Game 2: " Prelude Part 2"

Game date:  6/12/02

Real date:  10/19/03

Moon phase: Waxing crescent

PCs: Tuc, Laurel

NPCs met: Dustin Bearclaw (kinfolk), various members of the Glass Hand Sept

Synopsis:  Tecumseh finds his Indian mentor is missing and probably dead; he follows the signs westward towards the mountains.  He’s picked up by two girls in a convertible, who later take him into the woods – not for romance as he expected but for a midnight snack. As they bare their fangs the world goes red.  He wakes in a campsite with some strange claw and bite marks.  The camper, Dustin Bearclaw, is twentyish but his eyes seem older; that and the flying squirrel on his shoulder makes Tuck wonder about the fellow.  He claims that Tuck is a werewolf and that he killed two vampires last night.  Tuck doesn’t buy it, but is further shocked when Dustin appears to summon a wolf, a woman and a giant fanged beast from thin air.  Dustin speaks to them respectfully, explaining the situation.  By the time Tuc is led to meet the sept, he has figured out the world has changed. Tsali rubs ash in his shoulder wound to insure a scar.  He also discovers that his “mentor,” Wind-In-The-Pines, is actually the spirit of the brother of his grandmother’s mother, and a Rank 3 Galliard.

Meanwhile,  Laurel is checking bait stations in the backcountry when she sees a wolf carrying three rabbits.  She follows it, coming to a relic stone fire tower.  Climbing it, she sees the wolf hide from a man, getting ready to pounce.  Then a merlin (an odd falcon to find here) spies her, cries out, and alerts the two, and they come towards Laurel.  She runs, but soon is brought to bay by several wolves and people.  They declare she’s not tainted, and before long they realize she’s a lost cub.  They take her into the foggy cove to meet the sept. Charlie will comment that their coming was foretold, and gives a brief rundown of the Garou and the Uktena in particular, including the Litany.   Laurel is skeptical, but finds herself wanting to believe.

Unanswered questions and loose ends: What will the new cubs do about their families?

Game 3: "Rite of Passage"

Game date:  7/15/02

Real date: 10/25/03

Moon phase: Waxing quarter

PCs: Tuc, Laurel

NPCs met: *

Synopsis:  Laurel sorts out her job without severing ties completely with the Park Service.

Nearly a month goes by; the cub’s lives consist of teaching stories and other lessons, drudge labor and little else.  For the most part, the sept members are polite but cool towards the newcomers – at least in comparison to the way they treat each other.  The youngsters do feel like outsiders.  They learn how to take care of communal fetishes, and that’s one of their weekly duties.  They learn the rudiments of the Garou tongue.

The council declares that the two new cubs are to go on a rite of passage together.  They are to follow the trail of an uktena to a fire, and to hold a sanctified crystal over it until it glows.  The elders all assist in the rituals.

First, the cubs are set apart from others, and fast for a night and a day.  As the sun sinks below the ridge, they are led to the brown lodge, to smudge with cedar and have glyphs written on their bodies with sanctified ash and pigments.  Afterwards, they walk to the cold stream and walk in, chanting.  When the markings have washed away, the two are led out and follow the elders across the Gauntlet.  They are given the crystal (a large quartz wrapped in doeskin), pointed westward and told to look for signs of uktena, but admonished to beware of looking directly at the spirit.

They travel through the Penumbra, eventually seeing marks on the ground as if a giant snake had passed by.  The trail becomes a moon path, and eventually the terrain around them becomes indistinct.  They follow for what seems like hours, nearly losing the moonglow several times.  At last the land sharpens about them as the sky grows light, becoming an open forest.  Before them is a gorge, 200 feet deep and 100 feet across.  The trail obviously reappears on the other side.  After a minute, one hears singing approaching from the other side.  The Ragabash can make out some of the words; it’s in Tsalagi – something about bones and livers and tasty children. Wisely, the cubs hide.

A man walks to the edge of the gorge.  He is Indian, but on closer examination his skin has an odd appearance, like sandstone.  His walking stick looks like stone.  He says a word and lays the stick across the gorge, and it lengthens and becomes a footbridge.  He crosses, picks up the walking stick, and walks down the trail. 

Soon after, they hear a whispered voice near their feet.  A hither-to unnoticed skeleton (in tattered buckskins) in the leaves asked them to pull out his pouch of tobacco and pipe, and light it and hold it to its mouth to smoke out the mice that nest in his ribs.  For this kindness, he offers advice; the stonecoat will kill them and eat their livers if it gets the chance, as it did to him.  He himself broke arrow after arrow on its skin. But he knows its weakness; he saw the opening between its shoulder blades.  The skeleton’s stone knife is nearby and will work well enough.

Eventually, the stoneskin returns and crossed the gorge.  In wolf form, they cross behind him and leap past before he can pick up the bridge.  Together they run along the uktena trail to the stone chimney.  Laurel manages to activate the crystal (holding her hand over the fire for long seconds until her skin blistered) with Tuc ready to catch it should she release the stone.  At last it glows. 

In wolf form, Laurel finds the stoneskin’s hut and lures him to the gorge.  He attacked her, but Tuck puts the knife on the soft spot and ordered the monster to let them cross.   Laurel goes first, but as Tuck follows, his prisoner lurches to the side and both fall to the bottom of the gorge.  By the time the werewolf regains his senses the stoneskin is gone.  Tuc climbs back up and after thanking the skeleton they return to the sept, to be welcomed as members of the tribe.  They are given Garou names: Tuck is Falls Far and  Laurel is Fire Hand.

They meet Walks-with Uktena and decide to form a pack.  They track Wild Turkey and offer to make a corn sacrifice every season, in addition to the ban  Turkey requests.  He accepts and becomes their totem.

Unanswered questions and loose ends: What was the crystal for?  What happened to the stoneskin?  The pack needs a name.

Game 4: "First Banes"

Game date:  7/21/02

Real date: 11/2/03

Moon phase: Waxing Gibbous

PCs: The New Pack

NPCs met: Mary Warner, Mike Jr., Rachel Carlock

Synopsis: Walks-With-Uktena, the leader of the new pack, asks the elders for a task.  They send the pack out on patrol.  On their travels near the edge of the Park, they find some old drums on the edge of an old logging road.  It has formed a toxic dump; bane-ridden area, sick spirits.   The principal Banes, which appear as 5’ grubs with 4’ tentacles issuing from a toothy mouth, are drawn to the physical and spiritual corruption present here. Falls Far can't get through the Gauntlet, and the other two have to face the Banes without him.  They succeed with only minor wounds; they return to berate the New Moon and look over the barrels, which are corroded and lack identifying marks.

 Downstream a couple of hundred yards is a trailer (off another road). The folks in the trailer are Mike Warner (works as a janitor at a lumber mill), his wife, Mary, and 10 year old son, Mike Jr.  Falls Far went to the cabin and brought the mother to the dump.  She was quite upset.  The got a jar from her, put sludge in it, tipped up the drums so they wouldn’t leak so much, and found the Kinfolk ranger, Carlock, who says she will look into it.

Back at the caern, Falls Far is assigned to practice meditation to improve his Gnosis.  Walks With Uktena asks Nancy to teach her Wyrm Lore.  Mary agrees to teach Fire Hand the Rite of Cleansing in exchange for her toting firewood all week, for moot and sacred fire.

Unanswered questions and loose ends: Who dumped the toxic waste?

Game 5: "Coming of the War Moon"

Game date: 8/2/02

Real date:  11/15/03

Moon phase: Waning quarter (New on 8^th)

PCs: New Pack

NPCs met: War Moon Pack

Synopsis: A couple of weeks pass, and teaching goes on steadily.  The young pack is encouraged to go on two- to three-day jaunts around the territory.  It is on one such hike, a day’s walk west, when one perceptive werewolf hears a distant, faint howl: it sounds like a desperate rallying cry.  On the next ridge, there is an area where the several trees have been knocked over, their bases splintered.  The ground is ripped and spattered with blood.  A human body, torn into pieces, lies scattered about [Stares-Down-The-Gator]. An Indian man [Mist Eye] lies with his belly ripped open.  He slowly, dazedly reels in 10 feet of intestine.  He will mutter something about the “Souleater. . . must hurry. . . must catch it. . .”  Fire Hand heals the worst wound; Mist Eye picks up his Spirit Spear, points to the Fang Dagger laying in a dismembered hand and shouts that they must go to the spirit world before it is too late.

When the pack enters the Umbra, they have a horrid sight before them. Thirty yards away, there is an 8 foot high creature, looking not unlike the queen in Aliens, with two tails and numerous legs.  Its chitinous hide is ripped in places, oozing black ichor.  Around it are several Crinos and Hispo, dodging its claws and whipping tails.  One warrior is hit a solid blow by a tail and flies backwards, stunned.  The largest Crinos roars and runs forward, slashing madly in a frenzy.  He connects several times, doing minimal damage, and then the monster impales him through the gut.  Picking him up in two taloned hands, the beast bites him in the chest, tearing out his heart and lungs.  The pack can almost see his spirit flow into the Bane; immediately, several wounds on its horrible body close.

Its pretty clear that the pack is in a bad way.  Several are badly wounded, and clumsy dodging betrays fatigue.  A weasel bounds back and forth, nipping at the Bane and then darting away.  Fire Hand goes to heal the wounded while the other two lend their strength to the attack. Just before the beast kills the newcomers, a spearpoint  appears out of thin air and drives into the beast.  With the last of their flagging strength, all the fighters pile on. Falls Far drives the Fang Dagger deep, and the Bane falls. The Theurge, Mist Eye, appears and offers to do what must be done.  He rips into the foul body, and after a minute he pulls out what appears to be a glowing heart.  Mist Eye crushes it in his jaws.  Looking vaguely ill, he sets about healing people.  Rises Red introduces himself and questions the new pack – is there a caern nearby? He asks that they find food for the pack, since they know the land.  Mist Eye takes a necklace from the dead alpha, and all in the pack grow still, waiting.  Red Rises and Runs-to-Ground look to each other, and everyone else looks to them.  Finally, Runs looks away.  Mist Eye walks up to Red and puts the necklace on him: bone and leather choaker, with a weasel skull in the center.  Red Rises is now alpha.

While waiting, the Theurge cuts out a rib of the dead alpha (Spirit Scalp).  Though stoic, they look devastated at the loss of these spirits.  They carefully bury the three dead Garou (as much as they can find, anyway) and camouflage the spot.  A hundred yards away, they claw glyphs into the trees, representing Spirit Scalp (Ahroun), Stares-Down-The-Gator (Theurge),  and Seeks-The-Deep (Philodox). 

One of the War Moon explains that the monster was one of the foul breed of Banes called a Soul Eater, for it consumed the essence of spirits and living things. It was not one of the Great Banes, but in its time it was powerful enough so that discretion became the better part of valor. A Bane Tender died unnoticed, and a bound Bane was loosed. It slew a pack of Garou in the beginning, taking their power and growing strong.  Then it traveled in a straight line, from  Arkansas towards the  North Carolina. Another pack harried it for several days, until they finally bayed it.  But it was too strong and they died.  The War Moon pack found the last survivor, who told the story and handed them her spirit spear before joining her pack in death.  So the War Moon pack took up the hunt, following relentlessly for two days.  Battle began hours before the young Garou stumbled onto it – a hit-and-run attack at first but more desperate and determined as the pack took wounds. In all, fourteen Garou died to kill the Bane – The reason the monster was bound in the first place.

Once strong enough to move, the War Moon follows the new pack back to the sept; Walks With Uktena sends word ahead.  During the journey, the War Moon pack takes cover as a small plane flies overhead.  As the engine’s drone fades, Rises Red hears ravens and relaxes.  He tells Walks that the foe can come in many guises. 

As it happens, the Elders have heard of the War Moon pack, and welcome them for as long as they care to stay.  A few days later, the War Moon pack is permitted to howl for the departed.  They howl of deeds done and renown won. It is particularly painful because the souls are not being sent on; they are gone, destroyed forever. 

Three days later, word circulates that the pack wishes to stay with the sept for an indefinite period of time.

Unanswered questions and loose ends: Where was the Soul Eater going? What enemies was the War Moon alpha warning against?  What will Spirit Scalp’s rib be used for?   

Game 6a: "Unquiet Dead"

Game date:  8/7/02

Real date: 11/15/03

Moon phase: Waning Crescent (New on 10^th)

PCs: New Pack

NPCs met: Elton Kemper, Bob Clark

Synopsis: Falls Far wakes; he hears a voice raised in song.  Outside, Wind in the Pines is singing in the light drizzle. He says that he has met the spirit of Red Bear, an old medicine man who is quite irate.  His bones and his sacred equipment have been dug up. Wind reveals the location and wants Falls Far to do something about it so he can have some peace (Wind as well as Red Bear).

The pack finds the place, which is on the other side of the river.  The 200 acre tract is currently owned by Indian Valley Development Corp., and is being surveyed and prepped for 2-5 acre home lots.

They find six empty, hidden graves.  Fire Hand is checking the Umbra when the owner, Elton Kemper, and a flunkie, Bob Clark, show up.  Kemper tells Bob to call the sheriff and sneers at Walks’ tirade about bringing in the BIA in response for “digging up our ancestors.”  Fire Hand returns and gets rather angry at the developer’s rude comments.  Kemper lays hands on Walks when she gets the cell phone out, and nearly gets beaten.  Then Fire Hand goes behind a thicket and returns as a wolf.  Bob runs back to the Range Rover and Falls Far trips the retreating Kemper.  The wolf snarls on his chest until he tells them where the bones went – Ernest Carper takes and sells artifacts of questionable legality.  Unfortunately, Kemper had written down their borrowed vehicle’s tag number, so they ditched Bill Riley’s truck (he could then claim it was stolen). 

Charley gets the other Kinfolk to buy a used truck for the pack, to save trouble in the future.  The pack goes to  Knoxville and checked out the museum.  After dark they enter the Umbra to enter the Museum, and look around until they found the bundles.  The New Moon takes a canvas bag of bone-bundles and leaves in Glabro through the emergency exit (the poor alarm spirit being splatted by the Theurge a moment before).  They rendezvoused later and drove back to the subdivision site, where they replaced the bodies and put the graves back more or less in their original condition.  On the way out they got two flat tires (With his own foot Falls Far found the metal spike that did the damage).  They walk to town and in the morning get replacements, then drive back to the caern.  Later, Fire Hand bargains with the totem spirit to learn Sense Wyrm.  The pack carves booger masks, Umbrally enters Kemper’s house and scares him silly (Three tall naked painted figures with masks, surrounding him and warning that he will suffer if he disturbs the ancestors again. . . and then fading from view).

Unanswered questions and loose ends: Who spiked the road?  Is Carper selling artifacts regularly, and to whom?  What will be the repercussions of the encounters with Kemper?

Game 6b: "Moot"

Game date:  8/24/02

Real date: 11/15/03

Moon phase: Full

PCs: Walks-With-Uktena, Falls-Far, Fire Hand

NPCs met: None

Synopsis:  

        Preliminaries

The pack is asked to help tote wood and do a sweep of the bawn.  The sky has few clouds, and the sunset is dazzling.  After it sinks below the mountains, Nightsong howls a summons.

All gather in a circle around the bonfire.  The night is cool, clear and still, and most are in lupus or jacketed Glabro.   

Nightsong begins to howl, walking in a slow circle; as she passes each septmate, that Garou adds his own voice.  The Uktena’s cries modulate in an eerie undulation, with occasional sharp cries from the females.  Ghostfire’s call is low and steady.  Those who notice such things catch glimpses of movement just outside the firelight, as spirits gather.

Eyes-Across-the-Water begins softly drumming, a steady beat.

As the echoes of the howl die away, Ghostfire stands before the fire, invoking the spirits of the caern to guide and support and make known their will and Gaia’s will.  He thanks them for their aid.  It is a very reverent ceremony, and all give their devotion.  He mentions especially Weasel (in deference to the visitors), Uktena, Wild Turkey, Merlin and Fog.  At the mention of Uktena, Tsali rises and does an undulating dance with his hands like horns, while the pack howls low and quiet.  Walks-With-Uktena struts while her pack howls in fast, descending cries.  Carried-the-Day, arms extended, makes swooping motions, her eyes sharply focused on the ground, while her pack cries klee-klee-klee. Of the newcomers, Rises Red will rapidly dance back and forth, striking the air with his hands while the pack barks rapid and sharp.  Charlie will move in an odd swaying way, quietly shifting and flowing about his pack as the members whisper more than howl.  Finally, Fog the caern totem is brought up, and all solemnly howl, giving their devotion to the caern.

The sept gets down to business.  Rites of Accomplishment are held for the members of the young pack.  After they are done, most of the War Moon gets one as well for their deeds against the Soul Eater.  Once these are done and no one steps up, Reggie asks that the War Moon pack circle the bawn.  After they leave, he brings up the idea of offering membership to the new pack.  He has spoken with Rises Red and he wishes for his pack to stay indefinitely if that is agreeable.

Mary says new cabins must be built, and they will have to range farther for game.  Reggie is happy with the idea; though not an old pack they are not unknown to him. The more protection the better.  Ghostfire says that the extra strength is good, but that the caern is devoted to stealth, not open battle.  They will have to be careful not to compromise the safety of the caern with their actions.  Unless any other speak against the War Moon, Charlie will decide they can stay.  Charlie asks for any other business.  After a while, the new members come and are told of the council’s decision.

Wind-in-the-Spruce sings a song about a Garou named Clubclaw who held a Bane down until the Crescent Moons could bind them both; sacrificing himself to save the sept. 

Charlie speaks a tale given to him by his great grandfather, of the Eagle Seekers Pack that discovered the caern four hundred years ago, abandoned when the Croatan sacrificed themselves to banish Eater-of-Souls from the physical world.

Charlie’s tale stirs the blood, and the following song whips excitement to a fever pitch.  Howls and chants; werewolves begin to dance around the fire as Mary beats a drum.  Finally, when the energy is at it’s peak, Tsali changes to wolf form and bounds out of the circle, followed by the other Garou.  They race into the spirit world and find the scent of an Engling.  After a glorious chase, they bring it down and all consume it – after giving thanks – and regain all their Gnosis. They return, exhausted in body but invigorated in spirit. Reggie asks the PC pack to patrol the road for a few hours before turning in.

Unanswered questions and loose ends:  

Game 7: "Stepped a Stately Raven"

Game date:  8/26/02

Real date:  12/28/03

Moon phase: Waning Gibbous

PCs: Walks-With-Uktena, Falls-Far, Fire Hand

NPCs met: Donna Delmont

Synopsis:  The day after the moot, the “new” pack is asked to take guard duty for a few days while the War Moon Pack is “oriented” and adjust to the new sept.  A new log cabin is built for them.    Nancy  continues to speak with Walks-With-Uktena about dark secrets. The rest of the pack arrive when one lesson is finishing up.    Nancy tells them that Grandfather Serpent sometimes changes people and animals, giving them scales or tentacles or foul powers.  “Usually, the only thing that can be done to these creatures is to kill them – but be warned, the corrupt spirit will flee the body; it must be killed and its heart destroyed to truly dead.  Not all monsters are Wyrm-tainted, however, for each of the Triat takes some into their own.  Many, such as Stoneskins or the Spear-Fingers, were mostly likely created by Grandmother Smoke.  Others, it is hard to tell.  The Raven-Mockers are an example: they are witches that sometimes dress like giant ravens and steal life from the sick and eat their hearts. I have never met one; they were killed off long ago.  It is likely they were tainted witches that were not possessed by any spirits, but it is possible the legends were confused.  Regardless, most of the monsters in the old legends were carnivorous and found humans a delicacy.  Often, they only at a certain part, such as the liver or the heart.  Spear-Fingers could take the liver without leaving a visible hole, leaving the victim to sicken and die in hours or days depending on how much of the liver was removed.  Such monsters have a secret way they can be killed, and you have already seen with the Stoneskin.” 

By the 26^th (Monday), the pack is relieved, and can go off to  Knoxville.  They go to the opening of an exhibition at the McClung Museum.  Apart from identifying Ernest Carper and taking note of a plainclothes state police detective, they discover nothing of interest.  Outside, Falls Far notes a goth-looking bicycle courier riding around the museum.  Walks-With-Uktena thinks that Carper just buzzes with magical energy, but isn't clear about specifics.  Fire Hand tries to pierce the Gauntlet and only manages to shatter the bathroom mirror.  They head out to their previous hiding place near the Ag Campus moat.  There they smell death, cooked flesh and a lingering Wyrm Taint.  They deduce that the body they find was burned all along the front but not her back; she escaped, staggered to cover, and then died of shock and blood loss.  She lost an eye post-mortem.  They follow the trail of a second person and then hear a cry.  Crossing the tracks, they find a newly dead man with a silenced pistol; his eye had been smashed and his throat neatly slit.  Moments later, they hear someone begging for mercy.  In an old warehouse, they see a man in a trench coat pleading with a raven-featured humanoid.  With a cry of "Raven-mocker!" they attack the monster, which changes into a raven and flutters in the rafters before vanishing.  Falls-Far tries to calm the babbling man, first with words, then with a couple of slaps.  The man (Alan Bozeman) looks up with glowing eyes, then bursts into blistering flame.  Falls is badly burned, and he and Walks-With-Uktena tussle with Bozeman, dodging back when he flames up and then attacking as he cools down.  He dies quickly.  Meanwhile, Fire-Hand gets stuck in the Gauntlet, until she's pulled out by the raven monster.  She questions it but gets unsatisfactory answers. Then she sees a momentary silhouette, from which a octopoid Lust Bane detaches itself.  Fire-Hand attacks it, and after getting burned she slays it.  Wisely, she eats its heart, destroying the Bane forever.  

The pack escapes to the hiding place and then load up in the truck.  Leaving, they meet the goth-looking chick Falls saw earlier.  They learn of the existence of Corax, and more than that, they learn that she knows about their super-secret Stealth caern. Donna says they'll meet again and heads off.  The pack heads for home to tell the elders what transpired.

Unanswered questions and loose ends:  What is Carper's true nature-- whom does he serve and what does he really know?  Who are the Corax and how does this young one know about the caern? And will the pack ever come up with a name?

Game 8 "Trip to the  Classic City "

Game date: 9/4/02

Real date:  1/4/04

Moon phase: Waning Crescent (New on Sept. 7^th)

PCs: Walks-With-Uktena, Falls-Far, Fire Hand

NPCs met: Elaine Edwards, David Rainmaker, Randy Black Coat, Mary Stancel

Synopsis:  

A few days have passed since the last excursion.  The pack has been busy with duties around the caern, but the last day or so has been fairly slack.  Walks learns some fighting moves from Rises Red, Fire Hand reads some occult books from Nancy, and Falls Far finally achieves a certain level of enlightenment. Then Nancy "Holds-Back-The-Shadows" approaches Walks-With-Uktena and asks her pack to collect some books for her, volumes in the protected Rare Books section of the library at the University of Georgia.  They can contact David Rainmaker for information if they wish, but the books must disappear without being detected.  They are given a jar with what appears to be mist swirling within; this is to be given as a gift to Rainmaker.  They may also utilize the power of the Caern. They must rise at  midnight and purify themselves, then move with utmost stealth to the pool at the caern’s heart, then whisper a secret onto the water’s surface.  Then they wait.   The sky lightens and the fog seems to swirl around them.  Suddenly,  Nancy appears at the top of the falls, and fog wraps around her like a cocoon.  After a few moments, the fog dissipates to normal, and  Nancy is gone.  She appears amidst the pack, and fog flows from her mouth and ears and seems to sink into the skin of the packmembers.  She warns that Fog’s blessing will be withdrawn at dawn tomorrow.

Volumes: 

Lost Protocols of the Cherokee vol. 2 and 3 (written in prototypic Cherokee, dated around 1818).  Two unnamed medicine men copied down some of their rituals and sacred formulas.  The original preface indicates the men had a dream that those who kept the sacred lore of the tribe would be lost, and so they committed their knowledge to paper in the hopes that one day the survivors would learn the old ways again. The compiler’s (Johnathan Laine) forward, dated 1925, states that the papers were found in a jar at the back of a cave near Etowah.  90 pages of manuscript were divided by apparent author into two volumes; the manuscripts are incomplete.  The Protocols arrived at the library a week ago through an estate donation and haven’t been made public yet, pending final cataloging. 

A Religious Practices in Tribal Remnants of Southeastern United States, written in 1890 by E.H. Howell.  Details some rather intense rituals, including blood sacrifice, conducted by remnant bands of Cherokee and other Southeastern tribes, as supposedly witnessed by the author.

  Athens

They drive to  Athens and call Rainmaker’s home near Memorial Park.  His wife tells them to wait, and after a few minutes Elaine Edwards (A Black Fury Half-Moon) arrives. They go to lunch at the Bluebird Café and then go Rainmaker’s home.  They also meet Randy Black Coat, an Uktena Ragabash who is staying at the house. He asks the pack for a lift to their caern, so he can meet more of his kin and maybe speak with the totem. Fire Hand tries to eavesdrop on Black Coat, but the latter hears her coming and warns her against it.

When he arrives, Rainmaker is friendly enough and will tell them what little he knows about the rare books section.  The place has a lot of electronic security.  If the books have been catalogued, they will either be in the vault or more likely the rare book section.  If they haven’t, they will be nearby in the offices.  Rainmaker asks that the books be brought by the house first so he can look over them for a couple of hours.  They give him the gift from the sept, and he immediately gives it to Black Coat, saying that Circles-the-Dying-Bane (whom he later says is a Bane Tender) will appreciate it.

  Library

After experimenting with a bank security system (or rather the spirit of such in the Umbra), they scope out the Rare Books section on the fourth floor of the main library, seeing odd spirits that make Fire Hands apathetic.  They arrive again in the Umbra after closing.  Electricity spirits abound, as well as spiders and informational geomids of all kinds. They use Gnosis to bribe a security spirit into closing its eyes for twenty minutes, and start searching the office.  In no time they lay hands upon the two uncatalogued volumes. After performing the Rite of Talisman Dedication on them (plus one randomly selected book from the box), they retreat across the Gauntlet and back to the house.  They find a note on the door that says, in Cherokee, “Key is behind the third shrub from the right.  Under no circumstances touch any other key-box.  Front bedroom is yours.  If the cops are after you go away now.  Leave books on coffee table.  Be quiet; I don’t intend to wake up until 8”

  Afterwards

Mary Stancel, Rainmaker’s wife (and a member of Clarke Co Board of Education) is making frybread and coffee when the pack finally wakes up.  Rainmaker skims through the books for about four hours in his study, and then hands them over.  He says to send the elders his regards.  Black Coat carries only a satchel and a bedroll, and is content to ride in the bed of the truck.   Nancy is happy to get the books, and the other elders listen to the story with interest. Afterwards, Walks spends a few days teaching Talisman Dedication to the other two, and then Fire Hand goes to visit her mother.

Unanswered questions and loose ends:  Why are Garou hanging out in  Athens if there is no caern? What was the gift to Rainmaker? Is there a Bane bound in the Athens Area?  What were the strange spirits on the 4th floor of the library? What is the story behind the borrowed books? 

Game 9a: "Sandy's Choice"

Game date:  9/8/02

Real date:  1/10/04

Moon phase: Waxing Crescent (New on 7th)

PCs: New Pack

NPCs met: Sandy Kirkland, Andy Boyd, Clayton Green

Synopsis:  

    Backfill 

After returning from  Athens ,   Laurel  went to see her mother.  Her stepdad was as crass as ever, going so far as to proposition her. When her mom gets home from the store, Andy berates her for being late with supper.  He goes to hit her but   Laurel steps in the way and kicks him to the ground.  She takes her mom to a diner and eventually tells her about Andy’s advances.    Sandy’s inner Mother Hen starts to rear its head, but she isn’t quite ready for a confrontation yet, and makes  Laurel  take her home.  Before getting out of the car,  Sandy gives  Laurel a beautiful arrowhead on a silver (alloy/plate) chain.  Laurel  writes Elaine Balance-of-Truth Edwards a letter asking for help.

At the Caern 

  A couple of evenings later (Sunday 8^th), Black Coat spends a couple of hours talking with the pack about the spirit world.  He seems to like Falls Far's interest in spirits, but is more concerned with lessons than in providing Umbral anecdotes.  He strikes them as a veteran after a very difficult tour: alert to danger, but numbed and weary.  Black Coat talks with each of the packmembers, asking about their First Change, what they think about being werewolves, and so forth.  He tells Erishka some tantalizing hints about the caern’s past.  There are rumors that some great Wyrm fetish is hidden at the caern. He says that the Uktena took it after the Croatan left.  During the 20^th century, Black Spirals captured it but were unable to corrupt the totem spirit or find whatever they were looking for (the fetish?).  The Uktena took it back but were weak; then some Shadow Lords stepped in to help.  In time, they were all that were left.  Just a few years ago, Black Spirals slaughtered the sept, except for three Cliath and one other who were away at the time; that other was Ghost Fire, now the only surviving member of the previous membership.  Erishka goes to Ghost Fire to offer her help in finding how the Spirals managed to penetrate the Stealth Caern’s defenses twice.  She is met with a cold rebuff. 

 You are sent to watch from the tower on the ridge, while the others take up other stations. It is a long, uneventful afternoon. Apart from some wildlife and a werewolf patrol, nothing happens by.  You catch yourself talking with Wind-in-the-Pines, though you realize you must have been dozing in the warm sun.  Time passes, and suddenly you realize the tower is rising skyward.  You see below you to the north, south and east, the entire eastern seaboard.; westward, the  Midwest to the Mississippi . Below are the ancient, green-mantled mountains.  Then you spy a great black wave roaring across the ocean, and another smashing across the Great River.  The black waters shimmer with an sickly opalesque sheen as if coated with oil.  The eastern wave pours over the shore without slowing; all the great cities are washed away like sandcastles in the rising tide.  You hear distant screams of millions. You realize that, after hitting a city, the waves progress faster, growing stronger as they consume.  Clambering up the sides of the mountains, you see tiny figures – Garou, and others.  Then the waves hit the mountains, breaking upon the rocks like the sea upon a seawall.  The foul waters come to rest, and the only the hills stand above the surface, a chain of ancient islands.  You see the water teaming with corrupted life, as once-human creatures claw at each other and the sky.  Then on the water’s edge, you see Gaia’s chosen clawing at the viscous black liquid.  Slowly, very slowly, it draws back before their claws.

You jerk awake.  The sun touches the horizon.  You barely have time to collect your wits before Sings-Through-The-Pain appears far down the ridge, coming to relieve you.

   He goes to Nancy, who says to keep it under his hat while she considers the vision.

  Elaine’s letter arrives on Tuesday the 10^th.  She shows up on the evening of the next day.  They settle her in and discuss the situation.  The next day, they plan out what they are going to do about  Sandy .  Elaine counsels her that she may not wish to go when it comes down to it, and that they can’t force her to leave.  When Laurel calls in the afternoon, however, she’s ready, and so they hit the road. As they leave, Erishka notices that Black Coat has been spying on them while they talked.

  They arrive at  Sandy ’s house, pack up the truck and head off without a hitch.   Sandy is between excitement, relief and anxiety.  Laurel heals her cracked collarbone and ribs (from a prior beating) with some “Indian liniment”. They assure her that all will be well, and put her up at Charlie’s house.  Within a couple of days, a lawyer (Clayton Green, a contact of Elaine) comes to talk to her, and soon after that, Andy signs the papers without contest [Unbeknownst to the pack, Black Coat found his way to the house and waited for the husband.  He confronted Andy and advise him to let go of the woman completely, punctuating his comments with fist and foot. He also used the Trickster Beacon on Andy, just to make his life difficult.  After some persuasion, he agreed to a divorce or whatever else she wants.  Andy will likely have a short memory, but he can be reminded again at need. The pack does not find this out until later].  Elaine performs the rite Soothe the Scar on Sandy, who doesn’t normally cotton to this “New Age business” but was definitely better for the experience.

  Revelation

Laurel confronts Black Coat, asking if she is his daughter.  He says he is, and she’s beside herself for being left before she was born.  She finally demands that he tell  Sandy that it wasn’t her fault he left.

Game 9b: "A Vision of Mist"

Game date:  9/17/02

Real date: 1/10/04

Moon phase: Waxing Gibbous (Half moon on 13th) 

PCs: Mistwatcher  Pack

NPCs met: 

Synopsis: In the morning, Falls Far and his pack are called to a hearing before the elders.  They wish to hear of his vision.  After doing so, and asking a few questions, they thank him and let him depart.  Some time later, they howl for his pack.  Charlie says that similar visions have been seen before.  The pack should go on a quest into the spirit world to seek a deeper understanding of the vision. 

  And so after preparations (purifying rituals and such) they set out after sundown.

  The Journey

The spirit world is more – vision is more vibrant, smells are stronger, all that is good is better. After a while, a trail becomes a Moon Path of silvery motes, and the woods fade away into fog.  

  As they walk, they are accosted by five strange spirits, much like strings of colored light.  They seem playful but harmless.  Suddenly, one is grabbed by what looks like a 2’ centipede with a talon on each foot.  It flies without wings, and wraps around the string until it pales and vanishes.  Three more appear, but the other strings evade them and head out.  The hungry Banes will attack the pack.  The talons inject a numbing poison, but no one gets a full dose.  One latches on to Fire Hand’s face and she claws her eye out trying to kill it (it will get better in a few days).  The lone surviving Bane flees into the Umbra.

  Eventually, the path rises, and features of wooded mountains (much like the Appalachians) appear in the semi-darkness.  They continue to rise for quite a while until reaching the rocky ridgeline.  From the bald head of the top, the pack sees deep green forest tumbling down the rocky flanks.  And at the base on either side, a strange, dark gray mist roils.  Occasionally the pack sees flashes of white and orange light within, like lightning deep in a cloud.  The still morning air carries to their ears distant evil sounds: moans, roars, screeches, maniacal cackles. The sky lightens but the malevolent fog grows no more distinct.

  “What do you see?” asks a deep rumbling voice. They see an 8 foot, sasquatch-like figure standing behind them.  He explains that the mist waits to cover all the world, but it must not.  Occasionally it creeps a tendril towards the coves, but it is beaten back.  The coming darkness will be far darker if the mountains are lost.  Apart from answering basic questions, he will say nothing more.  He does not give his name, but only says he is one of those the Garou killed in their arrogance.  Now he watches the mist, for that is all he can do.  But others must guard against the evils which seek to claim the world.  “You must watch for the mists, and act as I cannot.”  Then the sun breaks into the sky, and the figure vanishes.  Walks thinks the creature may be a Gurahl, which she was told about.

  They have the day to think.  The ridge is about three miles long before it dips down on either direction.  The moon paths are gone until nightfall.  Walks and Falls attempt to enter the fog but leave when they feel themselves drowning in it.  So they rest until nightfall brings the moon path back.  The elders give them a hearing upon their return; their consensus is that the preservation of the mountains will be critical in the upcoming Apocalypse. Walks-With-Uktena announces that in light of the vision they will call themselves the Mist Watcher Pack. 

  Laurel learns Master of Fire from a flame spirit in return for keeping a bonfire for three days.

  Unanswered questions and loose ends:  What kind of creature did they meet on the mountain? Why is the Ragabash having visions?

Game 10: Dark Sarcasm in the Classroom 

Game Date:    9/18/02

Game Played:  1/31/04

Moon Phase: Full/Waning Gibbous (Full on the 20th)  

Characters: Mist Watcher Pack

NPCs Met: Janet Patrick and Redd Payne (both Fomori), Linda Gilchrist (English Teacher), several students.

Synopsis: Fire Hand apologizes to Black Coat for misjudging him, and they mend their fences.  Falls-Far volunteers for extra guard duty so he can practice being stealthy.  

  The pack goes on patrol along the Appalachian Trail .  Upon returning, they hear a mournful howl, full of grief.  It is Ghostfire, and they realize that his Kinfolk, the wolf called Sister, has died.  The howl is joined by the other members of the sept, mingling to share grief and give support.

  Moot – Thursday 20^th

  The moot is held as usual.  The pack undergoes Rites of Accomplishment, performed by Ghostfire for Walks-With-Uktena, Black Coat for Fire-Hand, and Fionulla for Falls-Far.  Sneers-at-Death declares that Rises-Red is Wyrmfoe for the sept.  When it comes time for Stories, Nightsong (in Homid) rises, and sings a beautiful, heartbreaking ballad about the loss of a love.  Only the stoniest heart can be unmoved.  Next, Storm Voice tells the story of how Magena Klaivetaker’s mother hid her child when Mockeries in police uniforms came looking for her, though it nearly cost her own life.

The next day, Falls-Far respectfully demands that Rises Red acknowledge him as a Fostern.  Rises will look at him a moment, considering, and then say, “You should not address me bare-headed.  Put on a bandanna. Not just any bandanna – I want you to be wearing Sleeps Awake’s bandanna.”  Falls ponders this for some days.

Suicide ­– Saturday 28^th

  The pack is on a long patrol. Some miles along the park border, they smell something dead. They find a woman lying against a tree in a small clearing beside a stream, some 50 yards from the road. Her car, a 1997 Camry, sits at the roadside pullout.  Her wallet and purse are in the car, which is unlocked. She is in jeans and a blouse.  Nearby is a large, empty water bottle, a tipped over, half-full wine bottle, and a prescription bottle of valium, dated two weeks ago. She’s been here a day or two. There is faint Wyrm-taint about her.  The wallet reveals her as Maggie Sutton, a teacher in Swain Co. High’s Social Studies department.  Walks alerts the Kinfolk ranger, and after hiding their tracks the pack goes back to the sept.  After conferring with the White Chief, they go to Sutton’s house.  They find an E-mail from a colleague indicating she did something that would anger the principal.  Also among her things is a manual outlining the authoritarian program of teaching the principal has instituted – rote memorization and strict discipline is encouraged, while self-initiative and critical thought is discouraged.

The next Monday the pack, dressed as students, go to school, carrying some forged class schedules.  They sit in Sutton’s old homeroom, meeting Coach Payne, the teacher who looks and acts like a drill sergeant.  Three students look disturbed by the suicide, but the rest could care less.  Fire Hand senses Wyrm taint but can’t pinpoint it because of an underlying pervasiveness to the spiritual stench. Next class is English with Linda Gilchrist, the one who emailed Sutton the day before she died.  After class, Gilchrist demands to know who they are.  They carefully intimate they are working undercover for some authority.  She sends them to hide in a store room and questions them later when things are quiet.  Later, they go to lunch and talk with the smart kids who liked Sutton.  They are plainly afraid of Principal Patrick.  Walks-With-Uktena finally declares “the bitch needs to die” and walks out.  Back in the storeroom, they cross the Gauntlet, and are for a shock: the place is crawling with Banes.  An Angst-Bane makes the girls feel worthless and doubtful, but they get their confidence back slugging it out with an Anger-Bane.  More investigation shows that Principal Patrick is actually a Fomori.  They return to the caern to report.  The leaders decide that Mist Watchers and War Moon should go together to the school. The pack calls Gilchrist again for final info on Patrick, and warn her she should go home early tomorrow. 

Tuesday 1st