The GarouMUSH Log Page of Clemency Haynes

It feels like only a half a second since you entered the umbral portal that the Coyote spirit 'fortold' you would find. Clemency, Reggie, and Abraxas find themselves without the rest of the group standing in the middle of what looks like a very old hamlet town. And by old, we are talking the dark ages. But something isn't quite normal here, about the world itself aside from the fact that you are standing where, and apparently when, you are... everything is in black and white. Various tones and shades of greys make up all the color one would expect to see around them. The three Garou themselves however, are still in color, looking rather vibrant against the starkness of realm. It is late at night, the moon a day or two before being 'full' hangs heavily and low in the sky, looking much larger than one would expect on the average night. The streets are dirt, plenty of strawthatch and wood houses and and a few shops seem placed haphazardly around, but there is still plenty of room to move and it is wide open enough to see it all. Right next to where you stand is a classic cobblestone well.

Clemency's first action is to spin once around on her axis quickly, taking in a panorama of her surroundings, as though to check that no enemy is about to spring on her and her colleagues from behind. This, apart from anything else, immediately informs her that the other two ahrouns are with her, but the two philodoxes are nowhere to be seen. "We're two down," she warns Reggie and Abraxas curtly as she stares around.

The presence of human dwellings is enough for Abraxas's fists to clench, even as he slides immediately from birthform down to homid. His teeth are clearly gritting as well, and he eyes their surroundings with deep suspicion.

Queasy from his St. Patrick's Day binge and from the sudden relocation, Reggie staggers as he gets his legs in the new locale, struggling not to decorate the locale with vomit. His eyes bulge as he stares wildly about, noting the lack of people, stating in a sharp tone, "Where the fuck are they?" He looks behind other two ahrouns, as though suspecting them of hiding a fully-grown Garou behind them, and after finding nobody behind them, turns his attention to the locale, staring like any tourist. His jaw clamps shut after his question, and he listens for sounds.

At Reggie's question a light in what looks like a tavern goes on, seen through a dirty and nearly opaque window next to the door. The door opens and a young girl, mid to late teens perhaps and very very pretty with long braided hair, peeks out and sees the three standing there. She calls out in a loud whisper. "Hey! Get over here! You shouldn't be outside!" Strangely, she speaks perfect English but has what sounds like a Russian or Ukranian accent.

Clemency can't resist Reggie's straight line, it seems. "Where the hell are we?" she fires back at the unsteady Uktena as the alien nature of this monochrome place begins to dawn on her. She rubs one hand over the stone surface of the well, then peers down it as though the answer is to be found down its shaft. Then comes the call from the door of the tavern, and Clemency's head snaps back up to look at the pretty girl. "Why not?" she responds eagerly, taking long strides across the cobbled streets to where she stands in the doorway.

Abraxas regards the girl with deep suspicion. He doesn't look as though he's about to move himself, but with Clemency moving, that leaves him with the option of following, or staying closer to Reggie than the Silver Fang--his choice is obvious. He moves after her, glowering.

Reggie sudddenly stares at the well, his attention brought to it by Clemency's motion, and he steps over to stare down into it, when the girl's call interrupts his study, and he jerks his head up. He stands by the well a long moment, as the Lord and Fang cross the streets, then with a muttered curse, "Motherfuckers likely already got here first and are in there", he jolts off after them.

Down the well is murky watery darkness, it doesn't look like a safe and warm place down there with the sample of moonlight that happens to reflect down and catch the water's surface just enough to cause shadows of unease to form. When Clem responds to her the girl crings and whispers harshly, "Quiet! They'll hear you!" She waves the three eagerly towards the tavern and it's another 15 feet till they are inside. Stepping into the tavern one first realizes how cold it was outside by how much warmer and safer it feels inside. There is a low fire in a fireplace on the far wall, and there are alot of people inside. About thirty in all, including the girl. Various ages and sexes are represented though there is only one person who looks like they might be older than 35, and that one person is old. Sitting in a rocking chair is an old woman, and guessing from the milky color of her wide open eyes, she is blind. She sits rocking gently in the quiet murmuring of the tavern. When all three Garou step inside and the door is closed and barred, all becomes quiet as the grave for a moment. The old woman speaks up, a voice surprisingly strong. Again English, again with the accent. "Welcome travelers. You come a long way to a land unfamiliar to you. It is not safe for you to walk about outside at night with the moon so close to being full. You are very lucky you happened upon our village." One of the men, a balding man of around 30 whispers out harshly, "They're up to no good! Cast them out into the night from which they came!" "Hush!" the old woman responds, "Ruskin, quiet your tongue. These poor souls are our guests, and we will give them safe harbor till morning light comes." To this the man apparently called Ruskin answers, "If we ever see the daylight again." The girl that led you inside has moved towards the splinted wooden bar along the left wall.

Clemency bears down on the girl with a distinct air of 'nobody tells me what to do' emanating from her, and barges into the tavern, whereupon she scans the collection of huddled, downtrodden-looking types inside with a mixed air of pity and scorn. "We have travelled very far," she says, then, a little less confrontationally, and looks the balding man in the eye. "Why is it not safe outside at night? Do monsters walk the countryside here?"

Abraxas's eyes narrow at the mention of the moon, and he all but unconsciously draws himself a little closer, with gloved hands folded over his chest, and his shoulders slightly hunched. He hasn't stopped glowering, and it focuses on Ruskin for a moment before moving on to the old woman.

Reggie scuttles through the door just behind Clemency and Abraxas, putting on a little sprint towards the end, and already short of breath from the slight effort, wheezes on Abraxas' neck, then, with a jolt of alarm at finding himself that close, moves decisively apart from the Lord. He studies the gathering, as he recovers his breath while Clem talks.

Reggie looks for sight of the missing Philodox among the people.

The three garou hear various snorts of sad humor at the question of monsters. Ruskin answers the question, "Of course there are... I pity the soul that came from a land without them to this God forsaken place." The missing Philodoxes are not among those huddled inside. The sound of pattering on the roof and walls shows that it has begun to rain, a sudden bolt of lightning across the sky and not all that distant thunder. Many of the woman and a few men inside gasp and shiver, huddling closer to whomever they sit or stand by. The old woman says, "It is good you came in when you did. The moon is nearly full and the wolfman comes out in the rain to catch unsuspecting prey." Then the woman that led the three in returns holding three wooden mugs, lined with pitch, filled with room temperature ale. "Here you are, something to help pass the time." As she holds the mugs out towards the Garou she looks to the old woman and says, "Perhaps these...?"

Clemency takes one of the mugs and holds it, though she doesn't drink. She turns to look at Reggie and Abraxas, giving each of them a long look full of significance, though quite what she's trying to communicate is harder to tell. "Then we should thank you for your hospitality and shelter," she says, glancing upwards. "You have a good solid building here. The roof is pretty impergious to the rain."

Abraxas doesn't look as though he wants to take the ale...in fact, he doesn't make a single move to do so until Clemency gives him that look, and then he takes it reluctantly, his countenance darkening even further. He doesn't drink either, rather, simply holds it in his hand.

Reggie's quick to accept the ale. He weighs the mug in his fist, sticks a finger in to test the pitch lining, pulls his finger back out and tastes the ale from his finger, then lifts the mug in the server's direction as he grins and nods. He pauses momentarily at the long look from Clemency, and lowers the mug,and nods uncertainly.

The old woman sits in silence for a time and many look to her expectantly. After a pronounced silence she speaks out with a sureness. "There is no way to know for sure, young Alyssa. But perhaps..." The servant girl, Alyssa turns her head to look back to the three and sighs, "Even if it were true, no one who goes to his castle comes back... alive."

"Oh," Clemency says casually, as though she was talking of a trip down the road to the corner store, "we've been through a few tight places and come out with our skins safe. We travelling types are very hard to kill. Tell us more about this castle?"

Abraxas gives Clemency a quick scowl of her own, and mutters, leaning closer to the Fang, "...Don't start volunteering us for things..." His voice, even that low, comes out more as a sibilant hiss than anything else, even though he barely moves his lips at all, and certainly not his jaw.

Reggie shifts his mug to his weaker, mangled hand, and scratches his wolfskin garment as he looks oddly at the Fang at her mention of 'skins', then at the Lord at his mutter, and feels impelled to add his own mutter towards Clemency. "Maybe the others have been here already and gone there?", he asks, leaning past Abraxas towards Clemency.

"Others?" Alyssa asks and then continues, "There have been no others through here... and surely you have heard of Dracula's Castle?" Ruskin barks out a laugh and says, "If they had, I doubt the sad lot of 'em would have come here at all." Alyssa waves Ruskin off with a look of annoyance that is actually quite cute on the girl and turns back towards the three, "Dracula, the Nosferatu and his fiends come from Dracula's Castle to terrorize the countryside. We are but cattle to them." One of the mid-twenties women says in a miserable tone, "The Mummy took my husband just this last week."

Clemency frowns. "We have two friends. We became separated from them, and from what you were saying, I fear for their safety. This Dracula," she asks with a glint in her eye. "How long has he been terrorising you? Have you never thought of striking back, of going up to his castle with torches and pitchforks to teach him a lesson?"

Abraxas groans, quietly enough that those closest might have problems hearing it. However, he doesn't seem at all inclined to interrupt the conversation, or to make anymore murmured remarks. His grip on the tankard, still untouched, tightens.

Reggie brightens with interest as he listens to Alyssa's story, then attempts to put on a posture of regret and concern at the tale of the missing husband, his queasiness helping him. He raises his mug at Clemency's suggestion, "Yes! Strike back!"

Ruskin gives a look to Clemency and seems a little perplexed at her question then answers after shaking his head to Reggie, "Once. We were set upon by his fiends and half of us did not return alive. Much of the other half returned... the living dead with a hunger for brains."

The old woman cuts Ruskin off from continuing to speak. "Be careful, travlers. The wolfman is ferocious and hungry... but he is far from the worst of his fiends."

Clemency shakes her head slowly, in the manner of one who feels that something, somehow, is not right, and that if they can but put their finger on a missing piece of key information, all the pieces will fall into place. "Living dead. Dracula. Mummy, did someone say...?" She runs a distracted hand through her braids and addresses Brax and Reggie. "Guys. If I said Hollywood, would you laugh at me?"

Abraxas looks at Clemency blankly. Clearly, no laughter is about to spark from that direction. In fact, it's a full twenty seconds or so before he mutters, in that same, lip-motionless way, "...Are you talking about movies or something?"

Reggie looks between Ruskin and Alyssa, his brow furrowed as he tries to work out how many tragedies have beset this place. He gives a double take at Clemency's question, and slowly turns from her to look anew at the odd black and white tones of the place. "Holy--I need a drink", and he chugs down the ale from the mug in his hand.

"Put it this way," Clemency says darkly, "I wouldn't be surprised to meet Bela Lugosi somewhere around here. Which I suppose is slightly preferable to it being Jean Claude van fucking Damme." Her gaze flickers round the villagers. "The question is whether these good people appreciate the unusual position they find themselves in, isn't it?"

The tavern folk look confused and uneased about Clemency's words and Ruskin asks, "Who is this Jean Claude you speak of? Another among the damned?"

Abraxas's blank, uncomprehending look returns, along with a certain measure of even more pissiness. "I have no fucking idea what you're talking about," he grates, eyeing the tavern people warily.

Reggie belches as he puts down the empty mug, and he nods to Clemency and Abraxas. "Yeah. Fucking weird. Who the hell are thse people, Jean and Bela?"

"...never mind," Clemency says after a moment's consideration. "I'll tell you what I think in a bit. Hell, I wish I had more idea about all this..." She takes a drink of her ale thoughtfully.