Tuesday, October 7, 2008

On the Road to El Dorado

Ambrose's fairy phone rings. It's a man whose voice he doesn't know. He says he's one of the BSDs, describes how they tracked people, interrogated spirits, interrogated a Dreamsoft "thing," found out Ambrose has been traveling with the pack. They can't track him, the man admits, but "I'm about to let you know where we are." A picture comes across, of the redneck guy waving from on top of Danielle's temple. "Thing about bindings," the man's voice continues, "is that you can either go through extremely complex rituals or-"

"You can break it," Sonya finishes.

"Several hundred points of TNT should do it," the man confirms. Four seconds later, an explosion rips through the distant jungle, its sound echoing for miles. Ambrose correlates: about 50 miles away. Sonya notes that the temple locks away some kind of Wyrm thing. An earth spirit she queries says it was a corrupted serpent. Not a bane, but "someone." A shifter?

Well, the BSDs have just garnered a lot of attention. They're probably booking it. This is likely an attempt to pick up Danielle's trail. Sonya makes the call to keep going. The thing, whatever it is, is already free, and they won't be able to do anything about the BSDs now.

They come across an entrance to what Ambrose realizes is Hollow Earth. He fanboys. The others don't believe him. There are traces of Pentex teams and Technocracy explorers in the vicinity.

Nearby, RF catches wind of a Pentex First Team. With forewarning, they can take these guys out easily. Aila and RF recon. Ambrose plants grenades in the ground, to take out the first vehicle and four people. 8 more and a small tank are behind that. Aila takes the tank. She breaks in to find people strapped into the tank with green liquid in hoses. RF destroys one. Olesya mauls one. Sonya snatches one into the tree, roughs him up, and invites a poisonous tree snake to take a bite. Danielle mauls, the Wendigo shoots one with a Bane Arrow from his Stone Bow--the target soaks most of it.

Mark wades in with his blade. Ambrose sabotages another guy's ray gun. Rey turns one paranoid. The guy hides beneath the tree Sonya's in. She helps the paranoia along, dropping the dying man on him. Aila yanks out the tank's driver and throws him in front of the tank. RF brutalizes another.

Danielle's victim breaks loose and runs for paranoid guy for help, who knifes him. Rey spots the Wendigo's target making a break for it and charms his sight. Sonya whammies the paranoid guy: "He's the one." The paranoid man throws a knife into his fleeing team mate, then Sonya breaks the man's neck.

Ambrose disables the tank and cleans up the tech in the area, while Mark deals with the balefire gun. Sonya gets some local spirits to hide the paths here.

Further on, they walk through a shallowing. Ambrose senses something...old school in the distance. El Dorado. "I'm not allowed to take a picture, am I?" he asks plaintively. But RF thinks it'll be okay with the fairy phone.

they're met by painted Uktena, who greet RF as kin. The courtyard has statues to all the tribal totems. The pack pays their respects. Rey admires the local insect life, to the Uktena's confusion. The velociraptor Mokole is there. He warns RF that memories aren't always convenient or happy. They'll drag him off on quests. Garou are calm with that, pointing out that it's their job.

An old, vigorous man wearing a chieftain's feathers descends the steps. The mages know an oracle when they meet one, and feel rather intimidated.

Feast! Walking Hawk turns up partway through. "Ohmygod, they're swarming!" Ambrose says of the two Oracles. They're introduced to RF's kin, over whom Aila goes all gushy.

RF and Aila see El Dorado wearing symbols marking him as Clan of the Horned Serpent. Walking Hawk wears markings of the Turtle Clan. Aila fangirls.
Mark: "Ohmygod, it's right here on page...sorry, sir."
Ambrose: "You have-? *snatches copy* *hides it* Hi, sir!"
Walking Hawk, caught between amused and chagrined: "Yes, that's why I went through all this." He's Croatan kin!

RF goes through a ceremony to accept his lost knowledge, which is auspiciously successful. He knows immediately that they'll have to go to Pangaea, where they'll have to open a bridge to the Croatan Homeland at the same time as someone opens one at the Sept of Falling Waters. The ritual must happen in three places at once.

They converse about the Name-Eater. Eating names is very close to the Croatan understanding of Eater of Souls. The Croatan gave up their name, but not entirely. The pack decides to stay a few days. Sonya learns that under the temple was a Rank 6 Mokole, fallen to the Wyrm.

The Uktena (and Balam, some of whom who also live here) are startled to learn about the Balam and her mentor, however. They had reports from the temple's guardian only a few days ago, but it's not Danielle Stormsinger. Danielle tells her story again. That tomb was where the rite to pass guardianship is normally held. Was it sealed properly? The proper guardian was a Balam named Patiently Waits. Ambrose hesitantly offers up the paw. It was hers. Danielle's mom. Walking Hawk considers--if she ate her mom's heart, it's an ancient rite not used anymore but it would pass the guardianship. if someone kept body parts preserved to use in rituals, and sent false reports... Not sure if it's malicious, but...

The Balam will convene over this. Meanwhile, what else is wrong with her? Danielle tells them about her journey. "Wait here," says the eldest Balam. Others gape. The Nunnehi are horrified, especially when Rey tells them about the Green Court.

Returning, the Balam tell her they'll call her back when they've made a decision.

The Garou tell of the Memory Caern awakening. The Mokole are shocked; they thought the Gurahl dead. They tell about the Camazotz kin who was sane and his blood awakened. The Mokole prepare gifts for the Camazotz. They're also startled to hear about the recovery of the First Klaive. Wistfully, RF wonders if they'll get to go to Hawai'i--and yes, quite likely. The puma spirits of the volcanos know much about purification. Jonas snerks about soccer. Ambrose points out they're at least partly in Brazil, so he should be careful.

Sonay realizes that if the Balam decide Danielle knew what she was doing, they'll have her killed. She warns them about the thing in her soul, and that killing her without more information could be dangerous.

Rey celebrates with other tricksters, who plan a good prank. When Danielle falls asleep, he tries to steal into her dream. She resists. Ambrose puts an ear-bud on her with a disruption field to annoy people away from her dreams. It makes her queasy, but hey.

She dreams she's laying in a hotel room. Something knocks in the bathroom,her own voice calling, "What is that godawful noise? I was sleeping; you just woke me up. God that's annoying!"

Rey peeks in, watches the thing curse at her, and snarl about trying to weasel out on their deal. It's furious that she'd welch. "Do you have any idea how important pacts are to my kind? Look, could you just have them dial that down a scoonch?"

Ambrose turns it down on Rey's say-so, but is interested that he managed to disrupt its link through her. Investigating further, he discovers he could disrupt the link completely, but that might free the thing.

The next morning, after the Greeting the Sun ritual, they ask the Mokole about the Death Bear. They're told the Gurahl have a resurrection ritual. They summon the Death Bear and wrestle him for the soul he took.

Ambrose talks to Walking Hawk about prophecy bits. He guesses they have to patch up the Traditions, and tells Ambrose there was a 10th Seat in Horizon once upon a time. Ambrose asks him about the Nephandi Dreamspeaker, and Walking Hawk is...displeased. It's a Nephandic Oracle. He promises to learn what he can.

That afternoon, Danielle makes a speech on he steps of the temple, wherein she justifies eating her mother and promises to redeem herself, and changes her Deed Name to "Waits No Longer."

"Will we have to listen to her talk all the way home?" Aila asks.
"Yeah..." RF drawls.
"No," Sonya cuts in.

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