• Touch of Shadow
This first level of Obfuscate allows the vampire to conceal small items, either in her grasp or on her person. If she is skilled enough, even a thorough search fails to turn up a hidden object. Increasingly larger objects might be hidden if the Discipline user is particularly adept.
Effect
Dramatic Failure: The attempt fails and the user actually draws attention to the fact that she’s trying to hide something. Further uses of Obfuscate against people present to witness the dramatic failure incur a -1 penalty for the remainder of the scene.
Failure: The attempt fails.
Success: The character can hide a single object from sight, unless someone actively searches for that specific item. Indeed, “specific” is very literal here — a character looking for “an Obfuscated book” does not find it, though she does if she’s looking for “the Ordo Dracul Kogaion’s handwritten and leather-bound copy of 17th-century rituals” and has seen it before.
Exceptional Success: The character hides the object even if a searcher knows exactly what she seeks.
The player must declare which specific item is concealed and the power must be invoked separately for each item.
If the roll succeeds, the item goes undetected. Perhaps a careful search such as a pat-down or close examination reveals it, along with a Wits + Composure roll, successes from which must exceed those rolled for the activation of the power. As with all Obfuscate abilities, a character with Auspex might be able to see through Touch of Shadow (though he would still have to find the object normally if it were inside a pocket or otherwise physically concealed from view). Once the character does anything to draw attention to the object — such as deliberately showing it to someone or using it to attack or threaten — Touch of Shadow ends. If someone successfully detects the item, he can point it out to others. A Wits + Composure roll is made for each such person, and successes achieved must exceed those acquired in the Wits + Larceny + Obfuscate roll made for the Discipline user. If an onlooker’s successes aren’t high enough, he still doesn’t recognize the item, even when it’s pointed out.
Note that this power affects only the item in question. A character could not, for example, conceal a mailbox and then hide behind it or conceal a computer and hide a stake beneath it. The mailbox or computer would indeed be concealed but the character or stake would not.
Failure: The attempt fails.
Success: The character can hide a single object from sight, unless someone actively searches for that specific item. Indeed, “specific” is very literal here — a character looking for “an Obfuscated book” does not find it, though she does if she’s looking for “the Ordo Dracul Kogaion’s handwritten and leather-bound copy of 17th-century rituals” and has seen it before.
Exceptional Success: The character hides the object even if a searcher knows exactly what she seeks.
The player must declare which specific item is concealed and the power must be invoked separately for each item.
If the roll succeeds, the item goes undetected. Perhaps a careful search such as a pat-down or close examination reveals it, along with a Wits + Composure roll, successes from which must exceed those rolled for the activation of the power. As with all Obfuscate abilities, a character with Auspex might be able to see through Touch of Shadow (though he would still have to find the object normally if it were inside a pocket or otherwise physically concealed from view). Once the character does anything to draw attention to the object — such as deliberately showing it to someone or using it to attack or threaten — Touch of Shadow ends. If someone successfully detects the item, he can point it out to others. A Wits + Composure roll is made for each such person, and successes achieved must exceed those acquired in the Wits + Larceny + Obfuscate roll made for the Discipline user. If an onlooker’s successes aren’t high enough, he still doesn’t recognize the item, even when it’s pointed out.
Note that this power affects only the item in question. A character could not, for example, conceal a mailbox and then hide behind it or conceal a computer and hide a stake beneath it. The mailbox or computer would indeed be concealed but the character or stake would not.
Side/Secondary Effects
Apocryphal tales insist that sepulchers, tractor-trailers and even entire buildings have been hidden from the sight of others, but that’s just not possible… is it?
Material Components
Cost: —
Gestures & Ritual
Dice Pool: Wits + Larceny + Obfuscate
Related Discipline
Effect Duration
Once invoked, Touch of Shadow lasts for a scene or until ended prematurely.
Effect Casting Time
Instant
Level
1
Applied Restriction
Modifier | Situation
+2 | A tiny item, one easily concealed in the palm of a hand.
+1 | An item that can be hidden in a pants pocket.
— | An item that can be squeezed into a pants pocket or easily hidden in a jacket pocket.
-1 | An item that can only barely be squeezed into a large jacket pocket.
-2 | An item that can be concealed under a jacket without too obvious a bulge.
-3 | An item too large to be naturally hidden, but still small enough to be carried easily.
-3 | The “item” is actually an abstract ideal or negative space, such as a hallway or portal to another room. If a closed door seals the portal, this is not subject to the penalty, as all the Kindred needs to do is hide the door, not the portal itself.
-4 | An item as large as the vampire herself, such as a motorcycle.
-5 | An item bigger than the vampire herself, such as a car or large shipping crate, but smaller than five times the vampire’s Size.
+2 | A tiny item, one easily concealed in the palm of a hand.
+1 | An item that can be hidden in a pants pocket.
— | An item that can be squeezed into a pants pocket or easily hidden in a jacket pocket.
-1 | An item that can only barely be squeezed into a large jacket pocket.
-2 | An item that can be concealed under a jacket without too obvious a bulge.
-3 | An item too large to be naturally hidden, but still small enough to be carried easily.
-3 | The “item” is actually an abstract ideal or negative space, such as a hallway or portal to another room. If a closed door seals the portal, this is not subject to the penalty, as all the Kindred needs to do is hide the door, not the portal itself.
-4 | An item as large as the vampire herself, such as a motorcycle.
-5 | An item bigger than the vampire herself, such as a car or large shipping crate, but smaller than five times the vampire’s Size.