Penumbra "I will never be so pretentious as to say my way is the perfect way, but… heh, can’t argue with the results, now can ya?”

1
Requires Seasoned
This Artifact allows you to generate useful mundane items.
Used by Luci Alessi, Created by Riley.
On Legendary Artifact Luci's Sketchbook.
(Anyone who witnesses you activate this Effect or for its duration is very likely to be disturbed to see an Eidolon of the Well. The act of meddling with other planes of existence does not come without some undesired side effects. Sometimes, when peering through the veil with the intent to make use of its energies, something stares back and imparts upon the onlooker a warning of disorienting magnitude. You must actively and obviously be using up a competently drawn picture of the object desired (at least 4 successes). You must use this Artifact obviously when activating this Effect.)

This sketchbook is able to create imitations of perfect objects and bring them forth into reality. It does require some form of direction, in the form of a drawn picture. The picture, once finish, will rapidly lose form into a shapeless blob of weightless black ink. Within the span of a couple seconds, it will reform into the drawn object. This process isn't super squeaky clean- Luci only barely managed to stabilize the energies flowing through this artifact and so meddling with it can sometimes lead to a little more than a warning spurting out at the user.

Sometimes an undead spectre or wraith- someone who died in search of perfection- may crawl itself up just in time and worm its way into the user's mind, and will attempt to live through that person, acting out one of the vices that had killed them in the past.

The drawings can be predone so long as they follow along with the proper prerequisites.


Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend an Action. You must use up a competently drawn picture of the object desired (at least 4 successes) in order to activate this Effect. You must make a Trauma roll when you use this Effect. Its Difficulty cannot be reduced by any means.

Choose an Object which could fit inside a regular backpack (up to 27 liters). It must be Non-Alien and generic. You can create explosives, but they are limited in size to being no larger or more powerful than a satchel charge. You cannot create firearms.

Roll Perception + Crafts to fabricate up to 5 copies of your chosen Object. The Difficulty is assigned by the GM and depends on the specificity of your chosen Object. Your created items no longer expire, and will last until they are destroyed.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see an Eidolon of the Well. The act of meddling with other planes of existence does not come without some undesired side effects. Sometimes, when peering through the veil with the intent to make use of its energies, something stares back and imparts upon the onlooker a warning of disorienting magnitude.

  • You may cause a created item to expire at will as a Free Action, destroying the item.

Community Activated Gifts

This is not a gift recieved from The Contracts, this is a baseline power. The character himself is some form of changeling - not adhering to any mainline folklore archetype. Consider this power as the character being an attempted body-double, he is the replacement of somebody, and so he takes their identity.

The removed face will, quickly, cease to exist within the span of a few minutes.

Any identity utilized is an identity assumed to have been, at one point, 'replaced', 'misplaced', or blatantly killed. As this character is an amnesiac with a slowly unraveling history, I might admittedly ass-pull a disguise. Important aliases will be listed on the 'stock' page.

Most importantly of all, Kenneth tries to embody the identity he uses. It would be an insult to the deceased if they are simply forgotten about, and their identities paved over. Kenneth, for the most part, does not remember anything about these people, simply supernaturally embodying them.

Spend a minute.

You become disguised in a manner of your choosing. The disguise lasts for two hours, or you may end it early at will.

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 cannot alter your clothes. 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.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see Kenneth taking a scalpel to his face, cleanly cutting it off, rolling it up, placing it in the briefcase, having his identity simply change before you, and perfectly blending in like nothing happened.

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

This Effect ends if you take an Injury or are stunned or incapacitated.

  • When narrating disturbing content, be cognizant of your group's tone and accommodating to those who would like to "fast forward" through the description.
  • ‘Appearance’ includes voice, bone structure, skin quality, hair length and color, eye color, muscle tone, flesh texture, and generally anything perceivable about your body.

"Organizations like 'Doctors without borders' are honorable, they treat those without proper medical systems. But what about active battlefields? What doctor, can run out and fix up and save a civilian? These are not battle medics, they will not heal any soldiers without orders, they have one job. To fix any civilian casualty, and to neutralize any threat."

They uniform:
https://imgur.com/a/P6PHyFK

Exert your Mind and spend one minute to activate.

Summon a single S.I.M.P.S B.A.T (Battle Agent Trooper) 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.

Minions have 4 Body and can make ranged attacks at targets up to 30 feet away with 5 dice to attack and +1 Damage. They cannot move faster than a walk and cannot dodge incoming attacks. They have dog-level intelligence, but are capable of communicating information back to you. Any Perception checks they make are rolled with 8 dice.

You may only use this Effect once per day.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action.

You may understand and communicate to Creatures and humans 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.

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

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must use up s smoking object in order to activate this Effect.

You automatically detect all descendants of the alchemists within 300 feet of you for the next hour. This includes any who come within range during the duration. You have a sense of how many valid targets are nearby, as well as their distance and direction.

If no descendants of the alchemists targets are within 300 feet of you, and then one enters range, you automatically detect it, even if this Effect is not active.

Even if there are no descendants of the alchemists within 300 feet of you, you become aware of the direction the closest one is in, as well as a rough sense of its distance from you.

This Effect is obviously Alien and eye-catching across its range to those witnessing it, and you are obviously the source.

  • This Effect does not satisfy the line of sight targeting requirement for other Effects.

Exert your Mind and spend a Quick Action.

You transform into A humanoid with horrifying mosquito features. for 30 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are A humanoid with horrifying mosquito features., and you can use your equipment. Your Battle Scars, Injuries, and physical Liabilities are carried over between forms. Reverting from your Alternate Form cannot cause your existing Injuries to kill you. Instead, you remain Incapacitated.

While transformed, your Attributes are the same. Your Stress is reduced by 2.

Your alternate form is its own deadly weapon. Unarmed attacks made in your alternate form deal +3 Weapon Damage (instead of the typical -1).

You may end this Effect prematurely as a Free Action.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see The popping of flesh, the creaking of bone..a horrifying transformation...

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.

Whenever you enter Combat, roll Self-Control. If you fail, you cannot choose which targets to attack and cannot stop fighting until there are no targets remaining.

  • Reminder: Weapon Damage from multiple sources does not stack. Instead, the highest value is used.
  • When narrating disturbing content, be cognizant of your group's tone and accommodating to those who would like to "fast forward" through the description.
  • Attribute bonuses from multiple sources do not stack. Instead the highest bonus is used.

Stock Activated Gifts

Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend 15 minutes. This Effect cannot be used unless you are in a wilderness environment.

Choose a specific type of food, water, or survival supply which could fit inside a regular backpack (up to 27 liters). It must be Non-Alien and generic. You cannot create explosives. You cannot create firearms.

Roll Perception + Survival to fabricate up to 5 copies of your chosen Object. The Difficulty is assigned by the GM and depends on the specificity of your chosen Object. Your created items no longer expire, and will last until they are destroyed.

  • You may cause a created item to expire at will as a Free Action, destroying the item.

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. If you fail or Botch, you receive one Mind Damage and a new Trauma.

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.

  • Creature Stats
    • Large (larger than human, smaller than elephant) Body: 8. Brawn 6. Dexterity 2. Fall damage increased by 2. Armor: 1
    • Small (mouse up to regular house cat) Body 1. Brawn 0. Dexterity 4. Cannot injure others with attacks. Cannot die from falling damage. +3 dice to Stealth rolls.
    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 spend a minute.

You become disguised in a manner of your choosing. The disguise lasts for two hours, or you may end it early at will.

The new appearance must have a similar sex, age, and race to your own. You cannot significantly change your height and weight. Your disguise cannot directly mimic an existing person. You may change the appearance of your outfit. 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.

You cannot alter the appearance of your flesh and blood.

  • While you may alter your outfit's appearance, this does not grant or store equipment. This does not allow you to change the appearance of Artifacts or conceal their Alien appearance.
  • ‘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 a Quick Action. You must actively and obviously use a scarf, sheet, or handkerchief to activate this Effect.

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 Objects 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. You may store or withdraw a maximum of 6 items in a given Round. Reminder: you may perform up to two Quick Actions for -2 dice each or 3 if you use up your Action, unless a different Effect grants you additional Quick Actions.
  • 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.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use a watch 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).

  • The time reduction on non-Movement Actions applies only to the parts of actions when your personal speed is a factor,: pouring water or smoking a steak are not affected, but constructing a shelter or picking a lock would be. The GM will determine how much the total time is reduced based on how relevant personal speed is to the task.
  • Any Encumbrance penalty to your movement still applies, but you do not suffer from any sort of exhaustion.
  • Damage from a collision depends on your speed at the time, as well as what you hit. GM's discretion, but generally moving faster than a car on the freeway and hitting a dense, solid object like a wall or a tree should be lethal. Mundane armor will not apply, but any supernatural forms of protection will.