No, you are mistaken.
Its a daylong bonus for everyone who is involved in the Rite/spell. Its not used continuously either; the caern needs time to recover after each time its used this way.
To quote
I found guidance on this in some of the Player's Guides (I was checking on another thing and stumbled upon it). I guess I should have checked there first, but stupid me, I thought the actual description of the rite in the Corebook would be sufficient.
I can forgive the first edition corebook not being complete in this sense. There are always things you forget to mention, or don't think about. But there is a lot of information "trapped" in the Players Guides and elsewhere that should have been incorporated into subsequent editions of the corebook. This is just bad editing and bad management.
Anyway, this is what we're told in the second edition guide:
This provides good guidance.
- Customarily, each success equals one bonus die to be distributed among the characters as she sees fit. If the bonus could go to more than one dice pool, the affected pool must be chosen when the bonus is awarded.
- Typically, these bonus dice have an effective duration of one day and may not be saved up.
- A player may benefit from a specific power only once during a single day, so if the player is awarded more bonus dice in the same area, he loses any bonus he may already have had.
- A caern can be utilized a number of times during a single day equal to its rank level. Thus, a Rank 4 caern can be accessed only four times before it is drained and in need of a recharging. There is no special procedure for recharging a caern; simply leaving it alone for an interval is all that is required.
- During times of desperate circumstance, a caern can be called upon for more endowment, but only at great risk. If the ritemaster attempts to draw additional bonus dice from a caern that has already been drained, the difficulty rises by 1.
Besides answering my questions in terms of how long the bonus lasts (up to 24 hours), and how many times it can be used (only once); it also tells how many times a caern can be opened (up to its rank level per day), as well as stating the bonus dice can be distributed among multiple people (I'm assuming they must all be participants of the rite).
We're not told of any restrictions on the use of the bonus dice. The rite description clearly says "when performing actions appropriate to the caern's focus." I think it's possible for someone to perform an appropriate action and also having it be self-serving (as Heinrich said). But it's open whether the above is just flavor text, or if its actually restrictive in some way.
I'm initially inclined to believe that this is a real restriction. Therefore, as an ST, if I didn't think the action was appropriate, and the player could not provide a good reason, I'm inclined to say no bonus happens. There will be dispute on this of course, but I used as a guide whether I think the caern totem would approve the use of the bonus. But I would also see the point of players that say it is up to the Garou to determine how it's used. And I'd be open to being converted to that point of view.
The Players Guides seems to imply that only the sept Master of Rite (or some other sept official) performs this rite. I think others should be able to as well. Otherwise, there is no reason for a PC to learn this rite except in preparation to hold that sept position. However, I do think the Master of Rite effectively controls who can open the caern, as that sept position determines who is allowed to performed what rites at the caern.
I have a copy of the 2nd Edition Players Guide p104, so I can confirm, as can anyone else who looks up the book.
I just am not inclined to type out at least half a page of text, because my copy does not allow for cut and paste.
Remember that the 20th anniversary books generally arent that much different from the prior books; specifically, the Caerns list in W20 is essentially lifted wholesale from the Second Edition core book p170.
There's a reason why we can still use books like the various Tribe books and Sorcerer Revised and the Bygone Bestiary or Axis Mundi as references.
