Flying, biting, stinging insects suddenly swarm into the area, attacking anyone and anything in their path, clouding the air with their bodies.
Future Upgrades:
Range - 60 feet; Zone Effect - Slippery; Zone Effect - Disorienting; Natural Habitat (Seasoned); Zone Effect - Overwhelming (Seasoned); Ephemeral Storm (Seasoned); Zone Effect - Suppress Vision; Zone Effect - Off Balance (Veteran)
Exposure rolls are a Body resistance roll at Difficulty 6. Protective measures can reduce the Difficulty by 1 or 2, and specialized environmental adaptations or self-contained environments (such as a space suit) can exempt Contractors from making these rolls entirely.
*Acute Exposure:* Contractors must roll Exposure at the end of each Round. Once removed from the environment, Exposure penalty decreases by one level each minute.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Location within 20 feet of you.
You create a hemispherical dome of flying insects originating at the chosen Location, with a radius of 20 feet, and lasting for 5 minutes. The area inside your zone is affected in any number of the following ways:
You blow a gust of icy wind and hail at your target until they freeze into place, head to toe.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a target within 45 feet. Roll Brawn + Athletics at Difficulty 6. The target may contest by Defending or Dodging.
If you succeed, your target will be restricted at their location by a physical, tangible binding. They cannot move to a new location, and, if your Contested Outcome was greater than their Brawn, they are encased and cannot take any physical Actions other than attempting to escape until they break free.
Restricted targets may escape their binding by spending an Action and taking a Severity-1 Injury. Their movement is reduced by 10 feet until the Injury heals.
A soft golden glow surrounds the artifact and the hand of the user, then spreads to the target. The sound of a lock's tumblers clicking into place echoes in the ears of those that are aware of the effect.
The first iteration of this item looks like the Skeleton Key from Skyrim. Nocturnal's priceless opener of all doors, her blessing to her most trusted. Because Luz is a nerd.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Non-Alien door, container, knot, or lock within arm's reach that is no more complex than a standard commercial door, personal safe or a keycard reader.
You may lock, unlock, and/or open your target.
Exert your Mind and spend at least one Action. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. Your target may be actively engaged in Combat. Communicate a command to your target. Roll Charisma + Influence at Difficulty 6. The target may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 7.
If the contested Outcome is positive, your target will be compelled to follow your command to their best understanding of the letter and spirit of the command until they have completed it or for your Contested Outcome in minutes. You cannot issue another suggestion to the target until 10 minutes after they have completed the first command or 10 minutes after a failure.
The target is unaware that they are under supernatural influence and feel they are acting of their own free will. If you fail, they realize that you were attempting to influence them supernaturally with your command.
Your command can be an order to take an immediate Action. You cannot order a target to "do nothing," and they are free to take other Actions as they fulfill your request. Your command cannot be obviously self-destructive. The Effect ends if following your command would cause a target to cross one of their Limits in a way that would necessitate a Trauma roll.
You must have some means of communicating this command to your target, but no one other than you and them will understand or perceive it.
This Effect ends if you are stunned, fall asleep, go unconscious, are incapacitated, die, or if your total Stress ever exceeds 5.
Zak taps away at his smarthphone, and the computer system he hacks sparks with green sparks. A green bunny with x's for eyes appears in the system.
Exert your Mind and spend 2 Actions to activate. Select a Computer within 20 feet. Does not work on Alien technology. You must actively and obviously use a computer or smartphone to activate this Effect. Roll Intellect + Technology, with the Difficulty set by the GM depending on the security of the system you are hacking. Sapient targets can resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6. The hacking roll and their defensive roll are both Difficulty 6.
If you succeed, you may issue a single command to the targeted system. This command must have a specific outcome or be a request for specific login credentials. The command you issue must be within the machine's current capabilities. For example, you cannot order a standard security camera to grow legs and walk around.
If your command does not require bypassing the security of the target (for example, typing on a computer that is unlocked), you do not need to Exert your Mind to activate this Effect, and activation only takes a single Action.
Every hack you make leaves behind a green bunny in the system as a personal "calling card" that informs anyone who uses the system that the hack occurred.
The object animates by verbally crafting lines from a story about what the object is destined to do when animated. As if the narrator in a book utilizes exposition to predicate the actions of a given object.
This power is caused by an influx of meta particles that impart a desire to exist on an inanimate object. Only those that speak with absolute confidence and in the correct tonal cadence in the moment of choosing can impart such a desire. This is known as "Causal Diction". Causal, meaning "involving causation or a cause : marked by cause and effect" and Diction, meaning "a choice of words especially with regard to correctness, clearness, or effectiveness". Sometimes, to those who have merely witnessed this phenomenon, it is referred to as "The Voice of All Things". Since it appears as though the user audibly commands life into that which does not possess it. Allowing objects to move and act freely, and thus, granting them a "voice" of their own.
Exert your Mind and an Action. Select a Inanimate target within 20 feet which could fit inside a rolling luggage bag (50 liters).
Your target will become Animated indefinitely. You may choose to end the effect at will, as a Free Action. You can only maintain one animated object at a time.
Animated Objects have the following restrictions and capabilities:
This Effect is not obvious, and the only sign you are using an Effect is Audible Muttering. If someone suspects that an Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.
The hacker can overload any electronic device by fiddling with their smart watch for a moment. The targeted device shudders and gets white-hot before bursting into deadly shrapnel.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a object that uses electricity within 20 feet no larger than a duffel bag (35 liters). You must actively and obviously use a smart watch to activate this Effect. Roll Intellect + Technology Difficulty 6.
If your Outcome is 4 or higher, the target will be completely destroyed and can no longer function, though it may still be repaired. If your Outcome is less than 4, the target will be partially damaged, and any attempts to use it will suffer a dice penalty equal to your Outcome.
When a target is destroyed, it sends shards flying. Anyone within 5 feet of the object rolls 4d10 at Difficulty 6 and takes damage equal to the Outcome. Can be reacted to.
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 musician assumes a powerful stance and strums a mighty power chord on their guitar. A blast of sound waves radiate outwards, destroying all who dare face the power chord directly.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use your instrument to activate this Effect. The area within 25 feet of you immediately and obviously becomes imminently dangerous. Roll Charisma + Performance at Difficulty 6. Targets inside the radius may attempt an appropriate Reaction at GM’s discretion. Finding a physical barrier to use as cover will cut total Damage taken in half (applies after Reaction roll but before Armor).
If the Outcome is positive, your blast hits everything within 25 feet of you with Damage equal to your Outcome + 4. If you botched the activation roll, you will also take full Damage from the blast, otherwise it will not hurt you.
You may only use this Effect once per day.
The influencer is 100% tuned-in to any sort of chatter about themselves. Any time someone nearby so much as whispers about them, they know who they were and what they said.
This Effect activates whenever someone talks about you. It does not require an Action or Exertion. Select a target Location within 75 feet. Your target should be intuitively based on the triggering event.
You may perceive things through hearing as if you were standing at that Location for the next 30 minutes. You must maintain Concentration to keep up the effect. You cannot perceive anything at your physical location while the effect is active.
The mobster presents a reasoned, logical case to the target: there's a lot of dangerous folks out there, and only they can offer safety... for a price.
If they agree, they will pay the mobster a monthly fee for protection. If they stop making their payments... well, let's just say, the mobster can't be held responsible for any unsavory types that might pay them a visit.
This Effect cannot be used unless you are making a deal to exchange money for protection.
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 shake hands 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.