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Slug and I had an uneventful couple days in Wolf Woods National Park (WWNP). We hiked in. He went ahead at a certain point. Howled to see if there were any Red Talons in the area. No response. So I joined him and we carried on until we were deep in the woods at the Mountain Bowl. I walked around for a while, familiarizing myself with the place I'd typically only seen via scrying to harvest tass, but it's always better in the flesh. I felt around in the past and sensed the faint remnants of the old ley lines that had once linked this node to Nightfall Chantry inthe Knight's Rest Inn prior to it burning to the ground. So long ago, but I could still sense it. Sense it and.... an earth elemental? Interesting. But I wasn't here to rebuild an old ley line. I was here to put in a new one. Using heat from the fireplace, infused with a transfer of flames from the caern's fire pit, I'd melted some glass down into 1" diameter translucent marbles as focal points. I dug five small holes in the ground, each a point for a pentagram around the heart of the node, and buried them. I walked the circle and then the pentagram's lines. Unlit candles atop the buried marbles. And then initiated the invisible ritual that pulled everything together, linking the here with my cabin's fireplace. The connection established, I pulled flame from the fireplace from afar to light the candles, which burned yellow and then blue and then green--traditional Jedi lightsaber colors. I cemented the link, adding in a slight twist in the Correspondence effect so as to mislead the unskilled who might try to follow the ley lines, and then the candles went out. Done.
I camped in my hammock, Slug not too far away keeping watch. We headed out to the Lonely Hilltop with its sheared boulder the next morning. Another howl with no response. I repeated the ritual from the night before at this new location, also taking time to examine the long-decayed ley line that once linked the Hilltop to Nightfall Chantry. The Hilltop node is slightly more powerful than the Mountain Bowl and, curiously, more powerful than Harbor Park, which Mouse once hoped to make into a caern. I remember, long ago, when I was a recently discovered mage and Peter Kenward, the Order of Hermes mage who'd found me and took me in. This is where we went once when he was to meet with some garou. I held back, hiding in the woods, watching from cover as he met with the "lupines" he'd cautioned me were violent and untrustworthy. But there was a mutual foe. Saul Ben Isaac. A fallen mage who'd summoned a demon underling to run his errands. (I'd talked to the demon. He made a half-hearted attempt at recruiting me in exchange for the promise of power and secrets in exchange for my soul. I turned him down. I suspect, because I was such a neophyte mage at the time, that I hadn't been worth his time and effort.) Peter'd agreed, with several other mages, to partner with the garou to go into the umbra and take down Saul ben Isaac. Peter came back after the battle, but his mind was gone. He went to an asylum. I visited him initially every few days, then every few weeks, then every few months, and then only a handful of times per year. He's gone, now. And I seem to have replaced him. And the garou seem to have forgotten him. A few remember Saul ben Isaac, but none I have met recall the Master of Forces who helped the garou bring him down. I suppose, eventually, I too will become a forgotten footnote for the garou.
In the meantime, I now have two nodes linked to my cabin. It's no Nightfall Chantry, but I do have the Chantry's collection of books, plus Kenward's, plus my own collection. Maybe this is the coming rebirth of Nightfall Chantry after all. Time will tell.
I camped in my hammock, Slug not too far away keeping watch. We headed out to the Lonely Hilltop with its sheared boulder the next morning. Another howl with no response. I repeated the ritual from the night before at this new location, also taking time to examine the long-decayed ley line that once linked the Hilltop to Nightfall Chantry. The Hilltop node is slightly more powerful than the Mountain Bowl and, curiously, more powerful than Harbor Park, which Mouse once hoped to make into a caern. I remember, long ago, when I was a recently discovered mage and Peter Kenward, the Order of Hermes mage who'd found me and took me in. This is where we went once when he was to meet with some garou. I held back, hiding in the woods, watching from cover as he met with the "lupines" he'd cautioned me were violent and untrustworthy. But there was a mutual foe. Saul Ben Isaac. A fallen mage who'd summoned a demon underling to run his errands. (I'd talked to the demon. He made a half-hearted attempt at recruiting me in exchange for the promise of power and secrets in exchange for my soul. I turned him down. I suspect, because I was such a neophyte mage at the time, that I hadn't been worth his time and effort.) Peter'd agreed, with several other mages, to partner with the garou to go into the umbra and take down Saul ben Isaac. Peter came back after the battle, but his mind was gone. He went to an asylum. I visited him initially every few days, then every few weeks, then every few months, and then only a handful of times per year. He's gone, now. And I seem to have replaced him. And the garou seem to have forgotten him. A few remember Saul ben Isaac, but none I have met recall the Master of Forces who helped the garou bring him down. I suppose, eventually, I too will become a forgotten footnote for the garou.
In the meantime, I now have two nodes linked to my cabin. It's no Nightfall Chantry, but I do have the Chantry's collection of books, plus Kenward's, plus my own collection. Maybe this is the coming rebirth of Nightfall Chantry after all. Time will tell.
