180 - Wolf At The Door

Artifact: Wolf At The Door

Power: Significant.

Description: The complete skeleton of an adult male timber wolf. The Alaskan adept who makes these totems kills the animals himself but the only real prerequisite is that they die by violence and the carcass is processed before rot can set in. The exact procedure is a guarded secret, so the few that show up elsewhere can only have come from him.

Effect: Trapped inside its earthly remains, the living energy of the wolf is a potent, potentially fatal, curse that can be levied against anyone whose home you have access to. Bury it in their yard three days before the full moon to activate the effect. If the target lives in an apartment building a courtyard is fine but living spaces without an area of uncovered earth attached to them do not count. You must plant the skeleton with deliberate intent, targeting a specific individual living in the building.

For the next lunar month, following the full moon, the target is plagued by nightly harassment from a ghostly wolf. It begins testing the security of their home, scratching at doors and windows and shitting on the doorstep, unless it can get inside. Howling and snarling will keep them and others awake at night, but no physical signs of the creature can be found. Escalating, the wolf will break into the home and attack the target with a 45% Struggle and a +3 damage bonus for claws and teeth, ignoring all others. Invisible and largely intangible, the only real defence is escape or appropriate magick (it has a wound threshold of 45 in that case). Barricading can hold the beast back but it will work tirelessly to gain access, tearing and clawing away at any barrier. It is roughly as intelligent as a human when it comes to bypassing traps and obstacles it cannot destroy.

There are three circumstances in which the curse ends: the target dies, the target survives the attacks until the next full moon, or someone digs up the skeleton. Moving to a new place can delay the attacks, precautions and a successful Secrecy roll grant a one night reprieve before it finds the target in their new hiding spot.