Urban Gifts

Blood of the Wolf p. 62
Auspice, Lodges & Tribes
Iron Masters
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Like Nature Gifts, the Gifts of the urban world focus on creatures and spirits of a particular environment, in this case the cities of humans. While useful even in small towns, Gifts are of the most benefit in large cities. Urban Gifts are an affinity Gift list for Iron Masters. Artificial-spirits and animal-spirits adapted to the world of humans, such as rats, roaches and pigeons, can teach this list of Gifts.

Gift List

Concrete Bolt-Hole (•)

Uratha often need a speedy exit from a messy scene or a place to conceal themselves for a quick change of skins. In the city, this is can be hard to come by. Strip malls and supercenters are crowded and sometimes electronically monitored. This Gift directs the werewolf toward the nearest adequate place to conceal oneself for a scene. This Gift functions only in cities.

• Cost: 1 Essence
• Dice Pool: Wits + Subterfuge Skill + Cunning
• Action: Reflexive

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The bolt-hole turns out to be automatically compromised in some way. The dumpster is filled with rot-liquefied fish; the alley is full of cops making a drug bust, etc.
• Failure: No hiding place is apparent.
• Success: The nearest useful bolt-hole is discovered. The character receives a +2 bonus to any Stealth rolls made to enter the hiding place without being detected.
• Exceptional Success: The bolt-hole might be large enough for the whole pack, or contain something the character needs or have some added benefit, such as a secondary means of egress.

Foot in the Door (••)

Even the most well-connected Uratha runs dry of associates after a while; this Gift can open new doors for her. When the character is in a situation in which she needs the services of a certain kind of professional, she can use this Gift to contact the professional. The character enacts the Gift and then uses some form of communication to contact the person. This may be done via phone, email, IM, letter, smoke signal — whatever form of long-distance communication the Uratha has at hand and knows how to use. This Gift does not speed up the communication, or make a broken cell phone work. In essence, the Uratha is asking a communication-spirit for help in the form of a connection to the resource she needs. The Gift does not reward the Uratha with a name or introduction of any sort, just a means to communicate with whomever she needs via a ring tone or a fortuitously delivered piece of mail. The Gift cannot make a broken cell phone work or otherwise create a miraculous line of contact; a means of communication must be at hand before the Gift can be used.

The Gift can’t be used to contact a particular professional. A character can’t use it to contact “the hitman who killed Mayor Franklin,” although she could use it to contact a contract killer. Nor could she contact “the mayor,” but she could state “someone with the ability to stop Proposition 82.” Of course, the person on the other end is not any way predisposed to work for you, nor are you provided with a ready explanation as to how you got the number.

For example, a character’s sister gets shot in a strange part of town, and he needs to quickly contact a back-alley doctor to fix her up without alerting the authorities. The Uratha could enact this Gift, asking for “the best blackmarket doctor available in the city,” and then hit the dial button on his cell phone. If successful, this Gift will dial the appropriate person. It’s up to the character from there.

• Cost: 1 Essence
• Dice Pool: Presence + Streetwise Skill + Glory
• Action: Instant

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure:The Gift contacts an enemy, the police or in some other way provokes the authorities.
• Failure:The communication fails — a wrong number, busy signal, out of service area, unexpected network delay, dead letter office or similar result.
• Success: The number of successes indicates the dots in the particular Skill that governs the profession of the person contacted, up to the normal maximums.
• Exceptional Success: The person contacted may have some reason to need a job, or may have otherwise been in a generous mood when contacted.

Windfall (•••)

Some Uratha are forced by circumstance, or perhaps by choice, into a state of near-poverty. Rather than resort to a dangerous spree of petty theft, the Uratha can use this Gift to receive a mundane item or modern convenience that the werewolf needs for a short period of time. This Gift calls upon powerful spirits of money and good fortune to put something in the Uratha’s hands for a brief period of time. The Uratha cannot ask for fetishes or cash, although she could ask for the key to a hotel room with a well-stocked mini-bar, for example. The Uratha cannot ask for something that is practically impossible or obviously supernatural.

It is up to the Storyteller to provide the item. Small items might be found in a trash can; larger items could be founds just around the corner from the Uratha’s location. There is a huge catch to this Gift; no matter what, the item cannot be retained for longer than the time asked for. The werewolf who breaks this ban suffers a penalty (–4) to use this gift until a Rite of Contrition is performed, and she gives away enough funds or property as an act of chiminage to permanently reduce her Resources by one.

This Gift cannot be used to gain more than one item at a time.

• Cost: 1 Essence and 1 Willpower
• Dice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion Skill + Honor
• Action: Standardwarning.png"Standard" is not in the list of possible values (Extended, Instant, Reflexive) for this property.

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The item produced is defective, often dangerously so.
• Failure:Nothing happens.
• Success: The Uratha must achieve a number of successes equal to the Resources normally necessary to purchase the item (the monthly rating, not the total assets). For instance, three successes could temporarily call up an item worth up to $1,000. Fewer successes produce a similar item of inferior quality. For instance, if the werewolf has “requested” a van, the Storyteller would determine that a used van would go for about $10,000, and thus require four successes. When the player achieves two successes on the roll, the resulting van is a clunker worth only about $1,000 — it’ll run, but it lacks amenities and is in real danger of breaking down.
• Exceptional Success: No particular bonus apart from the higher wealth limit.

Urban Awareness (••••)

This Gift allows the werewolf to commune with the spirit of the city itself — gathering information about the state of the neighborhood in her immediate area. The Uratha can see through the eyes of the local fauna, feel the rhythm of the street and sense any presence that is out of the ordinary and or dangerous. Remember that the perspective is that of the current urban landscape, not the Uratha. Most likely, the area will consider the Uratha a stranger unless the character is a local.

• Cost: 1 Essence
• Dice Pool: Manipulation + Streetwise Skill + Wisdom
• Action: Instant

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The character is overcome by the riotous sounds and smells of the city and suffers a –1 to all Wits rolls for the remainder of the scene.
• Failure: The city-spirit ignores the character.
• Success: As with Forest Communion, the character slips into a trancelike state. Successful activation of the Urban Awareness Gift allows basic information (presence of strangers, potential threats to the area, such as police, gangs, etc.) up to 500 yards from the werewolf. Each additional success increases the radius by an additional 100 yards and increases the detail of information learned. One success could tell the presence of strangers, while three successes could reveal the species and gender of those intruders. The Gift lasts as long as the user remains in the trance, but she is unaware of and cannot react to the outside world, nor can she relay her findings while the Gift is active. This Gift doesn’t function in a wilderness environment.
• Exceptional Success: No additional effect apart from greater range and increased information.

Vermin Riot (•••••)

This Gift wakens the lowliest of lifeforms that have embraced the urban environment to defend it. The streets darken with hordes of rats, lice, cockroaches, ants or termites, or the skies are filled with flocks of swallows or pigeons or clouds of flying insects. These swarms of the city’s vermin attack the Uratha’s foes.

• Cost: 1 Essence
• Dice Pool: Intelligence + Animal Ken Skill + Purity
• Action: Instant

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure:The Gift runs out of control; the vermin are stirred up into frenzied activity, but swarm erratically rather than attacking a given foe. The Gift cannot be used again for the duration of the scene.
• Failure: The city’s parasites ignore the werewolf’s pleas.
• Success: Each success fills 25 square yards with ever-renewing hordes of vermin deemed appropriate to the location by the Storyteller — pigeons aren’t likely to appear in the subway, for instance. The swarm can be guided to attack anyone caught within its mass; the werewolf may nominate a target as a reflexive action. This attack has three effects. First, the Speed of anyone targeted with this is automatically reduced by –2. In addition, anyone caught within the swarm suffers one point of bashing damage per turn. Finally, anyone caught in the swarm is at a –2 penalty to any Skill use due to pain, distraction and/or obscured vision. The swarm lasts for two turns per success, or until the werewolf dismisses it.
• Exceptional Success: No additional effect apart from increased duration.