At first glance, they are nothing more than stylish, unassuming shoes. But hidden within them is a potent secret, revealed only to those who know where to press. A discreet button activates an ancient mechanism, causing slender, tooth-like projections to emerge, resembling the fangs of a vampire. These teeth gently anchor into the wearer’s ankles, creating a connection that feels less like an intrusion and more like a merging of beings.
As this bond takes hold, the shoes undergo a remarkable transformation. They darken to an almost supernatural black, becoming one with the shadows. The once ordinary material takes on a new texture, akin to a living creature, but without any conspicuous glow or light. This absence of luminescence is crucial, maintaining the element of stealth that is vital for a creature of the night.
Empowered by this unique connection, the wearer finds their abilities significantly heightened. The shoes facilitate effortless navigation through complex environments – slipping through crowded spaces, running assuredly in complete darkness, climbing vertical surfaces with ease, and moving undetected in the shadows. Each movement becomes a whisper in the night, silent and unseen.
However, such power is not without its limitations and risks. The shoes are sensitive to sunlight and require concentration to activate. Once their magic fades, the wearer experiences a temporary but significant reduction in their agility, a reminder of the ephemeral nature of such enchantment. Additionally, the invocation of this ancient magic is not without danger; a misalignment between wearer and artifact can result in physical harm, a testament to the balance required to wield such potent forces.
Exert your Mind and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: You Press a button on the shoes and teeth appear anround the top inject themself into the ankles securing themselves to the feet. Next Blood begins flowing through them causing them to have a black appearance with blue veins appearing in the shoes.. This Effect cannot be used unless Can not be used unless it is nighttime and the sun is down. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.
You may move easily and without a roll in any of the following situations. Lasts 2 hours.
As long as this Effect is active and you are traversing a terrain it covers, your movement speed is doubled.
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.
When you activate this Effect, roll a single D10. if the result is 5 or lower, you receive a Severity-1 Injury and a Minor Battle Scar.
White wings stained with blood
Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend an Action. This Effect remains active for two hours.
As long as you are conscious, you are immune to falling Damage. Additionally, you may glide as you fall, traveling 35 feet horizontally for every 10 feet you fall. While gliding, you fall at a minimum speed of 10 feet per Round.
You are subject to the following effects while gliding:
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see Wings sprout out of Robert's back in a bloodied fashion..
Aaron has the powers of a cat, namely the ability to come back from death...a certain number of times.
Exert your Mind and spend 15 minutes. This Effect activates whenever you reach maximum body and would die. It does not require an Action or Exertion. This Effect cannot be used unless you have lives remaining. You begin with 9 and you trigger the power through death. Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you it doesn't work. Choose a specific Injury on yourself that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Dexterity + Athletics at Difficulty 4.
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.
If your Outcome is greater than the Severity of the Injury you were attempting to treat, you may apply any excess Outcome to other Injuries on yourself.
Futuristic armor that shapes itself to the wearer, even showing previous scars.
Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action to activate.
You and any clothes or equipment you are wearing are partially obscured from sight for the next 10 minutes. All attempts to detect you using sight are rolled at a -3 dice penalty, and all attempts to detect you where sight would assist are rolled at -1 penalty.
Entering Combat or being Injured does not cause the Effect to end early. Anyone you attack will immediately notice you; anyone else may re-roll to notice you each time you take a Combat action, at -1 Difficulty per Combat action you have taken. When the Effect ends, it is disabled for 1 hour.
You may turn this Effect on and off at will during its duration.
Possession of this Artifact causes the following Trauma to manifest over the course of a day: has a directive that cannot be explained driving you mad. If you lose possession of this Artifact, the Trauma heals over the course of the next month.
Minerva sucks in a breath and grips her pendant, squeezing it hard enough to hurt. She stares into her own reflection, and wills it to change. Her own form is begins to change in accordance with her desires. She breathes hard during this; the process is obviously deeply unpleasant, more so the bigger changes she makes.
Minerva's will begins to manifest further. More than just influencing people, more than just influencing herself, her will begins to spill over onto the world itself.
She started with small changes the first night, exploring the spark that had formed in her. The next night, she had fur. She could feel her bones grind, her jaw cracking as it turned into a maw, her flesh stretch as a tail burst out. She collapsed, crying. But they were tears of happiness, for in this first moment, all was right in the world. She slept like that, the first time she did it. It was restful sleep. She sleeps like that whenever she can now.
She's realized that her clothes are merely an extension of herself - and as such, she can mutate them just as much.
///
Meta: Minerva's mutation is more than just bone deep, and a large part of her transformation is instinctive and subconscious. When she gives herself fur, she's also instinctively messing with her own neurochemistry. She experiences a form of mild and constant euphoria while transformed.
She needs a mirror because she's exerting her will on changing herself, and at the moment, she needs to look at what she's doing.
"Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both marble and sculptor."
///
History: As Minerva's concept comes together, I think 'everything is a cantrip / is effortless for her' is a big part of it. At the point of this edit, the power hasn't been used on a contract or a significant part of a move.
After Minerva's inability to use her powers while she was transformed lead to one of her fellow contractors dying, she focused, practicing. Practicing, practicing. She learned to use them when she's not her... but the pain she worked though is still there, always in the back of her mind.
Seasoned:
Minerva's powers intensified. Building on top of the latent power she has over other people, it's blossomed into something entirely more. People accept her if she believes she should be accepted. Her changes are deeper, touching her soul. But most importantly, they last. They last as long as she needs. She goes to sleep and awakes.. proper.
Something's happened, though. She doesn't have full control over it, and when she tries to change her form, it's almost like holding onto water. She needs to struggle as hard as she can just to keep from falling apart. It's hard work, and she has to exert her mind. At times, she wishes it was as easy as before.
Professional:
Minerva's experiences - traumatic and otherwise - have provided a little bit of clarity. She's only truly content in her true form. She's reluctant to do it - it takes her longer, she has a little bit less control over mutating her true form. But after everything that's happened, it's not quite as traumatic - she knows she'll go back. It's a deeper shift, as well. If something happens, she won't 'finch', and go back to her true form. She knows she can go back to it when she can. Just not yet.
Exert your Mind and spend a half hour. You must actively and obviously use a silver fox pendant to activate this Effect.
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 cannot directly mimic an existing person. 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 can "pass" in any culture or group without arousing suspicion as long as you look normal for that group and can communicate with those inside the group.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see The moment Minerva 'unlatches' her form, it pulses like a degaussed TV. Her clothes and flesh both smear some, uncountable wounds on her her leaking. They don't seem to hurt, but she's obviously struggling to stay in one piece. In the wounds, the tears to another place entirely, one can sense all the things that shouldn't be said. Intrusive thoughts come to mind. But are they hers? Or yours?.
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.
You may only use this Effect once per day.
Sally extends her hand out into the thin air, where the spirit lies in wait. The horrid little creature that she once assumed to be an amalgamation of intrusive thoughts and her own subconscious, stabs it’s little fangs into her, and begins to grow from the blood, drawing in nearby dirt and earth until it is a bloody clay, and once it is full it dries into flesh. For many years the spirit has demanded that it be fed blood, and now it finally gets what it wants.
Take a Severity-1 Injury and spend an Action.
Summon a single Brown Jenkins 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.
You may only use this Effect once per day.
The time-twister spins a dial on one of her watches, slowing time for everyone but her and one other person.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use a watch or clock to activate this Effect.
Lasts 1 minute. Whenever you use your Movement, after all other calculations, the distance you may travel is doubled.
Outside of Combat, any non-Gift, non-movement Actions you attempt take drastically less time to complete, as long as your personal speed is a factor in the Action. Total time reduction is determined by the GM and capped at 90% (executing the Action takes no less than 1/10th the normal time).
While using this Effect, you may carry one other being without affecting your Encumbrance, so long as you maintain contact with them for the duration and they consent or are grappled.
The vampire sucks a copious amount of blood from a human and replenishes their own cursed flesh.
Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend 1 minute. This Effect cannot be used unless you drink blood directly from a human until it injures them. Choose a specific Injury on yourself that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Brawn + Occult 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.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see you drink blood directly from the vein.
The Vampire may channel their inner beast and take the form of an animal. It is said they may transform into either a wolf or a bat. If used too often, the Vampire risks losing themselves to their beast forever.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must make a Trauma roll when you use this Effect. Its Difficulty cannot be reduced by any means.
You transform into a vampire bat or a wolf until you transform into something else or choose to return to your original form. See the Extended System text for stats.
While transformed, you cannot use any equipment (including Artifacts and Consumables), and you do not have access to any of your 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 Battle Scar: A disfigured face with bat-like ears.
The time-traveler spins the second hand on one of their watches and speeds up until they are a blur.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use a watch to activate this Effect.
Whenever you use your Movement, after all other calculations, the distance you may travel is doubled.
Outside of Combat, any non-Gift, non-movement Actions you attempt take drastically less time to complete, as long as your personal speed is a factor in the Action. Total time reduction is determined by the GM and capped at 90% (executing the Action takes no less than 1/10th the normal time).
The detective squints, drawing on years of police experience to find any hidden drugs, weapons, or other illegal objects, no matter how well-hidden.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
You automatically detect all illegal materials within 50 feet of you for the next hour. You have a clear sense of both the distance and direction towards any detected items. You do not learn any details about the detected items.