The pack are woken way early in the morning by the sounds of the university group getting up and getting going. As the pack watch and listen, it becomes clear that there are some small things wrong with their equipment - small items missing, torch batteries flat when they were new last night, and so on. Eventually they get going, down some new tubes that Anna has been itching to start on. They have only been gone fifteen minutes or so when there is a low rumble in the ground, and the Garou are all hit by a spiritual blast somewhere between a roar and a scream. Its all they can do to not flee the site immediately. Evie comes out of the rangers station and looks around, and John comes out of his tent. Evie says that she thinks it was blasting, but if so, something went wrong, but general opinion is that it was an earthquake. 10 minutes later, voices are heard from the direction from which Anna disappeared with entourage, and the uni party comes back into site, asking if they felt that rumble, and whether it was an earthquake or not. Anna and Gordon hop on the radio and try and find out from an earthquake station whether it was a quake, where it was centred, whether there will be after-quakes too. Arthur goes straight into his tent. Dom and Brett try and determine what happened in the Umbra, and the feeling of antipathy is much, much stronger now, but there's no apparent visual change.

Some of the students have decided to give caving a miss and decide to hike down to some falls instead. Thomas opts to go with them. While they are walking, they come across a small furry dead critter, which looks as if it has been staked out (once it was killed). An attractive smell is rising from it, almost in a seductive way, enticing the hikers to pick it up and perhaps to cook and eat it. Thomas persuades his fellow humans not to do so, and speculates that it might be poisoned or something. He warns the others.

Dom is overcome by the need to see what Arthur is doing in his tent, so she risks the malignant Umbra, steps sideways from her tent and peeks back. Arthur has a number of suspicious objects in his tent, including a locked wooden chest - sniffing inside reveals a scent of paper, which confuses all. There are photos scattered around the place, some of the paintings which they saw last night in the cave, some by an instamatic, some by a decent camera. The pack decide this is close enough to guilt and John and Brett check out his car from the Umbra. The number-plates are from Victoria, not Queensland, and Dom suddenly realises she does know Arthur - he was stealing relics from the Museum about 2 years ago, and unfortunately for him one of them turned out to be a fetish that Infinite Paths and Steel Hunters were racing for. Peeking into the boot reveals several old paper boxes (like what reams of a4 come in), taped up and carefully taped to the back of the car (to stop them sliding, presumably). The scents inside are fairly unusual.

It is about this point that Brett realises that the constant, nerve-grating grumbling sound has got to John, as John screams, changes to Crinos and runs for the caves, frenzying. Brett tries to stop him, but opts to pike and run when John starts pulling bits off. Thomas is sprinting to the area, but won't be there for a few moments. Given that Dom is still unable to regenerate, let alone change form, she opts to stay the hell out. Thomas gets to the site and sprints down the lavatubes in the Umbra. He also is bugged by the constant wind/grumble/moan sound, but resists the rising urge to kill. He finds John a little way down the passage, in homid form, and crushed and maimed. There are scratch marks all along the passage. Thomas opts not to find out what it might be, grabs John and high-tails it.

Time to act - Thomas and Brett go over to Arthur's car in the realm and puncture a tire. They wander back and tell Arthur that its happened. He looks annoyed and then comes with them. Arthur's plan of parking out of sight backfires as he is grabbed by two rather fit and annoyed Garou who drag him off into the bushes, and question him in a rather intimidating way. Dom takes this opportunity to step into his tent and ransack it. She finds all sorts of interesting items, photos, samples and a couple of rocks with aboriginal glyphs on them, photos of a small caern of rocks and where he found them. Brett continues to take this information to grill Arthur, who finally gives up and agrees that he has been raiding the sites and selling stuff. Dom piles all the offensive material near the door of the tent, chances the umbra again and steps back into her own tent, saunters past Arthur's tent and takes the evidence.

Someone wanders back and fills Anna and Evie in on what Arthur had been doing, and shows them the evidence. The pack claim that they were following him, chasing evidence. Evie goes to contact the other National Parks in the area, as they keep a log of number plates. Anna goes a funny colour, goes back to her pack, gets a geopick and heads for Arthur's car. She proceeds to give it a number of speedholes, only stopping when the flood of liquid out the bottom reveals she has hit the radiator. Evie returns and says that Arthur has been to other places - his boot is checked and opened, and the boxes inside are revealed to contain other artifacts. The pack take them and say that they will be returning them to the appropriate place - the polaroid photos that Arthur has kept give them a certain amount of detail, including times and places. However, they still have here to deal with. The pack ask Anna to come with them and show them the way to where some of the sites are, and she agrees. She gets her stuff and they all head off, artifacts in tow. They pass another staked out animal, and flickers of shadows on the walls. The Mimi are obviously not happy.

Anna spends the next hour trying not to watch the various things which go on, as the pack return things to their proper location and perform rites of contrition. The pack do an ok job of distracting her for the majority of the items, but round rocks with sigils on them need to be returned to a large open area, and there isn't really anywhere for Anna to be taken while they do the Rite. The Garou shrug and perform it anyway. Funny, it didn't look like a foggy day. However, the mist is increasing, and swirling in odd ways, in the Umbra too. As the Ritual is performed, something enormous manifests near the rock-cairn where they were restored, seemingly part of the wall itself, except with fire for eyes, and enormous hands. Dom mumbles something about Nargun and tries to look small. It does not seem to react poorly however, and the mist swirls again. This time it reveals a thylacine, an aboriginal female and a crinos form thylacine. They simply watch for a time, and then as the rite is completed, the mists swirl up and swallow them all. Nothing perceptible seems to happen, but those performing the ritual look downwards as the fog clears, and they can faintly see a rainbow, in a ring around them.

Matters are cleared up, and the pack decide to leave as soon as they can.

Thursday 2 - Friday 3

The pack collects all the stuff they retrieved from Arthur and drive around to the National Parks, chatting with the rangers, and performing Contrition rites where appropriate. They then drive back to where they got the car from Monash, and report. To begin with, they skip on mentioning Bunyip stuff, but Monash presses them, and appears to already know. They fess up, and ask him why he deliberately sent them there. He tells them that the Council meets in a week to decide their fate, and he wanted to see for himself whether the pack actually did have a connection with the Bunyip. The pack mutter darkly, so Monash sends them home by Moonbridge before they rise up against him (no, not really).

Saturday 4 - Friday 10

Brett is off doing philodox things. John is being stalked by Marnie.

Thomas finally has a chance to meet with Melissa alone (want to go for a walk?) and crushes her heart like a bug. He explains that he knows that she has been acting towards him in a certain way, and he wants it to stop. Melissa asks why. Thomas tells her because its against the rules, and he spent a lot of time ignoring the rules, and it got his best friends killed. Melissa doesn't say anything, but just stares at the ground while Thomas digs himself a hole. She gets up and runs off. Thomas calls John over to help him follow her through the Umbra, but there is a mixup and John follows the wrong girl to Airport West.

Thursday Graeme asks John if he's seen Melissa. He says no, so Graeme gets him to do a Questing Stone on her. Melissa is apparently near Lorne somewhere. Graeme blinks a bit, and asks if John knows why she might have run off without telling anyone. John folds like wet paper and explains that Thomas tore out her heart and stomped it (well, more or less). Graeme looks pained, but not surprised, and says he'll handle it.

On Friday, John receives a call from Ian, who tells him to assemble his pack and bring them to the caern. They all arrive fairly close together, and find that Dom is there with Ends-the-Quiet and a small group of other people they don't recognise. Dominique introduces them as the Ngalyod pack, and says mentally that they are being taken to see the Council. Alex Sees-for-Miles speaks for the Ngalyod pack and tells John that the Jindabyne Council wish to speak to them regarding the Bunyip. Ends-the-Quiet opens a Moonbridge, and off all go to Crackenback.

Holistic Approach is led down a short path from the summit, towards a clearing in the Umbra. There is a great horseshoe table there, with 13 chairs, 11 of which are occupied, one which has been thrown away, and one empty. The pack are directed to a bare space at the open end of the shoe. The Ngalyod pack move to stand behind the table. Vlad Volchensky stands up and addresses the pack, telling them they are here for two reasons - one is their ongoing contact with the bunyip, and the other was the preemptive addition of Darren 'Ghost' Michaels by Darius.

John kindly offers to accept another observer in the pack, and blinks innocently at the thought that they might have done anything wrong. He points out that Kanau accepted Darren and he is now a member of the pack, and seems blithely unaware of the threat that Darren might be removed from the back. Vlad moves onto the topic of the bunyip and John basically counters with "it wasn't our fault". Vlad makes a licentious remark about disbanding the pack, and the council dissolves into bickering again. Dom rolls her eyes and sits down - she's been here before. Eventually order is restored, and Tjinderi Knowing-Smile is instead the spokesperson. She asks them some questions about the fae/dancers situation and accuses them of deliberately violating the council's edict. John tries to defend the pack on the grounds that they were just trying to stop the city from being swamped by fae, but Tjinderi counters with the fact that Mathias boldfaced refused to help the pack Two Bones in their investigation, and kept bunyip-related information to themselves. John says that the pack doesn't seek the bunyip out, but that they just come to the pack. Tjinderi says that maybe the pack should be separated and scatter across the world in that case, and the Council breaks down again. Grek manages to be hear and suggests that the Council take a break.

The rest of the Councillors head away from the table, but Grek comes down towards the pack. He suggests they go for a walk. As they stroll around, Grek points out that Darius' preempting of the Council has left them in a bad situation. Matters had been defused somewhat with the stranding of Mathias in Erebus, but adding Darren to the pack when the Council was considering its own choice has caused a need for the Council to act so that its authority is not undermined - if Darius is seen to be able to act in this way, other tribal leaders will follow his lead, and the council will become even more of an empty institution. Grek would rather not see this happen, and he has a suggestion for how to resolve the issue. If Holistic Approach challenge the council for their right to pack autonomy, and implicitly to be free to tangle with the bunyip, the Council will be seen to be keeping its dignity, and the matter can be resolved. Otherwise, well, the Council has no direct authority over the pack, but if they decide to remove Darren and the pack disregards their decision, that would be worse than inaction on the Council's part. Grek offers to give the pack time to think about it, and wanders away. The pack discuss their options for a few minutes, but feel that their own honour requires them to give this path a try.

A few hours pass, and finally the Council reassemble. John steps forward quickly and says that Holistic Approach challenge the council for their own autonomy. Grek nods, and a few of the other Council members do not seem surprised. Grek stands and accepts on behalf of the Council. He says that the challenge must demonstrate that Holistic Approach are a competent pack, and so the challenge that will be set is one of four parts - they must hunt like a pack, fight like a pack, live like a pack and die like a pack. As the arm of the Council, the Ngalyod pack will be their opponents. Holistic Approach are directed down from the summit and told to wait for instructions. They ask if they may summon their totem, and are granted permission. The pack finds the local Ritemaster, Tames-Spirits-With-Her-Snarl and ask for permission. She agrees, but will observe. John proceeds to summon Kanau, but gets a bit nervous with the supervision and isn't quite as precise as he should be. Snarly sniffs and heads off as Kanau plummets from the sky, all rested up after his material jaunt. John explains things, and Kanau agrees to ensure the pack behaves with honour.

The pack await their instructions, and are approached by Wungala Rose, Fingal Flashing-Claws and Mamu. They are led to a dry creek bed, where sept theurges are summoning, and arrive as they finish. A huge stag appears, shimmering in a vaguely indigo shade about its white fur. Fingal asks if it will be their prey for the day, and it bows its head and then leaps down the creek valley. The pack leap after it, with Dom riding Thomas. Briefly. Thomas bounds onwards, and John chases up to Dom and then down to the creek bed again. Darren and Brett trip over themselves, and the stag stops to watch, amazed. The pack eventually sort themselves out, and spread out, working in team work to herd the stag. They eventually catch it in a dead end, and pull it down. Fingal and the other Council members walk up and Fingal whispers his thanks in its ear.

The pack are sent on their way, to the top of a hill. When they get there, Carla, Vlad and Darius await them. Carla says they must demonstrate that they are able to fight as a pack. She gestures to the bald spot on the hill and the three council members move to the edge of the clearing. There is a shimmering in the centre of the area and a lion spirit appears. It is surrounded by a bright glow, similar to that which encompassed the stag, but golden. The pack act in a vaguely cooperative fashion, at least to the extent of protecting Dominique or anyone who is seriously mauled. They are beating on the lion and it disappears. John says that wasn't so hard, and looks at Carla, who just looks at him and cocks one eyebrow. Someone groans and peeks, and there the lion is. The pack leap into the Realm and continue to attack. There is some attempt to coordinate hitting the spirit from one side and then another to confuse it, but it concentrates on mauling Thomas. Eventually the pack overcome it. Carla tells them to head back to the caern, and to the lodges that are nearby. There is space there for them to rest and recover, and await the next part of the challenge.

The pack head over there, and bind up wounds, and generally rest. Before dusk, some kinfolk bring in food and drink, and just as the light fades Mother Pasta, Innana and Don Mephisto arrive. Innana is apparently their spokesman, and she asks the pack to detail how they live their life in ways that exemplify packness. After wracking their brains they bring up a few examples, like helping John with Peter, Brett and the hurt dog, helping Dom get over her wounds now. There are other minor incidents that they recover. Mother Pasta spends her time glaring at Dom. It is pointed out that they have only been a pack for a short time, and a lot of the time that a pack would spend together is supplemented by their mental link. The council members eventually leave.

It is midnight when Grek, Monash and Tjinderi knock and enter the cabin. They do not sit, but instead Grek speaks in the Garou tongue, saying "The forth part of the challenge is a simple one. To accomplish some greater good, one member of the pack must die. Who, and why?" Grek phrases the question in a pure form, in a way that is used to describe spiritual nature of objects, not instances of those objects, indicating that they are not interested in examples of different situations, but in the method by which the pack would use to choose the sacrifice. Grek says the pack has until dawn, when the three of them will return.

There is some discussion of the question, which none of them are impressed by, and how they would resolve the issue. John, after a long silence, says "Thomas. It should be Thomas", causing Thomas to cuff him on the head. Eventually they come to a decision - the sacrifice would be whoever believes strongest that they should be the one. All are willing to do the best for the pack, even if that means death. The pack will go on".

Saturday 11

About midmorning, the pack is summoned to the Council again, along with a number of observers. Grek seems to be the appointed spokesman, and he says "Both packs performed adequately in the the challenge. With regards to the last part of the challenge, neither pack was particularly inspired. The Ngalyod pack ("No one in the pack will be sacrificed, there is no greater good.") should perhaps think beyond themselves a trifle more, and Holistic Approach should perhaps consider more the worth of an individual. However, overall, the Ngalyod pack performed more competently than Holistic Approach, and thus the Council has made its decision."

"The Council is satisfied that Darren Michaels is an integral part of the pack Holistic Approach, despite his problematic appointment. However, he is not the Council's chosen representative. As Holistic Approach have themselves pointed out, and their responses to the challenges show, they are still a young and mostly inexperienced pack. The Council therefore feels it is appropriate to appoint an observer to the pack. Given the difficulty Australian Garou have maintaining an objective approach to the matter of the Bunyip, we have chosen Chasing-the-Night, an Uktena from Japan as our representative." Grek points to an asian homid standing with the other observers, who bows. "Chasing-the-Night, in this you will be the eyes of the Council, and for the time being, you must put aside tribal loyalty -" Grek's eyes flick to both Darius and Tjinderi "- and act for all the Garou of our protectorates. The Council is closed."

Some of the councillors leave immediately, others sit and talk to others. Chasing-the-Night approaches the pack and they introduce themselves to him. He says that his homid name is Kimu Tetsu, and that he is actually Ainu, not Japanese. A floating ball of light drifts towards the pack and starts clinging to Brett. Kimu seems a bit bemused and says that it is his guide, although he has never seen it do that to anyone. Brett explains his peculiar affinity to Wyld spirits and Kimu nods. The pack introduce themselves to him, and also to Kanau, their totem. Kanau agrees to accept him into the pack once they are back at the caern and a caern elder will perform the Rite of Totem. The pack decide that they should probably be getting back, so they find Tames-Spirits-With-Her-Snarl and get Moonbridged back to Melbourne.

Once they arrive, they are quick to notice that there are a lot of people about, more than would usually be lurking. Cossack is also waiting there. Cossack asks for a quick explanation of Kimu's presence, and then announces to the Sept that having faced the challenge of the Jindabyne Council, he and the Sept regard the entire pack as being of the second rank, and that they are all Adren of their various auspices. He performs the Rite of Accomplishment and everyone cheers and showers them in beer. After a short celebration, the pack finds themselves with Cossack, who chats briefly with Chasing-the-Night. He and Emma agree to perform the Rite of Totem later that night, and send the pack out to find some minor bits and pieces for it. The Rite is performed that evening, and much of the Sept if there to watch it. Kimu is accepted by Kanau and gets the special voices in his head.

Sunday 12

Kimu is led about the caern, and shown off as the new victim, er, packmember. Dom heads back to Rippling Waters and demands that they others come and visit. The others get on with their drab lives. John asks about Melissa and Christine says that they went down to visit and found that she was on holidays with friends. More than that, respondent sayeth not. Brett tries to find out about the places the Cave Clan won't go.

Monday 13

Thomas has an exciting dream: He is back in the tunnels under Preston, and cleaning up goop. As he goes deeper, it becomes darker and darker. Eventually it is totally dark and only the smell of evil goop and sewerage remains. Suddenly he hears noises of a large engine like a bus or truck starting up, followed by more engines. Headlights appear, pinning him like a rabbit. They rush towards him and just before they hit, they become the glowing eyes of a gargoyle. Thomas awakens with a sense of distant, but growing, danger.

About midmorning, Aquinas approaches John. In the distance are sirens, and smoke. Aquinas explains that Moonflower was met this morning by a young gentleman who demanded to speak to Mikal and also demanded his niece back. Moonflower did some sort of sensing on him, and came up with 'mage'. She apparently has an issue or two with anger management and attacked him. He responded in such a way that seems to agree with the 'mage' rating, and while Moonflower is ok and recovering, the house is burning down. Aquinas went and spoke to Dominique about it (being the only conscious and obtainable contact to Mikal) and she suspects that it might be someone asking about Polly, a girl that they suspect might have been a bunyip or somehow related to them, due to events of the previous year and the Killer of Children. That was all the information she had, as those events were messy at best. She thinks that Miranda might have done some research, but all of Miranda's personal effects were sent back to Singing Sands. Aquinas spoke to Cossack and would like the pack to follow things up, seeing as how they have had some mage contact, and also because if Moonflower thinks no one is doing anything about it, she will go herself. John, who summoned the pack when this discussion began and who passed everything along to them, agrees that they will go. He is also keen to talk to people who might have known Peter. Thomas passes along his dream, and thinks it might be connected (what with the gargoyles and all).

They find Ends-the-Quiet and after he negotiates a moonbridge to Singing Sands, a silvery window opens. They find themselves actually having to travel some distance down this moonbridge, as it spans something like 4000 kilometers. The pack appear in what seems to be a small office in the Umbra. A man awaits them, and closes the Moonbridge. He introduces himself as Gordon Havers, Rank 3 Philodox of the Glasswalkers and master of the rite of Singing Sands. John introduces the pack and then explains that they are here to get Miranda's things. Gordon raises his eyebrows and says that if they are here for information, they need to meet with the librarian. Out this office, along a corridor, and into another office, marked Librarian on the door - the entire trip is inside, and there is an insulated, quiet feeling about the entire place. Kimu and Brett keep shuddering and trying not to touch anything.

Inside the Librarian's office is, presumably, the librarian. Gordon introduces Clair Bointreau (Galliard, rank 3) and leaves. The pack explain their aim here, and Claire makes some comments about John and Peter. She isn't very flattering, and generally thinks it was his own stupid fault for getting captured and turned. She summons a terminal out of her desk, which impresses John. She taps a bit at the terminal and tells them that the information they want is in the library, but there will be a cost. The pack start to get their back up, and Claire tells them to wait in the foyer, vaguely waving. They head out there and find an entirely enclosed, if healthy, garden. The light comes from a diffuse square well above them. It smells healthy, but Kimu notices that the tree has a precise nature to it. They sit and wait, as traffic comes in and out of the room. Through one door comes something from their nightmares - a half Garou/half machine crinos form. It stomps across the room, and then stops and examines them closely. It introduces itself as Teeth-of-Titanium, and asks John if he is the Brighton boy. He says yes, and ToT asks some questions about Peter, although not as hostilely as Claire. During this interrogation, Don Mephisto, Jindabyne Council member also enters the foyer. His rotund form heads their way and greets Teeth-of-Titanium, and he asks why they are here. They explain and he in turn lets them know that the library is the caern spirit, and that it demands knowledge in return for knowledge. The pack look less annoyed. Don Mephisto distracts Teeth-of-Titanium away from the pack.

Claire finally makes her appearance, and tells them that the library is interested in finding out about a ghost story, of all things. She says that there is a story about a ghost who haunts the area near Mullewa, north of Perth, that dates from about the time of the War of Tears. Apparently this ghost walks about in the bushlands near the town. The pack are given a flash car, and a map and some well wishes. They head north for a few hours, turn inland at Geraldton, and finally arrive in Mullewa (pop 790, due to fall soon) about 4pm. They find a general store and meet Millie, who they ask about ghost stories, claiming to be a university group interested in filming stories about Australian mythology (the pack note this excuse down somewhere for further use). Millie does indeed know about the story, and the version she knows is that the woman and her husband were camped near the riverbed, and there was a flash flood and he was taken away. She died looking for him, and still does. Millie says that old Jim Taylor would be a better man for this, as he wrote a history of the town, oh, 20 years or so ago. She gives directions (left, down a bit, right at the bright blue house and then 3rd on the left), and they eventually find the location. Jim turns out to be about 75, and sitting on his porch drinking beer. He is a friendly fellow, and ready for a bit of a gab, although he's a bit unsure about Chasing-the-Night. Darren stays in the car, in the boot, and is not happy about it.

Jim goes in for his journal and comes out with it and a 6 pack, which he offers around. He looks through his journal and tells them a few more variations of the story - the old woman was a mother-in-law and she slipped into a coma and the young married couple thought she was dead and left her by the side of the road and she got up and wandered lost until she died. Or she is an abo woman, who did something tribal, and cursed the entire area - the abos who used to live around all left about the time that the ghost appeared, so he thinks this might have been the actual first story - Morgan told him this one, and died soon after, so he would have been, oh no more than 10 or so when the ghost was first sited, around start of the century. Another old guy walks past and greets Jim. His name is Tom and he knows a variation of the story. Jim tells them that he actually saw the ghost late one night, on his way back from a wedding. He said she was all shriveled up, and it was hard to tell whether she was white, or tanned, or whatever - it was just on dawn, and he nearly crashed, was distracted and when he looked up again, she was gone. He can give them the exact spot on a map though, and does so. The pack grab some food in Mullewa and head out to that location, a dry river bed about 4 kms out of town. They settle in to see what they can see - the Realm is flat, dry and scrubby, while the Umbra is a temperate forest.

Time passes and nothing seems to make itself known. Around midnight, Guide whispers into Chasing-the-Night's ear that he can see something approaching from the southish. Chasing-the-Night uses their link to see through Keiteki's eyes. Everything is very strange and hard to perceive, but Chasing-the-Night manages to see what it is that Guide is describing. There is a figure, imbued with Wyld energies, slowly shuffling towards their location. The rest of the pack are woken up and they head that way in the Umbra. Everyone but John sneaks through the underbrush. They can see, shuffling towards them, a vaguely female figure, shriveled and dressed in the remnants of clothes, covered in red dust. She doesn't seem to pay any attention to them. The use various sensing gifts and the woman seems to be strongly Wyld, some Wyrm and a trace of the demonic sense which they get off the Bunyip and the Gargoyles. She changes form to a lupus form and keeps moving.

The woman suddenly disappears, and peeking reveals that she is now in the Realm. This causes some consternation, but given that there's no one else around they don't care too much. The woman doesn't leave a trail in the Realm, and isn't quite clear if she's actually interacting with the dirt, although she is knocking plants aside. Brett blocks her path, and she simply runs into him and slowly slides past (not in a metaphysical way, just literally). Some of her rags fall off, and scenting them leaves the pack with just a scent of the surrounds. She seems to have a small wooden earring in her left ear. She shuffles past the road and along the river bed, as the pack try other sensing gifts, and John records everything on his video camera. She shuffles along for about an hour, and then moves up the edge of river bed and stops, swaying. When she shows no sign of moving on further, Brett and Kimu run forward and see what they can see in the Umbra, having seen that he trail continues on. It only takes them about 10 minutes to follow the path to the end, and it stops suddenly. Peeking here reveals a fallen tree and some built up grass.

The woman starts moving again, stepping in the Umbra. She continues on, changing form, apparently at random. Hours later, the false dawn is colouring the eastern sky, and she reaches the end of her trail, and steps sideways. She simply stands there in front of them, rocking and swaying. Sensing the area in depth, there is a faint sense of something below the ground. The woman fades out slowly, not into the Umbra, but as if she was dissolving. Digging into the ground reveals a layer of charcoal about a foot below the ground, and then a skull, and then an entire skeleton. Looking through the remains finds a small metal hook, with some remnants of wood at the end of it - possibly an earring. Brett suggests giving the body a proper burial, but they don't know what culture the ghost comes from.

Tuesday 14

Now that the sun has come up, the pack aren't quite sure what to do. They suggest heading back to Singing Sands, but both John and Kimu want to find out what the hell is happening. They decide to ring home and ask if anyone knows anything about it. They get Graeme on the phone and he suggests that they ring a number in NSW somewhere. John rings Dom and asks who the number belongs to. She says that its probably Bartholomew Wise-in-the-Ways-in-the-Wyrm, and that he helped them with the whole Sydney thing. He knows a lot about Australian Garou history. They decide to ring him, and get a gruff outback accented voice. They discuss stuff with him and he suggests that the only story he has for the area is about Beth Proudly, who disappeared in the area about 100 years ago with her pack. They had been renown for their battles against the bunyip. John thanks Bartholomew, and asks him who is the closest Protectorate. Bartholomew says that they are in a Black Fury protectorate, and the closest sept is near Jurien bay. They decide to head that way and let the Sept know.

After driving for a few hours, they park and run towards the approximate location of the caern through the Umbra, howling as they go. They are suddenly confronted with another pack, who are less than impressed with their presence. John is nicely deferential and explains their presence. One of the pack members looks at the leader and nods. She introduces herself as Gail Vinnicombe, pack leader of Mist Treaders. They will take the story to their Sept leaders, and Holistic Approach will stay here. Two of the Mist Treaders remain, three of them head off. The remaining Garou swap some stories, which don't even vaguely sound like "and then the brave Uktena slaughtered the evil Black Furies". After a time, they return with another wolf, who is introduced as Snaps-at-Snow, Ritemaster of their Sept. They re-explain their situation, and Snaps-at-Snow says that they will go with Holistic Approach to the scene.

Hours back the other way in the car, with the Black Furies in a beaten up combi van. They hit the site and show Gail, Alana and Zoe around, while showing Snaps-at-Snow the skeleton. Gail suggests digging about at the other places where the ghost did something, and they find at the spot where she stepped back into the Umbra a hand sticking up out of the ground. Further excavagation leads to 4 skeletons, 3 homid, one lupus (definately lupus, not thylacine). They show signs of having died through violence, unlike the other skeleton. Snaps-at-Snow returns after doing proper theurgy things and says that she now knows what happened. The ghost in fact is Beth Proudly, and she killed the other members of her pack and buried them before wandering off into the desert to die. Apparently she was consumed with guilt about the War of Tears, which she had participated in so enthusiastically, and lured her pack out into the wilderness before attacking them. Brett asks if Snaps-at-Snow intends to do a proper burial rite, and she says yes, as well as a punishment rite for the spirit of Beth. Holistic Approach look a little confused and Snaps-at-Snow says that Beth needs to be punished, however, symbolically, so she can move on. Snaps-at-Snow thanks Holistic Approach for their help in a "you can go now" sort of way, and Mist Treaders follow them to the car. Gail teaches John a short howl that he can use from the edge of their bawn that will bring a pack to see them if they return to the Jurien Sept. The pack plough back into the merc and drive back to Perth.

They arrive in Perth in short order, and are shown through the caern again to meet once more with Claire. She gets John to sit down and explain what they did and what they saw for an hour or two, asking pertinent questions, and apparently consulting with someone out of sight. At the end of all this, Claire tells them they can find the information they want in a room three doors down on the left. They get given a document wallet full of bits of paper. Sorting through it all takes a while, but in essence, it seems Miranda had been doing research into Polly's family, and the final item is a drawn out family tree. There are also some questions circled in red - "nearby caerns?", "aboriginal ancestors? - have to go to towns and enquire from genealogy societies?" - "enquire of surviving relatives?" - "What killed Melissa Bury?". There are also some other notes about Polly, but none of them are really coherent.

Feeling slightly ripped, the pack opt to return to Melbourne with their new materials. They talk to Gordon, who opens a Moonbridge to Sleeping Lore. A short trot later, and they are back in Melbourne at nearly midnight, amongst their own insane friends and relatives. The pack catch Aquinas and Cossack up on what they have learnt, and they discuss things. In the end, it is decided that Holistic Approach should continue to investigate things. Cossack goes into detail about the things that occurred when Polly was found -

she basically attacked Dom, and when the pack approached her, she spurned them more. Later on it became clear that Polly was acting in concert with some sort of dreamtime spirit - whether an actual bunyip, or an emanation of kinfolk, it was never clear. The two of them were driving off a spirit that was called the Killer-of-Children, which Infinite Paths found had been released by some less-than-scrupulous quarry owners when they destroyed some aboriginal paintings. In the end, Infinite Paths led the spirit to Healesville and after some rather surprising events it was eventually bound by Malajimbarra. Polly, in the meantime, had been kidnapped by unknown assailants on the very same night. Mikal believed that the scents were kinfolk. With the help of other Uktena, the Killer of Children was kept under control for a few months, and then after the Jindabyne Council was involved, the Uktena took custody of the bound spirit against the wishes of the nearby Sept of Reconciliation. Cossack briefly hints that there were some other events specifically linked to Infinite Paths at that time, but doesn't go into details.

Even though they've already had a long, long day, Holistic Approach decide to use Questing Stone to see what they can see. They do a Questing Stone to find Christian Bury, and his trail leads to a motel in Carnegie. They check it out, but there seems to be nothing special about the man whom Questing Stone indicates, nor the woman next to him, asleep. They decide to find Christopher Garret, and he apparently is in Donvale with his family, also asleep. Nothing special there either, so they trace Polly's father out in Mooroolbark. Andrew is asleep also (its well after midnight by this point), and a brief probing about reveals nothing particularly special. Polly's room is covered in dust, and doesn't appear to have been changed in the last year or so. They find some photos of Polly, so at least they know what the hell is going on. They step in, dedicate one photo and a teddy bear, and step out again. The general opinion is "sod this for a joke", and they head back to the caern and go to sleep.

Wednesday 15

Bright and early, John and Thomas are back at Carnegie, checking out Christian Bury. He and the woman with him are packing their things together, and seem to be preparing to leave. They check out, get into their car and head off out of the city. John and Thomas follow, but give up at about Stud Road. In the meantime, Brett has wandered to the State Library to see what he can do about the questions they have. He confirms the details in Polly's family tree and finds out that Melissa died of TB in 1990. He looks in the paper for obituary notices and finds some from Andrew and Polly, and Melissa's parents, and Andrew's siblings. There's not one from Christian Bury (who would have been 21).

It is decided that Christian must be the one of evil, so the pack look up Bury's in the White Pages and find a C. Bury in Berwick, which was the direction he seemed to be heading. They pack travel out there and squabble a lot about how to approach him. The estate where he lives is a relatively new one, of the A.V. Jennings style of suburban wasteland. The umbra is a flat, unending plain, covered in weaver webs, making it fairly exciting to move around. Darren gets bored of the discussion and wanders into the umbral house. He finds a clear space where the webbing is sufficiently separated and peeks. It certainly doesn't sound like anyone is home, and the scents here are a couple of years old. He asks the others to check to see if there is a car - no. Darren decides to step through. He is searching about the places while John talks on about false ID. There is no one home. Its a fairly new place, reasonably plush. According to the bills stacked neatly somewhere, it is the domicile of Cameron Bury. Darren passes this gem on, and someone does a Questing Stone. Christian Bury seems to be 30kms west north west. Much cursing, piling back into cars and heading back the other way. They take a chance and park out the front of the motel in Carnegie (that being about 30kms away) and do another Questing Stone. It seems to indicate that Christian Bury was still within the building.

Over the next 7 hours, the pack try and figure out what the hell is going on. They do a Questing Stone on a number of occasions, and it points to different places, some of them empty rooms, all within the motel. The motel is partially occupied - 8 rooms, 2 empty, 1 woman, 1 couple, 3 single guys. Each room has a bathroom and sort of minimalist kitchen area. Even from in the roof space, Questing stone points at an empty room. Under the house reveals nothing. None of their gifts seem to reveal anything particularly startling about the guests or the manager. There is a certain amount of running between rooms and avoiding the manager as people try and questing stone in the Realm. Another person leaves, and it seems that someone else has rung ahead to book the room that the purported Christian was in last night with his female friend. Frustrations build, and the pack decide to head off and return late at night when they can break in and read the registration book, before one of them opts to cut his way through the walls.

Thursday 16

Just after midnight the pack return to the motel of infinite annoyance. They creep around in the Umbra. John steps out and looks at the registration book, and goes through the 9 rooms and who is in each. 1 couple, 3 single guys, 1 single woman, 4 empty rooms. More Questing Stones seem to reveal that Christian is still in the building, yet they can't find him or any thing supernatural. Brett suggests killing everyone and seeing who complains the most. More investigation of the booking register leads to some confusion about whether they have actually looked at everyone here. Brett goes off to check it out, and returns. Speculation about what happens if they burn it down. Brett looks at their list of suspects and the map they've made and starts to swear. He runs off and counts all the doors. 1. 2. 3. ... 8. 9. He comes back to the office and doesn't remember seeing doors 4-7. He tries it again, and counts 8 rooms, but the numbers go to 9. The pack make a concerted effort to go to Room 5, that being the one that is causing them the most memory and cognition problems. After some pissing about, they finally work it out, and find that it causes them discomfort to go to the door of Room 5, and that a sense unnatural reveals Wyrm, Magic and Wyld things leaking from the room.

After some more discussion, they pounce from in the Umbra (where the room is also now visible) and through the door of the Realm. They find a room filled with a thin smoke, and a man asleep in the bed, smelling of sickness and blood. Darren ends up with his knife at the man's neck. John examines the source of the smoke, which is coming from brazier/burner things in the corners of the room, which also reek of magic. After Darren is telekinetically moved away from the man, he sits up. The lights are turned on, and it reveals a curly haired guy in his mid 30s. His sheets are stained with blood and there are poultices of some sort on his chest. He has a strong wyrm taint (not corruption).

Brett has a conversation with the man, who does indeed seem to be Christian Bury. After healing some of his wounds with their healing fetish as an act of good faith, they discuss Polly and what might have happened to her. Brett mentions the contact that they had with Polly before her disappearance, including the Killer-of-Children, and that they had nothing to do with her going missing. He hints that it might have been other mages that came and took her away. Other topics include the reason for Moonflower's reaction (although her name is not mentioned), that being the death of a previous close companion at the hands of those similarly empowered to contact the occult forces. Christian is fairly close-mouthed, but he does say that he has been away, and that perhaps their abilities do travel along family lines. Brett suggests that they might have a common enemy in the form of the mages who are lurking about Melbourne. They opt to demonstrate their faith by healing him, but then surreptiously perform a rite of Cleansing at the same time, after getting Christian to reignite the burners in the corners of the room. They do heal him, watching pink scars fade to nothing in moments. There is a tentative agreement that they could perhaps cooperate.

Friday 17

The pack go to their respective sleeping places and get their heads down for a bit. Upon awakening they meet Cossack at the Victoria Market and catch him up with what they know. He's a little concerned that they gave too much away by doing the Cleansing ritual, but concedes it was their call and maybe removing the taint was a better long term goal. He is also a little concerned that the pack are leading Christian on with regard to who took Polly - the Sept doesn't need another mage opposing them if he figures out they were lying. Again though, its their call. He suggests talking to Emma as well so she knows what they have found out mystic-stuff-wise. They do, and then head out to Carnegie again. John also speaks to Emma about learning Truth of Gaia. She suggests speaking to Kanau, who agrees, but John must tell the truth for a week before he will grant the gift.

Christian has cleaned himself and the room up a bit. The pack broach the topic of finding the other mages who they are claiming took Polly. Brett surreptiously calls upon Truth of Gaia, and Christian doesn't seem to notice its use. Christian asks the pack to describe what they have seen the other magi do - as that will help him work out who they are (true). The pack describe the gargoyles and straw men that they have seen, and the cowled demons they had described to them. They explain about a house (the one in Dandenong), with wards that cover the walls - Christian calls them fractal wards and seems surprised that they use them (true). He asks if he can see the house, and the pack check back with the caern - they say they can offer photos, and Christian seems content to accept that. The dead bodies in the cellar are also mentioned, and Christian doesn't really raise an eyebrow. He says that the other mages will have made alliances of some sort (true), There is a brief discussion about world views, how the Garou have an animistic outlook on their world, and Christian implies that his is a more intellectual/abstract view, and that the alliances in question will be with powerful spirits of that type (true).

They return to the question of Polly. The pack say they know where she disappeared from and ask whether going there would help Christian out. He agrees and they head to Lilydale lake, except Darren, who goes back to the Sept. After looking at the site - full of schoolkids and office Christmas parties - Christian suggests returning under the cover of darkness (such that it is with the bright Galliard moon). The pack agree and run him back to Carnegie with the promise to return at dusk.

After spending a fairly calm afternoon the pack go back to Lilydale lake an hour before dusk. There are still a lot of people running about, but they gradually pack up and head off. Darren and Chasing-the-Night remain in the Umbra while the others hang suspiciously in the car park. Christian turns up about 15 minutes before sundown, and they exchange some greetings. Christian looks up at the Galliard waxing moon and asks Thomas if he should worry. Thomas says no, it doesn't work like it does in the legends. Christian talks idly a bit about legends, myths and the core of truth in them.

Once enough people have headed off, Christian traces out a square around the place where Polly was said to have been kidnapped and draws something at each corner. Sensing reveals Magic and some Wyrm and Demonic sense. Christian continues to chant, and the pack members in the Realm see a sort of pale, wafting fog build up. Those peeking see nothing. The fog seems contained by the four points Christian marked out. He continues chanting in a low tone and a figure can be seen - it does not move continuously, but instead in short, almost strobe-like movements. The figure is made of the same sort of material, and is more a delineated fog than a distinct humanoid figure. It is probably a female figure, about 5 foot high, moderately stocky - which matches the pictures of Polly they've seen.

The figure moves about a bit, and then suddenly another, much, much larger figure starts to form up on the side of the carpark away from the lake. It is crinoid. It too moves in fits and bounds, as if it was being strobed. The female figure turns and starts to flee, but the crinos runs towards her, scoops her up and runs off in a weird sort of stop-motion fog. As it runs off shot as it were, Christian turns on John and is fairly terse, wanting to know why they lied to him, and what else have they said that wasn't true. John backpedals rapidly and says that this is as much a shock to him as them. Christian is less than immediately understanding, but John continues to deny that they knew about this. After some mental consultation, John admits that they have opponents who are the same as they, but strongly opposed - they may have taken Polly. This admission is also not exactly trusted either, coming a bit at a convenient time.

John and Christian have a discussion about different scrying methods. Christian is a bit shocked when it comes out that the only thing that John needs is a name and he knows which direction and how far they are. Christian tells them that he has a scrying spell of sorts, but that it requires something dear to the person, and it only gives him hints of their location. Thomas pulls out Polly's teddybear, which leads to a whole new shpiel of accusations against him and the other Garou. Christian snatches it and gets some things from his car, moving down the now dark slope towards the lake. Darren and Chasing-the-Night peek from the Umbra and watch him. He puts the bear in a rather ornate bowl and pours something that might be mercury over it. He then spends 30 minutes speaking quietly in an unknown language and concentrating. Too thrilling for words.

Christian returns and says that he is not getting much in the way of impressions at all. The pack and Christian move back into town a bit closer, the somewhat menacing Umbra beginning to make Darren and Chasing-the-Night a bit nervous. They stop at Ringwood and try some Questing Stones. John manages to get a number of successes and gets a strong pull to the south west - not precise at all, nor a measure of distance.

Christian asks some questions about Questing Stone, and proposes to link the two magics together. John agrees, after some arguing from the others. Darren stuffs his fingers in his ears and chants "I'm not telepathic, I'm not telepathic", which is just as well, because frankly these long pauses in front of Christian are beginning to get suspicious. John does two more questing stones while Christian performs another rite around him. It doesn't quite gel, although Christian says he can probably get it to work with some more practice. John says that's he's too tired just now, and he'd rather wait. Christian agrees, and says that he'll go back to the hotel. He'd prefer that the others didn't follow him - another of those gestures of faith, especially considering the revelations of the night. John agrees. Christian drives off. Darren bullies John into dropping him somewhere nearby and sneaks towards the hotel. However, it appears that Christian has been putting his time to good use, because there is some sort of glowing, faintly silvery ward about the room in the Umbra. After being shocked several times, Darren slinks back home.

Brett comes home to find a visitor. (Brett only).

Saturday 18

Having agreed to meet late in the day again, the pack busy themselves with various bits and pieces during the day. Thomas is awoken from a sound sleep by the same dream he had the other day - descending into wyrm corrupted tunnels, sounds of engines, bright lights, gargoyle, and a sense of impending doom - stronger than last time. He is discussing this with people in the caern when he is accosted by Moonflower, who appears to have woken up. She is obviously not impressed at their ongoing work with Christian. After making this clear she storms off. Thomas finds Cossack and lets him know the current situation, and he agrees to chat to the other caern elders and distract Moonflower with preparations for the summer solstice moot (Tuesday). John is accosted by Marnie, who asks him what he's doing over New Years, and invites him to a party. She's going home for Christmas, which leads John to twitch a bit and say "yes, Christmas". He offers to take Marnie out for coffee, and she agrees. They chat the afternoon away. When he comes back, it seems that someone has broken in and cleared his answering machine. Is there no end to crime! Hang on - John checks about and finds the scent of another garou, female... sod, its Moonflower. He quickly thinks about all the things he left on the machine and thinks that its all ok. Questing Stone says that Moonflower is at Ringwood though, which leads John to consider being more careful about his messages. Chasing-the-Night points out to John that the image he saw at Lilydale looked awfully like Brett, which leads to some pointed comments from the pack about Brett's family, which leads to Brett basically saying "fuck off". Brett also says that he has to disappear tomorrow for reasons that he's not going into, and may not be back until Tuesday morning. None of the rest of the pack are impressed.

To a park! Meet with Christian, who is disgruntled again about his overnight visitor. He demands (well, insists) to go to the supposed mage house - he's suspicious that they even exist, seeing as how it was a Garou that kidnapped Polly, and considering their track record, who can blame him. John makes some calls and says that he can go visit, but he's not to touch anything, or they'll Take Steps. Christian is blindfolded, and out the house they go.

They park inside the hedge, and the Garou find themselves onset with a rising sense of panic. Initial suspicion falls on Christian but they try to check it out and go into the Umbra. There follows a series of panic attacks, leading two of the pack to fox frenzy, others to nearly have heart attacks and all to curse Dominique for summoning that sodding fear spirit.

Eventually they get themselves under control and Christian into the house. He peers about, looking at things, with his hands behind his back, humming and harring. They take him to the room with the cellar door, and Thomas opens it, revealing that the fear spirit hasn't left yet. Once they pry Thomas off the ceiling, all descend into the darkness.

Neither Chasing-the-Night or Darren have been in the house before, so they are also given the Grand Tour. Darren follows Christian closely, making sure that he doesn't even sneeze out of line. Christian seems to ignore him. They look about the main spell room, and are careful not to disturb anything. John explains about how the house seemed to have not been disturbed for a while, and Christian looks thoughtful. The tour continues into the secondary spell room, and the freezer - it is explained that they found many bodies there, and Christian nods, as if he was expecting this. Back into the main chamber and into the component room. Christian is poking about, while Brett guards the ladder, Thomas and Kimu lurk in the main room, Darren guards against Christian suddenly doing something evil and John chats to him.

Brett starts to notice something weird happening in one corner of the room. He mentally alerts the others as Christian looks up and says "what was that noise?" in the other room. A shape forms and starts heading towards the component room from the far corner of the main spell room. Thomas leaps towards it and can see that it is not a gargoyle (as they were expecting), but a cowled, semi-humanoid figure, floating a foot or so above the ground. Thomas takes a few swipes at it as the others prepare to deal if it gets past him. John changes to Crinos and bumps Christian back into the component room, knocking him into some of the cupboards. The demon thing is taking a beating from Thomas and tries to slip past him, only to find it was now facing Darren and Thomas. The two of them proceed to smash it up.

The pack, and Christian (rubbing his bruised head) examine the creature. It seems to be made of the same stuff as the gargoyles - thin pieces of shaped stone, something like granite or basalt, with a black ichor which seeps out from between the plates. The ichor appears to be volatile, as it is evaporating quickly. The plates are also becoming brittle and easily crumbled over the next few minutes, so it is presumed that the entity inside is what gives it the unusual properties. Christian says that it confirms some of what he thought - it is evidence that the magicians they are dealing with are in contact with a certain type of being.

Nothing more seems to be able to be gained from down here, so they head back upstairs, discussing the wards and the house and who might have been involved with their creation. Christian intimates that the sacrifices below would have been used to create the wards, and that it involved a significant amount of effort, and danger, to create them. He's never seen anyone do it, having only seen them described in books. The wards involve a large commitment - not something abandoned on a whim. He also intimates that they can be used to open pathways to other places, although not where or what those places are.

Christian then gets to the point - he is willing to admit that they were not lying to him when it comes to the existence of the other mages, but that he does not believe that they took Polly - he insists that the vision shown by the fog was a true one. The pack consider the possibility that its only the partial truth, and that she came back the other way and then was taken by two men in a car, confirming the investigations performed by Infinite Paths. He also agrees to help them find these other mages - but first he wants them to bend their efforts to help find Polly, and once she is safe, he will help them. John says that they agree to this plan.

Christian asks for a fuller explanation of what Polly was doing and where - he knows they mentioned the native spirit, but would like as much detail as they can give. The do explain what they know (not being there and all) and the word wirrenun comes up on the mental channel. Christian suggests going out there, and Darren and Brett decide to head out to Rippling Waters and interview Dominique again to get some more details out of her, and slap her for the fear spirit, while the other three pack members go to Mooroolbark. Brett convinces Ends-the-Quiet to open a Moonbridge for them, and wom out to Rippling Waters. Sandra Norton, looking gaunt as always, greets them and gives them directions to Dominique's house. Dominique comes in on the mental link between them and they start talking as they jog along, Brett cautiously watching out for any low fae. They explain what they have found out - vision of Garou snatching child, mage things - and Dom says that what they found out after Polly was snatched doesn't match up. Mikal distinctly scented humans, and kinfolk. They grilled possums (not literally) with Moodai's help and they had seen a black car blob and two human blobs there earlier. The possibility that those events happens afterwards is mentioned, and Dom looks a bit unsure. They chat some more about events, and Dominique is no help at all, so they give her a nipple cripple for the fear spirit and leave (no, not really).

Meanwhile, John, Thomas and Kimu are wandering about out the back of Andy Garret's house, where Polly was presumably doing the things she did. Christian suggests that he could maybe use a sort of astrology-based magic and try to find out what happened here. The others agree and Christian gets some stuff from her car - a knife of some variety, some paper and pencil and what might be an astrolabe. He spends a while wandering about cutting patterns into the soil with the knife, and running over some sort of mnemonic sequence under his breath. The Garou wander about, bored. Kimu peeks and finds that what is a wide field in the Realm is actually a ti-tree riddled area somewhere between swamp and flood valley, brightly lit from above, but crowded with shadow below. There is evidence of a cleared area and what might have been a fireplace at one point. Christian says that he's ready to start, and warns them not to distract him, because its fairly complex. The pieces of paper that he has are covered in some sort of writing, but its not English - some bits aren't even latin alphabet. While Christian chants in some sonorous fashion, John senses unnatural and feels a strong Magic sense, some demonic, some wyrm and a little weaver. The others show up and brain dump the information they got from Dominique.

Christian finishes and wanders back, making more incomprehensible notes on his pad. He says that his working was successful, but a little hard to understand. It seems to indicate a great anger, to which the Garou all nod. He says that it seems to be connected with a name - Warren? Brett echoes along with Christian and says "Wirrenun" and Christian says that it wasn't Warren, it was the word that Brett said, "wirrenun". It is vaguely alluded to that the wirrenun were aboriginal shamans or witchdoctors, and Christian is asked whether he has any aboriginal ancestors. He looks seriously nonplussed and says not as far as he knows, why? The pack are a bit non-committal. Leaving Thomas with Christian, the Garou go into the Umbra, to have a chat with Kanau about Polly. In the end, it gets very in-depth - Kanau explains that the pack has a purpose - reconciliation - and that the return of the Bunyip might be part of that. He doesn't know the whole plan, but occasionally gets flashes of what the pack must do. The discussion becomes more general, about the nature of spirits, especially Kanau - he explains that he doesn't know something, consider it and then react, but that knowing and doing are the same thing, and he reacts like water running down hill. There is some muddying of the waters regarding the difference between native spirits, umbra, dreamtime, etc, led avidly by Brett cross-examining their totem. The "something which is nothing" is also mentioned, but Kanau can sense it, but doesn't know what it is. He manages to convey what he senses to Brett, who is straight out alienated by it, although there is something akin to very strong Wyld spirits in it - maybe just the alienness. Brett asks some questions about the Dreamtime, but Kanau refuses to answer ("Please tell us where the secret Bunyip hideout is?" "er, no") and leaves.

Thomas looks around, being the only one in the Realm and realises that Christian has left, and he didn't notice when. He takes the lupus and heads back to the car, where Christian is sitting with the radio on (MBSFM). Christian looks at him and says "Is that necessary?" and Thomas just sits down. The others catch up eventually, stepping out somewhere nearby and coming back to the car. Christian asks if they found out anything, and John says yes, but not where Polly might be. Its decided to call it a night, and to meet at Luna Park tomorrow at 10am.

Thomas goes out clubbing. Darren goes to sleep. Kimu finds a Sept Elder and wakes him up, quizzing Ends-the-Quiet about spirit stuff. Ends-the-Quiet agrees to teach him Spirit Speech once he has demonstrated some understanding of the complexities involved in interacting with spirits.

Sunday 19

John gets up early and bugs Emma about possible spirit and totem stuff. She is forthcoming when he makes her coffee. Ah, chiminage in action. Chasing-the-Night goes off and does eerie Uktena things.

Darren and Brett run down to St Kilda while the others more prosaically drive. They are approaching Princes Highway when Thomas points out the beatup old blue Kingswood following them. They turn away from Luna Park and the car follows. Peering into the mirror, John realises that its Moonflower following them. They pull into a service station and she drives past. They shoot up a sidestreet and with a lot of horn honking, she follows. They turn the corner and stop, waiting for her to go past. She doesn't. John gets out and looks back, and finds that she has pulled over down the street. Kimu also gets out and John instructs Thomas to drive. Even though she can't see him, Moonflower takes off as soon as he turns into another street. She seems to be following Thomas, so the others go into the Umbra. John takes a large amount of seafood and garbage with him, having picked the wrong point to step sideways from. Thomas parks and leaps into the Umbra as well, and they run to Luna Park (Thomas jumps a lot to avoid Moonflower having Sense of Prey), dunking John on the way to clean him off..

Christian gives John an odd look, but they engage in small talk as he stands up and walks towards the Palace; and, it seems, St Kilda Market. Kimu is fascinated, and falls behind. Thomas keeps running into people he knows, so John and Christian are left to themselves, not counting the peeking Brett. Christian is buying some fairly esoteric bits and pieces - glass marbles, flowers, some aromatic oils, candles. The garou are sensing like mad, but nothing he is buying is particularly startling.

Brett spots a large guy staring this direction, and then heading along, dragging a woman. They seem about Christian's age, and seem to know him - at least, the guy starts the conversation with "Oh, hell, hi Christian!". Christian looks a bit taken aback, as if he wasn't expecting this:

Kimu and Thomas have been warned of the presence of someone weird and are zeroing in. They use sensing gifts and don't turn up much, although there is a weird magicness in the air to Kimu. John looks a bit startled but tries to make the best of it, shaking hands with Samantha and then Craig... who is apparently wearing a silver ring, because the shock makes John jerk his hand back sharply. He pleads a cramp when Craig checks that he's ok. Christian has taken this moment of peace to get himself together, and asks Craig lots of questions - how's Fiona, still playing football? He says that he's planning on staying around for a while, so maybe they should catch up, oh is that the time, I have to pick someone up, catch you soon. John tails along after Christian, who is looking pissed, back to his car. The Garou trail after Craig and Samantha for a bit, back to their car. John asks Christian about them and he says that they are just people he knew at school, but he was hoping to be in and out of the city as fast as possible, and not have people talk. He didn't leave under auspicious circumstances, it is inferred. Kimu follows the pair back to their car and gets the number plate, but everyone else goes and meets Christian.

They chat for a while about methods of finding Polly. Basically they are knackered because they have no start point to trace her from - 18 months is just basically too long ago. Christian asks about the ritual thing they did the other night, and how it might be enhanced. They ask questions about time magic, and he says that he can produce sort of echos. The possibility of going back in time, or grabbing the attention of something back in time and getting it to follow the trail then, while they are here now. Christian looks uncertain, but its certainly worth a try. The garou privately speculate about Umbral places they could go to see the past, and resolve to talk to the Elders.

Brett heads off on a mysterious personal mission (Brett only) at about 11.30. The others chat some more, but then Thomas starts to feel weird - cold, and a bit dark of vision. All the sensing gifts are used, and there is a magic and a wyrm sense happening, but its not issuing from Christian. Thomas moves around and it seems to be sort of centred on Christian, but its hard to pin down. Darren tries to sense it, but its just too intangible. The decide to move on, and have some lunch. It seems to fade... or maybe its just the exercise. Light chatting over lunch and Chasing-the-Night asks about the two people earlier. Christian is still unhappy with that event, but does explain that he went to school with them, they were just people, not mages, and that he left in circumstances that included two deaths, so he wasn't keen to be known to have returned. The pack make a mental note to follow that up. They ask about maginess - Christian trades them information - being what he is requires an inborn gift, but also training to hone those skills. John says that it is similar for them, they need to be shown the way.

Chatter turns to serious discussions about magic - Christian suggests getting the hell out of the city, as people interfere with his magic - basically he infers that their very presence makes it harder, it not just a sort of Veil thing. Some sort of psychic static. It comes up that Christian's magic drains energy from the surrounding area, and John asks if he could draw power from them - Christian says that yes he could, but its not the sort of spell he's comfortable with - even their quick healing ability wouldn't help. He asks about that instant healing thing, implicating that they must fight a lot to have developed it. John tells him that spirits teach them this sort of powers, its not intrinsic. The rest of the pack smack him in the head, but Christian doesn't go ballistic - he says that they can do something similar, but its not something he wants to toy with.

Kimu goes back to the caern, the long way, and finds Emma and Ends-the-Quiet to talk to. He asks about strange realms where they might be able to see the past, and Emma mentions the Atrocity Realm, but that there is no Frustrating Situation Realm. Time travel - fae or Flux realms, but that they are in no way reliable. She is unsure about the summon a spirit from a long time ago, but concedes it might help. The option of finding Polly's dreams comes up, but seems a bit hard without dreamspeech. Graeme comes past and asks if Kimu knows where Brett is - someone rang up and said they were from Reconciliation, was Brett there. When Graeme said no, they basically politely hung up, without leaving a name. Kimu says that he is off doing something personal, but that the message can be passed on. More talk about cold feelings and magic on Thomas. Emma tells Kimu to tell Thomas to come visit her that night and she will cleanse him, just in case.

The afternoon is spent speculating possible ways of tracking Polly - spirits, time, magic, taking a long, long time to enhance questing stone, linking magics together. Nothing certain is hit upon, but there is a feeling of progress. Christian calls it a night at dusk, saying he has things to do, and books to read to see if some of what came up is relevant.

Thomas finds Emma and talks to her about the cold feelings he has been having and what they might mean. They arrange to meet at Studley park, as neither of them is keen on Thomas coming back into the caern just at the moment. Emma performs the Rite of Cleansing for Thomas, and the faint taint seems to lift and vanish.

Darren goes out to the back of Andy Garret's house and tries to Questing Stone for Polly again. After several hours he gets a positive response, again to the south west, without it being more precise. Planning to head home, he looks into the Umbra only to find there is a faint wyrm taint, looking like shadows of fire, all around the area. He moves away and examines it, and it seems to be slowly reducing. He opts to try another Questing Stone from the realm, and this comes up totally blank - not like the sense they have been getting of "missing", but more a "does not exist", like she was in another realm. Darren tries this from the Umbra and gets a similar response. He heads back to a park nearer the city to get some sleep, mulling this over in his head.

Monday 20

Kimu wakes up and spends some time with Ends-the-Quiet, learning of the spirits of the Umbra. He feels something wrong, but can't put his finger on it. Mentioning it to Ends-the-Quiet, who can't sense anything out of place, Chasing-the-Night continues to follow him around the cemetery. Darren is the next to wake, in the Umbra of a park in the suburbs. He is heading towards the caern when he realises that he can't sense John in the link at all. Darren asks Kimu, who thinks that might have been what was wrong. They wake Thomas from sleep and meet at John's room. Much fiddling around with the Umbra, Gauntlet, scents and carparks later, they have determined that John is not in his room, hasn't been for hours, isn't in the Gauntlet, and his car is gone. Questing Stone reveals that he is guarded in some fashion, and to the north west. Wrapping Darren in a blanket (in lupus) they follow John's trail via Sense of the Prey. John appears to have driven to Sunshine and performed a Questing Stone in a park (alone) and then driven to St Albans and done the same. They keep following the trail and it leads to the Flag Inn carpark at Tullamarine, where they find John's car.

John's mystic trail does some odd things at this point, which they eventually work out probably means that he spoke to the driver of another car, then got in the passenger side of that car. They head off following the trail, past Tullamarine and out to the edge of the Great Dividing Range. Brett suddenly returns to the packlink and they catch him up on the details of what's happening. He sighs and says that he'll call by the caern for Mr Pointy and Mr Shiny (the fae sword and armour) and meet them as soon as he can. Much driving around on back roads leaves the pack in rural area, with an occasional glimpse back at Melbourne, spread out near the horizon. Someone glimpses a familiar car ahead, pulled off the road, so the pack park and jog along the road. They start to approach the car, and it becomes clear that it is Christian's car, pulled off the road and in a paddock. John's trail leads along the road, however. Thomas goes and checks the car - minor magic, wyrm, demonic feelings from the car, but no one inside. It seems to have been hot-wired and dumped.

They continue to follow the trail along the road, winding around low hills and in and out of bushland. The trail turns and goes up a driveway and the pack follow. The drive leads up and over a slight rise, and seemingly straight towards a house on the south side. The decision is made to drop John's immediate trail, on the grounds that they can pick it up again later. Scouting around reveals that the house is all closed up, with curtains pulled. John's scent does not appear to have left the house at any time. A large pile of sheep bodies are found at the bottom of a paddock, all seemingly recently killed, all with their throats cut. There are 4 human scents around this site and none of them are familiar. In the Umbra, there is a reflection of this house, but it is of a different house, possibly the one prior to this house. Darren slips into the Umbra and wincingly approaches the structure. Nothing happens. Brett catches up with the rest of his pack and passes out the stuff he brought, and lets them know that he's pre-warned the caern about possible destruction. Apparently Graeme is a bit worried about the 4 of them being gungho.

Darren tentatively reaches a point where he is outside the Umbral building, but inside the material building, and peeks. There does not seem to be any movement, nor are their fractal drawings on the walls. He very carefully touches one of the Umbral walls and.... nothing happens. The rest of the pack come into the Umbra too and scout about. It quickly becomes apparent that there is something suspicious happening. John appears to be asleep in a family room, on a couch/bench. Christian appears to be doing something vaguely alchemical in the kitchen, overlooking John. In the lounge is a large cage, and a variety of objects all of which might be used in a "capturing" sort of way.

They decide to take the subtle option, where subtle equals not chopping Christian in half straight away. Thomas and Darren step out behind him, and Kimu and Brett in the arch between the family room and kitchen, all in Glabro form. Thomas grabs Christian by the shoulders and is a little bit surprised when what seems to be bone erupts from Christian's shoulders and elbows, joins together in a hoop over Thomas' hands and then chops down like a guilotine. Thomas' hands are saved by the faerie armour, and he drops back a fraction. Darren, Thomas and Brett proceed to try and cut Christian in two. Every blow is rewarded by lots of purple sparks, and they don't seem to be making much progress - Christian is also not bleeding, but oozing a blackish red liquid. Christian exudes long bony claws from his hands and starts grinding his way through Thomas, who eventually finds himself crippled. Kimu runs over and tries to wake John, with no success. Brett and Darren keep chopping through Christian while Thomas bravely absorbs the damage, and one final blow from the fae sword chops Christian in two (and hits Thomas in the stomach).

The pack now decide to use sensing gifts and discover that Christian senses much more strongly of demon than of mage. Using Questing Stone to find Christian points to the two halves of a body in the kitchen though. Thomas is healed, John is brought around - he is somewhat groggy. Thomas looks at what Christian was doing at the kitchen, but its hard to say given that a lot of the stuff was knocked over. There is blood in a vial or two, and some hair there as well. Darren searches the house, especially the lounge room, and finds burny burny chunks of silver, as well as what might be wolfsbane and other traditional remedies of lycanthropy. The cage is wound with silver wire and the lock is also silver. Mmm, evil. There are a number of scents around the place - Christian's, John's and the four that were near the slaughtered sheep. Two of them, male and female, seem to have been around a lot, and are in places like the bed, bathroom, etc. There are no examples of them in the last week or so. The other two scents are male and appear to be fairly recent. While Darren follows them around the house, John explains what happened from his point of view:

John wakes at about 3.30am to the sound of his phone ringing. It is Christian and he sounds a bit rushed. He warns John not to contact any of his packmates, not even mentally. Christian explains that he believes that the demon that attacked them at the mage house was not an old trap ready for a mage, but a more subtle attack, linked to the cold feelings Thomas was getting the previous day. The demon carried something like a virus or bacteria, which slowly grows until it takes over its host. Christian probably wouldn't have noticed it until too late except that he was worried about the cold feelings. It must have been the nature of the Garou that led them to be able to sense what was happening. Christian says that the spell that causes this is a rather blatant one, and if he can get free of the city and all the people in there he can track it across the city and get a location for the other magi. John agrees to meet him somewhere - Christian says that he is coming up Princes Highway now, and is planning on going north and west.

John grabs his keys and heads out in his car, and goes to a nearby park due west. He does a Questing Stone for Moonflower - Carlton somewhere. He drives north for a while, and does the same, and again Moonflower is in Carlton somewhere, not having apparently moved. John leaps in his car and calls Christian, agreeing to meet him at the car park of the Flag Inn at Tullamarine. When John gets there, Christian is already there and they chat for a bit. John gets into Christian's car and they drive off into the hills north and west of Melbourne. Christian asks John to look at the map and give directions. They drive onto back roads and around and around. Christian eventually pulls over and drags John to a clear spot overlooking Melbourne. Christian says that the spell is a bit long and has to involve concentration, so John should just sit for a bit. John does. Then lies down, as the sun starts to rise over the eastern horizon. And then...

...he woke up with Kimu in front of him. John is taken outside, and he doesn't immediately recognise the area, although its probably close to where they were. He definately didn't come straight here, which is what Sense of the Prey said. There is some confusion. Darren says that he has finally undone the spaghetti of scents in the house and has a scent that leads out across the fields, both of the recent male scents in the same direction. The pack call back and ask for backup - Graeme sends Emma and the Daughters of Mnemosyne up there while the pack tries to figure out more about the site. Eventually everyone meets up, they braindump at Emma and the Daughters and head off after the scents.

Darren's magic is invoked and they follow the scent down across the fields and next to a road, where it seems that the scented got into a car. Someone goes and gets the car while Darren hovers on the trail. The pack pile into the car and follow it along back towards the city, through the city and out along Princes Highway. Traffic is starting to get banked up for no clear reason and someone notices a large plume of smoke leading up into the sky. With an increasing sense of dread, the pack try and turn onto Carnegie Road, only to be diverted by a policeman. When the car stops, Brett steps sideways and goes to investigate. It seems that a rather familiar hotel is on fire. Really on fire. In the Umbra, there is a lot of activity from Weaver spirits, which run towards the corresponding location, but melt about the point where the fire begins. In the Realm, the fire is ignoring efforts from firefighters to put it out, and it has spread to neighbouring houses. They opt to drop the trail and investigate more closely.

The Realm is full of emergency vehicles and smoke and fire, making it hard to smell anything, especially while peeking. The crowd is checked, to make sure that those responsible are not hiding there and observing their handiwork, or keeping it going. There are some firefighters in chemical hazard gear, and some words about there being the possibility that there is a chemical accelerant involved. The pack opt to try and help the situation by awakening the fire engines and seeing if that helps fight the fire. The resulting spirits are a bit odd, but this does seem to help the situation. Darren sniffs about and smells a scent of one of the people they are chasing, so they won't have to go all the way back to the farm. They check in with the caern and let them know the situation and Graeme tells them that there is also a fire in Mooroolbark. Yes, at Andrew Garret's house. Oh good. Its thought that he might be inside.

Eventually the fire is put under control, and all the gawkers have gone by 10pm. Police tape and fencing covers the area. Darren and Thomas find somewhere dark enough to step and appear in the realm. Thomas yelps a lot as he comes out on a sprinkler and gets suddenly wet and cold. A lot of sniffing about later finds a scent of one of the unknown people, seemingly heading out of the burnt fire and ashy mess.

The trail leads fairly straight south, and Brett nearly collects a number of cars and trucks on the way, and runs one or two red lights. It turns into a car park on the shore line and to a rental car, which has been sprayed with a strong antiseptic smell as well. Nonetheless, the Garou keep following the trail as it leads down to a small marina/pier. Carefully checking all the fishermen along the pier, and the random passersby still lurking after sundown, the scent goes past the first bunch of boats. Then the second, third, forth, fifth, and then right off the end of the pier. The trail leads straight out from the end of the pier and across the water. Errr, say the pack a lot. Leaving Darren on the end of the pier, carefully concealed with Blur of the Milky Eye, they look around. Thomas runs all the way to the next pier along in case they just cut back and around. John looks under the pier to make sure they didn't just swing out and around underneath. No luck. It is theorised that they might have summoned gargoyles to carry them, in which case it might have been fairly recently, once it got dark. Someone remembers that the gargoyles seem to have a vague non-noticability to them, so it might have been in the daylight.

Brett goes back to the car park and ransacks the rental car. There's nothing of note in the car - a strong non-scent, some bits of hair, etc. Nothing in the glovebox. The motor is warm, but its been a hot day, so that's not very useful. Brett notices two kids going through another car in the carpark, looking like they are, oh, I dunno, ransacking it or something. He runs them off, and then finds the same antiseptic scent on everything, but no evidence of any personal items or anything of the sort. This car engine is actually a bit warmer than the surrounds - it might have only arrived a short time ago.

The evidence seems to be that the two people they are following have just flown away. John manages to find a scent on the pier and so they drop the mystical trail. They ring back to the caern and catch them up again on the situation, and ask them about the possibilities of flying as well. John hints about using the gargoyle spheres that they have and Graeme is fairly leery about it. He suggests that they look to their own allies first, so the pack head into the Umbra. The only bird spirit (apart from Kanau) that John can think of is Raven, so he spends a while summoning Raven. Brett goes and gets a shiny mirror ball from a nearby lamp store and dedicates it while Kimu tries to persuade the pack to hunt down some cats to offer Raven. Raven (Wah) arrives and the bargaining begins. John gives Raven the mirrorball and it kicks it around for a while. They offer to conduct a hunt for Raven, and it agrees, but it wants more. Basically the end agreement is that Darren and Raven will swap bodies for a while - at least an hour - and that would let Darren fly after the scent while the others follow in a boat (which Thomas goes off to steal). Darren is a bit leery about the deal, but they eventually agree. Raven is a bit grouchy about not being allowed out of the Umbra with this body, and offers to trade them a secret in return for being able to go where it wants. They ask what secret, and Raven says it knows why they have a hole in their souls. The pack make erk noises and give it three seconds of thought - at which point Kanau plunges out of the sky and attacks Raven. There is a brief, feathery battle and Raven returns, looking sulky. He demands to get this over with. Raven runs into Darren and merges, emerging the other side looking like Darren and Darren like Raven.

Raven can't run very well, but gives it a go with Kimu following. It seems that Darren can't fly very well either, and there is another brief exchange where Raven shows Darren how to fly and Chasing-the-Night shows Raven how to run. They leave Keiteki looking over Raven, who is running around like a kid, and return to the Realm. Darren picks up the scent and 'flies' off (clawing a lot at the air) over the bay, as the others follow in a speed boat Thomas stole. About an hour later and a few scary moments crossing the main shipping channels, the trail has headed fairly much straight from the pier across to Indented Head, dropping slowly as it approaches the ground. Darren lands and waits for the others who kill the motor while out a bit from shore and then swim the boat to the beach. They find Darren on a flat beachfront reserve, next to an occupied caravan/camping park. The scents are found where the unknown people seem to have landed, so Darren chooses this moment to switch bodies with Raven. His body is somewhat scratched and damaged, but it seems to have been just minor contusions and they heal up quickly. Keiteki flashes back to Kimu that Raven forgot he couldn't fly and leapt off a cliff. Sense of the Prey is brought to the fore and off the pack go, following the trail.

After watching Brett stumble about claiming he knew how to steal a car, John uses Control Simple Machine and pops the door open. They drive off, following the mystic trail. The trail quickly heads out of town and onto unsealed backroads. Thomas is driving with no lights on, adding to the excitement value, while Brett and John sense unnatural in the Realm and Umbra respectively, Darren follows the scent and Kimu hopes he won't die. Pretty much synchronously, John and Brett yell and Darren is jerked into the drivers' seat by Sense of the Prey. The trail seems to lead up the driveway off the road here. Signage at the front indicates it is the "Arlington Nature Trails" horseriding farm. In the Umbra, John can see a faintly undulating net of glowing light, barely visible in the Umbral moonlight. Some people step sideways, others take the car out of sight, but in the end, the pack is reassembled out the front of the umbral property. The netting slowly moves backwards and forwards along the front edge, mixing between fenceposts and conifer-type trees without any apparent change. No one is too keen to play with it yet, so they take off around the borders. The country is rolling grassland, lightly treed in the Umbra, barely treed in the Realm. The property seems to be a horse ranch alright - those peeking into the Realm can see horses sleeping in the fields.

Having traveled around 3/4 of the boundaries of the property, the pack have a good idea of its layout. There seems to be a set of buildings in the middle of the property, on the south side of a valley, with lights on inside. The property is cut up into separated fields, but this doesn't appear in the Umbra. Holistic Approach have a good think about how to get through the wards and eventually decided to use Questing Stone. After a few false starts, Brett gets it to work, opening up a brief hole in the netting, and they rush through. Well, everyone except John, who stays behind. Peeking doesn't seem to have revealed any change at the house. John uses Open Seal on the netting, and it reacts, but not in as smooth a way as the effect of the cracking stone. He rushes through as well, and more checking of the response from the house is done. None. Ok, say the pack, off we go. The travel up the creek valley towards the central part of the property, stopping at what is the fence-line of the central part of the estate, mostly because there seems to be another ward here. This is a much 'harder' looking grid of faintly glowing energy. Peering through it reveals the house is in the Umbra as are some of the out-buildings. There appear to be banes clustered around the house, mostly negative-emotion types of emote banes. John also suspects that there is something lurking in the barn, but he can't make it out in the darkness.

The Cracking Stone is used again (once Brett turns it around the right way) and they slip through the hole in the ward, which seals behind them again. Follows a long argument about where to go next and what to do, which eventually ends up with the pack opting to take out the banes clustered around the house to make sure there's no enemy behind them. Despite some confusion about the concept of forming up and making the enemy come to them, the battle against the evil-cloud banes goes fairly well, although a couple of psychomachia make the experience a bit exciting for a while. More arguing about what to do next, complicated by examining the barn and finding that there are just horses in there. Ok, they are horses which glow bright with magic and wyrm-taint (and a touch of demonic), but that's not the point. The pack decide to ignore this enemy left behind (consistency being an attribute of the weak-minded, apparently), and concentrate on getting into the house.

Examining the Umbral house indicates none of the nasty fractalness that seemed to be used on other mage houses, but the pack is still nervous about just going in the house, so Thomas decides to pick up a stick and smash in a window. 6 aggravated wounds later and the smoking Thomas and his pack are fairly sure that there is some warding on the house itself. Oh, and lights have come on inside. Looking through the hole Thomas made reveals silver glowing bands ala Christian's hotel room. Ignoring that whole consistency thing again, the pack opt to spend 10 minutes waking up the Volvo parked in the courtyard rather than using that pesky Cracking Stone again. They wake it up and control it into slamming into the corner of the house a few times, causing much mayhem. John then decides to ram it into the barn to disrupt life there, but about 2/3rds of the way there the car lifts up into the air and the wheels are bent off with much screeching and protesting metal. Oh, say the pack. The wards are still there, and the damage to the house is probably not sufficient to actually get in, so its plan B - Control Simple Machine on the Umbral door and Cracking Stone on the wards. Everyone dashes inside, mostly in glabro, and lupus, but with Thomas in crinos.

The pack scout about the place:

All the external walls have the shiny silveriness in the Umbra and in the Realm, including the doorway, when they come back through it. Brett points out that they can't get out now, the only way is through. They move towards the central room, and peek in. In the Umbra, a large blackcloud bane is floating there, undulating gently in black wyrmness. In the Realm, a whole lot of furniture is pushed up against the doors, and things lie scattered about the place, like weapons and weird shit. There are two men in there as well, once fairly fit, the other pudgier. They are doing incomprehensible things with random bits of stuff on tables on opposite sides of the room.

The pack slowly move into the room in the Umbra. As they are squabbling about what to do, the chubbier of the two men grabs a pot and tosses the powder inside into the air. John, who is peeking, rapidly passes onto his packmates that they are now visible in the Realm, as are a large number of gargoyle-like demons in the room. Brett suddenly develops a big hole in his abdomen and John passes on that the fitter guy picked up a spear and threw it at him. The pack decide to act, right now, and leap into the Realm. Brett and John take on the chubbier mage while Thomas and Darren leap at the fitter one. The first few seconds are frenzied, as the fitter mage has tricks like "I'm wearing armour too" and "Tear your arm off trying to lift me", while the chubbier one can do stuff like "You go back in the Umbra now", which he does to Brett and Darren. Remember that bane in the Umbra? It lashes at the two Garou, but they top it and leap back into the Realm, where John has revealed his favourite trick of "Get knocked unconscious at the start of the battle by something unseen" and Thomas has revealed his "Punch claws into the squidgy bits" trick to the pudgier mage, who falls down hard. Demons start to attack the pack, while the fitter mage leaps up and flies through a skylight in the roof. They know magic too - "Make your arm spaghetti", "breathe fire", "breathe dust" and "turn into a locust swarm", which causes Darren to take the option of setting fire to himself to kill it.

More people are hit by unseen blows from nowhere. Thomas leaps up into the skylight bit after the mage and gets stabbed in the throat and chest and abdomen in one go for his trouble. He drops down in a squidgy pile and enters the zone. The rest of the pack decide to leave him the hell alone. Darren stops another demon from making off with the almost dead pudgy mage and dispatches it. Brett wakes John up as the windows explode outward, taking a fishtank with them. Thomas has got stuck in the ceiling where the skylight is, and is rapidly turning it to so much kindling. Kimu is fighting a pair of demons and John leaps up to help him, but one of them screams in a very disturbing way - everyone ignores it except John, who ages a number of years very rapidly and whose hair turns very white. A small human figure leaps up from under a table and flies out the window. Brett yells "mine" and leaps after them, across glass, with fae sword in hand. He guesses correctly that it's Polly, but opts at the last minute not to just decapitate her. She returns his kindness by telekinetically kicking him across the courtyard. Thomas leaps off the roof at the now floating/flying fit mage, but misses and plunges into the courtyard. Remember those horses in the barn? There's now a whole herd, and they don't like Thomas. Darren leaps up after Thomas, takes in the flying mage and remembers the guns down in the room, grabs one and leaps back up onto the roof. Kimu is sent to look at the pudgy mage and make sure nothing else takes it away, John grabs a handgun and leaps after Darren. Thomas is butchering his way through a whole herd of horseflesh fairly indiscriminately, but Brett decides to run to his assistance and leave Polly for later.

Darren points the heavy automatic at the mage and suddenly finds himself in an awful lot of pain. He pulls the trigger anyway and now he's in a lot more pain, and without most of his right hand. John sees this as he scrabbles up to the roof, and throws his gun away. He looks around for the mage, and thinks he sees something heading into the barn. John then leaps into the horses, as Brett starts butchering them with the fae sword. These things definately aren't normal - they don't bleed, they don't scream, they just keep fighting until cut up into enough bits. Darren suddenly is in less pain (but still with a shattered hand) and glances around for the mage. He thinks he sees a glint in the barn, but isn't sure. He jumps down to run through the zombie horse herd (not vampire ponies), helping his pack kill them. One of the horses seems more powerful than the others too - it is attacking Thomas, breathing fire and biting with sharp pointy teeth. Neverfear though, Thomas has more soak dice than god. He dispatches the leader, and Brett finds that it can leap bodies. He disincarnates it again, and then again. It takes over another horse near Thomas, who bites its head clean off as the others finish off the last of the weird horses. Kimu tells them that the pudgy mage is dead as they run into the barn. There is no sign of the mage, but in the loft at the top of the barn is a rather ornate mirror, surrounded by occult glyphs. Sense of the Prey leads from the edge of the loft where John thinks he saw something to the mirror and then disappears. Lots of cursing. Brett puts the mirror face down so anything coming back out will bop its head, and the pack think "Now what?"

As the dawn chorus starts, the first item of business is Thomas. He is missing his entire right arm, and no amount of searching can find it. Brett sighs and starts to heal the shoulder so that Thomas doesn't bleed to death. Darren is also healed, and is missing the two smallest fingers on his right hand. Kimu and John run and see if they can find Polly. They find her scent easily enough, but as they follow it, it is joined by a now almost familiar deadlands scent, and then they both fade out. Chasing-the-Night theorises they might have flown away, so he and John make for high ground and look about in the Realm and the Umbra. No luck.

Much examination is done of the house, concentrating on the single bedroom for a while. It is presumed to be Polly's. It looks like the bedroom a studious 14 year old might have, with a few exceptions, like the bench space with a soldering iron and lead and copper wire. There are textbooks and history books on one end of the shelf, slowly bleeding into generic occult texts, including a couple of the more infamous European books. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of personal items, although they do find a photo of Polly and her parents. The scent in the room seems to indicate that she had been here for a while, and there's no sign that she was locked up.

Brett looks in the library and finds a mix of missing, crumbled and ok books, although even the ok ones are looking a bit fragile. The pack suggests its an effect based on the house and start grabbing boxes and hoiking books out into the yard next to Thomas, having cleared away a lot of dead horse flesh. The zombie horses are starting to mank up too, so they pile them up a bit neater. Darren is still patrolling the place, ready for danger, while Brett and John collect their treasure (oo, type E for mages). Kimu sniffs inside the musty room and wanders off sneezing and mumbling something about going outside. He looks around the estate and finds a fire-pit, full of somewhat wafty ash, much like what you get when you burn lots of paper. He also finds a lime pit - presumably dead bodies go in there or something, but no one is game to dig it up. Some searching is done for a killing ground - given the amount of dead horses, there should be some sign where they were killed. There doesn't seem to be such a beastie, which leads people to believe that maybe it was done individually, over a long period of time, or maybe it was absorbed in some eerie demon summoning ritual.

Brett heads off, and dumps the car they stole back near where they stole it from, then returns to the house. Searching around, Brett ducks into the mustier room and is overcome by a sense of deja vu. He calls Darren, but neither of them can pin it down. Brett sits on the bed and tries to let his subconscious say what its trying to say, idly speculating whether he could use the luggage in the corner to carry more books...luggage...luggage. The luggage looks familiar, and with a slightly sinking sensation Darren and Brett change into something more sniffy and try and pick up the scent under the dust, Volvo damage and mank. It's Christian's scent. A whole lot of blinking and scratching of heads is done. It isn't a new scent, it's been here for a while, and the room seems to have his "style" to it. Much idly speculation is undertaken about why he was looking for Polly, when she was here, and if he wasn't, what the hell was he doing.

Tuesday 21

Being 6am now, John tries to ring Emma directly. She's muzzy, but wakes up as he talks to her. She agrees to grab the Daughters of Mnemosyne and head down there to see what is happening, but doesn't promise to rush. She hangs up. The pack continue their ravaging of the contents of the house. Looking in the lounge where they found the mages, a number of items are booby-trapped, mostly the guns. Judicious use of sense unnatural tends to clear up what items have been spiked and what haven't. Brett makes a pile of weird items, and weird-but-tainted items. The pack is hoping that they can gain enough information here to offset one of the mages getting away, as well as Polly. Darren tries Sense of the Prey and gets a bit further than Chasing-the-Night did, but the sense of Polly's passage fades out. Its thought that she must have been taken to another realm. Questing Stone sort of backs that up - it gives no response at all where previously it indicated a weird yes-but-no-idea-where response.

Emma eventually shows up with the Daughters. Georgina and Jacynta are asleep in the back of the car and frankly look half dead, but Christine kindly brought food from Geelong. The pack are ravenous - they realise they've been on the go for over 24 hours now. Thomas' and Darren's wounds are examined with much tch'ing. Jacynta sees the pile of horses and looks upset until the full details of what they were are explained to her.

Given the moot this evening, Emma is not too keen to start rampaging through all this stuff just today. She summons a couple of guardians to mind the site while the Garou go off for a day and Moot up. They load the books into various car boots, and do what they can to seal up the premises, and then its off back to Melbourne.

At the caern, the pack explain their night's activities to the rest of the Sept Elders, who don't look very happy with the situation. Cossack points out that if John has been tricked/coerced into giving away sensitive garou information (beyond what they remember giving to Christian), he may have revealed the location of at least 10 caerns. This makes his life, and possibly that of his pack, fairly much forfeit if that's the case. The pack pale a little. The hope is expressed that they can find out enough from the house and its contents to continue following up what has happened, or to perhaps suggest otherwise. None of the Sept elders look too happy about the situation either. The pack is told to go and rest until the Moot.

The Moot is begun at dusk. Being the summer equinox, moots held on this night tend to take advantage of the spiritual nature of this point of the solar cycle, that being a time of strength and maturity, a time when all things that are connected to Gaia are at their best. Not that Holistic Approach care, they just want their rage back. The Opening Howl is led by Nadine and is fairly martial in tone again - a change from the normally laid back and wisdom-oriented Sleeping Lore moot. Merging into the spiritual greetings of Inner Sky, the thanks given to the various spirits around the caern are much more in the vein of protection and attacking the caerns enemies than usual. It is clear that the caern elders intend to tap the energies of the night and focus them in a fairly specific way.

Cossack steps forward and begins Cracking the Bone by asking Holistic Approach to step forward and let everyone else know the current situation with regard to the mages and all. John nominates Kimu, who hasn't yet found the time to let his pack know that he's not a very good Galliard. However, he does an admirable job in making the actions the pack took take on their best interpretations - they were honourable, if slightly less than wise, and honest and such, and appear to have been tricked by the sneaky, devious wyrm men. Overall, he makes it look like they did their best in the circumstances. Moonflower stands next to the arm-less Thomas the entire time, and there is the distinct sound of grinding teeth as she resists the urge to spoil it all by saying "I told you so". Cossack takes the speaking stick again and recognises their achievements. Well, at least in the field of glory.

Christine speaks for the Daughters after that. She says they looked at the house that John was found at, and discovered the supposed original owners underneath the big pile of sheep bodies. They did some investigating and it was generally found that no one had seen the owners for about a fortnight. And Christian's scent showed up as having been there in that time once or twice as well. Christine also talks about her efforts with Felix Bertrand, the Sept leader at Hidden Green to try and trace any funny money that might indicate the presence of the Dancers. Basically they discovered fairly quickly that there was just too much weirdness surrounding financial transactions in Melbourne to get much of a lead. Cossack recognises the Daughters' efforts too, and performs the Rite of Recognition on them.

The Scryers have also been busy. The were working with The Alternative to scour the CBD for any significant Wyrm trace. They have covered everything above ground, top to bottom, in the last month, turning up banes and a few fomor, but no Hive. And now they plan on starting under the CBD, from the storm water drains to the city loop.

The Get of Pennington have mostly been on guard duty the last month, but tried to find out if there had been any more word on the street (to coin a phrase) of the psycho deros beating people up. The answer is no, as far as they can tell. The general feeling at the Sept is that the Dancers are resting, recovering and keeping their heads down - they did lose two members to Holistic Approach recently, and the thing with Green Dragon would have also drained their purported black caern.

Cossack reiterates that their main objective at the moment is to do away with the Dancers. He calls for any other business and Georgina challenges Cossack to recognise her as rank 2. He asks her a few random questions about garou life and knowledge, and Georgina gives back some good answers, and Cossack says that he recognises her and performs the appropriate rite. Thomas then steps forward and says that he challenges for leadership of his pack. Ian looks at John who accepts the challenge, and then makes a fairly rambling speech about what a leader must have, or do, or maybe think that he has to do. Ian's eye starts to twitch and John finally gets to the point, suggesting a best of three challenge - voting, willpower and then something about garou knowledge kind of thing. There is an awkward silence, but then the pack gets on with it. Voting is tied, because Brett votes for Kimu, confusing the issue. They face off and try to stare each other down, and Thomas looms over John, who is forced to look away. Ian suggests that that's close enough and after some umming and ahing, the pack agree. Thomas is recognised as leader.

There are a few more items that come up, but they're fairly easily dealt with. The Moot continues into stories and songs. The elders continue their subtle manipulation to keep people focused and thinking about being active. Graham and Emma turn out to have passable singing voices and perform a duet about great and honourable battles. Unusually, Cossack takes the stage, and changes to Crinos. Normally Cossack sits comfortably in his appearance as a middle aged, unkempt bum in dirty clothes. The Garou are familiar with the fact that underneath that is quite intelligent leader, but as Cossack waits for silence, the fact that he is also a Rank 4 Galliard starts to make itself felt. Cossack tells of Father Scrumpy of the Scattered Seed Sept in Edinburgh, a brave and wise leader of the Bone Gnawer sept there hundreds of years ago. Cossack tells a story of honour and courage against difficult and wily foes, and after a time it becomes clear that he is using gifts to enhance his story and motivate the Garou in his charge. The story builds to a crashing ending, and most of the Sept flicks to Crinos and Revels off through the Umbra, surging with gnosis and rage, and clearing any vestige of wyrm from the area.

Wednesday 22 - Sunday 26

Kimu gets to experience the pack curse as the whole pack dreams the cave/Malfeas dream the day after the moot. Before the pack decide to scuttle off to connive against each other, Thomas makes a speech about pack loyalty and being honest about what you're doing and why and if you can't tell the pack, maybe think about what it is you're doing. Brett 'fesses up that he was off in Gippsland earlier and Thomas points out that its not what they've done, but the manner that has put the pack and maybe the sept in danger, and that he doesn't want to see it happen anymore. Kimu tentatively puts his hand up and says that he's leaving this afternoon to visit some Uktena and the Black Furies they met near Jurien Bay... if that's ok.

Chasing-the-Night and Keziah head off that afternoon go on their trip (Kimu only) across the centre of Australia. When he returns on Saturday, Kimu tells his pack of a number of visions that he experienced when what might have been a Bunyip-storm attacked him and Keziah: a vast reptilian eye opening in the darkness; the Cracking Stone on sand, which began to seep away, finally swallowing it into the ground; a spider suspended from a long thread and a heartbeat sound; and an aboriginal man crying and in despair over the bodies of mixed thylacines and homids. There is some gurgling from packmembers as they match up visions/omens.

Thomas also gets to dream his little dream. He is again in the pits under Preston, cleaning up wyrm goop. Deeper and deeper he goes until its totally black. There is a rumbling sound of engines and then headlights come on, rushing towards him, and then becoming the glowing eyes of a gargoyle.

The newspapers are full for a few days after the moot. "FULL MOON KILLER!" is the headliner on the Wednesday. Two young people, mel and fem, were killed on the banks of the river and then barbequed on the riverside. The MO is similiar to that of the Full Moon Killer of a year and a half ago, which leads to a lot of headscratching, as Infinite Paths killed him. The Scryers and The Alternative are dealing with it, in the hope that there will be a lead to the Dancer caern. When not proclaiming that the streets are no longer safe, the Age also carries a four page story about corruption in the logging industry and in the government. Apparently a logging company well exceeded their permit areas, and strayed into National Park, possibly with the assistence of a government official. There are fairly damming photos and cries for an inquiry. Brett turns up looking fairly smug, as does Kirsty, as they stick the article up in the gatehouse.

John goes and has Christmas dinner with his family, who mention that they got a call from Singing Sands recently. The rest of the dinner is not that awkward. Thomas goes and has dinner with Melissa's family after she turns up and kind of apologises for putting him in a bad position. Her family are a bit freaked by the large feral man with lots of scars, but Thomas does his best to look small. Melissa is asked what university she wants to go to and she glances at Thomas before saying that she's thinking of enrolling at Melbourne, then deferring for a year to, oh, travel or work. To take a break from study. Her family are a bit taken aback, but when she appears to have thought it out, they deal. Brett twitches whenever the words 'family' and 'christmas' and 'dinner' come up and goes out to Reconciliation(Brett only) instead.

Thomas asks about restoring his arm. He has three options. Deal. Get a fetish/cyberarm. Go somewhere suitably wyld that his form becomes mutable. He toys with all three while getting a temporary solution - a fake arm with a weaver spider bound to it as a talen. He can activate the arm to make it animated, and it lasts for an hour or so. He also coats the fake arm in plaster so he can say he broke it (and therefore not have to use it much).

However, the majority of the week is spent examining the evidence from the mage house in Port Arlington. Most of the evidence is books, and a lot of it is gibberish, but a good week's study by a collection of Garou reveals some truths. There seems to be a hierarchy of demons, and the mages make some sort of alliance with a senior demon, which then commands its minions to do their bidding. There are some references which appear to lead to texts they don't posess - either they were some of the nicked or crumbled ones, or they weren't there. No small amount of the text is written in a different language and alphabet, but there is no rosetta stone, so it could be... well, anything. Some of that script has a magical nature all on its own.

The topic which occupies John the most intently, but all of Holistic Approach to some degree is whether they posessed the ability to suck the locations of caerns from John's head. The short answer is probably not. The long answer is that the mages seem to have a variety of braintampering spells, one that can implant suggestions, one that can confuse memories (blank them) and another that can provide quite indepth and detailed memories. The books that John is studying say that it is hard or impossible to make someone do something against their nature, and that if the spells are used to make them do so, you usually end up with a vegetable. So, by Sunday, the general feeling is that John either didn't tell them or is a vegetable. John also checks his phone records for the morning he went off with Christian - no phone call came into his phone, even though he remembers it clearly.

Other interesting aspects to the mage house is the search for a name to track the missing mage. After sifting through all the names there, there are 6 names which are or might be real names - Elliot, Geoffrey, Angus, Abraham, Christian and Polly. The last two are real, so they're easy to dismiss. That leaves them with four names (no surnames) for the two other mages. There are some minor items that are not too tainted, but many of the artifacts that could be found were too strongly tainted and have either been destroyed (if they were active/aggressive) or stored. There is only one location where the books mention people making magic harder, and its mostly gibberish, so that item, along with much of what Christian said is filed under "maybe". Christine and the other ransackers at the site mention that they have been experiencing gremlins; items moving, furniture shifting, etc. There hasn't been anything traceable though.

Sunday afternoon, Brett goes out with some of Get of Pennington to a pub, joining the crowds of post-cricketers. They spend a long afternoon and evening there, and its after 1.30am before he gets home. Halfway through getting ready for bed, Brett hears the screen door to his flat open and then close. He goes out a window in case its a bomb ("Did you order one?") and sees a 12-or-so year old heading up the driveway at a fair pace, then slow and walk down the street. Brett wakes up Darren and John and they head his way. Following the kid doesn't reveal anything, so Brett grabs him and makes some wild accusations. The kid tells him to fuck off and that he's talking shit - Truth of Gaia reveals that the kid is lying like a mad thing. Brett lets him go and watches the kid run off. Back to his bungalow, where Darren and John have shown up. The door is checked, and there is a big yellow envolope there. It smells of a strong antiseptic scent. Inside there is an audio tape and some pieces of paper. The tape is put aside for a moment and the paper is examined.

They are both police reports. The first is a photocopy of a police report about a truck crash on the 23rd of December on the Hume Highway in Coburg North. The driver had been drinking and the truck ran off the road, knocking over a street sign and crunching a wall. No one was seriously injured, although the driver was arrested for drink driving and for posessing a small quantity of illicit amphetamines. The truck was impounded. Several items are circled in red pen, including the name of the arresting officer, Sgt John Henke. The second paper is a photocopy of a report on the truck, including license details, insurance details, a list of damage done (cracked windscreen and associated damage, some damage to rear left side), and registration. The truck is registered to a company called Coulton Pty Ltd, managing director Gerald Coulton (circled). This report is also been made out by Sgt John Henke (circled).

Much headscratching. The tape is dropped into a player and played. Silence for a bit and then the sound of a door ratchetting open and complaining about it. Two voices start:

The three pack members have a short discussion about who might have dropped this off at Brett's. Much confusion. They opt to handle it tomorrow.

Monday 27

Thomas and Kimu are woken up by the others in the morning and filled in. There is a significant feeling in the pack to say fuck it and not bother doing anything about it, and certainly no idea who might a) know where Brett lives and b) know who Brett is. Its almost like someone think he's a vigilante.... the pack sigh and note down that they should look up Gabrielle Thomas again to make sure its not her. They decide to at least take a look at the truck. The pack pop out to the police impound lot, a large concrete lot, surrounded by razor wire and chainlink fence (Oh no!). There is also a large warehouse kind of undercovery bit, where, after hunting about, the target vehicle is located. It does indeed seem to have been kicked about a bit, and the back enclosed bit has a big tear/crack in the back. Sniffing about from the Umbra doesn't immediately reveal any scents of the two men who were talking. While Brett is still grumbling about being jerked about by mages and or reporters, Kimu says that there are dead trees in the back of the van. Actually more descriptively, there is a whole load of furniture, like bureaus and drawer. More headscratching, right until Kimu says that he can smell gun oil.

John and Thomas step into the truck after reassuring themselves there's enough light to step out again with. Poking about eventually reveals a couple of automatic rifles hidden in a semisecret pocket at the back of a desk. More seeking from the Umbra reveals about 10 weapons of varying types with ammunition hidden around the truck. John and Thomas step back into the Umbra and the pack sit and think about what to do.

John and Thomas go to find out more about this Henke fellow. They go to Coburg police station, and poke about, and surprisingly, find him. Henke is a fairly normal looking cop - tallish, lanky, short dark hair. He's in uniform, chatting to other police while getting a coffee. As the two of them watch, he goes back to his desk and works on some sort of paper work. They find his locker (flanny, jeans) and get a good sense of his smell. On the way back to where the others are, John finds a quiet spot and does a questing stone on Gabrielle Thomas (somewhere at the west end of the city - maybe in the Age offices), and then on George Kaneikis (the truck driver, somewhere near Ardeer), and then on Gerald Coulton (somewhere near Treasury Gardens). John also looks up Coulton Pty Ltd and finds their head-office in High St, Armadale. They call back to the impound lot, where smeg all has happened.

John and Thomas head off again and look at this head office. Eerily, its not an office building, its a retial outlet, apparently for Coulton Fine Furniture. And it is - nothing in the place under $500 and that's a bedside table. There are two staff inside, and two customers. Peeking and sensing and peering oh my, reveals nothing out of the ordinary here, so they decide to burn the city down. Not really, but it crosses their mind. Back to the impound lot, and waiting for darkness. Or boredom. Guess which one comes first? Brett decides to nobble the truck, so it can't get away. After peering at the engine and such for a while, he steps sideways and causes it to be in a state where it will only drive for about 30 mins before dying, but not in a suspicious way. Although he is nearly caught, due to some appalling stealth rolls and stepping rolls, he knackers it and goes back to the Umbra.

Once Darren is hidden by night's dark shroud, he and Brett go to Brett's house and try and get the scent of the boy who dropped the packet. Ghost sniffs deeply at the door where it was dropped and gets a nose full of deodurant/antiseptic, and that's it. Brett tries to find the scent further up the drive, but no go. They go back to the truck and discuss what to do. Some of the pack want to just walk off. Others want to take the guns and walk off, and others want to find where its all going. Others are concerned that it might be an Ion and Irena thing. In the end, John binds a weaver spirit to the truck with Chasing-the-Night's help, and instructs it to come and find his phone if there is movement of the truck. The pack head home.

Tuesday 28

Kimu gets up early and spends more time with Ends-the-Quiet learning about spirits and all. Brett moves some stuff to the caern, not being too impressed that someone knows where he lives, intending to move in with some ferals he knows. Later in the day, Kimu and Thomas go to Queen Vic market to try and find someone to sell Kimu's creations. They are moving about when Thomas spies a picture, a pencil sketch. Of Mathias. Its actually quite good. He speaks to the others and alerts them to what he's found. Kimu looks at it, Thomas looks at it. They speak to the man at this stall (Bazza) about it. Bazza says that it was one of two, and they were given to him to sell by a young girl who is moving interstate. The other picture? Er, it was a girl.. um, frizzy hair. Bazza shows him some of the other stuff she is selling. Nothing startling. Thomas buys it for $20, and everyone meets at the caern. Sniffing the picture reveals Thomas' scent (duh), a strong male scent (probably Bazza) and a female, unfamiliar scent under that. Thomas dedicates the picture and takes it out to Rippling Waters. He meets Mae Fischer and they chat for a bit. Dom is in the ranger's cabin (not that sort of ranger) and is a bit freaked by the picture. She'd guess it was about 2 years old, probably before Infinite Paths was formed. She's is more than a bit curious about the other sketch, but Thomas says that it could be hard to find. Dom can't read the signature on the sketch any better than Thomas can, and doesn't know who it might have been. They catch up for a couple of hours ("did you know I'm pack leader now?") and then Thomas wooshes home.

He opts to find Moonflower and ask her about it. Moonflower is with her pack (the Scryers) and some of the Alternative - Tony Cho Mi, the packleader, Irena Sliviak and Asimov. They are talking about the Full Moon killer, quietly. Thomas approaches Moonflower, who still hasn't said "I told you so" and shows her the picture. She is also a bit freaked. Moonflower makes out that the signiture is an A followed by a lot of letters. Thomas tells her about how he found it and that there is another one, and Moonflower gets a bit cross, demanding that he find it, because it might be her, and the last thing she needs is another stalker. Thomas also takes the time to chat to Irena, about a consignment of guns coming in to Melbourne that they are investigating and he wondered if Irena was doing anything of the sort, and whether there had been any trouble. Irena says that she hasn't lost any guns and Thomas points out that he didn't want to stand on toes.

Thomas decides that he'd better try and follow thing up with Bazza, that being his only lead. Back to the Victoria Market, and asking the others to catch up with him. They respond, eventually. Thomas confesses to Bazza that he is stalking the person in this picture. No, not really. He says that the sketch is of an old friend, and that he's curious who drew it. Bazza repeats that he is selling them on behalf of some girl who is moving to Adelaide. He has to drop the money off tonight, did Thomas want him to take a message along? Thomas gives him John's phone number and says if Bazza could explain, he'd appreciate it. He also asks about the other sketch, and Bazza gives a fuller description now that he's not having to worry about other customers. It sounds like it could be a picture of Moonflower (well, its definately not Dom). Thomas asks if Bazza can remember the woman who bought it. Bazza says that she was pretty surprised to see it, and wanted to know where it came from as well. He gives a description, and the paranoid pack notice that the description could match Gabrielle Thomas.

After some appalling rolls, they decide to split up. Thomas and John head south to Gabrielle Thomas's apartment while Brett and Kimu follow Bazza in the realm and in lupus. Darren runs along in the Umbra following their directions. Bazza appears to be moving around the neighbourhood, dropping in at various houses and blocks of flats, and chatting to people there, collecting stuff (presumably to be sold) and giving them envolopes with money. Frankly, he looks like the most forthright drug dealer you've ever seen. Although the lupus are having trouble keeping up for a while, they eventually draw close enough to get a quick look at the people Bazza is talking to. On one of these occasions, they see him chatting with a young woman, and pass across the card Thomas gave Baz. They are close enough to overhear Bazza telling her about Thomas and that her name is Rachel.

Meanwhile, Thomas and John get to Gabrielle's house. Climbing up the umbral structure is a bit exciting, but eventually they get to a point where they can peek inside. John can't see any security cameras or anything, so out they step, John in the bathroom and Thomas in the lounge. Thomas hears a faint whirr sound and looks about, seeing a motion detector above where John was peeking from, but it doesn't seem armed. He looks around and finds, behind a false book, a camera hooked up to a motion detector. Thomas pulls the film out and throws it away, then puts everything back the way it was. John and he look about for the sketch. They can't seem to find it. But they do find a manilla folder with "Mathias Rourke" written on it.

Meanwhile, Kimu and Brett have met Darren and hunted through the apartment block until they find Rachel. She's preparing dinner. It looks like her and another guy live here. There is a pile of mail on the kitchen table that includes John's card and an envolope from Bazza, all addressed to Lauren Sommers. On a noticeboard near the phone is a note titled "Lauren's new address", along with an address in suburban Adelaide. The phone rings, and Kimu manages to get close enough to hear both sides of the conversation. He catches the words "Lauren" and "moved" and "sketch", but then Brett bumps him out the way via Kimu's crotch. There is a rather nervous moment as Chasing-the-Night nearly frenzies, and by the time they have regained their equilibrium, Rachel has hung up.

Meanwhile, quickly looking through the folder reveals a large number of paper clippings, court transcripts, official documents, shorthand notes and other research material, as well as a two rather disturbing relationship diagrams - once centred on Mathias and the other on "Mystery Man".

The pack ruminate about what to do, and Thomas decides to rip all her information and leave the police report about the truck. In what proves to set the standard for the evening, John steps sideways to drop some of his dedicated stuff and gets stuck in the Gauntlet. Thomas eventually belts him free into the Umbra and they plunge to the ground. Brett leaves Rachel's place and collects the police info from the caern, heading for Gabrielle's house as well. Thomas dedicates the stack of paper while John raids Gabrielle's computer for info. He finds enough to make it worthwhile to steal the harddrive, so they print out their note to leave and then off comes the cover, and the hard drive is dedicated. Brett brings over the tape and two police reports (I think someone gets stuck in the gauntlet again), and the document wallet is put away with them in it. They shuffle her plants and step out by about 5.45pm.

Its only 15 minutes later when Gabrielle comes home, briefcase in hand and looking hot and bothered. She dumps the briefcase in her study, and lifts out a little laptop, and turns on the computer. It says something about hard disk failure, so she turns it on and off a few times, and then looks exasperated and wanders into the kitchen to get a drink. Brett decides to awaken the laptop in the name of fear and chaos, and begins that ritual. Just as he finishes, and a small grey/blue spider appears where the laptop is, Gabrielle seems to have a sudden revelation (the cactus was in the wrong place), and runs into her study. She looks for the Mathias file (oh, what a giveaway) and looks mildly annoyed at its loss. Whoever is peeking can't hear, but can tell that she's saying something about firetrucks a lot as she grabs the laptop, and her briefcase and runs out of the house on the phone. A job well done say the pack, and trundle off after her, intending to do the Questing Stone thing in a while to see where she went.

Meanwhile, Kimu and Darren are still watching Rachel. She is nearly finished cooking when a guy comes in the front door, who is apparently Eric. It looks like they're an item of some type. Rachel babbles away to Eric, and the topic gets onto the strange man enquiring about Lauren's sketch. Eric agrees that its weird and she should tell Lauren, but his heart doesn't seem to be in it. They finish their dinner and Rachel pulls out a paper and starts going through the employment section, occasionally circling one thing or another. While being an excellent study in homid behaviour for the lupus and metis, its really not rivetting stuff.

The rest of the pack drop by the caern, ditch the stuff that they have dedicated and questing stone on Gabrielle after grabbing a bit to eat. They eventually trace her to a house in Hawthorn, and step into the Umbra to spy on her. Well, Thomas and John do, Brett steps into the cool calm Gauntlet again. They decide to leave him there for the moment and watch Gabrielle. Well, she's making mouth movements and hand movements, but no one can actually hear what she's saying. She is talking to her policeman friend, Justin O'Connor and looking a bit narked. The police records are in front of him, and he's idly looking at them. Gabrielle's laptop is still in her briefcase. John wonders if you can summon a computer virus spirit and can't resist the urge to start summoning then and there. Thomas keeps peeking as Justin puts the tape on and looks surprised to hear what he hears. He makes some notes.

Brett starts to sense time passing... he cannot really see, it feels as if he is trapped inside a lump of frosted glass, where all the patterning is precisely the same. He can sense something coming and tries to free himself from the patterning, but it doesn't work. The things are getting closer. John can now sense a sort of distorted rising panic from Brett and decides that the summoning can wait. He leaps over to the car where Brett is stuck and bumps him out in the Realm. There is a shriek from John's left and a totally-freaked out junkie who was about to break into their car runs off. So much for the Veil. Brett decides that peeking is wasting their time and runs over to the window nearest Gabrielle and sits in lupus form listening to their conversation. She is asking for ways to physically protect her apartment, and Justin is humming and harring. Eventually he promises to come over in the next evening, but suggests that she should go to the St Kilda police now and report the breakin. After making arrangements to meet the next night after Justin finishes work, Gabrielle goes out to her car and drives off. Thomas is sucked from the Umbra and the three of them follow slowly.

Rachel has obviously decided that its time to call Lauren, so she gets on the dog and bone and makes the call. Whoever is peeking listens closely to both ends of the call. Lauren apparently works with animals in some fashion, is still tired from the move, thinks that she'll be settled in after New Years, etc. She has a light, quiet voice, and Rachel definately dominates the conversation. Rachel finally gets to the point that the Garou are interested in, and talks about the sketch, explaining about the strange man who wants to know where it came from and why. Lauren is less than enthused, and Rachel pushes her about it, wanting her to ring the guy and find out what the situation is. Lauren's voice gets a bit sharp and she says that she doesn't want to talk to anyone about Alex, and if Rachel is so keen, she should ring him. There is an awkward pause in the Realm and a "ah, the signature is Alex, ok" in the Umbra. Lauren apologises and says that she's still very tired from moving in. They finish up their call.

Kimu and Darren head off back to the caern and continue their enquiries. They grab the sketch and wander around looking for someone to talk to. They find Chris McNeil. Chasing-the-Night explains their situation and says "Alex" and Chris says "Ah, yeah, it looks like one of Alex's sketches." As Chasing-the-Night and Ghost have no idea who Alex is they press for more information. Chris explains that Alex Urosevic was in a pack called the Hand of Lore, with Christine and Georgina and a Garou called Marion Perry. They were involved in the whole Sydney events last year, and Marion was killed, Alex got depressed and left. Thomas pipes in over the pack link and says that he knows Alex - he met him in Queensland a while ago. Chasing-the-Night thanks Chris, who suggests that they talk to Georgina if they want more info. John gives them Georg's address and the two of them head off while the other three Garou watch as Gabrielle tries to give a police report about the breakin ("No, no signs of entry." "How do you know someone broke in?" "They rearranged my plants" "uhunh").

Kimu knocks on Georgina's door and meets one of the kinfolk she lives with. Georgina asks him to come in and Kimu says he needs to talk in private. Georg and Jacynta (who lives here too) go into Georgina's bedroom with Kimu (oo, plot) and Kimu asks if she minds if Darren comes out of the Umbra too. Eventually all four of them are settled in nicely, Georgina sitting on the bed, Jacynta on the floor near the door. Kimu explains about the sketch and shows it to Georgina and about Lauren and everything else they've found out and Georgina tells them about things while all sit and listen. Alex apparently had a 'friend', Lauren, which most of the rest of the sept didn't know about. They met at the Zoo, where Lauren worked as a vetinary helper. Georgina knew that Alex drew, he usually sketched the animals at the zoo, but didn't know that he had drawn pictures of people. Its not a damning sketch - no wolves, bits of the cemetary in the background or anything - but she's a bit surprised. After Marion was killed in Sydney, Alex grew more despondant and effectively slipped into Harano. He blamed himself, then the rest of Hand of Lore and then, well, Mathias and Dominique. And Mikal. Eventually he left Sleeping Lore, burning most of his stuff and going to Sydney. She and Christine followed, but he made it fairly clear that he wasn't interested in their company, so they came back and hoped he'd return. A couple of months later, it was clear he wasn't going to, so Hand of Lore was disbanded, and a while after that Georg, Christine, Keziah and Jacynta formed the Daughters of Mnemosyne pack. Georgina is not very happy about the whole outcome, and she says that she still misses Alex, but there was nothing they could do. Last she heard, he'd left Sydney and headed north. Kimu and Darren thank her for everything and leave for the caern.

Thomas fills people in a bit, and says that he was nearly in Harano himself after his friends were all killed and spent some time in the caern at Carnarvon Gorge, Dreaming Hands (Monash End-to-the-Darkness' sept, for what its worth). He met Alex there, and he was, er, still very very bitter at Infinite Paths, having decided it was their fault. Someone asks why Thomas then came to Melbourne and joins Mathias' pack and he mumbles something about dreams and move on. Thomas doesn't really think there's any more to this than they've discovered already, and that its probably not worth following any further. He asks Darren and Kimu to meet them at Gabrielle's, as she's heading off that way now. They all meet up in the Umbra around Gabrielle's flat, and peek through as she arrives home.

However, things appear to have progressed while the pack weren't here. Gabrielle's door has been forced and the chain cut with a hacksaw. She looks fairly unbelievingly at the situation and starts making phone calls, first to the police, and then to Justin. As she does, she walks around. Someone has opened the computer and left the case cover off, revealing the missing hard drive. They've also been at the paper files. The pack start to make "errr" noises as they realise that whoever it was seems to have been looking for the same information that they were looking for, or at least the same type of information that a reporter might collect. Peeking is not very impressive, but they get a faint male scent. The police turn up and talk to Gabrielle, and make some notes, saying they'll come back tomorrow and take fingerprints and all. She books herself into a motel via the mobile and collects some stuff to stay there overnight. The police wait until she is going to leave, and check that the lock is still going to work. They shut the doors after them and everything goes quiet.

The pack are a little concerned about who the copycat burglar might have been and so while Kimu and John follow Gabrielle to the hotel to get back to summoning the computer virus spirit to eat her laptop, Thomas and Darren step into the Realm. Well, Darren does. In the 5th botch for the night, Thomas steps into the calm gauntlet. Meanwhile, John and Kimu watch as Gabrielle looks her laptop into the motel safe and then start the summoning. Darren sniffs in the Realm and can scent a male human, strong smell and with an odd overtone to it, almost like they were a bit sick perhaps. He engages his gift Sense of the Prey, and tries to follow the scent trails around and around. Eventually he unravels it and is about to go out the door when he realises that Thomas still hasn't come through and is probably stuck. Not wanting to drop the mystic scent, he asks Brett to bump him out. Brett expresses rather clearly that he's not going to do it, given his record of trying to move between the worlds this evening. Kimu is eventually persuaded to leave John on his own and bumps Thomas out, which he does.

Thomas lands awkwardly in the Realm and knocks heavily into a hatstand, which smashes through a glass coffee table. The rest of the pack mentally put their face in their hands. Darren leaps out the door, trying to keep following the trail only to find that it goes out a shut window and onto fire escape and not out the door. Thomas leaps over Darren as he stands their indecisely and runs out towards the outside. The door in front of Darren opens and guy in a pair of shorts leaps out with a hockeystick. Darren kicks into overdrive and awkwardly leaps out through the window, hits the fire escape and rolls off the other side, crashing to the ground with glass cuts all over him. Thomas is heading out when the door immediately in front of him on the left opens. He activates his arm and tries to leap up above the door and wedge himself, but its still a bit awkward, so he drops to the ground and runs for the stairs. A guy leaps out of that door and bodyslams Thomas down the stairs. Thomas rolls acrobatically and lands on his feet, although the guy who hit him has landed heavily at the top of the stairs. For one brief second, everything goes red and Thomas nearly frenzies, but he gets control of himself and runs off.

The pack get back together near John and sit and recover. John's summoning takes about 4 hours and as he finishes, a worm-like creature oozes its way out of his mobile phone. It has little gnashy teeth at the front and moves in a very odd way. John quickly binds it to the laptop and there are some faint gnashing sound as it disappears into the machine. Given that its about 3am, the pack decide to call it a night.

Wednesday 29

Thomas dreams. He is again in the tunnels underneath Preston, and there is black goop from the Green Dragon running down the walls and congealing about his feet. As he walks along, the tunnel descends and the faint light fades. It becomes darker and darker, and the goops becomes more prevalent. Eventually there is no light, and in the distance Thomas can hear the growling of an immense animal. The growling becomes the rumbling of an engine, and suddenly headlights come on. The lights rush towards him but just before they hit they swerve and become the glowing eyes of a gargoyle.

Thomas wakes up in a total panic, cold sweat congealing on him. His packmates all are jarred awake by the sheer emotion pouring down the mental link. Once Thomas gets a hold of himself, they have a talk about the dream. Thomas points out that it is getting more and more intense each time, as if the danger was approaching. The pack look vaguely distressed.

They opt, however, to deal with the situation with the guns first. After some speculation about how long it was take before IA get around to looking at the material Justin brings them, they first grab a bag to put the guns in, and then think about how to pull them into the umbra. It is decided to summon a spider spirit and ask it to cocoon the guns so they can bring them into the Umbra. Seems fair, thinks the GM. Chiminage for the spider spirit is organised - Brett finds Barry Heaton sitting in the sun and asks him if he is able to use Scent of Sweet Honey for them. Barry agrees and waits patiently while Holistic Approach organise themselves. When they are ready to go, Barry taps Kimu and runs for it. Flies start to immediately head for Chasing-the-Night, but he continues the summoning nonetheless. Eventually a small spider spirit comes to Kimu. They discuss what to do, and the spider agrees. Many small spider spirits come out of the grass and start eating bugs off Chasing-the-Night, who holds very, very still. The spiders then agree to be bound to the bag.

Off to the impound lot go the pack. Darren steps in and creeps around. Brett comes with him and is satisfied just to hold really really still. Other pack members watch avidly for approaching police, but no one seems to notice the truck. Darren loads into the bag 3 shotguns and 2 assault rifles (leaving 1 shotgun and 4 rifles) and zips it up and activates the bag. There is a lot of squirming inside, and none of the pack are too keen to open it just yet. Stepping sideways, the pack make their way back to the caern with no dramas. A missions well accomplished. John and the others inspect the guns. John notices that the restraining bolt has been filed back, making the assault rifles full automatic, not just semi. Oh good. The guns also seem to have had their serial numbers filed off.

Leaving the guns safely in the caern arsenal with Nadine, they decide that now seems a good time to fulfill their agreement with Raven. Out to the wilderness and summoning both Raven and an Engling. The engling appears as a giant red kangaroo, and the pack give chase. The hunt is long and glorious and ends as the pack bring down their prey. Thanks are given to the spirit and to Gaia as they feast of spirit flesh. Raven agrees that this fulfills the last part of their bargain with him and wishes them well, flying off full of eyeballs.

The pack head back and go their seperate ways. Kimu goes and speaks to Ends-the-Quiet for a time about maybe learning Prayer for the Prey. The talk for a while, and Ends-the-Quiet agrees that Kimu now has enough basic understanding of spirits to be taught Spirit Speech. Brett goes to socialise with the Cave Clan, trying to get in a bit closer with them and find out if there are places under the city where they don't go. John decides he wants to learn Steel Fur, so he organises to summon a metal elemental. Coming back from the CBD with a metal birdcage, he runs into Marnie, back from doing the Christmas thing with family. They chat for a while, and Marnie reminds John that she invited him out to a New years party on Friday. John thinks for a moment and talks to the rest of his pack, checking they have nothing else on. Thomas suggests that given their exertions of late, New Years Eve should be a night off for the whole pack. John says "sure" to Marnie, and organises to meet her for dinner the next night. She is eyeing off the birdcage the entire conversation, but John just mumbles something about a present. They go their seperate ways, but John decides to go the long way to the caern, wandering through Royal Park before returning to the cemetary, dedicating the birdcage and stepping sideways. He summons a spirit over the next couple of hours and when it arrives, it bends the cage out of shape to make a wire-frame humanoid figure. John talks with the spirit for a time and agrees to learn more about how to use metal in return for the gift, after asking Kimu via the pack link if Kimu will teach John about the metal work Kimu does.

Thursday 30

The pack get together and ruminate about Thomas' dream the night before. They go and talk to Cossack about the possibility that there is something under Preston, and he agrees its worth checking out, although its a fairly literal translation of a dream. Cossack also suggests that it indicates a certain amount of mage complicity, and that being one of the few packs with the ability to sense magic, he'd appreciate it if they would keep their eyes open. They grab the guns they stole the night before (see, useful already) and head off. Nadine asks them to take Melissa along too, so they find her and get her to tool up. ("Back to the sewers? oh /great/"). The pack crawl through the storm water drains and old sewerage pipes in the Umbra, looking for Wyrm taint. Despite the efforts of the Garou to clean this area out, there is still some residual effects from the drenching in toxic wyrm goo, and the pack destroy a number of small banes and tainted spirits as they move around.

John decides "screw this" and summons an earth elemental. However, he rushes it a bit, and the spirit that appears is less than impressed with being woken. John explains what he wants it to do. It basically tells him to stick it, so John just binds it and forces the elemental to his will. They ask it about the area underneath where they were, especially about spaces. The elemental isn't entirely helpful, apparently never having been interested in spaces, just stone and rock. They send it off to look for space under the area they are in, and continue.

The area that was affected by the wyrm toxins was fairly large, so they are wandering more or less at random. Some of the tunnels are starting to look familiar, and Melissa pipes up and says "Isn't this where Dom was killed?". There is a sense of Wyrm ahead, and it seems to be exactly where Dom went into the zone. Creeping forward, the pack spy a spirit floating in the air, seemingly constructed of thousands of red and black wasp like creatures. Its almost like a wasp swarm, except its floating in the middle of the passageway. From the distance away the pack are at, its hard to tell, but it seems that there might be small threads of black leading from the ceiling and floor to the spirits. As they are watching, the swarm splits into two, and then into four. Then the four spirits rush towards the Garou. Much furious combat, with guns and spirits who keep giving Garou rage until they frenzy and then suck energy off the Garou. The spirits concentrate for the most part on the ahrouns, and before the garou can destroy them (or accidentally blow each other away with the shotguns), they drive both Melissa and Thomas to frenzying. The rest of the pack scatter and wait for them to calm down, although it is taking longer than it should. Occasionally they have to squash a wasp thing as it reanimates.

John's phone receives an odd SMS. Yes, in the Umbra. It says "Duty expedited. Object in motion". Ah, thinks John. The weaver spider. So the truck is rolling on. Kimu, John and Brett run off to the car, leaving Darren to watch the two frenzying maniacs tear up a tunnel. When they step out, John's phone rings as well as showing three previous messages. Its Graeme. He says that the Steel Hunters just rang through a rather obfuscated message, but suggested that someone from their sept come and join them in Hoppers Crossing. Graeme says that the police bands are alive with calls from that area, so Steel Hunters shouldn't be hard to find. Torn between wanting to chase the truck and wanting to do what the Sept leader said, they dither for a while. Thomas starts to come out of the frenzy and says to go to Hoppers Crossing, but wait for him. Thomas and Darren decide to put Melissa down. Thomas finds out a little too late that he can't use Rage, and Melissa puts him down with claws while Ghost gets his fist stuck in a wall. Eventually she is punched into unconsciousness and they all drive out to Hoppers Crossing. Melissa is healed on the way (as is Thomas).

Along the freeway on the way there, the pack are passed by a fire truck. And an ambulance. And there's an ambulance going the other way. And a police helicopter. And look at that plume of smoke ahead. They pull off the freeway and tuck the cars about a kilometre away, and head back in the Umbra. They find Steel Hunters standing around in shredded clothes, not looking happy. Tanya Mueller is missing a fair amount of hair and fiddling with broken sunglasses. Scott greets them in his normal gruff fashion "About time you got here. Adam, give it to them." Adam passes Thomas a handful of papers, some of them torn in half (with the bottom half missing). The papers seem to be lists of names and addresses. Some of the surnames and addresses are the same, as if it were family people in the same house. Reading the names starts to sound bit familiar, surnames like Cachia, Heaton, Xavier - oh look, John's parents. Oh. The list seems to be kinfolk and associates of the Sept of Sleeping Lore.

They chat about this list for a bit, but quietly in the background, Melissa and Ben Phillips are having a conversation that basically runs "Hey, I know you, you went to Xavier" "Er, yes. Finished this year" "Same, but as Wesley. How'd you go" "Ok, I [oof]". The conversation ends as Scott punches Ben in the face and says "If I could interrupt old home week here?" Melissa looks pissed and half steps forward, but Darren moves in front of her and steps on her foot. To distract Scott, Thomas asks him what happened. Apparently the Steel Hunters were following up a lead in the form of a fomori they stumbled across and he led them here, which is Hoppers Crossing Auto Repairs. As they were peeking, the guy who seemed to be in charge, Yeager got a phone call. The Steel Hunter only caught the end of it, where a voice said "...rings again, its all up to you." Yeager seemed to return to what he was doing, and then the phone rang. Steel Hunters were distracted because at the same time a few banes came and attacked them in the Umbra. When they looked back in the Realm, Yeager (who had not sensed of wyrm before) was changing into this sort of huge fomor with spikes and spines, and running towards a drum with a fire burning in it which some papers in his hands. Scott leapt out of the Umbra and bodyslammed the guy, managing to grab some of the papers, but the rest went into the fire. In the meantime, the rest of the hefty men employed at the body shop place were pulling out guns and making moves to head Scottwards, so the pack leapt in and started belting the hell out of them. Gunfire erupted, much carnage and a fire. Yeager made it to a car and floored it away. Scott gave chase and in the end Yeager TAC'd himself around a tree. The rest of the pack through the bodies in a truck and tried to get away, but the police caught up with them. The important bits of this being "wyrm things have list of your kinfolk, uh oh". Scott finishes his story with "Arncha glad we came along, hey?"

Scott points out that the other bits of paper Holistic Approach have been given are employment records. They might want to follow up the trivial leads from here, Steel Hunters are going to follow up the important ones. If Holistic Approach are needed for anything, Scott will let them know. Steel Hunters head off. Teeth are ground, but the pack get on with the job. John steps out into the Realm nearby and rings the caern. He manages to convey to Graeme the details of the discovery without using words like Garou, Caern or kinfolk too much. Graeme swears a lot and tells them to get the list here now. John, Kimu and Melissa head off to the caern, Thomas, Brett and Darren spy on the situation here. Brett finds the officer in charge (Travis Schaeffer) and listens in. The police don't yet have the faintest idea of what happened here. Of people working here (its a big place), 10 are dead and 5 are hospitalised in a critical condition. Brett finds the roster for today - the fire has wiped out the shop, not the office, which is mostly intact - and reads it off as Thomas checks the records they have. There were 17 people here (not including Yeager) out of the 20 on the paper records the pack have been given. That means two are unaccounted for. Their names are carefully noted. Back to the police, who are looking at the gawkers at the gates and groaning at the appearance of several tv vans. Apparently they are not too surprised at the existence of illegal firearms here, although the quantity and type is a bit of a surprise. As far as the police can tell, there might have been an internal struggle aimed at deplacing Yeager (especially as he ran off).

Meanwhile the others reach the caern and pass their torn lists onto Graeme, Cossack and Nadine. There is a lot of muted swearing and Cossack points out that at least some of the people on this list don't know about Garou. They are all going to have to be moved, or at least have guardians bound to them. Not all of them are kinfolk - some are just humans friendly to the garou in the sept. John and Kimu are sent off to follow up on the leads they have regarding the stuff with Yeager while the Elders organise the big cleanup they need to do tonight. It is pointed out that it casts the hint given to the pack in a different light if the guns that were in Coulton's truck are related to this event. John decides to chase up the phone calls that went through to Yeager's. He and Kimu go to the main exchange in Lonsdale St in the Umbra and find that it is already awake. The amount of weaver in the area is suffocating. John catches the attention of a servitor weaver spirit and asks some questions of the exchange. Apparently the last phone call went through to Yeager's at about 1pm, which is odd, because the altercation happened about 2pm. John asks for the logs of that time that have to do with the phone number at Yeager's. Garbled garbage. The pack decide that someone is hiding their tracks. John sets up a quite complex query for the exchange, happily getting on with the weaver spirits, while Kimu makes choking noises behind him.

The others have, in the meantime decided that they won't gain much out of the actual location, and have decided to chase up all the people who were working here. Many Questing Stones later, they've located a clump of people in South Melbourne (morgue, most likely) and some people at St Vincents. However, one person is in Adelaide (probably knows nothing), one is in Werribee, close by, and another in Footscray. They decide to collect the guy in Werribee. Peeking reveals that the guy has come back here wounded and is not totally out of it on codeine. Charitably offering to Mothers Touch him so he can be painfully tortured, Brett can feel his honour dribbling away. Nonetheless, they perform a few clever maneuvers and kidnap the guy in his own car, taking him out to a feedshed south of Werribee. Slapping him around gets some information, like Yeager, guns, monsters and his name (Roger), but nothing really useful. He's just too out of it.

John's query comes back. Basically anything to do with the two calls that were made to Yeager's is totally garbled in all records. Interesting, so are the queries that John is making. Garble garble garble. The pack draw some wild, unsupported conclusions on this evidence, and then decide to get together again to get the other guy who got away from Yeager's (Angelo), using Roger's car. Angelo is in Footscray, and they narrow it down to a house in a narrow street. Peeking reveals him crouched down in a spare bedroom patting his gun a lot (a shotgun). Angelo doesn't seem to be wounded, but he's wild around the eyes. The pack plan: Thomas waits in the car out the front with the car a-revvin' while John peeks and uses control simple machine to stop the gun from firing, while Kimu and Brett leap onto him. It all goes to plan: Brett leaps in and the guy points the shotgun at him with no effect. Between Brett's attempts to pin Angelo and Kimu's attempts to cover everyone with a blanket, they get him pinned, dragged out to the car and driven away in short order. Back to the feedshed. Angelo is punched around a bit until he becomes sure that the thugs belting him are serious about wanting to know everything he knows. Angelo is seriously tainted, almost to the point of corruption.

Brett, in glabro, leads the questioning (Truth of Gaia is his friend, when he remembers he has it). Apparently Angelo has been working for Yeager for about 18 months. They did the occasional car job, or other jobs on stolen material, but nothing much. About four months ago, Yeager started to get in on more action - a little B&E, a little assault, more cars to be made to vanish. Angelo doesn't know why. Brett asks him about people that came and spoke to Yeager and a few people are described - Angelo didn't pay that much attention, he got paid to keep his mouth shut. Brett asks leading questions, describing a certain well known criminal contact and Angelo says that yes, someone that might match Ion's description came through about 4 months ago. There's that number again. John peels off to ring Ion, and gets through. Ion is surprisingly helpful, which reiterates how serious the matter is. He passes on that Steel Hunters found nothing unusual at Yeager's house and are checking out his remains in the hope of more clues. He says that yes, he had some dealings with Yeager - he made himself useful in the last altercation between Ion and usurper Irena, but there was nothing supernatural about him. John thanks Ion profusely and returns to the interrogation.

Brett has noticed something weird in Angelo's demeanor. 3 months ago, he was involved in petty theft, autotheft, etc. As Angelo describes the current job - Yeager wanted some people whacked - it becomes clear that he was contemplating mass murder with no real qualms. Its an odd discontinuity in his behaviour, which is chalked up the wyrm taint that is on Angelo. Angelo says that he doesn't know who Yeager wanted killed, just some people, and that he was tooling up over the last month to get it done. The whole thing was supposed to come off tomorrow night - New Years Eve. They were going to move out in teams of 2 and do several per team.

The pack ring back to the caern to ask whether they have any questions. Nadine answers, with the sounds of bustling Garou in the background. She can't think of anything immediately, but recommends about doing anything permanent to the guys just now in case they want to talk to them some more afterwards. After some consideration, the pack leave the two guys in the mostly empty feedshed, and then return to the caern.

Most of the Sept members are assembled in the Umbra. Cossack and Graeme give out lists of kinfolk and associates which need to be moved or protected. Emma instructs any of the Garou who know the rite of summoning in how to summon particular guardian spirits which can be persuaded to protect locations, as well as spirits which can carry warnings back to the sept if something goes wrong. One pack will always be at the caern while the other three are out and about. Holistic Approach is one of the three packs sent out, and their list includes John's parents, so they make their way out there first. John asks the others to remain in the Umbra while he goes and talks to his family, and strolls up the gate, knocking on the door. His mum opens the door and invites him in. John explains to his parents that they are possibily in danger and that some of the wyrm's minions have their address, and know who they are, and he wants them to come with him. John's dad (Colin) says "No", confusing John for a few moments. Colin says that the two of them have been chased away from their home too many times, and that they're not moving this time. John tries to explain about the danger, and Colin says that they have taken some precautions when they left Perth in case they were followed, and they can defend themselves. In fact, John should stay here with them, and help his family. John makes lots of argh noises and tells the pack to get on with chasing up the other folks on their list. After explaining that he can't stay, he has obligations to a long list of other people as well, and Colin refusing to move, they come to a compromise - John will summon a guardian spirit and bind it to protect them. John steps into the Umbra and sucessfully summons a very happy guardian, explains to it what he would like it to do and donates it some gnosis. He steps back and tells his parents what to expect (nothing, hopefully) and then runs off to catch up with the pack.

Friday 31

The night is spent alternatively telling kinfolk to move quietly to somewhere safe, suggesting to some associates that the game is up and they should find somewhere else to stay for a week or binding spirits to guard people who can't be moved. About 8am, Holistic Approach stumble into the caern and relieve the Scryers from their guard duty. They tune up on gnosis from the caern fetishes, and ask for any news. Nadine tosses them a paper and a package which was delivered by the Scryers. The package is opened and inside is a t-shirt with "The Steel Hunters saved my kinfolk and all I got was this lousy t-shirt". The pack are more amused than anything and put it aside to check up on the news while guarding.

The police have made a statement about the previous day's events. On or about noon of the 30th, a confrontation between criminal elements took place in an establishment belonging to a person or persons whom police have suspected to have engaged in illegal activity. The aforesaid confrontation resulted in several casualties before police arrived on the scene. The first officers on the scene initiated pursuit of a suspicious vehicle, which led to an exchange of gunfire between the police and the suspected criminals. The vehicle alighted in a road-side declivity, and the suspected criminals departed the scene on foot. In a separate but connected incident, a Mr Yeagar, the proprietor and owner of the aforementioned establishment was involved in another high-speed pursuit along the Princes Freeway with a second unknown party. Mr Yeagar was killed when his vehicle left the road at high speed and impacted with a tree. The police are looking for a car of the following model and registration, and they have a vague description of several of the individuals involved. Those who were injured during the days proceedings are under police custody in hospital, and will be helping police with their enquiries as soon as they are deemed fit to do so. The police decline to speculate at this stage as to the causes of the confrontation.

The other article which is of interest to the pack is written by one G. Thomas, and it covers the arrest of two policemen suspected of corruption - a Mr J. Henke and Mr. B. Webber - as well as respected businessman Gerald Coulton. A number of high powered weapons were discovered in a truck belonging to Mr Coulton. Police refuse to speculate as to whether this event may have been connected to the events at Hoppers Crossing.

John's phone rings, and its Melissa. She sounds a bit narked, but asks for Thomas to be put on the phone. When Thomas says hello, Melissa says "Dammit! I've been grounded!". Thomas grits his teeth and tries not to laugh and asks what happened. Apparently Melissa was helping with all the kinfolk broohah last night and forgot that she had a family dinner to go to with her grandmother. Her parents chewed her out about it, but she couldn't say where she was, and things got a bit out of hand, and now she's been grounded for New Years Eve. She wants Thomas to ask Cossack about how she can go about telling her parents about the whole Garou thing - obviously not now, but when this emergency is over. Thomas promises to bring it up.

By about 6pm, everyone who needs to be moved, tagged or warned has been caught up with. The garou all reassemble in the caern and are congratulated by Cossack for their efforts. Thomas chooses this moment to articulate the possibility that the attack on the kinfolk was only going to be a distraction for something more serious, and Cossack agrees that its a possibility. He would like everyone to stay relatively near the caern, and to stay straight. He also insists that at least one member from each pack remain at the caern. Both Kimu and Darren agree to stay, as well as Aquinas, Chases-the-Car, Barry Heaton and Keziah. The rest of the Garou spread out and head off to the various events that they want to be part of this evening.

John decides to go and visit his parents for a bit before catching up with Marnie, so out he goes to Cranbourne. Chasing-the-Night catches up with Georgina and apologises for not making it this evening. Brett joins Get of Pennington who are arguing about where to go - they eventually decide to split up. Kirsty Surfs-the-Train wants to go to a big feral get together in a paddock in Deer Park and convinces Brett to come along as well. Thomas goes to a nearby Sev to get some chocolates and stuff for Melissa, but while he's there he runs into a friend who asks if he'd like to come to a party nearby in Brunswick. Thomas says that he'll be there in a while, and heads off to dedicate the chocolates. He lopes to Melissa's place in the Umbra and steps sideways into her room after checking that her parents aren't there. They chat for a bit, and Thomas gives her the chocolates. Melissa's mum heads upstairs at one point and Thomas leaps into the closet. They chat for a while and then Thomas makes his apologies.

John spends a rather awkward hour or so at Cranbourne. He does notice that his father now has two shotguns out and easily grabable. He then drives back and gets stuck in the traffic ploughing into the city for the fireworks. Marnie rings him on his mobile, sounding a bit narked, and wants to know where he is. John apologises and says that he's stuck in traffic. Marnie asks where and John gives an approximate location. She tells him she can get a lift there rather than him trying to make it through the city, and he should turn off and head for an address in Hampton. He does so, and pulls over somewhere near the house, checking the Umbra for weirdness in case he needs to leave in a hurry. No problems there, so he heads to the address Marnie gave him and finds her there with a tall guy in black called Luke. The party is fairly residentially, with a barbeque and a pool and a sort of marquee.

Brett, on the other hand, is at a larger gathering and a bit more of a primal one. There is a large bonfire and smaller fires in bins, and about 300 people gathering together. He and Kirsty parked some distance away so as not to get caught in the parking mess if anything goes wrong. People are playing music, dancing, firetwirling and continuously offering Brett drugs, which is starting to get on his tee-totalling nerves. There are an awful number of ferals about and general weirdos. Thomas's event is sort of a mix between the two events, being at someone's house next to a park. There are a fair number of street entertainers, jugglers and such, but also a number of mundanes. The party has spilt out into the park with people playing on swings and all.

John is starting to get a slightly weird feeling in Hampton. He can't quite pin down what it is. Might just be tiredness, as everything is a bit more funny than it should be, and he's talking more than he usually does. John steps back for a few minutes and tries to work out what it is. He can't quite categorise the crowd either - there a lot of people in black, but enough that aren't. A lot of people have jewelery on (including beaten silver {shudder}), but its not normal store bought stuff. Sense Unnatural does reveal something, but its very ephemeral - something magicy and something Gaia-y and something a little faeish as well. Its not centred on anything in particular, just as a cloud around the place. John shrugs and gives up.

As the magic hour approaches, Thomas is happily chatting away with people he knows. Most stuff stops a few minutes before midnight and people come around with champagne, topping up glasses. The crowd starts to count down from 20 seconds.... 10...5..4.3.2.1. A huge cheer goes up, echoing down the street, but not quite masking the sound behind Thomas. He glances around and sees three skanky looking people, wearing longish jackets and pulling uzis out from underneath them. He warghs and dodges as fast as possible to one side and bullets crash through the crowd. Thomas knocks one of his assailants flying with Falling Touch, but is pistolwhipped by another. The situation is starting to get ugly as the guys with guns switch to full auto and start gunning wildly into the crowd to try and hit Thomas. That, and falling flat on his face convince him that maybe this is bad place to be, and relying on the confusion to help in protecting the Veil, he steps sideways as an uzi is opened full throttle into the ground where he was.

The rest of the pack are not being left out of all this. John, a bit nervous about the strange mysticness to the crowd, lingered up the back of the group as they counted down to midnight, and therefore he is right at the back as two men and one woman burst in through the gate. They are obviously wielding firearms, so John decides that discretion is the better part of valour and runs for it while spending rage. He has made it down the side of the house and is about to clear the fence when there is a roar of a shotgun and shot pings all around him, although none of it pierces flesh. John clears the fence in a bound and doesn't stay around to see what happens, but steps sideways.

Brett alerts Kirsty to what's happening and they start running towards their car. She yoinks an earring off and does something subtle to it, and it changes into a bird. She tells it to find the rest of her pack and tell them to go to the caern. Fireworks start right behind them and both of them nearly leap out of their skin. Then there is more firework sounds from near the carpark and people in that direction start to scream. The two of them can see muzzleflash from that direction, and start to jog towards the confusion to see what's happening when they are jumped from either side by more feral looking people with guns. Brett flips to glabro and draws the fae sword from under his jacket while Kirsty kisses the Veil goodbye and leaps on her assailant in crinos. Brett attacks the guy, who dodges to one side. There is a manga moment as Brett runs past and strikes but misses and the uzi jams, but Brett spoils the moment by spinning around and stabbing the guy in the chest. From the sounds and gobby bits flying past, Kirsty has the situation in hand. Between the gunfire and the poor lighting and the heavily doped crowd and Kirsty in crinos, the crowd is not having a bar of anything that's happening in this part of the party, so the two of them sprint for the car at high speed.

Thomas appears in the Umbra and starts sprinting at top speed towards the caern, where Darren and Kimu have rushed to tell Cossack what's happening. They are heading that way when they start to see pretty lights at the edge of the caern. Lots of pretty lights. Creeping closer to look carefully, they can see mindless banes starting to cluster at the edges of the cemetary and hitting the caern defenses like so many evil moths. They are building quickly, which is going to make life exciting for anyone coming to the caern in the Umbra soon. Like Thomas. They quickly let their pack leader know about the problem and run and tell Cossack. He seems to know and asks them to scout out the south side of the cemetary and let him know exactly what's happening. This they do.

John appears in the Umbra and peeks back. There is no sign of the gunslingers, but the party appears severely disrupted (although no one seems to have been shot). He opts to not go to his car, but instead steals a heavy four wheel drive vehicle and floors it out towards Nepean highway. Darren hears Cossack's voice in his head, asking where everyone else is, and Darren gives a status report. Cossack tells Darren to tell John to get Melissa on the way, given he's closest to her. John nods and digs around for a Melways in the stolen car. He looks up, doing 140km/hr along Nepean Highway and sees a granny start to cross the road. Argh, thinks John and wonders if he can miss her. He looks closer and realises the figure has no legs, but is floating along. It turns towards him and John decides to ram it with the car. As the front of the car starts to buckle, his hindbrain remembers these things are made of stone and he looks up at the rear vision mirror and vanishes into the Umbra just as the car becomes a roiling fireball of twisted and warped metal.

Darren and Kimu are evaluating the status of the southern approach of the caern when Kimu peeks sideways and sees that a huge, ugly, faceless thing is tearing its way through the caern, breaking up headstones and generally being bad. It sense of wyrm, and of magery and demons. There are also some gentlemen following it through the gap it has made in the fence, carrying what seem to be high powered rifles. The two garou decide to deal with this problem here and now. Darren leaps through the gauntlet and goes the slow moving giant. It seems to be protected by a sparkling purple shield of some sort, but Thorn makes big holes in it nonetheless. Unfortunately, the gentlemen with guns have noticed Darren doing this and fired on him. They seem to be loading silver-alloy bullets as the wound burns like a mad thing. Kimu to the rescue - having now snuck up close enough to summon up his Tendrils of the Serpent, he quickly immobilises all three gunmen and dispatches them as Darren does for the faceless giant.

John appears in the Umbra again at some speed. He bounces and crashes along in the Umbra before finally coming to rest against a rock (splat). He changes form and slowly heals all the broken bones, cuts and abrasions, leaps to his feet and runs for Melissa's house. It takes him about ten minutes to get there, and peeking through reveals that he might be a bit late. There are two dead policemen on the front lawn, and the sounds of gunfire inside. John changes to glabro and finds somewhere a bit protected to step from. When he gets to the Realm, there are still roaring sounds outside. He sees something fall from a 2nd story window and jumps to one side and a man, cut up badly lands heavily on the ground, quickly followed by a large frenzying crinos, that being Melissa. There is some movement on the street when this happens, mostly people running like hell, so John takes a few moments to appraise the situation. Just inside the door he finds Melissa's father, shot dead, and further in, a butchered up feral looking guy, with uzi. Melissa's mother is also dead on the stairs, shot dead too. The screaming and yelling is reaching a peak outside, as is the sound of approaching sirens, so John runs outside, grabbing the uzis on the way through. He considers his options, grabs both police handguns, goes back inside and shoots Melissa in the heart with one of them. She collapses to the ground and reverts to homid form, John runs outside, throws her into her dad's car and floors it away as fast as possible, intending to find somewhere to heal her and get into the Umbra.

Thomas has just cleared the caern boundaries, Kimu and Darren have picked up the weapons dropped by the dead gunners and flung them into the caern, Kirsty and Brett are driving at breakneck speed along the old Geelong Road and John is looking for somewhere to stop before the police catch him, when they all feel a new presence in their pack link. It's Dominique, and she sounds panicked: "Pack? Paaaack. Heeeeeelp meeee! I've been kidnapped by a mortal who /knows/!"

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