DBSInfernalExalted/Awareness

Awareness Charms

The theme for Infernals’ Awareness Charms is synesthesia, and the perception of imperceptible things.

Green Song Meditation

• Cost: 2 motes
• Duration: One scene
• Type: Simple
• Minimum Awareness: 3
• Minimum Essence: 2
• Prerequisite Charms: None

The Infernal skews her senses and binds one to another - she may be able to hear anything she sees or taste anything she touches. The Infernal chooses one sense to be subservient - that sense does not function normally, but will work perfectly when another picks something up. For example, the Infernal may choose sight to be subservient to smell. For the duration of the Charm, the Infernal is struck blind, but will see anything she can smell perfectly well. This Charm affects only the five senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch.

Transparent Touch Method

• Cost: 3 motes
• Duration: Indefinite
• Type: Simple
• Minimum Awareness: 4
• Minimum Essence: 3
• Prerequisite Charms: Green Song Meditation

This Charm functions as Green Song Meditation, with the following exceptions: the effects last for as long as the Essence is committed to the Charm, and it may be used upon another. The Infernal may make an unarmed attack upon another as part of the activation of this Charm; should the attack hit, the Charm is effective. This Charm is explicitly allowed to be part of a Combo with Charms of other Abilities, and is treated as having a duration of ‘Instant’ in this regard.

Screeching Scarlet Pendulum

• Cost: 3 motes
• Duration: One scene
• Type: Simple
• Minimum Awareness: 3
• Minimum Essence: 3
• Prerequisite Charms: Green Song Meditation

With use of this Charm, the Infernal listens for the almost imperceptible sound of mortality - the heartbeat. The Exalt can hear any heartbeat within 100 yards as though she were next to it, and has perfect reckoning for their location. All mortal creatures (including Exalted) have heartbeats, as do elementals and demons (although they have quite different hearts). The undead, spirits, many automata and Fair Folk do not. With a successful Perception + Awareness check against a difficulty of 3, the Infernal can tell what kind of creature a heartbeat belongs to. For the purposes of Green Song Meditation, this Charm is a form of hearing.

Feels Like Lice

• Cost: 3 motes
• Duration: One scene
• Type: Simple
• Minimum Awareness: 3
• Minimum Essence: 3
• Prerequisite Charms: Green Song Meditation

As the Infernal activates this Charm, she feels every person crawling across the back of Creation, and their every footfall. Any creature walking within 100 yards of the Infernal is instantly noticed by her, and she has an immaculate sense of where they trod. Flying creatures (provided they do not touch the earth) and immaterial creatures are not detected by this Charm, and the ability to use one of these methods of transport can be used to baffle the Infernal. Finally, the Exalt knows the weight of every footfall, and can tell how many legs a creature has, and its approximate size, with a successful Perception + Awareness check against a difficulty of 3. For the purposes of Green Song Meditation, this Charm is a form of touch.

Sweet Old Spice

• Cost: 3 motes
• Duration: One scene
• Type: Simple
• Minimum Awareness: 3
• Minimum Essence: 3
• Prerequisite Charms: Green Song Meditation

An Infernal using this Charm can taste the familiar flavour of corruption. Provided she can sample a little of the thing in question, or at least lick it, she may attempt to deduce the degree to which a person, foodstuff or object is blighted. People have a ‘corruption score’ equal to their highest Sin, or (6 - their highest Virtue). Foodstuffs have a score of 1 if exceptionally well prepared, 2 if normal, 3 if past their best, 4 if poisoned or diseased and 5 if tainted by a truly hideous ailment. Objects have a score comparable to their state of repair or disrepair, where 1 is immaculately new, and 5 is about to fall apart. With a successful Perception + Awareness check against difficulty 3, the Infernal may deduce what corruption is present and where it lies; this allows her to know the scores of all of a person’s Virtues, Virtue Flaws, and Sins; what poison or blight is present in a foodstuff; where faults lie in an object. An Infernal may sample a person’s blood to detect poisons and disease as though they were a foodstuff, or taste their flesh to know where their wounds are as though they were an object, but only one form of the Charm may be used in any given turn. For the purposes of Green Song Meditation, this Charm is a form of taste.

Most Raw Odour

• Cost: 3 motes
• Duration: One scene
• Type: Simple
• Minimum Awareness: 3
• Minimum Essence: 3
• Prerequisite Charms: Green Song Meditation

The Infernal attunes her sense of smell to sense Essence itself. She may pick up the distinct tang of magical beings (including Exalted) from a yard away, the use of Charms or an activated Caste Mark from 10 yards away, the use of Terrestrial or Celestial sorcery (or comparable necromancy) and anima banners from 100 yards away, and the use of Solar Circle sorcery, Void Circle necromancy and iconic anima banners from a mile away. Other strong odours and conditions that would block scents may reduce these distances, at the Storyteller’s discretion. With a successful Perception + Awareness check against a difficulty of 3, the Infernal may pick up enough subtleties to determine what kind of Essence is present. If Personal Essence was used for the Charm or Sorcery, the scent is bland and unreadable. If Peripheral Essence was used, the Infernal knows what kind of Exalt or magical being used it. Activated Caste Marks and anima banners reveal what kind of Exalt possesses them in a similar manner. Charms of other creatures used by Eclipse and Moonshadow Caste Exalted, as well as Infernals using Essence-cloaking Charms, smell of the kind of Essence they are emulating! For the purposes of Green Song Meditation, this Charm is a form of smell.

Eyes of Boiling Oil

• Cost: 3 motes
• Duration: One scene
• Type: Simple
• Minimum Awareness: 3
• Minimum Essence: 3
• Prerequisite Charms: Green Song Meditation

As this Charm is activated, the fierce overtones of heat wash across the Infernal’s vision. Although too vague to give away fine details, this allows the Exalt to sense people through thin walls and in pitch blackness, or to see the workings of machinery. In addition to the obvious benefits of this, the Infernal suffers no penalty to her attacks owing to poor vision, provided she can see the target’s heat signature. Automata are either completely unaffected or extremely susceptible to this sight (possibly even showing their weak points), dependant on their construction and the Storyteller’s discretion. Elementals, spirits, demons, Fair Folk and other magical beings may not be traceable by heat, but acute cold is just as visible to this Charm. With a successful Perception + Awareness check against a difficulty of 3, the Infernal may pick up rudimentary details about someone whom they can only trace by heat - approximate size and shape, the armour or clothing they are wearing, and similar details. For the purposes of Green Song Meditation, this Charm is a form of sight.

Thousand Shells Acuity

• Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
• Duration: One scene
• Type: Simple
• Minimum Awareness: 5
• Minimum Essence: 3
• Prerequisite Charms: Most Raw Odour, Eyes of Boiling Oil, Feels Like Lice, Sweet Old Spice, Screeching Scarlet Pendulum

Whilst a single insect is almost oblivious, a swarm is acutely aware of its surroundings. The Infernal’s senses ring together in immaculate concert, each feeding off another to enrich her senses far beyond mortal limits. Anything the Infernal can sense is scrutinised as though she got a number of successes on a Perception + Awareness or Perception + Investigation roll equal to her Essence score. If she studies a particular object further, she may roll her Awareness and add the resultant successes. She may not be surprised.

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Fixed your header problem - I like these too... but Deathknights are specifically noted as needing to breath and eat and such, and count usually as living beings. It's never stated, but I -think- they have a heartbeat. Of course, there's almost certainly a charm that means it stops, maybe the same charm that eliminates the need for breath. Thought you should know.
-- Darloth

Rectificated! Thanks for pointing that out; the Charm has been altered accordingly...DeathBySurfeit