| “ | Oh, you poor thing. Murdered on your wedding
night. Can you tell me, though — why did he do it? Did he say? What keeps you here? Grief? Rage? Let Maggie help, sweetness. I just want to help. |
” |
Old Widow Maggie is an Ulgan Created, and the Signature Character for the Refinement of Argentum.
Created in the 1890s, Old Widow Maggie spent her early years trying to figure out who her flesh belonged to, before it was hers. It turned out that her body had once belonged to a widow, one who had fallen in love with an old Indigenous man. Originally, the widow had hired him to do chores, but soon they became lovers. Even when his Riven Wasteland ruined the surrounding land, she still loved him. Unfortunately, her love did little to protect him from her neighbours, who soon fell to Disquiet, and they attacked the couple, killing him and beating her nearly to death. When he rose again, he was wracked with guilt. He helped the widow finish dying, then performed the rites to make her into an Ulgan.
After she discovered this, Old Widow Maggie wandered aimlessly. She wished to avoid most folk, but still enjoyed chatting, so she kept winding up in graveyards, talking to the ghosts. Ghosts are deeply focused creatures, by nature, so the main thing they had to talk about was their lives. Maggie learned much about being human from them. They only remembered their most important events, loves and victories, defeats and hatred.
The first time she ever fulfilled a Milestone was a windfall. A young solider who had died in WW2 had her tell his last words to his lost lady-love. Maggie thought her heart would break at the sight of the young woman's tears, and yet the sheer humanity of being involved in their grief distilled something within her, turning the burning mass that passed for her spirit into pure Vitriol[1].
Now, Maggie is one of the oldest Mystics still around. She truly loves hearing the stories of the ghosts, and helping them if she is able to. Every 20 years or so, she goes to the wastes, and recently returned from the deserts of Arizona. There, she claims to have met a raven-spirit, which play tricks on her (as raven-spirits do), but also called her kin, for the many souls she has helped.
Description[]
Old Widow Maggie dresses in formal mourning attire, as people often won't bother a lone woman dressed for mourning in a cemetery. When her clothing becomes too old and tattered to wear, she goes to estate sales or secondhand stores and gets new ones. Her outfits always include long black gloves, and a wide brimmed hat, with widow's netting over it. She puts kohl around her eyes, and puts too red lipstick on her cracked lips.
When her Disfigurements show, an unwholesome fog begins seeping from her empty eye sockets. Slight moaning noises can be hear around her, and her skin goes terribly pale, resembling yellow-white leather.
Personality[]
As noted above, Maggie truly loves interacting with ghosts, and other spirits associated with death (such as the aforementioned raven-spirit). She avidly collects the live stories of the ghosts she meets, and keeps a large, leatherbound book of onion paper, which she uses to takes rubbings of gravestones (currently, she has over 700), filling the margins with little notes and drawings, which she uses to remember the tales they tell. Maggie is also very tolerant of young Prometheans, and will happily teach them about her refinement.
Maggie thinks she is approaching her New Dawn. While she is excited (like all Prometheans, she fundamentally longs to be human), she is also afraid. The ghosts have told her so many stories of lives ending in regret and sadness, and the idea of that becoming her tale is quite frighting.
Character Sheet[]
Lineage: Ulgan
Refinement: Argentum
Athanor: Raven
Mental Attributes: Intelligence 3, Wits 2, Resolve 3
Physical Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 3, Stamina 4
Social Attributes: Presence 2, Manipulation 4, Composure 3
Mental Skills: Academics (History) 2, Crafts 3, Investigation 3, Medicine 1, Occult (Ghosts) 4
Physical Skills: Brawl 2, Larceny (Tombs) 2, Stealth 4, Survival 2, Weaponry 2
Social Skills: Empathy 3, Expression 2, Persuasion 3, Subterfuge 4
Merits: Danger Sense, Elpis 3, Language (Spanish, Lakota,Chinese, Russian), Repute 2, Residual Memory (Survival, Intimidation) 2, Resources 2
Willpower: 6
Humanity: 8
Virtue: Faith
Vice: Envy
Initiative: 6
Defense: 2
Speed: 5
Health: 9
Azoth: 6
Bestowment: Ephemeral Flesh
Transmutations: Corporeum — Autonomic Control (•), Regeneration (••); Deception — Leave No Trace (••); Disquietism — Scapegoat (•), Nameless Dread (••••); Sensorium — Bloodhound’s Nose (•), Sensitive Ears (•), Translator’s Eye (•), Aura Sight (••), Nightsight (••), Rarified Senses (••••), Clairvoyant Senses (•••••); Spiritus — Essence of Sunlight (•), Essence of Nettle (•••), Tainted Azoth (•), Ephemeral Infusion (••••), Bane of Ephemera (••), Nettle Shield (•••), Nettle Warding (••••), Twilight Summons (•••••); Vulcanus — Sense Flux (•), Sense Pyros (•)
Pyros/per Turn: 15/6