Player: Andee

Cassandra Johnson is a twenty-three-year-old biracial woman and is separated from her husband. She’s short and a bit round, with curly, light brown hair and hazel eyes. She’s originally from Washington D.C. but came up to Boston for college. She met her future husband and dropped out of school when she got pregnant. They married too early, and their marriage fell apart after the baby was born but died a few days later. The baby was a girl, and she didn’t live long enough to get a name. (Cass and her husband wanted the gender to be a surprise.) Her parents are still together and live in the D.C. area; her father is black and her mother white. They were not thrilled that Cass dropped out, but have tried to support her after the death of the baby and the collapse of her marriage. Her now-separated husband lives in the area and works in the tech corridor in Tewksbury. Cass rents a room in a subdivided Victorian house in Malden and works at Artistic Blossoms Floral design on Newbury Street in Boston. She has houseplants and a hamster for company, and doesn’t really interact with her housemate, Lloyd Tremblay. During the riots of August 2008, Malden was outside the radius of the violence, so Cass spent those terrible days hunkered down in her room with her hamster.

Cass Awakened as a Moros mage.

Real Name: Cassandra “Cass” Johnson

Concept:

Age: 24

Path: Moros

Order: Free Council

Virtue: Caregiver

Vice: Self-indulgent

Obsessions: The Provincetown ruin

Aspirations: Get my life together (LT)

Mental Attributes: Intelligence 3, Wits 2, Resolve 3

Physical Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 4, Stamina 3

Social Attributes: Presence 3, Manipulation 2, Composure 1

Mental Skills: Academics 2, Computer 1, Crafts (Floral) 3, Investigation 1, Medicine 1, Occult 2, Politics 1, Science 2

Physical Skills: Athletics 1, Drive (Stick shift) 2, Forearms 1, Stealth 2, Survival (Forest) 1

Social Skills: Animal Ken 1, Empathy 1, Expression 2, Persuasion 1

Merits:

• Dream 1: Once per chapter, Chrysanthemum can enter her own dreams without a meditation roll when she sleeps; she must sleep or meditate for at least four hours. Then Andee may ask the Storyteller a yes or no question about the topic at hand. He must answer accurately, but can use “maybe” if the answer is truly neither yes nor no.

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

• Occultation 1: When someone attempts to scrutinize Chrysanthemum’s Nimbus to identify her or track her, she subtracts 1 from their rolls. The Withstanding level of sympathy for spells targeting her has a minimum of one.

• Potent Nimbus 1: Chrysanthemum adds 2 to her effective Gnosis when determining her Nimbus Tilt and adds 1 to any rolls to flare her Nimbus.

• Status: Free Council 1: Chrysanthemum 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. Chrysanthemum 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.

• Techné – Flowers 2: Chrysanthemum treats flower arrangement/care as an Order tool for the Free Council as long as she includes it during spellcasting and may further treat the presence of Sleepers engaging in the same activity as a separate Order tool, as long as the spell is not obvious.

• 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. Chrysanthemum 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 Chrysanthemum must Reach as if she’d cast each of those spells without the benefit. Finally, the Train Car gives Chrysanthemum 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.

Wisdom: 7

Willpower: 5

Initiative Modifier: +5

Defense: 3

Armor: 0

Size: 5

Speed: 11

Health: 8

Gnosis: 3

Mana/per Turn: 12/3

Nimbus: The smell of grave dirt (Immediate), the smell of dying flowers (Signature)

Nimbus Tilt: -1 Composure, +1 Resolve

Dedicated Magical Tool: Amulet containing her daughter’s ashes

Arcana: Death 2, Life 1, Matter 2, Mind 1

Arcana Attainments:

Counterspell

(Death, Life, Matter, Mind): Chrysanthemum 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 Chrysanthemum’s Gnosis + Arcanum. Shee 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 Chrysanthemum to spend a point of Mana. Counterspell requires an instant action. If Chrysanthemum 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

• Death 2 – Eyes of the Dead: Chrysanthemum detects ghosts and deathly Twilight phenomena with her Periphery and can automatically see souls and ghosts in Twilight with her Death Sight. If a ghost is using a power to hide, it provokes a Clash of Wills. With the expenditure of one point of Mana, Chrysanthemum can interact with ghosts for a scene. She can speak with them, touch them, and even strike them. However, this renders her vulnerable to their attentions, as well.

• Matter 2 – Permanence: Chrysanthemum may spend one Mana instead of using a Reach to use the Advanced Duration spell factor of a spell with Matter as its highest Arcanum.

Mage Armor Mage Armor requires a point of Mana to activate with a reflexive action, whereupon it remains active for the scene, even if Chrysanthemum falls unconscious, unless she dies. Chrysanthemum 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.

• Death Armor: Chrysanthemum downgrades lethal damage from kinetic attacks (bullets, claws, rocks, etc.) to bashing. She does not roll to stay conscious once her Health track is filled with damage.

• Matter Armor: Chrysanthemum applies her full Matter rating as general armor, applicable against all damaging physical attacks. It is immune to Armor Piercing but has no effect on mental or psychic attacks.

Praxes:

Rotes:

Rote Skills: Crafts, Persuasion, Science