Werewolf: The Forsaken - Blank It

234
Chapter IV: Storytelling and Antagonists
could well be diverted into looking after more nebulous concepts
than just a patch of land, though. Perhaps the characters
have a nagging sense that no territory they visit is “quite
right,” and their perpetual wanderings involve looking for a
patch of Eden to call their own. That Eden might not even
exist, but the werewolves may desire it all the same.
If you choose to go this route, you’re swapping less
up-front work for a heavier ongoing workload of preparation
and creation. There’s less need to spend time defining the
details of the pack territory, for example, as the pack doesn’t
hang around long in the same place. You’re going to have to
create a pretty detailed picture of the key locations for each
story, however, with very little expectation of being able to
reuse them. Equally, many of the characters are likely to be
there for only one story. The recurring characters in such
a chronicle are likely to be fellow travelers, such as biker
gangs, salesmen, truckers, spirits of the road and of travel,
and the owners or residents of any road-side motels or restaurants
that the characters visit with any frequency.
Your stories are likely to be very episodic in such a game:
new story, new location, new challenges. It is possible to build
a larger story arc around such stories though, with each new
challenge building up a picture of a greater conspiracy: a
wholesale invasion by the Beshilu, say, or a plan by the Azlu
to render the Gauntlet impassable in several cities simultaneously.
Indeed, the road-trip chronicle is better suited to such
big stories than the conventional location-based chronicle,
which tends to focus on more local concerns.
Incidentally, such vagrant packs make interesting
occasional allies and antagonists in a more conventional
chronicle. When the traveling werewolves turn up in the
characters’ territory, there’s just no way to know if they
bring bad news, aid, conflict or a whole pack of angry
duguthim on their tails.
SAMPLE STORIES
The following is a selection of sample stories you can
tell using Werewolf characters. Each one is good for at
least a single-session story with no commitment, but you
can combine some of them into more complex stories or
a long-running chronicle. You could even take a single
sample and expand it into the framework for an entire
chronicle unto itself.
• The Reluctant First Change: The local spirits grow
agitated and take notice of one of the packmates’ relatives,
or perhaps just a random person. The attention seems
unusual at first until the poor soul starts losing control of
his emotions and showing signs that his First Change is
imminent. The werewolves follow him and keep an eye on
him until the fateful event, but when it happens, the nuzusul
panics and makes a run for it. He cannot accept what
he’s become, he resists any overture the characters make to
introduce him to werewolf society, and he flees the territory
the first chance he gets. Do the werewolves hunt him down
and try to force him to see reason, or do they just let him
go, perhaps to become a Ghost Wolf?
• The Other Hunters: The werewolves witness a
group of almost a dozen scruffy-looking men and women
chasing down a single victim who’s sorely wounded,
fighting desperately and pleading for his life. This victim,
however, turns out to be a fairly young vampire and his
pursuers are self-appointed vampire-hunters who think
they’re doing the world a favor. These hunters scatter like
crows if the werewolves get involved in the hunt, but if
they can force themselves to resist the Lunacy, they turn
against the werewolves en masse (regardless of which side
the werewolves take). If the werewolves take the side of
the solitary victim, however, the vampire pledges eternal
gratitude and offers to act as an envoy between the pack
and the larger vampiric society in the city of which the
pack’s territory is a part. But can he be trusted?
• Undesirable Refugees: A greater number of spirits
than usual begins to push through the Gauntlet into the
physical world. Some fetter themselves to resonant objects,
others ride unwitting people, and still others simply
choose to take their chances as immaterial manifestations.
At first, their presence simply makes the werewolves’ job
of maintaining the territory harder, but in time, it raises
the issue of just what’s going on in the Shadow that makes
life in the material world seem like an attractive option.
When the werewolves slip across the Gauntlet to find out,
they discover right away that a magath has come in from
the spirit wilds and chosen the area around the pack’s
locus as its hunting grounds. It has grown strong on the
spirits it has already devoured, and it’s set its sights on the
pack’s engum next if the werewolves don’t stop it.
• The Ivory Claw’s Legacy: An inexperienced Ghost
Wolf enters the pack’s territory, abases himself, and begs to
be heard. He claims that werewolves of the Pure Tribes have
been following him and trying to capture him for reasons
unbeknownst to him. He asks for help and refuge within a
compassionate pack’s territory until he can figure out what
to do. If the characters offer to help, they soon find his fears
grounded as Pure Tribe werewolves begin hunting for the
Ghost Wolf in their territory. If they lose the Ghost Wolf,
they might never know what this is all about. If they manage
to keep him hidden and safe, however, an envoy from
the Ivory Claws arranges to contact the pack on neutral
ground. He claims that the “Ghost Wolf” is actually an
Ivory Claw, and a treacherous villain of one at that. He’s
only hiding in the territory because he wants to escape punishment
for crimes he’s committed against the Pure. Before
any details of those alleged crimes come out, the character
admits his true lineage, declares his intention to renounce
his tribe and begs the pack for asylum.
• The Wolf-God Walks: On the fringes of the pack’s
territory, people have been dying. However, very little is
found of them — a severed hand or foot, a great splash
of gore, a few shreds of clothing or hanks of bloody hair.
When the pack investigates, the evidence hints that the
kills seem to have been made by a wolf the size of a truck:
clearly no mortal wolf, or even werewolf. Has a pack of