Various members of the pack are bumming around the caern when Death From Above comes around a corner, escorting Sergei. Sergei approaches the pack and says that the sept leader of Warrior's Glory wishes to call in Alyssa's debt to the sept. Sergei says that his name is Daunal Jaras, and he is a Fianna. Alyssa says that she will have to tell her sept leader where she is going, and Sergei agrees.
The pack flees to Melinda's house and tell her what Sergei said. She says that Daunal is severe but honourable, and that they should go, as they do owe a debt of service to Warrior's Glory. They return to meet Sergei and then moonbridge to Warrior's Glory. Sergei leads them out of the caern and across St Kilda Rd, to some offices. They speak to the doorman, and go up three floors, along a corridor. Sergei knocks on a door and a voice says "come". Sergei and Harmony's Dream enter.
Daunal turns out to be a largish, Eastern European looking man, maybe in his 40s. He also turns out to be a man of few words. He asks Alyssa whether she intends to honour her debt, and when Alyssa says 'yes', he says that he wants the pack to travel to a place called Culcairn and look for a fianna klaive that was lost near there during the War of Tears. He is not entirely sure that the klaive will still be there, but he wants the pack to look, and if they find it, to bring it to him. He indicates that the interview is over, and Sergei leads them out and back into the park.
The pack brings up a few problems with this mission. Sergei brings to the fore the possibility that Daunal is bucking to be the new Righ, and being responsible for the retreival of a lost klaive won't hurt his chances at all. Erk, say the pack, and ask whether that means people will perceive them as supporting Daunal. Sergei advises that most people will assume that they are politically naive dupes, and that Daunal used them. He also cautions that Daunal is not someone to be trifled with - Karen asks his auspice and Sergei says that he is an ahroun. Sergei escorts them to the moonbridge again and they bamf back to Sleeping Green.
Once back in their own caern, Harmony's Dream go looking for Melinda again. They tell her what is happening, and she suggests that the mission, although most likely politically minded, is not so blatantly so that they be caught up in the brewing storm of Fianna heirarchy. She also says that it would be far worse to refuse the task than to accept it. The pack shrug their collective shoulders and start planning for a long trip. They consult with Melinda about who claims the area around Culcairn and are told that it is in one of the Silverfang protectorates. In fact, the oldest one. Where 90% of the Garou are completely mad. However, these Garou rarely move from their caerns, and the major caern is way up the other end of the protectorate.
Alyssa and Kris go off and hire a four-wheel drive, camping equipment and a metal detector. People generally use the rest of the day to cancel appointments for the next few days and to get ready for a long trip.
Early in the morning, the pack sets out in their hired 4wheel drive. Brmm brmmm. 6 or so hours later they pull into Culcairn, pull over and stretch their legs. There is some quick discussion and they split up to find out what they can.
Kris wanders around the town and then goes looking for a tourist information booth. The most helpful young lady at the desk gives her a double handful of brochures. Most of them seem to cover natural features of the area, like #1 and the #2 swamp. She asks a few more questions around the place and gets friendly, but not very useful answers.
Alyssa goes to the town library, which Schroedingers in and out of existence while the GM decides if the town has one. Finally she manages to collapse the waveform and go inside. She talks to the librarian about her family having once lived in the area, name of Wentworth. The librarian isn't sure, but is happy to direct her to a couple of local histories. She sits down and starts reading.
In the meantime, Dave and Karen drive back out of town, to the edge of Billabong Creek. Karen starts using the metal detector they have hired. Dave looks into the Umbra and gets a bit freaked. The town is a tiny oasis of europeanness amongst a huge sea of temperate rainforest. He steps sideways. For about 2 kilometers radius from the centre of the town, the Umbra reflects the town, almost exactly. Once you cross the creek however, the terrain turns quickly into temperate rainforest. Dave walks in a bit, and finds that the terrain is not friendly. He is tripped up by roots, snakes appear and start hissing at him. Dave takes the hint and leaves.
In the meantime, Alyssa's research has paid off. The first book was myths and legends of the area, in which she read about a chinese miner on his way back from Victoria drowned himself in the nearby swamp - the only mention of Culcairn. The second, however, mentioned a night in 1898 when the entire local aboriginal tribe were slaughtered, out of the blue. The prognosis was death by some sort of wild animal, but the europeans couldn't think what sort of animal might do that. All sorts of strange theories were given, but the favourite of the town was that it was a bunyip - over time, Riddler's Creek was renamed Billabong Creek in reference to the 'bunyip' attack.
Alyssa feels that this is possibly what they are looking for, so she tells the others. Karen drives back into town and picks Alyssa and Kris, then drives back. People oo and aa a little about the Umbra on the drive. However, they are also becoming a little concerned about the storm clouds building in the real world - which are mirrored in the Umbra. They get to the site where the attack happens as the clouds have blacked the sky. Karen voices some concerns about flashflooding, and the decision is made to have a quick look around before retreating to Culcairn.
The four Garou spread out at the campsite. It looks as if it has been flooded many times in the last 100 years, but a brief poke around turns up some man-made objects. Lightning flashes insanely close...
And the pack is surrounded by screaming humans, running amok as other Garou run into the site and start butchering the humans. The pack reacts fairly quickly from the surprise, and leap into the fray. The other Garou seem to be fairly evenly matched with Harmony's Dream, and both sides are getting quite badly hurt. Humans are still running around screaming, some few having got their selves together enough to attack the garou, but getting killed quickly. One screaming child lays in the midst of the campsite - a single figure runs out of the undergrowth, scoops up the child and runs off. Karen lays her opponent out, while Kris and her opponent seem evenly matched. There is suddenly a drop in temperature and a huge Crinos figure looms on the horizon. Karen is too busy to care, but Alyssa seems fascinated. Her opponent takes advantage of this lull and slices across her throat, spraying blood everywhere. Alyssa drops like a stone, and the others can feel her life ebbing through their link with Meneghwo - Dave dives to one side and starts running to her side... when it all goes quiet. The site is empty, except for the dead.
Karen is wandering through the city during the evening, when she wanders past a nightclub. She is leered at by roadies who are clustered around the front of the place before it opens, having a ciggie. She walks past, ignoring them, one of them whistles and yells "here doggie, doggie". Karen feigns indifference and continues walking. As soon as she is out of sight, she ducks into an alley and bites her knuckles.
Kris speaks to Jeff about what he was up to, and it turns out that he was talking to Duck - he can semi-see into the Umbra. Kris consults with Tusulla - it seems Jeff is sitting in the penumbra, the part of the Umbra that sticks over the Gauntlet a bit.
Kris speaks to Sam - she is really upset by her parents, but everything Kris has taught her seems to right that she can't pull out. She tells Kris that she has been having weird dreams about Kris and three other people - Sam describes them and it quickly becomes apparent that she is dreaming what Kris is experiencing. Weird, huh?
Kyle is being kept locked in a sept house to the north of the caern. Melinda is keeping him asleep, but doesn't want to do so forever. She speaks to the pack about it, and decides that tomorrow, Karen will handle him, as she has the training for this, and has some connection to him.
Karen starts to cry, not having seen anyone this badly in despair before in her life. Kyle turns and stomps out. Karen goes back to the caern, and tries to talk to Unicorn. She explains what the situation is and unicorn indicates that Kyle has built himself a wall, shutting himself off fromt the rest of the world, including Gaia. Unicorn says to take her to Kyle. When Karen gets there, Kyle is trying to break a window with a chair. He confronts her and as they are arguing, Kyle suddenly gasps and his eyes open wide, dropping to the floor. Karen panics and checks him out, but he seems to be in a state of shock. Melinda steps sideways from where she was guarding the guardian and demands to know what Karen was doing. Karen looks blank. Melinda says that Unicorn galloped out of Karen and ran Kyle through, stabbing him in the heart with her horn. Kyle is not dead, but is way out of it.
Karen spends the day looking after him, but he doesn't uncurl either. ZZ
When the topic of Kyle comes up, Karen explains what she did and what she has found out. Tusulla suggests taking him back to the start, in order to lead him down the correct path. After much discussion, it is decided that Harmony's Dream should take him to Pangaea on Wednesday, and try and invoke the Wyld to heal him. Summer Country would be better, but the general feel is that it would be impossible to get there.
As Harmony's Dream have never been out of the Near Umbra, they have it explained about the realms in the Umbra, and it decided to send them with a guide.
The first thing Sergei teaches Alyssa is that being run through really, really hurts. After that, she heals up and gets beaten up a lot.
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Last edited 11-May-1998 20:12:53 Last compiled 4-Aug-1998 10:06:27 Maintained by Eccles |