You place the windup key to the back of a toy, or similarly human representing golem. Twist for a minute until your hand begins to hurt. The toy will animate and grow in size to a friendly helper of the one holding the windup key.
If there is no toy, starting the process as if there were one will slowly make a basic enlarged teddy bear.
This artifact relies on the cultural idea of toys, and the cultural idea of wind up toys, especially in the minds of children. The basic idea of these wind up toys is that you wind them up, then let them go and they move around doing toy things, seeming almost alive. This artifact takes that idea, and merges it with a few other ideas of ways to create useful servants to make an artifact capable of making useful friendly minions.
The ritual to create this artifact relies on a ritual involving
- A variety of children's toys which are popular in the shared imagination
- A collection of stories and myths about the Hebrew golumn
- Mary Shelly's frankenstein
- Carefully shaping the pattern of a wind up key while reading various relevant parts of these stories
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Summon a single Sapient enlarged animated toy at your location. They last until they are destroyed They are controlled by the GM but will follow any commands you give. This Artifact may have at most one minion active at a time.
The chains of Octavius sneak off his body and float, glowing ever so slightly a hue of blue.
Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend an Action.
You gain an additional limb that functions as a standard human arm and hand. Lasts two hours.
Each additional limb you posses can take one Quick Action per Round without incurring a -2 dice penalty to your main Action. Each additional appendage you have gives you +1 dice to make and resist Grapples (up to a maximum bonus of +4 dice).
Any Battle Scars that affect or remove your additional limb will heal in a single week.
Your extra appendage can be used to attack in exactly the same manner as a Whip.
You may dedicate your extra Quick Action to contest any attempt to escape your Grapples. If you do so, you roll your full dice pool to contest and retain your Action to do anything that does not target the subject of your Grapple.
Your extra appendage is not connected to your nervous or circulatory systems, and you will not take damage if it is hit by an attack or destroyed.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see Ghostly chains.
Your Extra Appendage is incapable of fine object manipulation.
The strands of muscle within my body are suffused with an alien power, they pulse ominously. My skin becomes clear as the muscles pulse, showing the thick strands of muscle beneath.
Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend 1 minute. You must actively and obviously use My rosary to activate this Effect. Choose a specific Injury on yourself that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Brawn + Athletics 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 The sight of my temporarily skinless body..
When the Red Twitching Larvae is consumed, it writhes and pulses as it dissolves in your mouth, staining your teeth and tongue a deep, blood-red. Your skin begins to swell and ripple unnaturally, as if countless insects are crawling just beneath the surface. Within moments, flesh sloughs off in wet, pulsing chunks, unraveling like decaying threads. Swarms of fat, glistening blood flies spill from every opening — eyes, mouth, pores — until your body collapses entirely into a buzzing, writhing cloud.
The swarm itself drifts and writhes like any mass of insects, though an astute observer might notice a disquieting coordination to its movements. The flies hover unnaturally close together, their collective hum almost rhythmic, like a pulse. Despite the grotesque spectacle, there is no immediate indication that the swarm is anything more than a natural occurrence — unless, of course, someone witnessed the gruesome transformation.
The larvae itself is a slick, crimson thing that pulses with an internal glow, unmistakably unnatural. Even before activation, it twitches and squirms of its own accord, as if eager to be consumed.
Use up this Red Twitching Larvae and spend an Action.
You transform into a swarm of blood flies for the next minute. You may end the effect early and return to your normal form at will. Your structure must remain relatively contiguous. It is not necessarily obvious that your transformed state is an unusual phenomena or that it is acting with singular purpose.
While in this form, you can squeeze through any gap that is not air-tight, though this may take more than one Action at GMs discretion.
Damage from standard attacks is halved, but Damage from AOE effects is increased by 1. You may suffer Damage from wind and powerful gusts at GM’s discretion. You may spend an Action to reduce one of your Injuries’ Severity by 2, as long as you obtained the Injury while transformed and the separated pieces could reasonably be rejoined.
You cannot communicate, use equipment, or use Gifts while transformed. Your equipment does not transform with you beyond basic body coverings. Carrying capacity is unaffected.
While transformed, you can make an unarmed attack using Body as your attack roll. The target may contest by dodging or Defending. This attack deals +2 damage.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see your body slowly decomopose into a swarm of fat blood flies.
While this Effect is active, you are at -2 dice to all Actions and cannot Concentrate.
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.
Pen transforms into a large, tattooed raven. It can speak, and her Left Hand of Darkness wraps tightly around its torso, allowing her to manipulate objects that would normally require a human hand even in this form.
Pen performed a dream ritual to bring a familiar into this world. Most of the time, that familiar is locked in her mind, but sometimes, it allows her to use its physical form.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. This Effect cannot be used unless Pen is unobserved.
You transform into a large black raven, with white markings on its beak and the underside of its wings until you transform into something else or choose to return to your original form. See the Extended System text for stats.
While transformed, you cannot use any equipment (including Artifacts and Consumables), and you cannot use your Active, Targeted, or Trap Powers. However, you can use your Passive 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.
While transformed, you may speak and use any Influence or Communication Powers you posses.
While transformed, you are obviously unusual, unnatural, or alien, and the average person will take a special interest in you.
Nikolái´s stomach grows and grows until it can no longer do so. So does everything in his body, such as his chest, legs and arms. He becomes an absolute fucking unit, twice or thrice his already abnormal size.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must use up beer in order to activate this Effect.
You transform into Fatter self for 30 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are Fatter self, and you can use your equipment. Your Battle Scars, Injuries, and physical Liabilities are carried over between forms. Reverting from your Alternate Form cannot cause your existing Injuries to kill you. Instead, you remain Incapacitated.
While transformed, your Brawn is increased by 1. Your Stress is reduced by 2.
Your body is adapted to Defending. You receive +3 dice on non-attack rolls related to Defending.
Your alternate form is its own deadly weapon. Unarmed attacks made in your alternate form deal +3 Weapon Damage (instead of the typical -1).
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see an obese person.
You may only use this Effect once per day.
The Witch wiggles her fingers at her broomstick, and it leaps from the ground with a whoosh of wind. She may then hop on and fly around. It’s so fun, she often finds herself cackling uncontrollably.
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:
The aquamancer spends a minute soaking their wounds in at least a gallon of water. During this time, the injured area is obviously absorbing the liquid, and the flesh visibly knits back together.
Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. You must use up at least a gallon of water in order to activate this Effect. Choose a specific Injury on yourself that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Brawn + Survival 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.
The Ninja is a master at blending in to any crowd or organization. If they can find complete privacy, they may channel their ninjutsu to temporarily create the illusion of any outfit or uniform they desire. The new clothes shimmer into existence over their existing garb over the course of a minute of meditation.
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.
The toon shouts a catchphrase, strikes a pose, and then zips away at a high speed, leaving a cloud of dust behind. While moving, they look like a blur.
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.
The Thief casts a container's worth of fine powder into the air. The particulates are drawn to any sort of object that is designed to detect people, including tripwires, security cameras, detection lasers, heat sensors, etc. The powder will not trigger these devices or interfere with their operation, but it does reveal their presence to the Thief.
The cloud drifts and swirls, subtly following the Thief for a minute.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must use up a container of fine powder in order to activate this Effect.
You automatically detect all object that are designed to detect people, including tripwires, security cameras, detection lasers, heat sensors, etc within 50 feet of you for the next hour. You have a clear sense of both the distance and direction towards any detected items. When you detect objects, instead of learning nothing about them, you may observe each object with all of your senses.