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Each episode has three sections; cut scenes, trailer and synopsis. Cut scenes are out-of-character narratives to give the players a glimpse into the other forces threatening the Guardians. The trailer appears before each episode on the main page and is moved here after the episode airs. The synopsis is a brief recounting of the events of the episode.
Click on a link below to jump to a specific episode:
For many years, Houston was a fairly typical city -- more tainted than some, less than others. It was a big, big city, slowly spreading out across the land. Things started going downhill a few years ago. Corruption increased, pollution increased, wyld spirits were driven farther and farther from the city center, and the Garou of the Unicorn sept were worried. They guarded their caern with loving devotion, but about a year ago, their greatest fears were realized. A great evil descended on the city, wiping out or scattering Houston's entire supernatural population. The Unicorn sept fought bravely, but the caern was destroyed and all of the members disappeared except for one individual, Rhugal MacKinnon, who was rescued by a kinsman.
For months, Rhugal lived among his human kin and fought through the mists of Harano. Slowly, Garou came to the city, seeing a blight on the face of Gaia which needed healing. Four small packs came following the totems Rat, Falcon, Owl, and Raven. Rhugal, who had also followed Falcon, joined that pack upon their arrival in town.
Last summer, these packs were called together by a legendary theurge named Skywise. The old wolf told them of a vision that had come to him, a woman in white proclaiming a glorious quest. He set them onto this quest -- to seek five powerful fetishes that, when combined, would raise a new caern and return the power of Gaia to Houston. Skywise was their advisor on this quest, and they were joined also by his pack-brother Kell, a renowned warrior, and a mysterious figure named Ash Walker.
The Seekers (as these assembled Garou became known) encountered many hardships and fought many great and glorious battles, and they successfully retrieved the five fetishes: The Voice of the People, a silver longsword also known as Vox Populi; The Door of the Heavens, a star-shaped plaque engraved with the phases of the moon; The Soul of the Forest, a glowing red-gold feather; The Memory of the Dream, an elaborate tapestry with special properties; and The Heart of the City, a mystical flame burning out of solid stone in the middle of the forest.
Their antagonist in this quest was a dark figure called Stormbringer. He used Black Spiral Dancers and duped Red Talons to fight the Seekers every step of the way, trying to prevent the caern from being raised. In addition, they had to battle the forces of the Weaver, who wanted to gain the fetishes for themselves. As they raced to find the final fetish, a storm began to rise. They discovered the flame growing out of solid stone, and the storm broke, threatening to extinguish the fire. In the end, the Seekers combined the five fetishes and the quest was complete. The feather disappeared into the flame, and out of the flame rose a magnificent golden bird, the Phoenix. The sword flew out of the fire and planted itself in the ground, where a great rift opened, leading into the abyss. Stormbringer and his minions were pulled into this rift, and Skywise, Kell and Rhugal leaped in afterward, thrilled with the opportunity to face the minions of the wyrm on their own ground.
A stone arch grew out of the ground near the flame, with the star-shaped plaque imbedded in the top. This became the opening for the caern's moon gate. Two large trees at the edge of the circle grew toward each other to hold the tapestry. And the caern was created!
The Phoenix spoke to the remaining Seekers, thanking them for awakening her after her long rest. And, for the first time in memory, a sept following Phoenix was formed. Word went out quickly of the great quest and the fledgling caern in need of members. Since then, adventurous Garou have slowly been trickling in to join.
Aidan MacKinnon returns from her Rite of Passage in the arms of the angry, insulted Thunder Pack who beat her unconscious when she delivered the Phoenix's invitation. The raging sept alpha puts a gun to Aidan's head and tells her to fail is to die. The other Garou fail to pull him away but distract him long enough for Aidan to escape to the Umbra, where she is attacked by Bane Spirits that threaten the caern.
Some of the sept calm Dean as others placate the Thunder Pack keep them from storming off into the woods. The sept's attention then moves to the strange happenings around the caern, news of the city government's plan to sell off part of Memorial Park, and rumors of an aggressive new group of vampires in Houston. Dean continues to alternate between depression and murderous frenzy.
Eve, the leader of this new group of vampires, appears at the caern and demands the return of her sword. She bears a striking resemblance to the Valkyrie, a spirit who aided the Seekers in their original quest that established the caern by giving them the sacred longsword, Vox Populi. An attempt to visit one of the sword's former owners is met with a hail of bullets. Moonshadow, Wind and others convince Dean to relinquish Vox Populi to Eve, causing the depressed sept alpha to wander off, unnoticed and unheeded.
Later in the evening, when the immediate dangers have passed, Phoenix sadly appears to the sept and announces, "I could not bring him back, he was too tainted by another power." Dean is dead.
The Phoenix has returned.
Gaia has regained a foothold in the corrupted city of Houston. The Phoenix Caern stands strong as a testament to the power of Luna's chosen warriors, the Garou.
But as one of their cubs prepares for her Rite of Passage and winter settles on the city, a disturbing vision alarms the theurges of the fledgling sept. The hackles of the otherwise unflappable Owl pack are up. The Phoenix's words echo in the crackle of the Council Fire:
|
When the storm subsides |
and the sun shines still |
Guard patrols have been doubled. Several expeditions into the Umbra have been mounted. The Outsider will not take the Phoenix Sept unaware.
Or will it?
Early Evening, February 12.
The mystic flame of the Heart of the City burned bright in the center of the Council Glen. Additional bonfires illuminated the clearing, but the brightly-burning blue flame of the fetish was the focal point for all the gathered Garou of the Phoenix Caern. Before that flame knelt red-haired Aidan McKinnon, silently awaiting the spirits to whisper her Rite of Passage. To either side of her stood the elder theurges of the sept, Kalis Spark Binder and Joseph Feels the Wind Kaleph.
"She's been waiting there an awfully long time," Dean whispered to Wind, sotto voice.
"Patience," murmured Wind Through the Leaves. "Events unfold in their own time. Look."
Aidan arose, her sholders shaking. As she turned to face the assembled Garou her face was drained of all color - a startling effect for someone already so pale skinned. Rage burned in her eyes.
Her mentor Joseph spoke. "The spirits have spoken of peace and reconcilliation, of the bringing together of Gaia's children and the mending of a soul," he said clearly to the assembly. "Aidan shall journey to find the remnants of the Thunder Pack and bring them here, to join with the sept of the Phoenix," he pronounced solemnly. "And she must do this alone."
At this, a cry arose from some of the gathered Garou. "What, make a deal with those baby-killers?" one of the homids asked above the din. Some of the Seekers shook their heads, remembering how the Red Talons of the Thunder Pack tortured Aidan and fought against them at every turn of the Quest for the Inner Flame.
"The Phoenix has spoken," called out Dean, asserting his control over the sept firmly. "Let us not dishonor her."
Moonshadow approached the trio of theurges standing by the Heart of the City, the mystic flame setting her silver fur aglow. She said in her clear lupine voice, "The task is set; the Rite begun. May Luna smile upon thee, as she does on those who have gone into darkness." At this last statement she looked at the razor-thin crack running through the center of the clearing.
"Go with her blessing," Moonshadow concluded. The assembly watched Joseph lead the shaken Aidan from the circle, unsure if they would ever see the young woman again. No one saw the shape of a woman bowing her head in sorrow briefly appear in the bonfire.
Early Morning, February 13.
The old oak tree reached towards the clear sky, its red-brown leaves motionless in the still air. Cutter walked towards the tree, tired from a long night in the field. The cattle herd gathered at the bank of the nearby creek while his horse Dante greedily ate at the stubby grass. Cutter wiped the dust from his face with a bandana, thinking about dawn. He couldn’t make it back to the ranch before light, so he’d sleep in the fields today.
Dante’s whicker brought Cutter out of his reverie. Looking around, he saw a man atop the near hill striding towards him. Visitors were rare enough at the ranch, and this was the first time Cutter could remember meeting someone out in the fields. He eyed the approaching stranger warily and tipped his hat. “Hi,” he said genially. “Can I help you?”
Far away, the Dream King sadly looked up from his mug of iced tea into the blue eyes of the Ice Lord. “The Prince is dead; long live the Prince,” he intoned formally, holding the dragon’s piercing gaze. The Princess reached out and squeezed the his hand under the table.
The man continued striding towards the oak tree, a body crumpled on the ground behind him.
The Thunderpack has not had an easy time in Houston. In the service of Stormbringer they lost their previous alpha and beta to the Weaver; now they are pursued relentlessly by well-armed human hunters. With Moon Whispers captured and presumed dead, only Hunts-in-Autumn remains in the area.
The Red Talon theurge Star Eye had left Houston on a vision-quest in search of the proper path after the Phoenix Sept was founded; his visions told him of the Thunderpack's error in opposing the Phoenix and directed him to return to Houston to rescue Moon Whispers with their aid. His information and friendlier tone galvanizes the Phoenix sept to rescue the Thunderpack alpha.
Garou rituals and human investigation reveal the fortress-like building she is held in. Reconaissance from the Umbra shows legions of extremely powerful and deadly Wyrm creatures who quickly drive the rescuers into the mortal world. The other strike team penetrates security and disposes of the closed-circut cameras in this world. These two paths converge and both groups discover the basement holding the caged Moon Whispers. As they pull the unconscious garou from her silver cage, two exoskeletons armed with machineguns led by a suit of powered armor sporting a laser cannon inflict heavy damage. As the Guardians dodge into other rooms, many more human security guards arrive only to be engaged by the exoskeletons and mowed down by the powered armor. The Guardians escape in the confusion and exit the building, barely avoiding the last enraged blasts as they flee into the night.
The few remaining healthy garou go to further investigate the ranch. They are attacked and nearly killed before a few more recently-healed garou arrive, killing one attacker and driving off the other.
Surrounded.
Outnumbered.
Outmanuvered.
Trapped.
Gaia's foothold in Houston slips. Her foes circle; waiting, watching, biding their time, choosing the moment to strike. Phoenix's allies are few, her enemies legion.
The straight road has been lost. The Phoenix Sept is astray in the dark wood of the unknown, the selva oscura.
Early evening, March 10.
Snowfalls picked his way through the corpses of his cousins strewn about the clearing. Once they stood tall and magnificent, lords of this forest; now they lay dead and mutilated on the ground. The Council Grove was no more.
He wandered the woods for weeks searching for signs that some of his kind still lived. He spoke to the small animals and the young trees and the wind itself for news of a single survivor, but to no avail. His kind, the walking trees, gone from yet another corner of this world.
Snowfalls returned to the ruined Council Grove, where the endless arguments of the oaks and pines were finally silenced, to bury the last of his kind. For three days he moved the earth and sang the songs and recited the poems the fallen had given him before their passing.
His task complete, he waited, standing in the center of the grove surrounded by the earthen mounds guarding the sleep of his kin. He sank his roots deep in the earth and turned his face to the wind and the stars and the dying sun, tears streaking the dirt on his face. He knew what was coming; an ending, a beginning, a circle within a circle within a circle now complete.
Snowfalls spoke, slowly stressing each word as if it were an incantation or prayer to a higher power.
"Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura
ché la diritta via era smarrita."
The man coming out of the woods beheld Snowfalls in this position, awaiting his fate in the dying light of the sun.
A blight infests the area around the Phoenix caern: trees and other plants fall sick, dead patches appear in the umbra. When the city sells off the land to a high-rise building corporation a construction site goes up overnight, surrounding the caern. Phoenix reveals that in founding the caern she enlisted the aid of a powerful guardian spirit called the Valkyrie, but because the Valkyrie is no longer present the defenses of the cairn are failing. Another guardian spirit must be found to protect the caern from the city's corruption.
In what would become known as the Night of the Slain Kin, the bodies of missing family and friends of the Guardians are found. Someone is attacking the Guardians by murdering their loved ones. Several garou investigate the Queen's Blue Paw ranch, assuming the murderers to be the vampire Eve and her companions, but find it empty and deserted.
Here, the footing is treacherous. One misstep brings disaster; one wrong word sparks war. Nuances guide Phoenix's enemies; subtle manuevers are key to survival.
Tonight, consequences come on the soft beat of owl wings.
Very early morning, March 17, 2001.
Tina Andersen was stuck. No matter how she tried she couldn't make sense of the passage. It was hard enough making sense of her master's work; he wrote fluently in three languages, dabbled in five others, and when rushed he would switch languages mid-sentence. But now she was translating things she only half-understood at best. And I'm the one who understands him the best out of all of us, she thought to herself. She put her hands to her face and sighed.
Eve, her blonde hair pulled back in a severe ponytail, entered the study. She looked at the book Tina was reading and placed her hand on the young woman's shoulder. "Tough night?" she asked.
"Yeah. You know how the he could get when he was in a hurry," Tina said. "Do you have any idea who the White Lady could be? I'm not sure that's the right translation; the way he uses old french it sounds like it could be Mary, or maybe St. Brigid, but then he switches to anglo-saxon immediately after it. Then it's followed by a bit of latin," she grumbled.
"I don't know," replied Eve. She sat in one of the comfortable leather armchairs by the open window and looked outside, thinking. "It doesn't have to be esoteric or religious. For all we know, it could be the name of a street gang he knew back in California - or Paris." Eve shook her head. She envied Tina's focus that kept her in this study poring over these notebooks, convinced they held the key to their current problems. Even Horatio had thrown his hands in the air when presented with these journals, but Tina persevered. I'll have to find some way to reward her, Eve thought, even if this doesn't pan out.
"No, I don't think so. For all that he claimed he was not a scholar, he certainly tended towards academic explanations when confronted with the unknown. I think it's a result of his sire's training," Tina said. She frowned back down at the notebook. "I think he could have learned a bit more about footnoting from his sire, though," she mused.
Eve laughed. "Some of the others might think you were being disrepectful, but I know exactly what you mean. He once told me the story of the time he and the sheriff walked into the Lupine stronghold and challenged them to a fight. Instead of describing the battle, though, he kept theorizing about their fashion choices instead. He was more interested in the symbolism of their feathers than in their tactics." She shook her head. Tina smiled. For a moment, their cares were forgotten with the shared memory of a better time. The room seemed light again.
A barn owl landed on the windowsill, staring at the two women.
"Oh, my god," Tina whispered. She was even paler than normal.
"What is it?" asked Eve.
"Someone just died."
"What?"
"It's one of his medieval superstitions - the owl is the harbinger of sudden change, usually death. One of the few holdovers from his childhood. He always said he still got chills when an owl startled him."
Someone banged the front door. The two women heard voices, first confused, then raised in anger. Eve stood as Horatio, one of the oldest ghouls, appeared at the study door.
"My ladies, forgive this..."
"Robert's dead, isn't he?" asked Tina, her eyes closed.
Eve turned to face her. "How the..."
"So is Greg," Tina said, her eyes still closed. Eve looked back to Horatio, who nodded. She whirled around to look at the windowsill, but the owl had already left, its silent message deilivered.
Sometime after midnight, April 13, 2001.
The music deafened Will MacKinnon as he moved around the club, drinking and dancing and enjoying himself. He spotted a stunning blonde in the black dress at the bar. Once he saw her he couldn't keep his eyes, or his thoughts, off of her. He pushed his way through the crowd and sidled up next to her. She turned and smiled cooly at him, motioning that they should grab a table.
Things went smoothly for the next fifteen minutes. Will couldn't believe his luck when she asked him to join her for a drink at her place; he paid the tab and quickly escorted her out the door. A limo pulled up, raising Will's eyebrows, but she just smiled as if to ask if he expected her to travel in anything less. They climbed in and drove off.
She took his hand, startling Will with her cool touch. He was still contemplating her cool skin as her fangs entered his neck.
The limo drove on.
And then, finally, there was silence.
The silence the Seekers know is the silence before the breaking storm, a pause as the world holds her breath as events both terrible and wonderful unfold.
This is not that silence.
This is the silence before the slaughter. This is the silence before disaster descends. This is the silence, ringing from the forest to the swamps to the filthy alleys of the city, presaging death.
This is the silence of the Guardians.
And in that silence, the faint echoes of Phoenix's words are heard; "The gyre widens; the center must hold," she whispers.
But whether it will or not: the silence does not say.
Very early morning, April 14, 2001.
Tina Andersen wept. Her vision was even stronger this time: large, furry shapes of death and destruction ripping apart her loved ones; first Cutter and John, then Robert and Greg, then Eve and Horatio, until finally she stood alone in a circle of rending claws and biting fangs. And then the laughter began, mocking, humorless, satisfied.
"Are you sure of this?" Eve demanded of Tina. They faced each other across the table in the darkened room. The other vampires and ghouls looked at the young woman.
"I am," replied Tina Andersen evenly.
"No!" yelled Greg. "Wipe the bastards from the face of the planet, now! What mercy have they shown us?" he demanded, banging his hand on the table, his face distorted with fury. "First the Founder and John, then Robert and me? What of the oaths we swore? Are they worthless?"
Eve looked at Greg, her eyes icy. "Those oaths are still in effect, brother. You are well served to remember it." Greg met her gaze. Tina thought of how much he'd changed since his death.
The soft knocking on the door ended the contest; weapons were drawn, figures rapidly melted into the shadows of the room. The recriminations for failed security would come later; right now, their visitor was all that mattered. Within seconds only Eve remained in the light.
The door opened and a man walked in. "Hello," Eve greeted the intruder. "Who are you? Why are you here?" she asked. The hidden vampires and ghouls prepared to deal death, awaiting her signal.
"My name," the man said, "is Two Stones. I have information you will find useful."
Morning, April 15, 2001. Easter Sunday.
Aidan MacKinnon wept. She ran through the woods, nearly blind from her tears, stumbling, snapping low branches, until she reached Snowfall's grove. The maple stood in his usual spot in the center of the clearing.
"Oh god, Snowfalls, you've got to help me!"
The tree shimmered in the early morning light, dwindling into a red-bearded man's form. Startled, Snowfalls embraced the sobbing girl, holding her until she cried herself out.
"Will's dead," she finally managed.
Snowfalls wrinkled his brow for a moment. "Your brother?" he asked.
"Yeah, my brother. He's dead," she said, still not really believing it.
"How?"
"The vampires. They slaughtered our kin; Will, Henry James's sister and kids - kids, Snowfalls! - Thoreau's aunt. McCoy's friend, Snowfalls, they were all innocent! Those kids - oh, they were so sweet. We talked to them on the other side."
"Oh, child, I'm so sorry." He looked around the empty grove at the graves of his kin. "It is no consolation, but I understand how it feels. I'm so sorry."
"And the worst part of it all is that none of them were involved in this stupid war against the fucking Wyrm. Will was murdered to get to me. It's my fault that he's dead." The girl broke into a fresh wave of sobbing. Snowfalls pulled her close and let her cry on his shoulder.
They stood like that for several minutes, grieving their lost kin. Aidan eventually stopped crying, pulled out a tissue, and blew her nose.
"Rest here for a while," Snowfalls said. "You look like hell. When's the last time you slept?" Aidan smiled. "I see," he said, shaking his head. "Far too long ago. Sleep, child." His voice carried the weight of a drowsy summer afternoon as he shifted form.
Exhausted, Aidan curled up against the roots of the tall maple. She wanted to protest, wanted to talk about it, but he was right; she was so tired, words wouldn't bring Will back. She fell asleep within seconds.
His leaves shaded her from the light of the climbing sun, shielded her from the loss of her brother. When she awoke the blackness would descend again, but at least she could have peace for a time.
After several minutes, he sang in his native language, the language of his fallen tree-kin:
There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;And frogs in the pools singing at night
And wild plum trees in tremulous white;Robins will wear their feathery fire,
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly;And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn
Would scarcely know that we were gone.
He stood, silent.
"Though I daresay Ms. Teasdale didn't understand trees as well as she thought she did," Snowfalls added, after a moment's thought.
Eve's voice crackled in Tina's ear: "Alpha team, in position."
Tina took the safety off her gun, the Founder's old Glock 18a modified for a larger clip and fully-automatic fire, looked around the woods one last time, and chinned her radio. "Beta team, in position," she said.
They broke radio silence only now, poised to strike at the Lupines and punish them for their crimes. Eve had marshaled her resources and the Jacobians were ready to die for the oaths they'd sworn and blood already shed; the Lupines would not escape the tightening noose.
"Delta team, in position." Tina recognized Greg's voice; he would be leading the armored cavalry, Ford F-350 pickups specially modified for assaulting enemy fortifications.
"Omega team, in position." The key, the linchpin, the answer to the unsolvable riddle; Omega team was their ace in the hole tonight. Everything in place; everything is ready, Tina thought to herself.
Death stood poised, waiting to descend upon the Phoenix Caern.
"Move in," Eve's voice crackled in a hundred radios.
Tina sat at the head of the table, a battered notebook open before her. The remaining Jacobians, seated at the table or the couches along the walls of the large room, listened attentively as she read from it.
The battle claimed many lives; most of the Unicorn Sept is gone. Jonas is dead, killed after slaying the Pasadena Oil alpha. I think I saw MacKinnon wandering, dazed, but he vanished before I could stop him. I didn't find Wyldsong's body anywhere; he was too close to ground zero.
I fought beside them tonight and watched them die as they had lived; with a belief so strong in why they were fighting that their sacrifice makes sense, almost. They fought not only for personal survival, but for the survival of the planet, of the environment, for their goddesses Luna and Gaia.
I find that I envy them.
Lethe came by as I was preparing the pyres for the dead. She had been involved in some of the heaviest fighting at the front, waging her own personal war against Caliban for what he'd done to Kane. Covered in the slime and filth and gore of the dead, she didn't say anything. She didn't need to. I was okay, her kids were okay, the dead were avenged, life was okay again.
Her world is a black and white one; I envy that, too.
I do not know how future scholars will look at this night. Will the Kindred deny our alliance with the Garou, claiming it to be a fabrication of a mad prince or a practical joker? Will the Garou remember the sacrifices of my kind in their songs? Did we really fight a god, in this place, on this night? Was that jackal-headed monster who came boiling out of the rift in the earth one of Caine's children, a servant of the Wyrm, or something else more horrific? Does putting a name on it make it less terrifying? And how was he driven back by the holy power of Jesus Christ?
Gods and demons walked among us, our beliefs manifested in horrible, awesome form. Tonight's war of faith required belief to comprehend.
The only lesson I learned tonight; you must choose your gods wisely.
No one spoke. Tina closed the notebook, her head bowed in thought.
Two Stones sat and thought.
He thought of the past, of the mistakes which brought him to this place, to this time, of Ashurban, of Morning Rain, of Feels The Wind, of Phoenix, and of Luna.
He thought of the present, of plans thwarted yet again, of the Apocalypse, of the Seekers in the Abyss, of the Guardians protecting the rift.
He thought of the future, of the seeds of hope, of the Serpent around his soul, of the paths he must take, and of his disciples, those who would walk with him.
Relentless, implacable, unstoppable; such is the way of the Serpent of Time.
Two Stones sat and thought.
|
this fall
the battle of faith has begun. |
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Prelude: Seekers of the Inner Flame ©2001 Sarah Doss. Episode 1 Synopsis, Episode 2 Synopsis, Episode 3 Synopsis ©2001 David Long. All other content ©2000-2001 Brett Peters. Last revised August 25, 2001 18:35 EST.
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