Lay down your hands, press them into the
earth.
Slide them forwards, curl your fingers - is it sandy and gritty? Soft, moist loam? Adjust your demeanor to it.
There is friction, here. The earth churns with the grinding and growling of the worm. They dance in, and through their food, working tirelessly for us to produce life-giving soil.
And they speak secrets, to those who will listen.
Exert your Mind and spend a minute to activate. Investigate an area with a radius of up to 500 feet You must actively and obviously use Soil to activate this Effect. At the end of your investigation, roll Perception + Animals at Difficulty 6.
You learn the following information about the area:
Joe's skin begins to visibly glow. Soon, the target feels the warmth of the sun balanced by a cool, salty ocean breeze from head to toe. The sensation fades as quickly as it came. An unusual tattoo and the innate knowledge that there is something they must do (or not do) are the only evidences of their former Scar.
Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Select a Living target within arm's reach. 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.
You may specify a specific condition that the patient must adhere to. If they break this condition, the treatment is immediately reversed. Record this regimen as a Condition. Lasts until the end of their next Contract or 1 month for non-Contractors.
Healing a Battle Scar in this way leaves behind a tattoo like the rippling effect of sunlight shining down through water that faintly glows in the dark on the target which cannot be healed.
Henry takes a seat in front of the workbench, letting out a breath. The materials assembled, there was only the last step. Transferring control over to Lith, he tried to relax.
Activating the AAIA protocols requires embedded complicated arrays of nanotechnology into the item in question, and the only good source is currently the forges inside of Henry's bones. It's an unpleasant process, having your bones mined. But one must grit their teeth and tolerate it. Occasionally, various tools from the workbench are used, using copper and silicon in the place of missing pieces.
At the end, assuming the process worked as intended, the item lifts off, emitting an ultrasonic burst identifying its serial number and the fact it's currently slaved to Lith.
Stellar Navy regulations strictly prohibit the allowance of artificial intelligence operating independently of its master. However, as with all regulations, they can be bent, or broken, in emergency situations. AAIA Protocols are a set of protocols that allow such independent operation.
Typically Henry could activate them verbally, but a malfunction in one of the coproceessors in his suit leaves it unwilling to activate the protocols automatically. A manual process is... unpleasant.
Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and an Action. Select a Inanimate target within arm's reach which could fit inside an SUV (4,000 liters). This Effect cannot be used unless the user is in front of an electronics workbench. Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you you suffer the 'lost hand (left) battle scar, and the item you are attempting to animate is damaged. 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 will become Animated indefinitely. You may choose to end the effect at will, as a Free Action. This Artifact can maintain a max of 4 targets animated at once.
Animated Objects have the following restrictions and capabilities:
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see the user's left hand is disassembled with a set of lasers, exposing the bone. They then begin to remove some marrow from inside, fusing it into the item being animated. This is an exceedingly painful process.
If you do not have a sacrificial Injury when you activate this Effect, take a new Severity-1 Injury.
Alister throws up a metal gear and flutters his jacket back, as he does so a dazzling array of different tools spring forth occasionally ripping parts of Alister as they fling by at break neck speeds. These tools uses the gear as a central point pressing the gear into the object and using the pieces of Allister to imbue shattered pieces of his soul into it. the process of rending pieces of his soul may leave his body thread bare.
Take a Severity-1 Injury and an Action. Select a Inanimate target within arm's reach which could fit inside an SUV (4,000 liters). You must use up Metallic Gear in order to activate this Effect. You must make a Trauma roll when you use this Effect. Its Difficulty cannot be reduced by any means.
Your target will become Animated indefinitely. You may choose to end the effect at will, as a Free Action. This Artifact can maintain a max of 20 animated objects at once.
Animated Objects have the following restrictions and capabilities:
The user grabs the target's wrists as they start freezing up, both the user and target's sweat along with the natural humidity in the air are used to then create brittle handcuffs that bind the target's hands together along with freezing their feet in place.
Spend an Action to activate. Select a target within arm's reach. Roll Intellect + Science at Difficulty 6. The target] may contest by Defending or Dodging.
If you succeed, your target will be restricted at their location by a physical, tangible binding. They can still move their arms and use Effects, but cannot move to a new location.
Restricted targets may escape their binding by spending an Action and taking a Severity-1 Injury.
This Gift's level is capped at 2 Gifts and cannot be increased further.
James secretes mustard gas from his pores when he becomes worried or scared.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Living target within 20 feet. This Effect cannot be used unless James becomes especially worried. Roll Perception + Alertness at Difficulty 6. Your target may resist by rolling Body at Difficulty 8.
If you succeed, the target is afflicted with a Condition that causes any number of the following symptoms:
The affliction can be diagnosed with a Medicine roll, and may be cured by modern medicine through treatment at a fully equipped facility. Treatment outside of a facility may stop the affliction from worsening for a day, but will not cure the underlying Condition.
Any Scars, Traumas, or Injuries caused by your symptoms cannot be healed until the underlying Condition is cured.
This Effect ends if you are stunned, fall asleep, go unconscious, are incapacitated, die, or if your total Stress ever exceeds 5.
The Doctor examines their patient and gives a standard medical checkup, asking them questions, nodding to themselves, and muttering arcane medical jargon. The examination reveals an extraordinary amount of detail about any medical issues suffered by the patient.
Spend one minute. Select a Sapient target or a Creature within arm's reach. You must actively converse with the individual in question for one minute in order to gather any information. At the end of your investigation, roll Perception + Medicine at Difficulty 6. The target may Resist.
You learn all the following information about your target:
The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome.
This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 2.
You cannot investigate the same target more than once per day.
Come one, come all! Stand in amazement and behold as the Fire Eater consumes a flame as if it were cotton candy! Gasp with fright as they breathe a plume of fire a great distance! And yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is quite dangerous.
Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: perform a fire-breathing trick. Select a target within 20 feet which has both fuel and oxygen available (if you are starting a new fire). Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you take a Severity-4 Injury as the fire burns your throat. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.
You may start or extinguish a fire as large as a firepit's fire at your target. Extinguishing a fire does not cost Exertion. You may create or extinguish fires the size of a lighter or candle flame without Exerting your Mind. Your fires require fuel and oxygen in order to continue burning.
Lighting a target on fire deals 4 Damage each Round on your turn, starting in the Round after the one in which they caught fire. This Damage is reduced by Armor, but the target’s Armor rating will be shredded by any Damage dealt, destroying material Armor once it reaches 0.
You may extinguish flames as a Reaction. This does not extend to explosives.
By slowing the hands of one of their watches, the time-traveler may interrupt and slow a target's movement through time. The target appears to be moving in slow motion for the duration.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Animate target within 20 feet. You must actively and obviously use a watch or clock to activate this Effect. Roll Intellect + Science at Difficulty 7.
If you succeed, the target will suffer a dice penalty equal to the Outcome for the next 2 Rounds. Dice pools may be reduced all the way down to 0 by this penalty. This breaks Concentration.
You may activate this Effect as a Reaction to contest any Action a valid target is taking, reducing their Outcome by your own. Your command has no impact beyond disrupting their Action.
Through years of practice, the mobster is able to shatter someone's kneecap without much effort.
Spend an Action. Select a Living or Animate target within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use a melee weapon to activate this Effect. Roll Brawn + Melee at Difficulty 6. The target may roll Body, -2 dice at 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:
All alterations you make must damage the target's knees.
This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 2.
The spy can twist the urban environment to their whims, erecting fences, walls, and barriers as needed. They whistle and gesture to where the wall should be, and the surrounding materials fly into place.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Location within 50 feet. You must be in an area abundant with man-made structures and materials.
Select one of the following alterations to create out of standard building materials originating at the target:
The alteration begins to form when you activate this Effect and finishes forming on your initiative in the next Round. Until it finishes forming, it is not guaranteed to function.
This alteration lasts one minute but may be prematurely destroyed or altered. Your alterations may be broken through with appropriate tools. Anyone attempting to break through must roll Brawn + a relevant Ability. A cumulative Outcome of 6 across all attempts breaks a hole large enough to move through. See the extended system text for GM guidance on various tools.