Maybe the experience of a skilled professional, maybe a supernatural power or maybe just luck. But I always find what I want. Always.
Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Investigate an area with a radius of up to 500 feet Can only be activated while you are in Buildings. At the end of your investigation, roll Perception + Thievery at Difficulty 6.
You learn the following information about the area:
This Effect is not obvious, and the only sign you are using an Effect is I touch with a naked hand one of the walls, floor or furniture that's been there for more than six months. If someone suspects that an Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.
You cannot investigate the same area more than once per day.
Laplace tells someone they are going to do something. "You will give me your gun." "You will tell me your deepest secret." "You will jump into the water." And by the time he finishes speaking, it's the truth.
(Note to self, single order, only "and" for describing conditions of completing task, not additional steps or tasks)
(Note to GMs, see extended description for relevant information)
Laplace's parasite stops him from uttering known lies, and he must exert himself to betray the limitations of his body. Within what little of the bounds he can stretch. The parasite, taking offense to the blatant lie, changes reality in order to remedy the situation.
This power is especially important since it allows him to more easily extract people's secrets, which he needs to feed the hunger the parasite inflicts on his body.
Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend at least one Action. Select a Human 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 minutes. 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. 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.
This Effect ends if you are stunned, fall asleep, go unconscious, are incapacitated, die, or if your total Stress ever exceeds 5.
Pale glowing outline around a person protected by the barrier. If person protected by the barrier is hit, the place where he was hit glows more brightly briefly, before going back to normal. If barrier is broken, the outline itself seems to shatter.
Many scholars of occult ran into a problem of not being able to put up a powerful enough barrier, either due to low mana capacity, low mana throughtput, troubles with concentration, or all three at the same time. But what if instead of creating one strong barrier, you just created multiple weak ones in several layers?
Of course, you could always run into a problem of creating a barrier too weak to fully protect against any significant attack, and you are sacrificing some of the advantages of single-layer barrier, like it restoring itself to full power every three-five seconds, or being able to create one in a split second if necessary. On the other hand, you receive what is effectively a barrier which does not requires your full focus to keep it functioning, and can be created even if you aren't the most capable magic-wise, and will be able to provide at least some level of protection against any attack, unless you manage to completely botch the rite
Exert your Mind and Spend an Action to activate. Select a Animate target within arm's reach. Roll Intellect + Occult at Difficulty 6.
If you succeed, you create a Barrier around your target, which absorbs the next Outcome Damage. The Damage reduction from the Barrier is applied before Armor, and is treated like Armor by any effects such as Armor Penetration. You may only have 1 active barrier at a time.
The Barrier will fall after an hour, 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.
For when things get too tight, Ains has learnt the capability to almost literally "tune" himself out of any conversation or interaction, when activated, everyone and everything within sight suddenly and seemingly begins to lose interest in Ains, as if the part of their brain that acknowledged Ains was shut off.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
You are obscured in one of the following manners. Lasts 30 minutes.
While this Effect is active, any Effect that would obscure you from other, additional senses fails automatically. If someone discovers you, this Effect will not help you hide from them for the next minute. Activating a targeted or obvious Effect, attacking, or being Injured ends the Effect. When the Effect ends, it is disabled for one minute.
Observing the corpse, Charles frowns as he pulls out a magnifying glass and focuses his psychic ability through it. Using it as a conduit to observe more than just what meets the eye. With enough energy, it even gives him a glimpse of who had killed them. Who did it...
Spend a minute. Select a Corpses within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use Magnifying Glass to activate this Effect. At the end of your investigation, roll Perception + Investigation at Difficulty 6.
You learn all the following information about your target:
This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 2.
You cannot investigate the same target more than once per day.
His muscles harden, his mustache stiffens, and a ambient light seems to coalesce around him, giving him a slight sparkle.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must make a Trauma roll when you use this Effect. Its Difficulty cannot be reduced by any means. If you fail or Botch, you receive one Mind Damage and a new Trauma.
Your Stress from Injuries and Mind Damage is reduced to 0. Lasts three hours.
If you are Stunned, asleep, drugged, or otherwise made unconscious for any reason other than being Incapacitated, you may Exert your Mind to wake up. Any penalty which was caused by this condition is removed.
The Necromancer stands over a corpse and makes a series of grandiose lifting gestures. The corpse rises from the ground as though suspended by invisible strings, barks a pained groan, and lands on its feet, now a full-fledged member of the living dead.
Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend an Action. You must use up corpse in order to activate this Effect.
Summon up to 3 Non-Sapient, Animate zombie 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 3 minions active at a time.
You may end this Effect prematurely as a Free Action.
If you do not have a sacrificial Injury when you activate this Effect, take a new Severity-1 Injury.
The Android's skin is extremely pale, their eyes are yellow, and their body stays at room temperature. They do not bleed, and traditional medicine is ineffective at treating them. Furthermore, they may be hacked by any supernatural effect that could hack a computer.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
You are permanently and visibly transformed: you are an android, with pale skin and yellow eyes. You are considered to be a Sapient, Non-Living Computer when targeted..
You are immune to damage from cold. If cold is a substantial component of other damage you would take (e.g. falling from a great distance into a vat of liquid nitrogen), that damage is reduced by 2 (in addition to Armor)
No single organ in your body is critical for life. Called Shots do no additional Damage to you. You may perceive the world through separated body parts, take Actions with them, and reattach them by spending an Action and Exerting your Mind.
Your Injuries no longer degrade with time. You do not age naturally, and supernatural attempts to age you fail.
You cannot ignore or decrease the effects of Stress for any social rolls you make.
The Severity of any Injury caused by electricity is increased by 2.
Be amazed as the magician wields a deck of simple playing cards with all the poise and precision of a ninja's shurikens. Fear not, for they will not hit you, unless they want to.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are engaged in combat with playing cards.
+2 dice to all rolls utilizing playing cards.
You also gain the following effects:
Through the use of clever rhetoric, the spy is able to inspire a surge of emotion in a target with whom they are speaking.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Living target within 45 feet as well as a specific emotion. This Effect cannot be used unless you are engaged in conversation with the target. Roll Charisma + Influence at Difficulty 6. Affected targets can resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 6 -3 dice.
If you succeed, for the next minute, your target will do things they otherwise wouldn’t have done, inspired by the chosen emotion. They will not necessarily display their emotions in an obvious way.
Actions they take will be in keeping with their character and the way they tend to deal with strong emotions. They will be unlikely to change their mind about any actions taken or decisions made until after the Effect ends.
The magician waves a handkerchief over an item, and it disappears! They may produce the object later by fluttering a scarf.
Spend a Quick Action. You must actively and obviously use a scarf, sheet, or handkerchief to activate this Effect.
You may withdraw an item from your stash, or add an item that is within arm’s reach to your stash. You may only stash targets which are in your possession, grappled, or otherwise controlled by you.
You may store Objects in your stash, each no larger than something which could fit inside a briefcase (15 liters), and you may store up to 3 things at a time.
You may choose to equip any equipment you withdraw at no additional cost.