"They never trusted me!" Banicki wheezes. "You damn werewolves wanted a public front for your crimes and atrocities, and the Three Families gave you what you wanted. I worked an honest job, and you would have killed me for it. The more useful I was to the Garou, the more they hated and distrusted me. Only the Answering Tiger understood. He taught me how to bring Jasper back."
He shifts, trying to conceal something in the darkness of the tomb. Amid the pale gleam of steel leatherworking awls and the fiery reflection of the copper mirror, you catch the cold white radiance of a silver scalpel. It looks like a pin in his swollen, leathery hand, but you know it could kill you. Even in your supernatural forms, you can't regenerate wounds from silver. And right now, you're just a regular human, unarmed and as vulnerable to conventional violence as anyone else…though some of the tools or ceremonial weapons scattered around the grave site look heavy enough to split Banicki's hide.
You shift sideways, wondering if you can end this again with a lightning-quick attack. But the fomor's grip is light and easy on the blades in his hands; he seems ready to counter your speed.
"Oh, I see! Some Bane promised to resurrect your dead boyfriend and you swore yourself to the Wyrm." Idiot humans.
"The Answering Tiger? Is he the Bane spirit you compacted with to resurrect Heaney?" I need more information if I'm going to beat this thing.
"David, I know you're in pain, but the dead…they don't come back. That's one thing we Garou know."
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"The Garou must be almost extinct," Banicki says, "if they've sent a pup who doesn't know anything about the world. The dead don't come back, boy. I know that. I didn't enter into this agreement out of insane grief. I bring Jasper back into the world by perfecting his work. Jasper Lee Heaney was the greatest worker in leather and flesh that the world has ever known, and the Garou treated him like a slave, then killed him like a dog. He lives now through my mastery of his art. Through my creations, which I have spread far and wide. But I come here whenever I have the time, to love Jasper in my own way."
The fomor leans over the corpse and places his huge, crooked lips against the dead man's mouth. He parts the teeth and draws out the purple tongue, kissing passionately, then bites messily through it. Then he lunges and spits, hitting you in the face with the corpse-tongue. As you stumble back, the silver scalpel whistles through the air toward your neck.
I roll away from the scalpel and transform…
I'm not fighting this brute in a dark and crowded tomb—I flee as fast as I can and force Banicki to follow me.
I stay calm, grab the dead guy, and use him for cover, daring Banicki to smash his boyfriend. Not my proudest moment, but I can't fight in this cramped space.
I grab one of those stone axes and lay into the fomor with all my power and ferocity, hacking him to pieces.
I grab the nearest sharp tool as fast as I can and fling it at Banicki's head.
First, I shift into my glabro form and regenerate.
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