Thief of Essence “You thought you were unique”

2
Requires Seasoned
The power to afflict a target with a debilitating illness, poison, or malady of some kind.
Used by Patrick Oneal, Created by jwesley123.
(Activating this Effect is not obvious. The only sign you are using an Effect is Patrick snaps his fingers. )

Patrick O’Neal’s leprechaun blood has always whispered to him about the essence of others—the spark that makes them special. Now, his connection to the mystical world has sharpened into a sinister ability: the power to strip away that spark entirely.

When Patrick snaps his fingers, a shimmering golden thread, invisible to most, coils from his target to him. It pulses as he steals what makes them extraordinary, leaving them hollow and utterly ordinary. To the victim, the transformation begins as a growing sense of discomfort, their body feeling heavier, weaker, more mundane. Within hours, they realize their unique traits—their speed, their charm, their brilliance—are slipping away like water through their fingers.

This affliction isn’t merely a theft; it’s a contagion. Those who touch the afflicted find themselves slowly drained of their own spark, creating a ripple of mundanity that could decimate a community. The only way to undo it is through an act of desperation: ending another life to reclaim what was lost.

Patrick doesn’t just take their uniqueness—he feels it, reveling in the thrill of his theft. To him, their spark is a fleeting taste of something forbidden, fueling his own ambitions for greatness. He has learned that everyone, no matter how unique, is vulnerable to his reach. In his mind, he’s not just a thief; he’s a reclaimer, a force of balance in a world of overpowered fools.

This power reinforces Patrick’s cunning, greed, and the darker side of his leprechaun blood. It ties his thievery directly to his mystical heritage and makes him a truly terrifying opponent.

Only effects passive effects from physiology, and doesn’t reduce character abilities or stats to below what they would be as a mundane

1. Loss of Gifts: Any supernatural or extraordinary powers are suppressed, leaving the target without access to their abilities. This includes:
• innate talents from not being a normal human
• Enhanced physical traits from not being a normal human (e.g., super strength, speed, or durability).
• Innate resistances from not being a normal human(e.g., immunity to poisons, diseases, or environmental effects).

2. Stat Changes:
• Body: Drops to the average human range (typically 2).
• Dexterity and Brawn: Lowered to average human capacity.
• Intellect and Charisma: Supernatural mental or social capabilities fade, leaving the target as unremarkable as an average person.


Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Living target within 25 feet. Roll Dexterity + Thievery 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:

  • Assimilate: Over the next day, the target transforms into a Normal human. If they are not cured within their Body score in days, the change is permanent. The Conditions of being a Normal human are detailed in this Gift's Extended Description.
Symptoms begin to appear immediately, and will remain and continue to worsen until the affliction is cured. The affliction is contagious and will spread to new targets. Anyone who comes into direct contact an afflicted individual of the same species must roll Body, Difficulty 8. If they fail, they become afflicted. Otherwise, they are immune to the spread.

The affliction is not treatable by modern medicine. It may be diagnosed by rolling Intellect + Occult at Difficulty 9, and can be cured by Find a Four Leaf Clover. Gifts or supernatural Effects and Powers which would cure or prevent this affliction do not cure or prevent it, but instead offer a clear diagnosis and provide information regarding the method of treatment without requiring a diagnosis roll.

This Effect is not obvious, and the only sign you are using an Effect is Patrick snaps his fingers. If someone suspects that an Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.

You may only use this Effect once per day.

  • Assimilate: Changes can dramatically affect the target’s lifestyle, metabolism, appearance, urges, etc. Benefits from the transformation should be clearly outweighed by its drawbacks. The new form’s Conditions must be detailed in the Extended Description and are subject to Playgroup Leader Approval.
  • 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.
  • This Effect’s symptoms do not stack with themselves on multiple applications.
  • 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.

Community Targeted Gifts

A magical girl imbued these bullets with her powers, and what embodies compassion and empathy more than sharing your greatest secrets with someone else.

Spend an Action and use up this Butterfly Bullet. Make a Rifle Shot Attack at a Sapient target within normal Attack range. The target may roll to dodge or Defend, as normal for Rifle Shot Attacks. The attack may or may not deal Damage as per a normal Attack, at the user's choice.

You learn all the following information about your target:

  • You learn the target’s passwords, passcodes, secret phrases, pin numbers, etc.
  • You learn what the target values most and where to find it, provided they know. This includes any hidden or concealed treasures.

The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome. For any information you learn about your target, the corresponding information about you is shared with them.

You cannot investigate the same target more than once per day.

  • The Attack roll used to activate this Consumable cannot be at a Difficulty lower than 6. You may only use one Consumable per Action.
  • This consumable is destroyed when used and cannot be used again.
  • 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.

Use up this vial and spend an Action to activate. Select a Living target within 20 feet. Roll 7 dice Difficulty 6, penalty does not apply. 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:

  • Poisoned: The target gains a Severity-1 Injury which ignores Armor and doesn’t heal naturally. For every hour that passes, they receive a new identical Injury. If this new Injury would kill them, they roll 1d10 at Difficulty 6. Success cures the condition; otherwise, they will die.
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 can be diagnosed with a Medicine roll, and may be cured by modern medicine through treatment at a fully equipped facility. Treatment outside of a facility may stop the affliction from worsening for a day, but will not cure the underlying Condition.

Any Scars, Traumas, or Injuries caused by your symptoms cannot be healed until the underlying Condition is cured.

  • This consumable is destroyed when used and cannot be used again.
  • Successfully diagnosing an affliction also includes information about the treatment method.
  • 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.

Spend an Action. Select a target within 300 feet of 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 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 a slight glow in the eyes. If someone suspects that an Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.

  • Receiving a message does not force a target to pay attention to you, and they can feel free to ignore your message if they choose. Depending on the flavor of your Gift, they may or may not be able to return to it and read it later on.
  • Generally you cannot communicate with Contractors who are not in a Contract with you.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.

A root easily tripped across, a car that grazes them as they're crossing the street, or perhaps a monkey in a nearby tree haphazardly tossing a coconut-
The target will find themselves incredibly accident-prone, taking a minor 1 point injury per day, randomly.
Their 'destiny' is ripped away from them, and it's as though the universe itself is conspiring against them. A bird may fly in front of their fireball as they throw it. They may get accosted by a more of dust blown up their nose and randomly sneeze and interrupt themselves as they try to do a power.

This does not summon anything new, or create a disease in the target, it just ensures something in the environment will hurt them when the damage is 'due'
Randomly aggressive animals and freak accidents are usually how to damage is dealt.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Living target within 25 feet. This Effect cannot be used unless Someone must hear her mention that the target deserves whatever is coming.. You must make a Trauma roll when you use this Effect. Its Difficulty cannot be reduced by any means. Roll Charisma + Occult 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 any number of the following symptoms:

  • Brain Fog: The target’s thoughts are muddled and incoherent. They must succeed a Mind roll to remember details of things, at Difficulty 7 for old details and Difficulty 9 for things which occurred while afflicted. They also take a -2 penalty to all mental actions, which grows by -1 every hour until it reaches your Outcome.
  • Magical Miasma: The target’s connection to the world’s mystical energies is weakened. Any time they try to activate an Effect or any kind of supernatural ability, they must roll 1d10 at Difficulty 5, and if they fail, the Effect or ability fails. The Difficulty increases by 1 with every hour that passes.
  • Poisoned: The target gains a Severity-1 Injury which ignores Armor and doesn’t heal naturally. For every hour that passes, they receive a new identical Injury. If this new Injury would kill them, they roll 1d10 at Difficulty 6. Success cures the condition; otherwise, they will die.
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 Intellect + Occult at Difficulty 6, and can be cured by Ritually bathe in clean, clear, natural running water under the light of the moon. (15 minutes).

This Effect is not obvious, and the only sign you are using an Effect is Speaking with a calm, soothing voice and an intense stare. If someone suspects that an Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.

  • 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.

Spend an Action. Select a Non-Alien door, container, knot, or lock within 20 feet.

You may lock, unlock, and/or open your target.

  • Operating some locking mechanisms through this Effect may have a secondary effect, such as a turn-key ignition on an older or cheaper car causing it to start or stop. Note that the locking mechanism itself must satisfy the standard targeting requirements (including line of sight), not just the vehicle.
  • Any mechanism that requires a key, keycard, key fob, or combination may be considered locked, at the GM's discretion. This Effect may be used on doors and containers secured with control panels or other electronic locks, but not computer security systems at large.
  • 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.

Stock Targeted Gifts

Spend 30 minutes. 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:

  • Specialized: You receive +2 dice to a particular non-combat, non-Effect Action.
  • Environmental Adaptation: You do not suffer harm from heat, cold, pressure, or lack of oxygen in a particular environment, provided that challenge normally exists in that environment.
  • Implanted Tool: You have access to the functionality of some common Device at all times. The selected Device can be no larger than a motorcycle helmet.
  • Armor: You have 2 Armor at all times. As always, Armor from multiple sources does not stack.
  • Pouch: Part of your body functions as a hidden pocket. It can hold no more than a briefcase (15 liters).
  • Zippy: Your Free Movement is increased by 10 feet.
  • Maws and Claws: Your unarmed attacks do +2 Weapon Damage instead of -1.

This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 2.

Your alteration "heals" over the course of the next month, after which it is fully cured.

  • Remember: A Contractor’s Body rating is reduced by 1 for each Battle Scar after their fourth.
  • You may not augment targets with pouches or implanted devices that are larger than they are.
  • Targets without Body ratings may have a maximum of 4 augmentations.
  • Example environments for adaptation: space, all saltwater, all fresh water, all water under 50 feet deep, all water deeper than 50 feet, the jungle, radioactive areas, a specific alien world, etc.
  • 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 one minute. Select a Dead target within arm's reach with at least half its skeletal structure remaining. 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 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 for eight hours or 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.

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.

Destroying one of your zombies requires a called shot to the head or heart. All other Injuries zombies suffer result in Battle Scars only, limiting their mobility and effectiveness in other ways.

Your revived targets deal 2 Weapon Damage with their unarmed attacks.

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

  • The called shot requires 4 Outcome dealing 4+ Damage or 6 Outcome dealing 2+ Damage.
  • 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.
  • 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 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.

  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of Effect. There must be no substantial obstructions between you and your target.

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”).

  • You do not gain mind-reading through this effect, so your ability to alter their memory is limited by your knowledge of what they might know.
  • The target's roll to realize their memories have been altered can be made a maximum of one time per day.
  • 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 (unless you win a coin flip) and Spend an Action. Select a Living target within 45 feet. Roll Intellect + Occult at Difficulty 6. The target may roll Body, -2 dice at Difficulty 7, as a Free Action to resist.

If you succeed, the target receives a new Battle Scar of your choosing, limited by the contested Outcome:

  1. A Minor Battle Scar E.g. an aesthetic-only body modification (a disfigured face, a pig's tail), impacted hand or foot, or vocal changes that complicate communication
  2. A Major Battle Scar E.g. a disabled/removed hand or foot, an inability to speak, an impacted major sense, removal of a minor sense, impacted movement.
  3. A Severe Battle Scar E.g. a disabled/removed arm or leg, deafness, aesthetic changes that are nearly impossible to conceal.
  4. An Extreme Battle Scar E.g. removal/disabling both hands or both legs, blindness, a full-body deformation that leaves the target humanoid but makes it difficult to use clothes, vehicles, and equipment designed for humans.
Refer to the stock Battle Scars on the Character Sheet for specific systems.

When you activate this Effect, instead of occurring immediately, you may choose to delay its effects until the target takes a particular Action. For example: "when they fire a gun" or "when they swim in deep water."

Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Witchy Appearance. You have a long, warty nose and chin, wrinkled skin, and a hunch back. Social rolls are at +2 Difficulty, and your free movement is reduced by 10 feet.

Your alteration "heals" over the course of the next month, after which it is fully cured.

Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Compulsion for payback. You must roll Self-Control to avoid using this Gift on anyone who wrongs you in a major way.

  • A given target can have a maximum of one Suspended Effect on them at a time. The selected triggering Action cannot be used to reveal information about the target (e.g. no "activate when they are a vampire"). It must be an Action they take, not a thought or something that happens to them.
  • Remember: A Contractor’s Body rating is reduced by 1 for each Battle Scar after their fourth.
  • You may opt to inflict a Battle Scar that is less severe than what your Outcome allows.
  • 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.