| 10 Oct 1998 |
| 15 Oct 1998 |
Late on Sunday, the topic of the Full Moon Killer comes up again, and Jane Redfeather's offer to escort them to the Atrocity realm. After some discussion, the pack decides to take it up. Suddenly. Right now. They trot off to the caern and talk to Cossack about it. He says that he still thinks its a bit dangerous, but if the pack are confidant to go for it. He lends them the Umbral shotgun and opens a Moonbridge to Scars Atoned. When they get there, Jane is waiting for them. She agrees that now would be a good time to go, but she needs to do some preparation. After a few hours doing eerie theurge stuff, she is ready, and leads them out into the Umbra.
After much travelling, the pack find a Moon Path and start to make their way through the Umbral mists. Many hours later they come to a Lunae - a place where two Moon Paths cross. It appears to be a broken down fort, maybe Roman. There is already a pack here, and there is a certain amount of wary looking at each other before the other pack introduces itself as the Defenders of the Trail of Swords, a Silverfang pack from Spain. When Dominique is introduced, they treat her like a lost cousin - a far cry from the treatment that she gets from the local Silverfangs. Many stories are told of deeds great and true. Sleep.
The Umbral mists begin to clear and Infinite Paths run off the Moon Path and onto a land made of low moors, mud, greyish gorse, drizzle, and in the background a constant gutwrenching scream. Jane says "Welcome to the Atrocity Realm." There is some discussion of how to find what they are looking for. Jane tells the pack that they should concentrate on the scenes they are interested in. They should not be too surprised if they end up separated, but just keep moving.
The pack starts to run. The mud and the drizzle and stench make it hard to concentrate on where they are going and as they run over a rise, Dominique and Mikal attempt to skid to a halt, but slide down the following slope, towards a pit of what seem like maggots. Mathias and Walks-Between-Paths manage to stop only half way down the slope, and immediately try to get the others out of the maggot pit. As they are doing this, some things rise up out of the muck and attack. The pack, after some serious slippage eventually defeats the Banes, but not before Dom ends up in the maggot pond. They continue on, a little slower now.
It comes to the pack's attention that the scenary around them has changed. They are running across what seems like a football oval. It is quickly determined that this is relatively near where Tony Staley was butchered. The pack head for Staley's house, and can see a figure walking along the road. Mikal, Mathias and Dom sneak along on the other side of the road, trying to make absolutely sure its Staley. Sheaine runs up to him in Lupus and pretends to be a friendly doggie. As they approach the awooga place, the others can see a dark shape lurking in bushes on the far side of Staley's property. When it sees Sheaine with Staley, it starts to move off. The others give chase, and start catching up. Mikal and it exchance some blows. The figure is definately a Garou, huge, black with matted fur and glowing green eyes. There is a certain amount of shuddering. The Full Moon Killer breaks off and runs for it. Infinite Paths give chase, but the scene breaks up before they have a chance to catch him.
They are back in the Atrocity Realm, but there is no sign of Jane. The pack shrug and move on. They are trying to find the site of the Ferguson's murder when the scenary shifts. However, they are not in Abbotsford. Instead it seems to be somewhere out in native bushland. There is a largish homestead-style house in front of them. From inside the pack can hear shouting, a woman's voice and a man's voice. Dominique says that this is irrelevant and they should go, but everyone else seems to want to know what is going on. They peek inside a window and see a woman about 25 yelling at a slightly older guy, who is wandering around, picking things up. The argument seems to be complex and have been going on for a while - he claims she is obsessed with her pack (ears all perk up) and has no time for him, while she seems to believe that he has some strumpet in town that he is carrying on with. The argument dissolves to abuse and screaming fairly quickly. Dominique is visibly wincing. The young woman looks considerably like her, and Mathias clicks, noticing it is her mother. Sheaine on the other hand has noticed the incoming Banes, who seem to be being drawn to the scene. The young man steps out the door, suitcase in hand, heading for the car. The woman follows him out. He yells something back at her that the pack can't really make out - the woman flips to Crinos and leaps onto her husband with a fairly sickening crunch. All wince. Dominique's eyes bug out. The Banes start zeroing in on the Crinos garou, who is now frenzying... and tearing up and eating her former husband. Dominique makes ga noises and starts changing form. Some of the Banes change direction for her.
Mikal decides to start reducing the problem before they get close and fires the shotgun into the Banes, which look like jelly-fish type spirits, with long dangly tendrils. Sheaine starts leaping at them and slashing with his knife. Two of the Banes surround the boggling Dominique and starting draining her Rage away. The rest of the pack devastate the Banes fairly quickly, although losing their Rage and nearly the Umbral shotgun. Walks-Between-Paths finishes off the last Bane as it tries to escape with the fetish, and it ignites, cascading down on Mikal who thinks he is about to die. He actually gets some Rage back from the incandescent spirit stuff as it drifts down. The scene starts to break up to the sounds of crunching bones.
This time Jane is waiting for them when they come out of the scene. She asks what they have seen and a hazy description is given of the first scene, and a brief mention of something personal. The pack sets off again, looking for more chaos. After some many hours of running and avoiding Banes, during which Jane disappears, the pack suddenly screams to a halt to avoid crashing through the house they have just appeared in. Dominique mutters darkly about closets as she comes out of the clothes cupboard. The house is quickly determined to be Ferguson's, and Mathias and Sheaine head out the back, where they smelt the strongest Garou scent. They make it out the back door when a shout from Dominique brings them back in. The BSD has crashed down through the bedroom roof, and landed on the bed, starting to slash up the Ferguson's. Dominique has tackled him, further squashing the Ferguson's, followed by Mikal, who is trying to grapple the guy. Sheaine can smell petrol as he comes running in - dripping down from the hole in the roof. The rest of the pack come screaming in as the BSD changes to homid form in an effort to get away, and they get a quick look at his face before the scene fades off.
They are left in a big pile, which gets them a weird look from Jane, who is looking a little shredded herself. She asks them what they saw and they let her know. Jane asks if they want to check out anything else while they are there and they come up with a few options. They head off, looking for Joe Ridgeway's weird disappearance. Some time is spent running through the moorlands before the pack realise that when they come up over a rise they are suddenly running on ashphalt. They look around, a bit confused, working out that they are in Melbourne somewhere. They lurk, in the shadows and try and figure out what is happening. After some fairly fruitless discussion, they see a figure jogging their way. He has a whole lot of flapping pieces of paper taped to him. Dominique and Mikal start shaking their heads and groaning. The pack follow the guy in through the door that he enters and wait around while he jumps in the shower. Shortly after, they see a ghostly Mikal and a ghostly Dominique appear. The real Dominique goes over the closet and opens it, looking at a now not ghostly Mikal. She convinces him to go back in the Umbra and just move away. The scene-Mikal looks baffled, but agrees and leaves. The scene starts to fade.
More running in the Atrocity Realm, with the feeling of leadenness starting to grow. Infinite Paths finds itself in another part of Melbourne, and recognise it as being near Joe Ridgeway's place, finally. They sit and wait. Joe's door opens and a group of people come out, all a little noisy and probably inebriated. Joe waves them goodbye and then goes back inside. Sheaine sneaks up to next to Joe's door. Mikal watches from the other side of the street. Eventually a guy strides up to Joe's place, up the path and knocks on the door. The guy is wearing a trenchcoat, jumpers, jeans, sneakers, but doesn't look familiar to any of the pack. Joe answers the door in a fairly cautious fashion and the guy in the trenchcoat speaks to him in a voice that buzzes, accusing Joe of betraying him. Joe tells the guy to fuck off, when the guy lunges inside Joe's door and changes form into the same sort of pus-bane that came out of David Struthers. It chases Joe up the corridor and then lands on him, apparently squashing and absorbing him. The scene starts to fade. They find themselves fairly near Jane, who is looking a little worse for wear. She says that she does not want to spend too much more time in the Realm, and they should only follow up the important things.
It is decided to follow up the Full Moon Killer and whatever is picking off the members of Conviction Made Flesh. More running and then another scene appears. Jane is with the pack this time, and they are standing in a corpse of trees, near a river. Ahead of them is the Full Moon Killer, who looks to have just pounced on his prey, a smallish human. Jane rushes off, away from the river. The rest of the pack wade in and attack, trying to find out more about the BSD. Someone finds some footprints nearby, a pair of them, and the smell of petrol. Jane rushes back just as the scene fades, and says she found a street sign up the hill, so they can pinpoint the locale when they get back.
More running, and more draining of their vital essences. The Full Moon Killer is still in everyone's mind but the next scene that forms up doesn't seem to involve them. The pack stand on a hill, out in the country. It feels like autumn or winter. Further down the hill is a farm house, looking snug and warm. Some discussion is had, with the idea of perhaps staying out of the scene this time so that they can see what happens. However, Mikal and Sheaine blunder down the slope and end up interacting with the people from the farm house. As they move away again, the scene breaks up without any apparent atrocity. Jane shrugs, when they find her again, and says either it was happening inside or they interrupted it. More talking, and Mathias pushes the plan to find out something about what is happening to Conviction Made Flesh.
A scene forms up around the pack, and Jane, after a time, and Mathias says that it is the front of Balthazar's house, the first Garou to go missing. They rush up the path to find the front door ajar. As Mathias boots the door open, he can see Balthazar, being carried and obviously unconscious - however, none of them can see what is carrying him, just a large blank spot. As they start to move forward, there is a sense of the blank moving aside, and a very small amount of curly, dusty-blond hair can be seen before the scene breaks up. No further amount of running and searching seems to bring anything up about Conviction Made Flesh, so it is decided to perhaps give the Full Moon Killer one more go.
The whole pack throws themselves into it and after a while, a scene forms up. They are standing on a railway embankment, just up from South Yarra. This time Dom and Mathias very firmly express a desire to stay out of the whole situation. Further down the street a red volvo station wagon turns out of a side street and heads their way. They watch it slow and pull into a driveway when something comes up and over the top of their house and lands on the car, tearing the roof off, and butchering the people inside. Sheaine and Mikal both decide the time for intervention has come, followed by curses from Mathias and Dominique. Mathias follows them. Dom spots something in a tree near the car and heads closer to check it out. She runs down the embankment and for the tree, and there is a sudden movement, as if something very heavy just leapt off one of the branches. However, she is unable to see what it is.
In the meantime, Mikal, Sheaine and Mathias have pinned the Full Moon Killer in the volvo, and Mathias begins a Rite of Binding, causing the GM to have hysterics. Mathias completes the binding as Sheaine and Mikal hold the BSD emanation down. The scene flickers wildly and is obviously not stable. Mathias starts with the questions.
The pack follows Jane's lead as they run along. Eventually a scene forms up around them. They stand in Australian bushland, and look out at an aboriginal encampment. As they watch and begin to get a sinking feeling, a group of horsemen ride up and start handing out food and blankets. Jane moves over and eats some of the food. The others follow her lead, remembering that they must die to leave. As the place starts to spin, the white horsemen pull out guns and start shooting. The pack don't seem to be able to change form, but just slump to the ground. All fades, althoug Mikal sees something just before the end.
The pack appear out in the Umbra, and shudder a lot. It is a melancholy group which move back to the caern, in the Near Umbra. They get to the caern and ask Graeme where Cossack is. He says that Cossack was hanging around Rathdowne St earlier. The pack drop some of their stuff, and go looking for Cossack. They find him without too much trouble, and start explaining the situation. Cossack says it is definately a Black Spiral Dancer, and that the situation is grave.
As Jane and Cossack are talking, the rest of the pack sees a black shape fall from the sky, and drop onto a car. They freak, but Cossack just looks at them strangely. They ask him if he saw it, and he says yes, rather puzzledly. There is some confused babble but they gather from Cossack that crinos sometimes fall from the sky onto cars and then kill anyone inside. The pack ask what seems to be a reasonable question - "Why?". Cossack doesn't seem to be able to comprehend the question. There is some paniced discussion over whether the binding could have caused this. When the pack see another crinos fall from the sky futher down the street, they leave Jane to remonstrate with Cossack while they investigate.
The rest of the traffic is moving around the car, not paying any attention to the butchery going on inside. The crinos (looking awfully like the BSD from the atrocity realm) runs off as they approach, and Sheaine gives chase. The others check out the car. It seems to have been a small one person car. Mikal steps sideways to see if there is anything in the Umbra while the others look around. They can't find anything so head back to talk to Cossack. This gets them nowhere, so they go back to the caern. Sheaine follows the scent for a couple of kilometers, and then it disappears near a man hole. He steps sideways and follows the scent down the more antique storm water drain. After much searching, he heads back. Mathias and Dom step sideways to find Ends-the-Quiet, but find Graeme instead. He looks surprised to see them and asks when they got back, and where's Jane. Lots of gurgling noises are emitted.
Meanwhile, Mikal steps back into the real world, under the car that was attacked. There is no car. There is traffic, which screeches to a halt as someone appears in the middle of the road. Mikal thinks quickly, and decides to fit in by changing to Crinos, leaping into the air and coming down on a car. Judging by the reactons of the passersby, this was not the right thing to do. People start screaming and cars start to collide. Mikal jumps off the car he was in, shaking blood of his claws, and flips to Glabro. One of the shop owners comes running out and fires a pistol into him. The flak jacket stops most of the damage, and Mikal takes the gun from him, and leaves him a gibbering wreck on the street. There are the sounds of approaching sirens. Mikal steps sideways and considers his options. He heads back to the caern.
Eventually all the pack get together in the caern, and Graeme and Cossack (who was at the caern) get a coherent story out of them. The two of them groan and mention something about mirror zones. They are very rare, and often not noticable. The two of them know about them because they were caught once in one together. They consider the mess that Mikal causes and sigh, saying it wasn't really his fault, although next time they would prefer that he reacted with less austentation. Mikal then realises he has left the Umbral shotgun in the mirror realm. Graeme walks off grinding his teeth as Cossack says that can be sorted out later. The pack is told to get some rest. Mathias asks about Jane. Cossacks says Jane can manage herself. The pack is chased off and told not to get into any trouble before the moot on the 11th.
The pack manage to keep out of trouble. Hidden Green are told of the vision at Balthazar's house.
The moot proceeds fairly normally, Opening Howl and Greeting the Sky. Some minor bits and pieces are cleared up, and then Cossack asks Infinite Paths to tell them of what they saw in the Atrocity Realm. Cossack says that the Full Moon Killer is definately a Black Spiral Dancer (duh). He says that everyone should be careful, especially during the Revels. He tells the story of fall of the White Howlers. The issue of Sheaine's membership is brought up, but Mathias says that they have not made a full decision. Cossack looks a little surprised, but moves on.
A little later, in the caern, there is an assemblage.
Sheaine offers around another skin of fine Fianna wine.
At this moment, more than happy to get rip-roaringly drunk, Dominique is first to claim the skin, taking more than a healthy slug of the wine... and ufferring the penalty for it as she chokes.
(In an annoying quasi-scottish accent) "Easy, this stuff will take hairs from your chest!"
Dominique, eyes streaming, manages a lopsided grin, "I'd better have some more, then." women with hairy chests is bad according to Homid law, dincha know.
Sheaine laughs, "True, but I was talking about your Crinos form!" His eyes, dart from side to side. "Never bathe in the stuff either; Gunthas of Natures Lair fell asleep in a shallow bath of it, and ... well ... perhaps a few more drinks and I'll finish THAT story".
Far off comes the howl of a Garou, echoing through the Umbra - your Sept mates who are still performing the Revel.
Sheaine picks his head up, and listens to the intent behind the howl.
The howl is simply one of the joy of the Hunt
Dominique passes the brew back, resettling herself as alcoholic languid heat spreads its way through her bones, "Never bathe in brew. I'll keep that in mind for the future."
Mikal catches sight of you across the Umbra and jogs over
Sheaine throws a half full skin of Fianna brew to Mikal.
Mikal says "gibber"
Mikal bounces and drools a bit
Mikal skulls brew
Mikal shakes empty skin and sighs
As Mikal finishes off the rest of the Fianna brew, Dominique lifts up a hand, mouth open ... but she says nothing and subsides. A few moments later, she glances over to Sheaine, "Got any more?"
Mikal pats pockets then smiles
Mikal says "Akavit, want some?"
Mikal holds forth a hip flask
Sheaine displays his grasp of homid lore by grinning, nodding and raising his eyebrows all at once.
Sheaine falls over, concentrating too hard being homid.
Mikal hands flask to Sheaine
Mikal says "You look like you need it"
Sheaine mutters "ouch"
Sheaine wonders if Mathias is feeling okay.
Sheaine says "He looks ... distant."
Mathias walks out of a group of loud Crinos, wearing his homid form. Even after the revelry and the cleansing his suit still manages to look as though its recently been pressed. He makes his way towards the three of you, a sombre expression masking his face. Without a word he sits and looks at each of you in turn. "It is time for the decision."
Sheaine rolls up into a sitting position, a serious look etched on his face.
Dominique straightens, one hand scrubbing at her forehead in an attempt to bring clarity. She remains silent, gaze flicking tween Mathias and Sheaine.
Tkila Kila runs out of a group of trees and bashes into Sheaine. He spands a few moments trying to get him to look at rocks, but picks up on the mood in the air, and settles down.
Dominique smothers a wince as the chattering beastie arrives.
Mathias glances at Dominique then across to Mikel, a brief nod before he turns his attention to Sheanie. "You have walked alongside us and fought alongside us for a month now. You have seen what we have seen and been where we have been. In this time you have fought for Gaia with honour and respect. I now feel it is time for you to do so with another pack. The places we must go and the tasks that are sent to challenge us are suited to our exposure to the ways of the homids. We must often move amongst them, move with them and keep or presence from them. Your heart still lies in the wilds and would only be suffucated in these surroundings."
Sheaine looks to the sky, his eyes locked onto Luna's beauty. "I expected such a decision. A pack leader would not show such distance to one of their own. I gave you this time as you tend to be distant to us all, and thought it may have been your way. I see it is more than that."
Sheaine raises a single eyebrow. "You place is to lead the pack, not my heart. As for where this path will go, I doubt you are the one to decide - more, it the the path of the bunyip's decision. I am the one to walk beween the lupus and the homid, and you would push me into the wilderness?"
A frown begins to darken Dominique's face as Sheaine speaks. Drawing her knees up to her chest, she laces fingers together over her shins.
Mathias shakes his head slowly, again looking towards his packmates. "This is both my decision and the decision of Infinite Paths. In leading this pack I must acknowledge anything that could compromise the safety of this pack. As I said, you have walked alongside us," he pauses a moment, "But far too often you have not walked with us. Your independance is admirable, in its place. Infinite Paths is not that place."
Sheaine looks into Mathias's eyes with love and sadness. "Not very Infinite. I have also watched, and I followed the ways of you all. The only way you can call yourselves united is with the use of homid mobile telephones. Mathia, the scent of Death and Failure swirl at your ankles, and what it comes from threatens to catch the pack. From five, to four .. and then to three. What homid tests of yours must be passed before the pack will grow? Make no mistake, I will leave you. I will return to my Cearn, and listen to the stories that come from your pack. I will howl with rage and tears for the Dead that will pile around your feet." Sheaine stands.
Sheaine says "And I will always wish that you could see beyond your ways, and see that of the pack.""
Dominique takes her turn, asking, "If you foresee such doom, why would you want to stay with us? If you have so many problems with our pack, why run with us?"
Sheaine looks at Dominique, "I have no problems with the pack. I do see such doom, that is true! Look around you, the Wyrm is on our very doorstep. I will stand and do what I see is right. Fight, run, love ... against the Wyrm united, or the Wyrm within."
Mathias flushes and the rippling change starts to run through his body
Dominique's frown turns to a scowl, "Then if you lay blame for death at Wyrm's door, then why do you also take Mathias to task for the loss of our packmembers?"
With an obvious effort of will, Mathias gets himself under control... Mathias's expression darkens and he shakes his head, the growling sound coming from deep withing his throat. "No Dom! You need no justification from this pup. His own words condem him even now." Eyes dark, he turns his attention to Sheania, rising quickly. "You words drip with the acid of anger and rejection. Leave us, find your own place but you would be best not to show your face near me again. Those that forsee death, even in others, often carry it on their own shouldes. If I was not certain before, I am now. You have no place with us."
Mikal moodily looks at his axe, as if expecting to see his reflection in its rusty surface
Sheaine sighs. Sheaine says "I do not. I do not blame. It is not my way. Blame, guilt, these are homid things.""
Dominique's lips draw back from her teeth but she subsides again, looking away from the lupus.
Mikal mutters something about death and knowledge and failure and death
Sheaine says "How quickly you anger. How quickly you miscommunicate. See beyond my words. See beyond yourself. I have no anger, nor acid. As for rejection, I have walked with you. You have never taken me in. How can I be rejected?""
Dominique: Mists swirl and curl about you. In a brief moment, you can see Ian Shatterglass watching your little gathering. You don't think the others saw him.
Dominique's fingers claws into the dirt, eyes widening momentarily before narrowing to a squint, peering through the mists.
The mists swirl shut again, like a velvet curtain. However, you are sure that events here are being noted by the Elders.
Mathias shakes his head again, nearly snapping his words. "I will not argue this with you 'Walks Between Paths'. You have spoken, we have heard. Hear me now, if darkness truly comes as you say it will, I would feel safer in the knowledge of two packmates I can trust rather than six who may decide their own ways should be served first. Be warned, if I ever hear you speak ill of this pack again, the reckoning will be such that you will never speak again. Now leave us!"
Perhaps it is Mathias' words, perhaps it is her own thoughts. Whatever the cause, a wry albeit pained smile twists Dominique's lips as she turns back to the pack.
Sheaine looks to Mikal. "Strike well my friend. I will drink to your strength and wisdom." He then looks over to Dom. "I have seen your pain and past. If I can ever help, you need only howl."
Dominique's expression smooths blank at Sheaine's offer and she remains silent, not trusting herself to speak. Color rides high in her cheeks.
Sheaine looks to Mathias and sighs, "Lead well. You will need to." Sheaine starts to walk away, leaving the last of the Fianna brew behind.
Tkila Kila scampers off after him, almost on all fours.
Mathias's eyes flash momentarily with controlled rage before he turns his back on the departing garou. As he sits he looks to Dominique and Mikel. "It is done. Now we have other things to talk of."
Dominique watches Sheaine leave quietly before a long sigh trails away.
Coming back from the confrontation with Sheaine, Mathias and Dom are approaching their flat, when they hear a scream from an alley nearby. They sprint down Little Bourke St and cut into an alley to see what is happening. A short way down the alley is a sort of crossroads - from the right is the sound of screams, from the left is a fire, burning up the sides of the alley. A few more people start running down the alley as the two of them peer down the alley - they think they can see a body. The two of them step into the building next to the alley, and try and peek - all they can see is darkness, in a factory or something. They step through.
In the Umbra, they find that to their revulsion the building either is or was a smoking house for bacon and pork - half alive spirit pigs are hung from hooks in the roof and the building is full of choking smoke. They escape fairly quickly. In the Umbra, the alley with the fire in it is not a dead end, but continues on down the back of the shops. Dominique looks down the alley to try and find a spirit to ask questions of while Mathias steps back into the real world. There are only a couple of people there, and as he approaches one runs off to call the police. He manages to ask the woman a couple of questions, or overhear what she said to others - apparent a couple of guys went down the alley, one carrying a tin. There was an explosion of some sort and then big flames, and neither of them came out.
Meanwhile Dominique finds an ancestor spirit sitting on a doorstep and quizzes it. It says it sensed/saw/knew about a fire and that it felt something strange, but no one came this way. Dominique thanks the spirit and moves back into the Realm. She meets Mathias and they ring Graeme. He isn't terribly interested, and instead asks them a few odd questions about the Atrocity Realm and what order they saw events in. They ask why. He says that someone has just been killed in South Yarra, pretty much as they described the scene. They grab Mikal and start using Questing Stone to find the BSD, using the name the spirit gave them in the Atrocity Realm. After several attempts, they narrow his location down to under Swan St Bridge in Richmond.
The pack decide, for reasons only know to themselves, that they can take the BSD, if there is only one of them. So, upon finding the pipe that he seems to be up, they creep along in glabro form, as that is the only form that can fit. They are sneaking along, Mikal and then Mathias and then Dominique, Mathias and Dominique having activated their Luna's Armour gifts. Mikal sees a hole in the pipe ahead. A head pops out of the hole and looks a bit surprised to see them. Mikal starts charging down as a heap of dirt almost filling the pipe appears. He begins to start digging through it while Mathias and Dominique wait a bit nervously. Above them comes the sound of rapid digging. Suddenly the pipe above them crumbles to people, and a huge Crinos form starts slashing at Mathias and Dominique. Mikal breaks through the barrier, frenzying in the meantime, and heads for the gap in the pipe where he saw the head. Mathias and Dominique are hindered by their lack of slashing space, while the BSD is limited by their glowing mystic shields. As Mikal runs up behind it, intending to sink his claws in up to the elbows, the BSD lifts Mathias out of the pipe in order to get a better shot at him. Mathias takes advantage of the sudden increase in space and changes to Crinos, and disembowels the Black Spiral Dancer in a single blow, smashing its rib cage to pieces and near decapitating it. Mikal runs up, still making growling noises and starts stomping it to pieces.
Once they have calmed Mikal down, they consider what to do with the metis corpse. They call Emma who comes out and gets them to butcher it and throw the bits in the Yarra. Mikal keeps the skull. Mathias takes the heart. The mess is cleaned up before dawn, and they collapse the whole pipe/tunnell. Mathias takes the heart back and summons raven, keeping part of his bargain.
Early in the morning the pack are summoned together and are told that Ishtar, Moonflower's mum, is here. She confronts them and demands to know where the child is. When they look baffled, she says "Maria!" They protest their innocence, but Ishtar fully believes that they took her. Various threats are made, and Ishtar departs. Mikal does a questing stone - apparently Maria is in Sydney. Graeme offers to open a moonbridge to Sydney, where they meet Herman Cartright, the Master of the Rite at the Rocks Caern in Sydney. They rent a car and drive around. The kid is moving around. They finally track her to an industrial estate of some sort, although it seems to half contain government offices. A final fix seems to have the child in the top floor of a set of offices belonging to a Gannon Industries.
The gauntlet here is really high, so none of them seem keen to step into the Umbra. They sit and wait. Mikal tries to get in as a lupus, but is booted out by a security guard. Various questing stones are done - Tutti Pantoliano is still in Melbourne. Mathias calls his father, but doesn't find much out. They are stil sitting there around 2pm when Dominique sees Irena Sloviak walking fast towards the building with a few other guys. Ah. Mathias tries to get into see her, but her secretary insists he needs an appointment, and that she won't be free until 4pm. Mathias returns to the car and waits, doing the occasional questing stone on Maria.
At 4pm, Mathias meets with Irena. She admits to having Maria, but says that it wasn't her men who kidnapped her - they intercepted some orders from Ion and then intercepted his men, nicking the babe out from under him. She seems less than interested in giving the babe back, and won't share her plans either - "You had your chance". She all but tells Mathias to toddle off, but does impart the information that she will be returning baby Maria to her parents as Ion has his fingers deeply in the Pantoliano pie. Mathias returns to his pack - there is some brief discussion, but it is decided that Irena has basically won. They return home via the Moon Bridge.
Once there, the discussion with Ishtar does not go well. She all but screams at Mikal, implicating him in deliberately doing this. She stomps off, and moon bridges home. The sept elders are brought up to date, and then the pack toddles off for some sleep.