Obfuscate

Obfuscate

Auspex
Clans	Ahchinkxat, Akhud, Assamites, Assamite Antitribu, Bak-Ra, Baykosh, Followers of Set, Iltani, Jiang Shi, Karai Pyhare, Malkavian, Malkavian Antitribu, Maxinkwelësëwakàn, Mayarap, Nosferatu, Nosferatu Antitribu, Serpents of the Light, Shango, Titlacauan, U'tlun'ta
Bloodlines	Adroanzi, Angellis Ater, Azaneali, Azerkatil, Baali, Bonsam, Burakumin, Caitiff, Calacas, Carriers, Cihuateteo, Courtiers, Coyotes, Daitya, Gaki, Les Gens Libres, Glyconites, Kuufukuji, Magi, Panders, Pisanobs, Rakshasa, Ramanga, Samedi, Tlacique, Usiri, Wu Zao, Zoidones
Sects	Anarchs, Ashirra, Camarilla, Cradle of Civilization, Drowned Legacies, Independents, Jati, Laibon, Quiet Nations, Sabbat, Shining Kingdoms, Teteoh
Rituals	None
Combination Disciplines	Obfuscate Combination Disciplines
Rarity	Common

Obfuscate is the Discipline of all skulkers in the darkness and all Kindred who pass unseen among mortals, a breath away from them but never noticed by the vulnerable human beings who walk right past them. Obfuscate does not provide true invisibility or create any actual illusions; rather, it functions by tricking the minds of any onlookers into refusing to notice what's right in front of them, or into misinterpreting what they do see. Many Kindred use Obfuscate because of its convenient powers allowing them to move about stealthily or avoid danger, but others think of it as nothing short of a survival necessity. Many of the powers of Obfuscate can be counteracted by the Auspex Discipline, so sometimes only those Kindred who are most adept at hiding in the shadows can successfully evade the searching eyes of their fellow blood-drinkers.

Basic Powers

Cloak of Shadows

By fading into the shadows and corners of your environment, you may remain unnoticed by everyone passing by, even if they are intentionally looking for you. You must remain unmoving and silent in order to do so, and this power cannot be used anywhere that is too open or well-lit to have a nook for you to hide in. You may remain hidden for the rest of the scene, as long as these conditions remain met.

Silence of Death

You may move silently, preventing any noise that your passing might make. This cannot erase or muffle any other sounds that happen near you (for example, someone else closing a car door), but no one can hear sounds that come directly from you, such as your footsteps, breathing, voice, or the rustling of your clothes. You can still be heard if you interact with an item larger than the palm of your hand in a noisy way, so slamming a car door yourself or knocking a vase to the ground will be just as audible as ever.

Plague Doctor's Mask

By touching someone who is suffering pain from any source, you may briefly mask that pain from their conscious mind, giving them sudden and complete relief from it. This does not actually heal any injuries or cure any illnesses, and it can often be a major danger to those who do not know it has been used on them, as they may cause major damage to themself without realizing it. This power does not mask any other symptoms, nor does it actually remove the pain, just stop your victim from feeling it; any medical examination of their brain will still show pain sensors acitvated in their nervous system, and any other physical symptoms are just as obvious as they were. The alleviation of pain lasts for a single scene.

Unseen Presence

With better control over the minds of those who see you, you may now move around in the shadows without being seen. You still have to remain silent and may move no more quickly than a normal walk, and interacting with any objects within sight of anyone else will immediately render you visible again. (You can pick things up when no one is looking as long as you do it silently, though; anything small enough to be held in one hand is hidden with you.)

Intermediate Powers

Ghost in the Machine

When you use any other Obfuscate power, you can now extend its effects to electronics and recording devices; cameras cannot see you while hidden, photographs show whatever face you are wearing at the time, and even your body temperature and breathing cannot be caught on tape if you are obscuring them. Just as with normal Obfuscate, this is not true invisibility and the recording actually does record you, but anyone replaying it later finds their perceptions clouded so that they perceive it as if it had not.

Hidden Killer

You are so efficient and stealthy an opponent that you can kill your victim in a single moment without being seen; as long as you are already hidden by Obfuscate, you may strike any enemy who you could normally be fairly sure of killing (mortals, ghouls, even neonate vampires depending on their powers) and remain unseen as they slump dead to the ground. You may not touch or interact with them before or after death in any way, and any attempt to kill someone requiring more than a single strike will reveal you to anyone who might be looking (and your intended victim).

Mask of a Thousand Faces

You may become a faceless Everyperson, impersonating a face and voice so nondescript and uninteresting that most will immediately forget all about you after you leave, or at best have a very hard time describing you. You cannot emulate a specific person, but your average blend-in disguise perfectly conceaps your actual identity. Your disguise lasts for the rest of the scene.

Vanish from the Mind's Eye

You are now able to utterly fool someone even if they're staring directly at you; you may vanish even in the middle of a room full of people looking at you, causing all of them to suddenly believe you've disappeared or turned invisible. You don't actually go anywhere, so you should make a good effort to get out of the way, but the flummoxed minds of those around you will automatically try to avoid running into you even while refusing to acknowledge your existence. You may now also run or speak in a normal tone of voice while concealed, although screaming, moving objects within someone's line of sight, or touching anyone will render you visible again.

Advanced Powers

Cloak the Gathering

You may use your other Obfuscate powers on small groups of people all at once (generally no more than three or four at the very most), allowing you to hide your allies from danger, lead a devastatingly effective ambush, or slap a stranger's face over that of those with you to make them impossible to identify. All powers work the same way they normally would; you just have the option to apply them to others as well as to yourself. Those others may not realize they've been obscured with Obfuscate, but any action they take that would normally break a power's effects still causes it to end.

Imposter's Guise

You may impersonate someone else that you have previously met, making yourself take on their face and voice convincingly as you remember them; others will not see your actual appearance, even if they don't know the person you're masquerading as, and you can operate undetected. Your disguise remains for the rest of the night, or until you choose to reveal your actual appearance (or use this power again to impersonate someone new).

Elder Powers

Blithe Acceptance

You fade into the background, becoming so nondescript that all those around you automatically ignore you as if you were not there. You are still visible and capable of interacting with others and your environment if you wish, but other being simply ignore you, incapable of focusing on you for long or considering anything you're doing important. If you become violent, this power ends, but otherwise it lasts for the rest of the scene.

Busy Doing Nothing

You may cause anyone who observes you to believe that you are doing nothing; no matter what you're actually doing, they always seem to look when you are innocently out of action. This does not prevent them from seeing the results of things you do, such as noticing that a door is open or a vase broken, but they are convinced that you are doing nothing even if they are looking directly at you while you do. If you do anything that would injure an onlooker or cause them to Frenzy, they become aware of what you are up to and immune to this power for the rest of the scene.

Conceal

You may hide one item that is not part of your own body, making it impossible to see just as you might yourself with Vanish from the Mind's Eye. The item remains hidden for the rest of the scene or until discovered, may be up to the size of a house, and must be something you know is present. You must stay in the area to keep the object hidden; it appears immediately as usual if you leave.

Confusion of the Eye

You may "smear" the features of another person, causing them to appear as an unrememberable nobody as if you were using the Mask of a Thousand Faces power. They are completely unaware of this, and others as usual find them difficult to remember or describe later, even if they do noticeable things.

Diastatsis

You may vanish from others' perceptions, simultaneously creating a perfect illusory copy of yourself that takes your place; even those looking directly at you while you do this fail to notice the swap taking place. Once you have replaced yourself with your copy, you may control and speak through it at will while remaining safely hidden somewhere else in the scene. Your copy accompanies you wherever you go, but need not always move when you do if it doesn't involve actually leaving. You and your copy are also indepenent of each other for purposes of others trying to see through this power, so even if your copy is recognized as an illusion, you must be found and perceived separately if anyone wants to know where you actually are.

Displacement

You may fudge your actual location by a foot or two, appearing to be standing slightly to the side of where you actually are. Anyone who aims for you is likely to miss, while even if you trigger traps or interact with things, it will appear that you are actually noticeably a little too far away to do so.

Gemini's Mirror

You may create a second, illusory version of yourself that acts independently, doing a convincing impression of you and what you might be doing in your current situation, while the real you vanishes to do whatever you wish. You do not need to spend any time controlling your copy, which acts on autopilot, and you can leave the area, leaving your copy behind to act until it is discovered or the sun comes up and dispels it.

Invisible Weapon

You may hide a weapon while you wield it, rendering it impossible to perceive and therefore much more difficult to dodge or parry. The weapon must remain directly wielded by you by hand, but while you do so, even those suffering grievous wounds from it cannot see what is actually hurting them (or identify it by feel or any other sense).

Manifold Guise

You may cause everyone in the area (except yourself, if you choose) to appear as something they are not, as if you had used the Mask of a Thousand Faces, Imposter's Guise, Horrid Countenance, Old Friend, or other similar powers on each and every one of them. Those affected have no idea this is happening unless they can confirm it with others, and are unable to stop you from changing how they are perceived even if they become aware of it. Your area of disguise moves with you, so if you leave one room and enter another, everyone in the first room will revert to their original appearances while everyone in the second becomes affected.

Mask of Janus

You may swap your appearance with that of another person in the scene, flawlessly copying them and vice versa. If either of you uses powers or takes actions to alter your appearance, these appear on the other person, exactly as if they had done it.

Mask the Devil

You may hide any and all negative effects that would normally appear in your aura, including veins from diablerie, aftereffects of Thaumaturgy and other blood sorceries, and the signs of Derangements. Your aura otherwise appears normal, and those who use Auspex or have a natural ability to see auras may still read your emotions and truthfulness in it as usual.

Mental Maze

You may obscure the layout of an area, fogging the minds of those in it so that they cannot find their way out. All the usual exits and areas are present, but your victim's mind simply refuses to register where they are, leaving them wandering in what appears to them to be a maze full of identical rooms and doors. Your victim can be rescued by others who enter the area and lead them out, but still fails to recognize or understand the exit even while being taken through it.

Mind Blank

You may lay a blanket of empty nothingness over your conscious thoughts, causing anyone who uses any power to read your mind to simply encounter a blank. They are unable to read your thoughts, memories, or emotions without being significantly more powerful than you are.

Scrawl

You may write messages and then obscure them, making them impossible to decipher or even reliably notice except for by those you want to do so. Those you choose may be specific, such as "Tom the Ventrue", or general, such as "any members of my coterie"; whatever you choose, anyone in that group is able to read it as easily as they usually could. Anyone who is excluded from the group is likley to completely miss the writing or to assume that it is meaningless gibberish or graffiti.

Soul Mask

You may dictate what your aura looks like, disguising it so that it hides features, shows features you do not possess, presents you as having certain moods or conditions, or even simply does not exist, rendering you a blank null to anyone who can read auras. Once you have masked your aura, it remains that way until you decide to change it again or end this power's effects.

Cache

You may "set" your Obfuscate powers to continue operating even when you are not in the area, hiding things or maintaining zones of silence and confusion even after you have left. You must be in the place that you choose to leave a power active, and once you have, it can still be seen through with Auspex or other powers as usual; it simply remains in place for the rest of the night unless broken by events that would normally end it.

Cloak

You are specifically defended against those who use the Auspex Discipline, becoming undetectable even by those with the second sight. Your Obfuscate powers are much more difficult to break through with Auspex, even for those who are more powerful in Auspex than you are in Obfuscate; because so many Auspex users are accustomed to being able to see through things that would cloud others' vision, you may often be able to sneak by unnoticed because it simply does not occur to them that there could be anything they fail to see.

Fortress of Silence

You may completely squash all noise in the area for one person, yourself or another, resulting in an effect similar to a sensory deprivation chamber. If you use this power on yourself, you become much more observant and able to recognize things information from your other senses, becoming more keen-eyed or sensitive to touch; on the other hand, if you use it on someone else, you may cause them significant mental anguish from the sudden enforced silence, in which they can hear nothing but the relentless sound of their own heart if it is still beating, or nothing at all if it isn't.

Veil of Blissful Ignorance

You may completely prevent anyone from perceiving a single being, making them immune to discovery no matter what they do or how loudly they make noise. They must remain in the same scene with you, and they become perceivable to anyone they directly deal damage to, but all other actions are fair game and viewers are forced to come up with alternative explanations for what they are seeing.

Veil the Legions

You may hide an entire army with your other Obfuscate powers, allowing troops to move without fear of being discovered even from a distance. You may only hide as much of an army as you personally are able to see at the time, making getting a good vantage point an essential for getting the most out of this power.

Visit Faerieland

You may literally vanish out of this world by stepping into the Dreaming, leaving the physical world completely behind. Although this is a powerful form of travel and completely undetectable to even those who are skilled in seeing through your powers, it is also dangerous; the Dreaming is not welcoming to vampires and can be difficult to navigate, as well as being home to many dangerous fairy creatures. Unwary users of this power have occasionally done too good a job of disappearing, finding themselves trapped and never seen again on earth at all.

Horrid Countenance

You may take on the appearance of the most terrifying monster a given victim can imagine; whether it's a horrifying demon, a rotting corpse, a former abuser, or some other nightmare, you automatically appear to them as their own personal worst nightmare. Most mortals are likely to run for their lives or even die of heart attacks upon beholding you, while others who cannot see through your disguise become overwhelmingly terrified and may have trouble functioning at even basic tasks and thought processes until they get away from you.

Old Friend

You may cause someone to perceive you as a trusted friend and confidant, obscuring your real features and history with them and causing them to believe that they have known and trusted you for a long time. This power does not force them to say or do anything, but gives you the opportunity to ask them to from the perspective of a bosom companion. Once you leave or end the effects of this power, the person affected has difficulty remembering who they thought you were or why they trusted you, although they remember any conversation and activity they may have had with you normally.

Phantom Haunter

You may appear to your victim as a haunting vision of someone important to them who has died; when you do, they suddenly perceive you as the dead person, hideous with decay or the trauma of death. This perception is intermittent, allowing them to speak to you normally only to suddenly see the terrible vision without warning. If your victim does not know anyone who has died, you appear as a vision of their own dead face. This effect lasts until the sun rises, although most people afflicted by it are likely to flee or avoid you long before then.

Create Name

You may create an entirely new identity with all the necessary trappings: names, appearance, history, other people who remember you, relatives, and so on, all as convincing as if they were the ones you were born with. It is impossible for others to find any sign that you are not this new identity, which allows you to begin an entirely new life free of suspicion; even those who are suspicious fail to find any proof of their concerns. Your new identity is permanent; any old identities remain the same, but the person they refer to appears to have mysteriously vanished. Users of this power sometimes create such convincing identities that they honestly believe themselves to be this new person, although they are the only ones who can realize that this is incorrect if they should run across evidence to the contrary.

Obscure God's Creation

You may temporarily erase a being or object other than yourself from reality, making it impossible for others to perceive or interact with them. You can hide any being or thing up to the size of a house and keep it hidden no matter where it moves or what it does, even to the point of causing onlookers to believe that unexplained phenomena are acting in the area when they cannot explain what is happening. If you hide a living thing, it can only force itself to be revealed by dealing aggravated damage to someone.

Memories' Fading Glimpse

You may completely and permanently erase all signs of your existence from reality. All signs of you vanish or point elsewhere; all recorded history about you is lost or expunged; the very memories of those who have met or heard of you are unilaterally altered to erase this knowledge. You cannot be perceived, recognized, or remembered by anyone, no matter what happens or what you do.

Important Things to Keep in Mind

Obfuscate is not true invisibility, so anyone using it still appears on security cameras and phone footage. It is also possible for some Kindred in a scene to see an Obfuscate user while others cannot, so not every person in the area may be having the same experience.