SlipNine/Kia

Ariden Kia

Name:  	Aridan Kia			   Player:  	Rin					
Aspect:  	Fire Aspect			   Concept:  	Alchemist’s Tomboy Daughter	
Title:  	‘Her Dangerousness’		   Nature:  	Thrillseeker				
Alias’:  	Key												

“The image of a tomboy in a bar with a mug by her side... dipping her book in gravy and eating it... just warms my heart...”

- The Author

Background

Lineage

Ariden Kia is the daughter of Ariden Kaile, a rich ex-dynast bastard-born never-exalted scavenger-lord-turned-socialite who married back into nobility shortly before Kia was born. The exact circumstances behind her birth are unknown, but common conjecture assumes she was concieved out of wedlock only to be adopted into her mother’s family through her father’s marriage.

Overview

Kia is a contradiction in terms-- a scholarly tomboy-- but such is the life of a Dynast in the realm. Lore and Alchemy fascinate her, but she likes them hard and fast, like her drinks. She is a rare specimen who likes to see knowledge used rather than having it sit useless on the shelves at the back of of some old codgers townhouse and she’ll stand up to anyone who begs to differ. A graduate of the House of Bells with a diploma in excessive use of firedust and like substances, she is glad to have a chance out in the world to fend for herself and the great quest is only an excuse for her to do so.

Psyche / History

As a child, her father regaled her with tales of his adventuring days, of the lost lore of the First Age, and of course no little ammount of mortal thaumaturgy. She was so enthralled by his stories, in fact, that she begged him to teach her these magics, he laughed and smiled, and said ‘some day,’ expecting her to forget her childhood fancy-- after all, such things were the trappings of mortals, and her exaltation was a sure thing: her father’s failure to do so was merely a fluke brought on supposedly by his bastard-born heritage.

As she grew older though she did not forget, and as her father laughed and put her off time and time again she did what any Sensible Child* would do: She went and did it on her own once she was off to primary school. It only cost her a limb or two-- well, two and a half, to be exact-- dozens of broken bones and most of her skin... But hey, on the bright side, she exalted!

With quick action and heavy jade, Kia was able to keep life and limb-- or have them reattatched after a fassion anyway-- and she was as excited about alchemy as ever. She gave her mother headaches, but her father could barely conceal his pride as he chastised her heavily for the... incident. From then on, she was humored in her want for alchemic knowledge so far as it didn’t interfere with her ‘real’ schooling and she did it safely**...

Well, one out of two isn’t bad.

Many suggested that she forget the mortal sciences in favor of the higher terrestrial sorcery, but she would have nothing of it. The sciences of the unexalted fascinated her, after all: her father had carved out his wealth, success and social position a mere mortal in a world of Gods. Wanting freedom to study what she would, she did what any Sensible Teenager*** would do: she dug her heels in and refused to be pigeonholed into studying the higher sorceries at the Heptagram, insisting her father get her enrolled in the House of Bells instead, even if going to the House meant subverting her studies with the heavier schedules and discipline of the House. Besides, she liked heavy schedules, they kept her from getting bored.

She was popular at the House of Bells, ‘one of the guys’ so to speak, yet in a way, apart from all the rest. Especially at night, when you never knew if her dorm would explode (Thankfully, they were built to house excitable Dragon Blooded, so mere alchemy wasn’t usually a problem.). She recieved no little flak for her eccentric weapons but so long as she maintained “real” combat options-- which she did, excessively-- there was little for any to complain about, she always put practicality befrore preference.

Now, having graduated from the House of Bells, Kia sets her sights outward to the threshold where fun and freedom await as she joins up with some old friends as the Great All-Creation Cross-Directional Quest begins.

 *: There are no such things as sensible children.
 **: Some of her colleagues are attempting to prove that Kia is actually physically incapable of doing anything safely.
 ***: There are no such things as sensible teenagers either.

Appearance

Kia stands a good hand taller than most dynast women: fair-skinned with dark hair frazzled slightly by alchemical mishaps and curling outward at the tips. She is in excelent physical shape but wouldn’t win a Dynasty beauty contest-- an arm wrestling contest, maybe. She is a tough, firm-bodied, rangy young woman with hands hardened and weathered from harsh chemicals, bar brawls and no little ammount of up-close-and-personal combat training. Her face is alert and intelligent but plain, her her bright orange eyes stand out like burning embers hidden behind thick archaic glasses no doubt from the First-Age tomb of a man who made beer mugs for a living.

Apart from her natural physical appearance, Kia bears heavy scarring from the once-amputation and reattachment of her right arm, right leg, and several noticable chunks of her torso. Most of these are covered by clothing, but various pock-marks and once-burned skin on the rest of her body remain faintly visible as a mottled pattern of off-colored flesh not obvious at first, but giving a sense of disquiet to most who see her. Whoever said Exalts don’t scar had never had to deal with someone who thinks the risk of heavy physical trauma is a great way to spend a weekend.

Demanor

Kia is outspoken and critical, but mostly just wants to have a fun, frantic and just plain generally unsafe time. Being plain and overtall, she’s not beautiful, but she doesn’t care. She lives life as it was meant to be lived: With firedust weapons in hand and science at her back. Her idea of a good time is mixing a concoction that probably won’t blast half of the city into the underworld, taking long walks through the library on Saint Elms Boulevard and ending her day with a few pints at the local swill hall they call a tavern. She is a person secure in who she is and what she does.

Sex

Due to her nature of carefree carousing despite her hidden scars and plain appearance-- and in some cases because of them (See also: Alchemic Formulae)-- Kia is no stranger to engaging in Heavy Duty Snugglebunnies with the opposite sex. She has has had few true relationships, however. Most boys she has been with have little interest in the long term and truth be told, Kia herself tends to stay uninvolved as well. Few at the House of Bells truely understood Kia, thinking her scholarly bent an act to impress. Her similarities made becomming friends with them easy, but their assumptions made the differences are all the more jarring to her. She is often a close friend ‘with benefits’, but rarely does it ammount to anything more.

Beliefs

Kia doesn’t concern herself overly much with immaculate dogma. Like most dynasts, she takes their teachings for granted and never really thought about the morals of the Wyld Hunt. She respects mortal thaumaturges though, even those that get on the bad side of the Realm time and again, but is a little naive and underestimates how the unregistered and unregulated might be treated if the realm ever gets ahold of them. The hightened Anathema activity and loss of the empress have been the news for the last half of her teens, so the lesser evils of mortal thaumaturges never reached her ears.

As for the empress, like most who have absolutely no chance of ever ever being involved in the politics of the realm, even if a second great contagion swept the realm leaving ninety percent dead, she does sometimes fantasize about being the one to find and rescue her. These fantasies are not serious, but they do nonetheless come to mind when she thinks of the chance to go adventuring in the threshold.

The Great All-Creation Cross-Directional Quest, Scavenger Hunt item to find number 26: The Empress.

Little-Known Facts

• Kia is an excelent cook if the kitchen survives the process. Even in the case that nothing explodes, her messes can take days of work to clean up. This is Mint’s major incentive to learn to cook, which he does decently and cleanly. She makes a mean soufflé though.
• She tends to be a bit overconfident in many things she does (While fact, this does not actually count as ‘little-known’)
• She sometimes feels Exaltation is ‘cheating’ in the game of life.

Attributes

Strength		●●●●		Charisma		●●●		Perception		●●●
Dexterity		●●●		Manipulation		●●		Intelligence		●●●●
Stamina		●●●		Appearance		●●		Wits			●●

Abilities

Air Earth Fire

□ Linguistics		●●		□ Awareness		●		■ Athletics		●●
■ Lore			●●●		□ Craft			●●●		■ Dodge			●●
■ Occult		●●●		□ Endurance		●		■ Melee			●
□ Stealth				□ Martial Arts				■ Presence		●
□ Thrown		●		□ Resistance		●●●		■ Socialize		●●

Water Wood Specialties

■ Brawl		●●●		□ Archery		●●		■ Occult (Alchemy)	●●
□ Bureaucracy		●		□ Medicine		●●		■ Brawl (Grappling)	●●
□ Investigation	●●		□ Performance		●		□ Archery (Fire Pieces)	●
□ Larceny				□ Ride			●
□ Sail					□ Survival		●

Advantages

Backgrounds, Merits, and Flaws

	Addiction (Draught of Blessed Respite) (Flaw -●)
	Disturbing (Faintly Scarred Skin) (Flaw -●)
	The one-point version of this flaw only affects first impressions.
	Secrets (Circumstances of Birth) (Flaw -●)
	Special Resistance (Poisonous Chemicals) (Merit ●●●●)
	Unusual Appearance (Bright Orange Eyes) (Flaw -●)

	Artifacts	●●●
	Breeding	●●
	Henchmen	●
	Manse		●●●
	Mentor		●
	Reputation	●●
	Resouces	●●●

	Library		●●●
	Knowledge	●●
	Alchemy		●●

Wards

Entrance Ward (Earth) (Mortals)

Entrance Alarm Ward (Earth) (Mortals)

Alchemic Formulae

Blood-Staunching Compress (Earth) ●

Maiden’s Tea (Earth) ●●

Draught of Blessed Respite (Earth) ●●

Philtre of Desire (Earth) ●●

Firedust Grenade (Earth, Fire) ●●

A Strong Mineral-Corrosive Acid (Earth) ●●

Manses and Hearthstones

Fire Gem (Fire-Aspect Hearthstone ●) (Bo3C, p. 111)

Trigger: Concentration and breath

 

This Hearthstone is a transparent, reddish-orange gemstone. It allows the bearer to breathe on a piece of wood or other flammable material and thereby spark a small magical fire. In order to remain alight, this fire must be fed further flammable material and protected from wind and rain.

Glass-Blowing Stone (Fire-Aspect Hearthstone ●●)

Trigger: Molding Sand or Glass

 

This small translucent hearthstone, warm to the touch, appears to be a small glass marble filled with red crescents and gives off a vague the scent of heat and sulfur. While attuned it allows the bearer to transmute sand or rock into glass and reshape it with her bare hands as if she had the proper tools. The difficulty of all such rolls are also reduced by one. The bearer of this hearthstone feels no heat from her work and the molten glass she works with will not scald her or her equipment but she recieves no other protection from heat.

Stone of the Hungry Mind (Air-Aspect Hearthstone ●●●)

Trigger: Eating a Book

 

This small yellowed white stone appears to be a small wad of crumpled up paper and gives off the scent of centuries old dust and parchment. While attuned, the bearer of the stone may eat books as if they were bread. Once a book is consumed in its entirety, the bearer may refer to it at any time in his mind’s eye as if it were in front of him. This ability does not give the bearer instant knowledge of what is in the book, it merely prevents him from having to lug around an entire library. Books consumed thusly are unrecoverable, and any but the most brash and selfish exalt should avoid consuming originals of truely rare or unique books. If the stone is broken or becomes deattuned, the Exalt may still reference the books she has consumed, but doing so requires he spend one point of temporary willpower per book per day to access her inner library.

Strangely, this stone also allows the bearer to survive on a diet entirely of books. The character’s tastes effect their taste in books as well. An aged man might find cheap romance novels too sweet and hollow, while a teen may be unable to stomach a dry and stale book on geology.

Artifacts

Eyeglasses (Name Unknown) (White Jade Artifact ●)

Commitment: 1 mote

 

These glasses are old. Old old. So old no one could really tell what they originally did. A seemingly mundane hand-me-down from her father, Kia had them reworked to aid her usage of Fault-Finding Scrutiny, cutting the time required for the charm down to ten seconds.

First Age Alchemy Field Kit (5-Jade Artifact ●●)

At first glance, this appears to be a well preserved wooden box. Well, technically, in fact, it is. On the inside though are wonders lost to the second age: an entire alchemy lab is represented in the few dozen beakers vials and tubes spanning all five colors of jade alloyed with all sorts of other materials resulting in beautiful translucent, pearlescent items. The equipment in the Field Kit is all one piece and cannot be removed, but is otherwise flexible enough in its connections that it can be used in the production of alchemic concoctions up to Alchemy ●●●●.

 

Kia recently recieved this as a hand-me-down from her father as a graduation gift. She loves it, even though most of what alchemy she knows can be put to use with a few pieces of household crockery. It also reduces up to 1 difficulty of penalty from substituted materials.

The Heart of Steel (Breastplate) (Three Settings) (Red Jade Artifact ●●●)

The Heart of Steel is a hand-sized crest worn somewhere on the torso-- men typically wear it on their chest, over their heart, while women tend to keep it centered high on the abdomen. When attuned and five motes are committed (which may be done separately), the piece envigors the wearer’s blood and essence with the power of molten steel. Veins are seen faintly through the skin as burning red lines and the essence flowing through them hardens the skin. Mechanically, this allows the wearer the defense of a Red Jade Breastplate as natural soak, as well as allowing unnarmed attacks to deal and parry lethal damage.

Charms

Linguistics:: Language-Learning Ritual

Lore:: Elemental Concentration Trance

Lore:: Elemental Bolt Attack

Craft:: Shaping Hands Style

Craft:: Flaw Finding Examination

Endurance:: Ox Body

Dodge:: Threshold Warding Stance

Other

Ariden Mint (Henchmen ●)

Mint, a young bob-haired boy of sixteen who shares Kia’s eyes, is a distant cousin of hers. However, where Kia’s exaltation was always a sure thing, Mint’s lineage has conspired against him to create something much more mundane-- though his family is anything but poor, he has no chance to ascend to godhood. Mint idolizes Kia’s conviction to not let anyone derail her study, even if she scares him some of the time. A lot of the time, actually. Mint has Alchemy ● and serves mostly as Kia’s assistant, secretary, gopher and general pet. He is somewhat practiced in creating wards against fire and explosions.

 

Mint’s presence with Kia is his own choice, and she lets him come along with her because he’s cute and genuinely useful on the mundane side of things.

 

Alchemy ●

Craft (Cooking) ●●

Bureaucracy (Organizational Work) ●

Miscellaneous

Willpower 	●●●●●●●

Virtues

Compassion		●●
Conviction		●●●
Temperance		●●
Valor			●●

Essence

Essence		●●

	Personal	2+7+2		11
	Peripheral	8+7+5+3		23
	Commitment

Health

	-0	□
	-1	□□□
	-2	□□□
	-4	□
	Inc.	□