Charlatans

You gain the following benefits as long as you are wearing this Artifact and you are engaged in unarmed combat.

+2 dice to rolls for Attacking, Defending, and Clashing without a weapon. Unarmed attacks do +4 Weapon Damage (instead of -1).

You may Defend against melee, projectile, or firearm Attacks from any range and Clash with those in range of your Attacks. Attacking materials like steel or spikes will not Damage you unless it has an Effect that does so.

You also gain the following effects:

• Shredder: If you successfully hit your target, the value of any Armor they are wearing is reduced by 2. For material armor, this penalty lasts until it is repaired. For intrinsic armor, it lasts until the end of Combat and any relevant wound is healed.

This Artifact cannot be broken. If this Artifact is lost and in no one else’s possession, it finds its way back to its true owner during the next Downtime.

By default, the creator of this Artifact is its true owner. The true owner may formally bequeath this Artifact onto another person within arm’s reach, after which they are its true owner. If the true owner dies or is destroyed, their ownership ends. If this Artifact has no true owner, anyone may spend one day attuning to it to become its true owner.

A magical entity or being cannot hold or use this Artifact. They take a Severity 1 Injury each Round they touch or possess of the Artifact. It cannot be prevented or healed by any means until one day after they relinquish possession.

This Artifact's true owner is always aware of the direction and distance to this Artifact.

Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend an Action. Roll a single D10 as a critical failure check. If you roll a 1, the Effect fails, and you a ball of useless grey goo appear and a slime that speaks nothing but unneccesary talking, LOUDLY.

Summon the one and only Sapient Slime-Bat at your location. They last until they are destroyed They are controlled by you. This Artifact 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 5 dice to dodge, Grapple, or make Sword Attacks. Their unarmed Attacks have 50 feet of range and deal +2 Damage.
• Body/Mind: Minions have 7 Body. They are roughly the size of a horse. Your minions roll 7 Mind resistance dice.
• Armor: Minions have 1 Armor.
• Movement: Minions can move 35 feet per Round as Free Movement and double that when performing an all-out Sprint. Your minions can fly at their normal movement speed.
• Intelligence: Minions have human-level intelligence and can speak your language. They lack manual dexterity and cannot use equipment, Artifacts, or Consumables designed for humans.
• Actions: Any Perception checks they make are rolled with 4 dice. Any other roll is made with 4 dice. They can lift and haul as though they have 7 Brawn. Riders' weight counts half for encumbrance.
• Powers: Your companion can Exert their Mind using your Mind and spend your Source.
• Unusual: Minions are obviously Alien to any observer.

You may end this Effect prematurely as a Free Action.

If killed, you cannot re-summon your minion until after your next Contract.

If you do not have a sacrificial Injury when you activate this Effect, take a new Severity-1 Injury.

Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Select a target Object within arm's reach. This Effect cannot be used unless Advanced Analysis is active. 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. At the end of your investigation, roll Intellect + Investigation ( dice) at Difficulty 6.

You learn all the following information about your target:

• Determine if this target is Alien in origin or whether it has any Alien energy or outside influences. You receive information about the type of energy, including the name of the relevant Source pool or equivalent. You determine the effect of any active Alien energy detected, and you get an idea as to the sorts of ways that latent Alien energy may be channeled by the target.
• You receive a visual description of the surrounding area, allowing you to discern where this object has recently been.
• You receive a visual description telling you who has used this object recently.
• You may learn how much sentimental value an object has and to whom.

You cannot investigate the same target more than once per day.

Spend 2 Actions. Investigate an area with a radius of up to 100 feet You must use up mirror in order to activate this Effect. At the end of your investigation, roll Intellect + Occult ( dice) at Difficulty 6.

You learn the following information about the area:

• You can locate the source of any Alien energy or the presence of any Alien effects on the area. Specific information about the function of these effects beyond their general type is not forthcoming.
• You learn how heavily trafficked the area is, what sorts of Animate beings have moved through the area and when.

This Gift cannot have more than 3 Drawbacks, and its Gift Cost is capped at 1.

You cannot investigate the same area more than once per day.

Spend an Action.

You may lock, unlock, and/or open any number of doors, containers, knots, or locks within arm's reach of you. Cannot be used on Alien technology.

If you successfully operate a lock, you may choose to destroy it, rendering it inoperable.

This Artifact can be used as a sword / axe. It is roughly the same size as a sword / axe and just as difficult to conceal.

Attack by rolling Brawn + Melee, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +4 Weapon Damage.

You also gain the following effects:

• Mjolnir: You may call your weapon back to your hand as a Quick Action if it is within 50 feet of you. Can only be used on melee weapon that you have wielded in the past hour.
• Shredder: If you successfully hit your target, the value of any Armor they are wearing is reduced by 2. For material armor, this penalty lasts until it is repaired. For intrinsic armor, it lasts until the end of Combat and any relevant wound is healed.

This Artifact can change its appearance. When not transformed, it is roughly the same size as a passport but can be collapsed into a wallet and concealed. Collapsing or expanding it costs a Quick Action.

Spend a Quick Action to activate. This Artifact changes its appearance into a chosen Object. This lasts until you decide to end the Effect, which may be done as a Free Action.

The new object's appearance can mimic specific items (such as a particular painting, a certain person’s ID, etc), but must be of a similar size and weight to this Artifact.

The new appearance is illusory; it will hold up to scrutiny, but its composition is not altered and it gains no new functionality. Any attempt to use it for a function which it cannot perform (for instance, making bread look like a knife and then trying to stab someone) will cause the illusion to fail or allow a Perception check to see through the illusion, at the GM's discretion.

When used as identification and scanned, the scanner will act appropriately and bring up appropriate generic information. Further searches for the identity in the computer will turn up no results. This will not open security doors on its own.

This Artifact can be used as a bow. It is roughly at least twice as large as a bow and cannot be concealed on your person or disassembled for storage.

Attack by rolling Dexterity + Athletics, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +3 Weapon Damage. Attacks do not require a successful called shot to do damage.

You also gain the following effects:

• Infinite Ammo: This weapon never runs out of its standard ammunition.
• Leave No Trace: Your projectiles crumble or vanish after impact, leaving no meaningful trace of your assault beyond the wounds they leave. If your attack would kill or incapacitate your target, they make no sound, even incidentally, for the next Round.

This Artifact produces ephemeral projectiles that can be used as a javelin.

Attack by rolling Brawn + Athletics, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal Contested Outcome +3 Weapon Damage.

You also gain the following effects:

• Chain Lightning: You may Exert your Mind to perform a chain lightning attack. If your attack succeeds, All targets within 5 feet of your primary target take full Damage. The Damage can “jump” up to 5 times. Each target can be hit only once.
• Magic Quiver: Instead of throwing this Artifact, it is an object that produces an endless supply of temporary throwable objects. For example, bracers that allow you to throw ethereal javelins, or a sack of throwing rocks that doesn’t shrink when you withdraw one.