Legendary Artifact

Old Pager

Created and held by Barbara “Bobbi” McGee.
A little pager, like the ones everyone used to use to keep in touch before smartphones replaced the lot. Notably, a tiny fluffy microphone extends on a small metal rod just below the screen. A small blurb of a manufacturer's note on the back states "Made in Kamurochō"

Goddamnit, that raccoon had managed to find its way into the shed with all of the feed again... It wasn't the end of the world, not like the little guy was gonna eat his way through a couple dozen cow's worth of feed anytime soon, but the raccoon would probably end up trapped in here if she didn't help him out, and if Rosie tried she was probably only gonna end up scaring him and getting bit.

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

You may understand and communicate to Creatures and humans as if you are fluent in a relevant language.

  • Communing with creatures does not grant them intellect but does allow you to converse with them.
  • The target of "human" refers to any target that speaks a human language.
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Community Artifacts

The last spin

Created and held by Toropova Ivanova.
A Nagant M1895, the gun looks worned down from continual use and the chamber is prone to losens.

Anastasia slots an intricately engraved bullet into the chamber of the gun and spins it. In a quick motion she puts the gun to her temple and pulls the trigger. After the click she points the gun at the enemy and loses a shot.

Spend an Action. Select a target within 300 feet. Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you gain battle scar: traumatic brain injurie. You must use up engraved bullet in order to activate this Effect. Roll Perception + Firearms 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. Armor is fully effective against this Damage.

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.

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.

Cadaver

Created and held by Barley.
a dagger made from the fang of a large carnivorous creature, the handle wrapped in leather, accented with a green feather.

This knife is designed to cause damage to both flesh and other weapons. In a way, the knife has its own superiority complex, wanting to be better than all others.

This Artifact can be used as a knife. It is roughly the same size as a knife and just as difficult to conceal.

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:

  • 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.
  • 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.

  • Reminder: additional Weapon Damage granted by this Effect does not stack with any other bonus to Weapon Damage. Instead the largest bonus is used.

Tenebrae Magnus Gladius

Created and held by Haerin Yun.
A large, buster blade with a pitch black pulsating core with a red outline, with a deep and ravenous hunger. There is a black pawn keychain attached to the end of the handle.

A hulking, large, pulsating shapeless sword of pure darkness that leaks with a ravenous hunger, changing into any weapon that suits the user. It tears into the soul of those it harms, no matter how meagre or light the damage it gives, it tears into the soul, regardless of it being held within a body

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

Attack by rolling Brawn + Melee, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +5 Weapon Damage.

This item is a living thing. When targeted, it counts as a Living Creature in addition to its other target types. If destroyed or abandoned for more than two days, it dies and becomes unusable.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Bastard: You may spend a Free Action to change this melee weapon’s base stats into those of any other basic melee weapon. Changing this weapon's base type affects its size, range, Weapon Damage, and roll.
  • 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.
  • Extend-o-blade: This melee weapon may extend up to 50 feet for a single Attack, Defense, or Clash. Retracting back into its usable size is a Quick Action.
  • 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.

  • 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.

Bracer of Powerful Chucking

Created and held by Twiggy Stevenson.
A bracer of shiny metal make with a red gemstone embedded into it. It has ornate carvings.

Quite simply, this bracer, when worn, adds a powerful throw to anyone. When throwing an object in your hand, the red gemstone embedded in the bracer glows brightly as a red aura outlines the thrown weapon. The thrown weapon itself is empowered for the throw only.

You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact and you are engaged in combat with thrown weapons.

Your attacks with thrown weapons no longer have their damage capped, and do +3 Bonus Damage. Armor is reduced to 1/2, rounded up against this damage.

  • Reminder: Bonus Damage stacks with Weapon Damage, but does not stack with any other Bonus Damage. Instead, the highest Bonus Damage is used.

Spare WareTech Suit

Created and held by Ware.
A powered 3-armor exo-skeleton that helps its wearer with combat tasks, communication, and mobility. Near the power source is the inscription: "Ware's Wares". This Spare Suit contains the Comms and Stealth Kits. Unequipped, it weighs 40-50lbs, but while powered it compensates for its own weight. For a full list of features, please check https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vR5NwBTkpMv-tRBa5BAUW0EfwqRS_TlMojWSjXf6XUR2SiHQTWB-gvDIVLVBzYJ71_ByLRdW0jqjr8H/pub

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.

  • "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.

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:

  • Compartmentalizing: You can take a maximum of 1 Mind Damage per Round.

  • If you have an Effect that allows you to Exert your Mind more than once per Round, each Exertion still causes one Mind Damage.
  • These bonuses apply only to Mind rolls made to resist Effects and other supernatural phenomena. They do not apply to Trauma rolls or self-control rolls.

A holographic projection helps deal with any cameras that might be looking at the subject, while a "simple" perception filter helps fill in the finer details for anybody who is looking at them.

Inspired during her work reverse-engineering a T.O.P. Suit, Ware has realized the ability to hide what she's wearing while she's wearing it is even better than the ability to quickly make it disappear.

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

Spend a Quick Action to activate. This Artifact changes its appearance into an Object within the category of Apparel. 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.

  • Changing the Artifact’s appearance does not allow you to conceal its Alien nature while any of its other Effects are in use.

A thin disc of plasma materializes in the user's hand from the device's glove, which can then be thrown to splatter against its target. It seems to eat through anything it splatters against, and only the device wrapped around the hand protects the user's fingers from a similar fate.

The plasma thrower has its own power source which is used not just to create the plasma itself, but also as a beacon for Ware's Extra-Dimensional Translator device - allowing the rest of the artifact to be Translated to her personal space until it is called for again.

This Artifact produces ephemeral projectiles that can be used as a shuriken. It is roughly the same size as a shuriken but can be collapsed into a bracelet and concealed. Collapsing or expanding it costs a Quick Action.

Attack by rolling Dexterity + Athletics, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +0 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.
  • 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.

  • 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.

When activating this effect, a little finagling is required to get the prototype to actually work - but once it's active, the artifact uses prediction technology to put itself in the way of danger, and actively protects the wearer: Either moving them out of the way or blocking hits for them with the light shimmer that outlines the exo-skeleton under their clothes.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Roll Intellect + Crafts at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, you create a barrier around yourself, which absorbs the next Outcome +4 Damage. The Damage reduction from the barrier is applied before Armor. This Artifact may only have 1 active barrier at a time.

The barrier will fall after two hours, 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.

  • Effects which circumvent Armor completely also circumvent your barrier.

Stock Legendary Artifacts

The Bug-out Bag

No hiker would bat an eye if they saw someone wearing this 80 liter backpacking pack in the backcountry. Those who look closer find it's made of a curious mix of modern materials and what appears to be rawhide stitching.

This Artifact holds 5 times what it normally could inside of it. Objects stored inside are weightless.

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.

If anyone other than you opens the container, it appears empty. Others can still destroy it to get at the contents.

  • A container of holding cannot be placed inside another created by the same Gift.
  • There is no cost to use this container.

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.

This Artifact's true owner is always aware of the direction and distance to 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.

Selkie Skin

This Effect activates whenever you are submerged in salt water. It does not require an Action or Exertion. Your target should be intuitively based on the triggering event.

You transform into small for two hours or until you choose to end the Effect. See the Extended System text for stats.

While transformed, you cannot use any equipment (including Artifacts and Consumables), and you cannot use your Active, Targeted, or Trap Powers. However, you can use your Passive Powers. Any equipment you are wearing transforms with you.

Injuries and Wound Level are carried over between forms. However, transforming can never kill you; you merely remain Incapacitated until your Injuries are sufficiently healed.

  • When triggered, the Effect activation resolves immediately after the triggering Action. It is not Reaction speed.
  • Creature Stats
    • Medium (large house cat up to human) Body 3. Brawn 1. Dexterity 3. Fall damage reduced by 1.
    All creatures get +3 dice to any non-combat Action that they are naturally adapted for. All creatures Medium and larger may attack by rolling Body, dealing +0 Damage (+1 for “predators”). Gms and Playgroup leaders can apply other bonuses and effects to specific animals.
  • Animals that are quicker than humans (like dogs) have 50 feet of Free Movement. Animals that are very slow (like turtles) have 0 feet of Free Movement.
  • You cannot transform if there is not enough room to do so.
  • The form you take must have the same stats and abilities as a single, extant animal of the relevant size.

Assault Helmet

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.

  • This Effect does not satisfy the line of sight targeting requirement for other Effects.

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.

Personal Shield Generator

The device itself is a metal hexagon that is worn on the belt and glows when active.

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.

  • If you use this Effect to dodge as a Reaction, it succeeds without the need for a roll. Cannot be used as a Desperate Defense.
  • You may use your Free Movement on the Round you phase back in, but you cannot take an Action.