Custom Combination Discipline / Technique

With this steganography technique, a Kindred can hide messages and works of art in plain sight without risk to the Masquerade. It allows Kindred to safely communicate using email and social media as well as display artwork that exceeds human ability in areas accessible to mortals.

The user creates the work he or she wishes to conceal and then either creates or finds media (such as text, image, audio recording, or video) in which to hide it. The two works should be comparable in size. The technique cannot be used with live performances but is applicable to recordings. The user must be directly involved in the creation of the hidden work, but can use a preexisting one to hide it. For example, the user could hide his own novel within a copy of "As I Lay Dying", but could not hide "Great Expectations" unless he first personally transcribed it. If used with digital media, the hidden message will remain in unaltered copies of the file. If a Kindred uses preexisting media, such as concealing a dramatic monologue within "Bohemian Rhapsody", the hidden reading does not spread to all copies of the song; it is only present in files that trace back to the one created with Sub Rosa.

Mechanics: 
Spending a blood trait activates Sub Rosa for the night. The steganography process irreversibly consumes the original media as it disappears into the other work. The time required ranges from a single round to an hour depending on the size and complexity of the piece. As the concealed work no longer physically exists, no form of mundane observation or scientific study can reveal it or give any clues to its existence. Only Kindred are able to perceive it, and they can see, hear, and smell it just as clearly as any other work.

Kindred who know Sub Rosa and those actively using Psychic Projection are automatically able to perceive the hidden work with no extra cost. Any other Kindred who becomes aware of it must spend a blood trait, which reveals the hidden pieces to them for the night.  Kindred do not simultaneously perceive both the surface and hidden media, though they can choose to see either at any time. 

If the user spends a mental trait at the time of concealing the piece, only Kindred who know Sub Rosa are capable of seeing the hidden piece under any circumstances.

Non-vampires never see the hidden work. Investigation techniques of other supernaturals may decipher something vaguely mystical, but no other supernatural ability (including ones similar to Psychic Projection) can reveal the hidden media.