And now, the second of my Werewolf: The Apocalypse posts.
A month and change passes since the incident with the lodge. Things are quiet until late November. The caern is settled into their routines. Claudiu is making an effort to maintain contact with his cousins in the nearby Romani community, Wants-to-Know has been moving between the various septs and exploring the forest, Jerry's been continuing his Kailindo training with his master who lives nearby, and Åke has been spending time trying to explore the cave and keep things friendly with Roy (the Nuwisha) and Andrea (the Pumonca) when he's not playing music.
So we pick up in late November, as Åke is going to meet Andrea in town for a cup of coffee. (It turns out she lives in Marlinton) Not anything romantic -- at least we all hope not, given that even if the Bastet were into that sort of thing the rest of the pack or sept would never let him live it down -- but just trying to keep the lines of communication open and making sure she feels welcome and encourages other Fera to check out the caern. So it's about 9:30 in the morning, bitter cold out, snow on the ground, and when he's about a block away from the coffee shop Åke spots Andy Stump -- known local Black Spiral Dancer and musician -- poking around in the spot where the old train station used to be.
(Setting note, in case I haven't mentioned this before and I don't feel like going back to check: In Marlinton, there was an old train station that was converted to a visitors' center. It burned down in 2008. A while back, a couple members of the pack encountered a corrupted elemental there.)
He was digging around in the dirt and snow with a walking stick of some sort. Åke contacts the pack through their totem (which has the ability to carry messages between the members of the pack, and in general we treat it like a magical version of the Leverage earbuds) and informs them of what's going on. Wants-to-Know and Jerry both immediately head for town. Claudiu asks Åke if he should come check this out, and for some reason Åke can't simply say ‘yes.' He really goes to some effort to dance around it in sort of a "Well, I don't want you to not come if you don't think you should" sort of way. (At the time we sort of described the scene like it's on TV: "And while you're talking about this, we cut to Jerry and Wants-to-Know, in lupus form, barreling through the woods at top speed, and then cut back to the conversation.") Eventually Claudiu gets in his car to drive back to town, and at about that time Andy jams the stick into the ground and apparently wanders off.
Åke goes into the coffee shop and informs Andrea of what he's just seen and that the rest of the Sons of the Saga are on their way. Because it's so cold outside, she offers to pop outside and keep an eye on things while he goes ahead and gets coffee while waiting for the others. So everyone arrives and they head over to the site and find where it looks like Andy was drawing the Black Spiral Dancer tribal glyph in the ground and stopped halfway through (likely because of Åke) before jamming the stick into the ground and leaving. They take a moment to take the stick, inspect it (mundane stick, nothing weird about it) and draw a line through the incomplete glyph. There's a presence on the site, but they're not sure what.
Wants-to-Know uses Pulse of the Prey to try tracking Andy, who doesn't seem to be covering his tracks at all. The pack considers the possibility that this is some sort of trap. Claudiu has a plan to deal with this but it involves acquiring gasoline. (At which point Andrea's like "Aaaaand I'm out." and takes off.) So they get some gasoline and follow the trail a mile and change to a trucking company a little ways from the middle of town. The trail abruptly ends, and as near as they can tell Andy stepped sideways.
Claudiu's a little annoyed because he got the gasoline to burn down whatever building Andy led them to, and now he had nothing to do with it. After some griping and figuring out a plan, Wants-to-Know starts tracking Andy through the Umbra while the others follow along in the physical world. And they quickly realize he's just circling back around to where this all started. Wants-to-Know tracks Andy to the parking lot behind the coffee shop, where he apparently stepped back across. The rest of the pack looks around the nearby streets and sees Andy hanging out in front of a nearby church with the stick leaned against his shoulder.
The pack splits up to come at him from a couple of different angles in case he decides to make a run for it, while Claudiu approaches him. The plan is to try and find out what he was doing, and engage only with as much force as he puts up first.
So Claudiu confronts him and asks how he can be so sure that the pack wouldn't be willing to just ambush him on an open (albeit not terribly busy) street. Andy just looks him square in the eye and tells him "'The Veil shall not be lifted,'" calling his bluff. He also insists he's just minding his own business, saw Åke coming, and decided to have some fun with them all. Then he came back to retrieve his stick. Claudiu correctly guesses that Andy's a Ragabash.
Claudiu and Andy start building up to a "we can both walk away from this, nobody has to get hurt" moment, during which they mention the nearby bridge being a good spot to step sideways. Claudiu insists that Andy is safe to head back to the bridge and put it to use for that purpose.
Andy heads back to the bridge, unaware that Wants-to-Know has already ducked under it and stepped sideways to wait for the Spiral -- the pack is totally planning on jumping him once he's past the bridge. Andy walks to the far edge of the bridge, ducks under it, steps sideways, and completely misses Wants-to-Know being underneath the other end thanks to Blur of the Milky Eye. Andy starts to walk off, followed by the other Ragabash who informs his pack that Andy's headed in the direction of that trucking company again. Claudiu and Jerry move to catch up in the Umbra while Åke comes up with a plan to put that gasoline to use (though he doesn't tell anyone else what that plan is at first). He borrows Claudiu's car and drives ahead to the trucking company parking lot where they left the gasoline cans.
Andy walks down the road, drawing a Fang Dagger from underneath his coat and counting down. The counting simultaneously baffles and concerns the pack as they try to figure out what it could be. But in the end, they decide to all gang up on him. Andy's count had just hit zero and he started to shift towards Lupus, presumably to make a run for it, when Claudiu and Jerry catch up and the two of them and Wants-to-Know jump him. Finding out that the battle is already underway and that they're still a distance from him (because they don't know he was planning on laying a trap), Åke tries to step back across but it takes so long that the combat goes on without him.
The resulting battle is nasty, brutish, and short. Jerry, the pack's combat tactician, knocks Andy down and the others proceed to dogpile on him. The three of them keep him pinned down and just overpower him.
Just when they think they've finished him, Andy's Rage kicks in. He shifts back to Crinos, getting to his feet and throwing them all off, but he's too far gone and there's just too many of them. Wants-to-Know lunges at him, locking Hispo jaws around Andy's head and all but tearing it off. He drags him to the ground, throat torn open and spine severed, and that's it.
Åke catches up with the group while they decide what to do with the body. The final plan is to Cleanse the corpse for good measure in case it's full of Wyrm-toxins and burn it (finally, a use for the Gaiadamned gasoline), and to Cleanse and claim his fetishes for study and-or appropriation.
So the pack is left with two things on their minds: What it was that Andy wanted in town the first time, and the knowledge that they've basically declared war on a pack of Black Spiral Dancers they've only seen glimpses of so far.
And that's where we left off.
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