SeekerTwilight CasteFifteen hours after her father died, they finally permitted her to view the corpse. She took his stiff, cold hands in hers, impassively examining them. The nails were dark and purple around the edges. The crowd behind her held its breath, thinking her lost in grief – simpletons!
She cradled the limp flesh of his face, turning his head this way and that. Some well-meaning mortician had cleaned and powdered his skin, obfuscating the truth of his death. She pulled her dead father’s jaw open and peered inside, ignoring the muttering from the crowd. Niceties of etiquette could take a back seat to the truth.
Blood had dried on the teeth and around the gums. A quick wipe under the eyes removed the mortician’s make-up, revealing purple puffiness, as if her father had died after losing a brawl.
“Your Ladyship,” the vizier began.
“My father was murdered,” she said matter-of-factly. The crowd gasped in disbelief.
“He was poisoned by Southern venom, which causes the small vessels of blood to burst, leading to hemorrhaging and internal bleeding, not felled by disease or the curse of gods.” She wiped her fingers clean of the make-up.
“The purchase of such venom requires tremendous sums of gold, such as those missing from the palace’s finances. Though several people could have embezzled the funds, only one had the motivation to murder my father – the Lord of Westvale, whom my father intended to remove from his duties, but who is a great friend of my uncle, now the regent.” She eyed the traitorous lord with no more compassion or hate than she would a broken bone or an untranslated page – he was merely a problem to be fixed.
“Further proof of the Lord’s treason is likely to be found in his quarters, where his oak bureau conceals receipts of purchase from the Guild, which deals in such dark trade.” This was no haphazard guess on her part – she had discovered the secret compartments while perusing his palatial apartments. He had been absent from them, acting conspicuously, uncharacteristically histrionic in public over her father’s death.
The crowd erupted into cacophony, as expected. The Lord of Westvale drew his sword – that was unexpected. She had thought he would try to plead his case. The nobleman burst past the guards, his blade low and level.
He will stab me, she thought, in the sternum. She felt curiously indifferent, even light-headed.
The sharpened steel crumpled against her fair skin. In the reddish light, his face looked ashen, his eyes wide with terror; then his mouth slackened, and he fell, a guardsman’s sword in his back. Not one drop of blood that spilled belonged to her.
“Truth can never die,” she told the crowd calmly, the room filled with the terrible sunset glow of her majesty.
In the annals of history, the reign of the Vagabond Princess surely ranks among the shortest. The brief month of her tenure saw the retirement of multiple senior bureaucrats, many accused of everything from embezzlement to sedition. Lords from outlying lands found themselves in positions of prominence, while the court swirled in turmoil as old favorites were passed over. Tensions rose rapidly, until the potentate summoned her people’s leaders for a speech in which, to the surprise of one and all, she abdicated her throne. As her uncle, now Prince Regent again, grappled with his surprising new station and the nobility swarmed around him, the former princess took a heavy purse of jade from the palace, struck the reins of her carriage, and left her nation behind, passing into legend - the wandering Heaven-Sent Magistrate.
Essence: **
Willpower: ********
Attributes:
Str: *
Dex: ****
Sta: **
Man: *
Cha: ***
App: *****
Int: ***
Per: *****
Wits: ***
Abilities:
Integrity: *** [Favored]
Investigate: ***(**) [Caste] (2 bonus points)
Linguistics: * (Old Realm)
Lore: *** [Caste]
Martial Arts: *** [Favored]
Medicine: *** [Caste]
Occult: *** [Caste]
Presence: *** [Favored]
Resistance: ***(**) [Favored] (2 bonus points)
Stealth: *** [Favored]
Virtues:
Compassion: *
Conviction: ***(**) (6 bonus points)
Valor: **
Temperance: ***
Backgrounds:
Contacts: *
Reputation (Sage): **
Resources: ***
Influence: *
Charms:
First Investigation Excellency
Judge’s Ear Technique
Courtier’s Eye Technique
Know the Soul’s Price
Second Resistance Excellency
Durability of Oak Meditation
Iron Skin Concentration
First Martial Arts Excellency
First Medicine Excellency
Wound-Mending Care Technique
Combos:
Plumbing the Depths of Iniquity: (2 bonus points)
First Investigation Excellency, Judge’s Ear Technique
Righteous Inviolability: (3 bonus points)
Second Resistance Excellency, Iron Skin Concentration, First Martial Arts Excellency
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I found the White Wolf forums; there's a thread there for Exalted art, and that's how I found
this illustration, which is awesome! Also, please look over my sheet 'cause I'm not 100% sure I got this all right, though it took me a little less than before!
