Jay and Cole crawl on towards the centre of the caern. They get there to find no one waiting for them. They can hear gunfire to the south and to the north, and to the west. Hooray. Graeme suddenly steps out of the Umbra and tells them to grab healing talens and guns, and head towards the north. Cole asks what the retreat signal is, and Graeme nearly shoots him in the face with the Umbral shotgun. This seems to convince Cole, and he grabs a gun and heals himself. Graeme says to pick their targets, because some of the kinfolk who work at the zoo have joined the fray. Jay opts to stick with the fae sword, but takes a gun just in case. They head towards the sound of fighting.
Abby and Melissa stop shooting due to the lack of response. They decide to head north to help with the obvious fighting that direction. As they crawl between the statues, tombs and gravestones, they spot Carmel, lying against a memorial. She's in homid form, bleeding heavily and not exactly responsive. It looks like she's taken a shotgun load in the chest, and given it seems to have been silver, there's a good chance she will die. Abby has no way to heal her though, and asks her pack for help. Krieg, running towards the centre of the caern, gives her some practical advice and Abby decides that if she can pry out the silver, Carmel might be ok. She starts to do this.
Krieg is concentrating on Abby when Cossack seems to materialise next to him. He is in Crinos form and looks fairly pissed. He tells Krieg to come with him, into the Umbra. Krieg points out that his chest area is in need of some serious surgery and Cossack digs about and finds a healing talen that takes care of most of the problem. The two of them dive into the Umbra, where banes are flooding through the hole in the caern defenses. Cossack leads them straight into the broohaha, telling Krieg to keep them off him. Banes swarm the two garou, belching fire, choking them with smoke and fog, burning them with acids, clawing and raking at them with claws. Cossack drags one claw across the air in front of him, and it leaves a glowing trail, and makes a sound akin to fingernails on a blackboard in Krieg's soul. It also infuriates the banes further. Krieg claws and rends, but is unable to stop some of the Wyrm spirits harming Cossack. Krieg bottoms out his rage, and instead of trying to stop some of the banes attacking, turns his back to them and heals his sept leader. He is burnt, clawed and strangled, but Cossack is able to continue carving the strange glowing sigil in the air. The pain is enough to reignite Krieg's rage, and he is able to fight off more of the banes. Cossack finishes his glyph and suddenly all the banes start swarming randomly. They bang into one another, and are no longer chewing at the spirits of the caern.
Meanwhile, Bob is clawing at the black shadow heading into the caern. Kirsty and the rest of the Get of Pennington have drifted north, following the line of combat, but Bob notices gunmen who have already gone into the caern. Figuring he can sneak up on them in the chaos and noise, he creeps forward to find 4 gunmen moving forward in a U shape. Bob attacks the back fomori, but his claws just bounce off the body armour. The guy pulls a knife, and Bob grabs at his arm. Unfortunately the fomori's mate has noticed this and shoots at Bob as the fomori hits him in the face with the gun butt. Bob tries to keep his first opponent between the shooter and himself, but its not working out too well. Bob finally decks the first guy, but that leaves him open to being shot by the second, and one of the lead two gunmen has noticed him now. Bob makes an executive decision to run away from the silver-shotgun wielding fomori, but he doesn't get enough cover in time. A blast takes him in the torso, and then the second shooter follows up with a three round burst.
The rest of the Claws of Wisdom feel Bob die. Cole flips out and immediately frenzies, dropping his guns and running for the west. Freya, being conveyed on a freeway somewhere in Melbourne, screams, freaking her kidnapper. The rest of the pack shunt their grief aside and continue to defend their sacred home. Jay picks up Cole's discarded gun, and keeps going where he was sent - he figures that one of the other defenders could use it. He continues towards the north when he spots a floating figure moving towards the centre of the caern a bit oblique to himself. Figuring it worked pretty well last time, Jay changes to lupus and sneaks up on it. There's not much cover, but he is fairly solidly black. Jay leaps out at the demon in crinos, sword in hand, and it looks at him. Underneath the stone-like cowl is nothing, a horrid, black, endless nothing. Jay manages to not flee and applies the fae sword to the demon, hard and repeatedly, until it breaks up into stone and ichor.
Abby figures that Carmel is stablised now, and she can hope that the caern is able to heal the other Fianna. Melissa reports that Ian and Ken are fighting a huge golem demon ahead, while being hassled by a gargoyle and some fomori with guns. Abby rather reluctantly offers Melissa a gun and says take single shots. After scoping the situation, they decide to try and take out the gunmen, figuring the others can probably deal with the demon then. They are creeping around one side of the obvious combat when it becomes clear that Melissa's bum is sticking up, mostly because one of the fomori shoots it. Abby stands up a couple of metres away and blows him away. The other two blaze away at the Garou, freeing Ian and Ken to start smashing away at the demon for a bit, backlit by the purpley fire.
Abby and Melissa duck down and start crawling around again. The gargoyle, however, has other plans, and starts to hassle them, giving the fomori somewhere to shoot at. The two Garou revise their plan. They stand up and shoot at the fomori, hitting one and causing the other to duck for cover. Abby runs towards the hidden fomor while Melissa takes on the gargoyle. Much gunfire, playing "can't see me" around a large memorial and loud, loud gunfire and the fomor and demons are all dead, or at least inconveniently discorporated.
Graeme's voice in the sentient Garou heads tells them that most of the fighting is over, except in the northwest corner of the caern. The sound of Garou howling becomes less "head for battle" and more "we're winning", but there is still no sign of the suggested Dancer attack. However, there is sign of helicopters. Jay is heading towards the battle when a searchlight stabs down and illuminate the spot he'd been standing instants ago. He figures that it can only be bad to let the police, or media, or whover that is above him see the battle clearly, so Jay points the boomstick at the bright light in the sky. The light goes out and hot glass cascades down a few metres away. Success!
The Garou start to converge on the last of the material opponents and gunfire starts to diminish away. Nadine and friends finally push into the caern from outside and the last of the fomori and demons are destroyed. The Garou wait, expecting the Dancers at any moment..... but no more opponents make themselves obvious. Nadine grabs a handful of helpers to try and do a cursory mop up in the realm, and Cossack orders the rest of the Garou into the Umbra - they still have a huge collection of banes infesting the cemetary to deal with.
The banes are still terribly confused by the glowing glyph, and so killing them becomes more a mop-and-bucket job than a pitched battle. The Garou without Rage hang back and use healing talens on those in the fray, and this rare teamwork makes short work of the cloud, which are also being herded together by the glowing spirits of the umbral cemetary. Eventually the bane cloud breaks and individual banes start to flee. However, it leaves a greyish shadow in the Umbra, on the ground and in the air, and reports from the realm say that the black goo is still flowing towards the centre of the caern.
Bob wakes up (Bob only) cold and shivering, and with a massive hole in his abdomen, leaking blood into the black goo in which he is immersed. There are strange men moving past into the caern, so Bob lays down and watches. They look a little like the fomori that were assaulting the caern, but they're not firing. The black goo is all encompassing, and its draining Bob's pitiful energy reserves, so he waits till the men wander off and slips into the Umbra. He appears near Krieg, causing Krieg to freak out somewhat. Wondering if this is a trick, Krieg senses for wyrm - but its everywhere. Bob says "heal me, you fool" and so Krieg tries that, only to have the black goo that is clinging to Bob ripple forward and steal the healing flow of gnosis. Krieg helps clean off the goo and heals Bob as the others show up - there is a bit of "huh!". They know Bob was dead. And now he's not on the mental link.
However, they don't get any time to consider this, as Cossack approaches and says that as it seems the immediate danger is over, they should go rescue Freya. To the bat car! Freya tells them that she thinks they've turned off the freeway and onto backroads - it feels windy and rough. The pack run through the Umbra (because the Realm is full of police and spectators) to Cole's house, where they get in their only working vehicle - the icecream truck. Zooming out along the Eastern freeway, following Bob's questing stone.
Meanwhile Freya reports that the car has stopped. She is hooded, gagged and partially hobbled. The back of the van thing stops and she is led/forced to her feet. Her hands are half asleep and she isn't really in a situation where she can do anything about being a captive. She hears a door open and another voice, making at least two men here. They lead her through a house, around and around, and up and down stairs, probably intended to be confusing and disorienting, but turning out to just be annoying. She relates this all to the pack as they get closer.
Bob's trail leads them to a backroad south of Warandyte. The houses are few and far between, so its pretty clear which is the appropriate house. As they drive by, it seems that there is both a material and Umbral house, but they can't see too well at this distance. They park a kilometer or so away, and step into the Umbra. They run up to a 100m or so away and reconnoitre. In the Realm, the house is surrounded by large pine trees, surrounding maybe a half acre with a large house and carport. In the Umbra, the trees exist, but they are spindly and none too healthy. The house exists too, but it is much smaller, and older looking. The feeling is that the old house was extended to make the larger, because they seem to overlap. Jay, who is peeking, sees lights in the material house, which turn off as he watches. There are definately blinds or something in every window.
The pack are a little concerned they may be facing mages, and don't want to rush in. Sense unnatural reveals nothing, but that was the same with the ouchy house in Airport West 18 months ago. Meanwhile, Freya tells them that she is in an acousticly odd room, as if it was soundproofed or something - a disturbing possibility. She can also suddenly hear a high-pitched whine, maybe like electronics. There are two male voices and smells in the room, the guy that actually kidnapped her and another.
Jay tries to hear the whine, but can't make it out. The pack tentatively cross the boundary of the pine trees..... and nothing happens. Ooo, spooky. They note that there are two cars in the carport - the still warm van that brought Freya here and a four wheel drive with NSW plates. Creeping closer to the house, they cross the boundary of the new house without being electricuted, zapped, assaulted by demons or otherwise attacked, which frankly is a bit of a relief. While Jay peeks, the others guide him around the new house bits. He can smell Freya, and two men, but the scents go pretty much everywhere. They move to the old house, walking through the umbral building, and the same deal. They scour the whole house and find no sign of Freya.
There is a bit of consultation with Freya who thinks she might have been taken down more steps than up - being in a basement might explain the lack of echo too. They've been in every room though, and can't find a basement. Krieg thinks to look under the house and sees what might be a bricked passage to under the ground - he related the location back to the others and Jay says its a cupboard. But when he puts his head through the door, he can see stairs leading downward. The pack sigh and head down the stairs in the Umbra.
Jay relates the horrid scene. Freya is tied up to a chair, with some sort of cable running from her handcuffs (with hands tied behind her back) to a silvery wire which is looped tightly around her neck. In front of her is a camera / sound set up, and it is the source of the electronic whine. One man is tinkering with some of the camera bits at a desk while another sits on a table, looking tired and frazzled, with a shotgun pointed mostly in Freya's direction. The rest of the pack take a quick peek and some of them groan - Cole knows the policeman and the other guy is Kenneth Galweigh, who was part of the whole steroid fomori debacle last year. Cole passes on that the policeman is a federal policeman, his last name is Faithful or something. He was one of the officers who interviewed Cole when the mafia baby stuff happened. Um, and about 3 months ago, something weird happened with Siobhan while he was there. The pack sigh and decide details can wait, they need to rescue Freya.
Galweigh moves to put a tape in the camera and check the setup, so they figure they better move. Step 1, disarm the policeman. Step 2, take the two into custody. Step 3, release Freya. People get into position in Crinos - Cole and Krieg will deal with Faithful while Jay and Bob deal with Galweigh and Abby blocks the doorway to prevent escape. The plan goes off without a hitch, Faithful is disarmed and knocked out, Galweigh is roughed up by Jay then pinned. He won't stop screaming though, even when they free Freya and gag Galweigh with the ball gag. Pesky Delerium. So they knock him out too.
The two of them are sensed - nothing - and handcuffed into the same van that Freya was transported in. While Freya rings Brad and spends some time reassuring him, the the pack search the house. It looks like they've only been here for about a month, and that its a furnished rental place. There's only their two scents, which is a bit reassuring. Bob calls out that he's found something interesting (no mental link still). Its boxes and boxes of archive material, newspaper clippings, photos... photos of them. Oh. Photos of people they know. Hand written notes. Photos of them in crinos form. Oh fabulous. Jay finds that one of the ensuites has been turned into a photo development lab (black and white), so at least they are being developed locally. This is so not good. Not only is it bad from a "we're being spied on" point of view, but the photos at least are Veil breaking. Which is an interesting point - normally people wouldn't be calm enough to take photos of crinos, they'd be running away screaming instead. Krieg runs down to the car and uses Scent of True Form. Sod, yes, Faithful is kinfolk, which means that he's immune to the Delerium. The pack speculate on what to do.
Abby is very much enthused about bringing Faithful into the fold, whereas Bob thinks even trying is a waste of time. They decide to try and spend some time before they go back to the caern and see what's going on. Galweigh is hauled down to the cellar (still unconscious) and tied up to a chair, while Faithful is put into a bedroom and watched carefully by Cole from the Umbra. Galweigh is in the more uncomfortable position and wakes up first, to find himself blindfolded and handcuffed. However, he is fairly recalcitrant in the face of his captors, and even using Gifts against him doesn't help much. They decide to leave him alone for a while and see if that changes his mind. However, Abby stays there silently for 5 minutes and then screams in his ear while using Call of the Wyld. Needless to say, this has some effect. She then scampers off.
Meanwhile, people sort through some of the material available to them. The photos are blurry, but fairly damning - photos of where they live, a blurry photo of what might be Gina at Cole's window, giving Faithful the finger, people chatting to other members of the Sept and so on. Some of the notes that Faithful has made are funny, as he's observed their behaviour and tried to map them straight onto wolves. They find a couple of books on the psychology of wolves and Bob claims them as booty. Although there is a lot if info here that would have been useful for the assault on their sept, there is just a feeling that it doesn't quite match - there's too much additional stuff here that would have been useful to whoever attacked the sept.
Cole tells people that Faithful is starting to stir. Abby brings him coffee and water, much to the annoyance of Freya, who would rather rough him up a bit. There is a bit of a mental consultation with the pack - Cole and Kreig are unsure, Jay doesn't think that Abby can turn him around and Freya is still pissed from three hours of having a silver garotte tied around her neck. However, Abby badgers Freya's cooperation or at least non-interference in trying to convert Faithful. She walks in and finds him half awake and groggy. He slumps and basically tells her to kill him quickly. She says that they won't be killing him and Freya tells him that he has their blood in his veins. There is more talk where it becomes clear that Faithful thinks they are child-killing monsters, who slaughter when they will. Freya nearly loses her rag and Abby asks her nicely to go away.
Freya stumps down to the cellar, passing Bob, who is collecting random objects of uncertain provinence and using his Cooking gift to make it into 'food'. She continues downstairs, changes to glabro and starts cutting the doctor's clothes off him with her claws, not saying anything, but growling and muttering in her glabro voice while stripping him naked in bits.
Meanwhile, Jay tries to find links through the information in the boxes and Abby tries to convince Faithful that they are not random psychopaths by suggesting that the are religious whackos instead ("There are evil spirits that posess some people and when we can't exorcise them, we have to kill them then"). Bob comes upstairs with his bowl of chunky goo ("Its not poisoned, but it was all grey so I put food dye in it to make it blue") and he and Abby have a squabble at the door before Bob pushes his way in and tries to foist the slop onto Faithful. Freya shows up and tries to arbitrate in the hallway while Krieg slips in and comisserates with Faithful, who looks on in disbelief.
Figuring that they are not the best to try and explain things to Faithful or decide what to do with Galweigh, the Claws of Wisdom bend their mighty intellect to the problem and decide rather sensibly to palm these two off onto someone else and get back to their caern. Freya walks away and rings the Sept of Reconciliation at Healesville and manages to convey that they have two prisoners who need to be picked up, could they get some help so they can go back to their party. Nicholas agrees and says that people will be there soonest.
Half an hour later, a car pulls up and two people get out. Jay and Freya check'em out - it is Mandras Skywatcher (the real one) and Liam Boylan, a Child of Gaia and Fianna from Reconciliation. They talk about the situation as they head for the house and Mandras nods. He heads for the basement and touches Galweigh, who has started trying to yell when he hears feet approaching. Galweigh slumps down, apparently asleep, and Liam starts untying him to take back to the car. Mandras gets Freya to lead him upstairs. They walk into Faithful's room and Mandras vagues waves a hand at him. Faithful falls back, eyes glazed over. Abby asks what he did, so Mandras shows her while the GM boggles at the ease by which you can use Dazzle. Jay and Krieg try and sense what's going on in Abby's mind as she slumps back and they slump too. Freya gets a sense of bliss coming from all of them, and is a bit bemused.
The two humans are bundled off into the car and the other garou drive off. The Claws of Wisdom head back into Melbourne via Cole's house. When they get back there is bad news and worse news. The bad news is that Barry Heaton and Georgina Quittner are dead. Barry managed to get the bomb off the truck driven into the northern border of the caern but it exploded before he could throw it away. Georgina was gunned down out the front of a party, and then doused in petrol and set on fire.
The worse news is that the contamination from the tanker is spreading fast. The spiritual contamination is spreading independently of the physical substance, and is feeding on the power of the Caern. Whoever concocted this stuff knew what they were doing. They estimate that they have two or three days before the Caern is corrupted. Before that happens, if they can't stop the corruption, they are going to destroy the Caern. The sept stays up through the night, discussing possible ways to stem the creeping corruption.
The Sept wrack their collective brains for what to do. The Rite of Cleansing is just not up to the task. They can't wade out there and scrape the black oil up physically, because the cemetary and surrounds are swarming in people. Plus as they watch, the grey shadow in the Umbra is seperating from the oil and spreading faster. Its not a spirit itself, its almost like Wyrm ephemera - its a shadow over the area and the ground and everything else. Standing in it quickly drains the Garou's gnosis (well, hopefully it drains it, and doesn't convert it to something else).
Everyone is tired and exhausted, and getting a bit snappish - some of the Sept haven't slept for a couple of days now and have been working their guts out in the meantime. There are a couple of squabbles that turn into pushing arguments. Abby quietly tries to pick up whether the greyish shadow is influencing the Garou, but she can't pick that up either.
Ideas come up - Cole wants to know why they can't move the caern, and gets the skinny on why that's not a solution at the moment. The possibility of summoning giant wyld spirits to destroy the wyrm is raised, but the chances are that that would also destroy the caern. Summoning storms to wash the goo away is possible, but the shadow seems seperate to the black goo and that would put it in the bay - better than on the caern, but not good. Abby wonders about what's happening to the other trucks of goo and goes to investigate with a couple of other garou. Bob grabs Chris and Emma and talks to them about componentising of spirit natures. People suggest trying to build a barrier against the goo and against the shadow - it would probably work on a) but not on the spiritual reflection.
The humans in the Realm organise a cleanup crew of sorts - they are treating the black crap like oil (which is kind of is) and are using deturgents and trucks to vaccuum it up. That would be nice, only the grey shadow goes through the environmental suits they are wearing and starts to taint the humans with Wyrm. Oh good. Because they are right out in the middle of the shadow, the garou can't do more than take names for later cleansing.
The trucks seem to be undisturbed, spiritually. They don't seem to have a grey shadow, which begs the question what is it about the trucks that keeps it contained. There is a weird sense of magic about them as well as a huge amount of Wyrm taint, which adds another mystery to the situation. The possibility is put forward that its contact with the caern that activates the black goo, which would explain why the two tankers that didn't make it into the caern proper that are without a shadow. Eventually the police take the tankers away.
By dawn, everyone is tired and cranky and they don't have any really good suggestions. The shadow is half way to the caern centre and people are starting to grit their teeth to enact the less perfect suggestions when there is a flash of silver light on the far side of the caern as a Moonbridge opens. It is Malajimbarra, Rite Master of Grinding Stone. He has heard of their plight and has come to help. He knows of a mystic rite that is intended to deal with exactly this problem - the Rite of the Opened Sky. It can only be used within the confines of a Caern and cleanses away all corruption. But he only knows of one person who is familiar with this rite - the Rite Master of Three-Stars-Over-Salted-Earth Sept. It is the main Uktena sept in Australia and the sept leader is Tjinderi Knowing-Smile. He wants to take the Claws of Wisdom with him to talk to them.
The pack quickly review their interactions with the Uktena Tribe - bastards! It could be suggested that Red-Sun-Rising and Two Bones are the cause of their current problem, and there is still the interesting information they discovered in the Deadlands from Watcher about the Uktena and their part in the events in Sydney to be resolved. On the other hand, Malajimbarra and Jane Redfeather have always been helpful. Freya is all for going, and Cossack gives them permission to go.
The Claws of Wisdom and Malajimbarra Moonbridge to Jindabyne, where they meet Tames-Spirits-with-her-Snarl (aka She Whose Voice of Anger Induces Proper Respect from the Bretheren of the Umbra), the Silverfang Gatekeeper, who sniffs at them. Malajimbarra wants Freya alone to come with him, at least to begin with and she agrees. Tames-Spirits-with-her-Snarl opens a Moonbridge and the two of them step through (Freya only). Freya is gone from the mental link for about 30 minutes, leaving her pack to cause trouble. Abby rants about how Garou society is crazy - they hoard information like it was precious jewels when it would only benefit everyone to share the information properly. Cole says that Abby has never seemed so sexy as she does right now, which, although heartfelt, derails her ranting. Krieg takes this oppurtunity to sniff Bob, who is also not on the link. Apparently Bob is a garou.
Freya and Malajimbarra return along with another Garou who is introduced to the pack as Franklin Ash-Hand, Theurge and Master of the Rite at the Uktena Sept of Three-Stars-Over-Salted-Earth. They then bounce on to Sleeping Lore where formal greetings take place. Franklin says that the rite will need the participation of the whole sept, as they are going to need a lot of Gnosis. He will need some time to prepare, and suggests that mid-afternoon would be the appropriate time (it being about an hour after dawn now). Various Sept members crash asleep or keep an eye on the situation.
Midafternoon, Franklin is ready and everyone is gathered in the Umbra. The rite begins - Franklin has given each Garou something to do as part of the ritual and he leads the chanting. As time passes, dark clouds roll in across the bay in both the umbra and the real world - one of those unexpected cool changes. Soon the storm clouds are over the cemetery, and then the rains start to fall. The Garou can feel their Gnosis flowing out and into t he sky, and can feel the cleansing flow of the rain. They can see the creeping stain of corruption in the umbra start to break up and dissolve - purified and destroyed rather than merely washed away to somewhere else. An hour or more after the rite was begun, the last of the corruption has been cleansed. The ritual ends, and the storm starts to wind down. Cossack and the elders thank Franklin and the Uktena for their assistance. Franklin then moon bridges away.
With the Caern saved and the sept assembled, Cossack outlines the situation. The mundane world is assuming that the battle at the Cemetery was some sort of underworld war, perhaps tied in with the whole Yeagar deal. There is already a special taskforce being promised by the Government to investigate all the events of New Years Eve. The Elders are going to arrange for large amounts of drugs to be found nearby, which will hopefully act as a nice distraction. As for the sept, everyone is going to be busy for weeks to come. The Scryers and the Get of Pennington will be kept busy altering and destroying evidence, cleansing people contaminated in the attack, tracking down leads and so on. In a matter of this magnitude, this is going to take quite a while. Meanwhile, the Caern is vulnerable as most of its spiritual defences have been exhausted. Therefore the Claws of Wisdom are to remain at the sept, as guards and also helping in the summoning and binding of the many spirits. Abby asks why them and Cossack says they are currently the strongest pack at the Sept. All of this is going to take weeks. And complicating matters is the various Garou's exposure to mundane investigation. Amongst the Claws of Wisdom, Cole is in the biggest danger, followed by Kreig and faintly Abby and maybe Bob. They will have to think of how they want to handle matters in the next couple of weeks.
As people start going about their business, Cossack asks to speak to the Claws of Wisdom about Faithful and Galweigh. Once they are aside, he actually asks why they didn't tell any of the Elders about their little telepathic link. Freya says it was policy set by a previous administration and Abby hits her. They just sort of waffle an answer of "dunno", really. Cossack doesn't seem mad, he just wants to know why. Anyway, he confirms that the Children of Gaia are taking care of the pesky humans for the moment and sets the pack to sorting themselves out for several weeks of guard duty - Cossack wants at least 4 of them here at any given time.
The pack settle into their roles for the next few weeks. In the outside world, events progress. The Scryers and the Get of Pennington are both kept too busy trying to change evidence, steal tape and fundamentally obscure the events of New Years Eve. The Sept manages to pull favours from around the place and score an enormous cache of drugs, which the police 'find' in a house north of the caern, lending some credence to the gang war theory that the papers seem fond of. However, the battle at the cemetary isn't the only thing being investigated. Given the role that apparent homeless people played in the attacks randomly through the suburbs, there has been a call for the police to be more stringent in enforcing the vagrancy laws. Certain members of the public decided this wasn't enough, and took matters into their own hands, leading to a number of mysterious attacks in the CBD and beyond. Normally the Sept would take a strong stance against this, but they have their own problems. As a result, the overnight cells in most of the inner city stations are filled to overflowing.
More officially, the various police forces have instigated a Task Force to investigate the events leading up to and happening on New Years Eve. Their investigators are a royal pain to the Garou in the Sept, poking around the caern at all hours. There are also a number of werewolves who were more directly associated with events, including members of Claws of Wisdom.
Krieg decides that he needs to make an alibi for himself. He borrows a silver knife (otherwise it would heal) from the Sept and with the help of his packmates, gets them to stab him in the back and then heal it a bit. They roll him about in the dirt for a while and generally make his life miserable before dumping him in the Treasury Gardens. Some passing samaritan finds him and Krieg is taken to hospital. A bit delerious and unsure of the events of the previous 48 hours, his wound is cleaned up by the hospital and stitched together. When the police interview him, they find that his story of stepping outside for a moment and then being stabbed in the back a little suspicious given his qualifications, but the truth is that he couldn't have stabbed himself in such a way, so that part at least is legitamate. Eventually he's let out of hospital, and heads home to talk to Greg, primarily about moving out.
Cole is captured by police and beaten because Andy didn't show up.
Abby finds herself the agony aunt for Melissa when she finally gets enough time to let events sink in. There's a little mention of the fate of her family in the news - a brief mention about two deaths and the presumed kidnapping and death of their young daughter by a tall blonde woman. Melissa spends an afternoon wrapped up in a sobbing ball, comforted by Abby. When the spell has passed, Abby goes and finds the caern Elders. Cossack feels that it might be for the best to let the world believe that Melissa is dead - after all, look at all the difficulties that Claws of Wisdom are having because of their mortal lives. Abby argues that to cut Melissa off from all that could have been is unfair, whereas Cossack's argument is that Melissa has more important things to do - that whole saving the world thing. Abby manages to talk him into considering the alternatives while Abby goes and speaks to Melissa about what she wants to do.
Bob slips away for a day or so (Bob only) and its a while before anyone notices because he's still not on the mental link. When he comes back, Freya chews him out and then decides its time to investigate and figure out what's going on. Bob's theory is that Merlin is pissed with him because Bob should be dead, which is remarkably close to what the situation is. People surreptiously sense Bob - he has a bit more Wyld about him than usual, and some faint Wyrm lurking there, but it certainly doesn't feel like a bane has posessed his dead corpse or anything. Merlin is summoned, but he does't come in response to the ritual. The pack decide to perform a Rite of Contrition, despite Cole's celebrating and demanding that they leave well enough alone. Freya performs the ritual and tries summoning Merlin again, which works this time. Merlin refuses to discuss the situation but agrees to reinstate Bob to the mental link, much to his annoyance.
Abby decides that she really wants to learn the Gift Faerie Gate. She figures that finding a fae is the best way to do so, and asks Cossack if she can go down to the trod in Mornington. Cossack stares at her and says no way, pointing out the time dilation problems. She considers her options. She could go out to Rippling Waters, and ask the Fianna there. Or.. wait. Cole's statues sense of fae. Abby finds Harold, having built up a bit of a rappore with him previously. Harold cautiously admits that he might know how to show her that trick, but he wants something in return. Specifically, he wants a car of his own, given that Cole's posessions have all been impounded. Abby hums and hars and wanders off to think about it. The Sept just doesn't have the resources to give her one, and she certainly can't afford one. Abby could try and get one through her parents - she knows there's a constant flow of old cars between her country cousins, but that would mean owing favours to random kinfolk out in Fianna land. In the end, she goes for stealing one by messing with the computer systems at a second hand car yard and making them think it had been transferred to another dealer. She meets Harold again and gives him the keys, and Harold takes her out into the country, and shows her how to find the faerie paths into the Umbra.
Other people use the time they have at the caern to learn things too. Bob finally finishes learning Rite of the Fetish and starts speculating about whether he should make one. Jay talks to Emma about learning a gift (Jay only).
The Get of Pennington get togther on the Saturday and tell the caern Elders that they are unavailable for the next 36 hours. They proceed to get roaringly drunk in a pack-wake for Barry Heaton, and when they recover, seem emotionally better. Christine, on the other hand, seems on the verge of a breakdown - Georgina was the only member from the Hand of Lore left at the caern, and they were fairly close. Although she is still leading her pack and they are busy, she slumps into a quiet depression when left on her own.
About midday, Emma comes and finds the Claws of Wisdom. She speaks to Freya and says that Emma would like the pack to go to this address (a sidestreet off Johnston St) and get the newspaper clipping there. She forestalls questions by saying that the Claws of Wisdom were specifically named, the Get of Pennington will guard the caern in the meantime, and that she won't answer any further questions. Shoo.
The pack grumble their way across the Umbra to the address. It seems to be the second last in a series of dilapidated old style shops. In the realm, the shops are all closed, with for lease signs or their windows broken. However, the address in question has a door ajar. The pack cautiously enter. In the realm the shopfront has had its windows covered with old newspaper. AHA! No, none of that seems like clippings, its just random newspapers from about a year ago.
Jay, who is peeking, hears movement out the back of the shop. The pack head out there and find that the back of the shop, in the Umbra, is a luscious garden. Green covers every spare space of the alley way, crawling up the walls and covering the ground. Jay says that the realm is a garden, but someone has smashed it up, and the noise he heard was an old baglady, pushing a shopping trolley about and picking through the debris. Its decided that some of the pack will step into the realm, so Abby and Jay go through the high Gauntlet in the front of the shop while the others look in the Umbra.
Bob figures the garden is pretty weird and tries a sense wyld. He finds that there is the resonance of the growing vegetation, but even more than that. There's an feeling of something New, a sense that something happened here that has not happened before, and also a sense that there is something missing, something that has left echoes, but has somehow departed.
Jay heads out into the backyard, cautiously making a lot of noise. Its hot as hell in the Realm, about 35 and the footprints leading out of the garden and through the house are dried and dirty. Abby ducks up the narrow staircase and finds that there are 3 pallets made up - asking Krieg to sniff from the Umbra suggests that there were two boys and a girl here. Meanwhile, Jay meets Mabel amidst the smashed garden. Mabel is a bit odd but when people sense her from the Umbra, she doesn't seem unusual. Mabel asks if Jay is one of Kevin's friends, and Jay says yes, Kevin asked Jay to get stuff for him. Mabel asks how he did that from jail. Jay says ah. Mabel doesn't seem to notice, but keeps talking about how they were good kids and didn't deserve to be arrested, no drugs here, just their garden. But that Kevin, he shouldn't have fought the coppers, and young Jaquie put in a kick or two, she shouldn't think. Probably the coppers thought they were growing drugs.
Bob suddenly snaps his brain. The place feels like a Glade - a sort of natural holy place. They usually happen in forests, but sometimes in swamps and places like that. But all the ones that Bob knows about happen in the wilderness - he's never heard of one in the city. Which might make the missing thing a Glade Child - kind of a dryad-like spirit of an entire area, rather than the spirit of a particular tree. But again - these spirits only occur in the wild. But that might explain the New sense as well as all the other bits of strangeness in the Umbra. The question is - where the hell is it?
Abby comes out in the garden and speaks to Mabel too. She asks Mabel if she has a newspaper clipping. Mabel tentatively agrees that she might have a newspaper, but she wants something good for it. Abby doesn't have much, but offers XXX in return for the paper. Mabel agrees and cautiously removes the canvas flap from her bag and gives Abby yesterday's Age, complete with greenguide. This doesn't seem to have any mystical significance, and Abby wanders away muttering about annoying Garou sending them on annoying quests.
Mabel asks Jay to help her out, and he does so. She wanders off, talking happily to herself. The pack decide that they need to speak to the kids who built the garden, and figure out where the nearest police station is. Cue whirling claw scene changing thing.
The pack observe from the Umbra, scaring off Authority spiders. The station is packed with drunks and homeless and its Friday afternoon and absolute chaos. They eventually find the three smells that match the ones from the shop, and discover that they are looking at three teenagers, two boys, one girl. They might be anywhere from 15 to 18, but one boy seems older than the others. More peeking about and the pack find that the three of them are being held on $200 bail each. The pack consider their options. Despite Abby wanting to go home and just punch Emma, they figure that freeing the kids is the way to go. Freya is the only one of the pack that can do it - maybe she can pretend to be an aunt or something.
To get the $600, they decide to bug Christine Elliot. Off to Toorak. Christine is home, but looks awful when she opens the door. People can smell alcohol on her. She just asks "how much?" when she sees them standing there, and Abby says $600. They follow her into the house to her safe. The blinds are all closed and the house smells musty. When Christine gives them the cash, the pack check to see if she needs anything, but Christine brushes them off. They frown but don't know what to do at the moment.
To the police station! Freya is indeed kicked out of the Umbra and made to put her face on the CCTV at the police station. Its late on a Friday afternoon and the place is absolute chaos. Freya takes a deep breath and submerges her Rage away. She says that she's here to pay bail on three homeless kids brought in earlier today and gives their names. The desk sargeant is half way through talking to her when the phone rings. He answers it and wiggles his eyebrows at Freya in a "just a minute" sort of way. As he hangs up the phone, a constable comes to speak to him and he has to handle that for a bit. Eventually Freya gets the paperwork and a pen and fills it all out. Two brawls start in the waiting area while she's doing so and the desk sargeant and some constables sort them out.
Once the paperwork is done, it has to get processed and that takes its own amount of stupid time. Freya is smiley and friendly all the way through the process, which works better than her attempts to use the Persuasion gift. Eventually the three kids are herded out of the holding cells and pointed at Freya, who makes shtoom kind of noises until they get outside, at which point Kev wants to know who she is. Freya says that she's working with a community group who are trying to get young people involved in creating city-gardens - they heard about the garden in Rochester St (mumblemumble) from Mabel, and decided to come and get them out of jail. There is not an inconsiderable skepticism from the three kids, not least because they don't think there's any point in going back to the squat, because the police will just come and rumble them again. Besides, the cops wrecked the joint. Freya says that for tonight and probably the weekend, she can offere somewhere to crash, which gets the immediacey of the problem out of the way. She says to hang on while she makes a phone call.
Freya wanders off with her mobile phone pressed theatrically up against one ear and mentally converses with her pack. She's picking up that the kids have been extremely discouraged by the events - they are really negative on the garden. She asks Abby if they can crash at her flat, and Abby agrees, but says that she'll "come by" about now and take them all there. Freya chats a bit longer about what to do with the kids, and the pack toy with the idea of moving the garden, or trying to buy the site.
Freya goes back to the three of them while some of the pack peel off to check out the Glade. They chat about stuff while waiting for Freya's "friend" Abby to come along. It looks like Kev is the spokesman for the three of them, but Gav is the one most despondant about the garden. Abby shows up and says that they are welcome to crash in her flat for a couple of days - she's staying with friends at the moment so its no problem for her. As the two of them take the kids there, there is more poking about the garden and its future. Basically the three kids think that the cops wrecked it today, and then the Garou say they looked and didn't think it was that bad, the three teenagers aren't happy. Gav says that even if they could put it back, the cops would just come back and wreck it again. They're not too happy about moving either - it wouldn't be their place anymore is the best they can articulate it.
Meanwhile, back on earth, Krieg, Jay and Bob are at the glade and poking about. The plants are looking pretty sad after the really hot day. In the Umbra, the glade is still green, but it feels like there's been a drop in the sort of ambient wyld sense in the Umbra. While Krieg sets about putting things to right, the two lupus cast about for a scent or sense of where the purported glade children might have gone. Jay gets a sense that the spirit might have headed east, towards the river, and so he and Bob head that way, trailing the ephemeral feeling.
Freya asks Kev if there's one particular policeman that is out to get them, and he says yeah, some guy called Carmichael. Kev hints that he got into trouble when he was 14 and the guy thinks that he's some sort of petty crim. Kreig says that he could maybe try and find out stuff about Carmichael. The kids are settled in despite their bemusement that Abby is willing to leave three street kids she doesn't know in a house with cds and stuff. Freya heads off to the Glade while Abby buys fish and chips and gives them all a good feed.
Jay eventually finds what seems to be the glade child - its a thin, vaguely humanoid figure, but it looks more like a plant than an animal. It is struggling along the ground towards the river and Studley Park. He senses and finds the same wyld/gaian senses as Bob picked up in the garden. Er. Now what? Picking the spirit up and carrying it is not going to be too useful. He stands in front of it and it just slowly goes around him. They try talking to the spirit, but it seems to be kind of singlemindedly focused on the fact the garden has been destroyed. They try to convince it that they can rebuild the garden, but it can't seem to grasp it. An insight from one of the pack suggests that normally Glade Children are bonded to wild-like areas, and if those areas are destroyed, then they really are gone. A garden could be rebuilt, however, but that's not the nature of the spirit. So they need to demonstrate to the spirit that the garden is not gone.
The pack argue a bit and back and forth a little with ideas before coming up with the cunning plan to bring along both a plant from the Umbral garden (they are sort of in pots) and from the Realm and drop them in front of the spirit (well, not drop, but...). As Freya stands in the Realm with Krieg and a potplant, they seem to get some friendly attention from passersby. In the Umbra, the spirit drags itself to the Umbral plant and lays there for a time. The Garou start to notice that the glade child is looking more translucent, but the sense of the spirit is still as strong - hopefully this means their plan is working. Eventually the spirit is gone, just as dusk falls on the Garou. Walking slowly back toward the Glade, they keep the physical and spiritual plants as close together as they can, which relies on a lot of mental communication between the pack.
Finally the two plants are returned to the Glade, and the Garou continue to patch up the last of the gross damage inflicted by the police by righting pots and tidying up. Tomorrow they will speak to the teenagers about the garden and decide what to do.
While the kids sleep in, the Claws of Wisdom leap into action. Freya and Bob head for the council offices and plunder their informational booty. They find that the shop is owned by a J.R. McKay. Abby gets them to find out who owns the other shops, and it seems to be J.R. McKay who owns the entire strip leading down to Johnston St. They ponder. A quick look in the white pages finds that there is only one J. McKay in the immediate area about Brunswick St so they wait for 11am and give them a buzz.
Meanwhile, other folks get stuck into tidying up a bit more. The glade child is perhaps a little stronger than it was, but its hard to be 100% sure. Cole decides he's had enough of the whole thing, and clips out a random bit of newspaper to take along to Emma and says that they've finished. While he is walking to Emma's place, he notices that a shop wall just off Brunswick has been graffitied in a most spectacular way. The 12' high image is in grey, and features a female head tipped forward so that her eyes are hidden, but clearly marked are the trails of tears down her cheeks. At the bottom are 5 teardrops, each with a word refracted in the splashed drop - Fallen, Unfulfilled, Lost, Abandoned and Shattered. Its a fairly technically interesting work, and a number of people on the street are fairly impressed. Cole senses it, but finds that it doesn't sense of anything really - which is odd in itself.
He continues on to Emma's house and presents her with the newspaper clipping. Emma just looks at him until he winds down with his long explanation, and then takes the clipping. She says that if he doesn't want to help the Sept, then she isn't going to force him. Its up to him. He doesn't have to help out his friends if its too much trouble. Her amazing guilt powers have Cole scampering back to his pack in only a few moments.
While Umbral members of the pack peek in on the house in question, Freya gives the McKay number a ring and asks to speak to someone about renting the kid's squat. The guy who answers the phone seems a bit baffled how she got his number and tells her that she'll need to speak to their solicitor about that. From the Umbra, he looks fairly normal and doesn't start frothing when she mentions the address or anything. Freya gets the details and apologises for interrupting his morning. She figures nothing else can be done till Monday.
Abby hears that the kids are finally awake, judging by the sound of pipes groaning in the big house. She wanders down with breakfast and talks to Kev, Jaquie and Gav about what to do. Abby says they are welcome to stay here for at least a few days, but that she and her friends would like to see them be able to move back in to the squat. None of the three of them seems very enthused still, although food and a night's rest has cheered them up. The pack have some mental conversation about buying them furniture and such but decide to take it one step at a time. Freya goes to a couple of nurseries and buys some basics - replacement hosing and some big tubs and some dirt - figuring that if they want more plants, its better to let the owners get them. Abby snaps back to the here and now and finds the 3 teenagers looking at her odd.
Although all three kids think that garden is a write-off - the police did a number on it, its boiling hot (36C today) and there's nothing to stop the cops coming back - Abby manages to persuade them that they should at least come and have a look. Kev is easiest to convince, and Gav hardest. Off they go, to find Freya showing up with her bits and pieces. She also has a couple of big bags of mulch from the council freepile.
People help out to try and set things to sorts. The garden really isn't that big, so fundamentally it isn't taking that long. Some of the pack remain in the Umbra and laze about in the cool, er, investigate spiritual matters while the others lift and carry in the hot sun. While they are doing so, the topic of maybe organising for a government grant, or getting the owners to rent it for a pittance comes up. The three kids obviously have no idea that this sort of thing might be possible, so having the two garou make a load of suggestions does break some of their dourness. Freya points out that if they have a legal right to be here, even this Carmichael fellow can't hassle them. This obviously hadn't occure to them
While they work, people keep an eye out for weirdness. Bob notices that Jackie and Kev definately have a thing, and just as definately they don't want these freaky people helping them to know that yet. Abby, on the other hand, is a bit weirded out that Gav is paying her no attention at all - its hot, and she's only wearin enough clothes to placate modesty, but he's not even glancing at her breasts. She watches him closely for a while.
Meanwhile in the Umbra, there is a sensation that perhaps the glade child is reattaching itself to the essence of the garden. Sensing seems to suggest that it has spread out a bit further, although it doesn't seem to be very active.
A summer thunderstorm starts to roll in off the bay, clouding over and promising a fairly significant drenching soon. The pack discuss what to do - Jumps-in-Puddles offers to stay at the glade over night just to make sure that the cops don't come back and screw up their work to put everything back to normal. This seems like a plan, so he runs off to do an errand or two for a bit before coming back (Jay only). Everyone else heads off, or back to Abby's for pizza and videos.
Its still a bit ratty weather, so most outings are delayed. Cole, Abby and Bob go hunting this "Carmichael" guy and find that he has been detailed to be at a local cricket game (proceeding despite the occasional drift of rain). Figuring this means he'll be sitting still, they decide to cleanse him. Unfortunately, they are all out of gnosis. Bob decides that he will convince a seagull spirit to help out (seemed appropriate at a sports event) and summons one to him. However, a whole group show up, and the pack gain the impression that the spirit is the spirit of the flock. Close enough - Bob bargains with the birds and agrees to sacrifice $50 of fish and chips to material seagulls later on in return for a gnosis now. The deal is done, and he does the ritual about the two coppers with some success.
Fairly early in the morning, Freya calls Atkins and Sons, after being dissuaded from using an alias of Mary McKillop. She speaks to a receptionist, who seems a bit frazzled after asking about the property on Rochester St. Freya (aka Mary McKay) is put on hold for a bit before the phone is picked up by Charles Atkins. 'Mary' explains that she is working with a community outreach group in the Fitzroy area, and she would like to see whether it is possible to rent 13 Rochester St. Mr Atkins is also a little hestitant and would like her to come in and speak to him about the matter.
The suspicious members of the pack, who are lurking about in the Umbra near the solicitor's office, attempt to peek. Whittles that they are, the best they can manage is to get a blurry, moving impression of the material world. Bob manages to see that there are folders on Atkins's desk, and on top of one of them is a piece of paper that seems to have the Victorian Police logo on it. Intrigued, the pack watch for the rest of the morning and finally Atkins seems to leave for a while. He has a little ensuite next to his office, so Freya opts to step in there and check things out.
This happens without any real disaster, and Freya flicks through the folder while the others watch to make sure no one steps in and surprises her. She finds that the folder has documents relating to the properties (disagreement amongst 3 equal heirs to the original owner as to what to do with it, so it just sits there) and that the piece of paper is an incident report about the arrest of three squatters on the property and the suggestion that the owners need to reexamine the security.
The pack scratch their heads a bit and decide that Freya will need to look a bit more official than she does at the moment. They also will probably need some money, and its a bit scarce around the place at the moment. The possibility of borrowing some off Hidden Green comes up, but no one wants to share their toys with the other Garou. Christine is really the only other Garou they can hit on for cash, but they're a bit leery. More talking suggests that she's really their only option.
They head out to Toorak and knock on her door. It takes a few minutes, but eventually she shows up looking dishevled and more than a bit hungover. The pack are invited in and they make coffee while Christine gets more presentable. They are explaining the situation in brief and Christine says shortly that Freya should pretend to be from Invensys, and Christine can get her some business cards. While Christine is gone, Abby has a bit of an ephiphany - Christine has definately lost hope in life (Krieg mumbles something about Harano not being far away), and she has that in common with the three would-be gardeners. Perhaps they can kill two stones with one bird. When Christine comes back, Abby bullies her into coming to the Glade and seeing exactly what she will be investing in. Freya goes to the solicitors while the others take this oppurtunity to raid Christine's house for gold and secret doors. Or open it up and air it, one of those two.
Freya gets to her appointment and is led in to see Mr Atkins. She gives him a brief rundown, claiming that she is a community liason officer with Invensys and he asks if this has anything to do with the squatters arrested on the site on Friday. Freya says yes, and that the three of them have created quite a garden, which her group would like to preserve as being of significant benefit to the community. Their contacts heard about the arrest and the situation and they wanted to approach the owners before they took steps to wreck what might be a true piece of art. Mr Atkins is cautiously positive about his client's response, even after Freya suggests that they might want to lower their usual rental price considering the nature of the people renting.
Meanwhile back at the Glade, Abby brings Christine in through the Umbra, where the Garden's impact is the most significant. While Christine zones out, Abby goes into the realm and tidies up a little more, mostly doing makework. She mentally wonders at the others whether it would be worth renting both this shop and the end one, and they speculate amongst themselves. After about 1/2 an hour, Christine steps out of the Umbra and says that she can see why the pack want to preserve the location, and she's happy to contribute. She looks less devastated than she has in the last two weeks, so Abby suggests that Christine should come past in the Umbra any time. The Claws of Wisdom speculate briefly on showing it to other Garou, and how they will manage that, given that the kids already think that the pack are suspicious freaks.
Christine heads back home to her new decorations while Abby goes to speak to the Kev, Jackie and Gav. She says that cautiously things are looking up - they have a sponsor to help rent the garden to them, and the owners don't seem too negative to the idea. Gav is suspicious about how things will work - fundamentally he's concerned that the garden will be saved, but that it will become a 'community' project and that they will lose the place. Abby reassures him that while she, and some of her friends, might want to swing past to help out, the three of them will be living there and in charge. Baffled teenagers - their world doesn't work like this. But they accept it for the moment.
Freya gets a call from Invensys with a message to ring Atkins, which she does. He says that he has spoken to his clients and that they are happy to see the property being used in such a fashion - in fact they are willing to offer to rent the property at about 1/3 of its normal rent to support the project. Freya suggests that in the face of this generosity, would it be possible to perhaps also rent number 15 and provide a bit more space for the project? Atkins says that he will contact his clients again, but that assuming they accept, he suggests that she comes in this afternoon to sign legal paperwork. Freya says "sure" while trying to think how the hell she can manage this. She calls Christine who says that she will send over a staff member instead who will sign up on behalf of the company.
Abby passes the good news onto the kids, saying that they've definately got the shop they were using and they are trying to get the next one. There is much rejoicing, given the tension the three of them were under. She is going over some of the possibilities when Aubrey's voice says "Abby?". Abby ducks out and drags Aubrey back to the house. She says that she has some friends staying here and its complicated, but she's been staying in their house and its a spirit thing, so don't ask and don't interfere. Aubrey looks blank and then shrugs. He says that they reached the end of their holidays and had to come back to Melbourne, and asks how the current situation vis being shot at by fomori seems to be going. They chat about the situation.
Freya gets a call back and Atkins says its ready to roll. She says that one of the company staff with signing rights will come to their office today and make sure all the paperwork happens. Later that day, Freya is able to present the kids with brand new spankin' keys to the shop.
The day is spent helping the kids move in for real and for true. They get some second hand furniture and get the three of them thinking about how they want to organise stuff - the possibility of eventually becoming a nursery of sorts - of actually making some money from the garden and being self-supporting comes up, much to the surprise of all three teenagers.
Towards the end of the day, conversation drifts to the topic of why they started making this garden. Gavin reluctantly produces a newspaper clipping (argh!) about some homeless people in New York making their own garden in an abandoned factory. Abby gets the date and paper that it was in, and goes to the library to find a copy of their own (after Gav was a little bit reluctant to give his over). The pack go with her to the caern and show Emma, who raises eyebrows and peforms a rite of summoning. From the umbral mists a figure forms - Mabel, the baglady from scene 2.
Freya offers the clipping and Mabel tells her to keep it - the object of their search was to find and return hope: to the kids; to Christine; and to some degree, themselves. Emma and the Mabel-spirit confer silently and then Mabel seems to abruptly erupt. Gnosis cascades into the caern and into the pack themselves. Emma explains that the spirit was an Urban Engling - much like the traditional englings that participate in a Sacred Hunt - and that it chose the pack to 'hunt' for something. Although the Urban Englings are more complicated to interact with, they are more in tune with the nature of the caern than chasing down a strong buck and slaughtering it. There is much rejoicing.
Unsurprisingly, late in the afternoon, the Ngalyod pack moonbridge into Sleeping Lore. Fujiko speaks to Freya and says that the council would like to speak to the Claws of Wisdom about their recent discoveries and adventures through the various Umbras. Cole suggests that the council could make an appointment. Freya suggests that Cole shuts his face.
The pack moonbridge up to the relative coolness of Kosciuszko and the Ngalyod pack ask them to wait until the Council is completely called. There don't seem to be many visitors here - they can see that some Council members have arrived already and the Sept members of the Jindabyne caern are standing by.
Eventually the council is called together. All the Council members are here, and Darius takes the floor. He calls Freya forward and says that the council is most interested in hearing what has happened to the pack the Claws of Wisdom in the last two months, especially what bears upon the Bunyip.
Freya tells the pack's tale. She starts with Marion's death in Sydney and then speaks of how Alex came to see them, how they travelled to the Bonegnawer realm and the Legendary realm, and from there learnt that they had to visit the three faces of Gaia. Freya tells of how, yea, verily, they went to the disuputed caern near Lake Eyre, how they travelled with Grek to the shadow lands and their detour to the Bunyip hell, and finally trekking to the Deep Umbra where they encountered the essential Heart of the Wyld and from there to the newborn baby in the Web of Dreaming hands sept. Her story is well paced and well-presented and makes an impression on the emotional Garou. Freya doesn't give all the details of the trip - she blurs over the stuff with Abby and the breaking of the Veil and Huros and Jana - but she does go into a fair bit of detail about Watcher's story though.
Some of the Council obviously already knew some or all the story - Grek and Monash for instance - but just as clearly some of them did not, like Inanna and Darius, who are looking at Tjinderi in a fairly hostile fashion. Darius demands of Tjinderi that she reveal exactly what the Uktena had to do with the issue. Tjinderi says that the matter is a tribal one, and she is not going to discuss the matter in public. Darius says that he will challenge her if need be to find the truth. Tjinderi points out that he is Ahroun and she is Ragabash, so what challenge would satisfy them both? Darius, who is looking not a million miles from frenzying, says that unless she tells the Council what she knows on the very subject that the Council was formed to deal with, he will have the Uktena removed from the Council.
At this point, Grek steps up and says that everyone should cool off and take some time to consider before doing anything rash. Darius storms off, followed by Inanna. The Claws of Wisdom watch the Elders and try to figure out politics, but there's not really enough info. Mother Pasta wanders away looking unhappy - Bob follows and tries to over hear what she is saying, but its all in Italian and Bob can't send enough to Abby to make any sense. Wungala Rose is speaking to Monash Ends-to-the-Darkness. Fingal sits by himself, apparently fairly coherent this evening. Mamu is is sitting further up the hill. Don Mephisto and Carla are talking quietly together away from the council table, and Tjinderi is left on her own. Grek is coming towards the pack! Run! He greets Freya and tells Cole that he knows about Cole's behaviour in Dreaming Hands and isn't impressed. He won't speak any more of it, but if it happens ever again, he'll take steps. Grek then ignores Cole completely and keeps speaking to the rest of the pack (Jay only).
Grek says that he doubts whether most of the Council would vote to remove the Uktena, but even the motion itself would be damaging. Certainly Darius is not thinking rationally. Cernonus was his friend and he believed in what they were trying to achieve. He is not hopeful for a positive outcome to this particular Council. They chat some more until one of the other Council members calls Grek over. Freya goes to speak to Tjinderi - Freya wants her to 'fess up, Tjinderi declines to aquiesce - says that she doesn't feel that it would be in the best interests of the Uktena to allow the Silver- er, the Council to demand this information. As she has explained, it is her duty to protect the Uktena - yes, even from other Garou. Freya stomps away.
The pack consider their options, and Freya lets it slip that the Claws of Wisdom actually owe Tjinderi a favour; when Franklin Ash-Hand came and helped their caern, Freya agreed that the Claws of Wisdom (not Sleeping Lore) would owe Tjinderi a significant favour to be called in at a later time. This leads to some outrage from the pack members, but Freya says that it seemed more necessary to rescue their caern, which is not something they can really argue with.
The council reconvenes and the bickering begins. Darius demands that Tjinderi confess what she knows and she refuses again, on the grounds that it still tribe business. Don Mephisto reluctantly supports her right to not expose Tribe secrets to the council, but other council members point out that matters pertaining to the Bunyip are not one tribe's business or another. The arguing goes on while the pack mentally try and find a solution. Jay makes the suggestion that the pack could challenge Tjinderi for the info - he did get added to the pack as an implicit "go sort out the bunyip stuff" directive from the Council. Freya tweaks this idea and says that they could challenge on behalf of Watcher and the pack think this is a good idea.
Freya manages to get the attention of the Council and says that her pack challenge Tjinderi for the information that she knows on behalf of the Watcher - as the only pack to travel to the Bunyip deadlands, they claim the right to speak for this particular Bunyip. A couple of the Council members don't seem to happy at the pack claiming this right, but are sufficiently surprised that Grek is able to keep things rolling by presenting the challenge to Tjinderi. She looks at Freya with one eyebrow raised and after a significant pause agrees, depending on the challenge.
The pack are taken to the nearby huts and given food by the Ngalyod pack. Eventually Grek, Inanna and Tames-Spirits-with-her-Snarl, the local Ritemaster, arrive and say that Tjinderi has agreed to a spirit combat challenge - if the pack agree, both a representative of their pack and Tjinderi will be given 12 hours to summon up to 6 spirits. They will then ascend a pole and sit on the platform at the top - the objective is to force the other Garou off the pole using the spirits alone. The stipulation is that you cannot use the spirits to attack to harm the other person. Freya points out that since the attack on their Sept, they are all low on Gnosis, and Grek agrees that a sacred hunt will be held tomorrow night, after which the summoning will begin. The pack should use this time to think of spirits to summon.
The pack wrack their brains. They can't attack Tjinderi, but they can attack her pole and her spirits. The same applies to the Uktena, so they should think of some defenses for both their spirits and their pole. Also defenses against any sort of weird illusions she might bring to bear, given the Uktena predilection for such things. They consider insect spirits, but they are difficult to summon and deal with. Elementals to attack the pole, or the earth around it, are considered - fire might be a bit chancy, in case they harm Tjinderi, but earth or water elementals might work. Bob wants to summon an elephant to try and knock the pole over. Abby suggests a snake spirit to hold Bob onto the pole. Maybe Merlin or a wedgetailed eagle to attack other spirits - or Merlin might be able to help them see through any spiritual illusions or tricks Tjinderi sends their way. A spirit of courage might be able to give Bob more will to stand against Tjinderi, and spirits of fear or anger to send against her to freak her out. A wyld spirit might be good, but could be hard to control. Weaver spirits to strengthen the pole or tie Bob to the platform? Maybe ideas are flung backwards and forward, but they also have to consider if they want to try to summon 6 spirits, or concentrate on calling less, but more powerful spirits. So many choices.
The day is spent resting and thinking. At dusk, the Silver Fangs hold a Sacred Hunt. It is sacred and ritualistic, and at the end of it, a poor spirit is torn limb from limb for its special magic energy. Nonetheless, once this has been done, the two summoners are led to valleys nearby and told to begin. Bob gets his ritual on, while the others hand, or try and stop Cole from finding Tjinderi and either finding out what she's summoning, or stuffing her up.
First up is an elephant spirit. Bob tries to summon as significant a spirit has he can manage, spending five hours thinking of cool things about elephants. At the end of that time, there is a distant rumbling and a greyish african pachyderm wanders out of the forest. It heads for Bob, who isn't quite sure he's been all that respectful. It lumbers up to him and ... picks Bob up in its truck and then puts him down, patting him with the end. Phew. 'Stampy', as he is christened, agrees to help Bob out, given that its only a couple of hours to do so.
Next up is a Weaver spirit. Bob does the dance of a thousand computer nerds, and the spider-like spirit arrives in short order. He nuts and binds it into compliance. The third spirit choice is a constrictor snake, to help hold Bob to the pole. This spirit doesn't seem too unhappy with Bob's efforts, but it wants him to spend a day with no shoes, and walking only on the ground. Bob cautiously agrees after a brief discussion about moonbridges and walking home.
The last spirit before Merlin is a lust spirit. Figuring that Tjinderi may expect fear, or anger, they decided to go with a surprising spirit, and the GM agrees that it will be a surprise. Bob shakes his booty and gets funky for another few hours before becoming aware of the smell of a bitch in heat from the nearby bushes. Freya goes bright red and wanders off to find some cold, cold water to douse herself in, as does the Silver Fang that was watching their efforts. Jumps-in-Puddles knows she wants him and goes looking for her. A light brown wolf emerges from the bushes and dances about with Jay, but is looking at Bob. Jay must have her! Bob must be destroyed! MINE-thud, as Krieg leaps on Jay and holds him down, even when Jay changes to Crinos. Bob tries to concentrate on the matters at hand, and discuss the binding of the lust spirit. The spirit agrees if Bob will engage in some form of fairly direct homage in the next month, which Bob agrees to. The spirit is bound and added to the Claws of Wisdom arsenal.
Merlin is summoned and agrees to work with the rest of the spirits in this challenge. In the meantime, the rest of the pack have been trying to keep their spiritual senses alert for what Tjinderi might be doing, but they have only received the sense that she is summoning air spirits of some sort.
The two challenging Garou are brought to the place of poles, followed by the visible arsenal of spirits. The local Garou don't seem happy about the Weaver spider, and everyone seems baffled by the elephant. Tjineri has an ice elemental and Uktena by her side - the rest, if any, are not visible. The two Garou climb the poles and await the restatement of the challenge by Duke Anthony, the Jindabyne Master of the Challenge. He drops the proverbial flag and the challenge begins!
Bob takes the attack by commanding his elephant to ram the pole, which it gently does. Tjinderi's ice elemental sinks into the ground and begins to fuse the pole to the ground. While the elephant continues to bang ineffectually into the pole, Bob's snake wraps itself around him and the top of the pole, kind of pinning him down. Tjinderi is suddenly covered in lots of spiders, which weave a thick web, binding her to the pole. Bob reinforces his pole by the power of the Weaver, but Tjinderi sends Uktena across to Bob's pole. Uktena looks in Bob's eyes, who suddenly thinks its a good idea to jump off the pole. However, the snake is in his way, and holding tight. Bob manages to get enough of his will back to ask Merlin for help, just as the elephant finally slams hard enough into the pole to cause it to break fairly significantly, and tilt over. Merlin helps Bob see through the illusions Uktena is spinning and he stops struggling. The ice elemental is trying to catch and freeze the elephant, but it is really only able to slow the lumbering animal totem down a bit before it smacks heavily into the pole, cracking it above the frosted part and swinging Tjinderi and platform towards the ground. The webbing tears when the platform jolts into the surface, and she falls solidly to the earth. There is a pause: Duke Anthony checks to see if Tjinderi concedes, which she does after a brief moment. The Claws of Wisdom cheer Bob considerably as he climbs down.
It is suggested that there is a brief respite while the two opponents sort themselves out. Bob, although disappointed he didn't get to use the lust spirit, is happy he has won. He dismisses the spirits and frees them from their binding and they head off into the misty umbra. The Silver Fangs offer the use of the cabins again and the pack head down there to rest and recuperate.
They have only been there for a short time when there is a knock at the door. Surprisingly, its Tjinderi, not someone come to summon them to council. She asks to come in, and when Freya says that she was expecting Tjinderi to tell what happened to the council, Tjinderi replies that it was the pack who won the right to hear what happened, not the Council. Freya sort of agrees and Tjinderi comes in and settles down before asking what they want to know. Freya moves over to Abby and pushes the calm fetish up against her before asking Tjinderi to explain the Uktena's part in the events surrounding the bunyip bone in Sydney.
After the storm in Fiddle Dee and the attack on Jacky Gecko, Jacky told the Uktena what had happened. The Uktena looked into the matter and learned about the pack's connection with Cernonous. They had been aware of Cernonous' work, but had dismissed it. Now with the Claws of Wisdom involved, the situation had changed. The Uktena were still debating the issue when one of them acted independantly. An elder Theurge, Wuroome, released the Bunyip spirit from a fetish and bound it to the bone fragment. Tjinderi doesn't know whether he did so knowing what it would do or whether he had some other end in mind, but considering that he was strongly opposed to the research and to the Claws of Wisdom, its unlikely that he was trying to help Cernonous. The result was that the enraged Bunyip spirit materialised and killed Cernonous.
When the Uktena found out what had happened, it was already too late. Wuroome had disappeared and so had the bone fragment, stolen by parties unknown. They had thought that the matter was ended until the storms appeared across Sydney. After investigating, the Uktena elders did what they could to help - they carved the talens out of the didgeridoo that had been the fetish and gave them to Abby.
When the Black Spiral Dancers had been destroyed and the bone fragment recovered, the fragment had been entrusted by the Jindabyne Council to the Uktena for examination. Soon after, the Uktena were attacked by the Bunyip. In the confusion, the fragment was smashed and the spirit was released.
The Claws of Wisdom ask about Wuroome. Tjinderi says that he acted independantly of the wishes of the Uktena tribe, and it was this delinquincy that she regarded as tribe business. Wuroome has not been seen or heard of since he vanished, but from what he was saying about the matter just before he left, he was not exactly enamoured of the pack. The other Uktena have attempted to find him in the time since, but have had no luck.
Once the pack have exhausted their questions, Tjinderi indicates that she is heading back to her home sept. The pack shrug and let her go, and then get off Abby, letting her breathe in. They discuss what happened, and decide they don't really know much more now, other than they have a rank 5 Uktena Theurge enemy, on the verge of becoming Wyrm corrupted. Hooray.
Time passes and the Council haven't summoned the pack again. There is another knock and one of the local Silver Fangs asks if they have seen Councilmember Tjinderi. They convey that she has, to the best of their knowledge, gone home, and the wolf at the door grinds his teeth. The Council is summoned shortly after and the pack are asked to tell the remaining tribe leaders what Tjinderi told them. They do. There is much unhappy looking Garou. Darius is about to dismiss the Council when Carla says that she has one short item of business to conduct, related to the current topic. Darius grants her the floor and Carla says in the time since the peace was brokered by the Claws of Wisdom, the new Sept has had its foundation moot. However, she would like to extend an invitation to members of other tribes, especially those of the Children of Gaia and the Black Furies, to join the Sept of Life's Promise. Considering the traditional loggerheads these tribes are at with the Get of Fenris, its an intriguing offer, and the Council ends on that note.
The pack return to their caern-guarding duties. Bob has decided to fulfil his chiminage to the snake spirit by running back through the Realm from Jindabyne, and will give Freya a call when he gets bored with doing so (Bob only). As Cossack's instructions that the pack have 4 of 6 members at the Sept at any time now reapply, that means that the pack are hanging around fairly closely. Melissa is hanging out with them a fair bit too, and seems to have developed a strong bond with Abby despite their disparate backgrounds. Cossack reminds them at some point that this Moot day is also a full eclipse, and lets them know that a couple of Stargazers will be visiting for ritual reasons - although most tribes don't attach too much significance to the event (mumble mumble, honest), the Stargazers have special rituals for such astronomical occurences.
Late in the evening, a Moonbridge opens and two women step through - the pack can see that one of them is Carla Grimmson, but they don't recognise the other, a young blond woman. The pack are called over shortly, and the formalities are observed - the woman is Amy Dickson, a rank 1 homid Get of Fenris Philodox. Carla says that she is here to honour the agreement that she made with the pack when they helped settle the matter of the disputed caern. The Claws of Wisdom look at her blankly, and Carla reminds them that she agreed that if they sucessfully helped her, should would lend them Get assistence to rid the city of the Dancers (as well as certain other valuable considerations). Amy here, and her pack, are the form of that assistance - they are too stay in Melbourne until the threat from the Dancers is removed. Freya makes um and ah noises and says "its up to Cossack" who says that any help would be appreciated, and he has no objections. Carla and Amy return through the Moonbridge to get Amy's pack, and the Claws of Wisdom make quick speaks with their Sept Elder. Cossack says that the Sept can put them up in one of the houses near the site of the northern truck attack - funnily enough they are having trouble renting the property. Cossack also suggests that they take them to Hidden Green, to make sure there's no confusion.
A Moonbridge opens again and a group of young garou come through - they all look about 18-20, all in flannies, jeans and boots. Amy introduces her pack, the Hell Hounds - Sean Inness (HoAhGoF1), Shu Leung (HoAhGof1), Winston Brennan (HoThGoF1) and Bandit (MeGaBG1) (who is missing one arm). The Claws of Wisdom lead them over to the north of the caern, giving a bit of background as to why there's a big hole in the ground and so on. Bandit cuts around Sean and trips him up and Sean pushes him over with a yell of "fucking Metis" and finishes it with "at least they don't stink". Kreig is all for letting it go, but Freya decides to quash this now. She tells Sean that his behaviour is not acceptable. He adds some tribal slurs to the situation, intimating that the Fianna normally wipe out their metis, and it must be a Bone Gnawer influence that increases tolerance. Freya locks eyes with Sean for a few seconds, trying to get him to back down, and Sean frenzies.
Freya rolls to one side and into Crinos form. Abby tells Amy to stop him, and she queries if Abby is sure. In the meantime, Freya tries to grapple Sean, and Krieg dances near them, blocking Sean's blows as best he can. Freya locks Sean's arms and stiches him one in the head, true Fianna style, but he's frenzying and breaks free. Just as Amy signals her pack to leap on Sean, Freya pins his arms and smacks him sharply and repeatedly in the face with her forehead - Sean drops to homid and is pummled by his own pack. Kreig stops anything permanent happening to Sean in an alive/dead sense and heals the slight claw marks Sean left on Freya. Hell Hounds pick their ahroun up and carry him, behaving as if nothing happened.
Once they get to the house, the pack drop Sean's body with a splat and step sideways. Freya speaks to Amy while the other three fight over the main bedroom and tells her that they will be back to take them to the other nearby caern soon, but in the meantime, settle in. Amy looks at the extensive baggage they have and shrugs ok. She strolls into the main bedroom and the other three Garou make a strategic withdrawl to fight about the top bunk. How strange these foreign Garou are.
People go back to the caern and continue their fascinating day. Abby hangs out with Melissa, who says that she hasn't been to Hidden Green really either (can't imagine why, something about nearly splitting their sept in two), so Abby says to come along. A bit after dark, everyone but Cole stroll down the street to the Glasswalker Sept. They head up the special lift and meet Felix, Drago, Robert Red-Dust-Plain and the Steel Hunters. There is some talk about the Hell Hounds reason for being here, which turns to the efforts for hunting Dancers in the city. There is a faint murmuring while Scott is talking and people notice that Melissa and Ben Phillips seem to know one another from school. Scott stops suddenly and scuffs Ben across the head "if I can break up old home week". Melissa takes a step forward and Scott raises an eyebrow, while Claws of Wisdom suddenly realise its late and they need to go back to the caern.
Bob rings from Wangaratta and says he's bored with running now, Freya can come and get him. Off she goes and comes back 5 hours later. Bob seems happy with how things went, strutting around. He is told about the Hell Hounds.
Another hot and sticky day. Abby spends some of her free time away from the caern hanging out with Kev, Jackie and Gav at the glade. The three of them are settled in nicely, and Abby arranges a mobile phone for them in case they need to contact anyone suddenly.
Abby is returning via her house when she realises there's someone leaning on a car in front of the main door. Despite cries of "How does everyone know where I live!", she approaches to see a man in a cap, hawaian shirt and sunglasses - sensing reveals that he is indeed a mage strawman. Abby tries to sneak up on him, but he spots her coming. Abby asks what he wants, and he says that he just thought that he'd come and have a chat with her, mostly about her friends. Which friends? The ones that threw them a New Years party. Ah, says Abby. The strawman says that they have become a bit concerned at the bad neighbours these friends are being, and, following on from the events of last October (fae queen, etc, etc), they'd like to continue cooperating in this. Abby sarcastically asks if he knows where they live and the strawman says Coode Island. Abby passes this pack to her packmates, who are running for Abby's house, and some of them turn back to mention it to Elders. There is a bit more interaction with the man, who then walks down a side alley and reverts to straw.
Meanwhile, back at the Sept, once Abby has finished pouting that she wasn't the one to tell the Elders, they discuss the information. No one is entirely trustworthy - Graeme and Cossack say that Coode Island is almost too obvious, and when the chemical accident happened, they scoured and cleansed the site with Hidden Green - its not like they just shrugged their shoulders. Cossack says that he thinks its either a distraction or a trap, but he can't legitamately ignore the lead, given that the mages did tell them about Nlaloonjurrie. The plan is thus that he is sending Claws of Wisdom to go and check it out, while everyone else battens down the hatches at the caern. Cole begins to bitch and moan about being sent out to die and Ian interrupts him mid-complaint, telling him that that's fine, Cole can stay here. Cole starts to um and ah, and Ian makes it clear it wasn't a suggestion. An awkward silence follows and Cossack suggests that means they will have a point of communication which is a good idea. Cossack goes on to make it clear that he's not expecting the pack to take on the Hive - he wants them to confirm it is a Hive, and if yes, run like hell until backup arrives. Given that this is hopefully a surprise and its getting towards night, its put forth than the pack should spend some time thinking of how to check the place out, and to get some rest, and begin with the dawn tomorrow.
The pack spend the night sleeping and preparing. There is much checking of the plans of the area, and proposing and knocking back plans to infiltrate the site. At Freya's request, Abby makes a sort of gauntlet-detecting talen by beating a weaver spirit into a stick. Someone goes and hires a boat to be left at the end of the island in case they need to make a quick escape. The pack realise if they trundle about in the Umbra, they'll be really obvious, so they concentrate on how to scope out the Realm. This proves to be tricky, because its a semirestricted area so they can't wander in. The more they look, the more sensible an idea it is that the Hive is here - its hard to scope out, has lots of weaver and wyrm, has easy access to the Yarra and to bring things in and out of the country. However, it marks it hard to plan, and people are getting a bit frustrated.
The pack ask Merlin to scope the area from the air, which he does, but he can't sense anything out of the ordinary - lots of weaver, a fair chunk of normal city wyrm (descecration of the wild, pollution, etc). They check out pictures of the original fire and speak to Graeme and Cossack about how they cleansed it.
Eventually they decide that phase 1 will be to get a beatup delivery truck and pretend to be making deliveries to one of the port facilities. Freya and Kreig will drive, the rest will sit in the empty truck and Peek as the truck moves along, hopefully able to scope the whole place from the relative safety of the vehicle.
Phase one goes off pretty smoothly - they move around the site almost invisible in the crowd of trucks and people in blue shirts and caps. Bob peeks really well and has a good look across the Umbra. However, all he sees is what Merlin reported - Weaver constructs, wyrm taint everywhere and not much in the way of anything else. Abby reports that her talen doesn't seem to have spotted much change in the Gauntlet.
They finish this run, having sensed and peeked and used their magical abilities to their heart's content and found sod all. Plan B. The pack move over to the Maribynong side of the... er, Maribynong and slip into the water in lupus form. First plan is to scope the area for tunnels that might be large enough to head into Coode Island. They don't find too much on that side of the island that they could easily fit into - its all relatively newish - but they mark a couple that a lupus might be able to squeeze down.
Cole, feet up on the table, smoking his foul cigarettes, is given a glare by Ian, even though he is referering everything that is happening back to the Sept. Right lesson, wrong time. The others continue to swim up the esturine river, soggy and unhappy.
They spot a tunnel coming from the west bank that senses of Wyrm taint of a pollutiony sort of nature. Although this is on the wrong side of the river, they decide it makes sense to check it out. They trot up the tunnel, which is quite old and large - Bob peeks and finds that there is an equivilant hole in the Umbra, but it feels more like a natural hole, although there's no light. The pack are worried that Dancers might have bored a maze of tunnels part in the Umbra, part in the Realm, so Bob uses Sense of Sight to get a feel for the Umbral tunnels.
The Wyrm sense, followed by Krieg, leads them underground for maybe 200m in a slight curve - faerie lights are the only light they can see for a while. However, a faint greyish glow appears ahead, and the pack investigate on. The tunnel appears to have collapsed in part at one point, and they find themselves looking out of the basement of some sort of abandoned factory or warehouse - the light is diffuse from sneaking through the roof and then the crumpled floor of the site. The wyrm sense is coming from a turpentine-like liquid leaking from unmarked, rusted, metal barrels - they appear to have been here for some time, and apart from the ugliness of the substance itself, there's no sign of Dancers.
Back to the river, and to the original plan B. The pack swim across the river and scramble up the bank, under the chain link fence (oh no!) and onto the site of the original explosion and fire. The tanks are still there, even after all this time, and part-filled with orange, stinky water. There is a sense of Wyrm about the place, but nothing extreme. The offices are still here too, but have been stripped, judging from what they can see through smashed windows. There's no sign, visual or nasal, that any one has really been here for months.
Amidst much headscratching, Freya decides that they'll have to try the Umbra - if the Dancers are here, they must have noticed the pack by now, and it can only serve to flush them. The pack find somewhere discreet and slip through the strong Gauntlet. Bob arrives with Jay first and starts to sniff about before Kreig arrives and stuffs everything up with the sickening smell of Frangipani. He can't smell anything around the Umbral site, so the two lupus set off across the desolate spiritual landscape.
Freya, Abby and Krieg appear near the ruined spiritual site. Freya is a bit annoyed with Bob for leaving on his own, but can't argue with Krieg's floral stench. Abby uses her stick on the umbral site, but can't find any holes that might suggest the sort of dip in the gauntlet that would reveal a Hive. Krieg tries to sense wyrm, and finds that there is some sort of intriguing sense that he hasn't ever noticed before. It seems to be centred on the ruined tanks, and he wanders around trying to pin it down.
Bob and Jay dodge ruined weaver structures as they move south. Bob, sniffing like he's never sniffed before, comes across a sort of dip in the strength of the scents attached to the ground. It's not easy to spot, and it was only because he'd had his nose ready and primed as he travelled along. Even as he tries to follow the slight lowering of scent, it is undone by his presence. Krieg suggests that maybe it was the Dancers and their magic no-scent talens that reduced the scent, and Bob should try and follow it. This he now does - in one direction it leads straight to the river, along the fence between two of the dock companies. In the other direction it seems to go to about where the road is. Jay suggests looking across the Maribyrnong and seeing what was on the other side - hmm, CSR, a chemical plant.
Meanwhile, Krieg is wondering if the sense is coming from underneath the tanks, so he fires up his Burrow gift and sinks into the ground. He is passing underneath one of the edge of the tanks when he crunches through something. Unfortunately the something is powdered by the gift, but he has a sense of something crystaline that runs from top to bottom of his tunnel. The fragments have a lingering sense of the Wyrm taint that he has been noticing on the surface. This is all passed on via the mental link, and Cole tells Cossack. The Garou at the Septs go into a heightened state of readiness from just waiting around.
Bob and Jay look at the other end of their null-scent line - its not traceable any more, but Bob's scent is. They find that there is a public phone box at the road end of the trail, leading to much giggling and Max Smart references. However the gauntlet is too high to get a real idea if there is anything other than a normal phone there.
Krieg tries digging about with a claw in the ceiling about the point where he saw the brief glance of the crystals and finds a longer, intact section, which he takes to the surface. The crystals are a mix of dull colours, and have bits of dirt embedded in the surface. No one really knows what to make of it. Krieg goes back down his tunnel and digs a bit downwards at the same spot and finds the same deal - the crystals are hollow mostly, but as chambers rather than as a long pipe. Krieg digs down with his gift a bit further, trying to follow the lead of the crystals. They travel down at an angle, and don't follow a straight line. SPLUT. And into the water table. Krieg rapidly gets the hell out of his tunnel as it starts to collapse, mud flowing in the hole.
Cole faithfully reports this all back to the caern, causing much puzzlement. Aquinas asks him a couple of questions, which gets relayed back to the pack and the answers back to the caern - he says that the crystals are sounding like fulgarites - a type of crystal formed when lightning hits the ground and the bolt keeps going, fusing the silica in the soil. But they go almost straight down, not at an angle.
Bob and Jay come back and join the rest of the pack, having found nothing else at the smell-site, while Krieg makes a couple more holes under the ground. He finds more of these Umbral fulgarites near the edges of the tank-structures, all of which seem to head down and inwards. A rough estimates says that they might converge about 30 or 40 feet down, well and truly under the water table.
After some consultation, the pack decide to summon an earth elemental to go down and see what's there. They are beginning to suspect that there is no Hive in the area. Cole points out that the Mages didn't actually say that there was - just that their "friends" were here. Given the number of chemical holding tanks and ships that transport same, maybe the attack was just organised from here, in some of the offices.
Bob does his booty dance, calling for an earth elemental that is able to slip down and find whatever it is underground. Eventually a snake-like spirit arises and wraps itself around Bob, ending face to face. Bob explains what they want it to do, and it doesn't seem too enthused by the plan - they do, after all, want it to sink through wyrm tainted soil, following a wyrmtainted crystal to what might be a wyrm corrupted source. They agree to perform a Rite of Cleansing once it has done its task, and offer gnosis now in case it needs to resist the seeping evil. The spirit agrees and seems to flow straight back into the earth.
While they are waiting for the elemental do its thing, the pack check out the phone box. Jay and Bob step into the Realm in lupus form, and sniff and sense to their heart's content. They find a lot of a ads for phone sex places, but also a faint smell of blood, weeks old in the hot sun. More disturbing is the very, very faint tingle of magic in the air. Hmmm. There's no scent and no no-scent here in the Realm.
Back at the caern, a new Garou rocks up. She is introduced as Sokhta, and is a Stargazer Theurge, here for the eclipse tomorrow. Cole has it explained that the divination ritual that they are performing is not meant to find water, but to determine the future. Sokhta asks why the caern is on high alert, and then offers to help use her Gifts to search the city for other mage activity - just in case the Coode Island thing is a distraction. The sept accepts gratefully and she heads out with the Scryers.
Bob goes back to the site and waits with Abby while the others go and scout around CSR. The elemental returns hours after it left, just as everyone is returning having found not much beyond the expected taint from the chemical site. It says that there is something down there, where the crystals all come together. The thing does not belong. It did not touch the thing, because it is more strongly wyrm-tainted than the crystals. It is well below where the earth becomes mixed with the other. It doesn't know if the crystals touch it, or stop before getting all the way there. The thing isn't a space, its a thing that does not belong. The pack cleanse the nice spirit and thank it for its help, then sit and try and decide what to do.
The pack decide they need to get it out of there and see what it is, so they decide to summon another elemental to dig a hole down to the anomoly. While Bob starts summoning, the others tear the remnants of the tank structure down in the Umbra and drag it out the way.
A few hours later, Bob comes to the end of his ritual and people wait expectantly. The ground rumbles and everyone looks at Bob ("what did you do, Ray?") but he doesn't think he did anything wrong. There is more regular, and increasingly strong, rumbles from within the ground and then the nearby soil starts to bubble upwards. A huge bull head emerges, made of black stone and followed quickly by the rest of the creature. Freya mutters something about gorgons under her breath. The elemental slowly treads its way over to Bob, the ground trembling with each step. Bob, having discussed things with his pack beforehand, greets the spirit and thanks it for coming quickly. He says that they need to retrieve a thing of the Wyrm from far below the surface to continue their fight for Gaia. In return, the pack will cleanse this entire area (Coode Island), and attempt to purify the soil before the turn of the season.
Shocked by this show of actually working out what the chiminage to offer before the spirit arrives, the gorgon agrees that this is acceptable. Bob shows the spirit where the object is, and it begins to circle the location. Each time it slams down a basalt-lookign hoof, dirt is shocked aside, piling up to either side. The spirit continues in this fashion, gradually creating a craterous hole into the Umbral ground, past the water table and deeper into the group. After a time, something is revealed in the centre of the depression. As the pack watch, more muddy earth falls off the lump, revealing some sort of rockish looking thing. They scramble down the slippery, crumbling slope and sense it - definately wyrmish, in an odd way. Rather than stay here where they might die, two of the pack lift it and head back up to the surface.
While Bob thanks the spirit for its help, the others clean it off. This reveals that their strange find is indeed a large rock, more than a metre square, and comprised of rough green and purple bands. One side of the rock is sheer and smooth, as if large part of rock has been cut away, or it was cut from something else. Bob suggests its an altar. Maybe.... but why 20m underground? On the other surfaces there are pitted crater-like holes, almost as if something was hit against the surface. When they wash and brush away the mud, parts of the surface crumble away. It has a chalky texture, and seems to be quite soft. Sensing it says that it has a faint wyrm sense, but not much else of anything else either - the sense is almost too simple, compared to rocks. The wyrm sense is similar, but not the same as the fulgarite sense.
Bafflement abounds. Krieg hits the rock and a big, crumbly chunk comes off. It doesn't seem that the rock is hollow, so its not an egg or anything. No one at the caern has any idea what it might be either. Freya decides that a Rite of Cleansing is appropriate before they do much else. When the ritual is finished, they check the rock. Its.. a little more crumbly than it was. In fact, it seems to be considerably less coherent all over. It looks awfully like the sort of effect that happens when a spirit is beaten in combat, which suggests that this rock is pretty much only ephemera, and has no material aspect. The pack shrug and take the chunk that they saved somewhere safe, leaving only a pile of wreckage, a damn big hole and a gradually melting rock to show they'd been there.
The pack return to the Sept and there is much shrugging to be had. Cossack suggests that they crash out until the Moot his evening, so people wander off and do their own thang until the evening.
Moot time! Howling to the moon and thanking the spirits. The Moot has a very strong martial overtone - not too surprising. Cossack opens the Cracking of the Bone by stating that the Sept's prime task is to find and eradicate the Dancers and the Mages. Everything else is secondary to this.
There is remembrance for those who fell in the battle. Georgina and Barry have already been cremated and buried, but the Rite of the Departed is now performed for both of them They are praised for their war against the Wyrm, and vengeance is sworn in their names. Much howling and snarling. Everyone is brought up to date on what has been going on since the attack. This includes the restoration of the Caern, both physically and spiritually, the search of Coode Island, the destruction and alteration of evidence to throw the mundane world off track, the reworking of witnesses, chasing up of leads, such as the trucks, the fomori and the guns (all of which has so far led to nothing). There is discussion about further looking at the offices at Coode Island, and Cossack says that he thinks that Hidden Green are better set up to follow that.
Renown is recognised - many people are congratulated for their efforts in defending the caern and quickly helping to restore it to its full strength. The Claws of Wisdom are praised in due course for their actions over the last month, which has been kind of busy. As part of that, Freya explains what they learnt from Tjinderi, and Cossack says that its obvious that she didn't tell them everything - this is probably the main reason for not discussing things with the full Council. Joker and Melissa are recognised as Rank 1 - the events of New Years Ever being a trial by Fire, and constitute a Rite of Passage. If they now wish to, and the pack accepts, they may now wish to ask to join a pack. Melissa glances at Abby, and is about to speak to Claws of Wisdom, but Joker responds first, saying that he would like to join the Get of Pennington.
While this is being discussed, the Claws of Wisdom have a rapid emergency mental discussion - people are a little concerned that Melissa, being rank 1, is going to get mashed, or they will trying to protect her. Bob remembers suddenly that he had this odd dream during the week about a wolf pack that was running somewhere dangerous and they had a baby wolf with them and it fell behind and was in trouble. Everyone stares and Bob is forced to admit he doesn't remember it very well. Abby says that she wasn't for it until that, but that might mean that leaving Melissa behind is bad - her preference is for Melissa to form a pack with other rank 1 garou at their sept but there aren't any. People are a bit unsure and quickly consider wonder whether she'd fit in with Hidden Green. Melissa tells Cossack she would like to join the Claws of Wisdom, if they'll have her. Freya asks to speak to Cossack aside for a moment, and Melissa looks very hurt.
Freya explains that her concerns are mostly that Melissa is so inexperienced. Cossack grants that that is the case, and that he doesn't see it as being necessary that the pack take Melissa. Packs sometimes have a higher level of attrition than the Claws of Wisdom have so far managed, and take in new Garou as they go, so while its odd that most of them are rank 3, having rank 1 Garou in a pack with rank 3 Garou is not unknown. He's not pushing either way, but does note the connection between Abby and Melissa and the fact that there isn't really anyone else here for her to pack with.
Freya takes another mental poll and then decides to agree, dependant on Merlin's approval. She quietly tries to tell Melissa that they are often in dangerous situations and they have Cole in their head, but even with those dire possibilities, she maintains her desire. Merlin is summoned and the pack have a brief discussion - basically he would not have sought out Melissa like he did the pack, but he does not object to her either. Not exactly a ringing recommendation, but still, it seems ok. Emma performs the Rite of the Totem for the pack and Melissa joins their mental link, a little exuberantly. Not so much her thoughts, but her emotions leak through until Abby gives her some pointers on cutting it back.
Another Stargazer has arrived during the day, Anjou - both her and Sokhta are introduced to the Sept (both Stargazer Homid Theurges). All the Stargazers from the Sept will be skipping the Revel to partake in their own ritual this evening. The rest of the Sept slowly builds into a killing frenzy, peaking in the start of the Revel, flushing the Garou and the caern itself with Gnosis. The packs head off to slaughter any Wyrm infestations in the Umbra. The Claws of Wisdom are lurking about in Abbotsford when the eclipse begins - the Moon slowly fades at one edge and then begins to disappear. Merlin suddenly alerts them to something strange happening where he is - south of their current position. Given that they have asked him to look for the Full Moon Killer, this is of some interest and they take off that way.
As the pack run, the Moon dims and then brightens again, but with a distinctive red light. Lunes run off surfaces in the Umbra like blood, dark red and active as they are in the ahroun moon. Sensing shows some strong Wyrm/wyld merged resonances with the spirits. The pack run and run - Merlin guiding them as they go. Blood starts to appear on nearby surfaces, pool and then rain upwards into the sky. They are at the St Kilda junction when a shrill scream draws their attention upwards. A female figure, smeared in blood and armoured, appears to be descending from the sky, surrounded by many, many lunes. The scream of rage is emitted from it, and it seems to be descending to the same place that they are headed. They pack bolt as fast as they can, and skid onto an Umbral street just in time to see the spirit crash through the roof of one of the houses.
They sprint forward, hearing more crashing and smashing sounds as the spirit presumably descends through the house to the ground level. Freya skids to a halt in front of the window as the noises inside cease, but Kreig executes a flying leap through the window, smashing glass everywhere. Freya peeks to see if the spirit has perhaps gone into the realm, but is blinded by the flashing red and blue lights. Wait. There seem to be police blockading either end of the street. That... could be awkward, because, judging by the sounds from inside the house in the realm, there is something unpleasant going on in there. Kreig says there's no blood warrior in the Umbra in the house, but it is full of blood red lunes, as the rest of the pack run up.
Freya realises she can stick her head forward and see into the house, and despite a glass cut on the chin, she can now see that there is a crinos figure, facing away from her, in the realm. As she watches, it warps down to homid... er, mostly down - it is in fact getting bigger as she watches it. 8'. Then 10'. The pack decide that they need to do something about this quickly. Freya leads Krieg and Jay through the Gauntlet. Or not. Oh, that Gauntlet. Bob decides to hunker down near the fence outside and step there while Abby, Melissa and Cole wait in the Umbra for other unpleasant things to happen.
When Freya et al arrive in the Realm, they immediately notice the sudden decrease in the number of armchairs in the room and the increase in the number of gaping holes in the front windows. The 12' tall hermaphrodite is heading for said hole, so Freya leaps upon it and grabs it by one arm and its hair, almost pinning it. Jay and Krieg hove to with sword and teeth adn claws respectively, but aren't really doing more than raising welts. The thing's skin is hard as steel ("shteeel!").
Abby notices that the blood lunes which are barrelling around in the Umbra seems to be rushing to a particular spot, which Cole says is pretty much where the creature is. Cole stops peeking and the three spiritual Garou wade in tooth and claw to try and stop this from happening. However, the shemale in the Realm has apparently already drawn some benefit from this occurence, because heshe wrenches her arm away from Freya's grasp, shirt fronts her (in crinos) and launches Freya out the window, spinning across the lawn and crashing into the armchair. Yes, in front of all the police and spectators.
Cole and Jay continue to hammer away at the creature, having some small effect, but as they watch, its wounds are closing up. Freya leaps to her feet and barrels back inside to bodyslam the creature as it tries to punch Krieg out repeatedly. The amalgam doesn't shift a muscle as Freya crams into it, but its attention is drawn to Freya - one immense leg moves up and catches Freya on the jaw, making a sickening crunch sound and spinning her back out the window where she slides back into homid form. Kreig rolls to one side into the hallway to try and use his Might of Thor gift. The creature grabs Jay's arms and stands on his foot and proceeds to make a wish. Jay, rather understandably starts to scream as his left arm is pulled clean out of its socket. Melissa yells "coming!" and disappears into the gauntlet, despite Abby's yelled "no!". When she doesn't appear straight away, Cole follows, and manages to go straight through the rather intense Gauntlet to arrive in the realm.
Meanwhile, Bob appears in the garden out the front just in time to see a wave of fire appear to coalesce along Freya's body. His packleader rolls to her feet and screams, and this is the point when the police find their guns. Bullets start whizzing through the air. Bob yells out a warning.
Inside the house, Cole grabs the fae sword from where Jay dropped it and makes a wild, uncontrolled swing in the general direction of both Jay and the hermaphrodite. The sword bites flesh and sinks halfway through the wyrm tainted monster, which screams and drops Jay. It lunges at Cole as he throws all his weight into pushing the sword the rest of the way through the creature. Between the two of them, they functionally cut it in half, spraying the room in more blood - with a sickening snapping sound, its spine, the only thing holding it together, gives away and the top half hits the ground with a thud. The body morphs and shrinks some - its only about 12' tall, and the male/female joining is much less smooth. Cole glances down and realises the face is mostly that of the Dancer they have associated with the Full Moon Killer.
At that point, the Zoning Freya leaps through the window, looking for enemies. Cole tries to grapple her, and her attention turns towards him. Fire fills the empty spaces behind her eyes and holds her skull on her shoulders. Between Cole and Krieg, they manage to pin her down. Bob reports there are policemen all in black coming this way with guns and leaps in the window. Jay, who is slowly healing, boots open the door further into the house - they can probably manage to go out that way. So as Cole and Krieg hold the struggling, snarling corpse of their packleader, Jay grits his teeth and picks up the two halves of a monster, heading through the house, trailing blood and entrails, and Bob keeps an eye out the back.
Jumps-in-Puddles looks at the back door and sees a couple of friendly looking red dots moving near the back screen door. Oh good. He drops the body and sinks down behind the sink instead of going around the bench. Cole and Krieg pin Freya against the wall. Abby suggests digging their way out through the floor - brilliant! Bob takes Krieg's place, and Krieg uses his Burrow gift to start ploughing through the floorboards and into the soil below. However, the police/SOGgies are still coming. Abby decides to use her Fae Kin gift. And botches. She briefly sees the insane and temporally challenged aboriginal/fae/wyrm woman who looks at her and says "I have seen you kill the Moon". Then a voice says "'ello poppet" in her left ear: Abby disappears from the mental link with a strangled "eep!" (Abby only).
Kreig is digging about 8' below the surface when something round and metallic bounces into the hole with him. Jay is sitting there with each half of the hermaphrodite on either side of him when a similar little round ball bounces between his legs. A brief recap:
Jay yells shit and kicks the grenade back the way it came, but it goes off near his foot, shaking the room, smashing glass and giving him some superficial burns. Kreig stamps on the one down his hole and dives to the side, hoping for the best. It goes off and showers dirt over the entire kitchen, but Krieg is mostly unhurt.
Freya finally collapses, having burnt out her reserves of Rage. Cole grabs the door they came through and shuts it, and there are several shots fired into the door. Melissa appears in the lounge and starts mentally yelling and demanding to know what's going on, but can't leave cos its dark and there are people shooting at her. The pack sigh and revise plan A. Krieg mystically digs another couple of feet deeper into his hole (after the help from the grenade) before veering sideways. Cole wrenches the door open again and bodyslams his way past humans creeping into the house to get Melissawards. Once Krieg has a little niche off to one side, Jay scrambles forward and throws the hermaphrodite corpse on top of him. Bob throws the Freya corpse on top of them both and then Kreig fills the hole in with more dirt (hooray for Metis gifts!). Bob flips sideways.
When Cole arrives in the lounge, Melissa is throwing SOGgies out the front window and yelling because she's been shot. A couple of the more coherent police try and attack him - he punches one out into the hall, grabs the other and tries to imbue that he'd really appreciate it if the man would go away and stop shooting him, perhaps taking a holiday in Queensland. A combination of snapping, snarling crinos jaws in front of the guy's face and Mindspeak results in a fleeing policeman. Jay leaps into the room between kitchen and lounge and flicks the light on - another policeman is briefly driven insane by the sight of a crinos Shadowlord before he flicks into the Umbra. Cole and Melissa intimidate the remaining two policemen and then Cole drags her into the Umbra.
Jumps-in-Puddles is the first to arrive in the Umbra. He is waiting for the others when he hears an interrogative howl - figuring that if it was Dancers, they wouldn't bother, he howls back. As the rest of his pack appear in the Umbra (such that they will), the Alternative from Hidden Green show up. Tony asks what the hell has been happening, and Cole starts to explain. Tony looks at him disbelievingly, and then points at Jay and tells him to explain instead. Irena leans against a wall and smirks a lot while Asimov has a poke about. Melissa looks around and asks where Abby is? There is much "shit!" and Cole tries to find her. He can only sense a vague fae feeling; there's no sign that she was lead away anywhere.
Tony gets the brief rundown and takes charge. He asks if the Claws of Wisdom have any gifts that could help with confusing matters with the police... there is a a quiet moment and he sends his pack to deal with them - Elaine and Cameron start messing with the cops from a distance, inspiring paranoia and confusion by a subtle combination of Control Complex Machine and Spook. Tony, Irena and Asimov have a quick conference and decide to set fire to the house as soon as possible - after checking that Krieg/Freya aren't going to be too badly affected by a fire above them. Asimov goes upstairs and uses his gifts to start fires. Police leave quickly once it is clear the building it burning down, and Tony and Asimov go into the kitchen and flood it with gas. Tony waits until Asimov is clear and then hits the sparker. He appears in the Umbra, on fire and burnt and Asimov heals him.
Cameron comes back from messing with police officers and organises to get a bunch of crap grass quickly and dives in and out of the Realm, scattering it in the burning house. The problem of getting Krieg, hermaphrodite and Freya out of the whole is contemplated - the police are crawling the neighbourhood and will probably notice the big in the ground. Eventually folks co-ordinate to get Krieg to dig to a point in the Realm and a shaft is sunk in the Umbra that overlaps so they can dedicate the body. Freya eventually comes to and is able to step out.
The next few hours is spent keeping an eye on things, but eventually the packs leave and head back to their respective caerns. The Claws of Wisdom relate their evening to Graeme, who just shakes his head. Cossack arrives at the end of the story and they have to start again, but before they finish, a Moonbridge opens from Rippling Waters and Abby walks through. She says that she got sucked away to faerie land by some Unseelie Redcaps, but managed to get away. Everyone surreptiously senses her, but it does seem to be Abby despite a strong fae sense.
The Elders contemplate events and agree that a) it could have been worse than it was, and b) something weird is going on. The sudden revelation of the Full Moon Killer after 20 months of killing indiscriminately is a bit weird - previously he's had mages cleaning up after him, and they didn't seem to be around. People curse as they realise no one sensed the crowd that had gathered to watch the fire and all. There's also discussion about what happened with the spirit - did the Dancer call it, did it just respond to the resonances within that he was causing on an auspicious evening? Much scratching of heads. Someone asks why the police were already there, and it turns out that the Full Moon Killer had attacked people in a nearby house and been busted by the neighbours, who called the police. They ran him into the house where the pack caught up with him.
*wargh!* Melissa's first encounter with the dream - although she was warned - brings back the usual feelings of dread and danger in everyone. Seeing as how everyone is awake anyway, Abby tells them what she saw last night - when she was in the lands of the fae, she met the strange pillar-woman again. The woman made her normal cryptic announcements, but said that she didn't see Abby killing the moon anymore, she saw someone else do it, called the Shaper, or the Artisan. There is a bit of headscratching before someone realises that Cole is both of these things, and he did kill the Full Moon Killer/Bloodwarrior mix. Ah! Well, that's two of her weird not-prophecies cleared up. The other one? Er, the fact that the pack are in danger of losing themselves, and er, there's a darkness within them.
Cole goes and pesters Anjou and Sokhta about their visions last night. They say that the ritual was successful, but it will take some time for them to understand what they saw - things were couched in very symbolic fashions and will take some contemplation. Cole says he followed everything up to them sitting on the couch.
The pack spend the day resting. Towards evening, Jay, who is vaguely patrolling, notices that there are some flashing lights near the house that the Hell Hounds are staying at - he creeps closer and then lets his pack know that there are two paddy wagons and a patrol car, and some of Hell Hounds are being manhandled into the divvy van. People sigh and come that way. Peeking from the Umbra, there are beer cans everywhere. Kreig uses mental speech on Sean, who is being carried out by two cops, and Sean talks out loud in response - fortunately its just drunken rambling to the humans. The pack consider rescuing them, but the "stuff it" feeling prevails and they leave Krieg to watch and advise. And not wait in the Umbra with a shovel. No no no.
The Get pack and some other randoms are taken to the Drummond St police station and put in the drunk tank. When Amy comes around enough, Kreig mental speeches her and says that they shouldn't do anything stupid. Amy muzzily agrees.
Its another hot summer day, and people have gone their seperate ways. Freya is spending time with Brad and Jordan. Cole is lurking at the Sept, mostly sleeping ("...the sea monkey took my money...") while Krieg spars for a bit with Melissa. Jumps-in-Puddles is hiding in the shade. Bob lurking in the city, jumping in and out of fountains, and Abby is hanging out at the beach with some uni friends, including Andrew. They chat for a bit about New Years, and why she ran off at midnight, and how the party they were at got raided by those gang guys that were shooting at other parties. Abby distracts him by suggesting ice cream.
However, while she's waiting in line, she sees a guy dressed in a bright hawaiian shirt and sunglasses wave at her. Abby grits her teeth and ignores him, and goes back to her friends, but the guy is watching her. Eventually when she's alone, he sits next to her. Abby is unimpressed and tells him. He says that he thought that she said not to come to her house any more, but this doesn't improve her temprement any. The guy asks about why they haven't done anything about the information he passed on last time. Abby tells him that they aren't his cleanup squad and rags him for only telling them information when they need something messy fixed up. He protests, saying that they had nothing to gain from telling her about the Fae meeting, and they are only trying to be helpful. There is a bit more back and forthing, and then Abby says that the info was wrong anyway - there was nothing there. The mage looks shocked and asks if she was sure? Abby confirms it and he drags her next to a wall and says "wait". The figure reverts back to a straw dummy - Abby toys with the idea of dropping it into the ocean, but resists.
The straw dummy shimmers and becomes a person again. He says that he has a proposal - this seems to be a good way to establish some trust between their two groups and perhaps stop any misunderstandings from happening. If he and his friends find out anything about the .. others.. they will pass it on. If Abby and her friends find out anything, then they can contact him by putting a personals message in the Age, addressed to Strawman and some sort of reference to Dancing. Abby suggests a face to face meeting, and he says that maybe that will happen, but not now - not given her obvious antagonism today. Abby grits her teeth as the construct wanders off into a toilet cubicle.
Abby now contacts her pack and passes the message on. Freya asks everyone to come to the caern, but realises Bob has gone all faint on the mental link (Bob only). They probe that a bit, and it becomes clear that Bob has gone a fair way away - they have an empathic sense that all is well, but that's all. Curious, and a little concerning. They discuss the day's events, but don't have any firm plans at this stage.
Bob comes back on the link late in the day and people quiz him, but he is fairly non-forthcoming about where he was and what he was doing.
Kreig is awoken early in the morning from a very strange dream. Once the rest of the pack is awake, he says that he thinks Petrus might have left Erebus - when they ask why, he recounts his dream (cue wibbly effect...)
Krieg is standing by himself on a lake shore - its a lake a bit to the west of the Flinders Ranges, and he remembers it from when he lived with the Get of Fenris. The Sept had a celebration here, dancing and howling by the shore. However, there is no one here now, only a camp fire and the moon light on the water. The moon is setting faster than it should, descending to the west, and lighting up the water with silvery white light. Kreig realises someone is walking across the surface of the water towards him. As they approach, the moon reaches the horizon and stops. The eastern sky begins to brighten with the dawn. The figure gets close enough to be recognised despite the dazzle from the water - its Petrus.
Petrus walks onto sand and sits on a log across from the fire. However, while Krieg is standing on a lake sure in semi-arid flat lands, Petrus is sitting in the middle of what looks like an enormous forest. Krieg can smell the early morning smell of a forest warming up in the dawn, and hear birds, as the same time as the scent of lake water. He tries to talk to Petrus, introducing himself and saying Petrus's name, but he doesn't recognise it.
The fire pops, and Krieg involuntarily looks down. When he looks up again, Petrus is there, but absolutely covered in blood, and the sense of a loud pulsing beat rings out through the area. Kreig blinks and the vision is gone. He asks Petrus where he is, and Petrus helpfully replies "here". The light is now a rosy dawn colour, but the moon is still on the far horizon. The fire hisses and Krieg looks down to see the Cracking Stone laying on desert sands - the hissing sound is the fetish sinking into the sands and disappearing. The scene changes, but the hissing sound remains - Petrus and Kreig are sitting in Bourke St. People walk about the place, and a tram rides past, but this hissing sound remains. A skerrick of dust floats down and Krieg looks up to see all the buildings have dust pouring off them, disintergrating and drifting downward - this is making the hissing sound, like sand being poured on a beach. The people that walk past are starting to disintergrate too, leaving bloody footprints as they go past. A loud pang sound rings out as a tram cable breaks and falls to the ground.
Kreig says he woke up at that point. He also had a dream a couple of nights ago about being next to a river in the dark and seeing a dark wolf wash up on shore. He thought it was dead to begin with, but it began to breathe without regaining consciousness.
The pack talk about what it all means - the general feeling is that it does indeed indicate that Petrus has left Erebus. There was no sense of how long it might take to purify someone there, after all, and time may flow differently in that realm. Where the hell is he is the next question. The moon being on one horizon and the sun on the other suggests it might have been a fae place, but there's not much else that confirms that. Abby looks annoyed and says that it reminds her of something, but she can't remember what it was. The Claws of Wisdom consider going to the fae realm - Bob is all for it, but the others a) don't think Cossack will be keen to let them go into the fae realm and b) think its a very annoying place to go. They decide to think about it a bit more and maybe find some other evidence one way or another.
Freya bends her MIGHTY brain meats to the problem - despite mocking comments from her pack, she doesn't just dig up the Little Book of Dreams. The easiest bit of the dream to interpret is the moonlit-water - it makes a silvery road that Petrus leaves, suggesting that he has left Erebus. The rising sun might not be a link to the fae realm, but instead a symbolic reference to a new dawn, or a new beginning - what they were hoping to give Petrus. The blood covered form? Um. It could just mean the blood relation between the two of them, or Petrus's bloody past. The cracking stone bit is unsure.
The end part of the dream, of the disintergrating city, is worrisome. It might literally mean that Krieg and Petrus shouldn't get together because everything will end. On the otherhand, that's probably a bit literal. No one said the dream had to be chronological - it might be more closely tied to when they first met. This produces some confusion, mostly from Cole (as well as some mockery from the GM regarding player attention spans) so people go over their history with Petrus: Krieg waking to find Petrus staring at him, homeless people being beaten up, Kreig goes swimming, Aelfric Hammer-claw, Strawmen offering help and capturing Frrr/Petrus/Nlaloonjurrie, and finally taking Petrus to Erebus.
Freya suggests visiting Emma and pestering her about the dream. Everyone troops off to Emma's place in Carlton and find her doing something domestic. Freya gives her a brief run down, then Kreig explains his dream. They ask how one might normally leave Erebus. Emma hmms and says that she's heard of three ways - its reputed that through the silver lake you can go to the realm of Phoebe, which is spiritual corresponds to the Moon. There's the door that the Claws of Wisdom used last time, which led to the Null Zone. And reputedly, Charyss can send a petitioner anywhere - although that might be a function of the Null Zone connection. People hmm some more - from that corridor, one could get anywhere, into any realm.
Although Krieg is sure that Petrus's response in the dream means he no longer responds to that name, people go outside and into the Umbra to try questing stone rituals. No luck, which could mean Krieg is right, or Petrus is not in either of those realms. Oh well.
They talk to Emma some more about clarifying the situation. She suggests that if Petrus is in the fae realms, they might be able to dream-contact him again. And it might be possible to enhance their chances - perhaps they could go out to Rippling Waters and try from there. Abby pipes up and points out that this Sunday night is Imbolc, the festival of Brigid, and quite a fae-related evening, so the pack decide to see if Rippling Waters minds them showing up. Emma also makes the suggestion that perhaps Freya can 'ride' Krieg's dreams with dreamspeech. Sometimes it can interfere, sometimes not, but she, being Fianna, might be able to draw more information out of things if it is a fae related thang. They decide to try it out this evening.
Back to the caern. Freya makes a call and chats to Leaps-in-the-Light. He says their pack, and families, are more than welcome to come out. The whole weekend will be one big carnival/party and so they should certainly attend if they'd like. There are no complaints from any of the members of the Claws of Wisdom - a weekend off from their normal chaos would be great.