Tangled Web Arts
World-Bridging Meditation
Cost: 4 motes
Duration:
Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum
Temperance: 1
Minimum Essence:
1
Prerequisite
Charms: None
Ghosts maintain links to the world they left behind, willingly or no.
World-Bridging Meditation enables a ghost to check in on those things that
still matter. While it does not provide tremendous detail, it does give enough
information to allow the ghost to know the basics of what's going on with his
Fetters. For many of the dead, that's enough.
To employ World-Bridging Meditation, the
ghost requires a moment of peace and quiet in which to meditate. If the
circumstances are noisy or disruptive, a Willpower roll is required. Once the
ghost is calm enough to continue, the player announces what Fetter the ghost is
attempting to sense. It must be a Fetter — otherwise, the connection won't be
strong enough to allow the ghost to peer through the veil of death. At that
point, a Wits + Temperance roll is made. If it is successful, the ghost gets a
sense of the current state of the object or person. What the ghost gets is
nothing more than a general assessment— health, condition and not much more. If
the person is dead (or the object has been destroyed) the ghost is instantly aware
of it and feels a cold, hollow absence.
Death-Avoiding Monitor
Cost: 4 motes, 1 Willpower/+1 or 2 experience
Duration: One week/instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum
Temperance: 1
Minimum Essence:
1
Prerequisite
Charms: World-Bridging
Meditation
Sometimes, a momentary glimpse isn't
enough. In these cases, the ghost wishes to establish a more permanent link. In that case, Death-Avoiding
Monitor is a useful technique for letting the ghost remain
constantly aware of the condition of an object. The Death-Avoiding Monitor lets
the ghost know when the object — or person's — condition changes. Such changes include
— but are not limited to — injury, illness, death, falling in love and pregnancy,
in the case of a person, or structural damage or destruction, in the case of an
object. The sense of the object stays in the background and only intrudes when
the ghost concentrates or when the monitored condition changes. The object does
not need to be one of the ghost's Fetters. Establishing the Death-Avoiding
Monitor requires a Perception + Temperance roll, difficulty 1. If the ghost wishes
to extend the effect of the Death-Avoiding Monitor, his player can do so by
extending an experience point. This allows the effect to carry over for a year
and a day. Adding a second
experience point makes the effect permanent.
Extension Of The Friendly Gaze
Cost: 6 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum
Temperance: 2
Minimum Essence:
1
Prerequisite
Charms: World-Bridging
Meditation
Extension of the Friendly Gaze allows a
ghost to peer in on another ghost's Fetters. By laying a hand on her fellow
shade, the ghost can peer across the barrier between worlds to see how the
Fetter is faring. This information is not magically shared with the target,
which allows the ghost gathering it to use the power in a potentially
unscrupulous manner.
The first step in the Extension of the Friendly
Gaze is simple physical contact between the ghost and her peer. If the other
ghost is willing, this is automatic. If not, it requires a successful Dexterity
+ Brawl or Martial Arts attack, which need do no damage. Once physical contact,
be it ever so brief, has been established, the player of the ghost attempting
to use this Arcanos makes a reflexive
Wits + Mediation roll at a difficulty of (5 - the Fetter rating of the object).
If successful, the ghost gets the same sort of information about one of the
target's Fetters that she would have gotten from using World-Bridging
Meditation for herself. If the target is not consenting, the Storyteller chooses
the object or individual the ghost learns about.
Turnabout
Is Fair Play
There is no way for a ghost to know if her
counterpart also has the ability to perform Extension of the Friendly Gaze. If
a ghost uses the power on a ghost who also possesses it, that ghost may, in
turn, use it, reflexively and simultaneously, on his assailant.
Veil-Piercing Binding
Cost: 5 motes, 2 Willpower + 1 or 2 experience
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum
Temperance: 4
Minimum Essence:
2
Prerequisite
Charms: Extension of the
Friendly Gaze
With Veil-Piercing Binding, a ghost can do
for others what Death-Avoiding Monitor allows him to do for himself. This
Arcanos binds an object or person in the lands of the living to the
consciousness of a ghost, allowing her to perform a check on its status
whenever she wants.
Veil-Piercing Binding must be invoked the
turn after Extension of the Friendly Gaze. The ghost's player makes an Endurance
+ Meditation roll (difficulty 2). If it succeeds, the Fetter the ghost saw with
Extension of the Friendly Gaze is bound to the target. As with Death-Avoiding
Monitor, the target must spend a point of Essence each time she wishes to check
in on her bound Fetter. Veil-Piercing Binding can only bind one object or
person at a time, but it can be used more than once on an individual ghost.
The duration of Veil-Piercing Binding can
be extended by the expenditure of experience points. One experience point
prolongs the effect for a year; two makes it permanent.
Mark Of The Relentless Hunter
Cost: 6 motes, 1 Willpower + 1 or 2 experience
Duration: One week
Type: Simple
Minimum
Temperance: 2
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Death-Avoiding
Monitor
The Mark of the Relentless Hunter allows a
ghost to not only know the rough condition of a Fetter, but also to sense its
location and direction. While Mark of the Relentless Hunter is in effect, the
ghost can effortlessly sense the Fetter and, thus, can track it even across the
worlds. The connection, once forged, is unbreakable by any natural means, and
the ghost's sense of his Fetter is unshakable. Only the end of the Arcanos'
duration or the destruction of the item will serve to break the connection
naturally. The Mark of the Relentless Hunter can also be set on an item or
person bound to a ghost through either Death-Avoiding Monitor or Veil-Piercing
Binding. The object must be specified before the Essence and Willpower is spent,
at which point the player of the ghost activating the Arcanos makes a
Perception + Meditation roll (difficulty 2 if it's being performed on another
ghost, difficulty 1 if the ghost is performing it on herself). If the roll is
successful, the ghost now has a fix on the item and can summon up its condition
and direction without expenditure of Essence. Expending 1 experience point can
extend the Mark out to a year. A second experience point makes the sign permanent.
Characters who have this Charm's effects binding them
to an object can develop Fetters relating to it more easily and cheaply. If
another ghost is the beneficiary of this Arcanos, his player must spend the
experience points. Essence committed to the Charm is released when it is made
permanent with experience.
The
Eternal Hunt
Once the Mark of the Relentless Hunter has
been made permanent, even death cannot exert power over it. A ghost can find a
loved one or a hated enemy who passes into the Underworld by virtue of a Mark
placed during life.
Sensing The Delicate Strands
Cost: 6 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum
Temperance: 2
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite
Charms: Aura-Reading
Technique, Extension of the Friendly Gaze
Sensing the Delicate Strands allows a
ghost to get a mental image of the things that are important to another ghost.
It is also a key step in performing Chain-Shattering Discipline, illuminating a
target who would otherwise be unknowable.
Using the Arcanos does not require
physical contact. Instead, the ghost must only be within sight of her target. Once
the object of her attentions has been picked out, the ghost's player makes a
Perception + Occult roll (difficulty 3). A success gives the ghost basic
knowledge of one of the target's Fetters. The character knows the distance to,
the direction of, the appearance of and the general nature of the subject's
attachment to the Fetter. At no additional cost, the ghost's player can keep
rolling until she fails. Each success reveals another secret.
If an attempt at Sensing
the Delicate Strands fails, 24 hours must elapse before the ghost can make
another attempt on the same target. A ghost whose mind has been read thus is
not aware that Sensing the Delicate Strands has been
used on him, regardless of whether the attempt succeeds or fails.
Chain-Shattering
Discipline
Cost: 6 motes, 3 Willpower
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Minimum
Temperance: 3
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite
Charms: Mark of the Relentless
Hunter
Chain-Shattering Discipline is the inverse
of powers such as Veil-Piercing Binding. Instead of binding a ghost to a
Fetter, this Arcanos instead shatters that bond. Once the ghost has identified
a target, she can choose to break the ghost's connection to it. Once the
connection is broken, the Fetter is gone. It and its representation no longer
provide any benefits, nor can the ghost nor any other
ghosts spy on it with Arcanoi for sensing or locating Fetters. The connection is
lost, irretrievably and irrevocably.
The use of Chain-Shattering Discipline
requires either visual contact with the target and a successful use of Sensing
the Delicate Strands or possession of something belonging to the target, which
is broken when the Charm is activated. A Strength + Temperance roll with
difficulty equal to the target's permanent Essence plus the strength of the
Fetter is required to actually break the link.
The target is instantly aware of the
breaking of the link, even if there was no active connection between the two at
the time. The victim's player must also succeed on a Willpower roll, or his
character goes mad for a number of days equal to the attacker's Temperance
rating.
Weaver Guards The Loom
Cost: 3 motes
Duration: One day
Type: Reflexive
Minimum Temperance:
2
Minimum Essence:
2
Prerequisite
Charms: Sensing the Delicate
Strands
Any ghost who can touch another's Fetters
is painfully aware that someone may be doing the same thing to them. This
knowledge made the development of Weaver Guards the Loom — the most basic
defense against this sort of aggression — a necessity. By exercising Weaver
Guards the Loom, the ghost gathers the threads of his Fetters, so as to know
when another hand is touching them.
Activating Weaver Guards the Loom requires
an Intelligence + Meditation roll (difficulty 1). If successful, the ghost is
now automatically protected against Fetter-related intrusion. He need not think
about it and can reflexively renew the protection when its duration lapses. While
Weaver Guards the Loom is in effect, the ghost's player gets a reflexive
Perception + Temperance roll (difficulty 1) in the instance of any attempt to
use any Fetter monitoring or detection Charm against the ghost. If the action
is detected, the ghost's player can make a reflexive Perception + Occult roll
(difficulty 3) to see if his character has an idea where the intrusion comes
from. Success on this roll reveals the identity of the interloper. Weaver
Guards the Loom does not prevent the intrusion. It merely reports the fact to the
ghost whose Fetters are being violated. There is no way for the intruding ghost
to know she has been detected.
Farmer Defends The Unharvested Field
Cost: 5 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Reflexive
Minimum
Temperance: 3
Minimum Essence:
3
Prerequisite Charms:
Weaver Guards the Loom
Weaver Guards the Loom provides awareness
of intrusion. Farmer Defends the Unharvested Field allows the ghost to strike
back. A supplement to its predecessor, Farmer Defends the Unharvested Field is
generally invoked whenever Weaver Guards the Loom detects tampering with the
character's Fetters. As soon as the latter Charm detects an unwelcome intrusion
of this sort, the ghost's power strikes back invisibly. On a successful Wits +
Mediation (difficulty 1) roll by the player of the ghost using this Charm, the
offending party suddenly suffers sharp pain, akin to being struck with a
glass-studded whip. This does 5L damage, soaked only with natural soak. The
intruding ghost loses her concentration, the attempt she made automatically fails,
and her identity is immediately known to her target. While the blow is strictly
psychic, it does have a physical manifestation — the affect ghost bleeds from
her sensory organs for several minutes. While Farmer Defends the Unharvested
Field is reflexive, a ghost can choose not to unleash it. The cost of the
Arcanos is paid each time it is used, but there is no cost if the ghost
refrains from using it. Farmer Defends the Unharvested Field can specifically
preempt Chain-Shattering Discipline.