Legendary Artifact

The mentors guitar pick necklace

Created and held by Trussardi “Siren” Ducasse.
A guitar pick hanging from a chain, given to Trussardi before his mentor sadly passed away.It seems to emit a weird mystical energie. “That man taught me everything I know.He was always able to convey the right emotion in his songs.”

The musician starts using the guitar pick and begins to aggressively play air guitar.

The target if affected will hear the voice in their head tell them about a rumor that will induce the chosen emotion.

For example: I heard that Siren saved a kitty from a burning tree, I love him so much.

“Music is the perfect medium to make a person feel a certain way. A sad song makes you more sad, a energetic song makes people wanna start dancing, a diss track might make the listener experience a feeling of hate for the person the song is aimed at. Music is truly a fascinating medium.”

Spend an Action. Select a Living target within 45 feet as well as a specific emotion. Roll Charisma + Performance at Difficulty 6. Affected targets can resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, for the next hour, your target will do things they otherwise wouldn’t have done, inspired by the chosen emotion. They will not necessarily display their emotions in an obvious way.

Actions they take will be in keeping with their character and the way they tend to deal with strong emotions. They will be unlikely to change their mind about any actions taken or decisions made until after the Effect ends.

This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 1.

  • Common emotions and the actions they inspire
    • Anger (shouting, cruelty, denying requests, attacking)
    • Pity (stopping an attack, executing an injured target)
    • Happiness (generosity, dancing, joking, socializing)
    • Sadness (finding solitude, openly crying, demotivation)
    • Fear (running, attacking)
  • If you succeed, the target MUST take at least one Action they otherwise would not have. Hey, GM who is reading this, I'm talking to you. You have to enforce this. Remember: Gifts must feel powerful.
  • 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.

Trussardi puts the guitar pick in front of his mouth and begins to sing. The pick seemingly amplifies the energy of the sound causing it to physically damage the target.

“Becoming an award winning musician is a lot of work. You train your skills day in and day out. Sometimes you have to sing so much that you won’t even be able to speak for the next couple of days. Once you reach the top of the music world you realise that I was all worth it, right?”

Spend an Action. Select a target within 45 feet. Roll Charisma + Performance 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.

If the target suffers an Injury from this Effect, they will receive at least a Minor Battle Scar regardless of its Severity. When this Effect causes a Battle Scar, you may select which one of the appropriate level.

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

  • 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.

Trussardi must be wearing the necklace plainly on him. While trying to listen, people will see the ear of trussardi twitching.

Listening has been all your life. You almost feel as if you can listen the soul of the musician when you listen the music.

You feel as if you could hear the song of life playing at each beautiful sunrise, each person weeping for a lost loved one, coming from each person finding or falling out of love. If it were a wave in the ocean, it would be the one to safely return you to the shore.

The earth is the orchestra and the musicians are in full harmony.

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

Your senses are enhanced in the following way.

  • Hearing: You may hear sounds of sub- and hyper-sonic frequencies, allowing you to hear tiny things (mice, insects, etc) better, and pick up on the vibrations of massive things (earthquakes, atmospheric disruptions, etc) long before others.
  • Hearing: You automatically know the origin location of any sound you hear, and you can tell which Action caused the sound.

Any senses which have been heightened cannot be overloaded. Battle Scars you receive cannot affect these senses.

  • Examples of overloading a sense include: an explosion causing temporary deafness, a bright light causing blindness, a sedative causing numbness, etc.

He will hold up his hand while striking a dramatic pose. At that moment the guitar pick appears in the palm of the hand.

“You don’t choose the rockstar life, the rockstar life chooses you.”

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.

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.

Whenever this Artifact is unattended and within 300 feet of its true owner, it will fly back to them. When not held or stowed, it floats beside its true owner, moving with them. While within 10 feet, the true owner does not need to touch it to use it.

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.

  • The Artifact can fly at a maximum speed of 100 feet per Round and only towards its true owner. This does not grant the Artifact its own Action or Reaction, and it moves at the same time as its true owner’s Movement.
  • "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.
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Community Artifacts

Spindle of Stupor

Created and held by Paige Price.
A worn wooden spindle with flax tightly wound around it. It's been sharpened to a fine point.

You jab your target with the spindle, drawing blood that winds itself up to be absorbed in the tightly wrapped flax and a strand begins to glow white. Each glowing strand slowly dims according to the length of the corresponding effect.

Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action. Select a Living target within arm's reach. Roll Dexterity + Melee at Difficulty 6. Affected targets may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, your target becomes drowsy for the next 3 Rounds, during which time they suffer an additional -2 dice Penalty to all Actions. At the end of their drowsiness, they fall asleep for Contested Outcome x 3 minutes.

Sleeping targets will not prematurely wake up on their own, and can only be awoken by taking Damage or nearing death from hunger, thirst, or suffocation. Drowsy targets always fall asleep, regardless of what happens while they are drowsy.

When activating this Effect you may attempt a knockout. If you do and your Contested Outcome exceeds 4, the target falls asleep immediately. Otherwise, they suffer the drowsy penalty for 2 Rounds.

  • For targets where "sleep" does not make any sense in terms of flavor, they will power down, freeze, etc, whatever state they can be in which is analogous to sleep.
  • 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.

Mason Berkman's SEAL

Created by Louis Dupont, given to Mason Berkman.
A wind up gameboy like contraptration that provides radar pings to the location of nearby energy clusters and artifacts

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.

  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.

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.

death knell

Created and held by gehrman sparrow.
An iron black revolver that looked a little longer than an ordinary revolver.

German Sparrow grips his trusted Death Knell, the revolver’s weight familiar and reassuring. He takes a steady aim, and with a sharp crack, the gun discharges. The bullet’s path is swift and unerring, the target collapsing as the echoes of the shot fade away.

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.

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: short fuse. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Trauma heals over the course of the next day.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Bane: Injuries dealt to targets marked by weak spot are increased by 2 Severity levels.
  • Keyhole: Any bullet that kills your target tumbles through their body and may strike a target in a 90 degree angle behind them. Any damage beyond that needed for the kill is applied to the secondary target.
  • 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.

  • Excess keyhole damage does not reapply the weapon's damage bonus and is affected by Armor as normal. The secondary target may React to the tumbled bullet if they have a Gift which lets them do so.
  • 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.

As gehrman focuses on his prey, he will death knell will help him in his hunt, by outlining his target's weak spots to shoot for.

Spend an Action. Select a target within 20 feet.

Your target is marked with a faint target sign on their weak spot. 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 receive +2 dice to any rolls made against a marked target.

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

This Effect ends if you are stunned, fall asleep, go unconscious, are incapacitated, die, or if your total Stress ever exceeds 5.

  • 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.

Necklace of Gorgon

Created and held by Liv.
A silver necklace with the image of a beautiful face with snakes of hair carved in it.

The artifact holds at least one demon bound to obey the commands and will of the wielder and advance their interests. When used a demon wearing a human form crawl's its way out of the object, and leaps out, looking for enemies.

The demon in this iteration looks like a beautiful human with dark eyes, black hair, and dark nail polish. When not attempting to hide it, they trail little bits of shadowy smoke, and bend shadows and light around them oddly. They have thin leathery wings that peel out from their back when they take flight. When firing at range, claws from their hand break off becoming needle like knives in the air.

The demon can speak, reporting on anything it sees, and apply a level of intelligence to understanding the world around it. It will die defending anyone it is ordered to defend.

The summoner can cause the servant to return to its bound artifact at any time.

This artifact is made by summoning a demon, making a deal with it, and binding it to the object in a long ritual.

Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action.

Summon a single Sapient Human seeming Bound greater shadow deceiver at your location. They last until they are destroyed They are controlled by the GM but will follow any commands you give. This Artifact may have at most one active at a time.

  • Initiative: Minions act directly after you in Combat starting the Round after they are summoned.
  • Combat: Minions roll 7 dice to dodge, Grapple, or make Unarmed Attacks. Their unarmed Attacks have 50 feet of range and deal +4 Damage.
  • Body/Mind: Minions have 7 Body. Your minions roll 3 Mind resistance dice.
  • Armor: Minions have 2 Armor.
  • Movement: Minions can move 25 feet per Round as Free Movement and double that when performing an all-out Sprint. Your minions can fly at their normal movement speed.
  • Intelligence: Minions have human-level intelligence and can speak your language. They can use equipment, Artifacts, and Consumables. However, they cannot Exert their Mind.
  • Actions: Any Perception checks they make are rolled with 4 dice. If ordered to protect someone with its life, your Minion may sacrifice itself to absorb an Attack on their behalf, provided it is within 15 feet of them. Your minion is able to Stealth with a 8 dice pool. Any other roll is made with 4 dice. They can lift and haul as though they have 2 Brawn.
  • Unusual: Minions are not obviously Alien.

You may end this Effect prematurely as a Free Action.

  • Minions die if targeted with Energy Transfer (before the Effect resolves) or if an Artifact or Consumable they use would Injure them or cause them to roll Trauma.
  • Your minions may count as additional targeting types based on their flavor. For example: Living, Computer, Creature, etc.

Mind Ring

Created and held by Chloe Burke.
A slender gold ring

This gold ring twists and turns while Chloe sleeps.

This Artifact cannot be broken.

If this Artifact is lost and in no one’s possession, it finds its way back to its creator during the next Downtime.

Anyone but this Artifact's creator must Exert their Mind to wear this artifact or activate any of its Effects.

If this Artifact is used by someone other than its creator, its creator is alerted and learns the user's appearance, direction, and distance at that moment. The creator may use a single investigation Effect on them once at any range. The user gets the feeling that they are being watched.

This Artifact's creator 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.

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.

Lightning Bracers

A pair of bronze bracelets that glow with golden energy.

This Artifact produces ephemeral projectiles that can be used as a javelin.

Attack by rolling Brawn + Athletics, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +3 Weapon Damage.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Chain Lightning: You may Exert your Mind to perform a chain lightning attack. If your attack succeeds, All targets within 5 feet of your primary target take full Damage. The Damage can “jump” up to 5 times. Each target can be hit only once.
  • Magic Quiver: Instead of throwing this Artifact, it is an object that produces an endless supply of temporary throwable objects. For example, bracers that allow you to throw ethereal javelins, or a sack of throwing rocks that doesn’t shrink when you withdraw one.

  • If there is not enough free space to expand the object, it cannot be expanded. You cannot expand this Object as an attack.
  • Created projectiles last only until they strike their target and cannot be shared or stockpiled.
  • Reminder: additional Weapon Damage granted by this Effect does not stack with any other bonus to Weapon Damage. Instead the largest bonus is used.

Umbrella Identification

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

Exert your Mind and spend an Action to activate. This Artifact changes its appearance into an Object within the category of forms of identification. 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.

Dazzle Glasses

This Effect activates whenever you are recorded. It does not require an Action or Exertion. Select a Non-Sapient Object within 20 feet no larger than a duffel bag (35 liters). Your target should be intuitively based on the triggering event. Roll Perception + Culture Difficulty 6.

If your Outcome is 4 or higher, the target will be completely destroyed and can no longer function, though it may still be repaired. If your Outcome is less than 4, the target will be partially damaged, and any attempts to use it will suffer a dice penalty equal to your Outcome.

  • When triggered, the Effect activation resolves immediately after the triggering Action. It is not Reaction speed.
  • The penalty from an object being damaged will stack with itself if a target is hit multiple times, but the object is destroyed when it reaches a total penalty of -4.
  • 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 Scepter of Ang-Kapal

Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend one minute. Select a Dead target within arm's reach with at least half its skeletal structure remaining. 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. The raised creature is totally mindless, with no memory of its past life or hint of its old personality. They cannot communicate. They will follow any command you speak.

The creature lasts for eight hours 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 Charisma and Intellect are set to 1, but their Dexterity, Brawn and Perception are the same as they had in life. A raised creature cannot use any Effects.

Destroying one of your zombies requires a called shot to the head or heart. All other Injuries zombies suffer result in Battle Scars only, limiting their mobility and effectiveness in other ways.

Your revived targets deal 2 Weapon Damage with their unarmed attacks.

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

  • The called shot requires 4 Outcome dealing 4+ Damage or 6 Outcome dealing 2+ Damage.
  • 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.