Legendary Artifact

Tech-Mage's Best Buddy

Created and held by Henry Callahan.
A Strange looking Smartphone, with a bulky case that is copper orange and silver in design, the screen seems fine, as it lights up, it displays a yellow background, a strange logo at the center and the words, 'Standing By' displayed on the screen, before things go dark.

The Contractor would flip the back of the cellphone and pop the cover door open, revealing the slot for a good sized battery, that he just replaces with a new one. The door is closed as he would quickly boot it up and start to use it, the screen glowing yellow as it connects to the nearby device, the screen going dimmer and dimmer until finally the hack is complete.

Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. Select a Device within 300 feet. Does not work on Alien technology. You must use up Batteries in order 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.

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.

Your command does not have to take effect immediately. Instead, upon a successful Hack, you may specify a condition under which the specified command is issued or simply suspend the Command until you desire to activate it.

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.

Your Hack cannot be reversed through mundane means for a number of hours equal to your Outcome.

When targeting non-computer devices, you may operate switches, buttons, dials, levers, and latches.

Every hack you make leaves behind Glowing Yellow Screen 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.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

Pressing the special app on the phone, a side panel opens up, which the user flips down the grip and trigger, revealing the handgun mode in its glory, ready to be used to defend the user and fellow contractors in the field.

This Artifact can be used as a handgun. It is roughly the same size as a handgun but can be collapsed into a cellphone and concealed. Collapsing or expanding it costs a Quick Action.

Attack by rolling Dexterity + Firearms, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +4 Weapon Damage.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Infinite Ammo: This weapon never runs out of its standard ammunition.
  • Shredder: If you successfully hit your target, the value of any Armor they are wearing is reduced by 2. For material armor, this penalty lasts until it is repaired. For intrinsic armor, it lasts until the end of Combat and any relevant wound is healed.

  • If there is not enough free space to expand the object, it cannot be expanded. You cannot expand this Object as an attack.
  • Reminder: additional Weapon Damage granted by this Effect does not stack with any other bonus to Weapon Damage. Instead the largest bonus is used.
  • Rifles are +1 Difficulty to use in melee range. Sniper Rifles are +3 Difficulty to use without a tripod or in melee range. Setting up a tripod takes an Action.
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Community Artifacts

Gladinfernum

Created and held by Percival of Roringdale.

An extravagant longsword decorated with jewels, recovered from being embedded in a rock underneath a lack in the depths of Hell. The weapon has worked its way into the core being of the user, and is a font of power.

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 1 Weapon Damage +3 Bonus Damage. The target's fully effective

You also gain the following effects:

  • Dismember: If one of your attacks causes a Battle Scar, you may choose for it to be some form of dismemberment, depending on the Severity of the Injury you caused.
  • Shredder: If you successfully hit your target, the value of any armor they are wearing is reduced by 2. This penalty lasts until the armor is repaired.

The sword reappears within the sheath, seeming to materialize out of thin air.

This Artifact cannot be broken.

If this Artifact is lost and in no one’s possession, it finds its way back to its creator during the next Downtime.

This Artifact's creator is always aware of the direction and distance to 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.

The Ring of the Bolting Beetle

Created and held by Dante K.C. Williams.
A Cobalt Blue Stag Beetle Ring that when placed on the ground by the user unfurls into a metal beetle and becomes a fully functioning armored Volkswagen Beetle

Sometimes the little bugs inside complex mechanisms take a liking to mechanics and tinkerers and choose to become bound to them as partners. This bug lived inside so many cars that it understands them innately and can become one now. It normally hides as a metal totem but when invoked by its trusty partner it expands and transforms into a small compact car. Still alive and with an attitude of its own, this car demands respect and care from its passengers, driver, and maintainer.

This Artifact can be used as a Volkswagen Beetle. It is roughly the same size as a Volkswagen Beetle but can be collapsed into A Stag Beetle Ring and concealed. Collapsing or expanding it costs a Quick Action.

This Volkswagen Beetle has Armored chassis, high durability wheels, high efficiency engine, a bronze paint job and fuzzy dice.. Any roll to pilot this vehicle receives +2 dice.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Amphibious: Your vehicle may move on land as well as under water at its normal speed. If your vehicle includes an enclosed space, it will function as an airtight, pressurized cockpit.
  • Drive-By: You may drive or pilot your vehicle as a Free Action, without taking any penalty on other Actions.
  • Mind of its Own: This vehicle can move and take Actions without you driving it. It has seven dice for all Drive rolls.
  • Steady As She Goes: The motion of your vehicle never causes your passengers dice penalties, and you do not suffer dice penalties from the unsteadiness of any vehicle you are riding in.
  • No Muffler: Any stealth rolls made to hide your vehicle automatically fail, and any rolls made to notice your vehicle automatically succeed.

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.

  • If there is not enough free space to expand the object, it cannot be expanded. You cannot expand this Object as an attack.

Self Repair

Created and held by V3R510N.1.

Grab metal, smash spot, go go gadget ez w

Expend a point of Battery and spend 1 Action. Select a Object within arm's reach that is no larger than an SUV. Cannot be used on Alien technology. More than half the target object must be present in order to begin repairs. Roll Dexterity + Athletics 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.

You may only use this Effect 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.

My bestfriend Chester

Created and held by Winsley Herman.
A large black briefcase. Made of real leather and stamped brass. A handle and a over-shoulder strap are available. The initials W.H are stamped into the side. The two locks on the top are made to resemble glass eyes, though it does allow the briefcase to "see" if whoever is opening it is the owner. The insides are quite spacious and padded. If the owner isn't the one to open the container the briefcase temporarily swallows the items inside and pushes up its "tounge" (the bottom of the briefcase) to resemble a normal briefcase. otherwise its just as spacious as a magical container would be.

A large black briefcase. Made of real leather and stamped brass. A handle and a over-shoulder strap are available. The initials W.H are stamped into the side. The two locks on the top are made to resemble glass eyes, though it does allow the briefcase to "see" if whoever is opening it is the owner. The insides are quite spacious and padded. If the owner isn't the one to open the container the briefcase temporarily swallows the items inside and pushes up its "tounge" (the bottom of the briefcase) to resemble a normal briefcase. otherwise its just as spacious as a magical container would be.

This Artifact holds 5 times what it normally could inside of it. Objects stored inside are weightless.

Living things can be stored in this Artifact. They will have access to anything else inside and may attempt to break free, damaging or destroying the Artifact in the process.

If this Artifact is destroyed, things inside may get out, and it will cease to function until it is repaired.

When scanned or investigated without opening, the contents of this container appear normal and unremarkable.

On a Downtime, you may change this Artifact from one type of container to another. Maximum once per Downtime.

If anyone other than you opens the container, it appears empty. 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.

Anyone who touches this Artifact will notice it warping their mind and may drop it. If they choose to hold or use it, they immediately receive the following Trauma: Delusion that the suitcase is your best friend. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Trauma heals over the course of the next day.

  • You cannot change the container's type if you are not in possession of it.
  • A container of holding cannot be placed inside another created by the same Gift.
  • There is no cost to use this container.

Winsley's deals are getting more serious, so naturally he requests to never be separated from his 'Friends'. If he is ever separated from one of the items he holds so dearly he can call upon some of his benefactor's debts and open a tear in the fabric to bring them to him.

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.

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.

The tips of the wearers fingers gain static charge during day to day actions. Their sense of touch is fine tuned to the point of instant recognition based of the electrical flow leaving their fingers. They also receive stimuli from the passive electrical fields in their surroundings through their hands. The tingling in their fingers tends to keep people up at night unless they can mentally tune it out.

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

Your senses are enhanced in the following way.

  • Electroreception: You may detect electromagnetic fields, electric currents, and even neurological activity in a 50 foot radius from yourself at all times. When detecting neurological activity, you learn nothing but the creature's rough size.
  • Touch: You can identify any material with a touch and immediately find what you are looking for when rummaging, assuming it is actually present. You may withdraw items from your bags with a Quick Action instead of an Action.

Anyone who touches this Artifact will notice it warping their body and may drop it. If they choose to hold or use it, they immediately receive the following Battle Scar: Insomnia: Make a self control roll at the start of the contract and whenever you have a full nights rest. if you fail you don’t sleep and take one mind damage.. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Battle Scar heals over the course of the next day.

  • When you are within 50 feet of range, your electroreception sense is sufficient for aiming.
  • “Rummaging" means digging through trash, finding a needle in a haystack, etc.

You link your mind with your object allowing for it to take your burdens away. You no longer feel pain or stress. In return the object feeds on your innermost thoughts. Trust me you won’t even realize.

You gain the following benefits as long as this effect can only be used if it’s attached to a living object. and you are wearing this Artifact.

Your Stress from Injuries and Mind Damage is reduced to 0.

It is a rose gold watch which can tell the time. When the crown is held down with a wounded creature within range the tentacles shoot out from watch. The reach out and begin suturing the wounds back together. The process is long but painless. The effectiveness of the suturing is based on the users ability to convince the entity to help. Afterwards the recipient has an avoidance to seafood, especially calamari.

Exert your Mind and spend 15 minutes. Select a Living target within arm's reach. Choose a specific Injury on your target that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Charisma + Influence at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, the Injury is reduced in Severity by your Outcome. If you reduce its Severity to 0, the Injury is fully healed. Otherwise, it is partially healed and will heal the rest of the way at its natural rate.

This counts as a successful Makeshift Stabilization if the Injury was not already Stabilized; any Battle Scars caused by the Injury will remain. Your patient is required to they cannot eat seafood for the next month. If they violate this rule, your treatment is immediately reversed.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see The caster communes with an eldritch entity to heal the recipient.

  • The patient is aware of this requirement.
  • When narrating disturbing content, be cognizant of your group's tone and accommodating to those who would like to "fast forward" through the description.
  • Unstabilized wounds do not degenerate during treatment.
  • 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.

Stele

Created and held by Angel Cooper.
A steel-reinforced wooden bat scratched in red pen with runes of varying legitimacy, sturdy, a bit bloodstained, and well loved

Stele’s name comes from the Shadowhunters franchise that Angel loves so much- a stele in this case is an intricate thin tool made of adamas, heavenly metal. Most of its bullshit runes come from that franchise. When the bat is in use, all of these runes, bullshit or not (he really doesn’t know), flare up in their inky, energetic red. Whichever rune is most in use with the effect flares the brightest.

Activated Rune: Bind To

This Artifact cannot be broken.

If this Artifact is lost and in no one’s possession, it finds its way back to its creator during the next Downtime.

This Artifact's creator is always aware of the direction and distance to this Artifact.

This Artifact's creator 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.

Angel hefts up a bat or anything similar and swings it from a ways away. Despite the lack of physical contact, the target is struck across the face and put into a pleasant, smiling daze like Angel’s previous default. They may look around or ask questions like “Why am I here again?”.

Activated Rune: Calm Anger

Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action. Select a Animate target within 20 feet. Roll Brawn + Influence at Difficulty 7.

If you succeed, the target will suffer a dice penalty equal to the Outcome for the next 3 Rounds. Dice pools may be reduced all the way down to 0 by this penalty. This breaks Concentration.

  • This Penalty is not removed if a character Exerts their Mind to ignore penalty.
  • If a character has a dice pool reduced to 0, they cannot attempt that action.
  • 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.

Angel Cooper takes up his bat and grins in anticipation, then swings it down or around towards his target. If and when he hits, the reverberation one feels when a bat connects with something rings through him. It makes every rune on his bat that’s been activated flare up on the bat itself, as well as Angel’s forearms, searing like hot red ink until he can calm his mad adrenaline.

Angel’s strikes may “build up” reverberation on a successful enough attack. In these instances, the target feels a painful buzzing sensation as the energy of the swing penetrates bone and shatters an extremity to uselessness.

Activated Rune: Power

This Artifact can be used as a club / improvised weapon. It is roughly the same size as a club / improvised weapon and just as difficult to conceal.

Attack by rolling Brawn + Melee, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +3 Weapon Damage.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Blade Breaker: If you successfully Defend against a melee attack or if an opponent is unsuccessful at Defending against your melee attack, you may break your opponent's weapon.
  • Pin: If you Injure a target with an Attack, you may choose to leave your weapon. If you do, the target is “pinned” to that location until the weapon is removed. Removing the weapon increases the Severity of that Injury by 2.
  • Shredder: If you successfully hit your target, the value of any Armor they are wearing is reduced by 2. For material armor, this penalty lasts until it is repaired. For intrinsic armor, it lasts until the end of Combat and any relevant wound is healed.

  • Reminder: additional Weapon Damage granted by this Effect does not stack with any other bonus to Weapon Damage. Instead the largest bonus is used.

Stock Legendary Artifacts

Assault Helmet

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.

  • This Effect does not satisfy the line of sight targeting requirement for other Effects.

The Airship of Solitude

The airship of solitude is an imposing black blimp. While flying through the air, it is regularly struck by lightning, terrifying those below.

This Artifact can be used as a blimp. It is roughly the same size as a blimp but can be collapsed into a phone-sized canvas cube and concealed. Collapsing or expanding it costs a Quick Action.

This blimp has full science laboratory, bullet-proof envelope, and ample parachutes. Any roll to pilot this vehicle receives +2 dice.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Crew of One: You alone may stand in for an entire crew if the vehicle would normally be piloted by more than one.
  • Mind of its Own: This vehicle can move and take Actions without you driving it. It has seven dice for all Drive rolls.
  • No Muffler: Any stealth rolls made to hide your vehicle automatically fail, and any rolls made to notice your vehicle automatically succeed.

  • If there is not enough free space to expand the object, it cannot be expanded. You cannot expand this Object as an attack.

Lightning Bracers

A pair of bronze bracelets that glow with golden energy.

This Artifact produces ephemeral projectiles that can be used as a javelin.

Attack by rolling Brawn + Athletics, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +3 Weapon Damage.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Chain Lightning: You may Exert your Mind to perform a chain lightning attack. If your attack succeeds, All targets within 5 feet of your primary target take full Damage. The Damage can “jump” up to 5 times. Each target can be hit only once.
  • Magic Quiver: Instead of throwing this Artifact, it is an object that produces an endless supply of temporary throwable objects. For example, bracers that allow you to throw ethereal javelins, or a sack of throwing rocks that doesn’t shrink when you withdraw one.

  • If there is not enough free space to expand the object, it cannot be expanded. You cannot expand this Object as an attack.
  • Created projectiles last only until they strike their target and cannot be shared or stockpiled.
  • Reminder: additional Weapon Damage granted by this Effect does not stack with any other bonus to Weapon Damage. Instead the largest bonus is used.

The Bug-out Bag

No hiker would bat an eye if they saw someone wearing this 80 liter backpacking pack in the backcountry. Those who look closer find it's made of a curious mix of modern materials and what appears to be rawhide stitching.

This Artifact holds 5 times what it normally could inside of it. Objects stored inside are weightless.

Living things can be stored in this Artifact. They will have access to anything else inside and may attempt to break free, damaging or destroying the Artifact in the process.

If this Artifact is destroyed, things inside may get out, and it will cease to function until it is repaired.

When scanned or investigated without opening, the contents of this container appear normal and unremarkable.

If anyone other than you opens the container, it appears empty. Others can still destroy it to get at the contents.

  • A container of holding cannot be placed inside another created by the same Gift.
  • There is no cost to use this container.

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.

This Artifact's true owner is always aware of the direction and distance to 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.

Umbrella Identification

This Artifact can change its appearance. When not transformed, it is roughly the same size as a passport and just as difficult to conceal.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action to activate. This Artifact changes its appearance into an Object within the category of forms of identification. This lasts until you decide to end the Effect, which may be done as a Free Action.

The new object's appearance can mimic specific items (such as a particular painting, a certain person’s ID, etc), but must be of a similar size and weight to this Artifact.

The new appearance is illusory; it will hold up to scrutiny, but its composition is not altered and it gains no new functionality. Any attempt to use it for a function which it cannot perform (for instance, making bread look like a knife and then trying to stab someone) will cause the illusion to fail or allow a Perception check to see through the illusion, at the GM's discretion.