Alienation and Dread Powers

## Merit: Alienation (\*\*\*)

Alienation is the power of some beings to operate alien technology, depending on what internal conflicts they have. The general rules for aliens are:

An alien rolls Integrity for all dice pools related to its Dread Powers, unless another dice pool could reasonably apply (such as Dexterity+Firearms for a ray gun or Intelligence+Science for a scanner). If another dice pool applies, use the lower. In addition, all aliens treat their Integrity as Potency and use it for Clash of Wills rolls.

What counts as a breaking point for an alien is very different from what counts as a breaking point for a human. Aliens do not suffer breaking points for witnessing the supernatural, and some do not suffer breaking points for cruelty. Instead, each alien has a few Instincts: behaviors that are noticeably inhuman. Acting counter to an Instinct, or watching someone else take an action that would be counter to an Instinct, is a breaking point for an alien.

Aliens take a penalty to most Social skill or attribute rolls equal to Integrity.

## New Dread Powers

### Change Loadout (\*\*+)

**Cost:** 1 Willpower.

**Dice Pool:** This action is not rolled.

This represents a variable pool of Dread Powers. With a scene to itself, the monster may instantly purchase any group of Dread Powers with a total sum of dots less than Change Loadout. Doing so causes the monster to lose any powers previously purchased with Change Loadout.

A variation on Change Loadout costs an extra dot, but changes the time needed to an instant action.

*Example: John, a mad scientist, has just barely escaped from the Cable Street Regulars. Worse, they broke his favorite micro-machine hive. Running into his lab (represented by four dots of Change Loadout), he whips up a hand-sized railgun (represented by three dots of Dread Attack). He's ready to show those fools now.*

### Chaotic Mind (\*-\*\*\*\*\*)

**Cost:** None.

**Dice Pool:** None.

The monster behaves in unpredictable ways, and hunters have difficulty keeping up. Any attempt to predict the monster's actions, unravel its plans, or understand its motivations takes a penalty equal to Chaotic Mind. Effects that read another person's mind directly, such as the Mind of a Madman Merit or the Someone Else's Sandals Elixir, bypass this Dread Power.

### Create Talisman (\*-\*\*\*\*\*)

**Cost:** Variable, see text.

**Dice Pool:** This power is not rolled.

The monster is able to imbue its Dread Powers into talismans, which may be used by anyone, subject to conditions set when this Dread Power is chosen. Each talisman has a pool of Willpower to power it (Create Talisman costs one Willpower per dot of the Dread Power imbued, plus the amount stored in the talisman), and may be imbued with any Dread Power with a rating equal to or less than the monster's rating in Create Talisman.

A monster may also mark a Dread Power as equipment-dependent. An equipment-dependent Dread Power *cannot* be used without an appropriate talisman, but costs one less, to a minimum of 1.

*Examples: Lady Greenblossom of the Spring needs to know who is plotting against her. Using her two dots of Create Talisman, she imbues two (out of four) dots of New Face and four points of Willpower into a mask, which she gives to her spy. This costs six Willpower, but hopefully finding out the cell's names will be worth it.*

### Domain Rules (\*-\*\*\*\*\* \*\*\*\*\*)

**Cost:** None.

**Dice Pool:** None.

The monster passively creates a bubble of reality about 30 yards wide that follows different natural laws. At one dot, this might be a change in the way color is perceived or erasing a specific musical note from existence. At five dots, it likely turns reality into something unrecognizable; one plus one might equal the imaginary unit or fish, or carbon and phosphorus might exchange chemical properties. At higher ratings, the Domain Rules might become contagious or the monster might be able to simply rewrite reality. Any action a hunter takes that would be affected by the Domain Rules suffers a penalty equal to the rating of the Dread Power. If the Domain Rules endanger the ability of a character or object to exist, the subject suffers the effects of a lethal poison with Toxicity equal to Domain Rules; objects resist this with Hardness.

*Example: A distortion in reality shifts the order of natural numbers around. Luckily for the Helheim Angels, the killer robot they're running from can be lured into the distortion, which quickly scrambles its code. Unfortunately, one of their Tactics relies on carefully measured steps, and the robot's inventor is no more vulnerable to reordered numbers than they are.*

### Dread Conveyance (\*\*\*)

**Cost:** 1 Willpower

**Dice Pool:** Intelligence+Drive

The monster is able to summon a vehicle that can move itself and whatever cargoes and passengers it wishes in any direction, at a speed of roughly 10 MPH per success.

### Dread Retaliation (\*\*)

**Cost:** None. The damage taken pays the cost.

**Dice Pool:** None, but this power allows an attack.

When damaged, the monster may immediately make a lethal attack against anyone and anything it can reach with a dice pool equal to the damage inflicted, changing wound penalties to bonuses.

*Example: Stan's Skinheads have got the Nazi mutant cornered. Stan slashes at it with his knife, inflicting three levels of damage. Unfortunately for him, the mutant bleeds acid and it splatters all over the cell, inflicting a three-die lethal attack on them.*

### Plans Within Plans (\*-\*\*\*\*\*)

**Cost:** 3 Willpower

**Dice Pool:** Intelligence+(appropriate Skill)

The monster can instantly formulate plans beyond mortal comprehension. The monster's player states a goal appropriate to the dot rating of Plans Within Plans (one dot might allow arranging for a specific person to be in a specific place, while five dots might allow for sparking a civil war within a Conspiracy). On a Success or Exceptional Success, the monster creates a list of tasks equal to the number of dots needed, each of which is itself one dot lower (further reduced by one for each success past three) though this cannot reduce a task below one dot; if the monster accomplishes each task, the goal will happen.

This Dread Power can duplicate the effects of successful Social Maneuvering, but cannot actually compel someone to act. A person who would take an action as a result of Plans Within Plans may accept a Condition to do otherwise.

Plans Within Plans may be used recursively (but no more than once per scene), treating a task as a goal in itself.

A task generated by Plans Within Plans will eventually go "stale" as the situation changes, based on the task's rating.

 2
 3
 4
 5
 6+

*\*At the end of the interval, roll Wits+(Skill). If the number of successes is less than the number of intervals that have passed, the task expires.*

Once a task has expired, the monster may attempt to replace it by spending one Willpower point and rolling Resolve+(Skill). On a Success, the new task is one dot higher. On an Exceptional Success, it has the same rating.

*Example:Prince Tybalt has centuries of experience with politics, and connections that would seem impossible are obvious to him. He decides that he wants one of his rivals to stake another to an East-facing wall, a three-dot goal. He scores four successes on his Intelligence+Politics roll, and finds that he can do this by: arranging for the second rival to have a mortal pawn present when the first's gang is making a deal (one dot), killing five people at a specific place and time (two dots), and successfully hiding his involvement for an entire month (two dots). If he can manage this, the results will be the same as if he had used Social Maneuvering to convince his rival.*