Mirror

Common Contract

Changeling The Lost Sourcebook 129
Beast Darkling Elemental Fairest Ogre Wizened
This box: view · talk

The symbolic element of Mirror grants changelings who master its Contracts the ability to perform acts of selfmodification and shapechanging. As might be expected, these Contracts are popular among the fae, who might use these powers for anything from convenience to misdirection to outright deceit.

Notice: any contract that involves shapeshifting, such as Fang and Talon, Elements, or Mirror, display clearly fae aspects while in the Hedge. Thus, a Fang and Talon transformation into a dog in the Hedge will not appear as a regular German Shepard, but rather some combination of German Shepshep and fantastic creature, and a Mirror contract would perhaps leave a reflective quality to the user's skin.

Contract Levels

• Riddle-Kith

This clause has its roots in purely fae intrigues, allowing changelings to interact with one another without being recognized. It works with the fundamental nature of changeling physiology to allow a changeling to seem as if she hails from some kith or seeming other than her own. Riddle-Kith works exclusively on the general features of a mien, meaning that it creates only the impression that the individual is of a certain seeming. In other words, it won’t allow the changeling to selectively alter her features, nor will it permit the changeling to emulate a specific changeling, but it will give a clear impression of belonging to an entirely different seeming or kith. The new appearance is notably different from the old. For instance, a storm-attuned Elemental resembling a Japanese goblin who chooses to look like an Ogre wouldn’t look like an oni of similar coloration, but is much more likely to look European or otherwise significantly unlike himself. This Contract doesn’t affect the Mask.

• Cost: 1 Glamour
• Dice Pool: Manipulation + Wyrd
• Action: Instant
• Catch: The changeling must have dined with a member of the selected kith within the past week.

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The changeling loses all control of her attempted illusion, instead appearing simply as something utterly unnatural. She may acquire a hodge-podge of beastly features, or her skin may mottle or spall off. The ultimate effect is that the changeling simply looks horrendous for the duration of the scene instead of looking as if she belongs to a distinct seeming, imposing a –1 die penalty to all Presence dice pools (except those related to Intimidation) during that time.
• Failure: The Contract changes nothing about the changeling’s appearance.
• Success: The changeling takes on the features of a seeming or kith of her choice, though what features, exactly, the Contract bestows are up to the Storyteller. This power lasts until the next sunrise or sunset, whichever comes first, though the changeling may choose to end the Contract before that if she wishes.
• Exceptional Success: As with a standard success, though the changeling may choose the exact array of features this Contract grants her, so long as they’re congruous with the seeming she chose.

•• Skinmask

The changeling alters her flesh to appear as another individual. This change affects only a single limb or other aspect of the character, so only her hands or her face or her back can be made to resemble that of another person. This clause is often used to enhance disguises, though it is sometimes used to emulate unique birthmarks, signature tattoos, etc. It affects both Mask and fae mien. The feature so modeled must be a real feature that exists on a known subject, and it must come from a human (or at least partially human) source.

Changelings can use this Contract multiple times to reproduce multiple features, but the cost must be paid each time and the roll must be made each time, as well.

• Cost: 1 Glamour
• Dice Pool: Stamina + Wyrd
• Action: Instant
• Catch: The changeling appropriates an object belonging to the individual whose features she plans to reproduce.

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The Contract fails grotesquely, disfiguring the changeling instead of mirroring the model. This may result in a distortion on the face, a withered limb or a horrendous discoloration of the skin. For the remainder of the scene, the character suffers a –1 die penalty to any Presence-based dice pools (except those involving Intimidation) when the disfigurement is visible.
• Failure: The changeling fails to emulate the desired feature.
• Success: The changeling emulates the feature in question so that it passes inspection by those who would best know the modeled subject. This power lasts for the duration of the scene, though the changeling may choose to end the Contract before that if she wishes.
• Exceptional Success: The changeling has so mastered this particular expression of the other character’s physical aspect that she doesn’t have to roll to re-attain this particular feature if he invokes this Contract at a later time. He must still pay the cost as normal, though.

••• Transfigure the Flesh

This clause allows the changeling to adjust the size of her body, either shrinking or growing as she chooses.

• Cost: 1 Glamour
• Dice Pool: Stamina + Wyrd
• Action: Instant
• Catch: The changeling must steal a garment of clothing either far too large or far too small for her to wear. This garment need not correspond to the change made. That is, a changeling doesn’t need to specifically steal a small garment if she intends to shrink.

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The character succeeds only in crushing or hyper-extending her internal organs, and suffers a point of lethal damage in the failed attempt to alter her body size.
• Failure: The Contract fails, and the changeling is unable to modify her size.
• Success: The changeling chooses either to shrink or to grow. The character’s Size then increases or decreases by an amount equal to one-half of the number of successes obtained on the roll (round up). The character may choose to alter her Size by less than this amount, if she wishes. Note that when the character’s Size changes, so, too, does her Health change, which may have some impact on the character’s well-being if she’s suffered any damage. This Contract lasts for the remainder of the scene, though the character may choose to end the Contract at any time before that.
• Exceptional Success: As with a normal success (as extra successes increase the versatility of the power), only the character’s Health remains at her regular score if she chooses to shrink herself.

•••• Oddbody

The changeling re-aligns her body’s makeup so that one particular feature becomes something other than human. Examples include forming bestial claws, growing skin like bark or elongating legs.

• Cost: 1 Glamour
• Dice Pool: Strength + Wyrd
• Action: Instant
• Catch: The changeling consumes the threads of a caterpillar’s cocoon.

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The clause fails hideously, maiming the changeling for a brief period of time. The character suffers two points of lethal damage and is unable to move for three turns. For five turns thereafter, she may move at only half her normal Speed.
• Failure: The Contract fails to provide the manipulated feature.
• Success: The changeling creates a unique bodily feature of her choosing. Whatever the feature, the mechanical effects must be one of the following (the changeling’s choice):

The feature acts as a natural weapon, granting a one lethal damage bonus.

The feature acts as natural armor, effectively duplicating the effects of chain mail (see p. 170 of the World of Darkness Rulebook).

The feature grants a +3 Speed bonus.

The feature grants a +4 Initiative bonus.

The feature renders the character immune to damage penalties.

Whatever the feature is, it lasts for the remainder of the scene, until the changeling consciously chooses to revert her features back to their normal state, or until the changeling uses this clause again to gain a different feature.

• Exceptional Success: As with a standard success, only the Contract is so effective, the Oddbody effect confers the benefits of two features as described above.

••••• Chrysalis

Under this clause, the changeling is able to become something wholly other than herself. She may take the shape of any inanimate object roughly her size, and thereby become that object.

• Cost: 1 Glamour
• Dice Pool: Strength + Wyrd
• Action: Instant
• Catch: The changeling must commission the creation of an object she wishes to mimic.

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The changeling succeeds only in distorting her body and causing herself grief during the process of transformation. Instead of becoming the object, the character blacks out from the pain of the change. She remains unconscious until the player succeeds at a Stamina roll, which may be attempted once each minute.
• Failure: The Contract fails to transform the character into the desired object.
• Success: The changeling transforms literally into the object of her choosing. The character acquires all the properties of that object, though with added mobility. For example, a character who becomes a man-sized rock is extremely durable and also extremely heavy, while a character who becomes a clock tells time as a normal clock would. A character may also combine this power with other powers that affect her Size or composition, as with Transfigure the Flesh, to allow her to vary the size of the object she becomes.

Changelings who become objects in this fashion are limited to simple machines and basic materials. As well, they cannot become fanciful substances (though they can appear to be fanciful substances) or complex devices. Thus, a character is fine to become a canoe, a pillar of marble or a roulette wheel, but “a pile of stardust” or “a nuclear bomb made out of dark matter” is beyond the Contract’s reach. As an object, the character has a normal person’s sense of her surroundings. In addition, he has limited functional capacity in his purpose as the object — the roulette wheel could determine its own results, for example, the clock could set its own time and the canoe could propel itself into the current of a river. A chair could walk from place to place, bending its legs. The canoe could not fly, however, and the chair could not sprout “hands” at the ends of its arms or the pillar reshape itself into a statue. This power lasts for the duration of the scene, though the changeling may choose to end the Contract before that if she wishes.

• Exceptional Success: The character may change from one object to another while the Contract’s power lasts as an instant action.