The Karish

By Dorian Winter

Level 5
Gnosis 9

The Karish is a fetish in the shape of a large dagger, sharpened on both sides of the blade. It is made of a very hard blackish wood of unknown origins, and its surface is absolutely smooth with no decoration at all.

The Karish does damage as a Grand Klaive, but in surplus, it is able to home in in the heart of a vampire, not only immobilizing her, but killing her immediately, even an ancient one. There is no known way for the vampire to avoid being hit. However, the Karish can do this only three times; The first time, it was used during the second turkish siege of Vienna in the year 1683. In the night of september 12th 1683, it was used by a polish Silver Fang to slay Sabahattin Pasha, a Ventrue antitribu elder of the fifth generation. Dying, the polish knight presented the Karish to Vienna's Sept in the year 1702. The fetish is not mentioned until about 1750, when it was lost in a battle against the Dancers.

The Karish came back to the Viennese Sept in the year 1947, when Leopold von Wolfsberg, a young Silver Fang Philodox, killed a mighty Black Spiral Ahroun and took the fetish from him. Strangely, the dagger showed no trace of the Wyrm at all, so Leopold kept it until the present day.

Sometimes in the spring of 1973, the Karish was used for the second time, when the "Tyrolean", a Bone Gnawer, killed a leading Tremere Elder. From that day on, a very labile armistice was respected by both the Tremere and the Viennese Garou.

The Karish is still with Leopold, who is the present king of the protectorate of Cisleithania. In times of need, he will give the dagger to a pack worthy of it, but will always ask that the weapon will be returned to him, used or not. The Fetish is never given to a specific Garou, but to the whole pack. It then chooses the bearer itself, but it is not known through what standards, and its bond to Leopold never disappears. It seems, that Shadow Lords or Get of Fenris are never chosen.

The Theurges of Vienna's Sept have never been able to determine the origin of the Fetish, because the mighty spirit that inhabits the weapon refuses to communicate in any other way than to choose its bearer. But from a few hints the polish knight dropped, the spirit was never bound to the dagger, but created it itself for unknown reasons of its own. (The "Tyrolean" reported, that the Karish radiated a strong feeling of lust, the moment it struck the Tremere elder.).