Smoke Contract

Stealth, invisibility and soundlessness are the purviews of Contracts of Smoke. Many myths and legends attribute unwitnessed travel to the fae, and changelings themselves are no strangers to the benefits of moving without the notice of those who might wish to keep them under supervision. What better way to escape a promise than to have simply slipped away unnoticed when the promise needs to be redeemed? After all, if the changeling can't be there when the individual invokes it, how is the changeling supposed to fulfill it?


[ 1 ] The Wrong Foot ( Changeling: The Lost -- Page 132 )

This Contract allows the changeling to change the nature of the marks he leaves when passing through a certain locale. The clause is one of the oldest remembered among even the True Fae, and several fairy legends exhibit Good Folk who left cloven-hoofed tracks or the scent of curdled milk behind them. Indeed, certain seemings even use this Contract to augment their presences, as with some Fairest who leave a sweet, natural perfume in their wake or loathsome Tunnelgrubs who deliberately ooze a trail of slime to unsettle others.

Cost: 1 Glamour

Dice Pool: No roll is necessary. When The Wrong Foot takes effect, evidence of the changeling's passing change to resemble something other than the visitation of a humanlike entity. This may be tracks similar to a bird's three-toed foot, a bloody mist, drips of lavender extract -- whatever the character chooses. Note that this Contract always creates the same result, so the character should think about how he wants this to manifest before the first time he uses it, and should clear it with the Storyteller before it comes into play. This substance or mark supersedes all other evidence of passage, so footprints will vanish but the slime-spray will take its place in every case, whether or not the ground was soft enough to hold a footprint. The Wrong Foot does not change the appearance of previously made marks, however. Therefore, this limits the practical application of the Contract in numerous situations, so many changelings have come to rely on The Wrong Foot to leave a sort of "calling card," whether or not they wish to obfuscate pursuit. Once activated, this Contract functions for the duration of the scene.

Action: Instant

Catch: The changeling licks his thumb and smudges it on a mirror, thereby leaving another mark of his own passing.


[ 2 ] Nevertread ( Changeling: The Lost -- Page 132 )

When the changeling invokes this clause, all traces of his passing vanish. He leaves no footprints in mud, sand, snow or any other surface that would normally hold a mark. Likewise, his wet feet leave no prints on dry ground. Even grass trampled underfoot or flour scattered on the ground leaves no evidence of the changeling's movements. Note that if the changeling remains present at the site of his Nevertread attempts, he may still be discovered by other means. This power does not render him invisible, it just obscures the signs left by his movements.

Cost: 1 Glamour

Dice Pool: Intelligence + Wyrd

Action: Instant

Catch: The changeling must have spent at least an hour barefoot within the past day.

Dramatic Failure: Instead of becoming more difficult to detect, the changeling makes a botch of the procedure, dragging mud or river-reeds or clumps of snow across his trail. Attempts to track the changeling suffering a dramatic failure on the attempt to invoke Nevertread occur at a +2 dice bonus, by whatever method they occur.

Failure: The changeling is unable to obscure marks of his passage.

Success: The changeling erases all traces of his passing. This may simply make it impossible to witness where the character has gone, or it may inflict a -2 dice penalty to attempts to track him, at the Storyteller's discretion, based on the situation's circumstances.

Exceptional Success: For all intents and purposes, the character was never there. He's impossible to track by the method of determining where he may have moved.

Suggested Modifiers: The environment is especially susceptible to retaining marks of passage, such as sticky mud, a new snowdrift or wet cement (-2); The environment is notably resistant to holding marks of passage, as with deep water, Astroturf or hardwood floors (+2).


[ 3 ] Shadowpatch ( Changeling: The Lost -- Page 133 )

Light seems to avoid the changeling when he invokes this Contract, and darkness congeals around him.

Cost: 1 Glamour

Dice Pool: Wits + Wyrd

Action: Instant

Catch: The changeling must have spent at least an hour away from natural light (away from windows, open doors, etc.) within the past day.

Dramatic Failure: Shadows actually recede from the character, making her more visible. The character suffers a -2 dice penalty to all Stealth-based dice pools that are based on sight (rather than any other sensory detection) for the duration of the scene.

Failure: The Contract fails to function but otherwise creates no detrimental effect.

Success: The character swaths himself with shadows that dampen light, sound, smell and other perceptual stimuli. For the remainder of the scene, he enjoys a +3 dice bonus to Stealth-based dice pools.

Exceptional Success: The bonus is increased to +5.

Suggested Modifiers: The environment lacks shadows longer than the height of a man (-1); The environment consists solely of natural or artificial light, such as a park playground or a windowless warehouse (+1).


[ 4 ] Murkblur ( Changeling: The Lost -- Page 133 )

The changeling creates a smoky caul over the eyes of his subject, effectively blinding her. Naturally, the subject is aware of this, as her eyesight rapidly becomes so poor as to distinguish more than very bright sources of light. The changeling's intended target must be within her line of sight for this Contract to work.

Cost: 1 Glamour

Dice Pool: Intelligence + Wyrd vs. Resolve + Wyrd

Action: Instant

Catch: The changeling swallows the eye of an animal or insect while invoking the Contract.

Dramatic Failure: The Contract fails spectacularly and painfully, causing a burst of light in the changeling's own vision that stuns her for the following turn.

Failure: The Contract fails to blind the intended subject.

Success: The subject's vision fades to darkness. The blindness lasts for the duration of the scene.

Exceptional Success: As with a normal success, only the changeling can terminate the temporary blindness at any point of her choosing before the end of the scene.

Suggested Modifiers: The changeling can see her target but not her target's face (-1); The subject wears glasses or contact lenses (or needs to), or otherwise has some mechanical vision correction or visual impediment (+1).


[ 4 ] Smoke-Stepping ( Victorian Lost -- Page 23 )

Coal burning produced the pea-soup fogs of London, Edinburgh, and many other large cities. Common year round, and especially in the fall and winter, urban changelings learned to take advantage of them. As a result, there was an alternate four-dot clause of Contracts of Smoke, often learned by urban changelings during the Victorian era. This clause can still be learned today, but it requires dense smog or fog that limits visibility to no more than 30 yards, and so is rarely used. This clause allows the changeling to move through the fog at the speed of thought, disappearing from one location and appearing in another. This clause can only be used outdoors in thick fog or smog where visibility is no more than 30 yards.

Cost: 2 Glamour

Dice Pool: Intelligence + Wyrd

Action: Instant

Catch: The Contract is used within 10 minutes of sunrise or twilight, or on a day with thick clouds and little sunlight.

Dramatic Failure: The changeling becomes disoriented in the fog and spends the next three turns stumbling around, unaware of who or what is around him, and possibly bumping into walls or passers-by.

Failure: The changeling remains in her current location, unaffected by the Contract.

Success: The changeling instantly moves to any location that is both also within the fog and within a number of miles from his current location equal to his Wyrd. The changeling must have seen the desired location before and know it well enough to concentrate on it.

Exceptional Success: The changeling arrives as her destination, where she briefly remains as insubstantial as mist. In this invisible and intangible state, the changeling is free to spend a second moving to a location where she wishes to appear. She can only appear in locations that are also within the fog, and can only move a distance up to her Speed in yards, but can appear facing any direction.

Suggested Modifiers: The day is bright and sunny (-2); Visibility is less than 10 yards (+1).


[ 5 ] Light-Shy ( Changeling: The Lost -- Page 133 )

This clause grants the changeling the ultimate power of the Smoke purview: it makes him truly invisible. Even mechanical observers such as security cameras won't detect him.

Cost: 1 Glamour + 1 Willpower

Dice Pool: Intelligence + Wyrd

Action: Instant

Catch: The changeling must have told a meaningful lie to someone very important to him in the past day, something that could hurt their relationship if the lie was discovered.

Dramatic Failure: The character remains visible to everyone but himself. Indeed, he is wholly convinced that he is, in fact, invisible, and only interaction with an outside party will let him know the true nature of his lack of success invoking this Contract.

Failure: The changeling remains visible, unaffected by the intended Contract.

Success: The changeling becomes truly invisible, unable to be seen. It is as if the world genuinely believes he isn't there -- he won't show up in photographs, on video cameras, on infrared scans, anything. This Contract affects only sight, however. If he coughs, the changeling may be heard, and if he smells of grave-dirt, the scent will continue to put people off in the vicinity. This power lasts for a number of minutes equal to the number of successes rolled, though the changeling may choose to voluntarily end the invisibility earlier that that at his discretion.

Exceptional Success: As with a normal success, only the invisibility remains active for the duration of the scene.

Suggested Modifiers: The character attempts to vanish from plain sight, using the power when he's the subject of attention of onlooking characters (-2); The character is unobserved by any other individuals when he invokes the Contract (+1).