The Path of Veille
Veille was first a customized Discipline created by Criaâr: His Sire, Gustacio, of the Clan Tremere, didn't feel it necessary to make of his little Corax Abomination pet a full Tremere. Criaâr was then a Bâtard. His Corax Gifts lost, he tried to win back his powers, by using his Blood to replace his lost Rage and Gnose. When he met Alexis, who had the same concerns about the Supernatural Phenomena in Paris, the two Kindred decided to raise the powers of the Veilleurs. The new Discipline of the Corax was interesting, but they had difficulties to make it work. It was Meryt-Neith who found the solution: Veille had to be a Thaumaturgical Path, and she used her own Hekau Thaumaturgy to optimize it: She already had some Rituals in mind that could merge with Criaâr's ones to become a True Hekau Path.
Criaâr became a Veilleur, and his Discipline, Veille, became the First Path of the Hekau Thaumaturgy of the Veilleurs.
No non-Veilleur character can learn this Path, and few Knight of Hecate even know about it. So no one can start a new character with this Path, not even a Caitiff or a Mummy.
Note 1: In Paris, the Elders knows about the Hekau Thaumaturgy of the Veilleurs, even if no one talk about it too loud. So they know about the Dark Truth power, and as Villon decided that killing a Veilleur Familiar was a violation of the Sixth Tradition, this power is more or less well known by everyone (even if all think that the only possible familiar is the crow -- What a mistake!).
Others simply believe the Veilleurs developped the Auspex Discipline en masse. Dark Truth is known too among the Anarchs, even if the Veilleurs don't care officialy about Anarch activity in Paris (It's the domain of the 'Masques').
- : Veille Tattoo
Difficulty: 4 Cost: 5 Sekhem
This Ritual is normally cast once in a lifetime. It is necessary because without it, no other Veille Ritual will succeed. Upon casting it, the Magician makes herself known to anyone who masters the Hekau Path of Veille, giving herself a surname that will be known by them. The difference is that the magician will no receive any information about other magicians who cast this Ritual before. This ceremony is normally cast when a new Veilleur is introduced into the sect, with every member around to present herself to the newcomer, and aknowledge the newcomer introduction.
System: This power is automatic when cast. Whenever a magician who cast this Ritual die, all the others know about it. Whenever a new magician is introduced (casts this Ritual), all the others know about it. This Ritual can be cast once more, to change the surname into another. It is only done when there is a good reason to. Then, all the others know that 'A' became 'B'.
- : Dark Truth
Difficulty: 5 Cost: 1 Sekhem
The magician can discover with precision if an information is a lie, to the one who gives it: Every time a lie will be told around the magician, she will know it. A truth isn't detected, as well as how much a lie is a lie, etc. Omissions and half-truths (Like No, Roberto is not dead... when he is in Torpor...) are, then not detected: Strangely, it's the prefered way of the Elders when they want to lie to someone!
System: 1 Temporary Willpower point for 1 Scene.
There is no dice roll, and the one talking will not know he is being 'scaned' unless he has a greater level in Auspex than the magician's level in Veille. If he is not talking to the magician, he will feel 'heard'/'spied' but without understanding by who or by what. If he his talking directly to the magician, then he will know 'who' is 'spying' him. Note that he doesn't know that his lies are detected. Only that the magician seems to be a lot too much concentrated by what he is saying.
If the one talking has an obfuscate level higher than the magician's Veille's level, then the magician will not detect anything (and it can take a lot of time to understand that the lies are 'obfuscated').
If there is equality between Auspex/Veille then a resistance roll must be made: (Auspex: Perception+Empathy, diff:6) against (Veille: Manipulation+Subterfuge, Diff:6). A draw means that the magician's attenmpt is undetected.
If there is equality between Veille/Obfuscate then a resistance roll must be made: (Veille: Perception+Empathy, diff:6) against (Obfuscate: Manipulation+Subterfuge, Diff:6). A draw means that the lies aren't detected by the magician.
Note: Lies can be detected in the voice when talking (if the Veilleur understand the tongue), in the writings, in handsigns, etc. as long as the use of the power is made when the information is given: a tape, or a century-old written text can't be scanned.
- : Veille's Senses
Difficulty: 6 Cost: 1 Sekhem
The magician is able to extend her perceptions: She is now able to use another one. Directed by the Veille's Sense, she extends his consciensousness to her surroundings, to see what's happening around her.
This power is an unsubtle one: It's near impossible to look precisely at objects, or to read normal-sized texts with the 360�: It's like if you tried to read with your peripherical vision (Try it, you will see! I heard that people with partial blindness of the central vision could learn to read with peripherical vision: So a new Knowledge should be created for this kind of reading...).
System: 1 Willpower point, 1 Scene. If the Path roll to use this Path is botched, this power still works, albeit in a very twisted way (see after). The magician must use a Willpower point, and remember how many successes she made in the Veille Path Roll (Remember that additionnal successes can be bought with Sekhem or Vitae):
Successes Veille Effects 1 360� Vision 2 M.D. at 4 meters 3 M.D. at 8 meters 4 M.D. at 16 meters 5 M.D. at 32 meters
Note: M.D.: Movement Detection.
When a distance is given, the magician can detect the movements of human-sized objects up to this distance, even if some obstacle hides it from direct view. A greater object (Crinos Garou?) would be seen at the next category's distance, and a tinier (cat?) would be seen only at the precedent category's distance. Should the category be the first (1: 360� Vision), then the Veilleur isn't able to see the Movement of this object. The Veilleur must at least make two successes to use Movement Detection.
For example, the magician make 3 succeses: She can, then, see in a 360� (more precisely, in a 4� steradian solid angle) Vision, and can detect human sized movements up to eight meters, no mater the obstacles. A cat's movement would be detected at 4 meters, and a Crinos Lupine's at 16 meters. If the magician had only 2 successes, she would see human-sized movement at 4 meters, Crinos' at 8 meters, and would not see a Cat-sized movement at all (but can still see the cat through the 360� vision). If the magician had only 1 success, she would not be able to see any movement behind obstacles, even if a silent truck was about to destroy the wall just behind her!
This power doesn't work for objects who/which doesn't move, but any moving object who stops will still be visible for 1 turn (the Veilleurs calls it a Trace).
It was said before that the Trace that shows the magician that something is moving couldn't be seen with more precision. In reality, someone using Auspex will be able to see it more precisely by a Perception+Veille roll (Difficuly 8 if the magician Veilleur is trying to discern if this little thing in the Trace is a firearm, for example!).
Veille's Sense is a power that lasts one Scene, and failure to active it means no other try can be done until the end of the Scene. It's also compatible with other Disciplines/powers: Someone who can see in the darkness (Protean **) and who can see in 360� (Veille ***) can combine the two powers to see in the darkness in 360�.
Should a Botch occur in the Path Roll to active this power, or in any Auspex roll while this power is active, then the power goes awry: Any Danger Sense, sensitive Veille, or Auspex power will be lost for the night: Interferences are created by the Botches, and give a lot of random informations (noise), instead of real ones. The magician can have, then, a lot of Danger Sense alerts, when there is no reason, or see random Auras in anything she looks at when using Auspex **, or even believe half the statements made by that annoying Anarch to be lies.
If there is too much movement around him, the magician will have to use 1 Willpower point to continue concentrating in all those confusing Movements.
- : Convocation
Difficulty: 7 Cost: 1 Sekhem
This Ritual is similar to the Convocation power of the Presence Discipline (Presence ****), but this calling is heard by everyone who has at least 1 level in this Hekau Path. It works only at night (local time), and up to the local sunrise.
System: ?.
Any person with at least 1 in the Hekau Path of Veille (who cast the first Ritual: Veille's Tattoo) and in the range knows in which direction to go to find the source of the calling. All knows the identity of the magician (her chosen surname, chosen in the Initiation Rite). So, if more than one magician are using this Ritual, each calling will be heard and its source recognized. Each magician hearing the call is free to answer or not to it, as they aren't affected by this convocation as they would be by the Presence **** power: It's a simple calling, nothing more.
Successes Range 1 1 Km 2 10 Km 3 100 Km 4 1 000 Km 5 10 000 Km +1 x10
This power only works in the dimension in which it is cast, so a magician calling through the Shadowlands would not be heard in our reality.
- : Veille's Message
Difficulty: 7 Cost: 1 Sekhem
This ritual is similar to the simplier Convocation, as it calls to every magician mastering this Path. But the contact is not an empathic calling, but a 1 turn message.
System: See Convocation. Note that a similar Ritual was created thousands years ago by Meryt-Neith to call her Knights to her. Now that the Ritual found its true Hekau Path, its cost, Level and Difficulty decreased drasticaly.
- * : Veille's Telepathy
Difficulty: 8 Cost: 1 Sekhem per person contacted
This ritual is similar to the simplier Convocation, as it calls to every magician mastering this Path. But the contact is not an empathic calling, but a 1 telepathic contact between the caller and any magician mastering this Path whose name is known. The caller choses how much people will be contacted. Every sent thought is heard by every person contacted, so no whisper can be sent to one person without the others contacted people hearing it.
System: See Convocation. Note that a similar Ritual was created thousands years ago by Meryt-Neith to call her Knights to her. Now that the Ritual found its true Hekau Path, its cost, Level and Difficulty decreased drastically.
