Mrs. Ross has a gift. One that has been built over a good many years. First they started as whispers in her dreamscape, moans that clouded her mind like a fog in the late evening hours. She doesn't quite remember how it happened, the moment was vague. She heard a lamenting echo from a body in a casket, a relative who must've just died. Though she cannot speak, The Voice in her head certainly can, and she tried to reach out to the whispers like she never could anyone else. To her immense surprise, the urn responded, a cavalcade of emotions from the recently deceased.
When Ripley Ross focuses on the body of the recently deceased, she is able to open a line of communication with the entity. The event is extremely distracting, as opening this line of communication beyond the veil invites the whispers of all manners of entity.
Exert your Mind and spend one minute to activate. Select a Dead target of which you have a loved-one in your presence.
The target can communicate in your language for the next hour.
This Effect is not obvious, and the only sign you are using an Effect is that your eyes shimmer a faint purple. If someone suspects that an Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.
While this Effect is active, you are at -2 dice to all Actions and cannot Concentrate.
Using his scythe, Caddo can cut deep.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a target within 50 feet. You must actively and obviously use Harvester scythe to activate this Effect. Roll Brawn + 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 4.
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.
During the time of establishing an augmentation, the target's body cycles through minor animal features that fit what the augmentation is about. Features of different animals fade into place and then out, until none show at all at the end but the concept of them is firmly established in their mind. Examples include claws, talons, teeth, beaks, etc for Maws and Claws; scales, toughened skin, thick hide, etc for Armor; and digitigrade legs, paws, hooves, etc for Zippy.
Sometimes the augmentation ends up a bit more than the animal features may suggest, such as with Adaptation augmentations. Key being that even though gills may be a physical representation of breathing in the target environment, the Adaptation may extend to not needing to breathe if the target environment contains toxic gasses. Perhaps they take in oxygen through the skin as a jellyfish does underwater, but in the air.
Some augmentations are slightly broader, combining pwca magic with the abilities beyond normal animals. Not just the ability to record and playback visual and audial input, but also to finally being able to manifest a pouch. Animal examples for the recording are elephants and crows, and any other animal known for acute memories. For the pouch, kangaroos, koalas, and seahorses, that sort of thing.
When accessing the pouch, it appears similar to Sarah's Stash power Rabbit Hole. An almost cartoony black circle floating an inch from her body, which she reaches into to store and retrieve items. As a trauma based magical Augmentation, this is limited by the size of her body but doesn't show on x-rays and similar viewing technology.
Using the same concept of resonance fields as the Morphic Resonance gift, I tap into the target's potential animal traits by connecting to different animals and cycling through them until the target's best affinity for the intended augmentation is found. Once found, the appropriate traits of that animal recede into their mind and stay there for as long as they take to stabilize. The field itself then takes that mental imprint and maintains a stable effect on the target.
In some cases, the field combines with pwca magic to enhance capabilities further.
Exert your Mind and spend 30 minutes. You may only target yourself. The target can easily Resist.
You may add one augmentation to your target. Each augmentation counts as a Trauma and can have exactly one of the following Effects:
The augmentations you provide are not outwardly visible nor obvious.
You may end this Effect prematurely as a Free Action.
Your alteration "heals" over the course of the next month, after which it is fully cured.
This implant sits behind Liv’s left ear, a patch of metal that has an odd, unique port in it, alongside what appears to be slots for memory cards.
When she uses this implant, the implant projects the code across her eyes, making it nearly impossible to know what she’s doing unless you know what you are looking for.
Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. Select a Computer within 20 feet. Does not work on Alien technology. Roll Intellect + Technology, with the Difficulty set by the GM depending on the security of the system you are hacking. Sapient targets can resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6.
If you succeed, you may issue a single command to the targeted system. This command must have a specific outcome or be a request for specific login credentials. The command you issue must be within the machine's current capabilities. For example, you cannot order a standard security camera to grow legs and walk around.
This Effect is not obvious, and the only sign you are using an Effect is your eyes reflecting the programs you are running. If someone suspects that an Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.
The lights around the user dim before a deep thrumming is felt and heard, a voice not of Sanho's own fills the room, speaking a language understandable by only the target, soothing their mind and reliving them of their trauma.
Exert your Mind to activate. Select a Living or Animate target within arm's reach. This Effect cannot be used unless Target Has met a godlike being. Over the course of one day, your patient must communicate with you and reveal at least one of their Traumas to you, including the details of those Traumas and the circumstances of how they were acquired. After the full treatment time has elapsed, roll Charisma + Alertness at Difficulty 6.
Your target may Resist. If your treatment is successful, you may remove one of the patient's revealed Traumas without incurring any Experience cost.
Your patient is required to Must commune with a higher being for at least 3 hours a day including prayer for the next month. If they violate this rule, your treatment is immediately reversed.
Blake channels his mana while holding a necklace adorned with an inverted cross, with the body of Edgard nailed to it, his eyes glowing with a malevolent light as he whispers a dark incantation. Suddenly, eerie cracks apear all around the target from dark red portals with fire spewing out from the. The gates to hell are open, and flaming chains burst from them, their links glowing red-hot and dripping with molten metal. These chains, forged in the deepest pits of hell, wrap around his target with an eerie speed, their heat searing flesh and sending up a sickening sizzle, at the moment of activation, if anyone was looking at the cracks they may see humans being tortured by demons in the most horrible ways they can imagine.
Spend an Action. Select a target within 20 feet. Roll Intellect + Occult at Difficulty 6. The target may contest by Defending or Dodging.
If you succeed, your target will be restricted at their location by a physical, tangible binding. They cannot move to a new location, and, if your Contested Outcome was greater than their Brawn, they are encased and cannot take any physical Actions other than attempting to escape until they break free.
The target may spend an Action and roll Brawn or Dexterity + Athletics to attempt to break free. They must accumulate a total Outcome equal to or greater than the original Contested Outcome to escape. Damage to the binding from outside sources also contributes.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see cracks in the earth as a mini portals to hell opens up.
This Gift's Cost is capped at 2 and cannot be increased further.
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:
You cannot investigate the same target more than once per day.
The doctor is a master at surgical transplantation. As long as they have a donor part, they can replace any permanent, lingering battle scars on their patient. Of course, the transplanted part doesn't always match, and the patient must be careful to follow the doctor's aftercare orders, or the replacement will be rejected.
Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Select a Living target within arm's reach. You must use up a donor body part matching the injured area in order to activate this Effect. Select a Battle Scar on your target to treat.
The treated Battle Scar heals as you finish activating this Effect. If used on a Battle Scar caused by an Unstabilized Injury, that Injury is Stabilized.
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. Lasts until the end of their next Contract or 1 month for non-Contractors.
Healing a Battle Scar in this way leaves behind a mismatched replacement on the target which cannot be healed.
The Vampire is able to turn one of their victims into a lesser vampire, a pale shadow of a full creature of the night but useful nonetheless. Having drained and killed their target, the Vampire performs a brief ritualistic bloodletting, wherein they spill their own blood into the target's mouth, forcing them to drink, and bonding them together as child and sire.
Shortly afterwards, the fledgling vampire will rise from death, hungry for blood and eager to serve.
Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend one minute. Select a Dead target within arm's reach that has died within the last hour. This Effect cannot be used unless you drained the target's blood while they were still alive.
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 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. The raised creature must consume flesh every day or it will die again.
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.
If you do not have a sacrificial Injury when you activate this Effect, take a new Severity-1 Injury.
The Scepter of Ang-Kapal is a gruesome device fashioned to look like a skeletal arm clutching a glass eye. When used, blood from the person holding is drawn into the eye where it swirls with dark energy. The eye turns to a nearby corpse and shudders, reviving the creature. The creature does not retain any of its memories or personality, but it is absolutely loyal to whoever is holding the scepter.
The Scepter of Ang Kepal has the unfortunate side effect of driving its owner mad.
Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend one minute. Select a Dead target within arm's reach with at least half its skeletal structure remaining. 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.
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.
Destroying one of your zombies requires a called shot to the head or heart. All other Injuries zombies suffer result in Battle Scars only, limiting their mobility and effectiveness in other ways.
Your revived targets deal 2 Weapon Damage with their unarmed attacks.
If you do not have a sacrificial Injury when you activate this Effect, take a new Severity-1 Injury.
The survivalist is adept at following an animal through any terrain. Once they find a recent track, they may focus their will to illuminate the trail of their target. Any part of the target's trail within eyeshot glows a bright, misty green. Even the trails made by vehicles the target was riding in are illuminated.
Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. You may select a target at any range if you use up fresh tracks of the target. At the end of your investigation, roll Perception + Survival at Difficulty 6.
You learn all the following information about your target:
The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome.
Any information you gather is revealed by illuminating the trail in a glowing light and made publicly available.
You cannot investigate the same target more than once per day.