Searching for Eamon

[hazlogs]

[11/10/97]

Falcon's Wing skulks along in the path indicated by the spider, keeping to 
  cover as much as possible. He's not Blurred, which is something of a 
  deviation from his normal procedure.
The Garou run northward, through the bawn. Eventually they get to Sunrise road 
  and continue at a ground-eating pace, leaving the bawn behind and entering 
  the woods on the other side of the road. The grotto favored by the Fianna is 
  nearby, but the group goes past that as well. They come to the place where 
  Eamon was taken, where the pattern spiders had covered the trees in their 
  webs. It's obvious they've been at work: the webs have returned and nearly 
  all the area that had been covered before is covered again.
Falcon's Wing bites one of the webs angrily as he passes, but continues 
  according to plan, following that *&^(&^ Spider's directions.
Nimue lets out a quiet woof, to catch Falcon's Wing's attention, and that of 
  the others as well.
Falcon's Wing slows, and then comes to a stop. Circling around back the way he 
  came, he whuffs quietly. Yes?
Nimue tilts an ear in the direction of the nearest web. I would rather not get 
  too close too quickly. Is there nothing to learn here?
Falcon's Wing's ears droop in embarrassment. Don't know. Let's find out.
Heart-of-Fury flickers an ear, eager to continue northwards. We've been here 
  before. This is where Ever-Grinning was captured. It just shows that 
  whatever it was has returned for Gaia-only-knows. He clearly wants to leave 
  this be and continue northward. It is still many miles away, yes? Let us 
  leave this for another night.
Falcon's Wing paws at his nose for a moment and then says, Is there something 
  wrong with at least looking for evidence, or have the Fianna done so already?
Wears-the-Blue circles back to the others. His form is slightly indistinct, in 
  the way of the new moon, and he seems to be controlling his normal high-good 
  humor. He says, Unless there is something in there that will let me track 
  with my gift.
Heart-of-Fury flickers his ear, ambivalently. Last time, the searchers for 
  clues were overwhelmed and Ever-Grinning was lost to our pack. I'd like to 
  avoid that tonight, if possible.
Nimue eyes Heart-of-Fury. To proceed too blindly inwards may bring it about 
  again. Let us at least spend a few moments to see if there are recent signs 
  of the spiders' presence.
Signs of the spider's presence are obvious, even beyond the thick strands of 
  webbing that bind the trees to the ground. The area is about thirty yards 
  square, and small round footprints abound.
Heart-of-Fury eyes Wears-the-Blue and Falcon's Wing. His posture is against 
  it, but he falls silent, settling on his haunches, nervously.
Wears-the-Blue glances at the Silver Fang. Do you wish to go in with me?
Falcon's Wing says, Briefly. Mostly, I want to examine trails of spiders, and 
  make sure nothing was missed.
As the Ragabash do their thing, the Galliards notice that the area seems to be 
  completely abandoned by the spirits that normally live in this area.
Falcon's Wing snuffles about, and soon returns, reporting, No specific tracks, 
  nothing from any Garou that I can tell.
Nimue paces around a little, examining the webs from a distance. Several 
  times, her ears twitch around in worry; nevertheless, she keeps quiet until 
  Falcon's Wing returns. When he does, she turns to him quickly. Any animal 
  spirits?
Wears-the-Blue stares at the webs for a minute, while Falcon's Wing reports. 
  He then says, It's strange. He then shakes his ears. Spirits. We need a 
  theurge to tell us why there would be no path. I would think Weaver things 
  would have worn a straight line between the places, if moving to a second 
  den from a first.
Heart-of-Fury stands, his posture wary and uneasy. Maybe they flew here. He 
  offers a weak joke.
Nimue flicks an ear at Wears-the-Blue. There is no webbing that leads straight 
  from here to there?
Wears-the-Blue saw paths, but faint and old. From no single direction.
Falcon's Wing adds, And the webbing doesn't go too far from its center bit.
Nimue turns her gaze towards both of them. Center bit?
Wears-the-Blue indicates the clearing. The nest.
Nimue gives Heart-of-Fury an odd look, then turns to gaze northwards. Perhaps 
  it would be better to also have an overflying look?
Falcon's Wing can't see how a new perspective would hurt, really.
Heart-of-Fury snorts softly, as he paces restlessly.
The Garou set off again to the north, this time with Nimue in the air. It 
  doesn't take long before animal spirits begin to make their presence known 
  again, and the more familiar sounds of the Umbra begin reappearing. The trip 
  north is long, stretching to over an hour without a sign of the prey.
Falcon's Wing looks speculatively at a squirrel spirit as he lopes. Wish I'd 
  learned Beast Speech by now.
Nimue folds her wings to drop down closer of a sudden. There is a two-leg 
  ahead. I am not sure what. Beast Speech does little good among spirits, I am 
  afraid. I know it.
Falcon's Wing tries to blend even further into cover as he lopes, at this news.
Wears-the-Blue doesn't make noise in response, but he does lower his body and 
  generally take more care in what pile of leaves he doesn't step into.
Heart-of-Fury's response is to slow his pace down, slightly, trying to mirror 
  Davy's motions, though he doesn't do it well.
As the Garou move closer, eventually they can all see it. It's a humanoid, 
  walking toward a group of old trees. Several of the trees' spirits are 
  mobile are attempting to move against the thing, which has one arm raised 
  toward them and is firing what look to be laser blasts. Whenever a spirit 
  gets near, the thing floats into the air and drops somewhere farther away. 
  Slowly and systematically, it's killing the spirits in the area.
A low growl escapes from Heart-of-Fury's muzzle, unbidden, as he watches the 
  destruction.
Falcon's Wing stiffens, and creeps closer to Davy. Priorities? Stop this, or 
  continue on and find the source?
Wears-the-Blue's ruff has flared with anger, and he says impulsively, Stop 
  this. Taking a deep breath, he says, But then we will get no further 
  scouting done tonight. The noise will call an alarm, if there are any within 
  hearing.
Heart-of-Fury's muzzle wrinkles in distaste. We need to find where 
  Ever-Grinning is being held and then mete out retribution later.
Nimue moves one dangling paw. Leaving it gives us one behind us. But we are 
  not ready to face him yet. Circle around; this will need more than we four 
  to handle, given Blackwatch's troubles.
Falcon's Wing adds, And Deep-Fires. So, much as I would like to bash its face 
  in, we continue.
Falcon's Wing begins said circling, angling to get back to the route they were 
  on as soon as possible.
Nimue gives her packmate a quick look, ears flattening a little as the spirit 
  continues its destruction. She rises a little higher into the air, herself 
  circling and scanning ground and air ahead.
The group moves around slowly as the cries of the wounded spirits rise up. 
  Eventually, the sounds fade away, either through distance or because all the 
  spirits have been eliminated. The group continues northward and after a few 
  more miles reach the foothills of the mountains. There's nothing to indicate 
  where the hiding place of these things might be; it really is a needle in a 
  haystack.
Heart-of-Fury suggests we split up to cover more ground, one ragabash per 
  group. If either group finds anything, send a howl.
Wears-the-Blue seems twitchy, probably from the humanoid left behind.
Falcon's Wing sticks with Nimue, and suggests, You get higher up. I'll follow 
  you.
Nimue gives Heart-of-Fury another askance look. A howl, you say. With that 
  thing behind us, and unknown others around.
Heart-of-Fury doesn't have a better suggestion. Our directions were rather 
  vague, and we're not going to accomplish anything just mulling around.
Nimue flicks an ear again. Go straight north from where Deep-Fires was taken. 
  I do not know if we have gone far enough. Or too far. Pity the Warder did 
  not ask how far it was from where Ever-Grinning was taken from, too. Does my 
  packmate's name give you any hints, Wears-the-Woad?
Wears-The-Woad indicates a negative.
Falcon's Wing growls faintly. So, we split, and come back here in... pick a 
  time period. Soonish. An hour. And report.
Heart-of-Fury nods to the Silver Fang. That sounds reasonable to me.
Nimue gives a very soft agreement. Let us go, then. She rises back into the 
  air, choosing to go north and a little east.
Falcon's Wing looks up at Anne. Come on, he whurfs, and then follows her, 
  instead.
The Garou eventually meet up again and trade disappointments. The group 
  prepares to head back toward the Caern. As they pass the area where the 
  humanoid had been fighting the tree spirits, they see that all the Gaian and 
  Wyld spirits have either left or been killed. The humanoid is still there, 
  and several Pattern Spiders can be seen coming toward him from various 
  directions.
Falcon's Wing snarls faintly, and edges towards Davy. The next time, we mug 
  the lone one.
Nimue drops to the ground after the two-leg is passed. Yes. We get the lone 
  one, next time. Next time we are more likely to find it. We know where they 
  are not, now.
Wears-the-Blue takes longer than the others to come back. He looks around, 
  then says, I sense something.
Falcon's Wing focuses quickly on Davy. Do tell.
Wears-the-Blue says he can't find Deep-Fires, or the others. But he does get a 
  sense of where the one that took Deep-Fires is. It may be the same place.
Nimue's ears flatten again. How far away, or where?
Falcon's Wing's ears flatten too. If... Should we follow that now? Haste... 
  seems unwise, but..
Wears-the-Blue looks between the packmates. Not far. Perhaps a little less 
  than the distance from the boulder to the north to the caern.
Falcon's Wing blinks, and looks at Anne, apparently trusting her to have sense 
  where he doesn't.
Nimue drags her paw along the ground. We could look. I am wary of looking too 
  close, though. These are not friendly neighbors.
Falcon's Wing thinks a brief visit can't hurt. Although Blur is being annoying 
  tonight.
Nimue growls softly. Well, it could hurt. Look at what happened to Blackwatch. 
  I might overfly it, but I do not wish to come closer with just we four. If 
  we find it, good. If not, we come back with more people.
Falcon's Wing grumbles to himself unhappily, but admits that more people and 
  preparation would be wise.
Nimue glances at the others. Do you want me to try an overflying?
Wears-the-Blue considers, then indicates a negative. At least one of their men 
  could fly. It attacked us from the air. They may be watching from the air. 
  If we are to go in, let us all go in, or let us retreat until tomorrow.
Falcon's Wing says, reluctantly, that he thinks we should wait until tomorrow.
Nimue gives an agreeing chuff. So be it, then. I am not really wanting to 
  fight a flying one by myself, after all. Let us return.
Falcon's Wing lopes back the way they came.
Nimue returns back with Falcon's Wing, still tense but obviously at ease with 
  the decision itself, now that it is made.