Player: Siobhan

Talia Howell is a twenty-four-year-old Caucasian woman who graduated from the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at UMass Amherst with a bachelor’s in horticulture. She stands 5’10” and has well-toned arms and strawberry blonde hair. While she is thinking of going to graduate school, she currently works for the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, the agency that oversees the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, which sits atop the site of the former Big Dig. Talia works in the home office growing some of the more delicate plants before harvesting them and planting them in the parks. She has no siblings and rarely speaks to her parents; they had her because it was expected and are so wrapped up in their work they don’t really notice her. She grew up upper-middle-class, and came to Massachusetts for college. She lives in Somerville in a dinky attic apartment with unrestricted access to the roof. She grows pot illegally, and has since college. She started growing it for personal use and as a challenge, but started dealing to pay for college. Talia was in Boston during the riots, but has no memory of those days, except that she enjoyed herself thoroughly.

Talia Awakens as a Thyrsus mage.

Real Name: Talia Howell

Concept:

Age: 25

Path: Thyrsus

Order: Free Council

Virtue: Diligence

Vice: Pride

Obsessions: The Provincetown ruin

Aspirations:

Mental Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 3, Resolve 3

Physical Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 2, Stamina 3

Social Attributes: Presence 2, Manipulation 3, Composure 2

Mental Skills: Academics 2, Investigation 1, Occult 2, Politics 1, Science (Botany) 2

Physical Skills: Athletics (Sprint) 2, Brawl 1, Survival 1

Social Skills: Animal Ken 1, Empathy 1, Expression 1, Intimidation 2, Persuasion (Keep Talking) 2, Socialize 2, Subterfuge 2

Merits:

• Contacts 2 (Mayor’s Office, TBD): Atropa has contacts within these two organizations that can provide her with information (not services). This requires a Manipulation + Social Skill roll, depending on the method she uses and the relationship between the characters. The Storyteller should give a bonus or penalty (from –3 to +3 in most cases) depending on how relevant the information is to that particular Contact, whether accessing the information is dangerous, and if Atropa has maintained good relations or done favors for the Contact. If successful, the Contact provides the information.

• High Speech 1: Atropa can use High Speech as a Yantra in spellcasting.

• Mana Sensitivity 1: Hallows and stored Mana trigger Talia’s Peripheral Mage Sight, even without an active magical effect.

• Professional Training 2: Atropa chooses two Skills (Academics, Science) to be Asset Skills; when making rolls with those Skills, she benefits from the 9-Again quality. She also gains two dots of Contacts related to her field.

• Resources 1: Atropa has a little spending money here and there. Every item has an Availability rating and once per chapter, she can procure an Availability 1 item without issue. Obtaining an Availability 2 item reduces her effective Resources by one dot for a full month, since she has to rapidly liquidate funds.

• Status: Free Council 1: Atropa is a probationary Libertine and receives a +1 bonus to any Social roll involving those over whom she has authority or sway. Additionally, she can access Artifacts, Imbued Items, mentors, libraries, Grimoires, and other magical resources. The Storyteller should assign an Availability rating to the item she seeks, related to the power level or regular Merit rating. Atropa considers her Status dot as Resources for procuring these magical resources. Merits suitable for requisition include Alternate Identity, Grimoire, Hallow, Imbued Item, Library, Mentor, Resources, Retainer, Safe Place, and Sanctum, all with Availability equal to their dot rating.

• The Train Car (Shared) 12: The Young Turks have discovered and claimed a mysterious train car that shifts between the Red, Orange, and Blue lines; Sleepwalkers only register the car as ‘shut down due to hazard.’ The Train Car combines the Hallow, Safe Place, and Sanctum Merits; it produces 4 points of Mana per day and can store 12 tass before it becomes “dormant” and stops producing Mana until all the tass is harvested. Atropa can add +4 to her Gnosis within the Train Car for determining spell control. She can leave the Train Car and retain those benefits on previously cast spells, but if she’s exceeded her Gnosis and adds any additional, controlled spells, the benefit goes away, and Atropa must Reach as if she’d cast each of those spells without the benefit. Finally, the Train Car gives Atropa a +4 Initiative bonus while inside. Any efforts by rivals to breach the Train Car suffer a -4 penalty and must also contend with traps that cause 4 lethal damage. The traps may be avoided with a Dexterity + Larceny roll with a -4 penalty.

• Trained Observer 1: Any time Atropa makes a Perception roll, she benefits from the 9-again quality.

Wisdom: 7

Willpower: 5

Initiative Modifier: +4

Defense: 4

Armor: 0

Size: 5

Speed: 9

Health: 8

Gnosis: 3

Mana/per Turn: 12/3

Nimbus: Smell of fresh-turned loam (Immediate), the sound of wind rustling through leaves (Signature)

Nimbus Tilt: -1 Stamina, +1 Strength

Dedicated Magical Tool:

Arcana: Life 3, Prime 1, Spirit 2

Arcana Attainments:

Counterspell

• (Life, Prime, Spirit): Atropa can attempt to disrupt a spell using the specified Arcanum that is about to be cast. Counterspell is a Clash of Wills, pitting the acting mage’s Gnosis + Arcanum against Atropa’s Gnosis + Arcanum. She can attempt to counter any spell that uses the Arcanum, even if it uses other Arcana as well, but always counters the highest Arcanum of a target spell. Countering the spell of a mage with a higher rating in the target Arcanum requires Atropa to spend a point of Mana. Counterspell requires an instant action. If Atropa is employing Active Mage Sight, she can attempt to counter a spell of the appropriate Arcanum in combat, regardless of her position in the Initiative order, provided she has not used her action yet.

Lesser Utility Attainments

• Life 2 – Improved Pattern Restoration: Atropa can heal bashing damage at a rate of one wound per point of Mana, and lethal damage at a rate of one wound per two points of Mana. In addition, if Atropa Scours a Physical Attribute for Mana, any derived traits based on that Attribute are not affected.

• Spirit 2 – Spirit Eyes: Atropa detects spiritual Twilight phenomena with her Periphery and can automatically see spirits and projecting beings in Twilight with her Spirit Sight. If a spirit is using a power to hide, it provokes a Clash of Wills. With the expenditure of one point of Mana, Atropa can interact with spirits for a scene; she can speak with them, touch them, and even strike them. However, this renders her vulnerable to their attentions as well.

Mage Armor

Mage Armor requires a point of Mana to activate with a reflexive action, whereupon it remains active for the scene, even if Finn falls unconscious, unless he dies. Finn can only benefit from one form of Mage Armor at a time but can spend Mana to change between Arcana as a reflexive action. Mage Armors that increase Defense work against surprise attacks.

• Life Armor: Atropa adds half her Life rating (round up) as both general armor and a bonus to Defense. She also uses the higher of her Wits and Dexterity as Defense, rather than the lower. • Spirit Armor: Atropa downgrades lethal damage from kinetic attacks (bullets, claws, rocks, etc.) and the attacks of ephemeral entities to bashing.

Praxes:

Rotes:

Asset Skills: Academics, Science

Rote Skills: Crafts, Persuasion, Science