Callida Taylor - Chosen of Hephaestus

[Ratpigeon]

Callida (Callie) Taylor Chosen of Hephaestus Legendary Title: Labyrinth Artificer Callie is mixed African-American and Hispanic, and tall. Her prosthetics probably make her a couple of inches taller than she might have been otherwise, so she stands at 5'11". She's got a runners build, lean and athletic, and she wears her hair in simple flat twists to keep it out of her face. She was 21 - in the last year of her degree - when she went into the Labyrinth, but she doesn't look it anymore. She matured in the Labyrinth, finished growing into her skin in a way that most twenty-one year-olds haven't. Origin: Home-Made Legs (Integrity, Technology, Survival) Callie grew up on a farm in Texas, the southern end of the wheat belt, just north of Mexico. When she was eight, she fell into a wheat thresher, resulting in a bilateral below-the-knee amputation. Rural healthcare and American insurance being what it is, prosthetic care wasn't exactly accessible - especially not for a growing girl who would need to be refitted every six to twelve months, in a hospital four hours away. So Callie figured it out herself. With Youtube tutorials, parts from the bike she got for her birthday and couldn't ride anymore, the tools for fixing the farm machinery and sheer stubbornness, she built herself a working pair of legs. Role: Headstrong Student Athlete (Athletics, Technology, Subterfuge) Callie has a contrarian streak - she tends to take the word "can't" to mean "try it". So after she built herself legs, she taught herself to walk again. Then she learned to run again. Then she taught herself the rest of the skills needed for the decathlon. Mainly, because when she was a tween, she saw a news clip about how the winner of the Olympic decathlon wins the title of "world's greatest athlete". Sure, that's for the Olympics, not the Paralympics, and women usually compete in a heptathlon, not the decathlon, but a girl's got to have a goal. She made it to UCLA on a track and field scholarship, majoring in mechanical engineering, and was on track to compete in the next paralympics. Pantheon: Reforged in Flame (Persuasion, Empathy, Integrity) A few weeks ago, Callie got lost on her way home from class, and found herself in the heart of a labyrinth full of traps and puzzles. A gnarled man with a wild beard, his skin the colour of soot and bronze, and sitting in a wheelchair made of glass, brass clockwork and things she couldn't even identify. He looked her up and down, and then he spoke. I like the legs. Let's see how you handle something a little harder. Callie isn't sure how long she spent in the maze - it was only one night in the World. In Hephaestus' labyrinth, it was long enough to figure out that he wasn't trying to kill her, the traps weren't lethal, and whenever she was to the point of collapsing from starvation or injury, she'd find a flask with a few drops of golden liquid. Long enough to realise that the failure condition wasn't death, it was giving up. Long enough to realise that there wasn't a win condition. There was no pathout of the labyrinth. It just didn't exist. And that's when the real trial began. To do something impossible. To be strong enough, clever enough, inventive enough, to become Scion enough to do the impossible. She built her birthright from scraps of divinity left in the Maze - a loupe found in an abandoned workshop that let her see exploitable weaknesses, tools made from quicksilver drained from an automaton she lured into a trap, and the fire. It built up under her skin, not a tool, but the slow igniting of a spark of divinity as she was remade - until she became more than just the engineer, but also the forge fire itself. Short-term Deeds: Figure out my next steps Long-term Deeds: Build an Automaton Band Deeds: To be determined Egotism ○○•○○ Kinship

 

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Attributes

Callie is all grit and determination, an intense stubbornness that can often be too much. Her social graces could use some work, but the gifts of the Theoi are helping to cover for that - her intensity has gone from actively off-putting to strangely compelling. She's still hopeless at the social subtleties though. While Callie is smart, she's not extraordinary - her accomplishments are more due to tenacity than brilliance. Unlike her adoptive parent, Callie is an athlete. She's strong, fit, and extraordinary on the field - years of fine-tuning and upgrading her legs to be exactly what she needs from them, and she was hoping to join the very short list of athletes that have competed in both the Paralympics and Olympics.

	Physical (6)		Mental (4+1)		Social (2)
Force	Might	•••○○	Intellect	•••○○	Presence	•••○○
Finesse	Dexterity	•••••	Cunning	••○○○	Manipulation	•○○○○
Resilience	Stamina	•••○○	Resolve	•••••	Composure	•••○○

 

Skills

Many people asked Callie, why she chose engineering, given her focus on prosthetics, why not medicine. Callie's response has always been that medicine cut her legs off, engineering gave them back. She's not a jack of all trades - she focused, narrowly, on her areas of interest. Those skills expanded when she was thrown into Hephaestus' labyrinth - she learnt to hide from automata, pick locks into abandoned workrooms and filch from the Celedones the resources she needed to survive. She also started picking up snippets and tidbits of mythology, learning from the frescoes painted on every wall.

Academics	○○○○○	AthleticsTrack and Field	•••••	Culture	○○○○○	Close Combat	○○○○○
Empathy	•○○○○	Firearms	○○○○○	IntegrityHang in there	••••○	Leadership	○○○○○
Medicine	○○○○○	Occult	•○○○○	Persuasion	•○○○○	Pilot	○○○○○
Science	○○○○○	SubterfugeDeft Hands	•••○○	SurvivalGrew up on a farm	•••○○	TechnologyMechanical Engineering	•••••

Powers

Callie brought the maze back with her. The engineer in her is the spark of kinship that Hephaestus acknowledged, and the Warrior is her own stubbornness. Most of her natural ability is her skill with artifice, fueled by her internal Fire. But the maze has woven itself into the essence of her legend, a metaphor for self-transformation that brought with it a certain liminality, and a knack for twisting space into strange shapes, that might one day develop into a Sanctum workshop-maze of her own.

CreatorArtificer Metallurgist Knack Skill: Technology	••○○○	Flawlessly Platonic IdealWhen you work to improve an object, you make it as flawless as possible. When creating an object using this Knack, you may ignore up to your Creator dots (1) in points of Flaws. In combat, you can upgrade light cover to heavy cover by making a Knack Skill roll. If materials are available, you may also spend Momentum and use an action to transform items that would not normally be protective (stacks of newspaper, empty cardboard boxes, curtains, etc.) into light cover.	Reverse EngineerWhen you take apart an object, you instantly gain an understanding of how to rebuild it, or create new versions.
LiminalTransformation Knack Skill: Athletics	•○○○○	FlatlanderWhen you make a close combat, thrown, or ranged attack, you gain access and 1 Enhancement to apply any of the following Stunts to your action, in addition to the default set: • Glimpse the Other Side (any successes above Defense): Make a Clash of Wills. If the target fails, they are removed from reality (leaving play entirely) until the start of their next turn. They roll initiative as normal and reappear where they were standing on their action. An opponent removed from reality in this way cannot be targeted by any actions until they reappear. •Stutter Time (any successes above Defense): You force the target of your attack to suffer a penalty to their Initiative equal to the successes you spend on this Stunt. This pushes a fast opponent further down the initiative roster. If you are targeting an opponent who has already gone, they take this penalty at the start of the next turn. •Bend Space (any successes above Defense): Reduce the target’s Range by 1 for each success spent on this Stunt, to a minimum of Close, which lasts until the end of the target’s next action.
WarriorBloody-minded Guerilla Knack Skill: Athletics	••○○○	Master of WeaponsAt the beginning of the session, choose one of your weapons to be your favored weapon. When you use your favored weapon, add a number of additional Tag points to it up to your Warrior Calling. These do not have to fit the weapon’s existing profile: A sword can be made to strike at Far range, for example. Spend Momentum to switch the benefit to another weapon. Negative cost Tags cannot be purchased with this Knack.	Enhanced ImpactWhenever you successfully deal Injury with your Knack Skill (Athletics), you also knock the target back one range band. This does not do any extra damage, but can put someone in a tight spot.

 

Metamorphosis	InnateYour mutable nature lends itself to disguise. When you conceal your identity by any means, trivial characters automatically fail to see through your deception. When you roll to disguise yourself or present yourself as someone else, you ignore any Complications from changing height, size, race, sex, or even species.
Fire	InnateYou and your personal belongings cannot take damage or suffer any form of harm from fire, heat, or smoke inhalation. You can walk through wildfires or industrial microwaves unharmed, swim in magma for as long as you can hold your breath, and perform similar feats of fireproof heroism. Extreme cold is likewise harmless to you.	Heaven's FireCost: Imbue 1 Legend Duration: One scene Subject: Self Action: Reflexive You gain the ability to attack enemies with fire. Each Scion can choose a unique manifestation of Fire for their attack: throwing firebolts, heat ray vision, or triggering spontaneous combustion with an incantation or a finger snap. You can make these attacks as Simple actions for the scene, rolled with Athletics + Dexterity. They have the Aggravated, Ranged, and Pushing tags.
Chaos	InnateYou walk untouched through chaotic situations, taking no harm from random or haphazard dangers such as debris in a tornado, a freak traffic accident, or being trampled by shoppers on Black Friday. This does not protect you from damage that results from an action performed with intent to cause harm, like gunfire in a shootout, or environmental situations. This immunity extends to any non-magical dangerous terrain, unless a character in the scene actively created that peril with intent to harm. You still face any Complications that such situations would normally impose — you’re simply guaranteed to come through unscathed.
Forge	InnateYour handiwork is infallible. Whenever one of your craft projects would suffer Flaws due to the Complications of delicate work or any other source, subtract one point from the total amount of Flaws, down to a minimum of 0.	Shaping HandCost: Imbue 1 Legend Duration: One scene Subject: Self Action: Simple You can shape and mold stone, metal, and other earthen substances with your bare hands as though it were as malleable as clay. When this assists in an action, like climbing a sheer cliff overhang or pulling a steel wall open, you gain Enhancement 3.

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Birthrights

Hephaestus' Glass (•)

Hephaestus is renowned for the marvels he creates, and, just as much, for the ruin those marvels have brought upon the ones that wronged him. This jeweller's loupe shows potential and flaws in equal measure.

Motif: To reveal opportunity, and expose weakness

Purview (••): Chaos

Knack (•): By looking through the lens of the Glass, the Scion can identify weak points and vulnerabilities, as per the knack Entropic EyeOnce per scene, you may roll your Knack Skill to examine nearby vulnerabilities. You may spend a banked success to ask one of the following questions and get an accurate, useful answer from the Storyteller. When you act on these answers or advise another character to do so, gain +1 Enhancement.
• What vulnerabilities does this (character, object, or structure) have?
• How can I inflict maximum damage against this (character, object, or structure)?
• Where is this (character, object, or structure)’s blind
spot?
• What here can give me an advantage against this (character, object, or structure)?

Enhancement (••): to uncover hidden details observed through the glass

Flaw (○○○○): Relic is cursed; each time it’s used, it takes an influence action against the scion using their own traits to urge vindictive behavior or change their Attitude to hold onto grudges. If the character succumbs to the urge, they earn a point of Momentum.

Prometheus' Lighter (••)

This bronze flick lighter contains a spark of the flame that Prometheus stole from Hephaestus' forge, rather than oil. As much as literal fire, it burns with the flame of ideas, pushing the scion who bears the flame to ever greater heights, and depths.

Knack (••): Imbue legend, rather than spending, to invoke your Legendary Title as a feat of scale to devise or pull off a brilliant - and dangerous - plan on an epic scale.

Knack (••): The Scion draws strength from the weight of their convictions, allowing them to punch above their weight as per the (Saint) Knack Virtuous MightOnce per session, a Saint may cancel out Scale (p. 65) equal to their position on the Virtue track (maximum 3, minimum 1) for the scene on a single target.
This can be anything from stopping a speeding truck from killing them (Scale 2 to 0) to slapping a God like they would any other mortal (cancelling the God’s defensive Scale). Despite the name, this applies to any expression of Scale, including social and mental. .

Flaw (○○): All Difficulties to use Relic increase by 1 for the scene if the Scion wielding it acts against either of their Virtues.

Daedalus' Silver (•••)

Daedalus is said to have used quicksilver to give voice and movement to his statues. With this silver, it seems possible that it might be the truth. When dormant, this relic is simply a pool of quicksilver, around a gallon in volume. But when it is charged with the legend of a Scion, it becomes something animate, flowing and shifting into fractal filigrees that take shape according to the Scion's whim.

Motif: Filigree artistry

Purview (••): Forge

Boon (•): The Scion may learn the Boon Shaping Hand (Earth) as a Forge boon.

Tags (•): Concealable, Soft (2)

Enhancement (••): When using the Silver's Motif to perform an Equipment marvel, that equipment is especially well-made, and grants a +1 equipment enhancement.

Flaw (○○○): Relic is volatile and causes an attack of some kind on everyone within short range if destroyed or pushed beyond its normal limits, or if user rolls a botch for its use. The Daedalus Silver is a raw resource, rather than a refined relic, which makes it unstable - if it isn't shaped with a light touch, its delicate patterns twist into spikes.

Cup of Ambrosia (••)

This small leather flask holds two scant mouthfuls of red-gold honey - and after those are gone, sooner or later, it contains two mouthfuls again. The ambrosia enhances the potence of Theoi scions, improving their control over their Signature purview and innate transformative ability.

Knack (••): Gain two Soma pointsThe beneficiary may spend a soma point at any time to do one of the following:
• Gain one additional Injured Condition level for the scene
• Reduce a Complication’s rating by one
• Break a tie on an opposed roll in your favor
• Experience a minor convenient stroke of luck, such as stumbling across someone you wanted to find or guessing a lock’s combination on the first try per session, which disappear if they aren't used by the end of the session. If the scion shares the drink with others, these points can be spread out among multiple characters, but one batch only ever produces (rating) points per session

Geneia, Celedone Mouse (••)

This little golden mouse is a native of Hephaestus' workshop, a castoff scrap of clockwork animated by the same motive force that brings life to Hephaestus' Celedone handmaidens. There is a tiny key on her belly, which, when wound, causes her to play tinkling music box tunes. Callie calls her Genny - short for γενειά (aka Whiskers).

Drive: Offer succour

Flairs: On Your FeetCost: None
Duration: Instant
Subject: Allies previously Taken Out
Range: Short
Action: Simple
Cooldown: Antagonist numbers are reduced to half or less of what they were when this Flair was used previously.
The Antagonist clears the rightmost Health Box of an ally within close range. This can bring characters back into a fight they were Taken Out of., InspirationCost: None
Duration: One scene
Subject: All allies
Range: Medium
Action: Reflexive
Cooldown: End of scene
The Antagonist’s presence lends strength to her allies. When invoked, all allied characters within near range temporarily remove one Injury Complication, or if they do not currently have one, gain a blanket +1 Enhancement to all actions. The Injury Complications return and the Enhancement fades when the Flair ends, when allies subject to it move out of range of the Antagonist, or when the Antagonist with this Flair is Taken Out.
As Antagonists do not use Injury Complications, Antagonists affected by this Flair gain +1 Health, or +1 Enhancement if undamaged.

Primary Pool (2): Empathy, Medicine, Music Box
Secondary Pool (1): Scurrying, Sneaking
Desperation Pool: 1
Health: 2
Defense: 1

Thetis, Brine-born and Silver-footed (•○○○○Potential Upgrades:
Asset Skill: Athletics
Legendary Title: Silver-footed
Purview: Epic Dexterity

Unique Knack: Gain access to the stunt Cloud Cover

Cloud Cover (1-3 successes): Create or suppress one feature in the Field in which the Scion stands, with a value equal to successes spent. This effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to successes spent, and only one such effect can exist at a time. The feature must make sense within the bounds of what controlling the wind or other weather effects could accomplish.)

The mother of Achilles is a goddess in her own right, and her mythology has twined many times with Hephaestus' through the years. Her trust is hard-won, and the full weight of her favour rarely granted, but she does protect Scions, turning the battlefield to their advantage. It wasn't enough for her child, maybe it'll be enough for another.

Asset Skills: Survival

Guide Stunt (1-3 successes): Increase or decrease the rank of a Field feature by successes spent in the Field where you currently stand.

 

 

Edited January 22 by Ratpigeon (see edit history)

[Ratpigeon]

Callie is pretty fleshed out - in terms of appearance, she's mixed race Spanish/African-American, tall - her prosthetics probably make her a couple of inches taller than she might have been otherwise, so she stands at 5'11". She's got a runners build, lean and athletic, and she wears her hair in simple flat twists to keep it out of her face. She was 21 - in the last year of her degree - when she went into the Labrynth, but she spent something like a couple of years in there, so is more like 23-24 now even though her driver's license still says 21.

In terms of her relationship wiht Hephaestus - he gave her a chance to earn her spark of divinity, but he sees that as hers to shape as she sees fit now, as far as Scions go, it's a very no-strings attached relationship.

In terms of her birthrights - I haven't spent my 4 extra dots, since I want to get a DM okay first :)

• The Hephaestus' Glass is by the book - but the huge flaw buying it down to 1 dot seems like the relic might come out too cheap in the end. Also - I'm not sure if the enhancement I have should be broad or narrow.
• The Knack on the silver needs some GM Fiat to refine it. The goal is a chunk of quicksilver that can reshape to serve as desired, but the knack it uses to do it
  "Can transform all its physical attributes for the scene, as a simple action; this transformation can replace any number of tags with others of equal or lesser value, other than Aggravated, Melee, or Ranged" is a bit vague. The plan is to mainly go with Soft/Concealable armour, but then in a fight, I can switch it to Soft (1) and Resistant (2), or if I've spent my Legend, and can't use my Heaven's Fire boon as a weapon, I can switch it to a Javelin with Returning. But also to be able to transform it into tools, or to reinforce my prosthetics (turning them into some kind of close combat weapon, that wouldn't have the Melee tag, but would have the Versatile tag whith her legs, which could buff her with other stunts). I'm also considering putting a +1 Broad Enhancement for whatever the Silver is being used for at the time. But I'm thinking that "Silver that can turn into anything" might be a bit too broad, so the other option is that I'd buy up 2-3 instances of the Alternate Form knack, and have a few set forms for the silver, and trying to make it go beyond those set forms would trigger the "pushed beyond it's limits" flaw.
• The guide rules say that the dot rating of a guide is a combination of guide strength and how much help they are willing/able to offer. I'd like to build a relationship with Thetis over the course of the game, and invest XP into that birthright as the relationship develops. I know you said Relics would be pretty static until we hit Demigod, so I wanted to check if it was okay to have a Guide that I plan to invest XP in, or if I should use my 4 final touches dots to buy her up now. The Thetis angle is actually pretty cool - Argyropeza (Silver-footed) is genuinely one of her poetic epithets (which will probably be what she grants to Callie when she becomes a 3 dot guide). When Hephaestus was cast out of Olympus, Thetis took him in and raised him to adulthood, and then when Achilles went to war, Thetis went to Hephaestus to forge armor for her son.

 

[PerilousAdventures]

Let see:

-Hephaestus Glass: If it is all hidden details without any limit, then yeah it is broad

-As suggested in the book if you want it to be a very broad applications of your powers, its easier to do with a purview. With your Forge purview plus the motif, you can pretty much summon/do any item once per scene. It's only for some you really want more mechanics for that...but it is already a very generous ability since summoning most item only require to imbue 1 legend (so not spending) unless you want something very complex which now can ask for spending 1 legend.

-Yes its possible. As the book mentions you can add dots to new or existing birthrights with XP.

Edited January 14 by PerilousAdventures (see edit history)

[Ratpigeon]

That's a good point - I overlooked Marvels. I've been playing around with Callie's birthrights, but I'd say she's probably done now. I think the only question left is how broad this Enhancement is:

Enhancement (••): When using the Silver's Motif to perform an Equipment marvel, that equipment is especially well-made, and grants a +1 equipment enhancement.

 

If it's Narrow, I'll move the dot into Genny to give her a few more dice.