1996 S.D. Anderson This is a 400 pt villain for an Imperial Rome campaign where magic exists. No specific date is set but the character would fit most comfortably in the period between 200 bc and 300 ad. Her mastery of roughly 100 spells may make her extremely formidible in any world where magic is extremely rare. She can be dropped into the Empire of Megalos from the world of Yrth by simply substituting the words "Rome" and "Roman" in the text below with the words "Megalos" and "Megallan", and should be fairly easy to fit into any Fantasy setting that can accept Strix characters. Information on Strix can be found in BloodTypes p.102. Crispia Lepedius 20 year old human female, 5'1" 103 lbs, brown curly hair brown eyes. Attributes: ST: 10 DX: 13 IQ: 14 HT: 11 (16)* total: 85 Advantages: Ally: Alexander Sicipio 12- [40] Appearance Beautiful [15] Immunity to Disease [10] Literacy [10] Magery +2 [20]* Status 3 [15] Strix vampiric package [85] (Bite {30}, HT +5 {60}, Magery 1 {15}, Multiple Forms: Owl {10}; Speak With Animals {15} ) Unusual Background: no age/skill point limit [10] Wealthy [30] total: 200 * Modified by Strix "racial" package Skills: Acting 13 [1]; Administration (household) 13 [2]; Bard 14 [1]; Climbing 12 [1]; Dancing 13 [2]; Demonology 14 [4]; Fast talk 15 [4]; History 13 [2]; Knife 13 [1]; Language: Coptic 14 [2]; Language: Greek 14 [2]; Language: Latin 14 [0]; Language: Phonecian 13 [1]; Literature 13 [2]; Merchant 14 [2]; Occultism 14 [4]; Philosophy 12 [1]; Poisons 13 [2]; Politics 14 [2]; Savoir-Faire 16/14 [0]; Sex Appeal 19 (+4 from Appearance) [1]; Stealth 15 [8]; Streetwise 15 [4]; Swimming 13 [1]; Thaumaturgy 14 [1]. total: 51 Spells: Animate Shadow 15 [1]; Animation 15 [2]; Apportation 15 [1]; Astral Vision 15 [2]; Aura 15 [1]; Blur 15 [1]; Borrow Language 15 [1]; Borrow Skill 15 [1]; Compel Truth 15 [1]; Complex Illusion 15 [1]; Conceal Magic 15 [1]; Continual Light 15 [1]; Control Person 15 [1]; Counterspell 15 [1]; Curse 15 [1]; Darkness 15 [1]; Death Vision 15 [1]; Decay 15 [1]; Detect Magic 15 [1]; Detect Poison 15 [1]; Dispel Magic 19 [8]; Distant Blow 15 [1]; Distant Blow Other* 15 [1]; Enchant 15 [2]; Exchange Bodies 15 [2]; Fear 15 [1]; Flight 15 [1]; Gift of Letters 15 [2]; Gift of Tongues 15 [2]; Hide 15 [1]; Hush 15 [1]; Illusion Disguise 15 [1]; Imitate Voice 15 [1]; Invisibility 15 [1]; Invisible Wizard's Eye 15 [1]; Itch 15 [1]; Lend HT 15 [1]; Lend Language 15 [1]; Lend Skill 15 [1]; Lend ST 15 [1]; Levitation 15 [1]; Light 15 [1]; Loyal Sword 15 [2]; Mage Light 15 [1]; Mage Sight 15 [1]; Mage Stealth 15 [1]; Mind Search 15 [2]; Mind Sending 15 [1]; Mindreading 15 [1]; Minor Healing 15 [1]; Missile Shield [1]; Panic 15 [1]; Perfect Illusion 15 [1]; Permanent Possession 15 [2]; Poison Food 15 [1]; Possession 15 [2]; Powerstone 15 [2]; Purify Food 15 [1]; Remove Curse 15 [2]; Scroll 15 [1]; See Invisible 15 [1]; See Secrets 15 [1]; Sense Emotion 15 [1]; Sense Foes 15 [1]; Sense Spirit 15 [1]; Shape Darkness 15 [1]; Shapeshift Other: Wolf 15 [2]; Shapeshift: Wolf 15 [2]; Silence 15 [1]; Simple Illusion 15 [1]; Skull Spirit 15 [1]; Soul Jar 15 [2]; Sound 15 [1]; Spasm 15 [1]; Staff 15 [2]; Steal HT 15 [1]; Steal ST 15 [1]; Strike Blind 15 [1]; Summon Demon 15 [1]; Summon Spirit 15 [1]; Telepathy 15 [2]; Terror 15 [1]; Test Food [1]; Truthsayer 15 [1]; Voices 15 [1]; Wizard's Eye 15 [1]; Zombie 15 [1]. total: 109 * Spell she personally devised. Same costs & casting time and duration as Distant Blow, but treats other subjects as if they had cast Distant Blow. Disadvantages: Can not use bird form in daytime [0]^ Miserly [-10] Overconfidence [-10] Secret: She is a witch/vampire [-20] Strix [see above for cost] Bloodthirst {-15}, Dependency (Blood daily) {-30} total: -40 ^according to BloodTypes this restriction is inate to this type of vampire and has no value. If you choose to refer to Supers & the "accessibility" limitation, it's worth -20% as a limitation on Multiple Forms, reducing that cost from 10 pts to 8 and lowering her cost to 398 points. Quirks: Dresses expensively [-1] Enjoys her new body a LOT [-1] Fears the demons she deals with [-1] Harsh to her slaves [-1] Salts her food heavily [-1] total: -5 TOTAL: 400 pts Equipment: As suited for a young lady from a wealthy Roman Equestrian family. 15 ST quirkless Powerstone, several lesser stones she "inherited" from her great aunt Marinia. Background: Crispia is actually Marinia Lepedius, Crispia's great aunt. 84 years old and dying, she used the exchange bodies spell to take the young and very healthy body of her great neice. Crispia was chosen for this "honor" shortly after her birth, and her immunity to disease may have been the result of enchantments cast on her while she was growing up. Crispia had little in the way of social development, raised on a farm under Marinia's control and generally out of sight of the public or family. "Poor" aunt Marinia lost her mind towards the end, kept swearing she was young Crispia. The young Crispia impressed folks on her next trip into Rome. The skinny, shy child had matured into a beauty who effortlessly mastered the social graces, particularly those involved with impressing men. She was rapidly married to a wealthy older man, who died shortly thereafter, murdered in full view of a dozen witnesses by a political enemy. His relatives were rather upset by the amount his widow was given in the man's will. She has since remarried. Her new husband has been ill of late. Crispia has been seen (in socially acceptable situations, of course) with her neigborAlexander Scipio, a man rumored by some to be a sorceror, but also an old friend of her great aunt. (Scipio is a 225 point character, a mage with some seer abilities and a lot of skills appropriate to a thief & con man. The GM is free to create him ahead of time or may presume on a roll of 13- he has the spell(s) needed to be useful to her.) Adventure Seeds: "I don't feel so well." The PCs may be friends with Crispia's new husband, in fact one of them may BE her new husband. The current illness he has is due to poison. There is actually no immediate threat of death however. Crispia sees her husband as being useful to her for 5 to 10 years at least, but is presently establishing he has a history of this illness. It's possible for the PCs investigations to uncover the poisoning and thus make them a threat to her. "Old business." Crispia murdered her first husband after she and Alexander forged his new will. She used Control Person to make her husband's enemy attack and kill him. Roman Law lets a citizen avoid prosecution by going into exile except in the most severe cases, such as Patricide and Treason. The killer has fled. He had no idea WHY he attacked the man like that, but a seer he consulted suggested he was under magical compulsion. The PCs have been hired to look into the matter. "New business." Marinia/Crispia is ruthless and dangerous but hardly someone who slays indiscriminately. A murderess, she's definitely not one of the good guys, but that hardly puts off most PCs. As an enchantress, she probably could supply PCs who can keep quiet with certain items, such as scrolls and powerstones. The coven of witches that inducted her into the ranks of the Strix was broken up a good 30 years before. She has no real group of assistants to help her make new items, though a group of PCs with magery might be of use to her. A somewhat villainous group of characters might even have her as their patron. "The slave shack." Any serious investigation of Crispia will likely turn up the fact she seems to be rather strict with her slaves. It seems that some slave manages to anger her almost daily, and she punishes him or her by a method her great aunt used, locking the poor slave in a shed for a day. (an inspection of the shack may reveal (at -4), an opening near the roof. A piece of wood that matches the wall the opening is on hides it quite well. It is easily big enough to let a rat or an owl in. (Crispia uses this to gain access to her victim, and drain him while he sleeps.) If slaves can be successfully questioned by the the PCs, they will learn the victims always come out exhausted and pale, though inspection of the shack will show it to be reasonably comfortable. Several punished slaves had to be dragged out of the building and a couple were found dead. The dead ones had been pecked by a bird. No living slave came out with such marks, though many complain about soreness about the neck or shoulder. (Crispia puts a point of minor healing on surviving victims, enough to hide the mark of her bite.) "What a clever wolf!" The PCs encounter a wolf near one of Crispia's farms. It barks trying to get their attention and then digs in the dirt. Before the PCs can act, it pricks up it's ears and bolts and shortly thereafter dogs and a party of slaves from a nearby farm appear. They will answer any reasonable questions the PCs ask. They are from Crispia's farm, someone found a mutilated lamb this morning, the wolf was seen and they've been ordered to go and kill it. Detect Lies or other methods of testing this statement will verify that the slaves believe this. If the PCs look at the ground the wolf pawed, they will find what appears to be very crude writing! The wolf is one of the sons of Crispia's neighbor. He saw her transform from owl to human. He made the mistake of coming up and asking her how she did that. She turned him into a wolf. She's being sporting in her own way. If the boy escapes he lives out a normal life as a wolf. If not, well, her slaves dine on wolf meat. The lad's handwriting was pretty hard to read and it hasn't exactly improved in wolf form. In fact a critical success or the Spell "Gift of Letters" is required to actually read what it says, and that is basically the boy's name. The PCs will have to overtake the slave party and force it to desist hunting if they have any hope of catching up with the wolf. Every hour there is a chance the lad's IQ will drop a point, and if it goes to 7, he will be permanently a wolf, who won't remember how to "write" or who he is. The lad's IQ at the time they encounter the wolf is 9, with the next check due in 45 minutes. Crispia can speak with animals and has bargained with several birds. They've been told to watch the wolf's passage and the hunters and report to her if anything happens to change the chase. The PCs interfering with the slaves will qualify and birds will fly to Crispia to tell her what happened. (Due to their IQ the detail will be limited.) The PCs will be ambushed by a group of zombies should they come towards her farm, regardless of the outcome of their rescue of the wolf. (Crispia has murdered the occasional lone traveler, animated the body and sent them to a small hidden crypt on the edge of her property, an emergency set of reserve troops for her if the need arises. Examination of the zombies will show they all have peck marks at the throat like those the slaves describe above.)