Claws of Wisdom Chronology

November 2001

Thursday 1 - Wednesday 7

  Because the Claws of Wisdom have been rostered on for Caern duty this week they decide to have some well earned rest and see about learning new gifts and rituals. They get in contact with various spirits and other Garaou who help them. Bob learns Command spirit and has to write down all his dreams for Chimera in return. He also spends time learning more about creating talens (Bob only). Kreig heads off to Grinding Stone to learn venom blood, which basically involves being bitten by a snake spirit numerous times. This makes him rather ill but by the end of it he has a nifty new gift. Abby wants to learn Jam Technology, but before she can do that she needs to learn repair so she gets Harold to help her. They spend a few days pulling appart and (sometimes) sucessfully putting Cole's icecream truck back together again (Abby only). Jay hangs around learning more about the way of life down in Melbourne and Cole goes to visit Siobhan in hospital (Cole only).

On November the 7th, after they've finished their Caern duty, Freya, Jay and Abby are all hanging around the Caern chatting when before them a Moonbridge opens. Monash Ends-the-Darkness steps off. He's the Jindabyne council member for the Stargazers. He heads off to Graham's cottage. A few minutes later someone comes to fetch the Claws of Wisdom, saying that Cossack and Monash want to speak to them. Freya calls the rest of the pack and they all head over. Cossack welcomes them and tells them to take a seat. They do and Monash begins talking. He says that a few months ago, after Marion's death, Alexander Urosevic arrived at one of the Stargazer Septs in Queensland. Alex had left Melbourne shortly after the events in Sydenee, and his pack, the Hand of Lore also disbanded. Monash informs them that Alex seems to be suffering from Harano, which is a deep depression, and that the Sept of Dreaming Hands (his Sept) is attempting to help him. At one stage the whole sept was affected with Harano and managed to break out of it and since then have vowed to help other Garou aflicted with the same thing. Freya says they'd like to help if they can.

Monash explains about Alex's current state. Alex blames himself for Marion's death (flashback: Alex frenzied while they were attackign the Hive, and Marion lept forward to defend him, and was subsequently killed)... but when he isn't blaming himself he's blaming the Claws of Wisdom. He's not thinking rationally and nothing seems to help him. Monash says that he would like the Claws of Wisdom to try and help Alex The pack looks slightly stunned by this news and then Freya quickly says that they'd love to help but they're unsure how exactly they COULD help. Monash says that he dreamt of them in connection with helping Alex, although the dream was somewhat unclear.

Someone suggests taking Alex to the atrocity realm so that he can see Marion's death and see that neither him nor the Claws of Wisdom were to blame. Monash says that he doesn't think that will help, it might make him worse to have to relive all the pain again and Cossack adds that it might not have made an impression into the atrocity realm anyway - Marion fell bravely in battle. Cole then suggests staging an emergency to snap him out of it. Graham glares at Cole and then at the huge metal pan lying on the table. Cole gets the message and shuts up. Monash invites the pack to come with him back to Dreaming Hands to see what they can do. The pack agree and they set off over the Moonbridge via Jindabyne. On the way people discuss various methods of making Alex happy such as awakening a Prozac spirit or summoning Marion to talk to Alex. However there is also lots of discussion about whether it is possible to summon a dead garou as they can be reborn anywhere.

Soon they arrive in Carnarvon Gorge in Queensland. They are standing in a tropical rainforest, it's humid and there are lots of bird noises all around them. Monash looks around and points in the direction they have to go. Bob is skeptical and asks him if he actually know where they are. Monash replies that the Moonbridge can end anywhere in the rainforest on a random basis but yes he does know where they are.

They start walking. The gorge is quite wide and every now and then they see paintings on the rock walls which shimmer and change as the pack move past them. Soon Monash leads them into a clearing. There are a few garou standing about waiting for them. Monash introduces the pack to Indira Songs-of-Sorrow, the Sept leader, Dale Earth-Sky-Twinning, the caern warder and Cherri Backward-Glance, the Master of the Rite. All three are Stargazers - Indira is 40ish and looks vaguely polynesisan. Indira asks the pack if they have had any ideas about what to do. Someone mentions summoning Marion, Indira looks skeptical. She then explains that when most Garou are in Harano they usually end up killing themselves or they are killed by others as part of the Litany (Thou shalt not suffer thy people to tend thee in sickness). She also says that Alex has given up, he's basically going through the motions, helping around the caern. Alex blamed Kreig specifically at one point as he was Peter's friend. The pack look upset at this and Jay says that maybe he should speak with Alex as he wasn't part of the pack at that point. Abby asks if anyone has done Call of the Wyld to bolster his spirits. Indira says that they haven't but it probably wouldn't help in the long term. Cole suggests that the pack should refocus his hate on Abby. Abby elbows him and Cole shuts up. Abby then suggests maybe using dream speak to help him. Indira seems to think that the idea has some merit. They formulate a plan. Firstly Jay will have a go at speaking to him and then Freya would try Dreamspeaking.

Monash leads Jay off to find Alex whilst the rest of the pack hang around and look at the sept. Jay is lead through marshy areas towards the river, it's very quiet and peaceful here. The shadows flicker oddly. There are more rockpaintings on the walls. They're walking along the river and up head of them Jay can see a man sitting on a rock staring out into the river. Monash introduces Jay to Alex saying that he would like to speak to him for a while if that's okay. Alex shrugs and says 'whatever'. Jay sits down nearby and asks him what he's doing. Alex is very abrupt and says the gorge is very large, maybe he should look around. Jay says he's a new member of the Claws of Wisdom.

At the mention of their name, Alex gets visibily more agitated and asks if they are here. Jay says yes and Alex says that he can tell them to fuck the hell off and if he has any sense he will run the hell away as well. Jay looks confused and asks why. Alex replies that they're bad blood, they always fuck things up, they got members of his pack killed. Jay says that he wasn't around then but he's very sorry for what happened. Alex stalks off, trying hard not to frenzy. Jay leaves and rejoins the pack, explaining that Alex is very unhappy with the pack and just talking to him won't achieve anything.

   Bob and Abby perform Questing Stone in the realm and in the Umbra to see if they can find Marion. Unfortunately there is no response from the stone in either realm. Monash looks thoughtful and Freya asks how they're going to find Marion. Monash says that maybe they don't have to find her directly, she's still gone but that's part of the whole cycle. Alex is hung up on one part of the cycle, maybe if they find the spirit they can demonstrate to Alex that it's not really a loss. Jay interrupts says that it's a loss for Alex. Monash continues, saying that he doesn't know exactly how to find her but maybe Grek might as he's a Silent Strider and they are associated with Anubis and know the most about death and rebirth. However as Grek doesn't belong to a sept, he might be difficult to track down. Monash and the Claws of Wisdom wander back to the main part of the Caern so that he can get started with trying to find Grek. He tells the pack that they can make themselves at home for the rest of the day and he'll come and get them when it's time to do something.

Bob decides to use the day to go pig hunting, although wild pigs aren't exactly what he imagined from his brief stints on farms. However, relying using his outstanding hunting skills Bob is able to overcome the large cranky omnivore and even manages to sever it's tail as a memento. Mmmmm pig. The rest of the pack opt for slightly less bloody activities. Jay and Abby go swimming in the river and Freya relaxes in the sunshine.

After dusk a moonbridge opens and Grek appears. Monash greets him and fills him in on what has happened. Monash then calls the Claws of Wisdom over and Grek asks Freya what she thinks the dream meant. She says that she thinks it means that Marion is still around either in her own or some other body. Grek asks if the pack have met an ancestor spirit before, the pack nod (Clarence). Grek says that many Garou can touch the memories of their past lives, but he was referring to Ancestor spirits. The homid members of the pack nod and say that some of their gifts are taught by such spirits. He goes on to explain about how when garou die there is some..oddness.. often they don't die completely and that's when an ancestor spirit can appear, whether near there death location or somewhere in the Umbra. This is different from ghosts, which are a wrongness trying to be set right.

Grek points out that if they take up this task, then it is tantamount to beginning a Death Quest, one of the most spiritual journeys in myth and legend - some of the most powerful stories known to Garou and humans alike refer to travelling to the lands of the dead. Freya asks if it would work better if Alex accompanied them. Monash says no as he's had enough trauma.

The night is spent at the caern as Grek then goes on to tell the pack all sorts of death-related stories, many of which are Greek (Orpheus and Eurydice, Hercules and Cerebus, Odysseus and Thiresias) but also Norse stories about Nifelheim and Hel (Balder and Helmod), stories of Egyptian and Fianna myth, as well as ghost stories, stories of ancestor spirits, past lives. Grek mentions that the tales of Garou include previous quests that Garou have undertaken to find the spirits of the dead - there is no step by step process to the process, you simply starting looking and asking whereever you can think of.

Friday 9

The next morning people get back together. Someone asks if maybe Marion put her soul into Alex when she died as this transfer can sometimes happen. There's a lot of unspoken communication between the sept elders and someone wanders off, presumably to check. They return and shake their head. Grek suggests that the first place they might consider looking is the Bone Gnawer homeland, a spirit realm in the Umbra - Rat lives there, and he may know what has happened to Marion's spirit, her being a Bone Gnawer and all. He suggests talking to Cossack about that, and seeing if he can arrange something as they are in a Bone Gnawer sept. The pack thank Grek and get someone to open a moonbridge for them. They step on and soon arrive back in the cemetery. Cossack looks a bit surprised to see them so soon. Freya fills him in and asks about the Bonegnawer homeland. Cossack says that Grek's plan sounds logical however there's not really enough Bonegnawers in the pack for it to be quite so easy - being non-tribe members is going to make their trip fundamentally pointless.

There is an out - they could undertake a rite of recognition which will make them like an honourary Bonegnawer. However, this has its own problems - while Cossack could perform the ritual, it could be seen as a bit of conflict of interest - its not a ritual to be done just to get around inconvenient situations. He would almost perform it as part of their trying to help out Alex (another Bone Gnawer), but it might be better to get some of the Bone Gnawers at the Ear-to-the-Ground sept to do it. When it is pointed out that the Ear-To-The-Ground sept hates the Claws of Wisdom's guts for almost destroying their Caern and for killing off half the sept, Cossack says that this is an opportunity to mend some bridges, particularly since Mother Pasta is on the Jindabyne Council and it would be nice if she didn't want to kill them all. Cossack seems pretty adamant, so the pack grumble a bit, but agree. Cossack says that he will accompany them there, and people brighten up a bit.

Cossack tells them to go and get organised and to meet back in a few hours. Everyone wanders off.. Abby grumbling about Mother Pasta under her breath.

A couple of hours later they all meet back up and a moonbridge is opened for them. The pack and Cossack arrive in a cellar, it is filled with the stench of stale beer. It's quite cold in the cellar. The master of the rite - Herman looks very surprised as they appear in the sept. He sees cossack and says 'hi.....'. Freya introduces herself and the rest of the pack and explains what is going on. At that point the door at the top of the stairs opens and Eustace Blunt (packleader of Misery-Loves-Company) begins walking down the steps.. when she sees who is in front of her, she raises her eyebrows and stammers that she'll back back later. A few seconds later, from upstairs the pack can hear everyone suddenly silent and then a whole lot more talking. Herman send the rest of the pack upstairs so that he can talk to Cossack alone. The pack walk up the stairs and enter the bar. Everyone stops to look at them. They sit down at a free table and try and look unobvious. Cossack and Herman come back up after a while, and Cossack heads over - he says that Herman doesn't think its a bad idea, but they will need to speak to Mother Pasta, who is out at the moment.

In about 45 minutes, Mother Pasta appears and looks seriously pissed off when she sees the Claws of Wisdom Cossack and Herman intercept her before she has a chance to reach the pack. As Cossack talks, an evil smile spreads across Mother Pasta's face. Freya and Mother Pasta go outside. Freya explains the situation and explains well using lots of emphasis on helping (Bone Gnawers...helping...helping...Bone Gnawers. Them, helping Bone Gnawers). Mother Pasta goes back and speaks to Cossack and Herman and Josephine Brereton, the Gatekeeper.

After a time, Cossack comes over to the pack and informs them that she's agreed to help, however it could take some time. Cossack bids farewell to his pack and walks back down to the Cellar. he stops in the doorway and looks back at his pack and says "keep your senses of humour". Soon after Cossack leaves things get slightly less welcoming in the bar. Someone walks past and 'accidently' spills beer on Freya and keeps walking. Freya chases after him and explains her problem with ingesting alcohol and asks him what the hell he's doing. He turns and spits 'Our pack leader was killed last time you were here, I don't care if you break the veil' and keeps walking. Freya goes and sits down again.. everyone is quieter.

About 11pm there's a call for last drinks, and all of the humans are chased out, blinds are pulled and doors are locked. Garou step out of the Umbra and from deeper into the caern. Mother Pasta, who hasn't been around for a few hours returns and the elders move behind the bar, and the rest of the 30-40 garou clear a space and take seats on top of tables and such around the clear space. Mother Pasta stands up and addresses the group. She informs them that the Claws of Wisdom are here to help Marion. they want to visit the Bonegnawer homeland but first need to be recognised by the Rat as a Bonegnawer. There is a certain amount of cat calling and hollering. She continues, saying although two of th pack are Bone Gnawer, they will also undertake the rite as part of their pack. Herman then takes over and she returns behind the bar.

Herman gets the pack to stand up individually and tell the sept something about themselves. There is a *lot* of heckling from the crowd and lots of beer is thrown. Some people also throw bottles but get stern looks from some of the Sept elders. After they've finished trying to yell over the din of garou voices Herman tells them what will happen. She says the for the next couple of weeks the Claws of wisdom will have to BE Bone Gnawers. And the first part of that is shucking their old identities. Herman asks for suggestions from the floor. She points at Freya and asks for suggestions. There are some rude cat calls including "Muuummmy". The Claws of Wisdom notice the guy who threw beer on Freya earlier speaking to people they recognise from the Streetsweepers, and the lot of them stand up and yell 'One-Pot-Screamer'. This produces a fair bit of laughter, and Herman says that she is now One-Pot-Screamer of the Bone Gnawers, and the Gnawers shower her in Tooeys and other beer, causing her to change form.

The others are drawn up one at a time, and given names one at a time and then christened with beer. Kreig takes the centre stage and the yelling includes Mr Stinky, Fights-with-Stench and Fenrir's-Bastard!, before settling on the best suggestion of Breaks-Like-Wind'. Abby is next - Smells-like-Fish, Drunk-on-Duty and other incoherent suggestions are yelled out before Herman settles for Snarls-at-Suggestions, Jumps-in-Puddles doesn't seem too well known, but in honour of his relative newness to the pack, end up Red-Shirt. Bob is nearly Bin-Liner but ends up as Oscar-the-Grouch, and for Cole it's Fleas-from-America. The whole process takes forever because people keep yelling out and just generally mocking the pack. Herman then says that they'll have to have a new pack name as well... he speaks briefly with the other Elders and then declares the pack to be Trouble-Magnet of the Bone Gnawers. More cheering and arcs of peer (please let it be beer). Herman says that the pack's first task is to clean up and serve behind the bar. He also tells them that they shall remain Bone Gnawers until the spirits and the elders are happy.

The festivities continue well into the night with Trouble Magnet busy scrubbing tables and washing dishes and getting beer alllll over themselves.

Saturday 10 - Friday 16

For the next week, Trouble Magnet are given all the fun jobs like cleaning the toilets, but they also get to do worthwhile stuff like giving clothes and food to homeless people.

On Friday night, they've been trusted enough to go out on their own, and are heading back to Ear-to-the-Ground when in the distance, silhouetted by car lights, Trash Magnet can see 3 figures kicking something that appears to be lying on the ground. The pack decide to try and sneak up. When they get close enough they can see that it's 3 kids beating up a homeless guy who's not moving very much. Breaks-Like-Wind does a sense unnatural and it comes up with nothing weird. The pack stealthily manage to sneak up on the boys, with Red Shirt managing to get to the car and toot the horn at them. They jump a mile in the air and the rest of the pack jump on them. While they're busy fighting, Oscar heals the old guy. Snarls-At-Suggestions has the main ring-leader in a headlock and at that his friends run off, only to be confronted by Breaks-Like-Wind who was hiding a few metres away. Snarls-At-Suggestions intimidates the guy to the point where he's begging for his life, she then takes his wallet and gives the money to the homeless guy, who has been brought mostly around (although his breath alone is nearly enough to make One-Pot-Screamer change to crinos). Breaks-Like-Wind brings the other two back unconscious and all three of them are stuffed into the car and all doors except one are locked and they throw the keys into the harbour. They then set about cleansing the car and it's contents.

Chatting with the homeless guy (Andy) gives them an idea that they just came out of nowhere and went him - no hestitation, which might suggest they've done this before. They offer to take him to 7/11 to get him some food.

Saturday 17

It's about 1pm and One-Pot-Screamer is sitting in the pub at the Ear-To-The-Ground sept in Sydney. There are a few non-Garou people around but it's mostly Garou occupying the tables and bar stools. Florence, the Caern Warden, comes over to One-Pot-Screamer's table and informs her that there is a bit of a problem around the city. People have been selling bad smack. A couple of people are seriously ill and a couple more are in the mourge. It's been in the newspaper and the Sept would appreciate if Trouble Magnet would look into it and stop any futher fatalities. One-Pot-Screamer calls up the rest of the pack who are at various locations around the city and asks them to grab a newspaper on the way.

Everyone arrives at the pub and they open the newspaper to see what exactly has been going on. On page four there is an article about it saying that already a young man and young woman have died from poisiong which seems to have come from heroin cut with something toxic. All the people affected have been aged between 18 and 30 years of age. The article was written by journolist Mark Twain. Trash Magnet spring into action and decide that they might have to do another morgue raid (damn huh). Oscar-The-Grouch performs Questing Stone on the journalist whilst Snarls-At-Suggestions, Fleas-From-America and Breaks-Like-Wind go to the morge to see what's going on there.

The morge is a fairly new building near the courts, it's definately very architectural. Someone peeks and can see the building in the Umbra - it's kinda there but not. There are lots of spiders about but they seem sluggish. The pack members manage to get past the pretty lame Umbral Morgue security and find the corresponding location in the Realm where the refrigerators where the bodies are kept. Breaks-Like-Wind tries sense wyrm on the male body but manages to fuck it up while peeking and doesn't get anything. Snarls-at-Suggestions tries sense unnatural and also fucks that up. So they have no idea what's going on with the male at all, except he's dead. They decide to try again on the female body this time. Snarls-at-Suggestions does sense unnatural and gets the general idea that she was not very happy when she died.. and theres a lot of alcohol and cigarette smoke taint on her.

Meanwhile Oscar-The-Grouch's super efficent Questing Stone on the journalist has led him Red Shirt and One-Pot-Screamer to an area kind of like Richmond in Melbourne, full of townhouses. They step. In the Umbra they're standing in front of an old brick house. Red Shirt and One-Pot-Screamer both try to peak but neither of them can see very clearly. They do manage to see Mark Twain however, who looks 30ish with short brown hair. There is also a female there. There is a laptop in another room upstairs. Oscar-The-Grouch awakens the computer so that One-Pot-Screamer can peruse the files, who finds some files relating to the case. Most of the people in hospital "don't remember" who they got their drugs off, but one person, an Angelique Detmann, said that she bought hers off a dealer called Melissa Hitchens. Tests done on the Heroin they found with the deceased found that they contained detergent and rat poision. There is nothing else on the computer that is any use to the pack so they close it and leave the house.

They stand around nearby wondering what to do when Fleas-From-America has the brilliant idea that him and Oscar-The-Grouch will walk up and down Kings Cross trying to buy smack and see how many different samples they can get and try to remember who they go it off. Everyone is kind of amused by this but they decide to go ahead with it seeing as they have no real other plans. Half an hour later Oscar-The-Grouch has 8 different samples and Fleas-From-America has 6, and yet neither of them even got arrested.

The pack take them back to the sept so they can sense unnatural on them. A couple of the packages are tained with an uncomfortable level of wyrm. Snarls-at-Suggestions activates her resist toxin gift and tastes the drugs - one of the wyrm tainted one definately has a soapy quality, whereas the other one just tastes bad (even compared to the acidic taste of the rest of the smack).

While this is interesting, it doesn't necessarily lead them any particular direction, so figuring that more information is needed, Oscar-The-Grouch does a questing stone on the dealer mentioned in Mr Twain's computer and track them down to a small one bedroom flat. Peeking reveals three young people in the flat - one woman in the shower, and one in the lounge, along with the man. The pack settle down to watch and listen. Apparently the people are Fran (in the shower), Molly and Derreck. There is a biv in the lounge, and two single beds in the bedroom. Derreck appears to be in the shit with Molly, although its not clear why. Of the three, only Fran has needlemarks, although they don't look too recent. There's no 'Melissa' here, but Questing Stone did leave them right here. There's no police here either, which is kind of strange. None of them are particularly tainted one way or another.

As the pack observe, it becomes clear that Molly and Fran are going out. Derreck tries to extend an olive branch by asking if Mol is going to 'Synnergy' and gets a bit of an earfull - basically Molly expresses an opinion that no, considering the situation, she is not going to the club where Roald is, because she knows full well that's where Angelique bought her smack off him. Mol seems to be a trifle annoyed, and says that they're just going to a bar. Derreck puts headphones on and tries to be small while the other two Goth up a bit and head out. However, the pack have a lead, and leap into their vehicles.

On the way back to the Rocks caern, they grab a local club mag. There's no Synnergy, but a bit of hunting shows a Sinner-G - that's probably it. Goth industrial, sure, that's it. They try Questing Stone on 'Roald' - maybe if everyone calls him that it will work. No luck. The pack decide they need to go to this club. The GM expects this to be a bit of a treat. One-Pot-Screamer turns up to the club, which looks to have been an old factory (still in a factory area). The bouncers turn her away, for, um, oh, being old or something. Snarls-at-Suggestions has more luck and slips inside. Fleas-from-America decides that goth isn't his thing, but he has somehow found a lime greet suit with an orange shirt and tap shoes. He has managed to spray his hair up into a single point. Once he arrives, the bouncers look him up and down, he does a little spin for them and puts on a fake accent 'ohhh how precious are you!' The bouncers ask him if he knows exactly what kind of club he's going to.. he says he does and they shrug and let him in, bemused and amused all at once.

Meanwhile in the Umbra Oscar-The-Grouch, Breaks-Like-Wind and Red Shirt are joined by a grumbling One-Pot-Screamer. Oscar-The-Grouch peeks but not very well.. it's a bit hazy. The building is mostly there in the Umbra. Peeking Oscar-The-Grouch can see into the men's toilets where one of the three cubicles has two guys in it who are arguing about the price of speed. Meanwhile in the main part of the club Fleas-From-America is approaching people to ask if he can do their potraits - they seem more than a bit bemused by this strange, strange man. A lot of them agree and the potraits show a very different image of the person than is currently on display in the club. One of the women (casAndra) in the portaits looks like a sad housewife woman with limp hair. He gets the people to sign the potraits as he goes.

Breaks-Like-Wind steps into the toilets, followed by Red-Shirt, whilst Snarls-at-Suggestions performs sense unnatural in the realm. She gets a strange wyld sense from someone in the room, and random levels of triat taint from others too. Fleas-from-America decides to subtley sketch Red-Shirt, and the picture that forms up is unsurprisingly wolf-like. However, Fleas-from-America finds that the image includes a dark mass on Red-Shirt's shoulder, which resolves itself into a bird, maybe a crow, maybe a raven. Fleas-from-America asks Snarls-at-Suggestions over the mental link about it, and is somewhat surprised to remember that Red-Shirt is on the link when he pipes up and says that both birds are common ShadowLord totems.

Meanwhile Oscar-The-Grouch spots one of the dealers who gave out the detergenty smack at kings cross. He's wearing jeans, cut off shirt and fairly plain hair compared to others in the club. Fleas-From-America is sketching a guy who is very muscly and has tatoos. The guy Oscar-The-Grouch is watching goes over to the guy that Fleas-From-America is sketching. He says excuse me to Fleas-From-America and goes to talk to the guy. Fleas-From-America asks him if he can sketch him also. The guy says nah mate I'd rather talk to people. The guy with the tattoo is tall, wearing leather and has short dark hair that is braided at the back. Around his neck there is one of those stone circles on a leather thong.

Oscar-The-Grouch tries peaking again so he can get a better idea of what's going on. He does it spectacularly. The dealer guy he was watching is talking to various people very closely. Snarls-at-Suggestions goes nearby and tries to look cute. She can overhear the conversation and finds out that the guy's name is Roald. She does a sense unnatural on him and finds that he is moderately wyrm-tainted. But it's not inherent to him, it's just because of the shit he's been selling (ie: not a fomori or anything). The pack theorise that he isn't dealing the dodgy smack intentionally. One guy comes up and calls Roald 'Skankster'. The new guy asks Roald if he can score, Roald replies that he wants to wait until the crowd builds up a bit, for it is early time yet.

After chatting with people, Roald heads towards the bar where Snarls-at-Suggestions is sitting. He sits down next to Snarls-at-Suggestions who is flashing her best 'come hither' smile. It seems to work (stupid males!), enhanced somewhat by the Persuasion gift, and Roald asks her if she wants a drink. Snarls-at-Suggestions accepts, asking for a vodka and red bull. She asks if he comes here all the time. He says yeah and they chat for a bit. Some guys come up and he excuses himself, saying he's be right back and heads off in the direction of the toilets with them. The guy is called Jim and in the toilet Jim purchases some of the dodgy heroin. Oscar-The-Grouch sensses unnatural and can sense the taint. Roald comes back out and instantly finds another customer waiting for him. He does the deal quickly and hurries back to Snarls-at-Suggestions. They are having a conversation of the getting to know you quickly variety and eventually move from the bar to some couches in the dimmer bits of the club.

After a longer conversation, during which the club is slowly filling up, Roald hints at Snarls-at-Suggestions if she wants to try any stuff.. like ecstasy. Snarls-at-Suggestions ums and ahs, considering keeping it in her mouth (as if), but eventually says yes, activating her Resist Toxin gift first.

  The pack are watching with growing amusement from the Umbra as Snarls-At-Suggestions tries to seduce Roald the drug dealer. Roald has blown off a couple of people who were asking about drugs to keep talking to Snarls-At-Suggestions as it's kind of obvious by now that he is likely to score. Red Shirt is watching from the other end of the bar and has some inkling that Snarls-At-Suggestions is more affected than she thinks she is. Either that or Sas is a reaaaally good actor! Sas is patting and stroking Rolad and then to everyone's surprise she starts kissing him as well. Snarls-At-Suggestions sees Red-Shirt at the other end of the bar and the thought occurs to her to go and pat him as well.. he's fury and stuff! She controls herself though and decides that perhaps she shouldn't. One-Pot-Screamer is talking to Snarls-At-Suggestions over the link and tries to get her to activate resist toxin again. However Snarls-At-Suggestions is distracted.. Roald is stroking her arm up to the neck with one fingernail.. Snarls-At-Suggestions shivers and asks him to do it again. Snarls-At-Suggestions almost shifts form at the intense pleasure of it all but manages to control it. By this time the rest of the pack are pretty sure that the ecstasy has not been successfully resisted by the gift.

Roald suggests that maybe they should go somewhere quieter, Snarls-At-Suggestions agrees and he stands up and leads her off. On the way out Snarls-At-Suggestions pats some goth chick who is wearing a feather boa. She then starts talking to Fleas-From-America over the link telling him to come with her, he refuses, somewhat thrown by the Litany-threatening role reversal. Snarls-At-Suggestions and Roald finally make it out to the front of the club. Roald thinks she gibbering because she keeps responding to things said over the link - out loud, but oh well it's a slutty drug fucked goth chick.. who is to complain. He hails them a taxi and they get in. The seats are cold so Snarls-At-Suggestions huddles up to Roald who doesn't complain. Soon Snarls-At-Suggestions is hot and takes off her outer layers and convinces Roald's to remove some of his as well (like it was hard). The taxi driver looks at them in the rear view mirror and clears his throat. Snarls-At-Suggestions, who is sitting behind the driver is looking at herself in the rear view mirror, asking it who the shinyest of them all is and then giggling insanely and saying "MEEE". Roald is feeling her up so she loses interest in her weird snow white games. She starts patting Roald again who pats her back. Snarls-At-Suggestions is losing all self control and from this point onwards, everything she says is out loud, even to the rest of the pack over link.

Red-Shirt is leading Oscar-The-Grouch around in the Umbra because he managed to peek so well however Red-Shirt's leading skills leave a lot to be desired and he ends up ramming Oscar-The-Grouch into bushes and fences and shit. Oscar-The-Grouch is unimpressed and complains loudly. One-Pot-Screamer uses questing stone to find Snarls-At-Suggestions in the Realm and starts following her in the car the pack borrowed from the sept.

The taxi pulls up outside some flats and Snarls-At-Suggestions and Roald fall out and wander up the stairs. Snarls-At-Suggestions grabs Roald's keys off him and starts jangling them to some rhythm which only she can hear. Roald looks bemused and thinks 'stupid baby goths' to himself. Snarls-At-Suggestions has taken her shoes off and is making her way up the stairs behind Roald when she decides it would be much easier on all fours. She changes form.. going through Crinos which causes her clothes to explode as she hadn't dedicated them. Roald turns around in time to see Crinos Snarls-At-Suggestions and freaks.. he screams like a girl and bolts down the stairs, his feet hardly touching the steps. He runs across the road and is promptly hit by One-Pot-Screamer who is just pulling up outside. He bounces off the bonnet and gets up and keeps running, still screaming. Lights start to come on in the surrounding houses. Snarls-At-Suggestions bounces down the stairs after Roald. Oscar-The-Grouch who is still in the Umbra can see Roald running along with Snarls-At-Suggestions in Lupus not far behind him. Roald looks back and sees a wolf hot on his heels and speeds up.

Snarls-At-Suggestions jumps up and knocks Roald to the ground, he smacks his head pretty hard and passes out. He's bleeding! Snarls-At-Suggestions starts licking at him then decides now would be the perfect opportunity to give him a blow job but discovers it's kinda useful to have hands at this point. She is just about to change when One-Pot-Screamer hits her away and uses the calming fetish on her.. Snarls-At-Suggestions bites at One-Pot-Screamer and shreds her arm a bit. One-Pot-Screamer gets pissed at her but manages to control herself. One-Pot-Screamer has a look at Roald and sees if she can work out if he's still alive. He's still breathing but he has a nasty split in his head which is bleeding profusely and he's missing a tooth. Whilst One-Pot-Screamer is busy looking at Roald's head, Snarls-At-Suggestions has changed form and is busy trying to get Roald's pants off. One-Pot-Screamer looks up and yells at Snarls-At-Suggestions telling her to get in the car. To Snarls-At-Suggestions, One-Pot-Screamer sounds exactly like her mother - always nagging, so she imitates One-Pot-Screamer who just looks at her and shakes her head.

Snarls-At-Suggestions, still sans clothing, goes and sits on the back seat ("just because I /want/ to") and soon One-Pot-Screamer and Breaks-Like-Wind bring Roald over and dump him next to Snarls-At-Suggestions. This proves to be not such a smart idea as Snarls-At-Suggestions seems to be commencing where she left off and is taking his pants off. She manages to de-pants him.... oooooh he has a piercing which feels wicked on her tongue.. so she keeps licking at it. Snarls-At-Suggestions then notices a packet of those blue pills she took earlier which must have fallen out when she removed his pants. She looks around for somewhere to put them and sees the pocket of One-Pot-Screamer's jacket hanging over the seat. She slips them in.. for later.

Oscar-The-Grouch and Red-Shirt finally appear from the Umbra. Snarls-At-Suggestions is talking to Breaks-Like-Wind out the window.. asking him to be in Lupus so she can pat him cuz he's all furry. Then One-Pot-Screamer reminds her that he stinks and Snarls-At-Suggestions laughs insanely and calls him 'Mr stinky'. Breaks-Like-Wind bashes Snarls-At-Suggestions on the head in an effort to try and knock her out, she doesn't take any damage but bashes into Roald's stomach. Snarls-At-Suggestions doesn't frenzy, but does sulk. Breaks-Like-Wind checks Roald to make sure he's alive. He is. One-Pot-Screamer tells Snarls-At-Suggestions to blindfold Roald so he doesn't know who he's with. She uses her tits to do this.. mushing them into his eyes. One-Pot-Screamer shakes her head and Breaks-Like-Wind searches Roald's pockets to see if he has anything that might knock Snarls-At-Suggestions out - unfortunately for all he doesn't, although he does have several hits of horse. From Roald's wallet they garner that his full name is Roald Brighton, and that he has ... had a considerable amount of cash in his wallet.

The useful members of the pack discuss what the hell they're going to do with Roald.. they can't really take him back to the Sept. They decide to head up into the hills where no one will find them. Snarls-At-Suggestions, Oscar-The-Grouch and Roald are in the back seat. Snarls-At-Suggestions asks One-Pot-Screamer if they can stop for ice cream. One-Pot-Screamer meanly says no and Snarls-At-Suggestions chucks a tantrum so Oscar-The-Grouch offers to cook her something. She accepts. Oscar-The-Grouch is excited.. he finally gets to use his magical Bone Gnawer gift!!! He starts hunting around for something tocook with and settles on Roald's shoe. He doesn't make a bad stew, even if it is made of a stinky old shoe. Snarls-At-Suggestions grabs the stew and has a taste but decides it tastes a bit odd. So she starts drawing spirals with it all over Roald and herself, all the while singing loudly about wanting to go to Mount Ice cream. One-Pot-Screamer turns the radio up loudly in an attempt to drown out Snarls-At-Suggestions and the keep driving.

Not soon enough they arrive in the hills and Breaks-Like-Wind ties Roald to a tree, sans pants, and then uses Mother's Touch to heal him. He comes around after a bit and One-Pot-Screamer activates truth of Gaia so she can talk to him. She asks him who he gets the smack from. He is a bit cautious and asks why. One-Pot-Screamer says that she's the one asking the questions. He says okay okay and asks for a panadol. One-Pot-Screamer doesn't reply. He then quickly says 'Hilary' and that he has the number in his phone. Despite One-Pot-Screamer's inabilty to come to grips with the use of the name Hilary to mean a guy (and don't even talk about Evelyn). One-Pot-Screamer asks him where he picks the drugs up from, Roald says that they meet places, normally a park. She asks him when the last time was that he got it and he says Wednesday. She asks him if he knows its tainted and that it's been killing people. Roald sounds shocked and said he didn't know that. Everything he says has been the truth. Oscar-The-Grouch goes into the Umbra and cleanses him while the others are interrogating Roald.

Roald says he gets the shit once a week and never carries much on him. He then asks if the chick he was with is okay. One-Pot-Screamer says she is. Roald apologises if any of One-Pot-Screamer's friends have been hurt.. he didn't mean it, he was just trying to make a buck. Snarls-At-Suggestions is sitting naked in the back of the Sept car, and has stolen One-Pot-Screamers phone and is on the phone to her mum (its 3.15am by this point, and her mum lives 1200kms away). Roald continues saying that the guys full name is Hilary Purcell The pack thank him for the information and then leave him tied to the tree in the middle of the Sydney hills. The pack creep off to the car, behind them Roald is muttering to himself 'I'm so dead.. are they going to shoot me.. god I'm going to move to Brisbane."

The pack head back to the sept. Someone has put a jacket around Snarls-At-Suggestions who was nude. They knock on the door. Josephine Brereton, the master of the Challenge opens the door and bolts it behind them. She looks surprised to see them. Snarls-At-Suggestions starts yapping on about something and Josephine threatens to shoot her in the head. She obviously doesn't like the pack particularly. One-Pot-Screamer tells the impatient Josephine what's been going on. Oscar-The-Grouch has a sudden though... wasn't Josephine killed last year? She doesn't even look the same.. how weird, he mentions it over the link. One-Pot-Screamer asks if they have any clothes for Snarls-At-Suggestions. Jo goes and comes back with some stinky, rather damp trackie dacks. One-Pot-Screamer asks about the Josephine thing. Josephine looks annoyed and explains that all masters of the Challenge at this sept are called Josephine Brereton. One-Pot-Screamer nods. Josephine asks sarcastically if there anything else she can do? One-Pot-Screamer says she guesses not and they head back to the hotel.

Snarls-At-Suggestions is starting to get on everyone's nerves. They get a different room from their normal one. In an effort to knock her out, the pack end up smashing shit and jumping on the beds. Breaks-Like-Wind eventually knocks her out and feeds her whiskey so that she'll stay out for a while. Eventually she passes out.. snoring loudly and everyone else tries to sleep. Breaks-Like-Wind sleeps in front of the door, and One-Pot-Screamer sleeps next to Snarls-at-Suggestions.

Sunday 18

It's Sunday. The pack have had five hours sleep. Snarls-At-Suggestions wakes up tied to the bed with a horrible hangover. She has what feels like a pubic hair - not her own - in her mouth. She moans in disgust. The pack check out of that room and have to foot a $300 bill from Snarls-At-Suggestions's rampage last night. They use money that Breaks-Like-Wind stole from Roald to pay for the room. Some one cleans the car which was full of shoe stew. Snarls-At-Suggestions finds her pills on the floor of the car and pockets them. After they've cleaned the car super well, Oscar-The-Grouch uses questing stone on Hilary.

The stone points toward the posh area of town. The pack drive there. He's in a large house which has a view of the harbour. In the umbra the house is old and saggy. Oscar-The-Grouch peeks and can see a very clean house with white carpet and leather couches. He can smell bacon and toast..mmmmmmm bacon. There's only one person in the house, presumably Hilary, who is in bed with a plate of food reading the newspaper and listening to the radio. He's in his mid 40's with short greying hair. He looks quite stylish. There is a repeated faint scent of a female here, but nothing recent, nor any physical manifestations of same. Oscar-The-Grouch senses unnatural but gets nothing. Oscar-The-Grouch pokes around the house. There is an alarm on the house but no computer. Hilary gets up and has a shower and then checks his mobile for messages. Oscar-The-Grouch senses unnatural again and this time gets a better result. The guy is tainted, quite disturbingly.

They decide now would be the perfect time to set stuff up so One-Pot-Screamer moves away to a nearby park in the Realm, and uses her Mimic Gift and imitates Roald's voice and calls up and organises a drug pick up at a park near the city at 3pm.

Hilary gets moving and goes to a painting in the lounge room and moves out of the way. He then removes a false paver stone which reveals a small safe which contains bags of white power and a sensitive set of scales. He then grabs a container of Omo from the laundry and sets about measuring precise amounts of omo and heroin into the bags. No wonder the stuff is deadly and was kind of soapy when Snarls-At-Suggestions tasted it. Hilary finishes weighing stuff and puts everything away. There is also a lot of money in the safe where the drugs are kept, Breaks-Like-Wind eyes it from the Umbra. Hilary then grabs some wrapping paper and proceeds to place the bags in a shoe box and wraps it up with present paper.

Oscar-The-Grouch decides that enough is enough and before anyone can stop him, he steps out behind Hilary in Crinos form, slicing him across the back with his sharp sharp claws. Breaks-like-Wind starts heading for the park when One-Pot-Screamer is so he can step out. Hilary is obviously taken by surprise and doesn't even get time to react before Oscar-The-Grouch reachs around and this times rips Hilary's head completely off. It lands on the white carpet with a wet thud as blood explodes all over the wall (almost to the roof). Hilary's gushing body thuds to the ground. There is chunks of stuff and blood all over the walls and all over Oscar-The-Grouch. There is a moment of stunned silence from the rest of the pack before the barrage of questions and yelling erupts. Oscar-The-Grouch grabs the head and tears the ear off and pockets it. He dances around doing his happy dance saying ' I killed him I killed him' One-Pot-Screamer steps and asks what the hell Oscar-The-Grouch thought he was doing. Oscar-The-Grouch says 'Loook, I killed him!!!!!!!'. One-Pot-Screamer is grumpy and mean at Oscar-The-Grouch.

One-Pot-Screamer rants and moans and tells Oscar-The-Grouch that he is responsible for the body. The pack discuss what they should to do to make it look less obvious. They decide to make it look like a drug related burgulary gone wrong. They steal money and dvds and dvd players. They fart around for ages trying to make it look like whoever killed him took the body as well. Oscar-The-Grouch dedicates Hilary's body and puts it in the Umbra, doing his happy dance all the while, while Krieg does the same with the expensive stereo equipment. They decide to steal Hilary's nice red Ferrari as well so that there is some evidence of how the "burgulars" left the building. Oscar-The-Grouch sulks about not being able to go in the nice new car. Breaks-Like-Wind drives off in it, managing not to frenzy at the speed of it..

Monday 19 - Friday 23

For the rest of the week Trouble Magnet are assigned to help out the area where the hive used to be. It has been turned into community housing, gardens and a school. The pack are to do general maintenance and gardening. There haven't been many problems at the centre except for some exceptionally bratty children.

On Tuesday morning the pack head out there again. Snarls-at-Suggestions feels like utter crap and has trouble maintaining her cool, everything annoys her. The pack busy themselves with helping out the other Garou at the centre. Breaks-like-Wind gets the exciting chore of scrubbing out the public toilets. One-Pot-Screamer is chatting to one of the parents at the after school daycare centre when she spots a bit of a ruckus outside, along with chants of "Fight, fight". She goes over to investigate and see a group of kids in the playground. Snarls-at-Suggestions is closeby and moves there to get a better look. The two Garou can see two kids on the ground and one of them is bashing the other kid's head into the concrete. The rest of the kids are standing around them cheering and yelling "fight, fight, fight". Snarls-at-Suggestions senses unnatural and finds that both the kids are Wyrm tainted. One-Pot-Screamer puts on her school teacher voice and grabs the kids by the back of their jumpers and lifts them off the ground. They complain loudly at this and squirm around.

Both kids are dragged back to the daycare centre and medically checked - the one underneath (Mark) who was getting his brains beat in is a bit concussed, but (after checking with Breaks-like-Wind) probably not seriously enought to bother with doctors. The other seems fine apart from some minor bruising. Questioning them reveals that the fight started over some minor infraction of play ground etiquette or another, and had no real reason to get so violent. One-Pot-Screamer asks them where they live, eventually they tell her they live in the housing commission flats. Oscar-the-Grouch decides to try and cleanse the kids from the Umbra whilst One-Pot-Screamer has them contained. However he stuffs it up and can't step. While One-Pot-Screamer is interrogating the children, Breaks-like-Wind wanders around the playground and gardens sensing all the other kids. There are quite a number of children around and a few of them are tainted, in a wildly varying amount.

One-Pot-Screamer has found out that the kids names are Mark and Philip and they're 7 and 8 years old respectively. She subtooly slips into the Umbra while Snarls-at-Suggestions and one of the local mums keeps the kids distracted, and manages to cleanse the kids whilst Oscar-the-Grouch senses unnatural and discovers that the taint is purely in the realm and hasn't seeped into the Umbra. Red-Shirt decides to go in Lupus and follow some tainted children home to see if it's just them or their entire families. It seems to vary, one children has a sibling that is tainted but who's parents are clean. Whilst others have one tainted parent or no tainted family at all.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Fleas-from-America is distracted from trying to get down and jiggy with the local homies by the tinkling strains of 'Greensleaves' from an approaching ice-cream truck. The kids hear it too and start carrying on about ice cream and getting quite excited. An ice-cream truck pulls into the carpark and all the kids run up to it, some go and fetch their parents as well. With a rising sense of dread, Breaks-like-Wind senses the ice-cream truck and finds it to be quite tainted. The side of the van opens up and Breaks-like-Wind can see a maniacally grinning clown inside. Despite not having said a word, Mr Clowny starts to take orders from the children. Breaks-like-Wind can sense straight away that he's very tainted, possibly a fomor. Snarls-at-Suggestions springs into action and uses her shiny new Jam Technology gift to stop the ice cream machine. The truck shudders as the engine stops and the freezers go quiet. The clown who was using it to make an ice cream puts on a sad face to the children who look rather upset that the machine is broken. The clown then pulls out a pre-made ice cream from the freezer and the children look happy again. The clown finishes up serving the children and drives down to the next car park.

Fleas-from-America subtooly borrows a cricket bat and ball and slams the ball right through the windshield just as Mr Clowny opens his side panel. The windshield is fairly much ruined on the passenger side, but a central strut stops it from spreading to the driver's side. Mr Clowny investigates and finds the cricket ball. Fleas-from-America runs up to apologise but the clown makes a sad face, and then a happy face and gives him an iceypole. Still not having actually spoken, Mr Clowny closes up shop and drives off to the sound of awwwing 7 year olds and the sight of the 11 year olds coining Fleas-from-America's car.

As the rest of the pack give chase, Red-Shirt in lupus form meanwhile runs around to all the children in the playground who have ice-cream and plays the over excited dog role, knocking the ice cream out of their hands. He manages to get about 2/3rds of all the children who have ice cream.

One-Pot-Screamer is following Mr Clowny as he ends up driving into an industrial area. In the Umbra the area is a waste land covered in weaver spiders. The whole area has a wyrmish feel to it. The clown drives the ice cream van into the 'Spring Ice' icecream company doors and parks it along side lots of identical vans. One-Pot-Screamer drives on and parks, then walks back nonchalantly in front of the depo. She can't really see much other than lots of other icecream trucks.... a brief uh-oh proves unnecessary as she cannot detect any great source of wyrm taint, so its probably not all the trucks/icecream. She heads back to her car as the others show up, and moves into the Umbra.

One-Pot-Screamer runs back and peeks. Some of the people in the warehouse come up and ask Reg what happened to the wind-screen. Mr Clowny (apparently 'Reg'), who is carrying all the boxes and stuff from his van to another van just ignores them and eventually they walk off calling him a stupid retard. Reg finishes moving everything and drives out. Fleas-from-America and Oscar-the-Grouch follow him. Breaks-like-Wind sense the rest of the warehouse but nothing else seems to be tainted. He also checks around and finds a set of lockers with names on them - the only Reg is Reginald Howard.

Fleas-from-America and Oscar-the-Grouch follow Reg the clown to another park, this time near a cricket ground full of kids just finishing up training just on twilight. He parks the van and opens up the side, ready to serve the kids his eeeevvvil tainted ice-cream. Fleas-from-America parks up the back of the car park, away from as many people as possible. Fleas-from-America and Oscar-the-Grouch wonder how the hell they can stop him without being too obvious. Oscar-the-Grouch decides that he will wander up in Lupus form and piss on the side of the van where all the kids are lining up, however when he gets there he embarrassingly discovers that in fact his bladder is completely empty and therefore of no use to anyone. He slinks off behind the truck and decides to instead steal the keys which are still in the ignition. He manages to yank them out with his teeth but unfortunately the van is quite old and remains on even when the keys are out. Oscar-the-Grouch gives up at this point and takes the keys and dumps them in Fleas-from-America's car.

Fleas-from-America meanwhile is wandering up to the van and decides to rip one of the valves off a tire. He manages to do this. The valve comes away, bursting the tire with an extremely loud BANG, one side of the car goes down. Everyone in a 2km radius turns to look at the van. Fleas-from-America tries to look like he was nonchalantly walking along and returns to his car. The clown gets out of the van and looks about - he spots Fleas-from-America and follows behind him. By the time Reg catches up, Fleas-from-America has reached the car. Mr Clowny puts a hand on Fleas-from-America's shoulder and turns him around. Oscar-the-Grouch, who is in the car barks loudly at the clown. Fleas-from-America punches the clown but not very hard. The clown looks pissed and opens his mouth and spews black wyrm goop all over Fleas-from-America - yay.. a genuine Fomor. While Fleas-from-America falls onto the ground screaming and clutching at his burning face, Oscar-the-Grouch jumps out of the car through an open window and runs around the side of the car. Oscar-the-Grouch leaps at the clown and latches on to one leg, getting a mouthful of wyrm goop as his teeth pierce the flesh. The clown shakes him free and Oscar-the-Grouch leaps at him again but misses. The clown spits goop at Oscar-the-Grouch, but most of it misses. This time Oscar-the-Grouch goes for the throat and manages to tear a sizable hole in it. Goop and blood is pouring out of the clown. Oscar-the-Grouch attacks him again and this time the clown crumples to the ground.. dead.

Oscar-the-Grouch does his happy dance and bites the clown's nose off and puts it away for later. Fleas-from-America, who has scraped the burning goo off with his jacket, leaps up and puts the dead and bleeding clown in the back of the car, long floppy shoes and all. The slow mooving hooomans have started to react to all this bruhaha (including the savage dog tearing out the throat of a clown, "Mummy, why did the doggy kill the clown?") People are freaking out and pointing all over the place. People have pulled out their phones, most likely calling the police. Oscar-the-Grouch and Fleas-from-America leave the car park with a less than decorus haste.

Whilst Oscar-the-Grouch and Fleas-from-America have been busily involved in a clown killing, One-Pot-Screamer and Breaks-like-Wind have finally caught up, and stepped into the Umbra. Shaking their heads, they decide to step into the inside of the van from the Umbra. Unfortunately, the gauntlet is quite high, and it takes them some time. They materialise, but One-Pot-Screamer has unfortunately ended up poised above the steps leading out of the van, and she starts to tip out, rapidly lashing out to grab something to try and stop herself from falling. The stick she grabbed unfortunately isn't anchored and as she tumbles out, the guy she lands in front of screams and runs. One-Pot-Screamer looks down and realises she is holding a high powered automatic rifle. A brief boggling about why on earth it was there and she throws it back at Breaks-like-Wind before deciding to act the part of disturbed spectator and calling the police.

Fleas-from-America and Oscar-the-Grouch drive to a nearby pier to dump the body and the shoes but find it swarming with people. Eventually they find somewhere to dump the body into the harbour.

Meanwhile back at the crime scene One-Pot-Screamer is being questioned exstensivly by the police and she gives them her real name and the address of the hotel they are staying at. Eventually they let her go and she drives off to meet back up with the rest of the pack.

By midnight Trash Magnet are back at the sept. Herman is very intrigued about the pack's day as he's seen the news and smartly assumed that the pack were involved. The pack ask him what the news reports have been saying. Herman replies that all it reported was that an unknown Black man and his German sheppard were seen at the scene. Herman stops interrogating the pack and they head off to the hotel to rest up.

For the next few days the pack try to keep a low profile and continue helping at the community centre. On Friday they are called into the Sept where everyone has gathered.

Herman stands up and says that the Pack Trouble Magnet have performed lots of deeds and have been very Bonegnawery over the past few weeks. The sept elders are content with their efforts to fulfill the rite, and if Rat agrees then they will be recognised as honorary BoneGnawers. Someone summons Rat who comes and sniffs the pack and seems happy with them. The Elders announce that the Garou before them are now formally recognised as Trouble Magnet of the Bonegnawers and they may use their Bonegnawer identities when they are interacting with any other Gnawers throughout the Tellurian. There is lots of cheering and beer spraying and drinking going on. Lots of people come and congratulate them, even Mother Pasta manages to politely congratulate the pack.

Saturday 24

The next morning, nursing hangovers, the pack speak to Herman about going to the Bonegnawer homeland. He tells the pack that they'll need to travel through a Moonpath that are in the guise of tunnels. He also says that if they see manholes along the tunnels then they're on the right moonpath. The pack ask him what they should take with them Herman replies that they should take gifts for Rat and other Bonegnawer spirits - food, secrets and knowledge, and Stuff are the most commonly accepted gifts. The pack thank him and spend the rest of the day organising gifts and food and generally preparing for their journey.

That evening when the moon rises, Oscar-the-Grouch leads the pack into the Umbra to find the moonpath. He's still hungover so it takes a few hours to find the moonpath but eventually he does, it's located in a scout hall...how odd. He opens the door and the pack step through. Ahead of them is a loooong corridor which doesn't seem to end. They walk down it, after a bit it starts getting all misty and moonpath-like so they know they're probably going the right way. They walk for a couple of hours until it gets light and the moonpath starts to fade. The pack curl up in Lupus form and get some sleep.

Sunday 25?

The next evening they continue. After about half an hour they see a concrete drain cover in the moonpath. They open it, there is a ladder leading down. The pack climb down and find themselves in a storm water drain. It's darkish and damp but still feels like a moonpath...just a different kind of moonpath. They can go left or right.. One-Pot-Screamer decides to keep going in the direction they were going - right!

Eventually they come to a dead end. Everyone seems stumped for a moment before Red-Shirt looks up and sees a hole above them. They climb up and are in another drain. It gradually changes and water builds up until it gets to hip height. Ahead of them the pack hear squeaking noise and then suddenly they're swarming with rats. The rats nip at the pack's legs, not hard enough to break skin, but hard enough to hurt. Fleas-from-America and Oscar-the-Grouch are the only ones who seem not to be bitten. The rats move off and the pack continue. After an hour or two the pack come to a ladder. Oscar-the-Grouch climbs up and finds himself in the middle of a city street, there are cars driving past him. He manages to crawl out without getting hit and directs the others to come up also. The pack look around, it looks like a normal city street. There are lots of full rubbish bins and benches all along the streets.

Oscar-the-Grouch senses unnatural and gets wyld, weaver and some other sense that feels familiar to him. It's warmish and sunny. The pack start walking along the footpath. Oscar-the-Grouch grabs some food out of one of the bins that seems to have a ridiculous amount of burgers in it. There are rats every where. They come to a bin on top of which a large, fat rat is sitting eating a crunchie bar. The pack stop to talk to him and ask him where the head rat is.. the biggest one. The rat wants to know why they want to know. They tell him that want to ask him some questions. Rat says that he doesn't know what they are actually talking about, but he knows some people who might, but Rat will only help if the pack do something for him - he wants to know what's in the safe in the hostel across the street. The pack look at him funny. The rat stares back. The pack shrug and say ok before going across to the hostel.

The hostel has a 20's noir feel to it - slow fans set into a high ceiling and wood paneling everywhere. The counter at the end is mostly glass, with balding guy in a shirt sitting behind it. Snarls-at-Suggestions tells him that they're fulfilling a bet and want to know what's in the safe. The clerk shakes his head and asks if it's the rat who wants to know, Snarls-at-Suggestions nods and the clerk says that they can tell the rat to go to hell. Snarls-at-Suggestions pleads with the man and eventually works out an arrangement where if the pack stay for one night and want to put something in the safe then they can see what is in it. The pack have no money so they wander off, and get some money by washing dishes at a local cafe, beforing coming back.

Despite their having booked a room and signed an agreement, the clerk is reluctant to let Snarls-at-Suggestions look in the safe but eventually lest her.. all that's in there is a coke can peeled and made into a horse.

The pack thank the clerk and go back out to the bin. As they're walking across the road they notice that there are no business men along the streets just regular people. There are lots of buskers and the benches are strangely padded. There is even furry newspaper to keep people warm. The pack reach the bin and rat looks rather ill. He goes into the bin and the pack hear him throw up before he comes back and demands to know what was in the safe. The pack tell him about the coke can horse.. the rat looks thoughtful and says 'hmmmm interesting'. Trouble Magnet then ask him to repay his side of the bet The rat starts leading them to where Trash Magent can find these people who might be able to help.

Rat leads Trouble Magnet to a building with flashy lights. It seems to be an old school cinema. Rat indicates to the cinema and says they're in there..and they're people not rats. The pack tell him he has to come in, Rat says he doesn't want to but if they get him a small popcorn he'll wait out the front. The pack decide that this is fair and go up to buy tickets. They don't have nearly enough money, and she isn't keen to let dogs in. They think quick and say that Oscar-the-Grouch is Snarls-at-Suggestions's seeing-eye dog cos she's blind. The woman ask about Red-Shirt, who quickly says that he's her hearing dog. The woman looks triumphant and says that she's been talking to Snarls-at-Suggestions. Red-Shirt says he's obviously doing a good job then. The pack slip into the cinema as the GM giggles.

Eventually they get past the woman and go into the cinema. One-Pot-Screamer grabs some popcorn out of the bin (its full of mostly full popcorn containers) for the rat on the way in. Inside the cinema they're showing a Road Runner marathon. At first the pack think the cinema is empty but as their eyes adjust to the dark they can see a row of heads in the front row. The pack walk up and ask the people if they have a moment. The people SSSHHHHH at them and go back to booing the Roadrunner and cheering for coyote. Snarls-at-Suggestions thinks they are speaking in Greek. The pack sit in the row behind them and try again to talk to them. One of them turns around and tells them to shut the fuck up. Snarls-at-Suggestions gets up and goes to the back and blocks out the projection. They get really pissed off and throw popcorn at Trash Magnet. One-Pot-Screamer says they are Trouble Magnet of the Bonegnawers, and they asks for just a second of their time. Their pack leader introduces herself as Andrea Kostas of Trikkala-One-Nil and tells them that they'll speak to them during intermission which is only 15 mins away. One-Pot-Screamer thinks this is fair and Snarls-at-Suggestions stops blocking the cartoon....

Eventually the cartoon finishes, and Trikkala-One-Nil lead Trouble Magnet through the city. Andrea says that she doesn't know anything about Rat here in the realm, but she does know where they can find an Elder who has lived here for ages. As they walk through the city, the Greek pack ask them about where they come from (Canada?) and much chattery is done. And also some bragging about deed done.

The European Garou lead them through a large park, full of pleasant little glades, abandoned picnics, playgrounds, wishing wells full of coins, and the like. Finally, they come around a corner and Andrea says "voila", revealing a huge, half-built arc-like ship up on chocks in the middle of a clearing. The ship is swarming with rats, carrying stuff onto the ship, moving around the structure and throwing stuff off the edge. Andrea calls out to the ship and a human figure sticks their head over the side and yells out that they'll be right there. After a series of thuds, shouted arguments and odd and disturbing silences, a rather dishevled man in ragged clothes shows up, pumps Fleas-from-America's hand, addresses him as Raymond and demands the lucifers he said he'd bring. Fleas-from-America looks a bit bemused and the man says that he needs them to seal the pitch at the bottom of the boat. Fleas goes along with it for a bit, but then looks at his packleader and shrugs, who looks at Andrea a bit baffled. Andrea calles the man Father Noah, and he immediately says that he knows what's going on - they are the last of the Garou, come to ride in his boat and save themselves from the Apocalyptic Flood.

Eventually, despite the distractions of Father Noah's scatterbrained approach to a conversation, and with Andrea's reassurance that he does know a lot of lore, its sorted out that they are neither Clarence, bringing lucifers, buying tickets for his boat, nor the last of the Garou and One-Pot-Screamer explains the basics of why they are here to Father Noah. Fleas-from-America suggests that Noah doesn't take mosquitos, which sends him off again. Noah runs back after a while, and says he'd love to help, but he's got so much to do before the Flood comes. One-Pot-Screamer asks if there is anything they can do, and Noah looks surprised. Andrea and Trikkala-One-Nil wave bye, because their cartoons are starting soon. Noah says that he needs his compass back, otherwise he won't be able to find where he's going. It is determined that the compass is a special one, and that the last time Noah saw it, Thomas had it. Trouble Magnet queries about Thomas, and finds that he is about 20 cm long, with a long pink tail. ah. One-Pot-Screamer does a questing stone while the rest of the pack ask some of the rats about Thomas. Apparently all the rats are Thomas. One of the rats suggests that if Noah has lost something, they should check in lost and found at the Police station.

Enquiries lead them on their way to try and find a police station. On the way, a police car pulls up and tries to arrest them for not chewing chewing gum on a Friday. Or for being funny smelling. Or something. Frankly, the police officers seem criminally stupid, and its not long before the pack manage to convince them to arrest the garou and take them to the station.

The police station is incredibly chaotic. The desk sargeant tries to fob them off with paperwork, but through the simple tactic of backdating forms and then playing bureaucratic games with the desk sargeant, the guy in charge of the lost and found form and pretending to be auditors, the pack defeat the red tape monster. It does take a while though. While the majority of the station flee away while the auditor's alarm goes off, the pack are led to the Filing room. The Filing room consists of archive boxes stretching off into infinity, stacked high. Despite some feeling that this is a waste of time, Oscar points out that this sort of seeking is easier in the Umbra - like finding a MoonPath. The pack start opening boxes at random and work out after a bit that the lost and found forms are all one colour. As they continue searching, there are odd noises and motions from the next aisles. The lights become less regular, and there is a growing sense of nothignenss, as if it was laid atop the normal realm sense. The pack try and focus despite these distractions, and eventually Red-Shirt finds a lost&found form that bears the description of "compass, (Special)" having been found by a Thomas. The address is rather surprising - its the same address as the Hive in Sydney. The pack um and ah about whether they need to go back to the Realm, but given that they have been seeing 'normal' looking addresses on other forms, they opt to check a map here first.

Back up in the police station, in true CRPG style everything has returned to normal. They find a large "you are here" map of the city, and although it seems slightly dynamic, they do find the address they are looking for. This is a bit spooky. Off go the Garou!

Their travels lead the south of the tracks, into a part of town that isn't so bounteous and nice. Apparently not only does the realm reflect the ideal Bone Gnawer city, but also the less ideal parts. Less and less do the pack see spirits on the street, and more and more does the sense of Wyrm begin to rise.

Upon reaching the address, those members of Trouble-Magnet that were involved in strikign at the Hive in Sydney are struck by the resemblence that this place has to the Hive.... despite a complete lack of similarity between the buildings and neighbourhoods. They cannot put their finger down on the exact reason it feels so similar, but there is a resonance of some sort. Well, ok, part of it is the wyrm-sense coming from the building. The site is an abandoned 6-storey block of flats, old, decrepit and generally unpleasant. The pack split up in to two groups and investigate the building. After exciting interactions with a electric-wire-bane and a plumbing monster, and Fleas-from-America creating a cardboard mansion from a half-rotted box and leaving it on a lower floor, they find a heavily wyrm-tainted column of garbage, rubble, wiring and other structural elements. The column runs between floor and room - it doesn't seem to react to their presence, but its still not very reassuring. The floor is also not reassuring - peppered with holes, it groans at every step. They decide to take it out - Snarls-at-Suggestions fires some of her arrows at it, and it erupts into activity.

Much Garou battle! People end up on the 2nd floor and on top of one another! Breaks-like-Wind is grappled to the ceiling and nearly electrocuted! Snarls-at-Suggestions fights little concrete golem things! Eventually the column is destroyed! It slowly disintergrates into its component pieces and begins to decay! Searchign through the rubble reveals no compass, so they return to floor 1 to check Fleas-from-America's Mansion. Huzzah! Sitting on a rocking chair is Thomas, and after a brief chat and the exchange of a cigarettepacketcar, he agrees to not only give them the compass (a normal boyscout compass with 'sPeCIal' scratched on it), but return with them to see Noah. This they now do, after cleansing the evil column some more. The Garou are reassured by the slowly lifting sense of wyrm.

Noah thanks them for the compass, but says that he is too busy now, and its late anyway (the sun is slowly setting). They offer to help him with construction, which is kind of pointless because he's constantly changing how he's doing stuff. Just after dusk, Noah runs up and tells them that like he said, they should go to the Library - much confusion and finally they go, along with Thomas. Once there, they find the Reading Room, which appears to have many years of nearly any newspaper you care to mention. Finding the Sydney papers is the work of a moment, and they start looking through for the dates that correspond to the attack on the Hive. The papers have normal news, but also BoneGnawer special articles - they find an obituary for Marion on the day of the attack which reads "'Marion Perry; Homid, Ahroun, Fostern of the Sept of Sleeping Lore died today while fighting Black Spiral Dancers in the Hive of Corrupted Flesh'. The piece goes on to give a few details about her life. In the same paper, there are other articles on the other bone Gnawers who died in the attack.

Thomas suggests that they should start searching forward through the papers until the find something. In a paper a few weeks later, there is a tiny snippet, which reads ' "Marion Perry(?)" passed through the Homeland today, leaving no known emanations, manifestations or residue'. Further search reveals nothing else. They return to Father Noah, who says that he isn't surprised at the findings. He suggests that at this point they might wish to speak to someone who has been here even longer than him. He will take them to see one Abu Nawas in the morning, after they've rested.

Monday 26?

The morning comes around and the pack are woken by the sound of hundreds of rats marching on board. After breakfast of breads-rolls-ala-picnic, Noah actually seems to remember them, and rushes off, getting them to follow him. On the way, he tells them that Abu Nawas is an Ancestor spirit, who used to be a poet in the olden days, way before now. He seems to be a little less frenetic, leading Fleas-from-America to believe that its the ship that makes him crazy.

Noah leads them into a 7-11, and waves to the man behind the desk. They go to a staff-only door and head through, up a flight of stairs. Noah asks them to wait, and goes through a door at the top. Keen eared packmembers here a quiet word or two from the far side, and then footsteps as Noah returns and opens the door. He indicates the pack should go inside, and says that he needs to return to the ship now, so much to do! One-Pot-Screamer barely has time to ask how much he has passed on, and catch Noah's reply of "just the basics!" as he flees.

The pack move inside and see a plain room, with a single robed and hooded figure within. He is writing with a quill and when they speak, holds up his hand. He finishes composing and throws back his hood. Abu Nawas is a vaguely 50ish, middle Eastern looking man, with an oiled beard and more than a few scars on his head and hands. He stands and bows, and suggests that Trouble Magnet accompany him on his walk - it is time for his morning constitutional. The pack follow Abu out of the door and back onto the landing, and find that something has changed. Suspiciously they accompany him down the stairs and through... a fruit shop, instead of the 7-11, and out onto the streets of a medieval market, replete with screeching merchants, chickens in cages and the occasional camel. Frankly it looks like they have just wandered onto the pages of 1001 Arabian nights, as they wander through a Baghdad bizarr. As odd as it is to suddenly change environments, in many subtle ways, it still the same city, crowded with people and life. The pack decide that it is Abu's presence which has changed the superficial appearance.

In between the effusive greetings given to and from Abu Nawas and passersby, One-Pot-Screamer introduces her pack Trouble Magnet and tries to give Abu a quick rundown of what they want (speak to Rat about a fallen comrade). Abu asks her to please explain everything they have been doing, from the start - he would like to hear the full story. So, while Abu greets his neighbours, passes alms to the poor and buys the pack fruits, One-Pot-Screamer goes into long detail of the last three weeks or so, plus the initial situation in Sydney (with accompaniment provided by Cole trying to a) bargain for melons, and b) sell his packmates into a hareem).

Once they have finished, Abu does not reply for a time, but seems to be ruminating on what they have said. When there is a lull in the cacophany, Abu speaks, asking what it is that they are fundamentally seeking? The pack reply that they want to see where Marion has gone?
Abu: "Ah, but what of Marion? Surely her body is where they have interred it? "
Trouble-Magnet: "Her soul, or her spirit?"
Abu: "But you do not know exactly what it is that you are seeking?"
Fleas: "Dammit, two for that melon? I would give two for the lot!"
Omnes: "Fleas, SHUT UP!"

Abu waxes lyrical, despite the haggling (heckling?). "For instance, take myself - am I the whole and complete soul of the Bone Gnawer known as Abu Nawas, who now resides in the Bone Gnawer homeland? Am I just and echo of the soul; ephemera moulded in the shape of an identity, in which case Abu Nuwas may have been reborn and died dozens of times since the life here represented? Am I some vital fragment of Abu Nuwas, rather than the soul entire, set to perform some role in Garou life, and is it that the rest of my soul waits elsewhere to be reborn? I must admit, I am unsure myself and the topic has given me much thought."

"Let us assume that you are looking for the essence of Marion, her soul. You know that something of her passed through the realm, but exactly what? The Umbra responds much more strongly to a firmly held concept of what you are seeking, and you do not have such a thing. "

"And that too, intrigues me - your quest itself. There seems to be some cyclic aspect of this quest that touches upon the previous business in Sydney. You Garou have re-visited the Bone Gnawer sept in Sydney and made some amends for injuries given during the first cycle. The search for the compass lead you back to the corrupted caern, perhaps not literally, but the reference was there."

"More intriguingly, you have no strong bond to either party - neither Marion nor Alex". The pack protest, pointing out that they were good friends with both septmates. Abu counters by saying that although they were friends, they were not lovers, nor family, nor pack - the strong conscious relationship and loyalty they posessed for Alex and Marion is commendable, but it is not the stuff of which legends are born. It is not the typical strong spiritual bonds that would enable someone to follow another even beyond death. he quest after the secret of death and it's variations is one of the most intense of spiritual journeys. In human myth and Garou legend, those who made the journey were inevitably driven by powerful emotions, typically love. The umbra is a spiritual and symbolic realm and responds in many ways to the state in which one performs actions; the frame of perception in which one acts. Thus those motivated from spiritual rather than conscious will are far more likely to, if not necessarily succeed, at least produce results.

"Yet - " Abu holds his hands up for silence " - even without that, you have come far, and learned and accomplished much. More perhaps, than you might be able to achieve under different circumstances, even if you spent years." The pack look thoughtful. "I am not sure how this pertains to your quest, but I think it is important that you consider all of this before rushing into action."

While the pack are ruminating, and Fleas-from-America is trying to make a short man with bad teeth understand he just wants a ride on the camel, not to buy it, there is a shout from other end of the marketway. A small squad of guards is heading for them, and the corporal yells "Abu Nawas, you under arrest by order of the caliph!" Abu winces and says that his last sonnet may have been a little too critical of the caliph. As marketholders grumble, but stand to watch the show, One-Pot-Screamer asks if there's anything they can do. Abu says he would appreciate it if they made the problem go away, preferably without killing anyone.

The pack leap into action. Kind of. Snarls-at-Suggestions tilts her head back and howls using Call of the Wyld, causing most of the onlookers to decide its time to be away from the scary djinni girl, and certainly giving the guards a moment's pause. She takes this moment to sprint off with Abu while the others slow the guards down. One-Pot-Screamer and Breaks-like-Wind shift to glabro, but the others stay in their breed form. Seeing two of the guards run after Snarls-at-Suggestions, Fleas-from-America ducks a blow or two and runs after them. While One-Pot-Screamer disarms the guards of their halberds and throws them onto the top of the market tents, Breaks-Like-Wind grabs a halberd off the guards, tries to punch them it it and breaks it in half. Red-Shirt attempts to knock a bunch on bananas dangerously onto the floor, but finds that they are a bit hard to manipulate in lupus, so leaps and snarls and bites at a guard as does Oscar. Breaks-like-Wind attempts to look like a competant martial artist by double handing with the two sticks and manages to fling one such that it stabs his packleader in the back, just after she breaks the cheek and jaw of another poor servant of the state. Now that Breaks-like-Wind is facing two annoyed guards she rushes to his assistence.

Meantime, the guards have just about caught up with Snarls-at-Suggestions and Abu when Fleas-from-America catches up with them instead. Contestant number 1 is flung 10 feet into a market stall as Fleas uses his momentum against him, while Snarls-at-Suggestions grabs random market wares off a stall and flings them (fez, placemat, woodenspoon, forgodsake) ineffectually. As the second guard body slams her, she drives her elbow down into his spine and knocks him sprawling, and Fleas-from-America leaps on him and pins him. Abu and Snarls-at-Suggestions continue running.

Back at the original scene of the crime, Red-Shirt mauls a guard bad enough to have him fall to the ground screaming and clutching at his gushing throat wound. Oscar slams another guard to the ground as One-Pot-Screamer inadvertantly drives her fist into the temple of another guard, causing his eyes to pop out and bloody brain goo to scatter around the place. As she makes "Ewwww!" noises, the guards that are able decide that its time to leave.

Back to Fleas-from-America. He has befriended Masid, his captured guard, and the two of them are discussing life and art, and what Masid truly feels his heart leads him to do. The rest of the pack find the two of them as they stand and embrace briefly, and Masid heads into the wilderness to seek his destiny.

Abu is a bit disappointed at the amount of carnage they created - he still has to live in the city after all - but helps them clean off in a horse trough out the back of some permanent buildings. He suggests hiding in a tavern for a time, and leads them towards the cattle yards to a cool stone building. Abu tells them he wishes to sit and think for a time, and encourages them to eat and drink. Fleas-from-America asks for a bourbon and coke and after some dialectical discussion, the cook drags a live sheep on a rope out and gives it to Fleas with a dirty look. The sheep is a bit more sensible than the surrounding humans and knows that the thing on the other end of the rope is a wolf, and reacts accordingly - BAAAAA. Meanwhile, MAAAA! Abu and the MAAAA! rest of the MAAAA! pack settle onto MAAAAA! some cushions in the corner MAAAA! and eat and MAAA! drink. Abu hits the hookah, and MAAAA! Fleas-from-America and Oscar-the-Grouch do likewise, ending up trashed (Mr Sheep ends up getting away and fleeing into the wilderness, where he befriends a young visionary named Masid).

Those member of the pack not off on an opiate high enjoy the food, the dancing and the music. The female members of the pack find themselves being treated as if they were male, an odd occurence, but probably one that saves them a bit of hassle. After many hours, Abu Nawas returns to the here and now. He enquires after Fleas-from-America and Oscar-the-Grouch, who reply in sync that they are perfectly fine. Stupid mental link.

Abu says that their initial search for Rat was a good idea - the totem spirits are the protectors, guardians and mentors of each of the tribes, and Rat is the totem of the Bone Gnawers. Little happens to their people that they are not aware of. Unfortunately, they abide by laws which govern what they are allowed and prepared to divulge to others. Yet there are ways in which the laws can be avoided. Abu explains that where they are now in the umbra is a sub-realm on the cusp of the Bone Gnawer Homeland and the Legendary Realm. The Legendary Realm is the place where the legends of the Garou and the history as it should have been are played out. Garou can travel to the Legendary Realm and enter the legends, strengthening their tribal ties and learning more of their place and role. Most of the totems live either in the Legendary Realm, in the appropriate Homeland or in a sub-realm abridging the two. Often the totems themselves are involved in the telling of a legend in the Legendary Realm.

Abu's idea is that by approaching Rat via the right sort of legend, they might be able to learn what they want to know. Specifically, if they travel via a legend that at some point includes Rat divulging an answer under some form of compulsion, then they substitute the question in the legend with their own. This will end the legend (as will diverting significantly from any story in the realm, similar to the Atrocity Realm) but it may produce the answer they're looking for. Abu says that when the time is right, they must have the right question to ask Rat, not some vague wishy-washy question. Secondly, before they ask the question, they must get Rat to agree to answer it in return. Without Rat's agreement before the legend is disrupted, there is no chance he will reveal anything. Abu says that he will tell them an appropriate story, a little piece called "Nydourl and Bethsheba". Abu feels that it was particularly appropriate as it was another form of the Death quest. It is the story of a Bone Gnawer called Nydourl who was the first Garou to find and venerate the Flea totem. Perhaps not truly epic stuff, but good enough for their purposes.

Abu takes the place of the old man who had been telling stories earlier in the day to the resounding cheers and claps of the regulars - apparently he is relatively well known here as a storyteller. He begins the story...

Nydourl and Bethsheba

"Once upon a time, in a small village in what is probably now India, lived a Bone Gnawer youth called Nydourl. He lived a quiet life with his family and people, until one day when plague came to his village, borne by rats. Nydourl could not die from the plague, being Garou, but watched as one by one his family and his people succumbed to the plague."

"When his mother, the last of his family was dead, Nydourl resolved to speak with the only other Bone Gnawer that he knew - the Wise One, who lived in a cave in a hill not far from the village. Nydourl travelled to the cave and spoke to the Wise One, who was old and creaky. Nydourl wished to know why Rat, the protector and teacher of his people, had turned so harshly against them. The Wise One said that only Rat knew what Rat knew, and that the rats do as Rat says. Nydourl said to the Wise One that he would seek to find Rat. He would learn why it was that Rat had turned against his people and he would make Rat stop."

"Having cremated his family, Nydourl left his village with only a bit of food, a small knife and the clothes he wore. He travelled for many days upon many roads and he had many adventures. But he could not find Rat anywhere..."

When Abu is finished telling the story, he accepts the praises of the locals and orders a light meal. He suggests leaving tonight under the gibbous moon - it is a good omen. Therefore, shortly after, Abu and Trouble Manget leave the tavern and walk through the city. Soon, they are passing the last of the buildings and heading out into the desert. After a timeless period walking, the pack realise that Abu has disappeared.

Nydourl and Bethsheba

"One day, Nydourl was walking, when he spied something glittering on the road. He picked it up and saw that it was a ring made of gold, with engravings of feathers on the outside. Nydourl, being an honest sort of fellow, resolved to return it to the owner if he could."

"That evening, Nydourl approached a large town. He strolled in and began to look for a place where he could sleep the night. As he walked through the town, he came to the market place. By a large stone plinth in the centre of the market place, a line of people were standing. The hands of each were tied and each was tied to the person in front and behind by rope. A slave master was near-by, settling his slaves down for the night to be ready for the market in the morning. Nydourl could see that one of the people in the line, a young woman, was one of the Changing Breed, even if she was in her human form. Nydourl resolved to free the woman and the other slaves."

The Socially Considerate Version

The pack wander up to the outside of the walled palisade and wait in line for the guards to check them through. While they are waiting, Red-Shirt notices a glint from the setting sun. He checks it out and finds that its a finely crafted ring. It doesn't seem magical or special other than the incredibly fine detail on the outside - it is intricately carved with feather-patterns.

After talking with the guards, who are basically malnourished peasants with sticks, and deciding not to say they are from a plague ravaged part of the countryside, they head in through the gates. Only 5 steps into the "street", Trouble Magnet are told by a guard to get inside soon as there is a curfew. Being fine upstanding young law abiding citizens, they look for a hotel or inn or something. They find something like a hostel and manage to agree to help distribute food and such out to the place in return for somewhere uncomfortable to sleep. No one seems too keen to talk, and all of them go to sleep without offering to pay them to kill the red dragon or anything.

Nydourl and Bethsheba

"That night, when everyone in town was asleep. Nydourl crept back to the market place. The slaves were sleeping near the stone plinth in the centre. By stealth, Nydourl crept up to the slaves and cut their ropes with his knife. The woman he freed last. When the slaves realised that they were free, they leapt up and began running in all directions. Nydourl and the woman slipped away into the night."

The Anachronistic Version

Having managed to stay in homid form, the pack are roused before dawn by the hostelier who wants more out of them for the night's cold hard bench. They work out that most of their fellow travellers are here for a market in the centre of town, and so slowly drift that way. The centre of town is kind of paved, and has a large spring in the middle, forming a combination well and water feature. Townsfolk are taking water from the pool in large, badly made pots. For the most part the market is produce-based, but the pack note that there are a number of slaves tied together and tied to a stone plinth.

The pack wander about the place, looking for someway to make a bit of money and buy some breakfast. They try storytelling and dancing, and manage to get a) some stale bread and b) strange looks from Oscar's fabulous primal dancing. Fleas-from-America does a sketch and nearly gets lynched for being a magician (things like perspective being a relatively recent invention). Red-Shirt and Bob are a little miffed about their being slaves, and wonder if they get free them somehow. Red-Shirt idly senses and notices that one of the slaves, a youngish woman, is very unusual - the pack come to the conclusion that she is a shapeshifter, like them, but perhaps a wereraven (not a #$%%*ing shark, no).

This changes things, and they decide they should buy her. The thought is made to trade Snarls-at-Suggestions for her, but that doesn't go down too well. They consider selling a fine wolf-hound to protect the herds and letting whoever it is catch up later, but again with the social conscience. They chat to the slavetrader who tells them that she is a fine, healthy young woman, and he will be auctioning her - several of the elders of the city are looking for a wife for their sons, and although he cannot claim she is a virgin.... They, on the other hand, look like poor travellers - push off. They pack decides that One-Pot-Screamer will use one of her gold earings. She takes one out and beats it with rocks until it looks like a nugget, and then returns to the market.

Judicious use of the Persuasion gift means that One-Pot-Screamer and Manid the slavetrader are now the best of friends, and its all One-Pot-Screamer can do to only leave with one slave, rather than a matched set. The pack and their new friend leave town, and introductions are made - the young woman is Bethsheba, and she says that she is fully in their debt. At the pack's urging, Red-Shirt asks if she is missing a gold ring, and Bethsheba immediately shows her right hand and says "like this one?". Despite a bit of suspicion that she might have been playing tricks (the Fianna and the Shadow Lords are both aware of the reputation of the Corax), the pack give her the other ring.

"Nydourl told Bethsheba his story, and of his search for Rat. Bethsheba was wiser than Nydourl and knew that Rat would not give up a secret except for a secret in return - one that he could not refuse. Likewise he would not give a gift (the gift of lifting the plague) without a gift in return. Bethsheba said that she would help Nydourl find a secret and a gift."

"Now Rat had thirteen children, seven sons and six daughters. Bethsheba knew that Rat's seventh son, Tenacity, had disappeared and had probably been kidnapped. Rat was searching everywhere for his son. If they could learn where Tenacity was, that would be a secret that Rat would give anything to know."

"Bethsheba also knew that Tenacity had been last seen in a large port city to the west. She told Nydourl what she knew, and they resolved to set out immediately for the city."

"They travelled for many days and had many adventures on the way. Then one day they came over a hill and down into a large city beside the western sea. Nydourl had never seen such a large city before. Nor had he seen so many cats before. They were everywhere: in the streets, in the alleys, on the rooftops, in the houses, in the shops. Nydourl asked a shepherd about the cats. The shepherd said that only recently had the city been swamped by cats, and that no-one knew where they were coming from."

Once in the city, the pack start casting about for some clue as to where there should go now. The port city is centred about the point where a river flows into the ocean, creating a natural port. This city seems much richer than the primitive village where they met Bethsheba - not least due to its burgeoning trade in a cat-related products. Just about every market stall is selling cat-fur, almost for free. The cats are everywhere, squealing and getting into everything. Guards wander about with bronze spears, gold and other primitive coins are more common than the last town.

The cats are so prevalent that Trouble Magnet come to the conclusion that there must be some sort of cat-spirit interaction going on - maybe a cat spirit stole Tenacity away. Oscar says he saw that on television once. There is more scratching of heads. Where would one find a cat spirit in this time and place? They decide to try speaking to another cat, so One-Pot-Screamer becomes the local lunatic, going around calling 'puss, puss, puss'. Eventually she gets the attention of a rather beat up tomcat and manages to ask it some sensible questions - it says that it came here from somewhere else, and it doesn't like it here. Its been here for about a moon. It didn't like coming here either, it was stuck inside a box in another box with lots of other cats and it rocked and rolled around a lot. Aaah, say the pack, maybe it was a boat. The tom pisses off as they head to the port.

A quick look around the port shows that there are a mix of fishing boats and largish ships, most of which seem to be galleys (part sail, part rowing powered). One of the ships positively glows of wyrm to Breaks-like-Wind - one moored at the far end of the port, closest to the open ocean. The pack hang about and try to find out more about this ship without approaching too closely. Questioning locals about the docks gets scared reactions and people not willing to talk in any great details - apparently the ship is owned by pirates, and they do that whacky chain gang thing on the streets late at night looking for slaves to row their ship. The officials don't do anything because the guards have all been paid off. The pirates sail in every couple of moons and restock their ship, then sail off again. They've been here for a few days, they will probably be off again soon.

Despite not being exactly sure what the link between cat spirits and the pirates might be, various pack members continue their investigations by following the pirates who leave the ship around - not all of the crew are equally heavily tainted, some are fomor, some are not. Its not a pleasant situation though. Oscar and Red-Shirt find somewhere to change to lupus and sniff around town and work out over the day that the concentration of cats is strongest at the docks, but they can't pin it down to the pirates specifically.

"Late that night, Nydourl and Bethsheba watched the galley from the shadows. No-one else was in sight when pirates started carrying large crates down the gangway from the galley to the docks. The pirates opened the crates, and dozens of cats leapt out and ran in every direction (although not back to the pirate galley)."

"Bethsheba suddenly realised what was going on. The pirates were bringing in cats in order to keep all the rats out of the city. As long as there were no rats in the city, they would have no way to find out the Tenacity had been here or where he had gone. Since the pirates were involved in keeping the rats away, they must know something about what happened to Tenacity."

The next morning, Trouble-Magnet try and work out how they would get on board the ship. Having watched the pirates laying in supplies, Oscar and Fleas-from-America figure out their own plan of sneaking on board in some of the barrels of pickled meat, which works quite well.

For the rest of the pack, Bethsheba suggests that they could approach the ship looking for passage to a nearby city, and offer gold to pay their way. If they pay too much, the pirates are sure to accept, if only to grab the pack for their rowing crews and the gold for their stash. The remaining four Garou reluctantly agree to this plan and One-Pot-Screamer approaches the man who seems to be in charge of the crew as they load up supplies. She asks if they are heading down the coast (tm) and the mate grudglingly suggests they might be. One-Pot-Screamer asks if they could buy passage, as they wish to go that way as soon as possible. When the mate demands to know what they will pay, she says gold, and he demands 2 gold coins - one now, and one when they arrive. Bethsheba sighs and pulls out a purse, angling the sun into its darkened centre. She pulls out a coin and hands it to the pirate, who weighs it on his palm and says that they will leave on the afternoon high tide - be there or be left behind. Oscar and Fleas-from-America groan from within the hold - another couple of hours in these pickle barrells and they'll be waterlogged.

"Bethsheba told this to Nydourl, who decided to sneak onto the galley to see what he could find. While the pirates were busy with their cats, Nydourl quickly and quietly ran up the gangway and onto the galley. In the galley were many slaves, tied to the benches from where they pulled the oars. Nydourl spoke to one of the slaves, an old man who had been there longer than anyone. The old man told Nydourl that just before they started their regular cat-carrying trips, the galley had made a voyage to a small rocky island far out to sea, and that they had carried no cargo except for a rat in a box. He knew that it was a rat in the box because it kept gnawing it's way out of the box and running around the ship, with all the pirates chasing it. The pirates would catch it and put it in a new box, but it always managed to chew it's way out."

"Nydourl crept back off the boat and told Bethsheba what he had learned. They decided that they must get to the island. The easiest way would be on the pirate galley. Bethsheba said that they should approach the pirates and offer to pay them gold for passage to another city along the coast. The pirates would wait until the galley was out at sea before attempting to steal the gold, whereupon they could defeat the pirates and take the galley. Nydourl agreed to this plan."

"Nydourl and Bethsheba approached the evil pirate captain in a dock-side tavern, and offered gold for passage to another port. Bethseba used her powers of illusion to create the image of gold to fool the captain. The captain agreed and said that they would be setting off in the morning. Nydourl and Bethsheba agreed to be there."

Its only about 30 minutes out of port before Fleas-from-America decides he can't handle being in the slowly sloshing barrel full of pickled pork. Through judicious use of extreme force, he smashes his way out of the barrel and slowly squeezes his way through between the tightly packed barrels, cursing Oscar-the-Grouch for every scraped bit of skin and sludgy sewer-like splash of bilge water. Oscar scoffs and says "watch this!" and changes form, expecting the barrel to burst. No luck - instead he shatters one limb under the force of the attempted change and finds that barrels full of liquid are much heavier than he thought. Eventually the two of them end up nearly to the end of the hold.

However, the rest of the pack have noticed that the pirates have heard something happening down in the hold and warn the two of them to both hide and shut the hell up. Two of the pirates head down into the hold area and poke about, but shrug and come to the deck again. Hours pass and the sun sets into the western ocean. The 'passengers' are fed a simple salty seaman stew.

"The next morning the galley left port. Bethsehba knew that the pirates would probably wait until they thought the passengers were asleep before they tried anything. Sure enough, that night, while Nydourl and Bethsheba pretended to sleep, half a dozen of the pirates crept up to attack them. Nydourl quickly killed the pirates before they could raise the alarm. He then crept up to where the slaves were being held and freed them. Before the pirates knew what had happened, they had been overrun by slaves and tossed over board."

Its well dark and the pack are feigning sleep, even Snarls-at-Suggestions, who is still recovering from a bout of seasickness. Oscar and Fleas have been poking about in barrels, but there's nothing more than food. Suddenly, senses are a-twitching - the pack can see a number of black-clad and armed pirates creeping towards the front of the ship along the side decks. There are about 2 pirates per passenger. The pirates creep up the ladders and are about to pounce when the Garou erupt into action - three of the pirates have been levered over the side before the others even know what's going on. In the space of seconds, the pirates are decapitated, crushed, tossed overboard or generally discomforted.

Oscar explodes out of the lower hold, already in crinos form. Slaves start to yell and gibber, possibly due to the crinosness of it all, possibly due to Red-Shirt leaping off the forecastle and crushing a pirate in front of them. The pack start to run for the rear of the ship, figuring that this will rouse the pirates. They make fairly short work of one of the guards while Abby leaps down into the rowing part of the ship and starts to cut the chains holding the slaves in place. The other guard turns out to be a bit more exciting, and nearly fries Fleas-from-America, who has leapt up to try and block the archway leading to the cabin. Between One-Pot-Screamer and Fleas-from-America, they manage to make the fire breathing pirate unhappy with his lot in life.

The battle rages as the Garou find themselves having difficulty reaching the rest of their opponents. A terrifying howl emits from the back of the ship, but the Garou just shrug it off, and Snarls-at-Suggestions replies with a heartening call of the wyld of her own. Oscar blocks a doorway and beats on pirates who make a definitive effort to hurt him a lot. Breaks-like-Wind, One-Pot-Screamer and Fleas rush one of the archways while Red-Shirt leaps up onto the rear deck and decides to cut his way through the boards. One of the pirates swarms up the outside of the ship and proves to be all rubbery and hard to hurt, but Red-Shirt rails on him for a while and he falls down. The pirates rot the decking through some evil wyrm power and manage to make a wider front to fight the Garou, but once the pack have freed enough healthy slaves to help them attack, the battle turns fairly much the good guys way.

Unfortunately, in the fray all the pirates were killed, and that makes for a difficult time of interrogation. The slaves hear the discussions about needing to know why the pirates were bringing in cats, and prove to be a veritable font of information - they explain that the pirates would move up and down the coast, capturing cats, and bringing them back to the port city, and how that all started just after their trip with the rat in a box. The pack make "aahh" noises and ask if the slaves can tell them where the rat went. As some of the slaves had been captured from other vessels, they were experienced sailors, and had taken note of their course and all - the pirates had taken Tenacity to a strange and menacing rocky island in the middle of the ocean.

"The freed slaves proclaimed Nydourl as their new captain and leader. So Nydourl told them to set course for the rocky island far out to sea where the pirate had taken the rat. They sailed for days until the spied the island; a rocky outcrop topped by a ruined castle.

Despite the somewhat daunting weather, the ship is docked at the rickety pier and the pack head up the rough path hacked out of the rock. From below they sense both Wyld and Wyrm - a sense of madness and perversion. Once Trouble Magnet have reached the heights, with Bethsheba behind them, they find themselves facing a pitted metal gate. As they watch, a malevolent, and craggy face forms out the metal itself. It speaks - "answer my riddle and pass - fail and be cast into madness and death!". Fleas-from-America goes to randomly answer it based on riddles he's seen on tv, but someone points out the consequences again - madenss, and death.

The face speaks its riddle:
Names give power,
Magic to control.
But what is broken,
by naming it?
A brief pause and One-Pot-Screamer blurts out "silence" without consulting anyone. They all stare at her, but fortunately the face fades and the doors creak open.

The courtyard is deserted - all that remains are signs of reeds or rushes or reeshes and some wooden structures. Oscar cannot smell anything alive - no rat, no pirates, nothing. They poke about a bit and One-Pot-Screamer tries to sense for unnatural senses again. She finds that there is a point source within the keep, and so the pack creep within. Its dark, but they find torches and light them. Creeping around the deserted keep, Red-Shirt notices a light coming from within an internal room. He points it out to people and they sneak up. Snarls-at-Suggestions crawls forward and tries to figure out what is going on inside - she can hear a faint sounds, but can't make them out, she can see a pile of cloth - argh, the light! Oscar has got bored of this pedestrian approach and found that the door is not locked, so just opens it.

An emaciated and skeletal figure sits upon a chair, draped in clothes much too big for him. He points a finger at the pack and screeches "You are too late! It has been taken! Take to the Court of the Rajah of Madness!"... and slumps. The pack wait for something horrid to happen. Nope, that seems to be it. They move into the room - Oscar and Fleas-from-America move to where the guy is before the rest of the pack yell at them to get the hell off the floor just there. As they walked across the floor, the colourful patterns of mosaics shimmer and cascade colours like rainbow'd water. Nothing horrible seems to happen - the ripples of colour die away and the floor returns to its hypnotic pattern. Fleas drags the guy away with some rope he's brought from the ship, and checks him out - he's dead, probably of starvation or dehydration. He smells bad. Some of the pack notice that three members of the pack seem fascinated by the rippling floor. They are spaced evenly and are tapping the floor in sync, causing it to for up more and more intricate patterns. Oscar jumps into the middle, disrupting all the patterns, and the Garou blink and start. They decide to get the hell out of here.

While exploring the ruined keep for anything else of interest, the pack wonder how to get to the Court of the Rajah of Madness. Bethsheba suggests that its not a good idea - the Court is in the Wyrm realm, Malfeas. She says that it is a sufficient secret to tell Rat where Tenacity is, demonstrating a healthy regard for the sanctity of her own skin.

"Nydourl and Bethsheba discussed what they should do next, now that they had a worthy secret to give to Rat. Bethsheba said that the gift they should give should be of use to Rat in rescuing his son. Anyone who sought to enter Malfeas to rescue another would need strength and courage, two characteristics that Rat lacked. They should therefore make a gift to Rat of strength and courage. Bethsheba said that they should go and seek Lion, who was renowned for his strength and courage. Bethsheba knew that Lion lived far to the west, so off they sailed, into the setting sun."

"The journey west took many days, and they had many adventures on the way. Eventually, they reached the far western shore. Here Nydourl and Bethsheba bid farewell to their crew, despite their entreaties to stay, and headed inland."

"They travelled for many days until they reached the lands where Lion lived. Both Nydourl and Bethsheba were in animal form when they came across mongoose running through the long grass. When asked where he was running to, mongoose said that Lion had pronounced that his daughter was to be married to the most worthy, and that all the animals were gathering. Then mongoose ran off."

"Bethsheba thought that this would be a good opportunity. If Nydourl in wolf form could be chosen as most worthy, then he could reveal his true nature and perhaps bargain with Lion for what they really wanted. Nydourl agreed, so off they went towards Lion's home."

"Eventually they reached the rock in the grasslands where Lion lived. A great throng of animals had already gathered, and more were arriving all the time. By evening, all the animals had arrived, and Lion appeared on the rock. After telling the hyenas, who were squabbling over Elton John's carcass, to keep it down, he proclaimed that there would be three tests to determine who was the most worthy to marry his daughter. There would be a test of speed, a test of strength and a test of courage. The testing would begin in the morning, so all the animals settled down to sleep. Bethsheba pointed out to Nydourl that they would probably have to cheat in order to win, and as Nydourl was Bone Gnawer, he thought that was cool."

During the evening, Trouble Magnet do everything they can to make sure not a single competitor gets a good night's sleep. Red-Shirt, Snarls-at-Suggestions and One-Pot-Screamer wander around starting random rumours ("Cheetah is going to wait until everyone's out of sight and then eat other competitors", "Lion has rigged the competition"). Breaks-like-Wind, the designated Nydourl for the events, goes off into the savannah and finds a plant with particularly itchy pollen, then brings it back so the others can distribute it into the beds and burrows of the other animals. Fleas-from-America pretends to be a race official and says that the test of speed is going to be made more even by adding rocks tied to some of the faster animals with grass. He gets into big arguments with animals, partially because when some animals complain, he randomly changes their weight ratios. This starts to combine with the other rumours and some animals go and wake lion up to complain. Oscar wanders around looking hungrily at the other animals and trying to generally offput them. One-Pot-Screamer drops into her dreaming trance and gives as many animals as she can the heebeejeebees during the night. Snarls-at-Suggests wanders out into the grassland and cuts loose with a terrifying Call of the Wyld abot an hour before dawn, topping the night off quite well.

"In the morning all the animals assembled at the rock again. Lion pronounced the test of speed. Basically, all the animals were to run towards the sun until they reached mandrill. The first animal to do so would be the winner."

It takes a long time for various grumpy and twitchy animals to line up for the race. The pack try and think what else they could do to fiddle their chances of winning, and consider and disregard a number of plans (including setting fire to the grassland). One-Pot-Screamer uses her Mimic gift to sound like Lion saying "Ready! Set! Go!" and a bunch of animals take off skittishly - Breaks-like-Wind helps this along by taking off himself, as if he belieeves it was really Lion.

While the animals are being brought back into place, Bethsheba swoops down (as Raven), giggling. She suggests that the pack repeat that sort of tactic again, because Mandaril is some distance away towards the sun, and the sun has moved a fair way while the confusion is being sorted out - but she could guide the Garou accurately to the target. Trouble Magnet think this is a great idea. As they are lined up a second time, Snarls-at-Suggestions does her Call of the Wyld gag again, and the more skittish animals take off - Impala is last seen crossing the horizon. The racers are lined up a third time, and Lion says "Go!" and Freya fakes his voice saying "No! Come back!" and half the animals do, leading to another calling off of the race.

Finally, its nearly midmorning when everyone takes off. Despite previous preparations like Fleas-from-America's sign of an elegant lion pointing at right angles to the race course with a 'detour' kind of sign, and Red-Shirt's plan to stand half way along and use a persuasive gift to redirect the animals yet another way still, they are not needed - the animals run towards the sun, a good 30 degrees from the right course. Midafternoon, a rather bemused Mandaril and Wolf return to the rock, and lion proclaims wolf the winner.

"Bethsheba thought fast, and as the race was about to begin, she told Nydourl to delay the race somehow. Nydourl took a stick and crept up behind gazelle, then broke the stick. Gazelle, being flighty, took off before the signal to start was given. Other animals also took off and a great deal of confusion reigned. It took quite a while to get everything back under control again."

"As the race was about the begin again, Nydourl thumped the ground behind rabbit. Rabbit shot across in front of leopard, who gave chase. Once again chaos ensued for quite a time before everything was settle down again."

"Meanwhile the sun was moving across the sky. Finally, after several false starts, the animals were ready, Lion gave the signal and the animals were off, running towards the sun. But Nydourl had delayed the race for so long that the sun had shifted across the sky. Bethsheba had marked the point on the horizon where the sun had stood at the time the race was supposed to begin, and she flew in that direction, with Nydourl following."

"They ran alone across the grasslands for hours until they spotted mandrill waiting alone under a tree. Nydourl ran up, and the somewhat perplexed mandrill declared wolf the winner. Nydourl, Bethsheba and Mandrill headed back towards Lion at a more leisurely pace than before."

"It took the other animals a long time to realise that something was wrong, whereupon they started running in all directions. It wasn't until late afternoon that they started to trickle back to the rock, where they found mandrill and wolf waiting. By evening all the animals had returned, and Lion declared that wolf had won the test of speed. There was much murmuring and muttering amongst the animals, but there was nothing that they could do. They all lay down to sleep and await the next test."

"In the morning, Lion pronounced the test of strength. A single great rock stood near the rock where Lion lived. The animal who could push the rock the furthest without stopping would be the winner of the test of strength. One by one the animals attempted to push the rock. Bethsheba figured that there were enough animals to keep this going all day and told Nydourl that he should go last."

"The rock was so big that most of the animals couldn't move it at all. Only the strongest animals could budge it, and it was no surprise that Elephant moved the rock the furthest of all those tested so far. The day wore on as the animals pushed and it had become dark when only Nydourl was left. Nydourl suggested to Lion that perhaps they should leave his testing until morning, as not all animals could see well in the dark, and he wouldn't want any of the contestants to harbour any doubts about his success or failure. Lion agreed and declared that the final contestant, wolf, would attempt the test in the morning. Again all the animals settled down to rest."

During the night, the ghostly Breaks-like-Wind moves to the boulder. He leaps agile atop it, and then starts to use his burrow gift to dig through the center of the huge rock, while packmates subtly remove as much of the scant rubble as they can. The entire night is spent as Breaks-like-Wind carefully hollows out the rock as thinly as he can, repairing any miscalculations with create element. Once he's finished, he jumps back up top, and covers the hole again with rock.

"Once all the animals were asleep, Nydourl and Bethsheba crept away. Bethsheba was looking for something in the few trees in the grassland, and soon she found it: a large bee's nest. She told Nydourl to remove the bees nest and take it back to the rock. The bees were all sleepy and didn't give Nydourl much grief when he pulled the nest off the tree and carried it back to the rock. Under Bethsheba's direction, Nydourl climbed to the top of the rock and looked for a large crack. When he found one, he opened up the bee's nest and carefully poured the honey into the crack in the rock. Nydourl and Bethsheba then headed out into the grasslands again."

"This time Bethsheba was looking for something on the ground, and soon she found it: a large ant's nest. Bethsheba called to the ants and told them of a very special rock that she had found that produced honey. The ants were very excited, and all immediately headed off in the direction she had said. Nydourl and Bethsheba headed back to Lion's rock to get some sleep."

The next morning, once all the animals were awake, Breaks..ehem, i mean Wolf puts his shoulder to the rock and begins to shove as hard as he can. As the other animals watch in disbelief, it begins to move, the thin shell sliding over the grass. Breaks-like-Wind puts on a great performance, apparently nearly rupturing himself to keep the rock moving. Once he has moved it twice as far as even elephant managed, he collapses to the ground, coincidentally refilling the rock up with his create element gift.

"When all the animals were assembled, Lion declared that wolf had won the test of strength. Again there was much muttering and mumbling amongst the animals, but there was nothing that they could do. Lion declared that the test of courage would take place after nightfall."

"When it was dark, Lion led the animals away from his rock across the grasslands, until they reached a small village of humans. In the centre of the village a fire was burning. Lion declared that whatever animal could enter the human village and bring back fire would be the winner of the test of courage."

"One by one the animals attempted the test of courage. Most could not bring themselves to even enter the human village at all, and of those that could enter the village, not one could bring themselves to take fire away with them. Finally, Nydourl trotted into the village, picked up the end of a burning branch in his teeth, and trotted back out again. All the other animals were gobsmacked."

Despite offers of a cigarette lighter and the suggestion of just grabbing a branch and lighting it with create element, Wolf decides to conform to the story. Breaks-like-Wind moves down through the dark to the village. He slips past cages of chickens, between the legs of guarding humans, and to the fire. He nabbed a branch and slipped back out of the village, and up the slope. All the animals resumed their total bafflement expression.

"Nydourl trotted up to Lion, threw the brand in the air, changed into human form, and grabbed it as it descended. Immediately all the other animals began to scream and roar and screech. Lion demanded to know what was going on. Nydourl pointed out that Lion had placed no restrictions upon who was eligible to be tested. In theory even a human could have entered the contest, had he been privy to the event and had some desire to be married to a lion. However, said Nydourl, if Lion was prepared to grant a gift at least as valuable as his daughter, then Nydourl could be persuaded to renounce all claims to her."

"Lion, perhaps realising that there are few things worse than having one of the Changing Breed for a relation, agreed. Nydourl asked for the gift of Lion's strength and courage. Lion muttered a bit but agreed again. Returning to his rock, Lion wrapped his strength and courage up in leaves into a pretty parcel and gave them to Nydourl. Nydourl and Bethsheba took their leave of Lion and the other animals."

"Nydourl and Bethsheba travelled far and wide for many days, and they had many adventures. Wherever they went, they spoke to rats that they met, telling them that they had a valuable secret and gift for Rat, and asking where they might find him. Eventually, they found themselves at the biggest city in the world, where they were told Rat lived. They made there way to a great palace, and by secret ways found their way to a golden room under the palace, where Rat lay on cushions surrounded by food. Nydourl said to Rat that he had travelled far to see him, as there was a secret that he wanted to know, and that he would give Rat a great secret in return. Nydourl was strangely insistent that Rat should agree to give up his secret in return for the secret offered (?), and hinted that the secret concerned the whereabouts of Rat's son Tenacity. Eventually Rat agreed that he would give his secret if Nydourl's information was valuable. Nydourl told Rat that Tenacity had been taken to the Rajah of Madness in Malfeas. Rat agreed that this was a valuable secret and that he would grant a secret in return. Nydourl asked Rat how he could go about finding (???) Marion Perry (??!?$@%&(*89....

?

The pack are dazed and dizzy with the sudden shift out of the Legendary Realm. They find themselves standing in the grottiest toilet, not just in Scotland but in the whole world. Next to them is standing Abu Nuwas, and an unremarkable looking rat is sitting on a broken toilet tank, lashing it's tail in an annoyed fashion. Rat says to Abu that he does not enjoy being taken for an idiot, nor does he enjoy being insulted in this way. Abu remains impassive. Rat says to Trouble Magnet that they should be careful about treating Incarna in such a cavalier manner, and that other, more self-important Incarna would take the same treatment with less humour and good grace. One-Pot-Screamer apologises for the offence, and rat lashes his tail some more before turning back to Abu. Rat asks Abu if he is familiar with the idea of the tri-partite goddess, and says that they should seek the living face, the still face and the new face. Abu thanks Rat, and Porcelain Truck find themselves back in Abu's little room above a shop.

Abu says that the three faced goddess concept is common in many different forms in most ancient mythologies - the Morrigan in Irish mythology, and ancient indian mythology the Shiva cycle. It even has it's bearing in Garou legend - the Wyld as Maiden, the Weaver as Mother and the Wyrm as Crno. In this case, what Rat is referring to seems to be closest in relation to the Greek concept of the three Fates. Clotho spun the thread of a life, Lachesis measured the thread and Atropos cut the thread. However, existence for the Garou at least encompasses many such threads of life. The point is that just as a thread can be followed from birth to death, it may be able to follow it beyond death. Abu suggests that Rat is hinting that instead of going Birth-Life-Death, the pack start with Life and move to Death and then perhaps even to Birth. Describing them as aspects of Gaia was probably significant, but Abu isn't sure exactly what those faces might exactly be - maybe particular facets. Trouble Magnet seems inclined to take them literally, but Abu says that Rat would not have said "Gaia" if that was the case - he thinks that it is up to them to continue their quest and find out what Rat means.

Abu feeds them and lets them rest, and then gives them instructions on how to go from the Bone Gnawer homeland, back to the cemetary. They head off, back into the storm water, and go on their way.

   The pack are running along the Moonpath on their way back to the cemetry when Breaks-like-Wind suddenly goes 'Waaaaaaah'. Oscar instinctivly ducks whilst Fleas-from-America and One-Pot-Screamer turn to look behind them. There is a sudden falling feeling as the path goes away from under them. It feels like they've all fallen some distance but there's no impact. Trouble Magnet seem to be floating in blackness. They can hear each other but they can't see each other. Oscar senses unnatural and gets a positive sense of nothing.. like there was in the files in the Bonegnawer homeland. They all call out to each other and try and move closer but it's quite disorienting and dizzying moving through space as there's no up or down and everything spins as they try and move. Eventually the mist gets lighter and they can see, but less then a metre in front of them. The pack works out that they're still in the Umbra and that something has probably blocked the moon path.. like an eclipse or something of that nature.

Rejecting the possibility of calling on their theurge's mystic abilities, they decide to call upon Merlin to aide them in finding their way back to the cemetry. Merlin appears once the ritual is completed and the pack tell him their prediciment. Merlin tells them that they feel so strange because they're away from paths they would normally follow, although the area is crowded with spirits. They're in the near Umbra and it can be quite dangerous away from the path as they're not really supposed to be there. Merlin also explains to them that he's with them most of the time.. they just can't always see him because he's somewhere in the spirit realms. Merlin then leads the pack home, while lecturing them a little on Umbral Lore. They take the chance to ask him about the three faces of Gaia, and he mentions a couple of instances of the tripartate goddess in celtic myth (the Morrigan). Merlin points out that the motif is strong in almost every culture, possibly suggesting that it is a universal truth, and that as such it does suggest itself as a good path to follow on their death quest. But no one listens.

Eventually the pack arrive home. When they get near the umbral cemetry they see Melissa walking around the boundaries.. obviously on Caern duty. She seems suprised to see the pack and greets them enthusastically. They ask how long they've been gone for and she says that its the ....

Thursday 28

meaning the pack has only been away for days, when it feels like months to them. What a whacky place the Umbra is. Melissa also mentions that the Moot is tomorrow. Melissa takes the Claws of Wisdom (yes, they get to be the Claws of Wisdom again) back to Graham's house. Graham welcomes them back and calls for Cossack and Emma, who arrive promptly. The elders want the whole story so Abby uses performence to tell the story.. however she gets stage fright and stammers on most of the words (nothing to do with the potential Veil breach, of couse). The rest of the pack help her out and the story is told. It takes quite a while beacuse the elders haven't seen the pack since they went to Sydney. They look faintly amused/horrified in some parts.. especially when the pack gets to the bit where Abby takes ecstacy and blows the drug dealer in the car. However.. overall they seem quite pleased with the pack's efforts and congratulate them.

Emma says that regarding the three faces of Gaia thing.. it might be best to contact Grek and Monash to hear their thoughts on the matter as she isn't really sure about what it could mean. The elders tell the pack to have a day to themselves to do whatever they want before the moot. The pack thank them and head off to do whatever it is they decide to do on their day off.

Cole goes home and smokes a thousand cigarettes. He's suprised at the cleanliness of his house.. although he does notice that some of the tools seem to be brand new. Some are even still in the plastic wrappings.... One of his favorite chisels is actually embedded in Quiney's back, so he takes some time to fix that problem. Freya goes home and hangs out with her family. Abby catches up on study and sleep. Bob sleeps and eats and re-marks his bin, er, territory, and Jay wanders around the sept (Jay Only)

Bob talks to Emma about the Moonpath disappearing and Emma replies that the spirits that make up the moonbridg, the Lunes, could have been playing and forgot to hold up that section of the path. Bob nods, thinking it sounds likely based on his experience with Lunes, who get progressively more *cough* enthused as the moon waxes.

Friday 29th

It's MOOOOT DAY!!! Everyone is exited and there's lots of cleaning and preparing for the night. Cole speaks to Emma about gifts. He wants to learn something that will let him shape stuff with his bare hands, and makes up some cock-and-bull story. Emma points out that as a Galliard, its perfectly valid to increase his ability to help represent the Garou culture through art, and he doesn't have to lie. She says that she knows of a gift similar to what he would like to learn, but it is taught to third rank Garou - perhaps something for him to strive for. He asks to learn Resist Pain instead, and Emma says that seems fine - she'll perform the necessaries at the Moot tonight.

Monash and Grek arrive later in the day. The sun begins to set and the moot starts with the usual opening howl. Monash seems a little bemused by the informality that is the Melbourne Bonegnawer moot, but doesn't say anything.

Eventually it gets to the story-telling part of the evening and Freya gets up to tell of the Claws of Wisdom's journey into the Bonegnawer homeland and beyond. Everyone cheers and seems to enjoy the story. Renown is handed out and people learn rituals and stuff. Chris McNeil from the Gett of Pennington is behaving odly.. he creeps up behind Cole with a thick frypan. Freya, confused and wanting to protect her pack mate, grabs the pan, although Cole saw it coming and was ready to run. Chris looks very suprised and it is explined that Cole is trying to learn resist pain. Freya exclaims ' why didn't you tell me so' and proceeds to whack Cole on the head with the pan. Abby grabs the pan off Freya and joins in. Everyone starts lining up to hit Cole. Cole tries to run away but it's pointed out that this whole thing will be pointelss as the Gift won't be learnt. His packmates tackle him and hold him down while the rest of them beat him with the pan. Emma comes over and stops them before they get too brutal. Cole sits up and whinges a bit.. but really doesn't complain that much...obviously the spirits were happy!

The sept revels and there is much wyrm destryoing and general frenzying. That night the pack get the same old dream again and wake up screaming (Cole only).

November 30

In the morning there has been no sign of the full moon killer. The pack are summoned to go and see Grek and Monash. They enter Graham's house and are told to take a seat. Monash starts by saying that Alex still needs help but it sounds like the pack are on the right track. Then they all discuss the significance of it all. The elders suggest that following the thread of an existence is fairly profound, and that the references to the Faces of Gaia were probably not simply symbolic but rather spiritual (Of course, the spiritual is all about symbolism, but hopefully you know what I mean). The Living Face of Gaia should perhaps be some form of avatar of Gaia. As for the Still Face, Grek says that there are perhaps manifestations of Gaia in the Deadworlds where demons come from, and where the Silent Striders sometimes travel. The New Face of Gaia is perhaps the fundamental creative aspect of Gaia, and the Claws of Wisdom might need to make a little jaunt into the Flux Realm, or perhaps even to the Deep Umbra. Tra la la.

Despite a common urge to run the hell away, the pack listen to further advice. Grek suggests going to visit Bartholemew Wise-in-the-ways-of-the-Wyrm as he has collected much lore about the Australian spirit worlds. The pack say that they've met him before when they were following Cernonous' advice... hmm. Another indication of the cycle that Abu Nawas pointed out? Cossack says that the easier way there is to go via the Rocks Caern - despite some remaining trepedation about encountering Mother Pasta again, Cossack says that it would be polite to bring the Sydney sept up to date. And besides, they might be able to borrow a car from there and save themselves 8 hours driving.

Shhhwing! A Moonbridge is opened to the pub in Sydney and they become Trouble Magnet once more (after Fleas-from-America has been convinced that he can't take his car through because it will end up in the basement with no way out). Herman meets them and says that Mother Pasta wants to hear what has happened. A few people wave as they head up to the offices above the bar. Mother Pasta is sitting in a comfy chair, and looks a bit grouchy, but fortunately she lets Herman talk. He asks the pack what has happened. The pack tell the story yet again and Mother Pasta whispers in Herman's ear and leaves. Herman says that the sept will lend them a Land Rover to get them up to Bartholomew's. He tells them to make sure they're not pulled over because it could be rather awkward seeing as the car was involved in a hit and run recently. The pack look rather taken a back by this but agree.

The pack set off in their dodgy car into the middle of nowhere. The city melts away and they're driving through boring countryside. They play eyespy but it's kind of pointless when they already know what the other is thinking. Jay is filled in on some of the details of Bartholomew - old Kym Gyngell lookin' fella with a twang, he showed them a fetish similar to Bob's Cracking Stone called the Waiting Stone and also a place where an ancient wyrmy evil had escaped from to who knows where. Eventually at 4 in the afternoon they arrive at Bartholomew's> He is sitting on his verandah drinking beer and he offers the pack a beer - they accept gratefully. He invites them to sit down and they begin asking him questions. Bart asks some questions about what they've been doing in recent months.

Bart says that he'll have to consult his notes, and will let them know a bit more tomorrow. He tells them to make themselves at home and sleep in which every room they choose that isn't occupied. The pack are not really sleepy yet and decide to try the meditation thing again.. now that they have another memeber of the pack. Once food has been organised and consumed, the Claws of Wisdom wander out into the forest and sit down to meditate.

The mental space the pack inhabit in their own heads fades, and they can feel something open up. Other presences exist, and as they try to listen further and further, the walls between each other drop and they merge to become one entity, listening to the world about them. They can feel the water and the rocks, life and light, but there is still something that lies between them and the world around them. They try really hard to break that last barrier but cannot. Time fades into a meaningless sense of Now.....

You stand in the tunnels under Preston, so recently full of the residual taint of the Green Dragon. The tunnel is clean, but unlike the ephemeral storm water drains you have grown so familiar with, this tunnel heads down. The darkness grows, smothering all light and sense. Far ahead, two lights(?) appear, and a deep growling begins.