Werewolf: The Forsaken - Blank It

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Appendix I: The Spirit World
away from the comings and goings of humanity.
It’s in remote places that they can flourish
without being targeted by Azlu, Beshilu, mages
or even humans who don’t understand or like the
influences they can barely sense.
Werewolves can automatically sense when
they’re in a locus’ area of effect. They can tell
by the prickling of their hackles that the spirit
world is nearer where they stand. If a werewolf
wishes to determine the precise location of a
locus, his player makes a Wits + Investigation
+ Primal Urge roll as a standard action to
determine the general direction of the locus
itself. Success gives him the general direction to
the locus. An exceptional success, if he’s within
line of sight, will allow him to recognize the
locus’s material form. Irraka receive two bonus
dice to this roll (see p. 83).
BENEFIT S OF A SPIRIT LOCUS
A number of characteristics make loci particularly attractive
to spirits, which often end up reinforcing the loci
and making them stronger:
• Spirits can conceal themselves within a locus and
the surrounding area of influence. Generally, spirits are
as visible in the Shadow as people are in the street. The
resonance that the locus creates between the spiritual
reflection of a place and a spirit of a similar type allows the
spirit to merge with the area around the locus, becoming
part of the place. This makes them much, much harder
to fight or destroy. A spirit who goes dormant within a
locus cannot take any action without revealing itself, but
it cannot be perceived by anything short of a supernatural
ability even to observers standing in the spirit world.
• Werewolves and other beings capable of entering
the spirit world can usually cross the Gauntlet only within
a locus’ area of influence.
• Spirits seeking to flee across the Gauntlet can
do so much more easily at an appropriate locus. The
spiritual resonance spilling out of the locus attunes the
Gauntlet to that spiritual energy, making it more permeable
to spirits whose nature matches the resonance.
A spirit can also make use of a locus if it’s altered its
resonance through consuming appropriate Essence. All
attempts by spirits to cross at an appropriate locus gain
+2 to the appropriate roll.
• Spirits may use their Numina across the Gauntlet at
a locus of the appropriate resonance, without needing the
Reaching Numen.
• Spirits re-form or regenerate more quickly at a locus.
Standard healing or regeneration rates double for spirits in
a locus as long as their resonances are generally compatible.
For instance, a spirit of sleep would be unable to benefit
from a locus with a powerful electrical resonance.
• A locus generates a number of points of Essence
equal to its level x 3 per day, all with resonance that
matches that of the locus. This Essence is available only
from the spirit world side of the locus. The Hisil around a
powerful locus is often mobbed by local spirits vying for a
drink, which can make things very dangerous if the spirits
are particularly aggressive and unwilling to share. In addition,
other supernatural beings, even those as seemingly
spirit-blind as vampires, have been known to attempt to
control a potent locus for obscure reasons. It’s unclear
whether they stand to benefit from the Essence, from the
overall effect of resonance, or from some even more subtle
effect, but now and again they come into contention over
loci all the same.
FORGING A LOCUS
Creating a spirit locus takes 150 points of appropriately
resonant Essence per dot of the locus required. The
Essence must be allowed to pool in the area of the locus
for at least a week without being consumed by spirits,
werewolves or any other creature. During that period, the
Essence gradually settles into a single object within the
immediate area, which becomes a locus when a critical
mass of Essence builds within it. After one week, all the
listed benefits come into effect, and the locus starts to
generate its own Essence. Loci can be strengthened by
repeating this process, or by preventing any spirit from
consuming the natural Essence produced by the locus.
Once 150 points have accumulated and settled, the locus
increases by one dot.
Loci arise naturally when events happen in the
physical world that create vast quantities of Essence over
time, without attracting too many spirits to the site. Secret
events, such as clandestine murders, hidden celebrations
and lone suffering, are more likely to create loci than are
stimuli like wars, pop concerts and overcrowded hospitals,
which are well-known sources of Essence, fully plundered
by spirits.
DESTROYING A LOCUS
The simplest path to destroying a locus is simply to
find and destroy the physical object — grind the statue to
dust, demolish the asylum, smash the rock spar. However,
despite being a stationary object, a locus is not without
its defenses. Their whole environment is fighting to keep
things as they are. That statue, for example, has had the
chance to fundamentally warp the Shadow around it. The
city square takes on a mourning resonance, depressing the
spirits of people who walk past and allowing a grief-spirit
to hide within the landscape. Soon after the statue is
destroyed, people passing through the square start to feel
sad about its destruction, and then utterly miserable. If the
statue is rebuilt, it can again become a locus of its original
resonance, if somewhat tainted by a memory of loss. But if
it’s mourned but never replaced, the space could become a
locus of entirely different form.