Babel Root Extract No, Not The Baseball Player

1
A consumable pill that lets you communicate with humans.
Used by Nikola Luisawicz, Created by lesbianspacepirate.
( It is clear that you are communicating with the target. You must obviously use this Artifact to activate this Effect. When activating this Effect, this Artifact is obviously Alien and cannot be concealed under your clothes or similar.)

A simple white tablet, dissolved sublingually. The blend of rare and difficult-to-cultivate nootropic herbs and spices (but, like, real ones, and not scam supplements) creates and strengthens the neural pathways in the brain relating to speech and language development, allowing the user to develop proficiency with new dialects at a vastly accelerated rate.

Use up this pill and spend one minute.

You may understand and communicate to humans as if you are fluent in a relevant language for the next hour.

This also includes understanding any recorded communications from the relevant targets, including writings, scent trails, etc.

Whenever you encounter a Language you could commune in with this Effect, you immediately understand which language it is, the dialect, region, and other details about it.

If you use this Effect to spend an hour speaking with a native speaker of a human language you don't know, you may Exert your Mind and roll Intellect + Culture Difficulty 7. With Outcome 4 or higher, you permanently learn that language and accent.

  • The target of "human" refers to any target that speaks a human language.
  • When reading written communications, you get no information beyond what the writer was intending to communicate.
  • This consumable is destroyed when used and cannot be used again.
Revision purchased with:
Gift from playing in Above and Below spent on revising power: Babel Root Extract
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Community Activated Gifts

Spend 2 Actions to activate.

Your appearance changes to The Man/Woman in Black. The disguise lasts for an hour and a half, or you may end it early at will.

You are only able to shift into the one predefined appearance. This new appearance must have a similar sex, age, and race to your own. You cannot significantly change your height and weight. 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.

This Gift's Cost is capped at 2 and cannot be increased further.

  • While you may alter your outfit's appearance, this does not grant or store equipment.

Exert your Mind and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: Knocks on a mirror twice and says “Mirror Mirror who should I fear”. You must actively and obviously use An object with a reflective surface to activate this Effect. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.

You automatically detect all Those that Have searched for Them and Those that are searching for Them within 1 mile 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.

If no Those that Have searched for Them or Those that are searching for Them targets are within 1 mile of you, and then one enters range, you automatically detect it, even if this Effect is not active.

Even if there are no Those that Have searched for Them or Those that are searching for Them within 1 mile of you, you become aware of the direction the closest one is in, as well as a rough sense of its distance from you.

You receive A Glimpse of their Face for each being you detect.

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

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use Ring to activate this Effect. You must make a Trauma roll when you use this Effect. Its Difficulty cannot be reduced by any means.

Summon a single shadow at your location. They will last until they are destroyed. They are controlled by the GM but will follow any commands you give. You may have at most 1 minion active at a time.

  • Attacking: Minions can make melee range attacks with 5 dice to attack and +1 Damage.
  • Body: Minions have 4 Body.
  • Movement: Minions can move 20 feet per Round as Free Movement, and double that when performing an all-out Sprint.
  • Intelligence: They have dog-level intelligence, but are capable of communicating information back to you. They cannot actively use Equipment.
  • Actions: Minions cannot dodge or Defend. Any Perception checks they make are rolled with 3 dice.

Soren found this cat when she was just a kitten at one of his stake-outs into a suspected supernatural old money family in Bavaria, but decided to keep it. As she grew up, she began to develop human speech at a very fast pace, this was quite clearly a supernatural cat, Soren knew he couldn't just hand her over to the feds. As a result, he raised her as his own; she had acquired human-level intelligence astoundingly quickly and began to develop her own personality. She also has very nimble and dexterious paws, allowing her manual dexterity.

As Nina grew older she informed Soren of her abilities, allowing him to be able to summon her at will, forming a supernatural pact with him. He now takes her with him on his missions, using her innate stealth and observation abilities to assist him.

Nina has a witty and observant personality, often displaying a dry sense of humour that catches Soren off guard. She is fiercely independent and prefers to watch the world from a distance, but when Soren is in danger, she becomes fiercely protective, ready to lend her unique abilities to assist him in any way she can.

Exert your Mind and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: You reach into your pockets and pull out a cat. You must actively and obviously use Coat Pockets to activate this Effect. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.

Summon the one and only Sapient Siberian Cat at your location. They last for two hours or until they are destroyed. They are controlled by you. They will attack any Nonliving, Animate targets they encounter immediately and will ignore your commands to do otherwise. You may have at most one minion active at a time.

  • Initiative: Minions act directly after you in Combat starting the Round after they are summoned.
  • Combat: Minions roll 5 dice to dodge, Grapple, or make CLAWS! Attacks. Their unarmed Attacks are melee range and deal +0 Damage.
  • Body/Mind: Minions have 1 Body. They are between the size of a rat and a cat and do not suffer falling damage. Your minions roll 7 Mind resistance dice.
  • Armor: Minions have 2 Armor.
  • Movement: Minions can move 30 feet per Round as Free Movement and double that when performing an all-out Sprint.
  • Intelligence: Minions have human-level intelligence and can speak your language. They lack manual dexterity and cannot use equipment, Artifacts, or Consumables designed for humans.
  • Actions: Any Perception checks they make are rolled with 5 dice. Your minion is able to Athletics, Alertness, and Stealth with a 9 dice pool. Any other roll is made with 5 dice. They can lift and haul as though they have 0 Brawn.
  • Powers: Your companion can Exert their Mind using your Mind and spend your Source.
  • Unusual: Minions are not obviously Alien.

If you die during a Contract and your companion goes on to claim victory, they may permanently sacrifice themselves to bring you back to life and safety. If this happens, you may refund this Gift to a minimum cost of 3.

If killed, you cannot re-summon your minion until after your next Contract.

  • Your companion heals fully during each Downtime, but is not healed fully when you re-summon them.
  • Your companion is affected normally by Artifacts and Energy Transfer.
  • Minions will only attack Nonliving, Animate targets that are larger than a mouse.
  • Your minions may count as additional targeting types based on their flavor. For example: Living, Computer, Creature, etc.

Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action or Reaction. Roll Perception + Alertness at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, you create a barrier around yourself, which absorbs the next Outcome + 4 Damage. Any Damage absorbed by the barrier is reflected back to the attacker, up to a maximum of the Barrier Strength Parameter’s bonus. Their Armor applies in full. The Damage reduction from the barrier is applied before Armor. This Artifact 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.

  • If you use this Effect as a Reaction to dodge, you still need to make a roll to dodge. The Effect will occur regardless of the Outcome of this roll, but if you fail you will be hit by the relevant attack prior to the Effect occurring.

Stock Activated Gifts

Spend a Quick Action. You must actively and obviously use a burlap sack to activate this Effect.

You may withdraw an item from your stash, or add an item that is within arm’s reach to your stash. You may only stash targets which are in your possession, grappled, or otherwise controlled by you.

You may store Objects in your stash, each no larger than something which could fit inside a briefcase (15 liters), and you may store up to 3 things at a time.

You may choose to equip any equipment you withdraw at no additional cost.

  • "Equip" refers to drawing a gun, putting on a piece of armor, etc.
  • Containers which hold multiple things may count as a single item so long as the things within are generally packaged together. For instance, you may stash a clip full of bullets, a medical kit full of medical supplies, or a box of crackers, but you cannot stash a backpack full of miscellaneous equipment.
  • You may only attempt to store Objects which are free-standing and disconnected from other things. The use of this Effect will not allow you to sever any connections holding an Object in place.
  • The Maximum Object Size parameter is intended to roughly capture the weight / size restriction of items and isn’t intended to restrict shape. GM discretion is advised. A human being is level 4 in the Maximum Object Size parameter.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action.

Whenever you use your Movement, after all other calculations, the distance you may travel is doubled.

  • 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.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action.

You automatically detect all illegal materials within 50 feet of you for the next hour. You have a clear sense of both the distance and direction towards any detected items. You do not learn any details about the detected items.

  • This includes any objects that come into range during activation.

Exert your Mind and spend a minute.

You become disguised in a manner of your choosing. The disguise lasts for two hours, or you may end it early at will.

The new appearance must have a similar sex, age, and race to your own. You cannot significantly change your height and weight. 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 cannot alter the appearance of your flesh and blood.

  • While you may alter your outfit's appearance, this does not grant or store equipment.

Take a Severity-1 Injury and spend an Action. You must use up a corpse in order to activate this Effect.

Summon a single zombie at your location. They will last until they are destroyed. They are controlled by the GM but will follow any commands you give. You may have at most 1 minion active at a time.

  • Attacking: Minions can make melee range attacks with 5 dice to attack and +1 Damage.
  • Body: Minions have 6 Body.
  • Movement: Minions can move 20 feet per Round as Free Movement, and double that when performing an all-out Sprint.
  • Intelligence: Minions have dog-level intelligence, and cannot communicate back to you. They cannot actively use Equipment.
  • Actions: Minions cannot dodge or Defend. Any Perception checks they make are rolled with 3 dice.