Eclipse Gifts
From Edge of Darkness Wiki
An eclipse is a few brief moments of darkness, the Earth hiding in the moon’s shadow or the moon obscured by the Earth. That, in a way, is a near-holy time to the Bale Hounds, when the moon is blinded by darkness. These Gifts are taught by spirits of darkness or some rare Lunes (particularly Irralunim). While these Gifts are quite appropriate for Bale Hounds, Storytellers may choose to make them available to other werewolves. The Bale Hounds don’t have a monopoly on the concept of darkness or shadows.
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• Night Eyes
Werewolves in Urhan form already have the sharpened senses of a true wolf, but this power allows the werewolf to see perfectly well in pitch darkness even in Hishu form. No natural darkness or shadow can defeat the werewolf’s vision, and he sees as keenly as though it were a night lit by the full face of Luna. The werewolf can still be blinded by supernatural means, or through natural means involving damage to his eyes. The Uratha’s enhanced sight can only pierce natural darkness without worry.
Roll Results
- Dramatic Failure: The Uratha’s vision is troubled by flickering black shapes, rendering her near-blind for the rest of the scene. The werewolf suffers a –3 penalty to all rolls involving her vision for the remainder of the scene, or a whole hour, whichever is the soonest.
- Failure: The Bale Hound’s perceptions do not shift.
- Success: The character can see perfectly well in natural darkness and suffers no penalties to vision-based rolls.
- Exceptional Success: The character’s sight becomes so attuned to the darkness that he gains a +2 bonus on all sight-based Wits rolls for the remainder of the scene.
•• The Shadow's Secret
The Uratha can concentrate on any patch of shadow within her line of sight, and attune her senses so that she can hear and smell anything in the vicinity of the shadow. This is a useful Gift for a werewolf crouching on a rooftop or in an alleyway and who yet still needs to hear the conversation of her prey despite their distance down the street. The Gift works well in urban settings, when anyone standing in a city’s limits at night are constantly surrounded by the shadows of buildings, streetlights, alleys and so on.
Roll Results
- Dramatic Failure: The character hears the quiet whisperings of the shadow-spirits nearby instead of the targets’ voices. These are mellifluous, alien whisperings telling of every detail the shadows have seen that night, and the voices set nerves on edge and seem to make very little sense. The werewolf suffers a –4 to all hearing-based Wits rolls for the remainder of the scene.
- Failure: Nothing happens.
- Success: The character can make out the voices of the targets near the chosen shadow as if the werewolf was standing within the patch of darkness himself.
- Exceptional Success: The werewolf’s senses become so amplified by the Gift that he can also scent the targets as if he were standing within the patch of shadow nearby.
••• Shroud of the Blinded Moon
The Uratha can call upon this Gift to summon his own eclipsing shadows. The darkness generated by this Gift is normal shadow, created to mirror the spiritual darkness of a lunar eclipse, and can be pierced by flashlights, sunlight and so on. When used subtly, such as in a dark alleyway or a forest at night, the summoned shadow can cloud the poor lighting completely and immerse the area in pitch darkness. Bale Hounds use this Gift in order to confound their foes or make last-minute escapes without the worry of being seen leaving the area.
- Cost: 1 Essence
- Dice Pool: Manipulation + Occult Skill + Cunning
- Action: Instant
Suggested Modifiers
| Situation | Modifier |
|---|---|
| Moonlight | +3 |
| Dusk or poorly lit street | +2 |
| Poorly lit room | +1 |
| Well-lit room | — |
| Any sunlight present | –2 |
Roll Results
- Dramatic Failure: The werewolf fails to summon the darkness of a lunar eclipse, and is unable to attempt another summoning until sunset the following evening.
- Failure: Nothing happens.
- Success: The spiritual reflection of an eclipse permeates the area, lengthening shadows and limiting vision drastically in an area of 20 square yards (or the entire room) for the rest of the scene.
- Exceptional Success: The area affected doubles to a 40-square-yard area and further limits senses such as hearing and scent, inflicting –2 penalties to any rolls involving those senses while immersed in the summoned shadow.
•••• Darkened Moon
This Gift draws on the power of the lunar eclipse to blot out the werewolf’s victim’s access to the powers granted by Luna. The target loses access to all auspice abilities and even to the lunar marks of Renown. This Gift is presently unknown to the Pure, though the ramifications of it falling into their hands are very unpleasant.
- Cost: 1 Essence
- Dice Pool: Intelligence + Occult Skill + Honor versus Resolve + Primal Urge
- Action: Instant and Contested; resistance is reflexive.
Roll Results
- Dramatic Failure: The werewolf is afflicted by the Gift’s effects as if Darkened Moon had been successfully used on her.
- Failure: Nothing happens.
- Success: The werewolf gains more successes than her target. The target immediately loses all access to Auspice Gifts, and any Auspice Gifts that are currently in effect on the target are canceled. The target also cannot use any auspice abilities and cannot add his Renown to any dice pools. The effects last for the duration of a scene.
- Exceptional Success: The effects last for 24 hours.
••••• Gauntlet Wraith
The werewolf has developed such a command over shadows that she can use her power to push herself through the Gauntlet when she is immersed in darkness. The Gift only functions when the werewolf is hidden from Luna’s sight; the power fails to function if the Uratha can see the face of the moon from where she stands.
The werewolf can step into any shadow that is at least the same size as she is, and appear on the other side of the Gauntlet, either from spirit to substance or from the physical realm to the second world.
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