"The Old Woman", aka Shannon
Pathfinder Stats[edit]
Alignment: Neutral
Race: Velkan (cat)
Class: Druid (urban variant) ??
Stats:
- Strength: 12
- Dexterity: 18
- Constitution: 12
- Intelligence: 16
- Wisdom: 16
- Charisma: 19
Appearance[edit]
Normally the Old Woman only lets people see a figure completely covered by an old, worn cloak, bent over with age and walking with the aid of a stick. She speaks with a creaky, yet kindly, voice, but with the occasional cackle. Their imagination fills in the rest.
As Shannon all she has to do is straighten up and pull back the hood and she becomes a completely different person: a sickeningly cute catgirl with dark red hair, short enough that people normally assume she’s a child.
Virtually no one has ever made the connection between the two.
Personality[edit]
The Old Woman is a sort of cross between one’s kindly old grandmother and a gypsy fortune-teller: the sort of person you feel so comfortable with that you can tell her anything, yet at the same time always possessing an air of mystery and otherworldly wisdom. Sometimes, though, she’ll spout one of those startling shameless, knowledgeable comments that only come with age and then act patronizing at peoples’ reactions.
Shannon is disarmingly cheerful, possibly bordering on bubbly and being bouncy on occasion. She is very curious, and may stick her nose in even when she knows she’s no wanted. However she's also fond of seeming just a bit too experienced for everyones' comfort.
Abilities[edit]
Though the Old Woman possesses a variety of useful, if low-key, spells, it is really her other skills that are truly important: the ability to move through difficult places, whether crowds or alleys and rooftops, with startling grace, and possessing a nearly unnatural ear to the pulse of information in the city.
She is rarely without a guardian companion, though the exact type varies according to circumstances such as season, consideration for peoples’ reaction, and her own needs.
Background[edit]
Many people believe the Old Woman has been in Winterweir forever, a sort of mystical manifestation of the city itself.
The truth is less mystical but perhaps no less amazing: yes, there have always been “old women”, back-alley people who have tapped into a city’s information network by nothing more than playing people. They offer fortunes to hear peoples’ fears and desires, offer advice and wisdom via the back door to cultivate contacts among the servants and working-class, and generally present a picture of being so old and kind as to be no threat. It isn’t any sort of tradition passed on but simply a way of life, sometimes taught but more often simply learned.
The Old Woman, however, has managed to take the lifestyle one step further: her ability to move through the less-watched portions of the city and the occasional spell she casts have raised her from urban feature to urban legend. Coupled with the background presence of “old women” in peoples’ consciousness she has created a belief where previously none existed.
In regards to her Shannon identity that isn't her real name. In fact it is only one of manifold identities that she wears, often with the aid of disguise magic. One particular important fact about the Shannon identity, however, is that a few people do know her as an information broker, though not one who works for free. To the rest she's simply a cheerful street urchin with a unique ability to get on their nerves.
