BlackAndBlueEyes
01-10-15, 10:45 AM
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Updates marked in this color.
Name: Madison Freebird
Age: 29
Race: Human/plant hybrid, known as a Briarheart
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Blue
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 134 lbs.
Occupation: Agent of Podë
Personality: Maddy is confident to the point of seeming arrogant, violent, and occasionally unpleasant to be around. She has a very dry, sarcastic approach to conversation and interaction with other living beings. On one hand, she can be very cunning and calculating; but she can also be selfish and bullheaded. She tends to bury her sadness, loneliness and doubt deep inside her, hoping that by doing so nobody will ever perceive her as weak. If you really want to piss her off, though... Call her a monster. Shortly after coming to power within the Order of the Crimson Hand, and in no small part of due to the horrifying events of the Eiskalt War, she has allowed her latent den mother tendencies come to light. She treats anyone of an equal status within an organization and anyone directly under her control as friends and equals, and won't hesitate to come to their aid in any way needed.
Appearance: Her facial features are thin and pale; her deep blue eyes, raven-black hair, and constantly vacant expression giving her a crow-like appearance. Her body follows suit--thin and lacking in "assets". She isn't ugly, but she's not something most men (who weren't into creepy things) would look at twice. Her eyes are surrounded by dark purplish shadows; tell-tale traces of the venom coursing through her veins. From the neck down, her body has started showing signs of her transformation into a human/plant hybrid. While the skin of her torso and legs are pale flesh, her arms have reconstituted themselves as a tangle of vines with crude, jagged approximations of human hands at their ends.
As for clothing, her tastes are rather conservative. Her upper body is covered only by a black arctic leather bodice, while the rest of her wardrobe consists of a black pair of pants and black boots. Madison also wears a leather holster that keeps her pistol, The Last Resort, ready for action at her right side. Extra pockets on this holster keep spare bullets and powder charges handy in additional pockets and pouches.
Skills:
"I was trained in the art of kicking your ass!": Madison had been training in hand-to-hand combat since the age of eleven, and has a legendary level of skill in the art. Dodging and parrying the attacks of someone of equal skill is no great feat for her, even if they are wielding a weapon or if they are faster than she is. Her strikes hit with enough force to knock most people down, stagger tougher/bigger foes, break bones and wood, crack stone, and dent metal anything weaker than delyn without sustaining any damage to herself.
Madison is an intelligent, well-learned, and highly literate individual. While she’s unable to speak anything other than Tradespeak, she is able to read and decipher most known written languages.
Mad Sciences: Madison has a working knowledge of many schools of science and technology.
- An almost-unparalleled understanding of poisons, diseases, fungus, and plagues… as well as their known cures and treatments.
Artificing - highly skilled
Alchemy - highly skilled
Aleraran rune alchemy - above average
Bioengineering - above average
Multiple days spent at a makeshift practice range--not to mention her usage of her gun in the field--have given Madison above-average marksmanship.
Abilities:
Poison/disease resistances: Madison is immune to all poisons, diseases, drugs, aphrodisiacs, pheromones, and any other sort of chemical or compound that would otherwise have a negative or debilitating effect on her.
One tough bitch: Due to a rather extreme endurance regimen and her own stubbornness, Madison can take and shrug off most hand-to-hand blows and strikes from blunt weaponry and still get up to fight back. Several bones need to be broken before she even considers staying down. Also, her stubbornness has granted her additional defenses against psionic intrusions and attacks; any sort of spell, potion, rite, or possession that directly affects her mind (say, in an effort to destroy her sanity, browse for secrets, or control her thoughts and movements) is half as likely to succeed.
Maneuverability: Madison is able to run at about 20 mph for several minutes without breaking a sweat, and uses that ability on the battlefield to run circles around her slower opponents. Also, thanks to her extensive hand-to-hand training, she is agile to the point where she's able to duck, dodge, deflect and counter most close-range physical attacks from adversaries even slightly faster than her.
Plauges:
Freebird's Bane: Usable 5x a day or battle
- Infects the victim with intense, debilitating headaches, blurred vision, fits of vomiting, greatly dulled senses, and halved speed, power, endurance and agility. The symptoms of infection take roughly one minute (or the length of a post) to settle in. Infection can only occur if it is inhaled or makes contact with open eyes or exposed wounds. Infection will begin to take hold the instant contact is made or it is even inhaled slightly.
- She can exhale a focused jet of the purple poison that can travel fifteen feet in the direction she exhales, or a cloud four feet in diameter that only travels seven feet in the direction its exhaled in. The cloud will linger in the air for a minute or the length of a post before dissipating. If the victim is not treated within four days, the infection will kill them.
- Madison can also manifest the plague through her skin or vines, which will appear as a thin layer of purple slime.
Nemo's Marionette: Usable 3x a day or battle
- Through fungal pods that can be extended from and retracted into the palms of her hands, Madison is able to shoot out three bursts of spores (per day) that contain a special strain of cordyceps fungus. The bursts fire simultaneously from both hands in little blue clouds that travel three feet in whatever directions her hands are pointed. When the spores are inhaled or ingested by their new host, they undergo fifteen minutes or three posts of torturous pain as the fungus begins to take control of their physical form. The process is complete when small stalks with a blue base and oily purple tips start bursting through the skin of the host, usually in and around the neck area, as if they formed a crude collar.
- Once the fungus is in full control, the host can operate well beyond its normal capabilities (1.5x strength, speed, endurance and agility).
- Due to the biological means of production, Madison is able to give direct orders through telepathy and vocal commands to all infected hosts or single creatures within a one-mile radius.
- Able to infect living and dead insects, beasts, and lesser kinds of monstrosities such as Fallien harpies, trolls, goblins and ogres, as well as dead human and human-like beings at this point in time.
Podë's Caress: Usable 3x a day or battle
- A gift from the Forgotten One Podë; the Caress can affect both flora and fauna of any kind.
- Humanoid and animal victims of the Caress will be mutated into a more feral version of themselves. Their size will increase anywhere up to 2x their original mass due to their mutating muscles and bone structure; and with their primal lack of inhibition they are able to push themselves to be faster and stronger than their original forms (but capped at 10x that of a normal person--someone with 7x speed would get boosted to 10x, for example).
- The mind of more intelligent victims will regress into an animalistic state--they will retain any cunning they may have had, but reactions are essentially cut down to fight-or-flight. Victims will retain all abilities they had prior to getting Cursed.
- Madison's vines will turn red when Podë's Caress is active. She must touch open skin, fur, or plant matter in order for the Curse to be passed along.
- Effects of the curse can effect player characters, but for a length determined and approved by all writers involved.
Ashling's Gift: Usable 3x a day or battle
- Madison can summon a small, fist-sized cloud of gray spores from a fungal pod embedded in her hands. She can then blow the spores at the victim, assuming they are within the four feet range the spores can travel before dissipating.
- Infection begins immediately on contact with open skin. Ashling's Gift spores work quickly--within one post--to turn the infected area gray, before splitting and blackening the area, giving it the appearance of a burning log and exposing the muscles and tendons underneath.
- The infection can spread at a rate that will engulf the entire infected limb within the span of three posts. The pain suffered by the victim is obviously severe; the levels of pain will increase with continued usage of the infected limb.
It Did Not Happen: Usable 1x a day or battle
- In a fit of desperation, Madison is able to produce a special blood-red cloud of fungus spores that prey not on flesh, but on magic.
- These spores, when they come in contact with a magic spell of any nature or anyone affected by a spell, will instantly negate the spell's effects and cause it to dissipate entirely.
- If the spell in question is of a nature where it requires continuous action in order for it to be sustained, then the caster's concentration will be broken and the spell interrupted.
Acids:
Acidic Attacks: Usable 8x a day or battle
- Madison is immune to the effects of her own acid. On other organ matter, however, it begins burning and rotting away flesh, muscle, and plant matter in a matter of seconds/length of a post. The pain a victim feels severe. A victim's skin will start melting and rotting away upon contact.
- The damage will spread to within three inches from where full contact was made by Madison.
- Through any point on her physical being, Madison is able to excrete a thin layer of an amber-hued acid.
- Madison is able to store up enough acid to create an acidic burst that surrounds her in a small, misty cloud of acid droplets that has an effective radius of three feet. She's immune to her own acid; but anyone else caught in the cloud will find that the acid droplets severely burn any open skin it comes into contact with.
- She can also spray a focused jet of acid from her mouth that has an effective range of 10 feet.
- Alternatively, Madison can fill both of her hands with pools of acid, which quickly crystallize into extremely brittle, razor-sharp, amber-colored shards very similar to Mukakkannati glass. She can then throw her hands forth and use a pressurized burst to propel the shards forward at 75 feet per second in a scattershot pattern that quickly fans out to being ten feet in diameter if pointed in one direction, or five feet if she aims in two directions. The shards will shatter if they hit metal or stone, embed themselves in wood, and make quick work of flesh and other organic matter. These crystallized shards will only cause an itchy, burning sensation if they come into contact with the victim's skin.
Briarheart
Properties: Over the course of events that she cannot recall for the life of her, her human heart was replaced with a symbiotic, plantlike entity known as a Briarheart crafted from the essences of dryads and forest elementals. It is the source of her new-found plant-based powers; and as such, it acts very much like a human heart. If it is pierced, torn from her, or otherwise destroyed—it will kill her. One downside of having the Briarheart is she is now slightly more susceptible to fire--it won't make quick work of her, but it will burn her plant-based skin faster than it would normal human flesh.
Regeneration:
- Due to the very plant-like nature of the Briarheart, Madison has found that she is able to regenerate herself when injured, effectively becoming nearly immortal.
- Small cuts and wounds will take minutes to close up, while more serious lacerations and broken bones can take hours to mend. Amputated limbs might take days to reform, and the missing limb will manifest itself as a tangle of vines much like her arms already are.
- Should Madison suffer enough punishment to die from her wounds, the Briarheart will work to fix everything up and have her back in action within three to five days.
Vines:
- Madison has discovered that she is able to sprout up to four different vines from anywhere on her body simultaneously, which can be commanded to fly through the air, grab onto things, pull her towards objects and vice versa, and tie up potential victims. Each vine has the strength to lift up, push, and pull up to 75 pounds on its own.
- The vines are roughly half an inch thick, and have the defensive strength of delyn. They can travel through the air and react to her thoughts with incredible speed, easily outmaneuvering humans with higher than average speed and agility. Each vine has a maximum length of 20 feet, and can be retracted at will.
History, in Elevator Pitch Form:
Madison was born into a family famous in many of Corone's darker corners as a clan of reliable assassins. Raised from youth to be a vicious stalker, Madison's dreams laid elsewhere. She had always wanted to be, for a lack of a better term, a mad scientist; rather than slitting throats and stabbing backs, she wanted to be inventing artifacts of untold value and building construct both monstrous and beneficial. After a career early in life as a relatively unsuccessful assassin, she quit the business after a misunderstanding that stemmed from her brother Trevor's untimely death and escaped to the Dajas Pagoda in Scara Brae, where she spent her time as a Warrior, giving hard lessons to fighters who had come to the Pagoda to learn the art of combat.
After a severe mental breakdown brought on by nightmares of her previous profession and the stresses of being a Warrior, she resigned her post and retired to a small bookstore in the heart of Radasanth, where she quietly lived her life and spent her evenings returning to her childhood dreams of alchemy and artificing. One fateful night, however, her mother and brother arrived in the dead of night, and burned down her bookstore and all the dreams and rare tomes contained within.
Swearing revenge, Madison uncovered one tome and made a trip to a small town in the middle of Concordia, where she sacrificed an archivist to the Keeper of Knowledge, Maladim Karunungan. It was with him that she brokered an exchange of knowledge; her skills and memories as an assassin for the knowledge necessary to fulfill her childhood dreams.
Unfortunately for her, the fates had other plans. After a series of unfortunate events, culminating in the destruction of her bookstore and laboratory by a cult and her subsequent humiliation in the Citadel through the use of a pawn, Madison snapped. She decided that if her path was going to be one of death, darkness, and destruction, that she would resign to her fate and become an absolute monster. Lichensith Ulroke quickly noted Madison's vast array of skills, and assigned her to the Hands of the Mind.
Shortly after, Lichensith's campaign in Eiskalt began, and Madison brought along a slew of diseases along with her to poison the citizens and crops of that poor country. During the Eiskalt War, Madison had been abducted by a forest cult and, in a twist of fate, she was experimented upon and came out as a Briarheart; a human/plant hybrid with vines for limbs and the ability to naturally produce poisons and acids. This aided her in her quest to slowly choke the life from Eiskalt, and therefore she didn't mind terribly much.
It wasn't long after her return to Salvar and the headquarters of the Crimson Hand that her own unhappiness with the way Eiskalt was handled by Lichensith forced Madison to conspire with others to overthrow the assassin. After the discovery that Lye intended to use the death of Kyla Orlouge to rally his troups, Madison slipped the Mystic a poison that would steal her leader's prize away from him. Not long after, she staged a terrible and bloody but ultimately successful coup, imprisoning Ulroke within the dungeons of his own castle. The Crimson Hands have yet to agree on a new power structure, in the meantime.
One evening, Madison received a letter from Duffy Bracken, asking for her help in curing the Red Forest of the curse that plagued it. Madison went, but with darker intentions. During their tough journey together, Madison was choked out by a vine within the forest. She came to in a dreamlike realm and embarked on a journey therein, which ended up with her meeting the Forgotten One Podë. The Red Witch had been keeping an eye on Madison for quite some time, impressed with her understanding of plagues and the ruthlessness with which she had infected Eiskalt. Podë gave Madison the gift of her terrible Curse and the presence of her two hated parents, who ended up being the first victims of the power that she now wields.
Inventory:
A small leather satchel to carry anything she may pick up along her way
- Black Arctic Leather bodice enchanted to resist piercing, stabbing, and slashing twice as well as normal, as well as enchanted to keep her comfortable no matter what weather conditions she finds herself in (upgraded here (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?28295-Item-exchange))
- 1 six-shot iron flintlock revolver with a wooden grip, lovingly called The Last Resort, enchanted to magically reload an emptied chamber after three posts: Bullets and power count (shots total) located in signature
The Archivist's Notebook
- And indestructible 192-page leather bound notebook that is kept shut with a flap and strap. The pages can be torn from the notebook, but will then become ordinary pieces of paper. Torn pages regenerate overnight.
- Anything that is written in the notebook with be absorbed by the artifact, disappearing from its pages and stored in an ethereal archive tied to the book spiritually upon Madison's command. Madison can recall anything written in the notebook by simply opening it to a blank page and requesting the information through a telepathic link established through her ascension as Archivist.
Bone Pens (3)
- Fountain pens crafted from the strong bones of an unidentified animal
- Nothing out of the ordinary here, except they will be capable of writing in any condition or environment.
Maladim's Ink Vials (4)
- Four unbreakable small glass vials with rubber stoppers.
- Despite being a quarter of the size of Madison's fist, each vial is capable of storing ten gallons of ink through enchantments.
- Each vial's ink supply will be restored at the end of each day or battle.
Half-Dozen Eyes (6) - acquired here (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?28224-The-Auction-House&p=241413#post241413)
-Six eyes float in a small glass jar of dirty green liquid and constantly swivel to stare at whatever is outside. The eyes can be released from their jar and fly out into the air. For the next five posts (or hour if it comes first) the eyes operate as eyes for their owner, providing feedback from six different locations at once. The only drawback is that the eyes must be within twenty meters of the owner to connect.
Secret Identity Scarf - acquired here (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?28558-The-Scarf-of-Nadia-Redfield)
- A wool scarf, knit in thick black and grey stripes. The scarf itself is enchanted so that it casts a powerful illusion spell over whoever is wearing it around their neck. This illusion would give the wearer the appearance of a human female with pale skin, shoulder-length red hair, and piercing green eyes. Her slightly round, beautiful face would have a smattering of freckles across her thin nose and cheeks. Any scars, tattoos, or other markings on the wearer's body would be "overwritten" by the illusion.
- The illusion is broken as soon as the wearer unwraps the scarf from around their neck, and can only be seen through by those with the highest levels of perception.
Updates marked in this color.
Name: Madison Freebird
Age: 29
Race: Human/plant hybrid, known as a Briarheart
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Blue
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 134 lbs.
Occupation: Agent of Podë
Personality: Maddy is confident to the point of seeming arrogant, violent, and occasionally unpleasant to be around. She has a very dry, sarcastic approach to conversation and interaction with other living beings. On one hand, she can be very cunning and calculating; but she can also be selfish and bullheaded. She tends to bury her sadness, loneliness and doubt deep inside her, hoping that by doing so nobody will ever perceive her as weak. If you really want to piss her off, though... Call her a monster. Shortly after coming to power within the Order of the Crimson Hand, and in no small part of due to the horrifying events of the Eiskalt War, she has allowed her latent den mother tendencies come to light. She treats anyone of an equal status within an organization and anyone directly under her control as friends and equals, and won't hesitate to come to their aid in any way needed.
Appearance: Her facial features are thin and pale; her deep blue eyes, raven-black hair, and constantly vacant expression giving her a crow-like appearance. Her body follows suit--thin and lacking in "assets". She isn't ugly, but she's not something most men (who weren't into creepy things) would look at twice. Her eyes are surrounded by dark purplish shadows; tell-tale traces of the venom coursing through her veins. From the neck down, her body has started showing signs of her transformation into a human/plant hybrid. While the skin of her torso and legs are pale flesh, her arms have reconstituted themselves as a tangle of vines with crude, jagged approximations of human hands at their ends.
As for clothing, her tastes are rather conservative. Her upper body is covered only by a black arctic leather bodice, while the rest of her wardrobe consists of a black pair of pants and black boots. Madison also wears a leather holster that keeps her pistol, The Last Resort, ready for action at her right side. Extra pockets on this holster keep spare bullets and powder charges handy in additional pockets and pouches.
Skills:
"I was trained in the art of kicking your ass!": Madison had been training in hand-to-hand combat since the age of eleven, and has a legendary level of skill in the art. Dodging and parrying the attacks of someone of equal skill is no great feat for her, even if they are wielding a weapon or if they are faster than she is. Her strikes hit with enough force to knock most people down, stagger tougher/bigger foes, break bones and wood, crack stone, and dent metal anything weaker than delyn without sustaining any damage to herself.
Madison is an intelligent, well-learned, and highly literate individual. While she’s unable to speak anything other than Tradespeak, she is able to read and decipher most known written languages.
Mad Sciences: Madison has a working knowledge of many schools of science and technology.
- An almost-unparalleled understanding of poisons, diseases, fungus, and plagues… as well as their known cures and treatments.
Artificing - highly skilled
Alchemy - highly skilled
Aleraran rune alchemy - above average
Bioengineering - above average
Multiple days spent at a makeshift practice range--not to mention her usage of her gun in the field--have given Madison above-average marksmanship.
Abilities:
Poison/disease resistances: Madison is immune to all poisons, diseases, drugs, aphrodisiacs, pheromones, and any other sort of chemical or compound that would otherwise have a negative or debilitating effect on her.
One tough bitch: Due to a rather extreme endurance regimen and her own stubbornness, Madison can take and shrug off most hand-to-hand blows and strikes from blunt weaponry and still get up to fight back. Several bones need to be broken before she even considers staying down. Also, her stubbornness has granted her additional defenses against psionic intrusions and attacks; any sort of spell, potion, rite, or possession that directly affects her mind (say, in an effort to destroy her sanity, browse for secrets, or control her thoughts and movements) is half as likely to succeed.
Maneuverability: Madison is able to run at about 20 mph for several minutes without breaking a sweat, and uses that ability on the battlefield to run circles around her slower opponents. Also, thanks to her extensive hand-to-hand training, she is agile to the point where she's able to duck, dodge, deflect and counter most close-range physical attacks from adversaries even slightly faster than her.
Plauges:
Freebird's Bane: Usable 5x a day or battle
- Infects the victim with intense, debilitating headaches, blurred vision, fits of vomiting, greatly dulled senses, and halved speed, power, endurance and agility. The symptoms of infection take roughly one minute (or the length of a post) to settle in. Infection can only occur if it is inhaled or makes contact with open eyes or exposed wounds. Infection will begin to take hold the instant contact is made or it is even inhaled slightly.
- She can exhale a focused jet of the purple poison that can travel fifteen feet in the direction she exhales, or a cloud four feet in diameter that only travels seven feet in the direction its exhaled in. The cloud will linger in the air for a minute or the length of a post before dissipating. If the victim is not treated within four days, the infection will kill them.
- Madison can also manifest the plague through her skin or vines, which will appear as a thin layer of purple slime.
Nemo's Marionette: Usable 3x a day or battle
- Through fungal pods that can be extended from and retracted into the palms of her hands, Madison is able to shoot out three bursts of spores (per day) that contain a special strain of cordyceps fungus. The bursts fire simultaneously from both hands in little blue clouds that travel three feet in whatever directions her hands are pointed. When the spores are inhaled or ingested by their new host, they undergo fifteen minutes or three posts of torturous pain as the fungus begins to take control of their physical form. The process is complete when small stalks with a blue base and oily purple tips start bursting through the skin of the host, usually in and around the neck area, as if they formed a crude collar.
- Once the fungus is in full control, the host can operate well beyond its normal capabilities (1.5x strength, speed, endurance and agility).
- Due to the biological means of production, Madison is able to give direct orders through telepathy and vocal commands to all infected hosts or single creatures within a one-mile radius.
- Able to infect living and dead insects, beasts, and lesser kinds of monstrosities such as Fallien harpies, trolls, goblins and ogres, as well as dead human and human-like beings at this point in time.
Podë's Caress: Usable 3x a day or battle
- A gift from the Forgotten One Podë; the Caress can affect both flora and fauna of any kind.
- Humanoid and animal victims of the Caress will be mutated into a more feral version of themselves. Their size will increase anywhere up to 2x their original mass due to their mutating muscles and bone structure; and with their primal lack of inhibition they are able to push themselves to be faster and stronger than their original forms (but capped at 10x that of a normal person--someone with 7x speed would get boosted to 10x, for example).
- The mind of more intelligent victims will regress into an animalistic state--they will retain any cunning they may have had, but reactions are essentially cut down to fight-or-flight. Victims will retain all abilities they had prior to getting Cursed.
- Madison's vines will turn red when Podë's Caress is active. She must touch open skin, fur, or plant matter in order for the Curse to be passed along.
- Effects of the curse can effect player characters, but for a length determined and approved by all writers involved.
Ashling's Gift: Usable 3x a day or battle
- Madison can summon a small, fist-sized cloud of gray spores from a fungal pod embedded in her hands. She can then blow the spores at the victim, assuming they are within the four feet range the spores can travel before dissipating.
- Infection begins immediately on contact with open skin. Ashling's Gift spores work quickly--within one post--to turn the infected area gray, before splitting and blackening the area, giving it the appearance of a burning log and exposing the muscles and tendons underneath.
- The infection can spread at a rate that will engulf the entire infected limb within the span of three posts. The pain suffered by the victim is obviously severe; the levels of pain will increase with continued usage of the infected limb.
It Did Not Happen: Usable 1x a day or battle
- In a fit of desperation, Madison is able to produce a special blood-red cloud of fungus spores that prey not on flesh, but on magic.
- These spores, when they come in contact with a magic spell of any nature or anyone affected by a spell, will instantly negate the spell's effects and cause it to dissipate entirely.
- If the spell in question is of a nature where it requires continuous action in order for it to be sustained, then the caster's concentration will be broken and the spell interrupted.
Acids:
Acidic Attacks: Usable 8x a day or battle
- Madison is immune to the effects of her own acid. On other organ matter, however, it begins burning and rotting away flesh, muscle, and plant matter in a matter of seconds/length of a post. The pain a victim feels severe. A victim's skin will start melting and rotting away upon contact.
- The damage will spread to within three inches from where full contact was made by Madison.
- Through any point on her physical being, Madison is able to excrete a thin layer of an amber-hued acid.
- Madison is able to store up enough acid to create an acidic burst that surrounds her in a small, misty cloud of acid droplets that has an effective radius of three feet. She's immune to her own acid; but anyone else caught in the cloud will find that the acid droplets severely burn any open skin it comes into contact with.
- She can also spray a focused jet of acid from her mouth that has an effective range of 10 feet.
- Alternatively, Madison can fill both of her hands with pools of acid, which quickly crystallize into extremely brittle, razor-sharp, amber-colored shards very similar to Mukakkannati glass. She can then throw her hands forth and use a pressurized burst to propel the shards forward at 75 feet per second in a scattershot pattern that quickly fans out to being ten feet in diameter if pointed in one direction, or five feet if she aims in two directions. The shards will shatter if they hit metal or stone, embed themselves in wood, and make quick work of flesh and other organic matter. These crystallized shards will only cause an itchy, burning sensation if they come into contact with the victim's skin.
Briarheart
Properties: Over the course of events that she cannot recall for the life of her, her human heart was replaced with a symbiotic, plantlike entity known as a Briarheart crafted from the essences of dryads and forest elementals. It is the source of her new-found plant-based powers; and as such, it acts very much like a human heart. If it is pierced, torn from her, or otherwise destroyed—it will kill her. One downside of having the Briarheart is she is now slightly more susceptible to fire--it won't make quick work of her, but it will burn her plant-based skin faster than it would normal human flesh.
Regeneration:
- Due to the very plant-like nature of the Briarheart, Madison has found that she is able to regenerate herself when injured, effectively becoming nearly immortal.
- Small cuts and wounds will take minutes to close up, while more serious lacerations and broken bones can take hours to mend. Amputated limbs might take days to reform, and the missing limb will manifest itself as a tangle of vines much like her arms already are.
- Should Madison suffer enough punishment to die from her wounds, the Briarheart will work to fix everything up and have her back in action within three to five days.
Vines:
- Madison has discovered that she is able to sprout up to four different vines from anywhere on her body simultaneously, which can be commanded to fly through the air, grab onto things, pull her towards objects and vice versa, and tie up potential victims. Each vine has the strength to lift up, push, and pull up to 75 pounds on its own.
- The vines are roughly half an inch thick, and have the defensive strength of delyn. They can travel through the air and react to her thoughts with incredible speed, easily outmaneuvering humans with higher than average speed and agility. Each vine has a maximum length of 20 feet, and can be retracted at will.
History, in Elevator Pitch Form:
Madison was born into a family famous in many of Corone's darker corners as a clan of reliable assassins. Raised from youth to be a vicious stalker, Madison's dreams laid elsewhere. She had always wanted to be, for a lack of a better term, a mad scientist; rather than slitting throats and stabbing backs, she wanted to be inventing artifacts of untold value and building construct both monstrous and beneficial. After a career early in life as a relatively unsuccessful assassin, she quit the business after a misunderstanding that stemmed from her brother Trevor's untimely death and escaped to the Dajas Pagoda in Scara Brae, where she spent her time as a Warrior, giving hard lessons to fighters who had come to the Pagoda to learn the art of combat.
After a severe mental breakdown brought on by nightmares of her previous profession and the stresses of being a Warrior, she resigned her post and retired to a small bookstore in the heart of Radasanth, where she quietly lived her life and spent her evenings returning to her childhood dreams of alchemy and artificing. One fateful night, however, her mother and brother arrived in the dead of night, and burned down her bookstore and all the dreams and rare tomes contained within.
Swearing revenge, Madison uncovered one tome and made a trip to a small town in the middle of Concordia, where she sacrificed an archivist to the Keeper of Knowledge, Maladim Karunungan. It was with him that she brokered an exchange of knowledge; her skills and memories as an assassin for the knowledge necessary to fulfill her childhood dreams.
Unfortunately for her, the fates had other plans. After a series of unfortunate events, culminating in the destruction of her bookstore and laboratory by a cult and her subsequent humiliation in the Citadel through the use of a pawn, Madison snapped. She decided that if her path was going to be one of death, darkness, and destruction, that she would resign to her fate and become an absolute monster. Lichensith Ulroke quickly noted Madison's vast array of skills, and assigned her to the Hands of the Mind.
Shortly after, Lichensith's campaign in Eiskalt began, and Madison brought along a slew of diseases along with her to poison the citizens and crops of that poor country. During the Eiskalt War, Madison had been abducted by a forest cult and, in a twist of fate, she was experimented upon and came out as a Briarheart; a human/plant hybrid with vines for limbs and the ability to naturally produce poisons and acids. This aided her in her quest to slowly choke the life from Eiskalt, and therefore she didn't mind terribly much.
It wasn't long after her return to Salvar and the headquarters of the Crimson Hand that her own unhappiness with the way Eiskalt was handled by Lichensith forced Madison to conspire with others to overthrow the assassin. After the discovery that Lye intended to use the death of Kyla Orlouge to rally his troups, Madison slipped the Mystic a poison that would steal her leader's prize away from him. Not long after, she staged a terrible and bloody but ultimately successful coup, imprisoning Ulroke within the dungeons of his own castle. The Crimson Hands have yet to agree on a new power structure, in the meantime.
One evening, Madison received a letter from Duffy Bracken, asking for her help in curing the Red Forest of the curse that plagued it. Madison went, but with darker intentions. During their tough journey together, Madison was choked out by a vine within the forest. She came to in a dreamlike realm and embarked on a journey therein, which ended up with her meeting the Forgotten One Podë. The Red Witch had been keeping an eye on Madison for quite some time, impressed with her understanding of plagues and the ruthlessness with which she had infected Eiskalt. Podë gave Madison the gift of her terrible Curse and the presence of her two hated parents, who ended up being the first victims of the power that she now wields.
Inventory:
A small leather satchel to carry anything she may pick up along her way
- Black Arctic Leather bodice enchanted to resist piercing, stabbing, and slashing twice as well as normal, as well as enchanted to keep her comfortable no matter what weather conditions she finds herself in (upgraded here (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?28295-Item-exchange))
- 1 six-shot iron flintlock revolver with a wooden grip, lovingly called The Last Resort, enchanted to magically reload an emptied chamber after three posts: Bullets and power count (shots total) located in signature
The Archivist's Notebook
- And indestructible 192-page leather bound notebook that is kept shut with a flap and strap. The pages can be torn from the notebook, but will then become ordinary pieces of paper. Torn pages regenerate overnight.
- Anything that is written in the notebook with be absorbed by the artifact, disappearing from its pages and stored in an ethereal archive tied to the book spiritually upon Madison's command. Madison can recall anything written in the notebook by simply opening it to a blank page and requesting the information through a telepathic link established through her ascension as Archivist.
Bone Pens (3)
- Fountain pens crafted from the strong bones of an unidentified animal
- Nothing out of the ordinary here, except they will be capable of writing in any condition or environment.
Maladim's Ink Vials (4)
- Four unbreakable small glass vials with rubber stoppers.
- Despite being a quarter of the size of Madison's fist, each vial is capable of storing ten gallons of ink through enchantments.
- Each vial's ink supply will be restored at the end of each day or battle.
Half-Dozen Eyes (6) - acquired here (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?28224-The-Auction-House&p=241413#post241413)
-Six eyes float in a small glass jar of dirty green liquid and constantly swivel to stare at whatever is outside. The eyes can be released from their jar and fly out into the air. For the next five posts (or hour if it comes first) the eyes operate as eyes for their owner, providing feedback from six different locations at once. The only drawback is that the eyes must be within twenty meters of the owner to connect.
Secret Identity Scarf - acquired here (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?28558-The-Scarf-of-Nadia-Redfield)
- A wool scarf, knit in thick black and grey stripes. The scarf itself is enchanted so that it casts a powerful illusion spell over whoever is wearing it around their neck. This illusion would give the wearer the appearance of a human female with pale skin, shoulder-length red hair, and piercing green eyes. Her slightly round, beautiful face would have a smattering of freckles across her thin nose and cheeks. Any scars, tattoos, or other markings on the wearer's body would be "overwritten" by the illusion.
- The illusion is broken as soon as the wearer unwraps the scarf from around their neck, and can only be seen through by those with the highest levels of perception.