Red Talon Tribe Rites

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The Red Talons use rites just as much as other tribes do. Their interpretations of rites just tend to be somewhat simpler. Two Red Talons will rarely perform the same ritual exactly the same way - such strict attention to detail and focus on keeping things consistent smacks too much of human behavior to them.

Tribe Rites

Level 2 Rite of Defiance Rite of Feeding the Land Warding the Lingering Human

Level 3 Rite of Prophecy Rite of the Winter Pack

Level 4 Rite of False Justice Rite of the Human Mind

Level 5 Rite of Gaia's Rebirth

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Level Two

Rite of Defiance Caern

Source: WW3857 - Red Talons Revised p. 73

Description: This rite, a rite that the Talons don't mind teaching to other tribes, is commonly performed by a Red Talon Galliard when a sept suffers a setback. The sept gathers at the caern's heart and the Galliard begins the rite by recounting the sept's recent defeats. The Talons believe in facing their difficulties realistically, and it is considered proper to allow the ritemaster to finish before the next phase of the rite begins.

When the ritemaster finishes his howl, the other Garou begin their own cries. The Talons howl of hope and of possibility, beginning with whichever of them has the most hope to offer. As the howls continue, others join in, until eventually the entire sept stands together, howling their defiance to the sky, their spirits rekindled.

System: The player rolls Charisma + Rituals (diff 7); her character finishes her song of woe. If successful, the other Talons take up the howl, and all Garou present regain one point of temporary Willpower. If the roll is a botch, no one feels hopeful enough to begin the rite, and everyone present loses a point of Willpower (the ritemaster loses a point of temporary Wisdom).

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Rite of Feeding the Land Mystic

Source: WW3857 - Red Talons Revised p. 73

Description: The rite is the province of the Dying Cubs camp. It allows the Garou to use the pain of a dying human (or Garou in theory) to feed and heal the land. The Dying Cubs cannot say where they learned this rite; every sept that knows it seems to have learned it from a visiting Talon, but no one can trace the rite back to its origin. The ritemaster and any other Garou that participate bind and torture the victim for as long as they wish. The longer the victim remains alive and in pain, the more potent the rite. The Garou may use any means of inflicting pain they wish, and may even heal the victim to prolong his agony provided the victim always suffers from one health level of damage (if the victim is ever fully healed, the rite fails). When the victim can bear no more and finally expires, the rite master spills the victim's blood on the ground to replenish the land. Wyrm-taint is burned away and even the touch of the Weaver weakens somewhat.

System: Any characters involved in this rite lose one point of temporary Honor for torturing a helpless victim (the DyingCubs usually don't care). Any player whose character pariticpates in the torture of the victim must roll Wits + Intimidation at a difficulty of the victim's Willpower in an extended, resisted test against the victim's Willpower (difficulty 8). Each turn, if the torturer has more successes than the victim does, the victim loses a temporary Willpower point. If the torturer and the victim are even or if the victim has more successes, the victim does not lose Willpower. The Storyteller must decide based on what kind of torture is being employed how often the victim takes damage. The torturers can keep building the rite until the victim runs out of Willpower and health levels.

When the torturers have extracted all that they can from the victim (i.e., said victim runs out of Willpower and/or dies) the ritemaster rolls Wits + Rituals (diff 7). For a 20-foot radius per point of Willpower and health levels taken from the victim, the area is cleansed of Wyrm-taint (as if the Rite of Cleansing had been performed). Also, the Gauntlet in that area drops by two (to no lower than three) for one full month.

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Warding the Lingering Human Caern

Source: WW3857 - Red Talons Revised p. 73

Description: While Red Talons do not normally have any truck with the restless souls of dead humans, they do manage to create a fair number of ghosts. Human ghosts are capable of doing a great deal of harm to a Red Talon sept, should they put their vengeful minds to it. Leading enemies to the heart of the caern, frightening prey animals away from hunting Red Talons, and generally disrupting the harmony of the area with their very presence are all possibilities. The Red Talons developed (or learned from the Silent Striders, depending on whom one asks) this rite to drive off or forbid a human ghost from entering the bawn of a caern.

Performing the Warding the Lingering Human rite requires that the ritemaster have a piece of the human's body or something that he touched in life (if this object was important to him, the rite workds even more effectively). The Talon must then stand behind the object with his back to the caern and snarl, howl, and bristle at the object. After a few minutes, the Talon grabs the object in his teeth and shakes it until it falls to pieces. The ghost is thereafter forbidden to enter the bawn of the caern without expending a great deal of energy.

System: The Talon must perform the rite as described above. The player rolls Manipulation + Rituals. The difficulty is usually equal to the ghost's Willpower, but if the Talon uses an object important to the ghost in the rite, the difficulty drops by two. If the roll succeeds, the ghost cannot enter the bawn of the caern without spending one point of Willpower for each success the player achieved on the roll each day (so if the player rolls three successes, the ghost must spend three Willpower for each day she wishes to remain within the bawn). Note that this rite has no effect on the walking dead or on any other kind of spirit.

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Level Three

Rite of Prophecy Mystic

Source: WW3857 - Red Talons Revised p. 74

Description: Similar to the Rite of Weeping for a Vision, this rite allows the Red Talon to ask Gaia for a glimpse of things to come. Talons of all auspices learn this rite, but the Theurges are normally the only ones who use it more than once.

The Red Talon must go somewhere that she will not be disturbed. She must then find something that holds her attention; the movement of clouds sqirling in the sky, a parade of ants marching to their home, the swirling of running water -- any of these will do. the supplicant simply allows her mind to unfocus and waits for the vision from Gaia.

The vision thus granted may be helpful and might well grant the Red Talon some insight into an immediate problem .However, Red Talon "history" is fraught with tales of Talons who have foreseen events such as nuclear blasts, the War of Rage, the War of Tears, and battles that might or might not be the Apocalypse itself -- and simply haven't been able to interpret the visions in time. While nearly every master of the Rite at a Red Talon caern knows the Rite of Prophecy, they rarely use it. To know the truth, but not what the truth means, is more painful than most Garou can bear.

System: The player roll Willpower (diff 7) to focus the character's attention, and then rolls Wits + Rituals (diff 7) to begin the vision. The vision is left entirely in the Storyteller's hands, but it is recommended that the more Pure Breed the character possess, the more likely she will see a vision pertaining to the tribe (or the Garou Nation) as a whole rather than her or her pack.

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Rite of the Winter Pack Accord

Source: WW3857 - Red Talons Revised p. 72

Description: This rite is only invoked when a new Winter Pack -- a pack of five young Red Talons, one of each auspice, specially trained to kill humans and bring chaos and devastation to the scabs -- is formed. Currently, only one such pack exists, but no one can say for certain how many Talon septs house Winter Packs only waiting for this rite to sanctify them before they launch their bloody mission.

The ritemaster assembles the prospective pack on the first night of the new moon, away from the heart of the caern. Other members of the sept may watch from the brush, but are forbidden to make a sound. At the ritemaster's command, each of the cubs in turn states her name and auspice and then howls a variation of the Anthem of War. The ritemaster then howls to the heavens, calling down blessings from Gaia, the pack's totem, and Rorg, the Many-Taloned Hunter upon the Winter Pack. The Pack must then venture to the nearest human settlement and stalk and kill one human each (although they may act in concert to slay a group of humans). Afterward they howl the Anthem of War in concert, and begin to execute whatever plan they have been given.

System: The ritemaster performs the aforementioned ceremony, and the player rolls Charisma + Rituals (diff 7). If the roll succeeds, the Winter Pack need only complete their first hunt, to complete the ritual. If the complete this hunt before sunrise, they each gain three temporary Glory and three temporary Honor.

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Level Four

Rite of False Justice Mystic

Source: WW3857 - Red Talons Revised p. 75

Description: Red Talon lore holds that since the tribe never received a vote on the Litany's tenets, they are not bound by them. While the tribe follows the Litany for the most part, sometimes a Talon is forced to act against the Litany in order to follow her calling as a true predator. The Red Talons recognize that the other tribes may punish the Talon for her "transgression," but have devised a means to remove the stigma from her.

This rite is only performed if the ritemaster and the sept leaders feel that another tribe has unjustly subjected a Talon to a Punishment Rite (such as Ostracism, Voice of the Jackal, or Stone of Scorn). The Rite of False Justice cannot disrupt a rite that also confers a death sentence, such as The Hunt or Gaia's Vengeful Teeth (though the tribe may physically protect a Talon whom they feel is being persecuted by such a sentence).

The Rite of False Justice is always performed on the half moon. The ritemaster calls the punished Garou before her and asks her to describe in what capacity she was serving Gaia when she broke the Litany. If the Garou's answer satisfies the ritemaster, she howls to the Philodox moon to lift the stigma from the supplicant, as she was serving her true nature, not the false laws, when she transgressed. The Talon is then freed from any Punishment Rite that she currently suffers from and is usually granted a measure of Renown for her honesty and bravery.

System: The ritemaster hears the supplicant's case as described above. If the ritemaster judges the Talon worthy of her suffering, no further penalty is incurred. If the ritemaster feels the Talon has been wrongly judged, the player rolls Wits + Rituals (difficulty of the level of the Punishment Rite under which the target currently suffers + 5). Success cancels the mystical effects (such as the altered voice granted by Voice of the Jackal) of any previously performed Punishment rite on the supplicant. Any Renown reimbursement or award is up to the Storyteller.

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Rite of the Human Mind Punishment

Source: WW3857 - Red Talons Revised p. 77

Description: The Red Talons don't employ a wide variety of Punishment Rites. A serious offense usually merits a sentence of ostracism from the sept (or from the tribe, in extreme cases) or death. However, sometimes an offender must be disciplined severely but left alive and intact. On these occasions, the Talons employed the feared Rite of the Human Mind.

All Red Talons -- indeed, all Garou -- have both a human-mind and a wolf-heart, according to the Talons. The human mind is dominant in Homid form, while the wolf-heart dominates in Lupus form. A Red Talon who relies too heavily on his human-mind, or shows mercy or compassion to a human that then comes back to bite him (as is often the case), might be subject to this rite. Any incompetence or faulty logic that the elders believe to stem from the human-mind, or relying on human babble when instinct is clearly called for, might also result in the Rite of the Human Mind being employed.

To perform this rite, the ritemaster must assume Homid form, as must the accused. The ritemaster calls the accused by his name in whatever human tongue is convenient, and then changes to Lupus form and howls in derision. Any observers also take up the howl, but at no time during these howls is the accused referred to by his howl-name. When the howls die down, the accused finds himself unable to access his wolf-heart, even in Lupus form. This punishment may last for any amount of time, but the Talons usually consider it too cruel to maintain it longer than one moon.

System: Roll Charisma + Rituals (diff 7). If the rite succeeds, the accused does not gain Perception bonuses while in Lupus, Hispo, or Crinos forms and is considered to have no dots in Primal-Urge for as long as the rite lasts. On lupus Garou, the attendant discomfort this brings also levies +3 to all Willpower difficulties and a -2 to initiative results for the duration of the punishment. The character thinks like a human being, even in Lupus form, and a player whose character is subjected to this rite should do her best to roleplay this experience. The Storyteller is free to impose additional penalties if she feels that the player is having too easy a time of it.

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Level Five

Rite of Gaia's Rebirth Mystic

Source: WW3857 - Red Talons Revised p. 75

Description: This extremely powerful rite has only recently been rediscovered and is currently known to only one sept of Red Talons. Gaia's Rebirth allows the ritemaster to sacrifice her own Gnosis, and, if necessary, her own life to reclaim Gaia's pure form from human defilement. The form of such corruption does not matter -- the rite would work just as well destroying a path through a state park as it would leveling a building in a major city. The end result is the same: The land returns to the state it would be in had humans never seen it. Trees push their way through concrete, cars are covered and crushed by vines and overgrown with moss, although any organic matter (such as corpses) is consumed at the normal rate.

Performing this rite is complex. It requires a precise sense of timing, and the ritemaster must be guided by nothing but instinct. If she begins the rite even one minute early or too late, the rite will fail, but the energies released may well destroy her. Gaia's Rebirth can only be performed on the last night of the waning crescent moon, the night before the start of the Ragabash cycle. The climax of the rite must occur between the setting of the moon and rising of the sun, and the rite must be performed at the site to be purified (meaning a Red Talon cannot perform the rite outside city limits and expect the city itself to be consumed).

This rite requires a special moot, attended by no fewer than six Garou (the ritemaster plus one werewolf of each asupice). The moot begins with howls to any totem spirits in the area (a caern totem, if the rite is performed at a caern, the totems of any packs present, and the tribe totems of all Garou present) in addition to an elaborate howl to Gaia herself. The ritemaster must walk or run in a circle around the center of the area to be cleansed, howling to Gaia to awaken the spirits of the land to reclaim it. She gives of herself -- this can be physical, in which case she bleeds onto the ground, or spiritual, in which case she simply howls and gives up part of her own spirit. In either case, if the rite is performed correctly, the plant life in the area quickly overtakes any human "development" and restores Gaia's true order.

System: The player must first roll Perception + Primal-Urge (diff 9) to be sure of the correct timing for the rite. The Storyteller may want to make this roll in secret, so that the player does not know the results. If the roll succeeds, the character knows when to start the rite so that the end coincides with the moon and sun properly. If the roll fails, the character is unsure, and must wait a full month before attempting the rite again. If the roll is a botch, the character is sure of the timing, but has actually miscalculated. She will automatically fail at performing the rite.

The character must lead the moot as described above. At the moot's climax, the player rolls Wits + Rituals (diff 9, or 7 if the character has both the Pure Breed and Ancestors Backgrounds at 2 or higher). If the roll fails, the rite fails, and the character receives three health levels of aggravated damage. These appear as teardrop=shaped wounds on her body, similar to the "Tears of Gaia" commonly suffered by Garou who attempt the Rite of Caern Building. If the roll is a botch, the character loses Gnosis or Stamina as described below, but the rite still fails.

If the roll succeeds, however, the player must decide how much land to reclaim from human corruption. For each dot of Stamina or two dots of Gnosis the character is willing to expend, roughly one square acre of land reverts to the state it would be in had humans never developed it all at. This rite does not destroy any materials - that is, buildings and vehicles do not simply disappear - but the plant growth will quickly crush and cover any human structures. Living things within the area of effect are not affected (except that they may find themselves trapped in buildings or carried to the tops of very large trees). The Gnosis or Stamina spent on this rite is considered permanently gone unless bought up again with experience.