After a few days of preparation, our heros (Matsushida, Gwen, Halley, Jaana, Elaine, Royo, and Father Orin) embarked on the pilgrimage ship bound for Criticorum, Byzantium Secundus, and Pentateuch on its way to Holy Terra. Although the ship was in the main unaesthetically crowded with refugees from more outlying planets, Matsushida had used his clout to get the group two private staterooms, which kept them safely isolated from the riff-raff for the duration of the trip to Criticorum. The Sathra buffers operated properly for the jump, and no one became an instant heretic.
On Criticorum, Matsushida hit up one of his relatives, Baron Michael Li Halan, for lodging for the two nights they would be there. The good Baron was pleased to put them up, but after Matsushida took him aside to ask about the Rampart separatists, pleaded an urgent engagement and vanished into the city. Matushida tried to follow him, but was embarrassingly spotted and had to lie his way out.
That night, Jaana was wakened by bestial howling far in the distance. Nothing burst in and devoured anyone, though, so she went back to sleep. In the morning, she questioned the servant who served breakfast, but received only the blatantly evasive answer that there couldn't possibly be any dangerous wild animals in the city. Matsushida tried to lean on the servant to answer the good priest's questions, but to no avail.
Putting one and three together, Jaana and Matsushida decided to proceed under the assumption that Michael was a werewolf. Jaana hit the library, and Matsushida went upstairs to grill the chambermaid on folklore of Midian (Michael's homeworld and the location of his holdings). The maid mentioned that Michael had moved to Criticorum because its moon has a longer period. That was not all he got from her. Afterwards, he went to pay his respects to the other local Li Halan, and surreptitiously quizzed them about werewolves (universally agreed to be a peasant superstition).
Towards afternoon, Jaana and Matsushida met to share their findings (Jaana had much scholarly information on werewolves, confirming their existance) with the rest of the group. Some discussion ensued. Eventually, Jaana went to lie in wait in the library, to confront Michael and discuss the salvation of his soul, while Matsushida lurked by the front door to follow Michael if he went out to devour peasantry or anything (though no mysterious disappearances or wild animal attacks had been reported). Elaine set out to seduce Michael, hopefully keeping him indoors until after sunset. No one ever said Hawkwoods weren't brave.
Elaine found her task quite easy, at least initially. As the day waned, Michael tried to end the tryst and hurry off to an urgent appointment, but was unable to resist Elaine's blandishments until the sun was nearly down and he had to flee at top speed. Matsushida trailed him through the city and out past the starport, at which point Michael shed his clothes and streaked off into the forest. Being a city boy, Matsushida stopped there and phoned Jaana the tracker. Naturally, Gwen and Halley tagged along.
Jaana followed Michael's tracks, which did indeed change from human to wolf along the way, to a hill by a lake in the forest a few kilometers from town, atop which sat a large wolf that howled intermittently. The winners in the fight for the night vision goggles could see a ring of mystic symbols carved into the rock around the top of the hill.
The wolf did nothing exciting when our heros enflanked it, so they sat there all night watching it. Jaana's examination of the symbols suggested that they suppressed the ill effects of any curse, not only lycanthropy. Suggestions that she try entering the circle to get rid of whatever it was the Midnight Furies had been complaining about were not well-received.
At dawn, the wolf unsurprisingly turned back into Baron Michael, who was somewhat peeved at having a crowd following him around spying on his embarrassing secret, but seemed to accept Matsushida's claims of pure motives and perfect discretion. He explained how the circle kept him sane and aware even in wereform, so that he did not run wild betraying his obligation to care for his people. The circle had been made for Michael by a wandering mystic who had since left the planet; he promised to dig up his name for Jaana.
After breakfast, our heros had to pack up to catch the ship departing at noon. Before they left, Baron Michael slipped Jaana a paper with the name of the mystic: Carter Feriel.
The jump to Byzantium Secundus also passed uneventfully.
On Byzantium, it was Gwen's turn to mooch off relatives. She hunted up her contact at the Imperial court, Baron Sir Eviathan Hawkwood, head of Alexius' Questing Knights (and so mostly dedicated to conquering the paper monster). Sir Eviathan was glad to put them up, especially after Matsushida laid on the flattery, and even arranged for them to participate in the Byzantium Secundus social whirl.
Gwen and Matsushida spent most of their stay making contacts that will undoubtedly come in useful later in life. Halley shopped. Jaana went off to find information about Carter Feriel. In the Library of St Horace found a nervous old Eskatonic who dug up a book titled The Forgotten Life by Carter Feriel, relating theurgical concepts to the Questing Principle. Jaana got a printout, used it to focus herself for her planetary attunement rite, and was surprisingly successful. Having discovered the worth of the book, she quested through used bookstores until she found an old, fragile, but intact copy.
Matsushida took a break from pressing the flesh to try to hunt down some explosive bullets for his derringer, but to no avail. Halley couldn't find any either, but offered to try to make him some. For some reason, the prospect of bunking next door to someone working on explosives in a spaceship didn't make Matsushida demur.
At the social event the night before leaving Byzantium, Matsushida finally (arguably with the help of the host's inestimable wine cellar) succeeding in luring Gwen back to his quarters, probably setting a personal record for slowest seduction.
The next morning, our heros boarded the ship, rearranged their quarters to give the betrothed couple their own stateroom, and lifted off for Pentateuch.
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