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.
Amber eyes and a light brown coat, Sora the Wolf.
Silas found this wandering wolf in the night by his camp towards the new west, first, stalking his camp every night and eventually joining him at the camp after being coaxed over.
Sora joins Silas on his march to the New West, as a guide, as a protector, as a companion.
Now, Sora has taken a new form, the same brown coat with undertones of sparks flow freely from the wolf.
A shock at the nose.
Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend an Action.
Summon the one and only Sapient Wolf at your location. They last until they move more than 150 feet from you or 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.
This a joint, after taking a hit and blowing out the smoke, it forms a giant cloud and then it starts to dissipate and form 3 golem-like smoke clouds emerge from it.
When activating the person must light the joint, take a hit and then blow out the smoke, to form the Smoke Guardians.
After taking a hit the person will become exhausted.
They cannot move more than 150 ft away from you before dispersing.
Use up this joint (unless you succeed on 1d10, Difficulty 7) and spend an Action.
Summon a single Non-Sapient, Animate Smoked Guardian at your location. They last for two hours or until they move more than 150 feet from you or are destroyed. They are controlled by the GM but will follow any commands you give.
This skeleton has taken its first step toward true undeath. With a rattling whisper, it can summon lesser skeletal minions from the earth, broken graves, or even discarded bones nearby.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Summon up to 3 Non-Sapient, Animate Skeleton 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.
Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Tinnitus.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Pyromania.
Lily opens a pouch on her dress which suddenly appears, pulling out a small kangaroo. Once deployed, the kangaroo quickly grows to full size.
Exert your Mind and spend one minute.
Summon a single Kangaroo 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.
You may only use this Effect once per day.
This a joint, after taking a hit and blowing out the smoke, it forms a giant cloud and then it starts to dissipate and 3 humanoid smoke clouds emerge from it.
When activating the person must light the joint, take a hit and then blow out the smoke, to form the Smoke Devils.
After taking a hit the person will become exhausted.
As a side effect of getting a little high
They are faceless but have a mouth humanoid smoke beings.
They are able to ignite their hands and pieces they tear off due to them being hot (high internal temperature)
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Summon up to 3 Sapient Smoked Devils at your location. They last until they move more than 150 feet from you or 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 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.
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.
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.