Varanim The Last < SolInvictus

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Varanim

The Last⚠ <br> Single Solar Necromancer seeks personal assistant or collaborator for long-term research projects. Interests should include Labyrinth topology, onomastic recovery, and the effects of booze on massive Essence expenditures. Must have own necrotic Essence source; no crazies please. Send Appearance score and picture of library.

Update Varanim The Last

Name	Nature	Caste
Varanim the Last (Formerly Varanim the Younger)	Savant	Twilight

Concept	Homeland	Anima
Uninvited ghost-doctor	East Podunkia	The Eye and the Word

Player	Chronicle	Experience
Adrienne	Sol Invictus	104 Un, 134 Sp, 238 Tot

Attributes (8/6/4)
Physical		Social		Mental
Strength	2	Charisma	2	Perception	5
Dexterity	5	Manipulation	3	Intelligence	6
Stamina	3	Appearance	2	Wits	5

Abilities (25, 10 From Caste/Favored, Min 1 In Each Favored)
Dawn		Zenith		Twilight
Archery		Endurance		Craft
Brawl		Performance		Investigation	5
Martial Arts		Presence	1	Lore	5
Melee	5	Resistance	1	Medicine	4
Thrown		Survival	1	Occult	5

*Night*		Eclipse		Specialties
Athletics		Bureaucracy		Ability	Rating
Awareness	4	Linguistics	4
Dodge	5	Ride
Larceny		Sail
Stealth		Socialize

Linguistics: High Realm, Riverspeak, Forest-Tongue, Old Realm, (something else)

Tempers		Essence	*****		Virtues (5)
Willpower	9	Personal:	22	Compassion	X X X
X X X X X \| X X X X -				Conviction	X X X
Regain Willpower When		Peripheral:	54	Temperance	X X X X
A rational, methodical approach helps solve a situation		Recovery: 14/hour at ease, 18/hour resting		Valor	X X
Limit Break
- - - - - \| - - - - -

Anima Banner:

0 Motes	No display.
1-3 Motes	Red-gold glimmery caste mark.
4-7 Motes	Bright glowy caste mark!
8-10 motes	Ragged streamers of sunset colors thread the air around Varanim, shot through with beams from her now-brilliant caste mark. The faint smell of incense follows her.
11-15 motes	A flickering bonfire of Essence encases Varanim from head to foot. The ruddy light casts wild flickering shadows in which glint golden half-words that fade into embers before reading.
16+ motes	A giant, symmetric tower of eyes ignites above Varanim, rose and gold and peach surrounded by indigo-on-violet scriptwork. The Twilight mark on her brow glares with the sullen brilliance of the sun descending into the sea, and bittersweet incense wreathes her footsteps.

Virtue Flaw ⚠ <br> Ascetic Drive ⚠ <br> Limit Break Condition: The character is confronted by her own inadequacies or human weakness. After the character's limit breaks, she becomes convinced that she must seek tranquility and purification through withdrawal and meditation. She will immediately turn her back on worldly affairs, however pressing (not to the extent of walking out on a battle, but everything up to that). The character shaves her head, dresses in sackcloth or shows some similar sign of penitence. She seeks out a place of retreat from worldly concerns to contemplate the ephemeral nature of life. If laden down with material possessions like a mansion or many valuable goods, the character may burn or destroy them so they will not distract her in her purpose. If disturbed in her hermitage, the character will be uncommunicative, and if the disturbance continues, she will become violent.

Backgrounds (7)	Value	Notes

Artifact	5	Arm
Contacts	3
Manse	5	The Sublime Refuge of Unquiet Thought (see below)
Necromancy	5	A girl's gotta eat...

Charm Descriptions (10, Min 5 From Caste Or Favored)
Charm	Cost	Type	Non-Instant Duration
Melee
Excellent Strike	1m/die	Supp
Hungry Tiger Technique	1m	Supp
Fire and Stones Strike	1m/die	Supp
Undaunted Weapon Technique	2m	Supp
Serpent Strike Technique	3m	Supp
Steel Symphony Stance	5m 1w	Simple	Scene
Inevitable Strike	3m, 1w	Supp
Endurance
Ox-Body Technique			Permanent
Radiant Essence Technique			Permanent
Presence
Harmonious Presence Meditation	6m	Simple	Hour
Investigation
Ten Magistrate Eyes	3m	Supp	Scene
Crafty Observation Method	5m	Simple
Owner-Locating Method	4m	Simple
Death Revealing Method	3m	Simple
History-Extracting Glance	10m, 1w	Simple	Hour
Judge's Ear Technique	6m	Ref	Scene
Evidence-Discerning Method	6m, 1w	Simple
Unknown Wisdom Epiphany	10m, 1w	Simple
Connection-Revealing Method	10m, 1w	Simple	Varies
Abiding Blood Observation	4m	Simple
Lore
Immaculate Intelligence Prana	None	Special	Permanent
Lore-Unearthing Method	4m	Supp
Forgotten Secrets Technique	1m/die	Supp
Medicine
Body-Mending Meditation	10m	Reflexive	Day
Occult
Spirit-Detecting Glance	3m	Simple	Scene
Spirit-Cutting Attack	3m	Simple	Scene
Spirit-Repelling Diagram	10m	Simple	Scene
Ghost-Eating Technique	5m	Supp
All-Encompassing Sorcerer's Sight	6m	Supp	Scene
Bestiary Sight Technique	6m, 1w	Simple	Scene
Spellbound Sight Technique	6m, 1w	Simple	Scene
Spookyvision charm
Shadowlands Circle Necromancy	1w	Simple
Labyrinth Circle Necromancy	2w	Simple
Void Circle Necromancy	3w	Simple
Fundamental Understanding	5m	Simple	Scene
Awareness
Immaculate Perception Prana	None	Special	Permanent
Sensory Acuity Prana	5m	Simple	Scene
Owl-Eye Technique	5m	Simple	Day
Inattentive Awareness Methodology	8m	Ref	Varies
Dodge
Reed in the Wind	1m/2d	Ref
Shadow over Water	2m	Ref
Seven Shadows Evasion	6m	Ref
Scattered Sunlight Attitude	4m 1w	Ref
Reflex Sidestep Technique	2m	Ref
Flow Like Blood	5m 1w	Simple	Scene
Linguistics
Sagacious Reading of Intent	6m	Simple

Spells
Spell	Cost	Non-Instant Duration
Shadowlands Circle
Banish Ghost	12+m
Death Inversion Loop	18m
Field of Fell Dreams	16m
Gathering a Ghost's Strings	10m or 20m
Hail the Conqueror Worm	15m
Shattered Void Mirror	20m
Silent Master's Pollen	18m
Summon Ghost	15+m
Labyrinth Circle
Brick-by-Brick Solitude	19m
Crystal Ghost Shard	15m
Dead Man's Voice	18m
Denying the Call	24m
Golden Shadows Cast in Frieze	30+m
Links Born of Tumult	22m, 1l health level
Shadow Stones Travel	24m
Silenced Whispered Prayers	27m
Summon the Greater Dead	30m

Merits & Flaws

Eidetic Memory - Vision, Hearing, Scent

Signature Style - Drunk and Cranky

Nightmares

Necromancy shopping list: Rattled Bones of War, Animus of Wailing Souls, Void Circle necromancy in some fashion yet to be determined which might prove to be morally ambiguous, Grandmother Void, Mouth of the Void, Pyre-Flame Guardian, Summon Hekatonkhire

Charm shopping list: Unknown Wisdom Epiphany, All-Encompassing Knowledge Prana, Connection-Revealing Method, Knowledge-Locating Glance, Spellbound Sight Technique

The Sublime Refuge of Unquiet Thought

(Manse 5: Jewel of the Immortal Mind)

The Refuge is a lingering outcropping of a once-great library, clinging to the side of a chasm in the Black Crag Mountains and reachable only by a winding path from the small village nearby. The original building was a collection of fluted spires full of little nooks and offshoots, a fractal bridge across the chasm anchored on either side by towers. The whole assembly sang like an an alien symphony in the strong winds that scoured the gorge, and the archives there were said to contain wonders and secrets held nowhere else.

What remains of the structure now is the near tower, a graceful twist of white marble leaning at the lip of the chasm like a hand outstretched for a dance partner who never returned. It still cries in the wind through vents and tunnels in the cliff below, but the old chorus is much diminished. Inside are lofty-ceilinged reading rooms which now contain remnants of the old collection as well as more recent esoterica, a workshop not much used during Varanim's tenure, living quarters, and a rooftop observatory.

The days when the library was a center of learning and a site of pilgrimage are long since past, and it now stands as a hermitage for rare scholars or mystics. Every few generations someone divines the truth in legendary references, threads the lost puzzle-roads, and is greeted by the village as the new keeper of the Refuge. The various residents have all been driven by some great question, and most of those who now inhabit the hearthstone never resolved their obsessions (those who did tended to return to the world, leaving the manse and stone for the next questing soul). Scattered through the libraries and private collections of Creation are academic texts or works of art attributed to a person "of the Refuge," considered by most modern scholars to be an eccentric or pretentious sort of pen-name.

The people of the village say that the old library was not destroyed, but was simply lost, and that the right mystical working could bring back its forgotten treasures. Most of the residents (Varanim among them) consider this either to be wistful superstition or at best outside the scope of current research. But when the storm winds blow, the old symphony sometimes roars again, and the Varanim occasionally scribbles notes on the subject in her writings.

Dead Folks in the Jewel

The Theologian: A rigid academic, deeply studied in the ways of Creation's spiritual hierarchy in general and the Immaculate Order in particular. His written output from the Refuge probably equals that of the other personalities put together. He and Varanim probably loathe each other.

The Bodhisattva: The Small Whirlwind was a twelve-year-old girl from the village who one day ascended the path to the Refuge and lived there for six months, writing a series of short poems and parables of heartbreaking beauty and tantalizing mystical significance. She says that she then gave herself to the air to imbue a message of peace into the breezes of the world.

The Astrologer: A frail old man, liver thoroughly pickled by alcohol, who refurbished the rooftop observatory and wrote treatises on the stars and other lesser methods of divination that even Varanim finds obscure.

The General: Anderazu Oteiza was a tremendously successful strategist who carved a path to the ear of a sovereign, preserved the throne through ferocious external attack and then civil war, and retired into obscurity when she was offered the crown by the surviving remnants of the army. She wrote one book collecting all of her observations on tactics, which has never left the Refuge.

The Demonologist(s): Usually referred to as "the twins," this is the oldest regularly talkative resident of the jewel. Two personalities, a man and a woman, their fragments have partly merged in the long-term decay process of the hearthstone. They spent entirely too much time talking to demons when alive (Varanim is moderately curious about whether the hearthstone allows cheating hell, or simply saves a local copy).

The Bandit: The Dry Land Crocodile was a con artist turned bandit lord. He found the Refuge with stolen directions and used it to store some of his most secret treasures, over years of pillaging, before his forces were finally obliterated by a Realm army.

Equipment And Other Gear

The Sinister Vessel of Ancient Hatreds

The Vessel is a large, segmented soulsteel arm, assembled in overlapping plates in a manner similar to a suit of full-plate armor (or the limb of a Soulsteel Alchemical). Normally, the arm lies flat and has a shape very much like that of a real human limb, but when the user flares with Essence, previously-hidden jagged shards spring up upon various parts of the arm to cover it with spines, and then dark sigils begin to glow along its length.

The user, upon paying an 8 mote attunement, can use the Vessel as if it were their own arm, with as much dexterity as they would have with their natural limb. In addition, the arm conveys three additional benefits:

* The Vessel's structure cuts across the boundary of worlds, the Shroud that separates life and death. The user may reflexively choose to affect objects in Creation or Netheos with that hand when they are present in either world.

* The Vessel serves as a powerful focus for necromancy, its unique construction rendering the process significantly less draining and allowing spells to be performed with far less outlay of resources; it allows Necromancy spells of the first, second, and third circles to be cast for 5, 10, and 15 fewer motes, respectively.

* The Vessel's underlying Essence structure has an overriding need to protect its owner, and the extrusions of soulsteel upon its surface will move to do so at the slightest notice. When the Exalt is displaying their anima banner and the arm's spikes have emerged, they may have the metal reflexively extrude itself and parry all incoming attacks (including those the Exalt is unaware of) using a pool equal to their Int + Occult.

The Mask of Summers

Wrought in imitation of the ceremonial mask of Larquen Quen's ghost, the Mask of Summers is a disc of fire caught in crystal, traced with orichalcum outlines, with a many-tongued halo of orange and red and gold that surrounds a grim visage. When worn, the user can channel a necromantic spell through the Mask in order to affect the souls of living beings as if they were ghosts, at the cost of aggravated levels of damage. In order to use a spell with a specific target, the caster takes damage equal to the target's Permanent Essence; to use a spell with a general effect (for example, a warding spell), the caster chooses a number of health levels to pay; all creatures with Essence less than or equal to the amount paid are affected. These health levels manifest as internal disruption to the caster's body (nosebleeds, fever, pain in the limbs, etc.) and cannot be healed with magical healing effects. The attunement cost of the Mask is 8 motes.

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