Trace_Route

1
This Artifact grants you the power to sense things humans cannot.
Used by Polamedes, Created by jumbohiggins.
(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.)

Tiny electronic robots emerge from the ring and burrow under the users skin. They crawl along under the dermis creating quickly moving bulges that travel into the users fingers, down their hand, past their wrist, and into the forearm before ballooning outward and spreading all over the body. The feels like their nerves are on fire as the tiny insects crawl along the internals of the body before finally arriving at the nerve receptors for the eyes and nose respectively. Once at the eye the user would see their tiny legs begin to snake into the their vision from the periphery. The nanite needs the eye to be looking forward so as the cornea moves to the side to see the legs they retract while legs on the opposite side continue to snake forward. Once the eye is stationary enough the bug legs lock it into place and another nanite crawls from the back of the eye and enlarges over the cornea. Once in place it's tiny legs inject past the cornea and into the optic nerve behind it. Afterwards the user sees a thin HUD outline of what the other nanites have already found relayed back to the user. As for the nose once the nanites are in place at the nerve ending the user would have a sudden drop where they couldn't smell anything for a few seconds followed by the smell of metal and burning plastic for a bit, then the new senses would be online. The nasal cavities become filled with tiny nanites buzzing and humming from inside.

Tiny nanomachines begin to pour out of the ring and skitter around the user in an outwardly growing sphere. They burrow into floors, walls, roofs and doors and continue to move unnoticed with the user for the duration of the ability before dissolving. While active the bots scout slightly ahead and ping back information to the ring that they emerged from, mainly focusing on electronic items but also recording interesting smells and cataloguing them for investigation.


Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action. This Effect cannot be used unless Nanites require area with active power or enough to last them the duration of the ability(at minimum car battery).

Your senses are enhanced in the following way. Lasts for three hours.

  • Smell: Your nose is highly sensitive and can differentiate between scents the way a dog can, as well as recognize things you have smelled before.
  • Electroreception: You may detect electromagnetic fields, electric currents, and even neurological activity in a 50 foot radius from yourself at all times. When detecting neurological activity, you learn nothing but the creature's rough size.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see Cornea HUD, Nose Hive..

  • When you are within 50 feet of range, your electroreception sense is sufficient for aiming.
  • When narrating disturbing content, be cognizant of your group's tone and accommodating to those who would like to "fast forward" through the description.

Community Activated Gifts

Take a Severity-1 Injury and spend an Action.

You transform into the Chained Demon 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 cannot use your Active, Direct, or Trap Powers. However, you can use your Passive 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.

You may only use this Effect once per day.

  • The Injury received from activating this Effect heals in 1 day and cannot be prevented or prematurely healed by any means.
  • Creature Stats
    • Giant (elephant or larger) Body: 11. Brawn: 9. Dexterity 1. Fall damage increased by 4. Armor: 3
    All creatures get +3 dice to any non-combat Action that they are naturally adapted for. All creatures Medium and larger may attack by rolling Body, dealing +0 Damage (+1 for “predators”). Gms and Playgroup leaders can apply other bonuses and effects to specific animals.
  • Animals that are quicker than humans (like dogs) have 50 feet of Free Movement. Animals that are very slow (like turtles) have 0 feet of Free Movement.
  • You cannot transform if there is not enough room to do so.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action to activate. You must actively and obviously use the Staff of Tomorrow to activate this Effect.

You phase out of reality for up to 10 minutes. During this time, you cannot affect the outside world or take any Actions. You cannot move. Nothing can interact with you in any way.

When you activate this Effect, you may limit its duration to a period of your choosing. If you are able, you may also end it as a Free Action on your initiative.

You leave a shimmering after-image at your location.

After this Effect ends, you cannot move quicker than a walk (15 feet per Round) for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour.

  • You may use your Free Movement on the Round you phase back in, but you cannot take an Action.

Spend 2 Actions to activate.

Your appearance changes to The Man/Woman in Black. The disguise lasts for an hour and a half, or you may end it early at will.

You are only able to shift into the one predefined appearance. This new appearance must have a similar sex, age, and race to your own. You cannot significantly change your height and weight. Your disguise cannot directly mimic an existing person. You may change the appearance of your outfit. A disguise cannot affect your Attributes or other stats.

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

  • While you may alter your outfit's appearance, this does not grant or store equipment.

Use up this Vial of Nanites and spend 15 minutes to activate. Choose a specific Injury on yourself that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Intellect + Medicine at Difficulty 8.

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.

  • This consumable is destroyed when used and cannot be used again.
  • Unstabilized wounds do not degenerate during treatment.

Exert your Mind and spend one minute.

You automatically detect the closest of any roads within 10 miles of you for the next hour. You have a clear sense of both the distance and direction towards the detected item. You do not learn any details about the detected items.

While this Effect is active, you are at -2 dice to all Actions and cannot Concentrate.

  • This includes any objects that come into range during activation.
  • This Effect does not satisfy the line of sight targeting requirement for other Effects.

Stock Activated Gifts

Exert your Mind and spend an Action.

You may move easily and without a roll in any of the following situations. Lasts 2 hours.

  • 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.

Exert your Mind and spend 2 Actions. You must actively and obviously use a piece of clothing you wouldn't normally wear to activate this Effect.

You become disguised in a manner of your choosing. The disguise lasts for two hours, or you may end it early at will.

The new appearance may have a different sex, age, and race to your own, and you may alter height by up to a foot and your weight by 50%. Your disguise cannot directly mimic an existing person. You may change the appearance of your outfit. A disguise cannot affect your Attributes or other stats.

You may roll Charisma + Crafts to attempt to make your disguise Beautiful. If your Outcome is 6 or higher, non-Effect Charisma rolls where your good looks could help are rolled at -2 Difficulty. If you fail or botch, you are ugly instead, and non-Effect Charisma rolls are made at +2 Difficulty.

This Effect ends if you take an Injury or are stunned or incapacitated.

While disguised, you cannot use any Activated or Targeted Powers.

  • While you may alter your outfit's appearance, this does not grant or store equipment. This does not allow you to change the appearance of Artifacts or conceal their Alien appearance.
  • ‘Appearance’ includes voice, bone structure, skin quality, hair length and color, eye color, muscle tone, flesh texture, and generally anything perceivable about your body.

Spend a Quick Action.

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 units of water 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.

  • "Equip" refers to drawing a gun, putting on a piece of armor, etc. You may store or withdraw a maximum of 6 items in a given Round. Reminder: you may perform up to two Quick Actions for -2 dice each or 3 if you use up your Action, unless a different Effect grants you additional Quick Actions.
  • Containers which hold multiple things may count as a single item so long as the things within are generally packaged together. For instance, you may stash a clip full of bullets, a medical kit full of medical supplies, or a box of crackers, but you cannot stash a backpack full of miscellaneous equipment.
  • You may only attempt to store Objects which are free-standing and disconnected from other things. The use of this Effect will not allow you to sever any connections holding an Object in place.
  • The Maximum Object Size parameter is intended to roughly capture the weight / size restriction of items and isn’t intended to restrict shape. GM discretion is advised. A human being is level 4 in the Maximum Object Size parameter.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action.

You automatically detect all illegal materials within 50 feet of you for the next hour. You have a clear sense of both the distance and direction towards any detected items. You do not learn any details about the detected items.

  • This includes any objects that come into range during activation.
  • This Effect does not satisfy the line of sight targeting requirement for other Effects.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action.

Your senses are enhanced in the following way. Lasts for three hours.

  • Thermal: You are able to "see" heat signatures within your line of sight.
  • Hearing: You automatically know the origin location of any sound you hear, and you can tell which Action caused the sound.

  • Your thermal vision allows you to judge temperatures of surfaces fairly accurately as long as they are within livable temperatures.