Shadow Skittering “I saw the whole man slowly emerge from the window and begin to crawl down the castle wall over the dreadful abyss, face down with his cloak spreading out around him like great wings. At first I could not believe my eyes. I thought it was some trick of the moonlight, some weird effect of shadow, but I kept looking, and it could be no delusion. I saw the fingers and toes grasp the corners of the stones, worn clear of the mortar by the stress of years, and by thus using every projection and inequality move downwards with considerable speed, just as a lizard moves along a wall.” - Bram Stoker, Dracula

1
You possess the ability to move in a manner that ordinary humans cannot.
Used by Benny Scappetti, Created by BobDylan530.

Benny is able to scale walls and even cling to the ceiling, so long as he is out of direct light.


You gain the following benefits as long as you are out of direct light.

You may move easily and without a roll in any of the following situations.

  • Spider Climber: You are able to climb on and cling to any surface without regard for the ordinary rules of gravity. You climb at your normal movespeed.


Community Power Gifts

Spend an Action to activate. All Animate targets within 20 feet of you who can perceive you through Hearing are affected. You must actively and obviously use Violin and bow to activate this Effect. Roll Charisma + Performance at Difficulty 6. All affected targets may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, the targets will keep their full attention focused on you for contested Outcome in rounds. They will automatically fail any rolls related to noticing anything other than you. If they cannot perceive you through Hearing for three Rounds, the Effect is broken. The Effect ends early if the target is Injured or enters Combat.

This does not affect the target’s opinion of you or their mood, and they may take any Actions while affected (including attacking), as long as that action centers on you.

This Gift's level is capped at 2 Gifts and cannot be increased further.

You must retain Concentration to keep up the effect; if your Concentration is interrupted, the effect will end.

  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

You are permanently and visibly transformed: cybernetically-enhanced assassin. You are considered to be a Sapient, Living Computer when targeted. Your Charisma is increased by 1 and your Intellect is increased by 1.

Your body is adapted to running. You receive +3 dice on non-attack rolls related to running.

Your appendages have 30 feet of reach.

You cannot ignore or decrease the effects of Stress for any social rolls you make.

The Severity of any Injury caused by Electricity is increased by 2.

  • You may stretch, retract, or move your limbs 30 feet once per Round.
  • The increase in Injury Severity stacks with any similar effects, such as the Silver Bullets drawback on Regeneration.
  • Attribute bonuses from multiple sources do not stack. Instead the highest bonus is used.

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.

  • Initiative: Minions act directly after you in Combat starting the Round after they are summoned.
  • Combat: Minions roll 4 dice to dodge, Grapple, or make unarmed Attacks. Their unarmed Attacks are melee range and deal +0 Damage.
  • Body/Mind: Minions have 3 Body. They are between the size of a rat and a cat and do not suffer falling damage. Your minions roll 7 Mind resistance dice.
  • Armor: Minions have 1 Armor.
  • Movement: Minions can move 20 feet per Round as Free Movement and double that when performing an all-out Sprint.
  • Intelligence: Minions have human-level intelligence and can speak your language. They lack manual dexterity and cannot use equipment, Artifacts, or Consumables designed for humans.
  • Actions: Any Perception checks they make are rolled with 4 dice. Any other roll is made with 4 dice. They can lift and haul as though they have 0 Brawn.
  • Powers: Your companion can Exert their Mind using your Mind and spend your Source.
  • Unusual: Minions are not obviously Alien.

If killed, you cannot re-summon your minion until after your next Contract.

  • Your companion heals fully during each Downtime, but is not healed fully when you re-summon them.
  • Your companion is affected normally by Artifacts and Energy Transfer.
  • Your minions may count as additional targeting types based on their flavor. For example: Living, Computer, Creature, etc.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

Your Perception rating is increased by 0. You may Exert your Mind to automatically gain an Outcome of 5 on any roll that uses Perception (Cannot be used on combat rolls or Power activations).

You also gain the following effects:

  • Saw it Coming: Any time you make a Desperate Defense, you successfully avoid the incoming Attack without making a roll.You do not suffer a dice penalty next Round. You may use Source to make a Desperate Defense.

  • Attribute bonuses from multiple sources do not stack. Instead the highest bonus is used.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

Your Perception rating is increased by 1. You may Exert your Mind to automatically gain an Outcome of 5 on any roll that uses Perception (Cannot be used on combat rolls or Power activations).

  • Attribute bonuses from multiple sources do not stack. Instead the highest bonus is used.

Stock Power Gifts

Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. You must actively and obviously use a top hat to activate this Effect.

Choose an Object which could fit inside a regular backpack (up to 27 liters). It must be Non-Alien and generic. You cannot create explosives. You may create firearms.

Roll Perception + Occult to fabricate your chosen Object. The Difficulty is assigned by the GM and depends on the specificity of your chosen Object. The created item lasts 2 hours.

  • The Difficulty for the fabrication roll increases based on specificity. Something like a "shirt" would be Difficulty 5, whereas "Police uniform" would be Difficulty 9. The Outcome determines overall quality and how well the item fits the request.
  • You can fabricate a container of something so long as it contains a single type of thing (such as a tank of water) or it is designed to be packaged together (such as a first aid kit).
  • If you are able to activate this Effect as a Reaction, its roll contests the incoming Attack.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

You gain an additional limb that functions as a standard human arm and hand.

Each additional limb you posses can take one Quick Action per Round without incurring a -2 dice penalty to your main Action. Each additional appendage you have gives you +1 dice to make and resist Grapples (up to a maximum bonus of +4 dice).

Any Battle Scars that affect or remove your additional limb will heal in a single week.

You may dedicate your extra Quick Action to contest any attempt to escape your Grapples. If you do so, you roll your full dice pool to contest and retain your Action to do anything that does not target the subject of your Grapple.

Your Extra Appendage is incapable of fine object manipulation.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

Your Stress from Injuries is reduced to 0. Does not reduce Stress from Mind Damage.

Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Select a non-Alien Device within arm's reach. You must use up $10,000 cash (or equivalent) in order to activate this Effect. Cannot be used to improve Armor.

Lasts the next two hours. Your target 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.

  • 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.
  • 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 cannot target yourself. Your target takes a Severity 1 Injury. You must actively and obviously use a ceremonial dagger blessed with holy water to activate this Effect.

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 use this effect to sanitize a 15-foot radius, destroying all poisons, toxins, diseases such that they are inert and cannot affect any new targets

  • 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.