Characters World of Darkness: Attrition - [Mortal] August Turner

[z-August Turner]

Name: August Turner

Personal Information:

Public Identity: August Turner

Nicknames: Auggie

Real Name: same

Occupation: Cinematography student

Legal Status: United States Citizen, living in Los Angeles

Marital Status: Umarried

Known Relatives: Margaret 'Molly' Sullivan (aunt), Elena Fiona Turner (mother), Riona Sullivan (grandmother), Tracy Davis (aunt), Jerome Davis (uncle), Michael Davis (cousin), Georgette Davis (cousin)

Deceased Relatives: Walter Jacob Turner (father), Tyla April Turner (sister)

Physical Traits:

Weight: 145 lbs

Height: 5'; 6"

Apparent age: mid-twenties

Gender: Female

Ethnic Background: Caucasian

Eye Color: blue-green

Hair Color: black

Handedness: Right

Age: 22

Clubs/Organizations: Film and Photography Society (UCLA), Graduate Cinematography Student Association (UCLA)

Fictions:

Pre-game

07/30/2011 - The Bone Monk's Vows

Intra-game

07/28/2011 - Giving the Gift of Indigestion [C]

08/01/2011 - Feeding a Wolf [C]

08/03/2011 - She Who Interferes with a Raven [C]

08/05/2011 - Boot-Scooting Boogie

?? - Just Stopping By

08/13-15/2011 - Live Action

08/16/2011 - Surf n Turf

08/17/2011 - Lost to the Night - Part 1, Hired Help [C]

08/18/2011 - A Sanctuary, Safe and Strong

08/22/2011 - Big Bad Wolf

08/27/2011 - A New Way

History:

August - known then as Tilly Augusta Turner, thanks to a favorite aunt - was effectively orphaned at age ten with the death of her father, Walter Turner. Her father worked as a Site Manager for various studios. Publically, he was loved by his employers but hid a dark secret: he was an abusive bastard at home. His daughters and wife lived in fear of him, unable to break free. At first it was just beatings, but as time passed, the abuse passed into torture. Fiona took the worst of it, as her pain incorporated the sexual. Some part of Walter refused to cross that line with his twin girls, no matter how bad he got.

What none of them knew was that Walter was being Ridden. For years, a spirit of pain had been clinging to him, warping his mind and personality to feed its growing hunger. Just as it was starting to get out of control, to move outside the family, fate intervened.

In the late fall of 1995, Walter received an assignment from Paramount Studios to prep a site in Colorado for a survival thriller. Walter took his wife and daughters up with him, a common practice for him when he planned to be gone for extended amounts of time. All was going well until a freak snowstorm cut them off. Walter had prepared for this with provisions, and there were buildings on the site, so the family was fine. The studio promised to airlift them out as soon as possible.

The rescuers arrived to find carnage. Walter was dead, found at the bottom of an icy ravine and picked at by scavengers. His wife, Elena, was bound to the bed in one of the buildings, injured, hysterical and nearly insensate. Tilly and her twin sister, Tyla, were found after two hours of looking. Tyla was found dead, beaten to death. Tilly was next to her sister, sobbing and half-frozen.

The investigators never got the full story, but they pieced together the following assumption: Walter had snapped and tried to kill his daughters. They ran and he caught one, killing her. Elena tried to stop him, and he hurt her and tied her to the bed. While looking for his other daughter, he slipped and fell to his death.

This is mostly true. What is omitted, unknown, or forgotten is that a solitary Uratha hunter caught wind of the Ridden. As a ghost led the girl into the woods and away from her father, the Uratha arrived. He saved Tilly, mauling the monster her father had become in near-wolf form. After dropping the body into a ravine, he led the girl back to the cabin, then went to get help. He led people back as a human and faded away into the background. While no one believed the girl's tale about a giant wolf saving her, wolves remained a fascination for the girl.

Elena was admitted to a mental hospital, where she has remained since. The woman is broken after years of torture followed by the death of her youngest daughter. Tilly - who changed her name to August Tyla Turner at age eighteen - was raised by an aunt in Los Angeles.

She is her father's daughter, and she pursued a career in Hollywood. August went to UCLA, going for her undergraduate in Film, Television and Media. Her first roommate was a slovenly nightmare, dirty beyond even the messy August's standards. Unable to get someone to trade with her, she looked off-campus for a new place to live and found Oneca. The girl seemed more interested in company than in a reliable renter, which was good since August didn't have much money. Plus Oneca was fun, if a little weird.

After getting her undergrad, she started her Masters of Fine Arts in cinematography. Oneca's sister showed up for her freshman year of college and for a while, August thought she might get kicked out of the house. A compromise was reached: August moved into the hastily renovated attic and Oneca's parents didn't kick her out.

In her first year, she scored a spot on the second unit of a documentary about wolves in a sanctuary in the mountains. It was being directed by a friend of her father's, and Paul took her on as an intern as a favor to his memory. During the production, August found herself surrounded by people who knew her father, in the mountains and with wolves around all the time. The walls she'd carefully constructed to contain her psyche and her gifts came crumbling down. She began to see 'things' again.

August barely held herself together. She managed to finish the internship but right after she checked into a hospital. Medication helped her, mostly by drugging her into a zombie-like state where she couldn't see anything clearly. That didn't work for her, so she stopped taking them and tried to just ignore whatever was going on.

For now, she keeps trying to keep her head above water. It's not easy; she keeps seeing things that aren't there, things that look like ghosts. For now, ignoring them is working, but she worries about her condition becoming worse.

Automatic Writing (••), Second Sight, page 42

Effect: Automatic Writing permits a medium to access a source of paranormal knowledge through indirect means. Individual mediums disagree on whether they commune with spirits or the Universal Unconscious, or if they simply use clairvoyance. In any case, the mechanical effects are the same. The psychic must first enter a trance state (see p. 35). As she does so, she also randomly draws on paper, usually in a spiral pattern. As her trance takes hold, her writings become less random, and she draws pictures symbolic of whatever questions she seeks to answer. She continues to draw until the trance ends (usually an entire scene unless someone interrupts her), by which time she is typically surrounded by crudely scribbled drawings that may direct her to whatever she wants to find. The precise source of this knowledge is left to the Storyteller's discretion, but if a psychic possesses the Channeling or Clairvoyance Merits, they may grant a +2 bonus on automatic writing attempts.

Cost: None

Dice Pool: Composure + Craft

Action: Instant; although the psychic must first enter a trance state

Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: The psychic's drawings contain false or misleading information. The Storyteller should make any chance-die rolls for the player.

Failure: The automatic drawing attempt is unsuccessful.

Success: The psychic's drawings contain vital clues to whatever mystery she seeks to solve.

Exceptional Success: The drawings are particularly clear, giving a +1 modifier to any subsequent Investigation rolls pertaining to the drawings' subject matter.

Suggested Equipment: Any item that has a strong connection to the subject about which the psychic seeks information (+1 to +3, depending on the strength of the connection).

Death Sight (••••) Second Sight, page 44

Effect: Your medium can see dead people. The psychic may perceive and communicate with any ghost she encounters. The power allows only perception of and communication with ghosts in Twilight — ghosts tied to the material world and not to any otherworldly spirit world. The power affords no ability to contact spirits from the Shadow Realm that have entered the material world and that exist in Twilight. This Merit does not permit the psychic to aid ghosts in manifesting in the physical world (which requires the Ghost-Calling Merit). Most ghosts instinctively realize when a mortal can perceive them, and psychics who possess this power are often inundated by requests from desperate beings seeking help to resolve their earthly affairs.

A character who possesses the Ghost Ally Merit can acquire a limited version of Death Sight capable of letting her see and communicate with his ally by increasing the normal cost of the Ghost Ally Merit. (See "Ghost Ally," p. 65.)

Cost: None to sense the presence of ghosts. One Willpower to initiate communication with them.

Dice Pool: Wits + Composure

Action: Reflexive

Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: The medium is unable to use this Merit for the rest of the scene. Alternately, she may suffer horrific visions of some hellish underworld, inflicting a –2

penalty on all actions for the remainder of the scene.

Failure: The attempt to activate Death Sight is unsuccessful.

Success: Your character can perceive and communicate with any ghost in her vicinity for the remainder of the scene. Such ghosts remain intangible to her, however.

Exceptional Success: The medium may gain a +2 bonus on all rolls made in dealing with ghosts during the scene.

Option [Permanent Death Sight]: The medium's ability to see the dead is always active. The stress of constantly being surrounded by spectral beings infl icts a mild derangement, such as Depression, Phobia, Irrationality or Avoidance. The player must still roll Wits + Composure in order to communicate with ghosts, but with this option, such rolls gain a +3 bonus.

[z-August Turner]

Character Name: August Turner
Age: 23
Concept: Latent Medium

Virtue : Faith
Vice : Lust
Mortals :

Size : 5
Speed : 10
Init. Mod: 5
Defense : 3
Armor : 0 / 0

Health : 7
Willpower: 5

Morality : 7
Derangements:

Mental Attributes
-------------------------
Intelligence: 2
Wits : 3
Resolve : 3

Physical Attributes
-------------------------
Strength : 2
Dexterity: 3
Stamina : 3

Social Attributes
-------------------------
Presence : 4
Manipulation: 2
Composure : 2

Mental Skills
-------------------------
Academics : 2
Computer : 2 (Cameras)
Craft : 2
Investigation : 1
Medicine : 1
Occult : 2 (Wolf Lore)
Politics : 0
Science : 0

Physical Skills
-------------------------
Athletics : 1
Brawl : 2
Drive : 1
Firearms : 0
Larceny : 0
Stealth : 1
Survival : 1
Weaponry : 1

Social Skills
-------------------------
Animal Ken : 2
Empathy : 3
Expression : 2 (Cinematography)
Intimidation : 0
Persuasion : 3
Socialize : 2
Streetwise : 0
Subterfuge : 1

Merits
-------------------------

Fame : 1
Resources : 1

Automatic Writing : 2

Channeling : 3

Death Sight : 4

Ghost-calling : 3
Allies: Director : 3
Sleepwalker: 4 (free)

Experience Point Log

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Creation Points:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Attr: 5 dots for Primary; Presence: 3, Manipulation: 1, Composure: 1
Attr: 4 dots for Secondary; Intelligence: 1, Wits: 2, Resolve: 1
Attr: 3 dots for Tertiary; Strength: 1, Dexterity: 1, Stamina: 1
Skill: 11 dots for Primary; Empathy 3, Expression 2, Persuasion 3, Socialize 2, Subterfuge 1,
Skill: 7 dots for Secondary; Academics 2, Computer 2, Craft 2, Occult 1,
Skill: 4 dots for Tertiary; Drive 1, Stealth 1, Survival 1, Weaponry 1,
Specializations: 3; Cameras, Wolf Lore, Cinematography,
Merits: 7 free dots; Allies: Death Sight 4, Allies: Automatic Writing 2, Allies: Director 1,


-----------------------------------------------------------------
Experience Points:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Creation ; 0/50; Beginning XP (ie. MC);
Creation ; 2/0 (48); Merits; Fame 1
Creation ; 2/0 (46); Merits; Resources 1
Creation ; 4/0 (42); Merits; Allies 2
Creation ; 3/0 (39); Skills; Investigation 1
Creation ; 3/0 (36); Skills; Medicine 1
Creation ; 3/0 (33); Skills; Brawl 1
Creation ; 3/0 (30); Skills; Animal Ken 1
Creation ; 3/0 (27); Skills; Athletics 1
Creation ; 15/0 (12); Attributes; Dexterity 3
Creation ; 6/0 (6); Skills; Animal Ken 2
Creation ; 6/0 (0); Merits; Allies 3
August 2011 ; 0/12 (12); Base 3 + 4 finished fictions + 5 welcome back
September 2011 ; 0/6 (18); Base 3 + 3 finished fictions
October 2011 ; 0/3 (21); Base 3
November 2011 ; 0/3 (24); Base 3
December 2011 ; 0/3 (27); Base 3
December 31 2011 ; 15/0 (12); Stamina 2 to 3
December 31 2011 ; 6/0 (6); Brawl 1 to 2
December 31 2011 ; 6/0 (0); Occult 1 to 2

May 1 2013 ; 0/26 (26); base 3 + base 3 + 20 Welcome back

May 1 2013 ; 6/0 (20); Ghost-caller

May 1 2013 ; 6/0 (14); Channeler

May 1 2013 ; 12/0 (2); Resolve 2 to 3