The Crushing Gaze of Mikula Selyaninovich

2
The power to inflict mental trauma on a target.
Used by Harry Johnson, Created by jwesley123.
(This Effect is obviously Alien when used. When activating this Effect, it is obvious you are interacting with the target. )

Mikula Selyaninovich, the legendary bogatyr, was known for his unparalleled strength, not just of body but of presence. His very being carried the weight of the earth itself, and those who stood before him felt as if they were being crushed under an invisible force. Harry Johnson, striving to embody this immense power, taps into the legacy of Mikula when he unleashes his “Crushing Gaze.”

When Harry activates this power, it’s as though he draws upon the ancient strength of Mikula, whose connection to the earth and its unyielding force was unmatched. The air around Harry becomes dense, heavy with a primal energy that can be felt even by those unaware of its source. It’s not something seen but something sensed—a deep, instinctual recognition that the man before them carries within him the spirit of an unstoppable force.

For those who meet Harry’s gaze, the experience is overwhelming. They are suddenly gripped by the same crushing pressure that Mikula’s enemies must have felt, as if the very ground beneath them is pulling them down, dragging them into the depths of the earth. Their mind buckles under this invisible weight, assaulted by the sheer power of Harry’s presence, which echoes the ancient bogatyr’s legendary might.

This is not just fear—it’s a confrontation with the raw, unrelenting power that Mikula embodied. The target feels their own insignificance in the face of such strength, a mental and spiritual blow that leaves them shaken to their core. Even after the moment passes, the lingering sense of dread remains, as if they have glimpsed the true depth of Harry’s potential to embody the legendary bogatyr.


Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Sapient or Creature target within 20 feet. Roll Brawn + Influence 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 target 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 target 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.

Community Targeted Gifts

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Dead target within arm's reach that has died within the last month. You must actively and obviously use a shovel to activate this Effect.

Your target rises as an Animate being which is ghostlike and incorporeal, unable to physically interact with the real world, though they may pass through walls and make noise. The raised creature is totally mindless, with no memory of its past life or hint of its old personality. They can communicate as they would have been able to in life. They will follow any command you speak.

The creature lasts for one hour or until it dies again. It is revived at full health. Any Injuries it had in life are not accounted for when determining its penalties or progression towards re-death, though they may affect its ability to perform certain actions at GM's discretion.

Raised creatures have all their Abilities set to 0. Their Charisma and Intellect are set to 1, but their Dexterity, Brawn and Perception are the same as they had in life. A raised creature cannot use any Effects.

This Effect ends if you are stunned, fall asleep, go unconscious, are incapacitated, die, or if your total Penalty ever exceeds 5.

  • 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.

The rod is burns with purifying energy that drives the malady from the target. It draws from the symbol of the Asclepius.

This rod was made by a ritual focused on the symbol of the Asclepius, and experimenting with it. Vaccines, anti-virals, stories of miracle cures were all part of the creation process.

Exert your Mind (unless In a hospital, Clinic, or other healthcare setting) and spend 1 Action. Select a Living target within arm's reach.

You may cure any Non-Alien diseases, toxins, or poisons afflicting your target even if you have not diagnosed or fully understood it. You may cure diseases or poisons even if they are not treatable through modern medicine. During treatment, the malady you are treating does not progress or cause additional Damage or other effects.

You may treat Alien maladies and curses. If there is some method to cure them, you learn what it is. If the malady does not provide its own means of curing it, it is cured.

  • Without some sort of diagnostic Effect, “fully diagnosing” a disease or poison will always require a roll of some sort, frequently Intellect + Medicine, but the specific roll and difficulty is at 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.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Location within 10 feet.

You place a ward, which is fixed to its initial location. You can hear and see through the ward as though you were standing at its location. You may have at most 1 wards active at once.

The ward requires Concentration to monitor, though it will remain active until you deactivate it. The presence of the Ward is obvious to anyone being watched by it, and it can be destroyed by mundane means.

You may declare a condition to watch for on an active Ward. If it occurs, you may roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 6, to notice it, even if you are not actively monitoring that ward.

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.

  • 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.

Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. Select a Living target within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use crystal to activate this Effect. Your target must make a Trauma roll when you activate this Effect. Choose a specific Injury on your target that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Intellect + Occult at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, the Injury is reduced in Severity by your Outcome. If you reduce its Severity to 0, the Injury is fully healed. Otherwise, it is partially healed and will heal the rest of the way at its natural rate.

This counts as a successful Makeshift Stabilization if the Injury was not already Stabilized; any Battle Scars caused by the Injury will remain.

  • Unstabilized wounds do not degenerate during treatment.
  • 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.

If you’re convincing enough, anything is possible.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a target within arm's reach. Choose an illusion to generate, which can be no larger than a coffee mug.

The chosen illusion is generated at your target, and it will remain in place for the next minute or you choose to end it. It can be perceived by people through their sight. The illusion cannot be used as an attack. You cannot make an exact replica of an existing Animate being or Object.

Anyone who touches the illusion (or who would be able to perceive it significantly through a sense it cannot fool) realizes it is an illusion and can choose to perceive it or not at will.

The illusion will remain fixed to its initial target, and can only change locations if the initial target is mobile in some way. It may have moving parts and engage in simple, predetermined movements but cannot perform anything complex or interactive unless you maintain Concentration and “puppeteer” it.

  • while you can use an illusion to obscure something smaller, you cannot make anything directly invisible (you can’t make a tank look like a regular baseball, but you can hide it in an illusion of a giant baseball).
  • You may only puppeteer a single illusion at once.
  • 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 Targeted Gifts

Exert your Mind (unless you have been recently attacked by your target) and spend an Action. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. This Effect cannot be used unless the target is undead, demonic, or another evil creature. You must actively and obviously use a gilded cross 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 target 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 target gains a Trauma of the GM's choice.

This trauma cannot be removed by spending Experience and undergoing mundane therapy. Affected targets are aware that they are being attacked and can generally tell who did it.

  • 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.

Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. Select a Living target within arm's reach. You must make a Trauma roll when you use this Effect. Its Difficulty cannot be reduced by any means. If you fail or Botch, you receive one Mind Damage and a new Trauma. Your target must make a Trauma roll to reap the benefits of this Effect. They may choose to Resist the Effect and not make the roll. Choose a specific Injury on your target that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Charisma + Medicine at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, the Injury is reduced in Severity by your Outcome. If you reduce its Severity to 0, the Injury is fully healed. Otherwise, it is partially healed and will heal the rest of the way at its natural rate.

This counts as a successful Makeshift Stabilization if the Injury was not already Stabilized; any Battle Scars caused by the Injury will remain.

  • Unstabilized wounds do not degenerate during treatment.
  • 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.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Non-Alien Creature within 20 feet. This Effect cannot be used unless the target is a terrestrial animal.

For the next day, you may issue specific commands to your target which they will be compelled to follow.

Your commands can be complex and multi-layered, though they must still be specific. You cannot make them obviously endanger themselves or violate their instinct for self-preservation. The effects of the command will fade after a day has passed.

  • Your commands must be directly communicated to your target in some way, though this does not require a shared language.
  • If targeting a Sapient target that counts as a Creature due to an Effect, you must succeed a contested Mind roll. You roll at Difficulty 6, and the target rolls at Difficulty 8.
  • Targets with Body ratings higher than 10 require a Charisma + Animals roll resisted by the target’s Body. Kaiju and environment-scale targets are immune.
  • 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.

Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. Select a Computer within arm's reach. Does not work on Alien technology. Roll Intellect + Technology, with the Difficulty set by the GM depending on the security of the system you are hacking. Sapient targets can resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, you may issue a single command to the targeted system. This command must have a specific outcome or be a request for specific login credentials. The command you issue must be within the machine's current capabilities. For example, you cannot order a standard security camera to grow legs and walk around.

If your command does not require bypassing the security of the target (for example, typing on a computer that is unlocked), you do not need to Exert your Mind to activate this Effect, and activation only takes a single Action.

Your Hack cannot be reversed through mundane means for a number of hours equal to your Outcome.

Every hack you make leaves behind a flickering image of a ghost in the system as a personal "calling card" that informs anyone who uses the system that the hack occurred.

  • You cannot hack things outside of your range over remote connections such as the internet. The system you are affecting must be physically within range.
  • 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.

Spend an Action and use up this smoke bomb.

You create a hemispherical dome of smoke originating at your Location, with a radius of 60 feet. and lasting for 5 minutes. The area inside your zone is affected in any number of the following ways:

  • Disorienting: Any time someone moves within or through the zone, they must roll Mind at Difficulty 8. If they fail or botch, they move a similar distance in a different direction of the GM’s choice.
  • Suppressed Vision: The zone is fully blocked from view. Nothing within the zone may see anything or be seen from the outside. Any rolls that rely on sight fail automatically, and any rolls that benefit from sight are made at -3 dice.
The zone expands immediately to its full size from the chosen Location, but will be stopped from spreading in a particular direction by any barriers or cover, and can only fit through openings large enough to fit a grown adult. If a new opening appears while the Effect is still active, it will finish spreading in that direction.

  • The Effect does not follow you after you activate it.
  • This consumable is destroyed when used and cannot be used again.
  • If you select a location at the edge of your range, you will be just outside the zone once the Effect is activated
  • 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.