The Star Legend

Joe Miller
So the pursuit continues. I pointed out three scattered Objects in Canada. Last Objects outside USA. So far it has been quite easy, but I have the feel things are getting rough when the team has to go after the Objects in other collections. I am pretty sure they are not going to let them go easily.

Anna has been in the event horizon continuously. She looks so peaceful when she sleeps. I just am not sure if I should keep her there. How long should I maintain it? Does it cause permanent damage on her? She is missing one whole month of her summer vacation, not to mention her mother's phone calls. I had to tell my housekeeper Maria to answer the phone saying we went boating for three weeks and settled myself a bed in the ZC.

But I can not sleep outside the Room, being so close to the Covers, the Towel and the Paperclip. So I just watch Anna sleep.

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Leah Maddoc
Joe pointed out three Objects in Canada. What a better time to travel north, when the weather is getting so hot down here. Although the ZC is air-conditioned, I have always preferred being outdoors.
Our first leap was in Whitehorse, Yukon. All the other Objects were much closer to the US border, so I was curious to see why this one had traveled so far.

Whitehorse is a small town of 20 000 people, an Indian (or should I say "Aboriginal") reservation. It has a small airport and the people live out of tourism, although I hear they have some amount of oil there too. Whitehorse is also known from hosting several winter games and music festivals.

Bu we were in for different kind of entertainment, as we were soon to discover.

The leaping is getting very routine now. we just pick a motel/hotel online with a suitable door image and leap right there. This time we came in the busiest tourist season, almost were not able to get a room at all, but money talks.

Joe could not say precisely where the Object was, only pointing it was north from the city, so we were on our own getting close enough. So, we rent a car, minivan and headed up north to see if we get any hints along way.

When we came close to the town edge, Jacob spotted a sign with a tourist attraction marks: a "genuine" aboriginal village with authentic teepees (?) and the works. It had "leave-all-your-cash-here" written all over it, but Jacob said he had a hunch we should go there.

Not long later we found ourselves in a busy tourist-infested stage-village with made-up natives showcasing their wares. Suddenly a little girl came out of nowhere and tug Mike's sleeve. She asked if he was Mr. Two-Ms. If he was, her grandmother wanted to talk to him.

As we had nothing else in the plans we all followed her. She walked right at the direction of a staged shaman-tent. The outside was decorated with animal skulls and feathered dream-catchers and the tent itself was made out of soft leather, with odd pictogram -decoration I never had seen before.

the interior was dim and filled with various scents. An old woman sat about a fire, chanting and throwing something in it, which caused a whoom, sparkles and nice scent of herbs. When she turned towards us we saw her eyes were all-white. She was blind.

"Please, sit down Mr. M" the old woman spoke "all of you sit down"

"You have come because of the Thing... you seek for the Object."

her eyes rolled and her voice became deeper: "Beware it is evil! It has mind of it's own! Leave it where it lies."

Mike tried to ask questions from the old woman, but she was in some kind of trance, so we left the tent. The little girl was waiting outside, so Mike asked her if she knew anything about the Object her grandmother was talking about. The girl replied she did not, but perhaps her mother could help us and pointed towards the ticket-saleswoman at the gate.

After scolding her leading us to the shaman's tent without cashing first she turned to us to collect. Her eyes widened when we mentioned the shaman requesting to see us and that she spoke of the Object.

She quickly lowered her voice and told we should speak to the council and that we really should go see the display in local history museum. And refused to take our cash.

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Michael Monroe
The little girl was cute, reminded me of my own children, all grown up now.

We drove right at the council hall only to hear the Council of the Elders gathers up once a week, the day being just yesterday. The lady at the reception was looking polite and I figured the word was already out we were here for the Object, so I just asked her.

Her eyes became really wide and she asked us a moment and went to have a phone call. The people here have a weird reaction to the mentioning of the Object it seems.

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Brock Storm
We tried to eaves-drop on her phone call, but it was a mumble at best. Not to mention she spoke some Indian language we did not understand. Mike said he might, as he knows some Tahltan language. I quickly removed my earpiece and put the mic on the door. We could get only so much that she repeated few words: "The Star men"

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Leah Maddoc
The woman came out before we could hear anything else, saying that the Council of the Elders would meet us tomorrow noon. And she suggested we really should go see the local museum display.

So, that is where we were headed next. There are several museum and attractions for the tourist, but the local museum was very modest comparing. A house built out of logs, decorated only with few of the similar pictograms the shaman's tent had. The interior had two main halls, the size of a rough 40 feet (12 m) to a direction.

A guide was there to meet us, asking if we would like a guided tour. We followed him to the "Room of Myths", a smaller side room, decorated with the same pictograms we saw before. The guide spoke: "These are replications of the Tahltan people cave-drawings found in the nearby Cave of the Spirits."

"Tahltan people tell a legend of a Crashed Star and of the Star Guardians. The star had left a hole where it landed and every tool it touched became with divine powers. The gods had sent the star on Earth to test how mankind would make with such powers, to see if they were used for Good or for Evil."

"The legend tells the tale of the two-hundred Tools and the tale of the Star Guardians. We read the Star Guardians were meant to evaluate how the Tools were used and if they were not happy, to gather them back to the star and send it back."

"The legend also says the gods will send the star on Earth again, to see if the mankind is ripe for the Tools."

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Michael Monroe
"That sounds awfully familiar" Leah commented. "Does the legend say what happened to the Star Guardians after they sent the star back? Did they return to human form?"

But the guide had no idea of what Leah spoke about. He told the cave-drawings were made two-thousand years ago and they do not tell what happened afterwards. He then proceeded to the "Room of Crafts" with all sorts of antique tapestries and the like.

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Jacob Erez
Mike had this interesting theory about the star being some kind of meteor, constructed out of the Dark Matter the scientist believe is the main building block of the Universe. "The matter is invisible and it's mass can not be measure by any equipment we have, but it causes measurable effects on material we can see. Who knows what effects the thing would have on Earth, think about Poltergeist for example, that could just be a small amount of dark matter poking our reality."

The old guy got some brains have to admit. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next day, noon, Whitehorse Town Hall

Leah Maddoc
The woman we saw here yesterday led us to the main parlor with a huge table in the middle. A small party of older, aboriginal people were seated at the far end, dressed up in their ceremonial garbs.

"Please be seated" the guy with a crow headdress implied. "I am Tahetowati, the head of the Council"

"That means Claw of the Raven" Mike whispered

"I am honored to finally meet the Star Guardians" Tahetowati continued "We have been waiting over forty years."

Us??? The Star Guardians? I though Joe and Eddie were... I just sat there in awe and listened.

"The legend in the Cave-of-the-Spirits is not all there is of it. A set of leather scrolls is passed through generations of the members of the Council, reproduced if the scroll became too frayed. We have lost the ability to read the pictograms, but the scrolls are meant to be passed to the Guardians."

After saying that he knocked on the door next to him with his scepter and a party of young boys and girls came in, carrying small caskets. After the children left. Tahetowati opened one of them, letting us gaze upon this generously decorated, blue scroll. He then coughed and spoke again.

"About 45 years ago our parents, the Council before us, came across one of the New Tools. They soon learned the danger it contained so they put it in safe-keeping for the Guardians to take. We have been waiting ever since. Let us lead you to it." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Brock Storm
The crow-guy asked where the "First One" was, meaning obviously Joe. I just could not resist telling what a whiner for a man-of-power he is. The others rushed to reassure the guy Joe got bad headaches and preferred staying at bay to the Objects. The guy then went all worried-looking and said: "You must tell the First One to not avert it, the pain will ease as he goes."

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Michael Monroe
So that is why they have been waiting this long. Eddie kept on averting!

Along the (long) way to the Cave-of-the-Spirits Tahetowati told us more of the legend. The legend told the six Guardians were born to their roles, gathered together by the First One. And it was written only on the wind what would happen next.

Tahetowati would not come inside the cave. We descended short-while later into a small cave, heavily decorated with the pictograms. No more openings to proceed to.

"The object must be somewhere close" said Brock "I can feel it"

The walls were solid rock, but the floor was just plain dirt. Brock commanded Larentia to dig, but the way became too much for the wolf.
So we had to fetch some digging tools.

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Jimmy Spencer
If only we had the Medicine Cabinet Shelf with us! Although Mike did mention it, he continued we never know what odd combinations it might have with the Object buried underneath. So it was plain old-fashioned digging with a shovel then.

Some time later we came to a small leather pouch. Leah said the pictograms were familiar to her, some kind of protective marks. The pouch contained a bottle of eye-drops.
As we were been warned the Object might have nasty effects, we did not touch it and returned to our hotel room for access to the Room. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jacob Erez
I touched the bottle inside the Room and got various unpleasant glimpses of men using the drops and "getting touched with their animal side" and going in feeding frenzy. The drops apparently had mind-altering qualities. What an acid-trip! -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leah Maddoc
The other two Objects were not difficult at all to get. The second one was on Saskatchewan, some 20 miles north from Prince Albert's Park. On a lake Smoothstone. We rented a cabin there, met hungry bear cubs on the way and saw this guy in a rowing boat in the middle of the lake.

Brock did not have the patience to wait for him to row back ashore, so he went there and dragged him by force.

Really good first impression! Well Brock kept on using his acting skill and told the guy he wanted to offer him a beer, being cabin-neighbors and all. In the while Jimmy scouted his boat and learned the Object was in his cold-box. The guy resisted a while, but soon succumbed to Brock's persuasion.

Jimmy waited until the guy went to take a leak and found a bottle of shaving cream inside the cold-box. It took six more hours to make the guy drunk enough we could get him to talk.

The Shaving Cream keeps the fish fresh. He was offered the thing when he took a trip to the border of Mexico, and when he went the next morning to buy it, he was given the thing without having to pay for it.

Mike came with the idea of leaving the guy in his cabin, with a brand-new cold-box, filled with quality booze. That will take him at least another day to figure out what happened.

Jacob said the Shaving Cream not only kept the fish fresh, but it also prevented them from dying....


Joe was able to locate the third one to be in the Parkland Mall, Red Deer, Alberta.
It was so insignificant in it's own power, it's whereabouts were almost impossible to pinpoint at the site. We decided to spread. Jimmy found some attractive ladies at the cafe... the local drag queens

"Just my Luck" he stated blushing

Brock figured it would be most likely the Object to be found in a second-hand or vintage shop, and was correct. He scouted a flea-market and found the Tweezers in a miscellaneous stuff scavenger's basket.
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Jacob Erez
The Tweezers had no reading to them at all! I did found out, however, that the Tweezers were as good as pinpointing other Objects, even though they were hard to detect themselves. They also wanted to be united with the Harmonica.

Jimmy said he had seen some people at the Suzie Kang's asking about the Harmonica. They left empty-handed, but it was very likely she knew something. "I think it's time to pay our first visit to the laundry" Mike said "I'll be the first, I got a feeling this one is not going to be cheap."

It cost 6 grand to start her inquiry, but as she saw what was written about the Object the cost rose to 10 000!

"On the street-artists forum few of the musicians are complaining about this guy, who's talent is so superior he takes all the hand-outs. They were so pissed they were actually talking about getting rid of him." Mike repeated what Suzie had told him "He plays at the corner of fifth avenue"
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Michael Monroe
The sound of the Harmonica was heard from a block away. It sounded as if there were other instruments joining the play. It was heartwarming and moving. Several people approached to give him some cash. We waited until he took a break and I went to talk to him. He told me the harmonica used to be his father's and that he had played with it his whole life. It took some serious convincing from us for him to sell it. Again, money talks.

This things has already cost twenty thousand dollars, but it looks like it has potential to pay for itself.
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Brock Storm
So, we had to test what the Tweezers wanted with the Harmonica. We found out the Harmonica is a recharger. The Tweezers need to touch the harp and a melody to be played. It turns out after the recharge the Tweezers are capable of multiplying the thing it can pick up. Well making a single exact copy that is. Apparently it depends on the length/quality of the played song how long the copy lasts.

Case report no 7 by Cattrina