i pulled the better-initramfs stuff out, the ebuilds missing from portage, & we should not depend on remote initramfs images. debian-sources initramfs supports dmcrypt && luks && lvm.... it does all of them. i can get my build to boot, but it's a dirty ugly hack to get it to boot. its a misplaced detail SOMEWHERE.... and i think it's not supporting partlabel, requiring uuid for crypt root. i point the misloaded initrd @ /dev/sdc3 and it unlocks & finishes booting fine.
it's all gravy now