Bessie Hardwinter is a Homid Crescent Gurahl.
Biography[]
Bessie Hardwinter was born to a family of Cherokee in whom the blood of the bear ran strong. She remembers the time before the coming of the Europeans to the Appalachian Mountains. Among the Cherokee, she was known as Old Bear Woman and wandered among the tribes sharing her healing gifts and herbal knowledge with those in need. Most of her Kinfolk left the area during the forced migration of the Cherokee, but a few managed to remain behind, becoming part of the Eastern Band Cherokee. Bessie agonized over the decimation of the black bear population in the Smokies and Blue Ridge Mountains, and for a while despair drover her into isolation. A dream-visit from Great Bear changed all that, however, and filled her with determination to do something to protect her ursine cousins.
Over the last few decades, Bessie has become a forceful voice in the movement to save the black bear. Using the few human Kinfolk she has managed to foster, she has helped in the establishment of habitats for the black bear in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and on Grandfather Mountain. It is due to her efforts that chained "dancing bears" are no longer a common tourist attraction.
Image[]
Bessie appears to be a tall, stocky Cherokee woman in her late 60s, although in reality she is much, much older. She wears baggy men's pants and flannel shirts when she is "at home." When she interacts with human society, she "dresses up" in clothes appropriate to a plain-living mountain matron. Her gray hair frizzes around her head. In ursine form she is a large black bear with an abundance of silver hairs, particularly around her muzzle.
Stats[]
Breed: Homid
Auspice: Crescent
Nature/Demeanor: Caregiver/Maker
Physical: Strength 4 (7/9/8/6), Dexterity 3 (3/2/1/2), Stamina 4 (7/8/9/7)
Social: Charisma 4, Manipulation 2 (1/0/0/0), Appearance 3 (1/0/3/3)
Mental: Perception 4 (4/3/4/4), Intelligence 3, Wits 4
Talents: Alertness 3, Brawl 2, Dodge 1, Empathy 4, Instruction 2, Intimidation 3, Primal-Urge 4, Swimming 2
Skills: Animal Ken 4, Etiquette 3, Leadership 2, Stealth 3, Survival 4
Knowledges: Enigmas 4, Herbalism 4, Medicine 2, Occult 3, Rituals 5
Backgrounds: Allies 2, Contacts 1, Kinfolk 2
Gifts: Beast Speech, Mindspeak, Mother's Touch, Resist Pain, Scent of the True Form, Sense Wyrm, Dreamspeak, King of the Beasts, Sense the Unnatural, Strength of Purpose, Adaptation, Trackless Waste, Beast Life, Serenity
Rank: 4
Rage 5, Gnosis 8, Willpower 7
Rites: Rite of Cleansing, Rite of the Opened Caern, Finding the Ancient Cache, Rite of Rending the Gauntlet, Rite of the Ban, Rite of the Healing Winds, Rite of the Long Seep, Rite of the Pure Earth, Rite of the River-Portent, Rite of Passage
Fetishes: Gaia's Poultice
References[]
- WTA: Rage Across Appalachia, p. 94