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Auspex
Mar 9, 2007 22:06:13 GMT -5
Post by Tami on Mar 9, 2007 22:06:13 GMT -5
Auspex
As the Supreme hunters of the night, Cainites have senses that are unmatched by any mortal many Cainites can smell an injured humans blood from yards away. Members of several clan the Toreador, Cappadocians, Malkavians, Tzimisce and Tremere have refined those senses to the point that their own senses outstrip Cainites abilities to the same degree that Cainites outstrips mortals.
Many vampires with high levels of Auspex cease to perceive events in the same way that mortals do. What a farmer's wife might think of as a foul stench, a Cainite's nose breaks down into its component scents, identifying the source of the odor, its distance and its age. Such vampires stop making value judgments about strong odors, harsh sounds or strange sights, instead taking such vistas in and considering their components individually. Vampires of such refined sensibilities are apt to lose themselves as they take in the physical world; bright lights can sometimes stun them as they consider the darkness or harsh sounds as they examine a faint cry.
Gatherings of Cainites whose members include those skilled with Auspex soon learn that secrecy is extremely difficult to maintain: A whispered conversation is audible across a courtyard to a vampire with high levels of Auspex. IN fact, some elders take advantage of this trait and carry on public conversations from opposite sides of cathedrals while barely speaking loud enough to be heard by mortal sitting next to them. Characters who wish to keep secrets in a group of such Cainites must resort to passing notes back and forth or finding a private chamber in which to speak.
Auspex is said to be part of God's curse on Caine because it encourages vampires to obsess on minutiae. Rather then witnesses God's plan for creation or another Cainite's plan for the future the high Auspex vampire occupies his time by dwelling on insignificant details. However, rare is the Cainite who cannot take advantage of Auspex in some fashion.
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Auspex
Mar 9, 2007 22:37:53 GMT -5
Post by Tami on Mar 9, 2007 22:37:53 GMT -5
** Heightened Senses
The most basic ability of Auspex doubles the range and sensitivity of a vampire's senses. The character can see and hear twice as far, and can see better in faint light then other vampires do. Similarly, she can pick up scents as well as a hunting dog and follow them if she learns to do so. Her sense of taste and touch do not increase in range, of course, but they do become vastly more sensitive. A character with heightened senses might detect the vintage in a victims blood or recognize a long-absent mortal acquaintance in pitch darkness.
At the Storytellers discretion, Heighten Senses can proved glimpses of the past, the future or faraway lands. These flashes are nearly always cryptic premonitions that must be interpreted. Whether these messages are the character's own clairvoyant tendencies extended beyond her conscious control or messages from torpid Methuselahs or other power is not known, and the source of debate. These sorts of visions never come when willed, and they are always disorienting and frightening, leaving the vampire with a brief loss of sensation of the here and now.
When concentrating on faint sensations, the character is particularly vulnerable to strong ones. A bright flash of light in the dark or a thunderclap in as silent cave might blind or deafen the character for as long as an hour.
System: It takes a free action to activate this ability, but no roll or other cost is required. The difficulty of rolls associated with using the characters senses (such as Perception + Alertness) decrease by a number equal to the characters Auspex rating when the power is engaged.
The Storyteller should remember the potential hazards listed previously and fit such blindness or deafness to the situation at hand, perhaps allowing a stamina + Alertness roll to overcome its effects. The content and frequency of insight and premonitions are left to the Storytellers discretion. She may roll the characters Auspex rating as its own dice pool (with a difficulty ranging from 6-9) to see if a vision comes at an appropriate moment, if she wishes. Intelligence + Occult rolls may also be necessary to interpret the visions gained with this power. Such visions should be quite rare: The voices are no mere servants, to come when bidden.
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Auspex
Mar 12, 2007 18:49:23 GMT -5
Post by Tami on Mar 12, 2007 18:49:23 GMT -5
** Soulsight
Caintes with Soulsight claim that every being with a soul projects a halo a short distance from his body. They know this primarily because Soulsight lets them see this halo, which shimmer and undulates with each person’s mood and changes color as various emotions wash over them.
Harsh emotions tend towards the red end of the spectrum, while calm and cool ones are blue; strong emotions are bright, while weak ones are dim. As it is rare (outside of frenzy) for anyone to feel just one emotion at a time, most halos are mosaics of color, with veins and spatters of secondary emotion that tinge the primary feeling. A vampire’s halo is pale, as much as a Cainite’s skin is, while a healthy mortal’s halo fairly pulses with life. It is relatively easy for a vampire to distinguish between the two.
Soulsight does not work well as a lie-detector. Most accomplished liars (particularly Cainites) are perfectly calm and comfortable while lying, and they frequently learn to distract themselves with pleasant thoughts while spinning the most outrageous lies. Conversely, someone may be being totally truthful and still be nervous. Additionally, spying on halos is not a subtle thing. The character must ogle her target to get a good view of his halo.
System: Roll Perception + Empathy (difficulty 8). The Storyteller may prefer to make this roll for you so you don’t know just how much information you have gained or whether you have failed or botched. You must get one success to get even basic information, per the following chart.
Successes – Information
Botch – misleading halo Failure – no aura 1 success – can read the shade (pale or bright) 2 successes – as above, and can distinguish basic color 3 successes – as above, and can recognize patterns 4 successes – as above, and can notice subtle shifts 5 successes – as above , and can identify, mixtures of color and pattern
If the target has around a quarter cover or concealment (which includes moving around in a crowded room), increase the number of successes needed by one (so one success give no information, and four gives patterns). If the target has more than around half cover, increase the number by two. You cannot read the halo of someone with more than three-quarters concealment.
You cannot reroll to improve your character’s Perception of another character’s halo until at least an hour has passed. Doing so is treated as an automatic botch. Also, it is very easy to sneak around you while you are ogling, a halo, and observant foes are sure to realize that and gain three dice rolls to all stealth totals against you while you use Soulsight against another.
The halo colors chart offers colors and patterns for the storyteller to use in describing a character’s halo. However, the Storyteller should not feel constrained to stick to the halos colors, nor even to this metaphor (emotional state as halo). For certain characters, Soulsight might manifest by making other beings appear as though they were carved in stain glass; others might perceive distinctive scents. In all these cases, however, your character will still understand the basic meaning of the halos he sees.
Aura Colors
Afraid: Orange Aggressive: Purple Angry: Red Bitter: Brown Calm: Light Blue Compassionate: Pink Conservative: Lavender Depressed: Gray Desirous or Lustful: Deep Red Distrustful: Light Green Enraged: Crimson Envious: Dark Green Excited: Violet Generous: Rose Happy: Vermilion Hateful: Black Idealistic: Yellow Innocent: White Love: Blue Obsessed: Green Sad: Silver Spiritual: Gold Suspicious: Dark Blue A Vampire: Appropriate color is pale Confused: Mottled, shifting colors Daydreaming: Sharp flickering colors Diabolist: Black veins in aura Frenzied: Rapidly rippling colors Psychotic: Hypnotic, swirling color Magic Use: Myriad sparkles
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Auspex
Mar 12, 2007 23:02:43 GMT -5
Post by Tami on Mar 12, 2007 23:02:43 GMT -5
*** The Spirit Touch A mortal creature leaves a subtle scent on everything it touches. Ask any King’s Keeper of the hounds: Dogs, among others, can easily track this scent. In the same fashion, mortal and vampires leave a trail of their own essence upon anything they touch. Vampires with Spirit’s Touch can see this immaterial residue. Although Sprit’s touch users generally cannot track people with this ability – a person must keep an item long enough to leave an impression, or care about it strongly – they can easily determine who the last owner of an object was, who created a work of art and the like.
Beyond the simple identification, a character with Spirit’s Touch can catch glimpses of the object’s creation, use and meaning to its owner. These impressions vary widely, but a brief glimpse is rarely sufficient to learn anything useful about them. The Character must have time to sit and study it.
Members of the clans to whom it comes naturally treasure the Spirit’s Touch. The Cappadocians can re-create the end of a life a life from examining a corpse and its treasured possessions, which may aid in their divinatory abilities. The toreador use Spirit’s touch to refine their own techniques with musical instruments or other artistic tools, or to help gain insight into the creative process of a long-dead master. The Tremere are better able to identify the properties of magical potions and enchanted items than a mortal wizard. Some tzimisce use Spirit’s touch to ensure that a letter passed from another Voivode was created by the one whose seal mark it. And many Malkavian are known to rob mortal’s homes of treasured items, then use these objects to gain a disturbed sort of insight into the minds of those whom they wish to torment into madness
System:Roll Perception + Empathy, with a difficulty based on the strength of the psychic impression. An item that one handled briefly, one that was unimportant to its last owner or one that is otherwise meaningless has a target of 9. The stake that Tremere may have used to immobilize Saulot while diaberlizing him would have a target of 4. Other difficulty numbers range between those. The number of successes rolled determines the amount of information available.
Successes – information
Botch – The character is overwhelmed by psychic impressions for the next 30 minutes and unable to act
Failure – no information of value
1 success – very basic information: The last owner’s gender or hair color, for instance
2 successes – second piece basic information
3 successes - More useful information about the last owner, such as age and state of mind the last time he used the item.
4 successes – the person name
5+ successes – a wealth of information: nearly anything you want to know about the person’s relationship with the objects available.
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Auspex
Mar 13, 2007 20:20:25 GMT -5
Post by Tami on Mar 13, 2007 20:20:25 GMT -5
**** Steal Secrets
The character can open a doorway between his mind and the target’s, allowing her to read the target’s surface thoughts as though they were spoken aloud. She may also speak her own thought to the target inaudibly, but the target cannot turn the tables on the character and listen in on her surface thoughts. A character with this ability can also use it to plunder the mind of her target, stealing information she desires and learning the targets secret wants and fears,
In group meeting among many of the clans with access to this ability, there are often two or more lines of conversation going on, quite divergently: one audible and one or more sub-rosa, passed from mind to mind. Steal Secrets is another power that makes the Toreador such potent conveyor of social standing: You might be sure that the court chamberlain isn’t talking about you, but it is impossible to know what he is thinking about you.
System: Roll intelligence + Subterfuge, with a difficulty equal to the subjects current Willpower. Each success allows you to ferret out one thought or fact from the target’s surface thoughts. To penetrate another layer of thought (surface thoughts and basic attitudes to hidden thoughts to simple memories to deeply buried thoughts) cost an additional success. Learning a single simple memory from a peasant cost three successes rather than one. Additionally, the mind of a Cainite is naturally closed to contact, unlike a mortal’s. To crack through this defense, you must spend a Willpower point in addition to succeeding in the roll.
Surface thoughts are fleeting and often quite chaotic, and the storyteller is encouraged to describe a target’s thoughts in terms of impressions and unexpected images instead of simply blurting out the targets plans and ideas. Such thoughts’ interpretations are best left in the player’s hands, though generous Storytellers may allow a Perception + Empathy roll to filter out the worst of the “noise” coming from a target’s mind.
Your character may project her thoughts without a dice roll beyond that described already. These thoughts, however, are obviously intrusions into the target’s mind, so they cannot be disguised as his own feelings or ideas. However, your character may attempt to disguise her mental “voice” with a roll of manipulation + Subterfuge (difficulty 9) so the target doesn’t recognize her as the “speaker”
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Auspex
Mar 13, 2007 20:20:57 GMT -5
Post by Tami on Mar 13, 2007 20:20:57 GMT -5
***** Anima Walk
In dreams, Cainites and mortals alike walk the earth. They may travel from place to place at unearthly speeds and witness impossible deeds. The vampire who has learned Anima Walk learns to dislodge her spirit from her physical body at will and wander the earth as an invisible disembodied spirit. This spirit, or anima, is connected to the vampire’s physical body by a silver cord that is invisible to those on the mortal plane. The Amina can move at great speeds and even fly. It can pass through solid objects as though they did not exist or drift through the very earth. The Amina cannot travel farther from the character than the moon; it cannot even reach that luminous orb.
When the character activates this power, her physical body slips into a state reminiscent or torpor, though it returns to full awareness when she returns to the body. However, when the character leaves her body behind, she must have a set destination in mind. Changing her destination means her silver cord may become tangled in the spirit realm, and she may loose her way back to her body. Should this happen, the Anima would become lost in the spirit realm, and spirit world, subject to a variety of terrifying and unearthly sights and encounters – most of the ghosts and spirits of the natural world seem to be quite hostile towards Cainites.
Many toreadors with Anima Walk use it to eavesdrop on talented artist during their working hours without disturbing the creator. Soma Cappadicians – particularly the upstart Giovanni family – use it to engage shades of the dead in conversation. Most other clans use it to sly on one another or to ensure that their minions are acting according to instructions. Cainites who know of this power’s existence tend to assume that the most powerful Methuselah’s and clan founders use it from torpor, keeping tabs on whole bloodlines for their inevitable night of return.
System: Spend a point of Willpower and roll Perception + Occult. The difficulty is a base of 7, modified by the distance and complexity of the voyage you plan to take. A quick step up tot eh corner tavern might require only a 4, while a trip east into Taugast could require a 10. Three successes are needed in order to have a safe ad largely uneventful walk outside your body. Just achieving one or two lets you leave your body and go on the voyage you intend, but it will take longer than expected and involve hazards to your spiritual body. A failure indicates that you must spend another Willpower point and roll again, while a botch snaps you silver cord and casts your spirit-body far from your physical one: into a distant land, a dreamlike spirit realm or the dark lands of the dead. If you silver cord is broken for any reason, your body immediately drop into torpor. Should you change or add to your destination while on your anima voyage, you must roll Perception + Occult again at a new target number as designated by the storyteller, with the same consequences for varying degrees of success.
You are invisible and immaterial while projecting into the spirit realm, unless you should encounter another spirit or a Cainite using Anima Walk. Other character with a particular sensitivity to ghost and psychic activity (including those with lower levels of Auspex) may notice you with a Perception + Occult roll. The difficulty here is 8, and the target must roll more successes than you did when activating the power. Even those who do notice you won’t be able to identify you; you are merely an immaterial shade ho0vering in the general area. You do not carry clothing or objects on your Anima walk. You appear to be an idealized version of yourself, clad only in spirit-stuff. Legendary or magical objects might come along with you as your project your soul. The Storyteller has the final say on this.
To other Cainites using Anima Walk, you are entirely physical, and you can interact with them as you would interact with someone you encountered on the physical plane. However, should combat begin (either with another vampire or spirit) you have no physical attributes. Instead you should use your Wits as your dexterity, your Manipulation as your Strength and your intelligence as your Stamina. Additionally, you cannot attack your target directly. Instead, you must attempt to cut his silver cord. Successful attacks drain temporary dots of Willpower from an opponent instead of costing her health levels. Neither combat risks wound penalties in this fashion, but when you are out of willpower, your silver cord has been cut, and you are sure to become lost in the spirit realm. Finding your body might take days, or even longer if you are in unfamiliar territory. Without your silver cord to guide you unerringly home, you may find yourself in great danger.
You can use other disciplines, while using Anima Walk, but they affect only the astral plane on which you travel. So, you could dominate another vampire who is using this power, but not he lowliest of mortals you observe on the physical plane.
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Auspex
Mar 13, 2007 20:24:19 GMT -5
Post by Tami on Mar 13, 2007 20:24:19 GMT -5
***** * Farsight A Cainite with Farsight can extend her senses over nearly any distance, and see and hear activity on the other side of the world without leaving her body, if she is familiar with the target of her scrying. This puts her at no risk. Unlike Anima Walk, the character’s soul does not leave her body. However, she must have traveled (either physically or spiritually) to the place she wishes to scary or have met the person upon whom she wishes to spy.
A vampire may use a tool of some kind as a focus for her concentration while using Farsight. She might use a favored mirror or a detailed map to guide her spiritual travels. However, this is not necessary for all Cainites
System: Roll Perception + Empathy (difficulty 6, or 8 if you have visited the target using Anima Walk). No matter how far away the target is, you can spy on it if you succeed in your roll. You can use your other Auspex abilities normally on the target if you achieve two or more successes on this roll. The uses of other disciplines are not available through the medium of Farsight. Only the preternaturally sensitive – those with Auspex 6 or higher – will even have a chance to recognize that they are being spied on in this fashion, on a roll of a Perception + Occult (difficulty 9)
If you choose for your character to use a physical focus to aid her concentration, the Storyteller may reduce the difficulty for using Farsight or related Auspex powers by one if he so wishes
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