Unveil the Shroud* "It takes one to know one, and unfortunately for most of you, just as the shadows bend their will to me, you will find little sanctuary in the twilight of society."

6
Requires Seasoned
The power to detect all nearby hidden beings (i.e. actively in hiding or actively conealing their presence) and disguised beings (i.e. actively wearing/using a disguise/facade).
Used by Luci Alessi, Created by Riley.
(You must actively and obviously be using up 5 units of Varnish.)

It would be rather conceited and grandiose of Luci to label herself as a Master of Shadows, but this evolution in her connection to the Well makes it a close call.

Just like the conspiracy theorists say, the shadows can indeed talk. In fact, they can have quite a lot to say about those that like to hide within them. Luci would know- she's seen them both in and out of The Well. Whether they're all that happy about it is one of many philosophical questions, but the fact of the matter is that they do indeed talk.

Such beings only require a bit of nudging and a sip of her Source in order to spill what they know and act as beacons for Luci. Not only do they point her in the proper direction, but they will also aware her as to what her targets are hiding from or disguising themselves for.

And even without any direct calls to action, Luci's intuition awares her of any restless or uneasy shadows that might have information about nearby scoundrels for her.

The shadows that exist outside of the Well are either only personified by Luci herself or a product of her power. When a shadow points her in a direction, it manifests more as a feeling than an actual shadow getting up pointing in any particular directing.

Think of it more like Luci projecting herself into the surrounding darkness- a process that while not riskless, is certainly fruitful.


Exert your Mind and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: Luci dumps a bunch of Ink into her own shadow and beckons the shadows to coalesce. She calls out to them and encourages them to reveal those that dwell within their britches. You must use up 5 units of Varnish in order 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 hidden beings (i.e. actively in hiding or actively conealing their presence) and disguised beings (i.e. actively wearing/using a disguise/facade) within 10 miles 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.

If no hidden beings (i.e. actively in hiding or actively conealing their presence) or disguised beings (i.e. actively wearing/using a disguise/facade) targets are within 10 miles of you, and then one enters range, you automatically detect it, even if this Effect is not active.

Any hidden beings (i.e. actively in hiding or actively conealing their presence) and disguised beings (i.e. actively wearing/using a disguise/facade) detected while this Effect is active are “marked”. You will continue to detect them until the Effect ends, no matter how far away they move. You will also continue to detect them after the Effect ends, so long as they remain within 10 miles of you.

You learn basic information about why each detected being is being detected. For example, if you detect Criminals, you may learn how many crimes they have committed and what type.

You receive a detailed silhouette of their body and clothes for each being you detect.


Community Power Gifts

You gain the following benefits as long as you have your Nanomachine tattoo.

Your Intellect rating is increased by 2. You may Exert your Mind to automatically gain an Outcome of 5 on any roll that uses Intellect (Cannot be used on combat rolls or Power activations).

If you are witnessed actively using this Effect, whoever sees it can make a Perception + Alertness roll at Difficulty 6. A complete success reveals the source of your power.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Multithreaded: Instead of being unable to take Actions while maintaining Concentration, you may now take Actions at a -2 dice penalty. You may maintain Concentration from two different Effects, but you are unable to take Actions when doing so.
  • Insufferable Know-It-All: Any social rolls you make are at +1 Difficulty, and if someone else can answer an informational question or solve a puzzle before you do, make a Trauma roll. The Difficulty of this Trauma roll cannot be reduced by any means.

  • Being Injured or interrupted in some way can still break your Concentration.
  • If your Nanomachine tattoo is damaged, destroyed, or lost, you lose all benefits from this Effect for the next two months.
  • Attribute bonuses from multiple sources do not stack. Instead the highest bonus is used.

Spending a few seconds gathering rainbow cosmic energy into their palm, Serq is able to tear into the air around them and open a rift. Stepping into it, they are able to form a mesh around themself like a second skin, allowing them to take a different physical form. The scent of bog water can be detected as the coalescence of the universe disperses.

[Disfiguring]: They're an Alien being.

Spend 2 Actions.

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 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 cannot alter your clothes. You may add inhuman features to your disguise. 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 Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 2.

Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Alien Sting: Phase 3 and Alien Sting: Phase 3.

  • While you can add inhuman features, they are aesthetic only. Think star trek alien, monstergirl, demon, etc. Does not grant things such as a prehensile tail, an extra damaging brawl attack, improved senses, etc.
  • ‘Appearance’ includes voice, bone structure, skin quality, hair length and color, eye color, muscle tone, flesh texture, and generally anything perceivable about your body.

On music:
It's a blemish in Zephyren's past, yet one of his most fond highlights all the same. The sense of community that music brings is universal, as anyone can understand when a score sounds upbeat or solemn. He could put his emotions into it and no one would know the subject of his grief, only that he does have feelings after all. It never quite leaves his mind, so he finds himself stopping in his tracks whenever he hears it - whether geophonic or anthropophonic or biophonic - he has to appreciate how it all flows together.

On animals:
Wildlife is harder to spot in Hong Kong, with all the urbanization. Zephyren remembers his first few months in Canada, which were often spent just gawking at the animals he's never seen. Particularly, he had no idea coyotes were dangerous. Whoops.

On comprehension:
Now that even animals can speak to him, he has more noise to filter through. It might just be his downfall.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

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

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

Exert your Mind and spend an Action.

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 phase out, you may bring up to 1 additional target in arm's reach with you.

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.

Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: black scar twisting up the arm.

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

During the transformation elemental metal get's incorporated and acts as an invisible armor.

You gain the following benefits as long as you're transformed.

You have 4 Armor, which reduces incoming Damage. Armor from multiple sources does not stack. This Armor cannot be circumvented with Called Shots.

Stock Power Gifts

Exert your Mind and spend an Action.

Summon a single Sapient roadie at your location. They last for two hours or until they are destroyed. They are controlled by the GM but will follow any commands you give. You may have at most one minion active at a time.

  • Initiative: Minions act directly after you in Combat starting the Round after they are summoned.
  • Combat: Minions roll 3 dice to dodge, Grapple, or make roadie Attacks. Their unarmed Attacks are melee range and deal +0 Damage.
  • Body/Mind: Minions have 5 Body. Your minions roll 3 Mind resistance dice.
  • Armor: Minions have 1 Armor.
  • Movement: Minions can move 15 feet per Round as Free Movement and double that when performing an all-out Sprint.
  • Intelligence: Minions have human-level intelligence and can speak your language. They can use equipment, Artifacts, and Consumables. However, they cannot Exert their Mind.
  • Actions: Any Perception checks they make are rolled with 3 dice. Your minion is able to lifting and hauling with a 7 dice pool. Any other roll is made with 3 dice. They can lift and haul as though they have 2 Brawn.
  • Unusual: Minions are not obviously Alien.

You may only use this Effect once per day.

  • Minions die if targeted with Energy Transfer (before the Effect resolves) or if an Artifact or Consumable they use would Injure them or cause them to roll Trauma.
  • Your minions may count as additional targeting types based on their flavor. For example: Living, Computer, Creature, etc.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Location within 10 feet. You must actively and obviously use a ballpoint pen to activate this Effect.

You place a ward, which is fixed to its initial location. You can hear and see through the ward as though you were standing at its location. Your wards last 3 hours. You may have at most 3 wards active at once.

The ward requires Concentration to monitor, though it will remain active until you deactivate it. It can be detected with a roll and destroyed through mundane means.

  • Your ward cannot be used to 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 a minute. Select a target Object within arm's reach. At the end of your investigation, roll Charisma + Culture at Difficulty 6.

You learn all the following information about your target:

  • You learn the object's highest material value and why it is worth so much.
The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome.

You cannot investigate the same target more than once per day.

  • 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 must actively and obviously be using a sword to gain the benefits of this Effect.

You have 4 Armor, which reduces incoming Damage. Armor from multiple sources does not stack. This Armor cannot be circumvented with Called Shots.

Whenever your Armor reduces incoming Damage, you are immediately made aware of the source of the Damage. You may pinpoint their location for 30 seconds.

Any time your Armor prevents Damage, your Armor rating is temporarily decreased by 2. Whenever it goes five Rounds without preventing any Damage, it is restored back to its full value.

  • Armor recharging happens automatically and does not require an Action.
  • This Effect’s Armor rating cannot be increased by any other Effects.
  • When shredded, it returns to full potency in one hour.

Exert your Mind and spend 30 seconds to trap a region of any shape that contains your current location and fits entirely within 300 feet. This trap lasts one day or until triggered or disarmed. You must use up a dart in order to activate this Effect. Roll Intellect + Survival Difficulty 6.

The trap looks like a tripwire, a pressure plate, or a hidden switch. Only those who have seen this trap before can identify it as a trap. Anyone who is aware of the trap may intuitively avoid, trigger, or destroy it.

Any Living target that enters the chosen region will trigger the trap. The target may contest by rolling Body, Difficulty 6.

If the Contested Outcome is positive, the target takes that much Damage plus 2. The target's Armor is completely ignored.

The target suffers a -3 dice penalty for the next hour or until the Injury is healed. This dice penalty does not stack multiple times on the same target.

Instead of dealing Damage all at once, the Injury caused by this Power starts at Severity 1 and worsens at the rate of one level per Round until it reaches the Severity it would have otherwise been.

  • Multiple traps cannot be placed in the exact same location or be triggered by the same single Action. Nor can one trap triggering cause another to trigger.
  • Trap can only be spotted by someone who has witnessed this particular trap before, has been informed, or possesses relevant supernatural abilities. They must achieve an Outcome of 4 or higher on a Perception + Alertness roll to do so.
  • The area you choose where the trap can be triggered may be just a single location, similar to a tripwire or a pressure plate, or it can be a proximity trigger which hits anyone who comes within the specified range of the trap. This is defined by you when you place the trap and cannot be changed once the trap is placed.