Zaine Aridula

Suggest a ridiculously simple solution to a problem to have that solution suddenly work.

Essence Cost: Mid-High
Cooldown: Mid
Paired Action: State your solution, then either try it yourself or prompt someone else to do so.

• Cost scales with the implausibility of the solution actually working (without the user bringing it up). May fail outright if the problem is too complex/vast or if no one actually tries the proposed solution.
• If any character—besides user or someone they prompt—tries the solution, it is highly liable to backfire on them.
• Any other player whose character is in earshot of the user may, with your permission, activate this Ability THEMSELVES, with their solution coming from your character’s mouth. This uses THEIR character’s Essence but puts Captain Obvious on its normal Cooldown.

Essence Cost

Mid–High

Cooldown

Mid

Paired Action: Propose the solution aloud, then either try it yourself or prompt someone else to do so.

• Cost scales with the implausibility of the solution actually working (without the user bringing it up).
  • This Ability will fail outright if the problem is too complex or if the proposed solution isn’t actually tried.
• If a being attempts the proposed solution unprompted, you may Pitch how their attempt goes wrong.
• Any other player whose character is within earshot may, with your permission, activate this Ability themselves (spending their Essence), with their solution coming from your character’s mouth.

Enter a heady ramble fueled by imagination and memories, culminating in you snapping back to reality with a powerful Insight into a problem you are currently facing.

Essence Cost: Mid-High
Max Duration Mid
Cooldown: Mid-High
Paired Action: Portray a Turning Point (pg27) showing your character lapsing into excitable nonsense, babbling about memories, intrusive thoughts, or similar that their present situation reminds them of.

• Rambling counts as an Altered State (pg31); user’s train of thought MUST follow some sort of internal logic, even if not one grounded in reality.
  ≫ Unlike most Altered States, user chooses when to end this Ability. Insight power, Cost, and Cooldown all increases the longer it is maintained for.
• While rambling, your Conduit and fellow players may make Luck Pitches on your character’s behalf, more powerful than what your own Luck Stat could normally provide and further empowered if they thematically tie in with the current contents of your ramble.
• Significantly jarring or startling the user may cause Head in the Clouds to end (though still granting an Insight).

Essence Cost

Mid

Max Duration

Low–Mid

Cooldown

Mid–High

Paired Action: Portray a Turning Point of lapsing into excited nonsense, babbling about memories, far-fetched theories, intrusive thoughts, or similar as an Altered State.

• Boosts the user’s Happenstance Low–Mid, scaling on how committedly you portray the Paired Action and Altered State.
  • Your fellow players and Conduit may make Happenstance Pitches on your behalf while this Ability lasts, treated as separate from your own Happenstance Pitching for Limiter purposes.
• If the user is significantly startled or interrupted, this Ability will end prematurely.
  • Answer Impact and Cooldown scale on how long the ramble lasted.
  • If interrupted before a Low Duration passes, the user receives no answer but Cooldown is reduced to Low.

Interrupt a conversation with a completely unrelated topic, distracting the speakers and briefly causing them to forget what they were originally talking about.

Essence Cost: Low
Duration: Low
Cooldown: Low
Paired Action: Interject a wildly off-topic statement into a conversation.

• Non Sequitur is much more effective if your interruption’s topic actually captures the attention and interest of your targets; may fail outright if ignorable.
• This Ability will ALSO affect its user, completely distracting them and causing them to forget what they were doing while it lasts.

Essence Cost

Low

Duration

Low

Cooldown

Low

Paired Action: Interject a wildly off-topic statement into a conversation.

• Impact scales Low–Mid on how effectively the user interrupts the conversation.
• The user is also affected by this Ability.

Set of 3 slips of paper, embellished with nonsensical “credentials”. Expend one while doing something wildly eccentric (but clearly not malicious) to strongly compel onlookers to not interfere or even judge you for it for a Mid Duration.

Quantity

3x

• Display a coupon while doing something wildly eccentric (but clearly not malicious) to expend it, strongly compelling onlookers to not interfere or question that behavior for a Mid Duration.

Sock puppet, particularly susceptible to its owner’s Luck Pitches. User’s voice may emit from it at will with a shifted pitch and timbre. Once per mission, Mr. Sock may speak with its own voice and sapience (narrated by source player).

• The owner’s voice may emit from this puppet’s mouth at will with a shifted pitch and timbre.
• Happenstance Pitches directly involving this puppet have Mid Boosted Impact.
• While the source character is not paying attention to it, this puppet becomes animate, speaking with its own voice and human intelligence, controlled primarily by the player.
  • Allies will instinctively understand that the puppet is a different person in this state.
  • May not speak to the source character, and becomes inanimate again as soon as they notice.

Set of 5 small tokens scattered around the current mission’s setting and found via Luck Pitches (much more easily by the owner). Finding one grants a relevant Insight about the mission’s plot. Collecting them grants increasing mental protection to the owner.

Quantity

3x

• Not brought onto the mission normally, instead scattered across the locale and found via Happenstance Pitches, with success scaling on the creativity of the proposed discovery location.
  • Whenever the owner is reunited with a marble, they receive a mission-relevant Insight of Low–High Impact, scaling on how many marbles they have already found.
• You may Pitch your character accidentally losing all three found marbles, rescattering them as above, to restore a full Essence Threshold but forget all Insights gleaned from them.

Goofy, handmade head covering. If the user believes that something unexpected or innocuous is harmful and goes out of their way to tell others about it, this hat will provide powerful protection from that specific thing. Allies they convince receive lesser protection.

• Provides a Mid Ward against enemy mental effects.
• Deliver an impassioned rant decrying something seemingly innocuous (rye bread, neon lights, the local mailman) as harmful to gain a High Ward against it (Mid Cooldown).
  • Any other being who is convinced of its harmfulness also gains a Low Ward against it.