Dice Monsterhearts: Ruse Cruise

[Teh Frixz]

Name: Jane Doe


Skin: The Example


Stats:


Hot +1


Cold +2


Volatile -1


Dark -2


Look: Invisible, pale, numerical, blue eyes


Origin: A need


Stuff:

• Shirts, Shoes, no service
  

Skin Moves:

• Awesome Template: when you act under fire roll +dark
  

Backstory:


Once upon a time there was a format


Darkest Self:


You realize all you are is a format page!


Strings:

• You
  
• Me
  
• All of Us
  

Improvement: 0/5

 

[Cirno]

Name: Natalie Singh


Skin: The Mortal


Stats


Hot 1


Cold 0


Volatile -1


Dark 1


Look: displaced; doe eyes


Natalie's dealing with an unfortunate case of acne, but she tells herself her dark skin hides the worst of it. She keeps her wavy black hair at chin length and dresses in well-fitting clothes for her small but curvy frame.


Origin: nobody


Skin Moves:

• True Love
  
• Down the Rabbit Hole
  
• Sympathy is My Weapon

Backstory


Natalie's just an American teenage girl. Nat to friends. (Her relatives keep adding an extra syllable, Natalia.) She comes from an upper middle-income family. She has a younger brother, Victor, still in middle school. She loves music of all genres. She likes romantic shows and movies, including ones in Hindi or Punjabi.


She also has accepted she will likely have her marriage arranged for her. She's grown up knowing this. She doesn't think it makes her different. But sometimes she looks around at her high school classmates and daydreams. Fantasizes even, of declaring to her parents that this is her boyfriend (or girlfriend).


Hey, she is a teenager. A sweet girl next door on the outside running an inner monologue as rebellious as any of her peers. The emotional roller coaster has been difficult. She can't figure out if she's suddenly been surrounded by beautiful people or she's just particularly easy to sway.


But she thinks Gabe's the one this time. Even if she can't help glancing at Robin. And sometimes she thinks Grant deserves more attention.


Darkest Self


Nobody understands you, or even wants to. Disappear? You’re going to make life a living hell for them instead. You’ll pit humans and supernaturals against one another, until everyone looks like monsters. Only seeing the pain that you’re causing your lover will let you escape your Darkest Self.


Strings

• Gabriel; True Love
  
• Robin; fey charisma
  
• Grant (2); friend?
  

Strings Held By

• Robin on Natalie (2); attracted
  
• Gabriel on Natalie (4); to hunt monsters, serious crush
  
• Osthryd on Natalie; pale beauty
  
• Victor LaStrange on Natalie
  
• Amari on Natalie; sympathetic token, lock of hair

Improvement: 0/5

 

[Ayl]

Name: Grant Shuul


Gender: Male


Age: 18


Skin: The Ghoul


Look: Striking, Calculating Eyes


Origin: Resurrected


Stats:

• Hot: -1
  
• Cold: 2
  
• Volatile: 1
  
• Dark: -1
  

Conditions:


Stuff:

• Baggage containing clothes, necessities
  
• Cooler containing cleverly concealed flesh
  

Moves:

• The Hunger: Flesh: When you heedlessly pursue a Hunger, add 1 to rolls. When you ignore a feeding opportunity, roll to hold steady .
  
• Short Rest For The Wicked: When you die, wait it out. Some hours later, you wake up fully healed.
  
• Satiety: When you satiate a Hunger, choose one:
  heal one harm;
  
• remove a Condition;
  
• mark experience;
  
• carry 1 forward.
  

Strings:


Improvement: 0/5


Darkest Self: Grant will maim, kill and destroy anything in between him and the nearest object of his hunger. Grant will feed relentlessly. Grant can escape his Darkest Self when someone restrains him or fends him off for long enough for him to regain his composure – at least thirty or forty minutes.


Backstory: Grant’s memories of his former life are hazy, at best. He recalled being a normal teenager, with a family that loved him and a cute dog. One day, however, all of that was taken away from him in a gruesome way. The details are a blur, but the feeling of waking up on the cold, wet pavement, with the hunger for human flesh, was still very much present. Lucky for him, an innocent passerby saw his body and attempted to help, which was the last thing he ever did.


Now, Grant is trying to fit in with society, attending Baybreak, as a futile attempt at normalcy. He doesn’t have many friends, despite his wish to, but he knows that, with is “condition”, it would be dangerous, both for them and himself. He got dragged into joinning the Nova Paradiso cruise by his best friend, James, who longed for adventure and from some time away from his parents. Grant is also on the lookout for any leads as to what really happened to him.

 

[ehmygirl]

Name: Sister Osthryd of Northumbria... Osthryd North


Skin: Vampire


Stats:


Hot +1


Cold +1


Volatile -1


Dark -1


Look: pale, smoldering, lusty eyes


Origin: old by human terms


Stuff:

• Shirts, Shoes, no service
  

Skin Moves:

• Hypnotic: roll on hot
  
• Invited: Take string if invited in
  

Backstory:


in 976 Osthryd was born to a merchant who, in despair of finding spouses for his children, offered them two choices. For Osthryd, he offered her the choice to marry a farmer or entering a convent and becoming a nun. Osthryd had never intended on being a nun but, if those were her only two choices, then she defiantly told her father that she would prefer to devote herself to Christ than marry the disgusting pig who her father wished her to marry. The night before she was to leave, she snuck out of the house and allowed her love to make love to her. If it was a sin, it was one she wanted to make before she devoted herself to god. And so, at the tender age of fifteen, she had a single night filled with something sort of like passion. As she had no idea what sex could be like, it was as good as she could hope it would be.


Osthryd would learn in the next couple of years that she had made a good choice in becoming a nun. The fat farmer had lived much longer than was expected and he kept his wife fat with child while demanding she care for the children from his first wife. The boy she had loved had gone off to war and had never returned. And so, it was with a dedicated heart that she applied herself to the convent. She had no regrets in her life. And if her siblings had children, she could see that they had no great joy in their lives, the lives they chose and watching them, she thanked God each day that He delivered her from such sorrow.


No one was as dedicated to God as Osthryd and her joy in her orders filled her with an unearthly beauty that shone through. Many said that a child with such holy light would soon be called Home. And, in the year of 992, the convent was attacked. The nuns were not spared in the attackers' lust for gold and blood. And, that night, Osthryd fell prey to something she knew not even existed.


None in the village was left alive and Osthryd was left alone to burn in the pain of her change from mortal woman to immortal vampire. When she awoke she was afraid of herself and afraid of the new sensations she felt within herself. She desperately prayed to God but His light hurt and His holy symbols hurt her skin.


Over the years she learned who and what she was. She learned that there was now a darkness inside her that had not been there before and when it over took her, she fed upon mortal flesh and drank deeply. She would not stop until she was completely sated. When the darkness overcame her, she would once more done her habit and wimple and seek forgiveness. But always her steps faltered at the steps of a church and she would remain there, in prayer, until a priest invited her in.


But the Vikings still came and she hated them as God's own enemy. She knew of their evil lusts and their desire for blood and when they came she would offer up her body as a tool for seduction. The hunt for blood inflamed her passions and though she hunted, she welcomed their embrace, sought them, desired them and reveled in the way they used her. It was sex, wild, fierce, feral, and free. And, in the throes of passions, she would lick their necks. Her spittle numbing the skin so they never felt the bite of her teeth as they pierced their flesh.


It was in these moments that she praised God that she had been born a woman for she was able that to trap her enemies. And then she praised God that she had this nightmarish gift, so that she could fight against them. It was with a small sense of shame that she took such great pleasure out of both the sex and the feeding. But, when it was over and the fighting done, she would once more done her habit and wimple and beg God's forgiveness for the lives she took, and for the pre-marital sex she had enjoyed.


The years passed and she watched as the Saxon kingdoms became one. She was disgusted with that idiot King Harold who lost the fight to that French duke. She had been there, at the battle. She did not spend all of her years in England. She travelled the world, met more of her kind even as she fought her darker nature. She feasted on the freshly dead, and even on animals who were left to bleed out. Though the blood of animals was not the same as the blood of humans, it helped to keep her thirst at bay.


And when Europe discovered a new world, she followed many who went there. She always wore the nun's habit for though she had given her oaths to God so many hundreds of years ago, she had not forgotten them. She saw kings and kings come and go, watched the world churn and change. She saw a world in which Man created machines to carry them, and machines that allowed them to fly. She traversed the world but always she was Sister Osthryd of Northumbria, even if there was no longer a Northumbria.


And now it is 1994 and Osthryd is in California. Her vows to God are just as binding to her today as they were a thousand years previously. She is, for the moment, trying to live a normal, modern, mortal life. She pretends to be 18 and about to go off to college. She has a US passport, a UK passport. She still considers herself from being from Northumbria and, if anyone asks, she says so. She is looking forward to going to the University of York in the fall. It'll only be the third time she's gone to university. She already has four PhDs, 6 masters and 5 BAs. She has found that it is easy to get into college if you're able to hypnotize the admissions officers.


She is still a recognized nun with the Roman Catholic Church. They know who she is and what she is. In the year 1101, she went to Rome and asked the Pope if he wouldn't kill her. It was only when he tried to do so did she realize that her darker self came to the fore and refused to die. Both she and the Pope decided that it would be best if she did what she could to live her life for God, even if her life was cursed. And maybe, God would accept her anyway.


She did sorta forget herself during the 60s and 70s during the drug, sex, and rock and roll culture. She remembered it through a haze of drugs, sex, and rock and roll. Of course, when she sobered up in the 80s, she sought forgiveness for her sins. During the 20th century she has had a much harder time remembering her vows of purity, chastity and poverty.


Darkest Self:


Her darker self manifests when she has not had enough to drink and she thirsts, badly. She recognizes the signs for her gums begin to get raw and red and her fangs begin to grow as they do when she's drinking. Though she can eat normal food (and enjoys it), not even steak tartar helps to ease her need for human blood. If she does not allow herself to feed off of a human in a safe manner, she will attack humans and drain them dry. The only thing to pull her out of her darker self is if she has sated her thirst. Sometimes she will seduce her prey, be they male or female as sex makes it easier for her to feed. Then, of course, she feels guilt and must seek Forgiveness. She also finds it hard to walk in the sun and to wear her crucifix. She will also force herself to wear her habit and wimple-even if it isn't one that nuns have worn since the 10th century.


Strings:


On me:


-Victor: 1


I have:


-Victor: 2


-Natalie: 1


-Robin: 1


-Gabe: 1


-Grant: 1


-Becca's Dad: 1


Improvement: 0/5

 

[DreamingofRoses]

Name: Robin Goodfellow


Skin: The Fae


Stats


Hot 2


Cold -1


Volatile -1


Dark 1


Look: disheveled, laughing eyes


Origin: fae blooded


Skin Moves:


Faery Contract


If someone breaks a promise or contract made to you, take a String on them. When spending a String to even out the score and get justice on a broken promise, add these options:

• they fuck up something simple at a crucial moment;
  
• add 2 to your roll on an act of vengeance;
  
• they suffer 1 harm,
  

Beyond The Veil


When you attempt to commune with the Faery King, gaze into the abyss. On a 10 up, add this option to the list: find


a hidden String against someone.


On a 7-9, add this option to the list: the visions are clear, but the Faery King demands a favor of you.


Backstory


Darkest Self


Everything you say is a promise. Everything you hear is a promise. If a promise is broken, justice must be wrought in blood. To escape your Darkest Self, you must in some way re-balance the scales of justice.


Strings


2 on Natalie


1 on Victor


Promises


Improvement: 0/5

 

[Grey]

Name: Gabriel Knight


Skin: The Chosen


Stats:


Hot +1


Cold -1


Volatile 2


Dark -1


Look: Outcast, wounded eyes


Origin: Marked by the supernatural


Stuff:

• Shirts, Shoes, no service
  

Skin Moves:

• To The Books
  
• Light The Way
  

Backstory:


Thinking about it.


Darkest Self:


None of your friends can help. They’re not strong like you are. You need to chase down the biggest threat imaginable, immediately and alone. Any challenges or dangers that you encounter must be faced head on, even if they might kill you. You escape your Darkest Self when someone comes to your rescue or you wake up in the hospital, whichever comes first.


Strings:

• You
  
• Me
  
• All of Us
  

Improvement: 0/5

 

[Captain Hesperus]

Name: Victor LaStrange


Skin: The Infernal


Stats:


Hot -1


Cold -1


Volatile +1


Dark +1


Look: Vicious, burning eyes


Origin: Chosen


Stuff:

• Expensive clothes
  
• Fancy Stuff
  
• Big Family Home
  

Skin Moves:

• Soul Debt: The Tyrant
  
• Unknowable
  

Bargains:

• Numbing it Out
  
• Uncanny Voices
  

Backstory:


The LaStrange family is old money, real old money. The family goes back to pre-Revolution France, back into the times of La Roi Soliel. The LaStranges served in Louis XIV's household as mystics and soothsayers, supporting the king's rule with prophecy and oneiromancy, but in truth their predictions came from a much darker source. The LaStrange family has been in service to an Infernal power since the Dark Ages, when the family's eldest bartered for the power to influence other humans and the Dark Power known only as The Tyrant rose up and granted their wish. But the ancient evil had a price for the power it offered the LaStranges. At a time of it's choosing, a child would be born to the family and it would be a child who would grow to have an infernal purpose. It would be the Herald of The End Times, when the massed armies of The Tyrant would rise up and cast down all that had been created. The elder, thirsty for the proffered power, accepted without batting an eyelid.


The LaStrange family grew in power and authority, amassing wealth and prestige while diligently hiding any evidence of their Infernally-granted power. Their fortunes took a turn for the worst during the World Wars, but forward planning and brutal severing of several family branches allowed the core of the family to survive and continue to thrive. Through the post-War era, the family diversified and accumulated wealth, all but abandoning the mystical prowess of their ancestors in the pursuit of material things. Then, the dream ended on a single night as every member of the family experienced a shared nightmare of blood, flames and screaming wherein The Tyrant came to them and spoke four doom-laden words, "Thy Tyme hast come!". Nine months later, Victor was born and as his mother died screaming from massive blood loss, it could not be mistaken that this child was to be the one their family history spoke of. The Herald had arrived. Once glance into his eyes was enough to cow any member of his family, as they saw there the ancient words of their ancestor's pact with The Tyrant and his imperious words were heeded, even as a young child.


Victor grew up in opulence, never wanting for anything. He lived in the best homes his family had bought, was indulged with all the gifts his heart desired, but yet, the darkness within him continued to raise its head. He was no longer allowed pets, following the discovery of the gruesome remains of his first pet guinea pigs and he was cared for by his family after he comprehensively terrorised a host of nannies and governesses into paid-off silence. Victor seemed to know there was some greater destiny for his life, some unseen future of infamy that continued to elude his vision. His father would say nothing of it, despite Victor's continued, and often violent, protestations, stating that 'when the time came, he would know'.


Then, in the height of one of his rages, The Tyrant manifested just for him. Victor was instantly crushed by the monumental cruelty and malice that radiated from his Infernal patron and abased himself utterly lest his mind leave him utterly. The Tyrant told him that his purpose was to prepare the way for his triumphant conquest of the world, to do some . All he asked of Victor was to tie his soul with its and he would receive powers untold. Victor, his eyes ablaze with Infernal avarice made the same bargain as his long-forgotten ancestor.


In a vain hope that a normal child's life would ground him to the present, Victor's family enrolled him into Baybreak High School, where he quickly dominated himself a small gang of ne'er-do-wells and became the school's foremost bully. He has been suspended multiple times, but continued 'donations' and 'scholarships' by the LaStrange family has kept him from being expelled, because 'boys will be boys' and 'no-one's going to die from a bit of teasing and name-calling'. At least, not yet....


Darkest Self:


You can’t get what you need, anymore. The world has left you cold and alone, shivering in the wake of your own addictions. The dark power will make some open-ended demands of you, and it’ll promise you some lucrative (and perhaps volatile) things in return. Every demand you fulfill brings you a little closer to feeling whole again, to rekindling the fire in your heart. Whenever you fulfill those demands, remove a String it holds on you. You escape your Darkest Self when the dark power has no more Strings on you, or when you agree to an even worse bargain with an even more dangerous dark power.


Strings:

• Victor holds Strings on:
  
  Gabe Knight: Thinks he can save me
  
• Robin Goodfellow: Fae can't stop being Fae
  
• Natalie Singh: Psychological domination
  
• Osthryd North: Knowledge is Power
  

[*]Victor has Strings held on him by:

• Osthryd: She pretty
  
• Osthryd: She has seen the face of Hell beneath mine
  
• The Tyrant (x2): Big bad overlord with a contract
  

Improvement: 0/5

 

[Somersault]

Name: Amari Washington


Skin: The Witch


Stats:


Hot 0


Cold +1


Volatile -1


Dark 1


Look: coy, playful eyes


Amari is African-american, and has dark brown skin. While she has some scatterings of acne here and there, on the whole, it's not too noticeable. She tends to wear jackets, t-shirts, and jeans. She usually puts her hair up into two curly pigtails.


Origin: Dabbler


Stuff:

• Shirts, Shoes, no service
  
• A small lock of Natalie's hair (Sympathetic token)
  
• A note by Victor (Sympathetic token)
  

Skin Moves:

•  Sympathetic Tokens- You gain power from sympathetic tokens - items of personal significance that you take from others. Each sympathetic token counts as a String.
  
• Hex-Casting- You can cast Hexes. Choose two that you know. To cast them, either expend a sympathetic token during a secret ritual, or meet the target’s gaze and chant at them in tongues. Then roll with dark. On a 10 up, the Hex works, and can easily be reversed. On a 7-9, it works but choose one: } the casting does you 1 harm; } the Hex has unexpected side effects; } trigger your Darkest Self.
  
• Bide My Time- If you’ve got a sympathetic token against someone, add 1 to all rolls to hold steady against their actions or to run away from them.
  
• Hexes:
  
• Ring of Lies- Whenever the person attempts to lie, they hear a piercing ringing noise. Big lies will often make their knees buckle and disorient them. Severe lies can cause harm or even brain damage.
  
• Watching - You enter a deep sleep, and begin to see the world through the eyes of the hexed. You can feel their reactions to and impressions of what they are seeing
  

Backstory:


Amari was originally just a normal teenager, if a bit more manipulative than most. Born to a single mother, Amari quickly learned the importance of hard work, to get on by. As the eldest child, and having two siblings, Amari has learned to be a fairly effective babysitter, and caretaker. She loves to read, especially mystery, and realistic fiction books. Also, she does like to dance, and used to take ballet lessons from 1st to 5th grade.


Amari currently attends Baybreak, but doesn't exactly fit in. She does try to talk with the artists, but she tends to end up flitting between various social groups. She found about witchcraft, was when she was bored, and found a book on it, in the used bookstore. She ended up reading through it, and tried some of the spells. She found they worked, and now wants to delve in deeper.


Darkest Self:


The time for subtlety and patience is over. You’re too powerful to put up with their garbage any longer. You hex anyone who slights you. All of your hexes have unexpected side effects, and are more effective than you are comfortable with. To escape your Darkest Self, you must offer peace to the one you have hurt the most.


Strings:


Amari holds strings on:

• Natalie- 1 (Sympathetic token)
  
• Victor- 1 (Sympathetic token)
  

Strings Held By


Gabriel- 1 (Caught snooping)


Improvement: 0/5

 

[WlfSamurai]

Name: Tucker Daniels (a tough name)


Skin: The Werewolf


Stats:

[_]Hot +1


[_]Cold -1


[_]Volatile +2


[_]Dark -1


Look: rugged, savage eyes


Origin: bitten


Stuff:

Clothes.

Skin Moves:

Primal Dominance:

When you harm someone, take a String on them.

Heightened Senses:

When you rely on your animal instincts to make sense of a charge situation, roll with Dark. On a 10 up, ask the MC three questions. If you act on one of the MC's answers, add 1 to your first roll. On a 7-9, ask one:


- Where's my best escape route or way in?


- Which enemy is the most vulnerable to me?


- What's their secret weakness?


- What poses the biggest threat to me?


- Who's in control here?


Backstory:


I lack subtlety. Everyone else gets a string on me.


Darkest Self:


You transform into a terrifying wolf-creature. You crave power and dominance, and those are earned through bloodshed. If anyone attempts to stand in your way, the must be brought down and made to bleed. You escape your Darkest Self when you wound someone you really care about or the sun rises, whichever happens first.


Strings:


You


Me


All of Us


Improvement: [_][_][_][_][>]