Castle of Light "My mind is a castle."

2
You possess resistance to mental attacks.
Used by Minerva McAlaster, Created by Polymorph.
( You must actively and obviously be using silver fox pendant.)

As long as Minerva wears her pendant, her thoughts are ordered. And with order comes safety.

Following Minerva's traumatization by a fellow contractor, the next month the young girl spent a good bit of the next month in her room. She stopped practicing everything else, just focusing on herself, and that feeling of helplessness that had come with it.

And one night, she dreamed. She remembered battling the nightmare monster, of the defenses she had forged. And she forged them again. Ordering her thoughts, marshaling them, she assembled her mind into a castle. A Castle of Light, a bright beacon in the darkness.

The castle is built to withstand a siege from the darkness. Even taking the field is a monumental task, requiring great effort by an assailant, more than most can bring to bare - and after an enemy has been cast out once, such a tactic won't work again.

Each step into the castle is a slog, a constant exhausting battle to take a wall, only to find another wall behind it that the defenders have retreated to and fortified themselves again.

From the highest point of the castle a bright light glows, and she can rain down light and hope upon invaders from it.

The castle stands at all times, a fortress for her mind and her dreams.

Of course, the walls of her castle are manned, and it is an effort for her to open the gates to anyone. It's safer that way.


You gain the following benefits at all times. You must actively and obviously be using silver fox pendant to gain the benefits of this Effect.

You get +1 dice to any Mind resistance rolls you make. You also gain the following effects:

  • Been There, Done That: If you succeed a Mind resistance roll, subsequent attempts to use that same Gift or supernatural ability on you for the next day will fail.
  • Compartmentalizing: You can take a maximum of 1 Mind Damage per Round.
  • Force of Will: You may Exert your Mind to increase the Outcome of a Mind resistance roll by 2.
  • 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.

Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Guarded Bastions: You must succeed in a self-control roll to allow anyone (other than yourself) to use an effect on you.

  • 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.

Community Power Gifts

They also have to cut their hand and smear the blood on the skull neck or chest of the body.

Take a Severity-1 Injury and spend one minute. Select a Dead target within arm's reach with at least half its skeletal structure remaining. You must actively and obviously use a owl skull to activate this Effect.

Your target rises as an Animate being which is ghostlike and incorporeal, unable to physically interact with the real world, though they may pass through walls and make noise. The raised creature is totally mindless, with no memory of its past life or hint of its old personality. They can communicate as they would have been able to in life. They will follow any command you speak.

The creature lasts for the next day or until it dies again. It is revived at full health. Any Injuries it had in life are not accounted for when determining its penalties or progression towards re-death, though they may affect its ability to perform certain actions at GM's discretion.

Raised creatures have their Abilities set to the same that they were in life. Their Charisma and Intellect are set to 1, but their Dexterity, Brawn and Perception are the same as they had in life. A raised creature cannot use any Effects.

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. Exhaustion’s penalty and duration stacks with multiple activations.

You may only use this Effect once per day.

  • Exhaustion penalties and duration stack. If you activate this Effect or another Effect with Exhaustion, your penalty will worsen, and the duration is increased by one hour.
  • 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.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action to activate. Select a target within arm's reach. 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 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.

  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.

The development of Grace’s mindscape built a home for Horatio. He’s used to making his way in and out of it- ghosts are in some ways merely memories, after all, so where else would he stay?

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a target any distance away from you. You must have a specific target in mind, but you require only an intuitive understanding of them, such as their name, face, or Location.

You open up a line of communication to your target, and may converse with them as long as one of you maintains Concentration

The conversation will only be perceived by the intended recipient. You must share a common language for your target to understand the message.

  • Receiving a message does not force a target to pay attention to you, and they can feel free to ignore your message if they choose. Depending on the flavor of your Gift, they may or may not be able to return to it and read it later on.
  • Generally you cannot communicate with Contractors who are not in a Contract with you.
  • 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.

Issac Neuman was quite the proponent of Tai-Chi & Aikido in his former life, both as a method of staying fit & as an opening to sell certain clients on his "woke" spirituality. As Emperor Norton II, Issac has discovered the truth behind the techniques - that the open hand is stronger than the clenched fist - the pen is mightier than the sword.

Incidentally, the Emperor leads daily Tai-Chi sessions in Golden Gate park for any who wish to attend.

You gain the following benefits as long as you take Defensive Actions only and you are engaged in unarmed combat. You must actively and obviously be using Imperial Raiment to gain the benefits of this Effect.

+2 dice to rolls for Attacking, Defending, and Clashing without a weapon. Unarmed attacks do +0 Weapon Damage (instead of -1).

You may Defend against melee, projectile, or firearm Attacks from any range and Clash with those in range of your Attacks. Attacking materials like steel or spikes will not Damage you unless it has an Effect that does so.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Finesse: You may limit the Severity of any Injury you inflict or determine a maximum Wound Level to inflict on the target, including Incapacitated. You may also choose to make this Injury properly or improperly stabilized, or to keep it unstabilized.
  • Flow Like Water: If you win a Clash or successfully prevent an attack by Defending, you may instead redirect the incoming attack to another target within range. If you Defend, the redirected attack uses your positive Outcome after defending, if you Clash it uses the outcome in entirety if you win.
  • Precision Strikes: You may use Dexterity instead of Brawn to Attack and Defend. If you would successfully incapacitate a target using Finesse, you may opt to knock them out for one hour instead of having them suffer an Injury.

  • Unlike the Ability Brawl, this Effect does not affect small weapons such as knives.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action.

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

Stock Power Gifts

Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend 15 minutes. This Effect cannot be used unless you are in a wilderness environment.

Choose a specific type of food, water, or survival supply which could fit inside a regular backpack (up to 27 liters). It must be Non-Alien and generic. You cannot create explosives. You cannot create firearms.

Roll Perception + Survival to fabricate up to 5 copies of your chosen Object. The Difficulty is assigned by the GM and depends on the specificity of your chosen Object. Your created items no longer expire, and will last until they are destroyed.

  • You may cause a created item to expire at will as a Free Action, destroying the item.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

Your Brawn rating is increased by 1. You may Exert your Mind to automatically gain an Outcome of 5 on any roll that uses Brawn (cannot be used on combat rolls or Effect activations).

Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: You are muscled like a gorilla and have a slight muzzle and animal facial features.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Champion of the Caber Toss: You may lift an additional 1500 pounds per point of Brawn beyond 5, and may throw items up to this weight to a distance of your throwing roll’s Outcome x10 feet. Weapon Damage for a heavy improvised thrown weapon is equal to the Brawn required to lift it minus 2 (minimum 0).
  • Heavy Hitter: Successful attacks made with Brawn will either knock your target back Outcome x 5 feet, or knock them down to the ground. Choose which effect the attack will have prior to rolling for it.
  • Ham-Fisted: You cannot limit yourself when handling delicate objects or physically interacting with people. You may need to roll Dexterity + Athletics to avoid breaking things or causing unintended injury.

  • Attribute bonuses from multiple sources do not stack. Instead the highest bonus is used.

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. 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.

  • When triggered, the Effect activation resolves immediately after the triggering Action. It is not Reaction speed.
  • Marked individuals satisfy the line of sight requirement for targeted Effects.
  • 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.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a target Location within 75 feet.

You may perceive things as if you were standing at that Location. The effect lasts indefinitely but you must maintain Concentration to keep it up. You cannot perceive anything at your physical location while the effect is active.

You create a visible manifestation at the Location where your senses are projected which looks like a ghostly image of yourself meditating.

  • 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.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

You may understand and communicate to terrestrial animal as if you are fluent in a relevant language.

  • Communing with terrestrial animal does not grant them intellect but does allow you to converse with them.