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 next in Louis's foray into computer science is a little cartridge for his SEAL units. Simply retrieve one from your pack, and slam it into the machine and it'll perform an automated hack of the targeted device! Though fingers that are too fast may find themselves encountering a slight bug, as mashing the input as you input the cartridge has been known to cause the device to encounter a null error and hack itself, but, we promise we're working on that!
Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute to activate. Select a Computer within arm's reach. Does not work on Alien technology. Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you disable the artifact for a downtime as it hacks itself.. Roll Dexterity + Technology, with the Difficulty set by the GM depending on the security of the system you are hacking. Sapient targets can resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6. The hacking roll and their defensive roll are both Difficulty 6.
If you succeed, you may issue a single command to the targeted system. This command must have a specific outcome or be a request for specific login credentials. The command you issue must be within the machine's current capabilities. For example, you cannot order a standard security camera to grow legs and walk around.
You may issue a "self-destruct" command that leaves the hacked system's hardware inoperable, even if that machine had no such functionality previously.
Every hack you make leaves behind A gif of a seal clapping and arfing. in the system as a personal "calling card" that informs anyone who uses the system that the hack occurred.
With a little elbow grease and 21st century know how, this artifact can help you find all sorts of strange things while out on a journey. Through the science that founded radar combined with a little magic, this item can find all sorts of strange things hidden in the world around you and when you are out and about on the hunt you'll be glad you brought your SEAL.
Louis's introduction to the contracting world being so rife with artifacts has made him question what else may be out there, and curious to find more, he's begun digging into ways to do so. This gift is the harbinger's answer to his request for a way to sate that curiosity.
Exert your Mind and spend at least two Actions performing the following ritual: Transcribing details about the area into the scanner to activate. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.
You automatically detect all Artifacts and Supernatural Energy Concentrations within 50 feet of you for the next ten minutes. You have a clear sense of both the distance and direction towards any detected items. You get details of what each detected item is, as if you've glanced at each object.
Even if there are no Artifacts or Supernatural Energy Concentrations within 50 feet of you, you become aware of the direction the closest one is in, as well as a rough sense of its distance from you.
While this Effect is active, you are at -2 dice to all Actions and cannot Concentrate.
Dominic has learned to tap into the bugs, cameras so tiny as to be microscopic, in the world around him. Proving that he was right yet again! The Illuminati does indeed have eyes, ears, and all other manners of things everywhere! He doesn't know how or when they started planting them, but they did and they are even within the deepest sanctum and within your most trusted devices. Yet, now he needs to worry no longer for through the wondrous enlightenment he was granted he has figured out their subroutines and gained the ability to co-opt this technology most foul for the resistance!
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a target within 10 feet.
You place a ward, which is fixed to a target Object that can be moved and repositioned. You can perceive with all your senses or activate investigative Effects through the ward as though you were standing at its location. You may have at most 3 wards running at once.
The ward requires Concentration to monitor, though it will remain active until you deactivate it. It can be detected with a roll and destroyed through mundane means.
Your Ward records all activity it observes, regardless of whether or not you are actively monitoring it. This recording can be played back and referenced later.
You may communicate through your ward, though doing so will reveal its presence.
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.
This Pistol is a Tangfoglio Witness chambered in 40. SW. The weapon is Chrome with a custom red grip, which has been embossed with an Eye. Bullets fired from this gun are "ghost bullets" that cease to exist after impact. These shots can be as silent as the grave, or they howl like banshees depending on the mood of the wielder.
This weapon has been modified with an Auto Switch, & is capable of burst fire.
This Artifact can be used as a handgun. It is roughly the same size as a handgun but can be collapsed into a Steel Locket and concealed. Collapsing or expanding it costs a Quick Action.
Attack by rolling Dexterity + Firearms, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +2 Weapon Damage.
Anyone who touches this Artifact will notice it warping their mind and may drop it. If they choose to hold or use it, they immediately receive the following Trauma: Medic! You must roll Self-Control to not immediately attempt to Stabilize any wounded person.. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Trauma heals over the course of the next day.
You also gain the following effects:
The eye of the locket shimmers as this effect is employed, & ghosts, either through whispers or fleeting glimpses, will direct the wielder to find those on the thresh hold of death or beyond it; just the same, the artifact alerts those detected that there is someone here who can help them...
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
You automatically detect all ghosts and creatures with unstabilized wounds within 300 feet of you for the next hour. This includes any who come within range during the duration. You have a sense of how many valid targets are nearby, as well as their distance and direction.
If no ghosts or creatures with unstabilized wounds targets are within 300 feet of you, and then one enters range, you automatically detect it, even if this Effect is not active.
All ghosts and creatures with unstabilized wounds who you can sense are equally able to sense you.
The "Eye" of the Witness shimmers, & the temperature drops in the area - the voices of the dead Crescendo to whomever wields the Witness, becoming almost deafening - echoes will linger as long as they bear the cursed amulet. Those that raise the dead share in the agonies of death, the loss of life, & are occasionally scarred by what they see on the Other Side.
The Wanderer forged the Witness out of Halo steel & Hell's own jewels. It is a terrible burden to bear.
Exert your Mind, spend one minute, and select a specific place, person, or item within arm’s reach. Select a Dead target within arm's reach that has died within the last month. 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.
Your target rises as an Animate being which is ghostlike and incorporeal, unable to physically interact with the real world, though they may pass through walls. They must Concentrate to be seen or heard. They remember their past life and retain their same personality. They can communicate as they would have been able to in life. They may roll Mind, Difficulty 8, to resist any commands you give them.
The creature lasts until it strays at least 80 feet from the chosen place, person, or item or until it dies again. It is revived at full health. Any Injuries it had in life are not accounted for when determining its penalties or progression towards re-death, though they may affect its ability to perform certain actions at GM's discretion.
Raised creatures have their Abilities set to the same that they were in life. Their Attributes are all the same as they were in life. Raised creatures have access to any Effects they had in life.
Your risen ghost may "rest" inside the object, location, or person they are bound to and emerge whenever they wish. A maximum of one ghost may hide in a given shackle at a time.
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: Tinnitus (ghost voices). If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Battle Scar heals over the course of the next day.
Anyone who touches this Artifact will notice it warping their mind and may drop it. If they choose to hold or use it, they immediately receive the following Trauma: Last Wish: If a ghost or dying person makes a request of you, you must roll Self-Control to not fulfill it. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Trauma heals over the course of the next day.
The Witness has grown in power - it cannot be destroyed, & the ghostly shots are lethal to even the most unusual creatures.
This Artifact has been upgraded.
This Artifact receives 3 extra dice to all actions taken for its intended use. Attacking with an upgraded weapon grants +3 Weapon Damage instead of additional dice. While it is upgraded, the item cannot be destroyed.
Upgraded weapons count as any material your opponent might be particularly vulnerable to. Upgraded Armor cannot be circumvented by called shots. Upgraded Devices do not run out of fuel or energy.
Anyone who touches this Artifact will notice it warping their mind and may drop it. If they choose to hold or use it, they immediately receive the following Trauma: Haunted. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Trauma heals over the course of the next day.
The scythe constantly exudes an invisible, yet ominous presence from it’s edge, and wounds it leaves become accursed with a black mist-like energy that destabilizes the wound.
This Artifact can be used as a great sword / giant axe. It is roughly the same size as a great sword / giant axe and just as difficult to conceal.
Attack by rolling Brawn + Melee, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +5 Weapon Damage.
You also gain the following effects:
When the owner of the case opens it, there seems to be a much larger storage inside with filing cabinets and named sorting. For anyone else it just seems to be your average briefcase.
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.
When the briefcase is swung it leaves behind a swishing sound that is much loader than it should be, almost like it is much heavier than it looks.
This Artifact can be used as a club / improvised weapon. It is roughly the same size as a club / improvised weapon and just as difficult to conceal.
Attack by rolling Brawn + Melee, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +3 Weapon Damage.
You also gain the following effects:
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: