Harold Polk’s Binding Covenant power transforms spoken agreements into unbreakable oaths, reinforced by the permanence of written word. For each covenant, Harold drafts a formal contract on paper, infusing it with the intent and authority that define his speech. His words, once spoken aloud over the document, create a powerful binding that tethers the target to their promise, with the contract itself acting as a physical anchor for the vow. This ritual of spoken and written word merges into a pact that cannot be broken without consequence.
The paper of the Binding Covenant becomes more than a document—it’s an extension of Harold’s will, symbolizing the weight of the promise. Should anyone attempt to violate the terms, they face repercussions that manifest psychologically, physically, or even supernaturally, as though reality itself enforces the pact. For Harold, the Binding Covenant is a sacred vow, the written form capturing his intent and ensuring that promises are kept.
You must actively and obviously use Paper to activate this Effect.
You may make an oath with a physically-present, Sapient target. Communicate the oath's terms to the target, including the requirements and penalties for each participant. If all agree to the terms, you must Exert your Mind and all participants must Sign The Contract to seal the deal.
Record the oath as a Condition. If a party breaks the oath, the Condition ends and they suffer the oath's penalty.
When crafting your oath, you may incorporate any of the following penalties:
The target cannot be compelled to agree via a direct threat of violence, another Effect, or another oath. If you would like to use clever wording to mislead the target, you must succeed a contested Intellect + (Culture or Influence) roll.
When crafting your oath, you may opt to enforce compliance. If you do, any participant that wishes to break the deal must take 3 Mind damage and succeed a Self-Control roll. They may attempt once per day.
Whenever a participant breaks the oath, you are immediately made aware and may even witness the act as if standing nearby.
The Divine voice of the Goddess may be channeled by the bearer of the seal, provided they stand within her house of shadows. The ring visibly throbs & pulsates with power as this occurs.
Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action. Select a Sapient being, human, or Dead target within 50 feet. Dead targets must have died within the past week, and you must have their remains in your possession. This Effect cannot be used unless both you & the target are completely in shadow.
The target can communicate in your language for the next hour.
The clench of your fist and a mental chant is all you need to convince most people to accompany you.
"Help me [Insert Objective]"
And just like that; they'll follow you.
Exert your Mind and spend at least one Action. Select a Human target within 20 feet. Your target may be actively engaged in Combat. Communicate a command to your target. Roll Charisma + Brawl 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 hours. 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 will be fully aware that they are doing this task on your behalf and will inform anyone who they interact with that they were sent by you, though they may not view it as compulsory or against their will until the effect wears off. 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, a conditional request, and an abstract goal. 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 must have some means of communicating this command to your target, but no one other than you and them will understand or perceive it.
This Effect ends if you are stunned, fall asleep, go unconscious, are incapacitated, die, or if your total Stress ever exceeds 5.
You are equally bound to follow any command you issue.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Paranoia.
You write your message on a piece(or several pieces) of paper, then draw an intricate and elaborate spell circle on the ground, using a variety of runes and diagrams found in the book used in it's casting. Upon completion, you can use this circle to send letters through the void between worlds, and the person can send them back, without a delivery nexus of their own.
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.
You open up a line of communication to your target, and may converse with them as long as one of you maintains Concentration
The conversation may be intercepted while in transit, and may be overheard, read, or otherwise understood by anyone near either you or the 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.
Target sees a traumatic memory from their past, or a traumatic memory from the user's past meshed into the targets memories.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. Affected targets may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 8. If they are incapacitated or unconscious, they fail automatically.
If they fail, your target will take 1 point of Mind damage and gain a new Trauma selected by the GM. 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.
Cadbury uses his Mantis appendages to hurt his opponents
Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend an Action. Select a target within 300 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.
When you die, you may activate this Effect targeting the person that killed you at any range and without any penalty. Its roll is at -1 Difficulty.
The Vampire is able to turn one of their victims into a lesser vampire, a pale shadow of a full creature of the night but useful nonetheless. Having drained and killed their target, the Vampire performs a brief ritualistic bloodletting, wherein they spill their own blood into the target's mouth, forcing them to drink, and bonding them together as child and sire.
Shortly afterwards, the fledgling vampire will rise from death, hungry for blood and eager to serve.
Take a Severity-1 Injury and spend one minute. Select a Dead target within arm's reach that has died within the last hour. This Effect cannot be used unless you drained the target's blood while they were still alive.
Your target rises as an Animate being. The raised creature is totally mindless, with no memory of its past life or hint of its old personality. They cannot communicate. They will follow any command you speak.
The creature lasts until it dies again. It is revived at full health. Any Injuries it had in life are not accounted for when determining its penalties or progression towards re-death, though they may affect its ability to perform certain actions at GM's discretion. The raised creature must consume flesh every day or it will die again.
Raised creatures have their Abilities set to the same that they were in life. Their Charisma and Intellect are set to 1, but their Dexterity, Brawn and Perception are the same as they had in life. A raised creature cannot use any Effects.
Your revived targets deal 2 Weapon Damage with their unarmed attacks.
The priest channels their true faith into a brutal assault on the consciousness of demonic or unholy creatures. By wielding their favored holy symbol, a gilded crucifix, they can put a proper fear of god into them, leaving them cowering at any truly holy things they encounter.
Exert your Mind (unless you have been recently attacked by your target) and spend an Action. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. This Effect cannot be used unless the target is undead, demonic, or another evil creature. You must actively and obviously use a gilded cross to activate this Effect. Roll Charisma + 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 a phobia of holy things 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.
Through their faith, the priest is able to stretch bread or fish to extreme lengths, feeding a seemingly endless number of people from meager supplies.
Spend an Action. Select a target within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use bread or a fish to activate this Effect.
For the next 24 hours, your target does not require any food, water, or sleep. Any attempts to age your target fail.
This Gift's Cost is capped at 2 and cannot be increased further.
The survivalist is adept at following an animal through any terrain. Once they find a recent track, they may focus their will to illuminate the trail of their target. Any part of the target's trail within eyeshot glows a bright, misty green. Even the trails made by vehicles the target was riding in are illuminated.
Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. You may select a target at any range if you use up fresh tracks of the target. At the end of your investigation, roll Perception + Survival 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 revealed by illuminating the trail in a glowing light and made publicly available.
True to their namesake, the hacker can penetrate the security of any computer system, granting access to its informational stores, or, in a pinch, allowing them to issue commands. The hacked system will display a flickering image of a ghost until it is dismissed.
While hacking, The Technician's fingers move with supernatural speed, blurring like a ghost.
Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. Select a Computer within arm's reach. Does not work on Alien technology. Roll Intellect + Technology, with the Difficulty set by the GM depending on the security of the system you are hacking. Sapient targets can resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6.
If you succeed, you may issue a single command to the targeted system. This command must have a specific outcome or be a request for specific login credentials. The command you issue must be within the machine's current capabilities. For example, you cannot order a standard security camera to grow legs and walk around.
If your command does not require bypassing the security of the target (for example, typing on a computer that is unlocked), you do not need to Exert your Mind to activate this Effect, and activation only takes a single Action.
Your Hack cannot be reversed through mundane means for a number of hours equal to your Outcome.
Every hack you make leaves behind a flickering image of a ghost in the system as a personal "calling card" that informs anyone who uses the system that the hack occurred.