A cold blue-green glow pulses faintly within your bones, flickering like dying embers in the dark. When you move, the light shifts and flows through your joints like spectral fire, casting unnatural shadows. The air around you hums with an eerie presence—distant whispers coil at the edge of perception, restless and filled with sorrow. They are the voices of the lost, fragments of lives that ended long before yours began. Whether they seek to guide you or drag you down with them, you do not yet know.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
You are permanently and visibly transformed: Skeleton. You are considered to be a Sapient, Non-Living being when targeted. Your Brawn is increased by 1, your Dexterity is increased by 1, and your Perception is increased by 1.
No single organ in your body is critical for life. Called Shots do no additional Damage to you. You may perceive the world through separated body parts, take Actions with them, and reattach them by spending an Action and Exerting your Mind.
Your Injuries no longer degrade with time. You do not age naturally, and supernatural attempts to age you fail.
Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: Skeleton atair (Disfigured).
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: The dream of the Dead (Nightmares).
The Severity of any Injury caused by Holy Magic or Holy forged Weapons is increased by 2.
When Jessica focuses, a portal materializes before her, swirling with an eerie glow of purples, pinks, and blues, frosted light crystalizing around the edges of the portal and geometric fractals opening upon themselves as seen through it. The light from the portal triggers brief, unsettling visual hallucinations of impending doom for those nearby. The portal itself bends spacetime, allowing Jessica to travel vast distances instantaneously, slipping through the fabric of reality with a single step.
Activation of the Chromatic Nexus triggers the "Monsters" limit, suffusing the area with an otherworldly, prismatic glow that unsettles the mind and warps perception and reality, evoking the cosmic horror of colors beyond mortal perception: for Jessica's character concept, crystalline light is an independent alien intelligence (Inspired by "The Color of Madness" from Darkest Dungeon, Remiel from Neon Genesis Evangelion, and "The Colour Out of Space" by H.P. Lovecraft).
Exert your Mind and spend 2 Actions. Select a Location within your line of sight. 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.
You are transported directly to the chosen Location. Anyone who is touching you as you Travel will be brought along with you. You must wait 1 full Round before activating this Effect again.
If you traverse any highway section for one minute, you may activate this Effect and travel to the edge of any other highway section that you’re aware of, regardless of range.
Anyone who witnesses you during this Effect's activation will almost certainly be disturbed to see a portal opens bathing the entire area in an unearthly, arcane glow of sickly purple that induces a strong feeling of doom (triggers "Monsters" - see Extended Description).
He’s pretty charming!
You gain the following benefits as long as You must be able to remember the teachings of the important joke book..
Your Charisma rating is increased by 1. You may Exert your Mind to automatically gain an Outcome of 5 on any roll that uses Charisma (Cannot be used on combat rolls or Power activations).
You also gain the following effects:
The Soldier has spent a healthy ten thousand hours training with the weapons of their military. They are deadly when wielding any firearm made in their home country. Drawing their standard issue at the start of a confrontation is pure reflex, and they may plan their shots to deal collateral damage to those behind their target.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are standing and engaged in combat with firearms.
+2 dice to all firearms rolls.
You also gain the following effects:
Exert your Mind and spend an Action.
You transform into Water for the next minute. You may end the effect early and return to your normal form at will. Your structure must remain relatively contiguous. Observers will view you as an unusual entity moving with a singular purpose.
While in this form, you can squeeze through any gap that is not water-tight.
Damage from standard attacks is halved, but Damage from AOE effects is increased by 1.
You cannot communicate, use equipment, or use Gifts while transformed. Your equipment does not transform with you beyond basic body coverings. Carrying capacity is unaffected.
While transformed, you can make an unarmed attack using Body as your attack roll. The target may contest by dodging or Defending. This attack deals +2 damage.
You may turn this Effect on and off at will during its duration.
Possession of this Power grants the following Battle Scar: part of Shlii turns into water permanently.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: She starts to slowly lose her sanity.
When Rocco makes a deal, the air tightens, and a weight settles in—like a hand on your shoulder, reminding you that promises in this family ain’t just words.
You may make an oath with a physically-present, Sapient target. Communicate the oath's terms to the target, including the requirements and penalties for each participant. If all agree to the terms, you must Exert your Mind and all participants must A Handshake to seal the deal.
Record the oath as a Condition. If a party breaks the oath, the Condition ends and they suffer the oath's penalty.
When crafting your oath, you may incorporate any of the following penalties:
The target cannot be compelled to agree via a direct threat of violence, another Effect, or another oath. If you would like to use clever wording to mislead the target, you must succeed a contested Intellect + (Culture or Influence) roll.
When crafting your oath, you may opt to enforce compliance. If you do, any participant that wishes to break the deal must take 3 Mind damage and succeed a Self-Control roll. They may attempt once per day.
Whenever a participant breaks the oath, you are immediately made aware and may even witness the act as if standing nearby.
The same terms and penalties must apply to every party in each deal.
Possession of this Power grants the following Trauma at all times: A Criminals past (Nightmares).
The witch knows bad things happen to bad people. By bringing attention to a karmic imbalance, she can hurry it along, causing her target's bad luck to catch up with them. The target finds themselves suffering injuries due to freakishly bad luck until they cleanse themselves or perish.
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:
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.
Perform the Five Point Technique via a series of quick pressure point hits on the target’s chest. As you do, channel your chi and speak a condition involving the number five. If the target cannot stop you from performing the technique, their heart will take a direct hit when they fulfill the chosen condition.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Living target within arm's reach. Roll Dexterity + Brawl Difficulty 6. The target may contest by rolling Body, Difficulty 6.
If the Contested Outcome is positive, the target takes that much Damage plus 2. 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.
The Ninja is so attuned to the sounds of their surroundings, they may focus their mind to "see" using the subtle acoustic vibrations.
You gain the following benefits at all times.
Your senses are enhanced in the following way.
The ninja is a master of a wide variety of martial weapons. They kill quickly and quietly.
You gain the following benefits as long as you are engaged in combat with melee ninja weapons.
+2 dice to all rolls with melee ninja weapons. You may Defend against firearm attacks from any range using melee ninja weapons.
You also gain the following effects:
The Psychic can speak directly into someone's mind, engaging in an entirely telepathic conversation. While they do, they take on a blank, vacant stare in the direction of their target, and appear to be muttering gibberish to themselves under their breath.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a target any distance away from you. You must have a specific target in mind, but you require only an intuitive understanding of them, such as their name, face, or Location. This Effect cannot be used unless you can see your target.
You open up a line of communication to your target, and may converse with them as long as one of you maintains Concentration
The conversation will only be perceived by the intended recipient. You must share a common language for your target to understand the message.