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.
Summons a night-gaunt, an unnerving creature that appears to be a pitch-black, horned, winged humanoid with no face. While not particularly powerful physically, night-gaunts generate no noise when they move, making them well suited for stealth and recon. Oddly enough, they're quite fond of tickling their opponents or victims.
Exert your Mind and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: ring a bell forged of cold iron whilst murmuring a spell of summoning. You must actively and obviously use a small bell forged from cold iron to activate this Effect. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.
Summon a single Night-Gaunt 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.
You may only use this Effect once per day.
Queen opens his mouth, and from his throat crawls outwards a sleek, writhing centipide. It looks starved, and it has its eyes on you.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Summon a single Crawling Spawn 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.
You may only use this Effect once per day.
Edgard manipulates the reality around their target(s) and causes an acid storm to occur on top of them. In this acid storm, the target is pelted by countless acid drops as an infernal storm rages around them.
Spend an Action. Select a target within 300 feet. Roll Charisma + Influence Difficulty 6. The target may contest by rolling Body, Difficulty 6.
If the Contested Outcome is positive, the target takes that much Damage plus 2. Armor is fully effective against this Damage.
You may use this Effect to Defend against any melee, projectile, or firearm Attacks within range or Clash against any Attack targeted at you. Using it to Defend deals no Damage but does not cost Exertion.
The target suffers a -3 dice penalty for the next hour or until the Injury is healed. This dice penalty does not stack multiple times on the same target.
If you successfully hit your target, the value of any Armor they are wearing is reduced by 2. For material armor, this penalty lasts until it is repaired. For intrinsic armor, it lasts until the end of Combat and any relevant wound is healed.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see An acid storm is conjured around the target and it melts them alive.
This Gift's Cost is capped at 2 and cannot be increased further.
Possession of this Artifact causes the following Battle Scar to manifest over the course of a day: You cannot shout or raise your voice above a whisper. After physical activity, you wheeze loudly and suffer a -2 dice penalty on Stealth rolls.. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Battle Scar heals over the course of the next day.
Dorothy, Frankie and Margaret, some of the best Journalists around, a dedicated team to getting the stories in, and taking the stories out. Consider Jacks of all the trades regarding the News- minus the fact they are still pretty new to this.
Dorothy, my main gal, she's pretty feisty Personal Assistant. Frankie? Luck of the Irish, Best Cameraman... Margaret? Intern... Sad girl.
Now, since they exist in Beast Pathing, they can only be tethered to the main attraction: Me.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Summon up to 3 Sapient Film Crew 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: Quick, Start Filming: At the start of any armed conflict, roll self-control in order not to immediately take offensive action, and instead start filming.
As the Primordial Dough's vessel, Ollie's body serves as the gateway between this world and the land of clay. In moments of need, Ollie can let out a solemn prayer to the Dough Lords, begging for their aid. In their stead, Ollie is supplied with a small garrison of Lesser Claymen, which crawl out of the seams in his flesh.
They appear to be maybe five feet tall at most, with multicolored skin and a surprising softness to them. At will, they can let out a small volley of hardened clay beads akin to birdshot from their bodies to fend off foes.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Summon up to 3 Non-Sapient, Animate Lesser Claymen 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. You may have at most 3 minions active at a time.
Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Clayman's Form (Disfigured).
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.
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.
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.