Campaign:Forged In Fire/Auspicious Whispering Feathers

• Name: Auspicious Whispering Feathers
• Player: Leviathan
• Campaign: Forged In Fire
• Concept: A once-caged bird who's realizing how far she can push past her previous limits.
• Motivation: Protect the free expression of truth in all the world.

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• Type: Lunar
• Caste: Changing Moon
• Spirit Animal: Poisonous birdsnake
• Tell: Feathers and scales (in hair, or as fur patterns, or etc)
• Anima Banner: An aura of iridescent scale-feathers of every color

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• Experience: 0/0

Attributes

[ ] Strength  •••       [C] Charisma     ••••   [ ] Perception   ••
[F] Dexterity •••••     [C] Manipulation ••••   [ ] Intelligence ••
[ ] Stamina   •••       [C] Appearance   ••••   [ ] Wits         •••

Abilities

[ ] Archery             [ ] Craft               [ ] Bureaucracy 
[ ] Athletics    •      [ ] Larceny     •       [ ] Investigation •
[ ] Awareness    •      [ ] Linguistics ••      [ ] Lore          •
[ ] Dodge        •••    [ ] Performance ••      [ ] Occult        •
[ ] Integrity    ••     [ ] Presence    •••     [ ] Medicine    
[F] Martial Arts ••     [ ] Ride       
[ ] Melee               [ ] Sail       
[ ] Resistance   •      [ ] Socialize   •••
[ ] Thrown              [ ] Stealth     
[ ] War                 [F] Survival    •

• Languages: Riverspeak (native), Claw-Speak, Flametongue

Essence

• Essence: 2
• Regeneration: 4/hour, +4/hour when resting
• Personal Essence Pool: 16/16 (Essence + [Willpower x 2])
• Peripheral Essence Pool: 32/32 [42] ([Essence x 4] + [Willpower x 2] + [highest Virtue x 4])
• Committed Essence: 10

Mental Traits

• Positive Intimacies: The Association of the Shining-Faced Player
• Negative Intimacies:
• Motivation: Protect the free expression of truth in all the world.
• Willpower: □□□□□□□/•••••••

Virtues

• Compassion: □/•
• Conviction: □□/••
• Temperance: □□□□□/•••••
• Valor: □□/••
• Limit Break: □□□□□□□□□□ (Curse of the Humble Sloth)

Social Combat

• Join Debate: 5 (Wits + Awareness)
• Surprise Attack: 7 vs. (Perception + Investigation) (Manipulation + Socialize)
• Dodge MDV: 6 ([Willpower + Integrity + Essence + specialty] / 2)

Weapons

• Investigation: Speed 5, Acc 6, Rate 2. Parry MDV 3.
• Performance: Speed 6, Acc 6, Rate 1; affects everyone who can perceive the effort. Parry MDV 3.
• Presence: Speed 4, Acc 7, Rate 2. Parry MDV 4.

Modifiers

• Relative Appearance: Difference in Appearance is applied as a penalty (if aggressor is higher than attacker) or bonus (if vice-versa) to MDV, up to -3 or +3.
• Intimacy, Virtue, or Motivation: -1 MDV against attacks that directly support existing Intimacies; -2 if with a dominant Virtue; -3 if with Motivation. (Only the greatest applies.) Same numbers as a bonus against Intimacies/Virtues/Motivation.

Physical Combat

• Join Battle: 5 (Wits + Awareness)
• Surprise Attack: 5^† vs. (Wits + Awareness + 2) (Dexterity + Stealth)
• Dodge DV: 7^† ([Dexterity + Dodge + Essence + 3 from HB] / 2)
• Soak^††: 0A/1L/3B Natural + 7A/7L/3B Armor = 7A/8L/6B; Pierced 4A/5L/6B; Hardness 2L/2B.

^† +1 in Deadly Beast Transformation. ^†† +1 to L/B soak in Deadly Beast Transformation.

Weapons

• Unarmed^†
  • Clinch: Speed 6; Acc 7 (+0); Damage 3B (+0B); Defense —; Rate 1; C, N, P; Parry DV —.
  • Kick: Speed 5; Acc 7 (+0); Damage 6B (+3B); Defense -2; Rate 2; N; Parry DV 4.
  • Punch: Speed 5; Acc 8 (+1); Damage 3B (+0B); Defense +2; Rate 3; N; Parry DV 4.
• Knife: Speed 5; Acc 6 (+1); Damage 5L (+2L); Defense +0; Rate 3; throwable; Parry DV 3.
• Staff: Speed 6; Acc 7 (+2); Damage 10L (+7B); Defense +2; Rate 2; 2, R; Parry DV 3.
• Self bow: Speed 6; Acc 5 (+0); Damage 5L (+2L broadhead); Rate 2; Range 150; 2, B; Parry DV 3, assuming a stunt.

In Deadly Beast Transformation, all attacks are at +1 acc, +1L damage. Unarmed attacks have an extra +2L damage and have a (5L/action, 2, —/—, -2) poison. All parry DVs at +1.

Health

• □ -0
• □□ -1
• □□ -2
• □ -4
• □ Incapacitated

Shapeshifting

Knacks

• Form Acquisition
  • Human
    • Prey's Skin Disguise: Humans become valid targets for the sacred hunt.
  • Miscellaneous
    • Life of the Hummingbird: A taste of blood gives a shape for an hour; at least 1L gives one full day.
• War Form Knacks
  • Deadly Beastman Transformation: Extra true form. +1 to physical stats; 6 points of mutations; can regrow crippling injuries with Charms; wounds don't worsen in Dying health levels. Chosen mutation(s): Feathers/Scales [1mp] (+1L/+1B soak), Small [1mp] (+1 DV), Talons [2mp] (+2L damage on Martial Arts), Toxin [2mp] (5L/action, 2, —/—, -2).

True forms

• Spirit animal: A small bird with iridescently-colored feathers and scales, and a distant relative of the mospid. Poisonous, with bright blue, gold, and green colors advertising that fact to other animals. Str 1, Dex 3, Sta 1; talon: speed 6, acc +1, damage +0L plus poison (5L, 3, —/—, -3), rate 2.
• Deadly Beast Transformation: About six and a half feet tall and lithely muscled; her height means it sometimes takes a moment to realize the strength that still implies. Covered in gold and blue feathers layered over shining green scales—no wings, but both hands and feet have vicious talons, and the beak looks like it could crack lesser metals.

Heart's blood forms

Form	S/D/S	Qualities	Attack(s) (S/A/D/R)	Description
Animals
Guard dog	3/3/3	adept at tracking	Bite: 5/+1/+1L/1	A husky with a solid frame and a primarily red coat with white face, underside, and legs; sometimes seen with leather collar and wooden tag carved with a symbol of two intersecting circles and an arrow pointing across them to the right. Answers to "Fuyunore".
Burrow lok	6/3/6	good senses of smell and hearing; adept at digging and laying in wait	Claw: 4/+1/+3L/4	Pony-sized badger with black fur that's fading into gray; missing the tip of his tail, and moves favoring his left hind leg just a little. Often snuffly and irritable.
Eastern tree octopus	2/4/2	adept at climbing, grappling, and stealth; amphibious	Beak: 5/+1/+1L/1	Mottled, amphibious octopus about the size of a small dog; chromatophoric, but often black with speckles of white in characteristic patterns.
Jaguar	6/3/5	adept at climbing, crawling, swimming, and stealth	Bite: 6/+0/+1L/1 Claw: 6/+1/+0L/2	A sturdily-built, spotted great cat. It has a scar down the right-front leg. The roar sounds something like a large, rumbly cough.
Bear	7/2/6	bad sight, good sense of smell	Bite: 4/+1/+1L/1 Claw: 5/+0/+0L/2	OH GOD A BEAR
Mospid	2/3/2	adept at air maneuvering; good night vision	Claw: 6/+0/+0L/2	A scaled, snakey-looking bird with large yellow eyes. An adept hunter for its size.
Coral snake	1/3/1	small and swift	Bite: 6/+0/+0L plus poison (6L, 3, —/—, -5)/3	A snake with black, white, and yellow bands. Very poisonous, but surprisingly affectionate.
Bullseye snakehead	2/3/2	swift and dangerous; aquatic	Bite: 6/+1/+1L/2	This sleek, long-finned fish is about three feet long and weighs more than 30 lbs. It can even survive for short amounts of time on dry land.
Humans
Falane Miyune	Str 1, Dex 2, Sta 2, App 2		Normal girl from a Scavenger Lands village. Straight red hair to her shoulders and dark-tanned skin; easily startled by supernatural things. If absolutely needs be, she might use a dagger, but she wears normal traveler's clothes.
Toshi the Smasher	Str 4, Dex 2, Sta 3, App 2		A hulk of a man with short-cropped brown hair and lightly-tanned skin covered in assorted scars. Toshi is a brute and a bounty hunter of small repute; he wears layers of leather and prefers to use a hammer and small shield, or occasionally thrown hatchets.

Charms

• Dexterity
  • Second Dexterity Excellency: 2m/success; Reflexive; Instant. +1 success to a Dexterity roll per 2m spent.

• Charisma
  • Second Charisma Excellency: 2m/success; Reflexive; Instant. +1 success to a Charisma roll per 2m spent.

• Manipulation
  • Second Manipulation Excellency: 2m/success; Reflexive; Instant. +1 success to a Manipulation roll per 2m spent.
  • Falling Leaf Distraction: 3m; Supplemental; Instant. Conceal social attacks, unless target makes successful roll of (Perception + Investigation) vs. 4 ([Manipulation + Socialize] ÷ 2).

• Appearance
  • New Friend Aroma: 3m; Simple; One scene. Roll 7 (Charisma + Presence) against target's MDV. Success creates Intimacy in the target toward the character, shakeable with 1wp.

Combos

• Assuming Innocent Intentions: Second Manipulation Excellency (2m/success; Reflexive; Instant) and Falling Leaf Distraction (3m; Supplemental; Instant). Total cost: 1wp + 2m per extra Manipulation success + 3m to conceal a social attack.

Backgrounds

• Artifact • (Moonsilver Chain Shirt)

Yoriama's Second Skin is particularly comfortable moonsilver chain that once belonged to a No Moon who was smart enough to not forsake armor even though she had no particular aptitude for the art of battle. Unfortunately, she wasn't smart enough to avoid the traps of a tomb in the Scavenger Lands. Her body and equipment were recovered by her packmates, and handed over to the Silver Pact rather than be kept, given their negative connotations. From there, it ended up making its way to Feathers. This particular moonsilver chain garment is actually put together leotard-style, meant to be worn directly against the skin—generally comfortable and handy for Lunars who don't want to end up undergarment-less, but probably a hint embarrassing for males.

• Artifact • (Tang Luen's Folding Box)

This jade and mahogany box (its grain inlaid with just enough starmetal to give it a slightly glittering sheen) is normally the size of a large suitcase. However, set on the ground it can be carefully unfolded (four Speed 6 actions) into a set of large racks and shelves that can hold up to 2 cubic yards of material. As long as anything not living is placed on it in the unfolded state, it can be folded back up again (also four Speed 6 actions), pushing its contents into Elsewhere for the duration. This artifact can be used without attunement, but if so it bears the full weight of all contents; it can be attuned for 4 motes to gain the same lightness and buoyancy of most artifacts.

• Artifact •• (Moonsilver Hearthstone Bracers)

These hearthstone bracers once belonged to that No Moon, too, though they have a somewhat more convoluted story: first they were claimed by a Full Moon who immediately found himself embroiled in a set of unpleasant and increasingly unlikely circumstances. That has led the bracers, once called Golden Bird Stone Melody for some reason, to be renamed Roshama's Unluck, and they ended up being handed around between owners before being dropped in Feathers' lap. She's managed to avoid anything unlucky so far, but hopes to never actually run into Roshama.

• Cult •

The Association of the Shining-Faced Player, as the group refers to itself, is on the surface a traveling actor's troupe and actor-training association—most commonly found in Realm tributaries on the Inland Sea, but they sometimes travel further inland. They bear as their symbol a theater mask with feathers and scales and a stylized beak—it isn't an exact replica, but side-by-side one might be struck by the aesthetic similarity to Feathers' war form. Less obviously, the Shining-Faced Players hold Feathers as their patron spirit, encouraged by enigmatic and irregular letters and a visit she managed to the group as part of her training while fostered.

• Heart's Blood ••
• Mentor • (Heart Struck by the Softness of the Night, Changing Moon Lunar)

Heart Struck is a particularly canny Changing Moon, with quite the knack for peeling away at the motivations of others and reconstructing them in ways that make the person more focused and more sure of themselves. For this she serves as a partial Mentor for a number of Lunars; while she's more personally powerful than one dot would suggest, her divided attention means her focus is only felt completely during the training of a Lunar who is fostered with her.

• Reputation •

Feathers' first claim of heart's blood being of a human rather than an animal has led to a small but confused and interesting reputation among occasional Lunars of the East and South.

• Resources ••

Feathers doesn't carry much money with her, but she always manages to get a bit more of what she needs... or wants.

Inventory

• Artifacts
  • Moonsilver Chain Shirt: Soak +5L/3B, Hardness 2L/2B, Mobility -0, Attune 2.
  • Moonsilver Hearthstone Bracers: Soak +2L/0B, Attune 4.
• Non-artifacts
  • Knife: Speed 5, Acc +1, Damage +2L, Defense +0, Rate 3, throwable.
  • Staff: Speed 6, Acc +2, Damage +7B, Defense +2, Rate 2, 2, R.
  • Self bow with 20 arrows
  • Lucky rock (Oed 157)
  • Nice clothing
  • Assorted wooden masks

Advancement

• BP: 3bp on App +1; 3bp on Dex +1; 3bp on Temperance +1; 2bp on Assuming Innocent Intentions combo; 2bp on Artifacts; 1bp on Cult 1; 1bp on Reputation 1
• First session (6/7): 8 XP gained.
• Second session (6/14): 8 XP gained.

Appearance

In her own human form, Feathers appears as a compact (about 5'3" tall) and slender but athletic woman with a moderate tan. She's lithe and very attractive in face and body—it's a dancer's physique, but she has a coiled, catlike grace that suggests there's more strength hidden under the surface than she shows. A common style of outfit includes her moonsilver chain (almost universally) under a simple dress or robe; occasionally she wears trousers and a belted tunic instead. She often ends up adopting local styles, though.

In her Deadly Beast Transformation form, Feathers gains a foot and a half in height and a good hundred pounds, as well as a layer of iridescently-colored scales and feathers, bright yellow eyes, a wicked-looking beak, and sharp black talons on her hands and feet that look like they could do nasty, nasty things to flesh. She keeps the moonsilver chain, which serves to cover her torso and chest and upper part of her arms and even adopts something of a feather pattern to match more closely with the rest of her. The change doesn't keep her from having some measure of an inhuman, terrible beauty—enough to impress, at least, even if not found personally attractive.

Background

In the areas of the Fringe, professing the Immaculate Faith takes a certain degree of... subtlety. The great openness to Anathema and lack of respect there has driven away many would-be missionaries—but that doesn't make it impossible. Those few who continue to try take a more private bent, keeping most of the philosophy proper to private sessions, using charity and public works to draw in outsiders. One particular method involves extravagant plays and performances put on during Immaculate holy and festival days, free to the public and very entertaining, but carefully slanted to the Immaculate point of view—with sympathetic but ultimately villainous Anathema, battled by Dragon-Blooded who are internally conflicted but nonetheless properly faithful. These extravaganzas, performed with a measure of actual Terrestrial Exalted power, are surprisingly effective at drawing converts, and while each upsurge tends to die down after a while, there's almost always a small but permanent increase in proper membership.

It was in one of the Realm tributaries on the edge of the Inland Sea, during the months leading up to the past year's Calibration and its attendant festivals, that the woman now known as Auspicious Whispering Feathers, at that time a slave, was purchased by one of the Immaculate monks. She hadn't been picked out for any special talents beyond basic literacy, for use as a stagehand and general assistant—but the monks and acolytes soon found that under her quiet and cooperative demeanor lay a surprisingly solid core, and that when driven to it she showed a distinct degree of animal grace and charisma, enough to fluster the Immaculates with occasional softly cutting remarks when her patience ran out. One of the monks also discovered, though more than an accident with a left-behind playbill than anything intentional, that she had a particular natural talent for the stage; it wasn't enough for more refined roles, but she could produce the roaring volumes, exaggerated body language, and general projection of charisma needed for intentionally-overblown dramatic pieces.

The decision to use an effective unknown for Anathema roles in the Calibration was an uncomfortable one, but counterbalanced by the fact that, well, none of the Immaculates wanted to do it—and an unenlightened slave like herself could certainly be excused for portraying one of the Anathema. Getting her trained was relatively easy (after all, most of the roles involved pure stage presence, something she managed to pour out in droves), and it seemed to be something that had finally struck a chord in her normally-quiet demeanor. In fact, she took to the roles well enough to slightly disturb the Immaculates, though by that point it was too late to properly set up another person.

It was on the last day of Calibration, with the greatest of the performances for the year—a grand spectacle involving Dragon-Blooded Charms, Terrestrial and mundane martial arts, and even fair amounts of merely "mundane" pyrotechnics and special effects—that something really downright strange happened. The woman not yet known as Auspicious Whispering Feathers had managed to gain something of her own fan club in the four exhausting days that had passed already, and they as well as the rest of the audience watched in awe as the performance started to change, warped by the slave's impromptu changing of her lines and actions. The Immaculates could do little but try to keep up and not lose face as the content of the play shifted so that the masked and costumed Anathema became a heroic character, fighting against the misunderstanding and close-mindedness of the Dragon-Blooded.

And then, at the climax—it wasn't the written one, but everything seemed to click at once—one of the acolytes, who had never been a man of cool temper or reasonable thinking—tried to strike her down onstage, thinking that the spectacle would keep anyone from seeing what was really happening. It was lucky for the slave that the stage weapons were not so sharp or well-balanced as the real things would have been, though they would have been enough to kill her, particularly as the other acolytes joined the attack to keep their brother's true intentions from being obvious. What they hadn't had a hint of expecting was that her own study of the Immaculates had lent a snakelike edge to her counterattack, and that her normally-reserved nature would transform into tempered steel, fighting on despite wounds that sent her to the edge of unconsciousness.

In the aftermath, the acolytes thrashed and the performance ruined, her fans dragged her trembling and copiously-bleeding form from the stage before the rest of the Immaculates could show up, spiriting her away to a small actor's colony. She struggled against the edge of death, spending the whole night in a dreamless half-sleep and living—barely and precariously—through half-staunched wounds. It was in the last moment before the dawn that she awoke suddenly, twisting up as a vision overtook her... and a silver-iridescent anima flared, and shining feathers and scales and claws as sharp as the light of the hidden moon sprouted from her, and the lithe, beautiful god-thing she had transformed into fell into a deep and dreamless sleep, guarded by shocked warders.

Over the next few days, what had been an unofficial but growing fan club of hers turned into a proto-cult, convinced that what happened on stage and in what quickly became their communal home was the awakening of a minor deity out of a slain human spirit. When she awoke, finally, her electrifying presence and inhuman grace only made them more assured of it—and who was she to argue? She recognized the signs, barely, from the material the Immaculates had been using, though that was not enough but to convince herself that clearly that material had been wrong in the first place, for she certainly knew she wasn't an evil spirit.

It was there that she met her first fellow Lunar: a charmingly awkward young man who smoothly infiltrated the group and, in private, transformed to reveal his true self. With only a short time to say goodbye and for her to further entrance her would-be worshipers, the two of them stole away out of the city, traveling swiftly to the southeast and towards the nearest Lunar enclave. The new Lunar—who, interestingly, claimed to have already discarded her old name, though she hadn't decided on a new one—went through the tattooing process with only the merest sounds of pain, managing to stay composed enough to spin an elaborate and entertaining (and thoroughly false) tale of her life.

Feathers (for she'd started going by that cognomen to simply have a personal reference) was subjected to an interesting bundle of trials, all entangled with the local Gathering happening only a few spare days away. For one with such a clear attunement of voice and glance, she did surprisingly well for Mettle—through "surprisingly well" was still not enough to singlehandedly clear out the Outcaste bounty hunters who had somehow stumbled upon the half-cleared site. It spoke well for Cunning, though, when she lost the Outcastes and their retinue in the woods... and Succor, particularly, when she appeared again as a seemingly innocent girl herself lost and entranced the leader of the group. Wisdom she managed, though barely—convincing the Outcastes that the local region's great montsuoba tiger-bear was actually the Anathema they'd heard of in disguise worked, but not particularly well—and finally Glory fulfilled a litter better than she'd managed Wisdom, by leading the group down blind caverns and twisty passages all alike and then setting on them one-by-one after getting scattered by the montsuoba. The whole process took something over six hours—and the result somewhat stunned the lorekeeper, for she was the first new Lunar he'd heard of in quite a long time who had managed their first instinctual blood hunt on a human being rather than an animal.

Her moonsilver chain shirt was gifted to her by the lorekeeper for passing her trials acceptably, or so he judged—not exceptionally well, but well enough, and particularly interesting in the finish of it. For her performance, she was fixed as a Changing Moon, and in remembrance of the lorekeeper's comments she chose the deed name "Auspicious Whispering Feathers". Her vow was to protect free expression in Creation, that there might always be a jester or a trouper to speak the truth to the greatest king.

Her fostering was an interesting ordeal, too: like most newfound Lunars, though she'd shown some natural talent, there were clearly skills she was lacking, and so she was handed into the care of a Changing Moon as the Gathering began. Her training was perhaps not as intense as a Full Moon might have received, but it was still far beyond any mortal could have endured and continued for months—though here, her longstanding patience and willingness to deprive herself helped.

And so here she is—turned loose, finally, as she's been judged able to make her way in the world on her own, at least for the time being...

tl;dr

• Slave purchased by Immaculates in Realm tributary, used as a stagehand
• Sudden discovery: stage presence!
• Used to play the role of an Anathema in religious-educational performances
• Twisted around the last performance during Calibration and defeated the Immaculate acolytes onstage
• Ran off using new powers
• Went through trials - ate a person as first heart's blood. Interesting, says lorekeeper.
• Trained in the ways of the Silver Pact by a Changing Moon