Gifts

Black Spiral Dancers who fall after a long period of service to Gaia bring their own Gifts with them, though the infectious energies of the Labyrinth warps these abilities. Most of these Gifts started out as Gaian Gifts, but have additional or changed effects.

• Repress Taint (Level One) — In order to infiltrate

the Gaian Garou, a Black Spiral must be able to hide the touch of the Wyrm. This Gift allows him to repress his taint, hiding it from the prying eyes of the suspicious. The werewolf must still take care, however, as more talented Garou might sniff him out. Scryers teach this Gift.

System

The player rolls Perception + Subterfuge, difficulty 7. Every success increases the difficulty to detect the character’s taint by one, to a maximum of 9. The effect lasts one scene.

• Bale Aura (Level One) — Twisted from the gran­

deur of Lambent Flame, a Dancer can shroud herself in the green light of balefire. The light causes no physical damage, but shadows cast by the light seem to move of their own accord and the whispers of the Wyrm crackle within the green flames, stoking the Rage within the Garou. Furmlings and Harpies teach this Gift.

System

The player spends one Willpower point to activate the gift. The light illuminates a 50-foot area around the character for the rest of the scene. Garou and Fera require one fewer success to frenzy, and to enter Thrall of the Wyrm, as the whispers taunt them from the shadows

• Hidden Killer (Level Two) — As the Red Talon

Gift, but the werewolf can also choose to alter the evidence to match another Garou so long as she has a piece of the target, such as hair or blood. Abliphets teach this Gift.

System

As the Red Talon Gift. To change the forensic evidence to match another Garou, the player must roll Intelligence + Larceny (difficulty 8). Success means the physical evidence remains unchanged, but forensic evidence changes to match the target.

• Submit (Level Two) — Stolen from the Black

Furies, with a snarl, a Black Spiral Dancer can force a

target to kneel before him, agony coursing through her body until she submits. Spirals with this gift delight in forcing a proud Garou to the ground just to kill her while she’s on her knees. Raptors teach this Gift.

System

As the Black Fury Gift: Kneel. Any target who resists the Gift subtracts two from their dice pools for the Gift’s duration. This penalty can only be offset with the Gift: Resist Pain.

• Ichor Blade (Level Thee) — The Spiral’s arm

changes into a black blade dripping with dark green poison. The ichor poisons the blood of anyone injured by the blade, causing crippling agony. Harpies and Wak­ shaani teach this Gift.

System

The player spends a point of Rage to trans­ form one hand into a blade. For the rest of the scene, she may use her arm like a sword, rolling Dexterity + Melee (difficulty 6). Such attacks inflict Strength + 1 aggravated damage. The poison causes excruciating pain, forcing the target to subtract two from his dice pools for a turn per success. Resist Toxin and Resist Pain both negate the effects of the poison.

• Gift of the Tainted Totem (Level Three) — A

twisted version of an Uktena Gift, a Dancer can not only bar a pack totem from aiding its children, she can temporarily replace the totem with her own pack or personal totem. The horror of having a Wyrm spirit binding a Gaian pack, even temporarily, is disorienting, and the taint left behind might be difficult to explain. Nexus Crawlers teach this Gift.

System

As the Uktena Gift: Banish Totem. If the player succeeds on the Gnosis roll, the pack not only loses all traits associated with their totem, they gain all traits associated with the Dancer’s totem. The effect lasts for a number of turns equal to the number of successes. Upon departing, the tainted totem leaves behind enough Wyrm taint to show up to users of Sense Wyrm for the rest of the scene at difficulty 7. If a member of the pack used any of the totem’s powers, the lingering Wyrm taint remains for a day, and is difficulty 5 to detect.

• Howl of the Bane (Level Four) — The Dancers

have their own fearsome spirits to call, and in a blatant mockery of the Wendigo, a Spiral dances in a Blight or Hellhole, hooting, laughing, and slashing profane glyphs into the air. A bane of the user’s choosing coils from the darkness, taking a description of the target before it leaves on its murderous quest. Any powerful Bane can teach this gift.

System

As the Wendigo Gift: Call of the Cannibal Spirit. The user can choose which Bane to summon, so long as its Essence rating is no higher than 30.

• Summon Wyrm Elemental (Level Four) — The

Dancer performs a short dance around a piece of a pure

element. The dance corrupts the element and summons forth a Wyrm Elemental (Hogling, Furmling, H’ruggling, or Wakshanni). A Wyrm elemental teaches this gift.

System

As the Uktena Gift: Call Elemental. Black Spiral Dancers only bother trying to make a Wyrm el­ emental amenable if they need a specific task completed. Many often summon Wyrm elementals simply to wreak havoc.

• Mask Taint (Level Five) — As the Skin Dancer

Gift. Scryers also teach this Gift.

• Cloak of Anthelios (Level Five) — Sculpted

from Halo of the Sun, the character speaks the sacred word of Helios while drawing on his own Wyrm-tainted powers. The character is wreathed in violent red flame that drapes about him as a cloak. A servant of Helios who breaks under torture can teach this Gift, as can fallen Children of Gaia who know the sacred word of Helios. The gift is exceedingly rare, if even acquired as of yet.

System

The player spends one Gnosis point, and the effect lasts one scene. The character adds two dice of aggravated damage to all Brawl-based attacks in all forms. Any attack that causes more than three health levels of any kind of damage burns the glyph of Anthelios into the flesh of the victim. The victim bears Wyrm taint (detectable by Sense Wyrm at dif­ ficulty 4) until he is cleansed. Anyone looking directly at the werewolf adds two to all attack difficulties due to the glare. Vampires are unaffected by the Cloak of Anthelios.

The Black Spiral Dancers make use of perversions of many of the same rituals as the Garou. They have mystic rites to summon and bind spirits, punishment rites, ac­ ceptance rites, rites used to build and defend their Pits, and more. Detailed below are a small selection of their most notable and vital rites.