Eliza Crow's page

"No one is accusing you of anything," Eliza assures her as she escorts them into the sitting room. "And despite what the radio dramas tell you, the wife isn't the culprit all that often. We're just trying to pick up his trail and according to Mrs. Kind, the last person she's sure saw him was you when he stopped home briefly. If you know where he was right before that or where he was planning on going next, that would be helpful." One of her eyebrows pops up at the mention of antiques. "And what's this about antiques? Could there be anything unusual among them? Some people find the oddest things to be worth a fortune."

Persuasion: 1d8 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5
Wild: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9 Okay, that's kind of funny

Eliza pulls her wide brimmed hat low as they travel through the city, keeping the sun off her almost sickly pale skin. She flicks her cigarette into the street when they finally reach the Kind house and she takes the front. "We're with the Maltese Detective Agency," she says calmly as Marci makes her appearance. "Your sister-in-law asked us to try to find out where your husband's gotten. Would you mind sitting and having a chat for a few minutes?"

Persuasion: 1d8 + 4 ⇒ (1) + 4 = 5
Wild: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9

Once Sarah leaves, Eliza pulls out a cigarette and her holder and pops a window open, letting the smoke drift out into the air. "I hate the criers," she mutters, her entire demeanor shifting. "They never seem to stop blubbering." She absently taps the ash off the end of her smoke. "Let's start with the wife. She might have been the last one to see him. And let's hope he didn't stick his nose into someplace it didn't belong and get it bitten off by a pissed off mobster or a beastie that doesn't like company."

"We believe you Miss Kind," Eliza says. "If he was smart enough not to over do it with his gambling, then I doubt he's in too much trouble. We'll have to ask around with his co-workers too."

I don't think I have any more questions. People have gotten most of the basics out of the way.

"It's possible that he simply lost track of time at one of the casinos," Eliza says thoughtfully. "But I think we can take a look for him without too much trouble. Does anyone have a problem with that?"

Well, missing persons was certainly something they did. Far too many missing people were causes by something stranger than most people knew existed. "I'll put on the kettle. Anyone want a cup a' Joe, or is tea fine all around?" Eliza starts the small office stove and puts the water on to heat. "Please stay calm Miss Kind," she adds evenly as the waterworks start up again. "We can't help you if you're too distraught to talk to us. Did your brother go out at night a lot? Do you know where?"

Persuasion: 1d8 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8
Wild: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10

Bad news guys. Our Marshal's having some computer troubles and his laptop isn't working at all right now. Hopefully he'll be able to work something out, but it looks like he's going to be off the boards for a little while.

Eliza is sitting by a table in the corner, her nose buried in an old, leather bound tome when the door swings open. "Some people have a complexion that lets them cry in public. She definitely doesn't." The sorceress pulls a handkerchief from her purse and gets up, absently straightening her jacket. She always wore her suit in the office rather than her more... risque dresses. It looked more professional that way. "Why don't you tell us what's the matter sweetheart? Then we'll see if we can do anything about it." She dabs the woman's cheeks dry and offers her the cloth to blow her nose.

Persuasion: 1d8 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10
Wild: 1d6 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7

Can I just say that I love your choice of delusion? It seems extremely cool for a mad scientist focused on medicine.

Grit's in the Deadlands Reloaded book, which you might not have. It's just equal to your current character rank, so everyone starts with a 1.

It's in the Game Rules Section under Trait Tests.

Unskilled Attempts

If a character doesn’t have a skill for an action he’s attempting, he rolls a d4 and subtracts 2 from the total. Wild Card characters still get their Wild Die for these rolls (which are also subject to the –2 penalty). The GM may decide that a character has no chance at a particular skill if he has no training in it—such as performing surgery or flying a plane.

Any skill with no ranks in it is considered Unskilled and you roll at an additional -2 penalty for a total of D4-2. Rolling without this penalty requires 1 skill point to be spent on each skill to get it to a basic D4. Do remember that your target number on almost everything is going to be 4, so your rolls don't have to be very high to succeed. Even on a D4-2, you have about an 18% chance of success.

I think there are two things, though you seem to have most of it figured out.

First, I believe that you started your skills at a D4 and bought up from there, but you actually start at a D4-2 and have to buy to a D4 as well (a D4 is 1 point, D6 is two, D8 is three, etc.) and buying above your linked attribute costs two. So you spent a total of 25 points, way more than we have to start (3 on fighting, 3 on science, 3 on notice, 3 on piloting, 5 on repair, 3 on shooting, and 5 on weird science). If you drop every skill by one rank, you should be at 16, which is perfect with how many hindrance points you have and even leaves you one extra point to keep one of your skills at a D8.

Second is a thing that's debatable, but I feel I should mention. Wanted usually means that the government is actively hunting you or seeking your arrest. If you've already been arrested and conscripted, I'd suggest the Obligation hindrance instead to represent that you don't really have a choice in doing what you're told.

True, though in flavor Eliza is more a Classic style blood mage than a huckster. I have to take Huckster, then Whateley Blood in Reloaded, but in classic they were separate arcane backgrounds entirely. Blood Magic was a thing where the Whateleys had been magic users for so long that they had magical energy innate to their bodies. By channeling some of their life force, they could cast spells without needing a manitou to provide the power. Not that you don't make a good point, I'm just explaining my character concept a little more.

I may be a moot point if no one decides to pick up Knowledge (Rippertech) though :P

I have mixed opinions. On one hand, there are several piece of Rippertech that are amazing (hello Hag's Heart and Pheromones). On the other, it feels really out of character for Eliza to willing shove abomination parts into herself when her character is supposed to be about mastering her powers without the need for outside intervention or petitioning dark forces for aid.

Gang up bonuses are a thing too. So having two melee specialists working together can be helpful.

PS: I'm apologizing preemptively for the possibility of me absolutely murdering one of you with my Grim Servant of Death hindrance. I do plan to pick up the Healing power, but it only works on myself... maybe I'll grab the skill and get the Healer edge to try and make sure I don't kill any of you.

I still remember how Loup almost killed the posse's brawler in our the Flood game ages ago when his Grim Servant O' Death went off on his very first attack of the game and he rolled three or four raises on damage. Good times.

If we're worried about healing, I was going to suggest that DarkestHeart take a look at the Blessed for his free background. I don't know if he wants to play a magic user or not, but we brought up the IIA and the Catholic church in recruitment, so it could be fitting for his character if he wanted powers.

Glad to see people are thinking about things longer-term and starting to see how characters interact. Definitely keep talking on that if you like--when we start the 1033 campaign, your characters will already be together in Vegas, so you very well may know one another to some extent.

It's written in to Eliza's backstory that the Ripper's found and killed the monster that killed her mobster squeeze and she signed on with them very recently, so that's where she is. Anyone who's been with the Rippers in town for a little while probably met her while they were investigating.

That's fair. I may just stop at Very Attractive, but I'll have tons of time to decide, because I likely won't even get that until somewhere in the middle of Seasoned rank, which I imagine will be quite a while. There is also the issue of worrying about my Dark Secret getting out. If it becomes public, I take a -4 charisma and a group of murderous inbred black magic users will be coming to kill me. Then I max back at the +4 I have now, but obviously that's a worse case scenario.

Neat, though I more meant that Aaron Jr. looks older due to the hair looking grey on the picture you used. Not that it's a big deal, I just thought it was amusing.

As for build, I'm going for basically two things: magic use and charisma. I'm going to grab power points at least a couple of times and a few other powers, as well as Very Attractive and Charismatic, which should get me to a respectable +8. Not a great combatant outside of hurling deadly magic fireballs, but I'm going more with the classic femme fatale archetype than a straight fighter. I should be excellent at convincing people to tell us things we need to know or getting people on our side.

Is it just me, or do the images for the two Aaron's seem like they should be the other way round?

I'm going to dot in with my Ripper for the moment. I have my soldier up and ready to go as well. Also, do we want three Scout Snipers right away? Smoke can be a Heavy Gunner as well, so I can have him in that roll instead if we do want to chew through scout slots too fast.