VOD: Pantheon

Silent Strider Gifts

Level One Gifts

• Silence
• Speed of Thought
• Visions of Duat

Level Two Gifts

• Axis Mundi
• Messenger's Fortitude
• Tread Sebek's Back

Level Three Gifts

• Adaptation
• Black Mark
• Dam the Heartflood

Level Four Gifts

• Attunement
• Eye of Anubis

Level Five Gifts

• Speed Beyond Thought
• Reach the Umbra

Level One Gifts

Silence
The Strider can muffle any sound she makes, the better to creep up on the Wyrm's minions or escape them unnoticed. An owl-spirit teaches this Gift.

Cost: None

Test Pool: None

System:
Gain +2 on all mundane Stealth challenges. This Gift's effects are permanent. Further, a the Garou may call upon supreme powers of stealth. So long as they are not observed, the Strider can become completely and supernaturally Silent. By spending a Standard action and a Gnosis, you make absolutely no sound unless you wish. As such, you automatically win all stealth challenges against an opponent that cannot detect you with another sense. If the opponent possess a supernatural means of heightening their sense of hearing they may still call for a challenge as appropriate for that power, although in such a challenge, you do still gain the +2 bonus of this Gift.

Affinity:
Rather than +2, the Strider may choose to instead gain a bonus equal to their dots in Survival.


Speed of Thought
The Garou doubles her running speed. An antelope or cheetah-spirit teaches this Gift.

Cost: 1 Gnosis

Test Pool: None

System:
Spend a Simple action to activate this Gift. For the next 10 minutes, double your movement speed whenever you take an action to move (typically this will mean that rather than 3 steps you take 6). If you have any other merits or powers that add to your movement speed, those are added after this doubling is applied. If you are suffering any penalties to movement, those are subtracted after this doubling is applied.

Affinity
Rather than applying other bonuses to movement after doubling, you apply such bonuses before doubling.


Visions of Duat
The Strider's eyes become cloudy and pale as she attunes her vision to the ashen landscape of the Underworld. An owl-spirit teaches this Gift.

Cost: 1 Gnosis

Test Pool: None

System:
Spend a Simple action to activate this Gift. For the next 10 minutes the character can see (and hear) ghosts and detect haunted areas. This Gift bestows no power to touch or communicate with the dead.

Affinity:
Striders learn to make their voice heard in the land of the dead, though they must be cautious when doing so. The Strider may speak with any of the ghosts they can see. This does not make it so the ghosts are friendly, and choosing to speak may only draw their attention. A Strider should be careful when choosing to use this benefit. This does not grant you the ability to speak the same language as the ghost automatically.

Level Two

Axis Mundi
Consummate travelers, the Strider with this Gift can center herself in relation to Gaia, and always know which direction she is traveling in or facing, no matter where she may be in the Gaia realms. Any spirit can teach this Gift.

Cost: 1 Gnosis

Test Pool: None or Charisma + Animal Ken + Rank vs target's Composure + Willpower + Rank if Affinity

System:
Spend a simple action to activate this Gift. For the next hour, the Strider always knows which direction she is traveling in or facing. This effect persists no matter where she travels, so long as it is within a Gaian realm.

Affinity:
For a Silent Strider, home is where the heart is, and the cosmos recognizes that. All animals recognize the territory around the Gift user as belonging to them, and will stay away. Even other Garou must contend with this Gift: if they wish to treat the territory as not belonging to the Strider, they must succeed in a contested challenge using this power's pool. If the user is successful, the Garou must respect the area around the Strider as their territory so long as this Gift is active. This power has no effect if the Strider is in another Garou's clearly marked territory as the spirits recognize the prior claim.


Messenger's Fortitude
Able to travel long distances easily, this Gift allows for long travel easily. A camel- or wolf-spirit teaches this gift.

Cost: 1 Gnosis

Test Pool: None

System:
Spend a Simple action to activate this Gift. The garou is able to run at their full speed up to their Survival in days without need for food, rest, or water. Doing anything but running towards their destination ends this Gift's effects - and immediately gives the Garou 10 minutes before they must rest. Upon arriving at their destination, the Garou has 10 minutes to complete whatever business brought her, then she must rest for a full day. This is for trips that take over 1 hour; if the trip was under an hour, then they may be briefly winded, but are otherwise alright.

By having this Gift, one of your Downtime Actions may take place in a far away location without needing to worry about travel time as your character is able to cover long distances easily. The location must be reachable by land however, as this Gift provides no benefit to crossing the sea.

Affinity:
In addition to just themselves, a Strider may bring others along with them by spending an additional Gnosis per person affected. Your targets must be willing.


Tread Sebek's Back
The garou calls upon the river to support her steps, allowing her to walk or run across water or other liquids. A crocodile-spirit teaches this Gift.

Cost: 1 Gnosis

Test Pool: None

System:
Spend a Standard Action to activate this Gift. For the next hour, the garou is able to travel across any liquid surface as though it were solid,. They may stand on the liquid or move as they wish. This does not grant any protection against the substance. As such, if it is a Wyrm toxin or other dangerous liquid, the garou still suffers damage as per the liquid's normal effects.

Affinity:
A Strider using this finds they have limited protection. So long as their movement does not stop over a hazardous liquid, they do not take any damage or suffer ill effects from moving over the liquid with this Gift. A double move action does not count as stopping in the middle.

Level Three

Adaptation
Long time wanderers, even before they lost their home Striders have learned to survive in the harshest of environments. A bear spirit teaches this Gift.

Cost: 1 Gnosis

Test Pool: None

System:
Spend a Simple Action to activate this Gift. For the next hour, the Strider takes no damage from magical poison or disease, and they may exist in any environment regardless of pressure, temperature, or atmospheric conditions. As such, a Strider with this Gift could survive as easily atop the highest mountain as they would at the bottom of the Aegean. This Gift does not protect the Garou from hazardous situations such as falling, only hazardous environments.

Affinity:
A Strider may extend this protection to others with them, targeting a number of additional characters up to their Leadership when activating this Gift.


Black Mark
The Strider's claws darken with the leaden sheen of the Dark Umbra, marking her foes fit for the attentions of the unquiet dead. An owl-spirit teaches this Gift.

Cost: 1 Gnosis

Test Pool: Strength + Brawl vs. Target's Physical Defense

System:
Spend a Standard Action to activate this Gift and make a brawl attack against a valid target. Your target must Dodge to avoid the effects of this Gift. If they choose to attempt to Parry or Soak, they may resist the damage of the attack, but then still suffer the effects of this Gift and are treated as choosing to relent to it. If successful, the target of the attack is harassed and harried by ghosts: they lose their Simple Action for the next 3 turns (including any Rage rounds during those turns). In addition, the target gains the Haunted Flaw for 2 game sessions as ghosts come to harass them.

Exceptional Success:
In addition to the additional damage caused by the physical strike, the target instead loses their Standard action for their next turn, rather than their Simple action. They then lose their Simple action for the two turns after that.

Affinity:
More powerful wraiths may be called by a Strider: those hit by this attack instead gain the Hunted flaw for 1 sessions as they must contend with Wraiths pursuing them relentlessly for that time rather than the Haunted flaw.


Dam the Heartflood
No tribe hates vampires more than the Silent Striders. This Gift is one of their greatest tools against their adversary. It is taught by a cobra spirit.

Cost: 1 Gnosis

Test Pool: Wits + Medicine vs Target's Resolve + Willpower

System:
Spend a standard action and target a individual within 15 steps. If successful this power has different effects depending on what was targeted, these effects last for the next 10 minutes.
Vampire/Ghoul/other creature that uses a blood pool: A Vampire finds their blood slow to a crawl, they can spend 2 less blood in a turn (to a minimum of 1), further they find spending blood to heal to be dramatically reduced and must spend twice as much blood to heal. Multiple applications of this power stack against a Vampire.
Garou: A Garou's healing slows down as their blood does. They regenerate one less point of damage a turn then they normally would. Multiple applications of this power stack against a Garou.
Human/Animal: Such a creature becomes less responsive to medical treatment. If injured any medicine tests or other similar mundane attempts to save their life suffer a -5. If already critically injured then they will likely die.

Exceptional Success:
The effect lasts for 1 hour rather than 10 minutes.

Affinity:
Against vampires/ghouls/other supernatural creatures that use a blood pool: the amount of blood they can spend per turn is reduced by 3 rather than 2, and to a minimum of 0 rather than 1.

Level Four

Attunement
The Garou may commune with the spirits of a city or town; or may communicate with the spirits of the wilderness, and gain information about the area from them, including rough population, enclaves of Garou or other beings, and secret tunnels. A rat-spirit teaches this Gift.

Cost: 1 Gnosis

Test Pool: None

System:
Upon purchasing this Gift, the Strider must decide if it is for a city (in which case this Gift uses the Streetwise Ability), or for the wilderness (in which case this Gift uses the Survival Ability). They may choose to repurchase this Gift getting the other version as well. To activate this Gift, the Garou spends one minute attuning themselves to the area and in doing so learning of the immediate area (within 1 mile). The Garou immediately becomes aware of a number of facts about the nearby area equal to their dots in the appropriate ability for the version they have. These facts are left to ST discretion but typically will involve important landmarks, unusual areas, or possible dangers. You are roughly aware of the location of these facts and can travel to them, or avoid them, with little difficulty.

Affinity:
The range that this Gift reaches out to becomes much greater: the facts can come from anywhere up to 10 miles.


Eyes of Anubis
Fate is a fickle thing, with this Gift the Striders call upon their knowledge of curses to bring about an unfortunate fate. An owl-spirit teaches this Gift.

Cost: 1 Gnosis

Test Pool: Manipulation + Occult vs Target's Composure + Willpower

System:
Spend one Standard Action and engage a target within line of sight in a contested challenge as you invoke a curse to plague your target, which you must speak aloud. Many Striders evoke the same curses inscribed within pharaohs' tombs, but any solemn curse will suffice. If you succeed on the opposed challenge against a target within hearing range, your hex will immediately overcome them and remains in effect for 24 hours.

With this Gift you may choose to inflict your target with one of the following effects:

• Curse of the Addled Mind: Your target is assailed by ceaseless distractions and ruminations. She gains the Careless Flaw. In addition she suffers -2 on all challenges relating to perception in any way (general tests, awareness, investigation, etc.)
• Curse of Blighted Flesh: You afflict your target with painful boils and lesions. She gains the Permanent Wound Flaw. If your target has already suffered damage to her health track, she must reapply it with the now missing health levels removed
• Curse of Conspicuousness: Your target struggles to blend in and not be seen as a source of ruckus. She gains the Flaw Trouble Magnet. Additionally she suffers -2 on all challenges involving stealth or Subterfuge.
• Curse of the Toppling Throne: Wishing ruin upon your target, you isolate her from her wealth and power. Your target must subtract a total of 10 dots from between her Allies, Contacts, Influences, and Resources backgrounds to a minimum of 0. She may choose which Backgrounds and which specific Allies, Contacts, and Influences are lost in this manner. Influences lost in this manner do not grant points at the next game attended
• Curse of Failing Vision: Your curse calls forth baleful cataracts, inflicting your target with the Bad Sight Flaw and making it so they cannot read or write anything as their vision is that poor. This curse does not impact the use of powers that require line of sight.
• Curse of Mediocrity: Your curse distorts the strands of destiny, causing your target to lose all access to general Merits for the duration of this power, although the target retains any Tribal or other special merits that are not on the general list.

If your target is already suffering under the effects of this Gift, another application of Eyes of Anubis will fail. Only after one curse ends can you inflict another.

Exceptional Success:
The duration of the curse is until the next game session instead of 24 hours. Further, if the target of the curse was a non-supernatural mortal with 4 or less Willpower, they may simply die outright at ST discretion.

Affinity:
The Striders are especially adept at twisting fate and may choose to apply two of the above effects when invoking their curse instead of the usual one.

Level Five

Speed Beyond Thought
Now fast beyond belief, a Strider can do what many others thought impossible. A cheetah- or air-sprit teaches this Gift.

Cost: 1 Gnosis

System:
This Gift is an exception to the rule preventing Gnosis and Rage being spent on the same turn: activating this Gift does not prevent you from spending Rage in the same turn as it is activated. You may activate this Gift to gain access to an additional Rage round, this Rage round may be in addition to the two that can be gained normally by spending Rage and does not count towards that limit.

Affinity:
Striders with this Gift become impossibly fast. When this Gift is active, you may choose to use the Burst of Speed combat maneuver without needing to spend a Willpower point.


Reach the Umbra
The Garou may easily step into and out of the Umbra without the usual restrictions most Garou must face. An owl-spirit teaches this Gift.

Cost: None or 1 Gnosis (see Gift)

System:
The Garou may step sideways instantly (and reflexively) without the need of a reflective surface and with no chance of becoming caught in the gauntlet without needing to spend a Gnosis or make a test normally. All challenges to enter or leave an Umbral Realm receive a Gift Retest if a test is required for whatever reason - such as if there is a power sealing an umbral realm. Importantly, the Garou may not step sideways quickly enough to dodge an attack that has already been declared. This Gift does not allow a Garou to step sideways in a Wyrm Affinity location.

Affinity:
The Strider learns to effortlessly step across the gauntlet. By spending 1 Gnosis when an attack has been declared (but before the actual challenge is resolved), the Garou may immediately step sideways, thus dodging the attack.

TBA