Wilderness Ally

Wilderness Ally

Power: Shaman
Rank: Veteran
Power Points: 1/medicine rock
Range: Immediate
Duration: Daily
Trappings: Medicine rocks

Overview
This Power allows the shaman and his followers to blend with the landscape, allowing them to evade detection as they travel the countryside. Forests seem more dense, fallen leaves are tread upon silently, and even shadows seem eager to conceal the traveler.

Medicine Rocks
The spell is prepared by crafting special “medicine rocks,” one for each person to be affected. These rocks may be of any type, and must be selected by the Shaman during the night of a New Moon. Once collected, each stone must be successfully concealed in the belongings of a tribe member. If the rock evades detection for one day, it is considered “good medicine,” and may be used for the spell.

Casting the Spell
Each morning, the shaman must gather together the medicine rocks and spend one hour blessing them. This blessing requires one Power Point per rock. The ritual begins when the shaman washes the rocks in water, then sets them to dry near a burning “smudge” of herbs—usually a mixture of sage, purple mallow root, and prickly ash. Once the rocks have absorbed the smoke, they are distributed among the shaman’s companions. These travelers may then voyage across the landscape silently and virtually imperceptibly, as if they are making a perpetual Stealth roll.

Limitations
Wilderness Ally does not confer invisibility. If the traveler performs an action that would naturally call attention to himself, he forgoes the spell’s protection. Also, if an opponent is actively searching for the carrier of the medicine rock, he may “see through” the spell by making a Notice roll against a Target equal to the traveler’s Spirit die. Finally, the spell relies on the existence of some form of natural landscape, and cannot function when there’s a lack of protective cover, such as walking through a town, sailing on a boat, or striding across an open salt flat.

Improved Wilderness Ally

Power: Shaman
Rank: Heroic
Power Points: 1/two medicine rocks
Range: Immediate
Duration: Daily
Trappings: Medicine rocks

Overview
A more powerful version of Wilderness Ally, this spell is prepared and cast in the exact same manner. Improved Wilderness Ally makes the travelers even more difficult to detect, and has the additional advantage of doubling the traveler’s normal pace. Hidden shortcuts mysteriously appear through tangled brambles, open meadows are concealed by unexpected fog banks, and unfordable rivers are bridged by fallen trees. The caster may bless twice the number of rocks as the standard spell, so a shaman with 22 Power Points may conceivably prepare up to 44 medicine rocks each morning—providing he is willing to exhaust his powers!

Limitations
The same limitations apply as the standard spell, but an active searcher must now make a Notice roll against the shaman’s Spirit die, not the carrier of the medicine rock.

Sources & Notes

The origin of this Power is “Wilderness Walk” from the Ghost Dancers sourcebook. I greatly expanded and re-imagined the Power, then adjusted it to fit the Savage Worlds rules.

Author: A. Buell Ruch
Last Modified: 2017 May 13
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
PDF Version: Deadlands Grimoire – Wilderness Ally