101 adventure hooks for Werewolf: The Apocalypse Fifth Edition

W5 Chronicle Tips

1. Ten Tips to running the Cult of Fenris in W5
2. Why metaplot matters in the World of Darkness 
3. 101 Adventure Hooks for Werewolf: The Apocalypse 5th Edition
4. Ten Tips for using Hauglosk in W5

Hey folks,

    Werewolf: The Apocalypse Fifth Edition has recently released and has a bunch of controversial changes ranging from the removal kinfolk and Garou born of other Garou to the fall of the Get of Fenris. As a huge fan of W:TA, I think the best way to address this is provide plenty of plot hooks for Storytellers that are unsure about what sort of adventures they should have with the new edition. Many of these tie into older lore despite the contradictions and I hope that fans of both classic Werewolf and W5 will love them. 

101 Adventure Hooks for Werewolf: The Apocalypse 5th Edition

1. The PCs have found a fairly straight forward target in a Endron chemical plant poisoning a local forest and community with chemical waste that will kill hundreds over the next few years. It needs to go and blowing the place up with a minimum of casualties seems the most sensible direction to take.

2. See #1, the Garou Elder is suffering Harano and afraid doing this will result in a crackdown by the human authorities. He's looking for a less violent option or some way to cleanse the land.

3. See #1, a pack of Cut of Fenris show up under the flag of truce and offer to help just burn the place to the ground.

4. See #1, human activists are actually interested in using this as evidence for a class action lawsuit that could theoretically shut the entire branch of Endron down with hundreds of billions of dollars in fines as well as damages. It would require years, though.

5. See #1, a Ghost Council elder has the idea of trying a ritual to cleanse all of the damage but will require all of the Garou to endanger themselves by summoning an extra-powerful spirit as well as slaying the Endron chemical plant's bane. Is this useful or just esoteric nonsense to deal with a mundane problem?

6. A Lost Kin is nearby and the player characters must explain to her the nature of being a Garou.

7. See #6, she has no interest in a Garou or worshiping a Mother Goddess but wants to stick with her middle class white Protestant family that she is now (unknowingly) a danger to.

8. See #6, a Cult of Fenris pack is nearby and claims they want to offer her a fair choice between the two sides. Will they back down if she refuses them? Will the players?

9. Endron has gone bankrupt ala Enron, just decades later and the rest of Pentex has decided it's too much of a money sink to rescue. Especially since they've acquired Albion Petroleum. The players are assigned to make some choices regarding its headquarters.

10. See #9, the players can assassinate the executives fleeing the sinking ship.

11. See #9, they can attempt to use the chaos to get as much information on the rest of Pentex as possible.

12. See #9, a Leech's representative offers to bail out the company if the Garou help him eliminate his competition. This seems like an insane and counterproductive move until they see their green energy plan as well as plot to destroy Pentex's other energy companies across the next fifty years.

13. See #10, a particularly desperate Glass Walker elder has the same idea but intends to acquire it via large amounts of Weaver-magic and fraud. The player characters will also be required to do a heist of the liquid cash reserves of Endron.

14. A strange coyote-like shapechanger arrives with a Grand Klaive and claims to know where King Albrecht has disappeared to. Dare they follow him into the Umbra?

15. See #14, it's just a prank and they end up in a dangerous part of it with no immediate way to get back home.

16. See #15, it's absolutely true and they have found Albretch was seeking a way to slay Wolf so Wolf can reincarnate without its madness.

17. A delegation from a strange tribe of gator shifters sends delegates to the local Garou. Can these mysterious beings be trusted? What is their agenda?

18. See #17, they're actually refugees as the Cult of Fenris has taken their caern and massacred everyone there.

19. See #17, they are sincere representatives who want to make alliance with the Garou but a minority in their nation.

20. The player characters find themselves darted and wake up in a compound with neck collars that suppress their changing and a bunch of deranged rich people hunters. Can they get them off and turn the tables?

21. See #20, they are actually being hunted by a Silver Fang suffering Harano and believing the Garou are doomed.

22. See #20, they in the Umbra and this is actually a test by a Patron Spirit who wants to see how they behave.There are many subtle tests throughout.

23. A drunken Child of Gaia known as "Evan Knows Nothing" is suffering Harano. He blames himself for the Get of Fenris' fall and other ridiculous things. The PCs have the job of either smacking him out of it, taking him on a hunt, or euthanizing him as an embarrassment to his tribe.

24. An entire sept has been brutally massacred in Chicago. The Shadow Lord/Ghost Council sept called the Fanum was killed by a cannibalistic THING that has the powers of a Garou but superhuman strength, speed, and other abilities. It, however, only hunts at night and stalks the sewers. The Leeches also want it, calling it a "wight." It is something much worse.

25. A massive area of Nevada's desert is cordoned off by the US military and law enforcement with not even satellite footage able to be accessed. The players are sent in to find out if its Garou related after some visions from a Theruge.

26. See 25#, it is a dead Thunderwyrm and the Black Spiral Dancers are as freaked as everyone. They are unable to defeat the Project: Twilight soldiers (or something worse) protecting their now-dead caern. The players must either make sure it's dead or find a way to destroy the massive monster corpse along with any evidence left behind.

27. See #25, it is a portal to Malfeas and being stupidly observed versus someone trying to seal it up.

28. Tellus Enterprises has released a jank filled crappy video game. However, they're desperate to get it recalled now because the people who play it are having an alarming frequency of becoming Kin. Is this just a coincidence or has something powerful touched the copies? Are these new Kin even Garou or Stolen Moons?

29. Samuel Haight, yes, that asshole, is back. However, he's become a Patron Spirit and helping teach the Rite of Stolen Moon to anyone who wants to become Garou. He doesn't even need to kill Garou but seek out the corpses of dead ones (and only one versus five). Some Garou think he might be a weapon worth utilizing, assuming its Haight at all versus something assuming its form.

30. Riots at O'Tolleys are happening due to a cartoon tie-in over the Special Sauce. The Special Sauce is actually something that contains powerful Wyrm magic. The player characters have the dubious job of tracking down its warehouses full of the stuff to burn it to the ground.

31. An entire caern of Black Spiral Dancers have committed ritual suicide. Another one is found soon after with only a single BSD Ragabash surviving. It says that they are doing so because the Apocalypse has happened and the Wyrm has not yet manifested. They are trying to kill themselves to summon something greater still. Should the PCs let the BSD destroy themselves or seek whatever is causing their mass destruction? Is it a Bane of Despair, a Garou waging a psi-op, simple religious ferver, or something more mysterious?

32. A heretic Garou is being judged for his belief that Gaia is dying but only the planetary Incarna of her and the rest of the Umbra is fine. Even then, he argues that the world will recover once humanity is dead. Is his argument sound or just madness when the Garou need clear thinking?

33. A Cult of Fenris Ahroun is hunting down Red Talons guilty of things like mass murder, eating humans, and other atrocities not explicitly forbidden by the Litany. This is how he believes he is purifying the Garou Nation.

34. A Garou couple has been raising their human child in secret despite how terrified and confused they are by its parents. The local Garou sept leaders are incensed because child services has become involved. Normally, a child like this is given to human relatives to raise.

35. A 101 year old Silver Fang Garou elder asks the PCs to help in its ritual suicide. His eldest grandson is ready to kill them if they do, believing the Litany is wrong, but said elder is afraid of going senile and killing innocent people, including his human family. Other relatives want access to his fetishes and maybe even mortal fortune.

36. A Nexus crawler has been imprisoned by a particularly ruthless Theruge in a human child who has no idea their subconscious contains a monster. The easiest way to banish it is to kill the child but another Garou wants to do a much more difficult exorcism. The Nexus Crawler may start "leaking" out or the child will become a Formori. It may also never manifest.

37. The RED Network has a history of recording its executives for blackmail purposes. The Monkeywrenchers think they can access to stockpile if the PCs go undercover with suitable magic as behind the scenes assistants. It is an office of affairs, blackmail, hate, hypocrisy, harassment, and the occasional literal monster in the closet.

38. A caern has decided to throw off the Litany and make new rules for the Garou in the 21st century. It has almost immediately degenerated into pure chaos and the PCs are asked to go serve as diplomats before someone arrives with klaives or claws to get them back in line.

39. A Garou group wants to work with a bunch of human environmentalists against Pentex. However, they want to warn them against the supernatural powers and dangers they face. This is very close to breaking the Veil.

40. See #39, the Garou, in fact wants to reveal his true nature to them because he is in love with one of the activists who is carrying his child.

41. See #39, revealing the truth would be a complete disaster as the environmentalists would immediately turn to believing monsters are among them and conspiracy theorists.

42. See #39, the group has secrets of their own and are actually a mixed collection of sorcerers (their terminology is nonsensical to Garou) out do their own salvation of the world. The Other Garou would never trust them and demand their deaths.

43. An insane Theruge has an idea to kill the Sun. More specifically, he has an idea to kill the fallen Sky Incarna that represents Global Warming. He believes that if they get an army of tigers or other nonsensical ingredients (he has been in the Umbra too long), they can go into the Umbra and do it. Then climate change will be set back a century or so.

44. See #43, he's not wrong. It would actually work. Where to get the juice and participants necessary, though, is anyone's guess.

45. See #43, this plan will NOT work and is a massive trap for the Garou. However, it has a great deal of support among Red Talons and other Garou who are glad for at least SOME idea of how to save Gaia.

46. The player characters are asked to participate in a ritual designed to remove Hauglosk or Harano through a vision quest. It is very traditional and involves facing one's fears and going through a spiritual cleansing.

47. See #46, it works extremely well and offers new hope to the Garou Nation.

48. See #46, it actually is a forbidden rite because the Hauglosk or Harano becomes a pretty big ass Bane or could make it worse.

49. See #46, killing the Bane at the end is a perfectly addition to the ritual in today's environment. The decision to ban the rite was a mistake.

50. A pack of Moneywrenchers have an unusual request for the PCs in that they wish them to steal a copy of the next edition of Lycanthrope: The Rapture before it is released. This is a seeming trivial task except for the fact that is actually because a Kin is the writer and has filled the book with a stream of horrific barley contained rage at what he views as the hypocrisies of the Garou Nation.

51. A Garou archaeologist wants to go to Roanoke to investigate the claims of the legendary sacrifice of the Galestalker's sept there. There's a great deal of passive evidence that the entire story of their sacrifice to destroy Eater of Souls was, in fact, made up to make it look like the Wyrmbringers were honoring their native brethren. The sept may not even be extinct but simply withdrew from Garou Nation life.

52. The Howl of Gaia haunts the players' dreams and starts causing temporary Harano or Hauglosk. Is this a natural struggle they're dealing with or have they fallen attack under a particularly insidious bane or rite's attack?

53. A Garou marriage is about to occur and there is joy in the caern until one of the participants is murdered.

54. See #53, it is done by a crazed fundamentalist who claims an older version of the Litany forbids such unions.

55. See #53, it was done by their own child who resents that their relationship was hidden for years because he did not inherit the gift. Alternatively, it was done by the surviving spouse's ex-consort, who joined the Cult of Fenris.

56. See #53, it was done by the other spouse in a moment of Rage and they are now trying to cover it up while degenerating rapidly into Hauglosk.

57. A Silver Fang genealogist is rather obsessed with the idea that there is a correlation between becoming Garou and biological lineage. He's assembled a rather fantastic family tree of Garou on his computers.

58. See #57, this is, of course, a massive danger to the entire Garou race and needs to be destroyed before someone hands this over to Pentex or another group.

59. See #57, he's not wrong but Garou have been living alongside humanity so long that all human beings actually carry the gene on some level. It's just awakened by spiritual triggers that are less common these days.

60. See #57, it's actually eugenicist trash and nonsense designed to justify breeding human families and bloodlines that a few septs in Europe and America have been doing in compounds, Much data has been falsified or ignored.

61. The Black Furies have a longstanding camp devoted to women's issues because, let's face it, it is a longstanding issue. A hacker is attempting to go after their list of human contacts in protecting victims of domestic violence, seeking care for reproductive health, and other "controversial" topics before publicizing it.

62. See #61, the person responsible is a new kind of Weaver Formori that provides leet hacking skills to particularly odious individuals on the net. The player characters destroying it may require them to track down the origin Bane of this new Formori and destroy it before it lays thousands of eggs to create more. It is located on the Umbral reflection of a particularly obnoxious set of forums.

63. See #61, it is actually a minor Pentex subsidiary that harvested the data and is posting it because evil. In addition to going to their HQ and utterly trashing their servers and data, the PCs are to work with the Monkeywrenchers to get their data to use against their other clients as well as parent company, LifeWatch.

64. See #61, this attack was actually done by the Cult of Fenris who have an ex-Monkeywrencher who is incensed the Black Furies are attempting to protect their mortal families from them. This choice is actually controversial among the Black Furies and will require the PCs to argue it.

65. See #61, a Black Fury Theruge named Mari is being framed for this data breach as part of a political struggle with a rival that has no limits to what they will do for power.

66. A particularly obnoxious but influential Glass Walker bought a Pentex aligned social media company he's become obsessed with and has seemingly made it much-much worse. The Garou Nation want to do a status check on the guy for Hauglosk or Wyrm taint and whether it'd be better to eliminate him or not.

67. See #66, he's actually just an idiot who thinks that maximum freedom and his ill-conceived ideas will save the world.

68. See #66, he's been corrupted by the Banes that have been hanging around the platform that have played upon his already incredibly immature personality. This may have been a while ago and illustrate how money-obsessed the Glass Walkers have become.

69. See #66, one of his polygamous consorts is a Cult of Fenris infiltrator who has racial supremacist beliefs that they want to spread as a "cure" for Gaia. She survived the purge of an old camp of Cultists because they were a child at the time of the purge.

70. See #66, the Glass Walker's children include Kin who want to off him "Knives Out" style or would be "very sad" to inherit his vast fortune. They try and influence the PCs' inspection.

71. Pentex is breaking up! Praise Gaia! Or not as that would multiply their enemies. The news is sending is the stockholders into a tizzy as there's a feud at the top with the death of the immortal Chairman. Adrian Newberry wants to keep it together but Enzo Giovanni represents the people who want to break it up among several competing groups. Right now Enzo is winning. The PCs must decide whether to just try to kill them all at their first face-to-face meeting in decades at a secluded compound or help one party triumph over the other.

72. See #71, the information was dropped into their lap by the Leeches. It is their hope to wrest control over a massive amount of Pentex's fortune.

73. See #71, the information was actually dropped into their hands by Project: Twilight. They've incorrectly assumed that Pentex is a werewolf owned company and want to break it up to protect capitalism as a whole.

74. See #71, the information was leaked by the Incarnae Wyrm spirit of Pentex itself, called Hydra, who is suffering a struggle with the Wyrm spirits of its other heads. This may be a chance to strike at it directly.

75. See #75, it is in fact Fly who leaked the information as it is terrified of Hydra consuming it and becoming the new patron of its employees. Slaying some of the heads will allow it to feast on their corpses.

76. The player characters are asked to act as bodyguards for an ancient Red Talon named Growl. Growl hates humans, believes they should be destroyed, and is objectively evil by human standards. However, Growl is a voice in the Garou Nation that continually smacks down any voice that suggests the Red Talons should go rogue or against the other tribes.

77. See #76, Growl is being hunted by a pack of Garou who are the human survivors of a town he destroyed that was believed to have been destroyed by a train derailment. Are they all empowered by Gaia, Stolen Moons, or had they just been the local sept. They want him dead, consequences be damned.

78. See #76, Growl is dying of cancer and relies on Child of Gaia Gifts as well as fetishes to keep himself alive. His hypocrisy is something he doesn't remotely care about and just wants to cling to life as long as possible.

79. See #76, Growl is a traitor and long ago succumbed to Wyrm taint from eating humans. He's also the leader of a group of Red Talons that do it ritualistically. However, Growl points out that the Wyrm doesn't "care" about individual politics and it has kept him alive as well as in charge. The elders may even know about his habit.

80. See #76, a group of Red Talons wants to slay him because they suspect he is either working with the Cult of Fenris (now that an alternative has presented itself) or because they want to. Either way, they feel he needs to go and don't intend to duel him over it.

81. A Garou claiming to be a Stargazer shows up at the sept and speaks of how they're doing fine outside of the Garou Nation's corruption. He invites them to consider that working outside of it may be Gaia's salvation.

82. See #81, he's actually a Ragabash trying to test the PCs loyalty and the faith of younger Garou as a whole. So far the results have not been promising.

83. See #81, he's actually sincere and the Stargazers are building a coalition of other shifters and Garou as an alternative. He must be destroyed before he corrupts others!

84. See #81, he's actually a Starving Remnant of a Garou trapped in the Umbra who has taken to wearing the skins of other Garou and luring them in to keep "living."

85. The PCs come across the enormous remains of Whippoorwill, a Wyrm tainted bird totem that has seemingly been slain and left to rot in the Umbra. Who killed this being? Why? What does the death of a Patron Spirit mean?

86. The legend of Crystal Falls National Forest is one of dozens of campers, hitchhikers, and stoners disappearing over the past fifty years. Now a podcast and series Kickstarter-funded movies are about to make it a national tourist spot. The Garou who murdered the people involved are feeling very embarrassed by this and are worried about their caern.

87. See #86, the PCs are asked to clean up this event nonviolently if possible. The last thing they need is make its role as the "Home of the Real Jason Voorhees" a Tik Tok phenomenon.

88. See #86, a bunch of Twisted Slasher Formori empowered by the faith and murders have shown up to make their horror movie roles real. They're a LOT more powerful than they should be normal and may even come back from the dead.

89. See #86, this is actually all organized by a pretty Goth Girl Woman online horror show host who has been secretly doing this all to try and get national attention on what happened to her brother twenty years ago.

90. See #89, the missing brother is actually a Garou who joined the local sept and is now a frothing Hauglosk ridden monster who would kill her for endangering the Veil.

91. See #89, Oh and she's Kin too.

92. The PCs are contacted by a human mysteriously immune to the Delirium who claims to represent the government. He'd like the PCs to start eliminating targets that the government is avoiding but endangering the public among vampires.

93. See #92, This is absolutely a chance for him to find out more about the Garou by putting out bait.

94. See #93, That doesn't mean the information isn't good and eliminating him wouldn't cause more problems.

95. The suspicious suicide of Geoffrey Ephraim, Pentex hedge fund manager and Formori of Vice, has attracted a bunch of podcasters and investigators. One of them has heard stories of the deaths of many of his associates in a word he shouldn't know. Who or what was the Seventh Generation? Was there a conspiracy by a weird New York religious cult to wipe them out?

96. The elders of the sept want a Glass Walker killed who has been posting images of Garou slaughtering people online. The Glass Walker (currently in hiding) claims they're all faked footage and he's about to post an app so everyone can make footage. That will protect the Veil, won't it? Others think it will just draw attention.

97. A Native American Glass Walker and their Children of Gaia lawyers are working on blocking a government built pipeline through their human tribe's territory. A Galestalker pack of outsiders want to "help" them by blowing it up.

98. A Child of Gaia has successfully cleaned a former Endron nuclear plant after eliminating its Wyrm spawn. They argue that nuclear power is actually the way forward and cleansing them is a chance to save Gaia. Their argument is solid enough that those against nuclear power want to kill them. It doesn't help they're a teenage girl and climate change activist.

99. A Get of Fenris pack is still active in Poland, murdering Cult of Fenris and hostile to any Garou that say they have to choose a new tribe. They are suffering from a corrupted spiritual connection to Wolf, though, and must choose a new totem or succumb to Hauglosk. Can the player characters convince them?

100. The government has declared it law in a state to eliminate 98% of the wolves. The Garou admit the Red Talons have it right and are assembling a hunt to kill as many hunters as possible. Will this help matters or is it just a satisfying but counterproductive solution?

101. Bat fell to the Wyrm when his children were slain. What happens when the vagaries of genetics and spirit birth the first Camazotz in centuries? Can the players save them from the Black Spiral Dancers and corruption?