Shadow
Source: M20 Sorcerer, modified
We live in a world of light and shadow. The psychic that understands this and learns to manipulate one side of that coin is taking advantage of an ever-present resource. Whether it is under an overhang, behind a stack of boxes, or simply within the cracks and crevices of one’s face, the psychic manipulating shadows can put them to use to conceal and confound.
As much as shadows can hide, proper utilization of this Phenomenon can provide significant distractions. Light and sound are intercepted before they can reach the target’s senses, giving the victim the feeling that their head is wrapped in an invisible blanket. As the psychic’s power rises, this is more and more harrowing as the brain can interpret this loss of sense as impending suffocation. While cruel by the reckoning of some, it can be an especially useful tool when getting someone off your back.
The effects of this power last for ten minutes per success rolled unless noted differently in the description of the power.
Roll: Manipulation + Occult
| • | Scattering the edges of cast shadows and disrupting sound is only sufficient to increase the effectiveness of concealment and demoralization. Shadows become slightly longer, reach somewhat further, while sounds are all unnervingly stifled. All Intimidation and Stealth rolls have their difficulty adjusted by −1. Targets distracted by darkening shadows and muffled sounds suffer a +1 difficulty to all rolls reliant on sight and hearing. Roll at difficulty 6, this power lasts for the rest of the scene. |
| •• | The shadows now grow and bend to the will of the psychic. Sounds now baffle and distort, having the quality of being played through a blown speaker. The psychic embodies the idiom of “to darken a doorstep,” as rooms lose light when they arrive. Intimidation and Stealth rolls are made at −2 difficulty. Roll at difficulty 6. |
| ••• | Not only do shadows grow darker, but now the psychic’s efforts causes light sources to lose their power. Sound travels through a room in erratic warbles, and the words that are intelligible have a perceptible delay with the speaker. Attempts to see the concealed psychic suffer a +3 difficulty. The harrowed begin to feel a swelling anxiety and must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 7) to avoid panic, suffering a -1 penalty to all actions that don’t involve leaving the scene if they fail. Roll at difficulty 7. |
| •••• | Spreading their gift of dark refuge, the psychic can now cloak a small gathering of three or four people, possibly even a small coupe or sedan. Roll at difficulty 7, with modifiers depending on the number of people and the size of the object the psychic is trying to cloak. Victims of shadowy harassment must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 8) to avoid panicking and immediately leaving the scene to escape the darkness. Intimidation and Stealth have a −4 difficulty in conditions that are ripe for exploitation. An already dark warehouse, a shadowy forest in the night, or a poorly lit parking garage all beg to have their deep shadows emboldened by the psychic. This amount of shadow manipulation has an inverse effect in brighter setting, like midday in an open car park or standing on a school sports field with all the lights on. The darkness around the psychic draws more attention in the brightness of noon than it diverts. |
| ••••• | In settings where darkness already lives, the psychic is master. Standing in a location where conditions favor shadows gives the psychic the chance to smother all light around them out to 50 feet. The darkness is near impenetrable for those without mystic sight, as even high-powered handheld lights are swallowed by the inky black. All within are completely shrouded and invisible to the outside and others within, save the psychic. The darkness is their own after all. Roll at difficulty 8 and spend one Willpower to activate this power. |
