Character:
Like all of the Skriatok orks from the Urals, Dagda has an overwhelming desire to accumulate gold and drink vodka, seemingly gaining little nutrition from anything else. He often feels socially isolated due to peoples mis-perceptions of his drinking, and this feeling of isolation feeds paranoia about people trying to steal his gold. This feeling of isolation and paranoia often leads him to stonewall friendly advances from even the best intentioned, and he's prone to flights of temper he later regrets, and this trap of isolation, paranoia and bitterness feeds on his chosen profession.

He's very proud of his increasing stature - now over two meters from a starting point of 1.3 when he arrived in america, and while he would never say anything about it, he always wears clothes that accentuate his height and build.

Dagda has been working the shadows for a while and is acclimatised for brutality and violence, but he tends to look for an alternative solution to violence when he feels the situation is under control, but when he feels directly threatened or the situation is escaping his grasp he becomes progressively more likely to escalate the situation beyond all reason.

He's moved to L.A. because the 'scene' is hot for those that want to make a buck, but the idea of publicity has him on edge. He's not fresh off the boat from russia either, having been working in the UCAS and CAS for the last couple of years, and while the Skritok themselves are from a backwards area of the world, he's picked up a functional understanding of technology from exposure.


Motivation for running the Shadows:

Dagda wants money, and lacking a real status a legal immigrant, he can either work with the Vory, or become a free lancer. As he's totally convinced that the Vory would stab him in the back and steal his gold, he's gone for option B. While he's been doing quite well for himself, he's moving to L.A. in an effort to find some higher paying contracts to fund his ever growing consumption of alcohol as he grows bigger and and his needs become more expensive.

Description:
Dagda is big, tall and muscular. Dagda has ambitions of being bigger too, and is prone to wear boots (cowboy or combat) whenever possible, and the cut of his clothes reflects his desire to be even taller, while showing off his physique. His skin an unusual grey colour reminiscent of marble with a faint patina and sheen. Unlike other Skritok Dagda keeps his lichen confined to his chest, back and arms, opting not to wear a shirt when he is at home relaxing.

Dagda dresses smartly in good quality clothes, again reflecting his desire for status, although he never really follows fashion trends. On the street he goes for casual jeans and a shirt, always with thick soled heavy duty combat boots and usually with his armoured jacket, but will 'dress up' the occasion with his auctioneer suit if required.

On runs he typically uses his augmented chameleon suit, with a ood and his bulky mage sight goggles obscuring his face.

He keeps his various gold fetishes on a chain under his shirt, concealing them from view.

History:

Dadga is one of 12 brothers and sisters from a poor Skriatok family working in the mines in the Urals. However, his family wasn't always poor, his patronymic harks back to a time when his family was the big men in the area. Faced with a long time of small status and hard labour, and gifted with great magical talent, Dadga decided to strike out for the 'big smoke' that he saw on the village's only trideo screen, where booze was cheap and the streets were paved with gold to reclaim his family's status and heritage.

While life hasn't quite panned out like the trids said it would for Dagda, he drifted into Moscow and got his first break in the illegal crime business doing work for some Vory connections, warding premises where illegal deals were going down to prevent astral spying. Work which paid good money, more than Dagda had ever seen before. So much so that he could finally afford a couple of bottles of cheap vodka a week and quell that hunger. Once day they asked him if he'd like to do something more, and in return they'd give him a few ounces of gold. And so it began, helping the Vory run heroin out of the war zone Afghanistan, then his first murder - a cycle of desire, paranoia and greed that eventually drove him out of Russia as the Vory came to regard him as increasingly unstable and started to cut him loose.

So he gritted his teeth and got an LEO shot to the next big land of oppotunity. One sever bout of motion sickness later, Dagda reached the land of the free - America! Since then he's been working his way down the eastern seaboard, picking up good work and money, but never really setting down roots. Now he's come to L.A. in search of that sense of the rightness

Meta variant:

NOTE FOR DM: I'd like to run with some 'unique' flavour text here, I'm more than happy to back out anything you find objectionable, and if you'd prefer a more 'traditional' ork, that is fine too. This is loosely based on myth, something by franktrollman for another game, and perceptions of russians

Skriatok are an obscure and little known tribe of orks with grey skin with a faint sheen of marble, hailing from the Urals in Russia. Typical heights and weights seem to vary wildly, and while individual Skriatok refuse to discuss the matter, meta-sociologists know that the size of a Skriatok varies with their social standing - and every Skriatok judges their social standing by the amount of gold and vodka they can afford.

Rumours abound that if a Skriatok fails to touch reasonably pure gold for three whole days, he will transform into inanimate stone with the rising of the sun on the fourth day �€“ and remain a statue until gold is again touched to its form. On the other hand, a Skriatok who touches more than a modest amount of gold every day for a month will find himself growing, with his appetites outpacing his increase in size. It is telling that some Skriatok big men who own mines in the resource rich areas are as much as 4 meters tall and drain a barrel of the strongest local firewater every day, while the poor miners who work in those mines are lucky to stand 1.2m tall.

Skriatok gain nutrition from little other than moss and alcohol, though their demands of these substances are surprisingly modest considering. Most Skriatok allow lichen to grow on their bodies, which in turn mostly limits itself to positions other races grow hair. The specific gravity of a Skriatok is usually about 3 and they sink rapidly in water.

Skriatok have a reputation for being greedy, unfriendly, jealous, and mean. This is not unwarranted as Skriatok are frequently subjected to paranoid delusions that others will attempt to part them from their gold, their vodka, or their rock algae. Due to Skriatok's close bonds with the earth, and aversion to air and sea travel they are rarely seen outside of their native mountains.

Body 4
Agility 2
Reaction 2
Strength 3
Charisma 2
Intuition 5
Logic 2
Willpower 5
Edge 5
Magic 5


Stealth (Group) 1
Athletics (Group) 1
Influence (Group) 1
Assensing 6
Binding 4
Counterspelling 4
Spellcasting 4
Summoning 4

Perception 1
Pilot Ground Craft 1
Automatics 1
First Aid 1

Organised Crime 4
SW:Magic 5
Political Theory 4
Russian N
English 4
Japanese 4

<<Positive Qualities>>
Astral Chameleon
Mentor Spirit (Owl)

<<Negative Qualities>>
Geas - Must touch a lump of gold every day
Geas - Must Drink alcohol every day.
Sensitive System
Incompetence: Swimming

Contacts:

Johnno the Hatchet - Fixer Loyalty 1: Connections 5

Johnno is a LA based fixer who Dagda met doing some work for a run Johnno was fixing for in Dallas. Johnno mentioned that there was plenty of high profile work for the taking in LA, as well as sponsorship dollars ripe for the plucking.

Tradition

Health - Plant - Skritok have a symbiotic relationship with their lichen, Usually appears as moss or lichen closing over wounds, or as a large mossy Skriatok
Illusion - Man (Or more accurately, Skriatok) - Skriatok believe that only people are capable of lies, and nature always tells the truth if one knows how to look. All illusions are lies, and all lies are the lies of men.
Manipulation - Task - Skriatok have a relationship with gold and metal smithing, and spirits of the forge have strong resonance with their culture
Combat - Earth - Skriatok regard themselves as people of the earth and call on the protection of the fatherland for protection.
Detection - Guidance - Skriatok regard themselves as people of the earth, and turn to the earth to determine the way. Traditionalist Skriatok will not engage in the smallest of business dealings without casting runic obsidian sticks to determine if events will be auspicious.

Drain: Intuition + Willpower

Traditional Skriatok religion is based on a conception similar to Taoism, of the way and an intuitive understanding of the fine balance between all things. Skriatok as a people have a strong affinity for the earth and for metals, and their religion reflects this, a Skriatok will feel grounded when his feet are on the floor, and at peace while working metal, basking in the sunlight, or tending to his garden. Skriatok see the world as something to be tended and

Fetishes:

Health - Gold plated hip flask x2

Manipulation: Solid Gold Pendant Hammer x2

Illusion: thin sheet of gold plated metal with the story of the snake in genesis embossed on it in Russian. x2

Power Focus R2: Orchiclum Ying/Yan symbol.

Spells: All spells limited by fetish and Geas

Heal
Shape [Material] (Environ.)�ž
Physical Mask (Realistic, Multi)
Trid Phantasm (Realistic, Multi)
Mana Static (Environ.)�ž
Turn to Goo (Physical)
Control Thoughts (Mental)
Fix (Physical)�ž

Equipment:

Commlink Transys Avalon + Navi 4/4/3/4
Metal Link + Vector Xim 1/2/1/1 Commlink

4 Stealth Tags
5 RFID tags

Rating 3 Agent

All common usage programs rating 6 - RF
Attack, Decrypt

High Lifestyle Lifestyle

Mage Sight Googles
Flare Compension
Image Link
Smartlink

Starting Money Maxing Out - 13000 Nuyen on hand

Mercury Comet Sedan


RFID Sensor with Atmosphere Sensor 3
Gieger counter in RFID
Cyberware Scanner R6 in RFID
MAD Scanner R3 in RFID
8 x skinlinks for the gear
Belt clipped Sensor suite (hand helded size) with
Motion Sensor

Rating 6 Medkit (Evo Treatment+ Healthcare pack)
Rating 6 Respirator (Evo advanced toxicology management system)
Ingram Smartgun (Evo urban tactical line - Subcombat Assault Weapon)
Four Spare clips
200 rounds Clips 1-4


FNHAR
Four Spare clips
200 rounds Clips 1-4
Armoured jacket
5 x CS gas Grenades

Chamelon Suit (Evo Combat Stealth Suit - Prestige Edition)
Helmet
Chemical Protection
Fire Resistance
Insulation
Non conductivity
Thermal Damping

2 Rating 4 Fake Sin
2 x 4 x Permit (Rating 4 SMG, Focus, Mage, Assault Rifle)

1x Actioneer Business Clothes
Combat Lonestar iBall
2x MCT Fly Spy

Rating 2 Fake Sin
2 x Manipulation, Illusion and Health Fetish

Rating 6 White noise generator
Earbuds (Evo Audio Accuity Aids)
Audio Enhancement 3
Select Sound filter
Subvocal Microphone
Ar Gloves

L.A.’s air was as bad as its reputation. That was DD’s conclusion after stepping out from the climatised airport. Nothing that couldn’t be fixed by some AR though – a quick mental command, and the stench was gone, replaced with „SeaBreeze Scent“ courtesy of her simrig. Her luggage – two suitcases containing all her belongings, mostly clothes, were trailing behind her, the small electromotors, controlled by her commlink, shutting down when they had caught up to the blonde woman.

The sky though was playing ist part, blue and clear – unless one looked towards downtown, which was covered by yellowish smog. Another mental command later „Pacific Dream“ had fixed that in DD’s vision. She looked around, a blinking icon notifying her of about a dozen blocked advertising messages and one invitation to a drink coming from the ork at the other end of the cab waiting area.

DD pulled her designer sunglasses down as she turned to look at the ork, her zeiss eyes shining with the latest skin from the „radiant blue“ line as she sized him up. Good suit, probably Armante, polished tusks –with platinum tribal symbols inlaid, as her vision magnification showed – and a good physique, muscled, but not in the „I want to be a troll“ way some orks subscribed to. But the shoes… those were so last season, and looked a bit worn. DD smiled as she checked the profile in the Ork’s PAN. Hype, hype, and the usual interest points that could be summed up with „I like women. In bed.“. She knew the type, had met the likes a lot in the last year, usually paid to keep them company, and more. She wasn’t about to spend an evening with one for a drink and dinner.

DD kept smiling, but turned away, sending a „I am sorry, but I already have plans his evening“ message to the Ork while checking the growing amount of blocked advertising messages – thank god for a customised spam filter - for a cab. She did have plans – find a hotel, then find a flat, then make it big in L.A.!

Finding a cab that suited her, she walked over to the car, an ARO pointing it out. No metahuman driver, just an expert system awaited her, but she swayed slightly on her gucci heels anyway. After a year or two in the trade in New Orleans, it was ingrained into her, and if she wanted to hit it big, she would have to get used to act every second as if cameras were on her – soon they’d be!

She looked around for some help lifting her luggage into the car, but the Ork was already staring at the next woman coming out. So much for chivalry. In a fit of piqué after stowing her suitcases, DD considered hacking the Ork’s commlink and making some creative changes to his profile, but decided against it. She wasn’t here for petty revenge, but to become a star in L.A.’s runner scene.

DD had all it would take, in her opinion – a killer body, pretty face, sharp mind, style, skills, and determination. And a name. That was the most important thing she had taken with her to L.A., a contact. A contact of a contact, to be precise, courtesy of Emanuel, her old boss in New Orleans. But it would be enough to get her started in L.A..

As the car sped on the next highway, towards the hotel she had a reservation in, DD leaned back in her seat, watching the city through the windows. She’d spent close to two years working on her back in New Orleans to arrive here with the implants, gear and skills she had. She would not waste her chance.

Attributes
Body: 3
Agility: 3
Reaction: 3
Strength: 3
Charisma: 4
Intuition: 3
Logic: 4
Willpower: 4

Edge: 2
Magic: 5 (4)
Initiative: 6
Essence: 5.44

Knowledge Skills
English : N
Latin : 3
Magic Background : 4
Area Knowledge LA : 1
Magical Threats : 4
Pirate Trid Broadcasts : 3
Club Music : 3
Trid Special Effects: 3

Active Skills
Influence Group: 2
Con : 2
Etiquette : 2
Leadership : 2
Negotiation : 2

Stealth Group: 1
Disguise : 1
Inflitration : 1
Palming : 1
Shadowing : 1

Dodge : 1
Perception : 1
Pilot Ground Craft (Wheeled) : 1
Unarmed Combat : 2
Pistols (Semi-Automatics) : 1
Spellcasting (Illusion) : 6
Counterspelling (Combat spells) : 2
Assensing (Aura Reading) : 1

Positive Qualities
Magician (Shaman’s path)
Negative Qualities
Incompetent (Gymanastics)

Cyberware
Datajack
Cybereyes Basic System (Rating 3)
+ Flare Compensation
+ Low-Light Vision
+ Protective Covers
+ Thermographic Vision
+ Vision Enhancement (Rating 2)
+ Vision Magnification
Sim Module

Guns
100*Regular Ammo
100*Gel Ammo
10*Spare Clips
Hammerli 620s

Clothes/Armour
Clothing (Très Chic)
Clothing (Chic)
Leather Jacket
Actioneer Businnes Clothes
Urban Explorer Jumpsuit

Vehicles
Honda Spirit (Subcompact)

Commlink
OS : Novatech Navi
Commlink : Transys Avalon
Firewall (Rating 6)
Analyze (Rating 4)
Stealth (Rating 4)

Subvocal Microphone

Equipment
Glasses
Earbud
+ Select Sound Filter (Rating 2)
+ Audio Enhancement (Rating 2)
2x Fake Sin (Rating 4)
1: Carroway Harper, A special effects artist from London
2: Martris Drayke, A student on a travel Visa from London
Spellcasting Focus (Rating 2) <Bound>
5x Disposible Syringe with Narcojet loaded in them.

Spells
Physical Mask
Trid Phantasm
Foreboding
Improved Invisibility
Makeover
Fashion
Knockout
Influence
Bugs

Contacts
Jacob Bones (L:1 C:3)
Talent scout in LA

She is not using her enthralling performance power - this is just normal dancing.
[3,1,1,3,1,6,3,1,4,5,3,2,6,4,1,6,4,4] = (4)