••••• Twilight Projection
Commonly seen as the pinnacle of Auspex achievement, this power allows a vampire to project her perceptions out of her physical body. Her senses take on an existence their own, traveling the material world like a spectre. Such a form, called a “ghost body,” is immune to fatigue and physical harm, and it can fly at great speeds. Ghost bodies can even go underground at will — anywhere within and below the limit of the lunar sphere.
Effect
Dramatic Failure: Dramatic failures can be disastrous. They usually result in the character projecting successfully but being flung to an undesired destination (around the world or deep into an unknown place, for example).
Failure: The character cannot separate her consciousness from her body, but may try again at her next opportunity.
Success: The Kindred separates her ghost body from her physical body and may venture throughout the world.
Exceptional Success: As with a normal success, but the separation occurs with ease and the character regains the Willpower point spent.
Interacting with the physical world or sprit world while using Twilight Projection is impossible. The character has no substance at all, not even spiritual substance — she is merely a projected consciousness. This state can be both a benefit and a drawback, in that the character is unimpeded by obstacles, but is also unable to affect any threats she encounters. It might come to pass that two vampires’ ghost bodies or a projected vampire and a genuine ghost encounter one another. They can communicate as if they were in the real world, but no sorts of physical or mystical exchanges can occur between them.
A projected vampire’s psyche is invisible to most physical beings. A child or animal might intuitively sense the vampire’s presence, or even see him. Another Kindred using Heightened Senses or Aura Perception might spot the projected being by getting the most successes in a Wits + Investigation + Auspex (spotter) versus Resolve + Occult + Auspex (projector) contested roll. Both rolls are made reflexively.
A projecting vampire’s other Disciplines do not work. Her spirit can certainly observe things, but its temporal connection to the body that serves as the conduit for the Kindred’s mystic curse is too tenuous for other mystical powers to manifest.
While her consciousness roams, a vampire’s body lies in a torpor-like state on the spot where she left it. As long as her ghost body is active, the character remains ignorant of what goes on around her physical body. If the body is subjected to either torpor or Final Death, the projected psyche is pulled back immediately.
A vampire’s body continues to expend Vitae nightly for the purposes of sustaining itself. The player must succeed on a standard Humanity roll for the ghost body to remain awake during the daytime (see p. 184). The consciousness of a vampire who falls asleep returns to her body and she rises the next night as normal, entirely within the physical world.
A ghost body appears naked and with no possessions. Artifacts that are composed entirely of spirit matter might be employed in this form, but no physical objects transfer over. Likewise, any objects found during the wraithly endeavor cannot be manipulated or return with the character when she finally rejoins her physical body.
A projecting vampire can potentially be barred mystically from returning to her body, or she might become lost and incapable of finding her body again. Rumors also speak of other spirits that can enter a vampire’s vacant body, stranding the Kindred as a ghost body. Denied her own body (or perhaps another one to possess), each night that passes for the ghost body removes a dot of Blood Potency from its essence. When those dots are reduced to zero, the ghost-Kindred suffers Final Death and fades into oblivion.
Failure: The character cannot separate her consciousness from her body, but may try again at her next opportunity.
Success: The Kindred separates her ghost body from her physical body and may venture throughout the world.
Exceptional Success: As with a normal success, but the separation occurs with ease and the character regains the Willpower point spent.
Interacting with the physical world or sprit world while using Twilight Projection is impossible. The character has no substance at all, not even spiritual substance — she is merely a projected consciousness. This state can be both a benefit and a drawback, in that the character is unimpeded by obstacles, but is also unable to affect any threats she encounters. It might come to pass that two vampires’ ghost bodies or a projected vampire and a genuine ghost encounter one another. They can communicate as if they were in the real world, but no sorts of physical or mystical exchanges can occur between them.
A projected vampire’s psyche is invisible to most physical beings. A child or animal might intuitively sense the vampire’s presence, or even see him. Another Kindred using Heightened Senses or Aura Perception might spot the projected being by getting the most successes in a Wits + Investigation + Auspex (spotter) versus Resolve + Occult + Auspex (projector) contested roll. Both rolls are made reflexively.
A projecting vampire’s other Disciplines do not work. Her spirit can certainly observe things, but its temporal connection to the body that serves as the conduit for the Kindred’s mystic curse is too tenuous for other mystical powers to manifest.
While her consciousness roams, a vampire’s body lies in a torpor-like state on the spot where she left it. As long as her ghost body is active, the character remains ignorant of what goes on around her physical body. If the body is subjected to either torpor or Final Death, the projected psyche is pulled back immediately.
A vampire’s body continues to expend Vitae nightly for the purposes of sustaining itself. The player must succeed on a standard Humanity roll for the ghost body to remain awake during the daytime (see p. 184). The consciousness of a vampire who falls asleep returns to her body and she rises the next night as normal, entirely within the physical world.
A ghost body appears naked and with no possessions. Artifacts that are composed entirely of spirit matter might be employed in this form, but no physical objects transfer over. Likewise, any objects found during the wraithly endeavor cannot be manipulated or return with the character when she finally rejoins her physical body.
A projecting vampire can potentially be barred mystically from returning to her body, or she might become lost and incapable of finding her body again. Rumors also speak of other spirits that can enter a vampire’s vacant body, stranding the Kindred as a ghost body. Denied her own body (or perhaps another one to possess), each night that passes for the ghost body removes a dot of Blood Potency from its essence. When those dots are reduced to zero, the ghost-Kindred suffers Final Death and fades into oblivion.
Material Components
Cost: 1 Willpower point
Gestures & Ritual
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Occult + Auspex
Related Discipline
Effect Casting Time
Instant
Level
5
Applied Restriction
Typically, no modifiers are necessary, but the Storyteller may penalize the activation roll up to two dice in the event of a hastened projection, such as when a vampire abandons her body at the moment of Final Death (after all, a ghost body is better than no body at all).