Alf asks to speak with Mietta for a bit and takes her aside. They obviously have a somewhat heated debate, and then Mietta stalks off, looking shitty. Jindabyne Council will meet on the night of the 13th (philodox moon), Alf and people will prepare for the Council. Melinda, Tusulla and Harmony's dream are to go to the Crackenback caern, and deal with the Silver Fang stuff first.
Some other members of the sept greet Dave very formally. They include M'Lady Kathryn Hope, Duke Anthony Pierce and Michelle Leaps-Beyond-The Reach-of-the-Wyrm. Apart from Michelle, the greetees barely note the existence of the rest of Harmony's Dream. They seem happy enough for Dave to deal with them.
During the day, Melinda takes the pack to Tiger hill, and tries to explain what happened. This brings the whole mood of the day down a fair way. The rest of the day is spent being very cautious of the sept. A couple of the council members bamf in during the day.
That evening, Harmony's Dream are given formal invites for the dinner, as well as informed of their dinner placings. Apparently they are to sit with Darius and senior sept members. Well, looking more closely at the seating arrangements, Dave is to sit next to Darius whereas the rest of the pack is close to the middle and Alyssa is seated fairly much at the end of the table. Not being a particular large table, this doesn't seem to present too many difficulties. Karen is dressed in one of Alyssa's velvet dresses, which fits in some ways, but not in others.
The pack moves out to dinner. As they are being seated, a large motorbike roars up and a young man leaps off, and runs up to the table, stripping helmet and jacket as he goes. He bows to Darius and apologises for being late. Darius' only comment is "Really, Nicholas, you must try to be punctual". Nicholas takes a seat near Alyssa, and introduces himself as "Nick". He and Alyssa hit it off fairly well. Dave is interrogated as to his family lineage for most of the evening, most of which he doesn't know. Kris' conversation is somewhat stilted as she seems to freak some of the sept - could it be word has got around that she is a favourite of one of the Endless? Nahh.
Conversely, Karen has a wonderful conversation with Duke Anthony Pierce. His opening gambit is to give his tacit approval of their lack of those with dingo heritage within their pack, and then follows that up by saying that of course they don't, not having any of the coarser cousins within their numbers. Karen isn't quite sure how to deal with this, but as soon as Anthony starts to expound on his plans for slave labour camps made up of the lazy unemployed and the pathetic homeless, she starts to take steps; and right at the point of frenzying, Nick knocks 2 litres of ice water into her lap, completely by accident. This seems to distract Karen a bit, and she is hustled off by Alyssa to rant in their cabin, after shifting form (oops, dress not dedicated *kaboom*). Duke Anthony gently remonstrates Nicholas, having apparently not noticed Karen's response.
The rest of the night is fairly staid. People go off to sleep. Dave receives a midnight visitor.
The council meets at dusk, just as the philodox moon is rising. The council table is a single piece of polished granite, horseshoe in shape. There are settings for 14 people, although one of the chairs is pushed well back out of the way. Each chair has the tribe glyph carved into it, except the Bunyip chair, which has simple tears cascading down from it. The council members arrive slowly and take their seats, although their are only 11 of them this evening. The missing tribes are Bunyip, Wendigo (no represenation) and Shadow Lord (Vlad is in Europe, sends his apologies).
There is space for observers to sit in front of the open end of the horseshoe. Once the council is assembled, the Ngalyod pack approach and stand behind them. People are asked to come up and answer questions.
Melinda begins with a brief introduction on the glade children, the new pack, what they found out. The pack are then asked to give an explanation of what happened on the night. Tusulla finishes up with an explaination of what she tried to do and what the result was. CB also stands up, and says that she contacted the City Father and the spirit of the city is in great pain because of the wyrm.
Each stage is broken up by arguing amongst the Council members. Once everyone has had their say, Melinda stands forth again and requests assistance from the Council to combat the Thunderwyrm in the Umbra. This is taken as a sign of weakeness by some of the Council members. Melinda explains that half of her Sept are children, not accomplished spirit warriors.
In the end, the vote is:
Dave steps into the real world near the end of visiting hours and tries to get to see his 'sister', in that room. The police woman at the door is a bit suspicious, and Dave opts to run for it. He makes it to the toilets, glances at the mirror and steps sideways. The policewoman and a couple of orderlies burst in and look around the bathroom, all confused. They then think it might have been a distraction and run back to the room.
Time passes and the hospital slowly shuts down. About 1am, just after the nurse has done a looksee, lawnfoodgirl's eyes open, and they glow that unhealthy green colour. She swings her legs off the bed, and gets up. No lawnfood in sight. She tiptoes over to a fellow hospitaler, and bends over her, and seems to be kissing her... but it quickly becomes clear that she is vomiting something down the humans throat, who is unnaturally calm about it all. Oh, and still asleep.
This upsets the pack a little, who aren't sure whether it is trying to spread itself or what, but figure its a bad thing anyway. They come up with a plan to get lawnfoodgirl out. The plan is:
They drop lawnfoodgirl into a sand bunker and decide what to do now. There is some discussion between Meneghwo and the feather and the pack, and it is decided that the only way to save her is to use the rebirth ability of the feather. Meneghwo says that as she is human, she will probably just die. Karen sacrifices a permanent point of gnosis to give lawnfoodgirl a chance to survive. Everyone walks a long way back and releases the bonds on the feather. When the glow has faded, all that is left is some black glass. The guess is that she didn't make it. The pack shifts to lupus and runs for the car, as the bright light attracted some attention from the people searching for the (believed escaped) lawnfoodgirl. To home, to a restless nights sleep. Oh, and telling someone with cleansing to check out the other women in the ward.
The decisions have been made and the setups created. Garou will be moongated into the area near the caern (but not in). Furry Anarchy and Harmony's Dream are to greet the garou as they arrive, and escort them to the site chosen, which is the Umbra near Mt Waverley. The site has been chosen because its a biiig clear area in the real world, and relatively so in the umbra, and because its high up, near no water.
First to arrive is AirStike, the pack's good friends. Furry Anarchy leap to attention and guide them up to the site. Next, from Warriors Glory comes the Homid Shadowlord Theurge Tamara Kobiashvili and her pack - including Sergei. Harmony's Dream guides them up to the site, as Furry Anarchy head back down. Conversation between Sergei and Alyssa is a little less strainged when Sergei compliments her on her behaviour.
The pack gets to stay up at the site for a while, until Furry Anarchy bring the next visitor up. Looking around, a small number of Garou have assembled all ready, and are making ready the site they will use. Furry Anarchy arrive, with them the Ngalyod pack. Harmony's Dream quickly move down back to the caern.
Waiting for them is Bartholomew Wise-in-the-Ways-of-the-Wyrm, a Fianna Theurge. He is dressed in dinner jacket and baggy pants and appears all by himself at the Gate. He looks old (76), but doesn't act it. He is carrying something odd that seems to be trying to crawl away from him. He slaps it and it stops. It looks like stone, but twisted into weird shapes. When the pack ask him, he says it is the fetish they will be using to bind the Thunderwyrm. Oh, they say in response. Bartholomew continues, saying that a normal rite won't have the strength to hold the wyrm, so they use the fetish to augment it. Oh, they say again.
When they take him up to the site selected, the Sept leaders are moderately deferential. It quickly becomes clear that Bartholomew is in charge of the binding and is quite senior (rank 5!!). The other Theurges greet him respectfully, although some of them don't seem too thrilled with him. They can bum around for a while before Furry Anarchy bring the next person up, then they have to head down, just in time to meet...
...Tames Spirits with her Snarl, a SilverFang lupus theurge. She arrives in lupus form, and speaks her name as being "Spirits submit to my will at the sounds of my voice of war" (high-Garou dialect). Mietta says "Welcome, Tames-Spirits-with-her-Snarl". Tames speaks only to Mietta, and Dave, ignoring the others. She seems to expect deferential treatment, such as fresh water to quench her thirst in this awful heat, etc . Tames-Spirits-with-her-Snarl generally puts people's teeth on edge - even Mietta seems on the edge.
When the pack arrives at the clearing with Tames-etc, the number of Garou has grown to around 25. The mood has grown a bit strained. People seem to be snapping at each other, or just generally a bit on edge. Alyssa and Karen seem a bit distracted, and demand that the other one shut up. Karen stomps off and sits on a log. Kris looks a bit confused, whereas Dave starts to complain about a high pitched really irritating whine.
Karen sits down and realises she can hear the sweetest birdsong she has ever heard. She is listening to its sweet song while muttering about the noisy garou further over when a Garou stomps up and demands his seat back. Karen says that its not his, and would he please shut up. He pushes her off the seat and sits down. Karen changes to Crinos and lifts the whole log up into the air so he falls off. She is about to hit him with it when she sees Unicorn suddenly through the trees, and the birdsong turns to a horrid whiny noise. The other Garou grabs the log, and Karen lets him clout her with it. Fade to black. Alyssa, meantime, has stomped off away from her gibbering pack, muttering something about wanting to hear the birdsong properly. She bumps into another Garou, who demands she apologise for getting in his way. She says that he is was in her way. The witty reparte continues and Alyssa is about the get her clock cleaned when Sergei looms into view and clouts both of them, dragging Alyssa away. The sight of Sergei is somehow more frightening that the desire to hear the birdsong and it turns to a whiny irritating noise. She gasps and tells Sergei what she knows.
In the meantime Kris is watching the bloodbath begin. She tries to contact Meneghwo, but is having trouble getting him to listen or understand. Dave is wandering around, trying to find the source of the sound. Kris sees Sergei and Alyssa heading for Bartholomew and the sept leaders, who have apparently noticed that something is wrong. Kris sees Darshani punch Jay from AirStrike out, and runs for the sane-gathering. She gets there as Sergei explains to Bartholomew what Alyssa heard, and what is happening. Bartholomew thinks for a moment, and then takes a deep breath, letting out a howl like nothing anyone has ever heard - it resounds around the clearing, cutting through the other sounds, and causing half the assembled Garou to run for their lives. The word Bansidhe is one that comes to mind.
Eventually everyone is collected, and the somewhat cross Garou redirect their rage from each other to the things that are causing the problem. Once they are found, they seem to be easy to destroy - they were wyrmlings, humanoidish, with blue-green skin, opalescent like oil on water
Harmony's Dream head back to the caern, a bit chagrined. They are there for about 10 minutes when another Moon Bridge opens and Ground-Runs-Red (Uktena Metis Theurge) and her pack "Natural Justice" come through. Ground-Runs-Red is a short aboriginal woman, a little pudgy. She has longish hair, half of which is braids and the rest is dyed varying colours. She gives an impression being bustly and efficient, as well as fairly garrolous. Ground-Runs-Red has been trained as a Bane Tender, and will probably take up permanent residence in the area to make sure the thunderwyrm remains asleep. One other member of her current pack is Moon-Guided-Travel. He introduces himself as an Uktena Galliard from the USA, which they had guessed from his accept and the fact he is a amerind. He will be sounding the Call to the Wyrm.
Eventually everyone arrives, and the 60 - 80 garou are addressed by Bart... There are 12 rite masters, and they are the most important people here. They will be entirely engrossed in binding the thunderwyrm into slumber, and the rest of the garou should concentrate on protecting them, as there will be many lesser banes and wyrm spirits, such as the ones that attacked earlier, travelling with the thunderwyrm.
There is approximately one pack per ritemaster, plus one or two floating packs, plus Harmony's Dream, who are asked more or less to keep out of the way. As people start to organise themselves, Meneghwo asks them to step aside for a few mins. He asks them "Did you mean what you said about pack leader at Jindabyne?" The pack more or less says yes. "Ok. Then I am leader for war." Meneghwo morphs into homid form, but does not have his normal mottled look, instead looking like a Native American - bone armor, feathers, big spear. He stands about 6'6''. Meneghwo strides forward, followed by his pack.
When they return to the clearing, this gets them all sort ofs weird looks, and Moon-Guided-Travel comes up and addresses them - "Is this meant to be funny?" The pack looks confused. "He is dressed as a croatan...". "I choose my form as is appropriate. Return to your pack, [word]" ([word] is something in the garou tongue, basically translating to "one who asks inappropriate questions of a leader at an inappropriate time"). Moon-Guided-Travels looks a little surprised and moves off.
Everything goes quiet... Moon-Guided-Travels moves into the center of the clearing, with Bart's fetish. He places the fetish down in the center of the clearing, and pulls a small drum out from udner his arm. MGT starts to beat quietly on the drum, and chant sounds (just sound, not language). The chant starts to increase in volume and intensity and people start feeling a call into the centre, where Moon-Guided-Travels is. Alyssa feels fairly strongly about this, but manages to resist. Kris is next to Melinda, and asks her why they are feeling tugged towards the centre. Melinda says "The call is to the Wyrm, and it calls to the darkness within us" "Rubbish" says J.Random Ahroun next to them, quickly reassesing his comment when he sees Melinda's face. "I mean, with all due respect Sept Leader, I think it is simply the call to battle that these cubs can hear, the call to the warrior... " moves off as Melinda gives him a strange look. "Yes, thats what I said."
The ritemasters, in their dodecahedron, begin to chant the Rite of Binding as a huge earthquake shudders the ground around everyone. The soil where Moon-Guided-Travels is standing starts to fall away, making the spiral pattern that harmony's dream is so familiar with. MGT leaps away, and joins his pack, leaving the fetish, which is swallowed up by the ground.
Things start boiling up from the ground... mishapen things, swarming up and heading straight for the ritemasters... The packs all howl fairly simultaneously and wade straight in.
Furry Anarchy start playing silly buggers - Michael and Andrea display a fairly impressive amount of acrobatics with each other before landing heavily on a large chitinous wyrm thing, while CB starts summoning concrete elementals, and Runs through Waves dances round infuriating wyrm things until they are completely baffled and Gavin and Andrew smack them one from either side.
The ground which has been sinking away suddenly rises up, and something huge roars out of the ground, heading for the sky. It jolts to a halt suddenly after 10 metres of it has come out of the ground, and a beam of soft white light comes from each of the ritemasters, pinning it in place. It looks like the front of an earthworm, but it is that same fluoro green the pack has come to know and love.
All across the clearing, wyrm thing after wyrm thing goes down in battle against the Garou, but they are taking their toll. Kris is using the feather to pick off any open targets. Probably a 6th of the Garou are down and are not moving, when suddenly the pack protecting Tusulla all turn to stone. Wyrm things swarm her way, and none of the other garou seem to have noticed. Harmony's Dream, led by Meneghwo, leap forward to defend Tusulla. Karen is knocked to Incapacitated fairly quickly, but the others start to chew their way through the banes.
Just as they deal with the spirits, a high pitched chittering distracts them and something too hideous for words rears up out of the melee and the ritemaster it is facing explodes, unwinding like a spring. The light coming from that point dims and fades, and the rest of the lights seem to flicker and start to fade. Everyone looks awfully panicked. Meneghwo grabs Dave and braindumps the rite into his head. Dave runs to where the ritemaster was, just as Mietta gets there. She looks confused, but Dave looks as if he knows what he is doing, so she channels all her gnosis through him.
The THING that did that to the original ritemaster is now snowed under by garou. It throws them all off and starts barrelling towards Dave. Other Garou try and stop it, but it dodges them or they suddenly stop. Alyssa grabs the feather and channells all of her gnosis into it, letting out a blast of flame that singes hair 30 feet away. It hits the THING and cascades all over it. The thing slows, and starts to turn her way, now with limbs charred and large patches of skin falling off
Suddenly an old Garou, in crinos form, white with red, and klaive wades in, attacking with no regard for his safety. The battle is ugly and fairly short - the thing pins the old Garou, raises a claw and moves to pin him to the ground... as it does so, the old Garou thrusts with the klaive and stabs it in a central part.... the claw falls, the garou slumps, and the thing collapses atop him.
The rite rises to a crescendo and then silence suddenly descends on the clearing. The thunderwyrm has turned to stone. the remaining wyrm things are dealt with, and the only sounds are the moans of the injured.
In the end, 8 garou are dead, and many are badly injured. People are wandering about using mother's touch to heal, and the rite masters are inscribing runes on the thunderwyrm, running off its stone body and down onto the ground. The feeling is one of exhaustion, but sucess.
A couple of fianna head towards the old garou that fell and an eerie howl of desolation rises into the sky. Other Fianna including Bartholomew run that way and they all join in: the dead garou is Fingal Flashing-Claws.
Harmony's Dream tend to their own wounded, and then help cart the others down to the caern. The night is spent taking care of the wounded and the exhausted in the Umbra.
The mood is very solemn, calm. Harmony's Dream try to make themselves as small as possible, so as not to attract notice. There are many conversations between two or three people at a time - the word 'sucessor' seems to feature in many of them.
The exception to the mood is a brash redhead, sitting with his cronies on a wagon nearby. He is Brendan Drives-forth-the-Wyrm, Fingal's son, and he seems to have missed the conversations and assumed he will be the new Righ of Australia. Others mostly treat him disparagingly.
While waiting for the ceremonies to begin, the pack is approached by No'iri'in Ni Dhonaill, who introduces herself as another Melbournite, now sited at the Tower Hill caern. She has heard of the pack's Rite of Passage, and would like to hear it from Alyssa's lips. She listens attentively, but occasionally acknowledging greetings from passing Garou. She asks some polite questions, and seems genuinely interested in the pack. Alyssa tries to satisfy her curiosity as well, and No'iri'in is fairly open about herself. In the end, she says that she has to join other Fianna, but hopes to catch up with Harmony's Dream later.
The ceremony starts at dusk. There are many songs sung, of Fianna heroes of the past, and of Fingal's life. The Fianna galliards are at their best, and they use Shadows by the Fire Light to tell his lifestory, using Fianna garou who are there to play the various parts. Alyssa notices that even in the tributes, political preference enters into the stories - some people are played as companions to Fingal, others needing his 'fatherly guidance' to temper their headstrong nature. She does not seem to be alone in this perception, as a number of Garou either smile or murmur quietly to themselves.
No stranger to life
He lived right enough
No stranger to the glass in his hand
No stranger to the cause
He fought for all his life
Fingal Fionn is dead
A hungry feeling
Came o'er me stealing
While the mice were feeding
In my prison cell
And the old triangle
Went jingle jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal
On a fine spring evening
As I lay dreaming
And the lag was weeping
For his gal, Sal
And the old triangle
Went jingle jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal
And the wind was sighing
As the day was dying
And the lag still crying
In his prison cell
And the old triangle
Went jingle bloody jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal
In the women's prison
There are seventy women
And I wish it was with them
That I did dwell
Then that old triangle
Could go jingle bloody jangle
All along the banks of the Royal Canal
Ireland has lost
Her sweet angry voice (and the old triangle)
No longer will his poems fire desire (jingle bloody jangle)
Will ring out in Gaelic
Or sound through the Main
Fingal Fionn is dead
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Last edited 11-May-1998 20:09:54 Last compiled 4-Aug-1998 10:06:26 Maintained by Eccles |