So we have a wizard, a fey, and a tainted so far? Hmm, then I guess I could either stick to the revenant or the vessel... Hmm, which one... I think I'll go with the vessel after all. The Revenant looks fun to play, but feels a bit too focused for my taste.
Alright, here's what I made:
Name
Shou hu ren [Sha-ow-hoo-jen] "Shaow" the terra-cotta warrior
Look
Genderless (appears male), Asian, Work Clothing.
Demeanor
Distant
Character Stats
Blood 1, Heart -2, Mind 1, Spirit 1
Starting Factions ([ ] unchecked, [/] checked)
Mortality -2 [ ], Night 1 [ ], Power 1 [ ], Wild 2 [ ]
Intro Questions
•
Who are you? Shou hu ren, the animated terracotta warrior.
•
How long have you walked the Earth? For over 2000 years. I was meant to be an animated terracotta warrior who would guard the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, but for some reason, I was never sealed in the tomb with the rest of the other normal terracotta warriors. Was I forgotten, stolen, misplaced, or not finished in time? I do not know. Nor do I know if I was meant to be the only animated terracotta warrior.
•
Who or what is your creator? A great court wizard named Fei Long.
•
Why have you chosen to forsake your bondage? Since I was never placed in the tomb, I was never aware of my bondage. I was passed from master to master, forced to do work which I somehow felt I was beneath me or never meant to do, until I came to the city and felt the pull… then it all became clear to me.
•
What keeps you here in the city? I can sense that something from the tomb of Qin Shi Huang is near. I do not know what nor do I know where since my senses does not work like a radar. I only know that is is near, somewhere in the city and I feel compelled to find it and then bring it back to Emperor Qin Shin Huang’s tomb where it belongs.
Gear
A small apartment in the slums, a bike, a dumb phone.
A token of my bondage (Qin Shi Huang’s seal).
A keepsake from my creator (one of the tools used to craft me).
A clumsy but effective weapon (an old bronze mace) (3-harm hand/close).
Debts
Someone convinced you to come to the city to help them with an ongoing problem. they owe you 2 debts. (Dr. Lui Lim, PHD)
You injured someone in the process of fulfilling an instinct. Tell them what instinct you were serving. You owe them 2 debts. (Frank Yves while following my "to break the defiant" instinct.)
Someone has a tie to your creator (or their lineage) and possesses knowledge about your origin they have refused to share. The owe you a debt. (Persephone)
Georg is trying to help me fulfil my true potential with his visions, I owe him a debt.
I'm trying to save Persephone but keep suffering for it, she owes me 2 debts.
Frank Yves asked me to put the screws on some demon in the labyrinth underneath Chinatown and I succeeded, he owes me a debt.
I am helping to keep Partition's demons at bay, he owes me one debt.
Vessel Moves
Only Flesh: When you come directly at a target without concern for your own well being, you get 1-armor. If you’re doing so in the service of one of your instincts, you get 2-armor. If you’re wearing armor, use that instead.
Erase The Shem: When you suffer enough harm to kill you, you can choose to shut down for the remainder of the scene instead of marking the harm. In this state, you suffer no additional harm, nor can anyone detect that you are still alive. You perceive everything that takes place around your body, and you can reawaken at will. If someone dismembers you or attempts to destroy your body, your flesh will knit itself back together upon revival, even if it has to travel great distance to be reunited.
Hideous Visage: When you
persuade an NPC by revealing your inhuman face and threatening their interest, roll with Spirit instead of Hearth.
Materials
You are the inanimate made living, a monster with the visage of a mortal. Pick one material of your component parts:
Blessed soil, sand, or clay.
Once per session, you can heal up to 2-harm by consuming a copious quantity of the materials of which you are made. Anyone who witnesses the consumption sees your true form.
Instincts
Your creator built you to fulfill a particular function, although you’ve proved to be more adaptable than expected. To help you better serve your purpose, your creator imbued you with a number of powerful instincts. Choose four:
To serve the powerful.
To protect the valuable.
To hunt the disloyal.
To break the defiant.
Drama Moves
Vesse Redemption Moves
Intimacy Move
When you share a moment of intimacy-physical or emotional-with another person, ask them an invasive question about being human. If they answer the question honestly, mark redemption. If they deflect the inquiry or offer falsehoods, they must give you a debt.
End Move
When you die, change playbooks or retired your character, you leave something of your old body behind, containing a remnant of your instincts, as a permanent mark on the city. Tell the MC which instinct became most central to your identity; the city will awaken that instinct into itself. Add the following option to
let it out for all PCs.
• Call upon the city to obey its instict.
Harm ([ ] unchecked, [/] checked)
[ ] Faint
[ ] [ ] Grievous
[ ] [ ] Critical
When you suffer harm, mark the same number of boxes as harm received. when you heal harm, erase it in the same order. You heal about 1 harm/day naturally. You can mark a Scar to ignore all ham you are about to suffer.
Scar ([ ] unchecked, [/] checked)
[ ] Shattered (-1 Blood)
[ ] Disfigured (-1 Heart)
[ ] Fractured (-1 Mind)
[ ] Broken (-1 Spirit)
Armor
(1 or 2 as per
Only Flesh)
[ +- ] Images.
Human guise:
True nature:
(spoken with a slight Chinese accent) I woke up long ago, over 2000 years ago in fact, according to your calendar. I did not know who or what I was back then, but I was made to serve a master... his name is lost to time. Somehow, I always felt wrong, like I was not meant for this existence, but I toiled nonetheless. As the decades turned into centuries, I served new masters, their names too I have forgotten... I only remember the last one, a wicked cruel man named Pai Fung. It was an easy task for me to kill him and escape my servitude as it turns out I was made to punish the wicked, and this master was truly wicked indeed... I then wandered the world, seeking to find my purpose, mingling with humanity, but never truly part of it. Only when
that tomb got excavated in China back in 1974 did I finally understood my purpose.
Oh, you wonder why I'm not as tall as my inanimate brethren? Well, just like them, I am hollow on the inside, and through the centuries of interacting with humans, I have learnt to compact my form so as to make my human guise more convincing. Even then, I have not managed to appear any shorter than 2 meters tall. But were I to show you my true self, I would tower at a height of 5 meters.
I could have returned to China then, yes. But then again, what would I have done then? Approached the archeologists who were exhuming the tomb and tell them "Hello, I am a large animated terracotta warrior who was meant to be entombed here with the rest, is there a place for me in your museums?". No, I simply wandered the world once more, trying to figure out why exactly I was created, to what purpose, and by whom. I took the craft of potter and sculptor. This allows me to have plenty of clay on hand with which to heal myself in case I get wounded, plus it allows me to feed in peace.
Only after I came to San Francisco at the behest of (Dr. Lui Lim) did I started to find answers about my past and my functions. (Georg?) found out by examining the tool used to craft me that I was created by a powerful court wizard names Fei Long and that my purpose was to guard the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang and to punish any grave robbers and return any stolen artifact back to the tomb.
Why did I not punished the archeologists back then? They were not acting as grave robbers, pillaging a tomb for their own profit and greed. They were genuinely curious, willing to share their findings with the world, their findings put into museums for the world to see and appreciate. To understand how powerful Emperor Qin Shi Huang truly was. No, their motives were pure and not deserving of punishment.
There are others however who are not so noble and who are deserving of my wrath. Lately, I've sensed something in Chinatown, something calling to me. Some artefact removed unlawfully from Emperor Qin Shi Hueng's tomb which must be retrieved and returned there. I do not know what or where it is as my senses do not work like that. It also seems to be on the move as I've never sensed it at the same place twice. I could have simply rampaged in Chinatown in the hope of finding it, I doubt few would have been able to stop me, but this is not how things are done in the city. So for now, I bide my time. This gives me plenty of time to think of what I will do the wicked when I finally find them...
Last edited December 9, 2017 6:16 pm
