This gift has no appearance.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
Your Brawn rating is increased by 1. You may Exert your Mind to automatically gain an Outcome of 5 on any roll that uses Brawn (cannot be used on combat rolls or Effect activations).
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Self-Hatred (+1 difficulty to rolls that protect the user, such as defending, dodging, using a First-Aid Kit, etc).
You also gain the following effects:
You see a small spiderlike drone about the size of a large dinner plate. It has eight legs and it can scurry along the ground or up a wall quite fast. Though obviously a techno-drone Tom has made some effort to both make them look more realistic and to camouflage them from prying eyes. As a result they look a bit like large tarantulas, with brown fur and four pairs of alert, shining black eyes. They blend in shockingly well to most forest or urban environments and are difficult to spot even when moving and are almost undetectable when sitting still.
Though virtually silent when moving slowly at higher speeds they make a quiet hum as they leap from one rock to the next, intent of their mission.
Tom the Tinkerer is a electronics and robotics genius and nowhere is that more evident than when you see his latest set of robotic helpers, a set of three robotic spider-bots he can carry in a backpack and deploy where they are needed. The spider-bots have artificial intelligence and in "autonomous mode" can obey simple spoken commands somewhat like a well-trained dog. They can also be controlled in "direct mode" through a small X-box-like controller Tom carries with him (though he can only control one drone at a time this way). The controller sports both a video screen and headphones, so Tom can both see and hear what the drone see and hears. The drones are armed with hypodermic-like fangs that can inject a variety of substances, including poison, sleep or paralysis drugs. These fangs can be either retained or launched as darts; each spider bot has eight reloads of its "fangs".
Each spider contains 100 feet of strong paracord-like webbing that can be anchored and used much like a spider uses its webs, though the paracord itself is not sticky. It can, however, be used to trip or entangle the unwary or act as a grappling hook if Tom needs to get down or over some obstacle.
When activated the spiders consume rechargeable batteries. How long the batteries last depends on how much movement the spider is doing; an hour or two in direct combat, or up to forty-eight hours in non-moving "sentry mode".
Tom is always tinkering with the bots, adding or removing features in his search for perfection.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must use up Batteries in order to activate this Effect.
Summon up to 3 Sapient Spider bots 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.
Osmand summons up a glob of rusty, grimey, dirty, disgusting slime and plunges it into the target, cleansing their body of disease and toxin.
Exert your Mind and spend 15 minutes. Select a Living target within arm's reach.
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.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see Dirt, Rust, and Grime enter the targets mouth/wound and exit covered in blood and the toxin/disease..
Vita doesn’t run. She glides, scrambles, flows—sometimes it’s like a fox darting through mist, other times like a shadow slinking across a rooftop. Her movement is no longer just skill—it’s instinctive, animal. She's listened closely to her companions—feral, fey, and demonic alike—and learned how to move like they do. Now, the wind seems to follow her lead, and the ground forgets to make a sound beneath her.
When Vita moves, it’s like the world forgets to notice. Her feet barely touch the ground, and the air around her stirs in odd, brief ways—like something just passed, but left no trace. Surfaces that should creak stay silent, gravel shifts without crunching, and shadows seem to lean just slightly toward her, as if clearing the path. When danger strikes, there’s a whip-crack moment where she seems to vanish and reappear a few feet away, eyes sharp with predatory awareness.
This Gift isn't just agility—it’s a pact with everything wild and uncatchable. Vita has studied beasts that stalk without sound, demons that vanish with a blink, and fae who never trip on root or rail. Each movement is a love letter to those lessons. Her steps carry the memory of paws padded by magic and instinct. She doesn’t just dodge; she knows before the blade moves. She doesn’t just sprint; she moves like something that was never supposed to be seen. This is motion turned sacred.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
Your Dexterity rating is increased by 1. You may Exert your Mind to automatically gain an Outcome of 5 on any roll that uses Dexterity (Cannot be used on combat rolls or Power activations).
You also gain the following effects:
Vel reaches into the air and winds a spectral key against the back back of a toy, or similarly human representing golem. The toy animates and grows in size to a friendly helper of Vel.
If there is no toy, starting the process as if there were one will slowly make a basic enlarged teddy bear.
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.
If killed, you cannot re-summon your minion until after your next Contract.
This Effect activates whenever Brainsurge is attacked. It does not require an Action or Exertion.
You phase out of reality for 1 Round. During this time, you cannot affect the outside world or take any Actions. You cannot move. Nothing can interact with you in any way.
You leave humanoid-shaped ball of electricity at your location.
The Toon performs some sort of cartoonish act of violence. This may be handing someone a bomb, hitting someone with a cartoon mallet, burping a burp that is so noxious it melts flesh, or anything else as long as it is cartoonish.
The attack is more of a throwaway gag than a plot element, so any props or properties of the attack are incidental and disappear immediately. Animated mallets evaporate in a puff of smoke, fire does not spread, and electricity cannot power devices.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a target within 45 feet. Roll Charisma + Performance (1 dice) 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 4. Armor is fully effective against this damage.
By slowing the hands of one of their watches, the time-traveler may interrupt and slow a target's movement through time. The target appears to be moving in slow motion for the duration.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Animate target within 20 feet. You must actively and obviously use a watch or clock to activate this Effect. Roll Intellect + Science (1 dice) at Difficulty 7.
If you succeed, the target will suffer a dice penalty equal to the Outcome for the next 2 Rounds. Dice pools may be reduced all the way down to 0 by this penalty. This breaks Concentration.
You may activate this Effect as a Reaction to contest any Action a valid target is taking, reducing their Outcome by your own. Your command has no impact beyond disrupting their Action.
The survivalist spends a moment setting up a makeshift booby trap. The tripwires and pressure plates are so expertly hidden, they can only be noticed by those who have fallen victim to them before.
The victim is hit with a tiny curare dart. Pain wracks their body as a potent neurotoxin spreads through their veins.
Exert your Mind and spend 30 seconds to trap a region of any shape that contains your current location and fits entirely within 300 feet. This trap lasts one day or until triggered or disarmed. You must use up a dart in order to activate this Effect. Roll Intellect + Survival (1 dice) Difficulty 6.
The trap looks like a tripwire, a pressure plate, or a hidden switch. Only those who have seen this trap before can identify it as a trap. Anyone who is aware of the trap may intuitively avoid, trigger, or destroy it.
Any Living target that enters the chosen region will trigger the trap. The target may contest by rolling Body, Difficulty 6.
If the Contested Outcome is positive, the target takes that much Damage plus 2. The target's Armor is completely ignored.
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.
Instead of dealing Damage all at once, the Injury caused by this Power starts at Severity 1 and worsens at the rate of one level per Round until it reaches the Severity it would have otherwise been.
The aquamancer channels a nearby source of water into a flexible whip, which can be used to attack or to defend.
Spend an Action. Select a target within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use at least a gallon of water to activate this Effect. Roll Dexterity + Athletics 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 4.
You may use this Effect to Defend against any melee, projectile, or firearm Attacks within range or Clash against any Attack targeted at you. Using it to Defend deals no Damage but does not cost Exertion.
This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 2.
The aquamancer shifts into their elemental form and melds into a nearby collection of water, only to reform shortly out of a different source of water within line of sight.
Exert your Mind and spend 2 Actions. Select a Location within your line of sight , and which is directly adjacent to water. You must be within arm's reach of water to activate this Effect.
You are transported directly to the chosen Location. You must wait an hour before activating this effect again.