Walks All Paths: 3/9/97 (11/11/96)
"Making a house a home"
I am now of the Wyrm. This, I do not like! Fortunately, neither does Granddad, and he knows what to do about it. This quest we are about to leave on will bring us to my soul. That will mean facing the being called Gramma. But if we succeed, then I will be free of this taint. If I somehow manage to survive this, get my soul back, but not become free of Wyrm taint, then I’m going to go to Erebus, throw myself into the silver lake, and see what the great corrupter has to say about that! There’s more than one way to purify oneself, I just hope that this quest works. The silver lake tends to burn its... patients.
Luckily Granddad arrived shortly after we finished eating dinner. He said that to begin our ordeal, we first had to open a Cairn. No one seemed to object, I know that I wouldn’t question Granddad, but Mages are not allowed at Cairns except under the most dire of emergencies, and this does not qualify as one of those. Technically, I should not be allowed at this rite either, as I am of the Wyrm. Oh well, Granddad is a wise Garou, and his judgment is better than mine, so I will wait and see what happens. I just hope that my friends are not forced to leave their home (and their node). That would be rude.
Immediately after Helios gave the sky to Luna we began the rite. I did not tell the others that this rite must be completed before Helios’ return, they did not need to worry about that. The dangers of the night were more than enough to concern them. Granddad decided that Kacee, Eric, Daedalus, Cab and Silvertooth would be defenders, and that Renee, Mary, dog, and himself would be participants. Granddad showed Reuben how to enter the Dark Umbra, a rite in itself, and had him wait there, warding the area from malicious spirits. He then returned and had me wear the lupus and lie in the center of the circle. Then the participants closed the circle around me, holding hands, as Granddad began chanting.
For the first few hours, nothing much happened. I felt the energies of the new Cairn building as the Gnosis flowed through me. Other than that, though, I could only watch and wait. I saw Eric draw a circle around himself, taking about an hour to do so. From what little I have been told of his order, they can increase the power of their spells by inscribing circles and chanting in a language called Latin. It sounds like something the Uktena would do, but I’m not sure. Later in the night, after midnight, we heard the sound of windows breaking. The attack had begun. All of the defenders began looking around nervously as Kacee sneaked up to the Kitchen door. Then something began to enter the room. Kacee attacked and did little damage. Cab, Eric and Silvertooth stayed in place as Kacee backed up towards Daedalus. Daedalus seemed to be up to something, he was typing very fast on his keyboard, but also seemed to be having a hard time with it. As the attackers entered the room, I noticed that they were indeed Fomori, and appeared to be gorehounds.
Kacee was nothing if not persistent, and eventually they got the upper hand on the Fomori. But first one went to attack Eric, who deflected his blow with some kind of shield. The Fomor ended up damaging himself. Unfortunately, that just made it mad, and it attacked again, this time slicing open Eric’s abdomen. He fell to the ground, barely conscious and bleeding profusely. At the same time, Kacee's assailant had knocked her back and Daedalus’ spell backfired, horrendously. As he tried to set it off, his face contorted and he began to scream in pain. Then hands of fire began to creep up out of the floor. They pulled themselves up his legs as licks of flame swirled around him. Then they stopped advancing and began to pull him downward. Daedalus stared down and struggled as he screamed even harder, as the hands sucked him through the floor.
Then the third Fomor went to help the first, and Cab came to help Kacee stand against the two. The Fomor that had just gutted Eric walked towards us in the circle and headed straight to Granddad. Then an amazing set of events occurred. Dog tripped the Fomor as Renee used her life magick to slow it down. And then the biggest, scariest ahroun I’ve ever seen landed inside the circle with me. Silvertooth, standing nearly eleven feet tall in Crinos form, swung his Grand Klave (I think he receives renown every time he draws it!) and hit the Fomor (who was standing outside the circle) and sent him airborne. The Wyrm-spawn hit the kitchen wall with a thud and a series of sickening cracks and crunches, and then slowly slid down to the floor as a corpse.
Silvertooth then leapt out of the circle again. Cab and Kacee attacked the other two continuously until the Fomori died of the multiple wounds. Pain may not slow gorehounds, but multiple lacerations, blood loss, and death will. That and the fact that Kacee beheaded one of them. I think that Silvertooth’s training was exceptional indeed! To avoid any more attacks, Eric erected a force shield around the room. Then, out of the blue, a man appeared in the circle. (Apparently force shields are not effective against entering from the spirit realms, great!) He seemed to have shifted over from the dark umbra, where Reuben had defeated some kind of Bane that tried to attack my spiritual presence - yes it resides in the dark umbra now. He introduced himself as Kevin Ravenswing, and Granddad seemed to know him. Silvertooth told him to help stand guard.
Silvertooth looked at Granddad and said to hurry. I looked out the window and saw the first of Helios’ rays break over the horizon. We had less than an hour to complete the rite. Suddenly Granddad’s eyes snapped open and he whispered "Silvertooth, find it!" Silvertooth ran to the doorway and promptly smashed into Eric’s force shield. He began kicking, beating clawing and ripping at the invisible wall, but could not seem to break through. Eric was convulsing as if he felt every blow as it landed on the wall. He decided to drop it quickly. Silvertooth ran through the house, and we heard him crashing around, looking for "it." He returned holding on to Kacee’s cat, the one that I wanted to destroy for being unnatural, and asked, "What, is this!" "That’s Hairball!," Kacee responded. Silvertooth was less than impressed with her explanation, so he crushed the cat in his hand. Sure enough, it turned to white goo.
All of the defenders went back to their positions to await the next attack, but they did not have time. The air started to shimmer as color dots and bubbles slowly built in intensity. Reality seemed to break down as the nexus crawler materialized in the room. We all stared in horror, all of us but Granddad - who was too busy trying to open the Cairn - and Silvertooth - who was too busy trying to destroy the Nexus Crawler. Renee, the gentle soul that she is, passed out due to it’s evil and corruptive presence. Kevin tried to step in and take her place, but the gnosis was too much for him and he passed out as well. Amazingly enough, Eric was able to drag himself over to the circle and link hands while still bleeding - now all over the unconscious bodies of Renee and Kevin, without passing out. That man has a will of iron!
The Crawler began to assault us with its reality warping, as Cab’s sweat turned to acid. I heard Granddad mutter something about it not opening, and then Mary said "Open... NEPO!" Then she kept repeating the word nepo over and over. I think that she was saying open backwards, but I did not have time to consider it as the Gnosis flared. The energies seemed like the might go wild and kill us all, but the they stabilized and centered on the Nexus Crawler, which turned into a plant (Renee says that it was a philodendron, but I don’t care). Then a vortex appeared, consumed the newly formed plant, and then swallowed Cab. After a moment it dissipated and Cab was left lying on the floor.
Everyone seemed to relax a little, and Granddad let the participants release hands. It was then that I noticed that the Chantry felt different. More directly spiritual. It had indeed been opened as a Cairn. I began to wonder what the Totem of the Cairn would be, but I was distracted by the room changing. The lights faded and a layer of dust descended over everything. The paint on the walls began to chip and the floor looked like it might collapse. It was then that I realized that we had crossed over to the shadowlands of the dark Umbra. I know of two ways to cross over the Shroud, death and a particular rite. I was very glad that we had used the second. As they, and everything else from the living world, faded to the background, I heard Granddad say that something was not right, and that this was not the way that it should be happening. Oh joy, just what I needed to hear!
Tom Brady <tabrady@mindspring.com>
Last modified: Tues 13 May 12:45:00 1997 by tabrady