Legendary Artifact

Snip

Created and held by Maxwell Walker.

A Steel Blade in the form of a longsword


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:

  • Blade Breaker: If you successfully Defend against a melee attack or if an opponent is unsuccessful at Defending against your melee attack, you may break your opponent's weapon.
  • This melee weapon may extend for a single attack up to 50 feet away. Retracting back into its usable size is a Quick Action.
  • Lasersaber: Given time, you may demolish any object or wall. To destroy 1 cubic foot of material: spend 1 Action for material demolishable with a crowbar or sledgehammer, and 2 Actions for other materials (like steel).
  • 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.

Community Artifacts

Universal Identification

Created and held by Alex Scott.
A small, blank passport.

The holder holds the document in their hand, makes a slight flick as they're saying what it is, and then it is that document, just as the plot requires.


This Artifact can change its appearance. When not transformed, it is roughly the same size as a passport and just as difficult to conceal.

Spend a Quick Action to activate. This Artifact changes its appearance into a chosen Object. This lasts until you decide to end the Effect, which may be done as a Free Action.

The new object's appearance can mimic specific items (such as a particular painting, a certain person’s ID, etc), but must be of a similar size and weight to this Artifact.

The new appearance is illusory; it will hold up to scrutiny, but its composition is not altered and it gains no new functionality. Any attempt to use it for a function which it cannot perform (for instance, making bread look like a knife and then trying to stab someone) will cause the illusion to fail or allow a Perception check to see through the illusion, at the GM's discretion.

When used as identification and scanned, the scanner will act appropriately and bring up appropriate generic information. Further searches for the identity in the computer will turn up no results. This will not open security doors on its own.

  • Changing the Artifact’s appearance does not allow you to conceal its Alien nature while any of its other Effects are in use.

Fragments of a sunbeam

Created and held by Caroline (real).
‘Fragments of a sunbeam glaring from the kitchen knife’

The bagman's power infused with Caroline's knife caused the blade to emit smoke when penetrating flesh and to cause a sort of paralysis that 'pins' the target.


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

Attack by rolling (Dexterity or Brawn) + (Melee or Brawl), Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +3 Weapon Damage.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Pin: If you Injure a target with an Attack, you may choose to leave your weapon. If you do, the target is “pinned” to that location until the weapon is removed. Removing the weapon increases the Severity of that Injury by 2.
  • 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.

Blood Pendant

Created and held by Emily Miller.
A single pure red jewel, set in a subtle necklace of silver. It nestles into the fur of her neck, and is always warm to the touch, even when separated from its owner.

Emily lets out a breath, and with her claws, slices the insides of her arm, allowing the blood (for power) to spill to the ground. She then mixes a vial of virgin's blood (for tempting), and mixes it with the dirt (for binding). In a pinch, she can smear it on the floor, but the creatures that speak though the blood to her do not appreciate this as much.

They whisper to her the desires of the land and those in it. Those who desire to hurt, those who desire to change, those who desire to move.


Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend a minute. Investigate an area with a radius of up to 1 mile You must use up a vial of virgin's blood in order to activate this Effect. At the end of your investigation, roll Brawn + Alertness at Difficulty 6.

You learn the following information about the area:

  • You learn about any traps or ambushes in the area. Using this power does not trigger said traps or ambushes.
  • You can locate the source of any Alien energy or the presence of any Alien effects on the area. Specific information about the function of these effects beyond their general type is not forthcoming.
  • You learn how heavily trafficked the area is, what sorts of Animate beings have moved through the area and when.
The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome.

If you do not have a sacrificial Injury when you activate this Effect, take a new Severity-1 Injury.

You cannot investigate the same area more than once per day.

  • The sacrificial Injury received from activating this Effect cannot be prevented by any means or healed before 1 day has passed. It is shared with all Effects that use sacrifice. This Injury does not requires Stabilization or cause Battle Scars when it becomes Severe.
  • 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.

When removed, no one can hear it but Emily. But she can. That keening cry, of a babe separated from its mother. It's grating, but she could follow it anywhere.

She can also cry out, and unless held, it will collapse into blood and reform in her paw.

Part of her is in there.


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.

If this Artifact is in no one else’s possession, its true owner may Exert their Mind and spend two Actions to bring it to themselves.

This Artifact's true owner must have it with them to have restful sleep. They cannot regain Mind or Source while separated from 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.

Emily lets out a snarl from deep within the folds of her fabric. She draws her paw back, and then strikes the ground. A spike of blood shoots out of her paw, tunneling though the ground before emerging in a location with sudden and remarkable violence. It heads up about five feet before exploding outwards into tendrils of blood, punching though flesh, bone, and steel without care.


Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Location within 40 feet. This Effect cannot be used unless you are in alternate form. You must make a Trauma roll when you use this Effect. Its Difficulty cannot be reduced by any means. If you fail or Botch, you receive one Mind Damage and a new Trauma. The area within 25 feet of the chosen Location immediately and obviously becomes imminently dangerous. Roll Brawn + Melee at Difficulty 6. Targets inside the radius may attempt an appropriate Reaction at GM’s discretion. Finding a physical barrier to use as cover will cut total Damage taken in half (applies after Reaction roll but before Armor).

If the Outcome is positive, your blast hits all targets (besides a single chosen species or type of Animate being) within 25 feet of the chosen Location with Damage equal to your Outcome + 8.

  • 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.

The vial is poured from the shadows, forming a ring around the object. Next, blood is poured from her own wrist, and mixed.

The whispers tell her secrets.


Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend a minute. Select a target Object within arm's reach. You must use up a vial of virgin's blood in order to activate this Effect. At the end of your investigation, roll Brawn + Investigation at Difficulty 6.

You learn all the following information about your target:

  • Determine if this target is Alien in origin or whether it has any Alien energy or outside influences. You receive information about the type of energy, including the name of the relevant Source pool or equivalent. You determine the effect of any active Alien energy detected, and you get an idea as to the sorts of ways that latent Alien energy may be channeled by the target.
  • You receive a mental image of the area, painted in blood, allowing you to discern where this object has recently been.
  • You gather information about where the object was made and when.
  • You receive scent and taste telling you who has used this object recently.
The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome.

If you do not have a sacrificial Injury when you activate this Effect, take a new Severity-1 Injury.

You cannot investigate the same target more than once per day.

  • The sacrificial Injury received from activating this Effect cannot be prevented by any means or healed before 1 day has passed. It is shared with all Effects that use sacrifice. This Injury does not requires Stabilization or cause Battle Scars when it becomes Severe.
  • 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.

Emily collapses to her knees for a moment, and she locks her paws together. Her claws piece her own flesh, and she remembers, just for a short time, the night that she drank from the Red Grail.

The transformation starts from the blood that stains her claws, the fluid roiling for just a moment before it begins to run up her claws, paws, and her arms. The blood turns into thin, fluttering fabric that moves softly almost by itself. It covers her, wrapping her in many layers, obscuring her form. Her arms and legs and tail are lost in the fabric, her face shrouded in shadow. Digging though the fabric might not even find her at all... although the fabric caresses those who do.

And yet...

Everyone who looks at The Priestess knows she has an ever-present smile.

It is said that those who die at the hands (or paws) of one of the Hedonistic Priestesses always die with a smile on their face.


Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: kneeling, and digging your claws into your own flesh.. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.

You transform into a Red Grail Priestess for 3 hours. You have access to all of your Powers while you are a Red Grail Priestess, and you can use your equipment. The Injuries and Battle Scars of your Alternate Form and your true form are tracked separately.

While transformed, your Attributes are the same. Your Stress is reduced by 2.

While transformed, instead of your normal clothes and equipment, you are equipped with: Long, red flowing robes that are constantly in a sensuous motion. One of her hands, wrapped in cloth more blood-red than blood, holds a shield made of thin crystal. It sings a wonderful, keening sound when struck. She wears the Reaper's Skull over her muzzle. On a belt, hidden within the robes, are various injectors of recreational drugs.

You may end this Effect prematurely as a Free Action.

If you do not have a sacrificial Injury when you activate this Effect, take a new Severity-1 Injury.

  • The sacrificial Injury received from activating this Effect cannot be prevented by any means or healed before 1 day has passed. It is shared with all Effects that use sacrifice. This Injury does not requires Stabilization or cause Battle Scars when it becomes Severe.
  • Attribute bonuses from multiple sources do not stack. Instead the highest bonus is used.

Emily's conjugality with the Grail has both hardened her against more mundane trials and demonstrated to her several ways of returning a sensation upon one who offers it.


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

You get +4 dice to any Mind resistance rolls you make. You also gain the following effects:

  • Instant Karma: If you successfully resist an Effect with your Mind, you may reflect it back to another target as though you had cast it.

  • When reflecting an Effect, its Activation Outcome is equal to your resistance Outcome. If you reflect it back at the target who cast it originally, they do not receive a resistance roll.
  • These bonuses apply only to Mind rolls made to resist Effects and other supernatural phenomena. They do not apply to Trauma rolls or self-control rolls.

Emily makes an offering of her own blood (for power) and a virgin's blood (for tempting) to the Grail... and it consumes her. For a moment, the blood leaks from her amulet before spreading over her, turning to red silk as it does, wrapping around her.. and then collapsing in on itself. She emerges in her new desired location as a chrysalis.

She may also make a prayer to the Grail at one of their temples - drinking freely and consuming all pleasures, and travel to another.


Exert your Mind and spend 2 Actions. Select a Location within your line of sight. You must use up a vial of virgin's blood in order to activate this Effect.

You are transported directly to the chosen Location. Anyone who is touching you as you Travel will be brought along with you. You must wait an hour before activating this effect again.

If you traverse any temples to hedonism (clubs, bars, drug dens, etc) for one minute, you may activate this Effect and travel to the edge of any other temples to hedonism (clubs, bars, drug dens, etc) that you’re aware of, regardless of range.

  • 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.

Emily crushes the vial in her paw and her pendant glows, and for a moment, she makes a sacrifice, attracting the attention of entities great and powerful to deepen her connection with all beings.


Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must use up a vial of virgin's blood in order to activate this Effect.

You may understand and communicate to Creatures, humans, and Sapient beings as if you are fluent in a relevant language for the next hour.

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

Communicating with a being cannot directly damage your Mind or cause Injury. All rolls to resist Effects that rely on communicating with you are made at -1 Difficulty.

  • Communing with creatures does not grant them intellect but does allow you to converse with them.
  • The target of "human" refers to any target that speaks a human language.
  • When reading written communications, you get no information beyond what the writer was intending to communicate.

Emily takes a deep breath of the target - or something with its scent - and her amulet flares for a second. And her blood stirs.

In the target, blood stirs in harmony. Some of it brightens, manifesting if it wasn't already there. Removing it all requires removing a good amount of insides as well.


Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a target within arm's reach. You may select a target at any range if you use up something with the scent of the target.

Your target is marked with bright blood. The mark can only be discovered with a deep medical inspection or Effect. Removal inflicts a Severity 1 Injury on the target.

You are aware of the marked target's direction and distance from you. This lasts for the next month, or until either the mark is removed, or you choose to end the Effect. This Artifact can have up to 3 marks active.

You may use any Awareness Powers on a marked target at any range.

  • Marked individuals satisfy the line of sight requirement for targeted Effects.
  • 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.

Attritus

Created and held by Mikael.
Pendant

A dusty pendant with three, embroidered silver latches; on each latch a feather is protruding outward.


Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Object or Animate target up to 100 feet away. Select a distance up to 100 feet. Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you The effect of the push immeaditly recoils backwards, sending whatever was being pushed straight towards are the user.

Targets that weigh less than you are pushed back until they are the selected distance away. If you are lighter, you move instead. If you are roughly the same weight, you and the target both move.

This Effect cannot move anything heavier than 500 pounds.

Affected targets may use a Reaction and roll Dexterity or Brawn + Athletics to hold on to a nearby anchor, if available. A complete success increases their effective weight by whatever they hold onto. You may also roll to anchor yourself as you activate this Effect without spending a Reaction.

Pushing a target straight upward requires you to be directly beneath them and halves the range. GM’s may ask for a Dexterity + Athletics roll when repositioning yourself around a target to get a desired angle. They may React to reposition or anchor themselves as normal.

Targets that move and collide with a solid surface take 5 Damage.

  • 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.

Thaumostatic Harness with Dermal Plating

Created and held by Diamond Jasper.
A series of plates of armor that attach to the gel-sections of Diamond's body, creating a hard, flexible shell to ward away damage.

These plates come together to form a protective surface that appears like welding gear - thick gloves, Kevlar sleeves, a heavy apron, and of course, an OSHA-compliant helmet and mask. The heavy workboots and thick workpants are meant to emulate Diamond as they were, allowing Diamond to pass more easily at their job.

The plates hook into Diamond's frame to distribute their weight, hence why you need to be an android or cyborg to wear them - you need hardpoints to mount the plates to. They also require some form of power so as to activate Defense Curl, Vanguard, and Thorns, as the Thorns is narratively an electro-thaumic discharge from Diamond's onboard reactor, Vanguard is from energized sensor-circuits just under the skin, and Defense Curl is overcharging the whole system to magnetize it to the body.

Deactivating the Armor will allow Diamond to cause it to explode off them and reassemble on the floor, dealing no damage, but it's flashy and showy, and I want heavy armor plates to embed themselves in soft earth as a show of just how heavy "Bulky" really is.


You gain the following benefits as long as you have sufficient power and hardpoints to mount it and you are wearing this Artifact.

You have 4 Armor, which reduces incoming Damage. Armor from multiple sources does not stack. Called Shots may circumvent your Armor, depending on its coverage.

You may spend an Action or Reaction and Exert your Mind to double your Armor rating for one Round.

When you take Damage from a source which is within 5 feet, deal back as much Damage as your Armor prevented.

Whenever your Armor reduces incoming Damage, you are immediately made aware of the source of the Damage. You may pinpoint their location for 30 seconds.

You may activate or deactivate your armor as a Free Action on your Initiative. As long as your armor is active, your movement speed is halved and you suffer -2 dice to all Dexterity and Perception rolls. While deactivated, it offers no Armor.

  • This Effect’s Armor rating cannot be increased by any other Effects.

Stock Legendary Artifacts

You gain the following benefits as long as you are not at all wet and you are wearing this Artifact.

You and everything you are carrying is obscured in one of the following manners. You may Spend an Action to change the way in which you're concealed.

  • Hearing: You are completely obscured from hearing. You produce no sounds while this Effect is active. All attempts to detect you via hearing fail. Attempts via other senses where hearing would assist are rolled at -2 dice.
  • Sight:You are partially obscured from being noticed by sight. All attempts to detect you using sight are rolled at a -3 dice penalty, and all attempts to detect you where sight would assist are rolled at -1 penalty. Anyone who detects you cannot determine any visual details about you beyond your general shape.

While this Effect is active, any Effect that would obscure you or your equipment specifically from other, additional senses fails automatically.

If someone discovers you, this Effect will not help you hide from them for the next minute. This Effect does not end early when you activate an obvious Effect, attack, or receive an Injury.

  • GMs should use their discretion when determining the exact impacts of this Effect, particularly in conjunction with environmental factors. Standing still against a complex background may render you impossible to detect, and footprints in snow may make it easy. A chance to detect you is not guaranteed.

This Artifact can change its appearance. When not transformed, it is roughly the same size as a passport but can be collapsed into a wallet and concealed. Collapsing or expanding it costs a Quick Action.

Spend a Quick Action to activate. This Artifact changes its appearance into a chosen Object. This lasts until you decide to end the Effect, which may be done as a Free Action.

The new object's appearance can mimic specific items (such as a particular painting, a certain person’s ID, etc), but must be of a similar size and weight to this Artifact.

The new appearance is illusory; it will hold up to scrutiny, but its composition is not altered and it gains no new functionality. Any attempt to use it for a function which it cannot perform (for instance, making bread look like a knife and then trying to stab someone) will cause the illusion to fail or allow a Perception check to see through the illusion, at the GM's discretion.

When used as identification and scanned, the scanner will act appropriately and bring up appropriate generic information. Further searches for the identity in the computer will turn up no results. This will not open security doors on its own.

  • If there is not enough free space to expand the object, it cannot be expanded. You cannot expand this Object as an attack.
  • Changing the Artifact’s appearance does not allow you to conceal its Alien nature while any of its other Effects are in use.

Personal Shield Generator

The device itself is a metal hexagon that is worn on the belt and glows when active.

Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action or Reaction.

You phase out of reality for up to 4 Rounds. During this time, you cannot perceive or affect the outside world or take any Actions. You cannot move. Nothing can interact with you in any way.

When you activate this Effect, you may limit its duration to a period of your choosing. If you are able, you may also end it as a Free Action on your initiative.

You leave a golden glow shaped like yourself at your location.

  • If you use this Effect to dodge as a Reaction, it succeeds without the need for a roll. Cannot be used as a Desperate Defense.
  • You may use your Free Movement on the Round you phase back in, but you cannot take an Action.

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.