A wide smile spreads across my face as the Amethyst sparkles, dazzling the target into submission. This fixture on my teeth is imbued with a forceful magic that makes me appear that much more enticing, how could a charming man such as myself ever wish harm upon them?
In the hands – or rather, on the tooth – of its possessor, the Smile of the Ascended Ace becomes a conduit for mesmerizing influence. A wide grin adorned with the sparkling amethyst, coupled with a few choice words, can sway hearts, bend wills, and alter the course of destinies. Yet, as with all things of such potency, there comes a price.
For those who dare to wield the Smile of the Ascended Ace, a peculiar battle scar manifests over time. A burn mark, shaped in the likeness of an ace of hearts, emerges upon the skin, glowing with an ethereal light and causing a stinging sensation whenever its wearer indulges in deceit at the gambling tables. This scar serves as a reminder of the consequences that accompany the misuse of such formidable power.
Despite the allure of its abilities, the Smile of the Ascended Ace remains both a blessing and a burden to its bearer. Its influence can shape fortunes and sway the course of events, yet it demands caution and restraint lest its wielder succumb to the temptations of absolute control. In the cosmic dance of power and consequence, this legendary artifact stands as a testament to the delicate balance between influence and responsibility.
Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend at least one Action. Select a Sapient target within 20 feet. Your target may be actively engaged in Combat. Communicate a command to your target. Roll Charisma + Influence at Difficulty 6. The target may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 7.
If the contested Outcome is positive, your target will be compelled to follow your command to their best understanding of the letter and spirit of the command until they have completed it or for your Outcome in hours. You cannot issue another suggestion to the target until 10 minutes after they have completed the first command or 10 minutes after a failure.
The target is unaware that they are under supernatural influence and feel they are acting of their own free will. If you fail, they realize that you were attempting to influence them supernaturally with your command.
Your command can be an order to take an immediate Action and a conditional request. You cannot order a target to "do nothing," and they are free to take other Actions as they fulfill your request. Your command cannot be obviously self-destructive. The Effect ends if following your command would cause a target to cross one of their Limits in a way that would necessitate a Trauma roll.
You may activate this Effect as a Reaction to contest any Action a valid target is taking, reducing their Outcome by your own. Your command has no impact beyond disrupting their Action.
This Effect ends if you are stunned, fall asleep, go unconscious, are incapacitated, die, or if your total Stress ever exceeds 5.
Possession of this Artifact causes the following Battle Scar to manifest over the course of a day: A Burn Mark in the Shape of an Ace of Hearts that Glows and Stings Whenever He is Cheating at a Table Game. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Battle Scar heals over the course of the next day.
Preston raises his staff to the sky and there is a flash of distant lightning. A few seconds later, thunder rumbles menacingly, the lights flicker, there is a gust of wind, and Preston disappears at one location and appears at another.
The effect occurs at the source and destination simultaneously, though there is no sign he is the source (besides appearing/disappearing).
Exert your Mind and spend 2 Actions. Select a Location within your line of sight. You must actively and obviously use a staff to activate this Effect.
You are transported directly to the chosen Location. Anyone who is touching you as you Travel will be brought along with you. You must wait 1 full Round before activating this Effect again.
The user of this gift will hold their hand out to a spirit under their control and their shadow will pass this mark onto the spirit in a seemingly painful display for the spirit as it screams in what could be equated to agony.
Spend an Action. Select a target within arm's reach. This Effect cannot be used unless on a spirit under the user's control.
Your target is marked with a purple hued mark in a circular shape that seems to wriggle ever so slightly until it is removed or until you choose to end the Effect. Your mark can be discovered if the target is inspected visually. Removal inflicts a Severity 1 Injury on the target.
You are aware of the marked target's direction and distance from you. You can have up to 3 marks active.
You may activate another Effect through your Mark as though you were standing at its location. This destroys the Mark.
This Gift's Cost is capped at 2 and cannot be increased further.
We rely on our senses to inform us about the world, and trust them to tell us what is real and what's not. But our perception can be very easily fooled-- All it takes is a little misdirection. With a practiced, disguised motion, Cássio palms over the card in his lapel, which dissipates in shadowy flame. The ember then travels, expands and transmogrifies into the chosen illusion at the target location. When the illusion is dispelled, it breaks apart into the same shadowstuff, which reforms into the card at his lapel.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a target within 45 feet. You must actively and obviously use a tarot card (XVIII - The Moon) to activate this Effect. Choose an illusion to generate, which can be no larger than an SUV.
The chosen illusion is generated at your target, and it will remain in place as long as you maintain Concentration or you choose to end it. It can be perceived by people through their taste, touch, hearing, smell, and sight. The illusion cannot be used as an attack. You cannot make an exact replica of an existing Animate being or Object.
Anyone who struggles against the illusion hard enough to break a window or who would be damaged by 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.
Observers of the gift will observe the iron giant approach the receiver, silently raising his hand, as a darkened blood commences to leak through the crevices of his gauntlet. The Giant will do a cross on the receiver, not really mattering its placement. The mark will feel warm, and progressively on the next few moments, the user will start feeling how hunger and thirst are no longer there, and neither is the need for air. The recipient will feel completely content and well fed. No starvation/dehydration symptoms are noticed from usual recipients.
Several spikes have grown between the gauntlet and the iron giant's skin. These spikes, upon activation of this gift, extend to puncture the hand of the Penitent, opening several offices that begin leaking small droplets of blood.
This blood becomes modified and deeply enriched by special glands located on the inside of the gauntlets as they leak through it. Upon bearing the bloody cross on the body of the receiver, he absorbs the nutrients of the enriched blood through the skin, nourishing the user for the entire day.
Spend an Action. Select a target within arm's reach.
For the next 24 hours, your target does not require any food, water, or sleep.
This Gift's Cost is capped at 2 and cannot be increased further.
Placing one of her heart pendants between her palms, Sage focuses through it on healing her wounds and those of others. Tiny black lines move from it along Sage's skin to any injury she currently has, or through the air to whoever she's healing, and gather into any injury. The opaque shadowsmoke conceals the wounds from sight and lets her waking dream awareness reverse the damage that was done. Once she lets go of the pendant, the shadowsmoke fades into the air like dense tendrils of smoke.
Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. Select a Living target within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use a gold heart pendant to activate this Effect. Choose a specific Injury on your target that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Intellect + Occult 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 mystic channels and communes directly with another person's spirit, allowing the two of them to freely exchange both physical and mental wounds between each other.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Sapient target within arm's reach. Your target may Resist to cancel the transfer.
You may choose a single instance of one of the following to transfer from your target to yourself, or from yourself to them:
Whenever you transfer an Injury, it's Severity increases by 1. Whenever you transfer Mind damage or Traumas, the recipient takes an additional Mind damage.
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.
The doctor heals severe injuries in minutes using only standard medical supplies. Lacerations seal under the needle and thread, and reset bones can be used shortly after.
However, for the treatment to last, the patient must adhere to any aftercare regimen the doctor requires. Those who violate the doctor's orders suffer their injuries anew.
Exert your Mind and spend 15 minutes. Select a Living target within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use basic medical supplies to activate this Effect. Choose a specific Injury on your target 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. You may specify a specific condition that the patient must adhere to. If they break this condition, the treatment is immediately reversed. Record this regimen as a Condition. Lasts until the end of their next Contract or 1 month for non-Contractors.
The priest's miracles expand into the treatment and curing of poisons and diseases. To do so, they require a ceremonial dedication (or often re-dedication) to the service of their god, during which the priest and the patient pray together and perform ritualistic bloodletting. These wounds burn with holy, golden fire, attacking the sinful malady and expelling it from the body.
Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. Select a Living target within arm's reach. You cannot target yourself. Your target takes a Severity 1 Injury. You must actively and obviously use a ceremonial dagger blessed with holy water to activate this Effect.
You may cure any Non-Alien diseases, toxins, or poisons afflicting your target even if you have not diagnosed or fully understood it. You may cure diseases or poisons even if they are not treatable through modern medicine. During treatment, the malady you are treating does not progress or cause additional Damage or other effects.
You may use this effect to sanitize a 15-foot radius, destroying all poisons, toxins, diseases such that they are inert and cannot affect any new targets
As a free creature, The Fairy cannot withstand being caged or imprisioned in any way. Luckily, they possess a glamour that allows them to unlock any lock binding them with a wink of their eye. The lock falls open with a sparkle of light and a sound like a ringing bell.
Spend an Action. Select a Non-Alien door, container, knot, or lock within arm's reach. This Effect cannot be used unless the targeted lock or door is being used to restrain or imprison you.
You may lock, unlock, and/or open your target.
The hacker is capable of crafting bottles of nanites. When poured on a broken object, the nanites go to work restoring it to a functioning state. The goop shimmers and crawls, sparking with blue electricity as it reforms broken parts.
Spend 10 Rounds and use up this a bottle of metallic fluid. Select a Object within arm's reach that is no larger than an SUV. Cannot be used on Alien technology. More than half the target object must be present in order to begin repairs. Roll 7 dice Difficulty 6, dice penalties do not apply.
If you succeed, your target is repaired back to a functional state. If you fail, you spend the full time working before realizing you cannot repair the target.