LostKnightsRPG.org

This thread is for homebrew material and/or other house rules.

As an Infernal that purchases The Triumphant Howl of the Devil-Tiger is more-or-less required to create at least a few homebrew charms, this thread will soon become necessary for at least two of us.

This first post I'll keep editing with my own stuff, rather than creating multiple posts and threads. I think that'll keep it easier to browse.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First Secret Inscribed In Blood Excellency
The man once known as Joren Cenik is a mad genius. He is inquisitive and curious, asking questions frequently to expand understanding of new topics. His actions are deliberate, undertaken only after due consideration of the situation. The Lifemaker is always working on one project or another and will reallocate resources for his projects as needed - often even if those resources were not originally his. He is always searching for the truths of the world, as his borderline madness understands it to be. He will gladly educate others, though it is not often easy to follow his intuitive leaps of insight. As a former doctor, the Bloody Sage is intimately familiar with the secrets of the body. He has the surgeon's steady hand required to strike vulnerable points.

Characters may apply this Charm to any action taken to save lives or to take lives, both are part of the natural order as understood by the Secret Inscribed in Blood. Similarly this charm can enhance actions to create life, whether that be via sexual reproduction or through laboratory experimentation. The Secret Inscribed in Blood is an eternal seeker of the Truth, and as such this Excellency may not be used to aid any action in which lies play a part, nor may it be used to deceive others in any way. Additionally, this Charm cannot enhance actions intended to cause harm, unless that harm is undertaken with the ultimate goal of improving the state of his subjects or snuffing out the dying embers of their life. Finally, this charm may always be used in the defense of the user's secrets and worldviews, particularly if those worldviews deviate significantly from the norm.

------
Discussion: This excellency is intended to highlight Joren's role as a master of the cycle of life, from conception right on to death. Its various clauses about killing and harm are intended to restrict its combat application to only attacks likely to result in a killing blow or to surgically accurate called shots.
------

The Secret Inscribed In Blood Mythos Exultant
Keyword: Merged (Kimbery Mythos Exultant)
Having unlocked the secrets in his own body, the Secret Inscribed in Blood ensures that he remains whole. In lieu of usual stunt rewards, a warlock with this Charm may heal one bashing level, one non-aggravated level, or two non-aggravated levels for stunts rated one to three, respectively.

-----
Discussion: Self-healing really seemed like the obvious mechanic for this, and Kimberry already had that, so I'm just going to create a duplicate, give it Merged, and call it good.
-----

Ascendancy Mantle of The Secret Inscribed In Blood
A character may only benefit from this Charm when there is some amount of blood present and as such the Lifemaker is most powerful in the operating room or on the battlefield. He may, however, injure himself in order to awaken his latent power, suffering two lethal health levels of damage in order to create a sufficient quantity of blood to activate this charm. Other Charms or spells that cause blood to be spilled or created, such as Power in the Blood, Blood Lash, and River of Blood, create a sufficient quantity of blood to activate this ability.

-----
Discussion: This is, perhaps, a very literal interpretion of his title of "The Secret Inscribed in Blood" but quite a few of his mechanics are going to revolve around health levels, including as a cost.

------

Sorcerous Enlightenment of the Secret Inscribed In Blood
Spells cast through this initiation which have blood as a primary component, which transform the body or soul of the caster or target, which create permanent living creatures or vegetation, or which aid in keeping secrets have their cost reduced by 10 motes and 1 willpower (to a minimum of 5m, 1wp). Examples of such spells include Invulnerable Skin of Bronze, Flight of Separation, Private Plaza of Downcast Eyes, River of Blood, Corrupted Words, Summoning of the Harvest, Blood of Boiling Oil, Gentle Call of Lethe, Imbue Amalgam, Benediction of Archgenesis, Essence Inversion, Soul Seal, and Unity of the Closed Fist.

Spells cast through this initiation may not be used to create Illusion or Emotion effects. It cannot be used to cast spells for which the express purpose is to deceive others. Examples of spells that cannot be cast through this initiation include spells such as Disguise of the New Face, Peacock Shadow Eyes, Insidious Tendrils of Hate, Wheel of the Turning Heavens, Mirage of Protective Shelter, and Threefold Binding of the Heart.

-----
Discussion: Nothing much, I think the above spells out the intent pretty well.

-----

THE IMPERFECTION OF THE SECRET INSCRIBED IN BLOOD
Charms that carry this Imperfection fail to function if the user does not have at least one level of lethal damage marked off. An undamaged user may opt to add two lethal health levels of damage and two motes of Essence to the activation cost of the charm to invoke it anyway. The damage resulting from activating charms in this way typically manifests as a severe nosebleed accompanied by a headache.

THE JORENIAN URGE (THE URGE TO CREATE)
Needs a writeup....

THE TORMENT OF THE SECRET INSCRIBED IN BLOOD
When an Infernal with a Jorenian Urge accumulates 10 points of Limit, she suffers the Curse of the Secret Inscribed in Blood. The character begins to weep tears of blood, bleed from the nose, mouth, and ears, or otherwise becomes spontaneously wounded. The player must roll the character's permanent Essence and the character suffers one point of lethal damage per success that may only be soaked with natural Stamina - Infernal soak-boosting charms automatically fail to protect against this Torment.

-----
Discussion: These are setup mechanics required for later charms. I do actually have some more written (from like two years ago), but I need to give them a once-over and re-editing before I post them.

Manifestations of the Inner World
Cost: 5 motes (1WP); Min: Essence 6; Type: Reflexive; Keywords: Heretical
Duration: 1 scene; Prerequisite Charms: Spirit of the Living World

The living world within a Devil-Tiger is initially only connected to existence as a sort of dream within, this charm allows the Devil-Tiger to surpass those limits. For five motes, the devil-tiger can grab a single object from within his soul and make it manifest within creation for a scene. Unless the Devil-Tiger also spends a point of willpower, it can only be inanimate things, but should he chose to spend that point of willpower, it can even be living things, which enter the world with an unbreakable positive intimacy toward their creator and the source of their world. The default intimacy in this case is awe filled loyalty, but it might be something else.

Should the object or being be destroyed in creation, they reappear in the Devil-Tiger’s spirit world, though perhaps damaged.

This charm also has a reverse effect, for 5 motes, the Devil-Tiger can put any object that is a possession of his, into his spirit world to keep there, similar to charms that allow other Exalts to keep things Elsewhere. It is up to the Devil-Tiger how such things manifest in his spirit world, from an armory or storage room, or as pieces of the landscape, like a daiklaive rising up from the land like a mountain.. or anything else they might think of.

A repurchase of this Charm, still at Essence 6, extends its duration to 'Indefinite' and reduces the cost for storing any weapons or armor within the Inner World to 1m.

Gate to the Living World
Cost: 50 Motes, 3 Willpower Min: Essence 7; Type: Simple; Keywords: Heretical
Duration: Instant; Prerequisite: Spirit of the Living World

It takes courage and will to allow others to see into the one's soul, and even more to invite them in to take a look. In the case of the Devil-Tiger, this is can be literally true, as their soul manifests as a living world that is subject to their very will. This charm allows the Devil-Tiger to create a gate that can be physically traveled to enter their inner world. Creating the gate makes a pulsating glowing emerald light that manifests in the realm of the spirit, and takes a week before the gate is fully formed.

These gates are stationary where they were created, and the Devil-Tiger can create a maximum number of such gates equal to (Willpower + Valor). While this gate allows others entrance into the infernal's spirit, the warlock cannot enter via the gate themselves, as they already have a presence there, others can now enter and leave though these gates, which operate the same as the gates to and from Yu Shan, though the Devil-Tiger can bar the gates to someone's passage at will.

However, the Infernal can still make use of the gates himself in a different way. By spending 25 motes and 2 willpower, the Devil-Tiger can reflexively transport himself to the location that gate is fixed at, as the gate is a part of themselves. [Edit: Since this is a space setting an this would otherwise permit enormous teleportation distances, the Charm is range limited; it cannot teleport further than about a million miles. That limits it to a planet, and perhaps its moons or sister planets (if a binary planet), but not neighboring planets and certainly not locations outside of the same system (the Earth-Sun distance is ~93M miles, so this is around 1% of that)] At Essence 8, this Charm expands, as the Devil-Tiger now becomes a mobile gate into their world, they can allow others passage into their inner soul with a touch and 5 motes.

Gates manifested by the infernal can look like virtually anything that is sufficiently large to fit at least an average adult human through. The only caveat is that they must still necessarily express the themes and imagery of hell, even as the warlock's other charms do. These could manifest as anything from a black stone plinth to a particularly hellish wardrobe. Common manifestations tend to be literal, involving archways, henges, or other such obvious portals. All gates bear a mark visible with Essence Sight (such as from All Encompassing Sorcerer's Sight) that looks similar to the warlock's totemic anima that identifies the gate as hers. Similarly, since each gate is in some way a part of the warlock themselves, they act as an arcane link (albeit, not a very mobile one) back to the warlock who manifested them.


Invitation of the Whispering Choir
Cost: 66 Essence, 6 wp; Mins: Essence 8; Type: Simple (One day); Keywords: Blasphemy, Heretical;
Duration: Instant; Prerequisite Charms: The Path of a Thousand Whispers

While the ascending Infernal can craft new daevas from scratch, expressing her spiritual truth in new beings, she may also expand her nature through the introduction of souls from elsewhere. This Charm works much like its prerequisite, except that it requires an existing being that willingly (or through broken Motivation) accepts the offer to become a third circle daeva of the Infernal. The being gains Charms and unique powers reflecting its previous existence (a Fair Folk will have a panoply based on its Graces, a ghost will have Charms that influence the underworld, a God will retain much of its previous form, etc.) and starts with its current Essence as a base. Essence can be improved from there as per the cost per dot of Essence in the Path of a Thousand Whispers.

In addition to adding a new third Circle daevas with some experience, along with granting it 7 second circle souls, adding such a being opens up thematic avenues of Charm development for the Infernal. Areas of expertise and power for the adopted being become appropriate for Charms, either new root Charms or expansions of existing ones. For instance, adopting one of the Fair Folk will allow deep influence and understanding of the Wyld, a ghost will allow the development of a custom Necromancy initiation, and a God will give its former divine purview as an area to build Charms in. Should the Infernal have experience to spend upon the emergence of the new daeva, she may instantly do so in order to gain some of those newly appropriate Charms in a burst of insight.

Redundant Organ Distribution
Cost: -; Mins: Essence 1; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Stackable, Merged (Hardened Devil Body); Duration: Permanent; Prerequisite Charms: None
Growing additional redundant organs and developing the ability to minimize the effects of severe wounds, the Secret Inscribed in Blood vastly increases his body's durability. This Charm may be purchased a maximum number of times equal to the lesser of Stamina or Resistance. Each purchase gives the Infernal three additional -2 health levels and one extra -4 level.

Secrets Inscribed in Blood
Cost: —; Mins: Essence 2; Type: Permanent
Keywords: None; Duration: Permanent; Prerequisite Charms: None

This Charm allows the Bloody Sage to see the secrets hidden in the blood. The effects of this Charm can be used, for example, to know at a glance if two targets the Sage can see are related, how long a target will live without intervention, and what aspects of the target are most likely to be inherited by offspring. This manifests as a floating three dot specialty that may be applied to any Ability when dealing with matters of the blood. This may be applied to actions as disparate as killing, purging poisons or disease, tracking trails of blood, mending wounds, or predicting the capabilities, lifespan, and inherited traits of unborn children.

Upon achieving Essence 5, this Charm upgrades the specialty dice into automatic successes, which do not contribute to dice pool caps. This Charm is defeated by Charms and supernatural effects that conceal the target's identity or which alter their appearance and physiology beyond the standard for their species (including mutations more severe than Poxes).

Bunkai
Cost: - (1m); Mins: Essence 2; Type: Permanent
Keywords: None; Duration: Permanent; Prerequisite Charms: Secrets Inscribed in Blood
Careful analysis is key in the practice of medicine. One must always identify a malady before administering treatment or one might only aggravate the patient's condition. By reflexively spending a mote during a normal diagnosis of a patient, a dramatic action of (Perception+Medicine) with a speed of 5 long ticks, the Exalt can perfectly diagnose each of the patients conditions, its source, and any effects it has. This arcane diagnosis will even impart knowledge of diseases and conditions that the Exalt had no previous knowledge of - he may not necessarily learn what the condition is called, but he will know what effects it has and intuit knowledge of how the patient might have come by the condition.

Purity of the Blood
Cost: 5m; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious, Touch; Duration: Instant; Prerequisite Charms: Secrets Inscribed In Blood

The blood of the Lifemaker carries power and purity. The Exalt smears a small amount of their own blood on the target's skin and spends the essence to activate the Charm. If the Exalt makes a successful (Intelligence+Medicine) roll against a difficulty of the Difficulty to Treat of a Sickness effect or the Toxicity of a Poison effect, that effect is purged from the subject's body. This form of supernatural treatment affects even supernatural poisons and diseases.

This charm also renders its purchasers immune to mundane and magical Poison and Sickness effects with a Toxicity or Virulence less than their Essence rating as a happy side effect of their blood's curative power.

Flesh Made Whole
Cost: 3m/bhl, 5m/lhl; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Touch, Shaping, Combo-OK, Obvious; Duration: Instant; Prerequisite Charms: Purity of the Blood

Of the thousands of things that Joren has learned about the body, one of the most basic was to make it whole again. While he first learned to do this using needle and thread, bandages and poultices, he has advanced his understanding sufficiently to allow him to sew flesh back together without such crude tools. This Charm allows the warlock to heal damaged health levels. Each bashing level costs three motes to heal while each lethal health level costs five motes to heal. An Essence 4 repurchase of this Charm allows for the repair of Crippling injuries at the cost of 10 motes. Aggravated damage may not be healed with the base purchase of this charm, but an Essence 6 repurchase allows for each aggravated wound to be healed in the same manner as a Crippling injury, though this adds the Sorcerous keyword to the Charm and takes one hour to repair. Countermagic during this time will counteract the restorative magic and leave the wound as it was when this Charm was used. A separate Essence 6 purchase of this Charm reduces the cost to heal bashing wounds to two motes and lethal wounds to three motes.

Life in the Blood
Cost: 16m, 1wp; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Simple (Dramatic Action, One Day)
Keywords: Shaping, Desecration; Duration: Instant; Prerequisite Charms: Flesh Made Whole
The power of the Lifemaker can extend the life of a mortal considerably. This charm requires a day of alchemical treatments and surgery to enact. It grants a suite of permanent modifications to the target. In exchange the target irresistibly forms a new unbreakable Intimacy of the Exalt's choice as the price for their new found well-being. The suite of benefits include a three die bonus to resist all Poison and Sickness effects, bestowal of the Exalted Healing Affliction, and the Longevity Pox. These benefits are granted as a package and cannot be granted separately via this Charm. This charm may only be used on normal and enlightened mortals, god-bloods of all sorts, and other members of near-human races. It may not be used on Dragon Blooded or other Exalts of any kind or on any sort of spirit.

Body Reweaving Treatment
Cost: 20m, 2wp; Mins: Essence 4; Type: Simple (Dramatic Action, One Day)
Keywords: Shaping, Desecration; Duration: Instant; Prerequisite Charms: Life in the Blood
The Secret Inscribed in Blood knows much of living things and the limits to which they may be altered. This charm enables the Exalt to engage in a day of surgical and alchemical treatments in order to modify a subject's body. This enables him to add or remove mutations from the target (except for the Creature of Darkness deformity, which all targets of this charm wind up with). This Charm enables the Exalt to halve the aging of a Dragonblooded target via an effect similar to the Longevity Pox (though Dragonblooded, as Exalts, may not possess that Pox).

Nothing in life is free, though, and targets of this Charm must pay a price identical to targets of its pre-requisite. Further, if targets of this charm pass their mutations on to their offspring, their offspring also inherit the unbreakable Intimacy of their forebears. As mutations granted and removed by this charm are physical in nature, this Charm cannot grant or remove the Enlightened Essence blight or similarly spiritual mutations. This charm cannot be used to make a mortal entirely immune to aging, only to put it off for a good long while; this is a fundamental aspect of life as the Secret Inscribed in Blood knows it.

An Essence 5 repurchase of this Charm enables the warlock to perform a series of alchemical drug treatments on a Dragon-blooded target to increased their Breeding as a Training effect costing 3xp per increased dot of Breeding. The Secret Inscribed in Blood is explicitly capable of granting a Dragon-blooded target a Legendary Breeding score, though this increases the cost of the Training effect to 6xp. At Essence 6, this iteration of the charm expands, just as the warlock's potential does. His understanding of transcendent attributes enables him to perform a series of surgeries over five days to grant the target an increased attribute cap per the Merit Legendary Attribute. This effect is available for all physical attributes (including appearance), and all mental attributes. While increased Breeding might be inherited by offspring, Legendary Attribute potentials are not, and thus offspring do not risk inheriting their parents' additional obsessions from excessive ministrations at the hands of the Secret Inscribed in Blood.

Blood-Soaked Secrets
Cost: 10m, 2wp; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Simple (Dramatic Action)
Keywords: Training, Obvious, Touch; Duration: Five hours; Prerequisite Charms: Secrets Inscribed in Blood, First Secret Inscribed In Blood Excellency
By dabbing a bit of his arcana-infused blood on the foreheads of prospective students, the Secret Inscribed in Blood can impart his knowledge to others. This Charm requires at least five hours of effort to produce results - this time may be spread out over as much as five days. The essence used to power this charm remains committed until the instructor either abandons his hopeless students or completes their training. This Charm may not be used to instruct those that have an outstanding experience debt from previous uses of Training effects.

Students submitting to instruction via this Charm must pledge some service in exchange for their training. This may be anything from funding for one of their instructor's projects to protecting one of his valuable shipments, or even something as menial as a month of housework in the instructor's manse. In any event, accepting training from this Charm carries with it the intuitive knowledge that a service must be rendered. Knowledge of this requirement is granted automatically as instruction begins if it is not discussed earlier, and students may opt out of the training reflexively as this knowledge is gained to forfeit the benefits of this charm and avoid service. Failure to render such a service affects the errant student as if he had broken an oath sanctified by a member of the Eclipse caste with an Essence rating equal to the instructor's.

This Charm enables the Exalt to train one of the following traits up to a maximum of 4: Conviction, Compassion, Perception, Intelligence, Wits, mundane Crafts, Awareness, Investigation, Lore, Linguistics, Medicine, Occult, or Presence. It also enables an instructor to impart knowledge of Thaumaturgical Degrees. The instructor may also train with the group or even as a solo character, but may not increase the traits of others beyond her own.

This Charm may be repurchased at Essence 4. This expands the instructor's ability to increase the competence of others by enabling her to train the following: Exotic crafting abilities, any scholarly ability the instructor possess at 4 or more, Integrity, Resistance, and any specialties the instructor possesses. This expansion also allows the instructor to increase a student's physical attributes (including Appearance), though this involves grueling exercise and experimental surgery which collectively increase the duration of the Charm to ten hours and which impose the limitation that only five hours in a given day may be meaningfully spent enhancing the subject's body.

This Charm may be repurchased again at Essence 5. At this level of instructive understanding the Exalt may enlighten mortals with the Enlightened Essence blight (which makes them Creatures of Darkness as a side effect); this adds the Shaping and Desecration keywords to that activation of the Charm. This iteration of the expansion also removes the 4-dot trait limit on the upper bound of what the Exalt can teach - only the student's own age and Essence limit what she may learn from the Secret Inscribed in Blood. Finally, this version of the Charm also enables a teacher to impart knowledge of Charms and spells, assuming a student is capable of learning them. Teachers may impart knowledge even of Charms they do not know, assisting a student in drawing out their natural potential; Martial Arts Charms may only be taught if a would-be Sifu would normally be able to teach those Charms (by mastering a sufficient portion of the style in question), an inherent limitation of the Perfected Lotus. While capable of assisting students through the initiation into sorcery, students may only learn such charms if they have passed the five stations. Using this version of the charm to teach someone else any sorcery spell that the teacher does not already know irresistibly compels the instructor to learn the spell along side their student.

Power in the Blood
Cost: – (1lhl); Mins: Essence 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: None; Duration: Permanent; Prerequisite Charms: Sorcerous Enlightenment of The Secret Inscribed In Blood.

The Flames of the Rising Phoenix seared changes not only onto Joren's Exaltation, but also into his blood. His blood now carries arcane power with it and has a disturbing tendency to spell out arcane formulas or Old Realm script expounding upon his glories. One of his previous incarnations created the Crucible of Tarim, cementing his mastery of sorcery and alchemical principles. The Devil-Tiger that has become the Secret Inscribed in Blood has surpassed even this level of mastery of the art, having internalized a similar effect into his very blood and Essence.

By sacrificing a sufficient quantity of blood to inflict a health level of lethal damage as part of his Shape Sorcery action(s), the sorcerer can suspend the Cast Sorcery action for that spell until later. The spell's potential manifests in the form of a scarring pattern that occasionally weeps blood even once it has been healed.

Initially, this Charm can only be used to aid in casting Emerald Circle spells. Upon reaching Essence 5, this Charm becomes able to store Sapphire Circle spells as well. At Essence 6, the Charm expands again to accommodate Adamant Circle spells, providing the sorcerer is properly initiated into those circles of sorcery with the Sorcerous Enlightenment of The Secret Inscribed In Blood.

There is a finite limit to how many spells may be stored for later use in this fashion. Up to (Essence) Emerald Circle spells may be stored at once. The limit for Sapphire Circle spells is (Essence/2), rounded down, and the limit on Adamant Circle spells is (Essence/3), also rounded down. The scars created by this effect are vulnerable to countermagic of the appropriate circle and to mundane damage. Owing to their relatively small size hitting these scars sufficently to disrupt them requires a called shot that imposes a -2 external penalty in melee or a -4 penalty at range. If such an attack hits and deals even a single health level of damage, the spell is disrupted, dealing an additional health level of damage to the caster as the spell's magic violently explodes from his skin; the power of the spell is negated as if interrupted by a counterspell of the appropriate circle. The sorcerer may similarly dismiss the stored spells at will, reflexively snuffing out any or all of them.

Reclaiming Blood's Essence
Cost: –; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Native, Overdrive; Duration: Permanent; Prerequisite Charms: Power in the Blood

The power held within the orbs of blood that sometimes orbit the Secret Inscribed in Blood is volitale. When it is disrupted, it is easily released. With practice and effort, the Lifemaker learned to reclaim some measure of the power locked within those bloody spheres. This Charm creates a 10 mote Overdrive pool that operates in accordance with that keyword. Each time one of the scars created by this charm's prerequisite is destroyed by any means other than spellcasting or dismissal the warlock may reclaim two motes per circle of the spell which are channeled into the Overdrive pool. If this pool becomes full, it may bloat to accommodate up to ten extra motes, though the excess must be immediately spent at the earliest available opportunity or it is lost.

Blood Bag
Cost: -; Mins: Essence 3; Type: Permanent
Keywords: Native; Duration: Permanent; Prerequisite Charms: Flesh Made Whole, Power in the Blood
Fond of collecting samples from everyone he treats, the Bloody Sage gains a fragment of power from all whom he treats - even himself. This charm acts as an additional 10 mote Peripheral Essence pool that gains one mote for each health level restored to any target via Jorenian charms.

Avatar Reformating Prana
Cost: 6m; Mins: Essence 2; Type Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, Shaping
Duration: Indefinite; Prerequisite Charms: None
Taken at its most literal, the Secrets Inscribed in Blood are the genes of an individual. Putting reality to that literal interpretation, the warlock effects changes to his own genome to modify his bodily parameters.

This Charm costs (10-Essence) motes to activate. It allows the warlock to take a magical disguise action in which he may, if he likes, substitute his Appearance for his Intelligence on the roll. This Charm is explicitly unable to aid the Exalt in mimicing the appearance of another real person. It does enable the warlock to alter his physique, build, race, sex, vocal modulation, hair and eye color, scent, apparent age (though this aspect seems limited to adult appearances only), and height. This charm is unable to affect external markings or unnatural changes; if a character's hair is dyed bright pink, it remains dyed bright pink even if the natural color under the dye is modified. Similarly it is unable to remove or affect the appearances of scars or tattoos. This Charm is even capable of modifying the Exalts body to mimic bodies that are otherwise crippled or deformed with birth defects, though this increases the difficulty of the disguise roll by 3 as the Solar perfection that is the ultimate source of the warlock's power strains against this weakness. This charm is otherwise able to adjust the character's appearance within the naturally-available parameters of humanity.

These changes wrought by this Charm are changes to the body itself, and thus it is not an Illusion effect and cannot be penetrated as if it was one. However, the warlock may still be detected as himself by characters with inhuman sensory acuity, such as Lawgivers using Keen Sight Technique. Such characters can roll to discern the character's true identity (assuming they know him), but do so at a +4 difficulty penalty.

This charm may be repurchased at Essence 3. This allows the warlock to add three Willpower to the cost of the charm to make that particular activation Instant. This activation can only be used to disguise 'himself as himself' and is particular ill-suited to deception. The character loses the bonus to detection difficulties in exchange for more permanent effects. He becomes able to become, for example, himself but female or himself but fat. He remains ultimately, if only vaguely, recognizable as himself with this usage of the charm. This Charm, itself, retains knowledge of the character's original body format for use in comparing additional changes wrought by this charm to determine their validity. As a side effect, the warlock is always able to return to his original appearance. As these changes are both real and permanent, they do not trigger any disguise-detecting effects or senses when observed.