I have an idea for a character that had their magic taken away from them and made a bargain with a crossroads demon to get it back. The way I'm using crossroads demons is that while they can kill you when your deal expires (usually 10 years), they can't take your soul unless you've done something that condemns it. As such, the crossroads demons like to throw in stuff that makes people more likely to be corrupted into their deals--in this case, sponsored magic in addition to the character's own magic.

The problem is, I don't want to just use hellfire, and I'm having trouble thinking of what crossroads demon sponsored magic would look like. Any ideas?

I was thinking about what stunts do, and mostly they seem to either boost the value of a skill under specific circumstances or transfer a trapping from one skill to another. Both of these things can be accomplished by investing skill points in the skills affected by those stunts. For example, I could buy a stunt that gives me a +1 or a +2 to my weapons skill when using rapiers, but I could accomplish the same thing by raising my weapons skill.

Because of this, I think it might be a good idea to let people buy stunts with skill points as well as refresh. Does this seem reasonable? If so, how many skill points should one spend to buy a stunt?

So, I was actually reading an old thread on this topic, and it got me thinking. One one hand, several people said it should be possible if it worked for the game, but on the other hand, lots of people said that it shouldn't be possible because it was a gross violation of cannon.

IMHO, they're both right. So I think I've found a way to let one use a ritual to remove a denarian shadow that isn't a violation of cannon.

The only way we've seen a denarian shadow be removed in cannon is when an incredibly powerful mental attack hit the person and was absorbed by their shadow. I don't see why this can't be done with the target redirecting the attack, rather than the shadow--though obviously that would be a lot harder.

First, the person with the shadow would have to win a social/mental conflict against the shadow to keep it from interfering.

Then, that person would probably have to do a ritual to set up a psychomantic block to stop the shadow redirecting the ritual to the person.

Then, another person would have to perform a 30+ shift ritual targeting the person with the shadow, which would probably violate both the 3rd and 4th Laws even though the person targeted was willing.

Then, the person with the shadow would get one roll to control all the shifts of power (sort of like how Harry redirected the entropy curse in Blood Rites) and if they failed, they'd become like a Renfield, only obeying the shadow rather than a vampire.

And of course, this wouldn't do anything about their link to the coin, so unless that was contained in a circle the Fallen inside could still speak to them. (And of course, if that circle is broken down the road...)

This would seem to be consistent with cannon, and would give players a way to get rid of a denarian shadow if they wanted, while still explaining why it's never been done in cannon.

Opinions?