Hypnagogia

• The Void

Usiri are able to take a specific memory from another Kindred and collect it for themselves. The memory is instantly stored in “the void,” a part of the Usiri’s own subconscious mind that she has compartmentalized and kept separate from her conscious. It takes a great deal of control and willpower to keep the walls of the void in place, but as long as the Usiri remains active that control is maintained.

If, however, the Usiri falls into torpor, all control over the void is lost. If she hasn’t yet returned the stored memories to their rightful owners, they become as susceptible to the Fog of Eternity as any Kindred’s.

Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Presence + Persuasion + Hypnagogia vs. Resolve + Blood Potency
Action: Instant and contested (resistance is reflexive)

Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: For the rest of the night, the user instantly adopts any derangements present in the target.
Failure: The user is unable to grasp the subject’s target memory. Another attempt cannot be made until the next evening.
Success: The user successfully grasps the subject’s target memory, where it immediately goes into the void for safekeeping.
Exceptional Success: The user grasps the subject’s target memory and another random memory along with it. The subject is unaware that a second memory has been taken.

Suggested Modifiers
Modifier - Situation
+2 - Power is focused on, or applies to, a vampire with whom the user has a blood tie.
— - Power is used on a willing subject.
-1 - Power is used on an unwilling subject.
-3 - Subject has a suspicion or paranoia derangement.

•• Overwrite

The Usiri is able to overwrite a specific thought or image from his victim with one of his own choosing. She now believes that this new “memory” is her own and that she has personally experienced it at some point in her past.

Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion + Hypnagogia vs. Composure + Blood Potency
Action: Instant and contested (resistance is reflexive)

Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: For the rest of the night, the attacker is unable to overwrite the victim’s memory and instantly adopts any derangements present in the victim.
Failure: The character loses or ties the contested roll and is unable to overwrite the victim’s memory. The target is aware that someone is attempting to manipulate her and recognizes both “memories,” including which one is real and which one is false.
Success: The character wins the contested roll. He is able to overwrite a memory with one of his own choosing. The victim believes that the new memory is, in fact, what really happened. She recalls the experience vaguely, as if it happened to someone else, but still believes it to be her own recollection.
Exceptional Success: The character wins a contested roll with five or more successes. He is able to overwrite an undesirable memory with a new one. Further, he is able to provide some supporting details, giving it a more “real” feel. The victim recalls the experience subjectively, as if she was an integral part of it.

The overwritten memory cannot encompass more than a scene’s worth of time, and if the subject is ever confronted with direct evidence of the truth, the subject’s player rolls Intelligence + Composure. If this roll succeeds, the character’s original memory comes back. If the use of Overwrite resulted in an exceptional success, the subject receives a -2 modifier to the roll to remember.

Suggested Modifiers
Modifier - Situation
+2 - Power is focused on, or applies to, a vampire with whom the user has a blood tie.
-2 - The victim has the Eidetic Memory Merit.
-3 - The victim has a suspicion or paranoia derangement.

••• The Realm Between

This power is the true definition of Hypnagogia. It allows the Usiri to project a feeling of bliss and perfection onto another individual, relaxing and smothering him in a state of euphoria. The Beast itself is completely denied and violent activity isn’t even a consideration while in the Realm Between.

The victim is in a state of Hypnagogia and can remain in such a state until the end of the scene.

Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion + Hypnagogia vs. Composure + Blood Potency
Action: Instant and contested (resistance is reflexive)

Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: Rather than pacifying the Beast, the character unleashes it and the target must check for frenzy.
Failure: The character loses or ties the contested roll. The attempt to pacify the Beast fails and the target is unaffected.
Success: The character wins the contested roll. The target feels all his rage begin to dissolve. He finds himself feeling peaceful and content. The character suffers a -3 modifier to all violent or aggressive actions for the rest of the scene, and all rolls to resist frenzy receive a +3 modifier. Riding the wave requires seven successes, rather than five.
Exceptional Success: The character wins a contested roll with five or more successes. As success above, except that the effect extends until the end of the night. The Beast is completely pacified and the subject has no clear understanding of how it happened, nor does she care.

Suggested Modifiers
Modifier - Situation
+1 - The target is in a state of relaxation.
-1 - A conflict (physical or other wise) involving the target has occurred at some point during the present scene.
-3 - The target has a suspicion or paranoia derangement.

•••• Spirit Guide

While the subject sleeps, the vampire makes contact with the sleeper’s dream-image and attempts to convince his target the he is her friend and confidant in the dream world. He is able to extend his awareness into the mind of the target and pretend to be a friendly dream guide there to assist the subject. While in the dream state, he is able to interact with the subject and, potentially, milk her for whatever information he’s looking for.

Cost: 1 Vitae + 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Presence + Persuasion + Hypnagogia vs. Composure + Blood Potency
Action: Instant and contested (resistance is reflexive)

Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The character instantly adopts any derangements present in the target for the rest of the night.
Failure: The character loses or ties the contested roll and is unable to make contact with the subject’s dream self. The victim remains asleep and unresponsive.
Success: The character wins the contested roll. He convinces the sleeper that he is, indeed, a good and trusted friend. He is able to ask his target one question and get the correct answer back immediately. This supersedes the victim’s good judgment because the sleeper perceives the Usiri as part of her own dream — answering the question is therefore less a matter a literal conversation and more of the Usiri manipulating the victim’s subconscious mind.
Exceptional Success: The character wins a contested roll with five or more successes. As success above, except that he is able to ask a second question of his victim and gain an additional piece of information.

Suggested Modifiers
Modifier - Situation
+2 - Power is focused on, or applies to, a vampire with whom the user has a blood tie.
+1 - The user knows who the victim’s allies are.
-3 - Victim has a suspicion or paranoia derangement.

••••• Tabula Rasa

This is arguably the most fearsome power an Usiri, or any Kindred for that matter, can summon forth. It has the capability of completely wiping the mind of the intended target clean, erasing all memories of who and what the Kindred has been and still is, essentially creating a blank slate to be molded by the caster’s will. The target is usually an unaware Kindred in torpor, but this can also be attempted against a waking target (willing or unwilling), provided the caster wishes to take the risk of destroying his own mind. This ability is invasive, to say the least, and few would ever willingly subject themselves to it, although one never knows what a paranoid Kindred might do to protect himself long-term.

If a player decides to use this power against an unwilling target, he must make a successful degeneration roll if his character’s Humanity is above 4 (roll three dice).

Unlike other Hypnagogia powers, Tabula Rasa can be used against waking targets as well as sleeping ones. In this case, the target must be in the attacker’s line of sight.

Cost: 1 Vitae + 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Presence + Persuasion + Hypnagogia versus Resolve + Blood Potency (willing subject or in torpor) or Manipulation + Intimidation + Hypnagogia versus Resolve + Composure + Blood Potency (if the victim is awake and unwilling)
Action: Instant and contested (regardless of whether the subject is in torpor, is willing or unwilling, as the mind does not easily give itself to a foreign presence; resistance is reflexive)

Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The vampire and the target are both subjected to surreal, terrifying nightmares. The attacker’s player must succeed on a Resolve + Composure roll, or else the Usiri gains a severe derangement (paranoia is a good choice). Also, regardless of whether the victim is willing or unwilling, the player must make a successful roll against degeneration.
Failure: The target’s memories remain secure and intact. Further, the player of the Usiri must make a successful degeneration roll for his character regardless of whether the victim was willing or unwilling.
Success: The victim loses all short-term memories, from the present moment back to the beginning of the story. All Skills or Disciplines learned during this time are lost and must be relearned, but at half cost.
Exceptional Success: The victim of Tabula Rasa loses all memory of his identity. He is unaware of his vampiric condition and knows nothing of who he is, where he is or what has happened to him. He is a true blank slate, in the most complete meaning of the term.

Suggested Modifiers
Modifier - Situation
+1 - Power is focused on, or applies to, a vampire with whom the user has a blood tie.

The Ramifications of Tabula Rasa

This is a truly devastating use of the Hypnagogia Discipline. The Storyteller needs to seriously consider the ramifications of what this power can do in the context of a game setting. Think about it: what if a character actually succeeds in erasing the mind of some unsuspecting elder? She no longer knows who or what she even is. It then becomes the job of the players and the Storyteller to incorporate this turn of events into their overall chronicle. What will become of the blanked Kindred’s place in the power structure? What will her sire or her childer do when she is discovered as nothing more than a neonate? What will her covenant leaders do? Retrain her? Destroy her outright? Mold her into the perfect drone? Let her go to fend for herself?

Also, Tabula Rasa isn’t the sort of power that the Storyteller should spring on players without some attention to whether they’d find sudden revocation of purchased traits and character memories entertaining. It might be wise to build some way for the memories to return into the story. Perhaps if the character confronts the Usiri who did this to her in the dreamscape, she can battle him and take back her unlife. But then, that raises the question of whether she wanted to lose those memories in the first place…