Secret Histories Communicate with scars on the world's skin

2
The power to communicate with Creatures and humans.
Used by Ryan Stiller, Created by niceping.
(It is clear that you are communicating with the target. )

Ritual caster quietly mutters a rite under his breath. To some, it may seem like he is praying, but it might just as well seem like he is slightly insane. Once the minute passes, he is finished, and starts to communicate - be it via reading a text or talking to creatures and humans.

There is countless amount of scars inflicted upon the world. Some of them are deep - major historical figures that wage wars of conquests and forge empires, events that change course of history. Some of them can hardly be called scars at all - animals, humans and products of their activity, such as languages, texts, machinery, as well as the dead.

Rite of Secret Histories is a ritual which allows the one performing the rite to "read" said scars for an hour, though scope of this specific version of a rite is limited quite limited. This rite received it's name for it's immense help in learning what otherwise would be left in the dark - ancient texts, written in long-dead languages. Research notes, written by scholars in ciphers known only be them. Folklore, shared only verbally in uncommon languages.

Exert your Mind and spend one minute to activate.

You may understand and communicate to Creatures and humans as if you are fluent in a relevant language for the next ten minutes.

This also includes understanding any recorded communications from the relevant targets, including writings, scent trails, etc.

  • Communing with creatures does not grant them intellect but does allow you to converse with them.
  • The target of "human" refers to any target that speaks a human language.
  • When reading written communications, you get no information beyond what the writer was intending to communicate.

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Community Activated Gifts

Edit: Fine support power, needs a better name & flavor as you can & no doubt will be adding it to artifacts that are not neckerchiefs

Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Select a Battle Scar on yourself to treat.

The treated Battle Scar heals as you finish activating this Effect.

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.

  • Exhaustion penalties and duration stack. If you activate this Effect or another Effect with Exhaustion, your penalty will worsen, and the duration is increased by one hour.

Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use an example of the identification being made to activate this Effect.

Choose a specific type of identification which could fit inside a Ziploc snack bag (up to 1 liter). It must be Non-Alien and generic. You cannot create explosives. You cannot create firearms.

Roll Intellect + Crafts to fabricate your chosen Object. The Difficulty is assigned by the GM and depends on the specificity of your chosen Object. Your created items no longer expire, and will last until they are destroyed.

  • You may cause a created item to expire at will as a Free Action, destroying the item.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use A Mirrored Surface to activate this Effect.

Summon up to 3 Sapient A clone of whoever was reflected in the mirror 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 3 minions active at a time.

  • Initiative: Minions act directly after you in Combat.
  • Combat: Minions roll 7 dice to dodge, Grapple, or make Melee Attacks. Their unarmed Attacks are melee range and deal +4 Damage.
  • Body: Minions have 7 Body.
  • Armor: Minions have 2 Armor.
  • Movement: Minions can move 25 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 can use equipment, Artifacts, and Consumables. However, they cannot Exert their Mind.
  • 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 2 Brawn.
  • Unusual: Minions are not obviously Alien.

  • Minions die if targeted with Energy Transfer or if an Artifact or Consumable they use would Injure them or cause them to roll Trauma.
  • Your minions may count as additional targeting types based on their flavor. For example: Living, Computer, Creature, etc.

When consuming the flesh of the dead, Ghouls can sometimes gain fluency in languages known to those they have eaten. Unlike the scraps of memory they usually gain, maintaining such an intuitive block of information is fleeting at best, rarely lasting more than an hour. A ghoul may attempt to facilitate this process by eating the tongue of the deceased, although any pound of flesh will do in a pinch.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. This Effect cannot be used unless you consume flesh from someone who knows the language in question. You must use up flesh of the target in order to activate this Effect.

You may understand and communicate to humans and Sapient beings as if you are fluent in a relevant language for the next hour.

This also includes understanding any recorded communications from the relevant targets, including writings, scent trails, etc.

Whenever you encounter a Language you could commune in with this Effect, you immediately understand which language it is, the dialect, region, and other details about it.

If you use this Effect to spend an hour speaking with a native speaker of a human language you don't know, you may Exert your Mind and roll Intellect + Culture Difficulty 7. With Outcome 4 or higher, you permanently learn that language and accent.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see Cannabalism.

  • The target of "human" refers to any target that speaks a human language.
  • When reading written communications, you get no information beyond what the writer was intending to communicate.
  • When narrating disturbing content, be cognizant of your group's tone and accommodating to those who would like to "fast forward" through the description.

Exert your Mind and spend one minute.

You transform into a small, swirling cyclone of water and wind that shifts from the size of a basketball to a person for the next day. You may end the effect early and return to your normal form at will. Your structure must remain relatively contiguous. Observers will view you as an unusual entity moving with a singular purpose.

While in this form, you can squeeze through any gap that a rodent could fit through. You may fly at your standard movement speed.

Damage from standard attacks is halved, but Damage from AOE effects is increased by 1. You may spend an Action to reduce one of your Injuries’ Severity by 2, as long as you obtained the Injury while transformed and the separated pieces could reasonably be rejoined. If you would die from Injuries sustained while transformed, you instead live, but the only action you can take is Reforming.

You cannot communicate, use equipment, or use Gifts while transformed. Your equipment does not transform with you beyond basic body coverings. You cannot carry any items while transformed.

After this Effect ends, you cannot move quicker than a walk (15 feet per Round) for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour.

Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Of Nature - You have a fascination with nature and its creatures. (Whenever you would see a wild animal, roll Self-Control or be forced to interact with it out of curiosity).

Stock Activated Gifts

Spend a Quick Action. You must actively and obviously use a burlap sack to activate this Effect.

You may withdraw an item from your stash, or add an item that is within arm’s reach to your stash. You may only stash targets which are in your possession, grappled, or otherwise controlled by you.

You may store Objects in your stash, each no larger than something which could fit inside a briefcase (15 liters), and you may store up to 3 things at a time.

You may choose to equip any equipment you withdraw at no additional cost.

  • "Equip" refers to drawing a gun, putting on a piece of armor, etc. You may store or withdraw a maximum of 6 items in a given Round. Reminder: you may perform up to two Quick Actions for -2 dice each or 3 if you use up your Action, unless a different Effect grants you additional Quick Actions.
  • Containers which hold multiple things may count as a single item so long as the things within are generally packaged together. For instance, you may stash a clip full of bullets, a medical kit full of medical supplies, or a box of crackers, but you cannot stash a backpack full of miscellaneous equipment.
  • You may only attempt to store Objects which are free-standing and disconnected from other things. The use of this Effect will not allow you to sever any connections holding an Object in place.
  • The Maximum Object Size parameter is intended to roughly capture the weight / size restriction of items and isn’t intended to restrict shape. GM discretion is advised. A human being is level 4 in the Maximum Object Size parameter.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. 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.

You transform into a vampire bat or a wolf until you transform into something else or choose to return to your original form. See the Extended System text for stats.

While transformed, you cannot use any equipment (including Artifacts and Consumables), and you do not have access to any of your Powers. Any equipment you are wearing transforms with you.

Injuries and Wound Level are carried over between forms. However, transforming can never kill you; you merely remain Incapacitated until your Injuries are sufficiently healed.

Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: A disfigured face with bat-like ears.

  • Creature Stats
    • Large (larger than human, smaller than elephant) Body: 8. Brawn 6. Dexterity 2. Fall damage increased by 2. Armor: 1
    • Small (mouse up to regular house cat) Body 1. Brawn 0. Dexterity 4. Cannot injure others with attacks. Cannot die from falling damage. +3 dice to Stealth rolls.
    All creatures get +3 dice to any non-combat Action that they are naturally adapted for. All creatures Medium and larger may attack by rolling Body, dealing +0 Damage (+1 for “predators”). Gms and Playgroup leaders can apply other bonuses and effects to specific animals.
  • Animals that are quicker than humans (like dogs) have 50 feet of Free Movement. Animals that are very slow (like turtles) have 0 feet of Free Movement.
  • You cannot transform if there is not enough room to do so.
  • The form you take must have the same stats and abilities as a single, extant animal of the relevant size.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use a clock or watch to activate this Effect.

You phase out of reality for 4 Rounds. During this time, you cannot perceive or affect the outside world or take any Actions. You cannot move. Nothing can interact with you in any way.

When you phase out, you may bring up to 1 additional target in arm's reach with you.

  • You may use your Free Movement on the Round you phase back in, but you cannot take an Action.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action.

You transform into a flowing pool of water for the next minute. You may end the effect early and return to your normal form at will. Your structure must remain relatively contiguous. Observers will view you as an unusual entity moving with a singular purpose.

While in this form, you can squeeze through any gap that is not water-tight.

Injuries from standard attacks are reduced to Severity 1, but Damage from AOE effects is increased by 1.

You cannot communicate or use equipment while transformed. Your equipment does not transform with you beyond basic body coverings. You cannot carry any items while transformed.

You have access to your Powers while transformed.

After this Effect ends, you cannot move quicker than a walk (15 feet per Round) for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour.

  • The Severity-limiting effect from Squish does not stack with the Enhancement Tough from Mythic Brawn.

Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend an Action. You must use up corpse in order to activate this Effect.

Summon up to 3 Non-Sapient, Animate zombie 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 3 minions 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 Attacks are melee range and deal +3 Damage.
  • Body/Mind: Minions have 7 Body. They automatically fail all Mind resistance rolls.
  • Armor: Minions have 3 Armor.
  • Movement: Minions can move 15 feet per Round as Free Movement and double that when performing an all-out Sprint.
  • Intelligence: Minions have dog-level intelligence and cannot communicate back to you. They cannot actively use Equipment.
  • Actions: Any Perception checks they make are rolled with 3 dice. They can lift and haul as though they have 4 Brawn.
  • Unusual: Minions are obviously Alien to any observer.

You may end this Effect prematurely as a Free Action.

If you do not have a sacrificial Injury when you activate this Effect, take a new Severity-1 Injury.

  • The sacrificial Injury received from activating this Effect cannot be prevented by any means or healed before 1 day has passed. It is shared with all Effects that use sacrifice. This Injury does not requires Stabilization or cause Battle Scars when it becomes Severe.
  • Your minions may count as additional targeting types based on their flavor. For example: Living, Computer, Creature, etc.