Cassiopeia tears or destroys the symbol of Horkos drawn upon it, summoning the authority of the God of Oaths to watch over the participants. The target must place their finger on any symbol of Horkos to accept Horkos' presidence over the consequences of their actions.
On promises:
Cassiopeia has been tricked many times in this life, and while her own stupidity could be brought into the argument, at the end of the day she was not the one to break her promises or take more than what she bargained for. If only the world respected vows as much as she did. Hoping never worked, though, has it? How unfortunate. How pitiful. She'll change this soon enough. She hates liars.
On Horkos:
A lesser Greek god, but dangerous nonetheless. Cassiopeia doesn't understand why people find the need to regulate themselves under the notion that some greater being is watching them, but if that's what it takes for people to play fair, then so be it. She'll gladly play into the enforcement of all the words so carelessly strewn into the wind. Be careful what you wish for.
On the symbol:
Making all these magical symbols to represent different gods and powers have finally come in handy!
You must use up any item with the symbol of Horkos (designed by Cassiopeia) in order to activate this Effect.
You may make an oath with a 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 place a finger upon a symbol of Horkos (designed by Cassiopeia) 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.
The target may be at any range, but you must still be able to communicate the terms to them, and they must be able to place a finger upon a symbol of Horkos (designed by Cassiopeia).
Whenever a participant breaks the oath, you are immediately made aware and may even witness the act as if standing nearby.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Iron Grip: Vows are everything to you. Whenever you find out someone has broken a promise to you, roll Self-Control to avoid lashing out at them or taking out your anger on nearby objects.
Those who flee the nightmare are marked with an infernal soot stain. So long as they are marked, the nightmare knows where they are.
This Effect activates whenever someone runs in fear from you or your gifts. It does not require an Action or Exertion. Select a target within 20 feet. “Your target should be intuitively based on the triggering event.
Your target is marked with a black soot stain. Your mark can be discovered if the target is inspected visually. Removal inflicts a Severity 1 Injury on the target.
You are aware of the marked target's direction and distance from you. This lasts for an hour, or until either the mark is removed, or you choose to end the Effect. You can have up to 3 marks active.
You receive +2 dice to any rolls made against a marked target.
Zephyren collects blades almost obsessively, perhaps because they are some of the least detectable weapons. Or, he does it instinctively because a bird is never complete without its talons. In result, he's also the most proficient with blades.
On weapon usage:
People have guns (even in Canada, they're just quieter about it), but Zephyren legally cannot own one, and traveling with those can be such a pain for those with licenses anyway. He very much prefers a quieter option too. Also, blades are far more versatile (he wants to toss a bunch of vegetables in the air one day and try to slice them all). Never bring a knife to a gun fight? Think again.
On blade proficiency:
Fighting isn't the only thing Zephyren uses blades for. If anything he's rarely had to fight outside contracts; he mostly uses knives in the kitchen, and since he has been cooking from a very young age, there's no surprise that this is what he's the most comfortable with. In any video games, he predominantly uses a knife or sword. Don't ask how he's gotten through Resident Evil; let's just say he had to face a lot of corpses up close.
On bird talons:
Thankfully Zephyren has never been attacked by a bird, but from what he's read, talons can be really sharp. They have to grip onto things after all, even if it means they'd puncture their target.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are engaged in combat with knives and daggers.
+2 dice to all rolls with knives and daggers. You may Defend against firearm attacks from any range using knives and daggers.
You also gain the following effects:
A second pair of arms, smaller than the main pair, but no less useful.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
You gain an additional limb that functions as a standard human arm and hand.
Each additional limb you posses can take one Quick Action per Round without incurring a -2 dice penalty to your main Action. Any Battle Scars that affect or remove your additional limb will heal in a single week.
David will reach into a seam, and pull out a ghost of the departed alongside one of their treasured possessions. David will wrestle the ghost, taking their possession from them, and the covetous spirit will dissipate, defeated. If David fails his check, the spirit will instead jealously hold on to its item as it flees back to the temporary seam in the air, disappearing back to the realm of the dead. When the effect runs out, the item will seem to disappear into thin air, as it is pulled back to the realms of the dead
David did some digging into more…unrefined necromancy, following his last encounter with such magics on a job. By using his spirit cellphone (see Thomas Edison’s spirit cellphone) to consult with a few ancient spirits of infamous necromancers past, he was able to learn a ritual to “plunder the treasures of the underworld”.
Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute.
Choose an Object which could fit inside a regular backpack (up to 27 liters). It must be Non-Alien and generic. You cannot create explosives. You may create firearms.
Roll Brawn + Occult to fabricate your chosen Object. The Difficulty is assigned by the GM and depends on the specificity of your chosen Object. The created item lasts 2 hours.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see Theft from the spirits of the dead and the injured, creepy as hell appearance of the ghosts of the departed.
Sera stabs her rapier into the ground and yells loudly, trying to grab the attention of whom she desires. The world responds, spreading a compulsion to the target for them to pay attention to her and only her for a moment, a lapse of time perhaps.
Spend an Action. A number of Sapient, Living targets within 300 feet who can perceive you through no greater than your Charisma rating are affected. Audiences or mobs with a singular focus count as one target. You must actively and obviously use Rapier to activate this Effect. 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. Roll Charisma + Influence at Difficulty 6. All affected targets may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 7.
If you succeed, the targets will keep their full attention focused on you for Contested Outcome in Rounds. They will automatically fail any rolls related to noticing anything other than you.
If you pass from their perception and they are unable to pursue you, the Effect ends. If they can follow you, they must do so for 2 Rounds or the Effect will end. The Effect will continue even if violence occurs nearby or if your target is Injured. It does end if the target takes Damage from a source other than you.
This does not affect the target’s opinion of you or their mood, and they may take any Actions while affected (including attacking), as long as that action centers on you. Fascinated targets cannot Concentrate.
This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 2.
Finally, the girls are fusing the way they’ve wanted to since they began Contracting, three and a half years ago. It took Grace’s left eye for them to try this, but the girls are now able to spend a week focusing their energy towards a Battle Scarred area and permanently replacing it with The Spirit’s ghostly flesh. The replaced chunks, eyes, arms, whatever may come, appear just as The Spirit’s: bluish and semi-transparent, but now function just as the respective physical flesh would.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
Any Injury you receive heals quickly, reducing its Severity by one level every 6 hours. Any Injuries you receive while this Effect is active do not deteriorate over time. However, any Battle Scars caused by such an Injury will remain unless it is Properly Stabilized as normal.
All Injuries you receive are considered Properly Stabilized. You may also choose to heal any Battle Scar on yourself that may not have been caused by an Injury. Doing so takes one day, and the Battle Scar affects you fully until that time.
Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: any scars that heal this way leave the flesh in that area bluish and semi-transparent, causing you to be viewed as a freak by most people who see you.
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 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 detective can flash their badge and bark out orders to a person or a crowd, and the target will have trouble ignoring their command.
Exert your Mind and spend at least one Action. All Sapient targets within 20 feet of you are affected. You must actively and obviously use a police badge to activate this Effect. Your target cannot be engaged in Combat. Communicate a command to your targets. Roll Charisma + Influence at Difficulty 6. Any affected targets may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 7.
If the contested Outcome is positive, your targets will be compelled to follow your command to the letter-- but not necessarily the 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. Commands may force a target to violate one of their Limits, and they will need to make a Trauma roll once the suggestion wears off.
The Blademaster is so attuned to blades that they may manipulate any bladed object at a range simply by willing it. Observers see translucent spider-silk connecting the Blademaster's fingers to the blade, allowing them to puppet it.
You gain the following benefits as long as the target object has a cutting edge.
As long as you maintain Concentration, you can take Actions and interact with things that are within 75 feet without needing to physically touch them or be near them. Any rolls made for Actions taken in this way use a Mental Strength of 2 in place of your Brawn rating, a Mental Agility of 2 in place of your Dexterity, and otherwise use your own Attributes and Abilities.
Telekinetic actions have the following restrictions and behaviors: