Goblin Contracts

All Goblin Contracts are some of the shady goods that circulate among the underbelly of fae society. All are easy to learn and cost little Glamour. They are inexpensive because they are also intrinsically flawed. All Goblin Contracts come with a price — something harmful or problematic that happens to the changeling after the Contract is used. No known Contracts or other powers allow the changeling to escape paying this price.

• Dot Contracts

Trading Luck for Fate

The character knows the result of some random or otherwise impossible-to-determine event. In return, she experiences some sort of bad luck within the next several hours. The character cannot use this Contract again until this bad luck occurs. (CtL 164)

• Cost: 1 Glamour
• Dice Pool: Wits + Wyrd
• Action: Instant
• Catch: Using this Contract to win at gambling.

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The changeling pays the Contract’s price but gains no benefit.
• Failure: The character experiences neither good nor bad luck.
• Success: The caster knows the outcome of something random or similarly unknowable in her immediately vicinity, such as which of four streets the people she is pursuing fled down or which roll of scratch-tickets to buy to win between $10 and $25. The Contract cannot answer open questions (such as “Where can I find my target?”), only questions that select one of several obvious possibilities. This Contract cannot cause anything otherwise impossible to occur and cannot predict anything with odds of less than one in 100. During the next day, the changeling will experience a single incidence of bad luck — being cut off by a clumsy pedestrian while chasing someone, having an expensive suit of clothing ruined by being splashed by a passing car or having a cell phone run out of power at an inopportune time. This bad luck is never life threatening, merely distressing and inconvenient. At worst, an incident of bad luck will do two or three points of bashing damage to the character.
• Exceptional Success: The character makes an unusually accurate guess, winning $50 at the lottery, guessing the next two turns that someone fleeing will make.

Shooter’s Bargain

The changeling can bless a ranged weapon such as a bow, crossbow or gun so that two of the next three shots fired will be exceptionally accurate. However, one of these three (chosen by the Storyteller and unknown to the player or character) will automatically be a chance roll. (CtL 164)

• Cost: 1 Glamour
• Dice Pool: Dexterity + Wyrd
• Action: Instant
• Catch: The character is fighting a duel or some other combat that has been agreed upon in advance by both sides.

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The changeling pays the Contract’s price but gains no benefit.
• Failure: The blessing fails, and the weapon is unaffected.
• Success: The character blesses a specific weapon so that two of the next three shots it makes hit with unusual accuracy. Each success reduces one die of ranged combat penalties normally due to the target’s distance (range penalties), position (such as being prone), size (for very small targets) or environmental factors such as darkness, snow, cover penalties or anything else that doesn’t directly work directly upon the changeling. However, one of the next three shots is cursed and will instead automatically be a chance roll. Neither the blessings nor the curse affects shots that are not made with the intent of hitting the target or where the gun fires blanks.
• Exceptional Success: Beyond greatly reducing the penalties to ranged attacks, no further bonus is gained.

Sight of Truth and Lies

The changeling can automatically tell truth from lies, but while doing so, he must tell the truth. If he lies while using this Contract, he becomes temporarily incapable of telling truth from lies. (RoS 114)

• Cost: 1 Glamour
• Dice Pool: Subterfuge + Wyrd
• Action: Instant
• Catch: The changeling uses this Contract at an official occasion, such as a trial or a formal gathering of the leaders of the local freehold.

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: For the remainder of the scene, the changeling automatically believes all lies that are not immediately and obviously false.
• Failure: The Contract fails, and the changeling is left with his natural ability to tell truth from falsehood.
• Success: The character can automatically tell any lie spoken in his presence. He doesn’t know what the truth is, merely that any lie he hears is not true. The character can use this ability for one full scene. However, while doing so, the character must speak the truth at times during this scene. The character can remain silent, but any statement he makes must be true to the best of the character’s knowledge; he also cannot knowingly exaggerate. If the character lies for any reason, even a minor lie such as telling someone that her hideously garish shirt actually looks nice on her, then he becomes completely unable to tell truth from falsehood for the remainder of the scene. As long as a statement is not obviously false, such as someone claiming that it is nighttime when the character is standing under a hot noonday sun, the character is certain that the person is telling the truth and also that the statement itself is true, even if the statement is an obvious exaggeration to everyone else present. The character’s ability to tell truth from falsehood applies only in person or in two-way verbal conversations such as phone calls.

When hearing and telling lies, statements that the person honestly believes to be true are never considered lies, even if the statement is actually false. For this Contract, the ultimate definition of truth or falsehood is whether or not the person saying the statement believes it is true or not.

• Exceptional Success: The character can also tell truth from falsehood in recorded media such as television shows or in print.

•• Dot Contracts

Calling the Guardian

The character calls up a semi-animate force to protect him. It will protect the character from the next attempt to attack him in hand-to-hand combat. However, the guardian summoned by this Contract cannot differentiate between a dangerous attack and an accidental but forceful shove or any other equally harmless gesture.

• Cost: 2 Glamour
• Dice Pool: Dexterity + Wyrd
• Action: Instant
• Catch: The character is currently suffering from at least one point of lethal or aggravated damage due to some form of hand-to-hand attack.

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The Contract works normally, except that instead of protecting the character from attack, the force strikes the character immediately after the attack that triggers it.
• Failure: The Contract fails, and the character remains unprotected.
• Success: The character is protected from the next attempt to attack him in either armed or unarmed hand-to-hand combat. As the attacker is moving in to attack the character, just before the attacker’s blow strikes the character, the force summoned by this Contract violently shoves the attacker. This counterattack is invisible and unexpected and so cannot be dodged and ignores the attacker’s defense score. Each success rolled on this Contract does one point of bashing damage to the attacker and moves the attacker one yard away from the character. Although changelings and other supernatural beings will see the attacker being shoved out of the way by a form that becomes faintly visible as it shoves the attacker out of the way, this being is completely invisible to ordinary mortals. Mortals who observe this, including the attacker, if she is mortal, instead see the changeling swing around at the last minute before the attack and violently shove the attacker away from her. Unfortunately, the force called up by this Contract cannot distinguish between real attacks and other similar behaviors. As a result, the force treats someone friendly punching the character in the arm or touching him on the back or shoulder as an attack. This force deals with an angry lover attempting to slap the character in the face in exactly the same way the force would deal with a large bouncer forcefully throwing the character out of a bar or a psychotic mugger’s attempt to beat the character to death with a lead pipe. In ideal circumstances, this Contract can save a character’s life; in other circumstances, this Contract can get the character arrested on assault charges. Once the character uses this Contract, she has no control over whom it affects. The guardian vanishes after it protects the changeling from one hand-to-hand attack, or after 24 hours, if the character has not been attacked before this time elapses. A character cannot be protected by more than one guardian at a time. Using this Contract on a character who already has a guardian waiting to protect him dispels the first guardian. This Contract cannot be invoked during combat.
• Exceptional Success: Instead of merely acting once, the Contract remains active for a number of attacks equal to the character’s Wyrd.

Diviner’s Madness

The changeling gains an accurate image of the past or the future of some person or place. Afterwards, she temporarily goes somewhat mad. All madness lasts for one day. At the end of this time, the changeling also forgets the contents of the divination. (CtL 165)

• Cost: 1 Glamour
• Dice Pool: Wits + Wyrd
• Action: Instant
• Catch: Divining the past or the future of someone the changeling is in love with.

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The changeling gains one of the severe derangements listed below for one day.
• Failure: The changeling experiences no visions or madness.
• Success: The changeling can have a vision of the past or the future. She first declares a target, a person, place or object that she has visited, met or touched at least once. She can make herself the target. If she views the past, she can examine the target’s past with flawless clarity, seeing anything that has occurred. Each success allows the changeling to view up to one turn of time in that place in real time, beginning with the moment declared when the Contract was performed. Alternately, the character can ask a simple question about the target’s future and gain a general answer. Examples of proper questions include: “What time will Joseph Klein arrive home tonight” or “Will the North Park Strangler kill someone tonight?” (given a brief prior encounter with the Strangler). Improper questions get incoherent answers. Each success grants the changeling an answer to one question about the target’s future. Additional successes allow follow-up questions, allowing the changeling to get more specific details, such as asking if Joseph Klein will stop on his way home tonight or the exact time or location of the Strangler’s next murder. Performing this divination also causes temporary madness. If the changeling rolls three or fewer successes, she gains one of the following severe derangements: Megalomania, Multiple Personality, Paranoia or Schizophrenia. With four or more successes, she gains one of the following mild derangements: Narcissism, Irrationality, Suspicion or Vocalization. Regardless of successes rolled, this madness lasts for one full day.
• Exceptional Success: Beyond the advantages gained by rolling multiple successes, no special bonus is gained.

Fair Entrance

This Contract allows the changeling to open any door as easily as the owner, instantly disarming all alarm systems and locks. However, by using this Contract, the character ensures she will be left similarly vulnerable. The next time someone with hostile or malevolent intent tries a lock on a dwelling or vehicle regularly used by the character, the lock is open and any alarm systems fails to function. However, any cameras that passively record all who enter or leave a region will record the character. (CtL 165)

• Cost: 1 Glamour
• Dice Pool: Larceny + Wyrd
• Action: Instant
• Catch: When used to open the door to the dwelling of a personal enemy — someone who the character knows, who knows the character and who has admitted his enmity to the character.

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The changeling pays the Contract’s price but gains no benefit.
• Failure: The Contract fails to work, and the character need pay no price.
• Success: The Contract opens the desired door. If examined, the door the character opened shows signs of having been opened, and cameras or recording equipment will reveal the intrusion. Later, one of the changeling’s doors or other locks suffers the same effect. Using this Contract multiple times before the price is paid attracts people with malicious intent to the character’s dwelling and vehicle and makes attempts to break into or steal them far more likely.
• Exceptional Success: The desired door shows no trace of having been opened by the character, and any cameras or recording equipment associated with the door do not record the character’s presence.

Fool’s Gold

A common fae deceit, this Contract can make one object appear to be another by covering it with the Mask. This Contract’s most common use is to trick foolish, greedy mortals into accepting worthless dross in payment for valuable goods or services; in this day and age, however, that can be dangerous, as the Contract leaves its dupes aware of who tricked them. The Gentry like to be remembered, after all. (CtL 166)

• Cost: 1 Glamour
• Dice Pool: Manipulation + Wyrd
• Action: Instant
• Catch: The changeling uses this Contract to deceive someone who has been dishonest to or broken his word to the changeling in the past 24 hours.

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The changeling fails to conceal the object behind the Mask, and cannot attempt to use this Contract again for 24 hours.
• Failure: The changeling fails to conceal the object behind the Mask.
• Success: The changeling makes an ordinary, mundane object appear to be another object of similar size and shape. This is, specifically, granting the object an aspect of the Mask, and all the rules governing the Mask apply. A weapon cannot be made to look completely non-threatening, for example, and armor can be disguised as some less suspicious form of protective clothing (such as sports padding) but not as ordinary clothing. This Contract cannot affect anything too large for the changeling to carry comfortably. This effect is a purely psychological one on the part of mortals interacting with the object, just as the Mask covering a changeling’s mien. A dry leaf disguised as a $100 bill will look and feel exactly like a $100 bill to any mortal who interacts with it, but it will not stand up to counterfeit detection measures. Likewise, a playing card disguised as a platinum credit card will not read if swiped through a reader and does not access an actual account. Since this illusion is an effect of the Mask, ensorcelled mortals, other changelings and any other beings able to see through the Mask are automatically immune to this power. The transformative effects of this Contract last until the end of the scene. If the no longer Masked object is in the possession of a mortal or supernatural being affected by the Mask (for example, if the changeling used phantom money to pay for something), that individual develops a certainty that the changeling was somehow connected to the Masked objects.
• Exceptional Success: As an ordinary success, except that the Mask lasts until the next sunrise and witnesses do not gain a Wits + Composure roll to recognize the changeling’s involvement.

••• Dot Contracts

Burden of Life

As long as the changeling does so swiftly, he can heal someone from an injury or catastrophic event such as a heart attack. However, the healing causes the changeling to take on the burden of that person’s life. For the next full day, all damage that would harm that person applies to the changeling instead. The changeling cannot heal herself with this Contract. (CtL 166)

• Cost: 2 Glamour
• Dice Pool: Empathy + Wyrd
• Action: Instant
• Catch: The target was injured during the act of saving the character from harm.

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The changeling pays the Contract’s price but gains no benefit.
• Failure: The changeling neither heals the target nor takes on the burden.
• Success: For every success rolled, the target heals two points of damage. This Contract heals aggravated damage first, and if all of that is healed, the Contract heals lethal and then bashing damage. If the subject had taken at least four levels of lethal damage, and is healed of at least four levels of lethal or aggravated, the life burden is activated. For the next full day, all damage that the target would suffer instead affects the changeling. No armor, Contracts or other protections can prevent this damage from affecting the changeling. During this time, the target is immune to all damage save that delivered by cold iron. Self-destructive targets can swiftly kill or seriously injure the changeling. A changeling can use this Contract as often as desired, but for a day after using it, he cannot have this Contract used upon him — all such attempts automatically fail. A single target cannot benefit from this Contract more than once a day. To use this Contract, the changeling must touch the target within a number of turns of the injury or event equal to the changeling’s Wyrd.
• Exceptional Success: Regardless of severity, the target’s injuries are completely healed.

Delayed Harm

The character can avoid any single lethal or aggravated attack she can see coming. However, the next lethal or aggravated attack upon the character is worse than it normally would be. This Contract may be used after the attack is actually rolled. (CtL 167)

• Cost: 2 Glamour
• Dice Pool: Dexterity + Wyrd
• Action: Reflexive
• Catch: The character is attacked while unarmed or otherwise not immediately able to defend herself.

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The attack affects the changeling normally, but all successes on this attack roll are also added to the next attack doing lethal or aggravated damage that strikes the character.
• Failure: The Contract fails to work, and the character need pay no price.
• Success: Each success subtracts one point of damage. If sufficient successes are rolled, the changeling is unharmed. Each subtracted point of damage is then added to the next lethal or aggravated attack that injures the character. If the attack “blocked” was aggravated and the next attack suffered is lethal, the character takes two additional points of lethal damage. This Contract functions only on attacks doing lethal or aggravated damage, and cannot be used to block damage incurred from using this Contract.
• Exceptional Success: The attack fails to strike the character but is rolled anyway to determine the number of successes to be added to the next attack.

Goblin Midwife

This Contract allows the changeling to act as that go-between, blessing the subject with a temporary increase in fertility. The drawback is twofold, however. First, the child or children conceived with the aid of this Contract will bear some sort of faerie curse. Second, the character using the Contract suffers a mild backlash of twisted love; a former or current paramour develops a strong antipathy for the character. If the character using the Contract has no lovers past or present who are not already bitter and resentful towards him, then the curse will fall on the next object of his affections. He cannot use this Contract again until the curse has been expiated. (Goblin Markets 25)

• Cost: 2 Glamour + 1 Willpower
• Dice Pool: Wyrd + Empathy
• Action: Instant
• Catch: The target of the Contract has broken the changeling’s heart.

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: Something goes terribly wrong. The target may sire or bear a true monster, or suffer a terrible curse that takes effect upon seeing or holding a child.
• Failure: The Contract has no effect, though its curse on the user is still levied. It cannot be used again until the curse has been expiated.
• Success: The target and the first sexual partner the target takes after receiving this blessing are both made temporarily fertile; even a vasectomy or tubal ligation will temporarily undo itself. For the next night and a day, the target may conceive or bear a child at greatly increased odds. Pregnancy is not guaranteed, but only extreme circumstances or outright supernatural interference will prevent sexual intercourse from resulting in conception. As described above, any resulting child is born with some form of minor fae curse, and a curse of antipathy falls on the changeling using the Contract.
• Exceptional Success: The child conceived by use of this Contract is born with some minor fae boon as well as the curse. This manifests as a Merit of up to three dots; the Storyteller may choose the Merit that will eventually take hold, or allow the character to choose the blessing’s form.

•••• Dot Contracts

Good and Bad Luck

The character can make a single lucky guess, at the price of a bout of bad luck. The guess can determine which apartment in a building holds a sniper, or uncover a lottery number or computer password. However, the chance of determining the correct guess must be one in 10,000 or better — sufficient to guess four digits in a password or win approximately $500 at lottery or gambling. The bad luck is similarly impressive, striking only when it would do the worst harm. (CtL 167)

• Cost: 2 Glamour
• Dice Pool: Wits + Wyrd
• Action: Instant
• Catch: The character is using the Contract to best a single well-known rival or enemy.

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The changeling pays the Contract’s price but gains no benefit.
• Failure: The changeling finds neither good nor bad luck.
• Success: The character makes a single lucky guess with odds no greater than one in 10,000. However, the next roll he fails while under significant stress, including the physical stress of combat, the emotional stress of important social expectations or simple time pressure, automatically becomes a dramatic failure. Because of the power inherent in this Contract, only an important failed roll becomes a dramatic failure. However, this bad luck almost never waits more than a month to strike.
• Exceptional Success: The guesser can make a one in 100,000 guess, potentially winning as much as $5,000.

Call the Hunt

This dread Contract is its own price. The changeling calls a Fae hunting party. The character can only use this Contract within clear sight of an entrance into the Hedge, and the Wild Hunt emerges from that point in the Hedge. This Contract sends what seems to be a call for aid by a powerful and important Fae; when the hunting party discovers otherwise, they will certainly look into who called them. (CtL 167)

• Cost: 1 Glamour + 1 Willpower
• Dice Pool: Presence + Wyrd
• Action: Instant
• Catch: The character is actually in the Hedge.

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The hunting party hears the call but is aware that it was made by the changeling. They may come anyway, specifically to hunt the changeling who called them.
• Failure: The Contract fails, and the hunting party is not called.
• Success: The character calls the Wild Hunt, and it arrives within 10 minutes.
• Exceptional Success: The hunting party arrives the turn after the character performs this Contract.

••••• Dot Contracts

Lost and Found

This Contract allows the character to escape from almost any situation, but his current location becomes known to another enemy. (CtL 168)

• Cost: 2 Glamour
• Dice Pool: Presence + Wyrd
• Action: Instant
• Catch: The changeling is escaping a well-known enemy who has been after her personally for more than a year.

Roll Results

• Dramatic Failure: The changeling pays the Contract’s price without benefit.
• Failure: The Contract fails, and the character does not escape.
• Success: Through some coincidence, the character can escape pursuit or captivity. A distraction may draw off pursuers. The character may find her bonds are not as tight as she thought, that someone left the cell door open or keys within easy reach and her guards are asleep or busy. As long as some possible coincidence allows her to escape capture or pursuit, she automatically escapes. However, as soon as the character has escaped, another of the character’s enemies, or at minimum someone looking for her for some malevolent purpose, such as a bounty hunter or an agent of the Fae, coincidentally discovers the character’s current location.
• Exceptional Success: In addition to the escape, the character’s captors or pursuers cannot find any trace of how she escaped or where she went. These traces are still visible to the new enemy that finds her location.