Silent Strider Rites

# Rites of the Silent Striders

A well-rounded Silent Strider knows a good number of rites, and even prospective Strider cubs are taught a few common rites before the Rite of Passage. After all, if the tribe expects them to do fairly well fending for themselves, it’s best to give them the tools to do so.

Striders are also generally willing to teach rites to members of other tribes — but only rites that they consider to be the common property of the Garou, not rites that were given to the Silent Striders alone. While another tribe’s Galliard in a small rural sept might balk at teaching others the Gathering for the Departed so that she can keep the job of mourning heroes all to herself, the traveling Strider will certainly have a broader worldview. He certainly might also have some strong ideas on how difficult it is to share such small but vital information once you’re dead.

## Rites of Accord

### Rite of the Midwife

Level One

This rite is taught as a rite of accord because it is enacted to protect a newborn from harm or taint by hurrying or delaying its birth. The unsullied focus necessary for this rite is an owl’s feather, as Owl intercedes on the mother’s behalf. The mother must ordinarily be a Silent Strider or one of their Kinfolk, though Owl may be convinced with proper chiminage to intercede on the behalf of Garou or Kinfolk of other tribes, or even a normal human woman. The rite may be performed for several days in a row to achieve the necessary result — in fact, it may be necessary to do so. This rite is often considered the province of female Striders, though most are willing to teach it to any male Strider who wishes to learn.

System: The “midwife” and the mother must first decide whether they will try to hurry the delivery of the child or delay it. Then the ritemaster’s player must spend one point of Gnosis and roll Charisma + Rituals (target 7). Simple success delays or hastens the birth by one day. If the rite is begun at the onset of labor, it ceases immediately and will not begin again for a full day — in all other cases it is difficult to be sure if the rite was effective at all. It may require several days of ritual to bring a child into the world early; usually it is considered preferable to delay the birth unless a healer is sure the child is viable, or the mother is headed into great danger.

## Caern Rites

### Gathering of Wanderers

Level Two

Even though the Silent Striders hold caerns in the far-flung places of the world, the tribe must occasionally meet in the bare wilderness, far from any wellspring of Gaia’s power. The Garou present take their places in the circle as they would around the heart of a caern. As their howls reverberate, a silent call races through the Umbra, summoning an Engling into the circle to sanctify the proceedings. The Striders say that the location of one vagabond moot, where great deeds were done and great stories told, was later successfully opened as a caern by another tribe.

System: The player whose character leads the rite must roll Wits + Enigmas (target 7). If successful, the Engling arrives at the center of the circle within the hour. The leader of the rite must give the Engling a point of Gnosis; also, each Garou who wishes to bring a matter before the moot must also donate a point of Gnosis. When the moot is over, the Engling returns to the Umbra without having been hunted..

## Rites of Death

### Rite of Purification

Level Two

This is a burial ritual to honor the dead that is only performed by Silent Striders for their fallen tribemates, only in the company of other Striders. If there are members of other tribes who wish to mourn, a Gathering for the Departed will be held at another time and place.

System: The body of the deceased must first be washed (the Rite of Cleansing may be necessary if the werewolf died fighting minions of the Wyrm). After the body is laid out, the Master of the Rite invokes Scarab, who sends beetle-spirits from her brood to strip the hair, skin and flesh from the body (the player rolls Charisma + Rituals, target of 8 minus the Rank of the honored Strider). When only bones remain, the spirits depart, and the bones are placed in a small grave, preferably at a caern. Other times the bones are laid to rest in some place significant to the departed, or simply by the roadside. This is no dishonor among the Striders — it is the reality of a wanderer’s life. Better to bury the bones when there is time, than die carrying them and so leave two unburied.

### Rite for the Watchful

Level Four

This rite is not concerned with tracing a Garou’s heritage — that is a matter for Galliard songs. Rather, this rite deals with the more practical matter of which of those Minor take sufficient interest in the doings of their descendant to watch over her and lend her aid in times of need (in other words, what spirits the werewolf can channel using her Ancestors Background). It may be considered strange that a tribe cut off from its ancestors would know this rite, but they were not always thus deprived. They have preserved the rite through the many years of their homeless travels, often bartering the knowledge provided by the rite for passage on moon bridges or access to caerns. An unexpected benefit of maintaining the rite has become clear: it can be used to discover which Strider cubs have the ability to call on the lost ancestor-spirits, or who have the potential to do so in the future.

System: The ritemaster pulls on the nebulous energy of the Dark Umbra to reveal the faint traces left on the Garou’s spirit by her ancestors. The player rolls Charisma + Rituals (target 8). For each success, he learns the deed name of an interested ancestor-spirit and its relationship with the Garou.

## Mystic Rites

### Rite of the Spoken Page

Level Two

The Garou seldom write things down, and the Silent Striders commit words to paper even less frequently. Humans write all the time, however — and so do some other supernatural beings. This rite summons an ibis-spirit and sets it to reading the designated manuscript (or sarcophagus, or hand-written notebook) aloud. It has practical uses beyond simple hands-free reading: it has been used to “read” many books at once, listening for a key word or phrase; to learn to read a language the Garou can only speak; or to simply decipher criminally bad handwriting. Curiously, if the writing is less than one month old, enough of the author remains with the message that the ibis-spirit reads it in the author’s voice.

System: The player makes a Wits + Rituals roll (target 7). If successful, the ibis-spirit arrives and begins reading, and will continue for one hour per success or until dismissed. The spirit reads aloud in the language written — it does not translate the material. If the message is less than one month old, the hearers may attempt to identify the voice of the author (which may require an Intelligence roll), or even make guesses as to the meaning behind the author’s words as if she were there in person (requiring a Perception + Empathy roll).

## Minor Rites

### Rite of Meeting and Parting

Two Striders meeting on the road is a rare occurrence, but often a pleasant one. Even if one or both are traveling on missions of desperate importance or even certain doom, at least for a short time neither has to travel alone. Each traveler greets the other with a traditional salutation in his or her native tongue. If time permits, they share food and water, and exchange news of their travels. On parting, they exchange blessings in the Garou tongue; the most common is “Gaia soft beneath your feet, Luna’s light on your path.” Even in emergencies, two Striders who recognize each other will howl out as much of the greeting and farewell as they can as they pass each other at a full sprint.

This rite is not usually performed on arrival at a caern, but Silent Strider caerns often have their own rituals to welcome travelers.

## Camp Rites

### Seekers

#### **Ritual of Life (Mystic)**

Level Five

The Seekers have rediscovered one of the greatest secrets of ancient Egypt — the ritual that brings life back to the dead. Because of Sutekh’s curse on the tribe, a Seeker wishing to bring one of his tribemates back from the dead must act quickly (the rite must begin before the body cools, as a guideline), before the spirit is irretrievably lost. This ritual has not yet been performed on a Garou from another tribe since its rediscovery, but Seekers theorize that any complete body will do. This ritual is not without cost to its dead subject: Nothing that has died may dwell in the land of the living. The re-vivified werewolf must enter the Umbra (or the Dark Umbra), never to return to the physical world. Eventually, the Garou will disconnect and become a spirit-like creature. The Seekers argue amongst themselves about the ritual’s possible effects on normal humans, and even on vampires, but for now they are proceeding with further research, and extreme caution.

System: In a lengthy ritual abundant with Egyptian symbology and ceremonial tools, the ritemaster and his assistants repair, clean the body inside and out and embalm it. The player rolls Intelligence + Rituals against a difficulty of 10 for Silent Striders (reflecting the hurry with which the ritual must be performed), or 8 for Garou; other beings may be harder or easier to call back from the dead. Success indicates that the spirit returns to the body, and that the revived Garou must immediately step sideways into the Umbra. If the revived Garou enters the physical world again, he immediately loses three health levels per turn until he returns to the Umbra or dies; this damage is aggravated. Failure indicates either a mistake by the ritemaster, or that the spirit simply refuses to return. The results of a botch are left entirely to the Storyteller, who should feel free wreak all kinds of havoc on those who mess with the powers of life and death.

### Eaters of the Dead

#### **Rite of Dormant Wisdom (Mystic)**

Level Four

This rite is forbidden. Its very existence is denied outside the tribe, for the Silent Striders believe that the other Garou would turn on all of them if it were discovered that even one camp among them practice this ritual. In truth, most Striders do not know that it exists, or believe that it is only a myth. The Rite of Dormant Wisdom is only taught to trusted and experienced members of the Eaters of the Dead camp.

The ritemaster and his fellow cultists use the Rite of Dormant Wisdom to gain the secrets and memories of the dead by ritually devouring the dead person’s brain. The ritual will function properly so long as the brain is intact, regardless of the length of time since the subject’s death. Each participant is likely to get a different kind of memory from the subject – for instance, one might get the subject’s memories of love, another his memories of voices and sound, and a third the subject’s darkest secrets. The Storyteller can vary this thematically based on the participants and the nature of the rite’s subject

The Wyrm has its tentacles all over this rite; cannibalism of any sort is expressly forbidden by the Litany. Each use of the ritual brings the character a step closer to the service of Foebok, Urge Wyrm of Fear.

System: All those participating in the ritual must roll Intelligence + Occult (difficulty 9). Those who succeed gain some small portion of the dead one’s memories and secret knowledge. A participant who gets just one success will get the most recent memories of the deceased, while one who gets five successes will learn the broad range of the subject’s life, including many of his most treasured secrets.

No participant can gain game abilities (Knowledges, Disciplines, Gifts, Rites, etc) directly from the use of this ritual, but at the Storyteller’s discretion the rite can be used to justify the expenditure of experience points on game abilities that the rite’s subject knew.

As described elsewhere, the Wyrm’s touch is on this rite. By default, any Garou who takes part in the Rite of Dormant Wisdom a number of times greater than the Garou’s permanent Gnosis trait will become a slave of Foebok. However, Storytellers are encouraged to change this mechanic to make the Garou’s safety zone less predictable and stimulate roleplay among the troupe.

This ritual will work on the corpses of supernatural creatures (such as Garou and immortals) if the participants expend a permanent point of Gnosis. It will also work on vampires, already corpses, if the vampire is unconscious and immobilized. Using this rite on a vampire destroys it. More than five successes are needed to absorb the full life experience of a creature that has lived longer than two centuries.