At the heart of Jessica's research lies the revelation that crystalline light isn't merely an advanced concept in particle physics, but a manifestation of alien intelligence with its own will to form. Harnessing this phenomenon as a bridge, Jessica can merge alien genetic material with human physiology, yielding disturbing yet powerful biological enhancements. As she channels this ability, crystals of light proliferate across the room and patient, emanating an opalescent glow that shifts and writhes with impossible colors.
The process begins as luminescent crystal tendrils pierce the subject's skin, branching out like glowing veins beneath the surface. Affected areas undergo rapid, unsettling metamorphoses – limbs elongate unnaturally, extra eyes sprout in unexpected places, or skin becomes translucent, revealing pulsating, alien organs. Throughout the operation, the patient experiences intense fever and vivid hallucinations, a harrowing ordeal that subsides after several hours.
These alterations bestow superhuman abilities, with the enhanced flesh eventually conforming to the patient's original shape. However, occasional quivers and the development of colored geometric patterns betray the struggle of alien matter to maintain its new form within the human host. While temporary, the process leaves behind residual changes: faint, glowing skin patterns and fleeting flashes of inhuman perception serve as constant reminders of the tenuous veil between humanity and the cosmic unknown.
Exert your Mind and spend 30 minutes. Select a Living or Animate target within arm's reach. Your target must make a Trauma roll to reap the benefits of this Effect. They may choose to Resist the Effect and not make the roll. The target can easily Resist.
You may add one augmentation to your target. Each augmentation counts as a Trauma and can have exactly one of the following Effects:
By transplanting a body part from an Alien being, you can grant an intrinsic Effect from that part to the subject. Its power level should be limited to one Gift Point or less.
The augmentations you provide are not outwardly visible nor obvious.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see your flesh ripple and split open, revealing a pulsating lattice of crystalline light intertwined with writhing, alien tissue.
Following the will of the mother of death, the ground opens up to receive the dead... or not so dead. Causing two small hills of earth to pile on either side of the hole. Once the effect is ended, instantly slides back into the whole, leaving a small loose mound on top where the ground is disturbed by what is now in it.
Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend an Action. Select a Location within 50 feet. You must be in an area abundant with natural earth and/or raw minerals.
Select one of the following alterations to create out of natural earth originating at the target:
The alteration begins to form when you activate this Effect and finishes forming on your initiative in the next Round. Until it finishes forming, it is not guaranteed to function.
This alteration lasts one minute but may be prematurely destroyed or altered. Your alterations may be broken through with appropriate tools. Anyone attempting to break through must roll Brawn + a relevant Ability. A cumulative Outcome of 6 across all attempts breaks a hole large enough to move through. See the extended system text for GM guidance on various tools.
You may opt to have your alteration form immediately. If you do, it falls apart in exactly one Round.
It shoots a lot of paperclips, a lot of paperclips. sharp and deadly paperclips. big and small paperclips. as long as it's paperclips. it will shoot a lot of it.
needs constant guidance on what is fine and what is not fine to turn into paperclips.
This Artifact can be used as a shotgun. It is roughly the same size as a shotgun but can be collapsed into a paperclip box and concealed. Collapsing or expanding it costs a Quick Action.
Attack by rolling Dexterity + Firearms, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +5 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:
A menu appears on the watch displaying any number of environments to adapt to. Selecting one, a buff icon appears above the player's head (which will fade after a moment but can be seen on the UI or redisplayed again)
Spend an Action. Select a Animate target within arm's reach.
For the next week, your target does not require any food, water, or air. Any roll to resist an Effect dependent on any affected requirement is made at -1 Difficulty.
Your target is adapted to their current environment for one hour. While adapted, they do not suffer harm from heat, cold, pressure, or lack of oxygen in that environment, provided that challenge normally exists in that environment.
This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 1.
A highly customizable firearm, able to be reconfigured at the user's will. Matter is created out of thin air as the firearm modifies its own form and function to best suit the wants and needs of its performer. The magazine seems to hold four shots, but no matter what it always stays full.
The Adagio Multipurpose Instrument was a modular weapons system designed by Lotus for use by its star assassins. Its standard models required affixing the attachments to the gun manually to alter its performance, but a certain piece, coveted even more than Myrrh Sov's Slugger, was so much more than those it succeeded. Adagio models were kept in instrument cases alongside its varied kit, and labeled as such to lessen suspicion and give a sense of artist's superiority to its users.
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No known registered trademark "Lotus" exists in current database... Refresh? [Y]/[N]
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 +6 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: Delusions of Grandeur. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Trauma heals over the course of the next day.
You also gain the following effects:
The user watches the pocket watch tick down in a irregular pattern, sharp purple eyes can be seen closing slowly as the dials spin. The user then clicks the winder once the eyes are closed and they burst open with a soft rumble, opening doors and safes with a mere gaze to feed the desires of the user.
In car form, the same is done via the headlights/taillights.
The pocket watch grows in power.
The user feels it watching them in the night, watching their movements, their desires, their pleasures. It studies them.
Spend an Action.
You may lock, unlock, and/or open any number of doors, containers, knots, or locks within 300 feet of you. Cannot be used on Alien technology.
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 "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.
The Skeleton Key slips easily into any keyhole and turns without a fuss.
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.
The Axe of Legend's blade has been imbued with the metal of the dark lord of rock and roll. It shreds chords and flesh. The rock god commanding it may recall it to their hand at will.
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 survivalist has depended on the Bug-out Bag for so long, they've formed a powerful bond with the pack. This bond renders the pack unbreakable, and grants the survivalist an understanding of what direction it's in at all times.
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.