Darkwater Gifts

Basic:

 

 

Blood of the Deeps:

Cost: One Willpower

Challenge: Physical Vs Storyteller

Retest: Survival

Effect:  This Gift protects a Merfolk venturing into the extreme depths of the ocean, making her immune to the crushing pressure and freezing water temperature. Darkwaters use this Gift to plumb the ocean’s depths in search of hidden lore. The Merfolk spends a Willpower Trait and makes a Physical Test (retest Survival). For the next three hours, the Rokea is safe from the extreme cold and pressure of the ocean depths. The time period includes travel time, so the wereshark must make sure she reaches safety before the three hours elapse. This Gift only guards against natural environmental damage; cold or crushing attacks from other creatures or supernatural sources still do normal damage.

Chill:

Challenge: Social Vs Storyteller

Retest: Occult

Effect:  The Merfolk may imbue her body with a numbing chill reminiscent of the ocean depths, projecting that cold to the water around her. This phenomena usually causes a great disturbance to anyone in the area of effect. The Merfolk makes a Social Test (retest Occult). Success causes a dramatic drop in the temperature around her, whether on land or in the water. All creatures in the area must win a Willpower Test against the Merfolk in order to avoid taking a one Trait penalty to all Social and Mental Tests for the next scene, due to the distraction caused by the preternatural cold.

 

Command Spirit

Cost: One Willpower

Challenge: Social vs. target spirit

Retest: Leadership

Followup Cost: 0 to 5 Willpower Traits

Effect: By the force of your will and your auspice, you compel a spirit to obey a simple command. For each additional Willpower you spend, you may add an additional simple command. This Gift is not strong enough to force a spirit to leave areas or items that they're bound to; the intermediate  Garou Theurge gift Exorcism provides that capability.

 

Name the Spirit

Required: A spirit within 50 feet on either side of the Gauntlet

Challenge: Mental vs. the spirit

Retest: Investigation

Followup Cost: (optional) one Willpower

Effect: Your eyes see into the very essence of a spirit, telling you its type and its approximate levels of Rage, Gnosis and Willpower. If you spend a Willpower Trait as well, you also sense the spirit's true name, which can be useful for summoning or tracking it.

 

Piercing Shriek:

Cost: One Rage

Challenge: Mental Vs Storyteller

Effect: This Gift enables the Merfolk to emit a piercing wail that can paralyze anyone within hearing distance, both allies and enemies. The Merfolk spends a Rage Trait and makes a Mental test (retest Primal Urge). Individuals within 30 feet in the water or 15 feet on land must succeed in a Willpower Test against eight Traits (retest Survival) or be stunned and at a one-Trait penalty on all actions for the rest of the scene from the agony of the sound. Anyone with enhanced hearing or using the Gift Heightened Senses is automatically rendered immobile for the rest of the scene, though they may still defend themselves at the normal penalty. The Gift Silent Sending can be used to help allies resist this Gift by allowing them an automatic retest.

 

Sense Chiminage

Challenge: Social vs. target

Retest: Subterfuge

Followup Cost: (optional) three Social Traits

Effect: You sense the weight of spiritual obligation resting on the shoulders of any spirit-aware being. Success with this Gift means you discover the state of the target's outstanding debts to the spirit world. By paying the additional cost in Social Traits, you also discover the name of the spirit that this person has most recently offended.

 

Sense Magic

Challenge: static Mental vs. the magic's creator (You get a one-Trait bonus for familiar or obvious effects, and a two-Trait bonus for Merfolk gifts.)

Retest: Enigmas

Followup Cost: 0-5 Mental Traits

Effect: Your mystical senses pick up on magic active in the area. Magic includes Garou gifts, vampire Disciplines, mage Spheres, and so on. An intuition informs you what kind of magic it is, in a broad sense -- "Gaian" or "blood magic," for example, is about as specific as the intuition gets. The Storyteller may impose Trait penalties to your challenge for very unusual magics. This gift senses magics within a ten-foot radius, plus another ten for each Mental Trait you spent.

 

Sense Wyrm

Challenge: Mental vs. Storyteller difficulty based on intensity of Wyrm influence (high intensity is low difficulty, low intensity is high difficulty)

Retest: Occult or Investigation

Effect: A mystical sense not unlike a scent tells you whether the Wyrm has corrupted anything in the area. This "Wyrm-Taint" may mean there is an enemy nearby, or it may simply mean that an innocent bystander ate Wyrm-manufactured food or works at a spite-filled office.

 

Shadowy Waters:

Cost: One Gnosis

Challenge: no challenge if it's dark or nearly dark; otherwise, a static Gnosis vs. difficulty based on lighting -- six Traits indoors, nine Traits in the sun

Retest: Occult

Followup Cost: 0-5 Mental Traits

Effect: You conjure up a field of inky blackness, obscuring all sight except your own. (You manage to see through the dark perfectly well somehow.) You black out one ten-foot-square area within your line of sight, plus another for each Mental Trait you spent. All others taking action within this darkness suffer the effects of Darkness (They suffer a 2-trait penalty and may have the "Blind" retest called against them). The some gifts can allow another Shifters to see through this darkness.

Duration: One scene

 

Sight From Beyond

Effect: You sometimes receive cryptic visions of important events in the near future. These visions are always shrouded in metaphor and dream symbology: a wheeling owl might signify a death, a writhing pool of leeches could indicate vampires, and drops of your own blood could signify family or packmates. The Storytellers will give you these visions. They might permit you a Mental Challenge (retest with Enigmas) to interpret the vision if they feel like it's especially cryptic.

 

Spirit Speech

Activation Time: Always on

Effect: You understand spirit languages used around you, and you can communicate back in kind. Because relatively few spirits can communicate in the MerfolkHigh Tongue (let alone human speech), this gift is absolutely invaluable for Merfolk of the Darkwater auspice.

Intermediate:

 

Shock Wave:

Cost: One Willpower

Challenge: Rage Vs Storyteller

Effect: With this Gift, the Merfolk can direct a shock wave on either land or water than can stun or even kill opponents. The Merfolk spends a Willpower Trait and makes a Rage Test. Success causes a concussive wave to radiate out from the Merfolk in a cone. Any living creature, friend or foe, caught in the area of effect suffers two levels of lethal damage. The Merfolk may spend Rage Traits to increase the amount of damage on a one for one basis. Creatures on land must make a Physical test against five Traits to avoid being knocked to the ground by the force of the concussion. This Gift can affect up to ten targets in a thirty foot spread underwater or up to five targets in a fifteen foot spread on land.

 

Swim Through the School:

Cost: One Gnosis

Effect: This Gift enables the Merfolk to pass through crowds of air-breathers on land without attracting undue attention. It also
alleviates the effects of the Curse temporarily. The Merfolk spends a Gnosis Trait to activate the Gift, which lasts for one scene. During this time, she may move at a normal walking or running pace through a crowd of ordinary people. The crowd simply parts to let her pass. While she is not actually outright ignored, unless a person is particularly attentive or is forced to interact with the Merfolk directly, they won’t remember the Merfolk’s presence. A security guard won’t automatically move aside to let the Merfolk pass, for instance, but if the Merfolk slips into a line of workers entering a factory, they will be waived in like anyone else. In addition, the effects of the Curse are lifted during this time, making it easier to deal with humans.

Duration: One Scene

 

Wave’s Passage

Cost: One Gnosis

Challenge: Mental Vs Storyteller

Retest: Enigmas

Effect: : The Merfolk may concentrate on an object and bring about a rapid aging effect, as if the object had lingered on the bottom of the ocean for many years. This Gift makes wood brittle and easily breakable. Metal becomes rusty, silver appears tarnished, chemicals become diluted. The Merfolk needs a full turn to activate this Gift, and it does not function on living (or
undead) creatures of any kind. The character makes a Mental test (retest Enigmas). Success means that the target object ages as if it had been underwater for a year. Wood requires only one Test to fall prey to the aging effect, while metal and other more durable objects may require two or three successful Tests, as determined by the Storyteller. The Merfolk can increase the effect by spending Gnosis Traits at the rate of two years per Trait spent. For example, a Merfolk who successfully invokes the Gift and spends one Gnosis Trait causes the object to age three years. This Gift may be applied to a target more than once, up to a number of times equal to the Rokea’s Gnosis rating per session.

 

 

Advanced:

 

Pall:

Cost: One Gnosis

Challenge: Gnosis Vs Storyteller

Effect: This Gift enables the Merfolk to create an area of total blackness, trapping anyone within it. The Merfolk can not only transport herself anywhere within the darkened area instantly, but she also automatically knows exactly what transpires
within the pall, both in the Realm and in the Umbra. To invoke this Gift, the Merfolk spends a Gnosis Trait and makes a Gnosis Test. Success produces an inky blackness that extrudes from the Merfolk’s eyes and mouth, completely filling an area the size of a large room or a spherical portion of similar size in a larger area. Anyone other than the Rokea  caught within the darkness is considered blind, even if they can ordinarily see in darkness. Those using the Gift Eyes of the Wound can see normally. Those affected must spend a Willpower Trait and succeed in a Willpower test against the Merfolk in order to escape from the darkness without the Merfolk’s permission. The Merfolk can see and hear all that goes on within the sphere even if creatures within it are communicating silently or using Gifts such as  Mindspeak. The sphere also imparts an understanding of whatever is thought or said, regardless of the language used. This Gift lasts for one scene.