Day 16: The Pack and Totem
Bringing it all together
Werewolf is as much a game about the pack as it is about the individual Garou, and packs follow totems that are often characters in their own right. So this entry deals with the pack as a whole - why they have joined together, how they work together, and of course their totem. There are two main parts - first, coming up with a backstory that will make the five Garou join a pack together, and then, building and designing the pack totem.
The Story: The Missing
Children have gone missing throughout the region. Specifically, kinfolk children, that is, human relatives of Garou.
Terry has heard reports from several of septs on his travels and started investigating.
Adam and Walker have met up after three Glass Walker Kin families in the region reported missing children.
Talia had been visiting a Wendigo sept when a child from the reservation went missing.
For Mae it is the most personal since one of the missing children is her cousin.
All of them found the same lead around the same time - a courier company whose van was seen in the area shortly before each disappearance. Their supposed offices are empty - a false front, but the five young Garou met and joined up…
The Totem: Black Unicorn
Black Unicorn is an aspect of Unicorn, the tribal totem of the Children of Gaia. It is normally a totem of Honour and healing, but the Black Unicorn aspect is a totem of War and defending the helpless. The first question when building it is how many background points in the Totem background the pack collectively has. Talia and Adam each have one, Terry and Walker brought two each, and Mae had three, for a total of nine.
The base cost of the Black Unicorn totem is 5 points - there is technically no 20th Anniversary Edition version, but there is one from Revised edition that is perfectly compatible. This base cost gives us 8 points to spread among Rage, Gnosis and Willpower (the attributes of a spirit), knowledge of the Airt Sense and Re-form charms, and the following Traits and Ban:
Individual Traits: Each pack member gains a point of Brawl, and a point of Glory Renown.
Pack Traits: Any one pack member at a time can use three extra soak dice. The pack can also call on a total of five Willpower points per story.
Ban: Black Uniform demands that his children defend those that are unable to defend themselves.
For the remaining 4 background points, we get another 3 points to spread among attributes, and an additional Charm, namely Materialize. All in all, this gives our Totem spirit the following traits:
Black Unicorn
Willpower: 5
Rage: 5
Gnosis: 4
Essence:14
Charms:
Airt Sense gives the spirit a natural sense of the “directions” of the spirit world and makes it easy for them to locate places or individuals.
Re-form allows the spirit to dissolve its body and reform a turn later in their home Domain, as long as the spirit succeeds on a Gnosis roll.
Materialize allows the spirit to take physical form on Earth
How they all work together
All in all, the pack is fairly well suited to physical combat, but that is not all they can do.
Terry is all about Stealth and unarmed combat - he particularly enjoys using Lupus and Hispo form to track and destroy enemies. Two of his Gifrts - Blur of the Milky Eye and Silence work well together to make him almost impossible to notice, while Master of Fire makes him extremely resistant to fire damage - which he likes to use offensively by setting things on fire, especially when fighting enemies vulnerable to it like vampires.
Adam is primarily a healer, able to patch up the pack and anyone else that needs it. He is also the most knowledgeable member of the pack when it comes to mundane topics, and he has money not “incredibly wealthy but if the pack needs to rent a car or get plane tickets or a hotel room, he can sort that kind of thing. He can also talk to spirits and cleanse Wyrm taint.
Talia is the social face of the pack (and likely the Alpha). She can be incredibly convincing, makes friends easily, and between her Pure Breed and her Klaive is particularly suited for handling trouble with other werewolves… one way or another. Her knowledge of the Rite of the Questing Stone is also likely to be useful in a story that deals with finding missing people.
Walker is, ironically for a Glass Walker, the most suitable for handling the wilderness, while also having a decent idea as to how to deal with machines. His biggest strength, however, are two gifts that let him replicate strengths of his wolf form while in human shape - Heightened Senses and Predator’s Arsenal. Oh, and his knowledge of the Rite of Spirit Awakening can create potential allies in the spirit world.
Mae, finally, is the hardest hitter in the pack, but she is not all brawn - her Scent of Sweet Honey Gift can be a powerful distraction (it makes the target irresistible to any kind of insect) and she has both contacts (her Kinfolk) and a rite (the rite of the Cardboard Palace) that help the pack if it needs to lay low for a bit.
Black Unicorn, finally, gives them an extra little edge in combat as well as guidance in the Spirit World, and can even assist in the material world if needed. As a pack, they should have little trouble finding out who is behind the missing children, and dealing with them…
Published at NZDT