AUSPEX

World of Darkness -- Medieval

Introduction

The most discerning vampires see in the dark, hear whispers on the wind and the crash of rats’ feet stomping a hundred yards away. They feel the tendrils of fog and know how close warm bodies are. Supernatural levels of sensitivity and awareness blossom further as the vampire develops his gifts. Eventually, he can see the colors of the souls around him, read minds, and pierce the illusions made by other monsters.

For more on using Auspex to pierce Obfuscate and other mental illusions, see the sidebar See the Unseen.

Sensory details are of the utmost importance when using Auspex. Storytellers should always add additional and useful sensory details with increasingly successful rolls.

SUDDEN REVELATIONS

Characters with even one level of Auspex may occasionally get a sense of an impending threat against them. While they are otherwise using any level of Auspex, the Storyteller may choose to roll for a sudden revelation. In secret, she rolls the character’s Auspex score. The difficulty varies as Storyteller discretion, though a robber behind an inn door would probably be a difficulty 4, while a plot by the Prince’s childe to destroy the character that could take decades to unravel would be a difficulty 9. Difficulty can also reflect how important it is to the story that the character has a glimpse of what’s coming.

Keep in mind though, it is only a brief precognitive glimpse that may or may not make sense before the event unfurls. Divination is not a science; express the revelation in small sensory details or simple gut feelings. “You smell fire with no source coming from the farm house” or “he can’t be trusted alone” are excellent examples.

SEE THE UNSEEN

Anyone gifted with Auspex can see things that are hidden from normal sight supernaturally and pierce supernatural illusions. This might mean Obfuscate, Chimerstry, ghosts, and even the magical tricks of the fae.

• Obfuscate: The Obfuscated target and the Auspex user compare total levels of their respective disciplines. If the Obfuscate user has higher levels in Obfuscate than the Auspex user has levels in Auspex, he remains. If the Auspex user’s levels in Auspex exceed the Obfuscate user’s levels in Obfuscate, or they are evenly matched, the Auspex user rolls Perception + Awareness. Her difficulty is 8. Lower this difficulty by one for every dot of Auspex she has in excess of her opponent’s Obfuscate.

• Chimerstry: First, the character must believe there is something wrong or false in what she is seeing, and the Storyteller agrees that the character senses this wrongness. Then, the player asserts that she is actively trying to see through any falsehood. At that point, the Auspex and Chimerstry users compare levels as with Obfuscate. If a roll is necessary, it follows the rules outlined for seeing through Obfuscate as above.

• Other Powers: It is difficult to prede- termine what sorts of monsters will come into conflict with the vampire. With this in mind, brevity is ideal. Make a contested roll, with the Auspex user rolling Perception + Awareness against the other creature’s Manipulation + Subterfuge should suffice. The Attribute and Skill used by the adversary can be changed at Story- teller discretion. When in doubt, the Storyteller should favor mystery and ambiguity.

OVER-STIMULATION

The pleasure of the experience and the extensive sensory input is sometimes all-consuming. At Storytelling discretion, a character using Auspex nearby or directed toward evocative images may need to resist being con- sumed by desire to experience the stimulus more. Images of great beauty as well as macabre tableau might pull the character in. A visceral crime scene or reading the mind of a content and creative child can call to the Auspex user with equal appeal. Likewise, sudden or extreme stimuli may shock the vampire’s senses. In either of these cases, the player rolls the character’s Willpower to keep him focused. The difficulty starts as 4, but should increase by the intensity of the stimulus. Should the roll fail, the character becomes overstimulated, and loses two dice on all actions outside of experiencing the stimulus for 10 minus the character’s Willpower in turns (minimum 1). This quirk of the Discipline is rarely perceived as a hindrance by its practitioners, and often grants them special insight through the stimulus that has drawn them in.

● HEIGHTENED SENSES

The vampire’s senses are now exceptional by mortal standards. The range and clarity at which she can see, hear and smell are doubled. Likewise, her sense of touch and taste become superhuman, allowing her to detect the life her victim leads in the way a connoisseur could tell what kind of grass a cow is fed and what direction its pen faces by the taste of the beef. The vampire can feel a draft that no one else notices, leading her to a door that wasn’t closed all the way and putting her back on the trail of her quarry. She may utilize the power whenever and for however long as she likes. Of course, having Auspex active leaves her vulnerable to overstimulation, as described above.

Rarely, a vampire utilizing Heightened Senses will get precognitive glimpses of what could be or what might come to pass. There is no real way to control these intuitions, but in time, a vampire can learn to interpret them after they have happened.

System: This power costs nothing, is reflexive, and requires no rolls to use. When activated, any roll related to the sense’s use is decreased in difficulty by the character’s Auspex dots. A character may utilize one sense at a time, or all of them in any combination she likes.

This power does not allow the character to see in perfect darkness as with Eyes of the Beast.

●● READ THE SOUL

The true color of the soul is laid bare to the vampire with this level of sight. What she sees is outside of language. She sees strong emotions, lost thoughts, or dark memories that have tinted a person’s nature. The practitioner’s mind translates the impressions she gets from another’s soul as colors, temperatures, or even scents. The impressions and feelings from others soul can be interpreted, but never translated in a repeatable, universal fashion.

Reading another’s soul can provide great insight to their emotional state. A well-timed question and a sense that the person is being deceptive can be incredibly useful.

A spark of arousal at the sight of an enemy may indicate a conflict is not what it appears.

The seer can also observe from the soul if the person in question is other than human. A Cainite’s soul will register as pale or waning compared to that of a human.

A lupine’s soul might be vibrant and sharp, jagged at the edges and feeling like moonlight.

System: The soul-gazer must actively and attentively observe her subject, allowing the sense of the soul to wash over her. At the moment she chooses to interpret the state of the soul, the character’s player rolls Perception + Empathy (difficulty 8), with each success granting the character more pieces of information about their subject. Consider the chart below for ideas as to what information the Storyteller might communicate.

A failure indicates that the character was unable to interpret the current state of the soul. A botch indicates misinformation or a wrong interpretation. Soul-gazing is not a science.

The chart on the right consists of colors and their suggested interpretations. Interpretations through other senses are also possible. Players and Storytellers should be encouraged to create charts for their characters, unique in its sensory details.

Successes	Result
1 success	Can distinguish only the shade (pale or bright).
2 successes	Can distinguish the main color.
3 successes	Can recognize the color patterns.
4 successes	Can detect subtle shifts.
5 successes	Can identify mixtures of color and pattern.

The ability to Read the Soul does not act as a lie-detector, and absolute truths cannot be determined. It just reveals moments of dishonesty, or flooded feelings of guilt. An exceptional liar may be free of guilt, and a penitent but innocent person may always appear on the edge of suspicion. A talented Auspex user knows this, and will keep it in mind when interpreting what she perceives.

An Auspex user may use Read the Soul to search a crowd or scan an area. She starts out by declaring what she is looking for, such as “a soul stained with Amaranth” or “the most nervous person in the room.” Her player then rolls as normal. The information is general, and any more intimate study of a target’s soul requires a new roll.

SOUL COLORS AND THEIR INTERPRETATION

Successes	Result
Orange	Afraid
Purple	Aggressive
Red	Angry
Brown	Bitter
Light Blue	Calm
Pink	Compassionate
Lavender	Conservative
Gray	Depressed
Deep Red	Desirous or Lustful
Light Green	Distrustful
Dark Green	Envious
Violet	Excited
Rose	Generous
Vermilion	Happy
Black	Hateful
Yellow	Idealistic
White	Clear of Conscience
Blue	Love Struck
Green	Obsessed
Silver	Sad
Gold	Taken by Ecstacies
Dark Blue	Suspicious
Mottled, Shifting Colors	Confused
Black Veins in the Soul	Diablerist
Rapidly Rippling Colors	Frezied
Soul is Pale	Vampire
Pale Blotches in the Aura	Ghoul
Myriad Sparkles in Aura	Witch
Bright, Vibrant Aura	Werebeast
Weak Intermittent Aura	Ghost
Rainbow Highlights in Aura	Fae

●●● THE SPIRIT'S TOUCH

Any man or beast that has a soul leaves a trace behind where they have gone and what they have touched. The longer a soul has contact with an object, the stronger the trace that remains. Strong swells of emotional energy or certain pivotal moments in a life (or in the lives of many) can make this trace even stronger.

At this level of proficiency with Auspex, a vampire can read or otherwise experience the traces attached to a given object when she puts her hands on said object. Anything inert may carry these traces; a dead body would invariably have such traces on it, while a living cat’s own soul would make such a reading impossible.

The traces leave only impressions, brief sketches of moments in time rather than fully woven tapestries. These sketches should be memorable, but brief and as unclear as the soul that left the trace behind would be.

System: A player rolls Perception + Empathy. Difficulty varies by age and strength of impression. A stake found in a pile of ash just an hour old may be difficulty 4, a stake that had been in a vampire killed five days ago might be a difficulty 6, and a stake that only carried intent but was never used may yield useful impressions only at a difficulty 9.

Difficulty should only be considered when a challenge and possible failure would add to the story. Sometimes, a Storyteller might choose to forgo a roll entirely when a character attempts to touch an object that is vital to the continuing story or a piece of strong setting importance. If the Storyteller needs characters to know they have a fang pulled from a Methuselah’s mouth, or the sword that decapitated the Sheriff, she should forgo the roll and bring on the terrifying visions.

Successes	Information
Failure	No information of value.
1 success	Very basic information: the last owner’s gender and hair color, for instance.
2 successes	A second piece of basic information.
3 successes	More useful information about the last owner, such as age and state of mind the last time he used the item.
4 successes	The person’s name.
5 successes	A wealth of information is available; nearly anything you want to know about the person’s relationship with that object.

●●●● INVADE THE MIND

The seer now bridges from simple observation to manipulation of the thoughts and minds of those around them. She may glean secrets buried deep in the minds of others and even implant notions that her victim perceives as alien and often unknowable.

System: The player rolls Intelligence + Subterfuge, difficulty equal to the victim’s current Willpower points. With only one success, she may implant thoughts into her victim’s mind. Characters with four or less Willpower points will believe the thoughts to be her own. Characters above four Willpower points will know without a doubt the thought is not her own. It takes an Intelligence + Awareness roll (difficulty equal to the Auspex user’s Manipulation + Auspex) to get an idea of where the source of the thought came from, but even then, she may not know how the Auspex user got those thoughts in her head. She may form mundane explanations or jump straight to accusations of witchcraft, depending on the circumstances.

If the Auspex user probes the mind she’s invaded, she may pluck out one piece of surface detail per success her player rolled. Deep thoughts or lost memories can only be accessed through five successes or more.

A vampire’s mind is particularly hard to probe, and even attempting it requires the Auspex user’s player to spend a Willpower point.

The mind is a strange and liquid place. Storytellers should avoid dry recounting of information and instead, present that information as glimpses of thought and mem- ory. Give enough information for players to discern what’s going on, but it is better to show than to tell.

●●●●● SOUL'S FLIGHT

For witches to fly, they must use magic and toxicology. A master of Auspex requires nothing so vulgar. She may shed her skin and walk about in the twilight of the world at will. Like the stories of witches, the vampire can fly at incredible speeds, and no distance is outside her ability so long as it is above bedrock and below the moon.

She leaves her body behind, in torpor, and is unable to see or sense what happens to it. She remains tethered to it, no matter how far she travels, by a spiritual silver cord. Should that cord be severed, she becomes like a ghost, and may remain as such if she cannot return to her flesh.

System: The player spends a Willpower point and rolls Intelligence + Awareness. Difficulty should reflect the character’s ability to bring the place up clearly in her imagination. Thus, a place in sight is difficulty 4, a place distant but deeply familiar would be a difficulty 6, and to fly to an unfamiliar place known about only academically would require an 8 or 9. The successes she receives should reflect her ability to manifest herself in this distant location expediently.

Failure means the character cannot pull herself from her body. A botch could be catastrophic, sending her soul flying in a random direction and distance, perhaps even into some spiritual realm, the nightmares of a sleeping child, or a place on earth where the sun is shining. (The sun would not burn her soul, but would without a doubt require she roll to resist Rötschreck.)

This power requires a Willpower point to activate. Any new scene the character wishes to remain in Flight requires a fresh Willpower expenditure and a new roll.

The character cannot interact physically with the physical world when her soul is freed from her body. At best, she can spend a Willpower point to appear to others as a ghostly apparition and can speak to those present. She can use any mental Discipline at her disposal, including other levels of Auspex.

●●●●●● FAR SENSE

The character no longer needs to take to Soul’s Flight to observe distant but familiar places and people. She can project her senses to a place in order to stalk any person she is familiar with. She observes her victim while remaining aware of her own surroundings.

System: The player rolls the character’s Perception + Empathy, difficulty 6, and describes the person she is trying to spy on. If successful, she may observe her victim and his surrounding area for one turn per success. She may use other levels of Auspex where she is spying. She remains aware of her own situation. While this use of Auspex splits her senses, it does not hamper them.

●●●●●● THE HEART'S DESIRE

Your character can sense exactly what her partner wishes to hear. With this gift, she can sense exactly the right thing to say in a given moment. She reads the subtle cues, shakes, pulse, aura, surface thoughts, and every little bit of her partner in order to find the truth.

System: To activate The Heart’s Desire, the player spends a blood point and rolls Perception + Empathy at a difficulty equal to the partner’s current Willpower points. The player may spend the successes on The Heart’s Desire to add dice or remove difficulty from the next Social action against that character, to a minimum difficulty of 4. This does not include Social Disciplines such as Presence, but mundane Social actions.

●●●●●● SOUL BOND

Your character’s mastery of the spiritual allows her to bind herself with a person, place, or thing. Once the bond is formed, she can forever extend her senses to the point of the bond.

System: Spend a Willpower point to initiate Soul Bond. Roll Intelligence + Occult, difficulty 7 or the person’s cur- rent Willpower points, whichever is higher. Each roll takes one hour of meditation touching the person or thing, or at the place if she wishes to bind herself to a location. The bond forms once five successes or accumulated, or in the case of a person, successes equal to their Willpower dots.

Once the bond is established, the vampire can extend her senses, including her Auspex powers, to the person, place, or thing at any time with simple concentration. Any Auspex power requiring touch can be used at any time at any distance. Additionally, any character using Auspex on the bonded person, place, or thing gets a read as if he used the power on the vampire, as well as the object. However, if the object of the bond is killed or destroyed, the vampire risks her Beast as if she violated a level 1 Road sin.

Additionally, using future Auspex powers on the bonded person, place, or thing is done at a -2 difficulty.

Soul Bond lasts indefinitely unless the vampire ends it voluntarily.

●●●●●●● ANTICIPATE VICTORY

The greatest swordsmen in the world have an uncanny ability, they say, to anticipate the outcome of any battle before they even draw their sword. So too, a chess player of exceptional talent can predict their opponents moves with startling accuracy. For the Auspex user, the ability to anticipate is not theoretically occult in nature. It is an expression of Auspex itself.

System: The player spends a blood point and rolls her character’s Perception + the combat Ability her opponent is using, or other Ability should the power be used during a game of chance or even during a courtiers’ contest of poetry and wit. Her difficulty equals her target’s Manipulation + the appropriate skill. Each success rolled becomes an additional die the player can use during her character’s next action.

●●●●●●● BRUTAL ECSTACY

Your character has mastered her senses to the point where she can reinterpret harmful sensation as empowering and ecstatic.

System: This power does not require activation. Any time your character suffers a wound penalty, reverse it. The penalty dice become bonus dice instead. This power does not help your character act when Incapacitated. However, any time your character takes damage in her Incapacitated health level, she regains a spent point of Willpower.

●●●●●●● A GATHERING OF SOULS

Your character has progressed beyond The Soul’s Flight to the point where she can bring other characters into the flight with her. Willing subjects can be granted the ability to project from their bodies; unwilling victims can be forced from their shells.

System: Gathering of Souls requires the vampire touch the target. This power does not require a roll against willing subjects, but they must spend a point of Willpower. They activate Soul’s Flight as if they activated it themselves. Against an unwilling victim, the vampire must spend a point of Willpower to attempt forcing the victim from his body. Roll Intelligence + Intimidation, difficulty equal to the victim’s current Willpower points. Every roll takes one turn and a new point of Willpower. The power forces the victim from his body once the vampire achieves a number of successes equal to his Willpower dots. Once forced from his body, he cannot return during the current scene.

●●●●●●●● OMNISCIENCE

The elder vampire can not only hear a victim’s thoughts, but she can simultaneously hear the thoughts of everyone in her vicinity, see their auras, and understand fundamental truths about them.

System: Spend a Willpower point to activate Omni- science for the scene. She automatically activates any or all of her first four Auspex powers (Heightened Senses, Read the Soul, Spirit’s Touch, and Invade the Mind). If the power requires a roll, roll a single Perception + Awareness roll instead of the normal dice pool. Compare the results to all potential subjects in the vampire’s vicinity.

The vampire is able to understand and digest all this information instantly. As Storyteller, when giving such information, focus on the important information only. For example, if this power is used amidst a riot of one hundred peasants, it’s not necessary to give every single peasant’s surface thoughts one by one. Instead, express the general sentiment and any specific exceptions.

●●●●●●●● OMNISCIENCE

It is said that the eldest users of Auspex can kill with a look, a thought, or a sigh. If there is truth to it, it is manifest in the Soul’s Sword. The elder inflicts a direct assault from her mind to a victim’s, potentially destroying them on the spot. Those she destroys appear outwardly unharmed, perhaps bleeding from the mouth and nose, or in the case of vampires, falling inexplicably to ash.

System: First, the elder must make physical or eye contact with her victim. Then, the player spends three blood points and a Willpower point if she is assaulting a vampire or other supernatural being. She spends only a single blood point to activate Soul’s Sword against a human target. Roll Intelligence + Intimidation resisted by the victim’s Willpower. The results are based on the net successes achieved on the following chart:

Successes	Results
Failure	The target is unharmed and may determine that a psychic assault is taking place by succeeding on a Perception + Awareness roll (difficulty 6).
1 success	The target is shaken but unharmed. He loses a temporary Willpower point.
2 successes	The target is badly frightened. He loses three temporary Willpower points and, if a vampire, must roll Courage (difficulty of the attacker‘s Auspex rating) to avoid Rötschreck.
3 successes	The target loses six temporary Willpower points and, if a vampire, must roll Courage as above. If this causes him to lose his last temporary Willpower point, he loses a permanent Willpower point and suffers three health levels of bashing damage (soaked normally).
4 successes	The target loses all temporary Willpower points and half of his permanent Willpower points (round down). In addition, he suffers three health levels of lethal damage (soaked normally).
5 successes	The target must roll his permanent Willpower (difficulty 7). If he succeeds, apply the effect of four successes. In addition, the target is rendered unconscious for the rest of the night, or sent to torpor if Cainite. If he fails, the Psychic Assault kills him instantly.

●●●●●●●●● FALSE SLUMBER

Torpor is no longer a torment of nightmares and incapacitation to wait out the eons. The elder may now leave her body behind, walk in twilight, and observe the passage of time alert, aware, and able to take some hand in the goings-on while her body remains hidden and in slumber.

System: No roll is necessary; False Slumber simply activates at the time the elder falls into torpor. She is, in effect, exactly in the same condition as a vampire using Soul’s Flight save that she cannot instantly wake her body; awakening from torpor functions normally. If her cord is severed, it is no grueling task to return to her body, but rather, happens gradually over the course of a year and a day. In that time, her body cannot be woken from torpor, no matter what.

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