The Hounds
of
Hell
Rites
Rites are sacred ceremonies that Garou use to invoke a measure of the spirits' power. More involved and time-consuming than Gifts, Rites rely on longstanding pacts forged between Gaia's warriors and her spirit servants in ages past: perform a ritual just so, using precise methods and components, and certain spirits will answer and empower the ritualist. The Rituals Ability reflects a mastery of this knowledge, and is the appropriate retest for all Rite performances.
Rites of Accord
Rites of Accord restore Garou or a place to harmony and balance with Gaia. They purify and renew their subjects in a symbolic rebirth. The ritemaster must possess a talen, fetish or some piece of Gaia never touched either by minions of the Wyrm or by human hands. Make a Static Social Challenge against eleven Traits unless otherwise stated.
Basic Rites
Rite of Cleansing
Challenge: static Social vs. difficulty based on the amount of corruption -- from four Traits for weak Wyrm-taint, to nine for strong Wyrm-taint. Reduce the difficulty by one if the Rite is done at dawn.
Description: This cornerstone rite of the Garou serves to purify a person, object, or area from the spiritual corruption that comes from contact with the Wyrm. In its most common form, the Ritemaster carves a counterclockwise circle into the ground around the subject to isolate the negative energies. They purify the air with a burning branch or stick of incense. They dip a switch of willow or birch into pure water or snow, with which they sprinkle the subject. Assistants in the rite will howl or growl to frighten away the negative spiritual forces. Performing this rite at dawn, a time of renewal, gives it special potency.
Effect: The target of the rite is purified of all Wyrm-taint, as long as that corruption is not innate to its existence (such as with vampires, fomori, Black Spiral Dancers, etc.).
Rite of Contrition
Required: A small gift for a Garou target, or a chiminage for a spirit target
Challenge: static Social vs. a difficulty equal to the current Rage of the offended party
Cost: 0-3 Social Traits
Description: As a people of Rage, the Garou rely on this ritual to smooth over tensions and offenses before fights break out, or to smooth over relations with the spirits. A typical apology involves the transgressor dropping to their belly, crawling forward in a posture of submission. The ritemaster (who may or may not be the one offering the apology) joins in, or simply whines and licks their paws or hands. Higher levels of Rituals knowledge may allow different performances, such as a restrained bow of the head. In any case, the transgressor must offer the wronged party a gift or a chiminage.
Effect: The rite is a formal apology. It is socially unacceptable for a Garou to refuse a well-performed Contrition. The spirits regard this ritual as very important. The Social Traits spent determine what the apology can cover: spending nothing covers an insult or faux pas; spending one Trait covers any single breach of the peace that doesn't violate the Litany; two Traits covers most short-term conflicts; and three Traits cover long-standing grudges.
Rite of Pack's Blood
Required: This is a rite of the Philodox Auspice. You or your teacher must be a Philodox for you to learn this Rite.
Challenge: static Social vs. 11 Traits
Description: Sometimes a group of Garou must unite in a common purpose, more short-term than those that call packs together under Totems. Pack's Blood provides that link. The members of the temporary pack spill their blood in a common bowl; the ritemaster anoints the face, hand and heart of each pack member with the mingled blood, and for the duration of the rite, the spirits consider the group a pack.
Effect: The members of the temporary pack treat one another as pack with regard to Gifts, the Pack Tactics background, choosing targets during Frenzy, etc. Because there is no actual spirit acting as patron to the temporary pack, they do not get pack link or any actual Totem benefits.
Duration: Until the task is complete, or one lunar month, whichever comes first.
Rite of Renunciation
Challenge: static Social vs. 11 Traits
Description: With this rite, a Garou rejects the life they once led, including the Auspice given to them by Luna. This might be the result of some internal sense that they don't fit their assigned role. Sometimes this rite is a punishment for crimes that are not serious enough to merit death, but are too serious to continue living the same life. Sometimes Renunciation is an act of escape from grief, as way to start over when nothing else has helped. Under a new Auspice moon, the Ritemaster pours water from a silver basin over the supplicant, washing their old life away and baptizing them into their new Auspice.
Effect: When you Renounce, you put your old life behind you. You take on a new Auspice and a new name, and you start over with three Renown and Cliath rank. All Garou of the Nation must consider you to be a new person.
Caern Rites
Caern Rites are those ceremonies which involve the protection, creation and use of the Garou's most sacred sites. Perform these with a Social Challenge against 11 Traits, unless otherwise specified.
Basic Rites
Moot Rite
Time to Perform: A common moot for a small Caern could take less than an hour, but special moots for large Caerns are sometimes known to take days.
Challenge: Social vs. 11 Traits
Description: One of the most important rites of Garou tradition, a Moot unifies the Garou, calls them to their purpose, and charges their Caern with Gnosis. When you perform this rite, you are called the Master of the Howl, and it is your responsibility to guide all the Garou of a Sept through ceremonies that honor their Caern and the traditions of the Garou Nation. These traditions and their performance vary widely from sept to sept, tribe to tribe, but the basic form is this: You open the moot with an Opening Howl, summoning all the local Garou to participate. The eldest lupus of the Sept leads a Mournful Howl, in honor of their dwindling breed. A Fool (a Ragabash) speaks the words of the Wyrm while you recite the Litany; the rest of the gathered Garou affirm you and not the Fool. A Caller of the Winds (a Theurge) invokes the five winds and ask their blessings, as well as beg the favor of the Totems of the sept. The sept's Truthcatcher (a Philodox) leads the assembled in a Cracking of the Bone, settling sept grievances; then a Talesinger (a Galliard) leads a time of songs and stories, which inspire the Garou and alert their accomplishments to the spirits for Renown. Last of all, the Wyrmfoe (an Ahroun) leads the Sept in a Revel, which may either involve hunting a great foe, participating in a great sporting competition, or throwing a wicked bender of a party.
Effect: As the moot concludes, all the participants must choose whether to donate Gnosis to the Caern. If they donate at least five points total, that Gnosis is spent, and the Caern is empowered for the next lunar month.
Duration: This rite empowers and charges the Caern for one lunar month.
Rite of the Opened Caern
Required: The Caern itself sets the requirements to permit itself to be opened. A Caern of Enigmas may require you to walk a labyrinth; a Caern of Rage may require you to shift to Crinos and destroy effigies of your foes. Ask the Storyteller.
Challenge: Social vs. 11 Traits
Description: With this rite, you tap into Gaia's power as expressed through her holy site, the Caern. This is a very serious undertaking, never to be performed on a whim. Every Caern is unique, having particular requirements you must meet, proving yourself worthy of wielding its power.
Effect: You access the power of the Caern, gaining Traits and/or powers appropriate to the level and type of the Caern, as determined by the Storyteller. You may also open Moon Bridges between your Caern and any other to which it has been linked via the Rite of the Opened Bridge.
Duration: Storyteller-determined
Intermediate Rites
The Badger's Burrow
Required: A reflective surface and a strong-scented liquid (like witch hazel, vinegar or urine)
Challenge: static Mental vs. a difficulty based on the area of the bawn you're examining -- 5 Traits for a small room, 7 for a house, 9 for a forest
Description: This rite gives you a mystical intuition about the bawn of the Caern. Gaze deeply into a reflective surface, while pouring the strong-smelling liquid onto the ground. As the fumes fill your lungs, you see answers in the reflection.
Effect: You may ask three questions about the area of the bawn you're examining, and receive an intuitive sense of their answers.
Rite of the Opened Bridge
Required: Perform this rite simultaneously with another ritualist at another Caern. You must hold a pathstone (also called a moonstone) -- a small Umbral stone like a flattened pearl, with a wolf's-paw mark on one side.
Challenge: static Mental vs. 8 Traits, minus the Caern level. You have a three-Trait bonus if your pack or personal Totem is the same as the Caern Totem. You have a one-Trait penalty if the rite failed last year.
Description: A moon bridge is a moonlit path through the Umbral skies, linking one Caern to another. This Rite creates them, establishing friendly diplomatic relations between the septs. The Rite is traditionally performed once a year during a moot, often as its Revel; members of the two linked Septs join one another to celebrate their successful ties. If the rite fails, attempt two Simple Tests; failing both will scorch the pathstone with mishandled power, often leading to an Ostracism for the ritualist; the rite cannot be retried for another year.
Effect: Your Caern is linked to another Caern within a distance proportionate to your Caern's power: 1000 miles per level for level 1-3 Caerns, 6000 miles for a level 4 Caern, and 10000 miles for a level 5 Caern. The Rite of the Opened Caern and the Ragabash gift Open Moon Bridge allow you to access this moon bridge, which cuts your travel time by a factor of 1000.
Duration: One year
Rite of the Shrouded Glen
Required: You and a minimum of four assistants must fast for three days to purify yourselves prior to casting the rite.
Challenge: static Social vs. four Traits plus one for each level of the Gauntlet in the Caern
Cost: 1 to 10 Gnosis for duration, plus 0 or more Gnosis for extra area. All participants may donate Gnosis.
Description: Leading a group of purified ritualists, you lower a mystical veil over the bawn of your Caern, hiding it from spiritual spies.
Effect: The bawn of your Caern becomes invisible to the wider spirit world; in the Umbra, nothing outside can perceive what happens on your holy ground. This rite covers the entire bawn, plus an additional mile around it for each two extra Gnosis your group contributes to the rite.
Duration: One hour per Gnosis spent; if 10 Gnosis is spent, then the effect is permanent.
Advanced Rites
Rite of Caern Building
Required: A secure and well-cleansed physical focus for the heart of the Caern; at least 12 additional participants; ample defenders to protect the area
Time to Perform: From sunset to sunrise during the waxing of the moon (although the waning moon works, if you want to make a Hive instead)
Challenge: extended Social vs. 8 Traits, minus one for each participant beyond you and the minimum 12 -- see Effect
Cost: At least 100 Gnosis, donated by all participants -- see Effect
Description: With this ritual, you consecrate a place to Gaia, creating one of her most precious strongholds -- a Caern. Never a ritual to be undertaken lightly, this rite has been known to destroy entire packs who attempt it -- even with a skilled ritualist. All the local forces of the Wyrm inevitably sense this Rite taking place and gather quickly to attack, overwhelming an unprepared group of Garou. As the ritemaster, you are helpless while you cast the rite, wrestling with vast and primal energies as you chant from sundown to sunup. Your chants may beseech a particular spirit to become Totem of the Caern, but it is customary to allow Gaia to send her own choice.
Effect: Begin casting the ritual at sundown. Each hour, make the extended Social Challenge. You may gather a maximum number of successes on this Challenge equal to your permanent Gnosis. In any hour where you fail to gather any successes, attempt two simple tests: failing both inflicts seven levels of Lethal damage against you and all participants. If, by sunrise, you collected at least 40 successes, you and the participants must next donate 100 Gnosis to the rite. If you fail to reach that total, all participants (beginning with you) start suffering Aggravated wounds, each one adding three Gnosis to the total. Once the total is reached, a Caern has been created. 40 successes on the Challenge builds a level one Caern; every five additional successes gained adds one level to its power. If you fail the rite -- either by gathering less than 40 successes or less than 100 Gnosis -- you all take five levels of Lethal damage and gain distinct teardrop-shaped scars called "tears of Gaia": marks of bravery for your effort.
Death Rites
Everything living dies. Rites of Death honor the departed and reaffirm their connections to the living and the cycle of life, death and rebirth. Garou immerse themselves in these rites to help release their grief and fear.
Basic Rites
Gathering for the Departed
Challenge: Static Social vs. 12 Traits, minus one Trait per Rank of the Garou being honored
Description: All too common an occurrence in these last days, this is the funeral rite of the Garou. It varies dramatically from tribe to tribe, although it is usually performed by a Galliard. The Fianna may tell tales of the fallen over a great feast; the Uktena may observe a period of silence while crafting mementos to wear or to place at the grave; the Glass Walkers may hold a very contemporary wake and reception. Any form of ritual that allows the participants to grieve for the slain and celebrate their life is fitting.
Effect: The Garou's spirit moves into the next life. Optionally, succeed on an additional Static Social challenge versus eight Traits for a Storyteller-determined bonus at your own future efforts to reach the fallen Garou through your own Ancestors background.
Duration: The ancestor-contacting bonus is permanent, at Storyteller discretion.
Intermediate Rites
Rite of the Winter Wolf
Required: A silver weapon, preferably a klaive. This ritual is always peformed at night.
Challenge: Static Social vs. 12 Traits, minus one Trait per Rank of the Garou being honored
Description: "Suffer Not Thy People to Tend Thy Sickness" -- this tenet of the Litany sees an honorable fulfillment in this ritual. When a Garou is too old, wounded, or tired to fight effectively any longer, they may request this ceremony. Their packmates and septmates gather around as the Galliards sing the songs of their Renown, inviting the protection of the spirits of Gaia to escort the Garou's soul into the next life. With dignity, the Garou walks through the ranks of the assembled, departing to a secluded place to die at their own hand, using the silver weapon. The participants howl a song of mourning, leading into an immediate Gathering for the Departed.
Effect: The Garou dies honorably.
Minor Rites
Every act has a sacred dimension, the Garou know. These rituals, the minor rites, keep the sacred in the midst of daily living. This list just scratches the surface, and players can work with Storytellers to develop more that suit the characters' personal natures, totems, experiences, auspices, breeds, tribes and other aspects.
Bone Rhythms
Required: Specially-made drumsticks
Description: Using special drumsticks, you tap out a rhythm that is both sacred and specific to a Totem spirit you follow. The drumsticks are traditionally bone, but may be any material that pleases the Totem.
Effect: Perform this rite three times a day for three days in a row to earn a one-trait Bonus on any Challenge in the umbra. Only after this bonus is used can you invest the time to earn another.
Duration: The bonus lasts until it is used.
Breath of Gaia
Description: You take thirteen deep, centering breaths of clean air, meditating on your love for Gaia.
Effect: Perform this rite once a day for a full lunar month to earn a two-Trait bonus on any one healing or detection challenge.
Duration: The bonus lasts until it is used.
Greet the Moon
Description: You howl an elaborate welcome to Luna, the moon, as she rises. Your howl includes sentiments that fit her phase, the season, and any other concerns that seem pertinent.
Effect: Perform this rite each night at moonrise for a full phase of the moon. You gain a one-Trait bonus on all social interactions with Garou of the corresponding auspice on the next night that the moon returns to that phase.
Duration: The one night the moon next returns to that phase.
Greet the Sun
Description: Similar to Greet the Moon, you howl an elaborate greeting to Helios as he rises.
Effect: Perform this rite at sunrise nine days in a row to earn a one-Trait bonus on all efforts to sense Wyrm-creatures and Wyrm-taint.
Duration: Always in effect beginning on the ninth day, as long as you keep performing it every day at sunrise. Miss a day and you have to start over.
Hunting Prayer
Required: A ritual item that you take with you on all your hunts.
Description: You pause before a hunt, praising Gaia and all natural creatures, channeling your prayers into a ritual item. You bring that item with you to bless your hunt.
Effect: Perform this rite before every hunt for three lunar months to gain a one-Trait bonus on all tracking Challenges.
Duration: The effect ends when you fail to perform the rite before a hunt.
Prayer for the Prey
Required: You must be in the Umbra to perform this rite.
Description: After killing any creature of Gaia (never minions of the Wyrm, Weaver or Wyld), you step into the spirit world and say a prayer to the spirit of the creature. You thank it for giving its life for your purposes.
Effect: Perform this rite every time you make a kill for a full lunar month in order to gain a one-Trait bonus on all challenges involving nature-spirits.
Duration: Until you make a kill of a Gaian creature without taking time to offer thanks.
Mystic Rites
Mystic Rites rites bring the Garou into direct contact with the Umbra and the spirits. Most of these rites are performed alone.
Basic Rites
Appease the Traffic Gods
Required: A toy car, similar to the vehicle you're driving.
Time to Perform: One turn
Challenge: Social vs. 11 Traits
Description: Developed by city-dwelling Garou to facilitate travel, this ritual implores the pattern-spiders that control a city's traffic patterns. It is a quick rite in which you roll a toy car across your own dashboard and murmur a prayer for the pattern-spiders' aid.
Effect: A safe and efficient route through traffic opens in front of your vehicle. Red lights turn green just as you reach them, traffic jams clear up, and you discover effective detours around road construction or accidents. These options always obey local traffic laws.
Duration: One trip through traffic
Baptism of Fire
Required: Perform this ritual by the light of the infant's auspice moon.
Challenge: static Social vs. 6 Traits
Cost: 0-5 Mental Traits
Description: When Garou and their kinfolk have children, it is customary to test those children immediately (via gifts like Scent of the True Form) to discover whether they have the potential to Change. Those few who do are then subjected to this baptism, as a blessing and a protection. It is performed by the light of the child's auspice moon, beside a ritual fire, anointing the child with ashes and Garou blood.
Effect: To spiritual senses, the child is marked with the glyph of the tribe who claims it. A spirit called a kin-fetch will watch over the child until it Changes. It will alert members of the tribe whenever the child is in danger. The kin-fetch isn't foolproof -- it's a weak spirit and prone to distractions -- but the extra Mental Traits you spend while conducting the ritual will add to the spirit's Gnosis in any challenges relating to its task.
Duration: Until the child dies or Changes, or the spirit is destroyed
Rite of Becoming
Required: This rite can only be performed at an Anchorhead.
Challenge: static Social vs. 11 Traits
Description: This ritual creates a sympathetic connection to a grounding-place in the spirit world called an Anchorhead. This connection lets you travel safely into the Deep Umbra. Braid together three strands of hair or thread, three pieces of copper wire, and three tendrils of vine; wrap this around your wrist and howl three words of power. Different tribes modify the ritual: Uktena drink a psychotropic potion to loosen their spirit for the journey, Black Furies always travel in threes, etc.
Effect: Breaking the braid rescues you from the deep Umbra, returning you instantly to the Near Umbra. You take one Aggravated damage by returning this way.
Duration: Until you return from the Deep Umbra, or until the braid is destroyed.
Rite of Binding
Challenge: Willpower vs. the spirit's Gnosis (minus one for each Gnosis you spend to power the rite)
Cost: 1-5 Gnosis and 0-5 Mental Traits
Description: One of the most central rituals to a Theurge's work, the Rite of Binding unites a spirit with an object, place or person. The spirit powers a single-use effect called a talen, or performs some other task while bound. Garou offer payments called Chiminage to Gaian spirits in exchange for this service. Unwilling spirits, on the other hand, cannot usually be bound unless they are first subdued -- by beating the spirit down to zero essence, for example.
Effect: The spirit is bound to an item, place or person of your choosing. Binding a spirit to an object this way is how you create a talen.
Duration: One week, plus an additional week per Mental Trait you spend. If you create a talen, it lasts until used.
Rite of the Cup
Required: A cup to hold the water and the Gnosis
Challenge: static Social vs. 11 Traits
Cost: Each participant in the rite must spend one Mental Trait.
Description: You fill a cup with water and pass it around a group of Garou and spirits. The cup becomes a ritual medium for the exchange of Gnosis.
Effect: The participants in this rite may redistribute their Gnosis as they see fit. The Ritemaster makes the final call if any conflicts arise about how to distribute the Gnosis. This rite may not raise a Garou's current Gnosis over their permanent rating.
Rite of Feeding the Wolf
Required: You must go to a wild place, and act in a feral, animalistic fashion (enough to get sweaty and filthy)
Challenge: Static based on location (11 in wild places, 14 in wild places without animals larger than rats, and 16 in tame places like a house's yard)
Cost: 1-5 Social Traits
Description: The Garou goes to a wild place, even if it is a vacant lot overgrown with weeds, and acts in a feral, animalistic fashion for long enough to become dirty. He may be in any form while doing this. Upon success, the character gains 1-5 Rage Traits, based on the number of social traits spent (these rage do count towards your Rage total when testing for Frenzy).
Duration: The Rage Traits remain for one scene, any not spent are lost afterwards.
Rite of Fetish Contrition
The wiki needs a writeup of this Rite. If you feel helpful, find the writeup and e-mail it to TCGarouXP@yahoogroups.com.
Rite of the Peacock
Challenge: static Social vs. 10 + the level of the Fetish
Description: Performed regularly, this rite strokes the ego of a spirit inside a fetish, assuring it that it is valued and important. First, give an appropriate performance of song, howling, dance or poetry, in the spirit's honor. Continue by speaking effusive praise for the spirit. Complete the rite by holding the fetish over your head and chanting its name three times.
Effect: A fetish under the influence of this rite cannot become cursed.
Duration: One month
Ritual of the Questing Stone
Required: You must know the name of the person or object you're trying to find.
Challenge: static Social vs. 11 Traits, or vs. 10 Traits if you possess an item that belonged to the target
Description: Centering yourself and concentrating on a known target, you gain a sense of where to find it. This rite takes a form of dowsing, where the ritualist suspends a stone or needle by a thread. Modern-minded Garou have been able to perform the rite with a map and a compass instead.
Effect: You gain a sense of the target's general location -- although not its precise position.
Read All About It
Challenge: static Social vs. 11 Traits
Description: This rite grows increasingly out-of-date in an instant-messaging age, but it's still secure and useful for tribes like Bone Gnawers who don't tend to keep cell phones. Taking a magazine or newspaper, you place a spiritual message in all copies of that paper which only Garou can read.
Effect: A message of 100 words or less appears in all copies of the relevant periodical, in a location you specify. Only Garou can see the message. A spiritual sense draws Garou eyes to the message: its readers realize the words have a supernatural origin.
Renewing the Talen
Required: You must have just used the Talen in the same session as this ritual is performed.
Challenge: Static Social vs 11 Traits
Description: Some talens can be "refueled" using this rite. This rite charms and seduces the spirit involved to return to the talen, and must be performed through singing and enticing and other forms of beguiling.
Effect: By performing the rite prior to the Rite of Binding, the user gains a +2 trait bonus for performing the Rite of Binding to "refuel" a used Talen. (This Ritual does not refuel a Talen on its own, the Rite of Binding must still be performed)
Rite of Silence
Required: You must perform this rite in a dark room or cave, where you whisper your darkest secret.
Challenge: static Social vs. 11 Traits
Description: By going into a dark place and whispering your darkest secret to Raven-spirits, you make yourself as silent as a bird on the wing. Hopeful of hearing more, the raven-spirits whisk away any sounds you make.
Effect: You cannot directly make any sound, even accidentally. Your footfalls are silent; doors you open don't creak; guns you fire don't even whisper. Indirect effects -- like that bullet shattering glass -- can still create noise.
Duration: The effect ends when you choose to speak. The raven-spirits leave, disappointed that you don't have another secret to share. They discard all the sounds they took from you during the rite, which has the effect of surrounding you with noise for a few minutes.
Rite of Spirit Awakening
Challenge: static Social vs. the spirit's Rage
Description: With this rite, you rouse the sleeping or inactive spirit of an ordinary object or a plant. Do this by playing a rhythm or performing a song for the spirit, stirring it from its sleep. Other ritual participants can help you by growling out a counterpoint to your music. When performed to awaken a plant, some Garou call this rite "sanctification".
Effect: The spirit of the plant or object coalesces in the Umbra, corresponding to the location of its physical form on Earth. The Storyteller determines if the spirit is friendly or hostile. Some plants effectively become single-use talens when awakened, with different plant-spirits granting different effects.
Rite of Spirit Brew
Required: A sturdy and mystically-prepared container for the water.
Time to Perform: Several hours of prayer and meditation, followed by three days' wait.
Challenge: Social vs. 11 Traits
Description: You prepare a container to hold not only water to quench your thirst -- but also Gnosis to replenish your spirit. Fill your special container with water and perform several hours of prayer and meditation over it. Then bury the container in purified earth. When you recover the container after three days, the water will be charged with Gnosis.
Effect: Three points of Gnosis imbue the water. Anyone (who has a Gnosis rating) may drink the water to regain their spent Gnosis, up to three points' worth before the container is empty.
Rite of Summoning
Required: If you perform this Rite outside the Umbra, you must first succeed at a challenge of your Gnosis vs. the Gauntlet.
Time to Perform: The rite takes fifteen minutes minimum. Performing it for hours will reduce its difficulty.
Challenge: static Social vs. difficulty based on the spirit being summoned: 4 Traits for a Gaffling, 5 for a Jaggling, 7 for a Totem Avatar, 9 for an Incarna, 10 for a Celestine. (Note that summoning Incarna and Celestines is inadvisable to one who values one's health and well-being.) Reduce the difficulty by one (to a minimum of three Traits) for each hour spent in the performance of the ritual.
Cost: 0-3 Social Traits
Description: With invocations, offerings, sigils, and prayers, you compel a distant spirit to come to your location and parley. Powerful spirits think of themselves as coming because they are "curious," not because they are "compelled". (They may be right.) Garou use this ritual in many contexts, often as the precursor to negotiating a Binding, a Fetish, a personal or pack Totem relationship, or any number of services.
Effect: The spirit appears before you, but the Social Traits you spend influence the speed of its arrival and its temperament. Spending no Social Traits means the spirit will arrive at its leisure -- within several hours, at least -- and it will be annoyed with you, in need of being placated. Spend one Social Trait to make it arrive quickly -- but be no less annoyed. It takes two Social Traits to ensure that the spirit arrives quickly and in an amiable mood. Three Social Traits spent creates the best-case scenario: the spirit arrives quickly and favorably inclined toward you, since you clearly put so much skill into your summoning.
Rite of Talisman Dedication
Required: A mundane object to dedicate -- fetishes and talens don't need this rite
Challenge: static Social vs. 11 Traits
Cost: One Gnosis per object dedicated
Description: This rite takes a different form for every auspice, who typically perform it by the light of their auspice moon. The purpose is the same: to incorporate ordinary objects into your own spirit, enabling them to accommodate your shifts of form and travel with you to and from the Umbra. You may have a number of objects dedicated to you up to your permanent Gnosis rating. A set of clothes or any similarly conceptually-linked items may count as one object for this ritual; very large items may count as more than one.
Effect: The object you dedicate travels with you across the gauntlet, and it accommodates your form when you shapeshift. It may stretch or shift slightly, or simply vanish into your body, becoming a tattoo or a marking on your fur. Others may attempt to detach these items from you by spending a Willpower.
Duration: Permanent, or until you trade the dedicated object out for a different one.
Rite of Transition
Required: A fetish to pass to a new bearer
Challenge: static Social vs. 11 Traits
Description: This modern rite, developed by Konstantin Tears-of-the-Father (a Shadow Lord Theurge), is a ritual transference of a fetish to a new bearer. The ritualist uses the four elements to honor the fetish's spirit as it changes hands.
Effect: The Gnosis cost for the new bearer to attune the fetish is reduced by two, to a minimum of one. If the ritualist fails the rite, they throw two rock-paper-scissors tests: failing both means the rite has been botched, which releases the spirit in the fetish from its service.
Rite of Tying the Snare
Required: You must walk or run around the area where you mean to trap your target, and you must have a name by which to identify your target.
Challenge: Mental vs. 11 Traits
Cost: 0-5 Mental Traits
Description: This ritual invokes the assistance of Snare-spirits -- minions of the Weaver whose business it is to make the city a difficult place to escape. You perform the ritual by walking around an area like a building, and invoking the name of the target you mean to ensnare. You complete the rite by tying a knot in the mystical energies around the area -- which may involve physically tying a knot in a piece of string, simply tracing a Gordian pattern in the air, or whatever gesture suits you.
Effect: One means of escape from the area (plus one additional means per Mental Trait you spend) becomes blocked for your target. Doors jam, elevators lose power, and windows refuse to open or break. Your target suffers a one-Trait penalty (plus one for each Mental Trait spent) to all challenges that involve them trying to escape the area.
Duration: Until your target successfully escapes -- if ever.
Rite of Unsalting the Earth
Required: Two Garou stride the perimeter of the area to be affected. One carries a bowl of water, the other a bowl of blood (chicken blood is usually sufficient) and they sprinkle this on the ground as they walk. A third Garou then crosses the boundry of blood and water and makes a ritual furrow from one end of the field to the other. No tools may be used, or the entire effect fails.
Challenge: Mental vs 11 traits
Description: Perhaps the gentlest Wyld rite, this serves to reconsecrate barren ground to the service of life and growth. Originally used to restore cropland salted by the Romans, this rite is used more frequently these days to reclaim lands that have been tainted with pollution or paved over and subsequently abandoned.
Effect: If the rite is performed properly, the site becomes much more Wyld-friendly and fertile, and may well actually produce life come springtime. In addition all Wyrm and Weaver creatures suffer a 1-trait penalty to all actions taken within the consecrated area. This effect lasts for a year and a day.
Rite of the Ziggurat
Required: Several groups of Garou are performing rites simultaneously, on different floors of a multilevel structure.
Challenge: Mental vs. 11 Traits
Description: Urban septs discovered that performing many rites in concert can empower them all. This ritual focuses a column of that spiritual energy. Coordinate a number of rites to occur at the same time at different levels of a structure like a skyscraper, bell tower or pyramid. Success at this ritual will increase the potency of all the rites -- most especially the topmost rite.
Effect: The rite being performed at the top of the "ziggurat" gains a Trait bonus to its challenge equal to the total number of rites being performed. In addition, at Storyteller discretion, many more spirits gather to these rites than is the usual, with whatever effects seem interesting.
Intermediate Rites
Rite of the Blackened Moon
Required: This is a rite of the Philodox auspice. Either you or your teacher must be a Philodox for you to learn this rite.
Time to Perform: 30 minutes
Challenge: Mental vs. 7 Traits
Cost: 0-5 Mental Traits
Description: You ward all spiritual influence from an area up to the size of a large room. This creates a dead zone that is anathema to all spirits -- including, to a degree, your own spirit half. Inscribe glyphs of warding around the borders of the area where you cast this rite, then burn incense or an herbal smudge to banish all spiritual influence.
Effect: In the area affected, the Gauntlet rises by one (plus one for each Mental Trait you spent), to a maximum of 10. No Gnosis can be regained in this space, and materialized spirits lose one essence per hour. these effects make Garou in this space feel distinctly uncomfortable.
Duration: One day, plus one per Mental Trait you spent. The rite is often renewed before its duration expires, in order to keep an area warded over a long period.
Rite of the Fetish
See the Fetish Creation rules page for further information on using this Rite.
Rite of Homecoming
Required: You must be in good standing with your tribal Totem. The Silent Strider homeland cannot be visited via this rite.
Challenge: None. You succeed at this rite as long as you take the usual time to perform it.
Description: Tribal homelands are spiritual domains in the Near Umbra where the totem spirits of the tribes hold full sway. This ritual opens the way for you to reach the homeland of your own tribe.
Effect: You and your pack travel instantly to your tribal homeland, from anywhere in the Umbra.
Rite of the Totem
Challenge: Social vs. 11 Traits
Description: You create a bond between a group of Garou and a patron totem spirit, forming a pack. Anoint the eyes of the potential packmates with a mixture of saliva and sacred herbs, like mugwort or tobacco. Step sideways into the Umbra, then lead the pack on a hunt for their Totem. You may hunt down a particular spirit or follow signs and omens to a totem that chooses the pack. The pack-to-be must earn the favor of the spirit, typically by performing some sort of quest (although a just-completed Rite of Passage will meet this requirement).
Effect: The petitioning Garou are joined in a pack under the Totem. Each player in the pack must purchase the Totem background for their character, at which point all the usual bans and bonuses of pack membership apply. Note: This ritual is not required to add individuals to the pack, simply to create a brand new pack.
Punishment Rites
Despite their protests, Garou aren't perfect. Sometimes persuasion and private means of discipline fail, and it's necessary for the tribe or sept to publicly sanction one of its members. Rites of Punishment enforce Garou justice, setting an example for others and reinforcing the primacy of the group over the individual. These rites take place only after other efforts at correction fail..
Basic Rites
Rite of Ostracism
Challenge: static Social vs. 11 Traits
Description: A common punishment for lesser crimes, this rite casts an offender out of their tribe and their Sept for a time -- sometimes even from their pack. Participants in the rite encircle the offender. Each one says to Gaia: "Of all Gaia's children, I have no such brother/sister." They repeat this phrase to the offender and turns their back. When all have spoken, the participants walk off into the night, and the punished Garou is alone. The punished becomes a non-person, ignored whenever possible, and driven off with snapping fangs when they cannot be ignored. This ostracism is so strict that other Garou are free to stand by while the punished's life is in danger -- and if a merciful Garou does choose to help, the help will be minimal.
Effect: Ostracism costs its target Renown as deemed appropriate by the Sept -- a minimum loss of two, a maximum loss of four.
Duration: This punishment traditionally lasts from one phase of the moon to the next, although Sept and tribal leaders can establish as long a duration as they see fit.
Stone of Scorn
Required: An actual stone, imbued with a spirit of sorrow or shame. This can be created for the occasion, or the sept can keep a permanent Stone of Scorn on hand.
Challenge: static Social vs. 11 Traits
Description: You force an offender to watch as you pass the stone from Garou to Garou. Each participant carves or paints the stone with a symbol of contempt while telling an embarrassing story about the target. This mockery lasts until dawn, although the juiciest tales linger in the mind even longer.
Effect: The punished Garou temporarily loses one Honor and one Wisdom.
Duration: The punished Garou regains their Honor and Wisdom when they next perform a deed worthy of Honor. (And from this worthy deed they gain no Renown.)
Voice of the Jackal
Challenge: static Social vs. 11 Traits
Description: This punishment is used when a Garou's actions have brought shame not only to themselves, but also to their sept or tribe. You blow a fistful of ash or dust onto the offender and intone: "As thy (cowardice, wrathfulness, selfishness, etc.) proves thee to be of jackal blood, let thy voice proclaim thy breed!"
Effect: The punished loses Glory and Honor. Their voice becomes a high-pitched, nasal, and shrill whine, such that they have a two-Trait penalty in all Social Challenges and gain the Negative Social Traits Obnoxious x2. Garou under this punishment are called "jackal-hounds."
Duration: Until you choose to end the punishment. A jackal-hound can try to decrease the amount of time they are affected by performing great deeds of service. Their Renown loss is permanent.
Intermediate Rites
The Hunt
Challenge: static Social vs. 14 Traits (11 for Philodox performing the Rite)
Description: This death sentence fits Garou who commit a capitol offense like unjustified murder, but who yet retain some shred of honor. Choose a number of Garou for the Hunt. Decorate their bodies and yours with glyphs of paint or clay that identify you as a Hunting Pack. This is an honor, and other Garou will give ground to you as you carry out your duty. You are the Master of the Hunt, and you lead the pack in a chase to run down the criminal and kill them. You give no mercy, but their death is considered just atonement for their crimes: they should be buried and mourned with honor.
Effect: Use normal systems to hunt down the offender and exact justice. Alternatively -- at a Storyteller's direction -- deal with it in a single static Social Challenge against the target's Rank plus four Traits. If you fail this challenge, your target fought so well that they earn Glory posthumously. Either way, they're still dead.
Satire Rite
Challenge: static Social vs. offender's Rank + ten Traits (or + six Traits for Philodox performing the Rite)
Description: This ritual expresses scorn in a more lasting and devastating way than the Stone of Scorn. Have Philodox and Galliards create special songs, dances and performance pieces just to ridicule the offender. Perform these works in front of the entire Sept, with the offender visible to everyone. The oral traditions of the Garou will give these performances long life; especially cutting remarks may even travel by word of mouth to distant Septs.
Effect: The target loses one Rank, and loses enough Renown to place them at the minimum for that Rank. If you fail the Challenge, then the Satire is ineffective and the target loses no Rank; you, however, must make two Simple Tests, and if you fail both of them you lose Wisdom for looking like a fool.
The Rending of the Veil
Required: An ordinary non-kinfolk human target.
Challenge: static Social vs. 11 Traits
Description: Sometimes an ordinary human being can commit a crime against Gaia so great that it's not enough for you to simply execute them; you must exact ritual justice. Find your target as they sleep. Leave a small bag of burning dung and herbs within ten feet. When your target wakes, the Delirium has been burned out of their minds. Then, you lead the Garou in scaring the hell out of the offender -- hunting them down in Crinos form, tormenting them, running them ragged into the ground. If you allow them to survive, they will usually suffer from permanent nightmares or madness for the rest of their lives. This Rite is not considered a Veil breach if it goes through the proper Sept channels. If you fail the Challenge to perform the rite, attempt two simple tests: failing both puts you under the Delirium for the night.
Effect: The target is immune to the Delirium for one night.
Duration: Their immunity lasts only the night, but their therapy bills last forever.
Advanced Rites
Gaia's Vengeful Teeth
Challenge: static Social vs. 15 Traits (12 for Philodox performing the Rite)
Description: This punishment is reserved for the greatest traitors to the Garou Nation -- those who choose to support its enemies, and whose actions cause unrecoverable loss. You and at least four others drag the offender to a desolate stretch of stony earth. Stab your hand, smearing your blood over the offender's eyes, ears and forehead. Recite their sins against Gaia. Then the punishment takes hold.
Effect: Every surface of Gaia -- every loose stone, blade of grass, and splashing brook -- transforms into razor-edged silver just before the traitor can touch it. They cannot cross into the Umbra while they are still anointed with your blood. You and the other Garou give the traitor a head start, and then give chase. The ensuing attempt at escape forces the traitor to cut themselves to ribbons on Gaia's back. Once dead, their name is struck from all histories, only ever invoked as a curse.
Duration: Permanent. Nobody survives this rite.
Renown Rites
Rites of Renown commemorate individual accomplishments and a Garou's passage to a new station within Garou society..
Basic Rites
Rite of Accomplishment
Required: The requirements for this rite are the following:
-
-
The story of the Renown-worthy deeds must be told (either at game or over the game's mailing list) -- a pack Galliard participating in the Rite often does this, even if they aren't the ritualist;
-
The Master of the Rite must give permission for the rite to be performed;
-
The ritualist must perform the rite in front of an audience of the Sept -- it cannot be performed secretly;
-
The recipient(s) of the Rite must be present;
-
The recipient(s) of the Rite can only receive Renown through this rite once a month.
-
Challenge: This Rite traditionally falls under the auspices of the Galliards, who have an easier time performing it.
-
-
Galliard ritualists make a Static Social Challenge vs. 8 Traits, unless someone disputes it, in which case it becomes 10 Traits.
-
Non-Galliard ritualists make a Static Social Challenge vs. 14 Traits, unless someone disputes it, in which case it becomes 16 Traits.
-
If multiple Garou are being honored in the same Rite, the ritualist must make a challenge for each recipient separately.
Description: This rite honors the accomplishments of a Garou who has performed a deed worthy of new Renown. The ritualist calls the honored Garou forward and describes their worthy deeds, then invites others to add their voices to praise the subject(s). Some might speak up to challenge the subject's readiness instead, inviting a Frenzy -- but the subject(s) need only remain calm against such objections to prove them mistaken. This is a test of the subject's true character: the use of Gifts and powers to subvert the risk of Frenzy is greatly disrespectful to the Rite, and may well cause the Rite to fail,
Effect: If anyone disputes the rite in progress, a unique kind of Frenzy test occurs: the disputer makes a Social Challenge against the subject(s). If the disputer wins, the subject Frenzies, and the rite fails entirely. If nobody Frenzies, no further disputes may be raised against the Renown in question for three weeks. If the ritualist fails the Social Challenge, then this is seen as mystical evidence of some hidden flaw that makes them unworthy; ask the Storytellers to help weave this new information into the character's story. If the ritualist succeeds, then the subject gains a new tale of Renown.
Rite of Passage
Required: One or more cubs, ready to prove themselves Cliath of the Nation
Challenge: Static Social vs. 11 Traits
Description: This rite formally inducts one or more cub into the Garou Nation as a full member. The ritemaster -- often the Den Parent -- sends the cubs on a quest to prove themselves worthy. The nature and origin of the quest varies greatly from tribe to tribe: some ritemasters leave the matter in the hands of the spirits of Gaia to decide, relying on a spirit messenger to bring a quest to the cubs, while other ritemasters will send the cubs on a mission of their own devising. The quest itself should be a test of the cubs' courage, honor, and wisdom appropriate to their auspices, as well as a test of their ability to operate as a pack. Some tribes' rites of passage are brutal, as likely to kill cubs as prove them; others are more symbolic, a recognition of the readiness the cubs have already demonstrated in their Den Parent's care.
Effect: If the cubs succeed at their quest, they become Cliath, and the deeds they performed on (or, sometimes, before) their Rite of Passage become the starting three Renown according to their Auspice. The new Cliath each also gain a Tribe, as determined by the Totems of the Nation, who look on and indicate their approval by some means.
Rite of Wounding
Required: A Garou who has earned their first battle scar
Challenge: Static Social vs. 11 Traits
Description: Battle scars are held in great esteem among the Garou. Each one tells a tale of service and sacrifice for Gaia, not to mention survival against deadly odds. This ritual celebrates the first such scar. The ritemaster and the subject might conduct the rite as a private meditation on the tragic necessity of war, as the Children of Gaia might do; or they may go before the entire Sept and celebrate the glorious battle with food and drink, as the Get of Fenris are wont.
Effect: The Garou gains one tale of Glory for earning the scar.
Seasonal Rites
Creatures of nature as well as society, the Garou mark the cycle of the year with Seasonal Rites. The details depend on the tribe and sept. Some celebrate each full moon and other events, others commemorate only the solstices and equinoxes. The depth and variety of seasonal rites speaks volumes about how a particular Garou community views its place in the world and tradition. Particularly spirit-minded (or perhaps deranged) Garou insist that without these rites, Gaia would cease to bless the Garou and perhaps even stop changing the seasons.
Basic Rites
The Great Hunt
Required: At least five Garou must participate together in this Rite on the Summer Solstice.
Time to Perform: The rite begins at midnight prior to the day of the Solstice, and concludes the next midnight.
Challenge: static Social vs. 11 Traits
Description: The long days of summer give your foes fewer hours of darkness to hide and conduct their business. You capitalize on this with a sacred hunt. At midnight you and your companions mingle your blood into a bowl. As you use this blood to paint one another with glyphs of war, you beseech Gaia to grant you a vision of a worthy foe to hunt. At dawn, this vision comes. While the target is usually a Wyrm-creature, it is sometimes a thrall of the Weaver or the Wyld, or even an enemy amongst the Sept's own ranks. You must hunt and kill this target by the following midnight, spilling its blood in sacrfice to Gaia, or else the rite fails -- a terrible omen.
Effect: If the target was suitably impressive for your abilities, you may claim a tale of Glory for participating in this Rite. If the hunt fails, all participants lose Glory, and for the next year all Garou of the Sept perform rites at a one-Trait penalty.
The Long Vigil
Required: At least five Garou must participate together in this Rite on the Autumn Equinox. Spend the day prior decorating the caern with the sept's war trophies.
Time to Perform: The rite begins at sunset and lasts until dawn.
Challenge: static Social vs. 11 Traits
Description: This rite thanks Helios for his aid and welcomes the ascendancy of Luna, as night takes over the rhythms of sept life. You gather the participants around a bonfire, chanting your gratitude as the sun sets. You pray for safety in the long nights ahead, and you praise Luna for her aid. Galliards point to each war trophy in its turn, telling tales of the sept's most glorious victories -- and spinning those tales to glorify Luna. Other auspices may also have tales to tell, if you want to show them special honor. At dawn, with a final shout of praise to Luna, the sept hurls all its trophies into the fire as a sacrifice.
Effect: The spirits take note of your respect for Helios and celebration of Luna.
Rite of Reawakening
Required: At least five Garou must participate together in this Rite on the Spring Equinox.
Time to Perform: The rite begins at sundown, and takes as long as it needs.
Challenge: static Social vs. 11 Traits
Description: This ritual takes the form of a sacred quest into the Umbra. Traditionally, this involves seven symbolic trials, running the gamut of all Garou abilities -- but in these last days, the rite often becomes a practical opportunity to deal with very real problems. At least one trial must call for each participant to give up an item of personal importance, a sacrifice to bury the old year and open oneself to a new cycle of growth.
Effect: The spirits see that you are renewed and prepared for the new year.
Rite of the Winter Wind
Required: At least five Garou must participate together in this Rite on the Winter Solstice.
Time to Perform: Sundown to sunrise
Challenge: static Social vs. 11 Traits
Description: This ritual marks the longest night of the year. It honors the long-absent Helios, beckoning him back to light the days again. You gather around a great bonfire and howl, uplifting the spirit of the flames to renew Helios' strength. Every Sept adds its own individualized style to the night, be that with solemn sacrifices of gold or with celebratory torchlight revels. A triumphant howl at dawn marks the rite's completion.
Effect: The spirits see that you honor Helios.
Tribal Rites
Tribal Rites are those ceremonies specific to particular tribes, arising out of their own cultural beliefs and traditions.
One Garou may teach another a Tribal Rite only if at least one of the two, teacher or student, belongs to the tribe in question. They are guarded as sacred knowledge, which means different things to different tribes. Most Uktena and Shadow Lords, for example, would never teach a tribal Rite to outsider under any circumstances, while many Bone Gnawers and Children of Gaia would share more freely.
Black Fury
Soothe the Scars
Basic Rite of Accord
Description: Black Furies perform this rite on human women and children that have suffered at the hands of an abusive spouse or parent. Such abuse can harm the soul in ways still unknown to the Black Furies, but it is certain that sufficient abuse can open a hole wide enough for a Wyrmling to crawl into. Sooth the Scars is one of the Furies best tools for healing abuse once it has been stopped.
The rite is designed to put the victims at ease immediately; the smoke of gentle incense and scented candles should fill the air, and inoffensive soft music -- not necessarily "spiritual" music; folk songs or children's music are equally appropriate -- should play. Memories of abuse are coaxed from the victim, and each one is symbolically cast into a purifying fire. This rite has no direct mechanical effect; the Storyteller should adjudicate its roleplaying effects.
Bone Gnawers
Rite of the Cardboard Palace
Basic Mystic Rite
Challenge: static Mental vs. 11 Traits
Cost: optionally, one Gnosis
Description: You build a shelter out of cardboard and newspaper, plus duct tape if you're lucky -- and doing this just so creates a shelter that's actually comfortable. The walls of your shelter become insulated and waterproof, allowing you to remain warm and dry
Effect: Knowing this rite ensures you always have a warm and dry place to sleep during your Downtimes, even though you have no Resources. If you are suffering the effects of a long-term injury and you spend a Gnosis at the beginning of the game session, you may enter play with one level of Aggravated damage healed -- your palace gave you the rest and recuperation you needed to get better.
Rite of the Pizza Box
Basic Accord Rite
Challenge: static Social vs. 8 Traits, plus one Trait for each ten Garou in the ceremony
Cost: One Trait from each participant from this list (or a synonym): Strong, Charismatic, Wily, Leadership, Finance. Bone Gnawers may also useImpressive or Manipulative. A participant may avoid this cost if they instead admit they have one of the Negative Traits Cowardly, Docile, Puny, Naive, Sickly, Impatient, or Submissive.
Description: You coordinate a group of Garou to order and share a pizza. That's no easy task, but if you manage it in a way that pleases the spirits, all the Garou sharing the meal feel more united toward the task at hand.
Effect: Choose a specific mission with a specific goal ("find shit to kill" is too broad). Each participant gets a single free retest on one Challenge related to this mission.
Duration: One session
Rite of the Shopping Cart
Basic Mystic Rite
Challenge: static Mental vs. 11 Traits
Cost: One Gnosis
Description: You customize a cart, bag, backpack, or other container so that its inside is bigger than its outside.
Effect: List twenty objects on an item card. Each object listed must be no larger than what you could carry in one hand in homid shape. Your shopping cart (or bag, backpack, what-have-you) may contain all those objects, so that you are assumed to have them all on hand if you holding the card.
Duration: One week. Failing to renew this rite each week causes the space to collapse, and all the contents to spill out.
Children of Gaia
Bowels of the Mother
Minor Rite
Challenge: none
Description: All the elements of Gaia are inside you: water in your blood, air in your breath, fire in your heart and earth in your... soil. You draw on this truth and apply it to other rituals.
Effect: Some rites require certain amounts of a natural element, like a pool of clear water. This rite lets you substitute a small amount of an appropriate substance from your own body to fulfill the requirements of those other rites.
Duration: The next rite you perform
Last Blessing
Basic Mystic Rite
Required: Perform this rite over the body of a dead metis, before the body has gone cold.
Challenge: none
Cost: One Permanent Gnosis
Description: You offer one final gift to a metis who has died in battle. Laying your hands on the dead Crinos form, you sing a ritual song -- the Song of the True Form -- and you change its music at the conclusion of the rite.
Effect: The body shapeshifts to either homid or lupus form, whichever the metis preferred in life. This act protects the veil, since any humans discovering the body will find only an ordinary human or wolf corpse.
Duration: Permanent
Rite of Comfort
Basic Accord Rite
Challenge: static Social vs. 11 Traits
Description: Harano, the legendary despond of the Garou soul, is not a condition easily cured, but with this rite it can be eased. You chant for your subject, burn incense and lead them through breathing exercises. They cannot leave once the rite has begun, but by the time it has finished -- if you are successful -- their soul is strengthened against the weight of Harano.
Effect: Your subject gains two Willpower Traits that they may spend to resist Harano, or add to their Willpower total in Harano-related challenges. You may perform this Rite multiple times, but your subject can hold a maximum of four such Willpower Traits. As long as they have these Traits, your subject may not harm themselves.
Duration: Until the Traits are spent.
Rite of the Teachers
Required: Hallucinogenic plants whose spirits you have awakened
Challenge: none
Description: After awakening the spirits of carefully prepared hallucinogenic plants, you use them in the traditional manner, such as by eating mushrooms or placing a button of peyote on your tongue. The awakened spirit of the plant draws you closer to the spirit world.
Effect: You receive a free retest on your next test against the Gauntlet -- such as for certain Gifts, rites, and stepping sideways.
Duration: Until your next test against the Gauntlet
Rite of Talisman Adaptation
Intermediate Mystic Rite
Challenge: none
Description: Like the Rite of Talisman Dedication, this rite aligns a mundane object into a Garou spirit, so that the object can go with the Garou when they shapeshift or travel to the Umbra. Talisman Adaptation, however, is more powerful, enabling an object to adapt to a Garou's different forms. A Garou's clothes, for example, will adapt to their new shape: a vest for tools in homid could expand to Crinos size, then shrink down to fit a wolf body for Lupus. Garou may normally have a number of talismans dedicated up to their permanent Gnosis rating; a talisman adapted with this rite counts as three such objects.
Effect: The object adapts to whatever shape the Garou takes, ensuring it will always remain usable.
Duration: Permanent, or until you trade out the talisman for a different one.