Zephyren gathers mystical energy into his hands and cups them so that the wings on the objects he's holding align. Blowing on them causes the spirit of a firebird to materialize and fly at the target.
On the firebird:
It's said that the firebird brings bad luck to its captor, though Zephyren's luck is horrible enough that he wouldn't notice a little more of it. Besides, he's chucking it at someone else, so if anything the bad luck with transfer to them first. It's not an actual firebird that appears, just the energy of it, gathered from the air.
On energy:
In his childhood, people would always talk about 'qi' and how it flows together to create a unified being. Apparently, deities also have 'qi', as if it is one of the foundations of the universe. He's had some practice trying to manipulate it through tai chi, though he was never really good at it. Zephyren's enhanced senses, combined with this gift's affinity with the firebird, have allowed him to pinpoint and gather the scattered energy of perished firebirds. Bringing them together, he can nearly mimic their rebirth for just long enough to enact their wrath on those who threaten him.
On voices:
Zephyren hates to admit it, but he doesn't bode well with people raising his voice at him. The noise grates at his ears, and he starts to get flighty. It's because being yelled at usually entails worse consequences in an Asian household. Words are never enough and Zephyren can only start to expect the worst. Now it's even worse because he's found that the emotion behind someone raising their voice spikes the surrounding qi.
Spend an Action. Select a target within 50 feet. You must actively and obviously use any two objects with a wing drawn on each one to activate this Effect. Roll Perception + Occult Difficulty 6. The target may contest by rolling to Dodge or Defend as a Reaction, Difficulty 6.
If the Contested Outcome is positive, the target takes that much Damage plus 4.
You may use this Effect to Defend against any melee, projectile, or firearm Attacks within range or Clash against any Attack targeted at you. Using it to Defend deals no Damage but does not cost Exertion.
The target suffers a -3 dice penalty for the next hour or until the Injury is healed. This dice penalty does not stack multiple times on the same target.
This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 2.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Qi spike: When someone raises their voice at you, roll Self-Control to avoid entering fight-or-flight mode.
Where some magics target the physical health, others use pure force or energy. Beams, blasts or otherwise, Kitty is just as resistant.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
You have 6 Armor, which only reduces damage taken from spell damage. Any armor piercing effects from spell damage are ignored. Armor from multiple sources does not stack. This Armor cannot be circumvented with Called Shots.
Armor penetration does not affect your Armor, and it cannot be shredded or destroyed.
If Thaddeus gets his bass licks just right, and channels the lightning welling up inside him, nearby things will start coming alive, moving and acting according to his whims so long as he keeps the groove going.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action to activate. Select a Inanimate target within arm's reach which could fit inside a rolling luggage bag (50 liters). You must actively and obviously use a bass guitar to activate this Effect.
Your target will become Animated indefinitely. You may choose to end the effect at will, as a Free Action. You can maintain a max of 4 targets animated at once.
Animated Objects have the following restrictions and capabilities:
You must retain Concentration to keep up the effect; if your Concentration is interrupted, the effect will end.
An unholy jolt goes through your limbs as you hone in on the voice's monologue, allowing it a modicum of control over your person. A chill settles into your body, punctuated by pinpricks of uncomfortable warmth. This is the price and privilege of communion.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
You may understand and communicate to humans as if you are fluent in a relevant language for the next hour.
If you use this Effect to spend an hour speaking with a native speaker of a human language you don't know, you may Exert your Mind and roll Intellect + Culture Difficulty 7. With Outcome 4 or higher, you permanently learn that language and accent.
At some point—somewhere between all the nights she spent curled next to Bapha's twitching tail and the mornings spent cleaning blood off her shoes—Vita started hearing the way monsters think. Not words, exactly, but wants. She doesn’t bark commands. She echoes them, speaks them in the secret tongue stitched into fur and scale. It was never a spell. It's just that the beasts listen now. And worse, they obey.
Bapha hasn’t noticed. Or maybe he has, and he’s pretending not to.
When Vita activates this effect, the creature’s body convulses—like it’s being yanked on invisible wires. Its limbs twitch violently. It tries to resist, but there’s no fight in its eyes anymore—just a blank glaze and eerie stillness. The world around her goes muffled, like someone turned down the volume of everything except the sound of wet breathing and bone creak. People watching know something unspeakable just happened. They can’t say what. But they know.
This isn’t training. It’s contamination. The longer Vita spends tethered to Bapha, the more the line between her and the creatures blurs. This Gift didn’t come from study or practice—it seeped in like mold in forgotten places. Now when she looks at a beast, it knows her. Not as prey, not as predator—something worse: kin.
And she doesn’t even realize it’s happening.
Every command is a breach. Every flick of her fingers etches new cracks in the divide between mortal will and feral instinct. One day, she might give a command she doesn’t mean to. And something ancient might answer back.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Non-Alien Creature within 20 feet.
For the next day, you may issue specific commands to your target which they will be compelled to follow.
Your commands can be complex and multi-layered, though they must still be specific. You cannot make them obviously endanger themselves or violate their instinct for self-preservation. The effects of the command will fade after a day has passed.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see the creatures, body spasms as if it’s fighting for its life before it ultimately loses, said fight and its eyes glaze over anyone who witnesses has a sense that I have done something horrible to said creature and Is immediately off put by me.
Eva has supernatural loa loa worms homed in her eyes. The worms allow her to perceive things much smaller than would normally be possible with human sight. They may sometimes be seen squiggling just under the surface of her eye when she uses this ability.
A small collection of parasitoid wasps inhabit the base of Eva’s nasal cavity. She can call upon them to distinguish scents from the environment.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
Your senses are enhanced in the following way.
EzFake is an app that appears on any cell phone the influencer holds as long as they are holding it. The influencer need only make a selection and focus their will to project a lifelike forgery into the world in front of them. It may be an object, a creature, or even a specific person, and they can speak and make sounds as well.
The Influencer gets ready to film, and focuses fully on getting a good shot. After all, no video doctoring software can compete with a real life forgery which can be filmed from any number of directions by anyone's camera and appear legitimate.
Exert your Mind and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: open up the app on your cell phone, make your selection, and prepare to film. Select a target within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use cell phone camera to activate this Effect. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted. Choose an illusion to generate, which can be no larger than a person.
The chosen illusion is generated at your target, and it will remain in place as long as you maintain Concentration or you choose to end it. It can be perceived by people through their smell, hearing, and sight. The illusion cannot be used as an attack. You may create a replica of a specific being or Object, though it is still limited by what you do or do not know about the subject.
Anyone who touches the illusion (or who would be able to perceive it significantly through a sense it cannot fool) realizes it is an illusion and can choose to perceive it or not at will.
The illusion will remain fixed to its initial target, and can only change locations if the initial target is mobile in some way. It may have moving parts and engage in simple, predetermined movements but cannot perform anything complex or interactive unless you maintain Concentration and “puppeteer” it.
By focusing and whispering a prayer under their breath, the priest may invoke their god to protect those who have good works left to do.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action or Reaction. Select a Animate target within 20 feet. This Effect cannot be used unless the target is a living human. Roll a single d10, Difficulty 4. If you fail or botch, the Effect fails and you cannot activate it again for an hour. Roll Charisma + Occult at Difficulty 6.
If you succeed, you create a barrier around your target, which absorbs the next Outcome +2 Damage. The Damage reduction from the barrier is applied before Armor. You may only have 1 active barrier 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 Effect is not obvious, and the only sign you are using an Effect is you whispering a prayer under your breath. If someone suspects that an Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.
The Necromancer spits into the mouth of a recently deceased corpse. For the few minutes, the corpse's head comes back to life and speaks to the Necromancer.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Dead target within 50 feet. Dead targets must have died within the past week, and you must have their remains in your possession.
The target can communicate in your language for the next hour.
The beastmaster closes their eyes and channels nature's bloody struggle for survival. When their eyes reopen, they catch the light and glow red like a dog's. While in this heightened state, they may sense heat signatures and triangulate the tiniest sound.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Your senses are enhanced in the following way. Lasts for three hours.
The Thief examines an object closely for a minute to appraise its value. As their eyes dance across the subject, their pupils split vertically, and their irises fade to gold. If it is a particularly valuable item, the Thief may greedily lick their lips, revealing a forked tongue.
Within a minute, they have determined how materially valuable the object is and why.
Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Select a target Object within arm's reach. At the end of your investigation, roll Charisma + Culture at Difficulty 6.
You learn all the following information about your target:
You cannot investigate the same target more than once per day.