Rank 1 Bone Gnawers Gifts

When it rains, it pours. Thankfully, Bone Gnawers with this Gift don't need to worry about that. The Gift turns any appropriately sized box into a windproof, waterproof, soundproof home that is always warm and dry, regardless of what it's like outside. If large enough, the box may house more than one person as long as everyone is friendly toward each other. The Bone Gnawer may also set up a house for someone else, but that person must accept a gesture of affection (a handshake is sufficient) from the Bone Gnawer first. The Gift is taught by a hearth-spirit

The Garou must have a small pot (a coffee can will do) and a ladle or spoon to use this Gift. He places whatever he can find into the pot -- trash, beer cans, old newspapers, etc. -- adds water (spit counts) and stirs. The result is a pasty, bland-tasting mush that is nevertheless edible and filling.

By spending at least an hour studying a written text, the Garou can memorize vast passages of information word for word. The effects work like a cross between speed-reading and eidetic memory. Actually understanding or accessing the information is difficult, but repeating it by rote is simple. Lupus Garou cannot learn this Gift, but remarkably enough, illiterate homids can; for the Gift's duration, they can decipher all sorts of "funny little squiggles" on paper. The Garou must be fluent in speaking the language he is reading. This Gift is often taught by Rat Finks and Frankweilers. Rat Finks use this Gift to transfer sensitive information in a format that's difficult to steal. Frankweiler Galliards use this Gift repeatedly on their favorite plays and novels. This Gift is taught by a bookworm-spirit, a favorite Gaffling of Frankweilers.

In times of great trauma, desperate people have displayed amazing feats of strength and endurance. With a burst of adrenaline, a mother can lift a truck off a pinned child, or a father may smash through a wall to save his family. Through strength of will, a Bone Gnawer may channel that same desperate energy. If another packmate has fallen or been captured, the Garou may use this hideous strength in a desperate effort to help his pack.

With ten minutes, a bit of rage, and everyday household chemicals, you can unleash a firestorm of vengeance against an uncaring world. You have a deep and instinctive understanding of the principles of modern chemistry, one that allows you to scratch-build and detonate explosives. (This Gift exists to cancel out the need for any sort of "realistic" explosive rules in the game.) Rat-spirits teach this Gift, occasionally with the help of a few furtive cranks on the internet.

Many Bone Gnawers learn a preternatural resistance to poisons and toxins of all kinds, doubtless due to their diet of refuse and American beer. A trash-spirit teaches this Gift.

A target the Garou touched at some point during the last hour begins to exude a wonderfully sweet aroma, and becomes slightly sticky to the touch. All manner of vermin quickly appear and coat the victim. The resulting coat of gnats, flies, bees and beetles crawls, stings, and generally impairs vision and hearing. Insect-spirits teach this Gift.

You're good at sizing people up. With a few sniffs, you can smell how successful someone really is. Even on a bad day, you can sense whether he's got money in his pocket, a steady job, or a place to stay. When passing by street folk begging for change, some people claim they don't have anything to give. By repeatedly sizing up people on the street, Bone Gnawers learn to distinguish a real bad-luck case from a cheap bastard who doesn't give a damn. After mastering this elemental talent, the Garou can then sniff out deeper secrets from passers-by.

Many city Garou use this Gift when facing off against just about anything with a particularly sensitive nose: this can include other Garou, Black Spiral Dancers, and a host of normal animals or Wyrm-creatures. The Gift incapacitates its target by overwhelming its sense of smell with the stink of the city: sweat, blood, human waste, rot, smoke, and car exhaust.

Commonly used by Bone Gnawers residing in a sept controlled by other tribes, this Gift ingratiates the Bone Gnawer to a pack's or caern's totem for a short time. While the Gift is in effect, the Gnawer is treated as a member of a pack with regards to using the totem's blessings and any pack tactics the pack knows. If used on a caern toem, the totem looks favorably upon the Bone Gnawer. The Gnawer may then perform the Rite of the Opened Caern, if he knows it, without fear of retribution. A lost-dog-spirit, a spirit servant of Rat, teaches this Gift.

(called Nose of the Hungry Hound in the 1st Bone Gnawers tribebook and just Hungry Hound in the revised)

The Garou can mark a person or place with a scent only other werewolves can sense. The mark is subtle; placing it isn't. This Gift is taught by lost-dog-spirits.

The refuse of humanity provides all the canny Bone Gnawer needs. Through the use of this Gift, any broken object can be temporarily restored to full functionality and usefulness. A raccoon-spirit teaches this Gift.

If your home has no walls, sleeping can be a nightmare. There's no guarantee that someone won't sneak up on you to steal your stuff... or even take your life. Some werewolves solve this problem by sleeping in packs, but it never hurts to take extra precautions. Rural Garou set twigs and branches that easily snap underfoot; Bone Gnawers rig the same warnings with tin cans, tripwires, or even broken glass. With a little mystical aid, a werewolf can enlist spirits in similar defenses. The werewolf can never be sure exactly where the boundary of the urban ward is set but he may be paranoid enough to spend more time setting multiple layers of trash around his encampment. This Gift is taught by a Rat-spirit, who usually warns its student to always collect trash and shy things for just this purpose.