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.
Tony knows he can call his brother, Dino, for some hired muscle, who arrives about a minute later. These enforcers 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 one minute. You must actively and obviously use a burner phone to activate this Effect.
Summon a single Enforcer 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 1 minion active at a time.
A slab of a human in terms of looks, Assistant Hyde was the first successful attempt at creating artificial life with assistance from other DSP biotechnologists, but they were only a minor help (the funding on the other hand...). Big and dumb, Assistant Hyde is a glorified watchdog and lab assistant both. Sure they can't help out with surgery themselves, but they are good at holding things. And beating people. It's a shame they need to be created via invasive, harmful surgery each time.
Take a Severity-1 Injury and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: Making an incision on oneself. You must actively and obviously use Medical Tools to activate this Effect. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.
Summon a single Hommuncli/Assistant 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 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.
It's an identity crisis; who's really the real guy? Not even the guys knows.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Summon up to 3 Sapient Clones 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.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Compulsive Liar.
First a chalk circle of runes is drawn upon the Floor. There should be at least 5 runes in forming the shape of a star within the boundaries of the circle each showing one aspect of the minion being summoned. Then the words of summoning are uttered in a language the wielder can not understand. After the final word is uttered then the runes begin glowing a soft white light which then gets brighter and brighter until finally a brilliant flash and before you within the circle stands your new henchmen.
Exert your Mind and spend one minute. You must actively and obviously use Chalk to activate this Effect.
Summon a single Goblin 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.
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.
Brie shapes a meatball digs eyes and a smile into the ball then throws it. The meat starts shifting and pulsing expanding itself into a humanoid shape
Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action. You must use up 3 meats in order to activate this Effect.
Summon a single abomination 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 2 minions active at a time.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see meat shifting and pulsing to create a humanoid form.
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.