**Description:** The "Body of the Ancient Cryptic" passively alters the user’s body, giving them a primal, beast-like appearance combined with ancient, mystical energies. These physical changes not only enhance their combat abilities but also make them appear more formidable and inhuman to those around them.
Visible Changes:
- Beastly Claws: The user's hands and fingers elongate slightly, ending in sharp, retractable claws. These claws appear to be made of a dark, obsidian-like material and can tear through most materials with ease.
- Feral Eyes: Their eyes take on a bestial quality, with slit-like pupils and a glowing, predatory hue—often amber, red, or another unnatural color. These eyes grant heightened vision, especially in darkness.
- Rugged, Enhanced Physique: The user’s muscles are denser, their bones more robust, and their posture slightly hunched, resembling a primal predator. This gives them enhanced strength and agility beyond normal human limits.
- **Roughened Skin:** Their skin takes on a tougher, almost hide-like texture, with patches of scales or hardened ridges in certain areas, providing natural armor.
- Elongated Teeth: The user’s teeth sharpen into fangs, giving them a fearsome grin and enabling them to bite with great force when necessary.
- Beastial Presence: A low growl or snarl might be heard from the user when they are angered or in danger. Their overall demeanor is predatory, making others instinctively sense danger in their presence.
These beastly transformations, combined with ancient, arcane markings and energies, make the user a terrifying force, blending primal strength with cryptic wisdom.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
You are permanently and visibly transformed: perfect bodys. You are considered to be a Sapient, Living Creature when targeted. Your Brawn is increased by 1, your Perception is increased by 1, and your Charisma is increased by 1.
You are immune to damage from cold. If cold is a substantial component of other damage you would take (e.g. falling from a great distance into a vat of liquid nitrogen), that damage is reduced by 2 (in addition to Armor)
Your appendages can reach an additional 30 feet.
Whenever you enter Combat, roll Self-Control. If you fail, you cannot choose which targets to attack and cannot stop fighting until there are no targets remaining.
You cannot speak any coherent verbal language and must resort to other means of communication.
You cannot ignore or decrease the effects of Stress for any Self-Control rolls you make.
The Severity of any Injury caused by Sliver is increased by 2.
All sounds, whether she likes it or not... She can hear all of it... The endless cacophony of sounds... She hears it all, not under her control...
You gain the following benefits at all times.
Your senses are enhanced in the following way.
Any senses which have been heightened cannot be overloaded. Battle Scars you receive cannot affect these senses.
Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Shoulder.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Nightmares.
Jakob Bosch has discovered a new use for his flesh-melding abilities. He summons a imp-like creature he affectionately named "Pus" to work on whoever he's targeting, the fleshy being hops from point to point on the body and does it's best to quickly fix whatever physical ailments the target is under. After it's completed it's work, the being screams in agony as he infinitely folds in on himself, spraying small bodily fluids in a dome around him.
Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. Choose a specific Injury on yourself that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Intellect + Medicine at Difficulty 6.
If you succeed, the Injury is reduced in Severity by your Outcome. If you reduce its Severity to 0, the Injury is fully healed. Otherwise, it is partially healed and will heal the rest of the way at its natural rate.
This counts as a successful Makeshift Stabilization if the Injury was not already Stabilized; any Battle Scars caused by the Injury will remain.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see a small, disgusting imp who constantly produces a horrid, violent scent work on the affected target.
Arthur Annuler exits our reality as he is swallowed by a shroud of black mist and re-enters at another location with a cloud bursting out around him seemingly instantaneously, having passed through the Gap between Realities as a means of rapid transport.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action to activate. Select a Location which is at most 50 feet away horizontally or 10 feet away vertically.
You jump to the chosen location. If the landing is precarious, the GM may call for a roll to land safely. You will never take fall damage from successfully landing a jump made with this Effect.
Instead of physically passing through the air, you are teleported directly to your destination. Does not allow you to go through walls.
Johnny Rook is just waffling, usually a bit too much
Voice sounds similar to those he's just been talking to, like a sapient parrot.
Johnny can only communicate to English speaking humans and other caracaras, all other animals are off limits.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
You may understand and communicate to humans as if you are fluent in a relevant language.
Despite your best efforts to appear an easygoing person, people recognize you for who you are - a cut above the rest. It's not intentional, but your best theory is that your uneducated control over *stuff* has something of a passive effect, causing people's brains to soften a bit around you. It's very tragic, but no reason not to take advantage. Of course, that near-idolization does come with an unfortunate recognizability...
[Hey, Listen!]: Your words carry an imperceptible weight that not even unfavourable audio conditions can tarry. People always hear you, whether they like it or not.
[Honest Eyes]: The tells that denote the deceptions of other are far too obvious to you. A slight facial twitch. A smile held a microsecond too long. You don't always know *what* they're lying about, but if they're trying to pull the wool over your eyes - you'll know.
[No Choice But To Stan]: The effect you have on other often has them defend you when you're wronged, for reasons you can't totally know. Likely they justify it to themselves as "the benefit of the doubt", but it matters not to you. They all fall in line, in the end.
[Maddening]: Knowing the lies of others has put a certain paranoia into you - what if someone else can see as you do? Best not to risk it - though sometimes, it's unavoidable.
[The Price Of Fame]: The magnetic air that has others bowing to you does have a side effect - you're altogether to easy to remember. Disguises do little, for the mark of your importance does not easily fade. Best not to be spotted, if you need to be unseen.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
Your Charisma rating is increased by 1. You may Exert your Mind to automatically gain an Outcome of 5 on any roll that uses Charisma (Cannot be used on combat rolls or Power activations).
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Compulsively Honest - Any time you are asked about yourself, or are offering information about yourself, you must succeed a Self-Control roll in order to lie. If you are ever required to lie for the safety of yourself or others, you must Exert your Mind; otherwise be candid.
You also gain the following effects:
The mystic channels and communes directly with another person's spirit, allowing the two of them to freely exchange both physical and mental wounds between each other.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Sapient target within arm's reach. Your target may Resist to cancel the transfer.
You may choose a single instance of one of the following to transfer from your target to yourself, or from yourself to them:
Whenever you transfer an Injury, it's Severity increases by 1. Whenever you transfer Mind damage or Traumas, the recipient takes an additional Mind damage.
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.
Perform the Five Point Technique via a series of quick pressure point hits on the target’s chest. As you do, channel your chi and speak a condition involving the number five. If the target cannot stop you from performing the technique, their heart will take a direct hit when they fulfill the chosen condition.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Living target within arm's reach. Roll Dexterity + Brawl 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. The target's Armor is completely ignored.
When you activate this Effect, instead of occurring immediately, you may choose to delay its effects until the target takes a particular Action. For example: "when they fire a gun" or "when they swim in deep water."
Instead of dealing Damage all at once, the Injury caused by this Power starts at Severity 1 and worsens at the rate of one level per Round until it reaches the Severity it would have otherwise been.
The Vampire was cursed to forever be a vile creature of the night! Their skin has faded to a deathly pale, only regaining something close to human complexion in the immediate aftermath of feeding on human blood. They are weakened when exposed to direct sunlight or when they have been unable to feed in the past day, but otherwise has gained inhuman strength, speed, and irresistibility from their devil's bargain.
You gain the following benefits as long as you have fed on fresh human blood in the past 24 hours and you are not in direct sunlight.
You are permanently and visibly transformed: a seductive and powerful humanoid, with pale skin and wicked fangs. You are considered to be a Sapient, Non-Living being when targeted. Your Brawn is increased by 1, your Dexterity is increased by 1, and your Charisma is increased by 1.
Your Injuries no longer degrade with time. You do not age naturally, and supernatural attempts to age you fail.
The Severity of any Injury caused by fire and heat is increased by 2.
The pyro points a laser pointer towards a target, and a cat-sized-and-shaped fire springs into life, very clearly attracted to the laser. This flame cat can also be shaped from existing fires. While the pointer is active it remains in the shape of a cat, pouncing towards the little red dot. When the laser pointer is not active, the flames return to normal.
Thank you to the original creator of this Gift, Frakcherd https://www.thecontractrpg.com/profile/view/603/
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a target within 20 feet which has both fuel and oxygen available (if you are starting a new fire). You must actively and obviously use a laser pointer to activate this Effect.
You may start or extinguish a fire as large as a fire in a residential fireplace at your target. Extinguishing a fire does not cost Exertion. You may create or extinguish fires the size of a lighter or candle flame without Exerting your Mind. Your fires require fuel and oxygen in order to continue burning.
Lighting a target on fire deals 3 Damage each Round on your turn, starting in the Round after the one in which they caught fire. This Damage is reduced by Armor, but the target’s Armor rating will be shredded by any Damage dealt, destroying material Armor once it reaches 0.
You may extinguish flames as a Reaction. This does not extend to explosives.
You may spend a Free Action on your initiative move a fire as large as a fire in a residential fireplace that is within 20 feet to another location within 20 feet. You may Exert your Mind to draw a line which a fire up to twice as large as a fire in a residential fireplace cannot cross.
The aquamancer channels a nearby source of water into a flexible whip, which can be used to attack or to defend.
Spend an Action. Select a target within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use at least a gallon of water to activate this Effect. Roll Dexterity + Athletics Difficulty 6. The target may contest by rolling to Dodge or Defend as a Reaction, Difficulty 6.
If the Contested Outcome is positive, the target takes that much Damage plus 4.
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.
This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 2.