Predator Gifts
From Edge of Darkness Wiki
Werewolves are consummate predators. The Forsaken ideally use this ability to carry on in the footsteps of Father Wolf, but many also carry out their own hunts, whether to avenge slights against their pack or pursue personal vendettas. The Pure enlist the aid of spirits in the Pure’s quest to slaughter the Forsaken, hunting the werewolves who attempt to carry on in Father Wolf’s footsteps. These Gifts were originally the sole purview of the Predator Kings, knowledge gained from spirits that hated the kinslayers. A hundred years ago, a pack of Bone Shadows decided to do something about that. Questing deep into the spirit wilds, they surmounted incredible challenges and trapped the original spirits with their own bans. Striking a deal with the spirits, these Bone Shadows ensured that the Forsaken can learn these Gifts for themselves. The spirits of predatory animals, including wolves and big cats, now teach these Gifts.
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Gift Levels
• Bestial Fellowship
The werewolf gains a kinship with other predatory beasts. While even the most savage animals normally register the half-spirit children of Father Wolf as higher predators than themselves, a werewolf using Bestial Fellowship overrides this instinct. The animals get a sense that the werewolf does not see them as prey, and will let her be. In addition, she can talk with other predators, possibly learning valuable information, though she cannot convince them to do anything that is against their nature. Suppressing the wolf-side of her spirit is an uncomfortable thing for a werewolf to do, and Uratha especially try to avoid using this Gift more than is necessary. One positive side of the Gift is that it works for all predators up to and including predatory animals kept as pets, such as most pet cats. Using this Gift is a sin with a Harmony Threshold of 8, and over-reliance on this Gift may make it harder for the user to gain Purity Renown.
Upon activating this Gift, the werewolf gains four extra dice on all Animal Ken rolls made to influence predators. This Gift lasts until the moon next rises or sets.
•• Hunter’s Fortitude
Wolves are not unique among predatory animals in eating only rarely. However skilled a creature is at hunting, there are many days when the creature will go without food. This Gift allows a werewolf in any form to mimic this fortitude, allowing her to lie in wait or track prey for days on end without the common distractions of normal life.
Roll Results
- Dramatic Failure: The character is overcome by hunger, and even after he has eaten his fill finds it hard to avoid little distractions. All Resolve rolls suffer a –1 modifier until the end of the scene.
- Failure: The character has no extra reserves to tap.
- Success: The werewolf can survive without food and needs only a small amount of water to keep in perfect condition. His mind is attuned to the task of hunting prey, be that an extended hunt or a stakeout lasting several days. While he still needs sleep, he feels as though he has slept for twice the amount of time he actually has. The Gift’s effects last for three hours per success, after which time the werewolf must eat a hearty meal and rest for at least 12 hours.
- Exceptional Success: The werewolf’s mind is so focused on his task that any roll to distract him suffers a –1 penalty.
••• Savage Hunt
The apex predator understands the importance of the hunt to her own survival. Tracking prey to eat is only one aspect of the overarching thing that is the hunt. With this Gift, the character embodies every part of the hunt, losing herself to the need to run prey to the ground, giving up a piece of herself to the hunt in order to embody it. While some Forsaken apply the concept of hunting liberally, referring to everything from Internet searches to gunfights, a character embodying the Savage Hunt knows that they are wrong. Hunting pits the hunter’s senses, reflexes and claws against the prey. Only the truly worthy among the prey survive. Using this Gift against other werewolves is a sin against Harmony equivalent to using a silver weapon (see Werewolf: The Forsaken, p. 181).
Roll Results
- Dramatic Failure: The character becomes an avatar of the hunt, but her prey is not whom she chose. Her new prey could be anyone, including a packmate or a wolf-blooded ally, and is chosen by the Storyteller.
- Failure: The character fails to invoke the spirit of the hunt.
- Success: The werewolf feels a surge of energy as she dedicates herself to the ancient hunt. Naming her prey, she gains a number of advantages. First, her senses are sharper, better isolating the scent and sound of her chosen target. All rolls to find or track her target have a +1 bonus. Also, her bite and claw attacks deal aggravated damage against her chosen prey only. The Savage Hunt lasts until the moon next rises or sets (whichever is next), or until the werewolf catches and kills her prey, whichever happens first.
- Exceptional Success: The character gains a better understanding of her prey while she tracks it. When she encounters her prey, roll Initiative as normal. If the hunter rolls lower than her prey, the hunter’s Initiative is instead equal to that of her prey.
•••• Harry
Predators either strike from concealment, stalking their prey and then attacking swiftly, or they run it down until the prey is exhausted. Their prey knows what is coming, but still runs. The prey has a hope, however feeble, that it can escape. Sometimes it does. More often, it collapses from physical and mental exhaustion. While not resigned to its fate, there is certainly no chance that it can run any farther. This Gift gives the werewolf’s prey that fear. They know from glimpsed shadows and occasional scents created by spirits of the hunt that something is toying with them, waiting for them to drop, but they never know where the werewolf is or when she will strike. This is a very unnerving feeling, and someone who survives being under the influence of this Gift will remember it for the rest of his days.
- Cost: 1 Essence
- Dice Pool: Wits + Intimidation Skill + Glory versus Resolve + Primal Urge
- Action: Contested; resistance is reflexive.
Roll Results
- Dramatic Failure: The character’s prey is filled with resolve, determined to face her fate and seize any opportunity to best his hunter. The target of the Gift receives one bonus Willpower point that can only be spent to support actions taken against his hunter. This extra point can bring the prey above his normal Willpower maximum.
- Failure: The character attempts to run her prey to the ground, but has no spiritual assistance in doing so.
- Success: Spirits aid the werewolf as she runs her prey (one person or creature) to the ground, spooking him and generally making sure he is never sure of what is happening or where an attack will come from. Her prey’s rolls suffer a –2 modifier for the duration of the confrontation. The prey can roll Resolve each turn after the first to reduce this modifier to –1. The effects of this Gift last until the end of the scene.
- Exceptional Success: As a success, and the werewolf’s Initiative is doubled for the conflict.
••••• Predator's Kin
There are some things that no hunter can tackle alone. Some are massive creatures that could easily crush one hunter; others are groups of prey animals that would overwhelm a lone hunter. Even solitary predators understand the benefits of assistance. This Gift summons nearby predators to the character’s aid. Depending on the area, this assistance can come from unlikely quarters — coyotes and badgers will respond to this Gift in a city. Wolves and dogs will respond to the call, but they will be on edge. This Gift taps into their predatory nature without paying any respect to Father Wolf, and canine animals can sense the difference.
Roll Results
- Dramatic Failure: Local predators respond to the call, but are as much a nuisance to the werewolf as her prey.
- Failure: Nothing answers the character’s call for assistance.
- Success: This Gift summons every predatory creature within the user’s Primal Urge in miles, though wolves and dogs respond as if the user’s Primal Urge were two lower than it is. The majority of predators found in an urban area will do little more than distract the prey, but large creatures such as wolves or big cats will do more damage. The animals that respond are treated as one creature that makes one attack, with a number of dice equal to the largest Size in the group. This group of creatures deals lethal damage. Larger creatures (Size 4 or above) can either be handled individually as Storyteller characters, or add one attack to the general mass per three animals present. A group of miscellaneous small predators assisted by a cougar and two wolves would thus make two attacks with a dice pool of 4.
- Exceptional Success: The creatures attack with such ferocity that they add one die to their attack pool.
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