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Character Name: Ida May Hall Alternate Identities: Warden Hall Player Name: NPC |
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| APPEARANCE | |||
| Hair Color: | Red | ||
| Eye Color: | Green | Height: | 5' 4" |
| Weight: | 121 lbs | ||
| Description: | |||
| Ida is a peaches and cream skinned Irish girl with thick, wavy red hair that falls to the middle of her back. Her oval face is accented by slightly slanted green eyes, a straight, perfect nose and small but firm mouth with full lips. Her body is well proportioned, generous at the top and slim at the hips and she has trouble putting on weight when Ash happens to tease her about being bony. (Actually he thinks she's perfect but she does tease him about the grow on his chin . . . ) Her dress harkens back to the sixties and if she didn't look so young, about 25, older people might mistake her for a flower child, something she actually was for about ten years. Her work with herbs and plants gives her an almost constant smell of fresh flowers. | |||
| BACKGROUND | |||
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Ira Lee Hall came to California like many, in a wagon, hoping to strike it rich in the gold fields. Constance Marie O’Reilly, came the same way. The big difference was in luck. Ira Lee Hall’s luck changed for the good and within six months, he had quit prospecting and purchased a tract of land between Stockton and Sacramento. He returned to what he knew best, farming. Constance Marie O’Reilly’s Irish luck deserted her. She reached Stockton with her parents only to have them both die of influenza with in days of each other. Constance was left alone and penniless. The redheaded girl with the unblemished complexion caught Ira’s eye the moment he walked into the bar. She was sitting on the lap of a prospector looking decidedly sick. When the young man with the kind eyes asked if he could buy her a drink, she leaped at the chance. The prospector was filthy and smelled like his mule. The idea that he might have enough gold dust to buy her of the night was beyond repugnant. Last than an hour later Ira and Constance were heading back north to his farm. The next day, they married at a local mission. Ira never talked of Constance’s misfortune but loved her until his death nearly fifty years later. Ida May Hall was born on September 9, 1850 and was unknowingly the first American citizen born in the new state of California. For fourteen years she lived on her father’s farm, working as hard as any hand to make up for her being the weaker sex and not the son her father had wanted. Ida was to be the only child of Ira and Constance Hall. When she was fourteen, Ira married her off to a nearby rancher in the hope of gaining farming help from his new son-in-law but it never happened. Ida found herself in hell. Trapped in a marriage she didn’t want, forced to bed a man that was little more then a brute, Ida began to think of death. More and more her husband demanded a son from her. More and more he came to her bed expecting that result. Ida wasn’t the problem, he was, but then medical knowledge hadn’t progressed that far in 1865 so she was blamed. It was about this time her magic came to her and opened up a new world, literally. She sat staring at the ceiling, trying to recover from her husband’s latest assault on making love when she saw it. A tiny golden light hung in the corner of the peak be grew brighter. Down it flitted, hovering a moment over a scrap of bread and honey she’d left on the table. Not daring to breathe she sat quietly in the rocker before the coals of the fire and watched the tiny girl with dragonfly wings snatch up the bread and honey. Ida did not move again until the tiny thing had disappeared out the open window. Her mind must be slipping. Her husband's brutality had at last broken her. That had to be it. Yet the next night she sat once more in the chair with her smallest plate at her elbow and on it, fresh bread and honey. Again the tiny girl appeared. This time she was close enough for Ida to see her clearly. It was a faery, she knew it from her mother’s tales. Ida remembered a story her mother had told about how to capture a faery and was prepared. The round of the table formed the circle and the snap of power in Ida’s mind the completion of the trap. Instantly the faery went wild. Never in her short life had she been so trapped and the realization filled her with fear. “Release me or your babies will be born with the head of an ass!” she demanded. “What is your name?” Ida whispered. “Release me, release me!” The faery stomped her tiny foot and raised a puff of gold dust. “Tell me you name and I will release you.” Ida said quietly. She feared her husband would hear her and come to see who she was talking to . . . or worse, to try once more for a baby. “I am a very powerful faery, do not bargain with me,” the tiny girl said, trying to sound threatening. “I will curdle the milk in your cow’s udders, I will cause your chickens to lay stones, I will . . . “ Ida interrupted her. “You will do nothing of the sort.” The faery looked petulant, her hands on her hips, her body leaning forward. “Let me out!” she demanded once more. “I will let you out and give you bread and honey, if you tell me your name.” Ida said softly. “With milk?” the faery looked greedy. “With milk.” Ida confirmed. “Very well,” the faery drew herself up to her full six inches and said “I am Cyndarithillia. Now release me!” True to her word, Ida blurred the line of the circle and it vanished with a soft pfft. Cyndarithillia was out the window like a shot, so overcome by the relief of being free, she didn’t consider what she’d given the human girl. She WAS a very young faery. Ida made no move for hours, pondering what had just happened and considering what she might do with this new information. At dawn, her husband was up and demanding breakfast. Tired but excited, Ida went about her daily chores until her husband had ridden off to check on his herd. Then she set her trap once more. Cyndarithillia became Cyndar and she told Ida of all things magical. She told her of the NeverNever and humans that do magic and Ida knew, she could do magic. On the fourth night, Ida made her first demand of Cyndar, find her a wizard. Two weeks later a stranger rode up to the house and Ida stepped out onto the porch, her hands sticky from making bread. “Cyndarithillia.” he said, watching the girl’s reaction. Ida shivered with excitement and smiled. “You’re a wizard?” The man nodded and dismounted. “You kin call me Rory, ma'am.” He doffed his hat and bowed slightly to her. “Ida May,” she said with fear rising in her throat. “Been a long ride,” he said. “Mind if I water ma horse?” Ida noticed right off how he would never look her in the eye. She was used to it with her husband but that she’d always put that down to his guilt over his treatment of her. Or at least she credited him with that guilt. Now she wasn’t sure. Roy watered his horse and unsaddled it then took out a rag and wiped it down. Ida watched him, expecting him to grow two heads but he just looked like a normal cowboy. He turned to face her and looked at a spot just to the left of her ear and smiled. “What did you want to know?” He slapped his dusty hat against his leg, raising a small cloud. “Everything,” she breathed. They sat at the table talking when her husband came in and glared at them. “What’s this?” he demanded. Rory climbed to his feet. “I was lookin’ for a place to work when your missus here offered me some fresh bread. That’s the best offer I’ve had in weeks.” Her husband looked from one to the other then nodded to himself. “I’m short-handed,” he said. “I’ll try ya out for a few days but if you don’t work out, you’re gone.” “Fair enough,” Rory replied, scooping up his hat from the table. “I’m Rory Danville.” Ida’s husband took the outstretched hand and it was done. There was no bunkhouse, not even a tack room for a cot so Rory slept in the kitchen on a pallet. It didn’t take him long to figure out Ida’s life was a living nightmare. Night after night he covered his ears to block out the animal noises her husband emitted during sex and slowly a rage grew in him. Finally he could take it no more and went to Ida. “Come with me to San Francisco, Ida,” he urged. “You can escape this and try to forget it all.” “And be your doxie, Rory?” she sneered but the pained look in his eyes made her soften. “I didn’t mean that, Rory, really . . .” It was the touch on his cheek that did it. Her husband loomed in the door and cried out “WHORE!” He fumbled for his pistol and nearly got it out when Rory shot him in the chest. For a long minute Ida stared down at the man that had been her legal rapist for so long. Then she looked up at Rory. “We have to go,” she said, suddenly calm and in control. “Saddle your horse and the mare.” Rory nodded and headed for the barn. Ida looked around the house that had never been a home then shrugged on her coat. She lifted the board from the floor and took out the leather pouch and stuffed it into a pocket. When Rory led the two horses out of the barn the house was already smoking. He looked at her for a second then nodded and helped her mount the mare. Rory Danville was killed three days after the San Francisco Quake. He died trying to stop a rampaging troll that had developed a taste for human flesh. Ida May killed it. In all the years since she and Rory had ridden away from that burning house, she’d never looked back and Rory had been the reason. He was her mentor and then lover and finally husband. She’d loved him very much. Now he was gone. She never spoke of him to Ash, never told him how much Rory had given her but she was determined to give the young man as good a start in magic as Rory had given her. She succeeded beyond her wildest imaginings. |
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| POWERS/TACTICS | |||
| When she first began her training with Rory Danville, his fire blast spell became the premier attack spell for the next four generations of wizards. Fire was not Ida’s first instinct. Ice magic was and she has become very adept in its use. She can freeze a target’s blood, slowing them significantly, or layer them in ice so thick they cannot move. She can lower the temperature of the very air in a target’s lungs, freezing them from the inside out or drop the temperature of the area so low everything freezes. | |||
| PERSONALITY/MOTIVATION | |||
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Ida was never very comfortable with large groups of people, especially when they are all crowded together in huge modern cities. After the 1906 quake, she watched San Francisco re-grow from the ashes at an astounding rate, reaching over 400000 by 1910. All around Ash’s house construction raised building and brought in people. By 1912, she was tired of it all. When she moved to Los Angeles in 1912, the area she chose was as far up Topanga canyon and away from people as she could get but over the years the canyon filled up until she felt she was being smothered by humanity. When Ash came to her about a trip north, she had no expectations of finding a new home, but by accepting the offer to mentor Holly, she also regained a home secluded from the bulk of mankind. Ida has changed a great deal since she was teaching Ash, she’s seen far more then ever expected as a girl in gold rush era California. Years of acting as a Warden have made her at once more callus those that pervert magic but also more caring for those just finding their powers. Though she would never ask the Council, Holly is just what she wanted in her life, someone to nurture. She knows Ash would tease her, abet in a loving way, if he knew of her growing desire to mother someone and she knew a crisis was coming in her life. Holly would hold it at bay, but Ida knew, more than anything, she wanted a child. |
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