ANDERS MAGE PAGE 2.0

Mages, being the paranoid sorts that they are, often utilize Rotes to give themselves an advanced warning of dangers. Being the flexible and diverse lot that they are, different mages have different approaches. The Cultists, Akashics and Euthanatos have developed some of the most effective versions.

Premonitions of Danger (Time 2)

The Time mage keeps alert by continually looking briefly forward into the time stream (usually a few seconds is enough) and keeping an eye out for bad things about to happen. Cultists in particular use their vice to raise themselves into a higher state of awareness to make this possible. Unfortunately, to the young disciple of Time, this can be a little distracting (the mage suffers +1 to the difficulty of all rolls that he makes). There are two ways around this. A conjunctional Mind 1 effect allows the mage to compartmentalize part of his mind to do nothing but watch for danger, leaving the rest of his mind free. Alternately, by the time the mage reaches Adept status (Time 4), he is so comfortable with temporal perception that this minor Rote no longer distracts him.

Smell the Traitor's Heart (Mind 3)

The Akashics developed this Rote to alert themselves to hostile minds and avoid ambushes. The mage keeps a light telepathic contact with all the minds in her immediate area. If a sentient being in the Akashic's sensory range becomes hostile, the Akashic's empathic senses will be alerted, and the mage can defend herself. The Akashic need not even see the ambusher to "scent" the hostile intent. However, this Rote does nothing to protect the mage from inanimate threats or accidents.

Watching the Death Winds (Entropy 2)

The Euthanatos have perfected one of the most effective Rotes for detecting danger. The mage watches the currents and eddies of entropic energy surrounding him, watching for whorls that indicate the advent of danger and death. The Rote is extremely effective, but unfortunately a little vague. The Euthanatos can rarely identify the exact source of the threat, and can on occasion mistake threats to others as threats to themselves.

Except as noted above, all three Rotes operate the same way. The number of successes the mage gets is the number of turns of warning she has to prepare herself for the oncoming danger. Preferably, this roll should be made secretly, so the mage is never certain how effective the Rote was.

Stifle the Warning Claxon (Entropy 3, Mind 3)

Knowing well that mages use their power to warn themselves of danger, the Euthanatos developed this Rote to counter this. The Euthanatos uses Mind to project feelings of calm and safety, while clouding the mental senses of the target(s). Simultaneously, she uses her advanced knowledge of Entropy to "cloud the fates", flattening the whorls in the winds of death that give one warning.

The mage's successes subtract from the successes of any ability that detects the presence of danger, including the above Rotes, Auspex, Fatalism and so forth.