Revision as of 03:21, 30 December 2015

Contracts

The following tables list all Contracts available on Fate's Harvest. These include all of the available Contracts from the books as well as any custom Contracts written for this game. Custom Contracts are in bold colorful text and are explained below the table lists.

Court Contracts

Seeming Contracts

Universal Contracts

Custom Contracts

The following Contracts were written for Fate's Harvest by staff or players. The creator will be noted in the description. If you are interested in submitting a new Contract for consideration, please follow the requirements in 'news homebrew3' when doing so.

Contracts of Colors

UNIVERSAL AFFINITY

This Contract's first iteration was written for The Reach MUX, and it has been brought over by its creator to be used here. All text is written by Annapurna.

Colors are a mixed blessing. Skin, fur, feathers, even the petals of a flower, all can be used to communicate, to attract, to warn, deceive, hide, but they aren't a tangible force, or a direct one. Give a girl a yellow rose, and you're a friend. Give her red, and you're in love. It is this essence of changeability, this mercurial and beautiful illusion, with which the following Contracts are sworn.

Palette

Color is everywhere, and an inconstant companion to the eyes which see it. This contract calls on color's variety and changeability to grant the changeling power over perceived pigmentation. The change is seen by all. Mortals may question why the polka dots on their new skirt are suddenly fluorescent green if used unwisely!

Colorblind characters suffer a -1 penalty on this clause. For the truly blind with no concept of color, this penalty increases to -3.

Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wyrd + Crafts
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling is wearing or carrying an object which changes color. Examples: opals, rainbow LEDs, holographs, mood rings.

Dramatic Failure: The Contract yields the least favorable color for the changeling using it. E.g. if altering clothing, the color is hideous or garish. If trying to be subtle, the color is eyeblinding neon.
Failure: The Contract fails to change the object's color.
Success: For each use of the Contract on an object under Size 5 (or a single part of an object, that part not to exceed size 5), the changeling may change one of the object's/that part's colors to any other color, for 1 scene. The change includes small variations of a single color type, e.g. a pebble in many shades of grey is counted as one 'grey' by the Contract, and a fire in many shades of gold is counted as one 'gold'. A handful of small objects may be changed at once. For purposes of this contract, nails, hair and fur qualify as dead protein, and may be affected by its power. Eyes and skin may not.
Exceptional Success: As with an ordinary success, but the change lasts 1 week.

Note: The use of Promise Leaves in the successful activation of this clause increases the duration of its effects to one week. Use of Promise Leaves in an Exceptional Success renders the effect permanent.

Inkwell

Color in nature is a communicator, a warning, a deception. A flower's lines may guide vital insects toward its pollen, a frog's bright colors may warn predators not to dare the poison of its skin or a Viceroy butterfly's orange, white and black deceive the eye into believing it a Monarch, safe, unhealthsome to the palate. This clause calls on the facet of color recognized by nature as a language all its own.

Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wyrd + Expression
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling has used liquid ink or paint to write a secret in the past day.

Dramatic Failure: The Contract fails, emblazoning the colour or message in ordinary paint or ink visible to all eyes.
Failure: The Contract fails to activate.
Success: The changeling may cause the Mien of an object to change color while the Mask stays the same, or effectively grant a limited Mien to an object without one. Paint and ink used by this clause are infused with Glamour, their original color and visibility superseded by the effects of this contract. Each use can cover the equivalent of a 10'x10' wall with paint (no penalty) or a single page of writing (-2 penalty). Any writing utensil/paintbrush and source of liquid can be used for this purpose. Ex. a changeling may use a smudge from a sweaty finger to leave a desperate mark on a wall for friends to track him by, or paint a line of text under a business' sign cautioning that fae Hunters dwell within. The change in color lasts until the object is painted over/erased (a painted sign would, for example, be more permanent than a quick note jotted on an office white board in dry-erase marker). Only changelings, fae-touched and ensorcelled can see the markings made by this clause, though the markings do not need to be seen to be accidentally removed. In the examples above, the sign could be painted over by a new owner, or a colleague could decide to clean the board, all unknowing of what message was scrawled in the corner.
Exceptional Success: As with an ordinary success, but the changeling can affect up to three objects in sight. Examples: up to three different walls, three pages of a book.

Camouflage

Hunted or hunter, the ability to blend with one's environment is a key role of color for the sighted world. This contract draws on color to grant a changeling facility with hiding in plain sight.

Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wyrd + Expression
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling is touching a living animal exhibiting camouflage when the Contract is activated.

Dramatic Failure: The Contract not only fails, but changes the colors of the changeling to stand out against the background. -2 to all stealth rolls for remainder of scene or until a successful activation is achieved.
Failure: The Contract fails to activate.
Success: The changeling's coloration shifts to better match his or her surroundings, changing accordingly as the changeling moves from place to place. The camouflage is true from all angles, and includes any clothing or gear carried at the time of activation. Any items or persons picked up after activation do not change, though they may be stored in items which have. For the remainder of the scene, the changeling adds the number of their successes to all Stealth rolls. The changeling is not invisible, nor does this clause affect scent or sound. Be wary: this effect is not covered by the Mask. This bonus stacks with other contracts and specialties.
Exceptional Success: As with an ordinary success. Additionally, the camouflage is so convincing that observers suffer -2 to any visual Perception rolls against the changeling.

Synesthesia

Colors aren't only useful for deception or communication -- they can also be used to confuse, confound and distract threats, and that is what this contract seeks to do. Changelings inflict artificial synesthesia on their target if successful.

Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wyrd + Presence vs. Wyrd + Resolve
Action: Instant
Catch: The Changeling has used hallucinogens/perception-altering substances within the past 24 hours. (This may be a Clarity break!)

Dramatic Failure: The changeling's attempt backfires, the binding affecting their own senses instead. The effects of an ordinary success are applied to the Contract holder, distraction penalty included.
Failure: The Contract fails to activate. It cannot be used on the same target again for the next 24 hours.
Success: When activated, the changeling specifies one of the target's senses to bind to Color. This binding lasts a single scene, and while it is in place, the target experiences colors every time that sense is used. The exact colors are consistent for the target (a particular pitch/flavour/scent/sensation will always be the same color), but the Contract holder cannot specify what these colors will be. This causes a -3 distraction penalty to all rolls for the scene as the target tries to understand and accommodate for their new perception. Only one sense may be bound per target per scene.
Exceptional Success: As with an ordinary success, but the change is so disturbingly intense that targets at Clarity 7 or higher must roll to avoid the risk of Clarity loss (level 7 standard penalty).

Color Leech

What is a world without color, without the definition of edges we take for granted? What would happen if ink fled the page, if shadow's greys dissolved? This contract answers that question, and the answer is invisibility.

Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wyrd + Persuasion
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling must erase/destroy an important physical record of their mortal life while activating the Contract. Examples: Birth certificate, beloved childhood art project, marriage license, military dog tags.

Dramatic Failure: The changeling's ability to perceive colour is damaged in the backlash of the Contract's failure, causing a -2 visual Perception penalty for the remainder of the scene. Colors blur, edges are indistinct, and small details are impossible to differentiate.
Failure: The Contract fails to activate.
Success: The changeling causes an object (or handful of small objects) Size 5 or less to become invisible by draining it of all color. Invisibility lasts for a single scene. If the object contains other items, the items are invisible until they are drawn out of the container.
Exceptional Success: As with ordinary success, but the invisibility can affect living things as well as objects. The effect cannot apply to the Contract holder. Example: a changeling wants to sneak into a building with his dog Hedgebeast Companion. He gets an exceptional success, so the dog is invisible (but not inaudible). To be invisible himself, he must use Smoke 5 or a similar ability.

Contracts of Misdeed

SUN/MOON COURT AFFINITY - Non-Affinity to all other Courts.

This Contract was created for Fate's Harvest. All text was written by Annapurna and Rainier. If you like it and want to snag it to use elsewhere, credit us and be shiny.

The Courts of the Sun and Moon are not as popular here in the west, but their history lives on in the echoes of immigrants from eastern Europe seeking a more righteous, or, a more liberated future in the New World.

It is fitting that, as two faces of the same ideal, the duality should share a Contract devoted to furthering their own purposes.

If you are a member of the Sun or Moon Court, you have access to your Court's variant whether or not it is day or night.

The Contract is non-affinity to non-members. If used during the day by a non-member, the shame variant manifests. If used during the night, the disgust variant manifests. Non-members may use the opposite variant off-hours by spending an extra point of Glamour on activation of the clause.

While the Moon Court takes a more laissez-faire attitude toward those with Goodwill using the sunny side of shame, the Sun Court does not share their easy acceptance. NOT spending the extra point of Glamour will be considered a mark against those who would seek the Sun's blessing.

Discerning Eye

"To err is human; to forgive, divine." Alexander Pope may or may not have the truth of it, but it's a surety that time and again, people screw up, and sometimes, they behave so poorly that it's well worth knowing just what they did, or what they'll react to if YOU do it. For your own far more noble endeavors...

Prerequisite: Mantle (SUN/MOON) 1 or Court Goodwill (SUN/MOON) 2

Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wyrd + Empathy
Action: Instant
Catch: The target recognizes you as an authority figure over them.

Dramatic Failure: SUN/MOON: The changeling receives an incorrect shame/disgust, and believes it to be true.
Failure: SUN/MOON: The character cannot discern any shames/disgusts.
Success: SUN: You discern one of your target's secret shames. MOON: You discern one thing which utterly disgusts your target. Contract does nothing if the target feels no shame for past deeds/holds nothing in disgust.
Exceptional Success: SUN/MOON: You discern two shames/disgusts, or learn that there are none, respectively.

Suggested Modifiers: the target is feeling guilty (+1); you have never met the target before (-1)

The Guiding Hand

If someone's behavior isn't quite aligned with your goals, it's only to their benefit, clearly, that you should give them a nudge in the right direction. This clause can only be used while you are actively attempting to persuade someone toward/against a particular action, belief or similar line of behavior.

Prerequisite: Prerequisite: Mantle (SUN/MOON) 1 or Court Goodwill (SUN/MOON) 3

Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wyrd + Manipulation
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling has knowingly given someone else that person's favorite food, or has personally eaten something which revolts her within the last hour.

Dramatic Failure: SUN/MOON: The clause backfires, and the target gains a supernatural bolstering of their own beliefs, receiving a +2 on their own roll to contest the changeling's next attempt at persuasion.
Failure: SUN/MOON: The clause has no effect.
Success: SUN: The target feels supernaturally induced shame for not behaving as the changeling indicates is "right" to do. MOON: The target feels supernaturally induced disgust toward what the changeling specifies upon activating this clause.
In both cases, the changeling gains a +2 to the next Persuasion roll relating to the targeted behavior. The object of shame or disgust must be relatively specific. "Existing" would not be a permissible source of shame or disgust. "Being late to work" or "dogs whose faces look like they were cartoonishly squashed against hard objects" would.
Exceptional Success: SUN/MOON: The +2 bonus applies for the remainder of the scene, but only to Persuasion rolls specifically toward that topic.

Suggested Modifiers: the changeling has succeeded at a contested Persuasion roll with the target within the last half hour (+1); the changeling has failed at the above within the last half hour (-1)

True Of Heart

While the Courts of Sun and Moon disagree about as much as possible, they can't deny the value of being true to yourself and your ideals. Granted, their version of WHICH self you should be true to does differ...

Prerequisite: Mantle (SUN/MOON) 2 or Court Goodwill (SUN/MOON) 4

Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wyrd + Composure
Action: Instant
Catch: There is another party complicit in the act. You are an excellent/horrible influence.

Dramatic Failure: SUN/MOON: The contract backfires, reversing its effects. If the changeling rolled for Sun, gain the benefits of Moon, and vice versa, along with a -3 penalty to act according to the intended vice/virtue.
Failure: SUN/MOON: The clause fails to activate.
Success: SUN: +3 to rolls to act in accordance with one's virtue. Gain 9-again if the action is done to uphold a promise or pledge. MOON: +3 to rolls to act in accordance with one's vice. Gain 9-again if the action is done to break a promise or pledge. The clause remains active for the remainder of the scene.
Exceptional Success: SUN/MOON: As above, but the changeling gains 9-again on all actions to uphold his virtue/vice and 8-again if the action is done to uphold/break a promise or pledge.

The Forked Path

Changelings, more than many, understand what it is like to lose yourself, or to be lost. While those in the Found Path seek to help others find their way and guide them through more virtuous pursuits, the Wayward Road is lost, likes being lost, and revels in the power of forcing enemies to lose their path. Whether or not their targets will enjoy the curse as much as they do is yet to be seen.

Prerequisite: Mantle (SUN/MOON) 3 or Court Goodwill (SUN/MOON) 5

Cost: 2 Glamour + 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Wyrd + Manipulation
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling has spent an hour or more within the last 24 hours working on a project/goal which will benefit someone other than himself.

Dramatic Failure: SUN/MOON: The clause instead curses the wielder with the negative effects of a standard success.
Failure: SUN/MOON: The clause has no effect.
Success: SUN: Guide a single target (self or other) down the Found Path. As below, save that the penalty is applied to those who would hinder the target from pursuing her goals. Select a category (physical mental social) to receive this blessing at the time this clause is activated. Lasting a number of days equal to successes rolled, the target is supernaturally blessed, and those who would seek to influence her or contest her using rolls within that category are unable to muster their customary charm or skill.
MOON: Guide a target (hopefully other) down the Wayward Road. Lasting a number of days equal to successes rolled, the target is cursed, prone to doing, and going, precisely what or where he shouldn't, as regards actions in one of the categories writ above. While there is no innate damage related to the clause, the player of the target is welcome to invent narrow escapes to explain the jarring effects of the curse; the wayward road is often one of mischief close to malice. The changeling using this clause cannot specify exactly what troubles the target suffers. Select a category as above. The target of the curse receives a -2 penalty to all actions taken using attributes or skills under that category. They are clumsier or slower on the draw, a bit befuddled or distracted by extraneous thoughts, their oratory falls flat or they pick angles just a bit off true when they try to persuade someone toward their way of thinking.
Exceptional Success: SUN: as above, with the additional benefit of +2 to any Breaking Points suffered under the clause's influence. MOON: as above. Additionally, the curse is so deeply disturbing that the target must succeed on a Breaking Point roll or lose Clarity. The targeted player is encouraged to invent a reason for the lapse. As always, roll to a +myjob.

And In The Darkness, Light

Fulfilling their ties as the Court of Day and the Court of Night, the pair shares two faces of one ultimate expression, multifaceted and all too real. Revelation and concealment, sun-fire and moon-madness, light and dark, the clause alters time and space itself to bring true day or night at the changeling's call. The effects ARE seen by mortals, and DO affect the sky, a column of blue or star-spangled black clearly visible to anyone viewing the area from a distance.

Prerequisite: Mantle (SUN/MOON) 4

Cost: 3 Glamour + 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Wyrd + Resolve
Action: Instant
Catch: The clause is used at noon or midnight.

Dramatic Failure: SUN/MOON: The changeling's attempts backfire, dazzling his/her senses. Shadows are pitch dark, light is blinding, and for the remainder of the scene, s/he suffers a -3 environmental penalty to all vision-related rolls (Perception, seeing to climb a difficult course, gauging a jump over a gap, etc.).
Failure: SUN/MOON: The clause fails to activate.
Success: SUN: The dark conceals secrets, conceals the shameful acts of those who creep and crawl beneath the veil of night, and those of the Found Path have bargained to reveal them. For a radius of Wyrd x 10 yards, lasting one scene, the area around the changeling is bathed in the full light of a sunny afternoon. MOON: Light is all well and good, but not everybody's willing to go out in it. Liberating those of the disgusted who prefer to live in shadows, the Wayward Road's ultimate power is a dark echo of their brighter opposite. For Wyrd x 10 yards, lasting one scene, the area around the changeling is bathed in the cool dark and silvered light of midnight.
In both cases, the sun or moon is at the appropriate angle/phase for the current time of year, and plants and animals, while potentially confused, behave accordingly. For purposes of combat against or support for vampires and werewolves, the sunlight of this clause IS true sunlight and day, as the moonlight is true moonlight and night. The effect moves with the changeling.
Exceptional Success: SUN/MOON: As above, but the radius expands to Wyrd x 20 yards.

Suggested Modifiers: SUN: the contract is performed at dusk to extend the sun's power into the night (+1); MOON: the contract is performed at dawn to extend the moon's power into the day (+1)

Contracts of Wind

UNIVERSAL AFFINITY
Thank you to Kurt@TheReach for inspiring the first and final clauses of this Contract. All text is written by Annapurna.

Wind is fickle, wind is strong, and wind is everywhere open even the slightest bit to sky. This Contract calls upon the wind to share a few of its more useful capabilities.

All clauses of Wind suffer the following penalties: -3 if the changeling calls upon it in a completely enclosed area, -1 if the changeling has only a small entry point open to the winds, such as a single window.

Fleeting Grace

Dancing through and around all in its path, the wind's grace is an enviable gift. With this contract, the changeling calls upon the wind to guide his hands and body toward a greater deftness.

All clauses of Wind suffer the following penalties: -3 if the changeling calls upon it in a completely enclosed area, -1 if the changeling has only a small entry point open to the winds, such as a single window.

Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wyrd + Dexterity
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling wears fluttery, eye-catching ribbons or tassels.

Dramatic Failure: The wind called by the changeling's will is muddled, contradictory, movements pushing too swiftly or dragging too slowly. The changeling's next roll suffers a -2 Dexterity penalty.
Failure: The contract fails to activate.
Success: The wind responds to the changeling's intentions, subtly aiding and finessing their movements. Each success adds 1 to Dexterity for the next roll. A faint, but lively breeze whisks through the changeling's vicinity.
Exceptional Success: As with an ordinary success, but the changeling's attunement to the wind is unusually strong. Receive the benefit of this clause for the next three rolls instead.

Whispers On The Wind

The consummate traveler, wind passes over all on earth, carrying with it traces of the land it whisks itself along -- and, at times, the words of certain changelings, a willing, if not always reliable messenger. Using this contract, a changeling may reach out to any target she knows, supernatural or not, and speak a brief message as though she were standing at the target's side.

All clauses of Wind suffer the following penalties: -3 if the changeling calls upon it in a completely enclosed area, -1 if the changeling has only a small entry point open to the winds, such as a single window.

If your space is hermetically sealed to any and all wind, this contract in particular will always fail.

Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wyrd + Persuasion
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling burns a wisp of hair or fingernail clipping belonging to the target immediately prior to using this clause.

Dramatic Failure: The changeling's clumsy efforts so offend the winds that they carry the message, alright, straight to the nearest of the changeling's enemies. There is no limitation on the distance winds will travel to achieve this small revenge.
Failure: The contract fails to activate.
Success: After successfully persuading a breeze to listen to her, the changeling concentrates on a single person, whom she must know, and speaks a brief message aloud; this message must fit within a single three-second turn unless the changeling declares in advance she will be speaking through the next. Messages may be three turns long, at most, and while speaking, the changeling may take only defensive actions and activate no other contracts. The wind carries the intended message up to Wyrd miles away, and the target hears the changeling's words as though the changeling were standing at her side. A whispered message may be lost, for example, at a loud outdoor event, or a yelled one startle the recipient in a quiet locale. No one but the intended recipient hears the changeling's words. If the recipient is indoors/where wind cannot reach, the message cannot be delivered; the sender does not know whether or not the message was received.
Exceptional Success: In addition to the effects of an ordinary success, the wind was so charmed by the changeling's persuasive call that it returns to confirm or deny the message's delivery before returning to its play.

Windswept Stones

Will or nill, when the wind is blowing, dust flies, and this contract draws on that aspect. Sweeping away all traces of passage, the breeze erases the changeling's trail, or the trail of any single other in the changeling's sight, scrubbing away any hints of his presence.

All clauses of Wind suffer the following penalties: -3 if the changeling calls upon it in a completely enclosed area, -1 if the changeling has only a small entry point open to the winds, such as a single window.

Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wyrd + Survival
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling has destroyed/burnt important records, his or others', and scattered the scraps/ashes on the wind in the past 24 hours.

Dramatic Failure: The wind, instead of sweeping tracks away, sweeps small detritus and clues to the changeling's presence into sight, no matter how well hidden. Trackers gain a +3 bonus to any attempts at following the character.
Failure: The contract fails to activate.
Success: The changeling may designate a set of tracks to be erased, his or another's, within 500 ft. per Wyrd level, leaving nothing for trackers to follow. Footprints are smoothed, scents removed, leaves disturbed are flipped back to their places and any threads or other clues caught on bushes or their urban counterparts are swept away in a rush of wind. Fluids such as dripping water, vomit or profuse bleeding cannot be entirely covered up by the effects of this clause. Any penalties for tracking leaky characters are ST dependent. This clause has no effect on supernatural tracking methods such as Four Directions 1.
Exceptional Success: As with an ordinary success, but the winds also erase the tracks of the changeling's companions (no more than five others). To all forensic purposes, the changeling and his allies simply weren't there at all.

Defender's Bellows

As any sportsman can attest, strong winds can win or lose the day. More dangerous yet are the cyclonic forces of a storm, thrusting away all in their path. The changeling who calls upon this contract draws down a blend of the two, summoning a swiftly spinning shield of winds to protect herself from harm.

All clauses of Wind suffer the following penalties: -3 if the changeling calls upon it in a completely enclosed area, -1 if the changeling has only a small entry point open to the winds, such as a single window.

Cost: 2 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wyrd + Resolve
Action: Instant
Catch: The changeling drops all weapons and spreads open hands in a sign of peace.

Dramatic Failure: The winds rise, they swirl, they _seem_ to do as they were called to do, but in actuality, they offer no defense at all. They also reveal the changeling, should she be hiding where the winds' motion will visibly whip about light objects in her surroundings.
Failure: The contract fails to activate.
Success: A swirling shield of wind surrounds the changeling for a number of turns equal to her Wyrd score, leaving enough room for free movement. This clause immediately reveals the character if she is hiding; the winds whip branches or pick up any grit and detritus in their vicinity, as any natural wind would do. Arrows and thrown objects are deflected harmlessly away. Firearms take an attack penalty equal to the number of successes rolled, winds strong enough to nudge astray, but not block, bullets. Melee attackers are sharply thrust back and must roll a reflexive Dexterity + Athletics to avoid falling prone. Shieldbearers may take only movement actions or renew this contract while the shield is in use.
Exceptional Success: As with an ordinary success, but the changeling adds his successes to the number of turns the shield exists.

On Zephyrs' Wings

While the wind will scour the dusty earth, will clean the soil, will clear dry leaves, what it carries must eventually come to earth, and it is in this essential truth that this most powerful clause of the contract has been forged. Taken up in the winds' heart, a changeling springs from place to place in a matter of moments, dissolving into wind and returning to corporeality in an eyeblink at a location of his choosing.

All clauses of Wind suffer the following penalties: -3 if the changeling calls upon it in a completely enclosed area, -1 if the changeling has only a small entry point open to the winds, such as a single window.

Cost: 3 Glamour (or 3 Glamour + 1 Willpower)
Dice Pool: Wyrd + Manipulation
Action: Instant (or Reflexive)
Catch: The natural wind speed is greater than 10 miles per hour. (Determined by +time or ST)

Dramatic Failure: The failure of the contract wrenches the changeling so horribly within the maelstrom that their flesh begins to tear itself apart. The changeling takes one point of bashing damage per 10 feet of attempted teleportation.
Failure: The contract fails to activate.
Success: Swept away within a gust of powerful winds, the changeling can teleport up to 10 feet per dot in Wyrd to any location within line of sight. This includes locations above or below. Normally an instant action, by spending a point of Willpower, this action is reflexive, allowing the changeling to act immediately once he reaches his destination. This ability does not allow travel through solid objects; a user cannot teleport outside a closed window. However, if the window is open even a crack, the changeling may pass.
Exceptional Success: As with an ordinary success, but the changeling can instead travel 20 feet per dot of Wyrd.