Illusion

SHELL GAME ●Cost: NoneDice Pool: None

Type: Persistent

Deft hands, fast fingers, quick minds, and silver tongues make the greatest of the mortal world’s tricksters, only allowing their prey to see what they want them to. The Divine are, as always, even better, as subtle tricks of the light, phantom sounds, and other minute distractions aid them. Once per Session, a Scion with this Boon may gain +6 Automatic Successes to any attempts at misdirection as long as the Scion spends at least 10 ticks setting this deception up.

SUBTLE KNIFE ●

Cost: None

Dice Pool: Illusion + Larceny v. Perception + Awareness or Investigation

Type: Persistent

Small things, for the most part, go unnoticed. Watches, wallets, jewelry, and the like, the size a great benefit to any thief. However, the children of the Gods are no petty thieves, where a rolex could be stolen by a mortal, they wander away with the Hope Diamond and no one is any the wiser.

With this Boon, a Scion may cause an object small enough to be concealed in their hand to go entirely unnoticed by onlookers, concealed, and hidden by fairy magics, stolen light, borrowed dreams, or whatever their trickery is forged of. All beings with would normally notice the hidden object must roll Perception + Awareness or Investigation (dependent on if they are actively searching, or just glancing at the object). Only if they overcome the activation role of this Boon may they actually notice it at all.

This Boon lasts for one Scene, and the hidden object must remain in the user’s sight.

Illusion Two

GLAMOUR ●●

Cost: None

Dice Pool: Illusion + Art v. Appearance + Presence

Type: Persistent

With just a pinch of fairy dust, a command issued through the Me of Dreams, or anything of the sort, beauty can grow, and fade at the will of the Scion, tempering the looks of others at a whim.

When this Boon is used on a target, the Scion choses if they wish to apply it negatively, causing -2 Automatic Successes to all Appearance rolls, or positively, causing +2 Automatic Successes to all Appearance rolls made by the target. The being who this Boon is used upon resists the activation role with an Appearance + Presence role, their own visage attempting to hold true.

It should be noted, this does not actually change what the target looks like, effectively functioning like magical make up, concealing, or exaggerating existing features.

STOLEN FACE ●●

Cost: None

Dice Pool: Illusion + Art or Larceny

Type: Persistent

The Tricksters of the Pantheons, and other cunning beings often, when their ploys call for it, wear a face that is not their own. With this Boon, they may do just that, wearing an illusion about them like a mask in a single instant.

With this Boon, the user may choose to either attempt to impersonate a specific person, or any non-specific individual within normal human ranges. When attempting to impersonate a specific individual, the Scion must use their Illusion + Art for the activation roll, and if not, it is an Illusion + Larceny roll, both opposed by Perception + Awareness. This effect lasts a Scene.

DAYDREAM ●●

Cost: None

Dice Pool: None

Type: Persistent

Dreams, wistful and dancing across the mind can be the mark of an individual using Illusion, as much as a cackling Trickster can be. For those that shepard dreams, those that are in their presence are beset by wandering thoughts, and daydreams, infiltrating their mind and leaving them unfocused.

All beings in a Scene with a Scion who possesses this Boon imposes a -2 automatic success penalty to all Perception rolls as daydreams distract them.

Illusion Three

LIESMITH ●●●

Cost: None

Dice Pool: None or Illusion + Empathy

Type: Persistent

Liars, tricksters, thieves. Almost all those who wield the powers of Illusion, save for the dreamers, have falsehood entombed in their soul, lies and falsehood radiating from them like the rays of the sun. A being who possesses this Boon has some feature, not necessarily physical, which is a mark of falsehood, such as a name that is an oxymoron, or a forked tongue.

All beings who possess this Boon gain +2 Automatic Successes to all attempts to deceive other beings in any way, and in addition, all beings who have equal or lesser Epic Perception, Epic Manipulation or any other Power that all that detects lies have these lie detecting powers claim that every statement, no matter how true, the Scion makes is utterly and entirely false.

FOOL’S GOLD ●●●

Cost: None

Dice Pool: Illusion + Art v. Perception + Awareness or Investigation

Type: Persistent

Where the skill to hide small objects has been in the arsenal of a trickster or dreamweaver for some time now, being able to disguise one object as another has been impossible for the time. With this Boon, the Scion may disguise any object up to the size of a truck as another, similarly sized object. Every feature, sound, and shadow entirely accurate for the disguise.

Any attempt to see through this illusion requires a Perception + Awareness or Investigation roll depending on if it is at a cursory glance, using Awareness, or an active search, using Investigation. Additionally, this Boon lasts for one day per Illusion Rank the user possesses.

DOPPLEGANGER ●●●

Cost: None

Dice Pool: Illusion + Presence

Type: Persistent

With a laugh, and a snap of their fingers, a Scion may create false copies of themselves, forged of dreams and liar’s tongues. Creating up to one copy per three Successes past the first if the user so desires.

These illusionary copies are perfect illusions, sounding, moving, and acting just like their propagator, and will appear to interact with the environment, the illusion hiding objects they pick up, and creating an illusionary copy in the hand of the false Scion, and the like, though are unable to directly interact with it, such as opening doors. Any attempt to see through the illusions requires an Perception + Awareness or Investigation roll, if active searching or not.

The copies, however, can’t move beyond the perception of the Scion, least the illusion fizzle and fade away, but while within this area (expanded by Epic Perception, as always), may act in whatever manner the Scion wishes.

Just what this Boon can be used for is left to each player, as it, like most of Illusion, is a tool in the trickster’s box. Using it in combat to hide yourself among yourself, of wandering the city streets while disguised through Stolen Face (Illusion 2) with an illusionary copy of your true self walks beside you, tricks about for the tricksters.

Illusion Four

DREAMCRAFT ●●●●

Cost: None (Should be more expensive than lower level Hero Boons)

Dice Pool: Illusion + Art v. Perception + Awareness or Investigation

Type: Persistent

For the Heroes of the Pantheons, their illusions must be possess a base. Dopplegangers copies of an original, Fool’s Gold changing an existing object, and the like. For Demigods, however, this limitation fades and vanishes, able to create ex nihilo. Phantom sounds, soldiers, dragons wandering city streets, and the like, all able to come flying forth at the will of these Scions.

With this Boon, a Scion may create an illusion of almost anything at a whim. They may create the blaring sound of a foghorn from nothing, a giant striding through the streets of New York, or having a mark feel hands running through their hair. As always, this Boon is opposed through Awareness when the illusion is simply perceived, and Investigation if it is an active investigation.

While, at a glance, this power seems to make many of the initial powers of Hero Scions pointless, just like Doppleganger (Illusion 3), these phantoms can’t actually interact with reality. The illusions will attempt to appear as if they are interacting physically, the giant’s footsteps leaving cracked pavement, and illusionary fingers running through one’s hair would appear to physically shift it, but all of these things are false. If an illusionary car created through Dreamcraft slams into a wall, it will appear in every way as if the car is broken and the wall torn open. But, if someone were to fall onto the wreckage, or try to walk through the perceived hole in the wall, reality would persist, and the individual would fall through the car’s wreckage, and the other would walk into the undamaged wall. If interacted with in such a way, the individual who did so is immediately able to notice that the effect is an illusion.

These illusions all last only a Scene and must remain within the user’s field of Perception (altered through Epic Perception and other Powers) or vanish..

SCAPEGOAT ●●●●

Cost: None

Dice Pool: Illusion + Empathy v. Perception + Empathy

Type: Reflexive

Sometimes, for the liars, fools, and cunning tricksters, the best defence from being found out is to make someone else appear guilty. Subtle illusions of beads of sweat, hammering heart, unsteady voices, and other such marks of guilt plague a target.

When used on a target, they become the obvious suspect when something goes wrong, normally things caused by the user of this Boon, immediately assumed to be the guilty party somehow, no matter what has occurred. To resist this Boon, onlookers must overcome the activation role with a Perception + Empathy role to notice that things are not quite lining up.

This Boon lasts for one day per Illusion Rank, and will persist, even when the user of this Boon is nowhere near the target.

Illusion Five

FROG PRINCE ●●●●●

Cost: None (Legendary Deed Option)

Dice Pool: Illusion + Art or Larceny v. Perception + Awareness or Investigation or Appearance + Presence (see text)

Type: Persistent

A King disguised as a bestial bear, a beautiful woman as hideous, or Uther Pendragon having Merlin change his appearance, are all relatively common events in mythology. A Scion who possesses this Boon may do just this.

The user may use this Boon to change the appearance of another being against their will (or even their notice). Changing any individual to appear as another, roughly similarly sized individual. For example, a dog could be disguised as a man, a king as a bear, but not a Prince as a frog (save for exceptionally large, dog sized frogs for example). While changed, the target’s Appearance and Epic Appearance can be altered by the user of this Boon to anywhere within the range they normally possess, and in the case of Epic Appearance, can change the target between positive and negative Epic Appearance.

Changing an individual to appear as a specific being (such as Uther Pendragon appearing as one of his servants) requires an Illusion + Art roll, with a less specific illusion requiring Illusion + Larceny. If a being’s Appearance rating has been altered with this Boon, and the target uses an Appearance Knack, they can roll Appearance + Presence, the illusion failing if they gain more Successes than initially gained on the activation of this Boon.

This Boon lasts for one day per Illusion Rank, or if a Legendary Deed is used on activation, one day per Success, and if a Legendary Deed is used, a specific situation which will cause the illusion to break (a kiss, for example) can be added.

MORPHEUS’ VISION ●●●●●

Cost: None

Dice Pool: None

Type: Persistent

Dreamers, sandmen, and their ilk, though relatively rare among the Pantheons, do exist. With this Boon, they become all the more capable at their Divine function, Demigods able to interact more heavily with the dreamers than previously.

A Scion who possesses this Boon gains a number of effects. Firstly, they can perceive the dreams of any being within one mile per Illusion Rank. Additionally, they may use any of their Illusion Boons to alter these dreams for no cost, as they are not interacting with reality in any way, and the realm of dreamers more easily manipulated and shifted then the waking world.

Illusion Six

DREAMSCAPE ●●●●● ●

Cost: None

Dice Pool: Illusion + Art v. Perception + Awareness

Type: Persistent

False cities, mountains, and skyscrapers are all within the purview of Scions with this Boon. Landscapes shimmer and change their shape at the shim of the Scion. With this Boon, the Scion may create, or disguise landscapes, with slightly different effects based on which, this Boon only able to encompass one of these per use.

Create: Out of nothing, the Scion can create skyscrapers, giant castles, large hills, or friendly little homes. Within an area of one mile per Illusion Rank, these towering buildings, or environmental shifts all spring into existence at the will of the Scion. Just as all baseless illusions created through this Purview, these changes can’t truly interact with the physical world, though they will attempt to create the illusion as such. An individual could open an illusionary door, but not walk up an illusionary flight of stairs for example (though an elevator could function, the doors closing and the world changing, like a scene change in a play).

Alter: Altering landscapes, giving a mountain a face, moving the windows on a building, changing a forest of evergreens to a sprawling modern art exhibit of metal palm trees are all possibilities at the hands of a Scion using this version of Dreamscape. Within one mile per Illusion Rank, the world will shift at their whim, changing its appearance. These changes may never alter the original size of the buildings, or natural features shifted, but may be interacted with due to their basis in reality. Stairs can be walked up, if the illusion is covering real steps, and such similar effects.

Both of these effects may be used in tandem, making exceptionally complicated Illusions if the user so wills. Additionally, both versions of this Boon can exist outside the user’s perception, last for one day per Success, and are resisted with either a Perception + Awareness or Investigation.

PHANTOMS ●●●●● ●

Cost: None

Dice Pool: Illusion + Empathy

Type: Persistent

Making ten copies of yourself is child’s play, but, not always the right tool for the job of a trickster or dreamweaver. Sometimes you need a thousand, and they shouldn’t all look just like yourself. This Boon allows you to do just this, a bargain basement genesis.

For every Success gained on this Boon, the user may create one hundred phantom humans, human-like creatures, or reasonably sized animals (bears are acceptable, but blue whales are pushing it). These phantoms all will have an exceptionally basis personality, and will live their false lives, interacting with one and other, other illusions created by this Purview, and real creatures almost flawlessly. However, they are not sentient, and are unable to actually think for themselves, or create new information, causing many users of this Boon to have all of their creations avoid detailed conversation.

These phantoms may appear to interact with the physical world, but may never actually change it. Phantom swords and spears harm not the enemy, and they can’t physically open a real door, though they may appear to do so, and the door may appear to be open, though it is not.

Resisting this Boon takes a Perception + Empathy or Politics roll, depending on if the phantoms are being tested individually, or examined intentionally. Furthermore, these phantoms will exist for up to one day per Illusion Rank, and may exist outside the perception range of the user, though the user of this Boon may take more complex control of these phantoms, allowing proper, in depth conversation if they are within their direct range, and the user is focusing on the situation.

Illusion Seven

PRINCE/PRINCESS OF LIES ●●●●● ●●

Cost: None

Dice Pool: None

Type: Persistent

At the cusp of their Apotheosis, Demigod tricksters, or dream smiths grow in power to a frightening degree, their previous tricks swelling in power along with themselves. Previous Boons gaining altered effects.

Subtle Knife: Lasts for one week per Success, and the object need not remain in the user’s perception.

Stolen Face: Borrowing principles from Subtle Knife, the user may use this Boon to render themselves unnoticable (not invisible) by others, allowing the user to hide in plain sight and be unseen with this Boon.

Fool’s Gold: Objects so disguised last for one month per Success.

Scapegoat: Lie detecting powers, if unable to gain more Successes than the activation role of this Boon, will fire falsely at a target who has been affected by Scapegoat.

LYING EYES ●●●●● ●●

Cost: None

Dice Pool: Illusion + Art

Type: Persistent

Changing what others perceive is a grand trick, and at the cusp of Apotheosis, a Scion becomes dangerously perficient in it. Rather than creating a new, false object, or changing the appearance of a real one, a Scion with this Boon may slip an illusion into the mind of their target, haunting them.

When the Scion uses this Boon, they select a specific illusion their target will perceive. That all dogs are lions, that their wife is a dragon, or render them incapable of perceiving weapons. From that point on, for one day per Success rolled, the target’s perception changes in accordance to this Boon. This Boon is resisted with Perception + Awareness initially, and then if the changes are examined after the fact, through Perception + Investigation.

Illusion Eight

ONE THOUSAND LIES ●●●●● ●●●

Cost: None

Dice Pool: None

Type: Persistent

Now a Deity, powerful and potent in might, a master of the Illusion Purview has likely long been bothered by the beings who possess innate knowledge of secrets, and hidden things. A Scion with this Boon gains very basic, though eternally persistent, resistance to the bothersome foils of their secrets.

Whenever the being is going to be revealed as the source of a problem, or otherwise being incriminated through a use of Mystery, the number of Successes needed to be devoted for an answer doubles (the most minor now costing 2 successes, the greatest 10). More specific defences from the Mystery Purview is left to other Purviews, such as Moon, Darkness, and Magic.

WAKING DREAM ●●●●● ●●●

Cost: None

Dice Pool: Illusion + Art

Type: Persistent

The Deities who shepard dreams into the minds of mortals often find themselves masters of Darkness, or such things to lul others to sleep. While enforcing sleep is obviously outside the reach of the false powers of Illusion, they may instead banish the mind of an individual into a grand illusion, a waking dream for all intensive purposes.

If the user of this Boon can overcome the target’s MDV, they may knock them into a dream like state as they wrap and muddle their mind with illusions and falsehoods. At the user’s choice, the target will either freeze while in this state, or continue to move around as they interact with the false world inside their head.

When a target is in this state, any attempts to ‘awaken’ them must overcome the activation roll of this Boon, and the target counts as sleeping (though medically they are not) for Morpheus’ Vision (Illusion 5).

Illusion Nine

NEVERLAND ●●●●● ●●●●

Cost: None

Dice Pool: None

Type: Persistent

Places that aren't, have never been, but yet people can enter, such as various of the Otherworlds of Ireland, and realms of sleep and dream occasionally wander into the mythology of the world. With this Boon, a Deity can create such a place, somewhere that doesn't exist, but people can still travel to.

When using this Boon, the entire functioning of this place is left to the Scion, if age can’t touch those who dwell there, if the dying never can truly pass, and other such dreamy wishes are all within the power of this Boon. When first used, in addition to these details of the realm, the Scion must choose how one enters, and exits the realm, such touching the bottom of a deep pool in a forest, falling asleep with twelve teeth and a gold coin under your pillow, and other such wondrous methods.

When a being leaves one of these realms, or dies there, they awake somewhere sensible, be it their own bed, or in a hospital, or sleeping on the entrance, it is like waking up from a dream. All that happened to the individual while in one of these realms-that-are-not is waived. All damage, all legend and other resources spent, and all effects, from Knacks, to Boons to stranger things fade, as if the events had never happened.

All that remains is the fading memory of the dream.

THE GREATEST THEFT ●●●●● ●●●●

Cost: None

Dice Pool: Illusion + Art (?)

Type: Persistent

The greatest thefts are ones that no one ever notices, either things that no one would miss, or ones that a cunning replacement has been left behind. However, it’s hard to create fakes of the things a Deity wishes to steal without being truly exceptionally skilled, and having a vast amount of time, things which not all Tricksters possess.

Instead, a cunning master of illusions and wistful dreams can leave a fake in its place that is almost entirely perfect, so much so that much of reality may have been replaced and none would be the wiser. When stealing something, as small as a coin, to as large as the sun, to as important as Mjolnir, the Deity may leave an illusionary fake in its place, so perfect that its almost impossible to notice.

A fake created by this Boon functions entirely normally. A fake sun shines, and warms the earth, a fake person, the original kidnapped, functions perfectly, knowing everything they should, and being a flawless recreation, and even the greatest artifacts of the Pantheons can be replicated without a single flaw.

There is, of course, a catch. Firstly, any use of Ultimate Perception instantly notices all of these fakes as such, and secondly, these fakes will fail at the worst possible moment as deemed by Fate, and all present will instantly realize who took the original. The curse of the Trickster, nearly endlessly powerful, but always doomed by themselves.

Illusion Ten

ALL A TRICK ●●●●● ●●●●●

Cost: None

Dice Pool: None

Type: Persistent

For many Tricksters, surviving tends to be a ‘skin of the teeth’ style existance. Always walking the edge, and manage to avoid death or deadly punishment just barely. Long ago did these Tricksters get exceptionally skilled at this practice of not dying, despite their antics. One of the greatest tools of this is falsehoods, and illusions.

Once per Story, a Scion who possesses this Boon may declare that they were not actually present in whatever Scene is ongoing, and that there had only been an exceptionally complicated illusion present instead. By doing this, the Scion sacrifices half of their total Legend pool, or if not available, a Dot of Legend, as the insanely complicated illusion has its costs.

Additionally, when a Scion uses this Boon, they do not regain any resources lost during the Scene they were not actually present for, all considered the cost of the complex trick. Only effects, such as Boons and Knacks used on them during this Scene are stripped from the Scion, as they were never actually targeted by them, only the illusionary fake.

All damage inflicted, Boons, and Knacks used, and the like still count as having been performed however. The illusion so real that it actually hurt, and maimed others, for example.

Finally, a Scion may not use this Boon to avoid a situation after they have used an Avatar or Ultimate in the Scene, save for the Illusion Avatar, such powers far outside the range of these illusions.

As a note, the question obviously arises of, “How did the Deity know to protect themselves with this Boon ahead of time?” and the answer is just that they did. The mind of beings who deal with falsehood more than they deal with truth is a dangerous place, maybe they always have such a fallback plan as this. Who is to know if you have ever really spoken to Odin, or Loki, Manannan, or Hermes? What if it was All A Trick?

THE BEST TRICK ●●●●● ●●●●●

Cost: None

Dice Pool: None

Type: Persistent

One of the most dangerous things about Illusions is a secret kept close to the heart of many wielders of the Purview. Sometimes, illusions are real, sometimes there is no difference between the real, and the not. Manannan mac Lir knows this, as his Phantom Navy, ships and sailors of mist, are the final defenders of the Isle of Man. The Deva also know this, though the other Pantheons tend to ignore them on the topic, as they believe all of reality is a grand illusion.

When a God or Goddess activates this Boon, all further uses of Illusion that normally would be unable to interact with reality, such as Phantoms (Illusion 6), Dreamscape (Illusion 6), and Dreamcraft (Illusion 4) become utterly, and entirely real. Phantom navies forged of mist rise from the Irish Sea, lethal and skilled, castles rise up from the earth, capable of holding a siege as much as any true one formed of rock, and the like. The only exception to this is Doppleganger (Illusion 3), as making perfect, living copies of fully fledged Deities is out of the range of anything but Avatars.

All of these Illusions are both false, and very, very real at the same time. No longer can these Boons be resisted without the use of an Ultimate or Avatar, as they have become honestly, and truly real. And though the swords of phantom armies may brutalise and slay the foe, false suns may hold off the darkness, and chains forged of lies and deceit may chain a Titan, at the end of the Scene, they all fade away as the dream-stuff they are.

However, the wounds they inflicted, the deeds accomplished, despite being nothing more than illusions, hold true. Maye the Deva are right, something that the other Pantheons would never hear the end of.