Pandora's Boat

Zas, having managed to track down a few wild turkeys, brought his slain prey before the gathered pack who had made camp near the Idohida corpses. For both tactical and practical reasons, keeping a close eye on the undying bodies was deemed a top priority.

As Zas set about the process of de-feathering the meal, he focused on task at hand and said, "We seem to find ourselves in a similar position as we did when we faced Akna. A bound door conceals the unknown, while our foes are fighting in familiar territory and are aided by unnatural forces-we are all that stands between them and rampant death and chaos. I feel it safe to say, we could use some help."

The philodox manages to clean one of the turkey legs free of feathers and tosses it to Rends before continuing, "Fire is pure and from what Red Oath told us, an effective method of ending the undying. Yet, we fight a foe that is under water, and as best I can understand that makes fire not an option. The fact that we are fighting underwater at all has made our usual tactics less effective. In addition, when I used one of my gifts-something or someone else took control of my ability for a brief moment...which makes me question what tools we can rely on."

Zas then looks at the pack and stops cleaning the meat for a moment as he says, "We promised to destroy this Chrysaor and that means we will. How to do that though remains the question. Does anyone have any ideas?"

Zoe sets to work helping Zas with the turkey, partly out of kindness but mostly out of a drive to satisfy her ravenous hunger. She glances out toward the water then back to the campfire.

"According to Eaton's vision, the Iron Rider boiled their foes to death using the heat off the engine, but somehow I doubt that will work with Chrysaor. We need to get him out of the water and level the playing field. Maybe lure him out using his own greed against him."

Eaton stood just a few steps away, wringing out his robe that dried too slow for his liking. He adds, "Are we really that convinced that Chrysaor is still aboard that piece'a junk? I might, that mighta been his vessel but what ever's in there probably ain't alive by now. Course, those Garou sinkin' the thing mighta . . ." He paused, and turned to face Zoe, "If those were Iron Rider's that boiled 'em, ya ever heard of them doin' something like that? Or ya think this memory-stealing jerk got to 'em,too?"

Rends takes a big bite of turkey, listening to the discussion as he chews. Then he looks at zas.

"Yous right. Whatever down there, wes at a disadvantage as long as wes fighting under water. So what if we fight on dry ground instead? What if we do somethin to redirect the river and drain the lake?"

He takes another messy bite, swallowing after only a token chew.

"We already know the river ain't too hard to redirect. Garou done it before. So we either get more blasting powder or Make a pact with that craw dad spirit we met."

Kefka picks at the left over carcass, tearing off a few choice pieces of meat. After everyone else talks, he finishes eating and begins picking his teeth with a bone.

"You are thinking too big, Rends. How do you plan on paying a spirit to move the river? I don't know about you all, but I am low on Gnosis. I need to do some meditating if I will be of any use tomorrow. We need to fight whatever is in the boat on the land. I understand that. So let's trick him. He is pounding on the door trying to get out. Let's get a net and fishing hooks. Hold it out in front of the door. Two people open the door, he darts out into the net that Rends and Eaton are holding. They drag him to shore and boom. No need to spend Gnosis to move a river or breathe underwater anymore."

Zas considers the packs ideas nodding along as he envisioned the end result. As Kefka finished speaking, Zas raised a finger as a thought occurred to him, "Eaton you have a point-we don't know that what's in the boat is still alive, but given that a group of Garou went to the trouble of barricading whatever is inside...I'm gonna assume that it is."

Zas then looks between Rends and then at Zoe as he says while gesturing to his fetish dream catcher, "I like what Kefka has suggested. We open the doors into an awaiting trap, but if this creature or spirit or whatever was too much for a pack of Garou to fight, I don't think an ordinary net would do. However, we may have a way to bind whatever is in the boat in a net that is spiritually active-a talen. Perhaps we could convince a weaver spirit to do as its called, which may buy us time to get whatever's inside the boat to the ground above....where we tear whatever our net caught to pieces."

Zoe shook her head. "I wouldn't recommend asking any of the Weaver spirits in town for help. They're a tainted mess to say the least. I do have a couple of gifts that may slow it down just a tad, but they're no guarantee to getting it out of the water. Chances are, though, if Garou trapped it, it will be looking for some of our kind to exact vengeance on, so it will likely come to us. Whatever we do, we need to avoid the water. It calls its victims to the water in order to draw strength."

Eaton gave a shrug, "Why are ya'll assumin' that there's a stowaway that needs killin'? Ships do more than just carry folks, whether they be human or spirit. They also carry supplies, tools, and who knows what else. We could be worrin' over a box o' rusty nails. Considerin' the ships shut tight, whatever was on board is still waitin'."

Keeping his face a straight as possible, ensuring he was taken seriously, he adds, "I say we open it up and see what happens. Keep a net handy if ya want, but we mightas well find somethin' in case it can slip through one of those."

"There is something aboard Eaton. Perhaps you forgot but we had to board up door before something broke free. Something is in there. Something strong. Something those abominations wanted to set loose. "

Eaton raised an eyebrow as he slid his still damp robe on, "I don't recall somethin' tryin to get out. I thought those freaks were tryin' to break in. Unless ya'll heard or saw somethin' I didn't while I was beein' lassoed' around by Zas' shadows."

"We did."

Rends grabs another hung of meat, throwing his well-gnawed drumstick aside.

"They was somethin' tryin' to push out when I was holdin' the doors shut. I don't know if it was a spirit or a force or some sort of magic, but it was somethin'. And if it was sealed away by Garou and them bastards was tryin' to get in, that's enough fer me to want to kill it."