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.
After you finish activating this Effect, you cannot move quicker than a walk (max 15 feet per Round) for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour. Exhaustion’s penalty and duration stacks with multiple activations.
You may only use this Effect once per day.
i do a little flute song and a rat scurries along
idk goblin innit
Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend at least two Actions performing the following ritual: funne song to activate. You must actively and obviously use flute of rat charming to activate this Effect. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.
Summon a single rat 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 6 Body and can make melee range attacks with 5 dice to attack and +1 Damage. Your minions can move 45 feet per Round as Free Movement, and double that when performing an all-out Sprint. They cannot dodge or Defend. They have dog-level intelligence, but are capable of communicating information back to you. Any Perception checks they make are rolled with 8 dice.
"Hey, hey THORN? Little help here please?!"
Thorn is by all means a normal looking crow, stubborn, insistent, and generally giving the impression that he's here because he wants to be. He is almost completely vocally silent and sticks to Sycamore for reasons they can't quite figure out yet, humoring their trust building exercises and now offering aid when he knows they need it.
Thorn was found at the same time as the first body Sycamore discovered. He seems to fill the role of familiar; Syc knew his name as soon as he addressed him, and always did, instinctively. Thorn has been in the shadows since Syc was 10.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Summon a single Thorn at your location. They will 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 1 minion active at a time.
The whistle is heard and a wolf is risen from the summoners shadow into physical form.
Expend a point of Battery and spend at least two Actions performing the following ritual: Blow into the whistle for 6 seconds to activate. You must use up Bones in order to activate this Effect. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.
Summon a single K-9 Dog at your location. They will 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 3 minions active at a time.
Minions have 4 Body and can make melee range attacks with 4 dice to attack. Your minions can move 20 feet per Round as Free Movement, and double that when performing an all-out Sprint. They cannot dodge or Defend. They have dog-level intelligence, but are capable of communicating information back to you. Any Perception checks they make are rolled with 3 dice.
Your minion is able to Alertness with a 8-dice pool.
An entity that's covered in rock, the Geological Organism Load Extracting Machine, or G.O.L.E.M is a creation that's comprised of a core and nanites that hold the rocks together. Created from the Eternium Battery.
The G.O.L.E.M is made by releasing the energy into the ground or surface that the user is in, along with a stream of nanites, the same then being bound together and reshaped into the shape of the G.O.L.E.M, after which the nanites burrow deep inside of the entity to create the core, to regulate the energy levels of the being.
Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action to activate.
Summon a single G.O.L.E.M at your location. They will last for an hour, or 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. Your minions can move 20 feet per Round as Free Movement, and double that when performing an all-out Sprint. They cannot dodge or Defend. They have dog-level intelligence, and cannot communicate back to you. Any Perception checks they make are rolled with 3 dice.
This summon will manifest creatures resembling a human skeleton. Once casted by weaving specific signs, these summons rise from floor through a circle of light.
When activated these undead will follow each and every command to lacerate their opponents with their dagger as they can't care for themselves.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Summon a single Skeletal Servant at your location. They will 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 2 minions 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 roadie at your location. They will 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 1 minion active at a time.
You may only use this Effect once per day.
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.
Take a Severity-1 Injury 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.
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 one minute. You must actively and obviously use a cell phone to activate this Effect.
Summon a single goon 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.
You may only use this Effect once per day.