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Characteristics: Int +3, Per +1, Str 0, Sta +1, Pre +1, Com 0, Dex +1, Qik 0
Size: 0
Age: 24 (24)
Decrepitude: 0
Warping Score: 0 (0)
Confidence Score: 1 (3)
Virtues and Flaws: The Gift; Hermetic Maga; Affinity with Craft (Clothiery), Common Sense, Free Study, Improved Characteristics, Intuition, Inventive Genius, Minor Magical Focus (Clothes), Personal Vis Source, Puissant Craft (clothiery), Verditius Magic; Driven (Major), Enemies; Deleterious Circumstances (when not wearing "wizardly" clothes), Optimistic, Warped Magic (hair grows when she casts a spell).
Personality Traits: Hard-Working +3, Pragmatic +2, Trusting -1
Reputations: None
| Weapon/Attack | Init | Atk | Dfn | Dam |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dodge | +0 | n/a | +2 | n/a |
Soak: +1 (Stamina)
Fatigue Levels: OK, 0, -1, -3, -5, Unconscious
Wound Penalties: -1 (1-5), -3 (6-10), -5 (11-15), Incapacitated (16-20), Dead (21+)
Abilities: Artes Liberales 1 (Ritual Magic), Athletics 1 (Running), Awareness 2 (Ambushes), Bargain 1 (Cloth), Brawl 1 (Dodging), Charm 1 (First Impressions), Church Lore 1 (History), Craft: Clothiery 3+2 (Robes), Concentration 1 (Long Periods), Folk Ken 2 (Peasants), Guile 1 (Disguises), Latin 4 (Hermetic), Magic Theory 3 (Enchanting Items), Parma Magica 1 (Terram), Warwick Lore 1 (Geography), Stealth 1 (Sneak)
Arts: Cr 5, In 5, Mu 5, Pe 4, Re 6, An 5, Aq 3, Au 3, Co 4, He 4, Ig 2, Im 1, Me 3, Te 5, Vi 1
Twilight Scars: None
Equipment: Wizard's Robes, Casting Tools and Seamstress's Tools (Needles, Shears, Spindles, Spinning Wheels, etc)
Encumbrance: 0 (0)
Spells Known:
Description and Background:
Carmilla is quite sure that if she had not been so uncommonly skilled with a needle and thread her family would have put her out of the house much earlier than they did. Her parents were poor, after all, with hers being just one of many mouths that they had to feed, and no matter how good she tried to be she always got the brunt of any punishment that was going around. When a seamstress in Warwick offered to take her on as an apprentice she sensed that her mother and father could not let her go quickly enough or stop to wonder what they were agreeing to. Mistress Blanche, she soon learned, had fallen into wicked ways with wicked people, and she had a similar fate in mind for her apprentice: to become a witch in the service of the Devil. Carmilla promptly ran away, and the diabolists came after her, but she had an uncanny stroke of good fortune. Quite by chance she ran into a well-dressed man, whom she took for a merchant or master craftsman, and begged him to hide and help her. He turned out to be the magus Argentius, and upon realising what Carmilla's strange ability to make needles move by themselves truly meant he took her on as his apprentice.
Over the course of fifteen years of magical tutelage at Argentius's covenant Carmilla's childhood skills manifested themselves once again as a remarkable affinity for any magic that concerned clothes. They were, she reflected, a very worthy subject for magical study: status and self-esteem are measured by them, they can dramatically change a person's manner and appearance, and they can reveal much about a person's character, origins and role. She continued to make clothes throughout her apprenticeship, and as she did she became especially skilled at imbuing them with magical powers. Of course she can enchant a sword or a staff as well as any follower of Verditius, but it is with clothes that she truly shines.
Carmilla is level-headed and pragmatic, not much given to oubursts of emotion. She has learned not to expect too much of people, as the ones that she has met have been prone to folly and wickedness of every sort, but she is not yet so cynical that she cannot get along with those who genuinely deserve trust and respect. All in all, though, she has found that she trusts her own instincts more than she trusts other people and that above all else what she really wants to do is work. Hers, after all, is a very practical sort of talent, so it is useless if she does not do anything with it.
Text copyright © Simon Foston and Mary Woodcock-Kroble 2005.