Primal Growth

The discovery of long-dormant caerns is always a time of celebration in the Garou Nation, especially one in such a grand and historic spot as Yellowstone. Located deep in the forest, at the heart of the Yellowstone Caldera, the spiritual place of power from the primordial past slumbered, and with it the ancestor spirits that once tended the land.

The group of curious Garou who uncovered it - largely Red Talons, but a few others mixed in - were joyous at their discovery, and even more so once the spirits at its heart trusted them enough to teach the long forgotten rites and gifts to them. One in particular caught the eye of the elders, a powerful rite forbidden even in it's time, long and complex and dangerous. The spirits whispered that it would bring the primeval splendour back to the world, take things back to how they used to be.

Delirious with excitement and drenched in wonder, the Garou began to enact it. Fourteen days and nights of ritual were required, eating nothing and drinking only rainwater. Enough Gnosis to birth a half dozen caerns over again was funnelled into the earth, special glyphs painted on bodies and trees and dirt with blood and sap. Howling loud and strong to shake the trees and dances and songs timed precisely to the eruption of Old Faithful sung the glory of the Mother into the sky and earth and water.

And when the moon rose on the fifteenth night, half the Garou performing the rite had died from exhaustion, but it was done. The rite was complete. The surviving ritemasters slept and ate and knew it - whatever "it" would be - had worked.

As the country around them slumbered, the rite worked it's magic. In a single night, the primeval world awoke again, and the veil was torn asunder. From Seattle to the most southern tip of Texas, the western United States and parts of northern Mexico had been destroyed by the sudden growth of trees the likes of which modern man had never seen. The forest would soon encroach on parts of Canada, swallowing half of Vancouver and eating it's way north.

Panic set in overnight, and the Garou Nation itself was not immune. Not even all those who had performed the rite were in agreement about if it had been good for the world at large or not.