Whoops, this should have gone up sooner, but after doing about 95% of the write-up I set it aside because I couldn't do the rest right away and forgot to come back to it.
This was actually kind of a light session (and thus this should be a short post), as it mostly concerned a moot the Garou of the Sept of Secrets threw to blow off steam after the recent tensions and attacks. (Mostly so my players could have some Renown acknowledged and Rank up.)
If anyone's curious I can describe the structure of a moot in more detail, but I'll just stick to highlights for now:
The Corax seen briefly in the battle are in attendance, but specifically asked ahead of time (via Roy) that they don't want to really be the center of attention just this once, because they basically arrived at the sept in the middle of the fighting and don't feel it's their place to make a dramatic entrance just yet.
During the portion of the moot where grievances are aired and such, Deborah spoke up and argued that perhaps the sept, going forward, could put a little more effort into dealing with the Kinfolk properly in cases where, for instance, they have to be confined to the sept for their own good. That perhaps some protocols could be put in place to make such a thing a little more bearable, or at least perhaps there can be someone that Kinfolk can bring concerns to to be passed along to the Garou. Aedan Thorne gave her what most Garou would expect, reassurance that they're doing the best they can and that they know what they're doing, and that the Kin should just trust them (with an unspoken "so sit down and shut up" tacked onto the end). A little annoyed by the brush-off, Deborah leaves.[0]
As the Garou are recounting their deeds for recognition, Åke manages to more or less spin the whole incident with Samantha Stump, downplaying the torture but not entirely, and getting an Honor Renown hit and some dirty looks as a result.
They also get an Honor-based smack on the nose from the various accounts of Åke and Jerry bickering, particularly the museum thing where the rest of the pack was able to get stuff done in under the span of the argument. (After all, Renown recognition is a ritual, and spirits have to sign off on that) Åke immediately counters with this argument about how Jerry encourages his packmates to stand up to him (which isn't really a thing), and how it's being taken out of context... the higher-ups of the sept are naturally unimpressed by being told "I don't think it's a problem so we shouldn't lose Renown for it" and are going to take a little more off Åke's Renown for mouthing off. Jerry, however, swoops in and takes a different tack, that the argument was a problem but since then the pack has been getting along a lot better because they've learned and grown from the bickering issues (which is true). The sept leaders, naturally, are much more pleased with this response and so shave off some of that penalty (though Åke still takes a little extra).
Much Glory, however, is earned from taking out a bunch of Banes and the BSD pack over the course of this leg of the story. And a good bit of Honor for giving that Fang Dagger back to Bury the Hatchet.
Ray also takes a few minutes to speak up and publicly thank Jerry for giving him a chance with the pack and all that when surely a lot of packs would be reluctant to do so.
At one point during the night, Ray also takes aside some of the leaders and volunteers to be the Kinfolk liaison in line with what Deborah proposed, and they decide to talk it over, delineate some duties, and make some announcements about it at the next moot.
And once the stories and Renown portions are over, it's discovered that Jerry and Åke have enough Renown to challenge for Rank Three!
Jerry's challenge is simple enough: Withstand a beating of steadily-increasing intensity, while remaining conscious and resisting frenzy. He barely pulls it out, having to spend Willpower to remain up towards the end, but he pulls it off.
Åke's challenge, which we'll resolve at the next session, is going to involve him going into the Cave of Secrets, learning some obscure Garou stories, and having to decide which one to tell to the leaders at the sept. (As of this writing, I've presented story options and given him some vague descriptions of the 'judges' so he could pick one, and his player has volunteered to take a few details and spin a story out of them.) Åke, at one point, suggests he could recite the story during Noah's upcoming Rite of Passage, but the consensus is that Noah's family wants this to be a big thing for him and that including Åke's rank challenge in that would be kind of upstaging him.
So after setting all that up, there was the Revel (which got weirder with the participation of the Fera special guests), and then the moot itself wrapped up.
As the Revel died down, by the way, Ray sought out Deborah to tell her that he had some luck talking to the leaders about becoming a Kinfolk liaison. She thanks him and they commiserate about things, talking about Ray's past (like how he was raised in a cage underground), and how the Cave shows Deborah things from Garou history that sometimes give her nightmares, and so forth. Just kind of a bonding moment, there.
And I think that mostly sums up the big stuff from the moot. So next time, with any luck, we'll have more details on how Åke's challenge went!
[0]-- This actually leads into a bit of a discussion about how Garou treat Kinfolk, what are Garou-Kinfolk relations like, that sort of thing, partially because one of my players wasn't sure what to respect with regards to the 'default' level of treatment. We eventually come down to "Adjusting one way or another depending on tribe, Kinfolk are generally treated like House Elves."
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