Contracts of Shade and Spirit

At some point in the past, the Gentry apparently bargained even with Death itself. While changelings may not have access to the great boons of immortality and unaging eternity granted to the True Fae, changelings can access lesser boons agreed upon between fae and death.

## Ghostly Presence (•)

The dead are among us, unseen and unheard by the living. This clause allows the changeling to see, hear and speak to any ghosts in her area (same room, or conversational distance outside) in Twilight for a scene.

* **Cost**: 1 Glamour
* **Dice Pool**: Presence + Wyrd
* **Action**: Instant
* **Catch**: The ghost is someone the changeling knew in life, or the changeling is a Gravewight.

Roll Results

* Dramatic Failure: The clause fails, but the changeling thinks she is talking to a ghost and holds a conversation with empty air.
* Failure: The changeling cannot see or speak to the ghosts.
* Success: The changeling sees, hears and can speak to ghosts in the area as if they were living.
* Exceptional Success: The nearest other living individual is also affected by the clause — whether the changeling wants him to be or not.

## Dread Companion (••)

Normally the dead are barred from any interaction with the living. This clause thins that barrier. With Dread Companion, a ghost is given the ability to affect one sense (sight, touch, hearing) of everyone participating in the clause for one scene. If Dread Companion is cast indoors, everyone in a single room is susceptible to the clause; if the clause is cast outside, everyone within sight of the changeling using the clause is affected.

* **Cost**: 1 Glamour
* **Dice Pool**: Manipulation + Wyrd
* **Action**: Instant
* **Catch**: The changeling presses a drop of her own blood to the forehead of everyone participating in the clause.

Roll Results

* Dramatic Failure: Instead of giving the ghost the power to interact with the living, a minor, malicious spirit gains the freedom of sensory interaction for the scene. The spirit will act in as cruel and vicious manner it can, with the sense available, for the duration of the scene.
* Failure: The ghost is unable to interact.
* Success: The ghost is able to interact with the living for the scene.
* Exceptional Success: The ghost can be seen as well as whatever other sense has been selected. If sight was the chosen sense, then touch is the one added for free.

## Haunting Intercession (•••)

There are those who desperately wish for one more night with the departed: enemies seeking final vengeance or forgiveness, lovers hoping for one more embrace, mothers who did not get a chance to say goodbye to their sons. A changeling who invokes this clause gives a ghost one more chance to speak and be seen by the living.

* **Cost**: 1 Glamour
* **Dice Pool**: Manipulation + Wyrd
* **Action**: Extended (one success per target)
* **Catch**: The changeling has set up a “dead supper”: a complete meal served on never-used plates and silver, with a place for everyone who wishes to participate in the intercession, including the ghost.

Roll Results

* Dramatic Failure: The ghost is not made manifest to the living; severe poltergeist activity is generated instead. For the duration of the scene, the location is full of loud roaring noises and horrible smells, hair and clothing are pulled and the like. The dishes are thrown and shattered; fragile objects are particularly subject to the poltergeist activity.
* Failure: The ghost is not made manifest.
* Success: The ghost materializes fully for the scene. The ghost can be interacted with as if it were alive, from conversation to lovemaking to violence.
* Exceptional Success: The ghost remains material from sunrise to sunset, able to move freely and interact with whomever the ghost chooses.

## Waking the Dead (••••)

The dead tell no tales. Most of the time. Invoking this clause allows the changeling to call up a non-sentient echo of the dead and communicate with it. This ghostly shadow is not a true ghost but an echo without self-awareness or intelligence; the echo fades at the end of the scene.

* **Cost**: 2 Glamour
* **Dice Pool**: Strength + Wyrd
* **Action**: Extended (one roll per turn, target is four)
* **Catch**: The changeling “feeds” the shade by wounding herself and offering her blood, taking one point of bashing damage per question.

Roll Results

* Dramatic Failure: The information provided is incomplete or incorrect in some significant way that is not immediately obvious to the changeling.
* Failure: No shade appears.
* Success: The shade appears, as if standing on top of its grave and will answer one question per success precisely and honestly. The shade will not provide any information beyond what is requested.
* Exceptional Success: The shade will provide any important additional information that the changeling might not have known to ask for, or knew she needed.

## Opening the Black Gate (•••••)

There is a barrier between the living and the dead, which can only be crossed at great risk. This clause creates a doorway between the mortal world and the Underworld. This passage cannot be created in the Hedge, or Arcadia; attempts to do so are quite likely to draw the attention of the Gentry.

* **Cost**: 2 Glamour, 1 Willpower
* **Dice Pool**: Stamina + Wyrd
* **Action**: Extended (five successes; each roll represents one turn)
* **Catch**: The clause is invoked at midnight in a mausoleum, and the changeling invokes the laws of hospitality while the clause is in effect.

Roll Results

* Dramatic Failure: The passage is one-way. Those who take it will be trapped on the wrong side. The living can only pass to the Underworld — but not back — and the dead can only enter the mortal world, not return.
* Failure: No passage is created.
* Success: A passage, the size of a normal door, is created between the land of the dead and the world of the living for one night. When the sun first breaks the horizon in the mortal world, the door shuts forever, and those on the wrong side of it will be trapped unless they find, or make, another exit.
* Exceptional Success: The passage lasts for a lunar month. The dead and living can cross over in this location for as long as the location remains intact. If a changeling has used the catch to invoke this clause, she has to maintain the laws of hospitality only for that first night. The changeling has no mystical control over who uses this door; she can only control access in the usual fashion, by guarding it, locking it, bricking it up, etc.

1. ↑ Changeling: Winter Masques (p. 26-27)