Defensive Focus

2
This Artifact grants you the power to create a protective barrier.
Used by Ware, Created by Unifel.
( The target and source of this Effect are obvious to bystanders.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.)

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.

Community Artifact Crafting Gifts

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

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

This device now possesses a "Tissue reconstruction" application which will pair with a Bluetooth enabled device and implant a control subroutine while physically dispensing a nanite "goo" onto the target area of the subject. This goo quickly permeates damaged tissues and replicates to replace whatever critical structures are damaged, then begins the slow work of regrowing permanent native tissue in its place. From this point, if communication with the controller is lost before this month-long process completes, the nanites will shut down and lose cohesion, resulting in the failure of the repair. (If this artifact is a Bluetooth enabled device, it may serve the controller function if the user heals their own scar)

Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Select a Living target within arm's reach. This Effect cannot be used unless The target possesses some form of Bluetooth enabled device to program as a nanite controller. Select a Battle Scar on your target to treat.

The treated Battle Scar heals as you finish activating this Effect. If used on a Battle Scar caused by an Unstabilized Injury, that Injury is Stabilized.

Your patient is required to remain within bluetooth range (30ft) of the selected control device, and keep it charged and operational for the next month. If they violate this rule, your treatment is immediately reversed.

  • The patient is aware of the after-care requirement.
  • 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.

Idealism was always thought to exist solely in concept, to associate reality with mental ideals as opposed to material objects. That somewhere in the cosmic lands above, a perfect image of this "thing" exists, and only its material imitations are founded in "reality". But what if a material object could be elevated closer to the status of its ideal perfect image? A question Luci had asked herself for a period, and while it took some time, she managed to find a way.

This Artifact has been upgraded.

This Artifact receives 3 extra dice to all actions taken for its intended use. Attacking with an upgraded weapon grants +3 Weapon Damage instead of additional dice. While it is upgraded, the item cannot be destroyed. Upgraded Armor is shredded by half the normal amount. If it is a piece of Armor, it instead receives half that amount as bonus armor rating, rounded up. If an upgraded shield and armor are both worn, the upgrade bonus does not stack with itself.

Upgraded weapons count as any material your opponent might be particularly vulnerable to. Upgraded Armor cannot be circumvented by called shots. Upgraded Devices do not run out of fuel or energy.

  • "Destroyed" in this context means "prevented from functioning for its primary purpose", so for instance, an upgraded land mine would still explode as normal if triggered, even though it cannot be "destroyed" and a car's windows may still be broken.
  • Reminder: additional Weapon Damage granted by this Effect does not stack with any other bonus to Weapon Damage. Instead the largest bonus is used. The same is true for extra dice.
  • Extra dice from this Effect do not apply to Gift activation rolls.

Spend a Free Action. Select a target any distance away from you. You must have a specific target in mind, but you require only an intuitive understanding of them, such as their name, face, or Location.

You may send a single message to your target. It cannot be longer or more complex than a couple short sentences.

The message will only be perceived by the intended recipient. You must share a common language for your target to understand the message.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see its a fucking evil skull dude.

  • When narrating disturbing content, be cognizant of your group's tone and accommodating to those who would like to "fast forward" through the description.
  • Receiving a message does not force a target to pay attention to you, and they can feel free to ignore your message if they choose. Depending on the flavor of your Gift, they may or may not be able to return to it and read it later on.
  • Generally you cannot communicate with Contractors who are not in a Contract with you.
  • 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.

Expend a point of Battery and Spend an Action. Select a Living target within arm's reach. Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you create an effect opposite of what was intended. A negative battlescar becomes a beneficial mutation, and vice versa. Roll Intellect + Science at Difficulty 6. The target may roll Body, Difficulty 7, as a Free Action to resist.

If you succeed, the target receives a new Battle Scar of your choosing, 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.

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

  • 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.

Stock Artifact Crafting Gifts

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

You get +2 dice to any Body resistance rolls you make. You also gain the following effects:

  • Survivor: You are immune to all non-Alien diseases.
  • All Brawn No Brain: You suffer a -2 dice penalty on Mind resistance rolls.

  • These bonuses apply only to Body rolls made to resist Effects and other supernatural phenomena. They do not apply to other contexts such as attacks made while under the Creature Transformation Effect.

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

You get +1 dice to any Mind resistance rolls you make. You also gain the following effects:

  • Naturally Resistant: Any time you make a Mind resistance roll, the individual who you are resisting must Exert their Mind, or your resistance succeeds automatically.
  • Clash Of Wills: If you fail to fully resist an Effect, your Outcome is considered to be 0.

  • 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.