Cry Wolf!
| Cry Wolf! | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| Factions Involved | |||||||
|
ShadowHaven Rose of Sharon Howlett Jewels | Agamemnon's Organisation | ||||||
|
Cry Fidem Field Mouse | Ajax | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Ajax | |||||||
Summary
Rose of Sharon Howlett has a lead on the Loupe Garou that scarred her face and infected her as a carrier of HMHVV. Fortunately, she knows just the right kind of people to bring the culprit to her for the enactment of a just and long-delayed punishment.
Alas, perhaps she chose too well. Her chance for vengeance is stripped away from her when the Runner's finish the job themselves.
Background
Some years ago, Rose of Sharon Howlett was mauled by a Loupe Garou while she was on the hunt for a killer. Since then, she's been an active hunter of the infected in general, and of her attacker in particular.
Thirty months ago, Cry was abducted from the streets by an infected agent working for a vampiric coven. She endured a year of hell enslaved in a hidden dungeon where she and others like her served as ours' d' veures for their captor and their captor's guests.
A year and a half ago, Field Mouse indentured himself to the worse Professor on Campus to secure Cry's rescue. Rose was the woman who planned, organised, and led the raid that freed Cry from her tortured existence as a vampiric plaything.
Fidem is a member of the Roman Catholic Church. Specifically, she is a member of a particularly secretive order who remove "problems" from the face of the earth.
Ajax, is a feral killer. A Loupe Garou. And, unknown to any of the hunters seeking him, the right hand wolf of the Infected Crime Lord, Agamemnon.
The Meet
Fidem collects Mouse and Cry from the Campus of Washington University in her luxury car. Cry immediately recalls a recent journalistic post that claims Shannon O'Flannagan is being regularly impersonated by a con-artist and Face who has stolen her identity. Cry immediately (and incorrectly) assumes that the imposter is the person driving their car. The three meet Rose in a dingy Puyullup bar, where Mouse treats the table to two rounds of fizzy Apple Juice, much to the barman's confusion and consternation.
Rose explains that yet another Loupe Garou attack in the area has made the news. She wants the group to find the Loup Garou that's haunting Payullup, and bring it to her for interrogation. Mouse cheerfully convinces himself that following said interrogation, said Loupe Garou will be retired to a lovely farms somewhere upstate where he can live out his days without hurting anyone. No one decides to disabuse him of the notion.
Rose heavily implies that this may be the same being who scarred and infected her so long ago, but neither Mouse nor Cry pick up on this, despite the fact that Rose shares with them a lovingly compiled journal concerning this particular wolf and his activities. Both Mouse and Cry go over the journal in detail, and begin to establish at least some understanding of their quarries behaviour and habits.
They determine that just under a year ago, a woman named Petra Miller survived one of the Loupe Garou's attacks but, like Rose, may have become a carrier. They elect to start their investigation by finding Petra before nightfall, and hauling her away to a place of safety just in case she was infected to a greater extent than anyone realises.
Legwork
The three track down Petra to a woman's shelter in Payullup. While Fidem watches over their bodies in the back of the car, Mouse and Cry scout the place in the astral. Unsurprisingly, given that the shelter is designed to hide women from their abusers, they find it to be warded but manage to sleaze their way inside regardless. None of the women they see within are dual natured. However, several are awakened. Fortunately, none are astrally perceiving at present.
They return to their bodies to find Fidem chatting amicably with one of the residents through her car window. Fidem and Cry both are working from slightly different scripts, but the resident doesn't pick up on their slightly divergent stories and instead takes both the nun and the dishevelled, poorly groomed Cry inside to meet with Vikki, the cybered-up razorgirl who runs the half-way house. Again, Cry and Fidems stories slightly converge, and it doesn't take long for Cry to realise that Fidem is genuinely trying to have Cry admitted as a resident rather than simply trying to infiltrate the building. The runners go with the full truth concerning the reason for their presence, and persuade Vikki to call Petra back to the half-way house for her safety, in case the wolf they are looking for is the same individual who stalked her before.
When Petra returns, Cry is able to see through her masking to see that she is not, in fact, affected. Meanwhile, Mouse learns through the power of observation that dual natured individuals (such as Petra) can temporarily supress their dual nature long enough to pass through wards. Mouse is fairly certain he'll be reviewing his home's astral security after learning that particular life lesson, and hurriedly shares his newfound knowledge with an equally disconcerted Fidem.
It takes empathy, patience, and persistence, but eventually Petra is persuaded to share what she knows about her attacker: she mentions a fear of men with facial scars that has haunted her since the night she was attacked, and talks about one man in particular who she feels especially uncomfortable in the presence of. She tells them the address and name of a particular mah-jong parlour she thinks he frequents.
With a promise to ensure that this man will never be able to harm anyone ever again, Cry and Fidem take their leave and return to the car.
Mouse is adamantly against allowing Cry to use herself as bait, and gently (sort of) blurts a comment to the effect that, while his aura is fuzzy and warm and juicy and tasty, Shine's is the essence equivilent of last week's pizza. Cry eventually relents, but only when Mouse mentions calling his friend Jewels to come and help watch his back.