Skeleton Key Any lock. One key.

1
This Artifact grants you the power to lock, unlock, or open things.
Used by Luz, Created by mobius.
( When activating this Effect, it is obvious you are interacting with the target. You must obviously use this Artifact to activate this Effect. When activating this Effect, this Artifact is obviously Alien and cannot be concealed under your clothes or similar.)

A soft golden glow surrounds the artifact and the hand of the user, then spreads to the target. The sound of a lock's tumblers clicking into place echoes in the ears of those that are aware of the effect.

The first iteration of this item looks like the Skeleton Key from Skyrim. Nocturnal's priceless opener of all doors, her blessing to her most trusted. Because Luz is a nerd.


Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Non-Alien door, container, knot, or lock within arm's reach that is no more complex than a standard commercial door, personal safe or a keycard reader.

You may lock, unlock, and/or open your target.

  • 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.

Community Artifact Crafting Gifts

Trust me, it's just very well optimized, nothing magical about it.

This Artifact can be used as a VW Passat. It is roughly the same size as a VW Passat but can be collapsed into a toy car keyring pendant and concealed. Collapsing or expanding it costs a Quick Action.

This VW Passat has armored walls. Any roll to pilot this vehicle receives +2 dice.

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: Responsible Driver (You have to roll Self Control if you want to disobey road traffic regulations). If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Trauma heals over the course of the next day.

  • If there is not enough free space to expand the object, it cannot be expanded. You cannot expand this Object as an attack.

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

Your Stress from Injuries is reduced to 0. Does not reduce Stress from Mind 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: Illusion of pain: You can convince yourself everything was a glancing blow. Every time you take damage, roll a Self-control roll. If you fail you act like there is no harm done to you. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Trauma heals over the course of the next day.

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 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.

  • "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.

Within the first ruin that Russ found that contained the documents that sent him down the path that he is currently on, was the diagram for a device that is meant to connect to the spaces between the C1 to T12 vertebra. the device serves a three-fold purpose. The first being that it powers the rest of the planned augmentations to the human body through intercepting the signals that the body sends related to pain and stress. The second is that it forces the body and mind to always operate at peak performance regardless of physical or mental damage, Finally the device is the interface for future enhancements and allows those that undergo such complete transitions to maintain a sense of "humanity" or "wholeness" through sanitizing incoming and outgoing signals such that the mechanical enhancements and the fragile and erratic biological mind don't become adversarial and work together as a complete whole. Unfortunately, those who created the blueprints for this device made it far too good at its job with it attempting to prevent any signs of injury from reaching the brain, thus requiring an immense willpower to even recognize when one is beginning to bleed out. With the device even going so far as to change the information that is coming from one's own senses such that they can't even perceive the injury in themselves should it be pointed out to them. While the device is attached to the spinal column it can be removed through a delicate and time-consuming process of unlinking the parts from the body, but should one violently be ripped out of a user's body the damage could prove to be debilitating.

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

Your Stress from Injuries and Mind Damage is reduced to 0.

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: Delusion: Unbreakable (When this character receives an injury, they must roll self control to become aware of it. This character may not take actions to stabilize or heal any injury they are unaware of and must roll self-control to accept treatment of such injuries from others). If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Trauma heals over the course of the next day.

Spend an Action. Select a target within arm's reach. This Effect cannot be used unless you are disguising an object. Choose an illusion to generate, which can be no larger than a briefcase.

The chosen illusion is generated at your target, and it will remain in place for the next 3 Rounds or you choose to end it. It can be perceived by people through their sight. The illusion cannot be used as an attack. You cannot make an exact replica of an existing Animate being or Object.

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 the entire effect will be ended for all targets.

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.

Any illusion made to disguise an Object as a different Object with a similar size and shape last a minimum of one day and can only be broken by a scientific analysis, investigative Effects, or witnessing the object being used in an inconsistent way.

This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 2.

  • while you can use an illusion to obscure something smaller, you cannot make anything directly invisible (you can’t make a tank look like a regular baseball, but you can hide it in an illusion of a giant baseball).
  • You may only puppeteer a single illusion at once.
  • 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.

Stock Artifact Crafting Gifts

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

You get +2 dice to any Body resistance rolls you make. You also gain the following effects:

  • Survivor: You are immune to all non-Alien diseases.
  • All Brawn No Brain: You suffer a -2 dice penalty on Mind resistance rolls.

  • These bonuses apply only to Body rolls made to resist Effects and other supernatural phenomena. They do not apply to other contexts such as attacks made while under the Creature Transformation Effect.

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

You get +0 dice to any Mind resistance rolls you make. You also gain the following effects:

  • Naturally Resistant: Any time you make a Mind resistance roll, the individual who you are resisting must Exert their Mind, or your resistance succeeds automatically.
  • Clash Of Wills: If you fail to fully resist an Effect, your Outcome is considered to be 0.

  • These bonuses apply only to Mind rolls made to resist Effects and other supernatural phenomena. They do not apply to Trauma rolls or self-control rolls.