Goccia Astrale

Goccia Astrale (•••)

 * Action: Instant
 * Dice pool: Intelligence + Crafts
 * Cost: 2+ Wisps
 * Duration: variable

"I can’t be in two places at once!" is an all-too-common complaint from just about anyone; the Hopeful especially find it necessary to be two people at once, when mundane obligations interfere with fighting a supernatural incursion. With this Charm a Princess can partly resolve such dilemmas, by making a facsimile of her mundane self that moves and speaks, and can pass as herself if not examined too closely.

The Noble applies the Charm to a mass of material that she can shape barehanded, or else a quantity of fluid, of roughly Size 2 (Applying some Invocations allows unusual choices of material - see the table for examples). Infusing this material with Wisps, she transforms it into an Astral Droplet: an exact physical copy of herself just before her last transformation, wearing identical clothing. The Droplet has the same mundane Attributes and Skills as its creator, and access to all her memories as of the time of its creation. However, it lacks energy and imagination; it does not get 10-again on any dice pool, or any other quality that allows rerolling dice, cannot spend Willpower, and has neither Virtue nor Vice. The Droplet is also fragile - a single point of damage of any type is enough to dissolve it into the stuff it was made of and glimmers of light. Finally, the Droplet has none of the Noble’s Light-derived powers, even Practical Magic.

The Droplet’s basic duration is 30 minutes for each activation success. The Noble may choose to extend the duration by spending more Wisps than the minimum of 2 - each extra Wisp doubles the time before the Droplet disintegrates, cumulatively. She cannot, however, spend more Wisps for this purpose than half her Inner Light, rounded up. She may choose the total number of Wisps spent after the activation roll, though she must spend at least 2. She may end the Charm prematurely by touching the Droplet and concentrating for a turn. A Noble cannot create a second Droplet before the first Droplet dissolves - the Charm just fails if she tries.

By default the Droplet is an automaton which follows any instruction given to it which does not pose a threat of physical harm, and otherwise stays wherever it is put; it takes no action on its own. If the Noble applies an Invocation to the Charm, the Droplet formed has some initiative and the rudiments of a personality; in the absence of clear instructions it follows the tenets of the applied Invocation, to the extent allowed by the knowledge and abilities the Noble possesses.

Integrated
It’s often useful to know what your double has been doing during your absence. If the Noble dissolves her Droplet prematurely by touching it and concentrating, she can recall to memory a description of the actions the Droplet took and the events it saw and heard. A roll to recall any detail of the account is at -2 in addition to any other penalties.

Lifelike

 * Requires Specchio •••

The Lightbringers are able to put reflections of their minds and wills into the Droplets they make ... though "shards" or "fragments" may be a better choice of words. When the Noble applies Lifelike, the Droplet gains a nearly-human initiative and will; it has the Belief dots, Virtue and Vice of its creator, gets 10-again on its dice pools, can benefit from other qualities that permit rerolls, and may spend and regain Willpower (though it begins with none.) The first time the Noble creates this Droplet, its personality exactly matches her own (including any derangements) and aside from the physical reflection they can’t be told apart.

Drawback: By creating a Lifelike Droplet a Noble actually divides her mind in two. The Droplet’s personality does not vanish when its body dissolves; it continues within the mind of its creator, in a state rather like sleep, until she makes another Lifelike Droplet. At that moment it wakes and inhabits the new-made body. As a creation of Specchio the Droplet believes in its excellence and right to rule, but it can only exist as a mortal shadow of its creator. This soon becomes irksome, if not intolerable.

Each time the Noble applies Lifelike, she must make a breaking point roll (with Specchio’s drawback in force, if she used the Invocation) with a penalty of -2 if she currently has a Condition from an earlier compromise, and -0 otherwise. Instead of the normal results, if she fails, the Droplet’s desire for independence comes to the fore, and it will do what it can to avoid dissolving and reintegrating with its creator. It can lengthen the Charm’s duration by spending its own Willpower; it may spend 1 point each day for this, which adds 24 hours of continued embodiment. (The Droplet cannot do this if the Resolve + Composure check succeeds.) Just what the Droplet does is up to the Storyteller, but it should not try anything that involves a breaking point.

If the Noble applies Integrated and Lifelike, all her memories since the Droplet’s first creation become available to it on the same terms as its are available to her after she dissolves it. Other than that, neither personality can remember what the other has done.