Panoptes

**Parent Clan**: Mekhet

**Nicknames**: Spooks, Bugs (Derogatory, as in “this room is bugged.”)

**Disciplines**: *Auspex*, Celerity, *Dominate*, Obfuscate

### **History**

The Panoptes are a close cousin (or a precursor bloodline?) to the Lynx—a branch off the same web. They came from the age of Morse codes and magnetic tapes, and code-breaking machines operated by punch cards. Shady spies and government spooks, the Panoptes are an embodiment of paranoia during the atomic age. A man known as J.S. worked in Room 40 during the war, in a small 6-by-8-foot chamber mapping out German U-boats with his mind. The war ended and J.S. returned home to his wife and kids, taking up some mundane job at a post office... only he found that he could still read minds. And not minds, exactly, but the connection between minds, or the connection between nodes, like the courses and positions of German U-boats pinned up on a map of the Atlantic. And soon J.S. became aware of the invisible puppet masters in his little English town of <redacted> (Cornwall? Coventry?). He found them before they found him. They gifted him with The Blood, and he became the All-Seeing, and all of his childer could tap into the web, formed by threads of blood and Auspex.

The Bloodline Devotion developed by J.S. is called “Tradecraft”. It assumes that sympathetic links can be detected, intercepted, and manipulated, like the radio signals given and received by shipping traffic off international waters. A vision from Blood Sympathy pings on a Panoptes' radar. A conversation conducted entirely within the minds of the Seneschal and the Mekhet Priscus may be overheard. Put on your tinfoil hats, ladies and gentlemen—your thoughts are not safe.

### **Name**

The name “Panoptes” means “All-Seeing” in Greek. Argus Panoptes was a primordial giant with one hundred eyes, who kept watch for Hera at the Argive Heraion. His eyes stared in all directions and he never slept, and after he was slain, Hera put his eyes in the tails of peacocks.

More recently, philosopher Jeremy Bentham devised the Panopticon—a circular prison with a lone guard positioned in a watchtower who is able to view every single cell. The prisoners never know when they are being watched, and thus must police their behaviour at all times. This is a reality for the Panoptes; for all their surveillance prowess they know that something is always out there, keeping an eye on them.

## **Bloodline Weakness: The Weakest Link**

Members of the bloodline desperately want to be part of a network, and yet harbour an intense distrust of those close to them. They know from experience how easily the strongest security system can be compromised—by its weakest link. Whenever a Panoptes suffers a setback, it will cause them to doubt their networks and cut their losses, whether the threat is real or not.

Attach the first Touchstone of a Panoptes to Humanity 7. Her first loss of Humanity will detach that touchstone as the bane takes effect.

## **Bloodline Gift: Spying on the Spies**

The Panoptes take a -3 penalty instead of the usual -5 (house rules) to detect uses of Auspex. Additionally, once per scene she may spend 1 Vitae to reflexively detect a use of Auspex. The Blood whispers to her, alerting her of the tenebrous signals sent by members of her kind. The Panoptes still has to make the usual roll at -3, but may take another action afterwards during the turn.

## **Devotion: Tradecraft**

### **Blood Web**

*Auspex •• 1XP*

**Dice pool**: Wits + Empathy + Auspex

**Cost**: 1 Vitae

**Modifiers**: -1 for every person viewed more than two.

A web of blood reveals itself to the Panoptes, showing her the links that bind together everyone within sight. This devotion allows the Spooks to see the world in a blood-soaked spiderweb. Chains are usually an indication of a blood bond, while gnarled, root-like threads signify a blood relation. Different shades of red can be discerned within the threads; bold scarlet, pale salmon, rosewood, carnelian, merlot, sangria, claret, mahogany. Bright colours signify a strong, immediate connection; pale colours may mean a bond that is weak and tenuous, and dark rich colours a sign of something old and powerful.

The types of connections that can be visualised are blood bonds (one-step, two-step, and three-step), blood relations (sire, grand and great-grandsires, broodmates, cousins of the same bloodline), Invictus blood oaths, blood contracts, and blood boons. The character will be able to see one connection per success achieved. The player can specify the order of the types of connection viewed, i.e. prestation over blood bonds over blood relations, and learn one piece of information per success.

If a vampire commits diablerie, he takes on all of the blood connections of his victim as well as his own.

### **Mental Encryption**

*Obfuscate •• 1XP*

**Dice pool**: Intelligence + Subterfuge + Obfuscate

**Cost**: –

**Modifiers**: –

The Spook encrypts the contents of her mind into a highly complex code. Anyone who successfully uses Lay Open the Mind (or any other telepathic power) on the character receives strings of non-sensical letters, numbers or symbols.

It is possible to decode the encryption, albeit with great difficulty. First, the mind-reader makes an Intelligence + Composure - 3 roll to remember fragments of the code that he had seen. The pieces of information that /can/ be decoded is limited to the successes achieved by this memory check. Decoding is a roll of Intelligence + Investigation – target's Subterfuge. The roll is made each time for each piece of information recalled. The threshold of success is equal to the devotion's initial activation roll. Each roll to decode costs 1 downtime due to time spent analysing the code.

### **Rewrite**

*Dominate •••• 1XP*

**Dice Pool**: –

**Cost**: 1 Willpower

**Modifiers**: –

Sometimes the truth is... inconvenient. And the best way to conceal the truth is to conceal it from yourself. It is not all that uncommon for a Panoptes to find herself in a situation of needing a mind wipe. This devotion allows her to use Dominate 4, The Lying Mind, on herself.

### **Vitae Cipher**

*Auspex •••, Obfuscate •• 2XP*

**Dice pool**: –

**Cost**: 1 Vitae, additional vitae optional

**Modifiers**: –

Secrets whisper in the blood of the Mekhet. The Panoptes believe that they can break the code, and once in a while, they figure out how to twist their blood and use it to transcribe messages encoded in Vitae. With an expenditure of blood, the Panoptes can encode information (at a maximum rate of a thousand words per Vitae) which can be accessed by a desired recipient who consumes the vitae. The vitae can be shed and stored outside of the Panoptes' body, or consumed directly from her veins. Any knowledge that the Panoptes desires can be transferred to the recipient; the recipient has to drink the vitae completely to be able to access the information. The effects of vitae addiction or vinculum are the same as consuming normal vitae.

For blood stored outside of a Panoptes' body, the cipher remains as long as the Vitae remains. Therefore, the Vitae cannot be transferred via ghoul, as a Kindred who drinks from a ghoul obtains no Vitae. It can be stored in a vessel via supernatural rituals, such as Vitae Reliquary, or it can be stored in a particular Kindred by feeding them the Vitae. If not used for disciplines, healing, or other purposes, the Vitae cipher disappears in seven nights as the Kindred will inevitably use it to rise. The Panoptes must spend 1 Vitae per number of recipient.

### **Intercept Transmission**

*Auspex ••••, Dominate ••• 3XP*

**Dice Pool**: Wits + Communications + Auspex vs. Resolve + Blood Potency

**Cost**: 1 Willpower

**Modifiers**: Blood Sympathy (+1 to +3), alone with target (+4), with target and one other person (+2), crowded room (-1 to -3), multiple instances of Auspex use in the room (-1 for each)

The Spook must have successfully detected the user (or someone on the receiving end) of a telepathic power, like Auspex 4, Lay Open the Mind. The Spook can then “listen in” on the mental link, receiving any information sent through the telepathic communication.

Generally, the Spook cannot be detected if she does not interfere. With a roll of Manipulation + Subterfuge, she may block or alter certain parts of the message, or inject her own message (usually brief—a few words, an image or the suggestion of an emotion) into the conversation. The interfered parties may roll Wits + Composure penalized by the Spook's Subterfuge to detect that their connection has been compromised.