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
Expend a point of Battery and spend one minute.
Summon a single enlarged animated toy 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. 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.
Two crows with red eyes. Sometimes accompanied by a third, with eyes darker than night. All three leave trail of dissipating darkness.
The centres dims down (or grows brighter) when ravens are released.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Summon up to 3 Sapient Crows at your location. They last until they are destroyed They are controlled by the GM but will follow any commands you give. This Artifact may have at most 3 minions active at a time.
You may end this Effect prematurely as a Free Action.
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: Huginn, Muninn and Ginnungagap: Three crows tell you all they know. You cannot concentrate as long as there is more than one of them. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Trauma heals over the course of the next day.
The Clone looks but does not sound like Wrangler
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use Hat to activate this Effect.
Summon a single Sapient replica of yourself 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 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 Wrangler holds his hat and his body begins to contort, limbs jerking and twisting in unnatural, stuttering motions, his avatar emits visuals similar to breaking bones..
Ena is a spectre of The Well- one of many that can be found wandering aimlessly among ruins on the way to Oblivion. She, as well as all the others that were left behind, can desire a variety of things, but most of them are quite abstract. "The desire to want". "The desire to feel". "The desire to experience eating". Even "The desire to feel pain". All sensations, and more, that they are robbed of deep within the Well. For they are pure beings that live in chaos and only once beheld by minds seeking sanity, could they achieve any semblance of form.
Ena is just like them, except she found a way to escape- only to find herself within another prison. Luci, feeling at least moderately shitty about that, found a way to give Ena form that she can project herself onto and experience sensation directly. In return, when it comes time that Luci needs her to help, she's to help.
To give her form, Luci sculpts a copy of herself with enough ink that would comprise a normal human's blood. Ena's natural form changes its appearance to better match her disposition.
Ena is very much an intelligent being, unlike most summons, but her mannerisms are just so toxic and volatile, that getting her to help out with complex calculations is like pulling teeth from a literal child. She, at the very least, provides interesting conversation even though she's pretty unlikable.
She is an average heighted human with pitch black hair in a wolf tail, deceptively soft features, dark brown pupils, black fingernails, and a shadow that's just a wee bit more vivid to especially perceptive individuals.
Exert your Mind and spend one minute. You must use up 5 Liters of Ink 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.
Summon a single Ena 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.
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.
Jonathan is lifted off the ground, revealing more and more of a Louie C as he rises.
Exert your Mind and spend one minute to activate.
Summon a single Louie 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 3 minions 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.
Your minion is able to drive with a 7-dice pool.
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.
You are surrounded by Hellish Fire after giving yourself a cut on the hand to offer your blood and a portal opens next to you releasing Imps from Hell.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Summon up to 3 Sapient Imp at your location. They last 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.
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.