Charlatans

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Living target within 25 feet. Roll Brawn + Alertness ( dice) at Difficulty 6. Your target may resist by rolling Body at Difficulty 7.

If you succeed, the target is afflicted with a Condition that causes one of the following symptoms:

• Brain Fog: The target’s thoughts are muddled and incoherent. They must succeed a Mind roll to remember details of things, at Difficulty 7 for old details and Difficulty 9 for things which occurred while afflicted. They also take a -2 penalty to all mental actions, which grows by -1 every hour until it reaches your Outcome.
• Gross: The target exhibits significant and obvious signs of illness, making them into a social pariah. They will be shunned in public places, and take a -2 penalty to all social actions, which grows by -1 every hour until it reaches your Outcome.
• Psychotic Episodes: The target must make a Trauma roll each hour at a -1 dice penalty, increasing each hour until it reaches your Outcome.

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.

This Effect ends if you are stunned, fall asleep, go unconscious, are incapacitated, die, or if your total Stress ever exceeds 5.

Exert your Mind and spend 2 Actions. Select a Sapient target within 300 feet. You must use up cigarette in order to activate this Effect. Roll Intellect + Influence ( dice) at Difficulty 6. The target may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 8.

If the contested Outcome is positive, a specific period of time (up to 1 hour long) from your target’s memory is replaced with new memories of your choosing. This is recorded as a Condition. The level of detail and completeness of the alteration depends on your Outcome. If you fail, the target realizes that you are attempting to alter their memories. Any alterations you make must feature yourself as you appear today in some way.

The period is chosen either by time (i.e. “last Friday night”) or by reference to a specific event (i.e. “when the murder occurred”).

Affected targets will invent new memories to justify the inconsistencies. For instance, if their memory was altered to include a new friend they don’t have, they may invent further memories of meeting that friend, spending time with them, etc.

You gain the following benefits as long as you are engaged in combat with Knives.

+2 dice to all rolls with Knives. You may Defend against firearm attacks from any range using Knives.

You also gain the following effects:

• Quick Draw: You may draw and equip yourself with any melee weapon on your person or within arm’s reach as a Free Action, as long as it is not being wielded by someone else.
• Two Swords are better than One: If you are wielding more than one melee weapon, you may Attack with all using the highest Weapon Damage, plus 1 for each additional weapon. If you reserve a weapon, any Clash or Defend roll you make is -1 Difficulty, and mob penalties are ignored. Maximum +5 Damage from bonus weapons.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

You get +2 dice to any Body resistance rolls you make. You also gain the following effects:

• Purge Toxins: You may take a Severity-1 Injury to cancel the effect of any non-Alien drug, poison, or toxin in your system, as long as you are aware of its existence.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action.

You may understand and communicate to humans 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.

Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend a minute. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. This Effect cannot be used unless the target does not know you're watching them. At the end of your investigation, roll Charisma + Investigation ( dice) at Difficulty 6.

You learn a single specific piece of information, chosen from the following list, about your target:

• You learn how to reliably contact the target.
• The target’s trail for the past 24 hours is revealed to you and anyone you teach to follow it. This trail shows how long ago the target was there and is followable even when they are in a vehicle.

The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome.

You cannot investigate the same target more than once per day.

Spend one minute. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. 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 + Influence ( dice) at Difficulty 6.

You learn all the following information about your target:

• You learn a hidden desire of the target. Roll Outcome determines the relevancy / secret-ness of the desire.
• You learn their relationship to a specific individual (chosen prior to the effect activation).

The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome.

Any information you gather is spoken aloud in conversation and made publicly available.

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.

Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend an Action. Select a Living or Sapient target within arm's reach. Roll Intellect + Occult ( dice) at Difficulty 6. The target may resist by rolling Mind ( dice) at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, you possess your target for the Contested Outcome in minutes. The target has no control over their body or actions, and they are functionally unconscious through the entire possession, retaining no memory other than any Traumas they might obtain.

You do not leave your original body behind when you possess a target. When a possession ends, your original body will reappear at the host body’s same location. You may spend an Action to end the possession early.

Stats: During the possession, you use the host body’s Body rating, but your own Mind rating. Any rolls you make use the host body’s Brawn, Dexterity, and Perception but your own Charisma, Intellect, and Abilities. You gain the effects of any physical Assets and Liabilities they have. You cannot read the target’s mind or memories.

Gifts: You have access to and can use any of your own Powers which are intrinsic to your biology or physical body. You cannot access any Powers or other supernatural effects which the target has, unless they are intrinsic to the target’s biology or physical body.

Death: If the host body is killed or destroyed while you are still possessing it, you will die along with it.

Eviction: If you attempt to force your host to take actions which would violate one of their Limits or their instinct for self-preservation, they may resist by rolling Mind. If their Outcome is higher than or equal to the contested Outcome, the possession ends and you are evicted from their body.

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

Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. This Effect cannot be used unless you drink blood directly from a human until it injures them. Choose a specific Injury on yourself that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Brawn + Occult ( dice) at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, the Injury is reduced in Severity by your Outcome. If you reduce its Severity to 0, the Injury is fully healed. Otherwise, it is partially healed and will heal the rest of the way at its natural rate.

This counts as a successful Makeshift Stabilization if the Injury was not already Stabilized; any Battle Scars caused by the Injury will remain.

If your Outcome is greater than the Severity of the Injury you were attempting to treat, you may apply any excess Outcome to other Injuries on yourself.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see you drink blood directly from the vein.

Exert your Mind and spend 2 Actions. You must actively and obviously use a piece of clothing you wouldn't normally wear to activate this Effect.

You become disguised in a manner of your choosing. The disguise lasts for two hours, or you may end it early at will.

The new appearance may have a different sex, age, and race to your own, and you may alter height by up to a foot and your weight by 50%. Your disguise cannot directly mimic an existing person. You may change the appearance of your outfit. A disguise cannot affect your Attributes or other stats.

You may roll Charisma + Crafts to attempt to make your disguise Beautiful. If your Outcome is 6 or higher, non-Effect Charisma rolls where your good looks could help are rolled at -2 Difficulty. If you fail or botch, you are ugly instead, and non-Effect Charisma rolls are made at +2 Difficulty.

This Effect ends if you take an Injury or are stunned or incapacitated.

While disguised, you cannot use any Activated or Targeted Powers.