Chapter 1: Awakening

[Shameless]

The members of the sole full pack of the Lone Star Caern had been slumbering peacefully.   Their dreams  were pleasant, and it was a restful night.   There'd been several corrupted spirits who'd gone on abit of a rampage on the eastern side of Austin, causing problems in the  physical world, but with nine  garou, the pack was easily able to put them down.  
 

After enjoying a celebratory meal together they'd all gone thier own ways, The lupus choosing to sleep at the Caern, the Homid in their human domiciles. Sleep had come quickly, probably abit faster than normal, but not so much as to raise any alarm.

They all dreamed of open fields, endless prarie and stalking in in their wolf forms.  Gradually though, something curious happened.  The color drained from their various dreams, and as things progressed, their dreams became quieter, with fewer and fewer signs of life.   In the end, they found themselves at the Caern, alone, the world only seen in shades of grey, and utterly silent.

Drawing near the great stone at the center, the one humans called it the "Round Table" they each changed into their Crinos forms.    It was flat on top but rounded on the sides.   No explanation was given, but no one but the garou or certain kin were allowed close to it.  As they drew near, the world began to darken, Fading closer to black with each step.
 

The last step brought them just to the stone, where the only light was from the glyph of their Garou name, which shone faintly in the all-consuming darkness.  Each saw themselves bite a finger, and then trace their names upon the stone, as the light faded completely.   
 

Each felt the tremor, as if the Earth shook, and saw the light coming from beneath the Stone.   Far above, From the infinite darkness, a single star blazed into view, it's light white and pure.  Then the stone began to crack.
 

That was when each of them awoke, finding themselves where they'd laid down.  The morning sun just rising to greet a brand new day In the Lone Star State.
 

Edited April 8, 2020 by Shameless

[Kaoleth]

Saibh let out a long breath through her nose, letting the last remnants of sleep fall away from her as she simply lay contemplating her dreams from the previous night. She was no Theurge and the interpretation of dreams was outside of her wheelhouse, but this one had felt significant in a way that few had previously. Grumbling lightly to herself, she forced her way out of bed and went about her morning routine. At the end of it, she flops into her desks chair and swipes her phone from where it was charging. Idly spinning it between her thumb and forefinger till it was right side up...... and then spinning it some more as she hesitated. What if it *didn't* mean anything and she was getting worked up about nothing?

 

Her gut said it was important, but spirit wooj was Deer and Clarity's job. Fuck it. Better to bring it up and be an idiot than not and have it bite her in the ass later.

 

Swiping her phone open, she fired off a quick  message to the group. The lupus may not remember to check, but Micky at least would point them in the right direction.

 

"Had weird dream last night. Dunno if it's important. Meet at Caern later?"

 

Closing the phone she stretched, finally getting around to lighting the smoke she had clamped in her teeth..... just in time for her father to hammer on the door

 

"No smoking in the house!"

 

Fucking brilliant start to the day.

 

 

[Exile_Jeane]

Spoiler

First Die roll, Int + Occult

Details:[6d10 (8 2 3 9 10 5)] Three successes but one dice explodes... Details:[1d10 (5)] Three Total Successes 

 

Running. Hunting. Playing. Swimming. Deer-Stalker's dreams used to be simple, half-remembered things, bound up in the soft haze of the Not-Now that engulfed everything she didn't immediately need for the task at paw. Hand. Whatever. Garou had so many words to describe things that didn't need words, she forgot which one fit where. Another habit they probably kept picking up again and again from the humans. It mystified her, really.

 

But the Her from Before the Change would be equally mystified by the Her After the Change, the flurry of snowflake thoughts that got in her everything and melted  back into air once she caught them on her paw to get a good close look one of them, piles of them flying in all directions when she tried to meditate and attack them for the doubts and anxiety they put out. She was just big enough inside to realize how small she was outside, the all consuming problem of Eat Sleep Drink Pain nothing before the problem of Weaver Spirits infiltrating the local grove and strangling them into frozen crystalline pillars in the Umbra.

 

Seeing *that* stoked the Rage inside Deer-Stalker almost too hot for her to remember Seeks The Evenstar's lectures on balance and control.

 

Thinking of her mentor made her whine and curl in on herself, grateful for the lingering scent of her packmates, reflecting furiously on any hint of what the dream could mean. It was important, she was sure, full of old omens he had mentioned. Good omens, bad omens... She wasn't sure, didn't remember, growling in her throat as the fear crawled down her spine. Fear was so much worse when you knew about all the tomorrows, the kind of problem you couldn't outrun or outbite, the shadow of your own... What was the words..? Oh yeah. Candle of awareness. Relunctantly, she came another conclusion.

 

Her Alpha needed to know about this. That meant heading out in Homid form. And Homid form meant clothes to cover her almost furless body. So bothersome. With a final whine, she got up and started padding towards her nearest packmate, following her nose. If she was doing this, she was going to take at least one of them with her out into the noisy, confusing human world.

 

[Aarkaine]

Spoiler

Dice roll Int+Occult

5 dice Details:[5d10 (8 5 1 7 8)] total 2 successes

 

Howls With Wind stirs and whines as she slowly starts to come too. Blinking, she sits bolt upright, looking around, checking that there were no current threats to the Caern.

 

After a few minutes she settles, shaking her head then closing her eyes to think and go over the dream she just had. What did it mean? What was it showing them? A warning?

 

She frowns and then opens her eyes and gets up, stretching and yawning, sleepily padding over to her sister to nuzzle her awake. She needed someone to talk to about what just happened, she couldn't figure this one out on her own, not this time.

[elynrae]

Red Tips groggily comes to with a bit of a growl. She's grumpy as the dream disturbed her sleep and dreams aren't really her thing.

 

Her eyes focus on Howls and she sits up. She noses her sister and yawns. Perhaps Howls knew what the dream meant. She was better at this type of thing.

 

Red Tips stretches and the shakes herself out. She does a once over of the Caern to see who else may be about before she sits and tilts her head while looking at Howls. Clearly waiting for whatever she had to say.

Edited April 4, 2020 by elynrae

[Exile_Jeane]

Spoiler

Attempted Shapechange roll from Lupus to Homid. Details:[8d10 (7 9 1 7 8 7 5 9)] That would be six successes and a yes, I think.

 

Deer-Stalker wagged her tail in greeting upon sighting the siblings, the gladness at seeing her packmates temporarily overriding even the seriousness of her self-appointed mission. The grey-and-black Lupus considered her options how to show she was serious and decided the most direct course was the best course as it so often was. She concentrated and called upon that little piece of Gaea that all Garou shared, hunching in on herself as fur melted into pale skin, bones snapped and warped from quadrupedal to bipedal support, and an unruly mane of blonde hair sprouted from her compacting head. The world closed in, scents and sounds losing most of the fine details that kept you alive on the hunt.

 

Still crouching, she worked the kinks out of her all-too-small Homid jaw, voice rough from disuse, "Important dream. Alpha needs to know. Help me get her? Also, Hi."

 

  

 

[elynrae]

Spoiler

Attempted Shape change to Homid. Details:[8d10 (4 6 9 3 10 2 8 10)] That's 5 successes.

 

Red Tips wags her tail upon seeing Deer-Stalker approach them. She watches Deer-Stalker shape change and gives a sigh. She realizes that the best way to communicate about what was necessary would require the homid form. She gives Howls a lick before stepping back and hunching as the change took over her. Her fur gradually melted away except for her head where the black lengthened as her muzzle shortened and her leg and arm joints reoriented themselves in the process. She wiggles her nose and sneezes as the last of the changes work themselves out.

She stands up, carefully stretching her body and tries to talk. She coughs, being unsuccessful and swallows hard and tries again. "Hi. You have dream too?"

[Nina]

5:45 am.

Micky stared at the clock she had only gotten an hours sleep. One fucking hour. She truned her head on the pillow and stretched out her arm for the phone that had woken her.

On 4/3/2020 at 2:43 PM, Saibh Richter said:

"Had weird dream last night. Dunno if it's important. Meet at Caern later?"

 

She read the tweet two, three times something nagged at her hind brain. Dream?

She had been dreaming but it was fuzzy now,  a rock,no the roundtable and my sigil...

 Micky sat up truly awake now. "Fuck."

 She tweeted.  <Meet at Caern. Now! Be Alert!>

She sent the tweet to her whole pack, then tossd the phone on the bedside table as she got up and threw the clothes she had been wearing at the club back on.

 

In the darkness at the caern, Howls heard the ringtone of the three phones which her pack-mates missed because of their reduced hearing capabilites.

 

Spoiler

each of you lupus members of the pack will have human things stashed at the caern, clothes, phones, etc.  there is probably a car or truck that belongs to the pack parked at the preserves visitor parking lot for our use, as well

 

[Aarkaine]

Howls looks at the other two and whines. They know, Red Tips more so, how hard shifting is for Howls. 

 

She shifts on her paws and closes her eyes, concentrating hard. It takes close to half a minute for her to shift into Homid form, and afterwards she just drops back onto the ground, on her arse and sighs, rubbing her arms, taking a moment to remember how to speak in this form

 

"Had dream. Have insight"

[SalmonMax]

Ariel kicked at her covers as she woke up, then looked blearily around at the honking noise invading the small bedroom of her apartment. Was it the alarm going off that woke her up, or that dream? Maybe more importantly, why was her alarm set on the goddamn weekend?

 

She sort of rolled around, finally managing to get her legs untangled from her blanket and dangling off the side. Then she sat up, managed to stand up, and crossed the room to where the alarm clock sat atop her dresser, blaring. At one point Ariel had kept the thing on her bedside table, but found that made it far too easy to hit 'snooze.' Easy enough that she didn't even have to wake up to do it.

 

During her shower she thought back on the crazy dream she'd had. By then though it was mostly indistinct in her head. Her and the rest of her 'pack' just chilling. Then everything was like fading out and they wrote something... Didn't seem like it'd been scary as she thought about it.  Must have been the alarm after all.

 

It wasn't until Ariel got out into the little half-kitchen and spotted her phone on its charging cable that she saw the attempts from the others to contact her. Her heart sank a little. It would have been really nice to have a legit day off after last week.  Those were really rare for her, what with chasing human criminals by day and...weird-ass spirit criminals by night. And also some days.

 

Ariel read the messages and rubbed the bridge of her nose. Everyone had had some kind of dream. And now it was a goddamn emergency. Sure, it was a little weird they'd all had a spooky dream. There could be something to that, yes. Ariel had seen enough by now to know there was some weird shit out there, and causing everyone in the pack to have dreams was not farfetched. It was just hard to connect the kind of unsettling vibe of the dream to the kind of near-panic in Mickey's text.

 

It wasn't the hill she was willing to die on though, so she settled on a couple of pieces of toast in lieu of a real breakfast, got dressed and headed out towards the park to meet her werewolf buddies, all the while making a mental 'to do' list of things she needed to get done before Monday in order to be healthy and happy and wise.

[Kaoleth]

Placing the unlit smoke behind her ear, and tamping down the flare of irritation, she grumbles to herself. Time to get some food before getting on with the day.

 

No sooner had she stood up than her phone buzzed angrily from the desk. No one texted her this early, so it must have been one of the pack.

 

2 hours ago, Micky Dolenz said:

<Meet at Caern. Now! Be Alert!>

 

Huh. Guess it was more important than she had thought. That changes things. Dashing to grab her things, she slid down the bannister, a bellowed "Micky called, got business" up the stairs to where she could hear her dad in the bathroom to let him know where she was going. He would understand the subtext. Firing a quick message to her uncle to let him know she would be in late, she sent another back to Micky, acknowledging her order with a quick

 

<OMW>

 

Opening up the garage, she bypassed her dads trusty range rover to her baby, Sleipnir, the bike she and her uncle had built basically from the ground up for her 19th birthday. Mrs Williamson from down the way absolutely hated the bike. Apparently it was "unladylike". Whatever. Helmet on, she peeled out of the driveway, the roar of the bike sending a thrill through her as it usually did.

[Exile_Jeane]

Deer-Stalker looked from one sister to the other and back again, biting her lip and going even more pale than normal. One disturbing dream in a night was strange. Two was troubling. Three was the-only-river-in-the-valley-drying-up level bad. She shivered despite her layers and layers of clothing. Her Alpha really needed to know about this now. ...If she didn't know already. Red Tips was no Theurge, if she was being included in whatever was happening... Sometimes the Umbra offered it's wisdom out of the corner of your eye, but sometimes it was like a herd of bison on the move.

 

Adult humans who respected themselves didn't whine to express their distress she had been told, but it was a hard fight to keep from doing just that.

 

 "The Dream. About hunting withering silence towards Caern, the round table, alone in the darkness? Writing name in blood and then tremor and star and round table breaking?" she offered softly, quickly, the words twisting in her mouth as she tried to capture the impression of the vision. Any hope of this being just a result of bad meat died at the short nods of confirmation she got back from her packmates in her hurried retelling. Deer-Stalker sucked in a breath and composed herself. It was good *and* bad omens, she reminded herself.

 

"Find Alpha. Get pack. Solve problem now,. Yes?" she asked, standing up and offering one hand to Howls to pull her up.

[Aarkaine]

Howls accepts the hand and help to stand, wobbling a little on her feet.

 

"See if pack come here. Not something talk about outside of Caern. Need look into more"

 

She stops and thinks for a moment. What else does she need in this form? Oh, thats right. Clothes. The only thing she has on at the moment is a satchel over one shoulder. She moves slowly over to a bag by a tree and opens it, pulling out clothes to put on

[elynrae]

"Yes find Alpha."

Red Tips heads over to where the gear was stored and pulled out the phone that was hers. She frowned as she worked to get into the phone and see what the flashing indicator was for. She growls more than once in the process and gives a short bark when she finally gets it to do what she wants. She focuses on the phone for longer than it should a human to read the short message that was displayed there.

She turns back to the others.

"Phone person with Alpha picture say meet at Caern and be alert. Not sure why say be alert. Always alert."

[Shameless]

Eric woke from the dream in his king size bed, and sighed.  "More Mystical mayhem eh?  It's too early for this."
 

He rolled out of bed, took a quick shower, which woke him right up, and then got dressed.   It was a Jeans and T-shirt day, as he grabbed a slice of toast and some orange juice for a quick breakfast and then head for his Jeep.  It wasn't brand new, but he liked it.  His father had been after him to get something nicer for appearances, but he'd not really pressed him hard.  Having something like that was good, for now.
 

Micky's Text came while he was in the shower, and he smiled knowing he'd predicted what she wanted.   "Gathering there's fine, though we can't stand around at the Table itself on this side of the Veil."  He  drove on to the Park, parking in the Visitor's section, though he did have a permit for the employee lot.    Having kinfolk run the place had a number of perks, after all.
 

He was glad he lived on this side of town, so the drive was short enough.
 

As he got out, he was happy that the park while open, was not really frequented much during the early weekend.  The only other car there was the older one he left for the pack to use.  Each week at least once they'd take it out, if only to keep the battery charged, and move it somewhere different.
 

He walked along the trail, and sent a reply in the group text Micky'd started.  "Alright I'm here and heading to the Caern.  Please, all of you be decent this time."

[elynrae]

Red Tips growls at the phone as it vibrates and makes a sound in her hand. These devices made communication easier but they were such fickle and noisy things.

"Phone person with Eric picture say he here. And be decent."

She looks at the others and shrugs.

"Are we not decent? Not sure why care so much about clothes on or off."

[Aarkaine]

Howls was still trying to decide what to put on, but then just gives up and moves back to the other two.

 

"Clothes nasty restrictive things. Dont want wear if in Caern. This acceptable"

 

She sits down to wait for the others.

[Exile_Jeane]

Mood lightening now that things were happening, the blonde lupus barked laughter but shook her head from side to side in disagreement. Not that the sisters were wrong about clothes. Icky tricksie things. Deer-Stalker herself was clad in her mismatched collection of garments now only because she had put the ritually attuned items on last time she had gone Homid and decided going Lupus was faster than taking them off.

 

"Might need to leave in a hurry. Humans funny about being naked. Make Alpha happy, too," she offered mildly, turning on one heel and striding for the entrance to the Caern. More packmates meant more solutions, and she enjoyed meeting them.

[Aarkaine]

Howls sighs rather audibly and gets back up, grumbling a little as she moves back over to pick up her clothes. She prefered to shfit without them on but these ones will move with her at least. She pulls on her usual hand made clothing, leather and fur, then moves back to sit on the ground in exactly the same spot as before.

[Nina]

Eric sat in his jeep after pulling into the parking lot. Of the city dwellers he was the first to arrive. He looked over at the small office where the park rangers worked and saw a light on. He considered walking over to let them know that the pack was going to be around and to keep and eye on any visitors. As he got out of the jeep he heard the rumbling growl of a motorcycle and turning his head saw Micky sweep into the parking lot much faster than was safe.

 

Micky saw Eric's jeep as she came barreling into the park and after a single circle around the parking lot came to rest aside the jeep a few feet from where the Child of Gaia stood. She killed the engine and sat there a second running her hands through wind blown hair combing it straight with her long fingers. "Morning," she said sliding off the bike. Before Eric could respond their attention was drawn to the sound of a second motorcycle as Saibh pulled in and parked next to Micky's bike.

 

Micky nodded at Saibh, after greetings were said, Micky, without any further words, set off toward the path which led to the cave. Saibh followed immediately and Eric, after a glance at the park office, followed as well.

 

Once on the path and away from view of the lot,  Micky,  with a glance at her pack mates, shifted to Lupus form and with a quick growl which conveyed follow swiftly, took off at a lope. The other two followed suit and in half the time it would have taken their homid forms to make the trip they drew close to the cave. Pausing Micky sniffed the air and let out a long howl to alert those in the cave that she and others were there.

[elynrae]

Red Tips, hearing the howl, adjusts her shirt with a whine. Clothes were so irritating. They just clung to you everywhere.

"It sound like others here."

She starts heading to the entrance of the cave assuming the others will follow.

[Kaoleth]

Between one step and the next, Saibh shifted, the familiar by now liquid sensation of her body changing coinciding with the world snapping into a different spectrum of colours. Taking a quick sniff showed nothing of particular note had changed since she had last been here, less than 12 hours before. With the familiar scents of their territory in her nose, Saibh set off at a quick lope behind Micky, her four legged form eating the distance in a fraction of the time her native Homid would, absent her bike or other technology.

 

Drawing close to the cave, she hears the movement from within as the Lupus of the pack come to the entrance to meet them. The strange sense of absence she had been carrying bleeding off as the pack once more assembles in full.

[Exile_Jeane]

The city-dwelling new arrivals were greeted by two of their more-normally Lupus packmates already Homid and clothed. Deer-Stalker's expression fought between lingering concern and pleasure at their arrival, unruly halo of blonde bouncing as she nodded her head in a poor imitation of wagging her tail. "Saibh. Eric. Alpha Miki," she called with a wave of one hand, averting her eyes downwards to the ground after meeting the Black Fury's gaze for the briefest of heartbeats, "Important dream with many omens. Also, hi."

 

She kept her eyes averted as flesh warped and bones cracked, the audible signs of her Alpha's shifting into Homid form herself, the miracles of ritually attuned clothing popping into existence from elsewhere.  When the noise faded, Deer-Stalker looked up at Miki again and stepped aside from the cave entrance to let her pass, eager to begin solving the problem.  

[Krul]

A dream involving all of the pack was something that called for attention and reflection, no doubt the rest of the pack wanted to discuss the matter, and still in lupis form, she wandered into the caern, listening to what the others were saying and inwardly shrugged, humans were overly obsessed about clothing, in the colder seasons and places, with their lack of fur that made some degree of sense, but it was something they obsessed about outside of such situations as well.  They connected the lack of clothing with mating behavior as well... humans always wanted to complicate things, she thought.  

 

Still, since her alpha wanted them to talk, and some of her homid pack members would want to talk, she shifted to homid forms and grabbed a shirt that was somewhat large for her that she had left here that covered her enough to deal with human sensibilities, at least in general.  Then she glanced at the others and chuckled at the complaints her wolf-sisters were making about the clothing.  "Humans complicate things, either accept it and run with it, sisters, or don't bother with it, since we're only with pack."

[Noir]

Then...

  

Spoiler

Nightmares

# 42 Details:[7d10K7 (23 [10,10,3] 8 4 3 2 1 1)]

1's cancel the 10s, so that leaves that 8, thus 1 success. Woo!

 

Sleep was not the respite for Sophia that it was for others. She avoided sleep as much as she could, because when it did finally take her she would be right back in San Francisco, watching death of the rest of her first pack. Hearing flesh rending, bones snapping... their gasps, cries, hows, death rattles. The same feelings of helplessness, fear and loss engulfing her each night and haunting her through the day. She always tried to push it out of her mind, to tell herself it was the past, but it often tended to make others feel like she was distracted.

 

The chime of her phone awoke her, something which most others would be curing, was a savior for her. She opened her eyes and lifted her head, looking around for a moment to make sure of where she was before she let head drop back into the pillow like dead weight, closing her eyes and resting the back of her hand on her forehead.

 

Last night had been a much different from us usual dreams and nightmares though. She was with her new pack, at a round rock, and there as blood and writing... WTF?

 

"It's okay. Deep breaths. You're in Austin now, and you have a a big-ass pack." she told herself in a sort of mantra before untangling herself from the sheets she had been tossing and turning in all night.

 

She stumbled into the bathroom, turned on the squeaky faucet, and flicked some water in her own face (which she hated the feeling of), but it did cause her inner fire to flare up for a moment, clearing her head somewhat. She began brushing her teeth as she looked herself over in the mirror and her phone did a reminder chime. She sighed and walked over to her phone, still brushing her teeth, and unlocked it one handed, scrolling through to the newest message. She groaned and rolled her eyes.

 

Why are these bitches using words like "Caern" in their texts? That is, like, "look for Garou 101" if you are a Wyrm-minion with any kind of tech ability. Ugggggh! she thought to herself, tossing down her phone and marching into the bathroom to rinse her mouth.

 

She dropped her toothbrush into the cup with a *clink* and get dressed, pulling on her jeans, throwing a fishnet shirt on over her black bra and grabbing her leather jacket. She stuffed her feet into her boots and finally yanked her wool cap down over her head as she talked out of her place, pulling out her keys...

 

Now...

 

Sophia came trotting up, a lean, black wolf that was strangely quiet, even with claws on bare stone. She was a bit surprised to see her lupus packmates already in homid form but shrugged it off and let her body snap back to her breed form, her clothing forming around her as she did. She nodded to the others, greeting them and looked to Mickey.

 

"Whassup, big hass?" she asked the pack leader casually, as she was wont to do, as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a pack of beef jerky which she tore open. After selecting a piece and holding it in her mouth and sighed and held out the bag, shaking it so the other strips of meat stuck out, offering it to her packmates. 

 

"One piece each, please. This is my breakfast."

Edited April 9, 2020 by Noir