New Moon Gifts

Werewolf The Forsaken Sourcebook p. 132-134
Auspice, Lodges & Tribes
Irraka Only
This box: view · talk

The Irralunim Lunes of the New Moon Choir are the recorders and arbiters of Cunning Renown, and the patrons of the Irraka auspice. The Gifts they grant remove minor obstacles that stand in the way of greater, brilliant feats.

Sense Weakness (•)

One of the clearest indicators of a person’s ingenuity is his ability to use his enemies’ weaknesses to his advantage. The Irralunim respect such efforts, and they offer this Gift to their chosen werewolves to make those efforts a little easier.

If the character spends even a little time (one turn) observing his intended target, he can draw on the supernatural perception of this Gift to analyze the potential flaws in his target’s mind and body. This Gift reveals weaknesses that aren’t common to the subject’s kind. It doesn’t reveal a vampire’s weakness to sunlight (which is not a personal weakness), but it does reveal that the vampire suffers from a particular psychological ailment.

Slip Away (••)

If an Irraka doesn’t enter a dangerous situation, he isn’t doing his job. When he does find trouble, it’s up to him to use cunning to get out of it again. Even the clever werewolf gets caught from time to time, however. The Irralunim provide this Gift as a first step toward helping Irraka get out of the dicey situations.

With the expenditure of one Willpower point, an Irraka can use this Gift to escape any mundane bond or to wriggle free of an attacker’s arms with little apparent effort. If the werewolf is bound physically (be it with handcuffs, rope, chain, a straitjacket, duct tape or even a dollop of industrial-strength adhesive), this Gift frees him automatically. The bonds remain sound and unbroken (as well as locked, buckled or even sticky, depending on its nature), but the werewolf slips out effortlessly — often leaving would-be captors wondering how in the world he did it.

If the werewolf is locked in a grapple by another person and tries to break free he automatically succeeds. This benefit does not apply to performing overpowering maneuvers of the werewolf’s own, only on efforts to escape a hold. This Gift does not allow the Irraka to slip out of bindings that have active magical effects working on them.

Distractions (•••)

Being werewolves, Irraka are no slouches in a fight, but their true strengths lie in cleverness and misdirection. The heat of desperation can make it difficult to think originally on demand, so this Gift buys a werewolf time to improvise.

As the character spits out whispering yips and hisses, half-perceived visions much like the Irralunim themselves flit in and out of a chosen subject’s range of perception, distracting him. Only the chosen target can perceive these spirit echoes, but they cause such a distraction that the victim suffers a –2 modifier to all rolls in every turn in which the Irraka keeps up his antics. This effect works especially well in combat, but an Irraka can also use it to distract a security guard he’s trying to sneak past or to distract the driver of a car in order to cause a diversionary traffic accident. The Irraka must be able to see his chosen victim directly in order to distract him, but the victim need not be able to see or hear the Irraka. A character may maintain the effect of this Gift and move normally, but he may not attack or run in the same turn and maintain the effect. His Defense modifier still applies as normal.

Only one use of this Gift may be in effect at one time, and only one subject can be made to see the visions.

Blend In (••••)

This Gift makes a werewolf appear as if he belongs in whatever environment into which he steals. He doesn’t disappear from view or match ambient color patterns like a chameleon does, but neither does his presence attract especial attention. He appears to be nothing more than a face in the crowd, even to traditional, digital or fiber-optic cameras. Regardless of his attire or attention to personal hygiene, the werewolf doesn’t appear to be at all out of place. Even if he’s in blood-stained sweats and a duster walking through the headquarters of a Wall Street brokerage firm, his mere presence doesn’t make others sit up and take notice.

The protective anonymity that this Gift provides protects the werewolf only so far, though. If he goes out of his way to draw attention to himself by doing anything notable (say, by starting a fight, changing forms in front of someone, kicking open an emergency fire door or tackling an oblivious pedestrian who’s about to be hit by a car), the effect ends. Otherwise, the Gift lasts for a scene. The effects remain active if the Irraka talks to the people around him or otherwise interacts with them unobtrusively (such as chatting in an elevator or waving nonchalantly to a security guard behind a bank of monitors). The Gift cannot fool security devices such as hand-scanners, retina-scanners, voice-recognition systems or number pads that require a key-code or password, but it can evade facial-recognition software that someone is using it to try to pick the werewolf out of a crowd. A security measure as simple as needing to sign a logbook at a security station, or handing over a ticket at the door of a bus or plane can be problematic unless the Irraka takes an opportunity to mingle discreetly at the scene. Finally, this Gift cannot protect the Irraka if there’s a lack of genuine bystanders with which to blend. He could not, for example, infiltrate a corporation’s Board of Directors meeting, where an extra head would quickly be noted. He might, however, be able to crash a small, invitation-only affair by mingling with the caterers rather than the guests.

Supernatural forms of awareness might be able to see through the effect, but only if they are of an equal or greater level. If the level is greater, the user of that power sees the truth behind the Irraka’s efforts automatically. If its level is equal, the number of successes achieved to activate Blend In must exceed those rolled for the detecting character’s power.

The Gift user must be in Hishu form to use this power; it doesn’t work when he’s in any other form.

Ghost Step (•••••)

Some Irraka can miraculously escape from danger unscathed, even when trouble waits for them on both sides of the Gauntlet. And some can find out damning information that, by all rights, should have long since been buried or forgotten. The trick of the Ghost Step allows a werewolf to become immaterial, his body transformed to spirit matter yet not conveyed across the Gauntlet.

The character becomes an insubstantial, ghostly form, only barely perceptible as translucent mist. He cannot be affected by any physical attack while using this ability; he has no scent, and cannot make any sound even if he wishes. It is particularly difficult to detect the ephemeral Irraka via sight, and any perception rolls made to detect him incur a –5 penalty. He is effectively in Twilight, much as an unmaterialized spirit in the physical world is^[1].

While insubstantial, the Irraka cannot affect the physical world in any way, not even with Gifts. He doesn’t fall unhindered through floors or sink into the poured foundations of the structures that surround him if he doesn’t want to — the generally accepted laws of physics apply. With a little effort, though, he can leap up into the ceiling of a room, catch hold, and pull himself up through the roof or floor above him.

While the Irraka remains in this ephemeral state, he can walk and use Gifts that affect himself rather than the physical world, and can change forms as usual, but he cannot remain ephemeral indefinitely. After a number of turns equal to his Harmony score, the werewolf begins to experience a sensation of being stretched thin. The Irraka begins to suffer a –1 penalty to all rolls for each turn that he spends ephemeral beyond the limit based on Harmony. He may choose to end the Gift’s effects at any time. The Gift also ends if he’s somehow rendered unconscious, such as if overcome by spirits also in Twilight.

The personal possessions worn by a werewolf change with him when he becomes ephemeral. He cannot carry large items such as shotguns or crates and have them transform with him, although a fetish weapon does make the transfer.

The ephemeral state is also shared by disembodied spirits that have entered the physical world as well as human ghosts, who can see and hear the displaced Irraka. An ephemeral spirit or ghost can affect the Irraka, and vice versa, as if they were both solid. Spirits, of course, are likely to take the presence of an ephemeral werewolf very badly, as it’s a predator that can bodily injure or kill them. Ghosts run the same gamut of emotions, predispositions and prejudices as the living do, so there’s no telling how one might react to a werewolf passing through, but ghosts don’t suffer Lunacy like the living do. Some guard what territory they’ve staked out, going so far as to attack a werewolf in hopes of driving him away. Others mindlessly repeat some task that absorbed them in life, remaining unaware of a werewolf no matter what happens. Still others are just so happy to encounter another intelligent soul that they do what they can to keep the werewolf from leaving. Some adventurous ghosts might even follow a werewolf around and manifest in the living world for as long as they can, starving for the contact and social interaction of which their deaths have bereaved them.

For more information on ghosts, see the World of Darkness Sourcebook, p. 208.