Hadya is the patchwork Chosen of Wounds, victim of a Great Forks shrine-gang that sought to empower a champion. They created much more than that. A tortured Exigent who can shoulder or inflict grievous injuries, physical or figurative, she will have her vengeance on her patrons.
History
Hadya was born a lakkoi of Great Forks, the only child of a cooper’s assistant and a street sweeper. Her mother passed away when she was an infant; before she was ten years old, her often-drunk father simply never returned home one day. She subsisted on meager charity but found that even children need to find work to eat decently.
Hadya soon found herself a paid worshiper, as many rites call for children as minor functionaries. Serving in various capacities allowed her to develop a wide range of talents, from deductive reasoning while serving as innocent eyes for Ji-Zhen’s detective priests, to athletic prowess from chasing costumed devils recreating famous battles in Sunipa’s military parades. Even as a child, her reputation for adaptability and steadfastness grew among fellow freelance worshipers. Unfortunately, this attention came with its own complications.
Acolytes of the Great Succession shrine-gang kidnapped Hadya to utilize her many talents, forcing her to perform increasingly esoteric and rigorous worship on their behalf in their secret temple beneath a decrepit Oldmarsh villa. Over the years, her fellow worshipers forgot that she served under duress and began treating her as a proper acolyte. She had the gods’ favor, a hardworking attitude, and seemed uninterested in dedicating her life toward anything else. When the Great Succession acquired an illicit spark of Exigence, they could think of no better candidate to lead the charge in seizing territory, and perhaps even becoming the biggest players in Great Forks.
Had the Great Succession fallen in behind a leader to be the sole patron of their new Exigent, perhaps their new champion would have been a weaker, but deft, weapon. If they’d chosen a true loyalist, perhaps they’d still control her. But, as they combined their divine powers within an unsuspecting Hadya, their immiscible Essence roiled and burned her body and soul. For hours, riotous light tore her open, spilling blood and flesh across the temple, unmaking her and pulling her together again and again. Hadya’s single, ceaseless wail of torment disintegrated wood, shattered stone, and warped metal until she lay motionless in the demolished crater that was all that remained of the secret temple and the villa above. The gods fled, humiliated and personally weakened, in a public spectacle.
A night passed before a funerist braved the unhallowed ground to dispose of Hadya’s body. As he lifted her to be carted away, she seized his wrist in a crushing grip. At first, he thought her a hungry ghost, but the truth was much worse. She was not dead, but reborn as the Chosen of Wounds.
Vengeance
Hadya awoke to memories of pain — not only of her harrowing, but of her entire life. Petty, uncaring gods had used her, leaving her broken and bleeding. The Great Succession’s gods were first on her list of targets for her newfound power, but her first walk through the impoverished district they ruled reminded Hadya they were one of many forces that had abused her all her life. Inescapable poverty had driven her to desperate acts. Others’ desperation obliged them to take whatever they could from her. Suffering hadn’t just punctuated her existence; it defined her. Her targets weren’t nine in number, but limitless.
While recuperating, Hadya interviewed those she once toiled alongside. None resisted her questioning; indeed, she often brought them hope. She wasn’t the only one suffering under the Great Succession’s tyranny. Many still endured other shrine-gangs’ excesses, fueling her horrific might as they offered a slew of new outrages to fuel a lifetime of revenge.
Dwelling upon these injustices, Hadya elevated her quest into a calling. Pain begets pain, and those who’d wronged her were driven by cruelties that shaped the world and turned the heavens. In time, her crusade to bleed her enemies might pit her against the grand injustices that define Creation. But despite this high-minded thought, her nine great tormentors’ faces burned bright whenever she closed her eyes. Only time will tell if she sets her hunt aside to avenge grander wrongs.
Traits
Hadya is intended for Celestial play.
Martial Arts
Hadya neither benefits from the Mastery keyword nor suffers the limitations of the Terrestrial keyword. She can freely combine her Charms with Martial Arts Charms.
Sorcery
Hadya is capable of initiating into Celestial Circle sorcery and Shadow Circle necromancy. Her Intelligence Attribute determines whether she receives the Favored Attribute discount on spells.
Evocations
Hadya is resonant with red jade and soulsteel (Arms of the Chosen, p. 16), and neutral with green jade and starmetal. She’s dissonant with all other materials.
Charms
Hadya’s Charms express her tormented nature as the patchwork Chosen of Wounds, drawing from her nine patrons’ unique purviews through a dark, injurious lens, and from specific qualities of her tortured Exaltation.
Excellencies
Hadya’s unhale power is a dark miracle of Exigency with nigh-limitless depths. Hadya can purchase Excellencies for each Attribute. She can add up to (Attribute + Ability) dice to a roll for one mote each. Automatic successes count as two dice toward this limit. Static values like Evasion or Resolve can be raised by half their dice cap, rounded down.
In addition to adding dice to (Attribute + Ability) rolls, the Strength Excellency can add dice to Strength-based withering damage before soak, while the Stamina Excellency can raise soak. This costs one mote per damage die or point of soak, maximum (Attribute/2, rounded down). These limits only apply to Excellencies, not to other magic that adds damage or soak. Players must declare these Excellencies before rolling.
New Keywords
Excruciation: Charms with this keyword receive benefits according to Hadya’s wound penalties. In some cases, these benefits require her to be suffering wound penalties of a certain value.
Suffering: Suffering Charms interact with Hadya’s Pain Transfer anima power (p. XX), expanding its use or allowing her to absorb types of pain other than wound penalties, such as diseases or traumatic memories.
Nightmare-Herding Song
Cost: 1wp; Mins: Charisma 2, Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
Hadya’s melodious lament floats about the realm of dreams, drawing the worst of them to follow her call.
Hadya sings a nonsense lullaby as she goes to sleep, compelling the bad dreams of everyone within (Essence) miles to haunt her as well. She rolls (Charisma + Performance) against difficulty 1-5, based on the number of people in the vicinity. Success lets her player ask the Storyteller one of the following questions, plus an additional question for every three extra successes:
- What unusual situation is harming the people here?
- What are the people here most afraid of?
- What gives people here the greatest sense of security?
- Where is the highest concentration of Wyld influence or Fair Folk activity?
If the Storyteller doesn’t have an answer in mind for a question, Hadya’s player should provide one, as if introducing a fact.
Hadya may gain or increase a relevant fear-based Intimacy in response to one of the answers in order to learn the identity of a character who can give her more information about it.
Reset: Once per scene.
Maze of Stripes and Canes
Cost: 10m, 1hl; Mins: Manipulation 5, Essence 4
Type: Simple
Keywords: Excruciation, Perilous, Psyche
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Bloody-Whiskered Yawn ×2, Same Stripe Entanglement ×2
The breeze in the bamboo, the scurrying of innocent creatures, and Hadya’s stalking gait all blend into one sadistic dance.
Hadya makes a (Manipulation + Presence) roll, ignoring wound penalties, against a target’s Resolve. The target becomes utterly unable to discern identity or intent. He suffers a −3 penalty on actions involving other characters, which increases to −(Essence) on rolls to read intentions. He cannot draw on Ties to other characters for influence to act in the scene. For example, he could not use his Tie toward a ward to resist influence to leave her side, but he could resist influence to bring that ward to her enemy’s lair later.
Hadya may use Innocuous Innocence Snare against the target without spending Willpower if she knows it, and she always benefits from the effects of Same Stripe Entanglement when he attacks her if she is within Close range of another character.
Excruciation −4: Hadya may pay one Willpower instead of suffering damage to activate this Charm.
Scar Remembers Blade
Cost: 5m; Mins: Perception 3, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Suffering
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Dust-Sifting Tracker’s Understanding
As pain tears through her body, Hadya understands its every nuance, and thus the subtleties that lie behind it.
When Hadya absorbs pain using Pain Transfer, she instantly learns the precise causes and circumstances that caused any wound, pain, physical ailment, and scar the target has. Treat this as a successful case scene action for the event in question. If magic conceals the source of the harm, Hadya instead doubles 9s and gains (Essence + wound penalty) extra successes on the opposed roll. This does not assist her in diagnosing poisons or illnesses.
Hadya may repurchase this Charm to use it on a dead body, or when she finds signs of a person being injured, such as a bloodstain. For the rest of the scene, she gains an additional wound penalty equal to half of the highest wound penalty the target would have suffered during the event (for corpses, this usually means an additional wound penalty of −2).
Double-Shift Determination
Cost: 6m, 1wp; Mins: Stamina 3, Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: Excruciation, Perilous
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: One Day to Rest
The world demands more of Hadya, and so there is more to give.
Hadya heals up to (Stamina) levels of damage. She can spend levels of healing to convert aggravated damage to lethal. Her wound penalty increases by one until she gets a full night’s rest.
Excruciation −4: Hadya may activate this Charm reflexively by causing any character to suffer a wound penalty.
Reset: Once per story unless reset by getting a full night’s rest.
Broken Shield Trap
Cost: 3m; Mins: Strength 4, Essence 1
Type: Reflexive
Keywords: Counterattack, Decisive-only
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Flying Pauldron Turn
Every injury is an opportunity for Hadya; pain does not daunt her.
After successfully parrying or being hit by an attack made at close range, Hadya can choose to suffer one of the following:
- Be disarmed of one of her weapons, which destroys a non-artifact weapon.
- Reduce the category of her armor to a lighter one as per Flying Pauldron Turn.
- Suffer a level of bashing damage.
She does not have to choose one of these options if she suffered damage or loss of equipment from the triggering attack, even from her own reflexive Charms.
Hadya then makes a decisive counterattack with (Strength + [Brawl, Melee, or Resistance]), ignoring wound penalties and adding a non-Charm success.
World-Infesting Doctrine
Cost: 10m, 1ahl; Mins: Wits 5, Essence 4
Type: Simple
Keywords: None
Duration: Indefinite
Prerequisite Charms: Bursting Creed Replication
So long as Hadya’s ideas live on, she is beyond death.
When a character dies from a disease Hadya spread through her Charms, even indirectly, he becomes a fungoid zombie as per Cadaver-Impelling Infection. Alternatively, Hadya can use Bursting Creed Replication over any distance to transform the corpse into a clone, waiving the health level cost.
At Essence 5, once per story, Hadya can use this Charm reflexively to possess a trivial character infected with her diseases over any distance. Her original body dies, and her mind instantly replaces his. The flesh of her new body roils and warps to resemble the original in a process that takes a full day.
Hadya, Accursed Chosen
This version of the Hadya is early in her campaign of vengeance, still tracking down leads in search of her hated patrons. She is a suitable five-dot Ally, or as an antagonist for a relatively inexperienced circle. This is only one possible form the Chosen of Wounds could take and is not a definitive canonical version of Hadya.
Essence: 2; Willpower: 8; Join Battle: 10 dice
Personal: 15; Peripheral: 38
Health Levels: −0×1/−1×2/−2×8/−4×7/Incap.
Actions: Conceal Evidence: 9 dice; Feats of Strength: 10 dice (can attempt Strength 5 feats); Intimidation: 11 dice; Investigate: 8 dice; Read Intentions: 7 dice; Resist Poison/Illness: 10 dice; Stealth: 9 dice; Senses: 8 dice; Social Influence: 7 dice
Appearance 4, Resolve 4, Guile 2
Combat
Attack (Unarmed): 11 dice (Damage 12B/1)
Attack (Grapple): 9 dice (10 dice to control)
Combat Movement: 9 dice
Evasion: 4; Parry: 6
Soak/Hardness: 8 (Buff jacket)
Intimacies
Defining Principle: I will have my revenge
Major Principle: The world is full of wrongs to be righted
Major Tie: The Great Succession (Hatred)
Minor Tie: Great Forks: (Painful Nostalgia)
Minor Principle: I enjoy exacting ironic punishments
Excellency
Bonus Dice: Hadya can add bonus dice on rolls for one mote per die. The dice limit depends on the action’s base dice pool: +2 dice for pools of 1-2 dice, +5 dice for pools of 3-5 dice, +7 dice for pools of 7-10 dice, and +10 dice on pools of 11+ dice.
Static Values: Hadya can increase static values for two motes per +1 bonus. The limit is equal to half the limit on dice, rounded up (e.g. +3 static value for values of 3-5).
Anima
Pain Transfer (5m; Simple; One scene): Hadya touches a character (Exigents, p.125) to halve her wound penalty and increase her target’s wound penalty by the same amount, or vice versa. This can’t raise her wound penalty over (4 + Essence). If she has already absorbed wounds, she can end the effect by touching someone to transfer the increased wound penalty to them.
Harrowed Potency (3m; Reflexive; Instant): Hadya may ignore wound penalties on a roll or static value. If she’s already ignoring all wound penalties to that roll or static value, she instead gains non-Charm dice equal to her wound penalty (maximum 3), or adds a non-Charm bonus to a static value equal to half her wound penalty (maximum 2).
Offensive Charms
Alacritous Murder Spree (5m, 1wp; Simple; Decisive-only; Instant): Hadya makes up to three decisive attacks. She divides her Initiative evenly between each attack, rounding up, and does not reset until all attacks are resolved, assuming at least one hit. She only suffers the penalty for a missed decisive attack if all attacks miss. If her wound penalty is −2 or greater she only needs to pay the cost of non-Excellency Charms once to enhance all attacks.
Heavy Gauntlet Swing (3m; Supplemental): Hadya adds (higher of 2 or wound penalty) to her Overwhelming or converts the same amount of extra successes to damage on a decisive attack. She can deal lethal damage unarmed without a stunt.
Skull-Ringing Strike (4m; Simple; Decisive-only): Hadya makes a decisive attack against an enemy with Initiative lower than (her Initiative + Wound Penalty). If it deals any damage, the target suffers a −1 crippling penalty to all actions until the end of the scene. If he is wearing metal armor, this penalty is increased by the armor’s mobility penalty.
Mandate of Mortality (3m, Supplemental, Decisive-only): Hadya deals aggravated damage to a spirit with a decisive attack. She can reflexively activate Pain Transfer if she hits. If she kills the spirit, he is permanently destroyed. If her wound penalty is −2, she can instead reduce his Essence by one and increase his wound penalty by one. This lasts a year and a day if a spirit’s Essence is higher than Hadya, otherwise it is permanent without powerful magic to break the curse.
Defensive Charms
Ecstatic Victim Turn (5m, 2i; Reflexive; Perilous; Until next turn): Hadya ignores all non-wound penalties to her Defense. Each time she is attacked, all subsequent attacks suffer a cumulative −1 penalty, to a maximum of (wound penalty +1).
Strong Back Breaks Whips (3m, Reflexive; Instant): Hadya gains +5 soak or Hardness. If her wound penalty is −2 or greater, she adds +7 soak or Hardness instead.
Social Charms
Glowing Ember Eyes (3m; Supplemental; Instant): Hadya doubles 9s on a roll to intimidate and rerolls (wound penalty) failed dice. If her wound penalty is −2or greater she doubles 8s.
Manifest Retribution Bearing (4m; Reflexive; One Scene): Hadya ignores wound penalties and multiple target penalties on threaten actions to compel targets to act with any Attribute, and targets do not gain a Resolve bonus from nonverbal communication. If she is suffering from pain caused by a target of her threaten action, he suffers a −1 penalty to Resolve. If her wound penalty is −2 or greater, a target with a tie of fear towards her treats it as one degree stronger for the purposes of penalizing his Resolve.
Miscellaneous Charms
Barrow Hides Shallow Graves (4m; Simple; Instant): Hadya completes a conceal evidence roll instantly. If a case scene roll opposing her successes succeeds with two or fewer threshold successes, it falsely reveals that the evidence is ten times older than it is. If her concealment involves destroying organic material, she doubles 8s on her roll.
Mobility Charms
Vantage-Reaching Clamber (3m; Reflexive; Mute; Until next turn): Hadya can climb across walls and ceilings as easily as floors. She waives the cost to reactivate this Charm if she is hidden from enemies or suspicious observers.