Legendary Artifact

Light of The Abyss

Created and held by Magdalene Wheeler.
A hurricane lantern made of a dark metal with gold and silver inlays: the bewitching flamme bathes the environment in purples, blues and pinks, lending the atmosphere an eerie glow: an artifact composed of an empty vessel, gifted from Professor Petrov and revived by careful application of the rites and incantations of the Blackstar Sisterhood. Mystic sigils seem to be projected from the colored flame into the environment, requiring very precise manipulation and timing.

The cornerstone incantation of the Blackstar Sisterhood and the reason they are feared as powerful heralds of curses: a warlock adds her own mixture of incense powder to the Light of The Abyss, making it briefly emmit a sickly green light and an acrid odor, akin to rotting grass, upon which the curse takes effect.


Spend an Action. Select a Living target within 45 feet. You must use up incense powder in order to activate this Effect. Roll Perception + Occult at Difficulty 6. The target may roll Body, -2 dice at Difficulty 7, as a Free Action to resist.

If you succeed, either modify an existing Battle Scar on the target or inflict a new one. You determine the new Battle Scar, limited by the contested Outcome:

  1. A Minor Battle Scar E.g. an aesthetic-only body modification (a disfigured face, a pig's tail), impacted hand or foot, or vocal changes that complicate communication
  2. A Major Battle Scar E.g. a disabled/removed hand or foot, an inability to speak, an impacted major sense, removal of a minor sense, impacted movement.
  3. A Severe Battle Scar E.g. a disabled/removed arm or leg, deafness, aesthetic changes that are nearly impossible to conceal.
  4. An Extreme Battle Scar E.g. removal/disabling both hands or both legs, blindness, a full-body deformation that leaves the target humanoid but makes it difficult to use clothes, vehicles, and equipment designed for humans.
Refer to the stock Battle Scars on the Character Sheet for specific systems.

You may affect up to 3 targets within range.

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

Your alteration "heals" over the course of the next month, after which it is fully cured.

  • When modifying an existing Battle Scar, you may increase or decrease its severity, depending on your Outcome.
  • Remember: A Contractor’s Body rating is reduced by 1 for each Battle Scar after their fourth.
  • You may opt to inflict a Battle Scar that is less severe than what your Outcome allows.
  • 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.

A devastating and disturbing physical attack, also belonging to the tradition of Blackstar Sisterhood - Archmistress Oitira of Byzantium is a martyred figure whose wounds at the hands of religious fanatics are now honored in the incantion, which also bears her name. The swirling smoke and arcane sigils are changed by the application of a different incense mixture, now coloring the ominous flame in shades of red, vermillion, and dark orange which take the shape of malevolent eyes that scan the environment, treating all as both prey to consume and threats to destroy. These eyes emit a multitude of piercing beams of energy that sear into the target, cause intense pain: the beams tear through armor, flesh and bone, leaving deep, scarring and agonizing wounds behind.


Spend an Action. Select a target within 300 feet. You must use up incense powder in order to activate this Effect. Roll Perception + Occult 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 2. Armor is fully effective against this Damage.

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.

The target suffers a -3 dice penalty for the next hour or until the Injury is healed. This dice penalty does not stack multiple times on the same target.

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.

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.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see as monstrous eyes appear in the smoke, locking in the targets with malevolent glee.

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

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

  • When narrating disturbing content, be cognizant of your group's tone and accommodating to those who would like to "fast forward" through the description.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of Effect. There must be no substantial obstructions between you and your target.

Community Artifacts

Flaming Sword of Vengeance

Created and held by Chamael.
A thin sword of a gray-blue metal. Ornately engraved with the lords prayer, and radiating holy flame

An otherworldly blade forged of the First Matter., radiating a white holy fire. It radiates absolute authoritative purging destruction.


This Artifact can be used as a sword / axe. It is roughly at least twice as large as a sword / axe and cannot be concealed on your person or disassembled for storage.

Attack by rolling Brawn + Melee, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +8 Weapon Damage.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Blade Breaker: If you successfully Defend against a melee attack or if an opponent is unsuccessful at Defending against your melee attack, you may break your opponent's weapon.
  • Pin: If you Injure a target with an Attack, you may choose to leave your weapon. If you do, the target is “pinned” to that location until the weapon is removed. Removing the weapon increases the Severity of that Injury by 2.

  • This Artifact cannot be disguised or morphed with other Effects like Shape-Changing object.
  • Reminder: additional Weapon Damage granted by this Effect does not stack with any other bonus to Weapon Damage. Instead the largest bonus is used.

Cham holds up the sword on thanks, saying a prayer. All the potential targets need to do, is publically claim Chamael as the one true savior...


Exert your Mind to activate. Select a Living target within arm's reach. Over the course of one minute, 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, roll Charisma + Influence at Difficulty 6.

Your target may Resist. If your treatment is successful, you may remove one of the patient's revealed Traumas without incurring any Experience cost.

Your patient is required to must perform a old-testament accurate burnt offering (goat sized or larger, something "worthy" or "special")and publically praise and thank chamael's name and grace once a week. for the next month. If they violate this rule, your treatment is immediately reversed.

You may heal a Trauma on any number of targets with a single activation of this Effect, but any Traumas which you treat are revealed to the entire group.

  • The patient is aware of this requirement.
  • The treatment time may be broken up into multiple sessions if necessary.
  • 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.

Speed Module

Created and held by Kanni.
A set of leg bracers that have lines of purple fuel running through them

The user's body highlights in purple, their body gaining a small arcing effect of purple electricity, at the end of the effect a AA battery pop out of each bracer, smoking from overuse.


Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must use up a pair of AA Batteries in order to activate this Effect.

Lasts 1 hour. Whenever you use your Movement, after all other calculations, the distance you may travel is tripled.

If your last Action was used for an all-out sprint or you are already accelerated, you may spend an Action to accelerate without a roll, adding 300 feet/Round (not affected by your speed bonus) to your sprint speed, to a max of an extra 900 feet/Round. As long as you stay at these speeds, you may use this distance per Round as your Free Movement.

Any terrain you traverse while accelerated must be passable by a standard vehicle at similar speeds. Stopping, turning sharply, or decelerating more than 300 feet/Round must be performed as an Action. Failing to decelerate with an Action (whether because of an obstacle, sudden unfavorable terrain, an Injury, or other event) deals 3 Damage which Armor does not reduce.

If you were moving quicker than you could without super speed and go a Round without using your Movement, you collapse and must remain immobile and resting for two Rounds.

  • 300 feet/Round is approximately 66 mph.
  • Any Encumbrance penalty to your movement still applies, but you do not suffer from any sort of exhaustion.
  • Damage from a collision depends on your speed at the time, as well as what you hit. GM's discretion, but generally moving faster than a car on the freeway and hitting a dense, solid object like a wall or a tree should be lethal. Mundane armor will not apply, but any supernatural forms of protection will.

Shock Suit V1.5

Created and held by The Sparkman.
The Beginnings of a much more impressive design. Painful to manually take off due to integrated systems... for now.

The Shock Suit's newly streamlined helmet systems involve many multi-faceted arrays of technological wubba-hubba in order for the wearer to detect Electromagnetic fields, See in the Dark, and more.


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

Your senses are enhanced in the following way.

  • Sight: You can see perfectly in dark and even pitch-black environments. You suffer no dice penalty due to darkness.
  • Electroreception: You may detect electromagnetic fields, electric currents, and even neurological activity in a 50 foot radius from yourself at all times. When detecting neurological activity, you learn nothing but the creature's rough size.

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.
  • When you are within 50 feet of range, your electroreception sense is sufficient for aiming.

A Hatch opens on the arm of the Spark Suit, as The Sparkman attaches their "Ward" onto the surface in question. It doesn't look too out of place, being a pretty small beetle-shaped device that seems to camouflage into the land around it, and it works like a charm. These external sensors allow The Sparkman to view out of their cameras through their visor HUD.


Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action. Select a Location within 10 feet.

You place a ward,. You can perceive with all your senses through the ward as though you were standing at its location. Your wards last 3 hours. This Artifact may have at most 3 wards active at once.

The ward requires Concentration to monitor, though it will remain active until you deactivate it. The ward can be discovered if someone knows what they are looking for, but is otherwise inconspicuous and cannot be identified as a ward.

You may destroy the Ward to activate one Investigate Individual, Object, or Area Effect as though you were standing at its location.

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.

  • Full Spectrum: This investigation Effect is as obvious as it would normally be. The Effect is targeted as though you were standing at the location of the Ward. You must pay all activation costs and satisfy all activation requirements of the Effect.
  • Your ward's recording is maintained even if your Ward is destroyed.
  • Your ward cannot be used to 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.

asdf

Created and held by Rei Hashimoto (零 橋本).
asdf

Rei channels their internal energies into an electrum shard and chants the incantations necessary to cast a hard-light, hexagonal barrier surrounding their body. When damaged, the barrier crackles and retaliates against the attack before reshaping into its protective form.


Spend two Actions performing the following ritual: focusing energy through the electrum and incantations to cast the spell. Select a Animate target within arm's reach. You must use up asdf in order to activate this Effect. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted. Roll Intellect + Occult at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, you create a barrier around your target, which absorbs the next Outcome +6 Damage. Any Damage absorbed by the barrier is reflected back to the attacker, up to a maximum of 6. Their Armor applies in full. The Damage reduction from the barrier is applied before Armor. This Artifact may have up to 3 barriers active 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. As long as it does not fall, the barrier regenerates back to full strength at the end of each Round of combat.

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

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: asdf. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Battle Scar heals over the course of the next day.

  • Effects which circumvent Armor completely also circumvent your barrier.
  • 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.

asdf


Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a single Sapient target or a Location within 300 feet. If you select a Location, all Sapient targets within 300 feet within 20 feet of it, besides yourself, are affected. You must use up asdf in order to activate this Effect. Roll Brawn + Alertness 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 affected targets 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 affected targets 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.

  • Mundane animals have a Mind score of 1 or 2 at the GM’s discretion.
  • 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.

Plot

Created and held by Zoe Ravenwood.
A bracer made of titanium, bronze, kevlar, and cloth

The most prominent engraving on the bracer, the nib of an old fashioned pen, raises slightly from the surface. With a flick of the wrist or finger, a shiny golden shuriken in the shape of a pen nib fires from the wearer's fingertip. Trailing behind the shuriken is a thin line of ink, which vanishes on impact along with the nib. If the wearer chooses to, they transpose along the path of the ink from where they were to where it hit, appearing to move as a thicker section of ink along the line. Even if no fingers point straight at the target, the shuriken curves in flight to hit more accurately.

The bracers have multiple engraved images, each of them deep enough through the bronze to show the titanium beneath. While made as a pair of bracers, each is a different artifact. They were made as high quality costume elements but are fully functional for defense. The engravings were originally simply images with a personal meaning, but over time more will likely become enchanted.

Each function of the bracer is manifested from the enchanter's mental visualization, and the personal energy of the wearer.


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

Attack by rolling Dexterity + Athletics, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +2 Weapon Damage.

You also gain the following effects:

  • 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.
  • Not Quite Flying: You may Exert your Mind and use up your Movement to “follow” any attack using this weapon, traveling right next to its point of impact.
  • Straight To The Face: You may make a throwing attack at melee range with no penalty.
  • Virtuoso's Vessel: When using this Device for its primary purpose, you always roll a minimum of 8 dice. Excludes Effect activation rolls.

  • Created projectiles last only until they strike their target and cannot be shared or stockpiled.
  • The attack must be the primary form of attack for this weapon.
  • Reminder: additional Weapon Damage granted by this Effect does not stack with any other bonus to Weapon Damage. Instead the largest bonus is used.

Stock Legendary Artifacts

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Location within within arm's reach. All Sapient targets within 20 feet are affected. This Effect cannot be used unless the target is looking directly into the device with uncovered eyes. Roll Charisma + Influence at Difficulty 6. The target may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 7.

If the contested Outcome is positive, the most recent 1 hour from your target’s memory is either replaced with new memories or forgotten entirely. This is recorded as a Condition. The level of detail and completeness of the alteration depends on your Outcome. If you fail, the target realizes that you are attempting to alter their memories.

The period is chosen either by time (i.e. “last Friday night”) or by reference to a specific event (i.e. “when the murder occurred”).

  • You do not gain mind-reading through this effect, so your ability to alter their memory is limited by your knowledge of what they might know.
  • The target's roll to realize their memories have been altered can be made a maximum of one time per day.
  • 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.

You gain the following benefits as long as you are not at all wet and you are wearing this Artifact.

You are obscured in one of the following manners. You may Spend an Action to change the way in which you're concealed.

  • Sight:You are partially obscured from being noticed by sight. All attempts to detect you using sight are rolled at a -3 dice penalty, and all attempts to detect you where sight would assist are rolled at -1 penalty. Anyone who detects you cannot determine any visual details about you beyond your general shape.

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.

  • GMs should use their discretion when determining the exact impacts of this Effect, particularly in conjunction with environmental factors. Standing still against a complex background may render you impossible to detect, and footprints in snow may make it easy. A chance to detect you is not guaranteed.

This Effect activates whenever combat begins. It does not require an Action or Exertion.

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.

  • When triggered, the Effect activation resolves immediately after the triggering Action. It is not Reaction speed.

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, 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.

  • Any door or restraint that is fastened or shut with a mechanism may be considered locked, at the GM's discretion. Can be used on control panels or other electronic locks, but not computer security systems.
  • If you operate a locking mechanism through this Effect which has some other secondary effect (such as the ignition on a car causing the car to start) you may cause that effect as well.
  • 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. It is roughly the same size as a javelin but can be collapsed into a pair of bronze bracers and concealed. Collapsing or expanding it costs a Quick Action.

Attack by rolling Brawn + Athletics, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +4 Weapon Damage. The target's Armor is fully effective against this Damage. Attacks

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.