A Festival to Remember… (Game 50)

It was still a week out before the festival began in Ireland, so we decided to do some preparations in the meantime. Agnis and I learned the Rite of the Opened Caern, however, midway through training, we were abruptly told to head to an area on Highway 9. A dead body had been found and the police were investigating it. Suspecting foul play and located close to William’s, the police made their way there.

Bjorn quickly called Daniel to get him out of the building and then made sure that William’s lawyer intercepted them in order to prevent breaches of the Veil. Daniel did a little investigation and heard that an anonymous tip lead the police to the dead body. It was obvious that Jonathon was at it once again.

Still, the rest of the week was uneventful, if not uncomfortable. Daniel and William could not be at the mansion, the lodge was burned down, and all kinfolk were on high alert. We took the time to learn a few gifts and then did preparations for attending the festival.

The next day, we made a moon bridge jump to the Sept of the Western Eye and were greeted by Hot Eye. He was glad to see us and sent word to the Sept of the Tri-Spiral that we were coming before sending us on our way via Moon Bridge.

Arriving at the Sept, we were greeted by the leaders of the Sept: Bron Mac Fionn (Sept Leader), Son of Moonlight (Warder), Eilis (pack leader of the Alpha Wild Hunters), Cormac Mac Eire, Tears of the Land (Master of the Rite and Keeper of the Song), Mary O’Reilly Deidire (Keeper of the Land), Winds Across the Hills, and Colin O’Doul.

They were very friendly and very eager to speak with us later. They told us that Colin is our escort and he will tell us about the area and guide us to the Sept when the festival begins. Until then, we are to remain at a cabin just outside a nearby town.

As we headed to the cabin, Colin told us about the Sept. The caern has three centers marked off with shelters. The Sept remains one of the oldest and most powerful Sept in the world. Each entrance to the shelters is guarded by the Tri-Spiral stones. Each shelter itself holds a caern consisting of Gnosis, Plenty, and Honor.

The Sept’s totems are Stag and Danube, the spirit of Ireland. The caerns themselves are over 4,000 years old. They were founded when the Fianna chased the ancient Fomor known as the Firbolg away from the lands with the help of the Fae. This began the long standing friendship with the Fae. There are faerie rings around the Sept that will take you directly to just outside the entrance of Arcadia, realm of the Fae.

As we got closer to the cabin, Colin continued on. The Keeper of the Song is required to know all songs pertaining the glory and life of the Sept. To take the position they are required to sing them all, a task that takes three days. Colin went on to say that all of the Septs in Ireland would come to defend the Sept of the Tri-Spiral if they were in danger.

We finally arrived at the cabin and rested for a while. It wasn’t more than two hours there when a visitor arrived. He introduced himself as Pride Walker, grandson of Mackie. He wanted to know how we were doing and gave us some information about the festival. The first night would be storytelling and healing. He warned us not to reveal our camp to anyone as not all of them get along. We must also ensure that our fetishes are in plain view. Obviously I was a little uncomfortable with this considering I would have to be shirtless to display my tattoo fetish.

Before he left he offered us the reason why he exiled Mackie. As a Philodox, he was required to judge a fellow Garou to obtain the rank of Adren. The Sept chose Mackie as he no longer had use. However, Pride Walker could not kill his grandfather as the Litany commanded. Instead, he exiled him, where he then arrived at our Sept.

After Pride Walker left, we rested for the night. At 4 am, Colin arrived at the cabin and wanted to know about our fetishes. As a cub, he was required to be able to recite every one of our fetishes and their origins. This was required for his Rite of Passage. I could already see the differences in the way they ran their Sept compared to ours.

We gave Colin all of the information about our fetishes and he looked as though he remembered the majority of it. He took us to a large field where hundreds of Garou were waiting. On top of a large stage set up near the center was Bron Mac Fionn. Everyone, including us, entered Lupus form and howled. Bron announced that the festival had begun.

A truck pulled into the field with lots of food and drink. The next few hours were spent dancing and eating as we enjoyed our time. After about seven hours of enjoyment, stories began to break out amongst the group about their various exploits, each trying to outdo the other. Bjorn spoke of Kelpie, in order to get the word about her return out while Agnis told the origin of her staff, Drona. Finally, we topped it all off with a group telling of our journey through time and how we defeated the Drowned King.

Five more hours went by and some of Garou had already passed out from too much alcohol. In that time, we spoke with several Garou. Some of which were Smoking Wolf, Aaron Tricks-the-Spirits, Patty Paints-the-Spirits, Allison Bane Renderer, Stacy Notebook, and Ronny Lucky-Step. Each would take us aside and ask us various questions.

Smoking Wolf went to Miguel and asked about whether or not his Hispanic descent caused any discrimination issues like it does here. Of course we had never discriminated anyone based on race or gender at our Sept, but it was interesting to hear that it happened out here. He also wondered about the kin being involved in early rites, but we realized we had never knew if you could teach a kin rites other than the Ritual of the Sacred Rebirth.

Aaron Tricks-the-Spirits asked about our mission and how we intended to turn a spirit corrupted by the Wyrm against their allegiance when they had so thoroughly become entrenched in it. We had agreed not to speak of our mission beforehand, but it appeared as though the spirits had been spreading the word. Lionheart chose to have him speak with Agnis and I at a later time.

Patty Paints-the-Spirits was interested in our fetishes. She wondered if it was dishonorable to the spirit to not release a spirit in a fetish that had been given to you. I retorted politely that Faith was a family heirloom and the others were gifted to me from my ancestors. I would be dishonoring them by rejecting it.

Allison Bane Renderer wondered if the dancing during the Trial of the Ahroun is the same in the United States as it is here. Lionheart deflected the question since he had amnesia, he could not say for certain.

Stacy Notebook wanted to know about the Silver Record. I could tell she was still very new to the Garou world, but we weren’t that advanced either to be honest. We could only tell her what Mackie had told us about the Silver Record.

Finally, Ronny Lucky-Step wanted to know if our duties as pack in the United States were similar. Unfortunately, we could not answer that question, showing just how out of step we were with the traditional Fianna upbringing. I could see that Lionheart was not pleased with the questions. Ronny asked about camps and if we knew them, but we kept quiet and deflected his question.

As the first day came to any end, we felt completely different from the rest of the Fianna. Lionheart wasn’t happy about the whole affair and felt like he had been set up to come here. Still, we rested in the field and anticipated the next day.

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