"The carcasses of birds and bugs piled up near the apple. The apple pondered about its existence in the midst of the corpses rotting around it. One day, a branch grew from it. The leaves and branches were already withered and dry, but it continued to grow."
ALL MOVEMENT WITHIN THE VINES ARE INHIBITED TO 15 FT PER TURN, THIS EFFECT CAN BE NULLIFIED WITH SPEED BUFFING EGO.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. This Effect cannot be used unless both Green Stem EGO are equipped.
You create a hemispherical dome of Green Vines originating at your Location, with a radius of 60 feet. and lasting for 2 hours. While active, you are always fully affected by your zone as if you were standing in it. The area inside your zone is affected in the following ways:
You may end this Effect prematurely as a Free Action.
The brown fedora glows a soft white for the duration, slowly loosing brightness and fading to brown.
Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action. Select a Sapient being, human, Creature, or Dead target within 50 feet. Dead targets must have died within the past week, and you must have their remains in your possession.
The target can communicate in your language for the next 30 seconds.
You may only use this Effect once per target per day.
The user grips the necklace (either while it is in their hand or on their neck), and whisper out loud the name of the person they're treating. Afterwards shadows wrap around the two and put them into a room with complete silence, the peace within the shadowy room is amplified to console the target and heal them.
When used to heal mental exhaustion the shadows instead wrap around the target's head and give them a darkened face mask that isolates them from outside noise, all the while whispering reassurances to their ear.
Exert your Mind to activate. Select a Living target within arm's reach. Over the course of one Downtime, 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 + Occult at Difficulty 6.
If your treatment is successful, you may remove one of the patient's revealed Traumas without incurring any Experience cost.
You may attempt to treat an unwilling patient. They may choose to resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 7.
Once per day per target, you may choose to use this Effect to stabilize a target's Mind. Treatment takes 30 seconds but will not remove any Traumas. If you are successful, restore 2 Mind damage.
Whenever the Artifact's owner thoroughly defeats or kills an opponent, the Confluence of Glyphs may save the echo of any melee weapon used by the opponent if it deems it worthwhile, adding said echo to what is best described as an archive. This artifact is able to freely change its shape to resemble any of the weapons from within the archive. The contents of the archive are recorded in the Artifact owner's Equipment section.
A blur obscures the Artifact's features while it is shape is in the process of being changed, with a crimson glint signifying that the alteration has concluded. The coloration and perceived materials of all replicated weapons partially match the coloration and perceived materials of the Artifact's base form. Some features of these weapons are distinctly different from those of their real iterations, such as text and images being replaced by unknown glyphs. If the appearance of a weapon's real iteration had noticeable technological aspects, the replica has those aspects revised to be warped and eldritch instead.
The Artifact can only be miniaturized while it is in its base form. When it is ordered to shrink or enlarge, it bursts into a swarm of black, shifting glyphs which coalesce and reform into the Artifact of the requested size.
This Artifact can be used as a knife. It is roughly the same size as a knife but can be collapsed into a miniature version of itself and concealed. Collapsing or expanding it costs a Quick Action.
Attack by rolling (Dexterity or Brawn) + (Melee or Brawl), Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +3 Weapon Damage.
You also gain the following effects:
Whenever the Artifact is used by someone other than its true owner, observers can see shifting impressions of unknown glyphs temporarily appear in random places on the Artifact's surface. If whoever is wielding it had hurt the Artifact's true owner before, the aforementioned glyph impressions exhibit a crimson sheen. The noticeability of the sheen scales in direct proportion to the magnitude of the current wielder's total negative impact on the Artifact's true owner.
Whenever the Artifact is ordered by its true owner to return to them, it folds in on itself in a non-Euclidean manner, becoming more and more blurry as it does so. Then, the middle of one of the true owner's palms darkens as a single black, ever-shifting glyph with a crimson sheen emerges from it. The true owner reflexively closes its hand around it, 'catching' the glyph, but when they open it again they are instead faced with the Artifact in its shrunken form. The palm's darkening is also no longer present, as if it never happened in the first place.
All bleeding Injuries of the Artifact's true owner emit streaks of blur reminiscent of solar prominence. The parts of this phenomena that are close to the scar owner's skin faintly glow an uneasy red instead of remaining colorless and clear.
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 used by someone other than its true owner, its true owner is alerted and learns the user's appearance, direction, and distance at that moment. The true owner may use a single investigation Effect on them once at any range.
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.
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: an ornate, inky-black mark depicting the Artifact's base form - a misericorde dagger - pointing downwards from inbetween the person's shoulder blades to the small of their back. So long as this mark exists, the person in question's blood becomes black and blurry with a crimson sheen, and all Injuries that aren't Stabilized degrade every 10 minutes instead of every 30 minutes. If observed under a microscope, anyone can see that the blood's cells have been replaced by various black, ever-shifting glyphs of similar sizes - however, despite this, the blood functions exactly the same as a normal human's blood would. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Battle Scar heals over the course of the next day.
Whenever the Artifact's owner allows it to temporarily expand their perception, an aggressive red glint can be seen shining for a split second from within the center of the dagger's crossguard. Likewise, the Artifact's silhouette momentarily blurs as well.
To the Artifact owner, during their period of otherworldly awareness, all opaque materials become partially transparent. Crimson, glowing, ever-shifting glyphs start to frequently appear floating inside all of the aforementioned opaque-turned-transparent objects and terrain. Normally, the glyphs themselves aren't distracting, and tend to be somewhat faint, however some decide to trace the outlines, edges and corners of seen-through surfaces instead of simply floating without purpose - these ones are quite more noticeable, being a bit more numerous and bright. The Artifact owner is mentally aware of all such glyphs within this sense's range.
The difficulty of discerning the less obvious details within a given area dictates how colorful the glyphs in said area appear: for example, glyphs within the first and thus unobscured wall that the Artifact's owner could see are of a strong red hue, while glyphs in an object that's behind several usually-opaque surfaces or deep underground would be darker - both in color and in brightness.
Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action.
You may perceive things within 75 feet of you with perfect clarity as though there were no walls or obstacles blocking your view for the next 30 minutes.
You may perceive through up to 15 feet of material. The Difficulty of all Perception rolls made through a wall are increased by 1 per wall.
Just an ordinary foot bag, or trunk, or backpack... okay, not so ordinary.
This Artifact can be used as a container. It is roughly the same size as a foot bag and just as difficult to conceal.
Your foot bag holds 30 times what it normally could. Objects stored inside are weightless.
Living things can be stored in your foot bag. They will have access to anything else inside and may attempt to break free, damaging or destroying the foot bag in the process.
If your foot bag is destroyed, things inside may get out, and it will cease to function until it is repaired.
When scanned or investigated without opening, the contents of your container appear normal and unremarkable.
The data gathered from Laz's age changes have now allowed a greater understanding of cellular reconstruction. Laz's device now secretes nanites constantly into the user's bloodstream through dermal absorption. Activation reads brainwave patterns to determine the envisioned form and adjusts smoothly, preventing the tearing, gore, and nudity of the previous system. Yes, bones still shift under the skin, and clothing is reconstructed but in a much less disturbing display. Further, the reconstruction need no longer be actively maintained. Once complete, it remains until changed. Releasing a form, however, does still cost the wearer an exhaustive amount of energy that must be recovered.
After the events of a previous Contract, Laz wanted to be anyone else. Eliza helped him work out how he can be. Now he finds himself doing business with another face
Exert your Mind and spend a minute.
You become disguised in a manner of your choosing. The disguise lasts until you either activate a new disguise, or choose to end the effect.
The new appearance may have a different sex, age, and race to your own, and you may alter height by up to a foot and your weight by 50%. Your disguise cannot directly mimic an existing person. You may change the appearance of your outfit. A disguise cannot affect your Attributes or other stats.
You may roll Charisma + Crafts to attempt to make your disguise Beautiful. If your Outcome is 6 or higher, non-Effect Charisma rolls where your good looks could help are rolled at -2 Difficulty. If you fail or botch, you are ugly instead, and non-Effect Charisma rolls are made at +2 Difficulty.
After this Effect ends, you cannot move quicker than a walk (15 feet per Round) for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour.
"The Coffin" can only be used to store things commonly found in coffins, such as bodies, clothes, jewelry, photos, weapons, coins, and similar.
This Artifact holds 5 times what it normally could inside of it. Objects stored inside are weightless. Unless you are storing something commonly found in coffins, this Artifact behaves as its mundane counterpart. This Effect cannot be used unless you are storing something commonly found in coffins.
Living things can be stored in this Artifact. They will have access to anything else inside and may attempt to break free, damaging or destroying the Artifact in the process.
If this Artifact is destroyed, things inside may get out, and it will cease to function until it is repaired.
When scanned or investigated without opening, the contents of this container appear normal and unremarkable.
On a Downtime, you may change this Artifact from one type of container to another. Maximum once per Downtime.
If anyone other than you opens the container, it appears empty. Others can still destroy it to get at the contents.
The Axe of Legend's blade has been imbued with the metal of the dark lord of rock and roll. It shreds chords and flesh. The rock god commanding it may recall it to their hand at will.
This Artifact can be used as a sword / axe. It is roughly the same size as a sword / axe and just as difficult to conceal.
Attack by rolling Brawn + Melee, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +4 Weapon Damage.
You also gain the following effects:
The 255TE "Lancer" Rife fires an extremely deadly spike of plasma at its targets. It comes standard with a volume control, allowing the soldier to mute its normally fearsome lightning crack report for stealth missions. When not in use, it can collapse into a small metal disk that can fit into any utility belt.
This Artifact can be used as a rifle. It is roughly the same size as a rifle but can be collapsed into a metallic disk and concealed. Collapsing or expanding it costs a Quick Action.
Attack by rolling Dexterity + Firearms, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +5 Weapon Damage.
You also gain the following effects:
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 "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.