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You gain the following benefits as long as Alternate form is active and you are wearing this Artifact.
You gain 5 additional limbs that function as standard human arms and hands.
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 is incapable of fine object manipulation.
It is often said that the descendants of the Witch Queen of Ancient Briton can hear her whispers whilst grasping upon the blood-linked Tome.
Compulsion of Comprehend
"What is unknown shall be made known."
- Anytime you encounter any form of mystery, you must succeed a Self-Control roll to resist satiating your curiosity.
Compulsion to Conserve
"All knowledge must be preserved."
- Anytime you encounter any written source of magic, you must succeed a Self-Control roll to resist becoming distracted and investing time into making a copy of the text into your Tome.
This Artifact cannot be broken. If this Artifact is lost and in no one else’s possession, it finds its way back to its true owner during the next Downtime.
By default, the creator of this Artifact is its true owner. The true owner may formally bequeath this Artifact onto another person within arm’s reach, after which they are its true owner. If the true owner dies or is destroyed, their ownership ends. If this Artifact has no true owner, anyone may spend one day attuning to it to become its true owner.
This Artifact's true owner is always aware of the direction and distance to this Artifact.
If the true owner of this Artifact ever dies, it immediately disappears. At least one week later, it will appear to blood-related kin and reveal its power to them. They become its new true owner.
If this Artifact is used by someone other than its true owner, its true owner is alerted and learns the user's appearance, direction, and distance at that moment. The true owner may use a single investigation Effect on them once at any range.
If this Artifact is in no one else’s possession, its true owner may Exert their Mind and spend two Actions to bring it to themselves.
This Artifact's true owner must have it with them to have restful sleep. They cannot regain Mind or Source while separated from this Artifact.
Anyone who touches this Artifact will notice it warping their mind and may drop it. If they choose to hold or use it, they immediately receive the following Trauma: Compulsion to Comprehend and Compulsion to Conserve. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Trauma heals over the course of the next day.
When Selma activates Doctor’s Orders, she closes the distance with an eerie calm. As she speaks, her golden glasses catch the light unnaturally, gleaming with a brilliance that no earthly material should possess.
The air between her and the target seems to ripple faintly, as though reality itself is bending to listen.
For just a heartbeat, the target sees their own reflection in the lenses — warped by emotion, intensified into something impossible to ignore.
Observers will instantly know something unnatural is happening, even if they can’t quite explain what.
Doctor’s Orders is not simply persuasion.
It is the clinical weaponization of human emotion — the perfect merging of Selma’s medical mastery and her supernatural Gifts.
The glasses she wears are relics of another reality, tuned to the human soul rather than the human mind. Through whispered words and flashes of hypnotic gold, she can peel back the careful rationalizations people build around themselves, leaving only raw, unfiltered emotion.
Most never realize they've been tampered with. They just act — as if the choices were their own all along.
The legend of Doctor Whispers is whispered in fear and awe because of this: not that she controls minds, but that she convinces you to destroy yourself — gladly.
Exert your Mind and spend one minute. Select a number of Living or Animate targets equal to your Charisma within arm's reach as well as a specific emotion. Roll Charisma + Medicine at Difficulty 6. Affected targets can resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6 -3 dice.
If you succeed, for the next hour, affected targets will do things they otherwise wouldn’t have done, inspired by the chosen emotion. They will not necessarily display their emotions in an obvious way.
Actions they take will be in keeping with their character and the way they tend to deal with strong emotions. They will be unlikely to change their mind about any actions taken or decisions made until after the Effect ends.
If you choose to use Chain of Screaming, your target interacts with any valid target, they must roll Self-Control or be swept up in the same emotion. New targets pass it on as well, and so on, with the remaining duration decreasing by half until the chain stops.
If any affected target takes or deals Damage, this Effect ends.
The Book of Set grants Bill the ability to heal wounds quickly while he possesses the book.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.
Any Injury you receive heals quickly, reducing its Severity by one level each hour. Any Injuries you receive while this Effect is active do not deteriorate over time. However, any Battle Scars caused by such an Injury will remain unless it is Properly Stabilized as normal.
As long as at least half your body remains intact, you cannot die and remain at Incapacitated, regardless of how many Injuries you take. It is clear to observers that you are still alive.
You may Exert your Mind and spend an Action to reduce the Severity of one of your Injuries by 2. Does not affect Injuries suffered as an activation cost for Effects.
The user watches the pocket watch tick down in a irregular pattern, sharp purple eyes can be seen closing slowly as the dials spin. The user then clicks the winder once the eyes are closed and they burst open with a soft rumble, opening doors and safes with a mere gaze to feed the desires of the user.
In car form, the same is done via the headlights/taillights.
The pocket watch grows in power.
The user feels it watching them in the night, watching their movements, their desires, their pleasures. It studies them.
Spend an Action.
You may lock, unlock, and/or open any number of doors, containers, knots, or locks within 300 feet of you. Cannot be used on Alien technology.
The user uses the Mutagen Injector to inject the target with a bubbling red liquid, which causes the target's flesh, bone, and organs to mutate and develop hard cancerous growths. Over time, these growths spread throughout the target's body, eventually proving fatal.
After obtaining a blood sample from a genetically-engineered werewolf, Xaver researched it's properties, and found that it contained independent compounds which could self-replicate any organic solution it is present in if stimulated correctly, and cause rapid cancerous mutations in most living tissues. Xaver is currently using this to expedite his research, creating cancer biopsy samples from various healthy tissue samples. While the mutagen takes time to self-replicate, it does create enough to be used once per day.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action to activate. Select a Animate target within arm’s reach. Roll Intellect + Medicine at Difficulty 6. Your target may resist by rolling Body at Difficulty 8.
If you succeed, the target is afflicted with a Condition that causes any number of the following symptoms:
The affliction is not treatable by modern medicine. It may be diagnosed by rolling Intellect + Medicine at Difficulty 6, and can be cured by cutting out the growths.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see the target mutating to display visible cancerous growths.
You may only use this Effect once per day.
The lightning bracers can be activated to summon a thunderbolt into the wearer's hand. Throwing these thunderbolts makes an incredibly loud boom. Once a thunderbolt is in hand, the wearer can throw as many as they wish. The electricity from these bolts will jump between nearby targets.
This Artifact produces ephemeral projectiles that can be used as a javelin.
Attack by rolling Brawn + Athletics, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +3 Weapon Damage.
You also gain the following effects:
The Skeleton Key slips easily into any keyhole and turns without a fuss.
Spend an Action.
You may lock, unlock, and/or open any number of doors, containers, knots, or locks within arm's reach of you. Cannot be used on Alien technology.
If you successfully operate a lock, you may choose to destroy it, rendering it inoperable.
The "Reaper" Assault Helmet is the signature piece of the Future Soldier's arsenal. It has a sleek, design and is made of a mysterious matte-metallic alloy. The wearer's face is exposed normally, but when activated, a blue holographic visor flickers to life in front of the eyes. This HUD contains information about the soldier's ammunition and shield status, but more significantly can detect enemy combatants. Anyone nearby who is holding a weapon is painted with a red dot that follows them in real time. This allows the Future Soldier to fire at painted targets in the dark, detect ambushes lurking around corners, and grants an overall tactical advantage.
Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action.
You automatically detect all people wielding weapons within 300 feet of you for the next hour. This includes any who come within range during the duration. You have a sense of how many valid targets are nearby, as well as their distance and direction.
The 255TE "Lancer" Rife fires an extremely deadly spike of plasma at its targets. It comes standard with a volume control, allowing the soldier to mute its normally fearsome lightning crack report for stealth missions. When not in use, it can collapse into a small metal disk that can fit into any utility belt.
This Artifact can be used as a rifle. It is roughly the same size as a rifle but can be collapsed into a metallic disk and concealed. Collapsing or expanding it costs a Quick Action.
Attack by rolling Dexterity + Firearms, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +5 Weapon Damage.
You also gain the following effects:
The airship of solitude is the mad scientist's lair and preferred mode of travel. Not only does it include a full science laboratory, it can be collapsed into an incredibly small canvas cube and easily transported. The mad scientist may pilot the ship alone or rely on its autopilot features for ultimate convenience.
This Artifact can be used as a blimp. It is roughly the same size as a blimp but can be collapsed into a phone-sized canvas cube and concealed. Collapsing or expanding it costs a Quick Action.
This blimp has full science laboratory, bullet-proof envelope, and ample parachutes. Any roll to pilot this vehicle receives +2 dice.
You also gain the following effects: