El Laberinto
The Forgotten Maze
The city of Puebla is very dangerous for any shapeshifters. Urban territories are generally unfriendly anyway but few are more hazardous than a Sabbat-dominated city like Puebla. Nevertheless, some Garou, Ratkin, and others call the city home. They have long dwelled under the city. Connected to storm drains and sewers through hidden canals, ancient tunnels dating back to the founding of the city itself have long been forgotten. Humans forgot about them, holding them only as an urban legend. And tales of what dwells within those tunnels even frightens off most of the Sabbat vampires save the Nosferatu antitribu, with whom these shapeshifters have a tenuous and often-violated armistice.
Rules
The Garou and Ratkin follow their Litanies. The law keeps them alive; violators of those laws endanger the entire groups. Keeping the tunnels secret are an additional rule. The Ananasi obey their queen and her standing laws, as always.
Sept of the Bone Tunnels
Called los Perros de los Túneles (“Dogs of the Tunnels”), the Bone Gnawers have long maintained a caern and sept deep under Puebla. Their ancestors were the slaves of the conquistadores, who formed their own underground society and kept hidden from authorities in tunnels. Later during the Second Franco-Mexican War, the tunnels served as secret passage for scouts and supply runs during the siege of the city. Then they were forgotten save by those who have long dwelled within.
Location
The Bone Gnawers claim all the heretofore forgotten and rumored tunnels built under Puebla de Zaragoza. The original entrances have call been buried and demolished. Access now is limited to sluices secretly added to storm drains and sewer tunnels, many of which can only be passed only in Lupus form or even through the Umbra. The Sept of the Bone Tunnels may claim the entire tunnel system but many parts of it are inhabited with other things, notably Nosferatu antitribu vampires of the Sabbat. (Ratkin also dwell down here, but actually rule over a sub-system of tunnels.) Part of the tunnels’ power, however, derives from the non-living inhabitants: old bones, some from ancient city-dwellers, some far older—fossils.
Bawn
The Sept only considers the main level of tunnels to be their bawn. Most Nosferatu antitribu carve out their havens in more accessible storm drain areas, but there is some overlap. However, no armistice or treaty would ever allow the undead entrance into the Sept’s sacred areas.
Caern
Most sacred and secret to los Perros de los Túneles would be the heart of their caern. Located in the tunnels directly beneath the city square, el Zócalo, a grand chamber opens deep beneath the narrow surface infrastructural levels. This grand chamber is old and musty but serves the Garou well for moots. The heart of the caern takes the shape of a well long ago dug into that chamber.
Even today, the water wheeled up comes from the deepest recesses of the earth’s water table into the natural aquifer of the soil. It pools at the base of the earth-packed well and fills those who drink from it with freshness and vigor. This provides restorative and soothing properties to those who prove so privileged to partake of such an urban oasis. This place is a Level 2 Caern of Refuge. The Totem is City Father, whispered to take the form of Saint Aparicio. Although Aparicio was a Spanish colonist, his kindness and charity, as well as his longevity and industriousness, appeals to the survival instinct of the urban werewolves. (In other words, as the foreign Wyrmcomers go, he turned out to be one of the good ones.)
Other Landmarks
An auxiliary tunnel apart from the main tunnels and chambers of the caern serves as the Graves of Hallowed Heroes, such as they are in such a sept. The Pathstone lies at the bottom of the well; it is said that if the Pathstone (a large piece of rose quartz) can be discerned at the bottom, then the water of the well sinks very low, and that means that the Sept is in danger. Meanwhile, numerous clefts and smaller chambers in this labyrinth of tunnels serve as individual homes and dens for Garou who are often otherwise homeless.
Tribal Structure
Bone Gnawers dominate. Glass Walkers account for few, driven out of the surface life by the threat of the undead. A few other Tribes can be found here, including Uktena and Children of Gaia.
Guardians
Part of how the Sept got its nickname as los Perros de los Túneles derived from the Gnawers’ lupine Kinfolk that run through the tunnels. In truth, the Garou themselves protect the caern above all. Part of the armistice with the vampires involve an acknowledgement that neither side would send minions into each other’s domains. (This pact is certainly violated all the time, but for honor’s sake, the Garou do not keep any perpetual guardians, spirit or otherwise.)
The Sept of the Bone Tunnels has not joined the Dominion of the God-House but neither do they consider it their enemy.
Warren of the Under-Maze
The Ratkin of Puebla survive as do the Bone Gnawers and other urban Fera. But whereas the Gnawers adopt a general “live and let live” attitude, the Ratkin remain unpredictable and savage. Most have little patience for the vampires who dominate the surface…and even less interest in playing house with the Nosferatu antitribu. The penchant for the vampires to mind-control wild rats and use them as their slaves certainly doesn’t help their case. Nevertheless, a kind of détente exists between the Ratkin and other supernatural denizens of Puebla. Too much is at stake to throw it away with war, not the least of which would mean the discovery of Puebla’s rumored old tunnel system. So, the Warren of the Under-Maze minds its own business, while picking no bones about slaying anyone who strays into their even harder-to-find tunnels.
Location
Not even a rumor, beneath the ancient Puebla tunnels are an even older set of narrow byways. These were initially dug as supply chutes and ventilation shafts but have since been filled out by the Ratkin to provide a real warren. The Sept of the Bone Tunnels is aware of the under-maze but, considering Rat is the sponsoring totem of the sept’s dominant tribe, the Garou do not try to invade. The vampires, even the Nosferatu antitribu, know there is some sort of warren under the tunnels. But they do not know its extent or complexity. Animalism-controlled rats and other critters sent into these sub-tunnels do not return.
Nest
The tunnels are tighter and smaller, sometimes no wider than a pipe. Many areas are accessible only in Rodens form or through the Umbra. The heart of the nest can only be accessed by Rite of the Bolthole, which brings the Ratkin into a larger chamber directly beneath the Garou’s caern heart above (and the city square, Zácolo, above that). The werewolves’ well continues through this central nest, serving instead as a major central pillar in this room. The Ratkin do not need the Garou’s caern. The water table seeps through at this level; the ground is moist and even muddy. Merely rolling in it absorbs the residual Gnosis. (This is a ** Colony.)
Tribal Structure
Rat Race dominates here like in all of North America. Tunnel Runners are highly valued here, obviously. Though visions from Rat fuel the wererats’ disdain for city’s inhabitants, they are not particularly insane. Freaks aren’t entirely common, while survivors are.
Guardians
Well-trained and beloved rat Kinfolk fill these tunnels. They can sniff out unusual behavior (e.g., a rat controlled by Animalism) with ease, never mind one even more corrupt (ghouled). Such unfortunate rodents are torn asunder. Non-rats are attacked and eaten as a matter of course. These sub-tunnels are teeming with the rodents loyal to their Rat patron, who sends hordes of their spirits gnawing their way through the Pattern of Puebla.
The Warren of the Under-maze has not joined the Dominion of the God-House, choosing to remain neutral.
Colony of Bloodflowers
While the Garou and Ratkin tempt their fates living near the undead in the city proper, the Damhán prudently occupy instead the city’s outskirts. Near the subsidiary township of Cholula, which dwells in the shadow of the Great Pyramid of Cholula, the humans grow fields full of marigold flowers. These flowers are harvested to celebrate Dia de Muertos and are known as Cempasuchil. Here the Ananasi gather to communicate their queen’s will. Within the hidden enclaves of a garden gloriette, these werespiders meet. They also treat the fields as their own Microcosm testing grounds, feasting on pest insects and occasionally a stray farmer. The Ananasi of Puebla are balanced, representing their Queen’s triatic intentions well.
The Colony of Bloodflowers has joined the Dominion of the God-House. Ananasa bid that they do so, which means her commands and their plans could spell success or doom for the rebel sect.
Special Events
Special events are annual (or more frequent) holidays or special ritual days that the main group or groups observe as a whole community. Attendance and participation are often expected of all members, and sometimes required.
World Cup
Football is hugely popular in Mexico, and Puebla is no exception. Nor does wealth status matter. Poor and homeless Bone Gnawers love football like everyone else in the world (even the USA year by year). To that end, when the FIFA World Cup takes place at the end of the year, with final matches before Christmas, the Garou gather in front of the biggest TV they can find. Wagers are placed, feasts are shared, and a good time is had by all who attend.
Dia de los Santos Inocentes
Despite the term Santos (“Saints”), this holiday has little to do with the Catholic Church or saintly behavior at all. It’s the Mexican equivalent of April Fools’ Day, held on the 28th of December. Religiously, it’s supposed to be a day of remembrance for all the male babies that King Herod had murdered in his failed effort to destroy the Christ. However, it has become a day for pranks and practical jokes. The Ratkin use this day to their own advantage, hiding greedy hoarding and theft behind mean-spirited jokes played on local shopkeepers and merchants before disappearing back underground. Surely the Nuwisha would correct the wererats if they caught wind of this annual practice. If they dared…
“This city was built on bones far older than the monsters who lair here today.”
-- Padre Jesús Laguna, Leader of the Sept of the Bone Tunnels
