Cassiopeia has formed an oath with Artemis, and in return, receives protection. She may call on the goddess, and a lesser personification of Artemis materializes to thwart incoming attacks.
On gift conception:
It was a night with a full moon, as she walked along the shores of Miami trying to think of a gift. On a regular night the stars would be nigh invisible from light pollution, but she noticed they were twinkling as brightly as if she were out camping in the wilderness. Suddenly there was a woman standing beside her; any normal person wouldn't bat an eye, but Cassiopeia saw a strange blue aura around her. The woman looked up at the moon and asked if she believed in Artemis. She asked if Cassiopeia would want to join the Hunt. Cassiopeia knew where this was going. She knew what she was in for, and there was one aspect that concerned her the most. Thus, she told the woman, "I would, but only if I can continue to age." There was a long silence, as if Artemis waited for Cassiopeia to change her mind, but after a few hours' long standoff, the goddess was intrigued enough to accept Cassiopeia's terms.
On Artemis' oath:
"I, Cassiopeia, pledge myself to the goddess Artemis. I turn my back on the company of men, accept eternal maidenhood without immortality, and join the hunt."
On semantics:
Cassiopeia has always been wary of wording in agreements, and this one was no different. Did "men" refer to people in general, or just... men?
On romance:
So long as Cassiopeia swears off of romantic love, she will be protected by Artemis. Is it cruel? Cassiopeia can't tell. But she doesn't see it as much of an obstacle because she's lived so long without the need for it.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action or Reaction. Roll Charisma + 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.
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.
Somewhere along the way, something fundamental changed about him. The things that made him human, that made him a person, he began to loose his grasp on them. Maybe it's just what the contracts required, maybe he had such a capacity for malice all along.
Letting his animalistic instincts take over, Goro forces himself into a fight-or-flight response. Adrenaline courses through his veins, his pupils dilating to match. As long as he remains in this state, his body seems to move of the way on it's own, dodging oncoming attacks with relative ease.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Roll Dexterity + Athletics 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.
This Effect is not obvious, and the only sign you are using an Effect is your pupils suddenly dilate. If someone suspects that an Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: Feral - Whenever someone touches you without your express permission, you must roll Self-Control not to violently lash out at them.
The skin begins shifting into the skin/fur/scales of the animal in both texture and colour. At the same time, the body slowly morphs into shape.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
You transform into Go Native or any region-appropriate medium-sized animal 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, Direct, or Trap Powers. However, you can use your Passive Powers. The equipment you are wearing does not transform 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.
When the James activates "Phantom Arsenal," the air around him shimmers with an ethereal glow, and the ghostly figure of his sister appears beside him, her translucent form exuding a serene yet formidable presence. She gestures gracefully, and a swirling vortex of spectral energy materializes, revealing a selection of weapons.
As the James selects a weapon, it solidifies into his hand, glowing with an eerie luminescence and leaving a faint trail of spectral mist with every movement. The sister's ghost remains visible for a few moments longer, offering a silent nod of encouragement before fading back into the shadows
Spend a Quick Action.
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 spectral weapons in your stash, each no larger than something which could fit inside a briefcase (15 liters), and you may store up to 5 of them at a time.
You may choose to equip any equipment you withdraw at no additional cost.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see a ghost.
Leonard surges forward, as his back jerks upwards. In a flurry of mana particles and bloody red, crystalline shards begin to tear themselves free. Soon after, following the emergence of its extensions, the Guardian raises its primary body, in a gruesome display of warping its physical form outside of its host. Almost as if his spine were the entity itself, the Guardian would fully tear itself out his back, arching out its enormous crystalline 'limbs', as it stretches out several meters, taking careful guard behind its host.
The guardian is a mana symbiote long forgotten by history, almost all knowledge having been lost to the careful work of the Sabisians. The rare few scholars that still hold existing records of these beings believe them to long be extinct, lost to mana wars passed long since and the Sabisian incursion.
While in its docile state, the Guardian appears as a crystalline growth connected directly to its hosts nervous system through the spinal cord, easily being visible to the naked eye underneath the skin, alongside visible patches of mana-crystalline material left in patches above the skin containing it. While in its docile form, the guardian remains in a sort of dormant state, co-existing with its host and feeding off of its body.
During its active phase, the Guardian appears to burst out of body of its host. Despite this appearance, this process is all but a trick of the eyes, in reality being no more than an energy transference as the Guardian takes form, leaving behind no actual wounds on the host's body. The crystalline being seen during its active phase is not in reality the entity's true form, that being the crystaline growth located inside the host. Henceforth, destroying the active entity does little but return it back into its primary shell, where it can recover.
In appearance, during the active phase, the Guardian is a large, several meters tall crystalline biomechanical creature. It is composed of a long lanky crystalline 'spine' flanked by long sharpened shards that it uses to strike at the enemy or otherwise carry out its commands. When out of range, it uses a head-like appendage, which it can seemingly use to see, to fire a directed burst of energy.
The Guardian forms a bond with its host during the symbiotic period, carrying out their commands on its own free will, in exchange, the host provides it safety and nutrition.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action to activate.
Summon a single Guardian at your location. They will last until they are destroyed. They are controlled by the GM but will follow any commands you give. You may have at most 1 minion active at a time.
Minions have 6 Body and can make ranged attacks at targets up to 30 feet away with 5 dice to attack and +1 Damage. Your minions can move 20 feet per Round as Free Movement, and double that when performing an all-out Sprint. They cannot dodge or Defend. They have dog-level intelligence, and cannot communicate back to you. Any Perception checks they make are rolled with 8 dice.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see The guardian 'tears' itself out of the hosts back.
Possession of this Artifact causes the following Battle Scar to manifest over the course of a day: Crystalline-mineral growth around the spine. If you lose possession of this Artifact, the Battle Scar heals over the course of the next month.
Invocación 2 esqueletos
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you desaparecen todos los esqueletos.
Summon a single esqueletos at your location. They will last until they are destroyed. They are controlled by the GM but will follow any commands you give. You may have at most 2 minions active at a time.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation or for its duration will almost certainly be disturbed to see revivir muertos.
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.
The aquamancer spends a minute soaking their wounds in at least a gallon of water. During this time, the injured area is obviously absorbing the liquid, and the flesh visibly knits back together.
Exert your Mind and spend 1 minute. You must use up at least a gallon of water in order to activate this Effect. Choose a specific Injury on yourself that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Brawn + Survival 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.
The Thief casts a container's worth of fine powder into the air. The particulates are drawn to any sort of object that is designed to detect people, including tripwires, security cameras, detection lasers, heat sensors, etc. The powder will not trigger these devices or interfere with their operation, but it does reveal their presence to the Thief.
The cloud drifts and swirls, subtly following the Thief for a minute.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. You must use up a container of fine powder in order to activate this Effect.
You automatically detect all object that are designed to detect people, including tripwires, security cameras, detection lasers, heat sensors, etc 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.
Any successful musician knows the value of a good roadie. The musician calls for a roadie, and one will promptly arrive. The roadie doesn't talk much, and they aren't too bright, but they can sure haul gear.
After a couple hours of work, the roadie will retire to smoke and get some sleep.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
Summon a single Sapient roadie 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.
You may only use this Effect once per day.
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 Ninja is a master at blending in to any crowd or organization. If they can find complete privacy, they may channel their ninjutsu to temporarily create the illusion of any outfit or uniform they desire. The new clothes shimmer into existence over their existing garb over the course of a minute of meditation.
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.