CONTRACTS

## SUMMARY

Contracts are a pact, a bond between your Freelancer and a power older than the city itself. By taking a contract, you place your Freelancer indebted to Mortimer, a mysterious old man living within a defunct lounge in city center. While this may seem a fate to be avoided, it does come with distinct perks.

## GAMEPLAY CHANGES

### Healing and Health Management

* Chemical healing items such as stims no longer function, but standard triage aide still could be helpful in some circumstances.
* Dealing the killing blow on an enemy within 15' grants healing equivalent to the amount of health the target had remaining before the killing blow was dealt.
	+ The minimum amount of healing this can provide is 10HP.
	+ Executing a dying enemy provides 10HP.
* A willing target may transfer a portion of their HP to you, though this operates at a limited efficiency based on the level of your contract.
* You may convert a portion of your EP (Energy Points) into HP at an equal rate of exchange.

### Energy Pool Management

* Your Energy Pool is composed of Energy Points, or EP. At a first level contract, you begin with a max EP of 100.
* All contract abilities spend EP, the amount required being settled by your GM when negotiating your abilities as game mechanics.
* EP may be replenished from grappled enemies, their health being evenly converted into EP at a rate of 10 per turn. This includes the turn in which the grapple first occurs.
	+ The target must roll BRN opposed at the beginning of each turn of a turn-rotation to attempt to break the grapple. Each failure will reduce their BRN modifier by 1.
* Contracted Freelancers are immune to the Bleed condition so long as they have at least 20EP in their pool, their body automatically consuming the EP to rapidly staunch the bleeding.
	+ Bleeds that are healed this way will leave dark scars that appear similar to tattoo ink.
	+ Limbs that are severed will not be able to be reattached due to the scar tissue caused by this effect, and will require a Biomech replacement.
* Reaching 0 EP results in a deep exhaustion, shortening your movement range by 10' and reducing your available actions in a turn by 1.

### Contract Ability Usage

* Contract abilities will be usable either as actions or bonus actions, depending on the strength of the ability.
* The EP drain and type of action that an ability requires will be determined by your GM during the initial negotiation when creating a new contract ability.
* Abilities may be used with a fully depleted EP pool by spending the same amount of HP. However, each instance of using abilities in this way will reduce your maximum HP by 5.

### Other Effects

* Mortimer or one of his associates may offer helpful information if a situation is deemed to be interesting enough to merit aid.
* Active focus must be maintained to prevent other Contracted individuals from knowing your thoughts, those thoughts manifesting as emotions and concepts, rather than words.
	+ Moments of extreme stress may cause a loss of focus, sharing thoughts without the consent of the Contracted Freelancer.
	+ With practice, thoughts can be intentionally broadcast as clear language. A sufficiently high INT check may allow a Contracted Freelancer to broadcast thoughts to a non-Contracted individual.
* Any Biomech Components requiring immunosuppressants that are installed after the point of Contracting will require one extra dose per day.
* No viable engrams may be created past the point of becoming Contracted. Old engrams from before this point will not successfully implant into a Contracted body.
* Children of the Old One will attempt to seek out Contracted Freelancers with hostile intent. An attack is significantly more likely to occur at night in unsecured locations, the chance becoming increasingly higher the closer a Freelancer is to the Sub-Stacks.
* Any biological animals are unsettled by a contracted individual, fleeing if they can, or becoming hostile if they feel cornered.
* Alcohol and Narcotics cease to affect a Contracted individual.

### Common Contracts

#### Default Abilities

* Extra BRN may be added to relevant checks, costing 5EP per modifier point of BRN.
* Low-penetration thermal vision may be enabled for 10EP per turn rotation, allowing a Contracted Freelancer to see in dark environments, and through smoke.
	+ High-penetration thermals with one layer of surface penetration (Recon 1) may be enabled for an additional 10EP per turn rotation.
* A player may choose to take an extra dash as a bonus action, moving in a straight line at 1EP per foot up to a maximum of 30'.

#### Elective Abilities

* Neural Enhancement
	+ INT and FNS checks may be modified, costing 5EP per modifier point added.
	+ Time may be perceived at an altered rate. This costs 20EP per turn-rotation, granting advantage to all INT, FNS, and RFX checks. This also guarantees an automatic critical hit regardless of effective range.
		- This ability costs an action to activate.
* Agility
	+ Your movement range is increased by 15' as long as you have EP.
	+ Checks for jumps, drops, leaps, and navigation of precarious environments may be rerolled at a cost of 10EP.
		- Your jump height may effectively be doubled so long as there is another surface opposing your jump target within close proximity for 10EP. This is expressed as jumping and kicking off the nearby surface into a second jump.
	+ For 50EP, you may take a hyper-dash, relocating in a straight line up to double your movement range at a speed that appears as teleportation.
		- Any character in the path of this dash will take 2D10 damage, and must succeed on a RFX check of 15 to avoid being knocked prone.
* Resilience
	+ You may choose to pool the Liquid Black under your skin to absorb damage, consuming as much EP as would have been removed from your health pool.
		- If more damage is dealt than you have EP to absorb, all excess damage will reduce your HP as normal.
		- This ability must be activated per-turn rotation, but does not cost an action.
* Pyrokinesis
	+ Your EP may be drained to create a cloud of Liquid Black that ignites into a roiling blaze. This fire, if not mitigated by armor, deals damage equal to the amount of EP consumed.
		- This ability has a range of 15', its area of effect being determined by the size of the blast. Each threshold of 25EP may add another 5' tile to the area of the blast. A blast consuming less than 25EP will only affect a single tile.
* Petrification
	+ A target may be held petrified, the Liquid Black seeping under their skin and hardening. This costs 60EP per instance.
		- As the Liquid Black used is not destroyed, EP used to create this effect may not be restored until a target is released.
		- A target may break free by succeeding on BRN check opposed to the Contracted Freelancer's FNS check. Breaking free will deal 3D20+10 damage.
		- As a bonus action, pressure may be applied by succeeding on an opposed check, pitting the Freelancer's FNS against the petrified target's BRN. For each point the check succeeds by, inflict 5 damage.
		- If a Contracted Freelancer also has access to Pyrokinesis, petrified targets may be immolated, dealing 100 Heat damage and ending Petrification.

### Leveling Up

* With each level gained while Contracted, your contract level grows.
	+ Each increase in level adds 20EP to your pool.
	+ Willing transfer of health increases in efficiency. Partial HP resulting from this math are discarded.
		- At level one, transfer is at 50% efficiency (2HP becomes 1HP)
		- At level 5, transfer is at 75% efficiency (4HP becomes 3HP)
		- At level 10, transfer is at 100% efficiency (1HP becomes 1HP)
	+ Each increase in level allows for the addition of another Contract ability.
		- In order to gain additional abilities, the Contracted Freelancer must physically visit Mortimer's Lounge.
	+ At a third level Contract, final blow health siphons may be split as the Contracted Freelancer desires to refill both HP and EP.