TTRPG CHARACTER 2: BERYL

[angelcage]

BASIC INFO NOM DE GUERRE: Beryl GAME: Songbirds 3e Gift/Curse: Red Mage GENDER: Female STATS HP: 4 PHYSIQUE: 2 REFLEX: 0 LORE: 2 CHARISMA: 1 SKILLS MEDICINE: ⎔ ANIMA: ⎔ KINSHIP: ⎔ IDEAL The world doesn't care about us— but I do. FLAW Never met a body that couldn't be improved by disection. Social discretion is mostly what prevents vivisection.

BERYL AMATEUR SURGEON, FRIEND(?), PSYCHOPOMP BACKGROUND In the world of Songbirds, there were once two gods that lived together in the sky: the fox gods of Love and Death. But Death killed Love, and now sleeps within the moon whilst on the world below, the dead now rest uneasily, rising as ghosts and spirits that become beasts. Except, sometimes, in the case of Songbirds— those that die and rise again intact, touched with some strange supernatural power. Beryl was the only survivor of a tragedy when she was young, an illness in an isolated institute turned quarantine zone, after the doctors were ordered away or sealed in with the dead. When she was young, she didn't realise that most the people raising her were dead— their ghosts managing to stick to humanity through love. Unfortunately, the same could not be said of their bodies, which rose at night as undead, so Beryl had very strict bedtimes, with very heavy locks. So she grew up in that isolated compound, reading the medical texts with ghosts acting as scouts and finding her preserves to eat and vending machines to raid. Eventually, of course, she understood that her family and her teachers were dead, and these were ghosts but it had been too many years for her to react emotionally to that now, with the huge overwhelming unfairness of it. It would be ridiculous for her to grieve, when they'd all stayed there with her for all these years. But this era, too, came to an end. A night came when the locks did not hold, and she fell too— and then came back, as a Songbird. She put the zombies down, and the spirits that raised her to rest. And then, without much else to do, she went onward to civilization. She's experienced tragedy, but eh, so has everyone. The world isn't kind, so she will be. Though, it is notable, as she grew up amongst the dead with a great deal of anatomy texts she's very interested in the workings of living bodies. They're great novelties! She might need to be reminded that some things that are fine to do to ghosts are not great to do to your living friends! Living amongst the dead for a long time means she forgets little things like that. ABILITIES RED MAGE You know the language of guts, organs, and blood. You know the lies they tell. ⎔ When you kill something, you can study its inner workings to absorb one of its abilities. ⎔You can read lips. ⎔When you feel someone’s blood on your skin, gain HP equal to your CHA. ⎔Once per session you can add +d10 to all your damage for the rest of the scene. INVENTORY Wardrobe Scalpels Simple weapon: DMG d10 10 coins Silver serpents. Old coins with a serpent coiling around both sides. The originators of “heads” and “tails.” 3 food Standard starting fare. Road rations of some sort. Ritual Dagger Carved with runes. For sending the dead onward. Bank Deposit Slip Starting trinket. Elaborate Pocket Mirror Starting trinket. EDITORIAL Character number 2 on the list. Songbirds is a simple system for making a character for, since a lot of the character creation is randomized. I ended up not using her trinkets for constructing her backstory, but I'm sure I'd figure out how to tie it together in play!

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