Arachne

   
   Real Name: Angel Delacroix (Formerly: Evelyn Richards)
   Villain Name: Arachne
   Title: Dame, Hell's Provocateur
   Alignment: Lawful Evil
   Age: 27
   Gender: Female
   Race: Hybrid
   Hair: Platinum
   Eyes: Red
   Height: 5' 11"
   Weight: 136 lbs
   Blood type: AB

   
FIEND
   
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HUMAN
   
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BACK TATTOO
   
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Being murdered and sent to Hell leaves a scar on a person. In Angel's case she learned the only one looking out for her is herself. So once she escaped eternal damnation, she stole someone else's identity and began using everything they had acquired to recreate the life she lost and never had. The irony wasn't lost on her, but Angel didn't lose a wink of sleep over it.

As herself -- or what the world perceives as Angel Delacroix -- Angel seeks to make inroads to High Society among the rich, famous, and powerful. People that either know where to acquire objects of power, or can introduce her to such people in time. She puts on her prize-winning smile, patiently suffers the inane babble of the self-absorbed, and flirts with those that might need a little encouragement to listen to her proposal or to slip into their secure compounds.

When that isn't enough, Angel adopts the guise of Arachne. A cold-blooded thief whose demonic summons can help her carry off some of the heaviest of hauls. All the warmth and sensual body language is replaced with a disciplined, square-shouldered presence with a firm tone. If anyone is slain by the demons because they didn't make the right choice in fleeing, Arachne doesn't admonish the fiends or lament the loss of life. Fools and their magical artifacts are soon parted -- and anyone in her way gets a personal meeting with whatever god they have coming.

Either persona has a deep seated hatred for those that believe people can be forgiven for the most heinous of crimes. The thought words can undo the harm caused by others can easily cause Angel's social mask to slip, or at least have a soul added to the list of people requiring a personal and violent encounter later. The hatred stems from the idea that the Oculist that killed Evenlyn Richards might have been forgiven because they were "sorry" -- sorry they were caught.

Talk of God also earns her ire, but mentioning them doesn't guarantee the same handling as Forgiveness Doctrine nonsense alone. If an Evangelical, pastor, preacher, or some hapless soul doesn't accept Angel doesn't want to talk about their precious deity, however, then they might earn a sharp-tongue lashing for promoting an entity that abandoned her to suffer and languish in literal Hell.

Despite all of that, however, Angel can be mistakenly presumed to have a 'soft spot' for victims suffering from persecution. At a basic level they wouldn't be wrong, but she only goes out of her way to help those that have the potential to help themselves -- as she did. Someone that'd only become a dependent unable to live for themselves would be left to languish in the possession of their tormentor.

   
Born Evelyn Richards, she lived and otherwise unremarkable life. She attended school, got high marks, made friends, and suffered the betrayals of youth. All until the day she was kidnapped and sacrificed upon an altar for a demonic ritual. They day Evelyn died, everything changed.

To her horror, Evelyn's soul ended up in Hell as part of the demonic ritual or price paid in exchange for a greater demonic soul. Chased through the broken, hellish landscape of the Beyond by a band of blood-thirsty fiends, Evelyn scrambled and fought every second of eternity. It became common place to bash in the skull or skewer the heart of a demon in order to buy time to scurry away. What started as frantic bids to survive became well-practiced combat forms.

One eternity later, the battle scarred soul was secreted away when a Demon-slayer set foot in the realm. Evelyn watched as the intruder battled with one of the most terrifying demons she'd ever seen. After a protracted duel raged, the Slayer was left collapsed on the rubble of the realm. With the fiend battered and busy crowing over its victory, she darted out from cover, took up the blade dropped by the Slayer, and drove it between the demon's ribs with both hands. The hilt of the blade burnt her hands as she held it, but raw necessity and a commitment to her desperate, once-in-an-eternity choice stayed her grasp. Evelyn jerked the blade free, pivoted around the broad shoulder beast and then drove it back into the monster's chest.

Evelyn's hand trembled as she devoured the demon's heart -- it was absolutely putrid -- but she had to believe in the taunts and whispers she'd heard from the Damned. A chance like this would never come again. As the pains and aches of existing in Hell slowly began to fade, Evelyn pawed over the body of the Slayer. The moment her fingers made contact with a magical artifact on his body Evelyn knew she'd found something truly remarkable. A means to  enable her return back to the land of the living -- every demon's desire.

Using the artifact to return to the mortal realm, Evelyn took the opportunity to reinvent herself as Angel Delacroix by assuming the identity of another. It seemed the easiest solution to the seriously problem that she had been officially and assuredly dead for several weeks by that point. As the identity came with a fair bank, Evelyn-now-Angel found ways of plying that to bolstering her finances and establishing inroads into higher society.

As a result from Angel's exposure to the Infernal, and her magical return, she discovered some surprising abilities over time as well. The lightning-fast reflexes were the first, then conjuring a demon from beyond -- a surprising twist, but since they were eager to find a way out of Hell themselves not a difficult pact to reach. Being able to verify the authenticity of an object or conjuring a single alternate appearance came later once Angel started plying her demonic minions to procure objects of power by illicit means. The lesson she'd learned living a life full of obedience to society was that none of it mattered; there weren't any White Knights that'd save you and being the Good Girl only got you sacrificed on an altar. So why not indulge herself?

   
Power 1: Summon Demons: Having consumed the power of a Greater Demon (though not one herself, yet), Angel possesses the ability to magically summon up to six minor demons or one strong demon. If dismissed she can often conjure them again almost immediately, but if slain if may take several hours or a day before they can be summoned again.

Power 2: Lightning Reflexes: Angel can quickly shift her position within a few feet enabling a demonic-step or -gait that would make horror movie directors jealous. It does not grant extra-sensory perception needed to predict attacks from outside her field of view or other senses, however.

Power 3: Authenticator: As someone steeped in the sins of the damned -- including those of con-men, counterfeiters, and liars -- she has a unique sense of whether something is a genuine article or not. The ability does not come with a sudden understanding that she can convey to others why it is genuine or not; her own knowledge and skill with appraisal would be necessary to convince others that don't implicitly trust her.

Power 4: Second Skin: Similar to some demons' ability to change their appearance to conceal their true nature, Angel found her Infernal connection allowed her to change into or out of the outfits of her two personas. Damage that occurs to her renegade/demonic attire is reflected on her Human attire, but not vice versa.

   
Weakness 1: Holy Magic: Angel's demonic minions take more damage and are far more easily slain when struck with Holy/Blessed magic or weaponry; the amount varies by the strength of the imbuement or blessing. This includes blessed golf clubs. Even Angel herself has a strong aversion to even touching such magic.

Weakness 2: Apostate: Abandoned to be slaughtered and sent to Hell for her trouble, Angel harbors a strong resentment to those that espouse forgiveness. The thought that a few words makes up for all the crimes a person has done -- including to her personally -- sickens her. If someone wants to goad her into making snide or otherwise insulting remarks this is the button to push.

Weakness 3: Compulsion: A side effect of knowing whether something is genuine or not is she is compelled to say some remark about whether a person is on the road for Heaven or Hell. This only a compulsion the first time she makes physical contact with someone, but it remains a strong urge in subsequent exposures.

Weakness 4: Patron Saint of Lost Causes: The horrors of Hell are with her still. On occasion, if Angel sees someone being chased or bullied by others and believes she sees some kind of potential in them, she will intercede on a victim's behalf. This is even when there are no assurances she will profit anything from the trouble. Angel considers it a deplorable tic from a past life.

Weakness 5: Alter Ego: As someone that can change between the full-body outfit of Arachne and that of her otherwise Human self, with pains taken to keep the two separate and the relation unknown, Angel's dual-identity could be discovered by others. Once discovered that knowledge could be used against her.

Weakness 6: Sacrificial Dagger of the Lilitu: As a former ritual sacrifice, Angel still harbors an irrational fear of the very blade that first killed her. She will resist coming in contact with that particular blade again at any cost.

Weakness 7: Damned: Any effect that would affect those from, of, or touched by Hell would affect Angel despite her appearance being all too Human. Often times the effect is lessened compared to the impact it has on her minions, but may remain just as effective.

   
FIEND
Black, Steampunk Arachnid-styled head-to-toe outfit with a creased fedora, and an eight-eyed mask.
Cat-clawed gloves.
Onyx Cane.

HUMAN
Wardrobe of vests and undershirts, pants, belts, boots, and wide-brim hats.
An assortment of jewelry - rings, necklaces, broaches.
Cell phone.
ID and Credit Card.

BOTH
Artifact: A sterling silver arm bracelet of intertwined vines that wraps about the upper arm is capped at the front with an amethyst gem above an inverted triquetra (trinity knot). Whoever dies while wearing this artifact is able to use it to escape Hell back to the Human realm.
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Spoiler:

   
Sanctuary: Silent Owner of the 'Morningstar' Nightclub. Has a private lounge above and behind the sound stage that looks out over the club's floor. Her vault of artifacts is contained within a secure basement in the same building.

Vehicle: MTT Turbine Superbike
Source | Image

   
The steady click of a cane echoed up the hallway through the open doorway. Wind howled in the night outside the floor to ceiling windows of the mansion's study. Dying embers of an untended hearth struggled to stay alight while the room remain well lit by a number of wall light fixtures spread around the room.

A man stood on the over side of a broad wooden desk with a miniature statue cradled against his chest in one arm. The other hand held a nine millimeter caliber gun  with the barrel pointed at the passageway that had been left open in his haste to flee the creature that prowled his home. His jaw was set, and his button-up shirt partially pulled from his trousers. Blood raced through his body as his heart tried to punch its way through his chest.

As the clicking grew loud enough to suggest they were just outside the room, everything went dead silent. Until a heavy footfall of a six foot, broad-shouldered monster stepped through the doorway. Its head turned to pin the man with its eight eyes from halfway across the room, one clawed hand curled about the door.

The pair stared at one another in silence for a moment before a sequences of loud pops and cracks accompanied the fiend's grasp tightening on the wooden door. The panel tore free of its hinge and was cast across the room to remove even that minor of an obstacle to the one that waited outside. In that moment, the man's finger instinctively tightened on the trigger from the sound and put a bullet right in the beast's broad chest.

With a grunt, the dark gray creature began to advance into the room toward the man. Two more bullets struck its chest before the third and fourth went into the thing's head above the lipless, fang-filled maw. His eyes were wide and his hand trembled even as the foul creature topple to the floor. It had seemed impossible such a terrifying Thing could be brought down. Perhaps... perhaps he had a chance to survive this disaster after all and--

"I wonder," a woman's voice broke the silence of faux recovered sanctuary the gun had brought, "whether you have enough bullets for all of us."

Fixated on the first demon, he hadn't even noticed that the ring leader of the intruders had entered the room. The gun pointed at her only for his breath to catch. Three more of the brutish creatures flanked the darkly garbed woman. Her outfit seemed to mock him. It seemed patterned on a centuries old fashion that conveyed a sense of dignity, poise, and grace. Things that didn't belong to someone that broke into his house and commanded these creatures. "You cannot have this." His voice broke even as he screamed for them to depart.

"I can. The question is, how much are you willing to suffer before you give it to me?" Both of her hands rested atop the onyx cane centered before her. No command was necessary for the trio to begin to advance. One went to flank either side of the desk while the third move straight toward the desk; there would be no escape for the man or that which Arachne would soon possess. Better if he'd not changed his plans at the last second; better still if he'd simply handled it over when she'd asked nicely earlier when he'd intruded upon their retrieving of it. Well, she wouldn't spend another moment's thought on it once the artifact was in her hands. Sometimes bad things happened to people, and there was never a hero around when you truly needed them.