Werewolf: The Forsaken - Blank It

•••• Create The spirit can create a new example
of its sphere of influence: create an
emotion, create a new sapling or
young plant, create a young animal or
brand new object. The cost is four
Essence.
••••• Mass Create The spirit can create multiple
examples of its sphere of influence:
it can trigger its emotion in multiple
people, create new copses of trees,
small groups of animals or multiple
identical items. The cost is five
Essence. A number of items, or people
affected, equal to the spirit’s Rank
come into existence. Alternatively, it
may create one instance of its sphere
of influence permanently (although a
spirit cannot permanently alter the
mindset of a sentient being).
Changes made through Influence are usually temporary.
A spirit with sufficient Influence can increase the
duration of the effect to a level based on the difference
between the Influence score necessary for the effect and
the spirit’s total Influence dots.
The level of the effect and the level of potential
duration are added together to determine the Influence required.
For instance, a fear-spirit with Influence ••• could
use a Strengthen effect lasting for one hour per success (at
the cost of two Essence), a Manipulate effect lasting for 10
minutes per success, or a Control effect that lasts only one
minute per success. The spirit need not use the Influence
power to its utmost ability. The fear-spirit with Influence
••• could use the Strengthen effect with a lower duration,
such as one minute per success.
Level Duration
0 One minute per success. No additional Essence cost.
• Ten minutes per success. No additional Essence cost.
•• One hour per success. The cost is one additional Essence.
••• One day per success. The cost is two additional Essence.
•••• Permanent. The cost is two additional Essence.
Spirits of Incarna Rank and above probably possess
abilities beyond these. Those beings are so rarely seen
near the physical world, however, that their opponents
will have far more to worry about than their abilities to set
whole towns ablaze, drive an army away in fear or create a
forest from nothing.
ESSENCE
Essence is the heart of all spiritual activity. It’s the
money, food and drink of spiritual life. All spirits need
Essence to survive, but the more they obtain, the more
powerful they become.
USES OF ESSENCE
Spirits use Essence in a number of ways:
• A spirit must spend a point of Essence per day to
survive. This expenditure usually takes place at moonrise.
If the spirit has no Essence to spend, it falls into slumber
until it manages to gain Essence somehow, such as by being
immersed in a new flow of Essence.
• Spirits use Essence to use their Influences.
• Spirits can use Essence to temporarily boost their
traits on a one-for-one basis. Each such boost lasts for
one scene.
• A spirit that has fled into the physical world must
expend one point of Essence per Rank per hour as long as
it remains ephemeral (which is to say, without possessing
a host body or using the Numen: Fetter). It cannot regain
this lost Essence until it either gains a fetter or crosses
back into the Shadow. If a spirit loses all its Essence while
in the physical world, it passes into slumber and is drawn
back across the Gauntlet into the spirit world, losing a
point of Corpus from the rough transition.
• As long as a spirit still has some Essence, it isn’t
destroyed when reduced to zero Corpus, but rather discorporated
(see p. 276).
REGAINING ESSENCE
Spirits regain Essence in a number of ways:
• They gain one point per day by being in proximity
to the thing they reflect. For example, a tree spirit gains
a single point per day when it stays near a physical tree.
Obviously, a spirit can earn only as much as it needs to
stay alive in this fashion.
• Once per day the spirit may try to draw Essence
from an appropriate source in the physical world by rolling
its Power + Finesse, as affected by the local Gauntlet
modifier. (It can sense such a source automatically up to
one mile away.) The number of successes indicates the
number of points of Essence gained. At a locus of appropriate
resonance, the spirit may add additional dice equal
to the strength of the locus. For example, if an ancient
tombstone is also a two-dot locus with death resonance, a
death-spirit could add two dice to the roll to draw Essence,
but a cat-spirit couldn’t.
• The spirit may barter for additional Essence from
werewolves or other spirits.
• The spirit may attempt to steal Essence from
another spirit by making a contested roll of its Power +
Finesse against the target’s Power + Resistance. If the attacker
wins, the number of successes indicates the number
of points of the target’s Essence that are siphoned off by
the attacker. If all the target’s Essence is stolen, the victim
spirit falls into slumber. If the target wins, the attacker
loses a number of points of Essence equal to the successes
scored by the target.
ESSENCE RESONANCE
All Essence has a resonance about it, a flavor that
derives from how it was produced. Spirits can consume
any type of Essence they like, but the resonance they
accumulate affects them. For example, a tree spirit that
absorbs Essence with an urban resonance starts to look
well pruned and slightly dusted by pollution. If it absorbs
Spirit Rules
275