The rod glows with green light, and the participant being targeted glows the same color. The energy has some kick back, causing a shadow of the harm of the poison on the wielder of the rod.
The rod is burns with purifying energy that drives the malady from the target. It draws from the symbol of the Asclepius.
This rod was made by a ritual focused on the symbol of the Asclepius, and experimenting with it. Vaccines, anti-virals, stories of miracle cures were all part of the creation process.
Exert your Mind (unless In a hospital, Clinic, or other healthcare setting) and spend 1 Action. Select a Living target within arm's reach.
You may cure any Non-Alien diseases, toxins, or poisons afflicting your target even if you have not diagnosed or fully understood it. You may cure diseases or poisons even if they are not treatable through modern medicine. During treatment, the malady you are treating does not progress or cause additional Damage or other effects.
After you finish activating this Effect, you cannot move quicker than a walk (max 15 feet per Round) for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour. Exhaustion’s penalty and duration stacks with multiple activations.
May 8, 2024, 1:51 p.m. - Revision Cost: 3. Added Drawback: Sacrifice, Removed Drawback: Bloodletting
Dr. Freeman makes a circular incision around his patient's head and removes the top of their skull. He closes his eyes, places his fingertips directly on the patient's brain, and starts to massage the grey matter. He may then sift through the patient's memories at will. As he does so, little electric arcs crackle between his fingertips and the exposed brain. This procedure is incredibly invasive and thorough but may cause the death of the patient.
Exert your Mind (unless the target has an Intellect of 2 or less) and spend 2 Actions. Select a Living, Animate target within arm's reach This Effect cannot be used unless you are touching the target's naked brain. Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you destroy the target's brain, killing them. You must maintain Concentration while the effect is active. Roll Intellect + Medicine at Difficulty 6. The target may Resist.
You are able to view your target's memories. The target is unaware their memories are being probed. 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 you ask and memory you replay takes a single Round to read.
You may read memories that the target has forgotten.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see you touching the target's naked brain.
Concentrating face.
Spend an Action. Select a target within 300 feet of you. You must have a specific target in mind, but you require only an intuitive understanding of them, such as their name, face, or Location.
You may send a single message to your target. It can be no more complicated than a multi-page letter or a long email.
The message will only be perceived by the intended recipient. You must share a common language for your target to understand the message.
This Gift's Cost is capped at 2 and cannot be increased further.
Harry Johnson channels the mystical prowess of Volga Svyatoslavich, the legendary bogatyr known for his cunning and subtle use of power. In the heat of battle, when his fists meet flesh, Harry can invoke the ancient magic of Volga, sending his opponent into a deep, dreamless slumber with a single, precise blow.
To the untrained eye, it might seem like a simple knockout—a powerful punch that drops an adversary. But those who know of the old tales might recognize the truth: this is no ordinary strike. As Harry’s fist connects, he unleashes a subtle yet potent force, drawing upon Volga’s ancient knowledge to lull his enemy into an inescapable sleep. The opponent’s eyes glaze over, their body succumbing to a paralysis that leaves them conscious yet utterly immobilized, as if bewitched by an ancient spell.
Spend an Action. Select a Living target within arm's reach. Roll Brawn + Melee at Difficulty 6. Affected targets may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6.
If you succeed, your target becomes drowsy for the next 30 seconds, during which time they suffer an additional -2 dice Penalty to all Actions. At the end of their drowsiness, they fall asleep for Contested Outcome x 3 rounds.
Sleeping targets will not prematurely wake up on their own, but may still be woken up by sudden loud noises, being jarred or splashed with water, taking Damage, or similar rousing events. They will also awaken before dying of hunger, thirst, or suffocation. Drowsy targets always fall asleep, regardless of what happens while they are drowsy.
When activating this Effect you may attempt a knockout. If you do and your Contested Outcome exceeds 4, the target falls asleep immediately. Otherwise, they suffer the drowsy penalty for 2 Rounds.
This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 2.
You have opened your mind to things beyond most human's comprehension. When you are injured, your third eye awakens in retaliation, flooding the attacker with incomprehensible visions of the unknowable depths of the universe. A ghostly eye appears on your forehead, glowing an ethereal green. The eye pierces into the target's mind before closing and disappearing.
Fletcher's pocket notebook is where he notes all of his encounters with the eldritch beyond. It is infused with this energy and partially serves as a conduit to his arcane powers.
This Effect activates whenever you receive a severity 2 injury. It does not require an Action or Exertion. Select a Sapient target within arm's reach. “Your target should be intuitively based on the triggering event. You must actively and obviously use your pocket notebook to activate this Effect. Roll Perception + Occult at Difficulty 6. Affected targets may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 8 with a -3 dice penalty. If they are incapacitated or unconscious, they fail automatically and their Outcome is 0.
If the Contested Outcome is positive, the target takes Mind damage equal to the Contested Outcome. If you deal at least 3 Mind damage, the target will gain Nightmares (Your sleep is plagued with horrible nightmares. At the start of each Contract and each time you fall asleep, make a Self-Control roll. If you fail, you take one Mind Damage) as a Trauma. This Trauma may be removed by Effects or mundane therapy, as normal. Affected targets are aware that they are being attacked and can generally tell who did it.
Mud is slammed into the lock or buzzer, and it opens, the door was technically mud once after all.
Spend an Action. Select a door, container, knot, or lock within arm's reach. This can be used on Alien targets.
You may lock, unlock, and/or open your target.
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 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, in its same location. You may perceive through your original body's senses, at a -2 penalty to all Actions while doing so. If your original body is touched, you get a Perception check 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.
This Gift's Cost is capped at 2 and cannot be increased further.
The aquamancer shifts into their elemental form and melds into a nearby collection of water, only to reform shortly out of a different source of water within line of sight.
Exert your Mind and spend 2 Actions. Select a Location within your line of sight , and which is directly adjacent to water. You must be within arm's reach of water to activate this Effect.
You are transported directly to the chosen Location. You must wait an hour before activating this effect again.
The musician pours their heart and soul into their music, giving others some much needed perspective and solace and all around good vibes. This can be a temporary easing of the mind, but with prolonged music therapy it can even permanently cure psychic damage.
Exert your Mind to activate. Select a Living target within arm's reach. You cannot target yourself. This Effect cannot be used unless you continuously play music for your target during the activation. Over the course of one Downtime, your patient must communicate with you and reveal at least one of their Traumas to you, including the details of those Traumas and the circumstances of how they were acquired. After the full treatment time has elapsed, roll Charisma + Performance at Difficulty 6.
Your target may Resist. If your treatment is successful, you may remove one of the patient's revealed Traumas without incurring any Experience cost.
Once per day per target, you may choose to use this Effect to stabilize the Mind of a target within arm's reach. Treatment takes 30 seconds but will not remove any Traumas. If you are successful, restore 2 Mind damage.
You may choose to use this Effect to temporarily relieve any number of the patient's Traumas (including mental Conditions). In this case, Treatment takes an Action and the effect lasts two hours. If the Patient is currently experiencing an episode, Difficulty is increased by 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 does not deal Damage, but the Effect does.
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.
Come one, come all! Stand in amazement and behold as the Fire Eater consumes a flame as if it were cotton candy! Gasp with fright as they breathe a plume of fire a great distance! And yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is quite dangerous.
Exert your Mind and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: perform a fire-breathing trick. Select a target within 20 feet which has both fuel and oxygen available (if you are starting a new fire). Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you take a Severity-4 Injury as the fire burns your throat. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.
You may start or extinguish a fire as large as a fire in a residential fireplace at your target. You may create or extinguish fires the size of a lighter or candle flame without Exerting your Mind. Your fires require fuel and oxygen in order to continue burning.
Lighting a target on fire deals 3 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 depleted by any Damage dealt, destroying the Armor once it reaches 0.
You may extinguish flames as a Reaction. This does not extend to explosives.