5/6/2004
06:39 PM
Logfile from GarouMUSH.
WWNP Campground(#3292RAJ)
A well-tended dirt road, lined with neatly placed rocks winds a sinuous path amongst a pleasing array of camp sites. The tall trees and loamy forest floor provide a cathedral-like atmosphere for visitors to the park. Daytime, lancets of sunshine spike through the evergreen canopy to the russet ground. At night, gentle fingers of moonlight and the occasional glimmer of starlight navigate the maze of branches to the terra firma.
The sites are situated well apart from each other, each providing an illusion of isolation to the occupants. They are equipped with an upright barbequeue and a ring of fire-stones. The ground here is relatively level and smooth, providing a decent repose for the city-soft. Two well-maintained facilities at opposite end of the site provide showers, water faucets, and restrooms. Foot-trails extend into the forest, but return after short diversions of less than a couple of miles.
The grounds appear, more than anything, pristine. This will undoubtedly change.
The dirt road dead ends at the far end, near the restroom, but it continues out to the main park road at its other end.
Contents:
Untangler
Sly-Ghost
Defends-Worth
Wildfire
Obvious exits:
Out to the Main Road
You paged the room with 'General setting pose. Let's put it, oh, 9 PM at night, with the moon nice and full in the sky.'.
A small ashen-coated wolf, Untangler is easily overlooked, especially in the winter. The sunlight melts through the leaves of trees and flows into and matches with the flecks in his fur, hiding him from view. His skin hangs loosely about him, like it's still waiting to be filled out. Untangler's face presents a strange sight, his eyes are unusually low against his muzzle for a wolf, and his muzzle itself is short and stubby, as if he'd run smack into a wall. Long hairless lines like scars run from the inside corners of his weak watery yellow eyes to his jaws.
A rather large, solid grey wolf with broad shoulders, corded muscles, and strong jaws. A scar runs across his left eye, though the eye itself is intact. Another pattern of scars suspiciously looking like a bite from something very big can be seen circling around his chest, abdomen, and back as well as a patch of scars on his lower abdomen. Classic lines mark this creature as does a certain bearing in his posture.
All is quiet in the woods of St. Claire and Kent Crossing's nearby National Park. The camping season has been underway, climbing to its summer peak as hikers are beginning to eye the tops of the Blue Mountains. The smoky smell of barbecue floats its way through the woods, sharp with burning prepared wood and lighter fluid. Campers. They're coming into the park with no hesitation, as with each year the summer tide of tourists provides money for the park. It is on such a beautiful, full mooned night that one can expect to hear the howl of a wolf. Deeper in the forest, people have pitched their syntheic-fibered tents on individual plots, gradually spreading out from the main grounds.
Boredom and a sense of wanderlust have brought Defends-Worth to this place at night. She pads in the distance of all the people, sniffing the air and keeping out of sight of the humans. Her dark fur blending into the night as she finds a tree to rest by and just watch the mayhem of campers.
Wildfire has taken some of the old paths of his former Red Talon packmate even after his long hiatus back home to the east. These lands are familiar, alathough not as familiar as the more wild places in the park. Keeping quiet in the wolf form, he travels outside of the tent 'city' to avoid contact with folks, but also eyeing anyone from a distance who may not be behaving well as he travels around to more southern lands. Dinner awaits down there, afterall.
Untangler slinks his way quickly through the the low bushes, soaking in the sounds and smells of humans with little concern. He moves quickly and with distracted purpose, legs springing forward intently as he goes, nose working hard. His head remains strangely still and level so that, legs hidden by plants, he looks like a hovering ghost-wolf.
For a long while, all one hears is some bad singing (Kumbayaaa my Looooord, Kumbayaaaaaa...) with guitar strumming off on one side of the grounds. Then, the expected song of the forest begins. A lone howl, very distant and barely perceivable as if it were just the wind through the trees, floats its way through the night's air and up to the moon. For a moment, that's all one can hear. Then, the call is replied to. The answering howl is louder, closer, joined by another more dissonant, and then another, and a fourth. The campers all hush as a disharmonious, haunting melody just barely reaches the ears of the campers above the crackle of their fires. One must remember that for humans, it's awfully rare to hear a wolf pack's howls. Yet, for those who are familiar with the language of the wolves, the howls make Absolutely No Sense. In fact, they don't sound like howls from the mouths of wolves at all. It's much too human, much too close, much too short-breathed, and oh so painful for anyone with a lick of sense to what a wolf's howl should sound like, should hear. If this were the American Idol of wolf howling, Simon would be writhing on the floor.
Defends-Worth perks her head up and adjusts her ears to listen to the howl. She rises to her feet and heads in the direction of the howl, keeping low so as to just be a shadow that passes through the trees as she moves.
Wildfire pauses in midstep after the faux-howls start, canting ears in their direction. Ah, must be some stupid people. Usually those are the ones that need checking on the most. A long sigh, a quick look to the moon, and the Get starts making his way around to them.
Untangler freezes at the sound, and sits down in the darkness. His ears do a curious, confused dance, and his shuffling forefeet and tilting head show a great deal of unease. He spends long seconds just sitting there, uncomfortable and trying to puzzle the noise out, and then he hurries forward, faster this time but more cautiously, and keeping himself low and hidden.
The sad excuses for wolfhowls continue for only a few seconds, and then abruptly fade off. Deeper into the woods the lupines have to go. Those humans and wolves listening would've noted that it came from the south of the campgrounds, proceeding further away from civilization. It lends to the illusion of wolves lurking just outside of the firelight. The humans at the grounds look to each other, smiling in triumph like their 'get back to nature' stint was successful. The campers go back to their night-time stories over the fire. Then, just as things are becoming peaceful once more, a pair of panicked screams tears its way through the forest. Girls' screams. "Wolf!" is the first one. "Get back you monster! EEEEEEK!" the other.
Defends-Worth crouches and looks all around her, trying to see if it is her that the girl's scream over. She gathers herself for a moment before heading back into the direction of the screams.
Untangler takes long strides, ducking around trees and the larger, fuller bushes, but he's brought to a sharp stop by the screams. The Ragabash proceeds slowly now and cautiously, sniffing occasionally and keeping himself steady and attentive.
Wildfire pauses at the screams, ears focused on them. That is NOT the burbling, drooling, panic of people suffering from the Delirium. Okay, obviously someone is indeed being stupid. He finds a dark place out of the way to shift to homid before headede straight through camp over towards the noise.
Erika could hear the noise from a few miles off, coming closer as she tracks down the source of the sound. As she sees the other Garou under the cover, she moves beside Owen, although keeping a safe distance if she happens to startle him. "Erika, here." she says softly, trying not to make any other noise.
Quick action taken on the part of those who heard the screams and give a damn enough to investigate, a beam of light (obviously a flashlight) bobs erratically as the sound of footsteps and the scent of fear get closer and closer. As Owen hurries along, he runs into a couple of young women who are fleeing from their campsite. There is a terrorized look in their eyes as they run helter skelter, one clad only in a nightshirt and the other in her pajamas, scurrying as quickly as they can for the safety of the brightly lit campground. There's nothing that indicates any of them is hurt, though. One of the girls falls down, tripping comically over her own two feet. The wind is knocked out of her and she scrabbles, sits up painfully, and just tries to breathe again. Her friend halts her flight, turning back. "Are you ok, Rach?" she asks, looking back into the forest. "What was that thing?" asks Rachel, before shaking her head and also looking behind them. "I think it was a wolf. But... I thought wolves didn't attack people." Rachel's friend shakes her head, confused first. "That was way too big to be a wolf. It looked more like...like a wolf-man!" Rach just looks hurt, and a little confused on what the heck happened back there, but her head's clear. No Delirium? No, but the Curse at being close to Garou rears its ugly head. She stares at the strangers distrustingly, and slowly gets up with her friend.
Defends-Worth pauses just out of sight as shifts as well, walking into the area. "Hey, what's happening?" Her hands shoved into her pockets. "Heard some screaming."
Owen pauses just briefly as the girls run past, hoping but not seeing the general horror movie of panic striken 'victims' somehow losing their clothes. No such luck. Erika gets a curt nod before he stalks further towards the source of the disturbance.
Untangler gets just close enough to see and smell all the congregated humans and human-skinned, and then he stands, nervous and waiting, amidst a pretty clump of Queen Anne's lace the same colour, in the dark moonlight, as the small wolf's flecked coat. His breathing slows and his paws dig into the dirt.
Erika looks fairly casual, wearing everyday teenager clothing as she takes a step out of the shadow a bit as she looks to the two teenaged girls with a rise of her eyebrow. "Hey," she says towards the girls. "You alright?"
The fallen girl, a pretty blond, nervously glances back the way they came, then back to the Garou nearby. She take a cautionary step a bit back and behind her friend. She's breathing a bit deep, winded from the run and fall. "We were camping over that way, making s'mores and stuff when I saw this *thing*!" She glances at the other young woman, expecting her to answer too.
Taslyn comes closer, near Erika. "Which way? Can you show me? Take a deep breath and calm down... Or just point." She tries to smile and Erika gets a nod of her head.
"Yeah, yeah we're ok," Brittany, Rachel's also pretty blonde friend of the pajamas, answers. It's hard to see in the darkness, and it's just then the flashlight she's holding decides to lose power. The beam fades, and fades, and flickers. "There really are wolves in the woods here," she says softly, breathing quicker because of the sprint. "And there's no way we're going to find our way back to camp now." The girls have a glance at each other, then Britt looks at Tas and points further south. "C'mon Rach, let's go to the campgrounds and see if we can find someone with a flashlight." That's when a horrible howl (Aroooo!) sounds out again, further south from where the girls had run from. Like panicked deer, they squeak and scramble hurriedly (though more carefully) make their way towards the distant lights of the camping grounds.
As the light goes out, Owen takes that moment to pull out, apparently from nothing, an aluminum baseball bat that, to the knowing, had apparently been dedicated. As the horrid sound of an attempted howl escapes once again, he breaks out into a run.
Erika shoves her hands into her pockets. "Been watching too many horror movies?" Erika asks the two girls. "You two go campoing out here very of..." The Philodox is cut-off as the two girls begin to head towards the distant lights of the campground. She looks to the south and towards the sound again and lifts her eyebrow casually. Then, without hesitation, she turns and trails after her elder.
Untangler doesn't wait for the girls to finish their story, he vacates his copse of flowers and hurries off to swing quietly through the forest towards the sound of the howl. His pace is brisk but, unlike Owen's, unhurried, putting more effort towards stealth and caution towards speed. The wolf carefully avoids the other Garou.
Taslyn yells after the girls. "Why don't you just go get some rest. Let us go look." And she goes off after Erika. She looks over at the woman. "Feel free to shift, I will to." If she catches up to Erika.
The girls disappear towards the campgrounds, and the howls though sporadic, continue. Untangler sets foot along the borders of a camping plot where the tents are set up, but no one is scented in the immediate area. The scent trails go south, towards the howls. Owen's run earns him quickness points, and he is the first to find his way to the edge of a fairly large, old clearing. Owen would recognize this place as an old meeting spot of sorts, long abandoned by wolves because of the campground activities. In the scattered moonlight, a rustling is heard within the trees at the other end of the clearing.
Erika nods to Taslyn before they reach the campsite, shifting down into lupus to have more lengthy strides than when she is in homid form. Her pelt also blends into the darkness better as she reaches the edge of the old clearing after Owen's arrival.
Taslyn follows Erika's lead and shifts as well, she follows the other and heads to the edge as well.
Owen takes only a moment's pause, concentrating for a moment, before stepping confidently into this old meeting place. He continues to say nothing, instead watching the place closely.
There's two campsites. Untangler encounters one that has no people, and smells like they just up and decided to take a hike in the night. The two others, Tas and Erika, find themselves passing by the girls' campsite where things look like they were gettin' on before a third scent, human and male, had stepped in before that trail too leads off. Owen's closer investigation reveals little about what's making the howls. But, as the other Garou also reach the clearing at various moments after, the Get ahroun can determine that off in the distance by the particularly large tree nearby, is what seems awfully much like the back of a large, black furry crinos head with stiff, pointed ears way too long for it, bobbing up and down from behind the trunk. Muffled, muttered curses comes also from behind the rock. One fuzzy black arm hangs out - way too skinny to be anything considered feasible for a crinos form arm. Hell, the dirty claws don't even look real.
Untangler's head twists to its side to sniff searching at the air, as the scent of two wolves very very close by suddenly enters his nostrils. His course shifts to track the two Lupus, from a safe distance, invisible and with Luna's gift keeping him hidden from noses as well. He keeps to the trees, though, well away from any clearings.
Owen sucks on a tooth for a mere second, then just walks up boldly to this farce of a werewolf. "Okay now, scaring girls may be fun, but me, I like to skin my kills." He pats the bat into the paml of his free hand, not looking like a friendly neighbor.
Judges-Souls is a little more hesitant to enter the clearing as she keeps back to the edge of the clearing with her eyes trained on Owen and the area that encompasses the older Fenrir and herself. She shifts one more degree, rising into dire as she remains within the shadow. The second Fenrir looks ready to jump at the right particular moment as her elder stands out boldly in the clearing.
Defends-Worth lifts her head and sniffs the air, trying to get a bead on what is around. She shakes her head, hoping to clear her nose. But when she sees Owen go closer, she lets out a deep breath. This will not be good. She shifts into hispo and keeps her eyes on the scene before her.
Untangler comes onto the clearing far away from the others, and keeps a few metres back from the treeline, hiding from the light of the full moon under the canopy. He watches the man with the baseball bat approach the frightening `werewolf` with fixed curiosity, breathing slow and hushed.
Getting closer, the wolfish, black furred head pops back up and then... drops and rolls down. Flop flop flop. "Goddamnit. I swear, Danny's gone and royally fucked up the sizes on this." A youth who looks like he's just barely legal and dressed halfway in a black, furry costume (complete with styrofoam muscles!) steps out from the tree cover to retrieve the head. His muttering continues until Owen's tramping gets his attention, and he looks up. "Holy shit!" You know, giant men, baseball bats, talk of skinning kills... Frank, as this young man's name is called, falls backwards flat on his tail. Uh, ass. "Where the hell did you come from?!" The head, a rather fair rendition of a werewolf head in the moonlight, just lies on the floor.
Defends-Worth gives the quietest of growls. ~human~ She says softly to Erika, just in case there was any wonder under the costume. She moves low in her form, still wary of the situation.
Judges-Souls looks at the boy in the costume and flickers her ears back against her dark head. I am going to kill the little-shit, she murmurs and gives a disgusted look across her muzzle. Being in hispo restricts her from saying a longer string of truck-driver-mouthed language. She slips a foot or two back into the shadows for a moment, keeping a watchful eye.
Owen holds the bat out so it points now at the young man, stepping forward so that its end is just a few inches from the other's face. "Does it really fucking matter where I just came from? Your little antics here aren't making you very popular, you know. There's a law, in fact. Disturbing the peace. What's worse is that you just disturbed _my_ peace. Now, just _what_ exactly do you think you were doing?
Frank stammers some more, despite him supposedly being a wannabe toughie, Owen's bat and his very rough words (along with very intimidating demeanor) cause him to choke on any form of explanation he might've had. That's when the howls sound again, this time from behind the other Garou of the clearing. A definite, unconcealed rustling is getting closer to the three, and ears and nose indicate there are definitely more than one. That's when other crinosy-heads come into view, but obviously sans height, sans muscle, sans any sort of real intimidation factor save they look a bit scary in the moonlight and the dark. One of them calls out, "Frank! Where the hell are you?" that one's a girl's voice.
Untangler's tail raises curiously as a funky, funny smell something like a wolf's but muskier drifts to him from the two Hispo Garou hiding in the clearing. He sniffs hard and ducks down lower than he had been before, attention distracted from Owen to scour the edges of the clearing for movement, and coming up, for now, empty.
Defends-Worth wrinkles her nose at the new smell and looks about for it's source. She finds Untangler and raises a brow, wondering if he is with the others as he is an unfamiliar sight.
Owen scowls at the youth before him. As he can't seem t muster words for himself, he calls out to the others nearby. "Frank is over here. He's about to have an accident and you may need to carry him away."
Judges-Souls looks towards the Fianna, not quite finding the Wendigo in the brush. Shift into lupus and stay out of the way, she tells the other Philodox as she slips back into homid and moves out of the bush, away from the advancing teenagers, to join Owen to see if there is any trouble and see seems to be more around the teenager's ages than her elder.
Two of the 'imposters' emerge from the underbrush. They have on crinos-heads and the less effective costumes, with the one of the left looking smaller than other. That is obviously the girl that spoke a moment ago, and her voice rings out again, with a touch of strain in it. "Frank? What's going on here? Who is he?" She begins to stride forward, though in a roundabout fashion, avoiding Owen. The other costumed person begins to approach as well, speaking for the first time. "Yeah, Frank, who's this guy?" It's a young man's voice, and he sounds just a touch on the pissed side, with a subtle twinge of fear.
Defends-Worth nods to Erika and shifts to Lupus, backing into the black but still close enough to watch what is going on.
Untangler remains low, attention slipping from his search of the woods opposite to the convocation in the clearing, eyes darting around to take in faces costumed and plain. His nose still works furiously trying to match smell to person, and his tail pokes out high and on-edge behind.
Owen can't help it. "I'm the pah-ty poopah." He keeps the bat trained on Frank. "And right now, the party is over. Time to get out of the costumes and leave this park before I make sure you're all in a cage for the rest of the night."
Erika sticks her hands in her pockets, moving towards Owen while she gives the teenagers cold stares.
Frank wide-eyes, and scrabbles backwards from the Get ahroun. "Geezus Christ man, I'm sorry! We were roleplaying a game, and..." His face is a little heartened when he hears the howls, and sees the other werewolves come out of the brushwork. "Over here! Help! This guy's freakin' crazy!" The girl and the other guy pull off their heads. Well, the wolf heads anyway, and tuck them under their arms. Jenny and the other guy, Dent, make their way to Owen, but of course don't want to provoke him. He's the one with the bat, after all. "Look man, we were just roleplaying," Dent explains. "Ever heard of the Black Dogs LARP group?" Not that he expects Owen to have heard of them, but Jenny adds in, "We have permits y'know. And you don't look like any park ranger." As the other Garou keep their distance, a couple more werewolf costumed people appear. One right behind Untangler, the other behind Defends-Worth. They too are converging on the spot.
Untangler freezes and listens closely to the crunch of boots behind him. He doesn't move an inch, doesn't even flick an ear, trusting in his gift and his stillness to keep him hidden and praying that it does. The small wolf's barely even breathing.
Owen spits, once, out of the side of his mouth at Frank's feet. He let's him back up, however. "You'd be surprised at what a ranger really looks like, kid," Owen snorts. "But no, I ain't heard of any Black Dog whatevers, but I do know this park doesn't issue permits to allow you to go running around scaring their regular campers, now, do they?"
Defends-Worth stays where she is, maybe lowering a little as the steps come closer behind her. She trusts the darkness of her fur will help her to hide in the darkness. Her nose sniffs some, trying to see any of the scents around her.
One of the costumed humans stumbles through the bush, directly behind Untangler. His steps fall fast and close, and it seems that he'll pass right by the wolf. He can be heard speaking muffledly through his mask as he gets closer, and closer. Maybe it was bad luck, or the wolf was just distracted, but the clumsy human runs right into the wolf and sprawls with a weird yarf sound. He twists in the air, landing on his ass and hands, getting a glimpse of Untangler as he dart off. "Shit!" He yells, the sound distorted by his mask as he scrabbles backwards, ripping his mask off. "What the hell!"
"What a stupid game," Erika mutters sarcasticly as she hears one of their members fall. "Running around in fur-suits, you are just asking for a broken limb." She folds her arms across her chest, giving a look towards Owen.
Bats out of hell don't move this fast: the moment Untangler's roughly tripped over his feet coil against the ground and send him barreling blindly and madly through the woods. It's not two seconds before he's once again vanished into the darkness leaving only sound and footprints behind him. The wolf doesn't stop for nearly half a minute.
Defends-Worth sticks to the tree where she is, she moves slightly to look and see where the other human is.
Owen lets his jaw drop a little at the latest commotion. "Wait... Did you just kick my dog?" he says to the latest, clumsy arrival.
"What are you talking about?" Jenny asks Owen, glancing just briefly at Erika. Maybe the two are together, she thinks. "We've been further south from the camping grounds and were just finishing up. Didn't run into any campers at all," Dent adds, shooting a look at Erika. "These aren't Fursuits." The 'f' word is almost said with a bitter disgusted curse. As the guy who fell on his ass after bumping into Untangler blinks and wonders what happened, he pulls off his mask and reveals an asian face. He can't see too well in the mask either, but it fits better than Frank's does. "Jenny! Dent!" And a moment's pause later in reply to Owen's question, "Huh?" The other human appears, sans mask, and he is quite calmly proceeding onwards. Defends-Worth is completely missed though. "What's going on here?" asks the last arrival, who scans the people in costume and the people not. He's calm for a guy who's just been tramping around in a werewolf costume in the middle of the night.
Defends-Worth cocks her head to one side at the mention that they haven't run into anybody at all. She takes a deep sniff of the air and then begins to pad around the outside of the area, still in shadows, looking for any other smells in the air.
Owen finally moes his bat around, this time to point at the one who tripped over Untangler. "Don't tell me yous guys can't hear in them things as well as see. Someone in your troop's been making panty raids all dressed up. Perhaps you need to gether yourselves and exert a little discipline. And if you do, maybe I'll forget to write up a report for tonight's little breach of permit."
Erika moves her hands into the pockets of her hooded sweatshirt as she remains quietly some feet away from Owen as she eyes the teenagers with a look of disgust.
The Asian kid scrabbles to his feet, scooping up his mask nervously. His eyebrows arch as a look of confusion passes over his face. "What are you talking about? We've been LARPing all night! And we /do/ have a permit!" He looks over at the other guy he had called Dent, who gives him a look back. Dent glances back and forth between the Garou, his eyes darting suspiciously. "A report? Are you insane? We've done /nothing/ wrong at all, so could you crazies leave us alone?"
Defends-Worth comes slowly around behind the group of kids, across from Erika and Owen. She gets a bit of an impish thought and moves back into a trio of trees that cover her well enough. She lifts her muzzle and gives a deep and throaty howl to the air. The howl basically says, ~Area is clear... Scare them.~
Jenny looks confused still, considering the circumstances. They weren't really guilty of doing anything, and she knows they were far enough that their howls wouldn't have sounded horrible. So she thinks. "We didn't run into anyone," she insists too, before Frank makes a small cutting motion with his furred hand. "Wh-- Frank? Oh my god. You were..." She too gets a look of disgust similar to Erika's, and just growls angrily before heading back towards Danny. Danny, the calm leader who arrived last out of the group, gets closer to the others and having assessed the situation holds up an open palmed 'claw'. "Ok 'ranger'. We'll get back to our campsite." He shoots a glance at Frank, who smiles hesitantly before it fades off into a whipped dog look. "You. Your character is Dead." Everyone of the LARP group looks to Danny with looks of 'gasp!' but it seems pretty fitting as a pseudo-punishment.
Owen sneers again over the the youth apparently named Frank. "Now then, that there is a real howl." To the others, "Alright, then. Maybe now I can enjoy the rest of my night off. I'll trust you to finish taking care of tweezlenuts, here."
Erika chuckles softly but otherwise remains quiet and shifts her weight from one foot to the other.
Untangler comes to a screeching halt as the sharp howl reaches his ears, legs straight and digging into the dirt. Panting he stops and looks back towards the clearing he's a good bit away from now, ears twitching, waiting until his heartbeat slows down. There, at last, is an unambiguous statement: Garou are here.
Frank and the others look around rather surprised to hear a howl this close. Jenny murmurs something like, 'wow', and Danny just curtly nods at Owen before fishing out a flashlight from a concealed pocket in his costume. "Frank, if that costume gets any dirtier I'm going to send all the cleaning bills to you." That gives Frank motivation to get back up onto his feet, pick up the crinosy head on the dirt and grass and brush it off quickly. Sidling away from Owen and Erika (especially Owen), he makes his way past Dent and Jenny, to flank Danny. Troy takes a couple of steps back, still distrusting of the Get, before turning and also following the flashlight bearing Danny back out of the clearing.
Owen stares off after the troupe, then sighs. "Alright. Back to work fellas." He turns to head back south, his original destination.
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