Djeserit Nose-to-the-Wind, Silent Strider Theurge
Infodump for a Werewolf: The Apocalypse (Original World of Darkness, 3rd ed) character I played in a traditional tabletop game with some friends, and then transplanted to an online freeform game mixing together multiple settings and systems later. I met a few MeddleGoon folks there originally, actually, and have a few alts from that place.
I didn’t play this girl much on that community, but this is also the only remaining sheet I seem to have for her and many other OWoD characters I used to play, which makes me sad.
The name most recently was recycled for a BE Paladin I occasionally play.
Set up as a profile for a freeform online PbP and chatroom RP, but the statsblock is added at the end.
System of Origin: Werewolf: The Apocalypse (3rd ed), Old World of Darkness. Age: Late teens. Gender: Female. Race: WoD Werewolf, Homid breed. Tribe: Silent Strider. Auspice: Theurge (Crescent Moon). Birth Name: Melody Harris.
Appearances:
Homid (Human) Form: Skin: Dark Tan/Light Brown, various scars in various places. Height: 5’6” Build: Lanky, awkward; longish limbs. Hair: Shoulder length, straight, black, kept tied back away from her face. Eyes: Dark brown. Handedness: Left. Other: Looks at least partially Arabic in descent. More dexterous and graceful than she seems at first glance.
Glabro (wolfish human brute) Form: Height: 6’6”. Build: Fills out a little, still lean and lanky, but tougher. Other: Gets a bit hairier, but not outside Human norms. Voice gets gruffer, harder to speak clear Human words. Teeth are sharp. Nails thicken and sharpen. Eyes a bit more animalistic. Otherwise, mostly the same as Homid form appearance wise.
Crinos (wolfman warrior) Form: Fur: Sleek, short, black. Still has straight, shoulder-length hair in same style as in Homid form. Many scars still apparent. Height: 8’9” Build: Fills out further, more muscular, but in an athletic runner’s way. Secondary sex characteristics not apparent. Head and muzzle are long and pointed, ears very triangular. Think Anubis of Egyptian mythology, slightly mixed with timber wolf. Other: Human speech nearly impossible, fangs and claws fully formed. Clothes and common items, if ritually dedicated, will “melt” into fur patterns; magic items remain handy. Can cause horror/terror effects in many mortals unused to supernatural/of weak will.
Hispo (dire wolf) and Lupus (wolf) Forms: Fur: Sleek, short, black. Some scars still apparent. Build:Racing canid, long legs and slim build. The Egyptian Anubis-jackal (mixed with a bit of timber wolf) similarity is more pronounced. Size: In Hispo, she reaches 4’ 0” at the shoulder. Lupus is about 2’ 9” at the shoulder.
Gear:
Clothes: Tends to like oversized men’s button-up shirt over a tshirt, jeans, and broken-in hiking boots. Has a long leather jacket for cooler weather. Often totes around an old Army ruck most of her possessions are kept in. She keeps at least 1 outfit ritually dedicated so it will change forms or melt into her body when she shifts. Otherwise, she’s not worried about modesty overmuch; it’s more about blending in.
D’Saih: Magical stone blade with a crescent moon-like curve, making it more difficult to use especially for those not trained for it. Does extra damage to tainted/corrupt creatures, and even more to Vampires.
Wanderer’s Friend: A small compass worn on a braided leather cord around her neck, visible in most of her forms (not Lupus), covered in glyphs. The compass has a second needle in the face. It understands several common languages, and can remember directions perfectly, giving credence to the unflappable, never lost Strider stereotype.
Telescope and Star Charts: Broken down into a case that takes up most of the ruck’s space. The charts are marked with Umbral objects and Garou glyphs overlaying the usual stars.
Skills
Perception: Djeserit has uncanny instincts when sensing trouble, tracking someone/thing down, and otherwise being on the alert. She just notices things. Her deed name is testament to her skills as a renowned tracker.
Combat: Like most Garou, DJ is a formidable combatant, mostly in hand-to-hand, followed by melee. She’s much stronger and more deadly in her warform, calling on supernatural strength, speed, and toughness as well as tooth and claw. In Homid and Lupus, her strength is average, while her toughness and speed are only a bit above normal. In Crinos, her strength is at the Human limit, while her speed and toughness are slightly better. Glabro and Hispo are between the two extremes.
Occult: Being a Crescent Moon, DJ’s talents lean toward the mystical and supernatural, and her knowledge of such in the World of Darkness is fairly extensive, if not too in depth in anything but the Astrology of her people and the spiritual realms they travel. DJ is also knowledgeable about the ritual practices of the Garou as befits her calling. She knows how to deal with spirits and ghosts.
Medic: One of the Theurge’s callings is healing. DJ’s mostly schooled in traditional herbal, folk remedies, and magical healing. She has however taken Red Cross training and even a paramedic course, though her formal education otherwise stopped at 7th grade.
Survival: As a werewolf, DJ can get along well in rural areas living off the land. She’s also relatively streetwise when it comes to urban settings. In either case, she knows how to be stealthy when needed.
Abilities: (thanks to Webhunter for some help)
Natural Shapechanger: WoD werewolves are born, creatures of half-flesh, half-spirit rather than infectious mutants. DJ has control over when and how she can shapeshift to any of her forms. She’s not terribly good at partial transformation however.
Regeneration: DJ can regenerate most injuries quickly in any form but Human. Bullets and knife wounds are no issue for a werewolf. Fire, silver, and the injuries inflicted by magic or other supernatural creatures’ natural weapons are worse and take longer to heal.
Creature of Spirit: Garou are one part human, one part wolf, one part spirit. All supernatural abilities that they possess are spiritual in nature, and are originally derived from their connection to Gaia. In D&D terms, Garou powers are Divine/Druidic, in Shadowrun they would be considered Shamanic, etc.
Step Sideways: The Garou have the ability to step into the spirit realm in their home system. Depending on the metaphysics of the given system, DJ might still have the ability to cross the barrier from the material realm to the spiritual reflection of it, and back again.
Animal Magnetism: WoD werewolves have a supernatural ability to invoke primal passions and emotions in others thanks to their nature, both spiritual and Rageful. It can be attractive and frightening at the same time.
Gifts
-Usually instant magic abilities inherent to Garou, drawing upon their Rage or spiritual connection to Gaia.
Master of Fire: DJ can temporarily make herself more resistant to fire by expending some of her spiritual energy.
Mother’s Touch: Basic healing ability, drawing on her connection to Gaia. She can’t use this Gift on herself, however.
Sense Wyrm: The ability to sense in a being the inherent corruption and evil taint that they might have accumulated.
Spirit Speech: Lets Djeserit talk with and understand spirit entities.
Silence: DJ can muffle her own sounds in order to improve her own stealth ability.
Speed of Thought: By spending spiritual energy, DJ can double her running speed for a time (usually a scene).
Pulse of the Invisible: Allows the Theurge to automatically view the Umbra (spirit realm) while in the material realm, and vice versa, so long as the barrier separating the two isn’t stronger than her own connection to Gaia. Otherwise, she must focus her energy into peering across. DJ sees in a constant double vision in worlds with the proper metaphysics.
Rituals
-Djeserit was thrust into the role of Ritemaster for her Sept early on, and has as such collected a wide number of Garou rituals; magic rites that take time (minutes to hours, usually), energy, and material components to perform. Most of them are very specific to their society or individuals. She knows many, but some important ones include:
Rite of Cleansing: Mystically removing the taint and corruption on a person, small place, or thing.
Talisman Dedication: The rite that allows werewolves to keep items and clothes through shapechanges.
Rite of Summoning: Calling spirits to ask questions, bind into things, etc.
Rite of Binding: Usually temporarily binding a spirit into something/where.
Rite of the Fetish: A more permanent, and difficult, spiritual binding, used to create useful and/or powerful magic items.
The Badger’s Burrow: Allows the Theurge a connection to the land considered part of the caern, keeping track of what’s going on.
Gathering for the Departed: Knowing the proper way to howl a funeral for a fallen warrior.
Descent into the Underworld: A dangerous rite used by the Silent Striders to enter the lands of the dead in order to seek information—or to deal with some of those pesky ghosts.
Rite of the Blackened Moon: An unusual ritual that lets the ritemaster create a small, temporarily deadened spiritual zone.
And others, but these samples are fairly representative. Like any mage, she constantly researches and tries to learn more magic rites.
Quirks and Weaknesses
Totem: DJ is the last member of the Tectonic Knights pack, and maintains a tenuous connection to her now weakened totem spirit Tetult, an avatar of Earthquake, brought with her from her home system. Due to this connection, she will not ever willingly fly to get somewhere, and tends to mind the movements in and of the ground around her. Tetult grants her a little more skill in hand-to-hand combat, and once a day can grant her a moderate boost to her strength. DJ is very protective of her injured totem spirit.
Haunted: Unlike most Garou, if something goes wrong when DJ tries to cross spiritual and material realms, she doesn’t get stuck in between; rather, the Strider attracts a nearby ghost who will haunt her until she helps it in some way, or, in the case of more malicious spirits, deals with the ghost. The Striders tend to see and hear spirits of the dead more easily than other tribes, and the ghosts often realize this.
Rage: The legends of close ties to the moon are true, as is the Rage Garou feel and that fuels many of their abilities, even if it also makes them emotionally unstable with deadly short tempers. DJ is particularly susceptible to her Rage during not only the full moon, but also crescent due to her Auspice. Injuries, insults, and the like could lead to an uncontrolled frenzy.
Silver:The metal causes severe damage to Garou in all forms but Homid, and regardless slightly dulls the spiritual connection to Gaia they rely upon.
Severe Prejudice - Vampires: Silent Striders are even more extreme than most werewolves in their hatred of vampires, due to their loss of territory and spiritual homeland, levied on them by an ancient and his brood. DJ is no different, and despises working with vampires in any context; she will do what she can to end their existence as expediently as possible, kept in check only by Guardian rules. Setites, the serpentine clan of vampires in WoD, are the particular prey of the Striders, though all vampires are her enemy. She won't let them forget it.
History:
Julia Harris ran away from home at the age of sixteen, crossing the country on the backs of various motorcycles and in truck cabs for two years before returning home pregnant. Melody never knew who her father was; she lived with her grandparents until Julia finished her education and earned a CDL, becoming a trucker to support her daughter. When there was no school in session (and sometimes even when there was), Melody would join her mother on her drives, enjoying the vagabond life on the highway.
Melody was a troubled child, which many attributed to her unusual home life. By the time puberty hit, she was having full fledged temper tantrums and took to sleep walking, being found miles from home sleeping outside. Her mother took her on a long trip crossing through Kansas to try and calm the girl down, but it was outside a small town at a prairie rest stop that tragedy struck. A monster crawled up and attacked the pair, killing Julia quickly. Melody Raged for the first time, but was nearly killed herself before found by a pack from the nearby sept who’d been tracking the creature. They buried her mother and took the cub back to the caern. Noting her pure bred appearance, they called for a Strider to mentor the girl. Sapair Runs-the-Backtrails gave her an Egyptian name meaning holy woman, and left her to her Rite of Passage alongside other cubs recently found by the sept’s packs.
Djeserit, as she was now known, took to her life as Garou quickly and easily, her uncanny instincts and perceptions making her the sept’s preeminent tracker. She provided a voice of reason for her packmates in many instances, and supported many of them through difficult troubles. They had plenty of adventures together—including finding the Perfect Metis babe, and then losing it to forces of the Wyrm. The pack struggled against various disasters leading up to the Apocalypse, finding a lost tribal totem and joining the final battle against the forces of corruption and perfect order that tried to swallow everything.
The game was over, the world ended…but Djeserit found herself stuck in a painful limbo with a monster similar to the one that had killed her mother. Time seemed endless, until suddenly she and her enemy were thrown up through water and onto the beach of Gamer’s End. The creature was dispatched, but Djeserit found herself in a strange new realm with strange new knowledge and ideas. And she wasn’t the only old WoD denizen from ending chronicles of that fading system to find her way there.
Djeserit spent time killing vampires she found in Gamer’s End as would befit her tribe and instincts. Once the GESC found out what was happening, and the likely culprit, they called the Guardians for assistance. Zach “Webhunter” Tylor was assigned to the case, and helped track down DJ. She was offered various options for punishment for the citizens she’d killed, and chose to try the Guardian rehab program under Zach’s guidance.
DJ’s Stats Block
Old WoD Werewolf: The Apocalypse worked on a 1-5 scale for stats and abilities; 2 was considered Average, with 3 talented, 4 great (and able to gain a specialty), and 5 the top of Human limits. Beyond that is supernatural ability. For stats with multiple numbers, the first is her Homid form "norm", the rest are her alterations in her other forms. Rage, Gnosis, and Willpower are on a 1-10 scale. Rage: 5 Gnosis: 7 Willpower: 6 Attributes: Homid/Glabro/Crinos/Hispo/Lupus Physical: Strength: 2/4/6/5/3 (+2 once/day) Dexterity: 3/3/4/5/5 Stamina: 3/5/6/6/5 Social: Charisma: 3 Manipulation: 3 Appearance: 2 Mental: Perception: 5 (uncanny instincts) Intelligence: 3 Wits: 4 Abilities: Same 1-5 scale Talents: Alertness 2 Athletics 2 Brawl 3 (4 -Totem) Dodge 2 Empathy 2 Primal-Urge 2 Streetwise 2 Skills: Melee 3 Stealth 2 Survival 2 Knowledges: Enigmas 3 Medicine 2 Occult 4 (Garou Astrology) Rituals 4 Science 4 (Astronomy) Backgrounds: 1-5 scale, flavor items, attributes, and information. Some from start, most through RP. Rites 3 Pure Breed 3 Fetishes 4 (D'saih, Wander's Friend) Totem 4 (Personal points, down from 18 pack points)
