Thursday, October 16, 2008

Time for Adventure!

The Crystal Circle confirm that Danielle was never meant to be a werecat. It happened because she ate her mother and took in her Balam spirit.

The ship's log lists trips and cargo, from which the pack is able to piece together that around 80 children have been taken in the past three years. Aila thinks that's an awful lot of fairies, and notes that it's not all Kithain. Some are Nunnehi and other groups, as well. They start combing the logs to make a list of the ports of call. The trade route runs from Minsk to New York.

Caleb the Gurahl shows up in Chicago, on the trail of missing Nunnehi children. He meets with the pack to see what they might know about it...and finds out.

Talk turns to Sings of Nothing: what tribe was he from? Aila recalls his tattoos and decorations. The markings are those of a follower of the Sun God. For Caleb, it brings to mind a story about Brother of the Sun. Entering a past life trance to remember more, he recalls that Brother of the Sun built a Wyrm cult that masqueraded as a cult of Helios. When he was discovered, the Pure Tribes went to battle against him. In the end, he stood against the massed Garou alone, and walked away alive. Sonya wonders if he's connected to that corrupted Mokole.

Meanwhile, Ambrose is in the Gernsback Continuum, helping study the chair, when he spots a circuit that's actually a Euthanatos-designed talisman. It seems to be the central control chip. When he brings others' attention to it, they...kind of try to pretend they don't notice it. When he takes a closer look, he realizes why. This talisman was created by the rogue Euthanatos Voormas; he of the terrifying sobriquet "Harvester of Souls."

But this has to be reported. Very shortly later, the Gerns is crawling with security types and specialists studying the chair. Anybody who'd been looking at it previously is ordered to stay until they can speak to them. The possibility of Voormas still being alive unsettles everyone.

Caleb's vision continues. He sees himself, petitioned by villagers who need him to protect them against a vampire--a local wise man who has been turned into a vampire by Dracula. They believe Caleb must be the one to deal with it, because this man was Gurahl kin from his family. In Transylvania.

"Ooo!" Aila says. Caleb, exiting the vision, wonders why he didn't succeed. "Probably because he was protected by Dracula," Sonya points out.

"Maybe you died in a giant knockdown dragout fight!" Aila suggests gleefully. Actually, now that Caleb thinks of it, that's exactly what happened.

While they're musing on visions, Ambrose is getting grilled by Quaesitor interrogators (which are still better than Euthanatos). When they get suspicious about his recent exploits, he points out his stacks of related reports. He's never lied or tried to hide anything, even stuff he'd probably be better off not telling people. They have to concede this...and wonder if he fell into an entropy pit.

Eventually, they finish with him and send him home, where he finds a package waiting, with a note saying, "Only open when it's time for adventure!" He shows Mark, who notes that that was Doc Eon's catch-phrase. "I'm telling you, man," Ambrose says to him, but Mark still refuses to believe Doc Eon could be alive.

Rey buys aviator goggles and starts calling Ambrose "Doc Ether."

Caleb is disgusted at being beaten by a vampire. Sonya comforts him...for a given value of 'comfort': "My entire tribe has been trying to kill Dracula for a thousand years. It's no shame." This gives Aila an idea: Sonya people might know who Caleb's past life was!

Aila calls her own Gram Gram to ask her about the Brother of the Sun legend--after her Gram Gram finishes catching up on recent news and Aila introduces Turtle ("Say hi to Turtle, Gram Gram!") Her Gram says that Brother of the Sun had a...sort of pet Mokole. According to the legend, he's supposted to get his 'pet' back right before he tries to end the world through the false cat. Aila's Gram is surprised to learn there's any validity to that. Aila signs off with love to the family.

Sonya has Jonas go hunt up Dances for the Spirits. She suspects that the mage set that whole legend up himself. She calls Faris about Danielle...but he's busy with something going on at Tara.

Sir Guy came forward with evidence of a ring of Balor sidhe selling True Names, and then House Balor just turned traitor and made off with Danielle! They opened escape routes into eastern Europe, kidnapping as many childlings as they could get their hands on on the way out. Including in Chicago. Including some of Sir Jared's relatives. King David made to pursue, but was fought by a Dreamspeaker in the Great Hall. The mage lost an arm, but got away.

Sonya asks about following the trods the Balor opened. They all converge on an area of about five square miles in Poland. "Somewhere near Buchenwald?" Sonya hazards a guess. Why yes, how'd she know?

Because there's a great tainted caern in Buchenwald, and she bets the people behind this are tapping it for power. That's how.

Faris calls Ambrose, who offers condolences and says he'll head to Dreamsoft.

Te Hwan shows up as an emissary from Jwo Dye.

When they meet at Dreamsoft, Rey greets Ambrose: "It's adventure time!" Ambrose starts to compliment his goggles, then pauses. "...What did you say?"

"I said, it's adventure time!"

Ambrose pulls out the package, staring hard at it for a second. Deciding he recognizes a sign when he encounters one, he tears it open...

...And passes out. Because he's holding Doc Eon's time watch.

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