Metis Gifts

The metis has the power to create a small amount of one of the four basic elements -- fire, air, earth or water. In this way, she can replenish the air supply in an airtight room, make a rock to throw at someone, create a fire without matches or wood, or even fill a bathtub without any faucet or pipes. The metis cannot create specialized forms of any element. Precious metals (especially silver), lethal gases and acid are beyond his reach. This Gift creates only natural air, earth, fire and water. Elementals teach this Gift.

The metis learns to focus the anger within her heart and use it to increase her Rage. The anger takes a physical toll on the werewolf, and it is up to her to unleash it on her enemies. The spirits of ancient metis teach this Gift. Few members of other breeds have suffered enough shame and suffering to learn this Gift.

The werewolf can sense manifestations of the Wyrm in the nearby area. This Gift involves a mystical sense, not a visual or olfactory image, although werewolves using the Gift sometimes say things like, "This place stinks of the Wyrm" (with a few more colorful adjectives). Garou should remember that the Wyrm's taint can cling to relatively blameless souls. Werewolves may sense an innocent person who happens to work in a Wyrm-controlled factory or who has eated tainted food. This power requires active concentration. Any spirit of Gaia may teach this Gift.

The Garou knows the trick of shedding and growing fur at an alarming rate. This Gift makes the Garou especially difficult to grapple successfully; opponents find themselves holding tufts of fur instead of their target. The Garou can also slide through tight spaces using his shedding fur as natural lubrication. A lizard-spirit or snake-spirit teaches this Gift.

Those who learn this Gift gain the ability to burrow through the earth. They make a real tunnel, and others can follow them through it. The digger creates a burrow just large enough for her to go through. Others may follow, but they are limited by the size of the hole. The werewolf must be in Crinos, Hispo or Lupus form to use this Gift as she needs her claws for digging (although even metis without claws can use this Gift). The tunnel is not structurally sound, and it will collapse over time. Mole kindly teaches this Gift to all metis who seek him.

This Gift grants the ability to burrow through the earth, creating a tunnel roughly the size of the digger's body, which others can follow through. The werewolf must be in a form possessing claws to use this Gift. Mole-spirits teach this Gift.

(Camp: Bitter Hex)

The metis may verbalize the hatred in her heart, disheartening opponents with the intensity of her emotion. A spirit of hate teaches this Gift.

This Gift empowers the Wyld spark that resides in all Garou, granting the character greater control over her shapeshifting abilities. A wolf-spirit teaches this Gift.

In a world where he must fight fang and claw to fit in, the metis can use all the help he can get. This Gift allows him to change superficial aspects of his appearance, blending in or standing out as he wishes. The spirit of any animal that changes its color seasonally can teach this Gift, such as the stoat or ptarmigan.

Metis sometimes have to hide in all the wrong places at the wrong times. With this Gift, they can take best advantage of their surroundings to get away and take a breather. The spirit of a Cockroach teaches this Gift.

Like the Gift’s reptilian namesake, the Garou can blend with her natural surroundings. Unlike the lizard, the werewolf shifts fluidly with changing backgrounds, thus allowing the Garou to move about and even attack. A chameleon- or octopus-spirit teaches this Gift.

The werewolf may see clearly in pitch darkness. His eyes glow a lambent green while this power is in effect. Any cat-spirit can teach this Gift, although werewolves who make enemies of the Bastet will have trouble finding teachers.

Homids and lupus have no idea what it's like to grow up as a metis, never changing from Crinos form for years upon years. This Gift, taught by any aerial spirit, lets a metis give other a taste of what spending extended time in Crinos is really like.

This Gift grants metnal communication, even over vast distances. The user must either knownthe target personally (although he does not have to be friends with tat person) or have something that belongs to that person, such as a lock of his hair. Bird spirits and spirits of intellect teach this Gift. Owl is a particularly sought-after teacher, and those who learn from him claim to have enhanced abilities at night.

Among the Garou, the metis are the ultimate underdogs, born to a stigma they never asked for. Reminders of this can fuel their Rage in battle. An ancestor-spirit teaches this Gift.

Consider the state of a metis cub. He is outcast from birth, knows this from the moment he can talk, and is trapped within a body that reacts powerfully to his slightest emotional twinge. Once you appreciate this state, it becomes easy to understand how this Gift was first learned. Shell places an emotional and instinctual barrier around the metis. A turtle-spirit teaches this Gift.

This painful Gift causes the metis' claws to splinter as they pierce flesh. Tiny bits of claw imbed themselves deep in the victim's body, thus causing tremendous irritation. Healing such a wound without first removing the splinters is both painful and stupid. Unfortunately, the Gift's user loses her claws until she spends a round regenerating new ones. A tree-spirit teaches this Gift. Glass Walkers or Bone Gnawers can learn this Gift from spirits living in houses or other wooden constructs.

Metis often possess angry hearts, and in their own way, they have a keen understanding of Rage, no matter what their auspice. This Gift allows them to affect the Rage of other werewolves, causing their enemies to expend more of it than necessary. A Badger-spirit teaches this Gift.

When using this Gift, the werewolf undergoes a startling transformation. Her fur becomes elongated, bristly and sharp like the quills of a porcupine. This change makes her an even more fearsome killing machine. A werewolf must be in Crinos, Hispo or Lupus form to use this Gift. Porcupine teaches this Gift, and he has a great fondness for metis.

The metis’s eyeteeth lengthen, and she can inject a deadly poison with her bite. Some elder Garou look down upon this Gift as a deformity. Spider- and snake-spirits teach this Gift.

Survival at any cost and victory at any price; these are the tenets that keep the Garou fighting in the face of overwhelming adversity, and the metis understands them well. He can pour his Rage into the single-minded pursuit of his goal, keeping himself going when many others would have fallen. Spirits of fury or servants of Boar teach this Gift.

With a snarl and an angry gaze, the werewolf forces a target's arm or leg to twist, desiccate and wither, making it useless. Creatures with regenerative abilities will restore the limb to full function after one scene; otherwise, the effects are permanent. Snake-spirits, spider-spirits and other venomous spirits teach this Gift. Some werewolves even invoke spirits of disease to learn this Gift.

The metis struggles his whole life to find a place, a purpose and a sense of stability in his horrifying existence. With this Gift, he can force others to face their inner demons, including insanity and madness. The nature of the derangement varies among individuals, but it will always be severe, making it impossible for the victim to function normally. Lunes, along with spirits of trickery and madness teach this Gift.

Born misshapen, the metis takes her deformity and makes it a source of power. She can twist her flesh in any number of ways, sprouting a number of unnatural features, from extra limbs to additional mouths to grasping tentacles. A Chimerling teaches this Gift.

Due to the metis' strong ties with Garou society, she can plead directly with her tribal totem, gaining some of its power. The effects of this Gift depend on the nature of the tribal totem power. Rat (totem of the Bone Gnawers) might send swarms of rats to attack the Garous's enemies, and Grandfather Thunder (totem of the Shadow Lords) might smite the Garou's enemies with a blast of thunder and lightning. The potential of this Gift depends only on the favor of the totem, and it may cross over into the miraculous. Only the tribal totem teaches this gift.

Some Stargazer metis have used this Gift to deliver a fatal blow to unsuspecting enemies, even knowing that the cost will be their own lives. After a Garou has been dealt her own deathblow, if she invokes this Gift, she may strike her enemy once more ere she dies. It's bittersweet but often leads to an enemy falling dead alongside the metis warrior. This Gift is taught by a Cobra-spirit.

The metis body is strange. Born in a form not intended by Gaia or nature, deformed and occasionally showing signs of animals entirely unrelated to man or wolf, it is little wonder the breed has been outcast and hated. But some metis have used this body to their advantage, and it is perhaps this strangeness that allows their body to withstand the pressures this Gift inflicts. With this Gift, the metis can partially reach into the Umbra, sending certain body parts into the Umbra while maintaining others in the physical world. Doing so makes the metis difficult to hit in combat, to say the least. A Pattern spider teaches this Gift.