Claire Marr’s ambitions outstripped her ability and opportunities. Material obsession and poverty shaped her first into a would-be financial wunderkind and plutomancer then, when she failed at that, into a magickal Frankenstein built specifically to be used for the advantage of the kind of people she holds responsible for that failure.
She was a mediocre student, average at best, but incredibly motivated. Where she watched others get by on talent or social connection Claire was hellbent on succeeding by sheer willingness to put forth more effort than anybody else. This worked to an extent in the educational microcosm of high school but faltered when it came to college and beyond. She needed better placement and scholarships than her situation could afford her to realize her dreams, so she bought it from the woman who employed her father.
Amelia Eckhart is the kind of person who deliberately props herself up with the work of others. In part, the plutomancer’s effective use of what is essentially indentured servitude is what has allowed her to amass her significant fortune. The poverty of Claire’s family was a product of her encouraging Claire’s father into a situation where he owed her more than he would ever be able to pay without recognising it. Claire was blind to this or she never would have taken the offered devil’s bargain.
Seeing Claire as a potential protege, Amelia tested the younger woman and responded to her willingness to take on a bottomless workload by trying to find its limit. Refusing to capitulate Claire instead performed and then crashed, spectacularly. Limping through graduation with a cratered academic record and spotty opportunities she still relentlessly tried to make a go of things. Predictably Claire’s effort did not pay off and Amelia had her distraughtly disappointed student-debtor in a tight spot.
Wheezehounds (pg.102 of Book 3: Reveal) are sorry creatures, tortuously twisted people reduced to little more than animals with the power to smell magick. Claire’s own transformation was less traumatic (no soul transfers but she does have a magickal compass lodged between her liver and lungs), but in return for the treatment she now owes Amelia an almost insurmountable debt. Claire can scent the trail of money.
Able to track debt, hard cash and accounting with a co-opted sense of smell, Claire is the perfect tool for furthering Amelia’s ambitions. Magickal compulsion of her debt keeps keeps her in line when preying on her dreams and desires isn’t enough so she bides her time and quietly resents her servitude. She catalogues weaknesses and builds toward escape even as Amelia exploits her and peddles her abilities to others.
She can’t wait for the chance to turn the tables.
STATS
Personality: Intense and hungry, like a dog that would happily slip its chain and chew on you because its owners starve and tease it. Claire barely bothers to hide her naked ambition which means people underestimate her ability to get away with other deceptions.
Rage: The Indolent Successful. People who got where they are through happenstance and luck rather than effort get Claire’s goat. Doubly so if they credit their luck as effort. Triply if they did it on other people’s backs.
Noble: Hard work.
Fear: Sacrificing things important to her for nothing (Self).
Obsession: I’m going to make it after all.
Wound Threshold: 50 (Claire must make a Fitness roll each morning due to her implanted artifact, failure does a single wound.)
Ambitious Failure 60%* (Substitutes for Lie, Substitutes for Notice, Protects Helplessness.)
Moneyscent 60% (Specific Information - Money, Casts Rituals, Use Gutter Magick.)
Shock Gauges
Notches
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Violence
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Unnatural
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Helplessness
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Isolation
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Self
|
Hardened
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1
|
4
|
3
|
2
|
3
|
Failed
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0
|
1
|
2
|
0
|
1
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