Reactions

Alter Environment

Prerequisite: Nightmare, Shattered Space
Type: Complication (Any Attack)
The adversary suddenly warps the Area’s environmental conditions. Apply one of the following area effects to the entire area: Aflame, Darkness, Demolished, Extreme Temperature, Extreme Weather, Flooding, Overgrowth, Quaking, Sinking, or Underwater.

Further activations of this Dread Power can create cumulative conditions, but opposing circumstances may counter each other. A tunnel suddenly exposed to flooding may see that water flow rapidly freeze if the temperature then drops by 50 degrees.
Attitude Adjustment

Type: Complication (Influence)
The adversary can supernaturally coerce a shift in a Storyguide character’s attitude toward the protagonist. With a simple, nerve-touching phrase, the adversary shifts an attitude from positive to negative or vice versa, with the attitude resetting when the scene ends (unless the Accursed does something to justify the new attitude toward them).
Banishment

Prerequisite: Fright or higher
Type: Complication (Any Action)
The adversary can compel a character of a specified Lineage to move away from them. An adversary may possess this Dread Power multiple times for different Lineages. Frights can force a character to move one range band, Terrors can force a character to move up to two range bands, and Nightmares and Shattered Spaces can force a character to move up to three range bands away. The retreating character has control over their direction and can return once they’ve traveled the required distance.
Bend Minds

Prerequisite: Fright or higher
Type: Complication (Any Influence)
The adversary invades their victim’s thoughts, forcing them to do its bidding. The adversary implants a single suggestion in the target’s mind. If the latter accepts the influence, they must act upon the order during their next turn or at their earliest convenience when outside of combat. Orders such as “attack your friend” and “jump off the bridge” are valid options, but protagonists gain a +3 Enhancement on their Integrity action against directly suicidal orders. A player can choose to ignore the influence completely, which grants the influencing adversary +2 Enhancement on its next action against them.

For Nightmares and Shattered Spaces, this Dread Power forces a villainous Aspiration on a target which, if accepted, grants experience as usual when accomplished. Shattered spaces can reach targets within medium range of their location.
Binding Fetish

Prerequisite: Fright or higher
Type: Complication (Any Influence)
The adversary can lock a target in short range to a fetish within the same range. The target is bound to remain within short range of the fetish.

Bound characters cannot directly harm their adversary, but they can still communicate, attack others in range, or use Accursed abilities. If the character is inside an object, they can still think and use abilities not dependent on physicality or verbal communication.

The binding ends when the adversary wills it, if the adversary is reduced to 1 injury (or lower), if a different Dread Power or effect compels the target to move away from the object (such as the Banishment Dread Power), or if the fetish is destroyed.
Defensive Rebuke

Prerequisite: Fright, Terror, Nightmare
Type: Complication (Any Attack)
Whether peaceful, pitiful, awe-inspiring, or intimidating, the adversary’s mere looks discourage people from hurting them. The attacking character refuses to attack the adversary again this scene unless they can buy off a Complication (Frights: Minor, Terrors: Moderate, Nightmares: Major) or unless it attacks them first. If a character successfully buys off the Complication from this Dread Power, it cannot be used against them again this scene.
Desperate Surge

Type: Complication (Any Influence)
This adversary changes their weakness into a strength when the Accursed attempts to humiliate or manipulate them. The adversary can now, on one subsequent action, use their primary pool in place of their desperation pool to accomplish any action.
Devastating Blow

Prerequisite: Terror or higher
Injuries: Half
Type: Complication (Melee)
The adversary hits a character so hard that she immediately gains the Taken Out status effect. As examples of this power, a giant bat may swoop down and kidnap a character, while a Sorcerer might magically pull a house down on top of another.
This Taken Out status effect can be resolved by another character assisting the target (such as rescuing a kidnapped character or pulling them from the rubble).
The Devil’s Mark

Prerequisite: Fright, Terror, Nightmare
Type: Complication (Melee)
If the adversary makes a successful hit, they can use this Dread Power to replace any damage from this attack with The Devil’s Mark. This Dread Power grants all adversaries +1 Enhancement when tracking and attacking the target. For Frights, The Devil’s Mark lasts for the scene’s duration, or until the Enhancement is used. For Terrors and Nightmares, the effects last the story’s duration, or until the Enhancement is used. This Dread Power can be used up to three times on the same target, the Enhancement stacking to a maximum of +3. Adversaries can always sense that an individual with The Devil’s Mark is nearby, even if they’re not actively seeking one of the Accursed. A character cannot simultaneously be subject to the same adversary’s use of The Devil’s Mark Dread Power and the Fuel for the Fire Dread Power.
Devour

Prerequisite: Fright or higher
Type: Complication (Melee)
The adversary swallows their prey whole. While inside the adversary, the target can only make an Athletics action against difficulty 1 for Frights, 2 for Terrors, and 3 for Nightmares and Shattered Spaces to escape. Failure to escape inflicts 1 damage on the swallowed character. Each injury the antagonist suffers in the same turn lowers the difficulty to escape by 1, to a min-
imum of 1. Most adversaries can devour only creatures of smaller size, but exceptions exist.
Discorporate

Injuries: 1
Type: Complication (Any Attack)
The adversary breaks down into myriad hard-to-notice components and tries to escape. Ghosts might turn into motes of ephemeral energy, while other creatures could turn into a shadowy vermin swarm and scatter away. The adversary is under the effects of the Incorporeal quality for purposes of seeing, pursuing, and damaging it. If any component flees, the adversary returns to life at any point after the current scene, at the Storyguide’s discretion.
Dreadful Gaze

Prerequisite: Fright or higher
Type: Complication (Influence)
The adversary’s stare freezes their victim in place. The actual cause and effect may vary, applying either the Awed or Immobilized status effect: a gorgon may petrify its victims, while those captivated by an incubus are overwhelmed with lust. In any case, the target can’t break from the creature’s stare.

If the adversary takes a mixed action, moves further than short range, takes any damage, or otherwise loses eye contact, its target is freed. The target must be able to see the adversary, otherwise the power has no effect.

For Terrors, Nightmares, and Shattered Spaces, the adversary can inflict any one of the Awed, Exhausted, Immobilized, or Stunned status effects on its target when activating this power.
Elusive Shape

Prerequisite: Fright or higher
Type: Complication (Any Attack)
The adversary transforms into liquid or gas, allowing it to escape dangers. For the purposes of attacks and movement, the adversary counts as having the Incorporeal quality. It can return to its original shape with a simple action. When picking this power, select a source of damage, such as an element or tag. Attacks from this source can deal damage to the adversary, and once it has suffered enough damage to exceed its Defense, it becomes solid once again.
Exorcism

Prerequisite: Fright or higher
Type: Complication (Any Action)
The adversary can force a possessing target within short range to abandon its current host form. When the adversary is a Fright or Terror, the exorcism affects the target on their next turn. When the adversary is a Nightmare or Shattered Space, the exorcism can instead be immediate. The target cannot return to that body in the same scene and is expelled to close range from its prior host. Excised entities gain the Dazed status effect on the round they leave their host body.
Explosive Demise

Injuries: 1
Type: Complication (Any Attack) or Simple Action
Even when defeated, the adversary has one last surprise for their enemies. The adversary immediately explodes, dealing 1 damage to all characters within close range and benefiting from the Piercing tag. An adversary may use this Dread Power as a simple action before reaching 1 injury to immediately explode, dropping to 0 in the process.
Fuel for the Fire

Prerequisite: Fright, Terror, Nightmare
Type: Complication (Melee)
If the adversary makes a successful hit, they can use this Dread Power to replace any damage from this attack with the following effect: the adversary steals a snatch of hair, a fingernail, or sliver of skin. With this component gains +3 Enhancement on their next action opposing the targeted character. For Frights, Fuel for the Fire lasts for the scene’s duration, or until the Enhancement is used. For Terrors and Nightmares, the effects last for the story’s duration, or until the Enhancement is used. This Dread Power can only target a character once, after which the Enhancement must be used before the Dread Power can target them again. A character cannot simultaneously be subject to the same adversary’s use of The Devil’s Mark Dread Power and the Fuel for the Fire Dread Power.
Hypnotize

Type: Complication (Any Action)
The adversary’s presence charms and beguiles those who interact with it. The character immediately suffers from one of the following status effects, chosen at the time of the hypnotism: Ennui, Frayed Temper, Guilt-Ridden, or Sleeping Pills.
Illusions

Type: Complication (Any Attack)
The adversary creates vivid, almost tangible illusions that grant the adversary +1 Durability Advantage against attacks. They may be magical or technological in nature: phantasmal simulacra and credible virtual-reality environments are each possible. Piercing an illusion requires an Empathy or Esoterica action against the adversary’s Integrity. In a battleground, each illusion summoned has the traits of their summoner with half their injuries rounded up. They can physically attack protagonists.
Infective Eruption

Prerequisite: Fright, Terror, Nightmare
Injuries: 1
Type: Complication (Any Attack)
The adversary tears itself apart and exposes those nearby to a virulent strain of its infection. Some creatures’ bodies rupture into a mass of grubs, while others unleash a nauseating rain of blood and corrupted flesh. The adversary dies, but every character up to short range suffers +2 difficulty resisting infection (see the Spread Infection quality, p. XX) and, if they fail, immediately begin their Infection at level 2.

This power can be activated with the Discorporate Dread Power, in which case the adversary avoids death should any of its components survive.
JINX

Prerequisite: Fright or higher
Type: Complication (Any Action)
The adversary places a curse on the protagonist due to their most recent action inflicting the Unlucky status effect.
Leap

Type: Complication (Any Action)
The adversary moves two range bands in a single bound, be it an impressive jump, an eldritch blink, or any other means of sudden movement. If this happens following a ranged attack, the adversary may use Leap to close the distance with their attacker.
Obsessive Urge

Prerequisite: Fright or higher
Type: Complication (Any Action)
The adversary has a way of getting inside the head of its target and compelling them to repeat the same action over and over, whether that action be firing bullets into the same body, reloading the same website for an update that never comes, or uttering the same sentence. The target suffers the Immobilized and Confused status effects simultaneously, with the distinction that they can move and act — but only within the adversary’s prescribed pattern. For all other purposes they’re immobile and addled. The character is compelled to repeat the same action in each subsequent turn until they overcome both status effects.
Possession

Type: Complication (Melee)
The adversary takes over the attacker’s mind and wears their body. The adversary chooses the attacker’s next action and uses the higher dice pool between the host’s and its own for actions. The character can refuse this possession as with any other influence action, granting the adversary +2 Enhancement on their next action against the character. (Other SGCs can be permanently possessed at Storyguide discretion, however.)
Terror adversaries choose the character’s next two actions. Nightmares choose the character’s next three actions.
Pull

Type: Complication (Any Action)
With a fiery whip, grabbing tendril, gravitational clutch, or any other method, the adversary drags its victim right into their grasp. The attacker is moved two range bands closer to the adversary.
Read Minds

Type: Complication (Influence)
The character reveals too much of their inner mind when interacting with the adversary. The adversary learns an important piece of information about the character, such as a short-term Aspiration, her worst fear, the name of her patron, or the name of a loved one.
Spawn

Prerequisite: Fright or higher
Type: Complication (Any Action)
The adversary summons a number of Shivers equal to the player characters involved in the scene. The Shivers’ qualities are left to Storyguide’s discretion. Shivers may be summoned magically or physically to the scene, depending on the nature of the adversary and their Spawn. For example, a host of parasites spews grubs within close range of itself, while an alarmed safe draws guards from an outpost at long range from its location.
Spirit Away

Prerequisite: Terror, Nightmare
Injuries: Half
Type: Complication (Grapple)
The adversary locks its unfortunate victims into its grasp and drags them to another realm. This power opens a portal to any location, regardless of distance. The portal remains open for the rest of the scene. Creatures often have a specific place or single general location assigned to this power, like their lair or a certain battleground. Both the adversary and the target are no longer in the Area of the initial attack and are considered Taken Out until followed or upon their return.
Sundering Impulse

Type: Complication (Any Attack)
The adversary releases a disruptive manifestation of power that breaks their opponents’ equipment, like a destructive burst of freezing cold, an EMP, or a vicious curse. Choose one item that breaks. It must be repaired with an Artistry, Science, or Technology action before it can be used again.
Terrible Howl

Prerequisite: Fright or higher
Type: Complication (Influence)
The adversary’s voice leaves the target shaken. As with Dreadful Gaze, the origin and effect may vary, applying the Terrified status effect. Unlike Dreadful Gaze, the target isn’t locked in place but instead compelled to flee.
For Terrors, Nightmares, and Shattered Spaces, the adversary can inflict either the Dazed or Terrified status effects on its target when activating this power.
Time Reversal

Prerequisite: Nightmare, Shattered Space
Type: Complication (Any Action)
The adversary has limited control over the flow of time and is able to rewind time to the start of the present round. Every character affected has a subconscious inkling of what has occurred, but only the adversary who used the Dread Power is fully aware of its activation. The adversary resets their physical position and that of all other characters present to where they were at the round’s start.
Every character who acted previously can choose new actions, as they are not bound to the actions of a single timeline. This Dread Power can only be used by an adversary once per round.
Unholy Onslaught

Prerequisite: Fright or higher
Type: Complication (Any Attack)
The adversary unleashes a burst of energy channeled from a battleground and through their body. The elemental storm typically manifests as a distorted reflection of a Sorcerer or Outcast’s magical powers, such as tendrils of twisting darkness or scourging light no mundane mortal could withstand. This power takes the shape of a ranged attack action with two tags chosen from the Brutal, Painful, Stunning, and Wounding tags.