"...Oh God...Mavis is in trouble. We have to leave now!"

You occasionally catch prescient flashes. Sometimes of the past, sometimes of the present and sometimes of the future. True control of this ability eludes you but you do tend have visions that are accurate.. if sometimes hard to interpret. When having a vision you are assaulted by a collage of images and sometimes other stimuli and usually there is a bit of a warning (splitting headaches are common)

System: This knack is basically an investment in allowing the ST to give the PC information and move the plot along. The ability to control the visions is beyond the character and indeed the visions are so fast and compelling that he might be occasionally inconvenienced by them (Dice pools are quartered while the vision lasts. Visions never last longer than a turn.) The Visions always carry some kind of emotional content and it's usually possible to discern which visions are visions of the past. Visions of the future and the present are difficult to tell apart. Discerning specific images in the visions requires a Perception+ Awareness roll. Really specific questions might require additional successes.

Anything may trigger a vision, handling a murder weapon, a friend in trouble, a handshake, or standing in a particular spot. ST's are encouraged to make Visions fairly rare and only to use them once per session normally.

While control of the Visions is outside the character's control, it is not outside the Players. A player who wishes to try to trigger the visions for his own reasons may do with the dramatic editing rules and if he does so he receives a -1 on the cost for the editing. (although he must always pay at least 1 point.) While this is somewhat expensive it does prevent the player from relying on visions for all of his information.

" While you sluggards were lounging around in bed, I managed to find directions to the Codex."

Your mind is so finely tuned that you have turned your mental apparatus, as regards sleeping, into a well oiled machine. You require only two hours of sleep a night to feel mentally refreshed. You fall asleep instantly and come awake instantly too. You may of course elect to get more sleep if you wish but you scarcely need it for most things.

System: Even while asleep, you make perception+ awareness rolls at a standard difficulty. making you a decent sentry even while napping. This knack has no effect on Healing times or refreshment of Inspiration pools.(to do that you would need to get some real bed rest.) But it can cut R&D times for superscience by one third.

"Clurman! We have to be in Lhassa in 3 days. Fetch my overnight bag and my Tibetan dictionary!"

You have the ability to quicklyprocess information and retain large amounts of information in memory for a time. You amaze people with your mental feats of recall.

System: When dealing with any task that involves rapid processing of information (speed reading, target recognition, converting farenheit to celsius in the middle of burning building...) you may add your intuitive inspiration score to your dice pool.

You also have the ability to cram a large amount of information into your mind for short periods. The mesmerist rolls Intelligence+Academics and adds his Reflective Inspiration as automatic successes on the roll (assuming he has at least one success) he then divides the success in order to determine how long it takes to learn, How deep the information is, and how long it will last. The Mesmerist may hold only Knowledges in memory, and may only hold one at a time. Clearing memory takes a single day. The roll may be modified by up to +3 by a lack of learning resources.

Successes	Knowledge score	Time to learn	Duration
0	0	7 days	2 day
1	1	6 days	4 days
2	2	5 days	1 week
3	3	4 days	3 week
4	4	3 days	6 weeks
5 etc...	5	2 day	3 months

Example: Dr Boniface has a brilliant idea for an innovation to a firearm. The only problem is that his main sphere of learning is Pharmacology. Undaunted, he decides to cram heavily before going into the lab and taking a whack at the new idea. He rolls Int+Academics and closets himself into the library. He scores 3 successes on his roll and has 3 reflective inspiration. Since he needs at least 3 dots to work on the project with his superscientifc acumen and knacks, He elects to take six days with the material and spilts his successes among knowledge score and duration. For a week, Boniface has effectively 3 dots in Science (Ballistics). Which is hopefully enough time for his R&D.

Later Boniface has to go to Portugal in search of certain types of roots for a particular medicine. Since Boniface speaks no portugese. He grabs a Portugese dictionary on his way to board the plane. He gets 6 successes + an additional 3 for his reflective inspiration. At the hotel, He takes three days, learns portugese idiomatically(2 dots) and it lasts for 2 weeks... long enough to mount the necessary expedition.

on the last day of duration, the crammed knowledge begins to rapidly fade (with increasingly difficult skill checks as the day wears on.

" Does it bother you..." "When we talk like this..." "We can stop..."

Perhaps you have some shared genetic link like being a set of twins. Perhaps you are a swarm of mantis people. or maybe you are an elite cadre of mystically conjoined ninjas. Perhaps you are a garage full of the master's robots. Maybe you are even a group of comrades that has worked together so long that teamwork is now second nature to you. Whatever the cause, you and your compatriots work together with an efficiency bordering on zen art.

System: each person who wishes to use Hive Mind must possess the knack and be within line of sight of his fellows.In addition to being able to communicate non-verbally, any project that the hive mind undertakes adds +1 to the dice pool for every character working on it after the first. The ST may limit the number of characters with this knack working on a project. (Typically no more than 5 people may attack a single person. thus the best bonus that the hive can achieve is four.)

Example: 3 mantis warriors attack Dudley while 2 more attack Julie. Their dice pools for attack are at +2 and +1 respectively. If Dudley thrashes one with his fists and Julie dispatches one with her tiny pistol then their pools drop to +1 and +0. If however, the Mantii make short work of Dudley, The four remaining warriors will have +3 against their single target.

The Knack has a downside insofar as people with Hive Mind have little in the way of mental defenses (or rather they are so open and/or permeable that it makes little difference.) and are thus at a +1 difficulty to resist mental domination of any sort.

"You're absolutely right. Delia would never be able to defend herself against you. But I'm not Delia...I am Alcina. An amazon warrior. and your time has come manling!"

You have managed by some weird happenstance to connect with a past life of yours. This occasionally puts you in touch with past knowledge and skills that can benefit you in times of need. It also makes for weird dreams and the occasional identity crisis but for the most part you are still completely in control...Usually.

System: The player purchasing Past Life recieves 8 phantom dots of skills and abilities. Of these skills one dot must be Academics (specifically the history of the time in question) and another must be Linguistics (the language appropriate to the past life.) The ST is well within his rights to restrict how much can be spent on any one skill. When invoking a past life, The Player spends 1 point of Inspiration and the phantom skills become available for a scene. In addition, the player may add his dots in Reflective facet to any one of those phantom skills for the duration of the scene. This skill must be chosen when invoking and cannot be changed until the next scene with a new inspiration expenditure.

The player is encouraged to come up with details of the Past Life and how or why it is bleeding over into the present life. (Unfinished business, searching for a lost love, ancestral race memory..etc.) He is also encouraged to come up a seperate virtue and vice for the past life.

Creatively sadistic ST's should come up with situations involving occasional conflict between the two lives. This Knack can actually be bought multiple times. Strict accounting must be made of whose phantom skills belong to who. Only 1 past life may be in effect at any one time.

This knack is extremely appropriate to tibetan master mesmerists. It also should be noted that characters who possess this knack who die are almost allways reincarnated immediately, for all the good it will do them... In point of fact, it might be that your plucky young ward has the memories of one of your past compatriots.

"Don't worry Della...We'll catch Dr Vengeance. He can't outrun us in this traffic."

You have developed a certain amount of extremely short duration prescience. While this has very limited applications you have found that it is a positive boon in any sort of situation where you are driving or piloting a vehicle or even riding an animal. High speed pursuit of any sort is like second nature to you as you slip into holes in traffic that didn't exist a second ago. You also compensate in high speed turns as if you were part of the vehicle itself. Whether chasing or being chased, you are capable of piloting at great speed.

System: This knack causes the Mesmerist to function at his utter peak of his reflexes. Even his time sense slows down. As such, whenever the mesmerist is piloting,driving or riding an animal. The safe speed of the transportation rises to match the max speed of the vehicle.

"Don't worry! She'll hold together...You hear me baby...Hold together."

You seem to be very in touch with vehicles of every sort on a deeply intuitive level. You're the sort of captain that can wake from a sound sleep if the engines change speed. You even know where to whack the machine if it starts acting up, and you know how to compensate by feel for engine difficulties. You even seem to be able to hold a damaged engine together by sheer force of will.

System: The player spends 1 Inspiration. The player rolls Wits+Engineering and adds his destructive facet as extra dice. For each success he scores on the roll, he is able to suspend damage that has been done to a vehicle he is riding or driving in while it is moving. This damage does not actually go away but it's effects don't restrict the vehicles usability. The effects however come back as soon the vehicle is turned off or if the damage reaches Broken Down. Then of course, you'll have repair it by hand. This of course enables the player to stay in the car chase even though his car is badly damaged and it allows him to safely pilot down the plane even with a flaming engine.

"I'm warning you. These hands have killed before."

You have learned the esoteric arts of Atemi and Chi manipulation. Your hands are capable of delivering crippling damage to enemies. People fear you and rightly so. Your deadly hands make it easy to take life.

System: The Mesmerist spends Inspiration and for the rest of the scene, his hand to hand damage inflicts lethal damage instead of bashing damage. Mesmerists who use this knack often express a visible greyish aura around their hands when it is in use. Practitioners of the arts can sometimes recognize this with a successfull Intelligence+Martial Arts Roll.

"Your kung fu is only as strong as your will...which will be broken in just one moment."

This exceedingly esoteric form of Kung Fu has been recovered from the dust of antiquity. most practitioners cannot even grasp the basics of it's use and few have ever learned to master it. It enables the user to damage the Chi of an enemy directly and it's use is the serious of acts.

System: The User spends Inspiration and then rolls a standard martial arts roll (which must be a hand to hand attack) For every level of damage that the target sustains after soaking, he also loses an equivalent number of points of temporary willpower. Targets that are reduced to zero willpower by this attack are considered incapacitated for the rest of the scene and there may be lingering aftereffects. (the GM is encouraged to be creatively cruel here. Derrangements, hysterical blindness or paralysis or "Chi sickness" are all fair game and will last as long as it takes for the character to regain his full willpower.)

" No Detective. Miss Cambridge had nothing to do with this murder...Call it more than a hunch."

You have the ability to open yourself to emotional impressions that have been left on persons places or things. You allways are able to take in the strongest emotional context attached and in some cases you have visions of that event.

System: When the Mesmerist wishes to scan something for psychic impressions, He makes a Perception+Awareness( or Rapport when used on a person) in order to discern the strongest emotional content attached to it. (note that this might not be what the mesmerist expects. A hammer that was used as a murder weapon might have impressions of the 12 years it was used as a carpenter's tool...and that carpenter's general emotional content as impressed on the hammer over time.) The Mesmerist must touch the person, place, or thing.

The Mesmerist may also elect to try a much deeper scan of something by placing himself into a deep trance. (which takes at least 10 minutes) and then spending a point of Inspiration and thn making the Awareness/Rapport roll. When this is done the mesmerist may then step into emotional events and view them as if he were there when they happened. Invariably the Mesmerist seemingly enters the body of one of the participants.There are a couple of downsides to this Precognitive fishing expedition though. Any damage you sustain during the trance ends it immediately, You may also sustain damage in the vision. (while this damage does not necessarily end the vision it can be extremely unpleasant..)

Example: Dr Prospero is examining a murder scene at the behest of friend. Since he's coming up dry for clues he elects to enter a trance and see if he can piece together what happened. After entering the trance, He realizes that he's entered the body of the victim who was slowly tortured to death by Tommy "Two-Times" Freschetti. Each time the vicitm suffers damage. Prospero must roll a stamina+resistance check to remain in the vision. If he fails, he suffers 1 point of bashing damage for each 1 one the check roll, which he may soak. If he botches he may not soak this damage... and is bounced back into the real world. Prospero gets up the worse for wear and vows justice upon Tommy Two-Times.

Later on his career, Dr Prospero scans another crime scene only to find himself in the body of the killer this time. He'll get a good look at the killer's hands and hear the killer's voice. He'll know the killer was aroused when he cut his victim's throat and he'll probably be slapped out of his trance by his compatriots who are worried over his giggling before he can identify the killer at all.

Storytellers are encouraged to be spectacularly cruel with botches on the roll above. Mesmerists might develop horrific mental imbalances as a result of trauma or touching the minds of deeply troubled individuals.

I'm sorry, but i'm afraid your pitiful blandishments will avail you nothing.

You were born with ice water running in your veins. Some might call you a cold fish but you know the truth is much more simple. You have rigorously disconnected your emotions from your mentation process. You are incredibly hard to sway with emotion and are rarely distracted.

System: For every dot of Reflective facet that the character possesses he subtracts a success from rolls that are used to influence him emotionally. While this won't prevent the function of some psychic knacks it does offer protection from interrogation, subterfuge,intimidation,command and rapport rolls and all the knacks that function off of them, (Cloak of Dread, Steely gaze,Etc...)

Sadly this knack cannot be turned off, and so some knacks that might help the character like Inspirational Aura will still suffer the penalties.

"Okay. when i say go. Pull her out from under the car."

Whether you have learned to control your adrenaline or you are simply psychotic. You have the sort of strength that come from within. while you don't have superdense muscles like a stalwart powerlifter, you how to make the best use of the musculature that you have.

System: spend 1 point of Inspiration. Take half of the Mesmerist's current willpower (round up) and apply it to the mesmerists strength score for the rest of the scene. The Mesmerist will be listless and tired for the next scene (halve all physical dice pools). Storyteller should be very carefull to make players make strength rolls that could result in ligament tearing and back muscle shredding injuries. While these injuries won't stop them during the scene they will require healing when the scene is over. ( Each 1 on a strength botch will cause 1 level of unsoakable bashing damage which will take effect at the end of the scene, Large numbers of 1's could result in some Lethal damage as well.) Crazy Strength is not limited to lifting or crushing and can be used in combat. Strength scores can go far beyond 5 (but you don't get nifty enhancement like in aberrant. Hefty might and brawl rolls are reward enough, twink boy)

" See...It's so much better when you don't resist...I'll take a few photos to remember this moment."

This extremely rare knack is a potent weapon in the hands of evildoers. It give insight into the basic nature of a target as a gestalt. Thus enabling the Mesmerist to know where to set his tools to deconstruct the targets soul.

System: The Mesmerist makes a Perception+Rapport roll in order to determine the Vice of the target in question. (he may also extract the Target's Virtue with +2 difficulty.) Call to Darkness also allows the Mesmerist to tempt the target with the abillity to fullfill his vice. This involves a Manipulation+Rapport roll which gives a number of additional dice equal to the Mesmerist's Destructive Facet. If the Mesmerist rolls 5 successes or better on the roll he may change the target's Vice to one of his choosing for an indefinite period (ST discretion. Typically the Vice is changed to something like Bravo or Hedonist)

The target must be within line of sight in order to be scanned and in order to be tempted must understand what the mesmerist is saying.If the Mesmerist botches any roll with Call to Darkness he may never again affect the target with this power. This Knack was orginally discovered by Sir Gerald Guiness of the Hellfire Club and while it is rare, it is teachable.

"Grandfather says that we're missing a piece of this puzzle...And he's just told me where to find it."

This subconscious mind is oftentimes far more observant than the conscious mind. The Mesmerist who possesses this knack has the ability to tap into his subconcious mind in order to gain a greater understanding of the world around him. In fact this knack is a form of clainsentience. But the only difficulty is that the subconcious has to relate to the conscious mind in a form it can understand. All practitioners of this knack externalize this knowledge into an individual thoughtform that presents itself to the mesmerist in a form only it can see. ( a dead relative giving advice from beyond the grave is most common but sometimes it manifests as a angelic form or a spirit totem of some sort.)

System: The Mesmerist has some sort of "Spirit" that it can interact with in order to gain information and which gives it a limited form of Clairsentience. Any time the player fails any Perception or Intelligence based roll (but does not botch it.) The Storyteller may secretly re-roll with the player's willpower dice pool. The spirit stays with the character at all times unless he is asked to go somewhere else. The spirit may go anywhere that the mesmerist has been or anywhere within line of sight. It cannot affect anything in the physical world but it can gather information and report back to the mesmerist. The "Spirit" travels instantaneously but will have to take a certain amount of time gathering the information when it arrives.

it should be noted that the Subconcious does not give up all it's secrets willingly. Many times owners of this knack must deal with perversity on the part of the spirit or perhaps an unwillingness to divulge it's secrets unless the character "Straightens up and flies right". it should be noted though that the "Spirit" will rarely withold information that can save the character's life. Mesmerists with Voice from Beyond are rarely surprised in combat as a result.

" I see you have a fear of spiders. I think it would be interesting to see what it would be like to have them devour you."

You are able to tap into a target's subconcious mind and unearth all of his most serious fear and terrors. Once you have done this, you can cause the target to hallucinate his most horrible fear.

System: The Mesmerist spend Inspiration and the roll Manipulation+ Rapport and adds Destructive Inspiration as automatic successes to the dice pool. The target resists with Willpower. If the mesmerist succeeds on the roll, the target is afflicted with temporary insanity for a number of Scenes/Hours as he has net successes. If the mesmerist collects five net successes on the attack roll then the Insanity lasts indefinitely.(ST's Discretion) The derrangement is chosen by the Storyteller.

" Yes. My Minions...Give me the power to summon our dark god."

You have developed the ability to siphon off energy from other people as long as they are willing to give it to you willingly. This energy is often used to power large scale mystick effects but it's uses are many on the small scale as well.

System: The user of this knack must touch the target and the target must be completely willing to volunteer his energy. (in other words he cannot tear energy from the target ,nor can he coerce it with another knack.) The user of Mystick Sink must then roll his willpower and for each success he recieves on the roll he may take either points of Inspiration or points of Willpower. The User may choose which he'll take and may break it up any way he likes. for the cost of 3 willpower, the user of Mystic Sink may convert for 1 Inspiration.

The User may bank these point but any points that he has taken above his maximums,begin to fade out of him after a period of 24 hours. This knack is typically used by mysticks to collects large amounts of willpower and/or Inspiration to funnel into large scale magickal effects but it can be used to merely top off a mesmerist's waning pool.