Weather Gifts

Werewolf The Forsaken Sourcebook p. 146
Auspice, Lodges & Tribes
Storm Lords, Lodge of Seasons, Lodge of Lightning
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By their very nature, the Forsaken are closely tied to the spirits of the natural world. By exploiting this connection, knowledgeable werewolves can influence the very heavens. One of the most visible and useful ways of doing so is by commanding various forms of weather. These Gifts are typically taught to the Forsaken by storm-or powerful bird-spirits.

Gift Levels

• Call the Breeze

A werewolf may summon a brisk wind (approximately 25 miles per hour) and direct it as he wills. This wind is useful both for dispersing or redirecting a fire or flying insects, or as a distraction.

• Cost: None
• Dice Pool: This power requires no roll.
• Action: Instant

Though it requires no roll to actually summon the wind, a successful Manipulation + Occult Skill roll is necessary to direct it to any specific task, such as to disperse tear gas. Because of the distraction of the sudden breeze, perception task rolls (World of Darkness Rulebook, p. 45) made in the area suffer a –1 penalty. The Gift lasts for one turn per dot of Primal Urge that the summoner has. The breeze can be conjured indoors or out.

•• Silent Fog

Though fierce fighters and savage predators, even werewolves recognize the need for stealth and guile. This Gift is a prime example of how werewolves operate strategically and with a mind toward hewing to the Oath’s prohibition against human discovery. With it, a werewolf may summon a thick blanket of fog to obscure an area, allowing a pack to move unseen in whatever form its members choose. This fog bank moves as the werewolf who summoned it wills it to, and it makes an excellent vehicle for ambush or a way of avoiding combat entirely.

• Cost: 1 Essence
• Dice Pool: Manipulation + Survival Skill + Cunning
• Action: Instant

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The fog appears, but it obscures the vision of the summoner and his pack as much as anyone else.
• Failure: The weather does not change.
• Success: Over the course of a turn, the cloud-spirit summoned with this Gift congeals from the air, and a dense fog covers an area equal to the werewolf’s Primal Urge x 20 square yards. It may thereafter be directed to move in any direction at a rate of (Primal Urge x 10) yards per turn. While within the fog, a perception check at –2 is required for observers to spot someone more than one yard distant. Even if spotted, ranged attacks are treated as if those within the bank are substantially concealed (see “Concealment” on pp. 162-164 of the World of Darkness Rulebook). Silent Fog lasts for an entire scene or until the spirit is dismissed by the Forsaken who commanded it.
• Exceptional Success: The fog is particularly thick, levying a –3 penalty to perception checks instead of –2.

••• Deluge

With this Gift, a werewolf summons a rain-spirit to bring a torrential downpour to an area. No gentle shower, this torrent has myriad uses, from ruining crops to starting flash floods to erasing evidence of a pack’s passage. This Gift can only be used outdoors.

• Cost: 1 Essence
• Dice Pool: Manipulation + Survival Skill + Honor
• Action: Extended (20 successes; one turn passes per roll)

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The weather alters in a manner other than the character’s choosing. It may shift from rain to snow to hail to high wind, usually in some fashion horribly inconvenient to the Gift user. The aberrant and troublesome weather persists for the duration of the scene.
• Failure: The weather doesn’t change.
• Success: The area affected is equal to one square mile per success achieved. Common sense must be applied to applications of this Gift. The deluge could flood low-lying areas or cause a river to swell its banks, but no one standing on even reasonably high ground is going to drown. The Gift isn’t designed to directly damage an individual, but it can sure as hell do so indirectly, causing thousands of dollars in property damage alone. In times of drought, the power of this Gift can be a great boon. The downpour lasts for a scene. Those caught in heavy rain suffer a –2 penalty to perception rolls and ranged combat.
• Exceptional Success: The character can select an area that receives less or no rain, effectively creating an eye of the storm.

Suggested Modifiers

•••• Killing Frost

This Gift summons forth the chill of a hundred winters in the space of a few heartbeats. The Storm Lords speak reverently of this Gift as “the breath of Winter Wolf.”

• Cost: 1 Essence
• Dice Pool: Manipulation + Survival Skill + Purity
• Action: Instant

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The Gift’s power turns against the werewolf. The user immediately takes two points of lethal damage from the cold.
• Failure: The temperature drops by only a degree or two.
• Success: The temperature suddenly drops below freezing within 10 yards per dot of Primal Urge of the user. Frost forms on surfaces, and water freezes. If the Gift is used within a rainstorm, the sudden freezing rain might down power lines and break tree branches. Living creatures take two points of bashing damage from the sudden chill. In addition, anyone in the area suffers a –2 penalty to Strength and Dexterity rolls for as long as the cold lasts (though they don’t take additional damage in subsequent turns). The reduced temperature lasts for one turn per success. At the Storyteller’s discretion, any creatures who are appropriately protected from the cold may take less damage or be immune to the imposed penalties. The Gift user is protected from the direct effects of the cold, but may be subject by secondary effects. The cold doesn’t injure him or cause any debilitating effects, but he might still slip when trying to move across ice or be injured by a falling power line.
• Exceptional Success: The sudden shock of cold is particularly vicious; living creatures suffer three points of damage instead of two.

Suggested Modifiers

This Gift can be used only once per scene.

••••• Thunderbolt

This Gift implores a mighty thunderbird to turn its gaze earthward and fix its flashing eyes on a select target. At the werewolf’s command, lightning strikes his foe, its power capable of killing most mortals and severely wounding even supernatural opponents.

• Cost: 1 Essence
• Dice Pool: Intelligence + Survival Skill + Glory – Defense
• Action: Instant

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The bolt strikes a random target nearby, be it friend or foe.
• Failure: The werewolf’s call is ignored.
• Success: The bolt deals a base of five points of lethal damage, plus any extra successes from the activation roll after the first. The werewolf can nominate any target within his line of sight, as long as the victim is outdoors or standing near a window.
• Exceptional Success: The blast also deafens the target for two turns.

Suggested Modifiers