Binding Covenant “These are the guidelines”

3
Requires Seasoned
The power to craft binding oaths.
Used by Harold Polk, Created by jwesley123.
(This Effect is not obviously Alien when used. The target must understand that you are presenting the terms of an agreement and that they are agreeing to those terms. Witnesses understand the same. You must actively and obviously be using Paper.)

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 oath-breaker dies (if alive)
  • A Battle Scar up to Severe (deaf, missing limb)
  • The oath-breaker is physically marked as an oath-breaker, and any investigative effect will reveal the terms of the oath they broke.
  • A particular Trauma and a single Mind Damage
  • The oath-breaker goes unconscious for up to 24 hours
  • An Injury up to Severity-6 (cannot be reduced by any means)

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.

  • All Oaths must have at least two participants.
  • The target must be physically present to enter the oath.
  • The terms and penalties of the oath do not need to be equitable and do not need to affect all parties equally.
  • A single action cannot break multiple oaths. You cannot 'stack' oath penalties by having a target sign multiple identical oaths, or similar.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.
Revision purchased with:
Improvement from running The Hourglass spent on improving power: Poa
Revision purchased with:
Improvement from running Shadows Under Redwoods spent on improving power: Poa
Revision purchased with:
Gift from playing in Blood on the Snow spent on new power: Poa
Learn about Offr - Hide fake ads

Community Power Gifts

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Living target within 25 feet. Roll Brawn + Alertness at Difficulty 6. Your target may resist by rolling Body at Difficulty 7.

If you succeed, the target is afflicted with a Condition that causes one of the following symptoms:

  • Disabled: The target suffers from an affliction that leaves them unable to act at full strength, such as physical pain, severe fever, intense fatigue, etc. They take a -2 penalty to all physical actions, which grows by -1 every hour until it reaches your Outcome.
Symptoms begin to appear immediately, and will remain and continue to worsen until the affliction is cured. The affliction is not contagious and will not spread to others.

The affliction is not treatable by modern medicine. It may be diagnosed by rolling Brawn + Occult at Difficulty 6, and can be cured by ________.

  • Successfully diagnosing an affliction also includes information about the treatment method.
  • The chosen method of treatment must be something that you could obtain in a small town given an afternoon.
  • Curing an affliction removes the Condition, but does not automatically heal any Injuries, Battle Scars, or Traumas which may have been caused by that condition.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend 15 minutes. Select a Living or Animate target within arm's reach. Choose a specific Injury on your target that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Intellect + Occult at Difficulty 8.

If you succeed, the Injury is reduced in Severity by your Outcome. If you reduce its Severity to 0, the Injury is fully healed. Otherwise, it is partially healed and will heal the rest of the way at its natural rate.

This counts as a successful Makeshift Stabilization if the Injury was not already Stabilized; any Battle Scars caused by the Injury will remain.

If you do not have a sacrificial Injury when you activate this Effect, take a new Severity-1 Injury.

  • The sacrificial Injury received from activating this Effect cannot be prevented by any means or healed before 1 day has passed. It is shared with all Effects that use sacrifice. This Injury does not requires Stabilization or cause Battle Scars when it becomes Severe.
  • Unstabilized wounds do not degenerate during treatment.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

Another facet of "Wisdom's Embrace" is the ability to mend scars and deformities along the body. By having the user focus on the nature of those scars, they may unravel and reform them into normal wounds that will heal naturally. This impartation of knowledge onto the patients body helps it recovery normally instead of scarring the body due to lack of response by the patient's natural healing abilities.

Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Select a Living or Animate target within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use a stethoscope to activate this Effect. Select up to four Battle Scars on your target to treat.

The treated Battle Scars heals as you finish activating this Effect. If used on a Battle Scar caused by an Unstabilized Injury, that Injury is Stabilized.

You cannot re-attempt to treat the same Battle Scar more than once a month. Your patient is required to not expose themself to an environment with tempatures greater than 80 degrees. for the next month. If they violate this rule, your treatment is immediately reversed.

You may choose to spend an Action activating this Effect instead of the normal cast time. If you do, the Battle Scar only remains healed for one day, after which it reverts to its original state.

Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Atrophied Legs.

  • The patient is aware of the after-care requirement.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

Spend a Quick Action.

You may withdraw an item from your stash, or add an item that is within 30 feet of you to your stash. You may only stash targets which are not possessed by someone else, and are freestanding and unattached.

You may store Objects in your stash, each no larger than something which could fit inside a briefcase (15 liters), and you may store up to 3 things at a time.

You may choose to equip any equipment you withdraw at no additional cost.

Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Weak Stomach.

  • "Equip" refers to drawing a gun, putting on a piece of armor, etc. You may store or withdraw a maximum of 6 items in a given Round. Reminder: you may perform up to two Quick Actions for -2 dice each or 3 if you use up your Action, unless a different Effect grants you additional Quick Actions.
  • Containers which hold multiple things may count as a single item so long as the things within are generally packaged together. For instance, you may stash a clip full of bullets, a medical kit full of medical supplies, or a box of crackers, but you cannot stash a backpack full of miscellaneous equipment.
  • You may only attempt to store Objects which are free-standing and disconnected from other things. The use of this Effect will not allow you to sever any connections holding an Object in place.
  • The Maximum Object Size parameter is intended to roughly capture the weight / size restriction of items and isn’t intended to restrict shape. GM discretion is advised. A human being is level 4 in the Maximum Object Size parameter.

Spend an Action to activate. Select a target within 45 feet. You must actively and obviously use Wizard's Staff to activate this Effect. Roll Intellect + Occult 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 3. Armor is fully effective against this damage.

The target suffers a -3 dice penalty for the next hour or until the Injury is healed. This dice penalty does not stack multiple times on the same target.

This Gift's level is capped at 2 Gifts and cannot be increased further.

  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.

Stock Power Gifts

Exert your Mind and spend an Action.

You may move easily and without a roll in any of the following situations. Lasts 2 hours.

  • Spider Climber: You are able to climb on and cling to any surface without regard for the ordinary rules of gravity. You climb at your normal movespeed.

You gain the following benefits at all times. You must actively and obviously be using a standard issue military medical kit to gain the benefits of this Effect.

All Stabilizations you attempt are considered Proper Stabilizations.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Gifted: You get +3 dice on any rolls related to medical care as long as you are performing treatment near the site of a battle.
  • Sterile: Sanitary conditions no longer matter during medical care. Your patients will never suffer an infection or toxic shock during treatment, even if you are performing surgery in a sewer. You may preserve harvested body parts indefinitely.

  • All stabilizations being proper stabilizations applies to stabilizations from other Effects such as Heal Wound.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a non-Sapient, Animate target within 20 feet. This Effect cannot be used unless the target is undead.

For the next day, you may issue specific commands to your target which they will be compelled to follow.

Your commands must be relatively simple and within the target’s intellectual grasp. You cannot make them obviously endanger themselves or violate their instinct for self-preservation. The effects of the command will fade after a day has passed.

Sapient targets can resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6.

  • Your commands must be directly communicated to your target in some way, though this does not require a shared language.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a object that uses electricity within 20 feet no larger than a duffel bag (35 liters). You must actively and obviously use a smart watch to activate this Effect. Roll Intellect + Technology 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.

When a target is destroyed, it sends shards flying. Anyone within 5 feet of the object rolls 4d10 at Difficulty 6 and takes damage equal to the Outcome. Can be reacted to.

  • The penalty from an object being damaged will stack with itself if a target is hit multiple times, but the object is destroyed when it reaches a total penalty of -4.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

Exert your Mind and Spend an Action.

You transform into your own corpse for one minute. While transformed, you may control the functioning of the object you have transformed into. You can perceive your surroundings as normal. You can be targeted as a Non-Living, Sapient Object.

If you are damaged while transformed, the damage is realized when you return to normal. If you are damaged before you transform, your inanimate form will appear partially damaged.

You may end this Effect prematurely as a Free Action.

  • If a character is inside of you when you revert to your original form, you take a Severity-5 Injury when they burst from your innards as you shrink.
  • You cannot move in any way the object wouldn't normally be able to move. If you are a feather duster, you cannot float around, etc.