Diurnal Judgment (Contract)

These contracts grant a changeling power to discover hidden guilt and to manipulate aspects of shame. (Refer to Morality/Sin on page 91 of the World of Darkness Rulebook to determine the“shameful” actions that satisfy the conditions for the following clauses.)

For the purposes of these contracts, these conditions apply equally to mortals, changelings and other supernatural beings. For changeling subjects, these contracts also apply to self-serving actions that risk clarity loss, such as breaking a mundane promise, but not to external stimuli such as entering the hedge.

Sense of Shame (•)
The changeling attunes himself to his court’s signature emotion, sensing the pang of fresh guilt in his immediate vicinity.
 * Prerequisites: Mantle (Sun) • or Court Goodwill (Sun) ••
 * Cost: 1 Glamour
 * Dice Pool: Wits + Wyrd
 * Action: Instant
 * Catch: The area surrounding the changeling when the clause is first invoked boasts a highly visible marker or ornament meant to discourage shameful acts

Roll Results
 * Dramatic Failure: The changeling is immersed in feelings of incoherent guilt. He suffers a -1penalty to all Social dice pools due to the distraction for the remainder of the scene.
 * Failure: The changeling is unable to usefully sense guilt in others.
 * Success: The changeling can detect guilt within Wyrd x 10 yards of his person. This is not a precise awareness but a general sensitivity to others’ guilt; the changeling cannot determine what shameful act may be associated with a subject’s guilt nor can he distinguish between the guilt of individuals, except as the sensation grows more intense when nearing a source of guilt. The changeling can, however, detect a sudden swing of guilty emotion or distinguish the relative intensity of guilt in two or more persons given the changeling’s equal proximity to each of them. The changeling enjoys a +1 bonus to all pertinent Social rolls when using this clause to bolster an appropriate feat (catching someone in a lie, for example). While this power can be used to locate guilty persons, such actions require standard perception rolls, opposed by Stealth (or Subterfuge) should a guilty target actively avoid discovery or suspicion. In all cases, this clause detects only active guilt-not merely fear of discovery or reprisal. Calloused or composed individuals may register poorly or not at all to the changeling’s perceptions. The clause’s effects last for one scene.
 * Exceptional Success: The changeling can sense guilt at a range of Wyrd x 25 yards

Suggested Modifiers

Eyes of the White God (••)
With this clause, the changeling can determine by touch whether the subject has committedany shameful acts. The taint of guilt or shame fades after a year and a day except for severewrongdoing (such as sin against a Morality/Clarity threshold of 4 or lower).
 * Prerequisites: Mantle (Sun) •• or Court Goodwill (Sun) •••
 * Cost: 1 Glamour
 * Dice Pool: Empathy + Wyrd vs. Composure + Wyrd
 * Action: Contested
 * Catch: The contract is invoked while the changeling is standing in a “high” place: atop a hill, on the roof of an apartment building, or on a raised platform, pulpit or vestibule within a sacrededifice, and so forth.

Roll Results
 * Dramatic Failure: The changeling receives a false, often darkly inspired, impression.
 * Failure: The changeling can’t tell whether the subject has acted in a shameful manner or not but is aware that the clause failed.
 * Success: The changeling is able to sense the most significant shameful act committed by the subject that still lingers on the subject. “Significant” is determined by the subject’s general understanding of the act’s shamefulness, though the changeling can still sense a shameful acteven if the subject feels no guilt for their actions. The clause tells the changeling the general nature of the shameful act, such as “betrayed someone.”
 * Exceptional Success: The changeling can sense any and all shameful acts that still hang about the subject, and gets a faint impression of the details surrounding the most significant offense. For example, the changeling might learn that their changeling subject betrayed another of their kind to an ophidian True Fae, even if specifics aren’t revealed.

Suggested Modifiers

Gazing Toward Heaven (•••)
The changeling calls upon preemptive shame to safeguard their moral center, shielding the changeling from infernal manipulation and weakening all powers that would tempt them from the righteousness of the Found Path.
 * Prerequisites: Mantle (Sun) •• or Court Goodwill (Sun) ••••
 * Cost: 1 Glamour + 1 Willpower
 * Dice Pool: Resolve + Expression + Mantle (Sun)
 * Action: Instant
 * Catch: The changeling has refused a direct invitation to gratify his Vice since the sun last rose orset and has not indulged his Vice for over a week

Roll Results
 * Dramatic Failure: The changeling’s moral rectitude deserts them and they feel keenly the depth of their own appalling weakness: the changeling suffers a -2 penalty to resist supernatural compulsion to perform a shameful act for the remainder of the scene. At the player’s discretion,the character’s ability to resist mundane temptations may be weakened as well.
 * Failure: The changeling deals with supernatural temptation as well or as poorly as anyone else.
 * Success: The changeling sees the dice pool of any supernatural powers that might compel them to commit a shameful act reduced by a modifier equal to their Wyrd. This effect lasts for the scene.
 * Exceptional Success: Increase the penalty for sin-compelling powers to the character’s Wyrd +2.

Suggested Modifiers

The Harlot’s Open Shame (••••)
The changeling can instill a subject (or subjects) with a grave sense of shame, denying them the pleasure of their shameful acts
 * Prerequisites: Mantle (Sun) ••• or Court Goodwill (Sun) •••••
 * Cost: 2 Glamour or 2 - 3 Glamour + 1 Willpower
 * Dice Pool: Manipulation + Intimidation + Mantle (Sun) vs. Composure + Wyrd
 * Action: Contested; resistance is reflexive.
 * Catch: The changeling has caught the subject (or subjects) in some shameful act and vehemently decries the offense before at least one additional witness (who may be confederate to the misdeed and thus potentially subject to the effects of this contract as well).

Roll Results
 * Dramatic Failure: The attempt fails and the subject (or each subject in a group of targeted individuals) becomes immune to the character’s Contracts of Diurnal Judgment until the sun next sets and rises.
 * Failure: The contract fails to work.
 * Success: A subject of this clause is struck by feelings of embarrassment and shame (possibly guilt) for their misdeeds. These feelings overwhelm whatever sense of pleasure they may derive from selfish or immoral actions. As a result, a subject gains no Willpower from indulging their Vice. Additionally, they suffer a -2 penalty to all Mental or Social rolls related to performing a“shameful” act. If the changeling spends two points of Glamour (plus one point of Willpower if the subject is supernatural), this clause affects one target the changeling can see clearly (including, potentially, themself); this individual is considered the chief subject of the clause. If the changeling spends three points of Glamour and one point of Willpower, the clause may affect one additional mortal subject of the changeling’s choosing per dot of Willpower the changeling possesses. One contested roll may be made reflexively for a group of mortals based on the highest Composure among them. The changeling must speak to invoke the group effect, and additional subjects must be within range of the changeling’s voice and clearly visible to the changeling. (This clause cannot affect more than one supernatural being per invocation, although the expenditure of only one Willpower point does allow the changeling to target one supernatural subject and a group of mortals simultaneously.) The effects of this clause plague the chief subject for a number of days equal to the number of successes. Additional subjects suffer the clause’s effects only for the present scene and for one hour following.
 * Exceptional Success: The chief subject of the clause remains subject to its penalties until the changeling releases them from its effects. Each subject in a group of additional affected persons will suffer the clause’s effects until the sun next rises and sets.

Suggested Modifiers

Countenance of the Daystar’s Glory (•••••)
The changeling’s Court Mantle is amplified to a grave degree, bathing the character in purest sunlight and piercing the Mask. Virtuous onlookers are humbled, gently pricked by their own unworthiness, while the wicked flee the changeling’s presence, consumed with feelings of shame or guilt. (Note: Although mortal witnesses will catch glimpses of the changeling’s true nature, mortal memory fails to retain these images once this effect has faded, and cameras and electronic devices record seemingly overexposed or spotty images of the character. As a result, successful use of this clause does not risk Clarity loss.
 * Prerequisites: Mantle (Sun) ••••
 * Cost: 3 Glamour + 1 Willpower
 * Dice Pool: Presence + Intimidate + Mantle (Sun) vs. subject’s Composure + Wyrd
 * Action: Instant and Contested
 * Catch: The changeling has taken part in the direction of a religious service or rite of at least half an hour in length since the sun last rose or set

Roll Results
 * Dramatic Failure: Court Mantle is intensified and the Mask wavers, but no wave of guilt-inducing authority compels observers to look inward. To onlookers, the light plainly reveals the character’s inhuman nature, as though the heavens condemned them for deception. Moreover, the character suffers a momentary pang of guilt so profound that they stagger, taking a point of bashing damage from the shock. Mortals will remember the character’s true mien, and the changeling may have to roll to resist Clarity loss.
 * Failure: The changeling fails to invoke the Contract.
 * Success: This clause affects everyone within three yards per dot of the changeling’s Wyrd. One contested roll may be made reflexively for a crowd of mortals based on the highest Composure present. Supernatural beings should each make their own resistance rolls. If the changeling rolls any successes, their Court Mantle is supernaturally magnified, convincing witnesses of their moral authority. The changeling gains +2 dice to all rolls to Intimidate everyone within range. This Contract affects all characters near the changeling. Record the number of successes rolled for the changeling when the clause is first activated, and compare it to any rolled for newcomers to the power’s area of effect. If the character rolls more successes than a target, the person must react to the character according to the comparative strength of their Morality (or equivalent) trait: Persons with a Morality trait lower than the changeling’s Clarity will shrink from the character’s presence, either to cower (or kneel) in submission, or to flee. Persons possessing a Morality rating equal to or surpassing the character’s Clarity are reminded of their shortcomings and feel a sense of respect for the character’s supernatural authority (though not necessarily for the changeling themself). Such upright characters enjoy a +1 bonus to all rolls to aid the changeling but feel no compulsion to follow any suggestions or commands they might make. By offering a hand in clemency, the changeling may raise a cringing character, relieving the burden of their shame and subjecting them instead to the benefit normally provided to those of a higher Morality. Additionally, unless the changeling attempts to harm others, the contract’s shame-inducing powers protects them from violence. Ordinary humans cannot harm them except by accident, and supernatural beings must make a successful reflexive Resolve + Composure roll before each act of violence in order to attack. Thus, most antagonists who resist the urge to fall back in shame must content themselves to confront the character through word or gesture. If the changeling chooses to injure another, this violence-preventing shame effect is lifted, but the character’s supernatural authority remains. This Contract lasts for one scene or until dispelled, whichever comes first, although the defense against violence once cancelled remains lost until this clause is newly invoked.
 * Exceptional Success: In addition to the increased likelihood of a character’s falling subject tothe full influence of this Contract, an exceptional success levies a -2 dice penalty to all rolls toattack or to attempt to harm the changeling should violence break out.

Suggested Modifiers