Holistic Approach Chronology

January 2000

Information is quickly swapped with Dominique - she was kidnapped from home by some guy who seems to know what she is and what she might be able to do - her handcuffs are wound with silver wire, she's been gagged and blindfolded. She is also a bit surprised at the time, she thought it was nearly dawn. When the somewhat frantic pack point out that the caern is being attacked, Dom is understanding but still wanting to be rescued asap.

John finds a relatively quiet street and uses Mothers Touch on Melissa. She doesn't regain consciousness, but she does start to breath and all again. He hoons off at breakneck speed and soon has his own following of police cars - something to do with doing 140km/hr down Hoddle St. John suddenly realises that he is at his turn off and tries to brake and turn, instead hitting the bridge across the Eastern Freeway. John is just shaken, but Melissa shoots out the windscreen and down onto the freeway. There is the sound of screeching brakes down below. John sighs, leaps from the car and over the edge of the bridge, changing to glabro in the underbrush. He runs out of the bushes, grabs the now somewhat scraped Melissa, runs up to a stopped car and flips the somewhat shaken driver out. Now in his fourth car of the night, John floors it along towards the cemetary.

Thomas catches up with Kimu and Darren and they hear Cossack's voice in their heads. He says that there is something big coming up Swanston St - they must stop it. They run over to the edge of the cemetary and can see a tram or something far down the road, coming up towards Elgin Rd. Deciding that the veil is tomorrow's problem, the three of them leap the fence in Crinos form and head down Swanston St. It quickly becomes clear that the tram is in fact a tanker and its gaining speed. The three Garou run down towards the oncoming vehicle. Kimu and Thomas look for likely cars to throw in front of it while Darren executes a perfect rolling kick - about 2 seconds too early, dropping onto the road in front of the truck. Thomas tries to hoik a car out in front of it, but just suceeds in giving the truck a cattle baffle, which sends up lots of sparks and starts slowing the truck down some. Kimu and Thomas throw other cars at the truck as it passes, knocking it about a bit and slowing it a fraction, but not really diverting it. Darren manages to lever himself out from in front of the commodore which was grinding him into paste and lands on it, looking into the cabin. He finds a large gargoyle staring back at him from the drivers' seat. Darren lunges for the steering, getting clawed for his trouble, and manages to jerk the truck to his right. It starts to jackknife and fall, tipping suddenly as it hits the roundabout and sliding on its side. Darren opts to abandon ship about this point and hits the ground running. The truck grinds to a halt up against the elm trees at the edge of the cemetary.

When it becomes clear that there is not going to be a Holywood style explosion, the three of them rush up. The gargoyle driver has been pasted when the truck flipped, and there is no other scent of magic. There is, however, an immensely strong sense of Wyrm, and before the garou can react, an explosion rips the top (now side) of the truck apart, spraying a thick, black, oil-like goop into the air and into the caern. Thomas shudders as he realises that the black goop is a lot like that which they cleaned up from Preston. There is also a spiritual shudder and coldness as the wyrm corrupted liquid splashes down all over the caern. A second, similar explosion goes up from the west, and then a slightly modified one from the north.

Brett sees a police barricade across Royal Parade, and police detouring cars around where the cemetary is, and decides to take the overland option. It seems he has not been alone, as there are thick tire tracks heading right across the park and towards the caern. Brett continues in the direction, towards the towering oily smoke plume and sees that a similar tanker has gone into the cemetary through the pedestrian west gate. He follows it through the gap as armed men are running for the hole. He slams the car up against the tanker and leaps out, taking cover and assessing the situation. A quick glance into the caern proper reveals the presence of crinos forms heading towards the hole, but gunfire starts to erupt and they quickly take cover. Brett rips out mr pointy and charges towards the gunmen, managing to wound one before the others put him down with a burst of automatic fire.

John and Melissa are hooning along Alexandra Pde and up ahead John can see the same sort of police barricase as Brett avoided. Taking his life in his own hands and promising to do that defensive driving course, he drives the car up and over the grassy division and along the wrong side of the road. Fortunately there's not much traffic because of the police barricade, and the police don't seem to have expected to be hit from behind. John clips one car and hoons towards the cemetary. A shot rings out from behind and a bullet hole appears in the front windscreen. A nearmiss being the least of his problems, John screeches up to the new cemetary gate and hauls Melissa out of the car, and runs inside, heading over to where the majority of his pack are gathered. As he walks over, Melissa gives a little shudder and wakes up. She seems dazed, but ok.

Thomas, Chasing-the-Night and Ghost have hunkered down to see what happens now the tanker explodes. Looking into the Umbra, the lights around the edge of the caern have been doused by the black rain, which seems to have an Umbral counterpart of a dark, dark shadow, flowing into the caern. Banes follow the shadow and swarm into the caern. The garou decide that the Realm is more where the immediate and precise danger is at the moment, and start scouting about. After a short moment, a squad of men heads towards the tanker, but see that it has failed to go through the gate. The squad heads back around to the hole that John just came through and the garou creep that way as well, meeting John and Melissa on the way. As the men start coming through the gate, the garou prepare their attack. More charging headlong into gunfire, but what the hell. Kimu will use his tentacles to try and grab the guys at the back, at least minimising the incoming automatic fire. The Garou leap off to attack as one of the guys at the back pulls up some sort of an object on a thong around his neck towards his face. Kimu causes tentacles to leap out of shadows and wrestle him for whatever the object is, but neither of them are much chop. The rest of the battle is fairly ugly, with the garou tearing apart their enemies, and the gunmen doing some fairly impressive amounts of damage to the garou with their silver alloy bullets. Frankly, if it wasn't for their extra speed, the Garou would be paste.

Meanwhile, Brett suddenly feels a burst of healing magic course through him, and realises he's not dead. The gunmen have spread out into two teams and there seems to be some gunfire being exchanged. Brett once again leaps at a gunman, exposing himself to incoming fire, this time from a shotgun, loaded with pure silver. He falls behind a tombstone, having butchered the guy he leapt on. Expecting a sort of finishing shot, he is a bit surprised not to be blown away. Brett does a quick check on the Umbra, and sees a black shadow oozing through the hole this tanker made in the caern wards. Banes are flowing in through the hole and swarming into the caern. Brett sees Cossack run up near the hole and draw some sigil in their air, accompanied by a keening sound. The banes suddenly loose all cohesion and just mill about. Back in the Realm, after more shots are exchanged over his head, the reviving flow of energy returns and Brett looks up to find that the gunmen are slowly being picked off. The Scryers and some people from outside the caern pick the last guy and he is dealt with. Thomas asks Brett to join them as they head north towards the sound of more combat, and Cossack's voice reiterates that. He says to pick their targets carefully, as some Kinfolk from the zoo have joined the Garou on the west side.

The pack are heading north when they are attacked by two silently gliding gargoyles. Complicating matters, a helicopter with a bright, bright spot is heading their way as well. The gargoyles tear chunks off people using glide in and attack tactics, but each time they approach, the garou do more damage, and the guns that half the pack now have are not hurting the situation either. As the helicopter starts heading too close, John and Melissa both turn and shoot, taking out the spotlight. The chopper itself veers away suddenly. The pack keep heading towards the sounds of combat. They find Carmel behind a tombstone, nearly dead with a big abdominal wound, from a shotgun probably. She is healed and brought around and she points them towards Chris McNeil. They group together and compare notes while random snipers from the housing areas outside the caern take shots at anyone who exposes themselves. It is decided that Holistic Approach and Melissa and Kirsty will dive into the Umbra and then leap out behind the fomori who are inside the caern while Get of Pennington provide cover and armed support. The two packs split up and execute their plan. Everything goes fine, except for the addition of another golem demon. Having butchered the fomori gunmen, the plan is to leave the golem for the moment. Unfortunately, Melissa has other ideas and tears off towards it, frenzying. The rest of the pack leap along after her, but two gargoyles choose that moment to complicate matters, as well as the random pings of gunfire hitting stone around them. Melissa strikes the demon a few times with no noticeable effect, and then it lands a blow on her head, splatting her to the ground. It keeps heading towards the rest of the garou, who eventually wipe the gargoyles out and through sheer numbers smash the golem thing to pieces. The howling around the caern has become louder as gunfire has become more sporadic, and Cossack's voice tells the pack to head into the Umbra to fight the banes - the last few gunmen can be cleaned up by others, and the mortals authorities will be able to react coherently shortly, so the less Crinos in the Realm the better.

With the help of the native glowing humanoid spirits, who seem to be herding the banes back, the Garou start shredding and tearing through the mostly mindless banes. The rest of the sept step through from the Realm once the fomori have been killed and/or driven away. It doesn't take too long to thin the cloud inside the caern, and it becomes clear that the banes outside are disappating as well. However, the black stains released from the tankers are still spreading, and Rites of Cleansing do nothing for them. As the immediate danger seems to be past, Cossack releases Holistic Approach to go and rescue Dominique, and then return as soon as they can.

The pack head off through the umbra and then step into the Realm several kilometres from the caern. They steal a car and use Questing Stone to get an idea for where Dom is, although given that she is still in the pack link, they know she can't be too far away. Dom says that she has been driven along a main road, maybe a freeway and then some suburban streets and then a bumpy road. After several questing stones, they find that Dom is in a house in Mitcham on a large, somewhat remote block. She says she thinks she's been carried upstairs or maybe downstairs - several hours in the car has left her a bit dazed. There are now two men, although they are not speaking much.

The pack park somewhere nearby and scout from the umbra. Kimu peeks and sees that there are three vehicles out the front of the house, one rentavan, one commodore and a 4wheel drive. Sensing for various supernatural taints reveals nothing anywhere. The house itself is two story, bottom story brick, top story weatherboard. There's no sign of activity, all the lights are off, blinds pulled in most windows. In the Umbra there is some minimalistic weaver material corresponding to the house, but no real structure. John cautiously waves his arm over the bounds of the house. Nothing seems to happen. Holistic Approach scout the place out. The house doesn't seem to have been lived in long, as there is little ornamentation or personalisation. Apart from Dominique's scent, there are the scents of two middleaged men, probably human. Eventually Darren spots a set of stairs heading downwards from the kitchen that seems to lead into a basement or something, however in the Umbra there is no sign of a corresponding downward passage. As there are no signs of fractal wards or whatever, the pack gleefully begin to dig in the Umbra.

Brett finds the small cavern in the Umbra by the simple expedient of falling into it. Once the dirt has finished showering down and the edges of their hole stabilise, Kimu sticks his still peeking head in the hole. What he sees is a sort of concrete workroom, with a well lit bench up one end and a lot of space everywhere else. He can also see Dom, taped to a chair, gagged, blindfolded and generally looking pissed off. A man sets up a video pointing at her, and then picks up a shotgun, keeping it pointed fairly much in Dominique's direction. There is a second man, taller, bald and with glasses, doing something scientific on the workbench at the end of the room. Brett asks if Kimu can see something in particular, and then finds himself looking out of Kimu's eyes. The sensation only lasts for a moment, and although baffling, the pack decide to figure it out later.

A plan is drawn up. Kimu will remain in the Umbra in case anything goes wrong, peeking. Darren will step and block the stairs up, same reason. John will step and grab Dom, both of them leaping back into the Umbra. Brett and Thomas will deal with the two men - Thomas with the shotgun wielding guy, and Brett with the man in the lab coat. Dom pipes up and says she'll sit there looking pretty. The pack move into position and on the count of three, go. Brett, Thomas and Darren disappear. John does not, and lets out a little neep sound. Darren lands silently on the stairs and waits. Thomas rips the shotgun out of the man's hand and flings it away, punches him in the face and knocks him over, and puts the boot in for good measure. Brett on the otherhand is playing handsies with the foureyed geek. Between him and Thomas, who is now free, they pin the guy. John finally works out this step thing, grabs Dominique, makes a "narrr" sort of noise as his gnosis is nullified by the sheer amount of silver tied to Dom and then manages to step with her. The man is subdued a bit about the head and shoulders and Brett grabs the bondings that recently held Dom, and applies them to their new captive. They check the unconscious guy on the ground and find that Thomas accidentally kicked his ribs straight through all sorts of exciting chest-cavity-type-organs.

Wallets are obtained from their two men. Apparently the dead man is, er, was a Patrick Faithful, and the live man is Dr Alex Muirwood (a GP, not a science-type doctor). Neither of their licences give the current address - Faithful lives somewhere in Bennetswood according to his licence, and Muirwood is from South Australia. Brett attempts to question Muirwood who tells him to just get it over with and kill them. He knows what they are, murderers and monsters. Brett continues to try and ask him questions, but Muirwood doesn't answer. They decide to hold off on the lead teddy bear of questioning, and instead scour the house. It feels like a rental house to those homids familiar with such, and although two of the bedrooms are occupied, neither of them are the master bedroom, which is full of boxed stuff. A quick flick through them reveals only normal human stuff, so the search continues.

Upstairs in another master bedroom (well, large, with ensuite). It, however, is full of files and filing cabnets. Brett pulls out some of the material and starts finding information on a Mr M. Rourke. Photos. Clippings. Notes. Oh, and here's a photo of Dom. There is a squawked "What?" from the Umbra where Dominique is still stretching the knots out of muscles and tendons. And here's a photo of Brett. And one of Chris McNeil. And several of various people around what appears to be the cemetary. And some police documents of some sort. Chasing-the-Night sends a message to Keiteki to contact Keziah to get someone to contact them, and John goes out into the Realm with his phone to wait or a reply. Eventually a call is forthcoming from Christine, who sounds exhaused. They explain what they've found and she says to deal with it in the fastest way possible and then get back here. No, the sept can't help. Yes, use the mage house in Dandenong if you want.

A quick headcount is done. Four cars, four drivers. The files are loaded speedily into the rentavan, the dead corpse into his car, the live doctor into his 4 wheel drive. Dom drives their stolen car away and says she'll meet them back at the sept. After some discussion about whether they should burn the house down or smash the house apart, they just decide to clean it up. The small blood patch left behind when Patrick was killed is washed away, all the scientific equipment that was in the basement is taken away after they take a look and decide that some of it is a field blood-typing set and some of it is for developing photos. Dom confirms she had some blood taken. They load it all up as neatly as possible and it goes in the 4 wheel drive too. The pack split up, each driving a different way to Dandenong. The early morning radio is advising people to stay in their homes, keep out of trouble, state of emergency, etc. There are police cars cruising the streets and Thomas and Brett get swept by small spots as their drive along. However, they all get to the house without incident, and unload everything into the basement, including the dead body (freezer) and the live body (pitch black basement). Then, back to the caern.

When they arrive, the seeping evil blackness is still slowly moving into the caern. Some attempts have been made to stop or slow it, but it is feeding off the caern itself, and becoming stronger as the caern weakens. The only ideas that might work to stop or clease the caern (summoning big Wyld spirits) will also destroy it, and they are only being considered as a last resort. The evil blackness is also affecting the Realm - police, army and general official people are crawling all over the place as as the Garou watch, the blackness seems into them, giving them a pretty iridescent patina. Some of the sponge talens are still around and they have some effect, but not enough - making more at this stage is also problematic.

Holistic Approach are also told that Barry Heaton is dead, having found the explosives on the third truck and got them away from the tanker before they went off. Also, Georgina Quittner is dead - she was gunned down and set on fire with petrol at a party. The third fatality was a kinfolk from the zoo, Leon Zilovic, who caught a round in the chest.

A few hours pass, and the conversation goes around and around when a Moonbridge opens some metres in the air and Malajimbarra jumps out. He speaks to Cossack and the other elders, telling them that he has heard of their problem and knows of a ritual designed just for this very outcome. It is called the Rite of the Opened Sky, and although he doesn't know it, he knows someone local who does - Franklin Ash-hand, Rite Master of the Three Stars Over Salted Earth Sept. Kimu knows this sept as it is the home of Tjinderi Knowing-Smile and the chief Uktena Sept in Australia. There is some discussion and Cossack tells Thomas that his pack is the most appropriate to go with Malajimbarra and ask for help. Thomas agrees and a Moonbridge is opened to Jindabyne (there being no direct link to Sleeping Lore). While Thomas and Malajimbarra go through to talk to the Uktena, the rest of the pack try to think of something to do (other than slagging the Uktena for causing this problem in the first place by summoning Uktena and indicting the Dancers to summon Green Dragon from whose spiritual excrement the goop that is eating their caern is made) and decide to see if they can work out what was with the looking from other people's eyes thing. Apparently they can do it at will, although it only lets them see, not act (no Gifts, etc). Several people can look out of one Garou's eyes, but that causes weird swirliness to happen to their iris. Having worked this out while Thomas is gone to the Uktena, they resolve to keep their new abilitiy from him so as to aid them in their Glorious Overthrowing of his Oppressive Pack Leadership (no, not really).

Meanwhile, Thomas has gone through a Moonbridge to the Uktena Sept. It is the rainy season and he appears in a waist high plain of grass, covered with small pretty flowers. In front of him waits Tjinderi Knowing-Smile and two other Garou, introduced as Franklin Ash-hand (very tall aboriginal man), Master of the Rite at Three Stars Over Salted Earth, and Amy Flores (older woman, maybe 40, of mixed ancestry), Gatekeeper at the same. Malajimbarra explains some of the situation and who Thomas is, and then Thomas introduces himself formally, and asks Tjinderi for help in restoring their caern. Tjinderi asks whether or not city caerns are in fact a flawed idea, using up too many resources for little gain, resources that could be applied better to wilderness caerns. Thomas looks a bit startled, but points out that he thinks that the cities would be much worse, wyrmwise, if the garou weren't there doing their bit to staunch the flow of the wyrm. Tjinderi points out that they are obviously not as effective as Thomas thinks, otherwise he wouldn't be here. She is also a bit surprised to see a Silent Strider defending a Bone Gnawer caern, not to mention the two Silver Fangs in his pack. Thomas counters that he was lead to the caern by visions given to him by Wyvern, and Tjinderi merely raises an eyebrow.

Tjinderi asks whether Thomas could guarantee that if she was to help them, using valuable Uktena resources, that he would not need such help again, or again, or again - after all, the idea of allowing any Wyrm to persist near a caern was unthinkable near any proper caern, but the city caerns seem to have adjusted to the problem. If the Uktena help this once, might not they grow used to such help, treating it a routine? Somewhere in the conversation, it ceases to be the Sept asking for help, and becomes Thomas specifically, and Tjinderi makes it clear that Holistic Approach will owe the Uktena a favour of smiliar magnitude if they assist. Thomas agrees, pointing out that he would help regardless if asked. No one points out that he has been asked before and said no. Tjinderi tells him to wait a few moments, and speaks with Franklin privately. Franklin then accompanies Malajimbarra and Thomas back to Jindabyne, where the rest of the pack is formally introduced. They all trundle back to Sleeping Lore, and Franklin is closeted with Cossack for a time. When they emerge, Frankin tells the assembled Garou that everyone will be needed for the rite, and teaches them what they need to do to participate.

The rite begins in the late afternoon, and as Franklin chants and dances, clouds begin to boil up in one of those lazy summer storms so common in Melbourne. Gnosis drains away from the Sept members and into the sky as the clouds grow thicker. Franklin crushes something that he has kept hidden in his hands and then there is a crash of lightning and rain falls. All of the Garou are washed clean by the falling rain, and their spirits are somewhat lightened by the fresh smell. The seeping corruption begins to break up under the increasingly heavy rain and dissolve - not swept away, but destroyed. The Garou enjoy the sensation of fresh rain on their face. The storm continues for a few hours and then slowly fades to reveal a darkening sky and rising moon. Cossack and the elders thank Franklin and he moonbridges away.

January 1 - January 8

The Sept is briefed on the current situation in detail, what jobs need to be done, who needs help, etc etc. Each pack is told they are more or less on their own when it comes to resources for a time, as the sept will be overconsuming its own - between re-establishing the spiritual aspects of the caern, resettling all the kinfolk who got moved around, and generally trying to cover up the excitement of the last two days. The current plan is to encourage the belief that it was an organised crime thing mixed with what the press are calling "Millenium Fever", mostly by planting many kilos of drugs in nearby houses and by making certain individuals disappear and paying off others. All in all, everyone is going to be busy.

The two packs deal with their losses in different ways. The Get of Pennington inform Cossack that they will be unavailable one night and then hold a pack-only wake for Barry. On the other hand, the Daughters pull away from the rest of the Sept, only interacting with the other members when they have to. Christine especially retreats from her normally active Garou life, leaving Keziah to speak for their pack.

In the mundane world, there has been a generalised state of emergency declared. People are being asked to stay home if they can, and there is a dusk curfew in place. There have been some instances of retribution against street people from self-styled vigilantes - people who were hurt or had loved ones hurt or killed in the attacks have struck out at the street people who were reportedly responsible for a lot of the attacks around the city on New Years. There are also a lot of calls for stronger authority to be given to police and the usual cries for gun laws to be tightened.

Holistic Approach are released from immediate duties and told to find out more about Faithful and Muirwood, especially whether they had a hand in the recent attacks. It is late on the 2nd of January before they get a chance to head back out the Dandenong, and start their research. First of all they check on Muirwood, who has apparently slipped into some sort of catatonia. All attempts to rouse him, or contact him fail, and the pack give some serious thought to killing him as well. However, a vague sense of responsibility surfaces (or guilt for just randomly killing Faithful) and they try and think of something to do for him. Dom mumbles something about someone called Rhiannon and makes a call to Reconciliation. The pack are told to bring Muirwood to them. On the way Dom explains that Rhiannon was Angus Delanie's fiance and had some sort of psychic connection to Angus - which turned out to be suboptimal when Angus got himself killed fighting gargoyles. Rhiannon went into a coma and wasn't responding, so the pack kidnapped her and took her to Reconciliation.

When they arrive, they are met by The Middle Way - Byron Fortesceau, Rises-in-Glory and Isis Healing-Hand. Isis speaks to them, and actually tells Dominique that Rhiannon left their care some months ago - Isis spoke to Moonflower and they both agreed it would be better for Rhiannon to not meet anyone from Infinite Paths again. Brett explains their current situation and what happened and Isis looks a bit troubled. She asks why they wish to go to so much effort for someone who was an enemy, and the pack honestly say that it is partially because its the right thing to do, and partially because they need to speak to Muirwood and find out what he knows. Isis agrees to take care of Muirwood, but on the understanding that she may not let them see him again, even when he has been restored (if he can be) - she will decide what is best for the human, not give him over to the Garou. They agree and head back to the house.

The next few days are a bit of a blur. Those Garou with the summoning and binding rites are kept close to the caern to provide help in binding more spirits to the caern. Darren is asked by Cossack to perform a few specific tasks that involve making a select group of people disappear. Other members of Holistic Approach sort through the tens of folders of information that Faithful had collected on them, and frankly its a little frightening. One of the first things that quickly becomes clear is that he should be known as Detective Patrick Faithful, which leads to groaning by the pack. He appears to have been involved in the missing children case and have taken up investigating one Mathias Rourke and his associates. He has gone through the previous unsolved cases as well as continuing to investigate Rourke and all his associates, including most of the pack, and it seems that he came to the conclusion that there was something supernatural going on. He has collected names, photos and addresses of members both of Sleeping Lore and Hidden Green as well as kinfolk of each. Most of the photos are in poor light from a distance, but some of them are damning enough, photos of crinos and lupus as well as homids.

Faithful has notes about what he has seen and people he has spoken to, as well as speculative notes about what he is dealing with, which seem to have reached the conclusion that the supernatural creatures he was observing were werewolves. These werewolves appeared to be connected with any number of unsolved crimes, including multiple cases of murder. Soon enough he realised that there were a lot of them, and they were killing and ravaging with impunity. He ran into Doctor Alex Muirwood in Sydney while doing some research on the storms that happened there and they compared stories - Muirwood told him about the strange creatures that appeared after a storm in his town of Fiddle Dee in South Australia and how they were shot down, but changed to humans when they did and then disappeared without a trace after the storm. They decided they were dealing with the same thing, and Faithful took some of his evidence to senior police along with some of what Muirwood told him. Faithful was then placed on compassionate leave for 3 months, even though what he presented them with was a much editted version of what he believed was happening. Muirwood took long service leave and the two of them rented a house and tried to bust open the conspiracy. Faithful knew he needed more than just blurry black and white photos and began planning to kidnap a Garou. He also heard that one Gabrielle Thomas was making enquiries about Rourke and decided to break into her apartment and steal whatever information she had; but it turned out that others were there first, and then again after him. When a friend in the forensics department told him that the blood found at Thomas' apartment after the third breakin was wolf blood, he knew that the werewolves were right behind him. He decided to get out of town for a bit, and it was at that point that a colleague told him that Patricia O'Brien had turned up in Killarney, near Warnabool. He went out there to check it out. That's where his notes end.

However, there are some highlights, such as speculation on social structure and notes about the odd physiological reaction that some people seemed to show after contact with these creatures. As the pack read on, it starts to become clear that Faithful was unaffected by the Delerium, a fact which is worrisome given his lack of Wyrm taint. Normally only one type of person is immune to the delerium other than fomori. That's right, Kinfolk. The pack make a note to make enquiries. Other highlights: a photo of Thomas and Brett in mid-change to lupus form; a photo of John wandering through parks, with someone else hiding in bushes (not Faithful) observing him. Oh, its Marnie. Damning, if circumstantial, evidence connecting Rourke (and others) to a number of murders and shootings. Lots of information about Ahrens. Some notes on Sullivan Dane's and Gabrielle Thomas' interest in the werewolves. Speculation about Sydney and ... well, more information than they can really take in. However, it doesn't seem that Faithful knew or was used by the Dancers or Mages in their attack, so there is unfortunately no way of finding them through this information.

Some of the information is just straight out wrong - speculation about how the werewolves come about, social structure, etc. It seems Faithful did some research into wolves to see if there were similarities, and he's speculated a bit about that. All of this information is collated over a couple of days and the Sept is kept informed.

On the Thursday, Cossack stops Thomas as he's passing through the park and asks him exactly what he and Kirsty have been doing when they should have been doing caern things. Thomas confesses straight away that he and a couple of the other Garou have been taking matters into their own hands with regard to the attacks on street and homeless people in the CBD. He's a bit defensive about it and points out that they've not been taking time from their caern duties, but have been missing out on sleep and such. Cossack tells Thomas to come with him and they visit Graeme. Cossack arranges with Graeme that at least one Garou will be released from other tasks to help defend the people being attacked - it is not only the Sept's responsibility to the humans around them, but also because of the Garou that these people are in danger. Cossack leaves Graeme and Thomas to work out a schedule of who is on duty when.

Saturday 8

The State of Emergency is lifted along with the curfew and for the mortals, life becomes a little bit more sedate. There are still articles about the attacks on NYE through every major paper, and the drug-related attack in the cemetary and surrounds has become front page news. There are some news articles about how certain individuals "known to police" have become scarce in the last few days. Darren looks smug.

Wednesday 12

Emma calls Holistic Approach and gets them to come and see her. When they arrive she says that one of the spirits who they have asked to assist the caern has made a strange request of the sept to be carried out before it commits its help. It wants the newspaper clipping from an address in Fitzroy. It didn't specify more details than that, it just said "the newspaper clipping at [address]". John asks what sort of spirit it is, and Emma thinks for a moment and then tells him that it would be better if he didn't know. The whole pack start to get a bit suspicious, but head off to the location, which turns out to be off Johnston St near Brunswick St.

When they arrive, they find that the address is a shop in a strip of shops, all of which are unoccupied and most of which seem to have been trashed. There is police tape flapping from the door of the particular shop which they have been told to check out, so they decide to scope it out from the Umbra first. In the Umbra, the shops are all there, but look older, and haven't been trashed. They decide to leave the front door alone with Thomas and Brett waiting there and head around the back while Darren peeks. The Umbral shops have an alley along the back, but in the Realm it is blocked by fences and rubbish. They count out numbers until they reach the address they want and there is much "ooohing". In the Umbra there is a strong scent of growing trees and of rich earth. Plants swarm up every inch of space that can be seen. However, they are starting to droop and go brown, as if the area has started to die off. In the Realm, the entire area seems to have been used as a garden. Tubs of earth, complex watering piping and trellises appear to have been installed. However, everything has been smashed. Tubs have been broken open, plants torn out and dropped on the floor, and the complex piping torn down and piled in a corner. Sensing reveals a strong Wyld and Gaia sense in the Umbra and the Realm, and also an acrid Wyrm taint from the Realm.

As Darren watches the Realm, there is some activity. An old bag lady is pottering through the wreckage and randomly picking things up, and muttering to herself. Darren echoes this on to Thomas and Brett who decide to move in through the Realm. They make plenty of noise so as not to startle the woman, who looks very apprehensive about their approach, but relaxes once they seem not to be immediately interested in her. They ask her what happened here, and find out that her name is Ada and that she is a bit non compos. She does however, manage to convey that there were some kids her who made the garden and that the police came through earlier and tried to arrest them ("But that young Brad, he put up a bit of a scuffle") and then smashed the garden up with hammers and picks and set dogs looking around the place. Ada was hiding in the next squat along. While Brett is interrogating Ada, John and Thomas are scouting the place out. The shop is obviously being used as a squat for about 3 people who all sleep in the room at the top of the stairs. There are sort of beds, and a sheet hung between some of them. No evidence of newspaper clippings around, although there is a NIN poster on one wall. John finds a kero lamp as well, hidden away in a pile of boxes, which he takes a shine to.

Meanwhile Brett is talking to Ada some more while he and Thomas sort of vaguely pick things up and look about. Given the police efforts, they were probably looking for drugs, but there's no evidence of anything like that - the plants are mostly decorative, with some food plants and herbs. Most of them are suffering badly in the January heat after being uprooted and trodden on. Ada tells Brett that there are three young people that live here, and that they built and take care of the garden. They're good kids, apparently. Ada is picking up random things like a flower miraculously preserved and putting them into her trolley. Brett asks her what she's collecting and she says "stuff that Ada wants". He tries to sneak a look in, and Ada reacts badly, closing the lid and heading off. Brett stops her at the door into the shop and asks if she has a newspaper clipping at all. She brings out a Sun from today, but Brett figures that's not what they're after. She has a look around some more and brings out a yellowed clipping. Ada lets Brett look at it and its just a photo of an old bluestone church. He can't figure out what paper its from or when, and sensing reveals nothing. What the hell though, he asks if he can have it, and he and Ada bargain for a bit. He offers money and Ada scoffs at the idea. He asks her what she wants, and she says "old stuff". Brett mentally asks John to come down and bring his lamp and once they've been introduced John shows it to Ada. She seems happy with this and they swap objects.

As Ada trundles off, the pack discuss what to do now. Someone says that they'll take the clipping back to the caern, while others want to stay and fix up what they can of the garden (on the grounds that both personally and Garouily its the right thing to do). Others want to check out the local copshop and see what the kids that were here are like. The clipping is taken back to the caern and Emma is found. She takes a look at it and tentatively says that its not what the spirit wanted. While John mentally demands that someone ask Emma what sort of spirit it is, they nod sagely and say they'll keep following up after telling Emma about the garden. At the local copshop, the overnight cells are filled to busting. John peeks about from the Umbra and finds the three kids they are looking for are Kylie Leslie (16 yo, trespass), Gavan Martin (16yo, trespass) and Brad Norris (18yo, trespass, resisting arrest). They are not the only homless in the cells as it seems the local cops are cleaning up these dangerous and untrustworthy folk and arresting them if they refuse to move on. John also finds that each of them is being held on $500 bail. They chat about it for a bit, and they decide that the right thing to do here is to get them out of jail - maybe the kids know something about a newspaper clipping. However, being skint, it could be tricky. Thomas favours a sort of Robin Hood approach and stealing the money to release the poor, but the others convince him to at least ask the Sept, given its Garou business. Back to Emma, who says they should ask Christine. Not knowing where she is, Kimu goes to the zoo to check for Keziah. Huzzah, she's there.

The whole situation is explained to Keziah (garden, spiritually goodness, kids, perverse caern spirit, etc) and they ask her if she knows where Christine is. Keziah says that Christine will be at home, and she'll take them there if they'll show her the garden. On the way Keziah points out that Christine has taken Georgina's death very hard and she'd appreciate it if they could be a bit careful with Christine. Recalling back to their conversation with Georgina and Jacynta about Alex, Kimu agrees and urges the pack to be extra careful. They drop in to get Brett and show Keziah the garden. She stands in the Umbra and seems oblivious to them for a few moments, taking in deep breaths. The others take a squiz at what Brett has achieved in tidying up around the place - its neater, but still a mess. Keziah comes back to the now and asks them where the Glade Child is. Much looking confused and Keziah chides Kimu for not realising that there was a spirit here. Pack mental communication fills in the gaps - a glade child is a kind of dryadic spirit which resides in places of beauty. There is the usual Umbra-Realm chicken-egg situation with them - a sanctified place in the Realm can call a Glade Child, and a Glade Child can make a place more likely to be taken care of. Keziah points out the resonances of Wyld and growingness and Gaia point to the existence of some sort of similar spirit, and without it the Realm garden will just be some plants and the Umbral reflection will fade away. Darren and Thomas decide to track down the spirit while the others head off to visit Christine. Darren uses his Scent of the Prey gift and starts trying to get an idea of how to follow a tenuous umbral denizen that he's never met.

When they get there Christine's house is closed up and dim. She meets them at the door and brings them into a sort of lounge. To the keen Garou senses, she's definately been drinking, and probably hasn't washed for a day or so. She slumps into a chair and asks what they want rather ungraciously. They explain the situation and halfway through she asks them how much money they need. Brett says $2,000. Christine goes to the wall and reveals a safe behind a picture. She opens it and counts out $2,000, leaving considerably more behind, and tosses it to Brett. He thanks her and starts to ask if she'd like to come to the garden, but she cuts him off with "Maybe later". Holistic Approach leave quietly, although Keziah remains behind.

Back to the local police station. After some argument, John is nominated as the person providing bail, as he is the only one with enough mortal ID who is not wanted by police. He is given the $1,500 (Brett wants the rest to help rebuild the garden) and sent into the station. After about an hour of waiting and arguing with police, the three kids are released. Activating his persuasion gift, John manages to get them to shut up until they are out of the station. Once outside, the others come and meet with him and introduce themselves to Kylie, Brad and Gav. They tell the kids they want to help with the garden, but the three of them are fairly down on even going back - no point, the police destroyed it, and they'll just come back again if they try and rebuild. Even if they can. They convince the three youths to come with them and see if something can be done at all. The kids are a weird combination of posessive and pessimistic about the garden - they don't want Brett touching it, but they don't think its worth trying to rebuild. John tells them that Ada told them about the police bursting in, but they just look at him blankly and say "Ada who?". Brett gets a bit tired of the repeated claim that the police will just come and throw them out for trespass and squatting again and suggests that maybe the property could be aquired simply to make sure the garden is safe. This is greeted with a fair bit of blankness from all three, quickly followed by rampant suspicion as to why the Garou are helping them. Figuring jestures are better than words, they drag the kids to the squat and show them what they've done so far.

  In the meantime Darren has been honing his senses and thinks he has picked up the trail of the purported Glade Child. He and Kimu follow it along while Thomas and Brett and John walk the kids around the garden. The scent trail careers around the place, heading vaguely east, but not in any coherent way. It even jumps from place to place without covering the connecting space in between, which would make it impossible to follow without the gift. Darren keeps the others up to date with his progress, and tells them that he's heading vaguely for Studley Park.

Back at the garden, the three kids are dispirtedly poking through the wreckage, making little sounds of distress. Brett points out the amount that he managed to repair in the afternoon and while they don't exactly leap for joy at it, they are a little less negative. Brett finally gets sick of the ongoing "we'll never get it back to the way it was" and "it took ages to get the seeds for that" and drags the kids off in a car to a nursery (via a vege resteraunt) where he puts the remaining $500 to good use buying replacement plants and seeds and equipment and tools. Its Santa Brett as the three of them start to realise he's serious about spending it all, and only on the stuff that they want to spend it on.

Kimu and Ghost finally catch up with the spirit they are tracking. It is vaguely humanoid, only with shifting green skin which ripples disturbingly. It is half crawling, half dragging itself along the Umbral reflection of the Abbortsford streets. They call John, for lo, he has Spirit Speech. It doesn't take him long to get there. The spirit looks quite ragged, and he and Kimu apply some healing magic in the hope that it will work. John tries Mother's Touch and gnosis flows from him to the spirit, which stops dragging itself and starts crawling. John gets in front of it and tries to get it to stand up. He jerks his hands back, and they are covered with red and painful welts, crawling across them like roots through soil. John comments that he now knows what dirt feels like and moves away. Kimu tires to heal the spirit with the burdock fetish, and the gnosis discharge does seem to have some effect. John tries to talk to the spirit and rocks backwards from the blast of pain/anguish/loss. The spirit doesn't move its mouth but the others can feel this blast through the pack link. John continues to try and communicate with the spirit and eventually determines that it is heading for somewhere wyld to go into Slumber. The pack realise this would K.O. the garden as somewhere Special, and try to work out how to stop the spirit from doing this.

John tries to convey that they have cleansed the site of wyrm taint and are fixing the garden with the children (although the spirit has no comprehension of the existence of the humans that built the garden in the Realm at all), and its not all destroyed. The main problem with this is that the spirit is fixated on the fact it has been destroyed. Some putting together of heads works out that the problem might be that Glade Children traditionally are spirits linked to single trees, and if a tree is destroyed, its gone. This spirit was linked to the garden enmasse, but it still cannot comprehend that its home can be fixed (not it is having trouble, it is fundamentally unable to take that concept into its worldview). Enter a series of "Its better"-"Its gone" kind of conversations between John and the spirit. Eventually the pack climb a veritable chain link fence and decide to bring some of the garden to the spirit. They decide to bring both an Umbral representative and a Material representative, which leads to some amusement as Kimu and Thomas try and synchronise their movements in the Realm and the Umbra while carrying a plant from Brunswick St to the other side of Hoddle St, but eventually they manage to get it there.

The plant is dropped down in an appropriate spot. The spirit does not immediately leap into the plant despite some encouragement, but the pack are patient. It eventually reaches out and starts to merge with the plant spirit. Meanwhile Thomas is feeling like a goit, hanging about on the sidewalk in Abbotsford with a plant in a gerry-rigged pot. He gets some strange looks from a number of passersby, and one woman stops to chat with him about the plant, giving him some hints on taking care of it while her ratdog does everything it can to keep away from Thomas.

Brett returns with the kids and they start putting stuff into the garden in the places where they'll work on it the next day. At some point Brad takes Brett aside and has a chat to him about why Brett is doing all this. The topic of John also comes up - Brad was around when the Dancers were searching for Peter and knew a few people who were bashed. He seems concerned that Brett might be bringing trouble down on them, and Brett does what he can to reassure Brad thats not the case. They work on for a bit longer. Brett is trying to grok the relationship between the three of them. Kylie and Brad seem to have something going although they are hiding it. Kylie and Gavan have a different relationship - almost siblingesque. Gavan steps lightly around Brad, but its not because of fear or anything... its all too confusing. Its well after dark by this point and they have all had a big day. Brett offers to sleep downstairs and keep guard which the others agree to. He stays up and chats to the kids about stuff as they slowly drift off to sleep. Gavan falls first, then Brad. He is chatting to Kylie and glances out the easterly windows. Oh look, the moon. In Philodox nonetheless. By gritting his teeth carefully and trying not to think about it, Brett resists the urge to change to crinos and howl. He tears his gaze away from the moon and sees Kylie looking at him with a distinct "what the fuck?" kinda of expression. He says he just tuned out and she says that she's awfully tired. He goes downstairs.

Meanwhile the spirit continues its metamorphisis into the spirit plant until the pack feels confidant about moving it. Thomas mutters something like "about time" and he and Kimu transport the two plants back to the garden, this time without the juggling and leaping around in traffic. Thomas quietly sneaks in and drops the plant in the garden behind others and out of the way. The pack decide to crash the night here and sort out what to do regarding the clipping tomorrow. Everyone but Brett crashes in the Umbra.

Thursday 13

By morning the sense of the Glade Child has returned, if faintly through the Umbra. Its planning to be a scorcher of a day, so plans for supplying water are considered as people wake up. The pack run back to the Sept and chat to Emma about things that are happening. She looks a bit perplexed, but shrugs and says that she'll make some effort to speak to the spirit and no she still won't tell them what sort of spirit it is, so don't ask John. Brett says that he would like the Sept to rent or buy the property so as to preserve it and Emma points out that the Sept is really short of resources, but she'll pass the message on and they'll see what they can do. The pack are told to have a couple of members available at the Sept for other tasks but that they are welcome to spend time at the garden as long as they are reachable easily.

The day is spent cycling through Sept duty and being at the garden, although Brett does spend all day there, introducing the other members of his pack, er group of friends (not Darren, obviously). They all pitch in with the heavier work and by the end of the day most of the garden is laid out if not actually dug in. Brad, Kylie and Gavan are exhausted, but much more optimistic about their chances of keeping the garden going.

John and Kimu are sleeping in the Umbra that night, but keep having weird dreams and waking up. A few hours before dawn, they snap awake finally and find that They Are Not Alone. At the end of the garden hovers a spirit, seemingly created of sort of fog. As it hovers there, they seem to half hear conversations and half smell familiar scents. John tries to talk to it, and the sense of nostalgia becomes stronger, calling up lots of his memories of old times. Most of the memories seem to be centred around fairly optimistic times, or at least at the point where things became more optimistic. John tries to get a sense of his brother and there is a weird lurch accompanied by flashes of images, too fast to sort out straight away.

Brett is woken by someone moving down the stairs. Gav turns away from him and out towards the garden, dressed in tshirt and underpants. Brett calls out to him, but there is no response. He sneaks upstairs to see if there is anything going on as the others fill him in on the Umbral situation. Brett tries to ransack Gav's stuff, but only suceeds in waking Brad up. He tells Brad that Gav is sleepwalking downstairs and the two of them head down there. Ghost steps out into the Realm and does the ransacking in a quiet, professional fashion instead. Meanwhile, following Gav leads out to the garden, pretty much corresponding to where the spirit is (in the Realm of course). Darren looks through Gav's wallet and finds - you guessed it - a newspaper clipping. A quick scan says that it is about a hidden garden in New York maintained by the local residents despite corporate oppression. The spirit seems to run and melt together, gradually taking on another form. In fact, it looks like Ada, although not exactly - more like a quick copy of Ada. John speaks to the spirit and asks it if it is the reason they are hear and it replies positively. All the pack can hear its response. Darren mentally asks if it wants the clipping and the spirit says to keep it as a reminder of their true task - to find a sense of hope. The spirit melts further and disappears, leaving an echo of benevolence.

Brett and Brad check out Gav and sort of stir him. He wakes up suddenly and is a bit confused. They get him back to bed and then both go back to sleep themselves.

Friday 14

The pack rock up to the caern and talk to Emma about what they've seen. She seems happy and says that she can tell them what sort of spirit it was now. The spirit was an Urban Engling, sort of a weird Epiphling, very strong in gnosis. She had a good idea that it didn't really want the newspaper clipping, but she wasn't sure - its the sort of thing they do sometimes. She suggests that they return to spending more time at the caern, although the pack's free time is its own.

Saturday 15 - Tuesday 18

 John spends the next couple of days thinking about the burst of images that he received from the Engling. They are couched in symbolic terms, and draw heavily from his own memory. Chatting with Emma about them, he comes to the conclusion that they all deal with Peter, and that he should see what he can do about seeing whether Peter has left Erebus or not.

Darren tells his pack that he has to report home to his alien masters, and heads off via Moonbridge to Crackenback. Brett continues to act as a sort of warder for Kylie, Brad and Gavan, encouraging Garou to come to the gardens in the Umbra, but not in the Realm. Kimu takes him up on this and spends as much free time as he can in the Umbral Glade. The spirit is still regaining its strength, and it will be some time until it is entirely healed, but it has definately relinked to the garden. At some point, Kimu receives a visitor.

The night before the Moot, John has a strange dream. He watches as a pack of wolves run along through a thick and wooded forest, pounding heavily through the trees and snow in a very Luc Besson sort of way. One of the wolves seems younger, perhaps a little puppyish, and it is having trouble keeping up with the older wolves, but is managing it. As the wolves thunder along, they reach a sort of junction. To the right, the terrain heads upwards towards light woods and brightly lit fields. To the left, it heads downwards towards a thick, primeval bit of forest. The pack does not hestitate, but heads straight down into the darker forest. Now the younger wolf is having real trouble keeping up, trying to cross deadfalls, deep creeks and snow banks just like the rest of the pack. But it keeps falling further and further behind, and the dream ends as darkness falls and the younger wolf trots through deepening gloom alone.

The day is spent preparing for the Moot. People are frustrated and on edge - because they can only react to their enemies, not respond in kind, everyone's tempers are getting a bit short. The moot begins as normal with the Opening Howl and Inner Sky. The Garou are clumped together in packs, and the Daughters of Mnemosyne are still a bit drawn away from the other packs. The Sept begins a Gathering for the Departed Rite for Barry Heaton and Georgina Quittner. Statues have already appeared for the two of them - Barry squats in homid form over a wounded animal and Georgina, also in homid form, stands orating with a copy of Shakespeare's Complete Works under her arm. Neither fallen Garou can be burned as is the custom, but as the Garou begin the eerie howl at the end of the rite, Cossack howls out their garou names - Heals-the-Kin and Story-Dweller respectively. Christine and the other Daughters join the howling loudly and enthusiastically, although all three of them are visibly upset.

The Moot continues in the Garou tongue and there is much howling and snarling and swearing of vengeance in the names of their fallen Kin. All are praised for their bravery in fighting the Wyrm, and renown is recognised. At the end of this, Melissa is called forward by Cossack, who says that the Sept recognises Melissa's actions over New Year's Eve as a trial of fire, and that she is recognised as an Adren (Rank 1) Garou. As such, she is welcome to join a pack if she wishes, and there is one that would accept her. Melissa glances over towards Thomas and Holistic Approach go into overdrive. John decides that now is a good time to relate his dream and there is much discussion at high speed over their mental link. People waver between not crushing her ego and not wanting to get her killed. The suggestion that she would be better with the Daughters is raised, but Darren points out that the dream may have not meant that Holistic Approach would be the one leaving the young wolf behind. As Melissa speaks to Cossac, saying as they found her and brought her into Garou society, she would like to join Holistic Approach, the mental discussion starts to melt synapses with its speed. Dominique suggests a month trial as they have done before with new members as a good way of seeing whether Melissa still wants to be around, and the rest of the pack more or less agree. At the end of a brief awkward pause, Thomas changes mental gears and says that Melissa is welcome to run with their pack for a month until the next Moot, and at that time she can see whether she would like to stay with them. Melissa looks a bit confused, but agrees. Cossack raises his eyebrows at Thomas, but then sweeps on into the rest of the Moot.

People are brought up to date with the alteration and destruction of evidence (moving and not moving), and with the general tampering of mortal perceptions. The fomori and trucks were really the only leads that anyone had, and they went nowhere. The snarling gets more pronounced. People report on what they've been doing and what they've found out. The Scryers mention that the new Full Moon Killer doesn't behave exactly like the previous one in that the evidence is not being destroyed. Other packs catch everyone up on what they've been doing. Brett gives the Sept the bare details about the garden and how he'd prefer if they came to the Realm bit of it only after being introduced to the three kids by him. Emma mentions that they are having some hassles getting the place rented, but its being handled.

Stories and songs. Kimu tells of the garden in more poetic terms, including the kids and the glade child and the engling. Unlike the last moot, the stories at this moot are far more escapist than martial. Kimu also tells the Black Fury story he learnt at Five Hands (nervously as Keziah looks on). More stories and songs eventually building up to the Revel part of the Moot, cleasing the area of the Wyrm (not that there's a lot left).

Holistic Approach are on their way back, having revel'd themselves silly when John, Melissa and Thomas are coo'eed by some guy. They look his way rather suspiciously, given that its 3am in Alphington, but he is not particularily suspicious looking. In fact, he looks more like an account than anything else, slacks, shirt and woolen vest. The pack sense like crazy but he seems normal. The guy comes out to the front gate and basically says that his name is Herman and that he has a problem in that he needs to move a piano. He saw the rather heavily built people coming down the street and though that they might have the muscle to help out, as its rather heavy - he likes to play it before bed, but Mother objects that its too loud and keeps her awake. So he'd like to move it downstairs. Thomas shrugs and says "Sure", and alerts the rest of the pack in the Umbra.

The piano is in pride of place in the sitting room upstairs. Its a huge old upright job, and probably weighs a good half tonne. A rather querelous voice calls out from another room "Herman!" and Herman scuttles off, promising to be back soon. Thomas and John go down the stairs to look at the area they'd have to move it through. Thomas is unsure that they can get it through, but John says it won't be a problem. Right as rain. No wuckas. They call Kimu and Brett to help too. Herman comes back and tells them where he wants to move it. There is an attempt to distract him by asking for tea, but he assumes that Melissa will make it (she is a girl) which gets Thomas all sorts of evil looks. They carry it down the stairs to the end and try to follow John's description of how to twist it around and get it back down the corridor, but the universe is having none of that. Herman says that he remembers now, when they moved it up there in the 1st place, they had to take it all around the houses next door and up an alley.

Darren peeks into the alley in question and sees a car is blocking the way. He leaps out in crinos, picks the car up and drags it until its past the third gate, then back into the Umbra. How efficient. The rest of the pack come around into the pitch black alley and step carefully towards the third gate. Herman says that he'll go back and turn the back light on. Sure enough, a light comes on a door down, right where this hatchback is blocking the gate. Brett flips to glabro and rams the car, expecting it to move, but just breaks his arm. He heals before Herman comes to the back fence and flows back to homid form. Herman says "Oh yes, next door has two gates." They convince Herman that if they all lift it, they can drag the car down, and lo, it works. They get the piano through the back door, past the tea tray and into the room in question. There's a huge cabinent filled with glassware in the way, so while Herman empties it, the Garou drink their tea, then move the piano. Herman thanks them profusely and offers more tea, biscuits and an impromptu concert. Most of them head off as soon as they can, but Thomas lurks about and listens. He's quite good.

Wednesday 19

The pack all have the same Malfeas dream again, and it produces the usual result ("You lot sleep over /there/!"). They break up and head off from the caern. Brett is heading to the garden when he sees a blondhaired figure in a Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses leaning against a car almost in front of the shop. He walks up to it and as the strawman begins to talk, whacks its head clean off and into the street, then turns away. However, a voice comes from the middle of the road where the head landed which says "How childish, and we thought you might want to know about your friends." Brett walks over, and says "What friends?" "The ones that threw you such a nice New Years party." Brett hints that he thinks the mages were involved, and the strawman hints that they weren't. Brett activates Truth of Gaia and continues talking. The strawman says that he can tell Brett where the Dancers are, but Brett doesn't actually believe him, pointing out that they were not exactly civic minded with the whole Christian stuff. The strawman doesn't know what Brett is talking about (backed up by the gift) and expresses some disappointment in Brett's lack of trust. Perhaps they can once again do something that demonstrates their willingness to cooperate. The strawman says he knows where the Dancers are. First he gets Brett to put the head back on. Then he just simply says "Coode Island".

The strawman sits and grins at Brett as its presence fades. Brett kicks it around the street and mentally tells the others about his visit. They all meet together in the caern (taking circuituous routes) and find Cossack and explain what has happened. Cossack isn't too happy - he thinks it is probably a distraction designed to pull strength away from the caern - but concedes that it needs to be checked. As none of the pack were living in Melbourne about the time that the Coode Island chemical storage facility went boom, they ask about some of the history. In short, a few tanks went boom, puking a kilometre high toxic cloud of smoke across the city. There was a fire on the site and a lot of the firemen attending got quite ill. Garou from the two affected septs went and checked the site, and cleansed it thoroughly. Cossack tells Holistic Approach that he wants them to check the site out while everyone else stays in the Sept. Dom will remain in the caern to relay back any information they come up with. If they spot any active evidence of Dancers, they are to get the hell out as soon as possible.

The pack spend some of the day collecting gear together. Brett goes through some long involved process that ends with a speedboat being ready for a quick escape somewhere nearby. John checks out the history to see if there's anything there that might help, especially the followup reports after the explosion. Kimu spends the day with End-the-Quiet to gain a sense of balance. Thomas and Darren tool up and make sure all their weapons are ready and right to hand. The pack decide that they should be as non-visible as possible and summon a starling spirit to make a Blur of the Milky Eye talen. Having chosen their approach (down the train line) they head off.

Approaching Coode Island is relatively stress free. The pack decide to approach in the Realm as they suspect they would be more obvious in the Umbra, and a combination of the talen and general pack sneakiness means that the six creeping Garou are unnoticed by the occasional security guard patrolling the still occupied facilities. Some of the pack is in lupus, most in glabro, and they sniff about as well as keep their eyes open. It is decided to start from the site of the chemical spill and work out from there. The site consists of abandoned offices, high chainlink fence (oh no!), a few exploded tanks slowly rusting with a pool of brown liquid within them. Scents around the site are not remarkable, chemical contamination, dust, yarra smell, rats and other city animal life. Kimu senses for magic and feels a faint trace of it around nearby. The others sense unnatural and can feel strong weaver and a slightly weird wyrm (a bit more intense than the surrounds) but very little wyld. Nothing demonic or magic or anything. The creep around for a bit and then decide to look in the office. Brett finds a spot where the roof has been forced before and sneaks in. He stands still for a moment, and hears movement nearby. Darren leaps in and the two of them patrol around the offices, but find nothing except old footprints. The offices seem to have been built in stages and aren't very coherent. They are also fundamentally empty - a few damaged desks, but nothing else.

While the majority of the pack peek, trying to get a feel for the Umbra, Kimu tries to sense magic again, but this time gets nothing. The Umbra is a mess of half-destroyed weaver web. The offices are a mere collection of webbing, coated in dust and looking brittle, while the tanks which exploded to exist in the Umbra, but have suffered in the last 13 years and appear to be slowly loosing cohesion. They leak a red/brown liquid from the exploded edges. The pack decide to concentrate on the Realm for the moment and look around the rest of the island They spread out in twos. A bit. They lurk together and keep up a constant monologue back to Dominique. Sensing unnatural just reveals the same senses as before - fairly much what you would expect for the area - but nothing special.

The 6 of them creep around the area, looking for anything suspicious. There are some buildings which are tagged for later investigation, mostly offices, with the occasional security guard or latenightworking office person in residence. Brett notices the phone booth in the middle of the area they are investigation and heads that way in lupus. He manages to pick up a scent that seems familiar - the Yarra and seweage with an undertone of wet human/dog. Bingo. The scent is maybe two weeks old and a careful examination of the telephone booth suggests that the suspected Dancer was not very happy - his scent and blood scent is left behind on several punch marks that indicate that the phone box was the scene of a certain amount of force. Darren is called over to trace the scent, but something weird happens as soon as it leaves the phone box - the scent splits up and scatters. Darren shrugs.

The pack check along the Swanston docks. There's no ship in tonight, so they can walk up and down without much need to dodge guards and all. Given the strong eau d'Yarra scent that seems to accompany the Dancers, the idea of an access point below the water level seems fair, either in the Umbra or Realm or both. The wooden planking sticking out from the shoreline around the dock area will help the search without being noticed, but the bright, bright sodium lights won't. The pack decide to try the other side of the island, in the Maribyrnong. Cruising about reveals that the shoreline is mostly rocks and stuff, but with big sections that have been paved. Options are discussed, and finally it is decided that Kimu will summon a fish spirit and ask it to check the banks for them. Kimu goes upstream and quickly fasions himself a net. Some hours are spent trying to catch a fish spirit, and finally he is rewarded. The spirit is freed back into the river, and it agrees to honour the ancient bargain by performing one task for them. After some suitable extra bribing, Chasing-the-Night convinces the spirit to search along the shoreline for him. This takes a few hours, and it is getting late by the time the spirit returns and says that it could not find any entrances bigger than itself the entire length around.

Thursday 20

The pack sigh and head for the Umbra. No further scents are revealed, and even checking through the buildings reveals no special tunnels or unexplainable doors. The guard house at the gate is checked out and one of the humans there is strongly wyrm tainted, but not corrupted - his name is discovered, and he will be checked later in case he's some sort of watchman. Much scratching of heads, and trying to work out if the mages are jerking them around, and if so, why, and why then is there a Dancer scent on the phone box? They decide to concentrate on the explosion site as that is the only place to turn up weird sensations. More treading gingerly through wyrm-tainted weaver rot and sensing. The pack begin to suspect that whatever they want is underground, and begin to dig around under the four tanks that exploded. It doesn't take long before John hits something under the ground that feels like glass (in the Umbra). He pokes around a bit more and pull out a foot-long irregular purple glass tube which senses faintly of wyrm. The others look through their rubble and find fragments of the same stuff. They dig some more and find more of it, and John casts his mind back to his semester of geology - they remind him a bit of fulgarites, tubes of fused silicon that get formed when lightning strikes the ground. Triangulating (well, sort of) from where the majority of the fulgarites were pointing, John guesses they would join somewhere about the middle of the group of four tanks and about 20 metres down - whether the thing that formed them was coming up or going down is unknown.

The pack realise that this is way below the water level, and decide to get something else to dig for them. They relay information back to the caern and Cossack agrees that they should try and figure out what is going on - the chances that it is a Hive is decreasing, otherwise the Garou would have been confronted already - but there's still something odd going on. John performs a rite of summoning to call an earth elemental after the pack retreat to some distance (just in case Cossack is wrong). After several hours summoning, the earth billows upwards and a huge, oxen-like spirit takes form. It booms out demanding to know why John summoned it here. There is a bit of negotiation regarding volume, and then the Garou present their case to the spirit. It seems to think stomping wyrm things is worthwhile, so it agrees to tremor its way over to the site in question. Every step it takes causes the ground to hammer, so the Dancers definately know they are here now. The spirit starts causing the ground to swirl around and pour up into a volcano shape, digging mud and goop down and out of the way. It is almost dawn when it exposes something other than grey mud. Its a rock, green and purple striped. The spirit does not want to touch it, because it is wyrm tainted. The Garou run down the mudslide and up the other side, taking the rock with them. Its about a metre high, roughly square, and chalky. It is tainted with wyrm, but a very odd sort. It is rough on 5 sides, but smooth on the 6th, as if it had been cut off something else. There are pits on the sides which the fulgarites led down to, about 3 inches across. Other than that, its a rock.

  Its got a chalky texture, and crumbles under a bit of force, like talc, but it definately isn't water soluble, because it was below the water table. It senses of a weird wyrm, a bit alien, like the fulgarites. The colours run horizontally, but not regularily, like green and purple sandstone. The orientation of the rock is checked, but doesn't seem to have been special. The Realm and Umbra are carefully examined to see if anything has changed now that it has moved. Nope. Maybe the rock was there as a ward and moving it will release something worse than Dancers? Maybe the mages want it? Maybe it was an evil sponge?

They decide to move the rock before doing any more investigation. As Kimu and Melissa run point the others heft it into the air and run along with it, eventually stopping at the western Wesgate park. The ask the Sept to send Emma along to see what she can see, but Cossack decides to send Chris McNeil instead as he is also an experienced theurge. Chris arrives and looks at it, scrapes a bit off the chalky exterior, senses on it, makes mming noise and then stands up, brushing off his hands. "No idea" is his conclusive, worldwise spiritual opinion. "Its a rock". He can tell them that it has a deliberate spiritual nature, its not just incidental like the wyrm from pollution or anger. He offers to ward it where it is now so that they can go back and eat the caern. Er, I mean, consult with other wise Garou. John watches closely as Chris does the warding, and finds that he isn't doing the normal garou thing of summoning a spirit, but seems to be calling on aspects of spirits to achieve what he wants. For some reason, this doesn't seem "right" to the pack. Not wyrm.. just not right.

The pack head back to the caern with Chris and brain dump the rest of their information. It is suggested that Malajimbarra might be able to help them (senior theurge and all), so they arrange a Moon Bridge to Grinding Stone. They are met as it opens by Huros Bathes-in-Blood who is his normal non-confrontational and charming self. Once he has extracted the information he wants from them, he directs Sveta Dotashkoi to take them to Malajimbarra, who is sitting crosslegged on a rock down near the bottom of the caern hill. He hears their story and looks intrigued, and agrees to come with them. More Moonbridging back to Sleeping Lore and then out to the park with Chris (so he can turn off the ward).

Malajimbarra peers and pokes at the item, and uses some of his eerie Uktena powers. When he's finished, he doesn't have a lot to add to Chris's theories. He does say that its not an eartly rock, probably having come from one of the far Umbral realms ("Malfeas?" asks John. "Oh god no, please." say the pack). It also appears to have been specifically dedicated in some sort of ritual (or spiritual activity at least) to a particular spirit, probably a Wyrm totem. He can't tell which one. Perhaps it was an altar or something. So, basically, the rock was put there by someone, as its not natural to the near Umbra. Much scratching of heads and wondering about why it was there.

Friday 21

John has another of his rather strange dreams - having spent a week or so working out what the visions given to him by the Engling mean has left him a bit obsessed, but this one is weirder than normal.

John is fishing with his father, who isn't there. They are off the coast of WA, in the predawn, bobbing up and down gently in the water. The moon slowly sinks towards the west, but as it reaches the horizon the sea becomes just like a silvery road. A figure approaches, walking along the irridescent surface of the ocean. Once it gets close enough, John realises that its Peter. Peter takes a while to get to the boat, and the eastern horizon starts to bloom with the light of the approaching dawn. Peter walks along and sits down on the log, with the campfire between John and he, but he is also sitting on the other end of the boat. John is bobbing up and down with the wave motion, gentle as it is. He says "Peter?" and Peter replies "Am I?" and looks behind himself. John tries to get a bit closer by walking around the fire, but falls in the ocean, sinking like a stone. He clambers back onto the boat and looks at Peter, who is suddenly coated in blood, as a heartbeat booms out across the ocean. John says "Peter?" again and Peter is clear of blood and turns around to see who John is speaking to. "No, you're Peter." "Am I? Ok." John bobs up and down and the fire flickers and Peter is replaced with an ancient aboriginal woman, sitting amidst a stone circle in the desert. "You are in danger of losing yourselves - there is a hole within you." Peter stares back at John. Peter is sitting in a forest, and as the dawn light spreads from the eastern horizon, the strong smell of cool, damp forest mixes with the ocean smell. The moon is still on the western horizon even though the sun has also risen. John glances back to Peter and sees Patricia, holding a newborn baby. She thrusts the child forward and it grows claws and fur as she says "His name is Rory!". Peter, staring at John. John carefully creeps around the fire in the middle of his boat and sits next to Peter. He is going up and down while Peter is rock steady, but he touches Peter and finds that he's real, and that he smells mostly like Peter. There is a hiss from the fire as if it has had water sprayed on it, and John looks down to see the Cracking Stone lying on a sandy piece of ground. As John watches, the sand hisses away from underneath the fetish and it is swallowed by the sands. He looks up again to see he is still in the boat. He tries to talk to Peter some more, who is fundamentally confused. The pinkish blue dawn light plays tricks on John's eyes and when he glances away he finds himself in Bourke St with Peter, as the city and people start to rot and disintergrate. Dust flies down from the highest towers and people melt slowly, leaving bloody and rotting footprints behind them. The boat retuns with no warning. John asks Peter where is and Peter says that he is here, and points to the forest behind John. John looks and sees Australian rainforest, covered in spiderwebs, still with the strong dawn smell and with the booming heartbeat underneath it.

John wakes suddenly and then tries to drop back into the dream. He suceeds in capturing the sense of a cool new day and the scent of a forest at dawn, but that's all. He gives up, gets up and has breakfast and then mentally wakes the rest of the pack and asks them to meet him at the Sept. They get together with Emma and John relates the weird dream and the imagery that he received when he asked the Engling about Peter. John thinks that the dream means that Peter is waiting for them in Erebus, but Emma says that the fact that John saw Peter walk out of the silvery water might mean that he's already left. Dom says that some of the images are recurring ones that other members of the pack have seen. She and Mathias ran into the aboriginal woman while moving through the Umbra, except that there was the trilogy of bunyip there - one lupus, one homid, one crinos - and the place smelt of Wyld and Fae. The topic of Patricia comes up, and Dom says that she should probably get back to Rippling Waters anyway, and she'll follow up that. Peter's confusion might indicate that he doesn't remember very much, and the fact he didn't know his name means Questing Stone probably won't work. Someone asks whether the forest that Peter was initially sitting in was Australian, and he says no, he doesn't think so, although the rainforest definately was. Kimu asks some questions about the heartbeat but is a bit unkeen to explain his interest, other than saying its connected to something he's been lookin for.

  More thought and consideration of the dream. Darren thinks that following it up is a waste of time and resources - they have Dancers and Mages to worry about, but the other pack members point out that they hope that Peter can remember enough to be of help in finding the Dancers. They eventually draw up a few possibilities - Peter is in the dreamtime, and therefore impossible to find; Peter is at Dreaming Hands, in which case they can either go there or send a message; or Peter is in the Arcadia Gateway, which is problematic.

John summons up a wind spirit to carry a message to Monash End-to-the-Darkness. Dom heads off to Rippling Waters, and promises to look in on Patricia. The others get bits and pieces together. When the spirit arrives, its perfectly happy to go and find Monash. John gives it a message which includes a description of Peter, and that he might not remember his name, and that he is John's brother. The spirit wends its way north and the pack get on with bits and pieces. Dom rings back and says that Patricia is just doing normal kid stuff, getting ready for school which starts next week. Nothing strange. Nor is Dom planning on calling her child "Rory". She hangs up on Brett. John rings his parents and chats to them for a while, in case Peter has contacted them somehow.

The wind spirit comes back later that night, and its message is short and terse "There's no-one of that name here." which is a bit cryptic given they specifically pointed out he might not know his name. They consider heading up there to check, but feel that it might be interpreted as saying "we don't trust you", and figure that if he is there and they don't want Holistic Approach to know, then they'll just hide him anyway. The pack start to consider going to Arcadia Gateway and what they could do when they get there. Melissa, Kimu and Darren are told about the cave in the Mornington Peninsula and its shortcut. Brett wanders off to find Cossack to see what he feels. Cossack is less than enthused about letting the whole pack wander away, and wants to know the reasoning behind looking there for Peter. He winces when the topic of Dreaming Hands comes up, but waves Brett to continue his story. The pack's current plan is to go there via the cave and then on to see Lysander on the grounds that he will know what is happening. Cossack's main concern is the time slip involved in going between the realms, but he concedes that finding Peter is a valid lead (above and beyond John's desire to find his brother). He says they can go, but that they should keep it short and sweet if possible.

Holistic Approach leap into preparedness by buying $20 worth of cheap shiny things as presents for the low Fae, including another mirror ball or two and some cheap plastic jewelery. They grab their rope and other necessities to get to the cave and fill in the others regarding the cave and why Peter has a connection to the fae. Kimu is particularily startled by the idea of using spirit awakening on the pictures in the cave. The pack climb down the rope and into the waters of Port Phillip Bay, swim down through the cave and demonstrate the paintings and such to the newcomers. They show them how to step through, and the pack moves into the worlds of the fae. The move to the end of the cave and look about. Low fae and living creatures move through the forest in what appears to be afternoon light. It seems that Lysander's promised 'outpost' seems to be a small stone tower. The Garou investigate and find a bell at the top, giving it a couple of whacks. Resonate tones echo out across the forest, but there's no immediate effect other than the scattering of low Fae. The Garou shrug and try and find a low Fae to lead them to Lysander. Brett chats to a small (9'' tall bear) called Larry, who agrees to take them to Lysander in exchange for a small plastic hologram. The set off through the forest at 9'' tall bear speed before the garou pick Larry up and carry him instead.

After an hour or so, they are met by a cadre of bright knights from Tir na Noght, headed up by a Lord Terin. He seems to know who the pack are, and asks after their new members and the loss of Mathias and Dominique. The pack are honest, if a bit short in details. They tell Terin they need to see Lysander as soon as possible, and the knights and garou in lupus form run through a gradually clearing forest towards the castle. It is dusk when they arrive, and find the castle turned out to greet them. Lysander meets them in the forecourt and welcomes them again, asking after Dominique and Mathias as well. He announces a great feast tonight in their honour. The pack explain they have a time limit, and a task of importance to accomplish, and Lysander offers somewhere for them to freshen up before meeting him in his study. The Garou agree and are led into the castle by some of the noble fae.

  Once the Garou have composed themselves, they are led to Lysander's study and served food and drink while they go into detail about why they are here (and why there are only 3 of the original 5 member pack left), although Brett is a bit vague about some of the details like where exactly they left Peter and Mathias. Lysander says that he has not heard of a strange Garou wandering his lands, but if Peter is unsure of who he is, he would make less of an imprint. Lysander offers to send out messengers. He tentatively asks if Peter might have been in Erebus, and when the pack agree that he might have been, Lysander says that he has been told that his lands are accessible from those ruled over by Charyss, and he will make sure that area where there is some overlap is searched also. He points out that messengers will take some time to reach the furthest outskirts of his realm, and that the Garou are still welcome to partake of a feast. They agree, and Lysander calls for messengers. They are given instructions and sent out on fast horses. Lysander invites the Garou to make themselves at home in the castle. While the others scatter through the castle, Brett asks Lysander about his realm, specifically about it relates to the rest of the Umbra and time flows. Lysander suggests that the Arcadian realms are seperate from the Gaian realms, and they do not have a common timeline; but that he is not exactly and expert in such matters. He offers to commend Brett to a scholar in his court, and Brett excepts and is reintroduced to Berabolus, sage of the court of Lysander.

So while Brett is learning about the history of the fae, the nature of the sea, and a thousand different topics that enter Berabolus' head, John is off talking with the magicians of the sidhe court, Darren is watching some of the fae warriors, Kimu is watching metal artisans, Thomas is walking the bounds of the castle and no one is quite sure what Melissa is up to. Eventually the pack all regather and join Lysander at the high table for the feast. Its all suckling pig and huge expanses of wine and food, while musicians play and the court laugh and eat. Melissa is being entertained by two young fae nobles, which keeps the rest of the pack on their toes. There's no immediate sight of Reegus or Niirsa. While the feast progresses, the occasional messenger returns and whispers in Lord Lysander's ear, usually with a shake of the head or other negative jesture. After the grand meal, the Garou are invited to join the other nobles with Lord Lysander to drink of brandy and be generally noble. The fae who are there tell one or two stories to keep everyone entertained, and the pack decide to have a piece of this. Brett tells the story of the attack on the caern and garners some light applause. Kimu moves him aside for the professional storyteller and goes into glorious detail about the quest of the hidden garden. The audience is rivetted. Well, almost all of them. Melissa and one of her new friends slip out the door, and Brett follows them. He tries to be all parental to Melissa, but she just stares at him ("We're just going for a walk. Ok?"). Brett returns to applause for Chasing-the-Night's story.

The crowd in Lysander's chambers fades away, leaving just the Garou and Lysander. The topic is broached about the messengers, and Lysander says that no, they have not found anyone matching Peter's description. They ask if there is anywhere else that Peter might be (oh, I dunno, such as Marianna's castle), and Lysander says that there is a possibility that Peter is in Candaon's realm. There are other fae realms such as Tir Na Noght, and Candaon rules one of them, where it is always dawn. That could fit, think the pack and they ask "What sort of realm?". A realm of the hunt says Lysander. Oh bugger, say the pack. Candaon is a hunter, and Lysander gives a little bit more information about him. He is the greatest of the fae hunters, but he will never hunt anything that does not want to be hunted in some way. This isn't very reassuring, and the pack as why Lysander thinks Peter might be there. Lysander agrees that most of the dream hints John received indicate Arcadia (same reason they are here), but the overwhelming feeling of dawn suits Candaon's realm more than his.

Lysander suggests that they get some rest before heading out tomorrow - a messenger may yet come in with information about Peter. He'll have someone awaken them before dawn. Lysander also offers a token to help them move easily through the woods, and which will perhaps carry some weight with Candaon himself. The pack head back to their rooms. Most of them meditate, and keep an ear out for Melissa, who returns within an hour or so with her new friend, who stays for a while and then leaves.

Friday 23 + 1

The pack are woken after about 4 hours. Melissa is a bit grouchy at the short amount of sleep, but the rest of the pack have very little sympathy. They meet Lord Lysander in a castle courtyard along with a small retinue. He gives them his token (a small carved wooden coin) and best wishes. The pack jog out of the gate and then shift to lupus, heading vaguely towards the point where their cave is.

The forest, while still not easy to pass through, isn't the baffling place of confusion that it normally is. Except to Melissa. The rest of the pack seem to cope ok, but she is falling further behind. Taking the dream that John had into consideration, they don't move much faster than she does and try to guide her around the most severe bits.

Glancing up through a break in the forest at one point reveals that the pack are being shadowed by ravens. The pack don't think much of it for a moment, but then someone rememebers that they have been told that ravens are Marianna's spies. The Garou take a bit of evasive action while under the thicker parts of the forest, and seem to have lost the spies.

Holistic Approach start to recognise some of the forest they are passing through, and guess that they are near the cave that leads to the Mornington Peninsula. Beyond the normal feeling of the familiar terrain, the woods are decorated with small bits of golden ribbon and the occasionaly superbounce ball goes flying past as well. It is still early morning when some of the pack start to get an itching feeling that they are being watched. They stop and try and determine exactly where it is coming from. Darren hears from behind a certain amount of jingling and the occasional clop of horse hooves. The pack quickly consult and then move on some, leaving the now nearly-invisible Darren behind. After a bit, Darren can see four horsemen, probably some of Marianna's knights, along with a sort of goblinoidy fox thing, snuffling along the Garou's trail. He holds still and mentally reports that the knights are following the pack's trail, and they decide to stop this sort of thing immediately. The Garou vaguely hide themselves behind various trees and bushes and wait for the knights to trot on up. The snuffling creature stops and starts whuffing the air as the pack step out to confront the knights. Darren starts to sneak along slowly from behind.

The knights jump a bit when the Garou appear, and all put hands on their sword hilts. Thomas steps forward and introduces the pack, resplendant in his faerie armour, and prominently displaying Lysander's token. He asks the leaders' name, which is grudgingly given as Kaerel. Kaerel doesn't seem to particularly care about the token and accuses the Garou of trespass. He wants to know why they are here, in fae lands. Thomas vaguely explains without any details, and basically intimates that its not Marianna's lands, so they can bog off. Kaerel makes some vague not quite threats, but Thomas holds to their goal of "none of your business". Kaerel looks like he is about to force the issue, when Kimu catches sight of an arrow speeding through the air towards the confrontational pair. He watches it gently arc through the air towards the gap between Thomas' legs and then watches Thomas step slightly to the left and catch the arrow in the meaty part of his calf. More arrows come raining down, striking the ground, trees, the crest of Kaerel's helmet with a metallic bong and through Melissa's shoulder as she leaps towards the danger. Darren starts to sprint towards the fighting, and the Garou try and see where all of these arrows are coming from. Up a short rise, they can see a human figure stop firing arrows and sling the bow over his shoulder before stomping down the hill towards them. The Garou restrain from butchering the figure, mostly because they suspect that this is Candaon. John finds the figure, clearly a fae, a little familiar, but its unable to put his finger on it.

The fae is dressed in furs and beads, feathers and other bits of natural ornamentation. He strides between the garou, and confronts the other fae. They speak in an unfamiliar language, quickly and lyrically, and then the four knights remount and leave in a somewhat disgruntled way. The fae turns back to the Garou and Thomas starts to thank him, but is cut off "What are you doing here?" Thomas explains and mentions that the knights said they were trespassing. The wild-looking fae says that the knights were trespassing as much as the werewolves. John and Brett suddenly realises why the fae looks familiar - the last time they came here, Brett howled, disrupting his hunt, and gave the fae a favourite pendant, which he is still wearing. The fae (who does not give his name) obviously remembers too. They ask him if he is Candaon, and he just looks amused. The fae says that in light of their generosity last time (and because it will annoy Marianna), he'll let them pass. They are heading towards Candaon's realm alright - just keep heading in the same direction. He leaves and the Garou continue.

It is late afternoon, and the forest has become more wild and harder to manage to cut though, so the pack are making wide sweeping detours. The light becomes more and more dusklike, but the scent of the realm also changes, and becomes fresher and newer. Finding a handy tree to climb and check the sky, Holistic Approach realise they have crossed the realm boundaries and are presumably now in Candaon's Realm. They continue on and have only been travelling for a while when they see Peter ahead of them. He bolts and runs and the Garou give chase. Well, Kimu ploughs into a tree and Brett stops to help him, but everyone else follows, spreading out in the traditional "wolf pack slaughters helpless woodlands traveller" sort of style. They are chasing and catching, even though Peter is quite fast. Thomas does a flying leap, and comes crashing down much harder than he had expected. John skids to a halt because he just saw Peter off to their left. Both the Peter that John can see and the one that Thomas has landed on shift and shrink away into the form of low fae. The pack sigh. Kimu and Brett start making their way towards the others and are being dive bombed by wild looking low fae, some of whom appear to be small Peter's. Brett managed to capture one, and tries to get it to show them where Peter is. The pack discover that not only can fae change size, but their spears hurt, but Brett heals quickly. While he's wrestling with the pintsized barbarian, Darren tries a Questing Stone ritual - and finds it works, or at least it pulls towards a particular direction.

Between beating up on the locals and asking for directions ("Smell for smoke") and questing stone, the pack eventually wander into a campsite. Peter is sitting there, staring into the fire. John addresses him as Peter, and he looks up, saying "Am I?". John says "Yes." Peter says "Ok." The pack convince him pretty easily to come with them. Peter seems less wiped out than he was in the dream, but is still a little bit dazed. The pack start to head back the way they came.

  John chats to Peter for a while, who grows a bit more coherent the longer they talk. The pack convince Peter that he can change into the wolf shape and they lope off. Kimu uses his Axis Mundi gift (now he remembers he has it) to give them a better chance of making it back to Tir Na Noght a bit quicker. It isn't too long before the pack start to feel a bit odd, like someone is watching them. Like someone is following them. Hunted perhaps. The Garou stop for a bit and have a quick consultation. There seems to be some weirdness to this feeling of being hunted, something more essential than just someone chasing someone else through a forest. The closest human way of expressing it is that it preys on their need to be needed. People are also having their own individual struggle with the pervasive sensation - Kimu's learning of Prayer for the Prey gives him an empathic understanding of what its like to be the hunted, for instance. The suggestion is made to hide and wait, but Brett in particular feels this is preylike. The pack eventually decide to change to crinos, feeling that this form is as far away from being prey as they can manage. Time passes.

Friday 23 + 2

The light starts to change, to move from eternal dawn into a brighter morning feel. The pack are thinking of moving back into lupus to make better time when an arrow slams into the tree in front of Thomas. The arrow looks familiar, and in fact the Garou can see the fae that drove off the dark knights walking towards them. The fae demands to know why they are here, and why he should permit them to cross his lands. Its pointed out that he let them pass before, and he says "That was then". John asks the fae's name and he asks why he should give it to them. The pack is starting to head for the "because we'll pull you into 5 seperate pieces if you don't" type of answer when the fae says that he will let them pass if he (pointing at Thomas) can wrestle him (the fae) to the ground. Thomas asks what happens if he loses, and the fae says that they won't be able to pass. Or maybe he'll let everyone but Thomas go past. Feeling that this is fair trade, Thomas is egged on by his pack to go for it. What the hell. The fae drops his furs and such, and steps up to fight. Thomas changes to crinos and the fae shakes his head and jestures at Thomas' leg, which proceeds to change back to glabro with a burning sensation. Thomas looks a bit shocked and changes the rest of himself back as the fae says that Thomas should remove the elfshot from his leg.

The fight starts out fairly even, but the tide turns against the fae mostly because Thomas decides to fight with the fae armor on. (woos!) Much bouncing around the small clearing and smacking at each other ends when the fae tries to use some sort of power to dodge through a tree and stuffs it up. He smacks his head against the tree, Thomas smack him in the back of the head, he smacks his head against the tree again, and then onto the ground. John leaps forward and Mothers' Touches the brainpasted fae. Once he comes around, he concedes the fight to Thomas and tells John that his name is Elà. Elà points them in the vague direction of Lysander's castle and walks away holding his head.

The pack run on for a few hours and eventually come out on the road. The sun is to their left and the castle to their right, which is a bit odd. They carefully approach, in case Marianna is playing silly buggers, but it does indeed seem to be Lysander's castle. They are met near the gates and brought into Lysander's presence. Peter is introduced, and Kimu explains to one of Lysander's minstrels what happened. He's rushed, that's why it sounds so disorganised compared to the story from the night before. Thomas is treated by some of the castle physicians and the elfshot (small pieces of flint) is removed from his leg via a poultice. Melissa seems to not have been affected despite having been shot too. John and Brett ask about Elà while Thomas is being treated and Lysander looks a little pained. Apparently Elà is not part of the gateway, nor part of Candaon's realm, but lurks in the between places. He doesn't owe fealty to anyone, and pretty much does what he wants. He probably dragged the pack off course which is why they appeared 'north' of the castle. A doorman speaks quietly to Lysander and he tells Melissa that Sir Renale is here to speak to her. She heads for the door before asking if its ok if he comes in. Lysander gives permission and Melissa half drags the purported Renale in and aside. They speak quietly and Melissa goes to give something back to him, but he seems to defer and she stands on tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. They speak some more and then Renale begs leave from Lysander and Melissa joins the pack, with some odd looks.

Lysander congratulates the pack on their sucess, and reiterates that they are welcome to return to the castle whenever they like. Thomas returns the token with thanks and asks if they might be given an escort to the cave, for they had best return quickly. Lysander agrees and Sir Terin will be their escort to the cave once again. The pack head off as soon as it is polite and make good time for the gate to the Realm. Sir Terin wishes them good luck and waits until they enter the cave.

Holistic Approach step through into the Realm after coaching Peter in how its done. They find some of the lights they left here and check John's mobile. Damn, no signal. Ok, down through the cold water and out into the night, then up to the car. They ring the cemetary and get Ian on the phone, and find out that its in fact -

Saturday 29

- and they've been gone more than a week.

Ian asks whether they've been sucessful and when informed that they were says that he'll get the others to join him, and that they should make quick step to get to him. This, they do, joining the rest of the Elders at the Sept. Peter is checked out and asked some questions by Cossack and Emma while Ian, Nadine and Graeme watch. The Elders get the details of their trip from the pack.

Peter is more than happy to help, and tries to remember everything he can, but his memory has been scrubbed. The only brief piece of recurring memory that he has is of darkness, a scent of decay and the distant sound of rain falling. The pack and Elders try a few things like binding spirits of memory or dreamspeak, but the memories are gone. Peter remembers most things leading up to forming a pack at Singing Sands, but anything after that is just gone. Cossack points out that Peter is currently without a tribe, and asks what he wants to do. Peter isn't sure yet, but would like to stay near John for a while. Cossack suggests that Peter and John might want to organise some sort of housing away from the Uni. Unless John is planning to study this year, it might be an idea to move away from the Colleges, especially given the situation with Marnie. John says that it sounds like an idea.

Sunday 30

The pack split up and get some stuff done, catching up with their lives as much as possible.

Late Sunday, Thomas is heading back to the caern when he rounds a corner and comes face to face with a familiar figure in a hawaiian shirt and trenchcoat. The straw man says "Hi" and suggests sitting and talking in the park across the road. They stroll over there and the strawman asks why the pack are not spending more time trying to rout out the others, given the mages told them where they were and all. Thomas mentally contacts the rest of the pack and finds that John is with Cossack. He asks John to echo on everything that is said. Thomas waffles for a while before basically saying that they went and looked and found almost nothing. The strawman seems a little startled and asks a few questions, then says "Just a moment" and reverts to a scarecrow. After a few moments, it reanimates and the mage says that perhaps they could help each other out. The others - the mage asks whether they have a name and Thomas says "yes", but doesn't enlighten him any further - the others are obviously a threat to them all, and it would be sensible to pool information on how to find them. In the interests of mutual trust, perhaps the mages and the werewolves can keep each other appraised of any developments, and then perhaps use that basis of trust to accomplish other objectives, like routing them out and destroying them. Thomas cautiously agrees after consulting quickly with Cossack. Brett asks Thomas to get a mobile number, but the mage says that if the werewolves run an ad in the Age personals addressed to "Strawman", the mages would contact them. The figure reverts to straw and Thomas walks away.

  Thomas returns to the Sept and meets the rest of the pack and Cossack. They discuss this revelation. It is generally held that the mages must have some reason to suddenly come out all friendly, but they've no idea what it might be. Perhaps the mages are coming to help them when Sleeping Lore is weak in order to keep the two groups of Garou at each other's throat and allow them to get away with more in the meantime. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Brett pulls Thomas aside and says that he wants to go and find Kirsty, who's had one of her attacks. Thomas lets him go as long as he rings in regularily, so Brett heads off

Monday 31

John and Peter find a house to the north of the caern. Its fairly well suited to their needs - its small, cheap and private. Its also mostly furnished, as the previous owner only died recently and her family aren't sure what to do with the place, so they're renting it out. John is the only one on the lease, because Peter doesn't have any ID at all.

Kimu is sleeping in the Glade when he notices the Glade Child tossing and turning in its sleep. Some of the other spirits look a bit agitated too, but he can't see anything in the Umbra, so he peeks into the Realm. There's nothing happening in the garden, but he can hear noises like raised voices in the house. He opts to step through in lupus form. In the Realm, Chasing-the-Night can hear more clearly. There is an authoratarian and unfamiliar voice coming from inside, and more precisely at the top of the stairs where the kids sleep. Alerting his pack (only Thomas hears, and starts heading that way at speed) Kimu rushes up the stairs, hackles raised and teeth bared, where a figure is blocking the doorway at the top. The figure turns and says something like "Oh, so you've got a dog, hey" and takes a kick at the not very scary Kimu. However, his footing wasn't as good as he thought, so the large figure and Kimu go tumbling down the stairs in a mass of arms and legs. Up close, Kimu can see that the man is wearing most of a police uniform, but not the jacket. He's also carrying a gun, so Kimu (in lupus) grabs the grip of the pistol and tries to run off with it. Its much heavier than he expects however, so it comes out of the holster, but goes flying across the ground. The presumed policeman tries to get to his feet while still keeping a hold of this "dog", but can't manage both, so Kimu slips out of his grip and runs across to pick up the gun. Its only as Chasing-the-Night heads towards the policeman with the gun in his mouth that the cop appears to realise he's lost the gun, and he makes a desperate lunge for the weapon, but misses. Kimu heads out the back, onto a planter, and eventually onto the roof. He stops poetically for the gun to glint and runs for the front of the building. Cursing, the policeman heads the other direction.

With the help of a handy awning, Chasing-the-Night makes it down to the ground. He trots across the road and watches as the cop runs out the street that the abandoned shop is in and up Johnston St and then up the street where Kimu came down. When the cop comes back to Johnston St, Kimu puts down the gun and barks loudly. The cop runs across the road and Kimu picks the pistol up and runs for it. Kimu is much faster than the cop, and so he decides to play chasey for a while, leading the run towards the parks near the Yarra. The cop, obviously not sure how to explain losing his gun, keeps chasing. Kimu heads for the Merri Ck/Yarra Rv junction, speeding up and slowing down in a very Benny Hill sort of way. He gets to the junction and finds a large crowd of people blocking the main path up Merri Creek. Some of them look at the large dog with the gun in its mouth and seem a bit bemused. Kimu opts to cross the footbridge and head into the Koori Garden. He's reached the far side when the cop comes running along the footpath and the group of people yell "Cops!" and split up into a chaos of people runing for safety. Between Kimu's natural skills at hiding and the confusion caused by the fleeing mob, the cop loses him completely. Much cursing and swearing and eventually the cop gives up looking for him and heads back. Kimu heads towards the bank and drops the gun in the river, and heads back too.

Thomas has, in the meantime, arrived in the Umbra and peeked about. There are a couple of tubs of earth blockading the door and Brad lays in wait with a baseball bat. Figuring that they are fine for the moment, Thomas heads outside the front door and steps sideways into a dark part of the street. It takes him a little while, and by this time there is a cop-shaped man hammering at the front door and yelling. Thomas approaches him from behind (6' 4'' lump of muscle with one arm comes out of the darkness) and the cop flashes some ID and tells him to move along. Thomas snickers and goes nearby to ring the police saying there's a guy pretending to be police smashing stuff (crash! goes the window) in a street. The police don't seem too enthused, but tell him they'll be out there soon. The cop comes stomping out of the street and to a typical Fordmadore and hoons off at speed. By this time Kimu has arrived too, and he and Thomas meet up in the Umbra. They go into the Realm in the backway, and check on the kids, who seem a bit confused about how they knew that things were going wrong. Thomas tries to be enigmatic, just sounds like a bad tv show. Brad says that he thinks that the cop was one of the ones that arrested them last time, Carmichael or something, and Thomas says he'll look it up in the morning.