The group starts off across the moor, following Mallick's tracking spell. The hills are gentle. Before
long, a low mist forms, filling the hollows and valleys and making Mallick's smoke more difficult to trace.
An hour later the group stops at a stream filled with pink and purple stones. On the far side, a huge and
tangled bramble blocks the path. The smoke trail winds through the thicket. After Rhapsody notes that the
bramble has sharp, half inch thorns tipped with some form of milky substance, as well as plump, red
berries, Mallick calls a bit of earth magic and asks the vines to part. The group proceeds.
Growing closer to the tower, they are able to make out windows, a red conical roof and a red flag, but no
sign of movement. Madden's trail veers away after joining a path near the tower. It gets close to the
tower, but never actually approaches it. Choosing his trail over the tower, they head off of the path again
and into the brush.
In a light copse a mile off the path, Mallick's tracking spell fails - or Madden's trace ends. Deducing
that Madden may have once again crossed over out of the Never Never, they decide to follow, and Mallick
opens a way...
... Right into downtown Dublin. When Mallick steps through, people gawk and splutter. When Rhapsody steps
through in tiger form, people scream and wet themselves. It's touch and go for a few tense moments but a
quick, mass hexing of people's cell phones and a quicker exit into a nearby alley manage to get the group
out of the area before the police arrive. Sorry, but no one bought the circus routine.
Later on, in a pub a good ways across town, where the group is lying low after their "circus" sighting
incident, they discuss Madden's lost trail. Mallick informs the group that a way opened without a close
emotional or physical bond may not open in exactly the same place twice. In other words, just because
Madden stepped through there, doesn't mean that they would. It's likely they are in the right town, and
probably even the right area, but without another tracking spell, they can't find Madden, and they don't
have anything of Maddens to cast another tracking spell.
After asking Ashley for advice, she informs the group that she can call Aeve McArthy and ask for help from
the Summer court. Fearing the trail may grow cold, the group asks her to make the call.
Meanwhile, Connel has noticed a darkly sensuous woman making eyes at him from across the room. Her wordless
clues draw him to the back of the pub, with Sherri following along as backup. In the alley behind the
establishment she introduces herself as a friend who can explain much of his current condition. Unsure why
he trusts her, still he does, and after telling Sherri where he's going, he goes for a stroll with the
woman.
She tells Connel that her name is Morrigan, and that he is a Revenant imbued with the powers of death by
her sister, Macha, who is one of the Tuatha de Danan, or the Atalal. She explains that Macha is giving
Connel this chance to continue the fight both as a favor owed to Connel's mother, and for the ancient
power's own ends, to help put down the Balial threat and more specifically Chereshe. She explains that he
must be wary of Summer's flame and the magic of Life, but otherwise his body will eventually recover from
just about anything shy of complete incineration. Lastly she tells him the he can call on her in the future
by calling her name three times. The call can be made from anywhere, but she will answer quickest when
called from a battlefield, or the resting place of dead warriors.
Back at the pub, a man named Brian arrives with a car from Aeve. Deciding they'd better make a sweep of the
area once more before going to the summer safehouse, they troll the streets in Brian's car. Ironically, as
the only member of the group not seen in the earlier way crossing now infamously known as "The Circus
Disaster", Rhapsody opts to walk the streets where she can better use her nose.
At the entrance to a darkened street near the docks, Rhapsody chances upon the same fae smell that
accompanied Madden in the Never Never. Compelled by her nature to explore the dangerous street by herself
before calling the others, she follows her nose into trouble.
At the entrance to a warehouse garage where the scent trail ends, she draws the attention of three would-be
toughs with pistols. At their rough attempts to threaten her, she only asks what's in the warehouse? When
they offer to show her, and one places his arm around her, she gets catty.
Several gunshots and loosened
bladders later, one tough is dead, another is stunned and a third is several blocks away with no signs of
slowing.
Unfortunately, the commotion quickly draws the attention of five humanoid creatures in jeans, t-shirts and
red hats with wide mouths filled with sharp teeth and knives of one form or another. The redcaps throw open
the garage door and leap on the tiger, stabbing and biting, trying to bring Rhapsody down.
Drawn by the gunshots, and not far away to begin with, Daniel, Connel, Mallick and Sheri hurry to the
source of the trouble, rightly assuming it must be Rhapsody. Sheri's shamanistic powers, Connel's undead
strength and Daniel and Mallick's magic, when combined with Rhapsody's claws and tiger allies quickly
overpower the redcaps, who flee the scene into the depths of the warehouse, except for one who was knocked
unconscious. Injured and with the police on the way, the group decides to flee as well, throwing the redcap into the boot of
Brian's car and heading for the Summer safehouse.
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