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About a week ago, Salem came over to my place in the woods to give me a hand with recognizing and circumventing some Garou gifts. We crossed over to the umbra, where it's much easier for me to work magic. He let me establish a mental link with him, so I could sense and feel his surface thoughts as he used Truth of Gaia, Persuasion, and Sense Balance on me. (They use them kind of like rote spells, not a dynamic magic like mages do. It's.... powerful, but limiting. And I'm envious of their ability to avoid paradox backlash.)
Truth of Gaia took a little work to get familiar with, but I can now recognize it when it's used on me and alter the feedback the garou receives. I promised Salem I would never use this for nefarious means--only to protect my identity.
Persuasion is an aptly named gift. It attempts to muddle the mind a bit, predisposing the target towards being agreeable to the Garou using it. But--honestly?--it's laughably weak. I doubt it has a chance of affecting any warper, save for one who had absolutely no knowledge of Mind magick.
Sense Balance was interesting, but does not really pose a threat to me or other Tradition mages. It seems to be based on the Garou Triat mythology--Wyld, Weaver, Wyrm. I suspect it could detect, respectively, Marauders, Technocrats, and Nephandi mages: the mages that have gone off the deep end, more or less.
I shared a bit about the Marauders, Technocrats, and Nephandi with Salem and stressed the importance of not drawing any attention from the Technocrats. They can work in large, concentrated, focused groups and can bring a tremendous amount of magic to bear on a single location. They could wipe out the caern and all the local garou in the snap of a finger--if they chose to do so and knew about the place. Mauraders and Nephandi, however, tend to work alone or in very small groups. They're certainly dangerous, but nowhere near as dangerous as provoking the full ire of the Technocracy. (I also mentioned how I'm going to work with Val to see if there's any Technocratic magic involved with the group that kidnapped Ex earlier--no need to poke that bear and bring the wrath of the Technocracy down upon the local garou.)
Huh. The Technocracy kind of fits in with the garou lore about the Weaver having gone mad and creating more and more and more order. Coincidence? Can't be. Garou mythology seems to indicate that the Weaver went insane and started winning the "war" ages ago. The Technocracy really didn't have ample power up until the Industrial Revolution. The garou could have the dates all wrong what with the unreliable nature of oral history. Still, if I were to give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe the rise of the Technocracy is actually attributable to the Weaver's growing influence upon mages? Huh. Food for thought, that.
After Salem finished demonstrating how those three gifts worked, I modified the Mind effect I had in place and shared my senses with him as I levitated a rock--cycling through a number of magical perceptions in the process. In hindsight, it might have been too much information all at once. He seemed impressed, though. The garou think that visiting the spirit world is pulling back the veil on reality: I'd just showed Salem that there were a lot of veils beyond the umbra that the garou can't see. Despite how we--garou and warper--both see the world differently, we still seem to have a lot of similarities.
Shortly after sharing my senses with Salem, I could feel pressure building in my head. My nose started bleeding and I had a serious migraine. Pushed it too hard, I think. Even in the umbra. I spent a full week in bed recovering. Merry fucking xmas.
Salem's offered to do some more "Defense Against the Dark Arts" style sessions with me. I mentioned that the umbra was relatively new to me and that I could use a bit more instruction there, particularly with spirits.
Also discussed: silver. I told Salem I had several silver bullets and I knew that silver was dangerous to the garou--but was it a good idea for me to be carrying silver for protection? Salem seemed to think it was dangerous for kin to carry silver weapons, even if it did give the kin some means of defending themselves against a garou, because most garou feared silver and didn't agree with kin carrying it unless it was as protection from BSDs. It could essentially be more trouble than it's worth. Salem seemed a little more "progressive" about silver though--but did comment that one reason several garou distrust Val is that she wears silver in front of them. (Note to self: communicate this tip to Val.) In the end, I told Salem I would be getting rid of my silver bullets--seems like the safer thing to do. Besides. If I /really/ need a silver bullet, it's not like I can't turn a regular bullet already in the chamber into one--and then some.
Maybe I'll give them to Charley? He seems to have some relationship issues with his family: granted, they did let him walk away alive.
Truth of Gaia took a little work to get familiar with, but I can now recognize it when it's used on me and alter the feedback the garou receives. I promised Salem I would never use this for nefarious means--only to protect my identity.
Persuasion is an aptly named gift. It attempts to muddle the mind a bit, predisposing the target towards being agreeable to the Garou using it. But--honestly?--it's laughably weak. I doubt it has a chance of affecting any warper, save for one who had absolutely no knowledge of Mind magick.
Sense Balance was interesting, but does not really pose a threat to me or other Tradition mages. It seems to be based on the Garou Triat mythology--Wyld, Weaver, Wyrm. I suspect it could detect, respectively, Marauders, Technocrats, and Nephandi mages: the mages that have gone off the deep end, more or less.
I shared a bit about the Marauders, Technocrats, and Nephandi with Salem and stressed the importance of not drawing any attention from the Technocrats. They can work in large, concentrated, focused groups and can bring a tremendous amount of magic to bear on a single location. They could wipe out the caern and all the local garou in the snap of a finger--if they chose to do so and knew about the place. Mauraders and Nephandi, however, tend to work alone or in very small groups. They're certainly dangerous, but nowhere near as dangerous as provoking the full ire of the Technocracy. (I also mentioned how I'm going to work with Val to see if there's any Technocratic magic involved with the group that kidnapped Ex earlier--no need to poke that bear and bring the wrath of the Technocracy down upon the local garou.)
Huh. The Technocracy kind of fits in with the garou lore about the Weaver having gone mad and creating more and more and more order. Coincidence? Can't be. Garou mythology seems to indicate that the Weaver went insane and started winning the "war" ages ago. The Technocracy really didn't have ample power up until the Industrial Revolution. The garou could have the dates all wrong what with the unreliable nature of oral history. Still, if I were to give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe the rise of the Technocracy is actually attributable to the Weaver's growing influence upon mages? Huh. Food for thought, that.
After Salem finished demonstrating how those three gifts worked, I modified the Mind effect I had in place and shared my senses with him as I levitated a rock--cycling through a number of magical perceptions in the process. In hindsight, it might have been too much information all at once. He seemed impressed, though. The garou think that visiting the spirit world is pulling back the veil on reality: I'd just showed Salem that there were a lot of veils beyond the umbra that the garou can't see. Despite how we--garou and warper--both see the world differently, we still seem to have a lot of similarities.
Shortly after sharing my senses with Salem, I could feel pressure building in my head. My nose started bleeding and I had a serious migraine. Pushed it too hard, I think. Even in the umbra. I spent a full week in bed recovering. Merry fucking xmas.
Salem's offered to do some more "Defense Against the Dark Arts" style sessions with me. I mentioned that the umbra was relatively new to me and that I could use a bit more instruction there, particularly with spirits.
Also discussed: silver. I told Salem I had several silver bullets and I knew that silver was dangerous to the garou--but was it a good idea for me to be carrying silver for protection? Salem seemed to think it was dangerous for kin to carry silver weapons, even if it did give the kin some means of defending themselves against a garou, because most garou feared silver and didn't agree with kin carrying it unless it was as protection from BSDs. It could essentially be more trouble than it's worth. Salem seemed a little more "progressive" about silver though--but did comment that one reason several garou distrust Val is that she wears silver in front of them. (Note to self: communicate this tip to Val.) In the end, I told Salem I would be getting rid of my silver bullets--seems like the safer thing to do. Besides. If I /really/ need a silver bullet, it's not like I can't turn a regular bullet already in the chamber into one--and then some.
Maybe I'll give them to Charley? He seems to have some relationship issues with his family: granted, they did let him walk away alive.
