The third clause of the Contracts of Elements allows you to manipulate your chosen element, moving it and shaping it at will. With an element like fire or electricity, this contract has obvious combat potential. The rules presented in the book are already more-or-less complete, so all that’s added here are rules to cover a few combat-specific oddities. I’ve also summarized the book rules for easy reference.
First, the new stuff. The principle change is that during combat, you need strict line of sight to all of the element that you want to control, in addition to being close enough to its edge. If you move a large portion of the element such that you can no longer see part of it, you lose control over that part at the beginning of your next turn.
Once a character loses control of an elemental mass, the element behaves naturally. Liquids spread out into a puddle, gasses dissipate into the surrounding air, etc.
When moving fire around, the contract physically displaces the fire, while leaving it linked to its fuel in all other ways. This means that the fire’s original fuel source continues to burn as normal while the flame is elsewhere. As that fuel burns out, the fire being controlled will shrink and weaken, unless the changeling feeds it some new source of fuel. Fire that leaves the control of the contract snaps back to its current fuel source(s).
So what do you do when your enemy is controlling all the fire in a room, and you want to burn his precious stack of Monopoly money? You take the fire for yourself! Here’s how.
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Wyrd vs Composure + Wyrd
Action: Reflexive
Dramatic Failure: Not only do you fail to gain control of the target mass of the element, it turns against you and actively hinders your actions for the remainder of the scene.
Failure: You fail to gain control of the target mass of the element.
Success: You’re able to control the contested mass of the element as usual.
Exceptional Success: You gain control of the target mass of the element, and are able to keep it with greater ease than usual. Further attempts to wrest control from you suffer a -2 penalty. The penalty lasts until another character succeeds in taking away your control, or the scene ends.
| Modifier | Situation |
|---|---|
| +2 | The element was created with the character’s own magic |
| +1 | The character knows at least one clause in the Contracts of Communion for the target element |
| -3 | Trying to gain control of an object which has special significance to its current owner: a soldier’s trusted sidearm since basic, the locket from a first girlfriend, etc. |
Now the book info (paraphrased): To gain control of a mass of your element, you need to be within Willpower × 2 yards of its edge. This same requirement also applies to maintaining control. Once you’re controlling it, you can manipulate it at will, as long as you don’t try anything utterly impossible. Fire can be made into a wall, for example, but you can’t force it to burn underwater.