Larceny, The Guardians

 

Once, there was a maiden…

…who ate 236 leaves. She had to, because otherwise she’d forget where she came from, and that would make everyone very sad or, possibly very happy.

She found herself in a woods full of monsters, impelled toward their cook pot. “Do you want to cook me?” she asked. “Or do you think that’s where maidens belong?”

There was a crack in the cook pot’s bottom that let in the sky.

She started to squirm through the crack, but then, she saw that the clouds carried chains and the wind was their manacles.

As the monsters pulled her back, she called to the stones and she called the sky, but it was the night that came to her aid; and, in the night, fire and pain. “Why should you help me?” she asked.

“To know the world is to serve it,” they said.

 

Creation Smuggling Procedures

Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower

Duration: One day

Type: Simple

Minimum Larceny: 2

Minimum Essence: 1

Prerequisite Charms: None

The character calls the weave of events to her. Thin tendrils of fate snake out from Creation to twine around each of her fingers, fading into phosphorescent green visibility for the final meter of their journey. If the character is in or ventures into the Wyld, she becomes a small island of stability and Creation, her destiny snuck into the abode of chance by craft, art and cunning. Neither the character nor anything within 10 yards of her suffers the touch of the Wyld.

 

Sidereal Shell Games

Cost: 1 mote + 2 motes per die or level successfully stolen, 1 Willpower

Duration: One scene

Type: Simple

Minimum Larceny: 3

Minimum Essence: 1

Prerequisite Charms: Creation Smuggling Procedures

Again, the character summons the weave of events, but now, she crosses her wrists and deftly switches threads from one hand to the other as they materialize. If her player succeeds at a Wits + Larceny roll, the Exalt steals a portion of her target’s destiny and can borrow up to her Essence in bashing and lethal soak, in damage dice or in dice form a specific pool (such as Dexterity + Melee). The target loses the use of that soak or those dice for the remainder of the scene. The character gains it. The Sidereal cannot borrow more soak or more dice than the target possesses. This Charm is partially cumulative: The Sidereal can filch many different things in one scene but cannot add to the same pool or soak twice. When a Sidereal borrows dice for a pool, this is a dice bonus added by a Charm and should be considered as such when determining the maximum effect of other dice-bonus Charms.

 

Name Pilfering Practices

Cost: 5 motes

Duration: Indefinite

Type: Simple

Minimum Larceny: 3

Minimum Essence: 2

Prerequisite Charms: None

With a twist and a tug, the Sidereal steals another being’s name. The Sidereal learns the victim’s true name, and for the duration of the Charm, none save the Exalt can speak or think it. Make a reflexive Dexterity + Larceny roll with difficulty equal to the Sidereal’s Essence for Fair Folk to notice and substitute another name for their own before the Sidereal completes the theft.

 

Dream-Confiscation Approach

Cost: 6 motes, 1 Willpower

Duration: Indefinite

Type: Simple

Minimum Larceny: 4

Minimum Essence: 2

Prerequisite Charms: Name Pilfering Practices

Bumping casually into his target or otherwise making physical contact, and after a successful Wits + Larceny roll with difficulty equal to the target’s Essence, the character pockets his victim’s dreams. Fair Folk suffer the character’s Essence in dice of aggravated damage, ignoring armor, as the character dexterously unweaves some of the dream Essence from their Wyld nature. They immediately become ravenous and slightly mad, though sane enough to Dodge further attempts by the character to touch them. Any other characters affected by this Charm become listless: Until the Sidereal stops committing Essence to this Charm and thereby releases their dreams, they cannot regain Willpower and do not regenerate Essence naturally. Sidereal Exalted may always use their Temperance with this Charm.

 

Honorable Thief Spirit

Cost: 1 mote per target number reduction

Duration: One scene

Type: Simple

Minimum Larceny: 3

Minimum Essence: 2

Prerequisite Charms: None

Glittering green sparks weave about the character for a moment before settling into her hair and skin and becoming all but invisible. To the eyes of any criminal, the character seems to have the virtues and qualities that best qualify her for respect and admiration. The Sidereal can reduce the target number of all peaceful or defensive interactions with rogues, scum and knaves.

 

Conning Chaos Technique

Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower

Duration: Varies

Type: Simple

Minimum Larceny: 5

Minimum Essence: 4

Prerequisite Charms: Sidereal Shell Games, Dream Confiscation Approach, Honorable Thief Spirit

This Charm uses a prayer strip marked with the scripture of the Savory Maiden. The Sidereal holds it up before him, whereupon it straightens and affixes itself to reality as if nailed to the air, occasionally emitting an effulgence of green light. The Sidereal then names his victim, who must be within 10 miles. For a moment, the victim sees the prayer strip through the Exalt’s eyes, burning a brilliant green. Ancient forces set in motion by the Charm wheel and deal with the Wyld, trading the victim’s destiny to chaos in exchange for a portion of the chaos claimed into Creation.

The Sidereal’s player rolls Manipulation + Larceny. Each success represents one month of this curse, and in each month, the Wyld’s efforts intensify ― they’re not organized, conscious or directed, as a whole, but they’re, nevertheless, malevolent. The Charm draws Fair Folk and Wyld-spawned monsters to the target, their schemes and determination deadlier as time goes on. The victim suffers a derangement or a taint as the order and laws that bind her deteriorate, though she may overcome this for a scene with a successful Temperance roll. However, when the curse expires, or when the Wyld has claimed its due, something in the chaos understands that the Maidens have cheated it ― that it has given more territory to order and reason than chaos has consumed. The Sidereal’s name is marked. The more often he uses this Charm, the more likely he is to find himself hunted by the very forces he invokes.

The player of a victim of this Charm can make an extended Intelligence + Lore roll every month for her character to understand the nature of the curse. With six successes, she understands that the prayer strip was within 10 miles of her location at the time the curse fell and that its destruction can free her. Twelve successes gives her its precise location.