Minerva lets out a breath, kneeling down and closing her eyes. For a moment, she slides into the Dreamlands, and begins to look around. She can will the Dreamlands to change, and it does, revealing to her everything that has a presence here.
Exert your Mind and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: kneeling down, and closing her eyes, meditating for a short moment. You must actively and obviously use silver fox pendant to activate this Effect. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted. You must make a Trauma roll when you use this Effect. Its Difficulty cannot be reduced by any means.
You automatically detect all animate beings within 1 mile 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.
You receive a common name for each being you detect.
When the Artifact owner decides to embody their grief, they and everything that was equipped by them - except for the Artifact itself - suddenly turns to water, which naturally splashes to the ground. The Artifact falls down as well, always landing in at least some of the water created by this. Slowly, the water begins to pull itself towards the Artifact, the gemstone eye of which had started to glow with increasing brightness, and soon even the water itself lights up with a cyan shimmer as if filled with bioluminescent algae. The longer the Artifact has been accumulating this phantasmal glow-water, the greater its shimmer becomes, and the more the Artifact's undulations quicken.
Eventually, the Artifact owner and the Artifact itself complete their merger. The result is an otherworldly, ephemeral centipede the size of a scarf, wearing the now-enlarged, dark purple-brown Artifact as its exoskeleton and having equally-dark gray metallic mandibles, legs and antennae made up of the cyan phosphorescent water which was finally collected fully, and a mint-colored, glowing, lantern-esque eye. The main body of it is covered by a thin film of glow-water as well.
When returning back to human form, the Artifact portion of the creature simply coils up and begins to gradually shrink, while the water loses all glow and collapses. The latter progressively coalesces over time, loosely forming the Artifact owner in their fetal position, equipped with everything they were equipped with originally. Then, the shrunken Artifact uncoils and swims through the watery figure, ending up curled around the left hand's ring finger. As it locks into place, a glowing wave spreads from that point all across the figure's surface and reverts all the water back into its original materials.
If anything attempts to interrupt either transformation before it finishes, the waters involved in it lash out at the target with shining, piercing stabs.
The Artifact owner remains transformed even beyond this Effect's duration, reverting only when they elect to end the Effect manually as a Free Action. Instead, this Effect's duration simply dictates how long the Artifact owner is able use to their Active, Targeted, and Trap Powers while transformed. To regain access to the usage of the aforementioned Power types, the Effect must be reactivated.
Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend an Action.
You transform into an abyssal centipede for 30 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are an abyssal centipede, and you can use your equipment. Your Battle Scars, Injuries, and physical Liabilities are carried over between forms. Reverting from your Alternate Form cannot cause your existing Injuries to kill you. Instead, you remain Incapacitated.
While transformed, your Dexterity is increased by 2 and your Perception is increased by 2. You do not suffer any Stress while transformed.
Your alternate form is its own deadly weapon. Unarmed attacks made in your alternate form deal +3 Weapon Damage (instead of the typical -1).
You may end this Effect prematurely as a Free Action.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see a growing, undulating, supernatural centipede.
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: Whispering Waves. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Trauma heals over the course of the next day.
Amber tosses a caterpillar in her mouth, and munches it down.
Burp. Belch. She opens her mouth.
A whole-formed ~𝓕𝓻𝓸𝓰𝓰𝔂 𝓕𝓻𝓲𝓮𝓷𝓭~ leaps out!
He's small, he's colorful, he's talkative, he loves long walks in the swamp, and his tongue is razor sharp.
Oh, and he loves caterpillars - the fuzzy kind.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must use up a crunchy caterpillar in order to activate this Effect.
Summon a single ~𝓕𝓻𝓸𝓰𝓰𝔂 𝓕𝓻𝓲𝓮𝓷𝓭~ at your location. They will last until they are destroyed. They are controlled by the GM but will follow any commands you give. You may have at most 2 minions active at a time.
Your performance creates a safe haven - an oasis in the turmoil of combat. The barrier ensures safety, not only through obstruction, but by deflecting harm back to its source.
After all, today *is* gonna be the day that you're gonna throw it back to them.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action or Reaction. Roll Charisma + Performance at Difficulty 6.
If you succeed, you create a Barrier extending out 15 feet from yourself, which absorbs 2 times the next (Outcome +4) Damage. Only applies to attacks which originated outside the 15 foot radius, and protects anyone who is within that radius. Any Damage absorbed by the barrier is reflected back to the attacker, up to a maximum of 4. Their Armor applies in full. The Damage reduction from the barrier is applied before Armor. This Artifact may only have 1 active barrier at a time.
You must maintain Concentration while using this Effect. The barrier will fall if you are interrupted, or if it absorbs the full amount of Damage. When a barrier falls, you cannot use this Effect again for a minimum of 2 Rounds.
This small, durable vial made of tempered glass holds a fine powder of a yellow-brown hue. As a full action, Winter can remove the rubber stopped, pinch one nostril shut, and inhale the dust through the other.
One round after use, eyes glaze over a milky white, and skin takes on a cold, ashen pallor. Eye sockets grow deep an sallowed, and the figure appears similar in appearancec to days-old corpse.
While active, the user seems to function on a motor instinct that is not their own, as if something else is guiding their limbs and reinforcing their muscles. This allows for heightened feats of strength and manual dexterity beyond the individual's standard limits.
However, the price is the sense of unearthly cold that grips the body after the duration of the drug's effect. For the first few moments, the numbing, biting cold freezes the joints and making walking painful. Even when the body regains proper motor functionality, the numb sensations causes whole body aches which persist for an hour.
Use up this small vial of taupe powder (unless you succeed on 1d10, Difficulty 7) and spend an Action.
You transform into takes on a zombie-like appearance. for 30 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are takes on a zombie-like appearance., and you can use your equipment. Your Battle Scars, Injuries, and physical Liabilities are carried over between forms. Reverting from your Alternate Form cannot cause your existing Injuries to kill you. Instead, you remain Incapacitated.
While transformed, your Brawn is increased by 1 and your Dexterity is increased by 1. Your Stress is reduced by 2.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see looks like a zombie.
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.
Inhuman speeds
Exert your Mind and spend an Action to activate.
You can run at four times your normal movement speed for the next minute.
While running, you may climb, jump, and roll without breaking stride, but you are at 1/2 speed while doing so.
If you move faster than your normal move speed, the world around you turns to a blur, and Perception rolls are made at -3 dice.
After this Effect ends, you cannot move quicker than a walk for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour.
The beastmaster closes their eyes and channels nature's bloody struggle for survival. When their eyes reopen, they catch the light and glow red like a dog's. While in this heightened state, they may sense heat signatures and triangulate the tiniest sound.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Your senses are enhanced in the following way. Lasts for three hours.
The magician reaches into their hat and focuses. Inside, light wells and flows like a viscous liquid. Then, they withdraws the item of their choosing.
Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. You must actively and obviously use a top hat to activate this Effect.
Choose an Object which could fit inside a regular backpack (up to 27 liters). It must be Non-Alien and generic. You cannot create explosives. You may create firearms.
Roll Perception + Occult to fabricate your chosen Object. The Difficulty is assigned by the GM and depends on the specificity of your chosen Object. The created item lasts 2 hours.
The aquamancer spends a minute soaking their wounds in at least a gallon of water. During this time, the injured area is obviously absorbing the liquid, and the flesh visibly knits back together.
Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. You must use up at least a gallon of water in order to activate this Effect. Choose a specific Injury on yourself that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Brawn + Survival at Difficulty 6.
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.
The beastmaster shouts, and their human voice cracks into a deep, bestial roar. Their body swells with muscle, clothes melting into a thick pelt of fur. Seconds later the beastmaster is gone. Standing in their place is a massive grizzly bear.
However, even in human form the beast within remains close to the surface, and the beastmaster finds highly civilized social situations unbearable.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
You transform into a brown bear 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 cannot use your Active, Targeted, 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.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Intolerance for society. When you are in a situation with strict social protocols (like a trial or a formal dinner) roll Self-Control not to enter a flight or fight response.
The time-twister spins a dial on one of her watches, slowing time for everyone but her and one other person.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use a watch or clock to activate this Effect.
Lasts 1 minute. Whenever you use your Movement, after all other calculations, the distance you may travel is doubled.
Outside of Combat, any non-Gift, non-movement Actions you attempt take drastically less time to complete, as long as your personal speed is a factor in the Action. Total time reduction is determined by the GM and capped at 90% (executing the Action takes no less than 1/10th the normal time).
While using this Effect, you may carry one other being without affecting your Encumbrance, so long as you maintain contact with them for the duration and they consent or are grappled.