Furry Anarchy are to attack from the Umbra, while the stil unnamed pack will be sent through the real world. They are offered guns, and everyone but Karen takes them. The van pulls to a halt in the fog, maybe 200 metres from the warehouse. Everyone piles out. They assess the fog and decide to chance Crinos form. Four crinos forms glide silently through the fog. Kris, on the other hand, with her amazingly stealthy gifts, trips over a gutter and falls with a thud. Andrew and Karen glide silently out to Kris, pick her up and demonstrate the ability of the pack to work together - they both go different directions with Kris, dropping her with a thud again.
In the meantime, Dave and Alyssa decide to glide around from the back corner, to take advantage of the shadows. They head that way, while Karen and Andrew get ready to attack from the front corner. Kris activates her gifts and drifts up the front of the warehouse. Dave and Alyssa hit the wire fence (oh no, chainlink) and vault it without a problem. Andrew decides to change plans, and charges the wire fence with a roar. He reaches the fence as one of the security guards empties a revolver into him, and crashes to the ground on the other side, reduced to incapacitated. Alyssa looks for a drainpipe to climb up, and decides that homid might be an idea.
Dave and Karen try to recover from the adrenalin rush that was Andrew. They both charge towards to guard who attacked Andrew. Karen vaults the fence and Dave runs along the scupted gardens, reaching the guard at about the same time. What follows is a beautifully executed combat, in which Dave is reduced to incapacitated by Karen and Andrew draws any gunfire handy to save his pack members.
In the meantime, Alyssa climbs across the roof and spies another guard running out of the building with an assault rifle. She shoots him in the shoulder, noting in passing that he bleeds orange. The guard takes this poorly, and Alyssa is taught a brief lesson about how nasty a fomori with rage and an assault rifle really is. She lies on the roof and oozes a bit.
Kris, in a very sneaky move, runs up the front of the establishment, and bursts into the guard house. A brief altercation between herself and one guard lead to Kris throwing away her gun and kicking the guard through the wall. He looks surprised.
After a while, all the guards are dead, even the poisonous ones. Alyssa is below incapacitated and not coming back for a while, while other people are slowly healing. They all run inside. There is a brief gunfight with the one remaining guard that they didn't know about, and then Furry Anarchy turn up, and rescue everyone, torch the place and flee.
Dream
In which the female members of the pack go back in time and rescue Dream of the Endless.
Kris told to get femme members of pack, time is due for the task that she is to perform for Morpheus. She wakes Alyssa up and finds Karen at work. They are brought to the sept. Waiting there is Andrena. She performs a ritual on the waters of the caern, and they become still, reflecting a perfect moon. Alyssa, Karen and Kris are told to step into the waters and walk down the steps...
>
silence swimming in a pool of dreams
beneath its depths the forgotten streams
ISHMAEL (Karen), STEALS THE HEART (Kris), BARGAINS HER HONOR (Alyssa) posessed. Steals the Heart dies in the next few hours
There is mostly confusion in this time. It takes a while for people to work out where they are, and who they are. Ishmael appears to be a senior Silent Strider Ahroun, come to ask for help for his countrymen in the middle east against the turks. Steals the Heart is a lupus member of a Blackfury pack whose caern was destroyed a year ago. Bargains her Honor is a Shadowlord Ahroun, who is only allowed in the caern at sufferance.
Alyssa/Bargains her Honor gets spat on by a lot of young Garou, and generally treated badly. She takes in their blond hair and abusive attitudes and calls them Get of Fenris scum. The GM takes this oppurtunity to walk away, trying not to laugh. She is rescued by another senior Garou who tells the blondes to not sully themselves with a Shadowlord Metis. Alyssa flees
Kris/Steals the Heart gets swept up in the heat of the moot and goes on a rampage. She comes to with a human arm in her mouth, but no sign of the human.
Alyssa is also part of the Revel, but finds herself cornered by the same blond haired blue-eyed garou from before. It is at this point the GM points out that calling English Silverfangs Get of Fenris scum in the middle of World War I is probably problematic at best. However, before they take the oppurtunity to kill her, they all flee screaming. Alyssa turns around to see Kris coming, and neither of them know why they others ran away.
In the meantime, Karen/Ishmael has met Alastair Douglas, a Fianna Theurge, and has explained what she thinks is going on. This conversation includes the magic sequence -
Alyssa and Kris return, and discussion is had. Kris slips into the Dreaming via sleepiness. She finds a huge storm roaring away (much like the nothingness in Neverending story) and accidentally falls in.
Alastair checks on Steals the Heart and comes back saying "She's dead" - Everyone leaps forward in time.
Burgess is at the height of his power.
L: Edith Laws
N: Victoria Bennett
J: Unity Kinkaid
Bamf into new bodies. People in a "sleeping sickness" ward. Learn about sleeping sickness (started in 1916, possibly as a psychological backlash against the carnage of WW I). Karen/Edith drops off to sleep again almost straight away. Alyssa/Victoria takes a while, and Kris/Unity stays awake for nearly a day before slipping back into slumber.
Karen awakens in a dark english forest. There are three altar-like benches, and she is laying on them. The other two have a young woman's body and a young girls. Karen guesses that they are Victoria Bennet and Unity Kinkaid. Karen looks around for a bit, vaguely aware of a rumbling sound. The altar/benches are on a paved road, leading through the forest. She turns around again, and Alyssa is there, and Victoria is gone. Time passes... the faint rumbling noise increases in volume.
Kris appears and Unity Kinkaid disappears. The rumbling noise is getting louder... and now they can see what is causing it. There is a roiling cloud of nothing, eating the dreaming and coming closer and closer. At this point, people sensibly decide to change to lupus form, except Kris who tries to fly. Eventually they pull free of the storm, and start to gain a feel for how huge the Dreaming really is.
Meet Fiddler's Green, who tells them of Morpheus' castle. They travel across the Dreaming to the castle. They try to gain entrance, but are told by the guardians that Morpheus is not here. They speak to Lucien, who instructs the guardians to let them enter, but they are not to leave the carpet or look into the mirrors.
Alyssa looks into the mirror, and sees Grant with another woman (this is starting to become common). They reach Lucien. He tells that that his Lord has been missing for 4 years. He has left the Dreaming for times before, but never like this. This is like he has been cut from the Dreaming entirely. And it is dying.
Alyssa asks about the mirrors. Lucien says they show the truth, but in a skewed fashion. She looks concerned. Lucien looks concerned back. Karen and Kris look bored. WHHHHHHHHHOOOOOSH Off into time again we go.
People bamf into new bodies. The scene looks familiar. The person they are talking to looks familiar. It is Alastair Douglas again. He is unimpressed for a bit. People explain what they know. He tells them they are in the bodies of some of his Fianna friends, whom he was about to send on a mission somewhere.
Somehow the place called Wych's Cross comes up. I can't remember how. People trundle off there
Investigating around the place shows a little hamlet that has been in existence for a loooooong time. However, all the spirits are behaving oddly, very skittishly, and part of the place has been turned to gold, in swirly patterns. People shrug and move on.
In the real world, the manor called Wych's Cross is on a flat, with a square low wall. In the Umbra, it is high on a hill, with a tall wall that looks square, but whenever you approach it, you do so perpendicularly, as if it was actually round. In addition, it is guarded by a dome of glowing golden energy, in a hexidecimal pattern. It is decided to dig under the field. When a hole is made however, the field oozes into it like honey. It is decided to dig a deeper hole, and leave unbroken ground for the field to rest on. This works.
Once inside the field, it is decided to move into the real world. Karen goes through, as does Alyssa. Kris, unfortunately, gets stuck in the gauntlet. This seems to cause the field that they just sucessfully avoided to wobble and shimmer, setting off alarms. Alyssa bumps Kris back into the Umbra, while Karen runs towards the house. Quite a few spirits seem to be ready to defend the house. More than a young pack can deal with. Karen is beheaded by something with far too many blades for limbs. Kris is killed by flying things. Alyssa is not so lucky, and is captured and tortured for 3 or so days before dying. She learns what fun silver is.
The young woman introduces herself as Morpheus' sister... Death. People look a bit confused. They try and ask questions, but Death doesn't seem to know any more than they do - her brother was captured somehow, and cut off from the rest of the Universe. To Death, it is 1926 still, unless she needs to know something from further forward in time.
"What now?" is the general question being asked. Death explains that they have three choices. They can go back and continue to help Morpheus. They can die now, and go back into the puddle of Garou souls to be reborn. Or she can break the spell and return them to their current time. Karen starts to enquire about the puddle. Death looks at her and tells her it is not an option for her. When Karen dies, she really dies. This appears to freak her a bit. Death explains that is has something to do with her being a Silent Strider, but will not explain further.
After much thinking, Kris and Alyssa say they will try again, but Karen wants to go home. Alyssa books a shopping expedition to look for docs for Death. There is barely any transition, and Karen is laying in water, under a moonlit sky. She sits up, and realises that she is naked. And about 4 months pregnant. She screams in surprise. Then she notices the other naked pregnant woman next to her. It is Alyssa - she is about 8.5 months pregnant. CB comes running.
Karen demands to know what is going on. CB explains that she was doing a ritual to bless her child, doesn't she remember. Who is the father, demands Karen... Grant, says CB, looking confused now... same as Alyssa... after all, you live with him. Karen starts to look a bit confused now, everything is a bit spinny.
Karen asks where Kris is? CB replies who? Dave? Who? Argh. Andrew? Andrew who? Andrew James? He's a member of Healing Fist sept, why would he be here... More confusion reigns. Karen eventually goes to sleep, and tries to get to see Morpheus. She sort of does. Morpheus looks similar, but much younger, and is dressed in white, with white hair. He explains that the previous Dream dispersed himself in 1988, and he is the new Dream.
Karen asks him to send her back. Dream says he can't. She asks him to summon Death, his sister. He can do that. Death arrives and speaks with Karen. She can't send her back the same way. But she can send her back. Karen will have to be far more careful this time.
Karen agrees, and is shifted to the Sunless Shore. She is standing in the ruins of an old lighthouse or something, set amidst rolling bracken, and skudding grey clouds, next to a crashing grey sea. There is a real grey motif beginning to emerge. She sees David, her heroin junkee client. She starts running towards him, but he turns into a ghost-thing and starts running toward her. She runs away, and has almost been caught when she trips and falls into a bright light...
L: Randolf Carter
N:
J:
... and sits up off a stone altar, yelling, and with blood everywhere. Alyssa and Kris are sitting on pews, while Karen is up on an altar ahead of them. Karen sits up, dressed in blood drenched robes, and can feel her throat trying to heal up and this human body trying to make it to crinos form. Alyssa and Kris are dressed in cowled robes, amongst a crowd of similiarily dressed men, who are standing in either shock or sitting and looking amazed. A flunkie, holding a knife cries out "Lord Carter has conquered death and returned! Rejoice!" Their last memories are of a warm place, comforting and calm, where they were romping like puppies.
There is much confusion and Carter/Karen request to retire to their chambers while the men file out of this basement room. Alyssa initiates a MindSpeak link between them all, as Karen fills her in. Karen tells her that in the other future, both of them were pregnant. Alyssa takes this reasonably well. Karen then tells Alyssa that both babies father was Grant. Alyssa does not take this well, and in fact yells out "You fucking what!", which causes everyone to look at them strangely.
Kris and Alyssa file out and upstairs with the rest of the men. They mostly seem to be blue collar workers, and the date is guessable at maybe 1930's. They all get changed. Kris finds a wallet and tickets in his clothes. The wallet contains a lot of money, and some tickets to San Francisco. Erk, says Kris. Alyssa also finds a wallet, and they both discover their current names. So far, so good, no one seems to be talking to them anyway.
In the meantime, Karen is ransacking her host bodies' chambers. In there, she finds some writing paper with the title "Ordu Sanctus Rosi Aurorae" and finds that her name is Randolf Carter. She also finds an obsidian knife which is very odd, and she keeps it. Also amongst the junk is a pathstone, which she pockets. There is a knock at the door, and an acolyte tells her that the men are waiting for a blessing from the Magister. Karen gives the GM are very dark look and heads for the door.
Karen finds herself in front of a crowd of men all in clean but worn clothing. She proceeds to baffle them all with bullshit about having traversed the door of death and needing to ruminate on his insights. The men look a little surprised at the lack of a latin benediction, but satisfied with this performance. Carter/Karen dismisses everyone, but tells Joe/Alyssa and Bob/Kris to stay behind. The other acolytes are dismissed and the three retire to the Magister's quarters, where they all have a screaming hissy fit.
After they have calmed down, someone finds a newspaper, with the date (November 16th). It appears that confusion reigns.
Karen writes a letter to Burgess, anonymously, telling home about Sykes...
- Dear Mr Burgess,
- It has come to our attention that a certain Mr Rutherven Sykes is currently heading to "address" in San Francisco, carrying certain monies and implements.
- We thought that this information might be of interest to you....
- signed,
- A Friend
Travel to Wych's Cross, using Kris' money. Stay in the inn/hostel. Scout around the town a bit. The forcefield is a little more tattered. There are less people in the manor. Burgess is in a bad mood.
Kris has discovered that her innate connection to the dreaming lets her do some minor wierd effects because of the spell they are using to travel in time. Kris brilliantly surprises the GM by boldly walking up to the door of Burgess' manor and demanding entrace. She demonstrates some minor ability to cause flame to burst from her hand. Burgess is impressed, and allows him/her to join his cult. She is put to work maintaining the forcefield. She evaluates the rest of the apprentices and decides that they are crap, and ends up powering the whole thing herself, using her Gnosis.
In the meantime, Karen remembers some ancient history lessons and wonders whether the manor would have an escape tunnel, from the time of Cromwell and the roundheads. Luck is on her side (a ten!). Karen and Alyssa find an old, disused and forgotten escape tunnel from the manor to a wooded glade about half a mile away. They travel down it in lupus form, aided by the light from the collapsing roof. Thank god Vilna isn't here.
They arrive at a somewhat chinked wall (ie, it has holes in it). Behind it they can see a couple of guys chatting to each other. In the room is a small stove with a kettle on it. It looks like a small tea room of some sort.
WESLEY DODDS starts to become the Sandman. He gasses evil people and sprinkles sand on them
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Last edited 27-Feb-1998 16:40:39 Last compiled 4-Aug-1998 10:06:26 Maintained by Eccles |