Grendel Half Eaten

**Edward Ryder**

Grendel was in his 60s, and only had one hand from an industrial accident before he first changed. Originally from the North he came to Birmingham at the request of the old Alpha to be his successor. He quickly earned the loyalty and respect of the Garou there and, until recently, seemed to maintain it despite everything the world threw at him.

Externally Grendel was one of the most divisive figures in the nation of Albion. Depending who you asked he may have been a heroic Garou, deserving of Elder who was kept down by tribal politics. Or he was a Traitor to Gaia, bound in pacts with the Wyrm, who deceived his Caern and used his cunning to drive deep wounds of separation into the Nation.

To the Garou of his Caern he was efficient, competent and, above all, practical. He kept a small Caern effective in the middle of a City full of Wyrm businesses likely controlled by Vampires and worse for twenty years. Yet still never made Elder.

He survived it by picking their battles carefully.

The Problem with that is that the Litany says 'Fight the Wyrm wherever it lives and Breeds'. Being careful and having to choose the threats to fight leaves you open to criticism though, as care can eventually look a little like conspiracy. Even with actual scandals failing, hear something enough and people believe it. By the end his reputation and renown got hauled through the dirt so many times that Edward Ryder had almost everyone believing that he had a secret deal with the local vampires at best and was a pawn of the Wyrm at worst.

Unfortunately the truth is, a lot of caerns have some kind of deal with vampires; be it a non aggression pact, some kind of detente based on the Vampires behaving with a certain restraint or something as simple as an unofficial division of territory. Most practical Garou in urban territories have to accept that Vampires are a fact of life. While Garou are generally superior in direct confrontations there are just not enough Garou out there to weed them out physically, at least without attrition quickly depleting the supply of Garou.

So.. Chances are that there was, almost definitely, some kind of deal with the Vampires around Birmingham. An urban caern, chronically short of Garou trying to maintain territory within the country's second city. Yet almost no sign of conflict with the Leeches in the last few year and yet still able to work effectively to curb the worst excesses of multiple wyrm corrupt businesses and threats. It just doesn't add up.

But the caern is still standing. Still independent, for the moment, of the Pennine Protectorate and still fighting for Gaia.

In the end, everyone will have to decide for themselves what kind of Garou Grendel was.

## Death

On the 6th July 2020 Grendel was found dead in the morning. He was found lying in the heart of the caern with his throat torn out. As yet, there is no information as to how it happened, but Mother Kostakovich is currently in charge and running the investigation. Unfortunately, this has been put on hold for the moment, as the caern is trying to deal with one of the largest and most serious veil breaches in recent history as it seems a pack of currently unidentified werewolves seem to have had 'a moment' in the busiest part of Birmingham, in view of half the cameras for the second biggest rail station in the country.