This was all very upsetting. The diocess was in the awkward postion of not wanting some faith healer drawing unpleasant attention in this new age of reason. Rome was becoming very leery of anyone in the modern age purporting to have divine powers. To make matters worse, a man named Lawrence Barton from the Society fo Psychical Research had shown up at the Orphange and had been asking around. If this sort of thing continued. Father Cobbley was afraid that Walter would be discharged from his position. Father Cobbley was distraught because he knew that Walter was an asset to the orphanage and that his healing was as the result of herbalogical lore. Walter promised to try to keep his nose clean and to disabuse people of the idea that he was a faith healer...He even went so far as to explain very carefully to the extremely persistent Mr Barton that he had no weird powers at all.

The next morning bore an unpleasant surprise or two for Rose. First, her erstwhile border Mr Barlowe had gone out with student friends of his and gotten very sloshed. This meant that he had overslept. Ordinarily, this would not have been a problem except that it had snowed during the night and the whole house was bitterly cold from the lack of fire.

The next problem she had faced was a bit more severe. She noticed a familiar face in the Daily Mirror. Apparently, a Count Malvolio Castelamarese was visiting England with the express purpose of seeking out a thief who had stolen a family heirloom. The Heirloom was a rather large ruby and it was supposedly stolen by a young servant of the house. While Count Malvolio had not yet engaged the police he had spoke to the Home Office about the feasibility of some sort of government help.

This story of course was hogwash. Count Malvolio was one of the Italians that had braced her so long ago trying to find her Mentor. The picture of the servant was that of her young face of only 5 years ago. The ruby of course, would be the stone that Crifasi had sent her. Rose shivered as her past flooded back. Malvolio was some kind of maniac. He wore a black glass eye. According to him at their last meeting, he had torn out the original in exchange for wisdom.

Panic swept through her and she resolved immediately to gather her compatriots and tell them as much as they dared to learn. Thaddeus was easy to find, as was Martin. He had actually ended up arriving at her home on an unrelated errand. Walter proved easy to locate but Father Jameson was nowhere to be found. Thaddeus drew out his shadow trumps and attempted to locate him that way, only to find that his mind was occluded like a fogged-in lighthouse. This drew concern from them. Jameson had not been seen in a few days.

When they were assembled at Thaddeus's shop, Rose began to explain certain things about herself. Her relationship with her mentor, her actual tradition (allthough most had guessed and either hadn't cared for various reasons or were not savvy enough about the the mage world to realize the import of a Solificati among their merry band.) She showed them her treasured portrait of herself and her mentor at a much younger age. and then showed them the add in the paper and enable them to connect the dots.

Then she showed them the gem. unwilling to probe the mystery of it's nature further. She asked Thaddeus if he would store it in his shop which was far more secure than her home. he promised he would along with the incriminating painting. This relieved her greatly and she began to put the stone back in it's case.

However, the sun went down and the stone flashed strongly with Prime and then settled back down to it's ordinary steady throb. Intruiged and now unwilling to let the mysery go, they decided to pursue it a bit further. Magickal senses began to be extended. Walter probed the stone with MInd and felt the odd sensation of having his mind sifted very rapidly. Thaddeus noticed that the stone was generating a subsonic hum. On a whim he decided to match it's harmonic frequency and got the surprise of his life.

He found himself in a large darkened ballroom with a high vaulting ceiling and a sumptuous multi-course dinner laid by on the table. A voice came from the shadows.

<KKKKKKK>

"Can you understand me?"

Thaddeus replied that he could.

"I am the communications crystal for the CMS shiftship Algonquin. This is a recorded decision tree message."

The ship went on to explain that it was one of seven control crystals that make up the artificial intelligence of the ship. The ship had been forced to make an emergency landing on this planet "Hundreds of thousands of cycles ago." The ship was asking for assistance in repairing itself. It asked Thaddeus to collect the control stones,and then unearth and help repair the ship. In return the ship, promised to serve Thaddeus for a period of 50 years. When asked where the ship was, it could only say that it was surrounded by silicate matter.

Thinking this was a good deal, Thaddeus accepted. The ship told him that he would need greater technical skills in order to assist it. He would be given these abilities. The last thing that Thaddeus heard was "Standby for download."

The next sensation was that of being forced to cram ten years worth of mathetical and technical study into his head in the space of ten second while having a flaming railroad spike pounded into his head.

When he returned to himself he found his friends standing around him very concerned. His nose had bled profusely and he had swallowed his tounge. his head hurt. He saw binary code behind his eyelids every time he closes his eyes.

This was enough excitement for one night and they adjourned to their homes after some experimentation with the direction finding properties of the crystal. There was signal coming from the west but they were unable to triangulate it. Rose posited that these stones were the technolgical basis for the Viasilicos. They appeared to have similar crystaline structures.

As Rose wended her way home she happened to pass close to Crookes Street. She saw what Bert Parkhurst was talking about. There was a definite oddness to the way the smoke of the foundry curled in upon the street instead of diffusing into the air. Then she remembered.

Father Michael Jameson had mentioned something about going and visiting nearby hospitals to see if others had been afflicted by the same sort of spiritual attack the horse had been subjected to...and nobody had seen him in days since.

Oh dear.

The Mages met again, to discuss the idea that Father Jameson needed rescuing. They decided a bit of reconaissance was in order. Gearing up they decided to head over during the day. Crookes street had a small hospital of it's own, that is where they would start.

Crookes street was home to a large foundry, a bookseller, the aforementioned hospital and precious little else. Before getting too far in their investigations, they were acosted by a blind,mad, beggar woman. Who warned them they would find danger around every corner. The beggar woman who told them her name was Hetty, began telling them about themselves. The mages checked her pattern and discovered that the mad old woman was a mage. Turning away to discuss what to do about her, they turned back to discover that she was gone.

Stopping in to the hospital, the group asked after the good father and was told by the head doctor there that he had visited but he had gone some days ago. Rose discerned that the man lying, Martin checked his aura only to discover that he was rife with corruption. Eaten by Apophis.

They excused themselves and repaired to the street. Looking around they discovered that the umbrascape of the street was a horror of pattern webs and corrupted spirits. The Foundry seemed to have 8 more smokestacks than it did in reality. Smoke elemental seemed to gamboling about in the upper atmosphere.

If Father Jameson had met with some misadventure, it was certainly no boating accident.

Walter volunteered to sneak in the hospital's back way and see if he could locate Father Jameson.Thaddeus would keep watch with his cards and all walter would have to do is shout mentally if he were discovered.

Walter made it as far as the upstairs level of Crookes street Hospital before he was spotted by an unpleasant fellow with a blood covered smock and a straight razor. Walter made short work of the monstrous fomor and began to open doors trying to locate Father Michael. The others came running and it's good that they did. Walter had located the very sickly looking Father, but the Doctor had located him!

Combat broke out. Thaddeus and Martin made short work of the man with Rose's help, as Walter helped Michael out of the door and down the stairs. The fomor when sufficiently hurt broke into a noxious fog and disipated into the floorboards. The group realized that time would be short.

They made for their coach.They bundled Michael into it and began to try to leave the alley behind the hospital only to have their exit blocked by unpleasant looking men with pipes and chains.

The mages decided to try to attack only to discover that one of the men was a Black Spiral Danser! The Monster reached down and with his prodigious strength upended the coach onto it's side which caught all of the mages(except walter) by surprise.

Things looked grim for the group. Thaddeus and Martin and Walter damaged the monster but nothing seemed to slow it down. Walter got himself eviscerated and fell tot he ground seemingly dead. The monster rounded on the rest of the group with the intent to destroy Martin next.

However, Rose, who was still trapped within the coach had gotten a hold of the coach whip and had worked an alchemical process on it that changed it into pure silver. Handing it to Martin, he just had enough time to interpose it between himself and the ravening engine of corrupted garou destruction. the horrid thing "accidentally" impaled itself on his weapon....through it's eye, killing him instantly.

Martin took off to find another coach. Rose managed to stabilize Walter and then they bundled him into the coach and took off at high speed for the warehouse.

Walter's Spark of Life enabled him to recover from his grievous wounds in record time. but now the mages had a better idea of what they were up against at Crookes street.