In which a trip to Gippsland for the True Seekers triggers a series of events leading to a most suprising of conclusions.
Glenn meets with the rest of the True Seekers , saying that he has a means by which they might be able to locate the mages. There is a fetish, called the Chandeen Mirror (a small hand mirror), that enables the user to look through the shroud into the Deadlands. This may well enable them to observe any mage efforts, and even track them. All he has on the location of the Chandeen mirror is that it is in a small town in Gippsland called Drake's Rill, on the Gippsland Highway between Bairnsdale and Omeo.
The True Seekers head off east. It takes them a few hours to get to the area, and a while driving up and down the highway looking for the turn-off. The small sign by the turn-off is weathered, over-grown and full of bullet holes. The road to Drake's Rill is a narrow road, full of pot-holes. They arrive in town in the afternoon. Drake's Rill is nothing but a dozen buildings on either side of the narrow road, surrounded by bush land. There is a petrol station with very old pumps, a grocery shop, a pub and a church. A couple of the house are boarded up and deserted.
The True Seekers pull up outside to pub and wander in. They enquire about accommodation, and hire the two rooms that the pub has. As they are having a drink, a lanky man in his late forties wanders up. He introduces himself as Gillespie, a policeman. He chats with the pack for a while. They claim they are travelling around, hiking in the bush. Gillespie tells them a little about the town. The road used to be the way to Bairnsdale, until the Gippsland Highway was completed. Most of the people left in town work in Omeo, but prefer to live here. Gillespie himself works from the police station in Omeo. The area is of no particular interest to most people.
The True Seekers decide to have a wander around town. Naomi has a chat with old Mrs Sandstrom at the grocery, but learns nothing of note. As people wander around, they are trying various sensing stuff, but sense nothing. Lachlan and Naomi wander further along the road out of town, and find a small over-grown side road. They follow it for about a kilometre. At the end they find the burned-out shell of a house. The remains are overgrown, and there is no sign of fire damage in the surrounding foliage, so it looks like it happened some years ago.
The True Seekers decide to wait until there are a few people at the pub, and then start telling ghost stories. Hopefully, someone will say something along the lines of "I have this mirror that lets you look through the Shroud into the Deadlands". A few spooky stories are told, the old Mr Sandstrom tells of strange happenings that occurred right around here. Back in the late seventies, there was this man, Julius Ademko, living in a house outside of town. He kept to himself and no-one knew much about him. One night, out on the highway, his car went off the road and hit a tree, killing Julius instantly. It was never determined what happened to cause him to crash - maybe he just fell asleep. A couple of nights after he died, his house went up in flames. Again, the cause of the fire was never determined. Julius is buried in the small cemetery behind the church. As scary stories go, it lacks oomph. Still, it's all the True Seekers have. They decide to check out the burned house when everyone is asleep.
In the early hours of the morning, the True Seekers step sideways and head out across the umbra toward the burned house. Sensing and searching at the house and in the surrounding bushland reveals nothing. The house appears to have had a cellar, which collapsed when the house burned down. The pack head back into town and check out the cemetery. They find the grave of a Julius Ademko, who was in his fifties when he died. Naomi is sensing again, only this time she picks up a faint ambient sense of the Deadlands. It doesn't seem to be coming from any where in particular.
The True Seekers debate for a while, then decide to dig up Ademko's grave. As digging in the umbra would be fairly pointless, Vilna and Naomi step into the real world. The rest of the True Seekers wait in the umbra. Using the Burrow gift, Vilna digs straight down. After a few seconds, he reveals the cement lid of the sepulchre. In Crinos form, he lifts it off. At this point, Naomi notices several possums and owls in the surrounding trees that appear to be watching. She sense again, and finds that the sense of the Deadlands is stronger and growing quickly, along with a Wyrm sense. The informs the others in the umbra, but her voice is distant and faint. Reaching out and feeling the Gauntlet, people can feel that something else has arisen, almost seeming to cover the Gauntlet. Lachlan immediately tells Naomi and Vilna to step sideways while they still can. Vilna has uncovered the coffin and opens it up. The coffin is empty. Vilna tries to tell the others, but there is nothing. The sense of the Deadlands if very strong, and they cannot feel the Gauntlet any more.
In the umbra Glenn and Lachlan wait where they are. Steve and Melissa start running through the umbra, trying to find the edge of the effect. Vilna has just hoisted himself out of the grave when Naomi hears a rustling in the bushes. There are even more animals around now, but whatever is making the rustling sound is much larger than a possum or a fox. Two glowing red eyes appear in the undergrowth. Whatever it is, Naomi determines that the strongest sense of the Deadlands and Wyrm is coming from the thing. Naomi moves slowly towards the eyes, saying that they want to talk. The eyes abruptly vanish.
Steve and Melissa are about a kilometre out of town when the Gauntlet is suddenly present again. The two of them step into the real world, ending up on the road leading into town. Steve informs Glenn and Lachlan what they have found. Still no noise from Naomi or Vilna. Glenn and Lachlan start running to join Steve and Melissa. Naomi is keeping an eye out while Vilna fills up the grave again. Not having the Anti- Burrow gift, this takes longer than digging it out. Naomi has not seen or heard any sign of the thing. She notices that there are fewer animals watching them than before.
Steve and Melissa have been waiting for a few minutes on the lonely darkened road when a hideous shriek rings out. Steve has no time to react before the stinking figure lands on him from above, sinks its teeth into the side of his neck and sucks greedily at his blood. Steve flicks to Crinos, grabs the thing and tears it away. He is holding the hissing and snarling figure of a man with glowing red eyes and fangs. The man stinks of decay and earth, and his suit is caked with earth and mould and old blood. Steve nuts him. The thing dissolves in Steve's grasp into a cloud of dust which sails up into the canopy of trees. The cloud coalesces again into the form of an owl which immediately takes wing, heading back toward the town.
Vilna has just about finished filling in the grave when he and Naomi hear a door open nearby. Then another door opens. Then another and another. Naomi creeps around the side of the church to investigate. Peering around the corner, she can see all the people of Drake's Rill leaving their houses. They are all dressed in their night attire, and all have blank expressions. They all seem to be carrying household implements - knives, forks, hammers, hatchets, etc. The people all turn and start heading out of town along the road, heading toward the highway.
Steve and Melissa are waiting impatiently for Lachlan and Glenn. Lachlan steps into the real world, but Glenn is going to take longer. Steve tells Melissa to wait for Glenn, then he runs off with Lachlan, following in the direction the owl flew. Vilna and Naomi decide to go with the townsfolk. Vilna is keeping pace with them on one flank. Naomi has run ahead of them and is staying about fifty metres in front. The townsfolk have not stayed on the road, but have gradually drifted into the bush. Naomi hears a crashing sound as something large moves through the bush in front of her, heading in her direction. She crouches in the undergrowth until her keen sense of smell picks up the scent of Lachlan and Steve. She lets out a little yip to let them know where she is. Steve and Lachlan veer to meet her. They are still without Kanau.com, and they rapidly bring each other up to date with what is going on. The consensus seems to be, from their general occult knowledge, that they are dealing with a vampire. As they are talking, there is the crack of a gunshot and a branch breaks off just near Steve's head. They can see Gillespie walking with the others, the same blank expression on his face. He has his service revolver in his hand. As Gillespie raises the gun to fire again, Steve sprints towards him. Before Gillespie can pull the trigger, Steve has appeared in front of him, snatched the gun from his hand, and disappeared back into the bush again. Steve starts running back toward where Glenn and Melissa should be coming from. Lachlan goes with him. Naomi has gone to Hispo, sprouted wings and taken to the air, hoping to locate the vampire. As she swoops low, the owl bursts out from a nearby treetop, heading towards her. She veers to meet it, but it ducks under her wing and shoots up above her. The vampire suddenly resumes its human form and falls towards her. Naomi dives and rolls sideways as the vampire plummets passed her. It smashes through the canopy, and there is a heavy, dull thud as it hits the ground.
Glenn has finally arrived in the real world. He and Melissa start running in the direction of the fight. They soon encounter Steve and Lachlan. All four of them head back. Naomi lets out a howl and Vilna answers. Naomi swoops down to Vilna, who leaps onto her back. Naomi launches into the sky again. They swoop back around, looking for the vampire. It doesn't take long to find it. The townsfolk have gathered together in a tight knot. In the middle of the group is the vampire, sucking at the throat of one of the townsfolk. It only feeds for a few moments before feeding on a second person, then on a third. Vilna (having apparently been born on the cusp of the crescent and full moons) decides to interrupt the proceedings. As Naomi passes over the group, Vilna leaps from her back. He crashes down onto the vampire, knocking it flat and sending several others sprawling Vilna and the creature start tussling on the ground.
From the air, Naomi can see all the townsfolk are moving in towards Vilna. Those nearest to him are raising their makeshift weapons. Naomi flies out, turns and swoops in low. She ploughs into the crowd at high speed. People are tossed in all directions. Naomi rolls onto her feet and faces the crowd. Despite her entrance, the people are apparently oblivious of her presence, and are moving toward Vilna. Vilna and the vampire are still snapping and tearing at each other, while Naomi is kept busy keeping the townsfolk back. She finds that picking up one person and throwing them at two or three others tends to keep all of them busy for a while. It also tends to break bones, like when she throws the ten-year-old boy at old Mrs Sandstrom.
Finally the cavalry arrives. Glenn moves to help Vilna pin the vampire down, while the others help Naomi with crowd control. Naomi starts using Mother's Touch on some of the more severely injured townsfolk. Once the vampire is pinned, Glenn tries talking to it. This doesn't work, so Glenn tries Mindspeak. It turns out that there is someone home after all. The vampire says that this place and these people belong to it, and that the pack is intruding. Glenn says he is not interested in such things, and that he is looking for a mirror. The vampire asks why it should help them. Glenn suggests because they will kill it if it doesn't help them. The vampire mocks him, saying that it is beyond death. Glenn dangles his claws over the vampires face. The vampire suddenly grows insubstantial beneath them as it turns into a swirling mote of dust. The dust whirls up into the air. The townsfolk have all at once lost any interest in attacking Vilna, and they stand around listlessly. Naomi takes to the air again. The dust again coalesces into the owl which starts flying back towards town.
The rest of the True Seekers are wondering what to do with the townsfolk. They decide to tie them up with the rope in the van. They all head back towards town. Naomi sees the owl fly through the open door of a house. She flies up above the house and starts circling, keeping a close watch all around the house. She also uses Sense Unnatural, but the strong ambient feel of the Deadlands is muffling everything else. The others arrive in town. Lachlan and Melissa grab the rope and head back into the bush. Steve and Vilna have a quick shouted conference with Naomi. Glenn goes around to the back door, while Steve waits at the front door. They head in at the same time. However, a quick search reveals no sign of a man, an owl or a dust cloud. Just to be on the safe side, Steve and Glenn start dousing the house with any fuel they can find - meths, mower fuel, etc. Before they torch the place, they decide to check inside the roof. They find the access hatch in the kitchen ceiling, and clamber up. There are a few cardboard boxes containing junk, stacked near the trapdoor. From the far end of the roof space, they hear and scrabbling sound. Deciding to investigate, Steve switches to Crinos form - then realises that there isn't enough room to do so. Naomi is startled when Steve's head suddenly punches through the roof tiles. Steve is also startled, especially when he loses his balance, slips off the cross-beams, crashes through the kitchen ceiling and lands on the kitchen table, smashing it to pieces. As Steve stalks off to sulk, Glenn makes his way along the cross-beams to the far end of the roof cavity. He spots a rat disappear down a hole in the insulation. He moves over there and starts ripping up insulation. Rats run in all direction as their little rat-home is destroyed. Glenn gives up and heads back out.
Melissa has come running back. She says that they had tied most of the people together when they all started heading back toward town. They managed to loop the chain of people around a tree, and the don't seem to have enough sense to backtrack and unhook themselves. Lachlan is tying the last of the people to the chain. Naomi decide to try using Sense of the Prey to locate the vampire. Despite her expectations, it seems to work. Naomi heads along the street to the church and goes inside. She is halfway up the hall when she stops, wanting to go down through the floor. The True Seekers look around, and find a trapdoor in the floor of the small back room. Opening the trapdoor and looking down, it seems that there is a one metre space between the floor of the church and the earth below. The whole place is crammed full of the accumulated refuse of many years.
The True Seekers decide to go straight through the floor. They rip up the floorboards and pull assorted bric-a-brac up into the church, clearing a space below. Naomi still gets the sense of continuing further down. Vilna moves up and starts Burrowing down. He is about two metres down when he comes across a coffin. He clears away until the coffin is clear of the surrounding earth, then he widens the hole. He lifts one end of the coffin up, and something shifts inside it. They manage to heave the coffin out of the hole and into the church. Rather than open it up, they decide to keep the coffin closed until morning. They go to nail the coffin shut when they realise that it already is. Instead they just tie a couple of ropes around it. They carry it outside and tie the coffin to the roof of the van. Although all around the town it is very quiet, in the distant bushland the True Seekers can hear the dawn chorus beginning. The sky is starting to turn grey with the pre-dawn light. The feeling of the Deadlands is fading, and they can feel their spiritual connection with Kanau again. The True Seekers start to wonder what might happen if and when the townsfolk snap out of their trance. They decide that they probably shouldn't be around when that happens. They grab all their stuff and dump it in the van, stop off the pick up Lachlan, and head off out of town.
The True Seekers drive several kilometres along the small road that leads back to the highway. The pull over and wait for the sun to rise. When the sun has cleared the horizon, they untie the ropes around the coffin and wrench off the lid. Inside is the familiar blood- and mould-encrusted figure of the vampire, lying placidly. The sunlight doesn't seem to have any effect on it. They prop the coffin up hopefully, ensuring that the vampire is caught in the full rays of the sun. Still nothing. Oh well, the True Seekers have a look inside the coffin. The vampire is surrounded with a great collection of assorted bits. Keys, photos, dolls, pens, wallets and other assorted items. It doesn't take long for Sense Unnatural to highlight an ornate silver hand-mirror. All the other objects seem quite mundane. As some of the photos seem to be of various townsfolk, there is speculation that there is some connection between the items and the vampire's control over the townsfolk. The True Seekers take all the mundane items and leave them in a pile by the side of the road. They tie the coffin back to the roof of the van and head off.
They have been travelling south along the highway for a while when in the far distance, they see flashing red and blue lights. Fortunately, there is a narrow track into the bush coming up. They quickly turn off the highway onto the track. Vilna jumps out of the van, switches to Crinos and pushes over a tree, blocking the track. They drive the van further down the track, out of sight from the road. The police car comes roaring up the road, shoots passed the track and keeps going. The True Seekers realise that they are going to have a lot of fun driving around with a coffin on the roof of the van. Glenn decides to call for a bit of help from the Silver Fangs, who's protectorate they are in. Glenn quickly brings the Silver Fangs up to date, and wonders if there are any members of the Ivory Priesthood hanging around. The Silver Fangs, who were wondering what the hell was going on, what with the strange conversations that were bouncing back and forth on the police band, tell Glenn to sit tight.
A couple of hours later, two four-wheel-drives bounce down the track. The Silver Fangs say that some people are interested to have a look at this vampire thing. The True Seekers inform them about what they know of the creature. The Silver Fangs load the coffin into the back of one four-wheel-drive and offer the other to the True Seekers. They say that they will take the van. The True Seekers thank them, and everybody goes on their merry way.
That evening, back in Melbourne, the True Seekers find that they have made the new again, although nobody knows what to make of the affair. The people of the tiny town of Drake's Rill in Gippsland woke up this morning out in the bush, still dressed in their night attire, all tied together. Most were bruised, scratched and filthy. When they got back to town, they found that the interior of one house had been doused with accelerant, and that something had fallen through the roof and landed in the kitchen. One of the graves in the cemetery showed signs of having been disturbed. A section of floor in the church had been torn up and a gaping hole had been dug, showering dirt all over the church. The police now wish to question a group of young people who arrived in town the previous day and stayed at the local hotel, but had vanished by morning. The news then gives quite detailed and complete descriptions of all the True Seekers in homid form (the bald guy with no eyebrows, the guy with the seriously golden hair, the woman with black hair with a white streak, the big guy with only one arm, the young man with the Gnarl T-shirt, and the relatively innocuous- looking young woman). The police stress that the young people are not wanted for crimes, but that the police would really, really, really, like to talk with them.
Now that they have the mirror, the True Seekers have to work out what to do with it. They take it out west and have a look at their purple-and-green rock they found at Coode Island. Peering at it with the mirror reveals nothing unusual beyond the shroud. They decide to go and have a chat with Malajimbarra about the matter. They moon bridge out to Grinding Stone and have a talk. Malajimbarra admits that his knowledge about the Deadlands is limited. They should probably try talking to Grek. Naomi summons a wind spirit and sends it to find Grek and direct him to the Cemetery.
Malajimbarra asks about what occurred with the Jindabyne Council. They tell him what happened with Tjinderi and the challenge. When they tell him that Tjinderi spoke to them afterwards, saying that they should speak to her if they want to know more as it concerns them, Malajimbarra seems to come to a decision.
Malajimbarra says that given this admission by Tjinderi, he can speak on certain matters that have passed. Loyalty to his tribe previously limited his ability to keep the True Seekers informed about matters. Twice before he appeared to Naomi in her dreams as a wolf, to warn her and the pack about what was going on. The first time was after the discovery of the cave Caern, when the pack first began dealing with the Jindabyne Council. He had tried to warn them about the Uktena, who began to take an interest in the True Seekers because of their seeming connection with the Bunyip. To that end, Jane Redfeather joined the new sept, to learn what she could about Caern and to keep an eye on the True Seekers. Malajimbarra says that he does not doubt her dedication to Scars Atoned, but she does have more than one agenda.
The second time was after the Sydney debacle. As far as Malajimbarra knows, this is what happened. After the storm in Fiddle Dee and the attack on Jacky Gecko, Jacky told the Uktena what had happened. The Uktena looked into the matter and learned about the pack's connection with Cernonous. They had been aware of Cernonous' work, but had dismissed it. Now with the True Seekers involved, the situation had changed. The Uktena were still debating the issue when one of them acted. An elder Theurge, Wuroome, released the Bunyip spirit from a fetish and bound it to the bone fragment. Malajimbarra doesn't know whether he did so knowing what it would do or whether he had some other end in mind. The result was that the enraged Bunyip spirit materialised and killed Cernonous.
When the Uktena found out what had happened, it was already too late. Wuroome had disappeared and so had the bone fragment, stolen by parties unknown. The Uktena moved quickly to remove all of Cernonous' research, to ensure that no-one could continue his work. They had thought that the matter was ended until the storms appeared across Sydney. They carved the talens out of the didgeridoo that had been the fetish and dropped them off with the True Seekers.
When the Black Spiral Dancers had been destroyed and the bone fragment recovered, the fragment had been entrusted by the Jindabyne Council to the Uktena for examination. Soon after, the Uktena were attacked by the Bunyip. In the confusion, the fragment was smashed and the spirit was released. In the second dream, Malajimbarra was trying to warn the True Seekers about Wuroome. He has not been seen or heard of since he vanished, but from what he was saying about the matter just before he left, he was not exactly enamoured of the True Seekers.
Malajimbarra says that it would be best if they did not let on that they know about the matter. If it ever came out, he would prefer that they didn't let on where they had got their information. The True Seekers thank him and moon bridge back to the Cemetery to wait for Grek.
A few hours later Grek arrives. The True Seekers appraise him of the situation and ask him about things. Naomi wonders if, since demons are without form but are given shape in the mundane world, that when they are destroyed here they might appear in the Shadowlands. Then they could be questioned. Grek says that the first problem is in binding and holding something without form. The second problem is that demons are rarely summoned against their will, just as Garou rarely force a summoning on a spirit. The demons and mages work in a reciprocal relationship, and one of the things that demons get out of it is the ability to take on true form, which they apparently enjoy. The demons would not want to risk the relationship. They would also risk punishment from whichever of the Nether Kings the mages are in service to. As to the mirror, it may be of help in tracking the mages down. All of their powers derive from the Deadlands, and rituals they perform may manifest on the other side of the Shroud. It may well allow their original location to be traced.
The True Seekers thank Grek and get down to work. They decide to put the ad in the newspaper as arranged. When they meet, they will discuss the matter of the Full Moon Killer and the whole eclipse/hermaphrodite angle, which the mages may well not know about. Meanwhile, Glenn will be in the Umbra using the Chandeen Mirror, to see what he can see. The ad is placed, with the reference to Strawman. The True Seekers decide to wait at Lachlan and Steve's place, and watch videos. Since the mages have only approached them as individuals, people will make periodic lone trips to the 7-11 for munchies, with Glenn tailing through the Umbra. They begin their vigil in the evening and late into the night. Nothing happens.
By the end of the day, nobody wants to look at another corn chip. Still, they keep going. Around 11.00 in the evening, it's Naomi's turn to get the >urgh< munchies. As she walks down the street, a carload of hoons drive by, hooting and yelling. One of them throws a beer bottle which smashes against the wall. Naomi ducks briefly, makes a note of their license plate as they drive away, and keeps walking.
Having bought the goods, Naomi is walking out of the shop when she sees a familiar trench-coated, Hawaiian-shirted figure standing in the car park. As she walks over, she lets Glenn and the others know what is going on. Glenn peers into the Chandeen Mirror at the spot where the construct is standing. A long shadowy line stretches away from where the construct is standing. Glenn flicks to Crinos form and begins pelting across the Umbra, following the shadow. The construct asks what's up, and Naomi goes into her spiel. She doesn't drag it out, but she goes into sufficient detail to given Glenn some time. She winds up by saying that they hadn't mentioned it before and that there may be something in the matter which the mages can use. The construct shrugs and says that it sounds more like the Garou's area of expertise, but thanks her anyway. It says to let them know if they learn anything else, and they'll do likewise.
Naomi alerts Glenn that the conversation is about to end, and Glenn stops peering into the mirror. The concern is that the mage might observe him observing as he passes back through the Deadlands. The image of the man vanishes and the scarecrow falls over. Naomi picks up the scarecrow and takes it with her. After a few minutes, Glenn peers into the Deadlands again. There is no sign of the long shadow. Glenn makes careful note of exactly where he is.
When the True Seekers have gathered again, they get out the Melways and draw a line. The line heads south east from where it started north of the Cemetery. Looking over the maps where the line runs, no feature springs out as immediately suspicious. There was no sense or impression as to how far the shadow stretched, so without a second vector there is no way to know exactly where to begin looking. The suggestion is made that now that they have pointed the mages towards the house where they had fun with the Full Moon Killer, that if they stake the site out they might observe something. The True Seekers head over to Windsor and wait around in the umbra near the site of the burned-out house. Someone is watching into the mundane world at all times. The night passes with no sign of the mages.
Yes, it's prophetic dream time again. When everyone is awake in the morning, Naomi says that she has had another eerie dream.
She was standing on some primordial landscape of black rock, erupting volcanoes and streams of lava, and she was chatting with Bartholemew Wise-In-The-Ways-Of-The-Wyrm. Bart was remarking that it's hard to believe that it is the same place. He gestured and said that over there is Hopping Mouse Hill. After chatting for a bit longer, Bart said that he would drop by and visit. Naomi said goodbye, then walked down into a tunnel. The tunnel then opened up into a cavern which Naomi recognised as the same cavern that Bart showed them in the Blue Mountains. In the dream, however, there is a great pit in the floor that drops down into darkness. Standing at the top, Naomi can hear something shifting around in the pit. Then the dream ended.
Lacking anything else to do before the moot tonight, the True Seekers decide to look into the dream. They head over to the State Library and check out the atlases. It doesn't take them long to find a Hopping Mouse Hill in the Wyperfeld National Park in northwestern Victoria. They also manage to get in touch with Bartholemew and tell him about the dream. Bart says that he will go and have a look at the cavern in the Blue Mountains to see if anything has changed. He'll contact them later. The True Seekers kick back until the moot.
That night at the Cemetery, the sept gathers for the moot. When they arrive, they see a man standing with Cossack. Glenn recognises him as Illyich Prokopenko, Philodox Silver Fang and leader of Glenn's former sept in Gippsland. As the moot begins Cossack introduces Illyich, saying that he wishes to address the sept.
Illyich says that first off he wishes to thank the True Seekers for discovering and dealing with the vampire in the Silver Fang protectorate (even if it could have been done a bit more discreetly). The vampire has been destroyed. He then says that the Silver Fangs have been aware for some time that Garou from Melbourne have been running around the Gippsland protectorate, engaged in eco-terrorism (spiking trees, sabotaging logging equipment, etc). Illyich says that he doesn't have a problem with this, although it would have been nice if the Garou had been polite and informed them before running amok in their protectorate.
What the Silver Fangs do object to is when these Garou lie and deceive, planting evidence of Wyrm corruption in logging sites, and other items, like shot-gun shells loaded with silver shot, designed to aggravate (pun intended) the Silver Fangs and make them retaliate against the supposed Wyrm threat. Illyich says that he is sure that all concerned are responsible enough that the matter does not need to blow up into an inter-protectorate dispute. Also, that all right- thinking members of the perpetrator's sept will wish to protect the honour of their sept.
At this point Vilna steps forward and says that he was trying to encourage the Garou into doing what they should have been doing anyway. Kirsty Surfs-The-Train also steps forward and says that they were doing what needed to be done, and that the other Garou don't care about what happens, and if they had to tread on a few precious toes doing it, then so be it. Cossack says to Illyich that they will deal with the matter, and he regrets everything that has happened. Illyich moon bridges out.
Cossack asks Vilna and Kirsty if they have anything to say. Vilna just says that he thought they were doing the right thing. Kirsty starts ranting on about cowardly Garou too scared to get their hands dirty, about how they were doing something for Gaia and not just sitting on their asses. She concludes her little spiel saying that if the sept is going to punish them, then she'll give them something - she and Vilna have been fucking each other for the last two years. Cossack asks Vilna and Kirsty to leave the moot while they discuss the matter. They move away. Naomi says that she is more worried about their dealings with the Wyrm, even if only as a tool to be manipulated to their own ends. Cossack says that a typical punishment would be a rite of Ostracism, separating them from the sept for a period. The respective packs could ostracise themselves from the sept, which would then mean that they would not have to abandon their pack mates. Chris McNeil says that Kirsty has been only a peripheral pack member for some time now. Cossack says that to accept the punishment from the sept is to recognise the sept's authority and one's place in the sept. If she does not accept punishment, then she will be expelled from the sept.
At this point, out of the darkness comes the distinct sound of a Garou frenzying. The other True Seekers send out to Vilna, who after a few seconds sends back that he has her under control. The howling and screaming continues for a few minutes, then dies down. They can see Kirsty storming off out of the cemetery.
After wrapping up the discussion, Naomi and Glenn head out of the Cemetery after Kirsty. They follow her trail through the umbra and into the mundane world, down through the city. They find Kirsty on the steps of Flinders St Station. Watching from the opposite corner, they see her get in an argument with some guy, and proceed to beat him up. They get a call from the others, saying that Cossack wants them back now. Naomi and Glenn head back to the cemetery. The True Seekers ask if they can have a private talk with Vilna. They go off to one side and have a chat. Their concern is that Vilna couldn't talk to the pack about the matter, as well as the dealing with the Wyrm and the technical breach of the Litany. Vilna points out that both he and Kirsty are Metis, therefore sterile. The main point of the Litany is against breeding Metis, which obviously they can't do. This also bears on why he couldn't talk with the pack about it. They are all homid or lupus, have enjoyed some form of family life, and can have that again in the future. He is always going to be on the outside of that. Kirsty understood that in a way that they cannot.
The True Seekers discuss it for a good while, then return to the moot. They say that Vilna will approach the Silver Fangs and offer to make amends for what he did to them. He will also accept from his own sept the Stone of Scorn. Cossack agrees, and tells Vilna to step forward. He asks Vilna whether he will say that he will not so act again. Vilna says that he cannot say that. Things grind to a bit of a halt, while Emma takes Vilna aside for a quiet word. After a few minutes they return, and Cossack asks again. Vilna says yes, so the Rite of the Stone of Scorn if performed.
After it is over, the rest of the business of the moot continues. Everyone is fairly subdued. Discussion turns to the matter of the mages and BSDs. The True Seekers relate what they discovered the previous night by using the Chandeen mirror. It is suggested that they follow this up as soon as possible.
The rest of the moot and the revel pass uneventfully.
The True Seekers are contacted by Bartholemew in the morning, who says that the cave in the Blue Mountains looks as it did when they last saw it. They decide to go and check out Hopping Mouse Hill, so they make preparations. By midday they set out, heading northwest.
It is late afternoon/early evening when they enter the Wyperfeld National Park, which lies in the Big Desert - lots of rocky scrub and grassland. Having left the car outside the park, they proceed on foot through the umbra until they reach Hopping Mouse Hill, a gently rounded rocky hill. There is a camping ground at the base of the hill, just off the road, where a bus-load of retirees on holiday have set up tents.
The umbrascape is a temperate forest of gum trees, which is quite different from the real world. In the umbra, the True Seekers scout over the hill, but find nothing unusual. Vilna climbs to the top of the hill and starts Burrowing down in a broad spiralling pattern. As he descends, he comes across small natural spaces in the soil and rock. The rest of the pack go and check out the campsite, but they sense nothing unusual.
Vilna has descended deep into the heart of the hill when his Burrowing opens out into a large natural chamber. Vilna sends to the others to let them know, and is soon joined by Glenn using Lambent Flame, so he can finally see what he is doing. The cave is approximately thirty metres across. The walls are covered with aboriginal-style painting. The entire floor of the cave has shattered into rubble, as though hit by some concussive force. They drop down into the cavern to have a look around.
Many of the symbols painted on the walls are familiar, being similar to those found at several Caerns and other places. One less abstract image shows a humanoid figure with strange eyes standing waist deep in an underground pool. It looks like it could be Jirrawin, the totem of the cave Caern where Scars Atoned is the sept.
Various people sense around the cave. There is a residual ambient Wyrm sense, but more definitely is the sense coming from a little niche in the wall. Vilna goes over to have a look. Sitting in the niche are two objects, both apparently fetishes. One is a small abstract figure carved from stone. It has a strong Weaver sense but with a small attendant Wyrm sense. The other is a smooth, fist-sized oval stone covered with detailed carvings that looks almost exactly like the Cracking Stone.
Vilna attunes to the small figure. He can feel the exhaustion of the powerful Weaver spirit inside. The fetish is a Bane Lock, designed to help in maintaining the cells of the great Wyrm beasts. The power of the spirit in the fetish offsets, to a degree, the power of the Wyrm spirit the Garou is seeking to contain. Vilna also attunes to the river stone. It is the Silent Stone. Like the Cracking Stone, it will open anything, and is particularly effective opening Wyrm seals. Taking the fetishes, the True Seekers clamber out of the cave and back up the tunnel to the surface.
They decide to see if any spirits in the area know what happened. In the umbral forest they find a slumbering tree spirit and awaken it. The tree says that a several rains ago it felt a dark presence that suddenly appeared in the region. It soon departed, although the tree doesn't know how or where. The True Seekers guess that the appearance of the dark power was when the seals and wards broke and the Wyrm Beasts influence could be felt for the first time. They thank the tree spirit, which dozes off again. They decide to send word of their discovery to the nearby sept. A wind spirit is summoned and bound and sent to deliver a message. The True Seekers decide to sleep on the hill until morning.
Come the dawn and there is no sign yet of anyone coming. Naomi has had her prophetic dream again. This time there was no sign of Bartholemew. She was walking across this landscape of lava and volcanoes. She went into the cave, which this time looked like the cave under Hopping Mouse Hill. There was a great, gaping pit in the middle of the cave floor, and something was stirring down in the darkness.
The True Seekers decide to attempt a Rite of Spirit Awakening on the cave below and hope for a result similar to the small fae cave near Frankston. While the Rite is being performed, Vilna searches around amongst the shattered rock on the cave floor, looking for anything that seems out of place. He is particularly looking for worn rock where something might have been lying on it.
The Rite is performed in the umbra, and the images take on a renewed vibrancy and colour. Three of the images - the image of Jirrawin, a circle surrounded by dots and a five-branched object similar to a swastika - start moving along the wall toward a central point. The image of Jirrawin reaches the centre first and stops moving. The five-branched object moves over the image of Jirrawin (which disappears) and stops. The circle moves over the five-branched object (which disappears) and stops. The image of Jirrawin then reappears over the circle (which disappears). All images then vanish and reappear in their original positions on the wall of the cave.
Around noon, Marches-The-High-Road and Green Choking Grey arrive at the hill. The True Seekers explain everything they have found, including the movement of the images and the two fetishes. The Garou from Scars Atoned start examining the cave. Meanwhile, Vilna hasn't found anything of interest. Deducing that the shattered rock may have been caused by the Wyrm Beast passing down into the earth, the True Seekers decide to summon an earth elemental to follow the path of shattered rock to see where it leads. They summon an elemental and tell it to follow the trail for about six hours, or until it finds some sign of the thing, then return. The elemental heads slowly down.
Since this is going to take awhile, Glenn and Steve decide to drive east to the Blue Mountains and have a chat with Bartholemew about what they've found. They run across the park to where they left the van and start driving. Later that evening, the earth elemental returns. It followed the trail for about six hours then came back. The trail headed steeply down, meandered in a fairly random fashion for a while, and then started heading more or less southeast, slowly descending as it went. The True Seekers decide to send the elemental back down again. It is to keep following the trail, but it is to surface directly up every twelve or so hours to allow them to pinpoint the exact location of the trail. The elemental descends again.
Someone has the bright idea of trying to use Questing Stone to locate the Wyrm Beast. As they don't have a name (ted?), they decide to use the five-branched symbol in place of a name. Lachlan moves away from the hill and traces the symbol in the ground. He then tries Questing Stone whilst touching the image. Nothing happens. He then goes back into the cave and over to the original five-branched symbol. He performs the rite again, whilst touching the symbol on the wall. As the rite concludes, the divining weight he is using (a rock on a thread) moves briefly to the southeast before the small rock shatters. Naomi tries the same rite and the same thing happens. For a second the rite indicates that the creature is a long way to the south east, then the stone shatters. Lachlan, Naomi, Vilna and Melissa head out of the cave, leaving Marches-The-High-Road and the others, and move across country, heading southeast.
Glenn and Steve arrive at Bartholemew's house, but nobody's home. They decide to crash for the night in case he comes back. Steve finds beer in the fridge and the television, so he's happy.
Soon after dawn, the earth elemental surfaces. The True Seekers have been periodically using Questing Stone on it to keep track of its general movements. They are about 50 kilometres southeast from Hopping Mouse Hill. The elemental says that the trail is still heading southeast and still sloping downwards. It heads back down and keeps following the trail.
Bartholemew did not turn up during the night. Glenn uses Questing Stone in the real world and finds that Bartholemew is a long way north, at a guess somewhere in north Queensland. Glenn and Steve get back in the van and start driving.
In the evening the elemental surfaces again - still heading southeast, still sloping down. Meanwhile, Glenn and Steve are still driving. Everyone keeps doing what they're doing through the night.
Naomi has her prophetic dream again, the same as the last one (volcanoes, down into cave, big hole, something moving). In the early morning, hours before it is due to, the elemental surfaces near the town of St Arnaud. It says that the trail has passed through the crust and into molten rock. The elemental can't follow it any further. They decide using to use Questing Stone again to locate the creature. Naomi and Vilna head back to Hopping Mouse Hill to perform the Rite. Lachlan and Melissa wait at the spot where the trail drops down into the magma.
Up in Queensland, Glenn and Steve are still driving. They have been driving continuously for 24 hours, driving in shifts and using Questing Stone as they go. They figure that Bartholemew is somewhere around Cairns.
Naomi and Vilna reach the hill around noon. First they use Questing Stone on Lachlan to get a sense of his position. She then uses Questing Stone on the creature. Again she gets a brief indication before the stone shatters. Comparing the two results, she guesses that the thing is approximately twice as distant as Lachlan and much further down. This places it, roughly, somewhere under Melbourne.
Around this time, wild-eyed and stinking after 30 hours of continuous mad driving from the Blue Mountains, Glenn and Steve roll into Cairns. Questing Stone tracks Bartholemew down to a small eatery where he is sitting talking to someone Glenn and Steve don't know. Glenn and Steve walk up and say hi, and ask if they can have a word. Bartholemew says that he'll meet them down on the beach shortly. They wander down onto the sand and are joined by Bartholemew shortly. They tell him everything that's going on. He says that no one knows anything about these things. He also says that he never tried Spirit Awakening on the cave of the Wyrm Beast in the Blue Mountains. He suggests that they dump the van on a train to Melbourne, then travel to a Caern which isn't far away and moon bridge down to Sydney. They can then check out the Blue Mountain cave again.
The rest of the True Seekers decide to head back to Melbourne and warn the other septs that a primordial Wyrm Beast is probably somewhere under Melbourne. They make their way across country towards Melbourne.
Several hours later Bartholemew, Glenn and Steve arrive in the Blue Mountains. They make their way to the cave and perform the Rite of Spirit Awakening. A similar pattern to what occurred at Hopping Mouse Hill plays out on the walls. Three images - a figure Bartholemew has tentatively identified as some sort of mountain and storm spirit, a circle surrounded by dots and a spiral pattern - start moving toward a central point. The same pattern as before is repeated in the same order. The storm spirit is covered by the spiral, which is covered by the circle, then the storm spirit appears again. Glenn and Steve decide to head back to Sydney and moon bridge to Melbourne. Grek will head out to Hopping Mouse Hill and have a look at the cave.
By fortuitous timing, all the True Seekers arrive back at the Cemetery at about the same time, in the evening. They inform Cossack of the situation and send messages to the other septs about the potential threat. The idea is touted about whether they can determine if the creature has risen out of the mantle and back into the crust. They could summon a number of earth elementals who would sweep across the region, where the might come into contact with the creatures trail.
Theurges from all the septs work to summon ten earth elementals. They start at a point south east of Melbourne, down around Dandenong, and then move under the earth up to where the trail first went down into the mantle. A Theurge performing a Summoning Rite on one of the elementals, out near St Arnaud, would draw the elementals in the right direction. The ten elementals can sweep an area a kilometre across. It will take them approximately 2 days to travel all the way to St Arnaud. Then they can move the area of the sweep and send them back again.
The True Seekers decide that this might be an opportunity to track down the mages, on the pretext of telling the mages about the Wyrm beast. They place the ad in the paper, and Glenn rents a room in a hotel out in Glen Waverley. Vilna and Lachlan are up in St Arnaud performing the Summoning Rite, and Naomi, Steve and Melissa are waiting in the umbra, watching Glenn. Glenn makes periodic trips out of his room to give the mages an opportunity.
Glenn is on his way back from the shops in the afternoon when he meets the now-familiar mage construct. Naomi sprouts wings and takes to the air, Steve on her back clutching the Chandeen Mirror. Glenn chats with the construct, telling it that they have learned of a powerful Wyrm beast which they believe is currently somewhere under Melbourne. They don't know if this is due to some action of the BSDs. The construct asks about the beast, and where did it come from. Glenn refuses to reveal anything about where the creature came from.
Glenn manages to keep the conversation going for quite a few minutes, laying out all sorts of matters in detail about what they do know, where they think it is and what it might do. He doesn't reveal where it was or from which direction it came or how far it travelled. Having kept up the conversation for a good 5 to 10 minutes, the construct says that they will look into it and see what they can learn. The construct again turns into a straw scarecrow, which Glenn dumps in a nearby wheely bin.
Naomi has been barrelling across the umbral sky with Steve peering into the mirror. They are still a kilometre or two from where the line would intersect the first track when the line vanishes. Having noted where they are, Naomi and Steve join the others. They plot the second line on the map. The second line is actually more accurate than the first, as Naomi got further than Glenn did. The narrow it down to a small region around Hawthorn and Kooyong. The intersection almost certainly falls within the region bounded by Malvern Rd in the south, Burke Rd in the east, Toorak Rd in the north, and Elizabeth St to the west.
The True Seekers inform the sept about this, but decide not to start searching the area, as this might arouse the suspicions of the mages if a few dozen Garou started swarming around the area. Naomi flies over the region in the umbra, looking for anything that strikes her as noteworthy or unusual. Nothing does so.
Due to her recurring dream, and the fact that nobody has a clue, Naomi decides to head up to Carnarvon Gorge to chat with the Stargazers and see if she can't sleep in that handy tree that grants true dreams. She moon bridges up there and has a chat with Indira and Monash. After some small talk and bringing everyone up to date with each other's lives, she is granted permission to sleep in the tree.
Naomi zaps back to Melbourne and tells the others - another big, fat zilch.
While the others continue sweeping with earth elementals, Glenn is off doing stuff all day. In the evening he joins the others. He says that he figures that the mages have moved in sometime in the last five years, so he has been checking up on houses in the area of interest that were sold in the last five years. He suggests they should check out the real estate agencies that brokered the sales, to see what they can learn.
That night, the True Seekers break into a few real estate agent offices and have a chat with the computers. Nothing strange or unusual presents itself in the sales. The True Seekers decide to check out the houses directly. They start by cruising by each house in the umbra, sensing as they go. Nothing untoward. They then move cautiously up to each house and go in through the umbra. They find only typical suburban houses with typical suburban families - maybe a little TOO typical... Nah! The True Seekers start sweeping through the entire region, block by block, looking for anything.
They begin to suspect that they might have found something when Glenn and Vilna enter the foyer of the Coles-Myer building...and Glenn switches to Crinos form and attacks Vilna. The rest of the pack converges. Vilna manages to step sideways. Glenn follows, but takes a while. Meanwhile, the others have turned up, so when Glenn appears they jump on his head and drag him outside.
Melissa is in Safeways, and is in contact with the Cemetery, telling them what is going on. Naomi has flown up to the roof garden and opened the door to the stairs. As she opens the door, a large demon exudes from the wall of the stairwell and blocks the stairs below her. It moves up the stairs towards her, so she launches back into the sky.
There is the sound of police sirens, and soon after a police car pulls up in Toorak Road. Two cops get out and move towards the front door. A window opens on the fifth floor and there is a burst of automatic fire. One of the cops is hit in the leg and falls, the other dives for cover. The unwounded cop manages to grab his partner and drag him back to safety, with bullets whizzing around them.
Glenn has recovered, and is anxious to reassure the mages that they just happened to stumble across them, and that they have no hostile intent. He heads back into the building and...nothing happens. In the real world he moves through the foyer and down the corridor toward the stairs. He yells up the stairs that it was all a tragic misunderstanding. He waits, but nothing much happens. As he heads back, he sees a flashing light on the intercom panel at the reception desk. He pushes the button and has a chat. The male voice at the other end wants to know what is going on. Glenn says that they just happened to wander in, and then they were trying to work out what was going on. They have no interest in a confrontation, and they are going to back off. The voice says that that sure would be swell.
A lot more police have turned up in cars and helicopters. They block off the area and start evacuating the surrounding houses. Reporters have also appeared and are hanging around the perimeter. The True Seekers decide to wait around and see what happens.
The police manage to contact the man in the building. He claims to have hostages, and that he'll kill them if the police interfere. The police hang around waiting for the SOGgies to arrive.
Goaded by the hawks in the pack (Steve and Lachlan), the True Seekers decide to attack before the police move in. They will fly on Naomi in the umbra, land on the lower roof garden and go in through a window. They all climb on board and set off. Naomi swings around the building and lands on the roof. Green lightning crackles across the roof and covers them. Everyone jumps off Naomi as she takes off again. The others are still being zapped by the green energy. Steve runs up to the window and takes a big swing at the glass. He hits, and the impact is reversed directly back at him, sending his sprawling. The True Seekers opt for a strategic withdrawal, and everyone leaps off the roof. After scraping themselves up off the ground, they limp away to recover. So much for their professed intent to avoid a confrontation.
The SOGgies have arrived and deicide to secure as much of the building as possible. They move into the building, 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 building as possible, they have determined that the gunman is in the west wing of the complex, on the fourth level or potentially higher.
Despite their recent retreat, the True Seekers have decided that attacking before the mundane agencies find anything might be a good idea. They have called the Cemetery for backup, and suggest they alert the other septs for support. Soon after, the Scryers, the Hell Hounds, Blood Claw, the Alternative and the First Wave have arrived. They begin to plan their line of attack. They decide that the Theurges should summon a bunch of spirits to help in the attack. They move a short distance away and start summoning.
After a couple of hours, everyone feels a twinge in their Gnosis. Around this time they get a message from Melissa. She says that Cossack just told her that their errant Wyrm Beast has surfaced...in the middle of the CBD (in the umbra, mind you). The Alternative immediately heads back to their Caern. Naomi and Vilna cut their summoning short, but it works anyway. Lachlan, Glenn and Steve jump in a car and head into the city. Vilna and Naomi fly in the umbra. Naomi and Vilna arrive first. The whole CBD seems to be seething as maddened pattern spiders run everywhere. It doesn't take much looking to find the beast. 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. It is moving in a straight line, heading in the general region of Hidden Green.
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.
Naomi and Vilna throw their spirits into the fray. Vilna summoned an electricity elemental, which plugs into the mains and starts hurling lightning at the thing. Naomi's Wyld spirit starts flailing at the Wyrm Beast. Although neither attack seems to have any effect, the Wyld spirit doesn't dissolve as the pattern spiders do. The others have driven up and step sideways. The Wyrm Beast has just crossed the Swanston Street/Burke Street junction, heading for 101 Collins St.
Lacking a better plan, Vilna moves up toward the creature, pulls out the Bane Lock and activates it. The Wyrm Beast doesn't turn; it simply changes direction, heading straight towards Vilna. Vilna starts running as Naomi takes to the air again. She swoops down and Vilna jumps aboard. Naomi heads south and up. The Wyrm Beast keeps "walking" after them, but rises off the ground as it goes. After a brief Kanau conference, Naomi heads north and west, heading for Hopping Mouse Hill in far northwest Victoria. She suggests that the others get together every Theurge they can to help bind the thing.
The rest of the True Seekers head back to the Cemetery, to find that Malajimbarra has arrived. He says that binding won't work on something like this. The True Seekers decide to moon bridge out to Scars Atoned and see if Jirrawin can help them in any way. They arrive at the Caern and appraise the sept of what is going on. They summon Jirrawin and have a chat. They tell him what the situation is, but he is still silent. As people are about to bang their heads on the floor in frustration, from up the tunnel comes the coughing bark and yapping of a thylacine. Glenn goes up the tunnel to investigate. He goes all the way to the surface (a fair trip), but finds nothing. He heads back down.
When he reaches the inner caves again, 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 Vilna has). This information if passed to Naomi, who veers towards Scars Atoned. She has been easily outpacing the Wyrm Beast, but it is slowly accelerating. She is attempting to stay about half a kilometre ahead. Hours later, they finally reach the site above the Caern. Naomi is now going flat out to stay ahead of the Beast. She swoops down to the cave mouth, and Vilna leaps off. Naomi veers away and Vilna dives down into the cave. The Wyrm Beast plummets out of the sky and into the earth, obliterating the rock pile at the mouth of the cave. Naomi finds Green-Choking-Grey, which was patrolling the bawn. They tell her that there is no other way down to the Caern. However, since the tunnel is being obliterated as they speak, a new entrance is going to have to be created anyway. They head over to the site of the former installation, which was directly over the cave. Naomi calls on her Wyld spirit, which sinks into the ground, opening up a tunnel down into the roof of the cave. (Vilna can only wish they thought of doing this before). They drop down into the cave, joining the others. They can all 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.
Vilna comes sprinting into the cave, dripping blood from innumerable scrapes and gashes. Just behind him is a wall of nothingness, ploughing through the rock. Vilna hands the Silent Stone and the Bane Lock to Jirrawin. Jirrawin 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, the True Seekers 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. The True Seekers apologise for the mess, and moon bridge back to the Cemetery. They talk with Cossack and tell him what happened. Cossack tells them that about an hour ago a series of explosions ripped through the Coles-Myer building, gutting the whole section where the gunman and the hostages were. The True Seekers head out to have a look.
They arrive to find the scene pretty much as described. Every window in the area was shattered by the blast, and the top three stories of the south wing have collapsed into the third and second stories. The True Seekers chat with the First Wave, who stayed to observe after the others left. There had been no warning - it all just blew up. The True Seekers go up to have a look in the umbra. The umbral structure is still intact, but every surface - floor, walls, ceiling - is covered with a white flame. It doesn't give off any heat, and touching it doesn't seem to do any harm. Looking more closely, they can see that there are runes on the umbral walls, which seem to be being consumed by the flame. The umbra doesn't reveal much.
The True Seekers decide to use the Chandeen Mirror to look into the Deadlands. They can see the top three stories of the building floating in space. The lower two stories seem to be laid out as one would expect for an office. The top story, while still having the same office-style floor plan as the other stories, seems to have been made over to living quarters (dormitory-style bedrooms, kitchen and dining rooms) as well as to other rooms which are essentially empty except for some tables, chairs, cupboards and bookshelves - all of which are empty. The True Seekers cannot see any bodies floating around in the Deadlands. Looking down below the destroyed stories, they can see a swirling, colourless vortex at ground level. The vortex is slowly shrinking.
The True Seekers go back to the Cemetery to report. It looks like the mages have destroyed all evidence and moved elsewhere. The True Seekers decide to wait at the Caern, in case the mages try some kind of retaliation. Vilna rings home to check on Petrov, but the phone is engaged. Not unusual - except that Petrov doesn't know anybody. Vilna waits a few minutes and tries again. Still engaged. He waits a few more minutes. Still engaged. Vilna calls an operator, and asks if they can break through, as it's an emergency. He is told that there is no call going through, the phone is off the hook.
Vilna gets the rest of the True Seekers together and heads around to his place. When they get there, they find that the place is a shamble (that is, more of a shambles that it usually is). There are signs of a struggle, and some blood around. Naomi has a good sniff around. She picks up Petrov's scent as well as several other scents - individual scents overlayed with shit and sewerage. She guesses that the scents are eight to twelve hours old, around the time they were running around with the mages and when the Wyrm Beast popped up. Naomi follows the scent, which goes out the back door into the alley, then up to the road Vilna goes to chat with the neighbours, to see if anyone heard or saw anything. One of them was woken up around five, but he is not sure by what. He may have heard some noise, but it didn't last long.
Naomi has a definite trail for Scent of the Prey, so they all pile into the car and head off, as it seems to run straight up Brunswick Street. However, before they reach Victoria Street, the trail abruptly ends. No trace of it is to be found in the real world or in the umbra. Vilna tries using Questing Stone on Petrov. He gets some sort of result, but it is strangely subdued and vague. The head south, which is about all they got. They stop in St Kilda and he tries again, with the rest of the pack assisting. Again he gets a strangely vague result, but enough to send him back north. Outside of Flinders Street station, he tries again. This time the result is clearer, and it leads back across the Yarra to the Arts Centre. The True Seekers alert the sept that they may have found the Black Spiral Hive. They head back to the cemetery, and gather the packs that were going to attack the Coles-Myer building. Of course they have no proof at all that there are Black Spiral Dancers in the Arts Centre, but why do things by halves?
They come up with a fairly cunning plan. Since they are probably going to attract police attention anyway (particularly with the whole Coles-Myer thing barely twelve hours earlier), then why not make it work for them? They decide to openly storm the Arts Centre, posing as mad gunmen. The police will surround the place, making it hard for anyone to get in or out in the real world. It will also keep the Arts Centre clear, as the police negotiate with the terrorists. It is decided that First Wave will remain up in the Arts Centre to act as the gunmen, while the others are combing the area for the BSDs. Blood Claw will find an entry through the drains from the Yarra. The True Seekers and the Hell Hounds will move in through the real world, the Alternative and the Scryers will be in the umbra.
The plan goes fairly smoothly. Having stolen some vans, they come to a screeching halt out the front of the building, run in waving guns and screaming a lot, and spread out to drive as many people out of the building as possible. While the First Wave take the security station and move to clear the building and deal with the police, the others move into the bowels of the building.
After a quick look through the back-stage and under-stage areas, Vilna initiates the direct approach and starts Burrowing straight down. Taking his cue, others spread out and do the same. Fairly soon, one of the Burrowers finds that they have come across a rough tunnel, not a drain, with a 7-foot bore. The True Seekers drop down into the tunnel and start moving along, heading away from the river. The Alternative is matching them, moving in the umbra. As they move, someone is peeking, keeping an eye on the Alternative. Although it is totally dark in the real world, the tunnel in the umbra is quickly illuminated by a viscous green slime that is exuding from the walls of the tunnel. The Alternative report that this is nasty burny slime, and they definitely want to step into the real world. They have just reached a fork in the tunnel, so the Alternative step into the real world and take the right fork, while the True Seekers proceed up the left fork.
Naomi is at the front of the pack, staying about five metres ahead and sniffing and scenting as she goes. The stench of pollution and sewerage is pervasive, so she can't pick up much. The tunnel is suddenly illuminated by muzzle flash, which also illuminates the Black Spiral Dancer standing in the tunnel ahead and blazing away with an assault rifle. Naomi feels the burning of silver-alloy rounds. Lachlan blazes away with the umbral shotgun over Naomi, until the BSD collapses in a spray of blood and bone. Melissa makes the very Ahroun suggestion that since the BSDs know that they're here, they don't need to be subtle. Just walk up the tunnel firing the shotgun as you go.
Further up the tunnel, they find a side tunnel that slopes sharply upwards. There is a small amount of light filtering down. Clambering up the slope, they find that the tunnel punches into the side of a drainage pipe. In the roof of the pipe is a grate, which leads into a room filled with pipes and air conditioning systems. They go back down the slope and continue up the tunnel. The tunnel they are in also starts to slope upwards, breaking into the side of another sewerage pipe with a grate in the roof. Steve steps into the pipe to see where the grate leads, and is sprayed with bullets by the BSD squatting a short way up the pipe. He falls back into the tunnel and slides down the slope. Getting up again, he throws Jam Technology up into the pipe and chases it up. The BSD squeezes hopefully on the trigger before being ripped to pieces by an irate Steve. Steve then looks through the grate. It leads into an underground car park. The True Seekers head back down the tunnel.
(The following was written a little less than a year later, so it is only as complete as I remember it.) Heading back, they meet up with the Alternative, who say that the tunnel they followed leads to a hole dropping down. They make their way up the second tunnel. The tunnel ends with two small, rough chambers, and a cork-screwing hole going straight down roughly five metres. The hole is big enough for Crinos form. Peering into the umbra, the True Seekers note that the hole is lined with the green ooze.
After a bit of discussion, Steve, in Crinos form, descends head-first. When he is about half-way down, a human-sized figure steps into view beneath him and fires his Uzi up the hole. Naomi steps into the umbra and does a pin drop down the hole in homid form. She lands and steps sideways...which takes about 30 seconds. Meanwhile, Steve has locked himself in tight with his legs and torso, and has pulled the shotgun. The fomor at the bottom of the hole dives out of sight. Steve clambers back up the hole, aiming the shotgun behind him as he goes. When Naomi arrives in the real world, she finds herself all alone. The tunnel she is in begins at the hole and continues away from her. Down the tunnel she can hear the sound of movement. Naomi quickly climbs up the hole to rejoin the others. People who are monitoring the umbra report that the hole is filling up with green ooze, as if the entire tunnel beneath was flooded. The True Seekers decide that rather than enter through the existing tunnel, they will make their own. Vilna starts burrowing straight ahead, extending the tunnel in the same direction as the tunnel Naomi saw below. The Alternative head off to locate the other packs and bring them together.
Vilna has been burrowing for 20 or 30 metres when his tunnel breaks out into an open space. Taking a quick look, Vilna sees that he has come out high up the wall of a large cavern, with five other tunnels entering it. At the centre of the cavern is a pool of oily sludge. Numerous figures move around the cavern, and Vilna is forced to leap back under a hail of bullets.
Discussing options, the packs decide to tunnel left and right of the new tunnel, and open up several more holes into the cavern. Then they can all swarm in simultaneously. Vilna and others start burrowing carefully around the cavern.
The rest of the True Seekers are waiting just back from the first hole. One of the BSD calls out to them, telling them to look and see what he has. They decide not to do so, but just to wait until the tunnel is ready. Soon after, the tunnel is complete, with five openings along a large stretch of the cavern wall. The plan is now to Jam Technology down into the cave, then jump in. This they now do.
The True Seekers are first into the cave. They can see over a dozen fomori, armed with Uzis, and nine BSD. On the far side of the cave from them, three of the BSD are holding a figure - Petrov. As the True Seekers leap in, the BSD tear him to pieces. The fomori fire their now useless weapons. Vilna frenzies, and starts ripping fomori and BSD to bits. The Garou have a definite numerical advantage over the Wyrm forces, and with the True Seekers in front they cut the enemy down in short order. As Vilna reaches the far side of the cavern and attacks one of the BSD, the other two step sideways. Peeking sideways reveals that the cavern in the umbra is totally filled with translucent green goo. The two BSD are swimming down into the hole in the cavern floor where the pool is. The Garou mop up the last of the opposition, and check on Petrov. He is very dead.
With the hive cleared, the time has come to pull the First Wave out of the Arts Centre and calm things down. The hive will then be cleansed and filled in.
The police are at a loss as to what the terrorists who stormed the Art Centre wanted, or where they went. Investigations are continuing.
With the hive neutralised, the umbral slime has dissipated. As the hive is carefully searched, a large and strange rock is found in a side cavern. The rock is of a chalky-texture, coloured in purple and green bands. One face is smooth and even, as though it has been cut.
Naomi is heading back to the zoo in the evening, when she spots a familiar mage construct. She saunters over for a chat. The construct says that they don't know how the Garou found them (unless it as just bloody-minded persistence), so they will be leaving the area. Naomi declines to reveal how they did their locating. The mage says bye, and the construct drops. Naomi burns it