Vampire Hunting and New Revelations… (Game 31)

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After returning from Lindsay’s place, John met up with us. The Vulture Walkers pack guarded Serenity while John went to Scourge of the Woods who dictated his challenge: he must sustain a severe beating under the full moon without frenzying and all Sept members must assist in the beating.

With his challenge assigned, we decided on a course of action for taking down the vampire. Because it was going to be day soon, we opted to go as quickly as possible and look in the sewers where it was believed he was hiding. The trip was fairly quick and we found a large sewer drain that we could fit in, but is still a great game for this, while for gambling games there are also great options out there in the olympic kingsway casinos so you can enjoy as well.

We all went in Lupus form, but the drain was capable of having us in Hispo form. The smells were extremely nauseating to say the least and more than one time I thought I might vomit. Still, I pushed onward. Light was limited, but our wolf senses gave us a bit of an advantage. We had to travel slowly as the sound of us all sloshing water made it difficult to determine where the enemy might come from.

After coming to an intersection that split, we suddenly heard scratching and clicking like someone was crawling along the wall. Sure enough, an emaciated figure scuttled down and tried to attack John. Another appeared near Miguel and attacked. Both were easily dispatched and turned to ash upon dying.

Traveling a bit deeper into the sewers, we found ourselves at an intersection that broke into four paths. Hearing more scratching sounds, we quickly got into formation and prepared for the attack. William tried to be flashy and howl bitterly at them, but he only induced himself into a frenzy as one of the things closed in. He destroyed it as I moved up into position.

We began fighting furiously as they poured in from all sides of the sewer. One of them even managed to bite, but Eli pulled it off. Some of the creatures even began to appear from the water itself as we fought on. We destroyed them all in a quick, but furious fight as William calmed down. I did note that some of the creatures turned to ash on death and others became like a black ooze.

After the battle, we investigated the area. John healed me with a Talen as Bjorn noticed something in the corner. There appeared to be many different wallets including bits of cash, no doubt from the creatures before they were turned. Amongst the items were many tickets to a roller derby event taking place tonight. We realized this vampire had intentions on creating an army by going to the event.

We decided to hunt for them while Wrong Moon returned to the Sept to relay what had happened. In the end, we only found three more and decided to return to the Sept. At the Sept, Wrong Moon suggested that the Vulture Walkers join us because the situation could grow out of hand quickly. They agreed and we decided to get a little rest before the event.

During our rest in the Sept, Eli had a vision of a voice screaming out for someone named Logan. The boy named Logan kept getting in the mind of a man and he told him to stop it. He didn’t want to go insane like Mordecai.

After waking up, we all got together with the Vulture Walkers pack and ate lunch. Eli discussed his vision with us and I mentioned a similar vision I had four years ago. It involved a boy named Logan getting beaten by a man. I never mentioned it because at the time it made no sense.

After getting some food, we set off to the auditorium with the Vulture Walkers in the park’s van. We decided to ask them if they had any strange visions from the Sept. Pasthealer mentioned he also had visions of someone named Randy and Logan as well. Randy was arguing with Logan. Their father was doing something to them, but he couldn’t tell what. There was also something about an older brother, but he wasn’t sure who.

As we arrived at the event, I stayed topside to look for any suspicious characters while the rest of the pack and the Vulture Walkers looked for underground entrances. There were only two underground entrances so the packs split up to cover them.

As I surveyed the area, I sniffed for the scent of the vampires we fought earlier. I caught four distinct scents and told the packs that they were here and to come up. As I searched, I found one standing right behind Kelly Ward. I came up and make small talk with them in the hopes the creature would wander off. She asked about Jonathon and I lied and said he went back to take care of a sick Aunt and Uncle, too saddened to tell her the truth. All of the Fourth of July partygoers were there and they kept hitting me with questions.

The creature then wandered off and I made an excuse about having to go to the restroom in order to continue following him. The creature, distinctly a male, was heading to the snack bar. I asked for Eli’s advice on the situation, but he was unsure what to do. Worried, but determined, I grab him around the arm and attempted to pull him into a secluded area to deal with him.

Unfortunately, I didn’t pull hard enough and he freaked out, attacking a nearby girl. He bit into her and she began to bleed out. People were terrified and I used the emotions to slip in and kill the creature with Faith. With the girl severely injured, but myself unable to heal without a breach of the Veil, I escorted her to the medical section.

As I made my way there, I passed a man who looked more like a fomor than anything and had the same scent as the others. He was escorting one of the creatures. I knew it was the master vampire. I passed him, but asked Eli what to do. Still unsure and not up topside yet, he could not decide. I chose to take action, placing the girl down as I said I would look for help.

Returning to the man, I quickly approached him as he headed into the security area and stabbed him with Faith. Unfortunately, in my haste, I didn’t aim properly and did not real damage to him. He spun around and attacked me, but from the security room came two people, a man and a woman. The man’s face was a blur, but I could distinctly make out the woman’s as she shifted to Crinos. Her coat gave her away as a Black Spiral Dancer immediately.

She attacked the vampire, but didn’t do much damage. He knocked her back to the wall as her partner began slaughtering nearby humans to keep the Veil. The vampire snatched up the girl and began pummeling her; even in Crinos form he was overpowering her. I ran up behind and landed a killing blow with Faith.

As he fell to ash, the girl shifted back to Homid and grabbed me unexpectedly. She wielded a feather with a poisoned tip and held it to my neck as the rest of the pack finally arrived. Her partner quickly fled back into the Umbra.

She wanted to be heard out. She was Gretchen “Wyrm’s Bile” of the Hive. Oddly, she said she was sorry for our loss of Jonathon and wanted to ensure that we were with our ancestors together. She said there was a reason we were drawn together. We were the last of our line and the Pride Slayers are tidying up. Mordecai and his pack must be stopped. If we want to learn more and open a line of communication, we must leave a message at parking A18 on the Santa Cruz pier; the place where we killed our first pack of Black Spirals.

She then, curiously, licked my face and went into the Umbra. As she left, John began destroying the phones of the victims and the Vulture Walkers pack unfortunately dispatched the girl I tried to help earlier. We quickly headed into the Umbra before security and the police arrived. There were Scrags hovering around, but they did nothing and left without any incident, another curious event. The Vulture Walkers split off and took the van back to the Sept.

Returning to the Sept, we saw in the distance near the lodge, several muscle-bound men talking with Gina. Eli had only himself and Bjorn approached. As they did, one of them could be seen whispering something to Gina that made her eyes widen. As Eli and Bjorn got within conversation range, one of the men grabbed Gina by the throat and picked up off her feet.

Asking who they were, the men mentioned they wouldn’t be beaten again like at the Battleground. Eli realized these were the Spirals we fought there. Eli asks them what they want and to release Gina. The apparent leader of the group, Brody the Cancer, has his man put her down, but is still holding onto her. He tells Eli they are here to send a message from an ally. Rumors have reached the Queen and we must work to find the traitor quickly. She wants us to meet her at the place we went last time. Eli agrees provided they don’t hurt Gina. Letting her go, they back up slowly and shift to Lupus before running away.

Bjorn took Gina back to the cabin to calm her down after the whole ordeal. On the way to the cabin, I saw Daniel and my heart jumped a beat. He smiled and waved at me as he went to speak with the elders of the Sept. As we entered the cabin, Miguel disappeared. He returned shortly afterwards and said Mabe had summoned him, but didn’t elaborate on it any more than that.

A half an hour passed and Crafty returned to the Cabin. He told us Daniel had come to join the Sept after the vampires assault destroyed his. He brought James Sever as a peace offering. He asks me what I know about Daniel if he was a threat to our Sept, but I told him he was a more solemn Garou and did not appear power hungry.

After hearing about our experience at the auditorium, Crafty was leery about getting too involved with too many different Spiral groups. It’s unlikely the elders would let us do that.

More Skin Dancers, Becoming Adren, and Building a Klaive… (Game 30)

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The next morning after hearing Ariel’s vision, we awoke to Sheeba and Jason returning from their Rite of Passage. They immediately went to see Crafty and Ryan. We called in to the cabin shortly afterwards. Crafty told us that the pair would have quite a tale to tell at the next moot. Apparently, they were helped by a pack of Skin Dancers on their Rite. The pack asked if they could speak with our pack

After a little discussion, we decided we would speak with them. We owed them for helping our Sept members. Crafty mentioned they didn’t take advantage of the pair as they would have been easy pickings for more pelts. They were at the Talking Tree, north of highway 9 near the mountains where we met Tale Catcher.

We started to leave, but not even getting more than six steps towards it, Q implored Eli to head to the campsite. Making a mad dash there, we found the campsite in disarray, Serenity lying on the ground bloody and beaten. Jonathon’s backpack is nearby and neither packmate is anywhere to be seen. It was obvious a struggle had taken place. I healed Serenity and it was most certainly a Garou who was here as she was still struck by the Delirium.

Eli hunted for a scent, finding a weak lead on John and Jonathon’s going deeper into the woods. There was a drag path nearby and it was certainly his. About 125 yards down the drag path, we found Jonathon, dead and gutted. A wave of strong sorrow welled up my heart and I could see it in the other packmates, especially Eli.

Through Q, Eli called out to John. It turned out that he left the campsite because Jonathon was annoying him. He kept trying to learn about the bane, constantly going into the Umbra and back. After a day of this, John went back to the Sept to get a little peace. He had only been gone an hour.

I looked around the area and found a strange carving in the tree. It looked like a glyph of some sort with 8 – 1 below it. From examining him, we could tell that it was more than one Garou and that Jonathon didn’t even have time to shift. I swore to myself he would be avenged regardless of how I felt about vengeance.

We took Jonathon’s body back to the Sept. We dug a hole next to Kyle and Mackie did the Rite for the Departed. We all spoke of how Jonathon affected our lives before burying him. We placed the stones near his headstone and I softly said our prayer for the deceased. We then released his fetish and talen spirits back into the Umbra.

In spite of the tragedy that just happened, we resolved to speak with the Skin Dancer pack by the Talking Tree. The run took about an hour, but I’d been training so hard lately it wasn’t even draining. Looking at the tree, we could hear the wind blowing through it, making it sound like it was talking. Of course, Agnis realized it would truly talk to us in the Umbra.

Sure enough, our first vision in the Umbra was a tree speaking to us about a pack that stood before us. It didn’t want them near it, so we proceeded to get to business. The smallest of the pack, Lenny Jones, introduced us to his pack, the Fang and Claw pack. We politely introduced ourselves and Eli asked what they wanted.

It turns out that our actions in cleansing Minotaur, killing Samuel Haight, and redeeming the Vulture Walkers pack had caused a schism in the Skin Dancer ranks. A small portion of the Skin Dancers wanted to join the Nation and put their pasts behind them. However, the bulk of the tribe still followed Minotaur. More troubling is the fact that Minotaur called for war against the Garou Nation and was considering an alliance with the Black Spiral Dancers. This was very distressing to me. A pack of Skin Dancers trying to skin is one thing, but our deepest, most bitter enemy skinning us as well could lead to the fall of the entire Nation.

We thanked them for helping our Sept members, but we could tell they smelled of the Wyrm, especially the Theurge of the pack. They asked for sanctuary from our Sept but their Wyrm taint made going there impossible. Eli became upset after they mentioned they had trafficked with banes in order to learn their gifts. He tried to leave, but Bjorn and I asked to reconsider, my point being it was rude to leave in such a curt fashion and Bjorn mentioning this was a Sept decision, not his.

Reconsidering for a moment, Eli listened to the rest of their argument. The Skin Dancers could not access any Gaian spirits due to their taint, and even one cleansed would still find themselves limited. They found themselves with no other option but to traffic with banes. The Skin Dancers that make up the loyalists to Minotaur are considering making an alliance with the Black Spiral Dancers. The Fang and Claw pack was created by Nicolas Carver aka Samson to do just this. However, they want to turn away from this path.

They want to destroy the ritual, which I found curious as I didn’t know there was such a way to do so, and let the tribe develop naturally. We could tell from looking at them that the pack had its differences. Lenny was a survivor and would make whatever choice best suited his survival. The Theurge was especially troubling after asking if he would give up trafficking with banes, he lied. He also seemed to be heading deeper into the Wyrm’s clutches. In the end, we agreed to sanctuary, but not at the Sept. They would have the next three weeks to work on their attack against Minotaur and we would watch out for them.

As the night wore on, we returned to the Sept for the Moot. We told Crafty about the situation and he was cautious, but went along with us. John was sent to watch after Serenity and not let anything happen to her this time.

The Moot began with Scourge of the Woods breaking the bone. We all sat around telling stories of Jonathon at first. Mackie told a story about Jonathon complaining about the Fianna drinking too much. Mackie told him the Fianna drink to celebrate, ease the pain, honor those that are gone, and appreciate the spirits. Jonathon never complained about drinking afterwards.

We all had our own anecdotes about Walks with Spirits, but I could only add I hoped to be as good as a Theurge with the spirits as he was.

Afterwards, Jason and Sheeba came forward and told of their saving at the hands of the Fang and Claw pack. It turned out their Rite of Passage was to obtain a pathstone for the Sept. We would now be able to link quickly with any Septs within our Sept’s power range. Jason and Sheeba were threatened by a Garou who was Gaian and obviously from this area. The Fang and Claw pack scared them away. It was a worthy Rite of Passage and they were graciously accepted to Cliath rank.

Crafty then said that Lion was nearly completed with paying his debt to Griffin. He’s growing in power and when the debt it paid off, he might return to a position of power, even once again a tribe totem. It was exciting news to be sure.

He also mentioned that surveyors for William’s father would be in the area next week. I didn’t like the idea much because buying the land was about the least low profile thing William could have done. Still, the Sept thought it was right so I acquiesced. We would have to keep them out of the Sept for the obvious reason of protecting the Litany. He also mentioned Serenity is still being taken care of for a favor to the Sept of the Raging Storm.

Gruffy then took the bone and told us that Spot had joined the Irish Destroyers pack.

Anthony, after hearing about what was going on in the Skin Dancer ranks, became disgusted with it and offered his pack to take the Rite of Renunciation. No one disagreed and Ryan performed the ritual. He brought forward an earthen bowl and asked that everyone in the Sept give something of themselves. I choose my gold cross as it was precious to me as the Vulture Walker pack was to the Sept. After anointing them for lack of a better word, they were made Fianna at Cliath rank.

After this, a large debate broke out between our pack with occasional chime ins from the Vulture Walker pack about giving sanctuary to the Fang and Claw pack. Eli, being stubborn and capricious as he is, said we should just wash our hands of it, if not destroy any other Skin Dancers outright. He fell back on the same argument of not opening our Sept up to just anyone. It was a tiring discussion with Agnis and I emphasizing that the true victories against the Wyrm were small ones. We would view each person who came to us based on their merits and not an open invitation for anyone.

We finally decided to give them sanctuary, but away from the Sept as we couldn’t convince them to cleanse themselves earlier. The Vulture Walker pack would watch them for the time being.

Ryan then mentioned that what would found near Jonathon’s body was not a glyph, but part of a ritual. What that entailed is unknown since it appears we stopped it, but it was definitely Gaian.

After the breaking of the bone was taken care of, we moved on to our renown. After all was said and done, we were ready for our Rank 3 challenges. Bjorn would have to better the relationship between the Sept of the Three Waters, Miguel would do a scavenger hunt, I would lead a Rite which would be judged not on my ability, but that of my pack, Agnis would make a klaive in two months’ time, Eli would complete a staredown challenge, and William we could not say for certain as we lacked a proper Galliard to initiate his.

Eli started his staredown with Scourge of the Woods immediately. He lasted for four hours into the early morning as others spent time watching and going about their business. Sadly, Eli broke and was not able to win his challenge. He would have to try again at the next moot.

The rest of the night was a joyous affair. We danced, drank, and cheered as we always do. I decided tonight was the night and had sex with Magnus at the lodge for the first time. I took him as my mate in the hopes I might have another child. I still missed Ryan and constantly thought of ways to get him to the Sept. Still, I kept quiet about this, not wanting to bother my packmates.

Two days later, Miguel did his scavenger hunt. He succeeded in it and was the first to earn his Adren rank. Meanwhile, Bjorn and Eli worked on forging the klaive with the newly finished forge. I pondered how I would lead the Rite while teaching Agnis the finer points of Rituals. Eli managed to best Scourge of the Woods in a rematch after honing his skills for the month. He beat him in an hour flat, becoming the second member of the pack to be Adren rank.

After learning that Falcon was the Three Waters totem, we got to work on finishing the klaive. I spent some time with Eli and Bjorn to learn the basics of metalsmithing. Agnis managed to finish learning the Rite of the Fetish from Ryan. I needed Bjorn to learn the Rite of Cleansing for my summoning and to cleanse the klaive so I agreed to teach it to him for a favor: better his relationship with his brother.

In the meantime, three weeks had passed and the Fang and Claw pack needed our assistance to summon Tick for their mission to stop Minotaur. I obliged and it gave me time to refine the technique I would use later with the summoning for the klaive. I finished up after a few hours and politely left so they could be alone with Tick.

Bjorn and Eli did an excellent job on the klaive. They partially decorated it with engravings in the blade. Afterwards, they gave it to Agnis who placed it in the river for one month and then placed it in the belly of a freshly killed Elk for three nights. Bjorn then cleansed the klaive. I prepared my meditation for the next task.

Finally, the moment of summoning the Fetish spirits had arrived. We determined that we needed a spirit to align with the Sept of the Three Waters and Wyvern would be it. I was going all out and was going to summon a Celestine. I had Agnis mark the area in a circular pattern and Bjorn went around after her cleansing the markings. I then had William howl songs of greeting for the spirit while Eli and Miguel hunted a fresh kill.

After a significant bolstering of spiritual energy from my packmates, I dug two large holes for my feet in Crinos form, shifted, placed my feet in the holes, and covered them with dirt. I cut myself, bleeding from my arms and hands, held the kill up for Wyvern, and howled to summon him. Suprisingly, my preparation worked out stunningly well. Wyvern came immediately and was friendly.

Now, it was Agnis’ turn. She began dancing and howling to Wyvern. He seemed interested and after Agnis’ sacrificed part of her spiritual essence, he agreed to have an avatar of his bound into the klaive. He asked what the ban would be for the klaive. Agnis stated it must be used honorably and never against the Sept of the Sleeping Lion. With that, he asked what the name of the klaive would be. Bjorn suggested Wyvern’s Sting and so it was.

The rite was finished and Agnis took the time to decorate the fetish with traditional Fianna garb. It was agreed by Leein that both Agnis and I had passed our rank challenge in superb fashion. We had obtained Adren rank.

It was agreed by the pack that Bjorn should give the klaive to the Sept in order to pass his challenge. A meeting was set up at the Pin Gallery where the pack, Stands-With-Claw, and No-Hands-Catches-Fish stood by watching. Bjorn’s offer was rocky at first, wanting to get William’s challenge done and trying to make amends for past negative deeds, even though most were unintentional.

Before things got out of hand, Bjorn asked that Stands-With-Claw view the klaive we had wrapped in the pelt of the elk we killed earlier. She seemed impressed, but tried to diminish our work. Still, we knew the klaive was great and likely one of the best she would ever see so we didn’t press the issue. She mentioned all of the various negative things we had done like snatching up Ariel. After a little more negotiating from Bjorn, Stands-With-Claw relented and agreed to let challenges be done with their Sept, but added one more provision: we would have to try to convince Crafty to support the Sept of the Three Waters more in a show of consolidation.

Agreeing to this, Stands-With-Claw looked at No-Hands and asked him if it was good. He agreed and we could tell he knew his Sept leader had just been making a big show of things for no other purpose than to look strong. Bjorn passed his challenge and went to Adren rank.

With the door open for challenges, we asked that William be allowed to take his challenge. They agreed and he was taken to the Sept. There, in front of the entire Sept, he met a Lupus by the name of Ga-Ga-Baroot. William was to write a song, poem, or story about him and how great he was. After learning a bit about him, William succeeded by singing out a story of his life. The Sept approved, though Prestige looked less than interested, and William made Adren rank. The only packmate left to do so was John and he would have to wait until he finished guarding Serenity.

With the challenges complete, we had another moot. It was a fun affair with less seriousness than the last two. During the moot, our pack pledged more dedication to Q and strengthened him even more. We spent the rest of the cheering and having a great time. I made love to Magnus in the hopes of having another child.

The night after the moot, Cliff came to Sept in a panic. We needed to go see Lindsey again. Taking a moon bridge, we immediately arrived into her trailer to find Massacre, the vampire Eli had met earlier. He wasn’t happy and I tried to keep him from doing anything rude lest we break Q’s ban. She tells us she has a problem. There is a vampire making more vampires by simply drinking from them, which should not be possible. This was something new to me as I had to no knowledge of vampires.

The vampire is in Santa Cruz, hiding in the sewers for the next few days. Massacre agreed to not arrive at Lindsey’s anymore. We now had a hunt on our hands.

Downtime, New Kinfolk, Possession, and the Apocalypse… (Game 29)

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Being grounded to the Sept wasn’t the worst punishment in the world, but it certainly felt that way. I understood why they did it though. With so many things going on, it would be easy for any of the other Septs to blame us for their troubles. Still, the downtime did give me some time to take care of things.

I observed a lot during this time. The Vulture Walkers and Lion’s Vengeance packs ran bawn patrol during this time while the Irish Destroyers worked on the forge. Mackie cleaned with Sheeba and Jason while complaining about the lack of parties lately. Ryan and Leein continued working on the kin-fetch hunter spirits. It was something completely new and I hoped I might learn how to do it someday to help find pups in need.

The pack each had things they wanted to accomplish during this time. Born Twice worked on his combat maneuvers and Gina paid him a visit since he couldn’t leave. His brother Magnus stopped by and annoyed him briefly. He still wants to be a big brother to Bjorn, but Bjorn won’t let him. I’ll have to remember to talk to Bjorn about this sometime soon.

I continued my workouts with Stag’s Daughter and we invited Savage Heart to join us. She secretly informed us that she doesn’t believe Minotaur will let the Skin Dancers join the Nation. He acts like a tyrant mad king. I fear something will have to be done about him soon lest all our work be undone.

My father stopped by and I got to spend some time with him. We had a picnic together and I got to learn more about my mother. She was a Garou of two sides. While in the company of her pack she appeared stern and powerful, however, my father told me in private she was very loving and caring to him in spite of the fact it was for the pregnancy that led to me.

I managed to convince Lionheart to let me see Ryan. After some cajoling from Lindsey he agreed, but only if he shadowed me with Lindsey due to the threat of Alyssa and her hive. I took Ryan to the park, not wanting to deal with the pollution. Kenith was cheerful but cautious about all this, wanting to know just about every detail on where I was going. I assured him I was just taking him to the park to play. He relented and we went. However, Ryan seemed nervous and unsure. I wondered if he had ever even been to a park before. Still, it was good day and I was happy to have had it.

The next day, Magnus dropped by again with tacos from a local stand. They were pretty good. He talked about his ideas for getting a job. He figured he would get a low-level job and work his way up from there. He mentioned he was worried about his brother and I tried to comfort him that things were okay. Afterwards, he gave me a small kiss and was on his way. I think I should take the relationship to the next level. He doesn’t act like all the other guys I’ve met.

I checked in with Stag’s Daughter. She had been continuing her Rites. She was concerned about her lack of Rage and her reaction to our packmates he were ejected from the Battleground. Although I believed more Rage for her might be a benefit, I knew myself how destructive too much Rage can be seeing two members enter the Thrall of the Wyrm. She also noted a certain allure to the Black Spirals, their unity, and their mysterious ways. I admit, I also found them fascinating, but it was best to maintain a good distance in observation or be drawn into the Wyrm’s clutches.

Lionheart, when not accompanying me to see Ryan, spent a good deal of time with Q. The totem spirit remained neutral in his position to any conversation Lionheart spoke. He seemed to not take any one side, often repeating any statements or questions with more questions. The rest of the pack did a little training, but mostly just rested around the Sept.

As the downtime wound down, Eli and Bjorn had a discussion about Wrong Moon chasing after Killer-of-Dogs’ mother. While there was nothing stopping him from doing such a thing, if he was doing so to simply annoy his packmate it would be wrong. Wrong Moon lied about his intentions somewhat and Eli forbid him from seeing Maria unless he was truly intent on mating with her.

The next day, Lionheart returned with supplies while Stag’s Daughter, Savage Heart, and I returned from our daily exercises. A four-wheeler could be heard in the distance as Cliff approached. He asked Gina to go with Ariel to see the five kinfolk as Lindsey had some things to take care of. He also asked us to come to the lodge to see something. At the lodge, a TV announced that William’s “father” had made a bid on the land where the Sept was. There would be an audit in order to determine the land’s worth. I questioned whether this was wise because of the risk of Veil breaches and it effectively put a target on our location, but was dismissed at the notion by Eli.

Afterwards, Stag’s Daughter spoke to us about reentering the Battleground and seeing who slaughtered the Sept of the Stone Sea. There was discussion about the involvement of the Three Waters and the traitor, but it was unanimous that we would go. However, first we needed to take care of couple things.

Walks-With-Spirits mentioned that Ryan knew the Rite of Heritage and asked that it be used on Sheeba to determine her parentage. It was deemed dishonorable to do so unless Sheeba herself asked that it be used. I still wondered who her parents were. I felt it would be useful to know who they were. Maybe they could lead us to the traitor, but it was best not to worry about it at the moment.

Eli spoke with Crafty about the audit. He told us he would keep things contained as much as possible. We wouldn’t have to worry much considering the size of the park.

After this, we headed back to the Battleground. Killer-Of-Dogs managed to find the battle we were looking for. We watched the Sept of the Stone Sea going about their business until out of nowhere, six Garou came out of the Umbra and slaughtered them. There wasn’t even a fight. It was completely dishonorable and the Sept couldn’t even defend themselves.

After the battle, one of them shifted into Homid revealing Prestige, which was not surprising. He spoke to one of the Garou who shifted down to reveal Hansen McDoogle of the Gaia’s Wraith pack. He told him to purify the area of Wyrm taint and they will be compensated. We all knew there was no Wyrm taint, but it could not be determined whether Prestige was the traitor or simply duped into destroying the Sept. Either way, we had our first lead to go on and the direct notion who not to trust.

Afterwards, we returned to our battle with the Black Spiral Dancers last week to view our tactics. It was agreed we needed to do more things together as a pack in order to work better as a unit.

Once back at the Sept, we decided to check the Talen bottle quest and find the next clue:

With an enemy’s mutual hate; you shall take the time to build

To change one another’s fate; the enemy shall shield

Then torch this parchment to reveal

Your reward you shall unseal

Stag’s Daughter determined that we needed to ally ourselves with an enemy against another enemy. They would hold onto the parchment. Once trust is earned with this enemy, they will burn the parchment revealing the fetish we have been questing for.

That night, we ran together, howling at the moon in our first group workout. Afterwards, we went to bed.

At about 3 in the morning, Eli heard an unknown howl. After waking us up, we headed to the source of the howl. On the way, we passed the Lion’s Vengeance pack heading to the cabin. Agnis and Bjorn broke off and headed with them. After talking with the elders, we were all to gather at the cabin.

Mackie didn’t seem very happy when we returned. He told us we weren’t his first choice for this, but we would have to do. The Sept of the Raging Storm had a member who needed help, but could not ask their Sept for it. Although he thinks a large group might be intimidating, he thought it might be good for us.

Heading to the location given to us took nearly an hour and a half. We found ourselves in the mountains across Highway 9. There, we came across a woman named Tale Catcher and her wolf kin. She asked us for a favor. Her stepsister Serenity was not blood and could not deal with the Garou lifestyle. The Veil had been lifted for herself and her mother. It had come to Tale Catcher’s attention through another Garou that Serenity was in the process of being possessed. She wanted us to help her.

After being given the address located in Santa Cruz, we returned to the Sept to speak with Ryan about possession. The outlook wasn’t pleasant. He told us Gaian spirits don’t use possession as it is a forceful violation. There are only three ways to deal with it. Kill the host or the spirit possessing them. Either way both will die. The second was to use the gift of exorcism, which none of us had, but it required healers as the process severely damages and usually kills the host. Finally, we could remove the victim from the influence that brought the spirit on and hope it gives up.

Heading to Serenity’s place, we found her mother about to leave in a rundown van. Agnis approached her and asked if we could go inside. She agreed to it and we headed in. There, we found Serenity who was a bit younger than us. She was playing video games and obviously didn’t want to be disturbed, cursing us out when we called for her. Upon realizing we weren’t her mother, she stopped playing the game.

Talking with her, we got the distinct feeling she was becoming something of a temptress as she was very coy with Miguel. William rooted around in her room, attempting to check out her video games. I detected Wyrm taint in the room, which in hindsight was fairly obvious. Still, as William moved a pair of her panties from the console, he heard Serenity’s voice in his head. It appeared the possession had gotten far enough along that she was beginning to exhibit powers.

Realizing it was the technology after Agnis checked the Umbra, we decided to get her away from the area. We opted to take her to where the Sept of the Stone Sea used to be and have her camp there for at least a couple of weeks. We would warn her mother as well just in case. John and Jonathon would take first watch making sure no technology is nearby. Hopefully, this would stop the possession.

After taking care of Serenity, we headed back to the Sept where Ariel and Gina gave us the rundown on the five kinfolk Stained Coat had sent over. The outlook wasn’t good. They had been abused, used, and abandoned by Septs who cared little for their kinfolk. Honestly, I sort of agreed they should get what they wanted. It wasn’t the right thing to think, but kinfolk should be treated with respect, not tossed away like equipment.

It was obvious Kirsten wanted Eli sexually. This put him in a uncomfortable position as he knew that Lindsey wouldn’t take kindly to the idea of sharing. Taking William aside, Bjorn and I convinced him to vie for her affections. I hope that this would prevent any conflict and keep Kirsten from becoming a Skin Dancer. The rest of the feast went smoothly after that.

In the middle of the night, Cliff came by on four-wheeler again. It was an emergency and Eli needed to head to Lindsey’s house right away. Eli went, but not before asking us to be on standby in case something happened.

Inside Lindsey’s house, a woman in a top hat and covered in blood sat with Lindsey. Infuriated, but not willing to risk Lindsey’s safety, Eli asked what the woman wanted. Her name was Massacre and she needed a favor from our pack. There had been other Garou wandering onto her domain and she wanted them gone. She mentioned the names Gretchen and Mordecai, one of which was familiar to us. Apparently, Gretchen and Mordecai had entered into an agreement to work with each other.

The terms of the agreement with Massacre were to never enter the Hunter Hill Winery district and never sell our land. The last part was very curious to me. Why would she be concerned about us selling our land? In exchange for doing this, she would help us in ways that she was capable of like money or information.

Eli asked what if he just killed her right then. Massacre promptly mentioned that she had implanted a command into Lindsey that she would kill herself and her baby if she did not return in two days. The mention of a baby took Eli back and made him pause for a moment. After this, Massacre ordered Lindsey to go to her bedroom and sleep.

Caught in a rock and a hard place, Eli agreed to consider the arrangement only if she returned to remove the command. Massacre then left right before we arrived. Waking Lindsey up, we talked for a while about her pregnancy. It was the reason she didn’t go to interview the new kinfolk. After chatting for a little while, we let go back to bed, the incident being wiped from her mind by Massacre and not causing any emotional turmoil.

Returning to the Sept, we found Cliff with Ariel. Ariel had just had a vision of violence in the city that spreads further until it engulfs everything. It sounded like a vision of the Apocalypse. We must stop it…

Finding Our Enemy and Distressing Revelations… (Game 28)

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After Agnis deciphered the riddle of the bottle, we decided to go to Wolverine since he was the only spirit of War that we knew. Although he left us as a totem, he was still on good terms with us.

Jonathon opted to do the Rite of Summoning, spent several hours meditating while we gathered anything essential to the journey, and ate. We then entered the Umbra as he performed the ritual, Wolverine came immediately and was friendly, or at least as friendly as he was going to get. Jonathon asked for help and Wolverine agreed on one condition. His chiminage was that one person must survive unaided by the realm, but not including our fetishes or totem, to the end of the Battleground. Wolverine would be watching to make sure we don’t cheat.

With that, he began to run in the direction. I tried going in Hispo, but couldn’t keep up along with the others who opted to stay in Homid. Finally, Eli told us to all go Lupus and we managed to keep pace with him. He finally slowed down after about an hour and began to talk to us. This wasn’t the first time he had taken someone to the Battleground. He had taken Rage Heart some time ago where the Ahroun spent a year in the Battleground working to temper his Rage. He had taken on Wolverine as his personal totem.

We found ourselves on the side of a mountain with a headstone. The headstone recalled a story of the first European Garou to die at the hands of the Pure Ones, John Williams the 3^rd. Wolverine tells us that touching the headstone will take us to the Battleground. There will be a sign with unimportant writing on it. We are to go northwest from there and stay on course until we run into a road. We will follow the road to a New York Shipyard. We will see him there and he will guide us out.

After some debate, we decided to have a questing stone made to work as a reverse compass of sorts. As long as the stone pointed southeast, we would be heading in the correct direction. I went ahead and made the questing stone with help from the entire pack. We then touched the stone, which appeared to cause us to explode to observers. The feeling of entering the realm was similar.

Upon entering the realm, the questing stone worked as it pointed towards the sign in front of us. The writing on the sign directed us to various battles in the realm. It occurred to us that we could get to any battle with enough effort and searching, even our own battles.

After a few minutes of walking in the right direction, we could hear explosions in the distance. Another five minutes of walking and the scenery suddenly changed. We found ourselves in the Revolutionary War with colonists on one side and the British army on the other. They lined up and fired at each other as we made haste in Lupus form across the field. As we did, we could see a Garou struck by a bullet and losing himself to his Rage. We opted to not assist him as it was not our fight and we needed to stay on course to complete the quest.

Heading across the field and into a forest, we came across a dirt path and a stream. The stream was easy enough to cross in Lupus form. As we made it across, suddenly the scene shifted again and we were in World War I. Soldiers were fighting in trenches as artillery shells dropped from the sky. I took the lead as I still held onto the questing stone in my mouth. Narrowly avoiding shells, Eli pointed out a minefield in front of us. The mines were spaced far enough apart that we could avoid them easily.

After passing through the minefield, the scene changed again. It became wintry and we saw a bear fighting with two wolves. It stood over an elk as another bear approached. The rest of the wolves’ pack came rushing in as we watched them run the bears to exhaustion and leave the kill to the pack. Not wasting time, they dug in and ate, not bothering to bring the food with them.

After the fight finished, we headed forward to rolling hills and a more temperate climate. We climbed a hill and saw two packs of Black Spiral Dancers below us. Dead kinfolk lay at their feet and they stood waiting. It was obvious they weren’t apart of this realm as they weren’t battling. This was our enemy.

Eli plotted out a plan of attack. Miguel would flank them as Eli would draw them in. The bag would be placed down with the questing stone and parchment in order to have a lone survivor grab it if necessary. We all prepared for battle as Eli shared his Luna’s Armor with us and some of us called on our ancestors.

Eli started the battle viciously, throwing his hammer into a random Spiral. It launched the corrupted Garou back into the dirt as the rest of them prepared for battle. Eli then tossed his hammer again, hitting the same Spiral. The Garou disappeared as Eli’s hammer returned bloody. Jonathon quickly grabbed the parchment, rubbed the blood on it, and placed it back in the bottle.

The Spirals closed in and Jonathon, Eli, John, and William engaged them. William was purged from the realm by a vicious klaive attack to which Agnis charged the attacker. John and Eli brought down a couple of them before two Spirals did a wishbone attack on Eli and tore his arm off. Raging from the assault he lashed out at them, holding his ground. Agnis engaged William’s attacker, ejecting him from the realm in the process.

John and Eli continued to fight, but Eli was knocked from the realm. John eliminates another two of them as Agnis jams her staff into the eyes of one of them. Jonathon, realizing packmates are dropping, quickly grabs the bag and heads forward in order to salvage the mission. However, I finally was able to charge forward and decapitate one of them with my klaive while Miguel killed the other. The packs ejected from the realm we pushed forward towards our destination.

Wolverine was there waiting for us like he said he would be. Near him was a black portal. He told us to go through it. We could leave the Battleground at any time if we wished by finding one of these portals. Heading through, we found ourselves right back where we started. Eli and William were there, unharmed, showing that the realm’s effects were only temporary.

As we gathered together, a small green blob approached us. It was obviously a bane, but it spelled out the sigils for Fianna, kin-fetch, and Black Spiral Dancer. It was obvious it wanted us to come with it as it opened a moon bridge. With a little debate, we decided to go see what it wanted cautiously.

The moon bridge led us to San Francisco, or more accurately, Hunter’s Point. It was an abandoned naval harbor where in one of the buildings they studied the effects of radiation. The radioactivity became too great and it was abandoned making it the perfect place for a Black Spiral Hive.

We entered the building and saw a single woman in front of us, naked and covered in tattoos. She looks solemn. She told us we could keep the boy as he was weak anyway and maybe the Spiral blood would toughen our Sept up. It was obvious she was Jason’s mother Alyssa. She mentioned she would have contacted us earlier, but pinpointing our location was difficult.

She mentioned she knew the Septs were beginning to fall. She was delighted with the prospect, but she was bitter that a rival was responsible for the deed. Her rival had asked for help, but she turned her down. Apparently, the Hive began asking for help when our Sept began to grow.

She continued the conversation, engaging in increasingly grotesque behaviors as she did. William even suggested having sex with her at one point, although I’m not sure why he did. There was a traitor in the area. Someone from the Sept of the Three Waters was working with the nearby Hive in causing chaos. This traitor was of high standing in the Sept.

When asked why we should believe her, she told us her flaw was she was always honest. She fully intended to betray us in time, but for now, she was giving the information to us in order to destroy her rival. I was curious how someone could continue to engage in a partnership with the Spirals without becoming corrupted. Still, we took her number and mentioned we would call her in case she had or was willing to give more information in the future.

With that, we slowly backed out and left the area. We moon bridged back to our original destination, Eli scolded William for his comments, and I took the time to cleanse all of the pack in case we had become tainted. Returning to the Sept, we weren’t sure of what to do next. We considered telling Crafty, but because of his affiliation with the Sept of the Three Waters, we couldn’t be sure he wasn’t in on the whole thing. Normally, we would have never thought this, but considering how secretive he had been about Mabe, we weren’t completely sure of his allegiance.

At the Sept, a messenger had arrived. His name was Blitz and he was a Garou from the Sept of the Angry Earth. Apparently, there was some trouble stirring in their Sept and they had reason to believe our Sept might be connected in some way. Crafty told us we would have to stay at the Sept for the next week while he determined what the issue was. He told us to rest up in the cabin.

We stopped him, however, before he could leave and asked about Mabe’s connection to him. We figured if he would be honest about this, then we could trust him with the information we had just obtained. He was a bit grim at hearing our questions, but answered it anyway. Mabe had been in his family for generations. His ancestor had trapped Mabe in a box. When Crafty took over the Sept, he let her become the guardian and now she is growing more powerful until she is returned to her box. The situation was such due to the limited resources he had available at the time.

Eli then mentioned the news of a traitor in our midst. Crafty didn’t take to the news the greatest, wondering who we told. We had only told him and didn’t plan on telling anyone else. He told us the Spiral was likely lying, but if she wasn’t, we would have to have proof as accusing a Garou without evidence is a serious crime.

Crafty left and we decided to rest. We’d have a whole week and an upcoming moot to think about things. We also had another quest in the bottle. Things were getting very ominous now…

A Skin Dancer’s Proposal and a Legendary Mission… (Game 27)

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After the moot and the joining of the Vulture Pack, most of the pack started work on trying to decipher a way into the Legendary realm to complete the bottle quest. Unfortunately, things seemed to be a standstill with no solid information from the Spirits or any of the Sept members.

After two days of investigating, Savage Heart of the Vulture Walkers came to us with a proposal from someone she knew. With her was a box of steaks from a Skin Dancer known as Stained Coat. She told us the Garou had been one of the original Skin Dancers under Samuel Haight. However, after the death of the Skinner and roaming for some time, he changed his views on the Garou Nation.

Stained Coat now worked with kinfolk trying to dissuade them from becoming a Skin Dancer. He had heard by chance of our Sept and what it did with the Vulture Walkers pack. He was offering five kinfolk to take off his hands to help teach them that the Nation isn’t as bad as it appears. He offered the steaks as a sign of good faith on his part.

Eli decided it was a good idea to at least hear what he said and Savage Heart had one of Cliff’s vans prepared for us. We began our drive to Santa Cruz when Eli spoke of getting on the quest in the bottle. I voiced my concerns about leaving the Sept right now. With the addition of the Vulture Walkers, Sheeba, the destruction of the Sept of the Stone Sea, and the general distrust for our Sept, I was worried we would be attacked after we left on the quest. I didn’t know how long the quest would take and it wasn’t a risk I cared for.

Eli noted my concerns, but was confident the Sept would be fine in our absence. As we traveled, I noticed all of the little annoyances I hadn’t seen before with the city. Humans casually trashed and polluted the planet. My senses were overloaded from it, but I still hoped people would change with some nudging to the right direction.

Arriving at the Humphrey Inn, we were greeted by a kind old lady who took us to Stained Coat. He was a very jovial and energetic person for a Skin Dancer. We ordered food and he told us about why we had come. The Kinfolk he had were non-Fianna kinfolk who wanted the Rite of the Sacred Rebirth. Stained Coat had been bluffing them for some time in the hopes they might change their minds. He had been giving them tests in order to dissuade them, but he was running out of time as per his agreement with them of one year of tasks.

He had hoped with the remaining five months we could show them compassion and love and change their hearts for the better. We asked about his success rate and he told us it was about 75%. Most of the success stories either went back to a different Sept than their home one or left the Garou Nation entirely. The other quarter of them he either changed into Skin Dancers or more ominously and implied, killed them in order to prevent bloodshed.

His only agreement with us was to treat them well and if at the end of the five months they wanted to leave, we let them go. They were also free to stay if they were happy after the five month period was up. Eli realized it was not something that could be done in a single day. It was take some time to get them integrated with our kinfolk. Stained Coat told us he would be staying in the area for five days and would give an additional five days on the Humphrey Inn in order for us to prepare. Eli decided to run it by Crafty first and then get back with Stained Coat to which he agreed.

Heading back to the Sept, we debated whether or not to let the new kinfolk interact with the Vulture Walkers as it might sway their opinion in the opposite direction Stained Coat intended. After much discussion, we decided it would be best to remain honest with them.

At the Sept, Jonathon decided to take some time in the Umbra while Eli spoke with Crafty. Crafty said it was our decision and that more kinfolk would always be a good idea. He suggested sending Lindsey and Ariel, especially her since she was a psychologist and they may have lingering emotional and mental issues from their treatment. We also addressed the concerns over leaving the Sept on a journey, but Crafty told us the Sept would hold as it did when we were dead.

With things arranged, we turned our attention to the Talen bottle. Unfortunately, Miguel seemed to have misplaced the paper and as such we spent several hours looking for it. We finally managed to secure it. We gathered up all fetishes and gear we needed and got ready to enter the Umbra. As we entered the Umbra, Agnis called for her Stag familiar, Jonathon reunited with us and told us Tick could navigate Q’s moon bridge to the realm. She only wanted secrets for the cost of secrets owed to the spirits she got the information from.

Q opened the moon bridge and we began to walk it. Along the way, Eli revealed his fear of never getting Lindsey pregnant. With the secret revealed, Tick told us that spirits may enter the realm, but are made material. Bjorn mentioned he was unsure whether he would make a good leader. Tick then revealed that in the Legendary realm, death is real.

More secrets came out as John felt bad about sleeping with a married woman. Tick revealed that time passes abnormally in the realm. A year could only last minutes or even seconds. Agnis revealed that she could use no other weapon besides her staff. Tick told us that you cannot leave until you complete the mission that is given to you upon entry. Failure means death and do not underestimate anything you encounter in the realm as it is different every time you enter.

Jonathon revealed that he really wanted to keep the patch of skin he obtained from Samuel Haight even if it tainted him. Finally, Tick revealed that everything reforms in the realm is spirit, but immune to the delirium.

Twelve minutes later, we arrived at what appeared to be a massive, broken tree. A large rock blocked what appeared to be an entrance into the tree. We decided before going any farther to leave all of the spirits behind as their deaths would be permanent and this would not be wise to bring them. We would rely on our wits and skills alone.

The one wishing to undergo the mission would have to move the rock. In the end, we decided to move it together since we were all wanting to go on the mission. Pushing the rock, we found ourselves on a shoreline, a castle in the distance. Looking at ourselves, we looked the same, but our clothes and gear had been changed to appropriate attire for the apparent time period we were now in, save for those who were naked.

Heading towards the castle, we encountered a village who exalted John, calling him Finn. John convinced them to get clothes for those lacking any as we looked at the stone and straw houses. John estimated it to be around 900 AD. After interacting with the villagers, we headed into the castle where John met a woman who was his wife here. She was happy to see him and had the servants in the castle get us better clothes.

We were led to our guest rooms and clothed while everyone in the castle prepared for a banquet tonight. John was taken to his room and bathed by his wife and had custom clothes for himself.

Arriving at the banquet, we sat at a table on a platform away from the villagers. They greeted us during the affair, sometimes offering gifts as we ate. As we ate, the fae arrived, appearing wholly in their true forms. They were tiny sprites and the most impressive one of them was the fairy queen. I wondered for a second if it was Mabe.

The fairy queen offered to dance for us and John agreed. Her dance was beautiful, fluttering about in the air. So entrancing was it, that we found ourselves falling asleep. It was the best sleep I had ever had, especially considering the problems I’ve had before.

We all awoke the next morning. A messenger had arrived from Scotland. He brought a message of a giant named Angus who challenged Finn for the title of Supreme Giant. He was building a bridge of stones by throwing them into the water with his name in glyphs on the rocks. He offered to give us mercy if we abandon our name, place, and people. John told him to return a message telling Angus not to strain himself making the bridge, obviously not taking the threat seriously.

The messenger wondered about the hospitality of the Fianna to which John offered drinks for him. Before the messenger left, John inquired as to what the challenge was. It would be a fight to the death. The fairy queen offered her counsel that calling upon the Sept might look badly and suggested building a bridge to meet his.

Agreeing to it, we all banded together as a pack and a village to accomplish this task. It would take three years to build the bridge to the halfway point of Angus’ path, but we accomplished it in record time thanks to the Fae magic. Still, not a day went by that I worried about the state of our Sept back home. However, this gave me time to work on my stamina and train my body harder as we got to know all of the villagers.

We all pondered what the realm meant to each of us. I felt this was the world the Garou had hoped for, but lost. Bjorn wondered if this world would be the same to someone else who entered it. Miguel noticed the Fae used to interact with the humans as well. Agnis felt this is what Garou should be doing with the humans in the real world. John though the realm morphed to fit us. Eli realized the Garou conflict is everywhere, even near realms. Jonathon realized it might be possible for Garou and humans to interact peacefully.

After completing the task, we had a month long celebration on our success. The same messenger arrived during the celebration. It seems the cheers of our partying caught Angus’ ear that had gone off course fighting golden men and giant birds. He would arrive within three days now that he had torn down the old bridge and corrected his error. John offered hospitality to the messenger again as we debated what to do.

We spent many hours poring over ideas no matter how silly they might seem. The fairy queen suggested trickery and much of the pack agreed as a fight with Angus who was reported to be three times a man’s size by Una, John’s wife, would be suicide. Finally, Eli decided to call upon the ancestors for the story of Finn MacCumhall.

It turns out that Finn offered to fight Angus during this time, in spite of it being a death sentence. At the last moment, as Angus arrived, Una placed a blanket over Finn’s head in his Crinos form. When Angus asked where Finn was, she told he was not here and that this was her baby. Tricked into believing Finn was far larger than he, Angus left, destroying his bridge along the way.

We did this exact thing as Angus arrived and it worked perfectly. With that taken care of, we found ourselves in the Umbra outside the Sept. Only five minutes had passed according to Q and Tick. We placed the note back in the bottle and pulled it out to the see the next quest which only Jonathon could read.

“Test your glory, test your might, find a spirit who can show you right, blood of enemies you must, on this parchment prove your kill, protect your prize at all costs, or this test shall be lost.”

We pondered it for a moment before Agnis realized we would be heading to the Battleground. We would need a spirit of War to lead us to it and we would have to place the blood of our enemies on the paper and then get it back to the bottle safely. I didn’t like where this was going…

Some Downtime, Fae Interactions, and the Final Test of the Vulture Walkers…(Game 26)

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After we had secured our kinfolk and taken in Spot, Sheeba, and the Vulture Walkers, it was time for a breather. We were all finally able to work on things we had been hoping to take care of earlier. For three weeks we did not have to worry about anything hectic.

Eli spent time decorating his fetishes and channeling his ancestor Malcolm to learn to smith. He spoke with Crafty and they both agreed that a forge for the cabin area would be a good addition. The potential to craft our own weapons would be a benefit to the Sept’s offensive capabilities. Eli tried to learn Spirit Speech from Q, but he preferred that Eli get it from a Sept spirit in order to foster good relations with them. He was taken to a Lune to learn it, but also requested to learn Luna’s Armor. The Lune argued that to be given the defensive armor he would need to ensure that he might be missed if he fell in battle or otherwise. Thus, he would have to make himself as sociable as possible for the next month.

Jonathon spent a great deal of his time wandering the Umbra with the spirits rekindling relationships he had lost over the last four years. He found out during this time that all spirits had names, but chose to withhold them as a name could give the Garou or other entities power over them. Thus, a name given by a spirit showed great respect and trust for the Garou in question.

Gina dropped off a bag from Kelly since Jonathon’s movements were restricted to the Sept by Eli. She had used the bag to hold comics, but thought Jonathon might find better use for it. He decided to use the bag to make a Magpie Swag much like Eli. The ritual took an exhaustive amount of time, but in the end, he was able to perform it successfully. He earned the trust of a magpie named Black Bill who required an occasional insect be placed in the back for a month as chiminage. The ban required him to put something of importance in the bag whenever he deemed an event important in his life.

Bjorn spent some time with Gruffy who told him as a Philodox, it was his job to administer punishment for the pack. Bjorn took this time to learn the Rite of the Jackdaw, something I could see William suffering in the future. Afterwards, he spent time with the spirits learning Spirit Speech, decorating his fetishes, and enjoying time with Gina. Magnus tried to be a big brother to him, but Bjorn wasn’t interested, and it bothered me quite a bit.

William spent a good deal of the time working with Cliff to determine if any of the land was available for sale. Apparently, the area by the lodge was state-owned and could not be purchased, but over 75% of the bawn including the Sept itself could be. It cost millions of dollars, but William began the work to push it through. When he wasn’t working with Cliff, he was being berated by Mackie for not following his auspice. He was stepping on the toes of the Ragabash in the Sept by acting the way he did and it was time for him to act how he should, lest he be forced to change auspices. Finally, William worked on a song and requested Lindsey bring him a specific type of wine while ferrying notes about. None of which he told anybody about.

Miguel spent most of his time with his mother and catching up on lost time. When he wasn’t doing this, he worked with his uncle Thomas doing things I’m sure I don’t want to know about. Afterwards, he asked Leein to help him learn some gifts and she took him to the spirits to take care of this.

Agnis worked on practicing her staff fighting with Scourge of the Woods. She tried to get more information from Drona in order to do things like when the staff flew into her hands the first time she got it, but the staff was intent on keeping secrets. She also worked with Leein on developing her own variants of the minor Rites Breath of Gaia and Greet the Sun.

I decided to begin to strengthen my body for the dark times ahead. Taking on the Vulture Walkers and Sheeba might have been ludicrous to other Septs, but in my mind it was the right thing to do. Still, with the other Septs not exactly happy with us, it would be best to do as much training, both physically and spiritually, as possible.

I spent at least an hour every day doing runs, lifting logs, and whatever else I could think of to build my strength. Much of this time was spent with Agnis, as she worked on her physical training as well. We bonded very well during this time. We shared many similarities and differences at the same time from our past.

I went to visit Ryan during the first week with Eli’s approval, who also considered my emotional well-being and Ryan’s safety tantamount. The San Francisco was severely nauseating to say the least. I could barely keep my anger in check during this time. Ryan was very sweet and well-mannered as Kenith offered to have a dinner date with each other. I decided to spend some time just with Ryan rather leave the mansion for the smog-filled city.

I did go on the date later, but I struggled to deal with the situation. The sensory overload was unbearable as I listened to Kenith talk about Ryan’s future. He had all sorts of plans for my son like the best schools and recreation money could buy. It seemed like a big show of money and I wasn’t sure if I cared much for the grooming. I thought about just getting Ryan back and raising him in the confines of the Sept, but I knew this would only cause legal problems for us. More troubling was the show of money and attitude from Kenith. This was not how I remembered him. Finally, the city became too much for me to bear and I faked an excuse about feeling ill and left.

After I returned, depressed and unsure of what to do about the situation, I went to speak with Spot and Sheeba. Sheeba, sadly, could not talk in any way shape or form including the Garou tongue. However, she was a natural at wolf language and Spot was teaching her how to read and write to communicate with the rest of the Sept. Spot herself was guarded which was worrying. She was eager to listen and hear about anyone or myself in the Sept really, but she kept any answers about herself very curt.

Before I began the training I arranged last week with Ryan, I spent some time with Magnus. We seemed to click and I felt much more at ease with him than with Kenith. I sort of felt the old Kenith was gone, but I shouldn’t have been surprised considering how much I’ve changed over the years. I couldn’t even remember the last time I had opened my bible. Still, Magnus wanted to take me out on a date once he got himself set up and I agreed to it. Personally, he didn’t need to set himself up and I would be more than happy to spend time with him regardless.

After all this, I began my second and third week in deep study with Ryan. Although Ryan moved quickly as he taught me about the importance of rituals and what it will mean for me to be Ritemaster, I picked up much of it quickly. When he wasn’t working on the study of rituals on the whole, I worked on learning the Rite of Summoning, a rite I had wanted to learn for some time to make things easier for the pack. I easily mastered in the two weeks with little trouble to the point Ryan remarked I was a natural for this.

Outside of the pack, lots of work and change progressed with others as well. Maria managed to get a job at the lodge legally as Thomas kept his word about his 36-hour runs. My father hadn’t been seen at the Sept yet as he was able to get moved quickly and established at a nearby Harris bank in Santa Cruz. Still, he hadn’t been to visit and I worried about him. I didn’t want to feel like we bossed him around, but were worried for his safety.

Lizzie worked with Cliff on getting internet set-up to all of the rooms in the lodge while Magnus got temporary work at a local shipyard. Ariel, Lindsey, and Cliff were all extremely busy, barely getting any time with the pack or the Sept. Cliff, in particular, worried me as he had been working so hard due to all the new kinfolk arriving. I think I’ll have to do something for all his work. Gina had been working on schooling and spent the most time at the Sept of the kinfolk.

Crafty had been in the caern the majority of the downtime. I overheard Ryan warning him of being careful of Mabe and her trickery. Spot and Crafty seemed to spend a great deal of time together, but would go quiet whenever anyone got near, causing some concern around the Sept. Both the Lion’s Vengeance and Irish Destroyers did bawn patrol often and the latter worked with the pack on any assistance they needed. Sheeba and Spot worked under Mackie and it was obvious he abused his position due to his bigoted viewpoint towards them. Not surprising, Spot has been confused by kindness, something Bone Gnawers likely don’t get very often.

After three weeks had passed, Leein and Ryan asked us to meet them at the Sept. They had been training spirits to specifically look for kin-fetch spirits like the one that was bound to me before my First Change. The elders had put the Vulture Walkers in charge of one of these hunter spirits, but have left some information out in case they betray the Sept. Because Ryan and the others, including William needed to take care of things, we would stand guard at the Sept for a week. Only one member of the pack can leave at a time to hunt in case we get hungry. Lastly, the Vulture Walkers left two early, and it concerned Ryan some.

We all gathered our things, including our fetishes in case of a fight, and headed to the Sept. The first day was rather uneventful. We took turns doing a little hunting, but things were strangely quiet.

On the second day, however, things took a turn for the worse. As we were guarding the Sept, the paper bird Eli carried came alive somewhat and tried to fly off. Jonathon offered to grab the bird and we let him retrieve it. However, after half a day of waiting, he hadn’t returned. We asked Q to locate him, but Q had been told by Jonathon not to mention his whereabouts.

After a full day had passed, Jonathon returned with a bloody bag. I was nervous to say the least, but let him speak. He told us we had made bad decisions in the past and he was quiet before. However, he had a duty to protect the pack. With that, he opened the bag and the heads of the Vulture Walkers pack rolled out. At the sight of this, Q said this was behavior unbecoming of our pack and departed from us. Needless to say, everyone was livid. I felt like cutting his head off for betraying both the Vulture Walkers pack and ours along with breaking our ban with Q. Agnis was particularly violatile and was disgusted with his behavior. Things looked as though violence might break out when we were suddenly awakened by Eli. The entire thing had been a dream.

The conversation that transpired next was one that I didn’t care. Eli had been having second thoughts about the entire deal with the Vulture Walkers. I felt like he was trying to justify reneging on his deal with the Vulture Walkers and was quite disgusted. He tried to explain he only wanted clarity, but I felt he wouldn’t have been interested in denying them membership if he only wanted clarity. Still, Agnis said the deal had been done and we would lose favor with Q for going back on our word.

With the Sept sending dreams to us, the rest of the week contained different dreams. One dream was horrible as the entire Sept had been destroyed and not even the caern remained. However, two days later, another dream was revealed to us of the Sept prospering and the Vulture Walkers pack full members. It was readily apparent that these were portents to possible futures depending on how we behave.

On the sixth night, Eli spotted the trees acting bizarrely. They were swaying in the direction of the cabin. Waking the rest of the pack up, he had Jonathon and I investigate the Umbra to see what we could find out. Heading into the Umbra, we discovered the fish spirits near the creek were leaping out of the water onto the trees. We tried calling out to Mabe, but got no response. Jonathon asked Tick what was going on and he mentioned someone being in the bawn that wasn’t supposed to be.

With this, Eli howled for a response, but got none. Things were getting a bit more tense as we prepared for battle. Eli sent Miguel to investigate. Miguel found the Vulture Walkers pack had returned with a young teenage boy, but they were missing one member, Jerrick. Miguel returned with the news and Eli went to meet them personally.

As Eli approached them, he could tell they were nervous. They were allowed on the bawn, but they knew better than to enter the caern. They told Eli they had returned from their mission. They were to use the kin-fetch locator to determine if they worked. The spirit led them to a bane which they destroyed. There, they found the young boy in the First Change. They calmed him down and got him out of the area before anyone noticed. Oddly, they deferred to our pack on what to do.

When asked about their missing member, they were somewhat ashamed to say they had to put Jerrick down. Jerrick had gone rogue and wanted to use the kin-fetch hunter to find more Garou and build an army to break the Nation. Anthony said this was wrong and Jerrick challenged for alpha to which they asked Tick who agreed. Worried that this could undo everything they had worked for, Chloe jumped on Jerrick and ripped him apart before the challenge could begin. She mentioned she would take full responsibility for her actions, but Anthony said he was the leader and he should be punished. Given their limited knowledge of the Litany, I didn’t really think punishment was a good idea, rather education instead.

Still, Eli returned to the caern and told them to wait there. He sent me to cleanse the boy as he had obvious Wyrm taint from being near the bane. I had him strip naked and took a stick from a tree in the Sept, I asked Gaia to remove the taint from the boy as a shook the stick and walked in a clockwise motion.

With that finished, we took the boy into the Sept sans clothes. His name was Jason Kennedy and he seemed oddly okay with what he had become as opposed to myself that took a great deal of time to come to terms with it. Jason spent the rest of the night with us.

The next evening, Crafty, Ryan, Leein, and William returned. Crafty told us that the kin-fetch hunter was a test for the Vulture Walkers to determine where their loyalties lie. However, they were not expecting them to actually find anything. Still, it was fortunate they did. Since we had been alternating hunting and resting for the week, Crafty told us to take some time off at the cabin, which we did.

After a few hours, Crafty returned with news. Jason was the son of Alyssa, Bitch of the Wyrm, obviously a Black Spiral Dancer. Since we had got to him early on, he didn’t have a tribe. He told us to come to the back of the cabin to speak privately.

With so many things going on right now, Crafty told us he was taking us off the investigation about the Sept of the Stone Sea in spite of being requested by the spirits to do so. Hopefully, the spirits won’t be too angry about it. Instead, the Sept of the Three Waters will conduct their own investigation. This disturbed me some since the investigators could be the very people who committed the act.

Aside from this, Crafty had been in communion with Lion for some time. The dreams in the Sept were from him. He wanted to show us the possibilities that might transpire based on our actions and decisions. Lion has accepted the Vulture Walkers based on their previous quests and apparent sincerity. However, Lion wishes us to give the final quest for the pack. If they pass our test, they are officially part of the Sept.

After some debate, we decided it would be best for all of our pack ask each member one question. Their answers would determine if they could join the Sept. After gathering them up at the lodge, we had them come in one at a time and answer our questions.

The questions were highly varied, although I believe the most important questions were whether they would die for a non-pack Sept member they didn’t like if it saved the Sept and whether they felt remorse for their actions in their creation. Not only did they answer the questions in a manner we liked, they managed to sway Jonathon and William to believe in them, something they had been vehemently opposed to before. After each member answered their questions, we told each of them they were in and had them sit down and drink with us.

With the Vulture Walkers now a part of the Sept, we held our monthly moot. At the moot, Crafty had Sheeba and Jason head north to find the Tree of Voices. Once they completed this, they would be members of the Sept and Fianna proper. The Vulture Walkers pack were officially inducted into the pack with Monica taking on the Garou name “Remembers-the-Departed” and Anthony taking the Garou name “Pasthealer”. Chloe maintained the same name as before, “Savage Heart”.

Crafty told us the destruction of the Sept of the Stone Sea had definitely been by Gaian Garou. The Sept of the Raging Storm, where Rage Heart was, could be a suspect, but none of the other Septs want to risk accusing them and starting another war. Leein mentioned she wanted to know when we were going to take care of the quest with the bottle. She really wanted to hear the tale of it soon.

The rest of the moot went like they normally do. There was lots of drinking, dancing, and the usual sex for the mated couples. I spent a great deal of time with Magnus, though I didn’t do anything sexual with him yet. Thankfully, my father showed up and I apologized to him for rushing him to California, but he replied it was okay. As the moot continued, Agnis noticed a light in the distance near the lodge.

Heading towards the light, we saw a man made of feathers with several fairies surrounding him searching the area. His name was Zanatos, an Unseelie Fae. He was doing something with the light. William foolishly stuck his paw into the light and was nearly transformed into wood if it weren’t for Bjorn pulling him out.

Eli asked why he had trespassed onto our land. He was searching for the power source, which became apparent was the paper bird that Royal Ascot had given us. He knew it was nearby and asked us if we would give it to him so he could petition Royal’s court to help the Unseelie. Eli told him we weren’t interested in getting involved with his crusade. He mentioned that he would talk with Oliver Macbeth, whom we had no idea who that was. Realizing his bluff didn’t work, he left, using his glamour to conceal himself as an ordinary man with a flashlight.

Afterwards, his colorful light reappeared, then disappeared, and finally tried to reappear again. We entered the Umbra to realize it was Mabe trying to tear through the Gauntlet. She seen us and recited a poem:

“I need to be free; Curse that has imprisoned me.

Can tell you no secrets, nor tell you lies; Challenge for my guardianship and your status will rise.

Irish legends and lore; Speak of Mabe as if she were a whore.

Married to those mortals that wished to rule; Oberon betrayed me and played me for fool.

My only crime was not standing still; while man ate their dreams and never got their fill.

I am a warrior Queen of the Fairy; tormented as prisoner never again to marry.

I need three things to be set free; guardianship will be the key

Once that is acquired, we shall move on, until that time hope will still be gone.”

After she said this, she disappeared. It was apparent Crafty was both her jailer and guardian. We were beginning to worry about the secrets he was keeping from us. Still, with new members to the Sept and the redemption of the Vulture Walkers pack, I was feeling better about our chances of survival. I knew the other Septs would condemn us for taking them in, but I knew in my heart it was the right thing to do. Destroying them would have only resulted in three less Garou and we were going to need all that we could find if we were to survive the coming days.

My Son, the Fae, and New Sept Members…(Game 25)

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After making my questing stones, we debated on how to get to Chicago. There was a good deal of debate on how to make it there, even tossing in the idea of William’s father helping us, but ultimately, we decided to have Q moon bridge us there. It required two jumps since his range couldn’t take us all the way. I, along with Eli and Bjorn, gave Q some spiritual power as the trip would most certainly tax him and we didn’t want to abuse his power.

Our first jump took us to outside edge of a small city, but we were not spotted. The second jump got us to just near the area of the kinfolk whom I left Ryan with. We made our way to the house that looked to be somewhat ran down, but still livable. We all went up to the door and I knocked.

James Sever answered the door and he looked worn down like the house and was clearly drunk. He invited us in and gave beers to most of the pack as I asked him where my son was. He told me that CPS had taken my son away. I had to fight back the urge to give into my Rage at the sound of that. He told us his wife had died several years ago and CPS took the child away two years ago. He begged the Sept of the Second City for aid, but they just disregarded him.

At hearing the story, I couldn’t find myself being enraged anymore. I pitied him and wondered why the Sept I had come from had become so callous to one of their own. We talked it over briefly through Q about what we could do for him, but since he was a Glass Walker kinfolk, the Sept would have to let us have him. So we had to leave James. We tried to give him some money for his troubles, but he wouldn’t accept it.

I decided that the Sept would have the best chance of finding my son. I had a questing stone, but it could take us anywhere and with no idea how long it would take to find him. We headed just outside the bawn and asked Q to introduce us as not to offend anyone. Unfortunately, he returned with less than savory news of their attitude towards Q. Jonathon managed to have Tick look over the situation and she returned with information that the city was under siege by “fomor who drink blood.” It was obvious it was vampires.

There was once again nothing we could do here so I checked my questing stones. My son’s pointed west and my father’s pointed south-east. While I wanted to get to my son, the fact that my stone worked at all let me know he was alive. I decided that getting my father first would save us time since we had no idea where my son specifically was.

Traveling to his location, we found ourselves outside a Harris bank. It was several stories tall and actually decent. We entered the bank and I asked for John Rosie. When asked who would be needing him, I first gave my regular last name, but I realized this would not register to him and changed it to Caitlyn Greyweather.

Making my way up to his office along with Bjorn, I introduced myself and told him I was his daughter. He took the news surprisingly well and gave me a somewhat awkward hug. He asked me about my mother, but I could only tell her she had died, not knowing the circumstances. He was saddened to here, but wanted to know why I had come. I told him I wanted him to return to our Sept. He asked if I could give him a few weeks to get ready and I told him yes. Bjorn spoke through Q to me about taking him out to dinner tonight. I asked if he wanted to and he accepted. In the meantime, he offered to put us up in a hotel. I didn’t want to impose but he insisted so I accepted. I hugged him and we left for the hotel.

Arriving at the hotel, we were checking in to our rooms when Jonathon mindspeaked to me that Tick had told him the city wasn’t safe at night. Banes were out in force and we needed to get out of here. Ignoring this for the moment, we got our rooms and discussed the situation. We figured we could handle the banes for the moment and decided to stay until I had dinner with my father.

Eli took the opportunity to ask Q to try again at the Sept. This time, he managed to get an audience with Spirit Talker, the Theurge who did my Rite of Passage. Apparently, 20 years ago, vampires were feuding with each other and the Garou. The vampires had formed an alliance with Black Spiral Dancers and the Garou of the city decided to wipe them both off the map. Now, however, the vampires are returning and the Sept has entered into a three-day moot in order to determine what best to do. After hearing the story, it was determined that we needed to get my father out as soon as possible.

I went to dinner that night at the bank’s connected restaurant. I decided to not bring the issue about leaving just yet. I wanted to get to know him for a bit. He told about how he knew he was a kinfolk, but hadn’t participated that much. I asked him about my mother. He didn’t know her very well, but did remember her being very beautiful and kind to him. The conversation went on for some time as he asked about myself as well. Finally, as things wound down, I brought the issue to him about the city’s problem. I apologized to him about the rush, but I was concerned he might get caught in the crossfire. He asked for just a week and I told him yes, but to be very careful.

I went back to the hotel that night and slept with a little unease about things. Waking up the next morning, we decided since the Sept was out of the question, we would just have to do things the hard way. We rented a car thanks to William and began traveling west. It eventually took us out of the city. We kept following the path for three days, stopping periodically to use the bathroom and hunt. Finally, we found ourselves at a large estate in San Francisco.

We stood there looking at the house for some time, but we were not sure how to approach. Eli suggested we talk with Royal Ascot to touch base with the Fae and see if they knew anything. It was a quick trip to the Stinking Rose where Washington was still serving as a bouncer of sorts. He didn’t recognize us, which wasn’t surprising, but once we asked for Royal, he led us right to the table we were at last time we were here.

Royal was happy to see us and wondered why we had never used the paper bird for our favor. He called for garlic as Eli gave him the short of what happened to us. He filled us in on how Adela was doing and how she intended to “take someone across the hedge”, a phrase I was unfamiliar with. Afterwards, she would be on her own.

After getting reacquainted, we asked about the mansion, but Royal didn’t know who it belonged to. I quietly suggested using the bird to get my son back, but this idea was shot down sadly. With Eli deciding to hold onto the bird in spite of Royal’s suggestion he could get the child back within an hour, we figured we would have to do it ourselves. We bid Royal goodbye and returned to the mansion.

At the mansion, Jonathon went to speak with the owner of the house. He was greeted by a butler who gave him the last name of the residence: Kincaid. I immediately knew who owned the house or at least the family. Making an appointment to speak with the owner about a personal matter, Jonathon gave a fake name and that we would return at 10:30 pm.

After leaving, I suggested we head to an internet café and look into the Kincaid family. It was headed by Walter Kincaid, the most prominent lawyer in the west coast. Things weren’t looking good for getting my son back I feared.

Deciding that we needed to look presentable, William offered to buy us some clothes for an upscale business. We agreed, but didn’t want to go overboard as doing too much with any forms of income from his family might lead the killers to his father.

Returning to the mansion, we debated on how to approach the situation. I figured it was just simpler to ask for him back and explain what happened to me, even if it was a lie. Knocking on the door, I was surprised to see Kenith who invited us in. He wondered what had happened to me. I lied and told him I was comatose from a car accident and had been taken care of at home by distant relatives. He asked why I came to see him, but I told him I thought he knew why as I wanted my son back.

When Kenith responded that might be tricky, I was nervous. He had his father try to locate me and came across my son. Ryan had been taken by CPS and Kenith worked hard for a year and a half to adopt him. He is well cared for and has the best education. I wanted to be a part of his life again and Kenith agreed it would be a good idea. He offered to introduce me to him over dinner some time and I agreed considering I didn’t want to scare him.

I wondered about the house and Kenith told me that he had taken over the mansion after his father’s heart attack. I didn’t know if his father was still alive, but I could only assume no. As we did talked, William decided to help himself to some of Kenith’s alcohol, but we reprimanded him. Kenith asked if I still had his business card and personal number and I told him yes.

After this, I mindspeaked with Eli about being unsure of what to do in the situation as we couldn’t just take Ryan without causing legal issues. As we communicated, things became unusually static ridden, something that had never happened before. As we prepared to leave, Eli sternly asked if Ryan would be safer with him rather than his mother. He replied yes, and the thought was heartbreaking to me. Still, as we left, I gave him a hug and quietly whispered to him thank you for taking care of my son. Kenith broke off, headed to his bar, and grabbed some recent pictures of Ryan for me. I was happy to see how he had grown and was feeling much better at seeing him, even if only in a picture for the moment.

As we left, Bjorn told us he wasn’t human, but didn’t know exactly what he was. It was a cause for concern, but given the recent deaths of other kinfolk and my occasionally violent lifestyle, I had to come to terms with the fact that this ultimately might be better. At least until my father arrived and things settled down. Eli tried to listen in at a distance to determine if Kenith had anything to say to his butler, but heard nearby rustling and whispering by a bush.

Heading to the source of the sounds, we found Adela, the Fae we helped years ago. She didn’t recognize us at first, but with some coaxing, her memory returned. Eli had overheard her talking about getting the child. She admitted to it as she had a debt to repay us.

She wanted to take the child across the hedge at first, but she had looked into the child’s past and knew who his mother was so she decided to help get him back for us. She told us she couldn’t take the child across anyway as he had a powerful, fierce spirit, something that made me curious to hear. However, the last time she tried to get him, she nearly forgot who she was due to the house or something protecting it. She was obviously scared of Kenith’s place and it made me more curious as to what he actually was. Some of the pack suggested he might be the Mind Mage who helped me out and I considered the possibility.

As Adela appeared to be talking to someone else we could not see for a moment, we asked who she spoke to and she told us the hedge itself. She told us to go to a nearby bar and she would explain things more clearly. Heading to the bar, she told us to wait for her for a moment and offers us a drink in the meantime.

As we wait, we heard the familiar voice of Carl Kolchak. He had gotten out of prison and was still ranting about the clones. This time, however, he appeared to be more of a drunk than actual threat like before, but it was still thankful he didn’t recognize us.

Adela called us up and wanted to know where we had been for the last four years. William explained the situation in Galliard fashion while we noticed a bag hanging on the wall wiggling back and forth. Asking about it, she told us she acquired it some time ago as she opened the bag. Inside was a staff named Drona, backwards Gaelic for chaos. The staff stood upright for a moment before flying into Agnis’ hand. Adela was a bit perplexed, but happy considering this would repay her debt.

Afterwards, we talked about the hedge and Arcadia, where the Fae live by myself offering a secret about my crush on the Sept leader at Chicago. William offered up a secret about being afraid to have sex in order to learn about what happens when someone is taken over the hedge. The result was not pleasant. They are broken and destroyed spiritually until they become a Fae. It was obvious my son’s spirit wouldn’t be broken so she could not take him across the hedge.

Jonathon offered a secret about not wanting to fight for information about Mabe after Adela mentioned her. It turned out she was the Fae queen. She was ancient and very powerful, but bound to the Sept. How Crafty managed to do something like this was a worrisome to me. Still, for the next several hours she told us of her exploits, which seemed bizarre to us, but completely natural to her. I assumed this is what we might sound like to non-Garou.

After leaving Adela’s, we returned to the Sept and found a man waiting for us. It was Thomas Segundo, Miguel’s uncle. He was happy to see Miguel and had brought his mother here. We went to his boat to get her and he told us he had a job as a boat inspector. He would be gone for 36 hours each week from Tuesday to Thursday. His illegal activities were not missed upon someone even like myself. He also asked we call him the Tooth when in mixed company.

Afterwards, we returned to the Sept with Miguel’s mother who was kind, but worried about where to stay and how to make any sort of money. We figured she could stay at the lodge until more permanent arrangements could be made.

Q called on us to enter the Umbra just after this. Upon entering, he asked for a favor, the first time he had ever asked anything of us. We were to head to the edge of the bawn. There, a tortoise spirit was waiting with Q. He was the totem for the Sept of the Stone Sea. He was forcibly severed from his caern by a profane rite by Gaian Garou, something very disturbing to hear. Q wants us to look into it and determine who did it. We agreed and headed to their Sept immediately.

There, at the Wilder Ranch, we oddly found the Vulture pack piling bodies to be burned, obviously for the protection of the Veil. Upon seeing us, they immediately prepared for an attack, but we told them we weren’t here to fight. We explained that we had been asked to look into what happened here. They told us they eventually traveled to this Sept after they couldn’t find us to cleanse them. Here they were cleansed and given seven quests to complete of which they did four so far. Afterwards, they would be accepted by the Sept. However, with the Sept in ruins they felt they had been screwed again. I felt bad for them since they were actually trying to redeem themselves.

They asked that since they did not need to be cleansed, they wanted us to locate the last remaining Sept member, Spot, who would vouch for them so they could go to another Sept. We agreed to and Bjorn did the questing stone rite that led us into Santa Cruz. At the top of the clock tower, we found Spot and a metis named Sheeba. Spot believed the attack was due to their Sept taking in a Metis from two unknown members of the Sept of the Three Waters. We offered justice to her and not vengeance as neither of the Sept totems would have wanted something like that.

Still, with nowhere to go, we offered to take them to our Sept and possibly bring them in. An impromptu moot was called and we were all allowed to give our opinion. Everyone was willing to accept Spot and Sheeba into the Sept save for Mackie, which was expected given his views on mixed Septs. The Vulture Walkers were a different matter. A little over half wanted them to join and only William and Jonathon were opposed to them.

In the end, after everything was said, Sheeba and Spot would join the Sept and the Vulture Walkers would complete their last three quests and be brought before Lion to determine their worthiness. It had been a long journey, but I finally partially secured my son. I also felt better about how the Sept was growing. I now looked forward to a little downtime to work on my rituals to become Ritemaster for the pack as Bjorn had taken over Beta. I hope I can do this….

Life’s Not A Party and the Kinfolk Dilemma… (Game 24)

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After we did our moot, we decided to wait until Jonathon could burn off the excess spiritual energy like Bjorn did. It was a long two days, but Cliff finally came and told us he was awake on July 4^th. Jonathon sat up, but didn’t remember anything of our journey save for his brief time in 31 B.C. where the Drowned King first appeared.

After mentioning this, Jonathon looked for and talked to Tick, but obviously, we couldn’t see her. We spent the next couple hours explaining what had happened with the Sept since our disappearance. We then told him about the kinfolk we were getting ready to bring, something I was excited about.

After this, Eli decided after several near misses of trouble to define the rules for the pack. We were to follow orders obviously, we needed permission to speak when in from of others, but could use our link through Q in order to relay information to him. Any rewards like fetishes were to be awarded by him alone. I was appointed acting Beta in case something happened to him, a position I was willing to do all I could to make things run smoothly.

Eli then suggested Jonathon get to know the new Sept members. Jonathon talked about new knowledge from the ancestors, which wasn’t surprising since I now had new fetishes and gifts from our journey. As he spoke of this, Gina entered and suggested going to Kelly’s party like we did years ago. All of the other kinfolk besides Cliff were interested.

I didn’t feel like it was such a good idea. I was more worried about the Kinfolk. None of them had contacted us about how things were going and I could not get a hold of the kinfolk who were watching Ryan. As we were debating on going to the party, Gruffy entered the room and told Jonathon he was here to do his tribal artwork.

Jonathon was apprehensive at first, but decided on a Celtic cross with the symbols for spirit, umbra, and his Garou name on his chest. As Gruffy did the tattoo, he went over the rules for challenges so we could be clear on what would happen in the future. He obviously felt that some of us are going to challenge for the positions in the Sept. I considered it, but at the moment I had more pressing matters to take care of.

After details on challenges, we were briefed on punishments. Most punishments were to be handled at the pack level as they could grow much more severe if they escalated to Sept level punishments. Our actions reflected on the Sept as well as our pack and bad deeds could taint our reputation with other Septs. However, we were allowed to determine the equivalent punishment. The Philodox was supposed to administer it, but I could think of some devious punishments to suggest.

As Gruffy finished the tattoo, we finally agreed to go to the party. As we left the lodge, Q appeared to us and reminded of our ban and how things with the totem are reciprocal. It was more of a nudge like the lesson we learned early on with the kinfolk to treat them better. We had been quite demanding of Q lately so I resolved to be more polite and open with him.

Gina and Lindsey picked us up at 7 pm. She was still driving the SUV as before, but the car clearly wasn’t running well. The smell of burning oil was nauseating to say the least. Inside her car were other items that equally smelled foul to me. We had been in the distant, clean past for so long I wasn’t used to the smells of the world I was born in. As we headed to the party, Gina stopped by McDonalds and bought us hamburgers like before. The completely processed nature of it was repulsive compared to freshly killed meat or anything cooked normally. Still, I tried my best to choke it down and appear polite, but I could see the other packmates felt the same.

Arriving at the party like before, the smells were more tolerable. The smell of the ocean and cooked hot dogs was more inviting. We went up to the entrance where Larry Ward greeted us as before. He didn’t remember us, but I wasn’t surprised. He went over the rules again and we went down to the party.

As we made our way to the bar, we came across Jason Cripe. He was scruffy looking compared to before and smelled strongly of alcohol. He remembered us, but didn’t seem to notice me. I gathered he was too drunk to care. We didn’t say anything more and he left. Gina was glad we didn’t mention his volleyball days as three of his teammates were killed in a car accident. Afterwards, he quit the team and began to drink heavily. I felt bad for him.

We made our way to the bar and Gina suddenly had a guy put his arms around her. It was Brice. Bjorn obviously didn’t like this and the feeling was mutual with Brice as he seen Bjorn had returned. Gina tried to defuse the situation, but it didn’t look to be working as Bjorn might snap at any second. I wanted to do something, but I didn’t know what. Jonathon tried to spill a drink on him, but didn’t do it very convincingly. Eli finally offered to get Brice a drink, but he wasn’t having any of it and left.

After this transpired, John had his rear grabbed by Regina. She wanted to have sex with him again and John was more than willing to oblige her as they head to the beachhouse.

[John’s POV…]

John has sex with Regina as before, but finds himself struggling to contain his Rage. As he is having sex with her, he notices the ring on her finger. She mentions she is married and needed a man who would take care of her. It grates on John a little, as they stop having sex. She asks him if he cares and the conversation goes back and forth until he convinces her he does care. She takes control in the sex for the first time as they resume.

[Returning to the rest of the group…]

Gina and Bjorn left so he could calm down, which I completely understand.

As we get drinks and settle into the party, Tina Carter comes up and speaks with us. She tells us about how things have been and well she gets along with her “cousin.” Afterwards, Kelly Ward comes up to us and happily tells us she is going to New York soon to become a star. She is excited to see Jonathon telling him how she grew out of Captain Amazing, but still keeps all the toys and offers to show Jonathon them. She bends over to entice Jonathon and the subtlety isn’t lost on him. They head to her house and he bumps into a disheveled business man.

The man goes to Larry and says something and begins looking around the party. William tries to politely help the man find what he is searching for but he curses William out. William tries one more time, but is rebuffed again. Finally, Eli tells him to drop it in order to avoid a scene.

As we are trying to mingle at the party, Lindsey’s cell phone rings. Cliff tells her some of the kinfolk are arriving. Lindsey relays the information to Eli and says it’s time to go, which I’m relieved to hear. Jonathon is having sex along with John and they are forced to stop and return to us as the unknown man gives up his search and leaves.

Returning to the lodge, there was a phone call from Miguel’s uncle to call him back. Two phone calls have also come from the police. John’s family died in a car crash on the way to the Sept. Another call came from California about William’s mother. He calls his father finally who wants to know where he has been. William lies and says he went to Europe to live without his money for a time. His father tells him something has happened to his mother and to come home.

William began to plan to go to his father’s and determine what was up with his mother while Miguel got a hold of his uncle. The conversation was fairly lopsided as his uncle showed no interest in coming to the Sept. He did say that he would get a message to Miguel’s mother to call him.

We then went to the main area of the lodge to meet Bjorn’s kinfolk. His sister was Lizbeth, but preferred to be called Lizzie. His older brother was Magnus. He was a large man, but very gentle. I thought he looked pretty cute and was my age so I made a mental note to spend some time with him at the next moot.

After consulting with Eli, we all decided to go to William’s father and find out what was going on. The trip there only took a few hours. Arriving outside of his father’s estate, we stayed somewhat back from it while he conversed with his dad.

William’s father told him his mother committed suicide in her car a couple of nights ago. The revelation made absolutely no sense as he had just talked to her a few days ago and she was happy to hear from him. William’s father wanted him to stay for the funeral and work on family affairs so we agreed to do so. We stayed a short distance away and hunted as we could for the next three days.

The funeral went on and William was visibly upset by it, the first time I had ever seen that kind of emotion out of him. William had also found out that his real kinfolk father took the blame for William’s First Change and was in prison. During that time, he tried to escape and was found just outside the fence with what appeared to be animal wounds.

We returned to the Sept, more disturbed than ever. The odd coincidences were jarring and I began to fear for my son. Eli suggested we look for bugs, both physical and mystical, but we didn’t find any. With the other kinfolk taken care of or dead, only mine remained. At the suggestion of Jonathon, I made questing stones for both my father and my son. I could only hope we found them alive.

A Grand Moot… (Game 23)

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As we all slept the night of our return, Eli was plagued with nightmares. He could hear and see Bjorn and Jonathon yelling for help. The duo appeared to be struggling in water and didn’t know which way to go. Eli woke us all up; I had just drifted to sleep from my distraught emotions, and told us we needed to head to the beach where we fought the Drowned King.

Returning to the beach, we found Bjorn trying to resuscitate Jonathon, who was face down on the beach. Bjorn apparently seen us in Crinos form, his vision blended between the Umbral and the physical. Jonathon, on the other hand, was completely disconnected and unresponsive.

I quickly realized they had been in the Umbra too long. By ignoring the physical, they were becoming more spirit than flesh. However, once the additional spiritual energy wore off from the ancestors, they would return to normal. Jonathon, however, may take some time considering his innate love for the spirits and the Umbra.

We returned to the Sept and Eli filled Bjorn in on what had happened to us. We then went back to sleep. Once we awoke, Cliff had breakfast ready and Gina was ecstatic to find Bjorn alive. She took care of him as the spiritual energies wore off and his vision returned to normal. Jonathon remained the same however.

Eli suggested we keep Jonathon in the cabin until he returned to normal, which was a good idea, given his occasional lapses in personality. It would ultimately be better to have another Garou nearby in case he wandered off.

We returned to the Sept to see all of the work that had been done on the cabin now that it was daytime. A nearby den had been created for Rusty and Rivet who were happy to see us. Ariel arrived and gave them some scraps, showing how far along she had come with becoming comfortable with them. We had the day to pass until the moot so most of the pack went about normal Sept business. I personally dedicated some new clothes to myself and spent some time meditating in the hear t of the Sept in the hopes it would calm my emotions some.

As night fell, a howl rang out for the moot to begin. It was a very well done howl and it was obvious that it belonged to Red Tongue thanks to his Lupus heritage. We joined in on the howl in Lupus form and began the moot. With the Lion’s pelt out and ourselves near the stones, we called out to Lion as normal and Red Tongue and Scourge grabbed a deer for the sacrifice. Still, I noticed Red Tongue and Scourge eyeing us, which made me feel they were suspicious of us in some way. I kept this to myself.

After calling out to Lion, Scourge of the Woods held the bone and asked if anyone wanted the bone to speak. Crafty first took the bone, stating he was happy for our return. Mackie then took the bone and reinforced the need for unity or the Sept will fall. Gruffy then took the bone and mentioned that we were Fostern, but with no deed names. We would be named by our packmates.

Naturally, most of us didn’t have a deed name, nor could we think of one. Some of us had ideas already, but the majority were named by the pack. Eli was Lionheart under my suggestion. John became Strikes-with-Fury. William was named Wrong Moon due to his glaring Ragabash tendencies. I suggested Stag’s Daughter for Agnis since Stag had guided her to us. Miguel, in a move unseen, chose to reject his Press One name and chose Killer-of-Dogs. Bjorn remained Born Twice. Finally, I was last. It took some debate, but the pack decided on Earth Mother. It was somewhat unexpected for me, but I accepted it graciously.

Ryan then took the bone and we were awarded renown for our deeds. Afterwards, Eli took the bone and mentioned how we would have to start over to earn our positions, but we were willing to take any help and advice the new packs would offer. Bjorn then asked for the bone and said that he hoped we could work with each other.

With no more Sept business, the kinfolk brought out food, drinks, and alcohol. I had learned to resist toxins recently and I did not feel like getting drunk considering what I had been through. Still, I drank to not worry anyone in the Sept.

Tania One-Boon offered a toast to new beginnings and old friends. Afterwards, Mackie, as a Galliard is to do, told us about events after our “death.” He told us how the Irish Destroyers joined and fragmented into two packs and how this infuriated Stands-With-Claw. We were no longer given aid from the Sept of the Three Waters without first providing aid to them.

The Irish Destroyers, before fragmenting, had to push back the Sept of the Silver Fury, as they were getting more aggressive. They had grown in number and we had not until our return. The Irish Destroyers forced an ultimatum on them to leave the Sept alone provided it did not look weak or else war would be declared. Thankfully, they backed down.

Due to the Silver Fury Sept’s aggressive actions, the Sept had tried sending out kin-fetch spirits in the hopes of growing the Sept, but to no avail.

Ryan then mentioned Kyle’s death to Harano. It was a sad notion and one I felt somewhat responsible for since we were too consumed with business and fighting to pay attention to our Septmates.

On a positive note, Mabe had relaxed her stance on outside spirits and they can join the area, albeit with rigorous testing to be safe. Around this time, a Silent Strider passed through the area and asked to meditate for three days for three hours each. Three was apparently a good number for the Fianna, which Mackie explained, but I didn’t see the significance myself. At least not yet anyway.

Crafty mentioned then mentioned we needed to get our kinfolk here, which made my heart beat faster. He ideally wanted one kinfolk per Garou, but anyone than that would be excellent. Having more kinfolk will reduce the workload on the current kin. There was also some debate when we were gone about the Sept going multi-tribal. There will also be challenges coming for the positions we once held and they will be handled at moots.

Gruffy then speaks up. He is the Master of the Challenge. He says he is old school and adheres tightly to the creeds. He is just and impartial. He is covered in tattoos and knows the ritual to inscribe ink into our flesh. He offers to do one for us tonight as an act of generosity.

Leein then speaks up. She gets along with Mabe because the fae likes her hair. She is into spirits more than most. She is here for any spirit related matters we might need assistance with.

Scourge of the Woods and Red Tongue spoke up. Scourge was the holder of the bone and bawn protector. He tells us he is very dedicated to protecting the Sept and he’s good at it. Scourge speaks for Red Tongue as he hates the Homid form. He is a ferocious warrior, but will protect us with his life. He also likes to have fun on his downtime.

Lindsey then speaks up. She died four years ago, figuratively, when the pack died. She got wasted and passed out one night shortly after our deaths. There, she had a dream of a Garou named Smoke Paw who told her to be strong , that the pack was safe, and that they would return. After having the dream, she went clean, stopped smoking, and only drank for moots. She walked to the park and Cliff helped her get a job. She offered to repay him, but he refused. She went back to school and got a degree in nursing. She now works at the Dominican Hospital and is looking for a new home.

Gina then spoke up. She lost hope with our deaths. She had her 17^th birthday shortly after it and it was the worst birthday ever. She was already struggling and then found herself kicked out of her home due to the Sept of the Three Waters cutting off all aid. She moved in with Cliff, finished high school, and had him explain the Garou politics to her. She mentioned that Kenith came looking for me, and had been for years after our date. She told him the same thing she told everyone else who came looking for us: we had gone home. Still, Kenith’s law firm, no doubt in part because of him, offered Gina a scholarship to SCU for biology. I was happy at hearing this.

Cliff then talked. Things had been mostly the same, except finances. Lindsey helped when she could and he tried to get any of his family from Washington to come down. Sadly, they had all under gone the Change and could not help. He tried getting a hold of Foss’s wife, but she was still broke up over his death.

Ariel then told us about Jonathon’s death and how his body disappeared. This gave the Sept leaders hope we would return. Coincidentally, Ariel lost her precognition powers until two months before we returned. They started small at first, but then returned to their old strength as before. She doesn’t fret over it much now and works for a mental hospital. It seems fitting since before we intervened, she thought she herself was going crazy. She has now dedicated herself to learning more about the world of the Garou.

Rusty and Rivet then jumped in, licking and rubbing up on us, showing their affection for us. Afterwards, Mackie then stood up, wanting to hear of our adventure and how we came back.

Wrong Moon then recanted an epic tale of our deaths, the journey through time learning about our ancestors, and finally our return to the world where we defeated the Drowned King.

Crafty then took a moment to answer any questions we might have. Bjorn asked about the Hive, but Crafty told him it’s still there, wherever that might be. Eli wondered about the other Septs, but they too were mostly unchanged with Rage Heart still staying at the Sept of the Angry Earth.

Bjorn wanted to know what we could do for the Sept, which was find the kinfolk and Garou and attend to any Sept business needed at the moment. I wondered about who filled what positions. It devolved into a debate about us being favored, which felt a bit venomous coming from Tania, the current Den Mother. Eli suggested we just attend to Sept business, which I agreed on, and I only wanted to know who had filled what.

Mackie then asked what we learned from the experience of fighting the Drowned King. Eli mentioned Alexander’s failure in the Dark Ages. Bjorn added about how not he was looking for the right tribe, but also all of his ancestors were as well. William mentioned how to much pride can lead to a fall. John spoke of how unity was needed or the Nation would fall. Agnis took away the wisdom of her ancestors, both their failures and successes. Finally, I mentioned how close our lines were with the White Howlers themselves with both Miguel and Eli being descended from White Howler kinfolk, one of my ancestors in love with a White Howler who fell to the Wyrm, and even my great-grandfather who was the product of a Black Spiral Kinfolk and Fianna Garou.

After this, Crafty told us it was time to party for the rest of the night. While I had been drinking earlier as toasts went about, I had decided not to get drunk thanks to my new gift to resist toxins. I didn’t feel like getting drunk tonight.

Lindsey brought out food and special alcohol Mackie had brewed himself. Bjorn took a moment to ask if Red Tongue ever got drunk, but Mackie told him he didn’t.

Gruffy came out with the ink and a tapping needle for the ritual to inscribe ink in us. He offered to a tattoo for each of us. Eli chose a glyph name on his chest of all of the packmates including Rage Heart inside a lion’s mouth as it roared. John got a Fianna symbol on his heart across his chest. Agnis got the crescent moon and a Celtic knot while William got Kyle’s name across his back. I got a set of bongo drums on my right arm as I had an idea for a fetish later on.

As Gina picked up trash, Ariel brought out a portable speaker for some music. Ariel and the others danced River-dance style as Eli passed out his Unbroken Cord fetish gifted from the ancestors. I chose a simple bracelet for my portion. Cliff then grabbed me and we danced for a little while. It was fun. Agnis asked Ryan about the Celtic knot she had always carried and he told her it was a fetish and what it did. I then asked Leein about the Rite of Heritage and finding out if I have any other relatives besides my son.

Afterwards, as drinking began to get heavy, John and I decided to go to sleep that night and not party. We were made fun of, but I didn’t care. I just really wasn’t in a partying mood this night.

The next morning, most of the Sept woke up with little or no clothes and severely dehydrated. Mackie found a sausage and thought it was a penis. We all laughed a little. Cliff told him it was for our breakfast. Bjorn went with the kinfolk to make breakfast for us while we talked about the night before and all the crazy antics that the Sept had.

Eli asked again about Sept business. Once again, it was to gather as many kinfolk and Garou as we could. We decided after breakfast to get this done immediately. I asked Leein to do the Rite of Heritage on me so I could determine if I had any more relatives alive. I managed to learn about all my relatives back to Killian. As it turned out, my biological father, a man named John Rosie was alive and in Chicago, my hometown. I was thrilled and a little scared to meet him hopefully soon. Sadly though, my mother Melina Greyweather was dead. John and the others all called out to their relatives to have them come to the Sept.

William, surprisingly, was not wanted for murder as his parent’s chauffeur took the blame for the murder he committed during his First Change. Still, he would not be able to bring him, but maybe he could get his mother to come.

After taking care of the Kinfolk arrangements save mine until I could figure out a way to get my father and son here, we headed back to the cabin. There, Miguel found a bottle with glyphs on the side of it and a rolled up piece of paper in it. Without thinking about it, he opened the bottle to which Leein seen as she walked in. She was surprised and told us it was a spirit cryptex, a talen of sorts.

The wording on the paper is nonsense to us until Miguel was donated some spiritual energy. The paper told of a powerful fetish from the Flux realm. The paper told that a legendary quest must be done to solve the first part of three quests in order to learn the location of this object. After the first quest is completed, you place the paper back in the bottle to find the next quest. However, if you fail the quest or don’t do it and place the paper back in the bottle, the spirit is released and the object will be lost.

Wanting to know more about it, we entered the Umbra to speak with Mabe to find out who left it for us. Upon finding her, we found she had changed considerably. She was much more human looking and could speak in two word sentences instead of riddles. She gave the bottle to us in exchange for helping Adela return to her true self.

Mabe told us she found the bottle at the north end of the bawn. I investigated it, but found nothing of interest there. Mabe wants us to solve the puzzle and we tell her we’ll try after we take care of our affairs. She’s happy to hear it and we left the Umbra.

With the others kinfolk set to arrive and the hope of my son and father coming to the Sept, I had newfound hope for the future. I anxiously awaited the arrival of new Sept members as we got to work on other Sept business…

The Return… (Game 22)

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As we left the vision of the Bear Claw pack, I could only ponder the lessons that I had learned from their mistakes. These lessons were unfortunately cast aside for the moment as we returned to the fight. The Drowned King was bucking harder now, thrashing about. We continued our unending fight against him as he bucked hard, casting us off him as before.

As the darkness of the Umbral tunnel became light, we found ourselves in a barren landscape. I quickly surveyed the area and then myself. I found myself a man, an eye-opening experience for sure as another pack stood around us. They looked on in confusion for a moment as I glanced at a sign that said Trinket and then down at a map.

The map had the name Stryker on it and markings for a nearby Sept. One of the men in the other pack looked at us and asked Eli what our answer was. Not sure of what was going on, but not wanting to alienate them, he agreed to whatever they wanted. After agreeing, the Garou named Stryker, asked for our keys to a pair of nearby trucks.

Before going any farther into this, Eli told them of our spiritual journey and how we arrived. He wanted to know what it was we were agreeing to. Stryker then took this opportunity to introduce our his pack as we reached into our spiritual reserves to learn anything we could about our host bodies. I learned my host was a Ragabash who had a son recently in Milwaukee and was himself the child of a Black Spiral Dancer kinfolk and a Fianna Garou. I kept this last piece of information to myself as I did not want to cause any issues.

We had been in negotiations with the Eagle’s Nest pack to borrow our trucks to save the Sept of the Red Snake where Bunyip are about to be slaughtered by Red Talons and other European Garou. Sensing this is something important in history and worth doing, we all agree to it. To our shock afterwards, it turns out our ancestors did not want to help.

I file into one of the trucks to drive while the Eagle’s Nest pack gets into the other one. We began driving towards the Sept. As we did, a pair of trucks merged behind us. The passengers were hooting and hollering and we could only assume they were heading to the Sept to kill the Bunyip. I suggested trying to take them off the road peacefully, but Eli told me to just drive faster which I did.

Thanks to our lighter truck compared to their Army surplus style truck, we were able to create a large gap between us. I then slowed down to a safer speed as the truck had become hard to control. It certainly wasn’t like my foster parents Toyota.

We finally arrived at the Sept with some time before the other trucks arrived, but all was in vain. The Red Talons had destroyed the entire Sept and were eating the bodies. Some were even tearing apart children and it infuriated me. Still, I maintained my calm as we decided there was nothing to do and the vast numbers of them made fighting with our two packs suicide.

As we began to leave, Agnis spotted two Bunyip hiding in the brush nearby, too afraid to move. We thought about grabbing them right then and there, but the Garou would likely spot us. So we chose to leave and flag down the Eagle’s Nest pack. Taking a moment to strategize, Lei Sheng of Stryker’s pack quietly suggested a suicide attack on the Red Talons and European Garou in order to buy us a distraction to grab the Garou.

Deciding it was the best course of action and all of us agreeing to it, we returned to the Sept. The Eagle’s Nest attempted to ram the Garou there, but they shifted to Crinos and a short battle ensued. As the Eagle’s Nest sacrificed themselves, we pulled up near the two Bunyip, a young girl and an old man, and motioned for them to get in.

The two Bunyip got in and I took a brief moment to heal the little girl who had been hurt. This was all that was needed for the Garou to spot us. Still, we had the lead and a much faster truck than they could catch. We managed to get away from them and I introduced myself to the little girl and she in returned said her name was Jiya. The old man was named Warri Oldsong. She seemed unusually happy considering the circumstances, but Warri said nothing, just staring blankly ahead.

We decided to return to the town of Trinket in order to get some gas and determine where we could go that would be safe for the Bunyip. Thankfully, Eli’s ancestor spoke their language and it made communicating with them a smoother affair.

At Trinket, we stopped at a gas station and found a $10 bill in the glove box with a letter. The letter mentioned pillaging the Septs of the Bunyip by someone named Augustus. He was obviously a friend of our host bodies and it drove home the extent of our ancestor’s callousness to the Bunyip. We then filled up the gas tank while William negotiated a cheaper price on some gas cans in order to have enough to take us wherever we decided.

As we prepared to leave, a large man wielding a klaive and Get of Fenris symbols on his chest asked what we are doing with the Bunyip. After some caution as to whether this could end in a fight, we answered that we were saving them. He then, unexpectedly, motioned for us to follow him. We ducked into a nearby building and he told us he could get them back to the Outback safely. We weren’t sure if it was a good idea, but there were no other safe options so we agreed to it. We offered some money and objects to help him, but he just motioned us away and told us we had done our part.

With that, I felt myself being pulled out of the host body and back into the tunnel. This time the Drowned King’s thrashing became exceptionally violent. I found myself staring up at the light and then water on my face. I realize that I’m back in my body, but it’s different. I feel taller, stronger, but I can’t see myself.

As the Drowned King surfaces, we found ourselves back at the original site of our first battle. A man with a staff could be seen running away in the distance and I wondered if it might have been Mihason or the mind mage from my Chimare. We are still tethered to the Drowned King and I found myself holding a klaive that I had no idea how I came across.

As the tethers begin to break we can see our ancestors around us from the journey. They dissolve into mist and I could feel my body grow much stronger. I sink Faith into his side as my tether breaks, shoving with the full force of my Crinos form. The dagger bites deep into him and his side explodes doing more damage than I have ever seen it do. John leaps onto the Drowned King’s shoulder and tears his arm off as William climbs the beard of the Wyrm beast. Eli tears his throat out and his eyes roll back into his head. Miguel uses the blown apart opening from my attack and hits heart, causing the Drowned King to explode into rotten, dead fishes.

We had finally done it. We returned to shore and surveyed ourselves for a moment. Our strength from the battle waned, but we were visibly different. We had aged at least five years or more. Our clothes were ruined from rot, but likely wouldn’t have fit anyway given our change from age. We took one last look at the shoreline with its vile, black water from the Drowned King’s blood and called for Quetzal.

Quetzal was shocked and ecstatic to see us once more. He could not find us when we left. Eli asks for a moon bridge to which he complies. We walked the bridge, soaking wet, hoping to still our Sept intact.

Returning to the Sept, Crafty was the first to greet us. He was naturally in shock and wondered how we came back to life. William took a moment to tell the story of our return and the defeat of the Drowned King. We asked about what had been going on. It had been five years since our deaths. The Sept gave up finding us after the first year when the Rite of the Questing Stone yielded no results.

When asked about Kyle, he pointed to the rocks where Noah’s body rested and my heart sank. I wanted to cry. We had been so consumed with everything going on around us that we couldn’t pay enough attention to Kyle. Crafty said after our death he had succumb to Harano and starved himself to death. He warned us not to speak with Ryan about it as he was still very upset by it.

All was not terrible however, as the Irish Destroyers had joined the Sept. I knew this would create more friction between the Sept of the Three Water and ourselves, but it was a welcome addition to keep the Sept safe. Crafty told us we should call a moot and discuss what has happened. Eli, Miguel and myself, however, went to see the kinfolk while the others prepared for the moot.

We were able to see how they had aged just like us into young adults. Lindsey was ecstatic to Eli and the others were grateful to see us as well. However, Bjorn and Jonathon had not made it back through the Umbral tunnel yet. I could only hope they returned as Gina was beside herself with tears at Bjorn missing. Eli tried to comfort her, but it was to no avail.

I sat the rest of the night staring at the klaive and my bible that had thankfully not been destroyed or lost. While we had returned from the dead, I still felt a horrible pain of sadness in my heart. We had lost a wonderful Septmate. Our positions were no longer secure and we would have to fight again to earn our place. It was as though we had just started again. More so however, I had lost five years of my son’s life. I wondered if he even knew who I was or remembered me. I didn’t even know if I had the heart to take him from the Tylers who would now obviously love him as their own.

I started to cry as I felt the scarring on my back and the tattoo, which I had found earlier when I looked at myself in the mirror. I wasn’t sure what to do now looking down at the klaive. I felt one of my tears drop down on the blade as I thought of a name for it. I decided to call it “Wyrmcrusher” for Kyle. I laid down and kept trying to think to myself “better things are in store for me.”

Werewolf: The Return

The Sleeping Lion has awoken…

Vampire Hunting and New Revelations… (Game 31)

More Skin Dancers, Becoming Adren, and Building a Klaive… (Game 30)

Downtime, New Kinfolk, Possession, and the Apocalypse… (Game 29)

Finding Our Enemy and Distressing Revelations… (Game 28)

A Skin Dancer’s Proposal and a Legendary Mission… (Game 27)

Some Downtime, Fae Interactions, and the Final Test of the Vulture Walkers…(Game 26)

My Son, the Fae, and New Sept Members…(Game 25)

Life’s Not A Party and the Kinfolk Dilemma… (Game 24)

A Grand Moot… (Game 23)

The Return… (Game 22)