As they put their name in the book, the ink sizzles like a water on a hot surface. Each time they are met with a moment where the oath is at risk, they remember the moment they took it.
You may make an oath with any number of physically-present, Sapient targets. Communicate the oath's terms to the targets, including the requirements and penalties for each participant. If all agree to the terms, you must Exert your Mind and all participants must Signing 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 targets 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 targets, you must succeed a contested Intellect + (Culture or Influence) roll.
Whenever a participant breaks the oath, you are immediately made aware and may even witness the act as if standing nearby.
It is obvious to your targets that the oath you are proposing will be supernaturally enforced.
Verso’s cracked rounded glasses are made of smoked quartz lenses set in brass frames etched with infinitesimal gear teeth.
When activated The fractures in the lenses glow neon-cobalt, projecting holographic stress diagrams, heat signatures, and pressure points onto surfaces like augmented reality overlays.
Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend a minute. Investigate an area with a radius of up to 1 mile At the end of your investigation, roll Intellect + Crafts at Difficulty 6.
You learn the following information about the area:
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see The air rippling faintly, as if reality itself were a pond disturbed by invisible gears. Semi-transparent clockwork sigils materialize before transforming into a screaming human bodies before dissolving into static..
You cannot investigate the same area more than once per day.
The user rips out a page from the journal which animates and protects them. The page is surrounded by an ethereal, dreamy mist which absorbs the power of incoming damage and sends it back in an intensified light.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action or Reaction. Roll Charisma + Culture at Difficulty 6.
If you succeed, you create a barrier around yourself, which absorbs the next Outcome + 6 Damage. Any Damage absorbed by the barrier is reflected back to the attacker, up to a maximum of the Barrier Strength Parameter’s bonus. Their Armor applies in full. The Damage reduction from the barrier is applied before Armor. This Artifact may only have 1 active barrier at a time.
You must maintain Concentration while using this Effect. The barrier will fall if you are interrupted, 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.
A rainstorm begins to gather, no matter the environment. Lightning sparks and thunder rumbles as rain begins to fall.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
You create a hemispherical dome of rain and lightning originating at your Location, with a radius of 60 feet. and lasting for 5 minutes. The area inside your zone is affected in any number of the following ways:
You may end this Effect prematurely as a Free Action.
The Red Watch holds an entity inside, one that craves more, the user however has chosen a different path. They use the entity for their own desires, for better or for worse.
Forced to accept the wishes of its user, it's given the user freedom from its call, allowing the user mental power against any attacks on their mental will.
A spectral crocodile snaps up any incoming mental attacks, and explains its cause into the users ear.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.
You get +0 dice to any Mind resistance rolls you make. You also gain the following effects:
The Norinco NSR12 has the following specifications:
Chinese self-designed semi-auto sniping rifle in the caliber of 12.7mm.
Caliber: 12.7x108mm
Muzzle velocity: 825 m/s
Barrel length: 480 mm
Overall length: 1450 mm
Net weight: <14.5 kg
Capacity: 5 rds.
Accuracy: R1000<=48cm
Rifling: 8pcs./380mm
This rifle was once wielded by the infamous Chinese assassin Wúshēng Dǎjí - anyone familiar with this weapon will recognize it as such.
This Artifact can be used as a Heavy Sniper Rifle. It is roughly the same size as a Heavy Sniper Rifle and just as difficult to conceal.
Attack by rolling Dexterity + Firearms, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal 3 Weapon Damage +1 Bonus Damage. The target's Armor is reduced to 1/2, rounded up against this damage.
You also gain the following effects:
The Future Soldier's PSG is capable of briefly supercharging its effectiveness with a jolt of Omega Cell energy. While active, the future soldier glows with an extremely bright golden light.
While the shield is supercharged, the Future Soldier cannot move or see the outside world, but they are completely isolated from anything that occurs outside the shield.
Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action or Reaction.
You phase out of reality for up to 4 Rounds. During this time, you cannot perceive or affect the outside world or take any Actions. You cannot move. Nothing can interact with you in any way.
When you activate this Effect, you may limit its duration to a period of your choosing. If you are able, you may also end it as a Free Action on your initiative.
You leave a golden glow shaped like yourself at your location.
Standard issue in the Future Soldier's home time, the Personal Shield Generator (PSG) projects a protective energy barrier around the body. It absorbs damage far better than traditional armor, but its battery is quickly drained. When depleted, the PSG must spend a few seconds recharging.
When struck, the normally-invisible field of the PSG flashes, revealing a bright yellow honey-comb pattern encasing the body.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.
You have 6 Armor, which reduces incoming Damage. Armor from multiple sources does not stack.
Your Armor cannot be destroyed, and it always provides a minimum of 2 Armor regardless of any Armor shredding or penetration. It cannot be circumvented with Called Shots. When shredded, it returns to full potency in one hour.
Any time your Armor prevents Damage, your Armor rating is temporarily decreased by 2. Whenever it goes five Rounds without preventing any Damage, it is restored back to its full value.
When Winter Fang's glittering string is drawn, an ice arrow crystalizes nocked and ready to fire. These ice arrows melt quickly after piercing their foes, leaving deadly wounds instead of evidence.
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:
The Scepter of Ang-Kapal is a gruesome device fashioned to look like a skeletal arm clutching a glass eye. When used, blood from the person holding is drawn into the eye where it swirls with dark energy. The eye turns to a nearby corpse and shudders, reviving the creature. The creature does not retain any of its memories or personality, but it is absolutely loyal to whoever is holding the scepter.
The Scepter of Ang Kepal has the unfortunate side effect of driving its owner mad.
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 spy can do up their passport to take on the appearance of any valid form of identification they may need.
This Artifact can change its appearance. When not transformed, it is roughly the same size as a passport and just as difficult to conceal.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action to activate. This Artifact changes its appearance into an Object within the category of forms of identification. This lasts until you decide to end the Effect, which may be done as a Free Action.
The new object's appearance can mimic specific items (such as a particular painting, a certain person’s ID, etc), but must be of a similar size and weight to this Artifact.
The new appearance is illusory; it will hold up to scrutiny, but its composition is not altered and it gains no new functionality. Any attempt to use it for a function which it cannot perform (for instance, making bread look like a knife and then trying to stab someone) will cause the illusion to fail or allow a Perception check to see through the illusion, at the GM's discretion.