Faust's Conjecture Infernal insurance, and all it costs is the Devil's kiss.

2
The power to craft binding oaths.
Used by Edward "Eddie Odin" Bouvier, Created by baeowulf.
(Anyone who witnesses you activate this Effect is very likely to be disturbed to see you momentarily take on the aspect of the devil. You must actively and obviously be using a cigarette.)

Once the oath's final participant has kissed the cigarette, all present shall see you assume the aspect of the devil. All shall bear witness to the pact as it has been struck, shall scent the sulfur of its striking, and witness the chains binding the participants together. All shall hear the striking of a clock, and witness the vistas of Hell on whose rocks the oath has been written. The vision shall last for but a fraction of a moment, but it shall certainly be remembered far longer.


You must actively and obviously use a cigarette to activate this Effect.

You may make an oath with any number of physically-present, Sapient targets. Communicate the oath's terms to the targets, including the requirements and penalties for each participant. If all agree to the terms, you must Exert your Mind and all participants must kiss a cigarette to seal the deal.

Record the oath as a Condition. If a party breaks the oath, the Condition ends and they suffer the oath's penalty.

When crafting your oath, you may incorporate any of the following penalties:

  • A Battle Scar up to Severe (deaf, missing limb)
  • The oath-breaker is physically marked as an oath-breaker, and any investigative effect will reveal the terms of the oath they broke.
  • A particular Trauma and a single Mind Damage
  • The oath-breaker goes unconscious for up to 24 hours
  • An Injury up to Severity-6 (cannot be reduced by any means)

The targets cannot be compelled to agree via a direct threat of violence, another Effect, or another oath. If you would like to use clever wording to mislead the targets, you must succeed a contested Intellect + (Culture or Influence) roll.

You may revert a penalty for breaking one of your oaths on any participant other than yourself.

When crafting your oath, you may opt to enforce compliance. If you do, any participant that wishes to break the deal must take 3 Mind damage and succeed a Self-Control roll. They may attempt once per day.

Whenever a participant breaks the oath, you are immediately made aware and may even witness the act as if standing nearby.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see you momentarily take on the aspect of the devil.

Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Compulsion to offer an oath whenever met with a significant need an oath could satisfy.

  • Reverting a penalty covers only the direct penalty for breaking the oath, eliminating the relevant Injury, Battle Scar, etc.
  • When narrating disturbing content, be cognizant of your group's tone and accommodating to those who would like to "fast forward" through the description.
  • All Oaths must have at least two participants.
  • The target must be physically present to enter the oath.
  • The terms and penalties of the oath do not need to be equitable and do not need to affect all parties equally.
  • A single action cannot break multiple oaths. You cannot 'stack' oath penalties by having a target sign multiple identical oaths, or similar.
  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

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Community Power Gifts

You gain the following benefits at all times.

You get +2 dice to any Body resistance rolls you make. You also gain the following effects:

  • Resilient Body: Stress doesn’t apply to any Body rolls you make.
  • Survivor: You are immune to all non-Alien diseases.

  • These bonuses apply only to Body rolls made to resist Effects and other supernatural phenomena. They do not apply to other contexts such as attacks made while under the Creature Transformation Effect.

Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend one minute.

You transform into Human for 30 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are Human, 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 Attributes are the same. Your Stress is reduced by 2.

While transformed, instead of your normal clothes and equipment, you are equipped with: trench coat

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.

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

On fireplace size:
Zephyren imagines a fireplace would be 48" x 36", but he wouldn't know because he's never needed one until coming to Canada.

On fires:
Since when did he like fires so much? He isn't sure; the flickering orange glow just beckons and mesmerizes the longer he looks, and his old friends once pointed out that the reflection turns his irises a bright amber orange from the usual dark brown. If he didn't know better he'd think he was born for this. It'll be his making and his ruin. He knows it. If only he could be immune, but he also wonders if that would cause him to lose any sense of warmth completely. As much as he doesn't mind right now, he gets an inkling he'd regret it soon enough.

On spellcasting:
He only needs to snap his fingers to set someone on fire, but he could also go out of his way to do a little choreography. Recently Zephyren watched ATLA, and he was incredibly inspired by the firebenders, colonialism and genocide aside. The moveset was similar to certain martial arts he had briefly learned, and he's sure that if he started practicing again he could master it someday. For once this is something where Zephyren would consider "looking cool".

On the glyph:
Zephyren has carved it into the amber pendant that Caliose gave him, and he's starting to ink the design onto some of his other belongings too. For now he has a stack of post-it notes in his pocket with the glyph design. He's not the most artistic person he knows, but practically everyone around him has been telling him to draw more, and this is how Zephyren will honour that. In fact, Koriol was the one who helped make the glyph because his older sister had some strange runic books lying around.

Spend an Action. Select a target within 20 feet which has both fuel and oxygen available (if you are starting a new fire). You must actively and obviously use any object with a fire glyph designed by Zephyren to activate this Effect.

You may start or extinguish a fire as large as a fire in a residential fireplace at your target. Extinguishing a fire does not cost Exertion. You may create or extinguish fires the size of a lighter or candle flame without Exerting your Mind. Your fires require fuel and oxygen in order to continue burning.

Lighting a target on fire deals 3 Damage each Round on your turn, starting in the Round after the one in which they caught fire. This Damage is reduced by Armor, but the target’s Armor rating will be shredded by any Damage dealt, destroying material Armor once it reaches 0.

You may extinguish flames as a Reaction. This does not extend to explosives.

You may spend a Free Action on your initiative move a fire as large as a fire in a residential fireplace that is within 20 feet to another location within 20 feet. You may Exert your Mind to draw a line which a fire up to twice as large as a fire in a residential fireplace cannot cross.

This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 2.

  • Your fires may be extinguished with appropriate Actions and materials. Stop, drop, and rolling to extinguish requires spending an Action and making a Dexterity + Athletics roll, with an Outcome of 3 putting out the flames.
  • If the target is larger than your flame size, the Armor destruction creates a weak point instead of applying to the entire target.
  • 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 (unless you win a coin flip) and spend 1 minute. You must use up Coins or any type of currency in order 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 Dexterity + Influence 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.

You may produce Copper with this Effect without Exerting your Mind or making a roll. The amount produced is double your normal maximum volume.

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.

Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Oniomanie.

  • 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.
  • The Difficulty for the fabrication roll increases based on specificity. Something like a "shirt" would be Difficulty 5, whereas "Police uniform" would be Difficulty 9. The Outcome determines overall quality and how well the item fits the request.
  • You can fabricate a container of something so long as it contains a single type of thing (such as a tank of water) or it is designed to be packaged together (such as a first aid kit).
  • If you are able to activate this Effect as a Reaction, its roll contests the incoming Attack.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a target within 300 feet. This Effect cannot be used unless Can only be used when stress is -3. Roll Charisma + Performance Difficulty 6. The target may contest by rolling to Dodge or Defend as a Reaction, Difficulty 6.

If the Contested Outcome is positive, the target takes that much Damage plus 8.

  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of Effect. There must be no substantial obstructions between you and your target.

Stock Power Gifts

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.

  • This does not satisfy the Line of Sight requirement for targeted Effects.

You gain the following benefits as long as you are in werewolf form.

You have 4, which reduces incoming damage from all sources of physical attack except silver. Armor from multiple sources does not stack. This Armor cannot be circumvented with Called Shots.

Any Injury received from Damage that was reduced by this Armor is considered Makeshift Stabilized and will not degrade further, and any Battle Scar caused by them is reduced by 1 level. You may attempt a single Proper Stabilization on such Injuries.

  • 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 an Action. You must actively and obviously use a clock or watch to activate this Effect.

You phase out of reality for 4 Rounds. During this time, you cannot perceive or 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.

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

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Dead target within 50 feet. Dead targets must have died within the past week, and you must have their remains in your possession.

The target can communicate in your language for the next 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 (unless you win a coin flip) and Spend an Action. Select a Living target within 45 feet. Roll Intellect + Occult at Difficulty 6. The target may roll Body, -2 dice at Difficulty 7, as a Free Action to resist.

If you succeed, the target receives a new Battle Scar of your choosing, limited by the contested Outcome:

  1. A Minor Battle Scar E.g. an aesthetic-only body modification (a disfigured face, a pig's tail), impacted hand or foot, or vocal changes that complicate communication
  2. A Major Battle Scar E.g. a disabled/removed hand or foot, an inability to speak, an impacted major sense, removal of a minor sense, impacted movement.
  3. A Severe Battle Scar E.g. a disabled/removed arm or leg, deafness, aesthetic changes that are nearly impossible to conceal.
  4. An Extreme Battle Scar E.g. removal/disabling both hands or both legs, blindness, a full-body deformation that leaves the target humanoid but makes it difficult to use clothes, vehicles, and equipment designed for humans.
Refer to the stock Battle Scars on the Character Sheet for specific systems.

When you activate this Effect, instead of occurring immediately, you may choose to delay its effects until the target takes a particular Action. For example: "when they fire a gun" or "when they swim in deep water."

Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Witchy Appearance. You have a long, warty nose and chin, wrinkled skin, and a hunch back. Social rolls are at +2 Difficulty, and your free movement is reduced by 10 feet.

Your alteration "heals" over the course of the next month, after which it is fully cured.

Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Compulsion for payback. You must roll Self-Control to avoid using this Gift on anyone who wrongs you in a major way.

  • A given target can have a maximum of one Suspended Effect on them at a time. The selected triggering Action cannot be used to reveal information about the target (e.g. no "activate when they are a vampire"). It must be an Action they take, not a thought or something that happens to them.
  • Remember: A Contractor’s Body rating is reduced by 1 for each Battle Scar after their fourth.
  • You may opt to inflict a Battle Scar that is less severe than what your Outcome allows.
  • 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.