Black Furies Tribe Rites
Level One
Rite of Motherhood (Accord)
Source: WW3851 - Black Furies Revised p. 72
Description: 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 woman 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.
Level Two
Ritual Of Acceptance (Accord)
Source: WW3851 - Black Furies Revised p. 72
Description: This rite is for Black Furies only. 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 the 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 isn't welcome to join.
Should the character succeed, however, she's welcomed into the Black Fury tribe, and will be treated as a child of Pegasus from that point forward.
Soothe The Scars (Accord)
Source: WW3851 - Black Furies Revised p. 73
Description: This rite is for Black Furies only. 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's certain that sufficient abuse can open a hole wide enough for a Wyrmling to crawl into. It's in the Furies' nature to stop such a fate, and while it's their modus operandi, Soothe the Scars isn't one of the Furies' best tools for healing abuse one 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, ad 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 Role-playing effects.
Level Three
Birth the Fire Warrior (Mystic)
Source: WW3851 - Black Furies Revised p. 76
Description: 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.
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's 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 doesn't 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's 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.
Fertility Rite (Accord)
Source: WW3851 - Black Furies Revised p. 74
Description: 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 the 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 doesn't 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 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 won't 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.
Meandering Path (Caern)
Source: WW3851 - Black Furies Revised p. 74
Description: 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 isn't 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 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) to actually create the Caern. This Gift simply points out the best location for such a thing to be done.
Level Four
Description:
Level Five
Bearing The Caern (Caern)
Source: WW3851 - Black Furies Revised p. 75
Description: 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's near to tern. 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 isn't, 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 can't 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's 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 it's said that the 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's neither Garou nor Kinfolk. Different septs will treat Maia and the newborn caern-child differently, particulary if the pair isn't 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's 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.
The circumstances of labor and delivery also hold omens for the caern itself. The most auspicious birth is a healthy and quick one, where a Garou is born to a human or wolf Maia. A non-metis Garou born to a Garou (particularly a Black Fury Maia) is also considered to be a strong omen for the caern's future. If a Garou mother gives birth to human or wolf Kin children, the caern's greatest promise lies in the distant future, after the child's death as mentioned above, if a Garou Maia is heavy with a metis, the sept of the new caern will need to work hard to receive respect from other Garou. Long, hard labor tends to suggest the influence of the Wyrm near the caern.
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 don't 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 1, with a Gauntlet of 4. Additional successes improve the caern just as with 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).
