The Contractor's face shifts. A black ooze drips from their eyes and mouth, which is mirrored on the target.
The Church of the Cleansing Soul brought to life a child, meant to be bear the weight of the world's pain to offer purifying of the mind and soul for any who stepped into the cleansing fire the child emerged from. As it turns out, a child's mind cannot hold the horror of eternity without venting that horror like a pressure pot waiting to explode.
They did not provide a big enough pressure valve. And they suffered for it.
Now, the Weeping Soul shares this agony with others, trying to find catharsis in seeing others burdened with their pain - not out of malice, but necessity and tantrum rage. It simply isn't FAIR.
This Effect activates whenever When a valid target within range is witnessed doing something that would prompt an injustice roll from this individual if left alone. It does not require an Action or Exertion. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. Your target should be intuitively based on the triggering event. Roll Charisma + Occult Difficulty 6. Affected targets may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 7. If they are incapacitated or unconscious, they fail automatically.
If your Contested Outcome is positive, your target takes 1 point of Mind Damage and gains a new Trauma of your choice. The Trauma should be general and not specifically mention you. You should not have to be involved to trigger the 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.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see Seeing a small child bleed black blood from their eyes and mouth makes it very clear that this is not a normal child - something is VERY wrong here.
Alex's eyes glow slightly as they look into the depths of the target, peeking into their soul, which the target can fight against. Upon success, Alex learns the user's names, weaknesses and most importantly their desires.
Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. At the end of your investigation, roll Intellect + Occult at Difficulty 6. The target resists by rolling Mind at Difficulty 7.
You learn all the following information about your target:
The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome.
This Effect is not obvious, and the only sign you are using an Effect is if Alex's eyes glimmer dimly a little bit. If someone suspects that an Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.
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.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Nightmare of endless information: the demons flow the information into you as you sleep, 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.
You cannot investigate the same target more than once per day.
Observing the effects of the affliction up close, Nathan attaches a strip of yellow paper to the body of the afflicted as he incants a particular mantra in Mandarin.
As he does so, he builds the body of the talisman, drawing, preferably with cinnabar ink and a brush, from its head to its feet, before the malady is suppressed, the fu flaring to life momentarily, drying instantaneously.
The talisman is mainly composed of its head, gut and feet. Learning this particular effect from school under the Three Pure Ones, these fu begin with three hooks. The gut is the main soul and essence of the talisman, and that which determines its effectiveness and is formulated with several secret characters. The feet, lastly, are as varied as the stars in the sky, depending on the intention behind the talisman.
Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. Select a Living target within arm's reach. You must use up yellow paper in order to activate this Effect.
You may cure any Non-Alien diseases, toxins, or poisons afflicting your target so long as you have fully diagnosed or 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. Your patient is required to keep the talisman on them and unharmed (includes getting it wet) for the next month. If they violate this rule, your treatment is immediately reversed.
You may treat Alien maladies and curses. If there is some method to cure them, you learn what it is. If the malady does not provide its own means of curing it, it is cured.
A Tentacle comes out of any hole of the caster.
Spend an Action to activate. Select a target within 45 feet. Roll Brawn + 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 3. Armor is fully effective against this damage.
This Gift's Cost is capped at 2 and cannot be increased further.
Shadow and darkness quiver as they are molded in the shape of a small bullet.
Spend an Action. Select a target within 50 feet. Roll Dexterity + 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 4.
Any Injury inflicted is considered Unstabilized no matter its Severity. The roll required to Stabilize it is treated as though it is a minimum of Severity 6. These wounds do not heal naturally, though Effects may still be used to heal them.
This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 1.
After putting in extra study within marine biology, Eric has taken on more of a "mad scientist" outlook on it. With some experimentation on only himself, because he wouldn't dare bring his pet Terry nor any animal to harm, he was able to develop an innate method of altering his biology with a more aquatic physique-- one that allows him to shapeshift and do many new things. He can grow gills to breathe underwater, sprout the shells of a crab across his body to protect himself, or all manner of possible things when it comes to the animals that live under the sea.
Of course, it not only takes some time to create the change, but it also wears off after about a month passes. However, at will, Eric is capable of simply "turning it off" and reverting the changes before the time passes.
Exert your Mind and spend 30 minutes to activate. You may only target yourself. 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:
You may cure any Battle Scars you have created with this Effect with a Free Action on your initiative. They are healed over the course of the next hour.
Your alteration "heals" over the course of the next month, after which it is fully cured.
The De-Neuralizer is a small silver device that can emanate a bright flash of light. Any being that looks into it with uncovered eyes has their most recent period of the their memory set into a highly over-writable state for a moment. While in this state, their memories may be overwritten at will.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Location within within arm's reach. All Sapient targets within 20 feet are affected. This Effect cannot be used unless the target is looking directly into the device with uncovered eyes. Roll Charisma + Influence at Difficulty 6. The target may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 7.
If the contested Outcome is positive, the most recent 1 hour from your target’s memory is either replaced with new memories or forgotten entirely. This is recorded as a Condition. The level of detail and completeness of the alteration depends on your Outcome. If you fail, the target realizes that you are attempting to alter their memories.
The period is chosen either by time (i.e. “last Friday night”) or by reference to a specific event (i.e. “when the murder occurred”).
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.
The aquamancer channels a nearby source of water into a flexible whip, which can be used to attack or to defend.
Spend an Action. Select a target within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use at least a gallon of water to activate this Effect. Roll Dexterity + Athletics 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.
You may use this Effect to Defend against any melee, projectile, or firearm Attacks within range or Clash against any Attack targeted at you. Using it to Defend deals no Damage but does not cost Exertion.
This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 2.
The Necromancer spits into the mouth of a recently deceased corpse. For the few minutes, the corpse's head comes back to life and speaks to the Necromancer.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Dead target within 50 feet. Dead targets must have died within the past week, and you must have their remains in your possession.
The target can communicate in your language for the next hour.
The mad scientist produces thorium cores that can be used to upgrade tools and other devices. The core supercharges the item, increasing its quality and rendering it indestructible for a period. However, once the core runs dry, the object is rendered less useful than it was before. The core crackles with blue electricity while active.
Spend 1 Action and use up this glowing blue disk. Select a non-Alien Device within arm's reach. Cannot be used to improve Armor.
Lasts the next two hours. Your target receives 2 extra dice to all actions taken for its intended use. Attacking with an upgraded weapon grants +2 Weapon Damage instead of additional dice. While it is upgraded, the item cannot be destroyed.
After the Effect ends, any upgraded targets suffer a -2 dice penalty until they are either repaired or upgraded again.