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.
Earth, stone, dust and other parts of the ground fuse to help materialise a young semi transparent earth spirit.
Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action.
Summon a single Non-Sapient, Animate Earth spirit 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 Artifact may have at most one active at a time.
Haerin stabs himself, the sword going into him and hitting something deep within his depths as if unlocking a door, and to that... He appears, from within the darkness. His hair, pale as the tundra, his eyes a deep black, and a venomous smile... Clad in simple cloth, with a simple blade along his side. A part of Haerin, freshly freed from the abyss, from his abyss, that moment, Baam, The Chaos Knight, appears.
Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend an Action. Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you Your body rejects the soul division (Sev 4).
Summon the one and only Sapient Baam, The Chaos Knight at your location. They last until they 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.
Upon typing up an order on your phone, you watch as a hypercube spins into existence and a hand reaches out from the 4th dimension to hand you a large takeout box. Upon opening it, a (legally distinct) String Cheese person according to your order specifications springs out, slightly larger than what the box could normally have held. They start talking to you in fluent English???
As the box slowly decomposes, you have yourself a lifelong friend! ...Unless it dies.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Summon up to 5 Sapient String Cheese People 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. This Artifact may have at most 5 minions active at a time.
A Demonic creature appears in a puff of smoke
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Summon the one and only Sapient Bob at your location. They last until they are destroyed They are controlled by you. You may have at most one minion active at a time.
You may end this Effect prematurely as a Free Action.
If killed, you cannot re-summon your minion until after your next Contract.
Maddox waves a shiny trinket in the air, and it sparkles miraculously. She calls for Judas, and he answers the call, fluttering to her aid in exchange for the trinket.
Exert your Mind and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: Raise a trinket to the sky and call for a bird. You must use up an especially shiny object such as a rhinestone, sequin, or piece of jewelry in order to activate this Effect. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.
Summon the one and only Sapient Judas the crow at your location. They last for two hours or until they 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.
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.
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 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.