Divination and Example Power 12: See the Past

Many GMs are wary of allowing divination powers in their games because divination can neutralize mystery plots. It is true that magic or psychic powers or other divination methods might reveal clues about a mystery that ordinarily would have gone unnoticed by conventional investigation, but that doesn't necessarily invalidate the conventional investigation techniques. For example, if a psychic detective is investigating a series of murders, his special abilities may tell him that the killer is the brother-in-law of the mayor. That's a helpful piece of information but the case isn't solved yet because most settings don't allow psychic hunches or cosmic “vibes” as admissible evidence in a court of law. That poor psychic detective can't arrest the killer without real tangible evidence and a judge won't issue a warrant based solely on the detective's word or gut instincts.


Divination powers alone won't solve the case for you (unless you're a vigilante who acts as judge, jury, and executioner). On the other hand, they can save a lot of time by letting you avoid red herrings and dead end leads, because you can focus the investigation on the guilty party and spend your time gathering evidence that links them to the crime. Divination can tell you the answer to a mystery, but if you want anyone else to believe you, you'll still need to prove it. The key to running a good mystery game with divination powers is to ensure that the PCs don't live in a vacuum. PCs who have the ultimate authority to act on their information and answer to no one can just say "Oh, the mayor's son-in-law is the killer? I waste him with my crossbow. Case closed." In a campaign structured like that, you'll either need to disallow divination for PCs or be comfortable with the fact that mysteries aren't going to provide much challenge in themselves. On the other hand, PCs who live in a society with laws and public opinion that matters will still need to find real evidence. Just think of all the police dramas that feature detectives investigating someone that they know is guilty but they can't find the evidence they need to convict him. With that in mind, the first divination power is after the jump.



See the Past: This power allows the user to see the past of an object, person, or place. As an Instant power, this allows a quick glimpse into the most recent or most significant event surrounding the target of the power. As a general rule of thumb, the power may be used to ask an information question (who, what, where, how, etc.) related to the target of the power. When the power is maintained as a Focus power, additional clarifying questions may be asked in subsequent rounds. When the power is used as a Scene power, it may be used to observe an entire scene in the target's past. Depending on the setting and the power source, this may be a crystal clear recording of the past events or a shadowy indistinct vision shrouded by the mists of time.

• The Necromancers of Taj Neroth who worship Nai Ctagn have access to the “Psychic Spoor” spell that allows them to sense the emotional and mental residue left on objects by touching, smelling, and even tasting them. They usually use this spell to hunt down those investigators who poke their noses into the cult's business and who might threaten to uncover the cult's secrets. The Necromancers who worship Lopcilthoth have access to the more conventional necromantic spell called “Grave Speech”, which allows them to interrogate mortal remains about the events of the deceased’s life.
• Among the Elemental Mages, the water mages say that water not only takes the shape of any container in which it is placed, but water also remembers that shape long afterward. The “Water Memory” spell allows a mage to read the impressions left in the water by past events. The mage can recall the sounds, images, and even flavors and odors that previously came into contact with the water. This is a Focus spell and it can be used at range (the difficulty increases as the water is further removed from the source of the memory and becomes diluted with other water and fresher memories). The difficulty is also increased in exceptionally dry places where the water that “witnessed” an event may evaporate and be lost fairly quickly.
• Aetheric Engineers have knowledge of a Scene device called a Catastrophic Imprint Analyzer, which can be used to pick up and decipher the psychic impressions left on an Aetheric device during moments of high stress. It is most often used to determine the circumstances surrounding the destruction of a piece of equipment. The CI Analyzer can only pick up impressions that were made on devices while they were being powered by Aetheric energy. For example, if it is used to examine the cockpit of a crashed rocket, only events that transpired before the rocket lost power will be recoverable by the analyzer; when used to analyze a dead man's gun, no useful information can be revealed about his last moments if he didn't manage to fire a shot (and cycle power through the gun) before dying.
• Hermetic Dynamicists have a similar technique that can be used on any substance with a high thermal conductivity (such as metals) but they can usually only pick up events connected with strong emotions. This is a Focus power. The caster suffers a -1D penalty to observe events that had no strong emotional content (such as events that involved no living beings) and gains a +1D bonus for scenes where a Passion was invoked by one of the characters involved.
• A small group of Cryobionicists working for the Neptunian Special Rocket Service have developed a device called a “Glacial Surveillance System”. The GSS can recover recent audio and video information about an event from any piece of cryobionic equipment or other specially enhanced ice (such as the ice used to make walls and floors in many Neptunian structures).
• The Dai Zha and Ma Quy templars can both tap into the Source to receive visions about events in the recent past by touching an object or concentrating on a place. This sorcery is a Focus power and it can also be used at range but only the most overwhelmingly significant events can be sensed quickly; less galaxy-shaking events require intense meditation sessions in order to perceive them at great ranges.
• The Tyrian Brotherhood has a rare prayer called “Seek the Guilty”, which allows the knight to glimpse the circumstances surrounding a serious crime by handling a piece of evidence. The information granted by this prayer is usually presented from the criminals point of view which can make seeing the criminal’s face difficult but does allow an emotional sense of the villain’s motives. A more common prayer is “Window to the Soul”, which allows a knight to read information about the past of a person by meeting their gaze.