The Nick of Time

The Nick of Time (Connect ••••)

 * Action: Full turn
 * Dice pool: Intelligence + Persuasion
 * Cost: 3 Wisps, 1 Willpower
 * Duration: lasting

When all seems lost, the Noble reaches across time to send out a call for aid, and bends fate to guide her allies swiftly to her side.
 * Dramatic Failure: The Noble feels a sudden crushing sense of abandonment. She must make a compromise roll, at a -3 penalty.
 * Failure: The Noble cannot reach any of her friends.
 * Success: The Noble may use any of her Social Merits that represent her relationships with other people to call for help with her current troubles, even if it’s physically impossible for her to reach them - distance, lack of a phone, and imprisonment are no obstacle to her need. Messages from her travel back in time, if necessary, to find her friends and allies, and fate ensures that anyone she calls will reach her with aid before the current scene ends. These magically supported calls count as normal uses of the Merits for the current session; if the Noble has used up her favors from an Allies Merit, for example, the Charm won’t give her more.


 * Furthermore, the Noble can reach out to NPCs she has encountered before during the campaign who were well-disposed to her and, if the Storyteller agrees, declare that they have been guided by fate to a place where they can and will help her out during the current scene. That warrior lodge of Darkspawn hunters the Noble met in the uncharted heart of the Amazon rainforest? Turns out they knew an international secret society of monster hunters who can arrange transportation and they’ll show up in the heart of London ready to fight. The chef she saved from bankruptcy? Well an army marches on its stomach. The Charm cannot do the impossible, but it is very powerful magic and can accomplish the improbable.


 * The extent of the help that previously encountered NPCs are ready to provide is limited; they count as a single temporary Allies Merit with a rating equal to the Noble’s activation successes. The Merit vanishes at the end of the session, whether used or not.
 * Exceptional Success: The extra successes are their own reward.