Manifest Refraction

1
The power to create a protective barrier.
Used by Nathan Hong, Created by Ltyinkwint.
(The target and source of this Effect are obvious to bystanders.You must actively and obviously be using a non-organic reflective object.)

Nathan focuses on a reflective object, particularly its reflective nature, and pushes it out, molding it around him. The object loses its capability to reflect while all nearby reflections reflect a double overlaid on top of Nathan (though slightly blurred).
Any attacks that enter into this space are refracted back through many reflections that comprise Nathan's double and instead aim for the attacker.


Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Animate target within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use a non-organic reflective object to activate this Effect. Roll Intellect + Occult at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, you create a barrier around your target, which absorbs the next Outcome + 4 Damage. Half the damage absorbed is reflected back at the attacker, which they can Defend against as normal. The Damage reduction from the barrier is applied before Armor. You may only have 1 active barrier at a time.

You must maintain Concentration while using this Effect. The barrier will fall if you are interrupted, 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.

  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

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Improvement from running Passing the Hours spent on improving power: Manifest Refraction    (since refunded)
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Revision purchased with:
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Community Power Gifts

You gain the following benefits as long as you have your Chest tattoo of the Sephiorthic Tree of Life.

Your Intellect rating is increased by 1. You may Exert your Mind to automatically gain an Outcome of 5 on any roll that uses Intellect (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:

  • Multithreaded: Instead of being unable to take Actions while maintaining Concentration, you may now take Actions at a -2 dice penalty. You may maintain Concentration from two different Effects, but you are unable to take Actions when doing so.
  • Never Forget: You have a perfect photographic memory, and can recall or recreate even complex and detailed things. If you forget something you had previously seen or noticed, you may ask the GM and they will remind you.
  • Remarkably Self-Aware: You may roll Intellect at Difficulty 6 to “scan” yourself for abnormalities. With Outcome 1-3, any outside influences on your thoughts/mind will be detected, as well as Traumas. With Outcome 4+, you may Exert your Mind to cancel the Effect. One attempt per Effect.

  • Being Injured or interrupted in some way can still break your Concentration.
  • If your Chest tattoo of the Sephiorthic Tree of Life 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).
  • Attribute bonuses from multiple sources do not stack. Instead the highest bonus is used.

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 must actively and obviously use a leather journal to activate this Effect.

You may lock, unlock, and/or open your target.

  • Any door or restraint that is fastened or shut with a mechanism may be considered locked, at the GM's discretion. Can be used on control panels or other electronic locks, but not computer security systems.
  • If you operate a locking mechanism through this Effect which has some other secondary effect (such as the ignition on a car causing the car to start) you may cause that effect as well.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

You have 2 Armor, which reduces incoming Damage. Armor from multiple sources does not stack.

Spend an Action. Select a target within 20 feet which has both fuel and oxygen available (if you are starting a new fire).

You may start a new fire as large as a torch's flame at your target. You may create 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 2 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 depleted by any Damage dealt, destroying the Armor once it reaches 0.

You may extinguish flames as a Reaction. This does not extend to explosives.

This Gift's Cost is capped at 2 and cannot be increased further.

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.

  • Exhaustion penalties and duration stack. If you activate this Effect or another Effect with Exhaustion, your penalty will worsen, and the duration is increased by one hour.
  • Someone may attempt to extinguish a fire that you started by spending an Action and rolling Dexterity + Athletics. An Outcome of 2 puts out the fire
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

Exert your Mind and spend a half hour. Investigate an area with a radius of up to 500 feet This Effect cannot be used unless you are asleep. At the end of your investigation, roll Perception + Investigation at Difficulty 6.

You learn the following information about the area:

  • You can locate the source of any Alien energy or the presence of any Alien effects on the area. Specific information about the function of these effects beyond their general type is not forthcoming.
  • You learn how heavily trafficked the area is, what sorts of Animate beings have moved through the area and when.
The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome.

You cannot investigate the same area more than once per day.

  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

Stock Power Gifts

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use your instrument to activate this Effect. The area within 25 feet of you immediately and obviously becomes imminently dangerous. Roll Charisma + Performance at Difficulty 6. Targets inside the radius may attempt an appropriate Reaction at GM’s discretion. Finding a physical barrier to use as cover will cut total Damage taken in half (applies after Reaction roll but before Armor).

If the Outcome is positive, your blast hits everything within 25 feet of you with Damage equal to your Outcome + 4. If you botched the activation roll, you will also take full Damage from the blast, otherwise it will not hurt you.

You may only use this Effect once per day.

  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

You may move easily and without a roll in any of the following situations.

  • Amphibious: You are able to move about in liquids using standard Movement rules rather than any special swimming rules.

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 and everything you are carrying is 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 or your equipment specifically 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.

You may turn this Effect on and off at will during its duration.

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.

  • You may only switch this Effect on or off once per Round on your initiative as a Free Action.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

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).

You also gain the following effects:

  • Party Animal: You are welcome at, and will be granted entrance to, any social gathering or party, at least as an observer.
  • The Price Of Fame: Any sightings or recordings of your activity can easily be traced back to you. Even when disguised or using an alias, people always get a Perception check to recognize you.

  • A "social gathering" might include a birthday party, after-work drinks, a ski trip, or yoga in the park, among other things. It likely would not include a cult gathering to summon a demon, Congressional negotiations over a contentious bill, etc.
  • Attribute bonuses from multiple sources do not stack. Instead the highest bonus is used.

Spend a Quick Action.

You may withdraw an item from your stash, or add an item that is within arm’s reach to your stash. You may only stash targets which are in your possession, grappled, or otherwise controlled by you.

You may store units of water in your stash, each no larger than something which could fit inside a briefcase (15 liters), and you may store up to 3 things at a time.

You may choose to equip any equipment you withdraw at no additional cost.

  • "Equip" refers to drawing a gun, putting on a piece of armor, etc. You may store or withdraw a maximum of 6 items in a given Round. Reminder: you may perform up to two Quick Actions for -2 dice each or 3 if you use up your Action, unless a different Effect grants you additional Quick Actions.
  • Containers which hold multiple things may count as a single item so long as the things within are generally packaged together. For instance, you may stash a clip full of bullets, a medical kit full of medical supplies, or a box of crackers, but you cannot stash a backpack full of miscellaneous equipment.
  • You may only attempt to store Objects which are free-standing and disconnected from other things. The use of this Effect will not allow you to sever any connections holding an Object in place.
  • The Maximum Object Size parameter is intended to roughly capture the weight / size restriction of items and isn’t intended to restrict shape. GM discretion is advised. A human being is level 4 in the Maximum Object Size parameter.