W20 - Changing Breeds.pdf

deliver the message by swarming around the recipient,squeaking out the message in the Camazotz’s voice.• Preternatural Awareness (Level Four) — As theStargazer Gift.• Cloud on the Wing (Level Five) — As the FiannaGift: Fog on the Moor.• Reading the Dark Heart (Level Five) — Listeningto the pulse of an individual’s heart and the rush oftheir blood, the Camazotz can discern her darkest secret.System: The Camazotz spends a turn in concentration.The player spends one Gnosis point and rollsPerception + Subterfuge (difficulty of the target’s Willpower).Success allows the werebat to learn the onefact the subject most fervently keeps hidden from theworld at large.• Shadows of Mictlán (Level Five) — Steppingsideways into the dark of night, the Camazotz may enterthe Dark Umbra as easily as the realm of Gaian spirits.System: So long as she is not in direct light, thewerebat may step sideways into the underworld if shechooses. Into the Sun (see p. 240) has no effect on thisGift.FetishesShadow-Curse DollLevel Four, Gnosis 8The Camazotz needed no help to remain unseenwhen their duties required it. Their Gifts and naturaltalent for subtlety worked to their benefit. However, occasionallyone of the Camazotz’s secrets was uncovered.The werebat would traditionally use a Shadow-CurseDoll to silence the witness for a while.The Shadow-Curse Doll takes the form of a tinydoll or puppet made out of furry leather (actually bat orrat-skin). The doll is made with only the barest suggestionof a face, and always has a pouch somewhere on itsbody. To activate the fetish, the Camazotz must put asmall object belonging to the target — or a piece of thetarget’s body, such as a hair or nail clipping — into thepouch while silently mouthing the victim’s name threetimes. Then she must hide the doll, for as soon as shesees it, the curse will end.While the curse is in effect, the target becomes supernaturallyeasy to overlook. Anyone looking at him hasto succeed at a Perception + Awareness roll (difficulty9) to register his presence. Truly heroic efforts on thevictim’s part — physically assaulting someone, waving asawn-off shotgun in a bank teller’s face, writing a desperateplea for help on a wall with bright red paint — reducethe difficulty to 8, at the Storyteller’s discretion. Even ifsomeone does notice the victim, she will forget all abouthim as soon as he’s out of sight. This ‘invisibility’ extendsto all the victim’s efforts at communication, includingwriting, telephone calls, or using a computer —writinga note on the wall with bright red paint is not a sure wayto get noticed. The curse lasts for twenty-four hours,or until the victim or the Camazotz next sees the doll,whichever comes first.This fetish requires the binding of many minor spiritsof vengeance, pettiness, and shadows. It taps into thespirits’ ill temper and love of mayhem, and will not workif the “victim” is willing.CHAPTER FOUR: CAMAZOTZ THE LOST BREEDS241