The Laughing Hyena

Combat the Wyrm wherever it dwells and whenever it breeds

The falling of the Shadow Curtain around Russia was initially celebrated by the Garou. Once more they could communicate with their neighbors. But as time has passed it has become clear that it held in as many creatures as it kept out. And they have slowly been rallying behind a new power somewhere in tha Carpathians.

The Margrave is not just a warlord but a great Theurge as well. While much of his time is consumed with fighting obvious Wyrm threats, he can see the signs of some more subtle corruption gathering. He sees the shadow of great wings passing over the land. Strange flowers bloom only by moonlight for a single day and leave those that touched them somehow…changed. The winds bring the faint smell of decay, seemingly with no source. Their Kin are born with minor defects or covered with a caul. Strange foreigners come to offer their aid to deal with the sickness. The Margrave withdraws to the peak of a sacred mountain to seek a vision and feels a faint tremor beneath the ground as of some great beast breathing… and waking from a long slumber.

The Margrave calls for a Concolation and his allies echo him, carrying the message far and wide that anyone who has insight into the problem should come. As the Garou gather and pool their info it becomes clear it is not a new power at all. An Old power returns… or perhaps never left… and many question how the Shadow Lords could have missed such a great evil in the heart of their lands…

Kupala Rising introduces 16 new cards for the Rage CCG and kicks off the Concolation block. Kupala Rising focuses on a threat big enough to bring the Garou together to actually try to work together to defeat it before it actually triggers the Apocalypse itself.  All around them they see the Fourth Sign coming to pass.  Can they actually work together or will the Wyrm finally win?

In the mists of prehistory, the werewolves worked alongside the other Changing Breeds to safeguard Gaia against the many threats to Her existence. The werewolves’ pride and their great Rage drove them to murder their cousins, leaving Gaia’s children forever broken.

Nobody knows quite what happened to spark the Wars of Rage, or what life was like when the Changing Breeds worked together.

Until now.

W20 Shattered Dreams presents an in-depth look at the pre-history of the Werewolves and the Changing Breeds, both the threats that drove them to war and the War of Rage itself. The book showcases many time periods and many ways in which the War could start, so that players and Storytellers can make prehistory their own.

While the TV realm is hardly brought up in the book, I wouldn’t be surprised if it has linkage to the Astral Umbra or is part of the Astral Umbra.

Secondly, there are a ton of conceptual spirits listed in the W20 Umbra book. And a lot of what you are talking about spirits of conceptual ideas or belief also shows up in the Mage: the Ascension game setting, since that game is all about that. Especially the Revised Dreamspeakers Tradition book.

On a sidetrack, though: I think what’s pretty hilarious are the Mage: Digital Web books, since the Mages pretty much go, “Well, maybe a Glass Walker or two is aware of this place. But the werewolves don’t stay for long because they can’t stand the place.”. And yet, they also fully admit that icons/avatars can be sometimes hard to tell what that person really is. So a werewolf icon might really just be another Mage or sleeper, for example. Meanwhile, the Mages probably have no idea that Garou have fully exploited the Digital Web through backdoors via the Astral Umbra that the Mages haven’t picked up on yet. Meanwhile, the Garou visiting the Digital Web think that the icons they encounter are conceptual spirits of the internet.

Rank 5 Glass Walker Theurge from Vancouver. But he died. I know he died.

But I can’t remember where I read it. I have all these books at my disposal, but I have a feeling it happened in a novel that I don’t possess.

There was a large Wyrmhole created near the Great Caern, but it was an adventure for the players to work towards taking it down, so that’s probably where the ST got the idea to have the Caern fall.

I’m sure most Werewolf fans first heard about Daly’s death in A World of Rage (W:tA Revised), but if you were into Mage you knew way earlier than that.

Yep, I’ve been reading/looking/searching the other White Wolf books for scraps here and there about the Garou. Daly’s death is first recorded in the Technocracy book: The Syndicate (First edition). This is because Diefenbakker’s Casino (Construct) is located in Vancouver.

In addition, they don’t mention him outright by name, but do give the wolf pelt hanging in The Timberwolf Lodge this description:

It’s time for some Werewolf: The Apocalypse news! Work on Shattered Dreams and Changing Ways continues apace; in the meantime we’ve been working on some web enhancements that W2o players and Storytellers can use to spice up your games.

First up, we have the Ozuzo — fallen werehyenas written by Leath Sheales in response to a request on our forums.

Ozuzo — Fallen Ajaba

The Hidden Rain

Once, the Ajaba were proud and strong. Once, before the Dark Times, the choosers of the slain culled the weak to keep populations strong. The werehyenas weren’t hypocrites — they applied their sacred duty to their own people as well. Ajaba who were too old, ill or weak to fulfil their duties were killed in accordance to Gaia’s plan.

Now, Black Tooth’s crusade has scattered the Ajaba to the different lands of the Earth, and weakened them to the point that their numbers are too low and they’re too desperate to practice their duties on anyone, let alone their own. Now, they allow their weak to live.

Before the Dark Times, the Ajaba were perhaps the most pure of the Changing Breeds. None of their kind had ever been known to fall to the Wyrm. The Ajaba’s strength kept them free of the Wyrm’s hold. By monitoring each other, they could identify weakness early and cull the vulnerable shapeshifter before he could become a threat.

The weakened Ajaba gave the Defiler Wyrm the chance to take hold. The Ajaba’s strength made them ignorant of how the Wyrm would seek to corrupt them, and this was a blindness the Wyrm waited to exploit. All it needed was something to sink its claws into, and Black Tooth’s crusade gave it the opportunity.

The Ajaba despise their weakness; they hate the loss of their homelands and the fact that they fled rather than fight to the end. No Ajaba likes this feeling, and those who know they should be culled despise themselves with an intensity that calls to the Wyrm. The Defiler Wyrm offers these chosen few a chance to turn their weakness into strength. All the prospective Ozuzo has to do is prove his ultimate weakness by debasing himself before the Wyrm, sacrificing his strongest trait, and admitting defeat.

Once the fallen Ajaba has given his power to the Wyrm, its servants impart hidden knowledge to give the Ozuzo false strength and the power to lead other Ajaba into darkness. The Ozuzo learns how to steal the strength of his fallen foes, and exudes an alluring charisma that draws those of werehyena blood to him. The Ozuzo prefer to kill the strong over the weak, because they view any strength that isn’t theirs as their own weakness. The fallen Ajaba grows stronger from feasting on the souls of his opponents; while murdering the strongest most empowers the Ozuzo, in a pinch anyone will do. The Wyrm always benefits from weakening the pack.

To the blind Ajaba, the Ozuzo appear to be the saviors of the Breed, but it’s a lie. Their strength is the demise of other shapeshifters, and they’ll lead the Ajaba to war in the name of the Wyrm, proving as they survive that they’re stronger than everyone — including Gaia.

Opportunity, or Design?

Did the Defiler Wyrm simply take advantage of the weakness Black Tooth’s Rage inflicted on the Ajaba, or did it whisper to the Simba in the dark, urging the Bastet to assault the werehyenas and create the opportunity? No one except possibly Black Tooth knows, and it’s unlikely he would be drawn on the subject. Storytellers should feel free to use whichever scenario best suits their chronicle.

Strength from Weakness

The Wyrm provides three Gifts to the fallen Ajaba so they can lead the other werehyenas into its clutches. These Gifts are deliberately of lower level than such powers would normally be – the Wyrm cheats the universe to ensure its weak new servants can best serve its designs. Ozuzo can teach these Gifts to other Ajaba, but until the werehyena sacrifices her strength to the Wyrm, the Gifts remain inert.

Strength of the Fallen (Level One) — Ozuzo steal the greatness from their defeated shapeshifter foes, unmaking their essence and using their strength to serve the Wyrm.

System: The Ozuzo spends a point of Willpower while devouring her foe’s entrails, organs or other parts traditionally left for scavengers. Prime meat is worthless for this Gift. For each pound of flesh she eats, the Ozuzo adds a temporary dot to any Attribute. She may take a maximum number of dots equal to the victim’s Rage or Gnosis; choose which on activating this Gift. Each time the Ozuzo rolls using an enhanced Attribute, remove one temporary dot. The Ozuzo also loses one temporary dot from her highest Attribute each dawn. (Player’s choice if several Attributes are tied for highest.) This loss stops when the Ozuzo reaches her normal Attribute rating.

The Ozuzo must have delivered the killing blow for this Gift to work, but can capitalize on wounds that others have inflicted. The victim need not be fresh; this Gift works on foes killed within a number of days equal to the Ozuzo’s Gnosis.

Matriarch’s Scent (Level One) — Regardless of the Ozuzo’s gender, Rank or deeds, the Ajaba react to his presence as if he had the power and authority of a matriarch. This supernatural presence also affects anyone carrying the blood of the werehyenas.

System: The Ozuzo reduces the difficulty of all Social rolls with other Ajaba by 2, and with Ajaba kinfolk by 1 (minimum 4). This power is always active.

Scent of Rain (Level One) — The Wyrm’s taint slides from the Ozuzo like scent washed away in the rain. The Ajaba are especially blind to the serpents hiding among them.

System: Any use of Gifts or other powers by Ajaba to detect the Wyrm automatically fail to detect its presence on the Ozuzo. This power is always active. The Ozuzo may also reflexively spend a point of Gnosis to extend this effect against anyone who isn’t actively working against her, at the moment her ally uses their power. Her enemies may smell the Wyrm on her, but her allies never will.

Weakness from Strength

The Ozuzo’s pact with the Wyrm mitigates her weakness, but imparts new drawbacks as well. On sacrificing her strength to her patron, the Wyrm devours one of the fallen Ajaba’s Yava (determined randomly), and replaces it with a new curse. For every lunar cycle that the Ajaba doesn’t consume another shapeshifter’s strength, she permanently loses a dot from her highest Attribute. If several Attributes are equal highest, the player may pick which one suffers the loss. This dot doesn’t return when the Ozuzo fulfills her compact with the Wyrm – it can only be regained by purchasing it again with experience.

Creating the Fallen

Fallen Ajaba tend to be physically weaker than others of their kind; Physical Attributes are almost always tertiary. Ozuzo lose one dot from their primary Attributes, given as their sacrifice to the Wyrm. Distribute the Primary Attribute dots as normal, then remove the highest dot — the Wyrm demands that the Ozuzo sacrifices her only strength to it.

Oookay so this has really been bothering me since I looked over the conversation (presumably) between the author and Bill. Haven’t seen it? Check it out at: http://gravityfalls.wikia.com/wiki/Search_for_the_Blindeye

If you are interested, I actually talked about this on the Mystery Shack forums long ago under the thread: What is Bill Cypher's weakness(es)?

Posts are under “Laughing Hyena”. But yeah, the “Life imitates art” line always really stood out to me. In that thread I made the guess at Bill being a Tulpa or thought-form. And that he is trying to become real.

In journal #3 there is a passage on the Island head monster page-> X

"…There is no other place I would rather be in Gravity Falls than the lake. It reminds me of my childhood.

…Glass Shard Beach.”

If so, there's actually another connection that links back to these two. In "Scary-oke", flashes of symbols go by quickly on one of the screens for the Portal. It's scanning/searching for these symbols/items in each sector and when it doesn't find any, it goes to another sector to repeat the process.

November is a Werewolfstravaganza! More W20 products are now available on DriveThruRPG:

W20 Umbra: The Velvet Shadow available in advance PDF

Beyond the Material

Only foolish werewolves believe that they can win the war against the Wyrm in the physical world alone. Some use the Penumbra as a shortcut, a staging ground, or as a way to set traps for spiritually-aware foes. Others take Moon Bridges to the Realms of the Near Umbra, seeking powerful spirit magics or a concentration of the Wyrm’s forces headed to attack Gaia. Some cross into different spirit worlds again, hoping to find some undiscovered lore that might turn the tide in their favor. And a few werewolves whisper of the existence of creatures blessed by Gaia herself, giving of Herself to stave off the Wyrm’s corruption.

The World’s Reflection

This book presents the spirit world of the Umbra as seen and understood by the Garou and their fellow shapeshifters, providing players and Storytellers both with new information about the various spirit worlds. It includes a detailed look at the animistic Umbra as the werewolves know it, with new information on the Penumbra and the Realms. Storytellers can use the information on the Astral and Dark Umbrae — in both the Penumbra and the spirit world itself — to present unfamiliar spirit worlds that bring new challenges to the Garou. The book also contains details on the Kami, creatures and places possessed by the energies of Gaia herself.

Umbra: Velvet Shadow contains:

A detailed look at the Penumbra, the major Realms of the Near Umbra, and the Astral and Dark Umbrae.

New information on the animistic spirits of the Near Umbra, including plenty of new spirits to liven up the spirit world.

New lore and systems for the Kami, chosen of Gaia, and a host of example chosen.

W20 Book of the Wyrm available in PDF and print:

Coils of the Corruptor

From the Umbral realm of Malfeas to the boardrooms of Pentex and its subsidiaries, minions of the Wyrm plot to kill Gaia. Warped fomori, monstrous Banes, and Wyrm-tainted shapeshifters lash out at the world with acidic claws. The Maeljin Incarna steals the easily forgotten, ignored, or missed to populate their perverse realms. Factories belch smoke that blackens the sky, and toxic waste floods into rivers and seas. The heads of the Hydra see what they have done to the world and know that it is good.

Strangling the World

Once long ago, the Wyrm was an agent of Balance. Now, strangled by the Weaver’s webs, it strikes out in madness and pain. If it can poison the world, sow cancer and disease throughout all that is, it might finally be free.

Book of the Wyrm contains:

All-new lore and background on the corrupting Wyrm.

Information on the Wyrm’s minions, from fomori to Skull Pigs to Chulorvia.

what game?

werewolf- the apocalypse.

Here's the link to the W:tA Introductory Kit. However, I'm going to say it's a bit outdated since it was made during the time of W:tA Revised edition (2001). I kinda wished Onyx Path made a W:tA 20th edition Quickstart like they did with the Mage 20th Kickstarter.