EL CA..SO DE MURCIA Y LORCA ( 2)

them to fighting — which leaves it to worldly con-cerns over territory to do the job.

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The packs of the Forsaken tribes have been fight-ing the Pure for a very, very long time. What’s more, the Forsaken recognize that the slow war of attri-tion isn’t likely to end, at least not peacefully. Some foresaw the large degree of coordination exhibited in the ’90s; still foresee out-and-out war or are just plain paranoid. So, they followed the Boy Scouts’ credo and got prepared. Rites, fetishes and other special tools for fighting their Pure brethren all came from this effort, as did some of the People’s few allies.

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Supernatural powers are undeniably useful, but mundane knacks can also make an immense differ-ence when push comes to shove.

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Prerequisites: Primal Urge •, Dexterity •••, Stamina •• and Brawl •••

Effect: Your character has learned the art of fighting as a wolf in a pack, with an emphasis in wearing down the prey, tripping and

set-ting up your packmates to deliver decisive strikes.

The Uratha developed this style of fighting Uratha long ago. It is based upon the principles of pack fighting and surges in popularity at times when packs

must take on mightier foes.

(The reclamation of the Rocky Mountain region saw some packs practicing this fighting style.) Not surprisingly, this fighting style grows more potent based on the number of packmembers who practice it.

Dots purchased in this Merit allow access to spe-cial combat maneuvers.

Each maneuver is a pre-requisite for the next. So, your character can’t have Bite the

Hand until he has Slow the Prey. The maneuvers and their effects are described

below, most of which are based on the Brawl Skill.

Fighting Style: Wolfpack can be used in Urshul and Urhan forms. Untrained Uratha can attempt some of these maneuvers at the Storyteller’s op-tion, but only when in Urhan or Urshul forms, and they suffer a –2 dice penalty to all dice pools.

Worry (•): Wolves are experts at distract-ing foes. This combat maneuver may take the form of feints, extremely loud yelps or false retreats to allow one’s packmates to maneuver into better posi-tions for attack. This counts as an attack action. The effect of Worrying is that a single

Uratha counts as two opponents when figuring a target’s Defense.

For example, a magath with a

Defense of 4 is being attacked by two Uratha. One

Worries the target. When calculating the monster’s Defense for the second attacker, the Storyteller ap-plies a –2 dice penalty instead of –1.

Experienced Uratha (those with this Merit) can often see through this ruse and may reflexively make a Primal Urge roll. Each success cancels the extra benefits of Worrying for a single attacker, on a one-to-one basis. Note: It does not change the base modifier for fighting multiple foes, just the advantage of Worrying.

Trip/Bowl-Over (••): The object of these ma-neuvers is to knock over the opponent. A Trip is try-ing to destabilize the opponent by either pushtry-ing or pulling him and must be executed as an

overpower-ing grapploverpower-ing maneuver (see the World of Dark-ness Rulebook, pp. 157–158) — meaning the

aggressor must already have achieved a hold.

In this case, a Trip is a contested Strength (or Dexterity, if higher) + Brawl roll. If the attacker wins, he renders his opponent prone

without going prone himself and is considered to have broken the

hold. A tie means that both contestants fall and become prone;

when the target wins, he escapes the hold.

A Bowl-Over is trying to use the attacker’s mass and

momentum to knock the target off balance. An Uratha executes a Bowl-Over by

moving up to twice the character’s speed, and at some

time passing be-side the target,

clipping its

Merits legs. This maneuver is a full action and requires a

Strength + Brawl roll; the difference between the attacker’s and the target’s Sizes becomes a bonus or penalty to the roll. For each point by which the at-tacker is larger or smaller, add or subtract one die.

Four-footed animals add two dice to resist Trip or Bowl-Over maneuvers. Should the maneuver suc-ceed, remember that an attacker gets a +2 dice bonus to hit a prone target in close combat.

Slow the Prey (•••): The werewolf targets an opponent’s legs rather than his vitals — especially the juicy hamstrings. She suffers a –2 dice penalty to her attack roll, but every point of damage done also lowers the opponent’s speed by 1. Prey suffering these effects may spend a Willpower point to ignore the movement penalty for a round. Hindrance from Slow the Prey disappears once the damage done by this maneuver heals.

Joint Attack (••••): Your character can take advantage of the distraction and effort inherent in fending off someone else’s attack to slip through the target’s defenses. By delaying his initiative to one when an ally is making an attack (regardless of who actually acts first based on compared Dexterity + Composure and roll-offs), your character can make a Joint Attack. Each ally attacking the same target on the same initiative reduces the combined penalty the character suffers from Defense and Armor by one.

Only a character with Joint Attack gains this ben-efit, but an entire pack of werewolves all with Joint Attack can all benefit from mobbing a single target.

Drawback: At least one werewolf with Joint Attack must spend one Willpower point so that all charac-ters with the Merit may benefit from the tactic. Note that this Willpower expenditure does not add three dice to the attack.

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Gifts are some of the most potent and useful tools in a werewolf’s arsenal. This section describes uses for Gifts from Werewolf: The Forsaken that are particularly advantageous in wartime. Gifts that allow one werewolf advantage over another in direct combat, though undeniably plentiful and suited to war, are not included out of preference for those that can have a wider bearing on strategy. Also included is a new War Gift list.

Gifts in War

Death Sight (Death, •) is an invaluable skill for a scout to have. With the Uratha and their potential enemies so skilled at ambushes and so deadly, Death

Sight can sometimes be the only way to even get a hint that a pack devoted to the war died here.

Corpse Witness (Death, •••) gives a secure hideout a number of guards who cannot be corrupted or killed. The biggest problem is that it’s a common enough tactic that most enemies will see through it, and all someone needs to do to disrupt it is destroy the jaw. Using the corpses of small animals can be more subtle, but the tactic remains expensive in terms of Essence expenditure. In a war with a high number of casualties, Corpse Witness is a good way to get information out of dead scouts, as long as the enemy doesn’t know enough not to leave the head.

Higher-level Elemental Gifts (••••+) can rival entire packs in destructive force.

Playing Possum (Evasion, •••) can give were-wolves the opportunity to gather sensitive informa-tion. After all, you don’t need to be careful what you say when your foes are dead. Sending out an entire pack (or part of one) to fight and then “die” can reveal a bounty of operational intelligence.

Father Wolf’s Speed (Father Wolf’s, ••) endows the Forsaken with great speed, enough to quickly carry news and military commands quickly, and as securely as only a werewolf can.

Spirit Pack (Father Wolf’s, •••••) is notable because five high-Glory Forsaken, all summoning a pack of wolf-brothers, can turn a losing battle com-pletely around or change a tie into an utter rout.

Aura of Truce (Half Moon, •••) allows the Elodoth to arrange for temporary powwows between sides of the war. Although this Gift’s protection is far from absolute, the Gift allows negotiating parties to gather peacefully, at least at first.

Sense Malice (Insight, •) is the right choice for giving werewolves advance warning of an ambush.

Any party planning to jump out and assault the pack is going to give off healthy wafts to someone using this Gift.

Omen Gazing (Insight, •••••) gives a werewolf the potential to be the war leader’s most valuable advisor. The foresight it offers, while plagued with uncertainty, can still be worth the potential mistakes it causes.

Inspiration Gifts are all excellent choices for a werewolf going to war. True Leader and Victor’s Song are particularly potent, applying as they do to all al-lies (or allied werewolves) and not just packmates, as many other Gifts.

Know the Path (Knowledge, ••••) provides knowl-edge that any war leader or pack alpha at war should not be without. Knowing how to reach an opponent’s stronghold or locus, with the possibility of learning the safest path, is an important part of any werewolves’ war.

All that is required to find a hidden locus is to meet someone who knows where it is. Prisoners are useful for this purpose; when unable to take captives, a person with Know the Path can try to gather this most-valuable intelligence on the battlefield.

Anybeast and Skin-Stealing (Mother Luna’s, ••

and ••••) are both excellent Gifts for spies and other subtle gatherers of knowledge to know. A war leader whose army yields neither skill is at a marked disad-vantage when reconnoitering the enemy.

Speak with Beasts, Forest Communion and Beast Ride (Nature, •, ••• and ••••) are all superior Gifts for gathering information about one’s enemies. All of them give a werewolf the ability to gather significant amounts of intelligence by questioning beasts, feeling the surrounding woods or pointing an animal at an animal camp and watching through its eyes.

Maschinegeist (Technology, ••••) can be an excellent source of information, which is just about what keeps a war functioning. In the modern world of increasingly ubiquitous surveillance, it’s possible for a werewolf with this Gift to find or track just about any target by communing with traffic- and security-camera systems — at least in urban warfare.

All the Warding Gifts are useful on a tactical scale, though for different reasons in different sorts of wars. Warding against predators generally has little purpose unless the enemy is using animals as agents, but the fact that supernatural entities can sense the Gift’s boundary means that it can be used to demarcate no-man’s-lands or other areas otherwise off-limits to one party or both (medical zones, “Swit-zerlands,” etc.). Blocking an area against humans is extremely useful when they are the enemy; otherwise, Uratha use wards to protect humans from becoming collateral damage. Shadow Ward specifically is very useful in wars against werewolves or spirits, forcing the enemy to come at them in the physical world.

Finally, Ward of Spirit Slumber is almost obscenely useful when the enemy has spirit allies — or when spirits are the enemy.

Some Gifts from Lore of the Forsaken, especial-ly the City Gifts and some of the Judge’s and Stalker’s Moon Gifts, are also especially useful in war.

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These Gifts focus on the most important com-modity in war: information. Skill in battle and pow-erful weapons are valuable, but knowledge is king.

Because so many spirits operate on a personal, local level, it can be exceedingly difficult to find those that teach War Gifts. Moreover, because large-scale, organized war is so faint in werewolves’ memories, few know these Gifts exist or think to seek them out.

Most commonly, a werewolf can learn these Gifts from the military-spirits that hover about military bases. Regimented creatures, usually insects such as army ants or wasp colonies, also have a nature that would allow their spirits to teach a War Gift or two.

Some famous battle-sites, such as Gettysburg, Waterloo or Normandy Beach have powerful spirits that linger still and might share their secrets. Finally, hot combat zones spawn hundreds of the active (but short-lived) war- and battle-spirits that know these Gifts, if a were-wolf can only get close before they dissipate.