Obfuscate

This Discipline, mastered by the Nosferatu House, are arts of concealment and deception. Use of these powers can keep mortals, except those with wonderous powers, and even Cainites not possessed of certain Disciplines and abilities, from finding them, or ferreting them out when deceiving another. Level 1:
Cloak of Shadows

:Your ability to conceal yourself is not yet fully developed, you you need some sort of cover in order to hide yourself effectively. Once undercover you must remain completely motionless in order to remain obscured. If you move, i f a light is turned on which would illuminate you, or if a viewer moves to an angle at which you are directly in his line of sight, the Cloak of shadow falls. System: No roll needs to be made, just the criteria made. However, a character with a higher level of Auspex will see through the shadows.

Level 2:
Unseen Presence:
Your powers of remaining unseen have become so potent that you can effectively cause yourself to disappear indefinitely and remain hidden even if you walk around. You are completely ignored unless someone specifically looks for y ou. People will move about in ways that cause them to avoid you and will even take actions to remove themselves from your vicinity. Their unconscious minds will do nearly anything to prevent their conscious mind to realize you are there. System: So roll i s required: however, if the character speaks or engages in violent physical activity, she will probably draw attention to herself. The Storyteller may ask for a Wits + Stealth roll to determine how well the character remains unseen, At least three success es are required to allow her to speak and still not be seen.

Level 3:
Mask of the Thousand Faces:

By twisting perceptions around you, you cause others to see you not as you really are but as someone different from your actual physical appearance. Generally, this power causes people to ignore your features, making you unassuming and average. However, with concentration, you can assume a specific hallucinatory visage, or even a copy of the features of another individual.
While using the Mask of a Thousand Faces, your features seem bland and unremarkable. Most often, people will describe you in vague, general terms relating to your normal appearance, but without any specifics, unique features or details. (Nosferatu and Samedi in particular find this power useful for assuming a semblance of their mortal countenances.) If you expend a Mental Trait, you may assume a specific set of features instead, causing those who look on you and who do not pierce your disguise to se, hear and smell the form of that you choose. Thus, you can make your hair seem to be of a different color, change your apparent fcial features, or seem to exude the smell of a specific perfume (or no smell at all). Note, though, that this power does not change the appearance of anything that you wear ot carry- only your phyical features are obscured. A Mask of a Thousand Faces remains until you fall asleep, are knocked unconscious or torpid, or are killed.
You can still use your normal Social Traits while using the Mask of a Thousand Faces. You can copy an image of fewer Traits deliberately, but if you hope to masquerade as someone else with more Social Traits, you must expend Blood Traits to match that person's total Social Traits. Otherwise, your appearance and mannerisms mysteriously fail to convey the person's countenance properly. You cannot use the Mask of a Thousand Faces to assume more Social Traits than your generation would allow you to posses, so you may have difficulty duplicating the incredible grace of an elder. In either case, you still use your normal Social Traits; the assumption of the Mask of a housand Faces merely causes you to appear like someone more or less social acumen and appearance.

Level 4:
Vanish from Mind's Eye:

The incredible powers of your stealth allow you to remain hidden even while speaking or moving about. You can even fade from plain sight, disappearing from the vie of any onlookers.
When using Vanish from the Mind's Eye, you gain all the benefits of Unseen Presence, but with some additional power. You may vanish from view at any time, without having to seek cover. To do so, you simply declare your intent, and the make a mass Mental Challenge against any onlookers (regardless of AUSPEX) who care to challenge your powers- you bid one Mental Trit for each onlooker, and throw one symbol against all of them. If you succeed, you fade away, unnoiced by anyone. Even if some people notice you, you can attempt to fade from their view again on consecutive turns. Fading away with Vanish from the Mind's Eye does not count as an action, but it happens olny at the end of a turn. Thus, if you strike someone and then attempt to disappear, you must wait until the end of the turn.
Additionally, you may speak aloud while using this Discipline, and still attempt to remain hidden. Again, if you speak, you must make a mass mental challenge against everyone trying to detect your position, regardless of Auspex. Anyone losing to you fails to locate you, simply hearing a disembodied voice; those who best you manage to pierce the veil of your Obfuscate. You still cannot remain invisible while interacting physically with your environment, screaming, exerting Presence or attacking, but you could take such an action and then try to fade away, as described previously.


Level 5:
Cloak the Gathering:

Your powers of concealment extend beyond your own form. With an effort, you can throw your disguising powers over several people, hiding them all from view or masking them with hallucinatory guises.
To use Cloak the Gathering, you must spend one Mental Trait for each subject cloaked. You can then exert any Obfuscate power that you posses over the targets. Thus, you could choose to spread several Masks of a Thousand Faces over your allies, making them all look like different people (or even making some look like clones), or you could shroud a group with Vanish from Mind's eye, causing them all to fade from view. When you exert this power, you must meet all of the normal conditions for the Obfuscate that you extend- you cannot cast Cloak of Shadows over someone who is not hidden behind cover or shadows, for instance. If you cause a group of people to Vanish from Mind's eye, you need only make one Mental Chalenge to extend the effect over your entire group. Anyone who bests you sees through the cloak, while anyone who loses to you fails to notice anyone under the cloak. You can only cast out a power that you are using, and you can only extnd one power at a time.
Individuals under the effects of Cloak the Gathering still sense one another normally. Of course, a cloaked individual could use his own Obfuscate powers to remain unnoticed to other people under the cloak. If an individual under Cloak the Gathering violates the provisions of his loaned Obfuscate in some way (say, by launching an attack), then he immediately loses the benefits, but the cloak itself remains intact. Only if you violate your Obfuscate does the cloak fail. Similarly, if a character with Auspex attempts to breach your concealment, individuals noticed under the cloak do not compromise the protection for everyone else, but if you are noticed, then the entire cloak fails.
Cloak the Gathering only throws your Obfuscate over other creatures or entities. You cannot use to shroud a house, for instance, but you can certainly conceal a small group of vampires and all that they wear or carry.

Level 6:
Conceal:
The character may conceal a non-living object, up to the size of a house. The character must be touching the object or not be far from it, and it must have some emotional attachment to her. The object is concealed as if by the power of Unseen Presence. Concealing an object such as a crate, casket or truck also conceals its contents. A concealed object may be discovered by accident if someone walks into it.
Roll: Wits + Stealth (difficulty 6).

Mind Blank: The character is able to conceal her mind as well as body. The Vampire becomes completely impervious to Telepathic contact (see Auspex).
Roll: Intelligence + Subterfuge (difficulty 7), to resist Perception + Empathy (difficulty 9).
Level 6: Soul Mask: Even with One Thousand Faces, Aura Perception can allow a Kindred to tear right through a character's disguise and see his true self. With Soul Mask, however, the character can choose an aura he can take to hide his own. He can conceal his Vampiric nature, make himself seem completely innocent or more vile than he has any right to be. However, he can only choose one color to mask his true aura with unless he re-buys Soul Mask at a later level. Thus with six points in Obfuscate the character could make his aura blue-white. With seven points he could make his aura blue-white or pitch black.

Diastasis (Dark Ages Companion)
The Cainite gives the appearance of being somewhere other than her actual location. While her true form goes unnoticed, the vampire's reflection moves, reacts, and is real in every visual sense. Anyone or anything occupying the false image's space encounters no resistance with the phantom; the image is seemingly superminded on the real person or object, and cn in no way effect (or be affected) by anything.
System: The player rolls Wits + Subterfuge (difficulty 8) to activate this power. The false image appears over the character's own form (which fades from vision) and moves up to one yard away. More successes allow the vampire to extend the image a greater distance. The illusion is sustained as long as the Cainite maintains visual contact with it.
1 success One yard.
2 successes Two yards.
3 successes Five yards.
4 successes 10 yards.
5 successes 30 yards.
The character can attempt other actions at an additional level of difficultywhile maintaining this power. Since the vampir'e true form is effectively unseen, her activities are likely performed with decreased difficulties (specific modifiers are up to the Storyteller's discretion). Whenever the character interacts physically with anything, such as picking up an object or attacking someone, those unable to notice make contested Perception + Alertness rolls against the Cainite's Wits + Subterfuge (difficulty 6). If the vampire gets more successes, her true location remains unnoticed; if any individuals roll more successes than the player, however, they figure out her general position. This does not mean that the vampire is suddenly rendered visible to all; those who notice her only know that something is there (attacks are made at +2 difficulty), and if the character moves the contested wolls are made all over again.
Additionally, those attacking the Cainite's image make Perception + Alertness rolls (difficulty 4) when they strike (this difficulty may be increased if the vampire is moving her own ody and reacting to each blow). One success alerts the individual that something is not right about his opponent, while two or more reveal the image for what it is. This does not disrupt the the phantasm, nor does it divulge the vampire's true location. Auspex will reveal the location of the Cainite using this power.

Level 7:
Cache:
This power allows a character to maintain any other power of Obfuscation while absent. The character must be present to conceal people, places or objects in the first place, but can then leave without the concealment being dropped.

Cloak: Just as Mind Blank allows a character to hide the psyche, so does Cloak allow her to conceal her aura from those using that Auspex power to search for her. If spotted, the aura can be read normally.
Roll: Wits + Subterfuge (difficulty 6), to resist Perception + Empathy (difficulty 9).

Veil the Legions {Dark Ages Companion}
Similar to Cloak the Gathering, this power was developed by Nosferatu strategists to conceal large forces. A Cainite proficient with this power may maintain it from a distance so that her actions do not compromise the Veil's integrity. Any protected individuals who compromise the Veil are exposed to view.
System:The vampire may conceal 10 individuals for each dot of stealth she possesses. No roll is necesarry to create the Veil, but anyone under its protection may disrupt it. Sounds of movement and whispers do not undo it, but shouting and combat within require the vampire's player to make a Wits + Stealth roll to maintain the Veil's integrity.
Should she so choose, the Cainite may apply the power in person and then leave the area with a successful Wits + Stealth roll (difficulty 7). The maximum distance the character may move from the Veil depends on the number of successes, as noted below.

1 success 10 yds.
2 successes 30 yds.
3 successes 100 yds.
4 successes 500 yds.
5 successes 2,ooo yds.

Level 8: Trusted Confessor{Dark Ages Companion}
Masters of information, the Nosferatu developed this formidable power to draw out secrets from even the most private and paranoid of individuals. With this ability, the Cainite appears as someone the subject regards with the utmost respect. This person is not someone who would awe or overly impress the victim; rather it s someone she feels she can tell her deepest secrets to. The confidant can even be a far-off friend or long dead relative if the vampire's poer is strong enough to make the subject believe it all to be a dream.
System;The player rolls Manipulation + Acting (difficulty of the subject's Perception + Alertness, maximum 10). The more successes, the more convincing the deception.

Old Friends: The character can cause someone else to believe she is someone different - someone the viewer would like to see. Not only will the viewer not question the character's presence, but he will likely divulge information he otherwise would not and will generally treat the character with a great deal of warmth.
Roll: Manipulation + Acting, difficulty of the target's Perception + Alertness.

Level 9:
Create Name:
Not only does the character appear as someone else using this power, but he also can create an entire new mindset and aura, thus allowing himself to masquerade in almost complete safety. Telepaths reading his mind will read that of the assumed identity and aura readers will see the created aura.

Level 10:
Memory Wipe: (2nd Edition only)

With this power, a Vampire can erase all traces of her existence from the annals of time and mind, leaving absolutely no evidence that she ever was. Written references mysteriously vanish, videotapes go blank and everyone else just forgets. Roll: Manipulation + Stealth (difficulty 8):
1 success: The target remembers one minor, mundane thing about the vampire.
2 successes: The target knows that she remembers, but doesn’t know anything about the vampire.
3 successes: The target feels a vestige of recognition.
4 successes: The target gets a feeling about the vampire.
5 successes: The target doesn’t notice a damned thing amiss.

 

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