Due to the state of undeath, injuries do not impede Edward. The injuries still happen but, unless they caused him to become unconscious or killed him, he can still do everything the same as if he wasn’t injured in the first place.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
Your Stress from Injuries and Mind Damage is reduced to 0.
The Assimilator reaches their tendrils into their victim's brain, manually combing through their memories using the collected brain power of themself and their victim, all the while, those on the outside see their victim twitching, their eyes flickering at the speed of the memories viewed.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Living, Animate target within arm's reach. You must maintain Concentration while the effect is active. Roll Charisma + Alertness at Difficulty 6. The target may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6.
If you succeed, you are able to view your target's memories. If you fail, the target knows you're attempting to read their memories.
You may ask a number of specific questions about their memory equal to your Contested Outcome. For example, “what is their computer password,” “What were they doing at 4:00PM yesterday,” etc. You cannot get answers to broad, analytical questions like “are they a good person?” or “what are their plans for the future?”
Each question you ask and memory you replay takes a single Round to read.
This Effect is not obvious, and the only sign you are using an Effect is the target blinking rapidly for a moment. If someone suspects that an Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.
Your target can read your memories as well, asking a question for each one you ask.
Apex Cryptid: The Primordial Shift
The moment you activate this power, a deep, guttural resonance hums through the air—like a chorus of ancient, forgotten beasts calling from the dark corners of the earth. Your body twists and stretches, bones popping and muscles coiling into unfamiliar shapes. Your skin ripples with patterns that seem to mimic the natural camouflage of apex predators long thought extinct. Scales, fur, or chitinous plates may shimmer across your form, shifting with every step as though the essence of cryptids from across the globe surges through your veins.
Your human instincts dull as primal instincts take hold. Words become foreign; the structure of language replaced by a heightened awareness of your surroundings. The scent of fear hangs like a thick mist, every sound sharpened into a potential threat or prey. Your hands become crude tools—talons, claws, or massive, rugged fingers that can grasp but never delicately control.
Stress dissolves as the primal mindset overtakes you. The noise of human worries is replaced with the singular clarity of survival and dominance. In this form, you are an echo of the unknown, the whispered terror of campfire stories given flesh.
Apex Cryptid → Amalgamation of Cryptids: The Unveiling
If the battle turns against you—if pain strikes deep and the cryptid essence within senses true danger—a terrifying metamorphosis unfolds.
Your body convulses, and the injuries that should cripple you instead fuel a grotesque evolution. Limbs elongate and twist, growing jagged with predatory adaptations stolen from creatures lost to time. Gills flare along your neck. Serrated fangs emerge where human teeth once sat. The eyes of countless predators open across your body, each gazing with predatory instinct.
For one breathless minute, you become the embodiment of earth’s cryptid lore—a walking nightmare of mismatched power. Movement becomes instinctive, effortless. Every step feels like a hunt, and every breath crackles with the potential of the predator’s pounce. The air itself seems to recoil, bending to your unnerving presence
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
You transform into Apex Cryptid for 30 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are Apex Cryptid, and you can use your equipment. The Injuries and Battle Scars of your Alternate Form and your true form are tracked separately.
While transformed, your Attributes are the same. Your Stress is reduced by 2.
If you take Injuries totaling 4 Severity or higher while transformed, you recover all Injuries and change into Amaglamation Of Crytids Across the earth. All dice rolls are at -1 Difficulty for the next minute or until this Effect ends. Cooldown 1 day.
Your alternate form renders you unable to speak any human language and incapable of fine object manipulation. You can only hold or grasp objects in a crude, clumsy way.
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.
All the knowledge of mirror magic in Barry's mind has made changes to its structure, making navigating it akin to finding ones way through an expansive mirror maze, a hardy defense against any mental intruders.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
You get +2 dice to any Mind resistance rolls you make.
Gofer runs like the wind, his powerful legs enhanced beyond those of any mundane dog, letting him run at incredible speeds. After running, he gets very tired, and lies down and starts panting to cool off.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
You can run at two times your normal movement speed.
If you move faster than your normal move speed, the world around you turns to a blur, and Perception rolls are made at -3 dice.
By properly cycling their Qi through their body, a Martial Artist may accelerate the rate at which they heal from their injuries, as well as force their wounds to seal themselves, preventing infection and blood loss.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
Any Injury you receive heals quickly, reducing its Severity by one level every day, starting once it becomes stabilized. You may also Exert your Mind and spend an Action to reduce the Severity of a single stabilized Injury by 1. Does not affect Injuries suffered as an activation cost for Effects.
Battle Scars caused by your Injuries will remain. Any Injuries you receive automatically count as a successful Makeshift Stabilization and do not deteriorate further.
The Android's skin is extremely pale, their eyes are yellow, and their body stays at room temperature. They do not bleed, and traditional medicine is ineffective at treating them. Furthermore, they may be hacked by any supernatural effect that could hack a computer.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
You are permanently and visibly transformed: you are an android, with pale skin and yellow eyes. You are considered to be a Sapient, Non-Living Computer when targeted..
You are immune to damage from cold. If cold is a substantial component of other damage you would take (e.g. falling from a great distance into a vat of liquid nitrogen), that damage is reduced by 2 (in addition to Armor)
No single organ in your body is critical for life. Called Shots do no additional Damage to you. You may perceive the world through separated body parts, take Actions with them, and reattach them by spending an Action and Exerting your Mind.
Your Injuries no longer degrade with time. You do not age naturally, and supernatural attempts to age you fail.
You cannot ignore or decrease the effects of Stress for any social rolls you make.
The Severity of any Injury caused by electricity is increased by 2.
The mobster presents a reasoned, logical case to the target: there's a lot of dangerous folks out there, and only they can offer safety... for a price.
If they agree, they will pay the mobster a monthly fee for protection. If they stop making their payments... well, let's just say, the mobster can't be held responsible for any unsavory types that might pay them a visit.
This Effect cannot be used unless you are making a deal to exchange money for protection.
You may make an oath with a physically-present, Sapient target. Communicate the oath's terms to the target, including the requirements and penalties for each participant. If all agree to the terms, you must Exert your Mind and all participants must shake hands to seal the deal.
Record the oath as a Condition. If a party breaks the oath, the Condition ends and they suffer the oath's penalty.
When crafting your oath, you may incorporate any of the following penalties:
The target cannot be compelled to agree via a direct threat of violence, another Effect, or another oath. If you would like to use clever wording to mislead the target, you must succeed a contested Intellect + (Culture or Influence) roll.
This is a doctor who exists on the front lines. They're most at home working under stressful conditions when the stakes couldn't be higher.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
All Stabilizations you attempt are considered Proper Stabilizations.
You also gain the following effects:
The Psychic can, with great focus and mental strain, channel their will to move objects with their mind.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
As long as you maintain Concentration, you can take Actions and 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:
The Soldier has spent a healthy ten thousand hours training with the weapons of their military. They are deadly when wielding any firearm made in their home country. Drawing their standard issue at the start of a confrontation is pure reflex, and they may plan their shots to deal collateral damage to those behind their target.
You gain the following benefits as long as engaged in combat with firearms made in your home country.
+2 dice to all firearms made in your home country rolls.
You also gain the following effects: