. Almost immediately they are attacked by two more cowled ones, which only manage to do some minor damage.

The pack walks around and looks at things by the light of a burning Dominique. The Smiths have apparently left (if they are not part of the piles downstairs) in a hurry - food is left on the table, nothing is tidied up, or messed up in such a way to indicate packing. There are little scripture-bits on the walls. There are photos of a middle-aged couple around the place. Mathias looks in the bathroom cabinet and suddenly all of this mundaneness suggests that it is all a front, a setup to look good. Aquinas knocks on the floor and gets people to open the trap door - he liked the ambush idea, but its not practical, so its probably best to strip the place for all they can and hopefully that will give them a lead. Besides, he can't think of a way to get the bodies out otherwise.

The Alternative pop through and say that they are bored and are going to go home for the moment, as there is no immediate threat. They will help the Scryers sort through all the stuff later. The bodies and a lot of the stuff from downstairs are brught up and surreptiously loaded into Mathias' and Aquinas' car, after Dominique premieres her use of the Cracking Stone by opening the wards on the front door. Aquinas suggests Gellibrand Hill, as it is nearby and quiet, as a place to cleanse these poor humans. Off everyone drives.

At the top of Gellibrand Hill one of Infinite Paths brings up the possibility that the humans will wake up when they are cleansed. Hrm. Discussion. Sings-for-the-Spirit, Mathias and Dominique step into the Umbra with a blanket and start summoning sleep spirits to make sleep talens with. Chases-the-Car goes with them to act as a guard. Aquinas, Moonflower and Angus are kicking around with the pile of bodies, waiting for their return when Mathias' car alarm goes off. They run down the hill to confront these car thieves. They can see four people moving stuff out of the pack cars and into another car which has parked them in. Angus and Aquinas change to glabro, and run down the hill to chastise these miscreants. Angus aims a blow at one of them only to have it stopped in mid-air. Aquinas bursts into flame. The two people at the rear lob some glass balls into the air - when they smash to the ground, things with wings appear out of them.

Angus responds with his own array of tricks, and crushes the skull of one of the men. Aquinas is somewhat rattled by being set on fire. Moonflower, still running down the hill, jams the front wheel of the car that has parked them in. Angus is levitated and Aquinas is smacked off into the distance. Angus throws the near dead body he just pulped at the guy who jestured at him when he rose up, and drops to the ground. The two things with wings turn out to be gargoyles and they fly past Angus, cutting him as they head for Moonflower. She tries to strike at them as they go past, but is cut up as well. Angus lunges at another of the guys, but is set on fire and then catapulted into the bush. Angus dimly feels something land on his back, and he feels a bit better as he frenzies. Moonflower ducks another gargoyle attack and then lunges at one of the guys, only to have him squashed by a frenzying Angus. The third human flies up and off as the forth leaps into the car and tries to floor it. Moonflower battles the gargoyles as Angus leaps onto the car, tears the lid off and pastes the guy inside. The gargoyles crash heavily into her and tear her shoulder open, and she drops to the ground. Angus leaps through the air and pastes one gargoyle. Aquinas leaps from nowhere into the windscreen of Mathias' car. Angus wings the last gargoyle, but is near disembowled for his troubles. He feels his strength ebbing, but decides to enter the zone. In the red, red rage he tears the gargoyle to pieces and then sags to the ground.

At about 5am, Chases-the-Car peeks and realises that no one is tending the pile of bodies. He steps through to have a look. Dom, Mathias and Sings-for-the-Spirit finish up with their talens and wait for his return. A Call for Succour rings out in the Umbra near the carpark. They join Chases-the-Car to find Moonflower nearly dead, Aquinas the same and Angus truly dead. There is much chaos. The Sept is rung and the situation is explained to them. Graeme says he will send help asap. People start throwing bodies into various cars and trying to clean up the mess. The humans are cleansed and knocked out with the talens. Graeme, Emma and Kirsty, Chris and Barry from Get of Pennington turn up, load all the stuff into various cars as well and everyone clears the area after torching the mage car and the mage bodies inside.

Mathias dumps his car and torches it way out to the north of Melbourne, and runs back home. Mikal returns from Adelaide and finds out about the fear and chaos. Moonflower comes around about evening. It is explained to her that Angus is dead, and then she explains why it happened. Some chatter and then the pack decides to go back to the house in Westmeadows on the theory that the mages will have abandoned it now they know. They walk through in the Umbra, the light of a burning Dom illuminating the way. Nothing is found in the Umbra, so the pack steps into the Realm. Well, Mathias and Mikal do. As they stand in the dark, waiting for the others, Mikal flicks his lighter and looks straight into the face of a cowled demon. Mathias twitches a bit, starts to drool and mutter about "Must kill the living". Mikal and the cowled demon have a brief and pointed discussion and then Mikal lays down.

Mathias comes back to himself and realises he is trapped in a small cellar with multiple demons and the thick smell of Garou blood. He leaps for the still-alight lighter and steps, appears in the Umbra, runs to the kitchen, steps back into the Realm.

In the meantime, Dominique and Moonflower appear in the Realm inside the cellar, and realise that the demons are still there also. They struggle with the demons a while, scragging one and then starting to fall against the other. Mathias freefalls down the ladder and wades into the combat and eventually the demons are defeated. The wounded and near dead are dragged out of the house and the pack retreats to the caern. Graeme makes it clear that the pack is to go home and rest, and not go near the house.

Monday 2

"We come to say goodbye to Angus Delanie, who shall be ever known as Defiant-to-the-Last." Cossack tells a story of when Angus first came to the Sept, and then passes the brand to Ian Shatter-glass, who speaks of when he was helping Angus tune his combat skills. Emma Teesdale tells of teaching Angus rites. Chris, Aquinas (still looking shaky) and Christine all come forward to represent their packs, and tell of their time with Angus. Christine passes the brand to Moonflower, and each member of Infinite Paths speaks on Angus's life. The last member lights the Pyre and Cossack changes to Crinos form and takes up a howl which is echoed by the rest of the Sept. As the pyre burns down, the Sept howls until all the smoke from the fire has left for the sky.

Later than day, Angus' statue appears. He is in Homid form, and is leaping over a fallen Garou to attack an unseen enemy.

Tuesday 3rd - Tuesday 10th

Mathias reports his car as being stolen. The police ask him some pointed questions about where he left it and where he was on Sunday night. Mathias is fairly innocent though.

A Rite of Summoning is enacted to revive Moodai. He seems somewhat muted as well, probably picking up the vibes from the pack.

Over the weekend, Dominique goes to Rippling Waters to complete her chiminage request to the fertility spirit. She spends the weekend helping Sandra Norton with the replanting, and meets a number of reasonably friendly Fianna - a bit of a surprise as she was expected lots of tribal prejeudice. Amongst the Garou met is Mae Fischer, who is tireless in helping Sandra and asks a lot of questions about Dominique and her pack in a friendly fashion, Raids-the-Roost, who has recently discovered the human art of punning and Walks-Between-Paths a lupus philodox. Walks surprises Dominique a little by asking if her pack would consider letting him join. Tkila Kila makes himself known and Dominique nearly says no just on this basis. She says she will have to speak to the others, but will talk to him at the Foundation Moot on Wednesday.

Sometime during the week, Mathias challenges Moonflower for pack leadership. Moonflower steps down without contesting the position.

Wednesday 11th

The convoy stops a few miles away and people pile out and run in lupus form to the caern site. Some preparation is being done still and the Foundation Moot will start at twilight. Ritual preparation is done to one and all.

At twilight, the Opening Howl is begun by Marches-the-High-Road. It is an eerie, otherworldly sound, taken up by the other sept members and resounding throughout the caves, reverberating back to merge again with the howl. The gauntlet starts to waver under the onslaught of sound and vanishes with the last sound, reuniting Spirit and Matter for a short time.

Jane Redfeather and Donald Eyre take up the song as it fades away, weaving their very different voices into a complex melody that also becomes the Rite of Opened Caern and the Rite of Summoning. Jirrawan detaches from the wall and strides across the lake, leaving no mark again. He blesses the new Sept, the new packs and all Garou present.

Others take up the sound again, some in human melodies, some in the wolf tongue in chords. Each pack dedicates itself to Jirrawan and the Sept of Scars Atoned. Pack totems manifest as each stands forward. Various other spirits Awaken from slumber, especially earth and water elementals, and watch the proceedings.

David Thewlis is the Truthcatcher for Cracking the Bone. Each pack is confirmed in its role. Infinite Paths are confirmed as a floating pack, part of the Sept, but not fulltime. There is some discussion about what to do with Edridge, whether to leave them where they were or get rid of them. Mathias is asked about the buy out and various matters. Jirrawan is asked about some of the caern history but refuses to speak of such matters. Moonflower asks to be recognised as Rank 2 - Jane poses her a riddle and Moonflower provides an adequate answer, so Jane recognises her Rank.

Walks-Between-Paths is recognised by David Thewlis and he stands forward and expresses a desire to join Infinite Paths. Mathias and he discuss it briefly and then David suggests that Walks walks with them for a month as a trial period, and then they can make the decision. It is agreed.

Stories are told. Mathias tells of their finding of the site again, others tell various stories after that, some inspiring, some sad - mostly about the Fianna and their ability to keep a caern safe. The Revel is begun, Nicholas Kanallakos is the Wyrmfoe. He takes up the last of the stories, becoming more and more martial. The Garou run from the cavern, Raging over the site.

Infinite Paths find themselves to the north of the caern and find a cluster of warrior banes concentrating on something in the Realm. The banes are defeated although Mikal seems to have some problems with his weapon of choice. Some peeking is done into the Realm and a body is found. Dominique and Moonflower choose to pick up the thread of their Rage and continue with the revel, but Walks-Between-Paths, Mathias and Mikal investigate this. The body is of a fomor, who has been shot in the head with quite a heavy bullet and then buried. It seems to have been one of the same group who attacked the pack. Very odd. They perform a Rite of Cleansing and leave it in the buried spot.

The Revel continues. People start drifting back to the caern. Mikal notices that some of Edridge have noticed that the Revel is occuring. Well, to be precise, they are putting out a fire in a now destroyed greenhouse. He fetches Walks-Between-Paths to use his keen lupus scent on it, as all Mikal could pick up was Garou. The two of them leave the caverns and head out. In a short while, voices raised in anger are heard. David Thewlis is chewing out Green-Choking-Grey for interfering with Edridge when the Sept had not made a decision. This draws some attention from the growing crowd, and for a moment Ursula is on the point of starting a fight, but she backs down. David sentances Green-Choking-Grey to guard duty for the night, which obviously irritates those packmates who weren't involved, as other Garou are starting to set up a party.

On the surface, Walks-Between-Paths sniffs out the scents of Ursula and Crowns-the-Ruins of Green-Choking-Grey. They head back down the cavern and intercept the pack who are having a cold war argument on their way out to guard duty. The matter is assumed to have been resolved.

Partying begins. Fianna brew is had by all. When they finally sleep, the pack have the same bunyip and Malfeas dream. Walks-Between-Paths sleeps uneasily, but does not remember his dreams.

Thursday 12

Jane and Mathias are both blindfolded and released somewhere in the caverns. Mathias has to land a single blow before Jane does to be recognised. After twenty minutes or so, Mathias decides to simply stop and wait. Eventually he hears Jane coming. She seems not to have noticed his stillness. As she moves in front of him, he swings, but misses. He swings again and connects seconds before Jane does also. He is held to have done sufficiently well to be recognised as Rank 2.

Mathias asks if Marches-the-High-Road will ask Jirrawan to manifest and goes to get David too. Once all are assembled, he suggests that the greenhouse incident might be covered by a light earthquake, and in fact the whole Edridge situation could be cured with a subtle tremor and some subsidance. Jirrawan says this is within his power and David and Marches say they will think about it.

Back to Melbourne by MoonBridge. They talk to Graeme about Scars Atoned, and introduce him to Walks-Between-Paths. He tells them that another murder has occured with the same MO as Tony Staley - very sharp 'knives'. The victims were Irma and Arnold Ferguson. They were probably killed in their house in Abbotsford, which burnt down around 4am. They were discovered floating in the Yarra by a jogger (not naked) at about 5:30am. Graeme points at his source, The Age. He asks Infinite Paths to check it out and get back to him, then takes a look at them and suggests that maybe tomorrow is a better idea. He'll meet them at the caern about 10:30am

People pick up the shreds of their lives. Moonflower finds an invite to a comedy gig at the Espy in her inbox from a friend doing CS. She prints it out and sticks it to the fridge. Walks-Between-Paths is introduced around the Sept a bit.

Friday 13

Most of the pack assembles about 10, with the stragglers there in the next half hour. Graeme goes over the details again and gives them the address.

[cue batman noise and scene change] At Abbotsford, there is a burnt out shell of a house and a lot of police tape. The house is approached through the Umbra (once they have unstuck from the Gauntlet). Yep, it was burnt down. Investigation from the Umbra reveals some slight indication of the same Rage spirits as at Tony Staley's murder scene. There is no sense of Wyrm from the Umbra. Walks-Between-Paths steps into the Realm behind some bins and scents around. He finds some blood on a bit of corrugated iron, but it has been seared by fire and probably splashed by firehoses, so it has no real scent, only the faintest touch of wyrm. He sniffs around and phenonomanally finds a slight trace of blood in the burnt ruins. It seems to be where the main bedroom was and leads outside. He thinks that he can smell the murderer, and the bodies were dragged away, probably to a car. The pack returns and reports to Graeme, who sighs and looks unhappy.

Moonflower goes off on another errand. Mikal goes to the Crisis Centre. Walks-Between-Paths stays at the caern and meets Nadine Holloway. Mathias and Dominique go home.

Saturday 14

That night, Moonflower heads to the Espy with Walks-Between-Paths who is wearing the homid. She joins Andrew and some other CS honours students, as well as Georgina Quittner, who seems to know some of the pool of people as well. Sheaine is introduced. There are other familiar faces scattered around. There are a few other bands on as well in other rooms and the place is starting to get crowded. Mathias turns up and joins the group - on the way in he notices Scott Rosen slam dancing in another room, with Adam Shergol looking on. Chris McNeil, Kirsty Surfs-the-Train and Bazza make themselves known, as does Marion Perry who joins the group.

Some of the Fianna invite Dom to the pub.

People are relaxing and unwinding when Scott Rosen turns up, and invites people to go slam dancing. Sheaine says "neat" and goes along, with Moonflower trailing behind to make sure nothing goes wrong. Georgina comes with her. The two of them are watching Walks-Between-Paths and Scott slam their way through a set. About half way through, two guys in flannies come up to talk to the loverly laydies. Moonflower tells one of the to go away, but Georg gives the other an evaluating look and then leans back into her Rage. She disappears with the mesmerised drunkard. Moonflower goes back to her seat. After a while Sheaine and Scott come back and Claude follows close behind. Jibes are exchanged. Claude and Scott turn to leave and Moonflower says "What a lovely couple they make." Suddenly her chair disappears out from under her and Claude is all apologetic when she falls on her bum. Tempers start to fray, but Claude and Scott leave. Tanya Muller comes over to speak to Moonflower about reducing the tension between their packs, but is rebuffed. Ben Phillips, oblivious to all this asks Mathias what they did to make Ion so happy two weeks ago. Mathias is guarded and says he has no idea. Ben says he only caught the edge of it, something to do with a baby. Mathias fakes confusion, and is saved from answering by the bouncers dragging Ben off.

A man in a flanny over a singlet and shorts asks Dom if she'd like to dance. Horizontally. Amazingly, he lives.

Mikal is in the midst of a productive evening

The comedy gig starts. Marcus comes on first as warm up, and is fairly good. The audience is with him, apart from the weirdos in a big bunch who have been here for an hour and half drinking and socialising. The rest of the set is neat, and people laugh. At the end of the gig, Marcus comes back to the table and invites everyone around to a party at his place. Moonflower is going to beg a lift with Andrew, but see him disappearing off with Marion Perry instead. She gets a lift with Mathias and Sheaine, who is very impressed with this human stylised battle called 'slamming'.

Dom discovers an olive in her beer.

At the party, things get more raucous. Both of Marcus' housemates were at the Espy, so they are just as enthused. Much relaxation is had by all. Although Andrew and Marion make it to the party, they are fairly wrapped up in each other and disappear before the end of it.

Far off in Warnabool, Dominique is asked for the forth time if she's from the 'big smoke'. She gives up and runs back to the caern in lupus.

Sunday 15

Mathias contacts Hidden Green and finds out where Tanya is. He goes to visit her and apologises for Moonflower, explaining that she is still somewhat upset about Angus. As Mathias looks around her somewhat messy one room apartment, they chat about some current issues - Scott's behaviour, pack interactions and members of Conviction Made Flesh going randomly missing.

Moonflower gives up on trying to solve the Rhiannon problem herself and goes to talk to Walks-Between-Paths about it, hoping for an objective view. He suggests that she get together with the whole pack. Everyone assembles at Mathias' apartment later that day - Dominique is Moon Bridged back from Rippling Waters. Moonflower explains about Rhiannon being in the hospital and why, but not knowing how or what to do about it. It is decided to go and talk to Cossack.

Cossack listens carefully, but looks concerned when the concept of telling Rhiannon what happened comes up. He agrees that the pack should help her, but cautions that telling Rhiannon may not be beneficial to any concerned - they can't tell her the whole truth and any half truth is going to be difficult to cover all the questions she will have. In the end, it might be better to leave her in the dark. Moonflower looks annoyed, but the rest of the pack nods sagely. They decide to get a look at Rhiannon themselves, so shift into the Umbra in the caern and then run to the hospital. Moonflower kicks herself for not thinking of that yesterday.

At the hospital, they awaken a computer spirit and Moonflower questions it. It is happy to tell her all she knows about Rhiannon, in glorious detail. She was brought to the hospital in a coma with severe dehydration and malnutrition on Thursday the 5th. She was brought in by a Mr and Mrs Delanie, who were the parents of her fiancee. The pack gathers that she had been unconscious for about four days, and some counting on fingers is done - that is about the time that Angus died. Doh! Anyway, she was made healthy again (intravenous liquid and food) and then checked out for why she was in a coma. The doctors basically came up with "beats me" and she was shifted to a psych ward, on the theory that it must be psychological.

The pack traipse upstairs, dodging doctor, nurse and orderly spirits. For some reaons there are many, many people crawling all over the room, each other and Rhiannon. In a slight panic, the pack check out her breathing and readouts, but Rhiannon is fine (if in a coma). A security guard comes in and half the people leave. He sits down with a magazine in the room with Rhiannon. There is no obvious reason for all of this panic. Once it has calmed down, Mathias mindspeaks Rhiannon. He is somewhat disturbed by the lack of any surface mind to speak of. He is a little concerned by the depths he is descending into Rhiannon's mind. He is completely frazzled when he finds what is left of her mind and the eternal scream it is living with. Someone suggests that Rhiannon may have had some spiritual link with Angus and that she knew he was dead. It is decided to go and talk with Ends-the-Quiet.

Ends-the-Quiet is brought up to speed. He says it may be possible, even though it is unlikely she was kinfolk. He will ponder a way to find out whether there was some link.

Monday 16

The day is spent doing mundane things - most of the pack have Uni classes. Sheaine spends his day leaping from lecture to lecture, staying when he finds something interesting. Mathias is studying Occult stuff and cleaning up some of his business stuff.

About 7pm, Dominique and Mikal are walking back to the caern, having met by coincidence in the Union. There is a smash above them and a beaker crashes down next to Mikal. Above, they can hear weird screaming. The two of the rush upstairs to a PhD lab. Inside is a man face down on the bench, bleeding everywhere. There are smashed beakers and such around him. Dominique is hit about shoulder height by a small rhesus monkey, which preceeds to try and tear out her jugular. One embarassing attempt to grapple later and her and Mikal have the monkey under control, but Dom has blood leaking down her shirt in a very vivid way. Wyrm sensing is done, and the monkey and a few other things (test tubes and beakers) sense of wyrm. Dom is given some beakers and does a runner while Mikal calls security - the guy face down is dead. Mikal is caught up with the police for much of the rest of the evening.

Moonflower is tutoring a struggling gym head called Alan. Alan, who is usually earnest if not bright, is obviously having troubles keeping his attention on the work. Moonflower asks him what's up and he asks her if she knows anything about steroids. She looks a bit blank and asks why. Alan says that a couple of guys who were at the martial arts academy he was at were probably taking some and the guy who runs it threw them out today. They pumped up in no time, but were really mindlessly aggressive. She tells him that she only knows general sorts of information.

Dominique takes the chemical samples and looks for Aquinas. She explains the situation and asks him to check them out. He takes them and heads off to the labs.

Late in the evening, all assemble and talk about the monkey thing. Kirsty's name is brought up and Moonflower says that she wants to talk to Kirsty anyway. A Questing Stone is performed and Kirsty is found to be in the McDonald's in Elizabeth Street and eating a cheeseburger and not enjoying it very much. She is facing east. Whoever it was that performed Questing Stone boggles at their dice. Infinite Paths trundle off to Elizabeth St. They meet and talk with Kirsty. She says she doesn't know much about the details at the Uni but the monkey is a good example of the sort of thing she was talking about when she decried animal vivisection - it might not be wyrm in nature but it opens up easy ways for the Wyrm to get a hole of people and animals and hurt them. Infinite Paths patiently wait for Kirsty to wind down, which she does in about 5 minutes. Moonflower mentions the E-Rat project and Kirsty listens a bit skeptically, but slowly comes around. She mentions cost and Moonflower suggests that it might cost them less. She's going to enquire.

Tuesday 17

Aquinas rings and says that the chemicals were altered biochemicals of some sort, fairly complex, but having been polluted by being stored improperly or carried in random testtubes back to him. If they can get some purer sources, he might be able to provide more information. Ends-the-Quiet contacts the pack from the Umbra and speaks thusly. If there is such a link between Rhiannon and Angus then a duck spirit may be able to sense it. There is a brief moment of silence and then Dominique asks why a duck. Ends-the-Quiet says that duck spirits are associated with empathy and life-long love and that such a spirit may be able to detect such a thing in another. Dom shrugs and says she'll give it a go.

The Summoning Ritual is performed and after a short bit a duck spirit flies down out of the sky and starts babbling at Dominique about how it heard her calling while it was in a pond, which is a really nice one with lots of things to eat and other ducks to chase and its quite near the river which is a bit dangerous because of all the other things swimming in it, but good in that it can get from place to place with only little flights, and anyway she was calling the duck to here but there's no ponds here but there are some interesting winds and they might take the duck to a pond, does Dominique know about ponds and swimming, probably not she doesn't because she doesn't have feathers or webbed feet although she might underneath those black things, maybe they are flat feet, how do you fly without feathers, or don't you fly, just waddle around although that can be dangerous because of the spirits that want to eat duck which is all well and good and cyclical but it would mean that she couldn't go near any more ponds without freaking out the other ducks and look over here there's some grass and stuff and there might be a pond down here, no, no creek either which is a bit of a surprise because you usually find them in spots like this but nevermind maybe its over here, no, still no creek, but I can smell water around here somewhere and those white guys are a bit odd and don't smell like water at all so it must be this direction....

...

... so why did you call me anyway? There is a brief moment of silence, which all enjoy as duck fiddles around with her feathers. Dominique breaks it by explaining the whole Rhiannon and Angus thing. Duck says that because Dom showed her where this pond was duck will help out. Duck is bound into Dominique. The pack hightail it to the hospital and Dom brings the awesome powers of duck to bear. She can now see/sense a trailing cable of spirit reaching from Rhiannon and seemingly extending off into its own darkness, snapping around and scraping on things like a broken cord. Ahhhh say the pack and then realise they have no idea what to do now.

Now that it has been established what the problem is, the pack sits and racks its collective brains. Moonflower remembers something about Child of Gaia and Blackfury rites to heal the spirit and minds of people as well as the body. They trot back to the caern and ring out to Healesville. Mathias speaks to an unidentified person who then gets his number. Antoinette Cloak-of-Mourning rings him back. Mathias explains the situation and Antoinette says to come up and she would have someone around to talk to. Infinite Paths pile into their car and head on up. When they get into the car park, they are met by Byron Fortenescu. He leads them to a ranger's hut where they speak with him and the rest of his pack, Rises-in-Glory and Isis Healing-Hand. Isis asks them a lot of questions and finally says that if they can bring her here, she can help heal Rhiannon - probably. Dominique asks how long they would guess and Isis shrugs and says anything up to a year.

While this conversation is ensuing, an ordinary-looking man in his mid-thirties comes in and speaks quietly to Byron. Mikal recognises him as Mandras Sky-Watcher. Mandras does not return the favour, and his eyes sweep over all of them before he leaves with no recognition. Mikal looks a little paniced, and when the conversation about Rhiannon is finished, he asks Byron if they could speak to Mandras. Byron, puzzledly, agrees. Mandras is fetched and Mikal asks him if he (Mandras) has ever met him (Mikal) before. Mandras says no. Mikal says "gaaa", and explains that he spent 30 minutes talking about the new Sept of Scars Atoned to someone last Friday who looked exactly like Mandras. Infinite Paths, Byron and Mandras all say "gaaa". Mandras orders Byron to get them out of here, and turns and jogs back up the path. Byron looks shocked that someone was impersonating their Caern Warder. Mikal says "gaaa" again. Infinite Paths are escorted from the premises.

On the way back from Melbourne, plans are made to abduct Rhiannon from hospital. The eventual plan is made to have two pack members pretend to be orderlies and wave transfer papers at nurses while altering the computer records so as to make it look like she woke up and checked herself out. Mikal, Walks-Between-Paths and Mathias go home to sleep after getting a panel wagon and some orderly uniforms from the Sept, while Dominique and Moonflower go to wake up the computer spirits. Once awoken, they are fairly cooperative and are more than willing to show Moonflower what a transfer form looks like. Moonflower pulls out some cunning and also peeks to see what colour paper they are printed on. Dom and her go home, Dom to catch up on some sleep and Moonflower to copy the document.

Wednesday 18

Later in the day, Moonflower runs into her friend Andrew. Every third word is "Marion". She smiles and nods. Mathias notices a news article which says that the site where Edridge is currently situated suffered major structural damage from a small tremor, which severely damaged the main laboratory and generator rooms. Seismologists cannot pinpoint the epicentre of the quake, nor are they sure another may not occur. Mathias spends some time on the phone with Christine, organising to present the rest of the shareholders with a chance to move Edridge's base of operations. Sheaine goes to visit Scott.

Thursday 19

Moonflower passes Andrew at Uni. "Marion blah blah blah Marion" She rolls her eyes (3!) and moves on. Sheaine meets her after lunch and suggests that he help teach to be lupus if she teaches him to be homid. They train way out north and run around as wolves for a while.

Dominique picks up a newspaper while wandering around and it is full of the death at Melbourne Uni and the animal rights protesters still going strong. The monkey has been tested for various diseases, and was found to have abnormally high homone levels. Senior Professor Bevan Jennings is under investigation for improper containment of his monkey. She shrugs and moves to the caern to find one of the senior Elders. She runs into Graeme and says that she feels that she has accomplished enough to be recognised as rank two. Graeme asks her a few questions and says that even though her practical (rites and rituals) knowledge is up to scratch, she is lacking severely in the realm of theoretical knowledge about spirits and the umbra. He says that if she can demonstrate some gain in such knowledge, he will be satisfied of her accomplishments. Dominique wanders off to find Emma and ask for some instruction.

Friday 20

Mathias, as part of his day's events, travels to the caern. He wanders in on Graeme Cachia only to find that he is talking with Jane Redfeather. She says that she has been hearing about their various problems (mages, the staley/ferguson murders, etc) and was wondering if they had considered going to the Atrocity Realm to see if they appeared there. Graeme looks a bit surprised, but says that he had considered it, but figured it was a bit too dangerous to be sending a relatively young pack there by themselves. Jane says she will happily lead them. Mathias says he'll consider it, but he'll need to talk with the rest of his pack about it.

Moonflower is walking around the city with Sheaine, as part of their homid/lupus cross training when they spot some guy making trouble out the front of Scott's club. Moonflower is all for ignoring it (its Scott's problem), but when ther guy is punched in the stomach by the trainer, Sheaine drags her after him, explaining that the troublemaker was sick in a weird way. The troublemaker stumbles to his feet and staggers off. They catch up to him and Moonflower goes to assist him while using Mother's Touch. The guy straigtens up and briefly goes to tell Moonflower to fuck off before realising whatever she did helped his pain. He is thanking her profusely when he notices Sheaine and swings a punch... connecting with Moonflower's nose spot on. Sheaine and the troublemaker scuffle briefly, but are broken up by police. They treat Moonflower like a delicate flower while separating the troublemaker and Sheaine. Names are taken. The police look at both Sheaine's and Moonflower's id disbelievingly. They hear the other officer read out the troublemaker's name (Bill Keys). Moonflower is asked if she wants to press charges. She says no, and is told that she should probably move off with her friend while they hold Mr Keys here for a little bit. The two Garou move off to the caern and find most of the rest of the pack before going to Moonflower's house.

After his lectures Friday, Mikal goes and buys enough beer to float a cow. He drinks it all and slumps unconscious in his lounge room. It is there that the rest of the pack find him when they troupe in. They look at him and move into the kitchen. Moonflower tries her Rite of Questing (reverse lookup in the phone book), which doesn't work, so Mathias tries his - Mr Keys is seemingly in Collingwood somewhere. A note is left for Mikal and the rest of the pack move off to Collingwood. Once there another Rite is performed - aha, he is in a small bungalow in Clifton Hill and is eating chips. The pack move to a spot nearby and step sideways (eventually). Scudding along though the 1930's-looking back alleys, they find where Mr Keys is in the Realm and peek. He lives in a somewhat squalid single room bungalow out the back of a terrace house. He is looking around and picking things up as Mathias peeks murkily through the thick gauntlet. He heads off to the terrace house, which does appear in the Umbra. The pack follow along. He is ... having a shower and getting ready to go somewhere. While he is doing this, Moonflower and Dominique sneak back to the bungalow and step sideways. They ransack through the apartment and find a small plastic bag taped to the bottom of his vegetable crisper. It has a number of small orange/yellow gelatine capsules in it. They think aha. After briefly considering swallowing them to take them into the Umbra, they hightail it with all of them out the door and over the fence.

Keys finishes his preparations and heads back to the bungalow. Moonflower and Dom head back to the car. Keys gets dressed, grabs some minor things, goes to the fridge, gets out a six-pack, looks for his drugs... can't find them. He starts pulling the fridge to pieces. They still aren't there. Keys' face twists into a rictus of anger and he starts raging around, and throws the fridge across the room. He does his rag for a bit, and then seems to have an idea. He grabs the six-pack and jogs down the side of the terrace house to his car, and drives off. Mathias and Sheaine head back towards their car.

Sitting in their car are Dom and Moonflower. They see Keys go past and decide to give chase. Following along about 300 metres behind, they see Keys pull up at the lights and coast up slowly behind him, hoping the lights will change first. They stop. Suddenly Keys' reverse lights come on and he rams their car, leaps out and starts assaulting the windscreen. Dom jumps out and Keys' leaps for her, then wrenches the door open again with the intent to get Moonflower. Moonflower leaps out. Keys sticks his head in, sees this and pulls his head out again, and slams the car door shut as Dominique tries to punch him, gets her arm caught in the door and has it broken. She does the jumping up and down screaming dance while Moonflower dodges Bill and sees three young men in dark blue uniforms come running in. One stops to help them, the other two subdue Bill. They are taken to the back of the police car nearby and asked to explain their story. The officer does not take too well to Moonflower's hippy name and dodgy story and they are asked to come down to the station. The comatose Mr Keys and the two ladies are moved into separate cars and taken to Collingwood Police Station.

Mathias and Sheaine return to his car. Its not there. They sigh, shrug and start moving towards a main road to hail a taxi. As they stroll along, they can see a smallish crowd around a set of lights. They shrug. Probably a car crash. As they get closer, they can see that there are two cars pushed up onto the curb. Police are directing traffic. One of the cars is Mathias'. He gives a little shriek and runs closer, asking locals what happened. He is given the short version of the story. Sheaine steps sideways then peeks back into the car, smelling for blood or anything unusual. They move off to find a taxi then go home.

Mikal wakes up and rings the mobile number. No answer. He drinks many glasses of water.

Moonflower and Dom are made to sit on hard wooden benches for several hours before anyone actually comes to see them. They are taken to interview rooms and their stories are checked out. There are vaguely convincing. Mathias, on returning home, finds a message from a Sergeant Matthews from Collingwood Police Station asking him to come and have a chat about an incident involving his car. He does so, by taxi. Moonflower, Dom and Mathias have a chat with Sgt Matthews about the incident and Mathias organises to have his car towed. All head back to Moonflower's house, where Mikal is waiting. Matters are discussed. It is decided to head back to the Station to see if they can check out Mr Keys at leisure.

Once there, Keys is easily found. He is unconscious in a cell. A Rite of Cleansing is peformed. He still has a very faint wyrm taint. Sheaine says that the taint almost like a fomor sense, but not quite. Some consideration is given to Mr Keys having a nasty accident, but it is decided to leave that decision until later.

Saturday 21

Keys is arranged on the floor so that it looks like his bed caught fire, he struggled away and his heavy antiquated television fell on his head. The bed is set fire too, and some vodka is spilt around as an accelerant. All step out into the Umbra and head home. Later in the day, Moonflower, Mathias and Dominique are escorted back to the Collingwood Police Station and interviewed. Each of them provides a reasonable, if scanty, alabi. In the meantime Mikal takes the miraculously saved telex of Mr Keys and spends the night sorting through it to try and find inappropriate numbers. It is nearly midnight when he finds two phone number/addresses that don't seem to fit with the rest of Bill's phone numbers - one for Len in Brighton and the other for Stu in Malvern. He decides to call it a night.

Sunday 22

The two of them travel to the other address, at Malvern. There is no one home at this house, and arriving there finds that someone incredibly anal maintains the house. Everything is neat and tidy and in its own place. There are two occupied bedrooms - one is the master bedroom, the other slightly less neat than the rest of the house, with more of the certificates that appeared at Brighton. After brief discussion, Sheaine and Mikal step through into the Realm and search the kitchen, as the drugs were in the fridge last time. They appear and open the fridge. An array of neatly labeled shelves does not seem to include a shelf for 'drugs'. They step back into the Umbra. They then trot to the room and peek before stepping out into the Realm in Stu's bedroom. A quick, but thorough search reveals a small plastic bag, taped to the back of some drawers - just as a car pulls into the driveway. They leap into the Umbra, and on peeking back, find that there is now a coat thrown across the bed, and people moving within the house.

Mathias has woken up and decided to go and visit the caern - specifically to talk to Ends-the-Quiet about the Atrocity Realm. He wakes Dom and the two of them trot off. Ends-the-Quiet says that he does not know very much about the Realm. He knows that it drains Garou spiritually and that it is easiest to find atrocities that you are most closely linked to. He knows that the only way out is to be killed. When questioned on that last point, Ends-the-Quiet elaborates that being killed by an inhabitant of the Realm ejects you, alive, into the Umbra, usually near where you started. The only way to get there is to take a Moon Path, but sometimes you end up there without wanting to. The two of them take this onboard calmly and rationally. Dom goes off to find Emma, and Mathias steps out into the Realm. He has no more than taken three steps when his phone rings. It is Mikal. Mikal explains what they have been up to, and also that fact that neither of them have Sense Wyrm. It is decided that the pack will go to Brighton and check things out.

Upon getting to Brighton, Mathias and Dominique move into the Umbra and hotstep over to the supposed steroid abuser. Dominique peeks and Sense Wyrm upon him, but gets nothing. The two of them frown and then move back to the cars. Infinite Paths drives to Malvern, but after much jumping in and out of the Gauntlet find that Stu has gone. Mikal rings his house and asks to speak to Stu, but Stu's mother replies that he has gone to the football. Much groaning. Mathias performs a Rite of Questing, but angers the stone spirit, which explodes. Stu's room is checked out again from the Umbra, and it seems that he has either taken one of the drugs or just adjusted the bag, as it has two pills left and has been taped back up out of site.

The pack goes into the city and come up with a scheme to get into Greg's Martial Arts Academy (cnr Bourke St and Russell St). Dominique and Mikal go in while Mathias and Sheaine stand outside and scan people. Once inside, Mikal is approached by a large, fit man who introduces himself as Greg. Dominique pretends to be a bossy girlfriend who wants her man to get himself fit. Greg looks a bit freaked by this and makes some noises about it needing to be a personal decision. Dom says that is was and shoves Mikal forward. Greg shrugs and shows them around and then stings Mikal for $40 now and $100 for a 6 month membership (plus $20 for every lesson). While this is going on, Dom has been scanning the assembled people (about 20 of them) for Stu, or for Wyrmtaint. There is none, nor does Mathias spot anyone unusual coming out of the academy.

The others decided to head home, but Mikal goes back to Malvern and watches the house overnight. Stu comes back around 7pm, and heads inside.

Monday 23

In the meantime, Dominique is studying with Emma, learning about Epiphlings, spirits of thoughts and emotions, while Mathias looks for a replacement Questing Stone. Mikal returns with Sheaine back to the caern and calls the pack together. He can't find Moonflower, but the others all assemble and he does a braindump. The four of them start searching the Uni to see if they can find Stu. Dominique and Mathias are strolling up towards to Union when they spot Stu talking with another well-built young man. They walk past and hear Stu say "Hey, did you hear about Bill? Oh man, cigarettes kill alright". Mathias sighs and continues on. The rest of the pack is quickly found, and the two young, but buff, men are tailed. Mikal comes up with a plan to approach them.

Mikal moves forward and invokes his Persuasion gift. He asks Stu, as he is such a buff guy, if he knows of any good places to bulk up, or to get martial arts training. At this point, the Storyteller shakes his head and asks for a "looking innocent and charming roll". Both guys look askance at Mikal a little bit, but then the unknown one says that he has recently joined an academy in Richmond, in Bridge Road. They discuss gyms and academies. Mikal drops in that he has recently joined Greg's gym and both guys suggest in a most subtle way that Greg has very intimate relations with his mother. Apparently four of them were kicked out of Greg's academy because one of them, Ed, got hit with a foul and lost his temper. The conversation subtly turns to quick ways to bulk up and they mention eating right and taking something called OMX. Mikal pushes the subtlety envolope and asks about really quick ways. Stu gets his phone number and says that they might be able to help. They head off.

Back to Bill's telex, find an entry for Ed. Use the reverse telephone directory to look up the address. E. Biezen, 8/13 Minim Rd, Flemington. Whoosh, the pack travels there and checks out Mr Biezen's bedsit. In the Umbra, the flat block does not exist, so people are lifted up in Crinos form to peek into the room, which is quite messy. Not much can be established from the Umbra, other than the fact that Ed is not home. Sheaine is thrown into the Realm by Mikal and lands in homid form. He looks around the bedsit for evidence. There's naught in the fridge but a mouldy can of baked beans and beer. Sheaine attempts to detect what Ed does by changing to lupus and scenting around. It seems that Ed spends some time near trains, in a place with fake carpet and bad perfume and places where people smoke a lot. After some thorough investigation, Ed's stash of drugs is found in a jar of rice. Sheaine steps back out of the Realm and another Rite of Questing is peformed. Ed is in North Melbourne and consulting a map reveals that he is somewhere in a strip of shops - Mathias will be able to sense more when he gets closer.

The pack pile into their cars and head off towards where Mathias feels Ed is. It turns out to be a pub on a corner near Arden St. Mikal heads inside to scope the place, only to realise three steps in that he is only wearing his dedicated clothers - long trenchcoat, jeans, shoes. Oh well. He goes to the bar, and orders a beer. The barman is quite beefy, but his name is "Garry" - its on his apron. There are only 5 other patrons of the establishment and two of them are quite beefed up and sitting next to each other, next to one of the windows. Mikal drinks his beer and leaves. He passes on this information to the rest of the pack, who opt to try and listen in from the outside of the pub. After several minutes of concentrating, Walks-Between-Paths can hear the two of them through the window. Apparently the two blokes are Del and Ed. Their most refined and delicate conversation consists of proving who is tougher by playing with lighters and arm wrestling, talking about 'chicks', beer and finding a new martial arts academy.

Having decided that this is probably what they are looking for, Infinite Paths review their options. Storm in there and beat the two of them to a pulp? No, too subtle. It is decided to find somewhere quiet and to step sideways. From the Umbra, a Rite of Cleansing is performed. Those people peeking notice that towards the end, Ed goes a loverly green colour and Del goes a bit pale. Ed gets up and bolts for the toilets. Sheaine follows in the Umbra, and finds Ed puking into a toilet. He gives some thought to stepping sideways and standing on Ed's head till he drowns, but resists the urge. Del in the meantime gets up and buys some peanuts, and seems to be packing up. When Ed comes out again, Del says that he's gotta head off to work. Del heads off by tram while Ed settles down to drink some more.

Sheaine and Mikal follow the tram from the Umbra. Del gets off at Elizabeth St, takes another tram down St Kilda Road, changes again at Domain Rd and then finally gets off and walks to his house, a first floor apartment. Sheaine can only smell through the Umbra, so tracking what Del is doing is a bit hard, but it seems he is moving around in his bedroom, collection clothers. Del leaves. Sheaine and Mikal step into the Realm, and look around for Del's drug supply. Sheaine can smell a strong presence of the drugs in the kitchen, leading out the door. Tracking back to the kitchen, the scent is most strong on a row of vitamins above the stove. Mikal, who has been admiring Del's video collection goes through them all, and finds the steroids eventually. A phone bill is consulted and Del's full name is discovered (Del Cartwright). They are considering their next move when the front door opens and some guys takes a step in. There is a brief moment as Mikal (in homid) and the guy stare at each other, while Sheaine (in lupus) looks for someway of escape. Mikal puts his best foot forward and says "Hi, we're friends of [looks at telephone bill] Del". The guy slams the door shut and locks the deadlock before running to another door and yelling "There's a burgular in my flat, call the police." Sheaine and Mikal step sideways. Let us never speak of the triple botch again.

Meanwhile, Ed has been drinking more beer and looking blearier. Eventually at about 6:30, he stumbles home to Flemington. He throws his stuff in a corner, kicks off his shoes and grabs a beer from the fridge, and drops down in front of the idiot box. Dom and Mathias watch, decide he must be of the Wyrm because he is watching "Battle of the Sexes", and barely resist the urge to storm in there and kill him. Eventually Mikal and Sheaine turn up and give a short version of their afternoon. Ed fixes himself some packet pasta. Mikal and Dom go and get their cars from near the pub. It is decided until Ed (not Bill) is asleep and then grab him, knocking him out with a sleep talen, before taking him somewhere to be interrogated. Ed eventually turns the box off at about 11:30 and crashes onto his bed, to sleep fitfully. Mikal hoiks Sheaine into the air again so he can step into Ed's (not Bill's) apartment. Sheaine slaps Ed (not Bill) with the talen and out he goes. Now the other three start to plan part 2 of their plan. They are considering putting Ed out the window, or possibly carrying him out the front in a mattress, when Mathias, still peeking on Dom's shoulders sees that Sheaine is tying Ed up with leather belts and having to use the sleep talen a lot, because he keeps waking up. Sheaine is just about finished with his legs when Ed (not Bill) wakes up again. Sheaine hits him with the sleep talen, but it doesn't work. Ed seems to be a bit disturbed by his current situation, so he lashes out.

As Mathias uses Mindspeak to distract Ed, Sheaine and Ed lash at each other fairly ineffectually. Mikal runs to where the cars are and steps into the cool calmness of the Gauntlet. Ed breaks the belt around his legs through sheer force. Sheaine keeps punching him, but it makes no difference, as Ed seems to be ignoring his wounds. Mathias and Dominique opt to step into the Realm. Sheaine raises his fist to punch Ed again but is kicked in the head instead. As he wobbles a bit woozily, still trying to land a blow, Ed kicks him again and Sheaine's vision goes all black.

Mathias and Dom appear in shadow in the Realm, quickly checking around for any obvious sign that people have noticed the current goings on. There are now lights on in the flat next door and some guy banging on the wall, but thats it. Mathias runs upstairs after morphing into Glabro form while Dom runs to fetch the car. Mathias kicks the door off its lock and yells "Police". He can see a figure kicking something repeatedly on the ground. The head swivels around and the figure runs towards him. Mathias runs towards it and punches as they meet. The figure flips and lands on its head on the ground. Mathias looks down at Ed, who is obviously just about dead. He can't see Sheaine, but Ed's feet are covered in blood. Dom screams into the car park below, crashing off one of the other cars. Most of the apartment block seems to be awake and looking on with interest. Dom runs up the stairs, heals the faltering Ed sufficiently that he won't die, runs over to the somewhat battered Sheaine and does the same thing. Mathias pulls Ed to his feet with Dom's help and they grab a jacket, fling it over Ed's head and rush him downstairs, trying to exude 'Police'. They hold it together until they throw their suspect into the boot of a battered purple kingswood. Sheaine waits until he can wiggle all his fingers and then steps into the Umbra.

Mathias drives calmly and slowly away from the sound of sirens heading for Flemington. He calls the caern. Ian Shatterglass answers the phone and after Mathias has brought him up to speed, Ian directs them to a house in Brunswick. Emma meets them there with Sheaine, who had run back to the caern. They are let into the empty house, dragging Ed. They discuss the current situation with Emma. She suggests that rather than going the very slow and messy process of torture that she could summon a spirit of Truth and bind it to Ed. Plan, think the pack. Mathias does a Rite of Questing Stone to find Mikal. Er. Try it in the Umbra. Uh oh. He and Sheaine head back to try and find him while Emma does the summoning. They return to Flemington where there are still police investigating the scene. They haul Mikal out of the Gauntlet and drive back to Brunswick. Emma finishes bargaining with the spirit of Truth and binds it into Ed. She says that as part of her bargain, she must tell the truth for several days, so she'll leave while they talk to Ed.

Infinite Paths ask Ed some questions, to which he replies in a sing-song voice. It seems that Ed takes one steroid every couple of days. He gets them from some people. He doesn't know who they are. He doesn't contact them, they ring him. They leave the drugs places, like toilets at railways and the such. He started taking them 2 months ago. He used to do steroids from a Bruce Steckler. He doesn't have a job. He gets money from the dole. He doesn't pay for the drugs, they never asked. He started selling them to his friends, but the people said not to, but to leave them a message at the next few pick up sites - they might get it this time, or the time after - with his friend's phone numbers. Who are these friends? He reels off 15 names, several of which are recognisable to Mikal. Ed's usefulness starts to come to an end. Sheaine changes to crinos and takes off his head. Emma comes back in and says she will take care of the body after cleansing it. The pack decide to call it a night.

Tuesday 24

With a derth of other clues to go on, the pack produce a note from Del and write "Ed is dead.", leaving it in the last place that Ed had drugs left for him. Tkila Kila is asked to sit and watch the note until bad men come and then to try and follow them after telling Sheaine. Dom and Mathias go home, Mikal and Sheaine go out to Pearce to thank Kirsty for helping them. Kirsty is a bit bemused that Sheaine thinks she is doing this just for them, but tells Sheaine what is going on while Barry, who is with her, peeks into the Umbra. Kirsty is saying "Nope, nothing interest" as Barry starts making "Oh god!" noises. Sheaine, Barry and Kirsty peek. A black, unmarked van has pulled up and is exchanging existing animals with animals that were in the van. Sensing Wyrm, the guys from the van and the animals are tainted. Barry pulls out from peeking and asks to use Mikal's phone, so they head to the car in the Realm. Kirsty is looking mad. Sheaine uses Scent of the True Form on the homids, and finds that they are human. However, using it on the animals reveals that this fluffy white experimental bunny is a fomor. The guys from the van unload a couple of large boxes and switch them with existing boxes as well. They then close up the van and drive off. Sheaine and Kirsty wait until there is no one around and then step through.

Meanwhile Barry has called Chris and said that things have started to happen. Chris says that he will get the rest of the pack together and head that way - Carmel has a mobile, so ring her if there is any change in the situation. Mikal rings Mathias and explains what is happening - they should probably come meet with Mikal and Sheaine. Mikal hangs up when the truck goes past. He starts up and pulls out, and is following the truck along. They stop at the end of the street and Barry notices Kirsty and Walks-Between-Paths running along in lupus. He opens the doors and lets them in. Mikal follows the truck and keeps the phone line open to Mathias. The truck heads east a long way and finally pulls in to the Victorian Animal Aid Refuge. The convoy of werewolves drives past 300 metres and then runs back in the Umbra. They arrive in time to see the last of the animals and boxes being unloaded from the truck. The 6 guys stand around it and suddenly the whole section of floor that they are on disappeares downwards. It is an elevator, operated by a guy in the office. In the Umbra, Kirsty and Barry are looking around for other evidence. Mathias starts digging about the spot where the elevator went down and finds a disturbingly irridescent perspex-like covering buried about 5 inches down.

Mikal wedges his axe in the crack between the top of the shaft and the perspex-stuff cover. The sounds of animals wailing, screaming and moaning drifts out. Lovely. The lid is removed and the wailing gets louder. Kirsty is called over from where she and Barry are looking at other potential evidence. She whistles and agrees that they should wait for the others. Mikal drops a stone down the shaft and estimates it as being hundreds of meters.

Chris McNeil and the rest of the Get of Pennington turn up. Sheaine lowers himself down by some rather unpleasant looking cabling and says that after about 20 feet there are door-like panels in the wall - before that, everything is featureless, and covered with that same iridescent black surface. He comes back up. A rope and some torches are dedicated and it is decided that people will scout out in two groups - Mikal, Sheaine and Barry and then Marcas, Ken and Carmel. The first three lower themselves down and reach the panel. Mikal sends himself spinning around when he whacks the panel with his axe. He stops eventually and then wedges the head between the panels, twisting the handle to open them. Light floods out from the room beyond, shining out from disturbingly organic panels in the roof. The room is quite large, and they are not at the bottom of it - instead the three of them are standing on a metal grill balcony, about 20 feet above the floor. Thick pillars hold up the roof. Lab tables fill the centre of the room, on the lower floor, and some of them have computers on them.

Cautiously moving around the balcony, the three of them peer into the rooms that appear to be behavioural labs. A sudden noise from below startles them all, but it turns out to be the three members of Get of Pennington coming out on the lower floor. They say that the shaft isn't that deep - it doesn't go any further deep than this level. The investigation continues. Mikal finds another set of panels at the other end, and tries to use his axe to open them. The iridescent sheen on every surface suddenly erupts with worm-like tentacles that attack everyone down the shaft. Mikal finds himself their main target, but by the sounds from below, the other members of Get of Pennington are also fighting. Mikal wrenches the worm thing from out of his throat and lungs, but plunges off the balcony, entering the zone. Mathias, Dominique, Kirsty and Chris start down the rope as fast as possible to help. The worm things are being defeated when they let loose a loud keening sound. All present start to panic, but there seems to be no real response. The worm-things are eventually vanquished. Dominique watches Mikal slide into a puddle and leaps to heal him. She examines the damage to his neck and decides that he can do without a battle scar this time. All retreat up the shaft.

Chris grabs Mikal and his phone and rings Graeme. Graeme says he will send help, but try and find out more. As none of Infinite Paths remember how to peek, one of the Get goes down the shaft and peeks from the elevator shaft. Apparently the shrieks emitted attracted some attention in the real world - there are some guys with large guns herding a whole lot of white-coated people around. This is not good. After some time Nadine Holloway and the Scryers turn up, with Keziah in tow. Nadine gets the current details of the situation and then says they need to know how many more levels there are and how many people are here. The banes don't sound too deadly, so she wants to do a strike in and out. Teams are organised - the whole lot of them will drop to the second level and then down the next shaft. Each pack will take a level, starting with Infinite Paths. Once you have cleaned out any banes that attack you and counted how many people were on the level, then move on.

The first level is crossed with only minor amounts of bane interference. The next shaft doors are kicked open and a rope is attached the benches that Mikal destroyed before. Mathias plays catchy with half of his pack while Sheaine peeks into the Realm. They drop down and biff their way into the level. The first thing Sheaine can see is a man in army fatigues and a blue beret, with four unhappy rottweilers. Sensing on them reveals that they are fomor. Oh good. This level appears to be a security station and armory. Mikal boots down the door to they can have a good look around and gets a face full of sharp banes for his trouble. They clean the banes out, but the situation in the real world changes some while this happens. The armory behind the security room is handing out assault rifles and shotguns to a other blue beret'd people. Sheaine senses that the bullets are at least partially silver. The rest of the level is storage.

The pack drops below the next two levels, from which is exuding the sounds of comabt. The sixth level is dark, but appears to be a generator room, humming away. The seventh level appears to be where all the animal screaming is coming from. The screaming is in both the Realm and the Umbra - actual animals and spirits respectively. All are corrupted by Wyrm taint. Infinite Paths shudder and start moving back up. When all assemble at the surface again, there is a brief conference, counting heads and silver. The levels that the pack missed were virology/bacteriology, judging by the dead and dying animals and warning signs, and a server room/mainframe and barracks. Nadine heads off and calls Cossack directly, suggesting that more help get brought in.

After a time, Gaia's Balm and First Wave turn up, along with Steel Hunters. Much discussion ensues about what to do, how to do it and what the Garou want to get out of this situation. Nadine mentions the fact it would be nice to get as much out of their computers as possible, so pulling the power as soon as possible would be good. What this basically means is someone has to take the generator out. Scott Rosen volunteers the Steel Hunters to take the armoury level. Gaia's Balm and First Wave will deal with the virology and bacteriology levels, as they require a level of competancy. Mathias says that Infinite Paths can take out the generator, so Nadine and the Get of Pennington will handle the mainframe and barracks. The Scryers and Ends-the-Quiet will keep an eye on the whole complex from the Umbra to make sure nothing surprising happens, and also to prevent anyone from coming out. Ends-the-Quiet also suggests perhaps doing something about lowering the gauntlet - a spirit of the Wyld is suggested, and a summoning is begun. The other packs start to make their own preparations. About an hour later, Ian Shatterglass, who has been listening in, yells up that the head guy seems to be trying to commuicate. Various people cluster around to try and listen, and hear him mention something about Kinfolk. Cossack is rung and is asked to check on anything unusual with regard to kinfolk. It is decided to press on anyway and hope that it was a ruse.

Once the Wyld spirit is summoned and it agrees to fiddle the gauntlet, everyone slowly moves into position. Occasional banes fling themselves out of the walls, but are dispatched without disaster. No one is going to act until Infinite Paths kills the generator, so they peek and try and get a feel for what is going on there. The lights are now on, and the room is guarded by 6 humans and dogs, all of which smell of Wyrm. The generator is inside a mesh cage, with one locked door. Initially the plan is to come out all in one group, but Mikal points out this makes them one big target, and the humans have silver in their shotguns and assault rifles. Instead, they will step from the Umbra in two groups, Dominque and Mathias on one side and Mikal and Sheaine on the other.

As they phase into the Realm, all hell breaks loose. Sheaine dispatches two of the guards and one of the dogs in only a few seconds, and Mikal nearly chops the head off a third with his axe while Mathias engages a forth. Mikal then finds himself exclusively fighting two of the enraged fomor-rottweilers and a human who appears to have rage as well as a shotgun with silver. The one remaining guard who is not being beaten on hits an alarm at his waist and a loud siren starts. The pack metaphorically smacks themselves in the head. Mikal is bitten by one of the dogs and starts to feel a bit woozy, while being repeatedly shotgunned. He falls down as Sheaine rips one side of the generator cage off and he and Dominique rush in, looking for things to smash. Mathias finally dispatches his opponent, and runs for the guard who hit the alarm, but he is starting to feel woozy as well. Sheaine learns that the tame elementals that homids keep bite if you hurt their house as Dom looks for something to smash. However, the guard who has dropped Mikal has turned his attention to their two of them. He fires his shotgun through the mesh, as does the guard who hit the alarm. Sheaine takes only a little damage, but Dom falls down, bleeding from innumerous little holes on the left side of her head. Sheaine lunges at the closest guard, but finds that the guards reactions are also quite fast, and suffers a shotgun blast just under the right arm. He falls down as Mathias decapitates the second last guard. The guard who posesses rage is turning his attention to Mathias, all other opponents having been dispatched when Mikal rises from the dead, rage in his eyes, to attack the two remaining dogs. Mikal is being savaged as Mathias tries to fight off the poisons. Sheaine heals enough to finally put the boot into the generator, and Mikal and Mathias are left with the amusing task of fighting off three enraged opponents in the dark. The two dogs are finally destroyed and the remaining guard is looking extremely unwell when he pulls a grenade from under his jacket and pulls the pin. The explosion catches all of Infinite Paths with schrapnel, and ignites the petrol which has been spilling out of the broken generator. The shaft door is opened to let the smoke out, Mikal slides into his component pieces. Sheaine decides to see if other packs need help, so he shimmies up the elevator cables. He is near the top when the elevator starts to rock about. He moves up and raises the trap door in the floor - just as Scott Rosen, raging in Crinos form, stamps on it. Walks-Between-Paths becomes Caught-between-Floors and plunges to the bottom of the shaft, falling awkwardly.

After a time, the battle is finished up. The wounded Garou are brought to the surface and revived. All the humans left alive from in the installation are knocked out and driven away to be interrogated. No one blames Infinite Paths for not killing the generator before the alarm went off tooo much. Nadine does look pissed though. Infinite Paths are sent home to rest - Cossack will be holding a debriefing tomorrow morning.

Wednesday 25

In the meantime, the installation has been investigated, stripped and cleansed as best of possible, then the Wyld spirit was called upon again to scramble the site so it was unusable. Cossack asks the Get of Pennington to checkout Pearce again and see how much they were involved. He mentions that they still don't know where the chemicals that were found with the monkey came from, only the animals, and Aquinas says that the Scryers can chase that up. The other remaining lose end is the steroid-takers. He wants Infinite Paths to follow that up, and Mathias agrees, offering the information they have already as a way of confirming the data that is being read off the server harddrives. Cossack also suggests that everyone take a couple of days off to rest and recover while the rest of the stuff taken from the VAAR is examined.

Thursday 26

Friday 27

Mikal celebrates his 21st birthday.

Saturday 28

The pack gets together with Cossack about midafternoon. He gives them a list of names, most of which are familiar, and says that these are the remaining people who have been taking the steroids manufactured at the VAAR. Most of them will probably be fomor, all of them will have suffered some form of physiological change. Any who are definately fomor will need to be killed - the Sept has no way of saving them. Any others will need to be cleansed and can be dealt with as they come up. The bodies will can be brought to the Sept and they will be dealt with. Dominique makes the suggestion that they start looking for alabis here and now.

The list is: Rob Summers, Del Cartright, Barry Rollen, Kyle Gemes, Leonard Hardman, Stewart McEntrees, Alan Rivers and Chen Lou and it includes addresses. It is decided to start with Del, because they know what he looks like and where he lives. But first, they go to the Art Gallery, to establish an alabi, then step sideways from the toilets. The pack parks nearby and jogs back in the Umbra. It seems that neither Del nor his housemate are home, and Del's drugs are gone. Oh well, come back later.

Stewart is target number two. Again, the pack parks nearby and trots back in the Umbra, this time after a Questing Stone rite. Mikal and Walks-Between-Paths peek. Mikal is lucky, and is only presented with a bloodied wall. Sheaine finds himself peeking right next to a slightly wobbling blob of flesh. The house has been trashed completely, everything that was really neat has been messed up and gobbets of someone are everywhere. Stewart is hanging from the ballistrade of the stairs. His mother is spread all around the house, and his dad has been killed, probably from a bad fall. The pack steps into the real world and try to examine Stewart subtly. They decide that the easiest path would be to do a cleansing ritual, and leave the evidence for the police. This is done, and sensing Wyrm on Stu afterwards reveals only the faintest taint. The pack start to think that this might be easy.

To Oakleigh, to deal with Kyle Gemes. He doesn't seem to be at home, and a Questing Stone reveals that he is a couple of kilometers to the north. Infinite Paths travel that way and find that he is in the Oakleight detention centre. Uhoh. Kylie is eventually found in a cell, and has been apparently 'subdued'. Various police seem to have been subdued as well, and the charge sheet includes multiple cases of assault on a number of people at the same address (probably Kyle's housemates) and various people whose names all seem to be Constable or Senior Constable. A quick plan is worked out. Mathias runs up the other end of the station and causes some guy named Craig to see insects crawling over the desk sargeant and then voices behind him. As Craig seems to be here on charges of recreational chemicals, this is not unexpected, but does drawn a lot of attention from the station. In the meantime, Sheaine slips into the real world, smothers Kyle and then dedicates him. The pack return to the car and then the Sept before reviewing their tactics. Dedicating any more bodies is going to drain them of gnosis. It is decided to make a talen that will let them take bodies into the Umbra from the Realm. Dominique spends a few hours summoning a pelican spirit while the other three dedicate a huge amount of fish. The pelican is fed until it nearly bursts and it agrees to be bound into a sleeping bag for the night.

The pack returns to the chase, heading out to Yarraville. They trot back to the appropriate house, and check out Alan. Scent of the True Form indicates that he is human, although tainted. A Cleansing is performed while the others look around. It looks as if Alan was a 'nice' boy, although by the signs of tape on the back of the picture of Sampson, he certainly was taking the drugs. After the Rite, it is their considered opinion that Alan will be ok, although he will need to be checked again later.

The pack head out to Collingwood, looking for Rob Summers. Rob is currently getting very very relaxed with 10 friends and watching Pink Floyd videos. They decide to leave him for the moment and go to Hawthorn, to look for Barry. Bazza does not seem to be home. A Questing Stone reveals that he is stationary a kilometer or so further south. The pack trot that way and find Barry in a dumpster. He seems to have been stabbed in the back and robbed. They throw him in the back of the car and dump him back at the sept before moving out to Burnley to find Chen Lou. When they get there he is beating on either his girlfriend or wife. This makes Mikal a little cross and he bulls his way into the Realm. The other three shriek, run back outside the Umbral house and step them.

Dom and Sheaine beat their way in through the front door and run into the house, just as Mikal appears behind Chen with his axe. Chen's female friend freaks as Mikal goes to Crinos form, while Chen freaks at these people bursting into his house. Mikal swings, nearly cleaving Chen in half. The young woman passes out. Chen is smuggled out to Mikal's car after he is pried off the axe. The pack steal as much of the bloodsoaked items as they can and clean up as much of the rest as possible. The young woman is laid out on the bed and sleeping tablets and chewed up and spat into her mouth, the bottle left knocked over theatrically next to the bed. After Chen is dropped off, Mikal goes home and plays with his lights and such to prove that he was home all night. Moonflower is there and agrees to help.

Its off to Brighton to find Len. A Questing Stone near Len's house reveals that he is somewhere near Southgate. Mathias keeps riting and homes in on him at the morgue. Oh dear. The pack creeps in through the Gothic Umbra, trying not to touch the walls. They find a draw marked "Leonard Hardman". Next to it is "John Hardman" and "Mary Hardman". Dominique steps into the Realm and pushes the door shut with a loud creak. Someone comes to invesigate, opens the door, but doesn't notice her there, assisted by Mathias mindspeaking him a voice saying "Yeah?" further down the hall. Dom waits until he has gone, then creeps over to Len. Len has a big hole in the left side of his head. She manages to pull the body out and stuff it in the Umbral bag, but just as she finishes, she hears someone coming. She leaps into the Umbra, leaving the draw open. The pack decide that that was close enough, although the intendants may now think that Len walked out on his own. While carrying the bag full of Len back to the car, Mikal comments that he intended to spend the night getting laid, not stealing bodies.

Time to try Del again - its about 1:30am, so he should be home. From South Melbourne, another Questing Stone is tried. Del is north of the city somewhere. There is much groaning and then driving back that way. Another rite is performed and it becomes apparent that Del is in the Melbourne Remand Centre. After an hour or so long search, complicated by the fact that the Umbra building is much different from the one in the Realm, they find Del asleep in a cell. Mikal and Walks-Between-Paths step into the Realm, kill Del with Sheaine's knife, hoist Del into their bag and step back out, in a rare display of competancy. Del is dropped off at the Sept, and one last call is made on Rob. Rob is passed out in his lounge room with about 5 others. 3 other people are piled into one bed, in various states of address. Sheaine and Mikal step out again, sneak noiselessly across the lounge room and lay out the sleeping bag. Sheaine is overcome with the urge to see what happens when you take a human into the Umbra alive, so Rob is moved onto the bag, zipped up and then slipped through. Rob appears, snoring. Dominique becomes a bit distressed by this and starts yelling at Mikal. Mathias and Sheaine notices a shadowy ripple pass across Rob's face. Mikal hits him in the head with the blunt side of the axe. This causes an extremely violent reaction - Rob's entire front distorts up and away from his body with the same shadowy ripple. Mikal puts Rob down with the axe.

Rob is taken back to the Sept, and Graeme drags the bag into the shed with the others that they have collected. He unzips the bag and roaring, almost transparent vortex of anger comes boiling out. The pack put it down relatively quickly, but then have to deal with an annoyed Graeme, who wants to know why that happened. Their explanation, while adequate, still leaves him a bit annoyed, but he lets it slide.

The pack troupe off home. Mikal has just got his key in the lock when he hears someone call his name. Running up the street is Marion, carrying a body. Mikal vaguely recognises it as a friends of Moonflowers. Marion asks where Moonflower is, because she need her help. Mikal heads inside and looks around, but vaguely remembers Moonflower saying something about heading off on a spirit quest. He notices that Andrew has a fairly severe welt across his head. Marion explains, in a somewhat jittering fashion that she was taking a short cut with Andrew when some guys jumped them and started beating Andrew up. She frenzied. There are five chopped up bodies, and she thinks that Andrew saw her in Crinos form. Mikal nods resignedly while ringing Mathias.

When Mathias and Dominique turn up, there is a brief explanation and then they all start scraping together some stuff to clean up. Marion is left to take care of Andrew with some ice. They drive to the site, only to find that two curious gawkers having found a trickle of blood running out of the alley. The pack briefly performs their new dance piece "flailing ineffectually at mortals while slipping in piles of entrails", but eventually disuade the guys from looking too closely. They should even live. It seems that the loud party next door covered not only Marion's faux pas, but also the little altercation with Infinite Paths.

Shovels and and plastic bags are used to collect up the five bodies, although there is some consternation when they can't find the fifth head. It is eventally spotted, in a gutter 15 feet up. After some appaling attempts to climb a near sheer brick wall, eventually Mathias leaps up with Leap of the Kangaroo and grabs it. As he reaches the top of his parabola, the light comes on in the bathroom and a guy looks out the window, his eyes meeting Mathias', before Mathias responds again to the siren call of gravity. There is a brief pause, waiting for the screams and people running into the alley, but all that eventuates is the sound of trickling liquid and then the lights going out again in the bathroom.

The last of the bodies are shovelled into Mikal's car, which weighs heavily. The others all run for it while Mikal splashes petrol all around the alley before torching it. This draws some attention from next door as a fireball rips out of the alley, but Mikal is in his car and moving before anyone gets out the front door. He drives off into the wilderness and buries the bodies. All go home and sleep

Sunday 29

Monday 30

Very, very early in the morning, there is a knocking without at Mathias' flat. He rises groggily and answers the buzzer. Apparently a Detective Richard Sands wishes to speak to him and and Ms Lalor. Mathias lets him up and he asks to interview Dominique alone. Mathias waits outside and uses Mindspeak through the fisheye. Detective Sands asks a lot of questions about where Dom was on Saturday afternoon and evening, and more questions about who she was with, and what they were doing and does she know where Moonflower was during that time. Dominique answers a bit vaguely but maintains a plausible alabi. Detective Sands then says he would like to speak to Mathias privately as well, and asks similar questions. Once he has finished, Sands makes a brief phone call and then explains that since the strange encounter that Dominique and Moonflower had with Bill Keys and then his surprising death the day after, a large number of Bill's friends and aquaintences have had various accidents or have disappeared. Detective Sands leaves them to read the details in the paper.

At about 6:30, Mikal is awoken by banging on the front door. It is a police detective and a uniformed police man. They ask to speak to Moonflower. Mikal blearily looks for her but she is not there. He reports so to the police at the front door, who have just got off the phone. The detective shows his id (Sullivan Dane) and asks if he could come in and ask some questions. He sits Mikal down and questions him about Saturday and his actions, and whether he knew where Moonflower was all day, or indeed where she is now. Mikal manages to give the impression that she might be off at a new boyfriend's place, but he's not sure. Mikal uses Scent of the True Form and determines that Detective Dane is human. Dane gets up, thanks him for his help and leaves.

About 10am Mathias receives a phone call from Irena Sliviak. She wants to meet him for lunch. Mathias agrees and they chat. When Mathias catches up with the others later that night, he tells them that Irena is keen on getting Maria Pantoliano back with her parents. She says that Ion has a considerable amount of interest in the senior Pantoliano remains in a position of power, and as long as Maria Pantoliano is missing, Antony and Mia are not going to testify against him. The pack agrees to go and get Maria and bring her back. Mathias thinks at the last moment to ring and tell Moonflower's mum that they are coming, and she sounds less than impressed, wanting to talk to Moonflower first. As Moonflower is off on a spirit quest, this could be problematic. The pack decides to leave it for the moment, and settle down for what they feel is a well earned break for a week.