Kitsune Fetishes

Kitsune Fetishes are fetishes unique to the Kitsune.

Overview

The werefoxes keep their fetishes to themselves like most other hengeyokai, but not in quite the same manner. Kitsune have a great love for magic, and see fetishes as some of the most elegant and potent toys that the world has to offer. The fetish culture of the Beast Courts is horribly stuffy to the Kitsune viewpoint, and so the foxes quietly maintain their own fetish traditions away from their neighbor's eyes. The Kitsune freely make and destroy fetishes and talens, even lending them to one another to gain face or repay favors. They enjoy acquiring fetishes made by other hands as well, as long as those fetishes are interesting and well made. In many ways, their approach to the creation and use of fetishes is very Western- they simply keep it ticked away from their fellow hengeyokai, so they can enjoy themselves without censure.

List of Kitsune Fetishes

• Plenipotentiary - Level 1, Gnosis 5 - Those who know the ways of the Beast Courts say the Kitsune work as their diplomats and spies, and should be treated with suspicion. For those not familiar with their ways the werefoxes are just another unwanted shapeshifter intruding upon territory. In any case the Kitsune know that they can defray suspicions if given the opportunity to speak. Plenipotentiaries look like discreet jewelry, often rings, bearing fox images stylized with icons representing the Kitsune's Court.
• Enchanting Fan - Level 2, Gnosis 5 - These fetishes were at the height of their popularity in older times, when a lady's fan was a common accessory for social functions. Even today Kitsune occasionally make use of Enchanting Fans when the setting is appropriate. These fans are made of paper, intricately painted with detailed scenes of landscapes or similar relaxing images, and bound with spirits of willow trees or flowers. When activated and brandished during a polite conversation (usually in demurely flirtatious fashion), and Enchanting Fan adds one die to all of the Kitsune's Social rolls. Although useless in hostile situations, these fans are prized because they are so subtle; any attempts to determine that the fan is a fetish or to detect the supernatural gift of charm are at +3 difficulty. It is considered a minor coup among Kitsune society to use an Enchanting Fan to one's benefit at a hengeyokai court gathering with nobody but one's fellow Kitsune noticing - dangerous, and therefore commendable.
• As-You-Will-Sleeve Jacket - Level 3, Gnosis 6 - Chinese myth speaks of wondrous "as-you-will" items that change their size and shape at the bearer's command. The most famous of these is the as-you-will cudgel of Monkey from Journey to the West, but the Kitsune have adapted the principle to many tools that are not weapons. One example is the jacket (or kimono, or other loose-sleeved garment) with as-you-will sleeves. There garments are always of the highest quality, durable and elegantly embroidered, and bound with a monkey-spirit. By activating the fetish, the Kitsune may stretch one or both sleeves out to a distance of thirty feet, and mentally command them to twist and slap as if they were the fox's own limbs. The sleeves can wrap around an opponent, strike as hard as a fist, or even be used to life a Kitsune out of harm's way. The sleeves are treated as having a Strength rating of 6.
• Kazami Hinatsune: Dokko - Level 5, Gnosis 4 - Dokko is a sorcerer's dagger. This dagger has three short blades on both ends of the handle. On a successful melee attack, along with the expenditure of a Gnosis point, it bites into the flesh of the opponent and will remain imbedded. The sorcerer can cast spells at the victim through the dagger, no matter how far the target may run. If the dagger is pulled out of the victim's body, it causes two health levels of damage, but the "homing effect" is negated. If the owner ever loses the dagger, he will find it among his possessions after three days.

List of Kitsune Talens

• Curse Needles - Gnosis 5 - These innocuous little weapons take a variety of forms - they may be sewing needles, acupuncture needles, hairpins, even worn as piercings by the occasional werefox. They are generally thrown weapons (Dexterity + Athletics to hit, difficulty 7), although a Kitsune can certainly place one by hand. When activated and plunged into an opponent's flesh, a curse needle does no actual damage, but hampers the nervous activity of the victim until removed. As long as the needle remains in his flesh, the victim acts as though his wound level were one greater than it actually is; thus, Bruised person loses one die from all actions as if Hurt, and a person at Crippled is immobilized if struck by a curse needle. The effect is cumulative for each needle stuck into the victim. The true danger that curse needles pose is that they don't cause any pain or even sensation when they enter the flesh; a sufficiently stealthy Kitsune could place three separate curse needles in a foe's back without him ever noticing. Unless the victim actually sees the needle being thrown, launched or even spat (some Kitsune carry a curse needle under the tongue) at them, it takes a Perception + medicine roll, difficulty 9, to notice a needle's impact. Curse needles cannot penetrate solid body armor, but even the smallest gap (such as between a Mokolé's scales) is enough for a needle to take effect.

Hengeyokai Fetishes

See Hengeyokai Fetishes here.

References

• WTA: Caerns: Places of Power, p. 94
• WTA: Hammer & Klaive, p. 39, 103-104
• W20: Changing Breeds, p. 136