Dead Languages "What, no Ingles? Uh...uno momento..." *crunch, crunch, gibber*

1
The power to communicate with humans and Sapient beings.
Used by Edgar Stokes, Created by Strazhari.
(Anyone who witnesses you activate this Effect or for its duration is very likely to be disturbed to see Cannabalism. You must actively and obviously be using up flesh of the target.)

Edgar must consume a portion of a corpse (ideally the tongue, but any bit will do), gaining fluency in any language the target knew for the next hour. On occasion, he will learn the language indefinitely. The echoes of memories lay dormant within the Ghoul, allowing him to immediately recognize any language he hears.

When consuming the flesh of the dead, Ghouls can sometimes gain fluency in languages known to those they have eaten. Unlike the scraps of memory they usually gain, maintaining such an intuitive block of information is fleeting at best, rarely lasting more than an hour. A ghoul may attempt to facilitate this process by eating the tongue of the deceased, although any pound of flesh will do in a pinch.


Exert your Mind and spend an Action. This Effect cannot be used unless you consume flesh from someone who knows the language in question. You must use up flesh of the target in order to activate this Effect.

You may understand and communicate to humans and Sapient beings as if you are fluent in a relevant language for the next hour.

This also includes understanding any recorded communications from the relevant targets, including writings, scent trails, etc.

Whenever you encounter a Language you could commune in with this Effect, you immediately understand which language it is, the dialect, region, and other details about it.

If you use this Effect to spend an hour speaking with a native speaker of a human language you don't know, you may Exert your Mind and roll Intellect + Culture Difficulty 7. With Outcome 4 or higher, you permanently learn that language and accent.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see Cannabalism.

  • The target of "human" refers to any target that speaks a human language.
  • When reading written communications, you get no information beyond what the writer was intending to communicate.
  • When narrating disturbing content, be cognizant of your group's tone and accommodating to those who would like to "fast forward" through the description.

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Revision purchased with:
Improvement from writing up Crimes of Passion spent on improving power: Dead Languages    (since refunded)
Revision purchased with:
Gift from playing in Forever Young spent on revising power: Dead Languages    (since refunded)

Community Power Gifts

You gain the following benefits at all times.

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).

Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: You have ochlophobia. Each time there is a lot of people around, make a self control roll. If it fails, you start having a panic attack and are unable to do anything before you get in a calmer place.

You also gain the following effects:

  • 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.

  • Attribute bonuses from multiple sources do not stack. Instead the highest bonus is used.

Would not work when wet, and could hit nearby targets if they are wet.

Take a Severity-1 Injury and spend an Action to activate. Select a target within 20 feet which has both fuel and oxygen available (if you are starting a new fire). This Effect cannot be used unless Must have access to high voltage- power lines, electrical plugs etc.

You may start a new fire as large as a firepit's fire 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 4 damage per round, starting in the next 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.

  • Someone may attempt to extinguish a fire that you started by spending an Action and rolling Dexterity + Athletics, Difficulty 8.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action.

You transform into a cloud of sand for the next hour. You may end the effect early and return to your normal form at will. Your structure must remain relatively contiguous. It is not necessarily obvious that your transformed state is an unusual phenomena or that it is acting with singular purpose.

While in this form, you can squeeze through any gap that is not air-tight, though this may take more than one Action at GMs discretion.

Damage from standard attacks is halved, but Damage from AOE effects is increased by 1. You may suffer Damage from wind and powerful gusts at GM’s discretion. You may spend an Action to reduce one of your Injuries’ Severity by 2, as long as you obtained the Injury while transformed and the separated pieces could reasonably be rejoined.

You cannot communicate, use equipment, or use Gifts while transformed. Your equipment does not transform with you beyond basic body coverings. You cannot carry any items while transformed.

While this Effect is active, you are at -2 dice to all Actions and cannot Concentrate.

Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Lone-wolf: Whenever someone asks to be your friend, roll Self-Control to keep yourself from avoiding them.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

Your Dexterity rating is increased by 3. You may Exert your Mind to automatically gain an Outcome of 5 on any roll that uses Dexterity (Cannot be used on combat rolls or Power activations).

You also gain the following effects:

  • Centered: You have perfect balance. You cannot be knocked over, and can maintain your footing regardless of the size or stability of the material underneath you.
  • Double Time: You have one extra Action per Round. You cannot take an Action after taking a Reaction.
  • Track Star: You may always move at your full Dash speed without any penalty.

  • Reminder: to calculate the distance you can dash in one Round of combat, add together Dexterity + Brawn + 1, and multiply that by 5 feet.
  • Attribute bonuses from multiple sources do not stack. Instead the highest bonus is used.

You gain the following benefits as long as you are in shadows (or complete darkness).

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.

  • Sight:You are completely obscured from sight. All attempts to detect you via sight fail. Attempts via other senses where sight 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.

  • 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.

Stock Power Gifts

Exert your Mind and spend an Action.

You transform into a brown bear for two hours or until you choose to end the Effect. See the Extended System text for stats.

While transformed, you cannot use any equipment (including Artifacts and Consumables), and you cannot use your Active, Targeted, or Trap Powers. However, you can use your Passive Powers. Any equipment you are wearing transforms with you.

Injuries and Wound Level are carried over between forms. However, transforming can never kill you; you merely remain Incapacitated until your Injuries are sufficiently healed.

Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Intolerance for society. When you are in a situation with strict social protocols (like a trial or a formal dinner) roll Self-Control not to enter a flight or fight response.

  • Creature Stats
    • Large (larger than human, smaller than elephant) Body: 8. Brawn 6. Dexterity 2. Fall damage increased by 2. Armor: 1
    All creatures get +3 dice to any non-combat Action that they are naturally adapted for. All creatures Medium and larger may attack by rolling Body, dealing +0 Damage (+1 for “predators”). Gms and Playgroup leaders can apply other bonuses and effects to specific animals.
  • Animals that are quicker than humans (like dogs) have 50 feet of Free Movement. Animals that are very slow (like turtles) have 0 feet of Free Movement.
  • You cannot transform if there is not enough room to do so.
  • The form you take must have the same stats and abilities as a single, extant animal of the relevant size.

Exert your Mind and an Action. Select a Inanimate target within arm's reach which could fit inside a briefcase (15 liters). You must actively and obviously use a pointed hat with stars and moons to activate this Effect.

Your target will become Animated indefinitely. You may choose to end the effect at will, as a Free Action. You can maintain a max of 4 targets animated at once.

Animated Objects have the following restrictions and capabilities:

  • Awareness: Animated targets are capable of perceiving the world around them within reasonable limits. They cannot communicate in a clear or coherent way.
  • Movement: Animated targets can use an existing method of locomotion (wheels, etc); otherwise they can move across the ground at 15 feet per round, or hover up to a height of 7 feet in the air at 10 feet per round.
  • Combat: Animated objects cannot take offensive actions in combat.
  • Artifacts: Animating an Artifact does not grant the animated object access to any Effects built in to that Artifact.
  • Ability Use: If an action requires a roll, Animated objects have a dice pool of 7 when performing a task for which they were designed, and a dice pool of 4 for taking any other actions.
  • Toughness: Animated targets are as easy to destroy as they were prior to being animated. If destroyed, the effect ends.
  • Following Orders: Animated objects are controlled by the GM, and will follow any commands you give them, as long as they don't require problem-solving.

  • A task for which an object was designed might include a broom sweeping, a gun shooting things, a car driving, a towel rubbing up on stuff, etc.
  • Animated objects may be more or less susceptible to certain attacks at GMs discretion. A scarecrow golem would be easily destroyed by a sword (or fire). An animated suit of armor may not fear bullets but could be smashed to bits with a hammer. A full bronze statue is largely indestructible but might have difficulty standing up if toppled.
  • If an indestructible object is animated, the animation ends in any event where the base object would have been destroyed.
  • 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 1 minute. Select a Living target within arm's reach. You cannot target yourself. Your target takes a Severity 1 Injury. You must actively and obviously use a ceremonial dagger blessed with holy water to activate this Effect.

You may cure any Non-Alien diseases, toxins, or poisons afflicting your target even if you have not diagnosed or fully understood it. You may cure diseases or poisons even if they are not treatable through modern medicine. During treatment, the malady you are treating does not progress or cause additional Damage or other effects.

You may use this effect to sanitize a 15-foot radius, destroying all poisons, toxins, diseases such that they are inert and cannot affect any new targets

  • Without some sort of diagnostic Effect, “fully diagnosing” a disease or poison will always require a roll of some sort, frequently Intellect + Medicine, but the specific roll and difficulty is at GM’s discretion.
  • 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 understand and communicate to terrestrial animal as if you are fluent in a relevant language.

  • Communing with terrestrial animal does not grant them intellect but does allow you to converse with them.

Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. Select a Living target within arm's reach. 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 must make a Trauma roll to reap the benefits of this Effect. They may choose to Resist the Effect and not make the roll. Choose a specific Injury on your target that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Charisma + Medicine at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, the Injury is reduced in Severity by your Outcome. If you reduce its Severity to 0, the Injury is fully healed. Otherwise, it is partially healed and will heal the rest of the way at its natural rate.

This counts as a successful Makeshift Stabilization if the Injury was not already Stabilized; any Battle Scars caused by the Injury will remain.

  • Unstabilized wounds do not degenerate during treatment.
  • 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.