Rank 5 Black Furies
Camp: The Temple of Artemis
When Persephone entered the lands of the dead with Hedes, her lover, her mother, Demeter, the harvest goddess, went in after her. As an aspect of Gaia, Demeter understood her daughter’s desire for Hades, but refused to let a powerful spirit remain in the deadlands for long. Eventually, Persephone acquiesced to return to the living realm, under the agreement that she could periodically return to Hades’ side, and could return to the Underworld eventually.
Demeter agreed to this arrangement verbally, but eventually performed a secret ritual to block her daughter from entering the realms of the dead. Such travel is, after all, counter to the proper way of things. Embittered by her now-permanent separation from her lover, Persephone taught a number of favored Black Furies the secret roads into the land of the dead; these secrets have been passed down by Persephone’s servitor spirits and aged Garou to the present day. Technically, use of this Gift violates one of Gaia’s laws – “The living live, and the dead remain dead.” But since it is only used by the most ancient and respected Black Furies, and even then only in the most extreme circumstances, few punishments have come down onto those forced to use it.
System: Spend 1 Gnosis and roll Gnosis (the difficulty is the local Gauntlet) to step sideways into the lands of the dead. If the Fury succeeds, she enters the Dark Umbra rather than the Penumbra. She can remain there for only a single day (24 hours), after which point she must cross back to the mortal realm (rolling to step sideways as usual) or risk eternal capture in the ghost-world. If the character takes more than 24 hours to return, the Gauntlet equivalent increases by 1 for every 2 hours the Fury remains past the deadline: when it reaches 10, the Fury is trapped and will begin her afterlife as a ghost. She will not become an ancestor-spirit.
The dead lurk near places, people, and things that were important to them in life, and they are creatures of almost pure emotion in death. They are still coherent, thinking beings, but are occasionally possesed of a terrible hate and fury toward the living, and may attack without provocation. When not so enraged, they do have most of their memories of life, and are likely to be willing to answer the Fury’s question if the two were friendly in life. This scene should be roleplayed out: no dice roll is an appropriate way to describe the character’s encounter with a deceased love one.
Note: Storytellers with access to Wraith: the Oblivion are welcome to use that game’s version of the afterlife – in place of the Gauntlet rating, use the local Shroud, and so on.
Source: Tribebook: Black Furies (Revised)
