Ether Patch

2
This Artifact grants you grants you tolerance to pain and distractions.
Used by Nikola Luisawicz, Created by lesbianspacepirate.
(You must wear or wield this Artifact plainly to receive these benefits.)

This discreet patch attaches to your side, just above the kidney, with eight shallow needles. It carefully monitors and manages your levels of cortisol (among other hormones and enzymes), keeping your body and mind relaxed in times of crisis.

While the patch is in use, your movements are visibly sluggish and floaty, and your wounds ooze a clear, syrupy liquid. A blinking light on the patch indicates the amount of stress it's working to mitigate; green for a penalty of 1 or 2, orange for 3 or 4, and red for 5+.

You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.

Your Stress from Injuries and Mind Damage is reduced to 0.

Anyone who touches this Artifact will notice it warping their body and may drop it. If they choose to hold or use it, they immediately receive the following Battle Scar: Sedated - You always act last in initiative, except for mobs. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Battle Scar heals over the course of the next day.

Revision purchased with:
Improvement from writing up Fire In The Sky spent on improving power: Ether Patch
Revision purchased with:
Gift from playing in To Russia With Love spent on adjusting power: Ether Patch
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Community Artifact Crafting Gifts

This Artifact can be used as a handgun. It is roughly the same size as a handgun and just as difficult to conceal.

Attack by rolling Dexterity + Firearms, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +4 Weapon Damage.

Anyone who touches this Artifact will notice it warping their body and may drop it. If they choose to hold or use it, they immediately receive the following Battle Scar: ,l. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Battle Scar heals over the course of the next day.

This item is a living thing. When targeted, it counts as a Living Creature in addition to its other target types. If destroyed or abandoned for more than two days, it dies and becomes unusable.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Infinite Ammo: This weapon never runs out of its standard ammunition.
  • You may spend a Quick Action to change this firearm's base stats into those of any other basic firearm.

  • Changing this weapon's base type affects its range, Weapon Damage, concealability, and roll. Other mechanics of the chosen base firearm (such as the tripod requirement for sniper rifles) apply.
  • Reminder: additional Weapon Damage granted by this Effect does not stack with any other bonus to Weapon Damage. Instead the largest bonus is used.
  • Rifles are +1 Difficulty to use in melee range. Sniper Rifles are +3 Difficulty to use without a tripod or in melee range. Setting up a tripod takes an Action.

Unless otherwise noted in the artifact description, the minion grows from and around the affected artifact. When the minion dies, or the effect ends, the artifact reverts to it's original state.

Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend an Action.

Summon a single Sapient metal digit at your location. They last until they are destroyed They are controlled by the GM but will follow any commands you give. This Artifact may have at most one active at a time.

  • Initiative: Minions act directly after you in Combat starting the Round after they are summoned.
  • Combat: Minions roll 4 dice to dodge, Grapple, or make handheld stun gun Attacks. Their unarmed Attacks are melee range and deal +2 Damage.
  • Body/Mind: Minions have 3 Body. They are between the size of a rat and a cat and do not suffer falling damage. Your minions roll 3 Mind resistance dice.
  • Armor: Minions have 1 Armor.
  • Movement: Minions can move 15 feet per Round as Free Movement and double that when performing an all-out Sprint. Your minions can fly at their normal movement speed.
  • Intelligence: Minions have human-level intelligence and can speak your language. They lack manual dexterity and cannot use equipment, Artifacts, or Consumables designed for humans.
  • Actions: Any Perception checks they make are rolled with 3 dice. If ordered to protect someone with its life, your Minion may sacrifice itself to absorb an Attack on their behalf, provided it is within 15 feet of them. Any other roll is made with 3 dice. They can lift and haul as though they have 0 Brawn.
  • Unusual: Minions are obviously Alien to any observer.

Anyone who touches this Artifact will notice it warping their body and may drop it. If they choose to hold or use it, they immediately receive the following Battle Scar: missing digit. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Battle Scar heals over the course of the next day.

If you do not have a sacrificial Injury when you activate this Effect, take a new Severity-1 Injury.

  • Minions die if targeted with Energy Transfer (before the Effect resolves) or if an Artifact or Consumable they use would Injure them or cause them to roll Trauma.
  • The sacrificial Injury received from activating this Effect cannot be prevented by any means or healed before 1 day has passed. It is shared with all Effects that use sacrifice. This Injury does not requires Stabilization or cause Battle Scars when it becomes Severe.
  • Your minions may count as additional targeting types based on their flavor. For example: Living, Computer, Creature, etc.

Also, of note, being a toy, it seems more accurate the more dramatic you are rather than based on eye-hand coordination.

Spend an Action. Select a Living target within 50 feet. Roll Charisma + Performance 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.

This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 2.

  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of Effect. There must be no substantial obstructions between you and your target.

Exert your Mind and spend an hour. Select a Battle Scar on yourself to treat.

The treated Battle Scar heals as you finish activating this Effect.

Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend 1 minute. Select a Device within 20 feet. Does not work on Alien technology. Roll Intellect + Technology, with the Difficulty set by the GM depending on the security of the system you are hacking. Sapient targets can resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, you may issue a single command to the targeted system. This command must have a specific outcome or be a request for specific login credentials. The command you issue must be within the machine's current capabilities. For example, you cannot order a standard security camera to grow legs and walk around.

You may issue a "self-destruct" command that leaves the hacked system's hardware inoperable, even if that machine had no such functionality previously. Only works on Computers.

When targeting non-computer devices, you may operate switches, buttons, dials, levers, and latches.

Every hack you make leaves behind Fractal Spiders crawl across the screen/device in the system as a personal "calling card" that informs anyone who uses the system that the hack occurred.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see You vomit a stream of fractal spiders onto the device.

If you do not have a sacrificial Injury when you activate this Effect, take a new Severity-1 Injury.

  • When narrating disturbing content, be cognizant of your group's tone and accommodating to those who would like to "fast forward" through the description.
  • The sacrificial Injury received from activating this Effect cannot be prevented by any means or healed before 1 day has passed. It is shared with all Effects that use sacrifice. This Injury does not requires Stabilization or cause Battle Scars when it becomes Severe.
  • You cannot hack things outside of your range over remote connections such as the internet. The system you are affecting must be physically within range.
  • 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 Artifact Crafting Gifts

You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.

You get +2 dice to any Body resistance rolls you make. You also gain the following effects:

  • Survivor: You are immune to all non-Alien diseases.
  • All Brawn No Brain: You suffer a -2 dice penalty on Mind resistance rolls.

  • These bonuses apply only to Body rolls made to resist Effects and other supernatural phenomena. They do not apply to other contexts such as attacks made while under the Creature Transformation Effect.

You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.

You get +1 dice to any Mind resistance rolls you make. You also gain the following effects:

  • Naturally Resistant: Any time you make a Mind resistance roll, the individual who you are resisting must Exert their Mind, or your resistance succeeds automatically.
  • Clash Of Wills: If you fail to fully resist an Effect, your Outcome is considered to be 0.

  • These bonuses apply only to Mind rolls made to resist Effects and other supernatural phenomena. They do not apply to Trauma rolls or self-control rolls.