Scion: Ragnarok

Game Master DM Ragnarok

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Birthrights
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(5)H&K (Heimdall and Karneles) Bifrost Pistol
This blackened steel heavy-caliber pistol looks to be a normal, if custom H&K pistol, unless someone racks back the slide. There are no bullets in the gun; instead a sliver of shimmering rainbow crystal replaces the entire magazine of the gun. This is a sliver of the Bifrost, the great rainbow bridge in crystal form and used as a source of ammunition. This weapon fires rainbow-colored 'bullets' formed of refracted light.
Stats: Speed 4, Accuracy +2, Damage +6L, Range 50

(2)Heimdall's Spare Glasses
These glasses are narrow rectangular frames with thin slivers of glass. They provide access to the Sun and Guardian purviews.
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Boons
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Jotunblut 1
Bestial Endowment
Dice Pool: None
Cost: 1 lethal health level + 1 Legend
The Scion grants a beast a single extra dot in either Strength or Stamina. The beast becomes loyal to only the Scion, who can also train him as normal, but that loyalty must be renewed once every month.

Guardian 1-2
Vigil Brand
Dice Pool: Perception + Empathy (to check up)
Cost: 1 Legend (to brand)
The Scion touches a person, an object or the entrance to a location and lays a mystical brand there that marks that subject as being under her protection. (Doing so costs one Legend.) Thereafter, whenever that subject is in physical danger (as determined by the Storyteller), the Scion receives a reflexive intuition to that effect. Should her player then succeed on a (Perception + Empathy) roll, she gains a clearer understanding of the subject’s condition, location and current situation.

The Scion can also use this Boon to check up on a subject at any time, but only one subject at a time. A Scion cannot brand herself with this Boon, but she can brand as many other subjects as she pleases. A subject can be branded by more than one Scion at the same time. Each brand is unique to the Scion who made it.

Warning Line
Dice Pool: Perception + Awareness
Cost: 1 Legend
The Scion traces a line across the ground, along a doorway or over some other opening. The line can be as long as the Scion wishes to make it, so long as she traces the entire line in one pass. At the end, she names a creature. This can be as specific or as general as she wishes: “titanspawn,” “mortals,” “any animal smaller than a rat” and “Kane Taoka” are all valid examples. If a creature of that sort crosses the line, the Scion immediately becomes aware of it. There’s no limit to the number of Warning Lines that a Scion can have drawn at once, and she can intuitively tell the difference between any of them. (That is, if she has three different Warning Lines active, she knows which one was tripped at any given time). A Warning Line remains effective for a number of days equal to the player’s activation roll.

Sun 1
Penetrating Glare
Dice Pool: None
Cost: None
As sunlight only dims when it passes through thick clouds, so too can a Scion’s vision cut through physical occlusions. When the Scion receives this Boon, she sees clearly through such physical impediments as smoke, fog, murky water (if the Scion is in said water) or even translucent barriers through which other people can see only silhouettes. The character can even see perfectly clearly in dim light (i.e., light no less intense than a single birthday candle). In total darkness, however, she’s just as blind as the next person.

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Knacks
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Cat's Grace: This Knack imbues a Scion with the uncanny ability to remain on his feet despite treacherous terrain or an enemy’s best attempts to knock him down. For instance, a character with this Knack never suffers knockdown (see p. 198) from an attack. The player need not even roll. The character still suffers the damage, but he remains on his feet. Furthermore, a character with this Knack ignores all difficulty penalties based on unstable footing and treacherous terrain. He still suffers speed penalties for moving through ankle- to knee- deep water or mud, but his dice pools for actions taken on such terrain suffer no penalties.

Trick Shooter: Not only do the Scion’s Epic Dexterity bonus successes add to (Dexterity + Marksmanship) dice rolls, he now doubles the bonus he receives from taking an Aim action (see p. 190) as well. What’s more, the player ignores the difficulty penalty for the character to either disarm an opponent with a ranged special attack or mark his opponent without causing damage. (See “Special Attacks” on p. 199.) A character must take an Aim action in order to be able to ignore such penalties, though. If a character fires from the hip or blazes away in a cordite-reeking, brass-raining, muzzle-strobing gunfight, only the regular bonus successes from his Epic Dexterity apply.

Holy Fortitude: The character is the epitome of the holy ascetic. The periods for which she is able to go without food, water and sleep all double. The amount of time she is able to work at a strenuous task without stopping also doubles.

Subliminal Warning: Whenever the Scion enters an area where an ambush is waiting, even if he has no reason to suspect he’s in danger, certain tiny clues set his subconscious on edge, preparing him for an attack. When the attacker finally springs the surprise assault, the Scion hears the tiniest rustle of fabric, sees the slightest flicker in his peripheral vision or feels the gentlest twitch of displaced air, and the clues he already noticed all add up. As a result, the Scion gains an extra number of dice equal to his Epic Perception on the standard (Wits + Awareness) roll to detect the ambush.

Environmental Awareness: Prerequisite Knack: Subliminal Warning (Scion: Hero, p. 134) The demigod is so in tune with his surroundings, that he can detect even the most minute changes around him well before anyone else. He can feel the barometric pressure rise or drop (and describe it accurately), giving him an acute sense of what the weather is going to do in the next hour. He can feel the tiniest tectonic vibrations from deep within the earth, allowing him to accurately presage an earthquake. Changes in temperature are no mystery to him either. His awareness is so complete that should some unnatural factor change one of these elements, he’s the first to notice and can even track the disturbance back to its source. Also, if enemies are lying in ambush in the nearby area and are not concealed by supernatural means, it is impossible for their surprise attack to catch the Scion unaware. The Scion may join battle and react accordingly without his player having to roll to notice the hidden attack. If he reflexively spends a point of Legend, he may call out a warning for his cohorts to be ready and react accordingly as well. As an added benefit, the Scion is unfailingly aware of the passage of time. Without even thinking about it, he can accurately say how much time has passed from any reference point that he has personally experienced.

Opening Salvo: The character’s tongue is sharp; with it she can wound a foe to the quick. When the character says something witty (or just catty) to a person and that remark is designed to trip him up or humiliate him, the victim loses one Willpower point. Inflicting this sting with such a venomous put-down (even if it’s actually just a tired Yo-Momma joke the player came up with on the spur of the moment) costs the user one Legend point. The only caveat to this Knack is that the player must actually come up with the gibe in question. It doesn’t have to be good; she just has to say something.

With a bitter taste in his mouth, he accepted a 'forced retirement'. He moved to San Francisco and opened an investigation agency. While he went from solving crimes to ferreting out cheating husbands and finding missing daughters, he felt more satisfied searching at their request then he was ever working for the police.

And then one day, years later, he received an envelope on his desk. There was only a single phrase printed on the card inside, embossed with a single Norse rune. Curious, he started looking into it and ended up getting dragged into a living puzzle that challenged everything he knew. Months of tracking down clues, finding contacts and dodging suspicious characters later, and he finally found the one who had sent him on this chase.

His father, whom he had thought dead. Heimdall's machinations were a test to see if Ulf had the stuff to see things through to Ragnarok. He had proven himself worthy, and was given enough information to get started on his own path. Given a pistol, a pair of his father's old 'reading glasses', and enough files to get him started, (ST's discretion what's in the files) Ulf Jonnson found himself working a completely different set of cases: Titanspawn Investigations.

Charisma:2 Manipulation:4;2 Appearance:1

Perception:3 Intelligence:4;2 Wits:4;2

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Abilities
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Academics 2
Athletics 2
Awareness 2
Command* 3
Empathy 1
Fortitude* 3
Integrity 2
Investigation* 3
Medicine 4
Melee* 2
Politics 2
Presence* 3
Science 2
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Derived
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Legend 3 (9/9)
Willpower 6 (6/6)
Courage 3
Endurance 3
Expression 1
Loyalty 2
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Birthrights
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Gram-4
This legendary blade of Sigmund and his son Sigurd was gifted to the former by Odin and used by the latter to slay the dragon Fafnir. It was only able to be broken by Odin himself and once reforged was able to cleave through an anvil. The blade disappeared sometime afterward and it's unclear how Hel came to own it. It isn't a stretch to assume that the last owner is dead however.

This sword is decked with gold and the guard is shaped like a dragon's curling horns.

+3 Accuracy, +6L Damage, +1 Defense, 4 Speed

Dvergr-2
In Old Norse dvergr means both dwarf and fibula. Dr. Thorton's Dvergr is the fibula bone of a dwarf etched with runes.

Grants acces to Death. Also, when Dr. Thornton throws the bone to the ground and spends a Legend point the souls of five disgraced vikings appear in its place. They return to the bone at the end of the scene.

Hræ -3bonus

These five dead viking warriors ended up in Hel instead of Valhalla. They may have died from poison, old age, or a spurned lover, it's unknown. Now they are bound to the Dvergr and appear when called.

Functions as spartoi followers.
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Boons
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Death

Death Senses (Death *)
Dice Pool: None
Cost: None
The Scion can see ghosts even when those ghosts don’t choose to manifest. To her, ghosts are livid, physical presences, sensible to feeling as to sight (as well as smell and hearing). She still can’t harm the fragile ectoplasmic shell of a ghost who hasn’t manifested, however. The sense of touch this Boon grants is illusory. If the Scion tries to exert enough pressure to cause damage or restrain the ghost, her hand passes through it.The Scion can also look at a dead body and know what killed it, if that cause isn’t already obvious. The answer she gets is somewhat generic (the reading would tell her a person had been poisoned, for instance, but not by what poison), but it’s conclusive despite the presence of falsified or misleading evidence. Generic causes of death include suffocation, drowning, poison, burns, internal trauma, bleeding, hunger, thirst, exposure, illness, heart attack and old age.

Euthanasia (Death **)
Dice Pool: Perception + Empathy (to gauge willingness)
Cost: 1 Legend
When a living being is at the Incapacitated health level with lethal or aggravated damage due to wounds or a terminal illness, the Scion can end that being’s suffering. The Scion must touch the being for one action (Speed 6) and spend one Legend point. If the Scion wants to know whether the victim is truly willing to die, her player can roll (Perception + Empathy) while the Scion touches the victim. Animals usually answer in the affirmative and titanspawn usually do the opposite, but human beings and Scions are unpredictable. Regardless, the subject’s willingness is ultimately immaterial unless the subject is another Scion. The power doesn’t work on a Scion unless that Scion is actually willing to die. (Even then, however, Fate or the Scion’s divine parent might intervene to keep the Scion alive a little longer.)
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Knacks
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Holy Bound:
Only characters whose Boons include the Sky Purview have more freedom to flaunt the laws of physics. Simply having Epic Strength enables a Scion to perform prodigious leaps that leave mortals standing slack-jawed with wonder. For example, if a Scion has Strength 5, Athletics 3 and Epic Strength 3, she can jump 12 yards straight up or 24 yards forward. (See “Movement” on p. 180.) This Knack, however, doubles a Scion’s vertical and horizontal jumping distances. With it, the aforementioned character could leap an amazing 24 yards straight up (from the ground to a seventh-story balcony, for instance) or 48 yards forward in a single bound.

Holy Rampage:
The Scion is especially good at breaking inanimate objects. When he spends a point of Legend and applies his full might to breaking something—whether he’s punching it, kicking it or throwing his shoulder against it—the item’s Hardness is halved against the attack. This bonus applies only when the character attempts to break an inanimate object that is either freestanding or under his control. If someone else has control of the object in question, the Scion must take it from him first.

Holy Fortitude:
The character is the epitome of the holy ascetic. The periods for which she is able to go without food, water and sleep all double. The amount of time she is able to work at a strenuous task without stopping also doubles.

Fast Learner:
By buckling down and intently studying certain subjects, the Scion internalizes them in a fraction of the time it would take a lesser intellect. In so doing, he cuts the experience-point cost for purchasing dots in Academics, Medicine, Occult, Politics or Science in half, rounding down.

Know–It–All:
The Scion is widely read and has a ridiculously well-rounded education. She might not be a master of any single subject, but she knows a little bit about a wide range of disparate, esoteric subjects. (She could explain the intricacies of the Teapot Dome Scandal in terms of the interpersonal dynamics of the Justice League, then explain why typing “while one fork” into a UNIX system is a bad idea, before wrapping up with an explanation of how a Venus’s-flytrap works.) Normally, the burden of portraying this Knack falls to the player, so it behooves her to keep an ear to the ground for obscure trivia she can work into her character’s dialogue during the game. The Storyteller shares a bit of that burden as well, though. During a scene in which the characters seem to be stumped or hopelessly out of options, the Storyteller should “remind” the player of some pertinent bit of obscure trivia her character knows that bears a direct, helpful relevance to the problem at hand. It behooves the Storyteller, then, to make a list of a handful of such helpful hints when he’s designing his story. Just in case.

Meditative Focus:
Whether she’s hunkered down behind a burning car in a war zone, caught out on the yard during a prison riot, stranded on the crowded deck of a storm-tossed ship or just mall-walking during the frenzied heights of the Christmas rush, the character never loses her cool. No matter what’s happening, she keeps her mind on what she’s doing while maintaining sufficient vigilance to avoid getting caught up in the hubbub all around her. As such, the character is able to eliminate one point of environmental distraction penalty per dot she has of Epic Wits.

Rabbit Reflexes:
When an unexpected attack targets the character with this Knack but the character’s player fails to get enough successes on the (Wits + Awareness) roll to notice the attack coming, the Scion instinctively defends herself with double her highest applicable DV. The character cannot preemptively attack her attacker or even shout out a warning to her comrades, as she’s reacting to an attack that’s already taking place, but she is much more likely to dodge or parry that attack. Nonetheless, the character cannot actually join battle herself until everyone else does after the unexpected attack is resolved.

Gods’ Honest:
When she’s trying to convince someone of something, the Scion puts her hand to her heart, puts her hand on a stack of Bibles, holds up her right hand with her pinkie and thumb crossed in the palm, or performs some other gesture of sincerity. (Her player also spends a point of Legend.) When she does so, her would-be mark accepts that the Scion is telling the truth about the subject at hand, no questions asked, for the rest of the story. Only solid, incontrovertible proof showing that what the Scion said was undeniably false will convince the mark he’s been fooled. Even then, whoever’s showing him the proof will have to convince him that the proof is genuine and not some clever forgery.A Scion with this Knack doesn’t have to lie when she uses it. She can also use it to convince a recalcitrant skeptic of the actual truth. If the Scion does so, no mortal force can convince that person that the Scion was lying (not even professionally faked “proof” to the contrary).

Overt Order:
Sometimes, the direct method is more effective than the cleverest of intricate schemes. With this Knack, a Scion barks out a command that the target must obey. Doing so costs one Willpower, and the command must be one the Scion can give and the victim can perform in a single action. “Freeze!” is acceptable, as is, “Don’t shoot!” or, “Shoot him!” Ordering someone to go home and shoot his wife won’t work because doing so would take longer than a single action. A victim of this Knack can interpret the command loosely to make it not directly suicidal, but not if all he’s trying to do is keep out of trouble. For example, if a victim draws a gun and the Scion commands him to shoot himself, the victim can shoot himself in the hand or the foot rather than blowing his own brains out. Same thing goes if a Scion uses this Knack at a seedy pool hall to command a smarmy drug dealer to pick a fight with a burly ex-con at the next table. The dealer might reasonably believe that the ex-con could kill him, but he still can’t weasel out of the command. He doesn’t have to walk up and take a swing at the guy, but he still has to do something, such as singing out a racial slur or throwing a beer bottle at the guy’s girlfriend. The dealer can cheese it immediately, but he’s still got to pick the fight first.

Unfortunately Granny Thornton died when Nick was 11 so he had to stay with his father and attempt to raise himself. He spent as much time as he could out of the house which meant getting into trouble on the streets. He got into a lot of fights, some of them with fists others with knives, and caused general mischief. He was quite familiar with the local cops but fortunately never got arrested.

One officer took an interest in him for some reason and convinced Nick that there were better things out there. Nick started escaping his father's apartment by going to the library instead. He started trying in school as well, which came easily to him. With his new drive he was able to get enough scholarships to attend Vanderbilt University in Nashville where he got his medical degree.

After a few short years, record time in fact, he went back home to Memphis to take on the position of Shelby County 's Medical Examiner. This job mostly consisted of doing autopsies and helping the police with investigations. He even got to work with his old friend Officer Cox on a few occasions. In the last couple of years the State Chief Medical Examiner started to send new examiners to see Dr. Thornton to learn how to do the job. He knew that he was a shoe in to be the next Chief.

Despite being a white collar "bookworm" type these days he always stays in shape. He works out several times a week. He also hasn't completely forgotten his violent youth, his tendencies are just released in more productive ways these days. In college he was a fencer and from time to time he takes part in mock battles at ren faires.

He works tirelessly. His job is very demanding and he has thrown himself into it. He pulls an all nighter at least once a week. This has likely contributed to his hair beginning to go grey a little early.

Between his work and activities he hasn't had time to settle down and start a family, which is fine by him. If he's honest with himself he's afraid to have children in case he turns out to be as bad a father as he had.

Academics 2
Athletics 2 (4)
Awareness 2 (6)
Command* 3 (9)
Empathy 1 (10)
Fortitude* 3 (13)
Integrity 2 (15)
Investigation* 3 (18)
Medicine 4 (21)
Melee* 2 (23)
Politics 2 (25)
Presence* 3 (28)
Science 2 (30)

Maths: 2 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 2 = 31