Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Davies" data-source="post: 8622613" data-attributes="member: 30538">Madalin LeSinistre<img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/My-First-Gallery/i-6rQx8FT/0/cfbd8f28/M/tumblr_nsw19wyYjF1ryjn58o1_1280-M.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Photo taken around 1968By the middle of 1964, many authorities across the United States had become used to contactng the Institute in general, and Diane Fortune in particular, when unusual and bizarre phenomena occurred within their jurisdiction. Depending on her mercurial moods, Diane often passed these cases on to her colleagues (or occasionally to Jeremiah Wander) but sometimes took a personal interest, as she did when summoned to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma to investigate a series of seemingly impossible burglaries. Working out that these crimes had been commtted by someone able to be both invisible and intangible, Diane developed a means of trapping the burglar, having -- somehow -- divined that they would be unable to pass through silver and -- somehow -- imbuing the force field she created with the "mystical essence of silver". Or so she claimed.Regardless of how she actually did it, Diane wound up capturing a frightened young woman whom she judged to be about fifteen years old. In bizarrely accented English, she claimed to be the Princess Madalin LeSinistre of the Kingdom of Specially. Before Diane could interrupt to object to this absurdity, the girl continued with the tale that her parents had fled into exile here in America, but that she herself had been kidnapped by wicked people and taken underground to the Realm of Darkness. While the strangers in that place had treated her kindly, and even taught her their ways, she had nonetheless yearned for freedom, and after stealing one of their treasures -- the Cloak of Sh'Halla -- she had fled back to the Lands of Light. There, desperate, she had stolen only to feed herself.Diane believed that at most one word in three of that was truthful, but part of it quickened her pulse nonetheless. She had heard rumors of a great city beneath the surface of the world, called Xinaián by some and inhabited by people known to others as the Shonokins, whose abilities supposedly included the same power to dematerialize themselves that "Madalin LeSinistre" demonstrated. The possibility of learning more aroused her curiosity, and she persuaded the Broken Arrow police to let her take custody of the burglar after everything that she had stolen was returned to its rightful owners, then took "Madalin" back to Washington with her.Her hopes were dashed. Even when she was able to get as much of the truth out of the younger girl as she thought she could, "Madalin" had only been a child when she came to what she called the Realm of Darkness; she had not understood much of what she saw, and had learned through rote rather than any deeper understanding. Giving up on this idea, Diane employed the resources of the Institute to discover who the girl was and where she had come from. She was tentatively identified as Sheila MacMillan, who had gone missing in 1956 when her family had visited the Spiro Mounds in Oklahoma. Interviewing her parents confirmed that their daughter had frequently playacted as a princess named "Madalin", and they were thrilled when she was returned to them.Madalin was less enthusiastic, and became a frequent headache for the people pretending to be her parents. Twice in the years that followed, she crossed paths with Diane again, once as a hindrance to another affair but once as an ally of some worth. For the most part, however, she kept her mischievous activities focused on her home in Little Rock, Arkansas, and rarely attracting any official attention. Her interest in young men captured much of attention, and while her boyfriends all considered her a spooky little girl, particularly in light of how she seemed to change her mind at the drop of a hat in response to her empathy or foresight, she was quite popular. On Halloween of 1968, one of them proposed marriage, and they were married early in the next year, with a daughter coming along soon after.She met Diane Fortune for the last time shortly before the Battle of Vietnam, and also met her new apprentice at the same time. It is thought that she had some foretelling of what was coming, and attempted to warn Diane, only to have her claims dismissed as more lies. After her marriage broke up in 1974, she took her daughter with her when she left the United States, travelling through Europe and eventually settling in Finland, specifically in a tower she erected in Lemmenjoki National Park. There they both lived, only leaving on occasional trips to purchase supplies, until 1982, when Madalin was assassinated during one such trip at the start of the Pythonian Insurgency, which she apparently failed to foresee. Her daughter survived, stole the Cloak off her body, and used it to escape back to the tower. She still lives there, alone now.Madalin LeSinistre -- PL7Abilities:STR -1 | STA 0 | AGL 0 | DEX 1 | FGT 2 | INT 3 | AWE 4 | PRE 4Powers:Cloak of Sh'Halla: Array (20 points); Removable (-4 points) <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Cloaking Field: Concealment 10, Affects Others and Self, Passive - 20 points</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Defense Field: Reaction Damage 5 (when touched) - 1 point</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Disguise Field: Morph 4 - 1 point</li> </ul>Dematerialization: Linked Insubstantial 4, Quirk (cannot pass through silver); Linked Flight 4 (30 MPH) - 27 pointsEmpathy: Mind Reading 6, Limited to emotions - 6 pointsSeer: Enhanced Advantages 4 (Defensive Roll 2, Evasion 2); Enhanced Defenses 8 (Dodge 4, Parry 4); Senses 1 (danger sense); Senses 8 (postcognition, precognition), Unreliable - 17 pointsAdvantages:Attractive, Equipment 3 (after 1977), Fascinate (Deception), Improved Initiative, Ritualist, Seize Initiative, Uncanny Dodge.Equipment:Tower: Size Medium; Toughness 10; Features Dual-Size (Huge), Isolated, Laboratory, Library, Living Space, Security System, Workshop - 12 pointsSkills:Deception 7 (+11), Expertise: Magic 5 (+9), Expertise: Streetwise 7 (+10), Insight 5 (+9), Perception 4 (+8), Sleight of Hand 8 (+9).Offense:Initiative +4Unarmed +2 (Close Damage -1 and Reaction Damage 5)Defense:Dodge 9/5, Parry 8/4, Fortitude 3, Toughness 5/0, Will 8Totals:Abilities 26 + Powers 68 + Advantages 9 + Skills 18 + Defenses 14 = 135 pointsOffensive PL: 6Defensive PL: 7Resistance PL: 6Skill PL: 6Complications:Thrills--Motivation. Deceitful (exaggerates or outright lies.) Family (daughter, after 1969.) Fear (Xinaián.) Flirtatious.Note: The stats above, with some modifications, can also be used for her daughter, Alison Auringvalo (alias Baba Zenobia.) While she lost the Cloak of Sh'Halla to Captain Mystic in 1991, she had learned how to partially replicate its Disguise Field with her own powers; add Animal Forms: Morph 3 (animal forms) to her powers. She also has Intimidation 6 (+10) and Stealth 8 (+8) as skills. Her motivation is Survival and she lacks  Family, Fear or Flirtation complications, being Paranoid instead; during the 80s and late 90s she also had a Relationship (Killshot).Photograph of Alison Auringvalo, c. 1986:<img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/My-First-Gallery/i-fvGvTw4/0/3120390d/M/ezgif-2-56d94c4703-M.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /></blockquote>

Verification