Claribel Marrionque

Overview

Background

The initial experience of Claribel's awakening was almost stereotypical of a Hermetic. Slowly awakening, she was noticed during her history degree, and slowly brought in and taught the Hermetic method. Her mentor - one Dr Randal Furnier - was, for his part, a typical Hermetic, if specialised in his chosen research of Umbrood social structures. The first change from the usual was the fact that, just under two months from the start of her apprenticeship, Dr Furnier took another apprentice. Amaranth White.
Claribel and Amaranth became relatively quickly good friends, but there was always something strange about Amaranth. Animals would shy away from her. Her spells, on occasion, would twist and distort. She painted - she was an art student back then - but some of them, the ones she'd say were images from her dreams were disturbing. On one occasion a failed summoning attracted a demon, who in the short while before Dr Furnier banished it, seemed to recognise her. But for the most part, the apprenticeship went normally. They both progressed through the graduated ranks of the hermetic order, learning alchemy and invocations, lower magics and slowly the truth of higher magics.
It was a few months before the end - or, what the Doctor was hinting would be the end - of their apprenticeships when Master Edmund Holles-Smythe made an offer to take up Amaranth's apprenticeship, having heard of her aptitude with Ars Fati. The Master, a man of great respect in the order, was thus understandably annoyed at her refusal to even consider it. And as such, he set up a trap. During the initiation, he produced an excuse to have both Claribel and Amaranth engage in certámen to prove their worth as true members of the order. Claribel proved herself aptly against an adept, forming her Aegis and Gladius both into mannequins. But for Amaranth, Master Holles-Smythe arranged it against his own apprentice. And Amaranth thrashed her.

After that, the two drifted apart, both finding their own positions in the order. Claribel started her own research into Spirit summoning, using dolls, mannequins, and puppets as the basis, refining the materials, ruins, and summoning circles. She got warned, a few times, about not following the Umbrood protocols as exactly as the Chantry wanted. In response she opened her shop (as well as a way to defray the costs of all her magic), moving most of her more experimental work into there.
For two years, everything was fine, until one rainy afternoon a spirit manifested in Claribel's shop. Speaking with Amaranth's voice, it pleaded for her to make her way to a nearby Chantry as quickly as possible. There she discovered three things. One, Master Edmund Holle-Smythe was dead. Two, Amaranth was charged with being a Nephrandus. And three, Claribel would burn the place down before she let that happen. Two days before her trial (and presumed sentence of Gigul afterwards) Claribel thinned the wards around Amaranth's room and pulled her into the Umbra.
She was, technically, successful. Amaranth got away. Claribel, however, did not, and was soon ensconced in the same cell she just liberated someone from. Her charges were lesser, although still severe. Her mentor appeared once, before the trial day, to tell her to never contact him again. The trial itself took nineteen hours, and after arguing until she lost her voice, Claribel was not sentenced with Diabolism. She was, however, still Branded and thrown out of the order, for a combination of Disrespect (interesting in a Hermetic trial) and Recklessness (helping a suspected Nephrandi).

And so she marched out of the Chantry, and back to her shop. She's spoken with Amaranth twice, since, both long and winding conversations that completely avoided the elephant in the room. Her progress in spirit summoning has slowed, since the loss of the Chantry library, although business at her shop has perked up. Her views on widderslante have spread through the local mages, making more than a few look at her out the side of their eye. She doesn't care. She's got her own life to live, and she won't dwell further on the past.

Vital Statistics

Name: Claribel Marrionque

Craft Name: Claribel Marrionque bani ex-Miscellenia

Shadow Name:

True Name:

Tradition: Ex-Hermetic

Concept: Spirit-calling Puppet-mistress

Image Song:

Nature: Contrary

Demeanor: Loner

Essence: Primordial

Chantry -

Things to Track

Willpower: 5

Temporary Willpower: 5

Health Levels: -0 x 1, -1 x 2, -2 x 2, -5 x 1, Incapacitated

Current Damage 0

Arete: 3

Quintessence:

Tass

Paradox: 0

Attributes

Strength 1
Dexterity 4 (Hand-Eye Coordination)
Stamina 1

Perception 2
Intelligence 4 (Creative)
Wits 2

Charisma 5 (Charming)
Manipulation 3
Appearance 3

Abilities

TALENTS

Alertness 2
Awareness 3
Diplomacy 2
Intimidation 1
Style 2

SKILLS

Craft (Tailoring, Dollcraft, Sculpting) 3
Disguise 1
Drive 2
Etiquette 3
Melee 2
Research 2

KNOWLEDGES

Academics (History, Fashion) 2
Esoterica (Hermetic, Goetia) 2
Lore (Technocracy) 1
Occult 1

Paradigm

Foci and Spheres

Correspondence: 0
Entropy: 0
Forces: 0
Life: 0
Matter:2
Mind:2
Prime: 3
Spirit: 3
Time: 0

Backgrounds

Avatar 2
Resources 1
Sanctum 2

Samuel Haight

Mentor 5, Familiar 5
A ghost, and a mage who wanted to be a werewolf, Samuel Haight was possessing a weird ashtray, as well as Helene, before he was bound to service. He is also hated by basically everyone. He counts as a diabolical familiar, which will do wonders to Claribel's reputation.

The terms of service, as currently defined, are:
"I propose these terms, Samuel. In exchange for a body of human form now, and my oath to improve it within a year, a month, a week, and a day, I shall have your service by my side. You will aid me in my magics, serve my in my triumphs, and help me in my defeats. You shall make no action to harm me, nor this cabal, and you will answer truthfully and to the fullest extent of your knowledge one question each of us have every week. You will act to serve my interests, and obey my direction. In exchange, I shall grant you essence of power appropriate to your assistance, in addition to the body I have offered."
He currently looks like a high-quality hand-carved, wood-and-ceramic action figure, dressed kinda like Snake Plissken with stick-and-poke tribal tats.

Equipment

Transport

A motorbike

Weapons

A ritual knife, consecrated to touch spirits

Merits and Flaws

Merits

Light Sleeper: Four hours of sleep a night works just fine for you. And unlike most folks, you can wake up out of an apparently dead slumber more or less ready for action. You can, of course, enjoy longer periods of sleep too. But when deadlines, intruders, and end-of-the-world emergencies shake you out of bed, you get by with cat-naps and the occasional light snooze.

Flaws

Impediment (Long-Sighted)
Sympathiser (Widderslante) It’s known, that to at least a degree, that Claribel has sympathies for Widderslantes, as best exemplified by her trial and dismissal from the Hermetic Order
Branded For her sympathy and assistance of her fellow apprentice, she was given a Brand for Disrespect and unintentional Recklessness. Formally, she should have been charged with Diabolism - assistance of a nepherandus - but given the absence of the accused Neph, nobody could say for sure if they were truly a Nepherandus, and given her long time association with them - and the precedent that pawns of Neph cannot be held entirely responsible - the crime was commuted to a lesser brand and expulsion.

Chargen

Attributes

Primary: Social
Charisma 5, Manipulation 3, Apperance 3
Secondary: Mental
Perception 2, Inteligence 2, Wits 4
Teritary: Physical
Strength 1, Dexterity 4, Stamina 1

Abilities

13/9/5
Secondary: Talents
Alertness 2
Awareness 3
Diplomacy 1
Style 3
Primary: Skills
Craft (Tailoring, Dollcraft, Sculpting) 3
Disguise 1
Drive 2
Etiquette 3
Melee 2
Research 2
Tertiary: Knowledges
Academics (History) 2
Esoterica (Hermetic) 2
Lore (Technocracy) 1 [Free]
Occult 1

Backgrounds

Avatar 2
Resources 1
Sanctum 2 [4]

Spheres

Spirit 3
Prime 2
Matter 1

Freebie Points

Matter 2 [7]
Language 1 (Native: English, French) [Free]
Mind 1 [7]
Mind 2 [7]
Light Sleeper [1]
Sympathy (Widderslante) [-1]
Branded [-4]
Impediment [-1] Long-sighted
Strangeness [-1]

XP

Experience Gains

Experience Total/Spent/Unspent (22/16/6)

Finding a Dragon - 7XP - Lesson: The magisters are weirdly interested in the dreaming demon

Hollow Blood - 8XP - Lesson: Some mages actually think drinking vampire blood is a good idea.#

First Bound - 7XP - Lesson: Friends don't let Friends get possessed

Free: Samuel Haight - Mentor 5 Familiar 5

Experience Spending

Intimidation 1 (3XP)

Prime 2->3 (13XP) (3XP mentor discount)

Total: 16XP