Vuoto

Charms of Vuoto drain away light and create despair by their use; the Queen of Tears favors them. They branch at 4 dots into the Night Terror and Void Whisperer paths.

Using a Vuoto charm is a sin against Belief (8 - the level of the Charm). So Cloak of the Void is a Belief 7 sin, Queen’s Sorrow is a Belief 6 sin, and so on. A Princess only has to make the degeneration roll the first time she uses each Charm in a scene.

Cloak of the Void (*)
Cost: 1 Wisp

Dice Pool: Dexterity + Stealth + Vuoto

Action: Instant

Through use of vacuums, you mask the sound of your actions. For a number of turns equal to the successes rolled, your movements and actions are utterly silent. The things you touch are likewise affected. For example, you could walk through a pile of leaves or open a squeaky door and not make a sound. However, you can still create noise indirectly. For example, if by bumping into the table you knocked the glass on it over, the glass would make noise.

Queen's Sorrow (**)
Cost: 1 Wisp

Dice Pool: Manipulation + Expression + Vuoto vs. Composure + Inner Light.

Action: Instant, contested

You overwhelm the target with a feeling of despair and inability to make any difference in the world. For the rest of the scene, the target may not spend willpower to gain +3 on a roll or boost a Resistance attribute by 2. However, a target can use willpower to activate abilities (such as high level Charms, supernatural powers or items, or abilities granted by fighting style merits).

In addition, whenever a target regains willpower, he gets a Composure + Inner Light roll. If he gets more successes on that roll than you did on the activation roll, he throws off the effects of the Charm.

Crossover Note: This Charm does not prevent a Hunter from risking willpower, although it does prevent him from spending it normally. At this level of power, you cannot cause a despair strong enough to strangle the obsessive focus that allows a Hunter to risk Willpower.

Sphere of Oblivion (***)
Cost: 2 Wisps

Dice Pool: Dexterity + Athletics + Vuoto - target's Defense

Action: Instant, resisted

You unleash an icy sphere of nothingness at her target, devoid of air, heat and light. The target takes a number of points of lethal damage equal to the number of successes rolled.

Empty Heart (****, Night Terror path)
Cost: 2 Wisps

Dice Pool: Stamina + Persuasion + Vuoto

Action: 1 full turn

You become a being of Darkness, a manifestation of the Void. Your skin becomes sallow, your hair either whitens or darkens, depending on how light it was to begin with, and your pupils expand to fill your entire eye, making you look unhealthy but undeniably human. The transformation lasts 1 scene.

The transformation lasts 1 scene. While it lasts, you have all the benefits and drawbacks of the Darkened template. In addition, for each dot of Shadows you have when using this Charm, you gain an Umbra. Which Umbrae you have at each level of Shadows is fixed the first time you use Empty Heart while carrying that level. That is, you choose the Umbra you get from your first dot in Shadows when you first use the Charm while you have at least 1 Shadows; you choose the Umbra from the second dot when you first use the Charm while you have at least 2 Shadows, and so forth.

''Example: Opal Star Cuyler has 1 dot in Shadows the first time she uses Empty Heart. She is trying to discover whether a bureaucrat is corruptible, so she chooses the Umbra Taste of Sin. Later on, she wants to talk the bureaucrat into altering his records, and uses Empty Heart again; this time she has 2 dots in Shadows. She gains Taste of Sin, and chooses Subtle Tongue for her second Umbra. Whenever she uses Empty Heart with 1 dot of Shadows in future, she will have Taste of Sin; when she uses it with 2 or more dots of Shadows, she will have Taste of Sin and Subtle Tongue.''

Mask of Alhambra (*****, Night Terror path)
Wrapping yourself in the darkness in which the only true remnants of the Kingdom reside, you become a true, immaterial figure of shadow. Glowing eyes may glare from the head of the figure, or it may be a featureless mask. Occasionally, long-lost stars twinkle within the cut-out from the universe, before being swiftly extinguished. Certainly, there is no way that you could be mistaken for human.

Cost: 2 Wisps, 1 Shadow

Dice Pool: Presence + Stealth + Vuoto

Action: Instant
 * Dramatic Failure:You only attract the Darkness. You gain Inner Light dots in Shadows.
 * Failure: The power simply does not activate.
 * Success: You become a living figure of the void for the rest of the scene.
 * Exceptional Success: You may become a figure of the void until the next sunrise, changing between that form and any others you possess as if it were your transformed state.

While transformed, you retain all Mental and Social Attributes and Skills, but suffer a penalty equal to half your successes (rounding up) to all interactions with mortals, with the exception of Intimidation, which gains a bonus equal to half your successes, rounding up. You cannot use your Physical Attributes, but your Speed is quadrupled. You have a close combat attack that does bashing damage, with a dice pool of Inner Light + Vuoto, and takes a point of Willpower from the target each time it hits. (Many Princesses prefer to take their time while in this form, landing light blows leaving their foe chilled to the bone and terrified, before getting to work on them with other methods.)

Moreover, you are effectively immaterial, in the state of Twilight. Only things which can hit Twilight beings, or attacks which involve strong light (such as fire, magical attacks which use light as a component, or industrial-grade lasers (what kind of a game are you playing?)) can hit you; all other attacks pass harmlessly through. If a single attack does more than 3 points of damage, though, the shadows are shredded, and you are forced back into your normal form, and lose a point of Willpower from the psychic shock. If you rolled an exceptional success, you cannot reassume the shadow form for the rest of the scene, or until the next sunset, whichever comes last; if you rolled a normal success, being forced back to normal form ends the Charm.

Until the Charm ends, you have all the benefits and drawbacks of the Darkened template, whether or not you are currently transformed. You do not, however, gain Umbrae as you would if you used Empty Heart, and you may not use Empty Heart while you are transformed by this Charm. The transformation of this Charm immediately ends Empty Heart, if that Charm is active.

Tendril of Nothing (****, Void Whisperer path)
The void can seep into every mind. Give in, it says. Do not resist. Give up, and let your sorrows drown you.

Cost: 2 Wisps, 1 Willpower

Dice Pool: Manipulation + Larceny + Vuoto - target's Composure

Action: Instant
 * Dramatic Failure: You let the void only into your own mind. You suffer from the Melancholia derangement until the next full moon.
 * Failure: The power simply does not activate.
 * Success: The stillness of the void settles into the heart and mind of your foe. They suffer -1 to all Resistance Attributes for the rest of the scene, to a minimum of 1. This affects stats derived from the Resistance Attributes, too; for example, a Size 5 character with Stamina 3, Resolve 3 and Composure 2 will only have an effective Stamina of 2, Resolve of 2, and Composure of 1, for the rest of the scene, also affecting their Health (reduced to 7), and their Willpower (reduced to 3). If the character would die due to the removal of hitboxes, whether when activating the power or if they take sufficent damage when it is active, the power automatically ends (which means that a character whose boxes are full of aggravated suddenly has an empty health box at the end of their track, saving their life).
 * Exceptional Success: Such a show of force terrifies the foe, showing them the foolishness of standing up to you. In addition to the other effects, they suffer from the Depression derangement until the next time they see the sun.

No Choice, No Hope (*****, Void Whisperer path)
Cost: 2 Wisps, 1 Willpower

Dice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion + Vuoto - targets' highest Resolve, modified by Commonalty

Action: Extended and resisted; each roll is one minute.

Your voice acquires the blighting and consuming quality of the void, sapping the wills of those who hear you and bringing them under your sway for a time. For each success you roll, each person in the group you target with No Choice, No Hope loses a point of Willpower, feeling drowned in apathy. Any of your targets who still have Willpower left when you stop casting roll their Wits + Composure at -5 to realize that the despair they felt was not natural.

Targets who run out of Willpower due to No Choice, No Hope become very suggestible. For the rest of the scene, or until they regain Willpower, they will carry out any order or suggestion you give them (though, being without Willpower, they won't do so with any imagination or drive.)

If you roll a dramatic failure while casting No Choice, No Hope, your targets instantly realize you are responsible for their moments of despair and react with outrage. The Charm immediately ends (though lost Willpower is not restored) and you cannot cast it on those targets, or any group they belong to, for a full 24 hours.

Orisons
Dice pool: Intelligence + Occult

First: Add 9-again to Persuasion rolls to convince another to abandon something.

Second: For the rest of the scene, if anyone gets an exceptional success that would be detrimental to you, its exceptional effect is nullified -- treat the roll as a normal success. Any effects that vary by the number of successes rolled do not weaken. Using this Orison is a Belief 8 or Morality 9 sin.

Third: The next thing you touch with your emblem becomes a focus of Darklings' hate. For the rest of the scene, any Darkling that can perceive the cursed object will attack it, passing up all other targets. Inanimate objects will be attacked until they are destroyed; living beings, until they are killed. Using this Orison is a Belief 7 or Morality 8 sin.

Vuoto, unlike most Charms, has a common 4-dot Orison:

Fourth: Spend 2 Willpower, or 1 Willpower and 1 Wisp. Your emblem becomes a key to Alhambra's gates. Spend a full round (forgoing Defense) to activate it. A circle 1 yard in radius, centered on you, becomes completely dark for a round, and anyone in that circle is taken to a specific place in Alhambra. This Orison does nothing in Alhambra -- it's strictly a one-way ticket. Using this Orison is a Belief 7 or Morality 9 sin in itself, apart from any issues with taking other people along.

The target number for Vuoto's Orisons is your Belief or Morality, not 11 - Belief/Morality.