Chronology

Will's battlescars start to become clearer. The mark from the spider spirit bite starts as a large red blotch, but as it heals away, it starts to look more and more like a spider. After a time it has 8 'legs' and a segmented 'body' shape. He also finds that the whiskers and hair growing around where his face was bitten off by the lion spirit have changed - there is a small amount of scar tissue, but all the hair starts to grow back a more pale colour than his natural hair - after a couple of days of not shaving, he seems to have the beginning of a mane. ("it probably looks better with the beard or it might look like a headband")

Finn writes his letter to Wungala Rose. He aims to be forthright but convey the deference for someone of her station, and his understanding that he's asking for something unusual. He explains that he has a rank challenge to complete, to learn three stories of Brenna Kennedy's life prior to her corruption and would like to be able to speak to people who knew her growing up.

While the Lost Prophets are concentrating on the hospice and evidence of the banes, the rest of the sept finish their areas and start to help with the pool under the hospital. (Rob Brydon's small man trapped in a box https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzvYLl2BtWo) By the Thursday, the Sept is basically willing to call the mopping up Preston job done. Its not perfect, but they're running short of resources to do more an effort than what they've managed.

Emma rocks up while Sinead is teaching Melissa ("She's switching gears without a clutch a bit - spirit magic grind grind chemistry" "I can tutor her in chemistry too" "She has specific needs - like, the properties of aluminium, not how to make speed in her bathtub" "ah") and suggests that now would be a good time for the Lost Prophets to take her to meet people at Hidden Green. ("learn to like cock-" "what" "-roaches") Also maybe it would be a good time to talk to them about Will's maker space idea. Tillie asks if Melissa will end up there - Emma shrugs and says there are things that the Glasswalker sept will need to do for her, but there's plenty of reasons to stay here. It depends on Melissa - there's been some movement from Hidden Green to Sleeping Lore, but not so much the other way (Not looking at Kasumi). Sinead says maybe they should make her a pack member and then explain that pack members dont fuck other pack members. Emma looks confused and suggests there's already enough laws about that, is it an issue. Sinead explains that Melissa has a bit of a crush on Will, but its not out of hand. Emma asks if they'd mentioned it to anyone else and Ian's name comes up. Emma rolls her eyes about it and says it didn't get passed on. ("Charisma 4, apperance 3." "you are a very attractive man" "Hey, same as me" "you are a very attractive boy" "hey!" "you girls are bringing the average down.")

Tillie calls ahead to Tanya and says she has someone who Tanya should meet - a glasswalker cub. "Oh, not me specifically." "More the royal you". Tanya says they are in the usual spot, bring her on over. She talks to someone nearby and Tillie hears Scott and sighs.

While they walk over to Hidden Green, they explain what's up to Melissa with another Sept and things that have happened. Tanya meets them in the lobby and brings them up by the special lift. They swap news such that it is - getting a hold on Dancers vs sponging taint. The pack is brought into an office to meet Steel Hunters. They do the formal introduction ("nyah nyah rank 3") mostly for Melissa's benefit. There's some light sniping between the pack. ("Oh god, he is ZAp Brannigan, isn't he")

Tillie and Scott are talking ("I heard you fought a bag") while everyone else is politely listening. Well, almost everyone. Ben, one of Steel Hunters, and Melissa are comparing notes in a whisper - "wait, I know you, weren't you at Wesley last year? " "Do you go there?" "yeah, I'm doing year 12". Scott leans over and belts Ben behind the ear. "If I could interrupt old home week here and you could fucking listen?". Melissa's eyes flash and her hackles raise. Scott looks at her and says "really?" Tillie warns "she's new.". "Got something to say little girl?" Melissa glares at him but looks away. "Scott. we don't smack in our house" There's some more sniping and "we won that challenge" "yes but you also had your hand down the pants of a fomori, so its not all going your way"

The topic turns to Will's maker space plan. Ben and Tanya are kind of pro, Follows-the-Moon is surprisingly interested. Tanya asks if hes just thinking crafts, and how he's planning to fund it. Will thinks if everyone chipped in, it wouldn't be much of a burden. And then they could move toward maybe talking about how a spirit could potentialy be encouraged to come and support them.

Friday 4th November - Monday 7th November - Galliard waxing

Finn gets a fairly concise response from Wungala Rose. She says that Brenna's sept was near Jurien Bay in Western Australia. She doesn't give its name, or anyone to contact, but he makes plans to head there fairly quickly and flies to Perth. (Finn only) . He returns late Saturday, unsuccessful and shaken.

Sinead spends time with both her pack and Melissa, teaching them things. Kasumi also learns the Rite of Binding from Sinead when Melissa isn't around learning things.

Pack members concentrate on finishing their chiminage to spider and learning their crafts or performances. Will learns the Summoning Ritual from Sinead and from Ends-the-Quiet.

Will continues to try and meet his agreement with Cherie. He takes her out to see a band at a pub, which meets with her approval. Another night, he heads out of the city with her into the countryside. She seems a bit disatisfied with the whole experience, but in a sort of pensive way, not blaming Will. He tries to subtly figure out what she's been doing while they've been ignoring her. ("so, why do you look like you've been living in a bin?") He garners that she's been living in parks - she doesn't say, but he gets the feeling she's been trying to rouse some sort of emotional response from people, mostly kids. There's one oblique conversation that he doesn't get to follow up on where she describes Arcadia Gateway as being like breathing stale air all the time, which might be an insight into why she doesn't go back.

(smiles: https://allthatsinteresting.com/duchenne-de-boulogne) (Undead dance fighting: https://archives.erfworld.com/Book+1/140) ("let the record show becc did a little jig")

Tillie is teaching herself to cook off youtube (my drunk kitchen). Kasumi continues to make Plans. Sinead is making sure Melissa has everything down for the Moot. She is the first one of the pack approached - Cossack comes to find her while she's hanging around the caern and says that the Elders would like her to take the part of Caller of the Wyld at the next Moot. There's no explicit suggestion as to why, but she knows other Sept members have been given these jobs at particular Moots in recognition of jobs well done. The rest of the pack is similiarly asked to take on roles at the Moot and given some some guidance on what is expected - Finn is asked to be Talesinger, Will to be Truth Catcher, Tillie to be Wyrmfoe and Kasumi is asked to perform Ian's role as Master of the Challenge for the Moot, as he is still away doing his rank 3 challenge of Mystery. The Lost Prophets aren't exactly sure why, but on the other hand they did just challenge the Council. And that whole Brenna thing. So... yeah. ("we're not saying we condone your challenge. but here's an honorary doctorate")

Finn considers what story he will start with, and decides to retell the foundation of the Jindabyne Council ("Beorwulf?" "Eating Danes? No papa").

Wednesday 9th November - Ahroun, Moot night

Moot Day! Just before the start of the Moot, a Moon bridge opens to the caern. A garou comes through and greets Ends-the-Quiet. Finn recognises him as Malcolm McKenzie, one of his cousins. Malcolm says hi and says he has to ask Cossack if he could stay for the Moot. Cossack and he have a quiet conversation and Cossack nods, so Malcolm and Finn catch up a little without going into why he's here.

The Moot begins as the Moon rises. Sinead leads the way greeting the spirits starting with Chimera and moving out to the pack totems and other spirits that have helped them during the last month.

Once the rituals are completed, Will stands forth as Truthcatcher. Cossack has given him some things that need to be handled, but then he asks if anyone has any business. Will recognises Ken Xavier. Ken wishes to get his Wisdom recognised - frankly, its been a long hard haul as he's not the brightest, and being an Ahroun a bit inclined to frenzy, there's been a bit of 1 step forward, 2 steps back. Kasumi gets him to go through the things he has done to earn this recognition. Its about twice as much as anyone else has gone through to be recognised. The last thing was resisting the urge to frenzy while fighting banes because it was the right thing to do in the circumstances. Kasumi goes for the simple approach - people are going to pummel him for a bit and as long as he can resist frenzying, he will be recognised. A light pummelling commences and at the end of it Ken's Wisdom is recognised. ("Oh am i pummelling him?" "Well, its what Ian would do" "Fine I'll chase him around and every time I catch him I'll kick him in the ass")

Now that the fun is over, Malcolm stands forward to be recognised. He says that he is Malcolm McKenzie, fostern philodox of the Fianna. Word has come to their sept about things that have happened in Melbourne and in Arcadia Gateway in the last month, and the Lost Prophets history. He has come to bring a challenge to Finn McKenzie - questions have been asked about the part that Lady Marianna may have had in his first change, and whether he truly is a Fianna Garou. Malcolm formally challenges Finn to prove that he is. The Lost Prophets give him the eye. Finn asks why this is happening and Malcolm shrugs and says like he said. Questions. The pack aren't impressed by this, though Will thinks that Malcolm is doing the right thing cos other people are talking shit and resolving it honourably. So what's the alternative? Is he a changeling that's a werewolf? That's ludicrous. Finn says he was recognised by Stag - he doesn't know how he's going to prove it beyond that. ("I just want to say, first and foremost - fuck you"). Is Malcolm serious? Mal says questions have been asked. By who? He says it doesn't matter, he's not bringing Their question, he's bringing The question. ("I think you should counter challenge him to prove he's not a knob"). ("Maybe use your faerie gifts light, that's a fianna only thing" "I... uh.. don't know that would help to prove your point") ("Summon one of your ancestors?" "No offense Will, but... no").

Frankly Finn isn't well thrilled but also isn't quite sure of Malcolm's attitude in this - maybe he's just clearing the air? Despite Kasumi's blatantly racist suggestions that it should be a potato eating contest ("is that the time? I can hear HR calling me"), the pack consider other options - race to the Fianna homeland? Go to Ireland? Summon Stag to reconfirm Finn's acceptance as a Fianna? That's sort of definitive, but would Stag accept a fae as a Fianna? The challenge is to be a Fianna Garou after all. Despite his pack's resistence, Finn says that he accepts the challenge. They will summon an avatar of Stag, and Finn will tell of his first change, and accept Stag's judgement on whether he is Fianna Garou.

Sinead starts to summon Stag, assisted by Will. While she's doing that, the pack consider any need for chiminage. They decide to just offer gnosis to the spirit. ("I.. uh, I just got 12 successes on the summoning roll"). The Moot continues while Sinead summons, and after two hours, the spirit of Stag manifests ("There, see." "Sure, *she's* a Fianna, but there's still doubt about you"). It doesn't just appear - there's about a 5 minute period where mists rise and a smell of peat suffuses the caern. A bright light starts to be visible from the mists, and then Stag appears, shining brightly. This stag is appears like an Irish elk - its horns span 11' across. Will addresses the spirit "Honourable stag, your children are in dispute. Malcolm here has raised questions about Finn's legitimacy as a Fianna. We ask you hear his story of his first change and judge whether there is dispute over his authenticity" Finn describes how his cousins ("including this dickhead") chased him into the woods, Red Caps chased him, and Marianna gave him a 'potion' to bring on his first change (?). She also had planted a glamour for later control.

Stag waits til the end of the story and says "I recognise you as one of the Fianna. Let no other dispute my word." Malcolm bows and says "As you say". Finn also thanks the spirit and it leaves, taking its musky peat smell with it. Finn gives Mal a "well?" look and he says "Question's been asked and answered." ("Look it turns out *I'm* a fake werewolf put in the tribe to spy on them" "See, precedent")

The Moot continues - Melissa demonstrates she has learnt the Rite of Talisman dedication, and Emma summons a spirit for her to learn a gift. This she negotiates successfully, and so Sinead is recognised as an Adren Theurge of Bonegnawers. Hoorah! ("I don't remember Alex becoming a black spiral dancer?" "Me either, Jess said it" "Hey, it wasn't me" "Moohahaha" "ah, truly a ragabash").

Cossack mentions there's been two fires in Elsternwick, where landlords of two boarding houses were killed when their houses burnt down. Does anyone want to share? Kirsty says they were demanding sex as part of the rent, and we thought it ought to stop. "We? So it was a pack action?" Chris grinds his teeth and spits out "Yes." ("I can't remember the word, all I can think of is a sex thing, topping from the bottom").

The sept is looking to make an alliance with Father Possum and they would like for Lost Prophets to make the initial contact. Tillie asks if they need to let the council know? Kasumi says yes, Will says no; Kasumi basically want to go with malicious compliance. Tillie and Sinead basically just want to cover their ass - they stopped doing this just in case, so, why not tell them. ("Its a jam sandwhich - jam between two slices of cream") ("because you can't peanut butter a dick into someone").

The Elders can provide some direction, but functionally they're relying on the pack's apparent connection to the Bunyip and Dreamtime spirits to work for them. Will starts wondering what chiminage to offer Father Possum and Cossack says that the Sept will negotiate the deal; Lost Prophets are making the initial approach, and asking the spirit to look favourably on further contact. There will need to be some propriation in the form of chiminage - they are going to be asking a powerful spirit to listen to come to them and help. The spirit is an Incarna - one of the animal fathers. Will asks whether they should quest to find him instead - that seems more respectful? Emma says that a polite summoning will probably be sufficient.

Well, then maybe the should go somewhere appropriate - somewhere in the bush? Somewhere in an orchard? Somewhere where there are lots of possums? They should get a bunch of bottlebrush - possums love them some bottlebrush. Nighttime. Fruit. Material possums, check. They sort of want urban possum power - Flagstaff gardens? Its pretty weavery. How about the Botannical Gardens? There's no train line under it, that's a good start. (much baby interactions). Ooo! yes, half a lamington, a vegemite sandwich... The pack plan to go find a copy of Possum Magic and get the stuff in there that was part of the undoing of possum magic. Wait... no, that's probably ok. ("just bring Mem Fox into the Umbra" " 'not agaaaaaaain' "). Tillie could cook it? Everyone cautiously says yes.

As the sept breaks up into individual groups, Malcolm comes and speaks to the pack - but particular Will. He says that Finn came and told stories at Scars Atoning, and they spread from there. And he's a bit confused. The bit about the hare pooka - maybe the story got garbled, but why.. So she's here, and you want her to go, and she isn't? Will says yeah, she doesn't want to go back to Arcadia Gateway. But they want her to go back? Will says that he's happy for her to stay if she doesn't cause trouble, but if that's not viable, then, yeah. Finn's story was a bit vague on the details, but Will gave her something she asked for? Yeah. So... what did he do with that obligation? The pack look at him blankly. You asked her for something, so she owes you? Oh. Malcolm looks at Finn, and says why didn't you tell him? We thought there was a bit missing from the story where Will asked for something in return. Will says he's asked her to do things before and she's wanted to make a deal. Mal asks how he asked, and Will says that he just kind of asked her. Mal says ok bro, here's the words - 'by the obligation you owe me' then whatever you want her to do. Why didn't you just ask? ("I think I just didn't want to owe anyone *else* something") "Well, I'm glad that's cleared up. I'll, er, not mention that too hard to people" ("Are you suggesting he should ask for more sex instead of just asking her to go home?")

Before Mal leaves, Finn finds him and says that he's definitely feeling the lack of Fianna knowledge and Galliard experience at the moment. He wants to make the time to come back and learn more. Mal shrugs and says given they're honorary members of Rippling Waters, Bret would probably be glad to see them. But, you were only up here to do your degree, right, then you were going to come back? If that's not a thing, is it time to rethink your situation? Finn says he still needs to be here, so not yet. ("Get your own fucking Fianna plaything! You've got tonnes!")

Time for stories. Finn does start with the outcome of the War of Tears and how the Jindabyne council was formed. Other people take up stories including Malcolm - he's not an expert storyteller, but he brings a story from his home sept ("once when we were drunk, we got this 19yo kinfolk drunk and lost in the forest and then red caps came for him...")

Tillie takes up the role of Wyrmfoe with gusto (" 'I'm gunna get 30 other werewolves to follow me around fucking things up' " "That's pretty much her ultimate date, yes").

Thursday 10th November - waning Ahroun

They pack take a couple of days to get this all together and lay their plans. Sinead says that possums are spiritually associated with adaptability - they've adapted to the city, for instance. They're a totem of cunning (getting the job done). They are also known as being theives, of fruit if nothing else. Possums are also generally associated with noises at night. The pack could commit to jumping up and down on tin rooves for a month.

In the meantime Will starts to contemplate what he could do about Cherie. To a chorus of "SEND THE BITCH HOME" he starts to plan to coerce her into doing what he wants without using up his favour. ("Send her away before the city kills her" "And by city, I mean 'me'" "You're only a rank 2 Glasswalker, you're not "the city" yet") (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkGl3dTLme8 "Kill the fat controller, pray to a new god!") (Get Low) ("Let the record show, Becc has just eaten a mouth ful of whipper cream")

Friday 10th November - waning Ahroun

Will wanders off to find Cherie on Friday. He tries a few parks and eventually finds her in Edinborough Gardens. This is not a park that the Garou use much because the abatoir and animal pens that used to be here have marked the Umbra significantly. He sees her, walks up and says hi. Cherie is doing some sort of cats cradle thing with pieces of dried grass. She sees him coming. Will opens with "I found out you owe me an obligation"
"Do I?"
"Yes, because you asked for something and I gave it to you."
"Are you quite sure you didn't ask for something at the same time?"
"I don't think that I would have phrased it quite like that."
Cherie stares at him for a moment and then says "Lets assume that you're correct. Now what"
"Why don't you want to go back to Arcadia?"
"I don't like it there. Its boring" .
"Is it really better here?" Will belatedly remembers he has the Truth of Gaia gift.
"There's a lot to be said for mortals and their fancies." ("*singing* I want filthy vanilla")
"So there's no reason I shouldn't send you back to Arcadia"
"Well, I don't want to go"
"But you wouldn't come to any harm?"
"Why, would that change your decision?"
"Might do."
"interesting"
"Well, if they would torture you or whatever..." ("Are you a refugee or just an 'economic migrant'").

Cherie leans back and says "I think you're forgetting my other option; which is that other people would be thrilled if I brought them through." ("*singing* Iron chains. Dump her in the sea!") Will gives her the eye. "The deal was that I wouldn't bring people through for a while. Who knows how long 'a while' might be in Arcadia gateway". ("Honour is not a dump stat!") ("Literally if we hadn't found her, she'd have eaten children" "I love you its gone from 'make disasppear' to 'eat'")
"By the obligation you owe me, you must do your best to maintain human ignorance of real fairies, while you stay in our realm"

"Is this really want you want, Will?"
"I've tried to communicate how important this is to you. Its really important. I'm also literally the only werewolf not planning to either kill you or drag you back to Arcadia gateway in iron chains"
"Fine" ("No more cottontail for you") ("do you see me hoppin' about all nimbly pimbly?" "Was there anything else you wanted?" Will tries to warn her that the others want to eat her, but she doesn't seem keen to listen.

Saturday 12th November - waning Ahroun

The pack dedicate their chiminage to Father Possum - fruit, the ingredients from Possum Magic, Tillie's lamingtons, anzac biscuits and vegemite sandwich, and some bottle brushes. That evening they go to the Botannical Gardens and set up. Sinead spends five hours engaged in the rital, helped by Will. However, as she finishes the ritual, she is emotively aware that Father Possum is not as impressed as she had hoped. (https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/painkiller-combination/)

The pack start to notice possums, in 1s and 2s, heading out of the bushes near them and running across the lawns all to one tree. Not just one type of possum, but a few obvious different ones. They are all moving into the tree, filling up the branches from tip to trunk. Easily a hundred possums have gone into the tree. They are all facing the Garou; suddenly there's a perception shift and the pack are looking at an image of one large possum formed out of the individual possums. The image seems to move as possums duck their heads or show their bellies, or move back and forth.

A voice comes from the metapossum - "YOU ARE UNWELCOME. Just because one of us has chosen to take you into the dark to search for the fallen does not give you the right to call on me!"

Will speaks for the pack -
"Father Possum, we apologise for disturbing you. The Elders of our Sept would like to speak to you to secure your help."
"Why would we help you, slayers of the Bunyip"
"Our ancestors committed great crimes and because of this, the wyrm has gained immeasurably. We need to hold to the Litany and do what we can to root out the wyrm wherever it dwells and wherever it breeds."
"What would I care about this? My children were here and roamed free before you came and brought concrete and wires and wyrm. We will be here when it falls and we will eat the flesh of men. "
("i'd like the hundred regular sized possums please") The Incarna is crouched down, it is unclear whether its about to flee or spring.
"In order for that to be possible, Mother Gaia must survive"
"My children will survive. Why should I listen to your words - you came and took all my children had and brought fear and darkness"
"There were those of the wyrm, and there were those that were ignorant. We struggle to repair the damage of the ignorant"
The spirit regards him without saying more. The pack are pretty resigned to having to making an open offer to the spirit - its very mad.
"What can we do to show we are worthy of parlaying with you?"

The Incarnae starts to creep down the tree; but because its made of lots of possums, the ones making up its paws start to run down the tree first, and then the others follow. It does not look happy. Will, expecting to have to fight, tries to adopt a "I don't want to, but I will" stance.

"Why should I listen to you - you do not honour my children. They do not take pride of place in your heart. "
"yes, we appreciate them as creatures of our home."
"I do not see this."
("Can we force it?" "you wanna try and bind an Incarna? Dissuaded by the incredulous look on the GMs face...")
"I am a child of Fenris wolf. Most of the Sept follow Rat. They recognise the spirits who do what must be done. And the aid we need calls for cunning"
"When my children have fallen fighting your fight, when you no longer need me, you will forget"
"We will not forget - we will ensure every new cub will hear of the help that Father Possum gave us to fight"
"For me to agree, your must honour all my fallen. Each you find that has fallen to the city must be given a respectful place to lay, and their names must be inscribed upon a roll of honour in your sept. "

The pack discuss this mentally as quickly as they can. They do have little shrines through the sept, to old pack totems and just spirits that helped them out. They want to put some limits on it - they can't just do it for while the spirit is helping then stop, the spirit has just said that it hates that. They quickly think of limits - for a year, only in Melbourne. ("I'm not laughing at your attempts to bound this, I'm laughing cos I've just realised you're going to end up with a 'dead possum' esky in your car").

The pack clarify what they are willing to do with Father Possum - that is they will do as he asks, only in this city, and they will bring them back to the Sept, bury them and announce their names at this month's moot as honoured fallen and add their name to a shrine. They'll do it for a year but then keep the shrine for all time.

The pack go back to the Sept and explain what happened. "It could have been worse" is generally the feeling of the outcome. There's some talk of sweetening the deal with tattoos of possums or putting a bit of work early on in getting a shrine going. Should they use possum skin? I mean, its killing a possum, but its always thinking about possums. Emma talks about whether he'd have been more happy if they went to find him or just have eaten them. Will says he wasn't happy to be called - but everyone was happy they didn't go into the bush. ("We're in a metal band!")

The pack get some practice in on their shiny new geas and go actively looking for dead possums, so they can sort out the practicalities.

Monday 14th November - Galliard waning

Will and Sinead are at the caern when a Moonbridge opens. They see it end near Ends-the-Quiet and a figure emerge. Its a homid guy with dark hair - they peer for a bit and realise that its Monash End-to-the-Darkness, the Jindabyne Council member for the Stargazers. After a bit the two elders come over and there is some formal introduction. Monash asks if he could speak to all of Lost Prophets about a garou issue. Kasumi makes her polite escape from work, and the others come from home and assemble before long. They ask about how the Council is going and he says that despite their interactions with it, day to day its usually a lot less exciting. He does tell them about other things - the wyrm's strength grows, there's less good news than bad.

Monash gets to the point once everyone arrives. About three months ago, Alex Urosevic showed up at his sept at Carnarvon gorge. The pack look a bit surprised. Monash continues saying that for a long time, the Sept of Dreaming Hands had been suffering a spiritual crisis - most of the sept were effectively in Harano, and the sept was not going well. Since their recovery, they have made some effort to help other garou in that situation, which include Alex. Alex has spent the last three months blaming himself for Marion's death - and when he's not blaming himself, he's blaming the Lost Prophets. ("its a fair cop")

Unusually Tillie cops to that a bit - not the circumstances that led to the Bunyip spirit being there and the Dancer Hive being discovered, but at least the call for help back to Melbourne. Monash says Alex is more about the circumstances, like many other folks seem to be. However, Monash recently had a dream that suggested to him that the Lost Prophets might be able to help. Will asks about the dream - Monash says that it was very symbolic rather than a solution laid out. Tillie wants to help. ("Road trip to Queensland." "I could be both wet and wild!" "The caern's not in the gold coast" "How can we take Alex to wet and wild if its not in the gold coast?"). Monash is pleased - he offers to come back tomorrow if they have personal matters to sort out and the pack agree.

("Charlotte?" "yes. I can't put a face to the naem" "Its just me in a bonnet" " 'Oh grandma, what big eyes you have' ") They ask if he's told Alex - he says no and he doesn't really want to. The Lost Prophets say that they'll go talk to Georgina and Christine, and see if they might hae some insight (and also because they might like to know he's alive). They also review what happened - Alex frenzied, Marion defended him and she got killed. They check out her statue in the Umbra, its not obviously Alex but eye of faith sees details that make it likely to be him.

Lost Prophets go looking for Georgina and find that she's part of the stage crew in a play in the Uni. She takes a break and comes to chat with them. They are pretty upfront - invite to Queensland to see Alex and try and help him. Why Queensland, why them? Well, because he's in harano and has been being, er, treated? at a StarGazer sept there, and them becauuse of "dreams". Georgina asks if they've spoken to Christine yet? No, should they not? Umm, no, they should, but Christine took it more as an abandonment when he left. She was offended a bit. Anything Georgina would like them to tell him? "mmm, hi?" She says that her and Christine said everything they could say and he left anyway - she's not sure what they'd do if she came back.

Christine's not free til the evening so they do things like organise for someone to feed Gus and for Kasumi to dedicate her laptop. Christine is a bit surprised to have the topic of Alex come up. She says that they tried to talk to him about things, but he just kept leaving, so don't be expecting him to want to engage. Tillie asks if he wanted to come back, would Christine have him? She says that the Scryers are a much different pack from the Hand of Lore. She's not sure how Alex would fit in to be honest. If timing had been different maybe Melissa could have been there and the old pack would have kept going?

Kasumi makes sure Gus won't starve to death while she's gone ("how long will we be gone?" "A couple of days of therapy, that ought to do it"). They make sure to empty the murder van of any possums. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkLqAlIETkA)

Tuesday 15th November - Galliard waning

Monash moonbridges in mid morning. The pack are ready to go with him - they will travel to Jindabyne (alt: 2500m) and back to Carnarvon (alt: 600m) ("Can i be identified if I peed on Jindabyne from this elevation?" "if there's anything wolves would be good at, it'd be identifying whose pee this is" "Also, do you mean the town or the Council? Because one of them is really obvious, you're the height of the door above it; and the other I'm going to be impressed by because the town is 2km away. Prevailing winds and all, but...")

The Moonbridge drops them out into a rainforesty gorge. Monash seems unsure where they are; when the pack enquitre as to why he says that the Moonbridge opens randomly into the caern's bawn, which is the length of the caern. It takes a minute or two to orient himself and then he takes off. As they travel, Will asks about the Sept. The Caern totem is .. unclear. Its something to do with dreams, and spiders and fog. But they're not sure outside of that - the totem chooses to remain this way ("Its in incognito mode"). They find the Sept Elders after 20ms of hopping across creeks and walking through brush and everyone does the formal introduction thing, meeting Sept Leader Indira Songs-of-Sorrow (Stargazer Philodox) a middle aged woman who is from subcontinent Asia somewhere), Caern Warder Dale Earth-Sky-Twinning (Stargazer Galliard, a bit younger, round-faced mixed east asian) and Master of the Rite Cherri Backward-Glance (Stargazer Theurge, European). Monash is not technically a Sept Elder here but has some standing as the tribe Jindabyne Council member. They welcome the pack, and obviously know why Monash has asked them here.

The pack are invited to ask questions about Alex and the Sept. Indira says that they do try and help garou who are in Harano - its not a speedy process, and not always successful. Alex has been here a while and not really changing at all. He doesn't know the pack is here - how do they think he'll react? Monash isn't sure, Cherri says probably not positively. Monash says his dream doesn't give a 'how' they should proceed really. It was clearly them, but.. he doesn't want to prejeudice them with details. Maybe just having him yell at them will help? Dale gives them directions to try and find him. The pack ask if they should tell why they are here - Monash wonders if it'll help, but is happy with them being as honest as they feel like they need to be.

Monash is happy to leave what happens to the pack - this might seem strange, what with their lack of psychology training and empathy, but Harano is as much a spiritual state as a mental one, and the solution to Alex's ills is likely to involve a spiritual component. Much like the Umbra, sometimes this is a "go with your heart" sort of process. The pack discuss their approach on the way while trying to track Alex down. His scent is everywhere, so finding today's scent is hard. But maybe a bit more than a kilometre away they spot a couple of figures in the Umbra, and one of them appears to be Alex. The two people dont seem to be interacting much, just happen to be in the same location. Lost Prophets howl as they get close. They both look, Alex stares, and then gets up and stomps away in the opposite direciton.

The other person looks back and forth to where Alex went and the approaching pack. Kasumi says sorry to disturb her and she says that's ok - she's Vashti (and she's a stargazer). The pack do a quick intro and explain that they're hear to speak to Alex. She says she doesn't know where he's gone, but its a long thin gorge, so he can't get away too easily. Will asks if she knows Alex well - not really. She's oddly not forthcoming. Did he say anything about them? Yeah, he hates them - something about packmate killed in Sydney?

Lost Prophets take off again after him. Could they summon the dead Marion to yell at Alex? They've had discussions about death and the garou before, and they were filled with a lot of maybe, sometimes, and it is believed and not a lot of facts. They know everyone doesn't become an ancestor spirit, and that its mostly held to be true that their garouness is reborn into another generation. But beyond that, its up for grabs. ("we'll try talking to him and if that doesn't work, we'll resort to necromancy").

With a bit of effort, the Lost Prophets gain on Alex. He notices them coming and stomps faster. When they get almost right behind, he wheels around and yells "WHAT? What do you want!? Why are you here? Just leave me alone, you've done enough?" Tillie says "Thats not unfair. But its nice to see your face anyway".
"Why are you here?"
"We're here to help"
"You've done more than enough, just go away and leave me alone. I don't need you meddling with anything else, and fucking more things up than you already have. "
"You're family, we can help -"
"Did i not mkae it clear - 4000 km of distance. What about that was ambiguous. It was all your fault"
Finn: "It was the Dancers fault"
Alex: "Fuck you!"

Lost Prophets retreat back to speak to the Elders and let Alex chill off a bit. They find Monash and Dale and report "he did not frenzy". The Elders aren't sure when he might come back - he usually joins the rest of the Sept at the end of the day, but he has gone away for days at a time previously too. There's a few stashed shelters around the place. Will asks how many people are here with Harano being helped by the sept. Dale ums and ahs and says 3 or 4. Tillie asks if Alex is seeking help, or just ended up here. Monash says Alex is here because he ended up here and sad, and no one here yelled at him for being sad. The other tribes (not looking at Will) have different levels of tolerance for someone who isn't 100% involved. Monash thinks Alex went to Sydney to get away from memories, it didn't really work, and people's patience ran out with him so he left again. Alex doesn't always blame them - he also blames himself pretty aggressively.

Kasumi asks how people are brought out of Harano. Monash says some people recover with a bit of space - not being thrust into the same situations that got them into that headspace constantly gives them a chance to come to grips with things. Others dont recover at all - one of the people nominally here has been passing back and forth for a while. Others need some outside input as well - meditation or talking with people or starting here at the caern and going into the umbra to get answers for their questions. Sometimes their issues aren't even as tragic as Alex's - it can just be a constant pressure of fighting. Or its been coming close to death themselves. Kasumi asks about similar cases or stories - Monash and Dale make eye contact and say 'yes'. People have had packmates killed, and that's sent them off. Not quite as direct a cause and effect like Alex and Marion. The Sept has only really been doing this for five years tho - there's not a constant stream of people, 4 is the largest number at once. Sinead asks how they got to doing this and Dale says that the whole Sept was in Harano and going downhill. The thing about being isolated, depression can be contagious. If things hadn't changed, it wouldn't have been long before another tribe took the caern from them. What did other people do before this Sept was an option? It varies - sometimes they ended up with the Children of Gaia. Sometimes their own sept would help, or drive them out. Some people just went off into the Umbra on their own. Some tribes have a very aggressive response to people not pulling their weight. Will points out that the Litany says dont be a burdon on your people, and the Get take that seriously. They will often set someone a quest of some sort to come back with their shield or on it.

Tillie says "speaking of a quest" - maybe they could give Alex a purpose? With them? The Elders do more significant looks. Did you have something in mind? Monash says that has potential, but he'd like to see what Alex's response to them being here is.

In the evening, the Sept collects vaguely together in the Realm near some wooden accomodation. The Sept is clearly not very large - there are only the three Elders in Sept positions. Vashti comes and joins them along with a handful of other Garou. Lost Prophets cover some news from Melbourne - they know some because Monash is the Jindabyne council member and carries big stories to them, but the detail is welcome. ("Wombat and yam"). Several of the garou are clearly vegetarian which is weird. There's the sort of racial mix that you'd normally only find in a large inner city.

They see Alex coming and his opening line is "Why the hell are you still here?"
"We're here to help"
"I don't want your help. Did I not make it clear this is your fault?"
Tillie looks at him expectantly and says "if you need to get it out, go for it"
"Don't patronise me. Is this just another way for you all to become famous like all the other things you've tried to do? I'm not interested, alright?" Alex grabs a bowl and goes to throw food in it.
Will says "We're here to help because someone had a dream that we might be able to help you"
Alex: "Whacko? Hooray! Now what" Alex does seem angry, but maybe not frenzying.
Will: "You think the thing in Sydney was just us trying to make a name for ourselves?"
Alex: "Yes. I think you went out of your way to top finding a caern and bit off more than you could chew and everyone else suffered for it."
Will: "We wanted to go in"
Alex: "Sure, at the end, once it was all going wrong. Well meaning trying to fix everything up! You didn't think it through - you snuck around behind everyone's back with one other person who was clearly an obsessive. He got killed. You lost control of the situation and the city destroyed. Have you any idea how pissed everyone at Ear to the Ground is? And I don't blame them - you got 8 garou killed and hundreds of humans. For what?". Silence. "Exactly"
Tillie: "There was a hive there -"
Alex: " Sure, it turned out that you also found a hive, but that's not what you were looking for! You just went out of your way to draw attention to yourselves and it *happened* that you found the Dancers!"
Much of the sept is prepared for someone to frenzy
Kasumi: "We;ve acknowledged we made mistakes - "
Alex: "Its too late for Marion, and its too late for me. Fuck this." He throws his bowl down and starts to walk off.
Tillie: "Alex!"
Alex: "What?"
Tillie: "If I could take back any part of it, it'd be Marion's death. I'm so sorry"
Alex: "You can't. There's nothing you can do". He changes to lupus and runs off.

In the silence afterward, the pack talk mentally - Tillie says he can't be reasoned with, there's nothing he wants to hear. Will says he knows we didn't mean to. Lots of accusations which aren't.. entirely.. untrue. The pack is a bit bemused about the fame claim. Kasumi thinks that maybe he's heard another version of the story, and they need to talk to him about the whole story and let him be the judge (being a philodox and all). That has some potential. Will says the point isn't to get him not to blame them though, its to accept the circumstances.

Out loud, they talk to the Elders. Monash says that what the said earlier about giving him a purpose seems like a good path. They could investigate it tonight or leave it for another day and see what happens in the morning? Back to the idea of giving him some focus - maybe they could get him to come back to Melbourne and help them find the hive they know about? Monash is not keen to send him back to Melbourne, too many reminders - if it was another city, then yeah, that's a workable idea. Maybe he could go to Sydney and find out how they hid the Hive and relay that info to Melbourne? They figure it was the caern spirit there. ("Could we bind something to the google van?")

The other possibility around giving him a purpose is to harness some of the caern powers. The totem is related to dreams - it was what gave Monash the dream in the first place. If the caern totem is willing, one of them might be given a dream to provide guidance. Lost Prophets point at Sinead. Ok, well, if you sleep in the heart of the caern, the totem may gift her with a dream. Sinead wants to know if her ears will bleed, which confuses all the Stargazers. They touch on some of her other dreams and the sea - Kasumi has a sudden hunch about whether the cathedral dream and the Dancers babbling about holy and sacred and the gargoyles might all be connected. The pack resolve to investigate that when they get home ("Could you get the google street view truck to get a spirit bound to it"). ("10 points to Dumbledore!")

That night, Cherri and Monash take Sinead through the Umbra down one of the side gorges. It starts to get foggy, and spiderwebby. They arrive in a depression where a single tree groes up - its trunk rises 8' up and then branches out into many boughs, making a kind of hand shape. ("Because this is a roleplaying supplement, they concentrated on its mystical powers, and ignored the fact the first thing the players ask is 'what species is the tree'"). Monash says that the dreams sometimes come to someone who sleeps in the cupped hand (thus the Sept name of 'Dreaming Hands').

Sinead snuggles in as best she can while everyone else goes to a more typical place of repose. ("I'm worried Alex will sneak up and stab her") ("I have a dream that people might be judged by the content of their character and not by which people they got killed")

Sinead is walking down the street, talking with someone. She's not sure who it is - they're there, and she knows them, but she can't turn to see them properly. They're wandering along as she's explaining what happened in Sydney, with giving the bone to Cernonous and him getting killed and the storms. They're now in Sydney and she's pointing out locations, and they start going into houses and hotels and saying that happened here and there. The people there ignore them utterly and just get on.

At the end of the story, the other person asks "Ok.. .then what happened" Sinead explains about the various packs, and the Jindabyne Council. They wander further and end up in the cemetery, ending next to Marion's grave with "And Marion's here". The other person says "You don't know that. You weren't there when she died." So Sinead pulls out some shovels and they start to dig down until they hit a coffin. Sinead pries it open and its empty.

Wednesday 16th November - Philodox waning

(15m about owl bears "i was trying for a gryphon") Sinead quickly gives every the run down while she's removing webbing from herself. The pack start to talk about the visions - do they need to convey what actually happened to Alex, has he just got a different version in his head? That seems like something he won't listen to from them. Spirits to show an objective view? Is Marion an ancestor spirit? Is she reincarnated? Could they find her if she is?

The Stargazer Elders are listening into their conversation without interrupting, frankly an unusual characteristic in garou culture. In a lull though, Dale says that there is no firm answer as to what happens when garou die. Will says that Ends-the-Quiet and him have worked with ancestor spirits and its clear that there's some spiritual connection between a garou and the spirits they can contact, whether its a direct family connection or some other aspect. But its not too all their ancestors - not every fallen garou becomes like an ancestor. But other tribes think that the garou soul is reborn and what you can call forth is memories that travelled with the soul.

The Elders do think that the pack is on the right track tho - Indira says that its not about Marion's life, its about what happened next. The empty grave suggests they don't know. Tillie says if they summon Marion as an ancestor spirit and she shows up, huzzah. If she doesn't, then that's a data point. As long as she doesn't blame Alex. Finn wonders about going back to Erebus and asking the Brood for information but Tillie shoots it down. ("Please do not ejaculate into the synchrotron"). Monash suggests that he'll call Grek, the Silent Strider Council member - the Silent Striders have collected a lot more knowledge and stories about death, and he might be able to make suggestions. In the meantime the pack are welcome to chill out.

Tillie wanders off to find somewhere to call home and catch Graeme up on their lives. Sinead and Will do some rituals - they try Questing Stone and summoning over the rest of the day, but don't get any response to their ritual efforts. Maybe she's a ghost? Garou don't become ghosts though... except that Will sensed a lot of deadlands about the Bunyip that manifested in Sydney. ("The way the property market is going, dressing up as a ghost to scare people away seems like a valid tactic" "I always assumed I was shaggy." "Maybe Finn's Daphne?" "Kasumi is Velma because she's a nerd" "Tillie's Freddy?" "Maybe Will is Daphnne, cos he's pretty" "I think I'm Scooby" "Melissa is Scrappy" )

In the evening, Grek shows up by Moonbridge, having been summoned by spirits. ("Ring ring ring ring, Council Phone!"). He listens to the whole sordid story, and considers. In the meantime, he tells stories of the Garou and of death - of ancestor spirits, past lives, and quests into death. The rest of the sept sits in on this, but Alex does not return. The last few tales are tales of Garou doing death quests - sort of the equivilent of Orpheus and Euridyce. One of them is about Garou calling the dead to them, but the others are about the Garou looking for the dead. In one of those cases, they went to rescue a packmate from death. In most cases, the Garou sought knowledge that only the dead could provide. In some cases it was to give things to the dead to honour or strengthen them.

Will asks about ancestor spirits and how they resemble and do not resemble other spirits. The topic of binding ancestor spirits to fetishes subtooly comes up - Grek says that it is rare, and only when the fetish maker and the ancestory spirit have very similar goals.

Afterward Grek talks about the stories - there is no given step by step instructions for this. In most cases, people have just begun looking in the places, often the Umbra, that they think would be helpful. Grek says when a garou dies, its clear that they do not remain as one entity - their spirit breaks into multiple things with different fates. Part is reborn, part goes to the afterlife, part may become an ancestor spirit. The last gives them their probable first port of call - the Bone Gnawer homeland. ("You'd prefer your tribe totem was ant?" "YES"). ("let the record show becc is covered in candy")

Should they take or kidnap Alex along? Finn thinks no. ("I dont want to be on a quest and be blamed the whole way"). Kasumi agrees, Alex's attitude would influence their outcome in the Umbra. Tillie is convinced. ("Everyone mount up. The small pack members can ride the larger") Lost Prophets talk about going to the Bone Gnawer homeland from here, but Dale suggests that even with a Bone Gnawer member, they mightn't get much traction with Rat. He suggests should probably talk to Cossack first ("We'll just go to Noosa and say we went to the homeland") as the Stargazers do not really have much info. ("Instead of a Rat King you shall have a QUEEEEEN" "Nobody out crazies Galadriel!")

("ok we go back to talk to Cossack about rat world" "I'm calling it rattopia"). The pack Moon bridge back through to Melbourne and explain what they have learned today to their Elders. In return, the Elders say as much as it looked like there was no Full Moon Killer, bodies turned up yesterday and now the Scryers are investigating.

Cossack agrees with the evaluation that they won't get anywhere in the homeland because they aren't Bonegnawers. Tillie asks if they can get a sort of temporary membership and Cossack says that they can actually - as a pack that works out of a Bonegnawer sept, trying to help their Bonegnawer septmate, its not inappropriate. Can he do it? Yes, but there's a bit of a conflict of interest. Will asks about asking an avatar of rat for a temporary pass and yes they probably could for a high amount of chiminage. The non-Bonegnawers in the pack are a bit unsure about annoying their tribe totems, but Cossack says that its just an acknowledgement of their help to the tribe, not a full on fence jump.

Alternatively there's other people who could do the Rite of Recognition. Will says "Oh. Mother Pasta?" and Cossack says that's who he was thinking of, yes. The rest of Lost Prophets point out she hates them, and Cossack suggests it would be nice if she didn't. Why would she say yes? Well, if she knocks them back, but didn't rule it out for anyone else, then they have tried. ("AIIYAAA") They are trying to help Alex, about Marion, and both of them are Bone Gnawers. Kasumi says that she thinks Monash and Mother Pasta got on well at the Council, so that might swing things their way a bit too. Cossack thinks that this might be the sort of olive branch ("I wouldn't say anything about her being shit. In fact, I'd leave the word 'shit' right out of the conversation") ("We're just gunna humbly come before her - " "Now we're back to the synchotron"). Kasumi agrees this sounds like a good idea. ("its like you're going to the grandmother's house, the one you don't like. 'Just put the dress on for 3 hours and then its done'" "I. Hate. The. Dress.")

Tillie worries that it might get taken as "your shitty city got our friend killed". They could do the Rite of Contrition and Cossack thinks it wouldn't go astray ("Could we challenge her?") though Tillie isn't pro. About saying sorry. Ever. Cossack casts it as wouldn't it be nice if more of the Jindabyne Council didn't want to kill them too? Cossack offers to come with them and smooth the way at first - the initial contact is likely to be the problem. Its not a quick ritual - they might be looking at a couple of weeks. What about their other lines of enquiry? Cossack thinks that in the long run, having the main Bonegnawer sept more cooperative with them might be of some value on top of just helping Alex. Will is pro apologising for being a young pack who made some poor decisions. Tillie isn't for it - the Uktena came and screwed things up here with much more volition, and they didn't get in as much trouble as Lost Prophets. ("Can we please just admit some fault?" "No, tillie is genetically incapabale")

Cossack suggest that given the time this is likely to take, they might want to get their lives in order - which mostly consists of making sure that someone will babysit Gus. They decide to get Melissa to do it. Sinead lets Carmel know she can't cover shifts for a bit. Will and Finn go out and do some more possuming, given they're talking about not being in Melbourne for a while.

Thursday 17th November - Philodox waning

Before they head off, the pack share their suspicions on cathedrals - between their dreams, the things the Dancer was babbling about with 'holy' and 'sacred', and gargoyles and the disparate population of people being killed by the Full Moon Killer, and captured by the mages - was there a church connection the garou missed? Kasumi wonders about St Paul's specifically - its right next to the Yarra and trains. The Elders consider this and agree that its a lead to chase up - the Scryers could look into it while Lost Prophets are away? Emma says that maybe the water falling far above (the impression they got from Dancer-Brrr) could be rain on the cathedral roof a long way up? Definitely worth checking it all out.

Will speaks with Ends-the-Quiet during the afternoon and he mentions that perhaps they should hold off on the Rite of Contrition - turning up and saying "sorry, I want something" seems a bit insincere. He suggests making an apology later when they have established their intentions. The pack consider their options - Kasumi says that they could say that they want to, but not straight away.

Midafternoon, the garou moonbridge off to Sydenee. They arrive in the pub basement, smelling of old beer and old wood. Cossack and the pack greet her and she says she is Josephine Brereton. That's weird - she's not the same woman that they met before called that, though the other one was a Gatekeeper too. Cossack says they have business with Mother Pasta. Mother Pasta isn't here, so Cossack wants to speak to Herman instead. He's upstairs and so up they troop. When the pack are come into the public bar there's a mix of humans and garou - the garou are easy to spot because they all suddenly have expressions of "what. the. fuck." ("I've come to see if your shitty city has any more hives. ps: do you know where the hive is in our city. pps: I've got hives")

Herman comes over, looking more or less the same as last time (older guy with a shock of hair). Cossack and Herman go to a quiet table to talk away from the pack. The Lost Prophets sit at their table and see if there's anyone friendly - not really, expressions go from "really?" to "fuck no".

After a short time, Mother Pasta comes in the main door and sees Lost Prophets - her expression turns murderous immediately. Cossack and Herman make a bee-line to her and hustle her aside for a quick conversation. Cossack is talking quickly and Mother Pasta's expression suddenly turns into an evil shiteating grin. She nods, stares at the pack with the teeth bared and moves into the back room. Herman and Cossack come over, and Herman says she said yes. They'll do it tonight once the bar is closed and the whole Sept is here. Herman heads off and Cossack sits down - the pack is deeply suspicious of how easy that seemed. Cossack suggests keeping their sense of humour. Tillie asks if the whole process will be unbeleiveably humiliating; Cossack doesn't confirm, but he doesn't deny. Cossack is going to head back, he suggests maybe they go do something else until later.

The pack take his advice, and head out to try and find some cheap accomodation before coming back at night.

(Blackbarring mario's nipples and Dragon's fucking cars). The pack return to the pub early in the evening. There's not a western-movie-silence as they enter the doors, but there is a lull. Death stares are aimed at the pack during the evening but no one says anything. Eventually the mortal clientele leave, doors are locked and blinds drawn. The rickety table in front of the bar is indicated as being the spot the Lost Prophets should settle. The rest of the Sept are on tables around the edge of a space left around the pack. The Elders sit at the bar, or behind the bar. There's a bit of squabbling about seats between the Sept members - it seems to be a status thing.

Herman takes the spotlight while Mother Pasta glowers at Lost Prophets from behind the bar. "This evening, as most of you have noticed, Lost Prophets are here. They are here to ask a favour. They wish to be recognised as friends of the Bone Gnawer tribe so that they can investigate what happened to Marion Perry during the Hive fight, to the benefit of Alex Urosevic." Some muttering and faint booing from the bleachers. "A moment of practical consideration tho - " Herman checks in with Sinead and asks if she is going to go through this ritual with her pack despite already being a Bone Gnawer. Sinead confirms that she will.

"The first step in attaining this hallowed status is to be baptised as Bone Gnawers". The pack prepare themselves for a hail of gross material. "And the first step in that is to be given new names, to be used whenever the pack wishes to be recognised as Bone Gnawers. Matilda, step up. Can I hear some suggestions from the floor?" There is an immediate shouting of abuse from the Sept members. Herman watches on while the noise surges around, but Tillie notices sometimes people stand up and get a nod and they make a suggestion that isn't just straight out abusive. "Mug Punter" is popular. Then someone suggests "Scarface" and that's pretty popular. How about "Scarface Claw". That gets a laugh and gets accepted and chanted. Herman holds his hands up and says "The Ear to the Ground Sept acknowledges Scarface Claw of the Bone Gnawers" and Tillie is baptised with cheap beer and a bottle or two.

"Kasumi of the Glasswalkers, step up". Tiny Sushi! Runs-from-Cars! Harbour Submarine! Ninja! Godzilla! yeah, Godzilla! In the theme of Australian nicknames that are the opposite of what they are describing, Kasumi becomes "Godzilla of the Bone Gnawers"

"Will of the Get of Fenris". Mr I'm My Own Grandma! Nonna's Favourite! Apparently the Sept knows a bit that has happened in the last few months. Smells-like-Fish! Croweater! Someone that Lost Prophets don't recognise stands up and is recognised and says "I suggest Might of the Get of Fenris" Everyone looks a bit confused. "Its not Will - its Might." The Sept goes back and forth a bit between that and Nonna's Boy before going with "Might of the Get of Fenris of the Bonegnawers"

"Sinead of the Bonegnawers, who will be taking on a new Bone Gnawer identity." Double Boning! Ocean's One! There isn't quite the level of abuse that was hurled at the other pack members, possibly just because she's already a Bone Gnawer. Smells-like-Fish! This starts a bit of a scuffle as one Sept member takes umbrage at the fish-haters attitude. Various names gets shouted before it goes back into more generic Gnawer names - Sinead ends up being "Pork Chop of the Bone Gnawers". More beer.

"Finn of the Fianna" At this stage the Sept is a bit drunk, this has been going on for a while. The pack have noticed that the Elders have given some people beer while others are knocked back. They're not sure why. Finnanigans! Fairy Bread! "Why fairy bread, is it because he's Fianna?" "No its because of his nutritional content you stupid git. OF COURSE ITS BECAUSE HE'S FIANNA" ("Also because he's white and square"). More beer.

Herman gets silence, or nearly again, and says that the finally the pack requires a Bone Gnawer name for their time here. The Elders have decided that the pack shall be called "It Wasn't Me" More wooting from the audience and incidental beer. ("But she caught me on the counter"). "Now the first task as It Wasn't Me is to man the bar, and make sure everything is neat and tidy at the end of the night." The pack are given aproons with humerous boobs and less humerous puns. After a short period of time, Fairy Bread and Godzilla are kicked out from behind the bar because they cannot mix drinks or even pour beer. Some of the Sept ask for complicated cocktails and either get it from Might or Pork Chop or told "no you don't, you've having a cosmopolitan" from Scarface Claw.

Friday 18th November to Sunday 20th November - Philodox waning

("Right, moving on from breasts") The next few days start with what the pack was expecting - "Toilet's blocked", etc - but after a couple of days of this It Wasn't Me is given more garou-esque tasks, even if they are for more your rank 1 pack. It Wasn't Me get to interact with the other Garou and get to know them - there are three packs, Misery-Loves-Company, Streetsweepers and So-much-for-subtlety. Its the same 3 packs as last time, but they've had a bit of a churn, not just from the Hive attack but from general turnover.

On the Saturday night while on an errand, It Wasn't Me comes around a corner in a terrace housing suburb down near the harbour when they see a car parked with its lights on, lighting up a couple of guys kicking another guy on the ground. Scarface Claw senses for wyrm and finds that her hyperawareness informs her that none of them are corrupted, but that they are at the upper ends of normal range of taint. Other gifts don't reveal any particular influence. They just seem to be assholes.

It Wasn't Me sneak up on the footpath. Well, everyone except Might, who is a bit ahead and yells "Oi!" He can see that there's 3 people kicking a guy on the ground. At the yell, two of them jump, totally surprised. They run away from Might, while the third guy runs toward the car and Might a few steps and then reevaluates the situation as Scarface Claw looms out of the dark, and runs for it. Scarface Claw and Might run after them, while Pork Chop checks on the guy on the ground. The guy on the ground cringes away before he realises they aren't punching on - he's conscious, but only just. He has some broken ribs, and he has been drinking. Godzilla calls for an ambulance.

Scarface Claw catches up with the third man, grabs him and throws him up against a wall. The guy struggles badly against her. Fairy Bread looks at the car - P plater, still keys in it though engine is off. Scarface Claw drags the guy back to the car "If you wont talk to me, lets explain it to the cops"

The ambulance guys say that they'll be there when they can, with a vibe of "its saturday night man". Pork Chop moves the guy off the road, and tries to find out what happened - he was walking along and the car stopped and they got out and kicked him, he doesn't know why. Scarface Claw brings the perpatrator around to the car and asks if there's some broken ribs and suggests an eye for an eye kind of pain. The perp is still wildly denying his involvement. Might uses his Truth of Gaia gift and it becomes very clear that he's lying - as opposed to mostly clear like it was 10s ago.

While Scarface Claw pins the guy, Godzilla grabs his phone and wallet and starts ransacking it. Apparently this is Wayne, and he is 19 and full of bravado - apparently he's not scared of chicks even gross ones. Might uses his Persuasion gift and then menaces the guy. Something about Might and his low menacing growls ("you fucked up son") scares the life out of Wayne, and in a minute or two he's crying and promising to do anything to not upset Might any further. Wayne tries to claim that the homeless guy through a brick at their car and that's why they were punching on, but Might just shakes his head. "Walk with me Wayne." They go back into the dark, and by the time they get there Wayne clearly thinks that Might is going to kill him. As far as It Wasn't Me can tell he didn't have a real reason for attacking the homeless guy, he just decided to. The pack try to look in the gauntlet but don't have much luck - Godzilla finds she can only see a grey fog now even when she stops. Pork Chop shakes her head and manages to see - there's no lurking spirits inspiring Wayne to suddenly go a bit of ultraviolence. There's nothing lurking around the hurt guy either except maybe a couple of booze motes.

A few local residents coming home glance at the car, but shrug and head back inside. Fairy Bread considers letting down the tires.

Might and Scarface Claw notice a couple of people lurking a few hundred metres away down the foreshore. They identify them as Wayne's mates - apparently Mark and Anton. Neither of them seem keen to come and help Wayne in his hour of need. ("no don't cut my mum's fingers off, she'll be really cross") ("its like being told off by your principal, except your principal is a murderer"). The pack decide nothing really conspiratorial is going on here, so they're just going to call Wayne's mum. Once the GM has stopped laughing, they use Wayne's phone to call her ("hello Mrs Wayne") and make it clear that Wanye's been a naughty boy and the police will be here soon. If she beats them, then Wayne won't have to explain to the cops. Its clear that Mrs Wayne isn't really surprised.

Mrs Wayne shows up 35 minutes later, screeching her Honda Civic to a halt. Might speaks to her and explains what happened and how Mark and Anton are also involved. Wayne is shouted into the back of the car ("I've not raised you this way! What must these people think of me!") and then she locks Wayne's cars up, and gives whatever cash she has in her wallet to the guy Wayne was kicking. Wayne's mum reverses swiftly up the street without hitting anything and off they go.

The ambulance shows up another 15minutes later, sans police, and the pack give them a quick precis and then head off to no one's surprises. ("My name is I. N. Bystander." "Seymour Butts"). Another glorious victory for the forces of Good.

Monday 21st November to Wednesday 23rd November - Theurge waning to Ragabash

During the week, some of the pack mingle - Scarface Claw isn't really a mingler, but the others make some effort to talk to the Sydney Sept. The attack pack - So Much for Subtlety - really isn't interested in talking with them, but Eustace Blunt of Misery Loves Company and the new packleader of Streetsweepers, Scratches-at-Fleas, are more forthcoming. Might only gets urine in his beer once - he can smell it, and just takes the hint. Pork Chop finds that although she's a card carrying Bone Gnawer, the socioeconomic and ethnic mix at this Sept is significantly different from Melbourne. There's a lot more blue collar bogans here for a start - its like going back 20 years into the early 90s. Its a bit like growing up in a small town, like a microghetto. It might just be that the Elders are keeping their own culture? ("Its like I'm in Adelaide"). They're a bit light on for young folks too.

It Wasn't Me notice that drinks and who can get a beer at the moment, or who is buying who's round is a weird status measurement thing. At one point someone turns up to their table and says "its your round", and the pack is expected to buy drinks for every one. They also get a round or two bought for them, but they don't get asked what they want, its just housebeer. ("That's the icing on the urinal cake")

Thursday 24th November - Ragabash

On the Thursday, Florence the Caern Warder comes and speaks to It Wasn't Me. Someone's been selling shitty smack and people have died. Fix it. The pack obtain a newspaper - in the area south near Alexandria, there's an area which has become a bit of a nexus for industrial clubs and raves in old industrial buildings. Two people have died and two more are in hospital - all are known to have attended clubs in the area. The article is about 3 paragraphs and is more "pesky junkies, dying in the streets and cluttering the hospitals" than it is about evil drug dealers. ("Good news everyone, we're going clubbing."). ("Sinead will know how to drug... drugs... " "You're going to get arrested")

To try and thin it out a bit, they try looking for deaths or obituaries of people tragically killed. They can't really manage to get some patterns out of that, but they can find the journalist who wrote the piece about it.

The pack find there are 4 clubs in the area they are looking in - 2 industrial and 2 raver places. Figuring the industrial is their best bet, they tart up a bit and head out. The first place - Sinner-G - is reasonably productive with 4 samples obtained, and 2 more at the second, ClubDrone. None of the dealers or the samples appear to be particularly more wyrm tainted than the others. They give the last two clubs a go, but while Fairy Bread manages to navigate his way through purchasing illicit pharamaceuticals, he actually finds he's bought ecstasy instead. Oh well.

Ok, that seemed to provide no knowledge. Maybe they can steal the greater detail from the journalist? Scarface Claw is pro, especially without talking to the guy and leaving a track. They Questing Stone his name from the paper ("Oh yeah, we have magic"). It takes a little while but they find his building is a realtively new apartment block. Its sufficiently new that in the Umbra its mostly weaver stuff, with active spiders. Hmm. Instead, could they walk in? There'll be cameras and all, surely, but will anyone be looking at it? In the end, Godzilla and Might basically walk in, short circuit the locks, sneak into the guy's apartment on the 5th floor, use magic phone gifts to steal the files off his laptop and leave.

In review, people he interviewed "don't remember" where they got their drugs from. The pack have a moment of "didn't this happen in Melbourne", but the notes from the journalist indicate this was probably them covering their asses, not genuinely not remembering. One of the people who got sick, an Angelique Detman, names Michelle Hitchens as her supplier, which seems a bit odd. ("What sort of dealer gives their full name?" "Maybe its 'We were friends until you sold me some shitty heroin' ").

Friday 25th November - Ragabash

Short any other obvious leads, they try and track this Michelle Hitchens down via Questing Stone. The ritual leads them to a block of flats in the of the city. Its not a classy neighbourhood especially. They pack spy from the Umbra - the building is there, but its got no detail. The flat that Pork Chop points them at is a 1 bedroom flat that has 3 people living in it - a guy is sleeping in a camp bed in the lounge, two women sleeping in a queen bed in the bedroom. Fairy Bread can't see great, so Scarface Claw peeks and does much better - she senses for Wyrm and doesn't find too much. One of them has more wyrm than the other two, and some sign that she's a heroin user. Looking about, there's some clubbing clothes on the floor, freshly discarded. Scarface Claw sniffs about looking for heroin in this building - she finds a container that has the scent but none in it. ("i dunno that heroin is good for dogs.") This flat looks a bit shabby in a relatively shabby area.

The guy in the lounge and wakes up after 7. He shows signs of heading off to some sort of paid employment. Scanning around for mail, Scarface Claw finds documentation for Michelle Hitchens, Francine and Derrick Lee. At about 10, one of the other women stumble out of bed, does a sort of morning routine, but has no signs of plans for the day. She's messaging people on her phone, so Scarface Claw peers in - it seems to be normal human bullshit. Scarface Claw manages to spot her name though - this is 'Fran'. A few more hours pass, and the other woman gets up and is called 'Shelley' - she does shower, coffee, some noise about having a lunchtime shift.

Fran and Shelley both head out so the pack come out of the Umbra and start looking through things for a stash. Fairy Bread finds a container he thinks might have drugs in it. Its stuck though, so he pulls harder and the container comes away without its lid, scattering white powder all over him and the surrounds. The pack yell things at him mentally while he tries not to freak out. Scarface Claw suddenly says "hey these two aren't a couple" - and it looks like Fran and Shelley are just sharing a bed? for some reason. Fairy Bread thinks his heart is starting to beat faster and its in his eyes. Pork Chop is well aware that its just talculm powder but decides to torture him a little for being an idiot. She starts asking if he's dizzy or feeling nauseous. Fairy Bread panics a bit. She says that he needs to get it back into the container now, or they are all fucked. Might rolls his eyes and finds a dustbuster to try and clean up all the fine white powder all over Michelle's clothes and floor.

In the meantime, the others find a small case (glasses case size) with some syringes and disposable needles that appear to be Fran's. There's no sign that Michelle is actually dealing. Maybe Fran is dealing, but pretended to be Michelle. Did Michelle just act as a go between for Angelique and Fran? Fran doesn't look sick, so maybe its nothing to do with her? Was Angelique dealing and wanted to shift the blame? Did she just get the shits with Michelle? Maybe Michelle is sneaky? They don't think so. Maybe its just Drama. ("We could follow Michelle and see if she works in the heroin factory?") ("Plupid floropope" https://www.newscientist.com/article/2107207-no-nasa-hasnt-changed-the-zodiac-signs-or-added-a-new-one/). ("The wife's a doctor and the husband is a canadian" "What, like that's a profession, being from canada?" "*Commedian*". "Oh that makes more sense")

It Wasn't Me decide to chase up the sick people from hospital. They start with Angelique Detman (~~ I need a hit tonight, and I need it more than ever ~~) but there are 4 other people if she's no help. ("Generally there's no such thing as 'bathtub heroin'" "Goddamn it I bought this brand new meth lab and all it makes is heroin" "Its the exciting new non-addictive version of morphine!").

To the Questing Stone! It leads them to a crappy weatherboard share house, so into the Umbra goes the pack, and then peek back to investigate. Angelique is a curly haired caucasian woman, and not looking well. She shares with two other women about the same age - Gina and Fi. Fi also has a slightly haggard look about her that makes the garou suspect her as being a heroin user too. Might changes to lupus and sniffs about the place - he finds some used needles about the place and some national diabetes service pamphlets. The house is very much a bricks and planks for shelves sort of quality, and the house itself looks like its seen better days. There's no immediately obvious drugs just out on the table Might uses the sense unnatural gift, but everyone and everything is more or less mundane. Pork Chop peeks too and confirms that there's not more wyrm than normal city dwellers on the three women.

Rather than Ridgewaying all three of them at the same time in the afternoon, the pack decide to move on. Questing Stone for Thomas Grant leads them to the hospital - clearly he's not well enough to come out yet. Ok, next is Huang Pho - the ritual leads It Wasn't Me to a nice looking suburban house with a couple of nice cars in the driveway. The pack execute their normal Umbra & peek plan, and Godzilla can hear. Unfortunately what she can hear is not in English - there are four people living here, an older couple maybe in their late 40s and a young man and woman in their early 20s. In Godzilla's expert opinion she'd suggest that the older man is Chinese and the older woman Vietnamese and the younger two seem like they might be their kids. It looks like a family. They're not really sure who Huang is. ("But you're asian." "Why don't you go speak german with Will!"). Godzilla sniffs around. There are prescription-looking pills in one bathroom, but its mostly written in Vietamese and isn't sure what it is. The younger male has a stash of pills double bagged in his room - probably not heroin. ("Its Flintstone's chewable heroin") Hmm. Next.

It Wasn't Me try questing stone for Marco Polk but there's no response. They contemplate checking the Umbra, but Marco.. Po...lk... is probably a fake name. Ok, onto Rebecca Crosthwaite. (10m ranting about becc, Beck, Rebecca, etc). This leads to a small law practice in a strip of shops ("wait... not that one?" "... you mean the real estate agent? In Melbourne?"). Fairy Bread tries to peek but can't see anything. Godzilla pushes him and the gauntlet out the way ("oh I blew my load!" "... silently, or suddenly?"). There's 4 lawyers here, but it turns out that Ms Crosthwaite is a legal secretary working there. She appears to be a normal human worm baby - she doesn't look great, but has teeth. One of the lawyers makes some awoogas tho, which leads the Garou to make a note of his name for later attention.

Back to Angelique's house by which time's its 730pm. ("no, you can't keep the same peek when you move between worlds. It makes you... universe... sick"). Might sees right through the gauntlet as if it wasn't there. The non-junkie housemate appears to be gone (the microwave is where it was before). Might wanders about checking things out. He discovers that 'Angelique' is actually 'Angela' on some of her paperwork at least. He finds the hospital report - they detected that she had strychnine in her blood, which was the cause of her issues. Pork Chop winces and says she's heard of people putting rat poison into cut heroin to make it shiny again. He finds some heroin in the backshed - a small amount hidden in a milo tin he thinks is Angelique's - and in Fi's room. The pack wonder about smelling strychnine, but it doesn't have a smell, so they can't tell if its cut or not.

While they are hanging about, the humans start to work out if they're going to go out tonight. Opinions are split in the pack - good, they can approach them in person, bad they can't be Ridgewayed. Angelique doesn't want a big one, but somewhere might be good. No where that Shelley might be - It Wasn't Me seize on that, as that's presumably Michelle. Neocarnage? Fuck no, I'm avoiding Roald. Well, you will buy heroin off someone called 'the skankster'. Fuck you. Might says "wait, I bought heroin off that guy yesterday" even though he didn't get the name 'Skankster'. Someone referred to him as 'Skank', but Might thought it was just an insult.

They head back to the hotel room and look at what they have. How do they tell if it has strynchnine in it. Google isn't helpful for sort of 'home lab detection of strychnine', but maybe they could check it out with their super senses (other than "is it wyrmy"). ("They told me I had internal bleeding, but that's where the blood is meant to be"). The two samples from 'The Skankster' certainly have a soapy smell missing from the other samples, though all but one has a sweetish smell too.

Can they track Roald / the Skankster on that? They didn't really get a scent at the club ("Two cigarettes, one in each mouth") but maybe its a strong enough name to track him. If not, they have a rough idea that he'll be at the club Angelique mentioned. Time to try! Questing Stone does indeed respond to 'the Skankster' and pulls the pack south through the CBD and out into the suburbs near the airport. It takes a while to pin down exactly which house he's in. He appears to live in a house with two other guys and 4 cars. Two of the cars are very shiny with custom paint jobs, and two look like they are "a renovator's dream". He lives with two other guys, Rod and Jacko. Jacko isn't there, but Rod is, as is Roald, who smells of cheap hair gel and Lynx Africa.

Alright, checking out Roald. They can't really sniff out strychnine. (o/~ breakin' down the door.). While they wait for the owl powers to kick in and improve their peek, the Skankster goes into his room and pulls out a fake laptop with heroin in it. He then pulls out a tupperware container and some scales and cuts his supply up a bit - not heavily, but if its strychnine its a death sentance for most people. The pack try and decide whether they act now and murder him yet ("can't we just do something to his vocal chords"). Roald continues to get ready, unaware of the instant painful death lurking a blink of an eye away. He looks like he's getting ready to go clubbing, including stashing his single-shot samples around his person. The pack figure out what his surname is while planning where to lay in wait for him. None of the cars belong to Roald - mostly they are Rod's. Eventually It Wasn't Me decide to knock on the door and say "we're here to see Roald" instead of waiting for him to leave.

Pork Chop and Might are nominated to approach the Skankster's place. They find somewhere to step and head there, and knock on the front door. Rod opens the door and the garou bare their teeth, er, smile at him. He doesn't open the security door. "Hi. Can I help you?" Pork Chop says "My friend sent me to see the, uh, Skankster. My friend's name is Angelique." Rod nods ands says "Wait here for a tick" and closes the door. While Godzilla watches from the Umbra, he stomps up to Roald's door and bangs on it. Skanks puts his fake laptop away and opens the door. Rod precedes to have a hissing rant at him about why the fuck people are here to buy drugs - it was made clear to him that the people Do Not Come Here. Roald says that he's never given anyone this address, these guys are suss as shit. He grabs his coat and says he's out of here, don't let them in at all.

Roald heads out the back door, but this is conveyed to Might and Pork Chop, who slip down the side of the house and watch from the shadows. When they see the Skankster slip out and dash across the back yard, they follow along, and as he goes to climb the back fence, Pork Chop grabs his collar and throws him to the ground. She puts her foot on chest and says "Don't say a word" ("we'd like to activate Will's lying gift" "That's not fair - he never remembers when he's here that he has it"). "Are you Roald?" "errr. yes?" Might mentally says that the gift detects lies, not if he's telling the truth.

Roald asks what she wants and Pork Chop says that he's been selling tainted drugs that have put people in hospital. Roald strenuously denies this, saying he only cuts stuff a bit and only with benign things. He doesn't want to sully his fine reputation. Pork Chop asks what he was cutting it with and he says castor sugar, and just a bit. Pork Chop says people have died, so if its not him cutting it then its his supplier but right at the moment all the tracks lead to him. Roald appears to try and balance out what he can say now to not get himself punched versus to not get himself shived later. So... who is giving it to him? Roald says if he tells them, the shit will hit the fan. The garou make it clear they care not. Roald offers, from his prone position, that if he perhaps gives them a name, could they forget his? Does that seem reasonable? Don't mention his name to anyone else, and forget where he lives? They agree, and he says that the guy he's got shit from recently, like in the last few months, is called Hilary Purcell. He has a number he calls and then they meet at a random place? Might takes Roald's phone and he says its not on that one, its on another phone back inside, just one that Hilary gave him. Pork Chop suggests that he doesn't buy from Hilary any more and Roald says sure, but Might says that was a lie. Pork Chop says "remember, we know where you live. Behave" and they fade away.

When its clear they've got, Roald stands up and ransacks through his pockets and swearing. He seems to be suffering some sort of moral quandary about his tainted stock.

The pack use their Questing Stone ritual to track down Hilary Purcell. Despite a false GM start, it leads them to the CBD and a very fancy resteraunt. Pork Chop thinks she can see their target through the front windows - the ritual makes him more noticable to her. He appears to be wearing well fitting clothes and is dining with a lady. ("Greige")

While they wait for him, they google him - they can find entries on linked in that might be him. He seems to be a lawyer in Sydney. After an hour the two of them appear at the front door and flag a taxi. Off they get into it and away goes the taxi. The pack shrug and wait for an hour before Questing Stoning him again. This time it leads to a leafy green suburb (not a euphamism) where some of the grand old houses have been replaced with new developments. It seems Mr Purcell lives in one of the latter. The pack find somewhere to park and step and then head back to observe. ("Sorry I'm not home right now// I'm walking into spiderwebs// So leave a message and I'll call you back// A likely story, but leave a message// And I'll call you back").

Its very fancy inside, but despite the pack's expectations, no one is gettin' it ahhhn inside. In fact, the lady that he had been dining with is nowhere to be seen and Hilary is sitting and reading with a glass of red. Scarface Claw is peeking and peers around, looking for a name but its far more neat and tidy and unplebian to stick bills to a fridge. She eventually confirms this is Hilary Purcell's house - there's 4 bedrooms but it appears that he is the only one that lives here though there is evidence that at least one lady spends time here. ("He's starting to cook baked beans!"). He senses of a more wyrm than the pack is happy about but its still heavy taint, not corruption in Scarface's opinion. There is a garage with a Ferrari that has clearly been driven tonight. Scarface Claw tries to find heroin, but there's no scent of it in the house. Hilary finishes his wine, turn the lights out and goes to bed.

The pack continue to investigate. They can't determine if there's a security system, but they think its unlikely that he doesn't. They go looking for a safe behind paintings - there's one painting that has a metally smelling space, but its dark. Scarface Claw can smell money inside it.

After some discussion, they opt to send Godzilla in to look into the safe. She pops in somewhere she thinks will be safe from cameras and so forth, and has a look about for security gear. She doesn't think there's any cameras inside the house. Godzilla has a poke about, and finds the lever to make the portrait come away from the wall on hidden hinges, revealing a safe. She uses her open seal gift and the safe opens smoothly with no alarms being triggered. Inside there are some expensive looking scales, significant stacks of high denomination bills, and 6 double bagged plastic samples of what she thinks is probably heroin. They mentally work out what they want to do - Godzilla wants to Take The Forgotten at least one of the bags, and wants Pork Chop to come into the realm with her magic bag to take it away, which they now do. Godzilla notices that there's something about the light fitting near the front door that suggests there might be a camera pointing at the front door.

They investigate the heroin they have - ie: they sniff it. It doesn't have the soapy and sweet smell of the Skankster's other samples. It doesn't sense of wyrm more than the others. ("I work pro boner. Instead of a big paddle they use a gavel. I dunno, how do we make porn lawyery".). Frankly Pork Chop thinks that its purer than everything else they have. So this is the uncut heroin? So Hilary is presumably cutting it. Right. ("here, Skankster, take this pure heroin to give to people isntead of the dodgy stuff" "We're like Robin Hood of drugs")

Saturday 26th November - Ragabash

The pack contemplate Ridgewaying Purcell now or waiting until they actually see him mix the rat poison in. It Wasn't Me try and peek and find the gauntlet difficult for some reasons ("I have nine dice that says maybe.... dammit!") but eventually Pork Chop gets it together. They watch as the sun rises out of the ocean - eventually Hilary gets up ("I like 'coffee poop' as an album name" "Ah, we got so close to starting").

He makes breakfast, etc before going into his room and reaching between the mattress and bed base and pulling out a phone. Ah, probably the aforementioned burner phone. Purcell fiddles with it for a bit and then heads to his hidden safe, and removes some heroin and the scales. He wanders about and gets some small plastic bags, and also some clothes detergent and rat poison from the laundry. Ah, think the pack, and watch as he starts to make up a mix that is probably 10% lethal.

Now comes the murdering. ("The faster we kill him, the more heroin we have" "~~ I'm puttin' on my balaclava, we're gunna kill a guy, let's go let's go let's go ~~" ). They debate making it look like an accidental heroin + strychnine poisoning vs murdering him as a message for others. The latter wins as being more closely aligned to the missing Florence gave them. ("Don't anyone leave your DNA on anything." "Will"). ("Being a drug dealer is not a kink")

The pack step into the Realm in his bathroom in two groups. Godzilla takes Might and Pork Chop quickly, whereas Scarface Claw takes the scenic route with Faery Bread. Godzilla and Might pull down their balaclavas and Pork Chop pulls her hoodie up. As they are contemplating whether or not to wait for the rest of the pack, the bathroom door opens and Purcell half steps in before stopping in surprise. Godzilla triggers her Power Surge gift and blacks out the house. ("~~ grab him by the anus ~~" "If.. .you want... I'm going to make the diff higher". "That's your lupus name - 'Fish Hooks'") Might grabs Purcell around the arm, but he is so surprised that he just sort of stands still. Pork Chop tries to grab his legs but his silk dressing gown makes it hard to get a good grip ("No, if you'd botched it would be 'You get your fingers stuck in his anus'").

Purcell struggles ineffectually. ("later in the recording, will I think Becc is masturbating or immitating a baby turtle. "). Might and Pork Chop work together and manage to pin him and muffle any noise that he's making. Godzilla wanders out in the kitchen and grabs some latex gloves from Purcell's kitchen, and makes up a drink of strychnine and orange juice for him. ("Its a scab glove, made into a chamois by massaging the scab") She comes in and the others pull him back. He says "What the hell do you want?" with a fair amount of bravado, but almost silently the pack work together to pull his head back, pinch his nose shut and pouring orange juice and strychnine into the his mouth. Its a short time before his struggles become convulsions, and from there its only a minute or two before he dies. Scarface Claw and Fairy Bread appear and Scarface says "DAMMIT" for missing the fight.

Might scrubs his hands while Godzilla tips White King all over Purcell. Then the pack tip out some of the dodgy heroin all over the body and throw the rest of the bags on him. It Wasn't Me head back into the lounge and take his money (about $10K in mixed notes) and heroin (about the same amount again in Pork Chop's estimation) away in Pork Chop's fetish bag. Godzilla double checks the burner phone and makes sure that there's no surprises - there's no warning from Roald and the last messages do seem to be from someone asking to buy. ("Why does every session come back to detached genitalia") ("Here's my baroque ass") ("This is my Jamie Lanister prosthesis" "Its not gold I just use it to fuck my sister")

The pack reports back to the Rocks sept. Florence is a little surprised by their ironic murder, but finds their efforts to be acceptable and agrees with their conclusion. Especially when they contribute 25% of the haul to the Ear to the Ground Sept.

Sunday 27th November - Theurge waxing

The pack is invited to look around the old Hive location to see what the Sept has done to help sort it out. ("We gave him poisonioni sauce") ( carmina burana, parent style). They do so, and find that the row houses have all been pulled down, and a new ecologically sound set of apartments have been built in place. Its a bit future city, with a community centre and shops low to the bottom and green spaces built into the structure. The amount of wyrm taint is very low this much into a city - a lot of effort has gone through here to clean things up. In the Umbra its pretty plain - there hasn't been time to stamp human experiences onto the spirit world.

The pack wander around a bit, and are at a nearby playground in a sports field when they spot two kids having a barney. The larger one is sitting atop the smaller and starts banging his head pretty hard against the concrete. Having been habitually sensing for wyrm, they check these kids too and find that they are extremely wyrm tainted. Might strides over and grabs the assailant by the collar and throws him across the playground. Other adults are coming to help but stop when they seem Might. Pork Chop checks out the fallen kid and thinks there's a non-zero chance that the kid has a broken skull and concussion. The kid is full of bravado facing Might and says he's a pervert - adults that were running in are a bit torn between approving Might's actions and intervening. ("I feel 'calling your mum' is our new battle tactic"). While Might says he's going to drag the kid back home, a voice says "DANIEL!" with full mum voice engaged. She's apparently not his mum but his next door neighbour but she is willing to believe in Might's tale of head pounding once she's got him to lower the kid to the ground. Apparently this is not the first time he's been in trouble for being violent in the last week.

Scarface Claw checks in on the kid on the ground and says 'his eyes are different dilation, hit him with Mother's Touch please' mentally to Pork Chop. The kid becomes more conscious than he was and his eyes stop wandering independantly. This kid also is badly tainted. Scarface Claw scans the crowd - there are a number of people who hit too many awoogas to Sense Wyrm. Two of them are adults, the rest are kids.

Wendy drags Daniel off to his mum's while the pack worry about where the source of wyrm is coming from. They skim around the playground itself, looking for some sort of wyrm font or whatever might be causing it. Its weird that the site doesn't have a taint, and neither does all the kids playing. Maybe only some of them are local? Maybe its not this location but its something they all have in common? Its not any really little kids, weirdly; only about 4 or 5 and higher.

The pack are standing about and scratching their heads when the familiar strains of a Mr Whippy truck start up. Without really meaning too, all the garou find themselves watching it hypnotised and listening to the music. Scarface Claw uses her sense wyrm gift and finds there is a miasma about the confectionary serving vehicle, which intensifies when it parks, and the side windows open and a guy dressed as a clown makes excited motions. Scarface Claw says "that's a fomori" and the pack fade to the back of the crowd and look for somewhere to step.

It takes 10 minutes to get back to the icecream truck - Pork Chop peeks and finds that despite their fears the clown hasn't left. Most of the crowd has disappated but a couple of people are called by the siren sound of icecream. The garou realise the clown hasn't said a word yet - he just dances around smiling insanely and nodding as people order premade and soft serve icecreams. Scarface Claw gets a number plate. Fairy Bread thinks to look for a distributor plate on the truck and he finds one for 'Spring Ice Company' and an address in Sydney. The clown closes the window and starts packing back up to head off.

Pork Chop is picked up and carried as the rest of the pack tries to keep up with the moving van. It only goes a couple of kilometres before pulling into a carpark and starting up the song again. Once again the capering clown converts cash into iced confectionary. There are a couple of kids here with a similar level of taint to the earlier combatants. Its a warm Sunday in late November so there's many takers for icecream. (Brief distraction of the idea of refueling soft serve into a truck while it heads along).

Mr Clowny visits three more parks before his soft serve machine runs out of goo. He makes a sad face and kids go "oh nooo" but then he holds up the pre-made cones and everyone yays. However having run out, when he packs up he heads back to a main road. It becomes harder to follow and peek, but they do have the address of the distributor. He heads into a more industrial area, and finally turns into a depot for Spring Ice. There are 4 other trucks that look the same. Despite sudden fear that all the trucks are evil, sense wyrm says that its only the one that is both wyrm tainted and a clown. The rest are just normal people doing normal things. The facility appears in the Umbra but is mostly weavery guff without any noticable large amounts of wyrm.

Mr Clowny parks and jumps out. He heads into an area labelled "supplies" without seeming to notice the garou making faces or waving their penises at him. ("If they were filled with cream or jam I might like them more"). He picks up a form and fills it out, and then cavorts unspeakingly to the person behind the desk. They sigh and say "Sure Reg, I'll get you some" - apparently he often doesn't talk and they appear to be used to his nonsense. This guy doesn't sense of wyrm beyond normal. Fairy Bread contemplates stepping out to check the truck, and Pork Chop warns him that there's cameras aboout. He opts not to.

Scarface Claw peeks too - she watches Reg while Pork Chop checks out the employee area and Reg's locker. He has normal clothes hung here - it looks like he changes into the clown suit at some point.

("oh sky daddy, why have you forsaken us" "why are you elvis" "I thought you said elven") Reg gets his supplies and heads to his truck. He walks past a couple of other drives who say 'Hi Reg' as they walk past but mutter 'freak' when he doesn't answer and cavorts on. Reg puts the new premade icecream and soft serve source in his truck. Reg goes and pees ("i don't want to look at clown wang" "He's got a little clown wig on it and red nose") When he's finished, he stares into a mirror for a couple of minutes, moving a little bit side to side. Despite the pack's fear, he has not the pearl eyes of someone peeking into the Umbra and doesn't seem to be looking at anything more than his own reflection. ("I'm, uh, warming up tot he idea of just bashing his brains in here?")

It Wasn't Me decide that they need to know his full name and ideally address. Godzilla and Might peek and look around the office - its not staffed today (being Sunday) and decide they could step out into the office and use the pcs there to find out info. Fairy Bread peeks to give them an Umbral lookout. Godzilla gets access to some staff system - its Reg Turner, and they get his home address and that he's been employed for 10 years. His emergency contact is his sister in Newcastle (different surname).

While Pork Chop watches Reg, he heads out to the truck and fires the engine up ("and pees into the icecream."). There's a bit of mental speculation about whether its his clown make up that's made him evil - as per the evil siren formori they encountered just after Rainbow Inc overa year and a half ago. He opens up the freezer and vomits black goop into it. The goop boils around on the surface before sinking in. He does the same into the softserve machine and it disappates into the icecream there. There's stil no sound other than the splatter of black mucous into the boxes.

oook. Figuring there's no massive harm in letting his sell his shitty icecreams for an afternoon but they need some more info on Reg, the pack opts to go to his house - partly because killing a clown in front of kids is going to be a bit veil-breaky. They do contemplate breaking his truck, but it seems a bit complicated. ("We could put something on the road to bust his tires" "Another clown. Or, we go to the costume shop and dress up as clowns before attacking him." ) ("But we're the protagonists, so we'll have shown up just before the kids turn into fomori with some sort of icecream based powers"). ("Someone wrote a book called "The human sanatpede"" "I don't like it. one star") ("hey girl are you an angel? because you're a flaming wheel of fire with a thousand eyes")

They head to Reg's house. He lives in an old art deco looking apartment building - 3 storeys high, 4 flats per floor. Its near a train line. There's no obvoius wyrm taint boiling off it as they drive past. They find somewhere to step and come back to the building. Its oddly obvious in the Umbra as the whole building is there, if anything shinier and more precise than in the Realm. There's some wyrm sense here, but a stronger weaver sense, matching the marbly look to the stone in the spirit world. When they peek, its like looking through flywire, there's a weird diffraction of the senses they get. There's no obvious reaction to them moving around - there's not spirits active in the building. Godzilla gets a decent peek and says she can't really see what they are talking about.

("https://twitter.com/swear_trek/status/1084603170247053312") Reg has a two bedroom small apartment. It appears to have been last renovated in 1979 - its terribly retro. He appears to live on his own - there's no other scents here at all. Godzilla senses for unnatural senses, and finds that there's a miasma of wyrm here. Its not sourced anywhere particular (its not his coffeee or his clownmakeup), its just a low level everywhere. It suggests he's been a fomori for a while and rubbed on everything. A strong smell of dairy prevails without - they can smell the icecream and the diesal fumes from his truck. There's no computer. There is a tv and it has a single seat chair parked in the best spot for watching. There's a dvd player and 7 random dvds. He's got a 20 or so books, but some have never been read and there's no diary. The pack can't tell if he's a zombie or just a really boring guy who lives on his own. Godzilla sniffs the fridge - she can't smell murdered child or anything.

Figuring there's nothing here dangerous, Godzilla, Might and Pork Chop step into the realm. Might checks out the fridge - all of his food is really soft. There's no vegetables, nothing crunchy. This might have something to do with being a fomori? Maybe he doesn't have teeth. Or too many teeth. Or his teeth in the wrong place. They investigate around. The cosmetics don't come from the same company as the other fomori, but they make a note just in case, because they do have a sense of wyrm about them. ("its the avon lady who is a fomori"). Maybe he was fomori'd by being near the Hive rather than something here?

Suspicious about the building, the pack check through it. There's nothing obvious that might explain the extra weaverness of the place - no one in any of them are odd themselves. One of the bottom flats has a concentration of the shiny, hard, weaver nature, but the couple that lives there don't seem to be unuusal themselves.

The pack lurk in the Umbra until Reg comes home. The first thing he does is remove the clown get up. He's fairly pallid looking and has thinning hair. He's probably mid 40s and fairy gaunt. Reg turns the tv on almost compulsively, without looking what's on. He potters about doing household things. He makes some soup and appears that he has teeth despite speculations. The pack, dangerously bored by this point, decide that his time on this earth is up. They wait until he sits down into his tv chair and step into the Realm as one, appearing in a mix of glabro and lupus forms.

Godzilla grabs his right arm and pins it across him and pins Reg to the the chair. Might tries to savage his legs but just licks it. Fairy Bread tickles Reg in the chest and Scarface Claw actually punches him in the head. Reg vomits black goo all over Fairy Bread, and it burns as it splashes everywhere. Might savages his legs and he bleeds. Fairy Bread smashes his in the chest and he ceases struggling, unconscious. Now he's not moving around, Scarface Claw breaks his neck. The pack check his teeth to confirm or deny their theories.

Now what to do with the body - if they'd thought this through they could have made it look like suicide. Now its clearly a murder. Hmm. They opt to call Ear to the Ground, and explain that they have a very burnt lasagne, but the Sept is confused. They make a different explanation and get some help to dispose of the body.

[Much gift discussion] Consequences of the adventures of It Wasn't Me come to light in the mortal world. The brutal murder of a fine upstanding citizen and long term resident Hilary Purcell is being investigated by police. There's no mention of drugs, but some implications that he was revenge killed by terrible criminals who he might have put in jail.

The news also includes the police investigation into the disappearance of Reginald Turner. After he failed to show up to work, it turned out that he had a high powered rifle in his icecream truck. Fellow employees have described him as 'potentially disturbed'. Police are concerned for his well being but advise if members of the public see him they should not approach as he may be armed and violent. ("We sprinkled bicarb on the acid vomit splash. Bubbles up. With faces and screaming. 'oh shush'")

While the pack is lingering in Sydney, they make some attempts to clear the air a bit with the other garou. Mother Pasta remains fairly hostile as does the pack So Much for Subtlety, who might be following the lead of their pack leader Mack. Some of the others do thaw a bit during the weeks the pack is acting Bone Gnawers. ("Let the record show that we've just had 2 minutes of people flipping the bird").

They are talking with Scratches-at-Fleas and Some-Assembly-Required, lupus members of Streetsweepers about the events around the Hive attack and how that is the core of the issues Ear-to-the-Ground has with It Wasn't Me, when the two lupus are clearly confused. Scratches-at-Fleas says "Maybe this is a homid thing. Wait." while he fetches Eustace Blunt. Scratches-at-Fleas explains what he thinks that Might and the others were saying - that the Sept was mad because they found a Hive and then people got killed - and It Wasn't Me say that's what they thought.

Eustace looks a bit confused too and she double checks - they think that the problem the Sept has is with the fight, or the Hive? She says that they don't have much. There's three Bone Gnawer caerns in all of Australia, and they are sitting in one and come from another. And when they came here, and shit went down, it put the caern on the line. No one much cares about the fight - life as a garou is dangerous. But they put the caern in danger and when shit hit the fan - . She stops and says "When things go wrong, who do you protect, your mates or the boss?" Scarface Claw says mates; Eustace says that they followed Darius' lead. Why didn't they immediately tell people here when Cernonous died, the Bunyip artifact he had vanished and a Bunyip ghost and storm appeared in the city? Scratches-at-Fleas says that he has travelled; there are not many places when Bone Gnawers have much. In many places, when they prosper, other tribes come to take it. So the Gnawers protect what they have fiercely, and It Wasn't Me endangered that. Eustace says it was only 10 years ago when the Fianna from Newcastle sent two packs and tried to muscle their way into this Sept. Its not that Ear to the Ground thinks this was an attempt to takeover - but there wasn't any solidarity with the Bone Gnawers.

The pack consider what happened - they'd got into such a mode of being subtle about things that when higher ranked garou told them to keep their head down, they had reservations but did what they were told. Did they not tell Sydney garou until it'd already gone far along? They went up when Cernonous was dead, but didn't tell Josephine why. Michelle told them to remove the body and anything that would connect them to him, at the lab and his house. Darius said to keep a low profile until everyting came out - don't muddy the waters. Then there was a little Bunyip storm - they did tell Herman, but were pretty terse about why. They went back to Melbourne and finally came clean to all their own elders, but returned to Sydney when a new storm appeared - but while they said they were here for the bunyip spirit, they still didn't provide context. This storm was bigger and getting wyrmy and something disrupted their cleansing. They rang Ear-to-the-Ground and still didn't 'fess up even though they thought another supernatural was involved. They got Bartholomew to come to Sydney. Then there was another storm, the Streetsweepers were there and they tried to use the Cracking Stone. The pack all got knocked out and taken back to the Rocks, where they finally admitted to what had been going on and the caern spirit manifested and started to send its power out into the storms.

Scarface Claw says that she's held pretty firmly that they didn't do anything wrong and were just trying to help.. but thinking about it from that point of view, it was not the right thing to do. They were being told what to do by many higher ranked garou, including Jindabyne council members, and so they did as they were told. Eustace just gives them a look, and says yeah, they didn't protect their mates. She lowers her voice a bit - Nonna's pissed at them about turning up the Hive, cos it makes her look bad, but that's because she's protecting the sept from that direction. But everyone else thinks they disregarded the danger to the caern, which ended up being drained.

Eustace touches on Alex and his stance that it was It Wasn't Me's fault that Marion got killed, and suggests that the difference in grievance with the pack is perhaps why he didn't settle here in Sydney at all.

The topic returns to politics, and their Sept. Eustace says that Cossack's taken an interesting tack, with the open communication and coordination with the other Septs around Melbourne, When he started, there was some suspicion it would go badly, and the Silver Fangs would try and take over or something, but he's managed to work quite a workable alliance with Hidden Green especially, but also with Grinding Stone. How long will it last though, is it just him? Pork Chop says not if she can help it - she supports his policies. Eustace nods and says Elders don't last forever, in any place - its good they are thinking about succession. Cossack's been Sept Leader for a long time.

Might says it would be easy for it to go wrong - if leadership changed at the other caerns, and some miliant mafioso Shadow Lord ends up in charge at Hidden Green, or someone at Sleeping Lore who wasn't as good at negotiation took over, or even Commands-the-Waters at Griding Stone lost her position, then it might all fall apart. ("Some of the people in the photos look familiar." "The photos have been up there for 6 years").

Might mentally confers with his pack and asks if they should be forthcoming about how finding the Hive wasn't actually them, they got given the finding sticks. Scarface Claw wants to know what they get out of it ("you can take the girl out of the shadowlords") - how about instead they ask if they can do a Rite of Contrition about putting the caern in danger. Might queries why the policy of "fuck you I apologise for nothing" has changed, and Scarface Claw points out that this seems genuinely a crappy (and Litany threatening) thing to do. ("Shut. The. Fuck. Up. Shut all the way the fuck up until you reach to the top of shutfuck mountain until there are no more fuckups to shut." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDvBur8O6sc)

They decide to go with this plan, and approach the Elders to ask for an opportunity. ("I'm sorry for Tillie. I mean, I'm sorry because of Tillie") They are told they can do the rite to the whole Sept during one of the nightly Last Call meetings where much of the Sept sticks their head in. Might performs the ritual and does a fine job - most of the sept seems accepting.

Sept of Sleeping Lore

Chronology - November 2011

Tuesday 1st November - Thursday 3rd November Philodox waxing