Anna Figueroa

Anna Figueroa "Fig"

Attributes

Intelligence 2, Wits 3, Resolve 2; Strength 3, Dexterity 3, Stamina 2; Presence 2, Manipulation 2, Composure 3

Skills

Mental: Computer 1, Crafts (Automotive) 2, Investigation (Crime Scenes) 3, Politics Physical: Athletics 2, Brawl (Claws) 3, Drive 1, Firearms 1, Larceny 1, Stealth (In Plain Sight) 3 Social: Empathy (Lies) 2, Streetwise 1, Subterfuge 2

Merits

Totem (Wapato Island Pack) 1, Totem (Shield-of-Law) 1, Language (First Tongue), Professional Training (Police Detective) 3, Resources 1, Lodge Connections 3, Flanking 2, Covert Operative 1

Advantages

Health: 8, Willpower: 5, Size: 5, Speed: 11, Defense: 5 (Armor: None), Initiative: 6

Harmony

Rating: 7

Current Conditions

xxx

Uram da takus — The wolf must hunt

Imru nu fir imru — The people do not murder the people

Sih sehe mak; Mak ne sih — The low honor the high; The high respect the low

Ni daha — Respect your prey

Nu hu uzu eren — Do not eat the flesh of man or wolf

Nu bath githul — The herd must not know

Uratha safal thil lu'u — The Uratha shall cleave to the human

Kul kisura udmeda — Honor Your Territory in All Things

-The Oath of the Moon

Personality

• Blood: The Warden: You protect. Territory, packmates, loci. Whatever a Warden swore to protect, you'll sooner walk over their cold, dead body before you harm it. Your character regains a point of Willpower whenever she puts the object of her protection above her well-being or comfort. She regains all spent Willpower whenever she preemptively hunts would be aggressors, or uses Kuruth to ward off the danger to those she protects.

• Bone: The Mediator: You feel the need to step in and sort out other people's problems. You gain satisfaction in bringing estranged parties together to mutually acceptable agreements. Recover a point of willpower when you put yourself on the line to resolve a dispute. Recover all willpower when you abandon the hunt or go against your pack to sort out other people's shit.

• Aspirations:
• Hunt prey that break the Samhain Accord
• Protect my father and keep his location secret
• Investigate cases that are possibly tied to the supernatural
• Aspiration related to remembering wife
• To be bound, leashed, or imprisoned

Werewolf Traits

Renown: Wisdom 1, Cunning 2

Primal Urge: 1

Essence: Max 10

Auspice

Irraka: Irraka are stalkers, assassins, spies, and thieves. They Changed under the new moon. They move through the shadows, striking quickly and *Hunter’s Aspect - Blissful. The prey has no idea that anyone is coming for him. He greets the cool night air with a smile, perhaps indulges in chemical or carnal pleasures, and never glances at the shadowy form inching its way closer to his exposed throat.

• Gifts - Evasion, New Moon, Stealth
• Auspice Skills - Larceny, Stealth, Subterfuge
• Auspice Renown - Cunning
• Auspice Benefit - Closer Than You Thought: Under the dark moon, the prey cannot judge distance or threat. The Irraka can make use of the inherent uncertainty of the new moon. Once per chapter, the Irraka can become suddenly closer to a target. Mechanically, this can be expressed in one of the following manners: 1.The Irraka can move her initiative rating to within one point of a target’s, either one above or one below, depending where she is in the initiative relative to the target. She can’t change make her Initiative result higher or lower than the target’s if it isn’t already. 2. She can move close enough to use her teeth and claws against one opponent who isn’t attacking her. 3. She can subtract –2 from the number of Doors needed in Social maneuvering.

Tribe

Iron Masters: Iron Masters are like water. They flow. They adapt. They deal with the context of a given situation, and versatility is their greatest weapon.

• Gifts - Knowledge, Shaping, Technology
• Tribal Renown - Cunning
• Gatherings: Iron Master gatherings range from rigorously-formal board meetings to casual coffee shop powwows. The main purpose of these swap meets is to trade favors and information, and to share stories about the new and exciting things members have seen. Tribe members keep each other up to date on the latest political maneuvering that might impact each other’s territories, trade useful new rites and fetishes, and sometimes plan out large-scale sociological or ecological experiments.

Lodge

Lodge of the Shield: The Lodge of the Shield are wolves-in-wolves-clothing. They are nightmarish predators stalking among the enforcers of law and order, intertwined with yet apart from the apparatus of the state within which they hunt. It is a mistake to think of a Shield-Bearer as simply a werewolf who is a police officer; adherents of this Lodge are cultists, and ones dedicated to pursuing their prey among those who enforce the edicts of authority and their victims alike. Neither super-max cell nor ostentatious police commissioner's office are out of the reach of the Lodge's talons. As many cops are put on the mortuary slab by Shield-Bearers as are drug traffickers and murderers. They do not obey human notions of innocence or guilt. The Law-Shredders stand above mere mortal dictates.

• Totem - Shield-of-Law
• Blessing - Blessing: Whenever a Lodge member wins a grapple roll, they can spend a Willpower point to pick an additional move to apply.
• Aspiration - To be bound, leashed, or imprisoned.
• Ban - When bound or captured, a Lodge member cannot attempt to physically free themselves for a full day, but must submit to their leashing.
• Sacred Hunt - The Lodge Sacred Hunt grants your character the ability to wield law enforcement as another tool on the hunt. When interacting with an officer or agent of law enforcement, justice, or the imprisonment or punishment of criminals, the Uratha can spend Essence to shift the target's Impression of them by one step per point spent, and can do the same to shift the target's Impression of the hunt's prey in the other direction.
• Tools - The Lodge of the Shield has access to the Lodge Armoury, Lodge Connections, Lodge Stronghold, and Hive Mirror (Fetish •••) merits
• Secrets of the Shield-Bearers

• Some Lodge members believe in 'true' laws, elements of justice innate to the world beyond human aspirations. Attempts to test such notions involve seeing how a given tenet resonates with the Shadow - punishing violators and seeing how the world symbolically and fundamentally responds, then recording the results in search of any coherent patterns. • Adherents collect the badges of their dead comrades and offer them to a ghostly gestalt that imprisons dead shades. Cultists in city mortuaries delicately fillet dead bodies with the care of a gourmet, excising bones for later consumption. Horrific crime scenes and decades-long careers in brutal criminality forge ghosts that are more dangerous than a killer ever was in life. A painful treaty with the Lodge of Death gains the Shield-Breakers access to the Pale Hounds' wisdom and knowledge on such matters; many of the Leashed chafe at the special considerations the Lodge demands they give to the Barghests in return for little scraps of forbidden lore. • The Lodge maintains old pacts with groaning, bloated spirits of prisons and incarceration. If a Lodge member kills a prisoner within the cell that the prisoner is legally, legitimately contained within, then paints the prisoner's blood in warding glyphs on the walls, other spirits become intensely averse to entering the warded space for a night and a day. • Some Lodge members have learned a strange rite to 'tag' criminals by biting chunks of their ears off through police brutality or 'random dog attacks'. The gristle from the bite is deposited in a preparation of blood and bone dust from a human who died in prison; should the tagged criminal take an action that breaks the law, the gobbet of flesh bubbles and cooks in its elixir before dissolving away.

• The Lodge judges its own most viciously of all. An adherent who steps out of line faces a gathering of fellow cultists to pass sentence; those judged worthy of death do not face a quick execution. Such condemned are taken to the spirit prison in LA, chained beside the totem with spines of silver pressed into their flesh; as they rage, scream, and die, their fury and Essence is drained into Shield-Of-Law, aiding it in its transformation. Recently, high-ranking Lodge members have started examining the lower strata of the cult much more vigorously in search of those who have defied the Lodge's tenets • Adherents are encouraged to chain and bind themselves in secure locations at least once a month under the full moon, not out of an expectation that they will suffer Death Rage but because it is a symbolic recognition of the urges they are seeking to control that are, nonetheless, an innate part of their nature. Most Lodge members treat this as a chance for meditation, isolation, or sometimes visionary experiences under the effect of drugs and chemicals acquired from law enforcement operations. • Human police members of the cult are held at arms' length, but the Lodge maintains a significant commitment of resources to maintaining the 'lodges' and fraternities to which these humans belong, encouraging them to feel special and more enlightened than their fellow officers. The Lodge ruthlessly exploits its human cultists, and rarely even creates Claimed to further its agenda.

Pack

Wapato Island Pack:

Merit Details

Professional Training (Police Detective) 3: I have training as a police detective, which offers distinct advantages.

- Asset Skills: Empathy, Investigation

• Networking: I've built connections within my chosen field.

- Contacts: Portland Police, Portland City Government

• Continuing Education: With the repeated efforts in my field, I tend toward greater successes. When making a roll with my Asset Skills, I benefit from the 9-again quality.
• Breadth of Knowledge: I've picked up a number of particular bits of information and skills unique to my work. Choose a third Asset Skill, and take two Specialties in your character’s Asset Skills.

- Additional Asset Skill: Stealth

- Additional Specialties: Lies, Crime Scenes

Resources 1: One dot is a little spending money here and there. Two is a comfortable, middle class wage. Three is a nicer, upper middle class life. Four is moderately wealthy. Five is filthy rich. Every item has an Availability rating. Once per chapter, your character can procure an item at her Resources level or lower, without issue. An item one Availability above her Resources reduces her effective Resources by one dot for a full month, since she has to rapidly liquidate funds.

Lodge Connections 3: I can access the substantial support network of the Lodge of the Shield. Once per session, I may benefit from any of the following merits of a dot rating up to my rating in Lodge Connections: Allies, Mentor, Resources, or Retainer.

Flanking 2: I can support another character by poking at an enemy’s flanks. I grab, bite, or otherwise restrain an opponent, setting it up for an opportune strike from a teammate. Any time I makes a successful attack I can choose to apply successes as a penalty to the victim’s Initiative and Defense for the turn instead of causing damage.

Covert Operative 1: I am trained in getting the jump on my opponents. I creep up on unsuspecting enemies from the shadows and neutralize them before anyone realizes anything’s happening. When I ambush an opponent, the victim loses the 10-again quality on their roll to notice the attack. Even if they successfully notices me, I act at +3 Initiative in the first turn.

Totem 1: Totem for the Wapato Island Pack

Totem 1: Shield-of-Law. Totem associated with the Lodge of the Shield

Language 1: First Tongue

Moon Gifts

New Moon's Gift 1:

• Eviscerate -

Cost: 1 Essence Action: Reflexive

The Irraka may activate this Facet as part of a Brawl or Weaponry attack against an unaware or surprised opponent, turning her attack into a rote action.

New Moon's Gift 2:

• Slip Away -

Cost: 1 Essence Action: Instant Duration: 1 Scene

Any character who perceives or interacts with the Irraka while this Facet is active finds it extremely hard to remember her presence. If the Irraka takes no memorable actions toward the individual — she was only a face in a crowd, or a dog in the alley, or the other half of a brief conversation — he simply dismisses any recollection. If the Irraka was memorable — she started a fight, asked extremely strange questions, or engaged in an obviously suspicious activity — or if the witness is prompted to examine his memories closely, he suffers a penalty to any dice pools to remember her equal to the Irraka’s Cunning Renown, even if the witness has an otherwise perfect memory. The witness will not simply forget that he had a fight while guarding a building, but he may forget the details of his opponent or recall only a blur.

Shadow Gifts

Shadow Pelt (Cunning):

Cost: 1 Essence Action: Instant Duration: 1 Scene

This Facet calls the shadows themselves to mask the hunter’s presence. When this Facet is activated, the Uratha may treat a number of Stealth rolls equal to his Cunning Renown as Rote Actions.

Iron Slave (Wisdom):

Cost: 1 Essence Action: Instant Duration: 1 Scene

This Facet forces even snarling beasts of iron and gears to heel and to bear the Uratha’s spirit. This Facet can be used on a single mechanical vehicle or other piece of significant engineering (such as a crane, production line, or similar) that the Uratha can see.

• Dice Pool - Wits + Crafts + Wisdom
• Roll Results -

Dramatic Failure: The Uratha gains the Ban Condition. She wishes to venerate machines of the type targeted, and will try to lay offerings to their spirits or paint them with glyphs that honor them.

Failure: The Facet fails.

Success: The Uratha immerses her senses into the machine, and is able to perceive its surroundings. She can allow the machine or vehicle to continue its operation as normal, or can directly take control of it. While riding the machine, she has only the vaguest perception with her own senses and appears to be in a daze or sleeping. Returning to her own senses takes an instant action and ends the Facet. Should the vehicle or machine be destroyed while the Uratha is riding it, she is ejected back into her own body and treats it as a breaking point towards Spirit. If the Uratha dies while she is riding, the fragment of her spirit becomes subsumed into the machine and may create a unique and bizarre Claimed.

Exceptional Success: The Uratha remains fully aware of her own surroundings.

Breaking Points

Touchstones

• Flesh Touchstone: Father - Joseph Figueroa. +2 to any rolls to resist Harmony loss
• Spirit Touchstone: Locus - Kelly Point Park (Confluence of Willamette and Columbia Rivers). +2 to any rolls for breaking points toward humanity.

Breaking Points

Toward Flesh: Defiling a locus. Refusing to participate in Siskur-Dah. Staying out of the Hisil for a week. Using a silver weapon against another werewolf. Violating the Oath of the Moon. (Forsaken only, –2) Staying out of the Hisil for a month. (–3) Harmony 3 or lower Allowing a spirit safe passage into the physical world. Eating processed food. Mating with a human. Staying out of the Hisil for a day.

Toward Spirit: Killing a human or wolf. Staying in the Hisil for a week. Hunting humans or wolves for food (–2) Killing a packmate. (–2) Eating human or wolf flesh for Essence (–3) Staying in the Hisil for a month. (–3) Harmony 8 or more Inflicting Lunacy on a loved one. Leading the Siskur-Dah. Spending more than two days away from your pack. Staying in the Hisil for a full day.

Werewolf Forms

Hishu (Human)

Human Form

Hishu looks every bit the human being. It’s the homo sapiens shape Uratha are born into. While it doesn’t afford any trait benefits over what a human normally possesses, a Hishu Uratha is more human than human,” and blends into a crowd.

Strength: 3 Dexterity: 3 Stamina: 2 Manipulation: 2 Size: 5 Defense: 5 Initiative: 6 Speed: 11 Armor: - Perception (+1): 7 Health: 8

• Sheep's Clothing:Any efforts to pinpoint the werewolf in a crowd or pursue her through populated areas suffer her Primal Urge as a penalty.
• Perception:+1 die to Perception rolls using wolf senses.

Dalu (Near-Human)

Dalu is a somewhat subtle monster. It’s a human and half again: larger, stronger, with about 150% body mass. A Dalu’s muscles are like rocks all over her body. Her jaw extends subtly. Her teeth elongate and sharpen. Her fingernails become hard, vicious claws. Her wolf senses sharpen compared to her Hishu form. Without much scrutiny, a werewolf in Dalu can walk among humanity undetected. She’s larger and less appealing, but not outside the realm of human possibility. Drawing too much attention can cause problems, since the Dalu form is far stronger than most people, and a powerful werewolf can rend limbs from a victim’s body with little effort.

Strength: 4 Dexterity: 3 Stamina: 3 Manipulation: 1 Size: 6 Defense: 5 Initiative: 6 Speed: 12 Armor: - Perception (+2): 7 Health (+2): 10

• Teeth and Claw:Unarmed attacks with the werewolf’s claws deal lethal damage to humans. While in a grapple, successful bite attacks deal lethal damage.
• Defense:Apply Defense against Firearms attacks, as her instincts jerk her out of the way before shots are fired.
• Perception:+2 dice to all Perception rolls using wolf senses.
• Lunacy:Mild Lunacy - +2 bonus to the observer's dice pool. Lunacy is the deep down, ancestral fear of the wolf at the door. When a person sees a werewolf in Dalu or witnesses a werewolf shapeshifting or regenerating damage, they suffer a breaking point. The roll doesn’t necessarily come immediately; it comes at the dramatically appropriate moment when the witness would otherwise take a rational breath and come to their senses. A werewolf’s prey is less likely to respond to the Lunacy than an average bystander. If the Uratha has caused lethal damage to the witness, they gain a +1 bonus to the roll. If the victim is suffering a wound penalty, add that penalty as well (instead of subtracting it). When groups of witnesses work together, they suffer lessened Lunacy. When two characters are focused on the same task together, each receives a +1 bonus to their breaking point rolls. When a small group (usually around five or less) works together, they each receive +2. Large groups (ten or fewer) gain +3. Any larger mob receives +4. Wolf-Blooded do not suffer Lunacy, nor do creatures that do not use Integrity. This includes vampires, spirits, other Uratha, and stranger creatures besides.

• If the character succeeds in the breaking point, they gain a Guilty, Shaken, or Spooked Condition. They act with a –2 penalty on all actions for the scene, as the Lunacy pushes at the back of their mind. They're likely to reinvent events in their mind in order to better understand what happened, in keeping with their understanding of the world. • With exceptional success, the witness does not gain a Condition or suffer a penalty to their actions. They also regain all their spent Willpower, to redouble their efforts against the monster before them. They remember the scene with perfect clarity.

• If the witness fails, They lose a dot of Integrity, and also gain a Lunacy Condition — Atavism, Delusion, or Reception, dependent on the circumstances. They will either flee or panic, and after the events they will rationalize what they've seen, building a story to fill in the blanks and keep their world intact. If the Lunacy Condition persists for a number of days equal to the Uratha’s Primal Urge dots without resolution, it fades without offering a Beat. • On a dramatic failure, they becomes Wolf-Blooded.

• Badass Motherfucker:The Dalu form is imposing, intense, and overbearing. This can force a crowd to give up the Uratha’s prey. Roll Presence + Primal Urge contested by the prey’s Composure + Primal Urge. If successful, anyone surrounding or protecting the prey will back down, or offer them up.

Gauru (Full Werewolf)

Gauru Form

Gauru is the classic werewolf of legend. Enormous, fearsome, and devastating, Gauru Uratha weigh almost four times their Hishu counterparts. While bipedal, they stand one and a half times their Hishu height. They’re bulky, with arms the size of most people’s waists, legs like tree trunks, and teeth like chef’s knives.

Gauru is a form to take and to dodge killing blows, and to end a hunt or a battle quickly and efficiently. The Gauru form only communicates, to help with the kill. A werewolf can only hold on to the primal beast for so long. She can take Gauru once per scene, and then only for a number of turns equal to her (Hishu) Stamina + Primal Urge. After that point, she must choose: Shift down into Dalu or Urshul, or fall into Kuruth. If she does not shift, roll Resolve + Composure as a reflexive action. If she succeeds, she has one more turn in Gauru, then must shift to Dalu or Urshul, and enters Wasu-Im. If she fails, she enters Basu-Im immediately.

Gauru automatically fail any Social roll not based on Intimidation, and any Mental roll that isn’t Perception- or Resistance-based.

Strength: 6 Dexterity: 4 Stamina: 4 Manipulation: 2 Size: 7 Defense: 5 Initiative: 7 Speed: 15 Armor: - Perception (+3): 9 Kuruth Limit: 9 Health: 12

• Regeneration:Uratha in Gauru form regenerate all bashing and lethal damage each turn.
• Teeth and Claws:• Claw attacks deal +2 lethal damage. Bites deal +2 lethal damage and do not require a grapple. Bite and claw attacks can establish grapples in addition to causing damage. Increase Initiative by +3 when using teeth or claws.
• Defense:Apply Defense to Firearms attacks.
• Perception:+3 dice to all Perception rolls using wolf senses.
• Lunacy:The sight of the Gauru form inflicts full Lunacy - -2 bonus to the observer's dice pool. See description of Lunacy under the Dalu form.
• Rage:A Gauru-form Uratha must attack an active opponent within striking range each turn. She does not have to continue to attack a crippled opponent as long as another opponent exists. If an opponent is out of each, she can move toward or throw things at the opponent. If she has no opponents, she will attack anything she can reach. If she does anything else, roll Resolve + Composure or fall into Kuruth.
• Primal Fear:Gauru force all lesser enemies — including most humans, spirits of lower Rank, and non-supernatural animals — to use Down and Dirty combat (pg 165). If the prey hides in a group of more powerful enemies, resolve the combat as normal. In normal combat, opponents count only their Dexterity or Wits to their Defense; they may not add the appropriate Skill (normally Athletics).

Urshul (Near-Wolf)

Urshul is a beast of legend. It looks the part of a wolf, but with the size of a horse. It’s double the body mass of the Hishu form, and its shoulders stand at the same height her human shoulders do. Urshul harries the prey, wearing it down and leaving vicious wounds that set it up for the Gauru form to finish the job. Urshul cannot communicate with humans, but can use the First Tongue with ease.

Strength: 5 Dexterity: 5 Stamina: 4 Manipulation: 1 Size: 6 Defense: 5 Initiative: 8 Speed: 18 Armor: - Perception (+3): 9 Health: 11

• Teeth and Claws:Claw attacks deal +1 lethal damage. Bites deal +2 lethal damage and do not require a grapple. Bite attacks can establish grapples as well as cause damage.
• Defense:Apply Defense to Firearms attacks.
• Perception:+3 dice to all Perception rolls using wolf senses.
• Lunacy:The sight of the Urshul form inflicts moderate Lunacy - The observer's breaking point dice pool starts with no positive or negative dice pool modifiers prior to other modifiers being applied. See description of Lunacy under the Dalu form.
• Weaken the Prey:Werewolves in Urshul are devastating to physical prey. Once per scene, the Urshul can apply one of the following Tilts when she damages her prey with her teeth or claws: Arm Wrack, Leg Wrack, or Knocked Down. This does not require a targeted attack.

Urhan (Wolf)

Full Wolf Form

Urhan is the form of a normal wolf. In a pack of wolves, an Urhan blends in seamlessly, depending on her regional markers and coat. Urhan is for covering long distances quickly, for tracking prey, and for blending in to nature. The Urhan form can’t communicate with humans and can’t manage more than a few simple words in the First Tongue.

Strength: 3 Dexterity: 5 Stamina: 3 Manipulation: 1 Size: 4 Defense: 5 Initiative: 8 Speed: 16 Armor: - Perception (+4): 10 Health: 8

• Teeth:Bite attacks deal +1 lethal damage and do not require a grapple. They can establish a grapple as well as cause damage.
• Perception:+4 dice to Perception rolls using wolf senses.
• Chase Down:Spend 1 Essence to pre-empt another character’s action in combat with your own; usually an attack. This takes the place of a normal action. If other characters are capable of pre-empting actions, it becomes a Clash of Wills (see p. 115). If your character has already acted in a turn, she cannot use this ability. In a foot chase, an Urhan uses Speed in place of Strength + Athletics.

Rites

Sacred Hunt 2: The Sacred Hunt, the Siskur-Dah, is the most holy of all rites. Many werewolves believe that it draws upon the laws of the hunt that the Wolf-Mother herself personified.

• Symbols: The hunt, prey, claws or weapons, blood
• Sample Rite: Blood Talon ritemasters commonly use a circling dance of participants, with the Urathas’ claws marked with blood or ash. The ritemaster wears a mask representing the intended prey, and what follows is a mock-hunt around the dancing circle as the ritemaster seeks to break free. (Dexterity + Athletics)
• Action: Extended (10 successes; each roll represents 1 minute)
• Success: The rite binds hunters and prey into the Siskur-Dah. All werewolves present are cast as the hunters. The ritemaster must indicate the intended prey during the rite, which can be an individual or a group, but they do not need to be identified with precise details or names. The rite has three effects: All participating werewolves gain the Siskur-Dah Condition. If the Uratha bring down a spirit that is the prey of this rite, they may divide its remaining Essence amongst themselves as they see fit; this can be used to destroy a spirit by draining all its Essence and discorporating it, but doing so is usually a breaking point toward Spirit and is seen as disrespectful if done without good reason. If the Uratha chase down spirit-prey that knows the symbols of a rite or can carve the secret of a Gift, any Uratha hunter present can expend the necessary Experiences to be marked with the Gift or learn the rite from the spirit. If this is done, the hunters do not get any Essence if they then bring the spirit down, and doing so is a breaking point toward Spirit.

Equipment

• Possessions: xxx
  • Carried: xxx
  • Home:xxx
• Weapons:xxx
• Other Notes: X

Lifestyle

A description of your characters day to day life.

• Money: xxx
• Clothing & Jewelry: xxx
• Communication: xxx
• Food: xxx
• Housing: xxx
• Days: xxx
• Evenings: xxx

Background

Age: 34

First Change:

She was always Annabelle to her wife. Anna and Valerie had been together for 5 and were well on their way to building a life together. They had even made it through a year of owning a home and living together in the Woodlawn neighborhood. But the last 6 months in that home had definitely been the hardest. That was the 6 months that brought new next door neighbors. Megan and Paul Brockman were a young couple who had recently been married. It was obvious right from the start that something was off. The bruises on Megan, her black eye, her downcast eyes, her meek demeanor, Paul's quickness to anger, and stern voice. And there were the overheard bits of conversation when Anna and Val would hear him snap at her, or shout her name in anger, and sometimes what possibly sounded like a painful cry. There was a time when Val promised Anna that if she heard it again she was going to march over there and put an end to it. Anna told her it wasn't their place to get involved. The great irony is that Anna Figueroa was a trained Police Detective, the one with the skills to put an end to injustice, and, presumably, a desire to see justice done. But Anna also had a hesitancy. As a lesbian woman of color she felt her place in the Portland Police Department was tentative, and she worried about bringing too much attention to herself by inserting herself into other people's issues. Val, on the other hand, was the strong one. As a welder by trade, not only was she stocky and strong in body, but Val never seemed to be afraid of anything. She was always crusading for what was right, speaking out for those who couldn't speak out for themselves. Val was the hero. Maybe she was a little too much of a hero that night of the new moon.

The sky was pitch black. It was the middle of Summer and and the windows were wide open, trying to catch even the slightest breeze that might linger into the home.

"God damn bitch!" Paul's voice popped angrily and clearly, and then a harsh sound that was obviously a hit.

The inhale of breath and crying, and "No, no, Paul, no! Please!!"

Val's eyes were steel. "That's it. No more."

And Val was up and out the door. Anna jumped up and was immediately behind her, following and pleading for this not to happen. It was too late. Val, didn't knock or wait. She was through the front door of the Brockmans' home and inside the house with a speed that betrayed the stockiness of her body. Paul was standing over Megan, who was down on the floor with her arms raised defensively, wild fear in her eyes.

"You leave her alone, asshole!" Val yelled.

Paul turned and yelled back. "Stay out of this, you stupid dyke!" But Val was already charging ahead, and Paul's fist was rising up to meet her.

In that instant, Anna's tentativeness went away, and all her police training kicked in. She felt her body surge forward with the urge to protect her family... and something more. In that moment she felt a primal instinct to protect her pack, her territory, and she felt rage rise and the will to stand and fight against another predator. She felt that rage burning in her chest and temples until it consumed her... and when she awoke all she could smell was blood.

Even now she had a hard time coming to terms with what had happened that night. Paul and Megan were dead. So was Val. There were those in the Department, particularly those who were members of the Lodge of the Shield who had seen her change coming and were ready. They sent Detective Everett Wolcott, a Wolf-Blooded, to her to help her through. He explained what had happened, who she was. A werewolf. That was hard to deal with. What was impossible to comprehend was that she had killed 3 people. Val. Her wife. The woman she loved more than anything. It was incomprehensible.

Everett and the members of the Lodge arranged to have the horrible scene classified as a home break-in gone bad. Paul Brockman had made some enemies. It wasn't hard to suggest that someone had broken into their home to take revenge. Val and Anna had gone over to their home to try and help them, but ended up victims of violence themselves. Only Anna survived.

Everett was made Anna's new partner. He introduced her to The Wapato Island Pack, taught her the First Tongue, taught her how to hunt, and inducted her into the Lodge of the Shield. Eventually, he even handed his spot on the Samhain Accord Council over to her, a responsibility she has only reluctantly accepted.

Friends and Family

XXX

The Pack

XXX

Experience

• x skill points held in reserve
• x merit points held in reserve