Milestone Gifts

Tribes of the Moon p. 12
Auspice, Lodges & Tribes
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Milestone Gifts are without a dot rating. One doesn’t purchase such an ability with experience points. So what is a Milestone Gift, and how is it achieved?

Milestone Gifts are bestowed by the Firstborn to a member of the tribe who has in some way embodied the ideals of the tribe and the totem. A Hunter in Darkness who comes a hair’s breadth away from dying to protect the sanctity of an ancient temple or a powerful locus may be a candidate; so, too, a Bone Shadow who single-handedly puzzles out the ban to an idigam raging across the desert with its mad army.

The bestowal of such a potent Gift is not something given lightly, and it does not occur without fanfare. Each werewolf experiences the gaining of the Gift in a different way. One might find an intensely spiritual and personal experience; called to the Shadow, a Blood Talon finds the jaws of Fenris on the back of her neck, and she is dragged to a mountain lair, where he teaches her. Another might experience something rather public: after negotiating a tricky peace between warring vampires using various half-truths and full lies, an Iron Master may fall to his knees in front of his pack, and they all hear the cacophonous whispers and distant howls of Sagrim-Ur whirling about their packmate.

Note that each Milestone Gift is given a set of prerequisites. Harmony is fundamental to gaining and keeping such a boon: if a character drops below Harmony 6, she has three cycles of the moon to regain that lost balance. Fail to do so, and the Firstborn will snatch the knowledge of the Gift in his jaws, withdrawing the ability forever (as in, the werewolf can never regain it). Many go at least a little mad with the loss of such knowledge, given that the werewolf becomes fully aware of just how keenly she has disappointed the tribal totem. Some even gain temporary derangements, lasting weeks or even months. A werewolf’s own sense of treachery or weakness might plague her endlessly until she is able to regain some measure of Harmony and find a rough semblance of calm.

Before granting a character access to a Milestone Gift, the Storyteller should discuss the opportunity and cost with that character’s player. Some such Gifts, while potent, are also with a troublesome cost. For instance, the Bone Shadow Gift: Eyes of Death Wolf results in the loss of a character’s eyes. The Gift compensates for this, of course, but if that character falls below Harmony 6 for too long and loses the blessing of the Firstborn… well, her eyes are still gone. And now the Gift does not compensate for the loss of vision, making that character blind. Therefore, it’s worth having a conversation with the player and ensuring that he is comfortable with the cost and repercussion. Great power, great responsibility, as the saying goes.

If the Storyteller so decides, a Milestone Gift can be purchased with experience points, though this is not the recommended fashion by which a werewolf would receive such a Firstborn blessing. The purchase of a Milestone Gift is equivalent to 30 experience points.

Gift List

Eyes of Death Wolf

Tribes of the Moon p78

Prerequisites: Wisdom 5, Harmony 6 or greater

Death Wolf herself bestows this Gift upon deserving Bone Shadows, and the method isn’t at all pleasant. The Bone Shadow has dreams for a month, during which Lunes and other spirits congratulate him on receiving the honor of the Eyes of the Death Wolf. Then, when the werewolf steps into the Shadow, a great wolf-spirit pounces and drags him into the darkness. His packmates can give chase, but wind up pursuing phantoms and smoke. Death Wolf has the Uratha now.

Back at her den, Death Wolf attacks the werewolf and plucks out his eyes, consuming them. The Uratha spends hours (though to her, the wait is interminable) blind in the den of his tribal totem. At last, Death Wolf instructs the werewolf to pluck out her eyes — carefully! — and replace his own with them. From that point onward, the Bone Shadow can see into or out of the Shadow merely by concentrating.

He can’t see both areas at once, but he can identify Ridden and other possessed beings on site, and the player can spend one Essence point for the character to know the name of any spirit he encounters.

As a Milestone Gift, Eyes of the Death Wolf is only available to Bone Shadows who perform some great service for the tribe or their packs, usually in the name of protecting werewolves or wolf-blooded from spirits or otherwise upholding the tribal vow (see “Milestone Gifts,” p. 12). If the character’s Harmony drops below 6 after he learns this Gift, he has three cycles of the moon to regain this level of spiritual balance, during which he must perform the Rite of Contrition to Death Wolf. If he fails to do this, he loses the Eyes of the Death Wolf and can never regain it — which unfortunately means he goes blind, forever.

The Destroyer's Jaws

Tribes of the Moon p46

Prerequisites: Glory 5, Honor 3, Harmony 6 or greater

This Gift is granted by Fenris-Ur himself, in recognition of a Blood Talon who embodies the warrior ideal. This blessed personage need not be a Rahu; the Destroyer Wolf recognizes the role of the warrior in all his children. This Gift allows the Blood Talon to take on an aspect of his patron spirit’s terrible destructive rage, losing himself in a killing frenzy that inspires witnesses to recall stories of Shiva, or the Fenrisulfr of Norse mythology.

Once earned, this Gift is permanent and requires no activation roll. Any time the Talon enters Death Rage, he takes on the Destroyer’s Jaws: his muzzle becomes a huge, distended mass of razor-sharp and saw-edged fangs, and when he opens his jaws to bite, witnesses see only an utter, absolute blackness like the end of all things. His howls seem to make reality itself shake on its foundation, and in the power of his limbs, it seems as though the glory of Father Wolf is come to the world once again. The Destroyer’s Jaws is devastating in combat: whenever the Blood Talon fills an enemy’s rightmost Health box, that enemy dies instantly. Even if the wound was only bashing or lethal, it is instantly fatal. The recipient of this Gift gains a point of Essence for every creature he kills while in Death Rage.

As a Milestone Gift, the Destroyer’s Jaws is available only to a Blood Talon who performs some great service to his tribe or pack, usually heroically defeating a superior enemy or destroying a grave threat to the tribe (see “Milestone Gifts,” p. 12). If the character’s Harmony drops below 6 after he learns this Gift, he has one cycle of the moon to regain this level of spiritual balance, during which he must perform the Rite of Contrition to the Destroyer Wolf. If the character fails to do this, he loses the Destroyer’s Jaws and can never regain it.

The Hunter's Bounty

Tribes of the Moon p112

Prerequisites: Purity 5, Harmony 6 or greater

This Gift, granted by Black Wolf herself, allows the Hunter to replenish his spiritual energy simply by hunting and catching his own food. Any werewolf can hunt and kill wolves, humans or other werewolves and steal their Essence, but this is a grievous violation of Harmony and the Oath of the Moon, and those Uratha who practice such cannibalism wind up Zi’irin short order. A Meninnawith this Gift, however, can hunt and kill any animal that would serve as prey for a wolf and regain Essence from it. The Hunter’s Bounty allows the wolf to consume prey animals only for Essence; while a wolf might conceivably eat other predators if it had the opportunity or grew hungry enough, Black Wolf frowns on hunting such animals for food.

This Gift, once granted, is permanent. The Hunter in Darkness regains one point of Essence for every point of Health that the animal possesses, provided that he strips all usable meat from the carcass (that is, the werewolf doesn’t need to eat the bones). If the Hunter is part of a pack, he can regurgitate meat for his packmates (along with as much Essence as he wishes), which they can then consume to regain Essence. Since this treatment usually implies a mother-cub relationship, though, some werewolves don’t feel comfortable accepting such treatment from another Uratha (to say nothing of the fact that some werewolves might feel disgusted by the prospect).

As a Milestone Gift, The Hunter’s Bounty is available only to Hunters in Darkness who perform some great service for the tribe or their packs, usually in the name of protecting a sacred place (see “Milestone Gifts,” p. 12). If the character’s Harmony drops below 6 after he learns this Gift, he has one cycle of the moon to regain this level of spiritual balance, during which he must perform the Rite of Contrition to Black Wolf. If he fails to do this, he loses The Hunter’s Bounty and can never regain it.