Jafir

By Jeremy Stoller

* Dreaming

You can enter a deep sleep at will, and you are still aware of your body while sleeping, allowing you to wake yourself at will. By making a role of willpower plus self control against base difficulty 7, you can stay awake during the day without having to expend any willpower (this roll should be made every hour you are awake). However, you must make up the missed sleep the following night. You have learned to control your own dreams, so that every dream is a lucid dream. You can alter yourself, as you appear in the dream, as well as alter the surroundings and the nature of the dream itself. You can also remember your dreams upon awakening.

Vampires are not aware of their surroundings when they're sleeping with the Dreaming ability. However, they are aware that their body exists in the real world, and that time is passing. This just allows them to wake themselves up when they desire. I might add that their time sense isn't any better when they sleep than it is in the real world. But don't worry. You can still stand right over the vampire with this abbility and stake'em, and they'll never see it coming.

** Dream Gaze

When in a dream state yourself, you can project your mind out of your body and enter another's dream, but only as an observer. You are not a part of the dream itself. At first you would have to be touching the subject to do this, but as you gain experience you can dream gaze from further distances (10 meters at second level, 50 at third, 250 at fourth, 1250 at fifth, etc.,...). If you have intimate knowledge of the subject, you can you can transmit as if one level higher (i.e. 10 meters at first level). Intimate knowledge is defined as a strong mental/emotional bond (i.e. blood bond, deep romance). The subject makes a perception role to determine if her mind notices the dream gazer's presence (base difficulty 8 if the subject is not consciously aware that she is dreaming. base difficulty 6 if the subject is having a lucid dream). With one success she knows someone is there. With five successes, she knows who you are. If the subject makes the perception role, she can make a willpower role (same difficulty rating as above) to see if her mind can boot the dream gazer out of the dream. The more experienced the dream gazer has, the more difficult it is to detect his presence, and kick him out of the dream (add his level in Jafir to the difficulty). Also, if the subject has Jafir, her mind is better shielded against other dream gazers (add level in Jafir to perception and willpower rolls). While dream gazing, you can attempt to influence the dream slightly, and guide it to get some specific information out of the subject. To do this you roll your level in Jafir plus manipulation against your subject's willpower. If you succeed, you roll perception plus intelligence, against difficulty 10 minus the number of successes you got on the manipulation role. This second roll is to determine how well you interpret the results of your manipulation. A botch would indicate a completely wrong, possibly opposite, interpretation.

*** Dream Manifestation

You can manifest yourself within your victim's dream, and become an active member of the dream, after entering it with dream gaze. However, you have no control over the dream, and you manifest as you are in reality, with all of the same powers and abilities, so if she's dreaming of a bright sunny day, you're screwed. Damage is figured normally, with half of it being deducted from willpower, and half as actual physical damage (any odd point gets deducted from willpower). This damage is due to severe mental shock, so it doesn't actually cause gaping wounds and such. However, there will be muscle pain, bruising, and possibly rupturing of minor blood vessels around the area injured in the dream. It is also possible that the injured person (or vampire) will claw herself in her sleep, causing an open wound. The victim will always wake up just before death, so, while you can do major damage to her, you can not kill her. Keep in mind that you can be damaged just as easily as the victim, making this a very dangerous power for the user.

*** Dream Message

By spending one blood point, you can send a brief message (5 seconds dream time per level in Jafir) to someone in the form of a dream. For each blood point spent beyond the first, you can send the message to two additional people. You can send this message up to 50 miles per level in Jafir. You can double this distance by spending a blood point. If you have intimate knowledge of the subject, spending a blood point will allow the message to reach him anywhere in the world. If the subject is awake, the message will come to him as a daydream. To make the connection you role your intelligence plus your level in Jafir against difficulty 7, if the subject is asleep, or difficulty 9, if the subject is awake. A failed roll means that the message does not reach him, or he doesn't remember it when he wakes up. A botch means that the message gets distorted so as to have a completely different meaning than intended. You must roll separately for each subject.

**** Self Manipulation

You have control over your manifestation within your victim's dream. You can change your form within the dream; grow knives out of your fingertips, and fun stuff like that.

***** Dream Manipulation

You gain control over your victim's dream. This allows you to control the surroundings within the dream, as well as the various dream entities that inhabit it. At this point your ability to control her dream, is pitted against her ability to control her own dream. You can now prevent her from waking up before death (allowing dream assassination). You can also determine whether or not she remembers her dream.

****** Conscious Gaze

You no longer have to be asleep yourself to enter someone's dream, but can do it while fully awake, and aware of the world around you. However, you must be able to see the subject, and you must concentrate fully on maintaining the connection. If you try to do any other action, or are harmed in any way, the connection will be lost.

******* Dream Network

(aka- Conference Call) You can connect several people's dreams. There is no limit to the number of people you can connect, but for every extra person subtract one point from the difficulty rating for each person to discover you, and to boot you out of her head. Also, the more people you bring into the dream, the harder it is to control, because it is you against their collective unconscious.

******** Waking Dream

You can begin to bridge the gap between the dream world and reality, so that the two merge. This will only affect one person. This can range from small things, like making shadows change form and come alive, to creating more complex creatures and objects, and just messing with reality in general. Roll your level in Jafir against your subject's perception, plus a difficulty modifier based on how complex the waking dream is (this is up to the ST's discretion). One success, and the subject thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Two successes, and the subject definitely saw something move over there. Three successes, and the subject is doubting his own sanity. Four successes, and the dream has manifest full force, but without substance. Five successes, and its real, damage and all (damage is figured the same as in dream manifestation). If you fail, the subject doesn't notice a thing. If you botch, the dream backfires, and you lose willpower (amount is up to the ST).

******** Dream Form

This one requires a ritual. You must first give yourself an aggravated wound. This is done by walking through a fire, or exposing yourself to sunlight for a short period of time. Then you go into a deep sleep for about a month, and dream. You must dream about how you want to look, and project this form onto the image of your body. When you awake, you will have healed in the form you dreamed. This ritual drains your blood points, so you need to feed immediately after waking. Roll self control plus level in Jafir, against base difficulty 7 (This can be altered based on the complexity of the form). If you get 6 or more successes, you have perfectly matched the form you were attempting. For every success less than 6, you have one small imperfection. A failure means you healed in your normal form, and a botch means you with some major deformities. This can be used to impersonate some one, or just to escape recognition. It is also possible to change your appearance attribute with this power.

********* Waking Dream Network

This allows you to extend a waking to more than one person at a time.

********* Dream Phasing

You can pull your body into the dream world when you sleep, so that it is only visible (vulnerable) for a few minutes after you fall asleep, and again before you awaken. Roll self control plus level in Jafir against difficulty 8. A fail or botch means that that the dream phase was not successful, but if you botch, you think it worked, so your body is laying there vulnerable, and you don't know it. Your body is visible for 10 minutes, minus the number of successes on the first roll, at the beginning and end of your slumber.

********** Living Dream

This level would require a ritual lasting several years, so there are few, if any, people who have reached it. You permanently bridge the gap between dreams and reality, so that you become a dream. You can exist in either world, or both at once. This allows you to do things like alter your molecular structure so you can walk through a wall, or walk on the surface of water, or walk through a rain storm without getting wet. Eventually, you could alter yourself so that sunlight doesn't affect you, or just alter reality as you perceive it, so that there is no sunlight to harm you.