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.
The super shotgun is a steampunk aesthetic bronze mechanism that's size is more akin to a cannon than an actual shotgun. Every burst is a golden spark of light and thunder.
This Artifact can be used as a shotgun. It is roughly at least twice as large as a shotgun and cannot be concealed on your person or disassembled for storage. Unless The User must be inside the Dwarven Sentinel, this Artifact behaves as its mundane counterpart.
Attack by rolling Dexterity + Firearms, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +5 Weapon Damage.
You also gain the following effects:
This has no appearance.
This Artifact cannot be broken.
This device generates a 3D image of the user's intended destination using floating metal shavings above an antiquated-looking analog console. Upon entering coordinates, the device activates, opening a rift accompanied by electric smoke and the sound of revving engines. When used for spirit walking, the effects are more subtle; the user merely needs to drunkinly walk through the bar as if seeking an exit. Upon leaving, they will find themselves entering any chosen bar, seamlessly transitioning to their new location.
From the perspective of the user, as they walk through the portal/bar, they are transported to a dimension of perfected forms. In the case of walking from bar to bar, there walking through their interpretation of a perfect bar. A large clockwork face of an old man can be seen creating these perfected forms, always with its back to the user.
Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. Select a Location within your line of sight.
You are transported directly to the chosen Location. Anyone who is touching you as you Travel will be brought along with you. You must wait an hour before activating this effect again.
If you traverse any a bar for one minute, you may activate this Effect and travel to the edge of any other a bar that you’re aware of, regardless of range.
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.
Panels pull apart from her chest as she reaches in, crudely ripping something from herself. Oil spills onto the floor as she shoves thick cords back into her cavity before the panels close once more. The thick, grey disc in her hands drips oil as she chooses a target to slap it on. Once the item is placed on the target, a neon purple outline coats them in an opaque armor.
Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action. Roll Brawn + Alertness at Difficulty 6.
If you succeed, you create a barrier around yourself, which absorbs the next Outcome + 2 Damage. The Damage reduction from the barrier is applied before Armor. This Artifact may only have 1 active barrier at a time.
The barrier will fall after two hours, 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.
On this artifact, there is a sizable aperture that leads inexplicably to a mass of hot metal fibres.
To activate this effect, the user reaches in and tears off chunks of fibre, which writhe and wrap painfully around the user's outstretched limb. They briefly cool and solidify, taking on the limb's appearance, before dislodging and becoming independently animate.
After three minions have been summoned, the aperture will close and remain closed until any minion is destroyed or the effect ends.
Thin metal membranes stretch outward from the centre, allowing for flight, and a frayed mouth opens across the front, mimicking the aperture on the artifact.
The minions can perceive and communicate using their antenna-like fibres and mouth respectively. They can rest in an amorphous state on your person, but take on the form of whatever appendage they first came into contact with otherwise. Their foremost edges can sharpen at will, and can deliver hot, piercing strikes as needed.
Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend an Action.
Summon up to 3 Sapient amorphous limbs 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.
If you do not have a sacrificial Injury when you activate this Effect, take a new Severity-1 Injury.
The mad scientist can craft steel helmets that protect their wearers from mental influence and attack.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.
You get +0 dice to any Mind resistance rolls you make. You also gain the following effects:
This device is a piece of chrome the size and shape of the back of a spoon. When placed against the skin, small hypodermic needles sprout from the device and attach it to the user's bloodstream. There, it filters and releases lifesaving drugs into the bloodstream, granting complete immunity from contracting new diseases and added resiliency in all other cases.
WARNING: The immunizing drugs have been shown to reduce inhibitions in test subjects.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.
You get +2 dice to any Body resistance rolls you make. You also gain the following effects: