Vistas

By Brandon Quina (lore@tmgbbs.com) for the Cheung bloodline

* View the Strange

You can sense things that are strange and out of the ordinary. It's hard to explain this power; you just 'know' when something supernatural is happening or when a supernatural being comes close to you. When supernatural events occur, you feel yourself on edge. In time, you get used to these premonitions.

System: Any time the storyteller allows, make a Wits + Occult (difficulty 7) to see if you recognize the sign. The signs are never the same, and you always have to roll to see if you recognize the sign of your discipline telling you that the unnatural is nearby.

** Truth of the Sun

You commonly see things that others never see, and as you gain experience in Vistas you will learn to see many things that others cannot see. First, you must learn to see when someone is lying to you. This power will only work on outright lies, unless you get five successes, in which case, it will detect anything that the caster knows to be not totally the truth.

System: Roll Perception + Empathy, difficulty of the opponents Manipulation + Subterfuge. It takes one success to spot a lie, and five to spot half-truth. You can spot 'obvious' lies without any successes. Some well-hidden lies, but that aren't true in any way, might require two, three, or four successes.

*** Order in Chaos

Through this unique power, the Cheung can find the pattern in even the most chaotic things. He can determine someone's true nature by talking with them for awhile, find the hidden message in the patterns of the clouds and detect messages hidden amoung other things.

This power also detects insanity, allowing the user to determine if the person in question has any derangements, and what they might be.

System: The player makes a Perception + Occult roll. The difficulty depends on the intricacy of the soul's patter and the time the Cheung has to study it. To discern the Nature of a passing visitor to the hermit's home would be a 10, but finding about him after a week of talking with the stranger would reset the difficulty at 7. Assaying a secretive Jit`Sing who is careful to hide all evidence behind his doing would be an 8, while discerning the mind behind a code buried in apocryphal scripture would be a 7. The Cheung can even detect an unseen hand in seemingly random events such as the circling of bluebottle flies or the patterns of smoke rising from a bonfire (both at difficulty 6). These patterns likely have no meaning, but the Cheung are likely to raise anything to a position of importance.

**** Grant the Sight

You can include others in your curse. They will see the things you see, be harassed by the other things who harass you, and basically be annoyed to no end. This is bad enough for you, but these people you curse are not used to this treatment. Victims have hurled themselves off of cliffs to escape the tormenting voices and laughter.

System: Roll Manipulation + Intimidation after 'giving someone the Evil Eye' for a few minutes. The difficulty is equal to the target's willpower. The more successes, the longer they suffer from the visions and tormets of the spirits.

Successes	Duration
One	One Day
Two	One Week
Three	One Month
Four	One Year
Five	Permanent

***** Magickal Perceptions

Your perceptions of reality widen, allowing you to see and feel more than you already saw before. You learn more, and have access to more information. Many of the Cheung would continue to expand upon this power, eventually knowing everything as it really was.

System: You gain the ability to use the first rank of one of the mage spheres, not including Spirit (which all Cheung can see into, from the embrace).

****** Hide from the Sun

You have learned that the sun is merely an illusion and only exists as long as you let it. However, it is a very powerful illusion that is believed in by many. However, for short periods of time, you can resist its effects on you.

System: You now take one level of non-aggravated damage for every hour you stay in the sunlight. If you spend a blood point to heal the damage as you take it, there will be no sign that you are being discomforted at all. You must make a courage roll to use this power, difficulty 6. Each success means you can use this power for an hour. After the duration wears off, you are affected by the sun totally. If you botch, you acquire the flaw Light-Sensitive for the next week.

******* Fluid Reality

You know the secret of all secrets. Reality is whatever you want it to be. You can exert your will over the reality of others and cause what you want to come to pass.

System: You can spend a permanent willpower point, and spend a variable number of experience points to temporarily cause a change in reality. The change will generally not last that long, and the storyteller is the final arbiter on what he will allow and how many XP the player has to spend to get the effect. After all the above, you must make a willpower roll (use your new willpower) at difficulty 8. You need at least 1 success. A botch attracts a paradox spirit.