Serpents maintain that Obfuscate is less about illusion and more about perception. Mental Maze is the ability to remove all sense of direction and location from a victim, allowing the vampire to make their target a prisoner in their current environment, such as a home, a nightclub, or worse — a vampire’s cellar. The victim finds their location folding back on itself, subtly altering their perception of previously visited rooms, convincing them that an actual exit will only lead deeper into the maze, and eventually breaking them down into a state of panic and fragility.
Amalgam: Dominate 1
Cost: One or Three Rouse Checks
Dice Pools: Charisma + Obfuscate vs. Wits + Resolve
System: The vampire personally speaks the words “you cannot escape” to their victim and rolls Charisma + Obfuscate versus the target’s Wits + Resolve, with lower Generation vampires being able to negate the roll with a Willpower point as per Dominate’s characteristics (see Vampire: The Masquerade p. 255). On a win, the victim struggles to find their way out of the building they’re in. An additional two Rouse Checks allows this power to be used in a single room or a densely packed outdoor environment (such as a construction site or forest). Mortals cannot attempt to escape but supernatural creatures can make a Resolve + Awareness test each scene using the vampire’s initial successes as the Difficulty, suffering a point of Superficial Willpower damage for every missing success if they fail. This roll cannot benefit from Teamwork, as any guidance given does not match what the victim sees. This power ends if the environment becomes dangerous (e.g. the building catches fire), unless the vampire has Terminal Decree (see Vampire: The Masquerade, p. 257).
Duration: One night