Syrneth Flash Bomb (2 Points)
A Syrneth Flash Bomb is a small, metallic sphere set with six round crystals equidistant around the perimeter, at the nadir and zenith of the x, y, and z axes. Depressing any of these crystals activates the device. One Phase later, the device bursts in a blinding flash of light. Anyone who has not taken care to look away and cover his eyes (merely doing one or the other is not sufficient) when it activates suffers the following penalties:

• Any Current or Held Actions are immediately lost.
• The character’s next Action in the Round is also lost. If a character has no Actions remaining in the Round, this has no effect. If a character has two or more Actions with the same value in a future Round, only one is lost.
• The character’s TN to be hit drops to 5 until his next Action, or until the end of the Round (whichever comes first). During this time, the character is blinded and suffers the effects of being in Total Darkness, per the Montaigne sourcebook.

Example: a member of the Explorer’s Society is on the run from three angry cultists. On his first Action of the Round, during Phase 4, he activates this device. On Phase 5, the device detonates.

Each of the cultists has two Actions, on Phases 5 and 8, 6 and 10, and 9 and 9. The first cultist loses his Current (Phase 5) Action, as well as his Phase 8 Action. The second cultist loses his Phase 6 Action, and can act again on Phase 10. The third cultist loses one of his Phase 9 Actions, but keeps the other one. The Explorer (assume he has Actions on Phase 6 and Phase 8) can attack the Cultists, getting two attacks against a TN of 5, though he is probably better served by taking the opportunity to escape while the cultists are unable to follow.

Each flash bomb is single-use only, and is completely destroyed after it detonates.