Last approved profile on Oldthanas
For ease of comparison, below is a copy/paste of the lvl 3 profile. I will use strikeout and grey for things that are being removed and updates will be in blue. This is a direct transfer and update 'cause I realized I'd never gotten around to a level 4 update before the move.
Name: Anita VanDeBurg a.k.a Poison a.k.a Alicia Silvertree
Age: 30-something? Maybe? She doesn’t really bother to keep track 22 in appearance. Aging has stopped due to vampirism and being half-angel
Race: vampire (formerly half-angel)
Sex: female
Eye color: grey
Hair color: silver
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 120 lbs
Occupation: assassin, potion shopkeeper
Appearance: Anita is slim, curvy and drop dead gorgeous, aleast so she’s been told by nearly every man she’s come across that she wasn’t killing. She is very strong, but her muscles are more tones than built in keeping up her girlish figure. Her silver hair is kept in a high ponytail that is permitted to swing loose and falls down to the middle of her back. For clothing she wears black pants that are form-fitting to allow for silent movement. Her top is also black, it buttons up the middle and closes snugly around her throat when buttoned. [strike]On the street, the first several buttons are undone to give any male eyes that take an interest a very good view.[/strike] Around her waist is a black belt. On it are sewn several pouches. Some contain various poisons, others various lock picks and other handy tools for getting to her victims. She wears a very small amount of makeup, just [strike]some black eye liner, silvery eyeshadow, red lip liner and lipstick[/strike] enough to appear "normal," masking the natural paleness of a vampire. Poison typically wears a black, hooded cloak over all her clothing. The cloak reaches down to her heels and is kept closed at the front. The hood is very deep to hide her face so that none may know what she is unless she wants them to know. The thick material and deep hood also permit her limited outdoor movement during the day.
Personality: Anita is cold hearted. About the only thing that ever warms her is an evening in the arms of whomever she decided to lure to her bed that night. She is a cold-hearted killer, and is just as cold-hearted a lover. One night stands are her favorite pastime, but that doesn’t mean she’ll sleep with anyone. Children are her one weakness. She can not bring herself to harm or orphan a child, no matter what.
Weapons: two titanium sai, one needle “knife†with a Delyn needle and trakym handle for administering poisons
Armor: none
Items: her weapons, a basic set of lockpicking tools (made of steel), various poisons and poison components, black, hooded cloak that reaches down to the heels, black gloves, a platinum locket of highly personal value containing a picture of her (deceased) beloved. A potions recipe book. Neither the locket, nor the book may be sold.
Skills:
Agile: Anita is highly agile, having taken numerous gymnastics type courses earlier in life and continuously stretching and exercising to remain agile.
Melee fighting: She is above-average in melee fighting with her sai. She generally tries to avoid an actual fight, but can hold her own for the most part.
Potion mixing: Poison is quite adept at making a variety of potions for many different uses, courtesy of her potions recipe book inherited from the Apothecary.
Abilities:
Stealth: Anita is able to move silently for a period of 30-40 minutes.
Shadow Meld: With this ability, Anita is able to practically disappear into any shadow so long as she stays perfectly still. She can fully disappear into a shadow and travel within it for about 30 seconds. At that point, the shadow will push her out in a random direction that may or may not help her. She can meld fairly quickly, but due to the energy it requires may only do so twice per thread. This ability is only usable during a Citadel battle with permission from the opponent. It is assumed that this ability will not be used during Citadel battles.
[strike]Poison making: Anita can make just 2 poisons from memory. Both deadly unless treated.[/strike] (moved to skills as it does not fit the definition of an ability)
Shadow Manipulation: this ability allows Poison to form various things from the shadows themselves. Small items such as a dagger can be compacted enough to be useful as a weapon. A small weapon would be as strong as something between steel and whatever the next tier metal is. The larger the creation, the less physically useful it becomes . An example would be to create a huge snarling shadow beast. Due to its size and being made of shadow, the shadow beast is physically harmless, but it is useful as an intimidating bluff.
Due to being made of shadow, a small weapon made with shadow manipulation is only good for one attack before dissipating (regardless of if the attack is successful). Similarly, larger creations are only good for a short time before dissipating. Also, because of being made of shadows, creations made with this ability are particularly weak against light and light based magic.
Shadow Wings: this is a highly specialized use of Shadow Manipulation. She pulls already existing shadows tightly around herself and forms them into large, feathered wings. This enables her to fly.
Poison inventory: (poisons have been reformatted to make the timeline of illness more clear)
Night’s Kiss: administered by a quick, relatively painless jab to the neck or upper shoulder with a poisoned needle. Jab would feel like a pine needle poke or small insect bite if it’s felt at all.
Effects: vomiting, headache, achy joints and muscles. Joint pain increases as days go by, fever.
Duration: 4 days. Sometime during the 5th day if an antidote has not been delivered, victim will most likely die.
Poison progression
Day 1: within 6 hours or so, vomiting, headache and fever begin (minor, RL equivalent: 100-101)
Day 2: vomiting & headache continue, achiness in joints and muscles begins but is minor, fever worsens. RL equivalent: 103-104)
Day 3: vomiting continues, head, joint and muscle aches worsen, fever continues to climb. RL equivalent 105+, (now reaching the dangerously high, like organs/brain damage may start to happen high)
Day 4: vomiting sometimes ceases, aches throughout the body are far worse than they have been. Fever may now reach as high as 107 or higher. At this point, the victim is nearing death. Brain/organ damage/failure is now likely.
Day 5: Death normally occurs due to brain/organ damage/failure due to the very high fever and dehydration.
Ideal time for the antidote is in the first 2 days. Administration on day 4 might save the victim from death, but damage from the fever is possibly permanent.
Heaven’s Glory: Powder sprinkled either on food or in a liquid. Tasteless. Normally used for killing a large number all at once.
Effects: drowsiness, blurred vision, stomach cramps, shortness of breath. (Cramps and shortness of breath are the last to appear and generally do not appear until it’s almost too late)
Duration: 5 days, death normally occurs on the 6th day if antidote has not been administered.
Poison progression
Day 1: drowsy, blurred vision
Day 2: drowsiness and blurred vision continue
Day 3: drowsiness and blurred vision continue, stomach cramping sometimes begins
Day 4: vision remains blurry, drowsiness sometimes increases to the point of being nearly comatose, stomach cramping begins/worsens if it has already started, shortness of breath begins
Day 5: everything is bad. Victim is rarely able to be roused, when they are, vision is so blurred as to be useless. Cramps are nearly unbearable and the victim can hardly breathe properly (think asthma attack in terms of breathing difficulty)
Day 6: If no antidote is administered, victim dies as breathing becomes impossible (again, think asthma attack)
Please Note: both poisons also have an antidote, and to avoid powergaming, both take at least 3 days to kill someone so they have time to see a healer. How well a poison works will also be affected by their age and race. A small child or elderly person would likely succumb faster to either than a young, strong, healthy person.
Apothecary's Recipe Book: This is a book containing her former teacher's best recipes. It covers a large variety of potions that covers everything from making tummy aches to killing people within 24 hours and the appropriate antidotes. There are also numerous healing potions within this book.
Currently she is working on mastering these potions. They are usable, but [strike]their effectiveness varies since she is still learning these purely from a recipe book and not an actual teacher. (When these are mastered, they will move to the above list and new ones will be placed here.)[/strike] she does not have these committed to memory. Therefore these have to be made in a “lab†setting, rather than on the run as she can with the above poisons because she has to read the recipe as she goes.
Black Death
[strike]When done correctly,[/strike] This highly potent poison kills within 24 hours if no antidote is administered. It can be administered via a needle or as an additive to food/drink. [strike]Current effectiveness: 50% of her attempts are 100% effective. The remaining 50% is variable and ranges from not having any effect at all, to taking several days to kill, to making the target ill for several days before clearing out.[/strike]
Effects: vomiting, fever, [strike]diarrhea,[/strike] coughing, [strike]wheezing,[/strike] short of breath, erratic heartbeat, [strike]headache,[/strike] confusion, blurred vision
Poison progression
~3 hours: vomiting & sudden fever
~6 hours: vomiting, fever increases, coughing, shortness of breath
~12 hours: all of the above, with the exception of that the fever sometimes stabilizes as being quite high, but no longer increases, victim often starts showing signs of confusion and blurred vision
~20 hours: all of the above, with the addition of a very erratic heartbeat.
~24 hours: death
This is a very fast acting poison. As such, it is not often treated in time, but it is treatable. Ideally, antidote needs to be administered within 18-20 hours. After 20 hours, the chances of the antidote working in time are slim.
Healing Catch-All
[strike]When done correctly,[/strike] This healing potion will cure almost any ailment and will lessen the effects of many poisons, though it might not cure the poison. It can be administered as a liquid medicine or in a salve for physical wounds. The patient should start feeling better, sometimes even completely cured (pending the ailment) within 24 hours. [strike]Current effectiveness: 50% of her attempts are 100% effective. The remaining 50% is variable ranging from having no effect at all (not even lessening symptoms to be more tolerable) to only minimally reducing symptoms and effects of ailment/poison.[/strike]
Note: this is for ailments like cold/flu/whatever. It is not a magic potion that cures physical wounds, but it can be used in a salve to keep such wounds clean and infection free.
(As always, PCs have the final say in how effective these act on their character. In general, as above, the elderly or very young or otherwise physically weak will be more likely to succumb, while young (relatively speaking), healthy, and strong people will have a better chance of survival.)
Special note for all poisons: These take a little time to make and thus cannot be created in the middle of a battle. In order to use during a battle, the poison must already be made and applied to the appropriate weapon.
History:
Anita VanDeBurg grew up the only child of her angelic parents. She led a normal childhood, never once thinking it odd that she did not have the angelic abilities of her parents.
When she was 16, the man who called himself her father did a terrible thing. He had found out the reason that Anita did not have the angelic abilities he and his wife possessed. Shortly before his wedding, his dear wife had spent three, perhaps even four nights in the company of a presumably human male; Anita was the product of one of these nights. Filled with rage at first, he had sought a way to take revenge for his then-fiance’s unfaithfulness. Unable to think of anything, but seeing that Anita had grown into quite the beauty, he decided that since she was not his child, he could do whatever he pleased with her. So one afternoon, while her mother would be out for several hours, Anita’s father proceeded to molest and finally rape her. Making sure she understood that she was a half-breed and did not deserve to be treated like a “normal†person.
Anita was devastated. Why hadn’t her mother told her? If she was a half breed, what was her other half? Why wasn’t he still here? Why hadn’t they told her sooner? That night, Anita refused to come out of her room for anything. She could however hear her parents arguing. They often did now, most especially when her “father†had been drinking. A thing he did almost every night now.
When she arose the next morning, she confronted her mother about her heritage and found out all the details. She was supposedly half human. That was why she didn’t have any angelic powers. That was why the man she had called her father hated her so much and had done what he did to her. Her mother told her that last night her father had left, saying he would not be back. And that they had been arguing over Anita’s birth father and he had left greatly angered.
Anita ran outside and down to her favorite spot by a waterfall on her family’s property. After several hours there, going over the events of yesterday and the things her mother had told her, Anita decided she needed to leave. Apparently she was the cause of all her parents’ fights, so if she left then they would be happy. That night, Anita packed up a few changes of clothes and ran away. She left a note on her bed for her mother explaining that she was leaving. She did not know whether or not she would be back, but now she and her husband would not have to worry about her anymore.
Anita journeyed far and wide. Eventually she came to Radasanth. It was here that she found a small thieves guild that took her in and showed her the ropes of thievery and assassination. It was not long before she became passably skilled. Meaning she could usually get in and out without being caught, but she couldn’t do so for major jobs. It was also here that Anita fell in love for the first time. The young man was quite handsome. He had brown hair and warm brown eyes. He was practically an expert and had been the one to train her. After a little while, he took notice of her and they dated for a while. After a little while the leader of the small guild sent her lover on a mission to acquire a rare item. It was an intricate heist so Anita had been left off the team. What was not known, even to their leader, that this heist was a trap. All the thieves on the mission were caught and hung for their crimes. Now that the guild had been found out about, the leader disbanded them for their own safety and Anita was on her own again.
While with them, Anita had discovered an affinity for mixing powders and chemicals to make certain poisons. She had memorized only two poisons when the band was disbanded, one called Night’s Kiss and one called Heaven’s Glory. She’d never been able to figure out why they were called such, but she didn’t care. She left Radasanth with the clothing she had gotten there, a few morsels of food, and her belt that contained her tools and poison components.
Now that she’d spent four years with these people, Anita took off on her own. Over the last two years she made a small name for herself, calling herself Poison since her preferred method of assassination is to use poisons as opposed to weaponry. Who’s her next target? No one but she and her employer will ever know.
Poison has now completed numerous jobs and made new friends and some enemies. In her journeying, Poison has had the fortune (or misfortune, depending on your point of view) to cross paths with a vampire named Vorin. She met him late one night in a forest she was traveling through. She had found a small pond or lake and was taking a bath when Vorin happened by the same body of water. Seeing a handsome man on the shore, and being quite interested in the possibility of a little “funâ€, Poison came out of the water and attempted to seduce him. In the end, this was a mistake on her part, for he, being terribly hungered plunged his deadly fangs into her lovely neck, drinking his fill. For reasons unknown to Poison, Vorin caused her to become a vampiress in order to save her life as she had requested of him. Now, she wanders the night in search of both a meal and whatever targets she may have as an assassin.
[strike]Jobs come and jobs go. Poison has recently joined the Bandit Brotherhood and in doing so has met an assassin by the name of Nightstalker after he rescued her from a prison in Underwood. For now, she travels with him as a partner both in bed and on the job. (this is no longer a thing since the BB didn't take off again as it was looking like it was going to and Nightstalker has disappeared)[/strike]
Jobs come and go, in her wanderings, Poison eventually returned to Radasanth. Deciding that it was time to avenge her beloved, she followed numerous leads until she found her former guild and another lead. She now believes the man who caused her lover's death to be in Knife's Edge, though she has yet to journey there to find him. During her stay in Radasanth, her former teacher, the Apothecary, gave her his recipe book. She now studies from it as much as possible to extend her knowledge.
Over the last decade, Poison has finally made a “home†for herself in {PLACE}. She now operates a small potions shop. On the outside, this shop sells a variety of everyday potions. However, she also makes and sells poisons on the black market. To get these, a codeword must be uttered in conversation and she will know her customer is looking for more sinister, illegal potions. She still takes on assassin jobs and will occasionally leave her shop for weeks at a time to go on a job or to seek out new ingredients or recipes for her shop. The shop is quite small and she has a small apartment in the back in which she lives.
She still plans to one day go to Knife’s Edge and find the man responsible for the death of her beloved, but thus far has been able to find any other leads as to his whereabouts.