Grotto Gifts

Lodges The Faithful p. 129
Auspice, Lodges & Tribes
Lodge of the Grotto
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These Gifts are the blessings of those that tunnel and burrow, and assist werewolves in navigating the world underneath. These Gifts are taught by the spirits of burrowing things such as worms or moles. These Gifts can be learned by werewolves outside the Lodge of the Grotto, though only lodge members treat them as affinity Gifts.

Gift List

• Ratsquirm

If a werewolf with this Gift can get her head through an opening, she can wriggle the rest of her body through as well. The Ratsquirm Gift allows a werewolf to pop loose joints and temporarily collapse her ribcage in order to squeeze through spaces no other full-grown werewolf could pass.

• Cost: None
• Dice Pool: Dexterity + Larceny Skill + Cunning
• Action: Reflexive

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The Gift fails to activate; the werewolf cannot attempt to use this Gift again for the remainder of the scene.
• Failure: The Gift fails to activate.
• Success: The Gift activates successfully. The werewolf is able to squirm through an opening no smaller than 10 inches in diameter as a standard action. If the werewolf has used this Gift as preparation to escape a grapple, she gains +2 dice to her escape attempt. This Gift may also allow a werewolf to escape handcuffs or rope or chain bonds with ease.
• Exceptional Success: The Gift activates particularly successfully. The werewolf may squeeze through an opening no smaller than eight inches in diameter as above, or gain a +4 bonus to her next roll to escape a grapple.

•• Knocktalk

Those who would hunt the Burrowers in their own tunnels find the hunting an intimidating experience. As the hunters press deeper into the darkness, they hear short bursts of staccato rapping and tapping, echoing around them like alien birdcalls. By means of the Knocktalk Gift, a werewolf can send coded messages to those around her by tapping on stone or metal pipes, thus enabling her and her kin to coordinate devastating attacks against intruders.

• Cost: None
• Dice Pool: Wits + Expression Skill + Wisdom
• Action: Instant

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The Gift fails, and the werewolf is briefly confused as to why. For the remainder of the scene, she may not attempt the Gift again, and must make a roll to understand another werewolf’s knocktalk as if she did not know the Gift herself.
• Failure: The Gift fails; the tapping travels no further than the sound would without physical means, and no message is encoded.
• Success: The werewolf encodes a brief message of up to one word per success. The knocking or tapping can be heard for up to 100 yards along the tunnels per success. Any listener who knows the Knocktalk Gift automatically understands the message; others must make a Wits + Occult roll to understand the nature of the message. If the listener does not belong to the Lodge of the Grotto, the Wits + Occult roll is made at a –3 penalty.
• Exceptional Success: No additional effect.

••• Tunnelscent

Most werewolves are able to adapt to subterranean darkness well enough, through a mix of arranging their own human-made light sources and shifting into forms with lupine senses. The truly dangerous, though, need neither of these things. The werewolf who has learned this Gift benefits from dramatically increased sense acuity while underground; even in pitch darkness she is able to navigate her surroundings by means of hearing and especially scent as accurately as if she were in broad daylight.

She may fight without being subject to any of the normal penalties for fighting blind (see the World of Darkness Rulebook, p. 166).

This Gift functions only while the werewolf is underground; the Gift doesn’t work if the werewolf is above ground, whether in an enclosed area or under open sky. Sudden bright lights, loud noises or powerful odors will disorient a werewolf under the effects of this Gift. If exposed to such extreme stimuli, she must make a reflexive Wits + Survival roll to resist; such stimuli cause the werewolf to lose this Gift’s effects and take a –2 penalty to appropriate Perception rolls for five turns minus one turn per success on the Wits + Survival roll.

• Cost: None
• Dice Pool: No roll is required.
• Action: Reflexive

•••• Stoneburrow

Some werewolves use Elemental Gifts or mundane digging equipment to carve out underground dens. This Gift makes the process even easier. A werewolf in Dalu or Urshul form can use this Gift to grow long mole-like claws that tear easily through stone or concrete. The claws are unwieldy and not the finest for combat, but are virtually unbreakable.

• Cost: 1 Essence
• Dice Pool: Stamina + Athletics Skill + Glory
• Action: Instant

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The werewolf’s nails become brittle and split painfully. She may not make any claw attacks for the duration of the scene.
• Failure: No change.
• Success: The werewolf’s claws become capable of digging through stone or concrete. She may excavate up to one cubic foot of stone or concrete per turn. She also gains a +1 damage claw attack if she did not have one previously (if in Dalu form), or may add +1 damage to existing claw attacks. The Gift’s effects last for the duration of the scene, or until the werewolf chooses to end the effects.
• Exceptional Success: The werewolf may excavate up to two cubic feet of stone or concrete per turn.

••••• Tunnelwrath

This Gift calls on the wrath of the burrowed earth to strike down the werewolf’s enemies. Tunnels may crack and spray rocks or steam pipes may burst as the tunnel lashes out at intruders.

• Cost: 2 Essence
• Dice Pool: Intelligence + Crafts Skill + Purity
• Action: Instant

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The tunnel rebels against the werewolf rather than her foes. The Gift user immediately takes one point of lethal damage from an appropriate source.
• Failure: The tunnel refuses to answer the werewolf’s call.
• Success: The tunnel strikes at the werewolf’s foes. The werewolf may distribute two points of lethal damage per success against anyone within 100 yards who shares the same tunnel as she. This takes the form of environmental damage, and can be used in either human-made or natural subterranean passages. For instance, if the user gained three successes in a mineshaft, she could choose to apply all six points of damage against one enemy (perhaps by causing a minor cave-in) or divide them among her five attackers, inflicting two points of lethal damage to one werewolf of her choice and one point of lethal damage to each of the five others. In a subway tunnel, the damage could take the form of an electrical short from the third rail, and so on.
• Exceptional Success: No additional effect apart from the large amounts of damage done.