Bites still hasn't returned from Eden, whence he went early Sunday morning, but no one seems particularly concerned about it. LED is at the old hive site, doing some gardening, when he sees a shoving match between two ten year olds start to turn quite nasty, one kid slamming the other's head on the ground. He runs over and breaks it up along with some of the other local adults and senses for wyrm, finding more than he's comfortable with on both kids. He senses about and finds that a significant number of the kids have concerning amounts of wyrm taint on them. Some questioning of the larger of the two kids reveals his name and probably his address. The younger kid is a bit concussed and some of the other adults take him home. LED alerts the rest of the pack and they show up in short order. They scope the area, but nothing seems to show up as being particular tainted. Mulder suggests checking the local school, as there was no taint noticeable a week ago during school holidays and now there is.
This Time for Sure check a map and find the most likely local school. Its an old building site, with not very much greenery. The buildings are probably over a hundred years old, although it looks like some renovation have been done recently (further searching from the Umbra reveals several "working bee" notices that seem to more inside-oriented than garden). Using their gifts to detect anything supernatural reveals a very patchworkesque feeling - one part of the school slightly weavery, another slightly wyldy and so on. None of these taints are very strong and its only their proximity to each other which makes them noticeable. It is suggested that the presence of so many children and their imaginations might cause such a thing.
Mulder looks about to find a possible way that evil might have come up from the storm water drains into the school, and he finds an underground storage place beneath the asphalt outside - probably some sort of disaster shelter which is now being used to store a variety of tools and material. There is also a grating in the floor which leads down into some largish pipes. The garou sniff around it and find that it has been used recently, probably by older kids, judging from the smells. The pack step into the Realm and have a hunt down the tunnels a little way. They find grafitti and other evidence that suggests to them that the grating is used by the cave clan or other urban spelunkers, either to get into the tunnels or as a way of getting into the shelter for some reason.
The pack return to Sept and pass along what they have found and what they are doing. Spooky Mulder asks if the sept knows anyone in the sort of skater/cave clan kind of groups and Florence tells him that they have a number of kinfolk mixed in with them. Florence is asked to see if the kinfolk have noticed anything underneath the school or the old Hive site. Its well after dark by this point, so they decide to observe the children tomorrow at school rather than hunting them down individually.
The pack scope out the primary school from midmorning onwards. When nothing turns up - no evil teachers, no bus of doom taking kids there - they also take a quick look at the nearby high schools too, with no further luck. Back to the primary school to settle in for the long haul. There are a disturbing number of tainted primary school children - perhaps a fifth of the entire school - and the high school has a small number of similarly tainted individuals.
At lunchtime, Mulder is peeking when he hears a strange noise, like music being tortured horribly. A strange vehicle stops near the school, apparently the source of the sounds. Its an ice cream van, and the side window opens revealing a clown, complete with white face, funny wig and all. Mulder alerts the others when he does a Sense Unnatural check and gets many wyrm awoogas both from the clown and from the icecreams that he is selling to the kids. The clown hasn't said a word the entire time he is there, but is just selling icecreams as kids ask what they want.
Feeling that perhaps this is the problem at hand, the pack organise to follow along when he takes off from the primary school - Bandit zooms along with Speed of Thought while carrying Mulder while Moon River, LED and Smurfette go back to the caern and score a car. The ice cream truck and mr clown go to the nearby high school too, and seem to sell a couple more icecreams (its July, so ice cream isn't high on anyone's list of things to eat). The truck then leaves, driving away to the depot. Thomas manages to keep up, dodge weaver spiders and give good directions to Moon River, so the pack arrives at the same time. The Garou in the car step from there into the Umbra. Well, LED does, Smurfette bounces and Moon River goes into the Gauntlet but doesn't come out. Smurfette says she'll wait in the car.
The depot is a sort of a U shape with the mouth open to the street, offices and warehouses on the left and a garage/workshop on the right. Mr clown drives into the garage and gets out, heading into the office buildings, closely trailed in the Umbra by Mulder and Bandit. While they watch, mr clowny is greeted as "Reg" by a couple of people, but doesn't say anything himself. He gets some forms from a bored looking secretary by pointing at them, takes them to a table and starts filling them out. Spooky Mulder manages to make out the name "Reginald Howard" on the top of the form. Meanwhile, other people are sensing for wyrm or other supernatural contaminant - Reg seems to basically be it.
Reg takes the forms to a warehouse bit of the depot, drops off his cash box and gets some boxes in return. People sense the icecreams and similar things he has taken and are relieved to find that they seem fairly normal - they don't have an entire fleet of evil ice cream selling clowns to deal with. Reg stops via the toilets on his way to the truck (ew, that's not hygienic) and stares into the mirror, still moving from side to side and smiling like a maniac. He spends a couple of minutes there while the Garou dive to one side wondering if he is peeking or what. Reg grabs his boxes and heads out to the truck. Once inside he empties a big tub of soft serve mixture into the dispensing machine and turns it on. He then vomits gushes of black, oily goop into the tub and empties that into the machine as well. No one bothers to sense for Wyrm. A similar process happens with the boxes of frozen icecreams - Reg drops them in the freezer and then vomits more black material into the freezer. In both cases the legitimate contents seems to absorb the regurgitated material, leaving no trace they were tampered with. Reg then heads back into the offices.
People realise that there's still no sign of Moon River so Mulder goes back and hoiks him out of the Gauntlet and catches him up on events. LED and Mulder decide that they want to hobble the truck and so they step into the back part of the vehicle, having established that the mechanics and other people won't be able to see there. However as they step out, LED slips and stumbles out into the drivers compartment, causing the truck to joggle. A nearby mechanic seems to take interest in this, puts down the tools he was using and starts moving towards the icecream van. LED leaps into the front seat and scopes out the possibility of stealing the truck wholesale while Mulder looks about the back for ways to wreck the freezer. He looks underneath a cupboard for a wrench or something and finds an automatic rifle. After blinking for a moment or two, he checks it and finds that its a real gun with a full clip. What a perfect thing to use to wreck the freezer and hopefully scare people away. He aims and fires. The bullet dints the freezer, ricochets off the steel cover, scores LED across the upper arm and out the front window, crazing and shattering the glass.
LED yells some unflattering things about Mulder's mother and the mechanic ducks to one side yelling some unflattering things in general. LED decides its really time to get going and uses Control Simple Machine to start the car. However, the car spirit isn't having any of that and crunches his legs with the steering wheel. Mulder flips to Crinos and makes a few attempts to wreck things before deciding that the Umbra is the better part of discretion. He stashes the gun under the desk and leaves LED to his own devices. LED tries to get out the drivers door as the mechanic calls out for help. Moon River and Bandit step into the Realm from the Umbra inside one of the supply trucks, in case they are needed in a hurry. The drivers' door is stuck. LED turns around and goes to use the door to leap off and onto the mechanic and it opens suddenly, dropping him out of the car and onto the ground rather harshly. Giving the car a swift kick, LED makes a break for the main gates. He is crashtackled by the mechanic and follows a short back and forth struggle before LED manages to get free. He sees Smurfette barrelling in and waves at her to run back out. She skids to a halt and the two of them run off down the street. Moon River and Bandit sigh and head back into the calm, relaxing Umbra.
While some of the pack are throwing off pursuit, the police are called and two young gentlemen of the constabulary arrive to make enquiries. They ask what happened and for descriptions and for the video surveillance of the site and generally look about the place. They don't seem too happy with Reg's ongoing silence, and when the manager says that he goes a bit strange when he puts the gear on they don't look too happy with him either. The senior of the two asks the manager to get Reg back in civvies or whatever, because he won't be going anywhere today, and they wander out to the van. Reg ignores the manager and follows the police out to the van. The manager calls out a few times, and then seems to give up. One of the officers goes inside while the other tries to see if he can see where the purported bullet went. The officer in the van looks around without concentrating on details too much. Reg goes into the van and looks at the police man looking around. The copper realises Reg is there when he turns to leave the van and says rather crossly "Sir, please take the ... uniform off, we want to ask you some questions. Now." Reg leaves the car and heads for the offices, but when the police are well clear of the van he runs back and leaps into the van, starts it and zooms out of the depot.
Bandit kicks his Gift in again and tears off after the van with Mulder under his arm. LED, Smurfette and Moon River step back into the car and tear off from the curb... straight into the police car that was also hooning out of the icecream depot. There is a brief staring moment (its not like the other two passengers - the guy with white hair and the girl with blue hair in sort of overalls - are particularly in the minds of these two police who have been interviewing the mechanic) and then Moon River roars off, leaving the now crippled police car to presumably call for backup.
Reg rather predictably heads straight for the site of the old Hive. He slows down and starts the music up again and some kids start heading his direction, although the lack of a windscreen is causing a little bit of "er, what?". Bandit and Mulder step out into Realm in a convenient spot (the Bonegnawers built the park, of course there's a convenient spot), and report back what is happening. Moon River is approaching at speed, and he suggests ramming speed. Bandit agrees and the two of them run towards the truck to try and be close by for emergencies. LED and Smurfette decide to take their chances in the Umbra at 80kms/hr rather than crash. There is a brief panicked pause as John can't quite step but then they vanish. The honking horn and the accelerating car cause most of the kids to move back a bit from the ice cream van, but as Moon River slams into the van, one kid is struck and sent flying. Mulder runs up to check that the kid is ok - mostly shock and a bit of bruising, but nothing severe. The car/van combo continue moving up over the footpath at the end of the street through a garden and stop hard up against the terrace house at the end.
Moon River makes his escape in the confusion. Bandit runs into the van to check out mr clowny. Reg apparently suffered a blow to the head on the freezer from the impact and is out cold, but will survive. Bandit rectifies that by lifting him up and slamming his head into the freezer a few more times, then runs off too. Mulder rescues LED and Smurfette from the Gauntlet, and gets the amusement of watching them suddenly appear in the Umbra and skud across the landscape at speed.
Later that night in the pub, This Time For Sure makes the 6pm news. Although the videos surveillance tapes were unusable (LED pats his new degaussing talen) and eye witness reports don't match up, police assure the city that they have many leads and expect progress in the case soon.
By Saturday, Bites has returned and Herman, Florence and Scratches-at-Fleas have decreed that the pack have fulfilled their spiritual duties and can now be recognised as Bone Gnawers. Rat is summoned and sniffs over the pack, pronouncing them good, the rite is concluded and the pack are sprayed in the traditional beer. The whole Sept parties up.
Around lunchtime, This Time for Sure chat with the sept elders about heading to the Bonegnawer homeland. They are given some advice on finding it (look for holes or similar kinds of entrances in a Moonpath) and what its like (one giant nice city). Scratches-at-Fleas suggests that maybe they want to duck home and leave from there - there's no real benefit from starting from here. This Time For Sure Moonbridges back to Melbourne. They catch Cossack up on things and he nods a lot. The afternoon is spent creating talens - Moon River summons and binds a hawk to make a fear-scream talen, Mulder binds a wind spirit to protect him in the Umbra into a feather - meditating for gnosis and so on. The umbral shotgun is not available, because the Get of Penington still have it and they are still out in the Umbra.
That night the pack head out through the Umbra, wandering aimlessly through the city until they find a Moon Path. They jump from Moon Path to Moon Path where they cross to form Lunaes - street corners, once a bridge across a stream and other crossroads. After many hours, they find a manhole-looking thing in the roof of their Moon Path. Despite some fun with gravity, they all end up in the smooth-sided tunnel which seems to lead 'down'. As they travel, the tunnel becomes more and more like worked stone or concrete underground. The previously neutral Umbral wind becomes a somewhat stale, damp smell which increasingly smells like stagnant water. More tunnels join theirs and the ground grows damper, eventually becoming a shallow stream.
The pack's tunnel ends, emptying out into a waist-deep, almost stagnant drain. Having no way to go but onwards, they wincingly step into the slimy tunnel. Travelling onward, Moon River points out a faint squeaking sound. It increases in volume and the water starts to sluggishly move past them. The pack press up against either wall as a swarm of rats come around a corner, swimming and crawling over each other. Although LED points out that they could be running from something rather than to the pack, the pack hold their ground. They are soon swarmed in many inquisitive rats, who scramble all over them and into their clothes. Bandit jumps up and down trying to scrape rats off him as they are nibbling at his tattoo and it tickles. Eventually the rats pass.
More travelling, and ahead the pack can see light filtering down from above. A grill above them seems to lead up and out. Some investigation reveals that it seems to lead into an alleyway, near the mouth of it, and leading out onto a street. The pack poke around. The weather feels pleasant, the trees are green. There are many cars in the street, and spirits wandering around that look more or less human. A certain amount of "now where?" sort of conversations happen, before the pack just take off and see what they can see. They spy a rat sitting in a garbage bin nibbling happily away at a hamburger and decide to see if asking questions will help. Moon River makes some enquiries and the rat says that it doesn't know anything about dead people or anything like that, but it will take them to some live people if they find out something for it. The Garou suspiciously ask what and the rat says it wants to know what's in the box inside the building its out the front of. They ask why rat doesn't just go and find out, and it says that it tried but the guy inside won't let it find out. The Garou agree to its deal and head inside. Bites and LED try to rent a room and put stuff in the safe, but the Hawaiian shirt clad desk clerk rumbles them and says that they are with the rat.
Moon River says to let him try and barges inside claiming to be a Safe Inspector. The clerk says their safe was inspected already, and Moon River counters that this is an inspection inspection. The clerk wants to see his paperwork, but Moon River says the original inspection group have it, so he'll just have to wait. The clerk is a bit unsure, but judicious use of Persuasion helps the matter and eventually he agrees; but Moon River has to turn his back while he empties the safe. Its already been moved and when Moon River agrees and turns around the guy empties it out into a box and then hides the box. The safe is lifted up and Moon River looks at it and mentally says "tell the rat 'nothing'". The rat is less than impressed with being tricked, but grouchily agrees. Inspection over, Moon River returns to the rest of the pack.
The rat leads them through the city to an oldstyle cinema, where according to the marquee they are playing a Wile E Coyote marathon. The rat indicates that there are some live people inside. This Time for Sure ask him to come in with them, but the rat is not big on this until they offer him some fresh popcorn in return. They check their collective wallets and find some cash - however, the concession guy doesn't seem to believe that plastic stuff is real money. When he shows them real money, its sort of paper and a bit American looking. They ask for and receive instructions on how to get to a bank, to change their money for other money. However, the bank hours seem to never overlap in such a way that the bank is ever actually open. The pack fiddle the locks on the door, and stride in, but the security guard is fairly obstinate and seems likely to pull a gun. The fall back on plan B. Busking. And fortunately, it appears that the spirit people in the homeland are far more generous than material people, and in a fairly short time they have enough cash for 6 tickets and one concession (the rat) and some popcorn.
Its an old-style cinema inside too, one almost flat row of seats, replete with leather chairs, jaffas, old drink containers and chewing gum. There aren't many people, just a small group way down the front. The rat points at them and says "live people, see?" so they leave him happily burying his way into a big jumbo popcorn container and head that way. As they approach, its possibly to see that there are 6 people, all in the front row, and calling out a lot - booing the roadrunner and cheering the coyote, in some European language or another. This Time for Sure wait for a break and then try and speak to one of the guys on the end. There is much blank staring, and whispering of messages up and down the group before a woman stands up and leads them away. Bandit eventually manages to introduce them with their Bonegnawer names and she says that she is Andrea Kostas, packleader of Trikkala-one-Nil. They give her a quick rundown (looking for the spirit emanation of a dead sept member) and she says that she'll think about it, but right now this is her favourite cartoon.
A few more cartoons pass and then there is an intermission. Andrea says she assumes that they've tried questing stone, and if that didn't work, she's not sure what will - but she knows someone who might. Feeling a bit deja vu (and reja vu) This Time for Sure agree that that would be nice of them. So off through the city they go, and finally to a park. The park is quite large, with loverly fountains, wide lawns with blankets on them, picnic baskets just hanging about, that sort of thing. Trikkala-one-Nil lead them through a thick brush and out into a clearing where there rests an enormously large, half-completed wooden boat. There are rats running backwards and forwards all around the place. Andrea asks one of them to go and get Father Noah, which results in the appearance of a scraggly looking old man, who comes down a rope ladder and drops in front of the pack.
Father Noah says hello to Andrea and asks if she wants to change her mind, and when she shrugs, he turns to Bandit and asks if he wants to buy a ticket. This Time for Sure cautiously ask what sort of ticket and Noah says that it is a ticket for his boat for when the Flood comes at the end of the Apocalypse. Er, not right now, say the pack and introduce themselves to Noah. They explain their situation - half way through Trikkala-one-Nil beg leave and head back to their cartoons - Marion, Sydney, affecting Alex in some way, making him all Harano-y. Noah thinks for a bit, pulling out a pipe and chewing on the end without lighting it. When they finish, he says that he doesn't know much about the whole dead-emanation-reincarnation thing really, but he does know someone who will. The only thing is that he was about to take off and look for Harry, who has his special compass - he needs it for the ship. If they could get the special compass back, he'd have the time to take the to see this other person, no probs. This Time for Sure sigh a bit, but agree to the chiminage. They ask some questions about the compass, just to check that its a navigational one, and not one for drawing circles. Noah assures them that its the navigational one, and its special, so it should be easy to spot. They also ask about Harry, and it turns out pretty quickly that not only is Harry a rat, but that Harry is the name for a lot of the rats here. Questing Stone, it is needless to say, is a bit useless.
Plan B. They accost another rat who is dragging some random piece of crap towards the boat and ask if he'll help them find Harry. He asks what they are offering for Harry, and there is a brief negotiation wherein the rat demands Bites-at-Treads' boots to even go looking. In the end, they offer this rat (Harry) Bites' boots in return for Harry and or the special compass. They suggest some sort of pyramid marketing scheme where this rat gets the other rats to help him find Harry, and as their agent, he will get one boot and the finding rat will get the other boot. After some bickering about getting a shoelace in advance, the rat runs off. The pack kick back for the entire afternoon.
Sometime after dusk, the rat returns, dragging a pink bit of paper. He says that he'd like to discuss the exact payment requirements, because he now knows where the special compass is (and maybe Harry too), but he doesn't actually have them. They chat for a while, and it turns out that this Harry has a lost and found form from the police station which lists where the special compass is. They ask why he didn't get it, and it turns out to be some distance away, he thinks. They agree that if he comes with them to find it, they will pay out in a boot sort of way, but they want to make sure they get the compass. Harry agrees reluctantly, and gives them the piece of paper. It does indeed say "lost and found" at the top, and lists 1 (one) compass (special) as being found at an address. Moon River looks a bit pale and says that the address is the same as the Hive in Sydney.
With Harry(II) as a guide, they take off and start walking. Hours pass, and the city quietens down. After about midnight, they are more or less alone. The area starts to feel like Sydenee in a non-specific way - it has a sense of being in Australia first, and then in Sydney, without really being able to subscribe it to anything in particular. More walking, carrying Harry(II).
Moon River and Bites hear an odd noise (Mulder realises he has a flea), and it takes a few moments before they realise that its crying. Around the corner they can see a small figure on the side of the road, face down into their knees. The crying sound is coming from there, and the voice and size says that the person is a child, maybe a teenager. The pack approach, everyone but Mulder in homid form (dammit, there's a few of them... scratch scratch). They can see its a young girl, and as they get within about 10', she looks up, causing Moon River to make a sort of gnargh sound. He sits down next to her and says "Hi Veronica." The two of them chat, and Veronica says that she's lost, and how did he know her name, and who is he. Moon River says his name is Mathias, and that he knows her mum. Veronica asks if he used to work with her, and Moon River agrees for simplicity's sake. The rest of the pack are clamouring for answers mentally, so Moon River explains quickly that while he was nominally in the Atrocity Realm, he jumped into the body of a 13 year old girl, who had been a Lost Cub but had killed herself before going through first change. This is her.
Moon River and Veronica talk. Veronica is upset because she's lost and its late and she wants to go home and she doesn't know where to go. Mulder is getting more upset because he seems to be suddenly infected with fleas. He blames the rat. Everyone else moves further away. Moon River says that they have an errand to run, but that he would be more than happy to run her home after that. She cheers up a lot, and chatters a bit on the way along to Moon River. Veronica doesn't seem to notice or mind that they have a talking rat with them, so the pack shrug and continue.
They arrive at the address. Mulder says that he'll stay out here to keep Veronica safe and because he keeps scratching too much to be much help in combat - given the commonality in the addresses, the pack are expecting trouble.. the strong wyrm sense doesn't hurt either - and Harry(II) also has no interest in going inside. The rest of the pack move in and investigate. The building seems to be an abandoned apartment of some sort (the surrounding buildings are run down and all too). The lifts don't looks safe, so they go downstairs first. Bandit goes to turn on a light in a cellar room and feels something wrap around his hand, and then a strong electric shock. He yells and flails around, hitting Moon River as another shock hits him, effectively zapping Moon River too. After some wrestling and thumping, Bandit rips the thing out of the wall and ... er... dissembles it. It appears to have been a bane made out of electrical cabling and other stuff you'd find in the walls of a house. Odd, think the pack. They carefully check the plant room but there's nothing else happening.
Upstairs, checking with sense wyrm to see if they can find the source of the wyrm, and calling out for Harry. At some point, part of the stairs collapse under Bandit, but he nimbly leaps up a few steps and barely breaks stride. They go all the way up the building, sensing as they go. Consensus seems to be that the 4th floor is the strongest wyrm sense, so they check it out in more detail. The pack move through the corridors, opening doors and checking the rooms out. LED says he thinks he's found it - there is a large pillar of garbage and rubble stretching between floor and ceiling in the room he's just opened, and it strongly senses of wyrm. The pack move into the room, but there's no reaction from the pillar.
The decide that the compass is probably part of the junk that makes up the pillar, so Bandit takes a swing at it. The pillar explodes into activity, sending out tentacles of rubbish and cabling and rubble. Feeling this is more their thing, the pack leap into the fray. As they slug away at it, more rubbish is cascading into it, filling up the gaps. At some point, a little goblin/golem made of concrete runs in, but it is rapidly hoiked out a window, smashing down on the ground below. The battle is not going ideally for the Garou - people are getting seriously hurt. LED stops fighting for a moment to heal someone, and is crushed by the garbage bane before he can jump out of the way. Fortunately they start to get their shit together and the pillar cascades down in a ruin of litter, incidentally covering the mortally wounded LED. Bandit looks for LED as a first priority, and finds him by the expedient of falling through a hole in the floor and landing on him, crushing LED's hips.
People are healed of their wounds. At some point, people go outside, somewhat freaking Veronica out - they had forgotten that they would be spattered in blood and viscera. The pack search through the rubble, hoping that the special compass would be there. This is pretty much in vain, so they head outside to talk to Harry(II) and see the lost and found form again.
The lost and found form is fairly explicit - found, one compass (special) and an address. The pack fall back on Plan A, and bug Harry(II) to help them find Harry(I). He does so after some more negotiation, and being reassured that the bad thing has gone. A matter of minutes later, Harry(II) returns with Harry(I), who agrees to give them the compass after they say Father Noah says he needs it back. Bites is debooted and LED is deshoelaced, and they leave Harrys(I + II) to their own ratty pursuits.
The pack clean up a bit and go and speak to Veronica. She really just wants to go home. She's tired and lost and confused and generally not too impressed with the world at large. Moon River leads them onwards, trying to find spiritual correspondences from this area (which reminds them of the Hive) to Veronica's neighbourhood (which he really only vaguely knew the location of). However, after a couple of hours of wandering (in which time Mulder de-fleas himself by drowning them), Moon River feels that this is sort of the area they are looking for. Veronica, on the other hand, doesn't recognise any of it.
LED puts his great Theurge brain to work and starts speculating about things. He has a flash of insight about Veronica - fundamentally she ended up in this situation not because she didn't know where she lived, but because she was a Lost Cub, and didn't know how she fit in. Following that line of reason, its not her mortal house that she needs to find, but a represenation of the Garou home... a caern, for instance. LED passes this on, and the others ruminate upon it.
The wander back to see Father Noah, and on the way Moon River explains to Veronica what she is. She seems to take it fairly well - it does explain a lot, and being able to get people to demonstrate form changing et al helps too. They explain that she is in another realm ("oh, a magic land".. "er, yeah") and Veronica asks how she got here. They um and ar and don't really explain, as part of the "ixnay on the eadday" plan.
The arrive back at the park about dawn, and decide to catch some sleep. People noodle around or meditate or snooze until Father Noah appears on the main deck of his boat. Breakfast (porridge) is served and the pack fight with rats to manage to get some. Eventually stomach's are full and they give Noah the special compass. This Time for Sure tell him that Harry thought that he didn't want it any more and Noah nods (a likely story). Noah calls one of the Harrys over and asks him to take them to the library - he explains he has some things to do this morning, and so he'll take them to see the guy they should see later, but in the meantime the library might have more information for them.
Harry(III) leads them through the park and into a sort of public-building-looking area of the city, and up to a building which has "library" written across the archway. The library is very quiet, and deserted, as far as the pack can immediately see. Harry(III) suggests the Reading Room, where the newspapers are kept and seeing if they can find any information about the people they are looking for. There are a lot of signs, and finding the Reading Room is not difficult. The difficult part becomes next - the pack start trying to find some appropriate newspapers like the Sydney Morning Herald, and from there to find some from the right date. Moon River is a bit blurry on the exact date (events being what they were around it), but gives them a bracket of about a week.
The papers themselves seem to be mostly normal papers, but every now and again there is a jarring article about Garou... in fact, specifically about Bone Gnawers. This lends a somewhat surreal aspect to their search. Mathias tries to look up stuff about Veronica in the hope of finding some way of breaking it to her that she's dead, but doesn't know when it was exactly (having been kept from that knowledge previously). Veronica goes to sleep. LEDs amazing study abilities come to the fore and he starts finding information about the attack on the Hive. Specifically he finds a snippet in the obituaries that says "Marion Perry, Fostern of the Bone Gnawers from the Sept of Sleeping Lore, died fighting Black Spiral Dancers from the Hive of Corrupted Flesh". There are other names there too - Pox, Gordon Davis, Rana Wijaya, Adrian Gianinni and Josephine Brereton - all Bonegnawers from the Rocks caern.
Bites wanders away to find the theological area of the library. He speaks to a little cardigan wearing gnomelike creature at the information desk who tells him that the section is at the top of the library. Off goes Bites. LED continues to sort through papers, and after a time, finds another entry for Marion, sort of. It says '"Marion Perry(?)" passed through the Homeland today, leaving no known emanations, manifestations or residue'. This doesn't sound too good for the 'Marion-affecting-Alex' theory, but the jury is still out. Bites has sat down with an idiot's guide to past lives and has basically gathered that Bone Gnawers believe that they are reincarnated after passing through a sort of rest stop station where you get a chance to unwind. He picks up another book and after a lot of slogging through it, it seems to be saying that the soul breaks up into a lot of pieces, although the analogy of it being like a car being recycled doesn't really work. With a sinking feeling, Bites moves to another book, which suggests that only souls without the proper amount of willpower or something dissapate, and normally they form emanations.
The pack spend until about midafternoon in the Library with a rising sense of confusion. They head back to Father Noah, who drops what he is doing and leads them all (including Veronica) through the city. Most of the way there he is gibbering about the waters rising and the coming Apocalypse and why they should buy tickets on his boat. He says that he's seen a thousand visions of the coming of the end of the world, and proceeds to enumerate some of them. He also says where he's taking them - to see Abu Nawas, a 12th Century poet and scholar from Persia. Eventually Father Noah goes into a 7-11 and waves at the guy behind the counter, leading the whole pack out a backdoor and up some stairs. Noah tells them to wait on the stairs while he speaks to someone, and proceeds through a door. A few minutes pass, but the pack can't hear voices, and then Noah returns to the door. He leads them in and introduces them to the other figure in the room. Other than said robed figure, the room is pretty empty - a sleeping pallet, a cushion and a low table. The figure pushes back his hood and they can see that he is middle eastern looking, maybe in his mid30s.
Noah gives Abu Nawas a brief rundown of what the pack is here for, and then jestures for Bandit to go into greater detail, while making his way out the door. With help from the others Bandit covers everything from the Sydney events to events around New Years Eve, meeting Alex in Carnarvon, Marion influencing him from beyond the grave, going to Sydney again and finally being here. At the end of it all and at the suggestion of the others, before Abu starts to speak, Mulder takes Veronica outside for a drink from the 7-11. Half way down the stairs to the shop, Mulder suddenly feels quite warm, as if the air had heated up. He senses for the Unnatural and gets a weird mix of the background of the Bone Gnawer homeland and a set of different impressions. Veronica has reached the shop door and looks back, asking Mulder why he's stopping. He catches up with her while mentally notifying the others of what has happened. In the meantime, Abu speculates on the ambiguous nature of the thing they are looking for - are they seeking Marion's soul, or an echo of her life that is influencing Alex, or something else entirely? He admits to being ignorant about his own existence, and of that of their young companion. Bites takes this oppurtunity to warn him that Veronica does not know that she is dead, and Abu nods sagely. Bites also mentions Mulder's encounter on the stairs, and Abu says that he exists on the border between two realms - the Bonegnawer Homeland and part of the Legendary Realm that corresponds to the Persia that he lived in. It may be that Veronica is unable to pass from one to the other on her own.
Mulder and Veronica return with a squishy made entirely from syrup (no, not really). Abu stands and suggests that this is about the time when he would normally go for his walk. He extends a hand to Veronica, who takes it as she stands too. There is a subtle shift to some unseen aspect as Abu pulls Veronica to her feet, and the pack theorise that he has moved her into this other realm. They head downstairs and find that it is indeed quite warm. The 7-11 has become a fruit store, and they are admist a souk, full of shouting middle eastern stereotypes. As they walk, Abu continues - is he the whole and complete soul of the Bone Gnawer once known as Abu Nawas, who now resides in the Homeland? Or is he just an echo of his soul; ephemera moulded in the shape of an identity, in which case Abu Nawas may have been reborn and died dozens of times since the life here represented? Abu is greeted by people as they pass, and handing out alms to beggars as he continus to expound. Perhaps he is some vital fragment of Abu Nawas, rather than the soul entire, set to perform some role in Garou life, and that the rest of his soul waits to be reborn? Perhaps he is a combination of these possibilities?
Abu speculates on their quest itself - This Time for Sure appear to revisiting certain aspects of the original events in a cyclic fashion. They returned to the Bone Gnawer sept in Sydney and made reparations for injuries given during the first cycle. Their search for the compass led them back to the Hive, perhaps not literally, but the reference was there. There is also perhaps some commonality between the compass, and the bone itself - the bone was being sought to help find the way, after all. Perhaps there are other events which they have not mentioned which could also be echos of previous encounters?
Abu pauses and haggles for some dates, passing them out to the pack before continuing. This Time for Sure appear to be on a Death quest, one of the most spiritually intense of journeys. In human myth and Garou legend, the questors are usually motivated by the strongest of emotions - love, usually, but sometimes hate. The Umbra is a spiritual and symbolic realm and responds in many ways to the state in which one performs actions; the frame of perception in which one acts. Thus those motivated from spiritual rather than conscious will are far more likely to, if not necessarily succeed, at least produce results. However, this pack has no profound link to either Marion or Alex - they have some friendship for Alex and Christine, but this is not the same as love. Yet they have found places and learned things that they would perhaps not be able to duplicate under other circumstances, even if they spent years. Abu raises this all as food for thought.
As they round a corner in the market, there is a shout from ahead. A group of what looks like soldiers start heading their way and one of them yells "Abu Nawas, you are under arrest by order of the Caliph!". Abu says that his last poem might have been a bit too critical of the caliph, and asks that the pack stop the guards, but not to hurt them too badly. This Time for Sure leap forward to engage the guards and the crowd starts to get out of the way or at least to a better place to observe from. Moon River slams his hands together, and half the halberd-wearing guards are knocked off their feet. Bandit grabs an onrushing halberd and uses it to lever a guard into a fabric stall, crashing it to the ground. Bites-at-Treads changes to crinos and the crowd starts to decide that maybe they should be elsewhere, along with a lot of screaming. He arms himself with some fish while Smurfette yoinks a bunch of bananas off a fruit stall. She swings at one of the charging guards as Mulder takes his feet out with an agile roll - she misses & half spins around, smacking Moon River in the face with them and giving him a nose bleed. Bandit smacks one of the guard in the back of the head with the blunt end of the halberd, smashing him to the ground with a crushed skull, twitching and bleeding profusely. LED sighs and says "thou shalt not kill" and moves to heal the guy. Bites yells "batter up" and smacks one of the guards in face with a fish, cracking his jaw ("ooo, schnapper!") and dropping him to the ground. Bandit drops the halberd, picks up another opponent, and throws him into the guy just getting out of the fabric stall, dropping them both again. Mulder does an elegant kick in the head, knocking a guard back into another stall where a large pot falls on his head, knocking him out. However, another guard rather efficiently stabs him in the stomach with the halberd. Bandit is grappled by two guards, one on each arm. He throws one off and punches him in the face, and then colocates his rising knee and dropping arm, mingling the concepts of 'nose' and 'patella', causing the other guard to let go and fall down. Bites hits another guy with his fish, but its paste, so he drops it and yoiks another one up. Moon River throws a rolled carpet at the guards coming out of the fabric stall, but they just catch it. Mulder is trying to continue to engage the guard that has stabbed him, but without much sucess despite his martial arts training. Bandit knocks down the two guards that grappled him, crushing the chest plate of one and accidentally decapitating the other, while Bites knocks another guard flying by smacking him with the second fish. Bites then leaps over to Mulder, disarms his attacker and uses the blunt end of the halbard to ensure the guard will never father children, leaving him squirming in the dust. Moon River tries to tackle the two guards who caught his carpet, but slips on the the remains of a fish, crashing at their feet. As the two guards try to put the boot in to Moon River, Bites-at-Treads clotheslines both of them (still in crinos form), and sends them crashing through another stall. Feeling that while their attackers were squirming on the ground bleeding was a good time to leave, they move back to the head-shaking Abu who leads them away.
Abu takes them to a low wooden building some distance from the previous fracas. He jestures them to a table while they look about - mostly men, eating, drinking and using hookahs. Mulder is intrigued by the smell, and by the time they get to a table, he's feeling a bit weird. Abu returns with bread, fruit, tea and a decent lump of hasish. He says he would like to sit and think for a while and that they should relax for a while. Mind you, they are still covered in blood. They kick back for an hour. Bites samples also of the drugs after checking for Wyrm taint (some, but much less than they would in the realm).
Abu eventually returns to the here and now. He says that totem spirits are the guardians and protectors of the Garou, and there is little that happens that they do not know. Bites-at-Treads lets him know that their totem spirit is not exactly a useful source of informtion, and in fact seems to stop them from learning anything. Abu points out that spirits are bound quite strongly by certain rules and laws about what and how they can say - they can only behave true to their nature. However, he was thinking more of Rat, rather than of their pack totem. As the tribe totem of the Bone Gnawers, it is more than probable that he would know what has happened to Marion, and can give them more information. However, Rat is unlikely to want to part with this information freely. Someone suggests doing something for Rat in return for help and Abu says that was sort of what he was thinking about. He points out that they are currently in a sort of subrealm, between the Legendary Realm and the Homeland. These two realms and the spaces in between them are also where the tribal totems hang out. In fact, many of the totems participate in the stories of the Legendary Realm.
The pack look at Abu a bit blankly, so he goes on to explain about the Legendary Realm. It is a place where the stories of Garou history are played out. Garou often return to the Legendary realm to take part in the stories in order to learn more about their history, or to strengthen their tribal links with appropriate spirits. Bites asks if its like the Atrocity realms little bubbles, and Abu looks a bit sad, saying that the Atrocity realm was not as developed when he was alive as he understands it is now. Bites explains the bubbles of repeating time and Abu says that the Legendary Realm is a little like that, but that the repeating histories are not quite as distinct from the main fabric of the realm - for instance, you could travel from here to a Greek-like realm without suffering from any discontinuities. Abu continues, saying that in many of the stories, the totems themselves participate - not always just avatars either, but often the actual totem. If This Time For Sure could find a story wherein Rat was compelled to answer question, they should be able to substitute their own question - they would, however, have to ensure that they had a firm question and that Rat had agreed to answer their question before they ask it, because it will probably cause the story to come to an abrupt ending - the stories are somewhat resiliant, but they can be caused to end if the participants violate the story too far. Bites is less than happy about acting in this way, feeling that it is not exactly honourable to behave this way in such a realm. Abu concedes that it is not the most appropriate behaviour, but there is a precedent - it is also the only way that he can think of to compel Rat to answer the question, and he suspects that only the totem will be able to help them. The wide variety of answers they have received to their questions about what happens after death suggests to him that the matter is only going to be settled by the intervention of a powerful Incarna who has knowledge of the souls that they are investigating - ie Rat.
There is, however, the matter of Veronica. She will probably not be able to follow them to the Legendary Realm. The pack ask her if she would mind staying with Abu for the meantime. Frankly, her day has been more than weird, having been told she's a werewolf and then watched these strange people kill some other people and be fairly offhand about it. She checks with Moon River as to what he thinks, and he says that it would be best. Mentally, the pack are of the opinion that Abu is in a better position to explain to Veronica what has happened to her. Veronica nods soberly and says she'll wait for them
Abu says that he is aware of an appropriate legend where Rat is approached with questions that he must answer, called "Nydourl and Bethsheba". It is also another Death quest of sorts - it is the story of the first Garou to find and venerate the Flea totem. He tells them the story in the traditional manner of the Persian storytellers, gaining the attention of many of the other patrons of the establishment. The story goes for some time, as he tells it all the way through, although it is obvious to the pack where they should break the story. At the end, there is applause and another stands to tell a story. Abu suggests that they leave now, and sleep for the evening before setting out the next day. Its now evening and as they leave the tavern, they all get a good look at the galliard moon, recharging their rage. Returning to Abu's quarters, most of the pack crash out asleep while Mulder runs over the salient details of the story in his head.
Nydourl and Bethsheba
"Once upon a time, in a small village in what is probably now India, lived a Bone Gnawer youth called Nydourl. He lived a quiet life with his family and people, until one day when plague came to his village, borne by rats. Nydourl could not die from the plague, being Garou, but watched as one by one his family and his people succumbed to the plague."
"When his mother, the last of his family was dead, Nydourl resolved to speak with the only other Bone Gnawer that he knew - the Wise One, who lived in a cave in a hill not far from the village. Nydourl travelled to the cave and spoke to the Wise One, who was old and creaky. Nydourl wished to know why Rat, the protector and teacher of his people, had turned so harshly against them. The Wise One said that only Rat knew what Rat knew, and that the rats do as Rat says. Nydourl said to the Wise One that he would seek to find Rat. He would learn why it was that Rat had turned against his people and he would make Rat stop."
"Having cremated his family, Nydourl left his village with only a bit of food, a small knife and the clothes he wore. He travelled for many days upon many roads and he had many adventures. But he could not find Rat anywhere."
The Remix
After walking all day, This Time for Sure see a small town ahead of them. They reach the gates just before dawn and wait in line with others who want to enter. While they are waiting, Bandit glances downwards and sees a glint, as of gold. He bends down and looks at this metallic thing and finds a gold ring, intricately etched with feathers around the outside. He pockets it before the guards can see what he is up to. He checks the ring, but finds that it has no particular mystic sense associated with it.
Nydourl and Bethsheba
Nydourl looked for somewhere to sleep the night. As he walked through the town, he came to the market place. By a large stone plinth in the centre of the market place, a line of people were standing. The hands of each were tied and each was tied to the person in front and behind by rope. A slave master was near-by, settling his slaves down for the night to be ready for the market in the morning. Nydourl could see that one of the people in the line, a young woman, was one of the Changing Breed, even if she was in her human form. Nydourl resolved to free the woman and the other slaves."
The Xena Version
This Time for Sure looked around the town for evidence of Rat. The town was made of mud bricks and thatch rooves. They wandered into a market place where people were packing up for the day. Bites noted a grain merchant and made a mental note to try and get some spilt grain for Rat. The others notice a chain of slaves tied together being strung around a plinth. Smurfette is all for releasing them on general principles, but the others are a bit concerned that they don't want to not fit in. As a compromise, LED uses Sense Unnatural to check the group. He notices that one of the slaves, a young woman, was very strange - she had a sense not unlike that of a Garou. The pack thinks that perhaps she's strong kinfolk, or a Garou emanation of the realm.
The night rocks on, dully lit by burning brands. After much discussion and the use of stealth talens, Bites and Bandit approach the woman in homid and lupus form respectively. She is awake as they approach, and seems keen to be released. A pair of guards swing into the square, but don't seem to notice them. While they are chatting to the woman about releasing her and helping them, they notice that she is wearing a ring on her left hand similar to the one that Bandit found earlier. They come to an agreement about helping one another and start planning an escape. Figuring that he'll need his hands, Bandit retreats up a nearby alley. He goes through the shapechange, turns around and sees two guards staring at him. Bandit gives some thoughts to bluffing, but one of the guards yells "MONSTER!" and lunges at him. Bandit communicates this to the others, leaps onto a window sill, thinks about it again and leaps at the two guards, disabling them. In the meantime, Bites asks the woman if there is an informer amongst the slaves, and she says that the guy around the other side is the straw boss. Bites starts heading around the other side when there is a shout of "MONSTER!" from nearby. He jogs around there quickly and sees the straw boss tied up. The guy goes to take a breath, but Bites knocks him out cold and then becomes the whirling dervish, slicing slaves out of the ropes that tie them up and encouraging them to run like hell.
To help distract the guards, Moon River changes to crinos and uses Call of the Wyld to enhance a howl. Well, a sort of whimper. He flips back to homid and wanders away nonchalantly. Mulder and Smurfette are runnign around town scaring the hell out of the locals, Bites and the woman run for the nearest gate. Moon River gets there first and warns the guards about monsters coming in the far gate. The guards decide that they'd better be extra careful about guarding the gate then, in case monsters come this way too. Moon River sighs and gives serious thought to killing them all, but saner minds prevail. Bandit heads towards the nearest wall and tears a big chunk out of the wooden pallisade. Everyone runs for it out the hole and into the cold desert.
Nydourl and Bethsheba
"That night, when everyone in town was asleep. Nydourl crept back to the market place. The slaves were sleeping near the stone plinth in the centre. By stealth, Nydourl crept up to the slaves and cut their ropes with his knife. The woman he freed last. When the slaves realised that they were free, they leapt up and began running in all directions. Nydourl and the woman slipped away into the night."
The "you what?" version
When they had got a sufficient distance from the city, the pack and the woman stop and take a break. The woman introduces herself as Bethsheba, one of the Corax - wereravens. LED knows what they are and that they exist, but the rest of the pack have no idea. The pack give serious thought to capping her in the head and running for it. Bethsheba says that as they have helped her, she will help them. Bandit remembers about the ring and gives it to Bethsheba, who seems very happy to have it back. She says that they were given to her by a dear friend and she would have been very sad to loose them. Someone asks if she needs them to change form and she just stares at them.
Nydourl and Bethsheba
"Bethsheba said that as Nydourl had helped her twice, she would help him twice. Bethsheba was wiser than Nydourl and knew that Rat would not give up a secret except for a secret in return - one that he could not refuse. Likewise he would not give a gift (the gift of lifting the plague) without a gift in return. Bethsheba said that she would help Nydourl find a secret and a gift."
"Now Rat had thirteen children, seven sons and six daughters. Bethsheba knew that Rat's seventh son, Tenacity, had disappeared and had probably been kidnapped. Rat was searching everywhere for his son. If they could learn where Tenacity was, that would be a secret that Rat would give anything to know."
"Bethsheba also knew that Tenacity had been last seen in a large port city to the west. She told Nydourl what she knew, and they resolved to set out immediately for the city. They travelled for many days and h ad many adventures on the way."
The "who will rid me of this turbulent moggy" version
This Time for Sure crest a hill on the dusty road and find themselves at the top of a shallow slope which leads down to the sea. A city rests at the point where a river reaches the sea, and mote-like boats float upon the waters. As the pack and Bethsheba travel down to the city, they see an ever increasing number of cats - mangly mongrels, looking half starved in a lot of cases. When they get into the city, they ask a shopkeeper about the plague; he tells them that the plague started about a month ago, and no one knows where they are coming from. One of the pack comment that at least they don't have a rat problem and the shopkeeper agrees with a laugh - he hasn't seen a rat since the cats started to appear.
Nydourl and Bethsheba
"Nydourl and Bethsheba walked through the city until they reached the docks. Several galleys waited by the docks, but one galley Nydourl spotted straight away because of the foul Wyrm taint that drifted from it and it's crew. A nearby pottery vendor told them that it was a pirate galley, and that everyone was too scared of the pirates to do anything about them. Nydourl and Bethsheba resolved to keep an eye on the pirate galley and it's crew."
The "reconnoiter" version
Figuring that they know why there are lots of cats, but not who is responsible, the pack wander the city. Moon River tries to approach a car to talk to it, but they don't like him. Mulder has more luck, and chats to the little pussy about how they came here and why, the outcome of which is basically that they came in a box within a box and it rocked and rolled and they didn't want to, they were captured and brought here. The pack consider this and come to the conclusion that they probably came in a ship. To the docks!
Once at the docks, sensing for general weirdness points them towards a rather foul smelling galley away from other ships. A fearful local tells them that the people on the ship are pirates, but everyone is too afraid to do anything about them. The pack persuade Bethsheba to change into her raven form and keep an eye on the ship from above while they look around. Moon River waits until some of the crew are walking along the dockside, and bumps into them. Even that brief touch tells him that even random members of the crew seem to be strongly wyrm tainted. The two pirates bluster and push him around a bit and then continue to a waterfront dive. Bites finds a local townguardsman and tries to tell him about the evil pirates, but it seems that the guard has been paid off.
Bethsheba returns about dusk and says that the ship is a galley, thin and fast. There are slaves under the decking who row the ship and a large crew quarters at the rear. She would guess there are about 20 pirates all up.
Nydourl and Bethsheba
"Late that night, Nydourl and Bethsheba watched the galley from the shadows. No-one else was in sight when pirates started carrying large crates down the gangway from the galley to the docks. The pirates opened the crates, and dozens of cats leapt out and ran in every direction (although not back to the pirate galley)."
"Bethsheba suddenly realised what was going on. The pirates were bringing in cats in order to keep all the rats out of the city. As long as there were no rats in the city, they would have no way to find out the Tenacity had been here or where he had gone. Since the pirates were involved in keeping the rats away, they must know something about what happened to Tenacity."
The "no, let me, I'm a professional" version
Late that night, Bites and Moon River swim out to the ship, which has been moved away from the quay. They climb up to the oar-ports and slip onboard. That is to say, Moon River does, but Bites slips and falls back into the water with a splash. One of the guards heads towards the sound straight away, and Moon River dives into the ship without looking. He finds himself face to face with an old slave who looks a bit surprised, but who points to a shadowy niche for Moon River to hide in. Bites-at-Treads decides that drowning is the better part of valour and swims under the ship and away a distance. The guards eventually shrug and move back to their patrol around the boat.
Just as things seem to have gone quiet, a group of pirates come out of the crew area, carrying a big box with shoulder poles ala the arc of the covenant. They do not seem to see Moon River, and pass quickly out of his view. The rest of the pack watch as the ropes are pulled tight and the galley drifts close enough for the gangplang to be put down. The box carrying pirates walk down and put the box down on the pier. They remove some bolts and open the front of the box and tens of cats shoot out at speed, scattering into the waterfront as soon as they can. The pirates return and the ship is allowed to drift away again.
Moon River speaks briefly with the old man, trying to figure out how to perhaps free the slaves. It will not be possible to do so quietly and quickly - there are long chains fixed at the rear of the boat, and the chain is thick and heavy. Moon River slips along the boat, waking practically every slave on that side of the boat. He gets to the rear quarters and tries to hear anything, but the pirates mostly seem to be asleep. He slips off the boat, drawing the attention of the guard again to the splash. This Time for Sure lay their plans. They decide to wait until the morning.
Nydourl and Bethsheba
"Bethsheba told this to Nydourl, who decided to sneak onto the galley to see what he could find. While the pirates were busy with their cats, Nydourl quickly and quietly ran up the gangway and onto the galley. In the galley were many slaves, tied to the benches from where they pulled the oars. Nydourl spoke to one of the slaves, an old man who had been there longer than anyone. The old man told Nydourl that just before they started their regular cat-carrying trips, the galley had made a voyage to a small rocky island far out to sea, and that they had carried no cargo except for a rat in a box. He knew that it was a rat in the box because it kept gnawing it's way out of the box and running around the ship, with all the pirates chasing it. The pirates would catch it and put it in a new box, but it always managed to chew it's way out."
"Nydourl crept back off the boat and told Bethsheba what he had learned. They decided that they must get to the island. The easiest way would be on the pirate galley. Bethsheba said that they should approach the pirates and offer to pay them gold for passage to another city along the coast. The pirates would wait until the galley was out at sea before attempting to steal the gold, whereupon they could defeat the pirates and take the galley. Nydourl agreed to this plan."
The "boring conversation anyway" version
The next morning, the pack wait for some of the pirates to leave the ship, intending to see if they can kidnap and interrogate some of them. LED finds a convenient empty warehouse - the only flaw with it is that its some distannce from the main part of the city. The pack work on a plan.
About midmorning, the pirates send out a small group, apparently to lay in supplies. Theorising that this means the pirates are probably going to leave, the pack decide to take this opportunity. Four pirates leave the ship and head for the markets - two solidly corrupted, two only strongly tainted. The pack follow them around for a while, and eventually the two less corrupted bucaneers are sent back to the ship fully loaded down. The pack follow the two corrupted pirates as they make some purchases of more expensive items, like liquor and such. The plan is put into action. Bandit and Smurfette find an alley a bit closer to the warehouse they want to be in. The rest of the pack spread out in front and behind the pirates. Bites-at-Treads runs past the pirates and yoiks a small barrel of something expensive from one of them, taking off at some speed along the streets. The pirates give unsurprisingly yell for guards and give chase, hampered by Bethsheba and Mulder, who have a screaming domestic in the middle of the street after Bites has slipped past.
Bites is moderating his speed to make sure that the pirates don't fall behind, while making his way towards the aforementioned alley. LED and Moon River help cut down the number of guards that are also giving chase, but one of them is a bit more nimble than the others, catching up and passing the pirates in their pursuit of the pickpocket (ok, snatchpurse). Accordingly, Bites doesn't stop in the alley, but keeps running past Bandit and Smurfette, leading the guard over a short fence at the end of the alley. The two pirates, on the otherhand, run into Bandit and Smurfette, who use Falling Touch and a bit of 2b4 with a nail in it to disable and capture the pirates. The pack take them off to a warehouse and proceed to "make enquiries", during the process of which both pirates die. However, they do tell This Time for Sure that they are releasing cats into the city to make sure there are no rats to give word that Tenacity was taken from here. Tenacity was taken by the pirates to a castle on a rocky island in the middle of the ocean. Neither of the pirates were involved in taking the rat to the castle, so they don't much more about it. Neither can they navigate their way there (presumably the captain knows more), which becomes irrelevant when they pass on.
Feeling that they now have some justification for their frontal assault plans, they carefully watch the pirates until night. The loss of two of their crew doesn't seem to cause any great furore - maybe its thought they pissed off with the cash or something - but no further expeditions are launched from the ship. The plan is arrived at to try and take the guards out as quickly and quietly as possible, then push it out to sea and finish the job. At night, the pirates again let their ship drift away from the docks a bit. The garou and Bethsheba slip into the rather rank waters and change to Crinos. Its quite dark around the ship, and they can easily slip up to the sides. Feeling that his white, white fur will probably be a bit too visible, LED stays at the rear with Smurfette as the primary propulsion. Bethsheba, Bites and Moon River take up one side of the ship and Bandit and Mulder the other. Bethsheba uses her gift of silence to muffle all the sounds in the area, but the pack still have their mental link so they can communicate easily. Bites and Moon River quickly climb into the ship in glabro, up through a oarlock.
At Bandit's mental "now", the pack move. Bites and Moon Riveer swarm up and over the decking, and break the neck of the guard. Mulder creates tentacles of shadows from out of the darkness and tugs the guard clean off the boat. Bandit kicks up out of the water, catches the guard and sinks into the water with barely a splash, waiting underneath the surface until the guard stops struggling. The twitching quadraplegic is kicked off the side and the ropes are cut. With Bethsheba's gift suppressing all sound, the slaves are freed from the chain, although the manacles will have to wait. Bites, Moon River and Mulder guard the three entrances to the crew quarters, while the rest of the pack slip back into the water and start pushing the ship out of the harbour.
Nydourl and Bethsheba
"Nydourl and Bethsheba approached the evil pirate captain in a dock-side tavern, and offered gold for passage to another port. Bethseba used her powers of illusion to create the image of gold to fool the captain. The captain agreed and said that they would be setting off in the morning. Nydourl and Bethsheba agreed to be there."
"The next morning the galley left port. Bethsehba knew that the pirates would probably wait until they thought the passengers were asleep before they tried anything. Sure enough, that night, while Nydourl and Bethsheba pretended to sleep, half a dozen of the pirates crept up to attack them. Nydourl quickly killed the pirates before they could raise the alarm. He then crept up to where the slaves were being held and freed them. Before the pirates knew what had happened, they had been overrun by slaves and tossed over board. The freed slaves proclaimed Nydourl as their new captain and leader. So Nydourl told them to set course for the rocky island far out to sea where the pirate had taken the rat."
The Moulinex version
Smurfette is a veritable demon of pushing ("I used to be on the school swimming team") and its not an exceptionally long time before the ship is cruising along. Once it is outside the breakwater, things start to get a bit choppier. Those standing guard on the ship can hear some noises and muttering, as if people were stirring. Mulder nips up the stairs and stands above the doorway as footsteps come towards the leftside door, while Bites and Moon River rely on their Blur of Milky Eye talens. The curtain is moved aside and a man with a torch comes out. He looks for the guards, and doesn't see them, then looks straight at Moon River, yelling something briefly before Bites leaps into action and cuts his left leg off about half way up the calf. Unsurprisingly, this causes him to start screaming and the gentleman who was behind him runs back into the ship yelling about attackers and boarders.
Figuring that they are far enough out from shore now that they don't really need to keep pushing, the other Garou get onto the ship, while Bethsheba herds the slaves up the front of the boat ("don't look at the screaming and the yelling, really"). Pausing only to put the fallen pirate out of his misery and kick him overboard, the pack wait for a rush. Bites and Mulder stand at the left door, Bandit and Smurfette at the bottom door and Moon River above the right hand door, while LED makes sure no one is sneaky out the sides of the ship (although it would be a very tight squeeze).
Shortly after, there is a certain amount of yelling and feet stamping from all doors. However, assailants only rush out of the far righthand door. Moon River drops on the first one out from a great height, slamming him to the deck. Bandit causes the next one to go sprawling with his Falling Touch gift. The third runs out, intent on stabbing Moon River, but LED leaps atop him - unfortunately causing the guy to stab all the way through Moon River and into his friend, incidentally catching the now immobile hilt in the face and knocking himself out (of course, LED's weight on the ribs didn't hurt either). While Bites jumps up and down saying "I wanna hit something!", LED gets up and bodyslams the second assailant, now also on his feet. They are both incompetants, and end up on the ground, although the pirate is faster to his feet.
Bites decides enough is enough and he wants to see what is happening down the corridor he is standing in front of him, so he tears down the curtain. He can see people down there making lots of noise, but not showing any sign of coming out, so he starts yelling insults at them ("your mother wears sandals like that of a soldier!") rather ineffectually. More pirates come out of the door on the right. Bandit slogs one in the leg so hard that it breaks and he tumbles over the edge. Moon River slams the assailant about to attack LED and he too goes over the edge. The slaves all clap. Bites finally annoys one of the pirates, who attempts to throw a dagger at him, first tossing it backwards, but then scoring him a bit. As the last of the assailants on the right are disposed of, one of the pirates takes a step or two foreward towards Bites. From Mulder's point of view, roiling, black and smoky fire pours out from the crew quarters, enveloping Bites. Given the bare check he has held himself in, he nearly frenzies, but manages to get under control and get up onto the poop deck where Mulder heals his burns. The pirates slam a table up over that entrance and drag stuff in behind it.
Figuring that the need for stealth is past, the pack ask the slaves to start rowing out to sea, which they do enthusastically. The pack alternate before being jolly seamen and watching the doors to make sure the pirates don't attack again. There's certainly a lot of noise happening down there. Mulder notices that the front wall is taking on an unpleasant patina, like the wood was moulding or rotting. Examination leads them to believe that its some sort of wyrm power, and its only affecting the front wall of the crew quarters, not the table up against it or the floor. LED piles the exslave chains in front of the areas that aren't doorways, so even if the pirates get through, they'll be slipping & tripping. Bites decides to try a Cleansing ritual, and begins to dance around the wall (up onto the poop deck, down the left stairs, onto the main deck, dropping into the slave area, back up onto the main deck on the right, up the stairs, and so on). He is admist that when the exslave who is steering suddenly falls down and the wheel freewheels. LED glances over the rear and sees the lines for the rudder trailing into the water and feet disappearing into a porthole. Oh yeah, says the pack - rubbery wyrm tainted evil monsters.
A voice yells from below, wanting to negotiate. It feels that while the attackers might have control of the ship right now, the pirates could sink it via their magic, and once out of the boat, the battle might not be so one handed. The voice asks what they want, and Bites (having finished the ritual) replies saying they want to go to the island where the pirates took Tenacity. This seems to catch the voice by surprise and it says that it will talk to them again in a few minutes. The pack in the meantime have a philosophical discussion about dealing with the Wyrm, and whether slaughtering them after agreeing not to, whether implicitly or explicitly, would expose the party of the first part to the potential degradation in increase in Renown, vis Honour. Some discussion is also had regarding the fate of the merely tainted crew, and once its been established to be likely that the "We will only kill those who deserve it" threat is unlikely to win any confidence, the pack decides to slaughter them all.
The voice returns and says that they would be willing to take their new friends to the island in question, but in return they would want their boat and all its property afterwards. Bites says that's fine, except no slaves. The voice points out that the slaves are property, part of the ship. Bites is adamant, and the voice points out that they will not find such a small island in the wide ocean without help. LED, who is down in the rowing pit, feels a tug on his pants. One of the slaves says in a whisper that he can guide them to the island - he watched the sun and the starts on their trip, and could easy guide them there, and a couple of the other slaves agree. LED passes this on, and negotiations suddenly become a little bit irrelevant.
Figuring that plan B was much more interesting anyway, Bites continues to bargain ineffectually while they plan their assault. LED will be healing and backup, Bandit and Bites will go in the right door, over some various bits of furniture that are blocking the path and Moon River, Mulder and Smurfette will go in the lower door. With the exception of Bites, everyone is glabro (its a bit too squashed for crinos) - Moon River borrows the fae sword for the nonce.
The pack burst in ("if you must burst, please do it somewhere more private"), catching the pirates a bit by surprise. Bandit leaps over the furniture, and lands on his feet, flailing wildly at a pirate who leaps to attack him. Moon River and Mulder close and attack a pair of pirates, sustaining some damage before butchering the two of them. Bites leaps over the furniture in lupus, and the two pirates who were waiting there grab the rope and try and pull the furniture into the legs of Bites and Bandit. It doesn't work, and they don't live long enough to try again. Bandit gives up on a knife or a kick and just wanders along felling pirates with a single punch while Bites ... er, bites and claws them in lupus.
Mulder, Smurfette and Moon River find themselves facing the firebreathing pirate, who has apparently decided both of his compatriots are not just resting, and flames the area. Mulder bodyslams him into a wall, stunning him, and then finishing the job with a quick stabstab. From deeper into the ship arises a horrible howling, roaring noise - Smurfette, Mulder and LED all decide to be somewhere else and flee out the quarters, along the ship, over the terrified slaves and into the ocean, swimming out to sea. The rest of the pack quaver for a moment, but manage to resist the urge to flee. Moon River is now being engaged by two opponents, but stabs one of them in the throat so hard that the hilt almost sticks in the vertebrae. The three remaining Garou continue their whirling devish dance of death through the tight corridors. A horribly savage moment between two adept pirates, Bandit and Bites leaves the pirates dead or unconscious, but the Garou hurt, yet they continue.
The music changes and the loadbearing boss appears. One of the remaining pirates is much uglier than the others and he grapples at Bites as Bites claws at him. Bites is pinned as Bandit tries to hit the one pirate who understands how to dodge. Briefly. Changing to crinos breaks the captain's (oh what a giveaway) grip, dropping Bites to all fours. Now suddenly being unable to strike at Bandit, the other pirate stabs at Bites fairly ineffectually. Despite his hard, tough exterior, exceptional strength and scary howling, the two Garou wear the captain down, and dispatch him. Moon River also chops a couple more pirates to pate, and joins them. The slaves all cheer as the pack exit the cabins covered in gore, realising that they are now also free. The proclaim Bandit their captain and offer to row him with all their strength to the island they wish to travel to. Firstly, though, they pick up their pack members who are swimming for Madagascar - then, onwards!
Nydourl and Bethsheba
They sailed for days until they spied the island; a rocky outcrop topped by a ruined castle. At the bottom of the cliffs was a simple dock, with stairs running up the cliff to the castle. Having docked the galley, Nydourl, Bethsheba and the freed slaves, now armed with the pirates weapons, crept up the stairs until they were facing the front gate of the castle. Nydourl and Bethsheba decided to sneak into the castle and open the gate by stealth, allowing the freed slaves to enter."
The "Subtle Approach" Version
Or LED could just use his Open Seal gift on it. Pesky not-Ragabash!
Nydourl and Bethsheba
"With the gates open, the freed slaves poured into the courtyard. The castle was defended by hideous Goblins: some with three legs, some with no legs, some with four arms, some with two heads, some blue, some green, some yellow, some grey. A great battle broke out between the goblins and the freed slave, while Nydourl and Bethsheba entered deeper into the castle."
The "wait until the music changes" version
As the ex-indentured manual corporate human resources rushed through the open gates, Bites tries to sense to get an idea of what they are facing, receiving an impression of both wyrm and wyld. Goblinoids suddenly pour out of everywhere to create a Errol-Flynn-esque castle forecourt fight scene, right down to the wagon full of hay. Moon River decides to do something about the bowmen on the parapets and leaps up a ladder to carry the fight to them. Figuring he may as well take advantage of the sheer many-hundred metre high cliff, Moon River lifts up the first bowman only to have the goblinoid suddenly melt and run down his arms. The rest of the pack are also discovering that the Goblins have many strange powers (as well as looking like freaks). LED is making fast headway through some of the goblins when everything goes woozy and dizzy. Despite this handycap, he finishes off his opponent and dodges several more, inflicting a considerable amount of carnage.
Bandit is in his hispo form and chewing away on a 3 legged blue goblin that is trying to stab him with a sword when another goblin bamfs out and reappears next to him, also starting with the sword tricks. The archers on the left side of the courtyard try and pick the garou with their bows, but they're just not powerful enough. Bites makes short work of one opponent and leaps over to help Smurfette, which is having a bit of strife. Some of the Goblins have claws as well as melee weapons, which do aggravated damage. Bandit glances across and watches one of the goblins eat a slave in a single gulp - he calls that one as his own opponent. Moon River suddenly finds that everything that people say or think os buceming uneq gb haqrefgnaq - cerfhznoyl gur rssrpg bs bar bs gur tboyvaf. Bites slices one of Smurfette's opponents in half, giving her a chance to drop back for a moment or two. Bandit jumps at the guy with the weird mouth and misses. The guy manages to wrap his mouth around Bandit's arm, starting to chew away at the point where said new arm was connected. LED mentally starts to say "not again" just as Bandit frenzies. Bites finds himself alone as Smurfette leaps over to help attack Mr Mouth. The yellow paisley goblin he was about to attack starts to emit the most delightful sound, sort of like a hum. While Bites stands and listens to the charming ditty, his lizard brain is screaming "KILL IT".
Bethsheba runs out of one of the buildings, yelling something about the Master of the castle ("Znfgre bs gur pnfgyr!" to Moon River), but those few members of the pack still able to think think that they'll wait until it comes out to face them. Moon River dispatches the last of the bowmen on his side and runs around to the other. One of them is cut in half and the other two crash tackle him. All three of them roll off the parapet, slamming into the ground hard. Moon River is Garou sandwich, but fortunately the guy underneath is squashed by their combined weighs. The goblin on top bites Moon River with a giant stomach mouth, but doesn't last long in spite of this.
Figuring that the situation in the courtyard is in order, the Garou bring their packmates around, heal some damage and head into the tower Bethsheba ran out of. Within is a huge orange skinned giant, with two faces and four arms. Bandit, still frenzying, slams into the giant with no appreciable effect. "Uhoh" is the general pack feeling, especially when the giant slams one enormous fist down and smashes Bandit's abdomen into some much paste. Game on! The giant is nearly uninjurable, seeming to stand up to all but the most solid of blows. Smurfette is cripped and crawls away. Bites is kicked across the room, but comes back for more. Bandit leaps up once again, red flame filling his eyes and wounds, and starts hammering at the giant. LED, who has shaken off some of the dizziness, hammers at the giant's eyes, but is forced to fall back or be clubbed. Kimu whips out his dagger and slices some of the giant's flesh. The giant winds up again and kicks Bites so hard that he flies across the room and into the far wall with a loud meaty splat, dropping the fae sword at the same time. There is a brief scrabble between the giant and Moon River, but the latter is victorious and the universe pauses for a brief light-running-up-sword moment. The three sentient members of the pack close in a circle around the giant, slicing from all sides, and it collapses to the ground. Before Bandit can stomp it into paste, the giant points at Moon River and croaks "You are too late! The rat has gone to the Rajah of Madness, within Malfeas itself..."
Nydourl and Bethsheba
"In the throne room of the castle, they found the master: a huge orange Giant, with four arms and two faces on either side of his head. Nydourl and the giant leapt at each other while Bethsheba dealt with the giant's goblin guard. After a furious battle, where Nydourl's greater speed and agility won out, the giant collapsed, mortally wounded. As he lay dying, the giant gasped out that Nydourl was too late. The rat had already gone to Malfeas, to the Rajah of Madness. Then he died"
"The freed slaves had managed to defeat the evil goblins, and a great cheer went up. They spent the next few days searching the halls and tunnels of the castle. Many of the room were filled with chests stuffed with gold and gems. Nydourl, being a humble sort of lad, took none of the riches for himself, but gave it all to the freed slaves in return for their years in bondage. After they had taken all they could carry, they sailed away from the island."
"Nydourl and Bethsheba discussed what they should do next, now that they had a worthy secret to give to Rat. Bethsheba said that the gift they should give should be of use to Rat in rescuing his son. Anyone who sought to enter Malfeas to rescue another would need strength and courage, two characteristics that Rat lacked. They should therefore make a gift to Rat of strength and courage. Bethsheba said that they should go and seek Lion, who was renowned for his strength and courage. Bethsheba knew that Lion lived far to the west, so off they sailed, into the setting sun." ... Please insert disk 3.
Nydourl and Bethsheba
"The journey west took many days, and they had many adventures on the way. Eventually, they reached the far western shore. Here Nydourl and Bethsheba bid farewell to their crew, despite their entreaties to stay, and headed inland."
"They travelled for many days until they reached the lands where Lion lived. Both Nydourl and Bethsheba were in animal form when they came across mongoose running through the long grass. When asked where he was running to, mongoose said that Lion had pronounced that his daughter was to be married to the most worthy, and that all the animals were gathering. Then mongoose ran off."
"Bethsheba thought that this would be a good opportunity. If Nydourl in wolf form could be chosen as most worthy, then he could reveal his true nature and perhaps bargain with Lion for what they really wanted. Nydourl agreed, so off they went towards Lion's home."
"Eventually they reached the rock in the grasslands where Lion lived. A great throng of animals had already gathered, and more were arriving all the time. By evening, all the animals had arrived, and Lion appeared on the rock. After telling the hyenas, who were squabbling over Elton John's carcass, to keep it down, he proclaimed that there would be three tests to determine who was the most worthy to marry his daughter. There would be a test of speed, a test of strength and a test of courage. The testing would begin in the morning, so all the animals settled down to sleep. Bethsheba pointed out to Nydourl that they would probably have to cheat in order to win, and as Nydourl was Bone Gnawer, he thought that was cool."
The "thank god for my pack" version
During the evening, the pack plan out how they are going to win the tests. Moon River wears out his Dreamspeak gift given animals dreams about being chased to death or just generally disturbing dreams so they don't rest well. LED creeps around in the dark and generally makes a nuisance of himself by throwing rocks and sticks and keeping animals awake.
Morning comes, and Lion explains the race. All the animals will start near his home and race towards the sun until they find mandaril ("its a type of monkey, oh glorious pack leader") and everyone starts to line up. As things are getting a bit tense, Moon River and LED let loose a howl intended to hearten Bandit, who will be doing the running. Unexpectedly, it also causes most of the jumpier animals to take off, which sets off the animals who would normally chase them and so on. They hyenas find this amazingly amusing, and laugh their arse off. Bethsheba flies down, chuckling and with an evil look on her face (she is a raven, after all). She asks if they can do that again. The pack ask why, and she points out that the sun is no longer where it previously was - if they can delay things a bit longer, then everyone will run off in the wrong direction, while she will mark where the mandarill really is.
After a brief consultation, more plans are concocted - Mulder wanders around panting and looking hot and hungry at animals, who either make themselves scarce or go looking for water. Moon River uses his gifts again - when all the animals are lined up, he links springbok, rhino, cheetah and himself together with mindspeak and projects the sound of Lion yelling "go!". Unsurprisingly, all three animals take off - cheetah and springbok are quite fast, while rhino is not too tardy. Other animals seeing these faster ones get the drop on them, take off too. Much yelling at them to come back, there's been a mistake. More milling around than even before, especially as rhino just keeps stubbornly charging away towards the horizon.
By the time this has all been sorted out, its nearly midday. Lion finally gives the go-ahead and all the animals tear off at an enormous speed. Bandit actually gets a bit ahead of cheetah and turns his head to stick his tongue out - and then slams his butt into a tree at full speed. Its a good minute before he can even stand up again, let alone see straight or dodge all the irate birds who were watching the race from that tree. Bandit tries to distinguish Bethsheba flying way above from all the other spinning dots and heads off in the direction she is indicating ("Where the hell is wolf going? Should we follow?" "No way, he just slammed into a tree.").
An hour later, wolf trots up to the rather bemused Mandaril. They head back to Lion's rock, where lion agrees that wolf is the winner. Over the next few hours, the animals drift back to the rock and are surprised with the knowledge that wolf won the race. There is some rhubarbing, but no one is willing to challenge Lion's decision. Lion declares that the next challenge, one of Strength, will begin immediately. He leads the animals some distance to a large boulder. The test of strength will be to see whom can move the boulder the furthest. Wolf suggests that he should go last. While the pack planned like mad, each animal tried to budge the rock. The rock was so big that most of the animals couldn't move it at all. Only the strongest animals could budge it, and it was no surprise that Elephant moved the rock furthest. It was becoming dark when Bandit stood up to take his position. In the shadow below the savannah grass, a number of black tentacles emerged and grabbed the bottom of the rock, tugging it along. Bandit in the meantime exerted himself to the fullest, sweating and biting his tongue and cracking a nail and stepping in elephant shit and kinking his tail and almost frenzying. ("You botched again?"). Fortunately Mulder's control of the tentacle is sufficient to allow him to drag the rock even further along than elephant had moved it. Almost all the animals are starting at wolf with their jaws dropped. Lion, a bit reluctantly asks if any other animals want to try moving the rock. Silence. He declares that wolf has won the test of strength also.
Nydourl and Bethsheba
"The rock was so big that most of the animals couldn't move it at all. Only the strongest animals could budge it, and it was no surprise that Elephant moved the rock the furthest of all those tested so far. The day wore on as the animals pushed and it had become dark when only Nydourl was left. Nydourl suggested to Lion that perhaps they should leave his testing until morning, as not all animals could see well in the dark, and he wouldn't want any of the contestants to harbour any doubts about his success or failure. Lion agreed and declared that the final contestant, wolf, would attempt the test in the morning. Again all the animals settled down to rest."
"Once all the animals were asleep, Nydourl and Bethsheba crept away. Bethsheba was looking for something in the few trees in the grassland, and soon she found it: a large bee's nest. She told Nydourl to remove the bees nest and take it back to the rock. The bees were all sleepy and didn't give Nydourl much grief when he pulled the nest off the tree and carried it back to the rock. Under Bethsheba's direction, Nydourl climbed to the top of the rock and looked for a large crack. When he found one, he opened up the bee's nest and carefully poured the honey into the crack in the rock. Nydourl and Bethsheba then headed out into the grasslands again."
"This time Bethsheba was looking for something on the ground, and soon she found it: a large ant's nest. Bethsheba called to the ants and told them of a very special rock that she had found that produced honey. The ants were very excited, and all immediately headed off in the direction she had said. Nydourl and Bethsheba headed back to Lion's rock to get some sleep."
"The next morning, the animals awoke to watch wolf undergo the test of strength. The ants had travelled slowly all through the night, and as Nydourl walked up to the rock, he saw the last ant disappearing underneath the rock. Nydourl placed his front paws against the rock and began to push. Much to the surprise of all the other animals the rock very slowly began to move. What's more it kept on moving. The animals slowly trailed after wolf as he kept pushing the rock, past the place where even elephant could push the rock no further. Wolf pushed the rock at least twice as far as elephant had. Raven, actually Bethsheba, circled overhead, crying that they should all head back to Lion to hear his verdict. All the animals turned and headed back to Lion, which was just as well, because they didn't see that the rock was inclined to keep moving even when wolf was no longer pushing it."
"When all the animals were assembled, Lion declared that wolf had won the test of strength. Again there was much muttering and mumbling amongst the animals, but there was nothing that they could do.
The "this looks easy" version
Lion announced that the final test, that of Courage, would occur now. He led the animals along through the grasslands until they finally crested a hill about midnight. On the plain below was a small human village, with a wooden pallisade around it. Lion told them that the final challenge would be to steal the secret of fire from the humans. Mentally, Bites asks Bandit if he wants to borrow a lighter, but Bandit decides to go along with the story.
One by one the animals attempted the test. Most could not bring themselves to even enter the human village at all, and of those that could enter the village, no one could bring themselves to take fire away from them. Finally, Wolf slunk down towards the huts. He snuck in through the gate, and oozed from shadow to shadow, towards the large fire in the middle of the village. A burning brand stuck out of the fire and Bandit grabbed it and headed back up the hill. The rest of the animals were gobsmacked once again. As Wolf stood there in front of Lion, Raven swooped down and landed on his shoulders. Bethsheba leapt up and landed in human form, laughing and nudging Bandit to do the same. Bandit flowed up through his crinos form and into his homid shape.
Nydourl and Bethsheba
"Nydourl trotted up to Lion, threw the brand in the air, changed into human form, and grabbed it as it descended. Immediately all the other animals began to scream and roar and screech. Lion demanded to know what was going on. Nydourl pointed out that Lion had placed no restrictions upon who was eligible to be tested. In theory even a human could have entered the contest, had he been privy to the event and had some desire to be married to a lion. However, said Nydourl, if Lion was prepared to grant a gift at least as valuable as his daughter, then Nydourl could be persuaded to renounce all claims to her."
"Lion, perhaps realising that there are few things worse than having one of the Changing Breed for a relation, agreed. Nydourl asked for the gift of Lion's strength and courage. Lion muttered a bit but agreed again. Returning to his rock, Lion wrapped his strength and courage up in leaves into a pretty parcel and gave them to Nydourl. Nydourl and Bethsheba took their leave of Lion and the other animals."
"Nydourl and Bethsheba travelled far and wide for many days, and they had many adventures. Wherever they went, they spoke to rats that they met, telling them that they had a valuable secret and gift for Rat, and asking where they might find him.
Eventually, they found themselves at the biggest city in the world, where they were told Rat lived. They made there way to a great palace, and by secret ways found their way to a golden room under the palace, where Rat lay on cushions surrounded by food. Nydourl said to Rat that he had travelled far to see him, as there was a secret that he wanted to know, and that he would give Rat a great secret in return. Nydourl was strangely insistent that Rat should agree to give up his secret in return for the secret offered (?), and hinted that the secret concerned the whereabouts of Rat's son Tenacity. Eventually Rat agreed that he would give his secret if Nydourl's information was valuable. Nydourl told Rat that Tenacity had been taken to the Rajah of Madness in Malfeas. Rat agreed that this was a valuable secret and that he would grant a secret in return. Nydourl asked Rat how he could find the spirit of Marion Perry -
There is a sideways yanking feeling and a sort of spiritual dizziness. This Time for Sure are standing in the grottiest toilet, not just in Scotland, but in the whole world. Next to them is Abu Nawas, and an unremarkable looking rat is sitting on the broken toilet tank. Rat says to Abu that he does not enjoy being taken for an idiot, not being insulted in this way. Abu says nothing. Rat says to This Time for Sure that they should be careful about treating their totems in such a casual manner - other Incarna would not take the same treatment as well. The pack apologise profusely and briefly say that it was for the best of reasons. Rat asks Abu if he is familiar with the tripartate goddess, and that the pack should seek out the Living Face, the Still Face and the New Face of Gaia. Abu thanks Rat, and This Time for Sure perform a Rite of Contrition, at the end of which, the red gleam fades from Rat's eyes. Another spiritual turn and the pack and Abu are in Abu's rooms. There is no sign of Veronica.
Moon River asks about Veronica, and Abu says that they had a talk and he explained some of what she is now - when Moon River looks unimpressed Abu notes that Veronica had pretty much put two and two together already - after all that she had seen and heard, it wasn't much of a jump. Moon River takes off after her, but she can't be seen up and down the street. In the meantime, the others chat about what Rat said. Bites knows a fair chunk about this sort of thing and he and Abu discuss the concept of the Maiden-Mother-Crone a little. The archetype shows up in many cultures in many forms - the Morrigan in Ireland, ancient indian mythology, even in Garou mythology one can assign aspects of the trait to Gaia - wyld for the maiden, weaver for the mother and wyrm for the crone.
In this case, what Rat is referring to seems to be closest in relation to the Greek concept of the three Fates. Clotho spun the thread of a life, Lachesis measured the thread and Atropos cut the thread. However, existence for the Garou at least encompasses many such threads of life. The point is that just as a thread can be followed from birth to death, it may be able to follow it beyond death. Abu suggests that Rat is hinting that instead of going Birth-Life-Death, the pack start with Life and move to Death and then perhaps even to Birth. Describing them as aspects of Gaia was probably significant, but Abu isn't sure exactly what those faces might exactly be.
After a bit more discussion and thanks for help, Abu gives them directions for leaving the homeland - basically back out the way they came. They head out into the street, finding themselves in a modern city again. Moon River wants to find Veronica first, and so they trail her scent away. She isn't too far off, in a park, kicking the chair. Moon River and her have a discussion about what's happening, and what she wants to do. Veronica isn't sure, but plans to hang here for a while and see what happens and think about stuff a lot - its been a full couple of days for her. Moon River says ok, but if she needs him, she should just call and he will come. She nods and says bye.
Out the storm drains they go, and into the Umbra. Holistic Approach (yep, they get to be themselves again) find a MoonPath with the help of Kimu's Axis Mundi gift and head back towards the cemetary. A timeless perioud of travelling later and the Moon Path in front of them starts to narrow and fade. Sensing doesn't reveal anything in particular, and Kimu is fairly sure of where he is going, so they continue. The path trickles onward, getting to a point where its effectively single file. More sensing reveals that all the normal senses are swamped by what is almost a positive sense of nothingness, or perhaps a something that is nothing. They soak up the ambience while deciding what to do. Kimu is still relatively confidant of the path ahead, so they forge on. The path becomes a mere glimmer of a trail, and then slowly returns. "That was weird" is the collective impression.
Eventually the pack exits the Moon Path in Melbourne and head for the cemetary, where they find that it is....
... despite it feeling like months since they were home. They catch up with Cossack and the other whacky Elders, and let them know how things went. Much explanations and recognition of renown.
Having had a good nights sleep and/or meditation, the pack spend the day catching up with their mortal or Garou lives, and generally just taking a day off. John and Marnie catch up for a bit. Kimu hangs with Ends-the-Quiet.
In the process, they discuss what Rat said with the elders. Emma is of the opinion that faces of Gaia might be avatars, like spirit aspects of Gaia. Brett suggests talking with the Glade child in Fitzroy, but the general opinion is that they will need to find a more significant, or purely Gaian spirit than that. Nonetheless, he heads off and visits the kids, who are doing fine. Emma thinks that they should probably return to the Stargazers, as they and Grek have a more esoteric approach to spirituality than the Sleeping Lore theurges, as a rule.
So, later in the evening, the pack head to Carnarvon by Moon Bridge. They meet again with Indira, Cherri, Monash and Grek. Everyone is brought up to date with their many adventures. The good news is that Alex isn't catatonic any more, but they suggest that Holistic Approach stay out of sight as much as possible.
On to the matter in question. The elders suggest that following the thread of an existence is fairly profound, and that the references to the Faces of Gaia were probably not simply symbolic but rather spiritual (Of course, the spiritual is all about symbolism, but hopefully you know what I mean). They agree with Emma's theory that at least the Living Face of Gaia would be an avatar. Grek says that there are manifestations of Gaia in the lands of the Dead. As for the New Face, it would perhaps be the fundamental creative aspect of Gaia, and therefore the pack might need to make a small trip into the Deep Umbra. Ace.
Indira suggests that they go and visit a garou called Bartholomew Wise-in-the-Ways-of-the-Wyrm. Holistic Approach explain how they know him (wyrmbeast, Hopping Mouse Hill, and before that... Sydney. Hmm. More cyclicness), but ask why him. Apparently Bartholomew has spent his life cataloguing spirits of the Australian Umbra, and if anyone knows where they might find a Gaian avatar, it will be him. Bartholomew lives in the Blue Mountains, so down to Sydney they go, becoming This Time for Sure on the way. They hang with the Sept there and explain their adventures ("and then Bandit fell through the floor and squashed LED...") and how the quest is going. Herman offers a landrover to borrow, so they ring ahead and check that Bartholomew is home and is happy to take visitors.
They get to Bartholomew's near midnight. He's up and waiting for them. After pleasantries, they explain what's happening, and what they'd like from him. Bartholomew hmms and says that he has a few ideas, but he'd like to go through some of his notes - he offers the pack crash space and says that he'll get back to them in the morning. Brett and Kimu decide to head off into the bushland and run about after checking with Bart that it's ok. Kimu tries to pursuade Melissa to come along too, but she's not interested ("Dude, I /just/ got clean").
Morning again and Bartholomew offers them breakfast and all. At the end of it, he says that he spent a few hours looking last night, but that his initial suspicion was right, and the only spirit that could really be called an avatar of Gaia that he knows of is a totem of a caern. Holistic Approach look a little uncertain and Brett says they don't really want to disturn a sept. Bartholomew comments that that's ok, because this caern doesn't have a Sept associated with it, and Mathias at least is familiar with it already. It is the Caern near Lake Eyre that Infinite Paths went and visited... just before Sydney. In fact, its where the Bunyip bone came from in the first place. Mathias puts his face in his hands and sighs.
They chat about the caern - basically it was captured by the Red Talons during the War of Tears, but when the Jindabyne Council was formed along with the official Protectorates it was in the Get of Fenris territory. The Talons refused to give up the caern, and since then it has been contested by the two tribes - both of them have a presence, but the caern is closed and there is no Sept. Bartholomew recommends going and seeing Carla Grimmson, the Jindabyne Council member, at St Mary's Peak first, rather than just rocking up to the caern itself. They agree, but there is some mental discussion about the appropriateness of asking Mamu for permission too.
The pack travel to the Defiance to the Wyrm Sept via Moonbridge from the King's Cross Sept and Crackenback, meeting the Gatekeeper Geoffrey Lambert (Ho,GoF,Ph,3). He grudgingly agrees to get Carla, warning them not to move. Carla appears, looking a bit bemused. Thomas does a brain dump - rescuing Alex, signifcant life and death quest, yada yada - and basically finishes up by saying that they'd really appreciate being allowed to access the caern at Etadunna.
Carla points out that she's not currently in a position where her permission would be sufficient to visit the caern spirit. However, (the pack mentally groan) if the situation was to be resolved appropriately, things might be different. Perhaps Holistic Approach would be able to assist her in seeing this issue resolved? The pack basically look at her a bit unbelievingly and Thomas asks why them. Carla points out that they are unaffiliated with either side of the conflict, but that they have had previous interaction with the Jindabyne Council. Thomas tries to subtly point out that the result of that interaction was less than optimal, but Carla suggests that, at least to the Get of Fenris, the pack may have worked off their reputation as whittles. Carla also suggests that their supposed connection with the bunyip gives them a certain spiritual authority - although that may work against them with regards to the Red Talons, who are generally credited with initiating the War of Tears.
Carla points out that she would be in a position to be fairly generous if the situation was resolved ... favourably, and frankly offers to not only permit them to access the caern, but to aid them with the Jindabyne Council in any matter not directly concerning the Get of Fenris. She also offers the help of a Get of Fenris pack if they should find themselves in need of some heavy combat support. Thomas asks for a moment or two and the pack discuss the situation amongst themselves. Coming to the conclusion of "what can we lose?" (possibly not the best attitude to posess on a spiritual quest, but what the hell), they return to Carla and agree.
Unfortunately, there is one slight snag - she requires that they symbolically prove their worthiness by fulfilling a small test. Holistic Approach sigh and ask what exactly is required - slay a dragon, defeat a giant, wade into some revolting Wyrm pit? Instead, Carla asks them to find out a small piece of information. About a year ago, Huros Bathes-in-Blood of the Grinding Stone sept killed Hans Dieter, a fellow Get of Fenris and sept member, and she wants to know why. If the pack can suceed in finding this information, she will advocate them as mediators between the two tribes.
Carla says that she feels that the matter is important, as the killing has caused some dissent in the sept and amongst the Get particularly. She feels that Holistic Approach is idea to investigate because some of their members are owed a favour by Blood Claw for rescuing them from the Gauntlet, and also because they have a good relationship with Malajimbarra. Carla organises for a Moon Bridge to Grinding Stone, suggesting that they speak to Blood Claw, although they may require some encouragement to remind them of the favour.
When the pack arrives, they find themselves facing Anastasia Evenhand, Malajimbarra and (erk) Huros. They ask to speak to Malajimbarra privately and he agrees and heads down the mountain with them. When they get to the bottom, the pack quietly explain the situation. Malajimbarra looks a bit surprised, but agrees that the matter is not doing the Sept any favours. Basically, in August last year, Huros killed Hans. There were no witnesses, and Huros would say no more than Hans was a traitor, seeking to undermind the sept for his own good. Truth of Gaia confirmed this was the case (or at least that Hans believed it to be true), but the elders know that Huros is not telling the whole truth. They are reluctant to challenge him about the matter, as it would probably crystalise the rather tense situation in the Sept - The Heralds of War were pissed about the killing of a pack mate, Blood Claw were unsettled over Get killing Get, and later most of the Black Furies, Gaia's Rage, seemed pissed off, despite not having any direct connection, although this didn't come up until about a month afterwards. Since then, each of the packs pretty much keeps to itself except when they must interact.
Holistic Approach ask to check out the site. Kimu uses his Scent of Distinction gift, and receives a very faint impression of anger and the fact that there was a death by violence here. The site is simply a random spot along a fairly well-travelled path through the Bawn.
The pack engage in some wild speculation about the death. They figure that it wouldn't have been something wyrm-related or anything simple like that, or Huros would have told the Sept. The Black Furies react puzzles Brett a great deal, but Malajimbarra can't really help there - even Anastasia is distant, although Amelia Vedi (helped Infinite Paths trap the Killer of Children, went catatonic, got better) does still have some interaction with other Garou. Much speculation, some of which is shared with Malajimbarra, but no firm leads.
Holistic Approach head off to try and find Blood Claw. They turn out to be deeper in the national park, in a rather picturesque creek valley. Eric and Ingrid are sparring rather vigourously. Brett goes up to Mark (having been here a fair bit in the last year, he is the most familiar to Blood Claw) and they chat for a few moments. Brett then mentions that they are trying to work out why Huros killed Hans, to which Mark replies that he's not in the habit of discussing Sept matters with outsiders.
Mathias steps up and says that Blood Claw owe him a debt. Mark disputes that and says that Blood Claw owe Infinite Paths a debt - who's to say that he's worthy to claim it compared to, say, Keziah, or even Moonflower, who was packleader at the time? Mathias presses the issue and Mark replies that there's only really one way that he can prove to their satisfaction that he is worthy... After some brief discussion, each pack chooses 3 champions to fight - Mark vs Mathias, Giovanni vs Thomas and Eric vs Melissa. No claws or teeth, no gifts. In fairly short order, each of the members of Holistic Approach crunches their opponents. Once Mark has been revived and healed, he answers some of their questions.
Firstly, he doesn't know much more than Huros said that Hans was a traitor. For his part, they weren't too impressed with Get killing Get in a way that obviously wasn't entirely honourable, or at least wasn't about honourable matters. Mark says that the other packs have shrunk away from the Sept a bit, but he doesn't feel that his pack has - things kinda picked up for a while earlier in the year (after the Dancers were routed and mages found on the Bellarine Peninsula) but the other packs drifted off again.
Holistic Approach ask about Gaia'a Rage specifically and why they got upset, and Mark puts the blame fairly squarely on Penny (presumable Penelope Dors) - he reckons that Sveta (packleader of the Heralds of War, Hans' pack at the time) put the hard word on her as a fellow Shadowlord or something. Holistic Approach try and hold in their brains. Mark comments that Sveta nearly challenged Huros on the spot about the matter, but Ivana (Shadowlord Master of the Challenge) took her aside and Sveta didn't issue any challenges. He doesn't know what Ivana said.
They ask some questions about Hans himself - Mark says that the guy was a bit of a prick really. He was an enthusiastic member of National Action (an anti-immigration organisation, to put it politely), and had a number of contacts there (mentally Holistic Approach review Blood Claw, and figure that they probably don't fit the usual Get profile). Mark isn't sure if he spent much time in the nearby towns, but he might have - most of the Sept are familiar with the three or so nearby. Hans shaved his head, had tattoos on his upper body, hardly ever wore a shirt.
After asking Mark to not tell anyone they were asking questions, the pack head off and find Malajimbarra again, and tell him what Mark told them. Malajimbarra says that he doesn't think it sounds like Penny to cause that much trouble via her pack, or that her pack would be that likely to sucumb to being persuaded - at least not without some other strong reason as further persuasion. He confirms that Ivana advised Sveta to not challenge then and there, because she was going to challenge for Caern Warder, rather than to force Huros to tell her what happened directly, and Ivana felt that it would weaken the Sept. Mathias considers speaking to Sveta, only to be told that the pack is actually off in the Umbra on a short aisling. Kimu tries to think of reasons that Huros would be honour bound to do things the way he has - he suggests the possible situation where Hans did something dishonourable, and as his last words, asked Hurous to keep whatever he did a secret. While that probably wouldn't happen, it does suggest that there is some possible reason that Huros would keep things quiet from the best intentions.
Holistic Approach decide that they need to talk to the Black Furies, specifically Amelia Vedi (whom they have had some interactions with previously). They suggest that Melissa should go and see them, but she's a bit doubtful - apart from being sort of a token chick, she's a Glasswalker and she figures there won't be that much of an instant sisterhood thing happening. Instead, Mathias and Kimu go while the others wait around. The two of them head towards where Gaia's Rage are (according to questing stone). As they approach, Kimu howls out the greeting howl that he learnt at Five Hands - an answering howl comes from further ahead, shortly followed by a pack of lupus... who pause briefly when the two Garou hove into view and then sprint up, surrouding them in a less than friendly way. The pack leader flows up into crinos form and greets them with "where did you learn that howl?" Kimu explains that he has spent some time with Gail Vinnicomb at the Sept of Five Hands and they taught it to him. One of the lupus packmembers says "You're Keziah's friend?" The tension flows away a little. Kimu and Mathias are introduced formally to Athena Tirebass, the packleader of Gaia's Rage and the rest of the pack (including the lupus Defends-the-Fallen, who says she knows Keziah). Amelia changes to homid and when they ask if they could speak with her privately, the rest of the pack head off.
Mathias sutoolly raises the topic of Huros, Hans and the problems with the Sept. Amelia goes a bit distant but basically says she doesn't see the problem - Huros and Hans was ages ago, and doesn't have a lot of bearing on any current interactions as far as she's concerned. Kimu says something to the effect that "We learnt at Five Hands, some things can be brought to life after a long time" which provokes a sudden and rather defensive reaction from Amelia. She says she's not sure what Kimu means, and he tries to explain about the ghost of Beth Proudly. Amelia loses a bit of the edginess in her eyes, and says that she hadn't heard about that. Kimu gives her the short version. They return to the topic at hand, but Amelia basically says that it was a long time ago, and she sees nothing wrong with the way the Sept is interacting right at the moment. They thank her and move back to join the others.
Some discussion is had about whether this is enough to return to Carla with. Popular opinion is 'No'. After more discussing things, they decide that they can't really find out much more by directly talking to people here, and opt to go home before chasing up Hans' mortal contacts tomorrow.
The pack discuss what to do and whom to speak to. They decide to try and find a National Action chapter or whatever in Melbourne. It turns out that there is one in Sunshine, but its not open on Sunday. Holistic Approach decide to skip a day and keep their mortal lives rolling along, or to at least hang at the caern and be useful. John finds Marnie and they "have coffee". Thomas lurks in the city, Brett at the Glade, Kimu and Mathias at the caern. Melissa disappears on a mysterious errand. No, not really.
Mathias receives a visitor.
Bright and early in the morning, Thomas and Brett go and visit the National Action office (or the "Place of Pinheads" as Brett insists on calling it). The others feel that they would be better placed in the Umbra, not being quite the type that would fit in. Its a small shopfront in an old strip of shops, and is unoccupied when they come in - a few pamphletts lie about the place and a couple of chairs. The door rings a bell and this attracts the attention of a gentleman in a suit from out the back. Thomas and Brett introduce themselves with false names (to Steve, apparently) and say they are looking for a friend of theirs from Adelaide, a guy called Hans Dieter. Steve goes a bit reticent and intimates that he's not sure that this isn't a pretty poor cover story for some policemen. Thomas and Brett reassure him by describing Hans (with prompting from the others mentally) and using their magical powers on him.
Basically Steve says that Hans hasn't been around for over a year. He used to move back and forth between Adelaide and Melbourne fairly regularly, acting as some sort of ideological courier - he gave the personal touch in making sure that policy in both places was unanimous. Brett makes some intimation throughout the conversation that Hans was a bit of a thug and Steve keeps re-emphasising that that's not what they are all about. Hans was more into information, and ensuring that what they were being told was the real situation. Some mental comments are made about his Shadowlord pack and picking up bad habits. Thomas asks about women, and Steve says that he was with an older woman a fair few times, and they describe Sveta as Steve nods. But basically Steve says that he disappeared in spring last year, after being a bit distracted for a month or so, his mind not really on the job. Hans did that every now and again, so no one really thought much about it for a while. They made enquiries, but it seems that he just vanished. As far as Steve knows, he didn't have any family, but he lived up in the hills near a town with a stupid name... Anarchy, that's it. Except it was spelt differently. Someone says he probably means Anakie, which is near the caern.
They head off from the place after getting some pamphletts and sensing for wyrm and all. Figuring that Anakie might be the next place to look, they head on straight out there, working on their cover story on the way. Thomas and Brett go to the pub in thought that it might have been Hans' local. They chat to the young woman behind the bar, and give a description of Hans. A guy up the bar (beard, dark hair) asks them to repeat it, and adds a few salient details that sound like Hans, and says that he's seen the guy, sort of. Introductions happen and Brett buys Peter a beer and they move to a table away from the bar.
Peter says that he's a local plumber, and he was working a few jobs last year with this guy called Tony, who was a sparky. They sort of got to be mates, so when Tony said that he was worried that his girlfriend was cheating on him, Peter agreed to go with him to be a witness. Tony headed off to work, but came back with Peter an hour or so later, and they watched the house from up the street. About an hour or so after that, the guy that they described came out of the house, shirt open and all, so Peter could see the tattoos. Tony dragged him towards the house and kind confronted his girlfriend, who was looking a bit worked up to begin with. They started screaming, so Peter made his apologies and left. She left him shortly after that, which really messed him up, cos she was pregnant, and Tony hit the grog and all. He's really only got his shit together recently, which is why Peter sort of remembered the incident, cos Tony is working on this place he's working at now. They ask him when it happened, and Peter says it was after the Jenkin's place, but before the job in Beremboke - early August last year? Thomas asks what her name was, and Peter says he thinks it was Janie.
While Brett and Thomas are talking to Peter, the others lookup the yellowpages for Tony the Electrician(tm) . They find but one such a person, and he lives just over the hill. Over there they go, and once they remember that they can step in and out of the Umbra, ransack Tony's place. There's no signs of a female presence, nor is there a dusty, dusty nursery spookily kept in the same way since they broke up. It seems that Tony runs a sort of home office - one bedroom is given over to a second phone line, desk, etc. Business diaries reveal that things have picked up in the last couple of months after a slump as do bank balances. Kimu looks for photos and finds that the albums have been editted - many photos are missing. Mathias finds a receipt with different handwriting on it, signed with a J-something. He and Kimu can't tell much except that the person writing it probably doesn't have English as their first language. At Thomas' prompting, Kimu looks in the bedroom cupboard for the stuff that Tony didn't have the heart to throw away. There is indeed such a small shoebox, containing a ring (ouch) and a stash of photo pouches. Unfortunately they don't have photos in them. Fortunately they do have negatives, and Kimu can make out a fem and Tony in them.
Figuring that they should probably get back to town for their Moot, they head off back to Melbourne. The negatives are dropped off at a quick develop place and the pack get involved in moot preparations. About 4, someone goes and picks them up. The woman in the photos is Jana Jett, one of the Black Furies of Gaia's Rage. Much "what the hell?" from the pack. They take a good look at the photos, and it does seem that Jana is pregnant in some of them. Much poking of photos into the right order, and they'd guess that she was about 6-7 months pregnant when the last of the photos was taken, which was early July. So - what would Hans have to do with Jana being pregnant and undermining the Sept? ... Oh. The pack consider the possibility that Jana was pregnant with a metis child. Much speculation, including the possibility that Hans is the father (unlikely) or that Jana was raped (really unlikely). They decide that they shouldn't dishonourably speculate about the possibility but should just go and talk to Malajimbarra tomorrow about her.
Moot! It begins at fulldark, which is about 7pm at this time of year. Dominique turns up to join them, along with her two podlings. Opening Howl, Inner Sky, and then to items of business. The Get of Pennington are strongly involved with the whole S11 protests. The Daughters have been on caern duty for ages, and would like to swap with them. The Scryers have been investigating some strange behaviour amongst the humans, especially some politicians - people have been acting oddly and with the faintest hint of wyrm taint. Moonflower thinks its mages. They are working with The Alternative at the moment to help chase it up. Holistic Approach cover what they've been doing since the last Moot - mostly stuff with Alex. Christine doesn't look too happy about the subject. Sydney, homeland, legendary realm - Kimu tells the story of Nydourl and Bethsheba (abridged) and back. Renown is recognised.
Dominique is here so that Mathias can perform the Rite of Baptism by Fire. Folks seem happy to see Dom and coo over the kids a fair bit. The ritual begins - Mathias takes some ashes from the Moot fire, and scratches his arm, mixing the blood from this cut with the ashes. He begins the rite, calling through the fire for the kinfetch spirits to come to him. The Moot Fire dims and then roars up into a huge column of fire. Wings unfold, towering above the Garou as the phoenix-like form of the kinfetch spirit - normally perhaps a foot or so in length, this spirit is larger than any crinos garou. The Sept is a little taken aback by this sudden manifestation, especially Dominique. Mathias continues the ritual, stepping towards the twins, and touching the ashes and blood to their ears, eyelids, nose and lips, and then stepping back. The kinfetch spirit leaps up from the fire and circles the entire Sept once, and then descends in a conflaguration onto Dominique and the twins. Through the flames, Dominique and the twins can be seen, perfectly unharmed. The kinfetch spirit stays for a time, and then slowly fades. Bright white lights outlines pictographs on the two babes, and then that too fades, leaving them giggling.
The rest of the Moot passes in a bit of a state of bemusement (Emma does ask if Mathias did that on purpose..). Stories and songs, Revel and Gnosis. Sleep. Dream - waaargh!
The pack get up eventually. It is decided to be a bit surreptious, and so only John and Thomas head out to Grinding Stone again. They are met by Blood Claw, who don't do more than raise eyebrows when the pack says they want to speak to Malajimbarra about spiritual matters. Off to find him, sitting on his Sitting Rock.
Thomas brings up the question obliquely. He asks if Jana has been pregnant recently. Malajimbarra says that yes, shortly after all the unpleasantness with Hans, the Black Furies headed out to Five Hands. But unfortunately she miscarried..... Malajimbarra looks a bit wary suddenly. John knows that most Garou are so healthy that miscarriages are very rare... except when the child is a metis. They talk to Malajimbarra about the matter carefully, and he says that at the time, he had presumed that part of the Black Furies retreat was to comfort Jana, and that it hadn't been connected. Thomas still thinks that they are missing something, and he privately muses with the pack about why Huros would kill Hans, but not do anything about Jana ..... Thomas goes awfully pale and he thinks "shit, shit, shit, shit". Everyone else mentally looks blank and then Mathias does the same thing. Thomas quietly, quietly, suggests that Huros' behaviour could be explained if he was the father. He manages to keep any of this from showing in his face or voice when talking to Malajimbarra.
Some more discussion, and then Malajimbarra offers them an out of sorts - he suggests that some more (but discreet) investigation to confirm or deny is in order. However, if they feel it would be inappropriate to continue, he could take the matter up directly - although this does mean that they are unable to complete the task Carla has given them.
Some mental discussion regarding the whole situation. Brett seems to feel that the chance that Huros is the father is pretty remote - he wants the others to ask if Malajimbarra knows what the relationship between Jana and Huros was, but they feel that it would be a pretty leading question. There is much discussing of matters - what they can do, with who and what the repercussions are. Thomas sums things up: a) drop it all in Malajimbarra's lap; b) go back and tell Carla they couldn't find anything out; c) go back and tell Carla all their suspicions. Mathias adds d) confront Huros but no one else is keen on that idea. Melissa also adds the possibility of talking to Jana about things - after all, she was central to things, even if Huros wasn't. After a few more options are raised and dismissed, they decide to go with Melissa's suggestion. Tomorrow.
The pack return to Grinding Stone via the north of the bawn, without interacting with the Sept. They use Questing Stone to home in on the Black Furies. Amelia looks a bit concerned to see them, but the others don't seem more than faintly curious. Holistic Approach ask to speak to Jana alone and she says that she would rather that Athena come with them. They go to one side. Amelia looks seriously concerned now, but sort of stuck. Thomas explains to Jana that they are on a quest of honour to try and help a fellow Garou. As part of that, they need to find out why Huros killed Hans, and in the process of looking that up, they've found some evidence of ... interaction between herself and Hans - Thomas would like to know if she could help them out. Jana basically is obstinate, and Thomas eventually asks whether Huros killed Hans in regard to Jana's pregnancy. Jana semiaccuses them that if she doesn't answer them, they'll just keep chasing things up, but Thomas says that if she says its none of their business, they'll drop it. Jana replies that its none of their business and walks off. Brett starts quickly talking to Thomas and Athena, who has been looking a bit tetchy tells him that its really rude when they do that - she can tell. Athena also takes them to task about raising matters that had already been settled in a satisfactory fashion and that they are unnecessarily raising trouble. She too, leaves. Holistic Approach head off back to Melbourne.
They decide to leave things for the moment, and head back to Carla in a couple of days. Brett takes this oppurtunity to learn gift of Jam Technology - Emma summons a gremlin for him, and then runs away before learning what chiminage the spirit asks. Needless to say, Brett is enthusastic about helping it wreck a nearby factory.
People hang about at the caern, and generally reaquaint themselves with life, the universe and everything. About dusk, Graeme sticks his head out the door and calls Thomas over. Graeme said he just got a call from an an unidentified person, suggesting that Holistic Approach watch out for an attacker from Grinding Stone. Thomas looks a bit blank and passes the message on. John doesn't reply. Thomas asks if anyone knows where John is. Nope, they don't remember seeing him head off or anything. Muttering under their breath, the pack set out to find him. Mathias performs a Rite of Questing Stone, and it leads them south of the city somewhere. They get to somewhere around Albert Park and try it again, but this time the stone shatters. The pack collectively sigh and try to think how on earth they'd find him. Keiteki is sent off, and Mathias summons Kanau, who agrees to try and find him.
Keiteki returns first, and says that he didn't find John, but he found something John related but more chaotic. Its not far from where they are now. Keiteki leads them down Fitzroy St, dodging the weaver constructs and stops abruptly, communicating that this is the spot. Brett peeks and finds that there are two police cars parked out the front of a cafe, and a medium sized crowd sort of clustered around. Given Brett can hear what is happening, he hangs around the police and tries to find out what the hell is going. A witness appears to be giving a statement... (cue wobbly flashback bit)...
One of Marnie's afternoon commitments was cancelled, so John and Marnie head down to Fitzroy St to spend some time catching up, seeing as how its a nice day and all. They are chatting over coffee when Marnie looks past John and says "Friend of yours?". The world goes white for John.(wobbly bit from Marnie's point of view)
A tallish redheaded woman, looking very pissed, stomps in and looks around. She looks Marnie and John's way and heads that direction. Marnie says "Friend of yours?" and is about to point when the woman picks up one of the metal chairs and slams John in the back of head, knocking him and all the crockery flying. John rolls onto the floor, bleeding profusely, and the woman puts in a few more kicks before realising that he is unconscious. Some of the other patrons try and tackle her, but she hits one guy in the face with the chair, and does some sort of judo sending another one sprawling, before running off into the distance.
Brett conveys all of this, and says that the redhead was probably Kathryn Bess, a Black Fury ahroun from Jana's pack. Thomas says that John is probably in the Alfred, that being the closest hospital with an emergency room. Mathias is all for getting him out of there and burning it down to make sure there's no violations of the Veil, but cooler heads prevail. Mathias heads into the realm with the intent to approach Marnie and talk to her, but the police choose that moment to finish their investigation and offer to drive her home. Mathias nearly goes over there, but remembers at the last moment that he's probably still wanted by the police. He mindspeaks her instead and Marnie comes over to see him, calling him Matthew (she knows him via Dominique from ages ago). He reassures her and gets a few more details (they definately took him to hospital) and gets her phone number, telling her he'll let her know what's happening. In her dazed and shocked state, she doesn't ask obvious questions like "how did you know it was happening?" and all. Marnie goes off with the police.
To the Alfred! Dodging nurse and doctor spirits they wander about the hospital and look for evidence of John. Brett finds an intake sheet and sees that a J. Brighton is in emergency surgery and that his next of kin have been called. Checking a few theatres finds John face down and having his skull reassembled. They watch for a time and make sure that the doctors aren't saying things like "my god, look at the veins close up on their own!". The surgeons do look a bit surprised that some of the apparently damage on the Xrays has turned out to be fluid/bruising, but its not too blatant that John is healing 40 times faster than humanly possible. Eventually John is taken out of surgery and put in intensive care. Thomas and Melissa head back to the caern to let them know what's happening, given the general feel is that they shouldn't be alone. Brett's all for making Bess-on-a-spit. When they arrive at the caern, they find Malajimbarra waiting for them. They quickly say that John's in hospital being operated on and Graeme has a slight "oh" kind of reaction. Malajimbarra takes Thomas and Melissa outside and says that Jana has abdicated from the Sept and left - do they know what might have prompted her to do so?
Thomas 'fesses up that they spoke to Jana and asked her questons of a leading nature because they have come to the conclusion that there is a good chance that Huros is the father of Jana's probably metis child. Maybe. Malajimbarra coughs a bit and looks surprised. Thomas gives him the final few pieces of info that led them to that point and Malajimbarra nods. He says that Commands-the-Waters has asked him what was going on, so Malajimbarra told her. It seems like everything is going to come out soon, which is probably for the best. Malajimbarra goes home.
Eventually John comes out of his coma, feeling a bit woozy. The others ask what happened and he basically says "it was cold and someone hit me". He has no idea what the hell happened. John's parents are spoken to, and reassured that he'll be ok. Meanwhile, back at the caern, Melissa and Thomas are still around when Chris McNeil finds them and says that Kathryn Bess is at the front gate and wants to speak to Melissa. Melissa looks unsure and eventually Thomas goes with her, but stays out of eyesight but within earshot in the Prime Ministers' gardens. He can't really hear what is said, but it doesn't turn into screaming and roaring, even if it is a bit tetchy. Melissa returns after 5 minutes and says that she sort of apologised for hitting John, and she knows it wasn't his fault, but she lost her temper. Melissa says that she was mostly cordial.
John falls back to sleep, and his parents find somewhere local to stay. Brett, Kimu and Mathias decide to keep watch on John, just in case. Melissa goes home and Thomas goes to a bar. He's just had a beer plonked down in front of him when Melissa mentally says "eee! Thomas!" - he runs off, leaving the beer and money behind. Melissa continues as Thomas sprints home telling him that Huros is here in their house and would like to speak to him. Not her, him. Kimu starts heading from the hospital to the house. Melissa's running out of small talk, but Thomas arrives in a matter of minutes so she makes her excuses and leaves the immediate area. Huros tells Thomas that he wants to know what Holistic Approach have been doing at his caern and why, in detail. Thomas wisely decides to give all the facts that he has at his disposal, but without going into much speculative detail. At the end of this, Huros says that he thinks it would be... best if they stopped asking questions and let the matter rest. Thomas agrees. Huros leaves. Melissa and Kimu let out an explosive breath.
John manages to get himself out of hospital by a combination of being extremely annoying and having his parents reassure the hospital staff that they will take him home and make sure he rests. While he's waiting to head off, the police turn up and take a statement from him. John claims to not have the faintest idea who it is, or why she hit him. Judicious use of Persuasion and an honest face have them believing it, or at least with no way of knowing if he's lying. He rings Marnie, and convinces her that he's ok, and tht she couldn't come and visit him in Cranbourne, its too far, he needs rest and all. He does actually spend some time with his parents for the day.
Bright and early, the 6 Garou head off to St Mary's Peak via Jindabyne. Carla is most interested in hearing what they have to say - she apparently has heard some of the news already. Thomas mentions neither their ultimate suspicion, nor that Huros came and visited him. Carla points out that they haven't really found out what she asked, but that they have managed to at least stir matters up in an interesting, yet diplomatic way (trans: no one died). She's willing to accept them as mediators to try and get the caern dispute resolved. Now they have to speak to the Red Talons. Moohahaha. Carla tells them that Mamu is at the Shattered Wheel sept. There's no moonbridges, they'll have to drive to a town called Boulia, and then run from there - the caern is somewhere South East.
Rooooad triiip. "Scenery...so.... boring...." The pack arrive in town just on dusk and head out through the Umbra - the Realm being one big brown desert, the somewhat nicer temperate rainforest seems ideal, even ignoring the omnipresent feeling of being watched. The whole pack sticks in lupus, feeling that the jesture might be appreciated. They run for a few hours and then Kimu performs a sekrit ritual making their sleepingspot nice and comfortable.
They start out at dawn and keep running. Chases-the-Night is very enthusiastic about this sort of return to lupus nature and the essence of being Garou. Brett thinks its cool, Melissa says "it would be ok if there was a spa and a bath at the end of the day", but the others are a bit "um, yeah" about the whole thing. While they are running, they cover Red Talon etiquette - keep things short and simple, preferably using imperatives. Don't forget that the Talons aren't stupid, they're just as wolflike as possible.
Running and howling, howling and running. Eventually there is a return "Yeah?" sort of howl, and Holistic Approach changes direction towards it. After a brief bit of howling protocol handshake, the two packs meet and do the introduction thing. The 7-member Red Talon pack is Far Waters, packleader Runs-Before-Walking, and once the sniffing and introductions are done, they ask what the strange Garou are doing here. Thomas states that they want to talk to Mamu about the disputed caern. Runs-Before-Walking asks a few questions and then says that they will remain here. He leaves a couple of Red Talons to watch the pack while the other 5 head off. Holisic Approach attempt to make small talk ("nice trees"), but even Brett doesn't make much headway. Its not that the Talons are particularly confrontational but they are fairly uncompromising about obligations, especially ones to the Weaver Scabs.
It is nearly dusk when Far Waters return, along with Mamu and a Garou introduced as Follows-the-Rains. Mamu doesn't beat around the bush, but asks what they are doing here. Thomas begins the conversation with "The Get of Fenris have suggested that we mediate the disputed caern" which makes some of his pack groan, but doesn't seem to upset Mamu at all. He continues, explaining that they are on a quest and need to speak to the spirit of the caern, and that Carla suggested that they should use this oppurtunity to resolve the situation. Before Mamu gets much of a chance to reply, another Garou appears from the same direction as Far Waters return. This Garou looks older and is limping badly, apparently from something congenital. When he gets close enough, the crippled Garou addresses Mamu, saying that if there (the pack) are the ones Mamu spoke of, perhaps he should try. Mamu and this new garou go aside a bit. Mamu is aggressive and dominant, whereas this new garou is submissive, but still insistent. Mamu keeps overbearing him, but the new garou keeps being submissive, but insisting. Follows-the-Rains seems a bit concerned and heads over towards the two just as it seems Mamu is about to throat the newcomer. Instead, he snorts and shakes himself before moving away a distance to drop in the shade and watch with hooded eyes.
The crippled Garou approaches and introduces himself as Crookpaw, a metis theurge of the Red Talons. He is not a member of Shattered Wheel, and in fact does not come from Austrlia at all. He travels the world, trying to help Garou from other tribes understand the Red Talons. The Talons do not share their songs and stories, and do no attempt to explain themselves to other Garou, so he tries to give a voice to the unheard. He asks Thomas to explain about what they are doing, and Thomas says something about needing to interact with the caern spirit. Crookpaw looks a bit surprised and says that he understood that they had a greater task for which they had been selected. There is some murmuring amongst Holistic Approach and Thomas says yes, they apparently have some connection with the bunyip, and work to perhaps retore them to the cycle. The pack is feeling like they are on shaky ground, after all the Red Talons did start the war, and probably don't want the Bunyip returned.
Crookpaw looks curious and asks Mathias if he could perhaps relate the story of the War of Tears. Mathias thinks for a bit and then relates the most common story - of how the Red Talon Wyrmbaiter found his sister ritually killed and left on top of an image of the Rainbow Serpent, how the Fianna Righ was newly seated and was unsure of her political stability and how the Bunyip did not reply to the accusations of the killing. The story also tells how the Glasswalkers refused to join the War, as did the Stargazers and Children of Gaia leaders. (see Rage Across Australia).
Crookpaw interrupts Mathias at key points, and comments on story. He points out that the driving revenge that Wyrmbaiter expressed in the story is a very un-Red Talon thing, as is the concept of sibling. The Talons attempt to submerge the self in the pack, and be as lupus as possible. Revenge is a human concept; the Talons do not want revenge, not even on the humans, they just want them gone and the balance restored. Crookpaw questions Wyrmbaiter's use of a klaive too - he has never heard of a Talon who would use such a weavery item. Perhaps Wyrmbaiter was a less than ideal Talon - not all of the tribe manage to attain the ideal lupus attitudes.
Crookpaw interrupts politely a few more times at critical points and asks questions about the story. He points out that normally Garou are able to ascertain the veracity of their stories by consulting the spirits of the land, but what is often not mentioned in the stories is just how turbulent the spirit would was at this time - the spiritual chaos of the time and the blatant hostility after the War has made it hard or even impossible to get a sort of objective view of events. So perhaps where Wyrmbaiter posessed a klaive, he has been confused with another Garou.
At prompting from Holistic Approach, he tells of the Red Talon's tales - how they came to the shores of Australia to protect the land, and how the Bunyip resisted their advances. The Red Talons knew that the humans and the other Garou would come as they had in the Pure Lands. In that time, the Red Talons had fought on all sides, some with the European Garou, some with the native tribes, even if they scorned the Talons, and some simply for the health of the land and the Caerns. In particular, they fought for the Caerns of the Croatan, recognising that they themselves were invades, but that the Caerns of the Croatan would need to be defended and protected for the possible return of the Croatan. The Red Talons believe that the War of Tears was initiated by a Red Talon called Wyrmbaiter, and the Red Talons fought through the war. But Crookpaw claims that much of their fighting was directed to saving the Bunyip Caerns. If the other tribes had fought alone in the war, what guarantee was there that they would give the Caerns back when the war was over? The Red Talons fought the Bunyip in order to save their Caerns, so that one day, they might return the Caerns to the Bunyip. Of course, the war ended with the extinction of the Bunyip, but the Red Talons remain and protect the Caerns and the land, for the day that the Bunyip return. Thomas groans and says that they cannot let the caern get taken away from the Talons in good faith, although the others shush him for th emoment.
Crookpaw finishes with one last point. Up until the War of Tears, the Bunyip had been elusive, almost invisible. It was almost impossible to find one, and they could always disappear again. This was why the tribes had been so frustrated in their attempts to communicate with the Bunyip. Yet, once the war began, it took no more than a year for every last Bunyip to be tracked down and destroyed. So how was it that a tribe that had been as elusive as smoke for decades could be so easily hunted down and destroyed in a single year?
Crookpaw says goodbye and limps away. Meanwhile, Mamu and Follows-The-Rains have been discussing. As Crookpaw leaves, Mamu approaches the pack and says that he is prepared to hear their words between the Talons and the Get. But (Brett groans) he wishes to see whether they are even capable of understanding the Talons and their causes. They are to go with Far Waters and Runs-Before-Walking will show them what they are to do.
Holistic Approach head off with Far Waters for hours through the Umbra. At one point the Talons take them through into the Realm, in a seasonal river valley. On the far side of the valley, the Red Talons stop and point to a pair of vehicles on the plain ahead. Runs-Before-Walking says that they want these humans to go, and neither them nor anyone like them to return again. Far Waters drop back into some shade to allow the pack to do their thing.
Assessing the situation from the Umbra, it looks as if there aare 6 men from Western Plains Mining and the University of Western Queensland. They have a medium sized truck and a landrover, loaded with camping style equipment and some sort of scaffolding loaded with pipes. John says its a core sampling drill. More observation from the Umbra reveals that they are on an extensive survey, looking for copper or iron ore (or anything else that turns up really). They've eyeballed a couple of other locations already, but this is the first place they think is worth doing a test drill. The plan is to put the drill up tomorrow given that its nearly sunset. The men are setting up their camp and making food and so on. It looks like they are planning to be out for a while.
The pack think of some ways to get rid of them, other than pushing them under the drill ("just steal their beer" says the earth sciences major). They contemplate stealthily putting aboriginal artefacts in the area, but there's some fear that the surveyors will just "not notice" them. Its probably not enough to just make them move on 2kms down the road - chances are the Red Talons regard the whole area as their bawn. In the end, they decide to ensure that the geologists don't actually find anything. John summons an elemental to see if there's actually anything to see below where they are planning to set the drill up. Given this will take chunks of time, Brett opts to awaken the drill for tomorrow, on the grounds that he'll need some control over the drill. Other folks peruse the rest of the equipment - one satellite phone, a pretty good GPS, satellite maps, diesel generator.
John's elemental friend returns with samples of yummy rocks. Of course, this is in the Umbra, but in theory they should match up. To actually influence the Realm will take a fairly significant spirit, so John begins summoning again, calling to another elemental. The others nap or keep an eye out for trouble.
Just on dawn, the ground surrounding John starts to flow, in a large circle. Rearing up out of the ground appears a huge snake head, mottled with dark earthy colours and with multifacetted gem-like eyes (no, its not Ngalyod). It continues to rise higher and higher, dragging coils out of the ground and surrounding most of the pack before looking down on John. It demands to know why he called it, and he says that they seek to prevent the encroachment of the weaver and the wyrm on this wyld place. John explains that the men in the Realm seek coloured rocks in order to dig them from the earth and melt them down for their ores. They wish this to not happen, and the easiest way would be to hide them colours from the men. John wishes the spirit to move the coloured rocks out from under where he directs, and to leave only sandstone and other drabness. The spirit wants to know what they will do for it, and John suggests one or two things. The spirit looks at Chasing-the-Night and says that he once coloured sands to make pictures to honour its kin - he will remember how to do so again. Kimu agrees after a brief "what is it talking about?". John says that they will need to do this several times more, and the spirit points out that it will cost it much strength from its assigned tasks. John says that he will spend the time before then considering how they might aid the spirit in some way that makes it possible for this to happen. The spirit agrees and says that its name is Chorka, and that is how they should call it the next night.
Chorka descends into the ground at the spot John indicates, and while Brett messes with the drill to keep the geologists from starting, the spirit messes with the Realm. Eventually the drill says "screw you hippy" and starts up anyway, but Chorka has been gone for some time, so everything should be ok. Hours pass while the drill bites into the hard rock, and then is reversed to extract the cores. The geologists are understandably disappointed when everything that's coming up is dull, dull, dull. One of the younger guys is blown away by the strange, almost melted look of some of the rock. The pack debate whether to deal with that right here, right now, but decide to watch for a time instead. The geologists are quite surprised by their lack of results, and by the time they've finished talking about them, they decide to stay at this site again overnight. While they do their normal camping things, some of the senior guys consider their plans, ignorant of their invisible watchers. Although they now know where the geologists are planning to go in the next day, the pack decide that they can't really pre-emptively mess with things, because they aren't sure exactly (to the metre or so) where the prospectors will drill.
Figuring that they can at least look, the pack head off to the next site so that they are there first. John summons a minor earth elemental to get a feel for what material is down there. When it returns, it comes back with loverly green minerals, probably copper ore. The pack sigh and Chorka is summoned. There is some bargaining for a time, and in the end, in return for Chorka assisting at the next few sites the pack will agree to awaken one of the sleepers (rock spirits) and rescue minerals from those who do not revere them, at least once per month for the rest of the life of the pack.
Over the next two days, the pack disappoint 6 geologists ("That's what they get for being rapers of Mother Earth", "She was askin' for it") by blanking out all signs of valuable minerals. Although one of the PhD students is still bemused by the melted-looking rock, the pack declare this a win, and head back to find Far Waters. They are escorted back to meet Mamu and explain that the men have been discouraged from returning. Mamu is reasonably happy with their efforts. He says that they will meet at the disputed caern in 3 nights. Holistic Approach do some quick mental arithmetic and then realise that they have to run like the clappers to get there in time. They hastily take their leave and run for Boulia.
By not sleeping all night, they make it back to Boulia early on Thursday. They contact Carla on the way to Lake Eyre with some basic info, but she asks them to return to St Mary's Peak. This gives them even less time, so they switch drivers and sleepers in order to arrive there about midnight on the Thursday. Carla listens as they tell her about Mamu (but not about Crookpaw), and the fact that he has accepted them as mediators. Carla fills them in on what's been happening this week - apparently the Black Furies of Grinding Stone were on the verge of leaving en masse. Commands-the-Waters confronted Huros and demanded to know what was happening, and while it didn't come to blows, she did insist he leave. No one knows where Huros is now. With that cheery thought predominate in their minds, the pack try and get some sleep. (Mathias only).
The pack arise early and borrow the same landrover, heading back out to Lake Eyre and Etadunna. They get there about lunchtime and head out towards the nearby caern through the Realm in lupus, giving short "ullo?" howls as they go. Holistic Approach spot the Red Talons heading their way before long, and they veer to meet them. Much bottom sniffing and Holistic Approach are introduced to Head Harvest, whose packleader if Flies-like-a-Stone. They are aware of the situation, and seem ok with the pack approaching the caern. However, shortly after that a number of other Garou step out of the Umbra, and they are a bit more brusque and wondering why the pack should be allowed to enter before the dignitaries. They are introduced as Raging Storm, pack leader Miles Korrin. He is apparently trying to start a fight, asking Mathias where Mikal is, amongst other taunts. Holistic Approach just shrug and ignore him, and try and get some sleep in preparation for the morrow.
Carla and Allison arrive early in the morning, followed not too far behind by Mamu, Follows-the-Rain and Crookpaw. Once everyone is there, Thomas stumbles his way through a sort of preliminary introduction, and basically asks each side to state their case. Crookpaw takes the centre stage and says that the original Protectorate boundaries placed the caern in the arena of the Red Talons and it was only later politicing by the Get of Fenris which changed the boundaries. The Talons are the only true heirs to the Bunyip and wish to tend the caern until their return. Carla says while caern was briefly held by the Talons before the Council was formed, and the draft protectorate boundaries may have placed it within their territory, all the tribes had to make sacrifices before the borders were finalised.
The pack ask what the two sides would take in exchange for surrendering their claim. Carla says that, hypothetically, if the Get were to no longer claim the caern, they would require another caern of equal significance. Crookpaw simply wonders that they consider that a caern is something that can be bartered away - the Talons are here for the caern, not the other way around.
While the negotiations are proceeding, the pack try and plan how to sort this out over the mental link. Thomas is a big supporter of a challenge, the traditional method for resolving Garou crises, although the others are not necessarily for that idea. They try and figure out what sort of caern this is, not just for the challenge idea, but as a general feeling for which tribe might be better - they figure its a caern of wisdom, not an attribute for which either tribe is particularly well known. Some speculation is also had about why the Jindabyne Council hasn't tried to resolve this - the feeling is that it would weaken their stance if they tried to enforce a ruling and had it ignored.
After a couple of hours of not really achieving very much, Carla heads off, leaving Alison to negotiate. Mamu also leaves and sits a distance away, leaving Crookpaw (who was talking anyway, but hey). This is probably not a particularly good sign. Rather than sit in a big group, different members of Holistic Approach split up with the tribal members and speak to them seperately for a while. Head Harvest and Raging Storm spend some of their time patrolling, and are not always around staring, staring, staring. Alison does not put much stock in the whole "waiting for the Bunyip/Godot" claim the Talons are making - they started the War, why would they just give a caern back?
Late in the afternoon, Mathias spots a flash of light out in the desert maybe a kilometer away. He heads out there with Brett and Melissa to see what it was. Running that way, the three of them come across five new Garou - specifically, the Ngalyod pack. Fujiko says that they heard there was some activity happening here and they came to check that the Fenrir and the Talons hadn't gone to war. Mathias lets people know who has arrived, and then explains that they are here to try and resolve the situation, at the request of the two tribes. Fujiko looks a bit bemused and then suggests that they could stay. Despite some reluctance to agree, eventually Holistic Approach say as long as Mamu and Carla don't mind. When the new pack arrives, Carla nods and Mamu grunts, which Fujiko interprets as assent. The Ngalyod pack sit some distance from the proceedings, observing without interfering.
Thomas bullies his packmates into making the suggestion of a challenge to resolve the caern - obviously as a last resort. Crookpaw looks thoughtful and suggests that it would have to be an appropriate challenge, and that if the Talons won, they would also require the Protectorate boundaries to shift so that this caern was within their territory. The pack suggest that the challenge would be best if it related in some fashion to the essential nature of the caern itself. The same is proposed to Alison, who also looks a bit unsure, especially when the rider of Protectorate boundaries shifting is added. She says she'll need to talk to Carla about it.
Other suggestions are made during the course of the day, including the possibility of sharing the caern - this is not a big hit, given that it would be easy for one side or the other to try and attempt a takeover. It would also not be easy to work out which tribe filled which Sept positions, and may lead to a Sept with divided elders - Carla looks pointedly at Holistic Approach when she makes this last point - which would be a poor situation. The pack ask Crookpaw why, if the caern is protected at the moment, it cannot remain how it is until the Bunyip return. Crookpaw says that each caern is given to the Garou by Gaia, each for its own purpose, and to have one laying idle means that Her purpose cannot be fulfilled.
Holistic Approach wonder if the nature of the caern would influence the course of the mediation, and ask permission to question the totem, making it very clear that they will stick to this one topic. Mamu agrees, as does Carla after a short pause, suggesting that Alison perform the necessary riturals tomorrow at dawn.
Seeing as how it is now twilight, the suggestion is mooted to stop for the evening and let people rest. Each party seperates a little and settles down for the evening, with very little mingling. Kimu wanders over to the Red Talon camp and asks Crookpaw if, considering his wide knowledge of the stories of Garou, he knows of anything concerning the Heart of the Wild. Crookpaw thinks for a while and then says that it is not a thing of the Talons, for they are not ones to meddle in such elemental forces directly, preferring to work through Gaia. However, he has heard of such a fetish although calling it a fetish is probably a false way of thinking about it. Chasing-the-Night questions this, and Crookpaw tells one of the few stories he knows of the Heart of the Wild, from very early in Garou history. The story suggests that the Heart is actually more like a materialised spirit than a made fetish, even it can be used as such by Garou.
While Chasing-the-Night is busy interrogating high rank lupus, Thomas and Brett have wandered over to Carla and Alison. They asks some questions about the Get of Fenris' relationship with the area. Carla points out that they don't really have a traditional relationship with the site - and in fact, that is sort of the core issue here. Most conflict between the Garou comes about as a matter of tradition and history, and at this site, the Garou have existed in a sort of a limbo, not really establishing any link with the caern. Carla reminds them about her generous offer for help if they are sucessful in resolving the situation, and also comments that given the reputed nature of the caern, she would be happy to allow other Tribes to join the sept to be formed, such as the Children of Gaia or Black Furies, although she would, of course, have to vet these individuals.
Crookpaw asks Kimu if he has considered everything that Crookpaw has said, not just today, but also when they first met. He suggests that Chasing-the-Night should consider the motives of each of the Council members - Carla is indubitably working from primarily politcal motives, and will probably only respond to political methods and rewards. Mamu, although needing to keep in mind his status amongst the Talons, is working from an almost entirely spiritual motive. Perhaps they should keep that in mind when discussions resume tomorrow.
The morning starts bright and early. Thomas asks that the spirit of the caern be summoned, so everyone moves into the Umbra, and Alison obliges. The caern totem fades into existence from seemingly far within the tree, accompanied by a faint golden glow. The spirit appears to be a enormous woman, filling the space within the tree, of the big-hips-and-tits school of mother goddesses. The spirit chooses to speak to John, and he finds himself suddenly cut off from the mental link and his brain full of spirity goodness. John presents the situation and asks if the spirit has any particular preference, but the spirit seems to regard the two tribes as much of a muchness - they both slaughtered her children. John tries to rephrase the question, but the spirit is still not very helpful. He also suggests that he and the pack are attempting to return the bunyip to the world, but the spirit says that her children are dead and the dust covers their bones - the sense is that she means the individuals who were at the caern previously rather than the Bunyip as a tribe. John thanks her and she fades back into the tree.
There is a brief pause as everyone moves back into the Realm. Before things really get started, John suggests that they make an offer to the Red Talons - if their prime claim to the caern is to hold it for the Bunyip, would they accept the Get holding the caern but swearing to return it to the Bunyip. They discuss the possibility - John says that even if they reject this idea, they'll have to give a reason, and that gives the pack, as mediators, more of an idea of where each tribe stands. Figuring that it can't hurt, Thomas approaches Crookpaw with the idea. Crookpaw listens stoically, and then says that he will need to talk to Mamu, who is not in the immediate area. Mamu and Crookpaw talk, and there is a repeat of the body language from their first meeting - Mamu grows irritated and domainating, and Crookpaw is submissive, but insistent. Crookpaw breaks off and comes back to Thomas, and says that he should speak to Mamu directly.
Thomas is a bit doubtful, but heads over there. Mamu looks like so much contained fury. Thomas basically says that the Talons have said that their main goal is to be there for the caern, and to return it to the Bunyip. It has also been said that an unused caern is a bad thing. With that in mind, he proposes that the Talons allow the Get to hold the caern (trying to phrase it positively and not as if the Get were winning) but to swear to return stewardship of it to the Bunyip. Mamu does not look like a happy camper and he questions Thomas as to why he suggests this. Thomas unfortunately slightly intimates that this is taking too long to resolve, and Mamu leaps forward, jaws agape. Every other Garou freezes, except Melissa, who leaps to save Thomas, and Brett, who punches her and wrestles her to the ground. Thomas leaps backwards, and Mamu charges him. Thomas bites Mamu on the shoulder, but is crushed and slammed to the ground by Mamu's greater weight. Mamu locks his jaws around Thomas's throat as everyone looks on with that "did he just start a war" kind of expression.
Mamu relents and changes form from lupus to hispo, to crinos and to what might be glabro... he snarls "You are not garou." and kicks sand on Thomas, before changing back to lupus and heading back away from the pack. As he passes Crookpaw, Mamu growls "yes" and continues on. The assembled Garou relax a little, and the pack tend to Thomas. When he is sufficiently returned to health, Crookpaw comes over and Thomas confirms that Mamu has agreed to the proposed deal. Kimu, at the behest of the pack, queries exactly what he believes just happened - Crookpaw says that Kimu has spent too much time with homids. Chasing-the-Night explains that he was partially raised by homids and honours their memory and deaths through adopting part of their way of life, which Crookpaw seems to accept (if not understand entirely). He looks at Thomas a bit critically and says that it sounded to him as if Thomas was suggesting that time was the critical factor, and not the wellbeing of the caern; although Crookpaw is willing to believe that Thomas was making a different point, Mamu reacted to that.
Thomas limps over to Carla and says that Mamu has agreed that as long as the Get swear to return the caern to the Bunyip tribe, the Talons will no longer contest their holding of the caern. Carla is a bit blown away that they reached an agreement - that's certainly not what it looked like from her point of view. However, she agrees quickly, even when the point is made that the Get will be swearing, not Carla Grimmson. This message is passed back to Crookpaw as the Get start highfiving one another. Fujiko approaches and enquires as to what is happening and she blinks a bit when they explain.
The Get of Fenris are jublilant and the Red Talons are looking confused; Mamu remains distant while Crookpaw is left to explain. Fujiko suggests that they may want to make this a formal arrangement now, to prevent confusion, and Thomas agrees, mentioning that it sounds like an idea to present this to the caern spirit too. Mathias is looking around when he spots a dust storm rising up from the westsouwest, across Lake Eyre. He arghs and mentions it, with a possible Bunyip warning. However, the Umbra looks clear, as opposed to times when the Bunyip have arisen before, where the Umbra was the first to react. Mathias, Brett and Melissa head off to check it out while everyone else steps into the Umbra and splooshes through swampy goo to get to the caern. The spirit is summoned forth once again as a witness. Fujiko speaks a bit about the history of the caern, and the new agreement, ending a rift older than living memory.
Mathias, Brett and Melissa reach the end of the storm, a swirling chaos of red dust and try sensing. They do notice certain supernatural influences - there is a Gaian sense and a Wyld sense, but none of the usual Deadlandsness associated with Bunyip. Caked with dust, they retreat to the Umbra and return to the caern as Carla speaks. Carla formally agrees to the conditions, swearing (as the leader of the Get) to return the caern to the Bunyip tribe when they return. She also says that the new Sept will be sworn in as soon as possible, and that she intends to allow Garou from any tribe to join the sept. Crookpaw speaks for the Talons, saying briefly that they will remember the compact, and that they will spare no effort to retake the caern if it is broken. The totem (Imberombera) is formally greeted by Carla, and basically conveys that although she was indifferent to which tribe 'won', she appreciates the effort.
One of the Fenrir, who was peeking in the Realm, suggests that people should come and look at something. The storm has cleared, and it has uncovered a number of flat stone blocks. Only a few of the blocks are uncovered, but they appear to be part of a ring, probably set around the tree at the centre of the caern. The blocks are covered in carvings and remains of painted symbols, the nature of which, if not the individual symbols, look familiar to the pack. They appear to be similar to those found at Scars Atoned, and at Hopping Mouse hill and the Blue Mountains cave. Alison confirms that she has seen similar glyphs at other Bunyip caerns. Thomas asks if they have tried awakening them, to the bafflement of the other Garou - he explains about the awakening and the animation and the wahey, and Alison blinks a lot. It is suggested to hold off until all the blocks are uncovered.
Mamu and Follows-the-Rains leave, although Head Harvest has declared that they will remain until the Sept is formed at the next full moon (about 2 weeks) and no one wanted to argue. Crookpaw also remains, and he walks to meet Kimu as Kimu returns to the pack. Crookpaw enquires as to whether Kimu understands the sacrifice that Mamu has made for them - he has, if nothing else, put the pride of the Red Talons aside to hold to their spiritual goals. Crookpaw says that Mamu has only done such a thing because he has some measure of faith in Holistic Approach and their quest. Chasing-the-Night says that he is unsure if his pack understand, but that he will endeavor to explain it. John asks to speak to Crookpaw aside, and explains that he is unsure of his lupus nature, and asks whether he would be permitted to spend time with the Talons. Crookpaw agrees that the pack spends too much time with homids, but also suggests that John need not look so far from home for instruction. He bids all farewall and also leaves, following the path taken by Mamu.
The pack lounge about and relax. Carla approaches and says that she doesn't know what the hell they said or did, but that she is appreciative. She says that she will stick to the bargain they have made, and that she grants permission to speak to the spirit now (it has remained in a summoned/awakened state). Holistic Approach approach the caern and John is cut off again from his packmates. They explain the situation - Marion, Alex, Rat, three faces, trying to follow the spirit. Imberombera reaches out of the tree and pushes one finger into Brett's head, and he twitches and falls down. She pulls her arm back and fades back into the tree. When Brett returns to consciousness, he says that he feels a bit weird, and when he closes his eyes he can see a golden thread, leading off into the darkness (not in any particular direction). Feeling that this is confirmation of their path, the pack return to St Mary's peak with Carla and then Moonbridge home. They regale Cossack, Emma and Nadine with their story and then collapse asleep.