Shadow Constraint
Craft
Illuminate The Shadow
Constraint
Cost: 1 mote
Duration: One minute
Type: Simple
Minimum
Temperance: 1
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite
Charms: None
Throughout the Underworld, subtle laws
apply to the activities of ghosts. Most such laws stem from the use of ancient
and wide-ranging necromancy, but others are restricted in their area of effect,
are new or have nothing to do with necromancy itself — they are inherent to the
fabric of the Underworld. Ghosts can create temporary taboos with the Impose
Stricture Arcanos.
Illuminate the Shadow Constraint reveals
any taboos that apply to any locations within sight. Alternately, the ghost’s
player may roll Perception + Bureaucracy when her character uses this Charm in
order to determine any taboos that apply to a particular person or ghost.
Studious and careful ghosts learn Illuminate the Shadow Constraint in order to
remain aware of taboos and strange laws of reality as they travel from realm to
realm.
Dark Sorcery Observation
Cost: 1 mote
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum
Temperance: 1
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: None
A ghost who activates Dark Sorcery
Observation instantly notices the presence of any active necromantic effects
within his field of vision, so long as his player succeeds in a simple
Perception + Occult roll. Ensorcelled people, objects or areas emit a dark,
pulsing aura to the character’s eyes for a moment or two. With three or more successes,
the ghost is aware of the circle (Shadowlands, Underworld, Void) of the
necromancy, and with five or more successes, he learns a one-word description
of what every effect in the area is doing.
Ghostly Magistrate
Perception
Cost: 1 mote
Duration: One scene
Type: Instant
Minimum
Temperance: 2
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite
Charms: Illuminate the Shadow
Constraint
This simple Charm allows a ghost to detect
the presence of criminals against the local natural order. It immediately
points out any living being in line of sight within the Underworld (even if he
attempts to conceal his presence through non-magical disguises or the like).
Additionally, with a Perception + Bureaucracy roll at standard difficulty, the
ghost-magistrate notices any entity that has violated a taboo of the Underworld
within the last 24 hours and not had his violation forgiven through the use of
Accept Amercement.
Brief Exemption
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum
Temperance: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Illuminate the Shadow
Constraint
Brief Exemption allows a ghost to tiptoe
around a taboo of the Underworld, whether it is a “natural” taboo, one imposed
by necromancy or one created by Impose Stricture. A Manipulation + Stealth roll
is required. An “ordinary” natural taboo requires just one success to ignore.
One imposed by Necromancy or Impose Stricture requires a number of successes
equal to the Essence of the entity who created the taboo (a default of four if
unknown).
Accept Amercement
Cost: 3 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum
Temperance: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Brief Exemption
Accept Amercement allows a learned ghost
to forgive another’s trespass of local taboo. The violator does not have to be
truly repentant; the Charm simply eliminates the negative effect of the taboo
for the scene. If the taboo act is a simple, instant thing — eating
pomegranates, for instance — this Charm “erases” the act, and the target of the
Charm will suffer no further ill effects from his past violation. If the taboo
is a state of being — for instance, wearing shoes when it is forbidden to do so
— the Arcanos allows the target to continue to violate the taboo for the duration
of a single scene.
Levy Fine
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum
Temperance: 4
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Accept Amercement
The intensity of punishment for violating
a taboo varies wildly. This Arcanos allows a ghostly magistrate to add his own
penalty to a violation. This additional punishment can take one of several
forms, at the magistrate’s discretion:
• -2 dice to all dice pools
• A visible or audible sign that the
violator is a criminal (such as a brand or a phantom crow that shouts “Violator!”
from the character’s shoulder)
• All forms of movement reduced by 1/3 due
to some visible impediment
Similarly scaled punishments may also be
levied, at the Storyteller’s discretion. All such effects last until the end of
the scene in which Levy Fine is invoked but require no dice roll to impose so
long as the target of the Charm has violated a local taboo. No punishment can
be used if the target has not violated a local taboo. This Charm may be applied
multiple times to a single target, but only if he has violated multiple laws of
the Underworld.
House Arrest
Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Permanent (see below)
Type: Simple
Minimum
Temperance: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite
Charms: Levy Fine
The successful use of House Arrest forces
a living violator of an Underworld taboo to remain in the Under world or a
shadowland until such time as he is forgiven for his transgression. This
forgiveness can only come from the use of Accept Amercement (above) by a ghost
with equal to or higher Essence than the ghost who uses this Arcanos. This
Arcanos has no effect on ghosts, nor even on Ghost-Blooded.
Hide The Living Name
Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant (see below)
Type: Simple
Minimum
Temperance: 4
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite
Charms: House Arrest
Hide the Living Name turns a living
transgressor into a ghost for all intents and purposes until his crime is forgiven
by a ghostly magistrate with equal or higher Essence than the user of this
Arcanos. The Charm strips away the subject’s physical form and life-essence,
imprisoning it in an unknown location (many suspect the Labyrinth — which might
have dire consequences in the long run, see below). What’s left, the target’s
higher soul (or hun), persists as any other ghost might. The subject of the
Charm can leave the Underworld through a shadowland and even enter Creation,
but no matter where he goes, he remains a ghost (and is incorporeal in
Creation, etc.). His physical body does, apparently, age — a few centuries ago,
in a rare case, a mortal was stricken to ghosthood by a vengeful magistrate and
left in that state for several years. When he returned to a living state, he
found that his hair had grayed and that lines had crept across his face.
Living targets of this Charm with
particularly high scores in any Virtue and low Willpower may find that their bodies
become possessed by spectres while they are under the influence of this
Arcanos. Spectres are attracted to the bodies of the particularly virtuous
(regardless of the Virtue), but are repelled by the leftover Willpower that anchors
the living body’s mind. If the sum of the character’s two highest Virtues
exceed his Willpower, that character’s body is a potential possession target. A
possessing spectre takes a living body back into Creation and wreaks havoc as
it sees fit. It cannot read the victim’s mind, so it cannot necessarily destroy
the character’s life, but it can certainly break laws and cause trouble no
matter where it goes. If a possessed body is killed in Creation, it returns to
the Labyrinth and slowly regenerates, and the spectre that took it to Creation
is ejected.
If the character’s body is possessed at
the time that his sentence ends, he cannot return to it until the spectre residing
in it is somehow ejected. It is the Storyteller’s call as to whether the
target’s body has been possessed at all and particularly whether the body is
“out” at the time that the target is ready to return to it.
Impose Stricture
Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Three days per success
Type: Simple
Minimum
Temperance: 4
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite
Charms: Levy Fine
The ghost using Impose Stricture can
create a short-term taboo in his local area — within one mile per point of
permanent Essence (or the size of a small village). This taboo should be
relatively simple — nearly all taboos either preclude a single simple behavior
(such as eating pomegranates) or require a single behavior (such as wearing a
particular garment at all times). No taboo can be impossible to adhere to —
even taboos that are logical impossibilities (“Everyone in this area must be
male and female at the same time”) has to have a possible symbolic solution
(ritual transvestitism, for instance). Taboos created by Impose Stricture only
apply within the Underworld.
Impose Stricture implies only a single,
relatively minor penalty — violators of a taboo suffer a one-die penalty to all
dice pools until one hour past the time that they stop violating the taboo.
That is, if the taboo is a single action, violators suffer a one-hour penalty.
If it is a continuous action (“Wear no leather”), the penalty applies as long
as the criminal violates the taboo and then an additional hour after that. The
one-hour duration can be cut short if the violator receives the use of Accept
Amercement by a ghost magistrate.
Curse Of The Damned
Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Special
Minimum
Temperance: 4
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite
Charms: Impose Stricture
A magistrate-ghost uses Curse of the
Damned to apply a permanent taboo to another being — be it a spirit, a ghost or
a living being. The target of this Arcanos must have an Essence lower than the
ghost using it, and it is difficult to apply — the ghost’s player makes a
Manipulation + Lore roll, while the target’s player resists with Willpower. If
the ghost achieves more successes, the target suffers from a taboo for the rest
of its existence. As with Impose Stricture, above, violation of the taboo results
in a one-die penalty to all dice pools for at least one hour after the
violation. The taboo should be straightforward, as described in Impose
Stricture. The Curse of the Damned can be removed if the ghost who inflicted it
uses Accept Amercement or if any other entity with an Essence higher than the
ghostly magistrate who invoked the taboo uses Accept Amercement.