TheWasp

Background and Information

The Wasp was born in the West, on a tiny island settlement of near-barbarians, and was forced to marry her uncle at the age of 7. Dwelling in his house, she was little better than a slave, and was treated in a loathsome fashion, as one treats a disliked dog. She found solace, however, in that she discovered a way to distill the deadly poison from the black and grey wasps of her islands, and she slipped a little of this poison every day into her uncle-husband's dinner, until, one day, he died in paroxysms of paralyzing, choking agony, bleeding from nose and ears.

When the people of the island discovered what the Wasp had done, they dragged her to the highest rocky promontory of their island and there hung her from a straggling, claw-like tree. But as the noose choked her life away, she grasped onto a spark of darkness which whispered into her ear, and blazed into a new and furious death-life as one of the Abyssal Exalted, and a member of the Seven Unspeakable Ronin. As horrified islanders looked on, she pulled the noose down with her own hands, and slew them all with an arrow which a guard fired errantly at her. Thereafter, the Wasp took up the arts of the bow and joined her dark partners.

The Wasp is full of terrible rage at her entire existence, and hates everything around her. She sees no beauty in the world- if she could tear down the sky and rip up the ground, she would do so. However, secretly, the Wasp loves the Faceless, though he callously spurns her like a dog, and would die for him, though she believes that he could never love her, which is, in some part, true.

Description

The Wasp is an extremely thin woman, so thin, in fact, that it seems impossible that she could be so strong. Her drawn face is skull-like, and her stiff, dull hair (so stiff it is almost spiny in appearance) is pulled back in a clip carven from her first victim's thighbone; hidden in this clip is a secret spring-dart, which is poisoned (like all her weapons). Her eyes, round and inky-black, glimmering like oil slicks, bulge out of withered sockets. Her skin is a dead ashy grey, except for a deep, bruise-like purple ring around her neck and chin.

She is rarely seen without her draping red-and-black cloak, which overlays her emaciated body, clad in strips of black and grey silk wound over the points of the soulsteel armor which she wears. She wears armlets of darkly-hued prayer beads upon her wrists and ankles. The slippers which she wears are sewn from the skin of Underworld mice, and completely swallow the sound of her feet.

The Wasp seems to move in flurries- she will pause, and then move very quickly and abruptly. Her gestures and the manner of her movements are rapid and vaguely threatening, and when she is still for a long time, she seems almost to vibrate anxiously. Her posture is knife-straight and upright.

She has a hoarse, scratchy voice, and when she speaks, people think that they hear a faint insectile buzzing or screeching. She speaks in short, fast sentences, punctuated by longer pauses. She has a thick Western accent. Her manner is overtly neutral and emotionless, but despite her grey, unmodulated voice, her sharp, violent manner makes her seem angry, or even enraged.

The Wasp carries her quiver slung across hips rather than on her back, and always has her soulsteel powerbow, the Stinger, on hand.

Stats

The Wasp

• Concept: One of the Seven Unspeakable Ronin (unseen slaying archer)
• Nature: Survivor
• Caste: Day

• Attributes: Strength 4, Dexterity 4, Stamina 2, Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Appearance 1, Perception 4, Intelligence 2, Wits 4

• Virtues: Compassion 2, Conviction 3, Temperance 4, Valor 3

• Abilities: Archery 5, Thrown 3, Athletics 4, Awareness 3, Dodge 4 (Dodging Arrows +1), Stealth 4, Endurance 2, Survival 4, Linguistics (Native: Seatongue; Rivertongue, High Realm) 2, Sail 2, Craft 1 (Arrows +1), Investigation 2

• Backgrounds: Artifact 1 (as per "Artifacts" as described for Abyssals), Spies 2

• Charms: The Wasp possesses numerous charms related to Archery and Stealth, as well as charms to boost her defenses in combat.

• Base Initiative: 8

• Attack:
• Soulsteel Short Powerbow (The Stinger): Accuracy 4, Damage 2L, Rate 2, Range 250
• Throwing Knives: Accuracy 0, Damage 2L, Rate 3, Range 15
• Hairclip Spring-Dart: Accuracy 1, Damage 0, Rate 1, Range 30

 The Wasp's throwing knives and spring-dart are touched with large amounts of the deadly, paralyzing black-and-grey wasp poison (see Notes, below).

• Willpower: 7
• Health Levels: -0/ -1/ -1/ -2/ -2/ -2/ -2/ -4/ Incap
• Dodge Pool: 8
• Soak: 3 Bashing, 4 Lethal (Pieces of armor and layers of silk, +3L/+1B)

• Essence: 2
• Personal: 13
• Peripheral: 29 (33 - 4 {committed})
• Committed: 4

Notes

The Wasp poisons her arrows and her hair-clip darts with black-and-grey wasp poison, the same which she used to poison her husband-uncle.

Black-and-grey wasp poison

Black-and-grey wasp poison kills by paralyzing. As it enters the bloodstream, the body's Essence begins to cease flowing, disordering itself and locking up in logjams of energy. The muscles cease movement within 2 minutes, combined with profuse bleeding from mouth and nose, and breathing begins to shut down within 6. This process is agonizing, and many victims succumb to shock before they die of the poison. Black-and-grey wasp poison is always fatal to mortals in the amounts which the Wasp uses on her weapons, but Exalts and other supernatural beings can resist its abilites by virtue of the strong flow of their Essence (Resistance + Essence, Difficulty 2).