Legendary Artifact

The Fingerbone of Saint Francis

Created by Prototype, given to Darren Stanley.
A human pingerbone, set in a locket or ring

While wearing the relic of St. Francis, your words will reach all God's Creatures, & your eyes will shine with Divine Wisdom, unveiling the written word.


You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.

You may understand and communicate to Creatures as if you are fluent in a relevant language.

This also includes understanding any recorded communications from the relevant targets, including writings, scent trails, etc.

  • Communing with creatures does not grant them intellect but does allow you to converse with them.
  • When reading written communications, you get no information beyond what the writer was intending to communicate.

Community Artifacts

Man-Felling Axe

Created and held by zzzArtifacts.
A plain-looking wood axe from afar, with a wooden handle and an iron head. Closer inspection will show ancient symbols of some kind along the handle, and a decorative engraving on the head.

When the axe is swung at a target’s elbows and knees, the runes and engravings will glow a deep red as they make contact with the flesh. As the limb is detached from the body, the target will grow the respective appendage back at the location of the “wound” with full function.


Exert your Mind and Spend an Action. Select a Living or Animate target within arm's reach. Roll Brawn + Melee at Difficulty 6. The target may roll Body, -2 dice at Difficulty 7, as a Free Action to resist.

If you succeed, the target receives a new Battle Scar of your choosing, limited by the contested Outcome:

  1. A Minor Battle Scar E.g. an aesthetic-only body modification (a disfigured face, a pig's tail), impacted hand or foot, or vocal changes that complicate communication
  2. A Major Battle Scar E.g. a disabled/removed hand or foot, an inability to speak, an impacted major sense, removal of a minor sense, impacted movement.
  3. A Severe Battle Scar E.g. a disabled/removed arm or leg, deafness, aesthetic changes that are nearly impossible to conceal.
  4. An Extreme Battle Scar E.g. removal/disabling both hands or both legs, blindness, a full-body deformation that leaves the target humanoid but makes it difficult to use clothes, vehicles, and equipment designed for humans.
Refer to the stock Battle Scars on the Character Sheet for specific systems.

If the Contested Outcome of your activation roll is 4 or higher, the activation cost of this Effect is refunded.

All alterations you make must shorten limbs.

  • Remember: A Contractor’s Body rating is reduced by 1 for each Battle Scar after their fourth.
  • You may opt to inflict a Battle Scar that is less severe than what your Outcome allows.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

Bracelet of Deconstruction

Created and held by Dagfinn Bargmann.
A bracelet of several woven chords that split and recombine, and a decorated buckle.

Blossoms of ink-in-water apparate about the target, before being absorbed. Occasional flashes of colored electricity pass through the cloud of ink before its absorption.

The target experiences a rapid decay: change in color, shift in texture, and loss of material integrity.

Understanding the structure of matter and deconstructing it.

Drawing from a deep understanding of material composition, organic and non-organic, and a focused intent to force alteration, the target is pulled apart and transformed on a fundamental, molecular -even atomic- level, as though experiencing accelerated entropy.


Spend an Action. Select a target within 45 feet. Roll Intellect + Science Difficulty 6. The target may contest by rolling to Dodge or Defend as a Reaction, Difficulty 6.

If the Contested Outcome is positive, the target takes that much Damage plus 4.

You may use this Effect to Defend against any melee, projectile, or firearm Attacks within range or Clash against any Attack targeted at you. Using it to Defend deals no Damage but does not cost Exertion.

The target suffers a -3 dice penalty for the next hour or until the Injury is healed. This dice penalty does not stack multiple times on the same target.

This Gift's Cost is capped at 2 and cannot be increased further.

Instead of dealing Damage all at once, the Injury caused by this Power starts at Severity 1 and worsens at the rate of one level per Round until it reaches the Severity it would have otherwise been.

  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

Hammer

Created and held by Dylan 'Dill' Parker.
A beat up shotgun covered in dents and scratch marks from tiny claws

The shotgun almost shudders with anticipation at the thought of spilling rodent blood.


This Artifact can be used as a shotgun. It is roughly the same size as a shotgun and just as difficult to conceal.

Attack by rolling Dexterity + Firearms, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +5 Weapon Damage.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Bane: Injuries dealt to rats and ratlike entities are increased by 2 Severity levels.
  • Infinite Ammo: This weapon never runs out of its standard ammunition.

  • Reminder: additional Weapon Damage granted by this Effect does not stack with any other bonus to Weapon Damage. Instead the largest bonus is used.
  • Rifles are +1 Difficulty to use in melee range. Sniper Rifles are +3 Difficulty to use without a tripod or in melee range. Setting up a tripod takes an Action.

Grim Reapers Cloak

Created and held by Damien Hecata.
A cloak that is so dark it seems to allow no light to escape

your cloak expands and completely encases you before unravelling revealing you as a 7'0 skeleton wearing the cloak.


Exert your Mind and spend an Action to activate.

You transform into Grim reaper until you transform into something else or choose to return to your original form. You cannot transform into a flying creature. See the Extended System text for stats.

While transformed, you cannot use any equipment (excluding Artifacts and Consumables, which you can use), and you cannot use your Active, Direct, or Trap Powers. However, you can use your Passive Powers. Any equipment you are wearing transforms with you.

Injuries and Wound Level are carried over between forms. However, transforming can never kill you; you merely remain Incapacitated until your Injuries are sufficiently healed.

While transformed, you are obviously unusual, unnatural, or alien, and the average person will take a special interest in you.

  • Creature Stats
    • Large (larger than human, smaller than elephant) Body: 8. Brawn 6. Dexterity 2. Fall damage increased by 2. Armor: 1
    All creatures get +3 dice to any non-combat Action that they are naturally adapted for. All creatures Medium and larger may attack by rolling Body, dealing +0 Damage (+1 for “predators”). Gms and Playgroup leaders can apply other bonuses and effects to specific animals.

It has often been said that the reaper can kill with just a touch this power lets you replicate that ability by increasing your skill in unarmed combat


You gain the following benefits as long as you are using the reaper form power, you are wearing this Artifact, and you are engaged in unarmed combat.

+2 dice to rolls for Attacking, Defending, and Clashing without a weapon. Unarmed attacks do +2 Bonus Damage Weapon Damage (instead of -1). The target's Armor is fully effective against this damage.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Armored Fist: You cannot take Damage from attacking a dangerous material (such as steel armor, a spiked carapace, or an acidic blob). You may Defend against melee, projectile, or firearm attacks from any range and Clash with those in range of your attacks.
  • Fancy Footwork: You may move your full Dash distance and attack in the same Round without penalty. You may also split your movement before and after your attack.
  • One Inch Punch: You may make a full attack against any target you can touch, even if you are restrained. To an observer, you hardly move. In a crowded area, determining that you were the source of an attack requires a Perception + Alertness roll with an Outcome of 4.

  • Unlike the Ability Brawl, this Effect does not affect small weapons such as knives.

Surgeons shirt

Created and held by Amanda Kultz.
A green scrub top that acts as normal.

The user yanks on the top and tiny particulates of various diseases stream out toward the target. Thousands of different plagues and illnesses permeate the body and cause the target to wither and runes made of sores form across their chest. The gown makes the shoulder of the wearer weak and prone to dislocation. The diseases will be cleared by a simple red delicious apple, decreeable by reading the runes.


Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Living target within 25 feet. This Effect cannot be used unless the target has hurt anyone. Roll Intellect + Medicine at Difficulty 6. Your target may resist by rolling Body at Difficulty 8.

If you succeed, the target is afflicted with a Condition that causes any number of the following symptoms:

  • Disabled: The target suffers from an affliction that leaves them unable to act at full strength, such as physical pain, severe fever, intense fatigue, etc. They take a -2 penalty to all physical actions, which grows by -1 every hour until it reaches your Outcome.
  • Poisoned: The target gains a Severity-1 Injury which ignores Armor and doesn’t heal naturally. For every hour that passes, they receive a new identical Injury. If this new Injury would kill them, they roll 1d10 at Difficulty 6. Success cures the condition; otherwise, they will die.
  • Wasting Away: The target’s body is being eaten away by the affliction. Immediately on being afflicted, and again for every hour that passes, they will obtain a new Major or Minor Battle Scar.
Symptoms begin to appear immediately, and will remain and continue to worsen until the affliction is cured. The affliction is not contagious and will not spread to others.

The affliction is not treatable by modern medicine. It may be diagnosed by rolling Intellect + Occult at Difficulty 6, and can be cured by eating a ‘red delicious’ apple.

Anyone who touches this Artifact will notice it warping their body and may drop it. If they choose to hold or use it, they immediately receive the following Battle Scar: shoulder subluxation. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Battle Scar heals over the course of the next day.

  • Successfully diagnosing an affliction also includes information about the treatment method.
  • The chosen method of treatment must be something that you could obtain in a small town given an afternoon.
  • Curing an affliction removes the Condition, but does not automatically heal any Injuries, Battle Scars, or Traumas which may have been caused by that condition.
  • This Effect’s symptoms do not stack with themselves on multiple applications.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

Stock Legendary Artifacts

The Skeleton Key

At first glance, this appears to be a standard, modern house key made of ivory. A close observer might compliment its skull-shaped head or usual material. No one would suspect it to be one of the Thief's most prized possessions: The Skeleton Key.

Spend an Action.

You may lock, unlock, and/or open any number of doors, containers, knots, or locks within arm's reach of you. Cannot be used on Alien technology.

If you successfully operate a lock, you may choose to destroy it, rendering it inoperable.

  • Operating some locking mechanisms through this Effect may have a secondary effect, such as a turn-key ignition on an older or cheaper car causing it to start or stop. Note that the locking mechanism itself must satisfy the standard targeting requirements (including line of sight), not just the vehicle.
  • Any mechanism that requires a key, keycard, key fob, or combination may be considered locked, at the GM's discretion. This Effect may be used on doors and containers secured with control panels or other electronic locks, but not computer security systems at large.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

This Effect activates whenever you are submerged in salt water. It does not require an Action or Exertion. Your target should be intuitively based on the triggering event.

You transform into small for two hours or until you choose to end the Effect. See the Extended System text for stats.

While transformed, you cannot use any equipment (including Artifacts and Consumables), and you cannot use your Active, Targeted, or Trap Powers. However, you can use your Passive Powers. Any equipment you are wearing transforms with you.

Injuries and Wound Level are carried over between forms. However, transforming can never kill you; you merely remain Incapacitated until your Injuries are sufficiently healed.

  • When triggered, the Effect activation resolves immediately after the triggering Action. It is not Reaction speed.
  • Creature Stats
    • Medium (large house cat up to human) Body 3. Brawn 1. Dexterity 3. Fall damage reduced by 1.
    All creatures get +3 dice to any non-combat Action that they are naturally adapted for. All creatures Medium and larger may attack by rolling Body, dealing +0 Damage (+1 for “predators”). Gms and Playgroup leaders can apply other bonuses and effects to specific animals.
  • Animals that are quicker than humans (like dogs) have 50 feet of Free Movement. Animals that are very slow (like turtles) have 0 feet of Free Movement.
  • You cannot transform if there is not enough room to do so.
  • The form you take must have the same stats and abilities as a single, extant animal of the relevant size.

The Bug-out Bag

No hiker would bat an eye if they saw someone wearing this 80 liter backpacking pack in the backcountry. Those who look closer find it's made of a curious mix of modern materials and what appears to be rawhide stitching.

This Artifact holds 5 times what it normally could inside of it. Objects stored inside are weightless.

Living things can be stored in this Artifact. They will have access to anything else inside and may attempt to break free, damaging or destroying the Artifact in the process.

If this Artifact is destroyed, things inside may get out, and it will cease to function until it is repaired.

When scanned or investigated without opening, the contents of this container appear normal and unremarkable.

If anyone other than you opens the container, it appears empty. Others can still destroy it to get at the contents.

  • A container of holding cannot be placed inside another created by the same Gift.
  • There is no cost to use this container.

This Artifact cannot be broken. If this Artifact is lost and in no one else’s possession, it finds its way back to its true owner during the next Downtime.

By default, the creator of this Artifact is its true owner. The true owner may formally bequeath this Artifact onto another person within arm’s reach, after which they are its true owner. If the true owner dies or is destroyed, their ownership ends. If this Artifact has no true owner, anyone may spend one day attuning to it to become its true owner.

This Artifact's true owner is always aware of the direction and distance to this Artifact.

  • "Cannot be broken" means that damage cannot render the Artifact's Effects unusable, nor can it cease to be used for its primary mundane purpose, if it has one.

The Axe of Legend

This electric guitar has one edge sharpened into a deadly blade. It can be used as either sort of axe.

This Artifact can be used as a sword / axe. It is roughly the same size as a sword / axe and just as difficult to conceal.

Attack by rolling Brawn + Melee, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +4 Weapon Damage.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Mjolnir: You may call your weapon back to your hand as a Quick Action if it is within 50 feet of you. Can only be used on melee weapon that you have wielded in the past hour.
  • Shredder: If you successfully hit your target, the value of any Armor they are wearing is reduced by 2. For material armor, this penalty lasts until it is repaired. For intrinsic armor, it lasts until the end of Combat and any relevant wound is healed.

  • Reminder: additional Weapon Damage granted by this Effect does not stack with any other bonus to Weapon Damage. Instead the largest bonus is used.

The Coffin

"The Coffin" is a black, alligator-skin briefcase made to look like its namesake. The interior is coated in red, quilted leather. It is quite a bit larger on the inside, appearing to stretch backwards like a dark passageway.

This Artifact holds 5 times what it normally could inside of it. Objects stored inside are weightless. Unless you are storing something commonly found in coffins, this Artifact behaves as its mundane counterpart. This Effect cannot be used unless you are storing something commonly found in coffins.

Living things can be stored in this Artifact. They will have access to anything else inside and may attempt to break free, damaging or destroying the Artifact in the process.

If this Artifact is destroyed, things inside may get out, and it will cease to function until it is repaired.

When scanned or investigated without opening, the contents of this container appear normal and unremarkable.

On a Downtime, you may change this Artifact from one type of container to another. Maximum once per Downtime.

If anyone other than you opens the container, it appears empty. Others can still destroy it to get at the contents.

  • You cannot change the container's type if you are not in possession of it.
  • A container of holding cannot be placed inside another created by the same Gift.
  • There is no cost to use this container.