The character snaps up an ethereal quill, and chaos erupts. Glowing script slashes through the air, whipping around like a storm of words. As they "write," the battlefield shudders—pages tear from the ground, sky splitting into fragments of text. Enemies are caught mid-action, their fates scrawled out in real-time, locked into a story they can’t escape.
Some drop instantly, their endings abrupt and brutal, while others are erased, as if written out of existence. The battlefield is left in shambles, the final stroke a violent "The End" scrawled in the chaos.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a target within 50 feet. Roll Perception + Alertness 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.
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.
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.
Oct. 22, 2024, 3:23 a.m. - Revision Cost: 4. Removed Enhancement: Easy, Removed Drawback: Exhausting
Through the boons of satan, Terra alters the mind his targets exerting his control and forcing the darkness of sin and evil to cloud what they see.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action to activate. Select a target within arm's reach. Choose an illusion to generate, which can be no larger than a briefcase.
The chosen illusion is generated at your target, and it will remain in place for the next minute. It can be perceived by people through their sight. The illusion cannot be used as an attack. You cannot make an exact replica of an existing Animate being.
Anyone who touches the illusion (or who would be able to perceive it significantly through a sense it cannot fool) realizes it is an illusion and can choose to perceive it or not at will.
The illusion will remain fixed to its initial target, and can only change locations if the initial target is mobile in some way. It may have moving parts and engage in simple, predetermined movements but cannot perform anything complex or interactive unless you maintain Concentration and “puppeteer” it.
I read an incantation from my tome, becoming enwreathed in a redish orange energy and expel dragonic fire from my mouth
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Location no further than 40 feet from you and in your line of sight. The area within 25 feet of the chosen Location immediately and obviously becomes imminently dangerous. Roll Intellect + Occult at Difficulty 6. Targets inside the radius may attempt an appropriate Reaction at GM’s discretion. Finding a physical barrier to use as cover will cut total Damage taken in half (applies after Reaction roll but before Armor).
If the Outcome is positive, your blast hits everything within 25 feet of the chosen Location with Damage equal to your Outcome + 4.
Any flammable Objects within the radius during the blast will catch fire, and any being who takes at least 4 Damage will catch fire. Starting the Round after they caught fire, flaming targets take 2 Damage per Round until the fire is extinguished.
The user opens the leather journal and points at the creature as their species and location becomes written on the journal along with the current time and a ??? indicating when the possession will end, when it's finished being written the shadow of the user and the creature will merge to create a patch of darkness that slowly becomes material and begins restraining the creature with fully physical tendrils. These tendrils bind the creature to the ground as the user is pushed into a fit of vomiting out blackish slime and blood. As more of the substance leaves the body the more the user becomes lethargic until the point of unconsciousness. The substance then merges into one full blob and enters the creature's body through their mouth at which point they're fully taken over by the user.
Spend an Action to activate. Select a Creature target within 20 feet. You must actively and obviously use A leather journal to activate this Effect.
You possess your target and have control over their actions for the next hour. Your original body will be left behind, unconscious, in its same location. You may spend a Committed 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 becomes incapacitated or is destroyed, you are forcibly evicted back into your own body. If the possession ends and your original body was killed or destroyed in some way, 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.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see you forcefully restraining a creature with inky black tendrils, vomiting out your own slimy spirit out and inserting it into the creature.
This Gift's Cost is capped at 2 and cannot be increased further.
The drone lifts off into the air, and buzzes around the area. Loaded with scanners, it does its best to gather information about the area before returning to the owners feet and displaying its information on a small screen.
Expend a point of Battery and spend a minute. Investigate an area with a radius of up to 100 feet At the end of your investigation, roll Intellect + Technology at Difficulty 6.
You learn the following information about the area:
You cannot investigate the same area more than once per day.
Maru puts a gauntlet to their helmet, clicking a button. A few whirrs can be heard, before their helmet displays the information on the area around them. Mostly geographical, but new Web technologies allow them to detect some anomalous energies.
Expend a point of Battery and spend a minute. Investigate an area with a radius of up to 100 feet At the end of your investigation, roll Intellect + Culture at Difficulty 6.
You learn the following information about the area:
You cannot investigate the same area more than once per day.
Through years of practice, the mobster is able to shatter someone's kneecap without much effort.
Spend an Action. Select a Living target within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use a melee weapon to activate this Effect. Roll Brawn + Melee at Difficulty 6. The target may roll Body, -2 dice at Difficulty 7, as a Free Action to resist.
If you succeed, the target receives a new Battle Scar of your choosing, limited by the contested Outcome:
All alterations you make must damage the target's knees.
This Gift's Cost is capped at 2 and cannot be increased further.
The mutant now occasionally lays large, orange-speckled eggs. These Eggs do not hatch nor spoil. If cracked and applied to a chronic injury such as a missing limb, the scar heals completely within the hour. However, any area healed by the egg will forever carry an inhuman appearance as testament to the bizarre method of treatment.
Spend a minute and use up this unusually large egg (unless you succeed on 1d10, Difficulty 7). Select a Living target within arm's reach. Select a Battle Scar on your target to treat.
The treated Battle Scar heals as you finish activating this Effect.
Healing a Battle Scar in this way leaves behind an inhuman attribute such as fur, scales, or feathers on the target which cannot be healed.
The detective can learn a lot by watching someone for a minute. Each subtle detail, every unexplained stain, reveals something about where the target has been. Ocassionally, they'll drop a business card, or explain how to contact them. The detective is listening.
Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. This Effect cannot be used unless the target does not know you're watching them. You cannot investigate the same target more than once per hour. At the end of your investigation, roll Charisma + Investigation at Difficulty 6.
You learn a single specific piece of information, chosen from the following list, about your target:
The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome.
This Effect is not obvious, and the only sign you are using an Effect is that you keep peeking at the target. If someone suspects that an Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.
The psychic can reach into another's' mind and pilfer their deepest memories. Doing so causes the psychic's nose to bleed and is exceptionally draining.
Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. Select a Living, Animate target within 20 feet You must maintain Concentration while the effect is active. Roll Intellect + Investigation at Difficulty 6. The target may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 7.
You are able to view your target's memories. The target is aware that their thoughts are being probed but not of the source of the probe. The Effect ends if the target moves out of range or your Concentration is interrupted.
You may ask specific questions about their memory - “what is their computer password,” “What were they doing at 4:00PM yesterday,” etc - but you cannot get answers to broad, analytical questions like “are they a good person?” or “what are their plans for the future?”
Each question takes as long as it takes to answer to read. When replaying a full memory, it is replayed in double time.
This Effect is not obvious, and the only sign you are using an Effect is your nose bleeding. If someone suspects that an Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.
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.
Dazzle Glasses are advanced "black-tech" espionage gear. They can be styled as any sort sunglasses. When the wearer is recorded, they will quickly flash a non-visible laser into the recording device, destroying it after only a moment of footage is taken.
This Effect activates whenever you are recorded. It does not require an Action or Exertion. Select a Non-Sapient Object within 20 feet no larger than a duffel bag (35 liters). Roll Perception + Culture Difficulty 6.
If your Outcome is 4 or higher, the target will be completely destroyed and can no longer function, though it may still be repaired. If your Outcome is less than 4, the target will be partially damaged, and any attempts to use it will suffer a dice penalty equal to your Outcome.