Freedom Of Speech The First Amendment

2
The power to communicate with Creatures, humans, and Sapient beings.
Used by Edward, Created by panda.
(Anyone who witnesses you activate this Effect or for its duration is very likely to be disturbed to see your mouth filled to the brim with razor sharp fangs. )

Edward craves the ability to communicate and understand others. The Freedom that comes with expressing your opinions and listening to the ideas to others is something that does not come naturally to him. He is Amending that flaw, making him more Free to express himself.


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

You may understand and communicate to Creatures, humans, and Sapient beings as if you are fluent in a relevant language for the next hour.

Whenever you encounter a Language you could commune in with this Effect, you immediately understand which language it is, the dialect, region, and other details about it.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see your mouth filled to the brim with razor sharp fangs.

  • Communing with creatures does not grant them intellect but does allow you to converse with them.
  • The target of "human" refers to any target that speaks a human language.
  • When narrating disturbing content, be cognizant of your group's tone and accommodating to those who would like to "fast forward" through the description.

Community Activated Gifts

Louis's introduction to the contracting world being so rife with artifacts has made him question what else may be out there, and curious to find more, he's begun digging into ways to do so. This gift is the harbinger's answer to his request for a way to sate that curiosity.

Exert your Mind and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: Transcribing details about the area into the scanner. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.

You automatically detect all Artifacts and Cursed Objects within 50 feet of you for the next hour. You have a clear sense of both the distance and direction towards any detected items. When you detect objects, instead of learning nothing about them, you may observe each object with all of your senses.

Even while this Effect is not active, if any Artifacts or Cursed Objects come within 50 feet of you, you may roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 7 to detect them.

Even if there are no Artifacts or Cursed Objects within 50 feet of you, you become aware of the direction the closest one is in, as well as a rough sense of its distance from you.

While this Effect is active, you are at -2 dice to all Actions and cannot Concentrate.

  • This includes any objects that come into range during activation.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action.

You may understand and communicate to Creatures, humans, and Sapient beings as if you are fluent in a relevant language for the next hour.

This also includes understanding any recorded communications from the relevant targets, including writings, scent trails, etc.

  • Communing with creatures does not grant them intellect but does allow you to converse with them.
  • The target of "human" refers to any target that speaks a human language.
  • When reading written communications, you get no information beyond what the writer was intending to communicate.

On protective measures:
Quick decisions save lives, and Zephyren's decision is to panic and flitter around like a bird with clipped wings. It's not that noticeable but people can probably see it if they look hard enough. It varies in effectiveness each time, and he's not happy being put into such a turbulent state of inertia, but what can he do about it? This is all just to survive. Can't fulfill his promises to himself if he's dead.

On fevers:
Zephyren always feels like he has a fever whenever he gets anxious - his face heats up to the point even he can feel it, and he knows that his face must be incredibly red. It feels like he's in a dream, a trance, he's not really in control of himself, but he sees everything happening and it's all incredibly overwhelming.

On inertia:
Is it because he recently learned of this term, or is it because a phoenix's cycle is in perpetual motion? Is this a manifestation of that? He doesn't like this one bit.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Roll Perception + Occult at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, you create a barrier around yourself, which absorbs the next Outcome +4 Damage. The Damage reduction from the barrier is applied before Armor. You may only have 1 active barrier at a time.

The barrier will fall after two hours, 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.

  • Effects which circumvent Armor completely also circumvent your barrier.

Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend 15 minutes. Choose a specific Injury on yourself that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Dexterity + Athletics 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.

If your Outcome is greater than the Severity of the Injury you were attempting to treat, you may apply any excess Outcome to other Injuries on yourself.

Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see Jason Brenning's body begins to pull away from itself as it they are being torn through realms of the dead, their body vigorously shaking, and twitching violently. The sounds of the bone, flesh and sinew reform becoming audible as the ghosts break away from them and "mend" the body from within, pulling away the flesh from their own to rebuild the broken. When all is said and done, it leaves behind a bloodied mess where the wounds once were.

  • When narrating disturbing content, be cognizant of your group's tone and accommodating to those who would like to "fast forward" through the description.
  • Unstabilized wounds do not degenerate during treatment.

Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend an Action or Reaction. Roll Intellect + Technology 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. 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.

  • Effects which circumvent Armor completely also circumvent your barrier.

Stock Activated Gifts

Spend a Quick Action. You must actively and obviously use a burlap sack 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.

  • "Equip" refers to drawing a gun, putting on a piece of armor, etc. You may store or withdraw a maximum of 6 items in a given Round. Reminder: you may perform up to two Quick Actions for -2 dice each or 3 if you use up your Action, unless a different Effect grants you additional Quick Actions.
  • Containers which hold multiple things may count as a single item so long as the things within are generally packaged together. For instance, you may stash a clip full of bullets, a medical kit full of medical supplies, or a box of crackers, but you cannot stash a backpack full of miscellaneous equipment.
  • You may only attempt to store Objects which are free-standing and disconnected from other things. The use of this Effect will not allow you to sever any connections holding an Object in place.
  • The Maximum Object Size parameter is intended to roughly capture the weight / size restriction of items and isn’t intended to restrict shape. GM discretion is advised. A human being is level 4 in the Maximum Object Size parameter.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action.

Lasts 1 minute. Whenever you use your Movement, after all other calculations, the distance you may travel is doubled.

  • Any Encumbrance penalty to your movement still applies, but you do not suffer from any sort of exhaustion.
  • Damage from a collision depends on your speed at the time, as well as what you hit. GM's discretion, but generally moving faster than a car on the freeway and hitting a dense, solid object like a wall or a tree should be lethal. Mundane armor will not apply, but any supernatural forms of protection will.

Expend a point of Battery and spend an Action.

You automatically detect all people wielding weapons within 300 feet 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.

  • This Effect does not satisfy the line of sight targeting requirement for other Effects.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must actively and obviously use cell phone to activate this Effect.

Summon a single Sapient goon 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 4 dice to dodge, Grapple, or make melee Attacks. Their unarmed Attacks are melee range and deal +2 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. 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.

  • 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 2 Actions. You must actively and obviously use a piece of clothing you wouldn't normally wear to activate this Effect.

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 may have a different sex, age, and race to your own, and you may alter height by up to a foot and your weight by 50%. Your disguise cannot directly mimic an existing person. You may change the appearance of your outfit. 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 Effect ends if you take an Injury or are stunned or incapacitated.

While disguised, you cannot use any Activated or Targeted Powers.

  • While you may alter your outfit's appearance, this does not grant or store equipment. This does not allow you to change the appearance of Artifacts or conceal their Alien appearance.
  • ‘Appearance’ includes voice, bone structure, skin quality, hair length and color, eye color, muscle tone, flesh texture, and generally anything perceivable about your body.