I verbally communicate with the target and the wood on the bracelet shifts and moves like it is writhing when worn.
While it is difficult to exert one's own will upon another Sapient being utilizing Causal Diction alone; this cluster of interwoven living wood allows the user to encapsulate that Will in a more enticing manner. It is not so much mind control as it is bending the victim's values to align with the user. Thus, making sentient beings more pliable for manipulation. The wood bracelet itself reverberates when Causal Diction emanates outward in close proximity. Producing a kind of boosting affect against minds that would withstand such a will under normal circumstances. This is not however, a guaranteed success. As the target(s) may still overcome its mind-altering effects given enough mental fortitude. Be wary of your surroundings and intended audience before use.
Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend at least one Action. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. Your target cannot be engaged in Combat. Communicate a command to your target. Roll Charisma + Influence at Difficulty 6. The target may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 7.
If the contested Outcome is positive, your target will be compelled to follow your command to their best understanding of the letter and spirit of the command until they have completed it or for your Contested Outcome in hours. You cannot issue another suggestion to the target until 10 minutes after they have completed the first command or 10 minutes after a failure.
The target is unaware that they are under supernatural influence and feel they are acting of their own free will. If you fail, they realize that you were attempting to influence them supernaturally with your command.
Your command can be an order to take an immediate Action and a conditional request. You cannot order a target to "do nothing," and they are free to take other Actions as they fulfill your request. Your command cannot be obviously self-destructive. The Effect ends if following your command would cause a target to cross one of their Limits in a way that would necessitate a Trauma roll.
This Effect ends if you are stunned, fall asleep, go unconscious, are incapacitated, die, or if your total Stress ever exceeds 5.
Valerie squeezes the trigger of Rebecca at the incoming threat and, rather than the usual flash and subsequent bullet hole in said person, a colourful flower blossoms from the barrel, only to be obliterated as a bullet rips through the pistil of the flower - and the said person immediately after.
Where the fresh bullet hole lay, vibrant pink flows like a faucet; spreading visibly under the skin like a deadly infection on a crash course to their lymph nodes, soon to toil away at dulling their mind.
"You wouldn't hit a girl, would you? Teehee."
Spend an Action. Select a Living target within 45 feet. Roll Dexterity + Firearms 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. Armor is fully effective against this Damage.
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.
If the target suffers an Injury from this Effect, they will receive at least a Minor Battle Scar regardless of its Severity. When this Effect causes a Battle Scar, you may select which one of the appropriate level.
This Gift's Cost is capped at 2 and cannot be increased further.
This Travel Permit bears the signature of the Queen of the Dreamlands and entitles the barer to transit via the paths there. They hold the permit close to their chest, and close their eyes, doing their best to sleep. After a minute, they - and anyone else touching them - collapse into shimmering dreamdust, forming in the Travel Plaza in the Dreamlands. Alternatively, from there, they may take any of the paths to... anywhere, really. The Dreamlands touches everything.
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The Travel Plaza in the Dreamlands is an expansive area, consisting of a large plaza with mirrors around the outside. These mirrors reflect various things in various worlds. Above the sky looks like a large nebula, roiling with purples and reds and yellows. Around the plaza is the Chaos Sea, made of mercury that reflects the lights from above. It rolls with soft waves. The wind is sweet.
A path leads from the Plaza to a city wall in the distance. Behind it is a large castle, a shining beacon. The path is guarded by a pair of anthropomorphic men in what appear to be civil war era uniforms. They carry weapons made of light.
The castle in the distance has high walls, made of a stone that glows softly. Inside of the walls is a small city, built around the castle proper.
Notes:
Items cannot be removed from the Dreamlands without other gifts - they collapse into dreamstuff when coming out.
The Chaos Sea will consume anything placed inside its heavy waters
Leaving 'mapped areas' is very unsafe, and easily leads to being lost in a constantly shifting haze from which escape is very difficult.
Exert your Mind (unless you are leaving the Travel Plaza) and spend 2 Actions. If you are at The Travel Plaza in Minerva's Castle in the Dreamlands, you may choose a target Location which you can perceive and pinpoint in some way - through sight, GPS coordinates, etc; otherwise, your target may only be The Travel Plaza in Minerva's Castle in the Dreamlands.
You are transported directly to the chosen Location. Anyone who is touching you as you Travel will be brought along with you. You must wait 1 full Round before activating this Effect again.
Steve brandishes his pocket bible and his cross, summoning up his faith and repelling foes with a blast of light and a whiff of saltwater.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action to activate. You must actively and obviously use holy items to activate this Effect. Roll Intellect + Brawl at Difficulty 6.
Create a repulsion field which extends out 15 feet from you in every direction, and lasts for the next 3 Rounds. Any Animate targets within the field cannot move any closer towards you. If they were within 15 feet from you when you activated the effect, they are immediately pushed back to the edge of the repulsion field.
You must maintain Concentration during this Effect.
Exert your Mind (only for extinguishing a fire, no cost for starting one) 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 may start or extinguish a fire as large as a firepit's fire at your target. Your fires require fuel and oxygen in order to continue burning.
Lighting a target on fire deals 4 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.
The word used to heal the wound varies by the type, location, and severity. But I have learned to deal them all. You will be healed.
Exert your Mind and spend 15 minutes. Select a Living or Animate target within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use Atlantian Grimoir to activate this Effect. Choose a specific Injury on your target that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Intellect + Occult at Difficulty 8.
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.
The Witch gazes at a calm and trusting animal and blinks, revealing eyes that have changed to match the creature's. Her body goes limp and collapses, and the witch proceeds to walk away, now temporarily borrowing the animal's body.
A borrowing Witch is a visitor in the animal's mind and cannot overstay her welcome or force the animal into danger.
Spend an Action or Reaction. Select a Non-Alien Creature target within 20 feet. The target may Resist.
You possess your target and have control over their actions for the next hour. Your original body will be left behind, unconscious. You may perceive through your original body's senses by maintaining Concentration. If your original body is touched, you may roll Perception + Alertness to notice. You may spend an Action to end the possession early.
Stats: Any Actions you take will use the possessed creature’s Brawn, Dexterity, and Perception, but use your own Charisma, Intellect, and Abilities.
Gifts: You do not have access to any Gifts while you are possessing your target.
Death: If the host suffers an Injury, or is destroyed or incapacitated, you are evicted back into your own body. If the possession ends and your original body was killed or destroyed, you will die.
Eviction: You cannot force your host to take Actions which would violate their instinct for self-preservation (which includes engaging in Combat for any purpose other than self-defense or natural hunting); any attempt to do so will sever the connection and send you back into your own body. If you are forced out of the target's body prematurely, you must make a Trauma roll.
Targets with Body ratings higher than 10 require a Charisma + Animals roll resisted by the target’s Body. Kaiju and environment-scale targets are immune.
This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 2.
The Future Soldier learned to create foam grenades in their own time period, and they still can, kinda. They look like glowing orange capsules with a rugged rubberized grip. When thrown, they burst into a splash of expanding neon orange foam. The foam hardens in seconds, severely hampering the movement of anyone unlucky enough to have been splashed. Those affected may use their hands or weapons to hack away at the foam and free themselves.
Occasionally, the fuses on these bootleg grenades fails, and they go off immediately.
Spend an Action and use up this small metallic grenade with pin (unless you succeed on 1d10, Difficulty 7). Make a thrown Attack at a Location within normal Attack range. Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you are hit as it activates immediately at your present location. The target may roll to dodge or Defend, as normal for thrown Attacks. The Attack itself does not deal any Damage beyond the Effect.
If you succeed, all affected targets will be restricted at their location by a physical, tangible binding. They can still move their arms and use Effects, but are reduced to ¼ of their movement speed.
The binding around a target must be destroyed in order for them to break free. Breaking the binding requires a total amount of Damage equal to twice the original Contested Outcome. Damage from multiple attacks is cumulative and stacks linearly.
By slowing the hands of one of their watches, the time-traveler may interrupt and slow a target's movement through time. The target appears to be moving in slow motion for the duration.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Animate target within 20 feet. You must actively and obviously use a watch or clock to activate this Effect. Roll Intellect + Science at Difficulty 7.
If you succeed, the target will suffer a dice penalty equal to the Outcome for the next 2 Rounds. Dice pools may be reduced all the way down to 0 by this penalty. This breaks Concentration.
You may activate this Effect as a Reaction to contest any Action a valid target is taking, reducing their Outcome by your own. Your command has no impact beyond disrupting their Action.
The spy is able to transform an ordinary ballpoint pen into a monitoring device that is inconspicuous enough to blend in to most settings, but advanced enough to allow 360 degree surveillance as well as audio capture, which is sent to their smartphone.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Location within 10 feet. You must actively and obviously use a ballpoint pen to activate this Effect.
You place a ward, which is fixed to its initial location. You can hear and see through the ward as though you were standing at its location. Your wards last 3 hours. You may have at most 3 wards active at once.
The ward requires Concentration to monitor, though it will remain active until you deactivate it. It can be detected with a roll and destroyed through mundane means.
Doc puts his hands on you and begins to mutter to himself in french. The effect is instant and horrible. You begin to remember all of the sins of your past, all the ways that you've wronged those who loved you. All of the terrible, evil things you've done on these contracts in order to survive. Doc seems to be in the grips of similar memories, tears running down his chin and dripping onto his hands that are pressed tightly against you. At the point where your mind feels like it's about to break, it's over. Just as quickly as it began. You feel your wounds begin to close.
Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. Select a Living target within arm's reach. You must make a Trauma roll when you use this Effect. Its Difficulty cannot be reduced by any means. If you fail or Botch, you receive one Mind Damage and a new Trauma. Your target must make a Trauma roll to reap the benefits of this Effect. They may choose to Resist the Effect and not make the roll. Choose a specific Injury on your target that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Charisma + 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.