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 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.
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.
Performing a ritualistic dance with her staff in hand, Runa causes damage to herself, blood is spilt and kitsune in human form appears fully clothed as I wish and says "Mother." bowing.
They are my familiars and my children both They are born of my blood and my magic. They will have roles and I will have them live as normalish children when not on mission.
Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend an Action.
Summon up to 3 Sapient female Kitsune in human form one black fox tail and black fox ears look to be 16. at your location. They last until they 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.
If you do not have a sacrificial Injury when you activate this Effect, take a new Severity-1 Injury.
Domiel holds the laser pointer and clicks the button once to summon her black sphynx cat from the shadows. He is donning a random colored sweater from his collection and his signature grumpy expression. His body seems to be made up shadow itself, fluid-like and constantly warping and flowing like ink.
His chosen language is Spanish.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use a cat toy (laser pointer) to activate this Effect.
Summon the one and only Sapient Beelzebub (cat) 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.
A ball of living clay, moving about and responding to basic stimuli. If the user holds onto this ball and prays to those beyond for aid, their wish very well may be granted. From the clay emerges three steeds, clad with wings and patchwork flesh. They are bound to their creator, determined to keep them safe from any oncoming harm.
Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action.
Summon up to 3 Sapient Clay Pegasi 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 3 minions active at a time.
You may only use this Effect once per day.
The Necromancer stands over a corpse and makes a series of grandiose lifting gestures. The corpse rises from the ground as though suspended by invisible strings, barks a pained groan, and lands on its feet, now a full-fledged member of the living dead.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must use up a corpse in order to activate this Effect.
Summon a single ________ 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.
The artifact holds at least one demon bound to obey the commands and will of the wielder and advance their interests. When used a demon wearing a human form crawl's its way out of the object, and leaps out, looking for enemies.
The demon in this iteration looks like a beautiful human with dark eyes, black hair, and dark nail polish. When not attempting to hide it, they trail little bits of shadowy smoke, and bend shadows and light around them oddly. They have thin leathery wings that peel out from their back when they take flight. When firing at range, claws from their hand break off becoming needle like knives in the air.
The demon can speak, reporting on anything it sees, and apply a level of intelligence to understanding the world around it. It will die defending anyone it is ordered to defend.
The summoner can cause the servant to return to its bound artifact at any time.
This artifact is made by summoning a demon, making a deal with it, and binding it to the object in a long ritual.
Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action.
Summon a single Sapient Human seeming Bound greater shadow deceiver at your location. They last until they 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.
You may end this Effect prematurely as a Free Action.
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 one minute. You must actively and obviously use a cell phone to activate this Effect.
Summon a single goon 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.
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.
Take a Severity-1 Injury 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.
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 roadie 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. You may have at most 1 minion active at a time.
You may only use this Effect once per day.