The Truth Is Out There

CHIMERSTRY

The Ravnos are heirs to a legacy of illusion, and none can say exactly why. Their elders, when properly approached, speak cryptically og ghuls and rakshasas. But whatever the source, the Ravnos have a potent weapon in the form of Chimerstry.

Chimerstry is an art of conjuration; the vampire may draw upon her inner reserves to bring phantoms to life. These false images can confound mortal senses and sensory equipment alike. Illusions created by Chimerstry may even baffle the heightened senses of a vampire. The Ravnos are fond to use this power to seduce, swindle or enslave mortals.

Illusions may be seen for what they are by a victim who "proves" the illusion's falsehood (eg a person who walks up to an illusionary wall, expreses his disbelief in it, and puts his hand through it effectively banishes the illusion).

Level 1
Ignis Fatuus

The vampire may conjure a minor, static mirage that confounds one sense. The illusion dissolves when the vampire leaves the area.
System: Spend 1 WP to create an illusion. It lasts until the Ravnos leaves its vicinityor until somebody sees through it somehow. The vampire may also end the effect at any time.

Level 2
Fata Morgana

The cainite can now create illusions that appeal to all the senses, although they remain static. The illusion dissolves when the vampire leaves the area.
System: Spend 1 WP to create an illusion. It lasts until the Ravnos leaves its vicinityor until somebody sees through it somehow. The vampire may also end the effect at any time.

Level 3
Apparition

Apparition allows a vampire to give motion to an illusion created by Ignis Fatuus or Fata Morgana.
System: Spend 1 BP to make the illusion move in a certain direction. She can change this direction only if she concentrated on nothing but the mirage since she created it.

Level 4
Permanency

Used with Ignus Fatuus or Fata Morgana, this power allows a mirage to persist even when the vampire can't see it.
System: Spend 1 BP and the illusion becomes permanent until dissolved.

Level 5
Horrid Reality

Rather than create simple illusions, the campire can project hallucinations directly into a victim's mind. The target of these illusions believes completely that the images are real. This power affects only one person at a time; although other people might try convincing the victim that his terrors are not real, he won't believe them. If the victim would die he falls unconscious or enters torpor. All injuries are gone when the victim realizes that he was not harmed by the Horrid Reality.
System: Spend 2 WP to set Horrid Reality in motion and it lasts for an entire scene. If the vampire wants to injure her victiom, he must roll Manipulation + Subterfudge (Perception + Self-Control). Each success inflicts one health level of damage. This can't actually kill the victim, although a target with a heart condition may well die from fright; a victim "killed" by the illusion loses consciousness or enters torpor. All injuries disappear once the victim is convinced that he was not harmed. Of course, this may even take a series of psychological therapies.

Level 6
False Resonance (Ravnos Clanbook (Revised))

Illusions of living and unliving beings are all well and good until someone decides to read the illusion's mind or its aura. The automatic failure to percieve any sense of the target's thoughts or emotions will usually be passed off as bad luck or simple lack of concentration, or whatever the reason any Kindred might construct to explain why she didn't succeed in gleaning information through supernatural means. A Ravnos can use False Resonance to overlay auras and thoughts on illusions, as well as leave a trace that other emotionally resonant powers can detect later.
System: This power automatically applies to any other use of Chimerstry as the user wishes. In effect, any attempt to use Auspex or the Dementation power, Eyes of Chaos, that generates five or fewer successes will detect an aura, thoughts, Demeanor or whatever the power would normally detect. Thoughts won't be exeptionally complex, and will relate to whatever is going on around the illusion in a mundane and simplistic way. Auras will consist of colors related to specific emotions (anger, sadness, hatred, love and happiness) and will not show much complexity beyond that. Spirit's Touch can pick up the same emotional resonance until the next sunrise.

Fata Amria

Using this power, a Ravnos may place a curse on a target. By evoking the power in her blood, the Ravnos essentially "locks" an illusory effect to the target, which manifests from time to time. The effects can range from merely annoying to potentially lethal, depending on the severity of the curse (number of successes rolled).
System: Fata Amria costs 1 WP to initiate. The Ravnos verbally curses the target, then rolls Manipulation + Intimidation (Willpower). The number of successes determines the strength of the effect, as shown on the table below. The example effect given is simply a guideline; the way in which the Fata Amria manifests is based solely upon the nature of the curse accompanying it.

1 success	Inconvenient effects; target loses two dice from a given Dice Pool.
2 successes	Minor effects; difficulties are raised by two when in a given circumstance.
3 successes	Major effects; target automatically fails a certain action at a pinnacle moment.
4 successes	Serious effects; target automatically fails certain actions in any stressful simulation.
5+ successes	Disastrous effects; target fails all actions involving a given Attribute, Ability or Discipline.

Fatuus Mastery (Ravnos Clanbook (Revised))

A Ravnos with Fatuus Mastery has no restriction on how often she may use the first three levels of Chimerstry and can maintain or control illusions with minimal concentration or fatigue. Kindred who rely on the high cost of Chimerstry to limit a Ravnos' ability to use illusions are in for a very rude surprise when they encounter a Ravnos with this power.
System: Fatuus Mastery negates the WP and BP cost for using the first three levels of Chimerstry. In addition, the Ravnos may direct movement for a number of illusions equal to her Intelligence without intense concentration. Furthermore, the vampire can maintain the illusion as long as it remains within her Willpower score in kilometres (although shy may not make it react to events around it if she has no way to percieve those events).

NOTE: Ravnos gain an additional benefit from mastering this level of Chimerstry, though in most cases even the wielder herself will not know it. Upon attaining Fatuus Mastery, illusions created by the character also manifest in the Penumbra and the Shadowlands, and appear convincing to anyone viewing the scene from there. However, a Ravnos who cannot peer into these locations is still unable to affect them directly.

Shared Nightmare (Ravnos Clanbook (Revised))

Even though Horrid Reality is visible to all onlookers, it can only inflict "damage" on one victim. With Shared Nightmare, a Ravnos can inflict her tormented visions on a crowd.
System: To use this power, spend a BP per target and 2 WPs. Then roll Manipulation + Subterfudge once, but compre the results against each target individually. The difficulty is still each victim's Perception + Self-Control.

Level 7
Far Fatuus (Ravnos Clanbook (Revised))

This power is the province of the Phuri Dae, who use it in conjunction with highly developed Auspex powers. It allows a Ravnos to project illusions to any area she can see or visualize. Under most circumstances, accomplishing this requires her to have visited the location in question before she can project illusions there. Although more difficult, a Ravnos may project illusions on the basis of a description, a photograph or a television image.
System: The difficulty for using Far Fatuus depends on the user's familiarity with the location. Roll Perception + Subterfudge to affect the location. Once this roll is successful, the Ravnos may then use any other Chimerstry power on that location.

6	As familiar as one's haven; currently viewing with Clairvoyance or Psychic Projection.
7	Visited three or more times.
8	Visited once; viewing on a live feed camera.
9	Described in detail.
10	Never been there; seen it on television or have a photograph.

Suspension of Disbelief (Ravnos Clanbook (Revised))
A Ravnos with this power can imbue her Chimerstry with a sense of reality that makes it easier for viewers to believe in the illusion. No matter how strange or surreal the illusion is, an onlooker will accept it as real. If the illusion is wildly unrealistic (fire-breathing dragons, a pack of gray aliens), once it is no longer in his sight, the observer will question what he saw and eventually deny the event ever happened. A Ravnos can also use this power to make something appear unbelieveable, whether it's real or not. In this case, observers will write off what they're seeing as some kind of trick or hallucination.
System: Roll Manipulation + Subterfudge (7). The number of successes determines how many witnesses are affected. If the power is used to make something look unbelieveable, Auspex will show the thing in question to be an illusion unless the Auspex score is high enough to penetrate the Ravnos' Chimerstry.

1 success	5 people
2 successes	10 people
3 successes	25 people
4 successes	50 people
5+ successes	Everyone who can see it.

Level 8
Occlusion (Ravnos Clanbook (Revised))

A Ravnos who masters this power can shuffle others' senses around to suit his preferences. She can select one target and inflict a serious, disorienting and all-encompassing case of synesthesia upon him, making it impossible for him to interact meaningfully with the real world for the power's duration. The Ravnos has complete control over how the target's senses work and can manipulate them to suit. For example, she may decide that she smell all sounds as varieties of nauseating stenches, or more subtly, she may exchange pain for pleasure. Against a crowd, sensations are randomly shuffled, so one man will see what the woman next to him sees, but hears what the man 5 meters behind him hears and feels what the child a block away feels. The end result is extremely disorienting for all victims.
System: When used against a single victim, spend a WP and roll Manipulation + Intimidation (Willpower). For use against crowds, the difficulty is 7, and the power afects everyone within the Ravnos' line of sight and subtracts one point from Perception per succes rolled. Victims whose Perception has been reduced to zero can only sit down and wait for the disorientation to end. Duration against a single victim is described below. Against a crowd, the power persists until sunrise.

1 success	1 week
2 successes	1 month
3 successes	6 months
4 successes	1 year
5+ successes	Permanent

Pseudo-Blindness

System: Passive. The vampire will always know a lie when she hears it. She also can not perceive any power of Obfuscate or Chimerstry below level nine - even if she wants to - and is incapable of either being affected by them, or realizing that they are being used.

In addition, a Ravnos who has mastered Pseudo-Blindness is also unmoved by the effects of the Delirium, nor is she affected by faerie seemings. The Ravnos can also see any chimerical items or animals drawn from the Dreaming as if she were enchanged.

Sensory Overload (Intelligence + Occult (Willpower))

By overstimulating all five senses, a Ravnos may physically incapacitate a target.
System: Roll Intelligence + Occult (Willpower). Though the target may remain conscious, he is unable to move or speak coherently; he is effectively cut off from the outside world, save through his screams.

1 success	1 turn
2 successes	1 scene
3 successes	1 hour
4 successes	6 hours
5+ successes	1 day

Level 9
Mayaparisatya (Ravnos Clanbook (Revised))

   Arguably the philosopher's stone for Shilmulo, this penultimate expression of Chimerstry allows the Ravnos to directly alter or create real objects or creatures, although such changes are of finite duration. A Ravnos with this power can transform the air around a rival Kindred into fire or render a locked door insubstantial. A more harrowing use of this power enables the Ravnos to force an object out of existence by transforming it into nothing more than a wisp of its former reality.
   Path of Paradox philosophers point to this power as the only "true" use of Chimerstry, claiming all others are distractions or stepping stones to this profound understanding. Since the Week of Nightmares, it's likely that no surviving Ravnos has mastered Chimerstry to this degree.
   System: To use this power, spend 10 BPs and one permanent Willpower point and roll Manipulation + Subterfuge. Difficulty for the roll is 6 for affecting inanimate objects, and the victim's Willpower score for affecting characters. This power can affect anything within miles of the Ravnos, as long as the character is aware of the target in some way. If used with Far Fatuus, the effects are centered on the chosen location. This power can affect a number of conscious targets equal to the Ravnos' Willpower per use.
   When dealing with inanimate objects, the number of successes determines how drastic the alteration may be. No matter how many successes are rolled, the duration is always a scene. This power can affect any objects of a type within the Ravnos' area affected.

1 success
Render an object harmless (swords won't cut, firearms won't shoot), create a large volume of obscuring smoke.

2 successes
Change an object into another object (turn candles into tarantulas, etc).

3 successes
Render the object insubstantial, make smoke solid.

4 successes
Cause drastic changes (stone becomes highly flammable).

5 successes
Cause the environment to behave illogically (gravity twists sideways, rivers stand still as hills flow upward).

5+ successes
Delete any offending material objects from existence. This effect is permanent (to use this on conscious targets, follow the system described below).

When using the power on conscious targets, consult the table above for alterations (such as forcing the victim into another form or transforming her into a different substance). If using the power to negate the victim's existence, the power inflicts two levels of unsoakable aggravated damage per success. If the power doesn't kill the victim, subtract one dot of Strength and Stamina per success. The damage must be healed normally, but the lost Attributes return at the end of the scene. Victims of this power look hazy and insubstantial. Victims destroyed with this power simply vanish.

Sensory Deprivation

The vampire can cause her victim to lose all five senses, and all related abilities, like Auspex.
System: Roll Manipulation + Intimidation (Willpower). This power lasts for the following time periods:

1 success	1 turn
2 successes	1 hour
3 successes	1 day
4 successes	1 month
5+ successes	1 year

Level 10
Reality

The vampire can invent a fantasy world, and put her victim into it.
System: Roll Wits + Intimidation (Willpower + 2) and 3+ successes are needed. To escape, the victim must spend one Willpower point for each success. This victim actually disappears from the real world, and can not be found with any discipline.