You place the windup key to the back of a toy, or similarly human representing golem. Twist for a minute until your hand begins to hurt. The toy will animate and grow in size to a friendly helper of the one holding the windup key.
This artifact relies on the cultural idea of toys, and the cultural idea of wind up toys, especially in the minds of children. The basic idea of these wind up toys is that you wind them up, then let them go and they move around doing toy things, seeming almost alive. This artifact takes that idea, and merges it with a few other ideas of ways to create useful servants to make an artifact capable of making useful friendly minions.
The ritual to create this artifact relies on a ritual involving
- A variety of children's toys which are popular in the shared imagination
- A collection of stories and myths about the Hebrew golumn
- Mary Shelly's frankenstein
- Carefully shaping the pattern of a wind up key while reading various relevant parts of these stories
Exert your Mind and spend one minute.
Summon a single enlarged animated toy at your location. They will last until they are destroyed. They are controlled by the GM but will follow any commands you give. This Artifact may have at most 1 minion active at a time.
You may only use this Effect once per day.
The dagger plunges into the chest of the squirming man. His final cries degrade into bubbling coughs as blood fills his lungs. Ancient words fill the air as the chant reaches its crescendo. The remains of the man fold in on themselves, rearranging into the winged forerunners of The Ones that Came Before. The army grows.
Exert your Mind and spend one minute. Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you create an uncontrollable monstrosity that seeks only to feast. You must actively and obviously use a sacrificial dagger to activate this Effect. You must make a Trauma roll when you use this Effect. Its Difficulty cannot be reduced by any means.
Summon a single Eldritch Servant 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 the tearing of reality and subsequent spawning of the eldritch creature.
You may only use this Effect once per day.
Yuta extends his hand, eyes glowing with cold light. The air crackles with dark energy, and a swirling shadowy portal forms at his feet. From the abyss, Igris emerges clad in pitch-black armor, his red eyes burning like embers. His massive sword gleams with a spectral light as he steps forward, each movement echoing with a metallic dread. The air turns frigid, the shadows whisper, and a heavy silence falls, filled with the promise of imminent destruction.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use Ring to activate this Effect. You must make a Trauma roll when you use this Effect. Its Difficulty cannot be reduced by any means.
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 1 minion active at a time.
Sally extends her hand out into the thin air, where the spirit lies in wait. The horrid little creature that she once assumed to be an amalgamation of intrusive thoughts and her own subconscious, stabs it’s little fangs into her, and begins to grow from the blood, drawing in nearby dirt and earth until it is a bloody clay, and once it is full it dries into flesh. For many years the spirit has demanded that it be fed blood, and now it finally gets what it wants.
Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend an Action.
Summon the one and only Sapient Brown Jenkin at your location. They last until they are destroyed They are controlled by you. You may have at most one minion active at a time.
If killed, you cannot re-summon your minion until after your next Contract.
If you do not have a sacrificial Injury when you activate this Effect, take a new Severity-1 Injury.
A rather large cartoonish white dragon with blue wings and white scales.
Expend a point of Battery and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: Calling out this Beastimon's name, and saying that you choose them. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.
Summon a single Frost Dragon at your location. They will last until they are destroyed. They are controlled by the GM but will follow any commands you give. This Artifact may have at most 1 minion active at a time.
Anyone who touches this Artifact will notice it warping their mind and may drop it. If they choose to hold or use it, they immediately receive the following Trauma: Compulsion to protect this artifact. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Trauma heals over the course of the next day.
Domiel holds the laser pointer and clicks the button once to summon her black sphynx cat from the shadows. He is donning a random colored sweater from his collection and his signature grumpy expression. His body seems to be made up shadow itself, fluid-like and constantly warping and flowing like ink.
His chosen language is Spanish.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use a cat toy (laser pointer) to activate this Effect.
Summon the one and only Sapient Beelzebub (cat) at your location. They last for two hours or until they are destroyed. They are controlled by you. You may have at most one minion active at a time.
If killed, you cannot re-summon your minion until after your next Contract.
The Vampire is able to turn one of their victims into a lesser vampire, a pale shadow of a full creature of the night but useful nonetheless. Having drained and killed their target, the Vampire performs a brief ritualistic bloodletting, wherein they spill their own blood into the target's mouth, forcing them to drink, and bonding them together as child and sire.
Shortly afterwards, the fledgling vampire will rise from death, hungry for blood and eager to serve.
Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend one minute. Select a Dead target within arm's reach that has died within the last hour. This Effect cannot be used unless you drained the target's blood while they were still alive.
Your target rises as an Animate being. The raised creature is totally mindless, with no memory of its past life or hint of its old personality. They cannot communicate. They will follow any command you speak.
The creature lasts until it dies again. It is revived at full health. Any Injuries it had in life are not accounted for when determining its penalties or progression towards re-death, though they may affect its ability to perform certain actions at GM's discretion. The raised creature must consume flesh every day or it will die again.
Raised creatures have their Abilities set to the same that they were in life. Their Charisma and Intellect are set to 1, but their Dexterity, Brawn and Perception are the same as they had in life. A raised creature cannot use any Effects.
Your revived targets deal 2 Weapon Damage with their unarmed attacks.
If you do not have a sacrificial Injury when you activate this Effect, take a new Severity-1 Injury.
The mobster knows a guy they can call for a hired goon, who arrives about a minute later. The goons are dumb as bricks, but tough nonetheless, perfect for sending a message when you need to keep your hands clean.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use cell phone to activate this Effect.
Summon a single Sapient goon at your location. They last for two hours or until they are destroyed. They are controlled by the GM but will follow any commands you give. You may have at most one minion active at a time.
Any successful musician knows the value of a good roadie. The musician calls for a roadie, and one will promptly arrive. The roadie doesn't talk much, and they aren't too bright, but they can sure haul gear.
After a couple hours of work, the roadie will retire to smoke and get some sleep.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Summon a single Sapient roadie at your location. They last for two hours or until they are destroyed. They are controlled by the GM but will follow any commands you give. You may have at most one minion active at a time.
You may only use this Effect once per day.