Orisha's Fortune

Thaumaturgy Paths

Orisha's Fortune (or Loa's fortune, or Enkisi's Fortune, depending on the wangateur) allows the thaumaturge to maipulate the whim of luck, the vagaries of random chance. By spending his own blood in sacrifice, the wangateur beseeches the spirits to bring fortune to himself and his allies, and misfortune to his foes.

Orisha's fortune follows most standard rules for Thaumaturgical paths. The blood point required cannot merely be spent, however, it must be physically shed by the wangateur when the power is activated, and many practitioners carry a small ritual blade on their person for this purpose. The wound required need not be large enough to inflict even a single health level of damage; it is the act of shedding vitae that captures the orishas' attention. Many wangateurs slice open a palm and symbolically fling the blood at their target, though this is by no means required.

(For those who are concerned about such things, the vitae cannot be retrieved by other thaumaturges for use against a character. The blood point is consumed by the magic seconds after it is spilled.)
The wangateur can target anyone in his line of sight.

1) Sheltering Hand
At this level, the wangateur can use orisha's Favor to prevent catastrophe. The subject is granted just a bit of extra fortune; he may still fail, but he finds disasters occurring far less frequently.
System: The wangateur chooses his subject - either himself or an ally. The next action attempted by the subject is less likely to botch; the number of 1's rolled must exceed the caster's successes for a botch to occur. Thus, if the player rolls 3 successes when invoking Sheltering Hand, his next roll must come up with at least four 1's (and no successes) to be considered a botch. Botches avoided in this fashion still carry all the results of a normal failure; this power prevents disaster, but it cannot turn a failure into a success. It applies only to the next action taken by the subject, or for the first turn if the action is extended. If the roll to invoke this power indicates a botch, the subject suffers the opposite effect; every 1 rolled by the player counts as an added botch on the subject's own action.

2) Fortune's Blessing
The wangateur requests the orishas' aid for herself or an ally. Luck is with her; tasks become simpler and less likely to fail and the recipient may even find herself capable of feats that would normally prove too difficult to perform.
System: The specific task - hacking, driving, shooting or any other mundane action - must be declared when the power is invoked. For the duration of the scene, the recipient finds the difficulty of the specified task lowered by 1 (to a minimum of 4).
Multiple uses of this power are not cumulative, nor can a poor roll be superseded or replaced by a better one. Any attempt to use it on someone already under its influence automatically fails.

3) Fortune's Curse
The reverse of Fortune's Blessing, this power allows the wangateur to inflict minor misfortune upon an enemy, making a single task more difficult and likely to fail.
System: The caster must declare a specific sort of action - brawling, sneaking or the like - when the power is invoked. The target of the spell finds his difficulty increased by 1 (maximum 9) when attempting that action, this power lasts for a scene. (sic)
This power is not cumulative, and should be considered a failure if used on someone already under its influence.

4) Fortune's Favor
The wangateur calls upon the spirits to perform some truly hefty twisting of the laws of probability. Blows that should land, contests that clearly favor the opposition - all seem to shift inexplicably in favor of the wangateur.
System: At the moment of casting, the caster must choose a specific individual against whom the power operates. Once this power is invoked, the wangateur is protected by an effect that seems to combine aspects of the previous two powers. All of the target's rolls are at +1 difficulty (maximum 10). All of the caster's rolls are at -1 difficulty (minimum 4), but only when in direct opposition to the target (attack rolls, dodges and contested actions). Fortune's Favor lasts for a number of turns equal to the wangateur's successes.
The caster cannot use Fortune's Favor while under the effects of Fortune's Blessing, nor can she use it against anyone already influenced by Fortune's Curse.

5) Smiting Hand
A truly nasty magic, Smiting Hand sets the power of the orishas directly against a foe, transforming almost any attempted task into a catastrophic failure.
System: Every success achieved by the caster becomes a "phantom botch" that the target must overcome on his next roll. Thus, if the caster achieves 3 successes, the target's next roll is considered to have 3 extra dice that all came up 1. Furthermore, any failure while under the influence of this power is considered a botch rather than a mere failure. For example, if the aforementioned victim rolled 10, 7, 3, 2, and 2, that would normally be a failure - the phantom 1's cancel out the 7 and the 10. Because of the power of Smiting Hand, however, the result is a botch even though successes were rolled. The Storyteller is encouraged to have such botches result in truly catastrophic results, even as compared to "normal" botches; those who threaten the favored of the orishas deserve whatever happens to them.