Inara "Iradea" Lytta

A PC for Mass_Effect:_The_Orpheus_Initiative

Inara "Iradea" Lytta

Inara "Iradea" Lytta

Concept: Maverick Mercenary
Race: Asari
Archetype: Vanguard
Virtue: Fortitude (Iradea is a survivor, pure and simple. She takes great pride in being tough enough to take most everything the Galaxy will throw at her.)
Vice: Pride (...maybe a bit too much pride, as she definitely can be very arrogant, especially when dealing with short-lived species and civilians.)

Background

Asari mercenary Inara Lytta, better known under the nom de guerre of Iradea, has a reputation that precedes her. The rebellious daughter of a famous Turian general, she embraced the combat and weapons part of her heritage, but did not mesh too well with such concepts as "discipline" or "public responsibility". Instead, she fled home at an early age and signed up with a ragtag crew of mercenaries, hoping to make a name for herself in the Terminus Systems. The crew soon died, but she survived. Over the next few decades, Inara continued to find work in meaner part of the galaxy, sometimes joining larger groups and sometimes striking out on her own. She reveled in violence and alcohol, had casual sex and casual firefights with about a dozen different species on a hundred different planets, and barely gave any thought to her future past her next payday.

There wasn't any one event that changed her, or if there was, she never saw fit to mention it. But over time, she started to grow weary of this fast life of stupid risks and senseless slaughter. After a period of soul-searching that she refuses to talk much about, but that apparently involved both reconciling with the remaining members of her family and developing an interest in the traditional religious beliefs of both her peoples, she decided to come back to mercenary work. Inara had become much more composed and focused in those years, however. She acted with a new sense of purpose and professionalism, and worked in small, elite groups that held themselves to a certain code of ethics. And from now on, she called herself Iradea.

To this day, Iradea has the reputation of a maverick, only partly due to the events of her youth. It is not wholly undeserved, either; she would be the first to admit that she lives for war, does not work for any governments and only respects those who earned it in her eyes. At the same time, her reputation for coldblooded ruthlessness and recklessness is almost certainly exaggerated. Iradea is nothing if not thoroughly professional, and her long experience – she is past 200 and has made a much more exciting use of her years than most Space Age Asari Maidens do – makes her a seasoned veteran, if also something of a monomaniac with limited understanding of civilian life. Her arrogance and standoffishness is offset by the understanding that good team dynamics are crucial for small mercenary outfits.

In spite of her aforementioned distrust of governments, some recent events have caused her to reconsider this stance. Iradea has kept an ear to the ground, and was profoundly disturbed by the growing Geth incursions, the Battle of the Citadel, and finally, the Collector affair – limited as the information that she has been able to get on that last one was. At the same time, competition in the Terminus Systems, though never friendly, has become increasingly rough and intense. And there was something else, too, beneath the surface – a sense of starting to lose her edge and wanting to make a bigger difference before she dies…

Long story short, by the time the Asari councilor (perhaps informed of her strong business ethics, or maybe seeking somebody with enough plausible deniability if things went wrong) contacted her, half-expecting the mercenary to disconnect on her in mid-sentence, Iradea was ready to say “yes”.

Character Sheet

Attributes

Mental
Intelligence 2
Wits 3
Resolve 4
Physical
Strength 3
Dexterity 4
Stamina 3
Social
Presence 3
Manipulation 2
Composure 3

Skills

Mental
Academics: 1 (Religions)
Investigation: 1
Medicine: 1

Physical
Assault: 4
Athletics: 4
Firearms: 5 (Run and Gun)
Piloting: 1
Stealth: 1
Survival: 2

Social
Business: 1 (Mercenary Work)
Contacts: 3 (Military Contractors)
Empathy: 2 (Combatants)
Intimidation: 3
Subterfuge: 1

Merits

Allies (Mercenaries) (2 dots)
Combat Awareness (2 dots)
Danger Sense (2 dots)
Embrace Eternity (1 dot)
Fame (1 dot)
Iron Stamina (2 dots)
Striking Looks (2 dots)

Talents

Passive - Synergy: A Vanguard's use of mass effect fields in synergy with their body grants them a +2 bonus to Speed, Initiative and to the Damage rating of unarmed melee attacks.
Active – Shrug It Off: Once per session, a Vanguard may ignore all damage to their health points from one attack that would otherwise damage them – any damage to Shield points is taken as normal.

Biotic Training

Distortion
Haze - This technique uses low-level distortion fields to create a shell of warped spacetime around an area, interfering with any sorts of senses or perception attempting to cross the shell's edge. To the outside world, the hazed air looks like warped, shimmering glass.

Haze affects an area centred on the biotic with a radius of Resolve x 5 yards. Roll Resolve + Distortion, with the power's duration in rounds equal to the number of successes. Any attempts to perceive by any means (sight, hearing, radar etc) into the area covered by Haze suffer a penalty equal to the biotic's Resolve, and indeed need to make Perception or other appropriate rolls in the first place.
Cost: 1B
Boost: For 1 Willpower point, the effect can be placed within 50 yards instead of being centred on the biotic.

Reave - This technique unleashes a powerful distortion field into the target's nervous or synthetic systems, causing a crippling overload.

Reave affects a single target up to 200 yards away. Roll Resolve + Distortion against an opposed roll of the target's Stamina. Success results in the target suffering wound penalties as if they had their last three health points filled with damage, with a duration of the biotic's Resolve in rounds. The penalty isn't cumulative with any existing wound penalties the target is already suffering, and can be reduced as normal by effects such as Iron Stamina.
Cost: 1B
Boost: For 1 Willpower point, Reave nullifies any healing from any source during its duration, and it inflicts the -3 wound penalty in addition to any existing wound penalties, regardless of any Iron Stamina or other reductions.

Integration
Barrier - Barrier protects the biotic with mass effect fields in the same way as technological kinetic barrier generators.

Barrier provides the biotic with a number of biotic Shield levels equal to Resolve. These shield levels do not stack with any existing Shield levels, but will overwrite them if existing Shield levels are lower than the biotic's Resolve. Roll Resolve + Integration, with the biotic gaining a +1 bonus to resist attempts to knock them down or move them around for each success on the dice roll, as long as Barrier is in effect. Barrier lasts one scene, or until the Shield levels are lost.
Cost: 1B
Boost: For 1 Willpower point, Barrier can be activated as a Reflexive action.

Combat Training

Assault Training
Agility - Through a mixture of free-running and combat training, the character can ignore terrain penalties on their movement of an amount up to their dots in Dexterity; so a character with Dexterity 4 could ignore up to -4 in penalties. Ladders, crates, low walls and so forth are easy for this character to handle. Their speed is also increased by 1.
Carnage - The character is an expert in dealing death with short-ranged weapons in close quarters. When firing at a target within the short-range of a pistol or shotgun, the character benefits from the 9-again rule, or 8-again if the weapon already has 9-again.

Tactical Training
Advancing Fire - The character may fire when running, suffering a -3 penalty to their attack roll for doing so.

Stats

Size: 5
Defense: 3
Health: 8
Initiative: 7
Speed: 12
Willpower: 7

Gear

Heavy Pistol 1L 20/40/80 10 S 9-again, AP1
Assault Shotgun 4L 20/40/80 6 S/BF 9-again at short range
Omni-Blade 1L
(2) Frag Grenade 2L Blast 5
(2) Inferno Grenade 1L Blast 5, Inferno
Medium Assault Armour (Armour 3, Shields 5) w/ Onboard Targeting VI (Reduces any cover penalty to ranged attack rolls by 1)
-Medigel (3 Loaded in armor)
Biotic Amp (Technique: +2 to Reave)