Tag Archives: Ryan Whelan

All Hell Breaks Loose… (Game 44)

We spent our first night in Egypt, Eli and William looked for a hotel to stay for the night. In the meantime, the rest of us went looking for the Silent Strider Sept nearby. After looking for a few hours, we realized that we were being followed. We tried to play it cool and get a glance at the person following us. Bjorn managed to get a look at them and they were all dressed in black, but he couldn’t get much more from it.

We tried to duck into an alley and see if the person following us would pass by. It was a woman and we managed to get behind her and start following it. Bjorn could tell that she was a Garou. She managed to duck into a nearby shop and we followed. Looking around, John was approached by the woman. She knew that we were Garou as well. She told us to head to their Sept or leave. Bjorn used his gift to decipher languages and spoke to her in Egyptian, telling her that we are looking for the Silent Striders.

Bjorn went on to tell her that we were attempting to kill the Bane Mummy known as Tutu. We need any help that they can provide us. She didn’t know what a Bane Mummy was so we explained it to her. She has a packmate that can teach us the Rite Descent into the Underworld so we could get to Tutu after he reforms. She will have to speak with her people to determine whether they will help us. She introduced herself as Miha Moon Shadow of the Long Strides pack of the Mahat Sept. It is a Sept based on honor, law, and justice.

She was willing to take us there, but she would have to clear it with her Sept leader first. She asked us to come with her because it was not safe. There were leeches in the city. Bjorn had me go outside and contact Eli and William through Q to come to the Sept. We followed her and headed out of town.

Here we arrived at their Sept. It was something like a bazaar with various shops in the bawn. We were to head to booth number 12. A kinfolk was running the booth and we told him that we were there to see the leader of the Sept. He requested that we place all Weaver items in a storage box in order to keep the caern pure. The only item we had was my cell phone and readily handed it over. He gave us some fruit as hospitality and we waited for Moon Shadow to return.

She returned to the booth shortly with Somar Foot on Path. He took us to a private area where we could speak more openly. He is the Pharaoh or leader of the Sept of Mahat. He wanted to know what we needed. Eli explained the situation to him. Somar told us that they don’t deal with mummies. Although they were the dominant Sept in the area, they could not spare any manpower. However, he did say that he could offer training if need be. I gave him my healing talen in exchange for training the Rite we would need. Agnis also gave a talen for training.

In the meantime, the rest of the pack would try to learn as much information about the area, the Garou here, and any history that they could in order to prepare for the confrontation with Tutu. It was going to take several weeks for Agnis and me to learn the Rite so the pack learned everything they could. They learned that the mummies required a test in order to return and that we would have to perform such tests in order to get close enough to stop Tutu.

Once we entered the Underworld, we would see ghosts. I was terrified at the notion of running into my foster parents after I killed them during my First Change. When you go deeper, there is great death and decay here. There are dead cities there and beyond that you run into the pillars of time. The dead cannot pass, but we could because we were still alive. This is where Tutu undertakes his tests in order to return to life.

The Sept had attempted to do rites to determine where the mummies undergo there tests, but all have failed. There are usually three tests, but there can be as many as seven. When he arrives, we can cancel his tests. We might even have to do battle with his spirit.

After the grueling training for three weeks, Agnis and I were ready for our descent. Eli spoke with Somar and he agreed to set up a moon bridge for us if we ever wanted to return. We left the Sept and I went to get my phone. There were eight messages left for me.

Message one was from Lindsey. I could tell she was upset and she told me in the message to not mention it to Eli as he would want to return to the Sept to fix things. She wouldn’t even tell me what had been happening. She just wanted us to know that the Sept was working on it and she loved Eli.

The second message was from Gina’s phone. It was Crafty. He told us not to worry and that things were being taken care of. He told us that he had two packs working on it and the kids would be returned shortly. I shuddered as I heard it.

The third message was from Fatmoa. He had friends at his place and they were working on something now. He wasn’t sure that it would help but they were still going to try.

The fourth message was from Cliff. He just wanted to keep in touch with us. The kids were somewhere out by Illinois and the Irish Destroyers were going after them. I felt myself begin to shake.

The fifth message came from Lindsey. She needed Logan to call her immediately.

The sixth message came from Gina’s phone again. It was Crafty. All of the kinfolk are at the Sept. They were in trouble. He needed us back as soon as possible.

The seventh and eighth messages were panicked and wanted to know where we were.

Realizing things were going bad, I had Eli call Crafty to figure out what had happened. Eli’s conversation was not pleasant to say the least. My father was attacked. He was stapled to the floor, raped repeatedly, and left to die of dehydration.

Lindsey was also raped, but not killed. Lily had been taken by her attackers and Crafty was not sure exactly where she was.

Whoever attacked him, kidnapped my son and dropped him off near the Sept of the Silver Fury. Black Spiral Dancers then chased the child onto their bawn. The Sept took him in and didn’t know about the avatar. It activated, destroying the caern, and killing my son. The survivors of the Sept went to the Sept of the Three Waters and are still trying to figure it out.

Because of this, the Sept of the Three Waters wants to merge with us. They would effectively take over our Sept and run both. Crafty once again stonewalled them. Prestige said that the Sept of the Silver Fury could be revived, but it would take a massive effort.

Eli then hung up with Crafty and called his father. He told him to find Lily and kill everything that crosses his path. We then headed to Fatmoa as I nervously worried about what was happening in the Sept. Fatmoa gave us some herbs that when burnt, would lead us right to where Tutu reforms. However, it will only work once. Eli sadly told him that something is really wrong at our home and we would have to postpone the mission, but we would contact him when the time is right.

Eli then took us to the desert and had Bjorn give me the terrible truth. I fell to my knees. I knew in my heart already what had happened without even being told but I wanted to deny it. I sobbed hard, feeling my world give way. Sadly, Miguel was obligated to uphold the ban of his baneskin and mocked me repeatedly until Bjorn was forced to get him away from me. Bjorn comforted me, but it was only temporary. I felt I would never be the same.

We returned that night demoralized. Everything we had worked for in the last month had been for nothing. Eli informed Crafty about Prescott and how it was very likely it was him along with possibility of Jonathon if he fell to the Wyrm. Stands-with-Claw and Prestige still want a merger with our Sept becoming a patrol point for the Three Waters, but Crafty was against it.

Daniel went with the Hand of Fionn to New York on a solid lead. He went three days ago and they were expecting him any moment. Eli went to speak with Lindsey alone. He took back to the cabin and he could see that she was emotionally flat, in a state of shock.

She described the attackers to Eli. It was clearly the Birthday Massacre pack, along with two others that she could not make out. Eli guessed silently that it was likely Prescott and Jonathon. When asked why she wasn’t dead, Lindsey told Eli that Massacre came to her. She gave her some blood and it healed her. However, Lindsey told Eli that if she did anything to her that she would never to speak to him again.

Eli then told Bjorn to speak with Gina. In the meantime, I walked the bawn with Agnis trying to deal with all of my emotions. Gina took Bjorn to my father’s place. She worked to cover things up for the sake of the Garou Nation. However, Gina did not know how they got in. Bjorn left Gina for a second and headed into the Umbra. He found spirit tracks and guessed that they had to have used a scryer bane.

At that point my phone rang. It was Cliff. Apparently, Maria spoke with Cliff that Tomas had escaped rehab. He was getting ready to be questioned by the DEA when he ran. I spoke to Bjorn through Q to get Maria. Bjorn and Gina headed off to the restaurant where Maria worked to find her in mid-conversation with a DEA agent named Hank Schrader. He was interrogating her and she was giving him a lot of leading information before Bjorn cut him off. Bjorn never gave him his name and took Maria from there.

Bjorn then informed Eli of the situation. He told Bjorn to move Maria and have Cliff deny everything to help keep things covered up.

A few hours passed and I still could not get my emotions situated. I wanted to see my son and father’s body.

Suddenly, we got word that there was a commotion going on in the center of Santa Cruz. There was someone in the bell tower where we found Spot and Sheeba shouting to everyone. Heading downtown, we could see that it was Tomas.

Agnis attempted to take care of the situation and talk with Tomas. She headed into the Umbra and headed up the clock tower. The pattern spiders were swarming there so she took extra precaution to not disturb them. At the top of the clock tower, she reentered the material world and spoke with Tomas.

Agnis could tell that Tomas was still high on drugs. He told her about how he was once married with a wife and child on the way. After she was hit by a car, things just went south from there. He knew that he had screwed up badly. He asked Agnis how he should kill himself, but she just left the choice up to him. As Tomas went to jump from the tower, everything went dark. Once power resumed, Tomas was nowhere to be found. Agnis managed to go through the Umbra and return to us. We made a Questing Stone for him and it pointed towards the harbor.

Making our way there, we found Tomas speaking with someone. They told him that if he ever returned they would kill him. They gave him some money and clothes in a duffel bag and sent him away on a boat. Bjorn was able to determine that it was a vampire.

We followed him for a while before I got impatient and called out to him. I wanted to know what he was doing with Tomas. He told us that he owed a favor to Massacre. He was going to see Massacre tomorrow at 10 pm. Eli arranged a meeting for us at a local McDonald’s.

The next night, we headed to the McDonald’s at spoke with Massacre. She unfortunately didn’t see anything during this time, but she tries to check in on our kinfolk whenever she can. She told the other vampire we met named Benny that they were off limits for drinking. She also hadn’t seen Jonathon lately. We exchanged phone numbers and parted ways on good terms, Eli satisfied that Massacre was looking out for our best interests.

I considered going into the Underworld to speak with my father as believed he would be there, but decided not to. Eli asked Q if he still felt any connection to Jonathon and Q told him no. We debated on tracking the Birthday Massacre pack. I made a Questing Stone for Slavis and Agnis made one for Lily. Both of them pointed east.

Eli asked Crafty what we should do and he told us that he would accept whatever decision we wanted to do. Eli did suggest a position in the Sept for keeping track on kinfolk, an idea that was well-received. Ultimately, we decided to go after them.

I don’t know what to do now. I’ve felt empty and sad for these last few days. I don’t know if I can go on much longer.

Helping Ryan Whelan and Learning about Mummies… (Game 43)

We finally got some time to rest as we had returned to the Sept from our mission. We contemplated what to do next. Eli reaffirmed his leadership, saying that what happened to Jonathon was his own doing and the event with the banes was a direct result of not listening to Bjorn. Any disobedience would be punished severely.

Mackie then came into the cabin and spoke with us. He was glad to see us and congratulated us on our success. He made our promotion to Artho official. We were now one step closer to being ready for our mission to Malfeas.

Alexander Mac Fionn

After taking the night to rest, we started the next day immediately training hard. After Agnis and I’s morning exercise routine, we gathered together and began working on learning gifts. I summoned Alexander Mac Fionn so Bjorn could learn Speech of All Things. He would have to call upon an ancestor once a week for a month and speak in their native tongue.

I asked Alexander to teach me Banish Totem, so I might better be able to disrupt the enemy packs. He told me that in order to learn such a gift, I would have to learn what it is like to be removed from my pack totem. I would not be able to access Q’s benefits for a week.

Pain Incarna

After this, Agnis summoned a pain spirit. Agnis wanted to learn Spirit Ward. She would be required to utilize the power for one week until she could do it without even thinking. I asked to learn exorcism in order to combat banes and possibly help people possessed by them. I would have to inflict pain on myself every time I used the gift in order to understand the pain that spirits felt from it.

Eli asked to learn Balor’s Gaze. The Pain spirit required that Eli rip out one of his eyes and crush it in his hand. When it regrows, it will be the eye that empowers the gift.

Spider Spirit

Next, I summoned a Spider spirit. Agnis wanted to learn Battle Mandala. The Spider spirit requested that she never purposely kill a spider.

I asked to be taught Umbral Tether. The Spider spirit requested that every time I enter the Umbra for the next month, I must use the gift and create my “web”.

Eli asked to learn Wraith of Gaia from the Spider. He would have to raise his hands in an offensive position like a spider might when attacked every time he used the gift.

After we learned our gifts, we noticed that the trees were bending in the wind. We knew that the spirits requested our presence. We went into the Umbra and I cast my line as demanded by Spider. We headed in the direction that the trees were bending and met Scratch near the edge of the bawn.

wind spirit messenger

Scratch told us that a spirit requested our presence. A spirit of Wind appeared. Its presence so revered that even Q bowed before it. The spirit projected a message into our heads via Spirit Speech. It showed a piece of paper blowing in the breeze. On the paper was an address for a McDonald’s on Canterbury Street in Santa Cruz. A name said Stephen Thompson of the Golden City Cabal.

We knew it was the Mages trying to contact us. We thanked her for the message and Bjorn gave her some spiritual energy before it disappeared. We thanked Scratch for bringing this to our attention and ran to the restaurant in Lupus form.

There, at the restaurant, we met Stephen Thompson and his associate, Susan Strange. Stephen got right down to business upon meeting us. He was willing to attempt to remove the Avatar from my son in exchange for us taking care of something that had been troubling their Cabal. He wanted us to take care of Tutu, the Bane Mummy. Eli was quick to note that the deal was heavily weighted in their favor. If we manage to kill Tutu, they win. If we fail, they lose nothing. If they can’t pull the Avatar out, they can activate it, earning them another Mage.

Stephen, however, countered that we had nothing to bargain with. I wanted to know if he had to become a Mage, when I could see him. Stephen said it would likely be when he came of age, so about five years or so until he could control his powers.

Eli asked for another assurance about the child’s safety, but the girl, Susan, chimed in that they didn’t need us and they were wasting their time. Stephen quickly told her to be quiet and Eli told her to be quiet as well. Stephen said there was no assurance.

Eli spoke to Bjorn through Q and asked what he thought. Bjorn told Eli it was likely a good idea since we would be eliminating something Wyrm related anyway. Eli then came out and asked me directly, since I was cut off from Q for the time being, what my feelings were on it. I felt heartbreak inside for the situation, but I told Eli that if the worst case scenario was waiting five years to see my son, I would do it.

Eli agreed to their terms and asked for more information on Tutu. Stephen told us he was known as the “doubly evil one”. He wasn’t a physical threat like we were, but he never dies. He can be killed, but he always returns to life in time. He was a tomb raider in life. He was ruthless and didn’t care what he violated. He was captured at some point and transformed into a Bane Mummy. He is half flesh and half spirit, much like we are.

The Cabal had once tried to talk to him and reason with him, but it didn’t work. Once he set his mind to a certain thing, he never stops. Apparently, the Golden City Cabal had poisoned him 70 years ago and he has been coming back ever since. He had already been killed fourteen times this year.

Tutu has a base of operations in a place called the Hot Tub Movie Club. They didn’t know if he had any real powers, but he was into alchemy. Their main problem with him is he always manages to thwart their plans. He’s managed to kill over fifty Mages in 27 years. They were going to banish him permanently, but they needed the power of our nodes to do it. Finally, there were rumors that he had the power to kill you by saying your true name.

With all the information they had on him given to us, they gave a phone number where we could contact them once we had completed our task. Before they left, however, I asked Stephen what Kenith’s feelings were on what had transpired. Truthfully, no one had asked him about it yet. However, he reiterated that what Robert did was for the good of the Cabal. Something I internally disagreed with.

After they left, we mulled over the situation. It was possible we could fail at this and then have to deal with a Bane Mummy that never dies or leaves the Sept alone. Either way, the situation is a win-win for them. I also suggested that they could simply lie about helping Ryan and turn him into a bomb for some other unknowing Sept. Agnis suggested binding him somewhere or maybe placing him inside a fetish or even cleanse him.

Heading back to the Sept, we entered the Umbra where I anchored my line in spite of now actually going anywhere, and slept in the Sept to contact our ancestors. I reached out to Jamie Andraste, one of my oldest ancestors to learn about the Mummies. She entered me and gave me the knowledge that the Bane Mummies were to the Mummies like the Black Spiral Dancers are to us. They are not banes in the way that we think of them. We can separate the spirit from the body, but they cannot be bound. It was true that if they knew your name they could control you or even kill you. Finally, Jamie told me that she had met a Mummy by the name of Fatmoa Belalle in her travels.

With what little knowledge we could get out of that, we were once again in discussion about what to do. Bjorn suggested draw and quartering Tutu and keeping the parts away from each other so he can’t reform. Ultimately, we decided it was a better idea to speak with Fatmoa and find out if there was a way to permanently defeat Tutu.

Bjorn made a questing stone and it pointed west. We made a pop culture guess that Fatmoa would be in Egypt. Bjorn used triangulation to determine that it was likely in Egypt. However, getting there would be difficult. I could not access Q’s benefits and moon bridge for the time being so we would have to use more mundane methods. We decided to have Miguel make us forged passports and travel by airplane. William would pay for the tickets.

It would take eight days for Miguel to finish them. In the meantime, I worked with Ryan to learn a couple minor Rites to continue to boost my prowess. During this time, William finalized his deal with Stu and his father’s company. He would keep the two houses and two of his father’s cars. The rest would be liquidated. With over 500 million dollars in funds, William signed the papers.

CITY_OF_SUEZ,_EGYPT

We took the long plane trip to Egypt shortly thereafter. It was a very long flight and I hadn’t been on a plane in a few years. It made me feel nervous and all of the pre-flight screening didn’t fare well with my Rage. Still, we all managed to get there.

With Bjorn’s questing stone, we traveled in Egypt to the city of Suez. There, we managed to locate the Mummy that Jamie had mentioned. I used Speech of the World to speak his language while Bjorn used his new gift in order to communicate with him. We asked to speak with him and he clearly didn’t have a clue who we were until we mentioned Tutu.

Taking us to a nearby house, he asked if we were from the Council of Horus. We explained who and what we were and what we were attempting to accomplish. He seemed disenchanted by the answer. We asked if there was any way to kill Tutu. Fatmoa told us that we would have to have had the Spell of Life cast on us to have a chance. Considering it was how Mummies were created, according to him, it was unlikely we could kill him.

Tutu belonged to a dynasty of unholy mockeries made with a corrupted version of the original Spell of Life. They were also known as Apepnu and followed a creed that sounded very close to Nihilism. Thousands of years ago, an immensely powerful vampire named Set attempted to use the Spell of Life, but it was corrupted leading to the creation of Bane Mummies. The Bane Mummies serve only two masters: Set and Apophis. Apophis was described as the corrupter and the Serpent. This sounded disturbingly like the Defiler Wyrm to me.

Tutu can be fought and killed, but it must be in the Underworld. We would have to kill him in the material world and locate his reform point in the Underworld. There, we could possibly fight him and permanently kill him. However, he can detach his head and act as a sort of cobra. We would effectively be fighting two Bane Mummies.

When Tutu attempts to reform, he must pass several spiritual quests. This is why there appeared to be a roughly two week gap in between his reappearances. Mummies can disrupt the test, but we can’t. However, Agnis suggested the idea of calling on our ancestors as they are pure spirit and might be able to slow him down enough that we could destroy him. Fatmoa was still not convinced, but was more than willing to give it a shot. He gave a contact phone number. I would once again have to take up the empty spot left by Jonathon and learn the Rite to allow us passage into the Underworld…

Being Lead Off Course and a Sad Revelation… (Game 39)

After returning to the Sept, we immediately contacted Daniel and arranged to meet at Wrong Moon’s mansion. We made our way to the mansion where Daniel had sat down and poured us some whiskey to drink.

Daniel told us about his venture into Malfeas. He had went to rescue a friend there and found out about the kidnapping of several kinfolk and cubs. He took a makeshift pack into the realm and tried to stop the plot. He failed and lost everyone in the process, escaping just barely. He said there was somewhere in the realm waiting for him and didn’t want to return. The trip would change us.

Malfeas is a strange realm. We would need the Baneskins to make it past the banes since they don’t operate the same way as regular people. The other residents of the realm won’t attack us unless we attack them first. The realm has a strange sense of solidarity. You can, however, defend yourself in the realm without fearing reprisal. However, an attack on a resident marks you with a beacon that all of the creatures in the realm can see.

Daniel couldn’t tell us too much more. He knew that everyone who left Malfeas had to be cleansed. If you couldn’t be cleansed then it was already too late for you and you were falling to the Wyrm. Gaian Rites don’t work in the realm and death is very real there. The landscape is fairly static there. Don’t take any totems into the realm. He also didn’t know a way to get out and you would have to find your own way out. When asked about how he got out, he said his way was his own. I knew how he did it, but I said nothing.

Daniel had sent for someone who studied the realm. He would be able to help us more. He asked to be left alone and to not speak of the realm to him again. I felt bad. I had seen what he had went through, but I didn’t have the courage to tell him what I knew.

We left and returned to the cabin. Mackie was there. He told us that Short Paw would be joining the Sept. She will become a part of the Ghost of the Fionn pack. Mackie doesn’t like her, but of course, he didn’t like anyone that wasn’t a Fianna. She will be here on a trial basis for the time being.

After this conversation, Crafty knocked on the door. He brought with him a guest, a Wendigo Ahroun named Saqui. He wanted to pay his respects after hearing about Rage Heart’s sacrifice. We introduce ourselves and tell him that he can stay as long as he likes. Eli spoke of how valiant Rage Heart’s sacrifice allowed us to have the means to continue our mission to save Lion’s brood. We then took him to Rage Heart’s gravesite where he sat down and began to mourn for his friend. He said he would mourn for three days and we left him be.

As we returned back to the cabin, Gruffy intercepted us. He asked Bjorn several questions about his various tasks as a Philodox and whether he was ready to achieve the next rank. He told Bjorn when he was ready to do his challenge to find him.

We returned to the cabin and waited for several hours. As it began to get dark, the Vulture Walkers approached us and told us we had a visitor. It was Daniel’s friend, Silent Hunter. He was Bone Gnawer Theurge. He asked us to go somewhere safe. We offered to talk at the fire pit. He wanted to relax before we got to speaking. We offered him some booze before our discussion.

Silent Hunter told us soon after relaxing about the various totems that had fallen. He started with the totems of War. Carrion Bird was the first, a corrupted totem that occasionally rode the fence and took in Gaian packs. Green Dragon was the other War totem and easily the strongest of the bunch, often taken as a Black Spiral Dancer totem.

He then moved onto the only Wisdom totem, Caern Rattler. It had disappeared and was not able to be summoned. The last two were totems of Cunning. Galea was the first. She was the Mother of all Banes, often worshipped as a demon goddess. Silent Hunter didn’t believe she could be saved. Finally, Kelpie was the last totem. It was a weakened Incarna that had no use. There were still Gafflings running around, but that was about it.

Moving on, he told us that you only have twelve weeks in Malfeas tops. After that, the corruption is too great and you’re lost to the Wyrm. He went in once and will never go back again. He told us that he doesn’t want us to call him friend because he can’t stand the thought of us dying in the realm. He will try to dissuade us from doing it if possible.

We all wanted to do it. I started to speak of how I have seen the realm through the Sept’s ancestor visions, but I was cut off by the sudden arrival of Scourge-of-the-Woods. He told us to follow him immediately and we did in Lupus form along with Silent Hunter following.

He took us to the lodge. In the back of the lodge under a tree with broken limbs, there was a bloody box. Opening the box, we were shocked and angered to find Ariel’s head. There was a note in the box that Eli read. It was from Morgan.

Agnis immediately set about making a Questing Stone for her body and I frantically told Eli that I needed to get my son. It was apparent that Kenith’s house was no longer a safe haven as we had once thought. Eli told us that we would be hunting down the Mages as they might have a way to break the spell on Morgan and stop him. Bjorn also mentioned using the Fae’s favor to do such a task.

First off, however, we needed to tell Crafty of the tragedy. We took the head back to the cabin and had Crafty gather all of the Sept members. Silent Hunter went with Ryan to strengthen up the Umbra border. We all decided that we would have to kill Morgan. We also took into consideration about communicating peacefully with the Mages considering they were on the outs with Morgan. Crafty then went to the caern with Wyrmbreaker.

We decided to use the rest of the night to gather up any other kinfolk we could to protect them. We started with the immediate family members available. We managed to get my father, Magnus, Lizbeth, Maria, and Tomas. Thankfully, Gina was already there along with Clifford. However, Eli was worried about Lindsey so we decided to make her the next person to get.

Arriving at her trailer, we found nothing in her place. Most of her place was cleaned out, but not ransacked. There was note there from Lindsey. She had left to not be saddened at the loss of Eli. She asked that he not look for her. However, Eli believed that the note was a hint to her location and what was more important. Eli deduced that Lindsey and Lily had been separated.

Testing out this theory, Agnis made a stone for Lindsey and I made one for Lily. Lindsey’s did not work, indicating that she was with either Morgan or Mordecai. However, Lily’s did work. As I used hers, I also took out my son’s Questing Stone. They seemed to point in the same direction. Eli took my Questing Stone and told us to get some rest while he drove us in the direction of the stones.

Morning came and we found ourselves at Kenith’s place. My son was there as well. Eli parked some distance away and walked up to the house. Getting close enough, he activated his Whisper Catching gift and listened in.

Eli managed to hear his father speaking with someone. Morgan was demanding that the other person enact the same ritual on Lily in order to make her untraceable. However, the other person was blowing him off.

Eli woke up Bjorn through Quetzal and explained the situation. Waking us up, Bjorn led us up to the house. As we made our way there, John managed to damage Morgan’s tires so that he could not escape. As we all got closer to the door, we could feel our spiritual energies drop some. William went ahead and just opened the door.

Entering the room, we saw Morgan holding Lily along with Robert Kincaid. Eli rushed up to his father as Robert vanished from sight. I started looking around for my son. Eli took his daughter back from Morgan and handed her to John. He then slammed his father up against the wall.

Morgan quickly explained that he had to get us here, but we arrived earlier than he expected. We needed to stop the Mages. The Mages were after our caern. If we didn’t stop Robert now, it would be too late. Eli then knocked his father out while he went to look for Robert.

I made my way through the house before arriving in the basement. There, I found Kenith with my son, Ryan. I asked for my child and he offered him freely. He knew something bad was going to happen and it would be a good idea that he come with me. During this time, I activated my gift to detect lies. Ryan seemed a bit apprehensive and Kenith told him everything would be okay, which I knew was a lie. I tried to comfort him as we left the house for the van.

Eli found himself in a dark zone where the house would be in the Umbra. It was as if the Umbra didn’t even exist in this area. The atmosphere seemed thick and hard to breathe in. Realizing he could not find Robert, he exited the Umbra.

Eli then went and confronted Kenith about his father’s doing. Kenith did not have any idea what was going on to which Bjorn told Eli he was being truthful through Quetzal. Eli and Agnis laid it all out for Kenith that Robert was going to harm our Sept and he needed to help us if he could. During this time, I checked my son to determine if he was a Kinfolk. My gift told me that he was a Kinfolk, but there was something off about him.

Waking Morgan and taking him out of the house, Eli continued his interrogation while I sat with the children in the van. The Mages wanted to destroy our caern for some reason. The Mages had a way to compel Morgan to kill Ariel. It took everything he could to write the note to give us a clue as to where he was. We were supposed to come later after Morgan had convinced them to drop the protection. We could then track Lily and kill them all. Morgan knew about Kenith and Kenith’s “son”. He knew that Robert had an “impressed Avatar” on Ryan and that the child had basically became a walking bomb.

During this time, Jonathon attempted to create a Questing Stone for Robert, but Morgan told him that he was a master of Spirits and it would likely not work correctly. Morgan told Eli the three names that he had heard: Tom Lance, James Dickie, and Curtis White.

Morgan had learned that whenever a child is brought into the family whether by blood or adoption, they are given an “impressed Avatar.” The child would have to die or he would destroy the Sept if he went there. Morgan did not know how it worked, just the basics. The Spirals had not been active for some time. The Mages have always been the real threat. They are coming for the Sept and likely have more than one plan. He had dealt with Kenith and Morgan before, but only Robert had demonstrated magical ability.

Morgan suggests letting him go and he will find Mordecai and then get into contact with us. As Morgan makes his way back to the van, he sees my child and told us that he had to die. I began asking what was going on. Bjorn tried to calm me down and said he would explain everything in a minute. He kept making motions that Ryan needed to die.

Bjorn explained everything to me as we prepared to leave and I was quite angry inside for what had happened to my son. As he did this, Morgan asked for a knife. Realizing that he could get something from Kenith, he went into the house and interrogated him. Less than 10 minutes later, Morgan had the addresses for the three names he had given earlier.

Dumping Kenith in the trunk of his car before he realized the tires were damaged, I quickly asked Kenith what an “impressed Avatar” was. He didn’t know, nor would he give up the location of his coven, forcing us to look into the names of the Mages Morgan gave us. Morgan told us that he would put the word out that he had Kenith and hopefully it would draw him out.

We decided we would let Morgan go for now and look into the addresses that he had given us. It was 50/50 on interrogating them or just killing the Mages on the list. We headed to the Full House Casino Sales business. They sold equipment for casinos like roulette tables.

I opted to take this one, hoping for no bloodshed. I tried my best to be as sexual as possible and find Tom Lance. Admittedly, while I had the looks, I didn’t have the skill thanks to my upbringing. I asked one of the salespersons there if I could see Tom Lance. He arrived within a couple minutes. I tried to apply my charm to him, but I feel my head go a little funny. I asked to speak privately with him and he obliged.

Heading back to the entrance foyer of the business, I dropped all pretenses with him and got straight to business. I told him I knew what he was and I needed to see Robert. I asked him where he met with the rest of his cabal. When he told me McDonald’s, I snapped a little inside. It just seemed so stupid. I stabbed him with my fang dagger and he appeared to literally explode. Standing there, a bit dumbstruck since my dagger had never done that kind of damage, I called out to Bjorn through Quetzal.

Bjorn came into the foyer to find me standing there with nothing, Tom had messed with my mind and was escaping. Thankfully, John caught him in the process of leaving and attacked him. However, because he shifted to Crinos, the other patrons began to panic. Agnis and the others quickly went to task of eliminating them. I couldn’t do it though as I had sworn to myself to never kill humans after what I did to my foster parents.

With everyone taken care of, we quickly fled the scene and worked on the next address. We headed to the Waterfront Restaurant, an upscale restaurant. We were greeted by a waiter and I asked for his name. He told me James Dickie and I alerted Eli that this was our guy. He seated us and asked for our drink orders. As he did, Eli asked to speak with him privately. James obliged and took Eli to a closed off section of the restaurant.

Eli told James that he knew Robert and attempted to bluff him into leaving, that way Eli could dispatch him or interrogate depending on how the situation unfolded. James excused himself and Eli turned on his Whisper Catching and tried to listen in. James flees the restaurant while Eli sneaks out and shifts into Glabro form. James is on the phone with another person talking about someone named Tutu who is causing problems again.

After James hangs up, Eli tosses his hammer and kills James. He makes it look like a mugging and takes his phone. Once Eli alerts us that James is dead, we quickly make an excuse, pay for our drinks, and leave the restaurant.

Eli goes through the phone and locates the last person he spoke with: Curtis White, the last person on our list before Robert. Bluffing Curtis, Eli manages to arrange a meeting behind a 7/11 nearby Port Dock 16, the last address on the list. The text conversation goes on for some time with Curtis mentioning you can’t trust Robert. At this point, we came to realization that these Mages weren’t Robert’s cabal, but actually Kenith’s.

Deciding we needed information and to reduce the damage we already had done, John knocked Curtis out as he arrived at the location. We took him in our van to a nearby park where Miguel took my son to play and watched Lily.

Once Curtis awoke, he at first seemed cooperative until Bjorn mentioned Tutu. He then told us we’d have to kill him before he said anything more. Eli opened up a bit and told him we had nothing to do with Tutu and in fact we were werewolves. He told him about how we had already mistakenly killed two of his cabal thinking they were Robert’s cabal and how we wanted to stop Robert from destroying our Sept.

Curtis then realized we were working on the same side and he was and opened up. Robert was trying to use my son as a bomb of sorts and Curtis just believed it was a random Garou’s child. An impressed Avatar is an Avatar forced onto a “sleeper” or someone who doesn’t know about magic. The Avatar eventually awakens and the person becomes a Mage. However, from what I could tell, Ryan’s Avatar was corrupted in some way. Instead of just awakening, he would absorb our caern, or node as Curtis called it, explode, and then feed the power back to Robert.

Robert was attempting to stop Tutu, a Bane Mummy. This Tutu was extremely powerful. Curtis, however, disagreed with this plan, along with the other members of his cabal. They didn’t need any additional power and messing with the werewolves was suicide in their eyes. Robert just wanted to take control of the coven. Killing Tutu just appeared more as a ploy than a real goal.

Eli asked if Kenith knew and Curtis said no. The rest of the coven was aware of this plan and his cabal was one of the dissenters stopping it from being put into motion. Eli then told Curtis the truth about me being the mother of the child. We asked if the Avatar could be removed, but Curtis didn’t believe so as it is part of the soul. Jonathon mentioned an exorcism, but none of us had that gift it was possible Ryan would die in the process.

Eli convinced Curtis to stay in contact with us as we work to stop Robert. He agreed and hopefully now Curtis could convince the coven of how dangerous this idea was. I now knew I needed to speak with Kenith and let him know the truth…