The Worm Turns "No! No...I didn't mean it...I didn't mean it!" cries the Executive as the first fat, hungry maggot falls from his nose...

1
Requires Seasoned
The power to grievously injure a target.
Used by Edgar Stokes, Created by Strazhari.
(This Effect is obviously Alien when used. When activating this Effect, it is obvious you are attacking the target. You must actively and obviously be using up a live maggot.)

Edgar leans in close to the grappled or restrained target, using his thin pebbled tongue to extract a live maggot infesting his body, which he then inserts into an ear, a nostril, the mouth, or another orifice of choice - he then pronounces the terms upon which the maggots will mystically multiply, consuming the victim from within...slowly.

A curse learned from the vile pages of the Cultes des Goules, this effect relies on maggots that have come to live within the bodies of the Ghouls themselves, feeding on detritus & rotting flesh that lodges between the creatures teeth. These maggots are not generally harmful to the Ghouls, but if forced into healthy flesh they can be unnaturally voracious, made even more so by a Maledicta from the dread book - when the curse is fulfilled, the maggots multiply within the victim, eating him from the inside out in an excruciating process that can take up to a minute - of those killed by The Worm Turns, only bones remain.


Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Living target within arm's reach. This Effect cannot be used unless the target is grappled or restrained. You must use up a live maggot in order to activate this Effect. Roll Brawn + Melee 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 6. The target's Armor is completely ignored.

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."

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.

  • 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.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.
  • Your target must be within line of sight.

Community Power Gifts

Andrew is such an insignificant component of the universe that sometimes, errors occur, shifting his position in space to somewhere nearby as if he was always there.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action to activate. Select a Location which is at most 50 feet away horizontally or 10 feet away vertically. Roll a single d10, Difficulty 4. If you fail or botch, the Effect fails and you cannot activate it again for an hour.

You jump to the chosen location. If the landing is precarious, the GM may call for a roll to land safely. You will never take fall damage from successfully landing a jump made with this Effect.

Instead of physically passing through the air, you are teleported directly to your destination. Does not allow you to go through walls.

  • If this Effect fails due to the Unreliable check, you must still pay any associated activation costs.
  • If you are Encumbered, the maximum range is cut in half. If Encumbrance has reduced your total movement to 0, you cannot activate this Effect.
  • Rolls to land safely will generally be Athletics, but GMs may call for a different roll at their discretion if it makes sense for the specific circumstances.
  • You must be on a surface of some kind in order to activate this effect; it cannot be activated while in mid-air.
  • You may only use this Effect once per round of combat, regardless of any enhancements you have taken.
  • You can target yourself if you qualify as a valid target by the other requirements.

Your shadow feels like a living thing. You feel it stretch and move, like a sore muscle. Everything casts a shadow, and so the shadow can cast itself on everything.

You gain the following benefits as long as you have your writhing shadow.

Your Brawn rating is increased by 1. You may Exert your Mind to automatically gain an Outcome of 5 on any roll that uses Brawn (cannot be used on combat rolls or Effect 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:

  • Heavy Hitter: Successful attacks made with Brawn will either knock your target back Outcome x 5 feet, or knock them down to the ground. Choose which effect the attack will have prior to rolling for it.
  • Tough: You gain Armor equal to half your Brawn rating. This Armor cannot be penetrated or shredded and protects against falling Damage.

  • Armor from multiple sources does not stack. Instead, the highest is used.
  • If your writhing shadow 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.

There's a crack through the air, from an apartment in a place long unknown.
Blood paints the walls as the corpse falls.
There stands a champion of life, weapon held tight.
Lighter in hand, he reflects
in the lands of eternal night.

You gain the following benefits as long as engaged in combat with firearms.

+2 dice to all firearms rolls.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Point Control: Called Shots that you attempt only require a Contested Outcome of 2 for small targets and 4 for tiny targets.
  • Quick Fingers: Drawing your weapon is a Free Action as long as it is on your person. You may reload or swap ammo as a Free Action.
  • Swift Shooter: You may move your full Dash distance and make an attack without a movement penalty in the same Round of combat.

You gain the following benefits at all times.

Your Stress from Injuries and Mind Damage is reduced to 0.

Down and down the performers go, into the depths of hell where the act is staged. What will become of the narrative, he wonders.

Will it fall apart? Will it reach fulfillment? Will he even be able to see its conclusion?

He wonders, and wonders, and wonders.

...

No time to think further. The elevator doors open.

It's time to start the play.

You gain the following benefits as long as engaged in combat with firearms.

+2 dice to all firearms rolls.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Curve the Bullet: You suffer no penalties for attacking targets behind cover.

Stock Power Gifts

Exert your Mind to activate. Select a Living target within arm's reach. You cannot target yourself. This Effect cannot be used unless you continuously play music for your target during the activation. Over the course of one Downtime, your patient must communicate with you and reveal at least one of their Traumas to you, including the details of those Traumas and the circumstances of how they were acquired. After the full treatment time has elapsed, roll Charisma + Performance at Difficulty 6.

Your target may Resist. If your treatment is successful, you may remove one of the patient's revealed Traumas without incurring any Experience cost.

Once per day per target, you may choose to use this Effect to stabilize the Mind of a target within arm's reach. Treatment takes 30 seconds but will not remove any Traumas. If you are successful, restore 2 Mind damage.

You may choose to use this Effect to temporarily relieve any number of the patient's Traumas (including mental Conditions). In this case, Treatment takes an Action and the effect lasts two hours. If the Patient is currently experiencing an episode, Difficulty is increased by 2.

  • The treatment time may be broken up into multiple sessions if necessary.
  • 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.

Your Stress from Injuries is reduced to 0. Does not reduce Stress from Mind Damage.

Exert your Mind and spend a minute.

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 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.

You cannot alter the appearance of your flesh and blood.

  • 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.

Thank you to the original creator of this Gift, Frakcherd https://www.thecontractrpg.com/profile/view/603/

Exert your Mind and 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 a laser pointer 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.

  • 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 and Spend an Action.

You transform into your own corpse for one minute. While transformed, you may control the functioning of the object you have transformed into. You can perceive your surroundings as normal. You can be targeted as a Non-Living, Sapient Object.

If you are damaged while transformed, the damage is realized when you return to normal. If you are damaged before you transform, your inanimate form will appear partially damaged.

You may end this Effect prematurely as a Free Action.

  • If a character is inside of you when you revert to your original form, you take a Severity-5 Injury when they burst from your innards as you shrink.
  • You cannot move in any way the object wouldn't normally be able to move. If you are a feather duster, you cannot float around, etc.