Post by Annabelle Devonshire on May 22, 2020 0:17:44 GMT -5
Frequently Asked Questions
How can Kindred detect werewolves? And how can the Garou detect vampires?
Many wise vampires use Auspex 2 (Aura Perception) to detect supernatural beings. The auras of werewolves are often noticeably bright, vibrant and frantic. The few Kindred in existence who know enough about Lupines often wonder if this could be attributed to the combination of Rage and Gnosis in werewolves.
Malkavians and others with the Discipline of Dementation could use the Level-Three power of Eyes of Chaos to discern a Lupine’s nature.
Any vampire with a Humanity rating lower than 7 is considered a creature of the Wyrm from a Garou standpoint and is affected as such by the appropriate Gifts (eg: Sense Wyrm). A vampire on most modern Paths of Enlightenment is automatically considered Wyrm-tainted, regardless of his Path score. The Path of the Feral Heart is the only exception to this, and it is treated as Humanity for purposes of Wyrm-taint detection.
Sense The Unnatural detects vampires and ghouls as smelling of old blood, of fear, of rotten flesh, of fresh meat or of whatever else the player finds appropriate. Interpreting the information properly is a matter of roleplaying.
What happens when a vampire feeds off Garou blood?
The Rage of a werewolf permeates her entire being... including her blood. A vampire who feeds from a werewolf may find himself on the verge of frenzy until the potent vitae is purged from his system. Every point of Lupine blood in a vampire's blood pools increases his difficulty to resist frenzy.
However, werewolves provide much more sustenance than do mortals - an uninjured werewolf has the equivalent of 25 blood points in its system. Lupines are much hardier than mortals, too: A werewolf's life is in no danger from blood loss until it is completely drained, at which point it falls and will die within ten minutes if not aided. A werewolf regains one blood point per hour (which becomes important, say, if one is kept chained in a vampire's haven as a supply of sustenance). Werewolf blood's very potency makes it psychologically addictive, which should be roleplayed.
It is rumoured that Lupine blood can provided benefits similar to the effects of Celerity or Potence. In truth - and no Kindred know this - the additional benefit is a factor of the werewolf's Pure Breed Background. On the turn after the vampire spends one or more blood points that came from a werewolf with a Pure Breed rating, he gains extra actions and/or additional automatic successes on all Strength rolls, as per the following chart:
Pure Breed: 1
Effect: 1 additional action
Pure Breed: 2
Effect: 1 additional action and 1 automatic success on all Strength rolls
Pure Breed: 3
Effect: 2 additional action and 1 automatic success on all Strength rolls
Pure Breed: 4
Effect: 2 additional action and 2 automatic success on all Strength rolls
Pure Breed: 5
Effect: 3 additional action and 3 automatic success on all Strength rolls
The effects are not cumulative (although they do add to existing Celerity or Potence benefits), and only the highest Pure Breed rating applies. For example, if Jesse, in one turn, spends two blood points from an werewolf with Pure Breed 2 and one blood point from a werewolf with Pure Breed 3, he will gain 2 additional full actions and 1 automatic success on all Strength rolls made during the next turn only.
If you are running a crossover chronicle and the coterie's pure-breed Lupine becomes a reservoir of steroid blood for the group's Kindred, you're doing it wrong. Consider your own reaction if a vampire asked to "borrow" a few litres of blood.
Can Kindred use vitae or certain Disciplines to heal a Lupine? And are there any Gifts or Rites that the Garou can use to heal or benefit vampires?
If they can stomach swallowing vitae (and few Garou, if any, can) Kindred can give gifts of blood to them in order to heal their wounds. Or, alternatively, a Salubri or a vampire with knowledge of the rare Discipline of Obeah could use it to heal a werewolf.
All Gifts that deal with healing (e.g. Mother's Touch) are intended to work on living beings. They have no effect on a vampire - in the unlikely event that a shapeshifter is somehow persuaded to use them on an injured Leech. Gifts that mend inanimate objects don't heal vampires either - the spirits won't allow that loophole.
Can Kindred learn Gifts? Or can Garou learn Disciplines?
Vampires, by their nature of being undead, can never learn Gifts. The only way a werewolf could learn Disciplines is through being made into a ghoul or an Abomination (see below), neither of which are even remotely common.
Can Kindred ghoul or Embrace Garou?
Eternal enemies though vampires and werewolves may be, occasionally some foolish Leech tries to make a pet of a Garou, usually by means of the Embrace. Because almost all werewolves are violently allergic to vitae, they are accordingly hard to ghoul. By the grace of Gaia, they are just as difficult to Embrace: Most werewolves die upon the attempt. Sadly, the Embrace works in a few rare, rare instances — and the miserable results are the rightly named Abominations.
Vampiric werewolves are literally things that should not be. Shapeshifters are the purest form of primal life on the face of the planet — vampirism is living death. The Embrace disconnects Garou from the world's soul, their very reason for existing. As a result, the leading cause of Final Death among the dozen or so Abominations that exist at any given time is suicide. An Embraced Garou has lost far, far more than the average once-mortal childe.
Abominations are created in mostly the same manner as all vampires, save that even the most depraved Black Spiral Dancer isn't inclined to sacrifice willingly his higher spiritual being for the power of the grave. Virtually all Abominations were taken prisoner as living beings, then Embraced to enslave them to sires.
Gaia grants Her favored children one final chance to escape the living death. A Garou can make a Gnosis roll, difficulty 6, to die quietly. If the roll succeeds, he dies without pain and his spirit travels to its destined place. If the roll fails, he dies in torturous agony, but his spirit is free. If the roll botches, the Garou becomes an Abomination and cannot hope ever to see his Tribal Homeland. No Discipline, Gift, magick or any other sort of power short of direct intervention by a Celestine can affect this roll, save one — the werewolf can spend a Willpower point to gain an automatic success as usual (and is almost certain to do so).
A newly Embraced Abomination takes on the clan of his sire, learns three dots of clan Disciplines and gains the clan weakness as does any other neonate. He may spend Blood Points to increase his attributes or heal himself like any other vampire.
The advantages of the Embrace end there. Becoming an Abomination results in the immediate loss of two permanent points of Glory, three permanent Honor and three permanent Wisdom. The Embrace usually causes even mighty Garou elders to fall at least two places in rank; indeed, a newly-turned Abomination can even fall below Rank One. Unless the werewolf was previously a Black Spiral Dancer, he cannot gain Renown or rise in rank again. Only the depraved Dancers acknowledge their undead relatives, and even then the Dancer gains only one-quarter of the standard Renown awards for her deeds. Abominations also cannot spend experience to raise their Gnosis Trait. Upon death, the Garou's connection with the spiritual whole of Gaia is irreparably severed. This loss means that Abominations cannot regenerate their wounds as do Garou; Abominations may heal themselves only by spending Blood Points.
This severing from the wellspring of life also has severe repercussions on the Abomination's relationship with the spirit world. Although Abominations retain knowledge of the Gifts and rites they possessed before their Embrace, they cannot make any rites other than Wyrm-rites work; only the most corrupt spirits ever answer a call made by a dead thing. Abominations also cannot learn new Gifts from any spirits other than Banes, and these spirits are spiteful, devious teachers. At the time of the Embrace (or, more precisely, of death), any dedicated items or attuned fetishes lose their connection to the once-Garou. Gaian spirits, even those bound in fetishes, chafe at the presence of the undead. To attune himself to a Gaian fetish after the Embrace, the Abomination may still roll Gnosis as usual — but at difficulty 10, and a botch results in the Abomination losing a permanent Gnosis point.
Abominations may not spend Blood Points for any purpose in the same turn that they spend Gnosis, make Gnosis rolls, spend Rage or make Rage rolls. Rage, Gnosis and the Blood all interfere with one another's use, and an undead Garou can draw on only one of the three at any given time. Abominations have Blood Pools according to their Generation, as usual — their doubly potent Garou blood was drained during the Embrace, and they must make do with normal vitae.
Abominations exist in a state of perpetual Harano. They cannot escape this state with Willpower rolls, however, and cannot lift the curse while they "live." In effect, an Abomination must spend a Willpower point to spend a scene with his Dice Pool at full.
What's more, the spiritless Abominations may not spend Willpower points to gain automatic successes on any dice rolls.
Having been something other than human, Abominations don't use Humanity as a system of morality. They have a far greater stake at risk — their Gnosis. It is the only thing keeping them from acting on the vile impulses that grow within them after undeath: not natural urges, but seeds planted by the Wyrm during their Embrace. An Abomination's Gnosis Trait determines how soundly he sleeps during the day and in most cases acts as Humanity would. (Of course, the Abomination still checks for frenzy by rolling Rage.)
Whenever an Abomination transgresses against the ways of the Gaian Garou, whether deliberately or unconsciously (such as in a frenzy), he risks degeneration. The higher the Abomination's Gnosis, the more likely that even a minor transgression can tear more of his spirit from him.
The chart below is a rough guide for what actions force an Abomination to check for Gnosis loss.
Hierarchy of Wyrm Taint
Gnosis: 10
Minimum Wrongdoing for Gnosis Check:
Accidentally breaking a Litany law
Gnosis: 9
Minimum Wrongdoing for Gnosis Check:
Purposefully breaking a Litany law; refusing a rightful challenge; cannibalism (drinking the blood of humans or wolves)
Gnosis: 8
Minimum Wrongdoing for Gnosis Check:
Refusing to acknowledge loss of a challenge (lack of instinct); teaching Garou lore to Wyrm minions (including vampires)
Gnosis: 7
Minimum Wrongdoing for Gnosis Check:
Unjustly killing a Garou; using vampiric mind control powers (Dominate, Presence) against a Garou; betraying a Garou to Wyrm minions
Gnosis: 6
Minimum Wrongdoing for Gnosis Check:
Trafficking with or binding spirits to evil purposes
Gnosis: 5
Minimum Wrongdoing for Gnosis Check:
Destroying a natural place (harming Gaia); causing a Blight to grow or fester
Gnosis: 4
Minimum Wrongdoing for Gnosis Check:
Allying with Wyrm minions (including vampires)
Gnosis: 3
Minimum Wrongdoing for Gnosis Check:
Cannibalism (drinking Garou blood); sadism and perversion (Black Spiral virtues)
Gnosis: 2
Minimum Wrongdoing for Gnosis Check:
Warring against any of the tribes
Gnosis: 1
Minimum Wrongdoing for Gnosis Check:
Destroying or helping destroy a caern
If the vampiric Garou takes an action that requires a check, he rolls his Gnosis. Failure means that he loses a point of Gnosis irrevocably. A botch grants the hapless creature a Derangement. When all the Abomination's Gnosis is gone, he can no longer step sideways nor use any Gifts or fetishes.
There is only one way to prevent this degeneration — the Abomination can fully offer what's left of his soul to the Wyrm. After making this black pact, his Gnosis is no longer at risk; the Wyrm sees to fueling his spiritual energy. However, the Abomination no longer has any free will whatsoever and cannot so much as tie his shoe of his own accord.
Other Changing Breeds are, if anything, even less suited to vampiric life.
A Bastet, for example, begins losing permanent Gnosis upon the Embrace and can never recover her loss. Eventually, the undead cat is cut off from the spirit world entirely, unable to do so much as activate Gifts.
Nuwisha, by comparison, cannot undergo the Embrace — individuals who try to force vampirism on the coyotes find that the Nuwisha die quietly, one and all.
Mokole and Corax have it even worse, with their ties to the sun — both die the Final Death within one day of the Embrace, their loss of connection with Helios killing them irrevocably by the next sunset. Unfortunately for everyone around him (including the vampire parent), a Mokole Abomination spends the rest of his existence in a brutal, mindless frenzy, which almost always results in the would-be sire ending up as so much reddish goo spread across the ground.
Although it's hard to say exactly how the Embrace affects the other Changing Breeds (it's unlikely that a single vampire has even seen a Gurahl for the past 2,000 years), it's certain that undeath is just as debilitating to all other shapeshifters. Thankfully, all shapeshifters at least receive the standard Gnosis roll to avoid the Embrace and die quietly.
What about Kinfolk?
Kinfolk, being both human in body and soul, can be ghouled or Embraced just the same as any other normal human being. They gain no special benefits from this.</li>
Kindred Disciplines
Animalism
- No Animalism power that specifically affects only animals (e.g. Beckoning) will have any effect on a shapeshifter, even one of the Lupus breed.
- Garou do have Beasts (as expressed through their Rage Traits) and these can be manipulated with the appropriate Animalism powers.
The sole exception is communication - a vampire employing Feral Whispers, for example, could carry on a conversation with a Lupine through the language of wolves.</li>
Auspex
- Most Gifts that complicate detection can be seen through with sufficient Auspex. Scent of Running Water can be broken with Auspex if the vampire attempts to track the werewolf by scent.
- Kindred using Astral Projection can be “physically” affected by Garou who sidestep into the Penumbra whilst in their presence.</li>
Chimerstry
- Horrid Reality can create a semblance to silver; a werewolf “killed” with illusionary silver weapons from such a source fall unconscious until revived (whether through their Breed form’s natural healing, their supernatural regeneration, through Gifts or through other supernatural means).</li>
Daimoninon
- Conflagration inflicts aggravated damage.</li>
Dementation
- Voice of Madness can cause a werewolf to frenzy or fox frenzy.</li>
Dominate
- Kindred who succeed in using Possession on a werewolf cannot use the Garou’s Gifts, spend Rage or Gnosis, cause them to shapeshift or side-step into the Umbra. They can, however, make use of the advantages of their victim’s current form (eg: claws and fangs if in Glabro or Crinos, for example.)</li>
Obeah
- Mens Sana could be used to remove or mitigate Derangements imposed on Garou (the mental ailments suffered by the Silver Fang tribe or those suffered by some of the Metis Breed, for example).
- Unburdening the Bestial Soul theoretically could be use to help treat a Garou in the throes of Harano.</li>
Obfuscate
- All enhanced-senses Gifts can be used to pierce a Kindred's Obfuscate.</li>
Obtenebration
- Arms of the Abyss inflict aggravated damage.</li>
Protean
- Feral Claws cause aggravated damage.</li>
Garou Gifts/Rites
Homid
- Disquiet can be used to prevent a vampire from frenzying</li>
Ragabash
- Thieving Talons of the Magpie can be used to steal vampiric Disciplines, Thaumaturgy Path or other blood magic, and their Rituals.</li>
Galliard
- Call of the Wyrm can be used to attract vampires that classify as “of the Wyrm” according to the chart listed above</li>
Black Furies
- Due to their undead nature, Breath of the Wyld cannot be used on vampires.
- Kali‘s Tongue prevents vampires or ghouls from using blood points to heal damage for one turn per success.</li>
Bone Gnawers
- Resist Toxin does not keep a Garou from being ghouled. It does, however, give the werewolf additional potential to soak the effects of appropriate powers of Quietus, Thanatosis or other Disciplines that inflict damage through blood contact, disease or decay.
- Smell of Success can be used on vampires, but at an increased difficulty, due to their supernatural nature.
- Laugh of the Hyena can be used to resist Dominate.
- Trust Me does not work on vampires.</li>
Children of Gaia
- Calm can be used to cancel a vampire’s Frenzy.
- Dazzle can be used to bring a vampire out of Frenzy.
- Any vampire that comes within twenty feet of a werewolf using Halo of the Sun suffer aggravated damage as if they had been exposed to the light of the sun. Additionally, all the Garou‘s hand strikes inflict aggravated damage.
- Soothe the Savage Beast can be used to increase the difficulty of a vampire’s Frenzy.
- Vampires less than Humanity 7 or are on Paths of Enlightenment can be affected by Serpent-Driving.
- Vampires with less than Humanity 7 (or are on Paths of Enlightenment) feel intense dislike when affected by Trust of Gaia.</li>
Get of Fenris
- Halt the Coward’s Flight halves the amount of extra actions granted by Celerity (round off to the nearest whole number).
- Venom Blood causes the werewolf’s blood to inflict aggravated damage, even if it simply touches the vampire’s skin instead of being imbibed.
- Vampires and ghouls are affected by Safe Haven.
- Sense Guilt can be used on Kindred, but only if they feel guilt for their actions.</li>
Glass Walkers
- Electroshock inflicts aggravated damage.
- Image of the Saints works on vampires and ghouls.</li>
Red Talons
- Curse of Lycaon can’t be used on vampires, but it can be used on Ghouls.
- Mark of the Prey cannot be used on vampires or ghouls.
- Reap the Soul can be used on vampires or ghouls.</li>
Shadow Lords
- Aura of Confidence prevents attempts at using Aura Perception.
- Fatal Flaw can be used to give the Garou hints about the vampire’s typical banes (sunlight, fire, etc). 5+ successes are required to identify a Clan/Bloodline weaknesses.
- Direct The Storm can be used to re-direct a vampire’s Frenzy as the Garou pleases.
- Open Wounds causes a vampire to lose Blood Points as opposed to health.
- Purify Scent can be used to mask the werewolf‘s nature from vampiric Disciplines.
- Pure Identity can be used to mask the werewolf‘s race from vampiric Disciplines.
- Purity of Blood can be used to break the Blood Bond, on themselves or others. It can even be used on subjects affected by the Sabbat’s Vaulderie.</li>
Silent Striders
- Adaptation can be used to resist Quietus, Thanatosis or other Disciplines that inflict poison and disease.
- Dam the Heartflood renders vampires and ghouls unable to use blood points to fuel Disciplines, heal wounds, raise physical Attributes or anything else for one turn per success.</li>
Silver Fangs
- Mindblock protects the werewolf against Kindred using Disciplines to make direct mental attacks (eg: Dementation) or make attempts to control the Garou’s mind (eg: Dominate), as well as more insidious psychic assaults such as mind-reading (Auspex 4; Telepathy), mentally implanting illusions (Chimerstry 5; Horrid Reality) or possession (Dominate 5).
- Reason’s Grasp can be used to protect against attacks with Dementation.
- Burning Blade inflicts aggravated damage.</li>
Stargazers
- Resist Temptation can be used to resist Dominate and other supernatural means of coercion.
- Cunning Koan can be used to see through Obfuscate and Chimerstry.</li>
Uktena
- Sense Magic can detect all forms of Kindred blood magic, including Necromancy.</li>
Wendigo
- Balance of Woodworm can be used to decrease the difficulty to resist Frenzy, but only on Kindred who follow Humanity. Path followers receive no such benefit.</li>
Black Spiral Dancers
- Toxic Claws inflict aggravated damage.
- Wyrm Hide can soak aggravated damage.
- Burning Scars inflict aggravated damage.
- Vampires affected by Foaming Fury immediately frenzy.
- Balefire inflicts aggravated damage.
- Touch of the Eel inflicts aggravated damage.
- Blood Omen cannot be used on vampire corpses, but it can be used on ghoul corpses however.</li>
Rites
- The Rite of Cleansing when used on vampires inflicts agonising pain (most would describe it as if their blood was on fire), but does not remove their Wyrm taint (if they possess any) or remove the Curse of Caine.
When used on Ghouls it inflicts the same pain upon them, but with the benefit of rendering their blood inert and effectively “de-ghouling” them without subjecting them to the usual withdrawal symptoms. This Rite inflicts the same pain on Revenants and Dhampirs, but cannot be used to “de-ghoul” them.
The Rite of Cleansing can also be used to counter-act the effects of the Blood Bond.
- Vampires cannot benefit from the Rite of Talisman Dedication.
- No vampire can benefit from the Rite of the Totem. Not even Bane Totems.
- The Rite of Dormant Wisdom can be used on vampires, though doing so destroys the vampire once the ritual is complete.</li>
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