Scrutinize
Description
The student of Cultivation first learns to attune himself to the urges of the P'o, both in himself and in others. He becomes privy to the dark drives in mortals and Shen alike.
System
The vampire spends three turns in meditation (if using the power on himself) or concentration (if using it on others). He then rolls Perception + Hun (difficulty 7).
If using the power to pacify his own P’o, success enables the vampire to add one to the difficulty of his next fire, wave or shadow nature roll. With three or more successes, the vampire can force a “dialogue” with his Demon; the P’o is played either by the Storyteller or a Shadowguide. Naturally, the P’o is balky and recalcitrant, but a clever player might be able to extract some sort of useful information from his character’s dark half, particularly if he steers the conversation in the direction of evil, demons, etc.
If using the power to scan another’s P’o, success enables the vampire to gain insight into the target’s darker urges. If the target has an actual P’o, the vampire learns the approximate (with one or two successes) or exact (with three or more successes) rating of the target’s P’o. He also gains some idea of the target’s P’o Archetype, thereby acquiring useful knowledge for subverting a rival Kuei-jin. If using this power on a Kindred, the vampire gains basic information about the Kindred’s Humanity or Path, Virtues, Derangements and other Traits relating to the state of the Kindred’s soul. If using this power on a mortal, the vampire gains intuitive hints about the target’s vices, dirty secrets and other hidden flaws. In any event, successful use of this power allows the Cathayan to add one die to all Social rolls dealing with appeals to the target’s base nature (bribery, certain types of seduction, etc.).
A botch when using this power enables an instant P’o takeover.
