Crafted Artifact

Mason Berkman's SEAL

Created by Louis Dupont, given to Mason Berkman.
A wind up gameboy like contraptration that provides radar pings to the location of nearby energy clusters and artifacts

The next in Louis's foray into computer science is a little cartridge for his SEAL units. Simply retrieve one from your pack, and slam it into the machine and it'll perform an automated hack of the targeted device! Though fingers that are too fast may find themselves encountering a slight bug, as mashing the input as you input the cartridge has been known to cause the device to encounter a null error and hack itself, but, we promise we're working on that!

Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute to activate. Select a Computer within arm's reach. Does not work on Alien technology. Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you disable the artifact for a downtime as it hacks itself.. Roll Dexterity + 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.

You may issue a "self-destruct" command that leaves the hacked system's hardware inoperable, even if that machine had no such functionality previously.

Every hack you make leaves behind A gif of a seal clapping and arfing. in the system as a personal "calling card" that informs anyone who uses the system that the hack occurred.

  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.

With a little elbow grease and 21st century know how, this artifact can help you find all sorts of strange things while out on a journey. Through the science that founded radar combined with a little magic, this item can find all sorts of strange things hidden in the world around you and when you are out and about on the hunt you'll be glad you brought your SEAL.

Louis's introduction to the contracting world being so rife with artifacts has made him question what else may be out there, and curious to find more, he's begun digging into ways to do so. This gift is the harbinger's answer to his request for a way to sate that curiosity.

Exert your Mind and spend at least two Actions performing the following ritual: Transcribing details about the area into the scanner to activate. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.

You automatically detect all Artifacts and Supernatural Energy Concentrations within 50 feet of you for the next ten minutes. You have a clear sense of both the distance and direction towards any detected items. You get details of what each detected item is, as if you've glanced at each object.

Even if there are no Artifacts or Supernatural Energy Concentrations within 50 feet of you, you become aware of the direction the closest one is in, as well as a rough sense of its distance from you.

While this Effect is active, you are at -2 dice to all Actions and cannot Concentrate.

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Community Artifacts

Deer Hide Jacket

Created and held by Harriet Kel.
A peculiarly scarred jacket made of deer hide, with a carving of a moth shaped key on the collar.

The user traces the carving of a moth shaped key repeatedly, thinking of the shape they wish to hide in. At the end if the ritual, a new skin drapes over the user like a cloth.

This artifact allows the user to summon a new skin from the Mansus made of the jumbled memories of the dead, and remove the distinction between the user and the new skin. For a time, at least.

Exert your Mind and spend a half hour.

You become disguised in a manner of your choosing. The disguise lasts for two hours, or you may end it early at will.

The new appearance may have a different sex, age, and race to your own, and you may alter height by up to a foot and your weight by 50%. Your disguise cannot directly mimic an existing person. You cannot alter your clothes. A disguise cannot affect your Attributes or other stats.

You may roll Charisma + Crafts to attempt to make your disguise Beautiful. If your Outcome is 6 or higher, non-Effect Charisma rolls where your good looks could help are rolled at -2 Difficulty. If you fail or botch, you are ugly instead, and non-Effect Charisma rolls are made at +2 Difficulty.

  • ‘Appearance’ includes voice, bone structure, skin quality, hair length and color, eye color, muscle tone, flesh texture, and generally anything perceivable about your body.

Fractal Folding Paper

Created by Bryan Bosch, given to Mike Carson.
A sheet of folding paper with an array of intricate, recursive patterns imprinted onto its surface. If examined closely, the existing folds mirror that of infinite fractals, seemingly never ending. Signed on its otherwise blank surface in cursive calligraphy are the initials "bb."

The user draws a small piece of paper in which this artifact has been imbued onto and begins to rhythmically fold, unfold, and ultimately shape the paper into a form which resembles their surroundings. During this process, the user's mind is flooded with visions of the past, guiding their hands as they fold the paper at the risk of permanently damaging their psyche.

Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Investigate an area with a radius of up to 100 feet 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 Intellect + Crafts at Difficulty 6.

You learn the following information about the area:

  • You choose a specific type of event and receive a vision of the last time it occurred here.
The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome.

You cannot investigate the same area more than once per day.

  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

The Bag "Poke"

Created and held by Reuben Sturgill.

The bag is a writhing swelling creature of dark obsidian flesh. It is about the size of a 60 liter camping bag and it clings to it's owners back, but can be covered with a large tarp.

The bag has can hold a number of items against itself with grubby little tendrils that protrude from the bag.

Items within the creature can be accessed only by the owner who then lifts the flesh flap at the top of the bag and digs around for the item of their choice.

The creature will not eat items without its owners permission, but it will request food.

The bag must be fed one large meal (~1000kcals) daily or it becomes sullen and inaccessible. When it is in a bad mood it needs either an item of monetary value of at least $100 or an item of reasonable personal value to someone (GM discretion). If the bag is not fed after three days of being in a bad mood it will begin to eat the items inside.

This Artifact can be used as a container. It is roughly the same size as a A "back pack" and just as difficult to conceal.

Your A "back pack" holds 5 times what it normally could. Objects stored inside are weightless.

Living things can be stored in your A "back pack". They will have access to anything else inside but cannot break free.

If your A "back pack" is destroyed, things inside may get out, and it will cease to function until it is repaired.

Only you may open and close the container. Others can still destroy it to get at the contents

This item is a living thing. When targeted, it counts as a Living Creature in addition to its other target types. If destroyed or abandoned for more than two days, it dies and becomes unusable.

  • There is no cost to use your container.

Poke has headed the call of the traveler and taken on a more active role.

As long as Reuben has the bag, Poke will extend an appendage down to grant Reuben the ability to walk "normally" once more. The appendage only operates if poke is nearby.

You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.

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.

Your appendage is capable of bending and squishing in normally-impossible ways. It may fit through any gap that is not water-tight and retain its functionality.

Your extra appendage can stretch to reach an additional 30 feet.

Your appendage has a grip that is hard to shake. While grappling a target, when contesting their physical actions, you may roll your full dice pool, but it only counts as a Quick Action.

You cannot be mistaken for a normal human. You cannot always use standard human clothes, equipment, vehicles, and facilities, and when you can, you suffer an increased Difficulty.

  • You may stretch or retract your limbs once per Round on your Initiative.

When the traveler loses an eye the companion provides another. The sight provided far surpasses that which the traveler first had.

You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.

Your senses are enhanced in the following way.

  • Sight: You can see perfectly in dark and even pitch-black environments. You suffer no dice penalty due to darkness.
  • Thermal: You are able to "see" heat signatures within your line of sight.

Any senses which have been heightened cannot be overloaded. Battle Scars you receive cannot affect these senses.

  • Your thermal vision allows you to judge temperatures of surfaces fairly accurately as long as they are within livable temperatures.
  • Examples of overloading a sense include: an explosion causing temporary deafness, a bright light causing blindness, a sedative causing numbness, etc.

The Ten Rings of Command

Created and held by Saul Blackburn.

As if a heat haze follows his words it swirls around the target usually invisible.

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 + Alertness 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 Outcome in hours. 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 and a conditional request. 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.

This Effect ends if you are stunned, fall asleep, go unconscious, are incapacitated, die, or if your total Stress ever exceeds 5.

  • You cannot order your target to endanger themselves, but you may order them to flee, attack a certain target, take a defensive or offensive stance, or similar.
  • The target must be able to understand you and must receive your communication for the suggestion to work.
  • Allowed Commands
    • Conditional Request: implants a triggered response or latent order. (e.g. "when you see your mom, give her a kiss" or "when I give the signal, strip naked and pretend you're possessed by the devil.")
    • Direct Order: The target must take an immediate action (e.g. “Sit down,” "run away," or "tell me your password.")
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

Pendant of the moon goddess

Created by Seraphine Florentia, given to Alexander Stewart.
An intricately crafted pendant with a bluish white gem in the middle, symbolizing the full moon.

Activating this artifact causes the wielder to tear off the flesh and blood from the target and recipient and swaps them, as the flesh and blood settles into place with the new hosts.

Tormented from her curse of lycanthropy, Seraphine designed an artifact that she hoped could give away her curse and finally give her tormented soul freedom. Much to her frustration and relief, the curse would not leave her.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select two Sapient targets within arm's reach. If a target does not consent to the transfer, you must roll Brawn+Melee at Difficulty 6 to use the effect on them. They can resist by rolling either Body or Mind at Difficulty 6, depending on what you are attempting to transfer to them.

You may choose a single instance of one of the following to transfer between your two targets:

  • A single Battle Scar without the accompanying Injury which caused it
  • A single Injury and any Battle Scars it caused
This Effect cannot be used again on the same target for the next day.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see flesh and ichor being forcefully ripped and placed onto the target with their flesh replacing the lost flesh from the caster.

Whenever you transfer an Injury, it's Severity increases by 1. Whenever you transfer Mind damage or Traumas, the recipient takes an additional Mind damage.

  • When narrating disturbing content, be cognizant of your group's tone and accommodating to those who would like to "fast forward" through the description.
  • Does not apply to transfers made through the Forced Exchange enhancement.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

A holographic symbol of the moon appears, shattering to form the artifact if being recalled or cracking open to reveal an eldritch horror spreading out if being held by someone unworthy

Seraphine needed to ensure her artifacts didn't fall into the wrong hands so she devised a way to ensure her holy relics weren't used against her own kind.

This Artifact cannot be broken. If this Artifact is lost and in no one else’s possession, it finds its way back to its true owner during the next Downtime.

By default, the creator of this Artifact is its true owner. The true owner may formally bequeath this Artifact onto another person within arm’s reach, after which they are its true owner. If the true owner dies or is destroyed, their ownership ends. If this Artifact has no true owner, anyone may spend one day attuning to it to become its true owner.

Monster hunters cannot hold or use this Artifact. They take a Severity 1 Injury each Round they touch or possess of the Artifact. It cannot be prevented or healed by any means until one day after they relinquish possession.

If this Artifact is in no one else’s possession, its true owner may Exert their Mind and spend two Actions to bring it to themselves.

This Artifact's true owner must have it with them to have restful sleep. They cannot regain Mind or Source while separated from this Artifact.

  • "Cannot be broken" means that damage cannot render the Artifact's Effects unusable, nor can it cease to be used for its primary mundane purpose, if it has one.

Stock Artifact Crafting Gifts

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:

  • Naturally Resistant: Any time you make a Mind resistance roll, the individual who you are resisting must Exert their Mind, or your resistance succeeds automatically.
  • Clash Of Wills: If you fail to fully resist an Effect, your Outcome is considered to be 0.

  • These bonuses apply only to Mind rolls made to resist Effects and other supernatural phenomena. They do not apply to Trauma rolls or self-control rolls.

You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.

You get +2 dice to any Body resistance rolls you make. You also gain the following effects:

  • Survivor: You are immune to all non-Alien diseases.
  • All Brawn No Brain: You suffer a -2 dice penalty on Mind resistance rolls.

  • These bonuses apply only to Body rolls made to resist Effects and other supernatural phenomena. They do not apply to other contexts such as attacks made while under the Creature Transformation Effect.