Homid Gifts

[Xenia]

Homid Gifts

Level One Gifts

• Apecraft's Blessings
• Persuasion
• Smell of Man
• Subpoena
• Taunt

Level Two Gifts

• Entrance the Mob
• Global Citizen
• Mark of the Wolf
• Speech of the World
• Taking the Forgotten

Level Three Gifts

• Artemis' Eye
• Call to Duty
• Cowing Daedalus' Crafts
• Halt the Savage Beast
• Master of Fire

Level Four Gifts

• Body Shift
• Cheap Shot
• Recollection of Distant Dreams
• View the Battlefield
• Words Like Wind

Level Five Gifts

• Artful Dodger
• Beyond Human
• Gaia's Divine Vengeance
• Part the Veil
• Tangling the Thread

[Xenia]

Level One

Apecraft’s Blessings
Though many of Gaia’s children use tools, none have mastered them so thoroughly as humanity. The homid focuses this mastery into the tools she uses, causing their spirits to awaken and lend her aid. An ancestor-spirit or spirit of a man-made object teaches this Gift.

Cost: None

Test Pool: None

System:
Spend your standard action to activate this Gift, focusing on a tool within your hands. The next use of that tool within 10 minutes gains a bonus equal to half your dots of Crafts (round up). The use of the tool does not matter; this Gift helps any tool use, be it to stich a patch, or fire a bow and arrow.

Affinity:
Monkey use tools. The bonus to use the tool increases to equal to your Crafts rating.


Persuasion
This Gift imbues a homid’s words with intrinsic credibility and conviction, causing them to ring true to the ear and lay heavy on the heart. An ancestor-spirit teaches this Gift.

Cost: 1 Gnosis

Test Pool: Manipulation + Subterfuge vs Composure + Willpower

System:
Spend a standard action to make a declaration to your target and engage a target in a challenge using the Gift's test pool. If successful, for the next 30 seconds the target believes your statement to be both factually correct and entirely truthful. Even far-fetched notions seem plausible and worth consideration. Once the duration ends, the target is likely to continue believing the falsehood, provided they are not shown contradictory information. In cases where the subject possesses first hand knowledge that your statement is untrue (such as that the sky is purple while standing outside), they will spend the duration of the Gift in a confused state and then realize you are lying at the end of the power's duration.

If used in combat, this power has a diminished effect. Any statement made to attempt to distract causes momentary confusion. If successful the target loses their next simple action as they try to understand the statement before their need to survive kicks back in.

Exceptional Success:
This Gift lasts for five minutes rather than 30 seconds. In combat, the target loses their next two simple actions rather than one.

Affinity:
Rather than being limited to one target, you may instead target 3 different individuals. If you lose any of the tests and make use of your general retest you may use that retest again on any of the remaining challenges without needing to spend any cost (if necessary). If you have already lost an earlier challenge you cannot go back after deciding to use your general retest and try again.


Smell of Man
To creatures of the wild, man’s scent is death. To creatures of the city, it is authority, comfort, easy meals. This Gift, taught by an ancestor-spirit, enhances a werewolf’s human scent, infusing it with spiritual power.

Cost: None

Test Pool: None

System:
Non-supernatural wild animals lose two traits from their test pools when interacting with the Garou, save when defending themselves or running away, and will be inclined to flee rather than attack if possible. Domesticated animals recognize the werewolf as a friend, and even trained attack dogs will do no more than wag their tails at the character unless attacked first. This Gift’s effects are permanently active, but can be deactivated at will.

Affinity:
Homids understand the importance of preserving the Veil and allowing others to do so. Spend a Gnosis you may grant the effects of this Gift to another individual and they come up as the user of this Gift would.


Subpoena
The spirits of law and justice have empowered you to mystically summon an individual to your presence. These spirits deliver your summons, formally declaring your identity to the recipient, the reason for your summons, and the location at which the recipient must appear. If she fails to honor this call, the spirits punish her for her denial. The very spirits that deliver this message, that is law- and justice-spirits are the teachers of this Gift.

Cost: 1 Gnosis

Test Pool: Charisma + Academics + Rank versus target's Composure + Willpower + Rank

System:
Spend a standard action to verbally issue a summons, identifying your target to the spirits and informing them of the reason for the summons. Make an opposed challenge against your target. To attempt this challenge, you must be familiar with your target. If you succeed, a spirit travels to your target's location, manifests, and delivers your summons, declaring your name, Rank, and the desired location for her appearance.

Immediately afterward, the target must declare whether she accepts or rejects the summons. Failure to answer is considered a rejection by the spirits.

If she rejects the summons, the target immediately loses 1 point of Willpower which cannot be regained for 30 days. While suffering this Willpower loss, the target may choose to change her mind and accept the call, regaining the lost points of Willpower. If the target opts to accept the call after having previously rejected it, you may select a new time and location for the appearance, to be delivered to your target by the spirits in the same manner as before.

If your target accepts the Subpoena, she must actively attempt to arrive at the specified location at the appointed time. The spirits notify you when your target is nearing the appointed location. Failure to arrive at the designate time causes your target to immediately lose 1 point of Willpower for 30 days, as if she had denied the summons.

The target retains all of her survival instincts and thus cannot be compelled to walk off a cliff or enter a situation that she realizes may be an ambush. If she cannot physically present herself for these reasons, she may contact you through another means, such as a spiritual messenger. If she believes she is in danger, she may take up to 10 minutes to prepare herself before answering the Subpoena without suffering penalty.

A character may be targeted by this Gift multiple times, but the penalties are not cumulative. If she cannot be reached by spirits, such as if she is behind a Spirit Ward of cannot by seen by spirits, the spirits will wait until they can deliver the summons or until one week passes, whichever is shorter. A target must answer Subpoenas in the order they are received.

Misuse of this power is strongly frowned upon. Issuing accusations and calls to appear as a witness are valid uses of this Gift, but using a justice spirit as an arbitrary messenger is considered grounds for Renown loss, as is any use of this power in bad faith.

Exceptional Success:
The target loses 2 points of Willpower, instead of the usual 1 point, if she rejects the summons or fails to arrive on time.

Affinity:
Homids know that greasing palms is how you get things done. Upon reaching their destination, the target gains a point of Willpower (that cannot go over their cap). Be warned, though, that spirits are doubly likely to be offended by homids that misuse this Gift.


Taunt
The clever trickster knows how to pull attention towards them without letting them focus anywhere else. Likewise, you have the ability to transform your disdain into a savage, spiritually-powered jape, triggering a blinding fury in your foe. An ancestor-spirit teaches this Gift.

Cost: 1 Rage

Test Pool: Charisma + Subterfuge versus target's Composure + Willpower

System:
Expend your standard action insulting your target verbally, by rudely gesturing, or using a creative combination of both. If you succeed in an opposed challenge, you afflict your target with an intense anger directed at you for the remainder of the scene. Your target automatically gains 1 point of Rage, and her hatred of you is so intense that she suffers a -3 penalty to Brawl and Melee attacks against anyone else until she has personally struck you with a Brawl or Melee attack. Ranged weapons, such as archery or Gifts that cause ranged damage, do not fulfill the target's urge to physically humiliate you. While affected, your target is free to ignore you, though the effects persist for the next hour.

A target under the effect of Taunt is automatically considered to be focused on you for any powers that require the target look at you.

If you become unconscious or your target can no longer see you, this Gift's effect immediately ends. Creatures that cannot gain Rage do not do so, and suffer no additional effects beyond the Physical penalty.

Exceptional Success:
The effects of this power persist for the next hour or until the target of this Gift has succeeded in physically striking you three times, regardless of if your target can see you or if you become unconscious.

Affinity:
The power of your personality is such that you can leverage this Gift with a mere glance, instead of verbal insults or gestures. Observers may notice your smug expression, but they can find no fault or violation of protocol in your behavior.

[Xenia]

Level Two

Entrance the Mob
The rancorous mob and the well-trained pack have one thing in common--both can be directed by an impassioned speaker. You have the ability to force a pack-like unity on a crowd of people, forcing them to temporarily remain calm and consider your point of view. While you can't actively control them, you do have the ability to sway their actions through well-chosen words. A lion-spirit teaches this Gift.

Cost: 1 Willpower

Test Pool: None

System:
Spend your standard action to activate Entrance the Mob. For the duration of this Gift, you retain the attention of everyone that can hear your voice. This effect lasts for up to one full turn for each dot of the Performance ability you possess, although you may choose to end it sooner by ceasing to speak. While this power is active, anyone within hearing distance must listen to you, talk reasonably, or leave. You cannot force others to like you or talk to you, but they must listen as long as you continue talking, or until you reach the maximum duration allowed by your Performance ability. Once Entrance the Mob expires, opponents can attack you normally, and you cannot activate this power again for the next hour. If you attack, use a supernatural power, or attempt to move away from aggressors, Entrance the Mob ends immediately.

Your allies are not exempt from Entrance the Mob. No one under the effect of this Gift can attack while this Gift is active.

Affinity:
No one specializes in working behind the scenes like the homid born. You may activate supernatural powers that do not require an opposed challenge to activate without ending Entrance the Mob.


Global Citizen
Some homid Garou have a propensity for travel that has them able to fit in wherever they go. This Gift takes this principle a step further. The Garou blends into different cultures, and inherently understand minor cultural traditions, faux pas, and quirks. To the untrained observer, she appears part of the group. Her skin and facial structure doesn’t change, but nobody seems to notice any difference in heritage. She does not become able to understand languages associated with the group; that’s the purview of other Gifts such as Speech of the World. A chameleon-spirit teaches this Gift.

Cost: 1 Willpower

Test Pool: None

System:
By spending a simple action to activate this Gift, the Garou effectively becomes part of whatever culture she immerses herself in for the next hour. She knows how to act in a polite and correct manner. If the Garou needs to make an active effort to blend into the culture around them, they receive a +3 bonus to do so.

Affinity:
While this Gift is active people are more willing to speak to you and pass you information. A number of times a session equal to your Rank (minimum 1) you may activate this Gift to gain a free use of either the Allies or Contacts background as someone from the local area approaches you. Precisely who they are is left up to the ST, but they are always someone at least somewhat well connected.


Mark of the Wolf
The werewolf marks those she comes in contact with, leaving them to carry the same aura of the predator the Garou does. This subtle curse can wreak havoc in a target’s private or professional life, and is a favorite of many homids looking to provoke discord in the ranks of the enemy. A Lune teaches this Gift.

Cost: None

Test Pool: Manipulation + Urge versus target's Composure + Willpower

System:
The Garou may activate this Gift after having at least 5 minutes of conversation with the target and then engaging the target in a contested test with the Gift's test pool. If successful, the target inherits the Curse as though she had a Rage rating equal to that of the Garou for a number of hours equal to your Rank.

Affinity:
Rather than taking 5 minutes of conversation, you may activate this Gift by only exchanging a brief word with your target.


Speech of the World
This Gift allows Gaia’s warriors to wield the spirit of speech, bypassing the need to learn different languages and dialects. The Garou may speak and understand any human language she encounters, though she speaks with an obvious accent, marking her as an outsider. Speech of the World doesn’t convey literacy, nor is it an encyclopedia of cultural information. An ancestor-spirit teaches this Gift.

Cost: 1 Gnosis

Test Pool: Intelligence + Linguistics against a static difficulty determine by the storyteller ranging from 5-15 (5 is a language commonly spoken, 15 is for ancient tongues that no mortal alive still knows)

System:
Upon hearing a language that the Homid does not understand, the Garou makes a static challenge with this Gift's test pool. On a success the Garou is able to speak the language for the next 10 minutes.

Exceptional Success:
Rather than just the next hour, the Garou can speak the language for the next hour.

Affinity:
Homid find that upon learning this Gift, they also just have a knack for understanding more languages naturally; gain the ability to speak two additional languages naturally. Should you ever lose this Gift you lose two languages you know decided by staff, they usually are the languages chosen, but don't have to be - if you really pissed off a spirit, they may decide to rip your native tongue, or a very common language to make sure to punish you.


Taking the Forgotten
The trickster spirits are known for their cunning and thieving ways. You've learned to call on these spirits to help you steal from your enemy, even while she watches. If you succeed, she will forget she ever owned it for a time. A trickster-spirit teaches this Gift, eager to help spread chaos.

Cost: 1 Gnosis

Test Pool: Wits + Legerdemain vs Resolve + Willpower or Strength + Brawl versus target's Physical Defense (soaking the attack means the Gift automatically succeeds)

System:
Expend your standard action to call upon the spirits of tricksters. In combat, you can use the Disarm combat maneuver for no cost; this combat maneuver must be immediately used against your target in an opposed challenge. During the challenge, you have the choice between using either of Taking the Forgotten's test pools. If you succeed, you automatically steal one item from your target, rather than simply force your enemy to drop it, as described in the Disarm combat maneuver. If you fail, it becomes apparent that you attempted to steal from your target and that you made use of a Gift to do so. Outside of combat, you may only use Wits + Legerdemain to ensure you successfully snatch the object.

If you succeed, the spirits confuse and befuddle your target and any observers witnessing the theft, removing any memory that you stole from her. In addition, the target completely forgets that she was carrying the stolen object, making a mental justification, such as that she left it at home, let you borrow it, or that you somehow have a similar or duplicate object. This memory block of the theft dissolves after 1 hour, or until your target regains the object. Be warned, this particular effect may be bypassed by fetishes specifically crafted to avoid such effects.

If you use Taking the Forgotten to steal a living being or supernatural creature from your target, such as saving a baby from a vampire, the memory-block aspect of the Gift fails to work, as the spirits can't befuddle memories about living beings.

Exceptional Success:
If you score an exceptional success when using Taking the Forgotten, the duration of the memory block extends to 24 hours.

Affinity:
Let's face it, Homids are capable of a duplicity and sneakiness the other breeds just can't match. The duration of the memory block doubles, increasing to two hours, instead of the standard one hour, or to 48 hours if you score an exceptional success.

[Xenia]

Level Three

Artemis' Eye
It is said that when Artemis takes aim at even the fleetest of stags, she never misses a target. Though this Gift you are able to echo that skill. When you aim your bow, none may even hope to dodge. A deer- or bear-sprit; the animals sacred to Artemis, teach this Gift; it is said that Artemis herself knows any who know this Gift.

Cost: 1 Gnosis

Test Pool: None

System:
Expend your standard action to target a single individual with an archery attack. You automatically hit your target without a challenge, gaining a normal success. Effects that allow an individual to automatically avoid your attack succeed in defending against Artemis' Eye, but powers that provide defensive bonuses do not.

Alternatively, once per turn, you can spend 1 Gnosis when you achieve a normal success on an archery attack against a single target. That normal success becomes an exceptional success.

The two effects of Artemis' Eye cannot be combined. You can use this power to automatically hit, or to turn a normal success into an exceptional success, but you cannot use both effects on the same attack. Artemis' Eye can only be applied to ranged attacks and cannot modify combat maneuvers.

You cannot use Artemis' Eye when using weapons or Gifts that attack multiple targets.

Affinity:
Artemis does not ever let her prey escape, and neither do you. Should an individual use an effect that would allow them to automatically avoid an attack augmented by Artemis' Eye, you may choose to spend a point of Willpower to negate that effect, should a character have multiple abilities that allow them to automatically dodge you must pay for each separately.


Call to Duty
You have become an embodiment of lofty ideals such as duty, loyalty, and devotion. When you provide direction, you inspire your allies with renewed purpose and strength. A lion-spirit teaches this Gift.

Cost: 1 Gnosis

Test Pool: None

System:
Spend three uninterrupted standard actions to make a short speech or howl encouragingly to your allies, bolstering them to perform a certain task. Examples of appropriate tasks include protecting a fallen member of the pack, scouting a hostile location, or supporting another pack in battle.

A number of allies up to the dots in your Leadership ability may accept your Call to Duty. To accept, they must respond with a howl of acknowledgement; no action is required on their part. These allies immediately regain 1 point of Gnosis and 1 point of Willpower; this cannot exceed their normal Gnosis and Willpower pools.

You receive no benefit from your own Call to Duty, beyond the assistance characters provide in the completion of your goal. No one can benefit from more than one use of Call to Duty per hour.

Affinity:
Friends, Grecians, Countrymen... Homid are exceptionally good at guiding a crowd with their words. You may affect up to double your dots in the Leadership ability with this Gift rather than just up to your dots of the Leadership ability.


Cowing Daedalus' Crafts
The spirits of tools recognize man as their master; as a result, they become reluctant to harm the homid. A Weaver-spirit teaches this Gift.

Cost: 1 Gnosis

Test Pool: None

System:
Spend a simple action to activate this Gift. For the next hour, you reduce the damage you take from all non-silver human made weapons by 1. In addition, should you decide to soak an attack from a non-silver human made weapon, you gain +3 on the test and gain a Gift Retest on the challenge. The precise crafter does not matter; a knife made by a human, kinfolk, or garou all count as human made for the purpose of this Gift. Fetishes or other magical weapons do not.

Affinity:
Man's familiarity with crafted items extends further than most. Fetishes and magical weapons fall under a Homid's purview of the Gift, although with limited efficacy: you gain a +2 on the test instead of the standard +3, and no retest.


Halt the Savage Beast
Even the most callous of homids can sympathize with the Rage that moves their fellow Garou. This Gift allows the werewolf to lend a frenzying Garou the will to escape her Rage’s hold over her. It is taught by an ancestor-spirit.

Cost: 1 Willpower

Test Pool: Manipulation + Primal-Urge versus target's Composure + Rage

System:
Expend your standard action and engage a frenzying Garou within 20 steps in a contested challenge with this Gift's test pool. If successful, you soothes the frenzying Garou, canceling the frenzy.

Exceptional Success:
You are able to quell the Garou's Rage such that they cannot enter Frenzy at all for the next 3 turns.

Affinity:
By spending an extra point of Willpower, this Gift may affect non-Garou in a state of frenzy, such as other shapeshifters or vampires. They resist the Gift with Composure + Willpower.


Master of Fire
The invention of fire was the first step towards the Weaver's ascension and the humans' resistance to the Wyld. Dangerous and unpredictable, fire is a powerful tool for those who can master it. By channeling the spirit of the inferno, you can conjure a burst of fire from your hands to strike down your enemies. An ancestor- or fire-spirit teach this Gift.

Cost: 1 Gnosis

Test Pool: Wits + Occult versus target's Physical Defense (attack cannot be parried)

System:
Expend your standard action to point at a target within 20 steps of your location. If you succeed in an opposed challenge against your target, a burst of flame shoots out of your finger, inflicting 3 points of aggravated damage to her when it strikes. This flame then snuffs out in a puff of mystic sparks. Alternatively, you may choose to ignite a stationary flammable target, such as a pile of hay or papers, so long as it is not currently in anyone's direct possession.

Exceptional Success:
You inflict 4 points of aggravated damage, instead of the normal 3.

Affinity:
The mastery of fire includes also it's protection. You may spend 1 Gnosis and a simple action; for the next hour you take bashing damage from fire rather than aggravated.

[Xenia]

Level Four

Body Shift
Garou raised in the shifting maze of human society are well-prepared for the endless adaptations Gaia demands of her protectors. An ancestor-spirit teaches this Gift.

Cost: 1 Willpower

Test Pool: None

System:
Spend a simple action to activate this Gift. The Garou can use her shapeshifting to alter her physical Attributes: a dot of Dexterity can be shifted to Strength or Stamina, and so forth. You are able to move a number of dots up to your dots in the Primal Urge ability. You cannot raise the dots in an Attribute above 5 in this manner. The effects of this Gift last for 10 minutes. If you wish to change your dots again, you must reactivate the Gift.

If you drop an attribute below 6 with this power you lose access to the heroic attribute bonus until you shift it back.

Affinity:
Homids tend to rush things. While the Gift is active you may spend a simple action to change the distribution of dots affected by this Gift.


Cheap Shot
Not every battle is waged with honor. Glory goes to the victor, and it doesn't care how dirty the winner' hands are. You have the ability to call on the spirits to help you make a humiliating strike against your enemy that distracts her for a short amount of time. A hare-spirit teaches this Gift.

Cost: 1 Rage

Test Pool: Strength + Brawl versus target's Physical Defense

System:
Expend a standard action making a brawl attack to humiliate your target with a strike. This attack must be painful and embarrassing, like a back-handed slap or a devastating shot to the crotch. If you succeed, you deal the normal damage for the attack, and the victim is temporarily dazed for the next turn, until the conclusion of her next action during the next Universal round. During this time she suffers a -3 penalty to any non-defensive physical test and suffers a -3 penalty to initiative (if she has already acted this turn she does not get to act again if her initiative drops below the current count).

Although this Gift requires you to humiliate your target, please bear in mind the comfort of your fellow players when roleplaying the requirements and effects of this Gift.

Exceptional Success:
If you achieve an exceptional success, then your target also suffers a penalty on all Mental or Social challenges, their choice.

Affinity:
No strangers to playing it dirty, the blow of a Homid can have a lasting effect. The duration of Cheap Shot extends from 1 turn to 3 turns.


Recollection of Distant Dreams
You can thicken the dream fabric around a target's head, clouding her perceptions and lulling her into a powerful daydream. The target ignores everything going on around her, so long as those events are not overtly hostile, dangerous, or attention-grabbing. This reverie can help you sneak past a guard, examine the the inside of a person's home, or sneak a peek at a note your opponent was holding openly. A bat-spirit teaches this Gift.

Cost: 1 Gnosis

Test Pool: Wits + Subterfuge versus target's Resolve + Willpower

System:
Expend a standard action and engage your target in a contested challenge with this Gift. If successful you send your target's mind towards distant daydreams. The target must be in a relaxed setting - she cannot be in combat, presently endangered, or otherwise threatened with physical harm - but she need not be focused on you.

The target ceases her current activity, as she becomes lost in a vivid daydream. This change happens abruptly; if she is currently speaking, she will pause mid-sentence, as if poised on a thought. She does not notice the presence or activities of anyone around her, so long as those characters remain unobtrusive, nor will she remember such events after the power ends.

Interacting directly with the target or with her personal possessions ends the Gift's effects; this interruption also occurs if you target her with any other supernatural powers. Sudden movements or obvious preparations to attack also end the effect, as will unexpected noises louder than a door closing. Unless ended early, the daydream concludes naturally in 10 minutes.

Should the target still be under the effects of this power when a combat begins, she will be caught flat-footed. For the initial turn of combat, she must substitute a value of 3 in place of her base initiative score. Any modifiers, such Spirit of the Fray, add to that number normally.

Exceptional Success:
Should combat erupt while the target is under the effects of this power, for the initial turn of combat, she instead substitutes a value of 1 for her base initiative.

Affinity:
Innately influential, a homid can spread the impact of distractions like an earworm. You can target up to three individuals at once with this power. Should you need to spend make use of your general retest against any of the targets, you may make use of your general retest without needing to spend on the subsequent targets.


View the Battlefield
You can see the terrain of a battlefield, along with the placement of allies and enemies therein. You perceive this information in shadowy, dream-like detail: a top-down view of the battlefield, rich with symbolism. This information in invaluable from a tactical standpoint. In also lets you chronicle to details of a battle with great precision. An Owl-spirit teaches this Gift.

Cost: 1 Gnosis

Test Pool: None

System:
Spend a simple action to gain a hazy, top-down view of the battlefield at which you are present, superimposed over your normal vision. The area perceived can vary in size; it covers the whole space involved in the current combat scenario, whether that is a small room where only a couple of enemies are fighting, or an area miles across, populated by opposing armies. You can only activate this Gift when you have already detected enemies nearby; a battle must be eminent or have already begun. This Gift does not work across the Gauntlet, even if the battlefield extends to the other side.

While this Gift is active, you automatically know the numbers and locations of enemy forces, even seeing through intervening barriers such as walls or ceilings. This Gift does not extend your field of vision for the purpose of activating other Gifts. Most enemies appear distorted and shrouded in symbolism; you can only identify those with whom you are familiar. You also know exactly when and where new foes enter the battle or if current ones leave it. If any enemies are obscured by supernatural concealment, you still know their total number, but this Gift does not reveal their locations. If you choose, you may share the tactical information gleaned through your battlefield perspective, either verbally, or through powers such as Mind Web. However, you must actively communicate such knowledge; other parties cannot passively share your vision, even telepathically.

In addition, you can observe any challenge within your normal line of sight between two or more individuals. You are able to recognize the nature of the challenge, including any powers used, as long as you possess the appropriate knowledge or Scholar of... merit. You also understand the nature of the outcome, including damage dealt. When observing a challenge, once per turn, you may choose to offer the participant of your chose the opportunity to gain a Gift retest by spending a Willpower point yourself.

View of the Battlefield lasts for 10 minutes per point of Gnosis spent to fuel this Gift.

Affinity:
Homid know that a battle can last for an age, and so the Gift lasts with them. Rather than lasting 10 minutes per point of Gnosis spent, this Gift lasts 1 hour per point of Gnosis spent.


Words Like Wind
Gossip, whispers and catchphrases are contagious, sweeping across cultures and communities like a breeze through trees. The Homid knows how to take advantage of this habit of social creatures, sending her messages across the world one ear at a time. Wind-spirits can teach this Gift.

Cost: 1 Gnosis

Test Pool: Manipulation + Streetwise vs Composure + Willpower

System:
Spend at least a standard action giving a short performance or conversing with someone. Once the main point has been made, engage the target in this Gift's test pool, clearly stating a single sentence as the core message of their presentation. If successful, for 5 minutes x your permanent Gnosis, the target will feel compelled to share the message with others. While they don't need to go out of their way to shout across the agora or adamantly defend the point, they feel the need to mention it to any new conversational partner they engage during the Gift's effect. When this occurs, a supernatural listener (including kinfolk/ghouls/etc.) may either spend a Willpower or suffer the same effect as the initial target for the Gift's duration. Mortals do not get this option, and instead compulsively spread the core message of the performance. Any time they converse with someone during the Gift's duration, someone under the effects of Words Like Wind will find themselves down 1 Trait on all challenges until that message has been conveyed. To reiterate, targets are not compelled to seek out new people or defend the core message.

While this may suffer the effects of any spread gossip, such as being woefully miscommunicated or skewed, the core message will always remain clear. If the message is "Ianthe cannot be trusted," your suspicions about them talking to Sparta may escalate into legends of them betraying their last sept to the Wyrm, or turn into legends of cunning about this unprecedented trickster avatar of the gods, but everyone will know not to trust Ianthe.

Exceptional Success:
Instead of the normal duration, the effects of this Gift last for an hour per Gnosis on mortals, and 10 minutes per Gnosis on supernatural listeners.

Affinity:
Amongst mortals, this gossip often times sound more credible than their own senses, which can be invaluable as a method of covering the Veil. While you won't win over the man who has claw marks over his chest into thinking there was no attack, the majority of spectators will happily accept that the flurry of violence in the courtyard was a military exercise. What werewolves? This will not effect anyone who is resistant to the Delirium.

[Xenia]

Level Five

The Artful Dodger
The Artful Dodger is the epitope of the trickster, and many a servant of Hermes prizes this Gift. You're able to get out of dangerous situations and putting your hands on things that don't belong to you. A hawk-spirit teaches this Gift.

Cost: 2 Gnosis

Test Pool: None

System:
Spend your simple action entreating spirits of evasion and chicanery to lend you their finesse and cunning. For a number of turns equal to the number of dots you possess of Subterfuge, you gain a +3 bonus to tests using your Dodge, Larceny, and Streetwise abilities. In addition, you become immune to the Grapple and Disarm combat maneuvers.

In addition, you cannot be imprisoned or trapped inside of any container or unnatural structure, such as a cell or a vault. You simply pass through any barrier that would otherwise impede your progress out of confinement, as though you are an immaterial ghost. However, if you try to pass through natural phenomena such as a mountain or through trees and brush, you simply become stuck. The escape aspect of the Artful Dodger can only be used when you are not directly observed, but you can use it if you are under remote surveillance such as if someone is scrying upon you. Note: this Gift does not help you break into secure areas, but it does help you escape from them.

Affinity:
You gain a +5 bonus to your Dodge, Larceny, and Streetwise abilities rather than the standard +3.


Beyond Human
The Garou is human plus. Human plus strength, agility and health. Human plus devoted, assured spirituality and meaning. Human plus animal instinct and lightning reflexes. He is as man, but greater and more whole. Every Garou radiates this to some extent, causing humans to fear and avoid them instinctively. This Gift warps this perception, turning the Garou from a figure to be avoided into a figure to be admired or adored. An ancestor-spirit teaches this Gift.

Cost: None, or 1 Rage, or 1 Gnosis (see Gift)

Test Pool: None

System:
Once learned, this Gift is always active. Humans dealing with the character will immediately pick her out as more desirable, attractive, smarter or more charismatic compared to throw around them, regardless of their actual capacity in such matters. The Curse still applies, but rather than being instinctively feared as a predator, the werewolf is dreaded as an intimidating figure of great presence.

In addition, by spending a simple action you are able to make yourself impressive beyond all others as you become 'more'. Choose either a benevolent countenance, by spending 1 point of Gnosis when you active this Gift, or malevolent countenance, by spending 1 point of Rage when you active this Gift. You gain one of the following benefits for the next 10 minutes depending on your choice.

• Benevolent: A benevolent countenance is extraordinarily beautiful, lending unnatural grace and poise as well as raw physical attractiveness. Mortals react with awe and reverence when dealing with a character using this countenance, and even supernatural creatures feel a desire to please this individual. A character displaying this countenance receives a +2 bonus to all Social test pools used for mundane challenges, or Social test pools involving powers which rely on emotions like sexual attraction, affection, or persuasion.
• Malevolent: A Malevolent countenance is terrifying to an extreme degree. Mortals react with abject terror and submission when dealing with a character using this countenance, and even supernatural creatures feel afraid of incurring the character’s wrath. A character displaying this countenance receives a +2 bonus to Social test pools used for mundane challenges, or Social test pools involving powers which rely emotions like intimidation, fear, or subservience.

Affinity:
Upon purchasing this Gift, choose one Social Attribute, and one Heroic Attribute Power associated with that Attribute. When activating this Gift you gain the benefit of that Heroic Attribute Power.


Gaia's Divine Vengeance
While the cycle of life inevitably involves death and suffering, there exists an underlying natural law that governs all creatures. So potent is your judgement that you can declare a target in violation of the natural order, calling Gaia's divine vengeance upon her. This burden manifests itself as a powerful curse, enhancing her vulnerabilities. A spirit of judgement teaches this Gift.

Cost: 2 Rage

Test Pool: Manipulation + Leadership + Rank versus target's Composure + Willpower + Rank

System:
Spend your standard action to howl in fury at your target. If you succeed in an opposed challenge against her, your target is condemned by the weight of your judgement. She cannot benefit from any armor as it simply fails to protect her while under this curse.

In addition, the target becomes especially susceptible to her supernatural weaknesses, receiving 1 additional point of damage when struck by them. Garou receive an additional point of damage from silver, vampires from sunlight and fire, etc.

This Gift lasts for one hour by default. However, for those you deem truly heinous, you may choose to enact a longer-lasting punishment. To enact this longer curse, you must lay your hands on the target for three consecutive standard actions as you recite a litany of her crimes. If you succeed in an opposed challenge against her, your Gaia's Divine Vengeance persists for 30 days.

Exceptional Success:
For the next hour, any damage you inflict on the target of Gaia's Divine Vengeance is aggravated damage, regardless of the source.

Affinity:
The earth itself refuses to bear the burden of the target's disgrace. For the next hour, any time the target uses an action for movement, she reduces her movement by one step.


Part the Veil
With this Gift, a werewolf may immunize any human from the Delirium for a scene. In this way, the human can interact with Garou without deleterious effects. However, the human will forget much of what he knows if the Delirium is induced in him at a later date. An ancestor-spirit teaches this Gift.

Cost: None

Test Pool: None

System:
Spend a standard action and target a mortal within 3 steps of you. This mortal becomes immune the Delirium and even the curse until the sun next crosses the horizon.

Affinity:
By spending a downtime, you may make a mortal immune the Delirium and curse indefinitely. You may only have this effect active on a number of mortals up to your Rank.


Tangling the Thread
At a child's birth the Moirai spin out their thread. Klotho, the "the Spinner," who spun the thread of life, Lakhesis, "the Appointor of Lots", who measured it, and Atropos, "She who cannot be turned," who cut it short. But even still, a person can choose, and change their fate; however, with this Gift you give them little choice except to walk down to road you decree, lest they suffer the wrath of the Fate. A fate-spirit teaches this Gift, such spirits often take the form of dusky turtle doves, though some take on the forms of spiders, weaving elegant tapestries of fate.

Cost: 1 Gnosis

Test Pool: Manipulation + Leadership versus Target's Composure + Willpower

System:
Expend a standard action to vocally issue a prohibition to your target. If you succeed in an opposed challenge against your target, she becomes mystically bound by this Gift and forced to uphold the prohibition for 30 days.

If your target freely gives an oath to maintain the prohibition, she may choose to be bound for an Olympiad (4 years). Garou who seek redemption often willingly submit to this restriction as a demonstration of their honorable intent. For example, a Garou may declare, "I will not return home until I have recovered my family's klaive!"

Once affected the target cannot break the prohibition without first spending a point of Willpower. If she does so, she can then freely engage in the prohibited activity for 10 minutes. If she unwilling to spend a point of Willpower, then she cannot engage the prohibited activity. If, after 10 minutes pass, your target is still in the process of the prohibited activity, she must immediately cease. However, she is not obligated to undo the results of her work. For example, if the target is prohibited from leaving the city, then spends a point of Willpower to board a ship, she is not obligated to jump out of it once 10 minutes have passed. If she has no points of Willpower remaining, she can act freely.

Prohibitions must not be inherently life-threatening in nature, such as forbidding the target from breathing or drinking water, though they may oblige her to do dangerous things, such as entering enemy territory. In no circumstances can this power rob at target of the ability to defend herself in an opposed challenge, but forbidding a target from engaging in violence is a valid use of this Gift, leaving her unable to attack should violence break out.

Alternatively, you can use Tangling the Thread to bind your target to the completion of a quest as part of her punishment. This use of the Gift requires that you lay hands on the target for another three consecutive standard actions as you detail the quest requirements. If you succeed in an opposed challenge against your target, she becomes bound to the quest. If she has not attempted to advance her quest by the end of each game session, she begins the next game session down 3 Willpower which cannot be recovered until she has made an attempt to continue on her quest. This effect lasts for an Olympiad.

The quest-application of this Gift should not be used to compel player attendance or punish a lack of it. If a player whose character is under the effects of this Gift is unable to attend game sessions, the Storytelling staff will work with her to resolve any missed sessions though downtimes or the like.

If the target is already affected by Tangling the Thread, she cannot be subsequently affected until the first one is completed or its duration ends. However, the spirits will not abide a frivolous use of this power intended to protect the target from subsequent instances. In those instances the Moirai themselves are happy to supply a more fitting compulsion determined by the Storytelling staff. The Moirai do not have any restrictions on the quest they may provide, and such a quest lasts until completed, or until Atropos decides it's time to cut the target's thread.

You may choose to end the effects of this power before the end of its duration by expending a simple action.

Affinity:
You are able to forge a spiritual connection with the target. Should she neglect her quest or violate her prohibition, you instinctively know.