Zephyren stares intensely at the target, as though they'd explode if he looked for long enough. They don't. Instead, they feel an overwhelming heat wash through them, sapping all their hydration before their body could filter it out. They eventually pass out as their body uses up all its energy.
On heat exhaustion:
Zephyren's experienced it before, but at first he didn't understand what it meant or what it was supposed to feel like. He felt foggy - nothing really made sense, he couldn't register what was being said or what he saw or even count numbers. Simple tasks were overwhelmingly difficult as everything looked far too clear and bright, yet he couldn't see at all. At times he was on the brink of passing out. He couldn't even stand upright. His brain was getting cooked from the inside out.
On glares:
He feels a shiver down his back whenever someone glares at him too intensely. It never ends well, so Zephyren's body instinctively prepares him for the worst. Sometimes it even feels as if he's shutting down completely, and it scares him. Yet here he is, doing it to someone else.
On sleep:
When was the last time Zephyren's had a good night's sleep? He's inclined to use this on himself each night just so he could quell the thoughts of everything he could've done.
Spend an Action. Select a Living target within 30 feet. Roll Perception + Occult at Difficulty 6. Affected targets may resist by rolling Body 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 minutes.
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.
This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 2.
The weapon builds a highly-focused charge of electromagnetic radiation, causing the bulb to flash brightly an instant before release. The crackling ray of energy is effective against both living and machine targets, frying synapses and circuits alike.
One blast from a cathode gun is enough to reduce even the most brilliant mind to a state of catatonic vegetation in seconds. This brain-killing weapon is an example of the City Mind's cruel and efficient designs, meant to leave behind gibbering, drooling survivors to be collected by the enemy. These survivors would continue to consume resources, lower morale, and force other personnel to care for them - the City Mind knew its enemy was a compassionate one. The cathode gun is especially effective against creatures with advanced minds, such as spell-casters. Ironically, it is just as effective against machine brains.
Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action. Select a Sapient or Creature target within 20 feet. Roll Intellect + Technology Difficulty 6. Affected targets may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 7. If they are incapacitated or unconscious, they fail automatically.
If the Contested Outcome is positive, the target loses that much Source. Once their Source is depleted, excess Outcome is applied as Mind Damage. If you deal at least 3 Mind damage, the target gains a Trauma of the GM's choice.
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.
Melting effect when taking over body, melt into it leaves no body.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action or Reaction. Select a Non-Alien Creature target within 20 feet. Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you snapped left leg.
You possess your target and have control over their actions for the next hour. You do not leave your original body behind when you possess a target. When a possession ends, your original body will reappear at the host body’s same location. 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.
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.
Targets with Body ratings higher than 10 require a Charisma + Animals roll resisted by the target’s Body. Kaiju and environment-scale targets are immune.
The detective looks briefly to the corpse, taking in the finer details of the scene as he removes a folder from his bag. Over the course of a minute or two, the papers within begin to fill with various details about the perp. Most pressingly: their full legal name and a number of photos detailing their current appearance.
Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Select a target Object within 25 feet. You must actively and obviously use a manila folder to activate this Effect. At the end of your investigation, roll Perception + Investigation at Difficulty 6.
You learn all the following information about your target:
You cannot investigate the same target more than once per day.
A well placed smile and a request, with a little eyelid batting, will get you a long way. Especially when you can mess with their head.
Exert your Mind and spend at least one Action. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. 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. Your target may be actively engaged in Combat. Communicate a command to your target. Roll Charisma + Influence at Difficulty 6. The target may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 7.
If the contested Outcome is positive, your target will be compelled to follow your command to their best understanding of the letter and spirit of the command until they have completed it or for your Contested Outcome in minutes. You cannot issue another suggestion to the target until 10 minutes after they have completed the first command or 10 minutes after a failure.
The target is unaware that they are under supernatural influence and feel they are acting of their own free will. If you fail, they realize that you were attempting to influence them supernaturally with your command.
Your command can be an order to take an immediate Action. You cannot order a target to "do nothing," and they are free to take other Actions as they fulfill your request. Your command cannot be obviously self-destructive. The Effect ends if following your command would cause a target to cross one of their Limits in a way that would necessitate a Trauma roll.
You may activate this Effect as a Reaction to contest any Action a valid target is taking, reducing their Outcome by your own. Your command has no impact beyond disrupting their Action. This interrupts Concentration.
This Effect ends if you are stunned, fall asleep, go unconscious, are incapacitated, die, or if your total Stress ever exceeds 5.
Lunwin opens a book and holds it out in front of himself, the ink shooting out and seeping into the environment. Text begins to crawl out of every rock, brick, and building in the area and flies into the book, filling up the empty pages and writing. Everything settling into neat, well organized sections that are easy to navigate.
When the book is filled, the contents last until this power is used again. The ink within the book is changed unnaturally and can increase or decrease in apparent volume equivalent to the quantity of text written within it. Additionally, with at least a hundred pages available, the total number of pages can also increase above a hundred or be brought down to it to allow for situations that would require it.
Any book not magically protected from tampering is susceptible to this ability and will be completely transformed from its original state, the contents unrecognizable to how it looked prior.
Spend a minute. Investigate an area with a radius of up to 500 feet You must actively and obviously use a book of at least a hundred pages to activate this Effect. At the end of your investigation, roll Intellect + Investigation at Difficulty 6.
You learn the following information about the area:
This Effect is obviously Alien and eye-catching across its range to those witnessing it, and you are obviously the source.
This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 2.
You cannot investigate the same area more than once per day.
The influencer is 100% tuned-in to any sort of chatter about themselves. Any time someone nearby so much as whispers about them, they know who they were and what they said.
This Effect activates whenever someone talks about you. It does not require an Action or Exertion. Select a target Location within 75 feet. Your target should be intuitively based on the triggering event.
You may perceive things through hearing as if you were standing at that Location for the next 30 minutes. You must maintain Concentration to keep up the effect. You cannot perceive anything at your physical location while the effect is active.
The psychic can glean various important details about a person simply by engaging in a short conversation with them.
Spend one minute. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. You must actively converse with the individual in question for one minute in order to gather any information. At the end of your investigation, roll Perception + Influence at Difficulty 6.
You learn all the following information about your target:
The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome.
Any information you gather is spoken aloud in conversation and made publicly available.
This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 2.
You cannot investigate the same target more than once per day.
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 mystic can meld their aura with another, allowing them to superimpose their being, physical and mental, into a target. Observers witness the mystic fading and entering their target's body as wisps of smoke, leaving no trace of their own body behind.
While inside, they can control their target's actions. Affected targets have no memory of the experience.
Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend an Action. Select a Living or Sapient target within arm's reach. Roll Intellect + Occult at Difficulty 6. The target may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6.
If you succeed, you possess your target for the Contested Outcome in minutes. The target has no control over their body or actions, and they are functionally unconscious through the entire possession, retaining no memory other than any Traumas they might obtain.
You do not leave your original body behind when you possess a target. When a possession ends, your original body will reappear at the host body’s same location. You may spend an Action to end the possession early.
Stats: During the possession, you use the host body’s Body rating, but your own Mind rating. Any rolls you make use the host body’s Brawn, Dexterity, and Perception but your own Charisma, Intellect, and Abilities. You gain the effects of any physical Assets and Liabilities they have. You cannot read the target’s mind or memories.
Gifts: You have access to and can use any of your own Powers which are intrinsic to your biology or physical body. You cannot access any Powers or other supernatural effects which the target has, unless they are intrinsic to the target’s biology or physical body.
Death: If the host body is killed or destroyed while you are still possessing it, you will die along with it.
Eviction: If you attempt to force your host to take actions which would violate one of their Limits or their instinct for self-preservation, they may resist by rolling Mind. If their Outcome is higher than or equal to the contested Outcome, the possession ends and you are evicted from their body.
If you do not have a sacrificial Injury when you activate this Effect, take a new Severity-1 Injury.
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.