The signature Discipline of the Alucinor indicates not sleeplessness, but rather the tendency of dreams to intrude upon the Sandmen, even while they’re awake. The Alucinor wield a subtle power over dreams, but this subtlety also means that it is sometimes impossible to determine what effects, if any, a given manifestation of Insomnium may take. Like dreams themselves, effects of the Discipline are often transitory and ephemeral. Even an Alucinor of immense Blood Potency can rarely exert fine control. The elder’s powers have sublime influence on his consciousness, instead. Of course, the Alucinor ability to manipulate sleep and dreams has its shortcomings. Insomnium cannot change one’s own dreams; a Sandman can reach out to tug at another’s dream and give it a specific tenor, but she remains the servant of her own terrors when trapped in a personal nightmare.
The first sign of alignment with Alucinor blood is manifestation of this basic capability of the Insomnium Discipline. The vampire becomes attuned to the dreams of people around her. Since the Alucinor is generally active at night, the dreams of mortals are a constant, subconscious flood, one that is usually ignored. Other vampires tend to weave dark dreams from their own personal vices, and these can impact an Alucinor during daily sleep. A line member is especially sensitive to dreams of her own lineage, their visions seeming to merge into powerful nightmares.
While the pressure of outside dreams is usually a mere distraction, an Alucinor can also pull bits of emotion from them. By concentrating on the fleeting impressions left by dreams, the vampire can discern useful information or gather currents of thought from nearby sleepers. The mind defends itself, however, even while subjects sleep; deciphering the dreams of individuals with great mental fortitude can be a challenge.
An Alucinor can attune to dreams of only people who are asleep, and only to those within a number of miles equal to the character’s Insomnium dots (which is the range for all the powers of this Discipline). As with all vampiric capabilities, this range is subject to vagaries. On rare occasions, an Alucinor may fail to notice the blissful slumber of someone nearby, or may sense the anguish of a powerful dream from a greater distance. Gazing into the Dreams of the Many does nothing to give a character a sense of a subject’s location. The Sandman simply “swims” through a sea of dreams until he finds pieces of identity that conform to his notion of the desired subject. On some occasions, an Alucinor even gleans bits of prophetic insight from collective dreams.
Although swimming through dreams requires nothing more than a few moments of concentration, many Alucinor find it helpful to hold and caress an item of some value to an intended subject. A favored childhood doll, a vial of Vitae or some similarly personal memento can act as a focus that aids in chasing down the dreams of an individual.
Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Reading the dreams of others uses Wits + Empathy + Insomnium versus the subject’s Resolve + Blood Potency. Oneiromancy (see below) uses Wits + Occult + Insomnium.
Action: Dream-reading is contested; resistance is reflexive. Oneiromancy is instant.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: Pieces of dreams wash over the Alucinor’s mind, causing hallucinations and figments of imagination. These hallucinations may include strange noises, changes in scenery, distant voices or other haunting effects. All rolls involving Resolve or Composure suffer a –1 penalty for the remainder of the scene. Multiple dramatic failures in the same scene cause a cumulative penalty, as your character becomes more and more absorbed in fantasy.
Failure: Your character loses or ties the contested roll. He senses only incoherent babble from the subconscious minds of the world’s sleepers. A successive attempt may be possible at the expense of more Willpower.
Success: Your character wins the contested roll. The Alucinor garners a symbolic moment from the dreams observed, briefly stealing a glimpse of the deeply held feelings of the subject. Your character may learn of an item or person of value to the subject, or of a hidden fear. The Storyteller decides what is seen and what significance it holds. In practical terms, you gain a +1 bonus on Social rolls in regard to the subject for the next month. This bonus is not cumulative for multiple successful uses of the power.
Alternatively, the Alucinor may simply sift through the tide of dreams, gleaning insight into the future. Interpretation is often difficult, but it sometimes gives a startlingly clear image of some upcoming event. Performing this sort of “oneiromancy” grants a re-roll on any one dice pool for the remainder of the night. No more than one re-roll can be achieved per night.
Exceptional Success: Peering into the subject’s innermost fears or desires, your character immediately learns one of the subject’s Virtue, Vice, Morality or Humanity score, or that the subject is a diablerist (your choice). Repeated applications of the power and repeated exceptional successes in a single month do not allow other pieces of information to be learned. If the Alucinor applies Dreams of the Many as a prelude to using a greater Insomnium power on the subject, a +1 bonus is also gained on the activation roll of that power, as long as it is within a month. No more than a single +1 bonus is gained to other activation rolls against a target. An Alucinor who swims the sea of dreams is still aware of her own surroundings. If she performs an action aside from meddling in dreams, the connection to her subject is broken immediately.
Suggested Modifiers
Modifier Situation
+2 Power is turned on a vampire with whom the user has a blood tie (Vampire, p. 162)
+1 The Alucinor holds an item of special significance to the subject
–1 The Alucinor does not know, has never seen or has never met the subject
–1 The Alucinor cannot see the subject when the power is used
With this power, an Alucinor learns to apply her will to others’ dreams. The vampire can determine their course or be a primary participant in them. Of course, this is all merely a matter of changing a subject’s imaginary world, but it can still have profound effects, whether by sending messages, creating nightmares or simply disorienting the subject is his waking hours.
Before manifesting in the dreams of another, an Alucinor must first sense the subject through use of Dreams of the Many. After a successful attunement, the Sandman can exert pressure to change those dreams. In almost every case, the vampire herself makes a fleeting appearance in the dreams at the time of the change. This appearance is usually subtle; dreamers may experience oddities in the landscape, the sudden appearance of a strange animal or person, or an unrecognized item — most often, this is something that has significance to the Alucinor in question. Many Sandmen take on certain “signature” themes and use them repeatedly when communicating through or haunting a subject’s visions. The strange dream-appearance of an albino cat or the recurring vision of an ancient ceremonial glaive need not be simple coincidence.
Some old vampires who have suffered the ravages of torpor whisper that the Alucinor use this power to manipulate the nightmares of slumbering Kindred. By repeating false scenes over and over again, elders claim, bloodline members can cause other vampires to come to unrealistic conclusions about their past, accentuating the effects of torporous hallucinations. If the Alucinor have any motive in doing so, it remains a mystery.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Subterfuge + Insomnium versus subject’s Resolve + Blood Potency
Action: Extended and contested, resistance is reflexive (a number of successes is required for each party equal to the opponent’s Willpower dots; each rolls represents one turn)
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: All accumulated successes are lost by the Alucinor. Nightmarish images flirt with the vampire’s waking senses and cause distraction, fear and paranoia. The Alucinor suffers a –1 penalty to rolls involving Resolve or Composure for the remainder of the night. Multiple dramatic failures with this power in the same night cause a cumulative penalty, as your character becomes more and more absorbed in fantasy. A dramatic failure rolled for the subject automatically awards the Alucinor with successful application of the power, regardless of how many successes have been accumulate for him.
Failure: No successes are accumulated at this time. The Alucinor is not yet able to guide the dreams of the subject.
Success: Successes are gathered or the number required to overcome is accumulated. If the subject wins, the power has no effect. If the Alucinor wins, he makes a subtle change to the subject’s dream. The Sandman can pick one element and add or change it in subtle way. For example, the sky might suddenly become overcast or dozens of feline eyes might peer out from the dark corners of the dream. The Alucinor’s control is not great enough to cause radical alterations, such as turning an otherwise normal daytime sky into a green pastiche, or setting the entire dream in a raging bonfire. Alternatively, the Alucinor could intentionally interject herself or some item or creature of significance to her (any item connected to her or to one of her derangements, Merits or Flaws would be appropriate). The Alucinor can choose to exert a direct message of three words while in the dream, whether by speaking or writing. Symbolic messages, such as appearing as a black cat to suggest bad luck, have no such limit on size, although they’re open to interpretation thereafter. Effects wrought in a dream persist until the dream ends or for a number of turns equal to the vampire’s Insomnium dots, whichever comes first. Because dreams leave only fleeting memories, a Wits + Investigation roll may be required for the subject to fully remember what happened. The subject certainly remembers the Alucinor’s appearance on an exceptional success (even if the Alucinor did not intend to be recognizable). The Alucinor can also cause a sudden start that immediately awakens the subject (although it cannot awaken a vampire in torpor). Attempts to influence the subject can alter the subject’s mood and cause an uncanny sense of déjà vu that grants a +1 bonus or –1 penalty on the next degeneration roll made for the subject.
Exceptional Success: Major headway is made toward achieving or defying influence. Or, five or more successes are gathered than needed for the power to take effect (or to resist the vampire’s efforts). The Alucinor takes firm control of the dream and can reshape elements of it in prominent ways. This could mean changing the existence of gravity, removing a person from a sequence, or suddenly transposing the dreamer into a new scene. If the Alucinor chooses to insert herself in the dream imagery, she can deliver any message she desires in that time (a paragraph of useful information is possible, but a lengthy dissertation would not be). Whether the subject remembers it all correctly or acts upon it is another matter. By twisting a dream in unpleasant ways, an Alucinor can also temporarily cause the subject great discomfort. She inflicts the Phobia or Paranoia derangement, which persists until the subject sleeps again the next night (or day for another vampire). An Alucinor who influences the dream of another is still aware of her own surroundings. If she performs an action aside from meddling in a dream, the connection to her subject is broken immediately.
Suggested Modifiers
Modifier Situation
+2 Power is turned on a vampire with whom the user has a blood tie (Vampire, p. 162)
+1 An exceptional success was recently achieved in a previous use of Dreams of the Many
–1 The Alucinor does not know, has never seen or has never met the subject
–1 The Alucinor cannot see the subject when the power is used
In medieval literature, victims of succubi often describe the sensation of paralysis combined with a malevolent female presence. Although modern psychology considers such night terrors to merely be a product of the mind on the edge of consciousness, the Alucinor can inflict this state on a sleeping victim. The Alucinor simply concentrates on the subject’s dreams and blends that fantasy into a subject’s reality. Executed properly, Chain the Enslumbered Mind allows a victim to be awake and aware, yet hampered by lingering sleep.
This power can be inflicted only on a subject who is already sleeping and who was first detected through Dreams of the Many. Most Alucinor use this power while near a mortal victim, to keep the subject from resisting during feeding, but it can be used on anyone whose dreams can be sensed.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Empathy + Insomnium versus subject’s Resolve + Blood Potency
Action: Contested; resistance is reflexive
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The Alucinor causes the subject to awaken immediately and he behaves normally. Vitae must still be spent for a vampire sleeper to awaken, as usual (although no Humanity roll is required; see Vampire, p. 184). A vampire in torpor does not awaken.
Failure: The character loses or ties the contested roll. The Alucinor does not influence the subject’s sleep. A successive attempt may be possible with the expenditure of another Vitae.
Success: The most successes are rolled for the Alucinor. The victim’s muscles grow sluggish and his mind slows, even as he struggles to wake up and act. A victim suffers a –1 penalty to all conscious actions (reflexive ones are not usually affected) for a number of hours equal to the successes gained on the power’s activation roll. This penalty applies as soon as the power is triggered, not based on when the subject rises. So, if it’s used early in an evening, the power could fade before a subject even wakes. Ideally, an Alucinor uses the power just before a subject would rise, or uses his connection through Dreams of the Many to awaken the subject just after Chain the Enslumbered Mind takes effect. Multiple applications of the power on the same subject are not cumulative. The effects of one application must pass before another can be performed.
Extraordinary Success: The most successes — five or more — are rolled for the Alucinor. He causes the subject to be overwhelmed with sleep paralysis. The victim is physically immobile for a number of turns equal to the successes achieved on the activation roll. His Defense cannot be applied to any incoming attacks. Nor can he dodge. Once the initial period of paralysis passes, the victim remains groggy for hours, as per the results of a success. A paralyzed victim can use mental capabilities and powers, but they still suffer a –1 penalty.
Suggested Modifiers
Modifier Situation
+2 Power is turned on a vampire with whom the user has a blood tie (Vampire, p. 162)
+1 An exceptional success was recently achieved in a previous use of Dreams of the Many
–1 The Alucinor does not know, has never seen or has never met the subject
–1 The Alucinor cannot see the subject when the power is used
As gatekeepers between the waking and sleeping worlds, and frequent travelers of both, the Alucinor have the capacity to ease that transition upon others. For mortals, this means a descent into rest and sleep. For vampires, this power brings forth the sluggishness of the day.
Most Alucinor hum a quiet lullaby while evoking Blissful Sleep, but it’s not necessary. An Alucinor need only be able to physically see or touch a subject for this power to be used.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion + Insomnium versus subject’s Resolve + Blood Potency
Action: Contested; resistance is reflexive
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The Alucinor not only fails to hypnotize the subject to sleep, he causes the subject’s subconscious mind to become wary to his tricks. The vampire cannot attempt this power again on the subject in the same night.
Failure: The character loses or ties the contested roll. The Alucinor fails to make the subject drowsy, but a successive attempt may be possible with the expenditure of another Vitae.
Success: The Alucinor influences the subject toward drowsiness. A mortal falls asleep and remains asleep for the remainder of the scene unless he suffers damage (the act of feeding does not wake the subject).
When this power is used successfully against another vampire, dice-pool limitations apply as if it were daytime (dice pools cannot exceed Humanity dots; see Vampire, p. 184). These effects on another vampire last for the remainder of the scene. Vampires who do not suffer penalties for daylight activity (for any reason, be it a Merit, a power or a high Humanity) are immune to this power. The effects of this power are not cumulative with those of other Insomnium capabilities. So, Blissful Sleep and Chain the Enslumbered Mind cannot both apply to a vampire at the same time, for example. One power must run its course before another can be applied.
Extraordinary Success: The most successes — five or more — are rolled for the Alucinor. A mortal victim remains asleep for a number of hours equal to the Sandman’s Insomnium dots, unless harmed in some way (again, feeding does not wake the victim).
Another vampire’s Humanity dots are reduced by one to determine his dice pool limits for the remainder of the scene. So, a vampire with a Humanity of 6 is limited to dice pools of five.
Suggested Modifiers
Modifier Situation
+2 Power is turned on a vampire with whom the user has a blood tie (Vampire, p. 162)
Legend holds that if a sleeper fails to wake from a dream in which he dies, his body dies. This power makes that legend a reality. Once able to sense someone’s sleeping mind through Dreams of the Many, an Alucinor exerts sudden, terrifying and painful changes on the dream sequence. The sleeper may find that a soothing rainstorm becomes a hail of razors, or that a smoky room turns into an inescapable inferno. Every way the victim turns, the dream continues to twist in improbable fashion to horrify him. His own worst fears come forth to murder him.
Fortunately for sleepers everywhere, the mind reflexively tries to wake when threatened in this fashion, but it is still an uncomfortable experience at best. Combined with another vampire’s torpor, this power can be a fearsome attack.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Subterfuge + Insomnium versus subject’s Composure + Blood Potency
Action: Extended and contested; resistance is reflexive (a number of successes is required for each party equal to the opponent’s Willpower dots; each roll represents one turn)
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: All of the Alucinor’s accumulated successes are lost and the power cannot be used again on the same subject until the next sunset. A dramatic failure rolled for the subject means the power succeeds automatically, regardless of how many successes the Alucinor has accumulated so far.
Failure: No successes are accumulated at this time.
Success: Successes are accumulated. When the required total is achieved first by the Alucinor, he causes the victim to suffer one Health point of bashing damage for each dot of Intelligence that he has. A subject can be victim to this power no more than once per night (for a mortal) or day (for a vampire).
Extraordinary Success: A participant makes significant progress toward the total successes required. If five or more successes are gathered than the Alucinor needs, damage caused is lethal.
An Alucinor who influences the dream of another is still aware of his own surroundings. If he performs an action aside from meddling in a dream, the connection to his subject is broken immediately.
Suggested Modifiers
Modifier Situation
+2 Power is turned on a vampire with whom the user has a blood tie (Vampire, p. 162)
+1 An exceptional success was recently achieved in a previous use of Dreams of the Many
–1 The Alucinor does not know, has never seen or has never met the subject
–1 The Alucinor cannot see the subject when the power is used