Lodge of the Shadow's Storm

Kunula Sun-Killer, founder of the Lodge of the Shadow's Storm

The Lodge of the Shadow's Storm is a Lodge of the Storm Lords.

The spirit patron of the Lodge of the Shadow's Storm is Kali-matutsi.

Overview

Kali-matutsi was born from a thousand storm-spirits uniting into one. It died - or rather, it diminished - when its separate parts began to break off over time. What remains now serves as the totem for one of the tribe's most secretive lodges.

The secret at the heart of the lodge is found within a vast underground cavern beneath Mount Konocti in California. Here is the Cave of the Eyeless, where Shadow and physical world meet as one. Pomo legend speaks of such a place, as yet undiscovered by modern day archaeologists. After a long drought ending in 1818, Pomo wanderers found a great lake under the mountain where eyeless fish swam in the blackness. This was a place where the Gauntlet was so thin it eventually wore away, and the eyeless creatures lurking down there, blind eels and fish splashing in the water, were darkness-spirits given physical form.

Kunula found this cave with her pack. Her army of storm-spirits was rising, yet fractured and directionless with little cohesion and barely any capacity for obedience. It could not be unleashed as it was, so Kunula followed the trail of Pomo legend for the truth at the end of the journey.

In the Cave of the Eyeless, the subterranean heart of the dormant volcano range, was the spirit of the once-wrathful peaks. The soul of the Clear Lake Volcanic Field was incarnated here, immense and mighty even as it slumbered. Lodge legends describe it as a 'serpentine creature, with a body of ten thousand coils made of smoke and feathers of fire.'

Kunula (soon to become the Sun-Killer) bound the great spirit, shackling it to her will with terrible rituals demanding sweat and blood beyond anything else she had ever done. This great spirit was then joined to the gathered storm-spirits, and at that moment Kunula's control over the god-like energies crumbled. The wrath of Nature itself ravaged the Shadow for a year and a day, earning her the name Sun-Killer and doing terrible damage o the Shadow across much of North America.

It's deep, dark shame for the Storm Lords that one of their own caused so much havoc. Merely entering the Shadow became difficult, as the winds repelled those who wished to cross through the Gauntlet. Packs were driven to the edge of madness by the number of spirits blown through from the Shadow on the waves of spiritual winds. Oaths were broken. Territories were lost. Many Uratha died, with the Urdaga blaming the Anshega and the Pure blaming the Forsaken.

The Lodge of Storm's Shadow hides the truth of this dark evet from the other tribes. They also hide the fact that Kali-matutsi still lives, the hybrid of volcano and storm, slumbering in the black depths of the Cave of the Eyeless.

Now they work to keep it from ever waking again.

Membership

Recruitment into the Lodge of Shadow's Storm is problematic, and has been so since the lodge's birth. For many years, only members of the Pomo people were allowed within the lodge, which kept the lodge at a minute size for decades. Now that the lodge has opened its gates to others among the tribe (by necessity, for there were too few left to maintain a lodge for much longer), its members are still careful about just who they let into the big secret.

The totem for the Lodge of Storm's Shadows is Kali-matutsi itself, though it slumbers and its presence in the lives of those bound to it is little more than a whispered voice from time to time, like the mumbles as a sleeper dreams. Each time someone joins the lodge and swears the oath to watch over Kali-matutsi's sleep, the great spirit slips a little deeper into rest. Each time the lodge loses a werewolf to death or renunciation, the tainted storm-spirit stirs in its sleep and comes that much closer to awakening fully.

Amongst their packs, Stormwardens tend to be among the more spiritually-inclined, with even members of deep-urban packs spending time and effort to make ties with spirits in the Shadow that allow the pack to call upon elements of the weather as an allied force. When a true storm breaks, be it in Shadow or in the world of flesh and stone, one will always find a Stormwarden outside in the rain, staring up at the clouds seeking portents and omens, patterns in the dark clouds.

Game Mechanics

The following are an overview of the game mechanics.

Prerequisites

Member of the Storm Lord tribe; knowledge of at least five rites.

Benefits

Characters are shown to create a Gusuku Headdress, as appropriate for their auspice, and they are let into the secrets kept by the lodge. They also learn how to perform the extremely rare Rite of the Ruined Tongue - a secret many other lodges would kill for.

Fetishes

Guksu's Headdress •••: On the surface, a werewolf holds in his hands a tattered headdress of feathers, pebbles on strings, dried leaves and old leather. Not too pretty, and certainly a far cry from the majestic Native American headdresses worn by ranking tribesmen so long ago.
A Guksu Headdresses is a holdover from previous centuries and used almost exclusively by the Storm Lords of North America, especially among those in whose veins still beat Native American blood. A werewolf must create one using seven different materials from his own territory: wire from a chain-link fence, feathers dropped by pigeons or crows, carved pebbles from a public park now shaped like the face of Skolis, leather from a jacket bought at a local store and so on. The only element that must always be present is the fact feathers must be used, though the type of bird they come from doesn't matter. Once the headdresses is created, a raven-, coyote- or lizard-spirit is bound into the fetish to complete it.
Guksu Headdresses were used by Pomo Storm Lords (as well as those in other tribes) to identify auspice roles among the Iminir. More than that, the fetishes enhanced the werewolf's abilities to fulfill her duty, and infused her with the courage and willpower to go one step closer to perfection.
The following section details the Attribute and Skill bonuses imbued by the activated fetish, determined by auspice. Upon creating the fetish, the maker (or the purchasing player, if bought at character creation) can choose the Attribute and Skill boosted by the headdress, which remain the same throughout the fetish's use.
Rahu: Full Moon characters wearing their headdresses gain +1 to any Physical Attribute and +2 to any Physical Skill on the turn it is activated. Any successful rolls using the enhanced Skill while the Headdresses is activated will restore one point of Willpower.
Cahalith: Gibbous Moon character gain +1 to any Social Attribute and +2 to any Social Skill on the turn it is activated. Any successful rolls using the enhanced Skill while the Headdresses is activated will restore one point of Willpower.
Elodoth: Half Moon characters gain +1 to any Social or Mental Attribute and +2 to any Social or Mental Skill on the turn it is activated. Any successful rolls using the enhanced Skill while the Headdresses is activated will restore one point of Willpower.
Ithaeur: Crescent Moon characters gain +1 to any Social or Physical Attribute and +2 to any Social or Physical Skill on the turn it is activated. Any successful rolls using the enhanced Skill while the Headdresses is activated will restore one point of Willpower.
Irraka: No Moon characters gain +1 to any Physical or Mental Attribute and +2 to any Physical or Mental Skill on the turn it is activated. Any successful rolls using the enhanced Skill while the Headdresses is activated will restore one point of Willpower.

• Action: Instant

References

• WTF: Tribes of the Moon, p. 176-178