User:LawnPygmy/Geist in Black

Basics

• Name: Agent Amanda Gibson
• Age: 32
• Height: 5'7"
• Virtue: Loyalty
• Vice: Unfeeling
• Threshold: Silent
• Archetype: Undertaker: 'Let no one go unremembered.'
• Experience Points: 168/190 spent, 0/0 Krewe XP Spent

Background

Agent Gibson's date of death is listed as August 13th, 2037, but if you were to ask when her life truly ended, it was when her parents died of nearly simultaneous heart attacks four months prior. Her relationship with her parents had been tense, but a tenseness born of love for them. They'd been her closest friends, and even their frustrating political views (the reason for several very heated arguments) couldn't dim her love for them. So, when they died, she was adrift. She left for Rome after nearly three months of grieving, to 'get away from everything'. She planned to surprise distant relatives there, and to let herself heal in the balmy Mediterranean sun.

Unfortunately, she never got that far. She's unsure when or where she was taken. All she remembers is waking up in a filth-encrusted cell with several other women, surrounded by grinning African men. Events became a blur of starvation, lapping up scummy water and whatever leavings her captors left her and her cellmates. Occasionally, one of them would disappear and return looking paler than before. Other times they wouldn't come back at all. Her turn came, again and again, and she eventually wound up too tired and broken to resist. Fatigue dug its claws into her, despite her attempts to fight it off, and she was dumped into a stinking pit, half-filled with emaciated and rotting bodies.

Here, her memory fades, coming in stark flashes against a hungry haze. A sympathetic face, a steel claw. The sound of a zipper being pulled up over her head. And then a face pressing in against the darkness surrounding her. It held a vinyl-covered hand to her, and she grabbed it, knowing instantly what it meant. She woke up in the DPA morgue, screaming and thrashing inside of her refridgerated locker, when she was found by the department's coroner.

In the eight years she's spent since then, she's refused to lay down and quit, throwing herself into her treatment, and then her work as a DPA field agent once she gained their trust. What time she hasn't spent working has been spent raising her beautiful little girl, Lacey, a souvenir of her captivity.

Appearance

Gibson is pretty, in a sort of generic way. Dark-haired, fair-skinned, and green-eyed, with a frame somewhere between athletic and curvy. Her hair is pulled back in a loose braid, and her face is nearly always shrouded by a pair of incomprehensibly black glasses. Her suits are always well-tailored, and always the same matte black as her glasses. When not wearing those, she wears a polarized set of prescription glasses, and her expression seems to be locked in a sort of neutral moue of distrust.

ATTRIBUTES

MENTAL			PHYSICAL		SOCIAL
------			--------		------
Intelligence: 	2	Strength:		2	Presence: 	2
Wits:		4	Dexterity:	        5	Manipulation: 	4
Resolve:	3	Stamina:		2	Composure: 	2

SKILLS

MENTAL (-3 Unskilled)	PHYSICAL (-1 Unskilled)	SOCIAL (-1 Unskilled)
------			--------		------
Academics:	1	Athletics: 	3	Politics: 	1
Computer:	1	Brawl: 		0	Empathy: 	5
Crafts: 	0	Drive: 		0	Expression: 	0 
Investigation:	5	Firearms: 	5	Intimidation: 	4
Medicine:	1	Larceny: 	2	Persuasion: 	4
Occult: 	2	Stealth: 	1	Socialize: 	1
Cunning: 	5	Survival: 	0	Streetwise: 	2
Science: 	1	Weaponry: 	0	Subterfuge: 	3

SPECIALTIES

• Persuasion *: Good Cop
• Intimidation *: Bad Cop
• Firearms ***: Pistols

SKILL TRICKS

• Size Up: Given one turn to check out an opponent before (or during) a fight, the character makes an educated guess about that character’s capabilities. This

doesn’t necessarily mean that the character can recognize whether someone in trained in combat (which is more the province of Brawl). Instead, the character can tell if the target is a smoker (labored breathing), has a trick knee (slight limp), or has vision problems (squints, looks at objects sideways). The character immediately knows the target’s Health rating and whether he is currently injured (and to what degree). Also, once during the fight, the player can make an attack roll into an advanced action

Plot Hook: The guy has a knife wound in his side. He should have been easy pickings. But he’s not slowing down, not acting hurt, and not… bleeding anymore.

• Don't Mess With Me: Gibson looks dangerous enough that attackers think twice. Add her Intimidation to the her Defense. This bonus is lost for the scene if she fails an attack roll or suffers more than three points of damage.

ADVANTAGES

MERITS

• Professional Training */*** - (Cunning, Persuasion, Intimidation) Take two dots of Contacts relating to her field. When making a roll with her Asset Skills, she benefits from the 9-again quality. Take two Skill Tricks, they must be in your character's Asset Skills.
• Status: DPA: VASCU **/* - Gibson is more than a raw recruit, she is a leader of men, granted the authority by her organization to reign over all the little peons under her.
• Fighting Style: Firefight *** - If Gibson's gun is drawn, add her Firearms to it's Timing mod so long as she is aware of the target. Reduce the Strength requirement for Burst Fire by 1 and gain the 9-again quality so long as she is using the sights. Double the hip range increment on her weapon.
• Keystone **** -
• Tactical Reload ** - Gibson does not suffer a penalty to her defense or perception when reloading in the middle of combat.
• Multi-Lingual ** - Gibson can speak four languages conversationally besides English: Spanish, French, Russian, and Korean.
• Resources ** - Gibson's salary as a gubmint employee.
• Contacts ***/ - The Intelligence Community - Gibson has many contacts among the multifarious intelligence services.
• Quick Draw * - Gibson can draw and attack in one turn.
• Emotional Detachment * - Gibson ignores stress penalties equal to her Resolve.
• Tolerance for Biology * - Gibson has a +2 bonus to keep composed when shown scenes of violence or carnage

CEREMONIES

• Final Vision * - 11 Dice
• Speaker for the Dead * -

KEYSTONE

• Binary Glasses: This pair of glasses is actually two pairs. On one side, it looks like a set of wire-rimmed aviators with warm, reflective silvered lenses accentuating the face. Flipping them over, they become hard, soul-sucking black with thick frames and lenses so dark that the gaze can't escape. The first set provides a +3 bonus to Persuasion, in the second they provide a +3 bonus to Intimidation. EIther way, their uncanny nature unsettles those around her. While wearing them, Gibson is also immune to the visual effects of flashbangs and any power that requires eye contact, nor does she receive perception penalties in the dark.

CURRENT STATUS

• Health: [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
• Willpower: 6/6
• Perception: 5 Dice

COMBAT VALUES

• Initiative: +6
• Defense: 6 (+4 YOU DON'T WANNA MESS WITH THIS)
• Armor: 1/2
• Speed: 11
• Size: 5

ATTACK STATISTICS

• Glock 9mm - (Dexterity+Firearms+Accuracy) = 11 dice

• Accuracy: 2
• Damage: 2
• Lethality: 1
• Penetration: 0
• Range: 10 feet/20 yards
• Capacity: 16+1
• Timing: -1
• Strength: 2

• Lightning Gun - (Dexterity+Firearms+Accuracy) = 12 dice

• Accuracy: 3
• Damage: 0
• Lethality: 2B
• Penetration: Ignores
• Range: 25 feet/50 yards
• Capacity: 16+1
• Timing: -1
• Strength: 2
• Special: TAZOR

• The Peacemaker - (Dexterity+Firearms+Accuracy) = 11 dice

• Accuracy: 0
• Damage: 3
• Lethality: 1L
• Penetration: 0
• Range: 15 feet/30 yards
• Capacity: 6
• Timing: -2
• Strength: 3
• Special: Exercises ghosts.

GHOST MAGIC

• Psyche: 4
• Plasm: 22 max, spend 4 per turn
• Keys: Phantasmal, Stillness
• Borrowed Keys: Bitter Wind 0, Stigmata 2

MANIFESTATIONS

Marionette 5

• Cost: 1 plasm
• Dice Pool: Manipulation + <Key Skill> + Marionette versus <Key Defense> + Psyche
• Action: Instant

• Phantasmal Marionette: (Cunning/Composure) - 12 Dice - When the Sin-Eater manifests the Phantasmal Marionette she extends tendrils of plasm that creep their way in to victim's gray matter. Unlocking the Marionette with the Phantasmal Key allows the Sin-Eater to manipulate her victim's memories. When making the activation roll for the Phantasmal Marionette, scoring an exceptional success will cause the victim to be unable to recognize their memories were changed even once the manifestation wears off. As far as they are concerned, what they remembered remained consistent the entire time. This is in addition to the extended duration.

(LEVEL 1): Once the plasmic strings are in place the Sin-Eater may begin with the actual editing of memories; though at this level her power is limited to only altering the victim's sensory memories within the past five minutes. She cannot yet change the way her victim remembers thinking or emotionally feeling about something or what the victim remembers doing – she can only change what her victim remembers seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, or tasting. Even then she is still only limited to minor alterations within the scene of the memory, such as if someone was carrying a gun, the look of the person who attacked the victim, what someone said, or editing out a trail of bloody footprints; more sweeping changes require more power.

To perform the edit, the Sin-Eater must be able to perceive her victim and it requires an instant action to pull off. Roll Geist Finesse + Geist Resistance – the number of edits made versus the victim's Composure + Psyche; failed edits still count toward the number of edits. So long as the Sin-Eater scores more success than the victim the memory is altered and as far as the victim is concerned the memory is authentic. If the victim had more, the victim is aware that something is going on with their mind as they reject the edited memory. The alterations will last as long as the Phantasmal Marionette does, but once that time is up the victim's memories return to normal.

(LEVEL 2): The Sin-Eater may reach further back into the victim's memories with her alterations. She may now edit memories within the past 6 hours. In addition, for a point of Plasm, the Sin-Eater can tie together sensory memories from a single source, allowing her to treat changes to something's look, smell, sound, and so on as a single edit rather than having to count each separately.

(LEVEL 3): The victim's memories of their own actions are now accessible to the Phantasmal Marionette's power. A single action, and all the sensory detail that goes along with it, only count as a single edit so if the Sin-Eater were interrogating someone she could make them remember already spilling the beans to her. This doesn't apply to the consequences of any action taken by the victim though, so if the Sin-Eater makes the victim remember shooting someone, it would require the Sin-Eater spend a point of plasm or make a lot of smaller edits to make the victim remember the guy they shot dying.

To help with that the Sin-Eater may tie together an event and the sensory memories surrounding its causality as a single edit for a point of Willpower. Doing so does not include the victim's memories of their own actions, that half of the memory must be edited separately.

(LEVEL 4): The Sin-Eater may now reach deeper into the past: she may edit any memory within the past week with the Phantasmal Marionette. She may also edit how the victim remembers feeling about something. For a point of plasm she can tie together what the victim remembers doing and how they felt at the time as a single edit.

(LEVEL 5): For two points of willpower and a two points of Plasm, the Sin-Eater may dig deep into her victim's mind to alter the very foundations of her personality and forces her victim's mind bend over backwards to rationalize her past in light of the changes. Unlike the other powers of the Phantasmal Marionette, this one requires the Sin-Eater have some time alone with her target. The time it takes is (victim's Resolve + Composure + Psyche – sin-Eater's Psyche) in minutes and the Sin-Eater must be close enough her victim to touch her for the entire duration.

The victim can further slow it down by rolling Resolve + Intelligence + Psyche – the Sin-Eater's psyche to reject the changes; each success prolongs it by another minute. The victim may do this once for free but each subsequent attempt to delay the changes cost a point of Willpower. If it takes longer than 30 minutes the Sin-Eater will have to start over from the beginning.

• Stillness Marionette: (Larceny/Composure) - 10 Dice - When the Sin-Eater manifests the Stillness Marionette she hooks ephemeral strings of plasm into her target's brain though which she may censor the perceptions of her victim. While she can't make her victim sees things, she can make them not see things.

(LEVEL 1):The Stillness Marionette can render an object invisible to its victim by covering it with a sort of psychic blind spot and making them see what the victim reasonable expects to see behind it. This means something hidden behind an object cloaked by the Stillness Marionette remains hidden. To be concealed by the Marionette, the object must be Size 3 or less. So long as it doesn't move any movements on its own (someone else moving it is perfectly fine) or make a noticeable sound the object will remain concealed. The concealment can also be broken by the victim touching it. The Sin-Eater may conceal up to (Psyche + Marionette) objects in this fashion at any time. As an instant action the Sin-Eater may change what objects are concealed.

When the victim manages to break the Marionette's concealment of an object, he rolls Intelligence + Wits – the Geist's Finesse. If no successes are scored the victim's mind attempts to subconsciously rationalize why they couldn't see the object. If they succeed though, then they are fully aware that one moment it wasn't there and the next it was. This roll is also made if the Sin-Eater decides to conceal or reveal an object that is within the victim's view.

(LEVEL 2): The victim can no longer hear the sounds a concealed objects makes so long as the sound isn't too loud. Generally anything that would make a character want to cover their ears from the noise or would require shouting to talk over is too loud for the Stillness Marionette to conceal just yet. So a gun shot, a car revving it's engine, a chainsaw, and so on would be too loud to cover up. If any such loud noise is made, then the concealment is broken and the victim is able to both see and hear the object.

Also, the Sin-Eater may choose to delay the effects of the Stillness Marionette, up to her Geist's Resistance in days. She may either specify an amount of time that has to elapse for before the censoring kicks in or specify a condition or set there of that trigger it. Once it turns on, it will still only about an hour. If the Sin-Eater wants it to last longer, she must spend plasm to boost the Marionette's duration while the target is within her vision.

Chances are the victim will be away from the Sin-Eater when it turns on, so the Sin-Eater may also create a list of conditional triggers that tell the Marionette what to conceal and when and when to remove the concealment. Apply this scripting to the Marionette requires at least a minute of concentration while the victim is within the Sin—Eater's line of sight.

(LEVEL 3): The censorship of the Stillness Marionette may now conceal the tactile sensations of an object and it can also conceal objects capable of moving on their own. While it prevents its victim from being able to feel an objects, it doesn't censor out the sensation of pain. So if an object would cause harm to the victim, then the concealment is busted. This means a Sin-Eater could very well make the victim of the Stillness Marionette be unable to recognize they have a gun in their hand, but if during the surprise of finding their gun suddenly missing the victim accidentally shoots himself in the foot then the ability to perceive the gun will come back.

For a point of plasm, the Sin-Eater may increase the maximum allowable Size of an object by Marionette rating. This means the Sin-Eater can use it to conceal an entire person from the victim of the Curse. When a person is concealed the Stillness Marionette will also conceal everything on that person that was on them the moment they were concealed. So if the concealed person drops a pen for example, that pen would be visible all of the sudden. If said person picked the pen back up the pen would remain visible. The Sin-Eater may not use this to conceal the victim from themselves.

(LEVEL 4): The pain a concealed object could cause may now be censored by the Stillness Marionette. This requires the Sin-Eater spend an points of Willpower when activating the Marionette. In the later case With this the Sin-Eater could very well perform surgery on the victim and they wouldn't feel a thing if the Sin-Eater didn't want them to. If this is used to conceal a weapon used for an attack, then it can only conceal up to half the greater of the Geist's Finesse or Resistance in lethal damage. Aggravated damage is to severe to be covered up.

In addition, the Sin-Eater may now use the Stillness Marionette power to make the victim unable to perceive parts of their own body. This costs a point of plasm to use. This can't target the entire body though, just an appendage or an external feature. Making the victim unable to perceive their eyes doesn't actually stop them from seeing anything, though it might make looking for things difficult. The same is true for targeting the mouth or tongue: it makes talking very, very difficult.

(LEVEL 5): By spending two points of Plasm and one point of Willpower the Sin-Eater can render the victim of the Stillness Marionette unable to perceive the causal consequences of a concealed object. In layman's terms, if the Sin-Eater prevents the victim from seeing a lighter and the Sin-Eater uses the lighter to set a couch on fire then the victim will be unable to see the fire or it's smoke. She won't be able to hear it crackling nor will she be able to feel its heat. If the Sin-Eater spent the Willpower to make the victim unable to feel pain caused by a concealed object, then the victim wouldn't be able to feel the heat of the fire as he approaches. He'd be able to see the couch start to smolder but there wouldn't be any indication what is causing is this to him. If fire grew big enough to set something else on fire, then the fire would become visible to the victim.

Only a single object or person can be the subject of this power at a time. The Sin-Eater could not conceal herself and a friend from the victim and conceal things both of them do. She would have to pick either herself or her friend to be the focus of this power. This can be used to target the victim of the Stillness Marionette.

• Stigmata Marionette: (:V)

(LEVEL 1):

(LEVEL 2):

(LEVEL 3):

Boneyard 5

• Cost: 1 plasm
• Dice Pool: Wits + <Key Skill> + Boneyard
• Action: Extended
• Number of Rolls: Wits + Boneyard (5 Rolls)
• Target Successes: At least 5
• Time per Roll: 1 Turn

• Phantasmal Boneyard: (Persuasion) - 12 Dice - The Phantasmal Boneyard is one of illusion and deception, a phantasmagoria that can just readily be a nightmarish scene or a fantastic wonderland. It can be as obvious or as subtle as the Sin-Eater wishes; the only limit is her power and imagination.

(LEVEL 1): The Boneyard becomes a canvas for the Sin-Eater's imagination. With her plasm she can “paint” illusions; like with paint though this requires there to be an actual surface to base it upon. Creating free standing phantasms or dynamic mirages is not yet possible and her illusions can only fool the eye at this time. For all the painting analogy the Sin-Eater doesn't actually have to do any physical work -- all she needs to do is concentrate exclusively on it and the plasmic residue of the Boneyard will change its appearance to suit her whims. This power can create a bonus or penalty equal to half the Sin-Eater's Boneyard dots rounded up but only when it makes sense for the setting to have an impact on rolls. Anyone trying to see through the illusion by mundane visual inspection alone suffers a penalty equal to the higher of the Sin-Eater Composure or the Geist's Finesse.

(LEVEL 2): The Sin-Eater can create apparitions within the confines of the Phantasmal Boneyard. These are wholly illusionary beings or objects that seem real from a distance (from about 10 feet) or in poor lightning but fail to stand up to closer scrutiny. The Sin-Eater can autonomously maintain a number of animate apparitions equal to her Composure but they must be defined in appearance and behavior before hand—should she be present in the Boneyard she may add her Psyche to this number. As for inanimate apparitions, there is no hard limit but it should never be so many the player can't keep track of them. For a point of plasm, the Sin-Eater can reinforce an apparition to appear completely real to visual inspection both up close and in bright light. It is still intangible though. If the reinforced apparition is animate then it will last for the scene but if its inanimate it will persist for up the Geist's Resistance in days.

(LEVEL 3): The Phantasmal Boneyard gains the capacity to deceive the somatic senses. The Sin-Eater can easily change the texture of something to match the visual illusion it presents. It's potent enough that it can make something wet seem dry or something hot seem cold or vice versa. Apparitions are only solid to the lightest touch thanks to the deception they work on the brain. Anything more than a hand brushing across them or a tap though and the jig will be up—it's still disconcerting though. Activating this power requires the Sin-Eater to spend an additional point of Plasm each roll made to Manifest the Phantasmal Boneyard. Subconscious reflexes are more resistant to the Phantasmal Boneyard than the waking mind. Any time a character would interact with a dangerous object that has been made to appear innocuous, such as a barbed wire fence, the character may roll Dexterity + Wits – Boneyard to avoid the harm. If the character scores a single success then whatever damage would be dealt is downgrades in severity (bashing damage is halved and rounded down); two or more successes keeps them from harm entirely.

(LEVEL 4):

• Stillness Boneyard: (Subterfuge) - 10 Dice - Shadows grow deeper. Sounds become more distant. In the Stillness Boneyard sensation is drowned out by an all to real darkness.

(LEVEL 1): Trespassers will find their eyes and ears failing them when inside the Stillness Boneyard. All perception and investigation rolls take a penalty equal to the Sin-Eater's Boneyard rating. Other rolls may be penalized if they require visual or auditory attention to detail, such as reading body language. This power is autonomous and applies not just to anyone in the Boneyard, but anyone looking into Boneyard from the outside; only in regard to things inside the Boneyard. That is, if a character is walking by the Boneyard they will suffer a penalty to notice anything inside it but not anything outside it.

(LEVEL 2): Memories are hard to form within the Stillness Boneyard. Any character that tries to remember something that transpired while within the Boneyard requires a success on a roll of Intelligence + Composure – Boneyard rating; an exceptional success makes the memory tampering apparent. While the Sin-Eater is present inside the Boneyard, she may reflexively control the application of this power: allowing her to let somethings slip out of a characters memory while other things go unaffected. While out of the Boneyard the power applies to everything or nothing at the Sin-Eater's discretion.

(LEVEL 3): An ugly truth is something many would shy away from if they could. In the grip of the Stillness Boneyard they can. The moment a character witnesses something they wish they hadn't while in the Stillness Boneyard the Sin-Eater may grant that wish. To activate this power the player spends 2 plasm and rolls Geist Finesse + Psyche - Resolve. If successful, the target of the power will remain blissfully ignorant of whatever they wished to not witness; so long as they can avoid it that is. If it's something that can't be avoided, then the ignorance will only last for (Geist Power) minutes before the ugly truth reasserts itself in the characters mind. The Sin-Eater may boost this to apply multiple people at once, but if they are all trying to ignore the same thing. Doing so requires the Sin-Eater to spend 3 plasm and a point of Willpower.

(LEVEL 4):

• Stigmata Boneyard: (Occult) - 10 Dice - For the ordinary passerby, the Stigmata Boneyard is virtually imperceptible. Nothing beyond an strange shudder or hair standing on end for a moment occurs for most. For those with stranger senses though, the Stigmata Boneyard literally bleeds strangeness from every nook and cranny as the very air itself is charged with a swirling mix of life and death.

(LEVEL 1): The plasmic energies that infuse the Stigmata Boneyard call to the unquiet dead. Drawn in by the energy seeping into the Twilight, they come seeking the traces of life that reside in the Sin-Eater's plasm. Simply being in the Stigmata Boneyard makes them no longer bleed essence from being away from their anchor as the manifestation grants them a feeling of being less empty. This power is autonomous and grants anyone in the Boneyard a bonus equal to half the Sin-Eater's Boneyard rating rounded up to mundane social interactions with the ghost. For the Sin-Eater and her krewe though, the real benefit is this allow them to perform a Plasmic Infusion more easily – reducing the cost to merely two points of bashing damage instead of one lethal and a point of plasm.

(LEVEL 2):Those who step into the Stigmata Boneyard will soon find themselves seeing things that were never meant to be seen. So long as a character remains in the boneyard they gain the same Ghost Sight that Sin-Eaters have, only their unable to turn it off. The Sin-Eater may turn this power on or off as she desires. So long as she is present in the boneyard she may selectively cancel the power on a number of individuals up to her Geist's Finesse; doing so requires concentration though.

(LEVEL 3):

INVENTORY

• Binary Glasses: A pair of non-reflective, utterly black government issue Ray-Bans. Or are they?
• GLOCK 9mm: A standard issue DPA Weapon.
• Lightning Gun: A super-taser.
• Kevlar Vest: Issued and worn under the jacket.
• The Peacemaker: An ivory-handled revolver with ghostbusting powers.
• 81 Fugue Grenades: Mind Bombs!

CHARACTER ADVANCEMENT

• 50/53 Experience

Presence 1 > 2, 6 XP

Marionette 3 > 5, 19 XP

Psyche 1 > 2, 7 XP

Borrowed Stigmata Key 0 > 2, 13 XP

Psyche 2 > 3, 8 XP

Wits 2 > 3 , 7 XP

Firearms 3 > 4, 6 XP

Wits 3 > 4, 8 XP

Boneyard 3 > 4, 9 XP

Boneyard 4 > 5, 10 XP

Stigmata 2 > 3, 8 XP

Investigation 1 > 2, 4 XP

Investigation 2 > 4, 11 XP

Investigation 4 > 5, 7 XP

Psyche 3 > 4, 9 XP

Empathy 1 > 5, 22 XP

Subterfuge 1 > 3, 9 XP

Cunning 4 > 5, 7 XP

Dexterity 4 > 5, 9 XP

Firearms 4 > 5, 7 XP

Pistols Specialty, 1 XP

Athletics 2 > 3, 5 XP