Places

The Stargazer Ragabash, Joel, spends a great deal of time contemplating on complex conceptual ideas in the Astral Umbra, often following such ideas to their root causalities. After returning from his last sojourn, he begs anyone who listens to return to the Astral with him to defeat the Wyrm. The other sept members believe Joel is attempting to pull a prank on them to teach them some kind of object lesson about entering the Astral. Not wanting to be remiss in the event Joel has stumbled upon a real issue, the sept Alpha charges the characters with talking to Joel and helping him if it warrants attention.

While Joel was near an abstract realm in the Astral Umbra, a portal opened nearby and six Black Spiral Dancers came through, followed by a mage. The Dancers took no notice of Joel, but instead started off in a direction indicated by the mage, who remained behind. Once the Black Spiral Dancers were out of sight, the mage returned through the portal and closed it behind him. Shocked and curious, Joel followed the Wyrm tainted Garou in secret. Joel could tell the Dancers were in the Astral in their physical bodies, but seemed unaffected by its pull and push, nor did the Astral seem to react to their Rage. Joel followed them long enough to hear their plans before he ran in search of help. The Dancers are looking for the root of the ideas of decay and destruction to bring to Malfeas and feed to the Wyrm. They hope to give him strength beyond imagining with these base concepts.

Joel is uncertain if the Black Spiral Dancers are able to accomplish their goal, or if they will do no more than disrupt the Astral Umbra. He is certain that their success will spell devastation for the Garou. He intends to lead the characters through the Dream Zone into the Astral Umbra to stop the Black Spiral Dancers and return any idea they might have stolen to its proper place in the Astral. Joel tracked down the mage who led the Black Spiral Dancers into the Astral. He says he loaned them tokens that attunes them and suppresses their Rage while in the Astral Umbra, preventing the Astral from destroying them as they search. The characters must find the Black Spiral Dancers and stop them. As a side effect of using the tokens, the Dancers are unable to use their Rage in the Astral, so the characters have an advantage if they can survive long enough to get to the fight.

Just as the Middle Umbra is a spiritual reflection of the world and its inhabitants, the Dark Umbra is a spiritual reflection of the death, suffering, and decay of the world. Home to ghosts, spectres, wraiths, and the destructive forces of entropy, the realm is a dark and bitter place to visit. No one knows the size and extent of the Dark Umbra, though it seems to stretch on forever, containing dead souls and physical representations of humanity’s lost civilizations, memories, and darkest fears. Travel within the Dark Umbra can be dangerous for those who are not themselves dead, as the life that flows through them serves as a beacon to the ghosts who dwell within.

Within this Umbra, travelers find ruins of ancient civilizations, the decayed remnants of long lost religions and ideals, and the terrifying creatures that stalk people’s nightmares. The shadows of the Dark Umbra are deeper and darker than any found in the material world. Not every aspect of the Dark Umbra is dangerous. While many souls trapped through violent crimes and terrible deaths make up most of the ghostly inhabitants of the Dark Umbra, some ghosts are trapped because they simply want to finish some driving goal. Those will do anything for a chance to complete their life’s work and pass on to whatever awaits them on the other side.

The ghosts of the Dark Umbra have their own ter­ minology for their world. The Shadowlands is their term — accepted by other travellers — for the Dark Penumbra, while the roiling fury between the Umbral Realms is better known as the Tempest.

Everything in the Dark Umbra is made up of the souls of the dead. Each building, item, and structure is forged from

the souls of ghosts too weak to retain their own consciousness. The strong memories of places and things create represen­ tations within the Dark Umbra, but all of these things are created of soulstuff. Whenever a person dies and leaves a ghost, that ghost lives in the Dark Umbra until such a time as it passes on through the destructive force of Oblivion. The ghosts who inhabit the Dark Umbra as entities capable of autonomous movement and thought are the remains of powerful and knowledgeable people.