[h2][b]Giriel Bruinstead [/b][/h2] The Spooky Witch [b]Spooky Witch basics[/b] Playful demeanor - darker than black clothes - an eldritch sword Giriel Bruinstead is a large, powerfully built bear of a woman. Thick shoulders, broad chest, and wide hips make up her body as she stands just an inch shy of six feet tall. She dresses mostly in black sewn with silver thread and at times with floral embroidery done across the fabric. On her back is a massive Zweihander with a hilt nearly as wide as her shoulder that glows with silver runes in the moonlight. Her hair, black and short with bangs, doesn’t usually get in the way, though at times she has to be careful when leaning down to speak with someone that the hair in front doesn’t fall into tickling their face. Don’t let the black and the mystery fool you, at least not entirely. Giriel most prefers meeting a new person over hot and hearty food, and if she likes you, she’ll offer to sew you a shirt in her style, or any style you request if she can figure out how to do it. She got into magic because her mother did it and it was the natural extension of the domestic arts for her. Learn to cook a good meal, clean the house, play the erhu and once those were mastered, well, how different was it really between cleaning the house and cleaning out an unsettled ghost? Both included more sweeping than you’d think! [b]The Unseen[/b] The unseen are the spirits, ghosts, and little gods that are all too common throughout the land. Most people know the gods, big and small, they walk and play and tend to get kidnapped with some regularity when they’re not busy doing their jobs managing the weather and what have you. But some beings are a little more hidden and sometimes dangerous. Most regular folks and even the heroes of the Dominion not trained in the arts of proper magic can’t see the spirits of the dead or have any idea how to guide them to their ordained afterlife if they’ve become hungry ghosts. And there are littler spirits than the big gods that don’t take a physical form as such. But just because your couch, your hearth, and your favorite hibachi don’t get walking, talking personifications that can go out to noodles with you doesn’t mean they never have anything to say either. And that’s not even mentioning the demons or the rakshasas. Really, the world is bounding with unseen things! Some of them might be outright hostile, but most just want something specific or have somewhere to go and get pretty frustrated that nobody knows how to help them. [b]Stats[/b] Daring +0 Grace +0 Heart –1 Wit +3 Spirit +2 [b]Experience[/b] [X][X][X][X][] [b]Advances[/b] [hider=My Hider] -[s]Take another move from your playbook[/s] -Take another move from your playbook -Take a move from any playbook -Take a move from any playbook [s]-Add 1 to a stat (max stat of 3)[/s] -Add 1 to a stat (max stat of 3) *** -Switch to a new playbook -Live happily ever after [/hider] [b]Strings[/b] 2 on Han 1 on Kalaya 1 on Red Wolf (spent pending confirmation) 1 on Zhaojun [b]Smitten[/b] Red Wolf [b]Conditions[/b] []Angry (-2 to figure out) []Frightened (-2 to Fight) []Guilty (-2 to Emotional Support) []Hopeless (-2 to Defy Disaster) []Insecure (-2 to Entice) [b]Moves[/b] [b]Commune with the Unseen[/b]: When you perform a ritual to commune with the Unseen, give a dangerous Unseen a String on you and roll +Spirit: 10+: Choose 2 -Hide something in the Unseen world -Learn something important from the Unseen -Temporarily alter the Unseen nature of a place -Ask a question from Figure Out a Person of anyone, anywhere, if you can name one of their deceased loved ones -Learn the recent history of an object you hold 7–9: Choose 2 from the 10+ list, but choose 1 thing that goes awry -Restless Unseen cause a haunting -Hungry Unseen destroy all non-sentient life in a small area -Stern Unseen judge you, inflicting a Condition [b]I Like Snails![/b]: When you are Smitten with someone and Figure Them Out, blurt out something weird and let them ask you a question from the list. Then ask them another question from the list, even on a 6-. [b]Divination[/b]: When you have time and safety to read the unseen truth of someone present, describe your divination process and what makes it conspicuous. The GM will tell you something interesting about the person or the obstacles they face that they don’t know. Then roll +Spirit: 10+: If you tell the truth, they clear a Condition. If you lie, gain a String on them. 7–9: They learn the truth and clear a Condition. [b]Talk Nerdy to Me[/b]: You may roll +Wit instead of +Heart to Entice someone. In addition, choose an area of study that holds special interest for you. You have top-tier knowledge of this area and are always prepared with an interesting fact, and sometimes even a useful fact, when you come across something within your expertise. The GM will provide the information or invite you to make something up. Specialty: [b]signs, omens, and portents[/b] [b]Astral Dance[/b]: When you dance across the boundary into the realm beyond, describe it and roll +Grace: 10+: You and a small number of others who dance with you arrive at a distant destination of your choice. 7–9: You don’t arrive where you intend, you arrive almost too late, or you lose something important in the process. The GM will tell you which. Truths of Heart and Blade [b]Why Did I Bring up the Snails?[/b]: When you become Smitten with someone, say why, give them a String, and answer this question: What obvious thing about you are you sure would make them reject you? [b]Whispered Secrets[/b]: When you Figure Out a Person during a physical conflict, you may additionally ask one of these questions, even on a 6-: What makes you insecure? What haunts you? [b]Additional background[/b] Giri (to her friends) is the caring older sister or mother figure in a group. She’s there to make sure that you eat and get enough sleep and is full of laughter and joy at other people's doings. She’s also there to make sure things are put right, and it’s perhaps the one sadness of her life that her profession, which she sees as all about setting the world aright for her for her community, is one that outsiders look on with fear and more than a little loathing. It’s sad that people look at you like you’re tainted because you work with ghosts or play the bamboo flute for demons. She comes from the highlands and still prefers a little village with nice fields and fresh-grown food to the hustle and bustle of the city. Peregrine, the prodigy, grew up one town over from Giri and they’ve studied together at various times. Giri tends to remind Peregrine to eat when they’re together, much to the other girl’s consternation and improved well-being simultaneously. Giri [i]has[/i] been to the city though, and up the mountains too. N’yari, Flower kingdoms, and Dominion alike have times where they need a Practitioner for one reason or another. Someone didn’t make the proper offerings to their ancestors perhaps, or they disrespected the local gods, or perhaps there’s just a rakshasa working mischief with no rhyme or reason to it. Whatever the cause, there’s always a need to hire witches and often a demand to travel, such that people may recognize her in odd places and neither she nor Peregrine are recluses by any means (much to Peregrine’s chagrin). Formally, Giriel Bruinstead specializes in divinations and isn’t afraid to sell herself as such. She’s particularly well-studied in interpreting messages and dreams (though she’s not yet mastered the art of entering dreams properly) so her divinations tend to be highly accurate and she's always ready and willing to talk shop when it comes to signs and portents. She’ll happily debate you over tea on the minutiae of cloud shapes and what every type of bird means when it flies above you during a ritual. Her sword, a great black-handled thing, is almost never used on people. Giri doesn’t much like violence in the first place. The sword is used for spirits though. Some rituals require that you engage in mock combat or subdue the demon after you get its attention, and it’s an effective divination tool for reading anyone that fancies themselves a warrior without ever needing to swing it at them. Beyond the sword, she has a flute and an erhu, of which she prefers the latter. The flute is necessary for demons though. She’s exactly the sort of character who tends to overpack, so she always has multiple instruments, snacks, random tools, and lots of changes of clothes that she never makes anybody else help carry.