Character Stats [ Spoiler ]
Naerdiell Arundel Montgomery
Street Name: Smoke
Human (Female)
Nuyen: 15,000
L/Style: Medium (3 mos.)
Karma: /
CS: /
Street Cred:
Notoriety:
Public Awareness:
Physical Stats
Body: 2
Agility: 4
Reaction: 3
Strength: 2
Mental Stats
Charisma: 5
Intuition: 4
Logic: 5
Willpower: 5
Special Stats
Edge: 3
Essence: 6
Initiative: 7
Active Skills
Sorcery (g) 4
Summoning (Spirits of Man) 7
Binding (Spirits of Man) 4
Banishing 3
Assensing 2
Close Combat (g) 2
Survival (Forest) 3
Perception 3
Dodge 2
Palming (Pickpocket) 4
Arcana 4
Knowledge Skills
European History 2
Ancient History 2
Occult Authors 3
Famous Serial Killers 4
Famous Murders 4
Forensics 2
Language Skills:
English 3
Sperethiel 3
French 2
Japanese 2
Qualities:
Positive:
Guts (+5)
Magician (+15)
Focused Concentration, Lvl 1 (+10)
Astral Chameleon (+5)
Pain Resistance, Lvl. 2 (+10)
Aptitude: Summoning (+5)
Negative:
SINner (-5)
Living on Borrowed Time (-30)
Elf Poser (-5)
Uncouth (-20)
Allergies: Pollutants (-10)
Spells
Spirit Zapper
Manaball
Manabolt
Physical Barrier
Armor
Invisibilty
Levitate
Increase Initiative
Influence
Equipment:
Sony Emperor Commlink (w/Renraku Ichi OS); sunglasses w/Image Link, Low Light, Flare Comp, Thermographic Vision; AR gloves; Trodes; Mage Sight Goggles; Earbuds w/Audio Enhancement, Select Sound Filter, Spatial Recognizer; Lined Coat; Hermetic Circle Supplies (Force 3); (2) Survival Knives; Medium L/style (3 mos.)
Contacts:
Talismonger: 2/2
Fence: 2/2
Character Background[ Spoiler ]
History: Naerdiell (pronounced Nay-er-dee-ell) was born 2051 to Lord and Lady Roget Montgomery. Her birth was foretold by a gypsy wise woman who promised Lady Montgomery “a daughter so beautiful the Old Gods would weep.” The family Montgomery held court within one of the oldest castles in England, The Arundel Castle. Long a titled family; all males of the family line were titled Earls of Norfolk, the line and the land fell into chaos with the coming of the Awakening. The land became fierce, growing wild seemingly overnight. The line itself was broken when the last Earl took his own life, drowning himself in his own moat (which was a wonder considering the moat had been dry for the last 150 years.) Shortly after his death, the castle passed to Naerdiell’s father, Roget Montgomery, a distant cousin who quickly took upon himself the title of Earl (a title that in reality was not granted).
By the time the Lord and Lady had taken up residence in the castle, strange rumors had already begun to spread and tales that were told before the turn of the century, before the Awakening were beginning to take on a new and eerie light now that magic had returned to the world.
People spoke of the spirits of the wood of Arundel, how they whispered and screamed at night, upsetting any animal that dared to venture to close to the wood. Soon, no livestock could be bred or raised within a mile of the wood, and no wild animal could be found to live within its shadow.
Other stories, stories of the young girl who threw herself from a tower window were told again. Told after travelers remarked that they had seen something white and in the form of mist, pass the windows of the second floor, then the third, finally falling and sliding out of the window of the corner tower. They spoke of a fifteen foot tall monk that claimed the chapel as his own, turning viciously on all who entered it.
Others spoke of the White Bird of Arundel, an omen said to appear only to the kin of the Montgomery clan, an omen meant to herald death for the one who sees it.
Before long, the rumors reached the ears of Lady Montgomery and she panicked. “She would not live in a place that carried such a legacy!” Unfortunately, the night she planned to leave Arundel with Baby Naerdiell, she slipped and fell down three flights of stairs, breaking her neck and hands. She died the next day and was buried in the castle courtyard.
Without a mother and with a father who spent much of his day drunk or hunting imported game, Naerdiell grew up a silent and lonely child, spending most of her time wandering the forest and playing games with imaginary friends. By the age of 12, she was already the beauty the gypsy had promised. She had long dark brown hair, a fair English complexion and strange lilac colored eyes. She was tall and slender, carrying the frame of an elven child although she was human. Her fingers were long and thin; perhaps on a child of a more attentive parent she would have been encouraged to play the piano or some other kind of instrument. Instead, she used them to pick her fathers’ pockets for loose change, shiny jewelry and other baubles. She would then take them into the forest and weave them into crowns for herself and “the fairies” to wear.
It was on one of these days of crown making that Naerdiell met the entity known as “Pierce”. She had ventured into a cave that she found near the ruins of what looked to be an old stone house. It was strange, because the house and the cave were completely new…located in a place she had frequented many times. Without much hope of anything else better to do, Naerdiell investigated the cave and found, much to her delight, an ancient looking skeleton calcified into stone. Beside the skeleton was a medallion of some sort, worn by water and time, the only image discernible was a rose and a bird.
As she studied the strange item, she became aware slowly of something behind her. Startled, she spun around and found herself face to face with a man. The man was tall, with the tipped ears she had come to associate with elves. He was dressed in strange clothes and his skin was studded with sharp thorns. In fascination, Naerdiell noticed that where the thorns pressed through the skin, blood welled.
She asked him who he was. He smiled and told her that his name was Pierce, that he was a distant traveler from a strange land and that he had come to hear her call.
She took a liking to the stranger and asked him what she was supposed to call for.
Power, he told her. The power to make things happen, the power to make people do what she wanted, the power, he said, to put the world on its knees. She already had the gift, he told her, she simply needed to learn how to use it, how to twist the energies of everything around her.
Naerdiell listened. She studied everything she could find; languages, history, geography… even astrology. She sat for hours at Pierce’s knee, listening to whatever he told her and eventually, when he judged her ready… doing whatever he told her.
She killed her first man at fourteen, seducing him and then leading him to the cave, where Pierce gave her a first taste of the power of blood magic. She killed a second man later that year, this time simply to watch him die, to understand the stages of death. She watched as the blood pooled out of his body, taking prodigious notes the entire time. By the time he breathed his last, she had filled a small notebook with her findings.
By the age of 18, Naerdiell had traveled the width and breadth of England, killing over 30 men and women in her search for knowledge. Her father, ever and always the drunk, never even noticed she was gone.
Finally, on the night of her 19th birthday, Pierce revealed his last and most special surprise for Naerdiell. He, was a spirit of great power, and he wanted to join with her, to create a pact between them a thousand times stronger then blood. She would become his and he hers… for eternity. Naerdiell was ecstatic. This was what she had been waiting for, finally someone with whom to share her life, her interests. She agreed.
That night he bade her come to the cave an hour before 3 a.m., there and then he would perform the ritual. She obeyed and slipped out of her room and into the forest just after 2 a.m. On her way to the cave, she felt the forest… change. The silence in the forest was deafening, the tension palpable. It was like a great current was arcing through every living thing, arcing over her head and just out of sight. As she stepped into the clearing, she could feel something coming and for a moment she was terrified. She turned and saw Pierce standing triumphant, something akin to love or hate in his eyes. She screamed and then felt the first jolt of electricity slam into her body, and then wave after wave. She could feel thousands of pin pricks needle her skin, she could feel her ears tearing, and she could see the blood running down her skin. She screamed again and again. For what felt like hours, she endured pain upon pain, each sensation bringing with it an image of a wood drenched in blood, of roses and of vines. She could see a woman with red hair and a terrible beauty standing before her, cold light in her eyes. The woman reached for her, seeming to offer some comfort and Naerdiell reached back. Then everything went still and black.
When Naerdiell came to, she found herself lying inside the cave and in excruciating pain. Pierce stood above her, blood red tears in his eyes. He told her that she could now truly be with him that he had waited and waited for such a moment. For the perfect woman and for the perfect magic… and now, she was created. He brushed her face… “You are so perfect and now, now we are one flesh.” Naerdiell sat up and screamed in agony. Staring at her once perfect hands, she saw the tips of what looked like bone pressing up through the skin. Her entire body was covered in the knife sharp needles. Running her hands along her body only brought more cuts as the thorns tore into the unprotected skin of her palms. Screaming again, Naerdiell bolted upright, swaying with the pain. Begging, she asked Pierce to make it stop. He shushed her and brushed her hair, and the pain melted away. He told her that he had performed a slight spell, a simple one, which would take her pain away. Naerdiell sobbed gratefully. She returned home that night, learning that she could often feel Pierce inside her head and that if she concentrated hard enough she could hear him.
The next morning brought new discoveries. Looking into the mirror, Naerdiell found that her hair had changed its shade to match the red hue she saw on the woman in her vision, and that her ears had elongated and tipped, becoming elven. Her eyes were larger and her skin more luminescent. She looked, for all intents and purposes, like an elf. It now seemed rather ironic and strangely fitting, that her late mother had named her for a Tolkien character, an elven woman. It wasn’t only her appearance that had changed, it was her power as well. Naerdiell was stronger, she could feel it. She could feel alterations in the aura of her home, of her room, subtle changes in magic she had never experienced before. Naerdiell felt triumphant…. Her father, on the other hand, felt quite differently.
Upon seeing her changed form, he branded her a freak, a changeling. He slapped her, drawing his own blood, and howled in rage. He drew his shotgun from its place on the mantle and leveled the barrel at her. He called her names like whore and the devils bride, telling her that she would end the same way her mother did. Naerdiell smiled and advanced on her father. When he pulled the trigger, the blast hit her full on the chest and yet she still came on. Her father’s eyes went wide, and then he screamed. It was the last sound he ever made. Her nails found his throat, her other hand ripped out his traitorous tongue. Within minutes, the man was dead. Naerdiell stood above his bloodied corpse and regarded him silently for a few minutes before quickly going to her room and packing a bag. Once she was finished, she pocketed a few of the more sellable family treasures and went back to the parlor. There she found their butler and family maid standing over her fathers’ body. Seeing her and her blood spattered clothing, they screamed. Naerdiell sneered with contempt and walked past them and out the front door.
Standing on the threshold, Naerdiell stopped cold. There, circling her in the air, was a white dove. Everything about it screamed magic, its aura was a bright blue and it disappeared as quickly as it came. Naerdiell knew what the white bird meant. It didn’t matter. She had Pierce. He had her. Nothing would come between them, not even death.
Character Info./DM Notes[ Spoiler ]
Character is a definite sociopath, in case that wasn’t clear. According to her own philosophy, other people are only as important as what she needs them for. After that, they’re pretty much expendable. She doesn’t care or have any need for anyone or anything, except for Pierce. He’s everything to her.
Character is a changeling, having surged on her 19th birthday during a freak mana-spike that Pierce foresaw. She is not a Blood-elf; she has, however, surged in such a way as to be remarkably similar to one. She has hundreds of small bony protrusions that jut through her skin at all angles, most of them located on her back and arms. Her ears and eyes have grown to mimic those of an elf, but she is not an actual elf. On the genetic level, she is still very much human. She does not have low light vision of an elf either.
Also, she’s very aware that given her already changed body that she is subject to ridicule and notice, because of this she tries very hard to maintain the elf-like appearance. She eats very little, almost to the point of starvation to keep herself lean. She also dances quite a bit to help foster the image of grace in her movements. Because of this, I’ve given her the “Elf Poseur” flaw.
Character has joined a Spirit Pact with Pierce, an old and twisted spirit of a Songbird assassin from Alachia’s court. Due to the high background count of the area of the cave and the fact that his strongest pattern item remained with him, Pierce was able to survive throughout the down cycle as a specter of sorts. He is of relatively low force, preferring to let Naerdiell think he is stronger. I was thinking a Force 8 spirit, but I’ll leave that decision up to you.
Character has the “Living on Borrowed Time” flaw. If you’ll notice in the narrative… she sees the family’s death omen, just something I’ve thrown in for you to use if you want to. She knows she’s going to die. She doesn’t know when but she knows it will be sooner rather then later.
Character has the Uncouth flaw as well. She was not raised around anyone but her father and the family’s hired help, so she’s never had to deal with anyone on any kind of social level before. That and a sociopathic personality tend to lead to communication conflicts.
Character does have a fair amount of money after having sold several family mementos to finance her flight to Seattle. She also has the Hunted flaw at level one after killing her father and being witnessed by the hired help. Whether or not anyone bothers to come looking for her is up to you.