So it begins.

From Dr. Ambrose Quintrell's logfiles (notes for planned article...perhaps to be submitted to Paradigma?) dated March 2007:

A young Garou whiles away her time in an arcade, when suddenly a terrified falcon spirit darts up to her. "Hide me, hide me!" Whisking the poor frightened creature into her coat, she looks around quickly to find the threat.

In careens a man wearing an outfit that looks like a cross between Indiana Jones and a virtual reality immersion suit. Baffled, she watches him skulk through the crowd toward her (for a given value of "skulk" that involves botching on your single die)...when suddenly, he panics. After a glance up toward the catwalk, the evidently crazy fellow dives for the shadows, immersing himself within so thoroughly that our young protagonist loses track of him.

But what could send a relentless scientist scurrying away from his prey? Why, the Technocracy, of course! Unbeknownst to the innocent young Garou, two Men in Black stood upon that metal grating, observing the mage...er, Scientist's every move. What could he do but head for cover?

But a true Scientist does not give up the chase so easily! I had spent two months tracking down traces of etherial phenomena in Chicago, and finally I had a solid trail. That bird...er, thing, I was determined, would not get away. But I admit that I hadn't factored in the possibility that it might have allies. This unassuming girl, according to my readings, was nothing less than a human/etherial hybrid! Fantastic! Nothing in my two years of research had prepared me for such a thing. Obviously, I had to know more. But it must be done carefully. I wouldn't want bystanders to believe that I was attempting to molest a 16 year old girl. For that matter, I didn't want to scare her off. I hoped for an interview.

Once the enemy had vacated the scene, I caught up to my target. Showing no fear of me when she noticed I was back on her trail, the intrepid young lady stopped and waited for me!

It was at this moment that I realized I had no strategy for first contact. Following the...etherial falcon manifestation, I had simply planned to capture it long enough to perform a few simple tests before releasing it back into the wild. But an actual living(?) person...

Well, as they say, there's no time like the present! At first, the wily young woman attempted to deny that she knew anything, but I could see that she was aware of the etherial creature riding in her pocket.

Note to self: this bit needs a serious rewrite. Think of a way to present a flock of "spirit-falcons" in a way that doesn't sound quite so... ridiculous. Also: good lord, Ambrose, grammar!

It was during this period of give-and-take that we both became aware of the cloud of falcons--a flock of them, numbering so many that they began to darken the sky as they passed overhead (note to editors: enclosed pictures of flock go here). At first, this shocked me mainly because falcons do not flock, but then I came to realize that the Sleepers passing by all around us did not notice a thing. It was another etherial manifestation! The girl's falcon spoke(!): "Well, I suppose I'd better join them," and so saying, it did so.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Observing her observing the etherial flock passing, I noticed an odd coin thrown at her feet... Ah. I suppose I ought to include the fact that I kept spotting those...I suppose they were stealth-cloaked tattooed dwarves riding motorized unicyles circling the block. I can only assume that another Etherite was active in the vicinity. Though, when she picked up the coin, she seemed to spot them too. Actually, after that she really acted quite odd all the way around. She insisted she saw an Arab on a horse riding down the street. I did note some odd traces of something lupine about her Kirlian aura at this time. Hah! Little did I know then what that would presage. Oh, but I already gave that away earlier in the article, didn't I?

Well, at any rate, after the flock passed, that black van with the Pentex logo went crashing by. I have always suspected them to be in cahoots with the Technocracy. They've got the Syndicate's green fingerprints all over them. So, what was there to do but chase the van down?

My, but that girl is fast. I'm taller and older than she is, but she outran me nonetheless. Anyway, it was simple enough to hail a taxi (actually, it was shockingly simple; I've never caught one so fast in my life). She climbed in with me, obviously as interested in chasing down that van as I was, and then she acted like the vehicle had rockets strapped to it or something! I still can't figure why she was throwing herself around the cab like that... He truly was an absolutely brilliant driver, though. I was going to climb out and jump onto the van, but he just rammed the thing off the road.

Well, of course then I had to get out and make sure no one was hurt. Allies to the Technocracy they might be, but Pentex van drivers are still human! Well. So I thought.

Instead of finding injured people to pull from the wreckage, I got jumped by two...two things. Awful black, locust-spitting monstrosities. Then as if that weren't enough, that girl turned into a nine-foot-tall monstrosity herself! Imagine, this slip of a thing I'd been trying to pump for information turned out to be a werewolf! Of course, I nearly got my head bit off trying to pay attention to everything at once (how was I to know whose side she was on?), and then that Arab fellow threw some sort of Verbena-type mystic thing from right behind me.

He couldn't really have been riding a horse, could he?
Note to self from the future: yes, he probably was.

At any rate, I managed to retrieve some very fine samples from those...the werewolf girl called them "fomori." And then the nice Arab gentlemen (he had very odd eyes; all black, not really human) left his business card with her and told me, almost threateningly I thought, "I'll be seeing you again." Quite polite except for that, though.

Well, the girl..ah, creature was more willing to talk after that. She told me a little about werewolves, how there are different kinds, and how they protect the earth. Imagine. Here we've been demonizing them in legend and literature for centuries, and...okay, so nine-foot-tall killing machines aren't necessarily nice, precisely, but they're less scary than the Verbena, and they do the same thing.

Jumped by 'spirit-monkey' near arcade, photoging woman with odd kirlian aura. Monkey stole camera. No one else saw monkey (asked hot dog vendor). Garou called it a "spirit." To receive something from it, I must offer it something. It stole my camera, and I pay it to get it back. Woman (who was a 'mummy'--bizarre) said spirit-monkeys don't like bananas. Promised not to photog her, it gave camera back. Why is everyone so keen about monkeys?

Ah. Should I mention that the girl kept peering into reflective surfaces like she saw something there? I think she said it was the man with the eyepatch we met later. But first we headed back toward the arcade--I wonder if she left something there--which was just swarming with Technocracy. Here I'd thought those MiBs were there keeping an eye on me, but that was far too much activity for someone of my modest operations. I think it must have been the man with the eyepatch, who after all tore apart a HITMark with his bare hands, smashed through the NWO and took out one of their helicopters.

He was nice enough too, in an intimidating sort of way. We caught up to him in the alley, where he gave the girl a scroll for her "elders" and told me to tell the Council the Ahl-i-Batin had returned. Could he really have been Horus? That seems implausible...but stranger things have happened. Just because people called him a god doesn't make him one. And there was all that babble at the chantry when I got back about the Web of Faith lighting up like a fireworks display. Who knows?

A HITMark. His bare hands! And she didn't see a thing, because the NWO had their damnable "police tape" up. Well, at least I know that werewolves aren't immune to mental manipulation.

Oh. I could do a whole cultural study on etherial manifestations! They have cultures. Phenomenal!