Legendary Artifact

Legend, the Hero’s Warhorse

Created and held by Joshua Jones.
Legend is a chestnut brown American Saddlebred of strong stock and constitution. Capable of reaching speeds of modern race horses with the body of a warhorse, Legend lives up to its name as a mythological companion for the budding hero.

By briefly focusing on moments of victory and bravery, the user is able to summon Legend, the Hero’s Warhorse underneath their feet. Only those pure-of-heart are capable of commanding the stubborn steed, though it is known to take matters into its own hooves when needed.

This Artifact can be used as a Horse. It is roughly the same size as a Horse but can be collapsed into Medal of Bravery and concealed. Collapsing or expanding it costs a Quick Action. Unless piloted, commanded, or summoned by someone with the Lifesaver Limit, this Artifact behaves as its mundane counterpart.

This Horse has Saddle, bridle, blinders, saddle bags. Any roll to pilot this vehicle receives +2 dice.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Afterburner: Your vehicle has a 25% faster top speed and you may Exert your Mind to accelerate to its top speed in a single Round.
  • 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.

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.
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Community Artifacts

Petalfold Constellation

Created and held by Bryan Bosch.
An intricately folded origami star possessing a flower design. Each point appears to be made from modular paper comprised of countless layers of folds. Lined with silver, cold iron, and gold. Within one of its folds is a signature written in cursive gold, reading "bb."

When deployed, the artifact unfolds and begins to spin and levitate in place, animated by the spark of creation imbued in its design. Commanded via verbal, somatic, and physical signals attuned by the user, the artifact follows where they designate and automatically returns into their possession upon completion. The impossible layering of folds creates points concentrated enough to act as an armor shredding edges, leaving jagged, geometric wounds wherever they attack.

Brought to life by the care, creativity, and labor poured into each fold by its creator, this artifact requires a similar degree of attention as maintenance for its spark to remain-- similar to a fire receiving kindling for its flame. This typically means unfolding and refolding its patterns and shape, either manually or through command.

This Artifact can be used as a shuriken. It is roughly the same size as a shuriken and just as difficult to conceal.

Attack by rolling Dexterity + Athletics, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +0 Weapon Damage.

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.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Remote Control: You may choose to deploy this Artifact in drone mode. Each Round it is deployed, instead of attacking, you may spend a Quick Action to have it attack a target with 8 dice. You may end drone mode as a Quick Action on your initiative. This weapon may Attack up to once per Round.
  • Return: When you throw this weapon, you may opt to have it return to your possession at the end of the attack. Whoever threw this artifact last may use an Action to recall it from up to 100 feet away, attacking one target in its return path as they do so.
  • 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.

Radio Star's Revenge

Created by Draven Darkwood, given to Cássio Rosário.
A glove that lets you send messages to anyone you are familiar with.

Activating the glove the electronics in the glove glow revealing a glyph (Sanskrit) underneath. The voice of the user bearing minor static.

Spend an Action. Select a target any distance away from you. You must have a specific target in mind, but you require only an intuitive understanding of them, such as their name, face, or Location.

You may send a single message to your target. It can be no more complicated than a multi-page letter or a long email.

The message will only be perceived by the intended recipient. You must share a common language for your target to understand the message.

This Gift's Cost is capped at 2 and cannot be increased further.

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: Nerve pain in your gloved hand: You are at a -1 die penalty for any roll utilizing the affected hand. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Battle Scar heals over the course of the next day.

  • Receiving a message does not force a target to pay attention to you, and they can feel free to ignore your message if they choose. Depending on the flavor of your Gift, they may or may not be able to return to it and read it later on.
  • Generally you cannot communicate with Contractors who are not in a Contract with you.
  • 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 Golden Ring of Gyges

Created by Vel, given to Emily Miller.
A ring of gold. It has elvish inscribed on it. There is elvish inside it as well. The phonetic pronunciation of Emily.

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.]

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.

  • Sight:You are completely obscured from sight. All attempts to detect you via sight fail. Attempts via other senses where sight would assist are rolled at -2 dice.

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.

  • GMs should use their discretion when determining the exact impacts of this Effect, particularly in conjunction with environmental factors. Standing still against a complex background may render you impossible to detect, and footprints in snow may make it easy. A chance to detect you is not guaranteed.

Rod of Asclepius 5

Created and held by Vel.
A small rod about the size of a wand with a green snake wrapped around it. Its eyes are emerald.

The rod glows with red light, and the injury being targeted glows the same color.

The one who wields it feels the power of the symbol of Asclepius compel them to move towards the compulsions of the Hippocratic oath.

If the target is dead, and the wound is treated by this, the wound is restored.

The rod is focused on the wound in question. The participant gets a deep sense of the wound, and can stitch together flesh, and restore lost blood.

This rod was made by drawing on the symbolic power of the Asclepius, and the promises and powers inherent in that symbol.

The ritual making it involves
- The symbol of the Asclepius
- The Hippocratic oath
- Several references to healing miracles
- Images of people whose lives have been saved by the wielder

The ritual leans heavily on the power, and obligations associated with the Hippocratic oath. It forces the wielder to adopt the tenants and behaviors associated with healers and doctors in the shared cultural understanding.

Do no harm.

Help all who come.

The power of this rod draws on the individual, and when reversing the pain forces the user to experience it.

Exert your Mind and spend 2 Actions. Select a Living or Dead target within arm's reach. 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. 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.

If your Outcome is greater than the Severity of the Injury you were attempting to treat, you may apply any excess Outcome to other Injuries on the same patient.

If you begin healing an Injury on a target that has been dead for less than a minute, and your healing reduces their Wound Level to a non-lethal level, their life is restored.

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: The rod draws on the vitality of the one wielding it, causing them to have strong reactions to smells.. 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: Committed to life: Whenever you see someone die, who you could bring back to life, you must make a self control roll to not immediately attempt to save them using this rod. This is rolled every someone dies near you and Passivist: You must make a self control roll to directly attack anyone in a way which will cause harm. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Trauma heals over the course of the next day.

  • 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.

The artifact can't be broken. There is a stylized "Heal the world for me- Vel" Inscribed on it.

The true owner can summon the artifact back to them as they need it, and it appears. No flash of light or noise, it is reached for, and it is where the owner wants.

The true owner can tell when someone else is using it, and is aware of the user's appearance, direction, and distance.

This is an enhancement built on top of other artifacts to enhance how strong they are.

The true owner can change the identity of the person who is the true owner by wiping away their signature, and writing the name of the new owner.

The ritual for making it involves using
- a variety of hard materials (iron, titanium, etc)
- a history book
- a family tree diagram

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 the true owner of this Artifact ever dies, it immediately disappears. At least one week later, it will appear to A potential hero. Someone willing to live a hard life to make the life of other's safer and easier and reveal its power to them. They become its new 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.

  • If there is no available Next of Kin, it will wait two months and then appear to a random person. If multiple next of kin are appropriate, the GM will decide randomly.
  • "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 rod glows with green light, and the participant being targeted glows the same color. The energy has some kick back, causing a shadow of the harm of the poison on the wielder of the rod.

The rod is burns with purifying energy that drives the malady from the target. It draws from the symbol of the Asclepius.

This rod was made by a ritual focused on the symbol of the Asclepius, and experimenting with it. Vaccines, anti-virals, stories of miracle cures were all part of the creation process.

Exert your Mind (unless In a hospital, Clinic, or other healthcare setting) and spend 1 Action. Select a Living target within arm's reach.

You may cure any Non-Alien diseases, toxins, or poisons afflicting your target even if you have not diagnosed or fully understood it. You may cure diseases or poisons even if they are not treatable through modern medicine. During treatment, the malady you are treating does not progress or cause additional Damage or other effects.

  • Without some sort of diagnostic Effect, “fully diagnosing” a disease or poison will always require a roll of some sort, frequently Intellect + Medicine, but the specific roll and difficulty is at GM’s discretion.
  • 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.

Mobility tools.

Created and held by Clay Evans.
Currently includes a wrist mounted grappling hook and a set of gloves & boots.

Years of dodging trouble and getting out of sketchy situations left their mark - making Evans more cold, calculating, but most of all slippery.
As of his last job however Clay is now able to weave trouble by quite literally jumping away thanks to his his new best friend - a wrist mounted grappling hook that has been expertly tuned to account for Clay's lightweight frame and equipment load, making him as slippery as a snake and fluid as a professional dancer, ideally at least.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action or Reaction to activate. Select a Location which is at most 50 feet away horizontally or 10 feet away vertically.

You jump to the chosen location. If the landing is precarious, the GM may call for a roll to land safely. You will never take fall damage from successfully landing a jump made with this Effect.

If your target location is no more than 50 feet away, you may spend your Free Movement instead of an Action to activate this Effect.

  • If you are Encumbered, the maximum range is cut in half. If Encumbrance has reduced your total movement to 0, you cannot activate this Effect.
  • Rolls to land safely will generally be Athletics, but GMs may call for a different roll at their discretion if it makes sense for the specific circumstances.
  • You must be on a surface of some kind in order to activate this effect; it cannot be activated while in mid-air.
  • You may only use this Effect once per round of combat, regardless of any enhancements you have taken.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.

Specialized gloves and boots with metal hooks that allow for climbing and easier movement through dense underbrush.

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

You may move easily and without a roll in any of the following situations.

  • Path Finder: You are adept at making your way through crowds, underbrush, and other dense, congested environments. While doing so, you move at full speed.
  • Spider Climber: You are able to climb on and cling to any surface without regard for the ordinary rules of gravity. You climb at your normal movespeed.

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.

Recharging Sheild

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.

  • Armor recharging happens automatically and does not require an Action.
  • This Effect’s Armor rating cannot be increased by any other Effects.

The Skeleton Key

At first glance, this appears to be a standard, modern house key made of ivory. A close observer might compliment its skull-shaped head or usual material. No one would suspect it to be one of the Thief's most prized possessions: The Skeleton Key.

Spend an Action.

You may lock, unlock, and/or open any number of doors, containers, knots, or locks within arm's reach of you. Cannot be used on Alien technology.

If you successfully operate a lock, you may choose to destroy it, rendering it inoperable.

  • Operating some locking mechanisms through this Effect may have a secondary effect, such as a turn-key ignition on an older or cheaper car causing it to start or stop. Note that the locking mechanism itself must satisfy the standard targeting requirements (including line of sight), not just the vehicle.
  • Any mechanism that requires a key, keycard, key fob, or combination may be considered locked, at the GM's discretion. This Effect may be used on doors and containers secured with control panels or other electronic locks, but not computer security systems at large.
  • 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 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.

Umbrella Identification

This Artifact can change its appearance. When not transformed, it is roughly the same size as a passport but can be collapsed into a wallet and concealed. Collapsing or expanding it costs a Quick Action.

Spend a Quick Action to activate. This Artifact changes its appearance into a chosen Object. 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.

When used as identification and scanned, the scanner will act appropriately and bring up appropriate generic information. Further searches for the identity in the computer will turn up no results. This will not open security doors on its own.

  • If there is not enough free space to expand the object, it cannot be expanded. You cannot expand this Object as an attack.
  • Changing the Artifact’s appearance does not allow you to conceal its Alien nature while any of its other Effects are in use.