Leonard surges forward, as his back jerks upwards. In a flurry of mana particles and bloody red, crystalline shards begin to tear themselves free. Soon after, following the emergence of its extensions, the Guardian raises its primary body, in a gruesome display of warping its physical form outside of its host. Almost as if his spine were the entity itself, the Guardian would fully tear itself out his back, arching out its enormous crystalline 'limbs', as it stretches out several meters, taking careful guard behind its host.
The guardian is a mana symbiote long forgotten by history, almost all knowledge having been lost to the careful work of the Sabisians. The rare few scholars that still hold existing records of these beings believe them to long be extinct, lost to mana wars passed long since and the Sabisian incursion.
While in its docile state, the Guardian appears as a crystalline growth connected directly to its hosts nervous system through the spinal cord, easily being visible to the naked eye underneath the skin, alongside visible patches of mana-crystalline material left in patches above the skin containing it. While in its docile form, the guardian remains in a sort of dormant state, co-existing with its host and feeding off of its body.
During its active phase, the Guardian appears to burst out of body of its host. Despite this appearance, this process is all but a trick of the eyes, in reality being no more than an energy transference as the Guardian takes form, leaving behind no actual wounds on the host's body. The crystalline being seen during its active phase is not in reality the entity's true form, that being the crystaline growth located inside the host. Henceforth, destroying the active entity does little but return it back into its primary shell, where it can recover.
In appearance, during the active phase, the Guardian is a large, several meters tall crystalline biomechanical creature. It is composed of a long lanky crystalline 'spine' flanked by long sharpened shards that it uses to strike at the enemy or otherwise carry out its commands. When out of range, it uses a head-like appendage, which it can seemingly use to see, to fire a directed burst of energy.
The Guardian forms a bond with its host during the symbiotic period, carrying out their commands on its own free will, in exchange, the host provides it safety and nutrition.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action to activate.
Summon a single Guardian 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.
Minions have 6 Body and can make ranged attacks at targets up to 30 feet away with 5 dice to attack and +1 Damage. Your minions can move 20 feet per Round as Free Movement, and double that when performing an all-out Sprint. They cannot dodge or Defend. They have dog-level intelligence, and cannot communicate back to you. Any Perception checks they make are rolled with 8 dice.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see The guardian 'tears' itself out of the hosts back.
Possession of this Artifact causes the following Battle Scar to manifest over the course of a day: Crystalline-mineral growth around the spine. If you lose possession of this Artifact, the Battle Scar heals over the course of the next month.
When he summons this creature, it is vicious, looking like a Giant plant monster and it has a giant monster made out of thorns and vines and not regular vines, thick vines it has a lotus flour that is upside down on its head covering its face
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Summon a single Non-Sapient, Animate Thorn guardian at your location. They last until they are destroyed They are controlled by the GM but will follow any commands you give. This Artifact may have at most one active at a time.
When the figurine is held and the chant is said the warrior appears in a flash of light
Use up this Figurine and spend at least two Actions performing the following ritual: Holding the figurine close to your face while saying the phrase "I summon you to my aid" to activate. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.
Summon a single warrior 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.
Minions have 4 Body and can make melee range attacks with 5 dice to attack and +1 Damage. Your minions can move 20 feet per Round as Free Movement, and double that when performing an all-out Sprint. They cannot dodge or Defend. They have dog-level intelligence, but are capable of communicating information back to you. Any Perception checks they make are rolled with 3 dice.
After you finish activating this Effect, you cannot move quicker than a walk (max 15 feet per Round) for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour.
Grace calls Horatio, Obedience's pet in life and death, out of the ether. He ppears as a ghostly form covered in soot, which trails behind him in wisps as he pads out from somewhere nearby- under a chair, out of a trashcan or closet, from behind her head and onto her shoulders.... Horatio was loyal to the end, and will "die" over and over again fighting ferociouslu for his girls, and fighting. Even when they were both alive, it was their ability to communicate across barriers that got Obedience killed. Now that they've crossed the ultimate barrier together, they can truly and clearly understand each other.
Horatio usually resides in Grace’s mindscape, along with the rest of the menagerie, unless Grace is in a place private enough that he can come out and play.
While Obedience's life force was tied to the tree, bitter as the bark and as slow to progress, Horatio was hidden from her; she was too unfamiliar and for awhile, taken to fits of rage. Horatio wasn't willing to put up with it directly, after a time. But he never went far, watching over her out of even her sight... the most loyal of cats, our beloved Horatio.
Exert your Mind and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: Grace walks around waving her ball of yarn calling out for Horatio and inspecting places he could come out from.. You must actively and obviously use A ball of yarn to activate this Effect. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.
Summon a single Horatio 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.
At random, sporadic intervals, without either rhyme or reason, the gift user inevitably comes across yet more alternate versions of themselves from different, unknown timelines. Some of these alternate selves may be very similar to the gift user - they might wear similar clothes, and have similar mannerisms and beliefs - however some can instead be wildly different depending on the lives they have led, and the timelines they have came from. Likewise, their goals can differ too: even though most of the gift user's alternate selves are likely to be at least somewhat aligned with them, and thus willing to lend their assistance, there is also the rare chance for encountering alternate selves that are downright hostile, potentially even to a homicidal extent.
The actual process of an alternate self getting summoned through time often happens beyond the gift user's sight: in a different room, behind a corner, or somewhere else of that sort. Other times, the temporary guest's appearance may be noticed immediately, such as when they show up sitting in an unoccupied chair or standing right next to another person. No matter the level of conspicuousness, though, all of these summonings always have a single common element that remains unchanged - they begin with the trickling in of tiny grains of carmine sand. At first, there's barely any; then, the streams gradually grow, seemingly coming from nowhere; and, finally, with the rough shape of a person formed, the alternate self gets revealed while the sand is blown away into nothingness.
The weaponry of each alternate self that is summoned by this Effect is determined by the rules detailed in the Extended Description.
Each time an alternate self is summoned via this gift, a D20 is rolled to determine what class of weapons - if any - that alternate self comes equipped with.
Possible outcomes:
✦ 1 ⟶ Nothing
✦ 2 ⟶ Club
✦ 3 ⟶ Improvised Thrown Weapon
✦ 4 ⟶ Knife/Dagger
✦ 5 ⟶ Rope Dart
✦ 6 ⟶ Throwing Knife/Shuriken
✦ 7 ⟶ Rapier
✦ 8 ⟶ Throwing Axe/Javelin
✦ 9 ⟶ Handheld Stun Gun
✦ 10 ⇾ Bow
✦ 11 ⇾ Ranged Stun Gun
✦ 12 ⇾ Crossbow
✦ 13 ⇾ Small IED
✦ 14 ⇾ Handgun
✦ 15 ⇾ Grenade
✦ 16 ⇾ Shotgun
✦ 17 ⇾ Sword/Axe
✦ 18 ⇾ Rifle
✦ 19 ⇾ Greatsword/Giant Axe
✦ 20 ⇾ Heavy Sniper Rifle
This Effect activates whenever someone uses their Will to Survive. It does not require an Action or Exertion. Your target should be intuitively based on the triggering event. Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you instead witness the appearance of an alternate self that is openly hostile to you, your allies and your goals. Unlike non-hostile alternate selves, hostile ones may refuse to follow any commands you give and cannot be ended prematurely at will.
Summon up to 3 Sapient alternate selves - but only a single one per activation of this Effect - at your location. They last for two hours or until they move more than 150 feet from you or are destroyed. They are controlled by the GM but will follow any commands you give. You may have at most 3 minions active at a time.
You may end this Effect prematurely as a Free Action.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Temporal Commitment.
Blanche drops a bunch of peanuts on the ground and three crows lunge out from their shadow to snack. They speak Gaelic and broken English and like to hide in the shadows or in Blanche's coat until given a specific command.
Names: Morrigan, Poe and Damon
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must use up a handfull of peanuts in order to activate this Effect.
Summon up to 3 Sapient crows at your location. They last for two hours or until they move more than 150 feet from you or are destroyed. They are controlled by the GM but will follow any commands you give. You may have at most 3 minions active at a time.
Any successful musician knows the value of a good roadie. The musician calls for a roadie, and one will promptly arrive. The roadie doesn't talk much, and they aren't too bright, but they can sure haul gear.
After a couple hours of work, the roadie will retire to smoke and get some sleep.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Summon a single Sapient roadie at your location. They last for two hours or until they are destroyed. They are controlled by the GM but will follow any commands you give. You may have at most one minion active at a time.
You may only use this Effect once per day.
The mobster knows a guy they can call for a hired goon, who arrives about a minute later. The goons are dumb as bricks, but tough nonetheless, perfect for sending a message when you need to keep your hands clean.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use cell phone to activate this Effect.
Summon a single Sapient goon at your location. They last for two hours or until they are destroyed. They are controlled by the GM but will follow any commands you give. You may have at most one minion active at a time.
The Vampire is able to turn one of their victims into a lesser vampire, a pale shadow of a full creature of the night but useful nonetheless. Having drained and killed their target, the Vampire performs a brief ritualistic bloodletting, wherein they spill their own blood into the target's mouth, forcing them to drink, and bonding them together as child and sire.
Shortly afterwards, the fledgling vampire will rise from death, hungry for blood and eager to serve.
Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend one minute. Select a Dead target within arm's reach that has died within the last hour. This Effect cannot be used unless you drained the target's blood while they were still alive.
Your target rises as an Animate being. The raised creature is totally mindless, with no memory of its past life or hint of its old personality. They cannot communicate. They will follow any command you speak.
The creature lasts 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. The raised creature must consume flesh every day or it will die again.
Raised creatures have their Abilities set to the same that they were in life. 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.
Your revived targets deal 2 Weapon Damage with their unarmed attacks.
If you do not have a sacrificial Injury when you activate this Effect, take a new Severity-1 Injury.