Shadowrun: Yseult Chaput

Yseult’s personal history – as she knows it:

   Yseult Chaput was born into a wealthy french family and was – not surprisingly – a somewhat spoiled child.

   Her father, Leonard, was the CEO of D’horlogerie Ordinateur, a (relatively minor) cyberware and computer corporation specializing in special-order and unique systems. Her mother, Adelaide – a teacher – was in many ways a rather unlikely match.

   When Yseult was ten, her younger brother Benoit arrived – and she immediately took to caring for and playing with him. People – or at least people with magical senses – often seemed to look at Benoit a bit oddly though; they kept acting like looking at him hurt their eyes. They never told her why, but Leonard and Adelaide kept Benoit even more sheltered than they’d always kept her.

   That didn’t keep them from having a lot of fun. There were vacations across Europe, in Hawaii, in the Middle East, and (finally) in Egypt, and there were many other events as well as the regular visits to Paris. With telecommunications as good as they were, there was no reason to stay home or to keep the kids there just because of school.

   The day before Yesult turned 18, the family was enroute to a family reunion/coming of age party for her when the car – somehow – went over a cliff, despite the safety systems. The resulting crash instantly killed Leonard and Adelaide, and send Yseult and Benoit to the hospital in critical condition.

   When she came to the next day she was in a hospital and more than a bit fuzzy – and one of her father’s associates – an older many by the name of Winoc – was waiting to speak to her. He informed her that she and her brother had been in a nasty car crash, and that she and her brother had suffered massive injuries. Her brother – still growing too much for cyberware – would be receiving bio-replacements. She had a choice: if she wanted bioreplacements, they were – of course – available thanks to her medical contract and donor counterpart. On the other hand, if she wanted state-of-the-art cyberreplacements, the company would – as a courtesy – cover the paperwork of tapping her father’s medical accounts and provide the best available systems.

   The fact that they were asking her was enough to tell her that her parents were dead.

   She couldn’t be weak and vulnerable any longer. Before passing out again, she opted for a complete cyberframe replacement – and spent the next several weeks sedated and undergoing extensive rebuilding. A last “thank-you” to her father from his company.

   When she came to inquired as to how her brother was doing – and this time around the nurse claimed to have never heard of him. He’d apparently been wiped from the hospital records too.

   As time went on she still couldn’t get anyone to tell her where her brother had gone – and found that most of the records had gone missing in some sort of computer crash. There were a few physical relics – but not many, and nothing that really demonstrated that he’d been her brother.

   When she finally got out of the hospital she decided to look for him in any way possible.

   That was seven years ago.

   Since then she has built a massive array of corporate contacts, both on her own and by exploiting Leonard’s old connections. She’s built up her connections with law enforcement and the military in order to gather information and set up aliases with which to set up underworld contacts.

   And she has yet to find anything. She is beginning to loose heart, an to doubt both herself and her memories, as well as the chance of finding her brother.

   Yseult still lives in her families estates in France, thanks to the income from her father’s stocks – although she dutifully puts half the money aside in case she should find her brother alive.

   Yseult is fairly tall (5′ 8″), skinny, blond haired, green eyed, and relatively well mannered. It isn’t enough to entirely make up for her massive cyborging, but she still manages to make a decent social impression.

Yseult Chaput, Information Broker

   Basic Expenditures: Magic 0 (Mundane), Race 2 (Latent Metahuman), Attributes 16 (26 Attribute Points), Resources 30 (3000 K in Resources, Initial Funds of 83K), and Skills 18 (40 active skill points).

   To represent experience in the campaign, I’m providing +2 Karma Pool and one major piece of equipment at two-thirds off the base cost. These bonuses have been included below.

   Basic Attributes: Body 4 (10), Quickness 6 (10), Strength 1 (11), Intelligence 6 (8), Willpower 5 (6), Charisma 4 (1), Magic 0, Essence 2.86, Reaction 9 (13), Initiative 13+3d6.

   Dice Pools:

• Combat: 12
• Hacking: 6
• Task: 2
• Karma Pool: 3
• Current Karma: 4

   Edges: State of the Art (has access to Betaware, 2), Cybertolerance (reduce cyberware essence costs by 20%, 3), Freeware (Betaware Natural-Appearing Cyberframe, 6), Perceptive (-1 to target numbers for all perception rolls, 3), Perfect Time Sense (1), Photographic Memory (2), Overspending on Basic Expenditures (6). Net Edges: 23

   Flaws: Flashbacks (to last moments in car with little brother, triggered by seeing families together and by car accidents, Willpower [6] to avoid, -4), Miser (Will [6] check to spend, -3), Obligations (Uncommon, Major, with Plot Hooks, -3*), Detailed Background (-4*), Common Lethal Allergy (Nuts, -5), Low Pain Tolerance (Extra -1 per monitor on which target number penalties apply, -4), and Public Identity (Heiress, -3*). Net Flaws: -23.

   *Exempted from usual 10-point limit due to being useful to the game master.

   Skills:

• Active Skills (40): Stealth 6, Agility 6, Endurance 4, Pistols 6, Computer 6, Investigation 6, Etiquette 6
• Knowledge Skills (Bases + 30): Undercover Business 6, Sports 4, Firearms 3, Information Theory 3, Cryptography 6, Anthropology 6. History 6, Geography 6, Law 6, Vacation Spots 3.
• Languages (8): French 4 (Read/Write 2), Arabic 4 (Read/Write 2).
• Irrelevant Skills (9): Dancing 6, Dragon Kites 3.

   Resource Expenditures (3000K)

• Cyberware (1060K):
  • Betaware Cyberframe (3 Ess as Betaware, 2.4 Ess after Cybertolerance, Freeware/no monetary cost)
  • +4 to Strength and Quickness of her Cyberframe (Betaware, 560K, 0 Essence).
  • Cybereyes (.2 Ess, 5K) with Flare Compensation (.1 Ess, 2K), Image Link (note that this can either pass signals into the system or pass them to internal memory,.2 Ess, 1.6K), Low Light (.2 Ess, 3K), Thermographic (.2 Ess, 3K), Eyelight System (100 M range, reduces lighting target number modifiers by 6, .2 Ess, 1.2K), Electronic Magnification-III (reduces range penalties by three levels, .1 Ess, 11K), and an Eye Datajack (.25 Ess, 2.2K). Net 1.45 Ess – .5 (Eye Package Deal) = .95 x .8 (Cybertolerance) = .76 Ess (in Cyberskull) and 29K.
  • Cyberears (.3 Ess, 4K) with Dampening (.1 Ess, 3.5K), Amplification (10x Shotgun Mike, .2 Ess, 3.5K), High Frequency (.2 Ess, 3K), Low Frequency (.2 Ess, 3K), Sound Link (note that this can either pass signals into the system or pass them to internal memory,.2 Ess, 1.6K) and Selective Sound Filters-V (.2 Ess, 50K). Net 1.4 Ess – .5 Ess (Ear Package Deal) = .9 Ess x .8 (Cybertolerance) = .72 Ess (in Cyberskull) and 69K
  • Transducer I (.1 Ess, 2K). Net .08 Ess with Cybertolerance, in Cyberskull.
  • Knowsoft Link (.1 Ess, 1K). Net .08 Ess with Cybertolerance, in Cyberskull.
  • Datalock (.2 Ess, 1K) with Encryption-10 (50K) and Data Compactor-IV (.25 Ess, 38K). Net .36 Ess, 89K.
  • 60 MP personal Headware Memory (.2 Ess, 9K). .16 Ess after Cybertolerance.
  • Mark-50 Rating-III Skillwires (.3 Ess, 30K). .24 Ess after Cybertolerance, in the Cyberframe.
  • Wired Reflexes-II (+4 Reaction, +2d6 Initiative, 3 Ess, 165K). 2.4 Ess after Cybertolerance, in the Cyberframe.
  • Cyber Holster (.7 Ess, 5K). .56 Ess after Cybertolerance, in Cyberframe.
  • Smartgun Link (-2 to smartgun target numbers, .5 Ess, 3.5K). -.1 Ess for Image Link, .32 Ess after Cybertolerance, in Cyberframe.
  • Autoinjector-X (.1 Ess, 5.5K). .08 Ess after Cybertolerance, in Cyberframe.
  • Internal Air Tank (.25 Ess, 1.2K). .2 Ess after Cybertolerance, in Cyberframe.
  • Internal Voice Mask-VIII (.1 Ess, 32K). .08 Ess after Cybertolerance, in Cyberframe..
  • Cyberhand Safety (.08 Ess, .8K). .06 after Cybertolerance, in Cyberframe.
  • 8x Holdout II. Two sealed in the chest, 2 openable in the chest, one openable in each limb. All Screened and Hardened (Concealability 13, +3 to instrumental detection target numbers, .2 Ess x .8 (Cybertolerance) x8 = 1.28 Ess (in Cyberframe) and 64K. Of the two sealed ones, one currently one holds her Cyberdeck and the other one holds her Pocket Secretary. The remaining six are used for various items of equipment.
    • Grand Total: 2.4 Essence (Cyberframe) + 7.4 Essence (Other Systems) of which approximately 90% can be accommodated in the Cyberframe. Since this is well within the 12-Essence point capacity of a cyberframe, and the character isn’t especially short on Essence and isn’t a magician, I’ll just use that 10% figure plus the cyberframe cost to calculate her base essence.
• Social Purchases (610K):
  • Connections: Corporate, Law Enforcement, Military, Governmental, and Underworld (125K).
  • Five High Contacts (100K)
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  • Four Level Two Contacts (40K)
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  • Eight Extra Level One Contacts (10 total, 40K)
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  • Three Secondary Identities: Agathe D’Aramitz (most used), Ghislaine De la Fontaine, and LYDIE Vipond (least used) (225K).
  • Two Clearances – Equipment (40K) and with the European Union (40K).
• Major Equipment (1330K):
  • Novatech Simcase-10 (MPCP 10, Hardening 5, 2000 MP active memory, 2500 MP storage memory, I/O 480, RI 2. Normally in chest holdout. Normally 960K, but – in this case – this is the item that the character is presumed to have been upgrading, and thus gets 2/3’rds off on, for a net cost of 320K).
  • Programs:
    • Hacker Utility Package; All utilities except Trace, Black Hammer, and Killjoy at Rating 4. 250 MP, 25K.
    • Biocontrol-3/3 Specific Functions: Iron Will (+1 Will, +6 versus interrogation and mental control), Sleep Accelerator (need sleep only three hours per day), and Stimulant. 48 MP, 5 KNY.
    • Mentat IV (+2 Intelligence, +2 Task Pool) 80 MP, 8 KNY
    • Skill Packages (all at Rating-3). Grand Total: 1000 MP and 105 K.
      • Combat: Rifles, Heavy Weapons, Gunnery, Knives, and Unarmed Combat.
      • Physical: Slight of Hand and Strength.
      • Technical: Biotech, Demolitions, Electronics, Finance, Mechanics, Systems Operation, and Survival.
      • Social: Administration, Fast Talk, Interrogation, Intimidation, Leadership, Negotiation, Performance, and Psychology.
      • Vehicle: Bike, Car, Construction, Fixed-Wing Aircraft, Hovercraft, Motorboat, Rotor Craft, Submersible, and Vectored Thrust.
      • Knowledges: Chemistry, Genetics, Physics, Theology, and Archeology.
      • Languages: Basque, German, Italian, Chinese, Russian, and Spanish
  • Pocket Secretary with chips for Micro-Transceiver 6, ECCM 6, Data Encryption-6, Voice Identifier-6, Bug Scanner-6, Dataline Scanner (R6), and Radio Scanner-6. Net 42 K. (This is usually stored in a sealed chest Holdout and run via DNI).
  • White Noise Generator-VIII (12K).
  • One year Gold Docwagon Service (25K)
  • 10K Monthly Income with Plot Hooks (500K). This normally covers a rather nice lifestyle.
  • Equipment Grab Bag (150 K).
  • Eurocar Westwind 2000 Turbo (138K)

   The “Grab Bag” normally provides up to 15K worth of gear. In her case this normally includes 6 doses of Antidote-8 (.4K per use) and 4 doses of Hyperox (.2K per use) in her Autoinjector, a Smartlinked Heavy Pistol (9M damage, 1K), a couple of Flash Grenades (.05K), a Secure Jacket (.85K, 5/3), Secure Ultra-Vest (.35K, 3/2, adds +1/+1 per layering rules), and an Armored Cap (.2K, adds +1/+1 for a total of 8/6 Armor), a Survival Kit (.1K), a Medkit (.2K), a Hand Cell Phone (to get taken away, .05K), for a total of 6K. The other 9K usually goes into speciality supplies (such as, in some cases, a heavier weapon), wardrobe, and various personal luxuries.

   The original character design did not spend all of her Resources. However, since you only get to keep a small fraction of whatever you don’t spend, I’ve spent the rest of it on the players behalf. Hopefully we can get some of those contacts filled in a bit more over the next few weeks.

   And yes, that’s pretty appalling in some ways. Pretty much any character with a “Class-A+” priority in ANYTHING is going to be appalling in some way…