In some ghost stories, the spook becomes visible to only one person, or the victim of a haunting sees other thigs that no one else can see. Many ghosts also make themselves known through dreams... or nightmares. Such visions betray the presence of the Phantasm, an elusive and illusive Shade that was the last for Orpheus to discover. An encounter with a Phantasm can leave both the quick and the dead wondering if they have gone insane, as dream and reality blur.
In life, prospective Phantasms cared more about their own thoughts than the world around them. Some of these people fled from reality to hide in idle fancies. Others tried to share their imaginings with other people as writers and artists. Still other latent Phantasms strove to act out their dreams in real life or to make their visions real as inventors, reformers and organizers... or tyrants and madmen. The dictator who turns a nation into one vast howl of terror follows a dream as much as the idealist who quests for justice and healing.
Potential Phantasms are not always easy to spot. For every artist or activist, a dozen people conceal vivid imaginations behind a quiet, ordinary life. The housewife who loses herself in soap operas or the clerk who fantasizes about winning the lottery may be just as much a latent Phantasm as a philosopher wrestling with ultimate truth or the science fiction fan who hates today because it isn't yet tomorrow.
In death, Phantasms gain the power to project their dreams and fancies into other minds. They lived for imagination, and now, the world of dreams becomes their playground, their refuge and their weapon. A Phantasm cannot make his visions real and solid -- but he can impress them on other minds so vividly that victims cannot tell what's real or illusion. Spooks of this Shade also easily gain the power to enter other beings' dreams. They can observe a dream, interact with it or shape it to a vision of their own choosing. An especially practiced Phantasm can even slip from one dreaming mind to another, flitting about the world.
The exceptional subtlety of their powers makes Phantasms hard to notice unless they want to be seen. Unwary ghosts or mortals can easily mistake a Phantasm's illusions for reality -- or at least for some other ghostly power. A Phantasm cannot materialize objects like a Poltergeist, but he can make others think he did. He can't read the past like a Banshee or enthrall people like a Wisp, but he can walk through dreams and learn others' traumas, fears and fantasies. A skilled Phantasm can cloak himself in illusion to appear as someone else or vanish from sight entirely. Of course, Phantasms can learn the trademark Horrors of most other Shades, given time -- but dreams and illusions remain their area of greatest expertise.
As spooks, Phantasms can indulge their taste for fantasy to the fullest. The weakest and most self-absorbed Phantasms -- the drones and blips of their kind -- may trap themselves in a single ever-repeating dream or nightmare. Less passive Phantasms may haunt the living as voyeurs of dreams or amuse themselves with their own projected fancies. Stronger Phantasms may try to share their dreams directly or play them out with the help of mortals or other ghosts. This can be as harmless as a dead playwright using dreaming minds as a stage. It can even be noble, such as a Phantasm who drives a killer to confess by sending her visions of her victim. An activist Phantasm can comfort, advise, teach or propagandize through visions... or delude, derange and torment his victims. Some dreams are monstrous and perverse. A Phantasm who drags hapless mortals into his wish-fulfillment nightmares of power, lust or revenge can destroy lives as cruelly as an Spectre. The powers of dream and illusion can drive a victim mad... or convince other people that a victim has lost her mind.
Manifestation Forms: By expending zero Vitality points, a Phantasm can appear to the living as a shadow with nothing to cast it, moving but flat and without any details except an outline. In this form, a Phantasm cannot affect physical objects. The Phantasm can also whisper short sentences. Such a form does not usually attract attention if the Phantasm stays quiet, though it allows the spook to use all its powers upon the living.
A Phantasm who expends one Vitality point manifests as a humanoid figure but remains dark, indistinct and translucent -- a three-dimensional shadow. In this form, the Phantasm can speak almost normally. The spook's voice has its normal volume but retains a hollow, echoing quality. No one could mistake the Phantasm for anything but a spirit, and the ghost still cannot manipulate physical objects.
By expending two Vitality points, however, a Phantasm can manifest as an apparently real, solid human being. In this form, a Phantasm can apply his full Physical and Social Traits to affect people and objects. Like most spooks, the Phantasm appears as he did in life, possibly modified somewhat by his self-image. A Phantasm could use his Horrors to alter how other people perceive his form, though. Phantasms with high Spite ratings retain the hollow quality of lower manifestation forms and seem to merge with deep shadows.
Horrors: Bedlam, Sandman
Banned Horror: Haunter
Base Vitality: 6
Base Spite: 2
Base Willpower: 4
Recommended Natures: Architect, Avant-Garde, Celebrant, Dreamer, Gambler, Visionary
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Horrors
Bedlam
This Horror produces illusions. A spook with this power can imagine something, and another person sees it, hears it, tastes it, smells it or feels it. Bedlam is the trademark Horror of the Phantasms, though most other spooks can learn it.
An iridescent silvery shimmer ripples across the eyes of a spook who projects an illusion, but the Horror gives no other sign of its use. A Phantasm imagines the illusion as if he really saw, heard or sensed it himself. At first, a spook needs to spend time concentrating on a daydream, but a practiced Phantasm can project an illusion in seconds.
A Phantasm can project a waking dream into the mind of just one person or craft an illusion that any person can sense. Such a strengthened illusion registers on cameras, tape recorders and other machines. The spook himself experiences his illusion just as vividly as the targets, which makes the Horror a way for ghosts to enjoy sensations normally denied o the dead.
Wild, fantastic illusions can make an unwary person doubt her sanity, especially when other people nearby insist that nothing's there. Bedlam's greatest power, however, lies in its subtler applications. A Phantasm can make one person hear something other than what another person actually said and, so, set them at odds. Bedlam can subtract sensations instead of adding them, so a target does not see, hear, smell or feel a danger. A spook with this Horror can disguise himself to look like someone else or work an endless variety of other deceptions. The Horror cannot exert the slightest trace of force against solid objects. Bedlam can disguise the use of other Horrors, though. For instance, judicious use of Helter Skelter could make an illusory creature seem to pick up and hurl an object.
System: Crafting a single illusion, for a single target, does not require any dice rolls but always counts as a full action. A Phantasm can affect anyone he can see, whether spook or mortal, within 100 feet. Spooks must manifest at least a little (their zero Vitality manifestation) to affect a mortal.
Bedlam illusions affect Vitality + 1 senses. Thus, if a spook invested two Vitality points in a use of Bedlam, the resulting illusion would affect three senses. Although Phantasms most commonly create visual chimerae, a spook can send hallucinations of sounds, tastes, smells or other senses. Since a spook can expend up to five Vitality, an illusion can affect up to six senses, including less familiar senses such as balance, hunger or the mystical Vitality sense that directs Spectres to their prey. A spook can affect touch, hunger and other senses “internal” to the body only when he invests at least three Vitality in a Bedlam effect, with sight, hearing and either taste or smell mandatory. Phantasms can fool mystical senses only by expending five Vitality.
Example: A Phantasm wants a drug dealer to think that she has chopped his arm off. This requires her to spend three Vitality points. The affected senses are sight (she pulls out an illusory blade and swings it at him), hearing (the swish of the blade and the “splurch!” as it goes through his arm), smell (the odor of the blood that fountains from the wound) and touch (the pain of the cut and the feel of blood, bone and meat as the dealer clutches at his arm).
Enhancing an illusion so that anyone can sense it costs another two Vitality. This does not let a spook expend more than five Vitality on an illusion. The full range of Bedlam options, therefore, proceeds as follows:
Zero Vitality: Affect one sense for a single target.
One Vitality: Affect two senses for a single target.
Two Vitality: Affect three senses for a single target, or one sense for general perception.
Three Vitality: Affect four senses for a single target, possibly including touch, balance or other “internal” senses, or two senses for general perception.
Four Vitality: Affect five senses for a single target, or three senses for general perception.
Five Vitality: Affect up to sixe senses for a single target, possibly including supernatural senses, or four senses for general perception, possibly including touch.
An illusion can last up to a full scene with no need to expend more Vitality, so long as the spook pays attention to maintaining the false sensations. If circumstances force the spook to depart or take fast, violent action, the illusion lasts Vitality + 1 turns. A spook can use Bedlam while fighting or fleeing, but the illusion lasts only (Vitality + 1) turns in all.
Bedlam can never cause real, direct harm. An illusion can make a person think she suffered a wound though, and the Storyteller can assess whatever wound penalties seem appropriate. As soon as the illusion ends, though, the ictim finds herself completely unharmed.
If the target of Bedlam tries to resist an illusion, her player can attempt a Willpower roll with a difficulty of 6 for zero or one Vitality attacks, 7 for two to three Vitality attacks or 8 for four to five Vitality attacks. Success indicates that the target ends the hallucination. The target must suspect that her senses are playing tricks on her. Characters do not automatically receive a chance to resist.
A Phantasm can also project illusions at one person after another, but in that case, each illusion incurs its own Vitality cost. Starting one illusion while maintaining a different illusion on someone else requires a Wits + Subterfuge roll (difficulty 6 for the first additional illusion, 7 for the third, 8 for the fourth and 9 for any subsequent targets). A spook can inflict just one illusion on an individual at a time. If a Phantasm wants to change an illusion in a drastic way, such as adding new senses, he must expend the Vitality to craft a new waking dream.
In any case, Bedlam illusions are discreet additions to or subtractions from the environment. A spook cannot completely change what a person senses. A Phantasm could make a person see a snake, hear a voice or smell a perfume that isn't there. He could not make a person hallucinate that she'd instantly traveled to the top of the Empire State Building -- that's too all-encompassing an illusion.
Bedlam briefly links the minds of the user and the target, and this link enables Phantasms to work around possible areas of ignorance. An illusion is not just as realistic and accurate as the spook imagines, it becomes as realistic as the target imagines. For instance, a Phantasm who knows nothing about firearms could still evoke a detailed image of a Glock pistol from the mind of someone who did know about guns. (If the target did not know about guns either, the Phantasm would merely evoke “a big gun” -- but since neither person could recognize inaccuracies, there's no harm.)
A Storyteller may ask for various dice rolls from the players of either the Phantasm or his target, depending on the circumstances. For instance, if a Phantasm tried to impersonate a rock star through illusion, the Storyteller might ask the player to roll the spook's Wits + Performance (difficulty 6) to fool the star's manager.
Benefit: By conjoining his power to another spook's Horror, a Phantasm renders that other power more difficult to resist. Many ghostly powers work through the mind and soul, and Bedlam's subtle nature slips past even the strongest psychic defenses. If the target of a Horror receives any roll to resist the effect, cnjoined Bedlam increases the difficulty of that roll by two. The donor spook vividly imagines the recipient's Horror acting with greater power and the victim succumbing, while the recipient feels a moment of dreamlike detachment.
Sandman
Ghosts and projectors operate in a side of the world that mortals do not see. Spooks who learn Sandman, however, can enter an even stranger realm, the world of dreams. Not only can Phantasms watch the dreams of sleepers, they can actually enter those dreams and shape them to their will. This Horror also enables ghosts to sleep and dream, something they cannot experience any other way. Sandman carries special dangers, however, for every dream ends in time.
A Phantasm must touch the head of her target to employ this Horror, though the spook does not have to materialize in any way. As the Phantasm slilps into a reverie, she sees her target's dream play out before her mind's eye. Other spooks (or other creatures who can see ghosts) see flickers of the dream slide across the Phantasm's body like a film projection. This is enough to recognize the Horror's use but never enough to gain useful information. If the Phantasm chooses to enter the dream, she seems to step inside her target's head, shrinking as she goes as if that one step took her very far away, before she vanishes.
System: Spooks with this Horror learn that people always dream a little, but the mind usually keeps these shreds of dream pushed out of the conscious mind. Catching the evanescent threads of dream requires a Perception + Awareness roll. The difficulty depends on the target's state of consciousness. A target currently dreaming (in what scientists call REM sleep) is difficulty 6. The transitional state before and after dreaming is difficulty 7. Deep, normally dreamless sleep imposes a difficulty of 8. A Phantasm can also enter the latent dreams of a person who drowses or is in a light trance, such as zoning out in front of the TV, but this is also difficulty 8. The same difficulty applies for all intensities of Sandman.
The amoun of Vitality a spook expends determines how completely it joins a dream. At zero Vitality, a Phantasm merely watches her target's dream but cannot affect it. Phantasms usually probe a dream at this level before embarking on deeper explorations, since a spook can always expend more Vitality for a deeper connection without the need for the player to roll again.
Expending one Vitality does not grant any greater access to a dream, but this level enables a spook to put a ghost to sleep. The ghost must be willing for this to work. While asleep, a ghost may dream just like a mortal, and the Phantasm can observe and affect those dreams using other applications of Sandman.
Although natural dreams may reveal much about a person, a Phantasm might have to watch a lot of them and study the person's life to gain a ocntext for interpretation. At two Vitality, a spook can nudge the target's dreams to reveal information about that person's life. This calls for another Perception + Awareness roll (at the same difficulty as before). For each success, the character can seek and discover one brief fact about the subject. for instance, a Phantasm could touch the dreams of a businessman an dnudge his dream to reveal how he really feels about his wife -- or the number for his Swiss bank account. A spook may attempt this sort of questioning only once per dream. At this or lower levels of Vitality expenditure, contact with a dream lasts until the spook stops concentrating or the dream ends. Dreams seldom last longer than 10 or 15 minutes, though they may seem to last longer to the dreamer.
At three Vitality, a Phantasm can enter a dream, move through it and interact with any characters in the dream. She can prod the target's unconscious mind to answer questions, as at the previous level, but cannot change the dream to a great degree. For each success rolled, the Phantasm can carry one additional spook into the dream, but such characters cannot affect the dream at all unless they too know this Horror.
By expending four Vitality, the spook can alter the dream. Each attempt to change a dream calls for a Charisma + Awareness roll, with the difficulty set by the extent of the change. Adding a single object to a dream or talking to the dreamer would be difficulty 6. Changeing a significant aspect of the dream (for instance, changing day to night) would be difficulty 7. Completely changing a dream (turning a pleasant dream to a nightmare) would be difficulty 9. At this level, a Phantasm can declare her presence to the dreamer or remain hidden, as she wills. She can also make sure her target remembers the dream when he wakes up. The Phantasm can apply all her Social Attributes and communications Abilities to shape the dream -- for instance, a dream meant to frighten a miser into changing his ways could call for a Manipulation + Intimidation roll (difficulty 7) in addition to the basic roll to take control of the dream. Once a Phantasm reaches this level of connection to a dream, she can keep making changes without the need for more Vitality expenditure. Spite-heavy Phantasms tend to create nightmares no matter what they intend though.
At five Vitality, a Phantasm can shape a dream that evokes her target's deepest hopes, joys and ideals -- or his deepest fears, failings and miseries. This requires a Charisma + Awareness roll (difficulty 8). Each success causes the dreamer to gain or lose a Willpower point. A Phantasm can bolster or attack this way only once per dream.
Rolling a botch for any Sandman application makes the target wake up immediately. This is bad: If a person wakes up for any reason while a Phantasm occupies his dream, the spook's player must roll the character's Willpower (difficulty 8). Success means that the spook is merely ejected from the vanishing dream and loses a point each of Vitality and Willpower. Failure means the spooks is trapped in the target's mind until he dreams again. At that time, the character can attempt another Willpower roll to escape. Botching means the spook finds herself violently ejected from someone else's dream, perhaps thousands of miles from where she began... a hint of a greater power to master?
Any use of Sandman counts as an action. The nature of the Horror utterly precludes any use in combat: Such a foe is neither asleep nore willing. A character cannot use Sandman on two targets at once.
Benefit: A Phantasm who conjoins Sandman to another spook's Horror can extend her dream-insight through that Horror. When the other character uses his Horror to affect a target, the Phantasm learns one previously unknown fact about that target. For instance, suppose a Phantasm conjoined her Sandman to a Haunter's Witch's Nimbus. When the Haunter attacks a Spectre with a jet of fire, the Phantasm could ask, “Where does this Spectre normally lair?” and receive a vision of the Spectre's abode. Both the recipient and the target of the recipient's Horror strongly feel that the Phantasm stands next to them. They can almost see the spook looking over their shoulder -- but no one's there.
Dueling Dream-Shapers
Conceivably, two spooks with Sandman might try to shape the same person's dream. To usurp control of a dream, the second spook must have spent at least as much Vitality as the first Phantasm. The two players both roll Charisma + Awareness (difficulty 6 for the defender, the attacker's difficulty is set by the extent of the change she wants to make to the dream, as for the four Vitality level of Sandman). The character who gains the most successes wins. If neither character controls the dream yet, each spook's difficulty is set by how much she wants to change the dream. Either player can spend a Willpower for an extra success, of course.
Subsequent attempts to take control of a dream require that the attacking spook expend one Vitality point just to make the attempt. A dream-shaping duel lasts until one spook gives up or runs out of Vitality or Willpower or until one manages to drive the other away using other Horrors.
Back to Orpheus Resources
Additionally, all material presented here is reprinted within the bounds of White-Wolf's Creative Copyright, 2003. Any unauthorized reproduction or reprinting without the publishers written permission is expressly forbidden, except for the purposes of reviews.