Approved Custom Lodges CofD

The People of the Jagdschloss

Found in 1899 by a Blood Talon known as Hunts-With-Hounds. Hunts-With-Hounds was a German Immigrant who built, set up and made famous the hunting club, The Western Front. Hunts-With-Hound was a particularly cruel Blood Talon who hunted Uratha like sport, like one would hunt foxes back home. The Lodge has a bad reputation amongst most of the Uratha for its flippant nature towards the Oath of The Moon, in particular “The People Shall Not Kill The People” but to be honest, The People of the Jagdschloss don’t really care what others think of them. The thrill of the hunt is its own reward and a reward worth a little scorn from inferiors.
[Approval Number: VST-WTF-20171207]

The Lodge of Death

Ash Wolves, Barghests, Pale Hounds
A mighty Ithaeur had fallen, struck down by a spirit as he tried to bind it into a fetish. His pack put him on a pyre, and the flames rose high into the mountain air. Many of the People came to mourn and pay their respects. But only the Pale Hounds remained to watch the last of his bones burn.

Those of the Lodge of Death feel that the greatest mystery lies not in the howls of the Cahalith or some pocket of the Shadow, but in the inevitability of the grave. What lies beyond the veil of death is a question that humans and werewolves alike have tried to answer — unsuccessfully — for thousands of years. All humans have to go on is faith in a few dubious stories of tunnels of light, but the Uratha have the testimony of the spirits.

The Lodge of Death hunt ghosts, the undead, and those who would live beyond their allotted time. All things must die, adherents say, and those who cannot (or will not) pass on inevitably bring imbalance should they linger too long. Barghests, therefore, take it upon themselves to track down such restless shades and send them off to what lies beyond.

Many adherents flock to the Lodge out of sheer morbid curiosity. They want to know death, to better understand their own time among the living and make the most of it, and to know what their own funerals might look like. Others have lost relatives and wish to know that they have passed safely on or wish to pick their brains for knowledge thought lost forever. Some even join after they have lost family, lovers, or friends. They wish to find them and ensure that they are safe or are otherwise put to rest. Still, others regard death as the ultimate test of mettle and courage. A werewolf who does not fear their own death is a truly dangerous foe.

Not all members of the Lodge of Death join with benign goals, however. Ghosts cannot, as far as most werewolves know, be bound into fetishes, or affected by most rites. Furthermore, human ghosts exist in a state of Twilight, similar to a spirit that has crossed the Gauntlet and found a source of Essence to sustain itself. Werewolves of the Lodge of Death wonder how such ghosts maintain themselves since they do not seem to gain Essence the same way natural spirits do and wonder if Uratha could learn to take spiritual sustenance in the same way.

As a Tribal Pillar of the Bone Shadows, it is no surprise that the bulk of the Lodge is comprised of Hirfathra Hissu. Many Iron Masters can be found in a number of schisms, though, as they inevitably face ghosts, vampires, and other forms of walking dead while mingling with the human herd. One such schism recruits from the Blood Talons, training its members on how to fight those of their kind that have been twisted by the power of death.

Members of the Lodge of Death approach their work in different ways. Some spend their time conversing with ghosts, searching out haunts and trying to find ways to follow ghosts into whatever rewards await. Other members search the Hisil for places associated with death, speaking with conceptual spirits of murder, starvation, disease, and other methods of demise. A few take a darker course, though. Death is regarded as pivotal, even sacred, and they would seek to observe (or even bring it about) whenever the opportunity presents itself. Hence, there have been many instances of one dying with a Pale Hound as a witness, whose eyes are the last thing he sees as they look for answers in his last breath.

Totem: Hithelal-Us, The Ashes of the Dead

This spirit is invisible most of the time, though it always appears through the smoke of a funeral pyre. When revealed, it takes the form of a black smouldering figure shrouded from head to toe by a thick cloud of ash and soot. Its eyes burn fiercely, pulsing like hot coals in a dying fire.

Hithelal-Us is an ancient death spirit. In fact, it is thought to be one of several such spirits formed when Father Wolf died. While many of its fellows howled and raged at their existence, the spirit that would come to be a patron of the Ash Wolves was quiet and full of wonder. After all, it awoke to a world newly changed. It witnessed the time of great sorrow that befell the People, and it also watched as an ancient culture that had looked to circles of wise souls for guidance gradually eroded in those dark years.

However, the spirit would see such losses as more than an end. It saw how they were one half to a crucial cycle in the worlds and understood that Urfarah’s demise was perhaps necessary for the world to grow further. It saw old tales and lost secrets fading slowly from memory, waiting to be borne once more to impart the lessons they bear.

Hithelal-Us doesn’t speak to its adherents often, but it typically appears whenever one dies and is cremated. In such events, the spirit manifests from within the pyre to remind the surviving werewolves of their mission: to understand the mysteries of Death and to comprehend the true meaning of life. Sometimes, it has been known to commune with a dead adherent’s pack members to offer some parting words on their behalf.

Bonds

Blessing: When a member of the Lodge spends Willpower against a Death Spirit, Geist, Ghost, Vampire, or other Undead beings add an additional die to the modifier.
Aspiration: To understand the mysteries of Death and to comprehend the true meaning of life.
Ban: : Death is Sacrosanct to a Pale Hound. At the end of a scene in which a mortal or Werewolf has died, the Pale Hound must gather the remains of the deceased and see that they are properly attended to. For other Werewolves, this will mean performing the Laying to Rest rite. For mortals, this usually involves returning the deceased to their next of kin, or, conducting a ritualistic cremation if the body is too damaged to return to mortal society.

The Sacred Hunt

The Lodge Sacred Hunt grants Exceptional Success on 3 dice instead of 5 when the target of the hunt is a Death Spirit, Geist, Ghost, Vampire, or other Undead beings. Furthermore, if the target of the Sacred Hunt is a Ghost, the Lodge member applies the benefits of Honorary Rank towards them.

Tales of the Ash Wolves

Everything has its time, and not even the Barghests are exempt from this. It is said that prospective applicants to the Lodge must face their own death and show no fear to garner favour from Hithelal-Us itself and be permitted entry into the Lodge of Death.
The Lodge of Death collects bottled ghosts, assembling echoing vaults of incarcerated dead for questioning or experimentation. These whisper galleries are hidden and guarded in the most remote places, with the largest ones secluded deep within the Shadow, with many of the ghosts within being hundreds of years old.
It is often rumored that the Lodge of Death has carved out a place for itself in the Underworld, where adherents spend much time hunting obscure prey or learning strange occult lore. Most of these werewolves are said to be lone pilgrims, making the perilous journey to the Lodge’s domain in the wake of a great loss. Others sojourn to the Great Below after their last ties to the world of the living finally pass on.

Tools

Lodge members have access to the Lodge Armory, Lodge Lorehouse and Lodge Sorcery Merits, and may choose Sorcery Influences from Death, Smoke, and Ashes.

Rites

The Lodge of Death has been around for many centuries, and its members have developed several new Rites for use by their Lodge members.

Wolf Rites

Laying to Rest (•) - Lodge of Death Only
Laying to Rest is performed after the death of a werewolf. Its intent is threefold. First, it provides proper honour to the spirit of the valiant dead. Second, the rite gives packmates, allies and friends of the deceased an opportunity to make their peace with their demise. Third, the ritual speeds the spirit of the dead werewolf on its way to the ancestor realms or into its next life.

Symbols: Blood, Fire, Howling, Smoke
Sample Rite:The ritualist and all participants smear a small amount of their own blood onto both the corpse of the subject and the location of the body’s final resting place (whether that be through internment somewhere or cremation) while howling mournfully. (Presence + Occult)
Action:Extended (10 successes required; each roll represents 15 minutes
Success:The rite speeds a werewolf’s spirit along to whatever fate awaits it. This rite has no mechanical effect on the deceased; however, the Storyteller may decide to permit the deceased to offer a final message of wisdom before their spirit passes on, or allow those in attendance to speak with the recently departed for the remainder of the scene. At the completion of the rite, the ritemaster recovers a point of Willpower.

Pack Rites

Shadowed Hunt (•••)
This rite allows a pack member to open a gateway into the Underworld. While the rite isn’t the special province of any one tribe or lodge, the Lodge of Death is the only one that uses it with any degree of regularity. The rite is so named because of the way many werewolves feel about hunting already-dead prey; it’s an uncomfortable, murky practice, tantamount to admitting that the job wasn’t done right the first time. Sometimes, though, it’s necessary, and the rite can only be performed at an Avernian Gate, or a locus with an appropriately death-like resonance.

Symbols: Blood, Crossing, Death, Water
Sample Rite:The ritemaster stands before the gate or locus and makes an offering to Death Wolf. This offering must involve a living sacrifice, but any living creature, even a mouse, will do. The werewolf then draws the First Tongue sigils for “Death” and “Crossing” in the victim’s blood and sits in silence until the gate opens. (Manipulation + Occult)
Action:Extended (20 successes required; each roll represents 1 minute)
Duration: Special (See Below)
Success: A gateway opens to the Underworld, the environment takes the Underworld Gate condition (Chronicles of Darkness pg.136) for hours equal to the ritemaster’s Primal Urge dots. The Gate admits anyone who crosses it unless preventative measures are put in place. Furthermore, any supernatural power used to close the passage must succeed in a Clash of Wills against the ritemaster’s Wisdom + Primal Urge. The rite can also be used to return to the world of the living; however, it must be done in the Upper Reaches and within the vicinity of a closed Avernian Gate

[Approval Number: TOPAU20210010003]