River Rapids
Umbral Realm · Werewolf
A fire-pit sits on smooth sand, watching over a pebble-filled stream. Crystal-clear water slowly flows around the curve. The fire burns low and the scent of cooking fish wafts through the air. The sound of birdsong comes from trees standing back from the river shores. Beneath the warbles and twitters there is always the distant roar of rushing, crashing water.
A mixed sept of Uktena and Wendigo protect this An chorhead. They have set up camp within the comfortably cool forest lining the waterway and pass the time between patrols and intruders by telling stories of the Pure Lands and singing the old songs of tribal heroes. Bound earth and air elementals supplement the Realm’s security. Unwelcome visitors find the land turning against them – buffeting winds keep them unbalanced and sting their flesh while sudden, unpredictable sinkholes swallow the invaders and vanish as quickly as they appeared.
The Deep Umbral side of the Anchorhead is eerily iden tical to the Near Umbra. The Garou have a second, identical camp here and rotate duties between each side weekly.
The Anchorhead reveals the direction and time since the last use with the river’s flow. The active Anchorhead is a rushing torrent that slows after use. The waters barely flow if they are unused for a week.
Two large boulders carved with the Song of Three Broth ers, act as anchors for this Anchorhead. When the portal is active these boulders shake and stir the waters and the boulders’ story sings out over the roar of the rushing river.
Characters embracing the theme of the Anchorhead float in the waters and move with the current. The waters accelerate quickly when the Anchorhead is activated and the character is swept along at a hair-raising pace, tumbling over waterfalls and smashing against rocks hidden beneath the white water. These impacts hurt but do no real damage. Similarly, the current may drag the character beneath the water, but the Anchorhead will not permit her to drown.
After the journey is nearly done she falls over one last waterfall and then finds the waters calm and bring her gently to a familiar bend where they deposit her onto the shore of the second camp.