Spectral Lantern

1
This Artifact grants you the power to observe things at a distance.
Used by Luke Griffin, Created by carsick.
(You are obviously concentrating while projecting your senses. You must use this Artifact obviously when activating this Effect.)

The artifact contains an ethereal flame, which lies dormant until activated. Once activated the user can see their surroundings illuminated by a faith ethereal light that pierces obstacles. Others see the dormant gray flame awaken and flicker in its housing. (The flame craves the drama of strong emotions and compels its wielder to seek them out.)


Exert your Mind and spend an Action.

You may perceive things within 15 feet of you with perfect clarity as though there were no walls or obstacles blocking your view for the next 30 minutes. You must maintain Concentration to keep up the effect.

You may perceive through up to 15 feet of material. The Difficulty of all Perception rolls made through a wall are increased by 1 per wall.

Anyone who touches this Artifact will notice it warping their mind and may drop it. If they choose to hold or use it, they immediately receive the following Trauma: voyerism, you must make a self-control roll to give others privacy in intense, personal, or intimate situations. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Trauma heals over the course of the next day.

  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

Community Targeted Gifts

Spend one minute. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. You must actively converse with the individual in question for one minute in order to gather any information. At the end of your investigation, roll Charisma + Influence at Difficulty 6.

You learn all the following information about your target:

  • You learn the target's name, nicknames, screen names, and aliases.
  • You learn details about the target's family.

The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome.

Any information you gather is induced by Sir Seymore to be willingly shared, even if the target would never do so. Occasionally, Seymore's courtesy may inspire in them insights they might not normally have and made publicly available.

This Gift's Cost is capped at 2 and cannot be increased further.

You cannot investigate the same target more than once per day.

  • Family Low Outcome gives info like number of siblings. High Outcome can give names, a random detail about their routines, etc.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Living or Animate target within 45 feet as well as a specific emotion. You must actively and obviously use a microphone or musical instrument to activate this Effect. Roll Charisma + Performance at Difficulty 6. Affected targets can resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 8.

If you succeed, for the next hour, your target will do things they otherwise wouldn’t have done, inspired by the chosen emotion. They will not necessarily display their emotions in an obvious way.

Actions they take will be in keeping with their character and the way they tend to deal with strong emotions. They will be unlikely to change their mind about any actions taken or decisions made until after the Effect ends.

  • Common emotions and the actions they inspire
    • Anger (shouting, cruelty, denying requests, attacking)
    • Pity (stopping an attack, executing an injured target)
    • Happiness (generosity, dancing, joking, socializing)
    • Sadness (finding solitude, openly crying, demotivation)
    • Fear (running, attacking)
  • If you succeed, the target MUST take at least one Action they otherwise would not have. Hey, GM who is reading this, I'm talking to you. You have to enforce this. Remember: Gifts must feel powerful.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

Exert your Mind and spend 30 minutes. Select a Living target within arm's reach. The target can easily Resist.

You may add one augmentation to your target. Each augmentation counts as a Battle Scar and can have exactly one of the following Effects:

  • Specialized: You receive +2 dice to a particular non-combat Action.
  • Environmental Adaptation: You do not suffer harm from heat, cold, pressure, or lack of oxygen in a particular environment, provided that challenge normally exists in that environment.
  • Implanted Tool: You have access to the functionality of some common Device at all times. The selected Device can be no larger than a motorcycle helmet.
  • Armor: You have 2 Armor at all times. As always, Armor from multiple sources does not stack.
  • Pouch: Part of your body functions as a hidden pocket. It can hold no more than a briefcase (15 liters).
  • Zippy: Your Free Movement is increased by 10 feet.
  • Maws and Claws: Your unarmed attacks do +2 Weapon Damage instead of -1.

The augmentations you provide are not outwardly visible nor obvious.

You may end this Effect prematurely as a Free Action.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see Needles piercing into the subject's eye - when the device is removed, blood running down their face, their eye completely bloodshot.

  • When narrating disturbing content, be cognizant of your group's tone and accommodating to those who would like to "fast forward" through the description.
  • Remember: A Contractor’s Body rating is reduced by 1 for each Battle Scar after their fourth.
  • You may not augment targets with pouches or implanted devices that are larger than they are.
  • Targets without Body ratings may have a maximum of 4 augmentations.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

Raise the hair on your neck. Tune in to the city.

Cool for: City Lovers, The Wisest of the Street Wise, The Genuinely Supra-Natural

Shivers come when the temperature drops and you become more keenly aware of your surroundings. It enables you to hear the city itself, to truly belong to the streets. It is a supra-natural ability; old wrongs play out in present time, scenes across the city happen in front of you. But who is speaking to you?

At high levels, Shivers may make you seem mad to the outside world – as you listen to the city, you don’t listen to others. Your superiors may begin to worry. With a low Shivers, though you will seldom hear the city speaking to you – and if you cannot hear it, how can you ever save it?

Spend a half hour. Investigate an area with a radius of up to 100 feet At the end of your investigation, roll Intellect + Investigation at Difficulty 6.

You learn the following information about the area:

  • You learn how heavily trafficked the area is, what sorts of Animate beings have moved through the area and when.
The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome.

This Gift's Cost is capped at 2 and cannot be increased further.

You cannot investigate the same area more than once per day.

  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

On painting:
It's therapeutic! It's calming! Art can be so many things at once yet nothing at all. It's what you make of it. It's what I say it is. You are what I say you are. You're such a perfect little piece of art... but my prof would always say, "Kill your darlings. 'Ruin' your art and learn to let go." We're letting go of you. Are you happy now?

On technique:
Luciole can never forget the contours. She can never forget the contours of everyone she's ever loved, and that's... E V E R Y O N E . It's only natural that it's the first thing she traces of you, and it's the first thing she'll try to sabotage. She has an image of you in her mind that she traces and cuts at, chipping you away like her painstaking sculpture. Hey, at least you're not getting an unstabilized injury with this. If you're suddenly missing a limb, it just means you have a stump where your hand was supposed to be. Luciole isn't going to waste time drawing all the gorey details.

On abstract art:
She likes unsettling things - was it not clear before? It's not that she dreams of repainting real humans on the daily, but the thought has crossed her mind before. Now she's free to reinterpret bodies as she pleases - no more nonsense about anatomy and drawing style, this is just real life with a cherry on top.

On the horrible things she could do:
Are you curious enough to peek this far? Well, here's a little secret. Luciole isn't perfect at drawing. No one can be, especially not in three seconds.
Chances are,
- You've been disfigured because she tried to redraw your face and failed miserably. Why is your eye where your mouth is supposed to be?
- You're getting chronic ankle instability because she redrew your legs too thin to support the rest of you.
- You're getting missing fingers because she can't draw fingers.
- You're getting tongueless because she erased it and forgot to put it back.
- You're getting wheezing because she's drawn your neck too thin and there's no space for your airways.
- You're missing a limb because she erased it thinking you wouldn't need it.
- You've got a traumatic brain injury because she sneezed and accidentally drew a dent in your head.
- You've got narcolepsy because she drew Z's everywhere.
- You've been skinned because she erased your outer layer. She's a media artist, she draws with multiple layers.

On range:
Luciole has to be able to see you, including the part of you that she is trying to redraw. If you have your head turned away from her, she can't scribble on your face. Hey, why don't you come closer? :)

On healing:
Art is a very transient thing to Luciole. It'll fade over time, but it's okay. She'll make something even better next time, just you wait.

Spend an Action. Select a Living target within 45 feet. Roll Dexterity + Occult at Difficulty 6. The target may roll Body, -2 dice at Difficulty 7, as a Free Action to resist.

If you succeed, the target receives a new Battle Scar of your choosing, limited by the contested Outcome:

  1. A Minor Battle Scar E.g. an aesthetic-only body modification (a disfigured face, a pig's tail), impacted hand or foot, or vocal changes that complicate communication
  2. A Major Battle Scar E.g. a disabled/removed hand or foot, an inability to speak, an impacted major sense, removal of a minor sense, impacted movement.
  3. A Severe Battle Scar E.g. a disabled/removed arm or leg, deafness, aesthetic changes that are nearly impossible to conceal.
  4. An Extreme Battle Scar E.g. removal/disabling both hands or both legs, blindness, a full-body deformation that leaves the target humanoid but makes it difficult to use clothes, vehicles, and equipment designed for humans.
Refer to the stock Battle Scars on the Character Sheet for specific systems.

This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 2.

Your alteration "heals" over the course of the next month, after which it is fully cured.

  • Remember: A Contractor’s Body rating is reduced by 1 for each Battle Scar after their fourth.
  • You may opt to inflict a Battle Scar that is less severe than what your Outcome allows.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

Stock Targeted Gifts

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a target Location within 75 feet.

You may perceive things as if you were standing at that Location. The effect lasts indefinitely but you must maintain Concentration to keep it up. You cannot perceive anything at your physical location while the effect is active.

You create a visible manifestation at the Location where your senses are projected which looks like a ghostly image of yourself meditating.

  • This does not satisfy the Line of Sight requirement for targeted Effects.

Spend 1 Action and use up this glowing blue disk. Select a non-Alien Device within arm's reach. Cannot be used to improve Armor.

Lasts the next two hours. Your target receives 2 extra dice to all actions taken for its intended use. Attacking with an upgraded weapon grants +2 Weapon Damage instead of additional dice. While it is upgraded, the item cannot be destroyed.

After the Effect ends, any upgraded targets suffer a -2 dice penalty until they are either repaired or upgraded again.

  • "Destroyed" in this context means "prevented from functioning for its primary purpose", so for instance, an upgraded land mine would still explode as normal if triggered, even though it cannot be "destroyed" and a car's windows may still be broken.
  • This consumable is destroyed when used and cannot be used again.
  • Reminder: additional Weapon Damage granted by this Effect does not stack with any other bonus to Weapon Damage. Instead the largest bonus is used. The same is true for extra dice.
  • Extra dice from this Effect do not apply to Gift activation rolls.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. Select a Computer within arm's reach. Does not work on Alien technology. Roll Intellect + Technology, with the Difficulty set by the GM depending on the security of the system you are hacking. Sapient targets can resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, you may issue a single command to the targeted system. This command must have a specific outcome or be a request for specific login credentials. The command you issue must be within the machine's current capabilities. For example, you cannot order a standard security camera to grow legs and walk around.

If your command does not require bypassing the security of the target (for example, typing on a computer that is unlocked), you do not need to Exert your Mind to activate this Effect, and activation only takes a single Action.

Your Hack cannot be reversed through mundane means for a number of hours equal to your Outcome.

Every hack you make leaves behind a flickering image of a ghost in the system as a personal "calling card" that informs anyone who uses the system that the hack occurred.

  • You cannot hack things outside of your range over remote connections such as the internet. The system you are affecting must be physically within range.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

Spend an Action and use up this smoke bomb.

You create a hemispherical dome of smoke originating at your Location, with a radius of 60 feet. and lasting for 5 minutes. The area inside your zone is affected in any number of the following ways:

  • Disorienting: Any time someone moves within or through the zone, they must roll Mind at Difficulty 8. If they fail or botch, they move a similar distance in a different direction of the GM’s choice.
  • Suppressed Vision: The zone is fully blocked from view. Nothing within the zone may see anything or be seen from the outside. Any rolls that rely on sight fail automatically, and any rolls that benefit from sight are made at -3 dice.
The zone expands immediately to its full size from the chosen Location, but will be stopped from spreading in a particular direction by any barriers or cover, and can only fit through openings large enough to fit a grown adult. If a new opening appears while the Effect is still active, it will finish spreading in that direction.

  • The Effect does not follow you after you activate it.
  • This consumable is destroyed when used and cannot be used again.
  • If you select a location at the edge of your range, you will be just outside the zone once the Effect is activated
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend a minute. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. This Effect cannot be used unless the target does not know you're watching them. At the end of your investigation, roll Charisma + Investigation at Difficulty 6.

You learn a single specific piece of information, chosen from the following list, about your target:

  • You learn how to reliably contact the target.
  • The target’s trail for the past 24 hours is revealed to you and anyone you teach to follow it. This trail shows how long ago the target was there and is followable even when they are in a vehicle.

The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome.

You cannot investigate the same target more than once per day.

  • Contact info Low Outcome: a means of communication (phone, email, a secretary). High Outcome: specific phone numbers, email addresses, protocols for getting access to the individual.
  • Tracker You are not made instantly aware of where they have been in the past 24 hours; you must follow their trail. You may "happen upon" any trail they have made in the past 24 hours.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.