Tribe Gifts - Red Talons To Wendigo

Rank 1

Babble
The Garou invoking this Gift can cause another to lose the ability to read, write or speak any language. That person will only be able to grunt like an animal. The effect lasts for one scene and is taught by a parrot spirit.

System: The Garou must spend a Gnosis point and roll Manipulation + Primal Urge, difficulty 7, resisted by an Intelligence + Linguistics roll, difficulty 7.

Beast Speech
The Garou may speak to animals, from pigeons in the park to beavers at their dam or fish in the sea. This does not change their basic reactions - a hungry tiger is still hungry and may well attack. This Gift is taught by a Nature-spirit.

System: The Garou rolls Charisma + Animal Ken (difficulty 6). This roll must be made for each type of animal and for each encounter.

Prey's Cry
Medieval legends aplenty tell of terrible beasts that mimic human voices or the cries of game animals to lure travelers into their gaping maws. The Ret Talons have learned this trick for themselves. Many a traveler has died at Talon jaws after following what they believed to be a fair young girl's cry of distress…
This Gift is learned from a Raven, Mockingbird or Manticore-spirit (the last is a member of Griffin's spirit brood).

System: The player rolls Wits + Expression. The difficulty depends on the animal noise imitated; a rabbit's death-scream or wild bison's call is difficulty 5, whereas a human plea for help might be difficulty 7, or even 9 if the Talon wants "a voice that sounds like one of their priests" or a similarly complicated mimicry. If successful, any mortal or animal believes that the cry is that of the Red Talon's intended creature, even to the point of recognising "a noble's inflection" or believing a female voice that of "a maiden pure of virtue". The Red Talon need not know that much about the creature mimicked - even if the Talon has never heard a soldier cry for help, he can emit a cry that humans would instantly take for the call of a man-at-arms.

Rouse to Anger
This Gift enables the Garou to say or do something that causes her target to refresh her inner Rage. This might involve shaming an individual, slapping her in the face or telling her something to arouse her anger. The Garou can also summon within herself a memory or an emotion that assists her in replenishing her own capacity for righteous anger.

System: The player rolls Manipulation + Empathy (difficulty 8) and spends a Gnosis point. A successful roll enables the character to speak or act in such a way that her target gains a point of Rage. Each additional success allows the character to affect another individual, including herself.

Scent of Running Water
The Garou can completely mask her scent, making herself virtually impossible to track. This Gift is taught by a Fox-spirit.

System: The difficulties of all rolls to track the Garou are increased by two. This Gift becomes an innate ability to the Garou who learns it. She need not expend any points or make any rolls.

Water Sense
The most precious resource in the unsettled wilderness may be drinking water, but it can be hard to find. With this Gift, the Red Talon never goes thirsty. Red Talons also use this Gift to lose pursuers by crossing rivers or to locate prey near watering holes. A Water-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The player rolls Perception + Survival (difficulty 6). The character can detect water from a distance of 100 meters for every success.

Wolf at the Door
Some humans can't just be splattered all over the nearest tree. Some of them have to be taught a lesson and left alive, for whatever reason. However, the Red Talons know how to make the message stick. This Gift induces a terrible dread of and respect for the forest, and it makes a human targtet afraid to tamper with it in any way. Any predator spirit can teach this Gift.

System: The Garou must make eye contact with the target, but he can be in any form when he does so. The player then rolls Charisma + Primal Urge (difficulty of the target's Willpower). The effects last for one day per success. During this time, the human must roll Willpower to leave his home, and he may not go near anything resembling a forest without spending a Willpower point. If the human does leave his home he is shaky and fearful until he returns, nd his player loses two dice from all Mental and Social dice pools. This Gift functions on Kinfolk, mages, ghouls and other supernatural homids, but the difficulty increases by two, to a maximum of 10.
Taught by: Predator spirits

Rank 2

Aura of Ferocity
The harsh, untamed wilderness frequently brings death to humans who venture into it unprepared. With this Gift, the Garou can heighten the fear humans have of the wild. A panic-stricken human may be unable to act or have to flee the area. An Ancestor-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The Garou must spend one Rage point to activate the Gift and must growl (even in human form) for the effect to work. All normal humans lose one die from their Dice Pools within 20 feet of the Garou. Those humans not used to dealing with wild animals must make a Willpower roll (difficulty equals the Garou's Rage) or flee the area.

Beastmind
The Garou can reduce the mental faculties of a target to those of an animal for a short time. This Gift is taught by an avatar of Griffin

System: The Garou rolls Manipulation + Empathy (difficulty of the target's Willpower). The effect lasts for one turn per success.

Cull the Herd
A Red Talon using this Gift measures the vitality of her prey to plan her attack strategy effectively. During the Impergium, Red Talons used this Gift to pick the weakest of the humans and destroy them. Occasionally, the Red Talons killed the strongest of the humans to remove them from the breeding pool. Today, the Gift continues to help Red Talons hunt and kill their prey. An Avatar of wolf teaches his children how to detect the easiest prey.

System: The Red Talon need only succeed on a Perception + Primal Urge roll (difficulty 7) to determine the general health and fitness of an individual. This Gift also works on animals and Garou as well as humans. One success detects any injuries, whereas five successes would reveal the creature's entire physiology.

Primal Instinct
The Red Talon can strip away the layers of humanity that cover up man's basic instinct. A human assaulted with this Gift finds himself behaving like a beast. Momentarily losing all civility, the human strips naked, runs through the streets, growls at threats and makes numerous, uninvited overtures toward members of the opposite sex. All thoughts of business meetings, color television and BMW's vanish in favor of the basic drives of survival. Red Talons use whatever means necessary to force Ape-spirits to teach them this Gift.

System: The Red Talon must spend a Gnosis point and roll Manipulation + Animal Ken (difficulty equal to the target's Willpower). The number of successes indicates the extent to which the human target loses his humanity. One success causes a certain absent-mindedness and preoccupation with food and sex. Five successes, on the other hand, probably cause the raving target to be locked up and tranquilized.

Sense of the Prey
The character, if he knows anything about his prey, can track it down as rapidly as he can travel. This unerring sense of direction operates anywhere, and is used to track spirits through the Umbra as well as to find beings on Earth. This Gift is taught by a Wolf- or Dog-spirit.

System: No roll is required unless the target is actively hiding; in which case a Perception + Enigmas roll is made against a difficulty of the target's Wits + Stealth. If the target is a spirit, the difficulty is the spirit's Gnosis.

Snuff Flames
The Red Talons are mistrustful of humanity’s control of fire. This Gift allows them to take one of the hated humans' most prized tools away from them, dousing almost any fire within their line of sight.
This Gift is taught by a Water spirit.

System: The player rolls Willpower, difficulty 6 (or 8 when trying to affect oil fires). The Talon may extinguish all fire within a radius of two yards per success. The fuel may be relit, but its difficulty to do so - a torch becomes as tricky to light as if it was damp, extinguished oil fires gutter fitfully and refuse to catch fully light, and so on.

Rank 3

Elemental Favour
By cajoling a nearby urban elemental, the Garou can get the elemental to perform one "favor" for her. This can include the manipulation or even destruction of the elemental's housing - thus a metal vault door might unlock itself, a glass sheet might explode at the Garou's enemies, cables might coil around the Garou's opponents, etc. This Gift is taught by any urban elemental.

System: The Garou rolls Charisma + Subterfuge against a difficulty of the elemental's Gnosis.

Herding the Infant Ape
Perhaps the most unpopular Gift in the entire tribe, this Gift is hidden by Whelp's Compromise, although a few Warders of the Land use it in more… experimental ways. It turns a human child of no older than ten years old into a creature of the wild, unable to set foot in a city. Some suggest this Gift is responsible for myths such as Romulus and Remus, or the tale of Mowgli. Whelp's Compromise camp members use this to show that humans themselves can exist in harmony with Gaia, it is the City that is evil and needs to be destroyed.

System: This Gift can only be used on a human child of no more than ten years. The player pends three Gnosis and rolls Charisma + Primal Urge. The difficulty is the child's age; any child less than a year old automatically is barred from setting foot in a city for the rest of their life. For children aged one and up, the number of successes rolled becomes the number of decades that pass before they can re-enter a city. If they do so before then, they suffer incapacitating cramps, refuse to eat, and stay immobile until removed from the city.

Since this Gift only works on those too small to fend for themselves, few who use it simply abandon their charges. After all, a dead human child in the wild isn't the example the Whelp's Compromise wants to make.

Savagery of the Taloned Hunter
This Gift allows a Garou to gain twice the advantage of his Rage, thus increasing the ferocity and frequency of attacks or else allowing him to accomplish more under stress than he normally would.

System: The player spends a Rage point, which he may then convert into the equivilent of two points of Rage for the character. This enables a character to take two extra actions in a combat at the cost of a Rage point. Another use of the Gift allows the character to recover from a stunned state and take an extra action in the same turn.

Snap Man's Chains
The Red Talons look on humanity's domestication and subsequent abuse of animals as nothing less than a sin against Gaia. With this Gift, the Red Talon can undo that offense, if only for as long as a night. The Talon releases a howl that drives domesticated animals completely feral - horses throw their rides and bolt as far as they can, oxen throw themselves against fences in a frenzy, dogs turn on their masters at the first sign of weakness. Needless to say, this Gift's use often drives surviving humans on a quest for the witch among their numbers that surely must be responsible.
This Gift is taught by any Animal-spirit, although the spirits of wolves and wild oxen are particular generous with its secret.

System: The player spends a Gnosis point and rolls Manipulation + Primal-Urge. Success makes any animals within earshot uneasy and difficult to manage, but the actual amount of animals driven feral depends on the number of successes rolled.

Successes Area of Effect
One A single barn, kennel, stable or mews
Two A farmstead
Three A small keep
Four A village or large keep
Five A town
Six+ A city or valley

The Talon cannot influence the actions taken by the newly feral animals; most will try to flee human territory, although some might attack their masters in a fit of panic or hunger. The effect lasts until the sun rises or sets, whichever comes first.

Trackless Waste

The Garou employing this Gift must have at least a rough familiarity with the terrain in a given area (have spent at least a week in the vicinity). The Garou may completely disrupt others' perceptions of that terrain's landmarks, etc. Humans and the like will automatically become lost (compasses won't work and maps will become misleading). Even Garou may become lost. This Gift is taught by any wilderness-oriented spirit.

System: The Garou spends one Gnosis point and rolls Intelligence + Primal Urge (difficulty 6). Each success enables a two-mile radius to be affected. Other Garou must roll Perception + Primal Urge (difficulty 6) and equal or exceed the Gift users's roll. The effect lasts four hours.

Rank 4

Avalanche
The Garou must be in a mountainous or otherwise tectonically unstable area. The Gift causes an avalanche, mudslide, etc to engulf his foes. This Gift is taught by an earth elemental.

System: The Garou spends one Gnosis point and rolls Manipulation + Survival (difficulty determined by the Storyteller depending on the instability of the terrain). The more successes, the more powerful the effect. On a botch, the Garou is caught in the avalanche.

Form of Akhlut
Inuit myth tells of Akhlut, a killer whale that turned into a wolf to walk on land. The legends are almost right, of course. This Gift allows a Red Talon to take on an aquatic form such as a fish, dolphin or whale. It is believed by some that this Gift is how the Red Talons spread from their original lands to other continents. The Gift is taught by the spirit of an appropriate pelagic animal, although the Red Talons respect the orca most of all.

System: Two Gnosis points are required to activate this Gift, and then the player rolls Stamina + Primal Urge, difficulty 8. Each success allows the Red Talon to become a more powerful aquatic denizen. One success might allow the Red Talon to become a goldfish, three a dolphin and five the genuine killer whale of legend.

Gorge
Natural wolves will eat as much as possible when food is available, for they never know when their next meal will arrive. With this Gift, a Red Talon can do much the same thing with Rage, Gnosis or Willpower, storing such energy against the day she will need it. A wolf-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: Upon learning this Gift, the player chooses which Trait (Rage, Gnosis or Willpower) her character can store. Thereafter, the character can hold three more points in the appropriate Trait than her permanent rating. These extra points must be regained as usual, and they do not add extra dice to rolls involving these Traits.

Hunter's Horn
This Gift enables the Garou to create a sound so horrible and mind-chilling that it sends enemies into utter panic and causes them to flee an area without regard for direction or destination. Enemies so affected cannot attempt to evade pursuit or disguise their passage. This makes hunting them down and dispatching them a fairly simple task. This gift is taught by a spirit of Rorg.

System: The player spends a point of Rage and rolls Manipulation + Primal-Urge (difficulty of the highest Willpower in the group). Each success affects one victim with uncontrollable panic, causing them to run blindly from an area. Garou affected by this Gift enter a state of fox frenzy, while others simply become mindless panicked creatures of prey. The effect lasts for an entire scene, during which time the character (and any allies) may hunt down and slay the victims if they so desire.

Quicksand
The Garou can turn the local ground into a sticky mass that can catch foes and prevent them from moving easily. This Gift is taught by Earth elementals.

System: The Garou spends a Gnosis point and rolls Manipulation + Primal Urge (difficulty 7). Each success turns a 10-foot area of ground into a viscious, sticky substance. Anyone in the area save the Garou can only move at half walking speed, and no combat maneuvers requiring movement may be executed. Additionally, the difficulties for all attacks involving actions more complext than basic grappling are increased by one.

Recycle
Red Talons who possess this powerful Gift can destroy any man-made substance. Plastics, alloys and other material not found in nature, disintegrate with just a touch. Lawn chairs dissolve into oily puddles and steel melts into iron and carbon. A cockroach spirit, which has witnesses the humans' secret creation rites, knows the Gifts that can dissolve nearly anything.

System: The Garou must touch the material for the Gift to work. Only materials which science has manufactured are viable targets. For instance, a wooden chair would be unaffected (although the glue holding it together would not be), whereas a plastic chair would melt to the ground. The Garou must roll her Rage against a difficulty determined by the item's complexity. The difficulty ranges from iron (difficulty 6) and ordinary plastics (difficulty 7) to rare and complex metal allows (difficulty 9). Every success reduces five pounds of the target material to its base components.

Rank 5

Curse of Dionysis
The Garou may transform any human or Garou into a normal wolf. Garou will stay in this form for the duration of the scene; against humans, this effect is permanent. This Gift is taught by a Wolf spirit.

System: The Garou spends one Gnosis point and then rolls Gnosis against a difficulty of the opponent's Willpower.

Gaia's Vengeance
The Garou can cause the very features of the land to animate and attack intruders: branches will lash out, rocks will roll and smash, vines will trip, water will such victims under. This Gift is taught by an avatar of Gaia herself.

System: The Garou spends one Gnosis point and then one Rage point. He then rolls Charisma + Enimgas (difficulty of the local Gauntlet). The game effects are up to the Storyteller.

Natural Renewal
Even as the United States carries out Manifest Destiny, the Red Talons seek to preserve the unconquered wilderness. Under the effects of this Gift, nature recovers from ravages created by humanity. Landslides refill the deep mining shafts that pierce the earth, wildlife infests building and technology fails. A Seedling-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The player must spend three Gnosis points and howl (or sing) to the wilderness spirits. These spirits encourage rampant plant growth that can even overcome man-made roads, mineshafts and buildings. Also no technology can function within 30 feet of the Garou. The exact effects of the Gift are up to the Storyteller, but nature does its best to renew itself despite humanity's efforts.

Pack Mind
This Gift forces a group of foes to behave like a single-minded pack. All individuals must perform the same task at the same time regardless of its appropriateness to a given situation. For example, if one individual fights, all the others fight; if one person attempts to sneak up behind an opponent, all the others make this attempt as well. This Gift lasts for one combat scene. This gift is taught by a spirit of Rorg.

System: The player spends a point of Gnosis and rolls Willpower (difficulty 8). A single success allows the character to inflict Pack Mind on a group of up to four individuals. Additional successes allow the character to increase the number of people affected in increments of two; five successes, therefore, enables the character to affect twelve individuals. For the duration of this Gift, all the affected victims mimic the actions of their leader - or, more typically, the first person in a group to act each turn. If one decides to speak, all of them attempt to do so; if one throws a left hook, all of them choose this form of combat, ignoring any weapons they may have.