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Thursday night, after the moon had reached over halfway towards being full, I drove out to the woods, hiked to the valley owned by the Glass Walkers, and used my talisman to enter the spirit world. I set alight a brush pile that Salem'd set up earlier and spent some time using the energy to work effects with Forces. Specifically, I tried to replicate two tricks I've seen Val do in the past: (1) turn invisible and (2) mimic sounds and voices.
I've read about a few ways invisibility can be achieved with different spheres, and I'd prefer the version that uses Mind magic: make a person simply not notice you, even though you're in plain sight. It's less flashy, but doesn't tend to work well in a crowd. The Forces version involves wrapping light around yourself--like you're a rock in a stream. The effect was surprisingly easy to pull off, though I discovered it limited my ability to see out of my own little bubble and wouldn't mask sounds or smells. I tried a new version of my own that integrated Forces, Correspondence, and Matter. I wrapped light around me, deadened sound and air movement within the bubble, and a dash of Correspondence allowed me to see outside my bubble. Downside? Limited air supply, as I learned about five minutes into the effect. This trick might even work underwater or possibly if I ever find myself tear gassed (let's hope not). Also, I /might/ be able to bring one other person with me, but we would have to be /very/ close to stay within the confines of the effect.
Mimicing sounds proved to be very easy, too. I used Forces to amplify the sound of my own voice, then began modifying it so I sounded like different people. Then I quit using my own voice and started creating sound from the heat of the brushfire. I made fire bark like a dog, laugh like a child, buzz like a swarm of bees, and perform like an electric guitar. The brush pile had burned down considerably by then, but I couldn't resist setting a second one ablaze so I could again practice flying. I can hover and get from A to B easily enough, but fine control is still difficult.
Afterwards, I made sure the two fires were fully out, exited the spirit world, and camped out in the cave. It's dark and scary at night in the woods. I can see how primitive man--what with all the things that might come and eat them in the night--valued the protection that a cave with a fire near the entryway provides at night. You don't have to worry about what's creeping up from behind when there's only one way in. (Of course, there's also only one way out....) In the morning, I walked the perimeter of the valley looking for signs of anything amiss: everything looked okay, so I headed out--and left my camping gear in the cave. Tired of hauling that gear in and out once or twice a month.
Before I'd left for the woods, I'd dropped off some supplies for the Walkers and Flint. Flint'd told me that Nieve was going to perform a rite Friday that was supposed to cure him of the vampire's influences. When I e-mailed Salem to thank him for setting up those brush piles in the umbra and letting him know I saw nothing unusual on the Walkers' land, I mentioned I'd check after the ritual had been performed to see if everything worked out--and if not, I'd try and tidy things up so it looked like Nieve's rite had worked. (And tend to Rina on the side as she seemed to be having similar troubles.) Well, it looks like Nieve eliminated a symptom, so Flint seemed better, but she hadn't effected a cure. I waited until late that night when Flint and Rina were both asleep, then began remotely unworking the vampire's influences over them. Rina's was pretty easy to undo, as it was easier to see the magical influence against her aura's backdrop. Flint's was harder, as his aura 'glows'. To use a surgical metaphor, I didn't cut as deep with Flint--I didn't want to accidentally unwork something in his werewolf nature. (I'm not sure I can do that, but.... better safe than sorry.) And another follow-up e-mail to Salem to let him know what'd been done.
I swung by the Tenement Saturday night just to touch bases and check on Rina and Flint and the dog and her puppies. (OMG, what are we going to do with them? Hell no, I don't want a dog. Too much maintenance required.) Sheesh. Apparently a Griffen spirit abducted Riley when she went into the umbra, and she's alive but somewhere deep in the umbra, so the tribe is flipping out about that. And Kavi believes there's a mole among the garou, who's giving information to the vampire, who can change who she looks like. Grand. And Flint... He came by, met up with his packmate Alexandra (there was some kind of magic going on between them--I could smell it, but didn't pry), and while the group in the lobby was talking, he turned to face the wall and slowly sank down to the floor. The guy looks.... broken. Is he worse off without vampiric influence? Or is he kicking himself and ashamed of how he'd been influenced--and nw realizes that? Good lord, I hope it's the latter: otherwise, I might have fucked him up. No sign of Rina yet, but no one said anything about her, so I'm assuming she's okay.
After the lobby thinned out and it was just me, Kavi, and Thomas discussing what to do about Riley's disappearance--and it becoming obvious that with the garou's current available talent pool Riley might be lost for good--Thomas requested the video cameras be turned off. (He'd been dropping increasingly more complex concepts over the course of the conversation--things I doubt a kinfolk would be aware of--and poo-pooing fostern venturing out beyond the near umbra.) Kavi obliged, and Thomas revealed that he had a fox tail hidden beneath his coat: he's an Uktena and a Kitsune. Apparently he's good at tracking people down, and he might be paired up with a couple of the more open-minded garou so they can try and locate Riley.
Sheesh. What a wild couple of days. On the plus side, now I've got a legitimate excuse--maybe--to talk to Thomas about this whole kitsune thing--something I couldn't do with him (or Rajani earlier) before without admitting that Val had spilled the beans or that I'd already figured it out on my own.
I've read about a few ways invisibility can be achieved with different spheres, and I'd prefer the version that uses Mind magic: make a person simply not notice you, even though you're in plain sight. It's less flashy, but doesn't tend to work well in a crowd. The Forces version involves wrapping light around yourself--like you're a rock in a stream. The effect was surprisingly easy to pull off, though I discovered it limited my ability to see out of my own little bubble and wouldn't mask sounds or smells. I tried a new version of my own that integrated Forces, Correspondence, and Matter. I wrapped light around me, deadened sound and air movement within the bubble, and a dash of Correspondence allowed me to see outside my bubble. Downside? Limited air supply, as I learned about five minutes into the effect. This trick might even work underwater or possibly if I ever find myself tear gassed (let's hope not). Also, I /might/ be able to bring one other person with me, but we would have to be /very/ close to stay within the confines of the effect.
Mimicing sounds proved to be very easy, too. I used Forces to amplify the sound of my own voice, then began modifying it so I sounded like different people. Then I quit using my own voice and started creating sound from the heat of the brushfire. I made fire bark like a dog, laugh like a child, buzz like a swarm of bees, and perform like an electric guitar. The brush pile had burned down considerably by then, but I couldn't resist setting a second one ablaze so I could again practice flying. I can hover and get from A to B easily enough, but fine control is still difficult.
Afterwards, I made sure the two fires were fully out, exited the spirit world, and camped out in the cave. It's dark and scary at night in the woods. I can see how primitive man--what with all the things that might come and eat them in the night--valued the protection that a cave with a fire near the entryway provides at night. You don't have to worry about what's creeping up from behind when there's only one way in. (Of course, there's also only one way out....) In the morning, I walked the perimeter of the valley looking for signs of anything amiss: everything looked okay, so I headed out--and left my camping gear in the cave. Tired of hauling that gear in and out once or twice a month.
Before I'd left for the woods, I'd dropped off some supplies for the Walkers and Flint. Flint'd told me that Nieve was going to perform a rite Friday that was supposed to cure him of the vampire's influences. When I e-mailed Salem to thank him for setting up those brush piles in the umbra and letting him know I saw nothing unusual on the Walkers' land, I mentioned I'd check after the ritual had been performed to see if everything worked out--and if not, I'd try and tidy things up so it looked like Nieve's rite had worked. (And tend to Rina on the side as she seemed to be having similar troubles.) Well, it looks like Nieve eliminated a symptom, so Flint seemed better, but she hadn't effected a cure. I waited until late that night when Flint and Rina were both asleep, then began remotely unworking the vampire's influences over them. Rina's was pretty easy to undo, as it was easier to see the magical influence against her aura's backdrop. Flint's was harder, as his aura 'glows'. To use a surgical metaphor, I didn't cut as deep with Flint--I didn't want to accidentally unwork something in his werewolf nature. (I'm not sure I can do that, but.... better safe than sorry.) And another follow-up e-mail to Salem to let him know what'd been done.
I swung by the Tenement Saturday night just to touch bases and check on Rina and Flint and the dog and her puppies. (OMG, what are we going to do with them? Hell no, I don't want a dog. Too much maintenance required.) Sheesh. Apparently a Griffen spirit abducted Riley when she went into the umbra, and she's alive but somewhere deep in the umbra, so the tribe is flipping out about that. And Kavi believes there's a mole among the garou, who's giving information to the vampire, who can change who she looks like. Grand. And Flint... He came by, met up with his packmate Alexandra (there was some kind of magic going on between them--I could smell it, but didn't pry), and while the group in the lobby was talking, he turned to face the wall and slowly sank down to the floor. The guy looks.... broken. Is he worse off without vampiric influence? Or is he kicking himself and ashamed of how he'd been influenced--and nw realizes that? Good lord, I hope it's the latter: otherwise, I might have fucked him up. No sign of Rina yet, but no one said anything about her, so I'm assuming she's okay.
After the lobby thinned out and it was just me, Kavi, and Thomas discussing what to do about Riley's disappearance--and it becoming obvious that with the garou's current available talent pool Riley might be lost for good--Thomas requested the video cameras be turned off. (He'd been dropping increasingly more complex concepts over the course of the conversation--things I doubt a kinfolk would be aware of--and poo-pooing fostern venturing out beyond the near umbra.) Kavi obliged, and Thomas revealed that he had a fox tail hidden beneath his coat: he's an Uktena and a Kitsune. Apparently he's good at tracking people down, and he might be paired up with a couple of the more open-minded garou so they can try and locate Riley.
Sheesh. What a wild couple of days. On the plus side, now I've got a legitimate excuse--maybe--to talk to Thomas about this whole kitsune thing--something I couldn't do with him (or Rajani earlier) before without admitting that Val had spilled the beans or that I'd already figured it out on my own.
