Breed Fetishes

An instinctive grasp of the natural order is not something that comes easily to humans, and even homid Garou can have diffi culty connecting with their primal selves. Some homids fi nd themselves with something of a handicap in the wild when compared to their lupus counterparts and other animal-born shifters — not all of whom may be a homid’s allies. The failure to recognize a multitude of tiny signs can be fatal in the wilderness, and that’s why the land amulet was created. Carved out of a stone made smooth in a river and then engraved with the glyph for “Wilderness,” the land amulet is bound with any spirit of the area from which the stone came. Common spirits bound into a land amulet include Glade Children and animal-spirits.

When activated and worn, the land amulet offers +2 Primal-Urge to the wearer. The effect lasts for one scene.

### Disease Stick

Level Two, Gnosis 7

Of all the Garou, the homids are those who have the most attachment to their human Kin, and are most affected when illness strikes the local human population. This fetish counteracts the problems of illness, although in a way that human doctors would consider unorthodox. The Disease Stick is a long wooden baton made from hardwood and carved many times with the glyph for “Resilient.” Into this is bound a Glade Child or other spirit of nature. When activated, the Stick becomes charged to look for spirits of disease and can be used to strike them, forcing the disease out of the patient’s body. Unfortunately, the stick doesn’t ignore the body of the afflicted and thus every strike does damage to them as well.

The Disease Stick does Strength +1 bashing damage. For each strike (which cannot be pulled), the player may roll the Disease Stick’s Gnosis against a difficulty of 8. If this roll succeeds, then the disease is cured. If it fails, another roll may be attempted at diffi culty 7, and if that fails then the next roll is against difficulty 6, and so on.

Magically inflicted diseases cannot be cured with this weapon, nor can any supernatural affliction be cured. (It cannot reverse the effects of becoming a fomor, either.) However, any normal disease can be cured as easily as any other — a common cold is just as fragile or resilient to the Disease Stick as cancer or AIDS. The stick is clearly not quite as much use to Garou, who are immune to mundane diseases anyway, but it provides as effective a way of curing a sickly Kin as can be found. Of course, the user must be careful about keeping the healing process secret — having your child show up bruised at school, telling the teacher “Daddy had to beat me until I was better” is not the sort of thing that helps maintain a low profile.

## Metis Fetishes

### Thorn Bow

Level Four, Gnosis 7

Archery may be a dying art among humanity, and lupus may never see the point, but many metis learn to use a bow during their childhood at the caern. Not only is a bow necessary for delivering Bane arrows (a way in which a metis can assist in guarding the caern), but it conveys a sense of elegance that many metis long for. The Thorn Bow is one of the “little secrets” of the breed, often passed down from one metis to another in a relationship that transcends blood.

The Thorn Bow is a standard wooden bow, bound with an aggressive Wyld-spirit. It may only be fi red with wooden arrows, although they may have stone or metal heads. When activated, the fetish breathes life into the arrow which begins to bloom into flowers, thorns and other signs of life as it is fired. This doesn’t affect the aim of the shot, but when it hits the arrow continues to bloom, digging into the body and painfully aggravating the wound. The arrow causes aggravated damage, and every turn after the initial wound, the victim takes another health level of soakable aggravated damage until he takes a full turn to rip the arrow out.

## Lupus Fetishes

### Traveler’s Charm

Level Two, Gnosis 5

Just as homids sometimes develop simple fetishes to help them survive better in an unfamiliar wilderness environment, some lupus devise these fetishes to help them or other wolf-born Garou adapt to the strange world of humans a bit better. A Traveler’s Charm usually takes the form of a small pebble that the lupus swallows. While the pebble is in the Garou’s system, she is immune to motion sickness or similar ailments caused by riding in vehicles, can digest even the greasiest, spiciest human food without difficulty, and receives no penalties to her Perception checks for background pollution (even of the noise pollution variety). The downside to the Traveler’s Charm is that it must be retrieved and ingested again after it passes through the system, but few lupus are as appalled by the thought as their homid packmates tend to be.

### Spiderweb Stone

Level Four, Gnosis 8

While homids types seem fond of calling this fetish a “tar baby,” much to the lupus’ puzzlement, ultimately the Spiderweb Stone is an effective way of protecting its owner and her pack. It is particularly popular among lupus that have lost too many Kin to human hunters, and crave some revenge — not all of whom are Red Talons. The Spiderweb Stone is a large rock carved with claw marks, pushed in four directions — up to down, left to right, and on both diagonals. It is understood that the only reason four directions are used as opposed to two is to avoid creating the Weaver glyph and summoning unwanted spiritual attention. The lupus then places the stone in a pool of shallow water and binds it with a spider-spirit.

When activated, the water refl ects moonlight onto the stone and makes it shine. Any human who so much as catches a glimpse of it must make a Willpower roll (diffi culty 8) or he will fi nd himself inexplicably drawn toward it, entranced by the shining light from the stone. Until the sun rises, he stares at the stone, unable to be drawn away from it before dawn. Usually by this time the lupus has come back to see what hunters she’s caught, and few ever see that life-saving sunrise.

As an unfortunate side effect, Corax are completely and utterly unable to resist the effects of this fetish. Occasionally a lupus has to pry a wereraven away in order to avoid giving up the secret of the trap. In a few rumored worst case scenarios, Corax have been caught by the Stone in Homid form, and been subsequently slaughtered by accident.