Drunken Somersault Cloud “Whee”

1
Requires Seasoned
The power to fly through the air at impressive speeds.
Used by Stinky Pete, Created by jwesley123.
(This Effect is obviously Alien when used.)

Pete stands tall, his eyes fixed on the sky. He takes a deep breath and lets out a sharp whistle, a clear, resonant sound that echoes in the air. Moments later, a small, fluffy cloud begins to descend from the heavens, looking almost like a soft, white piece of the sky itself, reminiscent of ancient tales.

As the cloud draws nearer, Pete braces himself, then performs a flawless somersault, landing deftly on top of the cloud. The cloud feels surprisingly solid beneath his feet, and a sense of lightness envelops him. With a focused mind, Pete maintains his concentration, ensuring the ritual's success. He stands on the cloud, which gently rises, lifting him above the ground.

The cloud, now carrying Pete, begins to move smoothly and silently. As he gains altitude, he feels an exhilarating sense of freedom. The landscape below grows smaller, and the wind rushes past him. He leans forward slightly, and the cloud responds, moving forward with ease, though it sways gently, almost as if it had a playful spirit.

While flying, Pete can maneuver the cloud with incredible agility, reminiscent of the legendary journey of Sun Wukong. He darts left and right, ascends and descends with precision, the cloud effortlessly following his movements. It sways and moves with a life of its own, a subtle nod to its mythical origins.

As Pete glides through the air, the world below unfolds in a breathtaking panorama. The cloud remains steady beneath him, providing a safe and reliable platform. For two hours, Pete soars through the skies, exploring the world from a bird's-eye view, immune to the dangers of falling and reveling in the unmatched freedom of flight. The cloud, seemingly imbued with ancient magic, hints at its legendary origin tied to the mythical Monkey King.


Exert your Mind and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: Pete Whistles and waits for a small cloud to descend from the sky he dodges it with a somersault landing on top then. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted. This Effect remains active for two hours.

As long as you are conscious, you are immune to falling Damage and may hover in place mid-air. Additionally, you may glide as you fall, traveling 35 feet horizontally for every 10 feet you fall. While gliding, you fall at a minimum speed of 10 feet per Round.

You may ascend into the air and fly using your Small Cloud. You require 10 feet of clear space on all sides to fly. You may add 50 feet to Movement you take while flying.

You are subject to the following effects while gliding or flying:

  • Dive Bomb: When falling, you may rapidly accelerate beyond terminal velocity, moving 2000 feet per round, so long as you fall straight down, allowing you to easily catch other falling targets.
  • Ethereal Wings: Your Small Cloud can no longer be damaged, destroyed, or receive Battle Scars.
  • Evasive Maneuvers: During your turn, if you moved mostly through the air but traveled less than your Free Movement, all attacks against you are at a -2 dice penalty until your next turn.
  • Look Ma, No Hands: You can't use any equipment which requires the use of your hands.
  • Earthbound: You cannot fly or glide in an atmosphere thin enough to be unbreathable.
  • Weight-Limited: This Effect is suppressed any time you are over-encumbered.

  • Any penalties to dice or movement, including from Encumbrance, are applied as normal. If your movement is reduced to 0 due to encumbrance, you will begin to sink down to the ground.
  • You may activate this Effect while in midair, allowing you to slow and survive any free fall.

Community Activated Gifts

Minerva's will begins to manifest further. More than just influencing people, more than just influencing herself, her will begins to spill over onto the world itself.

She started with small changes the first night, exploring the spark that had formed in her. The next night, she had fur. She could feel her bones grind, her jaw cracking as it turned into a maw, her flesh stretch as a tail burst out. She collapsed, crying. But they were tears of happiness, for in this first moment, all was right in the world. She slept like that, the first time she did it. It was restful sleep. She sleeps like that whenever she can now.

She's realized that her clothes are merely an extension of herself - and as such, she can mutate them just as much.

///
Meta: Minerva's mutation is more than just bone deep, and a large part of her transformation is instinctive and subconscious. When she gives herself fur, she's also instinctively messing with her own neurochemistry. She experiences a form of mild and constant euphoria while transformed.

She needs a mirror because she's exerting her will on changing herself, and at the moment, she needs to look at what she's doing.

"Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both marble and sculptor."

///
History: As Minerva's concept comes together, I think 'everything is a cantrip / is effortless for her' is a big part of it. At the point of this edit, the power hasn't been used on a contract or a significant part of a move.

After Minerva's inability to use her powers while she was transformed lead to one of her fellow contractors dying, she focused, practicing. Practicing, practicing. She learned to use them when she's not her... but the pain she worked though is still there, always in the back of her mind.

Seasoned:
Minerva's powers intensified. Building on top of the latent power she has over other people, it's blossomed into something entirely more. People accept her if she believes she should be accepted. Her changes are deeper, touching her soul. But most importantly, they last. They last as long as she needs. She goes to sleep and awakes.. proper.
Something's happened, though. She doesn't have full control over it, and when she tries to change her form, it's almost like holding onto water. She needs to struggle as hard as she can just to keep from falling apart. It's hard work, and she has to exert her mind. At times, she wishes it was as easy as before.

Professional:
Minerva's experiences - traumatic and otherwise - have provided a little bit of clarity. She's only truly content in her true form. She's reluctant to do it - it takes her longer, she has a little bit less control over mutating her true form. But after everything that's happened, it's not quite as traumatic - she knows she'll go back. It's a deeper shift, as well. If something happens, she won't 'finch', and go back to her true form. She knows she can go back to it when she can. Just not yet.

Exert your Mind and spend a half hour. You must actively and obviously use a silver fox pendant to activate this Effect.

You become disguised in a manner of your choosing. The disguise lasts until you either activate a new disguise, or choose to end the effect.

The new appearance may have a different sex, age, and race to your own, and you may alter height by up to a foot and your weight by 50%. Your disguise cannot directly mimic an existing person. You may change the appearance of your outfit. Your disguise can alter your smell, DNA, and other aspects that are not perceivable via human senses. This does not conceal you against investigative Effects. A disguise cannot affect your Attributes or other stats.

You can "pass" in any culture or group without arousing suspicion as long as you look normal for that group and can communicate with those inside the group.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see The moment Minerva 'unlatches' her form, it pulses like a degaussed TV. Her clothes and flesh both smear some, uncountable wounds on her her leaking. They don't seem to hurt, but she's obviously struggling to stay in one piece. In the wounds, the tears to another place entirely, one can sense all the things that shouldn't be said. Intrusive thoughts come to mind. But are they hers? Or yours?.

After this Effect ends, you cannot move quicker than a walk (15 feet per Round) for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour.

You may only use this Effect once per day.

  • While you may alter your outfit's appearance, this does not grant or store equipment.
  • When narrating disturbing content, be cognizant of your group's tone and accommodating to those who would like to "fast forward" through the description.

Exert your Mind (unless having less than 4 Body) and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use Overcoat/cloak to activate this Effect.

You transform into Bat for two hours.You are unable to revert to your original form at will and must wait for the duration to fully elapse before returning to normal. See the Extended System text for stats.

While transformed, you cannot use any equipment (including Artifacts and Consumables), and you do not have access to any of your Powers. Any equipment you are wearing transforms with you.

Injuries and Wound Level are carried over between forms. However, transforming can never kill you; you merely remain Incapacitated until your Injuries are sufficiently healed.

  • Creature Stats
    • Small (mouse up to regular house cat) Body 1. Brawn 0. Dexterity 4. Cannot injure others with attacks. Cannot die from falling damage. +3 dice to Stealth rolls.
    All creatures get +3 dice to any non-combat Action that they are naturally adapted for. All creatures Medium and larger may attack by rolling Body, dealing +0 Damage (+1 for “predators”). Gms and Playgroup leaders can apply other bonuses and effects to specific animals.
  • Animals that are quicker than humans (like dogs) have 50 feet of Free Movement. Animals that are very slow (like turtles) have 0 feet of Free Movement.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action.

Your senses are enhanced in the following way. Lasts for three hours.

  • Sight: You can see perfectly in dark and even pitch-black environments. You suffer no dice penalty due to darkness.
  • Sight: You can see things that are up to a mile away as though you were only standing twenty feet away, provided your view is unobstructed.
  • Thermal: You are able to "see" heat signatures within your line of sight.

  • Your thermal vision allows you to judge temperatures of surfaces fairly accurately as long as they are within livable temperatures.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action.

Your Stress from Injuries and Mind Damage is reduced to 0. Lasts three hours.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action to activate.

You and any clothes or equipment you are wearing are partially obscured from sight for the next 3 Rounds. All attempts to detect you using sight are rolled at a -3 dice penalty.

Entering Combat or being Injured will end the Effect. When the Effect ends, it is disabled for 1 minute.

  • GMs should use their discretion when determining the exact impacts of this Effect, particularly in conjunction with environmental factors. Standing still against a complex background may render you impossible to detect, and footprints in snow may make it easy. A chance to detect you is not guaranteed.

Stock Activated Gifts

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use a broom to activate this Effect. This Effect remains active for two hours.

As long as you are conscious, you are immune to falling Damage and may hover in place mid-air. Additionally, you may glide as you fall, traveling 35 feet horizontally for every 10 feet you fall. While gliding, you fall at a minimum speed of 10 feet per Round.

You may ascend into the air and fly using your mind. Your Free Movement is Mind x5 feet/Round, including vertically. You cannot Dash. When sprinting, roll Mind and add your rating in Mind plus 1 to the outcome, multiply by 5 to find your sprint speed. Your encumbrance limit is 10 lbs per point of Mind.

You are subject to the following effects while gliding or flying:

  • Evasive Maneuvers: During your turn, if you moved mostly through the air but traveled less than your Free Movement, all attacks against you are at a -2 dice penalty until your next turn.
  • Earthbound: You cannot fly or glide in an atmosphere thin enough to be unbreathable.
  • Weight-Limited: This Effect is suppressed any time you are over-encumbered.

  • Any penalties to dice or movement, including from Encumbrance, are applied as normal. If your movement is reduced to 0 due to encumbrance, you will begin to sink down to the ground.
  • You may activate this Effect while in midair, allowing you to slow and survive any free fall.

Exert your Mind and spend a minute.

You become disguised in a manner of your choosing. The disguise lasts for two hours, or you may end it early at will.

The new appearance must have a similar sex, age, and race to your own. You cannot significantly change your height and weight. Your disguise cannot directly mimic an existing person. You may change the appearance of your outfit. A disguise cannot affect your Attributes or other stats.

You may roll Charisma + Crafts to attempt to make your disguise Beautiful. If your Outcome is 6 or higher, non-Effect Charisma rolls where your good looks could help are rolled at -2 Difficulty. If you fail or botch, you are ugly instead, and non-Effect Charisma rolls are made at +2 Difficulty.

You cannot alter the appearance of your flesh and blood.

  • While you may alter your outfit's appearance, this does not grant or store equipment. This does not allow you to change the appearance of Artifacts or conceal their Alien appearance.
  • ‘Appearance’ includes voice, bone structure, skin quality, hair length and color, eye color, muscle tone, flesh texture, and generally anything perceivable about your body.

Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend 15 minutes. This Effect cannot be used unless you are in a wilderness environment.

Choose a specific type of food, water, or survival supply which could fit inside a regular backpack (up to 27 liters). It must be Non-Alien and generic. You cannot create explosives. You cannot create firearms.

Roll Perception + Survival to fabricate up to 5 copies of your chosen Object. The Difficulty is assigned by the GM and depends on the specificity of your chosen Object. Your created items no longer expire, and will last until they are destroyed.

  • You may cause a created item to expire at will as a Free Action, destroying the item.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action.

Lasts 1 minute. Whenever you use your Movement, after all other calculations, the distance you may travel is doubled.

  • Any Encumbrance penalty to your movement still applies, but you do not suffer from any sort of exhaustion.
  • Damage from a collision depends on your speed at the time, as well as what you hit. GM's discretion, but generally moving faster than a car on the freeway and hitting a dense, solid object like a wall or a tree should be lethal. Mundane armor will not apply, but any supernatural forms of protection will.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use a watch to activate this Effect.

Lasts 1 minute. Whenever you use your Movement, after all other calculations, the distance you may travel is doubled.

Outside of Combat, any non-Gift, non-movement Actions you attempt take drastically less time to complete, as long as your personal speed is a factor in the Action. Total time reduction is determined by the GM and capped at 90% (executing the Action takes no less than 1/10th the normal time).

  • The time reduction on non-Movement Actions applies only to the parts of actions when your personal speed is a factor,: pouring water or smoking a steak are not affected, but constructing a shelter or picking a lock would be. The GM will determine how much the total time is reduced based on how relevant personal speed is to the task.
  • Any Encumbrance penalty to your movement still applies, but you do not suffer from any sort of exhaustion.
  • Damage from a collision depends on your speed at the time, as well as what you hit. GM's discretion, but generally moving faster than a car on the freeway and hitting a dense, solid object like a wall or a tree should be lethal. Mundane armor will not apply, but any supernatural forms of protection will.