Rite of the Opened Caern~1~Caern~All~WtA~
Caerns are highly spiritual places and are sacred to those who create
them. Each caern has a specific power associated with it, generally of
a beneficial nature. Thus, there are caerns of Rage, caerns of Gnosis,
Strength, Enigmas, etc. If a character is knowledgeable enough, she may
be able to tap into the caern's power and use it herself. This is 
commonly called "opening" a caern. Opening a caern should not be attempted
lightly. Caerns do not easily give up their energies, and failure to harness
such power properly can result in serious damage to the Garou.

Each caern has its own requirements of the ritemaster. The ritemaster must
prove herself worthy of the caern's energies. In order to open a caern of
Enigmas, a Garou might walk a spiral path while calling out the Greek myth
of Persephone, while to open a caern of Rage, the Garou might transform
into Crinos and chant forth the litany of his ancestors who have fallen
to the Wyrm. The key is forging a connection to the particular spirit of
the caern.

System: To open a caern, a character engages in a resisted, extended 
success test of Wits + Rituals (difficulty 7). The number of successes
needed equals the caern's level.

The character is opposed by the caern spirit. The caern spirit uses its
caern level as a Dice Pool. It's difficulty equals the character's Gnosis,
while the number of successes needed equals the character's Willpower. The
first one to garner the necessary number of successes wins.

If the character wins the test, she can add the caern's rating to her Dice 
Pool when performing actions appropriate to that caern's focus. If she
loses, however, she takes wounds equal to the number of success by which
the caern beat her. A botch indicates the wounds are aggravated. These
physical and spiritual wounds are the results of a backlash of spiritual
energy.

See the Caerns Chart (pg. 170) for a list of caern types, their powers
and the spirits that can often be encountered near them.
