Meeting Place

The legend goes as follows...

Before there was Armidale, there was the Meeting Place. The Meeting Place was the site where the Indigenous Aniwan (Anaiwan)and (Gumbayniggir) people would meet to discuss their differences. A sacrifice of blood on the altar would feed the hungry earth, and the hungry earth would and avenge the petitioner if they were assaulted at the meeting place. "Let no blood be spilled, except on this altar", stories would say.

Geography

The meeting place 5km to the NW of the Armidale city centre, 1162 meteres above sea level and ~52m above the city of Armidale. The topology of the area, with the characteristic crater in the centre of the hill, is suggestive of a meteor strike or some other explosion. However, geologists have not discovered any material in the area to support these hypotheses, and the unusual 'crater' is believed to be the result of a glacial corrie.

There are three statues of the 'old gods' of Armidale. The position of the statues suggests a fourth statue, but no evidence of such a statue has been found by archaeologists. The current theory is that these statues were part of a set that were never finished.

The Altar

At the Norhtern tip of the crater is a roughly crate-shaped rectangular slab of stone referred to as the Altar. Local pagan groups often meet at this site to sacrifice foodstuffs in celebration of events such as equinoxes and the start of seasons.

Stray Cats

There are an abundance of stray cats that live in the area and are fed by tourists and volunteers from the animal shelters. The cats have been noted to be unusually intelligent and friendly. Some of the cats still have collars from their former owners. See also: Armidale cats

Genre-specific information

Requiem

• This is the site of the Crone Temple. Rituals happen either on the altar or in one of the secret caverns below the surface of the hill.
• There are entrances to the Nosferatu Necropolis here. Fools who wander into the tunnels rarely return.
• An obfuscated hole in the centre of the site is subconsciously avoided by tourists, but is in reality, a sacrificial pit.
• The cats know about the hole and can somehow see through it.

Lost

• This is where the Old Gods reside. Bast is real and has manifested, taking over a changeling as her vessel for a day.
• The unusual intelligence of the cats is somehow related to the shared dreams where Bast resides.

Awakening

• This place has no past or future. Something has damaged the time continuum (an explosion?)so only the present can be seen with the Time Arcana. This makes it the perfect place to avoid being followed by nosey mages.
• The edges of the time anomaly show ruins being built. Ruins aren't built, they're created.
• The fourth statue is of Hypnos, who apparently resides in the club Scarlet's Web.
• An invisible sacrificial pit leads to the caverns beneath, though there are safer entrances in the hill side.
• There is an entrance to the Labyrinth in the tunnels below. It is guarded by dangerous life-draining spirits.
• Through various means, mages can contact entities that resemble and speak for the old gods.
• It would appear that there is some sort of conflict between Bast and Nodens?
• It appears to be the only place safe from the entity that stalked the mages in January 2015.