Holistic Approach Chronology

September 1999

Since the last moot, Dominique, Mathias, Brett, Thomas and John have all been seriously considering forming a pack. They have been discussing what sort of things they would like to do, and have been working together for a month or so to make sure there are no personality clashes.

They are planning to perform the Rite of the Totem at the equinox moot, to summon a spirit to join and be the pack totem. Feelings have (eventually) led towards Kanau, the Wedge-tailed Eagle, as his aims seem to overlap with theirs (andmaybeifwehaveatotemofrespect,everyonewon'thateusasmuch)

Saturday 18th

Dominique is up early and working away at Carmel's to earn a crust. She is cleaning a table off when she glances at the newspaper left by the previous victim, er, customer. The front page has the lead article "A gargoyle stole my beer".

Dominique blinks a few times and then reads the article. Apparently a Dave Gordon of Dandenong Pub reported that he was working the drive through at about 10:30pm when a 'gargoyle' flew down, grabbed two slabs and flew off - the description he gives is eerily like the demon-things that attacked Mathias last year. There is a picture of Dave pointing at the space left by said slabs. The rest of the article covers the fact that there have been a number of reports around the Dandenong area of a 'large flying creature'.

Dom calls Mathias and explains the situation. He says he will collect the others and does so after phoning Emma. They assemble in Carmel's cafe and explain to the other three why they think this is relevant. It is decided to go down and check it out.

Arriving at the drive-through, it readily becomes apparent that Dave does not work until 6pm. ("Is Dave here?" "No, he doesn't start work until 6pm" "Oh") They sniff around a bit, and try sensing wyrm. Nope. Brett buys a cask of white. John buys a warm beer before becoming fundamentally confused over what he wants to do with it. They wait.

At 6pm, Dave comes on shift. Dom and Thomas go up and chat to him. His story seems to more or less check out, as long as you know gargoyles exist. The question over why the hell Mages would be stealing beer arises. Brett suggests that they are cheap, obviously.

People decide to run around, and see if they can see anything in the Umbra, whilst Dom and Tom sit in the Red Rooster and suck them dry of their infinite refill coke. John is peeking when he notices a couple of kids spray painting what could be a stylised gargoyle on a shop wall. It covers most of the wall, and once it has been pointed out to Mathias, he says it looks pretty much like the thing that tried to kill him. The kids finish and pack their stuff up, whilst John steps into the Realm and rings Dom and Tom, explaining the situation. The two of them say they will turn up and watch the picture for suspicious activity, whilst John, Brett and Mathias follow the kids.

The two 17 year olds, saunter their way through Dandenong and into a suburban house. Brett sneaks up to the front window, and can see something like a spotlight going in the house, and a fire out the back, where there is music drifting out. The house looks unoccupied in any sort of legal sense, although there are obviously some people out the back, with fire. Brett steps into the Gauntlet, and Mathias and John play some sort of 'push-me-pull-you' game trying to get him out before Mathias knocks him back into the Realm. All assemble across the road from the house, and step into the Umbra. They shamble their way across and carrying the peeking Dominique around. She sees a bunch of teenagers hanging around what seems to be a squat. There are maybe 20 of them, drinking beer and throwing stuff in the fire. Maybe 4 of them appear to live here, and 6 of them, including the two spray painters, appear to scent faintly of the dusty death scent that Dominique associates with Mages. There is the faintest sense of Wyrm somewhere too.

Apart from the mull being passed around with abandon, there are also the remains of two slabs of beer. However, given that most of it has been drunk, its hard to say whether this is what the purported gargoyle stole. It is about this point that a bit of a discussion breaks out near the back of the yard. Partially hidden by bushes, Roogi (a large Maori-esque looking fellow) accuses (most drunkenly) Johno (whippet-bogun of about 17) of fucking Jez (a poster child for the tight black jeans and low cut top brigade). Roogi starts out with the erudite and logically intricate "You've been fucking my fucking girlfirend, haven't you, you fuck?" to which Johno replies "Don't be fucking spastic", his Alexandrian solution to Roogi's Gordian knot argument. Jez is trying to get Roogi's attention to deny the accusation, but the discussion quickly turns to a lot of shoving, which Roogi seems to win. Johno, shoved hard, lashes out and punches Roogi, who pulls a knife. About this point, some of the people around the fire have taken notice, and Jez yells "Paul!". Roogi is flailing about with the knife, when the ersatz Paul runs to the edge of the house, and yells at the roof to "get that fucker and throw him out". In the darkness, John vaguely sees movement, and a wind.

Dominique is watching the wildly swinging Roogi when a gargoyle flaps down out of the sky, and throws him and his fucker over the fence. A group of people come running up to see what's going on. Johno brags a bit that he chased Roogi away, but stops when Paul makes an elbow-intensive jesture at him. The gargoyle settles on the roof again, and the majority of the crowd returns to the warmth of the burning playground equipment. John goes away and rings Ian Shatter-Glass at the sept to keep them up to date.

However, this seems to have signalled the end of the party, and people start heading off. Jez, Paul, Johno, Mick and Benny (the two spraypainters) head off more or less together, and then Jez, Johno and Benny go one way and Paul and Mick go the other, after Paul has whistled for the gargoyle to follow him. Mick and Paul split up and the Garou follow from the Umbra. Paul eventually jumps in a suburb house window, followed by the gargoyle, which coils up in the corner. Paul falls into bed, dropping his bag on the floor.

The Garou search as best as they can from the Umbra. Paul lives with two adults and one child, presumably his family. The gas bill lying around identifies them as Daryl Douglas and family (presumably making Paul, Paul Douglas). His room contains very little that could be described as damning, other than the gargoyle. His bag contains something like the smell of the gargoyle, the weird dead smell, but no tomes covered in human skin adorn the shelves or anything like that.

Sunday 19

In a somewhat uncharacteristic move, the five of them settle in to watch and wait. Paul's mum comes in, yells at him about being a lazy slob, treating this place like a hotel, what time do you call it that you came home, you'd better clean yourself up and help out around here, and then near-slams the door shut. She doesn't seem to notice the gargoyle, although it does half stand when she comes in. Paul on the other hand, doesn't even stir. His parents head off, his brother watches early morning cartoons and finally heads off too. Around midday Paul awakens and wanders off to the kitchen for brunch of toast, the gargoyle following obediently behind. Domonique and John follow, peeking whilst Mathias and Thomas investigate Paul's room in the Realm. Stepping though to the real world they find lockpicks (not used for a while) taped under the desk, then look inside the mysterious bag Paul had been carrying. Inside, apart from stolen car stereos, there are two faintly glowing spheres, much like those Infinite Paths members had seen gargoyles/demons summoned from.

Meanwhile, the gargoyle begins sniffing the air in the kitchen. Paul has no idea what its problem is, and throws it some toast. The gargoyle begins to sniff around the house. Mathias and Thomas figure its time to leave anyway (not that they know about the gargoyle). John realises they don't realise, so steps into the Realm as they step out of the Realm. John is wondering what that strange scratching sound it outside the door, sees that Mathias and Tom are gone and steps out again, just as something fiddles with the doorknob.

A brief discussion is had and an attempt is made to cleanse the bag containing the spheres and the gargoyle itself from within the Umbra.. but with little or no effect at all. Eventually Paul and the gargoyle head on out again, with our intrepid heroes following them in the Umbra. The gargoyle leaps from roof to telephone pole to tree, following Paul. Most passersby don't even seem to notice it, though the occasional screech of fear indicates it isn't completely hidden from mundane sight. Paul is heading away from civilised lands, down into the Dandenong Creek valley. Eventually he's just walking through agistments.

Paul comes to a thick hedge, and slip through it. The 5 Garou follow in the Umbra, and stop suddenly when they see a house. Sort of. In the Realm, which one of them is watching, the house is an old weatherboard job, quite large, and judging by the garden, unoccupied. Paul goes around to a screen door and goes inside, greeting other people, and followed by the gargoyle. In the Umbra, the Garou move cautiously around the house. On one side, the house is invisible, and Mathias and Dom caution the others not to touch it. On two other sides, halfway the length of the house, the house is half not there, and half there - it almost shimmers like a mirage. The previous Mage house is discussed. However, half the house looks normal, and it seems that people are inside. The five of them cautiously scout inside.

Inside are 6 young kids, 5 of whom were at the party last night - Paul, Jez, Johno, Mick, Benny and a new addition, Mel. They are apparently just bumming around - the house is semi-furnished, and appears to have power and water. It also appears to be the repository of a large amount of stolen goods, such as televisions, which some of the 6 are watching. A peeker overhears Paul say that they were going to hit JB's tonight. None of the 6 react particularily to the gargoyle, although a couple seem cautious about it.

Looking further inside the house, the semi-visible and invisible walls are covered in very similar desings to the Westmeadows house. However, they are in varying stages of completeness. They have not been done with spray paint, partially destroying theories that Mick and Benny were responsible. Close examination from the Umbra suggests that they almost look tattooed on. Someone is examining one of the rooms when Jez and Johno, seeking some privacy, confirm Roogi's wild accusations from the night before. Apparently some things scare even Garou, and they move back out into the family room to plan. (house plans)

After much discussing about the best way to storm the house, everyone sits around in the Umbra and waits for night. Dom senses wyrm, and finds that there is indeed a strong source of wyrm somewhere nearby. Eventually, at about 10pm, the kids all start to pack up. They dress in dark clothes and grab some bags. The gargoyle is summoned from its doze, they head out the door, and Paul puts the key under a rock. They slip out and down the road.

The Garou decide to take this chance to examine the place thoroughly. All step through, and look around. Brett hides the key a couple of rocks away. 3 of the rooms are basically furnished, one master bedroom, one bedroom and the lounge. The kids however, have all their stolen goods and beanbags in the family room. The runes covering the walls definately look as if they haven't been finished. Sensing Wyrm reveals the walls are tainted, but that the most taint is coming from the central bedroom. Unkeen to touch the walls, John opens the door with Control Simple Machine. The interior of this room is covered in far more complete runes than the others, and after Sensing Wyrm Mathias lies on the ground with a headache for a while. Generally regarded as a positive response, people realise that it is strongest from below. Pulling up carpet reveals a trapdoor, not covered in runes.

The trapdoor is opened, and reveals a tube, heading downwards, which is covered in runes. There is also a ladder and a lightswitch. Mathias gets a broomhandle and turns the light on. Below can be seen a concrete expanse. Eventually they screw up the courage to go down the ladder, whilst John goes outside to keep watch. At the bottom of the ladder is a large concrete bunker, slightly smaller than the room above. It has two normal housedoors leading away, and is totally covered in runes. There is also an unfinished Spell circle in the middle of the room. After Mathias and Brett prove too scared to touch the walls, Dom comes down with the Cracking Stone and sends Brett upstairs. She opens the first door, and seems to find some sort of storeroom - eye of newt, toe of frog, flayed face of murderer - the usual. The other room is another Spell chamber of some sort, with a much smaller circle, apparently complete. This room also has a door, but its a large metallic one. Dom is looking at it and her brain is telling her 'fridge'. She cautiously opens it. Close, its a freezer, and its full of mutilated bodies.

Oh good. They all seem to have been ritually killed and in some cases cut up. They are also all Wyrm tainted. Joy. The GM makes a fatal mistake and leaves the room for two minutes, and when he comes back, there is a Plan. A couple of the bodies are removed from the freezer and dragged into the family room. Brett cleanses them as Thomas practices his juggling. John sees a rather suspicious car hoon along the dirt road, and then slow down a little as it passes the house - he manages to just get the number plate, and tries to remember it so he can look it up tomorrow. Mathias comes out and fills him in on the situation and the plan. The trapdoor is covered up again, and all evidence the Garou were there is removed. Dominique goes into the Umbra and summons a fear spirit to bind into the bodies to scare anyone who shows up even more... Well, that's the Plan.

When the fear spirit shows up, it doesn't seem too impressed with Dominique. Or maybe it is more impressed than she would like. She offers it the fear of six people, and it asks why it shouldn't take hers. Dominique decides to take the dominant position, and starts the Rite of Binding. It doesn't work very well, the fear spirit, despite being bound to her, isn't too impressed. She commands it to scare the humans who see the body and it spends its time making big scary shadows.

Eventually Paul, Mel, Johno and Jez all come back to the house. The Garou are watching from the Umbra as the four of them scrabble around for the key. Pity that Brett moved it. They can't seem to find it, and decide to come back tomorrow, despite votes from Johno to let It tear the door off. Everyone in the Umbra smacks Brett in the head, and he moves the key back before they all go home.

Monday 20th

After a reasonable night's sleep, they reassemble at Carmel's and ring Emma, explaining the situation. Emma asks to ring them back after a bit, and when she does, says that the Sept would like to aquire the house in some fashion, rather than having it all destroyed and cleansed. Mathias is asked to make moves to buy, steal or whatever the deed to the house.

Driving to the house, Mathias makes a load of phone calls. Unfortunately the WoD councils are much more bureaucratic than the real ones, and he is told that 'yes, we can tell you that, but you have to fill out the form, and pay a $40 fee, and then we will mail you the results'. Once there, they ransack the letterbox and find no power or water bills... or indeed, any personal mail, just junk. Brett rings the local power company and screws about trying to figure out who owns the house, or at least who is paying the bills, and eventually learns that the bills are sent to a POBox in Dandenong, care of Lloyd, Kernighan and Barrett. These fine people turn out to be Real Estate Agents of Dandenong and Knox, with an office nearby. Mathias rings it, only to find that they don't have anything about the property on their computer.... or so the receptionist says.

In the meantime, the others are prowling around the house. No sign that anyone has come back yet. They settle in to watch. Thomas is (just) peeking when he sees two blobs turn up and go into the big black blob. Brett and Mathias, who are doing the 'man and dog' schtick are approaching the hole when they hear a loud scream. Brett sniffs the hole in the hedge and can scent two people, both overlaid with a faint paint smell. Mick comes bursting through the hedge and doesn't stop running. Dominique senses that the fear spirit has broken its binding, but she can't see it anywhere. John and Thomas step out of the Umbra and into the Realm, but will be 5 minutes. Dominique starts to peek, and can see that Benny is still inside. Brett runs in, pretending to be a guard dog. He makes it to the back door, just as Brett slams it shut and locks it. He barks a lot, and Dominique sees Benny grab a broomstick and a bucket. He starts to fill the bucket up with really hot water, while Brett runs around the front and slams into the door. Benny creeps around with his bucket, and looks out lots of windows, but can't see the psychotic dog that is assaulting the house. The slowly defrosting bodies don't seem to freak him too much.

Dominique sees Benny listen carefully, and judge that the psycho dog is not nearby. He grabs a box, opens the door, and puts his boiling water up on top of the door. He then opens a window, and smacks at the side of the house with broomstick. He seems to be trying to attract the dog, but the dog seems to be trying to drive him out by being noisier on the other side. In the end Benny gives up and opts to wait, going inside the sliding door and locking it, waiting for the dog to trigger his cunning trap. In fact, Brett gets sick of the non-effect and goes back to Mathias, at about the same time as Thomas and John step into the Realm. They see the back door ajar and run in. A bucket full of scalding water crashes downwards, but sprays all its contents into the house, not over (the admittedly surprised) Thomas. Benny sticks his head around the corner to see if he has driven the dog away and is confronted with the ghastly visage of Thomas in glabro form. Benny sensibly runs. Thomas tries to open the door, but finds that Benny has snibbed it. And told the door spirit to stay that way, because John's Control Simple Machine doesn't work either. Benny has made it across the room before Thomas rips the door off its rails and forces it part open. Benny is in the corridor when Thomas takes off at top speed, gets his feet caught in a beanbag, and plunges to the ground. John goes out the door and into crinos form.

Benny has a good lead on John, so makes it out the hedge, where Mathias takes a swing and misses. John tries to go over the gate, and confuses over with through. He changes form and pulls his head out of the bars as Thomas, recovered from his blunder, leaps 18 feet over the hedge, and lands running. Thomas catches up with Benny, and wheels him around. Benny had obviously heard him coming, and for his trouble, Thomas gets a face full of spray paint, down his lungs and in his eyes. As he lays there screaming, Benny puts the boot in for good measure and then runs for it. The rest of the Garou look on in disbelief.

The general feeling is that Benny will head for help, one way or another. Thomas is scrubbed of much of his new red look, and the group plan. The bodies are dumped back in the cellar, and the pack take up position in the Umbra. At about 2pm, they are rewarded with the appearance of just the gargoyle. After watching it snuff around for a while, they decide to take this oppurtunity to scrag it. Two groups are formed, all the better to hit it from both sides. They step from the Umbra. Mathias and Brett arrive first, and startle the gargoyle. It takes two sudden steps backwards from Mathias, cops some claws in the stomach, swipes ineffectually at Mathias and is then crunched by Brett. Total time: 1.4 seconds. The body turns to stone, and the black gloop leaks out. The bits are scaped up and dumped into the cellar. The other group appears and leap to the ... er... nevermind. Mathias does a Questing Stone rite on Paul and finds him somewhere near his house. It is decided to visit, and try and get rid of the rest of the spheres.

The two car full of Gaia's defenders are almost at Paul's when they see him, Benny and Johno in a park. They stop and Mathias and Brett run back and spy on them from the Umbra. Johno says something like "about $6,000 worth. Which will be about $3,000 all up, but that's enough to keep the house going for a while". The bag that purportedly has the gargoyle spheres in it is sitting next to Paul, who keeps looking at the sky. Back at the cars, this information is reported back, and another plan is hit upon. Thomas will be in lupus form, and use his Gifts to run really fast. He tries to sneak up on the 3 louts, but Benny, obviously a bit nervous since this morning, throws clumps of wood at him. Thomas decides that between being painted and having wood tossed at him, enough is enough, and floors it, scooping the bag up and making it half way across the garden before the three kids have realised something is up. He runs to John's car, gets in and they drive away before the kids have even made it out to the street.

After checking out the bag, and realising that the two balls are in the bag, the five of them make some efforts to understand them. They are dedicated, but when John steps through, they don't go with him, and Brett has to catch them. They do seem to absorb the Gnosis though. They are cleansed, and there is no apparent effect, although the slight taint of Wyrm they have is reduced a little. After talking with Emma at the Sept, they are to eventually bring them back to the Sept.

Brett and John head back to the park, John walking his 'dog'. The three teenagers have left the swings they were sitting on. They follow the scent back to a nearby house, and Brett heads up the side. Benny sees him and hurls a rock from the garden, and Brett decides to leave. Peeking from the Umbra, the teenagers seem keen to go to the house and figure out what the hell is going on, but not until tonight.

It is suggested to check out the REA that seems to be in charge of the property, Arnold Lloyd. His registered place of business is the same as Lloyd, Kernighan and Barrett, Endeavor Hills, so off they all go. The offices look newly remodelled, and fairly plush. It seems that the agency has 5 or so full time REA working for them, 2 handling private properties and the rest handling commercial properties. Arnie himself is about 45 and looks like an accountant. He handles paperwork for a while, making occasional phone calls, and then drives out and takes a few clients through properties in industrial estates, etc. He does not sense of Wyrm, nor do the offices, although they are covered in weaver spiders, probably from the renovations.

The five of them return to the house, and consider what to do now. They believe that the kids will come and check the house out, so there is some discussion about how to frighten them away permanently. It is eventually decided to pretend to be the owners of the house. The five Garou lay in wait; John and Thomas in the Umbra, Thomas peeking after everyone else forgets how; Mathias and Dominique in the house itself, with Mathias peeking into the Umbra; Brett lurking in the darkness and long grass. Eventually the kids do show up, and stop at the edge of the hedge, looking at the house with its lights on and a beat up car in the drive. Thomas yells to Mathias that they seem to be moving in further, if slowly.

Brett decides that now is the time to be a big scary guard dog. He bounds up to the teenagers, barking. Mathias stops peeking, changes to Crinos and lets out an enormous howl. Some of them run for it, but two of them leap on the guard dog and hold it down. One of them whisper-yells for another to get the cricket bat. Dominique starts heading out into the backyard as Brett decides 'bugger this for a game of soldiers', rolls out of the grapple and snaps at one of his assailants. There is a brief spate of snapping and boots kicking back at the nasty dog, and then Brett sinks his teeth into a thigh as the kid in question rolls away and tries to flee. Sharp Garou teeth slice muscle, tendon and arteries as if they were butter, and the sudden flow of warm, fighting blood into Brett's mouth causes him to nearly frenzy. He drops back, and a flying Dominique hits the young kid in question with her healing fetish, then Staredowns the other assailant, who sensibly runs for it.

The still unconscious kid is brought inside and revealed to be Benny. He is lowered into the basement and tied to the ladder in the dark. A bucket of cold water is brought and thrown on him. Unsurprisingly, he's a little a) shaken and b) panicy, but eventually he tells Mathias (and his growling companions in the pitch black darkness) that Paul found the house about 3 months ago. They won't come back ever. Only the 6 of them know about it. They really won't come back ever. He doesn't know anything about the post office box, or the why they never got bills for the power or anything, etc etc. Benny is eventually knocked out with a sleep talen and dumped out the front of his house.

They then set out to find Paul. Eeriely, he hasn't gone home. In fact, all 5 of the other kids are in the squat house where the party was on Saturday night, clustered together in one room. They seem to be asleep by this point, and may have come straight here, judging by general disarray of the clothing.

It is decided to scope out the REA a bit more, and also check the post office box. Opening it with the Cracking Stone is easy enough, and inside is a gas bill for the warded property, addressed to a A. Lloyd, care of this post office. It is replaced and they head back to the REA offices. Scoping from the Umbra reveals a motion detector. Its spirit is awakened, and told to go to sleep. A quick examination of the area proceeds. There are no details anywhere in the office pertaining to the warded mage house on paper, nor does Arnie have anything unusual in his office. Checking the computer reveals that all of his documents are in one directory, so it is hypothesised that Arnie is not a literate computer user. However, John notices that the file count is a bit weird between two different pieces of software, and goes looking for hidden files. They find a locked directory and when normal methods fail to open it, resort to awakening the spirit of the computer. It is interrogated, and when a slight sense of wyrm is detected, cleansed. A weird chip-like spirit leaps out of the case and tries to run away. Brett smashes it, and all the weaver spiders suddenly go quiet and still, looking for the broken bit. They return to their work, having not detected the web-breakers. The computer spirit doesn't know anything about the missing piece other than its not working. The files in the directory are revealed to be normal accounting material for the house, but there are references to a bank account with the National Bank, for which Mr Lloyd seems to be a signee.

To hide their prescence, Mathias moves into the Realm and flips the 110-220 switch on the back of the computer. In the Umbra, the computer spirit screams and starts to die ("daisy.... daisy....") which the Garou were not expecting, and find a little disturing. In the Realm, it starts to smoke and then the smoke alarms go off, soaking Mathias before he returns to the Umbra. They call it a night.

The morning is spent recovering gnosis and generally helping out around the Caern. After lunch, they all assemble and chat to Emma. She says that she is not sure what is going on with Lloyd - it might be that he is legitimately an agent for whoever owned the house, or that something might have been done to him to make him do things on the sly. In any case, the Sept would really like to have a demonstratable legal claim on the house, so hop to. John asks some questions about learning Sense Wyrm and Emma suggests that Friday, at the Moot might be the way to go with it.

The five Garou pack up and head out to Dandenong again. They get there and it is decided to ring Lloyd and see what he says when they offer to buy the house. After a spastic decision by the GM, they eventually get a hold of him. Mathias (or Jack Davies) asks about the property and Lloyd seems a bit confused. He asks 'Jack' to wait a few moments as they are having some computer trouble, and appears to speak to someone else briefly. Arnie then says that they don't seem to be the agents for that property and suggests that there may have been some confusion. 'Jack' says that he will get the documentation that indicated that Lloyd, Kernighan and Barrett were involved, and get back to Mr Lloyd. When the phone is hung up, they all barrell through the Umbra and peek back. They catch the tail end of a conversation between Todd (guy on front desk) and Arnie, who then squelches through the wet carpet (gee, wonder why) back to his desk.

The day rolls on. Look. What. He's writing something. Good.

The five of them split up. Brett, Tom and Mathias go and watch the post office box and see what occurs there, while John and Dom sit and watch the offices. At 5pm, most of the staff have gone home. Eventually its just Arnie and one other agent. Arnie starts packing up and heads out to his car. Dominique and John stay and watch the other agent. Two minutes after Arnie has left, he makes a phone call (long number, probably mobile). There is some brief scurrying as John tries to listen in on the call, but as the opening words are "Hi honey" and the call then goes on to describe what he would like for tea, they decide it is not worth it.

Meanwhile, watching the post office box seems to have some results. Arnie turns up, walks to the post office box and takes out two envolopes. He then walks back to his car. Thomas tries to follow, but Arnie seems to notice him, and just stops as Thomas walks past, starting again after a short bit. Mathias and Brett follow Arnie as he drives back to the REA office. Thomas follows on his bike.

Once there, Arnie goes inside and deactivates the alarm (the other co-worker having left in the meantime). He opens the bottom draw of his filing cabinet, and takes out a cheque book. It is for a trust which he seems to be a (the?) signee for. The trust account is the Arrival Trust, held by the National Bank. As he is doing battle with the accounting, Brett goes and lets down the tire on his car, or at least tries to. Unfortunately another person from that same strip of shops leaves at the same time, and chases him away. Mathias waits until the hubhub dies down and then finishes the job.

Meanwhile, Arnie finishes writing his cheques and shreds the rest of the bill. He puts the cheque and the bill stub in the envolopes again and drops them into his briefcase. He puts the chequebook away and heads off. As his back tire is down, he curses and spends 1/2 an hour switching it with the spare. Thomas, who has turned up by now, follows him home on the moped.

In the meantime, the Umbral assault squad move their way into the office. The chequebook is examined along with a letter from the bank. It seems Mr Lloyd became a signee for the trust fund about a year and a half ago, which is about the time that the chequestubs cover. The amount of money in the account seems to have been descending steadily since some initial deposit, and to not have been topped up. The bills have increased over the space of time where the kids were using the house, but it seems Arnie has just kept on paying that.

Thomas rings back to the group and says that he has followed Arnie to a house in Belgrave. He seems to live alone. The others catch up and watch Arnie for a bit. He goes about his normal life - tv, paper, beer, bed. Once he is asleep, they move from the Umbra to the Realm and ransack his study. No coffee book copies of the Necronomicon, no suspicious increases in income in his bank statements. Arnie seems to have kept everything for the last five years, organised and neat, so its not too hard for them to work out that a) he is not getting any form of kickback for the mage house and b) he is anal.

Mathias attempts to use Dreamspeak on him. Unfortunately, something seems to go hideously wrong - Mathias drops into the trance, he senses Arnie's dreams, and then Arnie seems to see him in some fashion. Mathias is rudely dropped out of his trance and begins to develop a headache as Brett says that Arnie just leapt up and through his window, and down the street. Thomas picks Brett up and they run after Arnie, who is apparently fleeing for his life and screaming. John steps into the Realm to see if there is any physical reason why this might have happened, hears some knocking at the front door, and steps out again.

The Police show up, apparently called by a concerned neighbour, and take some statements before leaving. Brett and Thomas come back and say that he just kept running - they turned back when he entered the National Park. The 5 of them kick around all night, and shortly before dawn, the police show up again with Arnie. He is dirty and a bit wild looking, and has obviously been treated for various cuts and abrasions. They make sure he's ok, help him with his broken window and leave. Arnie has a shower and goes to bed. All five Garou call it a night.

Wednesday 22

After a phone call reveals that Mr Lloyd has taken a day's sick leave, the pack get on and do their own things and leave him alone for a bit. Mathias gets a letter from the Greater Dandenong City Council about the ownership of the house. It indicates that the house is owned by an Andrew Brown, and the signing agent was A. Lloyd of Lloyd, Kernighan and Barrett. Hmm.

Thursday 23

Early in the morning, Mathias rings the REA again. He tells Arnie about the deed from the council, but Arnie is genuinely baffled. This time the people are watching him as they speak on the phone, and he seems to get a slight glazed look when the house address comes up. Arnie suggests that the council have screwed something up, and he will attempt to pursue it.

There is some discussion about what the hell to do now. Eventually, it occurs to Thomas that the person who owns the house is a fiction, and the only witness doesn't know anything about it. The 5 Garou go to the Council offices (yucky, plasticy weavery Umbra) and look around. They quickly find the server in question and work out details. After the offices all close down, the server is awoken and John and Mathias work with the computer spirit to change the details of the property. In the end, they change the owners' name to Mathias Rourke, and take out all references to Lloyd as well. The 5 Garou generally congratulate themselves on a job well done, and in time for the Moot tomorrow too.

The morning dawns bright and clear, but that's ok, because the soon-to-be pack don't get up till 10am. They get together and spend the day hammering out a pack name. That takes half the day at least, and the rest of the day is spent purifying themselves for the spiritual experience planned for the evening.

The Moot begins at dusk. Cossack begins the Opening Howl which echos across the Umbra. All the Galliards of the Sept join in, and the tone of the Howl is rejoicing and upbeat. The Howl is still ringing around when Emma and Ends-the-Quiet take the role of Caller of the Wyld. They greet each caern spirit and pack totem individually, and thank them for protecting and aiding the caern. They seem to be more than usually respectful.

Cossack steps up to the firelight. "The founding of a new pack is always a time of joy. All come together to form one, one purpose and one heart. Let all those who would come together at this Moot of rebirth step forward now." Thomas, Brett, John, Dom and Mathias all do so. "A pack is defined by the spirit they choose as their guardian, and as their teacher. Who do you ask the guide your steps?" "Kanau, the wedge-tailed eagle."

Emma performs the Rite of the Totem, calling upon and requesting Kanau to come and be the heart of the new pack. At the end of the Rite, all of the Sept can see an eagle spirit flying far above the Caern. Each of the pack hear a voice in their head, asking them "why?" - each answer, giving their reason for wanting to part of the pack, and why they need Kanau to be their heart. He seems to be satisfied, and drops from the sky. Just above their heads, he seems to split into five, and each lesser spirit plunges through a pack member's head, then continues back into the sky, and returning to its watch. The pack can feel the connection between them all, and can sense the thoughts of the others. Their eyes itch too, and strange colours leap across the caern. A shout goes up from the rest of the Sept, and for a time, there is chaos as the other Garou congratulate them. Eventually Cossack restores order, and asks "What name do you give the Eagle pack?" "Holistic Approach". Cossack howls to the sky "Let the four winds tell all that Holistic Approach walk in the Sept of the Sleeping Lore."

Cossack asks them whether they have a leader for the pack. Thomas, John and Mathias step forward. Ian Shatterglass proposes a riddle contest, to which Mathias gives the most number of appropriate answers. The pack suggest that a contest of Honour and of Glory would also be appropriate, and Ian says that they should return after the Revel.

Other Sept business is handled - Cossack says that Ion and Irena have gone to Def Con 2, and seem to be intent on hammering out their rivalry here and now. He tells the Sept that no member is to be involved, or if they must get involved with either of them, to remain absolutely neutral. He also says that a contact of his, a Mr Yesif Petrou, has gone missing, and as the other packs are busy, he would like Holistic Approach to check it out. John asks to learn Sense Wyrm and Emma agrees and asks Chimera to teach it to him, which she does quickly.

The Moot continues with stories and songs, and culminates in a fairly energetic Revel. At the end of the Revel, Ian invites each of the new pack to engage him in a Staredown challenge. Mathias and he eventually draw, but Ian beats the others. He suggests that Mathias be accepted as the pack leader, and the others agree.

Once they are asleep, all of the pack dream of the cave with the regenerating Bunyip: It is quiet, the only sound being dripping water distantly, and each member stands by themselves next to a pool of the purest water. A skull rises out of the pool, dripping. The drops become blood and start to slow. Flesh starts to form, followed by a body and then fur and features. The body is nearly complete when a clawed hand cuts across its throat, and it stumbles back, blood spurting. A large, round rock drops from the roof, crushing the skull and kicking up an enormous splash of putrid water, obscuring the lake. The waters clear, and the perspective has changed, and now the view is high above a rancid and toxic land. Each dreamer flies over a landscape of vast metal towers, twisted walkways and stairs, machines on the rooves belching fumes. Bane swarm everywhere. The towers fall behind, and now they fly over a garden full of people being tortured. The flight continues, speeding up, over an evil forest of giant trees, following along a black river which stems from a fountain spewing black putrescant liquid into the air. The flight cotinues to increase in speed and starts to fall, passing over a strip mine surrounding a toxic lake. Finally, skimming along the ground, the dreamers fly towards a Gothic cathedral, looming into the sky... the doors open, revealing the Darkness Eternal, and the dreamers fly inside... and everyone wakes up screaming.

Saturday 25

After comparing dreams (ew) and previous images of doom and destruction ("so what was the flying bit." "Malfeas" "Oh, great"), the pack go and find Cossack. He explains that Yesif was in theory looking for 'normal' evidence that might indicate the presence of BSDs. Yesif knows nothing, but Cossack is worried the BSDs might have realised the gig was up, and done something to him. He is unkeen to use Questing Stone from the caern in case they have warded him, so suggest going to his house and looking at it from a normal point of view before using Questing Stone.

To the house! Its in Yarraville, so the pack park nearby and jog back in the Umbra. The address given to them is a fairly unadorned rental house from the outside - midlength grass, car parts on the front lawn, a red, beaten-up car in the drive, barking dog out the back. Searching in the house reveals that there is no one home. John steps through and kills the power in the house. Everyone else follows. Examining the house reveals that Yesif has many boxes of new electronic items, which the pack suspect do not belong to him. It also reveals that there has been a struggle in the house, starting in the bedroom and moving a small distance away. Out the back, Mathias is interrogating the barking dog, which stops. It is intent on making him understand that this area is "ours", but eventually stops when he feeds it. It conveys the impression that Others came and then He wasn't around anymore, maybe two days ago. Brett sniffs around in the house and comes up with four scents - one that is probably Yesif and three that are not, and only appear to come from outside, to the back door (which has been forced) and then to the bedroom, before leaving out the front door.

The bedroom is toussled, and the bed is missing blankets. They find Yesif's wallet while John asks his neighbours questions ("Have you seen this man?", "Not for a couple of days"). It has money in it. The rest of the house, seems not to reveal any connection to other people, the honourable bastard. The pack finishes searching and decides to risk a Questing Stone. Eventually they narrow the trace down to the boot of a car in the long term carpark at Tullamarine.

Winning the all-Garou award for most nonchalant pack approach to a vehicle suspected of containing a dead contact of the sept leader, Holistic Approach saunter through the lightly populated carpark. They pop the boot with the Cracking Stone, and quickly look in. Petrou is definately dead, and was tied up with thingamies. They close the boot again and have a quick look in the car. It looks like the lock was forced, so it is assumed that the car is stolen. Cracking Stone rises to the fore again and they scamper out of the long term car park with the car, paying the maximum fee for the longterm car park to get the car out, as it has no ticket.

The body is taken to a nearby park (coincidentally near where Angus died), and examined. He appears to have been killed by being kicked to death as the skin is not broken, but it bruised - chances are it took a while. The car is examined, and a couple of bits of paper are found with the name "Anne Stephens" on them - probably the owner of the car. The car is scrubbed and John runs off and calls the police about the body. Then the pack decide they want to look at Yesif's house again, so with a "Doh!" they run there as quickly as possible.

Yesif's is datamined by Holistic Approach. They come up with some sort of account book, but with no names - codes instead. In Yesif's car, Brett finds an unopened envolope - there is a message inside that says "Yesif, watch out for Alex, he's pissed about youknow. C." The pack decide to scarper, as the police will be along shortly. They report back to Cossack, who has a brief think and says that Alex could be Alexander Marriot, who Petrou definately interacted with on some level. Cossack heads off to make some calls. Mathias realises that there is a spirit in the Umbra trying to get his attention. He steps sideways and receives a message from a wind spirit, inviting him and his new pack to Rippling Green that evening for their Moot. He sends a message back, confirming.

Cossack returns and says that the word on da street is that the Clarkes (another crime family) put one over on the Marriot's recently. Petrou had contacts with both families. Cossack asks that the pack follow this up further, although it seemingly has little chance of having anything to do with the BSD's, he is still interested in finding out exactly what is going on. Holistic Approach agree and head off.

After a brief Questing Stone, Alex Marriot is located in Templestowe. A harshlooking man in his late 40's, he is at a nice two story house. A similar aged woman is with him, and there are three attentive young men in various secluded places in the garden. However, the Umbra is a not-nice place. Many small buzzing banes fill the air. Consulting their theurges, the pack decides that they are corruption banes and banes of evil thoughts, and therefore have little substance. However, there are a few Kalus' in the big pile on banes, and they give the pack a fright or two, as John is inspired to Frenzy and other pack members prove to be still not quiet sure of their timing.... Eventually evil is vanquished, and a cleansing is performed, lightening the air somewhat, and causing the attentive young men some odd chills. Sniffing around reveals one of the scents that was found at Yesif's place, and attaches it to a young man of about 30, sitting outside the house.

Some following time is spent by sitting and watching Alex, who is definately wyrm tainted. He seems annoyed about something, and there is a certain amount of tension in the room. He describes "that fucker Graham Clarke" in no uncertain terms, leaving some belief that he may be a bit cross with him. The pack decide to find Mr Clarke, and use the Stone of Questing again. Mr Clarke is in Greensborough. The Clarke residence is a lot less marble and wall to wall shag pile than the Mariott's, and also a lot less Bane infested. The pack clears away some fair insubstantial bane infestations with little problem, and then peek. They seem to be watching the football.

They are about to give up watching Clarke when he gets a phone call. John is peeking through and cannot hear what is being said, but sees him write down Yarra Park, $30K, 2 rcv, 2 dlv before Mathias manages to peek through with sufficient sucess, just in time to hear Clarke say "Certainly Miss Sliviak. I'll let you know the results." Much swearing results.

The pack opts to bugger off at this point to Rippling Waters for the Moot. They arrive by Moonbridge with plenty of time to spare, and kick around until the start of the moot. The moot is much more formal in nature than the Bonegnawers, but different again from the Shadow Lords Brooding or the Silver Fangs highly ritualised Moot. The Opening Howl and Inner Sky are both performed entirely in wolf, aetherial howls which echo all around the crater. The Fianna continue on not with Cracking the Bone, but with their Spring Equinox rite, celebrating the Return of Spring.

The Rite is conducted in the Garou tongue by Dana Brien. The heavy, ritualised, chant that begins the story is oddly hypnotic, and Dana moves around the collected Garou as he tells of Spring, and the loss of her lover. He passes Mae Fischer and she subtly shifts, and begins to run urgently from one Garou to another, looking for her lost love. As the Philodoxes of the sept begin a quiet, faintly discordant howl, she runs from the circle of firelight and out into the dark waters of the lake. Dana continues the story-rite, brushing some Garou and causing them to become the spirits of the land, and then others, causing them to become the spirits of winter, learping capriciously around, bringing cold and hunger and putting the spirits of the land to sleep. Holistic Approach are caught up as Slumbering Spirits, trees and animals enduring the wiles of the Winter spirits. The Sept Galliards begin another howl, cutting across the windlike howl of the Philodoxes, rejoicing and resounding from the walls of the crater. Spring rises from the lake, and light bursts out from her, playing across the Slumbering spirits and chasing Winter away.

With an odd shift, all the participating Garou return to their own sense of self as the story-rite ends. They can all remember clearly the events of the story, but it is an odd sensation to not have been themselves for a time. Bret allows everyone to settle for a few minutes, and then some minor sept matters are broached, and then decided upon. Bret then steps forward from his position as Truthcatcher and motions Mathias and Dominique forward. He says loudly to the surrounding Garou and spirits. "18 months ago, these two Garou and their pack restored a caern to the Fianna. To give thanks, we and the Sept that was established at that caern offered them the honour of joining each Sept in addition to their own. Events since that time led to the disbanding of that pack. Never let it be said that the Fianna forget a debt - we recognise the wisdom of Dominique and Mathias and know that their chosen pack will be Garou of Honour, Bravery and Wisdom. Thus, the Fianna of Rippling Waters and of Scars Atoned extend to Holistic Approach the same honour - recognition as Garou of our caerns and Septs." Bret looks Mathias in the eye, who firmly accepts on behalf of his pack. The Garou all cheer fairly enthusiastically and laughter booms out from the centre of the caern, causing the waters of the lake to bounce up and down, dropping heavy waves onto the shore.

The Moot moves to telling stories and songs. Mathias is called upon to tell the story of finding Scars Atoned again. One Phone Call tell of their Rite of Passage in a very formal, but silly, fashion as if it was an excessive tragedy. Many songs are sung, and all can see the occaisional flit of colour in the trees and sky. Brett is swarmed for no clear reason by small glowing beings which the Fianna explain are low Fae. They all flit off again, leaving Brett covered in blue streaks, which seem to be part of his skin. The Moot becomes a Revel, and all storm off into the countryside, chasing away the last of the spirits of Winter. On returning to the caern, Kinfolk have shown up, and the Moot becomes a grand party that doesn't end until dawn.

Sunday 26

A very bleary Holistic Approach decide its probably time to leave. They Moonbridge back to their caern, thanking the Fianna for a wonderfully exciting evening. Brett appears to have faded, and is his normal pigment again. The pack breaks up and heads to their various beds.

Dominique is walking (shambling) along her street when she glances left and sees a Crinos Garou rifling through a set of rubbish bins. She flattens herself against the wall, and then looks back down the alley again. The Crinos is a mottled brown and white colour, and isn't anyone she recognises. Dom alerts her pack by Kanau, and starts to sneak down the alley. In quick sucession she steps on a rusted iron grating, which breaks and begins to drop her into a storm water drain. In a desperate attempt to stop her fall, she grabs at whatever comes to hand, nabbing the edge of some tin rubbish bins. Not being anchored very well, the start plunging into the drain as well. A few seconds later, Dom is wedged into a human sized, 4 foot deep storm water drain, with one leg extended forward into the pipe, and the other folded at the knee and stuck down the pipe behind her. She has a tin rubbish bin jammed over her head and torso, jammed into the drain and caught on the broken bits of grating. Just as she is starting to think things couldn't get worse, the fish that the owner of the bin had for tea several days beforehand starts to seep into her clothes. Dom shifts around but can't really get a good leverage point. She considers stepping sideways, but can't get a good look at her belt buckle to see her reflection. In the end, she decides to face the worst and heaves with all of her might against the bin, tearing it up and out of the drain, and cutting herself badly in a couple of places. She is confronted with the bare feet of a young man in his dressing gown, who heard the ruccous and came out to see what it was. Despite his soliticious questioning, she opts to turn and run. Unsurprisingly, the strange Garou is gone. (For the curious, she rolled 1 1 1 1 5 5 )

Mathias and Thomas turn up at Dom's house as she is getting changed. She explains the situation, and they head back to the alley, Thomas changing to lupus before he goes. They follow the scent vaguely north, and manage to pick up that it is a female Garou. As the scent comes out onto Victoria Parade, it suddenly disappears. They backtrack a bit and go into the Umbra, picking the scent up there. They turn and follow it north up Nicholson St, but eventually loose it. Everyone heads to bed for a few hours.

About midafternoon, a vigil is taken up at the Marriott's house again to see what they might see. A couple of the pack head to the Clarke's for a short while, but there is nothing astounding there. Some time during the afternoon, a large black limo turns up at the Marriot's house. Peeking, Dom and Mathias examine it intensely as well as the young man who gets out of the car dressed vaguely like a driver. He heads to the gate and rings the buzzer as they examine the car. Nothing unusual there, except a couple of tickets to the opera last night, in a private box. Dom senses something odd about the driver as he hands over a small bundle to a guido who opened the gate. Mathias follows the bundle as Dom tries to nail down her sense of the driver. The bundle is revealed to be a pair of gloves, apparently owned by Mrs Marriott, she is pleasantly surprised that they were returned. As the driver starts to head away, Dom realises that the unusual sense she was getting was that of a kinfolk. With a sinking heart, some enquiries are made to the owner of the private box, only to find its a Mr I. Apostolovna.

The rest of the afternoon passes fairly quietly, except for the gnashing of teeth. Discussion turns to the evening event planned by the Clarkes and whether the pack should attend. Mathias seems to believe that they would be interfering in the ongoing Ion/Irena battle, but the others want to at least go and look. Eventually curiousity wins out and they go and watch.

Watching from the Umbra, Mathias, John and Thomas can see that there is already a white car parked in the area specified. There are two asian men in the car. After a time, another car, a red one shows up and another two asian men get out and collect a briefcase from their car. They saunter towards the white car, from which the inhabitants also step out. There doesn't seem to be too much tension, although there is a wary caution. Just as the two groups are about 5 metres from each other, two large Ford Falcon's burst into the car park and 4 large suited figures spill from each, obviously armed. They run over and take the briefcase from the unresisting men from the red car. The case is opened and checked - there is indeed a considerable amount of money within. The men from the Falcon's cautiously get back in their cars and leave rapidly. The men from the white car abuse the men from the red car (who look a little pained) then leap in the white car and give chase. The red-car-men saunter back to their vehicle and make a phone call. Some discussion ensues over whether the men should be grabbed an interrogated or followed, but caution is advocated in the end.

Back to the Marriott's where Brett and Dominique are waiting. The night drags on, although another gentleman who left his scent at Yesif's also shows up for a while. The Marriott household mostly goes to bed. Mathias tries to use Dreamspeak on Marriott himself, but without much luck. He tries instead on the guido who went to Yesif's and has more luck. The man is positively obsessed with sheep, but Mathias manages to draw his mind back to the trip to Yesif's. They drove nearby, after being told that they were going to pay back a grass, and parked. They snuck into Yesif's house, captured him after a brief struggle, tied him up and kicked him to death before stealing a car and dumping him in it at Tullamarine. This doesn't seem to faze the charming sheep intensive man, but Mathias opting to show him a picture of the kalus-bane's does, and leaves him with nightmares for the rest of the night.

Having got a rough idea now why Yesif was killed, they decide to call it a night. All head home, except Thomas, who goes to try and check out the alleyway from that morning again. As he is doing so, he hears a loud howl from the south. He opts to see who or what it is howling so loud he can hear it a couple of kms away. He gets to Yarra Park, quite near where the earlier money kidnapping took place, and in fairly quick sucession hears the same howl from the south, over the river and a booming rumble from the northeast. As he stands there, sirens start up from the northeast. Thomas opts to follow the howling.

He goes about as far as he thinks the howling originated from and finds he is in the Royal Botannical Gardens. He starts sniffing around and finds the scent that was apparent in the alley this morning, running back and forth between trees. Thomas wanders around for a while, trying to get a trace on it. He cannot seem to get a good direction from the scent, so he tries howling, giving his call a patient but curious overtone. He is answered from further along the river, and heads that way at speed. The sirens he can hear to the north are continuing.

Thomas follows the scent/sound of howling and ends up at Herringbone Island. He sniffs around and finds that the scent heads along Alexandra Parade and around, as if the Garou was wandering around fairly aimlessly. The scent heads out into the road and suddenly changes into a crinos-like scent, and then stops. Nearby is a crashed car, still warm. Thomas puts two and four together and decides it might be time to wake the rest of the pack. He manages this, and they all head down to his location. On the way, John, Brett and Dominique are forced to detour from Hoddle St, and they can see the light of a bright fire to the east. They decide to move on.

All arrive at Herringbone Island (well, at the riverside about there) and spread out. The scent from the car is one male, one female, homid, fairly scared. Some of the pack shift into the Umbra and start to follow the scent, while others follow along in the Realm. The trail leads in fairly short order to a two story house near Hawksburn station. The house is examined in the Realm and in the Umbra, where it appears as mostly a construction of Weaver material with the odd coherent piece. In the Realm, it is a flash looking house built about the turn of the century, but obviously kept up to date judging by the air conditioning and solar hot water service. There is a locked garage, and a volvo in the driveway. In the Umbra, the scent is followed around to the back of the house, where it disappears. Dominique tries to change form in the Realm so she can sniff there, but gives that up as a bad joke.

Peeking reveals no one on the bottom floor. Brett gets Thomas to pick him up and carry him around whilst Peeking after some abortive attempts to climb the Weaver material. Brett is now looking into the bedroom of a teenage girl. He looks about a bit, and can see a naked 16 or 17 year old girl, very tussled and grass stained, flopped out on the bed. There are some torn clothes nearby and the window is open. Some ahaing goes on as the pack begins to believe they have found their wandering Crinos, which is potentially confirmed by a Sense Unnatural suggesting that she is a Garou. Brett and Thomas search the rest of the house and find her parents (presumably) and another empty bedroom. They also find the young girl's name - Melissa Lindridge. Mathias uses Dreamspeak and spends some time changing Melissa's dreams so that he is in them, and is a reassuring person, with a safe and friendly looking face. Then, as it is nearly dawn, everyone calls it a night.

Monday 27

About midday, the pack communicates a bit and decides that they should get together and meet Cossack. Mathias reads about an incident in Collingwood, but doesn't take much notice as he was the only one not affected by the strange noises and detours last night. The pack assemble at the caern, and then head off to a small dingy cafe to talk to Cossack. They explain about the Yesif situation, and Cossack sighs and says that Ion's involvement is bad and the amount of Wyrm at the Marriott's is also bad, and that it might be best if the pack talk to Ion about it. Thomas happens to glance at a copy of the Sun and also sees the newspaper reports about an incident, which induces a bit of discussion about the faceoff between Ion and Irena. They explain about the Melissa Lindridge situation, and apart from the Veil breaking parts, he seems quite happy. He suggests that seeing as how Holistic Approach found her, they can bring her into Garou society.

Ion is rung, and an appointment is made at the Hyatt on Collins (not TechNoir on Pico). The pack arrives and Mathias sits down at the same table as Ion, who is drinking coffee. Mathias explains about their current task in as little detail as possible, and the asks about the Wyrmness at the Marriott's. Ion, a little guardedly, explains that he is aware of the problem, and is attempting to modify the Marriot behaviour so as not to draw so much random Wyrm attention while occasionally cleansing the area. He thanks Holistic Approach for performing that task for him. As the rest of the pack discover the joys of being able to sing the "Girl from Epanema" to their pack leader over their totem link, he valiantly struggles to continue his coherent conversation with Ion. Mathias asks about the explosion last night and Ion faintly radiates smug, which the pack read as "It wasn't my men who went bang". Mathias also goes into more detail about their task, explaining that the Marriott's topped one of Cossack's contacts, and they are trying to find why. Yesif's name is dropped and Ion says that he would ask them to apologise to Cossack, as he (Ion) didn't know that he (Yesif) knew him (Cossack). Ion gives a brief explanation of the situation - Yesif grassed to the Clarkes on a Marriott operation, so Yesif was taken out, Ion had little to do with it - and then he looks at his watch and heads off.

Huzzah, think the pack, that's that wrapped up. They now turn their attention to Melissa. A series of Questing Stones reveal that (it being a school day) she is at Wesley College in Prahran. They travel there and observe from the Umbra, when they finally find her. Much discussion is had over how to bring her over to the dark side of life. She seems to be reasonable student, although a little isolated from most of the rest of the class. The possibility of pretending to be from a gifted school and offering her a scholarship is brought up and it is decided to wait until they actually know what her marks are before trying such a ploy. Mathias lurks at a tram stop on her probable way home. Brett and Thomas continue to observe from the Umbra. As school wraps up, Melissa actually heads out onto St Kilda Road instead of back towards home. Mathias rapidly jumps on a tram heading that way and transfers onto Melissa's tram. Thomas, Brett and John follow in the Umbra. Mathias finds himself effectively next to Melissa and gets a weird look from her (after putting himself on her tram going to school in her dreams the night before).

Melissa gets off at the Domain tram junction and starts walking through the gardens towards the Royal Botanical Gardens. Thomas, in lupus form, finds a stick and runs up to Melissa and drops the stick at her feet. She walks around him. He tries it again, and she picks the stick up and throws it a long way away before sprinting off. Thomas catches it and starts heading her way. Mathias, who has been following, uses Mindspeak on Melissa and says "Melissa". She stops and rewinds the tape she is listening to on her walkman. Mathias says "Its not the walkman Melissa." She gives a small shreak and rips the walkman off and drops it before sprinting away. Mathias looks a little confused. Much investigating later, and Thomas finds her at the lake shore, sitting on a seat and rocking back and forth. He sits nearby and occasionally licks her foot. Mathias sits down out of sight but nearby. Melissa eventually stops rocking back and forth. She pulls out a book and a sandwich, and reads one and eats the other, throwing bits at Thomas, who stays with her.

In the meantime, Dominique, John and Brett decide to see what they can find out about Melissa from her school computer. Wesley College mostly appears in the Umbra, except the library. They find the admin building (close to a 1 to 1 match with the Umbra) and investigate. In the Realm, there are fairly significant security measures, so they opt to awaken the computer server. Dominique performs the ritual, but zigs when she should have zagged. Spirits start to wake up all around her - wall spirits, computer spirits, table spirits, alarm spirits (woop woop wooop). The three of them start running. The effect seems to move with them. Brett plows through a wall, followed by Dominique, while John runs out into the corridor. Weaver spirits pour off the building and chase after Brett and John and they dive sideways as the spot where they were standing is covered in Weaver material. The three of them meet up and shudder, heading back to meet the others.

As it is getting dark, Melissa puts her book away, pats the nice dog and starts heading off, presumably home. Thomas follows her as far as the gates of the park.

There is much discussion about how to go about bringing Melissa over. The pack feels that there is some urgency to at least stopping her from rampaging all over Melbourne in Crinos form, breaking the veil. They talk over various ideas while watching Melissa do normal 17 year old stuff - television, work, etc. Eventually John, Thomas and Brett set themselves up in the Realm outside her house in the dark, in lupus form, and wait for Melissa to do the sleepwalking thing. Dominique and Mathias have gone back to the sept to do Sept things.

Just after midnight, there is movement at the station. As they see a large crinos-head stick itself out the window, the three of them give off variously loud howls. Melissa's head shoots back in the window."Uhoh" think the pack. They wait for the inevitable crashing breaking sounds. None eventuate immediately, but there are lights coming on from what is presumably the main bedroom. Brett slips down the side of the house and tries to see if Melissa has plowed out the other side of the house. Er, no. There is still some evidence that Melissa's parents are a bit disturbed by such loud howling in their backyard, and the three of them are trying to decide whether to hide or flee when someone thinks to look in the Umbra. Look, Crinos form footprints leading away from the house. Heads are smacked and all shift into the Umbra and give chase.

After hunting around for a while, Melissa's scent is found and traced. They catch her, now in lupus, and play around a bit. After a while, someone demonstrates shifting form. They eventually convince Melissa to do the same, and have a brief discussion with her... she seems fairly out of it, but eventually John realises she's still asleep. They manage to wake her up, and Melissa reacts in a fairly predictable way for a naked 17 year old surrounded by three young men in the early 20s in a place made up of a huge moon in the sky, vaguely organic cabling everywhere and weird monster/animals running around everywhere. She hides behind some bushes. Eventually she is calmed down and lent some clothes. Explanations are made, and she is taken to the caern for a talk with Emma and Nadine. More explanations and eventually the pack run her home just before dawn. Basically Melissa seems fairly relieved, because she was beginning to think she was loosing her mind. John and Brett, being about her age (and recently changed) make a good impression, but she seems to find the others a bit scary.

Tuesday 28 - Thursday 30

The pack get on with their lives during the day, and spend time with Melissa at night. She seems to be dealing fairly well with the situation, and the sleep walking has stopped now her conscious mind has recognised what is going on.

On the Thursday night, she is being walked back to her house with John and she confides that at least once or twice she woke up convered in blood and it wasn't hers. She wants to know what happened, but is a bit scared of the possibilities. John says he will talk to Mathias about it. After a long discussion, Mathias ransacks through Melissa's dreams. He sees a scene in the recent past where she was running down back alleys in crinos form, and comes around the corner to find three guys loading a truck. At least one of them pulls out a gun and fires, and Melissa frenzies, killing them all. Erk, think the pack. After some discussion, it is decided that a) they'll lie to Melissa and tell her some dogs attacked her and b) this may have some connection to the whole Ion and Irena situation. The pack inform Emma, who says that she will take it to Ion herself. Emma drops a few hints that she does not have the same concern about seeming to involve the sept in another sept's business that Cossack and Graeme have. She also says that Holistic Path have been chosen to do guard duty for the next week, so go organise.