Saffron

Saffron

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• Saffron
• Aspect: Water
• Concept: Ex-criminal with a heart of gold
• Saffron is a small, slender woman with pale skin, bright red hair worn short and tousled, and keen sky-blue eyes. Her right arm bears a curling black dragon tattoo that she doggedly insists depicts Danaa'd, not the Ebon Dragon, no matter how many times she is teased about it. Though she isn't overly athletic, she moves with a careful, light-footed grace and generally favors silken clothing that offers good ease of movement. Saffron's easy grin is very infectious, and her casual familiarity combined with her general disregard for personal space make her a very genial companion. In formal situations, Saffron's etiquette is impeccable, if heavily Realm-centric, and she carries herself with all the confidence and entitlement expected of a Prince of the Earth.

Motivation

• Make something great of myself

Intimacies

Natural

Negative

• Cynis Belar (Vengeance!)
  
• The Five Shades (Lingering guilt)
  

Positive

• Lance (Loyalty)
  
• My lineage (Curiosity)
  
• Vice (Thoughtless indulgence)
  

Anima & Aspect Markings

Saffron's aspect markings are surprisingly subtle for a Dragonblooded of her breeding. The most obvious marking is evident in her eyes, which glow ever so slightly in the dark. In addition, Saffron appears to have seawater rather than blood running through her veins, contributing to her pale demeanor and occasionally making it difficult to spot her injuries in a fight.

Her iconic anima consists of cloudy, almost opaque water that swirls around her in intricate currents and sly rip-tides. The edges of the restless water glow with a faint but beautiful phosphorescence, generally only visible when she fights in darkness.

Attributes

Physical

• Strength 2
• Dexterity 4
• Stamina 4

Social

• Charisma 2
• Manipulation 4
• Appearance 3

Mental

• Perception 4
• Intelligence 2
• Wits 2

Abilities

Aspect

• Bureaucracy 4 (+1 Dishonest)
  
• Investigation 4 (+2 Crime)
  
• Larceny 4
  
• Martial Arts 5 (+2 Knives)
  
• Sail 2
  

Favored

• Occult 3
  
• Stealth 4 (+3 Urban)
  
• Socialize 4 (+2 Underclasses)
  

Unfavored

• Linguistics 3 (Native: Low Realm. Others: High Realm, Old Realm, Airtongue)
  
• Lore 3
  
• Awareness 3
  
• Craft (Water) 3
  
• Integrity 1
  
• Resistance 3 (+2 Poisons)
  
• War 1
  
• Athletics 2
  
• Dodge 1
  
• Melee 1
  
• Presence 2
  
• Archery 1
  
• Performance 1
  
• Ride 1
  

Backgrounds

Artifact 3

Black Jade Switchklave

This subtle weapon was a gift from Riku upon Saffron's induction as his archon. When not being used, the blade looks like a beautiful black jade carving of a twining octopus, an ornament of the kind often seen hanging from the sashes of stylish Dynasts at society events. An attuned user, however, can cause a thin stiletto blade to spring from the hilt, providing herself with a formidable weapon.

• This artifact has the optional black jade magical material bonus (+1 Dmg, +2 Def) instead of the standard jade bonus (+1 Dmg, -1 Speed).

Connections 2

• Outlaws: The North

Allies 1

• Peleps Daisuke: Air-aspect Lost Egg operating on the Slave Coast

Charms

Bureaucracy

1st Bureaucracy Excellency
Finding the Water's Depth
Thoughtful Gift Technique
Distraction of the Babbling Brook

Investigation

1st Investigation Excellency
Scent-of-Crime Method
Revelation of Associates Hunch
Tampering Detection Technique

Larceny

1st Larceny Excellency
Observer Awareness Method
Trackless Walk Style
Waters of Honesty Method
Perfect Gambling Prana

Martial Arts

1st Martial Arts Excellency
Mist Apprentice Gesture
Mist Adept Gesture
Fivefold Shadow Hand Form
White Breath in the Cold
The Fatal Kiss
Shadow Palm Invocation

Occult

1st Occult Excellency

Resistance

1st Resistance Excellency

Socialize

1st Socialize Excellency
Sweeten-the-Tap Method
Warm-Faced Seduction Style
Wary Yellow Dog Attitude

Stealth

1st Stealth Excellency
Distracting Breeze Meditation
Feeling-the-Air Technique
Deadly Mirage Ambush

Thaumaturgy

Art of Alchemy

Apprentice Procedures

• Alchemical Touchstone (0, PER, 1, 1 action)
• Life's Little Luxury Blends (0, INT, 1, 1 hour)

Adept Procedures

• Munificent Antivenin (2, INT, 3, 1 hour)
• Dragon-Smothering Elixir
• Temperance-Devouring Potion
• Philtre of Desire

Master Procedures

• 8-Scream Devil Powder
• Deathlord's Breath
• Name-Bound Toxin
• Blue Death
• Seven-Sisters Elixir

Art of Elemental Summoning

Adept Procedures

• Summon [Elemental] (Nymph, sobeksis, vodonik)

Essence

• Essence: 3
• Personal: 15

Current: 15

• Peripheral: 33

Current: 23

• Committed to Charms: 0m
• Committed to artifacts: 10m
• Willpower: 8/8
• Anima status: Quiescent

Virtues

• Compassion: 2

Current channels: (2/2)

• Conviction: 3

Current channels: (3/3)

• Temperance: 2

Current channels: (2/2)

• Valor: 3

Current channels: (3/3)

Flawed Virtue

• Valor: Seeks to batter and destroy any problem - or potential problem - she comes across.

Conflict

Physical

• Join Battle: 5
• Dodge DV: 4
• Parry DV: 7
• Soak: 7B/7L (Silken armor: +3B/5L)

Attack

• Switchklave: Acc 14, Sp. 4, Rate 3, Dmg 7L (P)
• Punch: Acc 12, Sp. 5, Rate 3, Dmg 2B
• Clinch: Acc 11, Sp. 6, Rate 1, Dmg 2B (P)

Movement

• Move: 4yd/tick
• Dash: 10yd/tick

Social

• Join Debate: 5
• Dodge MDV: 6
• Parry MDV: 4

Health Levels

-0, -1, -1, -2, -2, -4, Incapacitated

Equipment

In addition to her artifact equipment which is never far from hand, Saffron carries a number of other useful items:

• Munificent Antivenin: 3 doses
• Philtre of Desire: 3 doses
• Temperance-Devouring Potion: 3 doses
• Lockpicks: Perfect quality. Custom-made by one of her gang-members in Wallport. (+2 Larceny)
• A deck of cards and a set of dice: Completely on-the-level, surprisingly.
• A ninja outfit: Perfect quality. Made of fine Ragara shadow-silk, Saffron won this ninja suit in a game of cards with a vodonik many, many years ago. (+2 Stealth)
• Disguise kit: Perfect quality. Saffron put this kit together when she lived in the Imperial City, and in recent years has had a slightly harder time replenishing its rarer components. Nominally useful for creating disguises, this kit mostly contains a huge amount of expensive, high-quality makeup that Saffron uses to doll herself up for formal occasions. (+2 Larceny)

Personality

Saffron is a cheeky bitch who needs a firm (but not tyrannical) guiding hand to keep her on the straight and narrow. She isn't a religious person: though she kind of believes in the Immaculate Faith, she just doesn't care enough about spiritual matters to actually bother following its teachings. Saffron grew up on the streets of a rough city district and her upbringing often shows through in her easy manner with low-born servants and criminals.

Despite this, she had the benefit of an excellent mentor in the finer arts of Dynastic etiquette and has a silver tongue known to sell snow to Icewalkers. Though she isn't a coward by any means, she is ultimately a survivor and would do almost anything to continue living. Nonetheless, she is very loyal to those who treat her well, especially those to whom she feels she owes a debt (such as Lance, and previously Riku).

History

The girl who came to be called Saffron was born to a lowly peasant whore in the Imperial City. Named Saffron by her mother for her blazing red hair, she was raised in a poor but loving environment until her mother died when she was five. Saffron was left in the care of her mother's sister, a callous but not cruel woman who had no time for her sister's orphaned brat. Instead, Saffron was raised by the streets and very quickly fell in with one of the many criminal gangs that inhabit the Imperial City's underbelly.

Unexpectedly, Saffron Exalted as a water-aspected Dragonblooded of surprisingly good breeding when she was twelve years old. Though she had never spoken of it, everyone assumed that Saffron's mother had slept with a Terrestrial of some note to produce such a strongly-aspected daughter. Saffron was quickly adopted into House Tepet and renamed Tepet Satsuki, a name she was never terribly fond of, and shoved into a crowded primary school with House Tepet's numerous other young lost eggs.

There, she slipped under the radar: Satsuki was only one of many new adoptees, and due to her upbringing on the Isle it was deemed that she needed less attention than most. Though she was enrolled in the Spiral Academy when she was sixteen, she never truly fit into Dynastic society and instead chose to spend much of her time with her old criminal friends in the dodgy districts of the city at night.

Due to her newly Exalted nature, Satsuki rose quickly through the ranks of her gang and eventually discovered that they were in fact a branch of the Five Shades organization, of the Clan Hidden in the Mist. She quickly learned how to be a very competent crime boss and absorbed their impressive martial arts like a sponge. Before long, she was very busy dominating other mortal-run gangs and making a tidy profit from their protection money. With the support of a not insignificant number of water elementals, Satsuki soon became a force to be reckoned with in the Imperial City.

One day, however, she was caught red-handed in her crime by a magistrate, an air-aspected man called Ledaal Riku. He offered her a choice: she could inform on her gang and join him as an archon, or she could be dragged before the Senate and tried for her crimes. After some brief resistance, Satsuki eventually caved and decided to join Riku instead of being executed. She was upset to see her gang dismantled, but was lucky to have found an excellent tutor and mentor in Ledaal Riku. Over several years, he taught her the niceties of Dynastic etiquette and eventually saw her integrated very smoothly into the Scarlet Empire.

Then things went to hell. About five years ago, Satsuki and Riku were investigating an ancestor cult tied to the sealed island of Peleps Varuna and inadvertently discovered that she had been given her Anathema slave-boy as a bribe from a notable member of House Cynis: Cynis Belar herself. Before they could act on this information, Belar somehow got wind that Satsuki and Riku had discovered her secret. They were captured by members of House Cynis and imprisoned in a hidden manse.

Over the course of several days, Riku was tortured to death for everything he knew, and Satsuki knew she was next. However, luckily for her, her guards were a little more lax with her security and didn't know about her slippery criminal background. She escaped, and knowing that her life was forfeit upon Riku's death, she ran to the nearest harbor and stowed away aboard a ship bound for the northern coast.

She eventually made her way to Wallport where, lacking something else to do, she reclaimed her old name and fell back into her old criminal ways, taking over a local gang. Mostly she was part of a smuggling ring illegally importing hard drugs and weapons to the Slave Coast, but also personally dabbled in some elaborate con-games victimizing wealthy travelers to Whitewall.

One of those would-be victims was Lance, who saw through Saffron's deception and was less than pleased. However, he saw some use in her talents and offered her the opportunity to redeem herself in his service. She wasn't so sure about this redemption thing- he was an Anathema, after all- but she was even less enthused about dying and so took him up on his offer. Saffron and Lance have been traveling together for several years now and have settled into a very comfortable partnership.

Goals

• Get revenge on Cynis Belar
• Become fabulously wealthy (and powerful. Powerful is good too.)
• Learn awesome martial arts
• Collect/recruit/breed more Dragonblooded friends
• Make sure Lance's naivety and kind-heartedness doesn't get him killed
• Discover who her father is/was

NPCs

Peleps Daisuke

An Air-aspected man, a friend of Saffron's from her time at the Spiral Academy. He was also a Lost Egg, though in his case he was originally brought up in the Haslanti League and chose to leave when he Exalted. They got along very well for several years, mostly due to the common ground of being Lost Eggs together. Daisuke was always a terrible Immaculate and a bit of an embarrassment, so after he graduated from the Academy his family sent him off to manage some of their holdings on the Slave Coast. He and Saffron lost contact during her time as an archon, but she got word of him again when she ran away to Wallport. Her activities there were partially designed to undermine his rivals in Deshan. Though she hasn't spoken to him in years, she has a sneaking suspicion that he would be less horrified to discover she was working with Anathema than he strictly should be, as a Dynast.

Ledaal Riku

The magistrate who originally found Saffron and gave her a second shot at life as his archon. Saffron and Riku were close for many years, but he was eventually killed in the line of duty. Though Saffron still mourns him from time to time, she's more or less moved on.

Her father

A great mystery. No one knows exactly how Saffron's peasant mother managed to produce a Dragonblooded child, let alone one of such remarkable breeding. But Saffron's mother died many years ago, so it seems likely that she carried the secret with her to the grave.

XP

• Earned: 125
• Spent: 125

Favored Charms x9 (90 xp)

Unfavored Charms x1 (12 xp)

Conviction 2 to 3 (6 xp)

Intelligence 1 to 2 (4 xp)

Occult 1 to 3 (4 xp)

Sail 1 to 2 (1 xp)

Presence 1 to 2 (2 xp)

Athletics 1 to 2 (2 xp)

Awareness 2 to 3 (4 xp)

• Unspent: 0