Firestick Gifts

Lodges The Splintered p. 59
Auspice, Lodges & Tribes
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Gift List

• Yimidhirr’s Musket

The Kooris met by Captain James Cook carried firestick “weapons” that Cook thought were muskets, and used fire to drive him back to his ship. Using this Gift, an Uratha can ignite fires almost anywhere with a common firestick. A lit firestick (Burri), a piece of wood or bark capable of ignition, is needed for the Gift to work, so that the Gaffling or even mote of Bushfire’s spirit can inhabit it. One or two brave werewolves have gotten this Gift to work using tobacco or pituri, but commercial cigarettes aren’t usually suitable. When the Uratha points the firestick and calls on Bushfire, the object at which the firestick is pointed will ignite, assuming that the object is flammable. (Humans don’t spontaneously combust, so this can’t be used to blow people up, unless they’re drenched in kerosene or something similar.) There is no limit on range, but the object must be clearly visible. Thus, beyond rifle range or thereabouts, this Gift is hard to use.

• Cost: 1 Essence per “shot”
• Dice Pool: Dexterity + Firearms skill + Glory
• Action: Instant

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure:All fires on and around the Uratha’s person sputter out in pique. No more will ignite at her bidding that day.
• Failure:No effect.
• Success:The item indicated starts to burn. The fire will be normal: this Gift is deadly when a great deal of flammable material is about, but in a rainy city street, the fire is unlikely to last long enough to be a nuisance.
• Exceptional Success:The object catches fire regardless of weather and wind, and will continue to burn unless some effort is made to douse it.

•• Adder Smoke

Bandaiyan, which gubbas call Australia, is a land with more poisonous snakes than any other in the world. This Gift allows Uratha who use it to poison others with smoke, incapacitating or killing them. Adder Smoke requires a burning or smoldering object such as a firestick or candle.

• Cost:1 Essence
• Dice Pool:Manipulation + Weaponry + Honor
• Action: Instant

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure:The user of the Gift chokes and strangles on the smoke, taking one bashing wound per turn until she can extinguish whatever is burning.
• Failure:The fire goes out.
• Success:Smoke fills the immediate area, to a radius of two meters. The pack is unaffected, but anyone else within the smoke’s area chokes and coughs, taking one point of bashing damage per turn. In addition, anyone within the area (apart from the Gift-user and her pack) suffers one die to all Finesse-related rolls due to the obscuring nature of the smoke. The smoke continues to slowly fill the area until the fire is put out or until wind blows the smoke away. A wind of more than 10 mph will do this easily.
• Exceptional Success:As above, but the penalty imposed by the smoke is increased to –2.

••• Smokestep

The perpetual burning of the Australian countryside by the local people caused the animals and plants to adapt to the presence of fire. This also meant that spirits such as Eucalyptus/Yaliwurru, Bushfire/Thurru and Spinifex became much more powerful than before. Wise ones, or wirringan, often spoke of “ascending” or “climbing” into the sky. Smoke is the obvious road. This Gift allows the Uratha to walk on smoke or clouds. There must be enough smoke to accommodate the feet of the Uratha’s current form, and it must be opaque smoke. A kitchen match won’t do.

• Cost:1 Essence
• Dice Pool:Resolve + Athletics + Purity
• Action: Reflexive

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The smoke seems to hold together, but then fails to support the werewolf’s weight, likely after she’s already put her weight on it.
• Failure:The smoke doesn’t bear the werewolf’s weight.
• Success:The user of the Gift can walk and run as normal on the smoke. If she reaches the end of the smoke plume or the edge of the cloud deck, she can’t go on. Wind can be a real problem.
• Exceptional Success: The Uratha can choose one other person to benefit from the Gift’s effects as long as the two remain in constant contact: handholding, tail in another’s mouth and so on.

•••• Paths of the Ancestors

The Paths of the Ancestors, the “songlines,” stretch across Bandiyan’s body, from the first places in the North to the far Bass Strait. Only one who knows the correct song can walk the songlines from one locus to another. The power that they contain is obvious, and well guarded: the songlines are very dangerous. This Gift allows a werewolf to seek the nearest Pathway by burning some sacred material, such as jarrah wood, and following the smoke. The Uratha must state to the spirits what exactly they seek: if the statement is imprecise, the goal found may not be the one intended. If the statement is too exact, then the goal may not be found at all. Simply saying that one wants to find the closest locus may lead to a great deal of trouble, as the locus might be a location where deadly monsters lurk. The Gift can work either in the mortal world or in the Hisil. Note that a character may know the appropriate song for the songline where he is. If he knows it, and sing it, he gains a circumstance bonus of two dice to the roll.

• Cost:1 Essence
• Dice Pool: Wits + Occult + Wisdom
• Action: Instant

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure:The smoke draws attention from hostile spirits.
• Failure:The smoke points in no particular direction
• Success:The smoke points in the desired direction for up to one day per success. For obvious reasons, most werewolves with this Gift prefer to use it on a portable source of fire such as a firestick.
• Exceptional Success:No additional effect.

••••• Wombat’s Curse

Wombat, who is now a fat little burrowing plant-eater, was once handsome and tall. Long ago, he became fat by stealing food and goods from the Ancestors, and a wirringan, or clever one, cursed him with being unable to change his shape. This powerful curse, levied by blowing a handful of ash toward the target, freezes any being in the shape it currently occupies. An Uratha will remain in his current form, unable to change; a spirit will either remain in spirit form, or, if it’s materialized, won’t be able to disperse on its “death.” Hosts will be forced to keep whatever form they have made or stolen. Note that using this Gift inappropriately is a sin against Harmony 7. Given the massive Essence cost, using this Gift is also not done lightly.

• Cost: 5 Essence
• Dice Pool: Manipulation + Intimidation + Cunning – target’s Composure
• Action: Instant

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure:Enemies enter their most dangerous form and attack. Uratha at whom this is aimed will usually enter Kuruth at once.
• Failure:Nothing happens.
• Success:The enemy is unable to change form for a number of days equal to the number of successes gained on the roll. Spirits that take lethal damage in excess of their Corpus will fall over “dead” instead of dispersing, Uratha cannot shapeshift and so on. If the Gift is used on a werewolf in Gauru form, the target will remain active until his time in Gauru would normally end, at which point he will collapse unconscious, still in Gauru. The victim will return to human form at the next sunrise, at which point he also awakens; the curse has no more effect on him at this point.
• Exceptional Success:The enemy is frozen into her current form for an entire year.