Adrenaline surged through Luciano's body, either a fight or flight reaction from the increasing pace of the footsteps behind him, or out of fear as he recognised the all-too familiar oily lining that began to coat his throat; a premonition of what was to come.
An unnatural pressure forced his head to lift upward and turn his eyes skyward, his mouth pushed open by an internal presence so severely that his upper and lower jaw no longer remained connected by bone, and instead merely by the stringy flesh and muscles that lie there.
All signs of where there had once been teeth and a tongue were now concealed by the dark glistening of a beak that lay much further into the unnaturally sized maw, and launching their way past said beak with freakish speed were a group of 8 tentacles: pushing impossibly through the narrow space as if fighting for freedom of Luciano's body, each about the width of his own leg.
At once, they all finally found their majority exit from his body, snaking around his form and pushing down onto solid ground in a spider-like formation, their length necessitating that Luciano's feet now floated off of the ground.
And then, the horrid octuplet mass began to gallop in unison, kicking up dust as the monstrous flesh at once became only a blur on the horizon
His father was a Gen-Wyld operative with a bunch of Cuttlefish DNA implanted into him that made him all Squiddy, grafted tentacle appendages and gills and what not. Enzo probably shouldn't have been allowed to procreate, who knows.
I'm sure that no further horrific changes will result from the unmonitored mutation and growth of a Trans-Sepiidian Blossom. Unfettered scientific progress my beloved
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. This Effect cannot be used unless Alt Form Activates.
Lasts 1 minute. Whenever you use your Movement, after all other calculations, the distance you may travel is doubled.
If your last Action was used for an all-out sprint or you are already accelerated, you may spend an Action to accelerate without a roll, adding 150 feet/Round (not affected by your speed bonus) to your sprint speed, to a max of an extra 300 feet/Round. As long as you stay at these speeds, you may use this distance per Round as your Free Movement.
Any terrain you traverse while accelerated must be passable by a standard vehicle at similar speeds. Stopping, turning sharply, or decelerating more than 150 feet/Round must be performed as an Action. Failing to decelerate with an Action (whether because of an obstacle, sudden unfavorable terrain, an Injury, or other event) deals 3 Damage which Armor does not reduce.
While using this Effect, you may carry one other being without affecting your Encumbrance, so long as you maintain contact with them for the duration and they consent or are grappled.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see Luciano's jaw rip open into a squid-like maw, eight freakishly-large tentacles dragging their way out to the floor, lifting him a foot off of the ground so that he may run on them like a spider.
If you were moving quicker than you could without super speed and go a Round without using your Movement, you collapse and must remain immobile and resting for two Rounds.
Wrangler adjusts his masks and takes a moment to take in his surroundings.
You gain the following benefits at all times. You must actively and obviously be using Bandana mask to gain the benefits of this Effect.
Your senses are enhanced in the following way.
Any senses which have been heightened cannot be overloaded. Battle Scars you receive cannot affect these senses.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
Your Stress from Injuries and Mind Damage is reduced to 0.
Stress from Injuries acts as a dice bonus instead of penalty.
If you die, you may continue to act as though you were not dead for 3 Rounds.
Any dice penalty from Exposure or being stunned, diseased, sleepy, dizzy, sick, distracted, or similar is reduced to zero. Does not affect penalties from Effects you activated.
As Ware proffers the tech to the potential borrower, a long EULA document displays in a hologram to the target. It has an accept button and a scroll bar, and accepts a vocal response as well. It also notes near the top that accepting the tech will also count as accepting the EULA. The (cliff notes of the) usual EULA is in the Extended Text, but may be modified for specific scenarios by Ware. It is written in Legalese, and thus will require a contested Intellect + (Culture or Influence) roll to decipher fully.
Things marked with an "*" are unclear to anyone failing the contested roll.
Terms that must be followed by the person accepting the technology, hereafter referred to as the "Borrower":
- The Borrower must not, directly or indirectly, knowingly act in a way that inconveniences or harms Ware without her permission.
- The Borrower must return the technology at the time (or condition) specified by Ware upon receipt of the technology. If they miss that deadline, the Borrower has 1 hour to rectify this before they are considered to not have adhered to this condition.
- The Borrower must not, without express permission from Ware, reverse engineer or otherwise attempt to replicate her proprietary technology. *
Upon breaking the aforementioned Terms, the Borrower will have the following penalties applied to them if they have not removed or otherwise left behind the borrowed technology. If the Borrower breaks these terms while not using the technology, any attempt to use the technology moving forward will activate these penalties.
- The Borrower, hereafter referred to as the "Oath-breaker", will be branded as an Oath-Breaker via a sigil on their forehead.
- The Oath-breaker will have their dominant arm removed, and the wound cauterized.
- The Oath-Breaker will be rendered unconscious for 12 hours.*
- The Oath-breaker will be given a mental compulsion that renders it difficult to attempt to betray anyone else.*
This Effect cannot be used unless the target is accepting WareTech.
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 accept the offered technology 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 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.
It is obvious to your target that the oath you are proposing will be supernaturally enforced.
By positioning the three gnomes in a certain order, they can choose where to hit their enemy despite it potentially being behind cover if there is a pathway free. Their thrown object will then return back to its original thrower in the order is was thrown.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are engaged in combat with A long wooden javelin.
+2 dice to all rolls utilizing A long wooden javelin.
You also gain the following effects:
Trussardis face shows a grimace for a second after being hit before shifting to an emotionless expression.
Angry managers, insane stalkers and other musicians always try to get the leg up on you. You can’t give them the satisfaction of letting them do it to you.
It would be a lie to say that all of these crazy people don’t affect you.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
Your Stress from Injuries and Mind Damage is reduced to 0.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Phobia of the insane.
The spy is able to transform an ordinary ballpoint pen into a monitoring device that is inconspicuous enough to blend in to most settings, but advanced enough to allow 360 degree surveillance as well as audio capture, which is sent to their smartphone.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Location within 10 feet. You must actively and obviously use a ballpoint pen to activate this Effect.
You place a ward, which is fixed to its initial location. You can hear and see through the ward as though you were standing at its location. Your wards last 3 hours. You may have at most 3 wards active at once.
The ward requires Concentration to monitor, though it will remain active until you deactivate it. It can be detected with a roll and destroyed through mundane means.
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 (7 dice) 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 spy can twist the urban environment to their whims, erecting fences, walls, and barriers as needed. They whistle and gesture to where the wall should be, and the surrounding materials fly into place.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Location within 50 feet. You must be in an area abundant with man-made structures and materials.
Select one of the following alterations to create out of standard building materials originating at the target:
The alteration begins to form when you activate this Effect and finishes forming on your initiative in the next Round. Until it finishes forming, it is not guaranteed to function.
This alteration lasts one minute but may be prematurely destroyed or altered. Your alterations may be broken through with appropriate tools. Anyone attempting to break through must roll Brawn + a relevant Ability. A cumulative Outcome of 6 across all attempts breaks a hole large enough to move through. See the extended system text for GM guidance on various tools.
The aquamancer has internal reserves of water that they may call upon when needed, and it will gush out of the pores in their skin wherever it is directed.
Spend a Quick Action.
You may withdraw an item from your stash, or add an item that is within arm’s reach to your stash. You may only stash targets which are in your possession, grappled, or otherwise controlled by you.
You may store units of water 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.
The aristocrat knows a ritual that allows them to rent the best version of any item. They set $10,000 worth of cash on fire and place the item to be upgraded in the fire as well. While in the flame, the item morphs into a high-end version of itself. After a while, it reverts.
Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Select a non-Alien Device within arm's reach. You must use up $10,000 cash (or equivalent) in order to activate this Effect. Cannot be used to improve Armor.
Lasts the next two hours. Your target receives 3 extra dice to all actions taken for its intended use. Attacking with an upgraded weapon grants +3 Weapon Damage instead of additional dice.