Talented Improvisation
Cost: 3m Type: Reflexive
Duration: Indefinite
Keywords: Stackable
Mins: Performance 3, Essence 2 Prereqs: (Any) Performance Excellence
With but a touch, the Dragonblooded can intuit the purpose of an instrument and play it masterfully. This Charm can be used to grant the Exalt a one die specialty in any musical instrument. He may activate this Charm repeatedly, granting himself as many specialty dice as he wishes, keeping in mind that the maximum Specialty bonus to any die roll is still capped at +3. This Charm may be activated instantly, in the fraction of a second between picking up an instrument and putting it to use.
Earth Orchestra
Cost: None Type: Permanent
Duration: Permanent
Keywords: Anima, Obvious
Mins: Performance 1, Essence 1 Prereqs: None
To the musically inclined Dragonblooded, all the world is a stage and everything in it is an instrument. The character with this Charm can synchronize the environment with his performances, creating music from the natural sounds of the world around him. The patter of raindrops becomes a backbeat, the whistle of the wind becomes your pipes and the sway and creak of the trees is your string section. Even the local animal life becomes part of the orchestra, their chitters and yowls forming a vocal backup to the character’s own performances. The magic of this Charm can even silence the world, creating suitable dramatic impact on occasion.
The character never suffers environmental penalties to Performance based rolls. This Charm can also be used to justify a wide variety of stunts. If the storyteller allows the player to use it to modify other ability rolls with creative stunting, that is fantastic.
Instrumental Tuning Practice
Cost: None Type: Permanent
Duration: Permanent
Keywords: Anima
Mins: Performance 3, Essence 2 Prereqs: Earth Orchestra
The Dragonblooded learns to infuse his anima into any instrument which he is familiar. This smooths out the imperfections, perfectly tuning it and allowing the Dragonblooded to play physically impossible notes by manipulating it with his very Essence. The character may spend 1m to transform any Specialty dice on a relevant Performance roll with an instrument to automatic successes without needing to roll.
At Essence 5+ this Charm creates two successes per Specialty die.
Dance of Flashing Blades
Cost: 3m, 1wp Type: Reflexive
Duration: One Scene
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Illusion, Cooperative
Mins: Performance 4, Essence 3 Prereqs: Talented Improvisation
Sometimes it is important to have a fight without anyone being aware of it, even within a large crowd. This Charm is activated during a battle, usually the moment hostilities break out, but can also be activated if spectators stumble upon the conflict (or if the conflict stumbles into spectators). This Charm causes subtle shifts in the way the fight plays out, convincing everyone that those involved are just playacting and that no harm is actually being done. Whether the conflict appears buffoonish or deadly serious is a matter of the circumstances, but those affected will simply assume it’s all in good fun.
When this Charm is evoked, the Exalt rolls his Manipulation + Performance. Everyone with a Dodge MDV less than the successes rolled is under an unnatural mental influence Illusion effect to treat the battle as a bit of play-acting. Note that people may still react badly to a group of hooligans play-fighting in the streets, especially if there is property damage involved. It costs two willpower to resist the effects of this Charm. This Charm has no effect on anyone who has already Joined Battle this scene, and the effect instantly ends for an individual who is attacked.
Normally, this Charm can affect a group of combatants whose combined magnitude does not exceed one. However, if multiple Dragonblooded use this Charm at the same time the Magnitude of the conflict that can be concealed increases by one for each additional Dragonblooded. However, this is difficult: each Dragonblooded in the group activating this Charm rolls to activate it, and use the LOWEST die roll of any of them to see whether the illusion works on an individual or not.
Stumbling Clown Attack
Cost: 4m (+1wp) Type: Supplemental
Duration: Instant
Keywords: Combo-Basic, Illusion
Mins: Performance 5, Essence 3 Prereqs: Dance of Flashing Blades
This Charm allows a character to make an attack on someone in full view of any number of witnesses without anyone (potentially even the target!) being the wiser. To use this Charm, the character must be able to make an attack with his chosen weapon, making it a little hard to explain why you are walking around carrying a drawn daiklave. For this reason, this Charm is most often used with hand-to-hand or easily concealable weapons. Normally this Charm involves literally stumbling into the target (in an absent-minded, drunken or friendly manner) to conceal the attack but it can also be used with friendly gestures or even intimate moments. Either way the character must touch the person to be attacked.
Anybody who witnesses the attack and has a Dodge MDV of less than the Dragonblooded’s Manipulation + Essence is fooled into thinking no attack occurred. The magic of this Charm is such that if the Dragonblooded kills his target with one strike the Illusion persists until someone attempts to rouse the target, who appears merely unusually laconic and sleepy until then. Resisting this Charm without interacting with the target costs two Willpower.
If the target of the attack has a Dodge MDV less than the Dragonblooded’s Manipulation + Essence treat this as an Unexpected Attack. If the attack does damage but fails to kill the target the target is instantly aware of what happened and who attacked him. If the attack fails to do damage (either because it flat out missed or just didn’t penetrate the opponents soak to do health levels of damage) the Dragonblooded may spend an additional 1wp above the 4m base cost to convince even the target that no attack was made.
Virtue Inflaming Oration
Cost: 5m Type: Simple
Duration: One Scene
Keywords: Emotion, Social, Elemental
Mins: Performance 3, Essence 2 Prereqs: (Any) Performance Excellence
Every living thing within Creation carries within it a bit of the five elements, as expressed through their Virtues, the principles of which serve as the social underpinning of Creation much like the Elemental Poles serve as the physical. This Charm inflames that spark within, bringing the elemental (and associated Virtue) more to the fore.
Treat this Charm as a social attack which is Unblockable against everyone within the range of the character’s voice. Anyone who is affected find that they are filled with passionate energy aligned towards one of their Virtues. The exact effects depend on the Exalt’s Aspect. Fire aspects bring Valor to the forefront, Air aspects inflame Conviction, Wood aspects inflame Compassion and Water aspects inflame Temperance. Earth aspects have special conditions, mentioned below.
For the duration of this Charm, treat the targeted Virtue as if it was one point higher, even if it raises the Virtue above 5. Characters also receive one “free” Virtue channel in the affected Virtue which they can use anytime during this scene. The free virtue channel does not cost a Willpower to use and doesn’t use up one of the character’s normal Virtue Channels. While under the effects of this Charm, the character always fails at Virtue rolls for the purpose of checking to see if he can ignore the targeted Virtue, even if his Virtue rating is normally only one or two.
Earth Aspects inflame Willpower rather than a Virtue. When this Charm is activated by an Earth Aspect, everybody who is affected immediately gains one Willpower point, even if this raises them above their maximum Willpower rating. However, this Charm dulls passions rather than inflaming them as usual. Treat all Virtue Channels as having one less die for the rest of the scene.
The same character cannot benefit from this Charm more than once per day.
Protective Performance
Cost: 3m, 1wp Type: Simple
Duration: One Scene
Keywords: Cooperative
Mins: Performance 4, Essence 3 Prereqs: Virtue Inflaming Oration
By playing pipes, banging drums or simply chanting litanies in the names of the Five Elemental Dragons the Exalt protects a social group from magical influence. This Charm can affect a social or military unit of which the Dragonblooded is a member up to magnitude 1. This Charm effectively raises the Essence rating of all beings in the group by one for the purposes of resisting any Charm or magical effect.
If used cooperatively the maximum size of the unit that can be affected is equal to the total number of Dragonblooded evoking this Charm. In War a unit affected by this Charm has its Might increase by one, up to a maximum of 3.
Chorus of Droning Voices
Cost: 4m (+1wp) Type: Simple (speed 5 long ticks, -3MDV)
Duration: One Action
Keywords: Cooperative, Emotion
Mins: Performance 4, Essence 3 Prereqs: Virtue Inflaming Oration
From inflaming passions to suppressing them, this Charm drains those who are subject to it of the ability to resist. The Dragonblooded raises his voice or instrument in a simple, wordless tune that echoes across the landscape strangely and makes it hard for anyone who can hear it to concentrate. Those exposed to this Charm for extended periods describe whispering voices that fill their heads with depressing and dark images.
To activate this Charm, the character must spend 4m and 1wp, but each action thereafter he can renew the Charm for the cost of only 4m. For the duration of any actions during which this Charm is active, the cost to resist any Unnatural Mental Influence for everyone is increased by one Willpower (this includes the user!). Each additional Dragonblooded that activates this Charm at the same time increases the cost to resist all unnatural mental influence by one Willpower, but no more than five Dragonblooded may evoke this Charm at the same time. Also, if any Dragonblooded fails to renew the Charm on each action, the droning is broken and each remaining Exalt must spend the 1wp surcharge as if they were activating this Charm for the first time.
This Charm has no effect on magical beings whose permanent Essence equals or exceeds the user’s Essence.