Erika Erlingsson's page

About Erika Erlingsson

XP: 10

Appearance and personality

Her average height enhanced by her stiletto heels, her slim build clad in smart-looking outfits, her platinum blond hair carefully gathered in an elaborate bun - Erika exudes elegance and professionalism. She looks younger than her 37 years, something which she considers a curse and not a boon; it is hard enough to get ahead as a female prosecutor, even more difficult when you don't look old enough to be taken seriously. Erika attempts to mitigate this by always wearing perfectly-cut, perfectly fitted business suits, accessorized with black-rimmed glasses that frame her dark gray eyes. The glasses are purely for show, as her eyesight is rather good, but she thinks they add that little extra bit of seriousness to her look. No hair out of place, no skewed hem, and definitely no cat hairs on her outfits - this is why Sibyll, her cat, is a sphynx.

Her obsession with always looking hyper-professional hasn't won her many friends; words like 'aloof', 'arrogant', 'standoffish' and other, less kinder terms, have been bandied about by her colleagues. It doesn't upset her too much, though - she feels rather good on her own, and besides, she has more time to dedicate to her work! And you would be hard-pressed to find someone more dedicated than Erika, always first in the office and the last one to leave, always taking on the most difficult cases and spending countless hours with her nose buried in files and law books. But that's ok, how else would you explain her stellar record of convictions, if not through all that hard work? And it's not like she doesn't have hobbies! Well, a hobby. Granted, cat cosplay is a rather niche one, but she finds satisfaction in working with her hands, and Sibyll seems to enjoy the attention, or at least tolerate it.

And if someone was to get close without spooking her, they would find that Erika has some rather unusual interests aside from making cat-sized costumes. Perhaps it's her Icelandic heritage, but she does seem to have a thing for runes, and for occultism in general. Her apartment is crammed with obscure treatises and antique books dealing with everything from hermeticism to Thelema. Her mother strongly disapproves of this interest, but Erika is a stubborn person, and long ago they have agreed to disagree on the topic.

Background

Ragnhildur Þorbjörgsdóttir, Erika's mother, left Iceland when Erika was only 6 years old. As a professor of political sciences at the University of Reykjavik, she was all too keenly aware of the corrupt landscape of Icelandic politics, harbouring little hope that things would radically change, if one was to examine the trends of the last few decades. An intelligent, principled woman, she wanted something better for her daughter. She moved to Los Angeles, continuing her teaching career and publishing several books, becoming quite the respected authority in her field - in the academia world and outside it.

She changed her last name (and Erika's, whose last name, according to Icelandic patronymics, had been Oddursdóttir) to Erlingsson, as something easier to understand and pronounce by her new compatriots, even though it fundamentally changed their identity; they were sons, not daughters, of their forefathers. Erling had been Ragnhildur's grandfather, one of the very few Icelandic politicians that she felt were worthy of respect and who acted like the public servant he was supposed to be.

Erika grew up speaking both English and Icelandic, reconnecting to her roots through the frequent visits to Iceland with her mother, and developing into a smart, driven young woman, a bit too serious at times. She went to law school and, guided by a keen sense of justice, began a career as a prosecutor for the state of California. She augmented her studies with forays into psychology and criminal sciences, even medicine, in an attempt to understand the mechanics of crime and punishment. In moments of doubt, she had her own little ritual, casting the worn runes inherited from her great-grandmother. Her career track was impressive, with a success rate of convictions difficult to match by other prosecutors, although she was picky about her cases and developed a reputation of being difficult to work with for that reason.

These days she is as dedicated to her work as when she started, which leaves her little time for anything else. She lives alone in a small apartment... wait, no. She is not alone. There's Sybill, of course, her sphynx cat. And when she's not working, Erika spends a good deal of her time making cosplay costumes for Sybill and posting the results on Instagram, where she has amassed quite a number of followers. She makes frequents visits to her mother, who is now in her 70s and lives on a small estate outside of the city. Although retired, Ragnhildur has maintained many of her connections in politics and academia, and always has some sage advice for her daughter.

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Basics
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Erika Erlingsson, Scion of Frigg
Calling: Driven Prosecutor
Nature: Judge
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Attributes
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Strength (2), Dexterity (3), Stamina (2)
Charisma (4,1), Manipulation (3), Appearance (2)
Perception (4), Intelligence (5,2), Wits (3)
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Abilities
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Academics (Law) ****
Animal Ken *
Art
Athletics
Awareness ***
Brawl
Command **
Control
Craft
Empathy *
Fortitude **
Integrity ***
Investigation **
Larceny
Marksmanship **
Medicine **
Melee
Occult ****
Politics
Presence ***
Science (Criminal) **
Science (Psychology) **
Stealth
Survival
Thrown
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Birthrights
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Creature (*) - Sphynx cat
Relic (***) - Runestones
Guide (*) - Her mother
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Boons
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Purview: Prophecy (**)
Purview: Magic (**)
Spell: The Unlidded Eye (*)
Spell: Trading Fates (**)
Judgment (Justice *)
Guilt Apparitions (Justice **)
Epic Charisma (*)
Epic Intelligence (**)
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Knacks
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Inspirational Figure
Know-It-All
Perfect Memory
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Virtues
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Conviction ***
Endurance *
Expression *
Intellect ****
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Misc
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Legend: 3
Willpower: 5
Legend points: 9
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Equipment
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Combat Knife: Acc. +1, Damage +2L, Speed 4
Beretta/Glock: Acc. +1, Damage +3L, Range 20, Clip 15, Speed 4, Piercing
Remington: Acc. +3, Damage +7L, Range 200, Clip 4, Speed 6, Piercing
Bulletproof Vest: Soak +2L/2B, Mobility penalty -0, Fatigue 1, Bulletproof

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Boons and Knacks Expanded
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Inspirational Figure (Epic Charisma)
The Scion’s well-chosen words can play on humankind’s social mentality, giving hope and courage to not just one listener, but a group. The Scion gives a speech to gathered listeners—whether she’s calling upon them for help, raising their spirits after a local disaster or strengthening the bonds of community among them—and spends a single point of Legend. As long as her words are intended to inspire them in some way, every person who can hear her listens spellbound and receives a point of Willpower at the speech’s end. The only limit is that the listeners must be able to hear her clearly without her using the aid of any amplifying or broadcasting equipment. This Knack inspires other Scions as easily as mortals, but it doesn’t inspire titanspawn. Nonetheless, titanspawn are compelled to at least let her finish her speech before carrying out whatever they’re up to.

Know-It-All (Epic Intelligence)
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.

Language Mastery (Epic Intelligence)
The Scion can understand any language that is spoken to her. Once she’s heard a few sentences, she can then speak that language back as if she grew up among native speakers. Writing the language is a bit trickier, as she can only transliterate her written words in the alphabet of her native language until someone teaches her the alphabet and punctuation of the new language. Likewise, reading the new language can be difficult if that language uses characters that don’t appear in an alphabet with which she is already familiar.

JUDGMENT (JUSTICE •)
Dice Pool: Perception + Empathy
Cost: None
This Boon aids a Scion immensely in determining guilt, one of the foundations of meting out justice. When she confronts someone she suspects committed an injustice and accuses that person of having done so, her player rolls (Perception + Empathy). (This roll isn’t modified by supernatural powers or contested by the suspect’s player.) On a success, the Scion can intuitively tell whether the suspect is guilty as charged. A failure yields an indeterminate reading and means that the Scion can’t try to determine the same subject’s guilt for 24 hours. A botch yields a false reading.

GUILT APPARITIONS (JUSTICE ••)
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Integrity
Cost: 1 Legend
When a Scion knows that someone is guilty of an injustice but she lacks either the evidence to prove it or the leverage to make him admit it, she can rely on this Boon instead. To use it, she accuses the guilty party of the injustice (be it in person, in a letter, over the phone, via skywriting…), and her player spends a point of Legend and rolls (Manipulation + Integrity). If the roll succeeds, the accusation causes the victim to periodically hallucinate like Macbeth or his wife. These hallucinations occur randomly, torturing the guilty party with the knowledge that justice hasn’t been served. They also render him unable to regain Willpower. The effect lasts for a number of days equal to the activation roll’s successes, or until the offender makes fair amends, or until the offender confesses his crime to someone who can force him to make fair amends — whichever occurs first.

THE UNLIDDED EYE (•)
Dice Pool: Perception + Occult
Cost: 1 Willpower
This spell allows its caster to see magic and supernatural powers that are normally invisible to mortal sight. It also faintly reveals the threads of Fate that entwine people, revealing strong or thick threads and allowing the caster to determine a Scion’s or other supernatural being’s Legend score.

TRADING FATES (••)
Dice Pool: Wits + Presence
Cost: Dice penalties (see below) + Fatebinding
The caster grants another person a good luck streak, as she can do for herself with the Bona Fortuna spell. The cost for casting this spell, however, is that the caster must herself accept a concomitant penalty at some future time (“stored” by his Legend until spent). If the player rolled three successes, granting the spell’s target a pool of three dice to spend on one or more future rolls, hers character suffers a -3 penalty, which she must levy all at once against a single roll—in fact, the next roll she makes for which he spends a Legend point.

Bonus points: 4 attributes, 3 abilities, 8 epic attributes