Fortress of Light "My mind is a castle."

2
You possess resistance to mental attacks.
Used by Minerva McAlaster, Created by Polymorph.
( You must actively and obviously be using silver fox pendant.)

As long as Minerva wears her pendant, her thoughts are ordered. And with order comes safety.

Following Minerva's traumatization by a fellow contractor, the next month the young girl spent a good bit of the next month in her room. She stopped practicing everything else, just focusing on herself, and that feeling of helplessness that had come with it.

And one night, she dreamed. She remembered battling the nightmare monster, of the defenses she had forged. And she forged them again. Ordering her thoughts, marshaling them, she assembled her mind into a castle. A Castle of Light, a bright beacon in the darkness.

The castle is built to withstand a siege from the darkness. Even taking the field is a monumental task, requiring great effort by an assailant, more than most can bring to bare - and after an enemy has been cast out once, such a tactic won't work again.

Each step into the castle is a slog, a constant exhausting battle to take a wall, only to find another wall behind it that the defenders have retreated to and fortified themselves again.

From the highest point of the castle a bright light glows, and she can rain down light and hope upon invaders from it.

The castle stands at all times, a fortress for her mind and her dreams.

Of course, the walls of her castle are manned, and it is an effort for her to open the gates to anyone. It's safer that way. With time, she learned to open them again.


You gain the following benefits at all times. You must actively and obviously be using silver fox pendant to gain the benefits of this Effect.

You get +1 dice to any Mind resistance rolls you make. You also gain the following effects:

  • Been There, Done That: If you succeed a Mind resistance roll, subsequent attempts to use that same Gift or supernatural ability on you for the next day will fail.
  • Compartmentalizing: You can take a maximum of 1 Mind Damage per Round.
  • Naturally Resistant: Any time you make a Mind resistance roll, the individual who you are resisting must Exert their Mind, or your resistance succeeds automatically.

  • These bonuses apply only to Mind rolls made to resist Effects and other supernatural phenomena. They do not apply to Trauma rolls or self-control rolls.

Community Passive Gifts

You gain the following benefits as long as you are engaged in unarmed combat. You must actively and obviously be using Combat Gloves to gain the benefits of this Effect.

+2 dice to rolls for Attacking, Defending, and Clashing without a weapon. Unarmed attacks do +2 Bonus Damage Weapon Damage (instead of -1). The target's Armor is fully effective against this damage.

Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Never refuse a challenge: Roll mind at difficulty 8 to decline any direct invitation to fight..

You also gain the following effects:

  • Armored Fist: You cannot take Damage from attacking a dangerous material (such as steel armor, a spiked carapace, or an acidic blob). You may Defend against melee, projectile, or firearm attacks from any range and Clash with those in range of your attacks.
  • Precision Strikes: You may use Dexterity instead of Brawn on your attack rolls.

  • Unlike the Ability Brawl, this Effect does not affect small weapons such as knives.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

Any Injury you receive heals quickly, reducing its Severity by one level every 6 hours. Any Injuries you receive while this Effect is active do not deteriorate over time. However, any Battle Scars caused by such an Injury will remain unless it is Properly Stabilized as normal.

All Injuries you receive are considered Properly Stabilized. You may also choose to heal any Battle Scar on yourself that may not have been caused by an Injury. Doing so takes one day, and the Battle Scar affects you fully until that time.

You gain the following benefits as long as you have your tongue.

Your Charisma rating is increased by 1. You may Exert your Mind to automatically gain an Outcome of 5 on any roll that uses Charisma (Cannot be used on combat rolls or Power activations).

If you are witnessed actively using this Effect, whoever sees it can make a Perception + Alertness roll at Difficulty 6. A complete success reveals the source of your power.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Poker Face: You never give any outward indication of dishonesty. It is impossible to tell that you are lying, and you are able to fool any method of lie detection without making a roll.

  • In rare cases, GMs may require you to make a roll to lie to particularly powerful beings.
  • If your tongue is damaged, destroyed, or lost, you lose all benefits from this Effect for the next two months, or until you can recover any relevant missing items (which may involve a side-game and requires a GM to approve whatever process is used).

You gain the following benefits at all times.

You may go five times longer than a normal human without food, water, and sleep.

You may Exert your Mind to adapt to your current environment for three hours. While adapted, you do not suffer harm from heat, cold, pressure, or lack of oxygen in that environment, provided that challenge normally exists in that environment.

"Ageless" from Inhuman Physiology cancels out the "Mayfly" drawback.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

You no longer require any food, water, sleep, or air in order to survive.

Stock Passive Gifts

You gain the following benefits at all times.

Your senses are enhanced in the following way.

  • Sight: You can see things that are normally invisible to the naked eye, such as fingerprints and bacteria.

  • Your microscopic vision requires a close look at a very small, specific area to use. It does not grant increased distance vision, it simply provides a higher resolution, allowing you to see finer and finer detail.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

You can interact with things that are within 75 feet without needing to physically touch them or be near them. Any rolls made for Actions taken in this way use a Mental Strength of 2 in place of your Brawn rating, a Mental Agility of 2 in place of your Dexterity, and otherwise use your own Attributes and Abilities.

Telekinetic actions have the following restrictions and behaviors:

  • Line of Sight: You must be able to visually observe anything you interact with, and any actions that you are taking will end if their target moves out of sight.
  • Unarmed Combat: You cannot deal damage through unarmed combat or thrown objects with this Effect, though you may still grapple with targets.
  • Weapons: You cannot wield weapons effectively in combat.
  • Fine Tools: You are otherwise limited to actions that a normal human could do with their bare hands.
  • Maintaining Focus: You must maintain Concentration while taking Actions in this way. If you are Injured or interrupted, you must roll Mind at Difficulty 9 to maintain Concentration. If you fail, you cannot engage in telekinetic actions for the next 6 - Intellect rounds.
  • Levitation: If you are strong enough to lift yourself, you may levitate up to within 75 feet away from the ground. Movement is limited to 5 feet per Round.
  • Multiple Items: You can only interact with one thing or take one Action at a time.

  • Any telekinetic actions which interact with Animate targets may require contested rolls at GMs discretion.

You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.

You have 6 Armor, which reduces incoming Damage. Armor from multiple sources does not stack.

Your Armor cannot be destroyed, and it always provides a minimum of 2 Armor regardless of any Armor penetration. It cannot be circumvented with Called Shots.

Any time your Armor prevents damage, your total Armor rating is temporarily decreased by 1. Whenever you go two Rounds without preventing any damage, it is restored back to its full value.

  • Armor recharging happens automatically and does not require an Action.

You gain the following benefits as long as the target object has a cutting edge.

You can interact with things that are within 75 feet without needing to physically touch them or be near them. Any rolls made for Actions taken in this way use a Mental Strength of 2 in place of your Brawn rating, a Mental Agility of 2 in place of your Dexterity, and otherwise use your own Attributes and Abilities.

Telekinetic actions have the following restrictions and behaviors:

  • Line of Sight: You must be able to visually observe anything you interact with, and any actions that you are taking will end if their target moves out of sight.
  • Unarmed Combat: You cannot deal damage through unarmed combat or thrown objects with this Effect, though you may still grapple with targets.
  • Weapons: You are able to effectively wield weapons to Attack, Defend, and Clash with this Effect.
  • Fine Tools: You are otherwise limited to actions that a normal human could do with their bare hands.
  • Maintaining Focus: You must maintain Concentration while taking Actions in this way. If you are Injured or interrupted, you must roll Mind at Difficulty 9 to maintain Concentration. If you fail, you cannot engage in telekinetic actions for the next 6 - Intellect rounds.
  • Levitation: If you are strong enough to lift yourself, you may levitate up to within 75 feet away from the ground. Movement is limited to 5 feet per Round.
  • Multiple Items: You can only interact with one thing or take one Action at a time.

  • Any telekinetic actions which interact with Animate targets may require contested rolls at GMs discretion.

You gain the following benefits as long as as long as you are visibly dressed head to toe in black with hardly any skin showing.

You are obscured in one of the following manners. You may Spend an Action to change the way in which you're concealed.

  • Hearing: You are completely obscured from hearing. You produce no sounds while this Effect is active. All attempts to detect you via hearing fail. Attempts via other senses where hearing would assist are rolled at -2 dice.

While this Effect is active, any Effect that would obscure you from other, additional senses fails automatically. If someone discovers you, this Effect will not help you hide from them for the next minute. Activating a targeted or obvious Effect, attacking, or being Injured ends the Effect. When the Effect ends, it is disabled for one minute.

Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: compulsion to test the awareness of allies by sneaking up on them with a weapon.

  • GMs should use their discretion when determining the exact impacts of this Effect, particularly in conjunction with environmental factors. Standing still against a complex background may render you impossible to detect, and footprints in snow may make it easy. A chance to detect you is not guaranteed.