While the cabal is occupied in Chicago, events are occurring in the poor crime ridden city of Gary that could greatly impact the metropolis's future. There at the edge of Chicago's mystic network, powerful leylines cross and converge, dumping all of Chicago's dark resonances into the area. Until recently the flow, while unpleasant, eventually flowed outward and dispersed into the surrounding countryside. But now the process is clogged and resonances of decay, apathy, violence and anger are building up. The Consilium and the local packs have not lifted a finger to deal with the issue and the problems are growing by the day.
For the local mages it has been a tumultuous last year. Heirarch Apollo and the ruling Consilium was replaced by powerful foreign Arrows from Chicago, known as the Iron Hand. Now the drug dealer Black Dog is Heirarch and his gang controls things. Then there is the trouble with the werewolves. As the resonance of Gary darkened, they began to appear more and more frequently. Then they began to attack mages. Though no one has been killed, the new Heirarch decided a reprisal was needed. The sentinels tracked down the creatures to a ruined church and after a short but bloody battle killed them. But some say the creatures knew something, something that would explain Gary's precipitous decline.
From the werewolves' side, the situation in Gary is reaching a critical point. The local pack, known as the Glass Knights were fighting an enemy who grew stronger by the day. A potent spirit of vandalism known as the Painted City is growing in power from the dark resonances pouring in from Chicago. Worse it seems to be recruiting allies, mortal and otherwise, to aid in the decay of the region. The Painted City is surrounded by a court of spirits that serve its needs. It has to be taken down. While they tried to strike at the forces bottling up the resonances in Gary, they put out a call to their allies in Chicago, the Red Death. They are to meet them at their lair, an abandoned church, for help in destroying this danger.
The Red Death have divided their pack, leaving half of their members to defend their territory while Eric Tenscars, Bishop Blackeyes, and Hiddenfang head to help the other pack. Along the way they stalked and captured a catfolk who they believe knows something about the spirit in question. Miguel Silvereye is not happy about this. Meanwhile a curious member of the local Mysterium, Plotimus, has traced the Glass Knights to the same location, hoping to find some sign of what they knew about the building resonance.
The pack's pickup pulls up to the ruined church with Bishop and Hiddenfang's dog Winston in the back, watching over a bound Miguel. The group get out of their vehicle but are immediately suspicious about the lack of a greeting party.
As they discuss their options, Eric and Bishop argue with Miguel trying to get him (forcibly) to help them. Their conversation includes mention of werewolves, which intrigues Plotimus who is hiding behind a church wall and bending space to view the situation. Meanwhile Hiddenfang scouts the area, sensing that someone is nearby but unable to find them. She does however spy something shiny within the ruined church. She returns and alerts the others. Bishop sniffs, declaring the air is tainted with the scent of a witch. At this point, Plotimus reveals himself, hoping to defuse tensions. As the wary werewolves regard him, he explains his reasons for being here and tries not to reveal that the local mages murdered the werewolves who lived here a few days ago. Cautiously they all go inside the church to investigate.
Hiddenfang spots the totem of the Glass Knights, the Green Knight of Lead and Glass, inside the church and begins to talk to it. Miguel remains recalcitrant and begins to look for a way to escape. He particularly doesn't like how Bishop keeps trying to scare him into helping them. Eventually Eric agrees to untie Miguel. The group investigates the area, finding shell casings, bullet holes, and some blood. The signs point to this occurring of couple days ago. Meanwhile the spirit reveals that the pack was 'not right' and had fallen into infighting. They were attacking the local mages and then the will workers retaliated killing almost all of them, except Maya. Maya is not well mentally however and is acting strangely. While the others are distracted by this, Miguel escapes into Shadow in cat form. Eventually using the spirit as a mediator the werewolves and Miguel come to an agreement, a fair trade of information and lore for his help.
They regroup and begin to talk about the city's problems. Eric is unwilling to leave the other pack's job undone. Bishop, angry at the time spent away from their own problems, leaves the discussion to stand outside. As they continue to talk a question comes up, where is Maya?
Outside Bishop is suddenly shot. Before he can react a second shot strikes him. He retreats into the church as the others arrive to help. They return fire, shooting at someone in the tall brush a couple hundred feet away. Meanwhile Hiddenfang and Miguel move into shadow, with Hiddenfang peering across the Gauntlet trying to find the shooter. She finds a woman crouched down with a rifle. As she watches she sees the woman's wounds begin to close. Is this a fellow werewolf? Is this Maya? Bishop shapeshifts into a huge wolf and begins to run towards the shooter. Plotimus uses Space magic to spot the shooter, identifying her as an unknown woman. Those in the Fallen world wonder as well if this is Maya. But as she continues to fire at them, Plotimus shoots her and she drops dead.
They regroup over the body. But Miguel and Hiddenfang indicate that she is not actually dead. Suddenly she jumps up and attacks Miguel. The werewolves rush in, grabbing and pinning Maya. After they have secured her, the deranged werewolf sobs and cries. She claims to be defending her pack's territory. Over and over she claims to be protecting her pack. After Plotimus checks for supernatural influences, they decide to check out the mad werewolf's story. Maya claims she is keeping her pack in the shed. Miguel checks this out, finding a grizzly scene of decaying bodies. Bishop and Eric convince the delusional shapeshifter that her pack is dead. As she screams "No!", she breaks down into sobs and the fight washes out of her.
The group prepares for funeral rites while Plotimus and Miguel go to examine the ley lines and dig up more information. They visit the new Heirarch, Black Dog, at the Consilium headquarters in a part of Gary sheltered from the decay and violence. After an intimidating encounter, they realize that the Iron Hand is not behind this situation. Searching further, they find that the leylines were long ago rerouted to avoid that portion of Gary, likely by the Silver Ladder. This left part of the city free of the tainted resonances at the cost of slowing the outward flow. Plotimus finds a few of the points where they bent to the ley lines. But it seems that the Painted City has used the poorly planned network and altered it so the outward flow is stopped completely. At this point, faced with the potential destruction of a city, Miguel realizes that this spirit must be stopped and he reveals the bans of the Painted city. It is repulsed by religious art and it cannot escape from any structure built around it.
The funeral rites complete, the assembled supernaturals quickly put a plan together. Using Plotimus's skills and library, they construct a massive box, covering its interior with religious art and inscribe spiritual barriers about it. Hiddenfang readies a binding to seal the spirit in once they lure it there and Plotimus readies a ward that will do the same.
Then finally Plotimus casts a spell to call the spirit. As they wait for its arrival, they can hear it tear across the landscape, spreading decay and destruction in its wake. As the potent spirit arrives, it angrily hurls a blast of pure decay at Plotimus who narrowly dodges out the way as the wall behind him collapses into dust. Then the assembled werewolves slam into it, pushing it into the box. The Green Knight materializes using itself as barrier to force the spirit in. As the werewolves attack, the others seal the combatants in, lifting the final hinged wall into place and bolting it shut. With the spirit firmly sealed in, they sit back to wait for the outcome. Meanwhile inside the werewolves tear the mighty spirit apart. The job done, they shift back to human form and exit the box.
But the Painted City could still reform; and it has allies. They all agree to guard its prison until it finally perishes. A month passes until that fateful day when the spirit of decay itself crumbles away, but finally Gary is free of its curse. Plotimus reroutes the ley lines, collecting several intriguing artifacts along the way. The amassed resonance of decay washes out into Indiana and the rest of the country, saving the city.