Autumn's amber eyes lock onto the offender's weapon of choice, in the same instant her body is set into motion, fluid and graceful it flows around the strike, almost as if the woman anticipated where the blow would land, moving just an inch out of reach over and over again in a dance that's as deadly as it is mesmerizing.
"Being reactive is a mistake, letting your opponent take the initiative, box you - it is the equivalent of handing them the role of a butcher while dawning the mantle of a scared little lamb - sufficed to say you'll end up on their dinner plate by the end of the day - use your head instead, don't solely rely on your reflexes - those can only get you so far, anticipate the squeeze of the trigger, move just before they strike, throw them off, surprise them, a flustered target makes mistakes, mistakes you should capitalize on."
You gain the following benefits as long as you are engaged in unarmed combat.
+2 dice to rolls for Attacking, Defending, and Clashing without a weapon. Unarmed attacks do +0 Weapon Damage (instead of -1).
You may Defend against melee, projectile, or firearm Attacks from any range and Clash with those in range of your Attacks. Attacking materials like steel or spikes will not Damage you unless it has an Effect that does so.
Physical injuries, be it a scratch, laceration, or a bruise, shine weakly with eerie pale glow for a few seconds, before fading away.
Some wounds never quite heal. Even when they are gone, they leave scars behind. Chronic pains, stiff limbs. All those things which remind us of what happened to us, of what we managed to push through.
Ryan was surprised when the wound, which would surely take a while to heal naturally, healed over the course of following two weeks. Unnaturally fast. Quick test with a knife confirmed it - the shallow cut on a finger was shining weakly, with eerie pale glow, before fading away, as if it was just his imagination.
The cut was gone by the end of the day.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
Any Injury you receive heals quickly, reducing its Severity by one level every day, starting once it becomes stabilized. You may also Exert your Mind and spend an Action to reduce the Severity of a single stabilized Injury by 1. Does not affect Injuries suffered as an activation cost for Effects.
Battle Scars caused by your Injuries will remain.
Vergil is nice to a literal supernatural degree, and through a combination of nearly invisible spores in the air that glow a light blue, and a healthy helping of empathy and emotional intelligence Vergil can ensure that the people he's around are in better mental health than any mental hospital in the world. Though blissfully unaware of its assistance by the mushroom parasite inside him, hey. What you don't know won't kill you... right?
Exert your Mind to activate. Select a Living target within arm's reach. Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you On a critical failure inflict them with Algernon's Flower.. 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 + Influence at Difficulty 6.
If your treatment is successful, you may remove one of the patient's revealed Traumas without incurring any Experience cost.
Your patient is required to assist at least one innocent in the next month in a meaningful way for the next month. If they violate this rule, your treatment is immediately reversed.
You may attempt to treat an unwilling patient. They may choose to resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 7. The nature of their Trauma will still be revealed to you if you treat them successfully, though they may not tell you directly.
Once per day per target, you may choose to use this Effect to stabilize a target's Mind. 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 permanent Traumas which were recorded as Conditions). In this case, Treatment takes 30 seconds and the effect lasts two hours. If the Patient is currently experiencing an episode, Difficulty is increased by 2.
When focusing, Tam can respond instinctively to incoming attacks, using her abilities to dampen the force. And to riposte, really - throwing a spike of force back at her attacker.
Focusing that hard is hard on her, though. Stressful.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must make a Trauma roll when you use this Effect. Its Difficulty cannot be reduced by any means. If you fail or Botch, you receive one Mind Damage and a new Trauma. Roll Intellect + Melee at Difficulty 6.
If you succeed, you create a barrier around yourself, which absorbs the next Outcome +6 Damage. Any Damage absorbed by the barrier is reflected back to the attacker, up to a maximum of 6. Their Armor applies in full. The Damage reduction from the barrier is applied before Armor. You may only have 1 active barrier at a time.
You must maintain Concentration while using this Effect. The barrier will fall if you are interrupted, or if it absorbs the full amount of Damage. When a barrier falls, you cannot use this Effect again for a minimum of 2 Rounds. As long as it does not fall, the barrier regenerates back to full strength at the end of each Round of combat.
This Effect is not obvious, and the only sign you are using an Effect is twitching fingers. If someone suspects that an Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Formal Duelist - You must roll self-control to turn down an offered fair fight. You may exert your mind and suffer a limit check failure to ignore the offer if you fail.
With a spark of creativity, the world becomes your canvas, and every challenge transforms into a masterpiece of ingenuity.
One death, two deaths, more.
Actors fall off the stage one by one, their scripts cut short by the director's word.
Put on a smile and dance, laugh and tap to the sound of unheard music, improvise until all flaws are perceived as purposeful gestures.
Take a deep breath and aim true. Don't let them see the minute error in your shot.
It is all according to the plan, after all.
It has to be.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
Your Dexterity rating is increased by 2. You may Exert your Mind to automatically gain an Outcome of 5 on any roll that uses Dexterity (Cannot be used on combat rolls or Power activations).
When equipped with the weapon of a true samurai, and clutching to herself the blade that shows she is Bushido's true successor, Kimakuro displays swordplay talents far beyond her already rigorous years of training!
You gain the following benefits as long as you have possession of the Star-Slicing Holy Resolution and you are engaged in combat with Japanese swords.
+2 dice to all rolls with Japanese swords. You may Defend against firearm attacks from any range using Japanese swords.
You also gain the following effects:
Who wouldn't want one of the mad scientist's famous implants? All it takes is a little time and a few terrifying experiments, and you too could be a better you!
Warning: not fully tested on humans. Risk of dry mouth, upset stomach, or lost limbs. Do not consult your doctor before signing the liability release.
Exert your Mind and spend eight hours. Select a Living or Animate target within arm's reach. Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you cause a major Battle Scar instead of an augmentation. Your target must make a Trauma roll to reap the benefits of this Effect. They may choose to Resist the Effect and not make the roll. The target can easily Resist.
You may add one augmentation to your target. Each augmentation counts as a Battle Scar and can have exactly one of the following Effects:
The augmentations you provide are not outwardly visible nor obvious.
While addressing a crowd, the influencer may use coded language to send secret messages to a particular person in the crowd. These messages can't be noticed or understood by anyone but the intended target.
Spend an Action. Select a target any distance away from 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. This Effect cannot be used unless you are speaking to multiple people and the target is listening.
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 Effect is not obvious, and the only sign you are using an Effect is your left hand making a fist. If someone suspects that an Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.
This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 2.
The Blademaster is so attuned to blades that they may manipulate any bladed object at a range simply by willing it. Observers see translucent spider-silk connecting the Blademaster's fingers to the blade, allowing them to puppet it.
You gain the following benefits as long as the target object has a cutting edge.
As long as you maintain Concentration, you can take Actions and interact with things that are within 75 feet without needing to physically touch them or be near them. Any rolls made for Actions taken in this way use a Mental Strength of 2 in place of your Brawn rating, a Mental Agility of 2 in place of your Dexterity, and otherwise use your own Attributes and Abilities.
Telekinetic actions have the following restrictions and behaviors:
The Vampire has grown wicked fangs in place of their canines, allowing them to thoroughly drain a person of blood should they get ahold of one.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are biting and you are engaged in unarmed combat.
+2 dice to rolls for Attacking, Defending, and Clashing without a weapon. Unarmed attacks do +2 Weapon Damage (instead of -1).
You may Defend against melee, projectile, or firearm Attacks from any range and Clash with those in range of your Attacks. Attacking materials like steel or spikes will not Damage you unless it has an Effect that does so.
You also gain the following effects:
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 an Action. Select a Living, Animate target within 25 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 6.
If you succeed, you are able to view your target's memories. If you fail, the target knows you're attempting to read their memories.
You may ask a number of specific questions about their memory equal to your Contested Outcome. For example, “what is their computer password,” “What were they doing at 4:00PM yesterday,” etc. You cannot get answers to broad, analytical questions like “are they a good person?” or “what are their plans for the future?”
Each memory takes as long to read as it takes to answer the question. 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.