Recurring Contemplation

Temporis 2

Description: Bridging from perception of time to the alteration of such perception, a vampire with this power may trap a target’s mind into reviewing a set of events over and over until disturbed. This power is extremely subtle and ill suited to combat or other situations rich in sensory stimuli. A cunning vampire can trick a sentry into reliving the tedium of his uneventful watch, however, even as the Cainite draws close enough to strike or slip past. Other uses include the maddening infliction of déjà vu to induce paranoia or make a victim question her senses and ultimately her sanity.

System: The vampire concentrates on a single victim in his line of sight. The player rolls Manipulation + Occult (difficulty of the victim’s Willpower). With any successes, the victim falls into a light trance and relives the most recent experiences that preceded her fugue. Alternatively, the vampire may evoke another set of specific memories and circumstances from the victim’s past, provided that he has some means of telepathically drawing them forth (such as Auspex 4). The recurring events must be relatively benign, insofar as nothing happens that would demand the victim’s immediate action. Thus, in the example of the sentry, the vampire could entrance him and walk past unobserved, but not if the sentry had spotted him before the power was invoked. Ordinarily, the fugue lasts one minute per success. If the vampire’s player spends a blood point, determine the trance’s duration according to the following chart.

1 success = 1 minute
2 successes = 10 minutes
3 successes = 1 hour
4 successes = 6 hours
5+ successes = 1 day

Errata: Entranced victims are oblivious to their surroundings and the actual flow of time around them. The fugue ends immediately if the victim suffers any damage or experiences a sudden jolt to her senses, such as a thunderclap or even a gentle nudge. Normal conversation does not break the trance, although shouting does.