Honestly it would make a LOT more sence to move the wolf game. Vampires are city creatures and there would be much more going on in Lansing for the vamps than for the wolves. and yes a more remote area would be much better suited for them.

Dave yes I am unwilling to play a wolf. nad I kow you are willing to but would much prefer to play a vamp. I am trying to get some Owosso people to come to Lansing again, I think I know of 2 that are interested right now and will see if I can have them come this Sat. so if I can get this to happen we are looking at a potential of 7 Vamp LARPers, wich is alot more for Seth to work with, and as Prince I am having Louis work in many directions to get interesting thigns going so it can be fun for everyone involved, just give Seth and I some time to get thigns going.

BTW Skippy, my comment to you was ment in a houmorous(sp) way. :)~

The point I was trying to convey is that Vampires and Garou should not exist in the same vicinity. As a matter of fact they generally dont for long. Since our games are artificially constrained BY THE STORYTELLERS to exist only in and around Lansing then it is the responsibility of the storytellers to come up with a viable solution if they want the two games to co-exist.

It's not enough to say that a player knows he can get beat up and so it's his fault if he dies. The game has changed to a point where Vampires as a species are not viable unless they completely avoid intentional and unintentional contact with the Garou. Those Garou players who take this into consideration and take pity on the Kindred by avoiding them, not pursuing them or letting them go are acting out of OOC concerns which translate to bad roleplay.

Move the Kindred game to another city for gods sake. Eliminating the genre takes away much of the chance of recruiting entry level new players who often find anything but Vampire out of their league. Separate the two games by geography. Put us Kindred in... oh I dont care, how about Chicago or Detroit. Detroit would be especially interesting and challenging. It would take some research of course as few of us have the geographical knowledge of Detroit that we do of Lansing.

Or better yet, move the Garou game. Werewolves belong away from the city. What are they doing here? Make it Rage across Owosso or Rage across Ovid-Elsie or how about Rage across Eagle. It would make much more sense game-wise. The only reason the Garou come into Lansing in the first place is because the storytellers put objectives and hooks there. Remove that and the conflict ends.

Of course then we wind up with a three player Vamp LARP and a separate Garou LARP, but that is the price you have to pay to end the Werewolf / Vampire cheese factor. You Louis are basically the deciding factor here. You are the one with the problem. You also have the most experienced Vamp character and you are the only one not willing to play Werewolf. So really it comes down to your decision. Take your LARP to another IC city, persuade the STs to move the Garou LARP (which would probably be easier if we were the majority) or live with the annoyance of the Garou in the interest of continuing to play your character and have other characters to interact with.

I don't think that is what is being conveyed. The point of all this is to show that Werewolves are supposed to be the braun of the WoD, while the Vampires are supposed to be the manipulators in the dark.

This sentiment has existed since I started at Fortress, and I know it exists in many other games. Its not that big a deal. A character dies, move on and play a new one.

So basicly what I am seeing here is that if I want to play a Vampire I should fuck off and go away.. Hmmm thats nice.

Here's the problem with perception related supernatural abilities in the game. As previously stated, Garou don't exist(at least they aren't supposed to) to kindred, they exist as Lupines. They don't have an intricate pack or Sept structure. Furthermore, they don't have any special powers other than being able to thrash anything they come across and shift forms. They simply exist to spread terror throughout the rural portions of the world.

As for Garou, kindred don't exist to them, only wyrm-serving leeches. They don't have any perception powers, only abilities meant to sway mortals and powers of supernatural reslience.

The games are NOT meant to interact with the separate Laws of the *insert title* creatures. Skippy brought up a good point if its that big a deal. Hopefully, it isn't. I don't particularly like mixed games, but I like the patronage of the other games a lot less than mixed games.

In regards to earlier comments I believe that the Umbra has not been played correctly. As it was stated in one of the MET magazines the Umbra was not intended to be the safe house/locker room it usually degrades to. The Umbra is an extremely dangerous place of unpredictable occurances. On top of this vampires are reported to have banes follow them like flies but no attacks of such banes have occured from following vampires in the Umbra nor is there a system to create the type, power, or number of them encountered. As far as I know the presence of the banes are concentrated to particular places in the city or other aspects of the LARP for that matter. Everyone is so wrapped up in the supernatural aspect of things they neglect to see that banes and wyrm taint is not a cause of corruption they are a result of it. The people, places, and things bound with the banes from the Wyrm itself are to be pathetic in regards the people, places, and things that were encouraged to prusue a certin road and continued down that road on it's own because it wants to. As for the detection abilities of vampire and Garou I have no idea if they are working as the designers of the game had intended or not. I aslo imagine that it would be rather difficult to get a straight answer form them on that anyway. Incedently Obfuscate is a mind effecting power and can not be side stepped with simple smell. Only Enhanced Senses or it's equivalent, which Garou have normaly in Lupus form only or purchased from the Lupus Gifts, allows for a test to detect the Obfuscated individual. Now Garou are considered a pack creature. They come together in times of physical threat, granted they don't come together for much else, but when life and death are on the line the Garou unify. Vampires on the other hand have a hard time trusting each other let alone comming together. When battle ensues they may take some individual strikes but then they scatter to the wind. Now if someone wants to wine about a single vampire not being able to take on a pack I have no pity for them. That's the nature of the beast. You chose what to play. You are the best to know the strengths and weaknesses of palying such a character in such a world. Now if you have a problem as a player I would sugest thinking of some viable system or solution to present to the STs that dosen't degrade the game as a whole, such as duplicating existing powers or making a particular clan or tribe useless. If you as a character have a problem with something, I say great!!!!!! Run with it. Your character has a need, a dependence, a desire. It's the weaknesses and shortcommings that make a character.

So, why is Fortress still a crossover? Why not settle on one Genre? There are other games in East Lansing to play at, for those who would be spun by this.

Perhaps it is wrong on both sides. Vampires Do fitght through human pawns, and vampiric low cunning in life threatening situations, as well as the lethality of fighting a vampire is lost in LARP. Explosives, instant kill traps, guns in mob combat. All these things are weakened through LARP rules. Cross overgames have to be very STRICTLY controlled, and almost completely independant from one another. . . what then, is the point of playing a crossover game. Perhapes a linked city separate game system would be better? It would reinforce the idea that vamps are almost indetectable in a city amoung hordes of kine. Perhapes if you have the player base it would simply work much better

I'd like to put here a piece of a post that appeared in the MET forums on the White-Wolf website. It describes exactly half of my bitch when it comes to crossover games:

Actually, you will QUITE OFTEN hear Vampire players complaining about crossovers with werewolves, because vampires have two things going for them: They are extremely dificult to find, and they have massive control over humans and a great ability to fight through pawns.

In a LARP with a crossover, you've just eliminated BOTH of those advantages. The players of werewolves are already present, and, using the system literally, Garou find vampires much better than lupines are supposed to. Their control over mortals and influence doesn't matter so much to Garou, because Garou have influence and control as well, and also because an apparently large or vocal group of players dislike using influence and pawns to kill or cripple your enemies, and so disallow it in their games.

Now, suddenly, you can't run (they're faster), you MIGHT be able to hide (if you can win tests against 5 or 6 people at once to Vanish), and if you fight, you're simply pitting your disciplines against their physical power and gifts.

Oh, no. The Elder Brujah with Celerity 5 and Potence 5 might be able to do significant damage to a single Garou. Maybe he'll even beat that character down and kill him. That's one vampire. EVERY Garou is a walking killing machine, and anyone who ISN'T that Elder is dead by the time the Elder kills that one Garou. Then all the rest of the Garou turn on him at once, and he dies.

Garou win combats against anything but Elders one on one. They win combats against Elders by having numerical superiority. The system is NOT flawed in this way, and Garou do NOT suffer from not having Potence coming with their Rank any more. They simply don't win automatically.

The flaws in the system, as I see them, are equally present in Tabletop as well for a crossover. Those flaws are the gifts that allow detection and the Umbra itself: The Garou have a place that is most often portrayed as "safe" where they can retreat to, basically at will, where the vampires are utterly incapable of reaching them or affecting them. Worse, this place can, in most games, take them through any barrier, past any lock, through any gate. It makes it impossible to hold a place securely once the Garou know of it's placement. The detection gifts remove that other advantage - Sense Wyrm alone allows the Garou to pick a vampire out of a crowd, removing the camouflage and hiding that all vampires rely on to survive. Essentially, systemwise, vampires cannot hide from Garou.

This is okay if you're playing Werewolf: The Apocalypse. This is BAD if you're playing Vampire, because, like I said, only an elder with many disciplines or a very lucky neonate is going to survive an attack from a single werewolf, and an attack from a pack will kill just about anything.

Hopefully this sheds some light on the inequities of the situation.

I maintain that there are two major reasons why crossover games lead to breakdowns. First and least is that Vampire powers have mitigating crossover rules that allow Garou to act as if they are a high Generation or in a similar way negate the effect while Garou powers have no such rules.
Take for example some of the powers mentioned by Adam. Dominate: There are rules whereby Garou of high rank are treated if they have generation enough to be unaffected. Thaumaturgy: Cauldron of Blood (any supernatural creature can somehow survive the boiling of 30% of their blood while any normal mortal is an insta-kill) Potence / Celerity / Fortitude: Rank based bonuses used to balance these out, thankfully they have been taken away.
I'm not saying these are bad rules, but I would like to see it work both ways. Scent sensing Garou gifts should be foiled by Obfuscate. Blur of the Milky Eye and such should have rules to interact with Auspex, there are so many others. Hopefully you begin to see where the two sets of rules were not developed to work with each other beyond the most basic interaction or where one side is an NPC. Secondly and more importantly is that the experience systems are different. If the Vampires are a bunch of Neonates and the Weres are all 3rd or higher rank the game breaks, similarly if the PCs are Elders and the Garou are a bunch of Cubs or the like it breaks in the other direction.
Generation vs. Rank is literally apples and BMWs. They cannot be accurately compared such that combat between the two is any way dramatic. One side or the other simply massacres the other side for no more reason than because they hate them. There isn't enough social interaction between the two groups for betrayals, grudges, envy and greed to form. One side simply beats the other unto death, the dead side is best left to the realm of the NPC.

The problem with using mortals is that Garou don't need to live in a city(unless they're Glasswalkers). Your hoards of influence, allies, retainers, and contacts don't mean much if your quarry can't be located, as in when the Sept lives in a Caern of Stealth.

As for the rather... unsubtle approach, those situations are rather unlikely. Occurrences like those mentioned are tracable, usually by parties that supernaturals don't want to deal with. Also note that hunters, unless they're awakened(most aren't), are subject to Delerium.

There is a reason crossover games are destined to not work. Its due to the fact that the systems are incompatible for the most part, both the mechanics and the settings. Vampires don't know what Garou are. They know that Lupines are furry death machines, patrolling the woods and killing all that don't belong therein. There are no kindred to Garou. There are only walking corpses, sucking the blood out of the living and disturbing Gaia's order.

Lastly, whoever is outliving us needs to realize we're talking Out of Character... and that they're an idiot for thinking otherwise.

True, the third rank silver fang in question did play for a year, but there are many gifts, or at least where many gifts that allowed you advantages in the social arena. It might be noted again that garou as a whole are a highly motivated almost military force with a deep seated sense of honour. They thus look down on surrender. As many ventrue have found with erstwhile brujah anarch jeremy macneil, sometimes hitting something, and hitting it hard with all the evil dark vampiric, ventruelike cunning one can muster simply stirs up a hornets nest. . . garou have long memries, and many friends after all.

A load of social traits and Presence for a defence stacked with the fuzzies negative social traits when they change is a good start. Then an armed accompniment of ghouls where ever you go. Use contacts and influence to make thier lives a living hell with humans and hunters. If the above dosen't work a timed remote explosive or other toxic substance release mechanism triggered by a simple programmed number on a cell phone can send them packing if you remind them that they can either take care of the other danger/s or they can continue to attack you. Surviving a fuzzy attack is not difficult you just have to be aware enough to see the forest through the trees. We Cainites have all of eternity to invent these protections. Be creative, use your brains, after all their just dumb animals. Sure they can kill and destroy just put them in the situations where that won't do them any good.

That was due to the fact that the Rank 3 Silver Fang in question has a trait max of 14(and a couple bonus traits from his Pack Totem), where as any PC level vampire character has a trait max of 12, before whatever bonuses that might be applicable.

The cases I mentioned are for the vast majority of PC level Garou, who are Cubs, Cliaths, or Fosterns. At these Ranks, vampires are on par, in terms of social and mental traits, with Garou. Since the Rank 3 Fuzzy in question had been in play for almost a year, his being Rank 3 made sense.

For the majority of the characters in the shifter portion of the game, we fit into the Rank 2 or lower designation. The socially adept or mentally superior leech will still succeed in a challenge against most of them.

as we have seen in the past dominate, and presance, and any other discipline used by vampires has decidedly little effect against 3rd rank silver fangs. That, and the fact that most imaginative, and charismatic werewolves have the use of magical effects far beyond most tremere kinda unlevels the playing field. Scources (axis mundi, and Vassili talaniekov)

In the interest of fairness, and as someone who has played both sides a fairly good amount, I will now list the best anti-Werewolf powers that Vampires have access to.

Animalism: Quell the Beast

Dominate: Command and/or Mesmerism

Presence: All levels aside from Summon

Serpentis: Eyes of the Serpent

Thaumaturgy: Numerous rituals and Paths

I'm sure I'm leaving out several, but there are several ways in which Vampires can get around getting annihilated via a little non-violent action when dealing with Lupines.

Dave and Dave and any other. I'll do some checking on the Mosquito spirit. Perhaps when this was done I misread/misinterpretted something. The Rite was done in the Umbra under the guise of preforming a Rite of Cleansing on Louis. The silly spirit hasn't done anything anyways. I think I have only asked one time what the spirit has found out. I'll re-read the stuff tho. In case you are wondering how a mosquito has a spirit? Ask White Wolf...they are part of Wendigo's Spirit Brood... In any event, don't worry about the mosquito...it's part of a plot device anyway that is going to have very little/if anything to do with Louis/the vamps. *evil grin*

Houston...we have a problem.... CARP is taking over the Fortress tomorrow!!! :( I'll have to talk to Seth, and see what he wants to do..

Try to make these two sentences make sence:

"Animals and people almost never manifest in the Umbra..." p.228

"Spirits trapped in this rite can be bound to temporary service or into a talen, or indeed any object, place or person."

I can see how this would work. The spirit is bound into the physical world and since spirits in the physical also have an umbral presence viola now Louis is a little tiny mosquito dot in the Umbra. But how was it done in the first place? I'm assuming Louis wouldn't let you guys do this voluntarily in the real world. How do you bind a spirit to something that has no Umbral presence? And I dont buy the argument that weaver, wyld and wyrm spirits are alive in every worn out penny, piece of cheese and gum wrapper Louis might have in his old jean pockets. It just doesn't wash.

Vampires do sorta have an Umbral presence, based on the banes(if any) are around them. Also, there are probably weaver spirits in whatever Louis has on his person(guns, clothes... a box full of knives).

Sense Wyrm, while not an exact science, can also track Wyrm critters rather well.

In Louis's case, I'm assuming the Spirit was bound to him in some fassion(Rite of Binding). This doesn't require much time or effort and could have been done on the Umrbral form of something on him.

Has anyone read 3rd edition Rite of the Questing Stone? It seems to me to describe something very different from what's been played. Specifically we've played where it used a stone suspended from a stick by a string which continuously indicated direction toward a target. The way I read it the Rite gives you ONE reading which would indicate direction and approximate distance (presumably by more or less pull on the stone). The big indicator of this is the description of how Glasswalkers use the power, with a map and an indicator. "This rite gives a Garou a sense of the object's general location but not exact position" Exact position is my gripe here.

It annoys me the multitude of times garou have abused powers against Kindred. I guess I'm going to have to learn these powers inside and out so that I dont get taken advantage of, even though I dont play the game.

And here is a second one, and there may be a legitimate power that the Mosquito spirit has that makes this legal, but I cant assume that anymore. I wonder how this Mosquito spirit is "attached" to Louis? Louis has no form in the Penumbra, nor do any of the Garou while they are in the real world. Is it Peeking and following him around? Is it materialized? Both of these things require charms. The Mosquito spirit has no way of seeing or following Louis without special abilities. Also, what are the limits on what the spirit has been asked??? Does it blindly follow Louis around forever just for being asked / commanded to? This doesn't fit with how the section on spirits defines their interaction with Garou. I would think that someday the little Mosquito wants to become a big mosquito, thus it would bargain, and continue to bargain for continued service. Not only that but how are the Garou FINDING the thing when they need to locate Louis? Is there some spirit homing Gift I'm not aware of? Then again there is an answer to this one, but I'm not spelling it out.

Sorry to rant but I am of the opinion that these two games cant co-exist without unfairness to one side or the other. Unfairness that has to be taken into account carefully and watched closely lest it run roughshod over one section of the game or the other. Large elements of Laws of the Wild are open to interpretation much moreso than in Vampire. It's not a game that can be run in the same "Throw them a bone, let them go and see what happens" way that Vampire can. Players much be watched much more closely or of course they are going to fill in the blanks in a way favorable to their characters. This is fine until it buts into PC vs PC conflict. Even Were vs. Were PC conflict (if there is such a creature) can run into those abuses.

Go on, set me straight if I'm wrong.

Also Dave you might consider the fact that you are almost alone in the city into the "Werewolves can easily beat me down" equation. If there were a dozen or so Kindred hanging around I'm sure you can see that we'd stand a better chance.
Other than what's been said what were you aiming for in your post? A rewrite to boost Vampires or weaken Garou or to just point out a gripe? Have you actually fought one of the Garou or are you just assuming Louis would die? My biggest problem with the crossovers as they've been played is not about power levels, but instead tracking ability. Is it possible that players and storytellers alike are overestimating the abilities of a mosquito spirit or certain gifts and rites? Pardon me for questioning the authorities but do they know enough about the game to rule on these things properly?
It seems to me if you had the ability to locate almost ANYTHING given time you would be teeming with powerful fetishes or important artifacts in no time. I'm going to do a little research myself to see if I'm wrong about this, but in the meantime consider the opinion of one that has at least witnessed the incredible in play if not through the rules.

Gee, Werewolves(also known as Gaia's WARRIORS) can kill Vampires rather easily? Who would have thought that a bunch of fury death machines, who are rather gregarious when compared to vampires(hence, the packs and gang beat downs), could kill them without much trouble? Short of Fleetness and/or Puissance, killing Werewolves for a vampire should be next to impossible. Even with those two advanced Disciplines, it still isn't as easy feat to be on equal ground with a Garou(I won't even get into other shifters). Look at it this way(and it applies to both MET and Table Top), a beginning Werewolf(of any Rank), can bid up to 18 traits in a physical challenge. Without bonuses from Disciplines or weapons, a Vampire has to be 6th generation to do that. Vampires' strengths are in their aptitude at manipulating mortals. Now, whether you realized this and worked on increasing Influences and backgrounds, or you didn't and decided to buy kewl powerz, is irrelevant.

ok, here is my view on it. and I am sure some will feel I am just wineing or bitching but here goes. I have played Louis for over a year now. and he is fairly respectable. Now the game has shifted to mostly werewolf... and I am facing charites that have played under 2 months (or there aobuts) that can kick my ass without hardly trying.. I am sorry but that seems VERY unballanced. What to do, I am not sure.. but a year plus of playing should account for more thatn having to hide in a hole to not get ganked by a newbie charictor.

Unfortunately for Garou the power actually works as written, or even the way Seth is proposing editing it. However, the idea of creating a better conversion set of rulings and rules in the Vampire to Garou direction is a good one. I'm sure there are many powers that could be concieved to work on Garou only attributes. For example:
The merit Medium could be used to talk to spirits in a game that generally doesn't include Wraiths. Spirit Mentor and Haunted could work the same way.
It would be interesting if the Cast No Reflection merit (and thus Lasombra) also provided no reflection to Scent of the True Form as the Merit does mention Silver.
Animalism powers such as Quell the Beast and Drawing Out the Beast could easily be concieved to affect Rage.
Psychic Projection could simply put the Vampire in the Umbra if the general game centered around Werewolves. Similarly Aura Perception could be converted to Peeking at the Umbra. Auspex in general aught to have crossover rules for detecting things from Laws of the Wild that provide invisibility effects.
Dementation powers such as Passion could easily affect Rage.
Necromancy and Wraith centered powers could be seen as reaching into the Deep Umbra in a world where you want to focus on Garou and simplify the planes of existance.
Obtenebration and Viccissitude could have odd links to spirits Garou could actually interact with while in the Umbra.
Shape of the Beast (Protean) aught to grant the same trait bonuses that being in Lupine form does to the Garou.
The list goes on and on, some suggestions are good and some are bad. If the game continues to be Garou centered these would actually be ways the garou and Kindred could interact more frequently. Since our list of participants hasn't changed much over the past few months I dont see much harm in making the game a little less portable (that is, less exactly applicable to all the other Vampire LARPs out there). Just as long as everyone understands what's going on.

Hey Dave, the werewolves have a gift named Open Wounds which adds extra damage over time normaly but against vampires it only leaches away their blood pool a little. Now I realize that vampire was made first and dosen't take into acount that they may be going up against Garou but could it be possible that a soul stealing power may leach away Gnosis, as it is an incriment of spiritual power, either temporarly or permantly?

Top Ten Garou Combat Monkey powerz(Note: not in any particular order and don't involve spirits doing the whooping):

Master of Fire

Primal Anger

Gift of the Porcupine

Wither Limb

Blissful Ignorace/Blur of the Milky Eye

Thieving Talons of the Magpie

Paws of the Newborn Cub

Chaos Mechanics

Gift of the Spriggan

Last, and certainly least(this could be an inside joke), Mercy

Wha? Garou? I dont belive in Garou.
Okay, for your viewing pleasure I present to thee the top ten list of GIFTS for the Combat Monkey:
10) Being a Garou

9) Being a Garou

8) Being a Garou

7) Being a Garou

6) Being a Garou

5) Being a Garou

4) Being a Garou

3) Being a Garou

2) Being a Garou
And the number one GIFT for a Combat Monkey:

10) Being a Garou
You asked for it... well sorta.

Hey Dave, in regards to the combat monkey powers and abilities I wanted to do something simular for Garou but certain powers are devistating to to those in the real world and pittly in the Umbra and vice versa. For the combat monkey list/Garou did you want those that effect the real world, the Umbra, or only those that are effective in both? Granted this would be without any of the other changing breeds powers and abilities.

List of the top ten ABILITIES for a Combat Monkey:

10) Fleshcrafting (specialty: table lamps)
9) Drive (specialty: running over things)
8) Occult (specialty: rituals that break things)
7) Melee (specialty: stop signs)
6) Brawl (specialty: table-leg stakes)
5) Intimidation (specialty: making underlings pee themselves)
4) Medicine (specialy: recovering from Agg damage)
3) Science: Chemistry (specialty: anything that goes boom)
2) Science: Physics (specialty: bank shots)

And the number one ABILITY for Combat Monkeys
1) Science: Mathmology (no specialization)

List of the top ten powers for a Combat Monkey:

10) Feral Claws
9) Presence Summon
8) Command
7) Fortitude
6) Puissance
5) Flight
4) Flesh / Bonecraft
3) Arms of the Abyss
2) Fleetness

And the number one power for Combat Monkeys
1) Soul Stealing

I'd like to interject here to say that Beetle Ninja Named Lady is nor never was affiliated with us. We categorically deny knowledge of Beetle Named Lady, furthermore we have no comment. Lady Beetle knew, we told her, at the outset that if it discovered this will happen and so it has. Lady Beetle no Ninja of ours. Check the Monks down the block. Maybe she's theirs. Oh, but if you ever do need Ninja, and it's for good cause, see me. I give you good discount. Especially on Orange Ninja. Yes yes, Orange Ninja on special. Half dozen for dollar.

Guns and kung fu are meek and only a portion of what is needed. With out the correct direction and insight you may have all the strength in the universe and you will still fall at the hands of those who you considered lesser. In our common day world if you have to resort to guns and kung fu you have already lost.

The story was relayed to me as follows, from the great lord Maygar, who learned it from his father, who learned it from his, and so forth and so one. Once, there was a little beetle spirit. The spirit gazed upon the world, and saw all its suffering and corruption from the wyrm, and was saddened. It almost turned to a life of accounting in its grief, but another spirit, the spirit of sleep, intervened. It offered the little beetle spirit a chance to take the fight to the wyrm. The little beetle was brave, and accepted, and the two disappeared from the world for a time. When the little beetle returned, it was different. It knew kung fu, and the ability to leap from tall buildings to a span of over 50 feet. Other spirits were unimpressed by this, noting that the little beetle had wings, but the little beetle knew they were just jealous. Life was not all just jumping from buildings and shooting fully automatic weapons with pinpoint accuracy however. Eventually something bad happened. what it was has been lost to the sands of time, but it involved some really bad corruption and barry boswick. All of gaia's spirits were powerless to stop matters, but the little beetle was unafraid. It journeyed deep into manhatten, where after many perils, it met gaia. "mother", it said, "I desire to fight for your honor, but I know not the way" "great googly moogly!" said gaia, who looked like george clinton "you gotsta get the cosmic jelly in your soul!" and then the little beetle knew that gaia was dumb, so it left, and purchased a number of heavy firearms from streetdealers in queens. Then it found the problem, and shot it, using many acrobatic maneuvers, and the latest in CGI/real time cinematography. The lesson? Gaia can't save you. buy guns. and learn kung fu.

*chirp* *chirp* .... *chirp* *chirp*

Actually I heard a different version of the tale of Lady Beetle. Well, not so different really in the broad sense, but many details of what has been told by Blodgett are altered from the story told to me. It is true that The Spirit, whatever it was wished to destroy the Wyld and all in it. After all there are no flowers and trees in the world it wished to create. No beasts either, at least not of the natural animal variety. Only monsters, monsters subordinate to The Spirit itself.

And there was itching. God the awful itching. And Beetle squishing, cant forget the Beetle squishing. But right after the first time The Spirit squished Lady Beetle's insignificant material form and before it gathered itself for more destruction and devouring, in that moment of reorientation, a prized stag The Spirit had been planning on eating made it's escape.

The second time just as it was crushing the last of the Wild Orchids Lady Beetle returned, and in it's aggrivation it forget to eradicate the last of them.

And so on, only worse as it's distraction grew. And the way I hear it, as it grew smaller and everything else grew bigger in comparison a day came when it wandered into a field of great green trees so large to destroy them would have taken forever. And so it stopped to consider a plan to destroy the trees, and saw that they were not trees at all, but Orchids. The very ones it had thought destroyed. It was at that moment it realized that Lady Beetle was powerful and it was weak.

The rest of the story is very much the same. Even now though, it is said that Lady Beetle protects those that do no harm except that which is natural for sustenance of their own life. Rarely is she ever seen by those she protects or those she affects for that matter. She is in the little things that turn the hunt in favor of the hunted that she can be seen. She's in the twig that snaps underfoot, alerting the Elk, in the trap that fails to close quite right and she's the little twitch that gives the lie away. That's Lady Beetle, and that's the way I heard it told.

Alright this is a test. Feel free to remove it once it's posted I dont care.

Actually I'd rather you did so nobody sees my feeble attempt to remember my web skills.
Okay I'm done now.

The following is a tale seldom told, probably due to the fact that there are no glorious battles, there is no single, obvious lesson to be learned, and there is no ironic twist at the end. It happened long ago (if it happened at all), when Man was in his earliest stages, and soon after the great imbalance; perhaps even then.



The story is of a powerful spirit; the spirit has no name, or it has been lost through the passage of time, so it shall simply be referred to here as the Spirit. What gave the Spirit it's power is unknown, but it matters not: the important thing is that it became corrupted and enlisted by the Wyrm. The Spirit knew that all of Gaia's beasts relied on plants for survival: either a beast ate plants, or it ate something which ate plants, or it ate something which ate something which ate plants, and so on. And so the Spirit envisioned the goal of destroying all of Gaia's greenery, and thus, most of Gaia herself.

Hence, the Spirit grew. As it grew, it began to demolish more and more of the plantlife.

Then, one day, the Spirit felt something; a small, itching irritation. It could not see what was causing this, and so reached one of it's many appendages around to find the source of the disturbance. After many attempts, it was successful, and brought the offending matter up to meet the Spirit's gaze. It was Lady Beetle. With a smirk, the Spirit brought two of it's appendages together, and Lady Beetle was squashed.

The Spirit thought little of the encounter, and continued on it's mission. The next day, however, it felt the same irritation on a different portion of it's body. Again, it reached around, and again, it's gaze met Lady Beetle's tiny form. "Leave me be," he declared. Again, Lady Beetle was squashed.

The next day, the Spirit had thought about Lady Beetle, and when the irritation returned, this time on yet another part of it's form, it was not surprized. The Spirit brought Lady Beetle once again in front of him. "If you continue to bother me, I shall cripple you!" he hissed at the tiny bug. Lady Beetle's reply was to begin nibbling at the appendage holding her, and so the Spirit came through on his threat. Using one of the powers granted to him by the Wyrm, he corrupted Lady Beetle so that her mind was lost and her form became twisted. But Lady Beetle was frail, and quickly died.

The day after, the irritation returned. The Spirit tried to ignore it, but it is too difficult to ignore something eating away at one's flesh. So, again, the Spirit grabbed Lady Beetle. "I shall grant that you are persistant," it said to her. "In fact, I could use your assistance. Join me in the destruction of all of Gaia's plants, and I shall see that you are the most powerful insect of all!" "I am already powerful," was Lady Beetle's meek reply. The Spirit could not help but chortle at this. "How is it that you are powerful?" it chortled. But Lady Beetle would not respond, as she was too busy nibbling away at the Spirit. And so, once again, she was squashed.

And so it happened, month after month, year after year: Each day, the irritating nibbling would return, and each day, Lady Beetle was easily squashed.

Finally, after much anger, frustration, and exhaustion, the Spirit screamed at Lady Beetle, "Fine! Devour me completely! I welcome Death over this horrid existance!" And Lady Beetle kept nibbling at the Spirit, and this time, the Spirit allowed it; but, by now, the Spirit was huge. And so Lady Beetle nibbled. And Lady Beetle nibbled some more. Nibble, nibble, nibble. And Lady Beetle nibbled even more. There was truly an excessive amount of nibbling going on. Far more nibbling than you could possibly imagine.

And, eventually, the Spirit became small; and, as he was small, he became weak. And when the Spirit was as small as Lady Beetle herself, Lady Beetle stopped nibbling. "What are you doing!?" the Spirit cried. "Devour all of me! End my terrible suffering!" But Lady Beetle took flight, and flitted away. Then, the Spirit realized that it would spend the rest of Eternity in torment. The Spirit realized that if it were ever to grow again, Lady Beetle would return. The Spirit realized that it wished that it itself were as mighty as Lady Beetle. And with these realizations, the Spirit used it's remaining energy to let out one of the most dreadful and horrific wails of suffering and torment ever to reverberate throughout the realms. After this, it retreated and hid, and has never been heard from again.

Thus, whether they know of the tale or not, something deep inside each and every minion of the Wyrm fears that, someday, Lady Beetle will turn her attention to them, and begin the nibbling anew.