Revision as of 08:08, 5 April 2010

Gothic Lolita Investigation Tree

• Investigation Insight of the Lolita (1/1)
  • Confusing Lolita Investigation (2/2)
    • Imposition of First Impressions Technique (3/2)
    • Absolute Lolita Investigation (3/3)
      • Persistent Loli Investigation Augmentation (4/4)
  • Perception of Truth Method (2/1)
    • Nerve-Wracking Interrogation Assault (4/2)
      • Cold Eyes of Agonic Torture Style (5/3)
  • Spark of Sudden Thoughts (3/1)
    • Voices from the Past (4/2)
      • Gothic Lolita Clairvoyance Method (5/3)
    • Dream Walker Style (3/3)
      • Dream Weaver Style (5/3)
        • Reality Revision: Walking on the Palm of the Loli (6/6)

Imposition of First Impressions Technique

• Cost: 6 motes
• Duration: One scene/(Moe) days
• Type: Re-Useless
• Minimum Investigation: 3
• Minimum Moe: 2
• Prerequisite Charms: Confusing Lolita Investigation

The Lolita’s angsty Moe corrodes the minds of others, planting the seed of mistrust and wariness in them. The Lolita first chooses a target, rolling Manipulation + Investigation at a difficulty equal to the target’s Moe. If she succeeds, the Charms effects take place as follows: when the victim arrives to a crime scene or interacts with government or private investigators, the target will be instantly mistrusted and seen as suspicious, people will refuse to answer his questions, his suggestions and comments will be ignored, and the slightest slip will automatically label him as a criminal and/or potential culprit or accomplice. The lack of cooperation increases the difficulty of the victim’s Investigation rolls by his own Moe.

The Lolita can instead choose to use this Charm on herself. In this case the Charm works exactly as the Bishonen Charm Aura of Authority.

Finally, the Lolita can choose to use this Charm not on subjects but on objects and places. She spreads her Moe through the place, wrapping it in a veil of illusion that conceals evidence and makes things look differently. This increases the difficulty of all rolls to find and interpret evidence by the Lolita’s Moe for the same number of days. This effect can be pierced by magic that unravels illusions or reveals active flows of Moe in a place.

Perception of Truth Method

• Cost: 4 motes
• Duration: One scene
• Type: Re-Useless
• Minimum Investigation: 2
• Minimum Moe: 1
• Prerequisite Charms: Investigation Insight of the Lolita

There are few actions more stupid than lying to a Gothic Lolita. Lolitas see all truths, for lying is their art. This Charm allows the character to recognize all deliberate lies presented to her. The character can also recognize the deliberate use of half-truths, though doing so does not tell her which part of the statement is true. If another Charm contests these effects, add the character’s Moe in automatic successes to the (Perception + Investigation) roll to oppose the other Charm.

Nerve-Wracking Interrogation Assault

• Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
• Duration: One scene
• Type: Speech
• Minimum Investigation: 4
• Minimum Moe: 2
• Prerequisite Charms: Perception of Truth Method

When the Gothic Lolita asks a question, it must be answered. No matter how dangerous or embarrassing the answer might be, it’s probably better what will happen if the Lolita doesn’t get the answer she wants. With this Charm, a Lolita inflicts terrible pain on anyone who disrespectfully answers her questions with lies or silence. This Charm only affects targets whose Willpower + Moe is less than the Lolita’s Manipulation + Investigation. The player of the affected character must reflexively roll Willpower against a difficulty of the Lolita’s permanent Moe whenever he attempts to lie or withhold relevant information. If the roll succeeds, the character can answer or remain silent as he wishes, although the Exalt can repeat the question on the following turn if she’s dissatisfied with the response. If the roll fails, the victim must speak the truth or suffer one unsoakable level of bashing damage and spend the rest of the turn groaning in agony (the Lolita’s face is usually darkened, her eyes reduced to two yellow sparkles and her lips contorted in a demented smile when she’s using this Charm). This damage does not reach the Incapacitated level directly, but, instead, wraps around into lethal damage first. The Gothic Lolita may not control or lessen this damage after invoking the Charm except prematurely ending it. It is possible for victims to kill themselves with repeated lies, but it will time a long period of agony before that happens, and they are not punished for speaking falsehoods they truly believe. The Gothic Lolita can normally ask one question per turn, though complicated questions may require additional turns to phrase or answer. This Charm can only be used on a given target once per week.

Cold Eyes of Agonic Torture Technique

• Cost: 6 motes
• Duration: Instant
• Type: Speech
• Minimum Investigation: 5
• Minimum Moe: 3
• Prerequisite Charms: Nerve-Wracking Interrogation Assault

An improvement to the Nerve-Wracking Interrogation Assault and the Keepers of Shadow Lore Caste Power, Narrow-Eyes Scary Glance, this Charm allows the Lolita to inflict unimaginable pain on her victims with nothing but her ice-cold stare. The Lolita’s player makes a Conviction + Moe roll, resisted by the victim’s Willpower + Moe. For every success inflicted beyond the victim’s, the Lolita can psychically inflict one level of unsoakable bashing or lethal damage or removed a point of temporary Willpower from the victim’s pool. If so desired, the Lolita can apply fewer successes than she actually rolled. Characters reduced below zero temporary Willpower with this Charm gain a derangement chosen by the Storyteller and fall catatonic for the remainder of the scene. Wounds inflicted by this Charm take whatever forms the Gothic Lolita desires.

The Charm only affects a single restrained or willingly motionless individual within 5 yards of the Exalt, severely limiting its combat application. The Charm has no effect on characters with a higher permanent Moe than the Lolita or characters who have gained a derangement because of Willpower loss caused by this Charm.

Spark of Sudden Thoughts

• Cost: 5 motes
• Duration: Instant
• Type: Speech
• Minimum Investigation: 3
• Minimum Moe: 1
• Prerequisite Charms: Investigation Insight of the Lolita

With nothing but a glance, the Lolita can interpret evidence to mentally reconstruct the process that led to that evidence. This usually involves the Lolita making a dramatic pose as truth dawns on her and lots of camera shots from impossible places (For example, a Lolita finding a dead body may look at its wounds to determine the angle of the attack, the type of weapon used, etc. While the Lolita declares her discoveries, we see the Lolita’s face from within the victim’s insides.). Although primarily employed for forensic purposes, this Charm may just as easily reconstruct the evidence left by liaisons, panty thieves or the Boo of the North after attacking a group of “innocent” Magical Girls in a hot springs pond.

This Charm functions automatically as long as there’s abundant evidence. Where evidence is lacking (or has been disturbed), the player must instead roll Perception + Investigation at a difficulty determined by the amount of tampering. Success allows the character to reconstruct events normally.

Voices from the Past

• Cost: 8 motes
• Duration: One scene
• Type: Speech
• Minimum Investigation: 4
• Minimum Moe: 2
• Prerequisite Charms: Spark of Sudden Thoughts

By listening to the ghosts of past times, the Lolita can reconstruct events long forgotten by the living. She can reconstruct events as far in the past as her Moe (time unit). The time unit is years for Lolitas with Moe 2-4, decades to Lolitas with Moe 5-6 and centuries with Lolitas with Moe 7+. The character rolls Perception + Investigation + half her permanent Moe (rounded down) at a difficulty of the number of time units backwards between the present moment and the moment the Lolita wishes to explore (for example, if a Lolita with Moe 5 visits the lake where a group of Magical Girls were butchered while they were swimming naked a hundred years ago, the roll would be at difficulty 10. If the same Lolita had Moe 7+, the roll would be at standard difficulty).

The Lolita can only “request” to see specific moments in the past; hence this Charm won’t allow her to explore everything that happened in a particular place from a past point to the present. Also, this Charm will not work in places that have been drastically altered from their state in the time period the Lolita wishes to learn about.

Gothic Lolita Clairvoyance Method

• Cost: 10 motes
• Duration: Permanent
• Type: SpecialTheKawaiiEdition/LolitaInvestigation/Reflexive
• Minimum Investigation: 5
• Minimum Moe: 3
• Prerequisite Charms: Voices from the Past

Important or emotionally charged events leave a psychic imprint on the location and objects involved. Such imprints can last for years, or even centuries, depending on their potency. Gothic Lolitas can train themselves to gain sensitivity to these sorts of psychic impressions. Lolitas with this Charm may, by touching such a marked place or object, induce a vivid flashback of the events leading to the imprint. If the scrutinized object has multiple associations, the strongest passion usually prevails (but not always). Visions triggered by this Charm affect all senses. In effect, the character is mentally transported to the time and place of the imprinted passion. Though flashbacks only last a few seconds in reality, they can appear to take minutes or even hours depending on their content and intensity. Visions are always colored by their dominant passion. A violent murder scene will probably have a slight red tint, for example. In no case can a character take any action in a vision or even choose his vantage point.

This Charm is reflexively triggered by the Storyteller whenever the character touches an object sufficiently charged with emotional energy. However, the Lolita may choose spend the motes or not, deciding whether to experience the vision or force it aside. Flashbacks should enhance mood and move the plot forward. They should never be used frivolously or as a excuse to drain a character’s Moe.

Dream Walker Style

• Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
• Duration: Special
• Type: Speech
• Minimum Investigation: 3
• Minimum Moe: 3
• Prerequisite Charms: Spark of Sudden Thoughts

The Lolita with this Charm can invade the dreams of others and become a part of them. Within Dreamscape, people shape their deepest desires and darkest secrets, for it is the only place where they can safely explore those things. But nothing’s safe from the Gothic Lolitas, is it?

The Lolita must be within (2 x her Moe) yards from the sleeping individual to use this Charm. Then, the Lolita’s player must roll Manipulation + Investigation with a difficulty equal to the target’s Moe for his character to enter the target’s Dreamscape. Once within the Dreamscape, she becomes a part of it. She can interact with people and objects, but she cannot affect them in any way that would radically change their physical structure. This effectively negates combat within the Dreamscape. If a battle is taking place within the Dreamscape, the Lolita cannot intervene: her attacks go right through her targets’ bodies, and she is unaffected by their attacks in the same way. She is not incorporeal, thought, so she can partake in any non-harmful physical activity within the Dreamscape. She cannot use other Charms, Sorcery or Necromancy within a Dreamscape. While she’s in the Dreamscape, her body falls to a state of catatonia in the material world, hence caution is recommended when using this Charm. Her mind is effectively out of her body, so she has no awareness of what happens around her body.

In the land of dreams, the target is more susceptible to suggestion and more prone to giving away information he wouldn’t normally share with others. The Lolita gains her Moe in automatic successes to all Presence, Investigation and Bureaucracy rolls if she first succeeds on a Manipulation roll. A botch on this roll expels the Lolita from the Dreamscape, ending the Charm.

The real usefulness of this Charm relies on the fact that the target is unable to lie within the Dreamscape. He can use half-truths or remain silent, though. The Charm as long as the Lolita commits Moe to it, or until the target wakes up, whichever takes place first. She also leaves the Dreamscape if her body is harmed in the Material World in any way. The Lolita can enter the Dreamscapes of characters with higher Moe than hers, but she doesn’t get the benefit of automatic successes, and the target receives the benefit of a reflexive Willpower roll (at a difficulty of the Lolita’s Moe) to expel the Loli from his dreams whenever he’s asked a question he wouldn’t normally answer or is given a suggestion he wouldn’t normally accept.

Dream Weaver Style

• Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
• Duration: Special
• Type: Speech
• Minimum Investigation: 5
• Minimum Moe: 3
• Prerequisite Charms: Dream Walker Style

The Lolita now becomes a completely assimilated element of another character’s Dreamscape, with allows her to acts within it pretty as if she were in the material world. This follows the same rules and grants the same benefits as Dream Walker Style, with the following differences.

The Dreamscape effectively becomes the Lolita’s reality: she travels in both mind and body. Hence, she’s free to do anything she wishes, within the boundaries of the natural laws governing each particular Dreamscape (there could be Dreamscapes where gravity is stronger or weaker or Dreamscapes where fire is cold and heals and water burns like acid). The Lolita can use Charms, Sorcery and Necromancy, but she cannot use Reality Revision Charms or Charms that have a health level cost. She can also engage in combat with combat and kill creatures and characters within the Dreamscape. Check the rules for Dream Combat.

Should the Lolita be “killed” within the Dreamscape, her player must immediately make a reflexive Willpower roll at a difficulty equal to half the Dreamscape’s owner’s Moe. If the roll fails, the Lolita dies instantly and irrevocably, her lifeless body returned to the place where the Charm was invoked. If she succeeds, she’s just expelled from the Dreamscape. All wounds save for the Incapacitated level remain, though, and she also loses a point of permanent Willpower as a consequence of the mental trauma of experiencing death and the sudden shifting from one reality to another.

Reality Revision: Walking on the Palm of the Loli

• Cost: 25 motes, 2 Willpower
• Duration: Special
• Type: Speech
• Minimum Investigation: 6
• Minimum Moe: 6
• Prerequisite Charms: Dream Weaver Style

This terrifying Charm grants the Gothic Lolita absolute control over a character’s Dreamscape. Indeed, within that Dreamscape, she’s a goddess.

She gains the same benefits of Dream Weaver Style. However, while within the Dreamscape, her effective permanent Moe is increased to 10. The Moe cost of every Charm and spell she uses is halved (to a minimum cost of 1 mote), and all Willpower and health level costs are negated. She may use Reality Revision Charms and Charms with a health level cost (which is negated). Finally, she may shape the environment of the Dreamscape as she pleases, as the Dreamscape obeys her, not the victim’s subconscious. She cannot create life, but she can change the appearance and personalities of existing Dreamscape creatures and characters at will.

Should she somehow be “killed” within the Dreamscape, she returns to the material world with no consequences. In fact, she recovers all motes of Moe and health levels lost within the Dreamscape the moment the Charm ends for any reason.

Comments

Voices from the Past is very cool. Good Dream charms too --JohnBiles