Arcanum: Mind
Practice: Knowing
Primary Factor: Potency
Withstand: Composure
Suggested Rote Skills: Empathy, Investigation, Occult
By quickly scanning the very surface of a subject’s thoughts, the mage is capable of discerning his mental and emotional state.
For each level of Potency, the mage may ask the Storyteller a single question to gain information about the subject’s mental or emotional state.
This information comes as flashes of insight from the subject’s thoughts, so the Storyteller should be sure to represent her answers as such.
Sample Questions:
- What is the subject’s current mood? Flashes of being stuck in traffic, or waiting in a long line outside a store. The thought of a serene sunset at the beach.
- How intelligent is the subject? Simple flashes of seemingly unrelated images. An image of a complex mathematical theory, or a quote from a piece of well-known literature.
- Is the subject supernatural? Thoughts of drinking the life-force from others. The basic shapes of Imagos flashing past. Thoughts that flicker between animalistic and human.
- What does the subject most desire? Images of money, a person’s face flashing by, or a flashy car.
- What, if any, psychosis does the subject suffer? Thoughts that seem to stem from many sources. Paralysing fear associated with a specific thought.
+1 Reach: The mage is capable of reading through the surface thoughts of her subject, reading snippets of ideas and catching the words and phrases before he says them. The mage cannot scan deeper than whatever the subject is thinking of right at this moment, but through conversation she can direct the subject’s thoughts to specific topics.