Marks caught a few villians in his day, and one thing they always seem to have in common is they never shut up.
He's learned how to conversationally 'push their buttons' and make them talk.
So far, the most reliable way has been to talk about himself, to instigate their inevitable sense of competition.
It takes constant conversation, so when Mark mentions the details, their answer does too.
Preferably in the form of a back and forth demeaning/competitive/humorus banter.
Exert your Mind (unless The target thinks they have the upper hand) and spend one minute to activate. Select a Sapient target within arm's reach. You must continuously interact with the individual in question in order to gather any information. At the end of your investigation, roll Brawn + Influence at Difficulty 6.
You learn all the following information about your target:
The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome. For any information you learn about your target, the corresponding information about you is shared with them.
Any information you gather is A spoken conversation and made publicly available. This also includes any information the target learns about you.
Gaius recites long dead family magics, written down into one of many dusty tomes, and pulls energy from the air to infuse into the dead. Invisible phantom strings puppet the body into motion, using gaius' prompts of name or distinguishing characteristics to take hold and make it a humble servant to Gaius commands. The Zombie moves in shaky spurts loping along with feet akimbo and arms trailing. Though not much to look at these can be formidable foes, if left alone for their numbers to swell.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Dead target within arm's reach with at least half its skeletal structure remaining. This Effect cannot be used unless only works on male corpses.. You must actively and obviously use A book. to activate this Effect.
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 for eight hours or 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.
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.
This Effect ends if you are stunned, fall asleep, go unconscious, are incapacitated, die, or if your total Stress ever exceeds 5.
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.
The detective is adept at following the trail of culprits or missing people. Once they find an object touched by the target, they may focus their will to illuminate the trail of their target. By peering through any sort of magnifying glass, any part of the target's trail within eyeshot glows a bright, misty blue. Even the trails made by vehicles the target was riding in are illuminated.
Exert your Mind to activate. Select a Sapient target at any range. Activation requires possession of the target's dna evidence, which is used up during the process. You must actively and obviously use a magnifying glass to activate this Effect. At the end of your investigation, roll Perception + Investigation at Difficulty 6.
You learn all the following information about your target:
The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome.
Execute will lay a extremity on the chosen surface, and inlay it with a combination of a red energy weave and a black coating of Nanites, before the mass of nanite metal shapes itself into the form he desires, morphing and warping to his will.
Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend an Action. Select a Location within arm's reach.
Select one of the following alterations to create out of Nanite metal originating at the target:
The alteration begins to form when you activate this Effect and finishes forming on your initiative in the next Round. Until it finishes forming, it is not guaranteed to function.
This alteration lasts indefinitely but may be prematurely destroyed or altered. Your alterations may be broken through with appropriate tools. Anyone attempting to break through must roll Brawn + a relevant Ability. A cumulative Outcome of 3 across all attempts breaks a hole large enough to move through. See the extended system text for GM guidance on various tools.
You may sculpt your walls, domes, or tunnels as you create them, without any additional activation time or cost.
Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Violent immune system - when targeted with a healing/restorative effect by some source (item/player) other than yourself, it must be rolled at -2 dice.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Roll self control to not destroy and assimilate a object you pick up.
As Nathan breathes out, he vigorously incants in his mind, his finger guiding the fiber on his target. His target notices the red thread emanating from them form a loop around their wrist before heading off elsewhere.
Warded against harm, would-be deadly threats find themselves unable to land onto the target, whether it be through circumstances of good fortune or preemptive movements of the body.
When the protection is exhausted, the target sees the string naturally unravel from their wrist, returning to its state of drifting off to elsewhere.
Red string being worn around the wrist has been commonly done for luck and providence of the body, the color seen as auspicious.
Spend an Action. Select a Animate target within arm's reach. This Effect cannot be used unless the target is Marked by you. Roll Intellect + Occult at Difficulty 6.
If you succeed, you create a barrier around your target, which absorbs the next Outcome +2 Damage. The Damage reduction from the barrier is applied before Armor. You 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.
This Effect is not obvious, and the only sign you are using an Effect is Nathan drawing a circle with his finger. If someone suspects that an Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.
This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 2.
One of the demon Alpha's blood arts. Salvaged from his body after he was slain by supernatural forces, and given to Vergil by Sister Mary Catherine. Though Vergil is loathe to use such dark power, he understands that such things are better put to use in his hands than in that of evil, and if a little blood could save someone's life his morals are not something he will allow to stand in the way. The art itself creates a blood-colored cross and grants incredible sword skill as well as the ability to generate "wind blades" and when enhanced with a vial's worth of human blood allows it to deal devastating damage as it draws out the latent energy within the blood. In addition if it strikes them, the energy seems to corrode the target from the inside out as it seeps into any orifice it can find. A horrifying display to be sure, but given it's source Vergil finds it hard to be surprised.
Spend an Action to activate. Select a target within 45 feet. You must use up A vial of blood in order to activate this Effect. Roll Dexterity + Melee Difficulty 6. The target may contest by rolling to Dodge or Defend as a Reaction, Difficulty 6.
If the contested Outcome is positive, the target takes that much damage plus 3. Armor is fully effective against this damage.
Injuries caused by this Effect do not heal naturally. They can be Stabilized, but will not reduce in Severity unless they are healed through an Effect or some sort of supernatural ability.
The target suffers a -3 dice penalty for the next hour or until the Injury is healed. This dice penalty does not stack multiple times on the same target.
This Gift's level is capped at 2 Gifts and cannot be increased further.
The seasoned necromancer's darkest art spits in the face of the natural order. Given sufficient preparation, they may temporarily revive any dead individual.
Take a Severity-1 Injury and spend one minute. Select a Dead target within arm's reach that has died within the last month.
Your target rises as an Animate 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 for eight hours or 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.
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. Raised creatures have access to any Effects they had in life.
You may only use this Effect once per day.
This witch is a cruel and vengeful creature who works her vile arts against those she deems worthy of punishment. All she must do is point. A flash of green lightning strikes her victim and disappears. Immediately, or upon the completion of some condition, if the witch chooses, the victim's body warps and shifts into a gross mockery of its former self. Whether she's giving someone the head of a donkey or stealing their voice, the witch's enemies always get what is coming to them.
The sheer wickedness of this spell corrupts the witch, giving her a disgusting, witchy appearance.
Exert your Mind and Spend an Action. Select a Living target within 20 feet. Roll Intellect + Occult at Difficulty 6. The target may roll Body, -2 dice at Difficulty 7, as a Free Action to resist.
If you succeed, the target receives a new Battle Scar of your choosing, limited by the contested Outcome:
When you activate this Effect, instead of occurring immediately, you may choose to delay its effects until the target takes a particular Action. For example: "when they fire a gun" or "when they swim in deep water."
Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Witchy Appearance. You have a long, warty nose and chin, wrinkled skin, and a hunch back. Social rolls are at +2 Difficulty, and your free movement is reduced by 10 feet.
Your alteration "heals" over the course of the next month, after which it is fully cured.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Compulsion for payback. You must roll Self-Control to avoid using this Gift on anyone who wrongs you in a major way.
The Thief examines an object closely for a minute to appraise its value. As their eyes dance across the subject, their pupils split vertically, and their irises fade to gold. If it is a particularly valuable item, the Thief may greedily lick their lips, revealing a forked tongue.
Within a minute, they have determined how materially valuable the object is and why.
Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Select a target Object within arm's reach. At the end of your investigation, roll Charisma + Culture at Difficulty 6.
You learn all the following information about your target:
The doctor heals severe injuries in minutes using only standard medical supplies. Lacerations seal under the needle and thread, and reset bones can be used shortly after.
However, for the treatment to last, the patient must adhere to any aftercare regimen the doctor requires. Those who violate the doctor's orders suffer their injuries anew.
Exert your Mind and spend 15 minutes. Select a Living target within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use basic medical supplies to activate this Effect. Choose a specific Injury on your target that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Intellect + Medicine at Difficulty 8.
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. You may specify a specific condition that the patient must adhere to. If they break this condition, the treatment is immediately reversed. Record this regimen as a Condition.
Through the use of clever rhetoric, the spy is able to inspire a surge of emotion in a target with whom they are speaking.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Living target within 45 feet as well as a specific emotion. This Effect cannot be used unless you are engaged in conversation with the target. Roll Charisma + Influence at Difficulty 6. Affected targets can resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 8.
If you succeed, for the next minute, your target will do things they otherwise wouldn’t have done, inspired by the chosen emotion. They will not necessarily display their emotions in an obvious way.
Actions they take will be in keeping with their character and the way they tend to deal with strong emotions. They will be unlikely to change their mind about any actions taken or decisions made until after the Effect ends.