RedTail "Finds-the-Thorns-in-Fathers-Path" wanders out of the comfort of the thick trees and into a street that is lined with man-homes, their several holes aglow with false flames. Several metal sticks that remind him of dead trees glow along the stream of solid smooth stone that runs between and around the man-homes, mocking the gift of luna's light.

 His nose is assaulted by the mixture of offensive smells that he is just realizing had been nicely muted by the plants of the forest, and he wrinkles his nose in disgust. How the two legged people could live amongst such was beyond his understanding, but he hopes to discover.

 His father Bites-the-Snake had given him the old green back pack that hangs haphazardly from his left shoulder.  The green golf shirt and purple parachute pants covering his wiry five foot ten frame scream tourist at best, but mostly give the impression he is blind, a simpleton, or a participant in a badly planned new trend.  The finely crafted leather moccasins on his feet do little to help amongst the dirt and brambles that cover him from head to toe.

He surveys the street, his unmistakable native american features contorting with disgust at the foul smells and strange dwellings of the two legs.  He spots what he is looking for, and begins removing twigs from his hair as he approaches one of the weaver beasts that the two legs call a car and, after sitting on the curb near its rump, surveys the area to ensure he is not being observed.

   RedTail rolls 5 dice to Perception+Alertness 4,4,9,2,7 (2 successes)

Satisfied there are no onlookers, but perhaps over eager, he stares at the finely polished skin of the weaver beast gleaming beneath the false light of a weaver tree and awaits the familiar tell tale tingle.

   Redtail rolls 4 dice to Gnosis[step sideways] 1,4,5,3 (BOTCH x 1)  

--Last edited by RedTail on 2009-01-30 02:01:38 --

 The webs here are thick, much more so then other lands and other places. As you fall backward into the realm of spirit and shadow you feel the webs that create the gauntlet tighten around you. They are constricting meant to keep out anyone from trespassing into this world. The area abounds with webs, the spirits of everything somewhat foreign to your senses.

Your vibration on the web has certainly not gone unnoticed. In this shadow world someone that can bridge this world is unique. You can see that a large chitinous being looms possibly a hundred feet away. It stands about five feet in height, resembling a mechanized spider. Its numerous poor eyes falling upon you. It starts approaching...

His father had warned him that the city was overrun with the weaver, but he had not expected this with what he thought of as the forest being so near.

He stares at the spiders many eyes, hoping that at least one of them is meeting his gaze.

   RedTail rolls 6 dice to Uktena's Freezing Stare 1,2,9,4,10, 1 (failure)

As the spider continues toward him, he tests how difficult it is to move amongst the webbing.

 The webbing is thick and sticks to him well. The strange umbral spirit seems unaffected by your piercing gaze. Its numerous black eyes seem affixed upon your location. It rarely has ever caught anything under its gaze, but there are always protocols and directives that drive them forward. Its many legs glide forward grasping the stands that weave throughout the land here. It closes a third of the distance and its shell and crystalline body seem perfect, flawless in their design. Its motions are all very insectile and mechanical as it continues approaching you.

The strands of web that constrict him remind him of a viscous saliva.  He remembers once how a winter chill froze some spit on his father's chin, and how it  snapped like a twig when he nuzzled him.  He tries to bring a chill to this web, to make it less sticky and perhaps even brittle.

   RedTail rolls 4 dice to Gnosis (Diff 7) 2,2,7,4 (1 success)

They harden a touch, but not anywhere near what he intended.  He shifts to lupus hoping that the smaller form is not as constricted by the slightly solidified strands, perhaps even allowing him to find an escape route between their many fibers.  

--Last edited by RedTail on 2009-02-12 23:31:20 --

 You manage to twist out of the hardened webs with just a touch of fur being lost in the process. The spider still approaching, but quite a bit away. It seems to stop its advance at your shift and just stands there, as it were studying you, gauging its next logical step.

You begin to hear some mechanized sounds coming forth from its body, a jumble of code that could only be interpreted as a binary language of sorts. It is very fabricated and synthesized, the ebb and flow very rigid. Though you had never spoken the tongue before, it is understood by you.

"Breaker, why do you shatter her web. You are dangerous to yourself and the others. Your trespass has not gone unnoticed, you are cataloged," in its metallic hollow voice.

Free from the webbing Redtail is tempted to show the weaver spirit what he is capable of breaking, but thinks the better of it; he is not an Ahroun like his father, and having never fought a spider as this before he knows not how hard it bites.

He is about to flee when an idea occurs to him.

"Can you not see that I have made her webs stronger?  You should thank me for repairing the hole you left that I fell through.  You can repay this debt with your knowledge."

   RedTail rolls 7 dice to Manipulation+Subterfuge 1,4,3,9,1, 2,3 (failure)

He had hoped to find a spirit of Gaia to aid him in finding the local Caern, but perhaps he can turn this blunder around.

2009-02-01 11:21:09 Weaver Spirit rolls 5 dice to Wits (Diff 7) 5,9,10,6,9 (3 successes)

It sits and analyzes the question before it responds. It had originally been quite vexed with this creatures arguments, but upon further analysis realized it was being made a fool.

"Your logic is flawed, son of the moon. I know your tricks and you should be punished for your temerity."

You begin to feel a low drum emitting from the spider, a call going out for aid in its endeavor to calcify this upstart child of Luna.

2009-02-01 11:31:49 Weaver Spirit rolls 6 dice to Call for Aid  (Diff 8) 9,8,2,9,2, 5 (3 successes)

You can hear the replies in the distance, it will certainly not be long before larger and much more potent spirits find their way here.

RedTail does not want to risk another pass at the gauntlet in the presence of this creature and certainly not in his four legged form.  Feeling humbled yet wiser, he picks a direction that has the least amount of webbing and RUNS.

<spending 1 rage to run as far and fast as possible>

 You lunge forward trying to place as much distance between yourself and the creature that stands behind you. Your rage seethes under your skin, imbuing your muscles with new found strength. You quickly leave the creatures behind you and find yourself in a maze of webs and unawakened plants. Here they seem to be controlled, groomed by the weaver. They do not resemble the plants from the woods from which you came. They are ordered and defined their spirits calcified into the object of perfection that these two legs want.

Glancing around at your location you spot a flock of birds nesting upon this web encrusted foliage. They are dark, the color of night and seem to be chattering amongst themselves with wild abandon. The speech is soft though and would need you to approach closer before you might be able to make out what they are saying.

He approaches the crows respectfully, being careful to not appear to be stalking.  He perks up his ears to hear their exchange.

2009-02-01 13:36:41 RedTail rolls 5 dice to Perception+Alertness (Diff 4) 9,10,1,2,4 (2 successes)

 The crows seem to be talking rapidly, the conversation a blur of widely varying topics and rapidly shifting subjects. You manage to get a few things from just snippets.

"The waters are clear north of town,"

"Eight nests strewn with brambles, no"

"moon have been nested downtown,"

"Seed, where?"

"the darkness is aware, I've heard tell,"

2009-02-01 23:51:26 Crows rolls 6 dice to spot listener (per+aler) (Diff 5)(reduced due to numbers) 2,8,8,9,6, 6 (5 successes)

Almost as one all their heads turn perpendicular toward you, their eyes drawing upon you at once. They all immediately become silent watching you as an unknown threat to the security of the murder. The largest looks at you eerily and in a threatening stand starts to caw toward you, shattering the silence.

As the crows show signs of alert RedTail stops advancing and sits on his rump, he has no desire to appear as a threat so relaxes his ears and cocks his head in a friendly and curious manner.

"Wise Brother Crows, I bring no harm and need counsel.  Is counsel for me here?"

       ~'moon have been nested downtown'~ echoes in his mind... could this be the Caern, or maybe other Garou?  

They seem to know much, but he knows not what they will ask of him for the knowledge.  He thinks about the backpack his father gave him, and of how its contents and his blister clothes, have by now been merged with the webbing by the ugly eight leg.  The cool rain of a shiver runs down his back as he realizes he was very close to joining them.  

--Last edited by RedTail on 2009-02-12 23:32:43 --

 The crows look toward you with curiosity, but seem to realize you wish them no harm. The larger one hops down a few branches before replying, so to better hear you as well as being heard.

"Child of the wood, what brings you here? This is the realm of mother spider and her ways are quite foreign to some, I heard the calls from her servitors earlier. They were calling about you, it would seem they are still looking. You risk much here, what do you want to know?" in an inquisitive manner, its sharp avian voice clicking with speed.

He is disturbed at the news he is being hunted, hoping the spider had been satisfied with his retreat.  It will certainly not be safe to travel the rest of the way in the Umbra, and he has been told he will attract too much attention in the Blister without the city-man-clothes.  The two legs have strange rules, and RedTail does not yet understand.  Despite the reprieve these friendly sprits bring, he fears his precarious journey is far from over.

"I am a stranger to this realm, my thanks for the warning.  I seek a Caern, and my Kin.  Do you know where these are, wise one?"  

--Last edited by RedTail on 2009-02-12 23:33:10 --

 It seems to appreciate your thanks and respect, puffing out its feathers with such a gracious request. The others start hopping down toward you, that they might add their wisdom as well.

"I myself have only heard rumors of your brothers in the city. They have been gone for quite some time and in their absence things have changed much. The maddened mother has worked tirelessly to make the city her own."

"I heard that there was a place of power in the hardened heart of the city," cries another.

"Not so," says yet another. "I know that they came from the high aeries in the west far beyond the rookeries from which we came."

"What shall you give to know?" says another.

"I heard them in the long silver tubes, they made quite a ruckus," says yet another.

"I can hear the thrum of the mother's servants, they are searching for you Moon child," says another in a whispered tone.

RedTail is momentarily confused by the barrage of information.  He can't help thinking this would be much easier if he was on two legs.

"I thank my brother crows for their many counsel, and will leave soon so you are not bothered by those who track me.  You seem to speak of many things, but this wolf only seeks one.  Do you all speak of the Caern of Nested Spiders?"

He turns his snout toward the one requesting a gift,

"I have lost my possessions to the eight leg, and have little to give.  If a wise crow leads me to my Kin I offer a good scrap from every meal, for one moon span, offered to your brethren."

This crow is a little bigger then the rest, cos that's just the way it is. Bigger, not necessarily better, or more important, but that depends on who one asks. The bird does have a four foot wing span, or thereabouts, and those wings tuck in as the bird lands next to the others, having dropped off the perch where it had been cawing with the rest of them.

Hopping forward to be level with the others, its beady eyes watched the wolf, head cocking now and then as the quick chatter comes from the others.

 A few look about toward the newcomer, but most are so engrossed in the exchange they just jabber on oblivious to the arrival.

"Nested Spider, I hear its gone, all dead,"

"A blight upon the rooks, never build a nest there,"

"Roach has another I hear, its always watching"

"Naked humans smell awful, I never go near the place,"

"There is a place that feeds the birds, a garden of healers,"

"Scraps, where are the scraps?"

"I saw an old cat in town,"

"Liar, you can't see them,"

"I hear there is a child with two legs that is lost amongst the grass,"

"I saw him, he stole trees,"

It all seems to jumble together, not that they are not being helpful, just not exactly cohesive.

RedTail struggles to find meaning amongst the quilt of speech, the mention of a cat reminding him of what good sport one was to chase back in his Father's lands.

"Is Roach with the Nested Spider?  What is a blight among the rooks?  Tell me more of this garden of healers."

He looks at the large newcomer, and cocks his reddish black head curiously.  Perhaps it knows of what he seeks.

"Do you bring wisdom as well, sky rider?"

....
[edited: I missed Mnemon's post]  

--Last edited by RedTail on 2009-02-02 17:45:21 --