Sir Seymore Alonso is fastidious in the maintenance of his equipment. How can a knight be seen with a slovenly appearance? His sword must be sharp and well-kept, and his armor and shield shine so cleanly that the sun gleams off their surface, and be polished enough that you could nearly see your face in them.
When Seymore polishes his equipment and utters prayer to the Lord for their reliability, they take on incredible qualities. A shield or armor feels lighter, and a sword becomes impossibly sharp. The Lord would never allow the equipment of one of His faithful champions to fail him.
Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend a minute. Select a non-Alien trappings of a knight (melee armaments and metal armor) within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use polishing rag to activate this Effect. Can be used on Armor.
Lasts the next day. 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. Upgraded Armor is shredded by half the normal amount. If it is a piece of Armor, it instead receives half that amount as bonus armor rating, rounded up , and any armor penalty it causes is reduced by 1. If an upgraded shield and armor are both worn, the upgrade bonus does not stack with itself.
Upgraded items have half their normal weight, for the purposes of encumbrance.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Delusion that you are a knight-errant facing a series of quests. You must insist that other contractors are your fellow knights or your squires, and you must introduce yourself as Sir Seymore Alonso, must give your name if asked, and cannot willingly conceal this identity.
The User places their hand upon Geneva and recites the tome as the Archangel Gabriel descends to seal the oath. After swearing upon The Lord's Name, chains emerge from the archangel's wings sealing the oath.
You may make an oath with any number of Sapient targets. Communicate the oath's terms to the targets, including the requirements and penalties for each participant. If all agree to the terms, you must Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and all participants must Swear upon The Lord's name to seal the deal.
Record the oath as a Condition. If a party breaks the oath, the Condition ends and they suffer the oath's penalty.
When crafting your oath, you may incorporate any of the following penalties:
The targets cannot be compelled to agree via a direct threat of violence, another Effect, or another oath. If you would like to use clever wording to mislead the targets, you must succeed a contested Intellect + (Culture or Influence) roll.
The targets may be at any range, but you must still be able to communicate the terms to them, and they must be able to Swear upon The Lord's name.
It is obvious to your targets that the oath you are proposing will be supernaturally enforced.
Really, an upgrade is just another form of repair. The universal constructor is able to tweak an object to upgrade it.
Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Select a Device within arm's reach. Can be used on Alien technology. Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you the item is broken. You must use up lithium-ion battery in order to activate this Effect. Can be used on Armor.
Lasts the next day. Your target receives 3 extra dice to all actions taken for its intended use. Attacking with an upgraded weapon grants +3 Weapon Damage instead of additional dice. If it is a piece of Armor, it instead receives half that amount as bonus armor rating, rounded up. If an upgraded shield and armor are both worn, the upgrade bonus does not stack with itself.
Upgraded weapons count as any material your opponent might be particularly vulnerable to. Upgraded Armor cannot be circumvented by called shots. Upgraded Devices do not run out of fuel or energy.
The process takes quite a bit of time, as Luci must properly bind this object to its ideal image by bathing it in The Well. A process that, if witnessed by a normal person, would likely result in some minor traumatic occurrences. Luci watches over the item the entire time to make sure it is not swallowed up into the inky mess. A lengthy sweat-inducing endeavor, but by its end, when Luci pulls the item from the reservoir, it is all worth it.
The items in question will sport a dark tint on the paint job and if Luci desires it, she can make its primary or secondary colors as dark as she wants. The symbol of The Well, a fragmented snowflake that closely resembles broken glass, will appear embossed somewhere visibly on the item, marking it as improved.
The Well is oblivion and vice versa. There is no being or creature exempt from the prices that it exacts upon those that meet it uncordially. And like a hook, when it sinks its fangs into you, it will rip you root and all at even the slightest weakness.
The Well is also eternal. As long as the universe turns and toils, and unless someone has the power to circumvent or mimic the powers of Oblivion, upgrades items will persist ad infinitum.
Idealism was always thought to exist solely in concept, to associate reality with mental ideals as opposed to material objects. That somewhere in the cosmic lands above, a perfect image of this "thing" exists, and only its material imitations are founded in "reality". But what if a material object could be elevated closer to the status of its ideal perfect image? A question Luci had asked herself for a period, and while it took some time, she managed to find a way.
This Artifact has been upgraded.
This Artifact receives 3 extra dice to all actions taken for its intended use. Attacking with an upgraded weapon grants +3 Weapon Damage instead of additional dice. While it is upgraded, the item cannot be destroyed. Upgraded Armor is shredded by half the normal amount. If it is a piece of Armor, it instead receives half that amount as bonus armor rating, rounded up. If an upgraded shield and armor are both worn, the upgrade bonus does not stack with itself.
Upgraded weapons count as any material your opponent might be particularly vulnerable to. Upgraded Armor cannot be circumvented by called shots. Upgraded Devices do not run out of fuel or energy.
Reinforced siding with micron-scale thaumaturgic reinforcement on every surface, from the air hose to the muffler not a single part of this beauty is going to be anything less than perfect by the time Cleatus is done and he's not about to have his lovely lady Bessie in anything less than the most pristine shape so he's snagged some of those repair nanites from the foundation so even when it gets blasted it puts itself back together again before you can blink.
This Artifact has been upgraded.
This Artifact receives 3 extra dice to all actions taken for its intended use. Attacking with an upgraded weapon grants +3 Weapon Damage instead of additional dice. While it is upgraded, the item cannot be destroyed.
You carry around a small and portable generator with infinite energy contained inside of it.
This Artifact has been upgraded.
This Artifact 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.
Upgraded items have half their normal weight, for the purposes of encumbrance.
Upgraded weapons count as any material your opponent might be particularly vulnerable to. Upgraded Armor cannot be circumvented by called shots. Upgraded Devices do not run out of fuel or energy.
The aristocrat knows a ritual that allows them to rent the best version of any item. They set $10,000 worth of cash on fire and place the item to be upgraded in the fire as well. While in the flame, the item morphs into a high-end version of itself. After a while, it reverts.
Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Select a non-Alien Device within arm's reach. You must use up $10,000 cash (or equivalent) in order to activate this Effect. Cannot be used to improve Armor.
Lasts the next two hours. Your target receives 3 extra dice to all actions taken for its intended use. Attacking with an upgraded weapon grants +3 Weapon Damage instead of additional dice.
The mad scientist produces thorium cores that can be used to upgrade tools and other devices. The core supercharges the item, increasing its quality and rendering it indestructible for a period. However, once the core runs dry, the object is rendered less useful than it was before. The core crackles with blue electricity while active.
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.