When opening this book, the pages are blank when a page is burnt.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action to activate.
You may understand and communicate to humans as if you are fluent in a relevant language for the next hour.
This also includes understanding any recorded communications from the relevant targets, including writings, scent trails, etc.
While active, you may choose to use glib tongue. When you do, anything you say (even gibberish) will be exactly what the target wants to hear. You gain no understanding of what that might be.
“If you use this Effect to spend an hour speaking with a native speaker of a human language you don't know, you may Exert your Mind and roll Intellect + Culture Difficulty 7. With Outcome 4 or higher, you permanently learn that language and accent.
While Luci communicates with her target (and in her own case, while she's projecting her thoughts and feelings onto the page), she draws a picture depicting the target's trauma and the circumstances behind its manifestation. Afterward, she rips the page out, crumbles it up into a little ball, and gives it to the target to eat.
It slips down into the user's stomach, melts into a bubbling mucus, and forces itself into their nervous system. The rogue energies force themselves directly up and into the target's brain, where they seek out the trauma they have been sicced on and forcefully pull it from the roots of grey matter. Not a pleasing experience in the slightest.
But to cap it off, the mucus coagulates in the target's stomach and begins to bubble violently until, inevitably, the target vomits the mucus back up. The inky black liquid- not too immediately dissimilar to the likeness of a roundworm, as it splatters onto the surface, takes a physical form related to the removed trauma and groans lowly as little appendages reach out and attempt to crawl back into the target's body.
When constantly meddling with what goes on outside of the base reality, there is always a likelihood that someone or something unfriendly may notice her. The Well is home to a variety of creatures, after all.
Amalgamations are typically just leftover spurts of energy that coagulated together and created something malformed. Most of the time, they are not that dangerous even if they are a little feral.
Revenants, wraiths- whatever you want to call them, they tend to manifest as undead spectres or wraiths- entities that are formless and only when looked at may take form due to the mind's inherent need to seek sanity. They may crawl itself up just in time and worm their way into Luci's mind if she isn't careful with some of her powers, and they will attempt to live out certain vices vicariously through her, in an attempt to experience basic needs that they are starved of in the Well.
Eidolons are typically not a concern for the complete opposite reason that Amalgamations aren't. They can be describe more accurately as a system than actual entities that were here long before the universe existed and will be there long after. Simply put, whatever Luci might be up to will hardly ever register for them- like to what esteem an elephant might hold an ant.
To most people, The Well is a type of Hell, and that doesn't necessarily change for Luci, except for with the creation of this power, allowing her to purge rogue entities from her mind and more safely maneuver the vast Oblivion. It has the unintended effect of also working against normal traumas.
Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) to activate. Select a Living target within arm's reach. Your target must make a Trauma roll when you activate this Effect. Over the course of one minute, your patient must communicate with you and reveal at least one of their Traumas to you, including the details of those Traumas and the circumstances of how they were acquired. After the full treatment time has elapsed, roll Charisma + Crafts at Difficulty 6.
Your target may Resist. If your treatment is successful, you may remove one of the patient's revealed Traumas without incurring any Experience cost.
Once per day per target, you may choose to use this Effect to stabilize the Mind of a target within arm's reach. Treatment takes 30 seconds but will not remove any Traumas. If you are successful, restore 2 Mind damage.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see the target consume a piece of paper, and then a minute later, vomit up a thick black mucus. As it splats on the ground, it reaches up with several thin appendages and tries to crawl up and back into the target's mouth.
The user pours ink across the canvas and after watching it sink and seep into the sketchbook, must then makes a formal request for what they would like to see.
Time Walk: The ink seeps into the page and begins to move on its own, translating from the watchful eyes of shadows past into a complete picture upon the sketchbook page.
Got a Bad Feeling About This Place: Areas containing traps and ambushes are cleanly drawn together- to such detail that the user can recognize what the area looks like, while also being intuited upon the rough direction and distance.
Other: Pathways and passageways, whether hidden or overt, are clearly illustrated and labeled on the page.
Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Investigate an area with a radius of up to 1 mile You must use up 1 liter of Ink in order to activate this Effect. You must make a Trauma roll when you use this Effect. Its Difficulty cannot be reduced by any means. At the end of your investigation, roll Perception + Crafts at Difficulty 6.
You learn the following information about the area:
You cannot investigate the same area more than once per day.
Upon selecting the item of choice to repair, the user, must splash a surge of ink over the desired object. It completely surrounds the object for a few seconds before coagulating together beneath the object, into a pool of ink that bubbles and boils. From it, a spectre will rise from the Well beneath- an amalgamation that looks as if comprised of various humans and creatures stitched together by someone who failed biology. It looks different each time.
An incomplete drawing of the object will then appear on the sketchbook, reflecting the damaged parts of the object they desire to repair. The user will then need to fill in the incomplete drawing using nothing but their own drawing skills. As the user slowly completes the sketch, the spectre will reach down into the well, pull out various creatures from the Well, tear them into pieces, and melt them down into viscous blobs of ink, and mold them into the object. The ink will gradually take form into the vehicle and root itself within it.
This ritual is fragile- if the user is unable to finish it in its entirety, the repaired parts will melt back into ink and sploosh onto the ground.
Matter and energy can not be created or destroyed. Its fuel must come from somewhere.
Spend 10 Rounds. Select a Object within arm's reach that is of any size. You may target Alien technology, so long as you have an understanding of its intended function. When repairing Alien targets, you must Exert your Mind. You must use up 1 liter of ink in order to activate this Effect. You must make a Trauma roll when you use this Effect. Its Difficulty cannot be reduced by any means. More than half the target object must be present in order to begin repairs. Roll Perception + Crafts at Difficulty 6.
If you succeed, your target is repaired back to a functional state. If you fail, you spend the full time working before realizing you cannot repair the target. If your target only requires fuel or power and is otherwise in working order, this Effect costs no Exertion, and the target is fueled/powered for the next 24 hours.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see a spectre will rise from the Well beneath- an amalgamation that looks as if comprised of various humans and creatures stitched together by someone who failed biology. It looks different each time. As the user slowly completes the sketch, the spectre will reach down into the well, pull out various creatures from the Well, tear them into pieces, and melt them down into viscous blobs of ink, and mold them into the object..
This sketchbook is able to create imitations of perfect objects and bring them forth into reality. It does require some form of direction, in the form of a drawn picture. The picture, once finish, will rapidly lose form into a shapeless blob of weightless black ink. Within the span of a couple seconds, it will reform into the drawn object. This process isn't super squeaky clean- Luci only barely managed to stabilize the energies flowing through this artifact and so meddling with it can sometimes lead to a little more than a warning spurting out at the user.
Sometimes an undead spectre or wraith- someone who died in search of perfection- may crawl itself up just in time and worm its way into the user's mind, and will attempt to live through that person, acting out one of the vices that had killed them in the past.
The drawings can be predone so long as they follow along with the proper prerequisites.
Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend an Action. You must use up a competently drawn picture of the object desired (at least 4 successes) in order to activate this Effect. You must make a Trauma roll when you use this Effect. Its Difficulty cannot be reduced by any means.
Choose an Object which could fit inside a regular backpack (up to 27 liters). It must be Non-Alien and generic. You can create explosives, but they are limited in size to being no larger or more powerful than a satchel charge. You cannot create firearms.
Roll Perception + Crafts to fabricate up to 5 copies of your chosen Object. The Difficulty is assigned by the GM and depends on the specificity of your chosen Object. Your created items no longer expire, and will last until they are destroyed.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see an Eidolon of the Well. The act of meddling with other planes of existence does not come without some undesired side effects. Sometimes, when peering through the veil with the intent to make use of its energies, something stares back and imparts upon the onlooker a warning of disorienting magnitude.
Luci's inherent map-making skills may not be the most prime, but with the assistance of this artifact, her scouting abilities are premier. Using the map created by Dance of the Shadow, Luci can pinpoint any area on the map, cover the page with ink, and manifest a live constantly moving image comprised of ink that moves and snakes along the page on its own to simulate what's going on in that location as if she was standing there herself.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. This Effect cannot be used unless the area has been investigated or properly mapped out to a thorough degree. You must use up 1 liter of ink in order to activate this Effect. You must make a Trauma roll when you use this Effect. Its Difficulty cannot be reduced by any means.
You may perceive things within 1 mile of you with perfect clarity as though there were no walls or obstacles blocking your view for the next 30 minutes.
Others near you may choose to observe what you are perceiving by looking at Luci’s sketchbook.
You may perceive through up to 15 feet of material. The Difficulty of all Perception rolls made through a wall are increased by 1 per wall.
The artifact, a ring of metal, shimmers slightly, spreading a mist that hides the user slowly disappear into nothing as its user rubs the inscription along the artifact. A bit of Elvish from J.R.R. Token, but saying something different.
"Keep me secret, keep me safe"
Vel made this artifact with a ritual pulling on the long history of legends of artifacts of invisibility.
The ring of Gyges is the first, and the one Vel picked the name for
The second is the helm of hades, the source of the mist that powers the effect.
The last, and the most well known, the one ring, and tempered by the other two stories
Vel starts by casting the metal for the base of the artifact, typically a ring. As Vel does so they tell extracts of the story of the ring of Gyges
Vel then lets the ring cool, surrounding it in steam as they talk about the stories of the helm of hades.
Vel finally carves in elvish the words into the ring. The patterns are common enough that the ring looks recognizable as something akin to the one ring, drawing power from people's conception of that. The specifics of the wording serve as another specific bit of meaning, anchoring the power of the ring in the point of time when the ring was harmless, and connecting it to the other 2 stories of less malevolent effects.
Notes:
[So my thought process for this is that the most well known ring of invisibility and symbol of invisibility is the ring from Lord of the Rings.
When trying to impart an effect, Vel doesn’t want to make a ring that destroys lives and minds. So, the other stories, and the words in elvish are a way of anchoring the power Vel gets from the big story, pulling the other stories of similar tools, and using them to divert the effects the one ring is supposed to have.
I could probably switch to just the Greek stories to make it a little cleaner, but I think if you are making a ring of invisibility using the cultural understanding of rings of invisibility, you need to address the one ring, or it will slip in.]
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
You and everything you are carrying is obscured in one of the following manners. Lasts one minute.
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. Activating a targeted or obvious Effect, attacking, or being Injured ends the Effect. When the Effect ends, it is disabled for one minute.
The nano bots from out of specialized entities and exits to create a defense bubble around something forming a barrier from incoming attacks of course they are still machines which can and will break given enough damage.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Roll Intellect + Technology at Difficulty 6.
If you succeed, you create a Barrier extending out 15 feet from yourself, which absorbs 2 times the next Outcome + 4 Damage. Only applies to attacks which originated outside the 15 foot radius, and protects anyone who is within that radius. 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.
When the band made by the above ritual is worn, it occasionally (every 4 hours or so) briefly flashes a translucent outline of its wielder’s body at peak condition (this is their “elemental”, the shell or outline of their soul), and the wielder is able to focus as if they themselves were at peak condition.
The band captures a person’s elemental, the shell of a person’s soul that is left behind in its movement, according to some of the occultist Helena Blavatsky’s teachings. By briefly redisplaying this shell over the user’s form, the user can synchronize their body with their soul at a healthier time. A necromantic ritual for “soul finding” has recently allowed David to find a more complete version of a person’s elemental, allowing this technique to synchronize a previous healthier mind as well.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.
Your Stress from Injuries and Mind Damage is reduced to 0.
Victor adjusts his tie and he instantly blends in with he crowd or his surroundings as if he is meant to be there.
Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action.
You and everything you are carrying is obscured in one of the following manners. Lasts 30 minutes.
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. Activating a targeted or obvious Effect, attacking, or being Injured ends the Effect. When the Effect ends, it is disabled for one minute.
You may turn this Effect on and off at will during its duration.
While this Effect is active, you are at -2 dice to all Actions and cannot Concentrate.
The 255TE "Lancer" Rife fires an extremely deadly spike of plasma at its targets. It comes standard with a volume control, allowing the soldier to mute its normally fearsome lightning crack report for stealth missions. When not in use, it can collapse into a small metal disk that can fit into any utility belt.
This Artifact can be used as a rifle. It is roughly the same size as a rifle but can be collapsed into a metallic disk and concealed. Collapsing or expanding it costs a Quick Action.
Attack by rolling Dexterity + Firearms, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +5 Weapon Damage.
You also gain the following effects:
The "Reaper" Assault Helmet is the signature piece of the Future Soldier's arsenal. It has a sleek, design and is made of a mysterious matte-metallic alloy. The wearer's face is exposed normally, but when activated, a blue holographic visor flickers to life in front of the eyes. This HUD contains information about the soldier's ammunition and shield status, but more significantly can detect enemy combatants. Anyone nearby who is holding a weapon is painted with a red dot that follows them in real time. This allows the Future Soldier to fire at painted targets in the dark, detect ambushes lurking around corners, and grants an overall tactical advantage.
Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action.
You automatically detect all people wielding weapons within 300 feet of you for the next hour. This includes any who come within range during the duration. You have a sense of how many valid targets are nearby, as well as their distance and direction.
The Axe of Legend's blade has been imbued with the metal of the dark lord of rock and roll. It shreds chords and flesh. The rock god commanding it may recall it to their hand at will.
This Artifact can be used as a sword / axe. It is roughly the same size as a sword / axe and just as difficult to conceal.
Attack by rolling Brawn + Melee, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +4 Weapon Damage.
You also gain the following effects:
If the Selkie's seal skin is worn close to the body, any contact with salt water will cause them to transform into a seal. While transformed, they have full access to their normal suite of Powers.
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.
The Predatory Raiment has a cloak feature that allows its owner to hide themselves and their equipment with active camouflage. When viewed, they look like a slightly shifted and shimmering version of the surrounding environment.
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.
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.