Goblin Merits

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Revision as of 15:55, 22 April 2016

Some Market vendors offer bits of destiny, twists of fate and tattered souls. These allow the buyer to take on some aspect of another person’s life or fate. Remember that singer who was cut down before her prime? You can buy her hard-earned skill. That banker who committed suicide just before his investments paid off? You can purchase his wealth. These fates already exist for the taking; they only cost you a fraction of the potential you would have squandered earning them for yourself. These come in two flavors: Second-Hand Skills and Goblin Merits.

These rare and delicate fates serve as a favored shortcut for those Lost fortunate enough to find them. Each represents a person cut suddenly from the skein of fate who left assets or connections that are still tied to him. Perhaps a business mogul kept an investment portfolio under a false name and it has remained open and productive even after his death. Perhaps news of the disappearance of a well-connected drug lord hasn’t filtered down to every name in his Rolodex. Whatever the case, these loose ends in the tapestry of fate are just waiting for an ambitious Lost to take advantage of them.

Goblin Merits can represent any non-supernatural Merit. They cost half the usual experience price for Merits. Once purchased, the character may, once per chapter, spend 1 Glamour to access the Merit for the scene. The character slips on the borrowed fate like a costume. Any individuals or groups represented by the Goblin Merit perceive the character to be the original owner of the second-hand destiny. The Merit even allows the character to correctly provide passwords or bypass similar security measures.

Drawback

Unfortunately, Goblin Merits are a corruption of fate, and fate can be a fickle bitch. The 10-again rule never applies to any roll to use a Goblin Merit, or any roll aided by or permitted by a Goblin Merit.

The vast majority of Goblin Merits available at market represent the connection between a second-hand fate and a group or institution. Allies, Contacts, Mentor, Resources, Retainer and Status (in mundane groups only) are the most common and cheapest available. These cost no more than the halved experience (and possibly a small additional finder’s fee on the vendor’s part). Other Merits represent talents, knowledge or more ineffable aspects of an individual and are commensurately more expensive. In addition to the experience cost of the Goblin Merit, they carry a value (see p. 28) equal to the rating of the Merit. The sublime beauty of a shy waitress from the suburbs who never understood the effect she had on men, for example, can be quite expensive.

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