So, at the risk of jinxing it, it looks like my group is starting to get back into its normal schedule/rotation for the moment. Which meant we got to play Werewolf this past weekend.
So where we left off, the pack was sniffing around at the Open Mic Night at the Pocahontas County Opera House, where Åke and Berry were hanging out in the physical world, waiting to get a look at the upcoming performers while Claudiu and Jerry scouted out the Umbra. Åke takes a moment to check the sign-in sheet for the event, and saw that Deborah was already signed in in the third slot on the list of performers. Looking around, Åke spots her sitting next to an older man with brown hair in a combover and kind of a rough and rugged look to him. (As a reminder, Åke doesn't know Deborah personally but they're both local musicians so he at least knows her by reputation; between that and Roy's description she's easy enough to spot)
Åke gets it into his head to, after he signs up for a spot much later on in the evening, go out of his way to position himself near the stage to talk to the artists as they're finishing. Åke himself is normally a metal singer, and even though that's not among the favored genres of the region he can at least make a show of introducing himself under the guise of meeting colleagues and potential future bandmates. One thing that they notice as they watch the first couple of acts is that the guy with Deborah isn't paying attention to the stage at all. He's looking around at everything and everyone else, clearly paranoid about something.
So they come up with a plan by the time she gets up on stage. She proceeds to sing a song about ancient spiritual guardians emerging from where they've been hidden in the Earth. To the mundanes in the audience, it sounds like an over-the-top hippy environmental message song. To the Garou, though, there's a lot of extra meaning. Also, in the Umbra, all sorts of spirits start congregating around the stage as she sings. There are even spirits coming in off the street to get closer. At that point, they're sure she's the one they're looking for.
Once she's finished her set, Åke goes to introduce himself and try to stall her heading back to the table with her companion. While they're talking, Berry gets some coffee and spill it on the guy, lifting his wallet while being all apologetic and trying to clean him up with napkins. Deborah excuses herself and comes over to check on him, and when he tells her about the idiot who spilled coffee on him, Berry leaves in a faux-huff so he can duck into an alley and go through it. The man's name is Walter Foss, he lives in town, and there's a picture of him with Deborah and a picture of him with another woman and a couple of kids. Judging from the business card in his wallet, he seems to make his living as a 'survival guide,' teaching people wilderness skills and guiding non-locals through the woods and the like. Nothing to clarify whether Walter is Deborah's husband or a friend or what, though they suspect he's a sibling.
Meanwhile, back inside, Walter is getting ready to go because he doesn't really feel up to sitting through the rest of Open Mic with damp, likely-stained clothes. Deborah's ready to leave with him since she's finished performing and he's her ride, and despite Walter's best attempts to get her out of there quickly Åke gets her to agree to meet him for a bite to eat at the coffee house the next day so they can talk music stuff.
Elsewhere, Claudiu is stepping back into the physical world in the bathroom, where Berry gives him Walter's wallet so he can track Walter and Deborah. He shifts to Lupus form and takes off, being spotted by a single slack-jawed musician who was standing around behind the opera house having a smoke. (This would be one of those moments where, if the guy had been drinking, he'd dramatically pull out a flask and pour it out on the ground.)
Claudiu follows the tracks of Walter's truck to the double-wide trailer where Deborah lives, where Walter apparently drops her off and leaves after telling her he's got a bad feeling about Åke. Claudiu, to try an get an idea of how much she knows or has been exposed to, manages to convince one of the local spirits to manifest someplace where she'll see it so he can gauge her reaction. As Claudiu is a Spirit Magnet (as per the Merit), he has an easy enough time managing this. A deer spirit manifests just outside her window, and once she sees it she grabs her camera and tries to quietly slip outside and get a better look as it wanders into the nearby woods. She follows it a little ways, clearly mystified and surprised, but not frightened. It goes back across the Gauntlet and she goes back inside, stunned by the experience.
(Meanwhile, back at Open Mic Night, Åke's turn comes up where he proceeds to play "The Man in Black" by Johnny Cash, and a rendition of Simon & Garfunkle's "Sound of Silence.")
The pack considers confronting her as soon as possible, but they decide to go with the plan of having Åke talk to her at the coffee shop the next day. At the same time, Claudiu is going to have a chat with Walter (having 'found' his wallet and wanting to return it to him as a pretense for having the conversation). They want to know just how much Walter's likely to interfere and what he knows about what's going on. Then based on how that conversation goes, they're going to approach Deborah.
Fade to black and pick up the next day.
The pack putters around their home sept, making arrangements to learn rites and doing assorted training things and what have you until it's coming up on time to meet Deborah at the coffee shop. Åke heads out there about 15 minutes early, and Berry's going to keep an eye on things from the side, coming in a couple of minutes after Deborah is expected to show up so it doesn't look like he's with Åke -- after all, the pack still doesn't know what other threats might be lurking in town.
Claudiu calls up Walter on the phone, to tell him that he's got his wallet and asking if he can bring it to wherever he is... and Berry hears Walter in his truck, across the street from the coffee shop, answering his sat-phone (normal cell phones aren't available in the region, due to the radio signal blackout zone) and talking on it. Berry quickly ducks into the coffee shop before Walter has the chance to spot and recognize him.
Claudiu and Jerry, after talking with Walter on the phone, go to meet him where he's sitting in his truck. As he gets out to talk with them, they notice he's got some bowhunting equipment in his passenger seat. Ominous. So Claudiu just comes out with it: "Do you know you're Kin?"
He slumps a bit. He knows he's Kin, but Deborah doesn't and he's gone to a lot of effort to try and protect her from all that. He's old enough to remember his Get of Fenris father, but Deborah was too young to remember when he died. Walter pegged Åke as a Get as well, and as he's obviously a little cagey about Garou potentially dragging her into their business is keeping an eye on things. Walter, as it turns out, is actually pretty well-acquainted with the Garou; he does a lot of work with the Whispering Waters sept a little ways south of Marlinton (the sept that the Edge of the Firelight pack are from), reaching cubs basic wilderness and survival skills. Jerry and Claudiu talk to him about what's going on, that some sort of caern spirit needs to talk to her because she's somehow linked to it. And they'd much prefer that he's there for that conversation.
He agrees, after he makes a phone call to someone he knows from the sept to ask about the Sons of the Saga and finds that they're on the up-and-up (or at least aren't BSD's).
Meanwhile, inside, Åke is flipping through Deborah's notebook of song notes and lyrics, seeing a lot of stuff she wrote about events she couldn't possibly know about. He doesn't draw attention to it, though, trying to draw her out by implying that he sometimes writes lyrics based on visions and dreams he has, but she's not quite jumping on it. She mostly just talks about how her lyrics tend to just come to her, but for some reason or another isn't making any claims of visions of her own.
Outside, Walter finds someone willing to vouch for the pack, and he agrees to talk to Deborah with them. He gives Claudiu and Jerry directions to Deborah's place (unaware that they already know the way) before he goes in to meet with her, Åke, and Berry. He tells her that he, Åke, and his friends have something important they need to talk with her about in private. And at one point he simply says "It's about Dad," at which point she goes pale and we left off for the moment.
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