Expanded Endowments

Expansions to existing Endowments.

## Advanced Armory

### Loki Flicker (\*\* or \*\*\*\*)

There are certain stimuli that humans respond to in different ways than aliens. A human responds with terror when presented with infrasound; while an alien might simply ignore it or be fascinated by it. Humans suffer migranes and seizures when presented with a strobe, but an alien might find it soothing. Originally developed by research into less-lethal crowd control devices, the Loki Flicker is combination of a DVD player, a multi-sensory projection machine, and advanced microexpression-reading software. Anyone within sensory range of the device feels some minor emotion (requiring a Composure+Subterfuge roll to remain hidden, opposed by the Wits+Empathy of anyone watching; the Loki Flicker itself rolls four dice), but this is easily ignored. That's not the point, though.

The point is that not everyone is affected by the stimulus equally (though it still generates enough false positives that it's cause for suspicion instead of action). While the "default" Loki Flicker disks produce a scatter of subsonics, dim flashes, and mild odors to flush out anything with nonhuman instincts, some agents have created their own that produce subliminal occult images in order to find witches, ultraviolet light to find hematophages, or recordings of spirit-speech to find shapeshifters. TF:V policy frowns on this; anyone who rolls five successes on Wits+Composure when present or playing back a recording will notice the Flicker, and TF:V is not in the habit of distributing the occult secrets that might become the basis of the next cult. But there's no denying that it is useful.

The four-dot version is the riot-control device that the Flicker was originally meant to be. No roll is needed to notice it, since it's meant to be overwhelming instead of subliminal. The Composure+Subterfuge roll is made at a -3 penalty, and inflicts the Shaken or Spooked Condition on anyone who does not roll an Exceptional Success. Anyone who rolls a Dramatic Failure must spend a Willpower point or flee the area.

### Skadi Pulse (\*\*\*, Renewable)

The Skadi Pulse is an electromagnetic pulse device, wrapped in layers of hand-forged iron, salt, silver, and gold, and according to some accounts blessed by a chaplain. When used, the supernatural equivalent of an EMP hits everything within 30 yards. Any supernatural effect that is technological in nature must score three successes on a Clash of Wills roll or instantly fail; this does not apply to characters that are themselves both technological and supernatural, such as alien bodies or angels of the God-Machine. For the rest of the scene, any new supernatural effects that are technological in nature must attempt this check when they start. Candidates for this include: Magical spells that affect technology, alien tech, any Numen used by an angel, any Dread Power that represents a machine, any power used by a being that is strongly tied to the concept of "machines".

This is renewed once per story.

## Benediction

### The Flaming Tongues

One of the more useful miracles granted to the Apostles was the ability to speak and be understood regardless of language. This allowed the Gospel to be shared with all tribes and all nations, and contributed to the spread of Christianity. As such, the Shadow Congregation put great effort into rediscovering the secret.

**Cost:** None.

**Action:** Reflexive. The Flaming Tongues supplements an attempt at verbal communication.

**Roll:** Presence+Benediction

**Modifiers:** The hunter is speaking for the sole purpose of spreading the Catholic message (+3). The Benediction is used during Pentecost (+5). The hunter is not speaking for evangelistic purposes (-2). The hunter is speaking to a being that does not speak any living human language, such as a spirit (-2).

**Dramatic Failure:** The hunter is stripped of the ability to use or understand any form of language more complicated than pointing and grunting.

**Failure:** The Benediction fails to activate.

**Success:** For the rest of the scene, the hunter automatically understands all languages, and anyone who hears her will understand her speech in their own native language. Concepts that cannot be expressed in any language known to the listener are not translated, nor is technical jargon that the listener would not normally possess the skills to understand. Written communication is only comprehensible for the duration of the Benediction, after which it reverts to the writer's native language (or gibberish if the writer's native language does not have a written form).

**Exceptional Success:** In addition to the effects of a success, a tongue of heatless and fuelless flame appears above the hunter's head for the rest of the scene or until the hunter takes violent action, whichever comes first. Any creature that can see the flame must succeed on a Resolve+Composure roll in order to take any violent action.

## Castigation

### Music of the Spheres

"Great Grandfather" was, according to some sources, the Angel of Music before he fell. And what music could be more beautiful than that produced by the crystal spheres that surround the Earth and guide the stars? (Yes, most Lucifuge know that's an outdated theory. But it still seems to work, at least for this.) In other sources, the former Angel of Music is fond of musical contests; usually with fiddles at a crossroads. In still others, his voice is so beautiful that anyone hearing it will immediately begin worshiping him.

The Lady of Milan has forbidden the Children of the Seventh Generation from using Castigations based on the last of those, but fortunately this Castigation is a watered-down version of hellish glory. To use this Castigation, the hunter must make some sort of musical performance: pipe organs and fiddles are traditional, but a Lucifuge can do anything musical: tap-dancing, rap, banjos, and even whistling have all been used at various points.

**Cost:** 1 Willpower

**Action:** Instant. May be contested; see below.

**Dice Pool:** Presence+Expression. An opponent aware of this effect may attempt to contest it with the same roll, even if that opponent does not know the Castigation or even recognize it as infernal in nature. If the Music of the Spheres is contested, both characters roll each turn; otherwise, the hunter only rolls when first activating the Castigation and the roll result stands.

**Modifiers:** The hunter is playing a fiddle or a pipe-organ, or has an applicable Specialty in Heavy Metal (+3). The hunter is backed by an orchestra of at least 50 performers (+3). The hunter is backed by a chorus or band of at least 10 people (+2). The hunter is backed by a quartet (+1). The hunter has no instrument, and is using voice alone (-1). The hunter has no instrument and cannot sing (-2). The hunter is deaf (-3).

**Dramatic Failure:** The hunter produces a grating cacophony. Anyone who can hear the performance must succeed on a Resolve+Composure roll or make their displeasure known in the most immediate way possible.

**Failure:** The music has its normal effects, but nothing supernatural happens.

**Success:** The hunter produces music so beautiful that anyone who can hear it is moved to tears. Anyone who can hear the music must score more successes than the hunter did on a Resolve+Composure roll or spend a Willpower point to do anything other than listen and follow the hunter; this effect lasts for as long as the hunter spends her Instant action each turn continuing to perform, but paying the cost leaves a character immune to the effect for the remainder of the scene.

This Castigation has a particular effect on aliens that fail to resist it. Anything that is not from Earth becomes unable to deny its nature: any attempts at resisting inhuman urges or breaking point rolls caused by ignoring such desires are reduced to a chance die. This secondary effect lasts for the rest of the chapter.

**Exceptional Success:** In addition to the usual effects of the Castigation, the hunter may apply an emotional Condition, such as Inspired, Swooning, or Spooked (or appropriate versions of Resonant), to the entire audience. Any member of the audience may resist this effect by gaining more successes than the hunter on a Resolve+Composure roll or spending a point of Willpower.

## Elixir

### Someone Else's Sandals (\*\*)

More than once, the Cult of the Phoenix has needed to get into the head of someone else. They have needed to predict an enemy's actions, determine how best to break a captive, or work out how to find a target. Various preparations of this Elixir exist, with potential components including LSD, hashish, or the sap of certain trees. Whatever formula is used, though, one component does not change: enough of the target's blood to inflict one health level of Lethal damage.

**Dramatic Failure:** The hunter hallucinates vividly for the rest of the chapter. In addition, he risks the usual results of drinking blood: bloodborne illnesses, blood bonds, and so forth. Aliens in particular are a problem for this; many aliens have toxic or corrosive biochemistry, and inflict damage as a Toxicity 3 lethal or aggravated poison.

**Failure:** The hunter suffers a -2 penalty to all actions for the remainder of the scene from mild hallucinations.

**Success:** The hunter gets into the target's mindset, and can try to predict the target's actions. The hunter may ask one of the following questions per success:

* What is the target's Integrity-equivalent and current rating?
* Would [proposed action] be a breaking point for the target, and if so, at what bonus or penalty?
* What is the target's Virtue or Vice (or equivalent, such as Mask or Dirge)?
* What is the target currently feeling, in general terms (fear, anger, joy)?
* What, in general terms (murder, theft, witnessing the supernatural), was the last breaking point the target suffered?

However, the hunter suffers a drawback from getting into someone else's thought patterns. Any purely psychological Conditions or Tilts, such as Madness, Insensate, or Swooning, affecting the target immediately affect the hunter until he manages to resolve them normally. He gains Beats as normal from them.

**Exceptional Success:** The hunter not only gets into the target's mindset, but sees through the target's eyes. The hunter adds the following to the list of questions:

* What is the target doing right now?
* Where is the target right now?
* Is the target currently acting on an Aspiration?
* What specifically was the last breaking point the target suffered?
* If I met the target right now and [proposed action], what response would I get?
* Does the target know that [proposed piece of knowledge]?

In addition to the drawback from a success, the hunter suffers further for being so intimately linked to the target. Supernatural Conditions and Tilts, such as the effects of mind control, that do not alter the body or soul are applied to the hunter. If a Condition or Tilt can only be applied to one being at a time, such as Possessed, the being that inflicted it may immediately choose to end it on the target and instead apply it to the hunter.

## Relic

### Monolith (\*\*\*\*\*)

Monoliths are black stone slabs that the Aegis Kai Doru has found in various places around the planet, and use in desperate times for creating new devices that function similarly to Relics. This is only done rarely, because using the Monolith is an inexact science; the Relic that it creates often has only a tangential relationship to the problem at hand, and reliance on Monoliths has an unacceptably high casualty rate.

**System:** Anyone touching the Monolith must make a Willpower roll, at a penalty equal to the penalty her Integrity applies to breaking point checks:

**Dramatic Failure:** The toucher's head explodes, her brain catches fire, or the monolith overwrites her vital functions. Her Health track is immediately filled with aggravated damage.

**Failure:** Nothing seems to happen, besides seeing strange visions. However, each day, the toucher and anyone to whom these sights were described must succeed in a Willpower roll or fall into a coma until the memories are somehow removed.

**Success:** Nothing happens, besides seeing strange visions.

**Exceptional Success:** In the visions, the toucher sees a strange technology that she will be compelled to start trying to build. She gains the Compulsory Inventor Condition, and a free permanent Crafts Specialty relevant to the project. Upon completing the project, the toucher has created a unique Relic.

#### New Condition: Compulsory Inventor (Persistent)

You have glimpsed something beyond human understanding, and cannot help but try to build it (an extended Intelligence+Crafts task requiring 20 successes per Relic dot, with each roll taking one day). Your Intelligence and Crafts are both treated as 10. Each scene you spend conscious and not working, whether because you are ignoring the project or because you are prevented from working, counts as a breaking point.

**Beat:** Ignore an obligation or a physical need in order to continue the project.

**Resolution:** Finish the project.

## Thaumatechnology

### Cyborg Commando Unit (\*\*\*)

Alien Tech doesn't make for the kind of implant that Thaumatechnology usually involves, but some of it can be installed in the human body. One example of this is the Finger-Installed Disintegrator Ray Projector, which most field agents refer to as the Cyborg Commando Unit (based on an obscure pop-culture reference). The agent's metacarpal bones are replaced with circuitry and the smallest bone of the little finger is replaced with a crystal, both taken from the hand weapons some aliens use. After recuperating, the agent permanently gains a Firearms attack with -1A damage.

### Venomous Saliva (\*\*)

Many alien species have difficulty surviving in Earth's oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere. Others can handle the atmosphere, but can't handle water or left-handed amino acids. It goes both ways, though: Earth life can't breathe cyanide gas or drink ammonia. One would think that removing salivary glands and replacing them with an alien equivalent would be a death sentence, but then one would underestimate Chieron's surgeons. The end result is that the hunter's saliva becomes a Toxicity 3 grave poison which can be applied with a bite or a kiss, or even smeared on objects or spat at an enemy. As a side benefit, the hunter can also safely eat rotten food and drink infected water as the poison kills microbes.