All That Glitters Is Red:Licencieux

Intimé

There are moments when one catches just the slightest hint of a scent, or hears a faint sound in which forgotten memories drift closer to the present. Though rarely clear, they offer a sense of the familiar: the safe warmth of a childhood moment or the creeping dread of a forgotten fear. With but a glance, the Duchagne may inspire this feeling.

These memories need not be known to the Kindred although he must decide which emotion he wishes to inspire. With a successful application of this power, the target automatically associates a sound, smell or other sense with a past memory tied to the determined emotion. While some Duchagne use this to manipulate the emotions of their protégées towards their own perverse enjoyment, many others find that the emotions inspired with Intimé gives Vitae an added spice.

Cost: —

Dice Pool: Wits + Expression + Majesty - target’s Resolve + Blood Potency

Action: Instant

Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: The vampire using this becomes reminded of some potent loss in his own past, suffering a –1 die penalty to actions for the rest of the scene. The Duchagne may also not use this power against the target for the rest of the night.

Failure: The target feels nothing.

Success: The target has a momentary flash of memory, either good or bad, inspiring the desired association. This adds a +1 die modifier in any roll to manipulate the target for the scene, but only in a manner befitting the type of memory stirred.

Exceptional Success: The target has a flash of memory so intense that it momentarily distracts him. The effect takes place as above, and any action the victim attempts on the next turn suffers a –2 dice penalty (except defending against incoming attack).

La Touche Illusoire

Sometimes more than a mere hint of memory is needed to achieve one’s desires, something a little less subtle. Whereas the memory of a torrid moment of passion might inspire a flicker of desire, a gentle caress in the right place and time can stoke the furnace of lust into a raging fire. Of course, the opposite is just as true. A panicked or frightened mortal is likely to remain so while being aggressively prodded.

Using this power, the Duchagne may create the illusion of a single touch in a target’s mind. This can be the soft stroke of affection, or the sudden slap of anger. The target of La Touche Illusoire remains physically unharmed, even though she may not believe herself to be. To inflict this sensation upon another, the vampire need only be able to see the target.

Cost: 1 Vitae

Dice Pool: Intelligence + Expression + Dominate versus target’s Resolve + Blood Potency

Action: Contested

Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: The vampire attempting the power suffers feels the intended illusion himself. Distracted (and likely annoyed) by the sensation, he suffers a –1 die penalty to any action for the next turn. He may not use this power for the remainder of the scene.

Failure: The effect fails to activate.

Success: The target feels either a gentle stroke, a pointed prod or a sharp slap, as directed by the vampire. These cause no damage to the target, but can serve as a distraction, or add to attempts to seduce or intimidate a target. This is a quick sensation, not lasting more than a few seconds at the most. The touch effectively reduces the target’s Composure by 1 for the following turn.

Exceptional Success: The Duchagne is able to administer a complex pattern of “touches” that can last for several minutes. The target’s Composure is effectively reduced by 2 for the remainder of the scene.

Douleur Agréable

Pain and pleasure are sensations that are closely associated, and on occasion, the two are intertwined. A cunning Duchagne may carefully sculpt the behavior of others by applying this power judiciously. Victims tend to associate the power’s effects with the activity they happen to be engaged in at the time of its activation. A mortal struck with searing pain when he picks up a gun, for instance, is likely to associate the gun with the pain on a subconscious level, and may hesitate to pick the gun up again.

Douleur Agréable gives the Duchagne the ability to wrack a target’s body with pain or flood it with a wave of soothing pleasure. The vampire must have a clear view of the subject to enact this ability, and choose exactly whether it is pain or pleasure she wishes to inflict.

Cost: 1 Vitae

Dice Pool: Intelligence + Socialize + Majesty versus target’s Composure + Blood Potency

Action: Contested

Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: The Duchagne using this immediately falls into a painful paroxysm, and spends the next turn writhing in agony. He may not use this power again for the remainder of the night.

Failure: The power fails to activate.

Success: The subject is affected by either a wave of intense pleasure or sharp wracking pain throughout his body. The subject is unable to take any action for the next turn, except to defend himself against incoming attack. If the power manifests painfully, the victim may be negatively disposed toward repeating the action taken while under its effects, and may eventually develop a phobia of the given circumstance. If the power has been used in the same way, under the same circumstances, for a number of times equal to the subject’s Composure, the subject must roll Resolve + Composure to avoid developing the Frightened Condition. The Condition, if gained, lasts for a number of nights equal to the successes rolled on activation of the Discipline.

If the power invokes pleasure, the victim may be predisposed toward repeating the action he’s currently engaged in, and may eventually develop an Addiction centered on it. If the power has been used in the same way, under the same circumstances, for a number of times equal to the subject’s Composure, the subject must roll Resolve + Composure to avoid developing the Addicted Condition. The Condition, if gained, lasts for a number of nights equal to the successes rolled on activation of the Discipline.

Exceptional Success: As above, but the victim suffers a –1 die penalty to all actions (except Defense) for the remainder of the scene.

Insensate

Much can be accomplished through proper stimulation, yet not being able to sense the world around you can become far more tortuous. Sadistic Kindred use this power to cripple their victims, dimming one sense after another in a cycle of sensory deprivation. The Duchagne must speak to the target, mentioning the sense that he intends to affect.

In order to use Insensate, the Kindred draws upon his own detachment and “shares” it with the subject. Doing so causes a slight increase in the Duchagne vampire’s own separation from his bodily senses.

An afflicted target does not always lose the use of the affected sense completely — some are merely numbed or dimmed significantly. Only the most powerful attack can fully blind or deafen a subject.

Cost: 1 Vitae

Dice Pool: Intelligence + Subterfuge + Dominate versus target’s Resolve + Blood Potency

Action: Contested

Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: The vampire dims his own sense, suffering the full effects of the power. Any action he attempts to take that relies upon the sense affected incurs a –2 dice penalty.

Failure: The power fails to take hold.

Success: The victim suffers a penalty to all rolls involving the chosen sense equal to the number of successes made in excess of the victim’s. The chosen sense dims significantly — sight fades and blurs, hearing becomes muted, flesh numbs, scent diffuses or taste diminishes. The effect begins to fade immediately, at the rate of one die per turn.

Exceptional Success: As above. While the imposed penalty is –5 or higher, the subject has no access whatsoever to the target sense and is totally blind, deaf, numb and unable to smell or taste. This power cannot be used more than once on a single victim per night, by any vampire.

Jardin d’Agrément

The pinnacle of Licencieux, Jardin d’Agrément allows the Duchagne to create a fully realized fiction that overlaps and competes with the real world, confusing the victim and warping his environment completely. The vampire provides the story, but the target’s mind fleshes out the scene, resulting in a surreal, powerfully manipulative vision.

To activate the power, the Duchagne must be able to see the victim, and must choose the emotion he wishes to inspire in her. It can be a simple concept such as love, regret or nostalgia, or it can be more complex, such as “queasy frustration” or “angry, jealous desire.” The victim then falls into a growing wash of false input, intermingling with and tainting the real world.

Often, subjects of Jardin d’Agrément feel that they are experiencing a potent dream or nightmare, one that they are unable to wake from. Ordinary encounters are fraught with illogical significance. Normal interactions seem to inspire unexpected emotional responses. The Duchagne does not control what the victim sees, but chooses exactly how it will make the victim feel. An ordinary traffic light can seem forlorn, inspiring feelings of sadness and remorse just by changing colors a little more slowly than normal. The same light might seem to bathe another victim in a warm glow, bestowing a false sense of happiness and security.

Hallucinations caused by this power can be resisted. Any mortal can resist this power for one turn if a Willpower point is spent and a successful Composure roll is made (though the Willpower point does not add three dice to the roll). This roll is reflexive. If the roll fails, the Willpower point is lost, and the target remains under the effects of the power. If the roll is successful, the mortal shakes off the dream-like state for one turn. The power resumes effect on the next turn if the mortal remains in the Kindred’s vicinity.

Vampires resist the Jardin d’Agrément in much the same way (by spending a Willpower point), but Blood Potency is added to Composure rolls made for them.

This power can only be used upon one subject at a time.

Cost: 1 Willpower

Dice Pool: Intelligence + Subterfuge + Majesty versus subject’s Composure + Blood Potency

Action: Contested; resistance is reflexive.

Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: The vampire slips helplessly into a waking dream of his own making and is influenced by the emotion he intended to bring out in his victim. In addition, he cannot use any Licencieux power on the subject for the remainder of the night.

Failure: The power fails to activate.

Success: The subject is overwhelmed by the warping effect of the Jardin d’Agrément, and the whole of his surroundings are suffused with false meaning. Everything he sees and hears will work toward imposing and multiplying the chosen emotion, completely changing his outlook and making it almost impossible to function normally. A penalty equivalent to the number of successes rolled in excess of the subject’s resistance is imposed on all actions (except Defense) that the subject undertakes for the remainder of the scene, and the subject is likely to confuse real input with that of the Jardin.

In addition, any action that seems to run contrary to the prevailing tone of the vision will force a Resolve + Composure check to see if the subject can interpret it properly. A victim caught in a pleasurable vision may not understand an attack until it occurs — likewise, one caught in the throes of a wrathful one may not understand a conciliatory attempt.

Exceptional Success: As above.