Rite of Binding

[hazlogs]

6/18/02

Cameron tilts his head up. "Had the pleasure of getting my ass kicked by the
old Alpha a good many times, yeah," the Aussie notes with a wry humour.

Aubrey nods hastily to Sepdet, "Of course. I've had practice with Wilbur,
then Tobin... of course Luke."

Geoffrey tips in. "Yeah, I've managed to get myself into a couple tangles
here and there too."

Sepdet grins tiredly at Cameron. "I expected as much for you, but I know
Aubrey's come since he left. All right. Geoffrey. I know Seeker's been
beating on you, or if he hasn't, it's high time you learned. I'm not
hand-holding you. You'll follow orders, or you'll die: combat against
spirits is wonderfully simple in weeding out cubs that way." She says this
with utter confidence.

Cameron just grins broadly at Sepdet, a light in his eyes dancing with
amusement. Watching to see what the diminuitive woman will do next.

Salem's tall, saturnine form hoves into view from the direction of the
meadow, long strides carrying him broodingly along.

Geoffrey shrugs, and stretches his shoulders a bit. "If I get whacked, then
I'll be dead. Can't complain about it when you're dead. Though I think it'll
take a little more than pissy ghosts to take me out." Yeah, so he's a little
cocky. Call it an ahroun thing.

Aubrey doesn't say anying as she lightly rubs her neck as she looks across
to Sepdet. The girl had also had some gang-fights over the years, but surely
spirit-fighting is much more envolved.

Sepdet raises an eyebrow. "You also need to remember that most spirits have
powers you don't. They can blind, trigger your rage, numb or sear you with
pain, or even turn your lungs inside out. Rely on theurges--" she smiles at
Aubrey and Cameron-- "or more experienced Garou to tell you when you've hit
something too big to tackle in a small group." She gets to her feet, passing
a wave towards Salem as she stands.

Salem jerks his chin up in response to the Strider's wave and angles his
path over toward the group of elder-and-cubs. "Evening," greets the Glass
Walker coolly, once he's in earshot.

Cameron shoots Salem a thoughtful look, then leans sideways to murmur
something softly to his nearby Tribesmate. A hint of mischeif and amusement
in his expression.

Geoffrey nods Salem a silent greeting. At this point he's pretty much
waiting on Sepdet for the next move. A glance of curiuousity is given to the
murmuring, but thats about it.

Aubrey nods slowly to Sepdet and catches Salem in the corner of her eye. The
young woman tilts her head as Cameron whispers something quietly towards her
before she looks up towards Salem again and practically smiles.

Sepdet beckons the bevy of cubs down towards the water's edge. "Let's reach
across under the bridge. It's a little less exposed." To Salem, she
explains, "A little spirit-practice before the big event."

Cameron pulls his hands from his pockets, idly cracking knuckles as he
follows after Sepdet without hesitation.

Salem isn't the most observant person in the world, but even so he doesn't
fail to miss the Fianna cubs' glances and murmurs. He gives the both of them
a steady, measuring look, the cold lines of his face hardly changing, and
then gives Geoffrey a nod before turning his attention to Sepdet. "Need an
extra chaperone?" he offers.

Sepdet glances towards Geoffrey weighingly. "Yeah."

Aubrey follows after Cameron, joining at his side as she lightly jabs her
elbow at him lightly. "Your luck?" she says with a smirk. Then she takes a
few steady paces ahead of him.

Geoffrey pretty much keeps to himself and well, waits around. Not much to
say, perhaps that whole "silent" concept finally got to him.

Cameron lets his tongue stick out and wave around a little, as he leers at
Aubrey, and increases his pace to catch up.

Salem dips his head in acknowledgement, then falls into step with the
others. Reaching up, he removes the fedora, rolling it up and stowing it
away into a pocket of his coat.

Sepdet glances up and down the bank of the river, wrinkling her nose at the
faint stench of the water, then crouches down in the shadow of the bridge
and slips across.

Sepdet's eyes stop contemplatively on her reflection.
Sepdet seems to shimmer momentarily, and then vanishes.
Sepdet has left.

Cameron's eyes stop contemplatively on his reflection.
Cameron seems to shimmer momentarily, and then vanishes.
Cameron has left.

Aubrey's eyes stop contemplatively on her reflection.
Aubrey seems to shimmer momentarily, and then vanishes.
Aubrey has left.

Salem's eyes stop contemplatively on his reflection.

A ripple of Umbral wind swirls about you, and the Gauntlet parts.

Salem seems to shimmer momentarily, and then vanishes.

Umbra: Harbor Park

The Umbral ground beneath your feet here is lush with vegetation, an oasis
of life amidst the concrete and webbing of the scab. Trees stand proud and
tall here, their branches full of leaves. Shrubs line the outer edges of the
park, tangled with encroaching webs. The fountain stands out boldly from
even the surrounding area, the sleek lines sharper and more pronounced.
Clean pure water roars and cascades from the figure in the fountain's
center, falling into a cold clear pool that looks quite inviting. Spreading
out from the fountain, the rest of the park is a green veldt that seems to
radiate life and strength. The river banks the east shore of the park,
bridged by a massive rusty bridge. On this shore, the glade seems to have
spread out on to it, vines winding around the supports. Further across the
river, the bridge melds into the scab again, flaked with rust and covered in
webs. The river itself is clean within a few feet of the shore, but black
ooze seems to encroach menacingly from the murk of the rest of the river.

A walkway leads out of the Glade-like atmosphere of the park from just north
of the fountain. Eastward, the dark span of the bridge stretches over the
vile river. Dark streets lead west and southwest into the blighted Umbra of
the city.

The Glass Walker drags himself across the Gauntlet with gritted teeth.

Geoffrey just sort of glances about, still getting used to that whole
sidestep thing. He shuffs his jacket about his shoulders.

Cameron stands about, taking in a deep breath, just getting the scent of the
air. Enjoying the richer sensations of the shadow.

Aubrey crosses over, and like every time before, she takes a moment to
observe the scene.

Sepdet sniffs at the air grimly as she shifts up. ~Take a whiff. Cubs...
feel with your minds, not just your nose. Some have a knack for sensing the
enemy itself. While our backs are still turned to the park, see if you can
feel the difference between it and the area around it.~ Sepdet contorts and
blurs as she is transformed. Sepdet shifts into Crinos form.

Cameron tilts his head, and looks to Sepdet, before following her lead and
shifting slowly to the massive warform. As joins snap and crack, and hair
blurrs and forms around expanded muscle, the Fianna male tilts his head
either side, and stretches his limbs. ~Don't use this form enough,~ he
growls, half-grinning at the feel of it.

Salem cracks his knuckles, giving the Umbral landscape a watchful look-over.
Like Strider and Fianna, he shifts upwards, but stops at the near-man form.

Geoffrey shrugs to himself, and shifts up too. Good thing all his stuff is
dedicated. He had been sneaking crinos time in at the farmhouse before it
well, you know. So he shifts with relative ease, relative for a cub.

Geoffrey contorts and blurs as he is transformed.
Geoffrey shifts into Crinos form.

Sepdet winds up holding a rather grim-looking specimen of fur: a bedraggled
tail to which leather thongs have been sewn to make a sort of necklace or
belt. A gleaming white tooth, drilled through, is laced into the thongs as
well. ~This,~ she murmurs, ~is a talen. I'm hoping it will make the wearer
seem like Wyrm to our foes, so that he can pass their bane-watchers
undetected. Now. There are two ways to bind spirits: willingly, or
unwillingly. Unwillingly means beating them into submission. Let's find a
victim.~

Aubrey closes her eyes for a moment as she takes time to sniff at the air
surrounding her. As she reopens them, she finds Cameron in warform. She,
too, then shifts. Her pelted shoulders roll backwards as she gives her pelt
a light shake. ~ Right. ~ she responds softly to the Strider.

Talespinner tilts his head. ~Can we make more like that, or will only one
benefit from its use?~

Sepdet heads out onto the bridge over the dark river.

Road-Rage gently stretches his arms and shoulders out. Bigger form still
takes some getting used to. A roll of the shoulders and some casual ear
flicking to re-acquaint himself with.. himself.

Umbra: Dark River Bridge

This looks like a scene from a vile dream. You stand upon a bridge of black
metal, flaked with huge patches of rust. Holes in the floor of the bridge
threaten to drop you into the murk below if you misstep. Great tangles of
webs surround the girders, filled with tiny pattern spiders sluggishly
wrapping more and more of the structure. The river below you is a black,
bubbling morass of vile fluids, a seeming flow of toxic mud. The eastern
shore is shrouded in shadow; the plant life there dead and shriveled.
Bizarrely, the western shore is as brightly colored as is possible in the
twilit Umbra, shining with the greens of plants and the gleam of icicles, as
if it is the only living thing still struggling to survive here. A large
fountain on that shore seems to be the source of its brightness.

The bridge stretches westward toward the greener shore, and eastward toward
the dark shore.

Road-Rage comes out onto the bridge from the western shore.
Road-Rage has arrived.

Golden-Eyes comes out onto the bridge from the western shore.
Golden-Eyes has arrived.

Sepdet pages to the room: We're standing under the bridge on the western
shore. But right at the edge of the glade's influence, so things are nasty
in the vicinity.

Currently the moon is in the waxing Half Moon phase (56% full).

Sepdet shakes her head. ~Only one, I'm afraid. If we collect more tails from
the enemy, perhaps we can try again.~ She gives another feral smile, then
begins to scan the struts of the rusting bridge, and the oily water sliding
past.

Road-Rage looks around too, even though he's not exactly sure what he's
looking for. At least anything moving that isn't one of the group will be
duly noted.

Golden-Eyes pauses to crouch low and to take a long breath of the the air
again. Her hackles rise even though there isn't any threat, yet. Ears
flicker forward, swiveling to any sound that distracts from the natural
environment.

At the fountain itself, many spirits find themselves crowed in the Glade.
Many spirits with anger towards the wyrm amplified and with rage on their
alien minds. Any wyrm spirits venturing too near the fountain find
themselves quickly ceasing to exist. Here though, just outside the glade,
where the spirits /not/ the wyrm fear to tread, do things start to become
dangerous. There are many Garou about and the moon is half full and
fattening by the night, so not many wyrm spirits dwell openly here. In the
shallow water though, sits something that gives vile a good name. It looks
like a baby, but with no skin. A thick reddish green blood pulses out from
under atrophied muscles and bone peaks through in various locations. It's
eyes just deep divets of hamburger-like flesh and its mouth a mass of needle
like teeth, it stares at a catch in it's hand. From the dark river he holds
a flying fish, literally a fish with butterfly wings, that obviously got too
close to the river and is now being eaten... savored slowly... by the
freakish thing.

Hackles rising, and resisting the temptation to simply CHARGE!, Talespinner
growls lowly and quietly towards Sepdet. ~So... we don't /kill/, right? We
should split up, and hunt like a pack?~

Sepdet stifles a growl as she spots it. Fish, of all things. She dips her
muzzle in an affirmative, scanning the water.

Salem finally takes the halfway form, brutish Glabro features boiling up
into black-furred lupine monstrosity. His arms unfold, hanging loosely at
his sides, the clawed fingers twitching in a quiet, almost methodical way.
One golden eye rolls down toward the skinned babything, but apart from a
reflexive rising of hackles, he displays almost no reaction.

Leonard comes out onto the bridge from the western shore.
Leonard has arrived.

Golden-Eyes pulls up her flews to bare a snarl from her muzzle. ~Look at the
river.~ she softly growls. ~Bones. Things.~ The dappled warform doesn't draw
any closer to the river. ~Sickening.~ It is a full three hundred and sixty
turn from the joys of visiting the glade the night before.

Road-Rage quirks an eye at the.. thing on the river's edge. That and its
really freaky catch. But whatever. Ookay then, to checking the water and
apparently the air to check out for any fish, or winged fish.

Little Bear makes his way cautiously from the direction of the glade,
following the scent of his packmate. He pauses near her, testing the air.

Sepdet seems to be waiting for something, and that something is her
packmate, slipping out of the gloom. Then she gestures for them to split:
Cameron and Aubrey approach from upriver, this side of the creature. Salem
and Geoffrey circle around on the shore and come at it from downriver.
~Salem, you give the signal to attack.~ She looks questioningly at Little
Bear and gestures towards the shallows with her muzzle, ears canted
backwards. Someone has to cut off the obvious route of escape.

Suddenly the babybane, done playing with its catch rips it cleanly in two
and sucks out its insides.

Little Bear nods once, shifting down into hispo as he moves to the shallows.

Salem acknowledges Sepdet's instructions with a wolflike tilt of muzzle and
ears. He drops a glance on Road-Rage, then starts circling around to get
into position.

Sepdet moves into the water with Little Bear, but painstakingly slowly,
bending low in the shadows. She doesn't want the thing to see them until the
shore Garou are in position. Or to stay in that foul water longer than she
must.

Road-Rage just circles around with Salem. Okay, so its his first time
getting to actually beat on a bane. Obviously he's gonna do what he's told.
He returns the glance to Salem as they move, but his concentration is on
being excessively quiet.

Golden-Eyes looks to Cameron as she slowly begins to make her way upriver of
the babybane. The Fianna makes sure that she stays hidden by the creature as
much as she can while she stays on shore. ~Come along,~ she says softly to
her packmate.

The Fianna male dips his head in acknowledgement - for some reason eyeing
the target spirit's activities with a morbid curiosity. He follows
Golden-Eyes after she sets out.

As the group moves into position in the distance down the river a booming
squeal is heard, like a boar. From the east vibrations are heard and
splashing is getting closer, though what is causing it can not yet be seen.
It is definatly enough however to startle the babybane, which looks up
quickly from his meal at the noise, notices he has somehow been surrounded,
and quickly lifts off the ground a bit, hovering, and makes a break for it
towards the north. It's fast, but for a spirit seems rather slow.

Little Bear creeps just behind and to the left of his alpha, tensing when it
appears the jig is up. He quivers, ready to pounce, but waits for word, one
ear cocked towards the odd sounds from the east.

Sepdet snarls, instincts kicking in, and suddenly and improbably leaps high
into the air, aiming to come down on /top/ of the hovering spirit.

Talespinner emits a low, soft growl. ~Should we even bother with this one?~

Little Bear tenses, ready to dart in front of the puny spirit should it
decide to bolt anywhere near his general direction. He doesn't seem to treat
it as much of a threat, however, and his ears constantly swivel to the east.

Salem's lips twitch away from his fangs at the sound; he hazards a glance in
that direction. As the babybane rises into the air to make its escape, he
snaps his jaws with a decisive air and lunges forward to cut the spirit off
if it should escape the already-attacking Adren.

Golden-Eyes tenses as her muscles bunch together. ~We'll see.~ she responds.
She keeps low for a moment, watching the reactions of the creature before
deciding whether assistance is needed.

Talespinner gets a prickling at the back of his neck, and rests in a crouch.
Tilting his head, and observing the combat which he suspects will be
short-lived, the Aussie rumbles, ~If this is baby-bane... where's
Mommybane?~

Road-Rage just sort of darts sideways, trying to put himself in the current
path of said bane thing should it escape both his elder and the Walker.

First things first, the elder flies up into the air in a way no one has seen
her accomplish before. She manages a graceful and arrow-like path through
the air making a ripple of water eminate from where she stood upon it a
moment ago and a second later she is standing on a very frightened, and
quite disgusting, babybane. It goes down with the impact but is quite
slippery for reasons we don't need to go into detail about, it should be
obvious. What Sepdet did not anticipate however was that this 'blood' of the
bane's is far more acidic then that of the river and it burns the fur off
her skin, and a bit more then that causing much pain. Road-Rage and Salem
move into place to intercept the babybane, but that is shown to be
unnessisary at the time and instead move to circle Sepdet, helping to
contain the bane if nessisary. Talespinner, musing on the lineage of the
bane looks off towards the direction of the boar-sounds and seems to spot
something. Golden-Eyes, ever watchful, simply watches.

Off in the distance the boarsounds get louder and the water starts to
ripple, even where you stand, from the distance to the east.

Burn? Nonsense. Sepdet always expects to get burned. With a snarl she
punches downward with fingers splayed and claws braced, in what she hopes is
a death-blow, growling, ~This one too small. Hide in struts, quick. Ambush.~

Little Bear leaps to obey his packmate, shifting in midair to cling like a
big scary hairy toothy monkey to the struts of the bridge before climbing up
and out of sight.

Straightening up and tilting his head, Talespinner murmurs, ~Well fuck me,~
and rises. Wasting little time he leaps to action in the same manner as
Little Bear.

The short, quick bane-death and incoming nasty has gotten Salem's blood up.
He beats down on it, forcing coldness with brute force of will, then follows
suit -- leaping up into the struts and hauling himself into hiding with
athletic ease.

Golden-Eyes looks across to Talespinner, only answering with a gunt as she
takes off back downstream with her packmate. Her ears are now slicked
against her skull. As she reaches the struts, she follows her elders up into
them. ~I hope this is a smart plan.~ she growls.

Talespinner rumbles, with relative good humour, ~Pity we don't have large
pointy sticks.~

The Aussie adds, for the benefit of the others, ~Incoming toxic boar. Green
and glowing, baby.~

Road-Rage erms, well that was a bust. Up he goes, clambering into the metal
framework of the bridge. Seems to be the place to be, so why not? It takes
him a minute, but he figures out how to climb when you're large. Not to
mention his fur color makes for handy stowing in the darkness.

Golden-Eyes adds quickly to Talespinner, ~They are called spears.~

[Road-Rage/Geoffrey]
A werewolf, yes. A tall one at that, eleven-odd feet is the best estimate
you'll get without risking your neck and a tape measure. Come to think of
it, he's not exactly that wolfy. At a second glance, he a jackal. A large
stereotypical Anubis jackal, except a bit nastier. He is lank, to say the
least. What might be gangly framework, tied together with an impressive
network of muscle. His handpaws bear talons, his footpaws bear equally sharp
claws, and his muzzle an impressive set of teeth, a little further than
lupine on the menacing scale. His fur is jet black, dense and sheen.

Talespinner rolls his eyes at Golden-Eyes. ~You have no sense for the
dramatic,~ he mutters under his breath.

Sepdet, bizarrely, stays right in plain view, facing towards the oncoming
pig from hell. In fact, she's utterly motionless, eyes half-closing for a
moment as if she's in another place entirely. Then eyes snap open, narrow,
and wait.

Sepdet's crinos hand parts the spirit in two, then into ephemera which is
absorbed into the Strider mule's body. The others all head into the rafters
and manage to make scramble up there... except for Talespinner who loses his
grip and falls just after announcing what he saw, ploping down hard on the
ground near Sepdet. The boar is in view now, charging ceaselessly at Sepdet.
It is large, almost the size of an average hispo, and its skin is a bright
neon radioactive green in color. Tusks are black and covered with a viscous
green fluid like the color of it's skin.

Sepdet snaps out a jarring bark that could peel the finish off a chalkboard.
~Freeze and fall, you bloated sack of filth!~ Then she flings herself to one
side--arms thrown wide to try and bring Cameron with her.

~Shh,~ the female Fianna says to her packmate as she holds a clawed finger
up to her muzzle. Then she looks to Little Bear and Salem, ~Now what?~ she
says softly. As Talespinner looses his grip, she curses. ~Damnit!~

The falling cub manages a slightly disgusted, ~Ew,~ before attempting to
scramble upright and to the ready. Sepdet might be planning another jumping
trick and he doesn't want to get caught in th--~Oof!~

Little Bear looks down, growling low in annoyance.

Salem stares downwards, gauging the boar-thing's speed, direction. He takes
a few quick seconds to study, calculate, and then launches himself down at
it with the grim, lethal silence of an owl.

Little Bear drops claws-first with a howling snarl, letting gravity do the
work.

Road-Rage hangs out right where he is, nobody is really attacking this thing
yet. He manages a little bit of a disappearance into the darkness trick.
Figuring he can wait for a good moment and go for the lunge.

The boar's squealing suddenly ceases as it's eyes glaze over into some kind
of trance and it's legs give out from under it. The thing was easily running
at about 120 miles an hour however, and forward momentum is decided to be
switched on right now in this part of the umbra, so the boar is sliding
forward at high speed like some kind of wyrm-bowling ball. With a mighty
leap, getting herself out of the way just in time, Sepdet manages to not be
gored with huge poisonous tusks. However she is unable to knock aside
Talespinner and the cub's side meets a tusk. Where the tusk penetrates Cam
the skin starts to turn black and dry out, crackling like its going to flake
off. Then somekind of faint light glows from the wound and the effects of
the poison revert and disappear. Little-Bear drops straight down from over
the thing and latches onto it, not seeming to slow it's hydro-planing, and
it isn't till Salem as well launches into the thing that any kind of change
in it's momentum is made. But the boar is still moving fast, not quite as
fast but still about the running speed of a well-built wolf, carrying the
three Garou, cub and cliaths who are having difficulty latching on(or
getting off), with it.

Little Bear starts digging in, shredding with both hands and clawed feet for
all he's worth, clinging like a scalded cat.

Sepdet spares a glance at Talespinner as she picks herself up, then charges
after the creature full-tilt from behind. It's big. It has a butt. She has
claws.

Gored and plastered to the front of the Boar's head, Talespinner roars - at
first with pain, then in a kind of incoherent, mad battlecry, as he starts
to claw and bite at the creature's eyes and face.

Golden-Eyes remains in the struts like some feline waiting to make the right
move to pounce her prey. Her clawed fingers click on the iron ties as she
watches the others vigilantly. Finally she shifts upon the struts as she
nears the beast before making a silent jump to the geound and rushing to aid
her comrades.

Salem sinks hand-talons into the thing's hide, holding on for all he's
worth; his massively clawed feet go to work, kicking and raking with
feline-style violence.

Talespinner is digging heartily into the boarbane when it shrugs off
Sepdet's command finally and digs it's feet into the ground hard, throwing
Talespinner and Little-Bear off of it and forward a good distance. Salem
manages to hold on to the wildly bucking boar though he manages to meet the
tusks a few times, and where they cut him a black rotting dryness crackles
and spreads from the nicking wounds through his skin. Sepdet runs forward
and makes another gravity defying leap to land on the thing, helping Salem
to drag it to the ground for a moment before she is thrown off as well,
flying a bit through the air and into Golden-Eyes, the two spawling to the
ground from the jarring impact.

Rolling off and clutching at his gored side for a moment, Talespinner
groans, ~/Son/ of a /bitch/...~ before staggeringly pulling himself up, and
shifting down to hispo. Moving with a slight limp, to try leap onto the
thing again. Any vulnerable spots visible are the targets of his teeth. Away
from the thing's head, this time, though. Once gored, twice shy.

Little Bear lands in the water with a *sploosh* then stands, slowly rising
to the top of the water. He pulls a Jesus, running on top of the water right
at the boar, on all fours to gain even more speed before leaping for the
monster's back once again.

Sepdet rolls into a ball and goes tumbling. She lies there prone staring up
at the sky for a few precious seconds, gasping for breath, before pulling
herself to her feet again.

Salem utters a gutteral, choked snarl of pain as the toxin burns at his
flesh; it's the first sound he's uttered since the group dropped into
battle-mode. The Walker halfmoon continues to hang on, lips pulled away from
his teeth in a contorted grimace as he continues to kick-slash at the damned
monster.

Golden-Eyes seems to have a moment of shock as Sepdet is thrown at her.
Hastily she tries to regain her footing. ~Alright?~ she asks as she catches
her own breath back and helps to drag the Strider Metis back to her feet
again. The Fianna doesn't take anymore time as she charges at the side of
the beast. No warning is issued, better to attack in silence so the enemy
doesn't see it coming.

The Boar roars out in almost a wolf-like fashion as Salem gets a good
purchase and gets stuck in with the claws of his feet into the spirit,
looking like he is standing now using the side of the boar, using the cuts
as a foothold while his hands struggle to maintain a grip but fail. So Salem
is now laying on his back being beaten around on the ground wildly as the
boar continues to buck like a cornered bronco. A second passes and
Little-Bear is flying through the air at the boar now and lands on it's
side, mercifully knocking Salem away from the thing and more hurting. The
boar manages to bit the Wendigo in the side, but can't manage to throw him.
Next Golden-Eyes is on the beast from behind and as soon as her claws dig
into it's hide, it starts showing signs of energy loss, fading a bit into a
slightly see-through state.

Pausing a moment, as he watches fellow Garou rip into the weakening beast,
Talespinner barks out to the creature, *Give it up, bitch! Get in the
fuckin' talen or you're /toast/!* And then jumps to attack the thing's
hindquarters.

Sepdet gets her wind back and her wits. One more charge and she joins her
packmate, channelling all her stress and frustration with cat-herding and
nightmares and worst fears realized into a fairly lethal flurry of raking
strikes.

Salem's skull takes a good crack against the ground a moment before Little
Bear hits the boar; he ends up on his back, spread-eagled and out cold.

Little Bear digs in hard with his feet and plunges both hands, claws
extended, into the side of the beast, attempting to physically dig into the
chewy center by attempting to pull the ribs apart.

Golden-Eyes growls deeply as she uses both, tooth and nail to hang onto the
weakening wyrm spirit. Her nails attempt to cut deeply into the boar's side.
*Fuckin' dead, otherwise.* she adds, noticing the boars visibility plusing
with signs of engery loss.

Sepdet leaps forward, a look of pure hate and tears practically streaming
from her eyes with rage driven emotion and when she lands a suddenly
suprised and thoughtful expression covers over her face and just instead of
attacking, stands there to gather her wits about herself. Little-Bear is
thrown again after giving some vicious swipes with his claws and getting
some cuts from poisoned tusks which causes the same effect as occured on
Salem, Salem who, is just shaking off unconsciousness and is trying to push
himself back up as a Little-Bear lands near him. Golden-Eyes rips more into
the thing and soon is thrown off again onto her bum by the still bucking
spirit. Despite signs of wear the Boar doesn't seem to be slowing down,
however when the cub goes she manages to rip off one of the boar's legs and
take it with her, which disipates into ephemera almost immediately. With
this the spirit tumbles to the ground and the momentum rolls it onto it's
back, where it squeals and struggles to move uselessly. Having too much
power to disipate, but not enough to move itself in its current state, it is
quite literally a stuck pig.

Talespinner pulls himself up to Crinos again, rising to his hind legs as he
circles it warily, looking for a nice place to leap at it and do a little
biting. ~Rhya? When do we bind it?~ His clawed hand absently strays to the
wound in his side, as he circles the creature.

Little Bear pulls himself up yet again, grunting in pain as the blackness
crackles over his skin, and launches himself towards the beast's now-exposed
belly, eyes alighting with the vision of the foul thing's demise. He's
cautious enough to 'ware the remaining kicking legs, tho.

Salem rolls over and pushes himself to his feet, shaking his head to clear
it and growling under his breath. ~Getting soft, bah,~ he mutters, low
enough so that probably only Little Bear, being nearby, would catch it.
Standing again, he's ready to go after the boar-thing again, but as it's
quite immobile, he stays where he is, letting bruises heal. The wounds from
the thing's tusks, of course, remain, as painful as they look.

Sepdet shakes her head to clear it, walks up the bank to retrieve the
dropped talen, and then stalks the fallen prey, eyes cold. She wastes no
time in moving to slam a fist as the skull of the struggling victim. ~Now.
Keep it pinned.~

Golden-Eyes gives a light shake of her head as she rolls up to her feet.
Carefully she approaches the boar once again as she couches to make sure the
beast doesn't move again. Her ears pin back against her head as she remains
in warform.

Little Bear is pissed and it shows, but with a bit of will pushing aside his
rage he manages to not end the Boar's existance when he leaps on it, just
pinning the thing instead. Salem well, gets better, bruises vanishing from
sight rather quickly here in the umbra where damage is more percieved then
felt. Then Talespinner finds a good place and moves in to help hold the
thing down. Now immobilized well enough, Sepdet's punch brings the weakened
spirit to a point of being so see-through that it almost disipates from
existance.

Sepdet chants something under her breath and then kneels beside it, one hand
gripping a loathsome ear, one the talen. ~Submit,~ she snarls. ~You're no
match for Gaia's claws. Beaten by force, bound by will, now /serve/, you
worthless creature, and obey us.~

If the boar were wearing a shirt, Little Bear would be gripping him by the
front of it. As it is, he's snarling down at the thing ferociously.

The boar's head tries to turn viciously away from Sepdet but her hand hold's
it still and their eyes meet... Sepdet easily and quickly winning this
staredown. Fearing being turned into Gnosis chow for a bunch of Groobs the
beast submits and vaporizes into a sickly green ephemera which enters the
talen.

Little Bear plops down heavily on the ground, falling through the spirit as
it dissipates. He stays there, panting heavily, resting so his wounds heal.

Salem flexes his claws, then approaches the fallen spirit, limping only
slightly. His face is still twisted into a toothy grimace, but for the
moment he avoids looking at the ugly dry-rotting wounds that still remain.
Rage seethes off of him, under a visibly short leash.

Wounds heal, bruises vanish, the rot remains though... and to a sense wyrm
stinks horribly from taint.

Sepdet sags, holding the foul thing gingerly between two claws much as a
human might hold dried dog poop. She looks around. ~Everyone healed enough
to shift and cross?~ she growls. ~I'm afraid we've outstayed our welcome.~
Indeed, while the last of the fight was being concluded, the dark shadows
have grown noticeably darker.

Little Bear looks up wearily, noticing the gathering gloom has nothing to do
with any storm that doesn't start with the word 'shit,' and nods, pulling
himself to his feet and making his way to his packmate's side.

Golden-Eyes crosses her arms as she couches before the beast. The female
Fianna is paying attention to the Strider but also watching the boar with
heated anger. As it finally submits, she sighs. ~I agree,~ she replies
softly to Sepdet as she stumbles to her feet and offers a hand to
Talespinner.

Sepdet says grimly, ~You all can reach at the fountain-- peek through to
make sure it's clear. I'm not taking this thing into the glade.~ She turns,
straightens, and seeks the eyes of each in turn, obviously mostly for the
benefit of the junior members present. ~Well done.~

Little Bear nods, then proceeds to round everyone up and herd them towards
the fountain, keeping a watchful eye on the gathering gloom. "Let's go."

Close to the group red eyes start to appear in the darkness like it was some
kind of Loony Toons cartoon, and some might sware they see pairs of teeth
appear nearby as well, dripping with sparkly saliva.

Golden-Eyes makes sure that Talespinner is in-tow as she begins to make her
way back to the fountain. The rise of her hackles tells her that there are
watchful eyes. Sepdet is right, their stay is overdue. (re)

Salem says nothing, just stalks wordlessly toward the fountain. Once, he
turns sharply to snap his jaws at the dark lurkers at the periphery.

[Stepping back into the Realm.]

Salem's face contorts moments after he reverts to breed form; a burn of Rage
corrects the error _quickly_ as he hulks up into Glabro instead. Thankfully,
it's nighttime.

Sepdet murmurs to Aubrey, "Keep a watch for humans," while she inspects
various people's wounds.

Little Bear starts shifting down to homid, then notices Salem's reaction and
backpedals, going for lupus instead.

Sepdet gives Salem a grimace. "You smell bad. GEOFFREY. Get your car. Salem,
you're coming with me and Leonard; our totem can flush out the taint."

Little Bear growls irritably, licking at the spreading blackness then making
that 'ew icky' dogface with the lashing tongue.

Salem, for once in his life, doesn't protest when a Theurge checks him out.
Neither does he argue against the trip out to the woods. He simply nods.

[Scene change.]

Rainbow Lake

        Long and narrow, the lake stretches a mile to the north and south,
right at the heart of the woodland. Tall, silver beech trunks mix with the
even taller evergreens and dominate the mountain valley. Where the canopy
has been broken by a fallen tree, a riot of brambles and nettles have
erupted, clinging to anything and everything and fighting for light among
the thick forest. Underfoot there is a deep bed of mulch and last year's
leaves, muffling any footfall.

        Other plants have found a foothold where the beeches make way for
the line of water. The edges of the lake are overhung by a wall of dark
myrtle, their scent hanging sweet and heavy in the air, giving the place a
dreamlike quality. The waters of the lake itself are a clear, unruffled
indigo, dropping into bottomless darkness, with otherworldly reflections of
the sky floating above the depths. Rainbow flashes of light play about the
reeds and weeds that break the surface here and there, throwing colors into
the air.

        Part of the valley around the lakeside to the south is clear of
trees, and often here in the brush and grass a small herd of three woods
buffalo can be seen.

Little Bear is limping along by the time they arrive at the lake, the black
cracked skin covering his entire left side, and creeping down his legs. He
whines softly with each step, ears back.

A weary threesome makes its way down to the north side of the lake. Sepdet's
lagging a little behind, cleaning up tracks somewhat less expertly than her
Wendigo packmate, but she'll do the rest later. ~All right. Reach across.
Silverscale's waiting for us. And Salem, I recommend a four-legged shape,
unless you care to "skinny dip".~

A large stormcloud-gray Crinos sits on his haunches atop a boulder that
sticks out into the lake. He seems ignorant of the lightly-falling rain. He
holds a large pine-bough staff in one hand, using it to balance atop the
boulder. He seems to be staring at the moon, even obscured as it is by light
clouds. Whether or not he hears the group coming down the mountainside, he
doesn't acknowledge them, yet.

Salem says not a word and makes not a damn sound, but by the time they
arrive it's clear that he, too, is in no little pain. The glance he gives
Sepdet is rather lacking in the respectful courtesy he usually gives her,
but he takes her suggestion, dropping down to a lupine shape before stepping
sideways.

Little Bear limps his way to the lake, looking grumpy even in lupus, and
stares at his reflection, shifting.

Sepdet notices the crinos but doesn't dare raise her voice to give her usual
yip of greeting-- she only raises a hand before disappearing from view in
the lake's shallows.

Little Bear wades into the lake, whining for his fish.

Salem limps into the water after the Wendigo and the Strider; his lips keep
doing little twitches away from his teeth, blinks of sharp white visible
against black lips and black fur.

Little Bear seems to relax a bit now that he's home. The water helps quell
the itching as well. He takes a deep drink from the cool water.

Sideways splash and a glitter of white even with the moon obscured: fish
leaps into view for a moment just a few yards out from them. *Dark waters*
it complains obscurely. *Dark waters in the pure. No swimming out for you,
until you are water too.*

Little Bear sighs, turns, and wades back out of the lake like a kid at the
end of summer vacation who thought there was one more day left. He stands on
the shore, dripping, skin twitching with the effort of not clawing at it.

Sepdet doesn't bother to shift; she just dives in, gasping as cold water
hits burned skin and seeps in. Her dark head pops up father out, and she
gives a soft laugh as she sees Leonard backing away. ~No swimming out of the
/lake/,~ she calls up, translating.

Salmon's Leap swims after Little Bear and banks off a hindleg with her hard,
hard head. Bonk.

Little Bear ows, turning and grumping at the spirit. Good thing you're here,
rhya. I'm not so good with ~spirits.~

Salem's ears twitch up at the laugh, then swivel back again, humorlessly. He
regards the fishy spirit with one dour golden eye.

Silverscale moves back out to a depth where she can swim freely and begins
to circle an area about ten feet in diameter, around and around and around,
patient and inscrutable.

Little Bear looks towards Sepdet, not doing anything without her sayso. He
must be sick. Do we go in the ~circle?~

Sepdet paddles along. ~That's right. Come on, Salem, it's water, not
silver.~

Little Bear paddles on out, slowly, barely keeping his head above water,
ears flat against his head.

Salem snaps his jaws together with a click and wolf-paddles out to the place
being circumscribed by the spirit.

Silverscale continues to circle lazily, serenely. The water still stings in
open wounds and burns within the circumscribed area, but it also tingles,
seeping into the poisoned area like wintergreen salve. Slowly, blackened
skin begins to flake off and disperse, green oily streaks spreading out from
the pair and vanishing as it hits the circle's perimeter and the fish.

Little Bear paddles gingerly, if such a thing can be done. But he lets the
fish work its healing magic.

The Glass Walker simply concentrates on treading water; swimming in lupus
form isn't something he's practiced a good deal (or at all) in the past
several years.

Silverscale circles three more times for good measure, after the last of the
taint seems to have gone, then charges in between the pair, leaps high, and
vanishes. A moment later, a glimmer of white like the moon's reflection is
seen skimming under the surface of the lake, much farther from shore.

Little Bear paddles fer shure, man. Like, totally.

Sepdet pops up by Little Bear, sneezing violently as she gets water up her
nose trying to test his scent. ~That'll teach me--~ she splutters-- ~to
doubt and double-check her handiwork.~

Little Bear's tongue lolls. So what did we make tonight? He paddles to the
shore and shakes vigorously once he's out, an ugly bare patch of fresh raw
pink skin the only sign of the spreading blackness.

Salem strikes out for land and, after hauling himself out of the water,
shakes off, spraying water droplets everywhere. Then he turns back, looking
toward the water and the spot where the spirit vanished off to. Interesting.

Sepdet grimaces. ~Yi wanted me to try and make a talen out of the Dancer
remains she found,~ the Strider rasps. ~I would never bind a Gaian spirit
into such a thing. If I got it right, whoever wears that talen should smell
like Dancer to the enemy's spirits. So they will not realize the bearer is
an intruder, and will not sound the alarm.~

Little Bear huhs. Can we try this, or will it do this only once?

Rain-Cougar looks to the group, and says, after his long silence, ~I don't
think a Gaian warrior would bind itself to such a talen.~ He shifts position
on his boulder, switching his staff to the opposite hand.

Salem says, curtly, ~Baneskin,~ as he limps over; the Wyrm-taint is gone,
but the wounds remain. Not that he'll mention them now that the poison isn't
spreading its rot through his flesh.

Little Bear wrinkles his nose, looking around the clearing. He shifts to
homid and frowns, then begins to hide the trails left on the way in. He
still moves a bit stiffly on his left side.

Sepdet looks Salem over grimly. ~Look for Kristine, Laura, or Alicia
tomorrow,~ she suggests. ~I have already used as much spirit as I dare, this
night, if I am to be of use for Andrea's ritual. But one of them should be
able to heal you. We need you strong for battle.~

Salem agrees with the Strider, remarking -- with a hint of something that
manages to be both humorless and amused at the same time -- that he should
not have any trouble convincing Guards-the-Flame to use her gifts.

Sepdet raises an eyebrow as she regains solid ground, shaking herself dog
fashion. ~I suppose not,~ she says coolly. The emotion isn't directed
towards Salem, evidently.

Little Bear lets the subtext fly overhead as he busies himself hiding
Salem's big clumsy footprints.

Salem shakes himself again, then excuses himself with a dip of his head and
a note of thanks.

After giving the peaceful, rural environs a final look, Salem limps back
toward the city.