When they go to possess the creature after they create the "wound" in an animal, they dissolve into a black liquid and enter that wound, before the wound is closed behind them. While controlled, the creatures usually have completely milky white eyes, even if normally their eyes have no white in them.
Spend an Action or Reaction. Select a Creature target within arm's reach. Make a Trauma roll when you activate this Effect.
You possess your target and have control over their actions for the next hour. 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: Any Actions you take will use the possessed creature’s Brawn, Dexterity, and Perception, but use your own Charisma, Intellect, and Abilities.
Gifts: You do not have access to any Gifts while you are possessing your target.
Death: If the host becomes incapacitated or is destroyed, you are forcibly evicted back into your own body.
Eviction: You are able to engage in combat or take other risky actions without being forced out of the host’s body. If you are forced out of the target's body prematurely, you must make a Trauma roll.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see you ripping open the animal violently with gore when they crawl in, or crushing them into an unusually large splatter before fluid and user recombine if they are small. While the animal is completely unharmed, this is hard to prove to observers.
This Gift's Cost is capped at 2 and cannot be increased further.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: You must roll a Self-Control check to eat any food unless you think it contains meat.
Desdemona withdraws a hairpin from her purse and uses it to pick a lock, short a circuit on an electronic lock, etc.
Desdemona has needed to break out of various jails in various countries on assignment, and has become adept at it.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a door, lock, or locked target within 20 feet that is no more complex than a personal safe door or a keycard reader. Cannot be used on Alien technology.
You may lock, unlock, and/or open your target.
Black smoke bellows out from the ether, that swirls and combines into a lifelike illusion.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a target within arm's reach. Choose an illusion to generate, which can be no larger than a briefcase.
The chosen illusion is generated at your target, and it will remain in place for the next minute or you choose to end it. It can be perceived by people through their sight. The illusion cannot be used as an attack. You cannot make an exact replica of an existing Animate being or Object.
Anyone who touches the illusion (or who would be able to perceive it significantly through a sense it cannot fool) realizes it is an illusion and can choose to perceive it or not at will.
The illusion will remain fixed to its initial target, and can only change locations if the initial target is mobile in some way. It may have moving parts and engage in simple, predetermined movements but cannot perform anything complex or interactive unless you maintain Concentration and “puppeteer” it.
At times, a quick investigation and a bit of pleading to your benefactor is all you need to solve the case. In turn, there's a decent chance you might be thrown that small scrap of evidence that blows the case wide open.
Brief visions granted to Frank by the spirit of film noir (as opposed to the whispers). Typically used as a last resort once an investigations reached a dead in, there's a great shame involved in utilizing glances. It's like confessing that you've got nothing left, that you're not good enough for the case... not without this crutch.
Exert your Mind and spend 2 Actions. Investigate an area with a radius of up to 100 feet At the end of your investigation, roll Perception + Investigation at Difficulty 6.
You learn the following information about the area:
You cannot investigate the same area more than once per day.
The user issues a stern command. If successful the target's interprets the command as absolute, as if the command come from someone with the power to execute you or worse. If the user fails, the subject realizes the lack of authority of the user and the supernatural means it was attempted with.
Exert your Mind and spend at least one Action. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. Your target may be actively engaged in Combat. Communicate a command to your target. Roll Charisma + Influence at Difficulty 6. The target may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 7.
If the contested Outcome is positive, your target will be compelled to follow your command to their best understanding of the letter and spirit of the command until they have completed it or for your Outcome in minutes. You cannot issue another suggestion to the target until 10 minutes after they have completed the first command or 10 minutes after a failure.
The target is unaware that they are under supernatural influence and feel they are acting of their own free will. If you fail, they realize that you were attempting to influence them supernaturally with your command.
Your command can be an order to take an immediate Action. You cannot order a target to "do nothing," and they are free to take other Actions as they fulfill your request. Your command cannot be obviously self-destructive. The Effect ends if following your command would cause a target to cross one of their Limits in a way that would necessitate a Trauma roll.
The sound of rain drowns out all sound as dark gray droplets start to slick the ground. Cigarette smoke wafts through the air, assaulting the senses and making maintaining composure next to impossible. The world around the detective has become identical to that of a cheesy Noir film, with all of the common tropes to boot.
A last ditch effort in which Frank lets loose a sudden burst of imbued energy from his body, coating the nearby world in the same monochrome shades that paint his form.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
You create a hemispherical dome of Film Noir tropes originating at your Location, with a radius of 60 feet. and lasting for 5 minutes. You are fully immune to the effects of your zone. The area inside your zone is affected in any number of the following ways:
You may only use this Effect once per day.
The Witch summons a crow, whispers a message to it, and sends it off to deliver her words. Half an hour later, the crow arrives at the recipient and repeats her message aloud in its croaking, animal voice.
Spend an Action. Select a target any distance away from you. You must have a specific target in mind, but you require only an intuitive understanding of them, such as their name, face, or Location.
You may send a single message to your target. It can be as complex or as large as you like. It takes at least 30 minutes before it is received.
The message may be intercepted while in transit, and may be overheard, read, or otherwise understood by anyone near either you or the recipient. You must share a common language for your target to understand the message.
This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 2.
Come one, come all! Stand in amazement and behold as the Fire Eater consumes a flame as if it were cotton candy! Gasp with fright as they breathe a plume of fire a great distance! And yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is quite dangerous.
Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: perform a fire-breathing trick. Select a target within 20 feet which has both fuel and oxygen available (if you are starting a new fire). Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you take a Severity-4 Injury as the fire burns your throat. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.
You may start or extinguish a fire as large as a firepit's fire at your target. Extinguishing a fire does not cost Exertion. You may create or extinguish fires the size of a lighter or candle flame without Exerting your Mind. Your fires require fuel and oxygen in order to continue burning.
Lighting a target on fire deals 4 Damage each Round on your turn, starting in the Round after the one in which they caught fire. This Damage is reduced by Armor, but the target’s Armor rating will be shredded by any Damage dealt, destroying material Armor once it reaches 0.
You may extinguish flames as a Reaction. This does not extend to explosives.
The aristocrat knows a ritual that allows them to rent the best version of any item. They set $10,000 worth of cash on fire and place the item to be upgraded in the fire as well. While in the flame, the item morphs into a high-end version of itself. After a while, it reverts.
Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Select a non-Alien Device within arm's reach. You must use up $10,000 cash (or equivalent) in order to activate this Effect. Cannot be used to improve Armor.
Lasts the next two hours. Your target receives 3 extra dice to all actions taken for its intended use. Attacking with an upgraded weapon grants +3 Weapon Damage instead of additional dice.
Dazzle Glasses are advanced "black-tech" espionage gear. They can be styled as any sort sunglasses. When the wearer is recorded, they will quickly flash a non-visible laser into the recording device, destroying it after only a moment of footage is taken.
This Effect activates whenever you are recorded. It does not require an Action or Exertion. Select a Non-Sapient Object within 20 feet no larger than a duffel bag (35 liters). Your target should be intuitively based on the triggering event. Roll Perception + Culture Difficulty 6.
If your Outcome is 4 or higher, the target will be completely destroyed and can no longer function, though it may still be repaired. If your Outcome is less than 4, the target will be partially damaged, and any attempts to use it will suffer a dice penalty equal to your Outcome.
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 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.