Holistic Approach Chronology

September 2000

Monday 4

The pack decide that they are due a week's break, and convey same to Grek and Monash at Carnarvon. Grek says that he will come to Melbourne the next weekend.

On Tuesday, Kimu and Thomas call the pack together. Thomas says that he is standing down as packleader, and that Chasing-the-Night is his nominated sucessor. Despite some unhappiness about the method, none of the rest of the pack wants to be packleader, so Chasing-the-Night is accepted.

People get on with their miserable excuses for ... er, I mean, live life to the full. Brett is off with the Get of Pennington a fair bit, while John is alternatively at the caern learning more of the Rite of Fetish and spending time with Marnie. Thomas catches up with his mortal friends.

Grek turns up early on Monday. Holistic Approach brain dump out to him what's happened so far. Grek merely raises his eyebrows at the ascension of Chasing-the-Night. The topic moves to Brett's magic string. Its theorised that maybe it will 'pull' them when they get closer to the Still Face of Gaia. Discussing that with Grek and Cossack and Emma. Grek doesn't know what the hell it is, so he'll be coming with them to the Shadowlands via a Silent Strider rite. However, the rite requires the death of a sentient being to enact, which is one of the reasons that the Striders don't do it too often. When they do, its typical to select a fomor or similarly evil creature. Spirits don't cut it. Cossack says that he might be able to help them - the Daughters are currently looking for a copycat Full Moon Killer. It looks like he was responsible for two of the killings that were blamed on Jordan and a third at the last full moon. Cossack doesn't think that Christine will mind the help.

Grek says that the sacrifice needs to happen at the end of the ritual, not before, so they need to capture the person and bring them back to the cemetary. The pack are a little doubtful on the wisdom of that, but Grek says that the body becomes their link between worlds, and it can be less than optimal if its moved before they return. Ahh, say the pack. They do agree to do a cleansing ritual beforehand.

Off to Hampton St, Hampton, where they catch up with Christine, Keziah and Jacynta, who, short of any other clues, have been hanging about and sensing wyrm on people - they figure that given the only links between the three women who were killed seem to be that they worked on Hampton St and all three were blonde, then its possible that the killer also works here or shops here. Christine has liberated some of the police files on the three and hands them around.

The three victims were 36, 29 and 23 respectively, all female and all blonde. The first was a manager of a housewares shop, the other two were shop assistents. The first was killed in November 99, near her house in Glen Waverley, the second in February 2000 in her house and the third last month in a beachbox in Brighton. The police have lumped them all together with the Full Moon Killer, because the MO was fairly similar - Full Moon, stabbed to death, and sometimes burnt - and they're not aware that Jordan is dead.

Holistic Approach go and look at the beachbox. Or at least, what remains of it. Its been burnt down to stumps, and badly burnt the box next to it. Chasing-the-Night uses his scent of distinction gift - he senses fear, but muzzy fear as if from a non-quite-conscious source, he senses the fire itself and he senses a power-lust-cruelty combination - the killer did what he did because he enjoyed killing. The pack move him up into "must die" catagory.

While they drink coffee (mmm, jittery, jittery werewolves) in various cafes, Chasing-the-Night goes out to the other murder scenes to use his gift. The second is fairly inconclusive, so he tries the first. Something goes significantly wrong (1 1 1) and he spends the next few hours in a land of infinite pain, reliving the last couple of hours of the first victim, who was not semi-conscious. His pack eventually rescue him. Brett suggests summoning Unicorn and making a calm talen to break the horrid dream/vision/hallucination. John summons Unicorn and politely stuff the spirit into a shell to make the talen. Kimu is restored to wanting to sleep, which he does in the back of the van.

Thomas finds the bohemian store in the strip and quietly busks out the front, watching and sensing. Brett and Melissa hang in lupus or in the Umbra as they respectively don't fit in and worry about meeting someone they know. The pack doesn't spot anyone particularly wyrmridden or anything, although there is a lot of variation in the population. Even waiting around until late and seeing if anyone is stalking the car park doesn't score anyone. Brett points out that they are now prime suspects, having hung around all day, so they decide to call it a night. Holistic Approach suggest coming in as early as possible, and thus it was arranged.

Tuesday 5

There bright and early the next morning, the pack blear through the gauntlet or lurk about suspiciously near the station. Brett suggests that perhaps looking in the Umbra for such a person is a plan - someone that unpleasant would surely have banes hanging around them ala the gangsters they saw once. Brett is lurking near one of the big car parks when his attention is drawn to a group of nightshift workers coming out of Safeway. One of them sends the wyrm detector up to several awoogas. Feeling that they might have their man, or at least someone's man, they scope him. Sense Wyrm says very, but not fomor, confirmed by Scent of the True Form (human). The guy (Hamish, according to his companions) is about 5'6'', short hair, maybe 25. He and another guy walk to a nearby coffee shop and have breakfast and coffee. Hamish is surreptiously eying people off, something he continues to do after his friend leaves. John rushes back to Safeway and tries to peek for his full name. Hamish stays at the cafe until about 9.30 and then wanders up and down Hampton St, watching people before heading to a beat-up car and driving off down the Nepean faster than even Thomas can run. John finally finds his surname (Hamish's, not his, he knows his, its Brighton) which is Allen. Some nice Questing Stone rituals lead to a 2 bedroom weatherboard house in Moorabin.

Kimu peeks and is rewarded by the sight of the young man fapping away to what is frighteningly realistic snuff porn. The garou collectively twitch. There is a brief checking of the place, and next door neighbours, which luckily are all not home. Brett goes to a nearby hardware place, and gets some good strong rope and heshian, which he and someone else dedicate. By the time this is all done, Hamish has finished his selfabuse and is putting the video up the back of a laundry cupboard; it seems there are others there too. The pack wait until he gets in the shower, and then stand either side of the door. Hamish eventually comes out, and is roped, grabbed and kidney punched by Brett, Thomas and Melissa respecitvely, leaving him floppy and pliable. They tie him up (including gagging him with his own used hanky) and scarper out the back. Hamish is questioned a bit with Truth of Gaia and steelcaps before being gagged again with the jizzrag, and its confirmed that he was the killer. Brett and Chasing to a cleansing ritual and then Hamish is dragged to the cemetary. The pack theorise that while he's not a fomor, it was only because he hadn't met the right bane. The Daughters are informed and filled in.

People make preparations during the afternoon and evening for their trip. John asks Grek some questions about the Deadworlds - apparently its a whole 'nother Umbra out there, with little subrealms of its own, home to other spirits and to demons, which are different from spirits. Grek doesn't want to fill them in too much, both because it will influence what they see and because he would rather only tell them what they need to know. Folks dedicate stuff and leave messages with people about where they will need to be. Thomas manages to convince Melissa to wear the fae armor.

Grek's ritual finishes on midnight, and he cuts Mr Allen's throat. The pack are instructed to hold onto him and step sideways, and they will instead move to the lands of the dead. This they now do: instead of the normal drift feeling of moving into the Umbra, this is a slow, langorous descent, making them feel nauseous and disoriented.

The pack suddenly experience a jerk and they are torn 'sideways'. The garou erupt from the ground, falling about and retching. Once they have recovered enough to quickly look around, it becomes clear that they are in bushland. There's no sign of Grek, nor of Melissa. Somewhere nearby, an eerie, insane howl starts - the call of the Bunyip.

After a time, Chasing-the-Night feels an odd shift to the world around, and he sees that instead of light forest, they are now running through desert brush. Once he has pointed it out, the others notice too, and they ask Watcher where they are going. He shrugs and points at Mathias, saying he has taken them here. Mathias looks confused and says he has no idea what is happening. They scan the surroundings - about the only feature apart from the scrub and the twilight sky is a small hill a couple of kilometres away, so they head that direction. As they run, Kimu's spidey senses tell him that the hill is possibly the centre of this area.

As they approach, the hill resolves itself into a stone-henge like arrangement - red sandstone rocks piled into columns of all different heights and widths around a larger central column. It looks a little like the structure that was left on the Eastern Freeway. They get within one hundred metres or so, and they can make out two figures - a thylacine and an old aboriginal woman with their backs to the central column. Mathias groans and says there will be a bunyip in crinos around the far side too - he's met this spirit or whatever it is, before, when he and Dominique went hunting in the Umbra. Brett asks Watcher about, who shrugs and points at Mathias.

After a bit of hoohar, they enter the circle, and the insane Byunyip howling behind them cuts off as it did on Watcher's plinth. They address the woman and proceed with another tense-challenged discussion. She refers to herself as "we" for most of the discussion. Apparently it remembers things, so it has to make them happen. It remembers Mathias running with the night in his hands, and it remembers that it will tell him that he is in danger of losing himself. The pack ask a lot of questions, but don't get much meaningful information. Apparently it knows of the something-which-is-nothing, but doesn't know what it means (much scanning of the sky by the pack, looking for their totem). It both drew Mathias here and he came on his own. It may speak to others, but it is also a message for them. Thomas asks whether it remembers something that then don't happen, but there's not a lot of common ground to discuss that from with a being that is apparently not terribly well anchored in time. Kimu tries to use Axis Mundi here, but ends up with an appalling sense of falling and wheeling and rolling and riding and falling and spinning that he decides to not do that any more. He ruminates on why all his gifts have bad side effects.

As zombies have been building up on the outside of the circle (except for the ones that John decided must be destroyed), the pack decide it is time to move on. They draw most of the zombies one way and then sprint out the other. Fortunately they don't go to Arcadia Gateway or anything, but run out into the desert. Eventually time and space shift again and they are back in forest, although possibly of a more alpine nature. The pack put on a turn of speed and manage to seriously out distance three of the Bunyip that were closing in on them, and after more running, reach a corpse of trees. Watcher leads them in, and to a specific tree. He appears to be talking to a bundle of bark maybe 6' long tied high up in the tree, and explains what the bones of the situation. The bundle replies and says that it has no interest in helping the murderers of its children. Watcher indicates that they should speak, and the pack remonstrates with the bundle. However, the pack have a hard time arguing against the accusations made about the Garou, and the individual inside is fairly adamant that they suck, and so refuses to help. Watcher has been observing all this fairly neutrally, but when the pack give up he points out loudly that they are effectively stuck, and may as well just stay here and annoy the one in the tree. There is a brief pause and a rather sulky voice says go see the Fisher. Watcher thanks the bundle and they leave once more.

As the Garou run, those sneaky Bunyip launch an ambush against them. However, its not terribly sucessful as Holistic Approach knock their legs out from underneath them and tear off their heads, despite some concern that the lack of howling might mean the Bunyip were less insane. Watcher stands aside during this little altercation, and then leads them on. After a time, the forest fades to replaced by ti tree and spinifex-like grass, and finally sandy dunes. The pack can hear surf, and as they rise over a dune, they can see an aboriginal man in a loin cloth spear fishing beyond the breakers. ("Oh, /fisher/. Not /fissure/"). Watcher calls out and the man waves and heads into the shore. Watcher once again gives the short form of Holistic Approach's situation and the Fisher nods and says that he can show them the way out. He is neutral in much the same way as Watcher is, and repeats the thought that both Ngalyod and Gaia have abandoned them. When the pack disagree, Fisher points out that nothing changes and grows here - there are no young, there is no weather, no seasons and so on. There is just the land and the Bunyip. Kimu says that perhaps Ngalyod and Gaia were taken from them, rather than abandoning the Bunyip, but the Fisher says that it makes no difference to their current situation.

Fisher leads them to a large canoe about 20 foot long and gets them to help push it out to sea. They thank the Watcher for his help and wave good bye. Once past the surf, the sea is remarkably calm. As they paddle further and further out to sea, a mist starts to rise, cutting visibility sharply. The Fisher says that they should be cautious as there are things which lurk on the verge of the realm and prey on the careless. Now you tell us, think the pack. Time passes and the pack hear some very disturbing splashes in the distance. They are paddling happily out into the mist when Kimu, who is at the front of the canoe sees a large wave rolling their way just before it hits them. People mostly keep their seat, except John, who falls over the edge. The mist clears somewhat, and something enormous rears out of the water - its is a bit like a whale, except the front is a mass of eyes, tentacles and mouths, gnashing and wailing. Chasing-the-Night is grabbed by tentacles and lobbed several hundred metres away into the mists. John falls into the bottom of the boat while Thomas does a smooth dive into the water. The Fisher tries to paddle backwards while all this is going on. Brett is lunged at by tentacles, and despite hacking some of them off, is grabbed and dragged towards a mouth. He manages to get a hand free and do enough damage to the tentacles to break free and drop. Thomas, John and Mathias reach the side of the creature, and despite the surprise appearance of extra mouths, manage to start tearing holes its hide. It has another go at Brett, but he manages to wave Mr Pointy up high enough and fast enough to turn into so much calamari. Eventually the Garou prevail and the creature sinks beneath the waves. They make it back to the Fisher's boat, and clambour back onboard, remembering to get Kimu as well.

More timeless paddling through fog. Eventually a faint sound of surf comes to their ears and the Fisher guides them between rocks to a sandy beach. They thank him for the help as Melissa's mental voice screams "WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!??" really loudly. The Fisher pushes off back out to sea and is soon gone. Melissa says her and Grek are at the cemetary, sort of, and he's sent some demons to find them. Thomas mentally taps everyone on the shoulder and points to a dark figure standing nearby. It appears to be approximately human, but dressed in a cowl of some black fabric. The figure moves towards them, and says "Hello Thomas. I've been waiting for you" As the pack move to club the Silent Strider to death, most of the pack realise they know the voice - it is Christian Bury.

  Despite urgings from some of the pack, Thomas is fairly urbane. He asks how Christian knew he was coming, to which Christian suggests that they should retire somewhere a little more convenient for a long discussion. While this is going on, John gives Mathias a run down on the things that happened at the time, and then suggests that he stay down on the beach and questing stone for Melissa and Grek. The others tramp up a sort of pathway to the top of the cliffs. As they climb, they see the body of a homeless guy, curled up under some bushes as if to keep warm, but eyes open and staring. Odd, think they, and keep following Christian, who leads them to half a parkbench. Although it seems stable enough, it seems to have had the lower half burnt away, and barely rests on one pair of legs. Christian sits down and removes his hood - where his eyes should be is a black space - whether a covering or a pit, its impossible to say.

Thomas asks again how Christian knew he was coming, and Christian says that he has been in this realm before, and certain other beings noticed his passage. They have strange senses and were able to tell that he would return, and to even give an approximate location. Christian wanted to meet him and the others because he has a deal for them. Thomas cautiously asks what the deal is; Christian will give them a considerable amount of information if they will agree to carry something pack to the land of light for him. They, fairly understandably, want to know what it is. Christian says that he'd prefer not to tell them, but he will affirm that it is not something dangerous to them, or even affecting them. The Garou don't look too interested, so Christian offers them an agreement - he tells them what it is if they agree to either take it or refuse, but not to be duplicitious about it. A quick mental check with Chasing-the-Night and Thomas agrees. Christian says that it is Polly's name. Ah, think the Garou. He continues, saying that when he reported to the others of his Cabal that the werewolves could track an individual on a name alone, they took steps to get rid of their names - simplifying a bit, they gave them to demons. However, this is ultimately going to be bad for Polly, and he wants the name returned. They ask about his motives, and Christian says that he is only concerned about Polly's wellbeing.

They ask if Christian will give them a few minutes to talk and go aside. Holistic Approach is generally for the idea, but want to check on some details. They point out that if Polly gets her name back, they will be able to follow her. Christian says that he would strongly prefer that they didn't, although he can't really stop them - he really, really believes that they should leave her alone, but even more strongly believes that she needs her name back. This sort of convinces the pack that he might be on the level, so they ask what information he will give them. He says that he feels no particular loyalty to his former cabal, given their treatment of himself, so he will tell them where the third member is, and will answer as best he can any other question. Another quick mental conversation and the pack agree - they will take Polly's name to the Realm in return for Christian's information.

Christian says that first of all, the missing cabal member is Elliot Schandler, although that will not be any use to them, as he has also disposed of his name. However, Christian knows that he is currently in Launceston somewhere, and he thinks that given the small size of the town, they should have no problems finding Elliot. The pack ask exactly what was going on when they met him about 9 months ago. Christian waxes lyrical: his Cabal had been noticing the activities of the werewolves over the previous few months, and were curious about them. As a means of approaching them, it was decided that Christian would approach them pretending to be seeking his neice Polly, who was in fact safe in Port Arlington all the time. They knew little bits from Polly - the word wirrenun and the fact she hated the werewolves, but couldn't say why - and used those to find a lead. Unfortunately, it led Christian to Mikal's house and the angry young woman there, who took steps of her own.

Christian's lack of knowledge of the Strawmen mages was not a lie. The Strawmen were relative newcomers to Melbourne, and his cabal had stayed away from them rather than get involved in the various magical events that they could sense were occuring. However, the effect with the fog at Lilydale Lake was an illusion - it was himself and Angus who came to get Polly that night - he created in an attempt to muddy the waters. Other effects that he performed were either non-existent or had other goals. What he told them of the house at Dandenong was true - the fractal patterns are very dangerous to make and require much concentration. However, they do let you move between worlds as well as providing warding. Christian doesn't know how, as he had only read about them before seeing the house.

He kidnapped John to move to the next stage of investigating the Garou - he would have kept him dazed and sedated while they performed some basic experiments. Its most likely that in the end, they would have killed him unless they had some other way of controlling him. At that point, however, Christian surmises that the other members of his cabal decided that the Garou knew too much about himself and Took Steps. He knows what was done to his body - a demon was called into it once Christian was dead. When the pack ask why the mages left John alone, Christian shrugs and suggests that perhaps they did not want to antagonise the werewolves further - he wasn't privy to that discussion, so he really can't tell them. They ask about the mindcontrol spells, and Christian agrees that they cannot be used to make someone do what they fundamentally do not wish to do without much more preparation than the cabal would have had. He says that he simply caused the slight magic taint upon Thomas, and caused John to believe that he had received a phone call and they behaved as they might normally from that point.

The pack talk about Polly again, asking what she said about her previous encounter. Christian says that she didn't remember much at all - she was using her talent almost instinctively. She talked about the darkness, and about the wirrenun not being there, and about the werewolves who were the cause of the problem, and just making it harder. The pack cautiously fill Christian in on the spirit-emanation, and there is some discussion that it might have been Polly's aptitude with spirits of the deadlands that led the other spirit to contact/use her to fight the Killer of Children. Christian explains why Polly was unusual to them - he jestures at a stick a distance away and it rises up. There is a strange shimmering around his arm and the stick a little like the wibbly things from the Bunyip home. Christian says that he can lift, and manipulate at a distance (demonstrating as he does), but Polly could use this ability to punch, and apply sudden force. There is a brief discussion about magic and how individuals all seem to have their own aptitudes, but that there is often a native ability like telekinesis or being able to create fire or something similar.

The pack run out of questions, and so Christian suggests that they take Polly's name and move on. They ask what they have to do to give it back to her, and he says as soon as they return to the lands of the living it will find its own way back. He reaches into the folds of his robe and brings out a .. well, its hard to see exactly what it is. It glows in a faintly golden way, and appears to be words wrapped into a ball. Christian offers it to John, who takes it - he's not touching the words themselves, but a force a millimetre or two further away from them. John drops the name into a pocket.

They ask what Christian intends to do now, and he says he doesn't know. He will stay here for the moment and think on it. The pack tell Melissa they are coming, and she seems a bit exasperated and says to hurry up. They move away, leave Christian looking out to sea.

Away from the beach, they walk out onto a road with houses along it - a fairly typical suburban scene. However, almost everywhere they look is a body. The bodies are of all sorts of people of all ages. Some it is unclear why they died. Others are particularly vivid, like a young man, his broken body suspended in mid air with a spray of blood from his mouth frozen in the air. The bodies seem a bit translucent and the Garou can wave their hands through them. John's questing stone gives them a direction and they start heading that way. As they travel, they see some fairly bizarre sights, like the infant, blue in the face and with wet clothes, suspended about two feet off the ground. They also see a young woman almost cut in half, perhaps by a car. As the near her they see a familiar vibration in the air, moving towards the woman. The vibration moves into her, and she sits up, and then stands and heads towards them, uncaring of the protruding viscera.

The woman stops a distance away and says that she has been sent by their friend to bring them. Holistic Approach asks what their friend looks like, but she says that all of them look alike to her - he has two long bits here, two long bits here, a round bit here, stuff like that. They mentally check with Melissa, and she pauses and says yes, Grek did send some of them out. They say cool, and follow the woman along. She leads them the direction they were going, and the area starts to look more familiar - a bit like they are in Burnley or Richmond perhaps. However, her path starts to detour away from where John thinks they should go. When it has done so for a bit and remained that way, they ask where she is leading them. She says that their friend wants to meet them, and points to a large, hospital-like building ahead. The pack have a brief mental conversation - Melissa says no, they aren't in a hospital, they're at the cemetary. They pass this on to the woman, who shrugs and points. They wonder who it might be if not Grek, and decide to follow her inside.

The woman leads them to the emergency department, and the number of bodies increases dramatically, to the point where the pack have to push their way through them (literally). They start to have bad feelings about the situation when both Brett and Mathias notice some weirdness about a couple of bodies in the room. The weirdness intensifies when the bodies move to attack the garou. The woman who led them here begins to melt - her hands form claws and her head sinks into the body and entrails come flailing out. The pack reflect that they've seen this before, when Christian had been killed. However, they are brave Garou and find that a couple of solid hits on the bodies cause the demons inside to fly out and the bodies to drop to the ground, apparently permanently altered by the demons. However however, given then number of bodies that are just lying around waiting to be used, and the ominous rumbling sound from above, the Garou opt to perform a strategic withdrawl while the demons are reposessing the bodies. They make it out into the street and away from the hospital a bit when part of one wall blows out, and a strange amalgam of at least three bodies floats rapidly towards them. Looking back at this, the Garou can also see that the single-bodied demons are following them too.

A bit of creative fleeing leads them to believe that the amalgam will catch them eventually, so they pick the battle ground. It heads rapidly towards them, and the garou tear into it. However, it seems fairly hard to break up. Kimu scores a hit with his fetish dagger and this definately gets its notice. While the others are trying to hit the creature, it begins to block their attacks and grapples Chasing-the-Night, lifting him off the ground. His pack run to his assistence, but the creature inexorably crushes his arm until it breaks. However, Kimu still holds onto the knife, so the amalgam creature continues to pull until with a tearing sound the arm comes away. As blood spurts everywhere, and Chasing-the-Night is dropped, the creature pushes the ragged end of his arm against itself, and it merges into the flesh, and begins to move. However, this concentration comes at a cost as the Garou literally tear the rest of the thing into fragments, ejecting the posessor. Kimu's arm is grabbed and any bits of demon flesh are torn off. John uses Mother's touch and reknits the amputated flesh back onto Kimu - fortunately the limb was not detached for long enough to become alienated.

The pack decide to make like a tree and hop it for the cemetary. A few sprints later and they run into the top of the CBD and thence to the cemetary. Across the space they can see Melissa and Grek, and the prismatic body of the former Mr Allen - it is quite colourful compared to the drab realm they are in. The pack relate their wonderous adventures to Grek and Melissa.

Grek is fairly startled with what they describe. He says that this is all significant - no one has ever claimed to have found the Bunyip homeland before, although it was probably here somewhere. The pack disagree with Grek about where they went - they don't think it was the homeland, but another realm native to the deadlands. They chat about this some more, and Grek concedes they have a point. He speculates that were they were was a perhaps a reflection of the homeland - an emanation of an entire realm, if you will. As fascinating as this is, this isn't a particularly safe place to carry on a long involved conversation - Grek suggests they move on. He's planning to ask some of the natives for guidance - there is a realm that the Striders call the Museum, and there are some entities within there that might have an idea where the Still Face of Gaia could be found. Its also a good place to rest, being relatively benign. Grek says that there is a doorway to the realm in a burnt down church in Toorak, so off they go.

As they walk, Holistic Approach ask Grek what he thinks about why they were attacked on the way. Grek says that he asked a few demons to see if they could find the pack, but he didn't compel them in anyway - its possible that they passed the word, and some more wyrm tainted creatures thought the pack would make a nummy snack. They ask about the Museum, and Grek says that it is a place where dead objects go. They ask more questions, but he seems inclined to let them see for themselves.

After walking for a while, the Garou reach what looks like an old bluestone church. Grek heads straight inside, and towards a door behind the altar, so Holistic Approach follow - Brett quickly senses unnatural to see whether he can feel whether this place is holy, but receives no such impression. Behind the door is a long corridor, winding and climbing and falling and rising and rolling and tumbling its way along. It looks like part of the church, but its way too long to fit into the building. The pack figure its a sort of Moonpath or wormhole (not wyrmhole) or something and follow their glorious elder. After a timeless period, the corridor ends in another wooden door, which Grek moves through. The room on the other side is full of rugs - blue Persian rugs, hung on the walls, on display stands, on the floor. Other than that, there is a hominid white marble statue on a pedestal - sensing it reveals a strong demonic presence. John approaches the statue, and it moves - it gives him a miffed look and leaves through one of the two archways leading out of the room. The Garou examine the rugs and find that while they are all the same style of weave and nearly the same colour, there are subtle fluctuations in patterns and precise colours - in fact there are no two the same. Thomas sticks his head through one of the archways and sees that the next room is full of slightly purpler rugs. They consult with Grek, who says the whole place is like this - one of each item that has ever been destroyed.

Grek suggests sleeping here - its comfortable and safe. He pulls down some rugs and makes a pallet of sorts. The others follow his lead and they get their heads down for a time.

5 + 2?

After sleeping for a while, the Garou set out. Chasing-the-Night asks Grek if he should bother using his Axis Mundi gift, and Grek says that he's never seen the same structure layout twice while coming here, and it probably won't be worth it. Thomas takes the chance to talk to his pack about a weird dream that he had the night before - he says that he thinks it was similar to one that he had before they left, but couldn't remember it properly. In this dream, he can see a castle, bright and shiny, with pennants and all that. Knights and nobles are approaching on fine horses and very plush looking coaches, and they all seem in a sort of party mood. But just before he woke up, he could see dark, dark clouds building on the horizon. They ponder this strange vision. For about 5 seconds.

The pack ask Grek exactly what they are doing here. He says that they are looking for the Curator - if they see an entity and its not a demon, then its probably the Curator. Off they set, passing through rooms, halls and corridors filled from with aretfacts from the mundane to the bizarre. One hall contains nothing but different models of bar fridges, another contains a dizzying selection of roof tiles, a third contains an assortment of prosthetic limbs.

Hours pass while Grek leads them at random through the realm. Eventually, they enter a hall and spy two individuals silently facing each other. One is a swarthy male, dressed in seemingly ancient Egyptian garb. The other is a Caucasian female, wearing a severe suit, glasses and her hair in a bun. Grek says that this is the Curator - both of them, apparently. They approach the Curator, and Grek offers greeting. He briefly explains what they are looking for, and then jestures for Chasing-the-Night to go into more detail, which he does, finishing with a request for any help the Curator could provide. The Curator looks at each other/itself for a moment, then the woman says that it may be able to help. The only thing is, she was considering a difficulty of her own, and would appreciate any help the Garou could offer. The pack mentally sigh while Brett draws a new tree on his diagram. Kimu delicately suggests that they are in a sort of rush, but the Curator reassures him it will not take long, and leads the Garou off down another hall.

After a time, a buzzing sound can be heard which grows louder as they proceed. They finally pass through a door into the biggest hall Holistic Approach have seen so far. The hall is maybe one hundred metres high and five hundred metres to a side. The ceiling is an arching glass canopy, beyond which the grey sky can be seen. Hanging from the frame of the ceiling are numerous small one-man prop planes. One of the planes, however, is up and running. As they watch, this plane flies erratically around the hall, climbing and diving and dodging the hanging planes. As it buzzes over their heads mere metres above them, the plane rolls. Thomas manages to get a look inside - for a moment he thinks that the Pope is flying the plane, but then the image resolves itself and he realises that its actually a picture of the Pope, cackling and maniacally flying the plane. The arms of the portrait have extended from the surface of the canvas and are piloting the plane. The Curator asks if they could perhaps get the plane down with the least amount of damage - the Curator could solve the situation, but it might destroy both the plane and the portrait.

The pack put their heads together and come up with a plan. When the plane swings around near a wall and then levels out, Brett will use Jam Tech to stop it working. John will then guide the tail rudder to keep it straight while the rest of them run underneath it and basically catch the plane. They wait for a good oppurtunity; the plane finally banks at one of the walls, close to the ground and Brett lets his gift loose - the buzzing sound stops and the plane starts to glide forward. John takes control over the tail rudder and stops the plane from careering left and right. As it coasts along, Thomas and Kimu manage to reach it, and they leap up to grab the undercarriage, while Melissa grabs the tail to stop it nosediving. Despite a few nervous moments as the engine kicks back into life, they wrestle the plane to the ground and a halt. Thomas throws back the cockpit door, and sees a rather frenzied Pope Innocent VII (it says so on the portrait frame) trying to make the plane go. There is also a weird distortion behind the portrait (which senses of demon) which the pack leave alone (dissuaded by the incredulous look on the GMs face). They pull the portrait out, and the Pope comes quietly, arms dragging on the ground. The others approach them, and the male Curator makes a flicking motion at the portrait, ejecting the wibbling demon out the back and through the wall. He fixes up the portrait by pushing the arms back into the picture and making a few more adjustments, leaving an ordinary portrait of Pope Innocent VII again. The female Curator tells Grek that the best place to look for what they seek would be in the Necropolis, which seems to mean something to Grek.

The pack ask if they perhaps could borrow some of the items from the museum. The Curator does not seem too disturbed by the idea - she says that its main task here is to order, not to collect, and that they may take items if they wish. They rush straight to the armoury, but are a tad disappointed. As the Curator points out, each artifact only seems to appear once. So while guns are plentiful, there are only a few bullets that will work with each gun. Oh well, they take along whacking-great swords from another hall; Thomas opts for an axe, obviously investigating his viking heritage. Brett manages to convince his pack that he should take a bazooka and a couple of shots "just in case", and unbelievably they agree. Once this shopping spree is over, the Curator offers to take them back to the church (just to make sure they're gone, probably).

While they walk, Grek is crossexamined about the Necropolis. He says that it is somewhat misnamed - its not really a city of the dead, but it is the name which has stuck. It is thought that perhaps the Necropolis is connected with the interconnection between life and death: all death comes from life, but all life thrives on death, even if only in the mundane fashion of feeding on the dead. The Necropolis is full of "life", but it exists by it's own laws. When things are first born they exist in a start of almost total decay. As they age, the process of decay reverses and when they "die" they appear to be fully formed. Apart from that it is much like the real world. Abounding in "life" as it does, the Necropolis is one of the most active of the Dead Worlds. As such, it attracts more demons that other places. The demons seem to relish to variety of forms and the constant change. In some places powerful demons have set themselves up as kings and tyrants. Other demons oppose these tyrants and aid the residents of the Necropolis in the constant demon-inspired wars that go on. Grek says that he knows of a passage into the Necropolis that lies outside of Melbourne, heading towards Healesville. The passage should take them to a place near a city where they can get help.

Eventually they reach the passage to the Church, and the Curator waves goodbye. The pack move through the seriously freudian corridor, and eventually emerge in the church once again. Grek immediately heads east. After a time, Holistic Approach and Grek are on the outskirts of Melbourne, moving along the Maroondah Highway, when they spot movement up ahead. Getting closer, they see that it is a figure moving about on the road. It is the bloodied figure of a woman, moving aimlessly about in the middle of an intersection. She appears totally oblivious to their presence. Grek says that sometimes the emanations that appear in the Shadowlands when someone dies are not inert. They seem to have some sort of motivating power, and can make their presence felt in the real world. The woman probably died in a car crash and became a ghost. The intersection in the real world would be haunted, although what that might precisely entail Grek can't say. Some ghosts are more aware than others, and a few act as they did when they were alive. Brett reckons that they are at the corner of Station St and Maroondah Highway, and the pack idly think about coming back when they get to the Realm again.

Leaving the intersection behind, they head on. Eventually, Grek leads them off the road and into some trees. He reaches a patch of thick scrub, and drops down into lupus form and starts pushing under the scrub. The others follow, and after moving through the scrub for a time, they emerge into a forest that is definitely not where they were before. Holistic Approach take stock of the situation. At first glance it appears to be an ordinary forest in the middle of winter. Birds are singing and insects fly around. However, looking more closely at the trees, it becomes apparent that the large and old trees appear sick and dying, with drying leaves and peeling bark. Younger trees look worse, little more than dried, leafless wood. A nearby sapling is a crumbling husk. As they stand there, a sloughing, bloated rabbit hops merrily along, munching on the brown grass. Grek leads anyone who is interested over to a low birds nest. One of the parent birds flies away, a stinking wet mass. Inside the nest, little bundles of tiny crumbling bones in vague bird-like outlines move around and cheep loudly. They move through the forest. As they go, they come across a fallen tree. It's the liveliest thing they've seen in days, with bright green leaves and fresh sap. However, it appears to be ever so slightly transparent. Grek explains that when a thing "dies" here it fades away. It used to be theorised that perhaps there is some correspondence between something dying here and something being born in the real world, and vice versa. This theory is no longer viewed as being very likely.

Eventually they leave the forest behind and find themselves in gently rolling hills. Up ahead they can see a walled city. As they move towards the city, they pass by herds of rotting cattle and sheep. Ahead they hear the sound of pipes playing, and find a small skeleton sitting on a fence post playing a set of pipes. The boy doesn't seem to be too concerned by these bizarre-looking strangers. He just keeps playing and watching them as they pass. As they near the city they see more people. Outside the gate the find a row of long stone slabs. Lying on top of several of the slabs are people without a touch of decay. Most are old men and women, although a couple are much younger, but equally untouched by decay. All are transparent to some degree, but some are virtually invisible.

Grek leads them through the gate. Several men seem to be guarding the gate, but don't hinder the Garou. Standing just inside the gate is a rough stone statue. Its head turns to watch the party pass. They are now surrounded by throngs of the living dead. A few of the very young children run screaming when they see the small group, but most of the citizens seem only curious. Grek leads them up through the city to a large building at the top of the hill. Two guards at the door challenge them as they approach. Grek says that he wishes to speak with the Council. The guards seem reluctant, until Grek says that he wishes it by the terms of the Compact. The guards allow them to pass, and two other guards lead them into the building and down a hall. The pack whisper to Grek a question about the Compact, but he says that it is tribe business, and not for outsiders. Thomas attempts to look Stridery enough to be told, and Grek says "later".

Passing through a door, the pack and Grek enter a large room, seats line the walls of the room, and most of them seat an old man or woman. Frankly, this is the healthiest-looking bunch of people Holistic Approach have seen since they arrived. Admittedly, they are all touched with a degree of decay, but nothing that pancake make-up wouldn't conceal at fifty yards on a dark night. Amongst the chairs there are also a few rough stone statues standing.

One of the men stands and approaches the group. Grek greets the man as Mauselous, and he the man seems to know Grek as well. After a few introductions, Grek once again gives the basics of what they are seeking, and then jestures for Chasing-the-Night to take up the story. He gives the basic form - seeking the secrets of the universe, three faces of Gaia, looking for the Still Face and suppose that it can be found somewhere in the Shadowrealms. There is much murmuring amongst the Councillors, but none of them seem to know anything. Then one of the statues steps forward and speaks. It says that the demons have their own stories and legends. One legend says that the Dead Worlds spill from the nightmares of the sleeping Leviathan. The Leviathan is generally referred to as female and is often portrayed as a source of creation. There is supposedly a passage leading to the place of the Leviathan through a chasm in the Necropolis. An ancient Silent Strider named the chasm Atropos Well. This all sounds fairly promising. Grek asks if anything is known about the location. The demon says that it is said to lie on a mountain that lies on the other side of the domain of the Manyfold Lord. Grek says that he knows the way, and thanks the demon for his help. Mauselous asks if perhaps they would like to rest here for the evening and then head off in the morning, and Grek agrees.

A guard shows the pack to some rooms that they can use and they grill Grek about what has been spoken about - specifically about the Manyfold Lord. Grek obliges, and says that the Manyfold Lord is one of the demon tyrants, and a servant of one of the Nether Kings. The Nether Kings are the most powerful of demons who rule seriously ugly and demented worlds. The Silent Striders believe that Set, who cursed their tribe thousands of years ago, was a Nether King. Most of the tyrants in the Necropolis are only agents for one of the Nether Kings. The mages that the Garou are having fun with in Melbourne are probably dealing with one of the Nether Kings for their infernal power. However, all this is hopefully academic. Grek is not planning on running into the Manyfold Lord and hopes to keep his engagements with his servants to a minimum (not looking at Brett, stroking the bazooka, specifically, no no). However, they have some distance to go - this realm abutts another, which is at war with the domain of the Manyfold Lord, and the ranges that they wish to find are on the far side of that domain. He recommends rest.

However, not all the pack are sleepy, and so they wander off to explore a bit. Most of the locals seem curious rather than of a temprement to get pitchforks and torches and form a mob to kill the living undead, which is fortunate for all involved. The city seems to be a mix of Ancient world Greek and Medieval European influences - its theorised that it is slowly changing to match the Realm, but that's not demonstrated in any way. When night falls, the pack find out one good thing about the Necropolis: it has a moon. They drink in the moonlight and replenish their sorely depleted rage. Grek remains with the rest of the Council through most of the evening.

5 + 3?

Setting off in well order, the seven Garou leave the city. They change to lupus a distance away and start running. Grek says that they needs must pass by the forest through which they did arrive, and thusly to the lands of an allied power. This demense is currently locked in rude strife with the minions of the Manyfold Lord, and thus Holistic Approach shall pass over their lands and thence to those of the servant of the Nether King. This they now do.

By early afternoon, the pack have again entered the forest from which they came, and travelled some distance through its healthy brown foliage. From afar, faint voices do draw their attention, and Grek speaks to them wise words of reconnaissance. The garou creep all unnoticed and spy upon the simple camp of an armed patrol. These brave men, all attired in brown uniform, do talk of skirmishes and campaigns, not on this border, but on one several days travel hence. The hidden Garou decide to reveal themselves unto these men, coming out of the brush in a noisy fashion so as not to alarm. The soldiers take up arms, but leap not into the fray, and their leader queries the presence of such strangers on the borders of his lord's lands. Chasing-the-Night, in the form of the homid, explains that they are simply travelling from one place to another with the intent to save a sickly comrade by finding the soul of one who was close unto him. Once it is clear that the Garou intend not to begin combat, the soldiers lay their spears to one side, yet still within easy reach.

The sergeant strongly suggests that the pack travel with him to their lord's citadel to ensure that they are permitted to travel within this domain. The garou shrug and agree - its on their way after all. After an hour or two of this, Grek grows a bit impatient with their speed and, acting on a suggestion from Thomas, suggests that the soldiers climb on their backs while they all run in hispo. Figuring what the hell, the pack go with this idea. One very jolty ride later and the pack and their new found friends arrive outside a large stone keep. There are many people moving around - mostly soldiers, human and demons, presumably, inside statues. They pass through a series of intermediaries, and are eventually escorted into the presence of a warchief - a demon in a roughly humanoid statue, covered in metal plates and sporting spikes and horns. It quizzes them closely on their presence here and whether they are spies of the Manyfold Lord; Kimu is suitably convincing, and at the end of the interview, the demon gives them a pass - a stamped bit of leather - which should get them through the rest of his lands.

The Garou continue on, passing through villages and seeing many patrols, but the official pass means they don't get any grief. As they travel onwards, things become more military in nature - the occasional deserted village starts to become more common, and as the day gets later the pack spot a few burnt out and destroyed towns. The troops that they meet start to look a bit more ragged and injured as they progress to the border.

Having consulted with some of the military units, the pack turn off the main road and head north. They plan to travel a fair way north and then move into the lands of the Manyfold Lord, hoping not to encounter any troops that way. The sun is setting to their left as the sounds of combat - metal on metal and screams - come faintly to their ears. Chasing-the-Night decides that it is not really their concern, as they have more important things to focus on. Both Thomas and Melissa look a bit rebellious, but don't push it. They pack creep towards up and around the battle to a high place, hoping to at least see what was happening so as not to be surprised. They find somewhere just in time to watch as four brown-uniformed troops are encircled and killed by a dozen or so troops in grey uniforms. The grey uniformed troops don't show any signs of immediately spreading out, so the pack take the opportunity to move on quickly.

Just into twilight, they decide that now is the right time to cross over to the other domain. A bit of scouting finds that the ravine that they have been following has reached a point that can probably be jumped. Thomas tries it first and clears the gap easily. The others follow, or at least try - Melissa falls straight down into the cold water, and is nearly crushed as Mathias does the same. While Brett makes sure that no one is sneaking up on them, Mathias clambers up the far wall, but Melissa is not having a good run of luck and grasps a big chunk of rock that inexorably falls out of the wall and back down into the water, taking her with it. Feeling like this is not her day, Melissa starts up the cliff again, being subtly encouraged by both Thomas and Chasing-the-Night. She reaches the top, drenched and not happy with her day.

They take off for a forest that is visible in the bright moonlight, and once inside the bounds Grek suggests that they sit and wait. Demons are probably not impeded by night and dark, and it will be easier for the Garou to see them coming during the day. Folks sleep, cycling around the watch.

5 + 4?

The pack rise with the first dawn. Brett and Kimu act as pointmen about 50 yards ahead and to either side of the main part of their pack. As they run, Thomas says that he has had another dream, or a continuation of a previous one - he dreamt of a fine, white, beautiful castle, pennants and drawbridge and moat and everything. Nobles and knights were arriving on white horses with shiny armor, or in ornate carriages. It was bright and sunny, but after a time the sky turned dimmer and clouds started to build up on the horizon. The change in light made the castle look less good and more boding, taking on a threatening aspect. Where the storm clouds were building, a dust cloud started to appear too, as if an army was approaching. That's when he woke up - although the other detail which he hadn't noticed was that there was no vegetation anywhere - not even grass. The pack scratch their heads and try to metagame a bit, but they aren't sure what its all about, so on they run.

The forest peters out after a time, and the pack are forced to cross farmlands. The villages in this land are much more primitive - the people are dressed more drably, and the feeling is more like a serf-based situation rather than a peasant-based one. There is a large military presence too - wooden forts and riders moving around. Holistic Approach see less physical evidence of the war though - no burnt out towns or villages. Perhaps they are further north of the struggle, or perhaps the armies of the Citadel don't do the raid and burn thing.

About midday, Brett begins to suspect that they have been spotted. There are just a few too many people looking their way from the lookouts, and riders moving behind them. The pack trade pace for stealth and try to disappear into the undergrowth. However, at one point there are forced to cross a village green to get to overgrown fields on the other side. It is as they are half way across that a group of horsemen come thundering out of the village and heading towards the pack. Figuring they have been rumbled, Brett flips to homid and cackles insanely as he loads the bazooka. Three horsemen break off and head towards him, while the others keep straight for the main pack. Brett decides that the larger number is the greater problem, and as his pack bolt for cover on the far side of a fieldstone fence (sure, they're running from the horsemen, not Brett) he fires. The shot doesn't go exactly where he is hoping, but close enough. As the cavalry disappears in a flash of light and smoke, the sounds of screaming, horses and men arise. Two of the men heading Brett's way slack up for a moment, but then join what seems to be their leader in charging his way and lowering lances. Holistic Approach leap back over the fence and head towards Brett.

In a short and very ugly fight, lances turn out to be no use against crinos with heavy melee weapons. Horses are decapitated, riders cut clear in half and the garou are only scratched. As the smoke from the bazooka shot drifts up into the sky, it becomes clear that the lead rider and horse were demon possessed. They jump to secondary hosts when the garou dismember their original ones, but the pack quickly dispatch or drive off the physical creatures nearby. As they watch the wibbly demons fly back the way they came, the Garou bolt as fast as possible.

Despite their change in direction and speed, John spots pursuit about midafternoon - a group of men on horseback. The pack take off and change direction and go upstream in some of the creeks they cross, but it doesn't seem to shake their hunters; as they come over a hill, the pack spot why - they seem to have dogs running ahead of them, coursing the pack's trail. The Garou stop for a few minutes and work out what to do. The territory they are running through is hilly and lightly brush-covered, and doesn't offer much concealment - the slopes are very gentle and they can't just hide over the verge. John spots what looks like a fairly significant forest that they could reach by nightfall - however, the cavalry would probably catch them about the same time. They decide to give it a shot.

As the Garou run, they glance behind them. At one point, someone spots some of the hounds seemingly leaping tens of feet into the air. At least that answers the "are there demons" question.

Hours later, they run down out of the rolling hills and onto the plain before the forest. A river runs through the middle, and the flat is covered in lush, brown grass - it does actually provide a fair amount of cover to lupus, it's that thick. The river is not insignificant, and the pack cross it and move upstream once again to buy themselves a few more minutes time. Glancing backwards, it seems the riders are spreading out to look for a ford, but they can hear the approach of the hounds. The pack decide to stop and wait. They spread out in pairs and prepare themselves for the assault.

Over a dozen dogs come running through the grass towards the pack - some of the hounds stop and seem to almost breath a distortion in the air at the pack, which causes burning sensations in their skin. The rest of the dogs run at John, Thomas and Kimu, and grab hold of limbs with their mouths, scrabbling at the Garou with claws. Although the dogs are fast, they do not seem supernaturally strong or tough and the garou start to thin out their numbers pretty quickly. The dogs that stopped run in and join the assault, seemingly all intent on the same targets. Brett disembowles one before it makes it to Kimu, but the others all reach the garou. John and Thomas now have three large, if injured, hounds clinging to them, and Chasing-the-Night has been encumbered by two more.

As the Garou watch, the dogs bodies twist and run together, forming a single entity, still clinging to their prey and biting and scratching with their claws. Chasing-the-Night is quickly freed, and despite Thomas' pleading, Mathias dispatches the thing clinging to him with the great sword. John is not faring anywhere near as well; blood is beginning to patter to the ground from under his dog-coat, and Grek and Melissa are having difficulty hurting the creature without also hurting John. John falls to the ground when he tries to strike at the grappling demon dogs, and the others leap towards him. However, Melissa seems to have freaked out some, and begins to Frenzy, ripping chunks of the warped creature off John. When it suddenly melts, John rolls quickly out of the way, as one furry dog thing looks pretty much like another and he didn't want Melissa to keep frenzying on him. Someone glances across the plain and sees that the cavalry is coming - there's not really enough time to wait for Melissa to calm down. She is carefully subdued (eventually) and the Garou run for the forest.

Brett reaches the brittle, stick-like wood and starts using his mad skillz to find a good place to stand against the horsemen. Apparently the cavalry have bows, as arrows rain down on the garou, wounding them somewhat. They reach the bounds and slip between the woods before the horses catch up with them, and dive into the thickets and groves. Apart from a few forlorn shots with bows, their pursuers don't seem inclined to follow them into the forest. They break into three groups - one goes north and one south, while a few wait near where the Garou entered the woods. The pack watch from a safe distance into the trees, and eventually those watching head off to the north. They speak with Grek - the direction the garou wish to travel is through the forest in any case, and it seems a good way to avoid mounted pursuit.

They travel into the forest and find that, despite the oddness of the local biology, it does seem to be a fairly wild place. As the sun sets, there is considerable sound and smell of animal life. No one can smell a predator more serious than a fox, so the Garou pick up the pace a bit. It is about midnight when Brett sees a young deer shoot across his path at an angle, running hard. He turns his ear that way, and can hear a rumbling, and crashing from the way it came. The Garou stand about waiting to see what it is, even as the sound grows louder and closer. Grek suddenly snaps out "hide!" and the garou dive for various bits of cover. The rumbling gets closer and closer, then the source comes into view. It seems to be a giant wheel, more than 10 feet across, made up of human bodies. The heads are at the hub of the wheel, and all the head have been amalgamated into a single orb, with eyes and mouths pointing in all directions. The bodies then radiate out, forming the spokes of the wheel. The bodies have been twisted and meld into one another. The rim of the wheel is made up of feet, which sort of kick out, helping to move the wheel along. From near the hub of the wheel, twisted arms keep elongating out and retracting back, grabbing at trees and branches and pulling the whole thing along. Of course, all the bodies in the wheel are also in varying states of decay, so the whole thing presents a really nice image. This thing rushes along at great speed, crushing small trees and bushes in its path. The arms are also tearing up and splintering trees as it goes., so it is cutting quite a swathe of destruction as it pursues the deer. It is soon out of sight, and some time after that, the last rumbling sound of its passage fades away. Everything is quiet for a time, then the birds slowly begin singing again.

The pack ask "what the hell was that?" and Grek says that he suspects that it was the Manyfold Lord himself - if it hadn't been so intent on the deer it was chasing, they might have been in a great deal of trouble. He speculates that this forest might be its private reserve or something, which might be why the soldiers didn't enter. He also suggests that they should probably get out of here as soon as is expedient. They plunge forward again, listening for any faint rumbling sounds.

A few hours before dawn, they reach the far side of the forest. Grek suggests they might wait till dawn - although it won't affect the demons, the less light might in fact affect their hosts senses, and the pack might be able to cover more distance without being spotted. They are also buggered from having run for nearly 24 hours, so no one really objects.

5 + 5 ?

The pack sleep in shifts a couple of hundred metres into the forest. While Mathias is on watch, he hears a faint rumbling sound, which grows by the minute. Despite a brief "uhuho", the sound actually resolves itself out into hoofbeats, and outside the forest. Mathias watches a small unit of riders head past maybe 500 metres out onto the dry and somewhat sparse plain on the east side of the forest. More riders go past during the day, spaced intermittantly. They don't seem to be looking for anything in particular, but maybe just riding a patrol.

Thomas awakens for his watch about midmorning and sighs. He tells the rest of his pack that he had another dream about the castle. It went fairly much the same way - nobles arising, storm approaching - and then kept going onto more detail. As the storm covered the sky, the castle took on a more forboding aspect. The force that was approaching resolved itself out into being a sort of rabble army - pitchforks and torches rather than knights and armor. This rabble army surrounded the castle and were obviously fairly agitated. As the storm broke, it was almost like bits of the castle fell off and tumbled towards the moat, but at the last minute changed direction and headed at Thomas, and he woke up. No one is entirely sure what to make of the dream, but they decide to keep their eyes out for a castle.

The garou head out onto the plains shortly after a patrol, about midafternoon. They slink in lupus, aiming for stealth rather than speed. However, two hours into their sneaky travelling, Brett spots a bird circling high above them. It flies off after a bit, heading north, and they change their direction once again, but it comes back after a time, and this time shows no real urge to leave. By this time, the pack can see mountains ahead of them, presumably the ones that were mentioned as containing the Atropos Well. Unfortuantely, behind them, they can also see a considerable company of mounted men following. Despite the fact that they have been running for days, once more, the Garou tap that well of strength and sprint as hard as they can.

It is heading for dusk when the pack start to run into significant foothills which prelude the mountain range ahead of them. The cavalry is less than a kilometre behind, and when Melissa pings them, she says that there is quite a large demonic presence, even from this distance - she mentions to Thomas as she picks up the pace that it feels like all 50 or so of their following is demon-posessed.

The garou splash across a stream and start up the first of the really noticable slopes. The riders are not far behind, and the pack can see that they are starting to pack up at the stream. However, they don't seem to inclined to cross the water, and some discussions appear to be going on. The pack change to crinos, but keep heading upwards, with constant glances behind. Chasing-the-Night says that he sees movement ahead of them, but the other can't see it. The demonhost finally starts over the water and heads up the hill, so the garou keep moving upwards. However, a weird sound causes them to look back at their pursuers. Three of the rides have come some way up the hill, but then stopped, and their human forms are billowing and twisting back towards the west. Suddenly the form collapses and there is a faint suggestion of something flying backwards out of the terribly mutated humans. The garou stop and watch as this happens to each of the horsemen who cross the stream. Eventually they stop coming and the remaining horsemen turn and return to the west.

In the meantime, Kimu has been looking up hill and can now see in the dim twilight a group of men descending down the hill, carrying spears and wearing some basic armor. Sensing doesn't reveal any demon sense about them at all, but just the general spirit-of-this-place sense. There is a niggling wyld sense about the place too. The men call out to the pack and ask what they are doing here - they seem wary, but not entirely freaked out by the undead-looking giant wolf things. Chasing-the-Night says that they are travellers and were being hunted by the minions of the Manyfold Lord - by the way, what the hell happened?. The man introduces himself as Caleb, and the others by a variety of vague greekish names. He says that demons can't come into this land - something drives them out of even the most secure host. His men are moving down to the twisted wrecks below, and John asks what they will do. Caleb shrugs - sometimes they can help them by getting them to friendly demons on the far side of their lands, but sometimes death is more merciful. Caleb offers them hospitality of his village and the garou gratefully accept.

As they travel back into the mountains, Caleb says that they are all outlaws - refugees from the Manyfold Lord's rule. Because no demon can enter this land, they only have to contend against other mortals, and often the promise of freedom from demon posession is enough to cause those soldiers to defect. As a result, the demons don't send them in very often. So Caleb and his crew conduct raids into the lands below and try to rescue as many people as they can.

The garou are led to a simple village - most of the buildings are made of wood, but some are stone and show signs of having been here for a while. There are women and children and goats in the village too, its not just an outlaw encampment, but a small community. The kids run away from the strange not-rotten people, but the Garou can see them peeking out from behind walls. Caleb says that the house at the end of the street is empty, since Jorge died - its a little ramshackle, but they are welcome to use it. This they now do, collapsing and drinking water for a bit, and generally freshening up as best they can.

In a short time, someone comes and invites them to dinner. About 20 adults fill the stone building that seems to serve as a general meeting hall. The garou carefully examine their food before eating it - it looks like anything that is really dead is ok, but sushi is probably a no go. During dinner, they are asked of news from the far side of the Manyfold Land's domain, and so relate what they have seen and heard. Other conversations start up as well - Brett offers to help them hunt tomorrow, suggesting that their garou nature will be useful. As dinner gets to the end, Caleb asks about their travel and why they are here. Kimu gives the long version of the story and finally asks if the locals know anywhere that might fit the description. There's much shaking of heads - Caleb says he's never heard of anything that might be called Atropos Well. The Garou ask about other strange places. Tobias says there is the weird canyon with triple echos, someone else mentions the place where water flows up a slope, but neither of these are entirely appropriate.

The garou think about what they are looking for, and the things it might affect. John asks if there is anywhere where everything is more alive, or more fertile and the men nod and says they have a hunting ground not too far away where there's always lots of creatures - they seem to breed a lot, and with many young. This sounds promising, and Brett had already suggested they go hunting anway, so they decide to look at it tomorrow.

5 + 6?

Kimu wakes early because the sun is in his face. Which is odd, because he fell asleep inside. Surprise! Keiteki has somehow found him, even in this realm - perhaps it is its underlying wyld nature that led the spirit here. In any case, Chasing-the-Night and Keiteki burble at each other for a bit before Kimu sucks every last drop of life giving gnosis from his friend. No, not really.

Thomas also wakes early, for lo! he has had his dream again, and it was crunchy and good with ketchup. The dream unrolled as it is want to do, nobles, castle, storm, peasants, looming - and then the bits of castle that fell off spread wings and became gargoyles, flying out an attacking the peasant army. There was much fighting and blood and general mayhem, through which Thomas is a disembodied observer. Guards from the castle also came out and joined in the fray. He explains this to his pack when they all wake. No one is cheered. Mathias asks if he noticed what colour uniforms the guards were wearing, but Thomas doesn't know.

Once they've got their brains together, the pack find Caleb and the other villagers. Calbe is not coming with them, but instead Tobias is the chief huntsman for the village, so the pack join with him and the other hunters in obtaining some more meat for the village. Being Garou, they are eminately suited for the job, although there is a certain amount of "garou kill healthiest looking beast, hunters complain that it will be a bit gamey". It takes only until about midday for the humans to be loaded high with much meat.

While they are hunting, the pack notice that the description the previous night is correct - there is much bounty here, taller trees, bigger animals (argh, dire wolf!) and a generally more lush feeling to the whole area, albeit a sort of brown and gooey lushness. Kimu uses his sense wyld gift, and looks through Keiteki's eyes and finds that there is a constant flow of wyld energies through the lands.

Having sent the villagers on their way with thanks, Kimu uses his axis mundi gift and perceives a distinct current to the flow. Figuring that the Atropos Well is at the source of this current, the pack and Grek move along against it. Apparently Keiteki can sense it, but none of the others feels any ill-effects. Much wandering about the mountains eventually leads into a small ravine, which twists and turns along with the shallow stream that has probably carved it over the years. The ravine finally widens into a bowl-shaped depression, rather picturesque - the stream falls down a cliff and splashes into a pool below the falls, and plant life grows abundantly. However, Chasing-the-Night's path leads them to a crack leading into the rock face - about 2 or 3 feet wide and narrowing to a point about 12' above their heads. The floor is covered with the same sandy soil that is spread around the bowl - the stream probably floods down here from time to time.

The pack make a couple of torches just in case, and Keiteki and Kimu leads the way. Most of the pack is in lupus form, that being the easiest form to move through. The crack seems to curve gently as it travels into the mountain, and sometimes requires the Garou to change to forms with hands to get up and down. The air is cool, but starts to feel more dry as they travel. The cave finally ends in a cavern - sort of a round inverted-puddingbowl shape, with a huge gaping shaft in the centre. Thomas also spots a crumpled form across the far side of the cavern, and he moves over there with Melissa. Brett peeks over the shaft - its not precisely round, and its very rough down the inside edge. At the top there are cracks that would make it easy to climb into. Others look at the wall - it looks water-carved, but its pretty dry in here.

Thomas calls them over to the body he's found - a rather dried looking gentleman, dressed in a simple rough tunic. The fact that he has actually decomposed in this realm means he's probably not from around here. John senses unnatural and finds that the body does not sense, but that there are a number of objects on him that do - two amulets, his sack/bag and something underneath the body, which turns out to be some sort of threshing flail. One of the amulets is a bit of amber, the other a sort of cartouche-kind-of-thing, which senses like nothing else the pack has ever seen. It has a number of hieroglyphs on it, and Mathias tries to read the writing, but fails. It looks like the fellow was a Silent Strider, and Grek says that he might know what the amulet is, but he'd rather not experiment here. The other amber one might be a monkey puzzle, a type of fetish that makes people see you as homid when you're in crinos - it looks like one he has made, and they are fairly traditional. John, meanwhile, lets his curiosity get the better of him, and ransacks about in side the bag. He pulls out what looks like wax-covered cheese, but manages to resist the urge to see what it tastes like. He can't seem to find anything else. The flail senses moderately of wyrm - Grek says that he will hold onto it and the other items for the moment.

It looks like the only way out is down (almost well-like, for instance). The pack light one of their torches and drop it - it quickly changes to a bluish, hard to see flame and drops away..... and disappears after maybe 20 seconds. Yay, think the pack - dropping pebbles down there doesn't seem to make any noise either, so they ask Keiteki to go down for them. He doesn't seem too fussed, and down he goes. Kimu tries to keep his sense of perception where Keiteki is, but its hard. The well appears to go down for at least a kilometer before they call Keiteki back - BAM he's in the cavern with them, having just stopped resisting the flow of wyld energy.

They take a look at the walls - it seems that they should be climbable, even with space for small breaks, so everyone prepares themselves. Grek says he wants to take the body, so they organise some way of tying it to him. Off they start. Its slow-going, with many short breaks on outcroppings of rock. Down, down, down, into the deep earth they travel. After a time, Kimu is beginning to find it more difficult to climb down - footholds are harder to find, and his arms are beginning to tire more quickly. Thomas comes over to help out and finds that its not a subjective thing - in fact, it is harder to climb on the side of the shaft that Kimu was on. They shuffle around a bit to avoid that face.

After a bit, it becomes clear what the problem was - the well is slowly turning to the horizontal, and Kimu had been climbing on the side that was becoming the roof. As they travel further and further down, the shaft gradually becomes a tunnell and they can stop and rest properly (look, a half burnt torch). After a short rest period, they head onwards, and enter a very large cavern. The first thing they notice is that the cavern doesn't seem to be comprised of rock, but rather of some uniform grey substance. They also notice that weird protuberance and shapes are all over the walls, floor and ceiling of the cave. As they stand their, an immediately recognisable demonic vibration rises up through the floor of the cave. This demon is apparently huge, completely surrounding the pack and continuing to pour forth from the ground, rising up above their heads and filling all the space around them. Many of the odd protuberances move around. Sense unnatural says that there is a massive demonic sense and an almost a significant Wyld sense, but no wyrm. Brett checks with Grek ("Size equals power, right?" "As far as I know" "eep").

The pack decide they don't really want to be inside the vibration and so they retreat back up the tunnel. Thomas opts to stay and nothing much happens to him except he becomes wibbly. From within, the effect is disorienting, but not otherwise dangerous. In front of him, a plug of grey matter rises up and forms a thomas-shape, which slowly becomes more accurate. It speaks and demands to know why he comes to this place. Thomas gives the short version ("We're looking for the Still Face of Gaia, and think it might be here") and asks who it is. The demon says that it is the Guardian of what lies beyond. The rest of the pack come up and stand with Thomas as the demon forms up shapes of them too ("Is my nose really that big?"). The demon isn't particularly forthcoming about what it guards ("That which is beyond") but it does say that it is not guarding it from such as them, and they may continue. The pack thank it and look for a way to continue - a small shaft appears to begin on the far side of the cavern.

This smaller shaft seems to be made of the same odd material as the previous cavern, and heads downwards at a significant slope. As they head down the cave, a faint sound starts to make itself heard - a far off scream. It gets louder and more persistant and it conveys a sense of pain and despair and loss. They try to block their ears, but it becomes clear that this is a spiritual scream, and that doesn't help. The further forward they travel, the greater the scream becomes, threatening to swamp them with fear and despair. Kimu (and Keiteki), John and Melissa decide that the scream is all too much for them, and sprint backwards up the tunnel. Grek, Thomas, Brett and Mathias light a torch or two and pick up the pace a little so they can see where it goes. The scream intensifies and conveys more and more depths of agony, but they continue on. Mathias calls a rapid halt as the four of them exit the tunnel out onto a platform, projected out from a limitless cliff-face of grey. Beyond the wall is a dark void, filled with the tearing scream. The only thing that marks the void is a bright point of light ahead of them. Brett senses and receives a strong Wyrm, weaver and wyld sense from the area, plus a maddening fourth sense, which might just be all three in perfect balance. The light far out into the void senses of Gaia. Grek sticks his arm out and pulls it back in quickly, saying that there is an unpleasant sucking sensation.

Dissuaded by the "its a test of faith, we should just jump" plan by the incredulous look on the GMs face, the Garou experiment a bit with their situation. The light is far enough away that stepping from one side of the platform to the other doesn't produce a visible movement in its position. Sensing reveals the three Triad influences on the area, but not much else. Brett ponders the difference between the hint of the fourth sense and the Gaianess, but can only observe a difference without being able to expression what that difference is.

Meanwhile, at the top of the chasm, the three Garou have recovered from their burst of panic and are watching the demon play with the various forms that can be made out of grey stone. They mentally add what suggestions they can, but can't think of anything more either. John tries to talk to the Guardian and it says that why lies beyond is the Sundering - that moment when creation fell from perfect grace into the disjointed world that exists now (in Garou terms, when the Weaver went ga-ga and the Wyrm went mwa-ha-ha-ha - not when death entered the world, for death is part of life). As creatures of two worlds themselves, they seem to be affected by the fall in ways that it, as a creature of one world, is not. John asks if it knows a way to help them achieve their goal and it says that it might know a way. John offers to share his multitude of experiences in shapes and forms with the demon in exchange for the information, and it agrees. It reaches out a hand for John to take, and he is quickly dazed by its rapid sifting through his memories. When it is finished, it says that it might be able to help them cross the void. John isn't quite sure what it would want in return, and they end up promising some help at a later date, as long as it doesn't violate their normal ethical creed. The demon says to call the rest back, which John does.

When they arrive, the demon causes a large bowl to appear and it begins to fill with grey liquid. It says that they should drink of it, as much as they can fit in. This they now do, tasteless and textureless as it is, and when they are full to bloating, the demon begins to rise up through their feet. The matter in their stomachs begins to vibrate in sympathy and spread out from their stomachs in a cold and paralysing creep, filling their limbs and finally heads. As one, the Garou turn and head down the corridor, feeling numb and a bit disconnected. The screaming begins again, but now it is muffled and distant. The reach the platform, and they march right off the edge, still surrounded by the demon, and out into the void, although Keiteki does not follow. Soon the platform vanishes behind them, and it becomes hard to keep track of time. ("I spy with my little eye, something beginning with 'l'" "Light" "Yep." "And that's when I shot him, your honour").

For a seemingly long time the light doesn't vary, but then it grows suddenly larger and surrounds them. The next thing any of them, are aware of, they are on their hands and knees on a stone floor, retching up grey liquid. This takes a while, as they can feel the liquid pulling back from their every extremity into their stomachs, from whence they can chuck it up. All in all, it's a pretty miserable five minutes of anyone's life. Finally it is over, and they all collapse onto the floor, back in control of their bodies. When they finally work up the resolve to actually give a damn, they look around and see where they are. They seem to be lying on a cobbled stone floor, forming a large platform surrounded by the familiar void. Away across the floor they can see a mahogany bar, with a row of bar stools in front of it, glass mirror behind the shelves, which are clustered with bottles. There is a lone figure sitting on the corner stool.

People get up and head for the bar. As they approach, they see that they figure is a woman in her twenties, dressed in a grunge/punk style, with ripped tights, Docs and a leather jacket, along with a few piercings and tattoos. She is sitting having a drink. As the True Seekers move up, she says hi and invites them to have a drink, although they'll have to serve themselves as the service here sucks. Not needing much encouragement, the pack sit themselves down, except Kimu who looks about for a kareoke machine. Disappointed, he becomes a bartender instead. She comments that they seemed to not have much trouble with the bouncer - he's fairly picky so she doesn't see many people come through. The woman introduces herself as Gaye, and them about themselves and what they do for a living, where they grew up and so on. She seems quite friendly and happy to chat, asking them about their lives. Brett does a ping of the woman and gets just a fairly strong Gaia sense. Nuff said.

They ask her if she knows a "Marion Perry", and she frowns and says that its not a familiar name, but she's met a lot of people - give her some time and she'll see if she can remember. Gaye tells a little about herself, saying that she had a pretty fucked up childhood. Her parents were hippies with some sort of modern relationship. There was her mother and father and her mother's boyfriend. It seemed to work all right for a while, but then it went to shit. Her father had some sort of mid-life crisis, because all his esteem was wrapped up in his work, so he chucked in his job and went off to express himself. The mother's boyfriend turned out to be a pervert who started sleazing at her, y'know, that way. As for her mother, she was an alcoholic pill-popping schizophrenic, in and out of institutions all the time, so she couldn't do anything about her boyfriend abusing her daughter. Gaye says that she can't really complain, and that she turned out not bad, all things considered. Brett asks if she has any brothers or sisters, and she laughs, and says that given her parents, who knows - but she hasn't met any.

Figuring that Kanau can't get them here, they ask if she's ever heard anything about a something that is nothing, but she just shrugs and asks if its a cryptic crossword clue from a newspaper. She looks thoughtful at that and pulls out a little black book, held together with a rubberband. Flicking through it, she says that she read something about this Marion woman in a newspaper and then met her a couple of days later, and has her phone number. Gaye writes it down on a coaster, and passes it over. Kimu looks at it, but its blank. He passes it Brett, who staggers backwards as the thread in his mind suddenly spools out to a second point. It still doesn't point anywhere, but it has at least changed. After a drink or two more, the pack asks if there's a backway out, and Gaye says that there's a door near the toilets that leads past the kitchen and out into a back alley. They thank her for the help and the company, and she says that it was her pleasure.

The pack head out the door that was indicated and down a corridor, and then through a fire door -

   - and out into an alley. A bit of scouting around and Kimu recognises it as St Kilda, while Thomas swears they're in Perth. From the occasional dead body it appears that they are back in the reflection of the material world rather than off in any strange realm. So, off they head to the cemetary, after dropping off all their new toys.

John shooshes people as they get near the Yarra - he can hear a weird noise. He climbs up the old Arts Centre tower and looks about - down river a ways, he can see what looks like a lot of demonic activity, and also some weird flashes and odd sounds - almost like a crash in reverse. He passes this on to people, and they cross over the Yarra to see if they can see something more from the north shore. They watch from a distance and sense for unnaturalness - a fair chunk of demonic, magic and wyrm makes the whole situation a bit hard to follow. They try and remember what would be around that location in the realm, and figure its down near the King St bridge. They head further down the north shore, and get close enough to spot the wobbly demons moving around the place. There is another weird sound and flash, and a large glass window appears, freefloating. Demons seems to be appearing and disappearing in the area, and the sense of wyrm and magic is stronger.

They rack their brains and then Thomas says "hey, what's the date?" They work it out on fingers and decide that its probably the 11th or 12th. Erk, that would be when the demonstrations around Crown Casino were planned. The pack run up towards the cemetary, find the rainbowy, pretty Mr Allen, and step - the sensation is as bad up as down, a nauseating twisting and turning feeling as the ground spews them out into the Umbra, and Allen's corpse begins to putrefy straight away, and at some speed.

Various Sept members cluster about them (once the pack has finished puking) while holding onto a selection of armory. It doesn't look like there is an immediate threat - people aren't firing guns, but just looking alert. Someone asks about it, and there is much sighing and saying that there's been a problem, but that Holistic Approach should probably talk to the Elders first. The pack is escorted to Graeme's house with much waving from other Garou in the Umbra, obviously on guard. They chat to Graeme and step into the Realm as he goes to fetch all the other Sept Elders.

As John materialises, golden light bursts out from him in waves like water spraying from a hose, accompanied by a metallic ringing noise and a faint flower-like odour. Kimu uses his Sense Magic and confirms that it was probably Polly's name finding its way back to her, as Christian said it would. Emma, who was watching, just shakes her head and offers them food.

The pack spend many hours with Grek and their Sept Elders dumping out what has happened to them in the last few days or weeks, from the point where they left, through the realm of the Bunyip (including discussing whether that is the homeland, or merely a sort of emanation of the same, but not going into much detail about Watchers' story), meeting Christian (talking about where they can find the 3rd mage and Polly's name), going through the Musuem and the Necropolis. As they tell the story, there is a rotating audience out in the corridor listening in to bits of it. They tell about the Well of Atropos and the Sundering. As part of this, the fetishes that they found in the Well are examined. Grek says that the amulet he was being so wary about in the Deadlands is something made by a group of Egyptian sorcerers - they give you great strength or stamina, but they seem to induce a kind of Harano in garou. Its possible that the Strider they found simply laid down and died as a result of the amulet's effects. Grek says that he will also take threshing flail, and dispose of it appropriately. The other objects are examined - the amber is indeed a Monkey Puzzle. John attunes to the bag and understands that it is called the Bag of Shadows - things can be put in the bag and hidden from plain sight, and then called back at will. He checks what's in there now, apart from the cheese that was in there - a woolen tunic and some scrolls, which Grek also claims.

Once Holistic Approach have given the rundown of their exciting adventures, they want to know what has been happening. Apparently there were some difficulties at the S11 protests - things had been tense all day, but had stayed calm. However, at some point in the evening, a large bunch of delegates were bussed in, just as the protesters were starting to leave. The protestors rushed back to stop the bus, and for some reason, gargoyles appeared and attacked. The Garou present took steps at that stage and things got violent. No one was killed but Ken has lost an eye, and is not happy. Tuesday morning was mostly sniping back and forth - the whole area has been declared under a state of emergency and the papers are going nuts. Thomas mumbles something about stupid dreams.

It is quite late when the discussion returns to the topic of the Bunyip, and the Watcher's story, and only the Elders and Grek remain with the pack. This time, the whole story is given, including the comments about the Uktena and who ended up with the bone at the end of it all. Mathias asks what happened to the bone after the council met to disband Infinite Paths. Grek says that the bone was given to Tjinderi, as the Uktena representative. He does not know what happened to it after that. There is much raising of eyebrows. Grek says that he will be informing the Council of all he has seen and been told, and he expects that Chasing-the-Night will be doing the same, as this is his role as the Jindabyne Council's appointee. However, Grek will still be their guide, to take them to the Deep Umbra, a fact which makes the pack a bit happier.

What to do next is considered by all. Although things seem to have quietened down, the caern can't really spare much help for the pack - however, Cossack points out that the experiences they are having are extremely significant, and they should continue - the Sept can spare them for the moment. It is suggested that they get some rest and take up the discussions about what to do tomorrow. The pack do some meditation, or get some sleep. Melissa goes straight home and uses up all her and Thomas's hot water in a 90 minute shower.

Wednesday 13

John finds Marnie and they hang out for a while. Brett does the same with the kids at the glade, and Thomas with his friends from around town. The others hang about at the caern, recharging fetishes and the wahey.

By early afternoon, Monash End-to-the-Darkness has arrived, and been given the short form of what has happened to the pack. They discuss the last part of their quest and what the New Face of Gaia might mean. The general feeling is that the New Face will be in the Deep Umbra, and that the pack should head off as soon as possible - straight after the Moot tonight seems like a good idea, given that Moon Paths are easiest to follow in a full moon.

Monash suggests that the pack should go to the Spirit Orrery, a Stargazer Sept in the Aetherial Realm. The Aetherial Realm is the land above the clouds, the Umbral sky. From there lead less dangerous and less difficult paths to the Deep Umbra than anywhere else, and specifically into the bit of the Other than are most Wyld. The pack is warned that everywhere they have travelled up to this point partakes of the same reality of which they are a part - even the Flux Realm is a churning of this reality, jumbled and changing as it is. The Wyld Reaches are where the fundamental nature of existence is in flux, beyond comprehension or even perception. Grek says that he will take them as far as the Anchorhead - a gateway Realm - and he will wait for them to return. Provided they keep hold of the tokens he gives them, they will be able to pass through the Membrane to return to the Umbra.

There is a bit of a stir near the door where some of the other packs have had members listening in, and room is made for Christine Elliot, Eustace Blunt (packleader of Misery-Loves-Company in Sydney) and Dominique ("Surprise!"). They have a number of talens for the pack, made by respective friends who wanted to help their quest. There are 6 talens each, and each partakes of the Weaver - they should help replenish them, and keep mind, body and spirit together. Eustace is invited to stay, but she says that she has to get back to her Sept for their Moot, but Dominique decides to hang around. John asks her how she snuck up on them, but she just looks mysterious at them.

The Moot is unusual - from opening howl and inner sky, the Sept moves to performing a sacred hunt, summoning Englings and asking them for their gifts for Holistic Approach to continue their hunt. Once they are sated in gnosis, Holistic Approach and Grek continue onwards, heading up into the Great Dividing Range to try and find a moonpath.

Thursday 14

As the pack travel, the clouds and mist close in. Grek keeps leading them upwards, ever upwards. They have easily passed the point where they should have reached the top of the local mountains, but Grek continues onwards. After a long period of travel, the whole pack emerges out into a crystal clear night - they are standing on ephemera clouds, looking out across the tops of a cloudy realm. The stars are bright and numerous, and the moon is enormous. The air is clear and crisp, the temperature bracing, but not cold. Aerial spirits of all sorts flash around in the sky - insects, birds and elemental spirits of the air. Grek says that they are in the Aetherial Realm, and that they are now looking for the Sept of the Stars, which is the same place as the Spirit Orrery - a Stargazer sept which remains in the Umbra.

As the pack travel, they are joined by owl and raven spirits, as well as by Kanau, who lands on and surprises Brett. The cloud-stuff appears to be solid enough to travel on, with no sudden lack of support, even though the Garou can't always see their own feet. The landscape seems to resolve into finer detail as they travel - what was blurry cloudscape becomes almost desert like, with mesas and gorges. While in one of these gorges, the pack suddenly come across a chasm, leading downwards into soft mist. Grek says that these cracks appear randomly, and seem to sort of correspond to breaks in the clouds. He doesn't know how long it will last, but it will pass. However, he's in favour of jumping the crack, and the pack don't seem to bothered by the idea. Brett queries what happens to people who fall down the hole, just in case they are deposited somewhere randomly in the Umbra, but Grek says that you don't fall far 'out' of the Realm - they will fall into the Umbra and just stop, and should be able to find their way back. Just as well, really, because Mathias mysteriously trips as he runs past Melissa and staggers straight into the hole. The rest of the Garou watch him disappear into the mist and shrug, having made the jump. Mathias eventually finds his way back, mumbling something about pillows.

Grek leads the pack onwards, towards cloud-mountains in the distance. Various spirits play around the pack, but don't contribute much to their intellectual discussions. Eventually the pack reach a tall mountain, which Grek says the Orrery is at the top of. Up they go, climbing, climbing, climbing. Brett and John point out that the vague metallic building they can see at the top of the mountain appears to have to way in, but Grek says that they are expected. To pass the time they ask why they are coming here, and Grek says that the Garou that live and study here are extremely knowledgable about the Umbra, especially the Aetherial Realm and its connections. He is basically looking for advice.

The pack reach a sort of plateau where the building sits and a middle-aged gentleman appears, apparently having arrived through a wall. Grek addresses him as Athro-rhya, and then introduces him to the pack as Altair, the Sept Leader of the Sept of the Stars. Chasing-the-Night greets Altair back, introducing his pack. Altair says that he has heard of them, which makes the Garou wince a little. He invites them inside, and touches the wall from whence he came, disappearing. The pack shrug and do the same, finding themselves in a sort of hall. Altair turns back to them and says that he can permit them to go no further unless they can either answer a riddle, or give the Sept some secret of the Umbra which they could not discover themselves. Holistic Approach discuss their options and decide to mention some secret of the Umbra. Although the Bonegnawer homeland is hard for the Stargazers to get to, the pack feel it would be breaking confidence to mention anything from there. Kimu in particular suggests that some secrets should remain secret. They decide to tell Altair of the Still Face of Gaia - they are going to tell him about it anyway, as part of explaining why they are here. This they now do, and once Altair has accepted this as being a valid payment to the Sept, Kimu continues backwards from that part of the story, explaining what they are doing and why they are here.

Altair listens quietly and patiently to what they have to say and then seems to reply with a non-sequitor. He says that he has heard of Holistic Approach, and it means that their reputation is spreading. They are obviously a pack with significance and a spiritual destiny - such importance will soon start attracting attention soon, if not so far. The pack question him on this, and he says that the pack seems to be an important but unknown element, and the more they reveal the nature of their importance, the more the forces of the Wyrm will be taking an interest in them. Whee, think the Garou.

Altair says that he can help them reach one of the Wyld Anchorheads, but can tell them little of help about the Wyld of the Deep Umbra. He first extracts a promise of secrecy from them regarding his help, and Kimu agrees for the pack. The Stargazer says that from high enough in the Aetherial Realm it is possible to fly, and the pack can thusly travel far into the deepest parts of the Aetherial Realm. The pack will need to fly up through the aerial level, steering towards, but not directly to, the lunar realm of Phoebe. Then fly towards the most vibrant and colourful part of the sky, which is the Wyld Reaches. Once in the Reaches, search for an Anchorhead realm, which can be spotted by their atypically high level of Weaver influence. Once they pass the Anchorhead, they're on their own. Grek says that the tokens he will give them to travel through the Membrane should provide some form of guidance to return to their reality.

Altair leads them through the weird wall-porting building, not seeing anyone else on their travels. They emerge onto a platform at the very top of a high tower, where Altair says they are able to fly. All around spirits of birds and insects soar and swoop, and nearby clouds are dark with roosting spirits. He gives some instructions on how to fly, and once the armor has been redistributed, the pack is able to master this strange ability. They thank Altair for his directions, and head out into the darkness.

  It doesn't take long before Altair and the Orrery shrink away into small dots and then can't be made out with the naked eye. The pack turn their attention forewards. They head onwards towards Phoebe, occasionally spotting little flashes of light. The flashes seem fairly random, and almost look like glints of moonlight. Nothing seems to eventuate from them, so the pack keep heading on without paying much attention, except John, who is fascinated. Which is just as well, because his sudden shout is enough to warn most of the pack about the flash heading right their way. They scatter, but Thomas and Chasing-the-Night get caught up in a glittery white light. They both perceive a weird blurred instant and then return to the dark glitter of the aetherial realm.

Although they are still connected by their mental link, the scattered pack cannot see one another. Kimu and Thomas start heading back the way they were heading before in the hope of meeting up with the others. After a time, Kanau says that he can see them, and they guide the lost Garou back to the bulk of the pack. It takes many hours, and John spends the time bugging Grek for knowledge about the Aetherial realm. Grek is reasonably ammenable to the idea, and tells them about the celestine Luna, who is also known as Phoebe, or Selene (that's Sel-e-nay, you philistines). She is not approachable by the unworthy due to the protection of literally thousands of lunes. But those who are proven worthy can sometimes reach the goddess and be graced by her presence. Grek tells them several legends about the goddess and her special relationship with the Garou.

Eventually the two lost packmates catch up and the pack head off further into the darkness. Once the Wyld Reaches start to be discernable from the firmament, the Garou veer away from Luna and continue into the fiery deep.

?

As they travel, the pack start to discern a sort of Deadlands sense. Grek says that their path will take them close to the domain of Pluto, which is a gateway to the lands of the dead, all very classical. When Holistic Approach ask why they didn't use it instead of killing Allen, Grek gently reminds them that he wanted to get to the Museum, and he doesn't believe that the gate on Pluto will take them anywhere near it.

?

John points out the faint grey smudge far above them. The others can't really make out much, but he and Kanau say it looks weird. They shrug and suggest he keep watching it. As time passes, John notices that the smear glints weirdly at times, as if it were metallic, or at least shiny.

John watches it for a few more hours and then says that it looks like its made up of many smaller things, cos he can kind of see through it. Its at this point that he can see a sort of branch away from the main smear, which looks like its lower down than the rest of it. He tries to get some sense of it, figuring its too far away, but there is a faint glimmer of weaver - a trifle worrying.

More interminable travel through the dark, and the others can make out the individual dots of the smear. They seem to be sort of tadpole shaped, with a thick head at bottom and a trail behind them. John is a little nervous about the lower branch, as its starting to look like it might intercept them. Holistic Approach start to take evasive action. Worryingly, the branched bit of the stream starts to sort of follow them - the head of the stream doesn't react fast enough and will go past, but the previously straight stream diverges in the middle and some of the individual bits from that will reach the pack.

The sense of Weaver grows stronger, and the Garou can finally resolve their pursuers - they look like enormous (cottage sized) pattern spiders, ballooning. Grek suggests they might have come from the Weaver reaches, but he doesn't know what purpose they are moving for. More evasive action, but although the spiders don't seem very maneuverable, a seemingly endless stream is descending towards them. John, sharpeyed fellow that he is, notices that the ones that have dropped below them are giving up, and continuing on - it might be that they can't rise.

After another hour or two, its clear that they aren't going to be able to avoid all the spiders. However, with some clever maneuvering, they should be able to 'punch through' the stream and rise above it - if John's right, the spiders won't be able to rise and catch them. They decide to pick their moment to respond and prepare. Mathias activates Luna's Armour, followed by much "ow! goddamn! Turn it off!" as he bursts into light. Figuring that its not much help if his packmates can't see, he lets the gift lapse. Grek suggests that any gifts that draw from one of the Aetherial powers will probably be a little over enthusiastic in this realm.

Rising at speed, the pack get a vague sense that their momentum might be more than they've thought when the distance between themselves and the spiders closes very rapidly. The spiders start to cast out weaver webbing, but the pack quickly scramble above them and cut the parachutes free with claws and blade. When the spiders are deprived of their shutes, they drop quickly, and the Garou have to make a fair bit of effort to jump free.

With only a minimum of fuss, they manage to out maneuver the spiders and rise above the stream of weaver spawn. After a brief bout of smacking calcified weaver ephemera from each other, they set off again.

?

The pack stream through the inky depths of space. Once they've exhausted all the humour in the various Shatner/Bab5 jokes, there's not much to do other than continue onwards. However, Brett notices that they seem to be slowly drifting away from their target. They correct their course, but after a time they start to drift again. They are being pulled or pushed toward a darkish area of sky, without many stars. The pack actively make sure that they are heading the right direction while keeping an eye on the direction they are being influenced towards. Someone spots an occlusion of a far away star - whatever is out there, its fairly large. Sensing isn't particularly conclusive.

Time passes and the pull becomes stronger, and a sense of Wyrm begins to make itself felt. The pack surreptiously start to make preperations to fight whatever it is. They veer suddenly its way, figuring that closing the gap would be good. Ahead of them a faint, smoky red light appears, and grows quickly brighter, finally appearing as an angry looking disk of fire. Grek yells "star spirit; scatter" and the pack spread out as the star ahead of them shoots prominences out towards them, roasting Brett. Despite the intense heat, the pack close and start to strike at the spirit, tearing deep and dark holes from its substance, while it blasts them with jets of fire and heat. Another check says that it is definately strongly wyrm corrupted, beyond redemption and the Garou push the battle harder. The light and heat falters as the Garou dig chunks of sun-material out of the spirit and scatter it to the cold stars. Eventually the spirit darkens and cools, and begins to drift away into the emptiness. The garou heal their wounded and continue.

?

At last, the pack start to find themselves amidst nebulae, colourful stretches of spaces and a pervaling Wyld sense - the Wyld Reaches. They cruise about, sensing as they go, looking for an anchorhead. A faint sense of Weaver resolves itself into an ever-changing object ahead of them. Each time it shifts, it becomes another regular geometric shape - an obvious weaver artefact in a part of the universe that seems intent on making new colours of pink. The pack get closer and closer - John reaches out his hand and disappears when he touches the sides. The others sigh and join him.

They appear in a large, cube-ridden space. The walls seem to be made of cubes joined together to form an enclosed space, much larger than the artefact appeared from outside. Cubes of the same white material float within the chamber, which is lit without having any apparent light source. Gravity appears to be "down", regardless of the angle that you are standing at. At the far end of the chamber is a wall covered with an odd, fractal like pattern, made of cubes joined and overlapped to form a hypnotic pattern. However, in front of the pattern are a number of floating, dark banes, which seem to sense the pack and rush towards them.

There are a large number of these banes, and although the Garou are slowly driving them back, they are hampered by the fact that whenever their feet leave the surface, they are suddenly in freefall, with no real way to get back to a surface - the banes, unfortunately, suffer from no such handicap and seem to sense the helplessness of their floating victims. Various leaping and tackling stunts are used to rescue packmates out in the centre of the chamber, landing them back on walls with varying sucess. The battle is slowly turning to the Garou when one of the pack notice that the fractal-like pattern seems to be moving. In fact, spiders are appearing, as if out of the vertices and joins of the pattern, and they are swarming towards the battle.

Not exactly thrilled at the idea of trying to fight the banes while also being calcified, the garou drop back a bit to see what the spiders intend. It seems that their main concern is the banes, and they begin to calcify the wyrmspawn. However, if the Garou get too close, as John finds out, the spiders will go them too. John retreats by jumping off the floor, and finds that the spider immediately loses interest in him. He communicates this across to Grek and the rest of his pack, and once they have finished with the banes, the Garou execute a number of slow, flying leaps from surface to surface. The spiders finish calcifying the trapped banes and retreat 'into' their pattern again. Once they have been gone for a short time, the pack ask Grek what they do now.

   Grek starts to prepare for the Rite of Becoming. The pack do their own preparations as well, trying to establish a strong sense of self before they step out into non-reality. Grek directs each of them to stand on a particular part of the pattern on the wall (now floor) and carefully adjusts where they stand. He gives each packmember a token made from stones, feathers and beads and says that the token will allow them to find their way back to the realm.

Grek begins the ritual, and the pattern underneath the pack begins to shift and change. The cubes and squares seem to slide through one another and drop away, opening up a void beneath each Garou. Grek's rite comes to a climax and Holistic Approach fall into the endless nothing beneath them.

The first impressions they gain are of no sound, but not silence, no sight but not darkness. A connection leads from the tokens back to this place, but there's no obvious manifestation of the anchorhead on this side of the Membrane. They also find that their thoughts immediately start acting in a strange fashion, with random, disconnected thoughts entering their heads. Brett, however, feels relatively ok, and can sense a sort of gradient to the existence around them. They are currently in some sort of minima, and efforts to move his position map out to the steepness of the gradient he can perceive. While not being pulled in a particular direction, he can sort of feel where they want to be.

The pack reiterate their litany of self and loop themselves together in a chain. Brett seems to be the only one that is able to perceive very far, so he leads them up and out of their hole. It appears that it is just a local dimple rather than an absolute minimum. The tokens continue to identify a pseudolocation that they can return to. Brett identifies that part of the landscape is moving independantly and he tries to perceive more clearly what it is. It seems to be a Wyld spirit of some sort, but the others cannot sense it until its quite close.

Chasing-the-Night becomes aware that Keiteki has somehow come with them despite being told not to. Keiteki seems not too distressed by the environment, but is staying nearby - Kimu wisely decides to not share senses with him. They travel onwards, trying to keep their thoughts together and remember who they are, where they are going and why.

The mental link is becoming more and more incoherent as people start to lose any control over themselves. Random emotions, joy, hatred, loss, contentment, sweep over the pack, driving their thoughts further and further away from the mundane. Brett feels that he is immune to the effect, although a little suspicious that it might be an illusion. He finally calls a halt and convinces people to use their weaver talens. They afford the pack some measure of calm and coherency, although it is still hard to concentrate for long periods.

Onwards! Brett is finding his understanding of the surrounds is weirdly becoming more comprehensive - he can sense further and in more detail than when they entered this realm (or left the Gaia realm anyway). The others descend back into madness as they continue their strange journey. Thomas is swept by forces of the wyld and is forced to use a talen to restore his mind and body. The others last a while longer but eventually sucumb.

They reach a point where they have used half their talens. Brett has also used his, but hasn't really felt the urge to do so - it was as a preventative thing. He passes them off to someone else to carry for him, in case others need them. The pack decide to press on, although there is some discussion about splitting up and half going on. With his first step, Kimu walks right through Keiteki, who almost shatters into a million points of light and streams away. Chasing-the-Night is somewhat distressed by this, but can feels that Keiteki is still somewhere, and is more reassured. Pressing onwards, the pack are trying to leave their talens until they absolutely must use them. There is some discussion about having to travel (as much as they are) beyond the last shadows of Gaia, and whether perhaps the weaver talens are making their trip take longer, but no one other than Brett is willing to do without entirely. John feels a tingling sensation and realises his hand is over near Brett, although it is still connected to him too. He starts to play with it, but a packmate hits him with a talen and he reverts.

The pack use the last of their talens and wish each other good luck. Brett feels a sense of urgency rising, however and they move on quickly. Faintly a sense makes itself felt to them all. It is a heartbeat. Kimu is excited, but Thomas is most concerned. They head to it, being the only real option. Brett says "stop!" and indicates a sense-object near them, which is either the heartbeat, or the thing making the heartbeat. They poke at it a bit, and then Brett senses a wyld thing going past and automatically says "hi". It replies, and is a bit confused about being able to converse (it being impossible). The thing explains that they are basically very close to the edge of anything that can be called anything. The beginning of creation as it can be understood. (Of course the problem is that describing it as having an edge in any understandable fashion suggests at least an attenuated understanding of what lies on the other side of the edge. One cannot define the parameters without an understanding of what constitutes not existing within those parameters. So you can understand the notion of approaching the edge, but the idea of the edge itself in this place is inconceivable. Not that Brett cares.) They sort of talk a bit, and it says it doesn't really know anything about a face of Gaia, but that thing (indicating the heartbeat) might be what they want. Brett's packmates are feeling a little shakey and he looks about for inspiration and then just tries to touch it.

Sights - blue waves washing on a sandy beach, gum forests, snow falls on rocky mountains, shimmering heat-haze on a vast red desert, deep green wet jungles, kangaroos, wombats, cockatoos, flies, lizards, fish. Sounds - cicadas and birds singing, wind in the trees, the crackle of bush fires, rushing water, rain and thunder, silence, unknown animals calling. Scents - salt spray and sand, dust and smoke, flowers and eucalyptus, blood, animal scents.

The wash of images fades - the whole pack experienced them, not just Brett. The spirit says that it can add to that thing in his head now if he wants. He says yes and it touches him, completing the thread. Brett says thanks as the thread stretches and fills his mind, turning and thrashing on its own. It starts pulling him away from the heartbeat, and the rest of the pack grab hold as Brett starts to move faster, back across the Wyldness. They move faster... faster... faster and faster. And faster. Faster. Faster.

Faster!
FASTER!
FASTER!!

Anchorhead?

Holistic Approach explode through the Membrane and destroy the Anchorhead in a shower of geometric shards. Mathias has one clear image of Grek and Kanau leaping aside from the path of the pack before they have flashed onwards at meteoric speed through the Aetherial Reaches. The pack's path leads them into a cloud of swirling coloured fog....

... and out, floating slowly, but purposefully through the mists of the Near Umbra. Descending through the trees, they come to a stop - Brett isn't being pulled, but can still feel a direction. They are wandering through rainforest when someone says that they are in Carnarvon Gorge. They come around a corner and see Indira Songs-of-Sorrow, the local sept leader. She looks surprised to see them, and wishes them a pleasant equinox, which means it is....

September 22

... Holistic Approach continue onwards and say they've got something urgent to do and they'll explain later. Brett leads them onwards through the gorge and into the Realm. Monash sees them and jogs to catch up, asking where Grek was. They explain that they were in the far end of the Aetherial realm moments ago, and Grek is probably catching up. Monash blinks a bit, but accepts that. He says that in the last week or so, Alex has shown signs of snapping out of his Harano. Holistic Approach twitch and say "that's nice". Brett asks what is in this direction, and Monash says that it leads out of the bawn and onto private land. In fact, it leads to the house that Alex is at right now. More nodding.

Brett's sense leads them to a odd looking house - Monash says that it is the home of John and May. Oh, and their daughter who was born yesterday. The pack twitch some more and knock to come in. They meet John and then May, who looks tired. She says that Alex is in Roberta's room at the moment. They stick their heads in and Alex looks up - he moves to put Roberta down, but the pack come and look at her first. Brett kisses her on the forehead and the golden string expands further, flickers and disappears. Alex puts Roberta into bed, and comes out with them. Alex apologises before they can even get a word out - he says that he shouldn't have said the things that he said when they visited, but he just couldn't see past Marion's death, it just filled his mind. But the last few days of May's pregnancy, it all seemed to drop away. He feels like helping May with Roberta, and just being with her helps. Despite lots of mental "no shit" from the pack, they stay sincere on the outside and accept his apology with grace.

Kanau shows up and checks that the pack are ok - he says that Grek sent him, and will be along shortly. That night, the entire story of the quest is told - the Stargazers are all there, after their rituals the previous night, as are a few itinerant Garou. It is told for Alex, who was totally unaware anything is going on, and also for May and John, whose daughter's spirit Holistic Approach were searching for.

September 24

The pack wish everyone at Dreaming Hands good bye and head back to Melbourne via Sydney. The Garou at the Rock's Caern want to know how everything went too, so the pack kicks around for the night.

September 25 - September 30

Finally, they get home. That night, pretty much the whole Sept turns up to hear the whole saga from start to end, including Dominique. Christine in particular is quite obviously taken with the whole story.

The Elders recognise the pack's accomplishments and renown, and it is suggested that Brett, Melissa, Thomas and John will be recognised at the next Moot with a sufficiently appropriate test of their new rank. Mathias and Kimu will probably challenge for Rank 4, which will be a long-term thing - fortunately they can challenge Cossack as he is a galliard, else they would be forced to go elsewhere.

The Elders suggest that despite the higher state of alertness the Sept is in at the moment, there is nothing so important to do right now that Holistic Approach couldn't take a few days off, so that's what they do. John catches up with Marnie and they hang around while the Uni is on mid-semester break (John only).

Melissa spends a couple of days chilling at home. Thomas finds that he has changed somewhat from the trip in the Deep Umbra. His eyes, previously a dark brown, bleed out quickly and become white - the iris still exists, its just white rather than brown. However as days go past, he finds that he is fading entirely - pale patches around his eyes spread and his eyebrows start to go white too. The rest of his pack just stare and ask him what the hell he is talking about. Despite Thomas' insistence that he is slowly fading from his own reflection, everyone else can see it just fine - by the end of September, Thomas can no longer see himself in the mirror, which makes stepping difficult. No one else seems to see a problem, other than the white irises.

Brett spends his time frotting up against the Glade Child in Fitzroy, or off in the bushland away from his pack (Brett only). Kimu starts trying to find some way to sum up their quest in an artistic, symbolic sort of way - although he has a strange turn on the Sunday night (Kimu only). Mathias hangs about at the sept.

Dominique stays at the Sept after their story and its a couple of days before anyone asks her what she's planning - apparently she can change form again, having got her wolf back, and also having fostered her twins out to some of her Fianna kinfolk friends. She apparently dreamed much of the last bit of their quest in a weird, trancey sort of way.

After a couple of days, the pack get together and discuss what their plans are. They could find Polly now, but that might not be a good idea. They could also tell the Shadow Lords about the guy in Launceston, or go there themselves and try to find him. The Jindabyne Council will presumably call on them when they next meet (about the 5th of October). Sleeping Lore would love to find some way of finding and rooting out the mages. John ums and ahs a bit and then says that the gatekeeper-daemon from the Deadlands has called in its favour. She apparently communicated to John that the favour she wanted in return was to root the mages out too - they've become too blatant or something. There's lots of staring, but no one calls him on it.