Toys (Corax)

Toys are fetishes unique to the Corax.

Overview

The nature of magical trinkets available to Corax is often limited by the fact that half the race simply doesn't think like a tool-using species. With that being said, however, there isn't a Corax alive who doesn't like having some sort of surprise up her sleeve - or wing. As such, there's a steady market for barter of toys, gadgets and gewgaws among the Corax, who either barter information for them or, or rarer occasions, make them. (Rumors that Corax have a predilection for stealing others' talens and fetishes are merely the scurrilous slander perpetrated by assorted absentminded Bête who couldn't remember where they'd left their nice shiny new fetishes and needed to blame the Corax who innocently happened to be in the neighborhood at the time and...err...ahem. In any case, it's not true.)

List of Corax Toys

• Inane Conversation - Makes any conversation that an outsider listening in as unintelligible.
• Silver Claws - Level 1, Gnosis 5 - Dangerous in the extreme, Silver Claws are usually only worn when combat with another member of the Bête is inevitable. While the Claws are actually made from stainless steel, when a Corax cuts his palm and lets a drop of blood fall on each one, they suddenly transmute into purest silver. The Silver Claws are, in form, exactly that: a set of wickedly hooked and serrated claws that fit over each of a Corax's combat-form claws. At the end of a battle, the Claws return to their normal, inert, harmless content. Supposedly, there is a variation of this fetish in which the claws transmute to gold instead of silver, though no reputable Croax has ever seen such a thing. Gold claws would only be useful against Mokolé or other Corax, after all, which raises disturbing questions about what sort of Corax would be twisted enough to commission or create such a thing.
• Corvid's Favor - Level 1, Gnosis 2 or 5 - Nothing more than a feather plucked from a corvid's head and wrapped with a single strand or the bearer's hair, this fetish allows a Croax to use any Corvid-form only Gifts while in Homid. While it doesn't permit a Corax in Homid to fly, it does grant access to those knacks that are generally only available to the feathered members of the family.
• Ultimate Shiny - Level 1, Gnosis 6 - As a general rule Corax fetishes tend to be dour things, deliberately mucky and dark so as not to distract the most easily distracted of the Changing Breeds. The Ultimate Shiny, however, is the exception to this. It is a piece of tinfoil or cellophane, or some other worthless but sparkly piece of nothingness, bound with a sunlight-spirit. When activated, it shines insanely brightly to Corax until the next sunset or dawn, whichever comes first. Anyone other than Corax sees no change in the object whatsoever, but Corax won't be able to miss it from miles away. The fetish has a wide variety of uses. Planted on a suspicious person, it makes a fine tracking beacon. It can be used to signal other Corax for a Parliament. If the owner has another Corax as a rival or enemy, ir makes an exceptional diversion, albeit a double-edged one that is no safer for its user.
• Silver of Helios - Level 1 or 2, Gnosis 3 or 6 - With the connection the Corax have to the Sun, it's not surprising that on occasion, Helios lets that ravens carry around bits of his radiance. A Silver of Helios is exactly that: a dagger-shaped slice of sunlight that can illuminate even the darkest night. To use a Silver of Helios, the Corax simply unwraps it (it's a good idea to keep a Silver wrapped up, for obvious reasons), at which point it illuminates a 10' by 10' area with sunlight. Needless to say, any vampires caught within this area (for some reason, the light fills a cube, not a sphere as one might expect) take normal damage as from sunlight. Otherwise, however, the Silver simply serves as a glorified, very bright flashlight. It is impossible to dim the Silver in any way - it's an all-or-nothing type deal. If anyone attempts to use a Silver like a dagger, under the mistaken impression that form follows function, the blade immediately shatters and the light goes out at once.
• Counterfeit - Level 2, Gnosis 3 or 6 - Sad to say, certain Corax have a small problem with kleptomaniacal tendencies. Many of the things the Corax consider to be worth stealing are rare and/or valuable, rendering the theft risky. With that in mind, survival-minded Corax get their hands on a Counterfeit, which is nothing more than a clay tablet impressed with Raven's sigil and painted white. Most Counterfeits are three inches long and inch across, though are there are no hard and fast rules. What a Counterfeit does is ingenious. When charged with a point of Gnosis, a Counterfeit can morph itself to look like any single small object to which it is touched. Ideally, the object in question is one that the Corax has just stolen and needs to replace immediately. Clever Corax keep an eye on those whom they've slipped Counterfeits, because more than a few victims have thrown the fetishes away in anger at being tricked. The wise Corax makes sure he's in a position to retrieve the abandoned Counterfeit, which hopefully is undamaged and ready to be used again.
• Raven's Face - Level 3, Gnosis 3 - Generally, only the Corax of the Pacific Northwest have access to this particular fetish, which takes the form of a totem pole capped with Raven's visage. When properly prepared, the fetish can serve as a Gnosis repository, holding up to 3 points of spiritual energy for each Rank of the Corax who carved the icon. As the Corax who created the fetish advances in Rank, the capabilities of the totem pole increase as well. To invest Gnosis in Raven's Face, the Corax needs only to perch on top of the pole and spend the Gnosis he wants to store, here's no additional cost; the Gnosis simply drains from the raven into the totem pole. When the time comes for withdrawal, the Corax simply reverses the procedure and the Gnosis flows back into him. Raven's Face can be used by any Corax, and indeed many of these fetishes are set up as community Gnosis banks throughout the Northwest Corax' territory. To Corax eyes, a "charged" fetish appears to have a slight heat haze around it, which is the only way Raven's Face can be distinguished from a more mundane sort of totem pole. The Gnosis contained within these fetishes is inaccessible to anyone except Corax - after all, it's kind of hard for Garou to perch.
• uPhone - Level 3, Gnosis 8 - The Corax claim to have invented this fetish - in truth, they stole a prototype from a Glass Walker and they quickly improved upon the design. The fetish is made from a normal smartphone with a Chimerling bound within. The uPhone works as a normal smartphone anywhere on earth, without charging the wereraven for calls or data use. When activated it can call other uPhones regardless of distance, even between Umbral realms or across the Gauntlet.
• Helios' Mirror - Level 5, Gnosis 4 - There are only a few shards of the mirror originally used to trick Helios back into the world still extant, and the Corax who possesses one is accounted lucky indeed. A fragment of Helio's Mirror is not something one carries around, as even the smallest is at least a foot long; usually they are kept in homes or safe places in the Umbra. What a chuck of the Mirror allows, however, is nothing short of miraculous. All the possessor needs to do is mention a name or place, and, if that person or location is on the daytime side of the planet, the Mirror shows the requested scene. The Corax can gaze into the Mirror for as long as she desires, or until the image depicted slides into the darkness of night. The mirror cannot show anything on the night side of the planet, nor can it display anyone in the Umbra, but it does make an excellent tool for checking up on errant Corax who haven't shown up for Parliament for a while. The Mirror can be used at any hour of the day or night, but only once per day. Overuse or abuse of the Mirror can cause the fragment to shatter. The object of the Mirror's scrutiny has no idea that he is being watched, though with a successful Perception + Empathy roll (difficulty 7) he does get an itchy feeling between his shoulder blades (or the equivalent).

Corax Talens

• Sneeze - Gnosis 7 - The name "Sneeze" is fairly recent for this quite old talen, but the name has spread. It comes from a Corax in Chicago who dubbed the talen a "Ditchu" or "Ditch you." The name sounded like a sneeze, and not everyone simply calls it a Sneeze. Despite the flippant name, this is a seriously useful talen and that aforementioned Corax has a very well considered name for it - it is designed with the express intent of ditching those who would try and hurt the Corax. Sneeze is not exactly made from glamorous stuff - it's dirt. But this dirt is bound with a skunk spirit, and after the Corax activates and blow it into his opponent's faces, the dust automatically causes blindness and their eyes to string furiously, rendering them helpless for a single turn. It's not much, but it's enough to give the Corax a crucial edge in the combat... or more commonly the chance to fly like hell. A single dose can blind up to three opponents.

Ahadi Fetishes

(Makunguru) See Ahadi Fetishes here.

Hengeyokai Fetishes

(Tengu) See Hengeyokai Fetishes here.

References

• WTA: Corax, p. 86-87
• WTA/cMET: Laws of the Wild: Changing Breeds 1, p. 100-101
• WTA: Hengeyokai: Shapeshifters of the East, p. 115-116
• WTA: Hammer & Klaive, p. 101-102
• W20: Changing Breeds, p. 102