PSYCHOKINESIS

 

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Basic Technique

 

Psychosensation:  With this most rudimentary of Telekinetic manifestations, the Psion is capable of emitting enough force to tremble small items and raise shivers.  The basic purpose of the radiation is not to startle the superstitious, it is a momentary scan, using Telekinetic forces as a form of radar sense, conferring a ‘snapshot’ of the surroundings.

 

System:  Simply roll Psi and in that turn only a single wave of telekinetic force will pulse forth from the Psion, impacting and reflecting back information like sonar on all items in the surrounding Psi + successes meters radius.  One success will be enough to ‘feel’ all solid items within the area within a rough proximity, two will provide an accurate mapping of solids and differentiate between living and inanimate things and sense the presence of extremes of heat or cold (freezers or open flame) and three or more successes will allow one to feel textures and begin to recognize the difference between items of stone or metal or wood (although the differences between concrete, granite and ceramic will remain inseparable) and to tell the approximate speed and direction of any moving items as well as rough estimations of temperature in the area.  This pulse only lasts for an instant and in the 15 seconds between uses, things can change significantly as items move, fires start or people die, rendering this power no substitute for sight.

 

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CRYOKINESIS

 

· Cold Snap:  With this power the Psion can focus a chill on any one target within range, whisking away any heat generated by that target for the duration of the power and possibly even rendering it unconscious through sustained use.

 

System:  The Psion must roll Psi and spend a point.  The effect remains so long as the subject is still concentrated upon (which confers a +1 to all other Difficulties) for up to Mode rating minutes.  Each turn that the power is maintained the subject has to roll Resistance vs the initial Psi roll and any successes remaining over the initial successes by the Psion count as Bashing HT levels applied directly to the target.  No Soak is allowed unless Thermal Screen is used, although an adequate life-support system will provide a +1 Difficulty to the initial Psi roll to use this power.  (And a cold-blooded creature gets only 1 die to resist the effect, no matter its Resistance score!)  On a Botch of the Resistance roll the subject loses a die from all future Resistance rolls and has a +1 Difficulty to all actions from numbness and shivering.

The range is Psi x 10 meters and the subject must be within that range the entire time or the effect fades.   At Cryokinesis 3, the effect can be imposed upon Psi in creatures OR the effect can be maintained on a single creature with no concentration (or Difficulty penalty).  At Cryokinesis 5, both advantages are gained.

 

·· Iceing:  The Psion has combined his talents at Telekinesis, however rudimentary, to his Cryokinetic Gift, allowing him to pull water vapor out of the surrounding air and drape it in a specific icy patina over any surface chosen, even a person.  He can use this to hinder foes, create slicks to trip people up, coat objects that he wants to render momentarily unsafe or unusable or even to simply write a message in ice across a wall.  However used, this power does not allow him to more specifically control the shape, only to cause it to adhere as he wills, thus a Psion could create an outline of a dagger on a wall, but not actually just create a dagger of ice to use in a fight.

 

System:  Roll Psi and spend a point, each success on the die roll allowing another Mode rating in 1 meter squares to be affected or another centimeter of thickness to be added to the ice in a certain square meter.  Thus a Legionnaire with Cryokinesis 3 and scoring 4 successes on her Psi roll could create up to a dozen one meter patches of ice (contiguous only), allowing her to scrawl her insignia on the wall in ice as a warning to foes or coat an adversary or surround a firearm with a massive chunk of ice or simply ice up a staircase or seal a door shut as a surprise for pursing opponents.  Her ice-slick could be a 1 cm thick sheet of ice covering a 2 meter wide hallway over 6 meters in breadth for example, or she could layer the ice thicker over a 2 meter by 1 meter doorway (though she’d better extend the ice sheet a half-meter to each side, above and below to freeze the door shut), allowing her to double the thickness to 2 cm.  Each cm of thickness takes a single HT level of damage or Strength success to bash through, and the thickness can reach an unmanageable thickness quite quickly on a small item, such as a Firearm.  If used on a person, suffocation might well result as the persons rolls to smash through the ice are at +1 Difficulty on straight Strength rolls to break free (although some sort of weapon in

hand might simplify the process as that weapon can be fired to shatter ice off of the firing hand at least).  Otherwise, our sample Legionnaires ice-slick coated over a person would cover the average person, with 2 meters square of surface area, about 4 cm thick, requiring 4 HT levels or Strength success to break free.  Any extra damage applied by friends to break one free is of course as damaging to the former prisoner…  Stepping on an ice slick requires an Athletics roll to maintain ones footing, jogging on one or encountering one on a slope or staircase requires a +1 Difficulty (cumulative) and running on one adds another +1 Difficulty.  Walking carefully at half walking speed negates the need for any sort of check, but slowing you down may have been her thought all along.  This power has a range of only Psi meters at Cryokinesis 2, but increases to Psi x5 meters at level 4 in the Mode.  Attempts at artistry with this power require an appropriate Arts roll, and attempts to directly coat a moving target (such as a person) are at a +1 Difficulty.

 

··· Frostbite:  At this level of Cryokinesis the Psion may momentarily interrupt the flow of heat within a living creature, creating a shock to all systems and often unconsciousness or even death.

 

System:  The Psychokinetic must roll Psi and spend a point to engage this power.  For each success, the Psion can inflict either one level of Lethal damage or 2 levels of Bashing, as the Psion is capable of maintaining the power for only a heartbeat or for up to the entire turn.  In the case of Bashing harm, the damage isn’t substantial, as the water in the cells does not have time to freeze and the subject is ‘merely’ chilled to the bone in an instant, even being allowed to Soak with Stamina normally (although both versions of the power completely ignore any sort of armor).  In the case of the more permanent Lethal harm, the Psion maintains the crushing cold for the entire turn, causing cells to rupture all throughout the targets body and causing vast and far-reaching harm to tissues and systems all over the victim.  Note that

this power has a +1 Difficulty to affect any being in a self-regulating life support system, such as a BioVARG and has +3 dice to affect cold-blooded creatures as their bodies cannot as quickly recoup the effects of the initial exposure.  The range of this power is 5 yards per point of permanent Psi and at Cryokinesis 5 it can affect up to Psi targets simultaneously.

 

···· Embrittle:  This technique allows the Psion to select an item and purge it of almost all heat, inflicting Bashing damage from the subzero temperatures to anyone contacting it, and causing structural damage to the item itself from the sudden drop in temperature.  As if this were not enough, such an item will be more susceptible to impact and temperature related trauma for the duration!  This power is simply the power of Flash Freeze applied to solid structures and not merely to liquids.

 

System:  Spend 1 Psi and roll.  Each success counts as a level of ‘freezing’ structural damage inflicted upon an item (which can be any unliving item equal or less in weight to the amount the Cryokinetic could lift if his Psi replaced his Might on the appropriate chart; homeothermic beings resist this power automatically, and even cold-blooded creatures get to roll Resistance in a Resisted Roll vs the Psion, Bioapps using a number generated by the ST, based on Tolerance and size (more of either is better)).  Each success translates into 1 level of ‘Lethal’ damage to the item (ST’s discretion how much it will take to destroy an item or render it non-functional,

but generally the bigger the item, the more damage it can take, I recommend using the weight / Might chart and requiring at least two successes to disable per Might required to heft such an item and 4 / Might required to destroy an object outright).  This also inflicts that many Bashing HT levels (soakable with Stamina normally) upon any subject in close proximity to this item and reduces the items Soak pool (if any) by 1 per success.  If the item has no Soak pool, it will take +1 die of damage per success from any sharp impact or sudden heating attack.  The extra effects beyond straight structural harm (Bashing to users, reduced Soak, increased vulnerability) do not fade all at once, but reduce by 1 die / turn after the first.  Items capable of self-regulating their temperatures (devices with life-support for example) are targeted at +1 Difficulty.  The range for this power is Psi x 5 meters and at Cryokinesis 5; the Psion becomes capable of affecting multiple items up to his Psi rating.

 

Example:  A Cryokinetic uses Embrittle on your Armor Vest and scores 3 successes.  2 is all that is required to ‘disable’ the device, but the ST rules that since it has no moving parts, it cannot be disabled.  However, you take 3 Bashing immediately, 2 the next turn and 1 the third from such close contact with the frozen vest and it has -3 to its Soak ratings for the first turn, -2 for the second turn and -1 for the third turn, at which point the effect ceases and the item (assuming that it has survived the interim) is merely very cold and stiff.

 

····· Ice Storm:  Truly impressive in appearance and even surpringly effective in a firefight, this Technique allows the Psion to summon a veritable blizzard of snow and ice in a radius around him, blinding and chilling all within.  Only he is unaffected by this storm, having a tiny eye of calm directly around himself where allies might huddle to be spared the fury of his elemental display.

 

System:  Spend 3 Psi and roll.  The storm of ice and cold whips out of nowhere (although its effects are decidedly unimpressive in a dry environment, apply a +1 to +3 Difficulty in a hot desert or bone-dry space station) rendering all within its swirling whiteness completely blind to anything more than a meter from where they are standing, disorienting them totally (Awareness rolls are required each turn to remain travelling in a direction) and possibly even incapacitating unprotected foes (for every success on the initial roll every subject within the effect takes a single Bashing HT level from the cold and icy spray, Stamina Soaks as per normal, but any Armor that isn’t sealed and containing its own life support is useless).  The storm deposits freezing rain and sleet and ice on everything and the winds are merciless, insuring that even against a target within sight range (1 meter), a +1 Difficulty is applied to all actions.  The storm is mercifully small and brief compared to its harsh nature, extending only Psi Rating x3 meters around the Psion (with a bare meter of clearance on all side of him for allies!) and lasting so long as he maintains total concentration and expends an additional Psi point per 5 turns to maintain the storm.  While concentrating he can take no action other than walking at half normal speed, any attack requires a Resistance roll for the Psion to retain concentration (+1 Difficulty per wound after the first for Lethal damage), with any failures subtracting successes from the initial Psi roll to generate the storm until all are cancelled and

it fades, whipping out of existence in a single turn, leaving behind only ice-coated surfaces and a chill breeze to mark its passing.

 

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PYROKINESIS

 

··· Plasm:  This rare Technique was created by a Pyrokinetic surgeon and has rather frightening potential.  It allows the Psion to combine the powers of Liquefy and Plasma Control on a specific item, molecularly superheating it to a fluid state and then moving it around.  Unlike Liquefy, the heat produced by this liquefication remains trapped within the item liquefied, allowing the Psion to ‘melt’ armor off a man while leaving him unburnt!  The Technique was designed so that its surgeon wielder could locate an embedded flechette, bullet or bit of shrapnel and cause it to flow out of the wound with no aggravation of injury to surrounding tissue.

 

System:  Spend 1 Psi and roll permanent Psi.  The Psion can cause any one material item weighing up to Psi kg within Psi meters to enter this ‘safe’ plasmic state and flow as directed at the same speeds determined by Tow (usually 7 meters / turn).  The Psion has two options once the molten substance is ‘released,’ it can either be refrozen into a newly solid (random) shape instantly and harmlessly or it can be left superheated and allowed to cool naturally over the course of the next 1 to 5 minutes (depending on the number of successes required to melt the material in the first place), possibly to harm any present, as per a normal use of Liquefy.  To determine if the item to be molten is affected check the result of the Psi roll against the following chart (copied from Liquefy);

 

      One Success            Plastic

      Two Successes        Copper 

      Three Successes      Orbital Steel

      Four Successes       Granite

      Five Successes        Olaminium

 

Contact with molten materials will inflict 1 die of Lethal damage / success needed to melt that substance, although the damage will fade by 1 die per turn as the substance cools.  The material rendered fluidic can be steered onto another person with a simple Psi roll (keep track of successes as extra ones will add to the burning matters damage roll and the subject may well choose to dodge this gout of molten stone or metal!).  At Pyrokinesis 5, this effect can be used on up to Psi items simultaneously, although they can only be used to ‘attack’ individually or all at one target (at –1 die for every blob of molten material directed at a foe beyond the first), and the release of control required to cause the item to begin to burn will require the Psion to release control of all of the affected items.  Alternately, the items can be molded onto another person, as above, but then caused to revert to a solid state at room temperature, this effect, if it strikes, causes an effect almost identical to that of a webgun of 1 Strength for each success required to melt the substance in question as fluidic steel hardens over ones clothing, partially restraining him (as it cannot be aimed precisely enough to imitate handcuffs).

 

····· Tunneling:  This Technique is not currently known by any living Psion.  It is a vastly enhanced version of the Plasm power, or a variation on Liquefy, depending on how you look at it.  It can be used precisely as Liquefy, but so long as the Psion holds his concentration, the molten materials will not burn anything and they will move as he wills at the speed of Tow, allowing him to melt a tunnel through a half-dozen meters of rock, and then use the molten material behind him to seal off the tunnel or even push it far ahead of him and release its heat to melt yet more tunnel!  So long as the Psion is able to maintain concentration, he will be able to continue use of this effect for some time, affecting only the one substance he has originally rolled to control.

 

System:  Spend 2 Psi and roll permanent Psi.  This power lasts as long as the Psion can maintain his concentration (but no longer than the length of a scene or about an hour in any case), allowing the Psion to bore through metal or rock at 7meters per turn (even if he cannot normally move this fast, the fluidic surface acts to move the user along with it!).  Successes are used on the chart above (also used in the power Liquefy) to determine materials affected and any damage scored if these materials are released onto another person.  As with Plasm, above, the material rendered fluidic can be steered onto another person with a simple Psi roll (keep track of successes as extra ones will add to the burning matters damage roll and the subject may well choose to dodge this wave of molten stone or metal!).  Note that a large enough chunk of material could well be dumped on multiple persons simultaneously, but subtract one die from this wave attack per target after the first, to reflect the increased difficulty to ‘get them all.’  Nonetheless the wave is harmless unless released.  At this time the Psions’ control of the matter ends and the heat that had been heretofore stored harmlessly within the fluidic matter is released to great effect (also listed above, 1 die per success required to melt the substance initially, -1 die / turn as it cools, +1 die / extra success on the *initial attack only,* reflecting a well-aimed splash getting into a foes eyes, etc.

 

Alternately, the wave can be molded to engulf one or more persons, as above, but then caused to revert to a solid state at room temperature, this effect, if it strikes, causes an effect almost identical to that of a webgun of 2 Strength for each success required to melt the substance in question as copious quantities of fluidic stone or metal or plastic harden over ones clothing, partially restraining him (as it cannot be aimed precisely enough to imitate specific restraints).

 

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TELEKINESIS

 

· Fixation:  This Technique seizes onto the air in the Psions immediate area and restricts their movements, allowing them only to 'sit there and vibrate,' conducting sound and heat normally,

but not travelling more than a couple of micrometers individually for the duration, creating an area of unearthly calm, even in the middle of a raging storm.

 

System:  Spend a point and roll Psi.  For each success the air in a Psi meter radius area anywhere within Psi x3 yards (and in view) is 'held in place' with an effective Strength of 1, which would resist attempts to create breezes or otherwise project gases into the area much like a highly specific form of Soak.  This can be dangerous for anyone incapable of movement as it prevents the usual replenishment of fresh air around a breathing creature, causing a bubble of expelled CO2 to build up around a stationary target.  Assume that anyone who does not (or cannot) move around begins to suffocate after Stamina turns.  This Technique would *not* be an option for 'plugging a breach' in a contained atmosphere (such as underwater or in space) as the affected air would resist moving on its own, but could still be pushed aside by moving bodies or similar pressures, snapping back once they have passed (thus walking people wouldn't leave trails of vacuum behind them, the displaced air would 'snap back' normally!).  It would at most slow the effects of a hull breech in vacuum by a single turn.  The effect lasts for Psi turns at the basic level, for

Psi minutes at Mode rating 3 and for up to Psi hours at Telekinesis 5.

 

· Telekinetic Probe:  This useful talent allows the Psychokinetic to feel things with her Telekinetic manifestations, to probe into solid matter and throughout open space like a form of sonar.  Her ability reaches out and gently pushes/pulls at everything in her radius, gauging weight and solidity and allowing her to ‘see’ everything around her as a tactile ‘contour map’ in 360 degrees, much like the Basic Technique of Psychosensation.

 

System:  The Psion must spend a point and roll Psi to initiate the pulse, but it lasts Psi minutes, her Telekinetic forces pulsing forth invisibly from her temples and / or hands to impinge upon all solid items in her area.  The area of effect is Psi + successes meters in radius, but she becomes intimately aware of all items in that zone and can feel them as clearly as if they were at her fingertips.  The pulse is continuous, not moment by moment like the sonar of a dolphin, so any change or movement is immediately obvious and, with an Awareness roll she could even feel the speed, weight or hardness of any item within that range.  A +1 Difficulty (or more at ST option) will allow her Telekinetic awareness to extend even within solid matter much like the intensive scanning of sonar into soft tissues.  All within the area are allowed an Awareness roll in turn to sense the gentle tickling pressure of this powers effects, which could well be rationalized away as a breeze rippling clothing and raising gooseflesh.  A direct personal scan (such as would require a Difficulty modifier and be far more effective than a patdown at finding weapons, even implanted ones!) is automatically noticeable and no roll is needed as it feels more like water crawling all over ones body than a gentle tickle.  At  Telekinesis 3 the radius can be extended to Psi x 5 meters + 5 extra meters per success OR the duration can be increased to Psi x 10 minutes + 10 minutes / success.  At Telekinesis 5, the Psion can do both.

 

·· Enhance Motility:  A Technique that appears very primal and direct for all its abstruse nomenclature, this effect generates wind.  The Psion envisions seizing the very air in a particular area and moving it in a path at his will, creating a focused gust of wind that can blow a grown man off of his feet.

 

System:  Roll Psi and spend a point.  The basic 'Strength' of the wind is equal to half of the Psion Psi rating (round up) and extra successes can be spent either to increase the Strength rating or to add a turn beyond the first to the effects duration.  Thus a Psion could choose to make his winds even more intense or to hold them against a target for a longer time to hinder his actions (or slow her fall or whatever).  The Strength rating of the wind is used in a Resisted roll against the victims Might.  For each success by either party the person travels 1 meter in the appropriate direction (depending on who won the contest), and on a win by the wind, the subject must roll Athletics at +1 to the Difficulty per meter hurled past the first or be knocked from his feet, soaking a Bashing HT level / meter thrown.  An unresisting target can use the wind to increase speed, although the Athletics roll is still required to retain balance, this effect generally not being worth the effort.  The wind, if properly timed, can be used to cushion a fall by 1 Soak die / Strength effect of the wind, allowing a falling Legionnaire with an amazing sense of timing and nerves of steel to actually waft to ground safely from a normally fatal plunge.  The range for the wind (which need not be pointed away from the Psion and can not be felt by those between himself and the target) is Psi x10 meters and at Telekinesis 4 the Psion can affect up to Psi targets simultaneously (although all must be in the same basic area and all wind generated must be flowing in the same direction!) OR can create a sustained gust of wind (for sailing, or falling, for instance) that will last up to 1 hour per success.  Some Psions attempt to target their gusts more precisely to Disarm a person, use the procedure on p 244, including a +1 Difficulty to the initial Psi roll.  Note: this effect generates only a rush of air at the targeted site/individual, it does not create a 'beam' of wind from Psion to target.  Creating an updraft or downdraft is entirely possible (obviously an updraft is preferred for stopping a fall!), but so long as anything is handy to grab onto a target can use Might to resist an updraft as easily as a wind pushing her down or backwards or even *towards* the Legionnaire.  A wind pushing the subject up rarely has enough force to carry them far and tends to cushion the fall, so the damage remains Bashing and doesn't normally convert to falling damage (unless the subject is blown off a bridge, ladder or cliff!).  For simplicity assume that an attempt to pin someone with a downdraft has no penalties or advantages.

 

·· Silence:  This unoriginally named power seizes upon the air molecules in the area and restricts their mobility, similarly to Cryokinesis, but instead of preventing them from vibrating to produce heat, the Psion alters their vibrational rate to make them incapable of conducting the vibrations of sound.  Unlike Cryokinesis, this effect in fact imperceptibly warms the area as any ambient sound becomes trapped and is turned into (miniscule amounts of) heat energy.

 

System:  Spend a point and roll Psi.  The effect lasts Psi turns + 1 extra turn / success, affecting a stationary area of Psi meters radius.  Within this area no sound produced can be heard, nor can sounds produced externally be heard within or vice versa.  Attempts at speech appear only as a dim vibrational echo conducting along the cheekbone to the ear of the speaker!  Even most forms of implant communicator require some sound transference, if not from the subvocalizing user, then certainly from the listener (if within the area, a listener outside the area would not be affected, or, to be precise, the air around his headset would conduct sound to his ear just fine).  Anyone within this area gains a +1 Soak vs Sonic weapons (or +1 Resistance die vs sonically-

induced attempts at disorientation, nausea or unconsciousness).  This effect has no effect on any sort of electronic transmission, even one including sound, even if the sound cannot be heard on a holovid playing in the area or a live transmission from the area will be eerily silent.

This effect does not prevent molecules from moving in any other way, conducting heat or obeying the laws of Brownian motion, etc.  It only affects the conduction of vibratory sound.

 

·· Attract / Repel:  With this Technique, a Psion can enhance her strength greatly for a momentary burst of power.  Due to the inherent resistance of a living mind that so hinders telekinetic manipulations of this sort, this effect is far more potent if used on oneself.

 

System:  Spend 1 Psi and roll.  Each success is either added to ones damage pool for a strike against another person as powerful repulsive forces accompany her blow, or the Psion can add Psi + successes rolled to the dice pool for any Strength related roll that does not involve striking another living person (or his worn or carried equipment).  Multiple Actions are dealt with normally in this case, the Psi roll (-2 dice) being rolled before the Athletics, Brawl, Martial Arts, Melee or Might roll (at –3 dice) likely to follow.

 

Example; Carrie rolls 2 successes, she could either strike an adversary in front of her with Her fist, with 2 extra dice for the damage effect, or she can add her Psi of 6, plus those three success (for a total of EIGHT extra dice!) to her dice pool to leap to safety or tear a door open so that her comrades can get to safety.  The burst of strength in any case is only momentary and will affect only one action within the current or next turn.

 

··· Constriction:  This power acts like Fixation above, but actually makes the air actively fight change!  With this power the Psion can make the very air in an area become an oppressive cloying constrictive weapon, smothering the life from those within and holding them fast!

 

System:  Roll Psi and spend a point.  The effect generates one Strength point worth of resistance, which is used to restrict the movement of all things within the area (as a grappled or hold), causes suffocation damage to all within (as the air resists even travelling down ones windpipe!) and even forcefully bar new items/substances from entering its area (slowing them by 1 die / meter travelled), allowing *this* level to be used as an attack, to plug a leak, etc (although it won't generate enough force to stop a leak in vacuum, it could buy an extra turn, which may be useful).  The range is Psi x 5 meters and the area affected is man-sized at this basic level.  At Telekinesis 5 the Psion becomes able to affect a Psi meter radius of free gas or up to his permanent Psi rating in individuals.  The duration of the effect is Psi turns, although the expenditure of another Psi point at the end of the effects duration allows it to be extended for another Psi turns without another roll being necessary, allowing only a determined Psych to actually suffocate a person to death with this power!

 

··· Telekinetic Strike:  Easily the most common Alternate Telekinetic Technique taught by the Legions, this power simply seizes a mass of air (or the local medium) and accelerates it into the subject with some speed.  This mass can be shaped with some difficulty to create a ‘sharper’ edge and thus a Lethal instead of Bashing effect.  [Alternately some Psions use a variation of this Technique to simply seize onto the target and wrench, pull, crush or twist at them like a rag doll, inflicting Bashing harm in that manner, and similarly, with an increased Difficulty they can even target the victims insides, causing Lethal harm!]

 

System:  This technique is simplicity itself, costing 1 Psi and requiring a Psi roll.  The Bashing damage is equal to the Psions Mode rating in Telekinesis + 1 per success on the initial Psi roll.

 

An attempt to inflict Lethal damage is significantly harder and the damage inflicted is only equal to the amount of successes scored.  The range is Psi x10 meters and at Telekinesis 5 the effect can be used on targets up to the Psychs Psi rating simultaneously.

 

···· Gravitics: This Technique may or may not affect actual gravity, as per the ST’s own thoughts on whether Telekinetic effects have any basis in gravitic manipulation.  In either event, it increases or decreases the effective weight of a person or thing, pulling down (or up) on all of the molecules of its structure evenly.  A complete target must be selected, a Psion cannot choose to make ones head alone increase vastly in weight or a moving vehicle shear itself in half by selectively altering weights throughout the structure.

 

System: First, consult the Mass chart on p 234 and use the characters Psi rating to determine ‘Might.’  If the item or person to be affected is within these limits, it may be affected by this Technique.  As always, roll permanent Psi and spend a point.  Against an inanimate item, the Psion may adjust the items Mass by up to his Mode rating (1 to 5 levels on the aforementioned chart) plus as many successes he rolled on the initial Psi roll for as long as he wishes to maintain concentration on the effect.  A person is able to resist, however feebly, and can roll their own Psi to cancel out the Psions successes, and successes DO matter for living targets as the Mass of a living being can only be increased or decreased by as many levels as the Psion scored successes, the Mode rating is NOT added to this effect.  Range is Psi x10 meters, and if the item or person moves (or ‘falls’) beyond this range, the effect ends instantly (and the person could fall back to earth if made to ‘fall’ up and away!).

 

If the Mass rating of oneself, or ones gear, increases beyond twice ones Encumbrance level, one is dragged to the ground and begins to be crushed at 1 damage die per extra ‘level’ of Mass over your Encumbrance.  A quick review of the Encumbrance rules on p 233 is a must for use of this effect.

 

If the Mass rating drops below the 1 Might range, an item drops to a ‘zero level’ and is effectively weightless (thought not MASS-less, the difference is important, as anyone who works in zero-G can attest!).  Each additional level of effect beyond this zero level takes the effect back one step on the chart, but in NEGATIVE effective Mass.  Even one success at this point will cause an unsecured item or person to simply ‘fall’ up into the sky!

 

This is a complex and powerful Technique, not to be lightly introduced.

 

···· Clamor:  This power derives from the previous one and instead augments and intensifies the agitation of molecules in the area (making this power all but useless in vacuum), but not into the production / conveyance of heat energy as with Pyrokinesis, but instead into the faultless and indefatigueable reproduction of sounds.  Generally this ability is only used to intensify a single loud effect to disorient or even harm others, but rumors exist that more surgical variations on this power exist that allow a user with some skill to surgically to warp the speech or sounds produced by another source for tactical reasons of deception.  This power does not create sound, it only causes the molecules in the area, which would normally carry the vibrational from one to the other and thus transfer the sound through the air to retain the vibration, allowing each sound vibrating molecule in the area to retain its vibration even after repeated contacts, allowing a sound to be amplified dozens of times in a mere instant!

 

System:  Roll Psi and spend a point.  So long as a suitable racket is available (such as a Sonic weapon, explosion or several people screaming) the Psion can intensify the noise into a deafening inescapable clamor, causing all within the area of a Psi meter radius area (which can be created anywhere within view and a Psi x10 meter range) to suffer 1 Bashing HT level of damage per success on the initial Psi roll.  The damage can be Soaked normally with Stamina, although any non-sealed armor is no use.  Even if the subject takes no damage he or she must make a cross-checked roll between his Resistance and the users initial Psi roll or be at +1 to all Difficulties due to disorientation for the duration.  The duration of this intensification is generally a single turn, but so long as the base sound remains to be augmented, the Psion may spend another Psi point to maintain the effect, foregoing any need for a new Psi roll.  While the effect is obviously loud and noticeable, the intensified sounds do not transmit beyond the area of effect as the sound itself is careening around the affected area and relatively little of it is making it beyond the spherical area of effect.  At Telekinesis 5, the Psion becomes capable of intensifying even normal sounds to this level, foregoing the need for a source of high-intensity sound.

 

·····  Protective Aura:  This power is frighteningly potent in its use, even if it has no combat utility (against terrestrial life anyway, an anaerobe would find it horrifying).  The Psion becomes simply capable of seizing the air around himself and holding it in place around himself, despite enormous sea pressure, the hungry void of vacuum and / or extremes of temperature.  It is an obvious enhancement of the powers of Fixation and Constriction to secure the atmosphere around the moving Psion as a defense against environmental extremes.

 

System:  The Psion must roll Psi and spend 2 Psi to establish the stable zone.  The area is Psi meters in radius (although it can be made smaller if this is decided upon rolling to establish the field) and lasts for a number of hours equal to the successes rolled (and can be extended again for only 1 Psi, but a new roll must be made). The spherical bubble of atmosphere is not self-replenishing, but assume that the air in the bubble is enough to support one person for one hour / Psi rating.  This portable ecosphere will travel with the user, displacing all other gases or liquids and surviving even in vacuum.  It retains its ambient temperature and confers the benefits of Flame Immunity and Thermal Screen to all within as it regulates to prevent extremes of heat or cold from affecting the atmosphere (or people) within its confines.  The regulatory effects are not a perfect defense against sudden and unexpected changes, such as those from an attack, even if the field can protect against the more intense heat or cold of interplanetary space more effectively.  The field will slowly purge carbon dioxide from its outer surface (but not admit surrounding gases in any event) and thus will shrink as the breathable atmosphere within it is exhausted.  This power does not generate fresh or breathable air and any toxins or fluids generated within the area are not purged or affected in anyway.  Thus a Psion could come into an underground facility through a river entrance and enter completely dry through use of this effect, pushing water away from him as he moves, but once inside the facility and an opponent happens to move within his radius, that foes drug-spritzing L-K Sprayer will work just fine against the Psion.

 

 

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