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. This Effect cannot be used unless It is used on a toy with arms and legs which the artifact consumes.
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 2 minions 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.
The user twists the top of the totem. With a slight click, the pictographic representations of flames running through beating hearts glow like a gentle flame.
The Stubborn Flame calls upon the spark of life that everything shares. Stoking it to a roaring flame that stands in defiance of the the mortal shell's injuries, helping the user compensate for even the most gruesome of wounds and light the way through the thickest of mental fogs.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Your Stress from Injuries and Mind Damage is reduced to 0. Lasts three hours.
This artifact is a plain, handheld cylinder, has a microphone on the top of it, and a transmitter on the bottom. When held in the hand, and holding a button on the side, the unit will accept voice commands and transmit them to the desired target.
The onboard AI will explain the steps it's undertaking to carry out the command while it works, and occasionally ask for clarification. If the target is used on a computer the calling card manifests as a wolf head joker playing card displayed on the screen. If used on a device that's doesn't have a screen, instead a laser engraving will appear on the target of a wolf head joker card.
Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. Select a Device within 20 feet. Does not work on Alien technology. Roll Intellect + Technology, with the Difficulty set by the GM depending on the security of the system you are hacking. Sapient targets can resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6.
If you succeed, you may issue a single command to the targeted system. This command must have a specific outcome or be a request for specific login credentials. The command you issue must be within the machine's current capabilities. For example, you cannot order a standard security camera to grow legs and walk around.
When targeting non-computer devices, you may operate switches, buttons, dials, levers, and latches.
Every hack you make leaves behind a wolf head joker playing card. in the system as a personal "calling card" that informs anyone who uses the system that the hack occurred.
Channeling the power of the worn mask, the skin and clothing of the target ripples, slowly molding into the desired shape.
Spend a minute.
You become disguised in a manner of your choosing. The disguise lasts for two hours, or you may end it early at will.
The new appearance must have a similar sex, age, and race to your own. You cannot significantly change your height and weight. Your disguise cannot directly mimic an existing person. You may change the appearance of your outfit. A disguise cannot affect your Attributes or other stats.
You may roll Charisma + Crafts to attempt to make your disguise Beautiful. If your Outcome is 6 or higher, non-Effect Charisma rolls where your good looks could help are rolled at -2 Difficulty. If you fail or botch, you are ugly instead, and non-Effect Charisma rolls are made at +2 Difficulty.
While this Effect is active, you are at -2 dice to all Actions and cannot Concentrate.
This Gift's Cost is capped at 2 and cannot be increased further.
This Effect ends if you take an Injury or are stunned or incapacitated.
While disguised, you cannot use any Activated or Targeted Powers.
This Artifact can be used as a handgun. It is roughly the same size as a handgun and just as difficult to conceal.
Attack by rolling Dexterity + Firearms, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +4 Weapon Damage.
Anyone who touches this Artifact will notice it warping their body and may drop it. If they choose to hold or use it, they immediately receive the following Battle Scar: ,l. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Battle Scar heals over the course of the next day.
This item is a living thing. When targeted, it counts as a Living Creature in addition to its other target types. If destroyed or abandoned for more than two days, it dies and becomes unusable.
You also gain the following effects:
The one bearing this map kneels, and holds it tightly in their hands. They close their eyes, and let out a breath.. and their mind slides into the Dreamlands. To people observing, the traveler appears to simply sleep kneeling.
To the one in the Dreamlands, they are in an unmapped part of the Dreamlands. The world around them is raw chaos, ever-shifting. It requires an incredible act of will to force this to resolve into something that can be understood. For not only are all potentials represented here, all times are. With focus, one can will the chaos into an image of something that happened in the past.
Spend a minute. Investigate an area with a radius of up to 20 feet At the end of your investigation, roll Charisma + Influence at Difficulty 6.
You learn the following information about the area:
This Gift's Cost is capped at 2 and cannot be increased further.
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 +1 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: