Milestone Gifts
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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.
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Gift List
Backstage Synchronicity
Tribes of the Moon p149
Prerequisites: Cunning (5) •••••, Harmony (6) ••••••
Red Wolf grants this Gift to the select few who truly impress him. Those who receive this blessing are never out of the eyes of the Irralunim. They tap in to an ancient compact forged between the spirits and Red Wolf to send Essence flowing through the most audacious plans. When the pack members work in harmony to come up with new ideas and clever plans, Backstage Synchronicity rewards the pack with a gift of Essence from the watching Irralunim. This Gift comes into play whenever the pack plans something that counts as a notable feat of Cunning (see p. 194 of Werewolf: The Forsaken). The spirits must be impressed with the plan, but while the character remains one of Sagrim-Ur’s chosen, they consider all members of the pack equally. In addition, when the pack puts its plan into action, the character can tap into her innate cunning, increasing her pack’s chances of pulling the plan off. There is no limit to how close her packmates must be, though this Gift works only for deeds committed by members of a pack bound together with a totem. Others who hang around the pack, be they wolf-blooded, vampire, human or anything stranger, cannot perform the deeds required for this Gift. The Irralunim understand only the sacred bonds between pack members.
Since this is a Milestone Gift, only Iron Masters who perform some great service to their tribe can learn Backstage Synchronicity (see “Milestone Gifts,” p. 12). Normally, Red Wolf chooses those who come up with a truly unique means of pacifying opposition. If the character’s Harmony falls below 6 after he learns this Gift, he has one cycle of the moon to regain spiritual balance, during which he must perform a feat of cunning dedicated to Red Wolf. Sagrim-Ur won’t help Farsil Luhal who rest on their laurels. If the character fails, he loses Backstage Synchronicity and can never regain it.
Roll Results
- Dramatic Failure: The plan may be good, but the Irralunim have seen vital flaws that offend their mercurial nature. They strip two points of Essence from the character.
- Failure: The spirits do not notice, or are not sufficiently impressed by the act to think it worth reward.
- Success: The Irralunim are impressed. When the plan is formed, they grant the every pack member two points of Essence. Pack members may havemore Essence than their Primal Urge score would normally allow, but any excess points are lost at the end of the scene. When carrying out this plan, the werewolf can tap in to her reserves of cunning. She adds a number of dots equal to her Cunning to any pack member’s Wits — she can use this bonus herself, or donate her expertise to help another. This bonus lasts until the end of the scene, or until the plan is complete (whichever comes first), and can only be used once for each plan. If her pack came up with the plan more than a week ago, the Irralunim lose interest, and she must activate this Gift again in order to tap her Cunning.
- Exceptional Success: The spirits let the character know just how impressed they are. In addition to the effects of a success, the character regains two points of Willpower.
| Modifier | Situation |
|---|---|
| –5 | The pack have already used a similar plan with this Gift. |
| –3 | The deed would not be notable for a character with Cunning 2 or above. |
| –1 | The pack has received Essence for a similar plan, but later decided not to go through with it. |
| –1 | The deed would not be notable for a character with Cunning 3 or above. |
| +1 | The deed would be notable for a character with Cunning 4. |
| +3 | The deed would be notable even for a character with Cunning 5. |
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.
Storm's Whisper
Tribes of the Moon p184
Prerequisites:Honor 5, Wisdom 2, Harmony 6 or greater
Honor is a duplicitous thing. Luna is divided by honor: one side of her face is dark and punishing, the other light and rewarding. Those with profound Honor, those within the Storm Lords, must walk the line between those two realms. The proper Storm Lord is just and generous, and has the authority to dole out rewards, or mete out justice.
This Gift is granted by Skolis-Ur himself in recognition of a Storm Lord who embodies the ideals of his tribe and of Honor Renown. Winter Wolf recognizes the role of arbiter and ruler in this werewolf, and grants his child a measure of judgment.
For some, this Gift is both boon and bane. Once per game session, the Storm Lord imbued with this Milestone Gift mustselect one member of her pack to receive a blessing from Winter Wolf, and one to receive castigation from Skolis. The blessing is a +2 bonus to all rolls, while the castigation comes in the form of a –2 penalty to all rolls. These modifiers last for one lunar cycle, or until the Storm Lord uses Storm’s Whisper to select new recipients of the reward and punishment. How she selects the chosen members of her pack is up to her: she can accept input from the pack, or she can decide in her own authoritative manner. Perhaps she always chooses the lowliest member of the pack to receive the curse and the alpha to receive the blessing. She may not select herself for either of them. Her decisions, however she makes them, are sure to earn her some level of enmity from her pack, but this is by Winter Wolf’s design: leaders and judges are not to be loved, only to be obeyed.
Note that this Milestone Gift is named after the legendary member of the tribe, Storm’s Whisper (p. 168). When the werewolf possessing this Gift uses it to choose the two packmates, she must whisper in each Uratha’s ear to deliver the boon or bane. It’s said that her voice is different during that whisper: a sentence delivered not by the Storm Lord but by Storm’s Whisper.
As a Milestone Gift, Storm’s Whisper is available only to a Storm Lord who performs some great service to his tribe or pack, often heroically demonstrating the skills of a leader or a judge — one who offers only strength and never weakness (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 Winter Wolf. If the character fails to do this, he loses Storm’s Whisper and can never regain it. In addition, he gains a mild derangement as a result.
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.
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