As my health hasn't been great, a lot of loose mysteries never got resolved, so I am giving you a crash course below, these can influence your plans and spends.
- The Apex turned out to be a Moment (as in the kind that make Ravenous), only instead of being tied to a past era, it's tied to a future one where climate change has gone out of control - it is called The Geostorm.
- The Alley Pond Giant was once a powerful Beast, but when the Geostorm emerged, he sacrificed himself and his Inheritance to become an anchor, keeping the storm in the Dream
- The tree did indeed eat Beasts, Heralds, and others with some sort of power, it needed their energy to keep the barrier up.
- It also required the Apex to sacrifice themselves whenever the storm would stir. This is what happened to Archie and is also why Mei is not the Apex, whenever she would become one, she would lay low and let someone else get eaten.
- The Giant also needed more energy and a Makara long ago created an Obcasus rite to drain Dream energy from NJ and siphon it to NYC so the giant could maintain its vigil.
- Auntie Mei is at least a thousand years old. She's made bargains with some of the cthonic entities in the underworld to prolong her life beyond even a Beast's natural limit. She required the sacrifice of a Beast with a high Lair rating to sustain herself which is one of the reasons why most local Beasts have middling Lair at best. She claims she's only ever taken volunteers, but can that really be trusted?
- A combo of Mei, Uli, and Ezra are why Heroes were never a giant threat, they diligently tracked down the newbies and culled them before they could become an issue
I will check threads over the coming days, so update and please be patient as I get through the backlog.