The Herd's Measure
Auspex •, Animalism ••, Obfuscate ••
It’s easy enough to test if a well of water has gone bad, but for vampires, it’s much more difficult to determine if their food supply has been “poisoned,” so to speak. This Devotion, grown out of the Shepherds’ nightly activities, helps them gauge the tenor and mood of a crowd, and react accordingly.
Effect
The Shepherd walks among the people, silently observing, occasionally touching a passerby. Over time, she starts to gauge the dominant mood of the crowd — panicked, happy, content, ignorant, angry, etc. It doesn’t allow her to pick out the anomalies from the group, however. If one person is frightened among a Herd of otherwise happy mortals, this Devotion does not identify that individual as being separate from the Herd.
In addition to gauging mood, this Devotion also provides two ancillary effects. The first is that the vampire blends into the crowd more easily, gaining +1 to Stealth rolls. The second effect is that, by knowing the mood of the crowd, she can more easily exploit the prevailing feelings of the Herd to her advantage. She can add her dots in Empathy to any Social rolls she makes with those members of the crowd given over to the dominant emotion. Alternately, Empathy rolls gain a dice bonus equal to the character’s Animalism score.
This Devotion works on animals, too. The Empathy bonus goes toward Animal Ken rolls in such an instance.
In addition to gauging mood, this Devotion also provides two ancillary effects. The first is that the vampire blends into the crowd more easily, gaining +1 to Stealth rolls. The second effect is that, by knowing the mood of the crowd, she can more easily exploit the prevailing feelings of the Herd to her advantage. She can add her dots in Empathy to any Social rolls she makes with those members of the crowd given over to the dominant emotion. Alternately, Empathy rolls gain a dice bonus equal to the character’s Animalism score.
This Devotion works on animals, too. The Empathy bonus goes toward Animal Ken rolls in such an instance.
Material Components
Cost: 1 Vitae
Gestures & Ritual
Dice Pool: Wits + Empathy + Animalism
Effect Casting Time
Extended (target number based on size of crowd — for every 10 people present, an additional success is required; each roll is equal to two turns’ worth of observation).