Stealth, The Mask
Once, there were…
…shadows in the window.
…footsteps at the gates of life.
…whispering at the door:
“Should I live or die? Am I living or
dead?”
“To know the world is to choose it,”
says the Void.
Soft Presence Practice
Cost: 1 mote per target number
reduction
Duration: One scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Stealth: 1
Minimum Essence: 1
Prerequisite Charms: None
The natural residents of
Creation deform the flow of others’ fates, marking it with the signs of their
presence. Using this Charm the character reduces this deformation, stepping
lightly through the world the Maidens weave. For one scene, she reduces the
target number of all roll to remain undetected.
Walking Outside Fate
Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Indefinite
Type: Simple
Minimum Stealth: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Soft
Presence Practice
Quiet as the
Void, the Sidereal steps entirely out of the weave of fate. Only those with Essence greater than her own can sense
her directly. The touch of chance allows others a reflexive Perception +
Awareness roll for others to feel a presence nearby. Even if they succeed,
those who cannot sense her directly have a +2 difficulty penalty on attempts to
attack her or affect her with Charms. Only supernatural trackers can engage in
tracking contests with the character. The Exalt returns instantly to the weave
if her anima banner makes Stealth Charms fail.
For the duration of this Charm,
the Sidereal is treated as a creature outside of fate. Learning this Charm
requires the Maiden of Secrets’ approval.
Subordinate Inspiration Technique
Cost: 1 mote
Duration: One minute
Type: Simple
Minimum Stealth: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Walking
Outside Fate
The character can only use this
Charm while Walking Outside Fate. Any spirit or Sidereal present hears the
character’s words as his own thoughts. A target can dismiss them as irrelevant
internal monologue, but his player must make a Perception + Awareness roll at
difficulty equal to the Sidereal’s Essence to realize that the thoughts are not
his own.
Blinding The Boar
Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: Five turns
Type: Simple
Minimum Stealth: 2
Minimum Essence: 2
Prerequisite Charms: None
Casting forth shadows of a
thousand possible futures, the Sidereal conceals the truths of her existence
from another. Although the character remains apparent to every sense, focusing
on her to determine her exact location, her body language, what she is saying
or any other detail becomes near-impossible. The player makes a Manipulation +
Stealth roll. Add her successes to the difficulty of all attempts the target
makes to attack, dodge or otherwise influence the
Sidereal for the Charm’s duration. If the player receives even one success, the
target cannot understand the Sidereal’s words. Sidereal Exalted may always use
their Valor with this Charm.
Ceasing To Exist Approach
Cost: 5 motes, 3 Willpower, 1
health level
Duration: Indefinite
Type: Simple
Minimum Stealth: 5
Minimum Essence: 3
Prerequisite Charms: Subordinate
Inspiration Technique, Blinding the Boar
This Charm uses a prayer strip
marked with the scripture of Absence. The character places it upon her chest.
Flashing with dark green light, it sinks inside and wraps around her heart. In
that instant, the Sidereal vanishes from the weave of fate and reappears
elsewhere, woven seamlessly into a new life. No effect that targets the
Sidereal based on her identity rather than her physical location functions. For
the time being, although others remember her, the Sidereal simply does not
exist.
The character creates a new
identity and appearance for herself as any sort of non-Primordial creature,
including mortals, Exalted, spirits and the dead. She cannot, however, become
someone who already exists.
The character chooses up to 15
dots of Backgrounds appropriate to her new life; Background dots above 3 cost
double. She travels instantly to a location chosen by the Maiden of Secrets to
fit her new identity. She instantly develops appropriate social relationships,
seamlessly integrating into the life of any appropriate entities save creatures
of the Wyld, beings outside the pattern of fate and spirits on or above the
level of the Maidens. Thus, if the character chose to assume the identity of an
Abyssal Exalted, the dead of her “native” shadowland would recognize and
remember her as such, but the Deathlord that was her ostensible superior would
not.
The character does not gain new
Abilities. When possible, others perceive her Charms and anima as effects
suitable to her new self. When magic or ignorance betrays the character, she
automatically receives a perfect success on social rolls to explain the matter
away. Others have no difficulty perceiving or remembering the Sidereal’s
temporary identity, unless the temporary identity is itself a Sidereal.
However, the character’s tendency to fade from view prevents her from spending
more than one season a year as another person.
If the Sidereal dismisses this
Charm or uses more than 10 motes of Peripheral Essence, the Charm ends. Its
effects linger on for five days, after which the Sidereal snaps back to her old
identity and its appropriate location.