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.
Polamedes sits down and calms himself. Over the course of a minute he uses a bundle of wires and electronics combined with tiny nanomachines in his ring to slowly assemble a tiny robot. Pols forarms expand outward in 4 sections framing his arm like a kind of giant spider. The long spindly limbs pry free from the flesh and bone underneath showing long strands of tendon and flesh beneath where they were previously connected. The spider arms then move at ludicrous speed quickly assembling a tiny robot by tri spooling, nanothread, skin threads, and actual wire. The spiderlegs heat up quickly as they move and over the course of the minute will release a spay of blood in order to cool themselves as they work.
The robot looks like a miniature version of Utah raptor. Afterwards the programming in the raptor demands that it be given a unique name before it can be given any instructions.
Polamedes fingertips look as though they have been submerged in black ink up to the second knuckle. The ink looks cubeular and if examined seems to move slightly.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Summon up to 5 Sapient Hobbes-Bot 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. They will attack any Nonliving, Animate targets they encounter immediately and will ignore your commands to do otherwise. You may have at most 5 minions active at a time.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see Spider Arms.
Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Ink hands.
First a chalk circle of runes is drawn upon the Floor. There should be at least 5 runes in forming the shape of a star within the boundaries of the circle each showing one aspect of the minion being summoned. Then the words of summoning are uttered in a language the wielder can not understand. After the final word is uttered then the runes begin glowing a soft white light which then gets brighter and brighter until finally a brilliant flash and before you within the circle stands your new henchmen.
Exert your Mind and spend one minute. You must actively and obviously use Chalk to activate this Effect.
Summon a single Goblin 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 2 minions active at a time.
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. Exhaustion’s penalty and duration stacks with multiple activations.
Vel reaches into the air and winds a spectral key against the back back of a toy, or similarly human representing golem. The toy animates and grows in size to a friendly helper of Vel.
If there is no toy, starting the process as if there were one will slowly make a basic enlarged teddy bear.
This artifact relies on the cultural idea of toys, and the cultural idea of wind up toys, especially in the minds of children. The basic idea of these wind up toys is that you wind them up, then let them go and they move around doing toy things, seeming almost alive. This artifact takes that idea, and merges it with a few other ideas of ways to create useful servants to make an artifact capable of making a useful friendly minion.
Specifically it creates the unique minion Mr. Bear who animates a toy of Vel's choosing
The ritual to create this artifact relies on a ritual involving
- A variety of children's toys which are popular in the shared imagination
- A collection of stories and myths about the Hebrew golumn
- Mary Shelly's frankenstein
- Carefully shaping the pattern of a wind up key while reading various relevant parts of these stories
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Summon the one and only Sapient Animate Teddy bear at your location. They last until they move more than 150 feet from you or are destroyed They are controlled by you. You may have at most one minion active at a time.
If killed, you cannot re-summon your minion until after your next Contract.
Benny is able to turn what would have been a wasted pile of meat into a useful minion. After feeding, he may perform a bloodletting ritual on one of his victims in which he opens the vein on his wrist and forces the victim to drink his own blood as well, bonding them together and raising them back to "life" as a new member of his soon-to-be vast criminal empire.
When they arise, they are filled with an all-consuming hunger for blood, which can only be sated by draining a human, or by feeding off of Benny if he has blood to spare.
Take a Severity-1 Injury and spend one minute to activate. 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 a Living being. They remember their past life and retain their same personality. They can communicate as they would have been able to in life. They may roll Mind, Difficulty 8, to resist any commands you give them.
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 a gallon of human blood every day or it will die again.
Raised creatures have their Abilities set to the same that they were in life. Their Attributes are all the same as they were in life. A raised creature cannot use any Effects.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see Benny drain the blood from their victim's neck, and then force the victim to in turn drink his own blood.
Ricter has started to befriend Kazarisu, a Kamaitachi yokai spirit that accompanies him. However, he needs a bit of 'motivation' to do more than just protect him, as such he feeds him a pint of alcohol to offer some inspiration.
Kazarisu resembles a stoat in appearance and size but can grow to be as big as a wolverine if he wishes, with paws that can extend into sickle-like claws. He has jagged white fur that is smooth to the touch with black coloring on his tail tip.
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"I've learned in nearly half a year that Kazarisu is a bit fickle, likes stupid jokes that I make, chicken, and drinking. I'm glad to have him around but he tends to be a bit of a menace, especially when he chugs a whole bottle of wine and ends up cutting up my curtains...Nonetheless, I'm starting to like him, we even started watching soap operas together."
"Lately, I have been demanding we work together but he just lacks...motivation, not in a bad way though. So I bribe him with some wine occasionally, which seems to give him a physical body somehow, probably some form of yokai logic. Although he's mentioned that if he 'died' he'd just revert to his more spiritual clingy self, which was a relief."
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Summon a single Sapient Kamaitachi at your location. They last 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 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.
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 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.