The Gilded Key

All that glitters, the old saying goes,

is not gold. Greed is a vice that has been with
mankind for a long time. Primitive man
coveted the food or wife of his neighbor,
countries have been made or and whole
societies slaughtered for material wealth, and
even today, wars are fought over resources as
trivial as shiny pebbles. Greed is an innately
human trait.
Greed is also a very lethal trait, and
tales of people swallowed up by their own
avarice or that of others echo down the
corridors of history. Two brothers find a vein
of copper, and one kills the other. A sickly old
man has his plug pulled by a desperate or
selfish heir. A bank teller is shot during a
robbery. Greed has caused many deaths, and
is irreversibly tied to death as a result.
Users of the Gilded Key use Greed to
their advantage, turning brother against
brother, or creating the objects of one's desire
to get their way.
Gold is especially closely intertwined
with this Key, as it is the archetypal object of
greed, and many of its effects shape
ectoplasm into a form resembling gold in
some way. The Gilded Key Skill is Larceny

Gilded Boneyard:
The Gilded Boneyard makes the Sin-Eater
aware of valuables in the area. The user can't
tell what they are, or what their actual value
is, but they still feel an inexorable tingle near
items of strong monetary or emotional value.
The Sin-Eater adds their Larceny rating to
rolls to find valuable items, as well as those
carrying them.
The Sin-Eater can cause greed and
paranoia to spread within the Boneyard. The
Sin-Eater may roll Wits + Larceny +
activation successes vs. the target's
Composure + Supernatural Tolerance. If
theSin-Eater succeeds, the target receives the
Obsessed condition centered around
acquiring something of value for the rest of
the scene. (their friend's watch, the last can of
anchovies in the world, etc.)

The two-dot power of this Manifestation

may be used against multiple targets,
requiring 1 Plasm per target. The targets
share the same target for their Obsessions.
Those affected by this Boneyard
become violent in the pursuit of their
obsession. Any attacks against those they
believe stand between them and their
obsession deal +1 damage.
The Sin-Eater can use greed to
destroy even the strongest relationship. They
can cause the targets to mutually despise each
other for the rest of their lives. They could
conceivably reconcile in the future, but this is
unlikely.

Gilded Caul:
The Sin-Eater coats a part of his body (arms,
legs, head or torso) in a thin shell of yellow,
metallic ectoplasm. This material,
colloquially called Dead Man's Gold, is
hard and durable, protecting whatever it
covers from harm. That specific part of the
body benefits from Armor of 2/1.
You can form the Dead Man's Gold into
rudimentary tools, although the material is
still unsuitable to use for weapons. These
tools are too primitive to offer a bonus, but
you won't suffer penalties for lacking tools.
You can produce more Gold at a time,
extending its protection to a second body
part. Additionally, the Armor rating of the
Gold becomes Caul/Caul-2. Tthis increased
armor rating cost an extra Plasm.
Your mastery over the Gold has
increased to the point that you can shape it
into a melee weapon, provided you have
covered your arms and/or legs with it. This
weapon deals +1L damage, with the Armor
Piercing property.
You can totally coat yourself in the
Gold, and can form the Gold into virtually
any shape, making a weapon as above, but
with damage up to +5L, or create a tool that
provides up to a +3 bonus to relevant rolls, in
addition to the increased armor rating from
the 3-dot power. This costs the normal

activation cost, +1 Plasm per damage bonus

over 1L, or per tool bonus. The increased
armor is free now.

Gilded Curse:
Those afflicted by the Gilded Curse find that
money troubles become a constant concern.
They aren't made poorer by the curse, though.
This Curse is far more insidous, drawing
money and material wealth to them, but such
wealth is always fraught with danger. The
target receives a dot of Resources,
representing their sudden good fortune, but
each day, they roll dice equal to activation
successes. On a success, they befall some
hardship related to their wealth, suffering the
Embarassing Secret, Guilty, Leveraged, or
Notoriety Condition. At the end of the Curse,
the wealth (and any resulting conditions)
disappears.
The Wealth you bring is particularly
dangerous. In addition to the Condition from
the Curse, the target suffers 3 bashing
damage from physical violence brought on
by the wealth, or 1 lethal damage on an
Exceptional Success.
Wealth breeds jealousy. As long as this
Curse is in place, the target's impression to
those less wealthy becomes irreversibly
hostile. Additionally, the Sin-Eater may
spend 2 extra Plasm to increases the granted
Resource dot to and apply the 9-again
property to the dice pool rolled for hardships.
Money talks. In this case, it whispers
in the ear, telling it to get more, and to keep it
safe from those who would steal it. In
addition to conditions imposed by the Curse,
the target gains the Obsessed Condition
centered around gaining and protecting their
wealth, even if nobody is actually after it.
A miser is easily crushed under the
wight of his gold. The Sin-Eater can spend
another 2 Plasm on top of the cost for the 3dot effect to increase Resources granted by
another dot, and apply the 8-again quality to
the dice pool. The target gains Disabled,
Madness, or Pariah with Exceptional
Success, which can only be removed by
losing the Curse.

Pariah (Persistent)
You are universally hated and feared by
others. All impressions you make are hostile,
and you can never improve them. Rolls to
discredit you or spur others to action against
you receive the 9-again quality. Fame, Repute
and similar merits offer no bonus to
interactions, nor do merits like Occultation,
as your reputation is too great and too sour.
Beat: You suffer misfortune as a result of
your reputation.
Resolution: You redeem yourself in the eyes
of the public.

Gilded Marionette:
The Sin-Eater who has mastered the Gilded
Marionette can manipulate the forces of
greed, as well as toying with the concept of
value. The Sin-Eater can use this
Manifestation to add their Marionette rating
to rolls to haggle, buy things, make deals, and
make first impressions. Additionally, they can
use this Marionette to give somebody an
inflated or deflated sense of something's
value, making something cheap seem
priceless, or making a treasure seem like a
cheap fake.
You can actually transmute materials,
with the change lasting for a scene. How
closely related the materials are increases the
Plasm cost of the Manifestation:
Extremely similar (elm to oak)
+1
Similar (iron to steel)

+2

Dissimilar (flesh to wood)

+4

Very different (flesh to stone)

+7

Gilded Oracle:
The Sin-Eater acquires an innate sense of the
worth of things, from a petty trinket to a
human soul. When making a roll to ascertain
the value of an item, the Sin-Eater adds their
activation successes to the roll.
The Sin-Eater can touch an object to see a
vision of the last person to own it. They don't
know anything about the person, but they can
make a guess at what it meant to them.
Recognizing the person from a vision

requires a Wits + Composure + Activation

Successes roll.
You can touch a target and sense the
remnants of their greed. The activation roll is
opposed by the target's Composure +
Supernatural Tolerance, and if the Sin-Eater
is successful, they know of any recent acts of
greed, especially those that have caused harm
or death, perpetrated by the target.
The Oracle of Greed reveals the
secrets of wealth to those who listen. A SinEater can predict major changes in an
economy, and by spending 1 extra Plasm, can
predict how it will affect a target. While not
as useful as other forms of Oracle, it can be a
potent tool for causing or preventing
financial ruin.
The Sin-Eater truly understands the
phrase money talks. More specifically, the
Sin-Eater can remember all the events a piece
of valid currency was present for, up to the
present (or when it ceased to be valid
currency), and going back 1 week (+1 week
per extra Plasm spent). For example, a
Spanish Doubloon could show events from
around the mid-1800s, while an ancient
Roman aes signate could show events from
around the time Augustus Caesar took the
throne in Rome.

Gilded Pit:
The Gilded Pit hollows out the spirit,
neutering the natural drive to take what they
need. Hunger is dulled, thirst becomes a dull
itch, and even the need for love dies away.
The target still suffers these needs, but their
drive to pursue them is muted. Some victims
have been known to starve in places of
obscene excess. The target suffers no
penalties for hunger, thirst, loneliness, nor
even withdrawal, and is rendered unable to
tell when they suffer from those states. This
lasts 24 hours, plus another 24 hours per
Plasm spent.
The victim begins to find nourishment
repugnant. When forced to eat or drink, the
target must make a Composure + Resolve roll
or acquire the Moderate Sick Tilt

The Victim begins to lose their drive for

happiness, the reward system in their brain
breaking down. They acquire the Deprived
condition, not tied to anything in particular,
to represent the loss. They can still regain
Willpower from their Vice or Virtue, but it
feels hollow, and they feel no instictive drive
to do it.
The infected Plasm of the Pit causes
the target's personality to decay, making them
unable to regain Willpower at all. They have
no real reason to do anything, and can't get
any joy out of anything, even losing the drive
to self-defense.
The victim has completely lost all
drive. They are rendered suicidal, and if not
supervised, will keep trying to kill themself
until they succeed.

Gilded Rage:
The Gilded Rage manifests as a hunger, a pit
in the stomach that demands to be fed by
others. For one to live, another has to die, and
if it hasto be that way, somebody else is
going to have to do the dying, because it sure
won't be you. The Sin-Eater using this
recovers 1 Bashing damage for every 2
damage dealt. If they have no Bashing
Damage to recover, they instead downgrade 1
Lethal damage they have sustained to
Bashing for every 3 damage dealt.
Lethal damage dealt with this
Manifestation can outright heal Lethal
damage as if it were Bashing damage.
When dealing Aggravated damage,
you can downgrade 1 Aggravated damage to
Lethal per 3 damage dealt, but the damage
becomes resistant Lethal damage.

Gilded Shroud:
The Gilded Shroud is unusual, in that it
provides little in direct protection. However,
it is perfect for obscuring the value of the
Sin-Eater, their friends or their possessions,
protecting them from pursuers. Instead of
Armor, the Gilded Shroud adds the SinEater's Shroud Rating to their Stealth rolls.
The Sin-Eater makes themselves alluring,
making others around them lust after them.
The Sin-Eater adds their activation successes

to any rolls for Social Maneuvering against

those who could be sexually attracted to
them.
The Sin-Eater becomes a sinkhole for
the energies of others. By touching a target
and spending 1 Plasm, you can steal 1
Willpower from the target, resisted by the
target's Resolve + Supernatural Tolerance.
The Sin-Eater harnesses the power of
greed, pushing themselves to fight harder and
move faster. By spending 2 Plasm, the SinEater may replicate the effects of spending a
point of Willpower to gain +3 dice when
making a roll, but only if that roll has a selfserving goal. Others may benefit, but
succeeding on the roll should have a direct
benefit to you.
The Gilded Shroud, when mastered,
offers total financial invisbility. When
making any sort of financial action, the SinEater can spend extra Plasm. Each extra point
of Plasm spent incurs a -1 penalty to any
attempts to trace or track the money to the
Sin-Eater. Papers get lost, files are corrupted,
and people keep their mouths shut.