Prerequisites for Smoke and Mirrors

Dexterity 3, Composure 2, Larceny 3, Athletics 1

● Wheel of Death

The illusionist hurls knife after knife at his beautiful assistant, who is tied to a spinning wheel across the stage.  Each one misses her by inches.

System: Penalties for striking a specific target with a thrown weapon are reduced by 2.  Does not affect firearms.

●● Water Torture Cell

Houdini’s most famous death-defying escape: Handcuffed, suspended upside down, and with his feet locked into shackles, Houdini was lowered and locked into large glass tank that had been filled with water.  Two minutes and one second later, Houdini pulls the curtain aside and takes a bow.  He is soaking with water and heaving deep breaths, but has a huge smile on his face.

System: Attempts to escape from restraints and confinement have been practiced and performed so many times that they are now rote actions. In addition, the illusionist may now hold her breath as if her stamina were 2 dots higher, and she gains a +2 bonus when feigning death.

Feign Death: If the observer examines the person feigning death, they can make an opposed roll to detect:  Observer’s Wits+Investigation/Medicine vs Composure+Subterfuge.

●●● Quicker than the eye

Concealing and producing items, escaping from handcuffs, palming something into nothing - an illusionist practices constantly to improve their manual dexterity because it factors into every part of their performance. They hone their skills so they can perform feats of prestidigitation with one hand while simultaneously keeping the audience distracted with the other. On stage, all eyes are on them and there is no room for mistakes.

System: Your character can take one Larceny-based instant action reflexively in a given turn. As well, her Larceny actions go unnoticed unless someone is trying specifically to catch her.

●●●● Metamorphosis

The Metamorphosis was one of Houdini's most famous stage illusions.  In seconds, he managed to go from being handcuffed, chained, tied in a sack, and sealed in a locked trunk to standing just a few feet away. 

A character at this level of Smoke and Mirrors likely has a better understanding of stage magic and illusions than either their player or the storyteller. Metamorphosis allows the character to escape from situations that defy belief, and indeed, may be unexplainable.

When being chased through the chemistry lab, Julia ducks around the corner and hides inside a large supply cabinet. Even though Jacob saw her enter the cabinet, when he crosses the room and throws it open, Julia is nowhere to be found.

Requirements: There must be a distraction, a break in the line of sight, or something similar to provide the character a moment to escape.  Only works against humans - dogs or other trained animals will be able to locate the character.  Ineffective against someone who also knows Smoke and Mirrors: Metamorphosis.

Julia has finally found the serial killer she has been chasing, tracking him to the abandoned warehouse where he has been hiding his victims.  Unfortunately, she has now become the hunted.  Severely wounded and out of bullets, she stands face to face with the killer as he explains the horrible ways he is about to torture her.  Even in the darkness of the warehouse, his weapon of choice - a gleaming stainless steel hook - shimmers in the moonlight from the windows.  Suddenly, a flash of lightning bathes the warehouse in light.  The killer blinks against the sudden brightness, and in the next moment Julia is nowhere to be found.

System:  The illusionist rolls Wits/Dex+Subterfuge.  If the observer has seen the illusionist use this ability before, this roll is opposed by Wits+Composure/Investigation.  Success means escape, failure means caught, and dramatic failure means escape, but out of the frying pan and into the fire.  (Per normal failure rules, the player can opt to convert a normal failure into a dramatic failure.)