Background Cost: 6
A spirit of luck, and particularly of bad luck. Nuwisha that follow Chung Kuel fight the Wyrm by causing a host of small and large problems (that all seem like chance) to befall their enemies.
Individual Traits: Chung Kuel’s followers can cast bad luck on targets that deserve to suffer. Once per story (not necessarily at the player’s request), the Storyteller rolls a single die. On a 1, nothing happens. On a 2-9, something minor inconveniences the target of the Chung Kuel’s attention. Rolling a 10 means almost certain disaster for Nuwisha’s focus as chance turns against him. The Storyteller and the Nuwisha’s player should work together to determine the exact results. Followers also add two dice to all Stealth and Subterfuge dice pools.
Ban: Followers can only use their abilities against those who knowingly follow the Wyrm.
Kishijoten
Background Cost: 4
A spirit of gentleness and healing, Kishijoten’s Nu-wisha use humor to bring comfort to their allies, while
listening and offering quiet advice. Many Nuwisha consider this the most difficult face of Coyote to follow because doing so demands great patience and kindness.
Individual Traits: Followers gain one extra Bruised Health Level and add two dice to Medicine dice pools.
Ban: Followers must always stop to help the injured, but need not aid followers of the Wyrm.
Kokopelli
Background Cost: 4
A spirit of celebration, joy, and fertility, Nuwisha who follow Kokopelli enjoy themselves to their utmost and encourage their fellows and allies to do the same.
Individual Traits: Followers gain a dot of Stamina and add two dice to Performance rolls when playing musical instruments.
Ban: Nuwisha who follow this totem can never strike anyone in anger.
Loki
Background Cost: 7
The Liesmith is a spirit of war who believes the best lessons are written in blood. While most Nuwisha prefer to hang back when others charge into battle, followers of Loki leap to the forefront of combat, taking as much joy in bloodshed and mayhem as a Get of Fenris.
Individual Traits: Loki grants his followers one ad-ditional Bruised Health Level and an extra dot of any one Physical Attribute, which can increase the Attribute above 5.
Ban: Followers must always accept formal challenges to combat, even from the Wyrm. They must also offer their kills as sacrifices to Loki.
Oghma
Background Cost: 8 (not available during character creation)
A bard and scholar, Nuwisha who follow this face of Coyote carry the memories and stories of their Breed with them, and teach by gently humiliating those who refuse to learn by other means. Nuwisha cannot choose to follow Oghma — he chooses them when he deems them worthy.
Individual Traits: Followers can use an additional 5 points of Willpower every story. When in a formal con-test to teach another individual humility, they can gain either five temporary dots spread amongst their Mental Attributes or four temporary dots spread amongst their Physical Attributes. The distribution of those dots can change in each contest.
Ban: Followers of Oghma can never strike another in anger.
Ptah
Background Cost: 5
A spirit of wisdom, mysteries, and mystical travel.
All Umbral Dansers follow Ptah (save those few chosen by Oghma), and so he is by far the most popular of the faces of Coyote.
Individual Traits: Followers reduce the difficulty of passing through the Gauntlet by 3 (to a minimum of 3).
Only Nuwisha who follow Ptah are capable of performing the Rite of Dansing. Followers may use the Gift: Sense Wyrm freely while in the Umbra, and, while there, age at a fraction of their normal rate.
Ban: Ptah asks that his followers defend the stars from all that would cause them harm.
Raven
Background Cost: 5
A knowledgeable and watchful spirit, Raven’s follow-ers are careful observfollow-ers who spend much time with the Garou, frequently walking among them as one of their own.
They council and guide Gaia’s warriors, often without the werewolves knowing where the wisdom truly comes from.
Individual Traits: Followers gain two dots of Enigmas and dot of Subterfuge. The Corax offer welcome and hospitality to Raven’s children.
Ban: Raven asks that his children never carry wealth;
they must trust that Raven will provide for them.
Ti Malice
Background Cost: 4
A spirit of lying, theft, and treachery. Many of Ti Malice’s followers go into business to wreck harmful corporations, and ensure that making a living in ways that serve the Wyrm becomes increasingly difficult
Individual Traits: Ti Malice adds two dice to all Manipulation and Enigmas dice pools.
Ban: Followers must show no mercy to the weak, especially in business deals.
Xochipilli
Background Cost: 5
A spirit of chance and especially of risk, Nuwisha who follow this totem take great joy in risking almost certain death and living to tell the tale. Even many werecoyotes consider those who follow Xochipilli to be insane.
Individual Traits: Followers gain three dots of Sur-vival. Xochipilli also grants five soak dice when performing outrageous and exceedingly dangerous stunts. This special ability only works when the odds are very much against the Nuwisha surviving the encounter. Optionally, Storytellers may simply state the follower survived, but was badly injured by an event that would have obviously killed anyone else.
Ban: Followers can never turn away from a dare, even one that seems suicidal.
Breeds
The Nuwisha have two breeds, homid and latrani (coyote-born).
• Homid: While growing up, most homid werecoy-otes were clowns, show-offs, or eccentrics. Instead of trauma and bloodshed, their First Change often involves a sudden understanding of how much more fun they can now have. Thankfully, this is quickly followed by the realization that their fun with comes a responsibility to teach and to make their pranks meaningful.
Beginning Gnosis: 1
Starting Gifts: Persuasion, Master of Fire, Smell of Man
• Latrani: Just as coyotes are far more common than wolves in North America, latrani are considerably more common than lupus Garou. Like all of their species, latrani grow up curious and playful. Often their First Change occurs just as the consequences of their curiosity is about to catch up with them.
Beginning Gnosis: 5
Starting Gifts: Hare’s Leap, Heightened Senses, Prey Mind
Auspices
Due to an ancient trick that Coyote played on Luna, she sees all werecoyotes as though they were Ragabash Garou. As such, they can learn Ragabash Gifts, and increase in rank as though they were Ragabash Garou, with Humor replacing Honor.
Forms
Like the Garou, Nuwisha have five forms.
• Homid: For a long time, the vast majority of Nuwisha came from Native American stock, but these days Coyote’s blood has spread to every ethnicity. Most Nuwisha tend to look scrawny and rather trail-worn in Homid form.
• Tsitsu: Nuwisha gain several inches in height in their near-man form, along with ten to twenty pounds of muscle. This form is considerably less hairy than a Garou’s Glabro form, and werecoyotes in this form look fairly human and have little difficulty speaking.
• Manabozho: In this form, Nuwisha stand almost eight feet tall and gain two and a half times their Ho-mid mass. They can still speak human languages in Manabozho, but in a voice that is deep and gravelly. This form inflicts reduced Delirium as though the victim’s Willpower were two points higher.
• Sendeh: Resembling the nearly extinct red wolf, the Sendeh form is larger than a coyote (and stronger than the Latrani form), but smaller than a grey wolf. Nuwisha
can-not speak in this form but they can mimic other sounds, including laughter, screams, and the cries of other animals.
• Latrani: The Latrani form appears to be an ordi-nary coyote, and is the natural form of the latrani breed.
Gifts
Homid Nuwisha can learn homid Garou Gifts, and latrani Nuwisha can learn lupus Gifts. Any Nuwisha can learn Ragabash Gifts. Players choose three Gifts when making Nuwisha: one breed Gift, and two general Nuwisha Gifts from the list below. Gifts listed as Umbral Danse are only available to Umbral Dansers and will not be taught to those outside of that group.
• Camouflage (Level One) — As the Wendigo Gift.
• Coyote’s Intuition (Level One) — By taking time to look over an individual, the Nuwisha receives a powerful gut intuition of what subject the target least wants to talk about at that moment. A coyote-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: After a few moments of scrutiny, the player rolls Perception + Subterfuge (difficulty of the target’s Willpower).
• Earworm (Level One) — Catchy tunes often run through people’s minds and disappear as soon as they hear
the next song. A Nuwisha using this Gift can make a simple tune drive the victim to despair. Some Nuwisha use this Gift constructively, singing a code-phrase or a sequence of num-bers to guarantee that the listener will be able to remember them for days to come — though the coyote’s victim remains distracted all the same. A mosquito-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The Nuwisha hums, sings a tune or jingle while looking at his target, and rolls Wits + Expression (difficulty equal to the target’s Willpower). Success makes the sound play endlessly in the victim’s mind for one day per success.
The victim can still sleep, but increases the difficulty all rolls requiring concentration and any extended action by +2.
• Emperor’s Clothes (Level One) — Even the noblest individuals can be brought low by public embarrassment. A Nuwisha with this Gift can whisk an item of clothing off a person with a simple grab — no matter how difficult it should normally be to remove. A magpie-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The Nuwisha rolls Dexterity + Larceny (dif-ficulty of the target’s Dexterity + Athletics) and pulls at the item of clothing. On a success, she grabs the garment from the target. The Gift offers no protection from an enraged, pants-less Ahroun, so the trickster had better start running. Coyote doesn’t appreciate the same joke told over and over again, so this Gift can only be used on an individual once per night.
• Finders Keepers (Level One) — The Nuwisha whispers her victim’s name, and claims Coyote’s favor to teach him a lesson. She leaves a spiritual mark on the victim that other Nuwisha and spirits can see. Nuwisha may choose to ignore the mark and interact with the victim, but risk a loss of Renown if other Nuwisha find out. The mark compels spirits to avoid the victim until
Form Statistics
Tsitsu Manabozho Sendeh Latrani Str: +1 Str: +2 Str: +2
Dex: +1 Dex: +3 Dex: +3 Dex: +3 Sta: +2 Sta: +3 Sta: +3 Sta: +3 Man: –1 Man: –2 Man: –3 Man: –3 App: +0 App: 0
the werecoyote has taught him the error of his ways. A cat-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The Nuwisha spends a Gnosis point and touches the victim. Nuwisha and spirits automatically see the spirit mark, but do not know who has placed it. A spirit must roll Gnosis (difficulty equal to the Nuwisha’s Willpower) to be able to approach or communicate with the victim.
• Laugh of the Vagabond (Level One) — As the Bone Gnawer Gift: Laugh of the Hyena.
• Rabbit Run (Level One) — As the Silent Strider Gift: Speed of Thought.
• Salaryman (Level One) — The Nuwisha is at home in any crowd, just another forgettable face — even if she’s bleeding from the gut and wearing a clown mask. As long as she’s in a group of humans, amost nobody can recognize her or pick her out. This Gift is taught by a City Father or Mother.
System: The difficulties to spot the Nuwisha in any group of three or more humans (or human-like su-pernatural creatures such as shapeshifters or vampires) increase by three, to a maximum of difficulty 9. This Gift is always active.
• Scent of Sweet Honey (Level One) — As the Bone Gnawer Gift.
• Secret Question (Level One) — Asked a question intended to verify someone’s identity, this Gift provides the correct answer. The Nuwisha may say anything in response and the targets hear the correct answer, be that the password to a secret society meeting or a telephone-banking password. The werecoyote does not know what the victim heard. A fly-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The player spends a point of Gnosis and rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge, difficulty 7. A single success is all that is required, but each question requires another use of the Gift — even if someone new asks a question that the Nuwisha has already answered. This Gift may also be used on websites by pranking the pattern-spider within a computer. Each field that the Nuwisha doesn’t know is a separate use of the Gift.
• Sleep of the Ages (Level One) — Sometimes the best tricks need the target to sleep through anything.
This Gift ensures that northing short of physical contact will wake the sleeper. A sloth-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The Nuwisha must touch an already-sleeping target, and roll Gnosis (difficulty of the target’s Will-power). Each success gives one hour during which noth-ing except direct physical contact will wake the victim.
• Snake’s Skin (Level One) — As the metis Gift: Shed.
• Spirit Speech (Level One) — As the Theurge Gift
• Swollen Tongue (Level One) — The Nuwisha can cause a target’s tongue to swell with a touch, pre-venting speech for the rest of the scene. A spider-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The character touches her target, and the player rolls Gnosis (difficulty of the victim’s Willpower).
Three or more successes also cause the target’s hands to fumble when she attempts to sign or write.
• Twin-Faced Trickster (Level One) — As the Black Fury Gift: Man’s Skin.
• Two Tongues (Level One) — As the Fianna Gift.
• Beneath the Electron Bridge (Level Two) — After spending a few minutes in conversation with her mark, the Nuwisha may intuitively grasp the exact, precise thing to say to send the target into a frothing rage. This Gift makes humans furious and provokes frenzy checks in creatures capable of them (such as Garou and vampires). Once obscure (due to the hazards of deploying it face-to-face), this Gift has experienced a recent resurgence in popular-ity after the discovery that it works just fine through text messages or across the internet. A flea-spirit teaches it.
System: The player spends one Gnosis point and rolls Wits + Empathy (difficulty 8) to come up with the perfect worst-thing-to-say.
• Command Spirit (Level Two, Umbral Danse)
— As the Theurge Gift.
• Curse of Tiresias (Level Two) — The Nuwisha may force an individual to see how the other side lives, rapping them smartly over the head and transforming them into a member of the opposite sex. A seahorse-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The player spends a Gnosis point (and must roll Dexterity + Brawl or Melee, difficulty 6, to strike an unwilling target; this inflicts no damage). The transformed individual bears a close resemblance to their original appearance — they appear to be an opposite-sex sibling, rather than a wholly different person. This Gift’s effects last for (Nuwisha’s Humor) days.
• Distractions (Level Two) — As the Galliard Gift.
• Gift of the Termite (Level Two) — As the Bone Gnawer Gift.
• New Face (Level Two) — The Nuwisha may completely change her appearance, seeming to be of any race, gender, and canid species she desires. However, this transformation only affects her Homid and Latrani forms. A spirit servant of Kishijoten teaches this Gift.
System: The player rolls Manipulation + Expression, difficulty 6, and spends a Gnosis point. This Gift lasts for (Cunning) days.
• Odious Aroma (Level Two) — As the Bone Gnawer Gift
• Otter’s Breath (Level Two) — As the Uktena Gift: Spirit of the Fish.
• Sheep’s Clothing (Level Two) — The Nuwisha may perfectly mimic the forms, scent, and outer mark-ings of another breed of shapeshifter (though not of a specific individual). A cuckoo-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The player spends one Gnosis point and selects a shapeshifter to impersonate. The Nuwisha gains no mechanical benefits or special powers from her disguise — for example, she could appear to be a Corax in Corvid form, but could not fly, nor spin webs as an Ananasi, nor enjoy the incredible Strength of a Gurahl in Crinos. The disguise lasts for (Humor) days.
• Suspicious Glance (Level Two) — The Nuwisha using this Gift spreads the seeds of doubt between trusted allies. After all, close friends and lovers know just where to stick a dagger to make sure it really hurts. A snake-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The player names a victim and rolls Ma-nipulation + Subterfuge (difficulty 6). At some point in the next 24 hours the victim will suddenly suspect betrayal by one of his closest allies. While the Gift provides no rational reason, most people don’t have to look far to find a reason to fear their allies. The Nuwisha may spend a point of Gnosis when making the roll, and name two victims. Over the next 24 hours one of them will suspect betrayal by the other. The Nuwisha has no control over which will become suspicious, but he may use this Gift twice and name the two victims in reverse order to ensure they will each start to distrust the other.
• Tiny Coyote (Level Two) — Sometimes a prank goes awry and a Nuwisha just needs to get the hell out of Dodge, but the only way out is a tiny hole. With this Gift the Nuwisha can crawl through the smallest spaces.
This Gift is taught by a mouse-spirit.
System: The Nuwisha spends one Gnosis and instantly shrinks to whatever size is appropriate to fit into an available space, down to the size of a mouse.
She cannot change forms while shrunk; in doing so she reverts to her normal size with painful consequences.
If the Nuwisha enters a larger space, she automatically expands to match the space as she encounters it. She returns to normal when she first enters a space large enough to fit her usual size. She cannot shrink again without reactivating the Gift.
• Voice Bank (Level Two) — This Gift allows the Nuwisha to imitate people’s voices perfectly, building up a ‘bank’ of voices that he can impersonate. A parrot-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The Nuwisha must listen intently while a person speaks, then rolls Perception + Expression. The difficulty depends on how much of the speaker’s voice he can sample: a few words is difficulty 8, a full minute is difficulty 7 and over half an hour is difficulty 6. Success adds that voice to the werecoyote’s collection of voices.
He can perfectly imitate a voice for a scene by spending a point of Gnosis. A Nuwisha may keep as many voices as he has dots of Expression. He chooses which voice is discarded when he adds another beyond his limit.
• Blisters (Level Three) — With a touch, the Nuwi-sha covers her target in hideous blisters, causing a loss of fur and general appearance. A toad-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The Nuwisha touches her target and her player rolls Manipulation + Primal-Urge. The blisters last for (successes gained x Humor) days, causing the target to lose three dice from all social dice pools.
• False Spoor (Level Three) — The Nuwisha may change her scent to exactly match someone else’s for a scene. A dog-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The Nuwisha spends one Gnosis point and rolls Perception + Primal Urge (difficulty 6, or difficulty 8 if the Nuwisha has not sampled the target’s scent while in Latrani, Sendeh or Manabozho form). The deception lasts (Humor) days, unless she ends it earlier. A Garou or other character using Scent of the True Form (or similar ability) adds the Nuwisha’s successes to the difficulty of
System: The Nuwisha spends one Gnosis point and rolls Perception + Primal Urge (difficulty 6, or difficulty 8 if the Nuwisha has not sampled the target’s scent while in Latrani, Sendeh or Manabozho form). The deception lasts (Humor) days, unless she ends it earlier. A Garou or other character using Scent of the True Form (or similar ability) adds the Nuwisha’s successes to the difficulty of