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 user pulls out a Pawn's chess piece, finely crafted in a recreation of the creator of this effect. which begins to pulse with darkness before a copy of the creator of this effect appears, ready to serve their summoner.
Pawn is well, a Pawn, she is generic, so i figured her summons should look like her to create that effect
Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action.
Summon a single Sapient Black pawn at your location. They last for two hours or until they move more than 150 feet from you or 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.
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 one minute.
You are obscured in one of the following manners. Lasts 30 minutes.
While this Effect is active, any Effect that would obscure you 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 black and green cybernetic arm. A dart gun module in the palm fan fire syringe like darts (Payload of 6 before reloading). The arm has a Tillinghast Resonator incorporated within that can allow it to reach through solid objects - there is a notable vibration apparent when this function spins up, & frequent users report hallucinations or other mental aberrations induced by Tillinghast Radiation - shielding has been improved in later trials.
Project Report: The framework for the VIPER protype is complete. Blood Turbines will power the Tillinghast Resonater, which will further power the arms through controlled emissions of Tillinghast radiation! We have just anesthetized Sara, telling her she is going to get braces...my hands tremble on the scalpel. Where my daughter had but weak, fragile flesh she will soon hold the legacy of our work!
You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.
You gain an additional limb that functions as a standard human arm and hand.
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 extra appendage can be used to attack in exactly the same manner as a Taser and Dart Gun.
Your appendage is selectively incorporeal, allowing you to reach through walls or ignore grapples on it.
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.
The Tillnghast Resonator within the Viper prototype can charge darts with T radiation, allowing them to "slide" across extra-dimensional space. While this does involve a risk of T-Radiation to the environment, that concern was tabled for later development.
T Radiation can allow a single dart to carry greater payloads, arc over obstacles, ignore firing conditions in local dimensional space, & strike with unnatural accuracy, in part guided by the will imprint on the wielder.
Project Report: The Resonator is a wonder! We should be able to pull any defense contract we can find once they see the applications of the arm & it's cybernetic guidance system. Sara complains about hallucinations & has begun prattling about some imaginary friend she calls "Chitari" - I will need to increase the shielding in later models.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact and engaged in combat with Dart Gun.
You receive +2 dice to all rolls using Dart Gun. Reloading is considered a Free Action.
You also gain the following effects:
The Viper prototype can charge plasma collected from the interior blood turbines with Tillinghast radiation. This material can be injected into an injured subject, where the proto-plasma then seeks & replaces damaged tissue - becoming whatever is required. The injection of T radiation can cause confusion with higher planes, which can erode the sanity of the weak mined.
Project Update: This is a marvel of hyper geometry - my husband & I have decided to forgo further animal trials & test it on wounds surgically inflicted on Sara - if her mind is anything like ours, she will endure the cojoined reality without issue.
Expend a point of Battery and spend 2 Actions to activate. Select a Living target within arm's reach. Your target must make a Trauma roll when you activate this Effect. Choose a specific Injury on your target that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Intellect + Medicine at Difficulty 5.
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.
If your Outcome is greater than the Severity of the Injury you were attempting to treat, you may apply any excess Outcome to other Injuries on the same patient.
The Tillinghast Resonator can warp space around the wielder, although doing so breaches so-called "Tillinghast Space" allowing creatures that move freely in alternate dimensions to be seen, & in some cases, see us. The field of warping, shifting reality will protect the wielder from harm, & the creatures from beyond may attack those who interact with the area of warped space - often in a violent manner.
Project Note: We are ready for the final test! We acquired rifles to test the event horizon of the Tillinghast Field! Not a moment to soon, as Sara has become all but useless now, a gibbering wreck. No matter - once they see the T-Field eat a hail of bullets fired at a helpless girl, they will be unable to doubt our brilliance!
Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action or Reaction to activate. Make a Trauma roll when you activate this Effect. Roll Intellect + Science at Difficulty 6.
If you succeed, you create a barrier around yourself, which absorbs the next Outcome + 4 Damage. Half the damage absorbed is reflected back at the attacker, which they can Defend against as normal. The Damage reduction from the barrier is applied before Armor. You 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.
Any target that is or was under the protection of your Barrier in a given Round cannot take an Injury greater than Severity 6 that Round.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see a field of corsucating energy engulf the wielder, in which alien creatures swim through alternate paralell dimensions.
A highly customizable firearm, able to be reconfigured at the user's will. Matter is created out of thin air as the firearm modifies its own form and function to best suit the wants and needs of its performer. The magazine seems to hold four shots, but no matter what it always stays full.
The Adagio Multipurpose Instrument was a modular weapons system designed by Lotus for use by its star assassins. Its standard models required affixing the attachments to the gun manually to alter its performance, but a certain piece, coveted even more than Myrrh Sov's Slugger, was so much more than those it succeeded. Adagio models were kept in instrument cases alongside its varied kit, and labeled as such to lessen suspicion and give a sense of artist's superiority to its users.
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No known registered trademark "Lotus" exists in current database... Refresh? [Y]/[N]
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 +6 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: Delusions of Grandeur. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Trauma heals over the course of the next day.
You also gain the following effects:
when powers are activated the artifact glows matching the items main color.
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.
The airship of solitude is the mad scientist's lair and preferred mode of travel. Not only does it include a full science laboratory, it can be collapsed into an incredibly small canvas cube and easily transported. The mad scientist may pilot the ship alone or rely on its autopilot features for ultimate convenience.
This Artifact can be used as a blimp. It is roughly the same size as a blimp but can be collapsed into a phone-sized canvas cube and concealed. Collapsing or expanding it costs a Quick Action.
This blimp has full science laboratory, bullet-proof envelope, and ample parachutes. Any roll to pilot this vehicle receives +2 dice.
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 and just as difficult to conceal.
Whenever you show this Artifact to someone, you may give a general description of an Object within the category of forms of identification, and anyone who hears the description and sees the Artifact will have their mind fill in the details to complete the illusion.
The way the Artifact is seen 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.
The Scepter of Ang-Kapal is a gruesome device fashioned to look like a skeletal arm clutching a glass eye. When used, blood from the person holding is drawn into the eye where it swirls with dark energy. The eye turns to a nearby corpse and shudders, reviving the creature. The creature does not retain any of its memories or personality, but it is absolutely loyal to whoever is holding the scepter.
The Scepter of Ang Kepal has the unfortunate side effect of driving its owner mad.
Take a Severity-1 Injury 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.
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.
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, locks, or locked targets 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 Future Soldier's PSG is capable of briefly supercharging its effectiveness with a jolt of Omega Cell energy. While active, the future soldier glows with an extremely bright golden light.
While the shield is supercharged, the Future Soldier cannot move or see the outside world, but they are completely isolated from anything that occurs outside the shield.
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.