Charlatans

Exert your Mind and spend 2 Actions. Select a target Object within arm's reach. At the end of your investigation, roll Intellect + Culture ( dice) at Difficulty 6.

You learn all the following information about your target:

• You gather information about where the object was made and when.
• You learn the object's intended function and how to use it for its intended purpose, though not necessarily the ability to do so.

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

You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.

Your Body and Mind Penalties are reduced to 0.

If you are Stunned, asleep, drugged, or otherwise made unconscious for any reason other than being Incapacitated, you may Exert your Mind to wake up. Any penalty which was caused by this condition is removed.

Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action. Roll Brawn + Melee ( dice) at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, you create a barrier around yourself, which absorbs the next Outcome +4 Damage. The Damage reduction from the barrier is applied before Armor. This Artifact may only have 1 active barrier at a time.

The barrier will fall after two hours, or if it absorbs the full amount of Damage. When a barrier falls, you cannot use this Effect again for a minimum of 2 Rounds.

Any target that is or was under the protection of your Barrier in a given Round cannot take an Injury greater than Severity 6 that Round.

Spend an Action. Select a Living or Animate target within arm's reach. The target can easily Resist.

You may add one augmentation to your target. Each augmentation counts as a Trauma and can have exactly one of the following Effects:

• Specialized: You receive +3 dice to a particular non-combat 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 backpack.
• Armor: You have 3 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 backpack.
• Zippy: Your Free Movement is increased by 15 feet.
• Maws and Claws: Your unarmed attacks do +3 Weapon Damage instead of -1.

The augmentations you provide are not outwardly visible nor obvious.

You may end this Effect prematurely as a Free Action.

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

Possession of this Artifact causes the following Battle Scar to manifest over the course of a day: Withered Hands / Soft Spot: Writing in the ledger has weakened your hand over time. Called shots against your left hand do +2 damage. If an attack hits you which could conceivably hit your left hand, roll 1d10 at Difficulty 6. If you fail, the attack hits your soft spot and does +2 damage and Necrosis / Feeble Constitution: The ledger's curse has drained you of your life and imparted partial necrosis on your body. Your immune system and/or vitality is especially feeble. You have +2 Difficulty on any and all Body rolls you make. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Battle Scar heals over the course of the next day.

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

In addition to their benefits, your augments come with a penalty equivalent to a minor Battle Scar or Trauma. This penalty does not count as an additional Battle Scar or Trauma.

Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action. Select a Location within 10 feet.

You place a ward,. You can perceive with all your senses through the ward as though you were standing at its location. Your wards last 3 hours. This Artifact may have at most 3 wards active at once.

The ward requires Concentration to monitor, though it will remain active until you deactivate it. The ward can be discovered if someone knows what they are looking for, but is otherwise inconspicuous and cannot be identified as a ward.

You may destroy the Ward to activate one Investigate Individual, Object, or Area Effect as though you were standing at its location.

Your Ward records all activity it observes, regardless of whether or not you are actively monitoring it. This recording can be played back and referenced later.

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 ( dice) 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 gain the following benefits as long as you are not at all wet and you are wearing this Artifact.

You and everything you are carrying is obscured in one of the following manners. You may Spend an Action to change the way in which you're concealed.

• Hearing: You are completely obscured from hearing. You produce no sounds while this Effect is active. All attempts to detect you via hearing fail. Attempts via other senses where hearing would assist are rolled at -2 dice.
• Sight:You are partially obscured from being noticed by sight. All attempts to detect you using sight are rolled at a -3 dice penalty, and all attempts to detect you where sight would assist are rolled at -1 penalty. Anyone who detects you cannot determine any visual details about you beyond your general shape.

While this Effect is active, any Effect that would obscure you or your equipment specifically from other, additional senses fails automatically.

If someone discovers you, this Effect will not help you hide from them for the next minute. This Effect does not end early when you activate an obvious Effect, attack, or receive an Injury.

This Artifact can be used as a blimp. It is roughly the same size as a blimp but can be collapsed into a phone-sized canvas cube and concealed. Collapsing or expanding it costs a Quick Action.

This blimp has full science laboratory, bullet-proof envelope, and ample parachutes. Any roll to pilot this vehicle receives +2 dice.

You also gain the following effects:

• Crew of One: You alone may stand in for an entire crew if the vehicle would normally be piloted by more than one.
• Mind of its Own: This vehicle can move and take Actions without you driving it. It has seven dice for all Drive rolls.
• No Muffler: Any stealth rolls made to hide your vehicle automatically fail, and any rolls made to notice your vehicle automatically succeed.

This Effect activates whenever you are submerged in salt water. It does not require an Action or Exertion. Your target should be intuitively based on the triggering event.

You transform into small for two hours or until you choose to end the Effect. See the Extended System text for stats.

While transformed, you cannot use any equipment (including Artifacts and Consumables), and you cannot use your Active, Targeted, or Trap Powers. However, you can use your Passive Powers. Any equipment you are wearing transforms with you.

Injuries and Wound Level are carried over between forms. However, transforming can never kill you; you merely remain Incapacitated until your Injuries are sufficiently healed.

This Artifact can be used as a bow. It is roughly at least twice as large as a bow and cannot be concealed on your person or disassembled for storage.

Attack by rolling Dexterity + Athletics, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +3 Weapon Damage. Attacks do not require a successful called shot to do damage.

You also gain the following effects:

• Infinite Ammo: This weapon never runs out of its standard ammunition.
• Leave No Trace: Your projectiles crumble or vanish after impact, leaving no meaningful trace of your assault beyond the wounds they leave. If your attack would kill or incapacitate your target, they make no sound, even incidentally, for the next Round.