Business Card of Jacob Sterns Better Call Jacob

1
A consumable Business Card that lets you communicate over great distances.
Used by Jacob Sterns, Created by Protean.
(As long as you and your target are conversing, it is obvious each participant is communicating with someone. )

When a corner of the business card is ripped off, a visual and auditory connection to Jacob Sterns is being created. The dialogue partner will appear like a small hologram on each participants shoulder and can be switched to a video feed of the partner's eyes. To close the line, rip off another corner of the business card or destroy it fully. Loses its power if Jacob Sterns dies.

Jacob Sterns - British Museum Field Service.
Tel: XXXX-XXXXXXX
Mail: [email protected]

Made in Great Britain.


Spend an Action and use up this Business Card. Select a target any distance away from you. You must have a specific target in mind, but you require only an intuitive understanding of them, such as their name, face, or Location. This Effect cannot be used unless you call Jacob Sterns.

You open up a line of communication to your target, and may converse with them as long as one of you maintains Concentration

The conversation will only be perceived by the intended recipient. You must share a common language for your target to understand the message.

  • Depending on the length of your message, it may take a target some time and/or effort to understand it in its entirety.
  • This consumable is destroyed when used and cannot be used again.
  • Receiving a message does not force a target to pay attention to you, and they can feel free to ignore your message if they choose. Depending on the flavor of your Gift, they may or may not be able to return to it and read it later on.
  • Generally you cannot communicate with Contractors who are not in a Contract with you.
  • 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.

Community Targeted Gifts

Spend a minute. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. At the end of your investigation, roll Brawn + Alertness at Difficulty 6.

You learn all the following information about your target:

  • You learn What they know abt case and How they relate to case.

The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome. For any information you learn about your target, the corresponding information about you is shared with them.

Any information you gather is spoken and made publicly available. This also includes any information the target learns about you.

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

You cannot investigate the same target more than once per day.

  • 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.

Spend an Action. Select a target within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use at least a gallon of water to activate this Effect. Roll Dexterity + Athletics 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. Armor is fully effective against this damage.

You may use this Effect to Defend or Clash in Combat, including against ranged attacks such as firearms.

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

  • 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.

Conner’s Perspective (The Caster)

As Conner prepares to bridge the vast distances between himself and those he’s marked, he settles into a familiar ritual with the tattooing gun in hand. This instrument, more a wand than a tool in this moment, hums to life with an almost eager anticipation. As he begins the process, not on another but on his own flesh, the needle dances with precision and intent. It doesn’t inscribe a new tattoo but activates the magic latent within him, a conduit to those he seeks.

The ink under his skin stirs, coalescing into the face of the individual he wishes to communicate with. It’s a generic face, a template that morphs to adopt the nuances of expression and emotion, a mirror to the person’s current state. This face doesn’t belong to anyone yet resembles everyone, a paradox made possible through magic. It’s a surreal experience, watching these features form and shift, their eyes locking with his in silent conversation. The connection is palpable, a thread of energy that tugs at his core, a blend of concentration and a mysterious, ethereal bond.

The Tattooed Individual’s Perspective (The Receiver)

For the person on the receiving end, the experience is equally mystifying. The tattoo that marks their bond with Conner, usually a static image, begins to undulate gently. This movement is subtle, not painful but undeniably present, like the first hint of a breeze that promises the storm to come. Then, as if the ink itself is alive, their tattoo morphs into a face.

This face, while not Conner’s, carries an echo of his presence. It’s a visage without identity, yet filled with expression, changing and responding as if part of a conversation. This manifestation is deeply personal, a visual representation of the invisible line that now connects them over distances untold. The voice that accompanies this visual transformation is clear, resonating not in the air but in the mind, a direct conduit to Conner. It’s an intimate exchange, shielded from the world, as though the words are whispered directly into their soul.

Spend an Action. Select a number of targets up to your Mind rating any distance away from you. You must have specific targets in mind, but you require only an intuitive understanding of them, such as their name, face, or Location. This Effect cannot be used unless “Connor has used Permanent Magical Tattoos on the target.”. You must actively and obviously use Tattooing Gun to activate this Effect.

You open up a line of communication to your targets, and may converse with them as long as one of you maintains Concentration

The conversation will only be perceived by the intended recipient. You must share a common language for your target to understand the message.

  • Receiving a message does not force a target to pay attention to you, and they can feel free to ignore your message if they choose. Depending on the flavor of your Gift, they may or may not be able to return to it and read it later on.
  • Generally you cannot communicate with Contractors who are not in a Contract with you.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.

Roy focuses on his target, visualizing it in the 4th dimension. Roy then begins to pick out "impurities" and isolate them, before harmlessly shifting them into the 4th dimension.

Exert your Mind and spend 15 minutes. Select a Living target within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use cane/staff 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.

Spend an Action to activate. Select a target within 45 feet. You must actively and obviously use glove to activate this Effect. Roll Intellect + Alertness 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 1. Armor is fully effective against this damage.

You may use this Effect to Defend or Clash in Combat, including against ranged attacks such as firearms.

The target suffers a -3 dice penalty for the next hour or until the Injury is healed. This dice penalty does not stack multiple times on the same target.

If you successfully hit a target with this Effect, the value of any armor they are wearing is reduced by 2. This penalty lasts until the armor is repaired.

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

Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Weaker left hand.

  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.

Stock Targeted Gifts

Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Select a target Object within arm's reach. At the end of your investigation, roll Charisma + Culture at Difficulty 6.

You learn all the following information about your target:

  • You learn the object's highest material value and why it is worth so much.
The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome.

  • 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.

Spend an Action.

You may lock, unlock, and/or open any number of doors, locks, or locked targets within arm's reach of you. Cannot be used on Alien technology.

If you successfully operate a lock, you may choose to destroy it, rendering it inoperable.

  • Any door or restraint that is fastened or shut with a mechanism may be considered locked, at the GM's discretion. Can be used on control panels or other electronic locks, but not computer security systems.
  • If you operate a locking mechanism through this Effect which has some other secondary effect (such as the ignition on a car causing the car to start) you may cause that effect as well.
  • 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.

Spend a minute and use up this unusually large egg (unless you succeed on 1d10, Difficulty 7). Select a Living target within arm's reach. Select a Battle Scar on your target to treat.

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

Healing a Battle Scar in this way leaves behind an inhuman attribute such as fur, scales, or feathers on the target which cannot be healed.

  • This consumable is destroyed when used and cannot be used again.
  • 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 a minute. Investigate an area with a radius of up to 100 feet You must actively and obviously use a magnifying glass to activate this Effect. At the end of your investigation, roll Perception + Investigation at Difficulty 6.

You learn the following information about the area:

  • You can tell the age of any structure or natural formation in the area. This includes trees and plants growing in the area.
  • You learn how heavily trafficked the area is, what sorts of Animate beings have moved through the area and when.
The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome.

  • 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.

Spend one minute. Select a Sapient target or a Creature within arm's reach. You must actively converse with the individual in question for one minute in order to gather any information. At the end of your investigation, roll Perception + Medicine at Difficulty 6. The target may Resist.

You learn all the following information about your target:

  • You determine any medical or physiological issues they have, as well as their species and a general overview of their biology.
  • You learn a full medical history, including past injuries and illnesses as well as the healing process involved.

The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome.

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

  • 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.