Thief of Essence “You thought you were unique”

2
Requires Seasoned
The power to afflict a target with a debilitating illness, poison, or malady of some kind.
Used by Patrick Oneal, Created by jwesley123.
(Activating this Effect is not obvious. The only sign you are using an Effect is Patrick snaps his fingers. )

Patrick O’Neal’s leprechaun blood has always whispered to him about the essence of others—the spark that makes them special. Now, his connection to the mystical world has sharpened into a sinister ability: the power to strip away that spark entirely.

When Patrick snaps his fingers, a shimmering golden thread, invisible to most, coils from his target to him. It pulses as he steals what makes them extraordinary, leaving them hollow and utterly ordinary. To the victim, the transformation begins as a growing sense of discomfort, their body feeling heavier, weaker, more mundane. Within hours, they realize their unique traits—their speed, their charm, their brilliance—are slipping away like water through their fingers.

This affliction isn’t merely a theft; it’s a contagion. Those who touch the afflicted find themselves slowly drained of their own spark, creating a ripple of mundanity that could decimate a community. The only way to undo it is through an act of desperation: ending another life to reclaim what was lost.

Patrick doesn’t just take their uniqueness—he feels it, reveling in the thrill of his theft. To him, their spark is a fleeting taste of something forbidden, fueling his own ambitions for greatness. He has learned that everyone, no matter how unique, is vulnerable to his reach. In his mind, he’s not just a thief; he’s a reclaimer, a force of balance in a world of overpowered fools.

This power reinforces Patrick’s cunning, greed, and the darker side of his leprechaun blood. It ties his thievery directly to his mystical heritage and makes him a truly terrifying opponent.

Only effects passive effects from physiology, and doesn’t reduce character abilities or stats to below what they would be as a mundane

1. Loss of Gifts: Any supernatural or extraordinary powers are suppressed, leaving the target without access to their abilities. This includes:
• innate talents from not being a normal human
• Enhanced physical traits from not being a normal human (e.g., super strength, speed, or durability).
• Innate resistances from not being a normal human(e.g., immunity to poisons, diseases, or environmental effects).

2. Stat Changes:
• Body: Drops to the average human range (typically 2).
• Dexterity and Brawn: Lowered to average human capacity.
• Intellect and Charisma: Extraordinary mental or social capabilities fade, leaving the target as unremarkable as an average person.


Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Living target within 25 feet. Roll Dexterity + Thievery at Difficulty 6. Your target may resist by rolling Body at Difficulty 7.

If you succeed, the target is afflicted with a Condition that causes one of the following symptoms:

  • Assimilate: Over the next day, the target transforms into a Normal human. If they are not cured within their Body score in days, the change is permanent. The Conditions of being a Normal human are detailed in this Gift's Extended Description.
Symptoms begin to appear immediately, and will remain and continue to worsen until the affliction is cured. The affliction is contagious and will spread to new targets. Anyone who comes into direct contact an afflicted individual of the same species must roll Body, Difficulty 8. If they fail, they become afflicted. Otherwise, they are immune to the spread.

The affliction is not treatable by modern medicine. It may be diagnosed by rolling Intellect + Occult at Difficulty 9, and can be cured by Find a Four Leaf Clover. Gifts or supernatural Effects and Powers which would cure or prevent this affliction do not cure or prevent it, but instead offer a clear diagnosis and provide information regarding the method of treatment without requiring a diagnosis roll.

This Effect is not obvious, and the only sign you are using an Effect is Patrick snaps his fingers. If someone suspects that an Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.

You may only use this Effect once per day.

  • Assimilate: Changes can dramatically affect the target’s lifestyle, metabolism, appearance, urges, etc. Benefits from the transformation should be clearly outweighed by its drawbacks. The new form’s Conditions must be detailed in the Extended Description and are subject to Playgroup Leader Approval.
  • Successfully diagnosing an affliction also includes information about the treatment method.
  • The chosen method of treatment must be something that you could obtain in a small town given an afternoon.
  • Curing an affliction removes the Condition, but does not automatically heal any Injuries, Battle Scars, or Traumas which may have been caused by that condition.
  • This Effect’s symptoms do not stack with themselves on multiple applications.
  • 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.

Community Targeted Gifts

“The origins of these powers be damned. I don’t care what man , god or demon these powers are from. I will use them to help the people I love!”

Exert your Mind and spend 2 Actions. Select a Living, Animate, or Dead target within arm's reach. Choose a specific Injury on your target that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Charisma + Influence 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 you begin healing an Injury on a target that has been dead for less than a minute, and your healing reduces their Wound Level to a non-lethal level, their life is restored.

  • Unstabilized wounds do not degenerate during treatment.
  • 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.

Another facet of "Wisdom's Embrace" is the ability to mend scars and deformities along the body. By having the user focus on the nature of those scars, they may unravel and reform them into normal wounds that will heal naturally. This impartation of knowledge onto the patients body helps it recovery normally instead of scarring the body due to lack of response by the patient's natural healing abilities.

Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Select a Living or Animate target within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use a stethoscope to activate this Effect. Select up to four Battle Scars on your target to treat.

The treated Battle Scars heals as you finish activating this Effect. If used on a Battle Scar caused by an Unstabilized Injury, that Injury is Stabilized.

You cannot re-attempt to treat the same Battle Scar more than once a month. Your patient is required to not expose themself to an environment with tempatures greater than 80 degrees. for the next month. If they violate this rule, your treatment is immediately reversed.

You may choose to spend an Action activating this Effect instead of the normal cast time. If you do, the Battle Scar only remains healed for one day, after which it reverts to its original state.

Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Atrophied Legs.

  • The patient is aware of the after-care requirement.
  • 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 a minute. Select a Device within arm's reach. Can be used on Alien technology. Can be used on Armor.

Lasts the next day. Your target receives 3 extra dice to all actions taken for its intended use. Attacking with an upgraded weapon grants +3 Weapon Damage instead of additional dice. If it is a piece of Armor, it instead receives half that amount as bonus armor rating, rounded up. If an upgraded shield and armor are both worn, the upgrade bonus does not stack with itself.

Upgraded weapons count as any material your opponent might be particularly vulnerable to. Upgraded Armor cannot be circumvented by called shots. Upgraded Devices do not run out of fuel or energy.

You may choose a second valid Device target while activating this Effect and splice both targets into a single new Device. The newly created item has the same size as the larger of the two initial targets, and can be used to perform the same actions as either of the original items. It receives 3 to those actions for the next day.

  • Upgrading Alien Devices does not add bonus dice to any rolls related to the Device’s passive or activated Effects.
  • After the effect ends, spliced items become un-spliced and return to being separate items.
  • Reminder: additional Weapon Damage granted by this Effect does not stack with any other bonus to Weapon Damage. Instead the largest bonus is used. The same is true for extra dice.
  • Extra dice from this Effect do not apply to Gift activation rolls.
  • 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.

On the usage:
Contact with any skin works, so Delphyrion tends to hold it with a glove. At some point they were using it as a paperweight, only for it to activate when they tried to move it. Soaked documents were not fun to replace, but thank goodness there weren't any water-reactive chemicals exposed. Delphyrion also intended to use this artifact as a hand warmer or cooler during winters and summers respectively, but their indecisiveness led to the artifact being both warm and cool.

On the shape:
Delphyrion has no idea why this artifact is so unwieldy, nor why it resembles an ice cube. Its raindrop shape means it doesn't stand up properly most of the time, though thank goodness it doesn't roll off tables. They haven't tested the durability, but they'd rather not risk unleashing any magical leakage on the world yet.

On dihydrogen monoxide:
Portable water is always useful especially when traveling by plane, though at some point people have started to think that Delphyrion is carrying an extremely deadly poison called dihydrogen monoxide. Often they decide to play into this, though it has gotten them into trouble at the airport. Thankfully the officers always wear gloves when inspecting it, so they end up concluding that it's simply a big blob of glass and that Delphyrion is onto nothing. How dare people call them a charlatan!

On impracticality:
Normally people tend to choose more immediately useful gifts, perhaps for healing or damage. Delphyrion, upon being asked about what power they'd need, was thinking about the amount of times they'd wished it was raining outside. It isn't for work-related reasons; clear days are much better for outdoor experiments and camera exposure. In fact the extra moisture would mess up certain reactions instead. Basically, Delphyrion sometimes wants it to rain so they could sit by the window with a book and a warm beaker of tea to romanticize life. It is a little odd to do so in a lab, not to mention they haven't needed rain in their contracts so far.
However, everything Delphyrion does is inefficient anyway; what's one more inconvenience?
At least they are now saved from a long and grueling trip to the sink.

Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Location within 60 feet of you. Choose a 3-D shape that will define the borders of your Effect.

You create a zone of rain in the chosen shape, originating at the chosen Location, with a radius of 60 feet. and lasting for 5 minutes. The area inside your zone is affected in any number of the following ways:

  • Slippery: All movement distances are halved within the zone. Anyone who wishes to move further than their Free Movement within a Round must roll Dexterity + Athletics. If they fail, their movement is limited to their Free Movement and they fall down.
  • Suppressed Hearing: The zone is rendered completely silent. No one inside of the zone can hear any meaningful sound, and no meaningful sound escapes the zone. Rolls that rely on hearing fail automatically, and rolls that benefit from hearing are at -3 dice.
The zone expands immediately to its full size from the chosen Location, but will be stopped from spreading in a particular direction by any barriers or cover, and can only fit through openings large enough to fit a grown adult. If a new opening appears while the Effect is still active, it will finish spreading in that direction.

  • If you select a location at the edge of your range, you will be just outside the zone once the Effect is activated
  • 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.

The mists whisper to the bearer constantly, inspiring some degree of paranoia. The humidity doesn't help scents, either.

Spend an Action. Select a Object or Animate target up to 100 feet away.

Targets are pushed back until they are 100 feet away or pulled towards you until they are right next to you.

This Effect cannot move anything heavier than 500 pounds.

Affected targets may use a Reaction and roll Dexterity or Brawn + Athletics to hold on to a nearby anchor, if available. A complete success increases their effective weight by whatever they hold onto.

Pushing a target straight upward requires you to be directly beneath them and halves the range. GM’s may ask for a Dexterity + Athletics roll when repositioning yourself around a target to get a desired angle. They may React to reposition or anchor themselves as normal.

You may select up to 3 targets each time you activate this Effect.

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

Anyone who touches this Artifact will notice it warping their body and may drop it. If they choose to hold or use it, they immediately receive the following Battle Scar: Weak Stomach. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Battle Scar heals over the course of the next day.

Anyone who touches this Artifact will notice it warping their mind and may drop it. If they choose to hold or use it, they immediately receive the following Trauma: Paranoia. If they lose possession of this Artifact, the Trauma heals over the course of the next day.

  • Your target must be within line of sight, or within range of another sense if more fitting for the Gift's flavor.

Stock Targeted Gifts

Exert your Mind and spend an Action or Reaction. Select a Animate target within 20 feet. This Effect cannot be used unless the target is a living human. Roll a single d10, Difficulty 4. If you fail or botch, the Effect fails and you cannot activate it again for an hour. Roll Charisma + Occult at Difficulty 6.

If you succeed, you create a barrier around your target, which absorbs the next Outcome +2 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.

This Effect is not obvious, and the only sign you are using an Effect is you whispering a prayer under your breath. If someone suspects that an Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.

  • If this Effect fails due to the Unreliable check, you must still pay any associated activation costs.
  • Effects which circumvent Armor completely also circumvent your barrier.
  • 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 a minute. Investigate an area with a radius of up to 100 feet Can only be activated while you are in the wilderness. At the end of your investigation, roll Perception + Survival at Difficulty 6.

You learn the following information about the area:

  • You can tell which entities lay claim to each part of the area and how these borders have shifted over time.
  • You learn where exactly creatures and people live within the area, and what sorts of creatures they are.
The quality and specificity of information gained depends on your Outcome.

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

  • 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. Select a Non-Alien, Non-Sapient, Animate target within 20 feet. This Effect cannot be used unless the target is undead.

For the next day, you may issue specific commands to your target which they will be compelled to follow.

Your commands must be relatively simple and within the target’s intellectual grasp. You cannot make them obviously endanger themselves or violate their instinct for self-preservation. The effects of the command will fade after a day has passed.

  • Your commands must be directly communicated to your target in some way, though this does not require a shared language.
  • If targeting a Sapient target that counts as a Creature due to an Effect, you must succeed a contested Mind roll. You roll at Difficulty 6, and the target rolls at Difficulty 8.
  • Targets with Body ratings higher than 10 require a Charisma + Animals roll resisted by the target’s Body. Kaiju and environment-scale targets are immune.
  • 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.

Increase your sacrificial Injury's Severity by 1 and spend one minute. Select a Dead target within arm's reach that has died within the last hour. This Effect cannot be used unless you drained the target's blood while they were still alive.

Your target rises as an Animate being. The raised creature is totally mindless, with no memory of its past life or hint of its old personality. They cannot communicate. They will follow any command you speak.

The creature lasts until it dies again. It is revived at full health. Any Injuries it had in life are not accounted for when determining its penalties or progression towards re-death, though they may affect its ability to perform certain actions at GM's discretion. The raised creature must consume flesh every day or it will die again.

Raised creatures have their Abilities set to the same that they were in life. Their Charisma and Intellect are set to 1, but their Dexterity, Brawn and Perception are the same as they had in life. A raised creature cannot use any Effects.

Your revived targets deal 2 Weapon Damage with their unarmed attacks.

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

  • The creature will die at the end of any 24 hour period gone without consuming their specified diet, and it is important that this growing desperation is reflected in how they are roleplayed.
  • The sacrificial Injury received from activating this Effect cannot be prevented by any means or healed before 1 day has passed. It is shared with all Effects that use sacrifice. This Injury does not requires Stabilization or cause Battle Scars when it becomes Severe.
  • 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 one minute. Select a Living target within 25 feet. This Effect cannot be used unless the target deserves it. Roll Charisma + Occult at Difficulty 6. Your target may resist by rolling Body at Difficulty 7.

If you succeed, the target is afflicted with a Condition that causes one of the following symptoms:

  • Gross: The target exhibits significant and obvious signs of illness, making them into a social pariah. They will be shunned in public places, and take a -2 penalty to all social actions, which grows by -1 every hour until it reaches your Outcome.
  • Poisoned: The target gains a Severity-1 Injury which ignores Armor and doesn’t heal naturally. For every hour that passes, they receive a new identical Injury. If this new Injury would kill them, they roll 1d10 at Difficulty 6. Success cures the condition; otherwise, they will die.
Symptoms begin to appear immediately, and will remain and continue to worsen until the affliction is cured. The affliction is not contagious and will not spread to others.

The affliction is not treatable by modern medicine. It may be diagnosed by rolling Intellect + Occult at Difficulty 6, and can be cured by bathing fully in clear running water.

This Effect is not obvious, and the only sign you are using an Effect is you staring at the target, speaking calmly. If someone suspects that an Effect was used, they must roll Perception + Alertness, Difficulty 8 to pick up on your Tell.

  • Successfully diagnosing an affliction also includes information about the treatment method.
  • The chosen method of treatment must be something that you could obtain in a small town given an afternoon.
  • Curing an affliction removes the Condition, but does not automatically heal any Injuries, Battle Scars, or Traumas which may have been caused by that condition.
  • This Effect’s symptoms do not stack with themselves on multiple applications.
  • 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.