A Suitable Curse

[Ender]

One of my players would like to start the game with a mild curse. She's playing Leonora, a Half-Vistani bard. Leonora grew up in a Naiat caravan with her Vistani mother. Though she is giomorgo, the tribe treated her well enough, even as they made it clear that she is not one of them. When the caravan would set up in a town, she would play music and dance, but they soon learned that Leonora had another talent: she had a silver tongue. She was adept at figuring out what people wanted to hear and convincing them of whatever she wanted. So, the caravan decided to let her pretend to be a Vistani seer, telling fortunes and putting on a grand act for entertainment. As Leonora grew older, she found that she enjoyed acting... and lying... and she had a penchant for conning people. The tribe warned her that they allow her to pretend to be Vistani, but that other Vistani may not be so accepting of it (I'm 99% sure I've read that Vistani don't like giomorgo claiming to be full-blooded, but I can't find said reference). As it happened, Leonora was off on her own one day and promised a wealthy nobleman that she'd read his fortune, but was overheard by a passing Vistani woman from another tribe. The woman cursed Leonora, who went back to her tribe and reiterated the tale to her Raunie, who said she would help mitigate the curse (how, exactly, I'm unsure) but told Leonora that her own hubris brought this on and she either couldn't or wouldn't remove the whole curse and Leonora would have to pay for her mistake like any other.

So. We spent a little while trying to come up with a suitable curse for her and have a number of ideas, but would like to hear what others think. We don't want this to be much more than an Embarassing Curse. It's meant to add some depth and challenge to the character without being too frustrating for the player.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Off the top of my head, I might go with something along the lines of "you want to pretend to be a Vistani? here's what it's really like!" i.e. give her some of the "curse" of the vistani in some way. Wanderlust, loss of powers from staying in one place too long, suspicious reactions from giorgios, some kind of worse version of Moon Madness, something along those lines... I'm not sure how to mitigate it to something minor, though.

[Ender]

Ooh, good call. I hadn't thought of it that way. We had been thinking something along the lines of something that affects her when she lies. Maybe some minor "Liar Liar" kind of effect that has a small percentage chance of her accidentally blurting out the truth instead of a lie. But I really like the idea of the curse mirroring her Vistani guise. Perhaps the longer she stays in one place, the harder it becomes for her to lie effectively. Maybe people just naturally become more suspicious of her the longer she stays around.

[Zilfer]

She could also be prone to "visions" which may or may not be true/malicious......

[Don Fernando]

I would go for a mild curse on her ability to comunicate (since that's her defining feature). Perhaps loose the ability to speak while trying to play Vistani or even speak in a completely different thongue when performing fortune telling.

[Ender]

Just an update for those interested: the player and I decided that, to mirror the troubles of a Vistani and to curse what she's good at, every week she spends in the same location (town, village, city, etc.) increases her OR by 1, without the Intimidate benefits. She's a social character, so it makes it harder for her to con people or get along with the townfolk, but she's also a fairly nomadic character, so it doesn't completely debilitate her.

[The Lesser Evil]

Sounds good. Here's a few ideas should the character fail powers checks and the curse becomes more powerful:

-Real Vistani/Raunie/seers can tell her as a fraud by sight.
-A compulsion/obsession with performing fortune telling
-Her fortunes (unreliably/unpredictably) come true (but usually in twisted fashions). However, she is always associated with it, weal or woe. If woe, she may be blamed for it in some way, such as placing a hex or some such. If weal, she might be thought to have consorted with demons or some such to create this mysterious boon. Alternatively, she might be beset by people demanding her "blessings".
-Transformation into a darkling