Lodge of the Screaming Moon Member
The Lodge of the Screaming Moon is a Lodge of Forsaken.
Overview[]
Aliases: Hellhounds, Black Cadejos, Banshees
The Lodge of the Screaming Moon seek to master fear itself. Fear is weakness, and weakness is unacceptable. The true predator does not hesitate before even the most awful of prey. Adherents work to purge themselves of fear, to turn themselves into apex predators beneath whom all other horrors of the night must quiver and shake.
Screaming Moon banshees take creatures of fear and terror as their sacred prey. Fear-spirits and their Claimed, sadistic serial killers, phantasms that literally scare people to death and other such horrors are all holy quarry for the Lodge. Hunting and slaying these beings is proof that the banshee is an apex predator and that her will is stronger than the horror that the prey wields. A disturbing amount of Screaming Moon cultists also take a deep pleasure in bringing down such prey, often terrorizing the victim as much as possible in a gleeful act of retribution.
The Screaming Moon recruits most of its cultist from the Bone Shadows and Storm Lords. Some adherents have been terrified or traumatized by abusers or horrors of the night and sworn to never be a victim again. Others crave to be apex predators feared by the very monsters that terrorize others so easily. The bulk of the Lode is made up of Cahalith, already disposed to being nightmarish hunters.
The Forsaken admire the fearlessness of Screaming Moon cultists, but even werewolves can be unsettled by the Lodge's grotesque terror tactics and cruel playfulness. The Screaming Moon adherent doesn't want to just bring the prey down - she wants it to feel the same terror it would inflict on others. An initiate into the Lode undergoes ghastly, charnel rituals to harden her stomach, and stiffen her spine. She's brought into the practice of the kilisu-zithu, girding herself with grim trophies and frightening adornments. The Lodge regularly declares hunts on its own members - banshee Cahalith assault the mind of the sleeping adherent, testing her resolve and dredging up her deepest fears. Those feats are brought before the Lodge to be studied and understood, then given to summoned fear spirits that the banshee can tear asunder in a symbolic defeat of her weakness.
The Lodge of the Screaming Moon pays particular heed to dreams. The preponderance of Cahalith in its ranks leaves the Lodge uncannily prescient; in some regions, banshees gain respect more for being a community of prophets and diviners than they do for their talents at the hunt. The Lodge also maintains considerable knowledge of dream-beasts, nightmare plagues, and other phenomena of the realm of sleep.
Totem: Zakinsuzi, The Tyrant Over Fear[]
Zakinsuzi inspires awe and fear in equal measure. It is a cascade of screaming masks of steel and pearl and marble; streams of sparking white light and cold ice roil within the spirit's mass. Eyes of gold and flame orbit in circles around it. Most outsiders who know of the totem at all believe it to be a spirit of fear or bravery, and the banshees encourage this misconception. Zakinsuzi is actually a Lune of the Gibbous Choir.
The mad power of the Lune is diluted by the many banshees who share the Lodge bond, but it still affects every adherent. For some, it's like a maddening itch that just makes them a little crazy around the edges. For others, it's a sense of power and lover streaming into their skull in constant, distant wail. Elder Lodge members are worse, afflicted with twitches, involuntary laughs, drooling, or occasional fugues.
The Tyrant Over Fear is deeply invested in its cult - some would say it's almost desperate. Zakinsuzi regularly manifests to Screaming Moon congregations to offer words of love and guiding prophecies. The Lodge's reputation for divination and visions isn't just down to the number of Cahalith in its ranks; the Tyrant bestows signs and portents upon all its adherents, and even visits the dreams of cultists' Wolf-Blooded relatives to terrorize and inspire them.
The Lune desires to be established as a queen over all courts of fear. Screaming Moon adherents are often directed not just to destroy powerful fear spirits but to dominate them. Zakinsuzi dispatches its own servants to take over spirit courts that the Screaming Moon has decapitated. The Tyrant claims to have Luna's sanction for these actions, yet it still seeks to keep its own involvement secret from the wider Forsaken community for now.
Bonds[]
- Blessing: The Lodge member achieves an exceptional success with Intimidate rolls on 3 successes rather than 5. Killing prey that the adherent has successfully intimidated earlier in the scene rewards her with 1 point of Essence.
- Aspiration: To rule through fear.
- Ban: At the moment of the kill, the prey must scream or else the adherent must howl.
Game Mechanics[]
The following are an overview of the game mechanics.
The Sacred Hunt[]
The Lodge Sacred Hunt grants your character the ability to overcome any supernatural fear or panic effect originating from the prey or obstructing the hunt by spending 1 point of Essence, although it may affect other characters as normal. If the effect would also inflict damage (such as a ghost literally scaring people to death) then the damage is also negated if your character spends 1 point of Essence. If your character possesses the Fearless Hunter Inspiration Facet, then she does not need to spend Essence for these benefits.
Tools[]
The Lodge of the Screaming Moon has access to the Lodge Lorehouse and Lodge Sorcery Merits, and may choose Influences from Fear, Inspiration and Moonlight.
Banshee Howl (Pack Rite 
)[]
This rite draws upon pacts with spirits of fear and doom, denying lesser predators their kill.
Symbols: Death, earth, screaming, water
Sample Rite: The banshee unstops the cork from the vial, and pours the stolen tears held within onto his cheeks. He pulls and tears at his clothes, moans and wails, seizes handfuls of wet mud from the ground, and smears it on his skin. As he casts back and forth, reciting the names of his kills as if they were beloved kindred, his wailing grows to a shrieking howl. (Presence + Expression)
Action: Extended (5 successes; 1 roll per round)
Duration: Until sunrise.
Success: This rite lays claim to every death across an area of a mile's radius around the ritemaster, affecting any corpses in the are at the time of the rite and any killings for the rite's duration. A supernatural creature cannot gain any strength from such killings during this time; a nightmarish serial killer regains no Willpower from his slayings, a murder-Claimed cannot benefit from the Home Ground Dread Power when standing in its victim's blood, and a fear spirit cannot draw Essence from the terror of humans witnessing the violent slaughter of their friend. The ritemaster and his pack are unaffected by this.
