At the chantry, one of the door wardens tells Ambrose he has a visitor. It's a Japanese man, yet another person asking after the map. Ambrose tells him up-front he doesn't have it anymore; he gave it away. To whom? Uh...well...that was, I mean it was really confusing, and there were explosions and running and shooting and a lot of people...uhm... Yes, Ambrose is smooth as usual.
The man attempts to purchase the information of who Ambrose gave it to, making offers of increasingly unusual nature. Ambrose turns down money again: "The Technocracy keeps scrubbing my accounts." The man offers tomes containing every invention ever conceived of. Ambrose's reply: "I'm not really into copying other peoples' work."
His initial offers rejected, the man tries explaining (or possibly courteously threatening) that he represents 'powerful interests'--"By powerful you mean...mythic?" asks Ambrose. "Historic," the man corrects him after a moment's thought-- which oppose certain 'upstarts.' Ambrose takes that to mean this Mikaboshi guy, which the man verifies. This Mikaboshi used to be a human wizard, he remarks with contempt, then unveils his final offer. "Dr. Quintrell, how would you like to never have to worry about Paradox again?"
Ambrose recognizes that for what it is, and thinks it takes balls to make an offer like that standing in the doorway to a major chantry. But what he says is, "That sounds...shady," then when the guy displays his increasing frustration, suggests, "You could check your email." "My employer doesn't have email," the man grates out, beginning to get truly annoyed.
Asked again whom he gave the map to, Ambrose quite honestly tells the man that he gave it to a shapeshifter, which makes it terribly difficult to hand out any decent descriptions, as it wore several different faces in the short time he knew it. "A shapeshifter, interesting.," the Japanese man muses. "What did those faces look like?"
A horrible pause descends, during which Ambrose tries to find any plausible lie other than the one he just thought of. When the man's eyes narrow ominously, Ambrose blurts out, "...Asian people?"
"You're an idiot," the man tells him, then turns, seeming to feel he's gotten everything useful out of this conversation, and leaves.
While Ambrose has interesting conversations with ominous Asians, the video game junkies among the pack have discovered a hot new game that's due out soon, called "Wicked City." It's part of a lineup of new releases marketed through Tellus for the Shinjuku Corporation, which also include "Wolf Killer" and "Mage Hunter," a game in which you play a heroic Man in Black who hunts down alien 'magicians' that eat the brains of children. Those aliens, Aila notes, look kind of like Etherites.
The Virtual Adepts have heard about it, too, and are in a morbidly thrilled uproar. Ambrose's friend grabs him to show him the news. Ambrose can't get any more out of him about that email map (except that they loaded it up on the big screens at the Spy's Demise), but if Ambrose wants spoilers, the Adept suggests he check the messageboards. When he does just that, Ambrose finds all the code crackers saying the map's just a hoax...but he notices that they all say it in almost exactly the same words. Which is really odd, because you can't get two Virtual Adepts to point to the same horizon when you ask, "Where does the sun rise?"
Well, Ambrose knows how to play this game. He simply posts a message pointing out how they're all wording it the same way, which has the whole VA Tradition descending on the mystery within an hour. It takes a little while longer before one of them announces he's hacked it: there's Mind magic embedded in the code that takes control of the crackers when they access the code. "You just have to be elite enough to not be where you are," he announces smugly, going on to say (perhaps with more gravity, but knowing the Adepts, possibly not) that it's not just any Mind magic: you take a good look and it's an Akashic nephandus. Now that gets the Adepts' attention. Ambrose prints out a copy of the thread along with his own notations translating l33t-speak for the Akashics, and sends it over to the Brotherhood's representative.
Back at the caern, the Garou review their information on these new video games like they're sizing up the enemy--which they are. If the Shinjuku Corporation is with Pentex, then the Garou are against them. With prejudice. These Shinjuku people evidently know about the whole Technocracy and Sons of Ether mage-rigamarole. Following along her video game contacts, Aila gets a screen shot of "Mage Hunter's" final villain: it's Ambrose!
Right about the same time, the MiB calls Ambrose, sounding confused and annoyed (two things that are never healthy, coming from the Union). "What are you poking?! Find out and call back!" After a bit of thought, Ambrose does call back, to pass on the information about that haunted map and the Akashic barrabus. "Why, thank you, Dr. Quintrell. You've been very helpful," the MiB replies with gracious silkiness. Ambrose shrugs it off, reminding him that when it comes to Nephandi, everybody's on the same side. He deliberately does not mention that the entirety of the VA tradition has poked the thing, but he does suggest they might keep an eye on their more adventurous Void Engineers. "Oh, don't worry," the MiB reassures him. "We have that under control."
I'm sure you do.
Following their disparate leads, everybody ends up hitting Dreamvision at once. Faris tells them all to come over and he'll give a briefing.
His word is that Shinjuku is holding a preview party for their games in three nights in Los Angeles. They've been testing these games at a facility in a school on a Navajo reservation in Arizona (which gets Aila's and RF's hackles up, particularly). While someone is obviously out to get Ambrose specifically (Ambrose considers filing a lawsuit over the use of his identity, figuring that if they need a delay, it'd at least slow down the release), there's another game in the lineup that Faris thinks is Pentex's angle on all this. It's called "Spirit Quest. " You play a native American kid on a vision quest where you fight wolves who try to prevent you from reaching your spiritual inheritance in the mystical world. The Nockers have discovered that Pentex worked something into this game that feeds on the energy of Kinfolk who play the game in order to home in on real spirits.
They need to stop that demo party, or any other action they take will get caught up in media attention, but they need to sink that facility in Arizona even more. Most of the work's being done there, so if it goes down, production goes down completely. This means splitting up.
Sonya, Faris, Rey, Jared, and Ambrose head to LA while the rest--Jonas, Olesya, Mark, RF, and Aila--go undercover at the facility to find their targets and wreak havoc. Rey cracks that he's "no good at blending in," which to Rey's disappointment, Faris just vaguely nods to. When Ambrose warns them that the Technocracy is already poking their noses in, Faris looks sly. "Go ahead and send them all the information on Pentex that we've given you." (This gets a very gratified response from Ambrose's attendant MiB, to the effect of, "I knew we were right about you!" which Ambrose stoically ignores.)
"You do realize that was a chameleon joke," Rey says to Faris on the way out. "Because you didn't seem to get it..."
The demo party is like a Who's Who lineup of supernatural slimeballs. They spot the leading lights of Tellus and the Shinjuku Corporation; along with luminaries such as Kiro Yamizaki, Tellus's new CEO, oddly clean record, and avid martial arts hobbyistt; and Enzo Giovanni, who Sonya knows as not only an overflowing business-world scuzzbucket, but an ancient and obscenely powerful 'methuselah' vampire who sits on the Pentex Board of Directors. Aila notices that he's surrounded by an entourage of unsavory ghost types. There are something like six other Leeches in attendance, mostly the beautiful kind.
On the res, the new arrivals are given a tour. RF, playing doctor, gets shown around the hospital while Jonas and Aila yet again play student. Mark, with his generically ethnic looks, fills in as their uncle and legal guardian. One of the first things they're given is passes to the game testing facility. Apparently these are handed out as free 'perks' to all the kids. On RF's part, he hears from some concerned nurses that the kids who play a lot of those video games have been complaining of an unusual number of migraines.
A few of the doctors wear interesting badges that mark them as working for Project Odyssey, which a bit of digging turns up as Pentex's psychic research team. The head of Project Odyssey, Kiro Yamizaki, was recently appointed as Tellus' CEO.
At the party, recognizes Yamizaki as an Akashic Nephandus, and Yamizaki pretty clearly recognizes Ambrose right back. Ambrose also spots one of the vampires trying to hit on a well-built brick shithouse of a man, who glances at Ambrose and lets him see the lasers hidden in its eyes. A HITMark. In fact...there are a lot of really big Aryan ubermensch types wandering around in here, and after a waitress clues him in with similar discretion, he realizes Iteration X is here in force. This, ladies and gents, is a full-blown Technocratic purge. He warns the rest of the group.
People schmooze. Some of the group notice that the vampires are being served by a specific waitress, who's handing out hoodooed glasses that disguise their true contents. One guess what's in there instead of wine. Sonya is introduced to the head of the Egyptian office: one Tahab Al'Ara. They've heard that name before, actually, when they were in Egypt. This thing is a Bane Mummy. However, it's not staying long, heading for a meeting in New York.
The speaker steps up to the platform to open the presentation. He talks about a simultaneous worldwide release (figures Tellus would be the only one to figure out that's a good idea), and also unveils the new full-immersion controller system Tellus has been working on. The new interface allows for true virtual immersion into the game, he gloats, so it will feel more real than ever before.
Ambrose, keeping an eye on the Technocratic presence, notices that it's still growing. More of the wait staff have that subtle IX look about them, and six more Conan-types have joined the ranks of the hulking. When Sonya spots a couple of remarkably ugly, hirsute security who're actually BSDs in Glabro, she tips off one of the wait staff and starts plotting exit strategies.
Ambrose spots some disguised waiters who are not cyborgs. Rey feels uneasy around them, like he's being affected by Echoes. One has slipped into the vampire-server's position, and right about then, the vampires start smoking. Not like 'light up a cigarette' smoking, but more like 'on fire from the inside.' "Oh dear," says the waitress, "Someone seems to have replaced your blood with communion wine." Then the paladin guy ignites his flaming sword, holding it up to the sprinklers, which turn out to have been filled with holy water.
All hell immediately breaks loose. Their carefully laid plans blown, the HITMarks deploy. Ambrose alerts the Technocracy when he sees Enzo Giovanni slipping out the back way. Jared intercepts him with his dusk blade, then gets two spectres sicced on him for his troubles. One of the Inquisitors swings by to impale one with a blessed sword. Rey grabs the prototype interface and hides behind the bar with it, from which vantage he takes out one of the Black Spiral Dancers.
The HITMarks form ranks and open up fire, blazing everything in sight with chain guns. The picture windows behind them frame the helicopters as they rise up to surround the building. Another Inquisitor stakes Enzo from behind while Faris mugs him.
Realizing they're missing a bad guy, Ambrose looks around for Yamizaki--who's right behind him! Ambrose swings the Bigfoot-hunting gun over his shoulder to shoot the man...
...and a plasma explosion erupts from it in a concussive wave of screaming, tortured reality that doesn't harm living matter but shreds everything else. The Nephandus is hurled back by the sheer force of the detonation. The glass from the glorious skyline-framing windows explodes outwards in a sparkling, razor-tipped mist as half the room is thrown out through them. The blast rips into the HITMarks, who go flying, sets the vampires on fire, disrupts cyborgs, and sends the helicopters careening like pinballs. Several of them are brought down under the cascade of debris, HITMarks, and shivering reality-fabric.
"Everyone to the bathroom!" Faris shouts over the cacophany. He teleports them out to the street, where mayhem reigns supreme. Shards of plate glass and helicopter shrapnel litter the pavement and continue to rain down. The Inquisition are clearing the hell out, with expressions that communicate they did not sign on for this. A vibration tears through the ground and everyone looks upward as the top floor of the building shudders and collapses.
"Dr. Quintrell, you never cease to amaze me!" Rey crows. "I shot the Nephandus in the face with it," Ambrose replies vaguely, stunned. As if mention of him conjures him, the Nephandus in question climbs out of a pile of ruined helicopter, pulling out a skid which had impaled him through his chest. Then the sound of engines that don't belong in this reality pierce the night, and Ambrose looks up to see an Iteration X ARC plane coming in.
"Get the hell out!" he yells to the others, who pile into Rey's car and book it.
The MiB calls. "What did you do?! I have a reality fissure three fourths of a mile wile and the energy ripple is still going out over the Pacific! You had better hope it dissipates before it hits Japan!" Horrified, Ambrose stammers out an apology and swears he's disposing of that gun in the most careful manner possible as soon as he gets the chance.
The MiB isn't appeased. "This is going on your permanent record!"
"You have fun filling that out!" Ambrose snipes, feeling rather aggrieved himself.
Back at the reservation, Aila and Jonas get their new textbooks, which are completely whacked. They get to read about what vicious killers wolves are, and their history books glorify the achievements of Pentex in the name of Western civilization. Smelling a rat, they do a quick investigation and learn that Pentex has a new subsidiary: Research Write Corp., an educational press. Oh joy, as if the textbook publishing industry weren't screwed up enough as it is. When they get home, they find Mark staring dubiously into a few bags of groceries that he says were delivered gratis. They smell equally evil, and yep, it's all Pentex-produced junk. This whole place is Wyrm-riddled!
RF discovers that the head doctor is similarly Wyrmy. He's been administering vaccines to the children that're intended to increase their psychic ability.
Rey drives south toward Arizona, where they'll join up with the others. As they approach the reservation, Rey notices that the Dreaming has gone warped and twisted here. It's thin in spots, and there are a lot of clown monsters. In a faerie car, following the silver trod, the trip doesn't take as long as it normally would. "What happened?" Jonas asks when they arrive, dust-covered and still reeling on adrenaline.
"You wouldn't believe us if we told you," Sonya answers him wearily, earning an incredulous look.
"Dr. Quintrell is a genius!" Rey exults. Ambrose disagrees. "That was reckless, even for me."
They head into the house to regain their composure and plan how to handle the mess on the reservation, but pause when an odd feeling washes over them. Something...disturbing is approaching. Something with...calliope music. Rey opens the window to look out, and gets a flyer in the face. Anastagio's Olde Time Lunar Carnival and Midnight Circus! Here on special request to play at the reservation for a full five nights.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
The Evil Map
On the flight back, the Garou ponder all the exceptionally weird stuff they keep getting involved in. They lay this at Ambrose's feet. Ambrose is not sanguine about accepting responsibility for it. When he protests, Olesya tells him, "Ask yourself then why we keep encountering these Men in Black." Ambrose positively bristles. "Are you accusing me of being manipulated by the Technocracy?!" Sonya breaks in over his outrage: "I believe she meant that you may have a destiny about you."
"Oh," says Ambrose, mulling that one over. "I don't really do destiny." "That's okay," says Sonya. "Destiny does you." "Destiny does you hard," Jonas chimes in, lewdly and with complete accuracy.
Deciding to sulk a bit while he puts together his latest report for the chantry, Ambrose spots an Asian girl on the wing of the plane. She's just sitting there. The Garou don't see her when he points her out, but when Aila holds up Turtle to see out the window, he nods that he does. A little bit later, Ambrose spots an Asian guy all in white wearing sunglasses on the other wing. He wonders if that's a Technocrat, except it's really not their MO to show off like that.
"Are there other Asians in white?" Aila asks.
Ambrose thinks about it. "Well..."
"What?" Sonya snaps when he pauses too long.
He answers sheepishly, "I was thinking Yakuza, but I doubt they'd be on the wing of the plane."
RF and Aila discuss luring the Asian girl in from the wing with video games, apparently blissfully incognizant (or amused by) of the casual racism of the idea. Olesya regally ignores them all. Sonya puts her head in her hands, and Jonas turns to her. "Sad when I'm the one you can rely on, ain't it?"
Ambrose proceeds to skulk around watching the man in white, who looks dubious. Sonya finally orders him to sit. "But he's...looking at me funny," Ambrose protests.
"That's because you look like a moron. Sit." He does, a little sulkily, and starts peering at the Asian girl, who seems to find him hilarious. "She's laughing at me."
"We all are," says Sonya.
Taking pity, Aila pacifies him with Tetris. Once the neurotic mage calms down, he starts sneaking readings at the two unregistered passengers. The girl reads as a spirit, if a little oddly, as if she'd managed to pick up her own bona fide human body somewhere. The Garou find that intriguing but not too bizarre. The man, on the other hand...he doesn't read as human at all. Actually, he kind of reads as a walking corpse: not a vampire, but a real honest-to-god dead body animated by a human soul. Creepy. And fascinating.
"The Elders were right," Sonya mutters. "Mages are nothing but trouble." The others nod sagely.
When the plane comes in to land, the strange people are gone, so the Garou grab their bags and head out. The pack takes Ambrose home then returns to the caern.
Shoved under the door of his apartment, Ambrose finds a manila envelope containing a map of Chicago's Chinatown with a location circled in red, along with a notice of an appointment with one Te Hwan on behalf of someone named Jwo Dye. There's also a warning: "Beware of contact with Ji Ken." The warning hits home. Ambrose has had too many people messing with him lately, so he heads to the chantry, where he has business to take care of anyway.
Mark is at the door, working the evening watch. He hands over an envelope identical to the one left at Ambrose's apartment. Apparently somebody didn't want to miss him. Ambrose shows it to him, then says he's going to see if one of the Akashics knows anything.
The Akashic, unfortunately, doesn't. When Ambrose describes his adventure in Siberia, the Akashic is able to tell him he was in hell, and explains the basics of "Kuei-jin" to him: sinners who die and are given a chance to redeem themselves by returning to their bodies. This explains the man in white. The Akashic has no idea about the girl, though. He says he'll research the Shinjuku Corp.
Ambrose asks him if he knows this Te Hwan, by any chance. "Well, we all know each other," the Akashic replies sarcastically, leaving poor Ambrose feeling rather awkward. Apparently the Akashic notices and finds it pretty amusing, because he continues, "Hey, I met this guy named Ralph in New York once. Friend of yours?" "Okay, okay," Ambrose gives in. "I'm sorry!"
Mark catches him again later on to remind him about the ninja they saw at the circus, and suggests that Ambrose might consider bringing the werewolves along. "What if you're hunted by ninjas?" he asks, finding the idea pretty entertaining. Ambrose says he'll give it some thought. Werewolves are extremely good at killing things that want to hurt you, but on the other hand they're awfully good at wrecking the joint. Subtlety, thy name is not Garou.
In the meantime, he settles in for some more research, learning that Ji Ken works in security for the Shinjuku Corporation, reporting to somebody named Sou Kwan. Ambrose finds a picture of Sou Kwan. There's something...wrong with the man. He looks completely emotionless, but there's just something inhuman about him. Te Hwan, meanwhile, is a well-to-do businesswoman who owns various businesses in Chinatowns across the US. It's remarkable for someone like her to be representing someone else. The meeting address is at one of her restaurants: quite a nice place, in fact, and pleasantly public.
He calls RF (who he finds the calmest and/or least scary of the bunch...let's say most reliable) to let the Garou know about this new development. They arrange for some of the pack to be in the dining room while Rey and Jonas hide outside.
The pack credits the sept in Washington when they return the First Klaive to the caern. They also pass on the news about the Prince of Minneapolis (which gets a snicker) driving the Garou out (which gets an ominous, "Oh, reeeeeally?").
In the morning, Ambrose passes Mark in the hall, who asks, "Hey! When did you get in?" Turns out, he wasn't on guard last night. He never saw Ambrose till this morning. They tell the head of the chantry, who finds that there's also no recording of Ambrose talking to anyone at the door, despite the fact that the Virtual Adepts set up that security system. This definitely bears looking into.
Ambrose makes sure to dress well, figuring the restaurant sounds classy enough to have a dress code, then Rey spins by to give him a lift to the place. The Garou are already there, as is the woman Ambrose is meeting. She's there to buy that copy of the transit map he picked up in the spirit world city, offering a princely sum of $1 million for it. It's tempting, but Ambrose figures the Technocracy flushes his accounts too often for it to be any real use to him, so he makes a counteroffer: information, notably information that'll help him survive the people likely to hunt him up in pursuit of this exceptionally valuable map.
Thus he learns that the man in white from the plane is her employer. Ji Ken is an 'akuma,' which is a servant of some demon lord. He can speak to ghosts, grow scorpion parts, detach his limbs, and control metal (which Ambrose takes as a bit of a challenge). She does not know anything at all about an Asian girl on the other wing. But while she's explaining, a guy dressed like a Hong Kong movie badass walks in the door, only to be blocked by the concierge, who's upset over the fellow's sartorial carnage. The woman ignores it for a bit, but when the kung-fu superstar refuses to leave, Te Hwan excuses herself and heads over to deal with it. Ambrose watches them briefly, curious about this: the man's definitely human, but Te Hwan is...not, quite. Actually she's got the craziest energy field around her, as if the only thing holding her together is wild, insane luck. Looks kind of like a paradox backlash waiting to happen, to him.
While she argues with Hong Kong Phooey, the Asian girl from the other wing of the plane sits down in her seat and starts eating Te Hwan's steak. She sarcastically complains about Ambrose apparently trusting everybody he comes across and registers her displeasure at this 'half-vampire' getting the map, which she says is a powerful magical artifact. She warns him that things are about to go down. "Ninjas on the roof," she says, to which Ambrose replies, "Really?" "No, not really, retard! God, you are gullible. Well. They might be up there by now." And she warns him that some group of people she calls a Zero Team is looking for him.
He asks her more about the map, which she says is "a cosmic windfall for whoever gets it." And Ambrose has a horrible thought. "Well, see I...um." "What did you do, mage?!" she accuses. "I...digitized it." "I don't even know what that does!" she exclaims in horror, to which he adds with morbid humor, "Do you know what a trinary is?"
Sonya uses a Gift to listen in on Ambrose's conversation, but he seems to be talking to midair. Aila opines that he's gone nuts, but Sonya has a vague sense of a hidden spirit in the room.
Meanwhile, Jonas and Rey spot those ninjas the girl mentioned. Rey heads in to warn the Garou, and he sees a monkey-girl talking to Ambrose and eating somebody else's meal. He pulls the fire alarm to evacuate the diners right before Jonas runs in screaming "NINJAS!"
At which point ninjas descend through the skylights.
The Hong Kong Action Hero pulls out a shotgun, while Te Hwan ducks behind the bar and pulls out weapons. The guests, filing out due to the alarm, don't seem to notice any of this, which works in the group's favor--except for one guy Rey spots who he defines as some weird faerie creature.
Sonya grabs a ninja that lands on her table, swinging it into another ninja, leading to the immortal line, "What's the damage on a ninja?" The "dead" ninjas disappear in a puff of smoke. They're chimera! Dream creatures! Seeing this, Rey laughs and the Asian biker guy pulls out prayer strips, which light ninjas on fire upon contact. Rey conjures up hellhounds to maul another. "Excuse me," Ambrose says to the girl, and dives under the table to do something to the carpet, which animates itself and starts tangling ninjas. The girl lunges for Ambrose's computer case (which is still slung over his shoulder) and leaps off with it, dragging him along for the ride as she, now quite monkey-like, swings across the chandeliers for the door. "I'll just get this to safety!" she yells at everybody else.
Jonas leaps in front of the door, so she dives through the window. Across the street there's some weird Asian guy who looks to be made of metal. He's looking straight at Ambrose. "It's a metal elemental," the monkey-girl explains, conjuring a cab from paper and throwing him into it. Aila sprints out of the restaurant and leaps on top of it. The metal guy/thing gives chase. Running outside, Jonas shifts to Crinos to chase onlookers away, sending them into screaming frothing panic. Gets the area vacated, though. RF spots a sporty red car taking off in pursuit of the cab, Te Hwan at the wheel, and he shifts into Glabro to chase it. The Asian badass pulls out on a motorcycle right behind him. Rey and Sonya finish mopping up the ninjas, then grab the rest of the group and bring up the rear in Rey's faerie-car.
Ambrose, looking backward, moans. The Technocracy's going to be on this like stink on fish. No way they're letting a caravan like this slide. And indeed, as he turns around to tell Monkey-girl so, he spots one of their black sedans heading for them on a collision course. The taxi sprouts a tail, using it to spring over the sedan, and the MiBs plow straight into the metal man, who sucks up the car, leaving two angry agents who roll to their feet and draw weapons on him.
Te Hwan improbably spins her sports car up a wall, bounces it off the top of a fruit cart, and lands next to Rey, who's just passed the guy on the bike. Te Hwan pulls up right alongside Monkey Girl's taxi to say something to Ambrose. Monkey Girl swings the wheel and rams into the red sports car.
That's the last straw for Ambrose, who slips out of the taxi's passenger side window and into the red sports car. "It's not you!" he calls to Monkey Girl. "It's your driving!" Aila follows him over, leading Te Hwan to growl, "Ferraris don't take 500 lb. werewolves!" Ambrose fidgets with something quick and says, "This one does."
The Leather-bondage Action Star pulls up on the other side to declare, "The map is evil. I need it." And the Ferrari's hood ornament becomes the monkey, which irritates Te Hwan rather a lot. And then the Technocracy calls Ambrose, who yells at them because really this is not his fault. Monkey Girl squirms up onto the roof and tries to grab his cell phone, chortling, "I want to talk to them!"
"A monkey wants to mock you," Ambrose bites off into the phone, then holds it up for her.
She sulks. "Now you ruined it." Then, looking around, she asks, "The bad guys have gone away. Why're we still driving fast?" Which is what Sonya would like to know. Having found her last straw, she whips out her cell phone and orders them all in the voice you don't like to hear out of a werewolf to get to a location she gives them and then talk like reasonable people.
They obey, and everybody gets themselves sorted out. Introductions: Monkey Girl is...well, sort of an Asian pooka thing. "Like the Monkey King?" Rey cheerfully asks. "Very much like," Te Hwan answers dolefully. Black leather assassin-man is a demon hunter. Both Monkey Girl and Te Hwan vouch for his reliability. Shih, as they call them, are moral and good as the day is long, but they're entirely human and rather easy to disembowel. And the shih and Te Hwan both admit that Monkey Girl is good at heart, if entirely irritating. The job of her kind, Te Hwan says, is to defend and guide humanity. Te Hwan, on the other hand...well, the shih and Monkey Girl both agree that she's decent people, but her dad (the man in the white suit) is one of those kuei-jin types, and while he personally is not particularly bad either, they tend to have unsavory associations with less virtuous kuei-jin and thus dangerous relics aren't necessarily safe in their hands.
After a fairly extended go-around, Ambrose finally settles the question by asking, "Which of you having this map would upset the bad guys the most?" They all have to agree that'd be the Monkey Girl. "What would you do with it if I gave it to you?" he asks her.
"I'd go into hiding till the heat died down and then use it to wreak havoc on Mikaboshi," she answers. Good answer. He pulls out the folded-up map and hands it to her.
But he's still got the digital copy on his laptop--well, his PDA, which is synced to his laptop. They need to do something about that. He starts to delete the file, but Monkey Girl stops him. "What happens to files when they're deleted?"
"Well," muses Ambrose, "the Virtual Adepts believe that they remain on the Digital Web. Of course, they also argue that simply knowing something makes it real, in which case..."
Instead of deleting the file, he moves the copy from his laptop over to his PDA so at least they only have one left to worry about, but he needs to talk to some Virtual Adepts before he does anything else with that. He's pretty sure it hasn't had any weird, dangerous effects on his computer, but it's best to check. When Aila suggests various ways of trashing his computer, he replies, "Magnets and sticks are two traditional enemies of computers. We've designed these with that in mind."
Aila talks to the demon hunter briefly, who gives her a business card: Ryoshi Takeda, P.I. Shoving a Humphrey Bogart costume onto Ambrose, Monkey Girl says, "Well, I guess this is so long," then swings off, chortling. Te Hwan promises she or her father will be in touch. Ambrose still owes them for that information she gave him, after all. You can tell how overjoyed he is about that.
Once everybody else clears out, Sonya tears into her pack for breaking the Veil. Against the Litany. Five times. In an hour. Aila and Jonas try to convince her that it was kinda awesome, though, but she doesn't think so. Really, really doesn't think so. Sonya is pissed. RF, the Philodox, doesn't say anything (as usual) but his glower implies he isn't especially thrilled either.
Ambrose's cell phone rings again. He checks the number (0), and doesn't answer--mainly to see what they'll do if he doesn't. As it turns out, they leave voice mails, wanting to know what exactly is going on. He ignores it, annoyed that they act like he owes them some kind of accounting.
Rey gives them another ride. After they drop Ambrose off at the chantry, the pack heads back to the caern to account for themselves. The sept has heard no word of any disturbance. Gotta give them this: the Technocracy does good work. The Elders ask, if they run into that monkey-girl again, to see what news they can get out of her about the Beast Courts. The rumor is that they're led by, of all things (and the Elder tries to be politic about this in an entirely failing way), honorable Shadow Lords. He needn't really have bothered, because Sonya doesn't mind; the Shadow Lords know what they are.
The chantry, on the other hand, has heard of the disturbance. After Ambrose gives them the run-down, he hunts up one of his VA acquaintances, who excitedly tells him about this 'haunted map' that's been doing the rounds via email in the last 24 hours. He describes something that rather resembles Ambrose's transit map. "They say if you open it, then in seven days you get sucked into a hell vortex!" He seems to think this is pretty cool. Doesn't quite believe it, but he plans to find out. From the way he talks, just about all of the Virtual Adepts have had a gander at this thing by now, and probably most of House Thig and a fair portion of the Etherites too.
"Oh," says Ambrose, mulling that one over. "I don't really do destiny." "That's okay," says Sonya. "Destiny does you." "Destiny does you hard," Jonas chimes in, lewdly and with complete accuracy.
Deciding to sulk a bit while he puts together his latest report for the chantry, Ambrose spots an Asian girl on the wing of the plane. She's just sitting there. The Garou don't see her when he points her out, but when Aila holds up Turtle to see out the window, he nods that he does. A little bit later, Ambrose spots an Asian guy all in white wearing sunglasses on the other wing. He wonders if that's a Technocrat, except it's really not their MO to show off like that.
"Are there other Asians in white?" Aila asks.
Ambrose thinks about it. "Well..."
"What?" Sonya snaps when he pauses too long.
He answers sheepishly, "I was thinking Yakuza, but I doubt they'd be on the wing of the plane."
RF and Aila discuss luring the Asian girl in from the wing with video games, apparently blissfully incognizant (or amused by) of the casual racism of the idea. Olesya regally ignores them all. Sonya puts her head in her hands, and Jonas turns to her. "Sad when I'm the one you can rely on, ain't it?"
Ambrose proceeds to skulk around watching the man in white, who looks dubious. Sonya finally orders him to sit. "But he's...looking at me funny," Ambrose protests.
"That's because you look like a moron. Sit." He does, a little sulkily, and starts peering at the Asian girl, who seems to find him hilarious. "She's laughing at me."
"We all are," says Sonya.
Taking pity, Aila pacifies him with Tetris. Once the neurotic mage calms down, he starts sneaking readings at the two unregistered passengers. The girl reads as a spirit, if a little oddly, as if she'd managed to pick up her own bona fide human body somewhere. The Garou find that intriguing but not too bizarre. The man, on the other hand...he doesn't read as human at all. Actually, he kind of reads as a walking corpse: not a vampire, but a real honest-to-god dead body animated by a human soul. Creepy. And fascinating.
"The Elders were right," Sonya mutters. "Mages are nothing but trouble." The others nod sagely.
When the plane comes in to land, the strange people are gone, so the Garou grab their bags and head out. The pack takes Ambrose home then returns to the caern.
Shoved under the door of his apartment, Ambrose finds a manila envelope containing a map of Chicago's Chinatown with a location circled in red, along with a notice of an appointment with one Te Hwan on behalf of someone named Jwo Dye. There's also a warning: "Beware of contact with Ji Ken." The warning hits home. Ambrose has had too many people messing with him lately, so he heads to the chantry, where he has business to take care of anyway.
Mark is at the door, working the evening watch. He hands over an envelope identical to the one left at Ambrose's apartment. Apparently somebody didn't want to miss him. Ambrose shows it to him, then says he's going to see if one of the Akashics knows anything.
The Akashic, unfortunately, doesn't. When Ambrose describes his adventure in Siberia, the Akashic is able to tell him he was in hell, and explains the basics of "Kuei-jin" to him: sinners who die and are given a chance to redeem themselves by returning to their bodies. This explains the man in white. The Akashic has no idea about the girl, though. He says he'll research the Shinjuku Corp.
Ambrose asks him if he knows this Te Hwan, by any chance. "Well, we all know each other," the Akashic replies sarcastically, leaving poor Ambrose feeling rather awkward. Apparently the Akashic notices and finds it pretty amusing, because he continues, "Hey, I met this guy named Ralph in New York once. Friend of yours?" "Okay, okay," Ambrose gives in. "I'm sorry!"
Mark catches him again later on to remind him about the ninja they saw at the circus, and suggests that Ambrose might consider bringing the werewolves along. "What if you're hunted by ninjas?" he asks, finding the idea pretty entertaining. Ambrose says he'll give it some thought. Werewolves are extremely good at killing things that want to hurt you, but on the other hand they're awfully good at wrecking the joint. Subtlety, thy name is not Garou.
In the meantime, he settles in for some more research, learning that Ji Ken works in security for the Shinjuku Corporation, reporting to somebody named Sou Kwan. Ambrose finds a picture of Sou Kwan. There's something...wrong with the man. He looks completely emotionless, but there's just something inhuman about him. Te Hwan, meanwhile, is a well-to-do businesswoman who owns various businesses in Chinatowns across the US. It's remarkable for someone like her to be representing someone else. The meeting address is at one of her restaurants: quite a nice place, in fact, and pleasantly public.
He calls RF (who he finds the calmest and/or least scary of the bunch...let's say most reliable) to let the Garou know about this new development. They arrange for some of the pack to be in the dining room while Rey and Jonas hide outside.
The pack credits the sept in Washington when they return the First Klaive to the caern. They also pass on the news about the Prince of Minneapolis (which gets a snicker) driving the Garou out (which gets an ominous, "Oh, reeeeeally?").
In the morning, Ambrose passes Mark in the hall, who asks, "Hey! When did you get in?" Turns out, he wasn't on guard last night. He never saw Ambrose till this morning. They tell the head of the chantry, who finds that there's also no recording of Ambrose talking to anyone at the door, despite the fact that the Virtual Adepts set up that security system. This definitely bears looking into.
Ambrose makes sure to dress well, figuring the restaurant sounds classy enough to have a dress code, then Rey spins by to give him a lift to the place. The Garou are already there, as is the woman Ambrose is meeting. She's there to buy that copy of the transit map he picked up in the spirit world city, offering a princely sum of $1 million for it. It's tempting, but Ambrose figures the Technocracy flushes his accounts too often for it to be any real use to him, so he makes a counteroffer: information, notably information that'll help him survive the people likely to hunt him up in pursuit of this exceptionally valuable map.
Thus he learns that the man in white from the plane is her employer. Ji Ken is an 'akuma,' which is a servant of some demon lord. He can speak to ghosts, grow scorpion parts, detach his limbs, and control metal (which Ambrose takes as a bit of a challenge). She does not know anything at all about an Asian girl on the other wing. But while she's explaining, a guy dressed like a Hong Kong movie badass walks in the door, only to be blocked by the concierge, who's upset over the fellow's sartorial carnage. The woman ignores it for a bit, but when the kung-fu superstar refuses to leave, Te Hwan excuses herself and heads over to deal with it. Ambrose watches them briefly, curious about this: the man's definitely human, but Te Hwan is...not, quite. Actually she's got the craziest energy field around her, as if the only thing holding her together is wild, insane luck. Looks kind of like a paradox backlash waiting to happen, to him.
While she argues with Hong Kong Phooey, the Asian girl from the other wing of the plane sits down in her seat and starts eating Te Hwan's steak. She sarcastically complains about Ambrose apparently trusting everybody he comes across and registers her displeasure at this 'half-vampire' getting the map, which she says is a powerful magical artifact. She warns him that things are about to go down. "Ninjas on the roof," she says, to which Ambrose replies, "Really?" "No, not really, retard! God, you are gullible. Well. They might be up there by now." And she warns him that some group of people she calls a Zero Team is looking for him.
He asks her more about the map, which she says is "a cosmic windfall for whoever gets it." And Ambrose has a horrible thought. "Well, see I...um." "What did you do, mage?!" she accuses. "I...digitized it." "I don't even know what that does!" she exclaims in horror, to which he adds with morbid humor, "Do you know what a trinary is?"
Sonya uses a Gift to listen in on Ambrose's conversation, but he seems to be talking to midair. Aila opines that he's gone nuts, but Sonya has a vague sense of a hidden spirit in the room.
Meanwhile, Jonas and Rey spot those ninjas the girl mentioned. Rey heads in to warn the Garou, and he sees a monkey-girl talking to Ambrose and eating somebody else's meal. He pulls the fire alarm to evacuate the diners right before Jonas runs in screaming "NINJAS!"
At which point ninjas descend through the skylights.
The Hong Kong Action Hero pulls out a shotgun, while Te Hwan ducks behind the bar and pulls out weapons. The guests, filing out due to the alarm, don't seem to notice any of this, which works in the group's favor--except for one guy Rey spots who he defines as some weird faerie creature.
Sonya grabs a ninja that lands on her table, swinging it into another ninja, leading to the immortal line, "What's the damage on a ninja?" The "dead" ninjas disappear in a puff of smoke. They're chimera! Dream creatures! Seeing this, Rey laughs and the Asian biker guy pulls out prayer strips, which light ninjas on fire upon contact. Rey conjures up hellhounds to maul another. "Excuse me," Ambrose says to the girl, and dives under the table to do something to the carpet, which animates itself and starts tangling ninjas. The girl lunges for Ambrose's computer case (which is still slung over his shoulder) and leaps off with it, dragging him along for the ride as she, now quite monkey-like, swings across the chandeliers for the door. "I'll just get this to safety!" she yells at everybody else.
Jonas leaps in front of the door, so she dives through the window. Across the street there's some weird Asian guy who looks to be made of metal. He's looking straight at Ambrose. "It's a metal elemental," the monkey-girl explains, conjuring a cab from paper and throwing him into it. Aila sprints out of the restaurant and leaps on top of it. The metal guy/thing gives chase. Running outside, Jonas shifts to Crinos to chase onlookers away, sending them into screaming frothing panic. Gets the area vacated, though. RF spots a sporty red car taking off in pursuit of the cab, Te Hwan at the wheel, and he shifts into Glabro to chase it. The Asian badass pulls out on a motorcycle right behind him. Rey and Sonya finish mopping up the ninjas, then grab the rest of the group and bring up the rear in Rey's faerie-car.
Ambrose, looking backward, moans. The Technocracy's going to be on this like stink on fish. No way they're letting a caravan like this slide. And indeed, as he turns around to tell Monkey-girl so, he spots one of their black sedans heading for them on a collision course. The taxi sprouts a tail, using it to spring over the sedan, and the MiBs plow straight into the metal man, who sucks up the car, leaving two angry agents who roll to their feet and draw weapons on him.
Te Hwan improbably spins her sports car up a wall, bounces it off the top of a fruit cart, and lands next to Rey, who's just passed the guy on the bike. Te Hwan pulls up right alongside Monkey Girl's taxi to say something to Ambrose. Monkey Girl swings the wheel and rams into the red sports car.
That's the last straw for Ambrose, who slips out of the taxi's passenger side window and into the red sports car. "It's not you!" he calls to Monkey Girl. "It's your driving!" Aila follows him over, leading Te Hwan to growl, "Ferraris don't take 500 lb. werewolves!" Ambrose fidgets with something quick and says, "This one does."
The Leather-bondage Action Star pulls up on the other side to declare, "The map is evil. I need it." And the Ferrari's hood ornament becomes the monkey, which irritates Te Hwan rather a lot. And then the Technocracy calls Ambrose, who yells at them because really this is not his fault. Monkey Girl squirms up onto the roof and tries to grab his cell phone, chortling, "I want to talk to them!"
"A monkey wants to mock you," Ambrose bites off into the phone, then holds it up for her.
She sulks. "Now you ruined it." Then, looking around, she asks, "The bad guys have gone away. Why're we still driving fast?" Which is what Sonya would like to know. Having found her last straw, she whips out her cell phone and orders them all in the voice you don't like to hear out of a werewolf to get to a location she gives them and then talk like reasonable people.
They obey, and everybody gets themselves sorted out. Introductions: Monkey Girl is...well, sort of an Asian pooka thing. "Like the Monkey King?" Rey cheerfully asks. "Very much like," Te Hwan answers dolefully. Black leather assassin-man is a demon hunter. Both Monkey Girl and Te Hwan vouch for his reliability. Shih, as they call them, are moral and good as the day is long, but they're entirely human and rather easy to disembowel. And the shih and Te Hwan both admit that Monkey Girl is good at heart, if entirely irritating. The job of her kind, Te Hwan says, is to defend and guide humanity. Te Hwan, on the other hand...well, the shih and Monkey Girl both agree that she's decent people, but her dad (the man in the white suit) is one of those kuei-jin types, and while he personally is not particularly bad either, they tend to have unsavory associations with less virtuous kuei-jin and thus dangerous relics aren't necessarily safe in their hands.
After a fairly extended go-around, Ambrose finally settles the question by asking, "Which of you having this map would upset the bad guys the most?" They all have to agree that'd be the Monkey Girl. "What would you do with it if I gave it to you?" he asks her.
"I'd go into hiding till the heat died down and then use it to wreak havoc on Mikaboshi," she answers. Good answer. He pulls out the folded-up map and hands it to her.
But he's still got the digital copy on his laptop--well, his PDA, which is synced to his laptop. They need to do something about that. He starts to delete the file, but Monkey Girl stops him. "What happens to files when they're deleted?"
"Well," muses Ambrose, "the Virtual Adepts believe that they remain on the Digital Web. Of course, they also argue that simply knowing something makes it real, in which case..."
Instead of deleting the file, he moves the copy from his laptop over to his PDA so at least they only have one left to worry about, but he needs to talk to some Virtual Adepts before he does anything else with that. He's pretty sure it hasn't had any weird, dangerous effects on his computer, but it's best to check. When Aila suggests various ways of trashing his computer, he replies, "Magnets and sticks are two traditional enemies of computers. We've designed these with that in mind."
Aila talks to the demon hunter briefly, who gives her a business card: Ryoshi Takeda, P.I. Shoving a Humphrey Bogart costume onto Ambrose, Monkey Girl says, "Well, I guess this is so long," then swings off, chortling. Te Hwan promises she or her father will be in touch. Ambrose still owes them for that information she gave him, after all. You can tell how overjoyed he is about that.
Once everybody else clears out, Sonya tears into her pack for breaking the Veil. Against the Litany. Five times. In an hour. Aila and Jonas try to convince her that it was kinda awesome, though, but she doesn't think so. Really, really doesn't think so. Sonya is pissed. RF, the Philodox, doesn't say anything (as usual) but his glower implies he isn't especially thrilled either.
Ambrose's cell phone rings again. He checks the number (0), and doesn't answer--mainly to see what they'll do if he doesn't. As it turns out, they leave voice mails, wanting to know what exactly is going on. He ignores it, annoyed that they act like he owes them some kind of accounting.
Rey gives them another ride. After they drop Ambrose off at the chantry, the pack heads back to the caern to account for themselves. The sept has heard no word of any disturbance. Gotta give them this: the Technocracy does good work. The Elders ask, if they run into that monkey-girl again, to see what news they can get out of her about the Beast Courts. The rumor is that they're led by, of all things (and the Elder tries to be politic about this in an entirely failing way), honorable Shadow Lords. He needn't really have bothered, because Sonya doesn't mind; the Shadow Lords know what they are.
The chantry, on the other hand, has heard of the disturbance. After Ambrose gives them the run-down, he hunts up one of his VA acquaintances, who excitedly tells him about this 'haunted map' that's been doing the rounds via email in the last 24 hours. He describes something that rather resembles Ambrose's transit map. "They say if you open it, then in seven days you get sucked into a hell vortex!" He seems to think this is pretty cool. Doesn't quite believe it, but he plans to find out. From the way he talks, just about all of the Virtual Adepts have had a gander at this thing by now, and probably most of House Thig and a fair portion of the Etherites too.
Healing the First Klaive
It's off to Minnesota to find the sept that can help fix the First Klaive. While Sonya, never one to let a loose end flap in the breeze, sics researchers on the Shinjuku Corp., Aila grabs Ambrose to come along with them. It was his doing that got the Klaive into this bizarre situation, after all. He's hunting up information on Shinjuku Corp, himself, since he suspects it of Technocratic if not Nephandic ties.
The caern they want is at a campground, except that when they arrive there's no sign of it. Sonya can't even find any local spirits to ask for information. Aila snags a wraith named Derek and agrees to do him two favors for his information. He tells her that vampires from Minneapolis came down, evicted the werewolves, and took the caern. "Took the caern?" Aila repeats in shock. Yep, he replies. They brought in some mages with weird blood symbols who sucked up all the energy and left with it. The Garou migrated out to Washington state. This was only about a week ago.
So they catch a plane to Seattle. Ambrose warns them that Seattle is a New World Order stronghold, and indeed, when they arrive two MiBs with a sign saying "Quintrell" are waiting at the airport with a limo. They offer him a ride, but he turns it down vehemently. The MiBs shrug it off, handing the Garou a map to the campground they want. "Is it an evil map?" Aila asks. "It's a normal map," one of the MiBs tells her. "Our interests converge once again."
Feeling miffed, Ambrose prods them for something to call the MiB who keeps following him around. No dice, of course. They won't even hand him a random number he can use. "He does seem awfully fond of Ambrose," Aila says, to which a MiB replies, "Tillingtast seems awfully fond of Ambrose."
"That's low!" Aila accuses.
"If you ever need us, just dial 0," the MiB says in farewell.
"What if I just want an operator?" Ambrose asks.
"Who says we're not all operators?" the MiB answers.
Ambrose says, "I hate you," and stalks off muttering about spoons and the Matrix.
"Oh, there is a spoon, Dr. Quintrell," the MiB says.
"There's a spoon if I damn well say there's a spoon," Ambrose grouses.
To get to the campground, they have to drive through a conspiracy theorists' convention. "Oh, the Virtual Adepts are in town!" Ambrose says when he sees them. "You know, a lot of these people are right." Turns out, this is also prime sasquatch country. The Garou mess with him on this, explaining with deliberate vagueness that Sasquatch is actually Wendigo when he's not eating people. Olesya finally has pity on the mage and tells him the story about how Sasquatch lost his mind after the Croatan died and became the frozen Wendigo. Ambrose sums it all up: "I might get to see a sasquatch? Cool!"
A cabin has been rented in Ambrose's name at the campground, using his credit card. He dials 0: "Now you're just being jackasses!" The place is totally wired; it'd do credit to a luxury penthouse. Naturally, the cameras are watching them, so Ambrose takes the opportunity to aim sarcastic comments at them.
The Garou at the caern think they can help, and invite the pack to stay for the night. Ambrose plaintively asks if he can stay, too. He explains to the Garou his theory that the NWO actually arranges for these conspiracy conventions to be held in places like Seattle so the Technocracy can monitor them and discredit them among the general populace. He figures that's what the Technocrats want out of them: a convenient incident to make everybody look stupid and paranoid.
Turns out he's wrong. He's awakened around 3 AM by a group of people tromping through the forest hunting for Bigfoots. Bigfeet? At any rate, he indulges his curiosity and follows, along with Aila, who isn't about to let the hapless mage wander off on his lonesome. The troupe of Bigfoot hunters seems oddly displaced in time or space or something; Ambrose can't touch them. At first he assumes they got lost in 'etherspace,' until Aila accidentally wanders through whatever breach they've managed to wrap around them. He can still see her, but she can't see him. He pokes her to get her attention, but while she feels it, she still doesn't spot him. So not the spirit world, then, or the Garou wouldn't be lost or confused.
The bigfoot hunters, on the other hand, definitely do see her. They turn out to be Etherites who are hunting sasquatch to capture and interrogate because they believe them to be evil alien mind-slaves of...um, something. They're not terribly coherent on some points. When she laughs and tries to explain their mistake, the leader dismisses her as an 'ignorant girl.' He gives the date as being the 1960s, and is momentarily alarmed when he sees her cell phone, accusing her of being a Technocracy spy. After she explains a faerie gave it to her, he allows her to come along.
Ambrose follows, growing increasingly confused by these Etherites. When he begins taking readings, he realizes the leader is a Marauder. "Care to help us now, Dr. Quintrell?" asks the MiB, who's suddenly standing behind him. "Nope, got this covered," Ambrose replies cockily. The MiB isn't there when he turns around to look at him.
Tearing off a piece of notebook paper, he writes a note to Aila explaining about the Marauder, and that he's right next to her, and puts it in her pocket. He then pokes her profusely until she checks her pocket, at which point she uses the pack's link with Turtle to rouse the other Garou. They catch up quickly. While she waits, Aila chats with a sasquatch spirit (a number of them have been following this crackpot around, bemused and amused by him), and it obligingly pops her out of the Marauder's little world-bubble.
Ambrose explains poorly about Marauders, which leads to Jonas and Aila wondering if showing this guy a sasquatch might snap him out of his delusion. Seems like it'd be worth a try, so Ambrose grabs some branches and things and proceeds to build a fake bigfoot. He attaches an antenna he uses to tune the construct in to the Marauder's wavelength, and...voila!
"A sasquatch!" the lead Etherite yells, grabbing his gun. "It has the telltale antenna!"
Who knows? Anyway, it works. He pops into reality, his entourage stumbling out in how and reverting to the clothes and appearances they had before they got trapped in the Marauder's delusion. They're pretty disoriented, but they don't have the moment they need to catch up to speed, because Technocracy helicopters immediately descend.
Ambrose warns the pack they're after the Marauder. Scooping up the Marauder and other mages, the pack takes off, shooing mages off into the wood at intervals so they can get away safely while the Garou draw fire. The Technocrats fire off some sort of barrier-gate that unfolds to reveal Void Engineers. When the Garou leap over that, the Technocrats stop chasing them.
The pack is suspicious. They head back to the caern with a feeling that they know what they'll find, and they're right. The Technocrats have put up a barrier around the caern, and there's a MiB (probably the usual guy, but it's hard to tell) waiting with an offer to trade the klaive, which he's holding, for the Marauder. The Garou hesitate, but they can't really risk the klaive. When they ask Ambrose his opinion, he surprises them by agreeing with the Technocrat: Marauder is too dangerous. They might've broken his delusion temporarily, but you don't just unmaraud mages. Thing is, if he handed him over to the Traditions, they'd kill him and possibly gilgul him, but the Technocracy won't do any better and possibly marginally worse.
Aila looks at the MiB. "You've only got one klaive," she comments.
"I could go grab the other one and make you trade two things," he answers. "How fond are you of Ambrose?" Which puts a cold chill down Ambrose's spine, for certain. But however amusing he finds that, the MiB is here on business. Ambrose stands guard over the marauder while the Garou pull aside to discuss the situation. Figuring he already know how this'll end, he busies himself by removing anything from the Marauder's person he thinks the Technocrats shouldn't have, which includes a talisman Bigfoot-hunting gun and a camera.
The Garou realize they don't have much of a choice, either, and agree to hand the guy over. Sonya's sort of planning on mercy-killing the Marauder, but the Technocracy isn't taking chances. The MiB doesn't lower the barrier until after two HITMarks collar the man and take off with him. Then he hands the klaive over and congratulates Ambrose on making the right choice, which as usual ruffles the Etherite's feathers. Just because they can agree that some things are too stupidly dangerous not to deal with, doesn't make them anything alike except in a very basic level of common sense.
The Technocracy packs up and leaves quickly. The sept, of course, didn't notice anything at all, though they're surprised to find the klaive has been moved. The next morning, they do their ritual thing and fix the Klaive, and then the Garou and Dr. Quintrell head back to Chicago.
The caern they want is at a campground, except that when they arrive there's no sign of it. Sonya can't even find any local spirits to ask for information. Aila snags a wraith named Derek and agrees to do him two favors for his information. He tells her that vampires from Minneapolis came down, evicted the werewolves, and took the caern. "Took the caern?" Aila repeats in shock. Yep, he replies. They brought in some mages with weird blood symbols who sucked up all the energy and left with it. The Garou migrated out to Washington state. This was only about a week ago.
So they catch a plane to Seattle. Ambrose warns them that Seattle is a New World Order stronghold, and indeed, when they arrive two MiBs with a sign saying "Quintrell" are waiting at the airport with a limo. They offer him a ride, but he turns it down vehemently. The MiBs shrug it off, handing the Garou a map to the campground they want. "Is it an evil map?" Aila asks. "It's a normal map," one of the MiBs tells her. "Our interests converge once again."
Feeling miffed, Ambrose prods them for something to call the MiB who keeps following him around. No dice, of course. They won't even hand him a random number he can use. "He does seem awfully fond of Ambrose," Aila says, to which a MiB replies, "Tillingtast seems awfully fond of Ambrose."
"That's low!" Aila accuses.
"If you ever need us, just dial 0," the MiB says in farewell.
"What if I just want an operator?" Ambrose asks.
"Who says we're not all operators?" the MiB answers.
Ambrose says, "I hate you," and stalks off muttering about spoons and the Matrix.
"Oh, there is a spoon, Dr. Quintrell," the MiB says.
"There's a spoon if I damn well say there's a spoon," Ambrose grouses.
To get to the campground, they have to drive through a conspiracy theorists' convention. "Oh, the Virtual Adepts are in town!" Ambrose says when he sees them. "You know, a lot of these people are right." Turns out, this is also prime sasquatch country. The Garou mess with him on this, explaining with deliberate vagueness that Sasquatch is actually Wendigo when he's not eating people. Olesya finally has pity on the mage and tells him the story about how Sasquatch lost his mind after the Croatan died and became the frozen Wendigo. Ambrose sums it all up: "I might get to see a sasquatch? Cool!"
A cabin has been rented in Ambrose's name at the campground, using his credit card. He dials 0: "Now you're just being jackasses!" The place is totally wired; it'd do credit to a luxury penthouse. Naturally, the cameras are watching them, so Ambrose takes the opportunity to aim sarcastic comments at them.
The Garou at the caern think they can help, and invite the pack to stay for the night. Ambrose plaintively asks if he can stay, too. He explains to the Garou his theory that the NWO actually arranges for these conspiracy conventions to be held in places like Seattle so the Technocracy can monitor them and discredit them among the general populace. He figures that's what the Technocrats want out of them: a convenient incident to make everybody look stupid and paranoid.
Turns out he's wrong. He's awakened around 3 AM by a group of people tromping through the forest hunting for Bigfoots. Bigfeet? At any rate, he indulges his curiosity and follows, along with Aila, who isn't about to let the hapless mage wander off on his lonesome. The troupe of Bigfoot hunters seems oddly displaced in time or space or something; Ambrose can't touch them. At first he assumes they got lost in 'etherspace,' until Aila accidentally wanders through whatever breach they've managed to wrap around them. He can still see her, but she can't see him. He pokes her to get her attention, but while she feels it, she still doesn't spot him. So not the spirit world, then, or the Garou wouldn't be lost or confused.
The bigfoot hunters, on the other hand, definitely do see her. They turn out to be Etherites who are hunting sasquatch to capture and interrogate because they believe them to be evil alien mind-slaves of...um, something. They're not terribly coherent on some points. When she laughs and tries to explain their mistake, the leader dismisses her as an 'ignorant girl.' He gives the date as being the 1960s, and is momentarily alarmed when he sees her cell phone, accusing her of being a Technocracy spy. After she explains a faerie gave it to her, he allows her to come along.
Ambrose follows, growing increasingly confused by these Etherites. When he begins taking readings, he realizes the leader is a Marauder. "Care to help us now, Dr. Quintrell?" asks the MiB, who's suddenly standing behind him. "Nope, got this covered," Ambrose replies cockily. The MiB isn't there when he turns around to look at him.
Tearing off a piece of notebook paper, he writes a note to Aila explaining about the Marauder, and that he's right next to her, and puts it in her pocket. He then pokes her profusely until she checks her pocket, at which point she uses the pack's link with Turtle to rouse the other Garou. They catch up quickly. While she waits, Aila chats with a sasquatch spirit (a number of them have been following this crackpot around, bemused and amused by him), and it obligingly pops her out of the Marauder's little world-bubble.
Ambrose explains poorly about Marauders, which leads to Jonas and Aila wondering if showing this guy a sasquatch might snap him out of his delusion. Seems like it'd be worth a try, so Ambrose grabs some branches and things and proceeds to build a fake bigfoot. He attaches an antenna he uses to tune the construct in to the Marauder's wavelength, and...voila!
"A sasquatch!" the lead Etherite yells, grabbing his gun. "It has the telltale antenna!"
Who knows? Anyway, it works. He pops into reality, his entourage stumbling out in how and reverting to the clothes and appearances they had before they got trapped in the Marauder's delusion. They're pretty disoriented, but they don't have the moment they need to catch up to speed, because Technocracy helicopters immediately descend.
Ambrose warns the pack they're after the Marauder. Scooping up the Marauder and other mages, the pack takes off, shooing mages off into the wood at intervals so they can get away safely while the Garou draw fire. The Technocrats fire off some sort of barrier-gate that unfolds to reveal Void Engineers. When the Garou leap over that, the Technocrats stop chasing them.
The pack is suspicious. They head back to the caern with a feeling that they know what they'll find, and they're right. The Technocrats have put up a barrier around the caern, and there's a MiB (probably the usual guy, but it's hard to tell) waiting with an offer to trade the klaive, which he's holding, for the Marauder. The Garou hesitate, but they can't really risk the klaive. When they ask Ambrose his opinion, he surprises them by agreeing with the Technocrat: Marauder is too dangerous. They might've broken his delusion temporarily, but you don't just unmaraud mages. Thing is, if he handed him over to the Traditions, they'd kill him and possibly gilgul him, but the Technocracy won't do any better and possibly marginally worse.
Aila looks at the MiB. "You've only got one klaive," she comments.
"I could go grab the other one and make you trade two things," he answers. "How fond are you of Ambrose?" Which puts a cold chill down Ambrose's spine, for certain. But however amusing he finds that, the MiB is here on business. Ambrose stands guard over the marauder while the Garou pull aside to discuss the situation. Figuring he already know how this'll end, he busies himself by removing anything from the Marauder's person he thinks the Technocrats shouldn't have, which includes a talisman Bigfoot-hunting gun and a camera.
The Garou realize they don't have much of a choice, either, and agree to hand the guy over. Sonya's sort of planning on mercy-killing the Marauder, but the Technocracy isn't taking chances. The MiB doesn't lower the barrier until after two HITMarks collar the man and take off with him. Then he hands the klaive over and congratulates Ambrose on making the right choice, which as usual ruffles the Etherite's feathers. Just because they can agree that some things are too stupidly dangerous not to deal with, doesn't make them anything alike except in a very basic level of common sense.
The Technocracy packs up and leaves quickly. The sept, of course, didn't notice anything at all, though they're surprised to find the klaive has been moved. The next morning, they do their ritual thing and fix the Klaive, and then the Garou and Dr. Quintrell head back to Chicago.
The Shadow Curtain part 2: Trek to Siberia
With things in St. Petersburg as well in hand as they can be, the pack heads eastward to find that Siberian caern where they hope they can fix the First Klaive: a ten-day journey by train.
Seven days in, Ambrose is entertaining himself by working on his laptop, when he notes his readings dipping. The Shadow Curtain seems to be weaker in deeper Russia. Wondering if there might be some phenomenon in the area that's causing this, a quick search turns up news articles on several recent murders in the region. He points this out to the Garou.
Aila wants to get off at the next stop and take a look, but Sonya reminds them that they have more important things to do. Aila sadly agrees, but she's still curious, rattling off some theory about blood sacrifices to weaken the Curtain. In fact, Ambrose says, he agrees with her. The Shadow Curtain was built on blood magic, so it only makes sense to use the same thing to weaken it. It'd have to be a hell of a blood magician to play in the Hag's back yard, though...
On that ominous statement, the train shudders and begins to slow down. They're stopping because there's a dead man on the tracks. In fact, when the werewolves get off to take a peek, they realize it's a dead Garou. The train has to report to the local police, so they're halted for the night anyway, so the Garou follow Aila as she tracks the fight that killed the Garou back toward the nearby town. Looks like he was fighting a Verbena or something, because the woods have been torn up as though someone was controlling the trees.
The town is unusually--one might say bizarrely, for Siberia--high-tech. This place is completely wired with the latest in connectivity...and it exists within a bubble in the Shadow Curtain. Here, the Curtain does not exist, and Ambrose notes that this bubble centers on the cell phone tower. His guess is Yusupov. It makes sense that a man like that would want to hedge his bets. The tower, interestingly, is built by the Shinjuku Corporation, out of Japan. "Must get great reception here," Aila comments. "Well, Ambrose," Sonya says, "use that great reception to log on and learn more about Shinjuku Corporation." Only, he when he tries, he finds the signal is locked down with a...let's say an exceptional level of security. Ambrose cracks it, but it takes work. Whomever's behind this is definitely not normal.
The pack splits up. Some of them head toward the Shinjuku Corp. local offices to see what they can find, while Ambrose, Ray, Mark, and RF check out that tower.
The closer they get to it, the thinner the Gauntlet gets. In fact, before they know it, they're walking right into the spirit world. A low moaning in the background grows as the landscape begins to change to a city street, with skyscrapers towering nearby. People flicker into focus, going about their business; all are Asian. But the city is...wrong. "Non-euclidean geometry," as Ambrose puts it. About the time they realize that there seems to be no end to the cityscape, Ambrose looks behind to realize that however they got in, they're got getting out the same way. "We're not in Tokyo. Or Kansas." No, Ambrose, as the Garou can tell you, you're somewhere very deep in the spirit world. Or etherspace or whatever you like to call it. But no Etherite would allow that little detail to daunt them. When the others look to him for suggestions, he says, "I suppose we might as well figure out where we are before we try to get back."
As they walk through the city, looking around, he notices that almost everyone they pass has some kind of cybernetic implant. He pausing at a city square, to check his laptop, when he becomes aware of a big, angry living metal statue standing behind him (a Demon of Iron and Violence, which they've seen before, though they aren't quite sure what they are yet). He gently clicks the laptop closed. "Sorry?"
It nods approvingly, then says, "You should get back to work."
They back away slowly into an office building, where Ambrose asks a receptionist for a transit schedule. She digs one out, then asks, "Do you work here?" "I'm on an errand," he excuses himself, not wanting a repeat of the previous event. He hands it back after scanning a copy into his PDA, then they vacate quick before they draw attention and hie themselves to the nearest subway.
Which is crowded with people and banes and other strange critters. One fomori bumps into Ambrose, dislodging his packages. Ambrose unthinkingly helps him/it pick them up, till he realizes that what he's holding in his hand is cyborg/Matriarch porn, at which point he wipes his hands vigorously on his pants and goes to hide behind the Garou. Thankfully, considering how the banes are eying them, their line comes in not long after, and they board to head toward the edge of the city.
Meanwhile, Sonya and the others break into the office building. They head around back since the lights at the front of the building indicate somebody's still in. The building smells awful, the sewage stink of cosmic corruption, but the office is beautifully appointed. In the desk and filing cabinets, they find grovelingly-toned memos to Mikaboshi, 'Lord of the Wicked City,' and a report on a phone tower on 'the other side of their territory.' The implication seems to be that Baba Yaga violated some ancient boundary, so now whoever this is sees no reason to respect it either. There are a lot of references to 'the Courts.' Beast Courts? It's the Garou's best guess.
While the others rummage, Aila peers through the office window. The view seems a lot higher than it should be, and it's looking down over a seething metropolis that is definitely not a small Siberian town. She spots Ambrose and company heading down into the subway. After Aila draws their attention to it, Sonya checks outside the office door. Sure enough, it doesn't lead back into the office building they broke into. They're trapped in the spirit world too.
Well, in that case, there's not much to do but catch up to the others. They arrive after RF's group departs, but a quick call takes care of rendezvous. On the subway, Ambrose sees a poster showing people locked up in MECHA's slave collars. He points it out to Mark, who reads that it's a bounty ad for mages who're brought to the 'Five Metal Dragons.'
After everybody catches up, they head topside at the edge of the city. There's a shimmering boundary marking it, flickering through various potential destinations, mostly in Asia. Running some calculations, Ambrose pinpoints an exit in Kazakhstan. Stepping out into an opium den, Sonya looks around, pulls out a notebook and writes a memo to herself. The guy at the door smirks a bit and says, "Come again," as they leave. "Oh certainly," she placidly replies. Ambrose notices the guy is a cyborg.
They take another train to Siberia--this trip is much less adventurous--and then a cross-country hike to the caern from the pitifully small and scuzzy outpost where the train drops them off. After they're welcomed into the caern, they warn the sept about Baba Yaga looking for the Soul Egg ("Well, it's safe enough," they reply; "She'll never find it."), and their Shinjuku Corporation adventure before they get on to the meat of their visit.
The Garou are dumbfounded when the pack hauls out two First Klaives, not to mention deeply concerned. "The pact of the First Klaive is the seed of all klaive pacts.," the Ritemaster explains. "If we can't coax the spirit back, then all klaives will fail." They keep blaming it on poor Ambrose, who's a little annoyed about it, seeing as he saved the thing, but he's not about to argue with that many furry killing machines.
The Garou are at a bit of a loss, though. They have a ritual for it, but with the Little Grandmoter on the rampage, they don't dare enact it. "Maybe we can ask Turtle," Aila suggests cheerfully. The Elders look at her a bit funny, so she scoops Turtle up and holds him for them to see. "Turtle!" she repeats. They look startled to see Turtle up and around, but in the face of current events, they let it slide. After some thought, the Ritemaster tells them, "It's possible your answer may lie in Minnesota." "Minnesota?" Aila repeats. "There's something in Minnesota?" Ambrose can't resist quipping. "Quiet, Klaivebreaker!" the Garou barks at him, then explains that some members of the sept left to settle in Minnesota. They know the appropriate rituals, and can probably help more easily since they don't have to worry about attracting the Hag's attention.
To save them a fairly enormous trip, the Garou haul out some powerful, if somewhat random, hoodoo which drops them in London. From there, Jared gets them back to Chicago through the trods.
Seven days in, Ambrose is entertaining himself by working on his laptop, when he notes his readings dipping. The Shadow Curtain seems to be weaker in deeper Russia. Wondering if there might be some phenomenon in the area that's causing this, a quick search turns up news articles on several recent murders in the region. He points this out to the Garou.
Aila wants to get off at the next stop and take a look, but Sonya reminds them that they have more important things to do. Aila sadly agrees, but she's still curious, rattling off some theory about blood sacrifices to weaken the Curtain. In fact, Ambrose says, he agrees with her. The Shadow Curtain was built on blood magic, so it only makes sense to use the same thing to weaken it. It'd have to be a hell of a blood magician to play in the Hag's back yard, though...
On that ominous statement, the train shudders and begins to slow down. They're stopping because there's a dead man on the tracks. In fact, when the werewolves get off to take a peek, they realize it's a dead Garou. The train has to report to the local police, so they're halted for the night anyway, so the Garou follow Aila as she tracks the fight that killed the Garou back toward the nearby town. Looks like he was fighting a Verbena or something, because the woods have been torn up as though someone was controlling the trees.
The town is unusually--one might say bizarrely, for Siberia--high-tech. This place is completely wired with the latest in connectivity...and it exists within a bubble in the Shadow Curtain. Here, the Curtain does not exist, and Ambrose notes that this bubble centers on the cell phone tower. His guess is Yusupov. It makes sense that a man like that would want to hedge his bets. The tower, interestingly, is built by the Shinjuku Corporation, out of Japan. "Must get great reception here," Aila comments. "Well, Ambrose," Sonya says, "use that great reception to log on and learn more about Shinjuku Corporation." Only, he when he tries, he finds the signal is locked down with a...let's say an exceptional level of security. Ambrose cracks it, but it takes work. Whomever's behind this is definitely not normal.
The pack splits up. Some of them head toward the Shinjuku Corp. local offices to see what they can find, while Ambrose, Ray, Mark, and RF check out that tower.
The closer they get to it, the thinner the Gauntlet gets. In fact, before they know it, they're walking right into the spirit world. A low moaning in the background grows as the landscape begins to change to a city street, with skyscrapers towering nearby. People flicker into focus, going about their business; all are Asian. But the city is...wrong. "Non-euclidean geometry," as Ambrose puts it. About the time they realize that there seems to be no end to the cityscape, Ambrose looks behind to realize that however they got in, they're got getting out the same way. "We're not in Tokyo. Or Kansas." No, Ambrose, as the Garou can tell you, you're somewhere very deep in the spirit world. Or etherspace or whatever you like to call it. But no Etherite would allow that little detail to daunt them. When the others look to him for suggestions, he says, "I suppose we might as well figure out where we are before we try to get back."
As they walk through the city, looking around, he notices that almost everyone they pass has some kind of cybernetic implant. He pausing at a city square, to check his laptop, when he becomes aware of a big, angry living metal statue standing behind him (a Demon of Iron and Violence, which they've seen before, though they aren't quite sure what they are yet). He gently clicks the laptop closed. "Sorry?"
It nods approvingly, then says, "You should get back to work."
They back away slowly into an office building, where Ambrose asks a receptionist for a transit schedule. She digs one out, then asks, "Do you work here?" "I'm on an errand," he excuses himself, not wanting a repeat of the previous event. He hands it back after scanning a copy into his PDA, then they vacate quick before they draw attention and hie themselves to the nearest subway.
Which is crowded with people and banes and other strange critters. One fomori bumps into Ambrose, dislodging his packages. Ambrose unthinkingly helps him/it pick them up, till he realizes that what he's holding in his hand is cyborg/Matriarch porn, at which point he wipes his hands vigorously on his pants and goes to hide behind the Garou. Thankfully, considering how the banes are eying them, their line comes in not long after, and they board to head toward the edge of the city.
Meanwhile, Sonya and the others break into the office building. They head around back since the lights at the front of the building indicate somebody's still in. The building smells awful, the sewage stink of cosmic corruption, but the office is beautifully appointed. In the desk and filing cabinets, they find grovelingly-toned memos to Mikaboshi, 'Lord of the Wicked City,' and a report on a phone tower on 'the other side of their territory.' The implication seems to be that Baba Yaga violated some ancient boundary, so now whoever this is sees no reason to respect it either. There are a lot of references to 'the Courts.' Beast Courts? It's the Garou's best guess.
While the others rummage, Aila peers through the office window. The view seems a lot higher than it should be, and it's looking down over a seething metropolis that is definitely not a small Siberian town. She spots Ambrose and company heading down into the subway. After Aila draws their attention to it, Sonya checks outside the office door. Sure enough, it doesn't lead back into the office building they broke into. They're trapped in the spirit world too.
Well, in that case, there's not much to do but catch up to the others. They arrive after RF's group departs, but a quick call takes care of rendezvous. On the subway, Ambrose sees a poster showing people locked up in MECHA's slave collars. He points it out to Mark, who reads that it's a bounty ad for mages who're brought to the 'Five Metal Dragons.'
After everybody catches up, they head topside at the edge of the city. There's a shimmering boundary marking it, flickering through various potential destinations, mostly in Asia. Running some calculations, Ambrose pinpoints an exit in Kazakhstan. Stepping out into an opium den, Sonya looks around, pulls out a notebook and writes a memo to herself. The guy at the door smirks a bit and says, "Come again," as they leave. "Oh certainly," she placidly replies. Ambrose notices the guy is a cyborg.
They take another train to Siberia--this trip is much less adventurous--and then a cross-country hike to the caern from the pitifully small and scuzzy outpost where the train drops them off. After they're welcomed into the caern, they warn the sept about Baba Yaga looking for the Soul Egg ("Well, it's safe enough," they reply; "She'll never find it."), and their Shinjuku Corporation adventure before they get on to the meat of their visit.
The Garou are dumbfounded when the pack hauls out two First Klaives, not to mention deeply concerned. "The pact of the First Klaive is the seed of all klaive pacts.," the Ritemaster explains. "If we can't coax the spirit back, then all klaives will fail." They keep blaming it on poor Ambrose, who's a little annoyed about it, seeing as he saved the thing, but he's not about to argue with that many furry killing machines.
The Garou are at a bit of a loss, though. They have a ritual for it, but with the Little Grandmoter on the rampage, they don't dare enact it. "Maybe we can ask Turtle," Aila suggests cheerfully. The Elders look at her a bit funny, so she scoops Turtle up and holds him for them to see. "Turtle!" she repeats. They look startled to see Turtle up and around, but in the face of current events, they let it slide. After some thought, the Ritemaster tells them, "It's possible your answer may lie in Minnesota." "Minnesota?" Aila repeats. "There's something in Minnesota?" Ambrose can't resist quipping. "Quiet, Klaivebreaker!" the Garou barks at him, then explains that some members of the sept left to settle in Minnesota. They know the appropriate rituals, and can probably help more easily since they don't have to worry about attracting the Hag's attention.
To save them a fairly enormous trip, the Garou haul out some powerful, if somewhat random, hoodoo which drops them in London. From there, Jared gets them back to Chicago through the trods.
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