With neither tools nor spare parts available, the character can still repair any device. More than half of the device must be intact for the character to use this Contract. The repair is almost always temporary. The changeling must perform or help perform the repairs to use this Contract.
Cost:1 Glamour Dice Pool: Wyrd + Craft
Action: Instant or Extended
Catch: The Contract must fix an item owned and used by another, which the character has never used. For example, the changeling using this Contract could repair a friend’s car the changeling had ridden in but never driven.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The Contract damages the device or vehicle further, providing a –3 dice penalty to future repair attempts.
Failure: The Contract fails to function but does no harm.
Success: Even lacking tools and parts, the character repairs the device easily, which he can replace with leaves, sticks, bits of wire, tape or objects found in her pockets. In addition, if the repair requires an extended action, the Contract halves the number of total successes required. However, these repairs only last for the next full day. At the end of this time, the device reverts to the same state it was in before the Contract was used.
Exceptional Success: The repair occurs as an ordinary success, except that the repair is as durable and functional as if performed using the correct parts and tools. Suggested Modifiers Modifier Situation –1 No necessary parts or tools are present. +1 All necessary tools are present. +1 The changeling does not personally know the object’s owner or primary user.
Winning against a skilled opponent can be difficult; overcoming a cheater can prove impossible. This clause helps a changeling level the playing field by unmasking cheating competitors. It can be used to identify a cheater in any formalized competition with a time limit and specified rules, including board games, card games, sports and even formal debates. Unfair advantages (such as those granted by kith blessings) do not count as cheating unless they break the rules of the competition. Note that no use of the Contracts of the Board counts as cheating for the purposes of this power.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wits + Wyrd vs. subject’s Composure + Wyrd Action: Reflexive and Contested
Catch: The changeling has caught the subject cheating (at any game) in the past without the use of this Contract.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The changeling believes her opponent is playing honestly, whether or not she is.
Failure: The changeling can’t tell whether or not her opponent is cheating.
Success: If the changeling rolls more successes than the subject, she knows whether or not he is cheating.
Exceptional Success: Not only does the changeling know whether or not the subject is cheating, she also knows how.
Suggested Modifiers Modifier Situation +1 Subject is a known cheater –1 Changeling is a known cheater –3 Changeling is cheating or has cheated during the same game in which she uses this power
The changeling first learns to precisely sense her chosen element. The results of this differ from one element to the next, but in all cases, she can sense the precise location and form of the element.
Cost:1 Glamour
Dice Pool:Wits + Wyrd
Action:Instant
Catch:The changeling sits and meditates for at least 10 minutes and makes a successful meditation roll.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The character’s perceptions become confused, and she experiences a –2 penalty to all Wits rolls involving perception for the next full scene.
Failure: The Contract does not allow the character to perceive the element.
Success: The character can precisely locate all instances of the element within Wyrd x 10 yards of her. She knows where all of these instances are and their precise shape. Sensing metal allows the character to sense all knives, guns or other metal weapons within range as well as learning whether the guns are loaded or have their safeties on. Sensing electricity allows the character to determine the exact location of all wiring behind the walls of a house or other building. When using this clause in conjunction with an appropriate talent (sensing metal while picking a metal lock, for instance), success provides a +1 bonus to all appropriate rolls to work with the element.
When sensing fluid or intangible elements such as water, air or shadow, the character learns the location and general shape of anything surrounded by these elements. Sense Element (Air) allows the changeling to clearly perceive the shape of every person and object within range, just as Sense Element (Water) allows the character do to the same with anything and anyone who is underwater. This does not allow the character to detect entities concealed by supernatural power, though; the power interferes with what is, after all, a rather basic trick. The changeling must still make perception rolls where appropriate; a character hiding from the Elemental usually still gets the benefit of stealth, as remaining close to cover can deceive the clause.
The clause’s effects last for one scene.
Exceptional Success: The character can sense the element at a range of Wyrd x 25 yards.
Suggested Modifiers
Modifier Situation
–2 The character’s senses are either restrained with blindfolds or similar items or overwhelmed with loud noises, bright flashing lights, intense smells or other distractions.
+1 The character speaks to the element and asks it questions at the volume of a normal conversation.
The character can talk to the element and ask it about past events that it may have sensed. The character can only learn about fairly recent information, but otherwise the element tells the character what she wishes to know. However, the character can only ask the element about events that occurred near where she is asking the question.
This clause can be used once per scene.
Cost:1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Socialize + Wyrd
Action: Instant
Catch: The character makes a minor offering to the element — polishing metal she is going to talk to, sweeping flagstones, singing for the air, adjusting the lights to make shadows larger, etc. In addition to the effort involved, such efforts also take at least a few minutes of time.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The character receives false or misleading information from the element.
Failure: The character learns nothing from the element.
Success: The character can ask the element about anything that occurred within the last day. Each additional success rolled allows the character to ask about events that occurred another day before. Rolling three successes allows the character to learn about events three days ago. For the next five minutes, the character can talk to every example of the chosen element that is within Wyrd x 3 yards.
The information the element provides depends upon the particular element the changeling is talking to. Light provides visual images of the past, air provides sounds, including speech, while solid objects can provide details of how and when they were used, including images of the fingerprints or handprints of anyone that touched the objects. The elements can also answer general questions such as if anyone touched or walked through them in the last 12 hours as well as the number of people and when such events occurred. Details are typically inexact; the air in an office will probably differentiate between “worker” and “visitor,” but may not know the difference between “male” or “female.”
Exceptional Success: In addition to being able to reply to questions about events up to five days in the past, the element is helpful and talkative, possibly offering potentially useful information without being asked or volunteering details about a situation that the character might not have otherwise asked about.
Suggested Modifiers
Modifier Situation
–1 The character is brusque and hurried when asking her questions.
+1 The character chats with the element before using the Contract and is friendly and polite.
The changeling can share the senses and experiences of distant examples of her element. In addition, with additional effort, she can ask these distant examples of the element to perform actions for her.
Cost: 2 Glamour and (optional) 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Wyrd + Persuasion
Action: Instant
Catch: The character wishes to share the senses or ask a favor of an example of the element she is extremely familiar with, such as the wood of or air in her home or the metal in her car.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The character temporarily loses connection with her element and suffers a –2 penalty to all Contracts of Communion and the Elements for the next scene.
Failure: The changeling cannot communicate with the element.
Success: The changeling is able to share the senses and experiences of manifestations of her chosen element beyond the range of her senses. For ubiquitous elements such as air, earth or water on a lake or ocean, the character can sense the element and all major disturbances in it at a range equal to Wyrd x 30 yards. For elements that are not ubiquitous, such as fire, electricity or metal, the character has a range of Wyrd x 300 yards.
A character using this Contract on air or on water while out on a lake could sense any large relatively rapidly moving objects such as cars or trucks, boats, large fish or submarines. Similarly, a character sensing fire could locate every lit match, candle, campfire or cigarette within range, and a character sensing water in a city could sense every pipe full of water as well as every drinking fountain, fire hydrant or tap that was in use. In addition to sensing the element, the character can also focus her attention on a specific manifestation of the element. She then extends her senses so that she can see an area around a specific lit cigarette or running faucet or see any specific location containing a ubiquitous element, such as air. The character can see and hear everything occurring within a radius of (Wyrd) yards, centered on the manifestation of the element.
If the character spends a point of Willpower and makes another Wyrd + Persuasion roll, she can persuade a single manifestation of the element to briefly become more powerful and direct its power. The character could make a lit cigarette burst into flame and potentially set anything within a few inches on fire. She could also cause a light bulb to explode, a running tap to surge with water and splash everyone within a few feet of it, an electrical socket could shock someone a foot or two away or air to blow papers off a desk or a hat off someone’s head. None of these elemental manifestations can be stronger than the element could theoretically do on its own — a cigarette cannot suddenly flare up into a campfire, and none of these bursts of power last more than one turn.
The character can affect the element as often as desired, but each attempt costs one point of Willpower.
Exceptional Success: The character can affect a manifestation of the element that she is looking through for an entire scene by spending one point of Willpower and can affect any manifestation of the element she is perceiving.
Exceptional successes on either the initial roll or the roll to affect the element have the same effect.
Book/Page: CtL: Core
Effect: This clause causes those affected to become less resistant to fear or intimidation. The target or targets initially feels a mild shudder of fear and than becomes considerably more susceptible to any event that could make them afraid or intimidated, including anything that might trigger a Phobia derangement
Cost: 1 Glamour or 2 Glamour + 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Manipulation+Wyrd-Resolve (7-Resolve)
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling is using this clause to frighten intruders into her dwelling.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The target or targets gain +1 die to resist fear and are immune to this clause for the next scene.
Failure: The Contract fails and has no effect on the target or targets
Success: The target or targets feel mild fear and experience a penalty equal to the changeling’s Wyrd to all Reslove or Composure rolls to resist fear or intimidation. If the changeling spends one point of Glamour, this clause affects one target the changeling can see clearly. If the changeling spends two points of Glamour and one point of Willpower, the clause affects everyone within three yards per dot of Willpower the changeling possesses. In both cases, this effect lasts for one scene.
Exceptional Success: The penalty to rolls to resist fear is equal to the changeling’s Wryd +2
Book/Page: CtL: Core
Effect: This Clause allows the Lost to avoid notice by enhancing physical conditions that limit perception. A dark night seems darker, background noises that obscure the changeling’s footsteps seem louder, distractions become more distracting and strong smells can even block a bloodhound’s ability to track the changeling.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wyrd+Stealth (10)
Actions: Instant
Catch: The clause is invoked outdoors at night
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The targets are unaffected. Instead, the Contract affects the changeling and everyone she attempted to exclude from the Contract for the next scene.
Failure: The Contract affects on one’s perceptions.
Success: This clause affects everyone within 50 yards of the changeling. The Changeling is not affected, and can also choose to keep anyone in physical contact with her from being affected. Everyone else within range doubles all environmental penalties to Wits rolls involving perception, including Wits+Composure rolls, as well as Wits+Skill rolls to notice events or Wit’s+Investigation rolls to intentionally search for something. In a quiet, well-lit room or hallway, there are typically no environmental penalties, and this Contract provides only a -1 die penalty to these rolls. This Contract affects perceptions, not actual environmental conditions. Darkness does not actually become darker, and sounds don’t actually become louder. Only the targets’ perceptions are changed. This clause lasts for the next scene and affects the individuals nearby when it is performed. If someone new arrives, she will be unaffected. However, anyone affected will continue to be affected, even if he moves more than 50 yards from the changeling.
Exceptional Success: The Contract affects everyone in range that the changeling does not protect, including people who come within range later. The changeling Does not have to be in physical contact with those she wishes to spare from the Contract’s effects.
Book/Page: CtL: Core
Effect: This clause causes all sleeping targets the changeling can see or hear to be nearly impossible to wake. Targets remain sleeping through loud noises, or being shaken moderately, moved or even tied up, hand cuffed and shoved into a car trunk. Targets awaken if harmed, but will otherwise remain asleep. When using this Contract on mortal targets use the highest Resolve for all of them.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Wyrd vs. Resolve + Wyrd (7)
Action: Resisted
Catch: The target is asleep at home in his own bed, and the Contract is performed between sunset and sunrise.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The target wakes up
Failure: The target’s sleep is unaffected.
Success: When this clause is used on one or more sleeping targets that the changeling can see or hear, the target becomes almost impossible to awaken until the time they are accustomed to waking. The targets can be shouted at, picked up or man handled without waking. However, anything that does one or more points of any type of damage instantly awakens the sleepers - repeatedly slapping targets or shaking them vigorously enough to hurt will also wake them up. Dense smoke, intense heat or other situations causing targets to cough, choke or fight for their lives will awaken them normally. Nothing else, including the screams of a terrified loved one, can break their slumber.
Exceptional success: When the target wake up, they remain groggy for another full scene, suffering a -2 dice penalty to Speed, Defense and all actions.
Suggested Modifiers
+2 The target is deeply asleep
-1 The target is taking a nap and is not planning to sleep for more than short time.
The first and most basic clause allows the changeling to divine the nature of the Hedge in a certain area. Pathfinder can find Hollows, trods, paths to and from Faerie and other details of the local Hedge, such as what sorts of goblin fruits grow there.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Wyrd
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling must have plucked a Thorn from the local Hedge and shed a single drop of blood while doing so within the last day.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The Contract yields wholly inaccurate information about the Hedge, suggesting paths where there are none, marking poisonous fruits as beneficial or otherwise utterly confounding otherwise useful information.
Failure: The changeling learns no useful information about the local Hedge.
Success: For each success on the roll, the changeling learns a single pertinent fact about the local Hedge. In most cases, this information is just that — a statement about whether something exists. It doesn’t necessarily point out where a Hollow or pathway might exist, just the fact of its presence. The distance in which such information-drawing is effective is the changeling’s line of sight. Therefore, this power may be curtailed by a mysterious fog in the Hedge or a smoke cast by the Hedge’s burning.
Exceptional Success: As with an ordinary success, but the achievement of the exceptional success yields information about the location of features known to be in the Hedge.Suggested ModifiersModifier Situation–1 The changeling has never witnessed the local Hedge before, as with visiting a new freehold or otherwise finding the “Hedge-scape” vastly different than what she may have expected.
The changeling invoking this clause becomes as the director, cinematographer and editor of a movie, only the media in which she works is the dreaming mind of her subject. The changeling may literally change her subject’s dreams to depict whatever the changeling wishes, from bucolic idylls to lewd romps to harrowing tribulations. She may plague her subject with vicious antagonists or rain a cascade of rose petals down: the details are fully under her control. The only limitation is that the changeling may never depict the subject’s death, though she may certainly imply it. Crafting dreams in this manner is very much an art form among changelings. Some prefer to work with overt themes, while others use subtle symbolism and soft focus to create feelings more than literal episodes. Indeed, some changelings are so adept with dream-craft that they can provoke strong emotional responses from their sleeping subjects that they can glean Glamour from them.The changeling must be able to see her subject in order to use this power. She needn’t be in the character’s actual presence, however, and some changelings use this power on subjects they view via video cameras or even from painted portraits or still photographs.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wits + Wyrd
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling must stand or sit beside her subject, touching her own temple and that of the dreamer.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The attempt to manipulate the sleeper’s dreams fails and leaves the changeling discombobulated, unable to tell the real world from the dream he was attempting to shape. For the remainder of the scene, the changeling is unable to focus sufficiently to expend any Willpower. Further, the sleeper (eventually) wakes from sleep remembering a distinct image of the changeling, even if she has no idea what he might have been trying to do.
Failure: The Contract fails to function but otherwise involves no sign of attempted use.
Success: The character may edit the sleeper’s dreams and dictate their content, with the sole exception of depicting the sleeper’s death. Each use of this Contract works for a single, vivid dream, which the subject recalls distinctly upon waking. If one of the Fae is in the sleeper’s dream as well, the changeling must vie for control of the dream as usual (p. 198).
Exceptional Success: No additional effect.
Suggested Modifiers
Modifier Situation
–1 The changeling isn’t in the immediate physical vicinity of the subject.
+1 The changeling knows the subject at least superficially, having exchanged words or introductions with him at least once.
+3 The changeling has a close, personal relationship with the dreamer.
This clause bolsters the changeling’s ability to participate in and withstand conflicts with other changelings in the dreamscape. Using this power conjures an elaborate suit or even edifice of “armor,” or conjures a fanciful weapon, both of which exist only in the dreamscape. Both weapon and armor appear as the changeling wishes, though depictions of seeming, kith and Court are extremely popular expressions. (For more information on combat in the dreamscape, see pp. 198–199.)
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Invoking this clause involves no roll, but the changeling must choose which type of fortification she wishes to invoke. If she chooses a defensive augmentation, she gains a number of phantom points of Willpower for the purposes of determining how much damage in the dream-scape she may suffer before falling to exhaustion. These phantom Willpower points are lost first during the oneiromachy. If she chooses an offensive augmentation, she may double her Wyrd for the purposes of seeing how effective her attacks in the dreamscape are. A changeling may invoke this power for both offensive and defensive augmentation, at a cost of one Glamour each, but she may not “stack” multiple offensive or defensive augmentations.
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling carries a token of favor, such as a garter belt or ring, given freely to her by a living enemy or one of his loved ones or family members.
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling bears some symbolic representation of the element in question, such as a souvenir T-shirt depicting a mountain for earth or a small mirror for glass.
Immune to natural effects of element, but not any weaponized form.
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: Dexterity + Wyrd
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling touches the element when he invokes the clause. For ubiquitous elements such as air, the element must be fairly vigorous, that is, a strong breeze or the wind from a large fan
Results
Dramatic Failure: The element briefly harms the character, causing dice of lethal damage equal to half the character’s Wyrd, which can be reduced by armor.
Failure: The character fails to call up the element.
Success: The character surrounds herself with a damaging manifestation of the element. The character does half of her Wyrd (4) lethal damage by touch, and anyone or any object that strikes her suffers this same damage. The changeling cannot combine this attack with a punch or any other conventional brawling or melee attack. Instead, the character must use the element to attack the target. The dice pool for this attack is Dexterity + Brawling + half of the character’s Wyrd.
Exceptional Success: The character can maintain this effect until the sun next rises or sets (whichever comes first) and can summon or dismiss the element during this time without ending the Contract.
Suggested Modifiers
Modifier Situation
+1 A large amount of the element is present when the Contract is invoked. For ubiquitous elements such as air, the element must be particularly vigorous, for example, a gale wind.
-1 None of the element is present when the Contract is invoked.
Cost: 3 Glamour
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Wyrd
Action: Instant
Catch: The area is completely dominated by the element - air on top of a narrow bridge, water on a lake or ocean, fire in the middle of a forest fire, electricity at a substation or generator and so on.
Results
Dramatic Failure: The element reacts in a wild, unpredictable and dangerous fashion for the next scene.
Failure: The character fails to control the element.
Success: The changeling successfully controls the element. The changeling must be within Willpower x 2 (10) yards of the edge of the area of the element he wishes to control. The amount of element controlled can be determined from the following table. Objects have 3 Str and Dex, tears free with Str equal to successes.
| Successes | Mass | Volume (Liquid) | Area (Gas or intangible) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 success | 20 lb | Milk jug | 5-yard2 |
| 2 successes | 50 lb | Gas Tank | 10-yard2 |
| 3 successes | 200 lb | Bathtub | 15-yard2 |
| 4 successes | 500 lb | Average Jacuzzi | 20-yard2 |
| 5+ successes | 2000 lb | Large Hot Tub | 30-yard2 |
Suggested Modifiers:
| Modifier | Situation |
|---|---|
| +1 | Large amounts of the element are present |
| -1 | Little of the element is present |
The changeling calls the associated element from a distant location. The changeling must either know the location or see the source of the element he is calling and the element must physically move toward the character in as natural manner as possible — fire leaps, water splashes from a basin or falls as rain from the sky, wind blows, rock erupts from the ground…. If physical barriers prevent the element from reaching the character, it gets as close as it can, such as rain falling on the house that a changeling was in when he called water from the clouds. Once the element is present, the changeling must then use the Control Element clause if he wishes to also control the element.
Cost: 4 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wits + Wyrd
Action: Extended (one roll per turn); the target number is five.
Catch: The changeling is calling the element solely to awe and impress viewers, perhaps as part of a performance.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The element moves in an erratic, perhaps dangerous, direction.
Failure: The changeling fails to call the element.
Success: The character successfully calls the element. The changeling can affect the same amount of the element he could control with the Control Element clause. The element comes toward the character or to any location within Wyrd x 10 yards of the changeling that the changeling designates. The changeling can cause fires to spread and leap in his direction, winds of speeds up to Wyrd x 10 miles per hour, to blow or cause electricity to arc from a junction box, or even down from the sky, if a lightning storm is occurring. Solid objects such as trees or lampposts that are attached to the ground or to some other object cannot break free, but can bend in the character’s direction. Unattached objects bounce or roll slowly toward the character. A changeling who controls metal could cause a vehicle made primarily of metal to roll toward them. Also, the changeling can cause stone or running water to erupt from the ground. The changeling controls the summoned element for one full scene.
Exceptional Success: No additional advantage.
Suggested Modifiers
Modifier Situation
+1 The changeling calls the element with verbal entreaties and large, obvious gestures.
–1 The changeling uses neither words nor gestures to call the element.
Prerequisite: None
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Composure + Wyrd (9)
Action: Instant
Catch: You are distracted by bright light or lighting effects.
Results
Dramatic Failure: The distraction is amplified to unbearable levels, imposing an additional -2 penalty to all applicable actions for the rest of the scene, or until the distraction is no longer relevant.
Failure: You remain distracted.
Success: You’re able to put aside distractions and focus on the task at hand. You may ignore a number of penalties from distractions equal to your Shadow Mantle.
Exceptional Success: Not only are you able to ignore distractions of the environment, but those of your subconscious mind. You receive a further +2 to the task at hand from the razor edge of your concentration.
Suggested Modifiers
| Modifier | Situation |
|---|---|
| -1 per additional source | You are suffering distractions from multiple sources |
| -1 | The distraction is intentional |
| -1 | You’re trying to accomplish a complicated or difficult task |
The changeling befuddles another’s sense of truth, making it easier to lie to them with impunity.
Prerequisite: Mantle (Shadow) • or Mantle (Radiant) •• or Court Goodwill (Shadow) •••Cost: 2 Glamour
Roll: Subterfuge + Shadow Mantle - Subject’s Composure
Action: Instant
Catch: The subject has told a direct lie within the past week.
Effect:Dramatic Failure: Instead of affecting the subject, the contract fogs the changeling’s own perceptions. They suffer a –2 penalty on all Empathy and Investigation checks for the remainder of the scene.Failure: The subject is unaffected.Success: The subject’s judgment is impaired for the rest of the scene. Any roll made to tell apart truth and lies suffers a –2 penalty.Exceptional Success: The penalty increases to –4
| Modifier | Situation |
|---|---|
| +2 | The subject is a politician, salesman, or other kind of person stereotyped as a liar |
| +1 | You have never before had a conversation with the subject |
| -1 | You’re a friend or common associate of the subject |
| -2 | The subject is a religious leader, teacher, doctor, or other kind of person stereotyped as honest or trustworthy |
Prerequisite: Mantle (Shadow) •• or Court Goodwill (Shadow) ••••
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Socialize + Shadow Mantle - Target’s Resolve
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling is working as a maid, butler, waiter, or other servant to the targets.
Results
Dramatic Failure: For the remainder of the scene, the changeling cannot help but draw attention to himself, often in the worst way possible. He suffers a -3 penalty to all Social rolls from constant faux pas and errant words.
Failure: The clause fails to activate.
Success: The changeling falls back into the shadowy corners of the targets’ minds, becoming part of the scenery and imposing a penalty equal to the successes he rolled when activating the clause to all Wits-based perception checks to notice him. This clause affects everyone within the same room as the changeling, and the effect lasts for one scene. It will end prematurely, however, if the changeling calls attention to himself: jostling someone roughly, speaking out of turn, etc. Other actions may arouse suspicion, but don’t automatically end the clause’s effect. In this case, those nearby might notice what’s going on with a reflexive perception check, though it suffers the clause’s penalty. Initiating or participating in combat always ends this clause.
Exceptional Success: The illusion is more robust and can withstand more intense scrutiny. If you draw attention to yourself, the clause’s effects are only broken for the people who noticed the breach, leaving it active for everyone else.
| Modifier | Sitiuation |
|---|---|
| -1 | There is no official function occurring in the room |
| +1 | The gathering is excessively formal |
The changeling is able to perceive the shadowy web of meaning behind a speaker’s words, betraying their true intent.
Prerequisite: Mantle (Shadow) ••• or Mantle (Radiant) •••• or Court Goodwill (Shadow) •••••
Cost: 3 Glamour
Roll: Manipulation + Investigation + Shadow Mantle vs. Subject’s Intelligence + Wyrd
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling proclaims aloud one of his most tightly-held secrets.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: You drastically misinterpret the subject’s words and actions, giving them a +3 bonus on attempts to deceive you for the rest of the scene.This clause basically fills in the missing context behind words that are said. It does not reveal extra facts, but can do things like pointing out which parts of a sentence are accurate. It can also tell you when pertinent information is being left out, but not what that information is.
Failure: You gain no special insight into the subject’s words.
Success: As the subject talks, his words form ephemeral shadows which betray their real meaning and intent. All attempts made by the subject to deceive you (typically Subterfuge checks) suffer a penalty equal to your Shadow Mantle plus half the successes scored on activating the contract (round down). The subject rolls normally for everyone else.
Exceptional Success: The subject’s attempts to deceive others are also penalized. Appropriate skill checks suffer the same penalty as those made to deceive you. To non-changelings, the contract’s effect is more subtle, using flashes of insight and feelings of wrongness in place of literal shadows.
Suggested Modifiers:
| Modifier | Situation |
|---|---|
| +1 | The subject has been caught lying or withholding pertinent information in the last week |
| +1 | The subject is speaking in an official capacity |
| -1 | The subject has a reputation for honesty |
The changeling can communicate with the general type of animal represented in the Contract. This communication is partially emphatic, but the changeling must either whisper to the animal in her own language or attempt to imitate whatever sounds the animal uses to express itself. Most animals make some sort of noise while responding, but they need not do so. Animals tied to the changeling by kith or this Contract instinctively feel a kinship with the changeling and readily communicate unless immediate circumstances, such as an obvious threat, intervene. Simpler, less intelligent animals communicate with less complexity. Mammals and birds are relatively easy to speak with. However, reptiles, invertebrates and most fish can provide only very simple information, such as whether or not any humans recently came near or the general location of fresh water.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wyrd + Animal Ken (7)
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling gives the animal a new name.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The character angers or scares the animal he tries to approach and cannot use this clause for one full scene.
Failure: No communication occurs.
Success: The changeling can speak to all animals of the specified type for the next scene.
Exceptional Success: The animal feels affection and loyalty toward the character. The animal is actively helpful and volunteers information unasked if it considers that information important (so far as its intelligence allows).
Suggested Modifiers +1 The character imitates the animal’s sounds and body language. –1 The animal is frightened or hurt.
The changeling gains the senses of a specific type of animal, selected when the changeling learns this clause. This clause enhances the changeling’s natural senses, and may well grant him entirely new senses such as a viper’s infrared pits or a bat’s echolocation.
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wits + Wyrd (8)
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling sees or touches an animal of the type being imitated.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The character’s senses become slightly muddied and confused. The character experiences a –1 die penalty to all Perception rolls for the next scene.
Failure: The Contract fails, and the character’s senses are unaffected.
Success:
Arachnids: Super Touch
Birds: +4
Exceptional Success: The character gains an additional +1 die to all Perception rolls for the scene.
Suggested Modifiers
| Modifier | Situation |
|---|---|
| +1 | The changeling is touching an animal of the correct type. |
| +1 | The changeling is wearing a mask or other large image (such as a painting on the back of a jacket of an animal of the correct type). |
| -1 | The environment is one that the animal would find uncomfortable and unnatural, such as a jungle animal in winter snow. |
The changeling can command the animal specified in the Contract. The character can call any single animal of this type that she can see or hear, causing the animal to come rapidly to her aid, and then instruct the animal on what she wants it to do. Particularly small animals may be called in groups. The changeling can call and command up to a dozen tiny animals, such as rats, mice or small bats, if she can see or hear them all. Changelings can also call an entire hive of insects such as bees or wasps. The animal (or animals) obeys to the best of its ability, but its nature and intelligence might cause the animal to interpret its orders in unusual ways. The animal attempts to carry out commands for the next full day, after which it ceases to obey the character. The animal will not cooperate with anything obviously self-destructive, such as standing still in front of an oncoming car. Large groups of small animals such as rats or bees act as one and cannot be split up to perform different tasks.
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wyrd + Animal Ken
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling asks the animal to guard or watch the changeling’s dwelling.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The animal either attacks the character or completely misunderstands the instructions and does the exact opposite of what he commands it to do.
Failure: The character cannot communicate with or command the animal.
Success: The animal can both understand the character’s wishes and obeys the character’s orders to the best of its abilities.
Exceptional Success: The character retains an empathic bond with the animal, allowing him to roughly sense its location and emotional and physical condition. For the next full day, the character can spend one point of Glamour to
communicate for one scene with the animal at any distance.
Suggested Modifiers
| Modifiers | Situation |
|---|---|
| +1 | The changeling offers the animal appropriate foodstuffs. |
| -1 | The animal is frightened or injured. |
The character gains the Contracted animal’s mode of locomotion. This clause allows characters emulating unusually swift animals to run faster, characters emulating aquatic animals to swim better and faster and characters moving like flying animals to jump and glide inhumanly well. If the animal is noted for being able to move exceptionally well in several different ways, such as a type of monkey that excels at both climbing and jumping, the character must choose which type of movement he wishes to gain when he learns this clause and must learn a new version to gain the other ability.
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: Dexterity + Wyrd
Action: Instant
Catch: The character is touching an animal of the correct type.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The Contract fails. The character suffers a –1 die penalty to Speed for the scene.
Failure: The Contract fails, and the character is unaffected.
Success: The character gains the movement capabilities of the animal. Swift runners such as horses or dogs allow the changeling to double her Speed. Aquatic animals allow the changeling to swim as rapidly and as easily as she can walk or run and hold her breath 10 times as long (including any modifiers from the Strong Lungs Merit). Flying, gliding or jumping animals allow the changeling to quadruple her jumping distance and fall any distance without harm. Climbing animals such as monkeys allow the changeling to gain +5 to all climbing rolls and climb at five times normal speed. This enhanced movement lasts for one full scene.
Exceptional Success: The character’s enhanced movement lasts until the sun next sets or rises, whichever comes first.
Suggested Modifiers
| Modifier | Situation |
|---|---|
| +1 | The changeling wears a mask of the animal or a large garment made from its skin. |
| -1 | The clause is invoked someplace the animal is never naturally found. |
The changeling learns something that the target is proud of, or embarrassed about. By default, this will be the pride or embarrassment most relevant to the subject at the time, so that if the target is currently feeling proud, the changeling will learn about the source of the pride, whereas if the target is feeling humble or self-conscious, the changeling learns about a source of embarrassment. However, if the changeling takes the appropriate penalty when activating the clause, she may specify whether to learn about a pride or a humiliation, or she may learn about a type of either that is not currently relevant to the subject’s state of mind.
Prerequisite: NoneCost: 1 GlamourRoll: Wits + Wyrd - Subject’s ComposureAction: InstantCatch: Within the same scene, the changeling has knowingly revealed to the target something they are proud of or embarrassed about.Effect:Dramatic Failure: The changeling projects one of her own prides or humiliations onto her subject. The next time she significantly interacts with that subject, she suffers a -3 penalty to checks involving Empathy, and loses the benefit of 10-again on all Social skill checks made against them.Failure: The changeling learns nothing about her subject.Success: The changeling learns about a source of pride or embarrassment in the subject’s life.Exceptional Success: The changeling learns about both a source of pride and a source of embarrassment.
Suggested Modifiers:
| Modifiers | Situation |
|---|---|
| - | The character discerns a pride or embarrassment currently in the forefront of the target’s mind. |
| -1 | The character chooses whether to learn about the target’s pride or embarrassment specifically, regardless of which feeling is currently most prominent for the target. |
| -1 | The character learns a pride or embarrassment not currently concerning the target. |
| -1 | The character learns a specific kind of pride or embarrassment (i.e., academic, interpersonal, body-related, etc.). |
| -2 | The character discovers a pride or embarrassment the target recognizes but generally keeps hidden. |
| -3 | The character finds a pride or embarrassment the target hides even from herself. |
This clause has its roots in purely fae intrigues, allowing changelings to interact with one another without being recognized. It works with the fundamental nature of changeling physiology to allow a changeling to seem as if she hails from some kith or seeming other than her own.
Riddle-Kith works exclusively on the general features of a mien, meaning that it creates only the impression that the individual is of a certain seeming. In other words, it won’t allow the changeling to selectively alter her features, nor will it permit the changeling to emulate a specific changeling, but it will give a clear impression of belonging to an entirely different seeming or kith. The new appearance is notably different from the old. For instance, a storm-attuned Elemental resembling a Japanese goblin who chooses to look like an Ogre wouldn’t look like an oni of similar coloration, but is much more likely to look European or otherwise significantly unlike himself. This Contract doesn’t affect the Mask.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Wyrd
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling must have dined with a member of the selected kith within the past week.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The changeling loses all control of her attempted illusion, instead appearing simply as something utterly unnatural. She may acquire a hodge-podge of beastly features, or her skin may mottle or spall off. The ultimate effect is that the changeling simply looks horrendous for the duration of the scene instead of looking as if she belongs to a distinct seeming, imposing a –1 die penalty to all Presence dice pools (except those related to Intimidation) during that time.
Failure: The Contract changes nothing about the changeling’s appearance.
Success: The changeling takes on the features of a seeming or kith of her choice, though what features, exactly, the Contract bestows are up to the Storyteller. This power lasts until the next sunrise or sunset, whichever comes first, though the changeling may choose to end the Contract before that if she wishes.
Exceptional Success: As with a standard success, though the changeling may choose the exact array of features this Contract grants her, so long as they’re congruous with the seeming she chose.
Suggested Modifiers
| Modifier | Situation |
|---|---|
| -2 | The character has never seen a member of the seeming in question in person, and instead relies on descriptions or legends of the seeming. |
The changeling alters her flesh to appear as another individual. This change affects only a single limb or other aspect of the character, so only her hands or her face or her back can be made to resemble that of another person. This clause is often used to enhance disguises, though it is sometimes used to emulate unique birthmarks, signature tattoos, etc. It affects both Mask and fae mien.
The feature so modeled must be a real feature that exists on a known subject, and it must come from a human (or at least partially human) source.
Changelings can use this Contract multiple times to reproduce multiple features, but the cost must be paid each time and the roll must be made each time, as well.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Stamina + Wyrd
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling appropriates an object belonging to the individual whose features she plans to reproduce.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The Contract fails grotesquely, disfiguring the changeling instead of mirroring the model. This may result in a distortion on the face, a withered limb or a horrendous discoloration of the skin. For the remainder of the scene, the character suffers a –1 die penalty to any Presence-based dice pools (except those involving Intimidation) when the disfigurement is visible.
Failure: The changeling fails to emulate the desired feature.
Success: The changeling emulates the feature in question so that it passes inspection by those who would best know the modeled subject. This power lasts for the duration of the scene, though the changeling may choose to end the Contract before that if she wishes.
Exceptional Success: The changeling has so mastered this particular expression of the other character’s physical aspect that she doesn’t have to roll to re-attain this particular feature if he invokes this Contract at a later time. He must still pay the cost as normal, though.
Moreau’s face
Red crew cut
Younger hair ponytail
Younger face
Birdie’s Hair
‘Female’ voice
Striking Looks 1 (Face)
Suggested Modifiers
| Modifier | Situation |
|---|---|
| -2 | The character has never actually seen the feature in question, as with, “Well, she has a birthmark the color and shape of a wine stain just above her bellybutton.” |
This clause allows the changeling to adjust the size of her body, either shrinking or growing as she chooses.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Stamina + Wyrd
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling must steal a garment of clothing either far too large or far too small for her to wear. This garment need not correspond to the change made. That is, a changeling doesn’t need to specifically steal a small garment if she intends to shrink.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The character succeeds only in crushing or hyper-extending his internal organs, and suffers a point of lethal damage in the failed attempt to alter his body size.
Failure: The Contract fails, and the changeling is unable to modify her size.
Success: The changeling chooses either to shrink or to grow. The character’s Size then increases or decreases by an amount equal to one-half of the number of successes obtained on the roll (round up). The character may choose to alter her Size by less than this amount, if she wishes. Note that when the character’s Size changes, so, too, does her Health change, which may have some impact on the character’s well-being if she’s suffered any damage. This Contract lasts for the remainder of the scene, though the character may choose to end the Contract at any time before that.
Exceptional Success: As with a normal success (as extra successes increase the versatility of the power), only the character’s Health remains at her regular score if she chooses to shrink herself.
It’s easier to curse than to bless. The individual affected by Fickle Fate seems to perform poorly in whatever task he sets himself to. It’s almost unheard of to invoke Fickle Fate for oneself — who wants to fail at what he attempts?
Cost: 1 Glamour
Effect: The subject of Fickle Fate makes the roll for his next actively attempted instant action, whatever it is, at a –2 dice penalty. Actively attempted actions are those things the character consciously undergoes the effort of doing, not things that occur automatically or reflexively. For example, jumping from a moving car or performing an oratory before the duke would be an actively attempted action, while seeing if wounds force a character into unconsciousness or reflexively resisting some supernatural power would not be.
Action: Instant
Ban: The character invoking Fickle Fate may not use it to affect the same subject more than once an hour. If he does, the Fickle Fate visits him on his next attempted action instead of his intended victim.
Book/Page: CtL: Core
Effect: This Contract allows the changeling to change the nature of the marks he leaves when he leaves when passing through a certain locale. The clause is one of the oldest remembered among even the True Fae, and several fairy legends exhibit Good Folk who left cloven-hoofed tracks or the scent of curdled milk behind them. Indeed, certain seemings even use this Contract to augment their presences as with some Fairest who leave a sweet, natural perfume in their wake or loathsome Tunnelgrubs who deliberately ooze a trail of slime to unsettle others.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: No roll is necessary. When The Wrong Foot takes effect, evidence of the changeling’s passing change to resemble something other than the visitation of a human like entity. This may be tracks similar to a bird’s three-toed foot, a bloody mist, drips of lavender extract - whatever the character chooses. Note that this Contact always creates the same result, so the character should think about how he wants this to manifest before the fist time he uses it, and should clear it with the Storyteller before it comes into play. This substance or mark supersedes all other evidence of passage, so footprints will vanish but the slime-spray will take its place in every case, whether or not the ground was soft enough to hold a foot print. The Wrong Foot does not change the appearance of previously made marks, however. Therefore, this limits the practical application of Contract in numerous situations, so many changelings have come to rely on The Wrong Foot to leave a sort of “calling card,” whether or not they wish to obfuscate pursuit. Once activated, this Contract Functions for the duration of the scene.
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling licks his thumb and smudges it on a mirror, thereby leaving another mark of his own passing.
Note: Daniel’s Wrong Foot take the form of patches of darkness with halos of light.
Book/Page: CtL: Core
Effect: When the changeling invokes this clause, all traces of his passing vanish. He leaves no footprints in mud, sand, snow or any or any other surface that would normally hold a mark. Likewise, his wet feet leave no prints on dry ground. Even grass trampled underfoot or flour scattered on the ground leaves no evidence of the changeling’s movements
Note that if the changeling remains present at the site of his Nevertread attempts, he may still be discovered by other means. This power does not render him invisible, it just obscures the signs left by his movements
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Wyrd (6)
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling must have spent at least an hour barefoot within the past day.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: Instead of becoming more difficult to detect, the changeling makes a botch of the procedure, dragging mud or river-reeds or clumps of snow across his trail. Attempts to track the changeling suffering a dramatic failure on the attempt to invoke Nevertread occur at +2 dice bonus, by whatever method they occur.
Failure: The changeling is unable to obscure marks of passage.
Success: The changeling erases all traces of his passing. This may simply make it impossible to witness where the character has gone, or it may inflict a -2 dice penalty to attempts to track him, at the Storyteller’s discretion, based on the situation’s circumstances.
Exceptional Success: For all intents and purposes, the character was never there. He’s impossible to track by the method of determining where he may have moved.
Book/Page: CtL: Core
Effect: Light seems to avoid the changeling when he invokes this Contract, and darkness congeals around him.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wits+Wyrd (7)
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling must have spent at least an hour away from natural light (away from windows, open doors, etc.) within the past day.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: Shadows actually recede from the character, making her more visible. The character suffers a -2 dice penalty to all Stealth-based dice pools that are based on sight (rather than any other sensory detection) for the duration of the scene.
Failure: The Contract fails to function but otherwise creates no detrimental effect.
Success: The character swaths himself with shadows that dampen light, sound, smell and other perceptual stimuli. For the remainder of the scene, he enjoys a +3 dice bonus to Stealth-based dice pools.
Exceptional Success: The bonus is increased to +5
Effect: A changeling who invokes this clause can leap truly prodigious distances. This allows the changeling to jump ravines or leap over buildings as well as long leaps over open ground for one action.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Athletics + Wyrd
Action: Reflexive
Catch: The changeling is pursuing an oathbreaker.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The clause fails to activate. The changeling suffers a –2 penalty to make the jump roll.
Failure: The clause fails to activate.
Success: For every success, the changeling can jump 15 feet horizontally or eight feet vertically.
Exceptional Success: The clause additionally increases the character’s Defense score by two for the turn.
Effect: With this clause, the changeling can determine by touch if the subject has broken any oaths. The taint of a broken oath fades after a year and a day except for severe violations (such as a formal fae pledge) or a broken law of hospitality.
This will also include violations that would not fall under the modern legal system, such as adulterers who violate their marriage vows (if their marriage vows included a pledge to forswear all others) or violations that seem minor, such as breaching a Terms of Service agreement for software.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wits + Wyrd vs. Composure + Wyrd
Action: Instant, contested
Catch: The subject is swearing, or has sworn a pledge with the changeling.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The changeling receives the wrong impression.
Failure: The changeling can’t tell if the subject is an oathbreaker or not, and is aware the clause failed.
Success: The changeling is able to sense the most significant oath or vow broken by the subject that still lingers on the subject. “Significant” is determined by the subject’s general understanding of the oath’s importance, though the changeling can still sense a broken vow even if the subject did not believe it was at all important. The clause tells the changeling the general nature of the broken promise, such as “marriage vow.”
Exceptional Success: The changeling can sense any and all broken vows that still hang about the subject, and gets a faint impression of the details surrounding the most significant violation. For example, a changeling might know sense that an adulterous husband cheated with an alluring brunette in a sordid-seeming bedroom, even if specifics aren’t revealed.
Effect: Invoking this clause allows the changeling to resist attacks on her Clarity or any emotional manipulation for the duration of the scene.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Resolve + Wyrd
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling has successfully resisted a Court-based emotional manipulation or attack within the past day.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The changeling suffers a two-dice penalty to Resolve or Composure checks made to resist emotional or Clarity manipulation.
Failure: The changeling suffers mental and emotional attacks as normal.
Success: The changeling gains a two-dice bonus to any attempts to resist emotional or Clarity manipulation for the scene.
Exceptional Success: The bonus rises to five dice.
Effect: This clause gives the changeling a general idea (direction and rough distance) of where his subject is, so long as they are under the same sky. The clause lasts from sunrise to sunset or sunset to sunrise. “The same sky” is defined as being in the same realm (Arcadia or the mortal world, for example), and the subject and caster are on the same dayside or nightside of the planet.
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: Stamina + Wyrd
Action: Extended (number of successes equals every 50 miles between the changeling and the subject)
Catch: The changeling never stops to rest for more than 15 minutes in his pursuit of the subject. The changeling can ride cars or planes but must be the one driving or otherwise controlling the vehicle.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The changeling is given a completely wrong direction.
Failure: The changeling cannot sense his subject.
Success: The changeling is able to sense the distance and direction of his subject.
Exceptional Success: Not only does the changeling know where his subject is, but the changeling gets a flashing vision of what the subject is doing at the very moment the clause is first invoked.
Invoking this clause demands that the changeling publicly accuse her subject of oath-breaking. The changeling must also describe the oath or pledge the subject has broken for this clause to take effect. If the subject has, in fact, not broken this vow, the clause does not take effect. If he has, the clause grants him a brutal ability to punish his foe.
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: Presence + Wyrd vs. subject’s Manipulation + Wyrd
Action: Instant
Catch: The subject of the clause is a member of the changeling’s freehold.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The changeling suffers a two-dice penalty on his attack rolls on that specific subject for a month’s duration.
Failure: The clause does not take effect.
Success: The changeling’s damage is upgraded from bashing to lethal, or from lethal to aggravated, when attacking the target. In addition, his subject’s Defense rating is reduced by 2, and the target suffers a –3 penalty to any dice pools made against the character.
Exceptional Success: The target’s Defense loss is increased to –4 (to a minimum of 0), and the penalty to dice pools made against the character is increased to –5.
The noise of the world fades away as the changeling focuses their hearing on a certain few sounds.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Roll: Investigation + Wyrd
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling is fleeing from active pursuit
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The changeling’s focus becomes scattered and prone to distraction. Their Initiative is reduced by –3 for the scene.
Failure: Nothing happens.
Success: The character’s surroundings are drowned out, leaving just a handful of crystal-clear sounds. Each success allows the character to pick one sound that they wish to hear: footsteps, shouting, one conversation at a party, etc. As the magic takes effect, those sounds are drawn to the forefront at the expense of everything else.
The changeling can ignore environmental penalties that make the chosen sounds harder to hear. In return, any sounds they didn’t choose suffer an additional –5 penalty on top of any existing environmental penalties. This is not limited to perception-like tests, either. For example, identifying the model of a firearm by the sound of its report is much harder if the changeling did not choose “gunshots” as a focused sound. The only environment modifier not affected is distance: this clause does not magnify sounds, it only dampens unwanted ones.
Each chosen sound must be fairly narrow. When stealing from a house, for example, the changeling cannot pick “the owner coming home” because it encompasses different types of sounds. Instead, they could choose “locks” and “footsteps”. If the changeling is trying to focus on a conversation, they can only hear a number of participants equal to their Composure + 1. Any participants left over are muted as background noise.
The changeling can end the contract’s effect any time. Otherwise, it lasts for the rest of the scene.Exceptional
Exceptional Success: The character is hyper-alert and their muscles twitch with eagerness. Besides the normal benefits of five or more successes, their Initiative is increased by +2 for as long as the contract lasts.
Listeners always hear something in the music that speaks to them, personally. Usually it’s a sense of emotion, but some claim to find secret meanings in their favorite songs – usually cruel ones. This clause lets a changeling weave a subtle message into her own words that can only be heard by a certain few.
Cost: 1 GlamourRoll: Subterfuge + WyrdAction: InstantCatch: The changeling sticks a bright feather somewhere visible on a costume, instrument, prop, or similar item that she uses for the performance. The changeling’s own mien does not count.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The changeling’s performance sends the wrong message. The targets understand a secret meaning, but it misleads them to the changeling’s detriment.Failure: The changeling fails to convey her message.Success: The changeling hides a message in a poem, song, or rambling speech that can only be clearly heard by the recipients she picks out. When her performance is done, these people understand her secret message without a roll. Anyone else who is listening must succeed on an Intelligence + Investigation check to pick out the changeling’s hidden words, subtracting one die for every success the changeling scored. The recipients must stay for the entire performance. If they leave early, they’re sure to miss something vital and lose (or even misinterpret) the message.
A performance that contains such a secret message can be recorded like any other. Listeners who heard the message before will continue to understand that message if they hear a recording: the message is now a part of that performance. People who were not selected as recipients must roll as usual. The message and its recipients cannot be changed.Exceptional Success: Everyone who strains to hear the hidden message, but fails, nevertheless hears something. The changeling cannot dictate the contents of this second message, but it usually aligns with her goals or desires.
Suggested Modifiers:
| Modifier | Situation |
|---|---|
| +1 | The message is hidden during the composition of the piece |
| -2 | The message is particularly complex or confusing |
The character detects the presence of the supernatural; even those beings, objects and effects that are deliberately concealed.
Prerequisites: None
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wyrd + Occult+Mantle bonus (vs. Composure+Wyrd, in the case of supernaturally concealed persons, effects, or things)
Action: Instant (and possibly Contested; resistance is reflexive)
Catch: The character physically makes contact with a non-allied supernatural being other than another changeling when activating this clause.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The character falsely detects the presence of one or more supernatural creatures, objects, and/or phenomena, as well as failing to detect any such presences that are truly in his vicinity.
Failure: The character either rolls no successes or fails to exceed the successes accrued by a character concealed by or concealing a supernatural effect, and does not detect any supernatural creatures, objects, and/or phenomena. He is aware that the clause was not successfully enacted.
Success: The character scores successes in excess of those accrued by a character concealed by or concealing any supernatural effect, if any, and detects any nonconcealed supernatural creatures, objects, and/or phenomena within a number of yards equal to his Wyrd. (Note that the character may succeed against some subjects and fail against others, depending upon how many successes are scored by each character in the contested roll. The character using this clause, however, rolls only once and compares his total successes against all other nearby individuals using supernatural powers of occlusion.)
Exceptional Success: No additional result, beyond the possibility of penetrating especially strong methods of supernatural occlusion.
The changeling learns how to talk to hedge beasts and hobgoblins.
Prerequisites: Mantle (Autumn) • or Court Goodwill (Autumn) •••
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wyrd + Expression
Action: Instant
Catch: A hedge beast or hobgoblin in the area wants to communicate, either with the character specifically or with anyone who will listen.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The character’s presumption angers any nearby hedge beasts and hobgoblins, who will do what they can to inconvenience, harass, or even harm her.
Failure: The character is unable to communicate with hedge beasts and hobgoblins in the vicinity.
Success: For the remainder of the scene the character can hear and be heard by hedge beasts and hobgoblins.
Exceptional Success: As a normal success, but the ability to hear and be heard by hedge beasts and hobgoblins lasts for the en-tire night, should the character wish it.
This clause helps Autumn uphold its place as the court of magic. By using it, a changeling may discover the inner workings of a pledge, whether it has been in place for years or is being crafted that very moment. Every element of a pledge can be revealed by canny or powerful courtiers, from type to boon to task. Such knowledge makes it easy to marionette those bound to the target pledge, enticing or punishing them as needed.
The clause is also useful during hostile pledge negotiations. Calling on the lore and mysteries of the court, the changeling has an easier time avoiding his rival’s nefarious clauses, and inserting his own.
To activate the contract, the changeling must know that the pledge exists and the general purpose of that pledge, and must be able to clearly perceive one person bound to it. If he is involved in the pledge, the cost is reduced to 1 Glamour.
Prerequisites: Mantle (Autumn) •• or Court Goodwill (Autumn) •••
Cost: 3 Glamour (or 1 Glamour)
Dice Pool: Int + Occult + Mantle vs. Resolve + Wyrd
Action: Instant
Catch: You are helping someone who is trying to uphold the intent of their bargain.
Effect
Dramatic Failure: The changeling gains incorrect information.
Failure: No information is gained.
Success: Each success gained grants the changeling information about the pledge as it relates to the person he is perceiving. The contract’s magic uses the wording which best conveys the intent of each component, but does not guarantee understanding. Higher successes also yield everything that could be gotten with fewer successes.
| Successes | Knowledge Gained |
|---|---|
| 1 | Type (Vow, Corporal (Nemesis Emblem), True Name Unsullied, etc.) |
| 2 | Duration and time remaining in years, months, and days. Further accuracy is not possible. |
| 3 | Boons |
| 4 | Sanctions. Pishogue sanctions also reveal the contract involved, but not the number of successes stored. |
When the pledge in question is still being created, bonus dice are awarded instead of information. The changeling gains bonus dice equal to half the successes rolled (round up) on any opposed tests involving the creation of the pledge. Squabbles over wording are easier for him to win, and subtle trapped clauses are easier to insert.
Exceptional Success: The subject’s Tasks become known to the changeling. Like the other components, this clause uses the wording which best conveys the intent of each task, but does not guarantee understanding.
When the pledge is still being created, treat as a Success, but add two extra bonus dice.
Effect: The Changeling can boost his Strength by a significant degree for tasks not involving combat. The character can run, climb, jump and lift heavy objects far more effectively than normal.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Athletics + Wyrd (7)
Action: Instant
Catch: The character is using this clause for the express purpose of showing off his physical or athletic prowess to others, perhaps to gain some prize or to win acclaim, but not for any more practical purpose.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The character strains his muscles and functions as if his Strength was half normal (round down) for the duration of the scene.
Failure: The character’s Strength is unaffected.
Success: The character gains additional dots of Strength equal to his Wyrd. The character can only use this added might for non-combat purposes. If the character attacks an opponent, the affects of this clause instantly end. Otherwise, it lasts for one full scene and provides bonuses to Speed, to lifting objects, breaking down or holding back a door, climbing, jumping and all other Strength dice pools not including combat. Attempting to break inanimate objects does not count as combat.
Exceptional Success: Along with bonuses already provided, the character gains the 9 again quality to all appropriate Strength rolls for the scene.
Suggested Modifiers
| Modifier | Situation |
|---|---|
| +1 | The character is dressed in a way that shows off his muscles and physique. |
| -1 | The character is dressed in a way that hides his physique. |
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: Strength + Wyrd (8)
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling is attempting to remove a barrier, such as a door or a wall.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The character strains his muscles, suffering a –2 dice penalty to all Strength-based dice pools for the next scene.
Failure: The object’s Durability is unaffected.
Success: The changeling subtracts one point of Durability per success achieved on the roll. Note that this clause does not affect the object’s Structure. The reduced Durability applies to all attacks on the object and lasts for one scene.
Exceptional Success: No benefit other than that gained from 5+ successes.
Suggested Modifiers
| Modifier | Situation |
|---|---|
| +1 | The character attacks the target without taking time to think about it. |
| -1 | The character has carefully studied the target to determine the best way to destroy it. |
The changeling convinces a single subject that she is his professional superior or someone of superior social status. This clause cannot compel anyone into obedience, only deceive him.
Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wyrd+ Intimidation – Resolve
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling pretends to be a socialite or similar celebrity whose fame comes from high standing or good looks alone.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The subject takes extra offense to the changeling’s obvious lies, perhaps viewing her as dangerously deluded.
Failure: The illusion fails. The subject sees the changeling as she is.
Success: The changeling can either convince the subject that she is a high-ranking person in the subject’s workplace, or simply that she is a celebrity, someone important and worthy of notice and respect. The changeling doesn’t control who the target sees, only the general “someone in his workplace” or “a celebrity.” If the subject is expecting someone important to come and talk with him, he assumes the changeling is this person. This Contract does not force any particular action on the subject, but most will behave deferentially. Along with this effect, every success rolled adds one bonus die to all Social rolls to impress, intimidate or command the target. This effect lasts for one scene or until someone else convinces the target that the changeling is not who she claims to be.
Exceptional Success: In addition to the above effects, the target is firmly convinced of the changeling’s importance and will argue with anyone who claims otherwise. In his certainty, the target gains +1 die to all rolls to convince others of the changeling’s importance.
Suggested Modifiers
| Modifier | Situation |
|---|---|
| +1 | The changeling is dressed appropriately for the position she claims. |
| -1 | The changeling is dressed inappropriately for the position she claims. |
The changeling places herself in harmony with the natural world, so that it does not impede her efforts. Rain and winds avoid her, and thin branches move out of her way. Thus, she can operate normally even in environmental conditions that would hinder others.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wyrd + Persuasion
Action: Instant
Catch: The character spent the last night sleeping outdoors.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The changeling angers the local forces of nature, gaining a penalty to all rolls equal to her Wyrd for the next scene.
Failure: The clause fails, and natural forces affect the character normally.
Success: For each success she rolls, the character negates a –1 penalty caused by environmental conditions or the natural world. Such conditions include penalties to perception due to fog, smoke or wind as well as penalties to movement due to thick branches, ice, rain or high winds. The effects of this clause last for once scene. This changeling can use this clause on either herself or others, but each use of this clause protects only one individual. Also, this clause affects only the target, not any vehicle he may be operating. This clause allows a character to run through a thicket without hindrance or harm, but would not allow him to drive a car unhindered through a swamp. Multiple successes on this clause negate larger penalties, but may not completely remove them. If a thick fog imposes a –3 penalty to Wits + Composure rolls to see and the character rolls two successes, then these two successes negate two points of this penalty, leaving a –1 penalty to the character’s Wits + Composure rolls to see through the fog.
Exceptional Success: Beyond the advantages gained by rolling multiple successes, no special bonus is gained.
Suggested Modifiers
| Modifier | Situation |
|---|---|
| -1 | The character is wearing delicate clothing that can be easily ruined by dirt or water. |
| +1 | The character is dressed in clothing designed for use in the wilderness. |