Gifts

Black Spiral Dancer Galliards have access to the same Gifts as their Gaian counterparts, save for Howls in the Night.

• Howl of the Hunter (Level Two) — Setting a

particular quarry in her mind, the Black Spiral Dancer crafts a howl specifically designed to elicit terror in her prey. If her victim can hear the howl, it strikes terror into his heart, haunting him whenever he tries to find rest. A Nocturna teaches this Gift.

System

The player spends a Gnosis point and rolls Charisma + Primal Urge (difficulty 7). If the desired target hears the howl he will be jolted awake if asleep, and rendered unable to sleep for the next (successes x 3) hours; every time he attempts to rest, the howl will echo in his ears as though uttered from mere feet away. The terror increases the difficulty of most Mental and Social actions by +2 (maximum 9) until the character can sleep.

Ahroun Black Spiral Dancers have access to the same Gifts as their Gaian counterparts, save for Full Moon’s Light

• Acid Talons (Level One) — As the Wyrmish

Philodox Gift.

• Tar Shadow (Level Two) — The Ahroun’s shadow

becomes solid and sticky, trapping unwary foes and making them easy prey. A H’ruggling teaches this Gift.

System

The player spends one Gnosis point. For the rest of the scene, any character making a close-combat attack against the Dancer must make a reflexive Dexterity + Athletics roll (difficulty 8). If they fail this roll, the attacker is stuck in the Ahroun’s shadow until she can pull herself free with a Strength + Athletics roll (difficulty 6). While stuck in place, characters cannot move and all attempts to dodge attacks automatically fail.

• Strength Without Limit (Level Five) — Wyrmish

power suffuses the flesh and bones of the warrior who uses this Gift, exaggerating his power beyond the limits of his body. His muscles bulk up until they tear through his skin, and his flesh peels back from wildly elongated teeth and claws; even his nerves thicken until they pulse like veins. An avatar of the Maeljin teaches this Gift.

System

The player spends two points of Rage and the character suffers one level of unsoakable aggravated damage. For the rest of the scene, the werewolf adds one dot to each physical Attribute, and two dice to the damage of all Brawl attacks.

The following Gifts are a mixture of the signature blessings of the Wyrm upon the Black Spiral Dancers, and adaptations or corruptions of other tribes’ Gifts, brought to the Wyrm’s wolves by converts from the Garou Nation.

• Bale Armor (Level One) — The Black Spiral

Dancer’s body is limned in a terrible green-black radiance that saps the strength from her enemies’ blows and inflicts toxic burns upon their flesh. A Furmling teaches this Gift.

System

The player spends one Willpower point to activate the Gift. The light illuminates a 100-foot area around the Dancer for the rest of the scene. All attacks against the werewolf suffer a –1 die penalty while this Gift persists, and anyone who lands a Brawl attack against the Dancer takes one level of bashing damage.

• Spiral-Shadow Dance (Level One) — The Black

Spiral Dancer learns to twine herself through the dark­ ness, becoming swift as a scream. A variety of Banes teach this Gift.

System

Whenever the Black Spiral Dancer is concealed by poor lighting (no brighter than the light of the half-moon), she adds +3 to her Initiative. This Gift’s effects are permanent.

• Grave Claws (Level Two) — The werewolf’s claws

and fangs become obsidian daggers, capable of tearing the soul loose from Gaia’s cycle and pinning it to the Dark Umbra. Any creature slain by this Gift is guaranteed to leave behind a ghost, which is anchored by dark magic to its killer. Outside of risky Umbral quests, only killing the Black Spiral Dancer who used this Gift can return a victim’s soul to Gaia. A Nihilach teaches this Gift.

System

The player spends one point of Gnosis. Anyone killed by the character’s claw or bite attacks for the rest of the scene is guaranteed to linger as a wraith. A wraith created using this Gift cannot directly harm the Black Spiral Dancer, and is tormented by dark urges.

• Claws of Corrosion (Level Three) — One of

the greatest Black Spiral Gifts, this wicked magic allows the werewolf to poison a spirit with mystical toxins that slowly corrupt it into a servant of the Wyrm. A variety of Banes teach this Gift.

System

When the Black Spiral Dancer makes a successful claw attack against a spirit, the player may spend one point each of Rage, Willpower, and Gnosis, and roll Intelligence + Occult (difficulty 6). This infects the spirit with a number of ‘corruption points’ equal to the successes rolled; multiple applications of this Gift are cumulative, and corruption points dissipate

at a rate of one per day. Should a spirit ever have more corruption points than its current Essence, over the next lunar month it suffers a slow, painful transforma­ tion into a Bane.

• Hungry Rust (Level Four) — The werewolf sum­

mons a Bane and invests it into a mechanical device. The Bane awakens when someone next uses the device, spewing corruption throughout. The tool rusts and twists, both degrading and attempting to bond with its user. A gun might fuse to a person’s hand, coating her arm in plates of stamped metal and loops of corroded casings, while a vehicle might partially absorb its driver into the seat and seal his hands to the steering column. A Nexus Crawler teaches this Gift.

System

The player spends two Gnosis and rolls Intelligence + Craft against a difficulty based on the size and complexity of the device. A revolver would be difficulty 6, a vehicle 9. The next individual to use the cursed tool must gain more successes on a Wits + Oc­ cult roll than the werewolf, or fuse with the tool. This transformation is permanent for humans, but Garou may forcibly tear themselves loose from the intruding technology at a cost of (activation successes) levels of lethal damage.

• Stolen Hide (Level Four) — The Black Spiral

Dancer can don tormented spirits like a cloak, consigning them to oblivion to protect himself. A Nihilach teaches this Gift, but only to those who have already mastered Grave Claws.

System

The character can only use this Gift against a ghost that she has created with Grave Claws. She spends a turn in concentration and her player spends one point each of Gnosis and Willpower, then makes a contested Stamina + Primal Urge roll against the ghost’s Willpower. Success stretches the ghost’s tortured plasm across the Dancer’s body as a kind of grotesque ablative armor. The werewolf gains two additional Bruised health levels for each ghost worn in this manner. These health levels are the first lost to damage, and when they both disappear, the ghost used to create them is destroyed.

• The White Howl (Level Five) — Once the most

sacred blessing of the White Howlers, this mighty Gift is still passed down among the ranks of the Black Spiral Dancers as a reminder of the past to their Garou enemies. The sound of the White Howl is sufficient to rend both the workings of the Wyrm, and the hearts of Garou who hear it and realize how much Gaia has lost. It was once taught by an avatar of Lion, but no spirit teaches this Gift in the modern age; it survives entirely through a history of Black Spiral Dancers handing it down from warlord to warlord.

System

The player spends two points each of Gno­ sis and Rage. The character spends a turn unleashing a

mighty, full-throated howl, and the player rolls Charisma + Primal Urge (difficulty 6). Every Wyrm-tainted being within earshot suffers a number of levels of unsoakable lethal damage equal to the successes rolled — including the Black Spiral Dancer herself — and any of her nearby packmates. Each Gaian Garou who hears the howl, by contrast, loses one point of Willpower per success rolled, as they recognize the lost purity of the White Howlers, and must face the reality of all that Gaia has lost to the hunger of the Wyrm. Any Garou reduced to 0 Willpower by this Charm falls into Harano.