
Frank Tate, Ithaeur member of the Lodge of the Crossroads
The Lodge of the Crossroads is a heretical lodge focused on the link between the Shadow and American folklore.
Overview[]
The lodge was founded in 1931 by Tom Steele, an Iron Master who allegedly encountered the Devil at a crossroads. While members don't deny the origin of the Uratha in Pangaea, they regard it as irrelevant. Instead, they focus on the things modern humans believe in, and how the Essence generated by those beliefs can shape the Shadow. For instance, stories about a haunted house or a serial killer might attract fear spirits to a specific area, whose manifestations reinforce the legend in a self-sustaining cycle. To the Lodge of the Crossroads, such phenomena should be encouraged when they help create a more harmonious relationship between the Flesh and the Shadow, and stamped out when they make things worse. [1]
The lodge does not have an official patron spirit or totem, but longtime members are certain that something is watching over them -- perhaps the Devil Tom Steele met back in '31. While this patron makes no demands of the lodge, its hand is visible in the strange luck many members experience.[2]
Membership[]
Members of the lodge tend to be iconoclasts among the Forsaken, including Iron Masters, Bone Shadows and Ghost Wolves. They go through an initiation process called "legend tripping," when they investigate the site of a haunting, a famous crime, or another place charged with folkloric significance. What they actual find varies: there may be spirits, magath, or ghosts in the area, or even stranger supernatural phenomena beyond the People's usual ken. Their unseen patron seemed to ensure that whatever they find, it's not boring.[2]
Game Mechanics[]
Prerequisites[]
Cunning ••, Investigation •, Occult •• [3]
Benefits[]
Members of the Crossroads Lodge gain a Contact (•) in the “weird” or “freak” subculture of cryptozoologists, legend trippers, conspiracy theorists and folklore occultists. Lodge members’ exposure to these groups and their methods of investigation also allows them to purchase Skills at a reduced experience cost — Investigation, Occult and Stealth become new dots x2 instead of new dots x3.[3]
Fetishes[]
Heritage Tooth (Talen): a projectile made from material linked to a folk legend, such as an arrow whittled from a gallows tree or a bullet cast from the fender of a ghost car. These add +3 to the Attack roll of any supernatural creature born or changed in the Americas.
Heritage Fang (•••••): A Heritage Fang is a permanent weapon, one that was fashioned from a piece of American folklore. Only the most senior lodge members bear these immensely valuable relics; Tom Steele is rumored to have carried the hammer of John Henry, and rumor has it that another of the lodge currently holds a crossbow strung with strings from the Devil’s own fiddle. When activated, a Heritage Fang grants a +1 bonus against any American-born (and American-Changed) supernatural enemy. In addition, such fetish weapons use the “9 again” rule regardless of opponent. Some are said to have additional powers, but bear curses along with them — John Henry’s hammer was said to flood the bearer’s strength, but at the cost of his stamina.[3]
References[]
- ↑ WTF: Blasphemies, p. 86
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 WTF: Blasphemies, p. 87
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 WTF: Blasphemies, p. 88