| 21 Jul 2004 |
| 28 Jul 2004 |
| 04 Aug 2004 |
| 11 Aug 2004 |
The pack decide in the end to leave the strawmen, in the hope that they will reactivate tomorrow and continue their search. The pack do shifts of watching the shop from the top of the building on the far side of their little road. They put a couple of beer cans full of pebbles in front of the door so they are likely to hear the door opening, even if their gifts don't work.
About 9.15am, the distinctive rattle-clatter of their beer can trap echos through the street, despite the overnoise of trams and humans. Chasing-the-Night and John are on watch and Kimu risks a quick glance over the edge of the balcony. The two tweed scarecrows are coming out and they head back to Brunswick St. The rest of the pack is alerted - Brett takes up his guard point near the glade while Thomas gets a motor cycle and Ryan to follow the shadows.
The scarecrows continue into the shops along Brunswick St. They reach Johnson St and have a conversation which the pack are unable to hear. Brett quivers with anticipation, but they eventually continue up Brunswick St, checking shops that provide goods rather than services. Kimu keeps a rough check on them while John meets and greets a rather enthused Moonflower, who wants to know what they are doing and how. Mathias returns to the caern and casts his spirit out as a raven, watching the magi from the Realm sky.
Thomas and Ryan are following the shadow by moving forward a block at a time, and checking that the shadow keeps going out the other side of the block. This is not a fast process, complicated by the Yarra and other impediments. They end up cutting down the bike bridge under the southeastern to get to Kooyong Rd rather than loose the trail.
Meanwhile the scarecrows move all the way up Brunswick St and back to Johnston St. They have another discussion and spilt up, one heading north, the other south. As the pack watch and follow, the scarecrows reach the boundaries of the Wyld storm and seem to be quietly talking to themselves. It seriously looks like the mages are finding the edges of the storm. From that, they would possibly try to find the centre - despite the imprecise shape of the Wyld storm, this will eventually put them in or near the Glade. This would be bad. John, Kimu and Brett start to discuss calling Dane to harass the mage/scarecrows.
As Thomas and Ryan drive along up Toorak Rd, Ryan bangs repeatedly on his shoulder. They pull over and Ryan says that the shadow goes across the intersection and up along the face of the ColesMyer buildings (the evil tower on the hill), but it doesn't go all the way up - it goes in one of the black glass windows on the third floor. Thomas relays this info and fortunately for all, they don't decide to "reconnoitre". Thomas tries sense unnatural, but doesn't sense anything. He heads back to the caern, dropping Ryan off and warning her to be careful.
Brett grabs Mathias's phone while he's in the trance and finds a pay phone to ring Dane from. He says he's a friend of Mathias Rourke, and there are two of their mutual friends moving around Fitzroy as we speak. Dane wants to meet him personally and Brett agrees, suggesting the playground near Collingwood Town Hall. He hangs up. Chasing-the-Night goes to get Hell Hounds, despite Brett's urgings to leave them rot. He steps into the small backyard of the flat they are staying in and knocks then enters. Amy is ready with a knife, but she relaxes when she sees who it is. Kimu says that they believe they have found the mages, and her pack is required. Amy grabs a bucket and fills it with cold water, pointing out that her pack are still asleep, but they'll be there in 5 minutes.
Mathias is brought out of his raven-trance and told about Brett's call. He sighs and agrees to go along. He skims the Wyld Storm in the Umbra and makes it to the playground in about 30 mins. This is not the nicest place to be - the flats are an enormous structure of weaver ephemera mixed with wyrm of all sorts. Mathias does a quick peek and looks about. No Dane. Really. He checks out a couple of the other people that are there, and starts to get the feeling that the place has been staked out. He steps out into an alley and goes to the nearby milkbar and rings Dane. They have a brief and unenlightening conversation and then Mathias heads back to the caern in the Umbra.
Calls are made - The Alternative show up from Hidden Green and Reconciliation and Grinding Stone say they'll send a pack to help with the situation. The Hell Hounds arrive (with a soaking wet Amy). The immediate discussion is "do we need to attack instantly" and the feeling is that waiting until after midnight is worth the wait, but that the Garou should act quickly and decisively. Some of the Garou like Moonflower want to attack right now, in case something goes wrong, but calmer heads prevail, pointing out that right here and now, the offices and shops and resteraunts on or near the site will be full of humans. Mathias suggests something called a "plan", but it turns out he means they should get the building plans. Kimu goes off to think on spirits that might be helpful to turn magic aside from him, er, his pack, of course.
First Wave and Blood Claw show up from the other Septs and the council of war begins in truth. The Garou decide that they should definately kick ass this evening, preferably just after midnight. They are planning to assault in the Umbra, where the mages are going to be weakest, and where they will make the least 'mess'. Someone mentions getting plans for the site, but that could be tricky given the weaver nature of the government offices, and the fact that Coles will probably have them in the head office. Michael Dudisan of First Wave suggests the emergency services, and the Children of Gaia go off to get them. Brett wants an aerial attack, Mathias thinks they should stomp in from underneath. John says 'both'. Given the nature of their relatively unique pack link, its looking like their pack is going to be split up amongst the other Garou, both to provide on-the-spot magic detection and to make sure they are all aware of what's going on.
First Wave return with the plans and people start putting their heads together. There are four buildings in a row, of varying heights. Ryan saw the shadow enter the second top floor of the tallest building. There are a couple of basement areas - one is the plant room, and the other appears to be a secure carpark. There are a couple of rooftop entrances, including the garden around the gazebo (argh!). In the Umbra, the building is a black weaver-structure, very silica like, and fairly imposing, but apparently much the same in the Umbra as in the realm (not that they went inside to check this out).
The Garou come up with a workable plan. Asimov of The Alternative is the only metis amongst the war packs with Dig, so the Alternative will be attacking by digging up from under the buildings, and the Hell Hounds will go with them. The ground around there is solid rock, so it will be slow, but workable. In the meantime, the Scryers will use their Star Gazer affiliation with wind spirits to summon a number of such elementals to lift them through the air to the top of the Umbral building. And finally, Blood Claw and First Wave will wait outside in the Umbra, ready to assault their way through the walls.
Holistic Approach will split up and accompany each group in pairs. Mathias and Chasing-the-Night will go underground, John and Thomas will go with the Scryers, leaving Dominique and Brett to be ready to stomp their way through the wall near reception, and preferably into the security room. Everyone tries to familiarise themselves with the layout of the buildings, but they are fairly big, so its a passing recognition of the layout only.
Preparations are made with regards to weapons and other toys to be taken along. Thomas claims the Umbral shotgun and other guns are given to Garou who want them. Dominique takes her life into her own hands and goes near the Wyld storm and summons and binds a couple of largish Wyld spirits. Kimu spends a long time summoning Mia-Kachine, the sacred dancer, an Uktena spirit friendly with Galliards. In return for a share of the secrets found at the mage chantry and Chasing-the-Night performing the peyote dance for Mia-Kachine back in the lands of the Uktena next spring, he will help protect them from magics. Mia-Kachine places his hand on Chasing-the-Night's chest over his heart and there is a burning sensation - the spirit leaves behind the Uktena glyph for the Galliard moon. The same process is repeated for each of Holistic Approach.
The other packs make similar preparation, and so about midnight, the Garou are assembled near the evil tower. Asimov begins digging down from a nearby park and the others wait. Keiteki stays with Chasing-the-Night and so the underground Garou are plenty supplied by light. They dig for about half an hour, tapping Kimu's sense of the world around them to be sure where they are. Asimov starts to head up. Kimu senses for magic ahead of them and finds that there is a dull, but constant sense of it above them - possibly the rock shields a lot of it. John and Thomas step into their whirling spirit ride from near the station and they and the Scryers are spun up into the air. About half way there, Thomas gets the spirit to drop him and spreads his Wyvern wings to glide along. It takes him a moment or two to shake off the spinning sensation.
Asimov is about 20m below the nearest basement level when Mathias starts to feel uneasy, more than just nervousness before they attack. He is trying to place the exact feeling when Asimov punches through rock and into water. All the Garou are caught somewhat by surprise as the wall in front of Asimov crumbles away and a gushing wall of cold, dark water hammers its way down their impromptu tunnel.
Tendrils of water flow around Asimov and start to squeeze before pulling him into the darkness beyond. The Garou grab hold of the wall and try to not be swept away as watery tentacles slam into them and try to tear them off the wall. Its impossible to see what is going on, and the rock itself rumbles with the noise of the water rushing down their escape route. Kimu, Mathias and Tony Chi Mi manage to climb up the tunnel and into the huge space beyond, still underwater. They try and swim up while still being attacked by what is presumably a water elemental of some sort. Keiteki follows Kimu, illuminating his way as best as possible. The elemental tries to drown Mathias by forcing its way into his lungs, but he is able to fight it off.
Kimu breaches the surface, but is then picked up and slammed against the roof. He manages to wriggle his body about and get legs underneath him, and then to break free. Mathias breaches nearby, followed by Tony, but they are still being attacked by almost invisible arms of water. Asimov is floating face down, apparently not under attack, but not moving either. Kimu realises he's left the other Garou in the dark deep underwater and asks Keiteki to provide as much light as he can: forgetting the Keiteki has been soaking in Wyld energies. Kimu manages to look away, and Tony is lucky, but Mathias is blinded by the sudden sun-like brilliance.
The other teams decide now is the time to run in and twat everything on their levels. Brett leads the way as he and Dom and First Wave hit the main doors. A little sweet lovin' from the Cracking Stone has that open and the Garou inside. They head for the security room in the Umbra, and Runs-Prey-to-Ground and Straightens-the-Spiral peek and then leap into the Realm to deal with the security guard there.
Meanwhile, Thomas cruises down and lands atop the Umbral building. John is about to do the same when he has a slight premonition of danger - however, he feels that he'd be better off with his feet on the ground. John, the Scryers and Blood Claw land, only to see a flash run across the building, followed by a sharp pain like an electrical shock. Thomas shrugs off the warding pain and unlimbers the shotgun, aiming at the handle of the door. As he pulls the trigger, the blast recoils back at him, knocking him spinning across the top of the office building before rolling agilely to his feet. John sighs and uses Open Seal to open the door.
Deep underground, the elemental seems to have temporarily left the Garou alone. They take quick stock - they have about 10cm of air at the top of the chamber and a blind Garou and a large number still underground somewhere. Hey, 15 cm of air. 20. Uhoh. A huge swell smacks into the garou and swirls them towards the far wall, tumbling and bashing them into it. Mathias tries to use his Gifts to supplement his sight, and finds that he can murkily sense the huge, almost octopoid-like elemental lurking at the other end of the the chamber.
Brett and friends are also zapped by the electricesque magic in the Umbra. Dom asks one of the wyld spirits hanging about with her to try and tap it off, and it floats to the middle of the room, and does a good impression of a plasma ball, energy flowing from the walls and floor and roof to the centre point. It seems to drain the pain away to nothing, but the spirit is swelling quickly. Someone peeking reports that while Runs-Prey-to-Ground has aced the security guard, it got back up and is now fighting with claws of bone. Brett leaps through to the Realm with the fae sword to help out.
Thomas and John leading the way, the Garou on the roof head down the stairwell. No one is too impressed by the constant pain from touching any surface, but they are so far holding steady. At the first doorway, John pops the door and looks into the Realm - nothing particularly special. The shadow that Ryan saw came from the next level down, so Thomas heads down the stairs to the next landing before spinning around and blowing John away with the Umbral shotgun. John falls to the ground as the touch-wards on the building suddenly leap up in strength and a number of the Garou cry out - sparks fly all around him and there is an unpleasant burnt meat smell. From the rest of the pack's point of view, both Thomas and John suddenly fall off the mental link.
Mark and Eric leap over the bannister and land either side of Thomas as he throws away the shotgun and starts biting and clawing at them. Eric smacks him in the back of the head with a club and Thomas turns to stone. Amidst the sound of burning flesh and yelling Garou, the packs head back out of the stairwells.
In the elemental chamber, the spirit returns to try to bludgeon the Garou, allowing them to return fire. Yvonne and Irena are visible down near the tunnel opening, slashing and biting, even as Tony and Mathias do the same near the wall. Kimu makes efforts to get Asimov above the water level, and preferably breathing again. The Garou finally manage to inflict enough damage upon the spirit that it is defeated - the water level drops suddenly and the garou fall a few meters to the new surface level. Kimu sends Keiteki to the surface for a few seconds to try and get an idea of what's happening on the roof - his murky vision shows what looks like Garou running off the building, some of them carrying other Garou, perhaps some arguing.
The wyld spirit that is protecting the Garou in the foyer implodes, so they make an executive decision to jump into the Realm. The security guard is dealt with and the three Garou return to the foyer. Brett notices a flashing light on the receptionist desk, as if someone was making a call out of the building. Smash smash, no more light. He heads up the stairs and sticks an ear out to see what's happening. He hears a crashing, tearing, rending metal sound on the left.
Thomas comes to, outside the building in the Umbra. His leg is broken, amongst other mild injuries. Some of Bloodclaw look ready to chop him into bits before its clear he's Thomas. Mark says that the mages are too heavily armed, and he suggests a short retreat and regroup. Moonflower looks pissed. Thomas asks about John and sees him just being brought around now. He then passes on that in the Realm, the building seems safer (ignoring their plans to try to not use the realm). The Get, unhappy about retreating in the first place, decide this is a good plan. However, John carefully peeks before making any sudden moves into the material world, and finds that a police car is pulling up and blocking the doorway.
Underground, people dive back in the tunnel and try to rescue any Garou that were stuck down the tunnel. Amy and Sean from Hell Hounds are brought up, but Winston was unconscious. There's no sign of Shu Leung or Bandit, nor of Elaine RDI from The Alternative. Asimov is brought around and people quickly try and decide what to do.
Out of the left hand corridor erupts a pitch black demonic thing. It leaps onto Brett across the stairs as he lashes at it with the fae sword. A flash of roiling purple discharges illuminate it - it appears to be a huge black crinos-like shape. However, Brett's attention is broken somewhat by the spray of glass-like shards that erupt from where he struck the demon.
Thomas and John appear and take stock of the police situation. Two officers, crouched behind their car, facing the main doors. They other Garou don't appear to have appeared as yet, but the two members of Holistic Approach decide to "secure the area". They flash over to the police car and knock out a cop each. Thomas mentally hears that Brett is having strife, so leaps the car and runs into the building while John waits on the other side of the car. Seconds later the ashphalt and car are riddled with bullets from above, where someone has opened a window on the third floor. When the hail has stopped, John grabs a police revolver and fires randomly a couple of times up at the window. He is rewarded with a cry of pain and a tumbling automatic rifle - John leaps the car and grabs the gun before it hits the ground, just as another police car slams into the space where he was standing less than seconds before. Fortunately for John, the first car was jammed up against two concrete potplants and doesn't get stuffed into the building over him.
Brett is falling back up the stairs from the onyx crinos when its mouth closes around his shoulder and spine. The other Garou are rewarded with the sound of bones rending and tearing and Brett changes back to homid form. Dom and Runs-Prey-to-Ground leap up onto the balcony - Dom lands over Brett while the lupus wedges himself between the demon and the wall and levers the black crinos over the edge of the stairs and onto the floor below.
Thomas has entered the building! Dom, still up on the balcony with Brett, flings him the fae sword. Most of First Wave is piled on top of the demon-crinos, but are only just holding it in place, so Thomas piles on and they start smashing it to pieces. Dominique runs past carrying Brett and yells that there's another one coming from the other corridor. The general feeling is that a sensible retreat at this point might be a good idea after all, despite Thomas screaming for blood, er, ichor. The masses Garou manage to disincorporate the pinned demon and start to fall back, leaving Thomas, Runs-Prey-to-Ground and Straightens-the-Spiral to host a fighting withdrawal.
Outside, John flips the newly arrived police car so that the poor policemen inside don't have to die. The others appear in the Realm, and seem ready to fight, but John advises them of the change of plans. There is some arguing, which is a little put off by Dom running out of the building with the obviously mangled Brett, followed by Phyllis and Michael.
A second onyx crinos leaps down the stairs and onto the Garou. Straightens-the-Spiral falls beneath the flashing demon claws, but Thomas and Runs-Prey-to-Ground manage to carefully fight their way backwards until they can escape out the doors.
The Garou all fall back and reconsider their position from the Umbra. Mathias is in favour of flattenning it in the Umbra, and people run with the idea, deciding to wipe out the whole building in the Realm too, and worry about stuff like interrogation from the remnants. After checking with the relevant elders, the theurges and other Garou that know summoning agree to summon up the largest earth elemental they can to collapse the ground underneath the buildings. Chiminage is decided on - the garou will offer to build a rock garden of a few acres and dedicate it to the spirit. They begin the summoning while the other Garou watch the unfolding drama.
More police show up by the minute. The non-summoning Garou give some thought to how they can run in an retrieve Straightens-the-Spiral's body, but Runs-Prey-to-Ground says that because of her unusual looks, she carried a carrion fetish - it will have activated when she died and the spirits will have reduced her body to dust by now. People look sad, but this reminds Thomas that he's left the Umbra shotgun in the stairwell. Given this is the second time that this pack will have lost the fetish, its probably an idea to get it before Graeme tears them a new one.
Meanwhile the SOGgies appear and there is much planning and negotiating with the terrorists. Holistic Approach note with some dismay that the mages have given their descriptions as the people attacking - at least that explains the rapid arrival. The SOGgies decide to try and secure as much of the building as possible. They move into the building, reporting that someone has smashed some sort of statue in the front foyer. Listening to the reports on the radio, the garou can hear that they are sweeping every room and corridor. When they reach the third floor, there is the sound of gunfire above them, and a woman's body, riddled with bullets, tumbles down the stairs. Having swept as much of the buildings as possible, they have determined that the gunmen are in the tallest wing of the complex, on the fourth level or potentially higher. The police settle down to try and negotiate, and start clearing people out of the nearby houses.
The summoning is going well when the Garou all suddenly shudder - none of the summoning people lose their grasp of the ritual, but its a close thing. Something spiritually significant just happened - Thomas and Brett head for the mage stronghold, figuring its the mages playing silly buggers. There doesn't seem to be any change there though, still the same amounts of demonic, magic and wyrm. They are sitting and watching when Cossack's voice suddenly echoes in Thomas's head - they felt the same thing, but got a kind of directional feel, and so the Daughters went and checked it out. Their friend from Hopping Mouse hill appears to have just surfaced in the docklands, and is slowly heading into the CBD. Thomas and Brett leap away and carjack some poor sucker on the southeastern before screaming along the tollway into the city.
They arrive to find some very nervous female Garou - the Daughters are watching the thing's progress through the Umbra as it slowly curves out of the docklands and into the CBD. The whole CBD seems to be seething as maddened pattern spiders run everywhere. The thing is about 15 metres high and 40 metres across - not so big, but big enough. It seems to be made of polygons, with a central body section and five "leg" structures. It is featureless and utterly black. It moves in a strange stopgap fashion, and as it moves there is a terrible tearing sound. In it's wake it leaves a black void, which slowly fades as "reality" reasserts itself. Its not entirely clear where its going - it might be heading for the Cemetary, for the Wyld storm or for Hidden Green. Its not moving terribly fast. Pattern spiders are throwing web all over the holes in the structures which the thing has simply passed through. They are also throwing web all over the thing and throwing themselves on it. The web is having no appreciable effect, and as each pattern spider gets near the thing, they dissolve into nothing.
Thomas decides its time to pull the Bane Lock to him with his pesky Silent Strider gifts and does so, handing it to Brett. They watch for a bit longer and try to decide what to do as the beastie crosses Spencer St and starts ploughing into the umbral structures on the other side. They try and remember Thomas' dreams about this thing - being deep underground, lots of heartbeats, but then he's not sure that wasn't about Kylie's baby? Um, a spider on a thread stilling the heartbeat - maybe the banelock? The only other connected images have been the huge hand crushing the Silent Stone to bits. Figuring they might need that, the two of them mentally pester Mathias until he slips subtlely out of the ritual and runs into the city and joins them.
Jacynta pops up and says that she was checking back along its path of destruction and its not moving in a straight line - its curving towards Hidden Green. That tears it, and the Garou have to do something. Brett moves 100m or so ahead of the wyrm beast and activates the Bane Lock..... the spirit within responds, but nothing seems to happen. He waits for a minute or two, and Thomas says that he thinks its getting faster. Brett moves north a bit and the creature definately follows and speeds up. Er. Not having a plan to respond to this sort of contingency, Brett and Thomas wonder what the hell to do - Brett starts moving north westish with the aim of maybe leading it back out of the city and maybe finding somewhere the garou can bind this sucker.
Meanwhile, back in Toorak, the summoning finishes with a flourish and a rumble. The Garou spread out from the circle they had formed as the ground starts to break up and an enormous stone figure rises from beneath the surface. Made of slabs of unfinished stone, it focuses on John and demands to know why they have called it from its work in the lands beneath. John explains that there are men who are working with creatures of the wyrm from the lands of the dead in a nearby building, and they need the building destroyed. Other men have previously come and dug away much of the rock next to this building, the garou respectfully suggest that the elemental even out some of the missing rock, which will accomplish the former task as well. John says that in honour of the spirit, they will create a rock garden in the manner of his packleader's homeland, to cause humans to respect the spirits of the ground further. The elemental agrees, but specifies that all the garou packs that are here must partake in the building of such a thing. A quick check says that is fine, and the spirit begins stomping its way towards the building.
A goodly number of the Garou scoot at that point - the Alternative head to Hidden Green when someone bothers to tell them that their caern is in danger. Kimu asks the assembled Garou for ideas - Malajimbarra says that binding will be like tying up a Garou with string, it just won't be enough. John calls Bartholomew Wise-in-the-Ways-of-the-Wyrm, and he's a bit taken a back, but prompts them to remember the pictures they found at Hopping Mouse Hill while he tries to find some info and gives them a call back in a bit.
The pack wrack their collective brains and remember that the animated manual in the cave had a series of images: Three figures start to move, a stylised figure, a circle surrounded by dots and a spiral pattern. They move towards a central point. The figure gets there first and then the spiral moves over the top, obscuring the figure, then the circle of dots covers them both. The figure reappears over the top of the circle which disappears. The spiral is probably their 40m wide friend, and they determined that the circle of dots was either a protective circle, or a binding ritual, and that the figure was probably Jirrawan, the same spirit as is the totem for the Scars Atoned Sept.
A plan is forged - Brett and Thomas will run along north west with the Bane Lock and the Silent Stone into the countryside, vaguely towards Hopping Mouse Hill (Brett suggests that someone ring the Fianna and tell them something wicked this way comes). Helping them out will be the Hell Hounds, acting as an honour guard to stop anything getting in their way. The rest of the pack will go to Scars Atoned to ask Jirrawan for help. However, while this plan is being formulated, its becoming clear that the Wyrm Beast is picking up speed as it chases the Bane Lock - the fact it goes straight through physical objects is not hurting it either. The revised plan is that Thomas will run with the Hell Hounds until the Wyrm thing is getting too fast and then he will kick in Speed of Thought - but unless Jirrawan agrees to help, Thomas probably won't make it to Hopping Mouse Hill.
Bartholomew calls back and pretty much agrees with their analysis - Jirrawan obviously had something to do with the binding last time, and this is certainly the pattern that the Bunyip seemed to follow (get a big spirit to help with the binding). The Uktena might have some way to bind the sucker down as well, but if he understands a'right, they need more preparation than they would be afforded by the spirit.
Thomas takes off, and the rest of the pack goes to the cemetary so they can Moonbridge on out to the other sept. Kazoom out to Scars Atoned, where the Elders were ready and waiting. Everyone from Sleeping Lore is gunned down. No, not really. The Elders have been given the short run down on what's happening, and they were here when Brett tried to ask Jirrawan about Hopping Mouse Hill originally. They agree to summon Jirrawan forth, which Marches-the-High-Road does. A humanoid figure becomes clearer on the far wall of the cavern and suddenly steps out of the rock and into the pool. Jirrawan wades through the still still pool and stares at the Garou. Kimu explains that an ancient Wyrm foe that was bound until earlier this year is now rampaging across the countryside, and they ask Jirrawan's help.
Jirrawan remains stonily complacent, and people are about to bang their heads on the ground in frustration when the cave echos with the coughing bark and yapping of a thylacine. Mathias goes all the way up the tunnel to the surface without finding anything. As he returns to the inner caves, the barking and yapping is repeated. As it continues, there is a low rumbling sound as the cave trembles. After a minute the rumbling stops and the yapping disappears. Jirrawin says that they should bring the Wyrm Beast to him. He also asks for the Silent Stone - which Thomas has. Oh goodo.
All this is passed to Thomas, who has just had to hit the accelerator. The Wyrm Beast is now doing a fair jog, and it is heedless crashing through hills and flying above gullies as it pursues Thomas across the countryside. The Hell Hounds are doing their best to keep up, but they are starting to flag, and are going to have to peel off or get mashed fairly soon. Kanau is summoned and asked to take the Silent Stone from Thomas, which he does with a minimum of fuss, bringing it back to the Fianna caern.
Thomas is now flying across the countryside, leaping creeks, dodging through bushes, running over small tors, pursued by the unstoppable monster that devours all. Spirits take flight at his approach, at times showing him an easier path to take. The Wyrm beast continues implacably to advance, at first slowing the speed at which Thomas is getting away, then keeping pace and eventually starting to close the gap between them.
Hours later, he reaches the mouth of the cave that leads to Scars Atoned. The Wyrm beast is right on his heels, plummeting into the earth and obliterating the rock pile that hides the cave mouth. Where Thomas had previously been fulfilling the Strider archetype, he now embraces his own essential nature and merges the two seemlessly - running and leaping and jumping and changing form to move through the entrance caves to Scars Atoned while the Wyrm Beast destroys everything behind him.
Meanwhile in the centre of the caern, the Garou can feel a trembling in the stone around them, growing stronger every second. Soon the walls start to crack and bits of rock start falling from the ceiling. The rumbling sound gets louder and louder, and the shaking gets stronger. Jirrawan puts his hand out and Mathias gives him the Silent Stone. Thomas comes sprinting into the cave, dripping blood from innumerable scrapes and gashes. Just behind him is a wall of nothingness, ploughing through the rock. Thomas passes Jirrawan the Bane Lock - he holds out the Silent Stone as the Wyrm Beast advances towards him. The cave is filled with a new sound, a great cracking and rending sound, that drowns out the roaring of collapsing rock. As the sound grows, everything around everybody seems to double-up, like two identical images slightly out of sync. It doesn't effect any of the Garou or Jirrawin, but it does effect the cave and the Wyrm Beast. The cracking/rending sound reaches it's peak, then rapidly dies down. The doubling effect also starts to fade. However, both images of the Wyrm Beats start to fade. The sound dies away, and the two cave images merge back into one. The Wyrm Beast fades away and is gone.
Jirrawin takes the Silent Stone and holds it to his chest. The stone sinks into the rock of his torso and vanishes. Jirrawin moves back across the pool and merges with the wall of the cave. Everything is quiet again, except for the rumbling of settling stone.
In the space of about five minutes, Holistic Approach have turned the Caern from a long tunnel into a caldera. Although the destruction is only in the umbra, the tunnel in the real world will become increasingly unsafe until it collapses completely. They apologise for the mess but point out that they still have a mage-situation to deal with - the Scars Atoned elders agree and get rid of them before they break anything else.
Holistic Approach arrive back in Melbourne and scoot out to Toorak. They find First Wave, Blood Claw and an enormous mess. About the same time as the elemental began to make the ground slide out from underneath the building, the mages appear to have set off explosives - the whole building has collapsed from the top down. The two combined effects have completely wrecked the entire site - what wasn't blown up subsided down into the carpark, and then was further wrecked by the bursting water reservoir that was under the site flooding the wreckage.