Fleeting Winter Contract (Winter)

These Contracts are derived from the pacts the Court founders made with their respective seasons. Each Court has two associated Contracts, the Fleeting Season Contract (associated with emotions) and the Eternal Season Contract (associated with more physical aspects of that season).

Court Contracts also have prerequisites that a character have the right Court's Mantle at a rating equal to one less than the rating of the clause. When a clause has a required Mantle rating, characters from other Courts may substitute the appropriate Court Goodwill rating at two dots higher. Anyone may learn a Court Contract's one-dot clauses -- they are teasers, and they occasionally draw new members to a Court.

If a character's Mantle or Court Goodwill ratings change (most likely because the character has changed Courts), the character will find it harder to use his Contracts due to something similar to a no-compete clause. If a character's Mantle or Court Goodwill rating ever falls below the amount required for a particular clause, he must pay the difference in extra Glamour points every time he uses it. This extra cost cannot be circumvented in any way, even if the character is somehow able to use a catch or otherwise reduce the cost of the clause. In addition, the clause can no longer generate an exceptional success result even if the player rolls exceptionally well, the extra successes are still counted but the result is treated as equivalent to a regular success and receives no additional benefits.

Repeated use of a clause without meeting the Mantle or Court Goodwill prerequisites nettles the appropriate Court. If a character uses a clause that he is no longer "entitled to" within the sight of a member of the appropriate Court, the Court becomes wroth with him. He can no longer gain any bonus Social dice from appropriate Merits when dealing with members of that Court, until he has somehow regained their favor (usually by accomplishing some difficult task for the Court's benefit).

The Fleeting Winter Contracts allow a changeling to manipulate the signature emotion of the Court: Sorrow.


[ 1 ] The Dragon Knows ( Changeling: The Lost -- Page 160 )

The character can tell why a person is sorrowful, guessing her regrets with but a glance.

Prerequisite: None

Cost: 1 Glamour

Dice Pool: Wyrd + Empathy - subject's Composure

Action: Instant

Catch: The character looks into the subject's eyes for a moment.

Dramatic Failure: The character cannot figure out why the subject is sad, but it afflicts the character as well. His mood lasts the rest of the scene and inflicts a -1 die penalty on his Social dice pools.

Failure: The character fails to discover the subject's regrets.

Success: The character discovers the root of the subject's sorrow. This Clause reveals only the cause of the sorrow the subject feels now, and returns no result at all (even if successfully used) if the subject is not currently experiencing sorrow (or sadness or another similar emotion).

Exceptional Success: If the subject is not currently sad but was within the last hour, the character finds out the cause of that and why it ended.

Suggested Modifiers: The emotion is evident (+1); The subject is hard to see (-1).


[ 2 ] Slipknot Dreams ( Changeling: The Lost -- Page 161 )

The changeling forces a person to forget about her sorrows just long enough to deal with the matters at hand.

Prerequisite: Mantle (Winter) 1 or Court Goodwill (Winter) 3

Cost: 1 Glamour

Dice Pool: Manipulation + Subterfuge + Mantle (Winter) - subject's Resolve

Action: Instant

Catch: The subject has accepted something from the character within the past 24 hours.

Dramatic Failure: The subject becomes even more sad, making it even more difficult to deal with her.

Failure: The character fails to put off the subject's sorrows.

Success: The subject completely forgets why she feels sad, or even that she was sad just a moment ago. She acts as though everything were perfectly all right for a number of minutes equal to the successes rolled.

Exceptional Success: The character may, if he so desires, cause the subject to remain blissfully ignorant for a full hour.

Suggested Modifiers: Minor or distant sorrow (goldfish died, weeping over the state of the world) (+1); Deeply personal tragedy (entire branch of the family dead in accident) (-2).


[ 3 ] Faces In The Water ( Changeling: The Lost -- Page 161 )

The subject remembers a sad memory from her past and dwells on it, filling herself with sorrow.

Prerequisite: Mantle (Winter) 2 or Court Goodwill (Winter) 4

Cost: 1 Glamour

Dice Pool: Intelligence + Investigation + Mantle (Winter) - subject's Composure

Action: Instant

Catch: The subject is carrying a photograph (or other image) of an older relative or ancestor on her person.

Dramatic Failure: The attempt fails, and the subject is immune to the character's Fleeting Winter Contracts for one full day.

Failure: The subject remains unaffected.

Success: The subject recalls one sad or painful memory, and it causes her sorrow. The character has no influence over what memory surfaces. The subject's Social rolls suffer a dice penalty equal to half the number of the character's successes; the same penalty is applied to people attempting to influence the subject. The recollection and sorrow last for one scene.

Exceptional Success: The character may also choose to trigger another such event (which may or may not be a different memory) at a set time within the next 24 hours.

Suggested Modifiers: The subject has a doleful personality (+1); The subject is naturally upbeat (-1); Something good just happened to the subject (-1); The subject has no genuinely sad memories (a truly innocent child, for instance) (-3).


[ 4 ] Fallow Fields, Empty Harvest ( Changeling: The Lost -- Page 161 )

The character eliminates a person's ability to experience positive emotions for a significant period of time.

Prerequisite: Mantle (Winter) 3 or Court Goodwill (Winter) 5

Cost: 2 Glamour

Dice Pool: Manipulation + Intimidation + Mantle (Winter) vs. Composure + Wyrd

Action: Contested; resistance is reflexive.

Catch: The character has made the subject happy (or happier) within the last 10 minutes.

Dramatic Failure: The subject remains capable of positive emotions and becomes immune to the character's Fleeting Winter Contracts for one full day.

Failure: The character does not affect the subject.

Success: The subject loses all capability to experience positive emotions such as joy, happiness and variations thereon for one day per success rolled. She becomes unable to regain Willpower by acting on her Virtues or Vices, and suffers a -2 dice penalty to all Social rolls.

Exceptional Success: The subject's positive emotions remain deadened until the changeling releases them.

Suggested Modifiers: The subject is already sad (+1); The subject is experiencing positive emotions currently (-1); The subject's positive emotions are notably strong (-2).


[ 5 ] Every Sorrow A Jewel ( Changeling: The Lost -- Page 162 )

The character magnifies the emotions of a person already feeling sorrowful to such extremes that the subject becomes incapable of taking any action.

Prerequisite: Mantle (Winter) 4

Cost: 3 Glamour + 1 Willpower

Dice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion + Mantle (Winter) vs. Composure + Wyrd

Action: Contested; resistance is reflexive.

Catch: The subject has tasted one of the changeling's tears.

Dramatic Failure: The subject remains only moderately sad, but the character is momentarily overcome with great sadness. He loses his Defense until his next action.

Failure: The character fails to inflate the subject's emotions.

Success: The subject's sorrow grows to unmanageable proportions. She can do nothing beyond curl up and feel terrible for a number of turns equal to the successes rolled. The subject may take no actions and may not move but retains her Defense. This Contract affects only subjects already feeling sorrow.

Exceptional Success: The subject's emotion so overwhelms her that she loses her Defense for the Contract's duration.

Suggested Modifiers: The subject's sorrow is already great (+2); The subject's sorrow is strong (+1); The subject's sorrow is quite minor (-1)