Name: Birdie (born Eirian Yates)
Seeming (Kith): Fairest (Muse)
Birdie Character Sheet (Updated 5/7/2020)
Birdie's Sporadic Internal Monologues
Mask
Birdie appears tto be a young, unnaturally beautiful woman, somewhere in the vicinity of twenty years old. She has fair skin, delicate features, and moderate curves on a very thin frame. Her eyes are a particularly dark green. Her shiny black hair is cut just above her shoulders and curls outward, excluding a long rat tail at the base of her skull. She prefers to wear fancy little dresses, preferably with ribbons and lace, and now, thanks to her frailty, can scarcely abide wearing anything less than expensive and upper class material without suffering physical damage.
Her mask is absolutely paper thin, and there's something wrong about it.
Mien
Birdie's mien is no longer so similar to her mask. Her hair is even shinier, and appears to be a very dark blue-green color when it catches the light - and at this point it's clearly feathers, not hair at all. Her rat tail is in fact a pair of long, curved white feathers, each with a black stem. The green in her eyes also stands out a considerable amount more, and she has blue-green feathers sticking out at the outer corners of her eyelashes.
At Wyrd 6, Birdie grew a pair of razor sharp feathers that come from the sides of her eyes and curl back around her ears, in addition to two rows of two inch long razor feathers extending in a line downwards from her ears down to her shoulders. She also has a large plume extending from each shoulderblade. Her arms and legs are now covered in sleek blue and green feathers, to the point that her skin is no longer visible. There are feathers on her torso as well, but not as many, the skin sitll remaining visible. She also now has a supernatural weight to her presence, likely due to her status as demi-fae. Her right hand is made of shining gold.
At wyrd 7, Birdie gained additional long, sweeping feathers on her feet and ankles, as well as long feathers extending from her collarbone that form a mantle of sorts around her shoulders.
At wyrd 8, Birdie's feathers took on additional colors, and her face became more refined and slightly alien. In addition to the improvement of sound caused by her entitlement, she now causes additional notes with every movement. Her longer feathers gained a visual distortion, to a lesser extent around her in general, and her presence carries a palpably regal bearing. All in all, it will now be much more difficult for Birdie to pass as human.
At wyrd 9, Birdie gained an unmistakable pale moonlight reflecting off her feathers, shimmering off a few that are iridescent, even in bright sunlight. It makes clear her special connection with Madness.
Now, as a member of the Lost Pantheon, Birdie carries in her mien a quiet tune made of the air rippling through her feathers. It is only easily audible in quiet, but everything else around her seems to sound quite musical in and of itself.
PHYSICAL / PERSONAL
Sex: Female
Apparent Age: On the younger side of ageless and alien, even in the mask
Actual Age: 20 or so
DOB: 1966
Date Taken: 1974
Hair: Black-ish
Eyes: Green
Skin: Fair
Nationality: Something British
Height: 5'5''
Weight: 109 lbs
MYSTICAL
Seeming: Fairest
Kith: Muse
Court: Autumn
Mantle: 5
Wyrd: 9
Glamour Pool: 50 / 10 per turn
Frailties: Commoner Cloth (Minor Bane), Birdseed (Minor Taboo), Politeness (Major Compulsion)
Current Dots of Contracts: 45
Entitlement: Ancient of the Lost Pantheon (goddess of song and madness)
MENTAL
Clarity: 2
Derangements: Narcissism, Need for Attention, Fixation, Suspicion (conspiracy variant), Phobia (birds), Loss of Compassion, Schizophrenia (not clarity linked), Impetuosity, Magic Compulsion, Megalomania
For your entertainment.
"I am putting every lie in alphabetic file, starting with 'All I Need Is You,' but baby don't go, come back inside and don't leave tonight..."
Alphabetic File :: Hotspur
"Well, I'm not cursed 'cause I've been blessed, I'm not in love 'cause I'm a mess."
Before the Lobotomy :: Green Day
"Bend me, break me, any way you need me, all I want is you. Bend me, break me, breaking down is easy, all I want is you."
I Think I'm Paranoid :: Garbage
"Nobody witnessed, she made a statement, side with the victim tossed on the pavement. Walks like she's innocent, talks like a saint, but she's lost, she's commitable, crooked as a criminal."
Criminal :: Hotspur
"Adelae, maybe you'll never get a second chance. Adelae, you're only social on the stimulants. It's okay, 'cause everybody knows your circumstance, so arch your back, girl, 'cause you're always on display, and you know you're only worth what you can pay."
Adelae :: The Pink Spiders
"I'm falling in the black, slipping through the cracks, falling to the depths, can I ever go back? Dreaming of the way it used to be... can you hear me?"
Falling Inside the Black :: Skillet
Monster :: Meg & Dia
Seeming Blessing
These changelings really are the Fairest of Them All, and their magic only emphasizes this. The player can spend Glamour to improve dice pools that include Presence, Manipulation and Persuasion. Each point spent increases one dice pool by one point.
A changeling counted among the Fairest also suffers no untrained penalty for using Social skills in which she has no dots.
Seeming Curse
The Fairest, similar to the creatures who stole them, can be callous and unfeeling, vicious and prone to toy with others, even people who love them. Their inner balance suffers for this. One of the Fairest suffers a –1 die penalty on dice pools to avoid losing Clarity (for example, the player of a Fairest with Clarity 5 who kills another changeling rolls two dice to avoid losing Clarity, rather than three).
Kith Ability (The Tyranny of Ideas)
The changeling’s presence can give a human the confidence and talent to do things that he otherwise would not be able to do. For every point of Glamour the changeling spends, the human subject (and it must be human; it can’t be another changeling or another supernatural being) gains +2 on one dice pool involving Expression, Persuasion, Socialize or Subterfuge.
Effect: Your character is exceptionally attractive by modern standards; heads turn and conversations stop when she enters a room.
For two dots, your character gets a +1 modifier to all Presence or Manipulation rolls when she attempts to use her looks to entertain, persuade, distract or deceive others.
For four dots, your character's looks are angelic; she gets a +2 modifier.
For six dots, holy fucking shit what even is this you guys; she gets a +3 modifier.
Drawback: The more attractive your character is, the harder it is for her to avoid notice in public. Witnesses to any criminal acts are much more likely to remember your character's appearance, and easily recognize her in a lineup. Your character is also likely to receive a great degree of unwanted attention in social situations.
Effect: Your character has somehow managed to acquire documents supporting a new identity since his return. In this age of background checks, paper trails and bureaucratic scrutiny, this is an incredibly handy resource to call upon, especially for changelings who have returned to find their old lives stolen by their fetches, or who have returned years or even decades after being taken and must forge new lives simply because it is functionally impossible to re-enter their old ones.
The number of dots spent on this Merit determines how convincing and in depth the documentation surrounding this new life actually is.
New Identity (••••) represents an identity that is essentially as real as any identity can be — it would take a truly dedicated, competent and time-consuming search by trained professionals to uncover any hint that the changeling isn’t exactly whom she claims to be, at least as far as her documentation is concerned.
New Identity Details:
Pseudonym: Elizabeth Banks, called "Birdie"
Stated Age: 21
DOB: 1/8/1989
"History": Elizabeth Banks was born in London. She began private voice lessons at the age of six at her mother's behest, though never aspired to any grander performing than that she experienced in school choral groups and her local church choir. She moved to Port Bowen two years ago to live with her uncle, Gabriel Kovakas, and to attend one of the city's universities. However, after completing her first year, she found university not to her liking, and withdrew to seek other opportunities. Being urged by her parents to seek new experiences if she was not going to return to school, she began her search for a way to put her vocal talent and love for the spotlight to the test.
Mantle represents a mystical connection with the elements and emotions that a particular Court embodies. The higher a changeling’s Mantle rating, the more he has come to embody that Court’s ideal — even if he is a hermit who doesn’t involve himself in local politics, a character with a high Mantle is still given at least grudging respect by his peers because of his obvious commitment to the values his Court cherishes. From a descriptive perspective, as a character’s Mantle rises, his fae mien reflects this ascendance, displaying both literal and figurative signs of the season. A character with Mantle (Autumn) • might be followed by a slight brisk breeze, for example, while one with Mantle (Autumn) ••• might have illusory leaves kicked up as she walks and at last at Mantle (Autumn) •••••, the character might be illuminated by late afternoon light and surrounded by a reflective hush similar to that found in a library. Specific examples of how a Court’s particular Mantle increases can be found in the “Courts” section in Chapter One. These trappings are not visible to mortals and have no real game effect, but should be used to enhance a character’s description and convey a sense of how rooted in her Court she has become. As a sign of brotherhood, Mantle adds to dice pools for social interaction with members of the Court in question. Each dot adds a +1 die bonus to relevant rolls with members of that particular Court. This Merit does not add to dice pools predicated on supernatural powers. Characters with no Court cannot purchase Mantle. Mantle also serves as a prerequisite for learning certain Court-related Contracts.
A character may learn clauses from the relevant Contract path of his Court, which generally require a certain amount of Mantle to learn, though he must still meet any other prerequisites as well. Should his Mantle fall or he adopt the Mantle of a new Court, he might no longer meet the prerequisites for some of his old Contracts; in that case, he must spend additional Glamour to activate those Contracts.
Members of the Ashen Court have an affinity for the magic of the fae. Mantle • provides a character two bonus dice on any Contract activation roll that uses Occult. As the character ties herself more strongly to the Court, she develops an affinity for the Fae. At Mantle •••, she adds one die to Empathy and Investigation rolls dealing with True Fae or Faerie. At Mantle •••••, they may re-roll any failed Occult roll dealing with magic (but not activating a power, such as a Contract or pledge). The results of the second roll stand.
This Merit measures your character's material resources, both possessions and wealth. All characters are assumed to have a job or a source of income (trust fund, parents) that is sufficient to cover their basic needs: food, shelter and transportation. Dots in this Merit represent disposable income - wealth and assets that can be liquidated for more money in case of emergency. The number of dots indicates your character's general level of wealth.
Two dots suggest moderate disposable income: $1,000 a month and approximately $5000 worth of assets.
Resources can be used to determine if your character can reasonably afford a purchase or expenditure. Equipment, weapons and items throughout these rules are assigned costs in dots.
If your character has the same or more dots in Resources, he can afford the item on his disposable income. That doesn't mean he has a blank check with which to buy everything he sees. He might be able to afford one or two items with a cost equal to his Resources dots in a single month. Items with lower costs can be acquired more often.
This fighting style replaces Fighting Style: Dream Combat (Rites of Spring 90) in our game. Several of its maneuvers are directly from that merit, though tweaks have been made for game balance.
Effect: Your character has honed her oneiromachy skills to a high degree, allowing her to push the envelope of dream-battle and take the dream-bound combat beyond the reach of less experienced or dedicated oneiromancers.
Dots purchased in this Merit allow access to special combat maneuvers that are only applicable for oneiromachy (dream-battles). Each maneuver is a prerequisite for the next. So, your character can’t have Double Team until he has Stunning Blow. The maneuvers and their effects are described below.
Disabling Blow (•): Your character knows how to make powerful attacks that weaken her enemies. When you choose this option your character inflicts one less point of damage than usual, counted after rolling to see if the attack succeeds. (For example, an attack that scores one success would still be a successful Disabling Blow, but inflicts no Willpower damage). However, each such attack imposes a –1 penalty on the opponent’s own attack rolls during the combat, until they are reduced to rolling a single die.
Mirage (••): Your character makes a special Environmental attack using her Subterfuge in place of Empathy. If your character scores even one success, her opponent finds their defenses have been compromised. Against the next attack – from any source – they use the lowest of their Finesse Traits for Defense and the lowest of their Resistance Traits as Armor.
Double Team (•••): Not content with a single avenue of attack, your character is adept enough with oneiromancy that she can coordinate an environmental and a personal attack against her target at the same time. The second attack suffers a -3 penalty. Drawback: Your character cannot use her Defense against any attack in the same turn in which she intends to use this maneuver. If she uses Defense against attacks that occur earlier in the Initiative roster, before she can perform this maneuver, she cannot perform the maneuver in the same turn, her attention is too focused on protecting himself.
Language: Old Gaelic (•••)
Meditative Mind (•)
Hollow (•••••) (Lucent)
Dream pledge with Prymja (+5 Adroitness, Occult)
Motley Pledge
Cult Pledge (+5 expression)
Schall Pledge (+5 Intimidation, +3 Subterfuge, +2 Athletics)
Warmth Rock (•)
Mask:
Mien:
Effect: Keeps you warm for 1 hour.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Drawback: For 1 hour after it deactivates, you are a bit too cold and can't get fully warm.
Catch: Suffering from hypothermia or in danger of frostbite.
[light circlet that will probably be given a fancy name later] (•)
Mask: A somewhat tacky silver-plated circlet with green stones that may or may not be plastic, has a battery pack on the side wired to a stone in the front.
Mien: A silver filigree circlet set with emeralds. The larger emerald on the front glows when the token is activated.
Effect: Creates a green light like a head-mounted flashlight.
Cost: 1 Glamour.
Drawback: Draws enemies to your location (weakly).
Catch:
Eye of Secrets (•••••)
Mask:
Mien: It's an eyeball in a jar. It's a lovely shade of blue. When activated, the eye glows.
Effect: See through all intentional concealment.
Cost: 5 success on an extended Wyrd roll or 5 points of glamour
Drawback: You cannot see the mortal world without taking a round to concentrate and make a successful Resolve + Composure.
Catch:
Secret Hat (•••••)
Mask:
Mien:
Effect: Disguises your actions as something else.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Drawback: Draw attention.
Catch: Must make effects of false actions happen.
Hula Girl (•••)
Mask:
Mien:
Effect: Once you leave the vehicle, will disguise it to look like a different but similarly sized vehicle. Won't work while the user is inside, and definitely not while in use.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Drawback: The vehicle is concealed from everyone, including you. It's gonna be hard to find. Will take some investigation to find it again.
Catch:
Narcissism (mild): Whenever your character succeeds at a goal (not simply succeeds in a roll, but achieves a desired end such as knocking a challenging opponent unconscious or hacking into a well-protected computer), it might go to his head and pump up his overweening ego. Roll Resolve + Composure to avoid a bout of vanity.
Effect: On a failed roll, your character does not work and play well with others - even if the victory that brings on a bout of narcissism was partly won with their aid. For the remainder of the scene, when called upon to aid in a task your character does so only halfheartedly, unless it's a task focused on her or her own needs or wants. She suffers a -3 penalty when participating in teamwork efforts (see p. 134). And she's such a self-obsessed bore that Social rolls all suffer a -1 penalty.
Birdie Is An Attention Whore: Birdie takes a -2 penalty when no one is paying attention to her.
Fixation (mild): If your character fails or succeeds at an important action such as leaping between buildings or making a getaway in a sports car, he might fixate on his loss or victory. Roll Resolve + Composure after such an event for him to avoid this unhealthy obsession.
Effect: If your Resolve + Composure roll fails, roll a single die. The result is the number of scenes in which your character is focused on the offending or inspiring event or task, to the possible exclusion of more important goals. He fixates on what he believes caused him to lose or win his goal, whether it's an opponent, a broken shoe-lace or the model of car driven. In the case of a defeat, he cannot help but simmer in anger, cursing a circumstance or trying to devise a method of circumventing it in the future. In the case of a victory, he becomes a fanatic, spending much of his time researching, observing or acclaiming an activity or factor that allowed him to succeed.
The Storyteller rules on how this derangement affects your character's dice pools or behavior. It might cause him a -1 on any task not related to his fixation, or he might refuse to engage in an activity if it doesn't somehow tie into his obsession. Since this derangement is potentially active for many scenes, rather than one, its effects should be mild but persistent.
Suspicion (Conspiracy-Style!): The mortal world is a lie. Everything is the Test. The Test must be completed. Only Birdie can complete the Test.
Phobia (groups of birds): Your character is scared of a particular type of person, place or thing such as lawyers, heights or spiders. When that trigger is encountered, a reflexive Resolve + Composure roll must be made successfully or your character suffers a bout of fear .
Effect: Your character moves away from the object of her phobia. If she must be near it, she can tolerate being no closer than her Speed in yards. If it approaches her , she must move away at least her Speed in distance in her next action. She cannot easily target the trigger with close combat or ranged attacks. Such attacks suffer a -5 penalty as your character shakes just looking at it. If space or circumstances don't allow her to maintain her distance, she freezes like a deer in headlights until she finds an opening by which to escape. (Her Defense still applies if attacked and she can choose to dodge and can take cover from Firearms attacks, but she can take no other actions while 'frozen.')
Note: One bird won't trigger. Nor will two. Three is uncomfortable. More than that, we're in phobialand.
Loss of Compassion: The character ceases to see other human beings as meaningful. He doesn’t kill at will (necessarily), but only because he realizes the penalties for this sort of action. He has come to believe that human beings are not the most important species on the planet, and, in fact, they are utterly insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
Effect: Whenever the character commits a sin against Morality that directly involves doing harm to another person, the player rolls one fewer die. For instance, if the character assaults another person, the player would normally roll two dice to avoid losing a dot of Morality. With this derangement, the player rolls only one. The roll to avoid gaining more derangements is unaffected. to be changed
Note: Affects changelings, not humans.
Schizophrenia: yeah that kind of happened
Impetuosity: Whenever there's a chance to do something fun and dangerous, you're compelled to follow through immediately without tedious plans or precautions. Resolve + Composure to be smart about it. More danger is more enticing, imposing penalties on the roll.
Magic Compulsion: Whenever faerie magic would help, you have to use it and damn the consequences. Running low on glamour, attracting attention, suffering a token's backlash, etc. are all irrelevant if the effect would improve things for you. Roll Resolve + Composure to suppress the urge to solve your problems with glamour. Examples: using contracts or tokens to solve a mundane problem, traveling through the hedge for your daily commute, or spending glamour on a Persuasion roll when angling for a discount at the grocer.
Megalomania: Like Narcissism, but -2.
Commoner Cloth (Minor Bane): Birdie cannot abide the touch of fabric intended for someone below her station. Contact with cheap clothing, dirty dishtowels, and other things of the like cause her skin to become reddened and swollen along with sharp pain, causing one point of bashing per round of contact. Expensive and "high class" fabric does not cause this effect, nor does utilitarian fabric.
Birdseed (Minor Compulsion): If someone spills seeds in front of her, Birdie must count them. Only applies for seeds that will grow if planted. Can be resisted for a scene by spending a point of willpower.
Manners (Major Compulsion): Birdie must abide by modern standards of manners at all times. If it's rude, she physically cannot do it.
Ask Me Thrice (Minor Bane): Birdie cannot tell a falsehood to a question asked thrice. Lying once is fine, lying twice is uncomfortable, lying thrice she will take a point of bashing for every time she tells the lie.
Freehold Membership: +1 to all rolls to conceal fae nature from mortals.
HIGH PRIORITY
LOW PRIORITY
THINGS IT WOULD BE REALLY COOL TO HAVE