Masks of Many Faces

1
Requires Seasoned
This Artifact grants you the power to change your appearance.
Used by Penny Roberts, Created by Iamangelofwar.
(When activating this Effect, you are obviously changing your appearance. You must use this Artifact obviously when activating this Effect.)

First the face is crafted, stitched onto a backing out of whole or pieces of faces, recombined into new masterpieces. Penny can supply the canvas if you wish to stitch a face to it yourself, but without her expertise there could be some… mishaps. Regardless, once the face is complete and worn for the first time, it becomes immutable, permanent. Whole faces will result in an exact body of the deceased, but working from scratch allows you a bit more… creative freedom.

Once you put it on, you feel the threads work their way into your skin, the backing melting away and the flesh becoming one with yours, which covers your entire body, morphing and molding uncomfortably until you look exactly as the face’s previous wearer looked, or you look like a wondrous new creation of flesh.

Take a Severity-1 Injury and spend a minute to activate. This Effect cannot be used unless someone skilled in surgery must first attach an existing face to the mask, or stitch one together from pieces of faces.

Your appearance changes to the form that matches the face attached to the mask. The disguise lasts until you either activate a new disguise, or choose to end the effect.

You are only able to shift into the one predefined appearance. This new appearance must have a similar sex, age, and race to your own. You cannot significantly change your height and weight. Your disguise cannot directly mimic an existing person. You cannot alter your clothes. You may add inhuman features to your disguise. A disguise cannot affect your Attributes or other stats.

  • While you can add inhuman features, they are aesthetic only. Think star trek alien, monstergirl, demon, etc. Does not grant things such as a prehensile tail, an extra damaging brawl attack, improved senses, etc.

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Revision purchased with:
Gift from playing in Ignis Mortis spent on improving power: Masks of Many Faces
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Community Activated Gifts

The humming usually reflects the general mood of those in it's initial range. An angry crowd will cause the user to feel compelled to hum a loud and dissonant tone, while more peaceful groups will inspire light and steadier tones. If there's no mood to read, or there is a sufficient mix of emotions, the caster will end up humming the last song that was stuck in their head. Mercifully, it is guaranteed to not get stuck again from this exercise.

Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: Take a knee, close your eyes, hum whatever come naturally, and trace a circle in the ground with the butt of your gun. You must actively and obviously use A.38 Special Revolver to activate this Effect. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.

You automatically detect all fearful humans and murderers within 300 feet of you for the next hour. This includes any who come within range during the duration. You have a sense of how many valid targets are nearby, as well as their distance and direction.

Exert your Mind and spend 1 Action. This Effect cannot be used unless Penitence weapon is equipped.

You may cure any Non-Alien diseases, toxins, or poisons afflicting yourself so long as you have fully diagnosed or 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

You may only use this Effect once per day.

  • 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.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action to activate.

Summon a single Giant Tentacle at your location. They will last for an hour, or 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.

Minions have 4 Body and can make ranged attacks at targets up to 30 feet away with 5 dice to attack and +1 Damage. Your minions cannot move. They cannot dodge or Defend. They have dog-level intelligence, and cannot communicate back to you. Any Perception checks they make are rolled with 3 dice.

Minerva's will begins to manifest further. More than just influencing people, more than just influencing herself, her will begins to spill over onto the world itself.

She started with small changes the first night, exploring the spark that had formed in her. The next night, she had fur. She could feel her bones grind, her jaw cracking as it turned into a maw, her flesh stretch as a tail burst out. She collapsed, crying. But they were tears of happiness, for in this first moment, all was right in the world. She slept like that, the first time she did it. It was restful sleep. She sleeps like that whenever she can now.

She's realized that her clothes are merely an extension of herself - and as such, she can mutate them just as much.

///
Meta: Minerva's mutation is more than just bone deep, and a large part of her transformation is instinctive and subconscious. When she gives herself fur, she's also instinctively messing with her own neurochemistry. She experiences a form of mild and constant euphoria while transformed.

She needs a mirror because she's exerting her will on changing herself, and at the moment, she needs to look at what she's doing.

"Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both marble and sculptor."

///
History: As Minerva's concept comes together, I think 'everything is a cantrip / is effortless for her' is a big part of it. At the point of this edit, the power hasn't been used on a contract or a significant part of a move.

After Minerva's inability to use her powers while she was transformed lead to one of her fellow contractors dying, she focused, practicing. Practicing, practicing. She learned to use them when she's not her... but the pain she worked though is still there, always in the back of her mind.

Seasoned:
Minerva's powers intensified. Building on top of the latent power she has over other people, it's blossomed into something entirely more. People accept her if she believes she should be accepted. Her changes are deeper, touching her soul. But most importantly, they last. They last as long as she needs. She goes to sleep and awakes.. proper.
Something's happened, though. She doesn't have full control over it, and when she tries to change her form, it's almost like holding onto water. She needs to struggle as hard as she can just to keep from falling apart. It's hard work, and she has to exert her mind. At times, she wishes it was as easy as before.

Professional:
Minerva's experiences - traumatic and otherwise - have provided a little bit of clarity. She's only truly content in her true form. She's reluctant to do it - it takes her longer, she has a little bit less control over mutating her true form. But after everything that's happened, it's not quite as traumatic - she knows she'll go back. It's a deeper shift, as well. If something happens, she won't 'finch', and go back to her true form. She knows she can go back to it when she can. Just not yet.

Exert your Mind and spend a half hour. You must actively and obviously use a silver fox pendant to activate this Effect.

You become disguised in a manner of your choosing. The disguise lasts until you either activate a new disguise, or choose to end the effect.

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. Your disguise can alter your smell, DNA, and other aspects that are not perceivable via human senses. This does not conceal you against investigative Effects. A disguise cannot affect your Attributes or other stats.

You can "pass" in any culture or group without arousing suspicion as long as you look normal for that group and can communicate with those inside the group.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see The moment Minerva 'unlatches' her form, it pulses like a degaussed TV. Her clothes and flesh both smear some, uncountable wounds on her her leaking. They don't seem to hurt, but she's obviously struggling to stay in one piece. In the wounds, the tears to another place entirely, one can sense all the things that shouldn't be said. Intrusive thoughts come to mind. But are they hers? Or yours?.

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.

You may only use this Effect once per day.

  • While you may alter your outfit's appearance, this does not grant or store equipment.
  • 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 an Action. Roll Intellect + Crafts at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, you create a barrier around yourself, which absorbs the next Outcome +4 Damage. The Damage reduction from the barrier is applied before Armor. This Artifact may only have 1 active barrier at a time.

The barrier will fall after two hours, or if it absorbs the full amount of Damage. When a barrier falls, you cannot use this Effect again for a minimum of 2 Rounds.

  • Effects which circumvent Armor completely also circumvent your barrier.

Stock Activated Gifts

Exert your Mind and spend an Action.

Whenever you use your Movement, after all other calculations, the distance you may travel is doubled.

  • Any Encumbrance penalty to your movement still applies, but you do not suffer from any sort of exhaustion.
  • Damage from a collision depends on your speed at the time, as well as what you hit. GM's discretion, but generally moving faster than a car on the freeway and hitting a dense, solid object like a wall or a tree should be lethal. Mundane armor will not apply, but any supernatural forms of protection will.

Spend a Quick Action.

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 units of water 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.
  • 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.

Take a Severity-1 Injury and spend an Action. You must use up a corpse in order to activate this Effect.

Summon a single zombie 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.

  • Attacking: Minions can make melee range attacks with 5 dice to attack and +1 Damage.
  • Body: Minions have 6 Body.
  • Movement: Minions can move 20 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: Minions cannot dodge or Defend. Any Perception checks they make are rolled with 3 dice.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must use up a container of fine powder in order to activate this Effect.

You automatically detect all object that are designed to detect people, including tripwires, security cameras, detection lasers, heat sensors, etc within 50 feet of you for the next hour. You have a clear sense of both the distance and direction towards any detected items. When you detect objects, instead of learning nothing about them, you may observe each object with all of your senses.

  • This includes any objects that come into range during activation.

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.

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

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

  • While you may alter your outfit's appearance, this does not grant or store equipment.