Occultation

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Occultation (Mage)

A mage’s spells come with a mystical stamp of his personality — his aura. Mages with this Merit “hide their light under a bushel.” Their resonance is so subtle that only expert or extended scrutiny can root it out. This effect even extends into the mundane world, making a mage incognito to Sleeper society.

When a sorcerer attempts to read the aura of one of your character’s spells, subtract a number of dice equal to your character’s dots in this Merit. This same penalty applies to any roll to analyze the aura of your character’s magic.

In addition, Occultation protects your character from spells that attempt to directly affect him at sympathetic range. His Occultation dots are subtracted from the caster’s dice pool. See Sympathetic Spells.

At the Storyteller’s discretion, this Merit can also affect other supernatural abilities to find the creator of a magical effect. For example, a vampire using Spirit’s Touch to analyze the results of a magical spell should have difficulty finding the occulted mage who cast it. When this trait applies, subtract a number of dice equal to the mage’s Occultation dots from the activation roll for that supernatural ability.

Occulted mages tend to live on the fringes of mundane reality, as though they are an anomaly or aberration. Sleepers have trouble keeping track of their identities and activities. Records regarding an arcane mage tend to get lost, and the authorities are challenged to investigate his activities. Since most Sleepers find it hard to gather information about the mage, they won’t know many details about him. This also makes it harder for mages to research information about the mage through mundane sources. Whenever someone makes a roll to gather information about your character, your Occultation dots are subtracted from the researcher’s dice pool.

Drawback: If your character ever becomes well known to the public (such as getting caught on camera and being shown on television night after night), he loses his Occulta- tion until the public at large forgets him (which could take many years, depending on how famous or notorious the mage became). Likewise, if he maintains a public persona at all among Sleepers, even to the degree of having many Sleeper friends, he cannot maintain his Occultation. The mage must constantly cultivate this Merit, working to remain away from the attention of Sleeper society. It does not affect his stand- ing in Awakened society.

Occultation (Vampire)

Some vampires — especially the Shadows — become so adept at disappearing into the dark that something of the dark attaches itself to them, and they become surpassingly difficult to notice. After a while, an occulted vampire becomes so forgettable that it becomes hard even to remember even if the vampire was male or female, let alone details like dress, or hair or eye color. Old vampires with Occultation (such as Doe) even begin to forget who they themselves were.

A vampire using Auspex •• to read the aura of a character with this Merit aura suffers a dice pool penalty equal to the character’s dots in Occultation. Likewise, uses of Auspex ••• on items last touched by the character suffer the same penalty.

Further, the character gains a bonus on uses of Obfuscate equal to her dots in the Occultation Merit.

• Note that Edge of Darkness does not use the bonus to Obfuscate

Occultation (Haven)

Some Vampires become so linked to the places they inhabit that they somehow imbue these places with something of their own being. The Shadows are particularly good at this: consider the boarded-up house that everyone walks past, but no-one ever looks at, or the basement room that everyone forgets, or the attic that Frances used to inhabit, with the trapdoor that no one ever looked at.

This is an extension of the Haven Merit^[3], which works alongside Haven Size, Location and Security. The larger a haven, the more difficult it is to hide: a character with Haven Size of more than three dots cannot take advantage of this Merit.

A haven belonging to a vampire with this Merit simply becomes very difficult to find: characters who have never been to the haven who try to find a way to access it suffer a dice pool penalty equal to the character’s dots in the Merit; characters who don’t know it is there at all don’t normally notice it, but if it comes to rolling Wits + Composure to notice it, they suffer the same penalty.

Occultation (Immortal)

Because of their connection to the Shadow World, some of the purified can effectively slip through the cracks of mortal society. Your character is also protected from all supernatural effects designed to spy upon or learn anything about her. When any magician or supernatural being attempts to use their power to learn anything about your character, subtract a number of dice equal to your character’s dots in this Merit.

Occulted purified mostly live on the fringes of mundane reality and the edges of mortal society. Mortals have trouble keeping track of their identities and activities. Records concerning them tend to get lost, and the authorities are challenged to investigate their activities. Since most mortals find it hard to gather information about the character, they won’t gather many details about him. This Merit also makes it harder for supernatural beings to research information about the character through mundane sources. Whenever someone makes a roll to gather information about your character, your Occultation dots are subtracted from the researcher’s dice pool. This Merit is especially helpful for purified who are several centuries old and wish to conceal this fact.

Drawback: If your character ever becomes well known to the public (such as getting caught on camera and being shown on television night after night), he loses his Occultation until the public at large forgets him (which could take many years, depending on how famous or notorious your character became). Likewise, if he maintains a public persona at all among mortals, even to the degree of having several prominent or wellknown friends, he cannot maintain his Occultation. The character must constantly cultivate this Merit, working to remain away from the attention of mortal society. It does not affect his standing among any supernatural beings he knows.

See Also Alchemical Lab • Athenaeum • Bastion • Chapter Library • Den Merit • Guardian Ghost • Guardian Retainer • Guardian Spirit • Hallow • Haven • Hollow • Lair • Library • Locus • Necropolis • Occultation • Safehouse • Sanctuaries • Sanctum • Sanctum Gauntlet • Sanctum Materials • Scriptorium • Shadow Sanctum • Shadowless Chambers • Sites • Workshop

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