Paul Bode's Roleplay Game

 

 

Caern Leader: Botchalism (Mother)                                                                            Totem: Scrap Heap

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Caern Warder: Stroke                                                                                                      Secondary Totem:  Rat

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Theurge: Typhoid                                                                                                               Location:  Sainte Maxime, South France

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'Botchalism': Bone Gnawer, Philodox, Metis, Rank 5, Unknown (unable to stand), Unknown (It is rude to ask), A massive brown werewolf of huge size with huge ripples of flab over the majority of her body with a swollen abdomen with her 6 teats proudly exposed. Botchalism is the kind mother of the caern who provides care and guidance to all that come to her. She rests between two old cars  a make-shift 'throne' at the base of the 'great mound' which forms caern heart. She is much loved at the caern and young members call her 'Grandmother' and the even the oldest garou call her 'Mother' despite the fact there is no genetic link. She resolves all disputes with a few kind words and spiritual guidance and despite the fact she has not handed out punishments for a long time all respect her word. She is never challenged and no one thinks they could do a better job than she is presently doing, let alone consider an absence of their mother. She has been there as far as anyone can remember and old stories tell of her walking around checking on her people during night watches like a werewolf Florence Nightingale. Despite her benevolence, her cunning against the Wyrm is well known and the coastal area of Saint Maxime are a relaxing, peaceful resort because of the careful war she has waged. Her very nature means she relies heavily on her people to represent her in war, diplomatic meetings and at foreign moots. All Sept elder meetings are held at her seating area. Despite being a metis and being infertile she constantly creates milk in her six breasts (a blessing of Gaia!) which she feeds to her people's children sometimes during these meetings. She has several mates, but no husband. To non-Bone Gnawers she is the shameful low that a garou can go to...to her people she is home. She wears no clothes and is always in her crinos form and generally will be in the penumbra unless a need causes her to step sideways.

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'Stroke': Bone Gnawer, Ahroun, Rank 5, 5ft 11' Tall, 38 Years old, A muscular, ugly, second in command with bald head, no neck with almost every part of his human flesh covered in tattoos and decorative piercings. Most of his piercings are parts of the scrap yard he occasionally finds decorative and they range from bottle tops, brass etchings, CD cases to I-phone parts. Despite taking the elderly 'Father' figure with his people, he is one that holds the caern in check and it is no small means that his garou name is linked to one of the biggest killers in the World. Despite being Caern Warder he is also on the fore front of any skirmish against the Wyrm and still joins active packs as if he was a younger, less important garou. He presents a serious character and with the aid of the caern's metis will do most of the guard duty shifts as well as planning military actions with the warriors. Although his image he presents is particularly terrifying he is a kind character until he is provoked which is when the beast is released. He has a kin wife that is much like him, shaved, tattooed and pierced and several badly behaved children that are often sent to Botchalism when not with their human mother or grandmother. He is always respectful to mother, kissing her head and obeying her every command as model for all others. He likes heavy metal music, but due to the lack of free time is not really up to date with the genre and listens to old classics like Iron Maiden and Metallica. He will wear t-shirts showing the bands of his choice when he can find them within the scrap, else he will wear what comes to hand.

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'Typhoid': Bone Gnawer, Theurge, Lupus, Rank 4, 5ft 10' Tall, 41 Years old, A short scruffy curly brown haired wolf with quick eyes, pointed face and when in homid his skin appears tanned from his mixed heritage. He was a slow learner and was trained heavily by the previous head theurge who he replaced in the late 1990's but now with all his practical experience he presents the elder of experience that the people of the caern expect. His nervousness is still occasionally open and he will nervously chatter with hidden people, casually glancing behind him at odd times. He still struggles to deal with all the 'monkey' stuff around him but is well habituated into the landscape and tackles each new object to arrive with the curiosity of his fellow sept mates. He has a large collection of things that are shiny kept in his underground hole, which is affectionately called 'The Hobbit Hole'. There is generally a large number of dogs that are loose on site and they form his spy network and his work dogs, some of them are even his mates. He knows a huge collection of rites and has his own unique style to perform them and as any good theurge does, keeps a excellent repartee with 'Trash Heap' and the multitude of rats which infest the place which have no fear that he will eat them. He has a fetish collar that has been made out of shiny, spiked parts of metal which he uses to store spiritual energy into for future use, mainly before each monthly moot.  In human form he wears what clothing he can find, often with flies down and shoes untied.

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‘Polio’: Bone Gnawer, Philodox, Metis, Rank 4, 5ft 6' tall, 58 years old, tall, an elderly garou with inverted arm and club foot. His fur is black with flecks of grey. He was originally a Get whose parents fell in love, to hide their error they handed the young child of to the Children of Gaia. As the cub grew up he could find no place with the Children and eventually left to begin life as a Bone Gnawer, the only place he was readily accepted.  Polio became part of the active packs at this caern and had a heroic youth. Now as he is much older he is often used to mediate disputes, uphold laws and provide advice for the younger members as well as argue finer points of the interpretation of the Litany - which he is particularly good at, albeit from a very biased perspective. He has little love for his old tribes and has grown bitter to both the Children of Gaia and the Get-of-Fenris. Like 'Mother' he spends special joy with the children of the caern who he will take egg hunting in the nearby trees around the caern. He lives in the magnetic crane in the penumbra, which has a wide view all around the caern. He tends to wear what he can find about the caern but will trade or steal anything that takes his fancy.

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'Bubonic': Bone Gnawer, Ragabash, Metis, Rank 3, 5ft 11’ tall, 33 Years old, a dark grey garou with brown patches of fur showing in patches. He is one of the regular caern defenders and will do regular watches in the physical and the penumbra. He is insane though and a tad bit 'simple', but if anyone calls him this sept members will correct them and describe him as 'colourful'. Bubonic's voice box is either damaged or he has never learnt proper language and as such he can make only strange noises which most people at the caern can understand but new-comers to the caern can't, this is his only form of communication so the rest of the time he tends to be silent. He has a strange habit of running backwards as well, which he can do as well as others who run forward. He likes to run and sometimes will start to do so for no reason often when people are trying to talk to him. He is well liked at the caern, contributes with caern watches but is a common target for others to complain about this caern as he is clearly a breach of the Litany 'Do Not Suffer Thy People to Tend Thy Sickness' and some who would accuse his insanity as being Wyrm taint. He dresses in simple clothes with no understanding of fashion or colour co-ordination or even what constitutes male clothing or female clothing.

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'Leprosy': Bone Gnawer, Galliard, Metis, Rank 3, 6ft 11’ tall, 31 Years old, a blonde brown furred crinos with patches of fur missing where his black boils erupt out from. His human form is especially ugly, looking a little like the 'Elephant Man', so he tends to avoid this form.Leprosy is the son of the previous head theurge and has been at this caern all his life. His garou life experiences are limited, having never packed nor visited another caern. He has fought the Wyrn on many occasions and tells great tales of the battles he has been in and although his stories are sometimes overly flawed due to a lacking of life experience, there is a joy in the way he tells them. Leprosy has taken no mates, probably because few would tolerate him as such, but he does keep some close friends. His darkened boils is the reason he gets his garou name...and his ability to survive extreme temperatures quite happily. He is a big fan of Peter Cushing films, which need to be dubbed as he can't speak or read any English. 'Leprosy' has taken to wearing hoods and cloaks to hide his disfigured body and he is rarely in homid or lupus forms.

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'Chlamydia': Bone Gnawer, Galliard, Rank 3, 5ft 7' tall, 26 years old, tall, a thin, dark haired French lady of South African decent, with a elegant cat-walk body. Her hair is kept in a bun at the back of her head and she has piercing green eyes. The 'Galliard' of the caern who is often heard and seen playing and singing in the evenings for the entertainment of her people. She is in charge of keeping the caerns long and complicated history alive and verbally told. She will often used as an advisor by the elders to ensure that heritage is being maintained and as such is quite highly valued. She forms a member of ' Quatre Griffes', the caern's current active pack and has been married to the pack leader for a few years now. Despite being happily married they have both agreed to consider their duty to Gaia and have also taken kinfolk lovers for the purpose of continuing the caern's line. She used to teach Influenza to sing by moonlight, but she now tutors the younger members. She likes to sell items she finds to buy some nicer clothes on the highstreet as she understands she has a need to be able to intergrate into human city as part of the pack. Rumours claim her human name is related to her garou name. She favours her glabo form for combat and uses an automatic rifle.

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‘Syphilis': Bone Gnawer, Ahroun, Rank 3, 6ft tall, 28 years old, A thin faced stubbly man with a military air about him. He was a late changer and had the start of a career in the French navy before he was pulled from that life and into the life of the garou. He could have been accepted by many tribes as he is strong, capable and competent and focused and loyal. He is one of the success stories at this caern and has gone from strength to strength. Over the years he has been showered in glory and has lead the spearhead assault against the Wyrm and through battle has earned the right to lead the caern's active pack. French is his mother tongue, but he can also speak English and Italian to a limited degree. He keeps active links with other caerns and has a few gifts from other tribes as a result of these friendships. With non-Bone Gnawers he keeps secret his marriage to 'Chlamydia' and his kinfolk mate is now expecting a child which also upholds his duty to Gaia. There is no doubt he has a great future and will go far at this caern. He is often used in multi-tribe relations as a role-model Bone Gnawer and one that can be accepted by the other tribes. He, like his wife, likes to make an effort with his clothing to make it easier to integrate into humanity when it is required.

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‘Piles’: Rank 4, Bone Gnawer, Ragabash, Rank 3, 5ft 3' tall, 26 years old, small and excitable, the man is the human world equivalent of the rat. His brown skin is framed by a head full of black hair with prominent eyebrows, small nose and buck teeth. He has an abundance of energy which then is contrasted by moments of depression which makes him suspected of being bipolar. His small size allows him to get into the nooks and crannies with the stealth of his auspice. He never sits down and sleeps leaning against the wall 'to prevent bugs getting in my ears', this fact that he won't sit down led to the selection of his garou name. He forms the runt member of the active pack and the least understood member. In mixed tribe groupings he is likely to remain silent and in the shadows while always searching and being jittery which gives him a creepy reputation. He knows nothing of his parents, being from Turkey and has only rudimentary past images of them, some of his most prized possessions. He keeps a mate, who he constantly falls out with and with a few moments of meeting her it becomes clear she has a similar disorder as 'Piles'. He wears an old blue suede jacket, tight fitting jeans and occasionally a small flower on his jacket - a boutonniere!

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'Hepatitis C': Bone Gnawer, Theurge, Rank 2, 5ft 10' tall, 23 years old, A long haired street tramp from a huge family who is never separated from his sleeping bag and his travelling companion 'Napoleon', a Jack Russell. He is the third brother of his family, all of whom were expected to be likely garou but only he underwent first change, hence his garou name. The other two, even not garou still get the same nickname of 'A' and 'B' when at sept and both now have children of their own. With little rage for a garou he is the caern's trainee theurge and though inexperienced shows the early signs of talent and creativity lacking in his mentor 'Typhoid' and also the man he will eventually replace. He is an active pack member, one of the 'four claws' and often away on sept business or in their pursuit of the Wyrm. He is the only person in the pack that can speak to their totem 'Racoon Dog' and cunningly uses this to his advantage. 'C' also keeps links with the human world and will spend a few nights a week homeless with some of the vagrants of Sainte Maxime. These people have no idea about his double life and his low rage allows him to keep this going without many problems. He is often involved with different women but has never settled down to a single mate. 'C's clothes are dirty and ragged and he has the aroma of a mendicant, much to the dismay of his pack.

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‘Bronchitis’: Bone Gnawer, Ahroun, Rank 2, 5ft 11' tall, 24 years old, a thin wiry French man with thinned hair and bad teeth. He looks somewhat like Jack Nicholson, though not as aged and almost always with a cigarette in his mouth and a cough to match. He has been homeless since his early years and has spent the bulk of his life on the streets until first change took him and he was pulled in to the caern. It has been argued that life circumstances had given him no choice, none in life and none in tribe and of all the harmony at the caern here is someone that does not seem content with their lot. 'Bronchitis' would probably be happier as a Shadow Lord or at the least a Children of Gaia, though now it is likely that neither of them would actually accept him as a member. This resentfulness lives on in many of his actions and he has become a 'crooked arrow', an ahroun with a grudge to bear. Most of his time he spends his time with the humans of the sept and although he has garou friends he would prefer them not to be Bone Gnawers. He dresses the best he can with his situation and tends to steal the clothes that he actually needs.

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‘Tuberculosis’: Bone Gnawer, Philodox, Rank 1, 5ft 10' tall, 35 years old, A tall second generation native American with long plated black hair and several battlescars across his face and body. His past is not known and only guessed upon as he tends to be quiet and withdrawn only speaking when there is something worthwhile to say. The young garou call him 'Spock' due to his likeness to the look and personality of that character a fact he does not protest to as he prefers it to his given garou name. What is rumoured is that he was originally affiliated with another tribe (maybe Uktena or Wendigo) and some shamed deed (maybe sleeping with an elders kinfolk, or defecating on their bed) led him to be kicked out of sept and eventually tribe. He wandered a time as ronin until the acceptance of a new tribe stripped him of rank and friends. Of course, 'Tub' will stare blankly at these rumours with a look that could be indifference or disgust and neither comment one way or the other. His past is his own and 'the past remains in the past, we live for the future'. He is a poor Bone Gnawer and although an experienced garou with gifts above his rank he is held at his present rank. His skills with business and the human world allow him to work for the sept in the local government and unlike his colleagues he does seem to get access to money without barter or theft. For this reason, sept members are always asking him to lend them 10 Euros. His clothes are clean, pressed and undecidedly plain. He has the air of a man who has done the stint in the army and a part of his soul has been burned away by it.

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‘Meningitis’: Bone Gnawer, Ahroun, Rank 1, 5ft 11' tall, 16 years old,  a young blonde, short haired French woman from one of the local families. She is quite beautiful, very thin and has piercing blue eyes.  She complains quite often about bone aches and muscle pains apparently as an adopted way to get attention for when her alternative methods don't work. Added with the fact her hands are always cold due to bad circulation earned her the garou name 'Meningitis', although others joke that this is also related to her promiscuous nature. She eagerly wants the chance to prove herself and join the active pack but is constantly pushed back due to simple life errors and a unreliable nature. Both her parents are kinfolk and are wonderfully pleased how their daughter turned out and seem to have an abundance of praise for the little that she does. Love is blind and her parents love her very much. She wears 'Paul's Boutique' fashions, tummy tops, short boots with cheap necklaces and earrings.

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'Smallpox': Bone Gnawer, Galliard, Rank pup, 5ft 11' tall, 14 years old,  a slightly rotund, fattish boy with an acne problem and is starting to 'grow' a small fluffy beard to make him look older. He eats constantly, mainly sweet products and is very keen to learn his first gift 'Cooking'. He is not particularly brave or strong or a heroic example to the others. If anything his only real great skill is one of intelligence. He reads a lot, an awful lot. His quarters (an old gutted JCB, with its claw used as a sun shield) are full of books and he has built walls of old books to partition a bedroom and greeting area. He is being mentored by the Metis 'Leprosy' in the ways of telling stories and the two seem to find a natural balance in their relationship. He likes to hang around with 'Meningitis' with whom he has a crush upon, she just barely tolerates him. He is one of Botchalism favourites and she understands and relates to his plight as a youngster maybe giving an insight into her younger life. He tends to wear clothes which ill fit him and that are dirty and poorly looked after.

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The Caern: The caern has been at this location since records began. Originally a Shadow Lord caern but during the exodus around 1,000 A.D. with many garou and kinfolk leaving the area for foreign shores the caern began to fall into recruitment problems and as the Wyrm assaults also took causalities it soon became clear that the Shadow Lords would need to leave the caern to others or let it fall. Since the Litany would not allow them to do the later, they left it for some travelling Bone Gnawers to help run. After several generations there were no longer any Shadow Lords and the caern was well-established as a Bone Gnawer caern. Things began to change there and as the years went on the totem was changed to one that better fitted the caern. The Industrial age saw the caern being used as a dumping ground for refuge and the garou on site began to make use and recycle items left in the name of Gaia. Several families settled here and four lines of garou and kin competed for leadership through the years which resulted in some pretty savage in-fighting. The 1900 saw stability and an end to the infighting with one family taking control of the caern and holding it via strong leadership. The Bone Gnawers at the caern were particularly adapt at stealing and the gift 'Taken the Forgotten' could be taught at cliath ranking. This reputation got out and many of the relationships with other caern have been tainted by this fact. The caern now is mostly used for scrap cars and many of them have become fused together and have become the houses for the garou at the caern. Weaver spirits are also common at the caern and the theurges do their best to keep this careful balance maintained. All members of this caern are expected to abandon their name when they apply to join here and take a new name, the current pattern is to take a name that is associated with a human world illness.

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Visitors: There is a special bus at the caern loaded with carved objects made from steel and scrap metal. The spiritual attunement of the site is said to allow people to have prophetic dreams when sleeping in the bus. This causes some Uktena and Silent Striders to risk their possessions and come visit the caern. Other than that, the caern has few visitors other than other Bone Gnawers.

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