You place the windup key to the back of a toy, or similarly human representing golem. Twist for a minute until your hand begins to hurt. The toy will animate and grow in size to a friendly helper of the one holding the windup key.
If there is no toy, starting the process as if there were one will slowly make a basic enlarged teddy bear.
This artifact relies on the cultural idea of toys, and the cultural idea of wind up toys, especially in the minds of children. The basic idea of these wind up toys is that you wind them up, then let them go and they move around doing toy things, seeming almost alive. This artifact takes that idea, and merges it with a few other ideas of ways to create useful servants to make an artifact capable of making useful friendly minions.
The ritual to create this artifact relies on a ritual involving
- A variety of children's toys which are popular in the shared imagination
- A collection of stories and myths about the Hebrew golumn
- Mary Shelly's frankenstein
- Carefully shaping the pattern of a wind up key while reading various relevant parts of these stories
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Summon a single Sapient enlarged animated toy at your location. They last until they move more than 150 feet from you or are destroyed They are controlled by the GM, do not follow orders, and only act to Keep people safe and happy. This Artifact may have at most one minion active at a time.
Nyambe is a name for the Supreme Being, he is considered the creator of the world and the source of all life, embodying divine authority, wisdom, and creativity in Kuba cosmology. This blessing to create is bestowed to ZedMan in the form of fire, smoke and earth, just as humanity was made, so too is this creation.
Born with a spiral of flame, smoke and lights births a human person with a part of Nyambe's fire; a creation of true birth.
Exert your Mind and spend two Actions performing the following ritual: casting a 'blessing' in the form of a song, Zedman throws up gang signs which align to be actual movements of magic. You must actively and obviously use a Mic to activate this Effect. You must maintain Concentration while activating this Effect, and it fails if you are interrupted.
Summon the one and only Sapient Human with dimly lit golden eyes and an unnatural glow at your location. They last for two hours or until they are destroyed. They are controlled by you. You may have at most one minion active at a time.
If you die during a Contract and your companion goes on to claim victory, they may permanently sacrifice themselves to bring you back to life and safety. If this happens, you may refund this Gift to a minimum cost of 3.
If killed, you cannot re-summon your minion until after your next Contract.
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.
You may only use this Effect once per day.
Teef
Exert your Mind and spend an Action to activate.
You transform into Giant Rat for 3 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are Giant Rat, and you can use your equipment. Your Battle Scars, Injuries, and physical Liabilities are carried over between forms. While transformed, your Brawn is increased by 2.
Your alternate form is its own deadly weapon. Unarmed attacks made in your alternate form deal +3 Bonus Damage (instead of the typical -2).
You do not suffer any Penalty while in your Alternate Form.
With a dim flash of light, a small circular portal about the size of a hand will appear. Think about those moving barber shop rainbow LED lights, and that's what the outer ring of the portal will look like. The portal will disappear with the same flash of light after an item is taken out.
Spend an Action to activate.
You may withdraw an item from your stash, or add an item that is within arm’s reach to your stash. 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.
Sand blows around David as he dips into the Realms of Death, and a dark, person sized shadow slips from those sands to fill his eyes as black as night.
David in his many travels through Realms of Death, encountered a nameless and sensation starved shade. A ghost, trapped amidst the great sands, that longed to experience life again. The wraith could see echoes of the living world through its reflections in the after and it craved to be able to see again. So David struck a deal with it—in exchange for sharing its longing sight when called for, he would let it possess and share his body. For that brief couple of hours, the wraith could share in his sense of taste, and smell, and touch, and all the other sensations of what it is to be living.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Your senses are enhanced in the following way. Lasts for three hours.
Odd Toddy's skin begins to turn red, their muscles bulge, and their clothes are absorbed into them real nasty-like. Their head splits open and a goat head emerges. It's all really fuggin gross.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Whenever you fail or botch a Trauma or Self-Control roll, you must activate this Effect.
You transform into Goat-Headed Demon for 3 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are Goat-Headed Demon, 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 Brawn is increased by 2 and your Dexterity is increased by 2. Your Stress is reduced by 2.
Your alternate form is its own deadly weapon. Unarmed attacks made in your alternate form deal +3 Weapon Damage (instead of the typical -1).
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see Goat-like head, disgustingly vascular, nude, lacking genitals.
The werewolf unleashes their inner beast, transforming into an imposing hybrid of human and wolf. Their head reforms into that of a wolf, robbing them of speech but bestowing a maw of deadly fangs. Grey fur sprouts from their body as it swells with muscle, ripping any tight-fitting clothes. While transformed, the werewolf is impulsive and driven more by instinct than logic.
If The Werewolf is struck my moonlight, they are compelled to transform.
Exert your Mind and spend a Quick Action.
You transform into a werewolf for 3 minutes. You have access to all of your Powers while you are a werewolf, 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 Brawn is increased by 2 and your Dexterity is increased by 2. You do not suffer any Stress while transformed.
Your alternate form is its own deadly weapon. Unarmed attacks made in your alternate form deal +3 Weapon Damage (instead of the typical -1).
Your alternate form renders you unable to speak any human language and incapable of fine object manipulation. You can only hold or grasp objects in a crude, clumsy way.
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.
While transformed, you automatically fail any Mind roll to resist an impulse and suffer -3 dice on all other Mind rolls.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Whenever you are struck by the light of a full or gibbous moon, you must roll Self-Control to resist transforming. Triggers a max of once per night.
The beastmaster shouts, and their human voice cracks into a deep, bestial roar. Their body swells with muscle, clothes melting into a thick pelt of fur. Seconds later the beastmaster is gone. Standing in their place is a massive grizzly bear.
However, even in human form the beast within remains close to the surface, and the beastmaster finds highly civilized social situations unbearable.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
You transform into a brown bear for two hours or until you choose to end the Effect. See the Extended System text for stats.
While transformed, you cannot use any equipment (including Artifacts and Consumables), and you cannot use your Active, Targeted, or Trap Powers. However, you can use your Passive Powers. Any equipment you are wearing transforms with you.
Injuries and Wound Level are carried over between forms. However, transforming can never kill you; you merely remain Incapacitated until your Injuries are sufficiently healed.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Intolerance for society. When you are in a situation with strict social protocols (like a trial or a formal dinner) roll Self-Control not to enter a flight or fight response.
The Necromancer temporarily assumes the form of their own corpse, complete with maggots, spilled entrails, and exposed bone. They cannot move while transformed, but their empty eye sockets see as well as ever.
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.
The vampire sucks a copious amount of blood from a human and replenishes their own cursed flesh.
Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. This Effect cannot be used unless you drink blood directly from a human until it injures them. Choose a specific Injury on yourself that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Brawn + Occult at Difficulty 6.
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 you drink blood directly from the vein.
The toon shouts a catchphrase, strikes a pose, and then zips away at a high speed, leaving a cloud of dust behind. While moving, they look like a blur.
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.