Wherein the True Seekers get involved in family matters; children, siblings and cousins.
Naomi is heading home in the early hours when she sees a small boy, about five years old, standing on a street corner, looking lost and afraid. She approaches (in homid form) and asks the boy what he's doing out so late. The boy says that he ran away from home because his uncle "does things to him". He also says that his uncle has "things" growing out of him. Naomi asks for some names. The boys name is Owen Peirce, his uncle is Uncle Terry. Owen says that he lives with his parents, but that his uncle often comes over to babysit, or that he goes to his uncle's house. Naomi takes Owen back to her house. She rings Glenn and gets him to come over. Having been given the address by Owen, they head over to Owen's house, which is quite close. Lisa stays behind with Owen. The house is a small suburban house. Scanning from the umbra reveals a man and a woman asleep, and a child's bedroom with the window open. Naomi steps through a flicks through the family's phone book, but finds no Terry Peirce. Back in the umbra, sensing Wyrm, particularly on the parents, reveals nothing. Naomi and Glenn head back.
In the morning, Naomi and Glenn contact the others. While waiting for them to arrive, Naomi talks with Owen some more. Owen says that his uncle lives fairly close by, and that he can show her where he lives. Naomi and Glenn head off with Owen in Glenn's car before the others turn up. Owen takes them to a set of units a few kilometres from his house. His uncle lives in one of the units. They return to Lisa's house, where the others have arrived. Naomi brings everyone up to date. They leave Owen at Lisa's house and head back to Terry's unit. A quick sweep from the umbra shows that he is out. Various people drop through and have a bit of a search. They learn from his mail that his name is Terence Harland, and that he works in an advertising agency in the city. There is a general low-level Wyrm taint to the place, and the True Seekers find child porno magazines in the guy's sock draw. Steve and Lachlan decide to locate Terry, and Questing Stone him down to a building in the city. Scooting up through the umbra, they find him working in an office cubicle. They settle down to watch.
Meanwhile, Naomi and Glenn have decided to return Owen to his family. They drive up and find two police cars parked out front. They park and walk back with Owen, presenting him to the first policeman they meet. Owen is reunited with his tearful parents, Stanley and Caroline, as the police start to ask Naomi and Glenn some questions. Their story: they found Owen on the street last night. He seemed distressed, so they took him home. in the morning he told them where he lived so they brought him over. The police aren't thrilled with this story ("Why didn't you just take him to the police?") and invite the two of them to accompany them to the police station for a more. . . formal statement. The two of them are questioned for a few hours, but released when the medical report comes that Owen has not been harmed.
Lachlan and Steve have followed Terry up and down the building for a while. The environment has no unusual Wyrm taint, nor do any of his co-workers. They rule out the possibility of corruption from the work place. At the end of the day, Terry goes home. The True Seekers gather in the umbra at Terry's place. They watch as he goes about his routine. He receives a call, apparently from his sister Caroline who tells him what happened. He acts suitably concerned. By about ten he heads off to bed. After he has been sleeping for a while, the True Seekers start discussing what action they should take. The discussion continues until Steve gets bored (awooga awooga) and steps sideways. The others quickly follow, but in the meantime, Steve has switched to Glabro and has leapt onto Terry. Given that the die is cast, the others help Steve in rapidly subduing Terry. Steve makes a brief statement to the effect that Terry should leave Owen the fuck alone. Everyone then steps back into the umbra. Terry leaps up, turns on all the lights, and grabs a shotgun out of the cupboard. He looks like he may well be up for the rest of the night. As amusing as this sight is, the True Seekers decide to leave him to it.
They head back to Owen's place for a final check. They peek in from the umbra, only to find that the window is open and Owen is gone again. Naomi steps into the real world in lupus form and sniffs for his scent. Oddly, she finds that his scent extends a short way from the window and then fades rapidly into nothing. Various people perform Questing Stone on Owen but get no response. Lachlan has a sudden flash of inspiration and tells the rest of the True Seekers a little story about his trip to Scotland. . .
Lachlan is heading back to his grandparents house from the pub at night when he sees a young girl and boy standing on a street corner. They look lost and afraid and the little boy is crying. Lachlan tries to speak with them. The girl, Rachel, is about 12 and says that they ran away from home because their father beats them. Lachlan says that he will take them to the police, but Rachel says that they have run away before, and each time the police send them back to their father. She also says that her father "makes her do things". Lachlan decides to take them back to his grandparents place for the moment. As they're walking, the boy, who's name is Andrew and who looks about 8, says that he saw his father's eyes glowing. Rachel whispers for him to be quiet. Andrew also says that he hears funny noises from his fathers room on some nights. On other nights, he sees his father digging in the garden. Lachlan recalls local news stories about six children that have disappeared over he last 2 months. Lachlan leaves Rachel and Andrew sleeping at his grandparents house and heads over towards the isolated farm where they live with their father, Thomas. Rachel said that their mother died a few years ago, and the abuse began soon after. There wasn't anything particularly suspicious about their mother's death.
Lachlan reaches the house and checks it out in the umbra. He finds Thomas McEwen, a fat, unshaven drunk, sitting watching television. Lachlan then moves to check out the garden. Behind the shed he finds spots which seem to be fairly freshly dug. In lupus form, he detects the faint odour of old blood. Lachlan digs down and quickly uncovers a child's face. He fills in the grave again, then moves to investigate the shed. Sniffing around in lupus form, he eventually finds bloodied and torn children's clothes, stuffed behind an ancient set of shelves. Lachlan decides that he will wait and talk to the sept elders before he acts, as he is a guest and it is in their jurisdiction. He waits until Thomas has gone to bed, then heads home.
Bright and early the next day, Lachlan heads for the sept. He speaks with Howls-At-Days-Ending and explains what he has found. Howls-At-Days-Ending says that it sounds like a random fomor - the rot in the man's soul allowed a bane to take possession. Also the fact that the disappearances have only been occurring for two months, while the abuse has been going on for almost two years would seem to support this. Howls-At-Days-Ending says that since Lachlan found him, Lachlan can deal with him if he wants, as a single random fomor would not pose much threat. Lachlan returns to the farm, but Thomas is not there. So he goes back to his grandparent's house, and speaks to Rachel. She says that he hurt his back when working, so he gets workers comp. He spend most days drinking at a local pub. Lachlan goes to check it out, and finds Thomas drinking at the bar. Thomas looks like he's in for the long haul, so Lachlan decides to come back in the evening.
The night, Thomas returns to his house. He seems largely oblivious of the fact that Andrew and Rachel are gone, or perhaps he doesn't know. In any case, he sits down to his dinner of fish and chips and beer. Lachlan decides that it's as good a time as any, so he changes to Crinos and appears in the hallway. He bangs loudly on the kitchen door and hears a full can of beer hit the floor. There is a moment of silence, then Thomas yanks the door open and stands there stupefied. Lachlan punches him once and he goes down. Lachlan ties him up, then goes and searches through the house, but finds nothing of any significance. He finds what would be Rachel and Andrew's room, with two beds, clothes for a boy and a girl and a few toys scattered around. Lachlan debates with himself awhile, then unties Thomas, takes a sharp knife and slashes both of Thomas' wrists (down, not across). He stands there and watches. Thomas doesn't wake up or do anything, except bleed until he dies.
There is the tinkling sound of a child's evil laughter behind him. Lachlan spins around to see Rachel and Andrew, still in their pyjamas, but floating just above the floor. Their hair is matted and bedraggled, their faces are white and gaunt, almost skeletal, except for the deep set and burning eyes. Lachlan steps sideways. Once he is in the umbra, Lachlan peeks back. Rachel and Andrew are floating about, holding hands. Rachel is calling out to him, calling him "Mr Beastman". Having gotten himself back under control, Lachlan attempts to step in behind them. Five minutes later he appears, and doesn't know where the hell they are. Lachlan calls out to them, and they quickly glide in and hover, watching him. Rachel seems pleased that Lachlan killed Thomas and says that everything that she told him was true, except that her father wasn't the one that had changed. She said that she had heard a voice in her head saying that it could make the pain go away forever, and it did. It doesn't hurt any more. Lachlan asks about the disappearing children. Rachel says that they are hungry, but that the children can't really satisfy them. She says that they have been looking for a lone "Beastman" to satisfy their hunger and enable them to grow. Rachel and Andrew then swoop at Lachlan, opening their mouths to reveal needle-like teeth.
Andrew latches onto Lachlan's thigh and begins to batten off him, also draining his Gnosis. Lachlan tears at him with one claw and fends Rachel off with the other. Under the assault of an enraged and panicked Garou in Crinos form, Andrew is rapidly eviscerated and torn apart, but his head remains clamped to Lachlan's leg, gnawing and draining. Lachlan spears the head with his claws and flicks it against the wall. Rachel floats rapidly out into the hall. Lachlan pursues her but doesn't quite catch her before she moves out side and soars upwards. Lachlan hears her silvery laughter and she disappears into the night.
Lachlan goes back into the house, collects the bits of Andrew which are curiously bloodless and stuffs them in a garbage bag. He then head for Thomas' truck, keeping an eye on the sky, and searches the truck VERY thoroughly before getting in. He quickly drives to a public phone and calls his grandparents. His grandmother checks out the bedroom, but the two children are gone and the window is open. Lachlan tells them to lock EVERYTHING, then heads for the sept. Howls-At-Days-Ending says that it seems that the pain and suffering that the children underwent opened them to bane possession. He says that it still sounds like bane possession, although not of a kind that he has heard of before. He also points out that although Thomas may not have killed the children, he was still responsible for everything that happened. The plan now is to have a Kinfolk discover the "suicide" and the graves, which should wrap everything together. It will be assumed that Thomas killed Rachel and Andrew as well, but buried them elsewhere.
When Lachlan has finished, people remember hearing something about disappearing children, a case that the police are keeping quiet. The True Seekers head for the Flinders Street Police Station, leaving Vilna to watch Terry's place and Calvin watching Owen's house. Moving through the umbra, the True Seekers scan through office after office until they find what they are looking for. A map of the inner and eastern suburbs is pinned to a wall. Eight lines lead from points on the map, each to a separate small cluster of photos. Each photo is a young child. There are 33 photos making up the eight groups, with four more photos pinned underneath, not associated with any of the groups. Looking closely reveals that each line leads to a primary school, a kindergarten or a pre-school. Each photo has a name and a date on it. People who are peeking start reeling off names for those with eidetic memory. Going by the assumption that the dates are the date of disappearance, the True Seekers look for some pattern. It soon becomes apparent that the disappearances were not evenly distributed. The disappearances began at one location, then spread to include a second location, then a third and so forth. The disappearances weren't shifting from one place to the next, but were growing and encompassing new areas. The newest spot has only two disappearances so far, while the oldest had six. The True Seekers head back to the cars and use Questing Stone to find the very first child to disappear. They eventually follow it to a house quite close to the school that the child was associated with on the police map. In the back yard of the house, Questing Stone reveals that the child is probably buried in the garden.
Using Questing Stone on the next name reveals a different location that is fairly nearby. The True Seekers drive around to the next location. Glenn stays with the car, while the rest step into the umbra and make their way to the back yard. They step through (without peeking) and Lachlan is immediately aware that they are not alone. He yells a warning just as there is a very bright flash. A figure, carrying a camera in one hand and a long thin stick in the other, goes running up the side of the house with Naomi in hot pursuit in lupus form. The figure rushes out into the street, closely followed by the bumbling Naomi. Glenn sees that it has all gone horribly wrong and starts driving up towards them. The mysterious stranger actually has car keys out and is about to get in a car when the Garou finally get their act together and make a successful tackle.
The stranger is a woman. The True Seekers quickly tie and gag her, bundle her into the trunk of her own car and drive away. As they drive, they search through the woman's car and find her purse. They find a driver's license (her name is Gabrielle Thomas), various credit cards and. . . a press card. The film is removed from her camera. The long stick she had is made of metal and has a heat gauge at one end. Naomi, Steve and Glenn drive Gabrielle's car out into the country and park on a deserted country road. Lachlan is following a long way behind to ensure that they are not being followed. Her gag is removed, but Gabrielle is left tied in the boot while Glenn starts asking questions. This proves less successful than you might think. Gabrielle at first assumes that she has been grabbed by the police. The more Glenn says, however, the more she decides that they are something else. She says that she was looking to see whether there were any bodies buried in the garden, and from what she says, the True Seekers deduce that the houses where the children were buried belonged to the parents of the missing child in question. She offers to swap information on the disappearances with the players. Despite some strong arm tactics from Steve, who takes her out of the boot and holds her up against tree, she doesn't think that the players will hurt her and sticks to her guns.
Lachlan arrives and joins in the questioning. Eventually, Gabrielle reveals that she is an independent investigative journalist. She is looking into the disappearances and believes there may be some sort of paedophile ring. She says that through her police contacts she has learnt the following: that almost all the missing children attended eight different schools or pre-schools; that none of the children were abducted from school; police are investigating all staff and parents at the schools, warning all parents at the schools and speaking with the children; that the children disappeared after school, on weekends or at night; that in several cases, the missing child was seen playing with another child moments before disappearing; that police have been unable to locate these other children, who may be important witnesses. The True Seekers move away and discuss the matter, particularly concerning what to do about Gabe. As they are talking they hear the clunk of a car door being opened. As they are running up to the car, Gabe turns on the headlights, but unfortunately the players are behind the car, so she doesn't get a good look at them. Glenn, who is in homid form, restrains her again. Glenn volunteers to drive Gabe back to her house (flat) in St Kilda while the others leave. Naomi goes along with Glenn in lupus form.
As they drive back towards the city, it is just starting to get light. Gabrielle is asking all sorts of questions about Glenn and the others, only some of which he answers. Eventually they arrive at her building. Glenn and Naomi leave her to it. Of course, she follows them, and the three of them spend a few minutes chasing each other around her building. Finally, Naomi delays Gabe long enough to allow Glenn to step sideways in private. Naomi races off and does likewise, leaving Gabe running around in circles. Meanwhile, Lachlan and Steve have dropped in on Calvin and Vilna. At Terry's place, little has happened. He dozed off an hour or so before dawn, still clutching the shotgun. He is currently preparing for work, probably because he doesn't want to be alone. At Owen's house, Calvin says that Owen is back. He didn't see when or how exactly. He just glanced back into the real world at regular intervals and he was simply back. The True Seekers reassemble and do a couple more Questing Stone attempts on the names of missing children. One leads to another house, the other leads to a small park across the road from a row of houses that don't have any gardens to speak of. In each of the cases it is not immediately apparent that the ground has been disturbed recently. In the back yards the locations have been in garden beds or in overgrown corners of the yard. In the park it is under a drift of fallen leaves in a large patch of bare soil. People decide to get some sleep.
The True Seekers meet at the Caern in the early afternoon. They decide to use Questing Stone on all the missing children, just to get a general idea of locations. As they assume that each child will be buried at their home, which should be close to the relevant school, they move from school to school, getting approximate locations for each child. With 33 children to account for, this is going to take a while. It is after 10 in the evening when they are doing the last child. In this case, however, Questing Stone reveals that the child is not nearby and is, in fact, moving. The True Seekers are currently in Glen Iris, and the child is somewhere north west of them. Further use of Questing Stone eventually show that the child has come to rest at a point not far from their present location. Everyone hoons around to the spot. Once there, the farce begins slowly. The location of the child is around the back of a house. Glenn attempts to step sideways but fails, so he's stuck in the real world for the time being. He and Vilna sneak around the house while Lachlan and Naomi step into the umbra and approach.
Peeking through, they see two small figures kneeling in an overgrown corner of the garden. There seems to be a bundle on the ground beside them. Glenn steps on a stick and freezes. The two figures stop what they're doing and stand up, seemingly watching the garden. Naomi uses Sense Wyrm from the umbra and gets definite response. Meanwhile, Vilna has snuck up as close as he can. Lachlan and Naomi decide to take the initiative. They switch to Crinos and step sideways into the real world. Lachlan quickly grapples one of the figures and holds on tight. Naomi has less luck; grabs the other figure, lets go, jumps around for a while, nothing much else. Vilna switches to Crinos and leaps at Naomi's opponent as it begins to fly upwards. He also misses, sails gracefully over the fence and lands in the neighbours yard, scaring the shit out of the neighbours dog, which begins barking hysterically. Vilna, never phased, spots a convenient wood pile by the fence. Spotting an opportunity, he begins grabbing logs and hurling them at the figure in the sky. Meanwhile, Glenn is waiting around the side of the house. He hears a strange whistling sound and looks up just in time to have his shoulder broken by a descending log.
Having decided that they are unlikely to get the other one, Lachlan moves quickly to the front of the house. Around the back, Naomi hears a rustling in a tree, and detects Wyrm. As she watches, a third figure rises up from out of the foliage and joins the other one in hovering over Naomi. Naomi grabs the bundle on the ground and runs. On the other side of the fence, Vilna attempts to step sideways and fails. He is also stuck in the real world for a while. He starts running for the front as well. Lachlan has run around to the front. In the light, he sees that he is holding a gaunt and bedraggled child with burning eyes and needle teeth, not unlike a couple of kids he saw in Scotland one time. The rest of the True Seekers join him, with the two flying figures following. Lachlan looks up and realises that one of the figures is Rachel - the girl in Scotland. What with the sounds of combat and the barking dog, lights are starting to go on. Vilna has attempted to shift into homid form and botched. He is now stuck in Crinos form for a while. It is decided to wait for things to calm down a bit. Since Vilna is stuck in Crinos in the real world, Lachlan hands the hissing child over to Vilna. Glenn dumps the bundle, which is probably the body of the missing child, into his car and drives rapidly away. Lachlan and Naomi step sideways. Vilna dives into some bushes beside the foot path. The struggling thing in his arms is annoying him somewhat, so he tries to calm it down by cracking it's skull open on the concrete footpath. This leave a nice splodge of hair, bone and brains but doesn't seem to calm the thing down.
Glenn has parked a few streets away and is heading back. A few people have wandered out, looked around and then wandered back inside again. When the street is clear again, Vilna comes out of the bushes. Not wanting to risk walking the streets in Crinos form holding the thing, he kicks in the window of a car, preparatory to stealing it. Naomi steps into the real world to help. Vilna passes the thing to her, when it manages to get free. She is still holding it, but it is no longer pinned. It's lurching in the air, biting at Vilna.
Vilna decides that the thing is not worth all the trouble it's causing and opts to shred it. Naomi joins in. What follows is one of the most inept displays of combat from two nine-foot-tall killing machines that one is likely to see. They essentially start shaving it all over someone's front yard. While Naomi keeps a wary eye on the two things circling over head, she and Vilna create a mini-snowstorm of shaved flesh. Meanwhile, the thing is snapping at Vilna. The lights have gone back on in the house and the door is opening when the things is finally destroyed. Vilna grabs armfuls of what appears to be shaved ham, as well as a few of the chunkier bits and runs. Fortunately, the thing appears to be bloodless, so the front yard isn't festooned with gore. Naomi flicks to lupus and gives a few howls to encourage the householder to stay inside. Vilna meets with Glenn, and they both run for Glenn's car. Rounding a corner, they sweep past a middle-aged jogger, out for his evening run. He immediately keels over with a massive heart attack. Naomi lopes up, uses Mother's Touch on the poor guy, then heads off.
Everyone piles into Glenn's car and drives away. In the umbra, Lachlan follows. As they leave the area, they pass a police car heading the other way. At least it doesn't have it's sirens going. They drive to a nearby supermarket and loiter in the carpark, where Lachlan joins them. After discussing for a while, they call Emma Teesdale, who agrees to meet them. When she turns up, the True Seekers ask is she can scry the remains, moreso the dead child than the pile of meat flakes, to see what she can learn, particularly whether or not it is infected in some way. She says she will, and swaps cars with them, driving Glenn's car away. The True Seekers return to the scene of their crimes. Everything seems fairly quiet. The dying jogger has gone and there is no sign of the police. There is also no sign of the two flying children. The pack moves about, cleaning up as much of the evidence as they can, like the splatter on the footpath. They return to the Caern. Emma says that she has found no sign of contamination in the body, so it is unlikely the child will rise as one of the things. The True Seekers decide to have an early night.
Having roughly located the 33 missing children that seem involved in this affair, the True Seekers decide to locate the 4 other missing children that appeared to be unrelated. Using Questing Stone, they find that the first of them seems to be at Flinders Street Station. Once there, they quickly spot her sitting on the steps with what appears to be other street kids. They follow her at a discreet distance as she wanders aimlessly with the others, going from one spot to the next. Questing Stone on the second child points to a location out west. There, they find a storm drain in a derelict industrial site. The putrefying body is stuffed into the drain. It is decided that this is the sort of thing that they can use Gabrielle to deal with. Glenn gives her a ring and tells her where one of the missing children can be found. He also tells her about the homeless girl, then hangs up before she can say anything. The True Seekers then head for the Flinders Street police station and spy on proceedings from the umbra. Soon after, one of the police receives an anonymous tip from a woman of a body in a storm drain in an old industrial site. The police move out, while the True Seekers leave. Questing Stone on the third child reveals that he is somewhere up in Queensland, whatever that means. Questing Stone on the fourth child leads to a bush near a train line. The body is in a culvert that runs beside the tracks, at the bottom of the embankment. Glenn gives Gabrielle another ring and brings her up to date, then hangs up on her. Vilna gets a call from Calvin, who has been watching Owen. He says that Owen has gone out of the house with his parents and is playing in a park with other children. The True Seekers hasten over and spend an entire afternoon watching children playing in a park. Owen seems to behave perfectly normally, and nothing unusual happens. Eventually, Owen goes home with his parents.
Having exhausted all their other leads, the True Seekers decide to concentrate their efforts in watching Owen. They are rewarded for their efforts when, soon after his parents have gone to sleep, Owen gets out of bed and heads for the window. He raises the window and climbs onto the sill. As he flies out, his feature shrivel and twist into an all-to-familiar look. He is flying south and east fairly quickly, but he is keeping low and hugging the contours of the trees and houses, so the True Seekers manage to keep up with him in the umbra. Eventually he reaches Hawthorn, and flies over a fence into a schoolyard and into a building through a broken window. The school appears to be unused: the gate is chained closed, the doors to the classrooms are padlocked shut and most of the windows are broken. The True Seekers move to the building and look in. They find Owen, Rachel and six other children in the class room, playing with toys on the floor. The True Seekers move away and discuss the matter. The main concern is that if they attack the fomori, that some of them might escape and the whole cycle might begin again. Although the doors are padlocked shut, there are many windows, most of them broken, which a child could escape from. Naomi suggests calling for aid, but Lachlan is opposed to the idea of running for help. The possibility of blocking the windows is raised, and various suggestions are made, until the idea of using a section of the chain-link fence that surrounds the school grounds is made. The idea is that Calvin and Lisa hold the fence over the windows from the outside while the rest appear in the room and do the rest. The True Seekers step into the real world and rip out a section of fence as far from the building as possible. Lisa and Calvin then creep up towards the building and get as close as they can.
The rest of the True Seekers are back in the umbra and move into the classroom. They then step sideways. Given how the last fight against a single one of these fomori went, the True Seekers do far, far better than anyone had any right to expect. Lachlan appears, makes a bee line for Rachel and shreds her entirely with a single blow. Glenn, Naomi and Vilna are all proving themselves to be competent, laying waste left and right. Within six seconds, seven of the things are confetti, Owen has been grabbed, and not a single one even managed to try and escape through the window. Not surprisingly, everyone got a few points of Willpower back for that one. The True Seekers make their way back to the Caern with Owen.
Emma and Ends-The-Quiet take Owen in order to learn more about the whys and wherefores. Cossack talks with the True Seekers. He decides that it will be better, easier and quicker if all the missing children remain disappeared and that the matter just ends here. The True Seekers and the Get of Pennington are put on body detail, removing all the bodies from the gardens and parks, as well as the seven bodies in the school, and bringing them to the Caern for disposal. The packs split into pairs and everyone works through the night.
Glenn calls Gabrielle and says he will meet her at a place of her choice. She chooses the beach near her flat. Glenn goes with Naomi and finds her. Glenn says that one child disappeared on Thursday night, another seven vanished last night, but that it is now all over. No more children will go missing and no trace of the missing children will ever be found. Gabrielle seems rather pissed off with this revelation and insists that there has to be more to it than that. Glenn says "Nope, that's it", and Gabe storms off in disgust. Emma and Ends-The-Quiet have summoned an Incarna to form a pocket universe in the umbra. Owen will be destroyed in the pocket, and the spirit that possessed him will be unable to escape. It can then be bound and questioned. The True Seekers ask if they can watch.
In the pocket, Owen is ceremonially shredded. Immediately, another shape begins to form. While it is rebuilding itself, a Rite of Binding is cast over it. Finally, the thing has reformed; an amorphous shape of mouths and nothing. It says that it is from the Deep Umbra (highly unusual) and that it came because "Rachel" called to it. She followed Lachlan from Scotland because of something in him, something which the rest of the True Seekers also have. The spirit describes this thing as nothing, if "nothing were something". People speculate whether or not this "something" is the same thing the Bunyip react to. Leaving the pocket, the True Seekers go and chat with Kanau, who is over with the battery. He says that he knows what the bane is talking about, but that the nature of his own perceiving is in what he does. When he came to tell the pack that Blood Claw from the Sept of Grinding Stone was trapped in the Gauntlet (in May of last year) that in itself was his perception of the thing which the bane spoke of. Being a spirit and all it entails means that there is no gap between what he does and what he knows: he does not know something and therefore act according to that knowledge, but responds "like water flowing down a hill". However, this is not universal and identical for all spirits. The nature of the perception for the bane from the Deep Umbra was a desire for and attraction to the quality. All very heavy. Glenn wants to visit his old sept and see whether the sept totem ever noticed this thing in him. The True Seekers Moon Bridge across to Gippsland and visit Glenn's old stomping ground. Glenn speaks with the Silver Fang elders, who agree to summon an avatar of Falcon. Falcon claims to have perceived it before, but points out that just as for Kanau the act itself was the perception, so to for it. However, as to what it's perception consisted of, it wasn't something that Glenn ever noticed, and it's not something Falcon feels like divulging now. Glenn thanks Falcon, and the True Seekers Moon Bridge back to the Cemetery.
The True Seekers are now on guard duty for a couple of weeks, and so take the chance to teach and learn a few Rites.
Vilna is asleep in his Brunswick Street apartment when he wakes up for no discernible reason. He checks out the rest of the flat. Glenn is asleep in his room, and everything seems normal. Vilna checks that the windows are locked. As he looks out the window overlooking Brunswick Street, he sees a man looking up at his window. The man is dressed like a derelict. Vilna uses Sense Unnatural on the man and gets a sense of Wyrm, but also a sense of the Fae, like the time in Warrnambool with the drunken man around whom accidents occurred. Vilna goes to get Glenn, but when they return to the window, the man has vanished. Vilna tells Glenn what he sensed, and they go down to the street. There is a faint residual sense of Wyrm where the man was standing, but nothing else. A brief search of the street reveals nothing. Glenn and Vilna go back to bed.
The True Seekers are still on guard duty, so they all meet at the Caern. Vilna tells everyone what happened during the night. It is decided that it might be prudent to visit the Sept of Rippling Waters to find out what it might mean. Vilna and Glenn Moon Bridge across to speak with the elders. Bret is surprised to see them and asks how it is that they knew that he wanted to see them. Vilna says "We didn't". Bret says that he was going to send someone to fetch them as he had something to tell them that may be important. Over the last three days the Fae have been uneasy and acting oddly. There had been strange portents and omens. The most that he had been able to learn was that three days ago something significant happened and that it had something to do with the "hairless one".
Vilna asks Bret about the sort of wards one might use against the Fae, and Bret mentions cold iron. Vilna also asks if there is someone who might be able to teach him more about the Fae. Bret says that ideally, he should speak with one of the Fae who lives in the Arcadia Gateway, a realm in the Near Umbra. He cautions Vilna that it would be better if he knew more about what exactly he wanted to know, and that he should take a gift when he goes. Bret also says that the Fae cannot remain long in the mundane world, so whatever influence it was that was affecting the stranger outside Vilna's window should not remain for long. Vilna thanks Bret for his help, then he and Glenn return to Melbourne. Vilna brings everybody up to speed. The True Seekers still have a few more days of guard duty to complete, so they decide to wait until then. It is also decided that as the matter concerns Vilna that the rest of the pack should keep an eye on him, and that he should stay at the Caern for the time being. Vilna visits a farrier and buys some iron horseshoes.
Lachlan returns home that night for sleep, only to find a large goanna asleep on his bed. Everything else about his house seems normal. Lachlan calls Naomi to come over and give him a hand. Naomi calls the zoo (where she works) and speaks with one of the Kinfolk there. He says that they have had several calls tonight from people reporting wild animals roaming around. So far they have had reports of kangaroos, wombats, goannas, koalas and others wandering the inner metropolitan area. Naomi and Lachlan wrap the torpid goanna in a blanket and drive it to the zoo. On the way they see an emu with several chicks pulling up the grass on the median strip in Alexandra Parade. After dropping off the reptile, they join the others at the Caern. The wildlife phenomenon is all over Melbourne, and there is no available explanation. None of the animals sense of any spiritual influence or provoke any change in the umbra. Speaking with some of the animals has revealed nothing. They claim to have simply walked to where they are and are keen to stay. Naomi goes to help the zoo, where the staff are stretched to the limits dealing with all the calls and the sudden influx of new animals to tend.
Glenn is speaking with Gabrielle on the phone when she asks if they could meet as she wants to ask him about something. He arranges to meet her at Southgate and starts walking through the city. As he crosses Flinders Lane he hears the sounds of an altercation coming from an alley off the lane. Walking down and peering around the corner, Glenn sees two derelicts standing and watching as a third derelict beats up some guy. Another person lies on the ground, severely beaten. Glenn steps out and warns the men about a Black Snake that just came down the alley. The derelict stops beating the man, who falls to the ground, and turns towards Glenn, as do the two derelicts who were watching. The first derelict tells Glenn to "come here". Glenn keeps going on about his Black Snake, and the derelict starts walking up the alley towards him. Glenn ducks around the corner and switches to Crinos. As the derelict reaches the mouth of the alley, Glenn swings his arm around and knocks the derelict down. The derelict is screaming in fury when his voice suddenly plummets down the register to a depth unlikely in a human. Glenn looks around the corner to see that all three derelicts have changed into slavering, bat-eared, green-eyed, black furred Crinos form. Glenn yells out "Yo, Wyrmboy!" then runs like hell. The three Black Spiral Dancers start chasing him down the lane as Glenn switches to lupus and runs for his life. Glenn comes out on Elizabeth Street and turns right, hoping to head for the Sept of Hidden Green. He looks back but sees no sign of his pursuers. Fearing that they might jump him from the umbra, Glenn runs as fast as he can for the Sept.
Once there, he shoots up the elevator and speaks with Felix. Having told him what he saw, he calls the Cemetery. Graeme says that they will meet him outside Hidden Green. He arrives with the Scryers, and they all head for the alley. When they get there they find one guy still lying there, although he's not dead. While some stand guard, others start checking out the alley but find little apart from a smell of sewerage. An ambulance is called and the injured man taken away. Graeme says that they will talk with the man as soon as they can. Glenn remembers his appointment, for which he is now late, and jogs off south. He meets with Gabe, who is investigating an increase in the last few days in apparently random acts of violence, particularly against street people. Glenn asks why she isn't investigating all the animals, to which she replies that everyone else is doing that. Glenn sees that "they" are aware of the outbreaks of violence (well, they are now that she's told them) and they are looking into it. He suggests that she might want to speak with members of the Cave Clan. When she asks why, he says that the violence may well be being done by a gang that hides out in the sewers and drains. He also strongly suggests that she doesn't go into the sewers herself. Frankly, it looks like he's trying to get her killed.
The plague of animals is continuing. The animals are all native, and all seem to be indigenous to Victoria and southern New South Wales, so there aren't any Salt Water Crocodiles lurking in the bay. Mind you, there are lots of sharks, dolphins, seals and other marine creatures. The True Seekers have gathered at the Caern. Graeme says that they have spoken with the man from the alley. He was heavily doped, but it seems that the derelict who was beating him was looking for another derelict, although he didn't give any real description. Reports from other victims of attack are the same: the attackers were looking for some derelict.
Several people notice that about five or so kilometres to the east, three police helicopters are circling, their searchlights trained on one point on the ground. Listening on the police radio that every Caern should have, they hear that "they've got it cordoned off, and are sending traffic back". The True Seekers decide to go have a look and drive off. They are on the Eastern Freeway near Fairfield Hospital when they see a line of police cars blocking both sides of the Freeway. The police are turning back traffic, though most people are parking there cars and forming a small crowd at the police cordon. The True Seekers park a fair way back and step sideways. They move forward with someone peeking into the real world. So they all see it at about the same time. Blocking the entire freeway, in the real world and the umbra, is a vast ring of giant stone blocks. Although the layout is reminiscent of stone circles such as Stonehenge, the blocks themselves are more spherical and made of a red stone. It is more evocative of such Australian formations as the Devil's Marbles. Anyone who has any sort of spiritual sense starts using it. Both in the umbra and the real world, the sense is of Wyld, Wyrm and Fae. The True Seekers move through the circle, looking at the stones. They all appear to be unworked, and are devoid of any glyphs or markings. Glenn decides to run Widdershins around the circle 13 times just to see what happens. Nothing, apparently.
Naomi uses the Cracking Stone against the large column of balanced stone in the centre of the circle, with no luck. So Lachlan, Naomi and Vilna form a furry column of their own so that Vilna can see what's on the top of the central structure. Again there is nothing. Further use of Sense Unnatural reveals the same sense of Wyrm, Wyld and Fae, but weaker than before. The True Seekers move back to their car and step into the real world. The Cemetery is contacted and told what is happening. They also call the Sept of Rippling Waters and suggest that they get someone over to Melbourne to have a little look. Others are having a little chat with the police at the cordon. The circle was reported by a few motorists who had come driving around the bend and almost ploughed into it before they could really believe that what they were seeing was true. The stones have not erupted out of the ground, but seem to have been placed on the ground.
The True Seekers drive back to the Cemetery, pick up Leaps-In-The-Light and the pack One Phone Call, and drive them back to the circle. They seem kind of flabbergasted. Leaps-In-The-Light says that stone circles that form naturally often become spiritually significant, or that a spiritually significant site might have encouraged certain ancient peoples to erect stone circles on them, which would then act to focus the people awareness of the spirituality, as well as helping all to remember it's spiritual significance. However, spontaneous creation of stone circles on a freeway is new to him.
The sense of Wyrm, Wyld and Fae is weaker still, and Leaps-In-The-Light feels that he will probably not be able to learn much, as the site does not appear to have any significance. While the others are investigating, Naomi and Glenn trek back down the freeway, climb the fence and start walking up along the cliff that overlooks the circle. When they reach the top, the can see nothing special about the structure. Naomi, however, detects the scent of sewerage. Looking around, she notices that several branches have been broken here. The scent of sewerage heads down the steep slope away from the circle, towards the Yarra River. Naomi and Glenn fetch the others, then they all head down after the scent. Looking at the foliage, it seems to Naomi that someone came up the slope, then came back down the same way. The smell of sewerage leads down to the Yarra, then ends (or it would end if the Yarra itself didn't smell fairly ripe). The True Seekers split up and comb up and down the river, but find no place where the scent emerges. They then move back up the slope, spreading out through the brush looking for anything.
It is at this point that Vilna seems to have attracted the attention of one of the police helicopters. The searchlight stabs down, and Vilna starts smashing through the brush, trying to evade it. Having pulled out his mirror as he ran, he manages to dodge the light just long enough to step sideways. As the helicopters start searching the entire slope, the rest of the True Seekers step sideways and meet back at the car. Leaving Leaps-In-The-Light and the others to continue investigating, they head back to the Cemetery to inform Cossack about all that's going on. As it's past midnight, the True Seekers are no longer on duty. Naomi goes home to sleep, while Lachlan, Glenn and Vilna go over to Vilna's house, where the sit around watching television.
Lachlan and Glenn are awoken with a start by the telephone ringing. It is sometime after three in the morning and there is no sign of Vilna. Lachlan answers the phone and hears the sound of lapping water. It is Vilna, who asks if they could come and pull him out of the bay. Lachlan asks why he can't just swim, to which Vilna replies that it's several kilometres to shore. Lachlan calls Naomi. Naomi immediately asks what has happened to Vilna, and Lachlan says that he just spoke with Vilna and that they have to go rescue him from the bay.
Lachlan and Glenn swing past to pick up Naomi, then drive south, looking for a likely boat to steal. As they go, Lachlan uses Questing Stone to get a general fix on Vilna. He is definitely out in the bay. Lachlan asks Naomi who she knew something was up with Vilna. She says that she had a dream while she slept (Having recently purchased the gift Sight from Beyond). In it she saw the night sky, with some indefinable object moving through it. She saw a pair of fiery green eyes in darkness, apparently looking for something. She heard the sound of the ocean, with waves lapping against the shore. Finally she saw Vilna being thrown from a car, smashing through the windshield. Having driven down the coast for a while, the True Seekers find a secluded private pier with a moored motorboat. Glenn figures out how the damn thing works and they're off. Lachlan uses Questing Stone again, and eventually they find Vilna, sharing a buoy with a few puzzled seagulls.
Having pulled him onto the boat they head back. As they go Vilna tells them what happened. While he was watching television, he suddenly got the strange feeling that he had a few nights before. Glenn and Lachlan were asleep and did not seem inclined to wake up. Vilna headed outside and around the front and saw the same man standing on the footpath. The man was dressed like a derelict, his face was filthy and his hair was matted, but he seemed somehow familiar to Vilna (and not just because he had seen him four nights before). The man seemed confused, did not know who Vilna was, did not know who he was, and didn't know what he was doing there. Eventually, he asked Vilna if he would like to come on a trip. Vilna said he would, and howled out to the others that he was going, just in case they could hear him (they didn't). Then the stranger rose up into the air and Vilna followed. They flew south over the bay towards Frankston.
As they neared the Frankston coast, they flew down into the bay and into a cave opening. Vilna felt no sense of claustrophobia as they traveled along the narrow water-filled tunnel. The tunnel came out in a small air-filled cave. The walls of the cave were painted with aboriginal-style art, and at one point a hole had been dug in the sand of the cave floor. Vilna looked around but noticed nothing particular (apart from the fact that he could see in total darkness). The stranger seemed unaware as to why they had come here, and eventually said that they should leave. They traveled back down the tunnel and flew back over the bay. As they did, the stranger clutched his head and underwent some sort of convulsion. When it was over, his whole demeanour had changed and he appeared to recognise Vilna, whereupon he promptly dropped him in the drink and flew away to the north.
Vilna says that he can probably relocate the cave again, so having returned the stolen boat, the True Seekers jump into the car and drive further south. Eventually, Vilna spots some landmarks he recognises, and they begin searching for the spot. They soon find the spot, but just the idea of entering the cave brings on Vilna's claustrophobia, so he sits on the beach making sandcastles while the others swim in, lighting their way with torches. Once in they find the place largely as Vilna described it. There are two sets of tracks, presumably Vilna's and the stranger's, but tidal action has removed any older ones. The hole is over a foot deep, and was probably originally deeper. Sensing the cave reveals a general faint Wyld and Fae sense. The paintings on the wall are as Vilna described them. However, several of the more abstract designs are similar to symbols they have seen in the caves of the Sept of Scars Atoned as well as the cave where the Wyrm Beast was held in the Blue Mountains. Naomi and Lachlan step into the umbra, leaving Glenn in the real world, where he begins a Rite of Spirit Awakening on the cave itself, unbeknownst to the others.
Lachlan and Naomi find the cave identical in the umbra, save for the absence of a hole dug in the sand, and the fact that the exit tunnel is free from water. In fact, there is a slight breeze blowing from the tunnel, bringing the scent of vegetation. Naomi and Lachlan move along the tunnel, which is longer in the umbra than the real world. When they do come out, they find themselves surrounded by pleasant woodlands. It is also daytime, whereas it is currently night in the real world. The two of them make their way back to the cave and look around some more. It is about now that Glenn finishes his ritual, and to Lachlan and Naomi's surprise, the paintings on the cave walls begin to move. The figures of animals, people and other things dance around the wall. Naomi has a crack at talking with the wall. As she does so, one humanoid painting grows larger on the wall and stands facing her. She asks what this pace is and what it's about. The figure points to a section of wall, where the paintings dance in a series of tableaux. First, a large humanoid figure leaps crazily about while much smaller animal and humanoid figures tumble and whirl around. Then other humanoid figures, large but different from the first, appear and encircle the figure, which bounces between them. The group of figures close in, as the first figure moves in smaller and smaller circles. Above the figures, a river of dots appears. A small thread from the river comes down, and the single figure moves inside the thread and stops moving. The thread lies flat as the group of figures leave.
The walls appear to have nothing more to impart, so Naomi and Lachlan return to the real world. When they tell Glenn what they saw, he says that he performed the Rite of Spirit Awakening, whereupon Lachlan biffs him for not telling them. The three swim down the tunnel and rejoin Vilna. They decide to return to Melbourne, tell everyone what they found and get some sleep before investigating further. It is late morning when everyone receives an urgent phone call from the sept.
When they have gathered at the Cemetery, Cossack tells them that the police have found a body washed up on the beach near Frankston that sounds suspiciously like a Garou in Crinos. He wants the True Seekers to get down there and do whatever it takes to get the body away from the authorities. Thinking quickly, they grab some environment suits from the university before leaving. As they drive down, Cossack goes into further detail over the phone. He says that the body was only just found, and it was by luck that he had an informed contact in the area who alerted him quickly. The True Seekers arrive at the spot in Glenn's ute, and find that a small crowd has gathered up at the carpark and down on the beach. The police are standing around a large shape hidden by a tarpaulin. Everyone dons environment suits. Lachlan stays with the car while the others head down. As the police have every sort of description of Vilna, he has already pulled down the hood.
They locate the sergeant in charge, who turns out to be Steve's friend and former house mate Peter. Peter thinks that the recognises Naomi, who assures him that she is someone else entirely as she rapidly pulls on the hood of the suit. Pete is struck by the amazing similarity of "Sue" to an acquaintance of his, so Glenn brings the topic of conversation around to the body. He claims that he is from the Marine Biology department from Melbourne University and that they are here to retrieve the body. Pete says that the helicopter is on it's way. Glenn says that they wanted to drive it away now, as they have found things like this before and it is related to some contaminants and poses a health risk. Pete radios the station for confirmation, but can find no details about letting the university have the body. Meanwhile, Glenn has pulled back the tarpaulin to have a look. The body looks like your classic Black Spiral Dancer in Crinos form. The body has been severely sliced with claws.
At this point the helicopter is coming in, so the True Seekers decide to play for time. Once the helicopter has landed, Vilna uses Control Simple Machines to remove a few key screws in the main rotor. The body is laboriously loaded onto the helicopter, which then starts up the rotors again. There is a fairly horrendous noise from overhead and the pilot rapidly shuts down the engine. As Pete radios back to the station for further instructions, Glenn steps in and says that they can drive it back to Melbourne. He further impresses upon Pete the danger of contamination and the need for urgency.
Eventually Pete agrees, and the body is loaded into the back of the ute. Pete says that they must take the body to the forensic department at the Flinders Street Police Station. They begin driving north with a two car police escort. As they are driving, one of the police cars tragically develops a flat tire, thanks to more judicious use of Control Simple Machines. The police in that car say that they will catch up, and that the others should proceed. It is soon after this that a less-than-judicious use of Control Simple Machines causes the ute's own engine to fail (Vilna botched the roll). Still, the True Seekers are always ones to make the best of a bad situation. With Glenn under the hood trying to fix the problem and the police standing around watching, Lachlan steps sideways and crawls under the spot where the police car is. He shifts to Crinos and steps back into the real world. The police car lurches alarmingly, but fortunately the police have their backs turned. Using his claws, Lachlan does nasty things to the police car's fan belt, then steps sideways again (thanks to Luck of the Irish) saunters back and reappears in the back of the ute, just as Glenn fixes the problem. They have only just got going again when the police car grinds to a halt. They stop the ute and talk with the police.
The police decide that one of them should ride in the ute. Glenn starts backing towards the ute, all the while talking at a rate of knots, saying that he can't be responsible for possible contamination, and that there isn't any room, and that they'll be there soon anyway. The police don't seem that keen to ride with the thing, and soon the True Seekers are driving away unescorted. As soon as they are out of sight, they immediately turn off the main road and take a few random turns until they find a nice secluded spot. They speak with the sept, who suggest that they bring the body around. So they drive around by a very circuitous route, approaching the cemetery from the north.
Once rid of the body (and the ute), the True Seekers decide that before they investigate further beyond the cave that they should ask people who might know something about the cave and the paintings. They call Bartholomew Wise-In-The-Ways-Of-The-Wyrm, but only get his answering machine. They then Moon Bridge out to the Sept of Scars Atoned to have a chat with Jane Redfeather. They tell her about the images they found on the walls. Jane can tell them little, although she suggests that the river of dots probably represents the Milky Way. The True Seekers return to Melbourne and find Leaps-In-The-Light, who is heading back to Warrnambool soon. He says that he and the others examined the site thoroughly and found nothing. Neither the site nor the structure seemed to have any significance. The Board of Works is currently shifting the stones off the road and onto the wide median strip in the middle, for eventual removal. Glenn asks whether a lump of meteoric iron could be used as a ward against the Fae. Leaps-In-The-Light supposes that it could. The True Seekers decide to head back into the cave that night. They sleep for the rest of the day and awake in time for the evenings news, in which they are informed that the police are looking for four people in environment suits who stole a mysterious body whilst posing as members of a non-existent university department. The police have arranged for composite sketches of two of the absconders, one who looks like Naomi and one who looks like Glenn. The news is also passing off the stone circle on the freeway as some sort of elaborate prank.
That night, the True Seekers head back to Frankston and park near the cave, which is a few kilometres from where the body was found. Having beat Vilna unconscious again, they drag him through the cave, then realise that they can't step sideways with him. Oh well, they wait for him to wake up, shove a mirror in front of his face and push him towards the tunnel. He races down it with the others following close behind. At the end Vilna leaps out into the sunlit woodlands. Having gathered together in the woods, the True Seekers look for some sign of a direction to go. Lachlan climbs a tree, and sees nothing but more trees in every direction. He also sees the sun rising/setting on one horizon and the moon setting/rising on the other. Feeling it is the polite thing to do, Vilna howls out a greeting to whoever might be out there. He is rewarded with a stick thrown by reproachful tree sprites, who know very little about anything useful. Lachlan offers to sing for them. They accept and shower him with sticks in appreciation.
The True Seekers strike out, heading in the direction of the sun. After half an hour, climbing a tree reveals that they are heading almost 90 degrees away from the sun. Further moving and checking reveals that they are moving inexplicably in seemingly random directions. Fortunately at this point, Lachlan claims that there is a large white stag in front of them, and that the stag wants them to follow. The rest of the True Seekers shrug and go along. Eventually, they emerge onto a broad, perfectly straight road cutting through the forest. The road appears to run directly towards the sun at one end and the moon at the other. The stag moves a short way down the road towards the sun, then leaps back into the woods and vanishes. Having learnt the hard way when to take a hint, the True Seekers trek towards the sun. As they walk, the woods surrounding the road become less wild.
Soon they are passing through carefully tended gardens, worked by little gnome-type creatures. Then they pass between tall hedge walls, beyond which is a wide lawn running up to a large castle. Beautiful Fae folk walk about the gardens, including several wearing armour and carrying swords. Having determined from two of the guards that the person in charge around here is one Lord Lysander, the True Seekers are directed around the back of the castle, into more gardens, where noble faeries are gathered around a life-sized chess board where Lord Lysander is playing.
Once Lysander has won, he is introduced to the True Seekers, and agrees to speak with them. They are offered the hospitality of the castle, and are shown to comfortable quarters in order to freshen up. They are then taken to an audience chamber where a semi-circle of chairs are arranged in front of a throne. Lysander offers refreshments to his guests. Unfortunately, the drink seems to be alcoholic, as Naomi involuntarily sifts into Crinos form. She slinks around behind the rest of the True Seekers and asks if she could just have a bowl of water, please. After this little faux pas, Lysander is told why and how they have come to his realm. Lysander says that he is not aware of any gateways into the mundane world from his realm being blocked. He also says that any Fae that did travel into the mundane world could only remain there for a short time; a few days at most. However, Lysander doesn't have all the information about Fae activity in the mundane world at his fingertips. He calls for his servant Berabalus, a harassed and dusty sprite, weighed down with scrolls and tomes. Berabalus sets out to find out what he can.
Meanwhile, Lysander invites the True Seekers to attend a feast that evening. While they are talking, there is a strange grinding sound. Everyone looks behind them, where a giant double door has appeared. Lysander explains that the door is the Arcadia Gateway, the entrance into the realm of Arcadia. The castle they are currently in, called Gateway Castle, and all the Fae here residing, are here in the umbra to defend the Arcadia Gateway from any who would attempt to force entry into Arcadia. In particular, they are to defend the Gate from the Unseelie Fae residing in the Grim Fortress at the other end of the road. Lysander says that since the Fae abandoned the mundane world and retreated into Arcadia, the Gate has not opened. His people have been charged with the Gate's defence and may not pass through or open it. The Gate itself moves randomly through Gateway Castle with a logic/will of it's own, although Lysander knows where it is at all times.
The True Seekers leave Lysander and wander around the castle and the grounds. Steve finds where the guards practise and spars with them for a while. Naomi learns from some of the Fae that there are wolves in the forest.
That night the True Seekers attend the banquet (By the way, although it is now night, the sun has not moved from it's place on the western horizon, nor has the moon moved either). They are seated at the high table with Lysander and various other of the noble Fae. Naomi carefully avoids partaking of the various drinks available. Lord Lysander says that they will be going on a hunt in the morning, and that the True Seekers are welcome to come.
As the evening passes, Glenn is becoming more and more friendly with a certain noble Fae lady. Eventually they decide to go for a stroll around the grounds. Steve, who has had plenty to drink, decides that he had better follow to ensure that Glenn doesn't do anything stupid. This magnificent resolve only lasts as long as it takes for Steve to pass out in the hall. Naomi also excuses herself and leaves the banquet. She wanders the castle until she finds the Arcadia Gateway, which she looks at for a long time, a strange smile on her face as her hands unconsciously stroke the Cracking Stone (actually, this may not really have happened). Then she leaves the Castle, shifts to lupus form and runs off into the woods. Lachlan, feeling the responsibilities of pack leadership, remains at the banquet, and makes up excuses for his various wayward pack mates.
The banquet hall goes strangely quiet as two Fae captains enter the hall. One of the noble Fae whispers to Lachlan that one of the captains is Reegus, the lover of Lady Niirsa, who slipped out the door with Glenn a few hours before. Reegus asks after Lady Niirsa, but Lysander says that he is unaware as to where she might be. After Reegus leaves, the animated conversation starts again. The Fae probably haven't had this much fun in years. Eventually Lachlan excuses himself and heads for bed.
In the morning the True Seekers assemble - except for Naomi. Lachlan mentions that during the night he was awakened by the white stag, which lead him through the woods to a small cabin, where Lord Lysander was pacing anxiously on the veranda. Soon, a beautiful Fae woman whom Lachlan did not recognise come out of the woods. As the clasped each other, Lysander said something about the power that she had over him, to which she replied that it was no less than that he had over her. They went into the cabin, and the stag lead Lachlan back to the road. The True Seekers join the Fae for the hunt, and they mention to Lysander that they are missing one lupus, who was last heard mentioning something about the wolves in the forest. Lysander says that he will do what he can. The hunt proceeds, and the True Seekers startle everyone with their...unusual hunting styles. Soon, the hunt has bagged several boar and deer as well as much smaller game.
Lysander leads the hunt, and soon they enter a small clearing in the woods, dominated by a tumbled pile of rocks with a cave. Several wolves are lying around near the cave. Other wolves emerge from the cave, including Naomi. She does not seem to recognise anyone. It is only with a lot of patient talking on the part of her pack that she slowly snaps out of it and returns to the land of the cognisant. The hunting party moves back towards the castle. Once at the castle, the True Seekers return to the audience chamber with Lysander. Once there, Berabalus gives them a very complete report on how to repair the ornamental fountains. Once the confusion is cleared up, Berabalus tells them what he has learned. Once upon a time, a powerful Unseelie Fae was causing a great deal of chaos and confusion amongst the people and animals. Eventually, Garou of the Bunyip tribe bound the Fae into something and buried it at a trod (a place in the real world where the power of the Fae still lingers) where it was protected against interference by other Fae. Although Berabalus gives no time line, it seems apparent that this occurred well before the European invasion of Australia. As to the exact nature of the Fae in question, Berabalus can give no name but says that if it was in Europe, her name world be Titania, the Queen of the Night.
Lachlan then uses his subtle interviewing technique. As soon as the Queen of the Night is mentioned, he says "Speaking of women, who is lord of the Grim Fortress". Lysander looks momentarily puzzled, then tells him that the Fortress is ruled by Princess Mariana of the Unseelie Court.
At this point there is a disturbance outside the audience chamber, and Captain Reegus storms in, looking fairly annoyed. He accuses Glenn of besmirching his honour with Lady Niirsa, and demands satisfaction, throwing his glove onto the floor at Glenn's feet. Lysander takes Reegus out of the room and talks with him, while the True Seekers discuss amongst themselves. When Lysander returns, he explains that any challenge would be non-lethal, unarmed combat. Eventually Glenn agrees, and the combatants troop outside with a large crowd of interested Fae. As Glenn and Reegus prepare, Lady Niirsa runs up and argues with Reegus, who looks stubborn. Eventually she gives up and storms off again. Meanwhile, Glenn has shifted to Glabro form and stripped down. Once the fight begins, it becomes fairly one sided, with Glenn making some fairly embarrassing rolls. Reegus pins Glenn three times and his honour satisfied. Steve, concerned for the honour of the Garou, offers to have a friendly wrestle with Reegus. Reegus accepts, and Steve eventually wins, two pins to one.
Once everyone has cooled down, the True Seekers prepare to return to the mundane world. Lysander suggests that if they manage to recover the "fetish", they should return it to him for safe keeping. He bids them good luck as they ride into the woods, accompanied by Fae knights. As they are riding through the woods, a vast flock of ravens descend all around them, covering the trees, and even landing on the horses and on peoples heads. The flock seems to be moving to keep pace with the troop. One of the knights says that they are servants and spies of Princess Mariana, and if they are ignored, will eventually go on their way. Eventually they do.
After a while, the troop approaches the tunnel leading back into the mundane world. The knights bid the pack farewell as everyone leaps onto Vilna and beat him into unconsciousness. The knights leave, shaking their heads at the strange ways of the Garou. The True Seekers move back through the tunnel into the cave, wait for Vilna to wake up, shove a mirror in front of his face, beat him up in the real world, drag him through the water-filled tunnel into the sea and then onto the beach. In the real world it is night time. The True Seekers jump into their cars and drive for the Cemetery. Once there, they discover that they have only been gone a few hours, so it is still...
The True Seekers bring the sept up to date on what they learned. They also find out what the fallout of their little corpse theft amounted too (the police are looking for a man who looks almost exactly like Glenn and who just happened to be driving his van too). Cossack tells them that they examined the body of the BSD. They learnt almost nothing from it, except that it had been floating in the sea for some days, and that the killer apparently had six claws on one hand. At this point Vilna makes some odd noises, and says that he has a brother who had six fingers on one hand. Vilna's parents were killed in a car accident, and his brother was with them at the time, but no sign of him was ever found. Lachlan spends several minutes repeating "That means they did it twice" before his more politically correct packmates hit him.
Glenn contacts Gabrielle, who tells him that two children have disappeared in the last 24 hours. Swearing loudly, Glenn grabs Vilna and they head for the Flinders Street police station. Moving through the umbra to an all-too-familiar room in the station, they find the names of the two missing children. Neither went to any of the schools that figured in the last batch of missing children. They head out to where one of the children lived. Once there, a Rite of the Questing Stone turns up nothing. An umbral run through the house also reveals nothing, certainly no Wyrm sense. Glenn attempts to awaken the spirit of the child's bed to see if it can tell them anything. Not surprisingly, the spirit of a bed is fairly hard to wake up, and Glenn fails. They head over to the other child's house, which is a fair way away. Once there they scan and Questing Stone, but no luck. This time, Vilna tries to awaken the teddy bear and botches, switching the teddy bear to evil. Glenn tries to awaken the spirit of the child's teddy bear and succeeds. The teddy bear cheerfully informs Glenn that the kid went out the window during the night and hasn't come back. Whether the kid was flying or not, the bear doesn't know.
Vilna and Glenn head out into the back yard and search around. In one corner of the yard they find a small ring of mushrooms with a definite sense of Fae about them. Before doing anything, Vilna calls Bret at the Rippling Waters sept and asks him about faerie rings. Bret tells him some general stuff (places where Fae meet; can have unpredictable effects on those who enter them; sometimes act as portals) but feels that a small faerie ring in someone's back garden should not be too hazardous. So Glenn steps into the ring. Nothing happens. So he steps sideways. Instead of being in the back gardens penumbra, he finds himself in a small clearing in an extraordinarily dense forest. Hundreds of little faerie lights swirl around, as a little girl leaps around trying to catch them. Glenn talks with her. She says that she saw these pretty lights from her bedroom and wanted to catch one. She seems to feel that it's only been a few minutes since she first saw them, rather than almost 24 hours. Glenn tries to grab on of the swirling lights, but it passes right through his hand. Glenn tells the girl that her parents are worried about her, and that he has come to take her home. Praying hopefully to Gaia, Glenn takes her hand and steps sideways. They both reappear in the garden. The girl says goodbye, then climbs in her bedroom window, where her now awakened teddy bear awaits, to whisper in her dreams that she must take a knife and "cut the bad things out of mummy and daddy. Do it! Do it! Do it!" Actually, I just made that up.
Anyway, Glenn and Vilna return to the first house. On the way Vilna calls the Cemetery and tells them what they have found and the way to remedy the problem. Sure enough, at the first house, they find a faerie ring in the garden. This time Vilna goes through the Gauntlet to where the little boy is chasing faerie lights. Vilna talks to him, and persuades him to come back with him. Once the boy is safe and gone, Glenn steps back through the faerie ring. In the glade, the lights are winking out one by one. As it gets darker and darker, Glenn realises that he needs light in order to see his reflection in order to step sideways. He steps back into the real world moments before he was trapped forever in everlasting darkness (mwahahaha). Glenn and Vilna return to the Cemetery and let them know what happened. Then people head out and go home to bed.
Lachlan decides to travel to the Rippling Waters sept to learn what he can about the Fae. When he arrives, however, he is told that Bret and Leaps-In-The-Light are currently in Melbourne with Cossack. Muttering that no-one tells him anything, Lachlan Moon Bridges back to the Cemetery. Soon, Cossack, Bret and Leaps-In-The-Light return from whatever they've been doing. Bret tells Lachlan (and the rest of the True Seekers, who are waiting at the Cemetery, except for Steve who's somewhere else) that with the greatly increased level of general fae activity and Glamour, that on the full moon a great many of the Low Fae might come to Melbourne and cause havoc. What the leaders of the two septs have decided to do is to combine the power of Chimera (the Cemetery Caern totem) with the power of Stag in a ritual that will hopefully attract every Fae for miles around to the Cemetery, where at least the Garou can keep an eye on them. It should also have the effect of limiting any strange fae occurrences, like giant stone circles appearing on freeways and the like. If they are lucky, it might even attract the man with the fetish. The effect should last about a few weeks.
Meanwhile, Glenn has thought up a possible plan to lure the Black Spiral Dancers into a potential trap. Since they appear to be beating up street people looking for the strange fellow, the True Seekers can spread rumours to the effect that this person was seen at some place. The True Seekers can then wait around for the BSDs to show up. This at least is the bare bones of the plan. Much discussion, refining and arguing later, particularly concerning the question as to what they are supposed to do once they've got themselves some real-live BSDs, the True Seekers work something out. Steve knows of some abandoned industrial sites on his security routes, and a likely one is chosen. Several rat Jagglings are summoned and bound, with orders to remain at the site, follow any BSDs that turn up, then find the True Seekers and report. Lachlan summons an avatar of Stag, who agrees to permeate the area with a sense of Fae, as well as erase the True Seekers physical scents from the site. Meanwhile, Calvin is talking with lots of people he knows, telling them that "some derelict" was grabbed by a bunch of strange looking people in the general area of the site that the True Seekers have prepared. Actually, he doesn't tell them that last bit. The True Seekers settle themselves down a couple of kilometres away from the site and begin to wait. They have no particularly pressing engagements until the moot on Friday, which should be interesting.
No luck yet at the trap. Glenn speaks with Gabrielle, who says that the spate of attacks on street people seems to have abruptly stopped in the last 24 hours. Glenn asks her about the Cave Clan. She says that she has spoken to some people, but they haven't told her anything significant. The True Seekers maintain their vigil.
Moot time! Spear of Tulu have returned with a Wyld Stone from the Aetherial Realm, and a little cairn (as opposed to a Caern) has been built adjacent to the Centre of the Cemetery Caern. As the moot begins, Chimera is summoned, as is Stag, and the two totems begin circling around each other in the umbra.
Most of the moot business is, unsurprisingly, concerned with the current problem they are facing with the fae. Everyone is brought up to date with all developments. Several more children have disappeared, but all have been retrieved from the faerie pocket realms they were led into. As the discussion continues, faerie lights dart past the Garou and start circling the centre of the Caern. Lachlan tells about what happened in the Arcadia Gateway. As he moves to sit down, he trips over because his shoe laces have been tied together. More and more low faeries are appearing in the cemetery, flying round and round, hanging from the trees, running screaming around the headstones. Lachlan feels something moving in his shirt pocket, and finds a tiny faerie in there. Having pulled it out and let it go, it zooms around behind him and latches onto the back of his neck, where it starts making a nest for itself, tugging at Lachlan's hair and changing the colour. Soon Lachlan has a large patch of rainbow hued hair on the back of his head. Eventually, the business of the moot is over, carried out with less than the usual degree of seriousness.
The True Seekers begin the revel, moving through the streets. There is definitely something in the air, for many impromptu parties have broken out all over the place, and drunken revelers (human, not Garou) lurch along the streets. Despite some offers, the True Seekers go about their business. As they are walking down the road, they notice some strange flowers growing on the nature strip. What's more, they are in full bloom in the middle of the night. Vilna studies them, and doesn't recall having ever seen flowers quite like them. They pick a few to take pack to the Caern. As they keep moving, they find more and more of these strange flowers growing everywhere. They return to the Cemetery to find that the flowers are growing here too, so they don't bother showing Cossack the strange flowers that they found. There has been no sign of the man at the centre of the whole mess. As dawn comes, the faeries vanish one by one, including the one at the back of Lachlan's neck. Everyone heads home for bed.
Another full moon, and Lachlan's band are playing tonight at the Punter's Club. The rest of the band are unimpressed with Lachlan's new look, so he dyes his hair black again. That night, Gnarl are playing to a full house. Given the general feeling on the street, it promises to be one of their better performances. Naomi, Glenn, Vilna and Calvin are also present to lends support to their illustrious leader. Vilna is standing on the edge of the crowd, keeping his claustrophobia under control, when he realises that his strange friend is standing next to him. Vilna looks at him carefully, and feels that there could be a family resemblance between them. Vilna talks with him, and the man says that he came because Vilna was here. Vilna suggests that they go somewhere quieter, whereupon all of the band's amps blow out. The crowd starts throwing bottles and cans at the band as Vilna takes his friend over to the bar for a drink.
Naomi and Glenn have spotted who Vilna has found. Naomi makes her way to the women's toilets and steps sideways in one of the stalls. Once in the umbra she contacts Kanau and has him alert everyone that they've found the guy, then steps back into the real world. Glenn attempts to use Mindspeak on the fellow, blows his last point of Willpower on an unsuccessful attempt, slumps down in a chair, grabs the nearest bottle and knocks it back. On stage, Gnarl has borrowed someone else's amps and has started playing again. Naomi grabs Glenn and starts taking him home. Vilna throws a few names at his friend to see if he recognises any of them. He doesn't pick up on 'Vilna', 'Kovalev' or 'Petrov'. Vilna tries 'Frog', which seems vaguely familiar to the stranger, and he responds with the word 'Frorogog'. He says it a few times the same way, so he's not just fucking it up, or something. Vilna also notices that his friend has six fingers on his left hand, as did Vilna's brother.
Vilna persuades his friend to go with him. They leave the club and cross Brunswick St. As they do, movement above him causes Vilna to look up. On the roof of the building in front of him, two aboriginal men are looking down at Vilna. As he moves to the pavement, he sees an aboriginal woman and a Caucasian man also watching him. Another aboriginal man and woman are further along the road, again watching him. Vilna grabs his friend, dives into the nearest cafe, and calls Naomi. Naomi has not got very far with Glenn when Vilna rings, saying he's surrounded.
Naomi pushes Glenn in the right direction and tells him to go home. Glenn stumbles along for a while then turns into a pub. Naomi jogs up the street to where Vilna is, and sees the four people standing near the front. Sense Unnatural reveals that they are Garou. Naomi walks up to have a little chat. One of the women introduces herself as Red-Sun-Rising, pack leader of Two Bones of the Sept of Timeless Lives at Purnululu. She says that they have come seeking the same thing that the True Seekers want: the Fae fetish created by the Bunyip. Naomi suggests that they should go somewhere more private. Vilna and friend come outside, friend still eating his ice cream, and they start walking towards Vilna's house.
At the Punter's Club, Lachlan is being kept au fait with current events thanks to Kanau. Gnarl rips through their set at break neck speed, Lachlan thanks the audience for coming, tosses his guitar to a roadie, leaps off the stage into the crowd and runs for the door. Naomi, Vilna and friend and Two Bones are standing in the alley behind Vilna's house. Red-Sun-Rising is saying that the Uktena are the heirs to the Bunyip legacy, and that as such they have a right to claim the artifact. Much scoffing from Naomi and Vilna. Vilna asks his friend what he is carrying. After reaching into his pockets and pulling out some string and a dead mouse, Vilna's friend holds up what appears to be a hole in the world; a patch of darkness filled with stars. As he moves the irregular object in his hands the stars don't shift, but as people move relative to it, the stars rotate in the opposite direction that they would if they were on the surface of the object. Essentially, it is a piece of the night sky.
Naomi asks if she can hold it, but Vilna's friend seems reluctant and puts it back in his pocket. Red-Sun-Rising reiterates her claim, when Naomi points out that, in the best traditions of the litany, Two Bones should present themselves to the Sept in whose territory they are in. Respect the territory of another, and all that. Lachlan comes running up and puts in his two cents worth, urging that they should all head back to the Cemetery. Red-Sun-Rising agrees. As they are walking back, Vilna's friend stops abruptly and clutches at his head. A dark humanoid shape filled with stars rises out of his body, looming over them all, and seems to be drawn towards the west, towards the Cemetery. Naomi grabs hold of Vilna's friend as the dark shape snaps back into his body. Everybody is struck by a great force that flings them away from him, including Naomi. People fly into bushes, into each other, into the path of oncoming cars (which stop just in time). Vilna's friend launches into the air, flying straight up. Three of the members of Two Bones fly after him. Naomi calls to Kanau to follow him, then they hurry to the Cemetery.
The Cemetery is again a scene of faerie revels. The True Seekers bring Cossack up to date. As they are talking, Lachlan feels a sudden thud against the back of his neck, hears a squeal of disappointment, then feels a furious tugging at his hair. He resigns himself to his fate. Red-Sun-Rising greets Cossack and explains that they have come to investigate all the serious Fae activity going on. When they learned what was causing all of the trouble, they decided that it was their responsibility to retrieve the fetish to stop the chaos and to learn from it. She points out that the Uktena perform many of the tasks that the Bunyip once did, and are privy to many of their secrets. She says that it is the right and the responsibility of the Uktena to claim this item for the furtherance of their knowledge about the Bunyip. The True Seekers suggest that perhaps the Fae might be interested in what happens to the fetish. Red-Sun-Rising says that they cannot afford to lose the opportunity that the fetish affords. She points out that the one bonded into the fetish is probably the last of the Elder Fae left in the world, and knows things no one else could know. It is pointed out that the whole issue is moot because no one has the fetish and they are having difficulty acquiring it. The three Uktena who flew off return, having been unable to keep up. Naomi is in contact with Kanau, who has manifested and is in pursuit. The next time Naomi contacts Kanau, she receives only an impression of primary instincts from him; feed and survive. He seems to have become purely animal. Leaps-In-The-Light says that it appears that the ritual they have performed in the Cemetery is having a definite effect on the Elder Fae. So long as the effect lasts, it will probably be unable to work any significant effects, and will have to hide inside the host. But it is still far from helpless. Cossack suggests that co-operation between them and the Uktena might benefit everyone, and that if either manage to gain the fetish then they could share what they learn with the other. Two Bones leaves, Red-Sun-Rising making no promises. Cossack says that the Uktena always have their own agenda, and that some believe that many of them are perilously close to the Wyrm; that they delve into knowledge best left alone and all that.
Naomi suddenly remembers Glenn. The True Seekers head off to make sure that he's alright. Questing Stone reveals that if he's gone home, then he moved house without telling anybody. They track him down to the St Kilda area. More specifically, they track him to a block of units in St Kilda that Naomi has visited before. This is where Gabrielle lives. Moving through the umbra, Naomi ascends to Gabrielle's flat, where she finds Glenn asleep on the couch with a blanket thrown over him and a bucket filled with vomit on the floor beside him. She debates whether to just leave him there, then steps sideways. There are no lights on, so Gabrielle is either asleep or out. Naomi wakes Glenn up, then takes him through to the umbra. They make their way back to the car, throw Glenn in the back and drive him home.
Once Glenn is safely home, the True Seekers make their way to the Cemetery. Cossack says that under the circumstances, Steve should probably be with his pack rather than out at the Sept of Scars Atoned. A Moon Bridge is opened and they go through, accompanied by a bunch of the fae. While the fae race around the cave, Steve talks with the rest of his pack. They tell him what has happened during the night, and he says that he has finished what he came here for. They open the Moon Bridge again and head back, as the fae all swarm into the tunnel behind them and follow them home. Once back, people head home to sleep.
When Glenn awakes, the rest of his pack are gathered around him. They ask exactly what it was he did and said last night with Gabrielle. Frankly, he can't remember much at all, but seems to have a few fears of his own. It seems likely that she has his wallet and keys, at the very least. The True Seekers drive to her flat and enter through the umbra. No one is home. While some people search carefully through the place, others use Questing Stone. They soon discover that she is not far to the north, probably somewhere along Fitzroy St. Searching her place reveals nothing, so they all troop up Fitzroy St in the umbra. They soon find Gabrielle sitting outside a cafe with a man and a woman. Eavesdropping in on the conversation reveals little of interest: they are just talking about current events in Melbourne and so on. No mention is made of Glenn or Werewolves or anything of that ilk. The True Seekers leave her to it and head back to the Cemetery.
Once there they discuss options and possibilities, the upshot being that they hang around Vilna and wait for something to happen. However, they do make some preparations, finding an iron works where they buy several lengths of stout iron chain, the wrapping of the fae-possessed for. They then head to Vilna's place and hang around, watching videos and scarfing pizza.
During the evening Glenn and Naomi leave on a mysterious message, refusing to say where they have gone. Once they have gone, various people use Questing Stone and determine that they are in St Kilda. They return in an hour or so. Lachlan suggests to Glenn that under the circumstances, breaking up the pack is a bad idea, and to do so without letting people know where you are going is worse. He asks Glenn what happened with Gabrielle, but Glenn doesn't answer. Naomi, however, collapses on the floor with laughter, gasping something about Russian genetic experiments. The True Seekers settle down to watch Dark Man 3.
The night has mostly passed with people dozing in pools of spilt warm coke and cold congealed pizza. Before dawn, Naomi goes out for a walk. It is raining, and has been since she and Glenn left Gabrielle's place last night. As she walks, she gets a funny feeling, as though something has changed. Using Sense Unnatural she picks up a general background sense of Wyld and Gaia with a dose of Magic thrown in. Prompted by the voice of common-sense, sounding eerily like Lachlan, she asks Kanau to alert the rest of the True Seekers and starts running back. Once they are all together and informed, the Cemetery is called. Ian Shatter-Glass says that they have noticed the same thing at the Cemetery, and that the fae have seemed unusually subdued all night.
The True Seekers head for the Cemetery, calling on Kanau to fly around and see if he cannot see anything unusual. They reach the Cemetery. Cossack says that they have others out looking for the source of the change. It is about then that Kanau says that he's found something, and that they should join him out along the Eastern Freeway. They flick to lupus and tear off through the umbra. They find Kanau not far from where the stone circle was located. However, there is nothing there, either in the umbra or the real world. People look around and rapidly notice that in the umbra the Yarra River has gone. Instead the entire river bed is filled with the bulk of an immense serpents body, coloured blue and green. The body is sliding up-river, and they cannot see it's head or tail. While some people check the Yarra in the real world, others use various sense on the Serpent. The Yarra appears to be utterly unchanged in the mundane world. The serpent is definitely the source of the prevailing sense of Wyld and Gaia and Magic.
Having called the Caern to say what they've found, the True Seekers change to Crinos and leap on to the serpents back, and start making their way towards the head. They also send Kanau ahead to locate the creatures head. Before long, the True Seekers find a large patch of fur on the serpent's side, where an enormous cat-like leg emerges and helps move the body along. There is no corresponding leg on the other side, but as they keep moving up, they find more legs at regular intervals on alternating sides of the serpent body. Meanwhile Kanau has risen above the hills, and tells them that he has found the head, a few kilometres further up stream, where the body rises suddenly from the river bed and ascends almost vertically into the sky. The True Seekers tell Kanau to head for the Cemetery and tell them what's going on. Soon they reach the point where the body starts to rise. Naomi and Steve attempt to climb further, while the others simply hang onto a patch of fur and wait to be carried up. At this point they can see the creatures head, which appears to be that of some large cat.
Lachlan recalls that the water spirit Uktena is part serpent part cougar. They have ascended a few hundred feet into the sky when Uktena suddenly increases in speed and veers across the sky. Naomi is thrown off and plummets down. She puts in a quick call to Kanau, who appears beside her and lowers her to the ground. The others hold on, but soon Steve is also thrown clear. Kanau helps him down as well. Those who are still attached can see that Uktena is veering around the sky, apparently in pursuit of a patch of inky blackness pierced with bright lights.
Having hit upon the idea of using Kanau as a relay, they have Kanau contact Lisa, who then rings the Cemetery. Cossack tells Lisa who tells Kanau who tells the others that they are to find the pack Two Bones at all costs and get them to recall Uktena, assuming that they are the ones who summoned it. It seems fairly obvious that what has been summoned is not an avatar of Uktena but the Incarna Uktena itself. Cossack says that summoning Incarna is like starting an arms race, and has all sorts of repercussions. For instance, the Black Spiral Dancers who are looking for the thing that Uktena is presumably pursuing, may well decide to respond in kind, which will create problems for everybody. Everybody who is still attached to Uktena slide down it's length to the ground. Once there people use Questing Stone on Red-Sun-Rising and other members of Two Bones, but get no response at all.
They decide to make their way to the mouth of the Yarra, which seems a probable location for summoning. Once there, they find that Uktena has no tail but instead forms at the mouth of the river, drawing itself together from the waters of the Bay. The True Seekers scout around, searching for the scents of the members of Two Bones, or for anything else that might be relevant. While they are doing so, they ground trembles with a mild earthquake both in the umbra and in the real world. Later there is another earth tremor. Having found nothing at the river mouth (no scents, no boats, nothing), Steve heads for the Botanical Gardens while the others start moving along the river, searching for whatever they can find. As they move, they umbral skies get darker (even darker than with the rain clouds). As they watch, a vast shadow descends through the clouds and emerges. It is an enormous dragon-type creature with muddy green scales and a severe sense of the Wyrm. It plunges into Uktena's coils, which are looping all over the sky by this time, and begins clawing and biting and his body, and breathing out great gouts of flame.
The True Seekers have met up in the Botanical Gardens, having found nothing. Peeking into the real world, they find that the storm has grown worse, with frequent lightning strikes on the ground. They decide to move further up river, towards the point where Uktena's body rises into the sky. As they are following Uktena's coils, they spot a dingo; not particularly surprising given the upswing in wildlife lately, except that they are all in the umbra at the moment. The dingo turns and runs as the True Seekers belt after it. The dingo runs up river, pausing when they begin to fall behind, then jumps across Uktena and races into parklands. Steve is the only one who has managed to keep up as the dingo races towards a small group of people and dingos in the park - Two Bones. Steve demands to know what the fuck they thought they were doing. Red-Sun-Rising shifts to homid form and says that the Elder Fae was virtually an Incarna in her own right, and that nothing less would succeed in locating and capturing the fetish. However, the side effect that they hadn't foreseen was that the proximity of Uktena all but negated the ritual in the Cemetery that was suppressing her powers. In fact, Uktena's presence enabled the fae to act virtually as if she were free and unimpeded by the mundane world. Uktena would have eventually captured the fetish, except that the Green Dragon was summoned by the Black Spiral Dancers, which kind of distracted Uktena.
The rest of the True Seekers have turned up. Naomi walks over to the dingo they chased, who is sitting over to one side. The dingo changes to homid form, revealing himself as Malajimbarra. He says that he came to Melbourne to help with the situation. Red-Sun-Rising says that the problem is that they can no longer communicate with Uktena, and that even if they could, to call Uktena back now would result in the Green Dragon Incarna being unchecked. Malajimbarra points out that although fighting to the end would not result in the destruction of either Incarna, both would be severely weakened, something which both would probably be happy to avoid. He says that if they summon one of Uktena's servants, they might be able to intercede on the Garou's behalf.
Malajimbarra begins summoning, with the help of Two Bones and some of the True Seekers. Others call the Cemetery and tell them that they've found the pack. Re-inforcements are sent. After about an hour the ritual is complete, and out of the stormy sky a pink and gold Oriental Dragon spirals down to the ground. Malajimbarra speaks with it, and it says that it will convey their words to it's master. It flies up, spiraling closely around Uktena's body, avoiding the fray, until it reaches Uktena's head. Malajimbarra speaks, calling on Uktena to cease before great damage is done to the world. Everybody hears the voice of Uktena rumbling in their heads, saying that to end the battle now would be to risk destruction at they talons of the Green Dragon. Malajimbarra suggests that if Uktena withdraws from the battle, and indicates that it would leave, then the Green Dragon might do likewise. Uktena agrees, and their is a blur across the sky as his body flows backwards at an enormous rate, running back along the coils it has formed in the sky, down into the river bed and back towards the bay. Uktena pauses there, watching the Green Dragon. The Dragon circles briefly, then roars and dissolves into a black liquid that rains out of the sky across the city. Uktena pulls back into the bay and disappears.
By this time the Scryers have turned up. Two Bones are "invited" to accompany everyone back to the Cemetery. Malajimbarra speaks with Red-Sun-Rising briefly, then Two Bones suddenly launch themselves into the rapidly clearing sky. Malajimbarra says that he will go with them to the Cemetery. At the Cemetery, Cossack is told what happened. Malajimbarra says that he told Two Bones to leave the city and not return, and that he would answer for what they did. He says that while what they did was grossly stupid and ill conceived, there has not been much damage done (others are checking out the sinister black rain that fell when the Green Dragon departed) and that beyond perhaps a lack of respect for the territory of another, there was no breach of the Litany. Cossack says that if Malajimbarra is to answer for what they did, then he should remain with them to help deal with the mess they're in. Malajimbarra agrees. Malajimbarra also says that given the Black Spiral Dancers response, it is almost certain that there is a Hive somewhere in the city. The True Seekers say "Well, duh!"
Having been interrupted in the middle of a video, the True Seekers head back to Vilna's place to continue waiting and sleeping. They sleep for the rest of the day, waking up in the evening. The Cemetery is contacted. Cossack says that where the black substance fell in the umbra, acid rain fell in the real world. Fortunately there was enough water on the ground to dilute the single shower of strong acid. Garou are busy in the umbra with Rites of Cleansing.
Around eleven, Naomi heads down to 7-11 for more coke for the others and mineral water for herself. When she is inside, she notices a goofy-looking man wearing sunglasses and a Hawaiian shirt grinning at her. Sense Unnatural reveals sense of Wyrm, Demons and Magic. She sends a quick word to Kanau, who alerts the others. They spring up and race out, half-eaten pizza slices and beer cans in hand. Naomi makes her way out the door, then runs around the corner and steps sideways. Peeking back, she sees the man standing outside the door, looking around and grinning. Naomi steps back and makes a noise. The man wanders over to her. She asks him what he wants. He says that he knows that they are looking for somebody and for something. He says that he can tell her where this person will be at a certain time. Naomi asks what does he want in return, to which he replies that he is just a concerned citizen doing his duty. He tells her that this person will be at the Shrine in half an hour. Naomi thanks him then walks around the corner. Meanwhile, the others have arrived in the umbra. They watch as Naomi leaves the man, rounds the corner and steps sideways. They all follow the man as he walks back into the 7-11. He walks into the toilets, into a stall and sits down. He then rapidly transforms from a man into a scarecrow made of straw, wearing sunglasses and a Hawaiian shirt. The True Seekers leave, running home to grab their dedicated iron chains, then racing for the shrine.
As they run, Naomi tells them what happened. She also says that it seems to relate to the dream she had. She saw the image of something moving across the night sky again, then she saw darkness with the sense of the demonic, and a hand emerging from the darkness in a sort of conciliatory gesture. She also saw a group of six Garou in lupus form running along, with a strange shadow falling across one of them. She couldn't make out who the Garou were. About 15 minutes later they arrive at the Shrine. It appears to be deserted. They split up and look around, then settle down to wait.
Soon, a familiar figure flies down and lands at the top of the main stairs. Everybody move closer, but at a hidden position, then steps sideways. Once everyone is through, Vilna moves forward until his brother can see him. Petrov (Vilna's brother) spins around and asks him what he's doing here. Petrov seems to be a lot more lucid and together than the other times Vilna's seen him recently. Vilna says that he came to see Petrov, to which the reply is that it is only the body she wears. Petrov/She asks Vilna how he knew he/She would be here. Vilna says that he knew his brother would come to see him. Petrov/She laughs and says that she came to meet her associates. At this point Steve leaps out from around the corner and races towards Petrov/Her. The others swear and also leap out, unwinding the iron chains. The True Seekers leap on Petrov/Her, trying to wrap the chains around her. Steve is struck with massive crippling pains, and Vilna's chain glows red-hot as he holds it around Petrov/Her. Petrov/She rolls down the stairs with Vilna and Naomi, then Vilna is forced to let go as the chains burn him. Lachlan leaps on Petrov/Her and pins him/Her. As Steve starts sinking into the stone and Naomi decides to attack Lachlan, the black starry shape again rises from Petrov's/Her body, passing through Naomi, Lachlan and Vilna, knocking Vilna unconscious and wounding the others.
However, again the power of the ritual at the Cemetery draws at Her, and she retreats back into Petrov, who appears suddenly groggy. Lachlan desperately searching through Petrov's clothes finds what he is looking for. Pulling out the piece of night sky, he throws it to Glenn, who quickly wraps it in iron chains. Immediately, Steve is ejected from the stone and feels fine, Naomi regains control of herself and Petrov passes out. Glenn, Steve and Calvin start running for the Cemetery, while the others grab Petrov and drag him into the bushes. Lachlan wants to wait to see who shows up, and calls the Cemetery, saying that he expects Black Spiral Dancers at the Shrine very soon. Naomi helps Vilna carry Petrov through the parks to one of the boulevards, where Vilna hot wires a car, bundles Petrov into the back seat, and floors it. Naomi starts racing back for Lachlan.
Vilna has not gotten far when he hears Petrov stirring in the back seat. He goes even faster, and is tearing along when the whole rear of the car dips down, as though a great weight is bearing down on the suspension. Looking in the rear vision mirror, Vilna sees a vast furry bulk and flaming green eyes. Vilna flicks to Crinos and turns the car, slamming into a power pole. Vilna, with his seat belt on, gets away miraculously unscathed. Petrov flies forward, smashing Vilna on the way through, plunges through the windshield, through the rear window of the parked car ahead of them, and lies still. Naomi, running for Lachlan, hears the smash of the car. She turns and starts running the other way.
At the Shrine, Lachlan is feeling more and more uneasy, especially when he remembers that Black Spiral Dancers can travel through the umbra. Eventually he decides "To hell with this.", and runs north towards St Kilda Rd. Vilna has dragged Petrov's unconscious and badly smashed body into the bushes (again) and waits for a short time. Soon Naomi finds him and keeps an eye on Petrov while Vilna steals another car. Again they bundle Petrov into the back, then they both get in the car and Vilna drives away.
The True Seekers gather at the cemetery, leave Petrov there, then head back towards the shrine. There, they find the Scryers searching around the shrine, in the real world and the umbra. The True Seekers spread out and help. They find a strangely odourless area of ground. Skirting around the edges of it, a trail of no-scent is found, leading away. As they follow the trail however, the scent starts returning until everything returns to normal. They decide that whoever was here is long gone, so they return to the cemetery. The elders are discussing ways of extracting information from Petrov, none of which will do Petrov any favours. Vilna chimes in that he'd rather do what he could for Petrov, thank you very much. Cossack and Malajimbarra have a private discussion, then return. Cossack does not appear happy. Malajimbarra says that there is a possibility of saving Petrov. The risks are that he may die in the process, or that he might forget much of what he knows (which is probably why Cossack doesn't look happy). Malajimbarra explains that there is a realm in the umbra called Erebus, often looked on as the Garou version of Hell. In fact, it is a facet of Gaia's anger, and a place where a Garou may be cleansed of contamination. At Vilna's urging, the True Seekers agree that they will take Petrov to Erebus, if the elders let them. Cossack eventually relents. They decide to head off in the morning, after getting some sleep. Cossack says that they will keep the fetish at the cemetery and discuss options until they return.