It is simply not your time to be hit. Reality itself sees you as the main character and assigns you plot armor. Rendering most attacks ineffective. An obvious warm glow radiates out from your person, softening blows or having them redirected away from you.
The user radiates Causal Diction to the point where it begins to interact with the world around them. On paper, this might seem like a barrier that blocks incoming attacks against the user. However, it would be more accurate to state that objects drawing close to this radiated energy become filled with the desire to miss the intended target and deviate from their chosen course. If more than will the user is exerting is put into an attack, not all of its force will be diverted. It is imperative to understand that this is not a shield. It is merely an interaction between fundamental forces of the universe.
Spend an Action or Reaction. Select a Animate target within 20 feet. Roll Charisma + Influence at Difficulty 6.
If you succeed, you create a barrier around your target, which absorbs the next Outcome +4 Damage. The Damage reduction from the barrier is applied before Armor. This Artifact may have up to 3 barriers active at a time.
You must maintain Concentration while using this Effect. The barrier will fall if you are interrupted, 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.
This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 1.
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: Weak Stomach. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Battle Scar heals over the course of the next day.
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: Nightmares. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Trauma heals over the course of the next day.
Story lines appear in a circular pattern around the target and attempt to prevent them from escaping. If read, the story lines will dictate the events that would have happened had the target been allowed to continue as normal.
Words are power. That much is certain. Causal Diction utilizes this power to effect reality and bend it towards the user's will. This includes the prevention of action by others. If the user believes they are not meant to be there or take useful action, they simply will not be permitted to.
Spend an Action. Select a target within 45 feet. You must use up Bottle of Ink in order to activate this Effect. Roll Charisma + Influence at Difficulty 6. the target may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 7.
If you succeed, your target will be pushed or pulled towards a surface within 45 feet and is restricted at that location by an intangible, ethereal binding. They can still move their arms and use Effects, but cannot move to a new location.
Restricted targets may attempt to break the binding and escape by spending an Action and rolling Mind at Difficulty 7. Breaking free requires a total cumulative Outcome of twice the original Contested Outcome.
Your bindings affect intangible beings like ghosts.
You may end this Effect prematurely as a Free Action.
While this Effect is active, you are at -2 dice to all Actions and cannot Concentrate.
This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 1.
Andrew Tate takes his microphone and starts a podcast.
Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend at least one Action to activate. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. 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 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 will be fully aware that they are doing this task on your behalf and will inform anyone who they interact with that they were sent by you, though they may not view it as compulsory or against their will until the effect wears off. 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-endangering or 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.
The book of runes automatically opens to the correct page, tracing the rune and speaking "Uruz" (ᚢ) activates the power. The caster and the object(s) they are manipulating are surrounded by an aura marked made of ᚢ.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.
You can 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 4 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:
The book of runes opens to the correct page automatically the caster traces the rune and speaks Iwaz (ᛇ). An aura forms of ᛇ around the caster and flows to the target like a viscous fluid filling their wounds before being replace by what was lost
Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. 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 Intellect + Medicine 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.
The book of runes opens to the correct page automatically the caster traces the rune and speaks Raido (ᚱ). An aura forms of brilliant white ᚱ around the caster until it completely obscures them before bursting and reforming at the target location then dissolving into motes of light revealing the caster.
Exert your Mind and spend 2 Actions. Select a Location within your line of sight.
You are transported directly to the chosen Location. You must wait 1 full Round before activating this Effect again.
Emily lets out a breath, and with her claws, slices the insides of her arm, allowing the blood (for power) to spill to the ground. She then mixes a vial of virgin's blood (for tempting), and mixes it with the dirt (for binding). In a pinch, she can smear it on the floor, but the creatures that speak though the blood to her do not appreciate this as much.
They whisper to her the desires of the land and those in it. Those who desire to hurt, those who desire to change, those who desire to move.
Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend a minute. Investigate an area with a radius of up to 1 mile You must use up a vial of virgin's blood in order to activate this Effect. At the end of your investigation, roll Brawn + Alertness at Difficulty 6.
You learn the following information about the area:
If you do not have a sacrificial Injury when you activate this Effect, take a new Severity-1 Injury.
You cannot investigate the same area more than once per day.
When removed, no one can hear it but Emily. But she can. That keening cry, of a babe separated from its mother. It's grating, but she could follow it anywhere.
She can also cry out, and unless held, it will collapse into blood and reform in her paw.
Part of her is in there.
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.
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.
Emily lets out a snarl from deep within the folds of her fabric. She draws her paw back, and then strikes the ground. A spike of blood shoots out of her paw, tunneling though the ground before emerging in a location with sudden and remarkable violence. It heads up about five feet before exploding outwards into tendrils of blood, punching though flesh, bone, and steel without care.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Location within 40 feet. This Effect cannot be used unless you are in alternate form. 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. The area within 25 feet of the chosen Location immediately and obviously becomes imminently dangerous. Roll Brawn + Melee 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 all targets (besides a single chosen species or type of Animate being) within 25 feet of the chosen Location with Damage equal to your Outcome + 8.
The vial is poured from the shadows, forming a ring around the object. Next, blood is poured from her own wrist, and mixed.
The whispers tell her secrets.
Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend a minute. Select a target Object within arm's reach. You must use up a vial of virgin's blood in order to activate this Effect. At the end of your investigation, roll Brawn + Investigation at Difficulty 6.
You learn all the following information about your target:
If you do not have a sacrificial Injury when you activate this Effect, take a new Severity-1 Injury.
You cannot investigate the same target more than once per day.
Emily collapses to her knees for a moment, and she locks her paws together. Her claws piece her own flesh, and she remembers, just for a short time, the night that she drank from the Red Grail.
The transformation starts from the blood that stains her claws, the fluid roiling for just a moment before it begins to run up her claws, paws, and her arms. The blood turns into thin, fluttering fabric that moves softly almost by itself. It covers her, wrapping her in many layers, obscuring her form. Her arms and legs and tail are lost in the fabric, her face shrouded in shadow. Digging though the fabric might not even find her at all... although the fabric caresses those who do.
And yet...
Everyone who looks at The Priestess knows she has an ever-present smile.
It is said that those who die at the hands (or paws) of one of the Hedonistic Priestesses always die with a smile on their face.
Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: kneeling, and digging your claws into your own flesh.. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.
You transform into a Red Grail Priestess for 3 hours. You have access to all of your Powers while you are a Red Grail Priestess, and you can use your equipment. The Injuries and Battle Scars of your Alternate Form and your true form are tracked separately.
While transformed, your Attributes are the same. Your Stress is reduced by 2.
While transformed, instead of your normal clothes and equipment, you are equipped with: Long, red flowing robes that are constantly in a sensuous motion. One of her hands, wrapped in cloth more blood-red than blood, holds a shield made of thin crystal. It sings a wonderful, keening sound when struck. She wears the Reaper's Skull over her muzzle. On a belt, hidden within the robes, are various injectors of recreational drugs.
You may end this Effect prematurely as a Free Action.
If you do not have a sacrificial Injury when you activate this Effect, take a new Severity-1 Injury.
Emily's conjugality with the Grail has both hardened her against more mundane trials and demonstrated to her several ways of returning a sensation upon one who offers it.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.
You get +4 dice to any Mind resistance rolls you make. You also gain the following effects:
Emily makes an offering of her own blood (for power) and a virgin's blood (for tempting) to the Grail... and it consumes her. For a moment, the blood leaks from her amulet before spreading over her, turning to red silk as it does, wrapping around her.. and then collapsing in on itself. She emerges in her new desired location as a chrysalis.
She may also make a prayer to the Grail at one of their temples - drinking freely and consuming all pleasures, and travel to another.
Exert your Mind and spend 2 Actions. Select a Location within your line of sight. You must use up a vial of virgin's blood in order to activate this Effect.
You are transported directly to the chosen Location. Anyone who is touching you as you Travel will be brought along with you. You must wait an hour before activating this effect again.
If you traverse any temples to hedonism (clubs, bars, drug dens, etc) for one minute, you may activate this Effect and travel to the edge of any other temples to hedonism (clubs, bars, drug dens, etc) that you’re aware of, regardless of range.
Emily crushes the vial in her paw and her pendant glows, and for a moment, she makes a sacrifice, attracting the attention of entities great and powerful to deepen her connection with all beings.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must use up a vial of virgin's blood in order to activate this Effect.
You may understand and communicate to Creatures, humans, and Sapient beings 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.
Communicating with a being cannot directly damage your Mind or cause Injury. All rolls to resist Effects that rely on communicating with you are made at -1 Difficulty.
Emily takes a deep breath of the target - or something with its scent - and her amulet flares for a second. And her blood stirs.
In the target, blood stirs in harmony. Some of it brightens, manifesting if it wasn't already there. Removing it all requires removing a good amount of insides as well.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a target within arm's reach. You may select a target at any range if you use up something with the scent of the target.
Your target is marked with bright blood. The mark can only be discovered with a deep medical inspection or Effect. 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 the next month, or until either the mark is removed, or you choose to end the Effect. This Artifact can have up to 3 marks active.
You may use any Awareness Powers on a marked target at any range.
No one fashions a Tin Foil Hat like Old Man Murdock! Has bits of Oregonite in there too, don't-ya-know??? Typically a straw cowboy hat, but other models are possible.
Conspiracy Theorist: Every time you are told a Conspiracy Theory, you must make a Trauma roll to not believe it implicitly. Effect persists up to a month after removing the hat.
You gain the following benefits as long as as long as you are wearing this Artifact.
You get +2 dice to any Mind resistance rolls you make. You also gain the following effects:
Possession of this Artifact causes the following Trauma to manifest over the course of a day: Conspiracy Theorist. If you lose possession of this Artifact, the Trauma heals over the course of the next month.
It operates like a regular shotgun except it never ejects a shell or needs to load a new one.
This Artifact can be used as a shotgun. It is roughly the same size as a shotgun and just as difficult to conceal.
Attack by rolling Dexterity + Firearms, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +5 Weapon Damage.
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: Act Three - Roll Self Control after drawing this weapon. You have X number of rounds before you must attempt to fire this weapon at an Animate target, where X equals the number of successes rolled on Self-Control. On a Failure you must fire the weapon immediately after it is drawn. On a Botch the GM chooses the target.. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Trauma heals over the course of the next day.. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Trauma heals over the course of the next day.
You also gain the following effects:
The airship of solitude is the mad scientist's lair and preferred mode of travel. Not only does it include a full science laboratory, it can be collapsed into an incredibly small canvas cube and easily transported. The mad scientist may pilot the ship alone or rely on its autopilot features for ultimate convenience.
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:
"The Coffin" can only be used to store things commonly found in coffins, such as bodies, clothes, jewelry, photos, weapons, coins, and similar.
This Artifact holds 5 times what it normally could inside of it. Objects stored inside are weightless. Unless you are storing something commonly found in coffins, this Artifact behaves as its mundane counterpart. This Effect cannot be used unless you are storing something commonly found in coffins.
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.
Dazzle Glasses are advanced "black-tech" espionage gear. They can be styled as any sort sunglasses. When the wearer is recorded, they will quickly flash a non-visible laser into the recording device, destroying it after only a moment of footage is taken.
This Effect activates whenever you are recorded. It does not require an Action or Exertion. Select a Non-Sapient Object within 20 feet no larger than a duffel bag (35 liters). Your target should be intuitively based on the triggering event. Roll Perception + Culture 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.
Standard issue in the Future Soldier's home time, the Personal Shield Generator (PSG) projects a protective energy barrier around the body. It absorbs damage far better than traditional armor, but its battery is quickly drained. When depleted, the PSG must spend a few seconds recharging.
When struck, the normally-invisible field of the PSG flashes, revealing a bright yellow honey-comb pattern encasing the body.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.
You have 6 Armor, which reduces incoming Damage. Armor from multiple sources does not stack.
Your Armor cannot be destroyed, and it always provides a minimum of 2 Armor regardless of any Armor shredding or penetration. It cannot be circumvented with Called Shots. When shredded, it returns to full potency in one hour.
Any time your Armor prevents Damage, your Armor rating is temporarily decreased by 2. Whenever it goes five Rounds without preventing any Damage, it is restored back to its full value.
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.