Cerebral Conduit of the Enigma Strand

1
Requires Seasoned
You possess superhuman wits and insight.
Used by Gustav Tischbein, Created by jjkilla234.
( Your writhing hair must be used or obviously visible while you are actively benefitting from this effect.)

Gustav possesses a unique and enigmatic power linked to a demon residing within his luxurious mane of hair. This hair demon, known as the "Enigma Strand," serves as a conduit to enhance Gustav's cognitive abilities and mental prowess. The Enigma Strand is an entity of thought and intellect, and it constantly weaves itself into intricate patterns that pulse with knowledge and insight. the intricate dreads writhe with the stress of Gustave thoughts.


You gain the following benefits as long as you have your writhing hair.

Your Intellect rating is increased by 0. 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.
  • Re-Think: You may wait until after all relevant rolls have been made to decide whether to Exert your Mind and get +1 to the Outcome. If Exerting would have caused you to ignore your Stress and roll more dice, you may roll that many additional dice as well.

  • Being Injured or interrupted in some way can still break your Concentration.
  • If your writhing hair 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.

Community Power Gifts

Activation: Charisma + Assimilation

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Living or Sapient target within arm's reach. Roll Charisma + Influence at Difficulty 6. The target may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, you possess your target for the Contested Outcome in hours. The target has no control over their body or actions, and they are functionally unconscious through the entire possession, retaining no memory other than any Traumas they might obtain.

Your original body will be left behind, unconscious, in its same location. You may perceive through your original body's senses by Concentrating. If your original body is touched, you may roll Perception + Alertness to notice. You may spend an Action to end the possession early.

Stats: During the possession, you use the host body’s Body rating, but your own Mind rating. Any rolls you make use the host body’s Brawn, Dexterity, and Perception but your own Charisma and Intellect. You may use either your own or the host’s Ability ratings, whichever is higher. You gain the effects of any physical Assets and Liabilities they have. You cannot read the target’s mind or memories.

Gifts: You have access to and can use any of your own Powers which are not intrinsic to your biology or physical body. You cannot access any Powers or other supernatural effects which the target has, unless they are intrinsic to the target’s biology or physical body.

Death: If the host body is killed or destroyed while you are still possessing it, you are evicted to your original body. If the possession ends and your original body was killed or destroyed, you die.

Eviction: If you attempt to force your host to take actions which would violate one of their Limits or their instinct for self-preservation, they may resist by rolling Mind. If their Outcome is higher than or equal to the contested Outcome, the possession ends and you are evicted from their body.

While possessing your target, you may put them into “autopilot.” During this time they will act as they would normally for the situation without the knowledge that you are/were possessing them. This allows them to act “normal” around social contacts, type in passwords if they want to log in, etc. You have no control during this time.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see a giant alien centipede attempt to invade the target's body, psionic waves visually pulsing around its body.

Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Alien Appearance - You appear innately monstrous and disturbing to look at. (All Social Rolls are at +1 Difficulty).

After this Effect ends, you cannot move quicker than a walk (15 feet per Round) for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour.

Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Alien Isolation - Paranoia.

  • When narrating disturbing content, be cognizant of your group's tone and accommodating to those who would like to "fast forward" through the description.
  • Access to equipment-based Gifts such as Signature Items depends entirely on whether you are holding the relevant object, and is not impacted by whether or not you are possessing a target.
  • 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.

Take a Severity-1 Injury and spend a minute. Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you Severity 4- Melted face plate. You must actively and obviously use Flame producing device (Blowtorch, Lighter) to activate this Effect. You must make a Trauma roll when you use this Effect. Its Difficulty cannot be reduced by any means.

You become disguised in a manner of your choosing. The disguise lasts until you either activate a new disguise, or choose to end the effect.

The new appearance may have a different sex, age, and race to your own, and you may alter height by up to a foot and your weight by 50%. Your disguise may directly mimic the appearance of a specific individual. You may change the appearance of your outfit. Your disguise can alter your smell, DNA, and other aspects that are not perceivable via human senses. This does not conceal you against investigative Effects. A disguise cannot affect your Attributes or other stats.

You may roll Charisma + Crafts to attempt to make your disguise Beautiful. If your Outcome is 6 or higher, non-Effect Charisma rolls where your good looks could help are rolled at -2 Difficulty. If you fail or botch, you are ugly instead, and non-Effect Charisma rolls are made at +2 Difficulty.

After this Effect ends, you cannot move quicker than a walk (15 feet per Round) for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour.

  • A performance check is generally required to pass with people who know the individual you're mimicking.
  • While you may alter your outfit's appearance, this does not grant or store equipment.
  • The Injury received from activating this Effect heals in 1 day and cannot be prevented or prematurely healed by any means.
  • ‘Appearance’ includes voice, bone structure, skin quality, hair length and color, eye color, muscle tone, flesh texture, and generally anything perceivable about your body.

Spend an Action. Select a Living target within 25 feet. Roll Charisma + Thievery at Difficulty 6. Your target may resist by rolling Body at Difficulty 8.

If you succeed, the target is afflicted with a Condition that causes one of the following symptoms:

  • Disabled: The target suffers from an affliction that leaves them unable to act at full strength, such as physical pain, severe fever, intense fatigue, etc. They take a -2 penalty to all physical actions, which grows by -1 every day until it reaches your Outcome.
Symptoms begin to appear immediately, and will remain and continue to worsen until the affliction is cured. The affliction is not contagious and will not spread to others.

The affliction is not treatable by modern medicine. It may be diagnosed by rolling Intellect + Occult at Difficulty 6, and can be cured by going a distance of a mile from Fortuna.

This Effect is not obvious, and the only sign you are using an Effect is Flashing Eyes. If someone suspects that an Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.

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

This Effect ends if you are stunned, fall asleep, go unconscious, are incapacitated, die, or if your total Stress ever exceeds 5.

  • Successfully diagnosing an affliction also includes information about the treatment method.
  • The chosen method of treatment must be something that you could obtain in a small town given an afternoon.
  • Curing an affliction removes the Condition, but does not automatically heal any Injuries, Battle Scars, or Traumas which may have been caused by that condition.
  • 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 as long as as long as you have drank a half gallon (lethal) amount of blood in the past 24 hours.

Any Injury you receive from a source other than silver bullets 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.

You may Exert your Mind and spend an Action to reduce the Severity of one of your Injuries by 2. Does not affect Injuries suffered as an activation cost for Effects.

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.

Injuries you receive from silver bullets are increased in Severity by 1.

  • The increase in Injury Severity stacks with any similar effects, such as the Vulnerable drawback on Inhuman Physiology.

You gain the following benefits at all times. You must actively and obviously be using a stethoscope to gain the benefits of this Effect.

All Stabilizations you attempt are considered Proper Stabilizations.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Sterile: Sanitary conditions no longer matter during medical care. Your patients will never suffer an infection or toxic shock during treatment, even if you are performing surgery in a sewer. You may preserve harvested body parts indefinitely.
  • Unconventional Methods: When Stabilizing an Injury, you may opt to attempt a Makeshift Stabilization instead at Severity +2 Difficulty. If your Outcome is 4 or higher, the Injury is reduced by 2 Severity levels and its Battle Scar is set on the road to recovery. Outcomes less than 4 have the normal effect for Makeshift Stabilizations.

  • All stabilizations being proper stabilizations applies to stabilizations from other Effects such as Heal Wound.

Stock Power Gifts

Take a Severity-1 Injury 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.

  • The creature will die at the end of any 24 hour period gone without consuming their specified diet, and it is important that this growing desperation is reflected in how they are roleplayed.
  • 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.

Your Stress from Injuries is reduced to 0. Does not reduce Stress from Mind Damage.

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.
  • 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.

Take a Severity-1 Injury and spend an Action. You must use up a corpse in order to activate this Effect.

Summon a single zombie at your location. They will last until they are destroyed. They are controlled by the GM but will follow any commands you give. You may have at most 1 minion active at a time.

  • Attacking: Minions can make melee range attacks with 5 dice to attack and +1 Damage.
  • Body: Minions have 6 Body.
  • Movement: Minions can move 20 feet per Round as Free Movement, and double that when performing an all-out Sprint.
  • Intelligence: Minions have dog-level intelligence, and cannot communicate back to you. They cannot actively use Equipment.
  • Actions: Minions cannot dodge or Defend. Any Perception checks they make are rolled with 3 dice.

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. Armor is fully effective against this Damage.

You may use this Effect to Defend or Clash in Combat, including against ranged attacks such as firearms.

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

  • 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.