Thread: The Dark Riders & The Caern at Crystal Caverns

oc: reposted from the thread where it was originally told: http://myworldofdarkness.com/showthr...p?t=977&page=3

Kathy, do you want me to send a letter to you denoting the things the players wanted me to be sure to mention for their renown?

------------------ THE STORY ------------------

Tala bows her head and intones, as if the start of her story were ritual itself. “Hear me brothers, sisters and spirits as I ‘Pain of the People’ share deeds great and notorious, vile and glorious, of the lessons that young and old should hear. I sing of the ‘The Black Riders’ and their glory, honor, and wisdom during the retaking of the Caern of Crystal Caverns.”

Looking to her packmates, intensity fills her blue eyes and she leans forward to speak. Occasionally, where appropriate she gestures with her hands, and meets individuals’ gazes to drive home her points, “Dreams of war and death brought us to the place five miles outside of Springfield, Missouri where the warriors of Gaia had come together in unusually high numbers. Too high of numbers to be random or chance; each of us had felt something over the past few nights but none could have predicted the horror that loamed. Crystal Caverns Caern had fallen to the Wyrm and we were tasked to save it.

The wisdom of the spirits over the years has taught me that everything happens for a reason and so, I called together the Garou present to share their dreams and nightmares. It quickly became clear that we were here on a matter of war. Being close to the Caern of Crystal Caverns it was determined the problem might be there. Having seen the signs, having consulted with our fellow Garou I sent out two Ragabash, including our own Black Sam, to investigate the state of the Caern, fearing the worst.

On their scouting mission Black Sam and his friends were faced with fearful things but none so fearful as a silent wood that should have been filled with Garou on patrol. Where had they gone? How had the Wyrm gotten so near to the Caern and fell it without so much as a drop of blood or body left to tell the tale? Cunning and wisdom alone not only brought the ragabash back to us… but, brought them having found a newly changed cub, Wopoke My Ho Do. Precious few breed true and change these days, even rarer so is it that lupus do. Our new brother was a treasure to be certain, one we all feared for the safety of, as our duty to Gaia demanded. Not yet blooded Wopoke My Ho Do had seen much in short time he had known of his true nature and proved cunning enough to escape the grip of the Wyrm which had… as we learned… claimed Crystal Caverns as its own!

Many assembled were young, most had no pack to call their own, the group was not ideal to fight a war with to say the very least… but all were proud Garou and ready to do what must be done. The Dark Riders stood fast. We would not tolerate the Wyrm’s presence in Gaia’s most sacred places, even it meant giving our very lives, we all vowed to fight and die as it was clearly The Mother’s will that we come to this place and do whatever could be done!” Tala’s voice rises to a crescendo as she talks about the ‘proud Garou’ and the Dark Riders’ Glorious decision to fight when it might have been easier to leave and call the Caern a tragic loss.

Taking the precious few experienced garou we had we split into smaller packs for the purpose of this mission, the Dark Riders volunteering to take leadership roles in the groups during the investigation of the area. We had to know numbers, strength of the enemy and if any Garou were left alive to help us in our efforts… and if not, we wanted to know the fate of our fallen brothers and sisters.

Wapoke, Sam, and Shadow traveled together. Wapoke lead the two Dark Riders to the places he had seen vile machinations of the Wyrm and warned them of how he knew the Caern’s people to just have disappeared with almost no explanation. The Lupus’ explanation did not make sense to us and so, in ignorance or belief that the Lupus was somehow not communicating as he could have done were he a homid or more experienced; his advisements were shelved for the time being. But wisdom knows no breed… wisdom knows no age, and when the foliage itself rose up against the group, threatening to drag away Wapoke and Sam; Shadow knew he must act.

Not the quickest or strongest of his Brothers and Sisters, Shadow had to use his wisdom to devise a clever way to saving his friends from the twisted greenery that pulled and tugged on the limbs of the desperate Garou he’d been traveling with. Stepping into the umbra he watched them valiantly fighting and it was here that mighty Owl’s gifts made Shadow’s body able to match the greatness of his mind.

With spirit wings he flew, over the wyrm tainted vines snatching up Wapoke from an almost certain doom!” Again Tala’s voice climbs, expressing her joy for Wapoke’s salvation and for Shadow’s victory.

“But the threat had no passed, and so it was that I, leading another of my tribe and one of the Shadow Lords, came upon the still struggling Black Sam. Allowing the Mother’s rage to fill me, I stepped forward and bore her presence down upon my enemy, letting the Wyrm see the true face of her fury … sending it fleeing in terror, saving Black Sam!” Again she all but cheers as her face and her tone show the true joy she has at her pack’s victory over the wyrm.

“We must seek that which is lost… those were Shadow Wind’s words to the Dark Riders. We must seek an item of importance to those who are lost and find where they have gone. The young one speaks the wisdom of the Ancestors.” Tala smiles at Wapoke. “Of course we could all see our folly now and we would not be kept from the truth. Into the Umbra the Dark Riders strode and traveled to the Caern in the air so not to be stopped by the foes of Gaia. Descending down upon the fomori guarding the Caern entrance, the Dark Riders held off the Wyrm for their Theurge and the cub Wapoke to find an item that would lead us to the missing guardians of the Caern.

Once to a safe location, Shadow called upon the Rite of the Questing Stone and learned that the members of the Caern, even the unfortunate kinfolk, were all in the Umbra… somewhere. A garou could spend a whole lifetime delving the depths of the umbra and never see all there is to see. A blanket search would do nothing but give the Wyrm time to take root in the Caern so deeply that we might never have victory over them.

Quickly we returned to share this information with the others and as the group began to discuss, the earth itself trembled violently. Rocks over turned, the soil heaved and something began to burrow up from beneath us. The smell of Wyrm polluted the air and already on edge cliaths looked about for answers… fight, run… chaos threatened as one of the Wyrm’s most fearsome creatures rose from Gaia’s breast and came down upon us.

The Thunderwyrm promised to be the death of all … the young had never seen such a foe, the lack of pack leaders, the unexpected surprise of it all could have meant the end of our hope to save the Caern or, our very lives. We needed to regroup, factor this foe into our plans, and so snatched up Wapoke like a Den Mother should and called for all the flee to safety for the dead can do nothing for Mother Gaia.

Having reached a safe distance from the beast the Dark Riders quickly realized that some of the young had not obeyed and foolishly had stayed behind. Fearful of the losses the group might take Tala looked to Shadow for wisdom and he gave it. Each of the Dark Riders and Wapoke, called upon their spiritual connection to the umbra and lent strength to Shadow as he called up the powerful Incarna of his tribe – Uktena himself!” Tala’s eyes are wide, giddy with the thrill of having done the impossible.

“Grandfather – bring your wrath down upon our enemy! Strike him down that Gaia’s warriors might live! The Shaman did his people proud, his keen mind and courage making him look to his ancestors and great spirits rather than cower from them. A spirit of this power alone might lay to waste the Thunderwyrm … and as expected the Spirit descended upon the creature with a righteous fury!” Tala’s eyes were wild, as if she were feeling the power of the spirit and its rage. “Striking the thing with such power that it could only slip away to lick its wounds deep within the earth.”

Regrouping with all the warriors of Gaia we learned that while some were tainted by their contact with the Wyrm, all had survived. Now, knowing more of the power which the enemy had, there was less cohesion than ever before. The group was lost. No one wanted to rush foolishly into the maw of death and throw away our lives as servants of Gaia… yet, how could we do anything other than obey the litnany and fight the Wyrm where it breeds and dwells? Would we wait for allies? Would we seek out others to join our cause and come back in weeks to come?

The Garou compared their knowledge, sharing Wapoke’s wisdom… his vision of a stone which was central and key to the mystery at hand. Ever shrewd, Black Sam puzzled that maybe the members of the Caern had been trapped, somehow, within this stone and if broken… they might be freed. This caused many to laugh – and later lament their foolishness. The Ragabash are masters of puzzles … let it be remembered forever that it was Black Sam who puzzled out the truth first!

The glorious decision was made to fight, though all knew it might mean our deaths with such great enemies before us; still, it was only right to honor the Mother even until our last breathes. Wapoke could have returned to Roadkill Range but he would not… he wanted to stay to see his home freed of the Wyrm or die trying. I set upon him the rite of passage… he had only to survive the battle, no small thing even for one of my rank, and he would be honored among us – known to all as Cliath.

Before we could begin though, we had to know more about this stone and so Shadow called upon the wind itself to race into the depths of the Caern and find the object. Knowing its location was just one obstacle… especially when we learned it was on a necklace worn by a Spiral Dancer at the very heart of the Caern, deep within the earth.

Strength alone could not win this battle for us, so we learned, as the wind told Shadow about the number of foes within the caern’s depths. Cunning and speed were needed. Cunning to create a weapon to destroy as many of the enemies as possible in one fell swoop and speed to race within the Caern at the moment of that distraction to retrieve the stone from the Spiral who kept it hidden.

Sam argued that he was fastest but it was Damns the Blood who was found to be best for the job and all took their places in the plan. The Dark Riders assembled on a ridge, joined by Wapoke. I remember looking to my packmates with pride, honored that I might die with such great heroes: the wise Shadow Wind, the cunning Black Sam, and the brave Wapoke… who I’d taken into our pack long before he had the right to be there.

I remember wondering what death might be like, in that silent moment on the ridge. I looked to Sam then, the man who was given a Garou name at his first battle… the day he was born. I remembered the tale, standing beside him then, a tale I had not previously associated with the man who had taken me to my rite of passage as a pup. How his mother, heavy with child, stood on a battlefield not too dissimilar to the one we stood on in that moment… and she, like us, made the hard choice for Gaia.

Sam should have died that day, when they ripped his mother open … death herself came to her though and the mother pleaded for the life of her baby. ‘Take me’ the woman had said… ‘but leave my boy.’ Death, ever a fickle lady in all the stories I’ve ever told, agreed but claimed the boy as her own letting every spirit who could speak carry his name to the four corners of the earth: Death owns his heart and he shall love no other.

Our eyes met in that moment and he smiled at me. He whispered that he knew about my upcoming rite with my tribe and asked me to embrace it with joy … not trepidation and become with child.” Tala’s eyes become full of tears, she swallows back a hard lump.

“I had promised many others that I would consider this… that I would think about it… that I might do it… if circumstances were right but here we were on the eve of our deaths and the man who had been with me on the eve of my first trial was now making a request of me on what might well be his last.” Tala sighs. “I could not deny him his last request and so I gave my word… I would be a mother.”

Tala knew announcing this to her pack would have ramifications, but she couldn’t leave it out of the story, not when it meant so much to who he was, what he’d done for her and to herself. “We rushed down the ridge after the explosion and the battlefield was a bloody nightmare filled with howls of glory and the sounds of death. One by one the enemy fell on our claws and wound after wound that opened on our bodies we continued forward in spite of…” Her voice again raises, joy and glory filling it.

“the pain. We would rise to glory, we would not allow anything to stop us until our goal was achieved. As Grandfather Thunder came upon us, raining down fresh clean water from the heavens, we could see that the battle was ended… and most of us remained.

One by one we called out for our friends… our packmates and in the dark clouds above us I was sure I could see something more than just the spirit that had been summoned, a dark figure that hovered above the place I lay in the mud… the wound in my belly opened and pulsing with a white hot pain.

As the rain poured down on me, it cooled the wound and I brought my hands up to touch the place where the wound had been opened to find that I was healing though I had thought perhaps it was impossible. Looking at my fingers, an instinct to see how much blood had been there,” She holds up her hands to show her blackened digits. “…and found instead death’s mark.

I leapt up and saw Sam not too far from me and while I mourned my friend’s sacrifice, I was joyed to see that the Caern of Crystal Caverns had returned. Joined by Shadow… and Wapoke, we carried our honored dead home.”

Tala exhaled, the weight of her emotions clear from her tone and her sad eyes.

“The old, they whisper, are of no use. The old, they would have you believe, are a weakness. They have not met my pack Theurge without the wisdom of whom we would have never saved the Caern of Crystal Caverns nor added a new pup to our number.

The young know little. The young bark without reason or thought. They have not met the newest Cliath, Ancestors’ Howl, whose voice carries the wisdom of those who have gone before us and without whom we would have been lost to the wyrm at Crystal Caverns.

And lastly… they say that the Striders have lost their home. They would have you believe they are nothing but messengers and wanderers. They will never met ‘Owl’s Black Joke’ also known as ‘Death Holds His Heart and He May Give It To No Other’ whose sacrifice to save a plot of land he hardly knew and his love of his pack mates and those who now call it home, have earned him not only much glory, wisdom, and honor… but our eternal respect, admiration and a place in our hearts where he shall forever be loved and at home.

Rest well my most beloved Brother. Know peace and love at long last.”