What happens when a shapeshifter crosses a threshold?

[ironpoet]

Imagine a true shapeshifter (someone like Odo from Deep Space Nine) that is disguised as Daniel Carpenter's backpack.  If Danial (unaware of the switch) carries his "backpack" into the Carpenter home, what happens to the shapeshifter?

• Do thresholds effect shapeshifting?
• Did Daniel effectively "invite" his backpack into the house?
• If not, would the shapeshifter revert to their natural form?
• If not, would the shapeshifter be stuck as a backpack until it leaves the house?

[blackstaff67]

Carrying him in may imply invitation, rather like a BCV in gaseous form hiding in the lung of a possessed victim crossing a threshold.  Otherwise the SS in question leaves a lot of power at the door.

[gojj]

Can you invite someone in who you don't even know is there though? Sounds like yet another "It's up to the GM" scenarios, but to me invitations are explicit, not implicit.

[wyvern]

I'd say this is one of those things that's highly dependent on circumstances.  In one game I played a shapeshifter who explicitly wasn't affected by thresholds - and that was one of the clues that his shapeshifting was something a bit more esoteric than the default "slap some ectoplasm on and call it done".

In the particular example cited, given the mystical defenses around the Carpenter home, I'd tend to say the guardian angels swap the shapeshifter out for a real backpack and toss the shifter into the lake.  Or perhaps somewhere less pleasant.  (Assuming the shapeshifter is hostile and/or evil, of course.  If it's not, then I'd say it's probably just stuck as a backpack due to the threshold.)

[Quantus]

well fwiw while spirits cant cross at all, some things can enter fine with no invitation so long as they dont have hostile intent.  Fae being the main example.  On the other hand wizards loose the bulk of their power regardless of their hostility.  But then Shapeshifters like the Alphas can shift even when in a circle trap, so Im not sure if they'd be able to maintain their forms after such a crossing.  It's really a species-specific thing, though Id use those three (Fae, Humans, and Spirits) as the measure and decide based on how similar they are to each. 

[Cadd]

[...]But then Shapeshifters like the Alphas can shift even when in a circle trap, so Im not sure if they'd be able to maintain their forms after such a crossing.[...]

Where is that? Because in a short story two alphas are forced out of their wolf form specifically by a circle. That was of course a circle of salt IIRC, so it might be that is was specifically meant for that...

The only shifter-within-a-circle I can think of otherwise is the loup-garou...

[Quantus]

Where is that? Because in a short story two alphas are forced out of their wolf form specifically by a circle. That was of course a circle of salt IIRC, so it might be that is was specifically meant for that...

The only shifter-within-a-circle I can think of otherwise is the loup-garou...

Thats the one (Day Off), they werent forced out of their forms by the circle, it was to cut the psychic parasites off from /their/ connection to the NN which was messing with the wolves head.  Once that happened they backed off mouse whom theyd been fighting and apparently returned to human voluntarily

Then I willed the circle closed, and the magical construct snapped into existence, a silent and invisible field of energy which, among other things, completely severed the connection between the psychic parasites in the Nevernever and the werewolves whaling on my dog.

The fight stopped abruptly. Kirby and Andi both blinked their eyes several times and hurriedly removed their fangs from Mouse’s hide. A few seconds later, they shimmered and resumed their human forms.

“Don’t move!” I snapped at them, infuriated to no end. “Any of you! Don’t break the circle or you’ll go nuts again! Sit! Stay!”

That last was for Mouse.

Mostly.

[Cadd]

Aaaah, that's right! Misremembered that scene, cool!

[Tedronai]

Remember also Harry's interactions with Cat Sith.