Darcy O'Dwyer

Aspects
High Concept: Harbinger of the Apocalypse

Trouble: Mushroom Management

Other Aspects: My Father&rsquo;s Sword, My Heart Belongs to the Dusk, I Work Best Under Pressure, Cute but Psycho, A Good One to Have at Your Back

Fate Points
Base Refresh: 10

Adjusted Refresh: 1

Current: 1

Stress
Physical: &#x25A2;&#x25A2;&#x25A2;|&#x25A2;&#x25A2;

Mental: &#x25A2;&#x25A2;&#x25A2;&#x25A2; (and an extra mild consequence)

Social: &#x25A2;&#x25A2;&#x25A2;

Consequences: none

Powers

 * Marked by Power (&minus;1)
 * Sponsored Magic: Soulfire (&minus;5)
 * Item of Power: Aidan O&rsquo;Dwyer&rsquo;s bronze sword (+2)
 * Inhuman Strength (&minus;2)
 * Inhuman Speed (&minus;2)
 * Inhuman Toughness (&minus;2)
 * Catch: bone weapons (not hard to get, extremely obscure: +2 reduced to +1)

Skills
Superb (+5): Conviction, Discipline

Great (+4): Lore, Resources

Good (+3): Athletics, Weapons

Fair (+2): Alertness, Contacts, Scholarship

Average (+1): Empathy, Endurance, Intimidation, Presence, Rapport

Languages: English (native), Irish, Sanskrit

Spellcraft
Darcy&rsquo;s particular version of Soulfire is more apt for Spirit than for Fire evocations. It cannot be used for veils, since its agenda is to call the righteous to apocalyptic battle, not to skulk around pulling black ops.

Focus Item
crystal pendant (+1 control to divinations and wards)

History
It is written in the Kalki Purana that in the fourth age, the Kali Yuga, the pillars of dharma will crumble and demons and sin will be everywhere. Then Kalki, tenth and final avatar of Vi&#x1E63;&#x1E47;u, will ride his winged horse Devadatta at the head of the army of the righteous few, and the Earth will be scourged with fire, and a new Satya Yuga will begin.

Well, it&rsquo;s not quite like that. No one is going to fly in on a white horse and save us all. The righteous few will have to do the heavy lifting themselves.

That is the mission of the Sandhy&#x0101; Samprad&#x0101;ya, the Dusk Legacy: to fight the schemes of the demon Kali (not to be confused with the goddess K&#x0101;l&#x012B;) who rules the Earth through his dreams, and to prepare for the day when he will wake.

They have Soulfire on their side, so something in the Nevernever must be helping them. Maybe it&rsquo;s Vi&#x1E63;&#x1E47;u after all.

Background
Someday Aidan O&rsquo;Dwyer would come back for his little girl. That&rsquo;s what he told Darcy the night he disappeared, and that was the hope she clung to through years of neglect and abuse by her adoptive parents, who&rsquo;d discovered a little too late that maybe they didn&rsquo;t want a child after all.

Well, Aidan died fighting the good fight, but his masters in the Sandhy&#x0101; Samprad&#x0101;ya were happy to take charge of his 16-year-old daughter, who by that time would just about have sold herself into slavery to get away from home forever. Which is more or less what happened.

Aspect: My Father&rsquo;s Sword

Rising Conflict
The Sandhy&#x0101; Samprad&#x0101;ya took Darcy in, trained her, honed her talents, gave her a purpose in life. As difficult and painful as the training was, she never felt unwanted, never had to wonder what would happen if she crept downstairs to fetch herself dinner when her mother was in one of her moods, never had to wait until her father had left for work so he wouldn&rsquo;t come into the bathroom while she was showering. She belonged&mdash;but no one loved her.

Then another trainee arrived, a boy a little older than her named Martin. They became lovers. Martin chafed under the harsh discipline imposed by the cult; he longed to escape into the world of television and junk food, to live a normal life without being ordered around by masked and robed adepts with no justification ever given except &ldquo;it is dharma.&rdquo; He planned an escape. They might be homeless and on the run, but they&rsquo;d be together.

Darcy knew Martin would be executed if she turned him in. She did it anyway.

It never occurred to her to suspect a deliberate test, and in fact it wasn&rsquo;t one&mdash;Martin was exactly what he seemed to be. Nonetheless, she passed; the training master declared her ready for fieldwork.

Aspect: My Heart Belongs to the Dusk

First Adventure
Title: Nightfall Alone

Darcy&rsquo;s first mission, as junior agent in a team of three sent to investigate rumors of a chthonic entity stirring beneath Washington DC, turned disastrous when a demon-worshipping sorcerer and his pet Homeland Security agents killed her two partners and forced her to run. On her own in a strange city, with the Nevernever paths home blocked by a demonic assault, could Darcy survive long enough to be rescued, and perhaps turn the tables on her pursuers?

Aspect: I Work Best Under Pressure

Guest Starring
Darcy appears in Blaine Stark&rsquo;s tale.

Blaine picked the wrong woman to hit on at the all-night coffee shop, or the wrong moment anyway. She smiled back, said the right words, they left together&mdash;and then they were in an alley and something sharp was pricking his kidney and the woman was ranting about Homeland Security and demons. She&rsquo;d smelled the magic on him the moment he approached, it seemed, and was wound so tight she couldn&rsquo;t tell friend from foe.

Well, he talked her down, and they wound up sitting on a rooftop, sharing a bottle of wine and talking about magic. Turned out she had nothing much to teach him&mdash;White Council wizardry was just too different from the Soulfire her cult was granted by Vi&#x1E63;&#x1E47;u (or whatever). But they agreed to meet again sometime if they were both still in the city.

Aspect: Cute but Psycho

Guest Starring Redux
Darcy appears in Graeme Rhiannon ni Beron&rsquo;s tale, Jack in the Green.

When one is being chased by demons and Homeland Security, one takes shelter where one can; Graeme&rsquo;s dawn visit to Meribel found Darcy curled up at the great willow&rsquo;s foot, dew-soaked and half-dead from hypothermia, with the Dryad watching amused from a branch above. That night, Darcy and Graeme fought back-to-back when Graeme&rsquo;s enemy summoned a venom-spewing filth-demon from some toxic hell to destroy Meribel and her park once and for all.

Aspect: A Good One to Have at Your Back

Current Disposition
For reasons best known to themselves, instead of calling Darcy back to base as soon as possible, her superiors made her DC&rsquo;s agent-in-residence, with a fat expense account and a mandate to reach out to the locals. She&rsquo;s still investigating the rumors of something under the city.