In just few moments of reading this book, its enough for listeners to comprehend 3 pages worth of mind numbingly boring information that brings about feelings of intense drowsiness.
This classic book tells the story of the development of Income Tax from its beginning in 1799 to the present day and relates it to the social, economic and political history of the period.
There have been studies of Income Tax at various stages in its growth; studies of finance and taxation in general in which Income Tax has been closely concerned; studies too of some of the Chancellors of the Exchequer who have made significant contributions to the Income Tax system; but this is the first time an attempt has been made to encompass the whole 160 years or so of its life in one volume.
And a fascinating story it is too when set in perspective. The author shows how Income Tax was introduced to finance the Napoleonic Wars, how it was revived by Peel to pay for Free Trade, and how it underwrote Victorian prosperity and confidence. He then describes its immense expansion through two World Wars to its present position as a dominant feature of British finance. This book was first published in 1966.
Spend an Action. Select a Living target within 30 feet. Roll Intellect + Culture 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, but may still be woken up by sudden loud noises, being jarred or splashed with water, taking Damage, or similar rousing events. They will also awaken before dying of hunger, thirst, or suffocation. Drowsy targets always fall asleep, regardless of what happens while they are drowsy.
This Gift's Cost is capped at 2 and cannot be increased further.
The weapon builds a highly-focused charge of electromagnetic radiation, causing the bulb to flash brightly an instant before release. The crackling ray of energy is effective against both living and machine targets, frying synapses and circuits alike.
One blast from a cathode gun is enough to reduce even the most brilliant mind to a state of catatonic vegetation in seconds. This brain-killing weapon is an example of the City Mind's cruel and efficient designs, meant to leave behind gibbering, drooling survivors to be collected by the enemy. These survivors would continue to consume resources, lower morale, and force other personnel to care for them - the City Mind knew its enemy was a compassionate one. The cathode gun is especially effective against creatures with advanced minds, such as spell-casters. Ironically, it is just as effective against machine brains.
Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action. Select a Sapient or Creature target within 20 feet. Roll Intellect + Technology Difficulty 6. Affected targets may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 7. If they are incapacitated or unconscious, they fail automatically.
If the Contested Outcome is positive, the target loses that much Source. Once their Source is depleted, excess Outcome is applied as Mind Damage. If you deal at least 3 Mind damage, the target gains a Trauma of the GM's choice.
This Trauma may be removed by Effects or mundane therapy, as normal. Affected targets are aware that they are being attacked and can generally tell who did it.
Handle and receiver of black polycarbonate plastic and metal, as pistols in earlier centuries often were. The distinction is particularly a large capacitor slung up where the hammer would be. Instead of a barrel, it's got two metal rods, one over the other, reinforced on the top and bottom with a black casing.
A worn placard on the side reads "United Republic of the Americas".
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 4 Weapon Damage. The target's Armor is fully effective against this damage.
You also gain the following effects:
As in times of old, The Ferrymen have their craft in which they may ferry the lost souls into the Elysian Fields. Times have changed, as have the concepts of these shepherds of souls.
Widow's Ferry appears to as a pleasure boat made of bone. The interior is set up for relaxation and comfort.
On land, four bone legs and feet branch our from the sides of the boat to walk along the land.
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This Artifact can be used as a Bone Boat. It is roughly the same size as a Bone Boat but can be collapsed into a necklace that appears as a tisted collection of finger bones. and concealed. Collapsing or expanding it costs a Quick Action.Unless passenger's must possess 2 coins, this Artifact behaves as its mundane counterpart.
This Bone Boat has speed boat motor, life support system, CB radio, satellite radio, depth finder sonar.. Any roll to pilot this vehicle receives +2 dice.
You also gain the following effects:
Riding the Ferry down the river Styx is a good time to think over your life, and throw off your mental shackles.
Exert your Mind to activate. Select a Living or Animate target within arm's reach. This Effect cannot be used unless the petient does nothing but travel down a river in the Ferry while sharing their trauma.. Over the course of one day, your patient must communicate with you and reveal at least one of their Traumas to you, including the details of those Traumas and the circumstances of how they were acquired.
After the full treatment time has elapsed, you may remove one of the patient's revealed Traumas without incurring any Experience cost.
A mix of GPS and Leyline detection technology allows the artifact to find its owner wherever they are, via Ware's EDT technology. The user focuses their attention into the device implanted in them, and the item - wherever it is - gets disassembled by an almost imperceptible beam. It makes a stop in Ware's EDT room before another almost imperceptible beam makes the item materialize bottom up on the user.
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.
When wearing the artifact, it connects through the base of your skull and glows slightly there when activating its defenses.
A small disc plugs into the brain stem of the user, similar in appearance (when plugged in) to a "data-jack" type device. It allows anything with the correct kind of plug (Anything Ware has created, or modified to work with it after the fact) to monitor brain activity, and upon removal seals up the area with anesthetic and surgical glue.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.
You get +2 dice to any Mind resistance rolls you make. You also gain the following effects:
Tiny electronic robots emerge from the ring and burrow under the users skin. They crawl along under the dermis creating quickly moving bulges that travel into the users fingers, down their hand, past their wrist, and into the forearm before ballooning outward and spreading all over the body. The feels like their nerves are on fire as the tiny insects crawl along the internals of the body before finally arriving at the nerve receptors for the eyes and nose respectively. Once at the eye the user would see their tiny legs begin to snake into the their vision from the periphery. The nanite needs the eye to be looking forward so as the cornea moves to the side to see the legs they retract while legs on the opposite side continue to snake forward. Once the eye is stationary enough the bug legs lock it into place and another nanite crawls from the back of the eye and enlarges over the cornea. Once in place it's tiny legs inject past the cornea and into the optic nerve behind it. Afterwards the user sees a thin HUD outline of what the other nanites have already found relayed back to the user. As for the nose once the nanites are in place at the nerve ending the user would have a sudden drop where they couldn't smell anything for a few seconds followed by the smell of metal and burning plastic for a bit, then the new senses would be online. The nasal cavities become filled with tiny nanites buzzing and humming from inside.
Tiny nanomachines begin to pour out of the ring and skitter around the user in an outwardly growing sphere. They burrow into floors, walls, roofs and doors and continue to move unnoticed with the user for the duration of the ability before dissolving. While active the bots scout slightly ahead and ping back information to the ring that they emerged from, mainly focusing on electronic items but also recording interesting smells and cataloguing them for investigation.
Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action. This Effect cannot be used unless Nanites require area with active power or enough to last them the duration of the ability(at minimum car battery).
Your senses are enhanced in the following way. Lasts for three hours.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see Cornea HUD, Nose Hive..
The ring on Polamedes right hand starts to glow and grow until it is the size of a large dinner plate. Thin strands launch themselves from the now enlarged ring and hook into the flesh of the arm. The skin from finger to elbow flays backwards in strips like a swissroll. Under the skin tiny nanomachines start to assemble into a latticework, tightly packed but slowly expanding struggling to contain a large glowing blue energy. As the energy builds the ligaments in the elbow pop and shred and are replaced with thin strands of nanomachines support fibers. The forearm expands outward pulsing with energy, ballooning before causing it to collapse back in on itself releasing a large blue-black beam of electric-plasma that fires from the arm towards the target. The super charged beam of energy shoots towards its target, anything hit with the beam will slowly start disintegrating as the molecular structure holding it together is ripped apart and the cohesion between cells comes undone.
Afterwards the skin strips hang loose before the tiny bots start punching holes in the stipes and then threading them together with slimy stitches. Once all stripes are restitched the disconnected hands fingers break backwards pulling themselves back towards the wrist and reconnecting.
Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action. Select a target within 50 feet. Roll Intellect + Technology 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 opt to have this Effect spread to all targets within 5 feet of the initial target, then to all unaffected targets within 5 feet of them, and so on, jumping a maximum of 5 times. No target may be hit more than once. You cannot hit yourself.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see Skin peeling off arm to make cannon..
The finger that the ring is applied too has the skin peel back around the ring and is fleenced all the way to the palm. In the opening thousands of tiny insects (nanomachines) flood out of the ring and into the opening created in the hand. Tiny lumps can be seen under the skin traveling into the body of the one they are healing. While healing the target the nanobots can be felt crawling within the targets body and are puked out upon completion
A simple silver ring with a single blue box with the number 0 etched into it. Uses Ram to power uses of it.
Expend a point of Battery and spend 2 Actions. Select a Living or Dead target within arm's reach. Your target must also Exert their Mind to activate this Effect. Your target must make a Trauma roll to reap the benefits of this Effect. They may choose to Resist the Effect and not make the roll. Choose a specific Injury on your target that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Intellect + Technology at Difficulty 6.
If you succeed, the Injury is reduced in Severity by your Outcome. If you reduce its Severity to 0, the Injury is fully healed. Otherwise, it is partially healed and will heal the rest of the way at its natural rate.
This counts as a successful Makeshift Stabilization if the Injury was not already Stabilized; any Battle Scars caused by the Injury will remain. Your patient is required to Healed person can't share true name for the next month. If they violate this rule, your treatment is immediately reversed.
If you begin healing an Injury on a target that has been dead for less than a minute, and your healing reduces their Wound Level to a non-lethal level, their life is restored.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see Finger bugs.
Tiny nano machines swarm out of the ring and cover the users body in a thin sheet. The tiny bug like bots arrange themselves into a latticework over the user and once all are in place thin little cuts are made along the users skin in square patterns. Tiny rivers of blood well up at all locations of the nanites and are quickly sucked into the nanomachines, they then start cutting the small squares of the skin and prying them up the tiny bits of dermis sticking to the muscle and sinew underneath but being pulled anyways until they eventually come free. Unable to patchwork skin on the eyeball the bots flood into the occular cavity and surround the eye forming a kind of sheen over the cornea and feeding it visual info while the effect is activated. Each bug holds the square of skin over itself like a kind of card. When activated they flip the skin cards around to the underside where a hazy reflection of the surrounding area is put forward on the other side of the skin card.
Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action.
You and everything you are carrying is obscured in one of the following manners. Lasts 30 minutes.
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.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see Tiny stadium bugs flipping skin cards.
A small silver ring with linked blue boxes engraved into it.
The user extends their hand towards the target. When they do thin tendrils extend from the ring and search for purchase on the wearer. The tendrils attach and start sucking small amounts of power from the user as they continue to crawl along their body before retreating after the hack is done.
The user's packaged will and commands are transmitted through the ring and then antenna tendrils towards the target.
Expend a point of Battery and spend 1 Action. Select a Device within 300 feet. Does not work on Alien technology. Roll Intellect + 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.
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.
When targeting non-computer devices, you may operate switches, buttons, dials, levers, and latches.
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: Disfigured. Permanent stains on hand from where tendrils have previously latched on.. 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: Irrational anger and disrespect of people who have truly shoddy security setups.. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Trauma heals over the course of the next day.
Put together from broken electronics, salvaged scrap material, and high-end camera lenses, these visors are a work of natural ingenuity and resourcefulness. They allow the user see perfectly in the dark and detect heat signatures more clearly than any modern night vision or thermal imaging.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.
Your senses are enhanced in the following way.
As the user begins to envision a blue print of the item in their minds Spindly Clockwork arms shoot forth from the item spinning, prodding and poking at a specific spot in the air. as these limbs continue their work a hole into a ghostly realm is forced open showing the infinite possibility of Perfected forms. They reach forward rapidly dragging out the items envisioned.
A Huge ghostly clockwork face using disconnected limbs can be seen crafting these perfected Forms, as it notices this breach it crushes it closed. the drone of gears grinding, scraping, almost pleading out for something can be heard as the rift is sealed.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Choose an Object which could fit inside a regular backpack (up to 27 liters). It must be Non-Alien and generic but can include rare materials (such as radium, gold, or drugs). Rare objects and their materials last no longer than 45 minutes.. You cannot create explosives. You may create firearms.
Roll Intellect + Crafts to fabricate up to 5 copies of your chosen Object. The Difficulty is assigned by the GM and depends on the specificity of your chosen Object. Your created items no longer expire, and will last until they are destroyed.
Being so connected to the Well, Luci had long earned its protection from outside harm, but has grown to instead decide on shedding that facet from herself to infuse that energy into other objects or artifacts.
Rolling inky shadow rolls around on the inside of the object it's been infused into- commonly a piece of clothing. If that piece of clothing is hit by an attack, the shadowy refuse inside of the clothing will reflexively react, similar to reactive armor. It is concealed in this circumstance. If this artifact is upgraded to allow called shots not to be circumvented, shadowy blobs of ink will sprout from the various openings in the clothing piece to swat aside attacks.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.
You have 6 Armor, which reduces incoming Damage. Armor from multiple sources does not stack. Called Shots may circumvent your Armor, depending on its coverage.
The process takes quite a bit of time, as Luci must properly bind this object to its ideal image by bathing it in The Well. A process that, if witnessed by a normal person, would likely result in some minor traumatic occurrences. Luci watches over the item the entire time to make sure it is not swallowed up into the inky mess. A lengthy sweat-inducing endeavor, but by its end, when Luci pulls the item from the reservoir, it is all worth it.
The items in question will sport a dark tint on the paint job and if Luci desires it, she can make its primary or secondary colors as dark as she wants. The symbol of The Well, a fragmented snowflake that closely resembles broken glass, will appear embossed somewhere visibly on the item, marking it as improved.
The Well is oblivion and vice versa. There is no being or creature exempt from the prices that it exacts upon those that meet it uncordially. And like a hook, when it sinks its fangs into you, it will rip you root and all at even the slightest weakness.
The Well is also eternal. As long as the universe turns and toils, and unless someone has the power to circumvent or mimic the powers of Oblivion, upgrades items will persist ad infinitum.
Idealism was always thought to exist solely in concept, to associate reality with mental ideals as opposed to material objects. That somewhere in the cosmic lands above, a perfect image of this "thing" exists, and only its material imitations are founded in "reality". But what if a material object could be elevated closer to the status of its ideal perfect image? A question Luci had asked herself for a period, and while it took some time, she managed to find a way.
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 Armor is shredded by half the normal amount. If it is a piece of Armor, it instead receives half that amount as bonus armor rating, rounded up. If an upgraded shield and armor are both worn, the upgrade bonus does not stack with itself.
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.
The spray can releases a rainbow mist that coats you in a translucent, glittery purple substance that's incredibly hard to destroy. It resembles rubber (pliable and flexible) so it allows you a full range of motion. This armour can be taken off, though it has to be reapplied using the ArCANis Spray Can.
On source material:
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs has always been a classic. The shoes Flint Lockwood had seemed to be made of some elastic biopolymer adhesive that stuck to his feet until it wore off a few days later. At first he was pretty disappointed by it, but Delphyrion was interested in how Flint couldn't destroy it at all.
On applications:
It is actually quite useful as sealant for plumbing and other repairs. Actually, Delphyrion derived the substance from Flex Seal, which was used for roofs. Since it would be stationary with this usage, unlike how a person would constantly move around, it takes a while for the spray to wear off. Delphyrion has tested it out on a number of equipment and it has almost always been successful. That is, until he tried using it to fix his glassware. Those kept exploding no matter what they were used for.
On rainbow spray:
It was actually an accident that the spray ended up being rainbow-coloured; they didn't expect it to be anything like the movie, but Delphyrion's very satisfied with it. It just gives the armour a nice sheen, like the psychedelic colours on the surface of an oil spill. Also, it's gay.
On clothing:
Wear your clothes. Literally, this is not an alternative for clothing. This stuff is translucent so chances are that people can actually see what's underneath. If you're really brave (and not afraid of indecency charges) it'd generally look like you're wearing a skintight jumpsuit. Or, like, spray it on top of your clothes.
On the spray can:
It's just a regular spray can with a label on it. Also, Delphyrion's last name is Arcanis. Hence, ArCANis, get it?
Artifact description:
ArCANis Spray Can - Just a spray can with a colourful label. What's important is Delphyrion's addition to the contents: a rubbery substance that sprays out in a rainbow mist.
You gain the following benefits as long as 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.
Any Injury received from Damage that was reduced by this Armor is considered Makeshift Stabilized and will not degrade further, and any Battle Scar caused by them is reduced by 1 level. You may attempt a single Proper Stabilization on such Injuries.
When Winter Fang's glittering string is drawn, an ice arrow crystalizes nocked and ready to fire. These ice arrows melt quickly after piercing their foes, leaving deadly wounds instead of evidence.
This Artifact can be used as a bow. It is roughly at least twice as large as a bow and cannot be concealed on your person or disassembled for storage.
Attack by rolling Dexterity + Athletics, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +3 Weapon Damage. Attacks do not require a successful called shot to do damage.
You also gain the following effects:
The spy can do up their passport to appear as any valid form of identification.
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.
The Skeleton Key slips easily into any keyhole and turns without a fuss.
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.
The lightning bracers can be activated to summon a thunderbolt into the wearer's hand. Throwing these thunderbolts makes an incredibly loud boom. Once a thunderbolt is in hand, the wearer can throw as many as they wish. The electricity from these bolts will jump between nearby targets.
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:
The "Reaper" Assault Helmet is the signature piece of the Future Soldier's arsenal. It has a sleek, design and is made of a mysterious matte-metallic alloy. The wearer's face is exposed normally, but when activated, a blue holographic visor flickers to life in front of the eyes. This HUD contains information about the soldier's ammunition and shield status, but more significantly can detect enemy combatants. Anyone nearby who is holding a weapon is painted with a red dot that follows them in real time. This allows the Future Soldier to fire at painted targets in the dark, detect ambushes lurking around corners, and grants an overall tactical advantage.
Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action.
You automatically detect all people wielding weapons 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.