Subsumed by Another Shadow

Subsumed by Another Shadow
Whenever the character comes within (Willpower + number of Umbrae) yards of a Darkspawn, he reflexively and automatically rolls Presence + Resolve, contested by the Resolve + Composure of the Darkspawn. The character makes this roll separately for each Darkspawn he meets, but no more often than once a scene. If the character gets more successes, the Darkspawn believes him to be its natural superior, and will seek to protect him as best it can, and gratify what it thinks are his desires. It will continue to do so until it has been separated from the character for (Willpower + number of Umbrae) hours; after that, it forgets the character’s existence.

The character can try to give his servant an order as an instant action; the dice pool is Presence + Composure, and the order can have no more than (successes) conditions (so, “Break the light” is one, while “Break the light outside” is two.) By default, a Darkspawn servant will also use all its powers/abilities to prevent others from seeing it, but it will break cover if an order requires it. The one order it won’t obey is to leave and not return.

Drawback: Of course, most people don’t really want vicious Darkness-beasts following them around. Darkspawn servants consistently assume that their master wants them to do harm, and will kill or wreck anything that seems to be an obstacle, or even inconvenience, for him. Any expression of dislike for somebody, even for a trivial reason (being pushed aside by a passing stranger, say) might inspire the Darkspawn to deliver his severed head to the character’s doorstep. In addition, most Darkspawn aren’t the prettiest of things, and being followed by monsters that don’t seem to show themselves to others is quite nasty on the psyche.

Darkspawn that possess this Umbrae are immune to its effects; they are not going to serve another, and will often attack anyone or anything else which possesses it. Moreover, they seem prone to retaining a worrying cunning quite unlike human intelligence; the limited use of language (enough to call out “help me” in a normal voice while trying to lure someone in), tactics (send weaker ones to make a noise outside while it and the stronger ones it controls come in through the roof), and the ability to control other Darkspawn make them notably more dangerous, especially since there is no way, on sight, to tell them apart.