Raylene Dunwich
Raylene Dunwich
World: Spirit Chasers-1Actual Age: 13(53)
Apparent Age: 13
Quote: "I can set that right easily if you happen to have some Wendigo's Breath. No? Ah well, the hard way it is then."
Role: Guest Witch
Species: Human(mostly)
Overview
Publicly, Raylene Dunwich is the only surviving heir to the old New England Dunwich family, a polite and soft-spoken girl that many empathize with after the death of her elder sisters. In reality, she is a fairly cold-hearted young girl who barely understands the concept of friendship, and who gained powers of witchcraft and alchemy from the sisters who tried to kill her. Saved by a group of teenage meddlers, Raylene is a girl grappling with a future she never knew she had, while learning how to properly apply two lifetimes of knowledge about things greater than her. Her powers are subtle in nature, but given time she can perform great acts of cursing others or healing their woes. Yet her greatest ability and flaw consists of the Horror bound to her spirit, a powerful creature in battle, but one that is a strain to use, and that demands a price of human lives.
Perks
Blood of Yog-Sothoth: Raylene is very resilient, has limited regeneration, and great magical power.
Raylene is descended from Yog-Sothoth, an ancient godlike being. She appears human, but is much tougher than her size would indicate. She has limited regeneration letting her recover swiftly from most wounds and resist terrestrial disease and mundane poisons, and can even regenerate limbs and organs over a few weeks. Anything that would Very Definitely kill a human would Very Definitely kill her, though. This heritage also grands her an immense amount of magical potential.
The Sight: Can see spirits and analyze magical effects.
Her heritage and power allows Raylene to see spirits, and to glimpse into the hidden world at times. This does not necessarily allow her to see the invisible or hidden unless it is invisible by its nature(ghosts and immaterial beings) rather than an actual power to be invisible, though if actively looking for such she has a far greater ability to find them. It can also allow her to analyze mystical afflictions and auras(See Witchcraft, below). This is not an instantaneous process, and requires hours or even days of careful analysis.
Witchcraft: Inflicting curses and blessing, alter the environment, and cure afflictions.
Raylene has an impressive command of witchcraft, but her skills are very slow-acting. In a pinch, she can gently alter the environment, making it several degrees colder or hotter, or form a light mist. She can also inflict minor blessings and cursings, such as momentary(seconds long) blindness or deafness, bad luck, or good luck or good health and recovery from fatigue. If given longer, such as days or weeks depending on the situation, she can mildly alter the climate around an area, inflict longer-lasting(though never permanent without a TP) curses which can also include animal transformation or body-swapping, or to cure magical maladies. The stronger effects often need special rituals or spell components which can take time and effort to gather.
Consumption< Copy-N Feature >: Raylene and the Horror can consume waste energy or life energy to grow in power.
Both Raylene and the Horror, but mostly the Horror, have a natural ability to feed off of lingering energies. Neither can absorb energy directly from the source, but their presence will mildly weaken a fire as the heat is drawn from it, or make the lights flicker. Most of all, when a being dies near either of them, a portion of the life force is siphoned away and strengthens both of them. Sometimes this is enough to cause them to develop new abilities, usually just resistances or enhancements of their existing abilities. More unusual new abilities take time to develop(and an upgrade application).
Brewing: Makes potions to enhance abilities, resistances, and grant minor magical powers.
As part of her witchcraft background, Raylene is very skilled at brewing potions and poultices and the like from exotic materials. Basic potions may only provide minor healing and enhancement of physical abilities, but with preparation and materials she can create potions and compounds that strengthen materials, dissolve objects, grant invisibility or silence, smoke creation, and even 'love potions' and forgetfulness. All effects are temporary, though the exact duration varies by the rarity of materials used. The more potent the effect, the shorter the 'shelf life' of the potion is, making prestocking them impractical except for the most minor of effects.
Occult Lore: Knows many legends and myths, excellent researcher.
Raylene has an extensive knowledge of occult lore and legends and myths of the paranormal. Not all of this is accurate even in her own world, but she's very good at narrowing down which ones are likely to be accurate with a little observation of a related topic, even if she can never be certain without testing. She's also excellent at cross-referencing these myths if given a proper libary. The farther the source is from her own world's, the less effective this is, but her research talents are always useful.
Dunwich Estate: Raylene has a good amount of money and several homes.
As the sole living inheritor of the Dunwich family of old New England money, Raylene is extremely wealthy. She can't buy megacorporations or casually purchase a hotel, but she has enough money and investments to live comfortably for the rest of her life, pay for transportation in luxury, and collect various expensive oddities. Chiefly, she can sponsor people to do things for her, like hiring PCs.
NPCs
The Dunwich Horror< Named D-Tier Feature >: A vicious invisible regenerating beast that follows Raylene around.
A mystical beast bound to the Dunwich bloodline, the Dunwich Horror is an immaterial being which can manifest by drawing on some of Raylene's power. Even manifested, the Horror is naturally invisible, with only abilities designed to pierce invisibility allowing it to be seen. It is naturally always close to Raylene, and she can only pick up vague impressions from it, so it is not useful for scouting most of the time. Possessing great strength, vicious claws and teeth, and a natural toughness and regeneration, the Horror is Raylene's main method of fighting.
Complications
The Calling: Using the Horror on physical threats is draining.
Manifesting the Horror is Raylene's only effective means of direct combat, but it takes a great toll upon her. For several days afterward, she will be weak and dizzy, which may interfere with her ability to do non-combat things as well. Multiple fights in a short span of time are right out. In addition, it brings great pain for her to fully manifest the Horror, so she avoids doing this whenever possible.
Spiritual Pollution: Has an aura of unease and emits dark magical energy.
Carrying the Dunwich Horror with her, and her own blood and powers, brings with it a certain uneasiness. Raylene's presence tends to make just about anyone who lingers too long a little uncomfortable, and beings who can sense corruption or evil will find her aura unsettling at best, and may interpret it as evil at worst.
Youth: Raylene is a minor in most worlds.
While not really a problem in her home region, Raylene is much younger than someone on their own should be. This means she lacks some practical skills like driving, and also may limit what she can do in her civilian identity on some worlds, as she lacks factional backing.
Time: Most of Raylene's powers take a long time to use. (F-Tier without Horror)
Almost all of Raylene's abilities require extensive periods of uninterrupted time in order to have a significant effect. Denying her this keeps her from bringing her talents to bear, and it also means that her personal capability in combat, without the Horror, will always be fairly low.
Awkward Morality: Why can't I do what I want?
Raylene is not evil, but she was not raised by people with a good moral compass. She can have difficulty understanding simple rules of society and mercy, and just about the only thing she can grasp as a common foundation is 'murdering innocents is bad.'
Hunger: The Horror needs humans to die near it.
The Horror requires energy to live. Normal sustenance is easy to acquire through magic or other means, but at regular intervals it must feed on human life energy. Fortunately, this doesn't require Raylene to sacrifice anyone. Unfortunately it does require her to be nearby when a violent death is happening, in order to harvest. Feeding is normally infrequent at a few a year, but summoning or battle can increase this dramatically. This tends to require her to seek dangerous situations.
Recent Scenes
| ID | Title | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 1185 | The Dudley Devil | Nov 05 2023 |
| 1183 | A Haunting In Dudleytown | Nov 01 2023 |
| 1060 | Wail of the Wendigo | Jul 30 2022 |
| 1029 | Invasive Species | May 23 2022 |
| 1022 | The Sound of Shattering Glass | May 11 2022 |
| 942 | Restful Silence: Finale | Dec 14 2021 |
| 937 | Restful Silence Pt 4 | Dec 07 2021 |
| 932 | Restful Silence Pt 3 | Nov 30 2021 |
| 926 | Restful Silence Pt 2 | Nov 23 2021 |
| 919 | Restful Silence Pt 1 | Nov 16 2021 |