Oz brings the cigarette to his lips and taps the ash off its end with a casual flick, as if entirely unaware of the grotesque transformation about to unfold. A single flake of ash drifts downward—slow, serene, unaffected by gravity's urgency or the surrounding chaos. It hovers and twists lazily in the air, utterly unbothered by the screams, blood, or tension nearby.
Then, where that speck of ash touches the earth, flesh begins to grow—slow and deliberate at first, like muscle stretching beneath skin. Faces—flattened, stretched, and locked in silent torment begin to rise, pressed like frescoes against the ever-thickening mass. The wall expands outward in a straight line, up to 40 feet long and 10 feet high, forming a solid slab of compacted skin, muscle, bone, and cursed soul-matter. It’s flat enough to walk across... for the most part -- though the sensation underfoot is sickening.
Observers feel the air grow heavier, the world slightly wrong—like Hell has blinked into their reality for just a moment. And all the while, that first ashflake drifts to rest... as though it had nothing to do with any of this.
Oz didn’t learn this from a wizard’s tome or a back-alley occultist. He learned it from a creature that most would’ve overlooked—a frail, withered thing, ancient beyond comprehension but hollowed out by time. It wasn’t terrifying when Oz found it. It was hiding. Hunted by a third-rate monster hunter with more bravado than brains.
The thing could barely stand. Its claws were chipped, its eyes sunken and dull. But when Oz saw the hunter raise their weapon, something in him rebelled. Maybe it was pity. Maybe curiosity. Maybe a whisper of something older.
In gratitude, the creature offered him a secret—a technique older than most names, passed down not to preserve power, but to be rid of it. A method born in the Fifth Circle of Hell, back when Wrath still had shape and weight.
The technique hinges on equivalence: a tiny, forgotten thing—a piece of ash—can be traded, momentarily, for something vast and wrathful and real. The ash is a symbol. Burned, spent, weightless. Exactly the opposite of what it summons. That’s the balance. That’s the key.
The wall doesn't scream, but it wants to.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Location within 50 feet. You must actively and obviously use Cigarrettes to activate this Effect.
Select one of the following alterations to create out of Human flesh, skin and faces, dense as a wall of concrete. 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 three hours 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.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see a literal wall of corpses and suffering souls..
Bill places his corn on the cob in the ground, and from that cob the beast emerges. The corn shakes rapidly, as though it is going to hatch, before it starts to grow wildly. The cob expands to immense size, cracking down the middle to reveal a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. The husk stretches and reshapes itself, forming a shambling mound of legs and wings. Roots rise from the ground and tangle amongst the husk, contributing to the beast's body and limbs. The head is definitively formed by the cob, while the body is a constantly shifting and difficult to discern pile of roots and husk. Entirely, the beast is around the size of a horse, it's colours no different from the corn it was grown from. The beast is capable of launching its cob head at targets 50 feet away from it, the head quickly regrows afterwards (though, any damages done to the head remain even after the head regrows). When the beast is destroyed, it rots into the ground, its body reduced to an inedible black mold.
Bill discovered this gift the morning after his stay at The Vermillion Manor. While harvesting his freshly grown corn, he attempted to hold more than what he could carry, and accidentally dropped a singular ear of corn. He thought nothing of it, until the corn began to jitter on the dirt unnaturally. He backed away in fear, and watched as the once innocuous corn sprouted into a true monster. A monster that listened to his commands. A monster that belonged to him.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must use up A full corn on the cob, with husk intact in order to activate this Effect.
Summon the one and only Sapient The Corn Beast at your location. They last for two hours or until they are destroyed. They are controlled by you. You may have at most one minion active at a time.
If killed, you cannot re-summon your minion until after your next Contract.
You may only use this Effect once per day.
A black aura, contained within geometric shapes of floating gold, engulfs Madame Ianthe. When it clears and the floating symbols vanish, she is replaced by a small bird, about the size of a raven, made from the aura that engulfed her and ringed by golden shapes.
Madame Ianthe is frail, and she is unable to move quickly. As such, the Madame's recourse to being threatened is to depart from her physical self on black-gold wings.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
You transform into a small bird made of floating golden geometric shapes and black fog 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 do not have access to any of your 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.
While transformed, you may speak and use any Influence or Communication Powers you posses.
While transformed, you are obviously unusual, unnatural, or alien, and the average person will take a special interest in you.
A pair of small brown ears emerge from the sides of Henry's mop of mousy brown hair, swiftly followed by a bluish ghostly afterimage. Then comes the long and sinuous tail and the eye-mask obscured by his half-burned face - then a very rapid shrinking that one would miss if they blinked at the wrong moment. Congratulations, you have recieved [mini thief]
To Henry, transformation feels like putting on leather pants or a leather jumpsuit that is at least two sizes too small yet slipping into them as easily and smoothly as if he'd been covered in butter - which are both two separate things that he has done separately, he will consistently insist.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
You transform into a ferret until you transform into something else or choose to return to your original form. See the Extended System text for stats.
While transformed, you cannot use any equipment (including Artifacts and Consumables), and you do not have access to any of your 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.
While transformed, you may speak and use any Influence or Communication Powers you posses.
Sometimes not everyone agrees to Jeremy's selling tactics. That is when he husts out the emotions and trys to finish out the sale.
Exert your Mind and spend 2 Actions to activate. Select a Sapient target within arm's reach. Roll Intellect + Influence at Difficulty 6.
If you succeed, a specific period of time (up to 1 week long) 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”). You may also choose to only alter a single specific detail rather than an entire period, such as a password, phone number, directions, or you may remove all knowledge of one specific thing, regardless of time period, such as a loved one, a location, a prized possession, etc.
If the target is confronted with compelling evidence that contradicts their memories, they may roll Mind at Difficulty 8. If their Outcome exceeds your Outcome on the initial roll, they realize that their memory for that period was manipulated, but they will not regain their old memories. If they fail, they will invent new memories to justify the inconsistencies. For instance, if their memory was altered to include a new friend they don’t have, they may invent further memories of meeting that friend, spending time with them, etc.
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.
Viktor has been raised from the dead. With this he has gained inhuman physical skills and brawling capabilities.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are engaged in unarmed combat.
+2 dice to rolls for Attacking, Defending, and Clashing without a weapon. Unarmed attacks do +0 Bonus Damage Weapon Damage (instead of -1). The target's Armor is fully effective against this damage.
You also gain the following effects:
The Thief has a stash in which they can store a few objects. It can be accessed through any burlap sack.
Spend a Quick Action. You must actively and obviously use a burlap sack to activate this Effect.
You may withdraw an item from your stash, or add an item that is within arm’s reach to your stash. You may only stash targets which are in your possession, grappled, or otherwise controlled by you.
You may store Objects in your stash, each no larger than something which could fit inside a briefcase (15 liters), and you may store up to 3 things at a time.
You may choose to equip any equipment you withdraw at no additional cost.
The magician places a mirror to reflect a subject and conjures an illusion that perfectly replicates it!
If the illusion is touched, it shatters into a thousand tiny shards of glass.
Exert your Mind and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: place a mirror such that it reflects the subject of your illusion. Select a target within 45 feet. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.
a reflection of something else in the area, which can be no larger than a person is generated at your target, and it will remain in place for the next minute or you choose to end it. It can be perceived by people through their 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 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.
Once the werewolf tastes the blood of their prey, there's no escape. Those injured by the beast's claws and teeth are marked with its saliva. Their wounds smell strongly of blood, and it's only a matter of time before the werewolf returns with a vengeance to finish the kill.
This Effect activates whenever a target you have injured with your teeth or claws escapes the range of your unarmed attacks. It does not require an Action or Exertion. Select a target within arm's reach. Your target should be intuitively based on the triggering event. This Effect cannot be used unless the target is alive and bleeds.
Your target is marked with a throbbing wound that smells strongly of blood. The mark can only be discovered with a deep medical inspection or Effect. Removal inflicts a Severity 1 Injury on the target.
You are aware of the marked target's direction and distance from you. This lasts for the next month, or until either the mark is removed, or you choose to end the Effect. You can have up to 1 mark active.
You receive +2 dice to any rolls made against a marked target.
Through the use of clever rhetoric, the spy is able to inspire a surge of emotion in a target with whom they are speaking.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Living target within 45 feet as well as a specific emotion. This Effect cannot be used unless you are engaged in conversation with the target. Roll Charisma + Influence at Difficulty 6. Affected targets can resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6 -3 dice.
If you succeed, for the next minute, your target will do things they otherwise wouldn’t have done, inspired by the chosen emotion. They will not necessarily display their emotions in an obvious way.
Actions they take will be in keeping with their character and the way they tend to deal with strong emotions. They will be unlikely to change their mind about any actions taken or decisions made until after the Effect ends.
The Necromancer may exert their will on any undead creature, forcing it to act as they desire. The Necromancer's eyes turn completely black, and they speak a command to the creature in the language of the dead.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Non-Alien, Non-Sapient, Animate target within 20 feet. This Effect cannot be used unless the target is undead.
For the next day, you may issue specific commands to your target which they will be compelled to follow.
Your commands must be relatively simple and within the target’s intellectual grasp. 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.