CharmRelay/SubtleTheft

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Charm Relay

Subtle Theft

These are TerrestrialCharms.

Gleam In The Raven's Eye (Grandmasta) 

Cost: 1 mote per item
Duration: Instant
Type: Simple
Min. Larceny: 2
Min. Essence: 1
Prereqs: none

The foundation of thievery lies in the fact that objects have worth. The foundation of cunning thievery lies in realizing which objects are worth more than others. The use of this Charm allows the Exalt to instinctively guess the market value (legal or otherwise) of one item in view per mote spent. He may reflexively roll Wits + Larceny to determine the worth of the item in question, even if he has never seen it before. If the target item is outside the bounds of material wealth -- priceless (or worthless!) -- the Charm has no effect; the Exalt will have to put more effort into discerning its value.

Fish and Pond Theft Technique (Resplendence) 

Cost: 2 motes
Duration: Instant
Type: Supplemental
Minimum Larceny: 3
Minimum Essence: 2
Prereqs: none

Steal an object and the owner will miss it. Steal the memories of owning it along with the object and he won’t.

This Charm supplements a Larceny roll to steal an object. It requires a Manipulation + Larceny roll at a difficulty depending on the value of the stolen object. Mundane objects are at a difficulty equal to their Resources value. Artifacts are at a difficulty that is at least their Artifact rating + 3. This Charm has no effect with artifacts that are committed or have been attuned within the last day. The storyteller can add up to five to the difficulty of both artifacts and mundane items for long ownership, objects of great personal value and such. Only objects which can be easily stolen by the Dragon-Blooded herself can be affected by this Charm.

A successful roll seamlessly removes all memory of owning the object, but only from the owner and not people around him. The successes are divided among several owners though, if there are more than one. The Dragon-Blooded doesn’t have to know who the owners are. Every success requires one solid piece of evidence or session of reasoning to convince the owner of his memory lapse, but once convinced the stolen memories will gradually return over the course of a few days. Beings of higher Essence than the Dragon-Blooded are not affected by the Charm.

Ripples of the Heart Awareness (Ikselam) 

Cost: 5 motes, 1 willpower
Duration: Varies
Type: Simple
Minimum Larceny: 4
Minimum Essence: 3
Prereqs: Gleam In The Raven's Eye, Fish and Pond Theft Technique

With this Charm, a Terrestrial Exalted can perceive the eddies of emotion which swirl about treasured possessions. She can easily pick out heirlooms from collections of much more objectively valuable items, tell which belongings are most important to a person, and even judge which children are most cherished by a parent.

To activate this Charm, the character must either carefully observe a person, or one of his personal belongings. Until she withdraws the motes powering the Charm, she can gauge the emotional attachment which that person feels toward anything she looks at. People, places, and things which he loves will seem to give off a low, almost inaudible hum, and the air around them will seem dense and liquid with emotion. This impression is almost wholly tactile, and requires the character to be within (the target's Compassion) in yards before she can feel it.

This Charm only detects possessiveness; it does not convey any sense of why the target values a particular person, place, or thing. It is possible to gauge the relative level of importance various things have to the target, but not to objectively assess what he would do to protect or retrieve them.

Receding Shoreline Theft Technique

Tide-Carried Pearls Method (Resplendence) 

Cost: 8 motes, 1 Willpower
Duration: One theft
Type: Simple
Minimum Larceny: 5
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Receding Shoreline Theft Technique, Space-Crossing Theft Technique

Some of the treasures and valuables that the sea claims, it returns with the tides and waves, washing it ashore for the lucky to find. The Dragon-Blooded infuses an object with subtly alluring but deceptive and elusive Essence. The object is then very likely to inconspiciously float away on the tides of the under-world. Perhaps a thief or a disloyal servant is tempted to steal it, or maybe it’s simply lost among other objects and thrown out – the Essence tends to find a way. But the object soon slips out of his grasp and floats on via various hands to the Dragon-Blooded, who will know where it washes ashore. At no point in the theft is she directly involved. It would take a very perceptive Exalt or spirit to track the flimsy Essence flows back to the Dragon-Blooded.

The Dragon-Blooded rolls Manipulation + Larceny to infuse the target object with subtle Essence, send it drifting and snapping it up. The difficulty is equal to its Resources value (or the Artifact rating plus three, in case of artifacts). A simple theft of a small, inconspicous object the Dragon-Blooded knows by first hand experience, with no or few obstacles in a place with a widespread, active underworld adds no extra difficulty. The more obstacles to the object disappearing, the more special the object, the less the Dragon-Blooded knows and the less underworld channels it can pass through, the higher the extra difficulty. The storyteller can add up to five for such special cases, or ten or more for extraordinary cases.

If the roll is successful, the object will find its way to a place or person relatively easily accessible by the Dragon-Blooded, and she can acquire it there like any other stolen goods after a period of at least a full day, often more. If not enough successes are rolled, without the roll being a failure, the object is lost somewhere along the way. Finding it will likely be harder, but as long as the Essence stays committed, the Dragon-Blooded instinctively knows where to look for it, although she has no exact knowledge of its whereabouts. Failing or botching the roll makes the Dragon-Blooded loose contact with the object, which risks becoming irrecoverably lost, or secured out of her reach.

The Essence stays committed until the object is acquired or until it’s lost on the way. The Dragon-Blooded can decommit the Essence at any time, but the object becomes lost to her and is treated as normal stolen goods. Attuned artifacts and sentient objects cannot be stolen this way. A completely hidden, sealed away or irrecoverably lost item is unaffected by this Charm, which the Dragon-Blooded will sense within a day of trying to have it stolen.

Comments

Gleam In The Raven's Eye = very nice idea! - Nikink

On Resplendence's charm, you might want to consider using the Resource equilivalent of artifacts (Artifact +3), instead of x2. This raises the difficulty to, say, 5 for a Daiklave and scales up from there. It's slightly more forgiving for the higher level artifacts, of course (8 for a level-5), but it's slightly more in keeping with the rules for Mundane items. -- CrownedSun

Good idea, Crownie. :P *steal* Resplendence

I've actually made a few follow-up Charms to the Fish and Pond Theft Technique, to be found at DragonBloodedLarceny/Resplendence, but I'd like to see if anyone can come up with something cooler. Resplendence

Remember to list prerequisite Charms, people. _Ikselam

I think the requirements for >Ripples of the Heart Awareness are too high. It's a nice Charm, but it just enhances something you can do through mundane observation and cleverness. 7 motes and 1 WP is way too much just to learn what things a person values more than others. Larceny 5 and Essence 3 is also too high, IMO. Resplendence

The reason I made the prereqs so high is that I really don't think about DB Charms enough to have a good instinctive understanding of what their costs and requirements should be. So my rule of thumb is, "like Solar Charms, but less effective and overpriced." I changed it around a bit; see if you're more comfortable with it now. _Ikselam
DB Charms are actually more effective (see E:DB 177), like with the one mote per two dice added for instance. They are not as powerful, except when it comes to elemental effects and group effects. An unwritten rule is also that DB Charms are very flexible and easily reach outside the Ability they're in - an effect of the Aspect monopoly on Charms for a certain Ability, I assume. Anyway, personally I'd lower the cost and requirements of your Charm to just above mine, but it's definitely better now. Resplendence

"Receding Shoreline Theft Technique" is a great name for a Charm. The effect is unusual but useful; I am not sure about the cost, though. _Ikselam

Receding Shoreline Theft Technique is an interesting Charm and a good name indeed. Does it stop the target from gaining Willpower in any way when he has the object on him? And how exactly did you picture the alerting of his absence effect can be used? I agree with Ikselam about the cost - very few DB Charms cost this much. Resplendence

Thanks! It just popped into my head as a nice riff off of Roger's "emotion=water currents" thing. Would 5m1w be a more appropriate cost? I want to keep the Willpower in there because it a Willpower manipulation, but the most cost I'm not so adamant about. The effect applies only when the item is relevant to the action, not constantly. The idea is that the owner will lose interest in using the item, and the prospective thief can swipe it once he puts it down, and ideally the owner won't even be very upset by this turn of events. - willows

I see now. Very good. 5 motes, 1 Willpower is a reasonable cost, IMHO. Resplendence
Costs and requisites do get tricky at high levels, I admit that now. Tell me if you think I went overboard with my Tide-Carried Pearls Method. Perhaps it's not necessary tie in the DB book's Larceny cascade with Space-Crossing Theft Technique, but it feels like a very powerful Charm for DBs, almost akin to a Sidereal one. Resplendence
Cost changed. I like your pinnacle there. It's very subtle. - w
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