Loom-Snarling Deception

Cost: 0m to 8m; Mins: Essence 2; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, Illusion, Shaping
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: None

The Ebon Dragon is among the greatest liars in history, surpassed only by those Exalted who call themselves heroes. Although Infernal Exalted of both varieties "naturally" exist outside fate as living avatars of Yozi power, such glory ill fits the needs of subtlety. Use of this Charm creates a convincing disguise of a fictitious individual of the Infernal's imagining. Akuma may explicitly impersonate the people they used to be before their damnation.

Upon activating this Charm by spending (10 - Essence rating) motes, the Infernal's shadow rises up and covers him in liquid darkness. As the shadow melts to its normal configuration a moment later, it leaves the Infernal's body appearing as he desires. The Illusion guise must follow the same basic body plan, though clothes may be included or changed as part of the disguise. Gender does not matter. The disguise is perfectly immune to mundane scrutiny and may not be resisted with Willpower expenditure. Appropriate non-Excellency Charms may pierce the ruse using standard roll-off rules, but the Infernal's player adds (Essence) bonus successes to his roll.

In addition to providing a disguise, this Charm also supplies a false destiny sufficient to beguile fate as a Shaping effect. For the duration, the character exists inside fate with all concomitant drawbacks and advantages, but any astrological reading of the character's destiny provides whatever information the character chose to include in the false fate at the time of its creation. Some Infernals have been known to leave cryptic messages for one another in their fates as a way of communicating across the world. Whenever the Charm deactivates and the Infernal leaves fate, a random pattern spider in the Loom cries out in horror as it realizes how it has been used.

Akuma who belong to Yozis other than the Ebon Dragon can explicitly learn this Charm as though it belonged to their patron, but they do so at a price. Because this power is a gift, the Ebon Dragon may terminate it and prevent it from being activated by akuma who displease him, though he holds this as a measure of last resort. He cannot revoke the use of this Charm by anyone else.