Black Furies Tribe Gifts
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Gaia is generous with Her magical powers, and Luna and Pegasus look lovingly upon the Black Furies, offering them Gifts no other tribe possesses. Those abilities listed under "Tribal Gifts" may be taught to members of other tribes (with additional cost usually associated with them). Camp Gifts and age role Gifts, however, are only available to Black Furies; the Gaian spirits that teach them refuse to teach members of any other tribe. |
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Contents
Tribal Gifts
Watchful Eyes (Level One)
Source: WW3851 - Black Furies Revised p. 65
Description: Since time immemorial, the Black Furies have been able to determine the location of those that break the laws of Gaia. Such beings (human, Garou, or spirit) are not always Wyrm- or Weaver-tainted; as in the classic example, Orestes was not under the influence of any supernatural being when he killed his mother Clytemnestra, but he did break Gaia’s laws by doing so. This gift has been the Furies’ tool for such a hunt; with a few moments’ concentration, the Black Fury who uses Watchful Eyes can roughly determine the distance and direction to the nearest such criminal. This Gift is taught by an Owl-spirit.
System: The player spends 1 Gnosis an rolls Perception + Investigation (difficulty 6). Success indicates the distance and direction to the nearest violator of Gaia’s laws (as interpreted by the Storyteller). Note that this Gift does not identify the lawbreaker, an it is somewhat vague: i has a margin of error of roughly 10% of the distance between the Garou and her quarry (that is, if the nearest violator is ten blocks away, the Gift will point out a one-block area). A botch causes this Gift to wrongly identify a potential target.
Kali's Tongue (Level Two)
Source: WW3851 - Black Furies Revised p. 66
Description: In the days of ancient myth, the Wyrm-creature Raktabija terrorized the Indian subcontinent. Raktabija could not be slain; every drop of blood that touched the earth sprang up another Raktabija. Soon after the battle against him began, the field was crowded with Raktabijas, each eager for the blood of Garou and Gaian spirits The mother-goddess Parvati (an aspect of Gaia) finally took to the field against Raktabija, in her guise as the hideous demon-warrior Kali. Kali spread her tongue out over the battlefield and prevented any of Raktabija’s blood from striking the Earth; she then commanded the Garou and gods present to destroy the Wyrm-creature, which they did.
The Gift Kali’s Tongue removes a creature’s ability to heal damage; its effects are relatively short-term, but if a creature is destroyed while this Gift is in effect, that death is permanent. What the Mother gives, the Mother’s vengeance can take away. This Gift is taught by a Cobra-spirit.
System: The Fury must first touch the victim, then the player spends one Rage and rolls Manipulation + Medicine (difficulty of the foe’s Rage, or Willpower -3, whichever is lower). Each success represents one turn during which the target creature cannot use any regenerative abilities, or heal inflicted damage naturally: Even supernatural healing Gifts like Mother’s Touch will fail on the target during this period. This Gift works equally well on humans, Garou, and materialized spirits; spirits entirely in the Umbra are immune to the Gift’s effects unless the Fury is also in the spirit world.
Flames of Hestia (Level Three)
Source: WW3851 - Black Furies Revised p. 67
Description: The Black Furies revere the holy Wyld places of the world; part of the tribe’s set of tools is the Flames of Hestia Gift, which enables a Black Fury to purify a person, spirit, or object with searing white-hot spiritual flame. The fire coruscates around the Fury’s hands, enabling her to apply the Gift to anything she can touch. This Gift is taught by an avatar of Hestia the teacher.
System: Spend one Gnosis and roll Gnosis with a difficulty of 8. Success enables the Fury to cleanse tainted food or water, or heal damage caused by radiation, poison, or disease at one Health Level per success. The Flames of Hestia last for just one turn; however a Fury can activate the Gift and strike at a foe in the same turn. Flames of Hestia do one level of unsoakable aggravated damage per success on the Gift roll, if used against a Bane or fomor in hand-to-hand combat.
(Level One)
Source: WW3851 - Black Furies Revised p. 65
Description:
System:
Camp Gifts
Amazons of Diana
True Shot (Level One)
Source: WW3851 - Black Furies Revised p. 67
Description: The accuracy of Artemis on the hunt could not be equaled by any other; this Gift allows Maidens to replicate their aunt’s spectacular feats of archery on the battlefield or on the hunt. It is less effective for Mothers and Crones than for Maidens, but still gives them some benefit. This Gift is taught by a Lune.
System: Spend one Rage and receive +3 to your dice pool for a single arrow shot. Mothers and Crones receive only a +2 bonus; Luna is said to favor those Garou who replicate her own aspect as Artemis. This Gift can be used in conjunction with Flurry of Arrows, below, but can be used for only one arrow per turn.
Flurry of Arrows (Level Two)
Source: WW3851 - Black Furies Revised p. 67
Description: The bow of Artemis slew many monsters of both human and Black Fury myth; the incarnation of Luna as maiden huntress was a swift and accurate shot with the bow. Appropriately, Luna has taught her children how to nock and release arrows more rapidly than a human might hope to follow. This Gift is taught by a Lune.
System: Spend a point of Rage; for the remainder of the scene, the character receives a free shot per turn from a bow (though not a crossbow) at no dice pool penalty. Thus, the character could simply take two bow shots, each at no penalty, or she might take three shots, and suffer a -2 on the first shot, -3 on the second, and no penalty on the shot granted by Flurry of Arrows.
Blizzard of Arrows (Level Four)
Source: WW3851 - Black Furies Revised p. 67
Description: The Black Fury who uses this Gift truly shows herself the equal of any man – or machine – on the battlefield. Once Blizzard of Arrows is activated, the Garou deals out nightmarish pain to the hordes that oppose her. Heroes with this Gift might single-handedly have turned cavalry charges, in the days when such things still took place. For today, however, the Fury with this Gift is the perfect ally when faced by hordes of Wyrm-creatures. This Gift is taught by a Porcupine-spirit.
System: Spend a point of Willpower and two points of Rage, and you may take a single arrow shot (at no multi-action penalty) at every at every foe within 100 yards, to a maximum of 20 enemies. Simply roll to hit once, using the sight and range penalties for the hardest to hit foe in range, and apply that number of successes against each enemy, which may soak, dodge, etc, as the Storyteller sees fit.
This Gift is limited by the number of arrows you have on hand: all arrows that you intend to shoot must be someplace that can easily be nocked and shot from (in a quiver on the back or waist, or stuck point-first into the ground in front of you; lying scattered nearby will not suffice). The bow and arrows may be of modern manufacture, but cannot use any exceptional Weaver-based equipment (such as laser sights or explosive tips) to gain any accuracy or damage boost. However, a fetish bow shooting talen arrows is certainly acceptable.
Baccantes
Rend (Level Two)
Source: WW3851 - Black Furies Revised p. 68
Description: The Furies of myth did not use swords or axes to destroy enemies of the Gods; the Black Furies of old did not use weapons to slay enemies of Gaia. They used teeth and claws, and sheer animal might. While many Bacchantes certainly do use the tribe’s ritual labrys and bow, and others carry klaives and other fetish weapons, when they frenzy they most often fight with their natural weapons. Even out of frenzy, the Bacchantes recognize the intimidation factor of rending a foe with fang and claw, and many revel in its primal nature. Rend allows the Bacchantes to rip through substances that they could not ordinarily pierce, and do as much damage with their natural weapon as another might with a human’s sword. This Gift is taught – sometimes to great comic effect – by a Wine-spirit.
System: Spend 1 Rage and roll Strength + Primal Urge (difficulty 6). For each success, the Fury gains the ability to rip through tough substances for one turn. When wearing any of the three “war forms” (Glabros, Crinos, or Hispo) and using hand-to-hand maneuvers, the character ignores the first three dice of the target’s soak pool – the target rolls three fewer dice to soak. This ability to pierce defenses also applies to inanimate objects such as walls and doors, making it considerably harder to hide from Black Furies inside buildings or underground. In case that a given object does not have a soak or armor rating, treat the Fury’s Strength as being three higher for purposes of the Feat of Strength needed to rip through the object.
Successful uses of Rend to destroy a wall, door, or enemy add 3 dice to the Fury’s next Intimidation roll against those who saw her do so.
Storm of Mother's Wrath (Level Five)
Source: WW3851 - Black Furies Revised p. 69
Description: When the Black Furies take up arms to destroy an enemy of Gaia, they are like unto a force of nature. Should a pack of Bacchantes include one with Storm of Mother’s Wrath, they nearly become a force of nature. The Fury wielding this Gift causes a fearful dark hailstorm to erupt, even out of a clear sky; the pack of Bacchantes, however, are not inconvenienced by the storm, and can move around and fight in it without difficulty. Signs of such a hailstorm in the area tend to be a red flag to Wyrm-creatures, who know that a pack of Furies must be involved in a desperate fight; they may move to join in, or they may wait in ambush outside of the storm. A Mammatus, a Wyld-spirit of the air, teaches this Gift.
System: Spend a point of Gnosis and roll Stamina + Survival (Difficulty 7). The storm has a 100-meter diameter and a duration of one miute. Every success on thr roll extends the storm’s diameter by 100 meters, and extends the storm’s duration by 1 minute. Physical being caught within the storm – humans, Garou, formori, and materialized spirits – take a 3-die penalty to all physical dice pools. The exception to this is the pack of the character resposible for the storm; that group recieves no penalty. Humans react to the storm as though faced with delirium; most will attempt to flee its fury. The storm cannot be generated indoors or underground, and its effects will not penatrate solid walls (though the pelting hail can and does break glass windows).
Freebooters
Messenger’s Fortitude (Level Two)
Also a Level Two Silent Strider Gift
Source: WW3851 - Black Furies Revised p. 69
Description: The Garou can run at full speed for three days without rest, food or water. When the Garou reaches her destination, she has 10 minutes to complete whatever business brought her, then she must sleep for three days. A camel- or wolf-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The player spends one Gnosis point. The Garou may do nothing but run; stopping ends the Gift. For an additional Gnosis point, he may imbue another being with this Gift’s benefits.
Omen of Power (Level Two)
Source: WW3851 - Black Furies Revised p. 69
Description: The Freebooters are famed among the Garou for their ability to find items and places of great magical power. Some believe that they follow Wyld-spirits in their nearly-random wandering through the Umbra; others say the Freebooters can sense the perturbations of even the weakest ley lines. Regardless of the true nature of their abilities, many Freebooters can sniff out the locations of dormant caerns (that is, those once opened whose power has since faded). When conditions are right, they can even sense particularly powerful fetishes from a distance. This Gift is taught by a Hound-spirit.
System: Spend one Gnosis and roll Perception + Enigmas; the difficulty is known only to the Storyteller, and is based on the distance to the source of power. Success means that the rough distance and direction to a mystic power source is revealed to the Black Fury. The source of power can be an active or dormant caern, or a level 5+ fetish. The base difficulty for the roll is 7, if the source of power is within ten miles; decrease it by 1 if the distance is less than 1 mile, and increase it by 1 if the distance is between ten and twenty miles – Omen of power cannot detect sources of power greater than twenty miles distant. This difficulty is decreased by 2 if the source of power is an active caern, and increased by 1 if it is a fetish rather than a dormant caern.
By default, this Gift is acurate to within about 20% – if a caern is within 10 miles, Omen of Power will give it’s distance and direction to within about 2 miles. Additional successes on the Gift’s activation roll decrease that margin of error by 5%. The Gift can be re-used as the Garou close in on the source of power, to further refine their target’s location. Omen of Power does not tell the Garou anything about the source of power other than its direction and distance; she will not even know whether it is a caern or fetish.
Moon-Daughters
Spirit Loan (Level Two)
Source: WW3851 - Black Furies Revised p. 70
Description: In extreme circumstances, a Moon-Daughter may find that another Garou has far more use for one of her Gifts than she does. To this end, Gaian spirits have shown the Daughters how to lend one of their Gifts to another werewolf for a limited duration. The Black Fury who uses this Gift feels somewhat bereft of Gaia’s love and attention while another Gift has been loaned, but suffers no other ill effects. This Gift is taught by a Hen-spirit.
System: Roll Charisma + Occult (difficulty of the recipient’s Rage). Success allows the Fury to loan a single Rank 1 Gift to another Garou for a set period of time, to a maximum of three days per success. When that time is up (or if either the lender or receiver dies) the Gift returns to the lender. While the Gift has been lent out, the lender has no access to it and for all intents and purposes does not know it. The recipient uses the Gift as though she had learned it herself from the appropriate spirit: she uses her own dice pools for success, and spends her own Gnosis, Rage, or Willpower to activate it. A Black Fury can only lend one Gift out at a time, although there is no limit to the number of “loaned” Gifts a person may receive at any one time. She may loan out Gifts that ordinarily cannot be taught (for instance, she might loan a non-Black Fury the Amazons of Diana’s True Shot Gift, above), though if her tribemates discover her “indiscretion,” the social consequences might be dire. A Fury cannot use Spirit Loan to lend out Spirit Loan.
Order of Our Merciful Mother
Mother's Touch (Level One)
Also a Level 1 Theurge Gift / Level 1 Children of Gaia Gift / Level 1 Glass Walker Gift, Camp: Wise Guys / Level 1 Bunyip Gift
Source: WW3851 - Black Furies Revised p. 70
Description: The Garou is able to heal the wounds of any living creature, aggravated or otherwise, simply by laying hands over the afflicted area. The Garou may not heal herself, spirits or the undead with this Gift. A bear- or unicorn-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The player spends on Gnosis point and rolls Intelligence + Medicine (difficulty of the wounded individual’s Rage, or 6 for non-Garou). Each success heals one health level. The Theurge may heal even Battle Scars in this manner if the Theurge uses the Gift in the same scene in which the scar was obtained and she spends a second Gnosis point. There is no limit to how many times this Gift may be used on a person, but each use requires the expenditure of one Gnosis.
Truest Sacrament (Level Two)
Source: WW3851 - Black Furies Revised p. 70
Description: The Order of Our Merciful Mother frequently leavens Christian ceremony with Gaian supplication, to better aid their flocks. Truest Sacrament enables them to do so without rousing the suspicion of the faithful; humans with faith in Christianity see Gaian ritual as innocuous and even appropriate, after this Gift’s application. In so doing, the Furies are better able to free the most dogmatic and close-minded followers of patriarchal faiths to accept a broader spiritual mindset. This Gift takes advantage of humans’ ability to rewrite their memories of an event to suit their preconceptions in the same way that the Delirium does. This Gift is taught by a Unicorn-spirit.
System: Truest Sacrament can be used either before or after a Gaian ritual begins. Used before a ritual, the character must make a Charisma + Subterfuge roll, with a target equal to the highest Willpower of the surrounding crowd; she will need to achieve one success for every seven onlookers. Should the Fury succeed, the next Gaian ritual she participates in will seem innocuous and appropriate to the crowd on hand. If Truest Sacrament is used during or after a ritual – if one or more humans happen upon a group of Garou during a rite – the same dice pool as above is used, but the character must also spend one point of Gnosis.
Note that Truest Sacrament will not cover up truly egregious or spectacular violations of the Veil – spattering blood, spirit fireworks, and so on, will be remembered and probably not thought of as harmless or normal. But if the rite is simpler, or the more hallucinatory effects can somehow be concealed from witnesses, the Furies may get away with it.
The salutatory effects of this Gift on the psyches of the most reactionary and closed-minded humans should be role-played out over time; there is no explicit game effect.
Sisterhood
Spirit Smuggler (Level One)
Source: WW3851 - Black Furies Revised p. 71
Description: Members of the Sisterhood frequently make deliveries through countries with broad laws against contraband; they might also wish to carry a weapon into an area interdicted by metal detectors or the like. Spirit Smuggler makes this much easier for them to do, and it is useful in a wide variety of situations. When the character wishes to hide an item from searches, she can use this Gift to push the item into the Gauntlet for a short time; it will return to the character’s possessions in the physical realm after a few minutes have passed. This Gift is taught by a Raccoon-spirit
System: The character rolls Dexterity + Subertfuge and spends a point of Gnosis to push a small item (5 pounds or less, no more than a gallon in volume) through the Gauntlet into the Umbra; the difficulty on this roll is the local Gauntlet rating. If she achieves 2 or more successes, the item now resides in the Gauntlet, and cannot be sensed or manipulated by anyone in the Realm (unless a searcher can see into the Umbra). The item will return to the character’s physical possessions at the end of the scene. Should the character achieve only one success, the item is pushed through into the Gauntlet but will not return of its own accord, and has to be fetched by stepping sideways. A botch on the Dexterity + Subterfuge roll means that the item is lost in the Umbra, or that a spirit pickpocket has made off with it. This Gift does not halt the flow of time for the smuggled object – and explosions in the Gauntlet can have strange effects on both the local spirit world and the physical plane, for those who might consider using this Gift to stow a live bomb.
Winged Delivery (Level Three)
Source: WW3851 - Black Furies Revised p. 71
Description: While the Sisterhood has a large network of Kinfolk, contacts, smugglers and informants available, at times the most effective means to move an item is to give it to a friendly spirit and have that spriit make the delivery. Using this Gift and some concentration, the character pushes a small item into the Umbra and gives it to an Owl Jaggling, which will deliver the item to a well identified person or location as rapidly as it can travel.
Garou who abuse this Gift to send dangerous items or active weapons (like grenades) into the Umbra – thereby jeopardizing the owl-spirit’s existance – find that the retribution of the spirit world is swift and harsh. This Gift is obviously taught by owl-spirits.
System: Spend one Gnosis and roll Charisma + Empathy (difficulty the local Gauntlet). On a success, the item enters the Owl Jaggling’s talons in the Umbra, and the Jaggling will deliver it to a clearly defined recipient. A human or Garou recipient must be named and described; a location need only be described, with directions given. The Owl Jaggling travels at roughly 100 miles per hour through the spirit world, and will deposit the item in the immediate vicinity of the target unless the target is somehow protected against the spirit world or prevailing Gauntlet exceeds 7. If either of those conditions prevent delivery, the spirit returns to the Garou at full speed and returns the item without comment.
Temple of Artemis
Walk With Hades (Level Five)
Source: WW3851 - Black Furies Revised p. 71
Description: When Persephone entered the lands of the dead with Hedes, her lover, her mother, Demeter, the harvest goddess, went in after her. As an aspect of Gaia, Demeter understood her daughter’s desire for Hades, but refused to let a powerful spirit remain in the deadlands for long. Eventually, Persephone acquiesced to return to the living realm, under the agreement that she could periodically return to Hades’ side, and could return to the Underworld eventually.
Demeter agreed to this arrangement verbally, but eventually performed a secret ritual to block her daughter from entering the realms of the dead. Such travel is, after all, counter to the proper way of things. Embittered by her now-permanent separation from her lover, Persephone taught a number of favored Black Furies the secret roads into the land of the dead; these secrets have been passed down by Persephone’s servitor spirits and aged Garou to the present day. Technically, use of this Gift violates one of Gaia’s laws – “The living live, and the dead remain dead.” But since it is only used by the most ancient and respected Black Furies, and even then only in the most extreme circumstances, few punishments have come down onto those forced to use it.
System: Spend 1 Gnosis and roll Gnosis (the difficulty is the local Gauntlet) to step sideways into the lands of the dead. If the Fury succeeds, she enters the Dark Umbra rather than the Penumbra. She can remain there for only a single day (24 hours), after which point she must cross back to the mortal realm (rolling to step sideways as usual) or risk eternal capture in the ghost-world. If the character takes more than 24 hours to return, the Gauntlet equivalent increases by 1 for every 2 hours the Fury remains past the deadline: when it reaches 10, the Fury is trapped and will begin her afterlife as a ghost. She will not become an ancestor-spirit.
The dead lurk near places, people, and things that were important to them in life, and they are creatures of almost pure emotion in death. They are still coherent, thinking beings, but are occasionally possesed of a terrible hate and fury toward the living, and may attack without provocation. When not so enraged, they do have most of their memories of life, and are likely to be willing to answer the Fury’s question if the two were friendly in life. This scene should be roleplayed out: no dice roll is an appropriate way to describe the character’s encounter with a deceased love one.
Note: Storytellers with access to Wraith: the Oblivion are welcome to use that game’s version of the afterlife – in place of the Gauntlet rating, use the local Shroud, and so on.
Age Role Gifts
Maiden
Stoking the Soul's Fire (Level One)
Source: WW3851 - Black Furies Revised p. 66
Description: Every aspect of a Furies life has different strengths: the Maiden’s fury at Gaia’s pain is unmatchable, the Mother’s will is indomitable, and the Crone’s spirituality is beautiful and terrible.A Maiden Black Fury can use this Gift to replenish her natural strengths by sacrificing her suppressed natures. The Maiden’s greatest strength is her anger; she can sacrifice from her will and spirituality to stoke that rage to scorching intensity. This gift is taught by a Wolverine-spirit.
System: A Maiden using this Gift rolls Intelligence + Occult with a target of her own permanent Rage; she spends on point of temporary Willpower and one temporary Gnosis, and refills her Rage pool if she achieves 2 or more successes.
Mother
Barring the Will (Level Three)
Source: WW3851 - Black Furies Revised p. 66
Description: The Mother’s will is impossible to compromise when she does not wish to yield. She can sacrifice her anger and spirit energies to replenish her strength of purpose. This Gift is taught by a Donkey-spirit.
System: A Mother using this Gift rolls Intelligence + Occult with a target of her own permanent Willpower; she spends one point of temporary rage and one temporary Gnosis, and refills her Willpower pool if she achieves 2 or more successes.
Crone
Bolster the True Name (Level Four)
Source: WW3851 - Black Furies Revised p. 67
Description: The Crone has no need for a child’s rage, and her wiles are enough to let her survive the day that the Mother’s stalwart nature fails her. She can sacrifice her hatred and will to reinvigorate her spiritual connections. This Gift is taught by a Lune.
System: A Crone using this Gift roll Intelligence + Occult with a target of her own permanent Gnosis; she spends one point of temporary Rage and one temporary Willpower, and refills her Gnosis pool if the roll achieves 2 or more successes.
