Temporis
“No matter how much time passes, or what amusements fill these long, eternal nights, some things can never be consigned to oblivion. Some memories refuse to fade.” — Amor Cathbados, Inconnu Monitor of Toledo
Those who control the powers of Temporis have the capacity to comprehend the permutations of time, speeding and slowing its effects to suit their desires. Temporis channels the mystical force that makes a vampire immortal, rendering her body immune to the ravages of time. The True Brujah claim that the Brujah Antediluvian created Temporis before he was diablerized, and that his curse stripped its power from those who followed Troile after his destruction.
Users of Temporis tend to become increasingly meticulous and nearly obsessive about the small details of daily life. They also tend to lack emotion to a great degree, growing detached by experiencing the passage of ages, feeling centuries slip like sand through an hourglass. Such beings are callous and cruel, placing little worth on a single individual within the grand tapestry of time.
Temporis and Celerity: A character who has purchased any amount of Celerity can never purchase Temporis. Likewise, a character who has purchased any amount of Temporis can never purchase Celerity.
Temporis Test Pool: The Temporis wielder uses her Physical attribute + Survival versus the target’s Physical attribute + Willpower.
Contents
• Hourglass of the Mind
Time is a complex entity, moving like a river around a thousand tiny stones. The smallest alteration can cause tremendous shifts. To effectively use Temporis, the wielder’s mind must be capable of understanding these currents and eddies, and predicting their outcomes.
System: Hourglass of the Mind is always active. In addition to granting an extremely accurate time sense, allowing you to keep track of the exact time down to the millisecond, this level of Temporis also grants you a unique sensitivity to any disturbances in the flow of time. Within a one-mile radius, you automatically sense when time is being manipulated, whether through use of Temporis or other supernatural powers that alter time.
Additionally, you automatically sense the use of powers that grant extra actions, such as Celerity, when they are used within 1,000 feet of you. Further, you can read an object’s age at a glance, and you can tell if Temporis has ever been used on that object by noting that its actual age does not match the amount of time that has passed since the object’s creation.
Also, by spending your standard action and making a successful opposed challenge, using the Temporis test pool, you discover whether or not a target possesses Celerity or Temporis; you then discern how many dots of either Celerity or Temporis the target possesses. If you use this power on a non-vampiric creature who possesses powers that can shape time or allow it to take multiple actions, you gain a rough understanding of that creature’s capabilities.
Focus [Stamina]: In addition to knowing your target’s total dots of Temporis or Celerity, you also discern the specific powers she possesses, including techniques and elder powers.
•• Nick of Time
With this power, you can steal items from the corners of history. By creating a small anomaly in the natural flow of time, you reach into the past or present and grasp lost objects, discarded junk, and abandoned flotsam, forcibly pulling such items to you.
System: By spending 1 Blood and expending a simple action, you can utilize Nick of Time to draw a common object to you from some other point in time. These items are things that have been lost or misplaced, and will never be missed by their owners. The item is a common and nondescript example of its type; you may choose to draw forth a desert eagle or a pretty painting, but you cannot acquire the Sheriff’s gun or the Mona Lisa. The item must be small enough for a normal individual to easily hold in two hands and not of any particular value.
If you choose to draw forth a weapon, your Storyteller determines the weapon’s specific qualities. If the weapon is a gun, it has one full clip of ammunition.
Focus [Stamina]: If you use Nick of Time to pull forth a weapon or combat item, you may select the qualities for that item, rather than have your Storyteller choose them for you.
••• Split Second
With this power, you slow the effects of time around you, allowing you to move in a flicker and almost appear to be in two places at once. Although you cannot attack others while in such a state, you can move, draw weapons, or perform other small actions in the blink of an eye.
System: Once per turn, you can spend 1 Blood to gain an additional simple action, which cannot be interrupted. This additional action resolves on your initiative, and cannot be used to target other characters or items controlled by other characters; it also cannot be used to activate powers.
Focus [Stamina]: You gain two additional simple actions with each use of Split Second, rather than one.
•••• Patience of the Norns
Your ability with Temporis has grown so powerful that you can actually remove inanimate objects from the flow of time, suspending them for a little while as the rest of the world moves on. You can halt a falling object midair, suspend an explosion long enough to escape its fire, or preserve a fragile artifact from decay.
System: Spend 1 Blood, expend a standard action, and target an inanimate object to activate Patience of the Norns. This object enters perfect stasis, even as time passes around it. When Patience of the Norns affects an object, all processes, whether mechanical, electrical, or chemical, stop functioning for the duration of the effect. Bullets hang motionless in mid-air, fires appear as no more than charred logs, and falling objects freeze in mid-tumble. This suspension lasts for one hour, unless Patience of the Norns is released prior to that duration.
An object frozen by Patience of the Norns cannot be moved or affected in any way. If anything substantial (more firm than a light breeze) touches a frozen object after it has been placed in suspension, the item affected by Patience of the Norns is released and re-enters time with the same properties and velocity it had when it was placed into stasis. Suspension of an object includes the suspension of all its energy and any chemical processes occurring within it. Thus, a suspended bullet has no kinetic energy in relation to the world around it, chemical reactions are held in stasis, and fires cease to emit heat, light, or smoke until such time as the power’s duration expires. At the end of this power’s duration, all processes, energies, and reactions resume activity as though no time had passed. Fires roar to life, chemical reactions run their course, and objects in motion continue on their original trajectories at their original speed.
Patience of the Norns cannot be used on an object larger than the vampire herself.
Focus [Stamina]: You can slightly alter an object that has been suspended by Patience of the Norns. Whereas an item in a standard suspension cannot be moved or affected in any way, you can rotate the object, so that any kinetic energy is pointed in another direction, or you can move the object one step per standard action. You must physically touch the item in order to turn or move it. This contact does not break the suspension granted by Patience of the Norns.
••••• Clotho’s Gift
You are capable of accelerating time as it passes through your body, causing you to move with preternatural speed and precision.
System: Spend 1 Blood to activate Clotho’s Gift for the turn. When you activate Clotho’s Gift, you gain two extra rounds of actions; each extra round comprises one simple action and one standard action. Resolve one extra round of actions during the first Celerity round, and resolve the second extra round of actions during the second Celerity round.
Focus [Stamina]: Each turn, you can use one (and only one) of the standard actions granted by Clotho’s Gift to activate a Mental or Social power. This is an exception to the rule that states you cannot use Mental or Social powers during Celerity rounds.
