Black Fury Rites

# Rites of the Black Furies

Unlike Gifts, rites are always passed from one Garou to the next. Most of the rituals below are considered sacred (and secret) to the Black Furies; their natures are hidden from members of other tribes. Even those rituals that are not secret of the Black Furies will never knowingly be shown to a male of another tribe; a male of another tribe who reveals knowledge of such a rite to a Black Fury risks his own life.

## Rites of Accord

### Rite of Motherhood

Level One

This simple Rite marks a Fury’s shift from Maiden status to Mother status. As is noted elsewhere, the title “Maiden” is not strictly accurate; the spirits begin to treat a Fury as a Mother as soon as she becomes pregnant. In some septs, this spiritual change is sufficient, while in others it might take until the child is born, and in the most conservative septs a Fury is considered a Maiden until she gives birth to a child who lives for one lunar year. Regardless of when the sept declares the Fury to be a Mother, when the time is right, this ritual is performed.

Mother and child are separated, and the young mother is bound — this may be simply a symbolic binding, a rope lightly draped over her, or it may be shackles and chains. The mother breaks free of the bonds and comes to her child’s side while the Mothers and Crones of the sept watch; when she reaches her child again, the older women of the tribe welcome her.

System: There are no game mechanics to this rite, though the Fury may have to make a Strength or Willpower roll to escape from sufficiently strong bonds.

### Ritual of Acceptance

Level Two

Although a Garou can give up her tribal affiliation with the Rite of Renunciation, the Black Furies have their own ritual to welcome a female Garou from another tribe into their own. The prospective Black Fury must fast for 24 hours to purify her body; afterward, she enters a ritual circle while her tribemates-to-be quietly invoke Pegasus from outside the same circle.

System: The invocation takes a few hours (the Mistress of the Rite should roll Charisma + Occult with a target of the local Gauntlet; the invocation takes 5 hours, minus one for every success after the first, with a minimum of 1 hour). At the end of this period, an avatar of Pegasus arrives. The prospective Fury must prove her worth to the avatar. This may involve a test, at the Storyteller’s discretion, or it may simply involve a roll of Charisma + Etiquette (difficulty 7). A failure on this roll means that the Fury-to-be must complete a spirit quest to join the tribe; a botch means that she has somehow offended Pegasus and is not welcome to join.

Should the character succeed, however, she is welcomed into the Black Fury tribe, and will be treated as a child of Pegasus from that point forward.

### Soothe the Scars

Level Two

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. It is in the Furies’ nature to stop such a fate, and while it is their modus operandi to put a halt to such abuse (violently, if need be), Soothe the Scars is one of the Furies’ best tools for healing abuse once it has been stopped.

The rite itself 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. In the case of victims not acquainted with Gaian spirituality, prayers are offered to the “spirit of motherhood across the world,” though prayers to Gaia can be said in their place. Memories of abuse are coaxed from the victim, and each one is symbolically cast into a purifying fire. When the rite is over, the victim can begin the long road to real spiritual healing without risking a fall backward into a dangerous cycle of self-degradation. This rite has no game effect; the Storyteller should adjudicate its roleplaying effects.

### Fertility Rite

Level Three

Many Garou and human women lack the ability to give birth on their own; perhaps they were born with congenital reproductive difficulties, or have become infertile due to the influence of Wyrm-created technology or chemicals. In the case of Garou, battle scars and similar wounds often lead to infertility. This ritual invokes spirits of fertility, often avatars of Gaia in the Mother aspect, to return fertility to those without. This ritual also improves any ordinarily fertile subject’s chance of conceiving. The Fertility Rite does work on males, but it’s almost never performed on them. It also works on wolves, and is occasionally used in secret by those Garou who have access to zoos and their wolf populations. The rite does not work on metis, not that Furies would be so arrogant as to try such a thing.

The subject of the ritual removes all clothing save possibly a homespun robe, and sits or lays in an obviously growing area: in the midst of a healthy forest, or in tall grass. The Mistress of the Rite traces a circle around the subject, using the menstrual blood of a fertile woman. The Mistress of the Rite then invokes the spirits of Gaia for their aid in restoring the woman’s birthright to her. In the case of battle scarring or injury, Gifts such as Mother’s Touch may be brought to bear during the Rite, but those Gifts alone will not heal the woman’s injury.

System: At the heart of the ritual, the Mistress of the Rite should roll Charisma + Medicine (difficulty of the local Gauntlet) to heal the subject. Failure or botching has no further adverse affect on the target; otherwise, the woman’s womb will be restored to health in (6 minus successes) weeks. If, rather than healing infertility, the Mistress of the Rite intends to improve an otherwise fertile woman’s chances of conceiving, the number of successes should simply serve as a rough indicator to the Storyteller how much more likely it is that the character conceives. The ritual works similarly for men; simply change references above from “conception” to “impregnation” and the general rules apply.

## Caern Rites

### Meandering Path

Level Three

The Freebooters represent one of the premiere groups of Garou when it comes to finding new places to open caerns. Such locations have become extremely rare in these End Times, but every few years another pack of Freebooters will call nearby Garou to open a brand-new caern. The Meandering Path rite is the primary tool in finding such prospective sites. Its use is not easy, or rapid, but over a long period of time it helps Freebooters settle on a worthwhile location for a new caern.

Finding an appropriate location for a new caern has always been difficult and time-consuming; in these days, with a high Gauntlet and the Wyrm and Weaver crowding Gaia in at all times, it’s even harder.

In the last few years, the Order of Our Merciful Mother camp of Black Furies has begun to develop a rite similar to this one, which works in appropriately spiritual parts of cities. The Order has approached some Freebooter Theurges for aid with the rite, and that cooperation seems to be leading down a fruitful path.

System: First, find an appropriately pristine patch of wilderness by rolling Perception + Survival, difficulty 9 after a week’s worth of investigation. Success on this roll will indicate a broad swath (perhaps a square mile, or even more) with high enough traces of the Wyld that the characters might find a suitable home for a caern within. This roll will automatically fail if the wilderness the character investigates is unsuitable for a caern; if this is the case, success on the Perception + Survival roll will correctly indicate that the entire area is unsuitable. A botch on the Perception + Survival roll may, at the Storyteller’s discretion, suggest a particularly inappropriate location (one with a history of Wyrm or Weaver activity) for a prospective caern.

Then, spend a point of Gnosis and roll Perception + Enigmas (difficulty 9) to carefully explore this swath of land for a low enough Gauntlet and the favor of the spirits. The Garou must collect ten successes on this extended roll; each roll and Gnosis expenditure represents three days of communing with the spirits and cautiously investigating the terrain. Note that if multiple Freebooters in the same pack have this Gift, they can pool successes, but the investigation still takes a minimum of three days to complete.

Once a sufficient number of successes have been gained, the Furies still must use the Rite of Caern Building (or Bearing the Caern, below) to actually create the Caern. This Gift simply points out the best location for such a thing to be done.

### Bearing the Caern

Level Five

While Black Furies may use the Rite of Caern Building, many traditionally prefer this ritual, which ties the opening of a spiritual site in with one of Gaia’s other most sacred mysteries. After the Furies discover, cleanse, and purify an appropriate area, they simply wait until an appropriate focus for the ritual is ready.

The focus, called Maia during the rite, is a pregnant female who is near to term. She can be human, Garou, or wolf — though a Garou who is heavy with a metis child is an especially inauspicious choice. The woman need not be Kinfolk, but if she is not, she may well suffer the effects of the Delirium if any of the Furies in the rite enter a war-form. In the event that the involved Garou feel that they cannot wait for one of their own (or one of their Kin) to reach term, they may kidnap a likely-seeming human or wolf female to act as Maia. In the End Times, this practice is becoming distressingly common.

When Maia is near labor, she is brought to the center of the caern-to-be; female Garou surround her, singing hymns to Gaia. Non-Furies may be present, but they must be female; male metis of other tribes are forbidden, though Fury male metis are allowed. A single Crone may aid the mother during labor, but no other assistance can be given: the Furies present must instead fill their hearts with love for Gaia, beseeching her to take Maia as an inspiration, and create a caern here with the child’s birth.

Should the rite succeed (see below) it is said that fates of the newborn child and caern are tied for the remainder of the child’s life. The newborn is forever after immune to the Delirium, even if she is neither Garou nor Kinfolk. Different septs will treat Maia and the newborn caernchild differently, particularly if the pair is not Kinfolk. Some septs take the child from its mother to raise it in its new “soul-home,” while others adopt both mother and child as honorary Kinfolk. At least one sept has let mother and child return to their ordinary lives, believing that if the child’s fate is tied to the caern’s, it is best for the child to live out its true destiny. Even such liberal septs, however, generally set a minor spirit or low-ranked Ragabash to keep an occasional eye on the child and check after his well-being.

If Maia dies in giving birth, many Theurges believe that the caern and its Garou will play an important role (for good or ill) in the coming Apocalypse. If the child is stillborn, the rite fails; the death of both Maia and child during the ritual is considered to be a profoundly bad omen for Garou participants.

System: As with the Rite of Caern Building, the Mistress of the Rite must make a series of successful Gnosis rolls against a difficulty of 8, and she must achieve a total of 40 successes. She can make this roll twice per hour during Maia’s labor, and must succeed before the child is born. For this ritual to succeed, at least ten Garou (one for each moon of pregnancy) must participate, in addition to the Mistress of the Rite, Maia, and the Crone who attends her. A botch here deals seven health levels of damage to all involved in the Rite, including Maia. However, the Crone attending Maia may roll her Gnosis (difficulty 8) to absorb Maia’s damage; she can take one wound level onto herself for every success rolled. Unlike the Rite of Caern Building, the Garou present do not have to sacrifice their Gnosis to fuel the new caern; the creation of new life suffices as this spark.

If all goes well with Maia, child, and ritual, the new caern has a base Level of 1, with a Gauntlet of 4. Additional successes improve the caern just as with the Rite of Caern Building. Those Garou participating in Bearing the Caern receive Renown as those participating in the Rite of Caern Building; additionally, Maia, if a Garou, receives an additional point of each type of Renown (giving her one Wisdom, six Glory, and four Honor Renown).

## Mystic Rites

### Birth the Fire Warrior

Level Three

In ancient days, legend holds that the goddess Coatlicue faced an angry horde of her own children, who charged her with betraying their father, Mixcoatl, by the hand of a sky-spirit. When all seemed lost, Coatlicue crouched and gave birth to the child of her union with the sky-spirit, the god of fire and war Huitzilopochtli. Huitzilopochtli emerged from the womb full-grown and fully armed; he drove off or slaughtered the mass of his half-siblings in his mother’s defense.

mother’s defense. With Birth the Fire Warrior, a Mother can mimic Coatlicue’s desperate act of incarnation, and give birth to a warrior child spirit to fight on her behalf in times of peril. She must ingest a foul mixture of herbs, hot spices, and spring water, and then calmly and quietly invoke Gaia. The warrior emerges from the Mother’s womb as bloodily and messily as one might imagine such a thing — however, the spirit “labor” takes place far faster than would otherwise be the case. The warrior emerges from the Mother’s loins in a plume of fire, sword in hand, and proceeds to attack her enemies until it is destroyed or there are no enemies remaining. Birth the Fire Warrior can be used whether the Mother is pregnant with a real child or not, and its emergence generally does not affect a child in the womb.

System: Roll Stamina + Primal-Urge (difficulty 8). Success on this roll indicates that the character will be able to birth the Fire Warrior. This spirit takes ten minutes to emerge from the Fury’s womb; successes beyond the first decrease this time by 1 minute each or can be used to improve the Fire Warrior’s physical traits at the rate of one attribute point per success. The Fire Warrior will fight unceasingly for the Fury until it is destroyed, there are no enemies remaining, or the scene ends.

The Fire Warrior has the following base game traits: Strength 4, Dexterity 4, Stamina 4, Perception 1, Wits 3. It has Melee 4 and Dodge 3, and an effective Gnosis of 4 and Willpower 10. Its fiery armor gives 3 additional soak dice against all attacks, and does 5 dice of fire damage against any foe that tries to grapple it. Its fiery sword does 8 dice of damage on a successful hit; this damage is considered aggravated against Wyrm creatures and those vulnerable to fire.

### Python’s Trail

Level Four

In the ancient days of Greece, any human who wished to consult the Oracle at Delphi was obliged to pay a tax, the “telono,” which gave him the right to approach the great altar of Apollo to offer sacrifices (boars, goats or bulls). Having purified herself in the water of the Kastalian Fountain, Pythia bent over the Navel of the Earth (a cave opening), ate a laurel leaf and, inhaling the vapors emitted from the chasm, entered a state of ecstasy, uttering incoherent words. These were then composed into verses by the Priest, while the interpreter endeavored to render some meaning out of the prophecy.

The Greeks say that Python, a great snake-spirit and Gaia’s son, defended the rent in the earth from which oracles could receive visions of the future; they tell of Apollo’s great victory against Python and his prophetic works of later days.

Python wasn’t truly destroyed, of course; he and his servants walk the tunnels through Gaia’s bowels that lead back and forward in history. Loyal and wise Garou can use Python’s Trail to walk those same metaphorical tunnels and gain glimpses of the future. Black Furies who use this Rite take on a distant demeanor, and their prophetic utterances obey only dream-logic, not Weaverthink. A second Fury must stand by the Mistress of the Rite while she performs the Rite of Python’s Trail, to interpret the nearly mad utterances of her sister.

System: After an hour of trance, roll Perception + Enigmas (target 8). Gaia’s dream-tunnels travel throughout history, through a given character’s personal past and future as well as all the ages of Gaia. The Mistress of the Rite might well become overwhelmed by the visions before her: she needs three successes to convey anything sensible from the signs she sees — less than three and the character notices only sensations like pain and joy, color, and extremes of sound. Three successes yield poetic or metaphorical visions of important parts of the character’s past or future. Four successes let the Garou explore the timeline of a packmate or loved one; five let her look at the past and future on a larger scale (for her entire pack or tribe, or she may just stare forward to the fires of the Apocalypse). To portray the prophecy correctly, the Priestess must roll Intelligence + Expression, difficulty 8; more successes indicate that more of the Mistress of the Rite’s vision is passed on to the pack or sept.

The Storyteller is encouraged to use dream-logic or nightmare-logic to fabricate the character’s voyages through the past and future as a result of this Gift. It is intended to allow the Storyteller to grant glimpses and hints of things to come without forcing him to caper his storylines around madly to fit an overly literal interpretation of a character’s vision.

## Punishment Rites

### Avenge the Innocent

Level Four

This is one of the few Garou punishment rites that are generally applied to humans, rather than other Garou. It happens, on occasion, that a human — not always a male, despite what some Furies would prefer to believe — commits a serious crime against Gaia and cannot be easily slain. In other cases, the Furies would prefer not to give a violator the honor of a warrior’s swift death. To these criminals, the Black Furies assign curses like Avenge the Innocent.

Avenge the Innocent works simply: once the Furies have some core element of the crime that a violator has committed — a bloodied sheet from a violent crime, an accountant’s ledger from a con artist’s defrauding a community, or a judge’s gavel from a painfully biased divorce settlement — they take it as close as they can to the place of the crime. With these two elements in place, they do not need the criminal to be present to pass judgment on him.

System: After a suitably bloody and fiery destruction of the weapon, roll Manipulation + Intimidation (difficulty 7). If they succeed, the Furies invoke the spirit of Hippogriff to rend the criminal’s youth away. The subject ages one year per day until his death or until the Furies who cast the curse agree to withdraw it — which most will not do for crimes for which restitution cannot be equitably made.

### Curse on the Household

Level Five

Curse on the Household is a longer-lasting, more serious curse than Avenge the Innocent. As the name implies, the Mistress of the Rite creates a long-lasting curse that cascades down through generations of the criminal’s family. This curse is largely left in the hands of the Mistress of the Rite, though there are some restrictions on it (see below). It does not have a set effect. However, for a ritual of this power, it is important that the subject of the rite be physically present for its casting; no doubt he will have to be bound, since no sane person would knowingly allow himself to be cursed in such a fashion. This rite is reserved for the most heinous of criminals against the laws of Gaia: the rapist, the mass-murderer, the incestuous parent, the cannibal.

The Mistress of the Rite chooses four things about the curse: how the curse will pass down the family line, when it takes effect on a particular child, its exact effect, and how the curse may be alleviated: it may pass from parent to all children, and so on down the line; or it may only “infect” the eldest child, or only males (or only females). It usually does not take effect right from birth; it may wait until puberty, or until marriage, or some other simple condition may bring it about. Accordingly, the curse doesn’t generally kill its targets outright — if it 78 Black Furies did, there would be no future generations to torment. Instead, it makes their lives unpleasant, perhaps eventually unbearable. This could be almost anything: mild schizophrenia; regular bad luck; a plague of ghosts or malevolent minor spirits; inability to hold a regular job; a serious skin condition or non-life-threatening chronic medical condition; or many other things

System: The Fury who performs this ritual must assign a condition to allow its breaking. She cannot break the curse on her own, under any circumstances. She must inform the cursed what the condition is, even if he cannot possibly satisfy it. The condition is often implausible on its surface: “Your infant child’s sixth daughter must marry a Catholic priest.” The condition cannot be impossible, however. Knowledge of the condition does not have to be passed down from parent to child; if the information is lost, the family will be cursed forever.

To perform this rite, the subject must be present; the Mistress of the Rite rolls Intelligence + Expression, difficulty 8. She must achieve 3 successes on this roll; additional successes have no other effect. The Fury’s player must write down the precise effects of the rite before the roll takes place; if it fails (that is, achieves 2 or fewer successes), the subject of the curse is free to leave the Fury’s presence and that particular curse cannot be used on him in the future. If the roll botches, the Fury who performs the rite has the curse afflicted upon her and her descendants, and the subject of the curse is forever immune to cursing rituals performed by this Fury.

## Seasonal Rites

### Autumn: Rejuvenate the Soil

Level One

In the earliest days of agriculture, and even before the advent of agriculture, when humans hunted for meat and gathered fruits and vegetables as they could, they were fully aware that spending too long in one place would leach the life from the soil. When tending to herds of mortals still mattered to the Black Furies, they taught their charges the ways of the Earth Mother; Rejuvenate the Soil is one of those secrets.

The planter takes a pound of seeds from the choicest crop produced or gathered this year, and burns that mass in a bronze bowl while murmuring prayers to Gaia in her guise as Demeter. She must insure that no ashes or cinders leave the fire, lest the ritual lose its efficacy. When the fire is complete, the Fury mixes in a few drops of her own blood. Using a labrys, the Fury next carves a glyph of fertility — at least three feet across, and preferably larger — into the soil at the center of the area to be affected. She then smears or pours the blood-ash mixture into the glyph. An area radiating out from the glyph will regain some of its bounty over the winter.

System: The player should roll Stamina + Survival, difficulty 6 (unless the area is a former blight, in which case it must be ritually cleansed and even then the difficulty is 7 the first year). Every success yields an acre of improved cropland for the next year.

## Age Role Rites

The following rites can only be used by Garou in the appropriate age roles: Maiden Rites can only be used before the gestation of the Fury’s first child — even if, technically, she is no longer a maiden. Mother Rites can be used from the birth of the first child until the Fury can no longer bear children (due to menopause or injury); Crone Rites can only be used after that point.

### Maiden Rites

#### **Rite of Pure Breeding**

Level Two

The mysteries of breeding and reproduction can never be wholly eliminated. Gaia gives members of many species tools to discern good mates, and to attract them: cues from symmetry and obvious health to more subtle things, like pheromones, give animals an idea of which mate would be the best for them. In the dying days before the Apocalypse, however, the Black Furies use magic to help them discern the best possible mates; after all, time is short, and wasting time breeding with a male whose bloodline is weak is no longer acceptable. Through the Rite of Pure Breeding, a Black Fury can determine if a particular mate will help her produce Garou or strong-blooded Kinfolk children.

To test a male, the Fury must acquire something meaningful to him, or part of his body (no, not a finger, unless she’s of the Amazons of Diana and he’s really patient — hair or fingernail clippings do just fine). The ritual requires a droplet of the Fury’s blood, smeared on the stolen thing. She then breaks it (or cuts it, if too small to easily break) over a white sheet and views the pattern created by the bloodstains. Symmetrical or circular patterns mean that the male would be a good mate and more likely to produce Garou children. Wilder, angular patterns suggest a worse match.

System: Adjudication of this rite is best done at the Storyteller’s whim, but if the player insists on mechanics, Perception + Occult can be rolled, with a difficulty of 8 to properly interpret the omens.

### Mother Rites

#### **Free the Wayward Child**

Level One

This rite, a simple one, frees a male Garou child of a Black Fury from any spiritual ties to Pegasus and the Black Furies. It is a quick, emotional rite; the mother traces the Black Fury glyph on her son’s forehead in tears, and then blows on the boy’s forehead until the glyph dries up. This rite’s popularity is relatively new as such things go; in the ancient days, a male child was often simply left out to die of exposure.

System: There are no game mechanics involved with this rite; it simply acknowledges that the child is unmarked by any Fury blood and free to become a full member of whatever tribe will adopt him.

### Crone Rites

#### **Curse of the Crone**

Level Two

Curse of the Crone is reserved for philanderers; rapists deserve vengeance, not the mockery and numbness this rite creates. This rite renders a male target infertile and impotent, physically causing his member to shrivel into near-uselessness.

System: The rite requires something distinctly male about the target — this can be nearly anything from a dirty undershirt to a drop of his semen. This physical element is torn and scattered, while the Crone quietly murmurs an incantation to Gaia. Roll Charisma + Primal-Urge against a target of 6; every success indicates a week of duration for Curse of the Crone’s effects. The Crone can undo her own curse with the snap of a twig and a magic word — if she so chooses.

#### **Find the Scythe**

Level Three

Crones are traditionally associated with learning and teaching, and also with the end of life. These two aspects both feed Find the Scythe, which allows a Crone to determine the means by which a given Garou will meet her end. This ritual does not work on humans. Find the Scythe can be performed on a willing or unwilling subject, but the subject must be present for the ritual to work properly.

System: The Crone must inspect the Garou from all angles; to accomplish this, she walks clockwise around the stationary subject while looking across her right shoulder at him. When this is complete, she inspects the top of his head, and the lines on the bottom of his feet. After half an hour of meditation on all that she has seen roll Perception + Enigmas (difficulty 9 if the subject is a Maiden by Fury standards — regardless of her tribe — or 8 if she is a Mother, or 7 if a Crone). If successful, the Crone will be able to describe the manner of death that will befall this Garou. A failure results in a vision that is incorrect in one important detail (the character’s killer uses a gun, not a klaive, for instance); a botch indicates a vision that is wildly inaccurate, preferably a vision that will unnerve the subject as much as possible.

The Storyteller is free to describe this vision in whatever means he sees fit, and the Fury is equally free to pass the vision off in her own manner. The vision is occasionally metaphorical, though it is often quite literal. However, it is generally somewhat impressionistic; for instance, it might be obvious that a black-furred werewolf will rip the character’s heart out, but that werewolf’s identity will be unclear.

Find the Scythe is a dangerous rite, because it seems to ferret out the absolute truth of a future event. No amount of wheeling and dealing with the spirit world will alter the death shown through Find the Scythe. This may cause Storytellers some headaches, and they are encouraged to think quickly on their feet to cope with the results of Find the Scythe. Remember, Storytellers, vagueness can be a virtue.