Glimpse the Gulf Beyond

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Daimonion 6

There are worlds beyond worlds and places beyond space and time; this power allows a Baali to shatter the boundaries between such zones of cosmic terror and the mundane world. Glimpse the Gulf Beyond is never used lightly, for even the masters of Daimonion fear what they might see - or what might see them. But when a Baali does invoke the face of the Void, the effects are terrifying.

When Glimpse of the Gulf Beyond is invoked, the Baali literally uses his will to force cracks in the walls of reality. Through these cracks come the sights, sounds, smells, and other aspects of existence outside of reality as most know it. While exactly what comes through from the other side varies from moment to moment (blasphemous whispers one second, a charnel stench and the howls of the damned the next), the impact on the target is always tremendous.

System: The player spends a Willpower point, then rolls Stamina + Occult (difficulty 7) against the target's Willpower roll (difficulty also 7.) The attacker's leftover successes dictate the effect:

Successes Effect
No successes The passage fails to open; no effect.
1 Success The onlooker is shaken, but physically unharmed. He loses a temporary point of Willpower and is down one die on all rolls for the scene.
2 The subject temporarily loses two points of Willpower, and must roll Courage (difficulty = 10 minus his new current Willpower against Rotschreck, in addition to suffering a one die penalty on all rolls for the scene.
3 The target temporarily loses three Willpower, and must make a Self-Control/Instinct roll (difficulty 7) or lose consciousness. Even if this roll is successful, the target is badly shaken, and suffers a two die penalty on all rolls for the duration of the scene.
4 The target temporarily loses four Willpower, and must immediately roll Self-Control/Instinct (difficulty 8) or fall into a catatonic state for an hour. If the roll succeeds, the victim is still penalized by three dice for the remainder of the scene.
5 The strain of perceptions battling the imperceptible proves to be too much for the victim's mind. The target must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 7) or become severely mentally incapacitated to the point of permanent gibbering idiocy. Even if the victim succeeds on the Willpower roll, treat the effect as if the Baali scored 4 successes.

Reducing a victim's Willpower to zero in this fashion may leave her with a (random) Derangement. This infirmity can be either temporarily or permanent, as warranted by the server of the victim's trauma.

A botch indicates something has gone terribly wrong with the Baali's attempt to open the portal. In such cases, Storytellers are encouraged to exercise their fiendish discretion, but some possibilities include backlash from the Other Side, the escape of an unwanted visitor into this realm or even the abduction of the Baali himself.

Baali alone are immune to this power, but even among their ranks, there are few who gaze willingly into the Void, or who do so for long.