<div align="center"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: comic sans ms;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 36pt;">Welcome to Manitou Springs</span></span></div><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;">In the late 20th century, a powerful spirit entity known as Gurdilag drove the werewolves of Denver out of their territories and plunged the local Shadow Realm into turmoil. Reeling but not defeated, a werewolf firebrand named Max Caine united a previously unheard-of alliance of packs to slay the spirit and reclaim the lost land. During the campaign, Max saw the potential and power of packs working together for common goals. (While werewolves of the five Tribes of the Moon are generally allied, they have nothing like a single governing body. Werewolf packs act of their own accord instead, tending their own territories.) Max also noticed that the packs that were most receptive to his ideas were the ones that consisted of werewolves of several tribes. After the fighting ended, he began a program of “sponsoring” such multi-tribal packs, and now he finds young Uratha who have not yet joined a pack or who are not yet too attached to the pack that initiated them. He helps them find territories of their own, using his vast wealth and connections in both human and Uratha circles to get these packs started. While he is a valuable resource, especially to young werewolves who need a hand, this assistance does not come without strings attached. Max holds these young packs to a higher standard of behavior, expecting them to live up to his lofty ideals lest they lose the benefit of his generosity. Additionally, Max’s movement has made him some bitter enemies, and joining him means inheriting his enemies as well.<br/><br/>The pack of The Forsaken is one such multi-tribal group of neophyte Uratha. Max is especially hopeful about this pack, too, since it not only contains one member of each auspice, but also one member of each of the Tribes of the Moon. Not only this, but he as decided to live among the pack himself and with his daughter Elizabeth once again share in the feeling of family.</span></span><br/><br/><div align="center"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: comic sans ms;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 24pt;">TERRITORY CONCERNS</span></span></div><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;">Like their wolf brethren, werewolves claim certain territories as their private hunting grounds. The most important possession any pack has is its territory, and every pack takes an oath of responsibility for everything that goes on within it, in both the physical and spiritual worlds. Each runs its territory differently, ranging from setting up personal fiefdoms to keeping the physical and spirit realms completely separate. Most often, though, a pack settles somewhere in the middle. It tends to the worst violations of the Gauntlet and the most damaging human crimes, and it sets its territory up to make the area more pleasant and easier to defend.<br/><br/>Gaining territory is no easy task, though there are many ways for a young pack of Uratha to do so. Older, more experienced packs might cede small parts of their vast, unmanageable territories to younger packs just to relieve themselves of a nagging burden. Young up-and-comer werewolves might take it upon themselves to make such a decision for older packs, annexing areas that they feel are falling into decline. Sometimes influential elder werewolves redistribute territory that needs defenders but is lacking them due to war, natural disaster, or other upheavals. Some werewolves even snatch up territory as fast as they can get it, only to magnanimously hand it over to werewolves of the next generation just to make an impression in local Uratha circles. This latter is the case with Max Caine and the Manitou Springs territory, but all these possibilities and more are viable in the tumultuous Colorado Rockies.<br/><br/>Despite the success of Max Caine’s multi-tribal campaign to reclaim Denver, however, the campaign took a bloody toll on the werewolves of the Rockies. Many packs died in the conflict, one of which was a pack of Bone Shadows who had previously claimed the town of Manitou Springs as their territory. Max knew those Bone Shadows and knew that they considered the whole of the town of Manitou Springs, as well as some of the surrounding land, their territory. He suspects that the pack’s locus was located on the land owned by Samuel Meers, the pack’s alpha. Max doesn’t know this for sure, as a pack’s locus is the source of its power and thus is not readily shared with outsiders.<br/><br/>A few months ago, he checked up on Manitou Springs and discovered that no pack had officially claimed the territory since the Bone Shadows fell. He purchased the Meers house from Samuel’s heirs back East, and now he is sharing the deed to the land with his new pack. He has also paid the property taxes for the next year. Other than that, the pack is on their own. They must stake their claim, not in any land office, but among a society of hungry predators.</span></span>