Okay, so Penelope/Xana was developed as an alteration of the original character I made for Vesper's game. Since this was free form I took some liberties and didn't really do any number crunching on the original sheet. For this final sheet I used the True Immortal template (abomination codex) and tweaked it a bit to make Xana (basically I gave her essence channeling in exchange for access to the True Immortal powers).

I agree that our villains should be more powerful, 25 points sounds fair to me though I might add some more if the arises. I'll get to work on a sheet for Alvaro and another for Mami Fortuna.
-----------------------------------------------------------

Xana De La Cueva
Alias: Penelope Rosa
Gender: Female
Age: 678
Height: 5' 3"
Weight: 105 lbs
Hair: Chestnut
Eyes: Grey
Type: Xana (Supernatural Being)
Concept: Seeker/Wanderer
Association: Solitaire

Attributes Strength 2
Dexterity 2
Constitution 2
Intelligence 4
Perception 3
Willpower 5

Secondary Attributes Life Points 35
Endurance Points 32
Speed 8
Essence Pool 83

Qualities Age 3(15)
Attractiveness 5
Essence Channeling 5(10)
Extra Essence 25(5)
Xana - 1(15)
- Immortal (Regeneration, Unaging, Undying)
- Gifted
- Magic Resistance
- Subdue Aura
- Superhuman Attributes
- Supernatural Senses


Drawbacks Adversary (Jose Alvaro) 3(0)
Cruel 1
Below Average Resources 1(2)
Fear of Commitment 1
Minority (Immigrant) 1
Prejudice (Hates Christians) 2
Secret (Identity) 3

Skills Dancing 2
Dodge 1
History 2
Language (English) 3 Native Language: Spanish
Martial Arts 2(4)
Myth and Legend 2
Notice 3
Occult Knowledge 3(6)
Questioning 2
Ritual 2
Seduction 7(2)
Smooth Talking 7(2)
Streetwise 2
Trance 2(4)

Metaphysical Affect the Psyche 5(10)
- Alter Emotions
- Alter Memories
- Alter Perceptions
- Compulsion
Curse 2 (4)
- Differs from the standard curse. A fairy curse requires an enormous amount
of essence (at least half the essence pool). This curse pulls on the strings of
fate to create a very specific effect. The only way to remove this curse is to
kill the fairy that bestowed it.
Insight 3 (6)
Soul Fire 1(2)
Soul Projection 1(2)
Weather Lordship (Mystery Codex) 3(6)


Appearance Xana is an all too beautiful woman. She stands slender and fit. Her olive skin is smooth and her light chestnut hair is a thick mane of loose spiral curls which she wears long, falling just above her lower back. She has gray almond shaped eyes and full lips. A tattoo of the phases of the moon runs up her spine.

Background Along the north eastern edge of the Iberian peninsula the Asturian principality has been inhabited since the paleolithic era. For many ages the ancient pagan gods were worshiped before the conquest of the Christians. Yet still legend and myth has strongly survived in Asturias even until today. Asturian folklore still tells stories of the Xanas, beautiful and nymphic fairy women of springs and caves.

There are many tales of Xanas. Some speak of beautiful nordic looking women who are under a spell and guard treasure. Others speak of small dark women who spirit away stillborn children leaving behind their own babes in the human child's place. Xanas are as benevolent as they are malicious. Stories tell of Xanas who aid travelers and others who trick them, like all fairies they are capricious.

Some scholars believe the legend of the Xana is one of Diana, and that the very name is derived from the goddess of the moon. They may well be right in their view, but that is such a truth that we will never know.

Our tale begins many centuries ago in medieval Asturias not more than one hundred years before the burning times. Though fading the Old Ways were still practiced openly and the matriarchies were still existent if nor prevalent. The time of magic had not yet faded...

***

In a small mountain village bordered deep forest Pilàr Vasquez lived alone with her husband. Their only child, an infant girl lay dead killed by the winter chill not even an hour past. So she sat in the winter night staring into the crackling fire, she had not yet told her husband and in truth could not yet bring herself to. Laying her head in her hands Pilàr began to sob. An infant's cry joined hers, the young voice echoing her own lamentation.

Not believing it the woman wiped the tears from her eyes and rushed to the other room. There in the crib lay a baby girl, not dead but alive and well. Pilàr moved to the crib and took the crying babe in her arms. Holding the child close her eyes fell on the open window and the white robed woman running to the woods.

"La Xana," Pilàr gasped.

She held out the babe before her studying the girls round face. This was not the daughter born of her own flesh but rather she was a Xanina, a child not of the human world. Yet it was not fear that gripped her heart but love. The Xana had entrusted her with her own babe and she would raise it as her own. Pilàr still practiced the old ways and she would never deny this child her true nature, but the day when she returned to the wild was many years off and until that day she would know the love of a daughter, human or fairy.

***

The years flew by and the babe grew into a precocious little girl and then a beautiful woman. Even from the earliest years of childhood she would see a woman more beautiful than any other watching in the distance. None other ever saw her, but she always felt loved by the woman and longed to run into her arms. As she grew she began to resemble the beautiful woman far more than her own mother. Where Pilàr's hair was the color of flame her own, like the woman's, was colored like the forest shadows. Her lithe frame, like the woman's, was so unlike the other villagers who were sturdy and muscled from tilling the earth. They all called her Xana, and even had they not she would have known she was different. She had always been able to read and manipulate the emotions of those around her, and sometimes out of the corner of her eye she could see what was not there.

It was when she reached the marriage age that all things changed. Xana was by far the most beautiful woman in the village and men of all walks sought her attention. She barely noticed them, for with each passing day she felt the draw of the unknown stronger and stronger.

The full moon was high on midsummer night that year. The whole village danced in celebration but on that night something called to Xana. A haunting voice rode and the summer breeze and called her. She followed the siren's call and disappeared into the night. The song called her deep into the woods and so she followed. Xana found herself at a fresh spring and standing before it was a woman robed in gossamer white, a woman more beautiful than any she had seen, a woman she recognized well. They mirrored one another and Xana knew this was the very woman who had watched her from a distance all her life.

The white robed woman smiled and stepped forward, "Welcome my daughter, at long last welcome home."

Xana knew the words to be true and joined her mother at the spring. They spent many years together wandering the deep mountain forest. From her mother she learned the fairy ways. The years passed and Xana forgot her mortal life becoming fully and wholly part of the fairy world.

***

Just as fate twists the lives of mortals so it does to the fairy people. In those days legends still roamed the earth. The Cuèlebre is said to be a great winged serpent living in the caves in Asturias. It guards treasure and keeps Xanas as prisoners. Mother and daughter met one such creature as they wandered the forest. Despite their fairy magics the two were no match for a Cuèlebre and Xana's mother sent her off into the depths of the forest allowing herself to be taken prisoner. That was the last day Xana ever saw her mother and she did vow to gather the power to one day destroy the creature.

***

Truly alone for the first time in more than a century Xana wandered the wild mountains in search of mortals and men. She found a lone woodsman and left him wondering if the night he spent with that strange beautiful woman of the forest had been anything more than a dream.

It was not long before she gave birth to a baby girl and left her in the crib of a crib dead babe. Xana vowed to one day return before disappearing into the night, just as her mother had done before her. Years would pass but return she did and what she found horrified her. The Burning Times had come and the Spanish Inquisition had taken hold across the Iberian Peninsula.

In the village Xana had left her child the anguished screams of women filled the air as flames consumed them. From a distance she could see the villagers crowded around a dark haired man in the black robes of a priest gesturing wildly. Behind him three women burned, and one of them Xana recognized as the very woman she had left her daughter to. She gasped as the woman's pain gaze fell on her and transformed into a look a recognition and hope. Her gaze grew distant and soon and image of the very woman stood before her.

"My lady you have returned. I always knew you would, but you must go. None suspect she is anything but my daughter, but if they see you they will know from whose womb she is. You must go, it is not safe for her. Please."

The woman stared at her with pleading eyes as she faded from view. Xana watched in silence before returning to the forest. Fifteen years would pass before she returned again. The village remained as before only with a massive stone church at its center. Xana walked the village streets searching for some sign of her child. She found a man resting outside a small house smoking a pipe. Weaving a charm Xana approached him.

"Greetings friend," she spoke in a silk seductive tone, "There was a young woman who lived in that house by the woods. Her mother was burnt at the stake fifteen years ago. Do you know her whereabouts? She would be about 30 now."

The man looked at her and smiled, "Welcome my lady, I do know the very woman you speak of, I do. She be Teresa, but haven't seen her in these parts for sometime. See she never grew old, and Padre Jose Alvaro said that she was a witch like her mother. Well it wasn't too long after that Teresa disappeared in the night. Pity she was a witch, never did see such a pretty woman," he looked up at her with a look of confusion, "Come to think of it my lady you be bearing a striking resemblance to our Teresa."

Xana smiled and tightened the charm, "Tell me my friend, who is Padre Jose Alvaro."

"Well the Padre heads up the Inquisition here, he does. Came here not more than fifteen years ago to purge Witchcraft from our village god bless him. You'll see him over there by there church." he pointed in the direction of a black robed man.

Xana's grey eyes fell on the black robed man and recognized him as the very man who stood at the mobs center while three women were burned alive. He had killed the woman she left her daughter to, and now he had tried to do the same to her. Rage boiled through her as she walked over to him. Ancient power from the earth and skies began to flow into her and soon Xana was pulsating with it. She approached the priest slowly. With every step essence from the very earth poured into her and she wove it into a complex matrix and the skies above darkened with roiling clouds. Jose Alvaro's gaze fell on her now, and his eyes lit up with recognition and then confusion. Alvaro was a dark haired just into his middle years and he held himself with an air of self importance. Xana glared at him and stopped her approach.

"Jose Alvaro, what you have done cannot be forgiven. Jose Alvaro I curse you forever!"

With those words she released the mighty gathered essence. As the complex weave sunk into the man three bolts of lightning hurtled down from the skies. That night Xana stood at the edge of the forest and watched the village burn.

Xana left Asturias to find her daughter. Years passed and the world changed again and again but still she could not find her child. After the years became decades and the decades became centuries the fairy returned to the Asturian mountains where she had last seen her own mother, but alas in that cave she found no sign of her mother or the Cuèlebre that held her prisoner.

Xana continued her journey across the Spanish Kingdoms in search of her mother and her child. The world changed around her as the end of one age was eclipsed by the dawning of another.

Fifteen years ago Xana heard tale of beautiful grey eyed woman that didn't age. She followed the tale to a small Andalucian town, but she was not the only who heard that tale. In that town she met Jose Alvaro again. The once righteous priest was a twisted thing now having long ago turned to the tainted powers of the mad gods. His power was now far greater than her own and she barely escaped the encounter with her life. Taking the name Penelope Rosa she fled Spain for America. She has remained there ever since searching for some way to find her mother and daughter. She spends no more than a few years in any one place for fear that Alvaro will find her.

Xana has found her way to Chicago not more than a few months ago, but how long she will stay remains to be seen. She continues to go by the alias Penelope Rosa.

Well here is her sheet. I have a whole timeline of past lives at home I might tack onto the end of this later

Character Information
Name: “Smoke” Ellgawen
Association: Solitary
Concept: Survivor
Character Points: Spent: Unspent:
Channelling Level: 1

Attributes
Strength: (-2 + 3) 1
Dexterity: (3 + 2) 5
Constitution: 1
Intelligence: 3
Perception: 3
Willpower: 3

Statistics
Life Points: 8
Endurance Points: 20
Speed: 10 miles/hour
Essence Pool: (16 base + 6 age + 5 increase quality) 27

Qualities
Gift: 1
Age: 2
Essence Channelling: 2
Increase Essence Pool: 1
Attractiveness: 3

Drawbacks
Delusion of Grandeur: 1
Obsession: 2 (for the person(s) she has determined to protect)
Adversary: 1 (witch hunters)
Secret: 1 (her lack of involvement at Chelmsford)
Cruel: 1
Paranoid: 2

Skills
Tracking: 2
Stealth: 2
Surveillance: 2
Notice: 2
Myth and Legend: 4
Occult Knowledge: 4
Language (Latin): 5
Intimidating: 4
Acting: 2
Brawl: 3
Climbing: 3
Dodge: 3

Powers
Shielding: 2
Insight: 1
Necromancy Skill: 4
Death Mastery: 4


Background:
Here is a brief list of each of her lifetimes (Most of the events are inspired by actual historical events, as best as Wikipedia has led me to believe )

1520 - 1530 London, Mary Sullivan, on artist

1531 - 1543 London, Buckingham Castle, Charles Bart, worked in kitchen of castle, she witnesses the end of the Boylen affair

1545 - 1551 Dublin, Liam O'Shea, Gravedigger

1560 -1569 Chelmsford, England, Sybil Waterhouse, sister of Agnes Waterhouse who was hung for witchcraft involving a familiar. In Chelmsford there were many witch crazes in the following years. Often related to familiars. Several Bast's were present in the town, attracted to each other and forming their own coven to stand side by side with the huamn coven. Wicce based, however, most of the cats (including Ellgawen) did not thing to stop the slaughters. (Note: This is something she likely has NOT told Alex about)

1571 - 1582 Chelmsford, England, Joan Upney, accused of witchcraft and hung.

1583 - 1590 Chelmsford, England, Geroge Upney

1606 - 1618 Ellgawen, Sweden, Barbara Rufin, she is accused of poisoning her son, is tortured and confesses to witchcraft and names several others involved, this starts a witch craze. She ends up helping Helena Rufin (Barbara's daugher) to escape the town safely. After this she vows to protect Gifted humans and takes the name of the city.

** Dormant for 200 years **

1825 - 1832 Georgia, USA, Ruth Twilliger, helps Ruth escape from slavery.

1840 - 1856 Georgia, USA, Virginia Salt, given to Virginia as a present when she is a small child. Ellgawen prolongs her death when she catches small pox but the girl dies at 17 anyway.

1858 - 1863 Savannah, Georgia, Lenora Hastings, Lenora is part of a coven (debating association still) working to prevent/end the Civil War in favor of the South. Union soldiers discover the coven and set fire to the home they are in, killing them all, includig Ellgawen.

1870 - 1887 Missouri, Sara Toole, teacher in small rural town

1890 - 1899 Missouri, Toby Nelson, young boy in asylum who is killed, despite Ellgawen's best efforts, by the doctors trying to 'cure' him of his Gift (Note: This is also something she doesn't talk about much, it pained her a great deal)

1908 - 1920 St. Louis, Missouri, Chet Rowls, Newspaper reporter for the St. Louis Post Dispatch, hung out with mobsters and flapper girls

** Dormant until present day **

Well, I put up her first post... Once again, if you find her a bit beyond what you're comfortable with, just let me know, and I'll delete the post and revise her.

Waaaay creepy.... I'm kinda diggin' it....

P.S. A few minor liberties taken in that last post... if needed I can edit.

Intriging! I like Alice. Child-like villans are fun.

Poor Rosie... this is going to be a fun game indeed!

Nope... no edit needed, that was precisely what I had planned for her.

*sits back* Alright you take over the kitty... you seem good at playing her

M.

That little miscreant is positively amazing! I can't wait to see what sort of trouble she gets into.

Cute and creepy, I love it!

Thank you all, I always get a little bit nervous when I spring a particularly unorthodox character on the group of players

Just a few general things about Alice for the interested.

Alice is an Immortal Child (pretty obvious... taking three bullets), but is also Tainted, which gives her the ability 'Mudoon' (Wishkill under Death Mastery of the Necromantic powers). I decided that, although it said immortals can't use those powers with their Essence, it didn't say anything regarding Taint, and so she uses it unconsciously via Taint.

Her Essence and Taint pools are 75 and 30, respectively, but her aura of Taint is more noticeable than her considerable Essence amount; it's pretty much easily noticed even by mundanes, since it IS Taint.

Alice is also slightly vampiric; she doesn't regain Essence points naturally, and instead absorbs Essence much like a vampire, which is Essence released through strong emotions and feelings by Gifted or Mundane alike. The 'sweetness' she senses in her post is kind of my artistic representation of this. She needs to spend at least 5 essence points per day in order to maintain her physical form; if she doesn't, then to others, she'd feel very cold, and she'd feel as though she doesn't have a pulse. This aspect comes not from a vampiric nature, but rather from Taint Decay.

The tattoo on her forehead is a Taint Mark, so isn't something most people like to see or look at, and her wings are quite apparently Taint Limbs. However, I haven't decided if she'd be able to fly or not; I know the book says the limbs are mainly useless, but it might be kind of interesting if she was able to fly... I don't know, kinda open to discussion on this.

And now, a bit more on her appearance...

Alice looks very much like a porcelain doll, with very pale skin, blond hair and blue eyes. She wears a blue gothic-lolita style dress, and as you can tell, has a few Tainted features that mark her quite clearly to both Mundane and Gifted alike.

I believe that's about it so far...

I'm glad you all like her

Did I scare everyone away from the Q&A page? I didn't mean to, honest... ^^;

I know I can get carried away with the level of detail I can put into character sheets sometimes...

But oooh... I wonder where the main group is going to end up with this chain of events

I love the detail, and from where I see it you're in the company of a bunch of detail mongers.

I'm still working on the character sheets for Alvaro and Mami Fortuna - shooting for the end of the weekend.

And yes, I agree it's going to be an interesting ride.

No way!...*grabs Meri and places her between himself and anything potentially scary*

*peeks out and looks at Alice* She's really cool, by the way...

Figuring where to go from Nimu's last, atm, and was likely gonna come up with a thing or two to post here, en route.

For instance, Nimu; Does Penelope know much of anything about the Zazies let alone why they'd be after her? (I'm presuming 'no' or else there'd be no need for her have to been pointed at Alex, I s'pose, but I just wanna make sure.)

Well, Penelope is well aware of Azazel. He is after all a not so obscure near god-like demon. That being said she is completely ignorant of the existence of the Azazelites and the meaning of that symbol. I figure she's going to be quite shocked to find herself in the middle of some demonic cults scheme.

Thanks.

Oh... and for the record (though, not that it matters much),this is the building that conjured up Alex's place in my mind.



Don't know that the shop front part would be quite as "frilly" but that's about what I see when I envision the place.

I wanna live in that house!

And stop using me as a meat shield... I'm too skinny!!



Ohh... and why are the Azzy's leaving trinkets in Penelope's house?

*aside* Feels she should know this since she has taken up the role of the cult leader of these silly demon leaders recently... lol
Also feels she should learn the actual name of this demon instead of using nicknames all the time or having to go look up the 'horned goat demon' constantly...
Is he the demon in Dogma btw?

Ohhh! No more aside... anyway... onward and upward my friends!!

M.

how formal... *grin*