Xallace
2013-06-13, 10:05 AM
A good while ago, my gaming group stumbled across a fan-made key for White Wolf's Geist: The Sin-Eaters called "The Hearse." The concept was really cool - a manifestation about travel and transition.
The execution of that homebrew was quality, but not to our taste. So of course, a couple of us put our heads together and wrote up a new version! Hope you enjoy!
The Hearse Manifestation
The hearse is death as a transition. It is the manifestation of ends and beginnings, of moving from one state to another, from place to place. Unlocking the hearse manifestation allows a sin-eater some form of movement, unbinding, or transportation.
Key Attribute: Dexterity
Action: Instant
Cost: 1 Plasm
Roll: Dexterity + Key Skill + Hearse
Dramatic Failure: The sin-eater cannot try to unlock the hearse manifestation again for the rest of the scene.
Failure: Nothing happens, and the plasm is wasted.
Success: As per each individual description.
Exceptional Success: As a success, but the sin-eater regains the plasm used to unlock the manifestation.
The Elemental Hearses
The Cold-Wind Hearse
Key Skill: Occult
The cold-wind hearse allows the sin-eater to transport himself and others through the medium of air. The Sin-Eater must be outside, in an area of limited visibility - most often through weather condition, but equally through dense smoke or smog. The initial ability of this manifestation allows the sin-eater to transport herself through such conditions instantaneously up to a number of miles equal to her activation successes, without crossing the intervening space. She can appear outside in an instance of limited visibility.
When the sin-eater unlocks this manifestation, she pictures the area at which she wishes to arrive. If the area does not meet the requirements as a destination, she instead appears at the nearest appropriate arrival area.
●● The sin-eater can now transport the living and ghosts along with her. She spends 1 additional plasm per passenger, and each passenger must be either touching her directly or touching someone who is touching her for the duration of the trip.
●●● Upon attaining the third dot of this manifestation, the Bound can cause a dense fog to roll in, just long enough to activate this manifestation. The sin-eater must pay an additional plasm. Mist rises from the ground or rolls in on the wind, allowing the sin-eater and any passengers to step through. Likewise, such mist appears at the destination of the trip so that the sin-eater can exit.
●●●● The sin-eater can now enter the underworld using this power, instead of transporting herself across the living world. The sin-eater pays an addition plasm and cannot bring anyone with her. As the smoke clears, the sin-eater finds herself in the Upper Mysteries.
●●●●● At this stage, the sin-eater can bring passengers into the underworld. She pays 2 plasm per passenger, and it otherwise functions as Cold-Wind Hearse ●●.
The Grave-Dirt Hearse
Key Skill: Occult
The grave-dirt hearse allows the sin-eater to transport himself and others through the medium of earth. The Sin-Eater must be in a pit, cave, or tunnel that is so deep or so dark that she cannot see the bottom (in the case of a pit) or the end (in the case of a tunnel). The initial ability of this manifestation allows the sin-eater to instantaneously transport herself through such conditions, up to a number of miles equal to her activation successes, without crossing the intervening space. She can appear anywhere within that range, so long as it is within a pit, cave, or tunnel that meets requirements.
When the sin-eater unlocks this manifestation, she pictures the area at which she wishes to arrive. If the area does not meet the requirements as a destination, she instead appears at the nearest appropriate arrival area.
●● The sin-eater can now transport the living and ghosts along with her. She spends 1 additional plasm per passenger, and each passenger must be either touching her directly or touching someone who is touching her for the duration of the trip.
●●● Upon attaining the third dot of this manifestation, the Bound can call darkness into the earth, shrouding it and allowing her passage. The sin-eater must pay an additional plasm. Shadows deepen within the earth, shrouding the far side of any hole or tunnel into which she enters, just long enough to use as transport. Likewise, where the sin-eater appears, darkness wells up within the earth.
●●●● The sin-eater can now enter the underworld using this power, instead of transporting herself across the living world. The sin-eater pays an addition plasm and cannot bring anyone with her. As the Bound continues down the tunnel, she finds herself in the Upper Mysteries.
●●●●● At this stage, the sin-eater can bring passengers into the underworld. She pays 2 plasm per passenger, and it otherwise functions as Grave-Dirt Hearse ●●.
The Pyre-Flame Hearse
Key Skill: Occult
The pyre-flame hearse allows the sin-eater to transport herself and others through the medium of fire. The Sin-Eater must be in a fire that is at least large enough to consume a human body, which deals her no damage upon paying the plasm, whether or not she succeeds on the roll. The initial ability of this manifestation allows the sin-eater to instantaneously transport herself through such conditions, up to a number of miles equal to her activation successes, without crossing the intervening space. She appears within another fire, although it can be as small as a fireplace.
When the sin-eater unlocks this manifestation, she pictures the area at which she wishes to arrive. If the area does not meet the requirements as a destination, she instead appears at the nearest appropriate arrival area.
●● The sin-eater can now transport the living and ghosts along with her. She spends 1 additional plasm per passenger, and each passenger must be either touching her directly or touching someone who is touching her for the duration of the trip.
●●● Upon attaining the third dot of this manifestation, the Bound can flare up a fire to bonfire-size, just long enough to use as transport.. The sin-eater must pay an additional plasm. The fire explodes upwards into a roaring column, allowing the sin-eater to step inside. Her destination likewise intensifies.
●●●● The sin-eater can now enter the underworld using this power, instead of transporting herself across the living world. The sin-eater pays an additional plasm and cannot bring anyone with her. As the fire dies down, the sin-eater finds herself in the Upper Mysteries.
●●●●● At this stage, the sin-eater can bring passengers into the underworld. She pays 2 plasm per passenger, and it otherwise functions as Pyre-Flame Hearse ●●.
The Tear-Stained Hearse
Key Skill: Occult
The tear-stained hearse allows the sin-eater to transport himself and others through the medium of water. The Sin-Eater must be in water that is at least waist deep, and she must not be able to see the bottom, either through depth or darkness. The initial ability of this manifestation allows the sin-eater to instantaneously transport herself through such conditions, up to a number of miles equal to her activation successes, without crossing the intervening space. She appears within another body of water, which must also be at least waist-deep and dark enough to obscure the bottom.
When the sin-eater unlocks this manifestation, she pictures the area at which she wishes to arrive. If the area does not meet the requirements as a destination, she instead appears at the nearest appropriate arrival area.
●● The sin-eater can now transport the living and ghosts along with her. She spends 1 additional plasm per passenger, and each passenger must be either touching her directly or touching someone who is touching her for the duration of the trip.
●●● Upon attaining the third dot of this manifestation, the Bound can blacken the waters in which she moves, just long enough to use as transport.. The sin-eater must pay an additional plasm. Light reflects strangely along the water, obscuring the bottom and allowing the sin-eater passage. Likewise, any pool from which she emerges will darken and ripple.
●●●● The sin-eater can now enter the underworld using this power, instead of transporting herself across the living world. The sin-eater pays an addition plasm and cannot bring anyone with her. As the water drains away, the sin-eater finds herself in the Upper Mysteries.
●●●●● At this stage, the sin-eater can bring passengers into the underworld. She pays 2 plasm per passenger, and it otherwise functions as Tear-Stained Hearse ●●.
Other Keys
The Industrial Hearse
Key Skill: Investigation
The Bound who unlocks the Industrial Hearse plays the part of the vanishing hitchhiker. The sin-eater envisions his destination within 10 + Psyche miles while standing on or next to a human-constructed road. The quality of the road doesn’t matter - a new highway works just as well as an old country road. The roll suffers no anachrotech penalties, but the Sin-Eater takes a -4 penalty to the roll if the road is dirt or gravel.
If the Bound successfully unlocks the Industrial Hearse, he need only wait; within minutes, a car will come to the sin-eater’s location and its driver will offer the sin-eater a ride. The sin-eater has no control over who stops to lend a hand, only that someone does. While it’s usually just an average, mortal motorist, sometimes the only car in the area is a police cruiser - or a gang van.
The driver is not compelled to take orders from the sin-eater, but can be influenced with social skills or manifestations as normal. The driver may also simply refuse to take the sin-eater if there’s anything particularly suspicious about him, such as if he’s covered in blood or visibly carrying weapons (and the sin-eater can’t come up with a good cover story). Barring these things, the driver will happily help out the stranded hitchhiker and drive them the direction the sin-eater wants to go.
At any point during the trip, the sin-eater (and only the sin-eater) may reflexively disappear from the car, appearing without momentum anywhere the sin-eater desires within 30 yards of the roadside, and out of sight of the driver. The sin-eater cannot appear in other cars this way.
●● The sin-eater can quicken her passage by directing her vehicle down shortcuts... ones that haven’t existed for years. Closed roads, broken bridges, collapsed tunnels, and more manifest to the car’s occupants as they did at the height of their use. To use this ability, the sin-eater spends 1 plasm and rolls Dexterity + Investigation + activation successes. Each success divides the travel time by 1 + successes, so 1 success cuts the travel time in half, 2 successes cut the travel time by ⅓, and so on. The sin-eater does not need to be in control of the vehicle to take advantage of this level of Industrial Hearse, but must direct the driver where she wants to go.
You may now unlock Industrial Hearse while in any vehicle, but doing so only grants you access to the ●● power.
●●● At this level, the sin-eater may appear in any vehicle she can see when disappearing from a vehicle, as per the ● power. The target vehicle must have at least one open seat in which she can appear. If the sin-eater spends 2 plasm, she is invisible in the new vehicle, save for one instance: the first time the driver looks in the rear-view mirror, she sees the sin-eater as she is. When he turns to look at the seat, the sin-eater is gone from view for the rest of the trip, and her image subsequently disappears from the mirror.
●●●● At the 4th dot, your Geist ensnares the vehicle in its ectoplasmic tendrils, connecting you to the vehicle and its driver. This connection suppresses any suspicion that would come with your current situation - blood, weapons, the severed head of that vampire from around the way. You gain a bonus equal to your activation successes on any roll made to convince the driver to take you, such as making up a cover story or intimidating.
Further, you get an immediate sense of all accidents that the car and driver have ever been in. At any time during the ride, you may focus on any of these accidents as an Instant action and receive a vision of the event. If you spend 1 point of plasm, your senses extend into the immediate future instead - you gain a vision of any vehicular accident, assault, or other vehicular-related damage that the car or driver might suffer within the day.
If you unlocked Industrial Hearse while in a vehicle not summoned by the ● power, you gain access to both the 2nd dot of the manifestation and the visions detailed here.
●●●●● If you are present in a vehicle while Industrial Hearse is unlocked, you can spend 2 plasm and a point of Willpower to count the vehicle as a part of your body for the purpose of using other manifestations. For example, if you unlock Phantasmal Caul after unlocking this manifestation, your car becomes malleable and can add activation successes to appropriately-justified physical actions.
The Shroud and Caul manifestations most often apply, but some creative uses may allows you to use other manifestations, as well. For example, driving underwater until you drown would allow you to bring the car with you during the subsequent astral projection of Tear-Stained Oracle.
The Passion Hearse
Key Skill: Empathy
The sin-eater gains the power to transfer memories between herself and a willing target. This requires the sin-eater to touch the target when unlocking the manifestation. The sin-eater may both give and receive memories using this manifestation; either way, the partner whose memories are to be transferred calls them to the front of his mind, where they are sucked away and into the recipient. The receiver now remembers both the content and emotional impact of the memories as though they were his, while the partner from whom they were transferred can no longer recall them at all.
This transfer lasts for a scene, at the end of which the memories return to their original owner, no matter the distance. The transfer may be made permanent if both partners spend a Willpower point as the manifestation is unlocked.
●● A sin-eater at this stage may steal memories from an unwilling target. The target rolls Resolve + Psyche as a reflexive, contested action against the sin-eater. If the sin-eater succeeds and exceeds the target’s roll, he may rip a memory from the target’s mind and transfer it to his own. He may not spend a Willpower point to make the transfer permanent.
The sin-eater may steal up to one scene of memory from the target. The Bound must declare what sort of memory he intends to steal, such as “the last hour,” “her 16th birthday party,” or “our date last Monday.” If the victim has no such memory, the plasm is wasted.
The memory remains in the sin-eater for one day before suddenly and vividly returning to the victim. If the sin-eater exceptionally succeeded when stealing the target’s memory, it returns subtly, only making itself known if the target would be prompted to remember it.
●●● The sin-eater may now unlock Passion Hearse at a range of Psyche + Hearse in yards. She may also transfer memories between two willing targets, instead of between herself and a target. The Bound spends the plasm and rolls to unlock as normal, but memories are transferred between two willing creatures within range, instead.
●●●● When the sin-eater unlocks Passion Hearse ●●, he may now make it permanent by spending a Willpower dot. Further, the sin-eater can now transfer a subject’s memories (willing or unwilling) into an object for storage. The object must be within the manifestation’s range, but can be anything with at least one point of structure, and the sin-eater spends 1 extra point of plasm when unlocking the manifestation. The memory remains within the object until the sin-eater spends 1 plasm to transfer it to his own mind, where it remains for a scene. If the object is destroyed before the sin-eater transfers it out, or at the end of the scene in which the sin-eater transfers the memory, the memory returns to its original owner.
●●●●● The sin-eater can transfer a target’s capabilities by transferring the memories of learning them. The sin-eater spends 1 additional plasm and a point of Willpower when unlocking the manifestation, and the target may make a Resolve + Psyche roll to resist if they are unwilling. Successes cancel out the sin-eater’s successes.
The sin-eater transfers 1 dot of skill or merit per net success, and the recipient gains the transferred dots. For example, if the sin-eater with no dots in Medicine transfers one dot of medicine from a target with Medicine ●●●, the target now has Medicine ●● and the sin-eater has Medicine ●. To transfer a merit, the sin-eater must accumulate enough successes to transfer the merit in the increments it was bought. For example, a fighting style may be transferred dot-for-dot, but a two-dot Ceremony requires two successes to transfer.
This manifestation may not transfer merit dots that represent personal items or property (such as Memento) or merits that represent innate traits (such as Medium or Striking Looks). Stealing most social merits (such as Contacts or Allies) will cause the target to forget that such resources are available, but do not immediately become helpful to the sin-eater.
Generally, it’s up to storyteller ruling as to what merits can be transferred. Transferred merits and skills last for the scene before returning to their rightful owner. The sin-eater cannot make these transfers permanent.
The Phantasmal Hearse
Key Skill: Persuasion
Greek myth refers to Sleep and Death as brothers, and that association has not been lost through the years. The phantasmal hearse takes advantage of that relation, allowing the sin-eater to enter into dreams. The Bound must be touching a sleeping target when she unlocks this manifestation. On a successful roll, the Bound (and the Geist) are projected into the target’s sleeping mind. There, she can observe the dream without interrupting it.
If the sin-eater desires, she may interact with the dream. She has no control over anything but herself at this stage, so she cannot alter the dreamscape or its inhabitants in any direct fashion. The power of her Geist, however, works its way into the dream unconsciously - any part of the dream with which the sin-eater interacts automatically includes hefty amounts of deathly symbolism.
The sin-eater remains in a comatose trance while this manifestation is unlocked. She may choose to exit the dream at any time as a reflexive action.
●● At this stage, the Bound may alter any dream she inhabits. To do so, she must roll Presence + Persuasion + activation successes, contested by the target’s Resolve + Psyche. If successful, the sin-eater gains full control of the dream, transforming it as she sees fit. A target who is lucid dreaming may contest for control each round, and may even enter dream combat with the sin-eater (as described in detail in Changeling: The Lost). In addition to the normal effects of dream combat, the Bound adds her Psyche rating to her Willpower for the purpose of determining her “health,” as her opponents must succeed in confronting both the Bound and the Geist.
●●● When the Bound unlocks this manifestation, she may now take other minds into the dream with her - including ghosts! Living creatures must be touching the sin-eater’s physical body to enter into the dream with her, but ghosts can simply be perceivable by the sin-eater. If the sleeping target is one of the ghost’s anchors (or loved one, at least), the sin-eater does not need to be in contact with the body, but may simple be in contact with the ghost.
Passengers are considered to have phantasmal hearse ● for the purpose of interacting with dreams, unless they have some other relevant ability (such as higher dots of phantasmal hearse).
●●●● The sin-eater may open an Avernian Gate within any dream she inhabits. This requires an instant action and the expenditure of 5 plasm, but requires no roll. All who enter the gate find themselves in the Upper Mysteries, as solid as any being there. All inhabitants use their Willpower as their health while in this state, and any creature “killed” instead awakens with no willpower and a mild derangement of the storyteller’s choice. This derangement lasts until the victim regains at least 1 point of Willpower from restful sleep. If the dreamer is “killed,” all of the dream’s inhabitants awaken automatically.
The Bound may return all of the dream’s inhabitants to the dreamer’s head as a reflexive action.
●●●●● At the fifth dot, a sin-eater who enters a dream (and all accompanying her) can choose to appear bodily in the dreamer’s mind - her body disappears from the physical world and reforms in the dreamer’s mind.
This is an incredibly dangerous maneuver, as all danger within the dream becomes real to the sin-eater and her passengers. If the dream ends while living creatures are inside it, they are shunted out of the dream and into the nearest dreaming mind. The Bound has no control over whose dream in which she lands.
But with this danger comes great power. If the Sin-Eater chooses to open an avernian gate in the dreamer’s head, she may choose to automatically open a second gate at her point of arrival in the underworld. This gate opens directly into the mind of another person whose dreams the sin-eater has visited. The Bound chooses in whom the gate opens. If the target is invalid due to not being asleep, the Bound may choose another target or the closest sleeping mind to her intended target. If she chooses the latter, she has no knowledge of in whom she will end up, save that they will be the nearest sleeping mind to where she wants to be.
As usual, the sin-eater may choose to exit the dream as a reflexive action. If she leaves a dream after transporting herself bodily through dreams, she appears bodily next to whomever’s head she was in.
The Primeval Hearse
Key Skill: Animal Ken
Primeval hearse draws upon tales of horsemen and carriage-drivers, dark wheelmen who steal souls away in the night to gloomy places unseen. The first dot of this power manifests a spectral steed, which remains for the scene. The steed always appears slightly unreal and cloaked in death imagery, but otherwise the Bound may choose the steed’s appearance with each manifestation. The Bound may only have one spectral steed active at a given time. The mount’s speed is triple the sin-eater’s speed.
The steed, being of a spectral sort, is tireless, can’t be targeted, and takes no damage, though its hot breath may be felt and its dark coat groomed. It can carry the bound and, for an additional plasm, a single passenger. The mount is a ghostly extension of the Geist, and as such, an extension of the sin-eater - it does not need to be tamed or controlled, but its movements flow naturally from the Bound’s. The sin-eater makes Athletics checks as normal while riding the steed, and adds activation successes to all Athletics checks while atop the mount.
●● Nothing stops the passage of the dark rider. At two dots, the steed’s mere presence flings open unlocked gates, parts crowds, and turns traffic lights green. The Bound reduces all environmental penalties to all Athletics rolls by his hearse dots, so long as he is riding. Further, he may now ride over liquid surfaces as though they were solid.
●●● At this point, the sin-eater may conjure an entire phantom carriage when unlocking this manifestation. The carriage always manifests with a pair of driving animals (usually horses), a driver’s seat for the Bound, and a dark carriage with room enough for four people to fit comfortably. The sin-eater pays 1 additional plasm for this effect. If he desires, the sin-eater may pay any number of additional points of plasm when unlocking this manifestation. Each point increases the passenger room by one person, although the outside never gets any larger.
●●●● Now, even locked gates fly open before the sin-eater. When riding toward any sort of barred passage that is not covered by the ●● version of this manifestation, the Bound may reflexively roll Dexterity + Larceny + Activation Successes to burst open the obstacle before crashing into it. The roll takes a penalty based on the severity of the obstacle, from -1 for a simple locked door to -5 for a bank vault. The Bound may use this manifestation to open Avernian Gates at no penalty.
●●●●● Primeval's nature is to hunt, and a sin-eater who acquires the fifth dot of Primeval Hearse is as inescapable as death itself. While chasing a target who is moving faster than him, the sin-eater may choose to roll Dexterity + Survival + Activation Successes as a reflexive, contested action against his prey’s roll to escape - usually Dexterity + Athletics, Drive, or Animal Ken, depending on their method of transit. If the sin-eater succeeds, his mount’s speed rises to 1 yard faster than his prey’s means of transportation. This means that the sin-eater may now chase down cars, motorcycles, or even helicopters and airplanes.
Even supernatural powers that utilize teleportation cannot keep the Bound from his quarry. If the sin-eater’s prey uses such a power, the sin-eater may reflexively roll Dexterity + Survival + Activation Successes again to immediately teleport along with them, appearing exactly as far away from the target as he was before. While such teleportation will never land the Bound in an object, it gives him no means to return to where he was before.
The Stigmata Hearse
Key Skill: Occult
The sin-eater can push parts of himself through pools of blood. The blood must be fresh enough to still be liquid, but otherwise any pool of blood works for this purpose, including those created by other Stigmata manifestations.
For the rest of the scene, the sin-eater may push any part of his body through a blood puddle and out from a separate blood puddle within 10 yards per dot of hearse. The body part to be pushed through must be able to fit within the circumference of the puddle, meaning this manifestation is usually limited to arms or a head. If the puddle is large enough to fit the sin-eater’s body, he may effectively teleport through blood puddles.
●● The sin-eater automatically senses the presence of any spilled blood within teleportation range, as well as a rough estimate of the size of the splatter. Further, if the Bound can see a puddle, he can gaze through it to any puddle he can sense, like a red-tinted window. The sin-eater can only perceive through one such puddle at a time, but may switch between them as a reflexive action.
●●● At this point, the sin-eater can transport himself through any source of blood or plasm - namely, the living or ghosts. The sin-eater must be touching a target of his own size or larger when he unlocks the manifestation, at which point he leaps through the target in a bloody (or ectoplasmic) burst. The sin-eater then emerges from another living or ghostly target within (activation successes) miles in another messy explosion. These bursts do not harm the targets in any way, but are certainly shocking. The blood splatters created by this level of hearse are not anyone’s in particular.
The Bound can select a target to emerge from, if they are within range. The Bound can emerge from anyone he can perceive. If he cannot perceive a target, he instead must be able to picture the target. If he cannot do that, he can instead picture a location within range - and emerge from a random target there.
●●●● When unlocking the third dot of Stigmata Hearse, the sin-eater can choose not to teleport through his target - instead, he may choose to ride around inside his target’s blood. The sin-eater becomes a part of the target’s bloodstream, able to feel their heartbeat and see through their eyes. While in this form, the Bound cannot be targeted, but cannot affect the outside world in any way (including through the use of manifestations) until he re-emerges, which he may do as an instant action. The Bound cannot communicate with the target in anyway, and can only be detected by abilities that somehow detect minds or souls. Those who can see ghosts still see the Geist hanging around the target.
If the sin-eater’s host touches another living body of the Bound’s size or larger, the sin-eater may reflexively spend 1 plasm to leave his current host and enter the other person.
●●●●● When unlocking the third dot of Stigmata Hearse, the sin-eater can perform a horrible feat of supernatural prowess: he can pull targets into themselves in a splatter of blood. The target must either be willing or grappled by the sin-eater, and in the latter case this manifestation is considered an overpowering maneuver. If successful, the sin-eater enters the target and, with a horrible, aqueous squelching, the target is pulled into themselves, leaving only blood behind.
When the sin-eater emerges at his desired destination, his ally (or victim) comes through as well.
The Stillness Hearse
Key Skill: Stealth
With a single dot in this manifestation, the sin-eater learns to move without moving - the sin-eater learns not to move and yet be somewhere other than she was. There is one catch to this ability: the Bound must be unobserved. If she is seen, she unlocks this manifestation as normal, but contests it against a Wits + Composure roll from all who are observing her. If she succeeds (and exceeds observers’ rolls, if applicable), she disappears from her location and reappears within a number of yards equal to twice her speed, anywhere she could conceivably run, jump, or climb. She needs not make any Athletics checks, should one be normally required - she simply is where she wants to be.
●● Stillness Hearse now remains unlocked for the rest of the scene, allowing the sin-eater to teleport so long as the she remains unobserved. If anyone notices her, the Bound must unlock the manifestation once more.
●●● The first dot of Stillness Hearse may now be activated as a reflexive action by spending an additional point of plasm. The sin-eater cannot use this manifestation in response to a direct attack, due to the amount of focus the attacker puts on her. However, the sin-eater may unlock Stillness Hearse in response to an indirect attack, one where the attacker is not necessarily aware of the sin-eater’s presence, so long as she overcomes other observer’s Wits + Composure rolls, as normal.
●●●● The sin-eater may now appear anywhere within line-of-sight when activating the first dot of Stillness Hearse.
●●●●● The Bound may now reflexively spend 3 additional plasm to unlock Stillness Hearse in response to a direct attack. She contests her activation pool against the assailant’s attack pool, and each success cancels out one of her attacker’s successes, down to 0 successes. The sin-eater unlocks Stillness Hearse if she gets even a single success on her own roll, appearing anywhere within line-of-sight, but still takes any damage that she did not cancel out.
The execution of that homebrew was quality, but not to our taste. So of course, a couple of us put our heads together and wrote up a new version! Hope you enjoy!
The Hearse Manifestation
The hearse is death as a transition. It is the manifestation of ends and beginnings, of moving from one state to another, from place to place. Unlocking the hearse manifestation allows a sin-eater some form of movement, unbinding, or transportation.
Key Attribute: Dexterity
Action: Instant
Cost: 1 Plasm
Roll: Dexterity + Key Skill + Hearse
Dramatic Failure: The sin-eater cannot try to unlock the hearse manifestation again for the rest of the scene.
Failure: Nothing happens, and the plasm is wasted.
Success: As per each individual description.
Exceptional Success: As a success, but the sin-eater regains the plasm used to unlock the manifestation.
The Elemental Hearses
The Cold-Wind Hearse
Key Skill: Occult
The cold-wind hearse allows the sin-eater to transport himself and others through the medium of air. The Sin-Eater must be outside, in an area of limited visibility - most often through weather condition, but equally through dense smoke or smog. The initial ability of this manifestation allows the sin-eater to transport herself through such conditions instantaneously up to a number of miles equal to her activation successes, without crossing the intervening space. She can appear outside in an instance of limited visibility.
When the sin-eater unlocks this manifestation, she pictures the area at which she wishes to arrive. If the area does not meet the requirements as a destination, she instead appears at the nearest appropriate arrival area.
●● The sin-eater can now transport the living and ghosts along with her. She spends 1 additional plasm per passenger, and each passenger must be either touching her directly or touching someone who is touching her for the duration of the trip.
●●● Upon attaining the third dot of this manifestation, the Bound can cause a dense fog to roll in, just long enough to activate this manifestation. The sin-eater must pay an additional plasm. Mist rises from the ground or rolls in on the wind, allowing the sin-eater and any passengers to step through. Likewise, such mist appears at the destination of the trip so that the sin-eater can exit.
●●●● The sin-eater can now enter the underworld using this power, instead of transporting herself across the living world. The sin-eater pays an addition plasm and cannot bring anyone with her. As the smoke clears, the sin-eater finds herself in the Upper Mysteries.
●●●●● At this stage, the sin-eater can bring passengers into the underworld. She pays 2 plasm per passenger, and it otherwise functions as Cold-Wind Hearse ●●.
The Grave-Dirt Hearse
Key Skill: Occult
The grave-dirt hearse allows the sin-eater to transport himself and others through the medium of earth. The Sin-Eater must be in a pit, cave, or tunnel that is so deep or so dark that she cannot see the bottom (in the case of a pit) or the end (in the case of a tunnel). The initial ability of this manifestation allows the sin-eater to instantaneously transport herself through such conditions, up to a number of miles equal to her activation successes, without crossing the intervening space. She can appear anywhere within that range, so long as it is within a pit, cave, or tunnel that meets requirements.
When the sin-eater unlocks this manifestation, she pictures the area at which she wishes to arrive. If the area does not meet the requirements as a destination, she instead appears at the nearest appropriate arrival area.
●● The sin-eater can now transport the living and ghosts along with her. She spends 1 additional plasm per passenger, and each passenger must be either touching her directly or touching someone who is touching her for the duration of the trip.
●●● Upon attaining the third dot of this manifestation, the Bound can call darkness into the earth, shrouding it and allowing her passage. The sin-eater must pay an additional plasm. Shadows deepen within the earth, shrouding the far side of any hole or tunnel into which she enters, just long enough to use as transport. Likewise, where the sin-eater appears, darkness wells up within the earth.
●●●● The sin-eater can now enter the underworld using this power, instead of transporting herself across the living world. The sin-eater pays an addition plasm and cannot bring anyone with her. As the Bound continues down the tunnel, she finds herself in the Upper Mysteries.
●●●●● At this stage, the sin-eater can bring passengers into the underworld. She pays 2 plasm per passenger, and it otherwise functions as Grave-Dirt Hearse ●●.
The Pyre-Flame Hearse
Key Skill: Occult
The pyre-flame hearse allows the sin-eater to transport herself and others through the medium of fire. The Sin-Eater must be in a fire that is at least large enough to consume a human body, which deals her no damage upon paying the plasm, whether or not she succeeds on the roll. The initial ability of this manifestation allows the sin-eater to instantaneously transport herself through such conditions, up to a number of miles equal to her activation successes, without crossing the intervening space. She appears within another fire, although it can be as small as a fireplace.
When the sin-eater unlocks this manifestation, she pictures the area at which she wishes to arrive. If the area does not meet the requirements as a destination, she instead appears at the nearest appropriate arrival area.
●● The sin-eater can now transport the living and ghosts along with her. She spends 1 additional plasm per passenger, and each passenger must be either touching her directly or touching someone who is touching her for the duration of the trip.
●●● Upon attaining the third dot of this manifestation, the Bound can flare up a fire to bonfire-size, just long enough to use as transport.. The sin-eater must pay an additional plasm. The fire explodes upwards into a roaring column, allowing the sin-eater to step inside. Her destination likewise intensifies.
●●●● The sin-eater can now enter the underworld using this power, instead of transporting herself across the living world. The sin-eater pays an additional plasm and cannot bring anyone with her. As the fire dies down, the sin-eater finds herself in the Upper Mysteries.
●●●●● At this stage, the sin-eater can bring passengers into the underworld. She pays 2 plasm per passenger, and it otherwise functions as Pyre-Flame Hearse ●●.
The Tear-Stained Hearse
Key Skill: Occult
The tear-stained hearse allows the sin-eater to transport himself and others through the medium of water. The Sin-Eater must be in water that is at least waist deep, and she must not be able to see the bottom, either through depth or darkness. The initial ability of this manifestation allows the sin-eater to instantaneously transport herself through such conditions, up to a number of miles equal to her activation successes, without crossing the intervening space. She appears within another body of water, which must also be at least waist-deep and dark enough to obscure the bottom.
When the sin-eater unlocks this manifestation, she pictures the area at which she wishes to arrive. If the area does not meet the requirements as a destination, she instead appears at the nearest appropriate arrival area.
●● The sin-eater can now transport the living and ghosts along with her. She spends 1 additional plasm per passenger, and each passenger must be either touching her directly or touching someone who is touching her for the duration of the trip.
●●● Upon attaining the third dot of this manifestation, the Bound can blacken the waters in which she moves, just long enough to use as transport.. The sin-eater must pay an additional plasm. Light reflects strangely along the water, obscuring the bottom and allowing the sin-eater passage. Likewise, any pool from which she emerges will darken and ripple.
●●●● The sin-eater can now enter the underworld using this power, instead of transporting herself across the living world. The sin-eater pays an addition plasm and cannot bring anyone with her. As the water drains away, the sin-eater finds herself in the Upper Mysteries.
●●●●● At this stage, the sin-eater can bring passengers into the underworld. She pays 2 plasm per passenger, and it otherwise functions as Tear-Stained Hearse ●●.
Other Keys
The Industrial Hearse
Key Skill: Investigation
The Bound who unlocks the Industrial Hearse plays the part of the vanishing hitchhiker. The sin-eater envisions his destination within 10 + Psyche miles while standing on or next to a human-constructed road. The quality of the road doesn’t matter - a new highway works just as well as an old country road. The roll suffers no anachrotech penalties, but the Sin-Eater takes a -4 penalty to the roll if the road is dirt or gravel.
If the Bound successfully unlocks the Industrial Hearse, he need only wait; within minutes, a car will come to the sin-eater’s location and its driver will offer the sin-eater a ride. The sin-eater has no control over who stops to lend a hand, only that someone does. While it’s usually just an average, mortal motorist, sometimes the only car in the area is a police cruiser - or a gang van.
The driver is not compelled to take orders from the sin-eater, but can be influenced with social skills or manifestations as normal. The driver may also simply refuse to take the sin-eater if there’s anything particularly suspicious about him, such as if he’s covered in blood or visibly carrying weapons (and the sin-eater can’t come up with a good cover story). Barring these things, the driver will happily help out the stranded hitchhiker and drive them the direction the sin-eater wants to go.
At any point during the trip, the sin-eater (and only the sin-eater) may reflexively disappear from the car, appearing without momentum anywhere the sin-eater desires within 30 yards of the roadside, and out of sight of the driver. The sin-eater cannot appear in other cars this way.
●● The sin-eater can quicken her passage by directing her vehicle down shortcuts... ones that haven’t existed for years. Closed roads, broken bridges, collapsed tunnels, and more manifest to the car’s occupants as they did at the height of their use. To use this ability, the sin-eater spends 1 plasm and rolls Dexterity + Investigation + activation successes. Each success divides the travel time by 1 + successes, so 1 success cuts the travel time in half, 2 successes cut the travel time by ⅓, and so on. The sin-eater does not need to be in control of the vehicle to take advantage of this level of Industrial Hearse, but must direct the driver where she wants to go.
You may now unlock Industrial Hearse while in any vehicle, but doing so only grants you access to the ●● power.
●●● At this level, the sin-eater may appear in any vehicle she can see when disappearing from a vehicle, as per the ● power. The target vehicle must have at least one open seat in which she can appear. If the sin-eater spends 2 plasm, she is invisible in the new vehicle, save for one instance: the first time the driver looks in the rear-view mirror, she sees the sin-eater as she is. When he turns to look at the seat, the sin-eater is gone from view for the rest of the trip, and her image subsequently disappears from the mirror.
●●●● At the 4th dot, your Geist ensnares the vehicle in its ectoplasmic tendrils, connecting you to the vehicle and its driver. This connection suppresses any suspicion that would come with your current situation - blood, weapons, the severed head of that vampire from around the way. You gain a bonus equal to your activation successes on any roll made to convince the driver to take you, such as making up a cover story or intimidating.
Further, you get an immediate sense of all accidents that the car and driver have ever been in. At any time during the ride, you may focus on any of these accidents as an Instant action and receive a vision of the event. If you spend 1 point of plasm, your senses extend into the immediate future instead - you gain a vision of any vehicular accident, assault, or other vehicular-related damage that the car or driver might suffer within the day.
If you unlocked Industrial Hearse while in a vehicle not summoned by the ● power, you gain access to both the 2nd dot of the manifestation and the visions detailed here.
●●●●● If you are present in a vehicle while Industrial Hearse is unlocked, you can spend 2 plasm and a point of Willpower to count the vehicle as a part of your body for the purpose of using other manifestations. For example, if you unlock Phantasmal Caul after unlocking this manifestation, your car becomes malleable and can add activation successes to appropriately-justified physical actions.
The Shroud and Caul manifestations most often apply, but some creative uses may allows you to use other manifestations, as well. For example, driving underwater until you drown would allow you to bring the car with you during the subsequent astral projection of Tear-Stained Oracle.
The Passion Hearse
Key Skill: Empathy
The sin-eater gains the power to transfer memories between herself and a willing target. This requires the sin-eater to touch the target when unlocking the manifestation. The sin-eater may both give and receive memories using this manifestation; either way, the partner whose memories are to be transferred calls them to the front of his mind, where they are sucked away and into the recipient. The receiver now remembers both the content and emotional impact of the memories as though they were his, while the partner from whom they were transferred can no longer recall them at all.
This transfer lasts for a scene, at the end of which the memories return to their original owner, no matter the distance. The transfer may be made permanent if both partners spend a Willpower point as the manifestation is unlocked.
●● A sin-eater at this stage may steal memories from an unwilling target. The target rolls Resolve + Psyche as a reflexive, contested action against the sin-eater. If the sin-eater succeeds and exceeds the target’s roll, he may rip a memory from the target’s mind and transfer it to his own. He may not spend a Willpower point to make the transfer permanent.
The sin-eater may steal up to one scene of memory from the target. The Bound must declare what sort of memory he intends to steal, such as “the last hour,” “her 16th birthday party,” or “our date last Monday.” If the victim has no such memory, the plasm is wasted.
The memory remains in the sin-eater for one day before suddenly and vividly returning to the victim. If the sin-eater exceptionally succeeded when stealing the target’s memory, it returns subtly, only making itself known if the target would be prompted to remember it.
●●● The sin-eater may now unlock Passion Hearse at a range of Psyche + Hearse in yards. She may also transfer memories between two willing targets, instead of between herself and a target. The Bound spends the plasm and rolls to unlock as normal, but memories are transferred between two willing creatures within range, instead.
●●●● When the sin-eater unlocks Passion Hearse ●●, he may now make it permanent by spending a Willpower dot. Further, the sin-eater can now transfer a subject’s memories (willing or unwilling) into an object for storage. The object must be within the manifestation’s range, but can be anything with at least one point of structure, and the sin-eater spends 1 extra point of plasm when unlocking the manifestation. The memory remains within the object until the sin-eater spends 1 plasm to transfer it to his own mind, where it remains for a scene. If the object is destroyed before the sin-eater transfers it out, or at the end of the scene in which the sin-eater transfers the memory, the memory returns to its original owner.
●●●●● The sin-eater can transfer a target’s capabilities by transferring the memories of learning them. The sin-eater spends 1 additional plasm and a point of Willpower when unlocking the manifestation, and the target may make a Resolve + Psyche roll to resist if they are unwilling. Successes cancel out the sin-eater’s successes.
The sin-eater transfers 1 dot of skill or merit per net success, and the recipient gains the transferred dots. For example, if the sin-eater with no dots in Medicine transfers one dot of medicine from a target with Medicine ●●●, the target now has Medicine ●● and the sin-eater has Medicine ●. To transfer a merit, the sin-eater must accumulate enough successes to transfer the merit in the increments it was bought. For example, a fighting style may be transferred dot-for-dot, but a two-dot Ceremony requires two successes to transfer.
This manifestation may not transfer merit dots that represent personal items or property (such as Memento) or merits that represent innate traits (such as Medium or Striking Looks). Stealing most social merits (such as Contacts or Allies) will cause the target to forget that such resources are available, but do not immediately become helpful to the sin-eater.
Generally, it’s up to storyteller ruling as to what merits can be transferred. Transferred merits and skills last for the scene before returning to their rightful owner. The sin-eater cannot make these transfers permanent.
The Phantasmal Hearse
Key Skill: Persuasion
Greek myth refers to Sleep and Death as brothers, and that association has not been lost through the years. The phantasmal hearse takes advantage of that relation, allowing the sin-eater to enter into dreams. The Bound must be touching a sleeping target when she unlocks this manifestation. On a successful roll, the Bound (and the Geist) are projected into the target’s sleeping mind. There, she can observe the dream without interrupting it.
If the sin-eater desires, she may interact with the dream. She has no control over anything but herself at this stage, so she cannot alter the dreamscape or its inhabitants in any direct fashion. The power of her Geist, however, works its way into the dream unconsciously - any part of the dream with which the sin-eater interacts automatically includes hefty amounts of deathly symbolism.
The sin-eater remains in a comatose trance while this manifestation is unlocked. She may choose to exit the dream at any time as a reflexive action.
●● At this stage, the Bound may alter any dream she inhabits. To do so, she must roll Presence + Persuasion + activation successes, contested by the target’s Resolve + Psyche. If successful, the sin-eater gains full control of the dream, transforming it as she sees fit. A target who is lucid dreaming may contest for control each round, and may even enter dream combat with the sin-eater (as described in detail in Changeling: The Lost). In addition to the normal effects of dream combat, the Bound adds her Psyche rating to her Willpower for the purpose of determining her “health,” as her opponents must succeed in confronting both the Bound and the Geist.
●●● When the Bound unlocks this manifestation, she may now take other minds into the dream with her - including ghosts! Living creatures must be touching the sin-eater’s physical body to enter into the dream with her, but ghosts can simply be perceivable by the sin-eater. If the sleeping target is one of the ghost’s anchors (or loved one, at least), the sin-eater does not need to be in contact with the body, but may simple be in contact with the ghost.
Passengers are considered to have phantasmal hearse ● for the purpose of interacting with dreams, unless they have some other relevant ability (such as higher dots of phantasmal hearse).
●●●● The sin-eater may open an Avernian Gate within any dream she inhabits. This requires an instant action and the expenditure of 5 plasm, but requires no roll. All who enter the gate find themselves in the Upper Mysteries, as solid as any being there. All inhabitants use their Willpower as their health while in this state, and any creature “killed” instead awakens with no willpower and a mild derangement of the storyteller’s choice. This derangement lasts until the victim regains at least 1 point of Willpower from restful sleep. If the dreamer is “killed,” all of the dream’s inhabitants awaken automatically.
The Bound may return all of the dream’s inhabitants to the dreamer’s head as a reflexive action.
●●●●● At the fifth dot, a sin-eater who enters a dream (and all accompanying her) can choose to appear bodily in the dreamer’s mind - her body disappears from the physical world and reforms in the dreamer’s mind.
This is an incredibly dangerous maneuver, as all danger within the dream becomes real to the sin-eater and her passengers. If the dream ends while living creatures are inside it, they are shunted out of the dream and into the nearest dreaming mind. The Bound has no control over whose dream in which she lands.
But with this danger comes great power. If the Sin-Eater chooses to open an avernian gate in the dreamer’s head, she may choose to automatically open a second gate at her point of arrival in the underworld. This gate opens directly into the mind of another person whose dreams the sin-eater has visited. The Bound chooses in whom the gate opens. If the target is invalid due to not being asleep, the Bound may choose another target or the closest sleeping mind to her intended target. If she chooses the latter, she has no knowledge of in whom she will end up, save that they will be the nearest sleeping mind to where she wants to be.
As usual, the sin-eater may choose to exit the dream as a reflexive action. If she leaves a dream after transporting herself bodily through dreams, she appears bodily next to whomever’s head she was in.
The Primeval Hearse
Key Skill: Animal Ken
Primeval hearse draws upon tales of horsemen and carriage-drivers, dark wheelmen who steal souls away in the night to gloomy places unseen. The first dot of this power manifests a spectral steed, which remains for the scene. The steed always appears slightly unreal and cloaked in death imagery, but otherwise the Bound may choose the steed’s appearance with each manifestation. The Bound may only have one spectral steed active at a given time. The mount’s speed is triple the sin-eater’s speed.
The steed, being of a spectral sort, is tireless, can’t be targeted, and takes no damage, though its hot breath may be felt and its dark coat groomed. It can carry the bound and, for an additional plasm, a single passenger. The mount is a ghostly extension of the Geist, and as such, an extension of the sin-eater - it does not need to be tamed or controlled, but its movements flow naturally from the Bound’s. The sin-eater makes Athletics checks as normal while riding the steed, and adds activation successes to all Athletics checks while atop the mount.
●● Nothing stops the passage of the dark rider. At two dots, the steed’s mere presence flings open unlocked gates, parts crowds, and turns traffic lights green. The Bound reduces all environmental penalties to all Athletics rolls by his hearse dots, so long as he is riding. Further, he may now ride over liquid surfaces as though they were solid.
●●● At this point, the sin-eater may conjure an entire phantom carriage when unlocking this manifestation. The carriage always manifests with a pair of driving animals (usually horses), a driver’s seat for the Bound, and a dark carriage with room enough for four people to fit comfortably. The sin-eater pays 1 additional plasm for this effect. If he desires, the sin-eater may pay any number of additional points of plasm when unlocking this manifestation. Each point increases the passenger room by one person, although the outside never gets any larger.
●●●● Now, even locked gates fly open before the sin-eater. When riding toward any sort of barred passage that is not covered by the ●● version of this manifestation, the Bound may reflexively roll Dexterity + Larceny + Activation Successes to burst open the obstacle before crashing into it. The roll takes a penalty based on the severity of the obstacle, from -1 for a simple locked door to -5 for a bank vault. The Bound may use this manifestation to open Avernian Gates at no penalty.
●●●●● Primeval's nature is to hunt, and a sin-eater who acquires the fifth dot of Primeval Hearse is as inescapable as death itself. While chasing a target who is moving faster than him, the sin-eater may choose to roll Dexterity + Survival + Activation Successes as a reflexive, contested action against his prey’s roll to escape - usually Dexterity + Athletics, Drive, or Animal Ken, depending on their method of transit. If the sin-eater succeeds, his mount’s speed rises to 1 yard faster than his prey’s means of transportation. This means that the sin-eater may now chase down cars, motorcycles, or even helicopters and airplanes.
Even supernatural powers that utilize teleportation cannot keep the Bound from his quarry. If the sin-eater’s prey uses such a power, the sin-eater may reflexively roll Dexterity + Survival + Activation Successes again to immediately teleport along with them, appearing exactly as far away from the target as he was before. While such teleportation will never land the Bound in an object, it gives him no means to return to where he was before.
The Stigmata Hearse
Key Skill: Occult
The sin-eater can push parts of himself through pools of blood. The blood must be fresh enough to still be liquid, but otherwise any pool of blood works for this purpose, including those created by other Stigmata manifestations.
For the rest of the scene, the sin-eater may push any part of his body through a blood puddle and out from a separate blood puddle within 10 yards per dot of hearse. The body part to be pushed through must be able to fit within the circumference of the puddle, meaning this manifestation is usually limited to arms or a head. If the puddle is large enough to fit the sin-eater’s body, he may effectively teleport through blood puddles.
●● The sin-eater automatically senses the presence of any spilled blood within teleportation range, as well as a rough estimate of the size of the splatter. Further, if the Bound can see a puddle, he can gaze through it to any puddle he can sense, like a red-tinted window. The sin-eater can only perceive through one such puddle at a time, but may switch between them as a reflexive action.
●●● At this point, the sin-eater can transport himself through any source of blood or plasm - namely, the living or ghosts. The sin-eater must be touching a target of his own size or larger when he unlocks the manifestation, at which point he leaps through the target in a bloody (or ectoplasmic) burst. The sin-eater then emerges from another living or ghostly target within (activation successes) miles in another messy explosion. These bursts do not harm the targets in any way, but are certainly shocking. The blood splatters created by this level of hearse are not anyone’s in particular.
The Bound can select a target to emerge from, if they are within range. The Bound can emerge from anyone he can perceive. If he cannot perceive a target, he instead must be able to picture the target. If he cannot do that, he can instead picture a location within range - and emerge from a random target there.
●●●● When unlocking the third dot of Stigmata Hearse, the sin-eater can choose not to teleport through his target - instead, he may choose to ride around inside his target’s blood. The sin-eater becomes a part of the target’s bloodstream, able to feel their heartbeat and see through their eyes. While in this form, the Bound cannot be targeted, but cannot affect the outside world in any way (including through the use of manifestations) until he re-emerges, which he may do as an instant action. The Bound cannot communicate with the target in anyway, and can only be detected by abilities that somehow detect minds or souls. Those who can see ghosts still see the Geist hanging around the target.
If the sin-eater’s host touches another living body of the Bound’s size or larger, the sin-eater may reflexively spend 1 plasm to leave his current host and enter the other person.
●●●●● When unlocking the third dot of Stigmata Hearse, the sin-eater can perform a horrible feat of supernatural prowess: he can pull targets into themselves in a splatter of blood. The target must either be willing or grappled by the sin-eater, and in the latter case this manifestation is considered an overpowering maneuver. If successful, the sin-eater enters the target and, with a horrible, aqueous squelching, the target is pulled into themselves, leaving only blood behind.
When the sin-eater emerges at his desired destination, his ally (or victim) comes through as well.
The Stillness Hearse
Key Skill: Stealth
With a single dot in this manifestation, the sin-eater learns to move without moving - the sin-eater learns not to move and yet be somewhere other than she was. There is one catch to this ability: the Bound must be unobserved. If she is seen, she unlocks this manifestation as normal, but contests it against a Wits + Composure roll from all who are observing her. If she succeeds (and exceeds observers’ rolls, if applicable), she disappears from her location and reappears within a number of yards equal to twice her speed, anywhere she could conceivably run, jump, or climb. She needs not make any Athletics checks, should one be normally required - she simply is where she wants to be.
●● Stillness Hearse now remains unlocked for the rest of the scene, allowing the sin-eater to teleport so long as the she remains unobserved. If anyone notices her, the Bound must unlock the manifestation once more.
●●● The first dot of Stillness Hearse may now be activated as a reflexive action by spending an additional point of plasm. The sin-eater cannot use this manifestation in response to a direct attack, due to the amount of focus the attacker puts on her. However, the sin-eater may unlock Stillness Hearse in response to an indirect attack, one where the attacker is not necessarily aware of the sin-eater’s presence, so long as she overcomes other observer’s Wits + Composure rolls, as normal.
●●●● The sin-eater may now appear anywhere within line-of-sight when activating the first dot of Stillness Hearse.
●●●●● The Bound may now reflexively spend 3 additional plasm to unlock Stillness Hearse in response to a direct attack. She contests her activation pool against the assailant’s attack pool, and each success cancels out one of her attacker’s successes, down to 0 successes. The sin-eater unlocks Stillness Hearse if she gets even a single success on her own roll, appearing anywhere within line-of-sight, but still takes any damage that she did not cancel out.