Obfuscate

The Beast is a hidden killer. It lurks just below the surface, unnoticed by its prey until it’s too late. Just another man in the street, no different from anyone else. Just another woman passing by. Why can’t you remember what they looked like? One of them turns, and you can’t quite see his face, but he’s walking towards you. Another second and he’s grabbed you. His teeth sink into your neck and all you can think is “why won’t anyone do anything? Why won’t they help me?”

Obfuscate is the reason you’ll never be sure that you’re alone again.

Mixed Signals

Obfuscate tricks the victim’s mind directly, removing traces of the vampire from the sensory information reaching her brain, rather than fooling her senses directly. Obfuscate affects smell and taste as much as sight or hearing — potentially useful if you’ve angered a pack of werewolves, or a vampire with sharp Kindred senses.

Face in the Crowd •
The vampire can turn his predatory aura inwards, walking through crowds of people who pay him no heed. As long as he doesn’t do anything to obviously draw attention to himself, nobody notices him. He’s just one more person on the street, part of the city’s nightlife. People don’t shy away from him because of what he’s wearing or what he looks like. He’s just as much a fixture of the city as the rats and the graffiti.

Cost: None

Dice Pool: None

Action: Instant

Duration: Scene

For the rest of the scene, people’s eyes just slide off the vampire. People can tell that someone’s there, but they don’t remember who he is or what he looks like; he’s just “some guy,” average height and build, average hair, average clothes. Unless the vampire’s doing something to draw people’s attention — pulling a gun, or screaming at people — or he’s in a place where someone doesn’t expect anyone else to be, everyone around him ignores him. They don’t care what he’s carrying; he could walk down the street with an assault rifle strapped across his back or a body slung over his shoulder, and as long as he doesn’t use it to draw attention, nobody particularly cares or remembers.

If the vampire is violent towards someone — if he punches someone or starts feeding in a crowded subway station — his victim will automatically notice. If he’s doing something that would draw attention, including but not limited to being violent, everyone around him must make a reflexive Wits + Composure roll to notice the commotion, penalized by the vampire’s Obfuscate dots. The vampire’s predatory aura seemingly disappears, so that other vampires can’t sense it.

Touch of Shadow ••
With just a touch, the vampire can extend the muted attentions of Face in the Crowd to an object or animal, rather than himself. His subject fades out — if he masks a desk, people subconsciously register that it’s there and won’t bump in to it, but they can’t recognize what’s right in front of them unless the vampire forces them to interact with it. Even a forensic team would only remember seeing a desk if they examined photos of the scene after the fact.

Cost: 1 Vitae

Requirement: The vampire must touch the object he wants to hide; in the case of an unwilling victim, the vampire must roll to touch his opponent (see p. 177). The animal or object cannot have Size greater than the vampire’s own (but see Suggested Modifiers).

Dice Pool: Wits + Larceny + Obfuscate

Action: Reflexive

Duration: Scene

Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: Something draws people’s attention to whatever the vampire wanted to hide. It’s the first thing they notice when they come onto the scene, and they want to find out more about it.

Failure: The object or creature doesn’t fade into the background.

Success: For the rest of the scene, people’s eyes slide off the object. The vampire can affect an inanimate object or animal with the same effects as Face in the Crowd — people subconsciously register that the subject is present, but they’re not actively aware of it. If an observer is forced to deal with something affected by Touch of Shadow — being thrown into an occulted table or door, or bitten by an occulted dog — that observer can then recognize the subject’s existence. Since people have a hard time noticing occluded objects, the vampire can hide behind an object affected by Touch of Shadow to remain unnoticed. In order to notice the occluded object, observers must succeed at a reflexive Wits + Composure penalized by the vampire’s Obfuscate dots. A living creature affected by Touch of Shadow can see anything else that the vampire has Obfuscated without a roll.

Exceptional Success: The victim of this power doesn’t stand out to any observer, even if they’re looking at photographs or video featuring him when the power was active.

Suggested Modifiers

–1 Increase the maximum affected Size by 1

–2 Increase the maximum affected Size by 2

–3 Increase the maximum affected Size by 3

Cloak of Night •••
With but a thought, the vampire slips from sight as well as mind. He doesn’t just fade into the background, he straight-up vanishes. He leaves no scent and makes no sound, though it doesn’t mask incidental signs of his passing, like drifting smoke or creaking floorboards. He can pass this effect on to others, even stealing people from the world with Touch of Shadow.

Cost: 1 Vitae

Dice Pool: None

Action: None

Cloak of Night increases the effect of Face in the Crowd and Touch of Shadow. At its most basic, the vampire can now use Touch of Shadow on other people. This costs no addiional Vitae, and the victim is overlooked just like an object or animal.

Even if the victim strikes someone, only the person she hits will notice her; everyone else must roll to notice her as for Face in the Crowd. The vampire can also spend an extra point of Vitae when activating Face in the Crowd or Touch of Shadow to vanish completely. Rather than being overlooked or just an “average presence,” the vampire instead completely disappears. Everything that he’s carrying vanishes with him. People can no longer notice his presence if he attacks someone or if he cries out. A sadistic vampire can use Cloak of Night to make his victim vanish in a crowded street, then feed with impunity while his victim cries out, never knowing why people do not help her.

Particularly canny observers can follow the vampire by incidental signs of his passing — disturbed smoke, gaps in crowds, and the like. An observer rolls Wits + Composure – the vampire’s Obfuscate dots as an extended action. Each roll takes one minute, and the observer must roll more successes than the vampire’s Wits + Stealth + Obfuscate.

The Familiar Stranger ••••
Rather than removing himself from the perceptions of other people, the vampire can instead adjust how they see him. He can either appear as a subjective face, a “frail old woman,” or a “young lothario,” or as a specific person, like “Tom’s friend Jason.” People perceive the vampire as though he were who they’d expect to see based on his chosen disguise — everyone has a different idea of what a frail old woman looks like, after all.

Cost: 2 Vitae

Dice Pool: none

Action: None

When using Face in the Crowd or affecting a person with Touch of Shadow, the vampire can spend the Vitae required to activate this power. She can specify a particular image that she wants to project, either a subjective category or a specific person. If she takes on the form of a specific person, everyone sees and hears what they would expect were that person present. He needs to know that the person exists, and he can’t use his description to influence people’s reactions — “the woman Tom will fall in love with,” or “a man Jennifer finds trustworthy” both fail, as they rely on influencing the victim’s thoughts and emotions about the person being imitated. A vampire can also use The Familiar Stranger on objects through Touch of Shadow. He can redefine how people see the object. The illusory object must be roughly the same size as the original object, and will pass most forms of mundane inspection — though an illusory gun won’t fire, and an illusory knife won’t cut. Simply discovering that the illusion won’t function isn’t enough to break it, however — that only happens at the end of the scene.

Oubliette •••••
The vampire creates a realm of his own, hiding a place from mundane senses and scrambling the perceptions of everyone within. He can turn an alleyway into a maze that nobody can escape from, or make a humble brownstone appear to be astately manor house. He must mark the area’s boundary and exits with his Vitae, impregnating the stones and soil with his blood and bending the location to his will. Once he has spread his blood, he slumbers there for one full day before awakening as the master of his abode.

Cost: 3-9 Vitae and 1 Willpower

Requirement: The vampire must spread Vitae around the area he wishes to claim, marking the gateways, exits, and landmarks. Three Vitae is enough to secure an apartment or small house, six can Obfuscate a brownstone or alleyway, and nine is enough to hide a mansion or similarly large building. After spreading blood, he must slumber for a full day in the location. He can spread the bloodletting process over several nights, but he must spend every day asleep in the location until his work is complete. The Oubliette absorbs the blood that he spills, making it invisible to Kindred senses.

Dice Pool: None

Action: Instant

Duration: 1 week per dot of Blood Potency

Once he has established an Oubliette, the vampire can use Touch of Shadow, Cloak of Night, and The Familiar Stranger at any distance, on anyone or anything within his haven. He can affect multiple different people or objects with a single activation of the power — making the exits vanish with Cloak of Night, or using The Familiar Stranger to make his ghouls look like people his victims want to see. Using other Obfuscate powers in the Oubliette requires only one roll, and Cloak of Night and The Familiar Stranger do not cost extra Vitae. The vampire can affect individual aspects of the area separately, making rifles look like snakes or making a single door disappear, or he can make more sweeping changes with just one use of Touch of Shadow — making his run-down brownstone into a manor house with all the appropriate trappings, while the vampire himself becomes a venerable old gentleman.

Someone interacting with elements of an Oubliette can see their true natures, but only for a few seconds. Since the Oubliette can cover a large area, and can change in the blink of an eye, most people shrug off minor changes as just a trick of the light.

A vampire’s Oubliette lasts for one week per dot of Blood Potency, though she can reinforce the effect before it ends.

Enchantment
(Majesty ••••, Obfuscate ••; 2xp)

Majesty is a gift that draws attention and bends feelings toward the vampire. With this Devotion, and a bit of Obfuscate, the vampire can deflect those feelings to another person, or to a place or thing.

Cost: 1 Vitae

Dice Pool: Manipulation + Empathy + Majesty vs. Composure + Blood Potency

Action: Contested; resistance is reflexive

If successful, this Devotion works as Loyalty, but the vampire can designate a source for the Enthralled Condition instead of focusing it on herself. All the other parameters remain the same, but the victim insists on defending and cherishing a different person, place, or thing. She has to somehow communicate the desired subject of the Enchantment to the victim for this Devotion to work.

Wraith’s Presence
(Obfuscate •••, Nightmare •; 2xp)

With this Devotion, the vampire can make herself or something else vanish from the mind’s eye, but appear elsewhere. This diversion can distract a pursuer, or make someone rush after a false lead.

Cost: 1 Vitae

Dice Pool: Wits + Subterfuge + Obfuscate

Action: Instant

Activate this Devotion when using Cloak of Night. The vampire projects an exact image of the desired subject in another place she can see. The image stays mostly still unless the vampire concentrates on moving it. It’ll make the necessary motions to appear realistic — for example, an image of a human will breathe. The image cannot talk or make noises. The image vanishes as soon as anyone touches it. Breaking this effect without touching the phantom uses the normal Clash of Wills rules.

Touch of Deprivation
(Obfuscate ••••, Dominate ••; 3xp)

With this Devotion, the vampire can deny a victim her senses with only a touch. He chooses a single sense when activating the Devotion, and that sense becomes temporarily useless. Often, this Devotion serves to blind enemies or deafen a victim at a critical time.

Cost: 1 Vitae

Dice Pool: Intelligence + Medicine + Auspex vs. Resolve + Blood Potency

Action: Instant

To activate this Devotion, the vampire must touch his victim. If successful, the vampire denies the victim’s chosen sense for the remainder of the scene. This Devotion can be used to deny the victim one of her Auspex abilities, if known.

Cloak the Gathering
(Obfuscate •••••; 2xp)

The vampire slips from the mind as easily as easily as blood dripping from an open wound, though rather than picking off his victims, he can make a whole group vanish at once. He might obscure his comrades — or pluck a group of unwilling victims from the minds of onlookers, leaving them scared and isolated.

Cost: +2 Vitae

Dice Pool: None

Action: None

Cloak the Gathering enhances the effect of Touch of Shadow and Cloak of Night. By paying two extra points of Vitae, the vampire can expand the effect of Touch of Shadow to encompass a number of people equal to his Blood Potency, though each one cannot individually have a Size greater than the vampire’s own. He can also opt to activate Face in the Crowd at the same time. If he also pays the extra cost for Cloak of Night to vanish completely rather than fading into the background, the effect applies to everyone masked by Cloak the Gathering — so for four points of Vitae total he can vanish from sight along with a number of people equal to his Blood Potency. The vampire doesn’t have to touch everyone he takes with him, but they must be within his (Obfuscate + Blood Potency) yards (meters).