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Andrea returns from the Umbra, shimmering into the cave. "Jade waits,"
she says simply.
Touch Deer nods and stands up, simply ready to follow Quiet.
Patrick says "Okay. Flick through, then?"
Patrick pages to the room: As we all stand here like bumps on a log....
Andrea nods and reaches.
Umbra: Lake Arthur
In the center of a vast rippling lake stands an island, an outcropping
of pure, untainted stone. Groves of ancient trees, their foliage an
incredibly deep green, stand sentinel over the raw granite. A single
tower of weathered grey rock juts from the island's southeastern end,
its sides creased and scarred by the elements. A faint shimmering
marks the side of the tower toward the lake, and the sound of
cascading water reaches your ears.
The lake waters surround the island, but Luna has provided a path that
leads east across the crystal liquid.
Touch Deer appears in a glimmer of light.
Jade lurks picturesquely on the spur of rock at the end of the island,
basking in the rays of the lifting slim moon.
Patrick appears in a glimmer of light.
Andrea smiles privately at the sight of the totem before turning to look
around watchfully. Seeing no immediate sign of danger, she walks
toward the Uktena spirit.
Touch Deer quietly follows, behind Andrea and Patrick both.
Jade lofts up into the air and floats towards them quietly. *You carry
questions.* The thoughts are clear enough to those without spirit's
speech.
Andrea nods to the spirit that watches her pack. "We do." She looks to
Patrick then, with an expectant air.
Touch Deer nods at Jade's thought-speak, saying nothing right now.
Patrick adds, "And several of 'em, though mostly about one thing in
specific. The bastard that's hanging out on the bawn, and a leash that
he's held by.
The snake hisses faintly. *Leash. Also the reins.*
Patrick grins wryly and nods. "Yeah, maybe that, too. I'll take your
word for it. Anyways, so this leech wench in Seattle is holding the
... reins. But vamps and Banes don't generally work together.
Different question, though. You have any idea how these ... reins
work?"
Soren appears in a glimmer of light.
Jade's eyes cloud over. *The Wheel that caged and the leash that steers:
different purposes. Same things. Fetish-magic.*
Touch Deer nods. "How did a vampire figure out how to use one of our
Fetishes?"
Soren moves up closer to the pack, nodding in the affirmative to Andrea
before focusing his attention on Jade.
Andrea's breath intakes. "So it is a fetish, as such. I didn't know the
dead could use them."
Jade rears up. *The old spirits. Some remember. We have heard echoes.
Great bane, caged, leashed. Iron tracks cutting into the land. The
tracks and the leash lead back to the same place.* The snake's body
goes very still. *A dead hand.*
Patrick observes, in a low voice, "There are fetishes which can be used
by Kin. I've seen at least one. It has to be special-made, though. So
someone made it for the leech, probably."
Andrea turns to Patrick. "Are you planning to try to go in to take it?"
*A dead hand?* says Soren quietly as he edges a few steps closer.
Touch Deer whispers to Soren for a moment.
Soren gives a nod to Touch Deer, letting his satchel slip to the ground.
Patrick nods in response to Andrea. "I was planning on it, or at least
tryin'. Any idea what this leash looks like, Jade? Can you tell if she
keeps it on her or something?"
Jade breathes out. *Have not seen it. But she keeps it close to her.*
Andrea frowns again and shakes her head. "I didn't see anything with my
gifts when I met her," the theurge says with disgust.
Patrick nods. "You wouldn't if she wasn't using it."
Touch Deer says "This Fetish is our best, maybe only chance. We'd be
slaughtered, just trying to kill it. Maybe that is why it turned back
at the last moment, when it invaded the Bawn? It had it's reins pulled
for...some reason."
Touch Deer looks to Jade. "Do you know who made this Fetish?"
Jade considers. *The iron road also missed the caern's heart.* It
narrows its eyes at Touch Deer. *The dead hand's partner. Wendigo slew
it, long ago. The first time.*
Touch Deer says "She had a partner? Who?"
Touch Deer says "Unless you mean Consumer..."
Patrick shakes his head. "I told you, someone would have had to have
made the thing especially for a vampire, or at least especially for a
non-Garou. Either a corrupted Garou or a warper."
Touch Deer rubs his chen and then scratches a wrist, thinking. "Any
chance we might use it?"
Andrea repeats, "Wendigo slew him, long ago." She shakes her head.
"Makes me think of the Ice King, except he was still alive."
Jade looks coolly at Touch Deer. *The bane is a weapon. The first
wielder was a dead hand too. Destroyed. Now she uses it in his place.*
Jade hisses. *You may. It must be attuned to each new Hand.*
Touch Deer says "So we have to get it."
Andrea grimaces, her distaste at the idea of using this fetish already
expressed to the pack.
Patrick nods again, slowly. "Makes sense. It's still a fetish. Could we
use it to send Consumer back to whatever Hell or Malfeas he crawled
out of?"
Jade's feather-gills sag. *It has not yet been tried.*
Soren shakes his head. "All of this hinges on our getting possession of
the fetish."
Patrick mutters, "That's a definite 'maybe'."
You say "Well, there are three points of attack." She holds up one
finger. "The bane. And we've seen how problematic that is." Another
finger. "The vampire. And where I'd like to go that route, first,
she's warned. Second, that might just loose the bane." Last finger.
"Third, the fetish. It seems to be the weakest point."
Touch Deer nods, looking troubled at Patrick's clear doubt over the
possibility of getting the Fetish. "Jade...do you know if anyone has
tried stealing it before? Did the Wendigo know about it, when Consumer
first appeared?"
Patrick tilts his head to one side in thought. "It looks like the
weakest link, right now. The only problem is that she has the fetish,
so the 'forewarned' bit applies again."
Andrea nods to Patrick.
Jade's eyes turn thoughtful. *They found the first Dead one, destroyed
it. Did not know he controlled their other foe. Did not know of
reins.*
Patrick grins at Touch Deer. "See? We're already one step up on the old
Wendigo."
Touch Deer doesn't grin back, completely ignoring his packmate's joke as
he just keeps thinking.
Patrick considers for a moment. "Do the reins hold it here? Was the
fetish involved in its summoning?"
Jade's tongue flickers. *Yes. And yes.* The snake offers another
thought. *It was seeking. Very Strong. But mindless. It may not know
the Heart.*
Touch Deer seems pleased at this. "If we simply destroy this
Fetish...then the enemy will be banished?"
Jade lashes its tail. *Get fetish. Examine. From afar, cannot say.*
Soren chuckles as he looks over at Patrick. "Looks like your plan is the
one to follow."
Touch Deer hmms and asks Jade, "What do you know about the dead hand my
tribe killed?"
*Lord of iron. Ruler of human slaves. Wendigo slew them, building the
road of iron. The dead one sought revenge.*
Touch Deer hmmms, thinking more.
Andrea's face suddenly clears. "That would give some idea of /why./
Though of the Wyrm, you don't hear of vampires doing the Enemy's
bidding much. Not to the level of threatening caerns."
Patrick mutters, "Not unless they're well and truly pissed off at the
Garou for some reason or another."
Touch Deer looks to Andrea, who probably has more knowledge of the
history of railroad-building and whatnot. "Ruler of human slaves?"
Andrea frowns. "If I remember my history, many white men in mining and
railroads out West owned slaves. Chinese, usually."
Patrick adds, "And the wages paid to those who worked made them
practically so. And I'm sure a leech has ways of making them even
/more/ so."
Touch Deer aahs, not surprised that white men would treat other
'minorities' like that. "So she has a grudge to settle."
Patrick shrugs at the comment. "Something like that. Looks like she has
a double grudge to settle. The first leech gets people killed by the
Garou. He makes a bargain with someone or something, and gets this
fetish for Consumer. He gets killed. This wench comes along, knowing
about the fetish, and picks it up and uses it to get revenge for /his/
death."
Andrea nods. "Maybe she was even related to that one. Elan said they
have kinship something like our tribes."
Jade eyes go opaque, and then refocus again. *The blood is shared
between their hands.*
Long distance to the room: Andrea giggles suddenly. Sometimes Jade
reminds me of a fortune cookie on crack.
Soren repeats a phrase several times. "Shared blood. A bonding of some
sort."
Patrick shrugs. "Shared blood. Kin of some sort."
"Shared garou blood?" considers Soren after a moment.
Patrick hmms, considering the question. "Possible, but I doubt it. The
first one seems to have gotten his butt kicked decisively after the
Wendigo bottled up Consumer."
Andrea says thoughtfully, "If she isn't the one the fetish was made for,
and the one it was made for didn't release the bane with his death,
then her death becomes a lot more feasible."
Patrick grins wryly and nods. "Yep. Long as we can find the damn thing
after."
Jade warns *She has it now. Attuning. Her hand grows firmer.*
Patrick says "Greeeaaat."
Andrea's lips thin. "We need to move quickly."
Patrick crosses his arms and nods decisively. "Definitely."
Andrea chews on her lower lip. "What do you plan? How can we help?"
Patrick grins wryly. "You're the alpha, babe. We need to decide first
when & where we want to get her. And we'll need everything we can get
from the Walkers."
Andrea chuckles. "I'm the alpha. But you're the ragabash. This is your
turf, though I'll tell you what I think." She nods. "I know her house
in Seattle, and I didn't notice anything protecting it. Or her office.
Or some other place."
Touch Deer says "If she keeps it close by her, she has to have it with
her when she moves, right?"
Patrick notes, "If we could have some clue where she sleeps.... We have
her name? Her real, honest-to-Gaia, true name?"
You say "I could try to do the rite of Questing Stone on her. But if
she's taken an alias for many, many years, it may still work."
Patrick nods. "True. Hopefully. Damnit, I need to get Kate to teach me
that damn Gift, one of these days."
Andrea nods. "Some of the Furies know it. And there are other fostern
ragabash." She frowns thoughtfully.
Touch Deer nods. "Or Kate might help us. I know she wants to try and use
her Gift to find the Vampire that escaped us on the Great Hunt."
Jade offers a shard of thought. *If the hunt goes badly find his name.
It will be written on the iron rails. She was at his side.*
Patrick nods. "More stuff I think JJ said the Walkers have."
Touch Deer says "Sounds good. So we'll wait until a Gift or Rite can
find her?"
Patrick snorts. "A Gift or Rite would make it easier to find her during
the day. I'd rather mess with her during the day, wouldn't you?"
Touch Deer shrugs. "It's not her I worry about alot, but what guards she
may have. She sounds like a...business woman, not a warrior."
Patrick snorts again. "She's a leech. There's no telling."
Touch Deer shrugs again. "Day if you want. Your call, of course."
Andrea nods at Patrick. "One thing we have settled is we need to talk to
the Walkers. Maybe you can set up a meeting between their tribe and
our pack, so the plans can happen quickly?"
Touch Deer looks to Patrick.
Patrick nods. "I'll do what I can."
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