| 26 Apr 2001 |
| Infernal |
| 10 May 2001 |
| 17 May 2001 |
| 24 May 2001 |
| 31 May 2001 |
| 07 Jun 2001 |
| Exams and England oh my |
| 05 Jul 2001 |
| 26 Jul 2001 |
| 02 Aug 2001 |
| 09 Aug 2001 |
| 16 Aug 2001 |
People get on with their day to day lives during the day, not really having any urgent leads at the moment. That evening is Cole's party and Bob is the first to show up (not grokking this human concept of 'fashionably late') of the pack. There is a couple waiting at the gate, ringing Cole's buzzer, but there's no answer. There's no lights on in the apartment, but Cole's car is there. The couple sigh and head off. Bob is lurking about when Krieg shows up. They share their suspicions about the lack of Cole and the reappearance of the thylacine statue, so the two of them decide to scope the house from the Umbra. There is a big pile of food and liquor, but no Cole. Krieg steps through the gauntlet into the Realm. Loud buzzing noises. Someone else is apparently at the gate. Krieg looks around and finds the statues, but they seem... dead. There's no life to them and they are cold. More buzzing. Krieg isn't sure if this is normal - do they sleep? The thylacine statue is the same - its just marble.
Abby's voice on the answering machine leads to Krieg letting her in after all that buzzing. They try and work out what might have happened. Questing Stone says that Cole is about 400kms away to the west nor west. Much "what the..." from the Garou. Krieg, being a suspicious bastard, goes back into the Umbra and peeks at Cole's next door neighbour. There's no one there either. He steps through and looks around. Its a kind of odd apartment - it doesn't really look like anyone lives here, more like a combination of somewhere to keep their stuff and a hotel room. But in essence, there's no one here. Krieg walks back rather than dare the somewhat calcified gauntlet and Abby performs the Rite for Siobhan as well. No answer. She does it again. Still no response. Again in the Umbra. No response again. The pack begin to quietly suspect that Cole might have eaten his neighbour and run off into the darkness last night when they had a date. They head off after him - Freya can't get a babysitter and stays behind, and they pick Corey up on the way through after he grumpily agrees to come along (and dedicates some beer).
Much driving later puts them in the middle of the Grampians just after midnight. Questing Stone indicates further into the deepest bushland, so to lupus form they go, running as a pack through the dark woodlands. Its hard going, many rocky cliffs and dry streambeds, and they have to keep checking Questing Stone. Eventually, though, they can see movement through the trees ahead. Krieg thinks he sees a whole lot of movement, but when they arrive they can just see Cole. He is covered in scratches and cuts and is nude. Cole is climbing all over a large rock, maybe 30 metres in length, and dabbing or brushing paints of some sort all over it. Some of the paint is obviously clay, others probably have Cole's blood mixed in. There is no sign of anyone else, or their blood, which frankly is a bit of a relief.
Kreig tries to spot the other movement he saw, but he can't seem to find anything except maybe the faintest glimmer of something from the rock that Cole is working on. In fact, there is a gnosis-esque feeling pouring off Cole and into the rock and then out into the environment. Cole is not painting a scene, or whole pictures, but seems to be adding highlights to the existing features of the rock. Looking closely suggests patterns that should make sense, but don't quite. Claws of Wisdom decide to leave Cole be and just watch him. People sleep or kick back with their warm, shakenup beer.
About dawn, Cole keels over, unconscious or asleep. He is covered up and then most of the pack flake out too. When Cole wakes up, they start heading back the way they came after noting landmarks and all so they can get back. Cole doesn't remember much after seeing them off Friday afternoon. He doesn't know where Siobhan might be. He doesn't know what he was doing. All he really remembers is a feeling a bit like that which drew him to Australia in the first place.
The trip back to Melbourne is uneventful although Corey keeps insisting on beering up. They get back to Cole's house and decide to eat some of the food that would go off anyway. The statues are all normal, and when they ask Winston what happened he simply says they all went to sleep to be out of the Master's way. Cole shrugs and says he hasn't seen them do that.
In a break between videos at about 6, someone whacks on the news. A couple of names get read out, catching ears. Ed Gruberman and William Keys. Oh dear. It seems that Ed went nuts in his apartment block, severely wounding several of the tenants before police were called. He continued to rampage and charged police with a blunt weapon and officers were forced to discharge their handguns to defend themselves. The long and the short of it is that Ed is in the morgue. Bill, on the otherhand, has been arrested for aggravated assault, assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated rape and resisting arrest. The pack sigh, put down their food and go to look at the situation.
Figuring the alive are the greatest problem, they questing stone him and find him in the Russell St lockup. They find somewhere not so weavery and step through the Gauntlet, then return to the Russell St station. The station is a mix of old and new police stations and gaols, and rooms that exist in the Realm and partially corridors in the Umbra. This makes is hard to navigate, but possible to get nearly anywhere without having to break things.
They find Bill unconscious in a cell. He seems to have heartily resisted arrest and has number contusions on his face. There is a camera watching the room from high up at the back of the room and a locked door with a view port at the front. The pack decide that Bill must die and start working on a plan. Bob peeks and forgets about that pesky gauntlet. Bill is definately wyrm corrupted, but there has been no sign of a bane binding with him, so its unclear if he is a fomor or just something else. He seems to be sweating a pale green colour, which no one can find a good side too. It occurs to the pack that its pretty much the same shade as the monkey foam from the rabid monkey that attacked them at Melbourne Uni.
Given that they're not entirely sure if Bill is a fomor, they decide to go and check Ed out. Down to VIFM they go, and Ed is quickly located inside a draw. He smells wyrmy alright, but they knew that. One of the terminals out of the way is woken up, and Corey quizzes it a bit to find out what happened to Ed. Apparently police were called to a domestic violence incident at Ed's flat. When they arrived, they were unable to calm the situation, and attempted to arrest Ed. When Ed resisted arrest they were forced to use deadly force. The autopsy says that there were 13 bullet wounds, 8 to the chest and torso, 3 to the arms and shoulders and 2 to the head. Cole is fairly impressed. However, this isn't exactly confirming evidence, so Corey and Abby go and wake up the security computer systems and play with them a bit so the camera in the freezer room isn't being looked at. Then Corey, Cole and Kreig step out into the room. They pull the draw out and unzip Ed's bag. Its not Ed! Just kidding, yes it is. However, he's been pulped and then autopsied, so he's not looking well. Kreig gets five awoogas on his sense wyrm gift and is 99% sure that Ed is a fomori, which might mean the Bill is too. They push the draw back in as Corey steps away from another draw looking suspicious and step into the Umbra again.
To the gaol! Again! The final plan is agreed on; Corey will step and blat the camera with Control Simple Machine and then smother Bill with his pillow (rather than tear him to pieces or try and scare him out into the corridor and hope police kill him or scare him into a heart attack or....). This he now does, and it comes off without a hitch. Well, except when Corey lift Bill's head up and sees that there is blood coming out his nose in a slow seeping way and his lips are a bit bruised. Maybe he pushed too hard. Oh well, Corey wipes Bill's face on the wall (garou peeking from the Umbra yell "nooo!") and then drops him back face down into the pillow, then steps sideways. Much consternation and Corey claims that now it looks like he rolled the wrong way and slammed his head into the wall and then suffocated and besides, they can't do anything about it now.
Just to check, Claws of Wisdom heads to Del's place. He's there with some people they don't recognise, only one of whom has any wyrmtaint at all. Hmmm. After some Realm investigation by Kreig and Freya, they decide he's not corrupted, but he looks like he's ready to dive over that fine line. They decide to cleanse him from the Umbra, and two fairly competant cleansings later, Del is pronounced only a bit evil. Some of the pack break off to check Rob out, while others go home to have a beer. Rob looks only fractionally worse than he was before and isn't in danger of exploding, so they leave him be.
When Cole gets home, he notices that there are lights on in Siobhan's apartment. Given that the rest of the pack had pointed out that she couldn't be found by Questing Stone and he apparently skipped on a date on the Friday, Cole decides to drop in. Siobhan is just sitting about watching the end of a movie and invites him in. Cole and her simultaneously apologise for not being there on Friday night and then spend a few minutes trying to work out what happened. Apparently Siobhan left a message with Winston that she had to leave because of a family emergency. Cole makes up a story about suddenly being called away without giving any details. They go to Cole's apartment and eat cake and other left overs from the party, making a date for Friday coming. Siobhan heads home before it gets too late.
Bob is sleeping at the caern when Cossack approaches him and asks some pertinent questions about Ed and Bill. Bob maintains plausible denial but agrees that they killed Bill. Cossack asks whether there were enough physiological changes to be a problem to the Veil and Bob just stares at him until "physiological" is explained. Bob agrees that he'll tell the others and they'll look into it.
Bob contacts people and the general feeling is it can wait until night time. Corey and Abby go to Uni, Freya and Kreig teach, Bob hangs about at the caern and Cole spends the day ringing people who were supposed to come to his party, apologising and inviting them to another party in a month. Kreig drops in at some point and chats to Cole about Siobhan. He asks Winston whether Siobhan rang on Friday, and Winston looks at him oddly for a moment before saying yes, she had to visit her sister and left apologies. Cole remembers he has a birthday present for Winston and gives him some marble bifocals. They aren't transparent, but Winston thanks sir for them. Very restful. Ahh. Yes, restful. Mmm. Winston wanders off while Cole and Krieg talk. [thud] argh.
Having read the newspapers for the day ("Rapist dies in police custody, furniture damaged, suspicious or what!") the pack head out to VIFM again about 10pm. Chatting with the still awakened computers leaves them a bit unsure of exactly what the autopsies have revealed. There are no gross physical changes, but they're not sure what a lot of the report means so there might be something there about green sweat. The coroner has also asked for detailed analysis of blood and has suggested the presence of illicit pharamaceuticals. They decide that they can't be bothered fixing it up at the moment and will wait for a week or so before interefering with evidence if it becomes necessary.
They are all heading back away from the VIFP when Cole's phone rings and a male voice asks if he is Mr Coleman, and whether or not he had made enquiries about their personal training regime. Cole stops pretending that he's mailed the cheque and agrees. They say they will ring back in a short time to arrange a meeting. The pack runs for Krieg's place to get his car. Out the front is a police car and the Garou all scream to a halt and look accusingly at Krieg. However, before he says anything incrinimating, Greg comes out with two police officers, and sees them off. When Krieg rocks up, Greg says that he called the police earlier so he could chat to them about Ed and Bill, and their recent behaviour.
Cole's phone rings again and the voice says that he should meet them in about 45 minutes at Jells Park, near the BBQs. Cole asks about money and the voice reassures him that this is a preliminary meeting and they can discuss money later. Cole agrees and heads there in a taxi, while the pack follow in Krieg's ute. The remainder of the Garou go to the south end of the park and run through the umbra to the site where Cole is lurking with a lit ciggie. About 5 minutes after Cole had arrived a dark sedan parks nearby. The peeking pack members see inside where there are three men - a driver and two others in serious suits. The non-drivers get out and head over towards Cole, who notices that their walk is such that they might have been trained not to hit a gun on their belt - ie: he thinks they are police. Greetings are exchanged, although the men don't give their names, one of them does accept a cigarette. The non-smoking man seems to be the same man as called Cole. He asks a few questions like where Cole met Del, and how did the topic come up, and exactly what Cole is interested in. After this information is discussed, the two men look at each other and the silent one nods and the other asks Mr Coleman if he'd like to come with them for some tests. Its not very far away, and it is so that they can tune their... product to his specific metabolism. Cole is a bit unsure, but agrees. They get him to put a hood on, but don't take any particular precautions about stopping him from leaping from the car or whatever, and let him take his time.
Meanwhile the rest of the pack has been peeking from the Umbra (ew, swampland) and has sensed that all three guys are fairly strongly of the Wyrm. They decide to let them take Cole (what's the worst thing they could do?) and follow along, so its back to the ute and then onwards after the dark sedan. They are heading out of the city. Krieg doesn't think the sedan has noticed them, but he notices that there is another car following the same sedan. Its a white delivery van, no windows at the back and tinted. It doesn't seem to be making any effort to avoid the notice of the sedan. In a rather cunning move, Kreig pulls up alongside of the van near some lights while Corey uses Control Simple Machine to open the side sliding door. Revealed is a man in black clothes with a rolled up balacava, resting something that looks suspiciously like a rifle of some sort against his shoulder. There is a paniced look on his face, and then someone else in the back part of the van grabs the door and slams it shut. Although somewhat amused, the pack are now forewarned that there are serious guns about.
The sedan and the van travel for some time, out the Maroondah hwy and past Lilydale. Eventually they turn right at Coldstream, and the pack do the same, but pull in at the shopping centre. They quickly flick to the Umbra and try and keep up with the vehicles. They are seen to be turning off the main road and towards a shed-like building. The van drives behind the van (from the point of view of the sedan). As the pack sprint down the hill towards the structure, they are moving through light Umbral brushland, a bit squelchy underfoot.
Cole is taken inside a building after a short wait and the hood is removed. The place looks like an office, except with a concrete floor. Everything is a bit new. Apart from the two men who brought him here, there are two men in white coats. The talker tells him they need to take some physical measurements before being able to tailor the dose. Cole starts to talk money, and the talker says that they can work something out to their mutual benefit. The doctors ask Cole to sit in a dentist chair and take blood samples, measure blood pressure, take his weight and other measurements.
The rest of the pack are jogging around the dead spot where the shed stands in the Umbra while some people peek. The shed is a steel and aluminium construction on a concrete base. It has a false ceiling of normal office tiles with lights set in it, etc. However, far more interestingly, it has two gentlemen in black with handguns out the back part of the interior and two gentlemen also in black with rifles in the roof space, pointing them firmly at Cole. There are also two gentlemen in the van out the back. Much consideration of the situation. The roofspace is crisscrossed with walkways, but the pack are unsure of whether they will hold a crinos weight - they certainly won't do so quietly.
Cole's physical is finished, and the doctors are doing scientific things to the samples, like putting them in the centriphuge. None of the pack have enough background knowledge to know what's happening, but they guess its a testing process - Kreig says that they might be going to blood type him, or check for antibodies to something. The pack are a bit down on this whole idea given Cole's garou heritage, so they start making plans to act as soon as it seems appropriate. Mind you, Cole isn't even 100% sure that they are there.
Someone is peeking at one of the men when he adjusts some of his clothing, and reveals the same ensignia that the pack encountered on the soldiers at Edridge. Needless to say this kicks them into motion. They make plans to butcher everyone inside to prevent the samples leaving the building, and are about to execute them when Cole, who has pretended to rub his face and peeked uses Mindspeak to ask Freya what the hell is going on. Freya is currently holding the very heavy Abby above her head so Abby can grapple one of the snipers, so she's a little short with Cole - something along the lines of "duck".
The battle is short and splattery. Krieg executes his patented "take a running leap, step and crashtackle the baddies" maneuver and comes crashing down through the roof on top of one of the snipers. Cole leaps to his feet, grabs his chair and whips it around to wipe out the talker. Abby appears behind the other sniper, grapples him and then pulls him down through the roof with her before biting his head clean off in a single munch. Freya and Bob are dealing with the two handgun wielding guards. Krieg and Cole and Abby clean up the men in the front room, leaving two gibbering scientist-types babbling and wetting themselves at a) the carnage and b) the crinos forms. Krieg leaps out the back past Freya and Bob as they finish off the last guy there and rips the back door open, intending to see whether Corey need any help with the van. As it turns out, Corey has not yet made it through the gauntlet, and Krieg and Freya are now facing a man with an automatic rifle. Krieg throws himself to one side, but Freya is basically spattered all over the room, as the oddly burning ammunition nearly tears her in half. Abby and Cole quickly tie up one of the scientists and run to the other end of the building.
Krieg leaps into the van and knocks the gunman to one side, but is shot at point blank by the driver. He manages to ignore the gaping head wound, stick his fingers into the drivers skull and drag him into the main part of the van where he beats the gunman to death with the driver, trying not to frenzy the entire time. He has just stepped out and the others have shown up when Corey appears. Corey had been working himself up and is a bit disappointed to find no opponents left, so he carefully closes the door of the van and then expends all his rage on the inside of the van ("...if its rocking...").
The Garou secure the site. The two scientist-types are tied up and searched. The other car is checked, only to find that it has actually gone. Krieg tries to follow that scent but loses it on the main road. Cole keeps a lookout at the end of the driveway, obviously expecting trouble to come-a-runnin'. Corey calms down, but the van's a writeoff. Abby tells him to clean it up, so he tears bits of it off, drags them to nearby dams and drops them in, including the whole chassis in one of them. The others clean up the worst of the blood, grab all the equipment and samples they want and put them outside. In the most impressive "sweep it under the carpet" effort, everyone gets together in one spot and lifts the concrete slab up while Bob shoves all the body bits underneath it.
The whitecoats are checked out. They are not having a good time. One of them has passed out and the otherone is unresponsive. They don't have any normal id, but each of them has a keycard that looks like it would unlock an electronic lock with their photo and names. No electronic locks on site though. The pack decide to drag them back to Melbourne and interrogate them them.
The pack drive back to Melbourne, calling Ian Shatter-Glass on the way to arrange a safe house of sorts. They are directed to a small 2 bedroom place in Carlton that looks abandoned. Its not really furnished - some mattresses is about it, and some heavy metal framework bolted to the walls. They push the two doctoresque people into one room and decide to sit and wait for them to wake up.
The pack sleep in shifts snuggled into corners or up against the furry members of the pack. Eventually they hear some movement inside the room, like the hammering of bars on the window. They discuss how to approach the reviving detainees and after speculating about a complex couple of pretenses, decide to not give any information. Freya, Abby and Krieg slip inside while wearing the clothes they stole last night (balaclavas, etc). There is only one guy awake inside and he looks pretty scared. He sits down against the far wall and keeps his hands visible. Abby gives him food and Freya lays one hand on him, using her calm fetish, and he relaxes perceptively. The Garou start to ask questions.
Frank (Aarland) says that he was being blackmailed into working for the people at the shed. He was kidnapped about 6 months ago, and they threatened to kill his family if he didn't do what they said. They demand an address and after a moment's hesitation, Frank gives it to them. Its in Adelaide, so Krieg ducks out and makes a call to one of the Get he knows from there. Gerhardt is a bit surprised to hear from him, but agrees to send someone out to the address. Frank has started to tell the others what he was doing there. He is a geneticist and was doing animal research on hormones and how they might activate certain genes to do with muscle production and other similar stuff. None of the pack have enough science knowledge to entirely follow it, but it seems to sound like their friends the steroids. He thinks that there was a human trial going on with unsuspecting guinea pigs and says that it will cause a number of severe psychological changes. He doesn't know anything about production of the compond, only what he's heard. The entire place was a big mix of paranoia and military presence. You didn't talk to other people. You didn't do much else other than work. He knows that some of the people were there voluntarily, happy to do unfettered research.
They ask him about the site itself. Frank says that he doesn't know much - they drugged him and he woke up there. He knows its multistory and that it seems soundproofed. Everyone sleeps on site, including all the military guys. He knows something happened last Friday because it all got stirred up, and being told to stay in their rooms. The pack think back to what happened - Cole met Del, statue turned up, Cole disappeared... but can't think of anything. Monday night was the first time that he'd been out of the place - he doesn't know why, just that he and the other guy (still unconscious next to him) were told to come along and do some basic tests on someone who'd be brought in. They were testing for normal stuff really - blood sugar, red and white blood cell count and blood typing. Frank doesn't know why. The pack steps outside for a few minutes and chat. They basically want to let Frank go, but want to hang on to him for a day or so, confirm his story, etc. They go back in and tell Frank they're going to move him over a room and bring him more food and make sure he's comfortable, and hopefully they can let him go in a few days. Frank looks still a bit stunned, but moves out.
Krieg checks the other guy out. He's breathing is shallow, heartbeat is too fast. They heal him a little and hear his metabolism slow down. The pack argue about whether they should go out to the site and see if anyone has come back or should they not leave the two prisoners here or a few other options. Abby and Freya argue to wait and see what the other prisoner says (Kenneth). He wakes up after 2 hours and tries the bars on the window too. The same triplet come in to speak with him and find that they have a different type of person this time. Kenneth claims to not remember anything, but they tell him that they've questioned Frank and he's told them enough information that they are now looking for some confirmation. Ken looks shifty and then 'fesses up to knowing some stuff. He claims that he was working for Biodyne Research in the US (he's Australian) and they offered him a chance for a 6 month sabbatical research position. The deal was that he stay in their compound and work exclusively for them 24 by 7 and they pay him $80K pro rata.
The rather suspicious Garou demand to know what he was doing and what he specialises in. Apparently he's a medical scientist, with training in medicine specialising in hormones. Kenneth claims that his work was intended to help trauma victims recovering muscle mass by encouraging growth. Abby alludes to other uses and he just says that any drug can be abused. They ask him for the names of some of his superiors, and he gives them two, which they questing stone for ... with no sucess. Basically they don't trust Kenneth because he seems a little bit too slick. They leave him some food and chat about stuff. Abby suggests heading out to the Coldstream site. Bob is a bit narked that they didn't go before given that neither prisoner really told them anything they didn't know. Cole is called and told to come and sit guard, and they ring the Sept to see if anyone else is free to babysit. Alexander Urosevic is there and says that he's happy to help - and he knows Truth of Gaia, so if they bullshit him, he will presumably know. Kreig receives a phone call from Gerhardt, who says that yes there is a family matching that name at that address, and they seem fine and normal - now what? Krieg begs a favour that they keep an eye on the place, and Gerhardt sighs but agrees.
Voom, out to the site, leaving Alex (who doesn't talk much) and Cole (who talks incessantly) in the safe house to watch their prisoners. They park in the shopping centre and run through the Umbra to get to the spot. Peeking and sniffing says that there is no change here from when they last left - not a thing has been disturbed. This confuses Claws of Wisdom, because they were expecting the site to have been revisited. They check it all out, but there is nothing. They are standing in the Umbra when all get a chill up the spine. Nothing seems to have changed, but they get the sensation of being watched, and it feels colder. Its pointed out that they are beyond the "safety zone" around Melbourne and into the dangerous Umbra. They decide to hop it back in the Realm to the car.
On the way back to the safe house, Freya catches "14 shots fired in bungled burglary!" on the front page of the Age, and while waiting to pay for petrol reads some of the rest of the article. It seems that in Richmond the night before there was an attempted burglary or something and the people who lived there (Chen Lou) attacked the erstwhile thieves, who opened fire. They shot Chen Lou about 14 times, and there is some evidence that they were hurt too. Two unknown male assailants fled the scene.
Feeling this is a bit suspicious, some of the pack go to the morgue to check things out there while others go to Richmond. Sensing Wyrm suggests that Chen Lou was a fomor in much the same way that Ed was. The report doesn't say much - shot 14 times from the front, evidence of possible contaminants in the blood - much the same as the autopsy on Ed. Meanwhile in Richmond, the house is cordoned off with police tape. Bob steps inside with Krieg and snuffs about with Heightened Senses. There are smells of police, easily dismissed. There is a smell of a woman and a man who live here. The man's scent is sharp in the hallway and mingled with anger and badness. There are two other scents, both male, mixed with wool and gunpower and blood and fear. They find a name on a bill that isn't Chen Lou and questing stone on it, finding that she is at a nearby house. Sense Wyrm helps them find a drugs stash which the police have apparently missed, and they are indeed a bunch of orange-coloured gel capsules, just like the other fomor.
Bob and Corey go to the VicRoads office at Brunswick and do a look up on the plates from the van and the sedan. The van doesn't exist and the sedan is registered to a non-existent address and name. Corey takes the hard drives from the shed and looks through them, but they seem to be clean installs with some additional software to drive the equipment at the shed.
Now thoroughly confused, the pack head out to Pearce and see what is happening there, hoping to follow one of the trucks the entire way and check where or if it is being tainted on the way. The drivers sense no more of wyrm than other people, and the same with the trucks. They spy from the Umbra. There is once again a fair bit of confusion at Pearce, but this time they are not missing orders, they are missing people. One of the senior managers has not shown up for work. Abby rather suspiciously remembers that the guy who is not there is the same guy that lost the order last time and ended up typing everything back in, and decides to see if she can find him with Questing Stone. Yes, apparently. The trail leads to a park in Pascoe Vale up against the Tullamarine Freeway and towards a drain that runs under the freeway. Investigations in lupus reveal that Mr Tenaglia is not hiding, but has been shot in the head and then dragged here and dumped. There are two male scents as well as Tenaglia's, and they lead to a car park in the park. Abby makes an anonymous tip off to police from a public phone.
Pearce is still sending out a delivery today, so the pack watch as the material is packed onto one of the Pearce trucks and then driven around the top of the city and down Springvale Rd. It doesn't stop, and it doesn't seem to get more wyrm tainted on the way. From the Umbra, they watch as it is unpacked and nothing bizarre seems to happen to it. The Garou follow the truck back to Pearce. They get Tenaglia's address and check out his house. Apparently the police took the tipoff seriously because there are a number of officers at the site examining the house. Rather than do their own investigation, the pack lampreys off the police. Apparently Tenaglia was killed about 48 hours previously at his house, with a shot to the back of the head, probably while he was sleeping. The shot was made with a handgun, but the neighbours didn't hear anything. The backdoor has been forced, presumably by the assailants.
Once the police have left (about 7pm), Abby wakes up the computer and Corey chats to it to see if they can find anything special. About 6 months ago Tenaglia's financial records are a mess - lots of cash withdrawls at ATMs near Crown Casino, money going out slightly faster than was it coming in. However, just before Christmas there are a few entries that say "sale of assets" and similiar which cover the debts he had run up, and then there are no further large withdrawls. There are still enough bank records to suggest he was in the area (bar tabs, etc). Claws of Wisdom speculate what this could mean, as it would have been about the time that Frank and Kenneth mentioned being employed/kidnapped.
Kreig suggests that its time they did something about Kenneth and Frank. Frank is easy - they hood him, spin him around a lot and leave him at Spencer St station with a ticket for Adelaide and some pocket money, after cautioning him to never say anything ever again.
Kenneth presents a bit of an issue. He's not of the Wyrm, even though the pack suspect that he was involved of his own free will in some evilness. They could just kill him, but it feels a bit wrong. After considering a number of plans, they decide to fuck with his brain. They convince Barry Heaton (from Get of Pennington) to help them do some surgery after some very fast talking. Kenneth is knocked out and they make an incision on his abdomen above about the appendix. It is then sown up and healed a little. Kenneth is allowed to wake up and then it is explained to him that they have taken steps to ensure he doesn't talk. Then they knock him out again and leave him somewhere in Melbourne.
When he wakes up, he is understandable a bit apprehensive, and pokes about at the stitches in his side. He goes to a GP and makes up some story from whole cloth about being in Melbourne after abdominal surgery and being a bit concerned that he was getting pain. They GP looks at him and says that he shouldn't be out of hospital because it looks quite recent. He escapes from the doctors and goes to a bank to try and get some money. As he has no ID, they are not too keen to help him out and there is an argument. He heads off to the Salvos and gets somewhere to sleep.
Over the next few days it becomes very clear that someone has executed a cleanup operation on the steroid users. Del, Rob, Stu and Len have all disappeared as of Monday night, as have a couple of other similar aged people and bulked men (one in Yarraville, one in Oakleigh). Tenaglia was killed on Monday as was Chen Lou. All of this activity seems to have occured in the hours after the incident in the shed.
The pack try and pull some evidence together to give themselves a lead. The land the shed is on is currently part of a messy will-based legal battle and none of the participants are tainted or seem to be connected. The power bill to the shed is being paid by a non-existent person, the same as the registrant of the sedan from Monday night and the billing address is a post office box in Nunnawading.
Checking the tap on Del's phone reveals that a male voice rang him sometime and said that they urgently need to meet with him. Judging by Del's sleepy responses it was probably late at night, but there's no real way of dating the information the spirit collected.
The pack consult with the Sept Elders, who agree that it looks like there was a concerted response to the attack on the shed. From the timing, and the setup, it looks as if the blue berets were expecting trouble, and possible garou trouble.
Corey decides that he needs to know more about spirits in order to build his Crime Computer in the Umbra around the Colleges. So he goes and finds Emma and talks to her about learning Spirit Awakening. She's a little unsure, and agrees to teach the Rite to him if he first learns a bit more about spirits. This seems fair, so he arranges to spend some time with Emma every day learning the basics of spirit interaction.
Claws of Wisdom head out to Scars Atoned. Corey brings a gift of Guiness. After catching Marches-the-High-Road, David and Jane up on recent events, they ask Jane about going to the Atrocity Realm. She suggests they head outside and discuss it there. The pack wind their way through the tunnells and ask Jane if the sept has had any luck deciphering the stories painted on the walls. Jane explains that there is a outside context problem involved in Bunyip lore - they had such an alien view compared to the European and American Garou that it is awkward to try and understand the work they have left behind. There has been no convenient Rosetta Stone and there probably won't be, given the amount of time between the colonisation of Australia by Europeans and the genocide of the Bunyip. Normally the Garou would have the spirits of the land to help them get around this problem, but even the land rises up against them, so...
They emerge from the caves into the Umbral bushland and Jane settles them all down to explain about the Atrocity Realm, with Cole protesting that its a stupid idea to go there the entire time. Jane describes the Realm as somewhere where acts which are wyrm tainted and exploitative leave a spiritual echo, playing out for some time after the initial act was commited. Not all atrocities are reflected in the realm, but those committed by spiritual beings - such as Garou - commonly do so, possibly because the realm has connections with Garou nature. Specifically, visitors there often see events with which they have a connection, either because they committed the act, were a victim of the act or are in someway part of the acts.
Corey intimates that its a rather pointless place, if the hatred and fear and so on are just replayed endlessly and Jane says that there are ways to mollify the situations - sometimes just going and seeing things from the victim's point of view can be enough to cause the perpetrator to begin to empathise and perhaps starting to make amends. The repeating scenes can be sometimes removed from the loop by entering them and understanding what was wrong and fixing it in the echo, and sometimes by making restitution in the Realm after returning.
There is a sort of metarealm in which scenes are enacted, a place of mud and screams and general badness. In this realm are the banes and other visitors to the realm, which come to feed off the atrocities. They may attack passersby, or they may just scatter. In order to leave the Realm, it is necessary to empathise with the victims - often, it is necessary to die. The Realm minions cannot kill you, they can only eject you from the Atrocity Realm and somewhere into the Umbra. However, the banes and other visitors can kill you dead, and its sometimes hard to tell one from the other in the wrong context.
When the pack encounter a scene, they are likely to stay together because of the pack bond joining them, even if they only see an Atrocity appropriate to one of them. She might be seperated temporarily, but they should just continue on, and they should rejoin again a bit later. Jane finishes, and says again that they don't have to go, but that they may be able to get a glimpse of the mysteries which have been surrounding them for the last few months from a different angle. The pack go apart a bit and discuss their options. Corey and Cole are way against going - it sounds too dangerous and unpleasant for not that much benefit. Abby wants to go as does Krieg, Freya is cautiously for it, and Bob just kind of shrugs. Abby decides that the pack will go, and as there are no attempts to take her head from her body, she figures the pack has agreed with her. They go back to Jane and say "yep". Jane suggests they leave tonight, when the moon is up, so Claws of Wisdom may wish to make some preparations.
People meditate to get gnosis back in Scars Atoned, and Krieg speaks to Marches-the-High-Road about some talens. They bargain for a bit and Kreig makes the fatal "I dunno, what do you want?" statement. Marches-the-High-Road clues him in that it is always better to have a few offers ready for any spirits or Garou that you are negotiating with, because that particular statement usually leaves you 'sans chemise'. Kreig nods sagely and Marches-the-High-Road says that he'll make them some healing and calm talens in return for some of their time at an unspecified task later. Kreig sighs and nods.
Everyone tools up with torches and other bits and pieces. Corey dedicates a 6 pack of stubbies. When the moon rises, they set off with Jane through the Umbra. She suggests that they are probably looking for a tunnel or cave downwards to get where they are going, as the Atrocity Realm has associations with the various hells. After a couple of hours of fairly undirectional running, Jane spots a cave of sorts and suggests that it looks significant. They squiggle into it in lupus form and head down the rather broken space under the rocks. Eventually their pathway straightens out and a while later, the rocks slowly fade away and are replaced with pale, moonlit fog. The pack run for some time.
Many, many hours of jogging along the moon path later, and there is a sudden change in their environment. The fog swirls away into a sort of bubble and they are left standing on a dirt road. Ahead is a ruined fort of some sort, overlooking a crossroads. They can smell smoke and hear faint voices. Jane doesn't look too fussed and says that this is a Lunae, a place where two moon paths cross. She wasn't expecting company though. As the pack move a bit closer, they see a mixed group of homids and lupus emerging from the fort. They look wary, but not ready to attack or anything. The seeming pack leader moves a bit further forward of his pack and says that he is Philip Benavides, pack leader of the Defenders of the Trail of Swords. Jane introduces herself and then Abby introduces herself and her pack. Philip graciously offers them the hospitality of their camp, and they accept.
The Defenders turn out to be all Silver Fangs, nobles from the north east of Spain. Conversations tend to stick pretty much to Garou business, and on several occasions the Spaniards pretend not to understand... well, Cole, really. There is a certain amount of culture shock, but one of the pack, Miguel, seems fairly amused by the whole situation. The two packs sit around a fire, eat and exchange stories. The Defenders are much impressed with the story of finding the caern at Scars Atoned, and approve of the sentiment, if not some of the methods the pack use. They themselves are on a holy quest to the Legendary Realm, to tell/become a story about Philip's ancestors where they defeated a particular type of fomor, which has appeared again.
When Claws of Wisdom awake, the Defenders of the Trail of Swords are already gone. They pack their stuff up and set off. Much more jogging later and the pale moon path beneath their feet becomes darker, and begins to give off a weird odour. A wind picks up, carrying with it a sound. The sound becomes stronger, and the garou realise that it is the sound of thousands of people screaming, heard from miles away and carried to them on the wind. The smell of death and rot and decay grows stronger and the ground becomes a sort of sticky, gooey mud, moving unpleasantly beneath their feet. Jane says "Welcome to the Atrocity Realm" as they climb over a ridge and see an expanse of the same scenery, as far as they can see through the racing fog.
They 7 garou move through the realm. Something clutches at Corey's leg, and he can see a partially decayed hand moving just beneath the mud. The pack pick up speed. As they move along a ridge, part of the slime gives way, and Freya and Bob start to slide down a ridge towards a hole which appears in the shifting mud. The whole is full of writhing maggot banes. Freya wedges herself in the mud, and is fairly stable, giving the rest of the pack a chance to pull them up. The maggots are occasionally eating each other, and a larger bane results from this rather gross activity. Deciding that its all a bit much, they continue onwards.
One moment its grimy mud as far as the eye can see, the next the pack are in North Melbourne, near the site of the Tony Staley murder. They look about and get their bearings, remembering exactly what happened. Figuring that they should hide to see what happens, they all clamber up onto the nearby community centre. Sure enough, a short time later, a young man in a red coles shirt comes sauntering along through the park/bbq area. From the far side of the ajoining hedge, a large black crinos leaps up and over the hedge, landing on Tony and bearing him to the ground. Claws of Wisdom bound into action, clambering down the wall, or simply leaping off the roof and through the roof of the shelter ("I meant that"). Tony is so much paste, but Cole runs round the hedge, cutting off a retreat as the others body slam and pin the crinos (or land on their arse). They take a good look at the garou in question - weird ears, glowing green eyes, smells strongly of wyrm. Intending to quest -
The pack find themselves back in the muddy realm. Jane is there and they explain what happened. Freya complains that the scene ended before they could really find out what is happening, and Jane says that the scenes will end if you significantly change what happens from what originally happened. Bum, think the pack. They move on. At one point Jane disappears from their sight, and doesn't return for some time - when she does return she is bloodied and dishevled, and not looking happy. Flicker.
The pack are standing in a desert, probably an Australian one, judging by the scenery. A distance away, maybe 100 metres, they can see a broken down car with the bonnet up. Bob thinks that the figure leaning over the bonnet is female. Further up the road is a car, heading towards the broken down car. The garou shrug, unsure what is happening, and start heading towards the woman, some in lupus so they can't see or be seen over the spinifex. The moving car slows down and then stops behind the broken down one, and two guys get out, heading for the woman. The pack start to get a nasty feeling and begin to jog more urgently towards the scene. The guys are heading for the woman when something erupts on the far side of the road, made of red dust. It falls on the first guy, and blood splashes high into the air. The pack start running, but those in homid notice that the woman isn't really reacting to this event. Dust and dirt cascades off the thing that is making mince meat of the first guy, and the second guy starts to run out into the desert. The thing leaps the car, and there is a definate crinoid shape to it. It bounds onto the second guy as the pack hit it from three sides. The woman saunters around the car.
Freya, Corey, Abby and Krieg hit the crinos from all sides and rip it off the second man, but its probably too late for him. They land on it and start to pin it down, or at least Krieg does. The others are pointing back and forth between them, making 'ga' sounds. The crinos they are fighting looks exactly like Krieg. He doesn't smell quite so bad, but its hard to tell with the dust and blood everywhere. In the meantime, Cole heads around the car and finds the woman lapping at the blood pouring from the gaping slashed neck of the first man. He lifts her into the air and she takes this poorly, growing spikes and pointy bits from her elbows and knees, but she's not able to get away. Cole wrenches one arm so she behaves a bit better and one of the others goes through the glovebox. The general feeling is that the car is stolen, mostly due to the decomposing corpse in the back seat that matches the license on the wallet in the glovebox. The car is registered to the NT, and it is due in November 1998.
The rest of the pack are trying to pin the crinos shape, but still think that its Krieg. The scene suddenly ends and they all yell at Krieg about what the hell he was doing. He claims to have no idea what the hell was going on, and accusations fly for a while until Bob points out that the wounds on Freya's back that he is treating seem to have been caused by a 6-fingered hand. Kreig's hand is checked thoroughly, but it doesn't seem to have had any surgery - on the other hand, he is a regenerative monster.
Jane appears shortly afterwards and they chat. She says that it is certainly a bit weird, but doesn't have any immediate answers. They all start to run again. Once more, the sudden change of environment, and the pack are standing in a suburban street in Abbortsford, presumably near the Fergusson's house, where they were hoping to go. Freya takes a look around for the dog that she questioned last time, and sees it in its yard, pressed to the ground, and trembling. She follows its line of sight and points out the crinos-shape perched on the roof, apparently staring at the moon. The pack splits up into sneaky and not sneaky people and they carefully make their way to the Fergusson's house, keeping to the shadows as much as possible. They are starting to arrange themselves to wait for the garou to land and they can see him, when it occurs to someone that the Fergusson's actually had crushed pelvises with plaster in the wounds... the crinos on the roof leaps up and comes crashing down through the tiles, through the roof and into the Fergussons. The pack just watch from various vantage points which lets them see the whole scene, except Corey who runs around the back to intercept.
Freya and Kreig leap onto the roof now it has been vacated and try and spot the other two scent-owners who might have been responsible for dumping the bodies and starting the fire. Freya spots a couple of silhouette's a few houses away, human, watching their direction. As she watches, they move up and over the ridge-line of the house, and down the other side. She drops down and heads that way. Bob, Cole and Abby are watching the crinos tear the Fergusson's to pieces, and getting a good look at him - large, black furred, very strange ears and glowing green eyes. And wyrm tainted. People are starting to get a bad feeling about the whole situation when he takes off through the window and Abby is forced to throw herself to one side to avoid being hit with crinos and glass. The others get a good sense of the scent of the thing as best they can amidst blood and dust. Freya reaches the house where she saw the figures. She gets the same scents as they picked up at the Yarra bank, but they do the same fading trick as last time, disappating to nothing.
When the scene changes back to the Atrocity Realm, the pack chat for a while with Jane Redfeather, trying to work out what else they need to know. Jane sort of suggests that they should try to keep it fairly short, because she thinks that they are reaching the near end of their tethers. They agree and suggest two more scenes. Freya is adamant about seeing what happened to Joe Ridgeway, so they concentrate on that first. After much messing about in the land of infinite foul slime, the scene begins, and they find themselves in Joe's street on a hot summer's night. They trot down to Joe's place and hear music coming out the opened windows (Cold Chisel). Sneaking around the back reveals that Joe is there with some mates, playing poker or something. Corey stations himself near the front of the house, which Kreig tries to find a way in, and Freya and Abby lurk in shadows in the backyard. After a bit, someone wins big and everyone looks at watches and all. They start to pack up, and Joe walks them all to the front door, turning the music down/off. Krieg sneaks in Joe's room via the window and hides as well as he can in the shadows next to a wardrobe. Corey sees that one of the people is carrying a 6 pack, and is hypnotised into following them (the first botch of the evening).
Joe does a bit of cleaning up of plates and glasses and such while the pack watch from outside. The pack mentally review the events as they know them. Something came in the front door and there was some broken furniture, like a chair or hall table (which they can see). Abby thinks that maybe she should be at the front door just as the doorbell rings. She leaps the fence (couldn't have done that 6 months ago, see what being in a pack does for you?) and heads around there as Joe goes to see who it is. Kreig sees Joe go past and hears the door open. Freya can see up the corridor to Joe, but not much of who is there. Joe says "Yes?" and a weird buzzing voice replies, but Kreig can't hear it properly. Abby reaches the front of the house, and looks along it - she can see a guy in a trechcoat, tracksuit pants, weird if only for the fact that it feels to be about 30C still. He looks like a normal guy - short blond hair, no beard, maybe 25. Joe says "I think you've got the wrong house." and tries to shut the door. Freya sneaks in the back way and leaps over the kitchen bench, so as to see a bit better, remembering that there was some blood in the kitchen.
Abby sees the guy at the front door start to morph in a rather disturbing fashion into the door way as Kreig hears "oh shit!" from Joe. The guy's face cascades forward and he steps into the house and out of Abby's view. Joe staggers backwards down the hallway, knocking things left right and centre. Abby runs up and looks down the hallway as the same time as Krieg saw a long spindly leg go past, wedge the claw at the end of it in the wall and drag a large, pus-filled body along at about walking speed. Abby can only see the back end of what appears to be the same bane as was posessing David Struthers - a huge wall of pus-filled spirit, filling the entire corridor in the Realm. Freya sees Joe stumble into the kitchen and throw a chair back the other direction, just as a long claw on the end of a leg stabs him through the calf and starts dragging him back towards the corridor. Joe screams and yells, the sound of which is suddenly muffled in a rather gross way. Abby glances downwards and sees the clothes which the guy was wearing in the corridor, apparently where they fell. The pack opt to not interfere, and shortly afterwards the bane disappears, presumably dematerialising. All that's left of Joe is a small pool of blood and a bit of discoloured floorboards. The scene ends shortly afterwards.
Jane is waiting for them when they return, a little perplexed. She agrees that perhaps one more scene would be ok, and they take off again in lupus form. It is some time before the scene shifts once more, and the pack skid to a halt. They are standing on a railway line, somewhere in outback Australia. A full moon shines down the hill next to the railway, illuminating a figure a distance down the road. The pack head down off the railway, across the road and into scrubland, trying to figure out what is happening. As they lurk in the bushland, the figure keeps walking up the road, and Freya gives a short yelp as she recognises the approaching figure as being Corey. They all look at him and he shrugs. As the pack badger their Corey, the apparently younger Corey is passed by a car speeding along a bit too fast. The car starts to brake, hits gravel and slides for a bit and eventually stops about 50m up the road. Krieg starts creeping up the side of the road towards the car. 4 guys get out, leaving the doors open and head down towards young Corey. They seem to be joking and laughing. One of them is drinking beer and they all look fairly drunk.
People look about and their Corey has disappeared. They watch as the 4 young blokes come down and start sort of joking and hassling the young Corey. They are apparently called Brett, Jase, Scotty and Macca. The situation is deteriorating when suddenly the car up the hill rolls backwards into the ditch, then heads down towards the 5 young men. One of them yells "Shit, Brett, ya car!" The four of them take off up the hill for it, but Corey drives off the side of the road and past them, coasting down hill. Young Corey legs it into the brush and out over the fields. Corey drives the car slowly, just slow enough that the 4 young men can keep up. Krieg and Freya take off too, in lupus form, leaving the other three behind rather bemusedly. Corey turns off the main road and across the railway, still being chased by 4 young men and two wolves. Relying on his memory rather than paying attention to where he is going, the rather stressed Corey turns left and into a ditch (botch #2). He smacks his head on the steering wheel and frenzies, starting to destroy the car from the inside out.
Freya hears Brett yell "You fuck!", snatch up a branch and sprint towards the crashed car. Macca slows right down, and Jase is a bit slow too. Freya races ahead and tries to reach Corey before he frenzies everywhere. She howls a Call of the Wyld, and Bob, Abby and Cole start and run like hell towards the action. Freya leaps up on top of the car as Corey ploughs his way out through the front windscreen/roof. She tries to use her fetish to calm him down, but misses him and falls down into the front driver seat well as Corey leaps out (botch #3). Brett leaps forward and hits at Corey with a stick, but Corey is frenzying and tears him in two. Krieg looks up and sees that there are a number of odd looking things floating down out of the sky - they look like jellyfish, but they are floating down out of the sky. They seem to be homing in on Corey, who is frenzying.
Corey crashes through Scott and leaves nothing but squidgy red things. Macca runs up to a respectable distance from Corey and makes a reasonable attempt to say "Stop, we friends!" in the garou tongue, leaving Krieg staring at him before leaping up at the banes and slicing them with his claws. Freya leaps out of the car, and crashes into Corey, hitting him with the calm fetish. He collapses out of the frenzy. There is a confused melee as the Garou smash the jellyfish things out of the sky, finding out in the process that they are sucking rage out of the Garou. Eventually they are vanquished. There is no sign of Jase, but Macca is standing there looking more than a bit confused. Freya comes over and changes to homid on the way. She says that everything will be ok, and uses the calm fetish again. Macca kind of relaxes and the scene fades.
The pack rejoin Jane who asks them what happened. Everyone looks at Corey, who just looks exhausted and a bit out of it and declines to answer. Jane shrugs and Abby suggests its time to leave. Jane doesn't disagree, she is looking a bit drawn and messed up herself. They all head off looking for a way out. Jane leads them onwards. A scene starts to form up around them. They are in bushland, and ahead of them is a small encampment of aboriginals. The pack join them, mingling in with the curious men, women and children. The sound of hoof beats starts and becomes louder and a group of white men on horseback ride in. The encampment clusters around the men, who give out food, meat, flour and blankets. Feeling bad about the possibilities here, the pack sort of join the aboriginals. Jane tears off hunks of meat and throws them to the pack members who have come in in lupus form. Pretty soon everyone is feeling a bit woozy and ill and some of the aboriginals start to vomit. The men on horseback pull out guns and start firing. The pack find themselves beind gunned down, killed quickly or killed slowly from bleeding wounds and being run over by horses, surrounded by screaming people.
They come to in the Umbra, tired and generally needing some sleep. Much running through the Umbra, they arrive at the Cemetary Caern to find that it is -
- about 7am. They stumble into Graeme's cottage where he and Cossack were talking. Graeme makes food and hot beverages while Abby and Claws of Wisdom brain dump out about the two Full Moon Killer scenes ("It was a Black Spiral Dancer" (crash) as Graeme drops a mug), the faux-Kreig scene, Joe Ridgeway's death and the encampment where they left the Realm. Abby discreetly doesn't mention the scene they saw with Corey, not having had a chance to talk about it between the pack. Jane adds a couple of observations to their testimony, but doesn't say anything about her own scenes. Once she's done, she goes and finds Ends-the-Quiet to return to her own sept. Abby mentions that she and Krieg want to challenge for rank 2 tomorrow night at the Moot, and Cossack tells her he'll mention it to Ian. Apparently Rippling Waters asked if Claws of Wisdom would be able to make it to their Moot, but the pack feel that they'd rather stay here for this moot, which Cossack approves of.
The pack return to their homes. Abby fills in her diary, Freya catches up with Brad and Jordan, Cole finds that the statues have been behaving themselves (as normal, not well), Corey gets some sleep before going out Stuffhunting and Krieg sees how many lessons he has to catch up on.
The night of the Moot rolls around. Corey brings along his wired-together sculpture of Stuff. The Garou perform their own little rituals beforehand, and then the Moot begins with Opening Howl and Inner Sky, thanking all the spirits around the caern for their assistence in the last month. Cossack, sitting on his soap box asks Abby to relate what happened to them in the Atrocity Realm. She does so, and the Sept talk about the scenes they saw. Cole notices that Corey's sculpture includes his number plates and starts bickering about it until Chris McNeil hits him in the head with a halfcan of beer and yells "Shut the hell up". A brief pause and then back into the discussion. Everyone agrees that it sounds like a Dancer is in town, possibly a small pack if the other figures are also Dancers and with him. Cole shows the Sept the painting he created of the Full Moon Killer - the Garou is poised about the Fergusson's bed, green eyes glinting with more than reflected light, with a mad light of their own. There is also some sort of hint of monk's robes about the dark fur, but its indistinct. Freya suggests some sort of bane-alarm system, but its pointed out that there are small banes everywhere in the city. Other methods of detecting possible Dancer intrusion are discussed.
Abby tells people about the false, 6fingered Krieg and advances their theory that it might be the same doppleganger thing that mimiced Mandras Skywatcher. Aquinas asks why they think that and Abby shrugs and says its just a thought. A number of the Sept are looking at Krieg and someone suggests if their theory is true, he might have brought it with him. No one is really sure what is happening.
The issue of the vanishing steroid fomor is also discussed, especially in connection with Pearce. Kirsty says nothing. Not a word. Nada. She does radiate "I told you so" though. No one can really add much in the way of facts and so the discussion goes around and around for a while.
Ian takes the floor, and says that he believes that some members of the Sept wish to challenge for Rank 2. Abby and Krieg stand up from where they were sitting. Ian looks at Abby and says that he suggests to demonstrate her fitness as a Galliard, she tell the story of their trip to the Scar in a formal garou way (alliteration, in the Garou tongue, etc). She has an hour to prepare, so Abby backs out of the immediate circle. Ian turns to Krieg and says that when one is able to become 9 foot tall and immensely strong, fighting your enemies is a lot easier than it would normally be (a few faint "yeah!"s drift across the Sept). However, technique and form is just as important to a true warrior. To be recognised as rank 2, Krieg will demonstrate to the Sept his grasp of the subtlties of fighting an opponent. Krieg has also an hour. He wanders off to meditate.
People sort of break up into smaller groups. Corey shows off his sculpture, making up on the spot what it means. Cole seems to like bits of it, specifically the bits that don't include his number plates. A couple of people start to play some of their instruments, and there is a bit of general mingling. Cossack tells the story of the fall of the Black Spiral Dancers (The tribe that used to be the White Howlers (Picts in Scotland), their pride in their ability to defeat the wyrm and their eventual downfall through this pride). Eventually Ian calls Abby back and asks her to begin. Although Abby knows the form she wants to use, she does spend a lot of time doign the Garou equivilent of "um, ah". When she winds down, Ian suggests that she learn some more about the formal traditions of the Garou. As Kreig stands up, Abby fades into the background and destroys some inoffensive bit of ground. Krieg runs through both direct physical kata and some of the melee forms. The hand-to-hand demonstration is not the most elegeant - Krieg keeps trying to demonstrate the way he would when teaching - but the sword-based demonstration is very elegant and smooth. Ian confers with the other Elders and they agree that he is a competant Ahroun and worthy to be recognised as Rank 2. Abby turns up and joins the congratulations, albeit perhaps with gritted teeth.
The Moot continues with stories and songs. Abby fades away and heads home, proceeding to get completely hammered. Kreig notices that Kirsty seems to be getting a lot of indirect attention from the Elders when she speaks, and it becomes clear that she has been chosen for the position of WyrmFoe for this Moot (Krieg suspects an indirect apology for the animal experimentation bruhah). Krieg and Bob summon Merlin and ask him to keep an eye out for the Full Moon Killer, if he can. The Moot ramps up and eventually the raging Garou head out of the caern, in search of wyrm taint.
Several hours later, Claws of Wisdom, sans packleader, are in Richmond when Merlin swoops down and speaks to Bob, saying that he has found the trail of the one they seek, although that one has gone. Bob and Krieg run off, leaving a somewhat confused Cole and Corey to trail along. Merlin leads them to a street in South Yarra, near Melbourne High and the train line. There are a large number of weaver spiders unusually active over one particular Umbral house. Krieg peeks and sees a fire and police. He and Bob head off to find somewhere to step, but Corey demands to know what is happening, as does Cole. Follows a fairly incomprehensible argument, but in the end Kreig and Bob step. The argument continues and finally Krieg says that they are looking for the Full Moon Killer and a bit of biffo. Corey throws up his hands and asks why they didn't say that in the first place. Bob heads off (in lupus and tries to find scents around the place). The actual fire is about 150m away, and seems to be centred on a car rather than on the house. There are two fire-engines pouring water on the fire, which seems to go out, but when they pull the water off it, it bursts into flame again. Kreig tries a Sense Unnatural, and senses wyrm and rage and just a faint touch of what might be magic. Oh good.
Abby is on her second bottle of baileys.
Bob finds the scent of the FMK up on the railway embankment which overlooks this scene as he moves between curious onlookers who also think that its a good view. The scent leads down into the police cordon after moving backwards and forwards a bit, so presumably the FMK ran down from here to attack. Corey uses his Persuasion gift and chats up one of the ambulance guys - apparently some nut case with a chainsaw cut the lid open on the car, and then dumped napalm inside or something. Yeah, there's at least two bodies in their, but they are so much charcoal now. The firies can't seem to put the bugger out, its like its got an ignition source inside the car.
Eventually the crowd decides its cold and nothing of interest is happening, so they start to break up. Bob takes advantage of this to scent around more thoroughly, and finds the FMK scent leading away from the scene, towards Melbourne High, over the fence and then fading away in the weird way it has before in the middle of the oval. The pack wonder if they can find a spirit that might have seen something, but its pretty much a wide open expanse, and grass spirits probably know nothing. They check the Umbra, but there's no scents there either.
Abby passes out.
Figuring that it will be easier to let the police investigate and then scam the info off them, the pack call it a night and head back to the caern. They meet up with the other packs and tell them what they saw and then drink or drift off to sleep, as per their individual tastes.
A cave, dark and dump. A pool standing, still and serene, and a skull rises out of it, water dripping back into the pool. The drips slow and leave trails of flesh, slowly filling out a complete figure of a crinos-form Bunyip. With closed eyes it raises its head and suddenly a black hand claws it across the throat, blood spurting everywhere. A rock falls from the sky, crushing the body into pool and kicking up a spray of fouled water. The water hangs in their air and forms thick dark clouds. Descending through the murk and flying over a landscape of vast metal towers, twisted walkways and machines belching fumes and smoke. Banes swarm everywhere, now flying over a garden filled with people being tortured and a forest of evil trees. From the forest a thousand streams like veins run together into a black river to a giant fountain that spews black muck high into the air. Over a strip mine surrounding a toxic lake, descending towards the ground, ahead appears a Gothic looking cathedral. The doors open and reveal infinite darkness inside, engulfing -
The pack wake with their usual "WAAAAARGH" at the caern, earning them a disgusted look from Barry who was sleeping nearby. They head off and do their thing for the day. Checking the newspaper reveals that there were actually 3 corpses in the car - 2 children and their mother, the Horsefall family. Police are "following some promising leads".
People get on with their lives. Krieg spends some time at the State Library at Abby's suggestion and finds out some information about the faux-Krieg scene they saw in the Northern Territory by looking through the Alice Springs Gazette. It takes him a while, but he manages to find out that there was a burnt out car matching the second car's description as well as some unidentifable remains nearby found about 200kms northwest of Alice Springs. Apparently some of the locals decided that it was the local aboriginals who did it, and organised an informal reprisal, which in turn led to some return fire. The upshot of things is that the case was unsolved (mostly because some of these free-enterprise attempts at justice happened on the site of the bodies), two locals from the nearby town were arrested but not charged, several aboriginals also from nearby were arrested and charged with assault. As an aside, another car, matching the rego of the one the fomori woman was working was found ditched 50kms or so, although there is no confirmed evidence that the two were related. (Doesn't stop the papers putting the two things in the same articles though).
Kreig finds Cossack in Bourke St, and tells him what he has found over lunch (feed the Sept Leader!). Cossack looks a bit concerned and says that that particular area is somewhere between Uktena and Red Talon territory - rather than Kreig and the pack tearing off there, he'd rather let them know via the grapevine that something weird happened in the area, and the garou of Sleeping Lore would appreciate hearing about it if they found anything.
Corey chats to Krieg that afternoon, and then goes on a trip (Corey only).
Cole rings Abby early in the morning and demands to know if she has his car, or failing that, does she know where the hell Corey is, because if that bastard has scratched his ca-. Abby drops the phone onto the cradle and goes back to sleep. Kreig jumps when the phone rings and gets a similar shpiel.
Corey returns later that day, and chats with Abby and Freya. They tell the rest of the pack that they are going to head off for a while, maybe two weeks because Corey made a bit of a mistake and they need to sort it out. Bob is all for the whole pack going, but Abby seems to think that it wouldn't necessarily be a good idea.
After a bit of back and forthing, Abby is convinced that they should go together. Its suggested to Cole and Krieg that they should stand at the back and look inconspicious though. The pack get their stuff together and join the large numbers of cars heading north for the Easter holidays.
Look.
What?
A brown hill.
Oh.
A rather tired pack (or at least tired of "I spy") roll into Glen Gallic, a small town within the bounds of the Wollemi National Park. They get out of the cars and look around. The town seems mostly to be a stopping place for the national park, and its not very big. They grab some small amount of stuff and head out along one of the walk tracks, endeavoring to look as much like hikers as they can. After a bit they step sideways. The Umbra, unlike much of the trip, seems to more or less match up, although it is richer and more alive than the Realm. Abby leads the way, howling and using Call of the Wyld to make sure that the Garou here know they are coming. After a time the pack is approached by a group of lupus, mostly large red wolves. Abby drops to her stomach and then shifts up to Crinos. She formally introduces her pack in Garou tongue. The packleader from the other pack replies in kind - her name is Forest-Heart (Osgar in homid tongue), a Lupus Fianna (rank 2) and her pack is Comnhall Cinaeda ("wolf strong born of fire"), and mostly composed of lupus garou. Abby explains that they are hear for personal reasons and would appreciate being able to speak to the caern elders. ForestHeart says if they remain here, she will see if one of the elders will come and speak to them.
Claws of Wisdom sit and wait in the nice sun. In a short while Comnhall Cinaeda return with another Garou. She changes form into the homid - she's a large blond haired woman, flannel and jeans, no shoes. She sits down and says that she is Kim Strachan, Caern Warder of Tumbling Silver (Lupus Fianna). Abby gives her a quick explanation, and then pushes Corey forward to explain why he is here - basically that he went through First Change in a violent fashion after being attacked and responded in kind, killing his attackers. Recently he found out that one of them was possibly Fianna kinfolk (Osgar and her pack shift a bit) and wanted to come and apologise. Kim blinks a little and says that she will need to speak to the other Sept elders, but that she respects his honesty. Kim suggests that the pack return to this spot at dusk and she will meet them there. They agree and head back to Glen Gallic.
Cole decides that somewhere to sleep is in order and goes to the pub (no red dragon jobs, damn). The local constable is sitting there and quickly whips his beer off the table and looks a bit more official. Cole speaks to Maggie who looks like she fell straight off the set of a Country Practice. They organise for a couple of rooms for tonight at least and take some of their stuff out of the cars. Corey listens to thrash metal and the comforting whine of electronics. Freya goes for a walk on the nearby walking tracks, enjoying the scenery. The others kill some time in the pub, chatting with people. Abby figures half the people here are Kinfolk, but she's not sure so she decides to sensibly not push the issue.
Just after dusk the pack return to the spot in the Umbra. Waiting for them are three Garou - Kim, Aidan Lyall (dark hair, pale skin, scottish accent, heavyset, Homid Fianna Theurge) who is the Sept Leader and Hides-the-Moon (almost golden blond/red lupus, Lupus Fianna Theurge) who is the RiteMaster for the Sept. They chat to Corey a bit more about what happened. Aidan says that the MacDonalds are indeed kinfolk, and suggests that Corey undergo a Rite that they use for this sort of situation while serving the Sept to work off his blood debt. Corey agrees. Abby pipes up and says that she recently challenged for rank two, but was unsucessful. Given that her task consisted of performing in the Garou tongue and the Fianna are known for their bardic tendencies, she asks that she be allowed to stay for a time and learn from the Sept. The sept leaders talk quietly for a few moments, and Aidan agrees - if Claws of Wisdom will remain at the Sept for a week and help them, they will help Abby with her challenge. The pack agree to this, and everyone looks happy.
Claws of Wisdom are led to the centre of the caern - a pool at the bottom of a long waterfall - after some fairly arduous climbing. Its fairly noisy as the water splashes off rocks on its way to pouring into the pool. Hides-the-Moon asks Corey if he knows the Rite of Contrition, which he does. Hides-the-Moon suggests that it would be an ideal time to perform the ritual, apologising to the slain gallain (kin). Corey performs the ritual fairly well and the spirits seem satisfied (ie: he wasn't sucked into the pool by the caern spirit). Hides-the-Moon asks Corey if he accepts the debt that he has incurred and Corey does. Hides-the-Moon performs another Rite, one that the pack are not familiar with. As Corey watches, his hands are stained blood red to above the wrists. The rest of the pack can almost see it out the corner of their eyes, but it seems to only be a spiritual stain, not a physical one. Hides-the-Moon says that the stain will fade as Corey repays the Fianna for the loss of their kinfolk.
That night the visiting pack are treated to a feast of sorts and pestered for news of the outside world - Tumbling Silver is a bit isolated, so they are starved for information. They have however, heard of Scars Atoned, and want to hear the whole story from start to end, which keeps the pack talking for most of the evening.
Comnhall Ciraeda give the pack a bit of a run, showing them the outlines of the bawn. It mostly encompasses the National Park, which is a huge water catchment area. Claws of Wisdom are asked to run perimeter while the Fianna pack check out some things outside the bawn. Claws of Wisdom aren't being exactly given the shitty jobs, but they do definately get the feeling that the Sept is undermanned. And that the lakes are very cold. Its a long, but not terribly distressing day.
Sitting around the caern that night, a message is sent to the Sept saying that some of the kinfolk in a nearby town are a bit disturbed by some bikies that have just rocked up and would appreciate it if the Garou could come and check them out. Aidan decides to send Claws of Wisdom out to check it out. The town is a fair trek away, but its still quickest to run there. The pack head out through the National Park, cross fields and highways and get to the pub they've been directed to. The bikies are a bit tainted, but nothing too evil. The pack cleanse them and are happy with the result. They head back again towards the Sept through the Realm.
As they are going past the edge of a village on the highway that borders the national park, they spot some drunk guy wandering up the middle of the road. A truck comes around a corner, and shows no signs of slowing. Freya, Krieg, Cole and Abby sprint out in front of the truck, which sees them and slams on the brakes, slowly jackknifing. Abby is a bit slower than the others and glances behind to see the closing truck. She opts to step sideways instead of being run over. The others crashtackle the guy off the road as the truck skuds past. Freya loses her grip on the guy's coat and goes bum first into the cold, cold muddy water in the ditch. Cole looks up the road and checks the truck has stopped, seeing the driver leap out and stomp their way. He turns to speak to the guy but slams into a telephone pole instead. Krieg sniggers and then feels something land on his head. Possum shit, as it turns out. Abby reappears in the realm but stays out of the way and tries to figure out what is going on.
The truck driver arrives and starts abusing everyone, screaming abuse at the morons who tried to get themselves killed. He slips in the mud and lands on his face. Cole leads him back to the truck cos he's starting to shake now. Krieg introduces himself to the drunk guy, who is apparently called Joe (and despite every effort of the gm, has an irish accent). Krieg senses unnatural and gets a strange, strange sense... much like that which is on Cole's statues. Abby tries the same, but she doesn't sense anything about him at all. Cole tries to pay off the truck driver, who is in shock and not making much sense. They eventually move the truck out of the way of other traffic. Joe offers to take Krieg and his friends back for a drink, or indeed have one here. Abby lunges at the flask that Joe is waving about. Somehow she ends up tangled in the barbed wire next to Joe. Freya sniffs Joe in lupus and just ends up with her fur rising from the alcohol. Joe starts heading off, Corey heads for somewhere dark where he can change form, and some of the pack follow him. Abby snarls a deep gutteral snarl behind Joe, but Joe just says that the doggie sounds cross. Joe offers Krieg's nice doggie some of the whiskey he has. As Abby moves forward, she puts her paw heavily down onto a nail, sticking out of a hidden bit of wood. She nearly frenzies.
The pack slip away from Joe, who doesn't seem to notice. As Krieg climbs the fence, the wire snaps and a length of barbed wire recoils, hitting him in the rear. Joe's singing now. They have a brief discussion about what's happening, and then Corey sees that Joe has just run into three drunk louts who are shouting and being menacing. As Corey heads over there, the three guys go Joe. Or try to. They are falling about the place while Joe is pretty oblivious. Corey calls Joe to the fence. Joe manages to get there and not get caught on the barbed wire. As Corey says something to him, one of the louts runs up with a branch or something, intending to smack Joe in the head. Corey catches the guys arm, but as he does, Joe slips to the ground anyway. Corey makes it clear that he'd like to be left alone, but without breaking any bones, and the three thug-like gentlefolk run for it.
The pack kindly offer to take Joe home, which he is happy about, while speculating madly about Wyld spirits. Cole mumbles something about Leprecauns and a street sign falls and hits him in the head. As Joe and the pack head vaguely to Joe's house, they gather that he is perhaps not the most upstanding member of his community when it comes to lost property or the liquor licensing laws. With only a few more minor incidents, they reach Joe's 'house'. It looks like it was too much effort to build at once, so someone's had several goes at it over a few years. There are distinct pieces. Joe has some trouble with his keys, mostly the fact that he is trying to open the door with the clasp, but he manages to imply that his keys are strange - further investigation says he's just drunk. Joe offers the hospitality of his home by waving vaguely at the roof and saying "mkslef comfbl". Cole scores some paint and stuff from a nominal workshop and starts painting Joe (no, not literally). Corey pours Joe a beer from his personal stash, which while a bit murky tastes quite good. Corey's not too keen to let anyone else have any, but Abby pokes him a lot. Joe slumps unconscious, much to everyone's relief (he was trying to get them to sing) and a small, hairy and green man appears.
Abby and Freya try and speak to this fellow who is apparently called Bill. They quiz Bill on where he comes from, and he says he came from home via the soft place. Bill explains he was just having some fun, and he hopes there are no hard feelings. They keep asking about where he comes from, and whether they could come along and whether he's from here, and Bill looks at them like they are idiots. He doesn't come from here - its too hard, and itchy. They get across that they are shapechangers and Bill looks a bit shifty and asks if they know someone called Danny, and that it should be made clear that he didn't take it. They reassure him they don't know Danny. Some sensing, which shows the sense of weirdness that matches Cole's statues comes straight from Bill. Some more chatting, and Bill starts to scratch. Abby asks if they could come with him back home, and Bill says 'sure' and disappears. Checking the Umbra reveals nothing, and in the Realm there is only Joe's snoring and his beer (Corey: "No beer here"). How mysterious. Cole's painting is checked and an unconscious Joe is depicted with a rather horns-and-ivy look about him.
The pack return to the Sept and make some enquiries. Abby asks whether it might have been a faerie, and Aidan says that it might very well have been a low fae. Abby makes suggestions about approaching Bill as an ally, but Aidan shrugs and says that the low fae are a bit too mercurial (and not too bright is the subtext) to make serious alliances with.
The pack has been discovering that this Sept is a lot more lupus like than the one protecting the city caern. There are squabbles over status that are resolved not verbally with but with a certain amount of physical violence. Its a bit of a shock when Claws of Wisdom see an argument about who gets to sleep closer to the fire resolved via a battle in crinos, but none of the local Garou seem particularly surprised.
Krieg too, is finding himself on the unpleasant end of a stick. He is cornered at one point by the two ahroun members of Comnhall Ciraeda who demand he get his stinky metis body out of their river. Krieg just shrugs and puts up with it, leaving the river. They kick sand in his face, and the lupus pisses on his stuff, but he just wears it. Corey has surreptiously seen this, and really doesn't let them push him around, establishing his place in the pecking order. Abby notices some of the abuse going on, and doesn't stand for it. The Sept elders aren't exactly sympathetic though.
Having been here for a whole week, the pack is thrown a farewell feast. There is drinking and song and stories and general Garou frivolity. Corey digs deep into his repertoire of jokes and entertains everyone. Really.
Things are progressing well when Kim looks distracted and heads for the centre of the caern. There is a flash of silvery light and a moon bridge opens. Kim greets the woman who steps through who is a bit of a bruiser. Freya overhears a few snatches of conversation including "Sorcha Macdonald" "cousin" and so on. She also hears Sorcha saying something about "urrah" and "challenge". Corey fades behind the fire, but Kim and this woman move to where he is. Sorcha is a red-head, tattooed with multicoloured celtic designs up her arms, dressed in a sleeveless top, leather pants, no boots. She's missing a few teeth and generally portrays 'thug' quite well. She quickly makes it clear that she doesn't think much of Corey, or Abby, and that she wants to challenge Corey for her families honour, as Corey apparently killed her cousin. Abby says that he is paying his debt to the Sept, but after a bit of confusion it is cleared up that Sorcha is not challenging on behalf of the sept, but for her family. Corey is looking a bit unsure and things are starting to get tense when Jory, the Keeper of the Land asks to take Claws of Wisdom aside. He explains that Sorcha is challenging Corey so that symbollically, Macca has a chance to fight him back as an equal. Its will not be to the death, and it doesn't really matter who wins - the point is that there is a fair battle.
Corey returns to the fireside, where Sorcha is conversing with Cirigh, the Master of the Challenge. He formally accepts the challenge, placing himself under the authority of the Sept and the Master of the Challenge. Cirigh asks what test Corey chooses (as the challengee) and Corey chooses non-lethal combat. Sorcha sniffs a bit and heads up to a clearing away from the centre of the caern. The rest of the Sept follows along too, and from snippets of conversation, the pack pick up that Sorcha used to be part of this sept, but that she moved to Clouded Skies near Newcastle. Sorcha gets to the circle, pulls off her shirt and changes to glabro. Her entire torso is covered in tattoos, fianna glyphs, celtic knotwork, ahroun symbols and so on in a multicoloured riot. She says to Corey "I am Sorcha MacDonald, Ahroun Fostern of the Fianna, and I challenge you." Corey replies with "I am Corey er.. Mitcham, Ahroun Cliath of the Glasswalkers, and I accept." Sorcha pulls one of the two daggers at her waist and throws it into the ground at Corey's feet. He picks it up and checks its not silver and the combat begins.
A frenzy of flashing knives, dodging bodies and weird flickers in time commences, only to be suddenly finished when Sorcha drives her knife into Corey's heart, causing him to relocate to a more horizontal position. Sorcha looks fairly happy, Claws of Wisdom rush to pull the knife out of Corey's chest and heal him, the Sept looks bemused at the sudden entertainment. People return to the caern centre. Sorcha gets her knife back and after talking to Cirigh a bit more, moonbridges away. The celebration starts up a again, if a bit more muted. Corey checks out his battlescar.
Claws of Wisdom, sans Corey, pack up and head off. They are going to hang around vaguely in the area and wait for Corey to contact them. Well, actually they are going to the beach. Freya calls Brad and he and Jordan come up and join them. Corey continues his fight against the evil, evil blackberries.
Corey's hands are no longer stained with the spiritual blood and the Sept of Tumbling Silver agree that he has fulfilled the obligations of his blood debt to them. The Sept Elders walk him to Glen Gallic and wish him well, suggesting that he and his pack may return at a later time if they wish. Corey makes his call, and the pack drive back and pick him up from Scone. ("Hey, this is beach sand!" Jordan waves a shell at him "Pretty!") Much driving back to Melbourne.
