The Crone

Crone (real name unknown to the general public) is an old Hagblood woman. She lives in Sargasso under the watch of the Unity Protocol, working as a lecturer for the Sargasso Magician's Academy in Middleton. She is also a senior member of the witches covens of Sargasso.

Often wearing robes and a large, wide-brimmed hat with the bones of small around the headband, Crone gets around walking with a staff which looks as though it was plucked out of the ground roots and all.

• Face and Eyes - Wrinkled and homely with a wart, Crone reminds onlookers of their grandmother. Her eyes are a dull blue.
• Hair - Thin, white, and usually tied into a bun near the nape of her neck.
• Body - Old, frail, and hunched, with some magical patterns burnt onto her skin from her years of arcane work.
• Distinguishing Features - Wide brimmed hat and stave. A wart on the nose.
• Voice - (tbd)

Psychology - Crone prefers to pace about when she is in deep contemplation of a topic, figuring that being supple of body in whichever way she can manage can jog her memory. She recalls many of her thoughts using mnemonics, likening herself to being in a library of the mind. This can lead to recalling some subjects in her body of work taking a while. However, immediate and current concerns can and will be acted upon as soon as possible.

• Likes - Her pet cat, cookies, roast beef, her garden, helpful young men and women, Weirds
• Dislikes - Slime, Sourcians, complicated technology, badly behaved students, idiotic magicians who don't know what they're toying with/getting into

Personality - An archetypal sweet old lady, Crone strives to be a warm and accommodating grandmother figure to her students. That said, Crone is a stern disciplinarian when provoked by a youth. She isn't afraid to confront what she sees as wrong. Unlike many Hagbloods, Crone does not look down on psionics or mundane folk - they can still be useful and helpful people after all.

The Crone has many positive affiliations throughout Sargasso, the Unity Protocol, Albion, and Orbital Object: Null through her studies and teaching. After settling down in Sargasso, she was contacted by the Units and offered to become a member of the Emergency Assault Division. She declined the offer, instead choosing to live out her remaining years teaching at a local magician's academy. The Units saw no problem with this.

The Crone also has a friendly rivalry with "Harumi", with the two occasionally feuding verbaly during the coven meetings.

Crone can speak Basic, and with the help of a spell, Weird Speech.

• Thaumatology [Master] - With an incredible depth of knowledge and years of learning, trial, error, and success behind her, Crone is proud to be a tenured teacher with her breadth of magical know-how. In addition, she has access to the Academy's extensive libraries. Her main fields of study are spells and magic relating to bodily control, misdirections, pacts and contracts with the Weald, and culinary arts.
• Senses [Expert] - Crone's years of study make her firmly in tune with the weird side of living, able to identify magical effects and afterimages without trouble. She is also able to identify many types of Weirds from the Weald, and knows how to handle them safely.
• Culinary [Expert] - One of her fields of study, as well as a paper she wrote was on the arcane transmutation and conjuration of foodstuffs. Indeed, she is a well-rounded chef, cooking desserts, cookies, shortbreads, and other yummy treats for the faculty and her students. She also cooks amazing roasts, and creates meat and fruit preserves.
• Concentration [Advanced] -
• Research [Advanced] - Access to the Academy's library helps, but Crone is capable of taking her research to the next level by contacting the Weald for additional input to her writings.
• Archaic Weapons [Intermediate] - Though Crone's age betrays her physical capabilities, she keeps a knife handy on her person and is trained in self defence. Just in case she has to stab someone, or if there is a cheesecake.
• Leadership [Intermediate] - Crone can keep a classroom of students at attention, keeping them engaged in lectures on her various subjects.

Wicked Old Witch - A long-lived woman who revels in the archetype of the old witch, providing mentorship, guidance, and occasionally hexing someone.

• Spellcasting - Like many Hagbloods, Crone begun learning Magic from an early age, and came into her own after graduating and plying her skills.
  • Body Control - Crone's main field of study early in her career was body manipulation and control. She found it was a better way of doing combat than doing it herself.
  • Misdirection - Foregoing direct action, Crone found the teachings of illusion and misdirection to be favourable alternatives.
  • Pacts and Contracts - Failing that, Crone wanted to get in touch with the Weald, and plied herself towards learning how to contact it without having to do something as drastic as travel there herself.
  • Culinary - Throughout her life, Crone has loved cooking. It wasn't long until her magical skills bled into her produce.
• Teacher - Crone has spent much of her years teaching at a handful of institutions, including some of the most prestigious universities on the regolith of Orbital Object: Null. She considers her current tenure at Sargasso a good way to pass her remaining years.
  • PHDs - Crone has written several peer-reviewed PHDs on various arcane and magical topics, relating to her studies. These papers provide groundwork for lots of mages and students.

Being a long-lived caster of spells, Crone has a sizeable smattering of magic spells at her disposal.

• Body Control - Crone is no stranger to making anyone who'd antagonise her betray themselves.
  • Itch - The target experiences a sudden itch somewhere on their person, which can prove as a timely distraction.
  • Spasm - The target experiences a sudden contraction in their muscles, jerking violently as a bigger distraction.
  • Seize Limb - The target loses control of one limb - which can include an arm, a leg, or other appendage. Crone then can control this limb, miming the motions she'd take relative to the target.
  • At Ease! - The target loses control of their entire body for several seconds, and falls like a ragdoll if they fail to resist this spell.
  • Human Puppet - Creating invisible strings and lashing them at her target, Crone controls the target individual like a marionette. Crone must be concentrating on her target to maintain this spell, and must have a puppet's control bars on hand.
• Misdirection - Based on the school of illusions, Misdirection is one of Crone's specialities, as it saves her from dealing with foes head on.
  • Mirror Images - Crone can create multiple images of herself, who move as she does, and are rendered asunder if attacked. She needs a square of silver-nitrate film to cast this spell.
  • Illusory Double - Crone can turn herself invisible, while leaving an illusory after-image of herself which can carry out a simple routine (such as continuing to walk a straight line, or going somewhere Crone knows) before disappearing several seconds later and revealing herself.
  • Throw Voice - Crone can project her voice at a point other than her mouth, speaking into her hands with an incantation and looking at the point she wants to place her voice at.
• Pacts and Contracts - Crone is adept at talking to the Weald's inhabitants, the Weird Things.
  • Ping - Named after the technological act of sending a message to a server, Crone can 'ping' the Weald to see if there is something on the other side, by calling to something specific, naming what they are, or a wild guess.
  • Weird Speech - Talking inhumanly and in no way a normal human can manage, Crone can speak a rapidly shifting dialect understood by many Weird Things.
  • Contract - Writing a document containing the terms, conditions, and the nature of a task using specially prepared inks and dyes, Crone can send a contract to a recipient in the Weald she has previously pinged successfully. The target Weird can then reply with an agreement or disagreement, leaving alterations on the document. A successful contract may then be called in.
  • Call Contract - Using a successfully brokered contract with a willing Weird, Crone can call that Weird in using a portal from a magic circle to do their bidding, as stipulated by the contract. Once the contract is fulfilled, the Weird returns to the Weald.
• Culinary - An avid chef through her life, Crone has augmented much of her food with magic.
  • Purify - Removes poisons and diseases from targeted food, and turns water into clear freshwater.
  • Putrefy - Rots targeted food, and spoils water.
  • Alter Taste - Crone can adjust the taste of pre-existing foodstuffs, adding or removing salt, sugar, spice, alcohol, or other seasoning components of a meal. She prefers to do this after serving something instead of as she's cooking; In her words it becomes a crutch for actual cooking abilities.
  • Magic Porridge - Even though she prefers not to do this or eat it, Crone can conjure a vat of porridge in an empty pot, which can fulfil the nutritional needs of at least four people. The porridge itself is bland and inoffensive, but it will act as one square meal for an eater.
  • Hero's Feast - Cast as part of an elaborate cooking routine lasting at least four hours in a kitchen she has canvassed, with top-quality ingredients, Crone can prepare a meal fit for a hero and their companions. Ingesting the contents of the meal over the space of half an hour will fill the target with supernatural vigour. The meal has the capacity to heal wounds, instil confidence, and lift curses.