High Concept: Scientist, Shaman, & Shapeshifter Trouble: Lady Austris' Favor Other Aspects: Dedicated Naturalist; Coyote's, Sometimes, (Student); Founding Member of the CPRW; I'm Not Dead Yet!; Ambassador "Gretchen" Aspect Details: (Note: the listed invoke / compel options are meant to be examples, not an exhaustive list of all possible uses.) Scientist, Shaman, & Shapeshifter invoke: * for bonuses to doing or knowing about scientific things (or scientists), with a particular focus on biology & ecology * for bonuses to shaman-y things; mostly calling up and dealing with nature spirits * to know a local nature spirit for an area, or an appropriate animal spirit * for using shapeshifted forms to their full ability, or to develop (or have developed) new forms compel: * scientific curiosity. * to have a local spirit come to Johann for help, or to call in a favor Johann already owes. * to enforce the limitations of a particular form, or bring about complications due to Johann's use of a particular form (for example, packs of rabid bird-watchers trying to figure out who brought an endangered philippine eagle into the middle of germany...) Lady Austris' Favor invoke: * for positive reactions from summerfae, or deliberate negative reactions from winterfae (i.e. intimidate, some uses of deceit, etc.) * to have the associated item turn up when needed even when it was lost, stolen, etc. * to call upon Lady Austris for assistance; she's usually willing enough to gain a greater hold over her most competent mortal servitor. (Johann tries not to do this unless he really has to, though.) compel: * for Lady Austris to call in a favor (though these generally include some sort of out clause - because fae law requires Austris to fulfill any of Johann's obligations that he can't due to being on a mission for her. And, well, one of those obligations is an open-ended deal with Coyote. Which she discovered when she got to spend the duration of Johann's first mission for her as Coyote's personal servant / toy; she was not amused.) * to lose social conflicts with Austris; she can usually get Johann to do what she wants even without explicitly calling in a favor - or, alternatively, for her to negotiate favorable (to her) terms for some specific non-"minor" favor. * to have the associated item turn up when it is inconvenient for it to do so - perhaps interrupting negotiations with winter-aligned beings, or marking which raven on the tree over there is the one Johann's enemies want to be shooting at... * for unwanted negative reactions from winter aligned things, and potentially also unwanted or overly enthusiastic reactions from summer aligned things. (Pro tip: getting hugged by a phoenix is hazardous to your health. But dodging is rude and thus potentially *more* hazardous to your health.) Dedicated Naturalist invoke: * for bonuses to stuff related to biology & ecology * for contacts rolls for people in some way related to nature - biologists, conservationists, bird-watchers, beekeepers, etc. compel: * to spend time doing things like weeding invasive exotic plants out of a forest * to care about what's happening to the natural world more than to the people in it ... come to think of it, this aspect seems to strongly overlap with his high concept. Perhaps it should be removed, or perhaps high concept should be re-written to remove this. Hm. Eh, leaving it alone for now. Coyote's, Sometimes, (Student) This aspect reads two ways - both with and without the word "student" on the end. Though it's entirely plausible that the open-ended nature of Coyote's deal with Johann was more of a long con aimed at Lady Austris than any real intent to exercise ownership over Johann. invoke: * for all the things that Coyote is traditionally good at and would have taught to a prized student: trickery, stealth, seduction, manipulating people in general, knowledge & general cleverness, and creation / making things. * to ask Coyote for help and have a chance of getting a useful result (albeit most likely in addition to getting messed around with). This is most appropriate if the assistance being asked for is in terms of advice or knowledge, especially if it can be phrased in a way that lets Coyote brag about what (s)he would do (or has done). Actually asking Coyote to do something is only marginally less dangerous for Johann than it would be for anyone else. compel: * for problems relating to the kinds of things Coyote is good at; for example, if someone discovers they've been manipulated and the whole plan backfires on Johann. * for people who know about Johann's relation to Coyote to assume he's up to something clever / up to no good, when he's actually being honest and straightforward. * for Coyote to show up. ...It's Coyote; (s)he's problem enough even before (s)he asks Johann to do anything. Founding Member of the CPRW invoke: * for bonuses to scientific or magical research or knowledge - primarily via contacts or research resources or access to lab equipment * for appropriate contacts rolls & connections to the organization itself. * for social benefits among members & semi-members of the CPRW. * to benefit political and organizational efforts based on Johann's prior experience in helping set up the CPRW. compel: * if the CPRW, or a member thereof, needs help - this could be combat related, research related, contacts-with-actual-supernatural-things related, or etc. * when Johann has to deal with split loyalties due to conflicts between the CPRW and Austris, or Coyote, or AMBOSS, or another PC, or nature spirits of any sort, or, etc. * for any complications arising from the CPRW wanting to study Johann himself. I'm Not Dead Yet! A.k.a., Reports Of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated - the long form reads better, but is a bit too long for a good aspect name. The primary intent of this aspect is to represent that he's been gone from mortal affairs for the last 15-ish years; I expect it will get replaced during gameplay once he's re-established his legal existence. invoke: * to mitigate a take-out result to getting left for dead or abandoned in a situation he's actually able to recover from. * to catch someone by surprise when they were sure he was actually dead (or mostly dead, or otherwise neutralized). compel: * for one of his contacts to be like "No, Johann is dead; I don't know who or what you are, but..." * for monetary or legal issues related to having been declared dead. Ambassador "Gretchen" Acting ambassador from Austris to AMBOSS. Comes with privileges like diplomatic immunity (at least once the paperwork is done), but also relevant responsibilities. Powers: -2 ritual: shamanism 4x potion slots at base power of 4 each. -0 wizard's constitution +0 Item of Power: Lady Austris' Favor It's a length of silk cloth, red on one side, and gold on the other. Johann normally wears it as a scarf, but it's seen use as an armband, headband, belt, loincloth, toga, tourniquette, rope, blindfold, and so on. It has only two known powers: it can re-size itself (up to about 20' at most), typically by just enough to remain on Johann's person when he shapeshifts. And it has an uncanny ability to turn up (typically on Johann's person) even if it's lost, forgotten, confiscated, stolen, deliberately left behind before talking to winter fae, etc. (Yes, this is an item of power tied to Johann's trouble aspect. On the other hand, it doesn't really do very much.) +1 human form - applies to 1/2 of his modular powers (and some limits on what he can spend the rest on - Echoes of the Beast, Recovery, and appropriate stunts are really it.) -4 true shapeshifting -2 modular powers surcharge -10 form points - one of these points will (almost) always be spent on Echoes of the Beast +0 to +3 catch: There are a variety of things that Johann is unable to effectively defend against or use shapeshifting to heal rapidly from. These include poisons*, disease, and necromantic or life-draining attacks - such attacks will heal eventually (see wizard's constitution), but Johann can't speed that process up. This is generally an (up to) +3 catch, as it doesn't take any research at all to realize that something alive is going to be vulnerable to chemical weaponry - but most such weapons (at least, the actually really effective ones) are subject to serious legal restrictions. (Other components of the catch are worth less - like necromantic attacks, worth +1 for availability and +0 for researchability - but it's the highest value of any single component that gets used.) Also - like ghouls - once killed, Johann is dead. No amount of recovery will let him get back up from actually lethal wounds. (He's also limited to - at most - supernatural recovery.) *Footnote: When mimicking a creature that is naturally immune to a particular kind of poison (such as a poisonous snake being immune to its own venom), Johann can also acquire that particular immunity - for the duration of his use of that form; if he shifts back before the poison has completely worked its way out of his system, the results may be... unfortunate. This is generally not relevant, particularly since he does not have access to a wide variety of venomous forms; if it comes up, it's probably worth a fate point for a high concept invocation. Normal form points: There are a few powers that Johann can use without altering his form beyond human norms. These are: -1 Echoes of the Beast (the only reason this is even inside the modular powers is because Johann can change *which* beast; his normal preference is either eagle or deinonychus for their ocular abilities. Or, depending on situation, dolphin, shark, or bandersnatch for their unusual non-visual senses.) -4 Supernatural Recovery (though actually *using* this level of healing will typically clue in any but the most casual of observers that there's something odd going on here...) +3 catch -3 in appropriate stunts; his natural form has: "Paranoid? Probably." (+2 alertness vs. ambushes), "Acrobat" (+1 to athletics to survive a fall & +1 vs. ranged attacks "so long as you describe [the dodge] colorfully"), and "Sex Appeal" (+2 on rapport to seduce an appropriate target) Base skills: +6: +5: scholarship, alertness, empathy +4: rapport, investigation, lore +3: conviction, presence, athletics, contacts +2: fists, deceit, discipline, survival +1: performance, stealth, endurance, might, resources Known languages: German, English, (some native american language), Russian, Chinese, Norse -- when scholarship score is reduced via shapeshifting, drop languages starting from the back of the list. So, for example, an alternate form with scholarship 1 would only be able to process German and English. details on human forms: Melchior Johann Vulpius; natural form; male: Looks around 40-50, though still in fairly good shape; graying hair, a neatly trimmed mustache, blue-grey eyes, and chiseled features that tend to remind people of detective novels or Harrison Ford movies - an association that Johann typically encourages by wearing a fedora. Skills are as listed. Digs-Up-Uktena, aka John Fox; male: Looks around 19-25-ish, native american. US citizen, though at any given time it's even odds whether or not his passport has expired; when you occasionally spend a few years in the nevernever, it can be tricky to keep all your paperwork up to date. Skills: swap contacts & endurance; also swap athletics & rapport. Margarethe Lenna Weber, aka Gretchen; female: Looks around 20-30; brown hair (typically cut fairly short), brilliant green eyes, relatively tall and leggy. German citizen; generally has actually up to date paperwork, as this is Johann's second most commonly used human form - and, unlike his natural form, has few enough acquantances to not get reported dead when she vanishes for a decade or two. Skills: uses the same skill set as Johann's sylph form. Fraulein Sylvia Autolycus; female: Looks somewhere between 25 and 40 - this form is deliberately made to be difficult to pin down. Black hair, grey eyes, on the short end of medium height. She's got a small selection of forged IDs for a variety of countries, but none that will stand up to serious scrutiny; this is the form Johann uses when he wants to be certain what she's doing won't get traced back to anybody real. Random side note: "Fraulein" roughly translates as "Miss", as in an unmarried woman - but is apparently generally considered politically incorrect these days rather than its former usage as an honorific; the fact that Sylvia typically tries to keep it is one of the few available clues that she's older rather than younger. Skills: swap contacts & endurance. Limits on shapeshifting: In order to assume the form of a specific species, Johann must have either: a solid personal understanding of that species' biology, skeletal & muscular structure, neurochemistry, movement modes, etc. - or a deal with an appropriate nature spirit that is capable of (sponsored magic style) providing such details. Or, preferably, both. Once he's got the basic species down, though, it's not that much more effort to put together individual variations, and Johann typically has, for each species (including human), access to at least two visually distinct forms of each gender. (Such variant forms always have the same selection of powers, but may have slightly different skill trees - for example, variant human forms typically swap contacts and endurance - they're a bit younger and more resilient, but Johann's normal contacts won't recognize them.) When he first started learning shapeshifting, the science needed for a personal understanding was simply unavailable, and Johann was limited to forms he'd made deals to acquire. As such, the "exotic" forms that Johann has managed to assemble without supernatural assistance are, by far, his most prized developments (though he'll often limit himself to lesser options in order to avoid revealing the full extent of his power). In some ways, though, despite all his experience, he has not pushed the limits of his powers; for example, he has not experimented with transforming into anything that's not a vertebrate; while he's fairly confident he could turn himself into, say, a tree, if he needed to - he's not at all certain he could turn back. On the other hand, within the forms he's got, he's quite good; his dire wolf form is several cuts above your average werewolf, for example, and in most cases he can out-do the real thing at whatever it's best at. Basic forms: human, dire wolf, dolphin, green anaconda, emu, jaguar, snow leopard & cheetah -- but w/ only tentative approval of the Overheating drawback Size-Changing forms: horse, coyote, shark, eagle, owl, raven, housecat, gecko exotic forms: (all of these are capable of understandable speech, except the mosasaur - though it has other methods of "talking".) sylph, very dire wolf, hollywood werewolf, wereleopard, deinonychus, dimorphodon, ankylosaurus, bandersnatch, mosasaur