The shadows twist and writhe, taking on ethereal forms that seem to move of their own accord. Spectral figures emerge from the darkness, their features obscured by the murky depths from which they arise. They obey Makoto's commands with an eerie obedience, moving silently and swiftly to carry out her will.
As the shadows swirl and dance around the user, participants and observers are left with a sense of awe and unease, knowing that they are in the presence of a force beyond mortal comprehension. It is a sight that leaves an indelible mark on the minds of those who witness it, a reminder of the true extent of the user's power as a shadowmancer.
The Gift of summoning shadows is not merely a mundane ability; it is a manifestation of primal forces that exist beyond the realm of mortal comprehension. In the depths of the human psyche, there lies a connection to the primordial darkness that has existed since the dawn of time, a wellspring of power waiting to be tapped by those with the courage to embrace the shadows.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use Ring to activate this Effect.
Summon a single Shadow 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 2 minions active at a time.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see Souls.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Casadastraphobia.
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.
Luci can deepen her own shadow aided by the mechanism that allows objects to sink inside of her own stash. On walls, Luci's boot/shoe/foot sinks a little into the surface and can adhere itself as if she were standing on the ground. Underwater, her shadow spews out air as a sort of propulsion system that can eliminate her need to swim.
During this time, Luci's shadow becomes just a little more vivid and anyone that looks very closely might see some ashy faint material corrode out of it.
Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: Luci bends down and calmly begins to trace an outline of her shoes within her shadow with ink. All while muttering silently to herself asking that the Well heed her call and aid her. You must use up 1 liter of ink in order to activate this Effect. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted. You must make a Trauma roll when you use this Effect. Its Difficulty cannot be reduced by any means.
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.
Coyotes are skilled hunters, capable of locating prey at even the faintest trace.
Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend one minute. Roll a single d10, Difficulty 4. If you fail or botch, the Effect fails and you cannot activate it again for an hour.
You automatically detect the closest of any prey within 300 feet of you for the next hour. This includes any who come within range during the duration. You have a sense their direction and distance.
Even if there are no prey 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.
Urza pulls out the Star-Core, and a bubble appears around the target
Exert your Mind and spend an Action to activate. You must actively and obviously use the Star-Core to activate this Effect. Roll Intellect + Technology at Difficulty 6.
If you succeed, you create a Barrier extending out 15 feet from yourself, which absorbs 2 times the next Outcome Damage. Only applies to attacks which originated outside the 15 foot radius, and protects anyone who is within that radius. Half the damage absorbed is reflected back at the attacker, which they can Defend against as normal. The Damage reduction from the barrier is applied before Armor, and is treated like Armor by any effects such as Armor Penetration. You may only have 1 active barrier at a time.
You must maintain Concentration while using this Effect. The barrier will fall if you are interrupted, or if it absorbs the full amount of Damage. When a barrier falls, you cannot use this Effect again for a minimum of 2 Rounds. As long as it does not fall, the barrier regenerates back to full strength at the end of each Round of combat.
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.
Norm unhinges his jaw and from his gaping mouth juts a fleshy grey-pink tendril riddled with dark lesions oozing clotted black liquid
Antannae has limited mobility (can crudely wrap around something but doesn't have fine motor skills)
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
You gain an additional limb that functions as a standard human arm and hand. Lasts two hours.
Each additional limb you posses can take one Quick Action per Round without incurring a -2 dice penalty to your main Action. Any Battle Scars that affect or remove your additional limb will heal in a single week.
Your extra appendage can be used to attack in exactly the same manner as a Lasso/whip.
Your extra appendage can stretch to reach an additional 30 feet.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see his jaw unhinge.
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. 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.
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 beastmaster closes their eyes and channels nature's bloody struggle for survival. When their eyes reopen, they catch the light and glow red like a dog's. While in this heightened state, they may sense heat signatures and triangulate the tiniest sound.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Your senses are enhanced in the following way. Lasts for three hours.
The Future Soldier's PSG is capable of briefly supercharging its effectiveness with a jolt of Omega Cell energy. While active, the future soldier glows with an extremely bright golden light.
While the shield is supercharged, the Future Soldier cannot move or see the outside world, but they are completely isolated from anything that occurs outside the shield.
Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action or Reaction.
You phase out of reality for up to 4 Rounds. During this time, you cannot perceive or affect the outside world or take any Actions. You cannot move. Nothing can interact with you in any way.
When you activate this Effect, you may limit its duration to a period of your choosing. If you are able, you may also end it as a Free Action on your initiative.
You leave a golden glow shaped like yourself at your location.
The survivalist is an expert at wildlife survival in any natural environment. Even in the harshest climates, they have the capacity to find food, water, and shelter.
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.