[size=150]Nel, a Childminder[/size]
Sex: female. Male Childminders are unusual, but may exist. If you design one, consider switching the Folk Witch Flaw to another one.
Age: 30
Overview: a blond-haired crookbacked woman who tries to please everybody and take care of children, whenever she can, even if people don’t ask her to. She may be a nurse for the child of a noble woman, a craftsman’s daughter or any other rich enough people.
Characteristics: Com+3, Dex0, Int-1, Per0, Pre+1, Qik-2, Sta+3, Str-2
Virtues & Flaws: Corrupted Abilities (Etiquette), Deleterious circumstances (breastfeeding) (Folk Witch Flaw), Hunchback, Mythic Babbling, Mythic Endowing, Peasant, Skinchanger (goat).
Abilities: Athletics (lift) 2, Bargain (services) 4, Carouse (children) 3, Craft: Cooking (pastries) 3, Etiquette (children) 4, Folk Witch Magic Theory (laboratory activities) 3, Living Language (children) 5, Medicine (children diseases) 4, Mythic Babbling (crying ones) 5 (Folk Witch Favourite Ability), Mythic Endowing (Fragile Constitution) 5 (Folk Witch Favourite Ability), Profession: Farmer (milking) 2.
Personality traits: Love the children +3, Overprotective +2, Thrust lettered people +2
New Virtue: Mythic Babbling (Minor, Supernatural virtue)
This Virtue grants you the power to make babies fall asleep. This Virtue gives you the supernatural Ability Mythic Babbling 1.
New Virtue: Mythic Endowing (Minor, Supernatural virtue)
This Virtue grants you the power to make babies gain minor virtues or flaws. This Virtue gives you the supernatural Ability Mythic Endowing 1.
New Ability: Mythic Babbling
Characteristic: Communication
Form: Mentem
Method: Fetish or Potion.
Defense: grants a bonus to the Magical Resistance, against any supernatural effect making the character to be childish or credulous.
The character makes a Folk Witch Magic Theory + Mythic Babbling + Com roll, against an Ease Factor of 20 for Duration: Diameter, 25 for Sun, 30 for Moon and 35 for year. The target must be at Rang: Touch and must be a small baby (for human people, not older than 3 years). If the check is successful, the targeted baby falls asleep for the selected duration.
If the target has Magic Resistance, you must pass it with the effect’s penetration.
Specialties: a particular type of babies.
New Ability: Mythic Endowing
Characteristic: Stamina
Form: Corpus
Method: Fetish or Potion.
Defense: grants a bonus to the Magical Resistance, against any supernatural effect making the character to gain or loss a virtue or flaw. This could make her initiations arduous, and may prevent her to learn new supernatural virtues as well.
The character makes a Folk Witch Magic Theory + Mythic Endowing + Sta roll, against an Ease Factor of 20 for a minor Virtue or Flaw, 40 for a major Virtue or Flaw. If the check is successful, the targeted character gains a Supernatural, General or Personality Virtue or Flaw. This effect must target babies only (up to 3-year-old characters), and forces the Childminder to lose a Long-term Fatigue level as long as the effect lasts. The Mythic Endowing effect may stay until it is dispelled, when the Childminder passes a full season to cancel it, or it automatically ceases when the baby enters her 4th year. This character cannot recover from any Fatigue level lost because of a Mythic Endowing effect, as long as this effect is still active.
If the target has Magic Resistance, you must pass it with the effect’s penetration.
Specialties: a particular type of babies.
Notes: The Folk Witch Flaw Deleterious circumstances makes this character to half her supernatural Ability scores when she is not breastfeeding a child. Note this doesn’t require the character to actually breastfeed a child whereas she casts a supernatural effect; but she must have been nursing one during the past day. In the case of abilities without required roll, like Skinchanger and Animal Ken, the character halves her Ability’s level if she didn’t breastfeed a child during the past day. This forces this character to find nurse employment in each village she reaches.
About Folk Witch Traditions: Childminders usually try to live amongst small mundane communities, but prefer those with appropriate supernatural auras to other else. Divine (and sometimes Infernal) Childminders love to settle in big cities, whereas Faerie and Magic ones like better taking refuge in hamlets or wild places – there founding or joining covens. When a coven welcomes a Childminder, it is a great place for her to prosper, in this way Childminders are great supporters of their coven (but are not great in a fight).
Story hook: The Faerie Pupil
Nel currently is nursing a child of a powerful Faerie King, maybe the Lord of the Hunt, or the Great Wolf of the Wind. This child has both an animal and a human shape, and appears to switch whenever it is a bad idea. Nobody knows why the Faerie King choose a human nurse for his heir, but there must be a good reason. The Faerie child may be able to do disasters, destroying a vis source’s harvest, frightening a covenant’s servant or attracting the Church’s attention.
Story hook: The Deferment of the Cursed Child
A devil cursed one of the pregnant servants of the covenant, making her new-born child to be a monster. He might have horns, a red skin or the hoofs of a goat. The mother desperately try to hide this to the father and to the Magi, but this might be difficult. Fortunately, another servant may have heard of that great nurse who settled in the town and may dissipate hexes. Nel could grant a specific Virtue in order to cancel the devil’s curse, but this will require additional studies because she never did that before. This would only be a provisional remedy, because Nel cannot hold her power indefinitely.
[size=150]Chryserpine, a Craft Mime[/size]
Sex: female. Male Mimes exist too.
Age: 30
Overview: this long-haired and refined woman is a talented goldsmithery artisan. Everybody knows she creates great works, sometimes even works of Art. But there is more. She is quite attractive and well-dressed, and she knows how to flatter or please people. She uses her talents to distract, seduce and kill important people, usurping their place.
Characteristics: Com+2, Dex+1, Int+2, Per+2, Pre+2, Qik-2, Sta-2, Str-1
Virtues & Flaws: Afflicted Tongue, Aptitude for sin (usurping someone else’s works), Craftsman, Deleterious Circumstances (outside) (Folk Witch Flaw), Faerie Blood (), Meddler, Venus’ Blessing.
Abilities: Awareness (movements) 3, Brawl (strangle) 3, Carouse (distracting investigators) 4, Charm (clever people) 4, Craft: Apothecary (poison) 5, Craft: Glass-blower (vases) 2, Craft: Goldsmithery (goblets) 2, Craft: Weaver (tapestries) 2, Folk Ken (craftsmen) 2, Living Language (folk witches) 5, Guile (lying) 5, Survival (towns) 2.
Personality traits: Shameless +3, Sceptical +2, Flatterer +2
Virtue Faerie Blood: Doppelganger (Minor, Supernatural virtue)
Doppelgangers are spiritual Faerie creatures, strange and frightening aerie beings who love to imitate the life of their preys. Some of them even live in lieu of their victim, mating with their significant other. Such intercourse could give rise to characters with Doppelganger Faerie blood.
As long as the Mime has a positive level in an Ability Craft or Profession, she can imitate the works, gestures, behaviour and tone of another person who has that same Ability. Pay attention a character with this Virtue must choose a single model and is not an exact replica of her victim. Switching to a new model takes a full season activity. Once it is made, the Doppelganger offspring get a +1 bonus to any roll involving her model’s craft, profession or family. This is treated as a supernatural passive effect with a base magnitude of 0, and it could be either resisted by characters with Magic Resistance, or dispelled through Perdo Vim magic.
As long as the effect lasts, the Mime counts as an arcane connection to her target (if she is still alive). If the target dies, the effect doesn’t vanish, but the arcane connection fades away.
Notes: the Folk Witch Flaw Deleterious Circumstances applies to any activity where the Supernatural Virtues of this character (like Aptitude for sin and Venus’ Blessing) are involved. This means she is much less talented
Chryserpine is here specializing in assuming a role of Goldsmith, either as the spouse of a Craftsman, or as a craftsman herself. She used to assume other roles in her previous travels, hence her other Craft abilities. Of course other Mime could exist for completely different craft activities. Almost every Mime do develop Craft: Apothecary because making poisonous beverages is a splendid way to get rid of a prey. Chryserpine uses her Doppelganger bonus to have the same behaviour as the women they kill, so that she more easily can replace them near by the widowed man who needs tender loving care.
About Folk Witch Traditions: The Craftsman Mimes haven’t basic Folk Witch favourite abilities at the character creation, though some of them could learn new Abilities if they earn the corresponding Virtues. That is why some of them could have benefit from living in a coven, though most of the Mimes try to survive by themselves, lurking and usurping social roles in the mundane society. They mislead and kill unfortunate people and take their place, wedding their husband or becoming mother-in-law for their children, which makes them revolting characters for prudish or morally-good Folk Witches. Most of the times, Mimes aren’t popular amongst other Folk Witch Traditions, and don’t need them to survive. They may ally with Hedge Crows or Heartbreakers, but oppose to well-meaning Folk Witches like Childminders, jolly Fellows and Whitelighters.
Story hook: One Ring to Rule Them All
As an expert in jewellery (or passing as one), Chryserpine could use her influence, her new husband’s guild or any other means to help her coven forging a powerful ring; a ring to rule them all. A ring to bring them in the coven’s influence, where the plots lie. Maybe her help would be asked by a Nibelung’s child (or a Surly Smith), or they could all associate to craft a magical item, following the instructions of a Gifted Folk Witch. The supernatural effects of that artefact are not defined, but they could improve any Folk Witch Favourite Ability, grant control over metal objects, or similar powers at the storyguide’s will.
Story hook: A Worm in The Apple
Chryserpine seduced one of the Magi's servants, or proved being useful and was recruited by their covenant. She now lives in their magic lair, where she starts to assure her position. If the locale aura is not pleasing her, (i.e., if she is aligned with the Dominion, Infernal or, to a lesser extent, Faerie Realm), she will try to switch the aura or to create a fitting Lacuna. She also may be trying to usurp the other craftsmen’s work, and killing those who are not charmed by her sweet little face. As long as she uses mundane means to reach her goals, hermetic magic cannot detect her activities. Intellego Mentem could unveil her true deceiving nature, though. She could then be sent to the covenant’s adversaries, where she can disrupt their craftsmen. Chryserpine wouldn’t protest, as long as she can have a tempting status.