Circle Keeper's Fostern Challenge Story
5/8/2006
06:17 PM
Logfile from GarouMUSH.
Currently the moon is in the waxing Gibbous Moon phase (73% full).
It is currently 18:06 Pacific Time on Mon May 8 2006.
Currently in Saint Claire, it is a cloudy day. The temperature is 56 degrees Fahrenheit (13 degrees Celsius). The wind is currently coming in from the northwest at 8 mph. The barometric pressure reading is 30.29 and rising, and the relative humidity is 42 percent. The dewpoint is 33 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius.)
Around the Story Tree
This quiet little clearing is home to soft grasses and bright flowers almost year-round. Near the center stands the Story Tree. The squat pine has broad branches for sitting under, and a thick, climbable trunk for a Garou to sit in. Sharp, green needles can be found buried in the grass.
A pathway leads out to the northwest toward the Caern, and a much less-worn path leads into the forested foothills to the east.
Contents:
Stacey
Long-Suffering
Dillen
Obvious exits:
Forest
Dillen is seated below the Story Tree. A knife is strapped to his belt and thigh and in slipped into a sheathe of some woven animal skin with decoration. He seems to be just meditating, relaxed and calm. He greets each person as they come in with a nod.
Long-Suffering enters in lupus, having thought that she had heard voices, into the Story Tree area. She has never been here before and as she enters she imediately looks up at the pine for which this area has been given its name. Her ears twitch as she stumbles across the man sitting and meditating. Her golden eyes give him a mild stare for a moment as she sniffs casually in his direction.
Yi arrives, not particularly on time, but in due course. The Gnawer fostern is looking a little wary tonight, checking faces, taking stock. After some rifling through the bag at her side, she withdraws an orange and finds a place to stand, at first. "I hear there is a story being told tonight," the fostern says, as if by chance she needed an excuse to be there.
Nightmares sneaks up to the area through the woods, from an odd direction, the south. She pauses in the underbrush, staying out of easy view, but any observant garou would see her there, her dark form in the green grass.
Dillen nods his head in Yi's direction. He speaks softly, as if his voice is a part of the wind that blows through this night. "Indeed. The Story of Circle Keeper-Rhya and his Fostern Challenge. Sit and listen. May learn something." He gives a wink. "Please." He indicates the ground for all to take a place.
Stacey walks into the clearing, smiling to those already gathered. Spotting Dillen's gesture toward the ground, she steps forward and finds a spot to sit. "Looking forward to it," she says to the Get.
This wolf appears to be a defined best as a red wolf, commonly found in the continental United States. From nose to tail, she is about four and a half feet in length and weighs between 45-50 pounds. Her ears stand erect at the top of her head, sloping down her angular muzzle to her charcoal black nose. From either side of her muzzle, there is a pair of golden-brown lupus eyes. Characterized black lines mark out her maw, filled with pearly white fangs. Her undercoat is thick, trapping in air to help keep her warm in a harsh winter storm. The guard hairs are coarse and hollow. Her legs are long and muscular, making her create graceful and purposeful movements. Her angular muzzle slops from a broad skull down her neck, shoulders, and back. Narrow, muscular shoulders shape her form as they lead down the rest of her form. The length of her fur is a fine blend of tan, nutmeg, bark-brown, gray and black. The tan is briefly seen in splotched on her cheeks, chin, upper chest, belly, and the underside of her limbs. Her posture seems generally neutral unless provoked.
Yi eyes around her, clicking a short noise with her tongue before she strides over to the story tree and clambers up onto its trunk, squirrel up onto one of the branches. "New and old, bring your stories."
Long-Suffering perks her ears as she looks towards Dillen after a brief glance in Yi's direction. As she hears Stacey's voice, the young Uktena trots over towards the Coggie and drops right beside her.
Reflection comes stalking up from the direction of the Compound, looking rather subdued despite the fullness of the Storyteller's moon. He gives a chuff that at the least with its harshness reveals the rage he feels, but then remains silent sitting in a position well away from the middle as he waits for the stories.
Dillen crosses his legs at the ankle and looks about. "I find that with lots of trauma to a sept, stories of greatness need to be told. This is one that needs to be told so that you can hear of others in our ranks who do well." Jamethon's arrival gets a nod from Dillen. "So. Tonight we tell tales of the greatness in a sept. Listen well and see their contribution."
Dillen steps up and looks about, then beginning to address those who have assembled, "I was surprised, to begin with, when Circle Keeper sought me out to help him as we haven't been on the best terms in the past. I always found him to be domineering and hard to get along with. But now, he comes to me to help him with his task. I think about this for a little bit and it didn't take long for me to know that Fenris would want me to be the one that tells his story. I should be the one to tell the story of a warrior and of the wolf that wishes to make Uktena proud. I agreed and soon after that, I brought the man called Circle Keeper to the city." He pauses a moment and takes a step or two over in thought as he gathers the next events in his head.
Stacey gives the Warder a respectful nod, then smiles down at the Uktena before returning her attention to Dillen, looking eager to hear this tale. The Bone Gnawer also gets a brief glance, one of 'I wish I'd thought of that'. The Get's beginning words get a small smile from the Gaian, then she leans forward with interest to listen.
Yi glances right back at Long-Suffering, and the unfamiliar Uktena continues to be glanced at sideways throughout the beginnings. "He's not a /man/ named Circle Keeper," the fostern points out, with a dry humor to her statement. A small knife is taken out, and she starts to peel at the orange in her hands.
Blackriver comes slinking into the clearing, ears pressed against her skull and hair on end. Her head turns either which way in nervousness as she looks about, as if some strange monster will suddenly leap out into the clearing and devour her whole. When she sees Dillen she relaxes a bit and settles down not too far from him.
The Galliard looks to Yi, "Ah. But at this point, he was in homid. Most who know Circle Keeper, know him in lupus. It was the Man that I brought to the city." Dillen gives a slight nod to BR and then turns to face all, beginning in earnest, in best storyteller mode, to relate the story of those two nights. "I brought Circle Keeper to the city on my motorcycle. It was an amusing sight to say the least as we made our way from the bawn to the city, the campus of SCCU to be exact. I had remembered with some of my travels around campus, an artist's exhibit of the strength you find within yourself was there, a large mirror posted of all sorts of inspirational sayings. We used the mirror to reach the umbral layer, slipping through without any problems. Once in the Umbra, I slipped back into watching and following mode, letting Circle Keeper take the lead."
Dillen takes a deep breath and continues, pausing to gather the thoughts for the next moment. "We first met a spirit, a rather interesting type. Circle Keeper spoke to the spirit and I could understand none of it. I still watched the body language and was told the words later. It seems the spirit was asked by Circle Keeper for a pearl of knowledge, something new for the spirit to chew upon. Circle Keeper remarked a skeleton of some kind of equation, giving only as much as to pique the spirits interest and then ask the spirit where to find what we needed. The spirit obliged and was given the key to said equation. With that, we moved on through a few more spirits, seeking the one that fit the challenge: That of weaver and wyrm."
Long-Suffering sniffs at the grass and the dirt and doesn't look to be paying any sort of attention to the Get, although the lupus' ears are perked. Raising her head, she sniffs a few times at the girl sitting next to her.
Yi finishes peeling her orange, but doesn't say anything back to the Get galliard telling the story. Her eyes pick out Blackriver, and for a moment everything about the Gnawer stops. Then she resumes, wiping her blade with a light swipe of it over her sleeve. "What exactly was the challenge again?" she wonders aloud.
Dillen looks to Yi and raises a brow. "It was to find and defeat a wyrm spirit, one made of wyrm and weaver." Then a slight pace of the galliard's feet as he returns to the story. "We found our target, wyrm and weaver, as we made our way towards the remnants of the old hospital.." He looks up as if seeing it again. "We heard a sound, like metal nails on a chalk board. We saw things that were disturbing and cursed, but coming through those came two huge glass banes. These things... They were circular with a wide mouth on the bottom. Their legs took them to nine feet high and were formed of many joints. The best way to explain how they looked were giant spiders. They were coated with this green sheen and it seemed that every beast in the umbra gave them a wide berth. It seemed we found our weaver and wyrm. With that, we retreated with nothing finding it's way to stop us back to the earth. " Dillen lowers his head for a moment, once again regaining thoughts.
"We spent that night at my apartment, in the brownstone." Dillen looks back to those around him, voice now low and foreboding. "We spoke of the way to defeat the bane. First, we had to get one alone as fighting two was fruitless even as much power as Circle Keeper and I had. He came up with a plan, that of using my ability to dodge as I can to make the bane lose some of it's power trying to get to me and then find itself weaker. It was then that Circle Keeper would take over and kill the bane. I was to find a rock once in the umbra and lob it at the bane to get it's attention, pulling it away from anything else and getting it on it's own, all of it's attention on me. Whatever way, we had to get it down for Circle Keeper to be successful." Dillen looks to the Uktena and then back to James, "We slept and waiting for the next night to venture back and find our prey. And as far as that goes, our prey to find us..." A pause for emphasis and then a sigh, looking upwards. Drama.
Blackriver tilts her head to the side and watches Dillen with idle interest. It's clear though that she's not getting any of this story, and is instead paying attention to the Get's body language and voice pitch. She glances around the gathered crowd, gaze briefly resting on Yi, before turning back to the Skald.
Long-Suffering snorts quite loudly, but the Songkeeper of the Uktena remains well-mannered towards the Get's side of the story. The young Uktena rolls onto her side, rubbing her cheek into the grass as she looks around her with little care towards those glancing in her direction.
"The next night We ventured back to the campus as we knew the path from there. We began to work our way back to where we found the bane before. We didn't quite have the same easy trip as we had before as quickly four banelings came from the ground to charge at us." Dillen growls low in his throat, a sound of remembrance of the banelings, "Circle Keeper commanded that I follow him and fast. I did as told as he was the leader on this mission and I was only a watcher until I was to fill a role. I could only hope that Snaekolfr *a beat* would understand... Then I saw something we had passed, some banes and weaver spiders fighting. I could only think he wanted to lead them all together... But all too quickly, the banes caught us and leapt, landing on my back and sinking their teeth in. That was all we needed to fight. Circle Keeper broke away from the run and joined my side, fighting the banes with a passion. They fell quickly to our strikes as well they should. They gave some good strikes, chewing on my shoulders and Circle Keeper's hand... But they did indeed fall and we carried on with our wounds. We had a task and we were undaunted to finish it." Dillen puffs himself up some, pure breed shining mixed in with pride."
"Does not seem such a difficult task. Finding a spirit of that kind," Yi comments offhand, though it's not without any clear lack of respect for the imagined beast. One of the orange slices in her hand disappears as it's popped into her mouth. Chewing away, the Gnawer casts a quick glance around from her perch again, spotting the Warder and affording him a dip of her eyes and head in belated greeting.
"Soon. We found our prey. One glass bane was by itself. Circle Keeper motioned for us to split up and the plan began. Circle Keeper found a hiding place so that the beast would pass him and I took up a place in front of it. My eyes began to search for a rock to throw at the bane and found none. All I could find were blocks of concrete. I figured they were as good as rocks for this beast. I found two chunks that I could get into my hands and would still do damage. They pulsed somehow in my hands... I figured it was only because we were umbral. I pulled them into my hands and made myself ready, waiting for the bane to come close enough to hit." It is at this point that Dillen looks down at his hands, flexing one of them some. "I lofted the concrete at the beast and immediately fell to the ground as something made me want to chew off my hands as they were unclean. A block of the stuff claimed a leg of the beast but I didn't care... All I could dwell on was getting rid of my unclean hands. All this time, Circle Keeper was waiting for his opportunity. My job was to distract the beast and I certainly did, but I was in no capacity to pull it's power."
Reflection gives a snort here and raises to the hipso to rumble with good humor at Yi's comment. ~It's the worth of the foe that matters. Listen on, the foe was well worth the glory.~
Dillen regards Jamethon and Yi a moment before he takes another deep breath and obviously pauses for effect. "The beast was getting close to me, quickly. I could still see through my haze that Circle Keeper drew some kind of ward in the air before he got some kind of shiny effect to him. Like power coming off him. I was still on the ground and by this point and had chewed off one of my hands and pretty well mangled the other. I managed a shift to the dire wolf to compensate for the mangled mess. I faced my death, coming right for me.." He looks off into the night sky.
Yi swallows. "Hm, well if the Warder says it was worth it..." Like she needs to take this into serious consideration, the ragabash looks questioningly between the storyteller and the former challengee. At least she's paying a bit more attention to the story, particularly when Dillen tells about unclean hands. Her gaze flickers towards the galliard's still-present appendages, and then back up to his face.
Reflection gives a look to Yi as she speaks again and chomps his teeth once, eying her a moment beyond that for effect, then looking back to Dillen.
Another pause for effect and then Dillen claps his hands together. "Then BOOM a spear comes flying through the air as does Circle Keeper. He lands on the beast, claws and jaws flying as the beast rears up to meet his attack. His spear simply slaps against the beast, falling to the side. But Circle Keeper kept at the battle, scarring the body of the beast with scores. The beast itself made purchase on Circle Keeper's own flesh, bringing the blood. I wished to join the fight but my wounds kept me from it. All I could do was watch as Circle Keeper rode the beast land kept clawing and scoring the beast.. The fight rages on, the claws of Circle Keeper managing to do damage over and over again. The beast managed a stab at his shoulder, sinking deep and still Circle Keeper fought, his claws flying with a speed that I could barely see.. A screech rose from the beast's maw, a horrible sound of glass upon your brain. The beast begins to run from Circle Keeper, but he still gives chase only to find several large glass blades flying through the air and imbedding into his chest. He went down to the ground... A howl came up from Circle Keeper." Dillen shakes his head slowly. "There was nothing I could do. I saw the frenzy hit. I know he was close to death and in those times things happen. A surge went through Circle Keeper and he vaults to his feet, only seeing the beast in his sights. His prey would fall if it took his last breath. All of a sudden, a set of wyrmlings rose up from the ground seeing out Garou flesh. There was nothing I could do, hurt as I was but watch the wyrmlings try and even up the battle in their favor. Then, from nowhere... Snaekolfr appears, calling me to arms to take the wyrmlings down so that Circle Keeper could complete his challenge against the beast. I needed no more encouragement. A new surge of power came and I vaulted at the wyrmlings, jaws snapping. The beast , suffering one too many blasts from Circle Keepers claws, suddenly goes all gauzy and ethereal. Circle Keeper has gotten it to a point of self preservation, a point of almost defeat. The Uktena looked like some kind of pin cushion, all impaled on the glass spears of the bane. Still, he fought. Fought hard."
Long-Suffering yawns and has seemed to lost interest in the Galliard's story. She snaps at a weed before remembering her manners and spitting it out again. Looking up and spotting Reflection, she flickers back her ears.
Dillen continues, on a pace now. One of urgency. "A howl erupted from Circle Keeper and shortly Glacier erupted to join the fight. With that, more wyrmlings erupted to come to the bane's aid. It was a myriad of claws, snapping jaws and dying wyrm." Dillen's lip curls at the word as it crosses his lips. "The wyrmlings fell quickly as the two totems and I fought to bring Circle Keeper a clear way to prove himself. No interference. All of this is going on and Circle Keeper begins to do something to the spirit, stealing some kind of essence from the spirit itself. Even by this point, the banes began to fight each other... Something I, for one, was glad of." Dillen runs a hand through his hair, calming. "We made our way back through the mirror and then to the brownstone. We healed our wounds and considered the battle."
A final pause as Dillen regards everyone. "As far as I am concerned, Circle Keeper is no longer as I found him before this. He is a leader. We may not think the same way or do things the same way... But I saw a fire in him in battle. One that deserves to be recognized. I have a respect for him now that I did not before. I would follow him into battle again." A short nod of his head to everyone as he finishes completely.
Stacey leans forward, listening intently, her expression one of pride as she listens to the story of her packmate's victory. She grins as Dillen finishes and nods her appreciation and agreement.
Yi, almost finished with her orange, starts at the clap, brought back to attention after a short drift off. It remains for as long as the telling of the fight, where the Gnawer's expression shifts to a hard thought of imagining. She wets her lips when that commotion dies down, waiting for a long moment before asking, "I have no doubt of his prowess in battle... but how was he a leader?"
Dillen gives a quick bow of his head and smiles, "Thanks for listening." Then to Yi. "It was all his ideas for the attack and how to find the beast. I am only the storyteller. But I would follow him into battle again as I see that he can lead effectively."
"Seems like he used you as a distraction, if not a sacrifice," Yi says with little more than a flat tone as her reply. There's no smile as she says this.
"If that is your perception then it is your own. I am simply to tell the tale as I saw it." Dillen smiles to Yi. "He was given Rank. It was seen fit. I have no arguments with it."
Reflection looks to Yi, at first clearly annoyed, but then he shakes his head out. ~Ragabash, Circle Keeper did not know of the poison of the concrete that the Galliard threw, blocks thrown far that were part of the cursed hospital. He did not know that his fellow warrior would seize up and become nothing but a sitting target. He could have let the Urrah be set upon, to better distract the spirit and let it use some of it's power, as was the plan. He could have done many things at that point. But what he did was throw himself into the foe to protect a fellow Garou he would till that moment sooner call Urrah scum and turn his back upon rather than come to the aid of. He learned that not all plans go as they were meant... that they very often do not, and yet we must still act quickly, fight, and win.~
The Gibbous Moon merely told the story, he is not the lawgiver. [Long-Suffering's] eyes narrow towards the other Galliard before her muzzle gestures towards Reflection before returning to Dillen. You are not the one who Circle Keeper challenged so it is not youre choice in his success. It is his, the young Uktena gestures to the older Get.
Reflection then looks to the other Galliard who speaks to Dillen. ~He was instrumental in that success, in more ways than just the hunt itself. It was for Dillen to just tell the story of what occured. He did that and he did it without personal opinion getting in the way. He performed his role well. That is also a mark of Circle-Keeper's leadership. Just as Dillen was to Circle Keeper Urrah scum and was quite possibly the Uktena's very last choice... so too would Blood's Bane have never called upon Circle Keeper as ally or seek to speak well of him. It is a testiment to Circle Keeper's abilities... particularly that to get those he leads to be willing followers and allies, that Dillen had told the story showing the Uktena in the positive light that it did. He could easily, without changing any of the facts, as a Galliard of talent, have bent the words to paint Ciuraq as many things that would have has him seem unworthy.~
Dillen simply gives a nod of his head to Jamethon's words. "Quite. And therefore. I leave the story there."
Long-Suffering simply flickers her ears and restorts to silence to the Theurge's clearer explaination.
"Everything in the city holds its own poison," Yi points out. "Even so, he still used Dillen as a distraction. A sacrifice." She pauses, eyes partly narrowing before adding, "As much an asset as an ally. So, I will give up here. This fool rests her tongue." She shifts her weight and grip on the branch a little, and drops down onto the ground below.
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