Holistic Approach Chronology

October 1999

The pack is on guard duty. Brett disappears for a day or two, John starts learning Summoning, other people work on various things while hanging at the caern. Melissa's instruction continues, and it is determined that she is a Glass Walker Ahroun.

Monday 4

At about 3.30am, John wakes from a deep sleep for no discernable reason. He notices his window is open, and looks outside. There is a man standing outside, dressed as a derelict, starting at his window. John tries to Sense Unnatural and gets a mix of Garou, Wyrm and Fae. He starts to be a trifle disturbed. John heads out the main doors, and around to the spot where the guy was standing, because he's gone. John investigates a bit, and finds that his scent only appears in one spot in the Realm. In the Umbra, it leads to and away from the corresponding place from the same direction, but fades quickly. Either the guy was using a gift, or he was flying. John calls Thomas over using the mental link, and when he shows up they investigate some more. Quizzing nearby spirits reveals that the guy was there. And he came from over there. And he was here for a little bit. The spirits are thanked for their useless information. The two of them shrug and go back to bed.

Tuesday 5

Having chatted to Emma, John and Dominique flick out to Rippling Waters to ask about Fae. They speak to Leaps-in-the-Light for a while, he is a little concerned about John's encounter - all the low Fae have been buzzing about, being generally weird and unsettled and mumbling something about the "Unbound One".

Leap-in-the-Light tells them some of what he knows about Faeries. They used to be part of the world but fled back to their home a few hundred years ago. The low fae appear around Fianna caerns a bit where the gauntlet is low, but don't appear to stay for long. More powerful and sentient Fae can sometimes enter the world, but are forced back into the homes over time. John and Dom speculate a little that their visitor may be under the influence of a Fae who has been freed in some way - therefore the "Unbound One".

John asks about visiting faerie land. Leaps-in-the-Light explains that there are Faerie realms that Garou can visit - the largest and most important is the Arcadia Gateway, which is ruled by Lord Lysander. Yes, if John wanted to ask more questions about Fae, he could go there, but its best to have a firm idea about what you want to ask first. Plus there are some aspects of etiquette, so he would recommend that John and Dom get more information and then come back here.

John asks if he could stay until night and see if he can ask anything of the low Fae. Leaps-in-the-Light warns him that they don't often make much sense, but he's welcome to try. At nightfall, John is lurking around near the shore of the lake. He gradually realises that he can see many, many low Fae in the trees around him. They seem to be whispering something and pointing. Dom approaches the disturbance as well, but can't make out what they are saying. John slowly moves towards some of the low Fae who are at ground level. They mostly move away skittishly, but one or two remain. John introduces himself and the Fae he address says that John can call him Tom. John and Tom talk for a while. Apparently John is the "Unbound One" or the "Boundless One" and that something bad is looking for him. Where does it come from? Somewhere bad. Why is it looking for John? Cos he's the Unbound One. Why is he the Unbound One? Because he is unbound.... duh. Basically all they pick up from Tom is that something big and bad is looking for John. Tom demands something in return, and tries to steal John's drivers license so that he would have a picture of the Unbound One. John fobs him off with a passport photo and Tom and co all fly off.

John and Dom pass all this on to Leaps-in-the-Light who edges away slowly (no, not really). He does suggest that John keep an eye out for this fellow, and that if he wants to travel to the Arcadia gateway, that he should have a bit more information about whatever is looking for him first.

Thursday 7th

Thomas comes back to his bedsit at about 11pm one night, walks in, drops his stuff, says hi to the goanna, starts to look for food... goanna? On his bed is a largish goanna, apparently quite placidly asleep. Thomas stares at it for a while. He telepathically contacts Mathias who is just as confused. Thomas rings the zoo. They sound a little frazzled. Thomas starts to explain he has a goanna on his bed and Nadine, who is on the phone says "Just bring it in". Eventually Thomas scoops the goanna up in his blankets and trots down to the zoo. On the way he sees an emu and its chicks and a larger than normal posusm population. The zoo is a site of frenzied action. Apparently these animal reports have been coming in from all over Melbourne. Thomas is dragooned into helping collecting animals.

Friday 8th

The plague of animals continues. The mortal world is baffled even more than the Garou. Apparently they are all native animals, of sorts that would have existed here 500 years ago. Koalas, emus, red kangaroos, sharks, eels, fish, birds, you name it, its here - except for Thylacines. (Damn). There have been a few injuries, mostly accidental, but serious enough for the government to suggest that everyone stay cautious.

Quizzing the animals with Beast Speech reveals that they just walked here as far as they knew. This was a nice place. How did they know? They knew. Is it still nice? Sort of. Where did you come from? Another place. This in-depth interrogation is given up on. Brett attempts to reverse trace some tracks of animals....

Saturday 9th

After searching all night, the rest of the pack finally start getting conscious thought back from Brett, very faintly. They eventually find him somewhere near Shepparton, with confused memories of running along because he was going to a nice place. Brett agrees that he will only do this sort of experimentation in company from now on.

Mathias is heading back from a busy day of helping out at the zoo when he hears the sounds of a confrontation down an alley. He checks it out, and sees three derelicts beating up on a forth. He confronts them and the guy actually punching jerks his head at the other two, who move towards Mathias. Mathias waits for them to approach, confidant in his abilities as a Garou to take out a couple of humans. Guy 2 reaches him before Guy 3, and goes Mathias with a knife. It does aggravated damage, and Mathias revises his opinion of them, thinking they are fomori. Guy 2 strikes at Mathias again in quick sucession and Mathias starts to get a little nervous. Guy 3 shifts form and stands up... about 9' up. With manky black fur, and a greenish glow about him. Mathias flips to crinos, punches out guy 2, steps sideways, screaming for help mentally. (Pride before a fall, Sense Wyrm before a battle).

The rest of Holistic Approach have already started sprinting, grabbing other Garou as they go. They all head towards the site of the battle. Mathias steps out in the Umbra, prepared for a fight and then runs for it when he sees no opponents. He meets up with the others and they investigate around the site. The three BSDs appear to have fled the site as soon as Mathias left and then split up. Their scents (strongly strongly of manky human, rank water and general unpleasant odours) disappear quickly after leaving the alley. The guy they were beating up on is brought around by a surreptious use of Mother's Touch and he tells his rescuers that they were demanding to know if he had seen another street dweller. The description they were giving kinda vaguely matches the guy that was staring up at John the other night. Oh good.

Sunday 10th

During the day, the pack decide to try and draw the BSDs out a bit further. The plan is hit on to use Mathias as bait, dressed up as a derelict. They summon a fox spirit to hide his scent, dress him up and head out on the town. The others follow along at a discreet distance, in the Realm. Mathias wanders the town, but doesn't get approached by any thug like wyrm Garou intent on eating him. However, they do find a beaten up junkie who, after some more judicious Mothers Touching, tells them that he was beaten up by some guys who were looking for some dero, but who took his drugs anyway. The description matches the Dancers from the day before, and the description they gave the junkie is the same as the previous one.

That night, John has an adventure.

Monday 11

Thomas is woken from a deep sleep by John's voice in his head. John asks if Thomas could come and get him. Sleepy Thomas says "Where are you?". John says, "Er, holding on to a shipping buoy. I guess about 20kms from shore". The conversation from this point consists mostly of "what?". Thomas trots down to the shore after John asks him not to wake the others. He gets to a boat shed and tries to hire a motor boat. No problem, but there's a $200 deposit. Ah, says Thomas, and then he tells John that he'll have to wake the others because he is skint.

Everyone else is woken, and as they trundle down to hire an 8 person fishing boat, John explains that the garou/wyrm/fae stranger came to visit him again last night, and wanted to take him somewhere nice. John tried to wake the others, but no one stirred. The two of the flew up and across the city and out over the bay, finally disappearing under the water and into what John assumes is a cave. At the far end of the cave, they came out of the water again, and into a largish chamber. The walls were covered in paintings of an aboriginal nature. When John peeked, he could see a different cave, with daylight streaming in from somewhere, although there was no way out in the Realm. By the time he's finished answering questions, the others have a fix on him with Questing Stone and seagulls have landed on the buoy and are looking confused. John starts seeing more seals and sharks and dolphins and sharks and asks the pack to hurry up. Eventually they get John off the buoy and start heading down towards Frankston, where John thinks the cave is.

Four hours later, and they still can't find it. John suggests maybe looking further down the coast. 1/2 an hour later, they find the right cliff and 4 soggy Garou seriously consider taking him back to the buoy. Mathias and Thomas jump into the water, change to crinos, take a deep breah and swim down. They find the cave entrance without much trouble and half swim, half climb along it for 25 metres or so. They come out in what is probably a medium sized chamber, but they can't see anything at all. Dominique, John and Brett sigh, grab some flares from the boat, jump in, change and swim down to meet them. Once in the chamber, Dominique lights herself up, and the emergency flares are put somewhere people can easily find them. The cave is pretty much as John described it. Around the walls, and up the roof are aboriginal paintings, of figures, humanoid and animal, and patterns of abstract designs, some of which look similar to the patterns found at Scars Atoned and the Blue Mountain cave. About the only other coherent detail that they can gather from the paintings is that there is a commonly repeated figure - a very large humanoid, stretched out and drawn all in black.

The cave also features a shallow hole dug into the sand, near the far wall from the water. It looks like it may have originally been deeper, below the water line, but that it has now evened out to about the water line (hasn't been flooded in, has caved in from underneath). Sensing Gifts reveal a very strong Fae sense in the cave, and an odd Wyrm sense from the hole itself. Brett peeks into the Umbra, and finds its fairly easy to find the spirit world. In the Umbra, the cave is dry, and smells of warmth and vegetation. The ground is packed earth rather than sand, and there is light coming from an exit tunnel. Brett steps sideways while the others hold their breath. He appears. The cave is fairly much as it seemed to be while peeking. There is a slight breeze and he can hear birds faintly. He tries to peek back, and finds that it is somewhat harder, but not impossible. The others join him, and the follow the only tunnel out. They come out in a thick forest, full of elms, oaks and similar trees, their thick leaf cover blocking the sky. The pack can hear birds, and vaguely sense scurrying animals. Dominique climbs a nearby tree and gets above the greenery. On the left horizon is the sun, apparently at dawn. On the right is the moon, also just at the horizon. However, it is as bright as day over the rolling greenery that Dom can see. She comes back down and the pack discuss things. This seems to be the Arcadia gateway that Leaps-in-the-Light told them about.

They look around and for a few moments they are a little unsure about where the cave mouth is. This hardens their resolve to head back and to return when they were a little better prepared. Back through the cave, step sideways. Light is provided and Mathias takes another good look at the pictures on the cave wall. The big figure he noticed earlier appears a number of times around the cave. At one point it is surrounded by much smaller humanoid and animal figures. At another, there's less animals and humanoids, and a circle of bigger figures. Under a river of dots (a river? an ocean?), the middle-sized human shapes have fully surrounded the large figure. The last picture they can find is of the middle-sized figures moving away and the large figure laying down. Mmmm, think all. The pack collect the flares and head back to the boat. The boat is returned, and the pack split up. Some of them go down the coast and scout out the area above the cave, while others go shopping and get some rope and other bits and pieces for visiting umbral realms, like presents for the fae and ribbon to tie to trees while moving through the realm. The pack is in luck and the top of the cliff above the cave is Coastal Park, and fairly hard to see from any nearby house, although now apparently the habitat of a large number of sea birds, lizards and other native animals. Rather than using a boat, they opt to climb up and down to the cave. The rest of the day is spent accomplishing these tasks, and at night Holistic Approach assemble at the caern. They fill Emma in on the details of everything they've found and discuss what they should do next.

While they are going over some of the details of their planned trip, someone notices that there are a couple of helicopters hovering over the city a few kilometers away, spotlighting something. Given the general weirdness of the last few days, it is decided to tune into the police radio band. The pack hear someone say "They've got it cordoned off and are now sending traffic back... yeah, yeah, press helicopters will be ok, at a distance... get some ground spots.." Emma tells the pack to go and find out what the hell is going on. Dodging assorted wildlife on the way and picking up Brett's camera, they head out along Alexandra Parade towards the Eastern Freeway. As the pack approaches, they can see that traffic is banked back for miles, and police are trying to divert it away onto other roads. A considerable number of cars have just stopped and pulled over, and the occupants are wandering down the road to see what all the excitement is about, and the pack do the same. As they reach the police cordon, they can see a stone circle, made of huge boulders, right across the freeway, between two cliffs. The biggest boulder is about 20' across, and the circle covers all the lanes. Brett and Thomas pretend to be a camera crew and find a very friendly policeman who lets them into the sealed off area to talk to people about what might have happened. Mathias, John and Dominique go to find somewhere to step sideways after peeking and finding that the circle appears there too. They drop down into the creek valley and step.

Brett interviews a few eyewitnesses. They were driving on the freeway and came around the first corner and suddenly there was this huge group of stones there. No, it didn't appear suddenly, it was there when they came around the corner. Everyone started to break and there were a few crashes, nothing severe. No cranes or trucks were seen coming the other way. No one has the faintest idea of what the fuck has happened. Meanwhile, in the Umbra, John has a poke around while waiting for the others. The stone circle is there too. Sense Unnatural reveals Wyld, Wyrm and Fae. In the Umbra, the freeway is a festering Weaver-scab, with Wyrm-tainted ooze dribbling out of the cliff walls and tainting the Weaver. However, where the stone circle is, the weaver stuff appears to have been blown backwards and piled up, as if by a great wind. Weaver spirits wave broken limbs in the air, and the uncovered dirt is dead and dusty. John starts to realise that the others haven't shown up yet and goes back down to where they were stepping. He peeks. Yep, in the Gauntlet. Bugger, thinks John. He lets Brett and Thomas know and then steps straight into the Gauntlet too. Brett and Thomas sigh and decide to call for help, and let the caern know what is happening. Emma says she will contact Rippling Waters and then send the Scryers out to the site. 10 minutes later, the Scryers show up with Leaps-in-the-Light and One Phone Call, and pull everyone out of the Gauntlet.

Leaps-in-the-Light takes a look at the stone circle. He seems a little flabbergasted. He explains that naturally forming stone circles often become the focus for spiritual feelings and therefore take on an umbral presence, and that spiritual areas sometimes had stone circles built on them, to provide a focus point. Stone circles forming spontaneously in the middle of freeways in the Umbra and the Realm is new to him. More sensing reveals that the various fae, wyld and wyrm senses are diminishing. Brett walks widdershins around the stones, but nothing happens. Various gifts and things are tried, but with no effect. Moonflower steps into the Umbra and tells the pack they might want to come out and have a look around in the Realm. Some of the pack change to lupus first. She leads them on top of the cliffs overlooking the circle, and points towards Aquinas. Sniffing around in lupus, they pick up scents of stagnant water and rotting material, which partially conceal the scent of wet garou fur. Sense Wyrm comes up with an awooga. Ga. They follow it down the hill to the Yarra, which eeriely seems to have the same scent. It seems that the scent came up out of the Yarra and then back down the same path to the water - the way up, they were running or moving fast at least. There is more than one scent, probably 2, maybe 3. After discussing things for a bit, the Scryers agree to split up and scout along the edges of the Yarra and Merri Creek and see if they can find an exit point up or downstream.

John is at the top of the cliff when he is suddenly lit up by a spotlight. It focuses on him for a while and then there is a slightly brighter flash. The helicopter that is spotting him appears to be a police helicopter, but he can't see any more because of the bright light. The light starts heading down the hill towards the others, who all scatter. John attempts to get the chopper's attention, but now they have his soul, they seem content. The chopper spots around for a while, apparently looking for people. It crosses the otherside of the freeway and scares a couple of people away. John goes over there with Brett and checks it out to be sure they were not Dancers. Using their amazing sniffy powers... male...[sniff]... female [sniff]...er[sniff]...mating. Ok. People are collecting on the bridge over the freeway to get a better look now that the big halogen spots are set up to light the place up.

The pack decide that there isn't much more than can do here, and so head back to try and find out more information in their own intiminable way. Holistic Approach attempt little more Mathias-bait, pretending to be derelicts on the street. It doesn't garner them any more information - they actually don't see many homeless around.

Tuesday 12

The pack wake up and check their preparations as it drizzles gently downwards. They want some Fianna brew to give to the Fae as a gift, so they speak to Leaps-in-the-Light. He agrees if they will take him out to the Fianna cave at some point. Leaps-in-the-Light and One Phone Call Moonbridge back, having found out all they can about the stone circle (not much) and Holistic Approach go with them. They chat for a bit, and Leaps gives them a gourd, wishing them good luck. They Moonbridge back to Sleeping Lore, and Cossack runs up to them. He tells them to get into cars and get to Frankston right now, as judging by reports, a crinos corpse has washed up on the beach.

They leap into a car and hoon down the coast. Cossack fills them in on the way via John's mobile. Apparently some joggers found a weird corpse washed up on the beach near Oliver's Hill, and called the police. One of Cossack's informants heard about it and let him know, but police are already trying to deal with it, and there is a small crowd. They try and think of a few ways of deal with it, but decide to decide when they get there. They reach the beach and kick Brett and Thomas out to do some scouting. They report back the situation - the corpse is under a pegged down tarp on the beach. The police have cordoned it off. There are about 6 police here, one of whom appears to be a sergeant. There is a crowd of less than 20 people in the drizzle. John drops Mathias and Dominique off up beach a bit and starts to drive back. As he turns into the car park, he realises the car in front of him is being driven by another policeman. He parks next to them, and watches as the driver and a tall, saturne and gaunt man gets out. He is wearing a heavy coat and gloves. Mathias and Dom groan when they hear the description and say to check if he is a Detective. Brett is close enough when the tall man talks to the sergeant to hear his name - Detective Dane. Mathias groans some more and says to not catch his attention. The others demand to know who he is. As Dane checks out the corpse, Thomas sneaks a look - looks like a crinos..but a bit deformed. Patchy black fur. Weird ears... it looks like a description of a Dancer. Mathias explains that Dane is Sullivan Dane and he keeps turning up at weird times, especially connected with Mages. Brett senses him and gets a distinctly weird sense, unlike anything he's touched before. Weird. Dane gets up and goes to speak to the sergeant, and the pack members there here something about 'helicopter' and '20 minutes'. Dane heads off.

A plan is hit upon. Dom starts summoning spirits of the oceans and waves to try and wash the corpse back out to sea. Mathias watches over her. The others just watch as the crowd increases in size a bit. Time races onwards as Dom continues her summoning and the chopper can now be seen coming in acrosss the bay. The wave spirits turn up, looking like a whole herd of horses. Dominique deals with them, and offers to play with spirits and to give them some of her spiritual energy (mmm, vital essence) if they run up the beach a little bit down the coast and steal the dead thing that is on the beach. They agree.

The chopper is now circling around, looking for a place to land. He starts to head downwards and then suddenly veers up into the sky. The police radios all crackle into life as some of the higher up spectators start to yell and run for the car park. Everyone looks out to sea as a large number of big waves all come crashing into shore, one after another, flooding up to the high tide mark, and over it, over the sea wall and into the car park to a depth of a couple of feet. They all start to recede, taking people (and half the beach) with them. The next half an hour is fairly confused as Brett and Thomas help rescue mortals that were swept out, including a couple of police. No one is seriously hurt, but the body is gone and everyone is soaked. The Garou make themselves scarce.

The pack let Cossack know that it is dealt with and he says "good, bring the body to the caern." They say "ah". He says "Oh dear." They say "we'll get back to you." The wave spirits are summoned again, and they flood the Umbral beach for fun. It is explained to them eventually that they now want to the dead thing. They say that Dominique wanted it taken all the way out to the depths of the ocean, would she please make up her mind. After much cajoling and playing in the surf with the spirits, they eventually are persuaded to bring the much beaten up body back to shore. A truck is organised and the body is carted back to the caern. Another sucessful mission accomplished. Squelch. Squelch. Back to the caern, collect their stuff. Finally the pack head towards Mt Eliza and the Arcadia cave.

The climb down the rope and into the bay, swim along the tunnel and into the main chamber. Torches are placed in easily found positions, as well as more rope. The pack steps sideways into the Umbral cave, and then walk out into the dim green world of the Arcadia gateway. Dom and Thomas climb trees and take line of sight on the sun, planning to head that way. They climb down, and mark the tree with a small amount of gold ribbon. The pack then head off, marking occasional trees with ribbon. After a while, more trees are climbed, and its found that they are now walking 90 degrees the wrong way. Mmm. They check the ribbon and they appear to be right. They course correct and head off towards the sun. Thomas notices a flash of gold to his left as a low Fae zooms past with some ribbon. He sighs and points this out to the others. They give chase and the low Fae manages to catch himself around the throat with the ribbon and nearly hang himself. The pack catch up and deal with 'Harold' - in return for all the gold ribbon Thomas has, he will lead them to Lord Lysander. And they can't give any to other Fae. And he wants some now. They agree and Harold fashions himself a cravat type of thing with the gold ribbon and near hangs himself with it. They head off through the forest. The pack feel like they are going around in circles as Harold points out interesting tourist information ("That's where Ethelbert lives", "Squishing plants here is bad", "I don't like that plant, it tried to hurt me"), but Harold assures them they are going the right way. Eventually they come out on a road, which leads straight as an arrow between the Sun and Moon. Harold says that they should stay on the road and go sunwards. The pack argue that he said he'd take them to Lysander. Harold demands more ribbon now before he will take them to Gateway Castle. They give him some with which he makes a belt, and then zooms down the road.

As the pack travel down the road, they can see a mountain start to rear its way above the horizon. After a time, it becomes clear that the mountain is actually a castle, set atop a middle sized hill. The castle is an impossible confection of spires, bridges, gardens and waterfalls, held together with faerie glamour, and it glints with the light of the sun behind it, and glows with the pale rose light streaming from the sky. The forest begins to open up and become gardens with labyrinths, ornamental ponds, huge hedges and statues. Fae nobles stroll through the gardens, and gnome-like gardeners tend the greenery. There is a strong feeling of midsummer throughout.

Harold leads the pack up to some fae guards and enquires for Lord Lysander. The guards look the pack over and then tell Harold he is playing chess against Lord Khiersa in one of the rear gardens. Harold leads them around the castle and towards a crowd of Fae nobles. He points out a tall blonde fae who was directing other fae on a chessboard, and then demands his ribbon. Thomas gives him all the gold ribbon and Harold streams off into the sky to pursue his dreams of a gold lamae fashion label. Having destroyed the economy of an entire realm with one unthinking action, Holistic Approach sit and wait for Lord Lysander to finish his game of live chess. After a time, Lysander defeats his opponent, and turns his attention to the Garou. Mathias formally introduces his pack, and Lysander formally welcomes him to Tir-Na'nogth. Mathias hints that they would welcome an audience with Lysander, and Lysander suggests that they freshen up first and then meet him in the audience chamber. The pack are taken to a suit of 6 rooms, and offered water to drink and bathe in. The cheerfully get rid of their salt and sweat soaked clothing and make themselves presentable. When they are ready, a guide leads them to Lysander's audience chamber. A semi-circle of chairs surrounds a throne, and between them is a variety of fruits, cheeses and other delicacies. Lysander bids them all to sit and to tell him of their mission. Mathias first presents Lysander with some of their gifts and then proceed to tell the story while the others nibble and drink. Lysander listens attentively for the entire tale, from John's night visitor to the animals and the stone circle, and through to the cave. At the end of it all, he explains that it does sound like a powerful noble Fae, but that their influence would be limited, and their time in the real world would be painful. Lysander calls for his scribe, Berabalus, a dusty and harassed looking sprite, carrying scrolls. Lysander explains the situation and Berabalus wanders off mumbling to himself.

Lysander invites the Garou to remain at the Gateway Castle for as long as they want, as honoured guests. This evening their will be a feast in their honour, and tomorrow a hunt. As he is speaking, there is a grinding sound and a stone frame rises up out of the ground, surrounding two bound wooden doors. Lysander explains that that is the Gateway, which the castle is there specifically to guard. It is a door into the true Fae realm. This realm is an overlap into the Garou Umbra, and it is their honour and duty to guard it from any assault, from Unseelie fae, or any other force. The pack is given the run of the castle in the meantime.

John goes wandering and talks to Fae mystics, comparing their various approaches to magic. Brett wanders around and dodges low Fae. Thomas watches some of the military men, while Mathias gets involved with some of the second sons that are lurking around the place. Dominique, on the other hand, finds a likely looking Fae noble and leans back into her Rage, and drags him under a nearby bush. The rest of the pack spend some time shutting down their mental link to each other.

Time for the feast. The pack have been given new clothes as befit honoured guests of Lord Lysander. Dom comes running in with grass stains all over her and twigs in her hair. Everyone gives her an odd look as she quickly changes and they head for the feasting hall in their new duds. The feast proceeds, and it is large and noisy and boisterous. Lysander gives numerous gifts to the Garou and they also give him some more gifts. All seem happy. The food is marvellous, and the wine is fae wine. All the pack get giggly, but that's ok, because so is everyone else. The festivities are a little marred when Dominique notices a young fae woman talking to her new friend, Lord Reegus. She seems annoyed and storms off, followed by Reegus. There is a moment of quiet on their table, and then lots of obvious gossip. Mathias looks at Dominique and shakes his head. Eventually the night finishes and the pack heads off to bed.

Dom and John stir briefly during the evening.

Wednesday? 12 + 1

Dom wakes the others when she returns, before dawn, and fills them in ("Stag, Lysander, dark haired woman, getting down and boogieing") on what she saw. They ponder why Stag may have shown her this and then shrug.

That morning, Mathias goes hunting with Lord Lysander. The hunt goes without incident, but when they return, the two of them are confronted by Fae nobleman, whom Lysander greets as Lord Shelan, and a noble woman, who is referred to as Lady Niirsa. Mathias recognises her as the Fae noble who ran out of the hall last night and his 'awooga' bells go off. Shelan explains (shouts) that Lady Niirsa's honour has been besmirched because her betrothed, Lord Reegus, was off dallying with one of the Garou in the visitors, a Dominique Lalor. Shelan challenges the Garou as Niirsa's champion to regain her honour. Lysander takes Mathias aside and explains that the matter is not particularly serious (it happens a bit), but that it must be conducted properly. Mathias agrees and goes to find Dominique.

Word seems to travel as fast as he does, and the castle is buzzing by the time he finds and explains to Dominique what is happening. Mathias offers to champion her as pack leader, but she declines. They make their way to the designated place, where a crowd is gathering. The terms of the challenge are defined, and it is to be fisticuffs, although there is some confusion as to whether this is appropriate for a young lady. Dom ends the arguments by changing to glabro and stepping into the square. Shelan takes off his shirt and moves into the square. A considerable number of side bets are going on in the balconies around the court. The challenge begins as Shelan punches Dominique squarely in the face. She rocks back a bit and then punches him off his feet and out of the square. The court goes quiet briefly as the referee checks Shelan and then pronounces that he is quite certainly unconscious. Dom leaps over and uses Mother's Touch to repair most of the damage she did to the front of his face as the few people who bet on her laugh a lot and collect their winnings. Excitement over, the crowd breaks up and Lysander asks Mathias to bring his pack to the audience chamber.

After freshening up, the pack reassemble in Lysander's audience room. He greets them again and says that Berabalus has had some luck with their problem. Berabalus is summoned and he begins to read aloud from a scroll. "To repair the ornamental fountains in the north rose court. *ehem* Firstly the water must be redirected in order to access the piping. This can be achieved by twisting the statue of Lord Dalalna ninety degrees..." Berabalus is finally stopped and it is pointed out that they are after information regarding a noble Fae. Berabalus appologises profusely and finds the other scroll. Apparently ages ago, a powerful Elder Unseelie Fae was causing a great deal of trouble and chaos amongst people and animals. Eventually the Bunyip bound the Fae into something and buried it at a trod (a place in the Mundane where faerie influence lingers), where it was protected from other fae. Berabalus' best guess is that this happened a few hundred years before the European invasion. The exact nature of the Fae in question is uncertain, but if the situation was happening in Europe, her name would be Titania, Queen of the Night.

The pack make lots of "erk" noises.

Lysander tells them that depending on the nature of the bindings that hold the Elder Fae to the... fetish, she may be able to avoid the terrible drain that the Mundane place upon normal Fae, and stay there indefinately. He recommends that they find the fetish and bring it to Tir Na'nogth for safekeeping. Holistic Approach decide to head off as soon as possible and return to the Realm, and get this solved as soon as possible.

The return to their apartments and pack up. Lysander offers to escort them back to the trod cave. They set off on horse back, and the forest opens up in front of them so that they can ride easily along. At one point they are swarmed by ravens, landing in the trees, on the horses, on them. Lysander explains that they are Marianna's spies, and if you ignore them they will eventually go away, which they do. Low Fae and a contingent of nobles and knights ride with them all the way to the cave. They are bid a formal farewell by Lysander, and then enter the cave. They step sideways into the damp, cold and dark trod cave, and ransack through the sand dug out of the hole. They find some bits and pieces which might have been part of the fetish, or at least some covering of it. They take another look at the pictures, and shudder some before swimming out into the dark night. They return to the car and find that it is still....

Tuesday 12

...so they head back to the caern, and brain dump onto Cossack and Emma. They are caught up with news. Apparently the Dancer was killed by two claw blows, probably from behind. Much else was hard to determine given that it had been in the sea for over a week. There have also been reports of kids missing from homes spontaneously - if Holistic Dream finds anything out, they should tell Daughters of Mnemosyne. The Scryers came up with nothing looking for the scents of the probable-Dancers, up or down stream. Thomas has a dream.

Wednesday 13

There is some discussion about the Bunyip material. Cossack warns the pack, or specifically Mathias and Dominique that they are coming dangerously close to breaking the Jindabyne Council's edict not to investigate Bunyip stuff without supervision. He suggests that they concentrate on the Fae side of events and get someone else in to help with the Bunyip. Bartholomew Wise-in-the-Ways-of-the-Wyrm is the first name that comes to mind, but his answer machine is on, and there is no response. The second name is Jane Redfeather, so bz-sing out to Scars Atoned. Jane is not too hard to find, and they explain about the pictures and the story that Berabalus told them. She suggests that some of the patterns sound familiar, but that she would have to see the rest of the pictures. There is a deal cut where Jane can look at the Bunyip stuff, while the pack looks at the Fae stuff, therefore not breaking the Jindabyne Council's edict. They take Jane to the cave and look around. She looks at the river of dots and says "Ah, that's the Milky Way". It is suggested that maybe the Elder Fae was bound into an iron meteorite, thus the river of dots being the sky, and a falling star. That seems to follow. Jane says that the patterns are consistent with other warding patterns, but that she'll have to sit and think about it for a while.

On returning, the pack ask about the new standing stones. Apparently its being treated as if it was a student prank, and the stones blocking the road itself have been moved onto the divide. The road is still buggered. They decide to travel out to the standing stones in the Umbra. They still appear where they are, although there may be some rapid weathering going on. Holistic Approach poke around a bit, and decide to see whether they can awaken the spirit of the stones. The rite is performed and a presence makes itself felt. They don't seem to have awakened the stone itself, but rather a spirit of the circle. They ask it some questions, and it gives some rather blurry answers. John snaps and binds it to his will.

Basically the spirit passes on that it is the echo of the Elder Fae breaking free of certain restrictions on her power. It isn't sure of the exact nature of the restrictions, but she now has access to more of her abilities. The stones are like a drip, caught in slow motion as it rebounds off the ground itself. John tries to drain the spirit of some Gnosis, but it is stronger than he, and breaks the binding.

When they return, they find that Bret Hutchinson, Leaps-in-the-Light, Emma and Cossack have been talking about the increased Glamour in the area, and they are concerned that unless the low fae are confined to one place, they will rampage across the city, causing untold chaos. They are planning to bind them all into the caern using the power of Chimera and Stag. Mathias speaks up, saying that he's concerned about endangering the caern, as does Thomas. Graeme shows up as Thomas mentions his dream, and agrees. The pack queries Thomas about his dreams. He mumbles something about the caern being on fire and torn up and big hand destroying it. He says Cossack knew. The Elders return to talking about the problem.

Brett enquires of his contacts in the Cave Clan. They have given him a list of 8 or so places to go that are too dangerous for them, and he starts cataloguing them with the help of Kirsty and the Get of Penington. The first few are obviously just dangerous physically.

When they return to the caern, they find that decisions have been made. The Fae must be contained somewhere where they will do minimal harm, and the closest place that could be used is the Yarra Bend Park. However, that is too far from caern to use the power of Chimera (the caern-totem), so someone will need to be sent to the Dream Realms to find an avatar of Chimera to bring back to the Realm to be part of the Realm. The Spear of Tulu from Rippling Waters has already set out to get a Wyld Stone, so a pack from Sleeping Lore should go and talk to Chimera. The Scryers would normally be the first choice, but they are already caught up in something else, so the bunnies get to be Holistic Approach. They can choose to go one of two different ways - either physically as per usual, or Chimera has agreed to send their spirits alone to dream. There are benefits and drawbacks to each, so it is up to the pack.

They choose to travel in their dreams. Once the night has rolled around, they all come to lay down in the middle of the caern in the Umbra. Emma and Ends-the-Quiet perform a ritual as Chimera manifests and all slide off into the land of Nod...

Dream Place 1

The pack move through misty darkness. They are having a bit of trouble with their ego-boundaries. John appears as solid as rock, but Brett keeps sliding all over the place. Mathias looks relatively normal, although there is a weird ghosting of rippling shiny black occasionally when people look at him sideways. Dominique seems to posess a ghost that looks a fair bit like her that reacts about 1/4 of a second after she does, leaving an odd after image. Thomas is the weirdest looking, as it appears his tattoo has taken over part of his body - his lower half is fine, but his upper half is almost draconic looking. The pack opt to not enquire of each other's personal problems.

After moving through the fog and mist for an interminable time, they suddenly find themselves on a cliff face, staring out to see. The stars are brighter than they have ever seen them before, and the waves lap gently below them. Thomas shudders a bit. The cliff looks awfully like the one that looms above the trod cave, so they all tromp down into the water, and look for the entrance. All move down the tunnel to the end of the cave... and sudden overwhelming panic overtakes them all. There is something Horrid at the end of the cave, and it is going to kill them all. All but Brett rush out of the tunnel, and then they can no longer feel Brett's presence through their totem link.

In turn, each pack member faces down the darkness in the cave and defeats it. Brett forces his way through via an act of will. Mathias changes the environment around him and causes every single thing in the cave to glow with a pale white light. John clings to his curiosity as to what it might be and ignores the danger. Dominique gathers to herself all things good and not scary and defends herself in this way. Thomas all but ignites himself with Rage and fights his way through with his burning anger. As each appear, they seem to be standing in the trod cave on the Arcadia side of the gauntlet. They move out, and other than a lack of fae, they appear to be in Arcadia. Someone climbs a tree and looks around. The sun is to their right, and the moon to the left. They decide to head for the sun.

Dream Place 2

After much walking and hiking, the pack can see ahead of them a mountain, leading up into the sky, with the sun behind it. This seems to be an analog of the Gateway Castle. They decide to ascend it. Much lugging themselves in various forms up a huge pile of stone to find that the top is a plateau. On the plateau is a spirit, presumably Chimera, judging by the misty, chimering form. They speak to the spirit, asking it to return with them. It agrees if they can win a riddle challenge. It will ask them three riddles and they must answer at least two correctly. The pack agree.

Too much for one, Two meant for.
But it no longer exists, when the two become more.
Pack answer: pair. The spirit says the answer is incorrect.

Time was when I was weapon and warrior;
Now the young hero hoods me with gold,
and twisted silver. At times men kiss me.
At times I speak and summon to battle
Loyal companions. At times a courser,
Bears me o'er marchland. At times a ship
Bears me o'er the billows, brightly adorned.
At times a fair maiden fills me with breath;
At times hard and headless I lie on the board,
Bereft of beauty. At times I hang
Winsome on wall, richly embellished,
Where revelers drink. At times a warrior
Bears me on a horse, a battle adornment,
And I swallow, bright-shining, the breath from his bosom.
At times with my strains I summon the heroes,
Proudly to wine. At times I win back
Spoil from the spoiler, with sounding voice,
Put foemen to flight. Now ask what I'm called.
The pack answer: horn, which the spirit says is correct.

We love it more than life.
We fear it more than death.
The wealthy want for it.
The poor have it in plenty.
The pack answers: time. The spirit says this is incorrect and it fades away.

Now what, think the pack. They decide to lug themselves over to the moon and see what might be there. Off they go.

Dream Place, 3, 4

Down the mountain, across the realm for days, another mountain, climbing up. They stop at the top, where there is another plateau. A spirit awaits them, a shining white Crinos. They ask it to come with them. It agrees if they can best it in combat. The pack agree, once they have caught their breath. The combat begins. The pack basically try to pummel it to pulp, but it takes them a while to adjust to their spirit-only natures in this realm. Mathias is blown nearly off the plateau by a gust of wind. John is blown off the plateau and disappears. It suddenly occurs to Dominique that she has the memories of her mother. But in some ways she is her mother. So her mother has the same memories of her mother. And her greatgrandmother. And. And. And. as she mentally traces the recursion. The spirit is eventually vanquished, and the pack awaken....

Its pre-dawn on the Saturday and Ian Shatterglass is watching over them. He takes them back to the residence and chats with them for a while, as they explain what they did and how it all panned out. In turn, he fills them in on further developments over the last few days. There have been a couple more reports of derelicts getting punched up, but still no luck tracing the scents. Jane spent a couple of days at the cave, but hasn't come up with much more, and has now gone home for a break and to handle some sept business. There's no sign of Bartholomew - he may be in the Umbra somewhere, which is annoying as he has a large experience with Bunyip and is a Fianna to boot. The fae influence is increasing - a number of people who could be described as 'creative types' are starting to go a bit strange - the Daughters are now trying to minimise the weirdness and perhaps find a way to protect people at the behest of their totem. Ian looks at the pack and asks how they are feeling. They all say "ok", and he asks if they feel up to checking some stuff out. All shrug and say "sure." Ian explains that the Daughters were following up on some missing kids that seemed to be part of the whole increased glamour activity, but weren't having much luck as they always heard about it too late to get much of an idea of what might have happened. Ian received a call only a half an hour or so before the pack woke up about another missing kid, so if they are up to following it up now, it would be appreciated. Holistic Approach agree and take the info that Ian has and head off.

At Watsonia a Morgan West has disappeared. The pack look at the house from a distance with their various gifts, and peek in the Umbra. There is a sense of Wyld and Fae, but that might just be the background feeling at the moment. In the Umbra, the area is ye normale suburban mostly weaver umbra, except that there seems to be a bit more than usual plant growth and general breakdown of pattern. The pack slip into the umbra and look around. The house in question has a presence, but its mostly uncongealed weaver webs, with occasional pieces of instanted scenery. The house is single story, so they start peeking and looking around. There is a slight sense of Wyrm mixed in with the Wyld and Fae now they are at the house - not the Fae Wyrm, but normal everyday wyrm taint. Mathias peeks and sniffs around. He quickly scents 5 people, 4 adults and 1 child. 2 of the adults are guessed to be police, leaving parents and 1 child. The parents are found, and the mother appears to be asleep and the father up doing a crossword (yes at about 5am).

The child's scent is followed. It goes from the bed to the window. In the Realm, the flywire has been removed, although the window is closed. The scent continues out the back and someone guides Mathias as he sniffs around. The kid seems to have climbed out of the window and dropped to the ground before running around fairly chaotically in the backyard. There are no accompanying scents. Mathias traces the scent to the shed, and finds a few things disturbed and off the shelf, like a fishing tackle box that has obviously been upended and then righted again. More wandering around the backyard, and finally finding that Morgan has gone over a fence, apparently dropping a fishing net in long grass before doing so.

Mathias and John step out into the Realm, Mathias in lupus form. They proceed to follow Morgan's inept path around the neighbourhood while the others trail along in the Umbra. Morgan apparently wandered at random from house to house and across roads. At one point, John notices a weird mark up on a telephone pole, nearly near the top. He points it out to Thomas and Dominique, who proceed to do a lot of acrobatics and peeking before finally realising that it looks a lot like the weird colours that low Fae were leaving on people. Mmm, think all.

Mathias and John follow Morgan's scent into another suburban house. Its getting light now, on the verge of being dawn, so they are a little skittish about being seen. Thomas, after determining that no one was home, steps into the suburban house and finds the name of the apparent resident. John starts doing a Questing Stone to find where the resident is (don't wanna be surprised) as Mathias follows Morgan's scent out to the back of the house. It suddenly stops amidst a patch of crushed long grass underneath some silver birch trees. There's no evidence that he climbed the trees or anything, he just seems to have vanished. The patch of grass where the footprints are looks odd to Mathias, but he can't seem to pin it down as to why. Dominique and he start examining it closely, and trying to find why. Thomas hunts around for evidence that the owner of the house is an evil levitating satanist. As John completes his Questing Stone and gets a response of "about 20 metres that way, uhoh" the door to the main bedroom is ripped open and Thomas is left staring at a large mostly naked guy. Thinking quickly, Thomas walks to the door and scratches. The guy tries to see if he has a collar, but eventually just opens the door in a muddle fashion. Thomas runs for it as Mathias and John opt to softly and silently vanish into the Umbra.

The examine the area from the Umbra for a while. It is puzzled out that because of the way the trees stand, the area that Morgan disappeared from would be hidden from moonlight and it might be that the fae opened a gate in the darkness therein. The pack return to the caern, and share with Ian their discoveries, and say that they will come back at night and try and sort it out.

The day is spent following up on various personal agendas. John goes hunting for information on Titania and related issues (was the name used by Shakespeare, might be related to Diana, Latona and/or Circe, queen of summer and the seelie, plus 4000 tonnes of other rubbish), and also for information on stag and why it would have led Dominique out into the forest. Dom and Mathias go to Rippling Waters and chat with Leaps-in-the-Light and others about fae, and their powers and what they can do to minimise them. Thomas wanders about making sure that some of his street performer friends are ok and finds that a couple of the more inspired ones have gone a bit odd. Brett follows up on Cave Clan information.

The pack reassemble at about 9, and compare notes. They trundle out the Watsonia and find the place where Morgan disappeared. Mathias, Thomas and Brett hide in the Umbra while the two theurges investigate the site in the Realm. Again, those viewing the Realm are struck by there being something not quite right with the area. The sense of Fae is stronger than it was before. John offers to use Open Seal on the proposed gate and see if that works. He moves to where Morgan disappeared and as he uses the gift both Dom and Mathias realise that he is now standing in the very middle of a mushroom ring. John disappears to a chorus of "nooooooooooo". The others can sense him via their totem link, but cannot 'hear' him.

John has appeared in near darkness, except for the faint glow from the moon somewhere above, the brilliant stars and the multicoloured glow of hundreds of low Fae. He is standing in the middle of a small clearing, maybe a couple of meters wide in the middle of a dark and apparently inpenetrable forest. Bouncing around is a young boy in his pajamas (presumably his anyway), trying to catch the lights. John and he talk briefly and he does indeed appear to be Morgan. John says that he'll be back in a moment, and steps out and talks to the pack a bit, reassuring them that he is ok.

John and Dom step back into the circle, and Dom quickly peeks, seeing a weird double image. They step into the Umbra and appear back in Morgan's little glade. Dom climbs a tree and looks around - forest, as far as she can see. In the sky is a large philodox moon, brighter and larger than the Realm. Thomas appears, having stepped in the Realm and back through in the middle of the circle in lupus form. Dom panics briefly when he hears Morgan say "What a big dog", but Morgan apparently didn't see Thomas appear. The stars are also bright, and aren't in the right patterns. They grab Morgan and step, hoping he will come with them. Shloop! In the Realm, they all appear. Morgan is hit with the sleep talen and taken home, left in their shed. The pack ring Ian, and brain dump onto him, and then return to Morgan's fae mushroom ring. Mathias steps sideways with an eye to doing a Questing Stone for the other missing children, but finds that there are only a few low Fae left... two... one... it occurs to him that the glade might disappear or be cut off from the Realm or something, so he dives through the gauntlet. Peeking back, they are unable to find the glade. The pack decide to call by the caern. Brett gets a big jar of nails and starts mumbling something about nail guns and fae anti-aircraft fire. They ring Rippling Waters and get a sleepy response, leaving a message for Leaps-in-the-Light and asking about faerie glades. They share with Ian the theory that the Elder Fae is using the children in some fashion as an anchor to connect the faerie realms (true Arcadia??) to the Realm and perhaps generate more glamour so she can act with impunity.

The pack woosh out to Moorabin and start their usual search after checking the notes left by the Daughters (Josh Cooke, lots of animals around, fae sense, no obvious method of escape). They are hunting for a scent of the kid in the backyard but can smell only grassclippings. Uh oh, comes the thought, and Brett ransacks through a pile of mown grass out the back. Oh. Bits of mushroom. O-k. They try using Sense Unnatural to trace down the fae gate and find it in the shade of a large tree, but it seems to be fairly firmly closed. No one is very happy about this, but the idea of using Questing Stone to try and find Josh from another little glade is proposed

Off to nearby Bentleigh, to look for Misha Kovalev. The details here are a bit odd - she apparently disappeared in the day time (between 4 and 5pm), and there is no fae sense at all. Last she was seen was playing with another child. The pack look around for a while and then decide to come back to it.

Brrm, brrm, off to Vermont. Its now about 3am and the pack are poking around with a bit more abandon. Apparently Patricia O'Brien disappeared not quite a week ago, probably out a window. They hunt around and find a fae sense, but very faint. Tracing it leads to a copse of trees, but no mushroom ring. The trees are in a sort of triangle pattern. Mathias and Thomas try stepping sideways there. It is difficult, but they eventually appear in a similar glade as where they found Morgan. There is no immediate sign of Patricia, but there is a scent of her. Mathias begins a Rite of Questing Stone for Josh, hoping to be able to get an idea of where he might be found while Thomas climbs a tree and has a look around. The rite for Josh comes up with nada. The moon is visible, but only just, the merest sliver of a theurge moon, almost ragabash. Thomas sits around as Mathias tries a Questing Stone rite for the Adam Whistler, the other questing-null child. As the rite is finished, Thomas hears a distinct nearby giggle in the trees.

The ritual does not give any result, so Thomas and Mathias curse loudly. Thomas ties some ribbon to himself and goes in search of the giggle. As he is reaching the end of the ribbon, he catches a glimpse of a young girl running through the trees. Not underneath, but along branches and leaping around. Girl, because she seems to have misplaced her clothing. She heads off to his left, but Thomas isn't too keen to trust the ribbon to find his way back if he starts bouncing around. He follows it back and finds that it has been cut and tied to a tree branch. Oh good. Mathias, whose end has gone limp suddenly starts yelling and trying to guide Thomas into the glade. Thomas eventually appears in the grove. Ok, lets try that again. This time Mathias is tied to the ribbon and he bravely assaults the maze of twisted tree trunks. He listens to the sounds of someone moving round and eventually sees the girl, presumably Patricia, sitting about 20 above the ground. There follows a brief conversation about how Patricia got up there (including some handwaving) and she demonstrates that she is just as capable of getting down as she half flips, half falls and half spills down between tree branches and ends up near the ground. Mathias dares her to come and show his friend and she says "ok" and disappears in the putative direction of the glade. Mathias doesn't, because at some time during the conversation he's been tied to a nearby tree with ivy. He sighs and manages to break free and chases after Patricia.

In the glade, Thomas is feeling a bit sad hanging onto a bit of ribbon that leads off into the darkness, although Mathias has been keeping him up to date with events via their totem link. He is given a bit of a shock when he sees Patricia come flying out of the trees and land on a neaby treebranch. Mathias soon follows, and after a brief conversation they decide to act. Mathias grabs Patricia and steps along with Thomas. They appear in the realm, Mathias barks an order to step, NOW, tosses Patricia out of the circle, steps out and then steps sideways. A hole is punched in the gauntlet and people peek back out to see what happens. Patricia is apparently less than impressed with her sudden ejection and is banging on the trees and screaming her lungs out. Lights come on in the nearby houses as she continues to make her discontent felt, probably all the way across Vermont, and eventually her house lights come on, and some rather rattled parents come running out. Patricia is taken inside, and, as neighbours show up, some attempt is made to a) comfort her, b) find out where she's been for the last week or more and c) make her stop screaming and punching. The Police are called and come around to take a statement, but seem a little at a loss when they try and talk to Patricia. People peeking notice that there are low Fae trying to get into the house, but aren't having much sucess (as they hide from the humans coming in and out too).

Patricia is starting to wind down and settle into a fairly catatonic rocking as the police leave. The pack discuss what to do - they could destroy the tree grove, which might close the gate, they could try nailing Patricia to something with iron... Dom is having a look at photos of the girl and comparing them to her current state. Apart from the fact that she is now incredibly grimy, she also seems a little more tan, but none of the photos are obviously dated, so they could be old. The pack finally decide on a Rite of Cleansing, and hope that it will moderate the Faeness in Patricia. They decide to wait until dawn to make the Rite a bit easier and go to make some preparations. Mathias and Brett start to perform the Rite as Dom notices that someone else has come to the house, looking rather dishevled. He seems to be a doctor. He examines the rather distraught Patricia. Mathias and Brett are winding up the ritual as he takes a syringe out of his bag and injects Patricia with something. The Rite suceeds and she seems to stop rocking and fall asleep. The general Fae-ness in the world goes down a little, so the Cleansing Rite seems to work a bit.

After watching Patricia for a bit and deciding that she is under temporary control, they opt to return to the caern, give Ian the low-down and sleep.

Sunday 17

When they wake up, Dom tells the others she had a weird dream last night - she was standing on the edge of a cliff and looking up into the sky, which was crystal clear. She could see something dark moving in the sky. The sky went black and she could sense a demonicness behind it, and out of a hand came, which made a sort of 'helping-hand' jesture. The image shifted again and she could see 5 lupus running along with a shadow over two of them. Mmm.

The pack gets together with Graeme, Ian and the Daughters of Mnemosyne. They brain dump at each other. Christine says that when they were there, the Fae sense was so universal that it was hard to track, plus they don't really have much in the way of gifts to sense fae. Also there were no fae rings. And another thing. The Daughters have been chasing up the creative sorts and their reactions to the fae insurgence. Its been one way to sort the poseurs from the artists anyway, and they are keeping one step ahead of it. Georgina says that that there have been some odd, frenzied murders too - one person was chased down and attacked by a bunch of other people, and someone else fell off a bridge under suspicious circumstances. On the otherhand, UFO reports are up 100%. Keziah, who has been helping at the zoo, says that the plague of animals is continuing, a few people have been attacked, but mostly people are dealing with it. Georgina asks John (and the others) if they want to come to a concert on Thursday - a friend of hers is singing celtic stuff at a nearby faux-Irish pub, and for obvious reasons she wants to sit in just in case (as well as wanting to go see her friend sing). John is enthused, the others mumble something vaguely non-commital. The Daughters move off to sleep, having been awake for 36 hours now.

But for Holistic Approach, its time to leap into action, with Leaps-in-the-Light! They zoom out to Rippling Waters via moonbridge and have a chat with good ol' Leaps, who is frankly looking a bit drug fucked. He explains he was trying to inspire a vision in a traditional theurge type of way, except by using acid. Odd, think the pack, but continue their original line of questioning. Basically they want to know about fae circles. Leaps-in-the-Light informs them that fae circles occur in remote locations, and are traditional ways of getting to the fae lands. They can be doors other than mushroom circles - corps of trees (tick, thinks Holistic Approach) or specially created doorways also provide an egress, although he only knows of them in Britain. He's not prepared to agree that the Elder Fae is opening them up on purpose, but neither is he prepared to rule it out without more evidence either way. They are very rare. The number that they have found in the last two days bodes evilly, and also reinforces the need for the ritual in the park to moderate the glamour. All they are waiting for is the return of Spear of Tulu - Leaps-in-the-Light will wait for them at Rippling Waters and then come to Melbourne with them to offer his expertise (which mostly constitutes of "wow, that's different. Trippy", but no one is rude enough to point that out).

Back to Melbourne, and off to find Adrian Whistler in Melton, although they pack has little hopes of doing so. They check around the little tyke's house - he seems to live with just his mum, and consulting the notes that Daughters gave them indicates that the police are looking for the father, as they believe its a custody thing. They try and sniff around and get a sense of where he went, but there is nothing tangible. Dom takes a look at the photos and sees that a lot of them are at parks, on swings and just running around. What the hell, think the pack, lets give it a go. They systematically sort out the closest park and give it a go. No response, although it does appear in some of the photos. They try the next park, and find that its larger and more wildernessy. After a bit, they start to sense a stronger fae sense than usual, and manage to track it down to a circle in a small reclamation area, surrounded by trees. The mushrooms look a bit sad, but they stepping trick is tried, and shwing, there they are. They find Adrian, who is a bit bemused at their appearance. He seems to have only been here for a few hours subjectively, despite the 10 days objective time (thus showing the futility of assuming a static frame of reference, but I digress). They scoop him back and run him almost all the way back home, suspiciously Sensing every inch of his body in case the far pulled a swifty. Nope, he seems to be human, although fae tainted. Adrian runs up to the front door and turns and waves (and yells) goodbye as the pack scarper before being seen.

Capitalising on this rising tide of sucess, they decide to go and visit Jane and ask about the fae markings in the cave. Not bunyip, just fae. Whmm, out to Scars Atoned and chat with Jane. She says mostly what she has come up with is fairly vague - some of the markings were wards, but changed slightly to reflect the fae nature of the thing they were guarding. Some of the paintings seem older than others, some seem to be totally decorative (yet appear in every caern) and others are only descriptive. Some more back and forth about the pictures before Dominique suggests using Spirit Awakening on the pictures. Jane looks quite surprised and says she'd never considered it. Dominique asks if there is any reason they couldn't do it and Jane points out that Dom is the theurge, not her. They decide to go for it before anyone can stop them. Back to Melbourne, into a car and along to Mt Eliza and down the rope. They examine the pictures and there is some thought that maybe it won't work because they only appear in the Realm. What the hell - nothing to lose. Dom performs the Rite, and as she completes it, the pictures begin to move. The largest figure dances around the walls of the cave, surrounded by many little humanoid and animal pictures. A group of medium sized figures surround the baccanalia and start drawing together, causing the animals and humanoids to bounce in increasingly small circles before laying flat. The figure itself keeps bouncing, but only in the circles of the medium figures. A river of dots filters across the top of the dancers and a thread is drawn down out of the sky. This thread surrounds the large figure and it stops moving and lays down, before the medium figures move away. This seems to confirm what they knew about the cave and the Elder Fae, but is an interesting development.

The pack spend the day at the caern alternatively trying to soak up some gnosis and summoning fox spirits, for this evening they intend to go trawling for Dancers. Mathias is set up as a baited hook again, Thomas and Dom go and play video machines nearby in the Realm while John and Brett watch from the Umbra.

No luck for a while, although Mathias does find out that the guys who are searching have not done so since Saturday night, but there have been a different group of people asking about the same (apparent) guy. So far word has it that there is an aboriginal woman and a caucasian guy together and an aboriginal guy. This causes some consternation amongst the pack.

More trundling around the city. In the Umbra, Brett is briefly distracted by something weavery and turns back to find John has just plowed into an old wooden fence, and a whole big bunch of spiders have taken notice. John desperately plunges through the Gauntlet and into the real world. He is talking to Mathias about what happened when a weaver spider drops off his back and scuttles away towards Russell St in the Realm. There follows a panicked battle with the spider, as John stamps on it and is calcified to the spider, which keeps running away with him stuck to it. In the end, John is totally calcified, and Thomas is forced to change to crinos and beat him against a wall to free him from it, and the spider is locked into a metal bin. Fianlly the spider goes back to the Umbra, leaving behind a completely calcified bin of rubbish. The pack call it a night and go home.

Tuesday 19

Spear of Tulu return early to Rippling Waters and catch a rest before heading up to Melbourne. Some explanations are made - the ritual will be done in the Umbra at Galatea point, in Yarra Bend. Kinfolk have reported a lot of snakes there, and contacts in the park have closed the area off. Spirits of chameleon are bound into the area and will hide most of the weird stuff, but don't strain it any more than you have to. Watch out wandering along Alexandra Parade in the Umbra as its being used as a kind of conduit.

The Fianna show up and everyone trundles out to the Yarra Bend park. The spirit of Chimera that the pack brought back from the Dreaming Realms is brought forth and bound into a small cairn of stones. Stag is summoned and begins to circle the cairn, and Leaps-in-the-Light continues the fae-reducing rite. He eventually finishes after a few hours and all peek expectantly. Nothing seems to happen. Leaps-in-the-Light looks relaxed and makes a "chill" sort of hand motion. Someone notices a scattering in the trees as a fae leaps between some of the branches. A few more low fae show up and generally the feeling is that the fae will swarm the area at night. Various packs will be on guard duty in the area and make sure nothing disaterous happens. The Get of Pennington are on for the first few days, and the rest of the Garou are meant to be out hunting the Elder Fae.

That evening, Holistic Approach decide to check on Patricia. They sneak around her house in the Umbra and peer about. Patricia is sulking in the lounge, watching tv. Her room looks like it's been trashed, mirror smashed, stuff everywhere - it probably happened yesterday given the amount of cleaning up that seems to have occured. She's wearing what is probably an old dress - it doesn't seem to fit very well, and its an oldish cut. Looking around finds her clothes in a pile in the laundry, spattered in ink or something.

They watch some more. Patricia mopes off to bed. Much sensing of unnatural around the place. It seems Patricia is much less fae-ridden than she was when they pulled her out of the gateway, but more so that when they finished the cleansing ritual. The general thought is that her fae-ness is increasing. They decide to observe some more. Patricia goes to sleep, and Mathias opts to use Dreamspeak and try and see what she is thinking. Bam - he runs into something that prevents him from entering her dreams. Patricia stirs a bit. He opts to try again. Back into the trance and heading for Patricia's dreams. Bam again. This time Patricia sits straight up and looks around. As Mathias shakes his head clear of the trance, Patricia slips out of bed and to her window. She looks left and right and then goes back to the door to check on her parents. Out the window she goes and along the backyard towards the trees. Brett leaps out of the Umbra in glabro form and tackles her, slamming her to ground instead of scooping her into the air. Brett gets mad at this screw up and starts to lose it as John and Mathias appear. John yoiks Brett back into the Umbra as Mathias picks Patricia up, dusts her off, says "hi" and is deafened as she screams her 10 year old lungs out.

Mathias hears motion inside the house and starts to leg it for the darkest part of the yard. The back door is wrenched open and the lights come on. He swerves for the backfence as someone leaps out the door and over the porch. Over the fence, and teetering on the edge of the pool, he pulls out his mirror and steps sideways. Those peeking see a guy who is probably Patricia's father leap the fence with a baseball bat and land in the pool.

Patricia is hustled back inside and the police are called. She is interviewed by the police and rapidly starts making stuff up - some guy snuck into her room and grabbed her, she struggled enough to get away. Yes, she thinks she has seen him before, and she can give a description, which she does. Argh, think the pack. Brett calls back to the caern and asks if anyone there knows the Scent of the True Form gift, and Graeme sends he'll ask around and send someone. The police head off, and John listens in to Patricia's parents, who seem fairly freaked. One phrase catches his ear "6 inches taller" - he listens closer. Patricia is apparently 6 inches taller than she was a week or so ago. Not older. Just taller. Her parents are unsure about what to do now - they discuss moving cities, or perhaps into the countryside.

Kirsty Surfs-the-Train shows up and has some of the situation explained to her. Its amazing how the entire sept gets the same expression about half way through any explanation of the efforts of Holistic Approach. She goes off, peeks and uses Scent of the True Form. She then comes back and says that Patricia is human - fae tainted, but human. She slaps Brett in the head a few times and says "check first". The others remember than Kirsty is teaching Brett how to be a philodox. Kirsty brings them up to speed with the fae ritual. Apparently the Realm is like a kindergarten on ecstasy, with sylphs, gnomes, salamanders, glowers and winged guys with sharp sticks running around like lunatics. They're trying to keep the hell out of there - Barry went in and came back glowing.

The pack decide to call it a night and see what turns up tomorrow.

Mathias starts the day having made the papers. While the pictures aren't 100%, the one of him is probably sufficiently damning to need some form of action to fix the problem. Oh good, thinks he, and heads off to the caern through the Umbra. The rest of the pack, bar Thomas, head to the caern as well, and they sit and discuss options with Cossack and Graeme. The plan is hit on to provide a 'double' for Mathias who has committed suicide or been killed, and hope that they can swing it as mistaken identity, or at least partially so. Cossack says that the Sept will deal with it, and while the pack probably shouldn't be seen around town, they can go and do their stint in the Umbra at Yarra Bend. Off they go.

Thomas, in the meantime, is asking about the city and trying to find out why he purported Dancers stopped their bash-and-interrogate tactics. He finds out that about midnight on Saturday night the three deros (Dancers, probably) got into a fight with someone - third hand reports say it was some bikie who beat the shit out of them. Thomas' suspicions lean more towards the fae-posessed guy they were looking for. After that, the Dancers kept looking, but at some point someone let them know that there was a group of aboriginals asking about the same things, and some very clean homeless guy too. Thomas uses the full extent of his reasoning powers and leaps to the conclusion that the Dancers found out people were looking for them and stopped. He spends some time asking about after the aboriginals. He doesn't find out too much - there were about 3 of them, and a skanky looking caucasian guy, and they were basically coming up, putting a gentle hand on people and asking after the same description as the Dancers were.

Lurking around Flagstaff Gardens, Thomas hears someone moving around haphazardly down one of the shooting galleries. He heads down there and sees some guy with a blood nose and a bruise or two, dressed in flannies. Thomas asks what happened and the guy says that three guys just came and beat him up. Thomas asks if they asked about the description they know the Dancers have been using, and the guy in front of him suddenly focusses and looks Thomas in the eye... and he can't move. Thomas mentally calls the pack with a little "help." and Brett and John sprint off from the park and up Alexandra Parade. The guy gets up and pulls a knife and runs it along Thomas's arm and it burns like acid... or silver. The guy steps right behind Thomas and shakes his arms. Thomas suddenly realises that he can move and kicks backwards and up, hitting the guy in the crotch. Spending Rage, Thomas spins around. The guy slashes him across the chest, and the knife is indeed silver. Thomas lays him out with Falling Touch, boots him in the head and runs like hell, learning the lesson of Mathias. Out the alley and onto Williams St, sprinting as hard as he can. Thomas starts to attract attention (6'+ well muscled guy with blood all over the front of him and a sliced t-shirt sprinting out of an alley, you think?), and heads into Flagstaff Gardens, hiding behind a tree and watching the alley entrace.

After a few minutes, it becomes clear that no one is coming out. Thomas starts to creep down towards the alley mouth, mentally calling out to ask where John and Brett are, but there is no answer. Mathias hears him and the two of them try and work out what happened - oh yes, they were warned to stay off Alexandra Parade in the Umbra and the two of them ran down it. Much groaning. Mathias heads off through the Umbra, and Dom goes to ring the caern from the nearby boatshed. Thomas creeps down the alley, and can see the guy lying where he left him, face down in the alley. Sensing Unnatural reveals Wyrm and fomori, not Dancer as Thomas feared. He heads up and checks to see how the guy is. He seems to be unconscious, and possibly in shock. Mathias says to wait there, he is coming. Dom says she is at the boathouse and has rung the caern and let them know. She then suddenly says "Patricia?" and then mental contact is cut off with her. And then there were two.

As Mathias heads across the Umbral city, dodging weaver spiders and other dangers, Thomas notices a black liquid running out from under the fomori. He turns the guy over, and it looks at if his skin is coming off, and this black liquid is coming out. He is also well and truly dead. Thomas notices that all of his skin is getting a bit loose, and passes all of this on to Mathias, who shows up without any further disasters. They two of them dedicate the body and the silver knife and haul it back to near the caern. Mathias goes in and gets Nadine, who checks it out and says "Bring it in". They explain to her about the others, and she looks at them oddly, and says she'll handle the fomor. Off they run to try and find Brett and John. No immediate luck, so they try for Dom instead. They peek near her last known location, but she's not there in the gauntlet. They sniff about and find a trail leading to a slightly secluded spot and haul Dom out of the gauntlet. She says that she saw Patricia and family at the boathouse, apparently hiring a canoe. Its about this time that Brett and John make contact again, and ask what the hell is happening - to them its been about 2 minutes. As they return to the caern via a different route, the last hour or so is explained to them. Thomas suspects that the fomor was bait, specifically for them, especially given the silver knife.

The pack decide that their major problem right at the moment is Patricia, so they desperately look around for her. She seems to be spending a kid moment with her mum and dad - they are canoeing upriver (and therefore away from the ritual spot) from the boathouse and having a very silly time. Mathias and John spend time watching them as they paddle around on the river while the others return to the fae-cairn. The O'Brien's continue up the river for a while, then turn and coast back with the current. They sail past the boathouse and towards Galatea Point. The pack get ready for a scene. Brett gets into the park ranger suit left specifically in the Umbra and steps out, preparing to scare them off from shore if needs be. Mathias and John continue to watch. When Patricia sees the spot where the ritual is being done, she goes quiet and looks at it for a long moment. Her father notices and asks what's up. Patricia says that she's tired now and could they go home? Her parent's exchange a look and then agree. They travel back to the boathouse in a bit of a muted fashion and then get into their car and go home.

Holistic Approach go into overdrive, expecting a fullscale Patricia invasion that night. They work out where to stand to block her from any direction, with someone at the centre of the rite in the Umbra and someone out near the road in the Realm to do Questing Stone. Follows a night of Questing Stones and paranoia, but Patricia doesn't seem to move from Vermont (where she should be). Daughters of Mnemosyne come to relieve them about midnight, but most of the pack opt to hang about. Georgina reminds John that he was planning to come to the concert tomorrow night while Christine tells Holistic Approach that the fomor was a skinner - they take the skins of other people and attach them to their own for a while, taking on all the physical aspects of the previous owner of the skin. Thomas ticks the 'bait' theory a couple of times.

Thursday 21

The day starts bright and early for the pack, mostly because most of them don't bother going to bed. Patricia still hasn't moved.

Ideas to try and get more information are bandied about. The pack eventually decide to learn more about their apparent competition, and go looking for the aboriginal group that seem to be hunting for the same thing as the Dancers and Holistic Approach - John's friend. Mathias remains in the Umbra at Yarra Bend. Off the rest trundle through the city. They wander for a few hours with no luck when Dom spots a two aboriginal men and one woman and a caucasian guy chatting in a park diagonally across the intersection from them. Sense Unnatural reveals tantilising oddness, and the pack start to think about heading over there to chat with them. There is a sudden thumping of feet behind them all and two ferals wheel John around and start laying into him for no apparent reason. They get in a few good blows before John starts beating at them ineffectually with his thin and sticklike arms. The remainder of his pack however, deal with the problem with lots of quick looks over at the other group of people to make sure that they don't notice. In short, while John cowers beneath the beating fists Dom uses her Staredown gift on one of them who flees, Brett tries to tackle one and finds out the hard way that the feral has a silver nipple-ring and wanders away thinking calm blue thoughts so that he doesn't go into Thrall of the Wyrm, and Dom uses Staredown on the now somewhat shaken second feral, causing him to pass out.

Given this took all of 5 seconds, there wasn't much of a disturbance, and Thomas shaking his head and saying "drugs" induces the passersby to realise that its none of their business that they are ransacking the wallet of the unconscious feral to find his name. Apparently his name is Luke Rowlands, although they find that off a Art Cinema club membership and nothing official (which he doesn't have). The police show up and quickly assess the situation. Because John doesn't want to press charges they just call an ambulance and have the guy taken away, but point out that they can't do anything unless John is willing to be vocal about it in some fashion. They take John's name.

Amazingly, the aboriginal people still haven't noticed anything. Dom and Thomas wander over there and start heading towards them. The woman has them pointed out to her and breaks away from her discussion, confronting Dom "Can I help you?". Dominique makes some obscure references while looking pointedly at the surrounding humans and the woman rolls her eyes. Thomas Senses Unnatural and gets a definate Garou sense from all the others. The aboriginal woman turns back to the others (presumably a pack) and makes a small jesture. Two of them leave the other direction without saying anything and the woman and one of the aboriginal guys stalk off up Williams St without saying a word. John and Brett catch up with their packmates as they all head up to Flagstaff Gardens, and stride out onto grass until they are not surrounded. The woman turns back and near-sneers "well?". Dom formally introduces herself and her pack and waits. The woman sighs and says that she is Red-Sun-Rising of Two-Bones of the Uktena, from the Sept of Timeless Lives at Purnululu. Dom explains what they are doing and stands looking expectant. Red-Sun-Rising briefly says that they heard about the confusion in Melbourne, and came to investigate. Dominique politely suggests that they should maybe pool resources and sort this out quick smart, but is a bit distracted by the way Thomas is trying to look non-descript next to her. Red-Sun-Rising declines and when Dom starts to object, makes it very clear that she knows who Dominique is and that the Elder Fae is connected with the bunyip and that Dominique Lalor, formally of Infinite Paths, has been commanded by the Council to not investigate any bunyip issues. She turns and stalks off. Someone says "Well, that went well."

The pack let Sleeping Lore know about the Uktena. Cossack basically responds with "Oh, goodo." in a sarcastic voice, and says that the Uktena follow their own agenda and keep their own council - its unlikely that they will trust the pack with any involvement, let alone the sept. He also says that the Police have linked reports of a Mathias-like homeless guy wandering the city and asking questions with the street-people bashings and the photo in the paper, so Mathias should definately keep his head pulled in.