Originating from the ring, a black gooey substance seems to spread across the user's body, enveloping it before slowly taking shape into the the body of a tall inhuman deity, their "skin" white as paper and long inky black hair that drips down to the floor, leaving a black trail behind them.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. This Effect cannot be used unless a piece of art is sacrificed, it must have had an adequate amount of effort put into it.
You transform into Diety of Ink for 3 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are Diety of Ink, and you can use your equipment. Your Battle Scars, Injuries, and physical Liabilities are carried over between forms. Reverting from your Alternate Form cannot cause your existing Injuries to kill you. Instead, you remain Incapacitated.
While transformed, your Brawn is increased by 2, your Charisma is increased by 2, and your Intellect is increased by 2. You do not suffer any Stress while transformed.
Your alternate form is its own deadly weapon. Unarmed attacks made in your alternate form deal +3 Weapon Damage (instead of the typical -1).
While transformed, instead of your normal clothes and equipment, you are equipped with: a long black dress
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: Possession (They experience a second voice in their head belonging to an unnamed deity that takes control when the artifact is used it is used). If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Trauma heals over the course of the next day.
You may only use this Effect once per day.
It looks like any Hell Cat pistol, nice and compact for her hand. It looks completely mundane. Only if someone is paying attention will they notice that the shooter is choosing if the gun makes noise or not. Further, they may or may not realize that she doesn't seem to need to reload... ever.
This Artifact can be used as a handgun. It is roughly the same size as a handgun and just as difficult to conceal.
Attack by rolling Dexterity + Firearms, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +4 Weapon Damage.
You also gain the following effects:
Henry's uniform is made of a nearly unbreakable material, and syncs to the implants in his head.
The onboard AI, Lith, is capable of autolocomotion in an emergency, as well as transmitting her location to Henry at all times. Now that the proper connection is reconnected, Henry is unwilling to lose it.
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.
Setting down the item to be upgraded along with a rod of carbon on top of it to serve as resources, a set of phased arrays in the cuff of his wrist begin to scan over the object, slowly disintegrating the carbon and integrating it into the object, upgrading it as they go. Carbon isn't quite the right material to use - even transforming it into other elements to use - but it tends to break down within the day.
Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Select a Device within arm's reach. Can be used on Alien technology. Can be used on Armor.
Lasts the next day. Your target receives 3 extra dice to all actions taken for its intended use. Attacking with an upgraded weapon grants +3 Weapon Damage instead of additional dice. If it is a piece of Armor, it instead receives half that amount as bonus armor rating, rounded up. If an upgraded shield and armor are both worn, the upgrade bonus does not stack with itself.
Upgraded weapons count as any material your opponent might be particularly vulnerable to. Upgraded Armor cannot be circumvented by called shots. Upgraded Devices do not run out of fuel or energy.
After you finish activating this Effect, you cannot move quicker than a walk (max 15 feet per Round) for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour. Exhaustion’s penalty and duration stacks with multiple activations.
Henry taps a small control over his right collarbone twice, and his suit suddenly fades into a shimmer. After a moment, the shimmer spreads to his hands and face, leaving only a barely perceptible haze where the man once stood.
"Field repairs are difficult work, especially with the primitive tools of this accursed world. The patches on the holomatrix are exceedingly sensitive - I'll have to be gentle with it, especially when it's enabled. If it gets disrupted it'll need to recalibrate again, which takes over a stellar rotation. Even now it's not calibrating right - I can still see it when it's active, especially when moving. But it'll have to do for now."
You gain the following benefits as long as 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.
Henry extends his arm straight, and, holding a small source of zinc in the same hand, points with his index finger directly at the target. His arm drags back and forth slightly, looking for sensitive electronics inside.
"The automated lensing systems seem absolutely shot. At least they're pointing forward-ish. It's a lot less handy, but I can effectively 'aim' them at the target. It's not entirely unlike aiming a gun, actually. The matter forge isn't working quite right either, but that's fine. Lith can just strip the electrons needed locally. I'd just rather they not be from me."
The cyberwarfare suite is controlled by an onboard AI, which Henry was very happy to finally get working. Even if they bicker some. For example, Lith will never admit failing a hack herself. It's just Henry moving his hand the wrong way while she was working. When he does hold his arm steady enough, though, Lith is able to read and write electron states directly in the device's memory. This permits her to influence the digital state of a device directly. By reflex, she ensures she won't be detected for the operation of the mission.
Spend 2 Actions. Select a Computer within 20 feet. Can be used on Alien technology. Roll Dexterity + Firearms, 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.
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: Extensive Augmentation - Head - Your head has had extensive augmentation performed to it, and some tradeoffs had to be made. Take +2 damage from called shots to the head. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Battle Scar heals over the course of the next day.
Henry places his hand over an object, and his hand begins to twitch. His eyes are half closed, and he sees not the world, but a set of gravitation waves.
For reasons unknown, an AI is unable to do this. It is left on the operator to steer the analysis suite though the planes of gravitons, to seek out the past. With it, the operator can determine where it's been (although his suit's assist automatically compiles that into coordinates) and an image of the last individuals to use it.
Spend a minute. Select a target Object within arm's reach. At the end of your investigation, roll Dexterity + Investigation at Difficulty 6.
You learn all the following information about your target:
This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 1.
You cannot investigate the same target more than once per day.
The AMS intertics allow precise, fine-grained control of microgravity fluxations. By taking advantage of these, a Fleet Officer can move as the situation demands.
It's an impressive sight, seeing a full-sized man go from standing still to moving full tilt.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.
As long as you are conscious, you are immune to falling Damage. Additionally, you may glide as you fall, traveling 35 feet horizontally for every 10 feet you fall. While gliding, you fall at a minimum speed of 10 feet per Round.
You may ascend into the air and fly using your mind. Your Free Movement is Mind x5 feet/Round, including vertically. You cannot Dash. When sprinting, roll Mind and add your rating in Mind plus 1 to the outcome, multiply by 5 to find your sprint speed. Your encumbrance limit is 10 lbs per point of Mind.
You are subject to the following effects while gliding or flying:
Lith parses all audio signals picked up though the Expanded Sensor Suite, automatically running them though a translation matrix if the have common tags indicating they're a form of higher-level communication. She then relays this back to Henry along with other environmental cues.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.
You may understand and communicate to humans and Sapient beings as if you are fluent in a relevant language.
Henry takes a seat in front of the workbench, letting out a breath. The materials assembled, there was only the last step. Transferring control over to Lith, he tried to relax.
Activating the AAIA protocols requires embedded complicated arrays of nanotechnology into the item in question, and the only good source is currently the forges inside of Henry's bones. It's an unpleasant process, having your bones mined. But one must grit their teeth and tolerate it. Occasionally, various tools from the workbench are used, using copper and silicon in the place of missing pieces.
At the end, assuming the process worked as intended, the item lifts off, emitting an ultrasonic burst identifying its serial number and the fact it's currently slaved to Lith.
Stellar Navy regulations strictly prohibit the allowance of artificial intelligence operating independently of its master. However, as with all regulations, they can be bent, or broken, in emergency situations. AAIA Protocols are a set of protocols that allow such independent operation.
Typically Henry could activate them verbally, but a malfunction in one of the coproceessors in his suit leaves it unwilling to activate the protocols automatically. A manual process is... unpleasant.
Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and an Action. Select a Inanimate target within arm's reach which could fit inside an SUV (4,000 liters). This Effect cannot be used unless the user is in front of an electronics workbench. Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you you suffer the 'lost hand (left) battle scar, and the item you are attempting to animate is damaged. 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.
Your target will become Animated indefinitely. You may choose to end the effect at will, as a Free Action. This Artifact can maintain a max of 4 targets animated at once.
Animated Objects have the following restrictions and capabilities:
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see the user's left hand is disassembled with a set of lasers, exposing the bone. They then begin to remove some marrow from inside, fusing it into the item being animated. This is an exceedingly painful process.
If you do not have a sacrificial Injury when you activate this Effect, take a new Severity-1 Injury.
Henry places his hand upon the head of the target, and small silver tentacles emerge from the cuffs of his uniform. They caress the target, exploring the target and the possibilities of embrace. They sink gently though the flesh, searching for the secrets required.
Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action. Select an Animate target within arm's reach You must maintain Concentration while the effect is active. Roll Dexterity + Investigation at Difficulty 6. The target may Resist.
If you succeed, you are able to view your target's memories. If you fail, the target knows you're attempting to read their memories.
You may ask a number of specific questions about their memory equal to your Contested Outcome. For example, “what is their computer password,” “What were they doing at 4:00PM yesterday,” etc. You cannot get answers to broad, analytical questions like “are they a good person?” or “what are their plans for the future?”
Each question you ask and memory you replay takes a single Round to read.
You may read memories that the target has forgotten.
The operator inserts a cylinder of liquid mercury into the sensor array, to be used as a liquid crystal medium. With line of sight to the sky, a small array is rapidly constructed out of LC, and a tachyon burst is emitted. The reflection from the ionosphere is used by the onboard AI to compile a complete mission awareness package.
After a minute, this package is displayed as a blue light holograph, floating in the air. The holograph can be panned and levels cycled though. Areas of interest are highlighted. The operator is informed.
The dossier is stored in the suit and be recalled by the operator at any time.
The Stellar Navy's intelligence departments are less spoken of, but they prefer it that way. They are responsible for informing the decision of using force, and assisting the Officer on the ground exactly how much, where, and against who. Henry misses these. In a pinch, however, Lith can do almost as well.
A standard mission dossier consists of:
A political dossier of the area
A threat analysis package
An area of interest calculation
And, of course, what every soldier loves. A map.
Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Investigate an area with a radius of up to 1 mile This Effect cannot be used unless you have line of sight to the sky. You must use up a vial of liquid mercury in order to activate this Effect. At the end of your investigation, roll Perception + Investigation at Difficulty 6.
You learn the following information about the area:
You cannot investigate the same area more than once per day.
The Operator generates a micro-wormhole to the target location though which energy patterns can be observed. The output is analyzed by Lith and composed into a composite picture.
The creation of an undetectable (in this era, at least) micro-wormhole was one of Stellar Navy Intelligence's most closely guarded secrets. The ability to observe anywhere, at any time, gave an undeniable tactical advantage.
Exert your Mind and spend one minute. Select a target Location within 1 mile.
You may perceive things as if you were standing at that Location for the next 30 minutes. You may move your senses back and forth between your projected location and your real location without prematurely ending the effect. You may only have one projected location active at a time.
As the blade draws blood, it appears to glow with a dim blue light. No blood seems to stick to the blade.
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:
The user touches the earrings with their hands and for a moment radiant sunlight seems to emanate from their hands, a light that's more a visual hallucination than actual light, visible regardless of brightness of their surroundings.
The earrings are an artifact said to be blessed by the Incan god of sun Inti. They were recovered near Machu Picchu during inofficial archaeological excavations.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Location within 60 feet of you. Choose a 3-D shape that will define the borders of your Effect.
You create a zone of Golden Sunlight in the chosen shape, originating at the chosen Location, with a radius of 60 feet. and lasting for 5 minutes. The area inside your zone is affected in the following ways:
The earrings (or their transformed equivalent) infuse sunlight into the user, the more stressed they are, the more their body radiates light, their eyes shining like golden suns.
Someone who has shown themselves a worthy representative of a god's power may be blessed with more fitting abilities.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact.
Your Stress from Injuries and Mind Damage is reduced to 0.
You may move at your normal speed and still maintain Concentration. Taking an Injury less than Severity 6 no longer interrupts Concentration.
When the effect is being activated, the earrings start projecting a beam of light that weaves a copy of the user out of golden strings. The copy is about one fifth the size of the user and understands their commands. It can tell the user what it has seen by touching them.
Inti will help devout followers, directly weaving their essence into a helpful scout. Their essence will return to the user should it die. If the scout is alive and the user dies, the scout will try to deliver the earrings to a possible heir the god considers worthy that's nearby.
Exert your Mind and spend one minute.
Summon a single small copy of the user at your location. They will last until they are destroyed. They are controlled by the GM but will follow any commands you give. This Artifact may have at most 1 minion active at a time.
You may only use this Effect once per day.
A weapon made with the remains of a mimic, allowing it to change its shape at the command of the user. The bow has been blessed properly and has been strung with the intent of injuring and hunting cryptids and creatures that devour the flesh of man. Yet in exchange, the user will find themselves slowly becoming the very thing they hunt.
This Artifact can be used as a bow. It is roughly the same size as a bow but can be collapsed into Bracelet Charm and concealed. Collapsing or expanding it costs a Quick Action.
Attack by rolling Dexterity + Athletics, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +3 Weapon Damage. Attacks do not require a successful called shot to do damage.
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: disfiguring. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Battle Scar heals over the course of the next day.
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: Defender of Natural order - Whenever a predatory species that doesn't belong to this enviroment is discovered, roll self control to not seek to kill said creature. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Trauma heals over the course of the next day.
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 spy can do up their passport to take on the appearance of any valid form of identification they may need.
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.
The De-Neuralizer is a small silver device that can emanate a bright flash of light. Any being that looks into it with uncovered eyes has their most recent period of the their memory set into a highly over-writable state for a moment. While in this state, their memories may be overwritten at will.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Location within within arm's reach. All Sapient targets within 20 feet are affected. This Effect cannot be used unless the target is looking directly into the device with uncovered eyes. Roll Charisma + Influence at Difficulty 6. The target may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 7.
If the contested Outcome is positive, the most recent 1 hour from your target’s memory is either replaced with new memories or forgotten entirely. This is recorded as a Condition. The level of detail and completeness of the alteration depends on your Outcome. If you fail, the target realizes that you are attempting to alter their memories.
The period is chosen either by time (i.e. “last Friday night”) or by reference to a specific event (i.e. “when the murder occurred”).
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 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: