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 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.
Your performance creates a safe haven - an oasis in the turmoil of combat. The barrier ensures safety, not only through obstruction, but by deflecting harm back to its source.
After all, today *is* gonna be the day that you're gonna throw it back to them.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action or Reaction. Roll Charisma + Performance at Difficulty 6.
If you succeed, you create a Barrier extending out 15 feet from yourself, which absorbs 2 times the next (Outcome +4) Damage. Only applies to attacks which originated outside the 15 foot radius, and protects anyone who is within that radius. Any Damage absorbed by the barrier is reflected back to the attacker, up to a maximum of 4. Their Armor applies in full. The Damage reduction from the barrier is applied before Armor. This Artifact may only have 1 active barrier at a time.
You must maintain Concentration while using this Effect. The barrier will fall if you are interrupted, 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.
Bill places his corn on the cob in the ground, and from that cob the beast emerges. The corn shakes rapidly, as though it is going to hatch, before it starts to grow wildly. The cob expands to immense size, cracking down the middle to reveal a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. The husk stretches and reshapes itself, forming a shambling mound of legs and wings. Roots rise from the ground and tangle amongst the husk, contributing to the beast's body and limbs. The head is definitively formed by the cob, while the body is a constantly shifting and difficult to discern pile of roots and husk. Entirely, the beast is around the size of a horse, it's colours no different from the corn it was grown from. The beast is capable of launching its cob head at targets 50 feet away from it, the head quickly regrows afterwards (though, any damages done to the head remain even after the head regrows). When the beast is destroyed, it rots into the ground, its body reduced to an inedible black mold.
Bill discovered this gift the morning after his stay at The Vermillion Manor. While harvesting his freshly grown corn, he attempted to hold more than what he could carry, and accidentally dropped a singular ear of corn. He thought nothing of it, until the corn began to jitter on the dirt unnaturally. He backed away in fear, and watched as the once innocuous corn sprouted into a true monster. A monster that listened to his commands. A monster that belonged to him.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must use up A full corn on the cob, with husk intact in order to activate this Effect.
Summon the one and only Sapient The Corn Beast 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.
You may only use this Effect once per day.
Iryna pulls out a contraption that looks like a cross between a printing calculator, a Geiger counter, and a TI-82, tuned together and strapped to her wrist. She turns it on and sweeps the area, tuning it to the latent radiation around her to find the places where it’s most disturbed. It scans the area and prints out the coordinates as well as any instructions on how to get to the weapon.
Exert your Mind and spend one minute.
You automatically detect all sources of major environmental contamination and weapons of mass destruction within 50 feet of you for the next hour. You have a clear sense of both the distance and direction towards any detected items. When you detect objects, instead of learning nothing about them, you may observe each object with all of your senses.
Even if there are no sources of major environmental contamination or weapons of mass destruction within 50 feet of you, you become aware of the direction the closest one is in, as well as a rough sense of its distance from you.
The means by which any sources of major environmental contamination and weapons of mass destruction are hidden or disguised is made clear to you, as well as how to access them if they are secured. This includes objects secured via the Stash Effect.
The Slopkins transforms into a big gorila man, an ape-ish figure that stands tall among the rest with it's two inch warrior.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action to activate.
You transform into were-ape for 3 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are were-ape, and you can use your equipment. Your Battle Scars, Injuries, and physical Liabilities are carried over between forms. While transformed, your Brawn is increased by 1.
Your body is adapted to lifting. You receive +3 dice on non-attack rolls related to lifting.
Your alternate form is its own deadly weapon. Unarmed attacks made in your alternate form deal +3 Bonus Damage (instead of the typical -2).
Whenever you enter Combat, roll Self-Control. If you fail, you cannot choose which targets to attack and cannot stop fighting until there are no targets remaining.
While transformed, you automatically fail any Mind roll to resist an impulse and suffer -3 dice on all other Mind rolls.
Scope is thermal and up to 200x magnification
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Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use rifle to activate this Effect.
Your senses are enhanced in the following way. Lasts for three hours.
Any senses which have been heightened cannot be overloaded. Battle Scars you receive cannot affect these senses.
The aquamancer has internal reserves of water that they may call upon when needed, and it will gush out of the pores in their skin wherever it is directed.
Spend a Quick Action.
You may withdraw an item from your stash, or add an item that is within arm’s reach to your stash. You may only stash targets which are in your possession, grappled, or otherwise controlled by you.
You may store units of water in your stash, each no larger than something which could fit inside a briefcase (15 liters), and you may store up to 3 things at a time.
You may choose to equip any equipment you withdraw at no additional cost.
If the Selkie's seal skin is worn close to the body, any contact with salt water will cause them to transform into a seal. While transformed, they have full access to their normal suite of Powers.
This Effect activates whenever you are submerged in salt water. It does not require an Action or Exertion.
You transform into small for two hours or until you choose to end the Effect. See the Extended System text for stats.
While transformed, you cannot use any equipment (including Artifacts and Consumables), and you cannot use your Active, Direct, or Trap Powers. However, you can use your Passive Powers. Any equipment you are wearing transforms with you.
Injuries and Wound Level are carried over between forms. However, transforming can never kill you; you merely remain Incapacitated until your Injuries are sufficiently healed.
The toon shouts a catchphrase, strikes a pose, and then zips away at a high speed, leaving a cloud of dust behind. While moving, they look like a blur.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Whenever you use your Movement, after all other calculations, the distance you may travel is doubled.
The beastmaster shouts, and their human voice cracks into a deep, bestial roar. Their body swells with muscle, clothes melting into a thick pelt of fur. Seconds later the beastmaster is gone. Standing in their place is a massive grizzly bear.
However, even in human form the beast within remains close to the surface, and the beastmaster finds highly civilized social situations unbearable.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
You transform into a brown bear for two hours or until you choose to end the Effect. See the Extended System text for stats.
While transformed, you cannot use any equipment (including Artifacts and Consumables), and you cannot use your Active, Direct, or Trap Powers. However, you can use your Passive Powers. Any equipment you are wearing transforms with you.
Injuries and Wound Level are carried over between forms. However, transforming can never kill you; you merely remain Incapacitated until your Injuries are sufficiently healed.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Intolerance for society. When you are in a situation with strict social protocols (like a trial or a formal dinner) roll Self-Control not to enter a flight or fight response.
The "Reaper" Assault Helmet is the signature piece of the Future Soldier's arsenal. It has a sleek, design and is made of a mysterious matte-metallic alloy. The wearer's face is exposed normally, but when a battle begins, a blue holographic visor flickers to life in front of the eyes. This HUD contains information about the soldier's ammunition and shield status, but more significantly can detect enemy combatants. Anyone nearby who is holding a weapon is painted with a red dot that follows them in real time. This allows the Future Soldier to fire at painted targets in the dark, detect ambushes lurking around corners, and grants an overall tactical advantage.
This Effect activates whenever combat begins. It does not require an Action or Exertion.
You automatically detect all people wielding weapons within 300 feet of you for the next hour. This includes any who come within range during the duration. You have a sense of how many valid targets are nearby, as well as their distance and direction.