•••• Guiding the Conflagration
Emotions feed each other like fire, spreading from one person to the next. The Xiao understands this process, and learns to manipulate it with this power, directing the flow of passions through a crowd and using it to sweep hapless subjects away. With the careful application of Guiding the Conflagration, a Xiao can start a riot or quell one, provoke a mob to panic or calm a seething horde.
Effect
To activate the power, the Xiao must have line of sight to at least 10 people (mortal or Kindred) who also share line of sight to one another. She sends an emotional impulse — one that she is currently experiencing — out of herself and into one of the victims, and then cycles that impulse from victim to victim, intensifying it with each pass. When the number of successes she accumulates exceeds a target’s Composure (and Blood Potency, if applicable), that target is overwhelmed by the impulse and either spurred to action (if the impulse is provocative, such as anger, defiance or derision) or quieted (if the impulse is conciliatory, such as guilt, tranquility or melancholy).
Each roll represents the emotional impulse’s passage from one target to another. The Xiao may continue to make rolls as long as she likes, provided that she takes no other action, does not lose line of sight to the targets and does not move faster than a slow walk (one-half her Speed rating). Once the number of successes rolled exceeds the Composure + Blood Potency of everyone in the crowd, she need only maintain this concentration to pass the impulse from one target to another until all are affected.
Victims of this power can resist its effects for one turn with the expenditure of a point of Willpower and a successful Composure roll (or Composure + Blood Potency, for Kindred). This roll is reflexive. If it fails, the Willpower point is lost and the target remains affected. If the roll is successful, the target temporarily shakes off the effect and is free to take any action he chooses, uninfluenced by the chosen emotion.
Kindred with Auspex may instinctively be able to locate the Xiao who is using this power just by paying attention to the crowd’s reaction. If the observer succeeds on an Intelligence + Empathy + Auspex roll, he finds the Xiao immediately and understands that she is the source of the crowd’s compulsion.
Note that Kindred who are affected by this power are likely to frenzy — especially if the projected emotion is angry, fearful or lustful. The frenzy that is provoked (which can be resisted per normal) will be directed at the nearest logical target. Use of this power in a gathering of Kindred is extremely dangerous, and has led to the Final Death of more than one Xiao.
Each roll represents the emotional impulse’s passage from one target to another. The Xiao may continue to make rolls as long as she likes, provided that she takes no other action, does not lose line of sight to the targets and does not move faster than a slow walk (one-half her Speed rating). Once the number of successes rolled exceeds the Composure + Blood Potency of everyone in the crowd, she need only maintain this concentration to pass the impulse from one target to another until all are affected.
Victims of this power can resist its effects for one turn with the expenditure of a point of Willpower and a successful Composure roll (or Composure + Blood Potency, for Kindred). This roll is reflexive. If it fails, the Willpower point is lost and the target remains affected. If the roll is successful, the target temporarily shakes off the effect and is free to take any action he chooses, uninfluenced by the chosen emotion.
Kindred with Auspex may instinctively be able to locate the Xiao who is using this power just by paying attention to the crowd’s reaction. If the observer succeeds on an Intelligence + Empathy + Auspex roll, he finds the Xiao immediately and understands that she is the source of the crowd’s compulsion.
Note that Kindred who are affected by this power are likely to frenzy — especially if the projected emotion is angry, fearful or lustful. The frenzy that is provoked (which can be resisted per normal) will be directed at the nearest logical target. Use of this power in a gathering of Kindred is extremely dangerous, and has led to the Final Death of more than one Xiao.
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