You place the windup key to the back of a toy, or similarly human representing golem. Twist for a minute until your hand begins to hurt. The toy will animate and grow in size to a friendly helper of the one holding the windup key.
If there is no toy, starting the process as if there were one will slowly make a basic enlarged teddy bear.
This artifact relies on the cultural idea of toys, and the cultural idea of wind up toys, especially in the minds of children. The basic idea of these wind up toys is that you wind them up, then let them go and they move around doing toy things, seeming almost alive. This artifact takes that idea, and merges it with a few other ideas of ways to create useful servants to make an artifact capable of making useful friendly minions.
The ritual to create this artifact relies on a ritual involving
- A variety of children's toys which are popular in the shared imagination
- A collection of stories and myths about the Hebrew golumn
- Mary Shelly's frankenstein
- Carefully shaping the pattern of a wind up key while reading various relevant parts of these stories
Exert your Mind and spend one minute.
Summon a single enlarged animated toy at your location. They will last until they are destroyed. They are controlled by the GM but will follow any commands you give. This Artifact may have at most 1 minion active at a time.
After you finish activating this Effect, you cannot move quicker than a walk (max 15 feet per Round) for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour. Exhaustion’s penalty and duration stacks with multiple activations.
You may only use this Effect once per day.
The sound of pistons being turned on. The faint smell of something burning. And then the gauntlet is in your face.
You gain the following benefits as long as 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 +4 Weapon Damage (instead of -1).
You may Defend against melee, projectile, or firearm Attacks from any range and Clash with those in range of your Attacks. Attacking materials like steel or spikes will not Damage you unless it has an Effect that does so.
You also gain the following effects:
As the gauntlet starts to glow white As steam radiates out. And with a snap of there fingers a cone of white hexagons covers them from the the attacks of his foes.
Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend an Action or Reaction. Roll Intellect + Technology at Difficulty 6.
If you succeed, you create a Barrier extending out 15 feet from yourself, which absorbs 2 times the next (Outcome +4) Damage. Only applies to attacks which originated outside the 15 foot radius, and protects anyone who is within that radius. The Damage reduction from the barrier is applied before Armor. This Artifact may only have 1 active barrier at a time.
You must maintain Concentration while using this Effect. The barrier will fall if you are interrupted, or if it absorbs the full amount of Damage. When a barrier falls, you cannot use this Effect again for a minimum of 2 Rounds.
After attaching the frame to their torso, the user must activate and sync the arm's internal operative systems with the neurological activity responsible for their own limbs-- requiring extensive input from the mind, voice, and body. The golden circuitry running across the chassis ripple with energy during this process. While in use, its origami folds are able to stretch, bend, and morph to fit the user's desired movements.
The calibration sequence to connect the arm requires the user to move around their joints (shoulders, elbows, and wrists) and read aloud a pangram (ex: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog").
The systems powering and controlling the arm are an intricate mix of various power sources all synchronizing together. Specifically, they are the culmination of its creator taking influence from his peers, a spatial mage and technomancer, to achieve the final result of a fully functional additional limb.
These include arm's handcrafted, moving folds (of which three are responsible for the core joint movement of a shoulder/elbow/wrist), the golden circuits that connect to the user's mind (branching into a sprawling, fractal pattern across the arm and acting as a signal booster/receiver for all the energy), and the internal technological programming (which are carefully integrated to run with the rest of the arm's systems).
The use of a pangram enables the internal systems to more easily find specific parts of the brain to connect to and the movement of the joints calibrate the arm's motions as well.
The arm's three primary folds, alongside the three sources of power (magic, technology, and clockwork-level crafting), serve as a double entendre inspiring the gift's final name.
Expend a point of Battery and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: activating and calibrating the arms with the user. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.
You gain an additional limb that functions as a standard human arm and hand. Lasts two hours.
Each additional limb you posses can take one Quick Action per Round without incurring a -2 dice penalty to your main Action. Any Battle Scars that affect or remove your additional limb will heal in a single week.
Your appendage is capable of bending and squishing in normally-impossible ways. It may fit through any gap that is not water-tight and retain its functionality.
Your extra appendage can stretch to reach an additional 30 feet.
Your extra appendage is not connected to your nervous or circulatory systems, and you will not take damage if it is hit by an attack or destroyed.
Your Extra Appendage counts as an object and can be hacked or targeted by any Powers that affect objects or machines. Injuries to your Extra Appendage cannot be healed by Powers that affect living things but may be repaired during Downtime.
As the activation ritual is performed, the origami wings unfold from the user's back and extend ten feet on all sides. Due to their modular structure-- being composed of countless amounts of paper sheets and feathers-- the wings are effectively immune to damage, as they repair themselves with replacement feathers the moment they are destroyed.
The calibration sequence to connect the wings to the user requires them to extend their arms to the side (reaching their wingspan) and read aloud a pangram (ex: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog").
The wings connect themselves to the user's inner Source or Mind to power their movements through the calibration sequence. Basically just imagine the wings the paper girl from Naruto uses (Konan).
Exert your Mind and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: activating and calibrating the wings with the user. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted. This Effect remains active for two hours.
As long as you are conscious, you are immune to falling Damage. Additionally, you may glide as you fall, traveling 35 feet horizontally for every 10 feet you fall. While gliding, you fall at a minimum speed of 10 feet per Round.
You may ascend into the air and fly using your origami wings. You require 10 feet of clear space on all sides to fly. You may add 50 feet to Movement you take while flying.
You are subject to the following effects while gliding or flying:
The user takes the device composed of 4 separate Large werewolf K9s connected to a small computer, and plunges the teeth rapidity into the skin of their target following the instructions on the small hand held to micro-inflecting the target with lycanthropy to induce a complete body restructure. this process is excruciatingly painful and straining as the body is forcefully contorted and bones are snapped into place. the target suffers feverous hallucinations of a full blood moon, as they fight back the urge to hunt.
Exert your Mind and spend a minute. You must make a Trauma roll when you use this Effect. Its Difficulty cannot be reduced by any means.
You become disguised in a manner of your choosing. The disguise lasts until you either activate a new disguise, or choose to end the effect.
The new appearance may have a different sex, age, and race to your own, and you may alter height by up to a foot and your weight by 50%. Your disguise may directly mimic the appearance of a specific individual. You cannot alter your clothes. You may add inhuman features to your disguise. Your disguise can alter your smell, DNA, and other aspects that are not perceivable via human senses. This does not conceal you against investigative Effects. A disguise cannot affect your Attributes or other stats.
You may roll Charisma + Crafts to attempt to make your disguise Beautiful. If your Outcome is 6 or higher, non-Effect Charisma rolls where your good looks could help are rolled at -2 Difficulty. If you fail or botch, you are ugly instead, and non-Effect Charisma rolls are made at +2 Difficulty.
You may Exert your Mind and spend a minute to apply a disguise to a target. The target can Resist your attempt. The disguise lasts until you choose to end the Effect and counts as a Battle Scar. All the same restrictions on the disguise’s appearance apply.
After this Effect ends, you cannot move quicker than a walk (15 feet per Round) for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour.
Imagine a magical M17 Handgun, an otherworldly fusion of advanced technology and arcane power. The Handgun's sleek, matte-black exterior gleams faintly, etched with intricate runes that pulse with an ethereal glow, reflecting its enchanted nature. Its barrel is slightly Shorter than a standard M17 Handgun, with mysterious symbols carved along its length, shimmering as if alive.
The grip and stock are made from an otherworldly material—something lighter yet more durable than any metal, with faint golden veins running through it. The rifle’s magazine, while looking like a typical high-capacity model, is mysteriously empty but ever full. The moment a round is fired, it reappears instantaneously, as if time itself has looped and provided an endless supply of ammunition.
When you aim, the sights are enhanced by an ancient magic. Instead of simple iron sights, they shimmer with holographic glyphs, marking targets with precision before you even pull the trigger. Each shot fires with a whisper, leaving behind a faint trail of light that fades into the air, hinting at the magical force propelling the bullets. The rifle hums with an almost imperceptible vibration, as if it's aware of its near-infinite power.
This Artifact can be used as a handgun. It is roughly the same size as a handgun and just as difficult to conceal.
Attack by rolling Dexterity + Firearms, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +4 Weapon Damage.
This item is a living thing. When targeted, it counts as a Living Creature in addition to its other target types. If destroyed or abandoned for more than two days, it dies and becomes unusable.
You also gain the following effects:
The user presses a button on his glasses and petrifies anyone around the person he is looking at. (reduces dice pools to zero)
Spend an Action. Select a Location within 300 feet. Roll Perception + Alertness at Difficulty 6. All targets within 20 feet of the chosen Location may contest by Defending or Dodging.
If you succeed, all affected targets will be restricted at their location by a physical, tangible binding. They cannot move to a new location, and any physical actions they take suffer a dice penalty equal to twice the Contested Outcome (except attempts to escape or break the binding, which only suffer half this penalty).
Restricted targets may escape their binding by spending an Action and taking a Severity-1 Injury. Their movement is reduced by 10 feet until the Injury heals.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see Turns the person who he is looking at to stone.
This Gift's Cost is capped at 2 and cannot be increased further.
People hear only what they want to hear... and see what they want to see. "Oh, are you allowed to be here? I'm gonna need to see some ID, pal." Welp, they want it... and they got it! Just show them this bad boy and you can get into a lot of places!
How's this doodad work? Uh... the power of imagination... haha. Quickly think about what you wanna show it and focus... believe in yourself! With the power of belief (and a helluvalot of moxie and confidence), you can use this to get anywhere.
How'd I make it? Uh... secret processes that would be too complicated for a layman like you to understand. Now screw off!
This Artifact can change its appearance. When not transformed, it is roughly the same size as a business card and just as difficult to conceal.
Spend a Quick Action to activate. This Artifact changes its appearance into an Object within the category of identity and security cards. 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.
The mad scientist can craft steel helmets that protect their wearers from mental influence and attack.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.
You get +0 dice to any Mind resistance rolls you make. You also gain the following effects:
This device is a piece of chrome the size and shape of the back of a spoon. When placed against the skin, small hypodermic needles sprout from the device and attach it to the user's bloodstream. There, it filters and releases lifesaving drugs into the bloodstream, granting complete immunity from contracting new diseases and added resiliency in all other cases.
WARNING: The immunizing drugs have been shown to reduce inhibitions in test subjects.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.
You get +2 dice to any Body resistance rolls you make. You also gain the following effects: